From the Vast

Interlude VIII: Echoes

again

A brackish puddle, barely shallow enough to breathe in, rests in golden sand. In all directions, only desert and scouring sun, forever. Echoes reverberate through the infinity, becoming just noise, sound—nothing.

Too much of nothing.

In the pond, filling it up, a captured soul. Torn from her people, her gods, her element. Above, a dark thing that is and isn't her, a presence no younger than her and yet rediscovered every single day.

they will hurt you

"~C'mon, work at it you thing!~"

*snap-crack!*

Another mistake, another fell strike of the ringleader's whip.

The Brionne let out a shrill cry as the cut joined the untold others on her arm. Simple fucking instruction, just had to make a spectacle with these bubbles for a while and everything would go smoothly, and yet the dumb thing just didn't.

A deep breath, a moment of focus, another go. She didn't pay attention to the trickle of blood on her shoulder, devoting her entire self to her only remaining purpose. She shouldn't have had as much control over them as she already had. It was a gift meant to only be granted by the Lady of Waves after her final evolution—and yet; she managed to replicate it from the few memories of her family singing in choir.

Was this an offense? Was that why she was here, sentenced to a hell of someone else's creation for stepping out of order—

"~No slacking, again!~"

*snap-crack!*

What encouragement the biped couldn't provide, the blue-yellow Electric-type beside them would make up for in abundance if she didn't step up. Another attempt, even better. And again, and again, until the masters of these lands were satisfied with her efforts. She tried staring into their eyes many times.

The almost-hairless bipeds offered her confusion, pity, disgust, scorn. She expected other beings to show something else, be something else, but they didn't. Not like the tall ones, but not like her, either. They had someones, they were granted the bare minimum of protection from the system, they weren't just a 'thing'.

At least it wasn't them.

won't you learn

The puddle grows deeper, making it even harder to breathe. Louder, louder still, distant voices double up on themselves until they become deafening. Carried by an absence of air, an absence of wind, an absence of any relief.

For there is only her, the suffocating mass above her, and the inescapable sun roasting her insides.

nobody will ever understand you

"Sheesh, if I knew it was gonna be this bad, I woulda added a suspension to ease the bumps, or smaller wheels or something. Why'd she not say anything?"

The voices from around the corner remained as well-intentioned as ever, despite the frustration clear in the high-pitched one. It'd be one thing if she'd just botched her attempt at a cart or it broke, risking the safety of someone older than herself, but to have its recipient silently suffer while using it until she just dropped in the middle of the camp without saying a peep?

How was anyone supposed to figure out what was wrong?

"I do not know, Mikiri. I will ask once she comes to again."