Chapter Text
This was a mistake.
Through their trials, from warping between the scattered portals across time and space, and creating portals themselves, they forgot something.
Part of them wondered why they were here. They knew where they were, but it was so, so wrong.
Hydroponics had slowly become covered in black pustules and writhing purple blobs the more they encountered that... thing... but...
The sky was a dark purple. A sickening ash was in the air, and a sickening smell was everywhere. The very ground they walked on was slimy and warm, and squelched with every step. If they stood in place for too long, they could feel the ground start to pull them in, like quicksand.
It was never this bad. It was never supposed to be this bad. It was supposed to be a bad dream that the glowing figure of blues and golds woke them up from, sending them on an adventure to places beyond its understanding.
But it wasn't a bad dream.
This was real.
The Watcher could hear the pained cries of a lizard, overcome with rot and festering with decay as it desperately clawed its way towards them. Its claws broke and bled, its jaws dislocated and its eyes popped out of their sockets.
It was almost pitiful, watching this thing shamble about, a husk of the predator it was made out to be. In a way, it was upgraded with the few tentacles wriggling around on its back.
The Watcher, however, knew better than to sit and watch. They picked up a piece of rubble and launched it at the rotting beast. Despite its state, the lizard's head was still intact, physically unformed by the rubble thrown. It did scream and turn its head away, flailing and flinging its clotted blood everywhere.
Their paws felt tingly, numb. They scampered off to a pole and climbed, unbothered to stay and watch this suffering continue. Their heart twisted uncomfortably in their chest, hearing the screams bounce off the walls.
They entered a pipe, and came into a vertical area, full of twinkling flakes of gold.
She was here. They could hear her laughing, except something was wrong.
..it almost sounded sad?
The Watcher climbed and climbed, and eventually found her, floating. Blue rippled off of her shiny body, countless gold plates staring into them like eyes. Her legs were crossed, her tentacles flicked this way and that.
"OA!" She cheered. "Hallo my shadow!"
The Watcher blinked at her. Peeping, she called it. How humorous.
"Bleh you shouldn't have come here." She spat, but not physically. The false joy in her voice was gone. "It is too far."
The Watcher continued to peep at her. She said many things, most of which were things they couldn't understand. This was one such thing.
"Blech, bleh. I hate it. Gross gross gross."
She shook her head. Her voice wavered a little. "After a point it’s all like this.
"Glip glop everywhere. Sea of lumps, forever. "
Then she giggled, like she was taunting a vulture that couldn't get to her. "So glad I cannot sniff!"
...oh. She was taunting them. The Watcher let their tail flick, a mixture of annoyance and amusement.
"Spoiled meat, dissolving proteins. Yeeck." Her tentacles furrowed. "Let's away."
And then she disappeared.
The world around them split open, a yawning, deep blue hole opening before them in the air.
They didn't waste hopping forward, and jumping into the rift.