Awakened

Connected

Killer stared at the boats in the water.
Carrot stared beside him, frozen mid-lick on his paw.
"...The fuck happened." The creeper stated, never taking his gaze off the weird pig sculk thing sitting behind the spider.
They stared back with their head tilted to the side.

"..A lot happened." Geno finally replied, currently sitting in a boat of his own instead of flying. He was keeping Blue upright in front of him, pushing the vessel along with his sand.
"What happened??" Killer insisted, freaking out ever so slightly.

"He freaked out, fell and started killing sculk around him." The weird pig thing explained with a shudder.
"Because of that thing you had with you!" Cross snapped.
"Hey, hey, no one expected that to happen. He'll probably wake up again soon and everything will be fine." Geno spoke diplomatically.

"And if he doesn't?!" Killer demanded shrilly.
"We're heading back to the surface." Geno ignored his concern.
"And that guy??" He jabbed a leg at the stranger.
"Oh I'm coming with! I'm Ink!" He cheerily explained.
"That's.. great. The fuck are you?"
Killer winced as Fresh shot him a dark look.

"Undead piglin." Ink shrugged as a long thing made of sculk curled up from behind him. "Plus Broomie." He added nonchalantly.
"The fu- what is that?!" Killer demanded.
"Sculk tail." Epic explained shortly. "It's attached."
"What do you mean it's attached- ohhhueeggh-" He spluttered when he noticed the tentacle coiling behind an ear. "Sculk does not attach to people. What did you do?"

"Made a deal with it I guess?" Ink shrugged again. "I don't get why it's so weird."
Killer stared at him for that comment.
He shared a look with Carrot, who mutely agreed: this guy was weird.
"Your sculk problem isn't contagious or anything, is it?"
"Broomie is not a problem!" Ink argued, hesitating.
"And no." He answered.

Killer grumbled uneasily, tentatively sliding off into the boat Cross had begrudgingly steadied against the shore. Carrot hopped down after him, and the piglin pushed off, eager to get going.
"So you're actually a plant?" Ink asked as if nothing was wrong.

"Yeah. And?" Killer shot back defensively.
"Just curious. What if trees could become aware, too?"
The creeper hesitated, having not thought of that.
".. Probably better to be dead than a sentient tree." He finally decided.
"Really? Why's that?"
"I- obviously because trees can't do anything! They can't move, can't talk, can't even see, what kind of conscious existence is that?"

For some reason the others winced at that, Ink just staring blankly.
"What?" Killer demanded.
"No, you're right." Ink went on. "It is unbearably boring. Guess I just never thought death was preferable."
"Huh?"

"So uh." Fresh started awkwardly, drifting in close.
"Turns out sculk is conscious." He whispered.
Ink watched their interaction with that mildly unsettling blank stillness, only the sensing tendril on the back of his head moving, glowing as it faced them.

"What do you mean it's conscious?" Killer whispered back, baffled.
"Awake." Cross elaborated. "With its own thoughts, apparently."
"...Ah. That's.. weird." Killer settled on, avoiding swearwords with Fresh right there.

"Wait a minute." He then realized, staring at Ink.
"How does your whole infection thing work? Is it just in your head? Do you have a voice in your head?"
"I'm not infected." Ink retorted, pointed ears flicking as he moved on to consider the actual question.

"And it doesn't really have a voice. Broomie kinda does, but it's limited I guess? Sculk doesn't think like most people do. It's more feeling than words, y'know? Like all of you look kinda delicious, and Broomie's scared it'll forget you're not for eating. Get it?"
"No??"