Scars (0.6)

The thing in the void seemed like it was concerned about him.

Nova had cried until his head hurt. Until he could feel that his eyes were swollen even though he couldn't see a thing. Until his jaw was aching from clenching it tight in order to not sob loudly. Until his lungs were burning from the choked up, sporadic way he was breathing in between the sniffling cries. Until he could feel the part of his palm that was dented by his nails digging into his flesh as he was overwhelmed by his emotions.... Nova cried for a very long time.

The strange force appeared to be at a loss as it observed him.

Why did the little soul it picked up keep injuring itself?

Since Nova wasn't responding to its attempts at getting his attention by pushing his leg or shoulder it decided to simply wait for him to go back to talking to it again. It wrapped itself around his hands and healed the small indentations on his palm that had already drawn blood. This soul acted smart before but now it was acting a bit silly. How strange.

But that didn't matter. How long had it been bound to this place? Too weak to directly fight against the cruel thing that imprisoned it. Too fearful to take action on it's own. And yet, this little soul with barely any strength decided to fight against it's worst fear!

The little soul was the only being that was capable enough to even make the attempt to communicate with it after so long being contained here. Of course, it didn't respond to him the first time. What if it would be punished as a result?! That was too scary to even think about. It was better to do as it was told...

Occasionally other little souls would come to it but they never returned a second, or third, or twenty fourth time like this one did. Repeat offender. One that even dared to smile and laugh as he faced what could be death. Wasn't he scared? Wasn't he scared like it was? Why wasn't he scared at all? Why does he keep trying?

It couldn't understand. But it wished it could be like him.

That's why, when it saw a chance to go against it's biggest fear by saving his dying soul there was no hesitation.

For the first time since it's imprisonment it made the decision to do something. It was very scared. But underneath the fear was curiosity and excitement. What would happen now?

It was very patient. So it would wait. Wait for the little soul to do something interesting again.

┉┈◈◉◈┈┉─────────═━┈━═─────────┉┈◈◉◈┈┉

Nova woke up again.

Like a child he had cried himself to sleep.

After letting his complex emotions out a bit his mind seemed to be working much better. At the very least, he didn't feel the need to go on any silly internal monologue and get embarrassed because his pride was hurt... Unexpectedly, he didn't feel like his throat was raw or his eyes were swollen or, you know, any of the consequences of sobbing for what might have been hours.

Rolling his neck and rotating his shoulders, Nova stretched his aching body that was both familiar and unfamiliar to him after so long. Massaging his muscles with one hand he discovered something that wasn't present before.

Scars.

Criss crossed and layered over his skin, Nova's entire body was covered in dense scarring. The kind that made the skin become uneven and turn leathery. There was variety. Some were deeper than others and as he ran his fingers over those ones it felt as if a chunk was carved out of him, the thin scar tissue that was left delicately overlaid muscle. Some were different widths, there were a few that were as thin as a crack in porcelain while others covered a large area like the very deep one on his right hip that almost seemed like a gunshot wound. That was also an example of the many different shapes of the scars, some felt like bullet wounds, others had clear lines like a very intentional mutilation with a sharpened blade, others were very rough as if his skin had been scratched and pulled at with no rhyme or reason.

The reason Nova hadn't noticed this before was because his body was originally scarred. He knew his hands and fingers had a substantial amount of small, layered little cuts and scratches on them. He didn't know why but he knew that they were a part of him. Just like the 3 scars on his face. One cutting diagonally through his right brow and stopping just before his eye. Another hugging his left cheekbone. The third on the left side of his mouth, making an intimidating line down two plump lips.

There were no additional scars on his face and his hands had always been rough so he didn't notice the changes to his body at first especially with his mental state.

Nova honestly didn't care that much about the way his body would look now. Even though he couldn't see anything, he could feel the extent of the damage. His current appearance would definitely be able to scare some people. Of course he was very curious about where all the scars came from, but that didn't seem to be affecting him negatively in any way so he was just happy to have his body regardless.

....and it wasn't like he could do anything about it even if he did have an issue with it. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

After investigating his body as much as he could in the darkness for any more changes he found nothing. There was also nothing on him, and he finally noticed that he had no clothes on... How did he miss something like that? How long would it take for his head to start working right again?

Nova had to laugh at himself for that one.

As he heard his own voice echoing in the lonely void he remembered his comrade in arms! Did the thing fall asleep again waiting for him to get up?

Nova focused and started to search for the thing's energy.

.....

...He couldn't find it.

It was gone.