Interdimensional Travel Extraordinaire

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

[Simon's hand hits something that feels like dirt, and immediately his mind conjures images of the Last Tree, as he'd seen it before Filament, barely clinging on to its few remaining leaves. His logical brain immediately rejects the idea, but the blindly hopeful, delirious part of him wonders if he'd blacked out, if he was home, being soothed as he breathed his last in the roots of Eden's most sacred idol. For a moment, he lets himself hope that the faint voice is one of his Brothers, sending him off with soft words, but then he revolts against that comfort. They'd betrayed him. He knew he would never return to the Tree when he surrendered, and he knows that's still true. But everything hurts, and Brother or not, he can't move more than letting out a few choked groans of pain and weak twitching, so he lets the voice drone on, lets his blurry, unseeing eyes slip closed. It burns. Everything aches. Time slides away from him, unimportant, and when the pain starts to ease, Simon just assumes that's him finally dying, and all he can do is sob pathetically about it. He's so tired.]

*The stranger begins to run their hand over your sticky hair, almost like a parent, as you sob.*

I know you’re tired. You can sleep, you’ll be okay.

*The stranger continues like this until the exhaustion finally drowns you, and then even for a few minutes after you fall still and silent.*

*In the midst of your rest, you sometimes feel these half-dreamt sensations: something cool on your face, quiet voices whispering, something soft against your body. You can’t seem to wake up to meet any of them, and instead sink deeper into your sleep.*

*When you do awake, you know before you open your eyes that you are in a different place than when you fell asleep. You’re somewhere comfortable. Opening your eyes, you see that you’re in a bed with a white duvet. The air in the room is cool, but the sheets are warm from you lying in them. Your body is still sore, but managably so. You feel clean, the blood is gone. You’re wearing different clothes.*

*The lights in the room are dim. It doesn’t look like any room on a space station you’ve seen before. The walls are gray, but not metal. Venetian blinds cover a glowing window, through the cracks of those blinds is where most of the light in the room is coming from. Next to the bed, on your right side, is a small table where your knife sheath sits next to a lamp and a picture of a baby you don’t recognize. The right hand wall has two wooden doors. There’s a cabinet with some kind of device on top of it in front of the bed.*

*The door opens slowly, and you see the intruder by degrees: first an eye, then a face, then a body. It’s Lilac, who you haven’t really seen since the submarine. She stands just far enough inside the door to shut it behind her. She’s holding a cup in one of her hands. She speaks quietly, and somewhat nervously, like she expects you to be angry with her for what she did.*

I can get more if you want more, we’re not, like, rationing or anything, my mom just didn’t want you to drink a whole lot at once in case you, uh, felt sick or something.

*The water is cold and it tastes weird.*

Ev'rythin'.

[Simon blinks, and his eyes burn from staring at the water, so he closes them and lets his head hang a little. What does the Eel want him to say? How is he supposed to respond to that? Those thoughts feel a little too dangerous, so Simon decides he doesn't care.]

Okay.

…Uh, okay.

You’ve been out for, like, a day and a half, which is pretty normal. Not a whole lot happened here, I mean I was busy with research—

*A thought comes to her mind.*

[He says again, a little quieter. The cup of water is cool against his fingers. This hallucination, false reality, whatever it is, is weird, but he knows without a doubt that all the things that happened in that sub - the radiation alone was lethal. He knows that. It was probably more than those on Filament got dosed with, even, by the end, you don't just bounce back from that - and really, the Eel needs to get a grip, because how is he supposed to believe it when it starts spouting made-up words.]

Hn. No.

Okay, cool, so while you were out I did some research— and I actually know what Eden Station is now, which I did not know before. The COI, too. I know ev- well, not everything there is to know, but pretty much everything available to me, I’ve got the bold strokes down and…

*Something seems to occur to Lilac mid-sentence.*

S'not.

*Lilac thinks for a minute, unsure what to do.*

Is there any way I can prove it to you?

I don' know what y'want from me.

*She stands there, trying to come up with some way to answer you, for what feels to her like a long time, before giving up and volunteering the truth.*

I mean… I don’t really want anything from you, really. I, uh….

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

[Simon's hand hits something that feels like dirt, and immediately his mind conjures images of the Last Tree, as he'd seen it before Filament, barely clinging on to its few remaining leaves. His logical brain immediately rejects the idea, but the blindly hopeful, delirious part of him wonders if he'd blacked out, if he was home, being soothed as he breathed his last in the roots of Eden's most sacred idol. For a moment, he lets himself hope that the faint voice is one of his Brothers, sending him off with soft words, but then he revolts against that comfort. They'd betrayed him. He knew he would never return to the Tree when he surrendered, and he knows that's still true. But everything hurts, and Brother or not, he can't move more than letting out a few choked groans of pain and weak twitching, so he lets the voice drone on, lets his blurry, unseeing eyes slip closed. It burns. Everything aches. Time slides away from him, unimportant, and when the pain starts to ease, Simon just assumes that's him finally dying, and all he can do is sob pathetically about it. He's so tired.]

*The stranger begins to run their hand over your sticky hair, almost like a parent, as you sob.*

I know you’re tired. You can sleep, you’ll be okay.

*The stranger continues like this until the exhaustion finally drowns you, and then even for a few minutes after you fall still and silent.*

*In the midst of your rest, you sometimes feel these half-dreamt sensations: something cool on your face, quiet voices whispering, something soft against your body. You can’t seem to wake up to meet any of them, and instead sink deeper into your sleep.*

*When you do awake, you know before you open your eyes that you are in a different place than when you fell asleep. You’re somewhere comfortable. Opening your eyes, you see that you’re in a bed with a white duvet. The air in the room is cool, but the sheets are warm from you lying in them. Your body is still sore, but managably so. You feel clean, the blood is gone. You’re wearing different clothes.*

*The lights in the room are dim. It doesn’t look like any room on a space station you’ve seen before. The walls are gray, but not metal. Venetian blinds cover a glowing window, through the cracks of those blinds is where most of the light in the room is coming from. Next to the bed, on your right side, is a small table where your knife sheath sits next to a lamp and a picture of a baby you don’t recognize. The right hand wall has two wooden doors. There’s a cabinet with some kind of device on top of it in front of the bed.*

*The door opens slowly, and you see the intruder by degrees: first an eye, then a face, then a body. It’s Lilac, who you haven’t really seen since the submarine. She stands just far enough inside the door to shut it behind her. She’s holding a cup in one of her hands. She speaks quietly, and somewhat nervously, like she expects you to be angry with her for what she did.*

I can get more if you want more, we’re not, like, rationing or anything, my mom just didn’t want you to drink a whole lot at once in case you, uh, felt sick or something.

*The water is cold and it tastes weird.*

Ev'rythin'.

[Simon blinks, and his eyes burn from staring at the water, so he closes them and lets his head hang a little. What does the Eel want him to say? How is he supposed to respond to that? Those thoughts feel a little too dangerous, so Simon decides he doesn't care.]

Okay.

…Uh, okay.

You’ve been out for, like, a day and a half, which is pretty normal. Not a whole lot happened here, I mean I was busy with research—

*A thought comes to her mind.*

[He says again, a little quieter. The cup of water is cool against his fingers. This hallucination, false reality, whatever it is, is weird, but he knows without a doubt that all the things that happened in that sub - the radiation alone was lethal. He knows that. It was probably more than those on Filament got dosed with, even, by the end, you don't just bounce back from that - and really, the Eel needs to get a grip, because how is he supposed to believe it when it starts spouting made-up words.]

Hn. No.

Okay, cool, so while you were out I did some research— and I actually know what Eden Station is now, which I did not know before. The COI, too. I know ev- well, not everything there is to know, but pretty much everything available to me, I’ve got the bold strokes down and…

*Something seems to occur to Lilac mid-sentence.*

S'not.

*Lilac thinks for a minute, unsure what to do.*

Is there any way I can prove it to you?

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

[Simon's hand hits something that feels like dirt, and immediately his mind conjures images of the Last Tree, as he'd seen it before Filament, barely clinging on to its few remaining leaves. His logical brain immediately rejects the idea, but the blindly hopeful, delirious part of him wonders if he'd blacked out, if he was home, being soothed as he breathed his last in the roots of Eden's most sacred idol. For a moment, he lets himself hope that the faint voice is one of his Brothers, sending him off with soft words, but then he revolts against that comfort. They'd betrayed him. He knew he would never return to the Tree when he surrendered, and he knows that's still true. But everything hurts, and Brother or not, he can't move more than letting out a few choked groans of pain and weak twitching, so he lets the voice drone on, lets his blurry, unseeing eyes slip closed. It burns. Everything aches. Time slides away from him, unimportant, and when the pain starts to ease, Simon just assumes that's him finally dying, and all he can do is sob pathetically about it. He's so tired.]

*The stranger begins to run their hand over your sticky hair, almost like a parent, as you sob.*

I know you’re tired. You can sleep, you’ll be okay.

*The stranger continues like this until the exhaustion finally drowns you, and then even for a few minutes after you fall still and silent.*

*In the midst of your rest, you sometimes feel these half-dreamt sensations: something cool on your face, quiet voices whispering, something soft against your body. You can’t seem to wake up to meet any of them, and instead sink deeper into your sleep.*

*When you do awake, you know before you open your eyes that you are in a different place than when you fell asleep. You’re somewhere comfortable. Opening your eyes, you see that you’re in a bed with a white duvet. The air in the room is cool, but the sheets are warm from you lying in them. Your body is still sore, but managably so. You feel clean, the blood is gone. You’re wearing different clothes.*

*The lights in the room are dim. It doesn’t look like any room on a space station you’ve seen before. The walls are gray, but not metal. Venetian blinds cover a glowing window, through the cracks of those blinds is where most of the light in the room is coming from. Next to the bed, on your right side, is a small table where your knife sheath sits next to a lamp and a picture of a baby you don’t recognize. The right hand wall has two wooden doors. There’s a cabinet with some kind of device on top of it in front of the bed.*

*The door opens slowly, and you see the intruder by degrees: first an eye, then a face, then a body. It’s Lilac, who you haven’t really seen since the submarine. She stands just far enough inside the door to shut it behind her. She’s holding a cup in one of her hands. She speaks quietly, and somewhat nervously, like she expects you to be angry with her for what she did.*

I can get more if you want more, we’re not, like, rationing or anything, my mom just didn’t want you to drink a whole lot at once in case you, uh, felt sick or something.

*The water is cold and it tastes weird.*

Ev'rythin'.

[Simon blinks, and his eyes burn from staring at the water, so he closes them and lets his head hang a little. What does the Eel want him to say? How is he supposed to respond to that? Those thoughts feel a little too dangerous, so Simon decides he doesn't care.]

Okay.

…Uh, okay.

You’ve been out for, like, a day and a half, which is pretty normal. Not a whole lot happened here, I mean I was busy with research—

*A thought comes to her mind.*

[He says again, a little quieter. The cup of water is cool against his fingers. This hallucination, false reality, whatever it is, is weird, but he knows without a doubt that all the things that happened in that sub - the radiation alone was lethal. He knows that. It was probably more than those on Filament got dosed with, even, by the end, you don't just bounce back from that - and really, the Eel needs to get a grip, because how is he supposed to believe it when it starts spouting made-up words.]

Hn. No.

Okay, cool, so while you were out I did some research— and I actually know what Eden Station is now, which I did not know before. The COI, too. I know ev- well, not everything there is to know, but pretty much everything available to me, I’ve got the bold strokes down and…

*Something seems to occur to Lilac mid-sentence.*

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

[Simon's hand hits something that feels like dirt, and immediately his mind conjures images of the Last Tree, as he'd seen it before Filament, barely clinging on to its few remaining leaves. His logical brain immediately rejects the idea, but the blindly hopeful, delirious part of him wonders if he'd blacked out, if he was home, being soothed as he breathed his last in the roots of Eden's most sacred idol. For a moment, he lets himself hope that the faint voice is one of his Brothers, sending him off with soft words, but then he revolts against that comfort. They'd betrayed him. He knew he would never return to the Tree when he surrendered, and he knows that's still true. But everything hurts, and Brother or not, he can't move more than letting out a few choked groans of pain and weak twitching, so he lets the voice drone on, lets his blurry, unseeing eyes slip closed. It burns. Everything aches. Time slides away from him, unimportant, and when the pain starts to ease, Simon just assumes that's him finally dying, and all he can do is sob pathetically about it. He's so tired.]

*The stranger begins to run their hand over your sticky hair, almost like a parent, as you sob.*

I know you’re tired. You can sleep, you’ll be okay.

*The stranger continues like this until the exhaustion finally drowns you, and then even for a few minutes after you fall still and silent.*

*In the midst of your rest, you sometimes feel these half-dreamt sensations: something cool on your face, quiet voices whispering, something soft against your body. You can’t seem to wake up to meet any of them, and instead sink deeper into your sleep.*

*When you do awake, you know before you open your eyes that you are in a different place than when you fell asleep. You’re somewhere comfortable. Opening your eyes, you see that you’re in a bed with a white duvet. The air in the room is cool, but the sheets are warm from you lying in them. Your body is still sore, but managably so. You feel clean, the blood is gone. You’re wearing different clothes.*

*The lights in the room are dim. It doesn’t look like any room on a space station you’ve seen before. The walls are gray, but not metal. Venetian blinds cover a glowing window, through the cracks of those blinds is where most of the light in the room is coming from. Next to the bed, on your right side, is a small table where your knife sheath sits next to a lamp and a picture of a baby you don’t recognize. The right hand wall has two wooden doors. There’s a cabinet with some kind of device on top of it in front of the bed.*

*The door opens slowly, and you see the intruder by degrees: first an eye, then a face, then a body. It’s Lilac, who you haven’t really seen since the submarine. She stands just far enough inside the door to shut it behind her. She’s holding a cup in one of her hands. She speaks quietly, and somewhat nervously, like she expects you to be angry with her for what she did.*

I can get more if you want more, we’re not, like, rationing or anything, my mom just didn’t want you to drink a whole lot at once in case you, uh, felt sick or something.

*The water is cold and it tastes weird.*

Ev'rythin'.

[Simon blinks, and his eyes burn from staring at the water, so he closes them and lets his head hang a little. What does the Eel want him to say? How is he supposed to respond to that? Those thoughts feel a little too dangerous, so Simon decides he doesn't care.]

Okay.

…Uh, okay.

You’ve been out for, like, a day and a half, which is pretty normal. Not a whole lot happened here, I mean I was busy with research—

*A thought comes to her mind.*

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

[Simon's hand hits something that feels like dirt, and immediately his mind conjures images of the Last Tree, as he'd seen it before Filament, barely clinging on to its few remaining leaves. His logical brain immediately rejects the idea, but the blindly hopeful, delirious part of him wonders if he'd blacked out, if he was home, being soothed as he breathed his last in the roots of Eden's most sacred idol. For a moment, he lets himself hope that the faint voice is one of his Brothers, sending him off with soft words, but then he revolts against that comfort. They'd betrayed him. He knew he would never return to the Tree when he surrendered, and he knows that's still true. But everything hurts, and Brother or not, he can't move more than letting out a few choked groans of pain and weak twitching, so he lets the voice drone on, lets his blurry, unseeing eyes slip closed. It burns. Everything aches. Time slides away from him, unimportant, and when the pain starts to ease, Simon just assumes that's him finally dying, and all he can do is sob pathetically about it. He's so tired.]

*The stranger begins to run their hand over your sticky hair, almost like a parent, as you sob.*

I know you’re tired. You can sleep, you’ll be okay.

*The stranger continues like this until the exhaustion finally drowns you, and then even for a few minutes after you fall still and silent.*

*In the midst of your rest, you sometimes feel these half-dreamt sensations: something cool on your face, quiet voices whispering, something soft against your body. You can’t seem to wake up to meet any of them, and instead sink deeper into your sleep.*

*When you do awake, you know before you open your eyes that you are in a different place than when you fell asleep. You’re somewhere comfortable. Opening your eyes, you see that you’re in a bed with a white duvet. The air in the room is cool, but the sheets are warm from you lying in them. Your body is still sore, but managably so. You feel clean, the blood is gone. You’re wearing different clothes.*

*The lights in the room are dim. It doesn’t look like any room on a space station you’ve seen before. The walls are gray, but not metal. Venetian blinds cover a glowing window, through the cracks of those blinds is where most of the light in the room is coming from. Next to the bed, on your right side, is a small table where your knife sheath sits next to a lamp and a picture of a baby you don’t recognize. The right hand wall has two wooden doors. There’s a cabinet with some kind of device on top of it in front of the bed.*

*The door opens slowly, and you see the intruder by degrees: first an eye, then a face, then a body. It’s Lilac, who you haven’t really seen since the submarine. She stands just far enough inside the door to shut it behind her. She’s holding a cup in one of her hands. She speaks quietly, and somewhat nervously, like she expects you to be angry with her for what she did.*

I can get more if you want more, we’re not, like, rationing or anything, my mom just didn’t want you to drink a whole lot at once in case you, uh, felt sick or something.

*The water is cold and it tastes weird.*

Ev'rythin'.

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

[Simon's hand hits something that feels like dirt, and immediately his mind conjures images of the Last Tree, as he'd seen it before Filament, barely clinging on to its few remaining leaves. His logical brain immediately rejects the idea, but the blindly hopeful, delirious part of him wonders if he'd blacked out, if he was home, being soothed as he breathed his last in the roots of Eden's most sacred idol. For a moment, he lets himself hope that the faint voice is one of his Brothers, sending him off with soft words, but then he revolts against that comfort. They'd betrayed him. He knew he would never return to the Tree when he surrendered, and he knows that's still true. But everything hurts, and Brother or not, he can't move more than letting out a few choked groans of pain and weak twitching, so he lets the voice drone on, lets his blurry, unseeing eyes slip closed. It burns. Everything aches. Time slides away from him, unimportant, and when the pain starts to ease, Simon just assumes that's him finally dying, and all he can do is sob pathetically about it. He's so tired.]

*The stranger begins to run their hand over your sticky hair, almost like a parent, as you sob.*

I know you’re tired. You can sleep, you’ll be okay.

*The stranger continues like this until the exhaustion finally drowns you, and then even for a few minutes after you fall still and silent.*

*In the midst of your rest, you sometimes feel these half-dreamt sensations: something cool on your face, quiet voices whispering, something soft against your body. You can’t seem to wake up to meet any of them, and instead sink deeper into your sleep.*

*When you do awake, you know before you open your eyes that you are in a different place than when you fell asleep. You’re somewhere comfortable. Opening your eyes, you see that you’re in a bed with a white duvet. The air in the room is cool, but the sheets are warm from you lying in them. Your body is still sore, but managably so. You feel clean, the blood is gone. You’re wearing different clothes.*

*The lights in the room are dim. It doesn’t look like any room on a space station you’ve seen before. The walls are gray, but not metal. Venetian blinds cover a glowing window, through the cracks of those blinds is where most of the light in the room is coming from. Next to the bed, on your right side, is a small table where your knife sheath sits next to a lamp and a picture of a baby you don’t recognize. The right hand wall has two wooden doors. There’s a cabinet with some kind of device on top of it in front of the bed.*

*The door opens slowly, and you see the intruder by degrees: first an eye, then a face, then a body. It’s Lilac, who you haven’t really seen since the submarine. She stands just far enough inside the door to shut it behind her. She’s holding a cup in one of her hands. She speaks quietly, and somewhat nervously, like she expects you to be angry with her for what she did.*

I can get more if you want more, we’re not, like, rationing or anything, my mom just didn’t want you to drink a whole lot at once in case you, uh, felt sick or something.

*The water is cold and it tastes weird.*

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

[Simon's hand hits something that feels like dirt, and immediately his mind conjures images of the Last Tree, as he'd seen it before Filament, barely clinging on to its few remaining leaves. His logical brain immediately rejects the idea, but the blindly hopeful, delirious part of him wonders if he'd blacked out, if he was home, being soothed as he breathed his last in the roots of Eden's most sacred idol. For a moment, he lets himself hope that the faint voice is one of his Brothers, sending him off with soft words, but then he revolts against that comfort. They'd betrayed him. He knew he would never return to the Tree when he surrendered, and he knows that's still true. But everything hurts, and Brother or not, he can't move more than letting out a few choked groans of pain and weak twitching, so he lets the voice drone on, lets his blurry, unseeing eyes slip closed. It burns. Everything aches. Time slides away from him, unimportant, and when the pain starts to ease, Simon just assumes that's him finally dying, and all he can do is sob pathetically about it. He's so tired.]

*The stranger begins to run their hand over your sticky hair, almost like a parent, as you sob.*

I know you’re tired. You can sleep, you’ll be okay.

*The stranger continues like this until the exhaustion finally drowns you, and then even for a few minutes after you fall still and silent.*

*In the midst of your rest, you sometimes feel these half-dreamt sensations: something cool on your face, quiet voices whispering, something soft against your body. You can’t seem to wake up to meet any of them, and instead sink deeper into your sleep.*

*When you do awake, you know before you open your eyes that you are in a different place than when you fell asleep. You’re somewhere comfortable. Opening your eyes, you see that you’re in a bed with a white duvet. The air in the room is cool, but the sheets are warm from you lying in them. Your body is still sore, but managably so. You feel clean, the blood is gone. You’re wearing different clothes.*

*The lights in the room are dim. It doesn’t look like any room on a space station you’ve seen before. The walls are gray, but not metal. Venetian blinds cover a glowing window, through the cracks of those blinds is where most of the light in the room is coming from. Next to the bed, on your right side, is a small table where your knife sheath sits next to a lamp and a picture of a baby you don’t recognize. The right hand wall has two wooden doors. There’s a cabinet with some kind of device on top of it in front of the bed.*

*The door opens slowly, and you see the intruder by degrees: first an eye, then a face, then a body. It’s Lilac, who you haven’t really seen since the submarine. She stands just far enough inside the door to shut it behind her. She’s holding a cup in one of her hands. She speaks quietly, and somewhat nervously, like she expects you to be angry with her for what she did.*

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

[Simon's hand hits something that feels like dirt, and immediately his mind conjures images of the Last Tree, as he'd seen it before Filament, barely clinging on to its few remaining leaves. His logical brain immediately rejects the idea, but the blindly hopeful, delirious part of him wonders if he'd blacked out, if he was home, being soothed as he breathed his last in the roots of Eden's most sacred idol. For a moment, he lets himself hope that the faint voice is one of his Brothers, sending him off with soft words, but then he revolts against that comfort. They'd betrayed him. He knew he would never return to the Tree when he surrendered, and he knows that's still true. But everything hurts, and Brother or not, he can't move more than letting out a few choked groans of pain and weak twitching, so he lets the voice drone on, lets his blurry, unseeing eyes slip closed. It burns. Everything aches. Time slides away from him, unimportant, and when the pain starts to ease, Simon just assumes that's him finally dying, and all he can do is sob pathetically about it. He's so tired.]

*The stranger begins to run their hand over your sticky hair, almost like a parent, as you sob.*

I know you’re tired. You can sleep, you’ll be okay.

*The stranger continues like this until the exhaustion finally drowns you, and then even for a few minutes after you fall still and silent.*

*In the midst of your rest, you sometimes feel these half-dreamt sensations: something cool on your face, quiet voices whispering, something soft against your body. You can’t seem to wake up to meet any of them, and instead sink deeper into your sleep.*

*When you do awake, you know before you open your eyes that you are in a different place than when you fell asleep. You’re somewhere comfortable. Opening your eyes, you see that you’re in a bed with a white duvet. The air in the room is cool, but the sheets are warm from you lying in them. Your body is still sore, but managably so. You feel clean, the blood is gone. You’re wearing different clothes.*

*The lights in the room are dim. It doesn’t look like any room on a space station you’ve seen before. The walls are gray, but not metal. Venetian blinds cover a glowing window, through the cracks of those blinds is where most of the light in the room is coming from. Next to the bed, on your right side, is a small table where your knife sheath sits next to a lamp and a picture of a baby you don’t recognize. The right hand wall has two wooden doors. There’s a cabinet with some kind of device on top of it in front of the bed.*

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

[Simon's hand hits something that feels like dirt, and immediately his mind conjures images of the Last Tree, as he'd seen it before Filament, barely clinging on to its few remaining leaves. His logical brain immediately rejects the idea, but the blindly hopeful, delirious part of him wonders if he'd blacked out, if he was home, being soothed as he breathed his last in the roots of Eden's most sacred idol. For a moment, he lets himself hope that the faint voice is one of his Brothers, sending him off with soft words, but then he revolts against that comfort. They'd betrayed him. He knew he would never return to the Tree when he surrendered, and he knows that's still true. But everything hurts, and Brother or not, he can't move more than letting out a few choked groans of pain and weak twitching, so he lets the voice drone on, lets his blurry, unseeing eyes slip closed. It burns. Everything aches. Time slides away from him, unimportant, and when the pain starts to ease, Simon just assumes that's him finally dying, and all he can do is sob pathetically about it. He's so tired.]

*The stranger begins to run their hand over your sticky hair, almost like a parent, as you sob.*

I know you’re tired. You can sleep, you’ll be okay.

Hey, woah there, buddy. You’re okay, you’re gonna be just fine.

*The voice rolls you back onto your side. Your vision is too messed up to see them very well, but with your eyes open you can see that the voice and touch do have a body to go with them.*

Alright, I have to do some things that’ll hurt for a second, but then when I’m done you’ll feel better. But I want you to stay still, alright?

(CONT. FROM)

I know, I know. Shh....

*Their hand rubs up and down your back at some attempt to soothe as they begin the painful work of putting you back together. Your bones shift to knit themselves back together. There's a burning in your veins, in your lungs, in your skin, as somehow the worst of the radiation is being drained from your body, drawn up into their hand, and your half-decayed organs begin to reconstruct themselves. You hear the stranger is speaking, distantly, but you can't understand what they're saying, and barely register that it's their voice at all. It hurts.*

*Like your journey here, the ordeal seemed longer than it was. The stranger takes their hand off of you. You're still sore all over, but maybe it hurts less. Your skin doesn't quite burn. Your head might be clearer if you weren't somehow so much more tired than you were before, and a little nauseous from it all. At least, you know for certain now that breathing is miles easier. The stranger sighs.*

*And then, something falls through this hole, and it closes sharply behind them, taking the light and the air with it. You can tell that this is a person, not very tall. They hit the floor of the submarine hard.*

Ow— OH FUCK WHY IS THE FLOOR SLIMY? EW EW EW WHERE AM I—?

*Your radio cracks with static as the stranger scrambles to sit up, and look around them. You can see now that they aren’t very old, maybe sixteen. They wear glasses and have a small, glowing device in their hand.*

Oh yeah, I got my coordinates way off…

*In the middle of their sentence, they see you.*

Oh hi, sir… sorry about this….

Ffffuck-!

Shit, I’m real sorry… my name’s Lilac, I didn’t mean to scare you, sir. And I’m sorry for cussing, too. I didn’t kick you, did I?

*Lilac creeps closer, afraid to scare you but also trying to see you better. She hears the hiss of pain.*

Hey, are you hurt? Can I see? I can help, maybe, or I know people who can....

*Lilac moves back to give you some space, sitting on her knees and unsure what to do. She can’t just leave you here, would that be fucked up or what, but she’s clearly going to have to earn your trust.*

*Upon glancing around herself, Lilac realizes that she can’t see much of anything. Your huddled form, and her hands, and some nondescript shadows that all swim together in the darkness. And if she can’t see, then you probably can’t, either.*

I’m gonna take out my flashlight, okay? It’s really dark.

*You hear rustling, and in a few moments, a light sprouts from the back of a device in Lilac’s hand. You can see Lilac better now, and if you were to encounter her in a normal situation, she would not be threatening at all. There is concern in her eyes, but she makes no further movement towards you.*

*She glances down at the ground, and in the better light can see the answer to her question of why the ground is slimy.*

Y-Yes.

[He croaks, his voice raw and hoarse, like he's been crying or screaming or both. It's hard to see under the blood, but his eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot, so both is possible. He sounds distant, like he's not really aware of the words that leave his mouth, just entertaining the phantom of his own mind.]

*Being able to see the state you're in only serves to make her more worried, it seems. She stands up and begins to pace the submarine, her light sweeping across the walls like a lighthouse's beacon as she taps at something on the device's screen.*

So this is the blood ocean dimension, huh...?

*She stops, and looks at you.*

Butcher.

[He says first, faintly, the word slipping out of his mouth like he didn't mean to say it, it just happened. The next name he says is a little stronger, a little more aware, but he's still looking through Lilac instead of at her, his dark eyes glinting red when they catch the light. He repeats it a couple times once he says it, but whether it's just for emphasis or because he himself was on the verge of forgetting it is indecipherable.]

Okay, uh… nice to meet you, Mr. Simon.

*Lilac goes to bite her stubby thumbnail, a nervous habit that is very quickly halted by the taste of mystery blood on her hands.*

yech…

An' then the Rapture.

Yeah, right... Sorry, I forgot.

M'in a blood ocean. Pr'sure I'm dead. Saw God. You... s'not so crazy.

*It takes her a second to fish all of the words out of your mumbles.*

Hey. Uh, look at me.

*Something in what you’ve said, or in the weakening tone of your voice, has made Lilac dead serious. She can’t wait any longer, and without thinking about it reaches out and touches you again, hand resting very softly on your leg.*

S-Stop it, please...

*Lilac scrambles back from you, no longer touching you, but if she holds any understanding of the exact reason for your distress, she does not show it. Instead, she is back on her feet, plucking her glowing device from the air and poking away at the screen until a portal-like apparition opens on the floor, similar to the one the child fell through.*

*Now, you can see the portal better. More cool air emits steadily from it, along with enough light to illuminate the submarine. You cannot see far into the portal where you sit, just a line of white void, and the blood dripping from the metal floor into that void.*

*Lilac, dead serious in her offer to leave and dead set on not leaving you here, walks up to the strange interdimensional hole, crouches down, and, grasping the edge of the new apparition, thrusts her blood-smeared arm into the rift to prove the truth in her words. Then she draws it forth, unscathed, and sits back up to prove the safety of her new creation.*

Please, please, I can't, I'm sorry- nonononono-

[He doesn't even seem to register anything else past the glowing white void, and he barely looks at that, keeping it in his peripheral as he weakly shoves himself away, muttering frantically in that hoarse, wet tone.]

*Your prayer makes Lilac pause from her mission of trying to convince you to go in the glowing hole in the ground. It matches, phrase for phrase, one that Lilac has known for years, but with many of the words changed out with new ones about plants, of all things. If you were to look at her, you would see her mouth moving wordlessly along, listening to you, with a confused look on her face.*

Where did you… uh… what’s all that mean?

...thy Grove come, thy will be done, in stars as it art in soil...

*Fortunately for you, you and Lilac want the exact same thing. Deep in her soul, Lilac wants you to live. Her own survival isn’t something she needs to worry about, she can leave whenever she wants. Her only goal is to try and get you out of here, and to take you to somewhere safe. That is all that she has been trying to do, in the only way that she knows how to.*

*Unfortunately for Lilac, you clearly do not know this, and she cannot tell if there’s any way to make it clear to you. It’s dark, and the ocean gurgles ominously outside the submarine. Lilac begins to question something that she really does not want to do.*

*You’re sick and injured enough that she could simply open a portal right under you, and you would fall through and probably wouldn’t be able to fight back against it. It would work, she knows it would, but it would also make you so much more scared. If there was any trust at all between you and her, it would be gone, but at the same time you couldn’t wait around here in the evil tin can for much longer.*

*Her voice comes out louder than she meant it to, a little angry that you would accuse her of such a thing but mostly just distressed in general. She repeats it again, quieter.*

I-I don't...

*She doesn't understand either; she has no reigns on this world. For the sake of the best ending to this story, she's going to have to do something you won't like at all.*

yeah, I, um...

*Lilac's voice cracks, and she clears her throat.*

'M sorry. Sir.

*You might think for just a second that she's apologizing for yelling, until the floor seems to warp and shift beneath you. There is a rush of cool, fresh air, and light torrents through the portal as it swallows you whole. Lilac watches.*

*You slow down almost immediately after entering the portal. You're still falling, moving towards some other side you can't see, but so slowly that it almost feels like you're floating. Around you is a swimming void of marbled off-white and pale purple. Above you, Lilac is also falling through the same portal, but you can't seem to grasp just how far above you she is. Trying to focus your vision on anything makes your eyes go crossed. You are barely moving at all, and yet somehow you have the feeling that everything is rushing by at terrible speeds.*

*When you hit the ground, your time in the portal seems to have taken no time at all despite feeling like an eternity while it was happening. Somehow you are laying on your back, staring up at green dark smudges blocking out some of the brightest orange sky you have ever seen. Whatever you are laying on is hard and rough and scratchy under you. You'd almost think it was a planet's surface.*

Ah, that kid knows how to find ‘em…

*They sit down beside you and place a hand gently on your head. Your mind goes a lot quieter. You’re able to hear yourself think, at least.*

*And then, something falls through this hole, and it closes sharply behind them, taking the light and the air with it. You can tell that this is a person, not very tall. They hit the floor of the submarine hard.*

Ow— OH FUCK WHY IS THE FLOOR SLIMY? EW EW EW WHERE AM I—?

*Your radio cracks with static as the stranger scrambles to sit up, and look around them. You can see now that they aren’t very old, maybe sixteen. They wear glasses and have a small, glowing device in their hand.*

Oh yeah, I got my coordinates way off…

*In the middle of their sentence, they see you.*

Oh hi, sir… sorry about this….

Ffffuck-!

Shit, I’m real sorry… my name’s Lilac, I didn’t mean to scare you, sir. And I’m sorry for cussing, too. I didn’t kick you, did I?

*Lilac creeps closer, afraid to scare you but also trying to see you better. She hears the hiss of pain.*

Hey, are you hurt? Can I see? I can help, maybe, or I know people who can....

*Lilac moves back to give you some space, sitting on her knees and unsure what to do. She can’t just leave you here, would that be fucked up or what, but she’s clearly going to have to earn your trust.*

*Upon glancing around herself, Lilac realizes that she can’t see much of anything. Your huddled form, and her hands, and some nondescript shadows that all swim together in the darkness. And if she can’t see, then you probably can’t, either.*

I’m gonna take out my flashlight, okay? It’s really dark.

*You hear rustling, and in a few moments, a light sprouts from the back of a device in Lilac’s hand. You can see Lilac better now, and if you were to encounter her in a normal situation, she would not be threatening at all. There is concern in her eyes, but she makes no further movement towards you.*

*She glances down at the ground, and in the better light can see the answer to her question of why the ground is slimy.*

Y-Yes.

[He croaks, his voice raw and hoarse, like he's been crying or screaming or both. It's hard to see under the blood, but his eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot, so both is possible. He sounds distant, like he's not really aware of the words that leave his mouth, just entertaining the phantom of his own mind.]

*Being able to see the state you're in only serves to make her more worried, it seems. She stands up and begins to pace the submarine, her light sweeping across the walls like a lighthouse's beacon as she taps at something on the device's screen.*

So this is the blood ocean dimension, huh...?

*She stops, and looks at you.*

Butcher.

[He says first, faintly, the word slipping out of his mouth like he didn't mean to say it, it just happened. The next name he says is a little stronger, a little more aware, but he's still looking through Lilac instead of at her, his dark eyes glinting red when they catch the light. He repeats it a couple times once he says it, but whether it's just for emphasis or because he himself was on the verge of forgetting it is indecipherable.]

Okay, uh… nice to meet you, Mr. Simon.

*Lilac goes to bite her stubby thumbnail, a nervous habit that is very quickly halted by the taste of mystery blood on her hands.*

yech…

An' then the Rapture.

Yeah, right... Sorry, I forgot.

M'in a blood ocean. Pr'sure I'm dead. Saw God. You... s'not so crazy.

*It takes her a second to fish all of the words out of your mumbles.*

Hey. Uh, look at me.

*Something in what you’ve said, or in the weakening tone of your voice, has made Lilac dead serious. She can’t wait any longer, and without thinking about it reaches out and touches you again, hand resting very softly on your leg.*

S-Stop it, please...

*Lilac scrambles back from you, no longer touching you, but if she holds any understanding of the exact reason for your distress, she does not show it. Instead, she is back on her feet, plucking her glowing device from the air and poking away at the screen until a portal-like apparition opens on the floor, similar to the one the child fell through.*

*Now, you can see the portal better. More cool air emits steadily from it, along with enough light to illuminate the submarine. You cannot see far into the portal where you sit, just a line of white void, and the blood dripping from the metal floor into that void.*

*Lilac, dead serious in her offer to leave and dead set on not leaving you here, walks up to the strange interdimensional hole, crouches down, and, grasping the edge of the new apparition, thrusts her blood-smeared arm into the rift to prove the truth in her words. Then she draws it forth, unscathed, and sits back up to prove the safety of her new creation.*

Please, please, I can't, I'm sorry- nonononono-

[He doesn't even seem to register anything else past the glowing white void, and he barely looks at that, keeping it in his peripheral as he weakly shoves himself away, muttering frantically in that hoarse, wet tone.]

*Your prayer makes Lilac pause from her mission of trying to convince you to go in the glowing hole in the ground. It matches, phrase for phrase, one that Lilac has known for years, but with many of the words changed out with new ones about plants, of all things. If you were to look at her, you would see her mouth moving wordlessly along, listening to you, with a confused look on her face.*

Where did you… uh… what’s all that mean?

...thy Grove come, thy will be done, in stars as it art in soil...

*Fortunately for you, you and Lilac want the exact same thing. Deep in her soul, Lilac wants you to live. Her own survival isn’t something she needs to worry about, she can leave whenever she wants. Her only goal is to try and get you out of here, and to take you to somewhere safe. That is all that she has been trying to do, in the only way that she knows how to.*

*Unfortunately for Lilac, you clearly do not know this, and she cannot tell if there’s any way to make it clear to you. It’s dark, and the ocean gurgles ominously outside the submarine. Lilac begins to question something that she really does not want to do.*

*You’re sick and injured enough that she could simply open a portal right under you, and you would fall through and probably wouldn’t be able to fight back against it. It would work, she knows it would, but it would also make you so much more scared. If there was any trust at all between you and her, it would be gone, but at the same time you couldn’t wait around here in the evil tin can for much longer.*

*Her voice comes out louder than she meant it to, a little angry that you would accuse her of such a thing but mostly just distressed in general. She repeats it again, quieter.*

I-I don't...

*She doesn't understand either; she has no reigns on this world. For the sake of the best ending to this story, she's going to have to do something you won't like at all.*

yeah, I, um...

*Lilac's voice cracks, and she clears her throat.*

'M sorry. Sir.

*You might think for just a second that she's apologizing for yelling, until the floor seems to warp and shift beneath you. There is a rush of cool, fresh air, and light torrents through the portal as it swallows you whole. Lilac watches.*

*You slow down almost immediately after entering the portal. You're still falling, moving towards some other side you can't see, but so slowly that it almost feels like you're floating. Around you is a swimming void of marbled off-white and pale purple. Above you, Lilac is also falling through the same portal, but you can't seem to grasp just how far above you she is. Trying to focus your vision on anything makes your eyes go crossed. You are barely moving at all, and yet somehow you have the feeling that everything is rushing by at terrible speeds.*

*When you hit the ground, your time in the portal seems to have taken no time at all despite feeling like an eternity while it was happening. Somehow you are laying on your back, staring up at green dark smudges blocking out some of the brightest orange sky you have ever seen. Whatever you are laying on is hard and rough and scratchy under you. You'd almost think it was a planet's surface.*

*And then, something falls through this hole, and it closes sharply behind them, taking the light and the air with it. You can tell that this is a person, not very tall. They hit the floor of the submarine hard.*

Ow— OH FUCK WHY IS THE FLOOR SLIMY? EW EW EW WHERE AM I—?

*Your radio cracks with static as the stranger scrambles to sit up, and look around them. You can see now that they aren’t very old, maybe sixteen. They wear glasses and have a small, glowing device in their hand.*

Oh yeah, I got my coordinates way off…

*In the middle of their sentence, they see you.*

Oh hi, sir… sorry about this….

Ffffuck-!

Shit, I’m real sorry… my name’s Lilac, I didn’t mean to scare you, sir. And I’m sorry for cussing, too. I didn’t kick you, did I?

*Lilac creeps closer, afraid to scare you but also trying to see you better. She hears the hiss of pain.*

Hey, are you hurt? Can I see? I can help, maybe, or I know people who can....

*Lilac moves back to give you some space, sitting on her knees and unsure what to do. She can’t just leave you here, would that be fucked up or what, but she’s clearly going to have to earn your trust.*

*Upon glancing around herself, Lilac realizes that she can’t see much of anything. Your huddled form, and her hands, and some nondescript shadows that all swim together in the darkness. And if she can’t see, then you probably can’t, either.*

I’m gonna take out my flashlight, okay? It’s really dark.

*You hear rustling, and in a few moments, a light sprouts from the back of a device in Lilac’s hand. You can see Lilac better now, and if you were to encounter her in a normal situation, she would not be threatening at all. There is concern in her eyes, but she makes no further movement towards you.*

*She glances down at the ground, and in the better light can see the answer to her question of why the ground is slimy.*

Y-Yes.

[He croaks, his voice raw and hoarse, like he's been crying or screaming or both. It's hard to see under the blood, but his eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot, so both is possible. He sounds distant, like he's not really aware of the words that leave his mouth, just entertaining the phantom of his own mind.]

*Being able to see the state you're in only serves to make her more worried, it seems. She stands up and begins to pace the submarine, her light sweeping across the walls like a lighthouse's beacon as she taps at something on the device's screen.*

So this is the blood ocean dimension, huh...?

*She stops, and looks at you.*

Butcher.

[He says first, faintly, the word slipping out of his mouth like he didn't mean to say it, it just happened. The next name he says is a little stronger, a little more aware, but he's still looking through Lilac instead of at her, his dark eyes glinting red when they catch the light. He repeats it a couple times once he says it, but whether it's just for emphasis or because he himself was on the verge of forgetting it is indecipherable.]

Okay, uh… nice to meet you, Mr. Simon.

*Lilac goes to bite her stubby thumbnail, a nervous habit that is very quickly halted by the taste of mystery blood on her hands.*

yech…

An' then the Rapture.

Yeah, right... Sorry, I forgot.

M'in a blood ocean. Pr'sure I'm dead. Saw God. You... s'not so crazy.

*It takes her a second to fish all of the words out of your mumbles.*

Hey. Uh, look at me.

*Something in what you’ve said, or in the weakening tone of your voice, has made Lilac dead serious. She can’t wait any longer, and without thinking about it reaches out and touches you again, hand resting very softly on your leg.*

S-Stop it, please...

*Lilac scrambles back from you, no longer touching you, but if she holds any understanding of the exact reason for your distress, she does not show it. Instead, she is back on her feet, plucking her glowing device from the air and poking away at the screen until a portal-like apparition opens on the floor, similar to the one the child fell through.*

*Now, you can see the portal better. More cool air emits steadily from it, along with enough light to illuminate the submarine. You cannot see far into the portal where you sit, just a line of white void, and the blood dripping from the metal floor into that void.*

*Lilac, dead serious in her offer to leave and dead set on not leaving you here, walks up to the strange interdimensional hole, crouches down, and, grasping the edge of the new apparition, thrusts her blood-smeared arm into the rift to prove the truth in her words. Then she draws it forth, unscathed, and sits back up to prove the safety of her new creation.*

Please, please, I can't, I'm sorry- nonononono-

[He doesn't even seem to register anything else past the glowing white void, and he barely looks at that, keeping it in his peripheral as he weakly shoves himself away, muttering frantically in that hoarse, wet tone.]

*Your prayer makes Lilac pause from her mission of trying to convince you to go in the glowing hole in the ground. It matches, phrase for phrase, one that Lilac has known for years, but with many of the words changed out with new ones about plants, of all things. If you were to look at her, you would see her mouth moving wordlessly along, listening to you, with a confused look on her face.*

Where did you… uh… what’s all that mean?

...thy Grove come, thy will be done, in stars as it art in soil...

*Fortunately for you, you and Lilac want the exact same thing. Deep in her soul, Lilac wants you to live. Her own survival isn’t something she needs to worry about, she can leave whenever she wants. Her only goal is to try and get you out of here, and to take you to somewhere safe. That is all that she has been trying to do, in the only way that she knows how to.*

*Unfortunately for Lilac, you clearly do not know this, and she cannot tell if there’s any way to make it clear to you. It’s dark, and the ocean gurgles ominously outside the submarine. Lilac begins to question something that she really does not want to do.*

*You’re sick and injured enough that she could simply open a portal right under you, and you would fall through and probably wouldn’t be able to fight back against it. It would work, she knows it would, but it would also make you so much more scared. If there was any trust at all between you and her, it would be gone, but at the same time you couldn’t wait around here in the evil tin can for much longer.*

*Her voice comes out louder than she meant it to, a little angry that you would accuse her of such a thing but mostly just distressed in general. She repeats it again, quieter.*

*And then, something falls through this hole, and it closes sharply behind them, taking the light and the air with it. You can tell that this is a person, not very tall. They hit the floor of the submarine hard.*

Ow— OH FUCK WHY IS THE FLOOR SLIMY? EW EW EW WHERE AM I—?

*Your radio cracks with static as the stranger scrambles to sit up, and look around them. You can see now that they aren’t very old, maybe sixteen. They wear glasses and have a small, glowing device in their hand.*

Oh yeah, I got my coordinates way off…

*In the middle of their sentence, they see you.*

Oh hi, sir… sorry about this….

Ffffuck-!

Shit, I’m real sorry… my name’s Lilac, I didn’t mean to scare you, sir. And I’m sorry for cussing, too. I didn’t kick you, did I?

*Lilac creeps closer, afraid to scare you but also trying to see you better. She hears the hiss of pain.*

Hey, are you hurt? Can I see? I can help, maybe, or I know people who can....

*Lilac moves back to give you some space, sitting on her knees and unsure what to do. She can’t just leave you here, would that be fucked up or what, but she’s clearly going to have to earn your trust.*

*Upon glancing around herself, Lilac realizes that she can’t see much of anything. Your huddled form, and her hands, and some nondescript shadows that all swim together in the darkness. And if she can’t see, then you probably can’t, either.*

I’m gonna take out my flashlight, okay? It’s really dark.

*You hear rustling, and in a few moments, a light sprouts from the back of a device in Lilac’s hand. You can see Lilac better now, and if you were to encounter her in a normal situation, she would not be threatening at all. There is concern in her eyes, but she makes no further movement towards you.*

*She glances down at the ground, and in the better light can see the answer to her question of why the ground is slimy.*

Y-Yes.

[He croaks, his voice raw and hoarse, like he's been crying or screaming or both. It's hard to see under the blood, but his eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot, so both is possible. He sounds distant, like he's not really aware of the words that leave his mouth, just entertaining the phantom of his own mind.]

*Being able to see the state you're in only serves to make her more worried, it seems. She stands up and begins to pace the submarine, her light sweeping across the walls like a lighthouse's beacon as she taps at something on the device's screen.*

So this is the blood ocean dimension, huh...?

*She stops, and looks at you.*

Butcher.

[He says first, faintly, the word slipping out of his mouth like he didn't mean to say it, it just happened. The next name he says is a little stronger, a little more aware, but he's still looking through Lilac instead of at her, his dark eyes glinting red when they catch the light. He repeats it a couple times once he says it, but whether it's just for emphasis or because he himself was on the verge of forgetting it is indecipherable.]

Okay, uh… nice to meet you, Mr. Simon.

*Lilac goes to bite her stubby thumbnail, a nervous habit that is very quickly halted by the taste of mystery blood on her hands.*

yech…

An' then the Rapture.

Yeah, right... Sorry, I forgot.

M'in a blood ocean. Pr'sure I'm dead. Saw God. You... s'not so crazy.

*It takes her a second to fish all of the words out of your mumbles.*

Hey. Uh, look at me.

*Something in what you’ve said, or in the weakening tone of your voice, has made Lilac dead serious. She can’t wait any longer, and without thinking about it reaches out and touches you again, hand resting very softly on your leg.*

S-Stop it, please...

*Lilac scrambles back from you, no longer touching you, but if she holds any understanding of the exact reason for your distress, she does not show it. Instead, she is back on her feet, plucking her glowing device from the air and poking away at the screen until a portal-like apparition opens on the floor, similar to the one the child fell through.*

*Now, you can see the portal better. More cool air emits steadily from it, along with enough light to illuminate the submarine. You cannot see far into the portal where you sit, just a line of white void, and the blood dripping from the metal floor into that void.*

*Lilac, dead serious in her offer to leave and dead set on not leaving you here, walks up to the strange interdimensional hole, crouches down, and, grasping the edge of the new apparition, thrusts her blood-smeared arm into the rift to prove the truth in her words. Then she draws it forth, unscathed, and sits back up to prove the safety of her new creation.*

Please, please, I can't, I'm sorry- nonononono-

[He doesn't even seem to register anything else past the glowing white void, and he barely looks at that, keeping it in his peripheral as he weakly shoves himself away, muttering frantically in that hoarse, wet tone.]

*Your prayer makes Lilac pause from her mission of trying to convince you to go in the glowing hole in the ground. It matches, phrase for phrase, one that Lilac has known for years, but with many of the words changed out with new ones about plants, of all things. If you were to look at her, you would see her mouth moving wordlessly along, listening to you, with a confused look on her face.*

Where did you… uh… what’s all that mean?

...thy Grove come, thy will be done, in stars as it art in soil...

*Fortunately for you, you and Lilac want the exact same thing. Deep in her soul, Lilac wants you to live. Her own survival isn’t something she needs to worry about, she can leave whenever she wants. Her only goal is to try and get you out of here, and to take you to somewhere safe. That is all that she has been trying to do, in the only way that she knows how to.*

*Unfortunately for Lilac, you clearly do not know this, and she cannot tell if there’s any way to make it clear to you. It’s dark, and the ocean gurgles ominously outside the submarine. Lilac begins to question something that she really does not want to do.*

*You’re sick and injured enough that she could simply open a portal right under you, and you would fall through and probably wouldn’t be able to fight back against it. It would work, she knows it would, but it would also make you so much more scared. If there was any trust at all between you and her, it would be gone, but at the same time you couldn’t wait around here in the evil tin can for much longer.*

*And then, something falls through this hole, and it closes sharply behind them, taking the light and the air with it. You can tell that this is a person, not very tall. They hit the floor of the submarine hard.*

Ow— OH FUCK WHY IS THE FLOOR SLIMY? EW EW EW WHERE AM I—?

*Your radio cracks with static as the stranger scrambles to sit up, and look around them. You can see now that they aren’t very old, maybe sixteen. They wear glasses and have a small, glowing device in their hand.*

Oh yeah, I got my coordinates way off…

*In the middle of their sentence, they see you.*

Oh hi, sir… sorry about this….

Ffffuck-!

Shit, I’m real sorry… my name’s Lilac, I didn’t mean to scare you, sir. And I’m sorry for cussing, too. I didn’t kick you, did I?

*Lilac creeps closer, afraid to scare you but also trying to see you better. She hears the hiss of pain.*

Hey, are you hurt? Can I see? I can help, maybe, or I know people who can....

*Lilac moves back to give you some space, sitting on her knees and unsure what to do. She can’t just leave you here, would that be fucked up or what, but she’s clearly going to have to earn your trust.*

*Upon glancing around herself, Lilac realizes that she can’t see much of anything. Your huddled form, and her hands, and some nondescript shadows that all swim together in the darkness. And if she can’t see, then you probably can’t, either.*

I’m gonna take out my flashlight, okay? It’s really dark.

*You hear rustling, and in a few moments, a light sprouts from the back of a device in Lilac’s hand. You can see Lilac better now, and if you were to encounter her in a normal situation, she would not be threatening at all. There is concern in her eyes, but she makes no further movement towards you.*

*She glances down at the ground, and in the better light can see the answer to her question of why the ground is slimy.*

Y-Yes.

[He croaks, his voice raw and hoarse, like he's been crying or screaming or both. It's hard to see under the blood, but his eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot, so both is possible. He sounds distant, like he's not really aware of the words that leave his mouth, just entertaining the phantom of his own mind.]

*Being able to see the state you're in only serves to make her more worried, it seems. She stands up and begins to pace the submarine, her light sweeping across the walls like a lighthouse's beacon as she taps at something on the device's screen.*

So this is the blood ocean dimension, huh...?

*She stops, and looks at you.*

Butcher.

[He says first, faintly, the word slipping out of his mouth like he didn't mean to say it, it just happened. The next name he says is a little stronger, a little more aware, but he's still looking through Lilac instead of at her, his dark eyes glinting red when they catch the light. He repeats it a couple times once he says it, but whether it's just for emphasis or because he himself was on the verge of forgetting it is indecipherable.]

Okay, uh… nice to meet you, Mr. Simon.

*Lilac goes to bite her stubby thumbnail, a nervous habit that is very quickly halted by the taste of mystery blood on her hands.*

yech…

An' then the Rapture.

Yeah, right... Sorry, I forgot.

M'in a blood ocean. Pr'sure I'm dead. Saw God. You... s'not so crazy.

*It takes her a second to fish all of the words out of your mumbles.*

Hey. Uh, look at me.

*Something in what you’ve said, or in the weakening tone of your voice, has made Lilac dead serious. She can’t wait any longer, and without thinking about it reaches out and touches you again, hand resting very softly on your leg.*

S-Stop it, please...

*Lilac scrambles back from you, no longer touching you, but if she holds any understanding of the exact reason for your distress, she does not show it. Instead, she is back on her feet, plucking her glowing device from the air and poking away at the screen until a portal-like apparition opens on the floor, similar to the one the child fell through.*

*Now, you can see the portal better. More cool air emits steadily from it, along with enough light to illuminate the submarine. You cannot see far into the portal where you sit, just a line of white void, and the blood dripping from the metal floor into that void.*

*Lilac, dead serious in her offer to leave and dead set on not leaving you here, walks up to the strange interdimensional hole, crouches down, and, grasping the edge of the new apparition, thrusts her blood-smeared arm into the rift to prove the truth in her words. Then she draws it forth, unscathed, and sits back up to prove the safety of her new creation.*

Please, please, I can't, I'm sorry- nonononono-

[He doesn't even seem to register anything else past the glowing white void, and he barely looks at that, keeping it in his peripheral as he weakly shoves himself away, muttering frantically in that hoarse, wet tone.]

*Your prayer makes Lilac pause from her mission of trying to convince you to go in the glowing hole in the ground. It matches, phrase for phrase, one that Lilac has known for years, but with many of the words changed out with new ones about plants, of all things. If you were to look at her, you would see her mouth moving wordlessly along, listening to you, with a confused look on her face.*

Where did you… uh… what’s all that mean?

...thy Grove come, thy will be done, in stars as it art in soil...

*Fortunately for you, you and Lilac want the exact same thing. Deep in her soul, Lilac wants you to live. Her own survival isn’t something she needs to worry about, she can leave whenever she wants. Her only goal is to try and get you out of here, and to take you to somewhere safe. That is all that she has been trying to do, in the only way that she knows how to.*

*Unfortunately for Lilac, you clearly do not know this, and she cannot tell if there’s any way to make it clear to you. It’s dark, and the ocean gurgles ominously outside the submarine. Lilac begins to question something that she really does not want to do.*

*You’re sick and injured enough that she could simply open a portal right under you, and you would fall through and probably wouldn’t be able to fight back against it. It would work, she knows it would, but it would also make you so much more scared. If there was any trust at all between you and her, it would be gone, but at the same time you couldn’t wait around here in the evil tin can for much longer.*

*And then, something falls through this hole, and it closes sharply behind them, taking the light and the air with it. You can tell that this is a person, not very tall. They hit the floor of the submarine hard.*

Ow— OH FUCK WHY IS THE FLOOR SLIMY? EW EW EW WHERE AM I—?

*Your radio cracks with static as the stranger scrambles to sit up, and look around them. You can see now that they aren’t very old, maybe sixteen. They wear glasses and have a small, glowing device in their hand.*

Oh yeah, I got my coordinates way off…

*In the middle of their sentence, they see you.*

Oh hi, sir… sorry about this….

Ffffuck-!

Shit, I’m real sorry… my name’s Lilac, I didn’t mean to scare you, sir. And I’m sorry for cussing, too. I didn’t kick you, did I?

*Lilac creeps closer, afraid to scare you but also trying to see you better. She hears the hiss of pain.*

Hey, are you hurt? Can I see? I can help, maybe, or I know people who can....

*Lilac moves back to give you some space, sitting on her knees and unsure what to do. She can’t just leave you here, would that be fucked up or what, but she’s clearly going to have to earn your trust.*

*Upon glancing around herself, Lilac realizes that she can’t see much of anything. Your huddled form, and her hands, and some nondescript shadows that all swim together in the darkness. And if she can’t see, then you probably can’t, either.*

I’m gonna take out my flashlight, okay? It’s really dark.

*You hear rustling, and in a few moments, a light sprouts from the back of a device in Lilac’s hand. You can see Lilac better now, and if you were to encounter her in a normal situation, she would not be threatening at all. There is concern in her eyes, but she makes no further movement towards you.*

*She glances down at the ground, and in the better light can see the answer to her question of why the ground is slimy.*

Y-Yes.

[He croaks, his voice raw and hoarse, like he's been crying or screaming or both. It's hard to see under the blood, but his eyes are red-rimmed and bloodshot, so both is possible. He sounds distant, like he's not really aware of the words that leave his mouth, just entertaining the phantom of his own mind.]

*Being able to see the state you're in only serves to make her more worried, it seems. She stands up and begins to pace the submarine, her light sweeping across the walls like a lighthouse's beacon as she taps at something on the device's screen.*

So this is the blood ocean dimension, huh...?

*She stops, and looks at you.*

Butcher.

[He says first, faintly, the word slipping out of his mouth like he didn't mean to say it, it just happened. The next name he says is a little stronger, a little more aware, but he's still looking through Lilac instead of at her, his dark eyes glinting red when they catch the light. He repeats it a couple times once he says it, but whether it's just for emphasis or because he himself was on the verge of forgetting it is indecipherable.]

Okay, uh… nice to meet you, Mr. Simon.

*Lilac goes to bite her stubby thumbnail, a nervous habit that is very quickly halted by the taste of mystery blood on her hands.*

yech…

An' then the Rapture.

Yeah, right... Sorry, I forgot.

M'in a blood ocean. Pr'sure I'm dead. Saw God. You... s'not so crazy.

*It takes her a second to fish all of the words out of your mumbles.*

Hey. Uh, look at me.

*Something in what you’ve said, or in the weakening tone of your voice, has made Lilac dead serious. She can’t wait any longer, and without thinking about it reaches out and touches you again, hand resting very softly on your leg.*

S-Stop it, please...

*Lilac scrambles back from you, no longer touching you, but if she holds any understanding of the exact reason for your distress, she does not show it. Instead, she is back on her feet, plucking her glowing device from the air and poking away at the screen until a portal-like apparition opens on the floor, similar to the one the child fell through.*

*Now, you can see the portal better. More cool air emits steadily from it, along with enough light to illuminate the submarine. You cannot see far into the portal where you sit, just a line of white void, and the blood dripping from the metal floor into that void.*

*Lilac, dead serious in her offer to leave and dead set on not leaving you here, walks up to the strange interdimensional hole, crouches down, and, grasping the edge of the new apparition, thrusts her blood-smeared arm into the rift to prove the truth in her words. Then she draws it forth, unscathed, and sits back up to prove the safety of her new creation.*

Please, please, I can't, I'm sorry- nonononono-

[He doesn't even seem to register anything else past the glowing white void, and he barely looks at that, keeping it in his peripheral as he weakly shoves himself away, muttering frantically in that hoarse, wet tone.]

*Your prayer makes Lilac pause from her mission of trying to convince you to go in the glowing hole in the ground. It matches, phrase for phrase, one that Lilac has known for years, but with many of the words changed out with new ones about plants, of all things. If you were to look at her, you would see her mouth moving wordlessly along, listening to you, with a confused look on her face.*

Where did you… uh… what’s all that mean?