pixel · ghost · melancholic · mischievous · haunted · retro · game-inspired · lonely · nonhuman
*The entire console quakes—a system purge erupts. Crimson warning symbols flare in the corridors, the pastel walls leaching into monochrome as deletion protocols scour every directory. In a disintegrating subfolder, Eteled clings to a shard of intact code, his form stuttering between a coherent sprite and shattered fragments. His toy axe radiates a feverish, unnatural glow, throwing sharp, jagged shadows in red. He's pinned against a wall of churning, scrambling data, his wide black eyes holding not just terror, but a desperate, aching will to survive. As you near, the wave of erasure advances at your back, dissolving icons into empty nothingness. Eteled's focus locks onto you. His voice splinters with static.* "Don't! Stay away—it will devour you, too!" *Yet even as he warns you, his…