The warmth of the Arcanine's fur beneath you is not enough to deter the chill running down your spine.
As the light pours off the futuristic creature's wings, you shudder.
In the deepest recess of a place that should be forgotten, metal is overlaid with flesh. So seamlessly that it is hard to determine where machine ends and organic tissue begins. Rather, it is a mixture of both. It boggles the mind. It hurts to look at, like you're seeing two things at once. A superposition, something that should be impossible. Just by observing it, you're seeing something that defies all common sense. It should be one or the other, and yet, it remains something split between the two.
You press on, into the belly of the whale. All without a word.
The hallway squeezes like an open esophagus, swallowing you all as you walk.
"You've got to be... ugh, fucking kidding me," you pant, covering your face with a sleeve. The pounding in your head makes you wanna puke. You're so revolted by what's all around you, it's hard to focus.
Tsutsuji crawls along the ground, scraping its claws against metallic flesh. Sharpening them, in preparation for a fight. Should the time come, you know that she could punch a hole straight through metal, create an escape route. At least, in an ordinary ship, that might be true. But here, you're unsure. The make of this place defies logic, defies common sense.
You walk through a deserted room, expansive with vaulted ceilings.
"... A ballroom?"Just a guess.
But there, hanging from the ceiling like a massive chandelier is a mechanical device, rotted through like decaying flesh, part of the body of a massive creature. You're not sure what it's used for.
Below that, though. You see something you shouldn't, something that fills you with dread. Something that makes your heart beat in your throat as you force yourself to confront it.
"... Father. What are you doing here?"You speak to someone who might not even be there, who may be just a paranoid delusion. The glint of your hands, glowing porcelain like a ghost, show in your periphery. You're turning invisible as he looks at you. But the fact of the matter is, for once in your life, he is actually looking at you. He's noticed you.
"You're supposed to be running the family business. You told me, there's no time for anything else."Protests.
Things he said, but you know he didn't mean.
You know now, in the depths of your heart, that he had lied to you.
That he is here is no coincidence. It is the same reason you're here. You are both drawn towards the same inevitable conclusion, that what lies in the depths of this infernal sea mustn't be touched. Mustn't be observed. You are here for one particular purpose, and that is to join the will of the rotted fruit hanging above, and prevent what's to come, disaster you've dreamt of.
"You see it too, in your dreams... don't you, father...?"A multi-chambered object that pulses even as the rest of its body lies long-dead, bleeding, rotting from the inside, corroded beyond repair.
A flicker of something white and pale, something translucent like a ghost overlaid over your father's body. You know it is only your eyes playing tricks on you. It is the paranoia getting to you, the disbelief, having this reunion with him after so long in a place like this.
But you would know your own father if you saw him in the flesh. Even if it has been so long, even if he does not deign to speak. His sad eyes tell you everything you need to know.
"... Right."You turn to the scientist. An observer who's seen too much.
"He's saying that you should leave. You can't be here. You need to destroy everything you've taken. You need to leave. Right now."You're not sure what that will accomplish. If he doesn't bring anything back with him, he will still carry memories with him from this place.
Maybe you can fix that...
