A/N: Ghost anon this might be the best thing I’ve ever written what the FUCK did you do to me? This also isn’t exactly romantic explicitly but it can certainly be seen as such! I honestly am not sure how to describe this. It is... somethin’ jfdcgyuf uhhhhh bug! reader bug! gives Vessel a smooch! on da forehead!!! what more could you want? in the spirit of Hollow Knight they Do Not get a happy ending fjdkgruifjgd Team Cherry has ruined my capacity for joy and I’m suing for emotional damages. Um. Yeah. Enjoy! Or don’t. Whichever you prefer.
Word Count: 1.9k
The bug paused as it stared up at the Vessel walking along the halls of the palace. Its head and cloak and nail matched the whites and grays of the architecture, the only contracts being the jet blacks of their arms, legs and eyes. The Vessel did not look back at the bug, giving it more opportunity to stare at its grace and glory that rivaled that of the King himself. It could not speak its thoughts aloud, for it knew it would be ostracized by its associates, and perhaps by the King or Queen. It would gaze lovingly and stay quiet, as it had done since it first saw the vessel.
It would not say it grew up with the Vessel, because it did not, but the Vessel was an important part of it growing up and growing old. It first visited the castle as a child with its parents, as the Queen wanted more personal servants for her children and their family needed the money. She seemed kind enough, so they went. The Lady then introduced the bug to the vessel, with horns high on its head and eyes dark as the blackest night sky. It held out a tray of food to the vessel, not knowing whether or not it ate or was capable of eating or was even alive. Even being near it was unnerving. It stared into the being’s soul, and it stared back. The bug felt something towards them- fear, curiosity, pity -but it simply turned and walked away. It was made a servant not long after, but left for its parents becoming infected with the orange sickness.
While it stayed in the castle alongside the vessel, it learned a few things. It learned that the King was nowhere near as calm as he appeared to be on the surface. It learned that there were more vessels than it had originally expected. And it learned that there was no cost too great. The King repeated the quote over and over again, to the servants, to the Kingsmoulds and Vessels, the Royal Retainers, and to himself as he walked the lonely halls with a tattered cloak in his claws.
It felt a pull at its mind, a tingle of feeling within the numbness. Its parents had been lost a while ago, and it simply wandered the quickly emptying City and towns with no clear goal in mind, merely something to distract from the grief once and a while. It was never one for crying. It spoke to the Watcher, the Teacher and her assistant, the Stags, and even managed to visit the Knights at one point. But something was missing. Some unquenched curiosity. Something it wanted, or needed, to know.
It pictured a black void staring it down as it shakily handed over a refined nail. It saw a slight tilt of a horned head as it began to speak about how much it liked the rain back in the City of Tears. It heard a slight rapping on its head when it had lost focus and someone was trying to regain it.
Someone. A Vessel. A Void. A Knight.
It went back to the White Palace.
The Queen seemed to recognize it immediately and greeted it with a smile. The King had less so, and had a frantic or manic energy about him, though his exterior seemed mostly calm. Some of the Retainers recognized it as well, greeting it happily. But they weren’t exactly what it was here for, as cruel as it may sound. It looked around the palace until its eyes landed on the one it was searching for.
The Pure Vessel.
It didn’t pay the smaller bug any mind at first, but as it slowly approached the vessel, it seemed to pay more attention. The vessel turned its head to them. It had grown into it more, the horns extending far above its head with a smaller, more pointed face. The bug wondered if it recognized it. The vessel tilted its head. The bug tilted its own. The vessel walked away.
It may not have shown, but the bug felt understanding in the vessel’s gaze. It remembered.
And if it remembered, then it must have a mind to think.
The bug tried to plead its case to the King. It has a mind to think, it does. It may not have a voice to cry, but it has a will to break and a mind to think. It is not the kind of Pure he has been searching for. But the King wouldn’t hear it. “No cost too great” he mumbled once more. “No cost too great”, he said as he stood and left the bug to kneel on the cold floor alone. “No cost too great”, he chanted like a prayer. If the gods needed to pray, what hope did they have?
Day after day went by, getting closer and closer to what the bug dreaded. Nobody deserves to be locked away for the rest of their life, not even someone born for the sole purpose of doing so. Its associates tried to cheer it up in some capacity, saying the Vessel wouldn’t feel anything, that it was happy with its duty, that it wanted this. The bug knew that none of this was true, and it felt despair that they all thought it was. It felt helpless. It was just a small, meaningless little servant. What was it to do?
Not wallow in self-pity, that’s for sure. It did all the things it was supposed to do, as a personal Royal Retainer. It sharpened the Vessel’s nail as one of the others said it felt hot and stumbled around the palace. It patched the Vessel’s cloak as they spouted something about it being too bright, too hot, and screaming and shaking and tearing at their eyes as they were dragged to the doctor. It handed the Vessel a flower of sorts it found outside as it watched a guard from the City attack a Kingsmould with glowing orange eyes and a slow, dragging gait that told the bug that the guard was not in full control of itself.
It would never tell the King that its vision had begun to brighten just a bit. It never said anything about the orange that seemed to drip from its eyes when it scratched. It kept absolutely silent about the voices whispering to join the light. It was fine. It was fine. Nothing was wrong.
It wasn’t going to spread to other bugs, so it was fine.
All too soon, the time came. It would be sealed away, the infection held inside of it, alone inside the Egg behind the Dreamers for as long as necessary. The bug had no idea how long it would be “necessary”, but it knew that neither of them would be alive if the Pure Vessel was ever let out.
It watched with the few remaining Retainers as they made their way down to the Crossroads, to the Egg. The King looked frantic. The Queen looked vaguely scared. The Vessel looked calm, as it always did. Calm. Unfeeling. Unthinking. A walking void. The bug knew better, but it was too late for both of them. It felt the burning in its body, the all-too-brightness of its eyes. It didn’t have much time left, it knew. That was fine. They lived longer than many others. Besides, they wouldn’t be “dead”, necessarily. At least until the Kingsmoulds found them out.
The Royals walked past all the Retainers, mumbling short “thank you”s, and “we’ll be back”s and “Hallownest will be restored”s. The bug knew it probably wouldn’t work. The others kept hope, however. It decided to let them, because there was no reason not to. It nodded to the King and Queen and stared forward.
The Vessel stopped. The bug had no clue why, but the Vessel was stopped. It decided to look up, and was met with those empty eyes staring back. It was afraid for a moment, wondering if the Vessel could see or feel that it was sick. It wondered if it felt pity, or anger, or something else entirely. And then the Vessel kneeled down.
The bug wasn’t sure why or how, but it… saw something in the emotionless eyes of the Vessel. Something akin to… understanding. Kinship, perhaps. It knew, and it cared, and the bug felt seen for the first time in a while. The Vessel did not move, and continued not to move for so long that the King and Queen began to get antsy. The bug didn’t understand what the Vessel wanted, though it supposed that was the point. It couldn’t say anything. It couldn’t do anything, lest the King believe it wasn’t as pure as he assumed. It could only kneel there and hope the bug understood what it wanted to say.
The bug decided to push its luck by reaching out and taking the Vessel’s face in its hands. The Vessel did not move an inch, which was good because it really did not want to be killed for this. It searched through the Vessel’s eyes once more, feeling as though it could get lost in the dark abyss. The bug let out a soft breath and brought the Vessel’s face closer, knocking its own forehead with the other’s. The Vessel jumped, only slightly, before leaning in a little closer to the bug. It took a breath in.
“I know I have not spoken,” it said.
“I know you do not know me well,” it said.
“I know you are scared,” it said.
“You are wonderful. You are greater than any god I could ever witness or worship. You are more beautiful and powerful than them as well. You are an abomination in the eyes of everyone I know, and one that I would happily spend the rest of my days simply watching to see what it will do next. Dear King may not see that you feel, but I do. I see the curiosity, and little joys, and sadness that you feel so very often. I would have loved to see you feel openly. You are the most interesting being I have ever had the pleasure of caring for, and I only have one thing to ask of you: please don’t forget about me. You need not my name or my kind or my title. You need not remember me as fondly I do you. Just… remember me. That is all I ask.”
It gave the other a small, chaste kiss on its head and pulled away from the Vessel, who had reached out and laid a gentle claw on its shoulder during the speech. The Vessel stepped away and stood up fully, hesitating only for a moment to pat the head of the bug who smiled in return. It felt the emotion radiating off of the Vessel, though it could not see it. The Purest Vessel turned away, walking after its Mother and Father, not looking back, not regretting, not stopping.
The bug smiled, because that is the best it could hope for, considering it had one foot in the grave.
–
Bright…
Bright…
So… bright…
Too… bright…
Remember…
Remember…
Remember… Father…
Remember… Mother…
Remember… Siblings…
Remember…
Remember… it…
It…?
It… polished… your… nail…
It… cleaned… your… cloak…
It… brought… you… food…
Who… was it?
Was it… them?
Mother spoke of… the one…
A heartmate…
A soulmate…
You have no heart…
And you have no soul…
How could you hope…
For something such as that…
For someone so lovely…
So kind and pure…
Pure…
Pure…
A Pure… Vessel…
A Pure… Body…
A Pure… Heart…
Love…
Love…
Love…
Bright…
So bright…
Too bright…
… love…
…
…
… happy…
Have some MS Paint shitposts from Stackpile au because there's no way I'm drawing them normally :D
Original idea by @catarium
Some comments below:
1) I imagine not always all the vessels are present, which results in the PV growing and shrinking.
2) Surely someone had to walk in on the vessels just chilling, no one really did anything as the retainers don't know almost anything about The Vessel and they do not dare to question The King (even tho the king also doesn't know shit) so you know? Multiple Pure Vessels? This could just as well happen. (well i mean they're not wrong?)
3) pretty sure after a while others would believe immediately, seeing the weirdness of The Vessel
4) the siblings after some time stopped really giving a shit what's happening around them, they're not really hiding much anymore as long as no one snitches on them to the king (as if the king would believe anyone)
5) callback to one of the previous comics, retainers worry that Hornet will meet the same fate as all the random children that The Vessel has pulled in before. All they really know is that PV has been walking around and consuming abandonded children along the way (as they don't know the children are vessels as well), which later may show up as one of the masks/faces of The Vessel. Nightmare fuel for them, I guess.
Basically for the retainers and other bugs of Hallownest The Vessel is some kind of a demon-like being and they're not even sure if the king has any control over it, despite being his creation. lol
