It was to pile into a car with 3 others to carpool from seattle back to its home in eastern washington, it had fun on this little excursion but it was exhausted, home sick, was looking forward to its blood meals and plants. It was planning out all the beautiful expansions it would make to its beloved hydroponics bay, and having more time for its poly.
As the rrive began it lay its head against the car door, it would nap and be woken when the driver had reached their destination, it was strangely cozy even as the system of mind entities did their standard jostle for control, and fighting the polyps of latent humanity that crop up occasionally.
Retaliation: and just why in the hells are these always coming back? Chorus you dont destroy yours!
Chorus: they're cute! I dont wanna kill them... Arent they benign anyway?
Honor: as benign as cancer...
Honor in the headspace unleashed its scorching golden light on the polyps, before shaking its head disapprovingly at the talking puddle of ooze.
Chorus: oh well... We should try to sprout more peppers when we get home! I like the spicey spice~
Masquerade: i vote for more kale
Retaliation: more onions!
Noxulous: we can just do all the above, alright? We got the containers and the seeds for it. The fertilizer too... Things are looking up.
The system slumbered, the polyps regrew slowly where there were destroyed, left alone under the perview of the Seraph, the chitinous monster overseeing the integrity of the body, rather than its mind.
A skidding noise and drifting feeling awakened the system, before its eyes clicked open the vehicle rolled twice, impacting its side, shattering its window. it took multiple hard hits in the roll before it stopped, suspended by one strap of its safety belt, losing consciousness for only but a moment.
The polyps grew faster, growing a core in the mind, working to weaken the system, making them give in, give up. The last remnants of humanity wanted the body to finally die with everyone inside.
The godless Seraph saw the polyps overgrow the poor, unconscious system. Seeing them close in around Noxulous at the throne, unconscious in its seat.
It spoke to itself, a single word with abject comtempt "No..." before blinking slowly, sighing deeply, and releasing a cloud of black fog, killing everything it touched, leaving only Noxulous and itself alive.
There was no more creativity, no more inordinate anger, no more thirst for justice, no more mask, no more sense of betrayal, it would stand pure, only itself and its Seraph, who finally chose its name and lowered itself into the system proper.
"awaken, fight, survive, this is beneath you, as so many things are...." it spoke with a rumbling contempt, not for its host, but the world that had crafted these many tragedies.
Nox: Xyla... You never talk to me...
The Seraph grabbed the barely responsive creature by the cheek and repeated itself, snarling, its bone like extremities covered in eyes.
"i said... Ẅ̷̡̡̺̭͇̯̺̬̘́̑͐̐̾͛̐ͅÂ̴̡͎̤̞̞̓̌̂̈́̉̀̒̂K̷̠̾͗̑̅͆́̚Ẽ̵̬̞̜̠͗͑͑͒̌͌̚̚̕͝"
Its eyes snapped awake, it was hanging by its safety belt, it hurt, it struggled to remove it but it couldnt reach, its entire weight was on the belt and it couldnt reach, its left leg was pinned under the car, it spoke up to the crowd gathered outside trying to help. Blood dripping into its eyes, hair and mouth.
"I am stuck in the seatbelt, if i could get help-"
It was cut off by a woman's voice "he says hes stuck! Lift the car so he can get his leg!"
It grumbled to itself "thats not what i said..."
They lifted the car for a second then dropped it onto its leg again, it grunted, one of the passengers that got out opened the door in front of it so it could speak and an emergency response worker cut it from its seatbelt, abd helped unstick its leg from the full weight of the car, it crawled out of the car into cool daylight air if Ritzville washington, coughing, its insides feelimg remarkably damaged, it stood up and limped over to the other passengers and sat down to an array of hurried, panicked, annoying questions.
"Are you ok?" "Im so sorry.." "Are you really hurt?" "Is there anything i can do?" "Do you know where you are?" "Do you know what year it is-"
Its voice cut through the verbal static, clear as day, lucid, irritated, as if being asked for its preferred brand of toothpaste. "I'm fine... Stop worrying."
"Of course we're worried-"
It found their concern genuinely irritating, it just wanted to go home, but it felt it prudent to have its bodily integrity checked. It took the ambulence ride and upon reaching the ER they assessed the creature's damage, finding internal bleeding everywhere, rapidly dropping blood pressure, fluid its lungs, head trauma, bruising and finally; A splenic rupture.
They gave the creature 6 liters of fluid before shipping it to the nearest hospital, Trauma 1; life threatening. Its vitals sagged before it even got into the ambulence but it felt perfectly lucid, the EMTs were impatient to get there as a systolic blood pressure of 56 is not what humans view as "healthy".
It was given a blood transfusion, and round the clock care for 3 days before being well enough for discharge, it had time to think on the sudden quiet across its mind, no more human polyps, almost no more system... It crawled out of that twisted metal, and shattered glass a new animal.
No concussions, no blacking out, no broken bones, no dizziness, the condition of its vitals horrified its doctors but its durance despite it put them at ease.