⚠️ Content Warnings ⤴
Info
Content Warning:
This page includes depictions of vomit, brutality, and other graphic elements. Reader discretion is advised.
Written and conceptualized by Mel-Raspberry
Edited by ReyDay
Their head hurt, their ears rang, and their vision blurred from the generalized weakness in their body. Despite that, they could still somewhat see the unfamiliar pink and filthy walls in front of them. The whole thing was so different from the calm, sterile cleanliness of the spatial launch facility. They realized they most definitely had left Launchpad 4.
Why does it feel like I've been crushed by a boulder? My entire left side is numb; if I have to stay in bed all of next week, I'll never hear the end of it. They thought.
Whose stupid idea was it to wear heavy jewelry for the ceremony? I should have gone in my day clothes.
Under them, their legs felt heavy, and the arm their body was resting on was entirely sore. The sting of their earring digging into the skin behind their ear felt awful, and certainly didn’t help with clearing their head.
I have to get up. Their thoughts felt a little clearer. If I don't, I'll just stay passed out here, and I'll get scolded until the death of our star.
With a swift, albeit quite painful, movement, they sat up. The floor felt like it was decaying directly under their weight, breaking away with each small movement they made. They had no idea what the disgusting flooring was made of, but they already hated it. The last thing they remembered before waking up in that strange place was their office. They were supposed to oversee the first high-speed launch. They had spent months working every detail out, from the smallest soldering to every single connector used for cable management. They remembered climbing back up to their workstation to grab a backup of the digital blueprints for the opening presentation. They also remembered Zeph telling them to hurry up, so they ran down the stairs as fast as they could to reach the transfer platform.
I missed a step.
And I most likely fell down all the way to the lower levels.
They had no recollection of when they hit the ground, and they didn't think such an unsanitary room could exist under the launch station. If anything, they most likely fell several stories. It’s the only reason the floor and walls would look that different. They could feel the nausea build up deep in their stomach. Though their legs were still shaking, they slowly, painfully, pushed themselves up onto their feet. The room around them was less blurry, but the aggressive red light around them didn’t help in any way with their understanding of the situation. Everything felt disorienting, incomprehensible, and disgusting.
The one logical path would be to look for the stairs I dropped from. They thought. I couldn’t have dropped that far, and they must be waiting for me for the opening ceremony. It's not like they can get started without the project leader.
Well, they could, but it would be a dick move.
As they looked around, searching for any sign of where they fell from, their feet hit something. On the floor, their communicator was resting. They squatted down and grabbed it off the floor. It was apparently still open on the last chatroom they were in.
Zeph'r entered the chat.
Nyxtl'ra entered the chat.
Zeph'r
Ph'boos says you didn't give Team 2 back their connectors yesterday.
Nyxtl'ra
Ph'boos can wait for the connectors, I forgot the secondary drive in my workshop.
Zeph'r
Don't be too long, no one wants to start that presentation without you.
Nyxtl'ra
I'll be quick.
Zeph'r
That’s a lie. I know my sibling; you're never quick.
Nyxtl'ra
I could be if I wanted
Zeph'r
you are when they make your favorite sun rolls, that’s for sure
Nyxtl'ra
not funny, if I get lost in the facility it will be your fault
Zeph'r
Nyx, quit texting and get your drive. Everyone's waiting.
They sighed and typed out "Yeah well, I'll get back up whenever I can. It’ll be fine." As they tapped the screen, a new message appeared.
Zeph'r entered the chat.
Nyxtl'ra entered the chat.
Zeph'r
Ph'boos says you didn't give team 2 back connectors yesterday.
Nyxtl'ra
Ph'boos can wait for the connectors, I forgot the secondary drive in my workshop.
Zeph'r
Don't be too long, no one wants to start that presentation without you.
Nyxtl'ra
I'll be quick.
Zeph'r
That’s a lie. I know my sibling; you're never quick.
Nyxtl'ra
I could be if I wanted
Zeph'r
you are when they make your favorite sun rolls, that’s for sure
Nyxtl'ra
not funny, if I get lost in the facility it will be your fault
Zeph'r
Nyx, quit texting and get your drive. Everyone's waiting.
Nyxtl'ra
Yeah well, I'll get back up whenever I can. It’ll be fine.
ⓘ ERROR. MESSAGE NOT SENT.
That was new.
They had never seen that kind of error before; they didn't even know it was possible to be disconnected from the signal they used for communicators. They never even considered it a possibility; one of the only ways to be disconnected from the main network, they assumed, would be to be on the remote network. Though that was mostly used for people off the ground and on remote work sites, like satellites or nearby moons.
There's no way I'm on one of our moons. They shook their head and tried to swipe the notification away, though it didn't leave their screen. I fell down, and I never heard of anyone escaping gravity by missing a step on a flight of stairs.
Maybe I broke a part in it? I'll take a look at it later.
They put it back in their shirt, where it usually was tucked, and walked to what they assumed to be the next room. Beyond that first area, they only found a nearly identical one. The floor was sticky and dirty under their shoes, and they could hear the gross squelching of residue on their soles with each step. They picked up their pace.
There has to be an exit somewhere. Nyx groaned, looking for any kind of staircase or means to get back up to Launchpad 4. Every place has an exit; that's a fundamental law of architecture.
So they kept walking.
They kept encountering the same rooms, over and over.
They were now running; every filthy room, every dirty corridor was stained the same disgusting pink. The floors were forever expanding in arrays they couldn't map or understand. It seemed to know exactly where they were heading, using that impossible knowledge in non-Euclidean ways to trick their mind. Something was messing with their ability to track their steps, their ability to remember visual clues, and their ability to think as a whole.
Out of frustration, maybe out of stupidity too, they charged at the wall in front of them.
If this place won't let me out, I'll just claw myself out.
They ran, at full speed, eyes closed and face first. Screaming as they did so.
Their body passed seamlessly through the wall.
They could feel air on their face, cold and wet. They opened their eyes again, and the pink walls were gone. Somehow, for once, their recklessness had paid off, though they weren't too sure why. As they were about to take another step, their chest tightened. Bile rose to their throat, and they fell to their knees, overwhelmed by the foul taste in their mouth. They held their stomach as they vomited most of what they had eaten in the past day or so. Their head was spinning; the now grey floors under them looked unstable. They could see lines, slices of reality breaking away and reshaping in front of them. Everything felt too real and too impossible at the same time. Reality planes intersected in front of them. Blue pillars they could see a bit farther in the distance felt like they were holding nothing but bricks of something much bigger.
Then everything that was there, in overlay of reality itself, dissipated. As they wiped acid off their mandibles, the large grey warehouse in front of them was just that again.
What was that?
They didn't have time to question what just happened, as they heard steps approaching. Moving before they could even think about it, Nyx curled up behind a pan of wall, opposite where the step came from. Large silhouettes casting shadows on the floor walked a few meters away.
That might be whoever dragged me in there. Nyx slammed a hand on their mouth and nose, doing their best to mess with the heat signature of their breathing. They didn't know if the silhouettes were Styxian or of another, less friendly species, but they couldn't take any risks.
The shadow moved, walked closer, and then went in another direction that made them disappear. They seemed Styxian, but something about the way they moved had felt uncanny. The stiff, rigid movement felt wrong.
I can't get a look at them; if I do that and they manage to see me, I'm going to get killed. They pressed the palms of their hands to their eyes, trying to think. Fine, if this place lets me travel through surfaces, I may have a slight advantage. I have no idea what kind of technology they used for it, but it's worth a try.
At least my stomach should be empty now; it's not like I can puke my guts out again.
They let themselves slip through the floor, over and over and over again. Their mind floated from space to space, their body phasing through intersecting planes and converging hallways. They walked for hours and yet didn't seem to get anywhere that they could identify. Nyx wanted to map it out, try to understand and gather more clues as to what kind of hell they had fallen into, but the walls seemed ever-shifting. The scenery randomized and inconsistent. One minute they could see a wide sky above them, liquifying itself in forever pools of water and strange liquids. Another time, they were walking through claustrophobic rooms with impossibly tight spaces.
Everything felt wrong, confusing, and impossible. Yet, there they were, going through impossible non-Euclidean spaces and passages that should break the laws of physics as Nyx knew them. It took several more free falls for them to find a place to rest. They layer there, flat on their back with their arms out on the cold flooring, looking up at the ceiling. It seemed like it was broken down by strange weightless cubes, crevasses in matter that didn't exist, and lines of construction and disassembly, despite its surface never shifting or moving.
What even is this place? They breathed in, steady and controlled. Trying to slow down their heart rate to a more acceptable rhythm. They could feel it, frantically beating through their right side, the sensation reverberating in their stomach as they exhaled. Nyx sat up. The room was cold, void of any furniture, and filled with piles of what they could only assume to be trash. This place didn't feel like any of the others they had seen so far.
I've been through corridors of stone; I've seen all kinds of pipes and vats of questionably safe liquids and substances. I've seen places with suns too bright and also a place where there was no light at all. They shivered at the thought of it.
They had been used to the idea of night; half of their home was permanently locked in it, but when they found themselves in a pitch-black part of this confusing world, something had twisted in them. They usually could see fairly well in the darkness, enough to not need a guide on the darkest side of the planet. Yet, in that room, all they felt was emptiness and dread. It had been one of the worst pocket spaces they had to go through. Well, that one and the one where everything had ironically gotten increasingly too bright for them to even be able to think clearly.
This place works in extremes, it seems. I better hope the inhabitants of it aren't the same as their environment. They got up to their feet. Though, if they're like me, lost and confused, I might be able to establish a connection, who knows?
Patting the dust off their clothes, they noticed that in one of the corners of the room was a dark corridor. It had been hidden by a pile of debris and wood fiber before they moved, but now that they could see it a little more clearly, there seemed to be something shifting inside of it. With a slow step, shifting their feet on the floor in ways that made the least sound, they walked towards the corridor. The thing, whatever it was, shifted again. It seemed as if what was curled up a few meters away from the entrance was clawing at the floor. Nyx could hear scratching and whining, not from any animal they knew. Unless it was a wounded creature.
If the thing hiding in the dark had been less fortunate than Nyx with the planes and changing dynamics of the worlds, they wouldn't have been surprised if it got injured in some way. If the physics of this place could make them feel sick, they didn't want to imagine what kind of biological damage it could have caused on a less resistant creature.
As they were about to kneel down and reach out to the thing in the shadows, they saw it.
Two eyes, cold and empty, locking with theirs. It didn't cower from Nyx's gaze, not right away at least. Most non-Styxian beings disliked being stared at by the styxanoids, as their front-facing eyes could trigger prey instincts in them. That specific creature had to either be able to rationalize what was looking back at them.
Or it's a predator. It was the one thing Nyx had the time to think about before getting jumped at.
They rolled away, falling to the ground under the shock of the full frontal attack. The thing that jumped at them had a long, distorted body covered in disturbingly pale skin. Its face was obscured by a mass of tangled hair, and it was growling at them. As quickly as their legs would allow, Nyx got to their feet and went to kick the monster in the throat.
The creature dodged.
Oh wonderful, it has survival instincts and can anticipate things. They looked around for a way out. Let's just hope it's not that smart.
Nyx took a step back, using the momentum to swiftly jump over the creature before it could react. They threw themselves down the corridor and rolled back onto their feet before running straight ahead. Behind them, they could hear the monster growl and give chase. They didn't have much of a head start, but hopefully it would be enough for them to find a way out. They jumped over cables and pipes that seemed to come out of nowhere in the walls.
There has to be a way to make this thing quit.
Lowering themselves closer to the floor, they reached between the lines they could see crawling around and pulled. The structure of the planks at the bottom of the wall gave way, and they pulled out part of it, making a small structure that would hopefully slow the monster down.
They looked back to see the thing go right above it in a jump that Nyx had never seen any Styxian creature do; it was quicker and nimbler than most predators they had seen in the wild. They sped up and kept searching for a way out of the chase.
I don't have the time or the luxury to stop to grab one of those pipes, and if I do so much as trip in this place, who knows what that thing will do with my body? I'm not sure I can even regenerate fast enough to not be eaten at least partially. They took a left turn. I don't doubt that I'd make it out. The problem is mostly that I have no idea if there's even a place I could rest in there.
They looked at the lines under their feet, then at the pipes fixed to the wall. They took a deep breath and rammed their hand in between the planes of the wall. It was itchy, the kind of itch they felt when electricity entered their body or the kind of needle-like sensation they had when staying in a position for too long. It wasn't painful; it was simply uncomfortable. They kept running as they did so, looking for something they could easily pull out.
When they took their hand out, a whole slab of the wall came with it. From the sound of it, the monster didn't have time to realize what had happened and slammed face-first into the newly extruded surface. Nyx looked back to see the predator slumped on the floor; its jaw seemingly broken, and its leg twitched in weird ways.
Nice, now it won't be able to keep going after me.
The creature twisted, bones and skin creaking, as it slowly got up and immediately went back to chasing. It was still going fast, but luckily for them it didn't seem to have more than basic intelligence.
But it seemed even more determined to take them down.
Nyx went back to running as fast as they could. As they approached a corner, down by the end of a hallway filled with wiring and pipes leaking some kind of liquid that made their breathing feel like their lungs were firing up, they jumped. Effectively they slammed their whole body, shoulder first, into the floor. Forcing it to line up with a crack they had noticed when they were looking for an out of this less than ideal situation.
They felt the same malaise as before, the lining of atoms and the pounding in their chest of forcing their body to be pulled through the floor with great velocity. Their head slammed in another type of terrain, and they slumped on their back, exhausted and out of breath. Hoping the creature didn't have the same amazing idea that they just had of body-slamming the concrete.
When they opened their eyes again, the creature was nowhere to be seen, and neither was the disgusting hallway. No wires, no tripping hazards, no smells of chemicals and rot in the heavy air.
The air smelled of salt and flowers.
In the distance they could hear the sounds of water and a surprisingly soft wind on their face. The sky above them was a soft pink hue; to their left and right, flowers and plants, lighter than the ones at home, were swaying in the breeze. They sat up and looked around. They seemed to be on an island, if the shore they could see further down the hill was anything to go by. Everywhere they looked, plants, flowers, and vegetation were covering anything that wasn't sand or water. As they went to get back up on their feet, they noticed something behind them.
A building.
At the center of the island there was something that looked like a building, maybe an actual one this time. Nothing like the fake, empty, tall towers of stone and confusing materials they had seen in the other rooms and mazes. They got up, brushing the dust off of their pants, and walked up to the house. The grass and flowers were getting a little shorter and sparse as they reached the few steps up to the door.
They grabbed the handle and pushed the door open.
The inside of the house felt strangely like home, yet distinctively different. There was wood as flooring, something they had seen in other places in this strange place but that was deeply uncommon back a on Styx. Wood could be used for better, more suitable purposes than walking on it. Maybe the world in which they fell might have been one where trees didn't take centuries to grow like it took them on Styx.
The room in which they had walked into was large, larger than most rooms they had seen when hiding in buildings lately. At the center of it was what Nyx assumed to be a table, with a few strange objects resting on it. They walked further into the building, letting the door close behind them.
They took the time to explore the whole place, finding no signs of any life.
Hopefully, no one's going to come to bother me here. Nyx thought. With a bit of luck, no one has claimed this place as theirs, and I might even be able to get some sleep, stars, maybe even be able to make this place a temporary home until someone figures out I'm gone and that I need backup.
They slumped down on the cold chairs in the main room.
Maybe not; a few of my siblings would love to see me gone, I assume. Not from the lineage obviously, but maybe out of their projects, out of their ambitions. No one's going to take away the work I did, but I do assume it's a good… coincidence. I disappear from sight the moment I make a significant breakthrough.
I should ask Zeph'r about it—
They paused.
The thought was simple, boring even. They would usually just send a message or rummage through the shared parts of the mind of their sibling when they needed something, and their siblings did the same. It had always been this way; their entire society was based on that notion after all. Knowledge was to be shared for survival, for cooperation, for trust, for intimacy, for everything that made their society function at its core.
But now that they weren't running anymore, now that they had a moment to breathe, to think, and to collect themselves, the silence in their mind was deafening. Fear and adrenaline left space for anxiety and quiet. No one came into their mind for information, left some thoughts, or added to plans; nothing moved in their psyche.
There was nothing but themself in their head.
Something deep in their chest, a little below their 13th pair of ribs, boiled. Their whole chest was on fire; the room was spinning. No matter how fast or deep they tried to breathe, tried to drive the malaise away, the tight grip on their rib cage didn't let air in. The air itself felt like suffocation, the weight of it felt it was impossible to breathe.
The room felt cold; everything felt cold, but their throat and back were burning up. If they didn't start breathing now, right this instant, who knew what would happen to them? If they fell from the chair, if the air never reached their lungs, if the room didn't stop spinning, and if they closed their eyes, no one would be able to find them.
Ever.
They hadn't cried in a long time, a very long time, but they knew they were right now. Their whole face felt wet and gross. Their heart was beating fast and loud and drowned out anything else in the room. They didn't know if they were screaming, and they couldn't tell if the wind blowing in the house from the window they had opened earlier was louder than before or if it was just their voice. It took them a few seconds to notice they were standing up and a few more to realize they were walking. Their legs were shaking; in truth, their whole body was shaking. The creaking of the door was louder, deafeningly so in the silence that surrounded them, safe for their heartbeat and what they assumed was sobbing, maybe, probably.
They weren't sure where they were walking; there was nowhere left for them to reach. There was not a single place where they could walk that would have a friend, a sibling, or a lineage to get back to. No one would be able to find them without connection to them, and their communicator and now their whole mind became useless in a fraction of a second.
All of that because they had missed a step.
Their legs were now wet, their pants and shoes soaked with water. They weren't sure when they stepped into the large body of water surrounding the flower field, but it didn't really matter much. They looked around, stared at the shore a few meters behind them, waves rocking gently on pink sand. The water was clear; they could see their legs in it. In the distance there were hills; they looked flat. They probably were flat. It wouldn't have been the first fake thing they had encountered in whatever strange world they had fallen into.
The sound of water, the wind on their face, and the view of those fake hills somehow calmed them, grounding them in that absurd sense of loneliness that had been washing over them. Nothing felt right yet. The silence was uncanny; their mind felt both blank and too full, and the stickiness on their face made the whole experience feel like they had just gotten out of a fight with their own body.
But there was something calm and almost reassuring about the waves.
The way they crashed on the sand, the way they moved against their legs—something about it reminded them of the forever flow of thoughts and of the mind they were used to sharing with their lineage. The repetitiveness of it felt like something they could cling to, something to come back to.
They weren't sure how long they stayed there, looking at the water flowing around them, retreating and moving with the flow of waves. When they finally walked back to the shore, the wind hadn't changed, the flowers still moving slow and gentle in the breeze. All of these looked like plants they had back at home except for one key difference: back on Styx, back at home, the plants were dark. Millions of years of evolution under the harsh conditions of the red sun that lit up part of the planet had forced the vegetation to grow dark, almost black.
The flowers in the field all had color.
The entirety of the island was covered in those flowers, hues of purples and blues. All of these made the scene feel like it was out of one of those long dreams, the ones they had sometimes when falling asleep after long days at work. But this looked more vivid than any dream, less blurry, and closer than anything they had ever imagined. Others around them had sometimes drawn or brought back pictures from places far from the dome where they lived, but it looked nothing like this. Not as vibrant. Not as strange. Not as beautiful.
They rubbed their eyes and face dry as they walked back to the house. They needed rest; they needed to find something they would be able to eat just in case they needed it, and they had to look at the state their communicator was in. The error message was still at the back of their mind, and it might as well have been their only hope for rescue of any kind.
With a little bit of luck, it might allow them to brag to their lineage for years to come.
I might be the very first ever on the planet to get a picture of colored plants. They laughed a little as they got back in the house. I might not be cleared for space travel, but I'm the one person that saw a blue flower; if that's not bragging rights, I don't know what is.
Colored plants, I know others have seen them on planets of our system, but that's nothing compared to actually walking through them.
I'm fairly certain I saw some tools earlier. Nyx thought as they rummaged through a pile of boxes set in one of the smaller rooms of the house. There was a diverse set of objects and strange items stored there, but they were certain they had seen a small pink and black box with tools in it. It took several minutes of hunting down that specific box in the mess of that room for them to find it. They set it down on the main room's table and opened it.
It did indeed contain tools. They were different from the ones they used at home and had strange shapes, but Nyx could assume the purpose of most of them. If all the technology they encountered in this world was as simple as this, they probably wouldn't have that many problems with making themself at home. Everything so far had looked familiar yet deeply different. They sat and pulled their communicator out of their shirt. Thankfully, they didn't get any water on it, and no encounter with walls had cracked the screen.
They got to work on it, removing potentially problematic parts and inspecting them one by one before putting the whole thing back together.
Somehow, nothing seemed broken or even defective.
So I'm really out of range. They sighed, pressing their palms to their eyes in frustration. Which confirms what I thought: I'm nowhere close to home. Zeph'r would be so happy; I just confirmed the multiverse hypothesis by tripping down the stairs.
I'm the worst kind of scientist at times.
They looked back at the turned-off communicator on the table and sighed. They weren't sure what to do now, but they had a pretty good idea of it. Slowly, Nyx stood up and stretched their back, arms up in the air, hands joined. Their back popped with a satisfying crack, the tension that had been building up immediately washing away.
They got up the stairs to where they had seen something that could constitute a bed. It was set in a corner of one of the rooms with some soft covers and a weird amount of fabric on it. They felt exhausted, lost, confused, and frustrated. Somewhere in the back of their mind, they could hear Ph'boos telling them to rest if they felt annoyed by everything and everyone.
The voice wasn't really in their mind, though.
It was something further, somewhere back in a precious corner of what was probably their individual memories.
I didn't know I even had that non-shared knowledge and memories. They sat on the bed and kicked their shoes under it. It's surprisingly nice to access what I want without at least three people in the way of my thinking.
The ceiling was white, boring, and empty-looking. Yet, it felt like home, like the sterile and cold walls of Launchpad 4. It also looked a bit like the sun-repellent coating they used on the exterior panels of the dome Nyx lived in. All of that felt incredibly far away now.
All I hope is that Zeph'r did my presentation justice at the inauguration. That was their last thought before slipping into slumber.
What they assumed to be a few days later, while rummaging through a wooden crate in another part of the world, the absurdity of it all hit them. They finally managed to figure out a few things about the place in which they fell.
I most likely didn't get abducted, or I wouldn't be able to move as freely as I do now. They threw another piece of junk to the side, behind them. Creatures here are mostly not that friendly, and there's a weird amount of living things here.
Also, there's no way I'm on any of the planets of our solar system; the gravity's all wrong. I might be on some kind of middle ground between universes, or it's just something I'm telling myself to not go insane. They stabbed their thumb on a splinter on the side of the crate. Dammit.
They sighed and licked off the silvery blood that was coming out of the small wound. As they did so, they kept walking in the weird corridor they had found.
It's so stupid that the scenery here can change depending on where I clip back into reality. It was what they had decided to call it, the strange phenomenon that happened when they found a part of the world that let them access a drastically different space within it. Somehow it seemed connected to the mysterious blue lines and planes they could sometimes perceive on walls and around them. At least those weird cubes are letting me through most of the time.
With more trial and error, they now managed to get from place to place without having to slam themselves into surfaces. It seemed like it was dependent on more factors than plain speed. It took some time, but they established a few ways to make it easier for them to aim at where they wanted to go. Best of all, they hadn't felt sick since the first time they had to escape that strange pink area.
Though, they hadn't been in that zone since.
Juggling with a rock they had picked up off the ground because it was shiny, they kept walking down the cold corridor. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of solid stone. They did try to reach in between the lines they could see around from time to time, but the shaking of the walls when they did so discouraged them from poking further.
Turning a corner, something caught their eye; there was a mass in the shadows. It seemed bigger than the thing that had attacked them earlier, and it wasn't moving. But somehow, for some obscure reason, it had felt like an alive thing to them. They walked up to the shape and crouched down before poking at it with the rock they played with.
No reaction.
It looked strangely like a Styxian, but unlike them, it didn't move. Its face had strange proportions, and its whole body was stiff. The creature was lying flat on its stomach and was covered in something that seemed to be clothing, pants, and a shirt. Nyx kneeled close to it and grabbed its shoulder to turn it around; the thing was limp and cold to the touch. It had a face, though a pretty disgracious one, with a nose too long and smooth mouth corners. Its eyes were closed, and its skin, if it was even real skin, had a discoloration on its left side. The whole thing seemed like the left side of its body had hit the rough stone floor quite violently. Parts of it were torn and seemed broken.
As they poked around at it, they took a few things out of the cold thing's pockets. First, they took out a small black device; it had a screen and looked somewhat like the communicator in their shirt. Poking at it, the device lit up, showing a picture of some colored blocks and bubbles.
I wonder what I could make with that. They pocketed the screen device. I'm sure I can take it apart for spare parts later.
They pulled a few other strange objects out of the creature's pockets, most of which seemed of little use or interest.
Maybe I should bring it back to the house to take a closer look at it.
With little effort, they picked up the body off the floor and lifted it onto their back. They had a fairly good idea of where to go to be able to clip back to the island, and it was a small ways away.
It's strange. They thought as they made their way back to the main corridor of stone that they first appeared in earlier. I would have thought that thing would be heavier; it's a little bigger than me after all.
Now that I think more about it, I've been able to move things and myself around way easier than back at home. I feel surprisingly light.
They kept walking down the twisting corridor, carrying the thing on their back. It was easy to find their way back, as all they had to do was follow the converging lines in the walls back to a place where the cubes would give way for them. Nyx took a deep breath as they reached the right place. Clipping on their own was now a lot easier, but they hadn't done it with something bigger than them yet.
Well, I'm a scientist after all; it's not like I don't spend my time testing out new things.
They pressed into the wall, feeling the now familiar resistance of reality around them push back. The thing on their back didn't seem to agree with their plans, however, catching in every part and cube as Nyx tried to part them over and over again.
They pulled harder, harder, and harder. The limp creature finally clipped, but when they made it to the other side, it wasn't in their arms anymore. They had most likely lost it during the transfer between rooms. Nyx looked around; they made it back to the field, though notably more sick than prior clips. Their knees felt weak; their head was spinning. The way they forced themselves through the walls of the strange corridor was probably the cause, but they still felt sick.
With no real rush, they dragged themselves back to the house. Nyx walked to the window and opened it, letting some much-needed fresh air in. They then headed to the refrigerated box they had found in the secondary room. They assumed its purpose was to keep nutrients fresh the same way they had back home. That one was simply square instead of rounded.
Inside of it, bright, colorful, and fleshy items were stored. Boxes made of compressed paper and fibers with large labels in languages unknown to them. They didn't look threatening in of themselves, but one wrong encounter with an alien plant might be enough to give them some kind of food poisoning not yet discovered by their species.
Everything is so bright. They sighed and crouched in front of the items stored in the fridge. They've been there since I arrived, but what if my instincts are right? I don't want to grow a new stomach here; I have enough problems as it is…
Pushing the door back to the main room, they kicked their shoes off and went back to sit at the table at the center of the main room. The small machine they were working on was still there, surrounded by scraps of materials and many tools that they had to get creative with to get to their goals with that construct.
The machine was a pale imitation of something they were working on back home, but if there was anything sentient that tried to enter the island without their knowledge or consent, they would be able to know right away. Granted, they didn't activate it yet and had no idea if it would ever even power up.
But if anything, it was worth a shot.
The machine was meant to scan for anything with brain activity within the radius of the island, although with the amount of parts still missing it was more of a prototype. Nyx didn't expect it to ever be completed, as they never did a sonar on such a small scale. They were used to working on a bigger radius and more advanced technology. Still, they needed something to focus on, something to keep their mind off of the loneliness and anxieties they felt. Their brain felt empty, cold, and useless. They hadn't lost any of their abilities, not even after slamming their head on floors and support beams the past few days. Somehow, loneliness felt more like a threat to their identity than being lost in a whole other universe.
If anything, this is more productive than being a mess and sitting for hours on the sand by the water. They thought, fighting one of the screws holding the spare parts of the weird communicator-like device they had found on the limp creature they pulled back in.
The back of it seemed to pop right off, revealing a cheaply glued component. They sighed at the lack of quality and set the device on the table next to the detector.
I can look at its guts later; it's really weird they used edible parts for some of their technology here. Good ways to use spoils, but still odd behavior.
They took a wrench out of the pink and black toolbox and pried the side part of the sonar open. They had tried several times to put something to keep the opening of it slightly ajar, but it kept jamming back into place. Things seemed to get stuck and to stick together more than usual physics should allow here.
Some of the connectors they had welded in a rush earlier looked bloated and uneven. Usually, Nyx valued quality above all else, but fatigue got the best of them on this project. They had made minor mistakes, forgotten basics, and gotten distracted more than usual. It was a wonder the prototype even held together, despite what Nyx could consider fatal flaws in the design.
They looked at the welding and the joints they had used once more and closed the side part again. As Nyx went back to set the wrench on the table, they heard the front door creak. Their whole body froze. They knew that at some point someone, or something, would find their small house.
They didn't expect it to be so soon.
That was what the machine on the table was supposed to prevent.
They assumed it was a little late to think of it now.
The door handle slowly lowered, and the door creaked open. Through the gap, Nyx could see three silhouettes standing on two legs, with an arm on each side of their chest. They almost seemed Styxian, but something felt off, disturbingly so. Their limbs seemed too short, their heads looked slightly too big, and the way they stood seemed incredibly stiff. Before they could pick between screaming or running away, they dove under the table, praying that whatever monster had just found them wouldn't be able to see them there.
As the creature pushed the door open more and more, Nyx could make out some of its features. It seemed to have a face with low eyes and smoother skin than anyone should normally have. Behind it, two smaller, nearly identical creatures followed it in.
"�������������������������"
The creature, the one leading the group, spoke; it definitely did, but it sounded like a parody of language. Something so foreign to the way they had heard people speak before that their stomach twisted.
"���������������������������������"
Another of the strange and uncanny flesh masses replied to the first one, most likely their leader from what Nyx could gather. It was impossible for them to see the faces of the intruders from where they had curled up under the table, but their movement made it obvious they were looking around the room. Maybe this was their home and Nyx had been themselves intruding for the past few days.
If that was the case, then the situation was probably trickier than they expected.
The main issue now was assessing if the moving things were the same beings as the limp one they had dragged in earlier. Now that they thought about it, it might have been exactly what brought these ones to them.
Dammit.
They waited for the the leader to approach the table. They had a plan, but judging from the creatures they had encountered before, these ones might be as unpredictable as the rest of them.
I'm stuck in this place with three monsters, amazing.
Maybe, if I'm quick enough i can knock out one of them, maybe two. They looked at the legs moving around, holding their breath in as much as they could. I don't think I can do all three without getting hurt.
I am absolutely not built for that kind of situation.
As they thought that, the leader grabbed something on the table, right above Nyx.
"�������������������������" What could only be the taller one, said.
"��������������������" Another one replied.
"�����"
That last one, Nyx was sure, was the smaller one of the three. Whatever that creature was it seemed more withdrawn than the rest of them. They weren't sure how they knew that but Nyx could tell they had no will to be there.
The small one looked like me when I get asked to go on the planet's darker side. They held back a laugh at the thought.
They had always hated that part of their planet, there was something disturbing at the fact that a whole region of their home was void of light and color. Sure, with no sun there, it was easier to make food grow and to manage sensitive resources, but if you asked them, they should have tried to light that part up centuries ago.
Nyx's train of thought was interrupted by a boot getting right by their face. Before they could hold it back they let out a loud gasp and jumped out of their hiding place by pure instinct.
They were now crouched on the floor, one knee down, looking up straight at the thing.
It stared back.
"���������������" The creature screamed to the other two who looked back towards it.
All three of them were now looking at Nyx, they seemed confused, which was exactly what the Styxian needed.
As the one directly next to them reached for something in its pants pocket, Nyx jumped up to their feet and grabbed the metal seat behind them. It was light and very simple but with enough speed they could probably make something out of the improvized weapon. They hissed at the creature, hoping it would deter it from approaching them. If they could give off the impression that they were something to be feared, they might have a chance of making it out unscathed. Nyx and the taller thing stared each other down for what felt like hours, though it was most likely a few seconds. The fleshy thing took a step towards them, something flashed in their hands, and Nyx brought the seat down on it.
The creature slumped to the floor as the chair hit their skull with a dull noise. The other two things, still at the back of the room, screamed together in unison. Maybe whatever they screamed was a name, but Nyx couldn't be bothered to register it as such. They walked over to the now knocked-out being, holding the chair in front of them in lieu of a shield. The things looked at them; Nyx could see the smaller one's breathing get quicker.
"�������������������" The other one said, something close to fear seeping in their voice.
"��������" The smaller one told it, pointing at Nyx directly.
The two fleshy beings talked for a while, but Nyx wasn't able to understand any of their words. Everything felt wrong, foreign, and disturbing. It seemed absurd, pasting their cultural cues onto these things, but they seemed like they were arguing.
This is my moment. They stepped towards the door. These things are distracted, and I can probably make it to another place quickly, or jump in the water and swim away.
As Nyx went to jump towards the door, the taller intruder beat them to it. It threw itself towards the door, reaching in its pocket for something. It was only after they retreated to the corner of the room that Nyx could see that the thing had pulled a strange black device out of their pocket. By the way the thing held it, and the fact that they were still screaming things that meant nothing to Nyx, they quickly understood what the monster was holding.
That black device was a weapon.
While they were trying to assess what the best course of action would be, the smaller creature had ran to the one Nyx knocked out. They quietly observed as it moved the head of the thing around, poking at where the chair had made contact with its head. They assumed from the way they moved, and their body temperature, that the smaller creature was stressed. It put its hand on the neck of the flesh mass on the floor, poked at its head and yelled something to the thing by the door, the one with the weapon.
"Don't try me." They growled, still holding the seat in front of them and baring their teeth. "Don't even think about it. I'll turn whatever you are into gelatin."
The threat was mostly empty; Nyx was far from a fighter. At best, they could improvise a way out of most dangerous situations.
Looking around the room again to see if they could find something to distract the creatures, they noticed the small one staring at them. It looked terrified but didn't seem agressive.
"����������" It slowly said to the monster aiming at Nyx. "���������������"
The thing got up, letting go of the knocked out one. It walked back to the one with the weapon, all the while not looking away from Nyx. It leaned towards the armed monster and whispered something to it that Nyx couldn't hear.
"��������������������" The one with the weapon screamed.
Please, please don't hurt me. Nyx thought, lifting up the seat above their head as a threat. They had no idea what kind of damage that weapon would do, or what kind of twisted thing the intruders would do to them if they could immobilize them. The creatures were clearly physically weaker, but technology and weapons had made weak species have proven to be surpisingly stronger and more dangerous before.
Styxian travelers had sometimes encountered weaker species only to come back injured and hurt in ways no one thought possible. Only because the species they had met with had decided that their ways of asserting dominance with violence was an appropriate way to drive the newcommers away.
The small creature took a step towards Nyx, they immediately hissed back. It was a bit primal and even a little embarassing of a reaction, but maybe acting like a dangerous animal would make them more intimidated by them. They still had a trick up their sleeve, the monsters didn't seem to have mandibles like them, so they had still an element of surprise if needed.
"�����������������������" The monster said slowly.
It seemed just as scared as before but didn't look away from them. It moved its hand in an up-down motion, as if to tell them to lower their improvised weapon. If anything, that means that thing knows I won't hesitate to take it down too.
The thing kept talking, detaching words more than it did before. Nyx couldn't understand any of what was being told to them, but they could gather most of what the tone meant.
The creature wanted to make itself seem like it wasn't a threat.
Yeah but your little friend over there is still aiming at me.
They lowered the seat, resting part of it on the floor, but keeping it held firm in their hand. They pointed at the creature with the weapon, grunting to the smaller one.
"Make it drop it, and you two can leave this place in one piece," Nyx growled.
The thing by the door shook their head.
"����������" The one closer to Nyx spoke again, insisting.
Finally, the weapon was lowered, not exactly put away, but lowered. Nyx looked at them with a scoff and bared their teeth at them for just a second. It felt ironic that both them and the intruder had the same stance with their respective arms.
"Good…" They sighed, feeling some of the tension in their back soften.
Now time for the… They weren't sure how to qualify the small being. For the one that’s friendly?
Or as friendly as a monster could be to them.
There was no way that they could stay in that standoff forever. One of them, the three fleshy beings, would have to let go or break at some point. It could end in a terrible way or it could end with all four of them getting out of there without any more injuries. So they stared back, straight at the smaller creature.
It was looking, silent and still, for now.
When their eyes locked, Nyx could swear there was something in them, not agression, not anger, not even hate. It was something stranger and deeper than pure surface level survival instincts. It was closer to hesitance, to anxiety. Nyx focused on the eyes, the feeling in them.
The creature also seemed curious, as if they wanted to know more about Nyx.
"�������������"
Nyx wasn't too sure why, but the person in front of them seemed less agressive than before. As if they could see in front of them just another being trying to communicate.
If you wanted to seriously harm me you wouldn't have told your friend to lower their weapon right?
The Styxian let go of the chair, fully this time. They kept it close, enough to use it if needed, but they hoped that their gesture would appear as what it was to the stranger. It was an attempt at openness and vulnerability. They hissed nervously but bit their tongue back.
Yeah, you have the numbers and weapons advantage, if you wanted to do actual damage you would have done so before.
The small stranger stepped forward, hands up and open, showing their palms.
"�������������������� Anthony" They said as they took another step.
That last word, Nyx had caught it several times in the speech of the intruders. It had been said several times, which meant that it had some kind of meaning.
"Anthony." The person said, clearer this time.
They put their other hand on their chest and said the same word again.
"Anthony."
It has to be a name. They're giving me their name.
Nyx took in a sharp breath, looked at their feet for a minute. The person in front of them didn't move, didn't even say anything more. Nyx looked up at them and very slowly reached for the stranger's hand with a slight tremor, before whispering back.
"Nyxtl'ra"