#escension

they’ve been left to their own devices in the city of tears, with ghost mentioning something about visiting a friend, and hornet having business elsewhere as well. as much as they adore their siblings, it is nice to have some time alone. given where they’ve ended up, however, they almost wish they weren’t alone. 

they remember posing for the statue, but they never got to see it’s completion; seeing it here has caught them a bit off guard. they play with the fringe on their new cloak, thinking. 

this is a monument to their failure, yes, and it serves as a painful reminder of how much has been lost because of it. but...at the same time, it is a monument to their suffering. how brave and noble of the empty hollow knight, to hold the sun in their hands and burn so that the rest of the world could sleep soundly, so that pale light would be the only light that shone upon hallownest.

answered: @escension

Oof. That hits. Sonic winces apologetically and slows his pace. He hadn’t meant to ignore Cream, he just didn’t know what to say to her. This whole ordeal’s been stressful for even the strongest of them, and seeing her own mother turn into a Zombot...? That must have been pretty traumatic for a girl her age, even if her mom was back to normal now. 

Sonic stops in place, bends his knees as he stoops down closer to her level.

el em aye oh

     They stare at the nail in their hands curiously. They are still new to this, still learning how to hold themself among the polished stone and steel of the Palace. ( It is a bad sign, to be curious, or to need to learn how to do anything. They have a purpose, and it should come naturally. ) And yet what is the point? Would there be something to defend themself from? It’s hard to imagine any kind of harm befalling them within this pristine white walls. ( Their fate looms ever-closer behind their back. They do not look at it. They will not look at it. )

     The Vessel looks back up to the Great Knight, the nail a heavy weight in their palms. How do they hold it, how do they wield it? What is the purpose of it; how will it help them achieve their goal? 

     Hornet isn’t sure what she’s doing here. Rare is it that she strays into Dirtmouth, and rarer still does she engage the townsfolk in conversation. But one thing had led to another, and this strange shopkeeper seemed to carry more than his fair share of secrets. 

     Nice? Hornet is immediately torn between two options; one being of course she’s nice, and the other being the exact opposite; she isn’t nice at all. Her nature is of a fluid, flexible sort; she clutches the inner child of herself close to her chest and locks it away, safe in the cracks of her carapace. This corpse of a kingdom would not afford her any kindness, nor she it. 

     And this vessel. . . Such a strange one. She has vague, fuzzy memories of it tailing after her somewhere in Greenpath, following a trail she didn’t even mean to weave, and then, after a point, it seemed they had gotten bored, and now found a much. . . Stranger pastime. 

     She frowns to herself, leaning down to pull her needle from where it had lodged into the dirt. What was it that prompted her to cancel her own attack. . . ? Hornet had mistaken them for a mosscreep, at first, and though she’s not in the habit of attacking such lowly creatures, she had been rather startled. Such is the way of anyone with more battles on their belt than joints on their body. . . In any case, she had naturally been dumbfounded, and perhaps it’s this bafflement that gave the vessel the impression of her being nice.

Well met, my friend. Well met. / @ ingrid from seliph 

“seliph!” the summoner exclaimed as the glow from the summoning ritual faded, revealing their friend. a bright grin broke out onto their face- it was always a surprise, who’d be called to askr, but today it was a good surprise. 

“oh, it’s been ages- how’ve you been?” ingrid asked, bouncing on their feet before giving into their urge to hug seliph- just a quick, bone crushing one before they let him go. it really had been ages, hadn’t it? seliph had left for home just before the war with múspell began, which was two years ago now. ingrid couldn’t tell if it’d been that long for him, but he did seem a little older, a little stronger, and...maybe a little tired? gods knows they were.

giving him a pat on the arm, they added, “that’s a snazzy new outfit, by the way.”