#akira scribbles

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As Dryya approached the heart of her Lady's gardens, she flicked a hand dismissively at the guards outside, waiting until they had walked a good distance before entering the gazebo.

This wasn't a conversation for anyone else's ears.

The White Lady looked up from the small potted plant she was tending, eyes crinkling softly at the sight of her personal Knight.

"Ser Dryya, I have so missed you. I do hope nothing particularly bad happened during the attack on the sanctum? You were vague in your letter that stated you would be delayed in your return."

Dryya sighed softly and cleared her throat more audibly, bowing her head to her Lady.

"That is correct. What occurred was not information I wanted to risk being known to any messengers nosier than their sense of self preservation," She sniffed, "The raid itself concluded fine. No more experiments will be conducted, and the leaders have all been imprisoned, awaiting trial and likely execution, if I interpreted His Majesty's tone right."

She paused to let the Lady think, continuing only when she nodded, waiting for the true reason her Knight was held up.

"But...it did not go particularly smoothly. The Pure Vessel was all but fatally wounded during the attack," The White Lady's breath hitched at that- subtle as it was.

She did not like to show or think it, but for even as much as she was disgusted by the corpse wearing her child's shell, she did not completely loathe it. There was some care, there.

Of course, now they knew the vessel as not simply an unthinking husk. What fools, they had been. Dryya wished to spare her Lady this news, not when the plan had been hard enough on her as is- but that was not her decision to make, and it was the lady's right to know furthermore.

"It is currently stable and barely out of bed again. I did not want to return until I had confirmation one way or the other- did not want to leave you unsure when I could simply wait to see if it succumbed or healed, first. I ask you to forgive me for my prudence."

The Lady relaxed at that (And Dryya nearly winced, for her next sentence would shatter that peace even further), breathing out, "I am glad, then. What wounds did it sustain? Do they interfere with my Wyrm's plan?"

(Always his plan, no matter her part in it. Dryya was hard pressed to judge the Lady too harshly, for as close as she was, but she was complicit, as much as she hated to admit).

"The main cause of its wounds was due to lacking information of its properties- apparently, the Void conducts electricity," She spoke wryly, frustrated with the King's lack of sharing something that nearly killed his child, "One of its horns fractured off in its collapse after being hit by some caster, and it lost an arm to one of the follies lurking around while convulsing before we could help it."

The expression on her Lady's face was almost indescribable, but Dryya thought, personally, it was something akin to grief.

"Right as we were able to reach it, it was stabbed through to its back by a scholar. Lasting damage wise, the outcome is bad," She paused for a minute to let the White Lady absorb the information, lowering her gaze to not have to confront the sheer worry and concern there.

"His Majesty does not believe the arm recoverable, but has high hopes for future prothesis. It still seems to be having issues breathing properly due to its chest wounds, but it is better than before and no longer sounds like there is fluid in its lungs. The horn...there is something wrong with its spatial awareness. It is often confused over simple directions and struggles to hold itself straight for long."

Another large dump of words for her Lady, but necessary.

The goddesses' eyes were faintly misty as she asked, softly, "Will the sealing be delayed a few more months to give it ample time to heal? I can imagine even a construct might struggle with these wounds."

And the lump was back in Dryya's throat- she had not even realized there had been a lump until it had both gone and returned.

"The sealing has been called off, my Lady."

The White Lady's eyes widened and she evidently nearly gasped in surprise, but Dryya did not let her finish.

"Soon after it was recovered from the sanctum to heal, it...expressed fear, when the King believed it believed to be dying. It clung to him and cried, completely unbidden."

The mist in the Lady's eyes fully condensed at that, tears dripping out as she whispered, "No..."

Dryya bowed her head fully, "It is impure, my Lady. Somehow, a mind has been present all along."

And as her Lady sobbed, she stood nearby as a solid presence, wishing she could console her grief.

It was no surprise, though, when after what could have been hours of silent guarding and comfort, her Lady stood, slowly pulling her nestled roots out of the gazebo's dirt floor.

i dont wanna ramble too much into it but he looks very weird because hes a product of very fucky hybridization. wild eastern dragons dont have wings, and whatever scientist in charge wanted to change that. so hes got griffin in the lineage a few generations back. the jist of the au is that fantasy creatures exist in the normal world but theyre very hush. but also sold underground. so kuusuke of course goes there to acquire a pet who is eventually discovered to be sapient and becomes a brother.

despite the wings he's fightless without using his abilities. like i said, poorly thought out hybridization was what went on. his bones are too dense to actually fly on wings, and these ones aren't even big enough in the first place.

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They hadn’t even managed to fully emerge from their room into the gleaming hall of the palace before a voice caught their attention with a startling fashion.

“Ah, there you are! I was beginning to think you’d sleep all day!”

Considering they were still blinking off the last few dregs of sleep combined with some rather strong painkillers, Hollow flinched back in surprise as they jerked their head towards the speaker- a lone palace retainer standing beside their doorway at…not that far after sunrise, to be honest. They spoke as if Hollow had slept for an inordinate amount of time, though before, this would have been a very late time for the vessel to awaken.

The blasted tail attached to its body twitched with the first pang of confusion through its mind- their mind. As far as Hollow knew, they had not been assigned a personal retainer like a few bugs who resided in the palace had. They did not know if that would change, for that was up to their parents, though they did not particularly care for one. Movement impeded by a missing forelimb or not, they could take care of themselves just fine alone.

Regardless, they spread their mandibles wide enough so that they clicked when brought back to strike against their jaw, carefully spelling out the words they wanted to say. They had only begun learning deepspeech a few days ago, and so far did not know many actual words, merely the alphabet. But, while slow, it allowed for some communication.

The native tongue of Deepnest was picked for their communication for its focus on clicking and tapping out words, something easy to accomplish for a creature both mute and quadrupedal (and missing a forelimb to boot, making most forms of sign language barely accessible).

(They felt something warm that could have been happiness when they considered the topic of learning the native language of their baby sister. It was hers and now it was theirs).

“Hi. W-h-a-t-”

“Anyways, now that you’re here, I want you to sit for me, vessel,” The retainer interrupted, talking as if they didn’t even realize Hollow was trying to communicate in the first place (…Which wasn’t that far out of the question considering deepspeech wasn’t exactly commonly spoken in Hallownest, and was only being taught to residents of the palace to allow them to communicate with Hollow, specifically).

But-

It- They-

What?

Their body remained perfectly still even as their mind stumbled and struggled to process what it had heard, paying no mind the actual clarity with which the words had been registered by their senses.

They were not supposed to be the vessel anymore. They did not want to be. They were told that was okay, even. The light the vessel was supposed to contain was now dead and left to be forgotten, their wounds a testament to that, so there was not even a need for a Pure Vessel anymore. Yet-

Had something changed? Had they missed something in the short frame they had slumbered? Why-?

“You must not have heard me properly. Pure Vessel, I command you to sit.”

Its haunches lowered to the ground and it found itself sitting only moments after the words were spoken, staring attentively at the retainer.

Their breath hitched slightly once they realized how readily they’d obeyed. Not even a split second hesitation like they endured before speaking most times. Gods, was it any wonder their brief time as an actual person, as their father’s child, had abruptly come to an end? They were better suited for their old purpose.

…No, they needed to cut that train of thought off now. They weren’t the Hollow Knight anymore, just Hollow who happened to be receiving a long overdue knighting ceremony. Just Hollow, now a wyrm just like their father and technically heir proper (Not a true heir; their parents would have to die for that to mean anything, and gods with strong health and many followers did not tend to die unless they wanted to).

Just-

“Good, you haven’t lost your obedience the way you lost that much more convenient body.”

The words of the palace retainer forced their thoughts to halt and their head to bow as a fresh wave of shamed anxiety shot through their body.

But it did not let itself get lost in thought again. It sat still and merely stared at the retainer, waiting for its next set of directions.

The bug clad in pristine white robes stepped over to where it sat in the entrance of its room, humming as they reached to grab onto the risen hood of its strikingly vibrant, red cloak in their hands. A cloak so big that it draped enough to cover the large wings on its back, and yet they decided to use a part right next to its head instead of anywhere else for examination, tugging against the buttons that kept it fastened around its horns.

The pulsing urge to snap its terribly fanged jaws to the side and rip that arm right off was strong enough to cause its head to twitch slightly. That was their gifted cloak, their possession, their cloak, made just for them by Queen Herrah-

But it did not. It did not even turn its head to look. It sat still and listened.

“I think I’ll keep the cloak on you. Not nearly as regal as your armor and cape used to be, but anything is better than those unsightly injuries beneath!” The retainer chuckled as they backed away, gaze bordering on something like disapproval.

Disapproval that made it want to skitter back into its room and sit behind the door so that no bug could enter.

But it did not. It sat still.

“Come with me now. I am in need of a guard for myself and a few others for a function in the capital, and what better guard for a bug of my status than the Pure Vessel itself, changed or no?”

The vessel watched as the retainer walked off into the hallway, and when it first attempted to follow, its body jerked forward but failed to get up.

It did not make the same mistake twice. Its next attempt left it successfully lumbering after the retainer as it was led down a staircase to presumably exit the palace.

It almost lost its footing only a few steps in; this was only the fifth time it had used stairs since its most recent…molt left it no longer bipedal. This was only the third time time since it had lost what would have been an arm had this change not occurred.

This was the first time it did not once actually lose its footing and tumble painfully down. It made it to the bottom, albeit slowly and trembling more than before when it reached the floor.

…Why was it trembling? It was just following orders like it was supposed to.

No matter. It was to focus on the retainer leading it to where they needed it to go. That was its only priority.

Light brighter than the persistent glow of the palace already had in the corner of the eye it could still see out of immediately became its priority seconds later, and it was unable to stop itself from snapping its head over to the source.

That was the King. That was their father-

It snapped its attention back to the retainer fast enough that it could only pray its slip up had not been noticed by either party (Pray to whom? The god it was praying to have avoided in the first place?).

The sound of his numerous footfalls halted not a beat later, though, and the vessel knew its own limping stride was not capable of drowning it out to that degree. He had stopped.

He had noticed.

“Hollow, would you come with me? I have something to show you,” Came his unexpected voice, forcing their head to twist right back to his direction.

In what could only be described as an undignified, desperate scramble, it swiftly made its way to its fathers side, quivering as it fought to avoid its gaze for reasons it could not place. Unlike before, this lack of hesitation brought forward a traitorous feeling of relief.

“I do hope that you did not need them for anything important, for they will be unavailable for the next while,” He addressed to the retainer, and though their head was bowed, they were far taller than him even like this and could easily see how he shifted to face them.

“A-ah! No, no worries, it wasn’t! I just asked if they’d be willing to help me move some heavy furniture, but I can find someone else!”

…They were lying straight to the face of the Pale King. Hollow couldn’t stop the flood of sheer indignance on his behalf at their audacity. Why would they not tell the truth? Did-

Did that mean that they weren’t the vessel again? Was the King not supposed to know they had been ordered such? He…

…was facing them now. They met his gaze, resisting the urge to flee back to their room as his eyes narrowed in…contemplation? Anger? Disappointment? They had hardly learned how to read their own emotions, let alone others-

“I see. Hollow, is that what they asked you to do?”

…He was asking them for what happened. The prospect, let alone actually being asked as much, broke the slight reverie they’d fallen into. Evidently, things had not reverted back to before.

They flicked their gaze at the retainer, who was fidgeting with the sleeves of their robe.

They flicked it back to their father, who was watching expectantly.

And then they opened their jaws to click out the needed words.

“Go-to p-a-r-t-y. O-r-d-e-r-e-d f-o-l-l-o-w. G-u-a-r-d.”

Despite merely explaining the actual, truthful story, they still shook as if they had just lied as egregiously as the other bug…though maybe that was also because their remaining forelimb was beginning to ache as painfully as the one that wasn’t there somehow did.

Their father sighed and immediately faced the retainer, who Hollow didn’t dare glance at as they waited for the tense moment of silence to pass. Their tail threatened to break the silence with how it twitched against the floor, annoyingly, though.

“Right. Why don’t you go find your mother in the palace’s gardens and take your breakfast with her? Tell her I will be preoccupied for the next while,” Was what he settled on saying at last, and Hollow didn’t spare a second glance before turning to leave with his permission.

Breakfast sounded nice. Being anywhere else sounded even nicer.

“Come with me. Clearly, you have ignored some of the recent changes within the White Palace, and I take pleasure in properly enlightening you on them.”