I never should have been. ~ Fritz
Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2020 12:24 pm
The jarring impact of a filthy cobblestone street met Fritz's palms. The flash of a intrusive, vividly colorful portal suffocating as abruptly as it had come. The weight of his robes to the cult of the Path of Inspiration draping around his arms feeling, just for a moment, as if they weighed a hundred pounds in threads across skinny arms and a mess of rust colored hair matted in sweat and traces of blood from a headwound.
He had done it. He had escaped, at last. Gone were the cries of the Inspired Herald calling for Fritz to halt. Gone were the sconces in the twisting halls of the Chosen. The air where he was now lacked the sweet, saturated, dense and choking smell of incense to ease meditation. Fritz was in a cold puddle. The air turned cold, dank, reeking of far away furnaces. Arms trembling as his long limbs twisted about to find purchase on the ground and lift his immense and fear riddled gaze onto the Hive. Widening further as for the first time, Fritz saw creatures inhuman.
Their gazes were far from friendly. Just as disgusted with the clueless Primer as the Inspired had been with Fritz's indignation of his captivity and refusal to adhere to doctrine. But this was disgust he could deal with in his state, climbing on shaking legs and with vertigo filling every fold in his brain. The strike of a sling stone had left its mark, nothing he wouldn't survive but enough to make every single source of light too intense to take in his state. Gathering the entirety of nothing in his possession and taking to the streets in a black robe embroidered in symbology that evoked nothing around him. Nothing at all. Not the reverent, 'non' glances of a mass that understood its place beneath the il-atlas. There were no Quori monoliths here, penetrating the dreams of commoners. None of the 'comrade' smiles, saccharine at the sight of Fritz the Meek wandering past from yet another failure of adapting to life forced on him. Nothing at all. It took all of ten houses to not even be noticed again, his sandals drenched to the toes and the startling gold patterns woven into his black robe nearly muted by the ash falling from the sky.
He didn't have it in him to worry. He didn't have it in him to beg for help. No one at all seemed to take notice of anyone else. Humans walked by great creatures shaped as spiders, or snake tailed things where should have been legs. A hulking creature with a jaw thrust forward like early man, drool dribbling from his bottom lip. No one panicked, no one did anything. Fritz read the room and kept his mouth shut, before he ousted himself anymore an outsider than his introduction had already.
Freedom was much like Fritz had always known it would be. There was no hands on his back to congratulate him and there was certainly no recognition of what he had done, or what he had fled, or even a hand to pick him up as vertigo turned his empty stomach to wretch against the ground again and again.
A disdainful remark of, "Hold your bub, ya sod." from a passer by and some spit that flew errantly off course nearby.
And Fritz was 'alright' with this. Setting his jaw and panting through his teeth, Fritz was alright with picking himself up instead and wandering into the sprawling streets and alleyways to be left alone and recuperate. The portal never opened behind him again. Whatever fluke of the multiverse that had released him, saw fit to keep it that way.
He had done it. He had escaped, at last. Gone were the cries of the Inspired Herald calling for Fritz to halt. Gone were the sconces in the twisting halls of the Chosen. The air where he was now lacked the sweet, saturated, dense and choking smell of incense to ease meditation. Fritz was in a cold puddle. The air turned cold, dank, reeking of far away furnaces. Arms trembling as his long limbs twisted about to find purchase on the ground and lift his immense and fear riddled gaze onto the Hive. Widening further as for the first time, Fritz saw creatures inhuman.
Their gazes were far from friendly. Just as disgusted with the clueless Primer as the Inspired had been with Fritz's indignation of his captivity and refusal to adhere to doctrine. But this was disgust he could deal with in his state, climbing on shaking legs and with vertigo filling every fold in his brain. The strike of a sling stone had left its mark, nothing he wouldn't survive but enough to make every single source of light too intense to take in his state. Gathering the entirety of nothing in his possession and taking to the streets in a black robe embroidered in symbology that evoked nothing around him. Nothing at all. Not the reverent, 'non' glances of a mass that understood its place beneath the il-atlas. There were no Quori monoliths here, penetrating the dreams of commoners. None of the 'comrade' smiles, saccharine at the sight of Fritz the Meek wandering past from yet another failure of adapting to life forced on him. Nothing at all. It took all of ten houses to not even be noticed again, his sandals drenched to the toes and the startling gold patterns woven into his black robe nearly muted by the ash falling from the sky.
He didn't have it in him to worry. He didn't have it in him to beg for help. No one at all seemed to take notice of anyone else. Humans walked by great creatures shaped as spiders, or snake tailed things where should have been legs. A hulking creature with a jaw thrust forward like early man, drool dribbling from his bottom lip. No one panicked, no one did anything. Fritz read the room and kept his mouth shut, before he ousted himself anymore an outsider than his introduction had already.
Freedom was much like Fritz had always known it would be. There was no hands on his back to congratulate him and there was certainly no recognition of what he had done, or what he had fled, or even a hand to pick him up as vertigo turned his empty stomach to wretch against the ground again and again.
A disdainful remark of, "Hold your bub, ya sod." from a passer by and some spit that flew errantly off course nearby.
And Fritz was 'alright' with this. Setting his jaw and panting through his teeth, Fritz was alright with picking himself up instead and wandering into the sprawling streets and alleyways to be left alone and recuperate. The portal never opened behind him again. Whatever fluke of the multiverse that had released him, saw fit to keep it that way.