bettimbellis

[bettimbellis]

hello I appear from within the aether to bring you: more of this finally. Chapter 33 is largely un-beta'd, but up! Several days ago, whoops- I forgot to crosspost.

Grimm is here! Albeit briefly. We also have Hornet expressing perhaps more feelings than she really meant to, and the continuation of Ghost trying to manage how Hollow sees them. A chunk of which is below.

Well. No more of that here. No gods bearing kingdoms-weights of responsibility, arrogance, pride. Only a tired god of pyres, and two wild things with no care for that outside their domain. And them. God-thing tasked with what little remains of what-was-Hallownest. No more. No more asked of their siblings. No more demanded of Hollow. Too much to say here, maybe, it’s over and you’re free and will not make you, not anything, not ever on top of everything else, but- could try to show it. Ghost sits back slightly. Wriggles, shifting bedding, to lean back against something. Calm, calm, calm, much as they can manage, letting Hollow watch. See? Hurts, broken open, walls-around-pain shattered, no pretty lie of perfection left, but- it’s okay. You are safe. This is real.

Drained of Light (Into the Welcoming Darkness)

(header commissioned from slimeel)

Characters: The Knight, Hornet, The Hollow Knight, Quirrel, Lost Kin, Nailmaster Oro, too many others to list here. 

Warning overview: it’s a Hollow Knight fic. Gore, body horror, aftermath of possession, mentioned abuse, assorted canon-typical awfulness but now addressed in detail! Check the full tags and mind individual chapter warnings.

Rating: M for gore, aftermath of violence, and implied (consensual) sexual content.

Summary: Ghost, aided by a gradually assembled adventuring party, manages to get Hollow out of the Black Egg Temple alive. Having freed their sibling from a mad god’s clutches is one thing; freeing them from their own self-imposed chains is entirely another. Particularly once Hollow manages to arrive at the idea that Ghost, beginning to come into their own as god-king of Hallownest, would like to be the one holding those chains. An idea Ghost wants no part of.

Hornet, having spent the past few centuries desperately believing that all her siblings died in their shells, has learned the truth just in time to struggle with how to help a sibling who firmly believes that their own existence as a living creature is the most heinous of crimes. 

Oro has been pulled from his entirely satisfactory and not at all lonely hut in the middle of nowhere to help, and is absolutely not notably invested in this particular patient, thank you. No attachment whatsoever to someone whose response, after everything, is still to put themself between their family and potential harm. Nope. (He’s also a bad liar.)

Friends and allies can only get you so far when someone’s greatest battle is against their own mind, and, for better or for worse, many things in this crumbling ruin of a kingdom are inclined to interfere in the matter. Not all that is dead in this realm is willing to stay dead, and the past is not content to remain in the past. 

These are not the only Void-kin still alive. 

Read on AO3

(Author’s notes: rougher first chapters have now been fixed! Come read my 400k and counting hurt/comfort post-Temple recovery fic. It’s made multiple people yell at me in generally positive ways, and is wandering in the approximate direction of eventually being one heck of a rarepair.)

[bettimbellis]

Oro/Hollow first kiss, minific written on the fly and copy/pasted here from Discord. Please disregard any slightly odd formatting. Set a good chunk of time after my longfic. No warnings I'm aware of, under cut for length.

They're beautiful. "May I kiss you?" …fuck. He didn't mean to ask that. Hollow's purring falters slightly, and their head comes up off his leg, enough for them to stare at him and his stupid question. What got into him to ask- They lift their hand to sign, a subtle, unsteady "yes", then lower it to push themself up. Hesitating, after a moment, as if uncertain what to do with themself. Uncertain where to be. Their armor is un-clamped, their frame lax against him. He hasn't scared them. If anything, their posture is… reserved, but seeking towards him, visibly waiting for him to act. Oh.

Well. If they want him to act, then… They move easily when he touches their mask, his hands cupping their face, drawing them up to his level. Reminding him that it has been a long, long time since he had anything like this, had someone in his lap, seeking his affection. That he's never had anything quite this precious, or this delicate. Gentle. Don't push. Let them pull away if they want. He doesn't know how to kiss them. Barely remembers how to kiss anyone, let alone someone whose face is all bare skull and sweeping, elegant horns, whose mandibles are tucked away and may well be off-limits; wyrms lock jaws as a challenge. A challenge Oro has no desire to trigger, both to avoid distressing Hollow and because he would resoundingly lose. He tries. A careful brush against the base of one horn, to see how they react. They shiver, faintly- and lean into him. Pressing towards him, as if seeking more. "You like that?" A nod against his hands, so soft he would miss it if not for it being pressed into his palmpads, and the slightest motion of them tilting their head to the side. Offering the spot where he winds up nuzzling them, in mimicry of the affection they show him. Far be it from him to turn down a request. Oro turns a nuzzle into another careful kiss, feeling them press into him further, then nips oh-so-lightly at their jawline before kissing again. They seem to like it. Their purring is back, silent as ever but vibrating gently against his palms, and they slowly press closer and closer as he works his way from their jawline up to their horn. Their mask is smooth, statue-cold against his mandibles, a thing which does absolutely nothing to dissuade him; no statue presses into every gentle touch as though the absence of it might kill them. No statue in the world has ever been this stunning. No statue has ever made him want this badly to touch.

When he finally pulls away slightly, they're all but straddling him, pressed tight, stirring a few vague images he does not allow to fully surface. He's pushed enough with just this. Even though it does seem to have worked out. Sitting back as he lets go of their face, Hollow eyes him for a moment, lifting their hand again- then pauses, tilts their head, and lightly taps the back of his claws. Prompting. I don't know the word, he hears, and takes a guess. "Kiss?", quiet, demonstrating the sign for them. They repeat it a couple of times, low in their own lap, running through the motion slowly. Committing it to memory, which makes him very hopeful that they just might request more of this in the future. Somehow, their question catches him by surprise. "I kiss you?"

Oh. "…if you like," he manages, which is not nearly as enthusiastic a reaction as he should perhaps offer, does not remotely encompass the yes please absolutely running through him as they slowly, slowly lean in closer. They have so, so few examples of how to be affectionate with another. It's no surprise that they cup his face in their hand in mimicry of him- and it's needed, as he has to lean down to meet them. They may be taller than him, but most of their height is currently negated, with them sitting in his lap. (Far more than sitting in his lap, a certain part of his brain reminds him, focused intently on the press of their knees against his flanks.) (He ignores it.) They hesitate, for a moment, their purring faltering once more- though, this time, it seems to be concentration more than anything. His horns are shaped differently than theirs. They still try roughly the same spot he'd started with, at the base of one horn. Less a kiss, and more nudging their closed mandibles against him. Somehow reminding him of watching them sketch a swing in the air with their claws before drawing their nail, feeling out what a new technique will be like. The metaphor is somewhat apt, considering the damage those mandibles could do. He's seen them bite through shell and bone as though slicing through bread crusts. …he should, perhaps, be slightly alarmed about having that strength near his face. A strength that is entirely kept away from him when they finally open their mouth, nipping oh-so-lightly at his horn, pausing as if waiting for approval.

None of his brain wants to form any words. He doesn't bother trying, settling for a low, approving hum and a tilt of his head, offering up a good spot as they did for him. They seem to get the message; the careful nipping moves, along with the impression of being felt out, a distinct sense of them experimenting with him and with their own body. (-a sense he would entirely love to inspire in other w- no) Hollow nuzzles and nips their way down the side of his head and along his jawline, unable to entirely manage a conventional kiss but firmly arriving at something just as good, particularly as their confidence grows and they press more firmly into the contact. By the time they pause at the joint of his left mandible, they seem far more aware of what they're doing- though they still hesitate, leaning back slightly, before moving. They lift their hand away from his face to speak, then hesitate again, clawtips clicking faintly on nothing. Caught in their words, and it may well be nothing more playful than nervousness but the faint idea that he might somehow be responsible for their speechlessness is-

They interrupt his tangle of thoughts by leaning in again, nudging the very tip of their muzzle against his mandibles, and tilting their head in question. "Go ahead," he murmurs, not entirely certain what they're asking but more than willing to grant whatever it might be- and understands, albeit vaguely slow on the uptake, when they brush a kiss against his closed mouth. Ah. He parts his mandibles to meet them, which immediately results in a slight tangle; they seem to have grown confident enough to forget, for an instant, that they have no idea how this works. They sort it out, after a moment or two, latching some of those sharp points around one of his mandibles. It could almost, almost be a threat, with how easily they could maim him. They won't. He knows they won't. They're only experimenting, their touch almost impossibly careful as they feel him out, razor-sharp jaws careful and gentle against him. Gods that open curiosity is enticing- Somewhere in amongst the sensation of Hollow leaning firmly into figuring this out, he slides his hand up their back, rubbing gently between their shoulders, and feels their renewed purring shift slightly. A notch lower, vibrating more firmly against him. Hm. He'll figure that out later, when he can properly think again. They seem to have found their confidence, and are making thinking very difficult.

Hello and good evening, may I kindly ask for some orollow propaganda pretty please I'm curious 👁️ (anon bc I'm shy but we interacted earlier I'm following up on my words)

Important author's note: check the notes in a bit for a reblog on my writing blog, ft. first kiss.

hello yes you've activated my trap card (the trap is that now I talk about bugs)

(unfortunately I have my own trap card tripped. namely: headache. hopefully there is coherence.)

First, some background. I swiped a headcanon from author NurgleTWH that Oro was some flavor of battlefield/wartime medic, and I then brought him into my post-canon longfic to be useful in two capacities: a good deal of experience with severely injured bugs, and being large enough and strong enough to easily move, say, the entire Hollow Knight.

He shows up in chapter 3, is introduced to Hollow, and proceeds to pick them up to move them. Hollow, who is reeling and deeply confused at being rescued, on a great deal of pain medication, and being bridal carried, manifests a large number of question marks at the entire experience. He then gets a proper look at the place where their shoulder, part of their flank, and a bit of their lung should be, and immediately swears about it. Cue solidly over a chapter of careful examination, involving him handling them as gently as he can, talking to them, and helping to get the gunk scrubbed off their everything. Very confusing for our favorite sacrifice.

I then had two people in my comments mention that it seemed like there was a spark of something between them. Now, they're both too preoccupied for that something to be romantic, but there is definitely something.

And then I thought about the ship idea, and, oh no. That's really good actually.

So! Propaganda.

There's so much potential for that first meeting. Hollow gets probably about the first gentle medical attention and respectful handling they've had in their entire life, and Oro gets to meet the most terrifyingly stubborn bug-thing he's ever met in his life.

A lot of potential for how that evolves, too. Hollow gradually coming out of their shell, getting more of that gentle care, and Oro finding to his surprise that this incredibly traumatized, terribly injured warrior likes and trusts him.

They get along well, once used to each other. They both have a tendency to socialize like cats- they quietly sit near whoever it is, probably doing their own thing. Hollow ends up leaning on him a lot.

(Oh, that's another bonus of Beetle Big, beyond him being able to pick them up. He stays warm a lot longer than a small bug would.)

Important to this ship, I think: at some point in the future, when they both start to realize they've been mutually wandering towards something more than quiet companionship, it's Hollow who makes the first move. Oro doesn't dare- he worries about inadvertently pressuring them, and he also doesn't entirely think they like him entirely this much. He's a cranky bastard with nothing much to offer. Probably why it takes him a bit to realize what they're up to when they keep quietly bringing him things. He works it out somewhere around about the second live orchid, I think.

They're both idiots, a little bit. Hollow doesn't entirely think to inform him that they're trying to court him, and he goes "well. that can't possibly be what it looks like." for a somewhat entertainingly long time.

They also find each other's prowess in combat to be extremely attractive. Vessel observation pro tip: one can easily tell whether the large beetle in the sparring ring is Mato or Oro based on whether Hollow, watching, looks either mildly interested or like they're about to pounce on him. (My angle on Hollow is demi. Mato is also an impressive fighter, but they don't have enough of a relationship with him, or anything near the right sort, to find him attractive.)

Another stolen headcanon: Oro embroiders. Extension: Hollow picks up on his (canon!) liking for small, pretty things and brings him assorted live plants about it, Oro quietly embroiders matching flowers on things for them to wear. It's very sweet.

Neither of them is overly expressive in most circumstances, but Hollow does routinely go to exchange affectionate little head-bonks regardless of if there's an audience, and Oro hasn't turned that down yet. He also, very rarely, approaches them for quiet public affection, and they light up every time. (there's a lot more affection in private. Hollow likes to pour themself into his lap when given the opportunity.)

Basically: grumpy bastard loner with a soft squishy center under all the armor meets lethal eldritch creature who's learning how to exist without the chains they were born into, somehow they wind up being sweet at each other. Woe betide anyone who threatens either one of them, because they both know the other is able to handle themself but like fuck are they not going to react anyway.

Mildly/moderately NSFW bit below this cut:

Hollow, post discovering their libido (mainly by means of picturing themself and Oro in the place of the characters in a smut novel they're reading), turns out to be much less wary and much more enthusiastic about sex than expected. Yes, their body is doing new things and sort of inventing genitals from scratch, but they're thoroughly enjoying themself and they trust him entirely. They're done with fear and shame, they've got a few years practice under their nonexistent belt and are very firmly done with fear and shame about their reactions and desires, they're just going to enjoy.

Oro, first time: I need to be careful and gentle. It's entirely possible they're going to not like this at all, or need to take things as slowly as possible. Hollow's libido, revving up: pin me down and bite me please

(Wyrms that choose to find a mate only to breed will often battle for who has to carry the eggs, as they all produce both sets of gametes but generally prefer not to spend the resources required to carry a clutch instead of siring it and leaving. Whichever wyrm ends up the egg partner typically also ends up being wrapped in coils and bitten as a sexy-for-wyrms method of restraint. Hollow comes already wired to find this sort of thing hot, stacks their enjoyment of Oro's strength on top of that, and adds their own biting kink to what came with instinct.)

Hollow deeply needs many opportunities to shut their brain off and let someone else do all the thinking and worrying about things, Oro likes to have a partner relax for him to give all the attention to. Lines up perfectly- they get to lay back, purr, and have nothing to worry about except showing what they like, and also to make use of their lack of abdominal organs for size queen purposes, and he gets to have this unearthly, beautiful creature squirming and purring for him.

Sooner or later Hollow arranges for some entirely unobserved time in the sparring ring, riles Oro up enough to get him to actually handle them roughly and pin them to the wall, then convinces him to continue handling them roughly in an entirely different faction. They're gonna claw the hell out of that wall, and fall over afterward on discovering that their knees temporarily don't work.

Hollow has about five essentially-prehensile tongues. No further words needed, I think.

[bettimbellis]

Quirrel finds himself the subject of his partner's curiosity, and does his best to be educational. In trying to return the favor, he inadvertently prompts the discovery of an unexpected interest, and successfully helps in exploring that as well. Hollow gets some practical experience at the deeply confusing workings of whatever brain mechanism is responsible for kinks.

This is more explicit smut. You should also not click this if you want not to see explicit smut. Might also want to check the tags on this one, though it's real fluffy.

[bettimbellis]

Quirrel finds himself the subject of his partner's curiosity, and does his best to be educational. In trying to return the favor, he inadvertently prompts the discovery of an unexpected interest, and successfully helps in exploring that as well. Hollow gets some practical experience at the deeply confusing workings of whatever brain mechanism is responsible for kinks.

This is more explicit smut. You should also not click this if you want not to see explicit smut. Might also want to check the tags on this one, though it's real fluffy.

[bettimbellis]

Tenuous Bonds (Turned Tables)

A traveling god of nightmares ensnares the Queen of Deepnest, intending to make himself a new toy, and finds that things do not at all go the way he anticipated. (Except that they in fact do, because this was all discussed beforehand, likely over tea.)

Caution: this is explicit smut. Do not click this link if you want not to read explicit smut. You may want to check the tags, we got a couple kinks in here that aren't necessarily for everyone. Nothing major. Mostly bondage, since. Spider.

[bettimbellis]

Chapter 32 is now up! There's a lot of crying in this one. It also has appearances by several people who, according to canon, should be dead. Hi Myla. Hi [spoilers] and [spoilers]. Here's a chunk.

Oro is still touching them, [Isma] registers. Stroking up and down their back, over the carnage made of what should be neatly interlocking plates along a fluid, graceful spine, their breathing following as though cupped in his palm. Matching, perfectly, until a final droplet of tension seeps away and their head lolls entirely limp against her. A sentiment she can agree with. Isma shuts her eyes for a moment, grounding herself in the soft chill of their breath against her shoulder, and finds her voice as well as she can. “They were never this light before. Always light for their size, since their third molt, but this…” She lets herself trail off, unable to find the words. Anything other than demanding, in a question she knows doesn’t need to be asked, whether they’ve been fed properly.

Drained of Light (Into the Welcoming Darkness)

(header commissioned from slimeel)

Characters: The Knight, Hornet, The Hollow Knight, Quirrel, Lost Kin, Nailmaster Oro, too many others to list here. 

Warning overview: it’s a Hollow Knight fic. Gore, body horror, aftermath of possession, mentioned abuse, assorted canon-typical awfulness but now addressed in detail! Check the full tags and mind individual chapter warnings.

Rating: M for gore, aftermath of violence, and implied (consensual) sexual content.

Summary: Ghost, aided by a gradually assembled adventuring party, manages to get Hollow out of the Black Egg Temple alive. Having freed their sibling from a mad god’s clutches is one thing; freeing them from their own self-imposed chains is entirely another. Particularly once Hollow manages to arrive at the idea that Ghost, beginning to come into their own as god-king of Hallownest, would like to be the one holding those chains. An idea Ghost wants no part of.

Hornet, having spent the past few centuries desperately believing that all her siblings died in their shells, has learned the truth just in time to struggle with how to help a sibling who firmly believes that their own existence as a living creature is the most heinous of crimes. 

Oro has been pulled from his entirely satisfactory and not at all lonely hut in the middle of nowhere to help, and is absolutely not notably invested in this particular patient, thank you. No attachment whatsoever to someone whose response, after everything, is still to put themself between their family and potential harm. Nope. (He’s also a bad liar.)

Friends and allies can only get you so far when someone’s greatest battle is against their own mind, and, for better or for worse, many things in this crumbling ruin of a kingdom are inclined to interfere in the matter. Not all that is dead in this realm is willing to stay dead, and the past is not content to remain in the past. 

These are not the only Void-kin still alive. 

Read on AO3

(Author’s notes: rougher first chapters have now been fixed! Come read my 400k and counting hurt/comfort post-Temple recovery fic. It’s made multiple people yell at me in generally positive ways, and is wandering in the approximate direction of eventually being one heck of a rarepair.)

[bettimbellis]

Now edited up to chapter 10, chapter 11 in progress! Not too much change in these, but a few bits here and there. Like this bit.

They should be moving. Should by all rights be struggling, trying to reach for a nail or bare their fangs or attempting something other than sitting so, so still with a god of nightmares touching them, and their lack of any resistance lodges an icicle between Hornet's ribs.

Drained of Light (Into the Welcoming Darkness)

(header commissioned from slimeel)

Characters: The Knight, Hornet, The Hollow Knight, Quirrel, Lost Kin, Nailmaster Oro, too many others to list here. 

Warning overview: it’s a Hollow Knight fic. Gore, body horror, aftermath of possession, mentioned abuse, assorted canon-typical awfulness but now addressed in detail! Check the full tags and mind individual chapter warnings.

Rating: M for gore, aftermath of violence, and implied (consensual) sexual content.

Summary: Ghost, aided by a gradually assembled adventuring party, manages to get Hollow out of the Black Egg Temple alive. Having freed their sibling from a mad god’s clutches is one thing; freeing them from their own self-imposed chains is entirely another. Particularly once Hollow manages to arrive at the idea that Ghost, beginning to come into their own as god-king of Hallownest, would like to be the one holding those chains. An idea Ghost wants no part of.

Hornet, having spent the past few centuries desperately believing that all her siblings died in their shells, has learned the truth just in time to struggle with how to help a sibling who firmly believes that their own existence as a living creature is the most heinous of crimes. 

Oro has been pulled from his entirely satisfactory and not at all lonely hut in the middle of nowhere to help, and is absolutely not notably invested in this particular patient, thank you. No attachment whatsoever to someone whose response, after everything, is still to put themself between their family and potential harm. Nope. (He’s also a bad liar.)

Friends and allies can only get you so far when someone’s greatest battle is against their own mind, and, for better or for worse, many things in this crumbling ruin of a kingdom are inclined to interfere in the matter. Not all that is dead in this realm is willing to stay dead, and the past is not content to remain in the past. 

These are not the only Void-kin still alive. 

Read on AO3

(Author’s notes: rougher first chapters have now been fixed! Come read my 400k and counting hurt/comfort post-Temple recovery fic. It’s made multiple people yell at me in generally positive ways, and is wandering in the approximate direction of eventually being one heck of a rarepair.)

[bettimbellis]

I have now finished editing the earlier chapters. I'm still working on adding POV headers, and will be tweaking phrasing and making Ghost a bit more feral in all currently existing chapters, but everything up to chapter 5 has been spruced.

I'm particularly proud of the upgrades I made to chapter 3. I made everyone more grounded in what's happening and exactly how bad it is. Leaned further into the state Hollow is in and how someone might theoretically react. Now featuring the phrase "mutilated anatomical specimen" used to refer to someone who is still alive, if that gives you any ideas of what's going on.

In other words: come read the pain! I made it worse.

Drained of Light (Into the Welcoming Darkness)

(header commissioned from slimeel)

Characters: The Knight, Hornet, The Hollow Knight, Quirrel, Lost Kin, Nailmaster Oro, too many others to list here. 

Warning overview: it’s a Hollow Knight fic. Gore, body horror, aftermath of possession, mentioned abuse, assorted canon-typical awfulness but now addressed in detail! Check the full tags and mind individual chapter warnings.

Rating: M for gore, aftermath of violence, and implied (consensual) sexual content.

Summary: Ghost, aided by a gradually assembled adventuring party, manages to get Hollow out of the Black Egg Temple alive. Having freed their sibling from a mad god’s clutches is one thing; freeing them from their own self-imposed chains is entirely another. Particularly once Hollow manages to arrive at the idea that Ghost, beginning to come into their own as god-king of Hallownest, would like to be the one holding those chains. An idea Ghost wants no part of.

Hornet, having spent the past few centuries desperately believing that all her siblings died in their shells, has learned the truth just in time to struggle with how to help a sibling who firmly believes that their own existence as a living creature is the most heinous of crimes. 

Oro has been pulled from his entirely satisfactory and not at all lonely hut in the middle of nowhere to help, and is absolutely not notably invested in this particular patient, thank you. No attachment whatsoever to someone whose response, after everything, is still to put themself between their family and potential harm. Nope. (He’s also a bad liar.)

Friends and allies can only get you so far when someone’s greatest battle is against their own mind, and, for better or for worse, many things in this crumbling ruin of a kingdom are inclined to interfere in the matter. Not all that is dead in this realm is willing to stay dead, and the past is not content to remain in the past. 

These are not the only Void-kin still alive. 

Read on AO3

(Author’s notes: rougher first chapters have now been fixed! Come read my 400k and counting hurt/comfort post-Temple recovery fic. It’s made multiple people yell at me in generally positive ways, and is wandering in the approximate direction of eventually being one heck of a rarepair.)

[bettimbellis]

I haven't posted a new chapter, because I'm doing something else; editing/rewriting the earlier chapters. Including about 4k new words and all sorts of improved parts.

I've just finished with chapter 3, and am working on chapter 4. Come check it out.

(Later chapters should be much faster to edit, as they don't need any major rewriting.)

Drained of Light (Into the Welcoming Darkness)

(header commissioned from slimeel)

Characters: The Knight, Hornet, The Hollow Knight, Quirrel, Lost Kin, Nailmaster Oro, too many others to list here. 

Warning overview: it’s a Hollow Knight fic. Gore, body horror, aftermath of possession, mentioned abuse, assorted canon-typical awfulness but now addressed in detail! Check the full tags and mind individual chapter warnings.

Rating: M for gore, aftermath of violence, and implied (consensual) sexual content.

Summary: Ghost, aided by a gradually assembled adventuring party, manages to get Hollow out of the Black Egg Temple alive. Having freed their sibling from a mad god’s clutches is one thing; freeing them from their own self-imposed chains is entirely another. Particularly once Hollow manages to arrive at the idea that Ghost, beginning to come into their own as god-king of Hallownest, would like to be the one holding those chains. An idea Ghost wants no part of.

Hornet, having spent the past few centuries desperately believing that all her siblings died in their shells, has learned the truth just in time to struggle with how to help a sibling who firmly believes that their own existence as a living creature is the most heinous of crimes. 

Oro has been pulled from his entirely satisfactory and not at all lonely hut in the middle of nowhere to help, and is absolutely not notably invested in this particular patient, thank you. No attachment whatsoever to someone whose response, after everything, is still to put themself between their family and potential harm. Nope. (He’s also a bad liar.)

Friends and allies can only get you so far when someone’s greatest battle is against their own mind, and, for better or for worse, many things in this crumbling ruin of a kingdom are inclined to interfere in the matter. Not all that is dead in this realm is willing to stay dead, and the past is not content to remain in the past. 

These are not the only Void-kin still alive. 

Read on AO3

(Author’s notes: the first few chapters of this were written mostly at about midnight, without any plan or even a coherent idea of a lot of world details. This was just meant to be a little thing, a couple chapters at most, heavily self-indulgent. It spiraled. I’m working on writing new chapters rather than updating those old ones, so they’re still a bit rough. Don’t mind that. Come read my 360k and counting self-indulgent hurt/comfort post-Temple recovery fic. It’s made multiple people yell at me for giving them feels, and is wandering in the general direction of eventually being one heck of a rarepair.)

[bettimbellis]

Spaces Between (or: Small Mercies)

Read On AO3

Summary:

In the aftermath of the Black Egg Temple, once the dust has settled and the bleeding has stopped, Hornet finds herself with only one thing she can do for her wounded sibling; trying to clean away the rotting Infection still clinging to their shell. She does her best at this. She also makes a discovery. It is not a pleasant one.

Warnings:

It's set immediately after the Black Egg Temple, so, y'know, watch out. Nothing horribly graphic.

Characters:

Hornet, The Hollow Knight

Hornet, looking for anything she can do to help a sibling she's not prepared to have curled up nearly in her lap, lands on trying to get them cleaned up.

She then proceeds to overthink everything in the process, because this is, apparently, the overthinking family.

[bettimbellis]

Staying, For A Moment (Or Perhaps A Little Longer)

Read On AO3

Summary:

Quirrel does not particularly want to be in this hot spring. He doesn't particularly want to be anywhere, as exhausted as he is. There is, however, something he needs to attend to. An injustice, a hurt, he desperately wants to soothe. He didn't mean to react the way he did. He is, evidently, far from the first. This cannot stand.

Warnings:

set during and after the Blue Lake meeting, so, Suicidal Thoughts, also, Unconventional Self-Image Issues, (this time from Ghost)

Characters:

Quirrel, The Knight

Little one-off fic. Technically set prior to Drained of Light, but can stand alone just fine. Unedited, whipped out in about 3 hours.

Quirrel, exhausted, inadvertently stirs up a hurt he hadn't noticed before, and tries to help. Ghost, half-feral, tries to keep a friend alive, and is met with something they never would have expected.

They're both a mess, in almost entirely different ways. It's great.

[bettimbellis]

Against Inevitability (or: One Last Try)

Read On AO3

Summary:

Oro, for some fucking reason, picks up a mostly-dead stray. This sort of thing never goes well, and he fully knows that isn't about to change, but somehow he tries to help regardless.

It goes less terribly than he expects. Which is saying very little.

Tiso has a very bad time, and then a not completely dreadful time. (But still a pretty lousy one.)

Warnings:

Mild Blood, Injury, Major Illness, Sickfic, (maybe), Fever, Reluctant Caretaking, Nightmares, Oro's Relentless Pessimism 

(further warnings removed for length, all in a similar vein. guy nearly died.)

Characters: 

Nailmaster Oro, Tiso, Unspecified Metaphorical Ghosts (no real ones, sorry)

Here’s a shortish fic of Oro very reluctantly rescuing some nearly-dead idiot. He’s not really expecting the rescuing to work. I’ve just posted chapter 3, in which the rescuing definitely works and then said nearly-dead idiot proceeds to yell about it. Nobody’s happy with each other. Oro’s regretting his life’s choices. It’s great.

[bettimbellis]

Chapter 31 is now up! Most of the group goes to Dirtmouth, which provides some interesting updates and quite a few different feelings. Especially for Hollow. Do check the chapter warnings on this one.

For the rest of this summary, here’s a bit of a lovely comment someone left.

Drained of Light (Into the Welcoming Darkness)

(header commissioned from slimeel)

Characters: The Knight, Hornet, The Hollow Knight, Quirrel, Lost Kin, Nailmaster Oro, too many others to list here. 

Warning overview: it’s a Hollow Knight fic. Gore, body horror, aftermath of possession, mentioned abuse, assorted canon-typical awfulness but now addressed in detail! Check the full tags and mind individual chapter warnings.

Rating: M for gore, aftermath of violence, and implied (consensual) sexual content.

Summary: Ghost, aided by a gradually assembled adventuring party, manages to get Hollow out of the Black Egg Temple alive. Having freed their sibling from a mad god’s clutches is one thing; freeing them from their own self-imposed chains is entirely another. Particularly once Hollow manages to arrive at the idea that Ghost, beginning to come into their own as god-king of Hallownest, would like to be the one holding those chains. An idea Ghost wants no part of.

Hornet, having spent the past few centuries desperately believing that all her siblings died in their shells, has learned the truth just in time to struggle with how to help a sibling who firmly believes that their own existence as a living creature is the most heinous of crimes. 

Oro has been pulled from his entirely satisfactory and not at all lonely hut in the middle of nowhere to help, and is absolutely not notably invested in this particular patient, thank you. No attachment whatsoever to someone whose response, after everything, is still to put themself between their family and potential harm. Nope. (He’s also a bad liar.)

Friends and allies can only get you so far when someone’s greatest battle is against their own mind, and, for better or for worse, many things in this crumbling ruin of a kingdom are inclined to interfere in the matter. Not all that is dead in this realm is willing to stay dead, and the past is not content to remain in the past. 

These are not the only Void-kin still alive. 

Read on AO3

(Author’s notes: the first few chapters of this were written mostly at about midnight, without any plan or even a coherent idea of a lot of world details. This was just meant to be a little thing, a couple chapters at most, heavily self-indulgent. It spiraled. I’m working on writing new chapters rather than updating those old ones, so they’re still a bit rough. Don’t mind that. Come read my 360k and counting self-indulgent hurt/comfort post-Temple recovery fic. It’s made multiple people yell at me for giving them feels, and is wandering in the general direction of eventually being one heck of a rarepair.)

[bettimbellis]

Bit late, but I updated this recently! In this latest chapter, Lemm gets dunked into the communal soup of feelings, Ghost offers a gift they can only hope won’t make itself a curse, and Oro does something very kind and long overdue.  

(AKA I had to split this chapter so I can make the next one hurt worse, so have some mostly nice stuff.)

Drained of Light (Into the Welcoming Darkness)

(header commissioned from slimeel)

Characters: The Knight, Hornet, The Hollow Knight, Quirrel, Lost Kin, Nailmaster Oro, too many others to list here. 

Warning overview: it’s a Hollow Knight fic. Gore, body horror, aftermath of possession, mentioned abuse, assorted canon-typical awfulness but now addressed in detail! Check the full tags and mind individual chapter warnings.

Rating: M for gore, aftermath of violence, and implied (consensual) sexual content.

Summary: Ghost, aided by a gradually assembled adventuring party, manages to get Hollow out of the Black Egg Temple alive. Having freed their sibling from a mad god’s clutches is one thing; freeing them from their own self-imposed chains is entirely another. Particularly once Hollow manages to arrive at the idea that Ghost, beginning to come into their own as god-king of Hallownest, would like to be the one holding those chains. An idea Ghost wants no part of.

Hornet, having spent the past few centuries desperately believing that all her siblings died in their shells, has learned the truth just in time to struggle with how to help a sibling who firmly believes that their own existence as a living creature is the most heinous of crimes. 

Oro has been pulled from his entirely satisfactory and not at all lonely hut in the middle of nowhere to help, and is absolutely not notably invested in this particular patient, thank you. No attachment whatsoever to someone whose response, after everything, is still to put themself between their family and potential harm. Nope. (He’s also a bad liar.)

Friends and allies can only get you so far when someone’s greatest battle is against their own mind, and, for better or for worse, many things in this crumbling ruin of a kingdom are inclined to interfere in the matter. Not all that is dead in this realm is willing to stay dead, and the past is not content to remain in the past. 

These are not the only Void-kin still alive. 

Read on AO3

(Author’s notes: the first few chapters of this were written mostly at about midnight, without any plan or even a coherent idea of a lot of world details. This was just meant to be a little thing, a couple chapters at most, heavily self-indulgent. It spiraled. I’m working on writing new chapters rather than updating those old ones, so they’re still a bit rough. Don’t mind that. Come read my 360k and counting self-indulgent hurt/comfort post-Temple recovery fic. It’s made multiple people yell at me for giving them feels, and is wandering in the general direction of eventually being one heck of a rarepair.)

[bettimbellis]

A Collage (of Yelling)

I saw someone do something like this to advertise their fic- they linked the fic, and then put in a little collage of various comment snippets. I can’t find the post to show off- someone please do let me know if you’ve seen that, I want to credit them. 

Either way, my Hollow Knight post-Black-Egg-Temple fic (linked here) has 209 comment threads on it. I’ve gone through and found some bits. These bits were mostly chosen for entertainment/intrigue value out of context- a lot of my favorite comments didn’t get in. 

Got some good reviews there, I think. Anyone wanna see the collection I have of Discord screenshots from folks yelling at me about this fic?  (Seriously though, thank all of y’all who comment, yell in the tags, whatever- I love it. Really helps keep the writing muse going, too.)

Image descriptions below the cut. 

[Image ID: a collection of bits of text placed on a light green background, in several groups. Text is as follows. 

Excuse me who gave you the right to hit me with this line at seven in the morning”, with an arrow pointing to the left. also it feels like there are many things to be concerned about lmao  God, Hollow is such a poor baby. A lanky wet cat left in the rain. Hollow, that feeling is love, dear, no need to feel so confused about it. Hornet, my sad dumb little spider baby, go to bed. in summary holy shit this is fucked sounds like stressTM can these characters stop being so relatable good Lird *smacks my face* Hornet. Hornet. the fuck HOLY FUCKING SHIT [all caps] It was so soft!!!! And then it became *so goddamn angsty-* *squints harder*  Wet rag is my new favorite character. *thunks my head on a wall* Gosh darn it Oro course you had to have integrity But also OW MY HEART?! SHATTERED?1 POOR BABY HOLLOW IM GONNA CRY Gosh dang. The last chapter was a little lighter, but apparently you were just holding back for this one.  (Chp. 3) I stg this whole chapter made my emotions whip back and forth between “awww :)” and “awwh :(” and “oh. Oh no baby do not think like that”.  Augh. just, augh. / ...except that bit at the end. ...except that last sentence, ‘cause, yeah. / *hides face in hands* this has been exhausting for everyone, apparently. Hollow knight or: when you are so touch starved that your standards for touch that you want are somewhere in the abyss that has spawned you.  Whatever the FUCK happened in the last section is Oh Lord Oh God What The Heeeeeellll Ohhhh My Goood No Waaayyyy... Will be waiting for the next chapter STARING at ao3...

i was so relieved to read this that i accidentally put my phone in airplane mode trying to respond “it is startled out of its pleasant memory-” pLEASANT???? PLEASANT!?! Hollow no. HOLLOW NO- / why does this for some reason almost feel like fluff.  My urge to keysmash at you is strong Just. God. Everything about this is so fucked in so many ways.

Something about this line just makes me want to. Maybe stab the king in the chest. Repeatedly. And then throw them off a bridge. Idk Actually many things about this chapter make me want to stab the king in the chest repeatedly and then throw them off a bridge. Because *holy shit* Hollow, honey, you have so much trauma. OMG ghost, what have you done [stressed emoji] Okay then. Well. Um. That’s a lot to happen.  God it’s such a mess Ah yes, the eldritch nonsense trying to approximate a living creature, my beloved PK you ass. PK you absolute ASS get over here I wanna hit you with something heavy-  oh / im immediately punched in the face okay thank you for that Right off the bat I am mildly excited about this chapter solely because you played with text formatting and that makes my serotonin levels rise. I don’t know why but thank you for that.  CONFUSION SOUP I’M FHDHDJFKFKGH I wanna join the cuddle pile :<<< let me in [holding Hollow gently in both hands] / I will get you all the fresh-dirt-scented soap Fucking superb you funky little vessels. Oh boy! Spiraling!

Oh this chapter hurts ‘specially bad. Because it wasn’t enough to be possessed and neglected and quite literally tortured and driven insane, now we gotta have more medical issues and amnesia-  I fuckign cried at this one, oh my god. Pain is always a tearjerker, but it’s nothing compared to someone who’s been in pain so long finally getting that first big moment of *realizing they’re wanted* and *heard* and *healing*  And I gotta say, (this is gonna sound bad) I really do love Hollow’s victim blaming. Or how it’s written. I love how you write characters in pain <333 “Oh, just a quick chapter to read before bed,” I thought to myself. “I will enjoy it and feel a normal and manageable level of emotions about it.” / ...Thanks for making me all teary in the wee hours, now I’ll never get to sleep! (...I mean this as praise.) Oh. Oh Hollow. So wrapped up in the need to be useful. So incapable still of seeing that their own gut-wrenching familial love might be returned in kind, whether they have some designated purpose for their existence or not.  Yeah. Relieved. / Oh, Hollow... You have already left kudos here :) [three times] / Have I ever been told the definition of insanity?  honestly the body horror was the /least/ disturbing thing in this chapter. not to say! that it was not disturbing - even then, less the horror and more the. context. i want to punch TPK. into a lake. that is on fire.

First comment of my first reread, and MAN. This opening hits just as hard the second time.  Keep in mind Hollow Knight was made by Australian people Hollow 100% deserves a nice date at the palace if they so wish. anyway, I feel very emo about Hollow, all the time.  HOLLOW IS LETTING THEMSELVES HAVE WILL, LET’S GOOOOOO Ghost is doing Fine:tm:, Hornet is doing Fine:tm:, Hollow is *actually* doing pretty well Good news! Hollow is an emotional wreck!  Hornet is doing sooo normal right now (lying).

TLDR; amazing story, glorious update, poor Grimm, I Am Desperate For Shield Lore, someone please tell Ghost it isn’t their fault, the entire gaggle of siblings needs a group hug, I Am Going To Put The Pale King’s Corpse Through A Shredder, and Hornet needs another good cry. 

anyways fuck you for writing this keep it up

[bettimbellis]

Drained of Light (Into the Welcoming Darkness)

(header commissioned from slimeel)

Characters: The Knight, Hornet, The Hollow Knight, Quirrel, Lost Kin, Nailmaster Oro, too many others to list here. 

Warning overview: it’s a Hollow Knight fic. Gore, body horror, aftermath of possession, mentioned abuse, assorted canon-typical awfulness but now addressed in detail! Check the full tags and mind individual chapter warnings.

Rating: M for gore, aftermath of violence, and implied (consensual) sexual content.

Summary: Ghost, aided by a gradually assembled adventuring party, manages to get Hollow out of the Black Egg Temple alive. Having freed their sibling from a mad god’s clutches is one thing; freeing them from their own self-imposed chains is entirely another. Particularly once Hollow manages to arrive at the idea that Ghost, beginning to come into their own as god-king of Hallownest, would like to be the one holding those chains. An idea Ghost wants no part of.

Hornet, having spent the past few centuries desperately believing that all her siblings died in their shells, has learned the truth just in time to struggle with how to help a sibling who firmly believes that their own existence as a living creature is the most heinous of crimes. 

Oro has been pulled from his entirely satisfactory and not at all lonely hut in the middle of nowhere to help, and is absolutely not notably invested in this particular patient, thank you. No attachment whatsoever to someone whose response, after everything, is still to put themself between their family and potential harm. Nope. (He’s also a bad liar.)

Friends and allies can only get you so far when someone’s greatest battle is against their own mind, and, for better or for worse, many things in this crumbling ruin of a kingdom are inclined to interfere in the matter. Not all that is dead in this realm is willing to stay dead, and the past is not content to remain in the past. 

These are not the only Void-kin still alive. 

Read on AO3

(Author’s notes: rougher first chapters have now been fixed! Come read my 400k and counting hurt/comfort post-Temple recovery fic. It’s made multiple people yell at me in generally positive ways, and is wandering in the approximate direction of eventually being one heck of a rarepair.)

[bettimbellis]

Just in case you forget this exists.

It exists.