#Feel Better Jackie!!

[pinkushu]

Saw you weren’t feeling great @jackieeleanor so I drew you a Dani!! Your art has helped me thru some hard times and I hope mine can help you too!

[toastysol]

Thinking about how, between him and V, Jackie is by far the more personable of the two. He oozes such easy charisma that it's really hard to actually hate him. He's the one with connections all over Night City. V's best friend who always knows a guy. He hooks V up with whoever they could possibly need. Everyone who's ever met him either loves him, or has great respect for him.

And yet. Despite the number of people he knows and who know him, after he dies, V is the one they remember. "Didn't you have someone with you?" Sandra asks. "You did well, V. You and that... friend of yours." Wakako states. Jackie is the one who got them that job. Or at least that's what the prologue sequence led me to believe. V asks him if Wakako had any tips for the Sandra case. Therefore, Jackie was the one who got them hired. I cant tell if Wakako forgot his name on purpose cause she didn't like him/care enough or genuinely doesn't remember. I know Sandra has good reason not to. She was unconscious.

It's just gut wrenching to me. Jackie put in all this work, prolly called in so many favors, to help V get to where they needed to be, and in the end, no one knows his name. He went out with a bang and didn't even get a footnote. Of course, V can change that after the game if they want I would guess. Use their prestige and respect to spread the word about the bestest friend they ever had in nc. He does get his own drink at the Afterlife, but does anyone know who they're drinking? How colorful and full of life he was? Do they know how he died? What he did?

And I mean, his name seemed to be at least somewhat well-known in the valentinos. But that means about jack squat in the merc world. He was supposed to be a legend, but all he ended up as was a ghost.

What makes this worse in my canon, is that the "Major Leagues" was never even V's dream. It always belonged to Jack. When he chases it, he does so in Jackie's place. For him. Not for V. Sometimes he wishes it were Jackie's name he was using, just so someone would hear it and be filled with hope for the future. Just like Jackie was with Morgan Blackhand, Andrew Weyland, and Adam Smasher. He carries Jackie's ghost on his back, every rung of the ladder, and no one even sees it.

[shaissa]

[cherimarie]

©dollywons for the flower divider

[sagrandr]

rewatching yellowjackets and each time a character says "jackie would've wanted this" it makes my blood boil. she absolutely wouldn't want them to eat her. she wouldn't be happy shauna and jeff ended up together. miss girl would be PISSED about everything that happens after her death. the fact that everyone thinks she would just shows nobody really knew her cus given her attitude in s1 she would absolutely not be down with being cannibalized, especially not by shauna given how she died.

[shadow0-1]

The shadows aren't your friend

[fluidfox123]

The most beautiful thing from this season so far in my opinion is Ed and Izzy's relationship

It's fucked up, they love each other in all the wrong ways, they're abusive, they're toxic, they ruin each other, they drive the other to death, suicide, to break everything they touch when they're with one another

At some point it may have been the opposite, but even then they weren't meant to be and they've fallen into hell and cannot save the other no matter how hard they try they cannot please the other

Their love is horrible, but it is still love, and while everyone else talks about how love saves (Ed and Stede), is joy (Pete and Lucius), changes (Fang and Jim), is forever shifting and "undeserved" (Jim and Izzy), and takes on so many forms (Jim, Archie, Olu, and Susan)

Everyone should know love is hell, it kills, it harms, it's ruthless and painful and diseased, and it just is one of the most powerful weapons of destruction in the world, Ed and Izzy show that side of love so perfectly it makes me go insane

Love is so many things and it's shown in every corner of this show

[jackass-jones]

Shinjiham is cute when it’s romantic but tbh I think i vastly prefer the idea of them being best friends instead. Like, neither of them really saw it coming and weren’t really looking to get another best friend (Shinji has Akihiko, Kotone has Junpei and Yukari respectively) but it happens anyway. Kotone takes a liking to Shinji much faster than she does anyone else and I’d say a big reason is just the fact that he’s so reserved that it allows Kotone to do most of the talking while he just listens and they love this arrangement cuz Kotone doesn’t get to talk about her own interests very much. Though I think some of her needs to talk to Shinji stems from this insecurity that he isn’t happy in the group and she has this people pleasing problem and wants everyone to be happy so she makes a much bigger effort to talk to Shinji. And it’s very unfortunate because Shinji intentionally acts cold and distant because he doesn’t want to form any attachments because he wants to die soon, but aaaaaaaagh dammit this girl just keeps talking to him and being sweet and encouraging him to engage in his interests and share them with the others and he just can’t seem to say no when she’s got those damn puppy eyes. And Kotone is just able to get him out of his shell by being persistent but not in an overwhelming way, she’s very cheerful and supportive of him. And Shinji is able to offer her support by encouraging her to talk about herself and by making sure she’s taking care of herself. They just click really well and make such a positive dent in each other’s lives and it’s all about basic acts of kindness going a long way you know?

[kingshai69]

in continuation of my last post, but i honestly think that the reason that i prefer games where in order to be cheap its all left gender neutral vs intentionally trying to be inclusive is bcs the unintentional nb rep is the only one that i feel kinda captures my specific autistic + trauma/ptsd combo of gender. like i loved datv having the explicit option of playing as a nb character but none of the dialogue options reflected anything i could relate too. n i know most trans rep is still in the early days n falls into the same tropes of wrong body/doesnt feel like either/long struggle to find ur true self etc which is valid n true for some. just not me

n i still dont fully know how to explain my own experiences like its a lot more of i always knew, but also more i was always very aware of how i was perceived as girl/woman n identifying w aspects of that due to how my assigned/socialized/raised/whatever gender has affected my life n that i am navigating life being perceived as an autistic bisexual woman n how that exact combination has some very unlucky statistics in regards to specific traumas n experiences n how that has likely affected things for me as well. n that idc anymore abt trying to look a certain way to be validated bcs ill never be able to control how ppl perceive me anyway. my body isnt me its just an aspect of me n shouldn't dictate how i perform gender or how other perceive my performance of it. like i know it does, but it shouldn't, its silly

but the easiest way to sum it up is the autistic i dont even feel like a person combined w the ptsd i dont even feel like a person. like idk how to explain to ppl that yeah sure im a woman in some ways i guess but also i am not. honestly huge shout out to the lesbians n their different ways of navigating their relationship w womanhood, legit hearing butches, studs n trans masc lesbians talk abt this specifically was such a help n made me stop feeling like i had to present a certain way or reject all aspects of womanhood in order to be nb, love ya'll

anyway the unintentional representation just feels better for me bcs no gender exists just the person n i feel that. i know there's so many different nb n trans experiences but i wish mine would one day be explicitly n intentionally represented in the media i like, n not just bcs its cheaper to make ur voice actors record everything once n avoid having to program in gender in interactions

[chasingfictions]

2x04, Old Wounds

[burkhaart]

What do you think of the scene where they imply Hyde wants Jackie to give him a blowjob in exchange for not bringing up her thing with Kelso anymore

well if you've read my posts i think it will come as no shock that is yet a other of my least favorite jokes. in fact, i pretend it's not canon lol im always talking about how their relationship is written by men who ALWAYS took hyde's side and made jackie the bad guy, this to me is one of those instances, jackie made a mistake and now we punish her by having hyde be an asshole except it's "funny".

they have similar jokes with eric and donna but what makes this one worse imo is the fact that it is used as a punishment for jackie, she has to make it up to hyde, sexually of course,to pay for her crimes

using sex against her after a very serious fight (that ended in her saying i love you which makes it even worse) is awful, as if all he wanted from her was sex

[dawnofthedreadd]

that feeling of realizing that your best friend / situationship will haunt your narrative the rest of your life is never a good one

[mummer]

ten needs to be trapped in a torture chamber forever for what he does to martha. I hope jakey the time lord fucking dies

[kuiinncedes]

:p

[huffle-dork]

Swap Across the CrystalVerse Chapter 17: The Bad End

Read Swapboys | Crystal’s AUs| You've reached a Bad End (Also on AO3!)

Read SITCV | SATCV Masterpost | AO3 Link

"You do look more like me wearing that," Chase comments, looking over Bro in his new clothes. "The hand-me-down look really seals it. Sorry if they don't fit. We have, uh, limited options while living in a cave. At least they're clean."

Bro laughs, "It's okay- we're pretty similar just… bigger… arms I guess."

"You can say bigger muscles- I think Chase's self esteem was already shot just by seeing them~!" Jackie grins.

"Hey! Don't be mean! It's not like… I'm showing off! It's just! What happens when you fight crime!" Bro protests.

Chase laughs. "Don't worry, I'm not too concerned about being built. I'm more of a long range guy."

Stacy pokes her head into the storage cavern where Chase, Bro, Jackie, and Sam are waiting. "Are you guys done in here?"

The two swaps look at Stacy and Bro tries to hide his blush at seeing her as he adjusts the outfit. "u-uh yeah! I think so!"

"Great." Stacy nods. "I found a group of people who are going to come along."

Someone else leans into view. They have short dark hair underneath a blue beanie and are wearing a black jacket and skirt with leggings. "Hey." They wave.

"Oh! This is Raven, they're one of those people," Stacy says. "They wanted to meet you."

"Not often you hear about people from another world." Raven grins. "Nice to meet you. I'm the magician."

"Oh! A magician! That's great!" Bro grins. "We could use any help we can get!"

'Nice to meet ya, Raven!" Jackie smiles.

"Heh." Raven smiles. "Happy to help. If you get paused in time I'm able to unfreeze you. That's why I'm coming."

"Oh awesome! That'll make this way easier!" Bro laughs.

"Stacy, are you gonna go, too?" Chase asks.

"Are you?" Stacy asks him.

"I, uh… I want to help. But I think it'll make the whole decoy thing hard."

Jackie looks at Chase and then shrugs, "If you stay with us and hidden- it should be fine! Once Bro starts using his powers it gonna be real obvious it aint you so-"

"That's true…" Chase muses. "Alright. I'll go. I'm an alright marksman, I can stay hidden from a distance."

Stacy nods. "In that case, I won't go. It's too dangerous for both of us to leave. Just in case something happens to one group."

Chase nods. "Alright. Where's Jack, by the way?"

Sam gets off the box They're sitting on and wraps Their nerve-tail around something inside. A small pen. They awkwardly write letters on the lid of the cardboard box. A-L-T.

"He's still with Alt?" Chase asks. "Huh."

Jackie frowns. "… I feel like that's been a long time."

Bro looks worried. "Do you think they're both okay?"

Chase bites his lip. "I don't think anything could've happened to Jack. You literally can't touch him, yknow? But… something could be…" He shakes his head, not wanting to say it in front of Bro and Jackie. "I-it'll probably be fine. If everyone's ready, we should start moving right away. Jackie, are you gonna come?"

"Yeah man! I can be moral support if anything. But, also like- whats the saying… better with numbers…?" Jackie frowns. "Why can't I remember how that goes-"

Bro laughs, "Please try to stay away from any place you can fall and break something, Jackie-"

"Nooo promises!" Jackie grins.

"You want a gun, then? Or a knife?" Stacy asks, pushing open the lid of a crate.

"Oh- a knife please. Imma a terrible shot." Jackie laughs.

"Alright, here you go." Stacy grabs a sheathed knife and hands it to him. "That looks the right size for you. Feel free to slash away, the corrupted don't feel pain and they don't go down easily."

"ooh- that's.. fun. Good to know." Jackie says, taking the knife.

Bro frowns, "huh… i gotta be careful then… I don't wanna like- accidentally… you know-"

"Accidentally kill them? You're that strong?" Chase asks with wide eyes.

Bro flushes, "…I dunno! mmmmaybe? I haven't tried to! I'm very against killing- but I usually try to hold back once I see someone in pain."

"Yknow, Trisha once shot Error point-blank with a shotgun and he got up again, I think you punching them really hard won't do that much," Stacy says. "Just don't aim for the heads. These are still people under all the corruption."

Bro nods to Stacy and wrings out his hands and wrists, "Okay… I can do that. I don't like aiming for the face much anyways. Broken noses aren't fun for anyone… Unless they deserve it. …Broken noses are meant for criminals not mind controlled people. There that's a new super law for me." He nods.

Jackie snorts and rolls his eyes.

Stacy laughs. "Great, good to hear."

"Let's head out, then," Chase says. "The sooner, the better. We need Bro to hang out somewhere with a lot of cameras for him to see, while the rest of us stay out of sight."

Raven nods. "I can keep up an invisibility spell for a while, but everyone will need to stick close to me, it only covers so much ground."

"Alright, good luck guys," Stacy says.

"Thanks Stacy- stay safe okay?" Bro says with a smile. Jackie gives her a two fingered salute.

“Let's go." Chase checks his gun, then leads the way out of the cave.

--------

The door to the room appears, opening up. Jack looks away from Alt and towards it, stiffening. His form is overtaken by white static until he's just the staticky outline he was when Alt first saw him. He puts a finger to his lips.

Alt jumps slightly and then curls up as Jack becomes less solid. He shakily nods.

Error walks in. He looks at Alt and grins. "We're going to take a trip. Come on. Please don't make this difficult."

As Error walks in Alt growls and bares his teeth at him like a feral animal.

"Oh, don't be like that, this is your lucky day! Though you don't think of it that way right now." Error leans down, still grinning. He's not wearing the hoodie outfit from earlier. Instead, it's some red and blue jumpsuit, torn and bloodied. "Come on." His smile drops. "If I have to drag you down there, I will."

"Go ahead and try fucker-" Alt spits. He grins as his eyes spark with energy, "You already know I'm pretty slippery."

"Because of your glitching? Is that it? Hmmm." Error hums. "You know… the Place has a way of taking you where Anti wants you to be. So, sure, you can try. You'll probably just end up where I'm taking you anyway." He flashes a sharp smile. "But if you insist." He grabs Alt by the arm and starts pulling him towards the door.

Alt yelps and then quickly tries to glitch away and out of his grip.

And yet, somehow, Error manages to hold onto him. The static swarming around his body buzzes around Alt's glitches, causing some kind of rough barrier. "Come on," Error says, adjusting his hold so he's pinning Alt's arms to his side. He doesn't sound bothered at all by the struggles as he drags Alt out into the hallway. The static form of Jack follows.

Alt cries out and tries to fight as much as he can. "H-Hey! What the fuck!! Let me go!!"

"Nope!" Error says, almost cheerfully. He continues dragging Alt down the hallway, which slopes and twists downwards. Cables start to appear on the ground, ready to trip people up, but he nimbly dodges them. "Come on, we're almost there!"

Alt feels his stomach drop and dread starts to take over him as he tries even harder to get away. "N-No! C'mon J-Jackie! You're Jackie right?! J-Just let me go man!!"

"I thought I told you before." Error's grip on Alt tightens to the point where it hurts a little. "That's not me anymore." He reaches a door made of metal and opens it up, dragging Alt inside. It's completely dark, impossible to see, but somehow Error navigates it perfectly until he manages to push Alt into a chair, forcing him to sit.

Alt cries out and squirms and kicks as much as he can. When he's forced into the chair he tries to see if he can glitch away-

"No!" Error sees him doing that and pushes him hard back, hard enough that Alt's head clunks against the back of the chair. "Don't you dare," he hisses, quickly grabbing Alt's arms and pushing them into the arms of the chair, where cuffs snap into place. He quickly does the same for his ankles, cuffing them to a bar connecting the chair legs, and then backs up. "Just wait here quietly, okay?"

Alt’s vision flashes white for a second as he head hits the seat. He then struggles and pulls at the restraints, really starting to freak out. Terrified tears gather in his eyes as he starts to heave in panic. “P-Please don’t do this! I-I don’t want to be a puppet again! Please!”

Error grins. "It's not so bad. Maybe you'll find it's different this time. Maybe you'll be happy." And then he turns and leaves the room.

Jack quickly walks into the room before Error closes the door. The room is completely dark now, but Alt can hear Jack's voice. "You're not alone, I promise," he says.

Alt is panicking hardcore, even Jack's voice doesn't calm him down. His eyes try to find any source of light in the room but there's nothing- its dark and he's scared. "J-Jack…! I.. I don't want to be corrupted…! I..! I-"

“I know, I’m sorry,” Jack murmurs. “I-I can’t stop him, a-and I’m sorry. But I can fix it. Just before you guys arrived here, I figured out how to uncorrupt people. But I-I don’t know how to stop the corruption while it’s happening. Only after the fact. And I’m so, so sorry. But I promise people are on the way to help. I promise.”

Alt feels his stomach sinking even more as he hangs his head and tries to hide his panicked tears. He… he has to try to look tough for whatever's coming… he can't show he's weak- but he's so fucking scared.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Jack says. “You’re not alone. It’s going to be—”

Then the door opens again. The lights flick on, revealing the corruption room, just like the one Surgeon showed Mag. Standing in the doorway are two familiar faces. Anti… and Magnificent himself.

“Hey, Alt,” Anti says, grinning as he closes the door.

"Hello cub~" Magnificent giggles.

Alt goes pale. "M-Magnificent…"

Magnificent laughs wildly and teleports to grab Alt's chin, tilting it back and forth. "Awww look at you, kitten! You look fucking terrible~ Scared out of your wits, are we?"

"S-Shut the fuck up!" Alt spits, trying to pull his wet face away from his grip.

Magnificent giggles and teleports back by Anti, grinning. "This is going to be so fucking easy. It's almost sad-"

"Easy would be good, this is never 'easy' in my experience," Anti says. One of the screens on the walls lights up, showing nothing but static, the speakers letting out the sound of white noise. Anti glitches over to a table and starts looking through the items there. "You should probably cover your ears, Magnificent. I don't think it'll be able to affect you so easily, but better safe than sorry. You get started while I decide how to approach this."

"Ah- Yes. I can do that." Mag snaps and puts basically magic earplugs in and then grins, slinking back over to Alt.

Alt tries to pull his head away but Mag grabs him by the hair and slams his head back, giggling. "Oh you poor beaten kitten… your mind has already been scrambled so nicely for me~! So broken and disjointed… It's like you knew to expect me!"

"Mag- f-fucking! Don't do this! You're really g-gonna let me be a puppet for someone else?" Alt tries to growl at him.

Magnificent just shakes head and laughs, "Why not? I want to see how it works~! And you're already such a good puppet for me, Alt… I think I can lend you away for a bit~" He flares up some corruption in his hands- not enough to completely block Alt's magic- but enough to make him weak. He digs his claws into his neck and spreads it there as Alt screams and tries to thrash against it. As he works a bright purple and green spiral looms behind Magnificent- soon drawing in Alt's eyes as Mag withdraws his hand.

Alt weakly lets his head fall back, panting and heaving in panic- but he's starting to do it less- the anger and fear fading from his eyes. Corrupted purple flickers in his eyes but- he tries to fight against it, weakly squirming in his restraints. "n-no… no I… i-"

Anti watches this happen, observing. It really does happen quite quickly. "I've been able to put people in trances before," he says quietly. "But they always shake it off eventually. That sort of reminds me of it." He nods at the spiral, at the way Alt's struggles are fading. "I can work with that."

The white noise in the air sounds less sharp than it did before. More… soothing, almost. Anti walks around behind Alt, carrying something. He snaps it around Alt's neck, revealing it to be a metal collar.

"Alright, Alt," he says quietly, but not kindly. "Here's how it's going to work. If you start to do something wrong, you're going to get hurt. Same thing if you say something bad. Simple enough, right? You can do that, right?"

Magnificent's eyes widen and then he giggles, "Oh… i like where this is going."

Alt snaps slightly out of trance as he feels the collar get snapped onto him. He weakly glares at Anti, eyes sparking. "L-Like i'm gonna just d-do what you say just cuz you ask me- f-fuck off!"

ZAP. Anti can't pulse with electricity the way Alt can, but he has other tools he can use. Namely, a taser, which he presses to the metal of the collar and switches on for a second. "That's a low setting, and I know you can handle electricity," Anti says. "But I promise it can get worse. And I'm not just limited to lightning." He tilts Alt's head back so he can look him in the eyes. "You don't have to fight it, though," he whispers. "You don't have to go through this." He glances back up at Magnificent and nods towards the spiral he has conjured, silently asking him to increase whatever he's doing.

Alt grits his teeth and stiffens in his chair, trying to hide his discomfort. He feels himself get tilted up and he opens his eyes enough to just glare more at Anti. "I-I'm not l-letting myself be corrupted by you…!"

Magnificent tilts his head and the magic gets brighter and hums with intensity. The pressure on the room increases. Mag grips his hand and the corruption on Alt's neck pulses and grows slightly, making purple flash in his eyes as he gasps.

Alt tries to shut his eyes, shaking his head. "No…! Nono-!"

"Why not?" Anti asks. "Remember, I've seen your memories. I know what you've thought. All these Antis out here, doing terrible things. You know that you're not any different. Didn't you try to kill your so-called friends a couple times?"

"T-Those weren't for you to see-" Alt whimpers. "I.. I'm not like that anymore- I don't want to be that anymore…! I'm not like them- I'm not-!" He squeezes his eyes shut tighter, trembling.

ZAP! Anti goes up a setting on the taser. "Don't close your eyes," he snaps.

Alt grits his teeth and bites back another scream. Alt instinctively follows Anti's order and his eyes find the spiral.

"Alright, maybe you're not like that anymore. But you remember what it was like, don't you? Didn't a part of you like being like that? Being able to do whatever the fuck you wanted?"

Alt’s shoulders almost instantly relax as the magic starts to spiral in his eyes. His head lolls back more as he breathes slowly. He leans a bit more against Anti's side, talking hollowly. "… i… i… d..did…"

"That's it kitten… relax… and listen to Anti," Magnificent sings sweetly, increasing the burning magic. "Just like that…"

"I know you did," Anti says, his voice laced with static. "But you feel so bad about it now. Guilt is a useless thing, Alt. All it does is make you feel bad. Life is so much better lived without regrets. Nothing is stopping you from casting these feelings aside and doing something that you like. Even if people say it's wrong, they don't know you. They can't know you. It's impossible to fully know someone, since you can't possibly have thought and felt and experienced everything someone else has. So, why do you care so much about what these people who can't know you think?"

"I… I don't… know…" Alt whispers, knitting his eyebrows together in confusion. "…it… it.. shouldn't… matter…" His eye twitches and he tries to shake out his head, squeezing his eyes shut again as his head pounds. "n-no it m-matters it… it has to- I… I need to- be something b-better…! I…"

ZAP! Up another setting. "Better is arbitrary," Anti hisses. "Good and bad are constructs. Right and wrong are fictional ideas." The static echoes his words. "You only want to be 'better' because others tell you that you should want that. When you strip away those voices, Alt, you know what you really want. And I can help you, like I've helped lots of people before you."

Alt lets out a short scream now, clenching his fists and arching his back. He pants, eyes rolling in his head for a second before they find the spiral again. He starts to relax even more, even through panted short breaths. The magic glows brighter in his eyes as he whispers, "…what… I want…?" He leans his head back and sighs in pain, "i… i wanna be free…"

"Then let me help you," Anti whispers. "Let me free you." He puts one hand on Alt's shoulder. For a moment, he flickers, becoming a figure of black static. Something is in his chest. Right where his heart would be. It looks a little like a heart too, in shape. But it's not. It's a knot of strings, and one of those strings slinks down his arm and into the spot where his hand is touching Alt. Then he returns to his normal look, and the string is gone from sight. But it's still there.

Alt twitches a bit and rolls his shoulder where he feels the string but very quickly relaxes. His eyes glaze over completely and his fighting stops. "…free me, Anti." He whispers, lips hardly moving.

Magnificent giggles with glee, hardly able to stop grinning.

"I will," Anti promises. "Close your eyes. When I tell you to open them again, you'll be free."

Alt's eyes easily slip shut now, his head lolling forward to hang limply over his chest.

"One…" Anti whispers. "Two…" He reaches for the collar. "Three." And he snaps it off. "Wake up, Byte."

Alt's head slowly rises and he opens his eyes. Immediately- they are different. His sclera is now green static. The purple spirals still burn in his irises but… now its like- his pupils are glitching. They don't seem to want to settle, glitching across his iris and sclera in broken bits and pieces.

Byte leans forward and looks confused before his lips curl up into an unsteady smile. He digs his nails into the arms of his chair and starts to giggle. He's dazed- still seeming kinda lost and entranced. He falls back in his chair, letting his head hit the back of it as he dazedly giggles at the ceiling.

"…fascinating…!" Magnificent breathes, his eyes sparkling.

"Everyone reacts to it differently," Anti says. "I've given up on trying to predict how they'll act after the process--but somehow this feels right." He leans back, considering for a moment. "It might not be as well-settled as corruption usually is, but that was really fast. Worth the tradeoff, if you ask me."

"I think it was only so fast because his mind is already very open to my hypnosis. And… whatever happened with you two scrambled his brain and made it very easy to manipulate." Magnificent comments, crossing his arms as he studies Byte. "Still… I haven't seen him like this…"

Anti leans forward again, undoing the cuffs on Byte's wrists and ankles. "Hello there." He smiles at him, somehow managing to look both genuine and crazed at the same time. "How do you feel, Byte?"

Byte dazedly watches as he's freed, smile only getting wider. His eyes get a bit more of that unhinged look in them. He tries to glitch up out of the chair and then falls over himself slightly, giggling madly. He finds Anti's arm and grabs onto it, digging his nails in. "F-Fantastic-" He grins. "Fucking f̵a̴n̴t̴a̵s̷t̸i̵c̷~! And… and stabby- I feel stabby." Byte laughs more and looks at Anti with those wide glitching eyes, grinning like a maniac. "Can I stab you? I w-w-wanna see you b̷͚̂l̴̢̇é̷̠e̶̓͜é̸̯d̸͕͘d̴̞̑."

"Ha! Unfortunately, I don't bleed at all, despite this whole thing." Anti indicates the neck wound. "But we can go out into the city and find someone who will." His smile widens into an excited grin. He seems unfazed by Byte grabbing his arm, even as the nails dig in. He glances at Magnificent. "Guessing that sort of comment isn't normal, then?"

"Not at all." Magnificent replies, impressed.

"Can I bite them?!" Byte says excitedly, baring his teeth in a sharp grin. "That's what my name is now, right? B̵I̷t̶e̸!̸ ̵!" He snaps his teeth together like a playful predator, giggling.

"You can," Anti assured him. "Let me just find someone suitable. This will only take one second." He turned into black static and zipped away--and then, exactly one second later, he returned. "Well… I just saw something very interesting." He looked over at Magnificent. "A puppet who snapped his strings. My Chase is out wandering around. It must be some sort of trap, I caught a couple glimpses of people nearby. They must've thought they were hiding with that magician's invisibility spell, not knowing that some cameras can see through that." And back to Byte, grinning. "We can head out right now."

"C̸h̵a̴s̵e̷!̷ I know a Chase!" Byte says excitedly. "If there's twooo Chases- can I kill one, Anti?" He giggles. As he does, he's still glitching a bit in place- his normally bright green and blue glitches now darker and corrupted. Even his magic seems corrupted as he opens his hand up and summons one of his magic knives. It buzzes and fizzles with loud static and flickers between dark green, blue, red and black.

Magnificent chuckles, "That's true… that could mean our Chase is somewhere in there too. No doubt hoping to catch us off guard."

"Or! He can come back too! Two Chases! Two puppets~!" Byte laughs, bouncing on his toes.

"Two would be nice," Anti says thoughtfully. "But if it really comes down to it, you can kill the spare--the one not from this world. As well as anyone else with him."

The spirals in Byte's eyes pulse a bit at this, as if sealing in a command and he grins. "I can kill him. It will be fun to kill him~! And the others! Anyone I can!!"

"Oh this will be quite the show~!" Magnificent laughs, "My puppets wont know what's hitting them."

Anti flashes a smile. "Lovely knives."

"Thank you Anti!" Byte beams. He throws one knife out of his hand and lets its sink into the wall- then opens back up his hand and it flies back in a similar arc. He giggles. "They're m̸a̵g̶i̷c̵~̷" He then poofs them away and glitches around the room like he just can't keep still. "Can we go?!"

"We can go right now," Anti says. "I need Voice, but we can meet him at the exit. Hmm, I should probably take Error, too, just in case." He looks at Magnificent. "Want to join? The four of us together can probably defeat them all."

"Oh, my friend, I wouldn't miss this for the world." Magnificent chuckles.

Byte glitches to a stop, his hair spiking and curling slightly as electricity courses across it and his clothes. He grins wide. "I'll follow you! I still don't know how the Place works-" He says plainly but even that sounds a bit crazy and unhinged. Maybe its that wild look in his glitching eyes. He then blinks and looks to a certain corner and then points. "And what are we gonna do with Jack? He's watching."

Magnificent looks confused, frowning at the space and not seeing anything. "…what are you talking about…?"

Anti stiffens. "He's what?" he whispers, absolute venom dripping in his voice, thick enough to burn ears.

Jack has been watching everything. He'd wanted to reach out to Alt, to support him during Anti's attempts to corrupt him, to remind him that he's not alone. But then Magnificent had walked in and thrown him for a loop, and before he could recover, that spiral the magician conjured was blocking Alt's vision. He wanted to shout, to scream, but the moment the process started he froze up. It wasn't just Alt in that chair, it was Jackie, Jameson, Henrik, Marvin, Chase--all of them. All of his friends he couldn't help. All of his friends that he had watched get hurt and tortured and twisted beyond recognition and never been able to do a single thing about. The memory of helplessness locked him up, shoving him back into that mentality until it was too late.

Anti turns in the direction Alt was pointing and lunges forward.

Jack yelps, briefly flickering into view, and dives out of the way.

"Get b̵̨a̛ç̛k̕ ̸͠h͡e͟͠r̢͟ę̴̕!" Anti shouts, picking up a blade from the nearest table and throwing it.

Jack dodges it and jumps through the wall, disappearing.

Anti screeches animalistically--then glances at Magnificent and gets himself under control. "I'll… deal with him… some other time," he says through gritted teeth. "He can't be touched. He's just like a fucking ghost. Not important right now. Let's go. He's probably going to tell the group we're on the way."

Byte staggers back, fear flickering in his eyes. As Anti shouts and screeches, he curls up slightly- afraid of his rage.

Magnificent raises an eyebrow and then laughs, "Sore spot, I'm assuming?" He sees Byte cowering and grabs him by the arm and throws him forward. "No time to waste, Byte. You want your blood, don't you?"

"y…yes. Yeah I- let's go." Byte says a bit dazedly. He glances at Anti warily.

Anti takes a deep breath. He notices Byte's fear, and for a moment, regret flickers in his eyes. But it's only for a second. There are more important things to focus on. "Sore spot indeed," Anti says as he walks to the door. He opens it up and heads out. "Come on. We'd best hurry."

[gentleeclipsey]

I'd never leave