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the-void-writes · 3 months ago

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“you’re so pretty when you lie to me”

Hello hello friendo 💖 So we were talking about writing more unhinged stuff, and thanks to you I managed to develop Aphelion’s awfulness more lol. Thank you so much for the motivation and inspo, and I hope this isn’t too unhinged 😅

For All Eternity - The Moon King’s Madness

Summary: Paradise Era— Will has been taken by King Aphelion Sapphirus, a Celestial who hates humanity. His delusions have convinced him that any Freak with strong enough powers are Celestials trapped in mortal forms, so he makes it his job to set them free through fatal methods.

WC: 3K

TW: Many descriptions of body horror (both shapeshifting and a vivisection). Also if you don’t like reading about people being held prisoner, or violent and manipulative love interests, then this isn’t for you.

Days flew by so fast that Will couldn’t tell them apart anymore. He would wake up in that miserable bedroom, with the view of freedom a million miles below him, and the minutes would blur together after that. Feasts with the Celestials, tours around the palace that he was meant to share, hours strapped to a table in the darkness as the god that claimed to love him tried time and time again to cut through his mortal cage and release his cosmic spirit…

Aphelion’s singular glowing eye pierced the darkness, the only part of him that Will could see, aside from the blazing hot blade in his hands. His voice scratched the inside of Will’s head, drowning out the ringing in his ears.

“I know it hurts,” he said. “You’re doing so well, my dear. If I can just get through this section of veins…”

The blade hit Will’s skin once more, filling his nose with the smell of burnt flesh. His throat was already raw from screaming, made worse by the waves of energy that tore through him. It was his body’s natural defense mechanism— His years with Vesely had taught him that.

Starlight cut clean down the center of his chest. The air touched his open skin with the grace of an old friend. Finally, the cutting stopped, and Aphelion waited anxiously. This was the moment of truth for all his hard work and research. If all went to plan, Will’s “Celestial soul” would at last be free.

That was when Will felt his insides shift. Dozens of little growths stretched and connected like the threads of an old doll. They twisted and pulled, and in no time at all, Will had been stitched back together. His saving grace, Vesely’s Infection— it wouldn’t let him die. He was too good of a host.

The air grew thick and warm as Aphelion threw the blade into the darkness. His yell shook the entire room.

“DAMN YOU, CURSED PARASITE!”

Tears ran down Will’s face. He had never been more thankful to be sick. His whole body flinched as he felt Aphelion’s large hand cradle his head, still invisible in the darkness.

“Forgive me, my darling… I’ve failed you.”

There were several long footsteps, and then he was gone. Will cried in the dark for what felt like forever before a group of Aphelion’s glowing handmaidens came to collect him. He didn’t remember the trip back to his room, only the spinning in his head and the feeling of bile rising in his ruined throat.

Finally, he was back in his bed. The handmaidens finished cleaning the new scar on his chest, and left him to recover in his room for the rest of the night. They never said a word to him, perhaps out of fear of the king. Aphelion had a bizarre temperament when it came to Will. He was as soft as possible around the small mortal, but if anyone else showed interest in him, the moon god had no trouble disposing of them. According to the sparse whispers of other Celestials, Aphelion had devoured one of their kind for daring to look at Will for longer than a minute.

The mattress consumed Will as he laid down and watched the stars outside. If someone had told him as a boy that he would one day be sickened by the sight of the cosmos, he would have thought them insane. His hopes and dreams of exploring the galaxy, flying among stardust, discovering new worlds and species… All of it was squandered each time Aphelion took his wretched scalpel to Will’s chest.

He tried to take this brief moment of peace to think, but his mind had been reduced to a handful of thoughts: hating Aphelion, missing Dante, and praying for death to finally claim him, to reunite him with his family. All he wanted was an end to the torture.

His heart dropped as he heard the door open. He leapt up and leaned against the bedpost, hoping he had enough energy to run to the washroom and lock it before the handmaidens could grab him. He was only due for one ritual a week, that was what Aphelion swore to him, the one promise Will trusted him to keep. Vesely’s Infection put his body through too much stress, so Aphelion had to stop and let him recover. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing Will before he could be free. As horrifically misguided as he was, there was indeed a part of him that loved the young Divine.

Will’s heart sank further down as a pale, crooked hand pushed the door open carefully. Aphelion’s human disguise was far from perfect. He was thoroughly disgusted by humanity, so his understanding of appearance and proportions were approximations, at best. Discolored patches of skin were hastily sewn together, sagging and twisting around a nonexistent skeletal form. Space dust and starlight shifted under the skin, churning like water beneath his cosmically-decorated hanfu. He towered over Will, whose height just barely reached where the Moon King’s ribs would be. Pale pink hair hung perfectly within a series of hairpins, pulling it tight enough to stretch the corners of his face. It was a mockery of a human being, a suit that was designed purely to give him more time with Will.

“Ah, you’re awake.” His voice still shook inside Will’s head, with the underlying discomfort of nails scratching glass. “How are you feeling?”

“Do I have to go back?” Will asked, struggling to stand upright and not fall back into the preferable softness of the bed.

Aphelion smiled and mustered an unpleasant laugh. His eyes flickered with what Will assumed was warmth. They were less eyes, per say, and more two distant stars floating in the darkness that hid under the god’s human suit. Will could see the hollow sockets behind the light, two miniature universes peering out at him.

“We’re done, I promise you. Until we can figure out how to destroy this parasite, I’m afraid we’ll have to put the ritual on hold.”

Will let his shoulders fall as he tried to smother his relief. The last thing he wanted to do was give his host— his captor— a reason to continue his work.

“Please forgive me, my dear,” Aphelion said, confusing his silence with disappointment. “I know it’s insufferable, but by the end of it all, you’ll be free.”

“I’ll be dead, sir. I’m not a god.”

“You don’t truly believe that, do you?” Aphelion moved forward carefully, sweeping his legs like a peacock unsure of its steps. “If you were anything as simple and lowly as a human, you would never have survived this long. Your sickness, your isolation, the years of abuse from your father—”

“Don’t talk about him,” Will spat.

Aphelion smiled. “Forgive me, I know it’s a sensitive subject. We can talk about something else.”

“I don’t want to talk.”

The god’s smile faltered. Will braced himself for a swift mood swing, for the handmaidens to come barreling in and pull him back into the ritual room, but that moment never came. The fear in waiting seemed more unbearable than the pain itself.

“I understand your frustrations, you know.”

Will raised his eyebrow. “Do you?”

“You’re displeased with me. I disgust you.” He raised his hand up. “Please, I get it. These human forms are so limiting and fragile.”

“What?” Will shook his head. “I don’t hate your… appearance.”

The god chuckled to himself. “You don’t have to pretend. It makes me nauseous just putting it on.”

“Then why do it?”

“For you, of course. If I can’t free you yet, then I’ll bind myself in this prison of flesh. Anything to see you and make you happy.”

Will wasn’t quick enough to stop himself. “I was already happy with my friends— with Dante. He was my home.”

Tears stabbed the corners of his eyes. He missed Paradise so terribly, even the noise and the parties that never seemed to end. He missed sleeping in with the love of his life and heading out for lunch together before retreating back home to avoid the crowds. After years of heartbreak, Will had finally found peace, and it was taken away from him for the third time in his life.

He pushed himself into the bedpost as Aphelion stepped closer, trying and failing to avoid the clawed hand running through his hair.

“It truly pains me to see you this distraught,” Aphelion said. “A man like that was never worth your time. He never even came up to see you.”

“Because you won’t let anyone up here!”

“But he never even bothered to ask for you. What monster would abandon the supposed love of his life?”

Will shut his eyes and tightened his fists. He knew Dante better than that. This was a man who had gone into a heist with a fatal fever, all for the sake of the kids in his neighborhood. If he hadn’t come to bargain for Will, it was because he was planning something. Dante would never abandon him. He wasn’t like Dan…

“If your heart still aches for him,” Aphelion said, “perhaps I can assist with that?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Watch, my dear.”

There was a sick popping noise, and Will watched as the moon king’s long form shrank and twisted. The discolored skin grew dark, and his long pink hair turned black and curly, until Will was looking at his love again, at his Dante. It was his beautiful smile, his golden scars from the Infection… but the glowing yellow eyes belonged to Aphelion, and the skin around his face was still pinched tight.

“What do you think?” he asked in Dante’s low, smooth voice. “It’s so much easier when you have a base to work off of. Is this better for you? Not as repulsive?”

Will fell back onto the bed, unable to speak. It was wrong, it was so sickeningly wrong. He could barely shake his head. Aphelion read the look in his eyes and shrugged.

“That’s alright. Mister Briggs isn’t exactly my style, anyway. How about something simpler?”

With the snap of his fingers, his fake skin shifted and snapped into plastic. Cold joints and wires mocked the human muscular system, until Will was face-to-face with the android he had once fallen for. It was a perfect replica of Dan, save for his sick yellow eyes. A mixture of longing and anger stung his chest.

“How?” Will asked. “How the hell do you know what he looks like?!”

“I saw him in your dreams.” His voice box crackled just as Dan’s did, but Aphelion’s tone still seeped through like poison. “I didn’t mean to wander in there, but your thoughts were deafening.”

“You— You were in my head?”

“Yes, and I saw how terribly he treated you. The real Daniel was a fool. We could start over, now that your mind is intact. I can be what he never could.”

Will clenched his teeth. “I don’t want to start over.”

“Fair enough, my dear. He’s a tad too numb for my taste.”

The android’s casing melted off of Aphelion’s starlit body, quickly covered by a new layer of dark skin. Glowing, predatory eyes shone through the glasses that now rested on his broad nose. Thick, coiled hair sprouted from the top of his head. Will’s stomach wrenched violently at the sight of Aphelion, whose cosmic form rippled under Colin’s skin, glowing like magma.

“Your first love. You cared deeply for him, from what I remember.”

Will practically stumbled against the bed frame, fighting the urge to be sick. He had almost forgotten how soft-spoken and gentle Colin was, but he knew these drawn-out sentences weren’t his. Colin spoke quickly and to the point, and furthermore, he never watched anyone with a look as predatory as that of the moon god. Will refused to look at Aphelion until he was back in his own ragged skin.

“Nothing?” he asked. “Is it the boy’s age? I know he looks young, but I’ve been alive for centuries, Will. There’s no harm done.”

“That’s sick, Saph— Sick in the head.”

“You were in love with him, yes? It could be as though he never left you.”

“You think I want that? You think I’m going to fall in love with you because you’re wearing my old boyfriend like a fucking ballgown?!”

Aphelion tapped a clawed finger against his chin, with all the casual grace of a man pondering his plans for dinner. He closed his eyelids limply over the hollow sockets. Will’s head buzzed and his stomach twisted— the god was reading his thoughts. It was so much worse compared to the warm cloud that would surround his mind whenever Dante read from him. Aphelion’s power felt as though someone was taking a fork to his mind and scooping out the insides.

“Ah,” the god said, “I’ve found something better.”

His body snapped and jerked, and for a while, Will couldn’t see much of a difference in his appearance. He was still tall and pale, still wriggling under false skin. His nose seemed longer, and his eyes were larger and rounder, but nothing too drastic had changed.

Then his pink hair grew darker, a deep wine color turning into dark cherry. Now, it was a near perfect match, like an old photograph that had just been misplaced in the wash, elongating all of the features. The only pieces missing were the snow-colored eyes.

“How is this?” His soft voice pierced Will’s heart. “Barely even a change, right? He’s perfect.”

Anger burned through Will’s body, powered by the sickness in his veins. In the blink of an eye, he lunged at Aphelion, pushing him to the ground.

“GET OUT OF HIS BODY!” Will screamed. “RIGHT NOW!”

A wave of energy burst from his throat as he yelled, cracking the floor below Aphelion’s head. The moon king struggled to gain his bearings.

“Will— please calm down!”

Will’s throat burned as he cried. He could still see Jason’s cold, stiff, colorless face as he laid still in his grasp. Blood and feathers and bullets littered the floor around them. The more he remembered, the further his powers forced the god into the tile work.

“This is for you,” Aphelion said, fighting through his chokehold. “You loved him, and they took him from you. I can bring him back to you, it’s no problem for me—”

“GET OUT!”

“Don’t tell me it’s not true! Don’t tell me you don’t love him, I’ve seen it! You love him so much, you wish you had died instead!”

Aphelion struggled in his grasp— Jason struggled, terrified of the man looming above him. An expression he never wanted to see on his godfather… Will quickly released his powers and backed up against the bedpost, leaving Aphelion to catch his breath— How could a god like him even breathe?

Will curled up on the floor, holding his head in his hands. He longed for the ritual, for the scalding blades that cut his chest open, anything other than this.

“Dearest,” Aphelion said, still in his stolen voice, “you’re hurting so much. I don’t blame you.”

Will refused to speak. A clumsy claw ran through his hair, and he was too tired, too frightened, to push it away.

“You shouldn’t have to suffer anymore. I can stay like this for you, until we can finally set you free. It’s easy, really. You don’t have to repress your emotions. I’m all yours, however you want me.”

Those words, in that voice, were the push Will needed to slap Aphelion back onto the floor, hard enough to force him back into his original skin. Aphelion was speechless, grazing his fingers over his reddened cheek. Will’s stare could have shot clean through the Celestial.

“I hate you,” he said. “I hate everything about you. I don’t want to love you, and it’s not because of how you look. You can’t just hide behind the faces of people I loved. It will never change what you are— vile and wicked and cruel.”

Will rose to his feet before Aphelion could reach him. He stumbled towards the door, not at all concerned with where he was going or who would follow him. He just wanted to leave.

“Will—”

“Don’t you ever use my father’s face again. You don’t understand him, or what he meant to me. Stay out of his skin, or I swear on my life, I will find a way to kill you.”

Whatever had motivated him to stand up to Aphelion died the moment the god picked himself up off the ground and snatched Will’s wrist.

“Kill?” His voice shook the walls. “You think you can kill me with that broken little body? After everything I’ve done for you?!”

Will shielded his face in a way he hadn’t done since he was a young boy, cowering at the brutality of his birth father. He waited for the snap of a bone or the sting of a fist, but nothing came. When he opened his eyes, Aphelion looked mortified. He released Will’s hand slowly.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “My darling, I’m so sorry.”

Will avoided his pleading eyes. “Leave, please.”

“Of course.”

Aphelion slinked out of the room, and when his weak footsteps could no longer be heard, Will ran to the washroom and locked himself inside. He let his tears mix with the warm water in the sink, porcelain cracking under his hand as he gripped the edges, tighter and tighter until his fingers started to bleed.

He couldn’t live like this, teetering the edges of both his and Aphelion’s rage. If he could only convince his Infection to seek a new host, or give up completely, then he could find a way to die before the moon king got his hands on him again…

Will slapped himself with his own bruised hand. You jackass, he thought, you can’t give up. You’ll leave Dante all on his own. He took a breath and treated his hand with medicine from the cabinet. Get a hold of yourself, find a way out of here, and don’t stop until you’re back in his arms.

#writeblr #original writing #ask games #wip: for all eternity #writing this made me hate Aphelion even more 🤣 he’s probably worse than Vesely #I really hope this isn’t too much #this is training to get out of the comfort zone lol

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