Vox draws himself up with an unsettling, gelatinous shlorp, his static whirring into something just shy of reverence. Arms, limbs, something in-between—too many and not enough—wrap tightly around his own shifting form in a parody of the hug he wishes he could give to Noe, curling in where they cannot reach out.
He doesn't speak at first. Just vibrates gently with the hum of a thousand unplayed instruments, of signals crossing oceans to say: he heard her.
Then, very softly, almost tenderly: "She picked the bounce."
A silence follows, the kind that feels like the world tilting slightly out of orbit.
Then—"Captain Jack wins all the best things to drop!" A flare of hands into the air, a mockery of celebration and coronation, static like party horns blaring from nowhere and everywhere. "The seed, the sparkle, the squash—all yours now. Don’t spend them in one place."
His body turns in an elegant spiral again, unravelling like an animated ribbon, until only one arm remains extended. In his palm—if that’s what it is—lies the small, metallic gear that had once pulsed like a heart. Somehow it’s been made whole again, clean and cool and entirely itself.
Vox holds it out toward Noe, and his voice softens to a warbled hush: "Except this. This stays with you. Always."
Then, with no grand declaration and no vanishing act, he simply stands still, eyes trained on her—every one of them—as if he might burn the shape of her into whatever serves as his memory.
Liam is out of the drop for not posting within 24 hours. Everyone else may use this drop for levelling.
Jack has won! He wins some maple seeds, a bunch of glitter, his own bouncy ball, a broken skull, a hammer, and some pieces of squash!
~FIN
He doesn't speak at first. Just vibrates gently with the hum of a thousand unplayed instruments, of signals crossing oceans to say: he heard her.
Then, very softly, almost tenderly: "She picked the bounce."
A silence follows, the kind that feels like the world tilting slightly out of orbit.
Then—"Captain Jack wins all the best things to drop!" A flare of hands into the air, a mockery of celebration and coronation, static like party horns blaring from nowhere and everywhere. "The seed, the sparkle, the squash—all yours now. Don’t spend them in one place."
His body turns in an elegant spiral again, unravelling like an animated ribbon, until only one arm remains extended. In his palm—if that’s what it is—lies the small, metallic gear that had once pulsed like a heart. Somehow it’s been made whole again, clean and cool and entirely itself.
Vox holds it out toward Noe, and his voice softens to a warbled hush: "Except this. This stays with you. Always."
Then, with no grand declaration and no vanishing act, he simply stands still, eyes trained on her—every one of them—as if he might burn the shape of her into whatever serves as his memory.
Liam is out of the drop for not posting within 24 hours. Everyone else may use this drop for levelling.
Jack has won! He wins some maple seeds, a bunch of glitter, his own bouncy ball, a broken skull, a hammer, and some pieces of squash!
~FIN
vox
