“Ii2 that you, my friiend?”
You call quietly, hoping above all hope that it’s him, that this is all a bad dream, and you’ll be able to open your eyes and see him clearly again, no longer a faded memory, a dash of red on a murky background-
Even if you can’t see him, even if your world is still dark, just hearing his voice once more… once more… one more soft word that was not his dying screams…
But as you draw back into your conciousness those words he spoke before, the more your spirits sink.
That isn’t his voice. It isn’t right.
Whoever it is, they’re calling for you again, and you almost don’t answer. You almost can’t bring yourself to shout back at them, but the words leave your lips before you can capture them on your teeth.
“Ii’m riight here, friiend.”
The sound of the stranger’s voice only makes your efforts to get back to your feet bigger, more determined. You don’t know what it is about this place that makes your blood rush in your veins, make your vascular system pump harder, but in the end all you need to know is that there is someone here, and for whatever reason that you cannot fathom, you need to see them.
Finally, the wires seem to get away from your path, and the room, wherever it is, whatever it is, lights up a little more, in shades of pink, but also some familiar red and blue.
Now able to stand on your legs, you look around the place. Wires, wires, wires again, so many wires… And yet his voice sounded so close.
“Alriight, Ii’m here, ju2t hold on a 2ec, Ii’ll-“
You stop right in the middle of your sentence, when you turn around and finally catch sight of the stranger.
You’ve never been so shocked of your life.
Not only his voice sounded familiar, but everything about him looks like a portrayal of yourself. It is just like looking into a mirror — a mirror taking you hundreds of sweeps in the future.
Your voice is lost, as you walk closer to him, slowly, cautiously, until you are right in front of him, looking up directly into his eyes, literally speechless.
It’s been so long since you’ve heard a voice that was not hers.
At first, you don’t believe it.
But there is nothing else it could be.
And now you can hear them, and they are breathing, and for a moment you feel yourself soaring through hope, and even though you hear a lisp, even though the voice is too young, even though you saw him die with your own eyes -
“2iignle22?” You choke, the words grating on your throat and taking more effort than they should have.
It’s strange, how after all this time you still haven’t given up hope.
You needed to believe he’d someday come back for you.
Hearing that voice makes you jump a bit in surprise, not actually expecting an answer. But this person’s tone, how familiar their voice sounds eases you just a bit, even though you cannot help but worry for this troll’s sake. You’ve never hears a voice sounding so broken.
“Where are you? Can you talk two me?”
You try to walk in the direction of that voice, but the wires in your way and the surrounding darkness make you stumble repeatedly. You eventually get caught in more wires and fall to your knees, ending up all but crawling on the floor. Oh God, but what is that place, who is this troll anyway? And why do you feel your insides twist at his voice?
“Plea2e, try two talk two me, plea2e,” You call out once again, still crawling and trying to reach for the source of this voice.
The Condesce’s flagship carries you deep in her belly, much like a troll might carry a virus within them, eating them away from the inside out. Except with her, it’s the opposite. She eats you, ripping your energy right from your fragile body, stripping the meat from your bones and making even your warm yellow blood grow cold.
You can feel the wet air hanging around you, the silence fluxuating to give birth to that steady dripping sound you can now pintpoint as coming from somewhere behind your left shoulder. When you were young and still felt the pain you know is there but do not recognize, you would twist your head to try and see exactly where that dripping was from.
Your sight has gone, now.
The ship took that from you too.
All that is left is the air and the sounds and maybe the pain, should you concentrate hard enough.
And that is where the memories begin.
((Open rp!! even if someone’s replied already, feel free to go right ahead! I don’t care about pairings or whether you just want to talk, I’m good with anything.))
When you blink your eyes into consciousness, your first reaction is the one of a lost child. What is this place? Where are you? What are those pink wires, surrounding you, why is the air so cold and damp? All you can remember is drifting into a somewhat peaceful sleep, in the comfort of your recuperacoon, after a long, lonely night of coding. So how did you get here?
You look around you, your fingertips barely brushing the wires around you. Is this… Is this a dream? You can’t think of any other possible explanation. But all of this seems so real. The pressure of the atmosphere on your shoulders and the pain from your tightening throat. All of this cannot be only your imagination.
Hold on.
Didn’t Feferi once tell you something? About dreams being true. About going to places you cannot reach in your wake. What was it called again… Dream… Oh, yes. Dream bubbles. Would this be one? Is this how it works? You never understood a word of her excited rambling anyway.
Can’t you… Can’t you hear something? Something that sounds like a faint breath, flowing water, and something slowly dripping. You’re not alone. You can’t be alone.
You almost panic for a moment, before finally putting your thoughts back together.
This is a dream. Just a dream.
Gathering some of your courage, you finally call out, in a voice that you hope sounds confident.
“Ii2 anyone there?”
