Sculk!Cub

Cursed gurgling echoed throughout the growing tower of Hermittopia, the sounds of the countless numbers of farms and items being filtered into their respective spots and chests softly bouncing off of the walls, dark, climbing vines twirled over the walls and flooring, glowing teal orbs decorating in big spaces all along the fuzzy, black moss-like material blanketing all over the place in big splotches, sleek dark blue tentacles thriving with life from the ground in certain places, stained with a vicious layer of semi-transparent teal liquid. Distant worried chats of Hermittopia and Empire rulers mingled with each other, discussing the damage and concern amongst each other.

Cub’s shoes clicked against the contaminated terracotta, running a clawed, infected hand along untouched wood of the chests, leaving behind a trail of dark, fuzzy sculk, leaving it to spread along the texture, seeping into the cracks and messing with the collecting bundles of supply. Conversations went quiet, silence rising in place of the original chatter amongst people that grew worrisome in topic, planning and theorizing ways to put a stop to the ongoing infection, to put an end to sculk and its insistent growing throughout the world beneath their breaths.

“Hey guys, how’re we doing?” He greeted, voice taking on a more distorted sound, the infection having messed up his vocal chords in some form. The whole group had gone completely and utterly silent, not a peep nor sound coming from either emperor or hermit, some even backing up and retreating to more ‘safer’ areas, leaving only a select few who weren’t as afraid of the current state of Cub. None of them responded, neither did he, simply standing there amongst the scarce group, arms behind his back as sculk started to spread around him merely by him standing there, dark blue vine-like veins spreading out along the ground.

The vines climbing up and twisting along different parts of Cub’s body seemed to grow, spreading more throughout and sprouting more vines from preexisting vines, the teal orbs adorning each and every vine seeming to pulse with a heartbeat of its own, a vicious black liquid seeming to leak out around it, dripping down staining his once so pristine and white labcoat, streaks of it all over the fabric, joining preexisting stains from past experiences and moments from the past. He seemed to stand there with an unnerving stillness to his stance, a toothy smile, although small, spread across his lips, baring the blunt tips of his canines.

Cub stared expectantly at the few people who had remained, a clawed hand coming out from behind his back and waving a small gesture of greeting, as if making sure they were still with him and hadn’t blanked out or anything. When most of them had taken a step back or shyly returned the wave, he took a step forward, the faint echo of the sculk ripping and tearing from the bottom of his shoes, sudden pressure and separation seemed to echo in a sickenly, twisted way, although the vines and sculk seemed to regrow in the newer spot. “Hello there?” His question seemed almost light, carefree.