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Darkness is all you've ever known. The blood in your eyes, taking your vision. The hot, viscous life essence of more than you could ever count surrounds you.
It engulfs you, pressing down onto your skin like a suffocating embrace. It's all around you, even flowing into your gills and through your entire body.
In and out, in and out, in and out.
You don’t know why you are in this Blood Ocean. You suppose it’s not for you to know. That whoever, or whatever, put you here, knows best.
So you stay where you’ve always been, your own little spot in the vast abyss surrounding you.
There are others down here, and dispite their many teeth and ruthless instincts, they don't bother you, leaving you completely alone. Waiting for... something.
Perhaps that is what you are to do with your life. To wait. At least, that is what you thought until now.
You sense something nearing the nook in the rocky wall you've tucked yourself into. Lifting yourself up slightly, you identify an iron vessel entering your territory.
Your curiosity grows the closer it moves, the sound of mechanical whirring becoming louder with every inch.
Unable to control yourself, you move across the rough ocean floor to get a closer look.
Carefully, you drag your hands over the rusted metal as you circle the cylindrical vessel that seems to have stopped moving, your clawed digits finding an eye-shaped device.
Suddenly, a blast of radiation is emitted from the device. You flinch back violently, your tail hitting the hull with a loud 'thunk'.
Though the blistered wounds covering your skin quickly dissolve into nothing, they are still quite annoying.
Furrowing your brows, you gingerly massage the sensitive flesh. Still, you find your attention returned to the strange iron vessel.
Inside, you now sense a small living being, running around, seeming to control the thing as it slowly starts moving again.
Fascinating.
It makes you want to reach out. To find a way to let this other being know it's not alone. That you are here.
You are unsure how, though. For some reason you doubt you can just transfer your thoughts and feelings through your mind as you do with the others. If this new being is capable of that, it would have done so already, you think.
No, you need to find out how it communicates, you decide. Slowly, you follow the iron vessel, making sure to keep your distance, carefully probing its captain's mind as you hungrily absorb the knowledge it gives you.
You learn words, grammar, meaning. If your vocal chords weren't hindered by the blood entering your throat if you were to attempt to speak, you doubt you could hold yourself in as you are now forced to.
Though that's not a problem for long, as you soon find a device inside your precious vessel that can project your voice for you.
"Hello?"
First contact has been made, you think proudly as you release your hold on the speaker, practically shaking with anticipation as you wait for an answer.
"What the fuck?!?"
Fear? That wasn't the reaction you were expecting. "I apologise for scaring you. That isn't my intention." There, now it knows you mean no harm.
You feel the being scrambling through its vessel, moving to the back where it slams a fist down on a button.
Immediately, another flash of pain sears across your skin. "Why do you do that?! It hurts!" You hiss through the speaker.
"Sorry, I- uh, need it to see?" His voice sounds hesitant, you note, allowing the scales on your skin to settle before speaking again.
"No need to apologise." You start. "I heal quick, and I suppose we are 'even' now. As you would say."
He doesn't immediately respond. Only the familiar groaning and gurgling sounds from the ocean reaching your ears.
Then, a strange kind of breathy cackling resonates through the thick iron. "I'm losing it. I'm actually losing it..."
"What did you lose?" Your voice, laced with static, asks. Maybe you can help him find it?
"It's not- never mind. Why am I even responding to you?" He scoffs, sliding from his chair to the floor, rubbing his face in defeat as he pulls his knees to his chest.
"Do you wish for me to leave you alone?" A fair question in your opinion, you won't force something that won't be. However desperate you may be.
"Yes! No- yes? I don't know." He's silent for a while, you can feel his turmoil inside. "What do you want from me?"
"I only want to talk." You reply calmly. "I haven't 'just talked' to anyone in a long time." His voice sounds like a forced laugh, hitching slightly at that last part. He sounds tired
"What do I call you?" You ask. "Simon!" He blurts out before coughing. "My name's Simon."
You repeat his name, and he's ashamed to admit it's the softest anyone has ever spoken it to him.
"Uh- What's your name?" He asks, hoping you do, in fact, have one of those.
You think for a second. It has been so long since it had been given to you. So long have you had it, but only now, as you tell Simon, it has a purpose.
He repeats it, the sound rolling off his tongue before bouncing off the iron walls. "Huh." Silence spreads as he tries to think of anything else intelligent to say.
"I can't believe I'm talking to you." He whispers reverently. "You're it, right? From the picture from before? The skeleton?" He questions rapidly. "I am." You affirm.
"And the other pictures? Are they...?" So you aren't his first. The thought worries you.
You sense it now. The hold the others have on his mind. Pulling, bending, twisting at his senses, his beliefs.
The thought alone fills you with overwhelming hatred. A sensation unfamiliar to you until now, imploring you to do something about it.
"You have a strong spirit, Simon. I will not let them take it."