Vessels and Tears (Archived Version)

Year Past

Why had you agreed to this? What in your RIGHT MIND made you think this was a good idea? You stood there, balancing on the tip of your spear while your siblings stood around you like some kind of cult and chanted "Go Rift, go Rift, go Rift!" You held your balance, standing on one foot and using your arms to balance. Your parents had left their troublesome teenagers in the care of *literally anyone who could look after them at the palace* so they could go have some alone time (oh no) and those people were failing their job.

Ghost had fit in pretty well with the rest of your crazy asses. It took all year for them to warm up to you all, but now they had chosen He/Him pronouns and helped around with the chaos and mayhem you and your siblings were dead set on making. Yes, an entire year had passed. An entire year since you kicked your uncles ass. Damn.

You continued to focus on not falling over like a wuss and your siblings were highly amused by your willingness to do ANY shit they dared you to do. At this point, you were slowly losing what sanity you had because of it.

You had also almost forgotten your original name and life. It had stopped mattering to you the moment that you killed Pha'Talo. This was your home. This would forever be your home. You and your chaotic family and mentally deranged friends. All was well. Life was good. You wouldnt trade it for anything.

You fell over and your face was introduced to the ground. Your siblings all began laughing silently at you and your spear landed on top of you gracefully. You sat up and readjusted your scarf, picking up your spear and swearing at them. Mom had made you all identical scarves in different colors and Flower liked the idea so much that she convinced Mom to make it a permanent change. And so, the scarf gang was born.

You called yourselves the scarf gang for that reason and that reason alone. Other than the scarves, not much changed. Everything was back to as normal as it could be when you were a vessel, your friends are literally the most powerful people in the kingdom, and there were not one, but THREE gods wandering around, two of which were your parents.

Speaking of gods, Radi had tried so hard to get you to not suck at fighting a spear. The brittish moth felt it necessary to teach you and shit against your will. Well, at first it was against your will. Now you actually liked Thursdays. Radi told you stories and such after beating you to a pulp ever so politely.

The five were also the same. Well, sorta. Dryya was apparently more deeply hurt about the whole "Getting-Kidnapped-and-Hell-Knows-What-Else" thing. She was a little more skittish around strangers and tried to avoid the subject as much as possible. Hegemol was highly protective over her as well and thats was basically all that changed. Isma was still innocent (some how), Ogrim was still loud and Ze'mer was still as french as possible.

So that was that. Life was good. What else was there to it? Evol walked in on you trying to stab Flower and he stole Flower from the group and took her away. He really liked Flower for some reason. Like, to the point where he may as well adopt her. You were only mildly salty about it-

You and your siblings got bored soon thereafter and went to go find something else to do. Maybe go to the library? You all had been avoiding the Library as of late after you burned the "History of Hallownest" book. Turns out that it was snuck into the place with inside help and left specifically for you. Pha'Talo being the bitch he is had put a spell on it so that he could access your mindscape without needing to see you himself. How nice of him. Collector had gotten super mad about it either way, claiming that it was ethically wrong to burn literature, even if its cursed. While normally you would agree, you had to get rid of it somehow. You and your siblings hurried along, racing each other to see who could get there the fastest.

Broken took the lead, jumping over Evol and Flower on his way out. Hollow grabbed your hand and you both ran after him, with Ghost and Flower (who had left Evol) chasing right after. Hollow refused to break hands, but lead you down a shortcut you never realized was there. You both jumped down some stairs, running past some servants and Ze'mer.

Broken got there first, out of breath and giggling like a madman. You and Hollow were second and Flower was third, leaving Ghost as fourth. You pushed open the door and the warm glow of the light filtering through the windows greeted you. You heard two familiar voiced chatting and followed them until you found their sources. Isma had volunteered to help Collector with reorganizing today and she had actually gone through with it.

"Hm? Oh hi kiddos!" Collector greeted, smiling at the five of you. You waved and Isma smiled too. "Do you want to help us?" She asked, and Flower nodded aggressively. She didnt even ask for your opinion. What an asshat.

Isma handed you all a stack of books and told you were to put them. You were to help Isma directly while the others went to other bookshelves. As you began your task, you noticed that Collector was giving the female plant thing a weird look. You found this amusing, as he was usually the one getting weird looks-

"Whats wrong? You look pale." Isma snapped out of a trance and blinked, confused. "What? Oh nothing, just not feeling to well." Collector looked skeptical but went back to organizing. You were only half listening, as you had some really... interesting things to put away. The books you were putting away were about murder mysteries and how to solve them.

You listened to the two converse for a while before you get bored and decided that you had done enough volentold work today and went to fetch your siblings from where they were.

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The sun shown brightly, but it definitely didn't match her mood. Then of course, when was the sun NOT shining? The bloody sun and moon never stopped fighting for hell's sake!

She breathed a sigh, trying not to get any more pissed and sad than she already was. Today was the day. The long, sad day where she had to say goodbye to the only things that mattered to her. Her husband and daughter. Despite the fact she knew that they were safer where they were now, deep underground, she could help but feel that she had made a bad decision in sending them to her sisters land, where none of those God awful warriors, archivers, and selfish mafia members could get them.

When she said "them" she really meant her daughter. She was in so much danger here it was ridiculous. The lonely mother walked over to the edge of the floating island she lived and and say down, feet hanging over the edge. She swung them and stared into the void below. Even after living there her entire life, she could never figure out how any time she fell off or jumped off, she just teleported back to where she was moments ago. It was frustrating for someone who just wanted it all to end, but she was sure that there was a reason. Was it because she was a higher being?

She heard a twig snap behind her and she turned around, seeing Nalu wandering her way. She smiled at the Nosk and held out her hand, coaxing it forward so she could pet the small creature. It purred as it leaned into her hand and she smiled watching it's child, Bean come racing after it's mother. It ran right into it's parent and Nalu, taking the form of Shadow, picked up the tiny creature in her non existent mouth.

Then of course, Nalu never went anywhere without Sibling, so she was probably here too if the Nosk pair were. Her suspicions were confirmed when the child came running forward and called her name. "Lylith, have you seen- oh THERE YOU TWO ARE!!!" Sibling picked up the two in her arms and nuzzled her pets. "You guys scared both me and Markoth half to death!" They both chirped mischievously and nuzzled back. Lylith felt a lonely twinge and looked away, down at the ground.

"Thanks Lylith. Sorry for bothering you." Sibling said before taking off running, probably to find Puppet and Shedo. She sighed, and replied quietly "No problem."

Looking up to the sky finally, she swallowed a lump in her throat and whispered to the sky three words she hand been asking for 19 years running.

"Where are you Dryya?"

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WHOO CHAPTER DONE! Sorry for taking a while with this one. I just threw a LOT of shit at you that you won't understand for a little while. The next chapter will be a lore significant holiday thing, so hope you're ready for all of hell to break loose again. Until then, erase and ascend, peace out.