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I was going through old, old pictures I had drawn when I was a little kid, a teenager, everything before an adult. It hurt to look at those pictures; wet droplets stained a few, and it didn’t matter if the memories behind them were good or bad; I mourned and wept anyway. I didn’t notice the dark clouds seeping in from an apartment next door as I was too busy clutching a drawing to my chest while slumped against an old CRT I had found.
Dark fountains are created with intent from the maker, but even then, affected areas always have their own histories whether you know what they are, or like it, or not.
That TV, Tenna... he had been around me, watching me, listening to me, for some time now. His new studio wasn’t bare, but it was unfamiliar, and the native darkners were all quite... sad, and scary really, but even with this setback and a cracked screen, he could still perform very well, and he took pride in knowing his new lightner loved him well.
Though, despite what he knew, the looming sight before him had him bewildered, and quite frankly, concerned.
Forged from memories of the past that bore their way beneath the skin and tore up the body from the inside out. Birthed from a dreamer who took to their mind to punish those who had wronged them gravely when they had nobody to turn to. Hulking, still, tossed aside sitting upright in the snow was a large, poorly designed robot. Not all the parts were attached, most of the colors didn’t match, the mixture of shapes and designs made no sense; it was hideous. It was just as hideous as the cruelty it came from.
Tenna stared up at me, a hand ghosting over his mouth as he stood frozen with concern. My mouth hung open, my eyes were as dark as the clouds that carried me here. I couldn’t see, couldn’thear, couldn’t move... But I could feel. I could know. I knew Tenna was near me, I knew even in this episode that he saw me, and knowing what my lover had witnessed made everything hurt all the more.
Like the robot was powered by pain, regret as its oil, my eyes flickered to life. Everything was suddenly so bright, I couldn't see again and this time it hurt. I groaned and lifted my hand to cover my eyes. It moved slowly and felt weird, cold and detached, but it was there. I could just barely hear Tenna gasping when I moved. My jaw ached, so I finally clamped it shut, groaning more as everything just felt so rusty and old. I slowly removed my hand so my eyes could adjust to the light, and once they did, they widened at the sight of Tenna before me. He was so small, as small as a bug practically, which I had never seen him like that before. The snow seemed endless, so I didn’t register the true height difference between us.
I leaned forward, metal scraping together and squeaking as it did. My body felt so heavy like I might fall over, so I quickly propped myself up with both my arms. They still didn’t feel fully there; numb, but I payed it no mind for now. Right now, my eyes were beaming down on my beloved.
“Ohhhhh... H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H... HEY there, sweetheart! Hah, you look... so small! KZRT! W-What's that for?”
I tried smiling at him, but it only made him look more scared up at me. I didn’t understand what he was afraid of, so I kept by him in hopes it would comfort him. He took some slow steps toward me, tail dragging in the white powder atop the ground, and reached one of his hands out to touch my face. I closed my eyes and accepted it, and when his small hand met my ice coldcheek, I could feel a calm blooming through it before it froze over and stung. It stung because I realized, my skin no longer felt like flesh.
My eyes snapped open and I raised a hand to feel my other cheek and realized that it was in fact just cold metal. That didn’t make sense. I sat up and he stepped back, my body making more loud scraping, creaks, and moans as I straightened up. I looked at my hand and realized it too was metal. Cold and dark, looking nothing like how I normally did when I entered the darkworld. I then let my eyes trail up my arm and realized while looking at some of the rust gathering in my joints, when could my eyes project light like this? And when... could my arms detach?
The shock and horror of it all made me feel sick so I looked down, meaning to look at Tenna, but instead getting a look at myself. I was so, so tall, tall like a building, and black started to drip onto the clean snow before me. My body... I didn’t know what to make of it as things started getting blurry again and it scared me. I wanted to scream, but I could, instead I just held my face in horror and tried to look around as parts of me started to fully break off from rust, or get caught in eachother. I think I called for help, but...
Somebody came.
Even though he was just as terrified as I at the visual cacophony before him. He hopped onto my lap and stared up. Even though black rain dripped heavy from my sockets and I shook, he was still determined to scale the wall that was my torso, using all 4 of his arms to carry him between odd, elevated shapes. It was when he got by my chest that he called out and I noticed him, so holding my unsteady hands out, he stepped down onto rusty palms that brought him closer to my face. He was so small, but that doesn’t mean his love was. I sniffled and closed my eyes as he hugged me, not even caring about the oil surely staining his coat and shirt.
That feeling of warmth returned to me and continued to blossom as I sat there, calming down slowly, slowly, slowly...
Slowly, I breathed out a fairly warm, relaxed breath, and the moment he let go, I sat him back down on the ground even though he was begging me not to. I did anyway, because I could feel myself breaking the cocoon of tragedy I had built. Lowering myself down until I was in a lying position, the spotlights of my eyes dimmed completely, and after a moment, a fist sent old, rotting glass flying. He covered his face, and making sure to be careful around the lighter shards, I crawled out of one of the sockets, now in my usual dark world appearance, and not to mention height. When he heard crunching footsteps approaching, he looked and gasped. Before I could even smile or apologize, I was nearly thrusted back down to the ground by the force of his hug.
At this size, he could so easily shatter any of my bones, but I thanked the angel he had enough strength to hold himself back right now. I wanted to apologize so bad, but I felt so tired. His arms were hugging mine to my sides so I couldn’t hug him back, so I just... Watched my sigh leave a warm cloud in the crisp air, closed my eyes, and relaxed against my cherished CRT.