Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When The Watcher first woke up, they knew something was terribly wrong. They were not where they slept, for one. They quickly found out the environment was rather deadly, dying a few times before they left the area, which was a vertical climb along some kind of box. The Wall, their mind helpfully supplied, but something told them it should’ve been impossible to get there. It doesn’t matter, they thought, continuing their ascent. Looking up, they noticed two things: they were almost at the top, and the path had a lizard in the way. This one was white. How did they know without seeing it? A mystery, or perhaps instinct.

Climbing the ladder-like poles, Watcher grabbed some rocks and formed a plan in their head. Step one, stun the lizard with rock one, step two, run past. If the lizard continued to follow them after step two, they would throw their second rock and book it. They ran towards the lizard, throwing a rock right before they got in biting range, then jumped above it, quickly moving to the small opening in the wall that led up. When they finished crawling through the pipe, Watcher noticed a third pole that led directly where they were headed. That would've been useful a few minutes ago.

After a few more minutes of climbing, Watcher reached what seemed to be the last stretch to the top, which consisted of a long pole. They were slow to climb, enjoying the view. They had never seen anything quite like this before. After some time, the sun began to set and the clouds were painted in pink. It was only then that they noticed more boxes, like the one they were on. They seemed to stretch infinitely into the distance. The clouds began to rumble. The rain was coming, they realized, despite never experiencing it. Or perhaps they did, in the past they didn’t remember?

The Watcher did not stay to witness the downpour. Something was tugging at them, making them go to the source. They crawled through the pipe behind them, and then up the pole. Then, they were at the source of the tugging: something that seemed to exist and not at the same time, like an Echo of its past. It spoke to them, and they couldn’t help but wonder what the thing’s name was. If it had one, they did not know, for the thing didn’t tell them.

“OAOAOAOA! Minerals! Sinew! Liquids! OAOAOA liquids?? Do you excrete, little thing?? Yes you do! OAOAOAOAOA!! Yes you do excrete OAOAOAO!!!! All those minerals you worked so hard for, right back to the soil! As will YOU, OAOAOAOA!! What a waste! What a joke! OAOAOAOAOAOAOAOA!!”

That was the most nonsensical thing I have heard since waking up, was their last thought before passing out.

When Watcher awoke next, it was in a different region called Chimney Canopy. It did not take long to find an Echo. They seemed to only reveal themselves to those adept at surviving in a region, their presence signified by a flash of light, gold flakes, and the feeling of reality rippling around them. Watcher expected to find a different Echo, but it was the one with the silly hat again.

“You again!” the Echo spoke, seemingly excited, “Odd little thing, trembling. Peeping eyes. SO PEEPING OAOAOAOA!! But I suppose you must peep. So many sharp teeth and claws in this meat world. They look to grind up your sticks!! OAOAOAOAOAOA!!” They paused for a moment. “Here, I will give you a gift.”

The next time they awoke (in a region called Industrial Complex) they found they could camouflage. If they did it for too long, however, they passed out. This time, they did not follow the tug immediately, instead taking time to explore. The region was normal, but something in Watcher’s mind told them something was supposed to be wrong. The lizards were not supposed to be normal. The bluefruit was not supposed to be healthy. The region was fine and that was wrong.

After a few cycles of trying to figure out what was missing, (spoiler alert, they didn't) they followed the tug. It led them to a region called Shaded Citadel.

The Watcher hated Shaded Citadel. And that was not a word they used lightly. It was dark and terrible and filled with spiders. Perhaps the universe took pity on them, as they found the Echo quickly. It was Silly Hat again.

“OAOAOA! It is this thing! Have you really not been eaten? Well well well well! Not in this strand, no. But don’t be too proud OAOAOA!! I can see your reflections, yes!! Behold: Chomped by a flying thing! Torn to ribbons by a crawling thing! Pulled into the earth by wiggling things!! OAOAOAOAOA!!! A world of teeth! and claws! and beaks! and pressures! and acids! Forever-where and forever-when! OAOAOAOA!!!!”

The Watcher felt reality ripple around them, like a drop of water on a still pond. It cracked, and in the middle they could see their destination: a place made of stone, with stairs and walls and doors that seemed to defy gravity and time. The Watcher could do naught but be sucked into the rift in reality. As they were, they could feel time and space become meaningless, their sense of either vanishing. Their hunger, once almost painful, disappeared like they smelt a large meal.

With a rough landing, Watcher glanced around the new region. It all mirrored what they saw in the crack- stone and moss and stairs and arches, in every direction. With not much else to do, they began to explore, perhaps find something interesting or noteworthy. They did not find anything, for a long while. Then, they heard something new. A voice, unlike the robotic undertones the Iterators had, and much too different from their own kind to be familiar. Watcher did not know what they were saying, but there were other voices, and they seemed to be playing a game of some sort?

After a moment of pondering, Watcher decided they had nothing to lose, and approached the voices without camouflage.

Chapter Text

Watcher was cautious around the five, at the start. It did not take long for that caution to vanish, once both sides realized the other would not harm them. The five seemed to be more happy than anything, with having someone new to talk to. It did not take long for the five to teach Watcher their language. It was certainly a strange experience, but they had nothing else to do, aside from wandering the endless halls. As the five taught them their language, the group of 6 wandered the seemingly infinite expanse. One cycle, while Watcher was in the middle of explaining how orange lizards communicated to bully them, they all heard a voice.

The voice promised a way out. And vengeance against those who wronged them, but that was secondary. A way out. Watcher was not surprised when Nokt and Rox readily agreed to the voice's terms. They all wanted to get out, away from this prison. And this agreement was not suspicious enough for them to disregard it. It did not matter how long it would take for the ritual to be prepared.

Waiting for the ritual was not all bad. Watcher regained some of their memory while they waited, and conversations began to shift to what they would do when they were free. The main consensus seemed to be revenge and conquest, though Watcher managed to convince them to explore the realms first, to see if there was anything worth conquering. They were wandering about the Nether-Realm when a collective shudder was felt.

“What was that?” Nokt asked, trying to seem unbothered and failing miserably. “It felt like that chill I got before we met Watcher,” Rox answered him.

“Wait, you guys felt it when I got warped here?”

“You guys felt it too? I thought the cold was getting to me..” Zarkt admitted, almost sheepishly, and Watcher thought they were hearing things. “We should look around,” they suggested, “If this feels so similar to when I arrived, maybe a rift has begun to open. If it has, I can probably create a way out.”

“And if it leads to danger?” Kur questioned them, her eyes narrowing, “We are more than a few centuries out of practice.”

“Between all of us, I'm sure we can handle whatever happens. Plus, warping has never put me in direct danger before. It’s always at least a few pipes away.” That seemed to convince them, murmurs of agreement being heard. “Then we split up and look for it. It can’t be far, so if you find it just shout.” Nokt ordered, but before anyone could move, Rox cut him off. “Or, we could, oh, I don’t know, follow the crack in the sky?”

“Or- or we could do that. Thank you for pointing that out, Rox.” Nokt sighed. Sure enough, looking up revealed a crack in the sky, as if someone decided to reverse the color of that particular area. Moving ahead of the group, Watcher could see more cracks, all leading in the same direction. “Are you guys sure you wanna do this? It’s probably one-way.”

“It’s this or whatever Ras is planning,” Rox told them, “And I personally wouldn’t trust someone wanting to release something with a reputation like ours.” That was a good point. Nobody replied to Rox’s statement as Watcher began to head to the warp center, the rest following closely behind.

They had been walking for a few minutes, before the source of the cracks came into view. Watcher moved to it, motining for everyone else to follow. But before they could, the cracks expanded, swallowing everyone.

When Watcher woke up, they were alone. They could sense the others nearby, but physically, nobody else was there. Looking around, they spotted several familiar tools. Spears and rocks were strewn about, almost like there had been a fight, but there was no blood to signify as such. The area they woke up in was also strange. It reminded them of what they thought a collapsed iterator looked like. They later found that their guess was wrong, so this area was strange.

Grabbing a rock then a spear, they began to look for food. Using their camouflage, they silently began to look for some food. Gracefully using the pipe system, they managed to find a baby centipede, which they promptly speared and ate, and some bluefruit. By the time night fell, there was still no sign of their comrades, but Watcher had faith they were alright.

Perhaps they are taking Watcher’s advice and attempting (and probably failing) to hunt a lizard. As they thought that, though, they heard a hiss behind them. Grabbing a rock and spear, they snuck up to the source of the noise. Looking through the foliage from Outer Expanse that should not have been there, (but they’ll take what they can get), they spied a cyan lizard.

Going incognito once more, the Watcher got as close as they could to the lizard without alerting it. They did not make it far. With a hiss and a propulsion, the lizard launched itself at the unfortunate slugcat. Reacting in time, Watcher managed to dodge the first strike as they tried to remember as much as they could about cyan lizards.

They’re also called Leopards due to the four large cyan rings on their body? Not useful in the slightest. They can launch themselves and things? Already discovered that. They have a tongue! Watcher thought, right before the cyan used said tongue. They’d get mad at jinxing themselve later.

Throwing their rock at the lizard's head armor, they dodged another attack. Thankfully, theirs landed, and the force from the rock knocked the lizard's head back and stunned it, giving Watcher a chance to throw their spear at it. As they spear made contact, the lizard cried out in pain before charging at them. Looking around, they spotted a single spear, and no rocks. They’re doing this the hard way, then.

They made a mad dash for the spear before the lizard could recover. Grabbing it, they turned around to see the cyan had recovered and was very mad. The lizard launched itself above Watcher. Big mistake. With a backflip and well-timed throw, they had speared the cyan once more, quickly rushing over to its fallen body and stabbing it until they were sure it was dead. Before they could do anything else, they heard the rustling of foliage and pulled one of the spears out of the lizard’s corpse, pointing it at the noise. If whatever made that noise had a brain, they wouldn't fight with the slugcat who had just killed a cyan lizard if they didn’t have to.

A familiar figure emerged with their hands up, making a placating gesture. “Calm down,” Drix smiled, “I’m on your side.” Lowering their spear, Watcher grabbed the lizard and smiled at the insectoid. “Do you know how to cook?”

“Yes. Who do you think cooked for the group when we camped in the Wyldness?” He looked over to the dead lizard, understanding the real intent of the slugcat's question. “What other ingredients do you have?”

When the duo arrived at Watcher’s campsite, the slugcat handed Drix some bluefruit, which was not much, but also all they had. While Drix did weird things to the food, including crushing the fruit and smearing it over the now skinless lizard, Watcher told him about the items he was cooking. It did not take long after they finished ranting for the lizard to be done. Tearing off a piece, Drix offered it to Watcher, who nervously tried it.

It was the best thing they had ever tasted. “You, sir, are teaching me how to cook. This is so much better than just eating it normally!” they exclaimed, looking at their friend. “You have much to teach me too, you know. Like what is safe to eat and what isn’t.”

Their conversation continued until Watcher, exhausted from fighting the lizard, fell asleep. Drix paused, before gently moving their friend into a more comfortable position. It did not take long for Drix to fall asleep after that.

The Watcher woke up to being shaken by Drix. “Mmmh.. what?” They mumbled, still half-asleep. Drix moved from in front of their face to the side of it and pointed at.. something. After slapping themselves awake and looking at it for a moment, they realized what it was. An Echo. Specifically, it was Spinning Top. Watcher did not know how they knew the Echo’s name, but they did not question it. Drix began to speak, but Watcher made a shushing gesture and he promptly shut up. You do not speak while an Echo is talking.

“Ohh! Is it the same one? Even here?? Even when?? Well well well well well. Well. That IS new!
Do your trick, let me see.” As per Spinning Top’s request, The Watcher used their camouflage and vanished. When they finished, the Echo continued. “OAOAOAOAOA!! Yess!! Look at those eyes! Peeping! PEEPING! THEY might not, but I can always see you. Never forget that, my little shadow.” With that, they vanished, leaving in a flash, as if they had never existed.

Chapter Text

Drix was, to put it mildly, very confused. And rather freaked out, as well. It’s not everyday something like.. that.. appeared and stared at you. He could not describe it. It just was. He couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the poor soul, to have such a fate. But first, answers. “So,” he began, trying to remain calm, “what was that?” he said, the question accidentally coming out as more of a whisper.

“That was an Echo. Their.. ‘Species’ consists mainly of Ancients, but there are other creatures as well.” That was what an Echo was!? Drix though they’d be more.. ghostly, perhaps. Definitely not something that felt like it should have been incomprehensible to most. Maybe it was. Drix and Watcher were not ‘most’ after all.

“And the one we just saw?” Drix almost didn’t want to know, but Watcher implied they were fairly common, if you knew where to look, and had a wide range of information, ranging from reminiscing to calling something a rodent.

“An Ancient. This one’s not as broody as some of the other ones, so probably on the younger side.”

“What happened to them?” What could a youngling possibly have done to end up like that? Watcher seemed nervous at the question, but they answered anyway. “A failed ascension. I would tell you now, but this is a pretty complicated topic, so I would prefer if everyone was here. That way, I wouldn’t need to repeat myself four times.”

“Do you have any idea which direction they’re in?”

“No. I was hoping you could send your bugs to scour for them, or something.” Not a bad idea.

“Very well. Until they find our friends, what do you say about going in a random direction?” While he normally would’ve tried to find a path, they were in unknown territory, so that was their best option. Watcher smirked at him. “You read my mind.” they said, before marching off in a random direction, himself following closely behind.

As they traveled through the region, Watcher pointed out anything they thought was important.

“Those are batflies. Harmless and tasty,” they said, right before impaling five on a nearby spear. “That’s a poprock. They’re actually called gooieducks but poprock is faster and funnier to say.” They told him when he grabbed one, demonstrating how to open them. “Those are mushrooms. The funky kind. They’ll give you better reflexes at the cost of vivid hallucinations. Don't eat them.” He was slightly offended that his friend thought he’d eat random mushrooms. Especially glowing mushrooms.

The most notable event happened when they were walking along an abandoned hall, and Watcher suddenly put their arm in front of him as he felt a chill. He glanced down the hall. It looked fairly normal, save for a red tipped spear in the middle. Looking to the end of the hall, he could see a strange flower. It glowed a soft yellow, with a stem that turned into an encircled X. “Be careful, there’s a dropwig in this room.” they had said, right before rolling and jumping into a leap as something fell on them midway. Drix threw the spear he had been holding at the moment, hoping to The Queen his friend had a plan. The spear hit the dropwig’s back, and it died quickly from blood loss after.

“Dropwigs are ambush predators, and, as the name implies, hunt food by dropping on creatures.” Watcher explained, taking the spear out of the large insect and throwing it to the side.

“How did you know it was there?”

“The spear,” they said, grabbing the red one. “It was too obvious. Sometimes, they grab objects and drop them right underneath their hiding place..”

“Then something comes to pick it up and they drop?”

“Right on the money.”

“Why’s the spear red?” He questioned his friend as they walked down the corridor at a slower pace than previously, getting closer to the strange flower.

“It’s explosive. The cloth is made with cherrybomb powder. When the spear hits something, it activates and explodes. The scavengers make them.” They explained, before they saw the flower and their eyes sparkled. They ran over to it, Drix momentarily stunned at the sudden speed increase before following his friend.

Upon reaching the flower, they immediately ate it. When he gave his friend a questioning look, they began another rant.

The second most notable event happened when they were traversing a seemingly ordinary room. In front of the two stood a series of poles. Nothing was different from the other rooms they came from. Oh, how wrong he was.

He had been approaching a seemingly innocent pole, but before he got close, the thing breathed. Red leaf-like appendages unfurled from the creature, nearly touching him. He backed away, grabbed the nearest throwable object, a rock, and chucked it at the thing.

When the rock hit, the plant recoiled in pain, revealing its true form– a large stalk, covered in the same appendages he saw moments ago. Before the thing could do anything, a spear was suddenly poking out of it, and it retreated into the ground.

“So, what do you think of the local aggressive flora?” Watcher joked, clearly unphased, likely due to encountering these things so many times.

“Please tell me there aren’t more things like that.”

Drix did not like the glint in his friend’s eyes.

It did not take long after that particular incident for the duo to begin hunting for dinner, and after some careful leading, catching an adult centipede. When he began to prepare it along with the many other foods they’d gathered without complaining, Watcher asked him why he was fine with eating another insect.

“Back in my colony, we hunted our less sentient kin often. I lost the discomfort a long time ago.” He replied, eyes focused on the ingredients in front of him. He paused for a moment, before continuing, “We killed and fed them to the pupae, smallest first.”

“While we’re on the topic, shouldn’t you have mandibles or something?” Watcher interjected, curiosity clearly brimming from their cloud-white eyes. “Nope. I did have a pair once, until my first molt.”

“Cool.” Was the only thing Watcher said in reply. They sat in silence for some time after that, only conversing when Drix asked for the flavor profile of something. He still tasted the ingredients despite this, because if his travels with the rest of the five taught him anything, it was that he could only trust himself when it came to cooking. When Drix finished, he made a gesture for Watcher to come over.

“So, what’d you make?” They asked, glancing over the centipede. Drix smiled, “Oh, they’re not cooked yet. Go get a spear, and I'll show you.” Watcher sighed dramatically, “Wow, I can’t believe you made me walk all the way over here just to make me go back!” they said, putting a paw to their forehead in feign sorrow. Still, they did it without further complaint.

Drix grabbed a piece of the centipede and skewered it on the spear next to him. Watcher seemed to get the idea, also skewering a piece of the centipede, and followed Drix’s movements as he held his spear above the fire, slowly rotating it. “You wanted to learn how to cook, right? What we’re currently making is something called skewers.” HE did not take his eyes off the fire as he said this, nor did he stop rotating the spear. “All we really need to do is keep turning these for a few minutes.” Watcher kept nodding as he spoke, keeping a close eye on their spear.

After a few minutes of this, Drix told his friend they should be okay to eat, and turned his spear horizontally to bit down on his skewer. “Not bad,” he mumbled to himself. Watcher did not have an immediate reaction, instead finishing the first piece of centipede on their spear before talking.

“This is so good,” they said in a whisper, before perking up, “You’ll teach me how to do this?”

“I just did, friend.”

They both fell asleep shortly after eating most of the centipede, saving the rest for tomorrow.

Watcher was with their family. They were hunting batflies. Out of nowhere, a spear nearly struck them, but they had moved to catch a batfly a moment prior. Their family confronted the aggressor, a forest-green slugcat. Watcher hid in some nearby foliage. Suddenly, red flashed across their vision, and their brother crumpled to the ground. It did not take long for the rest of their family to meet the same fate. The aggressor fled, and Watcher began to wait for their family to get up. They never did.

Drix was awakened in the same way he woke up Watcher the previous night– shaking. When he opened his eyes, he saw Watcher sitting next to him, their back turned. “Why’d you wake me..” He said, still half asleep.

“I, uh.. wanted to talk.”

“Bad dream?”

“Yeah..” they trailed off, a sad look in their eyes. “How’d you guess?”

“I have experience with this kind of thing. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really..”

“Then what if I told you about my younger years in the Hive?”

“Did you get into trouble?”

“Plenty of times!” Drix began to rant about his childhood. He continued sharing stories until dawn, when Watcher had seemed to have calmed down. It was then that one of his scouts returned. He smiled. “I have good news,” he said. “The others have been located.”

Chapter Text

Drix told Watcher they were having their insects lead everyone to one location instead of doing a fetch quest. Which was, in all honesty, fair. But they couldn’t help but feel like it was great for an ambush of some kind. As the duo approached the meeting point, the scenery shifted from being covered in foliage to a flat length of concrete, like the top of an iterator.

Perhaps this is an iterator, they mused, or the remnants of one. They were personally leaning more towards the latter, considering they hadn’t seen a single overseer since they got here. Grabbing a nearby spear and throwing it at some batflies, Watcher turned to Drix. “We’ve been walking all day!” They complained in an almost childlike way, “How much farther is it?” They intentionally dragged on the last word for effect.

Drix did not pause in his attempt to grab some bluefruit that was just out of reach,We’re close. It’s only about another hour-” Watcher did not let him finish, interrupting him with an ‘awwwhhh okayy’ He glanced over his shoulder to them, “I thought you walked all the time?”

“Yeah. But never for this long. The peace between the rain did not usually last for more than a day, so I was usually speeding through wherever I was going.”

They did not say much after that, instead choosing to travel in silence. At least they did, until after about forty minutes of traversing the flat, dusty expanse, the duo decided to hunt, since, according to Drix, the rest of the group was close enough that they wouldn’t need to drag it for long. When Watcher asked him why he couldn’t just lead them here so they wouldn’t have to drag it at all, he briefly wore a look of realization before telling them they should be heading their way.

They ended up finding a lone centiwing, completely in the open. It was not hard to kill, mainly because Watcher found a discarded grenade. They briefly wondered how this would affect the flavor. “You said they’re coming here, right?” Watcher had said to Drix. “They should be,” He replies smoothly, “unless they did something stupid.”

“What do you say we start cooking this, then? I doubt they’ve had a good meal since we got portaled here.”

“Yes, I like that idea.”

[LIVE BROADCAST] - PUBLIC GROUP [KARMACYCLES] A Distant Supernova, Wandering Talisman, Seven Empty Fissures, Five Golden Leaves, Orange Threads

ADS: Hey, is anyone else noticing something strange with the landscape? I know there was that earthquake, but just one shouldn’t have changed my facility grounds this much.
ADS: Thinking back, I should’ve checked right after the quake, considering they do not usually hit this area.

WT: It’s about time you noticed! I was starting to think you’d have your head in your can forever~
WT: To answer your question, though, it was indeed the earthquake. Though, ‘earthquake’ isn’t correct in describing that event. As far as I can tell, the entire world has changed. It doesn't fit my maps or start charts anymore. I have been updating them for the last hundred cycles. I believe at the current rate I am going, it should be done in about three.

ADS: Does anyone have footage of this event?

FGL: Yes. I had overseers cataloging some strange fauna activity, (which turned out to be a mating call) and they saw it.
FGL: One minute. I will send the file.

[One file sent.]

ADS: Wow. It is beautiful, and yet so evident something is wrong. Do you have any more information?

FGL: I am not up to date, but the most popular theory is that the word has been mixed with several others. Some Iterators have landed near sentient beings, similar to the slugcats and scavengers, and have been spying and gathering information.

SEF: Gold is correct. I have been spying on the nearby creatures as well, and they seem to be more advanced that the usual wild animal. Not as advanced as our creators, but they are certainly smarter than the scavengers.

WT: With the help of Seven Empty Fissures and A Shimmering Stone, among many others, we have deciphered the entirety of their language, minus a few words here and there. This was no small feat, mind you.

SEF: Another thing we noticed early on was that everyone’s can is in pristine condition. As if our creators never left. I even checked on Orange Threads, and they were no longer collapsed. They have not spoken to anyone yet, but I suppose they are still processing being alright again.

WT: You should really get out your can more, Nova~
WT: It has been like this for a few hundred cycles now!

FGL: Quiet, WT. This is quite the revelation. Let ADS process it.

WT: Fine. According to some of my overseers, some are approaching my can, so I will be focusing on that.

Wandering Talisman was not among the more serious of their kind. It was a quality they shared with No Significant Harassment, and also the reason they got along so well. He was a great research partner when he actually cared about the topic. Glancing at one of their smaller overseers, they mentally signed. The black overseer displayed a group of several different species climbing one of their legs. They should be here within the cycle. Flicking their puppet’s wrist, the overseer and its celadon tips vanished.

Their main attention, however, was on another overseer, showing a different visual, rather than the group climbing their leg. Instead, it was on a nearby field that housed a long-abandoned construction project. A slugcat was in this group, as well as a few other unique species they hadn’t cataloged yet, and, needless to say, they were quite curious. The ‘leg group’ would arrive within the cycle, if the overseer led them correctly.

However, if the overseer happened to get them lost within their can, and the ‘construction group’ was led correctly… Well, it’s not Talisman’s fault if they happen to meet the slugcat’s group first. Their overseers should receive their new orders in less than a second. However this interaction turned out, it ought to be interesting.

Fifteen minutes after they started cooking, they began to hear voices. Said voices were arguing, though they were too far to make out specific words. They pretended not to hear them, even as they got closer and closer. Watcher did not care. They were finally putting all their interactions with Spinning Top into consideration. Their friends arrived, and Watcher managed to not seem suspicious. Their lunch (or dinner, which was it?) passed in a blur. Was the Echo but a child? That would mean someone tried to ascend a child. Surely, no one would do such a thing. Perhaps they had gone mad, being able to exist anywhere at any point in time, yet never interacting with anyone. Watcher liked to think they would stay sane in such a situation.

They snapped out of it when a black overseer with light green tips appeared in front of their face and practically demanded they follow it. Well, no time like the present.

Chapter Text

“What is that?” Nokt hissed, glaring at the overseer’s singular eye.

“An overseer.” Watcher had never seen this particular color before. “Which can be really good or really bad.” Watcher paused for a moment, and the overseer did not wait for them to continue. In the blink of an eye, or perhaps even faster than that, it moved to a small pile of rubble and projected an iterator head, along with an arrow. The iterator projection had no antenna, and no visible symbol on their head. Watcher had never seen this particular one before.

“What does it do then?”

“A lot of things. It can point out food, dangerous creatures or plants, but most of the time what they’ll do is take you to an iterator, while also keeping track of the aforementioned dangers to keep you alive.”

“You said it could also be really bad. How, pray tell, could this thing be dangerous?” Nokt questioned, still glaring at the overseer.

“Sometimes they lead you to a pit of wormgrass disguised as a normal hole.” It’s been many cycles, but Watcher was still very salty. Before anyone could laugh, Rox spoke up. “Does anyone else smell that? It’s familiar, but it’s… stronger than it should be.” When she finished speaking, as if on cue, the sky began to darken and the clouds started to rumble. “The rain…” they mumbled, almost nostalgic. Judging by their internal timer, which while skewed, should be decently accurate, the group had a few minutes before the rain fell.

“We have about ten minutes to find shelter…” Watcher glanced at the overseer, “Unless our overseer friend would like to help us?”

The overseer, taking the hint, changing their projection from their itearator’s head to a shelter and looking to a nearby pipe that led down. “I guess we follow the overseer or get pulverised?” Zarkt spoke up, looking around for any poor creatures that might become the group’s next meal.

“Pretty much.” Watcher shrugged, heading towards the pipe. The others did not need to be told to follow them.

They seem to have miscalculated the speed of the leg group. Currently, they were at the karma gate that led into their structure. The construction group has also encountered the usual cruising rains, and it looked like it would last until the next day, strangely enough. They were usually much longer, but Talisman knew better than to look a gifted horse in the mouth. More of their overseers began to take interest in the group. A little known fact was that while iterators could order overseers to do certain tasks, they were independent. If their iterator collapsed, the overseers would likely leave to their own devices until they rebooted. More overseers meant more information.

The group did not seem to be comprised of as many species as Talismen first thought. A quick scan of vitals revealed two of them to be human, and out of the other two one was completely mechanical and the other was unidentified. What Talisman once thought to be ears and horns on the two humans had turned out to simply be clothing.

They had passed the karma gate by this point, and had entered the Experimental Wing. There were dangerous things in there, and if they were being honest with themselves, Talisman did not wish to watch their demise. Thankfully, they were only a few rooms in, which were void of anything minus an Inspector and some neurons, so all they had to do was close the pipe the group was headed towards.Once the group noticed, they turned around.

Talisman was thankful for the ability to close pipes. It made giving creatures new routes much easier. They closed all the pipes that could lead to a different path than the one Talisman wanted them to take, and began to wait. In the meantime, they opened a public group chat, and began to notify other members of the research team of their findings.

This building was really weird. It seemed to be technological, but Sora couldn’t manipulate it, for whatever reason. One of the entrances to a room closed as Lloyd approached it, and when they backtracked, paths that used to be open were now blocked. And then there were the weird… creatures, that each seemed to have a purpose. Most numerous were the neuron-shaped ones that changed color. They did take notice of a creature with three heads, each attached to a long neck and sporting one eye. They were light green and had several wing-like appendages extruding from their body, as well as things that looked like feelers.

So, yeah. Weird building. Also, there was apparently no gravity, which Sora just discovered. With a lurch, the room they were in lost its gravity, and everyone began to float helplessly. Another thing she noticed about the room was it seemed to get brighter as it went up. Near the end, she could see something red. Lloyd and Zane got their bearings quickly, as if they’d been in zero gravity before, and used their element to propel themselves through the room. Herself and Arin and been gripping a pole before the gravity went out. Sensing an opportunity to go faster, Sora let go of the pole while pushing away from it, gaining a large amount of speed.

She didn’t consider this to be a bad idea until a large chunk of metal flew by her head, or, more accurately, she flew by it. She tried to grab onto a pair of rapidly approaching poles to lessen her speed, which kind of worked. Her speed came to a halt right before she hit the entrance to the next room. Looking around, she noticed that she had disrupted some red grids with crab-like creatures. She waited for the other three ninja before she moved.

The next few rooms were uneventful, aside from things that would haunt Sora’s nightmares. She signed when she noticed even more of the weird red things in the room they’d just entered. It was large, with one single piece of metal in the center. She concentrated, trying to use her powers to glean any information. “The centerpiece is hollow.” She said, glancing over to Zane, Lloyd, and Arin, who were all ahead of her. “Well, I don’t think we have much of a choice but to go there. Whatever’s in this building wants us in a certain place.” Nobody argued. It didn’t take long for them to navigate around and into the hollow metal. The hard part was trying not to float around aimlessly, though Sora seemed to be the only one having an issue with that. Zane propelled himself with ice, Lloyd used his power to launch himself- something he said wouldn’t work normally, and Arin had his grappling hook. Meanwhile, Sora was left floating aimlessly.

Noticing her peil, Arin grappled over to her and helped her get to a pole. Together, they entered the next room.

Chapter Text

So. My computer just died, which means I won't be able to update this fic unless my sis lets me borrow her laptop. I do still plan to keep it going, but there will be a much longer wait between updates. So consider this fic on a temp hiatus