No Emotions to Feel

Ch 1 : To Serve

The first thing the vessel remembered was darkness. A darkness so consuming that everything that could be possible would vanish into it. The next thing the vessel remembered was seeing other creatures -it later knew them as vessels and siblings- that looked like it.

It pulled itself onto its feet, stepping forward and tripping on something. It stumbled away from the broken colorless egg that it and a few of its siblings emerged from, glancing down at what it tripped on. The vessel, along with a couple siblings, stared or flinched back from the bodies littering the floor.

It looked up to see other vessels climbing up the suspended platforms leading into the darkness above, a tiny yet blinding light at the top.

All the vessels heard the beckoning of the power, so each began their climb. The small vessel clambered onto the first platform, already seeing a body fall next to it with a sickening crunch.

The dying sibling twitched and looked to the small vessel for something, yet fell still as the Void leaked from its eyes.

The small vessel took one last glance at the corpse, then jumped to the next platform. It pushed its body to get to each new height, forcing itself to ignore the countless dying siblings surrounding it.

Its vision started to blur as it focused only on reaching the top. Besides a glance thrown at the odd door halfway up, the vessel didn't register anything other than climbing.

It finally reached the top, landing swiftly on the platform in time to see a sibling get pushed off.

It looked up to see the cause of the light, and saw it. A figure draped in white robes and tall pointed spikes crowning the head. The figure was looking at one of the siblings, so the small vessel stood at the end of the final lineup.

While joining the wait, the bright figure and another being in armor walked past. The pale one was staring at each sibling, speaking to it if it didn't react to his presence. Any vessel that reacted or moved in any way was stuck off the edge by the armored being.

No more siblings had joined them, so it must have been the last one up. The vessel stared ahead, experiencing an odd heavy sensation, waiting its turn. It was at the end of the line of the last row, yet only one sibling remained once the figure reached the end.

The glowing being now stood before the vessel, watching it intently, and introduced himself as The Pale King. All of a sudden, the vessel had a sense that what it did next would be very important. The King seemed to share that impulse.

He already knew (thanks to the use of foresight) that the taller child earlier in the lineup would be his hollow vessel, yet he still checked the others that reached the top. He was at the last vessel, introducing himself when it didn't react to his being there, then watched as the world around him flickered.

Although rare, The King sometimes had spontaneous visions. It was an aspect of his foresight that he rather disliked for its inconvenient timing. However, this one moment intrigued him.

The world darkened around the vessel he was looking at, and he saw a series of three flickers.

The first was its shade, floating and staring eerily at him. Its corpse lay just below it, covered and intertwined with orange glowing vines. This was most likely what would happen if he had it thrown down back into the abyss, seeing as it wore exactly what it was at this moment.

The second vision was of a slightly taller version of the vessel. It wore bright-light-blue robes, looking to be made of lifeblood rather than dye. It also had a crack on its mask running down from its right eye socket. This was probably what it would become if he spared it, seeing as only he knew how to make it grow.

The final vision was of a much taller version of itself. Its horns had grown longer and sharper as well, and wore the Pale Court's signature white robes with additional pieces of armor. Its posture was that of a stationed knight, and it held a shining pure nail in its hands. What shocked The King the most however, was the strikingly familiar crack down its mask. Repeats of such detailed things were rare to happen in different futures, it was rather interesting to say the least. Perhaps it would be a bodyguard to the hollow vessel?

His vision flicked back to normal, and he now stared at the small vessel intently. Why had he seen the possible futures now of all times?

The vessel on the other hand, had the urge to do something. It sensed the void in its being churning, what would it do?

It could force that sensation down and continue to stand still, an action that seemed to save the other vessel remaining...

Or it could move. Although any physical action made by its siblings got them thrown back into the abyss, it knew something was different this time. The look that The Pale King's eyes held was that of interest and willingness to tolerate a little more.

It could either step back and away from The King, or kneel to his presence.

It stared straight ahead, knowing if it was to act, it had to do so now.

It....

Stayed Still (coming eventually)

Kneeled down (continue main story)

Stepped Away (coming eventually)

Yes there are multiple endings, or should I say stories? I hope to start writing them soon, but that'l all depend on how much free time I get.

One of the alternate ideas was kinda what my original sketches for my Hollow Knight character were. It was just meant to be another corpse that Ghost (the knight) takes a charm from, but I decided to give it just a little more flavor than that.

The other alternate idea is what I was considering writing the main story about. However, it got to the point where I couldn't see the story continuing after a certain in-game-moment. I still loved the idea though, so it's basically another story with the same character...

I couldn't just leave those ideas untouched, so if you're up for it then please check them out (when I am able to start them)!