Work Text:
“…”
“………..”
“…..h…ey…….he..y……hey….!”
An unknown voice called out from… where? Who? What exactly…?
“Oooooi! Are ye’ back with the livin’ yet, ey?”
They groaned in response. Head pounding something fierce and struggling to open their eyes.
Knock it off.
A splash of water granted them a harsh awakening from their stupor. Eyes flying open and waking with a start as they jolted up—only to find themself bound by rope and twine. The lalafellin shape snarled when his gaze eventually settled on their… captor? Savior? They knew not if friend or foe, but they had gnarled their finger’s into a clawed shape as if they were wont to attack.
“Aha! So you are still alive. Very good.” The man before them offered a smile. Another lalafell that carried an unfamiliar smell of sea brine. Beside him—they started to raise their hackles once more with a feral glare. A whole lotta Vath.
But then they stopped. Paused uncertainly. Their eyes dulled before going wide once more. Something was different.
They heard not the voices of their brethren. Of the hivemind. As though they had been severed from their minds and replaced with naught but jumbled emotions and a space of nothingness. They shook—as though they were fit to break then and there.
The lalafellin man who had awoken them was now in talks with the Vath, who in turn chittered back with familiar clicks and a mix of language they couldn’t understand.
“I see… so tis unlikely I will be able to get much out of the boy as things stand.”
More chittering amongst themselves. Until one brave Vath stepped forward and spoke in the Gnath tongue for the mystery one’s sake. Or rather, in sets of clicking noises that only the two would understand between themselves.
“You are no longer a Gnath. You have been disconnected from the hivemind and are no longer their slave. You are free now to do as you please.”
“!!!” They began to toss and turn in their restraints, rattled by the sudden awareness. Because it was true. Though all of their memory from before was now swiftly fading, they realized the connection they were missing. The part that made them whole. It was gone. Everything they knew to be them was gone.
And what happened from here would be nothing but the frightening unknown.
They clicked their tongue back, as though they were still accustomed to speaking the Gnath tongue themselves. “Take me back! This is not me! I am broken! Put it back!!!”
Though the Vath would translate back to the other lalafell, they would in turn respond back with the man’s words.
“There is no going back. And I can’t very well leave you knowing that.”
There was a sense of pity in the man’s eyes. That this other lalafell could not recall a time when they were not of a hivemind. To the point they remembered nothing of their origins, of their language, of a time where no one thought for them. Like a newborn who needed guidance, else their tantrum would effect any and all around them. A feral person through and through.
They hated it to be seen as such as snarled once more.
Thus did the man offer his hand, once more speaking as the Vath translated. “You are to come with me, say…erm… say… Seiseito! That will be your new name.” He nodded to himself. “You can call me Garen. I will teach you everything you need to know and help guide the way.”
‘Seiseito’ looked on with a blank stare. Just as confused and frightened. They wouldn’t understand for a long time. Everything had been erased after all with a clean slate. No matter what memories they might hold, there would be no point in them as he was taken well beyond their homeland.
‘Give them back…’ they would often dream. Grasping and yearning for a time where they needn’t think or choose for themselves. It had been much easier that way. To let the overmind take full control and choose for them what needed to be done. All by themselves… they would have to walk a completely different path.
Garen would never abandon them. He helped Seiseito ‘find’ himself. His identity. His likes. His dislikes. He would teach Seiseito the common Eorzean tongue (Even if he couldn’t get much further than simple matter of fact words) and care for them as if he were their own child for a time. Not a pretty experience either, but one that Garen displayed great patience with regardless.
No more would they blindly live their life. For it was only just beginning anew.