voicetest the voiceless

[focusedvoid]

They're not dead.

Less dead than they'd felt, at least. Their shell doesn't normally take so long to reform.

Then again. Their shell doesn't usually break of their own violation as they ascended in a boiling rage, ate at least one realm, a god, and all the Godseekers.

(That last point is debatable, actually. There's some odd sense, deep under their...shell? Void? Wherever they once stored things like Isma's Tear, much deeper now...that the sea-mind is still there, sluggish and held in a stasis. They're already adjusting enough, and they don't seem to be dying or trying to kill them, so that problem is neatly sorted as 'for later'.)

They push their body to stand. Their horn clangs uncomfortably loudly against the grate they've apparently woken up beneath. They're somewhere in the Royal Waterways. A quick check of the map--or, not so quick, as it takes time to locate where it had been--shows they've risen about halfway through, closer to the City of Tears than the White Palace. They'll go to the Stag Station in the City Storerooms next.

So they think. Complications arise on the way.

The Infection is gone, leaving dead Flukes, Pilflips, and Hwurmps in piles enough it takes time to force their way past. Their body seems too small. No, their body is fine--there's something wrong with perception itself. That will take time to adjust to.

Then, they discover the Monarch Wings now stretch and warp when used, twisting around the nearest pipes after landing before the Knight forcibly calls them back. Shade Wings, they decide to call these.

Once they're high enough to hear the rain above, they realize a noise they'd ascribed to water running in the distance is, in fact, something swirling behind their mask. Many somethings. All the fragments of Siblings with enough self left, staring out from their eyes. It's disconcerting.

By the time they actually get out of the Waterways, they're using their Shade Wings to grip ledges and drag themselves up, with those holding onto things better than their own arms are with the Mantis Claw. 

The Knight faceplants awkwardly onto the floor of the building Lemm's shop is in. If the City is the same as below, there's little left to try killing them in the area.

They'll just take a moment here, thanks.

Comments

502 bad gateway had my guts there for a sec

[capitalcurator]

Lemm goes back to scribbling, or at least he tries. He was sort of hoping he'd get the last word, that they'd just write off his words and go away right away.

The silence goes on a few seconds too long, though, so he's forced to still his pen and tilt his head to one side and say something else, just to avoid getting his shop obliterated in a second by shadow wrath.

"I'm a Relic Seeker, not a creche keeper. I don't have anything else to say."

He keeps fixed on the Knight, clearly avoiding looking aside at the sibling on his till.

f e a r

[focusedvoid]

Now, Lemm somewhat matters to them, though they don't quite realize that. He was someone they didn't want to die, once, in the distant way they didn't want any uninfected face in Hallownest to.

He's now come face-to-face with some of their deepest horrors, with flinching but not flight nor attempts to be rid of them permanently, so much as making an open-term partnership when he's clearly the asocial type.

All they really notice is how they're more bothered than they should be.

They chalk it up to the recent turbulent time in Shade Lord form. They care little for what they teach in this kingdom. One specific lashing out at a fear that finally can't fight back is hardly a terrible lesson.

It isn't.

...Besides. It isn't as though there will be many more examples to do so again.

They'll return later, Sibling. The Knight beckons for their return.

They do, reluctantly, after taking a full lap around Lemm's head. Again, because they can. They split into orbs of Void and return through the Knight's eyes as they put the map in its new case away.

They bow. (Not quite as deeply as the last time.)

[capitalcurator]

He's still, lets them circle. Memorises the horns, at least. This is a being (many beings?) of many particulates and he doesn't understand so what can you do? He memorises the prongs. In case they appear again. In case this isn't random, isn't just random aggregation of dark mess that has no pattern - which it very well could be, he knows so little, the patterns he's seen could be tricking him. But he's a bug.

He's a living, breathing bug, is the thing. He's seen children, even if he was never the type to interact. He's awkward, removed, no interest, no investment, but he knows what children look like.

No need to bow back, he reminds himself. No need to bow to anyone. He's never wanted anything but artifacts and prestige. Best it stays that way.

The moment the Relic Seeker's shop is empty, Lemm's head crashes into his hands and he stays there, processing.