Chapter Text
The rest of the cemetery alliance are quiet for all of two seconds, after Nadir asks vaguely with a shaking voice if anything has ever spoken to them in the void.
Still, the rest of the cemetery alliance are quiet for far too long. Nadir feels their heart almost burst from under their skin. Static fills their lungs in place of air -- they shouldn’t have said anything. They’ve never spoken about him out loud before.
It doesn’t seem like he likes it very much.
Mercury steps right back into the room from outside, staring at them with wide, confused, worried eyes, but Monroe is the first to speak, with a simple, “No, I don’t think so.” Mercury chimes in with a no of his own. Nao shakes her head.
“Cool!” Nadir says, because their ears are ringing and they actually can’t think of anything else to say. They weren’t sure what they expected -- obviously the Entity wouldn’t bother anyone else if he had already found a half-decent vessel (and they wouldn’t be here still if they weren’t a half-decent vessel). They also weren’t even sure what they were hoping for. A dark part of them thinks they maybe wanted to hear a confirmation, from someone, that this was something that they weren’t alone in. But the static in their mind, the nightmares, the urging voice begging them to just go red and kill ... they shouldn’t wish it on anyone else. (They don’t .)
“Is there something you wanna tell us? ” Mercury says, stepping closer to them, hand outstretched. Nadir stumbles back. They’re in danger. They’re going to drop dead on the ground right here. Any of the three should kill them for this -- for just allowing the glitches that sent most of them through the world to remain in their body. And that’s if the Entity doesn’t kill them himself .
“ Um !” Nadir verbally backtracks so hard, they fall off of a conversational cliff. “It’s... fine. Everything’s fine! ”
“That doesn’t sound like something that’s fine,” Monroe says, completely accurately. You aren’t wrong but shut up, shut up please .