sketch hug by @salvia

Furnace 2 - ??? IIThe doors give way to your efforts achingly slowly, and your body hurts again by the time there’s enough room to wiggle through. The room is like the one you just came from, sort of, but different because instead of a warming thing in the middle, there’s tall… things around the edges. They don’t look like anything else you’ve seen. There’s another set of big doors ahead, so you start to walk towards th— Something large and imposing and towering suddenly slams into the tiles before you, between you and the next set of doors. You didn’t know things could feel bad to look at, but this thing does. It’s a lot bigger than any other moving thing you’ve seen. You also didn’t know there were moving things bigger than— well the doors were moving, but that was because of you, but you didn’t know there were moving-on-its-own things bigger than you. You stand frozen, until it starts to swing the thing its holding at you and then you see a way out and then you run run run, barreling past the door and stumbling down the stairs as the thud of the thing’s weapon and the shattering noise of other things sounds out behind you. You barely avoid tripping, and by the time you stop at the bottom of the stairs, your legs are hurting worse than they’ve felt before, and they’re so shaky that you worry that they’ll stop working again. You stand bent over, with your hands on your legs as your chest burns and shudders, and it feels like there’s something in it trying to get out out out . Once you can tell what’s around you again, you notice a light to your right, and after turning your head to see another of those nice warming things, you stumble towards it, sinking into the comforting warmth. You curl up next to the warmth, and stay there long after you feel better. The only thing that gets you moving again is wanting to be more away from that big moving thing. This time, it’s a bit frustrating how long it takes you to get to your feet, your legs stopping listening to you multiple times and making you start over. There’s a point of opening-light that caught your interest, and you want to go there. Using your hand to help, you slowly make it to where the patch of openness starts and— Oh! There’s another moving thing! Holding something interesting too. But before you can approach it that much, the other moving thing does something with the thing it’s holding, and you hear a thunk as a sudden pain comes from your shoulder. You stagger back, hand catching on a wall, and then you realize there’s an opening right to your left and that’s easier to go into than back to the room with the warmth. You don’t even need to look down to notice the thing sticking out of your shoulder, and poking at it makes your shoulder hurt more, so you try really really hard not to touch it again even though you really want to. The other thing you notice in the room is something interesting-shaped on the ground. Picking it up, ignoring the shoulder-hurting, on one side it’s got nice and pretty colours, and on the other side it has dangly thingies, and after poking around at them you figure out that the dangly things go nicely over your hand, so you decide to take the pretty-and-interesting thing with you. Walking out of the room, you remember suddenly why you went in there in the first place, but it’s too late and you can hear another swishy noise and a thunk as you tense but… no hurt?. Opening your eyes, you see another thing like what’s in your shoulder, but instead of in you, it's in the pretty thing. It looks like you’ve got the pretty thing between you and the hurt now? So that’s better, and you can continue going farther away from the really big and scary thing. When you get closer, the hurting moving thing starts going away. You’re proud of yourself for picking up the pretty-and-interesting thing, because now you know it's also pretty-and-useful. There’s a corner to turn and then steps to go upwards, and the hurting moving thing continues to go away, until it's not, and it’s shoving at you, though that’s not doing much but frustrate you. You grab it, and move to shove it back the way you just went up, just wanting to get it away from you. You succeed, because now the hurty moving thing is going down what you just went up, and the noise that happens when it's at the bottom and stops is startling and bad and you don’t like it very much. You stare at the moving thing that hurt you and it doesn’t move from where it fell. You wonder if something similar happened to the thing the shiny-moving thing gave you, because both came from somewhere more up, and then weren’t moving at the bottom. Casting a final, wary look at it, you continue forwards. The first thing you see when you walk out into the next openness is a half-there door, like the first one you opened, and past it is… the moving thing? You’re pretty sure it is, at least. It’s not moving much, which you don’t like. You approach the half-there door. There aren’t any jingly shiny things around like what the moving thing gave you, and you’re upset you didn’t take them the whole way like you did with the pretty-and-helpful thing. Trying to have your hands investigate like with the first one makes a loud and bad noise happen, but now the half-there door’s placed in a different way, so you cautiously try again. The half-there door moves in a way you don’t expect, and then your hands get jittery and bad and you drop it, stepping back as it falls over and makes a really really bad noise. It makes your chest feel all jittery and bad, and there’s some new and unpleasant feeling in your throat. You look around for another warming thing, because that helped make things better last time, but you can’t see any. What you see instead does manage to help a bit too though. The shiny moving thing finally moved again when you were paying attention to the door, its head turned towards you now, and that makes some of the badness go away, enough for you to try to get your legs to bring you over to it. As you start, suddenly it starts making noises towards you and you think the noises have a meaning that you think you understand? “Oh, you. You’re no hollow, hm? Thank goodness. I’m done for, I’m afraid.” You don’t like the shakiness of the noises. Everything else about it is so solid, and your thoughts about those different things aren’t agreeing. “My insides are damaged. I’ll die soon, then… lose my sanity. I can feel it coming.” It pauses, as you let your legs stop and fold once you’re close enough, and lean towards it, full of concern. “I wish to ask something of you. You are a godsend, to come at this moment.” It makes a funny sound. That sound is a lot better than all the other sounds it’s been making, you decide. “You and I, we’re both undead. Hear me out, will you?” You’re not entirely sure if it’s the right sound, but you try anyways, tripping over your mouth until you manage “O-Oh-kay.” It looks at you weird for that noise, but you don’t know if it’s because you did the wrong noise or spent so long trying to make it. Either way, it continues making noises of its own. “Thank you. Regrettably, I have failed in my mission, but perhaps you can keep the torch lit. There is an old saying in my family. “Thou who art Undead, art chosen… In thine exodus from the Undead Asylum, maketh pilgrimage to the land of Ancient Lords… When thou ringeth the Bell of Awakening, the fate of the Undead thou shalt know.” Well, now you know… And I can die with hope in my heart…” It stops for a moment, before seeming to remember something. “…Oh, and one more thing… Here, take this. It’s an Estus Flask, an Undead favourite. Has healing properties.” It takes an interesting looking thing from its side and holds it out towards you. It reminds you of the warming things from earlier. “Though, maybe you should take the arrow out of your shoulder before drinking.” You’re not sure what an arrow is, but if its in your shoulder… you poke at the long thing that hurt you earlier, and scrunch up your face when more pain comes. “Yes, that is an arrow… are… you that near hollowing?” You don’t know what this “hollowing” thing is. You’re not sure how to respond because of that, so instead you try to make another purposeful noise like you managed earlier, but all you manage to make is a “ih.” It tilts its head at you. Scrunching your face, you try again. “Ihh….Lh..” Still not it. The shiny moving thing makes noises seem easy. You try yet again. “Hail.” The noise is clipped and half-mumbled, but the moving thing finally responds, so you did well enough at making it. “Hail fellow.” The moving thing sounds out. “I told you, I’m done for, but perhaps you are too, in the long run.” You whine at that. “Nooo.” You insist, noise a bit easier this time, trying to tug on its arm as you half-stand. It gives a strained grunt, before tugging its arm back, stopping you. “My insides are damaged. It’s too late for me.” If the liquid can help you, why can’t it help the shiny moving thing? You don’t know the right noises, but you try to make your point by pushing the Estus Flask back towards it. “That is an Estus Flask. It will heal you. I must really bid farewell now… I would hate to harm you after death… So, go now…” That’s not what you meant! You push the flask towards it again. The thing stares at you. It seems to finally understand what you’re actually trying to do. After a while, it makes a sound again, almost too too quiet for you to hear. “……Why?” You’re frustrated again at not knowing how to sound out the whys, so you just shake the flask at it again. “I…” It starts, and you think maybe the shiny moving thing’s going to make more noise, but then instead it takes the shiny part over its head off, putting it down next to itself with barely any noise. You wonder how close your heads look to each other. From your nose, and the hair that's in front of your face the colours are different though, you’re pretty sure. It takes the flask back. The shiny moving thing stares at the stuff inside weirdly, before bringing it up to its lips.

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