Solivagency - Empires SMP

XLI

Xornoth woke up a few more times after that.

The majority of their periods awake were hazy and foggy. Sometimes Gem or Fwhip came in and tried to ask them questions and they really tried to answer them, but it was so hard to breathe and they quickly lost their voice from trying to describe something longer than five sentences. They weren't even that long.

Usually somebody else was in the room. It was Sausage most of the time, keeping watch over them to make sure they didn't do anything. Today however, it was someone different.

By someone different, they meant Shrub, accompanied by a small army of wolves that surrounded her as she sat on one of the weird plastic chairs. They shifted their head to the side, getting a short growl from one of the wolves, and found her glaring at them so violently that they're surprised that they didn't set on fire.

(They didn't blame her. How could they blame her? How could anyone ev r blame her?)

Xornoth looked away immediately, not wanting to intrude on what was probably her internal hate monologue. One wolf made a loud bark and they flicked their gaze over to it in surprise, but it was simply barking for the sake of it. It was cute and fluffy and only just large enough to be an adult, and it tilted it's head at them and wagged their tail just a little.

She caught their glance and stared back, face closed and stony. Uncomfortableness crawled along their skin immediately and they tried to shift themself so that they were positioned ever so slightly away from her.

It was definitely awkward. Well, awkward didn't even begin to cut it. They had no idea what was going through her head, and they really hoped that literally anything happened to distract them because the stiff silence was incredibly hard to bear.

"You're a real asshole, you know that?" She muttered.

They actually did know, but that wasn't important and they couldn't voice their thoughts without their throat becoming even sorer.

Their eyes closed again (if only they could stay awake for a little longer, if only they could talk and tell Shrub that they were sorry) and they heard her mumble something else to herself as they drifted off. They didn't bother trying to catch it.

-

Gem walked in, her shoes clicking on the floor. She was alone this time, no Fwhip to accompany her, but it didn't make Xornoth feel any better.

"I know you're experiencing difficulty speaking, but I need to ask a few questions about your medical history." They barely managed to stop themself from wincing. "And don't lie."

They nodded at her, and that must have been a good enough response because she immediately brought out a leather notebook and a pen. They thought that she would use a quill and an ink pit, but apparently society had progressed and she didn't need to use the feather of an animal.

"How old are you?"

The question caught them completely off guard and they paused. How old were they? They should know, right? They should definitely know. It was... over a century. They knew that much. But- what was their actual age? It- they should- why didn't they know?

They looked away, shame burning into their face and shrugged. They didn't know how old they were.

"Okay." Gem blinked at them. "That's... okay. Well, uh-" She stopped for check something in the notebook. "Do you know your birthday?"

They shook their head.

She stared at them for a little while before snapping out of it. "Well, I'll just ask Scott I suppose, but- okay. Um. Did you develop wings as a child and was your growth normal?"