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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Lemm's theories are interesting. After learning of Quirrel and her mask, they considered one of them--she seemed innovative with bizarre concepts, and the Dreaming wouldn't be off base from what little they know. The rest never came close to crossing their mind.

Interpreting these is Lemm's profession, after all.

The nod they give hardly indicates how that compliment sank into them. They feel strangely off-balance without knowing why. This isn't the first of that sort of thing he's said to them.

They stand in place a little while before they can turn back to the Temple itself.

The 'eyes' (they aren't certain if this is truly the remains of something huge, like the Coliseum, or a strange emulation) are similarly damaged to the living Infected, with the bottom panels warped outward by where the orange had pushed and grown through it.

Lemm rummages in his bag as he approaches the Temple entrance, and draws out a Lumafly bulb. It's the same one he took up before his trip to the Resting Grounds, and it does not have a handle - it's a hanging light, not a lantern, not that this seems to bother him. The existing light is bright enough to see by out here, but...

Lemm absently fiddles with it, turning it in his hands while the lumafly inside hovers unbothered.

"A great many made a pilgrimage here, that I know. Even I did, on my way down - not that I took myself very seriously. The reluctant one up there in Dirtmouth made it seem like the thing to do." He shakes his head and sighs. All that time staring up at the fountain, and you'd already stood right in front of the real thing without realising it. How very unsettling to know that now...

He coughs, lightly, and reminds himself what he's here for. "Well. Let's assess the place properly, then."

He steps under the imprinted Dreamer masks and through the door.

The inside of the Temple isn't too unlike the last time he'd been there. There are a few parts with films of black curling down the walls, where the Infection had been crawling out and where the Lord of Shades had replaced them. The air has a new weight. Primarily from the Egg.

The Egg, standing as it always has, with the massive door simply gone. Open, as though it never were.

The Knight wonders if Lemm was noticed. The World Sense was something they found only echoes of. It must have been something more when their sibling had encountered it, or taken it, or whatever they had to have done. With the state they were in, doubtful.

They let Lemm examine the rest of the Temple at his leisure. They make their way to the Egg directly, drawn as they ever had been, no matter how they shouldn't be. The most important part of it is alive elsewhere, after all.

The Void itself is constrained inside. Now that they give it attention rather than a preoccupied run-through, it's pulling out of itself, toward them. They refuse to let it.

They can try when Lemm isn't here.

Edited 2022-11-23 16:12 (UTC)

He's... not reverent, Lemm has never been reverent, but he's oddly peaceful as he makes his way around the centrepiece in a wide circle, eyes fixed on it. Mostly he's just looking. He does not take notes. No need.

Temple of the Black Egg. Arcane, looks like. More details left out to obscure the facts. Which are...?

He comes full circle and halts quietly at the Knight's side, staring into the open doorway.

Lemm already knows the Knight will not react well to him trying to step inside. Last time he tried (and he did, because a Relic Seeker's curiosity is their worst trait) it felt like his whole body was falling asleep like a numb limb. Infuriating, because he'd love to know. To see.

Lemm takes a deep breath. Maybe they know, but it won't be the same.

"What's it like in there?"

They don't understand for a moment. Couldn't he--?

No, of course not. Void is dangerous. Even inert, it pulls at life. This Void, held back enough to strain itself, loose enough to, presumably, help the Vessel assist in the Radiance's slow smother--could possibly be worse.

The Knight is still for a long, long while.

At first, they're considering explanation. And then...

They take a few steps inside. Lemm might notice the floor's spellwork glow, barely. Stepping in is cutting through a veil in itself.

They stare forward and, not unlike they did with the Arcane Egg, reach.

He goes still as they move in - but of course, of course they're fine. Void in Void. (This understanding doesn't stop his arms from tensing at his sides like he wants to pull them back out of there.)

It did not glow for him, as most things don't. Lemm is no more remarkable than anyone who might have lived in the City of Tears back in its prime, and there are certain words that are not for him, certain places that do not open before his command, certain things that do not recognise the common bug.

Lemm doesn't need to be aware of any of this to know that the Knight is fine, standing where they are.

"Be -" they will be, this is a futile thing to say. He has this thought and forges on anyway. "Be careful. What are you doing?"

They're unmoving for a moment that might feel stretched far longer.

They touch this Void and, rather than unleashing it or bringing it physically into their collective here and now, they settle it. Settled as they had with Siblings, before they knew how to call them, to truly be with them, a force united rather than merely focused. The Knight gives it focus now, to push it away against and into itself. The heavy air stops feeling quite so bad.

When they turn back around, they're not quite as they were. Still the right shape, mostly. They're a larger presence without having physically grown.

Guide and guard, they said. This is something, they and they alone, can guide through and guard from.

At the edge of the dark, they hold out their hand.

Primal instinct screams at him not to go. Lemm doesn't have much of it, though. He's modern enough that that stuff is buried pretty deep. He shakes his head.

"I can't go in there..."

He sounds sure about that. But his legs take him forwards anyway, tentatively trudging up to the entrance to the Egg and lingering at the threshold. Lemm eyes their outstretched hand and debates, with a lot of doubt, the wisdom of crossing over.

As varied as they are, all Relic Seekers share a basic sense of curiosity. Lemm also happens to be helped along by a little bit of pride and arrogance, which does not aid in the decision making process. He would be the first academic (?) to step in here. And, for it, all the more capable of putting Hallownest's history to rest. Maybe others wouldn't attempt this - maybe the risk would be too great.

But the Knight seems confident.

...Lemm's hand sweeps forward, passing through the doorway in a wide horizontal arc, like someone passing their hand through a candle flame. It does not fall off, which is encouraging.

Eyes locked on the Knight, he brings his hand forward to place it firmly in theirs, and he holds on tight. He steps inside.

The proffered paw was mostly to indicate he could come in--they can't be sure their writing would even be visible without stepping from the eggshell--but it's immediately clear to the Knight it was the right thing to do. The natural color of Lemm highlights when the Void still folds over them both as fog they hadn't noticed, and they push at it again until they have an area of space absent of Void that isn't them.

They realize, functionally, they're not unlike Isma's Tear.

Next, they wait to see how Lemm adjusts, or if his desire to explore falters. They can't blame him if it does. The Egg and its seemingly-infinite blackness is still somewhat intimidating to the Knight, too.

Normally one might say of a dark, claustrophobic place that the air is clinging. It does not cling here. Nothing does. (And it clings.)

He shudders involuntarily, and he knows the Knight can feel it. He does not let go.

Lemm also does not turn back. There is too much gravity to this, and he has too many questions. For a moment or two he looks around, horns tilting this way and that, but the realisation sinks in quickly that there's no point in looking. There is just the soft glow beneath the Knight's feet, and the Void, and Lemm in the middle of it all. He might as well not be here.

He feels like he isn't. It's terrifying.

The Knight might be agitated to know that the feeling that rises in Lemm's chest is excitement, so maybe it's best they don't.

...He says nothing. But he gives the Knight's hand a small squeeze.

Nervous, possibly. Outright panicking or becoming terribly ill doesn't seem to be on the table.

The squeeze is taken as confirmation. They nod. After a hesitation, as it's not needed (but they want to), squeeze back before they begin leading him onward.

(When they return the squeeze, his thumb covers the back of their paw, just to hold on more comfortably. That's all.)

Lemm is quick to move when they do, falling into pace easily enough. He instinctively sticks close, keeping inches from their side and just a half step behind theirs. He can't see the floor unless it's lit by the white under the Knight's footsteps, so it's best to stick like glue.

The first time a spell-monolith looms out of the dark, Lemm flinches - but it's not long before he's peering up at the light in profound interest.

As they pass by the subtle glint of chains and the broken edges of more Arcane substance, Lemm is even less eager to say anything. The initial rush of Relic Seeker's eagerness for understanding is fading fast, and it leaves behind a cold, unpleasant feeling in his core.

Parts of the pieces light up at the Knight's approach. Lemm does not try to parse them - just by looking he knows he can't. He'd need to study them, and he knows this must be too short a visit.

When he catches the faint outline of a doorway in the dark, Lemm slows, pulls the Knight slower with him, and peers down pointedly. Whether this is safe, whether they want to or not - it's up to them, and it suddenly feels important to check in.

They're interested to later learn what he might think of the glowing shapes in the dark. Related to the Pale King, obviously. Made of the same spell as Seal outside and hidden in Deepnest with significantly different shape. They don't stray from the path to try touching.

They look back up and tip their head to confirm--yes, they can go on. They knew they would be as soon as they offered. The center of the Egg is a place that...well, did haunt their nightmares, in truth. A place that they caught a glimpse of when their sibling broke.

But for the Knight, that was unease. They can handle unease, no matter how deep it might go. The victim locked away inside is no longer.

They first lead him to the egg-within-an-Egg to pause for Lemm's eye, steadfastly ignoring the Pale King's whispers crawling out at them from the tablet.

He slows to a halt along with the Knight, and he looks. He looks long and hard.

There are - well, first of all, he is squinting at the jagged shell as if he's doing complicated mathematics, so this is obvious - there are a lot of pieces being shifted around in his mind. Similarity does not equal likeness and comparing one unrelated relic to another just because it's shaped the same is a fast track to silly mistakes and vital misunderstandings of which pieces of history are tied.

But there is no room for error here. It is an Egg, it is Arcane in nature, it is in pieces here in the heart of the Kingdom's past and Lemm knows there must be a reason. The Pale King knew more about Void than anyone. Than anyone.

He does not know why he's seething, suddenly. But this time Lemm is the first to start moving; he takes a step, ensures the Knight is agreed in it, and will move on.

The whispers already gave them what it had. They wonder what Lemm might be getting, or more likely hearing, with how displeased he appears.

He tugs them onward, and they move without hesitation.

The glow and smell of sickly-sweet rot isn't present, and yet there's a sense it should be. It may be Dream, lingering. More likely it's their own imagination. Their unoccupied hand reaches back to grasp the hilt of their Nail regardless.

The chains increase going forward. Inside, more and more.

They suspect the floor might've been completely black at the start. They can't know more than that the Pure Vessel's battleground in Godhome was. Now, it's all a tarnished shade of brown.

Only after do they spot a particular set of chain hanging high above, catching the eye by the dangling half-pauldron and ragged cloak it's still tangled around.

Lemm moves on with a kind of dogged determination. He does not move with any haste and not with much confidence any more either, but he moves. This may be above him, but... it can't be above him. He won't let it be above him. And the Knight wanted him to kn- to record.

He stands in the deepest chamber of the Black Egg Temple and he stares at its contents, evaluating and tying threads together and drawn, darkly, to the chains that held the Hollow Knight.

The loose lumafly bulb does little to illuminate anything in here, but he holds it tight in his free hand and gestures silently with it as he looks down at the Knight and knocks his bag implicitly with the light, and his fingers loosen around their hand. Can he study, or will letting go be a bad move?

Edited 2022-11-24 00:15 (UTC)

A claw taps his hand twice in attempted warning before they carefully unfurl a fraction of Shade Wing, temporarily wrapping a single tendril around his leg.

It's only then they feel save enough to let go of his hand and set their paw on his upper leg and release. His hands need free rein, but no, they do not want to risk letting the dark crash down around him for even a moment.

Lemm is getting familiar with Void, or at least with their way of expressing it, every time he's witness. The coil around his leg is strange and unsensory. Lemm's foot lifts in mild shock, like anyone who steps on something unexpected.

With the Knight's pat of reassurance his uncertainty loosens and he lets his foot lower gently back onto the floor. Lemm holds the light up and strays. Convinced, he lets himself slip into the mindset of his work.

He takes measurements of sorts. First is a pace from one side to the other, an estimation of the size of the room, useless by itself, but then it goes on. There are scratches on the floor, Nail bites, skirmish-worn, marked by the same light-rust, that Lemm compares to what he knows. The chains are clean but for a final break; there was no physical sawing or elongated struggle. They jingle very softly under his examination like wind chimes. The loop of metal that still holds a pauldron to the chain is examined at thoughtful length.

Lemm steps back. He thinks. And he stills, finished, staring up at the chains like they both stared at the open doorway just prior.

Edited 2022-11-24 00:58 (UTC)

The Knight keeps pace, careful not to trip. There are odd protrusions they grip Lemm's leg a moment to observe before realizing what he may have already: they're anchorpoints, for more chains.

They match his gaze to the ragged pauldron and cloak above. It's naturally as filthy as their sibling's wings had been the first time they'd found them outside of Dream.

Simply put, a quietly depressing sight. But the one attached to it is still alive. Healing. This is another cold and cruel monument that doesn't matter anymore.

The anchorpoints are examined when the Knight's own interest draws him to them. Lemm is not a shaman; it is the physical bindings that he can make the most sense of, though all of it will be going in the records as best he can manage. When he straightens up from looking, Lemm gives the Knight an approving nod for drawing his notice to another detail.

The moment standing and looking up at those chains feels... too long. Even with the Knight's protection Lemm knows it isn't a place he should be in.

Nor should the Knight, he decides.

Lemm angles his head to gesture with a dip of his horns at the exit. The back of his hand lightly nudges their shoulder, in case they don't notice the way he holds it out for them to take. (For safety. To help maintain contact and make it easier to do - whatever they're doing.)

The right move, lightly jolting them from their intense stare upward.

They repeat the step of using tendril to anchor before reaching up to grasp his hand properly, letting the leg go. They're too small to risk not keeping something as a point of contact for something with such potential danger. This time it shouldn't be quite as startling, they hope.

He's allowed to choose their pace. Not that he hadn't been on the way in, but they're tired in an oddly physical way. A rare sensation.

His reaction is less, this time - he just stiffens, and waits for the switch-over. When their hand settles in his he wastes no more time in this room, immediately turning to leave.

The pace he sets is not particularly brisk. Even with his innate lack of decorum Lemm feels like it'd be wrong to rush in here. (Never mind that he now knows there was plenty of rushing - there was a hell of a fight, and that's no mistake. That was then.)

Lemm knows logically that the way in must have been this long, though it doesn't feel like it. The light in his hand didn't illuminate much then and it still doesn't, but he finds himself eyeing the lumafly instead of looking out at the dark.

With Lemm's eye on the lantern instead of the spellwork, it does go a little faster. The Knight suspects as much, at least. It's hard to tell in the dark.

Once they're out, the presence of the Knight sinks itself back into their body's form. The Void crashes into itself behind them, and they let go of Lemm to swing their blade on instinct--but it's only air, in the end, blasting a wild breeze through the Temple.

Edited 2022-11-24 09:16 (UTC)

Stepping out into the light feels like walking out from under a heavy blanket. Lemm feels himself un-tense; he didn't realise he was tense in the first place. The resulting sigh sounds too loud. Everything does. It was too easy not to notice how deathly silent it was in the Egg.

The Knight's sudden movement makes him jump, and Lemm snaps back to look, too - but there is just the Knight and the dark of the passage behind them.

"Aye, don't spook yourself." It sounds chastising as usual, but it's accompanied by a second part that doesn't: "Come outside, Knight. There's nothing left to see."

Lemm will wait for them; they'll leave the Temple together. There'd be something wrong about walking away first.

The Knight shows agreement by moving forward.

The outside of the Temple is just as it was. There's no reason it wouldn't be.

There's no reason they should be feeling like this, either. They have no injury, and as upset as they were before, the knowledge of their Sibling's place is a true reassurance. For the first time since uniting as the Lord of Shades, they take a moment outside the Temple to Focus before going to the mysterious Monomon-masked archway.

It does help somewhat. Irritating, that they're having this problem at all.

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