Warning!

Assistant Laborer Poly has undergone multiple ascensions and evolutions in quick succession. Her mental state could deteriorate if left as is.

Options:

Delete - Remove Poly from the dungeon entirely and erase her from spawners.

Disconnect - Remove Poly’s consciousness from the new [Minion] and respawn the original with memories of the incident removed.

Wait - Do not act. See how the conflicting memories of the new and previous interact.

“I hear it all. The song is so beautiful, encompassing everything and nothing in the same moment.” The being that once was Polymora mused, her voice vibrating through the air on strange frequencies. Listening to her… it was as if one was aware of the individual wavelengths that made up her voice as she spoke. It was disorienting, like seeing every pore on a person’s face in the middle of talking to them.

“R-ras, what does it mean by disconnect? If I disconnect will the-this person still be here?” Red whispered to the box as he looked at the woman who was observing herself, seeming to be interested in what she was.

[Yes. It will not despawn the new minion, but they will experience immediate amnesia. They would believe themselves to have suffered a great injury and are unsure of who they are. It is not a clean process and has a chance of causing mental distress for the remnant left behind.]

“Red. You fix this. You bring back Poly right now.” Ivy growled as she turned on him, looking away from the being that was once her timid assistant. She grabbed him by the throat, wanting to strangle him as ‘Poly’ tilted her head in confusion.

“Whatever do you mean, Ivy? I am right here, and I am far more than that pathetic fairy I once was. I’ve danced in the darkness between the stars, heard the whispers of alien suns, and opened myself beyond mortal perceptions. I can bring your constructions beyond that of mortal things, eternal, everlasting. Beyond even-“

Before the creature could finish her sentence, or Ivy could spit back with a venomous retort, Red reached out and tapped on the ‘Disconnect’ button. As much as he wanted to try and do something that would calm the situation down, he knew that he had to take responsibility for his mistake.

Delete and Wait were never going to be choices for him, to kill her or allow ego death. He already had guilt welling up in his core about exposing Poly to such danger. He didn’t want to be responsible for the cessation of her life. He barely knew her, but she was still one of his. Not to mention how much she mattered to Ivy.

The void woman let out a strangled noise from her throat, Ivy forced to release her grip on Red to cover her ears. Red covered his ears as well, but it was a pointless gesture as his entire avatar was essentially his ear. The sound was grating, but he managed to keep his eye on the minion. He ran over to her and caught her as she fell, gently lowering her to the ground as he saw something strange.

Floating out of her mouth was a small pink sphere with flecks of black dotting across it. It was the size of an orange and covered in ethereal white smoke. An instinct overtook Red, and he instantly was aware that this was Polymora’s soul. It floated towards the stairwell before disappearing. He knew that a counter had just appeared for how long it would be until she was back.

He felt a tug, a bit of his energy being pulled from him and cast down into the waiting form of the being below. It was only now that he was holding her did he realized she was an angel of some kind. A pair of wings had sprouted from her back, but they were impossible to see against the backdrop of the void. It was as if light passed through them unobstructed, with no shadow or visual to indicate they were there. However, holding her like this allowed him to feel those wings. To feel them and know that she was a Void Angel.

“What happened to Poly? What did you do?” Ivy asked seriously as she rushed over once the disorientation had passed, the Architect believing that her assistant had just collapsed to the ground. However, when Ivy looked upon the sleeping form, she felt no connection to it. Not the same bond of fate that tied her and the construction team together. Whatever this creature was now, it was certainly not Poly.

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“Poly is set to respawn upstairs. I never meant for any of this to happen, Ivy. I swear. She just had a [Void] tag and I thought that meant it would be safe for her to touch it. I never thought something-“ Red was cut off as his avatar was smacked, no pain was felt but his head did reel instinctively from the strike.

“You are not a god,” Ivy said firmly her green cheeks burning a much darker hue as tears well at the corners of her eyes. Red thought it was such a strange thing to say, but at the same time, it made sense as to what she meant. He had been acting like no decision he made could cause trouble. A long string of success had made him very lazy.

He hung his head slightly as he could no longer meet her gaze, the guilt clear on his face as he tried to understand when he had stopped thinking like a person. Poly was alive, just as alive as anything that might exist outside of his dungeon. She had thoughts, feelings, friends, and if she had a child then that child could leave the dungeon and become part of the world at large. When had he stopped seeing those outside of his close circle as living things? When had weaker minions suddenly become disposable.

“You do not give us our feelings. You do not give us our hearts. You don’t even fully know what we will look like until we appear. You may give us life, but you are no god. You have no right to put it at risk like what just happened.” Ivy said with a trembling voice, the bravado of the architect wavering as she was filled with rage and relief. The conflicting emotions fighting a battle in her heart as she was so angry with him, but at the same time so glad that Poly wasn’t gone forever. Her fists were tight, and if Red looked closely he would see the rivulets of blood from her fingernails cutting through the skin.

“You… you’re right. I don’t know what to say, but what I did wasn’t right. I was being reckless with a life that I had no right to play around with. I’m sorry.” Red said softly as he glanced at the unconscious form of the void angel, still not sure what to do with her. He looked away, images of the faces Poly had made flashing in his mind as he considered it. There was something extremely dangerous about [Void], and if he didn’t treat it with the respect it deserved then it could cause a lot of trouble. He certainly wasn’t going to let anyone without the tag anywhere near the edge of the parking lot.

“You don’t get to just go away with a sorry and sulk feeling bad for yourself.” Ivy said firmly as she looked at him, blinking the tears out of her eyes as she tried to calm down. “You’ve got to do something… anything to show the people of this dungeon you care! I don’t care what it is. But it’s obvious that you need to remember that they are people. You can’t just-just brush this under the rug. You need to accept the fault for what you did and show me you’re not going to do it again.” Ivy said insistently, her words strange before Red realized what it was. She was begging. She was begging to see Red’s humanity was not falling apart. She was pleading in not so many words as she tried to ensure that her friend was not losing himself.

Red finally met her gaze again, looking her in the eyes and seeing that emotion within her. She cared about him more than just as the person who brought her to existence. She had not been alive for two months, and she already saw Red as a person; and as a friend. Maybe that was it, his leadership and Addison had become like friends or family to him. So he prioritized their health and safety. Then the other minions fell to the wayside, but he couldn’t let them fall that far. In another life Ivy could have been the one with the [Void] tag, and she was the one put through that horror show.

“I will, Ivy. I will show you that I still care. What I did to Poly isn’t right, and even if she doesn’t remember it. I will.” He agreed to her pleas, knowing that he would have to do something to help his dungeon. He wouldn’t ask Ivy about expanding the second floor at the moment, since that would be far from anyone’s priority.

[Query. What should we do about the Void Angel? She will be unconscious for some time, but she will have no memory when she wakes up.]

Ras was always trying to be practical, and as much as Red hated the idea, there was an option that he had never done before. He avoided it since it seemed cruel, especially to things that were just spawned. However, she wasn’t even aware of her own birth yet. So with a heavy heart, Red decided that he would put her in storage until he was ready to speak with her.

“Store her away for the moment, Ras. She won’t wake up in there, right?” Red asked as he looked at the angel, worried that she would wake up in a different kind of void.

[No. She will be in the state that she is stored in until she is released. I shall store her for you now.] The box said, before the Void Angel simply wasn’t there anymore. The minion now in the same place where Red stored items and things that he had gained over his adventures. It was… odd to know she was in there. But it was better than her waking up alone.

He looked back at Ivy, who had a moment to calm herself and regain some of her composure. It was clear that the incident was shaking her to her core. He couldn’t blame her, and he knew that she would just need to rest and relax while he did his penance.

“Ivy, how about you and the con-” He was stopped by a hand up to his face, the Architect fairy silencing him with a motion.

“I’ll tell my crew if we are done or not. Just… just go and do something good.” She insisted, not another word shared between them as she headed towards the entrance to the dungeon.