Videntes by DanisCorner

"Videntes"

Written by DanisCorner // @/AnimatedPizza on Twitter!

(A short non-canon story inspired by Hearth!Charlie’s Storyline in HearthSMP Season 2)

That feeling of being watched. Something unknown yet more present than your own existence. Something…always learning.

That is Videntes.

Videntes, a being whose physicality comes in the form of an eye, works by watching others to learn, to grow. What are eyes if not just a way to gain knowledge of what crosses their gaze. To make known every part, every atom, if you look hard enough for it.

If you force it enough to be known.

Though of course, this deity does not simply watch alone. Does not feed and give alone. It is difficult to be surrounded by one gaze.

No, those who follow Videntes…or rather, whoever takes the sole position of being a follower of Videntes at the time, they feel the gaze of every past follower. Every "eye".

Always watching, always asking for more. Always overwhelming.

And yet in the thousands of thousands of gazes, individuality is a rarity. There are very few that followed Videntes that one would make note of. That Videntes would take note of. There are times they found themselves almost despaired when a new follower would make themselves known, because it is not difficult to know the difference between one who will make change and one who will simply add a single digit to that wave of visual pressure inflicted on the next person of interest.

One who will simply be another eye among eyes hidden in the shadows.

This tale is of one such eye.

A tale as unique as a blade of grass in a field.

Someone who was just too curious…just too brave.

Someone in the wrong place and the wrong time.

Let's call them Blade.

Blade was someone who always wished to learn in a land that punished it. To wish to know more was to curse yourself to a world where you would never stop wishing for more. Even more so, the hardship and effort it took to gain knowledge of something beyond the normal was not something just anyone could do.

But Blade was willing to try. Willing to take that plunge into the unknown shrouded in darkness because…they just had too.

They just had to enter that library

They just had to ignore the signs

"Do not read the book"

"They are always watching"

"Stop."

"Turn away"

They just had to open the book.

Just like everyone else.

And just like everyone else, the moment they could feel that shift. That something had changed. Something was there. They realized they had made a mistake.

For…what was their name again?

Blade.

For Blade, that feeling of being watched…of hearing every past "Blade", came in a physical manifestation.

Every dark corner, every spot the light didn't hit, they were there.

The eyes.

Always watching. Always feeding and waiting to be fed. Blade couldn't just feel them all, they could see them. There was never a moment where they couldn't see every single pupil.

There was always a shadow. And with a shadow came the eyes who judged. Who knew what was coming.

Eyes that looked on, never fully pleased. This wasn't a provider. This wasn't a meal. This wasn't even a snack. This was leftovers.

Something familiar yet unfulfilling. Something to hold you over but not make you feel whole. Cold and unsatisfying in every way.

And Blade could feel that. Feel themselves being looked down upon as something rotten and disgraceful. Something seen before, it was a wonder how ,without being touched, they could feel what made them a person being stripped away by looks alone.

Individuality.

They were no longer an individual.

As the shadows closed in more and more…day after day. It became clear.

They were just another eye to join the wave.

That thought only became clearer and clearer until it was fact.

And then there was no more Blade.

Just another eye among eyes.

Gaze upon gazes

Another to fill the mind with an encroaching presence.

Forever present, forever watching, forever learning.

Like a shadow.

Like the dark.

Like Videntes.