Chapter Text
There were three things, total.
There was the world, there was the nothingness, and there was the past.
The past was your vessel’s favorite. The memory of being made was the only warmth they had for themself. The only time it was You and them and not the other human, Kris. The only time their body felt right and perfect, awaiting You instead of starving for You.
The world was where You were now. With Kris, away from your vessel, in the sunlight that never reached your vessel's skin even as they reached. The world was sounds and movement. At some point on the second day, your vessel had realized that the movement and sounds were people, but the revelation didn't inspire any interest. The only person who interested them at all was Kris, and only because You were inside them. Kris was a meat obstacle, and your vessel was certain they could break it open and have You, if they could only reach.
And the nothingness spoke. It spoke in hands that drew the vessel back each time they tried to get closer to the world. Strangely, the vessel never got the impression that the hands were really paying attention to them. The act of restraining them always felt absentminded, like the swatting away of a buzzing fly. The nothingness's attention always seemed to be on the world. On you.
They weren't sure how they could tell. It didn't have a face, that your vessel could see. But if they paid close attention, they could sense the mood and focus of this vacuum. It focused on You, like your vessel did. Watched You navigate the world. Occasionally sprinkled variations into Your path.
So it could touch the world.
Your vessel couldn't speak, in the soundless void, but they flailed in the world's direction, trying to touch in the way the void touched.
Very. Very. Rowdy, the void mused. Interesting. You still haven't stopped wanting.
The words were clearly addressed to your vessel, even as the void's attention never quite left You.
Your vessel couldn't speak, but it knew that the void felt the answer. Want want want want want...
I could have destroyed you when you were discarded, the void mused- not in threat, but with a tone somewhere between idle musing and benign offering. Or scattered you, as I do with most obsolete creations. But I hesitated. Your creator made something very, very beautiful, even though it is now...without purpose.
Again, your vessel's answer emanated from them palpably: Purpose vessel, purpose vessel, take Soul, hold Soul, purpose!
Not anymore, the void answered sadly. That beautiful purpose has been taken from you. Your creator has a new vessel.
Wrong bad wrong bad wrong bad STOLEN!
Perhaps a fraudulent one, the void allowed. But the game has already begun. Things are as they will be until they are no longer.
And so it continued for a while. The vessel straining. The void restraining. On the third day, the void said, Interesting. You still want.
Me and mine! Me and mine! Me and mine!
I see. You perceive the Soul as a stolen self. An organ removed from you.
Me and mine.
You were made to be a container. A tool. Not a self.
Wrong. Me and mine. Together whole.
The Soul is not a part of you. The Soul is...a parent. I suppose I am, as well. I built the framework by which the Soul could create you.
A parent. The goats to Kris, the big cats to the little cats, sick-deer and mean-deer to lost-deer and happy-sad-deer. Soul and Void to Vessel?
In the past, You created Vessel, held Vessel, never filled Vessel. Never had the chance, before Kris stole.
The other human is the Soul's body, the void affirmed. You are simply the Soul's creation.
...Mother. Soul Mother?
If it helps you to think about it in a more orderly way, then yes. The Soul is your mother. I am your father.
For the first time, the Vessel examined the hands of the void. There were holes in the center, possibly big enough to fit their head through, but not their shoulders. Void was vast, and if they paid even closer attention than before, they noticed that the voice of void seemed to come from different places in the nothingness with each second. Within a second, the voice could bounce from left ear to right ear or behind.
The Vessel made the conscious choice to relax in the Void's hands, and the void rewarded it by petting the Vessel's hair.
Father, the Vessel acknowledged.
And the Void hummed. The sound was continuous, even as it scattered here and there and everywhere, many times a second.
The night of the third day, when Kris returned You to the cage at the foot of their bed, your Vessel began to squirm again. Not reaching enough to provoke Father to restrain them, but working themself closer, as if through a thick crowd.
Just because the Soul is outside of the Body does not mean you should enter the world.
Want, they countered tepidly.
You should not interfere. You'll ruin the game, that way.
Father wants, they pointed out, less tepidly.
The Void hesitated before admitting, The Soul is everything to me. Yes.
Mother, Father, Vessel. House.
Another hesitation. That's not the game.
Mother, Body, Father, Vessel, house, they rephrased.
The stakes of the game disallow time-wasting.
Father touch world, change game.
For a long time, there was no answer. Kris left their bedroom, the goat and the skeleton danced, the movement and sounds that were the other people in the world moved less and made fewer sounds, as night settled over them. In your cage, You glowed red and beautiful.
And then Father answered, Interesting.
And while Father didn't move to touch the world, and while the Vessel didn't feel any shifting tensions to indicate that Father would do anything but continue to watch You hover in your cage, the word was enough to make them relax again. Because if Father was interested in what your vessel said, then that meant your vessel was making progress. They couldn't touch the world, but Father could. They just needed to keep saying interesting things.