Well… I think I’m leaving this group, officially.
I wanted to stay so I could interact with my friends that are still here, but with my other groups and gaming, I just can’t force myself to continue writing here. I made a lot of good friends and I’ll miss writing with you guys :’(
Badou, as if snapping out of it, shrieks right back and while he doesn’t unhinge his jaw or anything, he does lift a foot to kick Grimm in the face, hopefully blocking him.
Wow, that’s a screech. Grimm is rather surprised. The audience is surprised, too. They seem to be watching both in horror and morbid fascination, a train wreck you can’t look away from.
The “Judge” has his head shoved back by the kick, but he’s still clinging claws into Badou’s clothes (the true victim here). Truthfully, he was never planning on hurting the unfortunate guy… just scare him a little. A little.
“CAN WE HELP YOU TWO?” the bailiff is also now shrieking.
It seems Grimm can wait for later to explain himself. This may be for the best, as by the time they arrive at the apartment, the Hollow Knight has exhausted its limited store of energy.
There is no end to the surprises, however. Grimm never mentioned that he had a child!
The child’s stare is met by an equally curious gaze. It has never seen the child before, but there is an unavoidable familiarity nonetheless. What a tiny bug—amusing to think that this one will grow up to be a god.
Then again, it was once a tiny bug itself.
…
This is a more difficult question than it should be. It strains to remember anything of Hallownest as it once was, from the brief time before it was sealed away forever. To think too hard brings distress. But… it thinks it knows what a hot spring is.
You must ask for a reason. Is there one here?
“Yes, a hot spring…. sort of! Each living space has one, no matter one’s social status. Amazing, no?” Grimm explains, a feature that he quite likes about the land outside of Hallownest. He hurries into the bathroom, waving for Hollow to follow as the child simply keeps staring like it’s found a new fascination.
He’s quick to run the bath, and it barely needs any time for the water to heat up. Mammals do know how to live, he thinks! Although… look at the size. It’s built for someone of human stature. The Knight might not be able to completely fit… its poor knees might not get to enjoy the heat. Still…
“Go on, get in,” he insists while pouring in some tea tree oil for the nice scent and relaxation factor. “You can help wash the little one. Maybe it won’t put up a fight while it’s interested in you… ha!”
“How are you sure I am who I say I am, when you don’t even know who you are?”
Okay is he playing like, an Oracle kind of role in all this? Perhaps this is the Matrix…
“What’s really reality though….”
He stares. Silent. Badou/Not Badou is clearly taking him for a ride. Grimm does not like when people take him for a ride. Only he is allowed to take others for rides.
Grimm shrieks like a banshee, gigantic mouth full of sharp teeth, and leaps at Badou like some sort of hellspawn creature. Oh! Now the audience is paying attention to the two.
If so, he’s hidden it well enough. It cannot exactly be blamed for not meeting a lot of people here, when it wasn’t supposed to have any attachments… it lives as if dreaming most of the time, with rare flashes of painful clarity.
This request of Grimm’s is strange. Surely he is the one better equipped to gather information about others…?
Or… no, that can’t be it. Can it?
Is this the new purpose you would grant me? To run your errands?
“Aha, if I wanted to have you run my errands, you’d be getting baby formula from the supermarket.”
They soon end up at apartment 304, Grimm entering and waving to a person already there. She says something about how it’s ‘been good’ and he takes out his phone to pay her. A wonderful transaction! As the mystery lady leaves, Grimm bounds over to the couch to pick up his tiny little beloved worm child.
“Nyeh?” it says from the arms of Grimm, staring over at Hollow. Big bug! Big horns! It might be tired, but it’s more interested in the other now.
“Now Hollow, did you ever enjoy the hot springs in Hallownest?” the moth asks, rubbing the child’s head.
“You didn’t know what a period was? Wow…ignorance is bliss, isn’t it.”
Badou still seems to be calm about it all. It’s hard to tell, just from his expression, if he knows what’s going on or not. Or if he’s just waiting to dangle these carrots in front of Grimm’s little proboscis or whatever.
“So what, you think this is all…a reality show inside a court tv show?”
“This was a conversation to you!!” he screeches, unable to tell if he’s being played with. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember it, either?!”
It’s entirely possible that Badou is in the same position he is… or he could be in on it. Grimm just doesn’t know. He can’t trust him…
“Forget the play going on here! I’m talking about reality!”
It’s reluctant to let go, nearly grasping for Grimm’s hand as he withdraws it. Finally it wraps its arm around itself, tucked under its stained cloak. There is no comfort to be found in its own cold shell.
But there is a great relief in having somewhere to go, instead of wandering aimlessly. It follows without question, taking some time to process Grimm’s line of questioning.
Could this capricious old god truly care what the answers are? Whether he does or not, to have any questions asked about its experiences is new. Its mind feels strange, fuzzy: its thoughts expand in unfamiliar directions.
Memory… is oft unclear. After so long spent without timekeeping, such things are difficult to grasp.
Its gaze remains fixed on Grimm as it walks slowly, lagging behind him.
This world… changes. Lives. For some time, it slept, blanketed under freezing cold. Now, it begins to wake again.
There are some who have attempted conversation, but none have long kept my company. It may be for the best.
So, Hollow is basically saying it has no friends and hasn’t been paying attention to how long it’s been here.
“I see…” Grimm responds plainly as he continues the walk back to the apartments, uncertain of what he was expecting to hear. “There are… a few people I’d like you to investigate. Difficult, it shall not be.”
Ismael, especially. Why the extensive text message conversations between the two of them, and for how often they’d apparently met. Enough that he’d sent her a holiday gift without truly knowing. Martel, too—someone he’d supposedly planted flowers with and had left notes for himself in the apartment to make sure he checked on them.
Badou sighs loudly, and ignores the continued and constant arguing of their defendant and plaintiff. Even the audience is getting in on it.
The redhead perks up, his eyebrows raised.
“I’m your coworker, duh.”
“We are not coworkers! We don’t work here!”
He sighs. The audience is more focused on the strange story of the mystery ball meal, still. Good, he supposes? Grimm yanks out his phone, holding out the screen showing their latest text messages—Badou surely remembers the earliest of which entailed him having to tell the Very Foreign Troupe Master what a period was.
Grimm’s reaction speaks more than his words. Tension hangs heavily in the air as the Vessel stares, its cautious hopefulness fading into a cold resignation. If a god of dreams couldn’t find him—make that two gods, as the Old Light never caught him in her snare either—then he must be somewhere long out of reach.
Then, he is…
This comes as little surprise, but it hurts nonetheless. It had always held the thought, a childish wish, that one day it should see Father again. A thought which had been leveraged against it, burning its way out from the inside…
It takes Grimm’s hand, holding on as if life depends on it.
Let us speak no more of this. Please.
Grimm squeezes that hand lightly before letting go and motioning the Knight to follow, a likely futile comfort to one that has lost so much.
“I have things for you to do. Information I want to find.”
And hopefully in these tasks, the vessel will explore the city and interact with many. It might find something it enjoys, the more it gets comfortable. Then again… what was it doing before Grimm found it? Perhaps it had made some progress on its own?
“Before that, I wish to show you to my residence. For now.” The god certainly does hate being told where to stay, but it’s convenient enough for him to roll with it for the time being. “How long have you been here? Have you met any people? Found them interesting?”
