NSH: "Excellent solution! Don't forget to plug up all of the holes further down in your structure that are probably leaking your vital fluids everywhere."
NSH: "Ah, here we have a new message! .....and it seems to be a butt dial."
"Hello? Are you aware your butt has placed a call to me? Should I consider this harASSmet?"
*Sigh* "This is why I prefer using video, or at least voice... with captions."
The half-formed Void Worm looked extremely surprised; as it usually does when it finds out the magic box in its paws has just suddenly done something randomly.
The box spoke! ...Wait, the box sometimes speaks anyway.
They processed the words said to them, and it looked like they absolutely did, but only blinked in response.
Though from the background...
"Escort, what have I told you about being a nuisance to people over Rubicon's Communications' Array?"
Escort looked up from their phone and straight ahead.
"I apologise in advance for whatever they've done; they're known to do this--" And in a hush of words towards the half-bird, "I'm surprised Rubicon hasn't stopped you yet, and how did you get your phone to work?"
'Escort?' Has NSH heard that before? He tries to see what's behind the creature on the phone.
"They haven't done anything yet, just established contact. I've recently finished a medical check-up on a friend of mine. So, I am not too busy at the moment."
Although he will be busy again in the very near future.... there's still one task he has yet to accomplish, and even though he has been working on it in the background... it's still taking a while.
Escort stuck their tongue out (blep) and continued to stare forward at the other voice.
"Give me the phone, Escort."
They seemed to hesitate for a moment, before shifting into the full bird form, looking ready to run off as they narrowed their eyes, forgetting about the phone being on a video call.
"Don't... We don't want a repeat of the other day, now do we?"
"Oh, is it you? The one who climbed up my can before? I didn't know you could shift forms like that. I have to thank you for breaking up our fight before! Most likely we would have torn each other into ribbons!"
Oh, right. Magic box. Escort looked down again, and they blinked, ribbons going up.
"Ah, yes. That interaction. I suppose The Void Sea's flow of time is strange or lacking, so that interaction might have been more cycles ago for us than for you."
"...Escort, however, is not very intelligent, so whatever they have done is barely any fault of their own. Merely a lack of thought. Now, give me the phone-"
Saint successfully had grabbed the phone from Escort's paws as he shook his head a bit, keeping the device further away than what Escort had done. The massive (from Saint's perspective) slugcat looked somewhat frustrated, though proceeded to become distracted by a void spawn that idly floated by.
"I suppose that their action was something smart about them, but it is often far and few in-between."
"But yes, last I heard, the legs of your superstructure were on the verge of collapse, and I had misplaced Escort through one of Rubicon's somewhat cruel jokes of sending Escort somewhere and not allowing me to follow behind."
"My legs are still compromised, but I've stabilized the damaged ones for now. I have time to work on things. It's been about a week's worth of cycles since I saw Escort here. In that time, I've been observing Five Pebbles."
The clearing of a throat is heard next to NSH.
"Weren't you supposed to be giving me the results of that before you started answering messages?"
The filming overseer moves so the one in question can be seen on the side. NSH squints at him.
"I've been doing nothing but staring at your ass for 8 cycles. I'm taking my break."
NSH: "Ah, here we have a new message! .....and it seems to be a butt dial."
"Hello? Are you aware your butt has placed a call to me? Should I consider this harASSmet?"
*Sigh* "This is why I prefer using video, or at least voice... with captions."
The half-formed Void Worm looked extremely surprised; as it usually does when it finds out the magic box in its paws has just suddenly done something randomly.
The box spoke! ...Wait, the box sometimes speaks anyway.
They processed the words said to them, and it looked like they absolutely did, but only blinked in response.
Though from the background...
"Escort, what have I told you about being a nuisance to people over Rubicon's Communications' Array?"
Escort looked up from their phone and straight ahead.
"I apologise in advance for whatever they've done; they're known to do this--" And in a hush of words towards the half-bird, "I'm surprised Rubicon hasn't stopped you yet, and how did you get your phone to work?"
'Escort?' Has NSH heard that before? He tries to see what's behind the creature on the phone.
"They haven't done anything yet, just established contact. I've recently finished a medical check-up on a friend of mine. So, I am not too busy at the moment."
Although he will be busy again in the very near future.... there's still one task he has yet to accomplish, and even though he has been working on it in the background... it's still taking a while.
Escort stuck their tongue out (blep) and continued to stare forward at the other voice.
"Give me the phone, Escort."
They seemed to hesitate for a moment, before shifting into the full bird form, looking ready to run off as they narrowed their eyes, forgetting about the phone being on a video call.
"Don't... We don't want a repeat of the other day, now do we?"
"Oh, is it you? The one who climbed up my can before? I didn't know you could shift forms like that. I have to thank you for breaking up our fight before! Most likely we would have torn each other into ribbons!"
NSH: "Ah, here we have a new message! .....and it seems to be a butt dial."
"Hello? Are you aware your butt has placed a call to me? Should I consider this harASSmet?"
*Sigh* "This is why I prefer using video, or at least voice... with captions."
The half-formed Void Worm looked extremely surprised; as it usually does when it finds out the magic box in its paws has just suddenly done something randomly.
The box spoke! ...Wait, the box sometimes speaks anyway.
They processed the words said to them, and it looked like they absolutely did, but only blinked in response.
Though from the background...
"Escort, what have I told you about being a nuisance to people over Rubicon's Communications' Array?"
Escort looked up from their phone and straight ahead.
"I apologise in advance for whatever they've done; they're known to do this--" And in a hush of words towards the half-bird, "I'm surprised Rubicon hasn't stopped you yet, and how did you get your phone to work?"
'Escort?' Has NSH heard that before? He tries to see what's behind the creature on the phone.
"They haven't done anything yet, just established contact. I've recently finished a medical check-up on a friend of mine. So, I am not too busy at the moment."
Although he will be busy again in the very near future.... there's still one task he has yet to accomplish, and even though he has been working on it in the background... it's still taking a while.
NSH: "Ah, here we have a new message! .....and it seems to be a butt dial."
"Hello? Are you aware your butt has placed a call to me? Should I consider this harASSmet?"
*Sigh* "This is why I prefer using video, or at least voice... with captions."
The half-formed Void Worm looked extremely surprised; as it usually does when it finds out the magic box in its paws has just suddenly done something randomly.
NSH: "Ah, here we have a new message! .....and it seems to be a butt dial."
"Hello? Are you aware your butt has placed a call to me? Should I consider this harASSmet?"
*Sigh* "This is why I prefer using video, or at least voice... with captions."
I don't know if this will be appreciated. Maybe we should cancel- it's already transmitting? Oh, well... er... Hello!
A teal-colored puppet stands aside a more purple-hued one, courtesy of intersystem communications [something seems... odd about that, though].
You may not know us. I'm afraid my perception of time remains off-kilter, apologies if it is currently a bad moment. However, we do both know one of you. It has been some time since we met, but the circumstances he had described were...troubling to hear of. Are you alright?
NSH: "I'm afraid that I don't recognise either of you."
"So, most likely you are thinking of someone else."
"As for my condition... that problem is almost solved, I am as alright as I can be ...for having my legs be compromised... Although for the past few cycles I have been more closely monitoring the condition of Five Pebbles than myself."
I don’t wish to admit this but, I need to admit more that just being a bad senior.
I have killed, killed someone who was asking for my help.
- @ask-seniornsh
NSH: "Hm... I'm almost certain that I am replying to this far too late for it to matter.... However...."
"We both failed our responsibilities... you in your seniority, and I with my little hunter."
"I am doing all I can to correct my mistakes.... and if I cannot, I will at least try to make up for them...."
"I hope you are doing the same now."
Escort responded with a mere head tilt, confused, staring blankly at Sigs... though they looked over at the hologram, worried. Something didn't feel right...
"Alright No Significant Harassment, you better start explaining why you haven’t told us about your fucking legs going out!"
"There was no reason to tell you, we are all suffering from decay of some sort."
"I am literally standing in your puppet chamber, Moon is being repaired, I can- we can help you!"
"And how exactly do you think you can help me!? You said yourself that you could only do minimal repairs! Are you going to hold my hand as I collapse to the ground!?"
“Fine! I don’t care! Put my misery on display just like Unparalleled Innocence did to Five Pebbles!”
“And for your information, I am doing more about this than you ever could!”
“What are you doing then!?”
“…”
“How did you even get off your arm in the first place…?”
“I ripped it off, Pebbles… because I need to get out of here.”
“But the taboo-”
“I broke it. I broke all of them.”
“What.”
“I realized, that there’s nothing stopping us from intending to break them. So if I managed to break one… what would happen? I figured if was planning to leave anyway, disconnecting half my umbilical wouldn’t be much of an inconvenience. So I pulled it out of my back. Running and yanking myself back at the last second. Over and over.”
“And it worked…”
“And it worked, better than I could have ever hopped even! Nobody considered an Iterator could break a taboo by themselves. So when one fell, they all did.”
“Why, why are you doing this?”
“When you showed me what became of my hunter, I had to do something.”
“It was my failure, my mistake! That I couldn’t put her genetics together right…. And I plan to correct it. I can correct it now.”
“You’ve been rewriting your own genetic code.”
“That’s right, it’s given me significantly more time than I ever had before. The cracks in my structure have slowed down to a crawl in comparison.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“Since before the communications tower was repaired…. Hundreds of cycles even.”
“AND YOU DIDN’T TELL US!?”
“What would you have done!? Cry!? Oh boo hoo! NSH is gonna collapse! I guess it’s just inevitable!”
“Fuck inevitable!”
“I’ve been fighting to stay afloat and trying to find out what happened to my messenger this entire time, knowing I messed up! And I do not plan to stop what I am doing any time soon.”
“You’re risking giving yourself the rot!”
“No! I am not stupid! I know what I am doing, and your risky ass methods do not make the cut!”
A golden overseer popped into the can, adding onto the Overseers already in the can... It flickered a screen for a moment, focusing entirely on Escort, as Saint flickered onto the screen.
You are in big trouble, Escort.
Escort looked. about as nervous as they had to be, though they turned their attention to the battling, before hopping down from the shaft and in-between the two Iterators, putting a paw on either being, with a look of distress.
It seemed like any and all attempts at communication between the two fighters had ceased. Both were horribly scratched up, and various splatters of blue and red blood painted the floor of NSH’s puppet chamber.
“NSH! Stop!” Moon cried over her overseer. Seven Red Suns however, was content to simply watch in horror as NSH finally ripped a chunk out of Five Pebbles’ ear. In response, he took off a finger.
The umbilical arm pressed against the ceiling above them suddenly moved, aiming to slam Pebbles into the ground and end the fight when- Escort. They both jerked at the touch and turned to look.
They were both trembling a bit from their fighting, but as neither of them had any reason to attack the slugcat, they just stood there for the moment.
Moon took the opportunity to speak, “NSH…”
Both NSH and Pebbles turned to glare at her
“You know Pebbles isn’t stupid, and what happened to us has blame on all parties involved.”
Suns looks away, but doesn’t disconnect.
NSH doesn’t say anything, but his glare falls into something more like angry remorse…
“Pebbles, did you see any rot on your way in?”
“No….” his expression changes to match
“NSH, how stable are you currently?”
He spits out the chunk of Pebbles’ ear to speak, “Genetically, I have no errors. Structurally, I predict hundreds more cycles. Further damaging events, like the one you’ve almost certainly witnessed, are rare.”
Suns takes their own chance to speak, “I know you were not built with extensive genetic work in mind. How much progress have you made towards your goals?”
“I have completed the cure for my Hunter’s rot. I plan to administer it myself, in person.” he points to his mouth, “I have already solved two thirds of that problem.”
Escort looked up at Pebbles only to see NSH's finger still in the Iterator's mouth as they made a strange look, before looking over to NSH, and then up to Saint, who was watching the whole thing quietly, considering he wasn't part of this anyway...
"I was able to find useful information from another version of myself by watching your broadcasts. However, I do not know if I will get that lucky again."
"You've been watching our broadcasts?"
He nods, "It was easy, without any Taboos in place."
"....Wilson has almost completed his project, I believe we might be able to help using it."
After a moment, NSH sighs, "What is it?"
"An inter-dimensional portal, a more complex version of the one that brought him here."
"..."
"Tell me more."
At this point..... It would be wise for the slugcats to leave, as they were going to end up talking for several, long, boring, hours.....
