Pretty bones

Sunken eye, hollow.

To be a hollow is essentially, to feel empty all the time. A being devoid of a true will to live, replaced instead by the desperate desire to survive. To be a hollow is to eat, eat and eat and still feel the bottomless pit of pure void where your heart is supposed to be. To be a hollow is to hurt people and never feel remorse about it, because what was once a beating compassionate heart was now an endless feeling of cruel apathy and the desire to devour until the emptiness faded. And the heart, despite not existing, still aches and cracks and hurts, and it feels the pain of being left in the cold to rot by the ones who should’ve been there to save you.

At least that was what Grimmjow believed.

Neliel would say that it's not like that and that there is joy in being a hollow; have a pack who you can count in and a mate you'll forever share a meaningful bond with, hunting alongside your friends, enjoy the endless time you'll have to be with the people you love and some other fairytale-like bullshit.

Halibel would say that while there is a lot of suffering and endless distress, there is still a lot to value about being a hollow. She would say that her time as an Espada taught her the true value of the strength she has as an Arrancar, because she wouldn’t able to protect her people otherwise. She'd say the emptiness is significantly more bearable when you have a pack you care about and has a duty to keep them safe so they could to the same to you.

Grimmjow can somewhat agree with her; when he had his own pack, his life in Hueco Mundo didn't feel so boring and meaningless, he had a pack to provide for and actually had to find ways to keep the rabid assholes entertained somehow. They accompanied him to his dumb missions Aizen sent him so the burden of being a shinigami's little puppet became easier to carry, because at least he still had those weirdos to make him laugh when they annoyed each other while he tracked down any Vasto Lordes in the distance so Aizen could expand his little hollow army.

He tried not to think about how he was the one that lead them to their deaths when he had been an irresponsible leader looking for a quick adrenaline rush just because he didn't feel like respecting a shinigami's authority. He would never admit it, but sometimes seeing Halibel's fraccion pissing each other off in a daily basis reminded him of what he could still have had he been not so damn immature. The piercing guilt he felt in his gut ever since that night was also something he would never ever have the wits to admit out loud.

Alas, the three of them could at the very least agree on something: Hollows crave.

Each one of them have their own wants and desires, Neliel said once she constantly craved for affection; she always tried to show as much affection as she could towards anyone she might have a close bond with -Including Grimmjow, who had mixed feelings about the whole ordeal- and kind of expected the same in turn. Halibel had also confessed she craved for the feeling of safety and peace. It was one of the reasons she had made a perfect leader; she would do absolutely anything if it meant the peace in Hueco Mundo would remain. Bargaining with old shinigami men whose only concerns in life was having their names on some stupid record so their sons would be respected by other stupid shinigami, requesting the help of Vizards on the rebuilding of Las Noches just because one of them happened to know a lot about kidou or even making a deal with Urahara Kisuke so they could cross dimensions safely. She did it all, and so much more just so she could secure they would all leave in peace.

As for Grimmjow?

He genuinely didn't know.

It wasn't like he desperately needed something right now. Most times a good bloody fight scratched the itch of being empty all the time. He didn't have a secret deep desire of something, like the warmth of a lover's embrace or whatever romantic bullshit Neliel’s collection of human literature had fed her.