boxfullofzeroes | voicetest the voiceless

voicetest the voiceless

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.

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He even takes a breath like he's about to tackle the Shade thing, but he stops himself in time. They just keep catching him in the act of asking too much, and for whatever reason Lemm doesn't seem to be pushing. He just gives a resigned sideways tip of his horns in acknowledgement and moves on.

Everything about the Grimm Troupe gives him pause. He has to re-read the information a solid couple of times before he feels like he's parsing the sentence correctly, and then he sits back and frowns while he tries to make proper sense of it.

"A circus that visits dead kingdoms... Seems against the point, if not for the Ritual part. I'm sure there's a reason there I'm not seeing." He shakes his head, managing this revelation remarkably well. "But I won't be going. I'm not a fan of theatre." Or crowds - or Higher Beings, especially lately. "If the leader has business with you, just mind it's not running off to join up. You and I have work to do."

He's fiddling with a spent quill. When did that happen.

"You've a lot of contacts, it seems," he remarks offhandedly.

Edited 2022-11-13 19:47 (UTC)

A nod. They aren't planning on leaving, and wouldn't want to be a member of the Troupe itself. If what Brumm had told them about endless cycles of servitude is not false--and they have no reason to doubt--that's something they have no desire to be further entangled with.

That they can send the Troupe along in either it banishment or Ritual completion goes unmentioned. Lemm doesn't need to know everything.

Was that meant as question? They'll treat it as one.

I visit ~~Dirtmouth~~ many areas of Hallownest often. Bugs trust^(?)someone they believe can't pass on, or understand, their thoughts.

Edited 2022-11-13 20:05 (UTC)

Lemm scoffs.

"Well! Kept your literacy a neat little secret from me, didn't you! I thought the same until recently, Knight, you aren't forthcoming." Oh, he's not ashamed to admit it, even if he should be. It was a comforting thought that his conversation was one-sided! To pretend he's more tactful than that would be to pave the way for a letdown.

"But now you've exposed yourself as a rude little chatterbox. Don't expect any reprieve from me. 'Rip-off'. My shell."

They've as good as said other bugs don't know them as well. That selfish little voice in his head is a tiny bit prideful about that.

They take a moment to fully turn towards him and bow. It's far more deliberate and overdone than they'd usually go to the effort of expressing, with a dramatic hand pressing against their chest and everything.

Lucky Lemm, the first to learn such ~~pri~~ obscure information.

Anything else to retrieve?

The horrid warm feeling is back like he's spent too much time taking in the air at the Fungal Wastes, and Lemm physically leans away a bit from their gesture.

"It's hardly luck if I'm to be subjected to your petty insults from now on. No, I've got no further tasks for you. Don't forget your own writing materials. And a receipt."

They won't be getting any rise out of him! Or validation, if that's what they're looking for. Maybe not, and maybe the bow was sarcastic.

...Still...

"You know what kinds of questions you'll be answering when you come back here, but I won't be going anywhere. Take your time up there."

Edited 2022-11-14 09:49 (UTC)

...Yes. A nod. They're well aware.

They neatly fold their map away and head off. (Without properly collecting the Geo they were told they'd be getting for their initial writing and the like. They realize this halfway through the wealthier side of the City and decide it isn't worth immediately turning around for.)

The Knight still ends up in Dirtmouth for a time lengthier than they were planning. Elderbug catches their attention, mentioning the general healthier air in Hallownest and how they were one of the rare travellers to go down and return more than thrice. This culminates in his offering them a dwelling. He appears too preoccupied with the Delicate Flower to see their instinctive headshake.

It's behind the Stag Station a ways. Absolutely filthy, dust blowing in through a window with a crack at the edge of its frame. Barren but for a threadbare couch and flimsy table missing a leg. Faint shapes against the wall where someone once had a shelf that was long removed.

A house.

Their house.

The Knight grapples with more roiling emotion after dropping onto that couch. It's a consuming wave of it, but still easier to hold onto than earlier bellowing grief. A few Siblings drift out and float around for novelty's sake, leaving strange wobbling patterns on the floor and the table's fine layer of dirt.

They take rest. They do not sleep.

Lemm's requested items are picked up, along with a few pins he probably won't need. Iselda is glad to see them, though it shows primarily in her thoughts. Cornifer's wandered off again, apparently relatively close for the moment.

Supplies retrieved, the Knight has one more look around Crystal Peak. Myla is still unfound.

They walk rather than ride most of the way back to the City, taking time for steadying their melancholy.

After the Knight's gone, it isn't long before there's a sign up on the shop door and its owner has gone walkabout again.

It's been a long while since Lemm came this way, but he has questions he's not certain can be answered anywhere else - that and he's running out of paper, so he might as well get some of the practical stuff done in the meantime. He contemplates ringing the Stag bell just to see if the Knight was really right about there being one still running - but it's not far to where he's headed, and he's still feeling a little flighty at the prospect of making conversation, so he instead heads up through the Royal Quarter and takes the lift to the Resting Grounds.

Relic Seeker Lemm finds the Dreamers' memorial without much trouble. From the bag he's brought with him he pulls the Knight's notes (and a ~~stolen~~ borrowed Royal Quarter Lumafly bulb), and he compares the names just to be sure. He's seen those masks, back when he first made the hassle of a pilgrimage down to the city (the Temple of the Black Egg had been such a draw back then!). Lurien's name, too, he became familiar with as he picked through the old ruins. Herrah and Monomon... not as much, but maybe he would know more if the city never switched to silk for so much of its written records. Bane of his existence.

Now I wonder if that was a conscious choice. How much did you want lost to time, I wonder? Obviously not all of it.

He moves on. Now that he's actively looking for it, it isn't too long before he's seeing it everywhere: the little flower-like motif of the Moth Tribe, woven into charms and hung through passageways and sometimes carved into graves or wrought into the fences. He knew they were caretakers of the graves here from his own readings, and he'd always heard rumour they delved into dreams. Now he knows to withhold his skepticism, the Resting Grounds are that much more eerie.

Lemm is not afraid of the dark or the dead, though. He studies the symbol and counts the points and copies down a couple of variations on the very edges of the Knight's note papers.

(He stops off at the Pleasure House on his way back when he finds it unlocked, if only to take a dip to clean off. There is... an encounter there. Lemm comes away in a foul mood despite the relaxation he went in for.)

From then, he'll stay home until the Knight returns, organising relics into categories and spending the last of his paper on the Arcane Egg.

When the Knight returns to the shop, they make a beeline for the counter. All the items Lemm asked for are deposited (plus pins) before they settle back onto their usual spot.

Before anything else can be started, they pull a paper closer and use their own newly-replaced quill to scribble a quick question of their own.

Have you seen any miners/small beetles from crystal peak recently?

A passable sketch of a beetle with a headlamp is added on the margin.

He's already reaching for the till when they enter, though when there's a drawing waved in his face he pauses long enough to squint at it and then shakes his head, looking peeved.

"None like that down here as far as I've seen. Just a rotten toll collector over in the fop district, now." The words come out with a sizeable serving of venom, and he huffs in disgust. "No, no one like that. Friend of yours wandered off, did they?"

Lemm's first order of business is scrutinising the receipt for everything that's owed. He covers the paper the Knight bought for themselves, whether or not they brought a receipt for that - he can work it out, either way it's factored into the bill. Another neat little sum of Geo is squared away on the counter for them. He did say he'd cover it all.

Though there's one thing missing and that's still the payment for the writing earlier. Lemm is still trying to weigh the ethics of that one versus his dwindling Geo savings. The till tray stays open until he's settled on a number.

While he thinks about that, his fingers clink lightly through the pins, and he picks a couple up for examination with an oddly appreciative air.

The name Collector briefly twists their head towards Lemm before they realize.

Not that Collector. Her.

Friend's name is Myla. She is unlikely to be alive, but if you see her ~~I'm~~ please let her know I've been looking.
Toll collector is Millibelle. If she swindled your Geo I will get it back. Fake bank set up on that side now?

Recalling her pushes the Knight from their melancholy directly to annoyance. Knocking her about for their own Geo and a further return was distinctly cathartic. Stopping her from tricking more travellers is an easy moral choice on top of that.

(The pins aren't factored into the receipt. Those were the Knight's choice.)

While he waits for them to write, Lemm idly pins one to a piece of paper just to see how it looks. Good, is the result, judging by his lingering glance when he lifts the sheet up to the light. He's momentarily too distracted to hover.

"She has a reputation! Urgh, so she was fibbing!" he snaps, and taps another pin against the counter for emphasis. "That jealous hardshell, she's enough to make me want to go knocking on doors! No, you can leave the neighbourly grudges to me. There can be one rip-off in this city if there's any at all."

He does take a second to study the little drawing again, and then re-reads the name.

"Myla. I'll remember," he's about to be harsh, "but bugs disappear all the time in Hallownest. Even the settled ones." Ah. Maybe he shouldn't have said that. Lemm watches hard for their reaction.

His calling himself a rip-off draws a spark of amusement. They didn't think he was quite as offended as he earlier appeared.

The frank words about Myla get no response at all. They expect she ran somewhere when Infected or just after to die in private, or perhaps dashed herself in one of the many crystal pits around. Ugly deaths are all about Hallownest, but the rare surprises--such as the Nailsmith--count enough that they had to mention it, now that they have a rare chance to try.

They continue about Millibelle. Her last scheme was a bank in Fog Canyon. The secure vault she claimed to have was her own shell.

He looks a little relieved that they seemed to move on from his faux pas fairly smoothly.

"Mm. More room in there than you'd think. If I were so blessed I'd keep my relics that way and have no need for a shop." A curt little hmph. "She scammed you too, I'm guessing. Won't that be a good thing to bring up when I give her what for."

Seems Lemm's a lot more confident arguing than he is at making nice. But he glances across at the notes they've left for him so far, gathering in a little pile on the side of his counter (he's kept them all, even the conversational ones). As his thumb smooths back and forth over the pin his self-righteous irritation ebbs noticeably.

"I haven't tallied for these. Or your account so far." Ball's in their court, now.

The response to that is their Pure Nail clanging a sharp note against the counter's edge. Indeed they were, and they're still deeply insulted by it. ...Embarrassed as well.

(Lemm hasn't noted their own incredible carrying capacity. It's doubtful he hasn't noticed yet. Attempt at politeness, perhaps?)

Those I bought. If you have use for them, yours to keep. If not, I can. Not that they actually need more markers for vendors or Lifeblood, but they're nice in look and feel. Iselda is skilled.

I don't know how much my information is worth. They'd be awfully easy to rip off again... We can work it out later on, if you like.

A flicker of very unimpressed not-in-my-shop fury for a second as he flags a hand over the counter in the direction of their Nail. "Away with that! There are delicate things in here."

(He's not brought it up, no. The question was somewhat answered for him when they melted all over the Storerooms and a separate entity came out of their shadow and signed themself up for life lessons. Lemm isn't about to question the physics at the moment. Not his department!)

At the I can Lemm's hand automatically snaps out to cover the pins even before they take the pen off the page. "No," he says quickly. "There's nothing wrong with keeping something for its aesthetic, as I've said." They're a gift. And a thoughtful one, if he's feeling optimistic. He does not receive many, and he's feeling rather possessive suddenly.

"As it happens your information is..." okay okay he'll say it but he won't like having said it later he's sure "...potentially worth enough to clean me out. It's been on my mind, believe me. Finding myself a bit stuck there." A sigh. "Later, then. If it suits you to wait. I'll... tally it all at the end."

They're perfectly careful, Lemm, it's not near anything important! Still, the Nail's gone in a flash.

His acceptance is given a nod, which doesn't come close to showing how truly pleased they are about it.

Hmm. As much as they teased, they have no need to be pushy. I can wait/Sell at a discount. I don't require so much Geo now.

He does wonder what they've been doing with it all. It's the 'now' that makes him curious. Not that it's his business, though, so he doesn't quite ask.

"...We'll discuss it when it comes to it." It is a worry. The first-hand account of a lifetime in a kingdom with such lacking records is... he fears it might be worth more than he has. And that's not accounting for the trouble of recounting it all, which is not something he's ever thought to consider.

"Will you be ready to continue, if that's the case? I'd like to get to the bottom of something."

Later. Much later, if they can manage it. They're not about to be bringing it up offhand.

They tap the paper expectantly. Yes, they're ready. More now that their earlier mood's been partly settled by simple annoyance and their offering being taken. And curious, now.

"Good."

He pulls out a sheaf of notes - written very small and to the edges, to make use of the space on his last few pages until the Knight returned from their supply run. He moves the Arcane Egg beside it.

Then he lifts one of the new quills. In miniature to fit in the limited space, he draws a circle with a freehand spirograph-like symbol inside it. It sits neatly over the top of one of the few parts he couldn't directly translate, like a little asterisk.

"Sleep-Light-in-something-something. Not familiar enough with the sentence structure, so I'm working with the literals." He skips a couple of words (if they're words at all) and points to the next translation with the nib of the pen. "This bit means 'grudge', or something like it. Seems not everyone forgot this Higher Being you mentioned. Or at least, the written word can't forget."

He pauses unsure.

"I was wondering where I'd seen the Moth symbol recently. It's not something I see a lot of, but I know it when I see it." A... markedly suspicious squint. "You waved something at me, didn't you?"

The Knight tips their head to the drawing, thrown off guard. They were more prepared for more Void and Shade-related talk. Evidence of the Radiance is a surprise--though on reflection, she shouldn't be.

And early.

...She called them ancient enemy when they read her with the Dream Nail. In the rare moments they tried, often through moments of frustration alone. They tried enough that by the end it was still a decent count.

They summon it and set it directly beside his spirograph.

"Hm."

The thing is, he's coming to understand that rumours of Moth involvement with dreams and the dead are not entirely exaggerated. Lemm's hand scoots over as if to touch the thing, but--

--he's not the Wielder, and Lemm doesn't bridge the last inch to touch the handle. He just takes his hand back and looks thoughtful. Doesn't even seem to notice his own change of mind.

"Looks well-kept, whatever it is. Though I don't know if waving it at me was supposed to be good luck or something more insulting." He skims his own handwriting, then picks up the Arcane Egg and double-checks something with a lens. "...Sleep-Light-in... drown? Ah. You might explain that, actually," he gestures to the talisman, "while I clarify a few things."

He'll mutter a fair bit more to himself as he reads. It's hard to keep track of - the words keep feeling like they don't exist whenever he's not directly looking at them, and often his only reference for what he just read is the fact he heard himself say it.

Lemm taking his time is helpful for them. Shuffling the information they have into understandable words takes time. Explaining what it does without blatantly admitting they've been reading his mind also takes time.

-Dream Nail: Allows the wielder to cut through the veil between dreams and waking. Can be used to reveal hidden dreams or open gateways.
-Essence: Remnants of wishes and dreams. Can be obtained from Whispering Roots --they grab one of those pins to set on the paper for visual reference-- Spirits and, rarely, living beings.
-Use: Assists in collecting Essence and Soul from opponents. Can read the general intent and consideration of ~~anyone with~~ nearly anything with mind. Example: the Infected's dreams were primarily blinding light, attacking the dark, and simple fear and hunger. Can also set Dream Gates for teleporting to a single place, using Essence as fuel.
-Seer: the last of her tribe, a Moth that lives at the top of the Resting Grounds. Gave the Dream Nail and encouraged me to collect Hallownest's secrets through Essence. Once a certain amount were collected, she offered rewards, one of which was an Arcane Egg. I do not know where or how she came to have it first.

Edited 2022-11-14 23:14 (UTC)

He pulls a fresh piece of paper from the pile of recent purchases and begins scribbling the new version of whatever he's working on. There are, as with all of his notes, a lot of crossings-out and arrows to mark words that should be swapped out. The end result is something like: drown the Light in (the) forever sleep(?) of the Void / else bright (that) blinds / dream (of) numb warmth unwaking

The grammar isn't good by a long shot. Lemm sits back, makes a faint urgh noise and rubs at his eyes. He swizzles the translation 180 degrees and swaps it for the Knight's notes, pulling those towards him instead.

These are much easier to read. He examines the Whispering Root pin with some vague recognition, and frowns as he realises he's going to have to start suspending a lot of disbelief.

"...Doesn't look much like a Nail," he concludes after a moment. He casts the thing a long, wary look. "I admit I don't see how a little talisman would be capable of all this. I don't disbelieve you outright, mind you, but that's a lot to answer for."

Throughout their writing sneak a glance at Lemm's work once or twice. Something about it clings to their thoughts. It distracts enough that they choose to wait.

It glows with a Nail-like shape when I use it. You can't see it?

...Upon reflection that's not too strange, with how many invisible, intangible concepts it makes visible and tangible to its Wielder. Why wouldn't the Dream Nail itself be similar?

The Knight plucks it back up and sweeps it through the air, to see if he might notice anything. Then they scoot closer and swing it through him for the same reason.

At the question Lemm just plainly shakes his head. When they start swinging it around, he looks thoroughly unimpressed.

"If you bludgeon anything with that artifact, don't turn to me to fix it for you."

He really doesn't disbelieve them, exactly, but it's hard for him to take the thing seriously when it looks like that. It doesn't even look like a blade hilt, given the circular part - just like a strange dowsing instrument that isn't doing much of anything.

Unbeknownst to him, his thoughts come through loud and clear.

"Wagging around an artifact like a grub with a noisemaker - should make a Relic Seeker sick through.

Hope I'm up to this."

The Dream Nail is saturated in a dull, hopeful ache. Clings like old webbing with the threat of wilting off.

Lemm shakes his head, outwardly just as disgruntled as ever. "No Nail, just a stick and a circle."

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