#goodmode

the hollow knight doesn't know what to make of it. the sun is--a nightmare, if/when visible. deeply unsettling, still. they didn't know it was real, that place. the sky. not a dream, where up is endless and the ceiling is not, carving and shifting and moving itself with wind that does not reach the ground. they have little reason to look upwards, anyway, and so avoid it.

...perhaps the stars in the dark are...the least strange state of above. a blanket of darkness without overpowering brightness or overwhelming motion.

hornet doesn't have terribly strong opinions. she was similarly disturbed to hollow the first few times she saw it, and is absolutely suspicious of the sun's heat and light if that becomes a thing, but otherwise it's just. kind of there. she doesn't like wide open spaces where she can't use her needle and thread to swing, and places with much sky visible tends to be very much that.

Hi!

Yes! Here: https://discord.com/invite/3unedtXv

I am a numpty. I put the link in the image, intending to also put a 'plain text' one in too, got distracted, didn't, and hit post. Sorry 😅️

ascended babysitter by goodmode

it took them quiiite a while to figure out. like. societal rules. wandering the wastes teaches you to be brutal, not understanding.

eventually, though! they were quiet and managed to sneak into places and mostly go unnoticed, and that's how they figured out how rules worked. for a little while they followed all the rules, including body language and the like and trying to communicate their thoughts, but that still got misinterpreted and ignored or treated hostilely anyway oftentimes, so they just kinda. quit. lol.

(not lol. it was very exhausting.)

tl;dr: how™️

she's not good with anyone being gentle to her. she's so used to taking care of herself and hallownest's corpse, anyone being gentle or kind or trying to openly lessen her burden or whatever would be read wrongly as condescending. that'd take a lot of unlearning.

♫

in the end, the pale king truly didn't know what he was doing with void.

he made his moulds. he made the vessels. he chose his hollow knight. he sealed it away, or tried.

he didn't know of shades. those came later, after the abyss was shut and his light was gone, letting the little fragments of those short, short lives gather themselves, feel their grief, feel their horror, feel their fury--there was so little but there was more, wasn't there? isn't there?

the lighthouse goes out.

the shades rise. just a few, instinctively floating and searching, though they would forget what for. that didn't matter. the whole of the abyss has cracks where roots grew, where channels were worn. even the pale king couldn't inspect every inch, particularly when the darkness left his foresight blind.

the void doesn't care about physics. the spaces are small, the shades become smaller.

on top of the Infection, the people of Hallownest and around it are suddenly inundated by ghosts. ones easy to strike down, but clearly lost spirits.

of the dead by the affliction? there are guesses. some panic and that's how their easy dissolution is discovered.

others, though, invite them in. they don't look like their own loved ones, but who knows the mysteries of the dead? or perhaps they're others' dead, still finding their way. they can offer shelter before they move on, if they choose to.

and when the pale king learns of this...

there is little he can do. he sends out warnings that spending time with them can cause another sickness. (this is mostly ignored by those who took them in. what else is there to lose? what could be worse than watching their friends, family, neighbors, figureheads liquifying and burning sick-sweet from the inside out?)

the guards and knights are stretched thin already. he tells them kill on sight. they won't succeed with most kept hidden by his people, and he knows this. on sight, not on search. he has enough problems on his hands. (he doesn't know how this is possible. he doesn't want to handle this. he will focus on his work and his pure vessel and keeping the world from burning down before he has time for addressing prior...costs. and guilt.)

but they won't stay forever, those shades. they don't.

they have something to find.