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

[focusedvoid]

They stay there a while, winding their tendrils around the roof's spire and spikes. They're no doubt a terrifying sight, though all that might see them here would have to be flying rather high, or else commandeer the Watcher's tower. (Is that why the telescope was pointed to this side of the City? A question for later.)

The Tyrant's body is unenthusiastically batted about between the hands they form, bouncing off spikes. The gems of concentrated Soul on his forehead crack beneath an application of clawtips. His legs eventually snap off and roll off the dome to join the infected corpses below.

The encounter with Lemm ruined the satisfaction they'd been building up towards. They don't even want to eat him.

They push the Tyrant and watch it fall and join the legs.

The journals are still tangled somewhere in the outer layers of their body. Why had Lemm cared so much about the corpse? There was more than enough documentation of his crimes. Many other bodies to observe.

They occupy themselves by crawling across the Sanctum to waterfall down its opposite side. Their sense of direction is not the best, but they've cut through the City enough they can find their way through several parts of their most familiar routes.

Eventually, the Shade Lord in all their glory packs themselves into the space below the Stag Station and, though they would not admit it, sulks.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm isn't sulking either. Absolutely not what he's doing, once he gets back to his shop and miserably dries himself off and tucks himself behind the counter.

He buries himself in his work, as he's always done in the long hours by himself. The desk is cleared of clutter and the till is lifted down onto the floor, and soon enough the surface is instead taken up by stone-etch journals, pages of his own notes, and - for him to study when he needs a break from this project - the wanderer's map off to one side. His empty bag serves as a sort of wastepaper basket by his feet for when something doesn't make enough sense and he needs to stuff it somewhere to get it out of view.

Hallownest's history is blurred by rain when it's ink, sunk to the sewers when it's small enough to be disturbed, and filched by looters when it looks valuable enough to sell. Lemm brought back nothing from this trip, and finds precious little of what he needs at home, but he's thorough with what he has in his head. The preliminary essay-sketch he builds of the Soul Sanctum is grounded in anything solid enough to count on retrieving later.

He sorts this project to one side, to be continued when he's feeling ready to return to the Sanctum and pick through the mess for solid evidence. Lemm moves onto the big one that's been looming over him like an ill moon.

It's easy to pick at the smaller details, but here's the part that gnaws at him: the blurring of Hallownest's history was only partly done after its downfall. There is something buried there, any fool could see that just by glancing at the vaguely-presented statue outside, and as more and more relics have found their way into his possession Lemm has come to understand it's going to fall to him to get at the core of it.

He doesn't have anything better to do than work until he can't. It only has a little to do with pride.

[focusedvoid]

After quite some time, they fold their body back into itself. The journals are packed away the same. (The thought of abandoning them crosses their mind for a moment. They're not irritated quite to that level of pettiness.)

The Knight drifts up and visits the Old Stag, who's waiting as patiently as ever, though he admits to having to leave to find food for the first time since they rang the bell. Things are changing. Slowly. But still, changing.

They need their map back.

Their returning path is more winding than they've often taken. 'A walk' was not, in fact, terrible advice. Moving along in their usual body steadies their frustration into a gentle boil. Their Siblings settle back to their usual quiet observation.

The Knight still cuts through a few signs on the way. If they're as they were next time, at least they'll know that bug who repairs them sill lives.

When they finally return to Lemm's shop, they halt in the doorway and stare him down. He'll likely want an explanation. They'll make him start first.

no u.

[capitalcurator]

Relic Seeker Lemm hears the footsteps as he always does, and unlike last time he doesn't hurry to pack away his work before they can see it. They'll find him sitting behind the counter as always, quiet until they approach like he's just waiting for them to sell him something or leave. The map is gone - or rather, there is a waterproof map case on a belt-strap standing up against the front of the counter, ready to pick up if that's all they came for.

Lemm's head rests in one hand, and the other scribbles intently on a fresh piece of parchment.

He does not greet them, or react at all when they stand there looking at him. He doesn't even look up, stubborn thing that he is.

[focusedvoid]

The only move the Knight makes is a step in, so the door can't be shut in their face.

They can wait. And they can look around the room to try deciphering what they see without moving their head much if they start getting bored.

This is petty of them. They don't care.

[capitalcurator]

Petty is as petty does. Lemm is pretty alright at petty, as life skills go. They'll have a while to wait. He's in the middle of taking notes, anyway, scribbling away with no apparent attention to visitors (though he obviously knows they're there).

They can certainly see scraps of parchment pinned to shelves, in front of certain artifacts that he's had for a while but take prominence now that he knows their relation to... whatever his current works are. The Sanctum, at least partly. Some are marked with a shorthand note, some with a simple cross-off to remind him to keep them in his thoughts as he works.

The counter is littered with notes and journals and references, some of them in danger of slipping off the edge. It's mostly in shorthand, in a kind of quick-fire scratch-notation you end up with when you put a writer on a topic that could make or break their reputation. The partially-opened Arcane Egg rests on top of a growing sheaf of more neatly-stacked parchment, as if it's relegated to paperweight.

[focusedvoid]

They Knight is staring at the journal when something gets heavy again. Siblings' attention. One Sibling, in particular, who gives an impression of climbing to the long-closed Abyssal door and wondering what it had been for, long before they broke in the dark.

Curiosity. Wanting to know. Getting a chance to want to know.

The Knight informs them of potential dangers of pointy umbrellas and thrown journals. This warning is taken and considered. They still want to look. It shouldn't kill them. At worst, they'll just join the Void again and reform later.

This, too, is certainly petty. Indulging their Sibling's curiosity, working with them to nudge Lemm's attention is fair enough.

Bubbles of black flow from their eyes and puddle halfway in the air, shifting into shape.



The Sibling forms and floats nearer, glowing eyes peering at the notes they can't quite understand.

[capitalcurator]

His pen scratches and scratches until the air goes numb, and then he stills. He looks up, slowly, in a way you do when you don't want to alert an animal that you've seen it. Alright. This gets his careful attention.

Spread about his desk: one might call it a presentation, except it's hard to imagine who would be interested. The beginnings of a record, then, of the Soul Sanctum. Quick-hand notes based on what he could glean from a single visit, but detailed nonetheless. The sibling would struggle to read his modern shorthand. There's a crude drawing of a jar of Soul on one page, and he's taken an old Hallownest family crest pin from a shelf to look at while he works.

The short stack of notes beneath the Arcane Egg are a different beast he's tackling. The top page is entirely translation direct from the first layer of the egg, played with here and there to see if any sentence structure fits better with that mystery block. Nothing works exactly, but void-self comes close. He toys with the possibility of a plural. The rest of his notes are sheafed beneath the top one, and though there aren't many, there's enough to suggest he's been chewing on this one pretty hard.

The outlook for this shade is dull, perhaps. Writing on writing. A shiny polished badge. The Arcane Egg.

Lemm does not move for the life of him. He just watches, unreadable.

[focusedvoid]

Amidst the sound of the City's rain, the windy whistling that accompanies a Sibling in form is much quieter.

The ragged ends of their tendrils rustle across the papers. They're connected to the Knight enough to recognize the words 'Soul Sanctum' and shiver once in what amounts to a token threat display (...to the paper) before moving on.

The Arcane Egg garners a longer look. It's the most familiar-feeling thing that isn't their other siblings, after all. It has a resonance. Those words come, too, once they crane their neck and focus hard. It still doesn't mean very much! It's about the Void? It's about them? It's too much of a challenge, so they don't bump the Egg out of the way to try better looking at the swimming text.

The Knight watches raptly as Sibling's attention shifts up to Lemm. They were more concerned of what Lemm could do to Sibling, but seeing a fragment of Void so close to someone not made of it reminds them that this could be far more dangerous the other way around. Careful, Sibling, they caution. Gentle, Sibling.

They dip their head in the Knight's direction. They're too inexperienced to feel the annoyance that they would've felt the other way around; they weren't feeling aggressive in the first place. They'll make sure to keep their limbs to themselves.

They like his horns, they think, staring for a little while before sliding down a bit to look at his eyes. There's actually something there, not just empty holes. That's interesting. They'd poke if they hadn't already promised not to. (And if Strongest Sibling wasn't right there to supervise.) Their presence so near makes his beard move funny, too!

They crane their neck to look at Lemm's writing hand, taking a look at how articulated his finger-joints are and how the quill differs from the one they've seen for the map a bit more than whatever he's writing.

The Knight's soft caution slips to amusement when the little Sibling floats back, settling atop the till as if it were a bench.

[capitalcurator]

As the sibling examines their surroundings, Lemm examines right back (though you'd be pushed to think his mind was working at all, with how deadly still he's holding himself). There's a difference between the ambient presence of a bug and the breezy nothing that fills the air when there's a shade in the room, and he is taking mental note of it.

The curiosity... that's the first thing. Lemm is driven by it, and he could do nothing else but recognise it in this shade as they peer about his work. He doesn't look down, but his pen dips to quietly underline the half-page of notation he'd been writing to mark the way for a new section.

He knows what void looks like, now, though he hasn't a clue of its origins. This is shaped distinctly. Lemm glances back at the Knight with the barest movement of his head, compares the visual. Yes, distinct enough. The pen moves again as he looks back to the sibling. (They'd been... curious about his horns. About all of him. That's the strangest part so far. He's no one in particular - meaning they're curious about people. This too gets a note.)

When the shade settles onto the till and the examination seems to be over, Lemm's head turns back to the Knight and fixes them with a pensive stare. After a moment he reaches for the pile of notes under the Arcane Egg and cautiously slides the top one out, lays it flat, and highlights that uncertain plural with more confidence.

Then he breaks. No one's that petty.

"Map's over there," he stiltedly addresses the Knight. "You'll find it intact. The case will help keep it that way." He twirls his quill, searching for something else to say and coming up painfully short.

[focusedvoid]

The Knight was expecting something a bit snippier as an opening. Seems Sibling was be enough to break the tension.

They hardly need that case, but recognize the peace offering as what it is. A nod of acknowledgment before they come and take it. In return, somewhat, they produce the journals he'd thrown.

Before they can actually put them on the counter, Sibling pops back up and gets in their face excitedly. No, they can do it! They want to do it! Because they can!

Alright, alright. The Knight gives them one journal, that they manage to barely hold with their tendrils clustered together--they have strength, but their capability to grip when they never have before is doubted. Not enough to bother them, still, Sibling drops it next to Lemm's hand before proudly settling back down.

The Knight deposits the rest with less fanfare and thunking.

[capitalcurator]

Lemm finds himself at a loss. The journals hadn't been important. Useful, yes, but not - he hadn't expected, hadn't really cared to see them again, not in the heat of the moment and certainly not now.

Still. All of this will be pertinent information when he puts detail into his theories. (And it's fascinating to watch. For a minute wasn't even sure the sibling was solid, but their collective certainly proved they are, didn't they. Should have figured.)

His hand drops the pen and scoots to one side, palm-up, to catch the journal before it hits the desk. It's clearly not about preventing damage, because he doesn't fuss at the noise the hefty things make when the Knight dumps the rest. More like... making himself a part of the sibling's little exchange.

He clears his throat quietly, sets down the journal and laces his fingers together. He's never thanked anyone and doesn't intend to start, but he'll chat a bit about his findings like he always does.

"They started with nobodies from the outskirts first. Pressure mounted over time, though, you can see where the reports started getting insistent. More experiments, bigger spells. Towards the end they weren't picky. The King disapproved, but apparently had better things to do than curb their appetite for Soul."

He struggles with the next bit. It's not a historical anecdote, and almost doesn't come out at all, but it needs saying, someone needs to say it even if it has to be him: "Mind what you teach."

[focusedvoid]

Their attention flicks back up from Sibling's borderline preening.

The sudden giving of information is unexpected, though its contents are less surprising. They'd wandered through the evidence multiple times, after all, and there were enough hints to see the outlines of what and how.

It's the last part that raises the Knight's hackles somewhat, not showing outwardly but for stilling further. Is he yet trying to admonish them, or is he trying to warn them in the most uncomfortable way possible? What does he know? What does he believe he knows?

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.