sticksandbones | The melody that filled the empty me [OPEN]

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The melody that filled the empty me [OPEN]

Who: Till and YOU!
What: Till has arrived! He's freaking the fuck out, it's probably fine dwbi
When: Early March
Where: The Grove, location fluctuates depending
Warnings: References to death and very slight suicidal ideation

[Despite growing up in a part of the wider reaches of the galaxy, Till's universe has always felt very small. Isolated. Contained. Not allowed to do anything less than what is expected of you. Step out of line, act in a way they don't like...

The last thing he remembers is standing alone on that stage. The lights went out, yet he could still feel the icy cold of the simulated rain pelting his face as he stared at Ivan's still-warm corpse.

He walked out on that stage fully expecting to die. This...felt wrong. He shouldn't be still here. So why...?

He blinks, and suddenly the stage is empty. The body is gone, as are all of the aliens watching him as they cheered when the song ended. It's eerily silent, and as he looks out into the great expanse ahead of him, he sees...

Does he know the word? "Mother"? That isn't what they called her. Provider. He is the Creation. When the aliens took him from her, he never knew what became of her. They ripped him, screaming and crying, from her arms. If he's seeing her now because he did die after all...then all the better, honestly.

He throws himself off the stage, and when he collapses into her arms, it all feels...idyllic. He's met with the true world of humanity. The trees, the grass, the clear blue sky. Was it all...just a bad dream?

...

..

.

Till startles awake to the tune of Rusty licking his face, and though it takes him a few long moment to regain consciousness enough to even realize what's going on...he recoils violently, practically throwing his body back to get away from the dog, only for his limbs to lock up on him in a similar way to the feeling he gets when the aliens set off his collar. Fuck. He has no idea that he's been laying in the Nethersea Brand for X amount of time, but thanks to Rusty he'd been dragged out and able to (mostly) recover enough that he isn't completely paralyzed.

Does that mean he's feeling GREAT? Haha, oh no. Hell no. This man has never seen an Earth dog before, do you think he has any idea what happened to him?

As Rusty tries to come back close to him, Till quickly tries to scramble to his feet- falls and eats shit once in the dirt- then manages to drag himself half-upright as he looks forward beyond where he ended up. Though the Grove isn't exactly your fount of beauty...it's grass. Trees. He's outside, and it doesn't feel real. It can't possibly be. It's either a near-death hallucination, or fake like Anakt Garden was.

Holding one of his upper arms for stability, Till's eyes settle on the Grove in front of him. The multitude of buildings large and small that have been cultivated into a small town...even amidst the sprawling city structures of the alien race, it seems foreign. He is, at least, visible at the tree-line to anyone who might be looking from their window.

Because in a fit of panicked desperation, the light on the choker(???) around his neck flashing red, Till turns and starts to stagger into the trees. If he IS outside...he has to run away. If he's found, he won't be killed. No. They'll capture him, and he will WISH they'd killed him.]

===========

[At some point, when Till has been convinced NOT to try to disappear into the Forest forever and fucking die immediately, he will do whatever he can to isolate himself away from everyone else. This is accomplished by Till finding one of the empty Inn rooms and locking himself up in it. He will go so far as to pull the largest piece of furniture he can find over the door to ensure nobody can come in, at which point he's not seen or hear from for...a while.

...

A post appears on the netbook in scratchy, uneven handwriting.]

if youre looking for me then come get me
i dont care anymore
ill tear apart every last one of you who tries
should have years ago

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

:D?

Nope! I'm the guy who runs the tailor shop~. Haha, I was going to mess with you, but you seem like the type whose brain will explode if you get messed with too much. ^^ My name is Ain.

im sure you are.
all you aliens are the same
why should you be any different?

Isn't calling someone an alien racist

[wHO TAUGHT YOU THAT—]

now you ARE just fucking with me
get lost

I've been lost before and it's not very fun :O

[Till writes another alien profanity.]

you wouldnt be having much fun if i could get my hands on you
thats for damn sure

[AND NORMALLY he wouldn't be this...emboldened to act out, especially verbally, but what is this one alien going to do? Come find him? He's sure plenty of other, higher ranking ones are already after him. If this guy was one of those, he wouldn't be wasting his time here.]

Edited 2025-03-01 06:24 (UTC)

[oh my god he's like add

i'm sorry till he HAS to bully you harder]

You could try but I'm very fast ^^

[Speaking of, he's going to go float out and look for this guy. Till where are you—]

[Till is in the Inn! His room is easy to find it's the one with the barricaded door :)]

heres an idea
eat shit!!

[Ain does not respond because he's too busy being the worst person right now. He does spot the barricaded door, but that gives Till an escape route, so instead he heads back outside and literally floats up to the guy's window.

Knock knock!]

Hiiii!!! Let me in!

[Big green eyes peer into the room. Hello :) ]

[When Ain stops replying, Till assumes that's the end of it. Thank god. He might not know what to do from here, but at least he has the time to just sit in the peace and-]

Haugh!!!

[Ain appears at his god damn window and Till screams about it, flinching backwards so hard he nearly falls off the bed. And hey Ain guess what, this guy even kindof looks like Add!! He's even dressed all punk in a spray-painted shirt, rings adorning multiple fingers, and...well. Normally he'd have his neck covered, but his collar has since been removed, and he hasn't been able to find anything suitable yet...so the branding of his name reflects back the light even through the window.]

What the fuck!? Go away!!

[Ain looks. Like one of the more Alien Aliens here, so Till is understandably alarmed by this-]

[oh he's going to trauma bond onto you like a baby duck to a firefighter jesus christ]

Hi! Can you let me in? My name is Ain!!

[GIRL]

Are you scared? Haha~. Would it help if I brought my owldog over? Or my hedgehog?

[ :))))

Ain speaking to him muffled through the glass is really not even enough of a protective barrier for Till to feel safe, which is extremely funny considering the fact Ain is a healer and not a "I can explode you with my brain" type of class. Like yes, he is fucking scared thanks for asking!! But also...it's kindof really embarrassing for Ain to see that, after he talked such a big game.

The worst part is he has nothing in this room to defend himself with. Maybe he could beat him to death with the notebook, if he had no other options.]

What's your problem?! If you wanted to come in you just could, right? Are you fucking with me??

I'd have to move all the stuff out of the way!! And I bet your door's locked! I can't pick locks, y'know.

[He technically could throw a spear through the door and warp past it but that's not fun, also he probably would've hit Till with it, so.

Outside is he.]

Messing with you is a lot of fun, but I really don't want to do all that heavy lifting~. You should open the window for me!

[Well!! If Ain is going to keep being a nuisance, and outright admit to his face that "messing with him is fun", Till is...going to finally snap a little bit.

He vaults off the bed, thundering over to the window so he can slam both hands up against it, balling one into a fist and beating it once against the glass.]

Name one reason I'd let an alien in here! Name ONE!!

[Cocks his head like :D?]

I'm an angel, actually! The dragon bits are because of the "blessings" the dragons give you. I didn't use to look like this!

Can I come in?

[Behind Till, Dachie... warps through the front door... he has heard he was Needed.

He will sit there quietly until noticed. :) ]

No!!

[Till shouts behind the glass, glaring at Ain through it.]

I don't know what any of you are playing at! Why you haven't...captured me, or killed me, but I'm not giving you the chance! If you want to find a human to "play with", go find one somewhere else!!! I'm sick o-

[Till continues, but before he can keep going, he happens to catch a little flash of movement out of the corner of his eye.

He looks...

And when he sees Dachie, he startles hard enough this time to actually fall back against the side of the window.]

[Oh no!! Dachie who is just Wide Stanced over here tilts his head at Till, then makes the softest owldog noise of concern he can manage before he trots over and noses into Till's cheek.

His tongue lolls out of his mouth and he gives Till a big kiss on the nose.]

Oh, you're human? I love humans~. [Ain your human fetish is NOT helping right now.] I don't want to kill you, though. Or capture you. Actually, I'd like if you could come say hi to people, since you're new here.

The person that actually wants to capture you is the evil guy in the forest. The rest of us are just trying to survive.

[Well given that Dachie is IN HIS ROOM NOW how the fuck did he get in here, there's really not anything Till can do about that. He could scoop him and throw him back out, but the whole door is locked and barricaded so that's not happening easily. That, and he doesn't particularly seem keen on touching him, even if Dachie is more than happy to trot over and lick and rub all up on him. He stiffens against the wall, trying to turn his face away...but he ends up slobbered on regardless.

The way Ain brags about "loving humans" makes Till shudder inwardly. He really isn't pleading a very good case to be let in, here...but he does say something that gets Till's attention. It's the same thing Mamika had said, about this being in the forest keeping them all here. It sounds like some sort of alien keeping them under their thumb, but how many aliens own dozens of humans? It doesn't seem very likely, but also not completely unheard of.]

...if. If I open that window, how do I know you ain't gonna just come in here and-

[He trails off, not wanting to finish that sentence. He feels cornered, but it's not a new feeling.]

How different is an "angel" to an "alien"? If you're trying to tell me you're God, you can fuck right off with that.

I don't think I'd actually like being God. It's too much work. Where I'm from, the Gods have all abandoned us anyway.

[Thanks Mom he really loves your silence re: the end of the world.]

If I had to word it in a human way, I'm technically the son of a God, but that's also sort of not correct. Angels are born from energy... it's complicated. I always wanted to be more human, though.

[His dragon tail wiggles. Him wanting to be more human is the only reason he developed emotions to begin with.]

Can I come in? I'm not gonna hurt you, I'm actually a healer. [He COULD hurt people, he sure fucking HAS killed a man, but also.]

[Till...does not trust Ain. He doesn't trust this. He can't bring himself to trust a single damn person here, and the worst part is there's been no sign of or word from anyone he recognizes. Granted, many of them are already dead, but...the fact that he's not yet seen any evidence of anyone or anything is...confusing. You'd think he'd at least be seeing promotional material for the stage. Something. Even the resistance wouldn't be able to keep up with scrubbing all of that.

But Till has spoken to (willingly or not) quite a few colorful characters here, and he's...tired. He wants to be left alone, but they don't seem to be doing that...yet so far, none of them have sounded the alarm. He genuinely doesn't understand the point of keeping him here for much longer, especially when usually the authorities would have descended on this place hours ago by now the moment the word a rogue human was found.

In the end, realizing that Ain is relentless and isn't going to give this up, he decides to push himself stiffly to his feet. Before opening the window, he will pick up a reasonably thick tree branch (the same one he tried to bean Loop with) to hold at the ready, just in case he feels like he needs to protect himself if Ain was waiting to be let in so he could jump him.

Only then will he unlatch the window with a dull click.]

[Wheeee! Ain flops into the room like a cat, and pulls his too-long tail in after. Dachie, meanwhile, steps back and sits his butt properly on the floor. And then barks.

Hi! He loves u :) ]

Whew! You're a pretty frightened guy, huh? [Ain sits criss-cross applesauce on the floor, clasping his hands over his ankles.] If you wanted to hit me, you should do it with something sturdier, like a chair~.

Tch. If you'd rather I beat you with a chair, I'd be happy to swap.

[Thing is, his goal isn't like...to KILL anyone here. Not that he wouldn't love to kill more aliens, it's just that he's already presumably on the run (not by choice, exactly), he doesn't need convicted alien murderer on his list of crimes. He's pretty sure they wouldn't bother executing him when torture, making a spectacle and example of him...oh yes, that's way more impactful.

Anyway. Dachie is sitting and being polite, and meanwhile Ain is sitting a reasonable enough distance away that Till doesn't feel like he needs to aggress him yet...so he'll slide back into a sit on the floor underneath the window, though he's keeping the stick across his knees like a baseball bat at the ready. Just in case.]

I ain't afraid of you. I just don't fucking trust you.

Aww, I'd rather not be beaten at all~.

[Tail wag. Thump thump thump :) Ain has to cram his big wings off to the side here, and meanwhile Dachie has begun to preen himself.]

I get that you probably came from somewhere... mm, not nice, to put it lightly. But the people here are really kind, so you can rely on them, even if some of them are scary like Mr. Demon~.

[While Ain chats, Dachie has plucked a single shed feather from his tail, nice and long.

He sets it at Till's feet as a peace offering and nudges it forward with his beak.

Dachie leaf. :) ]

[Till is watching Ain like a hawk right now, his fingers occasionally tightening their grip on the stick before relaxing. He hasn't had a crazy ton of time to process anything he's learned, and though a lot of people have been trying their damnest to make him understand he's not where he thinks he is, it's going to take a couple of days for the realization to sink in. It's not that he doesn't think it's possible- he's from an alien planet, almost ANYTHING is possible- but it...doesn't seem like something that would happen to him.

He wasn't the one who was supposed to escape alive. He would have gladly given his own life a thousand times over to ensure someone more worthy got that privilege. But in the end...he's here. He's the one survivor, and that feels worse than almost anything else.

...he's snapped out of that reverie by Dachie presenting him with...a feather? His eyes shift from the feather to look up at Ain.]

...guess even Aliens keep other Aliens as pets.

[Did you even fucking listen to what Ain said-

Anyway. Lower class Aliens don't have rights, simple as that. Till got to use one as a guitar and look how that turned out.]

Mm, nope, we're not aliens! Haha, your ears must be clogged.

[Ain, be nice to him, he has trauma.]

This is Dachsologie, or just "Dachie". He's a magical creature made of energy, like me. He's friendly. He's trying to give you a gift because you're nervous.

[Dachie barks and wags his tailfeathers. Take gift! Take.]

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