Morality & Mortality (Artificer x Reader)

Screen Of Hell

Scene 1

Your P.O.V

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The sanctuary's doors opened lethargically, like always. 

You prepared to face the horrors outside, like always.

The damp scent of The Rain and the rancid smell of the outside world filled your nostrils in a fetid tango. They mixed and matched with the sole purpose of making you nauseous.

Just like always...

Before you ventured out, and probably get mauled to death, you took a simple look at Artificer. A quick check up never hurt anybody.

She was sound asleep, her chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. When she wasn't tearing apart lizards with her bare hands and feasting on their innards, she just looked like any other slugcat. This observation obviously didn't account her missing eye and various scars, however those 'blemishes' only added to her rather, pretty aesthetic.  

She'd been through a lot, even a lizard could figure that out. It might be worthwhile to get to know her past a little more, she mentioned that she had a family.

Putting all that aside, she did look rather 'cute'.

However, the term 'cute' was simply how she looked, you couldn't dare compliment her based on her personality. You're just being lenient.

There was no way in The Cycle's golden world that you actually thought a mass murderer looked adorable while they slept. 

Then your mind decided to flash back to when you were resting on Artificer's shoulder. To be fair, you had no control on where you rested after you were knocked unconscious. But you really should have suppressed that stupid blush of yours.

Whatever, Forbid, Forgive, Forget. Or however the saying goes, you had much more pressing matters to attend to.

First things first, you had to find a way out of this place, working on that would be much better than getting all flustered over a fellow (bloodthirsty, mind you) slugcat.

As you crawled out of the shelter you saw a sight that you didn't expect to see. 

Instead of the dark and fairly open space from last cycle, you instead were greeted with a pipe network that forced you to get down on your thin little arms and legs.

The darkness that resided in the dusty walls seemed to wave at you, inviting you in.

You took a deep sigh, without a lantern in this place you may as well be shouting, "Hey spiders I'm over here! Eat me alive already!".

But having your head torn off by an unseen threat would probably be better than slowly succumbing to hunger pains. So, you slowly crawled forward, much to your own discomfort.

You ascended through the pipe system, choosing to go up instead of left and breathed in that dusty, dry air once you emerged out of the tunnel.

The area was dark, but not so dark that you were completely blind. However, nothing was stopping those little coalescipedes from gouging out your eyes and feeding on your body if enough of them spotted you.

Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any around.

Your arms grasped onto a firm bar above you. It was grimy and rusty, being cut by something this degraded would definitely give you tetanus. Or like, 50 other illnesses.

After climbing and grasping onto another rust choked bar and preforming a rather easy wall jump, you reached the top of, whatever you were standing on.