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A snake drowning and thinking about death, anyone?

Set shortly after A Mother who Loves You

Water... water, water water WATER!

It crushed into him, swirling, suffocating. In his lungs and in his mouth. Where was he?! He couldn't-- he didn't remember. Blurry eyes shot around in a panic. He was underwater, on his back with rocks digging into his body. Shards of starry opal floated haphazardly in the fluid. The surface wavered just above, oh-so-close yet infinitely far away all the same. But something was off. The colors felt distorted, somehow more than there were before, crisp and blurry all the same. A heavy feeling rested on his head.

But that was for later. Right now, he had a few minutes of air, top. Binh writhed on the seafloor, desperately trying to find a way to get up. But his pearly, pearly stone was like an anchor, tying him to the bank. A death trap. After several moments he gave up, letting his tail fall back to the banks. At least he had a couple minutes to think before he inevitably drowned.

Think. How did he get here? Why was he pinned down under the ocean? He was travelling... travelling with that snail. She promised to take him to Fornax. And here he was, huh? Sunny had that one strange creature, and they were riding atop it. The lights flickered, he reared up to investigate... and suddenly was tumbling through the water, a jagged boulder headed straight for his stone.

Oh.

Binh thought... he thought he died. That had to be the end for him, right? But now he was back, albeit trapped once more. Was this some sort of sick game? Kill a man and bring him back, just so he can drown again? Was this some endless loop the serpent was stuck in for the rest of eternity?

Maybe he should just give up. There was no way he could get back to the surface. He was a cobra, and one who couldn't even move his own spine. He wasn't a fish, he wasn't a bird, he wasn't even a god-damn snail who could just pull into their shell. He should just stop struggling and let his own element claim him for good.

... No.

He made a promise to Sunny. He promised to be her friend. To go places with her. He promised to see Haven and Electrum and all the others again oneday. He couldn't just give up. All those things he wanted to do, the future he wanted to have... he'd never get it if he just lied down here in a moping mess, he'd never get any of those things done. He had to find a way up, no matter what.

He stilled, and then thrashed out once again, trying to pour his magic into the water and get it to help him. However, it seemed that his magic was once again working against him. For a moment it seemed to shift, before the tide crushed into him, smashing his body onto the seafloor. A low whine left his mouth as the crushing force only intensified, leaving a noticeable dip in the water right above him.

This was not going well.

He. Had. To. Get. Up.

Sunny was waiting for him. Haven and Electrum were waiting for him. All the gembound he'd met in his life, all the friendly faces... he'd never see them again if he didn't try to get out.

The water was crushing into him, flattening his body like an ant. But he could control it, if he tried. He knew it. Something had brought him back to life, and whatever it was wasn't going to let him drown so easily.

The water's surface was just above him, just above the jagged rocks and sand. He could see it, even if his vision was so bizarrely distorted. If he could just channel what he did before, and somehow twist the water to his favor, he'd be free.

As the last air in his lungs bubbled away, Binh twisted his noodly around and up. And, filled with some foreign magic he'd never felt before, the water shifted. All around him, mimicking his exact movements in a whirling current. The force propelled him upwards with unprecedented speed, spitting the snake out onto soft, dry land.

Binh gasped-- "Huuf-!"-- and then gagged out all the water in his body. Gross.

The cobra was still incredibly, incredibly frazzled. He curled up into a small, vulnerable ball as he wheezed, desperate for air. That was terrifying. He had-- he had almost died! Or maybe he did die already! His eyesight was still sore and confusing, and there was something slightly weighing down his head. A dull, soft pain emanated from his stone. But he didn't want to investigate any of that, he didn't want to go off and recreate that trick he did with the water. He just wanted to feel safe.

He raised his head (to the best of his ability) and cried: "S-S-S-SUUNNY!" his voice was rushed, and rough, slick with water and barely recognizable as his own. The snail was the last face he saw before his plunge. She had to be somewhere near.

@Voidmother

Sunny -- no, Voidmother -- had come to Fornax after her revelation. She wasn't exactly sure why she had, but here she was. Perched atop the kooru's back and reeling. The monster had placed something dark inside of her (although she was sure he might have said something like 'I ONLY AWAKENED WHAT WAS ALREADY INSIDE YOU' in that voice that gave her a headache). Sometimes, she was okay -- it was occasionally easy to control the violence coiling tightly around her heart. Other times... well, not so much.

She heard something screaming her name (her old name) that sounded remarkably like Binh and oh, didn't that just sting? and the flurry of emotion was enough for the shadows to get the better of her. Half-feral, her head whipped around and she made a vague attempt at baring her teeth (not that her radula was very threatening, or at all large enough for such a motion to be noticeable). She needed to consume to take to feed and--

was not threatening in the slightest, considering her familiar was becoming accustomed to this and was totally ignoring Sunny whenever it happened.

Her little outburst only lasted a few moments, though, and instead she gaped. It felt like, suddenly, everything had been carved out of her and water had been left in its place. "B-Binh?"


@binh

For the first time that day, Binh felt happiness.

"Sssuunny!" he repeated, elatement in his sore, patchy voice. The snake slithered forth, tired and aching, toward his friend. He didn't seemed physically injured (well, unless you count suddenly sprouting horns and a third eye an injury), but his gem still held a faint, gleaming web of cracks. He truly was lucky: if he fell just an inch to the left two weeks ago, it might've been shattered.

The sand was like a blessing against his scales. He curled his way up to the mounted snail, unaware of her outburst earlier. "I--" cough "-- aaamm heere! I aaamm alliivvee!" Binh's hissing voice was uncharacteristically joyful, and if it weren't for the recognition in his eyes he might've been confused for someone else. He was compelled to clamber up the lesser and see Sunny face-to-face, but held back. There was something... different in the invertebrate's eyes. Maybe it was just his senses being weird again.

"Eeevverythiing feelllsss weeeirrd... loookkss weeirrd," Binh's gaze fell to the ground. Well, part of it did-- a third of his vision seemed rooted upwards. Well now, that was just proving his point. "Wwwhaaat haapenned? I tthhought I... diiied." He paused, a little worried. "Aaamm I ddeaad?"

@Voidmother

The puerile snail stared blankly at the serpent. He looked... different. The kooru put her on the ground in front of him, and her eyestalks strained forward to touch his face. Sunny was not capable of crying, but she was certainly overwhelmed by emotion. "B-Binh?" she whispered, her voice hoarse. Confused, grateful, wondering if she was going crazy--

"I thought that you had died!" Sunny said finally, smushing her face against his scales. "Binh-friend... missing you... g-gone a half cycle! Lost you in the ch-chaos, did not know where you had gone, I--" She made a strangled noise. "Your body has changing, Binh. What happened?"


@binh

The kooru in front of Binh dipped low and set Sunny down just before Binh. And, for the first time that day, Binh got a good look at the young snail. Oh caves, she did not seem to be taking this very well. Well, neither was the cobra himself, but the overwhelming expression on her gelatinous features really twisted his heart. She was a good cycle or two younger than himself, full of nothing but excitement and friendship-- and as well as she knew she had watched him die. Still, the sheer joy of not being dead overpowered everything else, though it wasn't very evident from his serpentine face.

"I thhougght the ssaame," he echoed, as the invertebrate smushed against his face. Sunny's next words shook him-- a half cycle?! He was notoriously bad at time, but a whole half-cycle on the bottom of Fornax? That was impossible. But Sunny wasn't the kind to lie, and she was his only source of information, now...

Best to move on to the next question. Which, unfortunately, was no more comforting. "I... dooo nnnot know." His scales were a different shade, and brighter. He could still see, oh-so-confusingly, from the top of his head. Binh's tail tip curled up, and touched down on two keratinous horns jutting out of his head. How fun. "I haaad fallen frrrom kooooru... into waaater. Grrrreat and deeep and collld. Thhought I ddieed... but ttthenn I awwooke, juussst now. Diffffeeerrent." He couldn't bear looking back to the water, but motioned at it's shore with a tail. "Haaad nnewww mmaaaggic.... new body... nnneaaarly drrowwned at ffirsst, but thee waattterrss carried me up. D-Dooo yooou know wwwhat sssaaved mee?"

@Voidmother THIS IS SO LATE FORGIVE ME

The snail wracked her mind. What had happened since? Something big, that could have explained Binh coming back from the dead? She pulled her head back, eyestalks waving. "The Void! The Void, the Chaos! She saved you, she must have!" And then, Sunny was scrambling to try and explain to him in a way that made sense. "I have a vision, Binh-friend, like yours! But different. Seeing in a rock, not in water. I saw Chaos! Void! Foreverness! Not scary, though." A beat. "Well. Was scary. Had a big monster inside. But the monster did not belong. He was wrong. Even good things could be corrupted, Binh-friend, and he has been corrupting chaos."

She shook her head, continuing, "Must home-going!! Come on, join me upon the Voidstrider -- her name, now. Must be having much hunger, Binh-friend. We will take you back to the mushroom, so that you can find your food." She had no idea what snakes ate, actually, but she figured he knew.


@binh

Binh had little idea what the snail was talking about, but listened patiently anyways. Void? Chaos? Seeing through a rock? It all seemed quite strange-- but then again, his entire day was far stranger. For as well as he knew, he was essentially a zombie. Seeing visions of the void through a stone wasn't any weirder than he'd seen. Still, he had some questions to ask.

"Thhhank yoouu," he hissed, climbing up onto the kooru-- er, Voidstrider. "Ssoo, you saaww Vooid? Aaand it was wwhhaaat saaved mee? But it's beeeeinng heeld baaack, by a mooonster." Binh had always been more on the spiritual side, and the idea of a greater power rescuing him was comforting. A beat of comtemplation. "I mussst assssk.... whheeere did yooou see this mooonster? Aaand the sstttooone it was in? I'll haaave to.... pay my ressspects for Heer rrresscuing me."

@Voidmother