Writing Prompt: Hackneyed Word Count: 865 ---> masterlist
One mind. One drive. One goal.
Hunt. Eat. Battle. War. Expand. Conquer. Destroy.
Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight. Fight…!
Words and meaning blended into one. All within one shared conscious. One shared mindset that never deviated. No desires save for that of the true Overmind. No thought of yours was your own. A glorious echo chamber that united every single unit upon the same path. All by one name. With many appendages to be called its soldiers of no names.
Such was the colony of the Gnath. Following those self-same commands from first breath to last. Their experiences shared with the one mind to forever live on as fact, but the shell of their former selves to be left forgotten after a service. For there was not one amongst themselves with any sense of individuality—none save the Overmind who connected them all and linked them together. All one and the same.
Yet one Gnath was different amongst them. Not like the Vath with their own individuality and names. For they were still one and the same with every other entity of the Gnath. Driven and grown within the same hivemind. But they were of flesh and blood in comparison to their insectoid mates. Of a different race altogether, but was born a Gnath Warrior to battle on the frontlines and secure succulent meats. Thrown to war in droves with their brethren for territory. With no mind for themselves or their body.
An overbearing mantra that continued its melody regardless of their true form.
Fight! Kill! War! Conquer! For Glorious Combat..!
Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill
…
Until it snapped.
When ceaseless, maddening thoughts came to a complete and utter stop. And the unnamed unit came to a sudden halt. Their mind had gone blank. That connection they had always had with them… the voice of their colony and everything that they were… gone within an instant. Letting loose a feral scream of confusion as a new world of color rushed into their eyes and overtook them. Bathing them in new thoughts… a new voice to them… But whose were they? Where had their consciousness gone?
The comfort of the Overmind was no longer present. What were these thoughts? These feelings? This rush of adrenaline and mindfulness of one’s self?
They had become so overwhelmed that they simply collapsed upon themselves then and there. Whatever they had been doing… whatever they had been fighting… taking the charge in capturing their person and enveloping them in warm embrace.
…
…
…
When next they came to, they were surrounded. By those who looked and appeared like their brethren, but their thoughts did not intermingle with theirs. Nothing could be heard save for the clicks between themselves and voices—their voices. The Vath. That much they realized.
The unit stood there a blank slate. A husk of themselves. Empty and unfeeling.
The Vath tried to explain to them what had happened. That their link with the onemind had been severed. That they were free to live and become an individual. That they had been saved by one of their kin.
Kin?
Hazy eyes scanned the crowd until one of small stature stepped forth. They were not a Gnath or Vath. But the way they looked… the way they moved and held out their arms in welcome. The unnamed reached out their own arms and realized themselves the same of body. Where their warmth intermingled on touch… the same warmth that had enveloped them before when they collapsed.
“From this day forth, you are not another nameless number. You have been born anew with a life of your own. No longer will you follow the will of another. Not when you now have one of your own.”
So said the lalafell by the name of Garen before them.
Maddening. This feeling of madness. Where their thoughts called out for their colony, only to be met with complete and utter silence. As if they’d been lost and abandoned.
They… they had to think for themselves now…?
They could never return?
“Come with me.” Garen took their hand in his. “I know it’s a lot, but the Vath filled me in on what you must be feeling right now. I can help with that. And I can help you become the person you’re meant to be.”
Words that rang hollow in this lost soul’s mind. Of one who only ever knew to fight and nothing more. A desire that he didn’t even have at this moment… that familiar desire to fight! It was as though it had been drained into nothingness.
“Seiseito.” The lalafellin man had spoken up again. “You are one of my own kind and so you deserve to be named as one. Seiseito will be your name. Lest you opt for something different later.”
“Sei…seito…” The words sounded foreign in their own voice. Learning now that they even had a voice! One of their own.
They… Seiseito… would follow this unknown man. Learn the ways of his new life and of his new kin. To learn the meaning to life for oneself. And not for a whole.
