Morality & Mortality (Artificer x Reader)

The Outskirts

[[ORIGINAL BY LIFEFORMED, JANICE KWAN AND MATT MORGAN]]

[[EXTENSION BY KIRA RESARI]]

You dreamt of things.

Wonderful things.

Things you once had.

You dreamt of The Surface, a place where no predators could dare step foot, a place where all of your hopes and dreams could come to fruition. Your family, friends, colleagues, peers. All of them, on The Surface, living life to the fullest. Without a care in the world.

It was a place of beauty. High up in the sky. You were immune to the rain that plagued you every day. Immune from the constant fear of death that took up half your mind every day. You were immune to anything. It sure as hell felt like it.

Good food, the fruits were clean, hand picked. Much better than anything you've eaten here combined. You remember having bountiful meals with your friends and family, stuffing yourselves with all a manner of delicious food.

You didn't have to kill to put food in your hands. You didn't have to watch anyone kill anything. 

The Saints, your beliefs, your teachings. It all came from them; they were your light in the everlasting gloom of hopelessness. They took you under their wing when you were at your darkest. They were your family. They were your life. 

They promised you a grand future. That you would become more than yourself. And that you would...  

...

You forgot what you were made for. . . But you should remember in time. 

The gift of life on The Surface was in your grasp, forever casting a glow on your soul.

But then, fate wrenched all of this from your hands, as you plummeted further and further down into the tenebrous depths of a rainy hell.

Alone.

Starving.

And questioning everything. . .

You woke... Though you wished you hadn't. 

Dreaming of a better place was better than living in this horrible one. 

The sleep you had wasn't the most comfortable rest in the world, due to you literally sleeping on a rusty sheet of metal, but it was still rest anyway. Beggars can't be choosers.

Your leg still stung like hell, and you wouldn't be able to run all too well, but you were alive and that's good enough for you. 

The sanctuary was damp, some of the Rain must've leaked through the vault, somehow. Luckily it wasn't a full on breach. That would be very annoying. 

The red slugcat and her companion were gone. Perhaps the entire thing was a messed-up hallucination?

...