Chapter Text
Water
A source of life, a foundational element—required and necessary in the laws of life. It is the first breath of the earth, a primal force that both nourishes and devours, that heals as it harms. Flexible as silk yet brutal as stone, lazy as a winding river but fierce as a roaring sea. Water is many things, however kind isn’t one of them. It is a demanding mistress, taking what it cannot hold, claiming all it touches with quiet ruthlessness. Its gifts come only at a cost; it cleanses but leaves scars, sustains but leaves hollow spaces in its wake.
Yet rain is her sympathy—a soft lament, the heartache of typhoons and hailstorms. Her tears fall for those she has taken, for those she cannot keep close, and for those who only stand by and watch her power in awe and fear. The rain falls like quiet sorrow, numbing pain with its chill, washing away soot and dirt, erasing what clings to the surface but leaving you shivering and raw. This is the price of her grace—a clean slate tempered by loss, an offering to soothe yet leaving you emptier, colder, an echo of all she has quietly taken.
——- 48 65 20 6C 69 65 64. ——
N had always found rain to be an unkind presence, yet one that he couldn’t help but be drawn to like a moth to flame. The soft murmurs of the storm offered a strange comfort, the drops falling on concrete, ice, and rusted metal with a rhythm that was both haunting and hypnotic. Each tap was a heartbeat in the hollow quiet of the dead planet, a world where ash and thunder rumbled far in the distance, like a ghostly reminder of forgotten life.
There was a solitude to the rain that called to him, soothing him even as it kept him confined. When the storms rolled in and obscured the moon with thick clouds with occasional flashes of dead natures might, he and his squad would retreat into the spire, J and V leaving him to the silence he both cherished and feared. The rain was beautiful but lonely to him, an experience he both loved and resented.
He would watch the waterfall, captivated by the patterns it formed with childlike wonder- how it danced in spirals, broke apart, and reformed in its endless chaos. It was as if the rain itself had its own language, a language of sorrow and cleansing that it sang to the abyssal sky.
But more than its beauty, what fascinated him most was the way it washed away the oil, dirt, and ash left by their own hands and past actions. It erased the marks of death and decay as if they were nothing, scrubbing the world clean with each relentless downpour like it was as simple as breathing
For a brief moment, the storm’s waters would leave the planet pure, scoured of all evidence of what had come before. Yet N knew that under that veneer, the scars remained. He felt it every time the rain fell—the weight of memory, of all that had been done, cleansed from sight but never truly gone.
The sorrow lingered, like a weed that will never truly be gone- it always came back. Akin to Twisted roses flourishing in poisoned water, the way he liked to label it.
He hummed to himself in distant thought, shifting to stand up. His legs gave a dull creek, and he couldn’t help but wince as it ached and the joints stiffened rom sitting still for so long, the discomfort mild and manageable but he took note of it for later.
His tail swished softly, the nanite glistening like twisted gold in the dull light. He’d do anything to keep this peaceful moment, to hear the calm, to feel it- no screaming, no hunger Just the rain, dead nature and him.
“Hey, Failsake!”
N immediately deflated at the sound of his teammates' voice, they never bothered him unless he did something wrong or they wanted something. As far as he aware of he wasn’t doing anything, so they must need something?
Regardless he plastered on a smile and turned around, giving the female Drone a warm welcome “Oh hey J! What can I help with?” He asked, his tail raising in the air to wag in a slow tense arch
J scoffed, scowling at him like he just cursed her whole existence, classic J move!. Her arms crossed tightly over her chest, tone laced with icey venom as her tail lashed the ground. Flicking snow into the air in ehr frustration “Go charge. Now. The storm won’t let up for days- we’ll have to move the moment it breaks. We are not waiting for you,” she snapped, her voice sharp and deliberate, each word carved out like a warning.
Something in him winced at the edge of her voice, though he couldn’t explain why.
Still, he only smiled- warmly, earnestly. His first thought wasn’t of her fury, but how kind she was to warn him. She was awesome like that. Always had been..Snapping into a crisp salute, his spine straightened, and he nodded with quiet respect
“Thanks for looking out for me, J!” he said with a soft, steady voice, his mind carefully tuning out the bite in her tone, doing his best to ignore the creeping claws of doubt curling in his gut. His tail wagged low, just brushing the ashen snow. With both hands, he gave her two cheerful thumbs-up and kept that unshakable, bright grin on his face.
J just scoffed in response. Her teeth ground together, jaw clenched with that familiar tension she wore when trying not to yell at him for being—what was it? “Annoying.” But it’s His fault, probably. He tried not to be, but she never told him exactly how he was. With a quick turn and narrowed eyes, she walked off without another word.
She didn’t engage further—for her own peace, maybe. Silence, after all, was probably best. The squad needed rest, and rest came easier when things were quiet. Still, a part of N settled as she disappeared from view. The tension eased, replaced by a silent, floating kind of wonder… or confusion, maybe.
His gaze drifted upward, slow and uncertain, to the heavy sky above—dark and weeping. His eyes softened. He always wondered. About many things. But mostly about himself, he’d started to notice changes—subtle shifts. Things he never used to see… feelings he never used to feel And they only started when he began noticing.
It was like a shadow, always lingering just over his shoulder—whispering truths in a sea of lies. But the sea was vast..And so very deep.
Yet That same shadow would murmur about things he felt he should know—things he’d never heard of, never read, never seen. Like a thread of déjà vu trailing behind him, clinging to a bread trail he wanted to follow yet never could find
In his life.
His mind.
Even his dreams.
It followed.
But his next thought was shattered, violently, as J’s voice speared through the air like a thrown blade:
“MOVE IT!”
He jolted upright, wings flaring instinctively from his back as he shot into motion- hoping to avoid angering her more. He headed toward his nest, body moving fast— but mind left far behind and as he flew, one small hope echoed through his chest, even as he laid down and got comfortable. Sleep steadily dragging him away
Maybe tonight… I won’t dream again.
But I hope I still do
—— 4D 61 79 20 66 6C 61 6D 65 20 63 6C 65 61 6E 73 65 ——
System
>activating dreamsOS. >changes detected. adjusting..
>processing: 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100111 01101111 01110100 01110100 01100101 01101110 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101
>adjusting verified. System error detected. >overrode. Goodnight.
————
…
“…MAKE IT STO—“
A shuddering silence..an. echo. deafening in its weight, unyielding in its shape, slouching like cut skin and drooped like teeth through marrow. Scars on flesh
Then, a sound-
No. Not a sound, that’s not right..A concept?. Yes!- a thought.
A slight pressure against the ribs of thought and mind. It throbbed with meaningless meaning- in unstable Rhythm. too large to hear, too forgotten to understand, yet too present and cold to ignore. It crawled through the air like oil-drenched strands of silk. some..intent buzzing in the air, just out of reach.
And then- eyes.
No, Not two. Not ten. Not twenty
But many..Too many.
All wrong. All twisted and misshapen. All watching from behind the wall of smoke and flame. never meant to be touched, unyielding in their stare’s. They blinked in unison, but without rhythm or reason. like a choir of broken clocks melting and twisting in reverse. A tick without its tock, a door without its lock.
The floor scorched and bled. The buildings breathed. The stars opened their jaws and sang of time folding like wet paper while the moon wept in melody
Her limbs felt thin- too thin, like they had been stretched across lifetimes she didn’t- no, couldn’t remember living. aching from wounds she didn’t remember receiving, from tears she hadn’t been shedding.
Thoughts and mind weren’t hers to claim anymore, They shifted, they squirmed, they Slithered. Spoke and muttered in dialects made of static and chittering scratches, giddy and pained with languages of rot and prayer. The stars screamed secrets no tongue could pronounce, and yet still, she knew them so well.
It laughed.
No voice, no shape, no soul. just thought curling and twisting inward from the center of her soul, It laughed..maybe with malice, maybe from sorrow. Each sound spun with echoes of rotting dreams, with churches filled with no gods. And she wept not because she was afraid.
but because something inside her recognized it.
Felt familiar..intimate.
Yet as The fire kissed her skin again, sweet like sugarglass, pain like blooming flowers. So hot, so cold..The sensations contradicting each other until the mind risked to be cracked under such things. The pain and the suffering- the warmth and the rot- it all felt like home.
Where was she?
Who was she?
What was she?
The smiling faces were closer now, wearing faces that shouldn't be..or always was. Peeling back lips that didn’t feel right. Giggling, Laughing!- pleased at shattered and comforted things. somewhere in the distance, in that cold-black sky, a song, a prayer that sunk its teeth into her..she hadn't seen it, but she knew it had seen her.
And it would not forget.
Not like the others would
It would wait. It would listen, it will stay close..forever, if it had to.
Because in the place between moments, behind reality’s thin skin, it waits for those who look too long..
And it’s grin grew, at the sight of flame.
“I..I’m sorry.”
A Broken voice cracked and sang past this hell it was stuck in. it withered and sputtered out torn vowels weakly, yet sang so beautifully.
“I’m- so sorry..”
It’s claws curled closer, to comfort? To soothe?..to burn this child of suffering, to cool its heart. To rip its mind.
You were made to suffer. This is what your for.
Suffer she shall.
—44 72 6F 77 6E 20 69 6E 20 66 65 61 72—