text; un: TheHollowKnight

[instilled]

A query:
What makes you you?
How are you yourself?

Please only respond if you wish.

Comments

[passio]

Do you think so? That’s all I can hope for. I want to respect the life that I’ve made for myself, as much as I can.

It’s not always easy. Nothing about being “someone” is easy. But I’ve learned that it’s better than being no one at all.

[audiomancer]

A force?

I don't know about this Radiance, but I don't dislike that idea at all! It's a good description for what happens, given that a force's purpose is to push or pull until something gives way, and breaks.

I think even The Tower would enjoy that sort of description. It might even suit it better than it suits me.

[ It's funny... hasn't he heard something similar, recently? About the light? He's going out on a limb a little, but: ]

By the way. Are you made of the Void?

[ It is calling itself 'Hollow Knight', after all. ]

[rubberpirate]

I don't know what the Wyrm is but that's cool!

[instilled]

May a question be asked?
It is more of a hypothetical to ponder.

[instilled]

Their Soul.
The presence of their being.
A lack of emptiness.

[instilled]

[ No one remembered the Radiance, but She had made Herself known. Her destruction had been all but absolute, Her dream all encompassing. The Hollow Knight found it so difficult to imagine another force that did not have that same uncaring, violent love. This being was either lying, or dangerous, to claim that descriptor.

It decided it was best to err on the side of caution.]

Yes.

i'm sorry talking to thk is a minefield.

[instilled]

[ It shouldn't hurt so much to hear that. And yet it did. ]

The Wyrm was the ruler of Hallownest.
He allowed the minds of bugs to expand and become individual.
He crafted the Vessels to contain that which would amalgamate all.
He was God and Father and King.
He is missed every day.
There will never be another like Him.

[instilled]

[ There was variation between the Vessels; that was to be expected. They had been made from the unborn children of the Wyrm and the Root, and had the familial similarities and differences inherent to that. But aside from that one difference, its birth and Zenyatta's were similar. Designed. Crafted. Maybe by the thousand.

It made his knowledge, his very being as a crafted yet living individual, such a draw of terror and wonder. ]

The Void is the great emptiness of the Abyss.
The darkness that swallowed the obfuscating light of the Radiance.
The lack that defines the living.
Sibling is the Heart of the Void.
Given form.
Given focus.

[instilled]

Perhaps that is part of being a person.
To find those answers.
It is something that it must consider.
Some facts are difficult to ignore, as concerning as they are.

[justsomeshrimp]

What is the purpose of a soul?
How can you be certain who does and doesn't have one?
Does it have instincts?

what's that? it's theory o'clock.

[instilled]

Beings wholly made of Void do not have a soul.
This is known.
A soul comes from creatures descended of a higher being.
The Wyrm, the Root, Unn...
Even the Radiance.
Likely even the Nightmare King.
Soul is the driving force that powers those who come from these beings.
This vessel and its siblings were born of the mingling Root and Wyrm, and were granted their mingled soul.
We were then bathed in Void, which absorbs all.
Our lack and our presence of soul is a duality that allows it to be sensed, and wielded, as is necessary in our duty.
Some have a stronger sense of the self that comes from that soul than others.

[ And some are more likely to admit it than others. ]

[audiomancer]

I thought so. I exchanged words with one of your siblings a little while ago, as it happens.

We seemed to have a lot in common.

I wonder if we're the same, as well?

[ :) ]

[passio]

Of course. I’ll answer as well as I can.

[lightthedarkness]

Some do, some are born knowing exactly what it is they're supposed to do, but a lot more of us are born not knowing much of anything and have to figure it all out for ourselves as best we can.

If you need a listening ear, just let me know, kay?

[tigerpoet]

I hope you find answers that make you happy.

[instilled]

Thank you for your insights.
This vessel has no mouth to speak, but your offer is appreciated nevertheless.

[instilled]

Imagine there was being that had taken over the minds of those around it.
It was defeated, and the minds of those it had enslaved were their own again.
They gave their love and worship to the one who defeated that being, but it was a choice, in that there were others who did not choose to worship that new being but were glad to be free of that influence.
Yet there came a time when the first being renewed its power, and began to enslave those minds again.
The one who defeated it before could not do so again.
Would it be better for another to renounce all personhood to contain that power, in order that the rest may still be themselves?
Would the emptiness of one be admissible for the richness of so many others?
Is this cost worth it?

[instilled]

You spoke to the Knight?
They are the Heart of the Void.
If you would wish to know more of it, and how alike to it you are, then you should speak to them further.
They will be able to hear your cries no matter how you send them, if you are akin to the Void as you wonder.

[ They heard the Hollow Knight, after all. It could feel them as a part of the Void even when it was far away, now that they were the one to unite it. It was why it even chose to bold the words, just as they had done when talking about it -- deferring to the one who knew it most intimately of all. ]

But if there is any help this Vessel can give in your questions, please do not hesitate to ask it.

mm delicious

[justsomeshrimp]

[Lobco reads everything Hollow Knight wrote carefully. She didn't have any sort of expectations in mind for how they might answer that but reading it all, it sounds very technical. That said it also doesn't sound too different from home--but that's not really what's important at the moment.

Admittedly she's very intrigued (and a little wary) of the notion of them being able to wield soul but if she asks about that now they would start veering off topic.

...and of course their insistence that they themselves are not a person is concerning.]

Does that mean that anyone descended from one of these higher beings is meant to follow them?

[audiomancer]

I see. So that's what they meant when they called themselves "the Heart", is it. For a being who exists to fight and destroy, they do have a romantic name, non?

And you're the Hollow Knight — so what are you in the Void? Surely not the Hollow Heart.

[passio]

[ it’s an extraordinarily specific situation, and dextera wonders what pieces he might be missing. everyone who tells a story tells it from their perspective, and while he doesn’t think the hollow knight is in the habit of self-deprecating, the staunch neutrality can be a form of that without even realizing.

he mulls over the situation presented. the only answer, from an objective moral stance, is no. the many over the few, as ever. ]

It would be the “right” thing to do.

But in the world I come from, what is “right” isn’t always what is “good.” I’ve done terrible things for what’s right, and I’ve done good things for my selfish whims. No one else can decide the path that you - or this hypothetical entity - should take. No one can take the measure of a decision except the one who makes it.

That’s what I’ve learned.

[lightthedarkness]

I'm happy to help as best I can!

Oh... ah... um, this may sound weird but do you know Knight? Knight refers to themselves the same way and they don't have a mouth either. [She hoped this wasn't a weird question out of nowhere to ask, but they spoke so similarly.]

it's ok!

[rubberpirate]

it's hard, missing someone the much. He sounds pretty badass.

[instilled]

Would you not consider it a great failing, then, if it could not repress a sense of self?
Even though so many others lost their selves because it could not refuse itself one?

[instilled]

Yes, the Knight hatched from the same egg as this vessel.
We are siblings.