Chapter Text
Somewhere in the Abyss, a void egg is dredged up from a void sea. Is the egg made of sea, or is the sea made of egg? The egg is not sentient, so it does not know anything, but I imagine it would scream if it could.
Within this void egg on the shore of the void sea is a tiny void being. It's trying its hardest to sleep, but it's not having a very good go of it. The silence of the Abyss is stifling, cutting through its tired mind like a knife.
Where even was it anyways?
Your name is…
You can't remember your name. (It's so cold here…)
That should be concerning, but your mind is doing its level best to lull you back to sleep despite the terrible cold silence of… wherever you are. (Your head is so quiet. Where is everyone?)
How did you get here???
...Where is here? (Wherever here is, it's too cold and too quiet and you want out .) You try your best to remember where you were (Who you were?) before this, but your mind has latched onto the idea of wanting out and is refusing to let go.
Fine, fine, just quiet down.
You begin to wiggle and squirm, your limbs feeling heavy and weird and wrong somehow. It's not pleasant, so the sooner you can get out of here, the better.
Your clenched fist strikes a hard surface (Ow!) and you quickly turn around as best as you can to face said surface. Placing both (small, unfamiliar) hands flat against the wall(?) you find it to be smooth and round (It absorbs too much light. It's like the world has been photoshopped away, leaving only you behind. (Who are you?)). You can't make out any sort of opening anywhere, and at a loss for what to do, you strike the wall again.
It gives with a startling crack, and you flinch backwards at the sound and the sudden burst of light. (What…?) The negligent draft coming from outside the egg (Is it an egg? Why were you in an egg?) brings to your attention the fact that you are very, very damp (Ew!). But escape is in your grasp, so you punch again at the fragile wall, widening the hole.
Soon enough you fall out of your egg (Definitely an egg. (Humans don't have eggs! (Are you not human anymore? (One thing at a time.)))) and onto the smooth, cold floor below. You shiver uncontrollably (Cold, cold, cold, cold, cold!!!!!) and curl up on the floor. (You are cold and wet and scared and too-small and you just came out of an egg what the fuck you want to cry but it's not working why isn't it working your eyes feel so big and open and your head feels so heavy what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck -)
Breathe in. Breathe out. In four. Hold two. Out four.
Okay. (You try to say this out loud, and the realization that you have no mouth nearly sends you into a panic again.) Take stock. Breathe.
Your head feels weird and heavy. You have no mouth, and you can vaguely feel some odd protrusion (horns?) scraping against the smooth stone of the floor, weighing you down. Your body is really small, and really soft. You don't… seem.. to have toes anymore. (Thank god you don't have a foot fetish.) You have three fingers made of smooth, segmented chitin (Good for rubbing together, bad for picking. (Bad for picking is good for you; everyone (Did they miss you?) was always telling you to stop and drop that particular stim.)) and one soft thumb. Your eyes feel weird and large, but you can still open and close them. If you strain hard enough, you can move your… face?... but not by much.
You shift a bit, and realize that you seem to have been born (what the fuck what the fuck, you're never aware when you're reborn, it's supposed to take years for you to remember!) wearing clothing. What little you know of your body is starting to paint an eerily familiar picture, and you're not sure how to feel about that.
The tattered remains of your system seem to have fallen away completely; your head is completely silent, no curious chirps from the many siblings that once populated its depths. Hesitantly, you reach your mind out…
Something flares to life and responds . Somehow, you can tell that the rush of affection and wonder comes from outside you. (It hits you like a truck. You've never felt so loved before.) Carefully, you answer back (You're more than used to sharing your thoughts with your headmates.) with your hesitation, fear, and confusion. Immediately, the unknown entity (Entities, even from here you can tell that they are many.) responds back with comfort and care (It would bring you to tears if you could cry.)
You're starting to think you know what's going on here, and you're equal parts excited and terrified. You rise to stand with shaky legs (Your head is off-balanced, with more horns(?!) on one side than the other. You have to lean over to one side in order to compensate. (Before (You don't like thinking about before, but you dislike thinking about now even more.), you wouldn't have been strong enough to do that.)) and turn to face your egg. The surface is a reflective, glossy black, and in it you can see…
Oh fuck.
(The tiny (intact) face of the Broken Vessel stares back at you.)