why do drugs when you can be reborn as a god

GOTTA GO FAST

(A/N this is the rewritten version of THE PLOT TOOK SEVERAL DETOURS BUT SOMEHOW GOT THERE FASTER with the the VERY changed plot)

"Did a vessel just- wait- YOU DARE INSULT ME, INSOLENT VESSEL"

FUCK SHIT ASS MOTHERFUCKER THAT STARTLED THE FUCK OUT OF ME- I stumble but regain my balance before I fall just like they- NOPE. Steering the hell away from that train of thought I notice the pale fork lookin ass searching for me. Luckily for me I hadn't climbed that far up yet and I remained out of his line of sight, choosing a path that would keep me from being found.

Deciding to look back down as I climbed, I see a group of shades forming as more and more vessels fall to their premature deaths. Scanning the area around them I notice the "pure" vessel climbing fast with ghost not too far behind, a bit farther past but still somewhat separated from the group of shades is- goateye. 

Freezing for a moment before recovering I go back to climbing and decide to not look that far back again for my sanity. Near the top I find a spot and wait, hoping that the lamp fork lovechild would be distracted by his pure vessel bs to kill me. Watching the "pure" vessel and ghost reach the platform I remember what happens in the birthplace cutscene and panic. 

Barely tackling ghost onto a platform before they fall and- wait shit the pale fork probably saw that and now I'm fucking dead. Good job, I completely derailed my plan because I forgot a crucial detail. What a good job I'm doing. Weirdly he isn't doing anything, letting go of ghost who was trying to get out of my grip I take advantage of his confusion and sprint past him.

Well that went better than expected. I think to myself, like a fucking idiot as I proceed to run into a wall twice. Dusting myself off I seem to have run out of luck as soon as I get out of the place that leads to the abyss I happen to run into a set of  kingsmoulds guarding the exit, presumably to keep people from interfering with the vessel picking bs. 

Shit. I barely scrape by as one of them slashes at me, pulling out my nail I realize that I'm in waist deep shit as I barely manage to kill the first one, I have no chance to focus and I've gotten hit a lot, honestly I'm just glad there's no masks physics like the game. Focusing on the task at hand I stab it right in the face and it disappointingly gives me no geo like the other one.

 Taking a sec to focus and heal my wounds using the soul leftover from the shadow crawlers in the abyss I see the pale king approaching with hallow (A/N I'm just going to switch to that so it's easier to write),-and ghost??? Weird that he took both but I don't have time to think about that I need to hide.

 Dashing behind a weird fossil thing I peek out and watch as the discount lamp brings the two with him to wherever the fuck he's going. After sitting behind the weird rock fossil thing for awhile I begin to plan out what to do next. The city of tears just might be my best bet considering I could blend in easier there, and it seems like it would be pretty populated making it hard to find me there.

Climbing out of the ancient basin I manage to pickpocket some random guard heading to the palace, looking inside the bag I stole I see a few charms including a wayward compass charm, a pretty impressive map, a mini bag absolutely packed full of geo, a cloth probably used to clean their nail, and a weird rock which I assume they use to sharpen their nail. I'd feel bad for them but with how much geo and shit they had on hand they're probably rich.

With that I head out. Setting my sights on a nearby weird elevator thing, I quickly join a small crowd of people heading on with a few looks my way, no one seems too interested though, probably assuming I'm just short because realistically how the hell would a child get to the ancient basin.

I zoned out as the elevator thing was taking fucking forever to get to the city of tears, although I guess it taking forever makes sense considering there are so many people on it. As soon as it stops and the doors open I run out, heading straight for a group of stalls I don't notice that I'm running right on the direction of a bug.

"Are you alright? Where are your parents?"

 I took their hand, dusting myself off when I got up. Looking at the bug I bumped into I see-

 wait- is that- quirrel?

(A/N HEY READERS I know I said something about 500-600 words but I just couldn't help myself. I'm so excited to go in this direction for the fic as I haven't seen any other vessel insert fics do this before and I find it fun to add original spice [totally not replaying the game and using this to cope with quirrel's inevitable death I don't know what you're talking about/j] all jokes aside I do genuinely like this idea because I like quirrel as a character and I feel like him and monomon are underappreciated and underexplored when it comes to hollow knight fics. I love the monomon adopting quirrel headcannon so expect to see that in future chapters. also I love the idea of monomon finding out that the vessels were really sentient and her dealing with the guilt, so expect angst about that ;] I don't think that people even read these authors notes lmao)