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iviarellereads · 1 year ago

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Nona the Ninth, Bonus Material: The Unwanted Guest

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For detail on The Locked Tomb coverage and the index, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which the fandom goes wild.

Laid out as a stageplay, surely setting us up (one might say, setting the scene) for impromptu fan performances, Tamsyn Muir gave us just one bonus in the Nona paperback, but it's a doozy. I am operating under the assumption that you have read (or listened to a fan assembled live or recorded performance of) the whole play in my comments. If you haven't, you can now read it yourself here for free!

Scene One

The stage is set: a funeral, with seven coffins, a row of six and one at the front distinguished from its fellows by its many gold and violet flowers(1) and wreaths, and being propped open at the top. A tray of meat sits on the closed bottom. Mourners(2) in gaudy masks take a piece of meat, then lean into the open head, though the view obscures whether they're kissing or feeding the presumed corpse.(3)

Palamedes Sextus is the final mourner in the line, his mask plain, wooden, shattered and pieced back together. He almost looks like he belongs. As the last mourners file out, he considers the meat, skips it,(4) and reaches into the coffin.

A hand grabs his arm and the corpse sits upright. It's IANTHE TRIDENTARIUS. Her face is covered in bloody kisses. Ianthe You're fucked, my lad. The lights go out.

Scene Two

The room is now empty, except for a fireplace with no fire, and the door at the back. Ianthe stands by the fireplace, dressed as a butler. Pal enters, in a ruined grey suit with a purple tie,(5) though his body isn't apparently injured at all.

Pal is calling upon "the lady of the house", for at least the second time. Ianthe-butler says "the master's answer"(6) won't have changed. Pal would still like to hear that for himself, and offers a whole skeletal hand(7) when Ianthe-butler asks for his card. Ianthe-butler says "If you'd be so good as to stay here", and steps out through the door.

Pal faces the audience at the front of the stage. He speaks of the grammar of "if", and how sometimes it's used for permission and sometimes used to command while pretending to acknowledge another person's agency.

In the background, Ianthe returns, now dressed in an "ooh-la-la" maid costume with "an enormous purple feather duster",(8) flicking it at the dead fireplace. Pal continues his monologue on "if", finishing with the assertion that the phrasing Ianthe-butler used is over-the-top in its politeness, so it circles back to being rude again.

Palamedes A pretty silk glove over a fist of iron. Or, in this case, gold. He turns to the maid for the first time. Palamedes Don't you think? Ianthe No, sir.

Ianthe-maid curtseys and leaves, stage right.(9) Pal is examining the dead fireplace when the butler returns through the door, and says the master will see him in "the Almond Room". (10) Pal doesn't move, but robed figures wheel the coffins from the first scene back in, now numbered 1 through 7, standing upright in a semicircle in the center of which is placed a chaise longue.(11) Pal pays no attention to the action.

The door opens again and Ianthe enters, this time in a rather daringly unbuttoned shirt and a pair of leather trousers, plus a Lyctoral rainbow robe draped over her shoulders.(12) The whole affect is louche;(13) she carries a small clutch bag. Ianthe walks over to the chaise longue and drapes herself across it artistically.

Having made her true entrance, Ianthe says it's so good of the "Inspector" to call so late.(14) He says it's not that late, she affirms that it is quite late, given how he's in tatters and can't last much longer. Pal says she's been saying that for the last three visits.

Ianthe asks what Pal wants. He says the same thing he's been asking for, the body of Naberius Tern. Ianthe finally agrees that he shall have it, if he can win a simple game. Pal is surprised, but goes along with it. She says he only has to guess which of the seven coffins, after asking her no more than five questions, none of which can be directly asking which coffin he's in or anything about the coffins themselves. He debates with her about how many questions it would take under those other circumstances, and she observes that he must have been great fun at parties.(15)

Palamedes asks his first question unintentionally: will Ianthe play fair? She says she never does, and he has four left.

Palamedes pinches the bridge of his nose with one hand, turns away, and walks downstage. The curtain falls behind him--leaving him alone with the audience. Palamedes Ianthe's sparkling personality aside . . . this doesn't really make much sense. A new VOICE answers from the back of the auditorium. We do not see the speaker.(16)

The voice asks why it doesn't make sense. Pal says logic questions depend on a set of rules, and Ianthe hasn't set any. The voice suggests thinking more broadly, because logic isn't the important piece here: psychology is.

Pal almost talks himself out of this, but then the voice asks what would happen if he asked Ianthe to pick a number from one to seven. Pal realizes she likely would pick that number, trying to outfox him.(17) The voice says it won't be quite that easy, but Pal can get Ianthe to open herself up unintentionally and expose herself so he can get the answer. Pal nods and turns back to the stage as the curtains rise.

Voice I mean, more than she's already exposing herself with that shirt. (Pause) I'm kind of into the trousers, though.(18)

Scene Three

The curtain rises on the same scene as before--seven upright coffins, chaise longue, Ianthe--except that a robed and masked figure is now standing beside each of the coffins. Palamedes walks upstage to stand next to the chaise longue.

Palamedes says he has his first question. Ianthe corrects him, second, but invites him to ask. Pal asks if Ianthe believes in "the permeability of the soul?" Ianthe is dismissive, as the robed figures move the coffins. They place coffins 2 and 6 on their backs on either side of the chaise. Pal sits on coffin 6 awkwardly, as an attendant crowns Ianthe with ivy and sprays her with perfume, and another puts a gold cup in her hand and fills it from a gold jug.(19)

Ianthe wanted Pal to ask something more fun, maybe something sexual in nature. The attendants offer Pal a cup, but he covers it with his hand before they pour anything in.

Ianthe (Despairingly) You don't even drink! Palamedes In my defence: I'm dead, and this wine doesn't exist.

Ianthe suggests this improves it, as the false can have a "piquancy"(20) that the real lacks. Pal asks if that's a quote from something, and Ianthe, acting increasingly drunk,(21) goes on about pétillance(22) and asks if Pal's "tingue" ever "toungle[d]" when he was alive. Pal says they're not here to talk about his tongue, and makes to repeat his question, but Ianthe remembers. She addresses the attendants to say there's nothing the Sixth won't turn into a seminar, and she "shudders to imagine their pillow talk." Pal says "pillow talk is a science" on the Sixth, and Ianthe responds that she's not interested.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Ianthe admits(23) she does not believe in permeability of the soul. Pal asks if that means she believes "that the soul is both indivisible and impermeable", which she does. He asks if Ianthe believes the soul is malleable, can be altered or deformed. Ianthe says it must be so, or a revenant wouldn't behave as it does. Pal asks then if the soul is only imperfectly elastic, able to return to its original shape. Ianthe agrees to this as well

Pal summarizes: one would expect that a revenant would act like a newborn child in its behaviour, but there are cases where revenants clearly act in ways informed by their adult lives.(24) Ianthe accepts this, and with no reference made to the query about being in agreement being Pal's last question.(25)

Thus, Pal comes back to his original question: if you accept that the soul can be changed, and never fully recover, does it not follow that it can be diminished as well? Ianthe says that's not at all given. Pal says that surprises him, because most objects that can be deformed can be diminished. He compares it to a stone and a sculptor shaping it, and the stone can't regrow what was chipped off, and indeed someone who works around stone work will wear a mask to avoid breathing in the stone dust and damaging himself.

Tried beyond her patience, Ianthe takes off her garland and flings it irritably across the stage.

Ianthe can't do it anymore(26) and says the soul cannot be diminished because it's the underpinning of Lyctorhood. If the soul could be diminished, it couldn't be the perpetual fuel for the Lyctor's power, and only a soul can be used without being consumed in the process. Pal says that they don't know it, but Ianthe says she's a Lyctor, and she studied under Augustine who was a Lyctor for ten thousand years, and Pal has no idea.

Pal suggests that the rate of decay might be infinitesimally small, a soul might last a hundred thousand years before anyone noticed a change. Ianthe dismisses this as lacking evidence. Pal keeps trying to argue, but Ianthe says she's eaten a soul, and he hasn't.

Palamedes So your best argument boils down to "I know more about this than you do." Ianthe It's a very strong argument. Unless we get into "what's it like to be weirdly codependent with your dead-eyed cousin," I'm more or less guaranteed to win. Minions! Clear all of this garbage away; my guest has to go and take some deep breaths for a while.

The attendants move forward, and Pal walks to the edge of stage so the curtain can come down once more, hiding the action behind him. He says that went well, but the voice says the argument went nowhere.

Palamedes Ouch. Voice Sorry, babe, I can't compliment-sandwich this.(27)

Pal says it wasn't nowhere, he has a better idea of Ianthe's philosophical stances, and he thinks he can exploit them. The voice asks if jumping into Ianthe's "pet body" was Camilla's idea.(28) It continues that the Third are very good at giving people what they think they want, and Pal's best bet might be to stop asking Palamedes-questions, which she expects, and start asking Ianthe-questions. Pal isn't good at those, but the voice encourages him: play to your own weakness, everything here is Ianthe. Pal protests, not the bit that's Naberius Tern, which the voice points out is the part Pal is trying to find.

Palamedes considers this. Palamedes Ianthe questions. Okay. He turns upstage as the curtain begins to rise. Voice I believe in you. Palamedes (Over his shoulder) You didn't always. I had to fight for that.

Scene Four

The curtain rises on the stage, reset, with Ianthe on her chaise once more. The order of the coffins is now changed to 7-2-3-4-5-6-1.(29) Ianthe asks if Pal is feeling better, Pal says he doesn't feel much of anything, being dead, but he has his next question.

Ianthe Oh, Lord. Something juicy about pneumatic apocope,(30) I expect. I feel like I'm playing strip poker with Harrow; shyly unbuttoning her baggy black robe to reveal a baggier, blacker robe(31) underneath . . . (Pause) Yuck. I hope that hasn't awakened anything in me.(32)

Instead, Pal asks if Ianthe regrets murdering Babs. All seven attendants strike the lids of their respective coffins, once, together, then pick up coffins 2-3 and 5-6 and form waist-high barriers on either side of the stage by stacking them. Pal stands behind the one on the left, Ianthe behind the right, facing center stage.(33)

Ianthe gets a little up in arms over calling it murder. Pal says if she has another word for killing "intentionally and with malice aforethought," he'd be glad to switch. Ianthe says there was no malice involved.

Palamedes slams both hands down flat on the lid of the upper coffin, then thrusts his arm out to point an accusing finger at Ianthe.(34)

Pal accuses Ianthe of avoiding the question.

Ianthe is somewhat taken aback. So, after a second, is Palamedes.(35)

Ianthe asks why Pal did that, but Pal doesn't know. Still, he gets back on topic, and asks if Ianthe really denies she murdered Babs. No, it's a fair enough accusation,(36) but society is really to blame.(37) The cavalier's whole purpose is to die for the necromancer, though Cam's got "an element of horse/stable door confusion".(38)

Pal counters that the cav's role is to protect their necromancer, so what did Tern die to protect, Ianthe's ambitions? Ianthe says she is the sum of her ambitions, and that's why she and "Harry" are Lyctors, and Pal is "a little bag of bones."(39) Pal suggests Ianthe must be a real catch for salespeople, because she never stops to look at the price tag. If she came into his shop, he'd triple the cost of everything, and Ianthe would be too careless to notice the label swap. Ianthe retorts that if Pal came into her shop, she'd have security throw him out when he tried to haggle.

Ianthe states outright: the cost is the cost, and if blood must be shed, you demean yourself by arguing over how much. Pal asks if that's her answer, then, that Tern had to die, so she regrets nothing? Ianthe pivots and says she was very fond of him, and she thinks he was fond of her.

Pal is surprised, and Ianthe says Babs had some good points. He was always a good source of drama, for example. His tragedy was that he looked like he should be very interesting, but he never was. He was loyal, though it was to Coronabeth. He was sworn to serve before Ianthe and Corona were even conceived,(40) but he never shirked his obligation to it. Not like Harrow's original cav, who couldn't come to Canaan House because he was too sad. Pal says he heard it was because he got blown up, and Ianthe says yes, blown up for being too sad. And look at Abigail Pent, bringing her husband, and where did she get?(41)

Pal is flabbergasted. He says, so Ianthe was raised with Babs, since before Pal even knew Cam, and she still doesn't regret killing him? Ianthe pauses, then says no, and claps her hands.

Ianthe (Brightly) That's all, folks!(42) Back after the break.

Pal wanders downstage, distracted, as the curtains descend behind him.

Palamedes Do you know the worst part? Voice Tell me. Palamedes From her point of view, it all makes sense. Tern was shaped over years to be nothing more than--than-- Voice A perfect tool? Palamedes --a resource.(43) Something to be saved up and then spent at just the right moment. [...] Voice (Reproachfully) Cam would have smiled at "perfect tool." Palamedes Yes--she would have.(44)

A long paragraph is spent describing Pal pulling out, lighting, and smoking a cigarette. The voice draws attention to it, which makes Pal stare, with no described emotion or expression, at the cigarette between his fingers.

The voice brings him back, asking if he has any ideas for his last two questions. Still distracted, he says he thinks he does. The voice warns, he needs to use these wisely. If he doesn't turn up something, he'll lose. At this, Pal comes back to himself, drops and stomps on the cigarette, wipes his hand on his jacket. He wishes he had more time to think. As he turns away, the voice says he "used to say that a lot."

Scene Five

The stage is back to neutral, but the coffins in order 3-2-7-4-1-6-5. Ianthe asks Pal if he's had any insight. Pal asks what Ianthe made of Gideon Nav, at Canaan House. Ianthe asks why the curveball, and Pal says he had a question to spare, and was curious. Ianthe is reluctantly kind of proud of Pal's sudden trash talk.

The attendants take coffins 3, 2, 7, and 4, making a rectangle of them on the stage, a dueling ring. Attendants bring two rapiers, offering the more ornate to Ianthe, who accepts, and the less ornate to Pal, who refuses politely. The attendant is confused but takes up a dueling stance with Ianthe in the ring.

Ianthe asks where she should begin on "sweet Gubbins."(45) Pal asks for first impressions. Ianthe and the attendant duel, the latter poorly. Another attendant takes the place. Ianthe says she was intrigued, because everyone else was exactly on script for their Houses. Harry playing her part to the hilt, but Gideon dawdling behind her? Not the Ninth brand.

Palamedes "Harry"? Ianthe It's my little name for her, you know. Palamedes I can't think of a single thing she'd hate more. Ianthe You lack imagination.

Another duel with an attendant, another win to Ianthe. Pal asks what was off. Ianthe says, well, everything! The sunglasses, the vow of silence she only barely kept, the way she handled her sword. She accuses Gideon of wandering around "like she was the protagonist and we were all there to give her something to look at."(46)

Another duel, another win. Pal asks when Ianthe knew she'd underestimated Gideon. Ianthe says she estimated Gideon Nav exactly right from the first moment she laid eyes on her: a hilarious moron. Pal suggests Gideon "was smarter than even she realised."(47) Ianthe is dismissive: Gideon lived and died a dope.

Another duel, another win. Ianthe says that's all Pal will get out of her on this one. Pal says it was "tremendously helpful" actually, and thanks her. Ianthe looks suspicious, but Pal is already walking downstage, his hands in his pockets, the curtain already falling.

Voice Poor Gideon. I think she sounded fun. Palamedes Mm. You'd have liked her, I suspect. I did, once I stopped being jealous.(48) Voice Can you do this with one more question?

Pal stares at the audience for a moment, and says he thinks so, though he'd have liked less... the voice supplies, psychology, and he agrees. The voice, addressing Pal as "my child", says "there's no shame in a bluff."

Pal, on the subject of shame, says he does feel ashamed of rooting around in a dead man's body like this. He didn't like Tern, but the man deserved better than this fate.

Voice "Use every man after his desert, and who should 'scape whipping?"(49) Palamedes (Surprised) I like that. Is it from something? Voice Yes. It's complicated.

Pal asks if she still thinks of him as a child. Her problem was always reminding herself that he was one, as she told him often. He apologizes for not saving or avenging her or Pro. She says she couldn't save Pal either, and Cytherea was so fast, Pro couldn't even touch her. And, at least "we both"(50) were killed by the same person. Pal isn't comforted. The voice says it'll work out "in the wash."

Pal says he wants to believe, so much, that she is who she says she is, but she can't possibly be here. He asks how she did it. She says she gambled on the truth,(51) then died.

Palamedes You died . . . again? Voice Truly, wonderful news for my haters.(52)

Pal asks if he can know what happened. The voice says yes, but she's not allowed to tell. It was awful, "in the old sense of the word."(53) Pal asks if she can give him something. She describes a letter Pal wrote that delighted her.

It convinces him, and he tells her, though she says he doesn't have to, that he loved her, still loves her, and would have loved to learn to love her better. She says it would have been beautiful, and "Camilla would have had to cook."(54) But she didn't just want beautiful, she wanted it to last, and knew it could never. She didn't want to steal Pal's youth and potential for love away from him.

Palamedes This again? From you and her both?(55) That merely by loving you, I added to your torments? Voice (Encouragingly) Yes, and also my agonies. Palamedes Dulcinea . . .

Dulcinea, finally named by the structure, says that Pal and Cam were her best friends, and she "loved real, ugly, unfinished things." There's a freedom in being incomplete. Now she's not in the River, and will never be again.(56) Pal says if she's on the shore, he can find her. She asks which shore. Pal asks her pardon. Dulcinea says a river has two shores(57) and he might find that out for himself if it ends well.(58)

Pal asks to see her. She asks if he's sure. He is.

Blackout on the stage. Then a light on Palamedes--a Palamedes who is completely dazzled, and staring blankly outward, at nothing in particular.

Pal recites a Bible verse(59), then the lights black out again, then return to normal. Behind him, the curtain starts to rise.

Dulcinea Was I cute? Palamedes turns and moves upstage. Palamedes You're perfect.(60)

Scene Six

The stage is back to neutral, the coffins replaced but reversed, leaving the order 4-7-2-3-1-6-5.

Ianthe says the tension is killing her, or really, killing Hect. Pal says he has a question left. Ianthe says it better be a whopper, because right now she estimates he has nothing upon which to base an answer. Pal asks if she's ready, and Ianthe makes fun of him for it.

Pal asks, if Babs had died at Canaan House, before completing the Eightfold Word, would Ianthe have eaten Corona instead?

The attendants all hit their coffin lids together, once, then pick up the last three coffins and set them in the middle of the stage, like two benches and a table. Pal sits on the left hand one, Ianthe on the right, where she gets a pack of cards from an attendant and starts shuffling slowly. Throughout the scene, they play and pick up cards.(61)

Ianthe says it would be "rather peculiar" to eat Corona, seeing as she's not a cavalier. Pal doesn't understand why. Ianthe explains that the cavalier's spirit is not just a power source, it's the Lyctor's body's defence system when their consciousness is elsewhere. Pal knew that much. Ianthe says her sister is not a swordwoman. She'd have lost to Magnus, not as a cavalier, but as he is now.

Pal says Corona's compatibility as a power source would have been even higher than Tern's, and surely you could train some more sword skill into the cav's spiritual remains. Ianthe says that no, the cavalier is essentially frozen at the moment of death. Pal wonders...

Ianthe Oh, no. We're not going through this again. The soul is a diamond, Sextus. You can leave it in a glass of wine for as long as you like, it's never going to soak anything up. Palamedes (Mildly) I thought you objected to analogies.(62)

Ianthe says the point is that she wouldn't have used Corona to finish the job. So, Pal asks what else she would have done, perhaps using someone else's cav. Ianthe says that would be terribly inefficient. Pal says, better than nothing, and she'd still be a Lyctor. And, Harrow's situation was "unorthodox" but she still has power on a scale her mortal self couldn't have dreamed of. Ianthe admits, alright, she might have used another cav, and starts going through the others available to her.

Pal pulls Ianthe out of that line of thought and back to the subject at hand. Now, he wishes Ianthe to imagine a situation where things at Canaan House went almost as wrong as they could have, Cytherea coming up the steps, and Ianthe and Corona the only survivors, the Eightfold Word on Ianthe's lips. Does she fold or raise?

Ianthe refuses. She says Pal couldn't understand the bond between twins. Pal, for his part, says that won't work on him this time, and demands to know why Ianthe's answer. Ianthe says nothing.

Pal continues that Ianthe has stated that the goal is always worth the cost, so either that was bravado, and there are costs Ianthe won't pay, or Corona is part of her goal. Will Ianthe tell him which it is?

Ianthe plays her last card. Softly, she says Pal can believe what he will, but she's won: he has no idea which coffin Babs's body is in. She stands, and an attendant clears the cards. Pal says she hasn't answered the question, but she insists she has: no, she wouldn't have killed Corona, and she doesn't have to justify that answer.

Pal stands, and the attendants put all the coffins back, again in reverse order, leaving 4-7-2-3-5-6-1, then all leave the stage, leaving Pal and Ianthe alone. Pal says he has one last question, it's yes-or-no and if Ianthe can answer it, he'll surrender immediately. Ianthe is suspicious, but Pal insists, all he needs is for her to be able to say yes or no. A question about Naberius.

Ianthe accuses Pal of trying to buy time, but Pal says if that were the case, he'd start another argument about how souls work.

Ianthe So, what--if I can't answer this question of yours, am I expected to do the decent thing? Applaud politely and retire? Palamedes Ianthe, I've been in your head for what feels like a week. I would never insult you by expecting you to do anything either decent or polite. Ianthe inclines her head in graceful acceptance of this point.

Pal says she has nothing to lose by answering, and she owes him a question from before.(63) Ianthe says she owes him nothing, but they look at each other, and she gives in, and tells him to ask. Pal's final question is whether Ianthe knows where Babs's body is.

The two move to stand at either end of the row of coffins. Pal starts explaining how the little signs, like the purple tie, started to tip him off, but he assumed it was Ianthe setting the rules. He opens coffin 4, which is empty.

Really, it was the cigarettes that did it. They don't exist on the Sixth, because of the fire hazards. He has never learned how to smoke, but he did it by reflex. Ianthe opens coffin 1, empty again.

Pal continues his exposition, that he wasn't sure until question four. He opens coffin 7, next one in, empty again. He asks how Ianthe knew that Gideon used her rapier like a racquet. Ianthe protests, she saw Gideon fight, but Pal got the full details from Cam, and by the time Ianthe showed up at the end, Gideon had her two-hander back.

Ianthe says she might have watched the duels. Pal says it's not possible, as Gideon only fought two duels, and Ianthe wasn't in the room for them, nor at any other time Gideon might have used her rapier. Ianthe says Babs and Corona both told her about it. Pal says that's unlikely, at least in such detail as about the racquet. It's not even a comparison Ianthe would make.

But it is the one Babs might.

Ianthe opens coffin 6, empty. Pal continues that Ianthe expresses little to no respect for rules, but in her ranting about Gideon, she said Gideon didn't know how to duel as a negative. But, Ianthe Tridentarius would have found that punch at the end of their fight funnier than anyone. He opens coffin 2, empty.

Palamedes You only got one question wrong, Ianthe, and it was the very first question. You can't admit what's happened here because you're fixated on this idea of the soul as inviolate and inviolable--this perfectly solid, impervious thing, the diamond sitting in the glass of wine. But souls are permeable. When they rub up against each other, they bleed--they mingle--they contaminate each other. Just from the handful of real-life seconds I've spent wrestling you for Naberius's body, I've picked up the knowledge of how to light a cigarette and a disturbing new enjoyment of trash talk. Ianthe opens the lid of coffin number 5. It's empty. She and Palamedes are now facing each other from a few feet apart, standing on either side of the last remaining closed coffin, number 3.

Pal says it's messier than he expected. He's started remembering things he never saw, from Cam's point of view, just from spending a few months in her body. Lyctorhood isn't swapping out a battery, it's a transplant. When she took Babs into herself, she ate a piece of meat, and that meat is digesting and its component parts mixing in with hers, to become indistinguishable. He knocks on the lid of coffin 3, and says if he's wrong, if Babs's body is inside, Pal will end his career "with a truly spectacular cock-up" and death will be welcome. If it isn't, then it's nowhere.

Palamedes turns downstage and starts to walk away from the coffins. Ianthe remains staring at coffin number 3. Palamedes There's no body left to find, Ianthe. Or, as I gather they call you now . . . Ianthe Naberius.(64) Palamedes keeps walking, away from the stage toward the back of the auditorium. Ianthe stands like a statue next to coffin number 3. She reaches out and places one hand against its closed lid as the curtain falls.

=====

(1) Our first hint at the occupant, really. Violet eyes, gold arm, and the gaudiness (affectionate) of the Third House in general. (2) Who are the mourners? The robed figures? For that matter, who are the audience? We have Ianthe, we have Palamedes, we have Dulcie in the audience from kind of across the River. Does that imply something about the audience versus the mourners as representing different things? Are they all just figments of Ianthe's imagination, background characters of her life, or is this something more? (Knowing what we do, probably both.) (3) What did you assume it is? I don't think the bloody kisses actually answer the question very satisfactorily, because, from whence cometh the blood? I do love the symbolism of the meat platter though, because that's all Babs ever was, and Ianthe is still eating him up. (4) Pal passing on Babs's meat is perfection, to me. He does consider it, maybe because of the desire not to stand out, maybe because of permeability starting to influence, maybe just because he's not yet aware of what it means. But he decides against it, because he's the last one there, because unconsciously he knows it's not his impulse to eat, because he recognizes on some level that Ianthe's meat platter is and has only ever been Babs. (5) Funny how much this stands out on immediate reread, eh? (6) The lady of the house, the master of the house, just another play on the gender fluidity that's easy for the eye to slip past. (7) I can't help but feel that this is related to Harrow's scene with Cam in HTN. See, Pal's soul was anchored to part of his skull. But if you recall, Harrow was spinning it out into a skeleton, starting with a hand. And I can't pinpoint right now, but I think I recall someone in the fandom wondering if the powder that caused Paul's transformation in the end derived from Pal's bones, even though he was at that point anchored fully to Cam. But, either way, the hand feels meaningful here. Hands so often are in this series.

(8) So, one reason I gesture at this is because the purple accents continue throughout, and it's impossible to ignore them with the Tridentarius natural eye colour being the most obvious parallel. The second reason is because Pal isn't the only one who picks up pieces of his companion in this sequence: Pal specifically said he finds the outfits nurses wear sexy, but those are so close to the stereotypical maid outfits as to justify a little eyebrow raising at Ianthe picking up a piece of Pal, I think. The final reason I gesture at the feather duster is because it's described as "enormous" specifically in the text. How big do you think it is? How big do you think you could make a prop for this performance? Grab a few purple feather boas at the Spirit Hallowe'en or something this autumn, fold them in half, tie them at the fold point to a sturdy stick. Just, you know, in case anyone's thinking about a cosplay, since this will be the defining feature. (9) I'd love to see a deeper examination from someone with theater experience as to what the stage directions might indicate, the comings and goings from each wall. (10) Why is it almonds? Is this a reference to a piece of media, a name of a nut as one or both go "nuts", or something else? I saw a compelling argument that it's related to the amygdala, two almond-shaped lobes in the brain that relate to memory, decision making, and emotion processing. (11) A note: not a lot of Americans in particular ever hear the original pronunciation of this word, so for the wise, it's "shayz", not "chase" or any of the other ways I've heard it. "Long" isn't quite the same as the French "longue" (it's got a sort of w in there, lowng, with the g a little more present) but it's close enough. It's "chaise" that really got the short end of loanwording. (I'm not saying anyone has to change how they do it, language is defined by use, not by origin, but a "chaise longue" comes from literally being a long chair in French, and if anyone DOES want to honour the original pronunciation over where it's gone, I want to help them.)

(12) I have no idea what this is referencing, but I feel sure that it is evoking something. An outfit of Augustine's that I can't find referenced in the text? Generally the male leads on historical romance novels, to play again with gender presentation? Some other specific thing? (13) Louche - indecent, disreputable. Think a neighbourhood of dive bars. (14) Flipping the script, keeping Pal off his guard as much as she can by jumping around a story and reassign the roles and the lines. (15) We know he actually probably was fun at parties, because according to the Cohort Intelligence Files, Judith met him at one once, and thought he wasn't serious enough about his role and title. Which, given that Judith has had a stick up her ass her entire life about duty (again, affectionate) I think we can take to mean that he was genuinely trying to be personable and fun at the party. (16) Dulcie is literally and figuratively separated from the stage, just as her spirit is now, apparently, if she's to be trusted, across the River. Does that mean beyond the stoma, or is there a more literal-figurative other bank? Is it that distance from the situation that gives her this insight, or was she always this good at reading people? (I'm asking here now to save myself another footnote later. Conservation of energy.) (17) Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line. This little sequence gives me very third-party Princess Bride vibes, though it's far from exclusive to that title. (18) Dulcinea, you naughty lady, I love this for you.

(19) I'm currently ignoring all symbolism that might be contained in the numerology of the doors because I don't understand it and I haven't seen anyone unravel it. However, I do feel like I'm right on the edge of recognizing what the ivy crown and perfume are supposed to represent. Ivy was often associated with Dionysus, the god of wine, fertility, ecstasy. The indulgence of the perfume and the further pouring of an ambiguous liquid into a goblet hints toward this end of things, but ivy was also a crown for Thalia, the muse of comedy, which would be perhaps even more apropos given the stage play of it all. But also, ivy was known outside Greek influence to be associated with fidelity and marriage, because it's green year-round and cleaves so sweetly and strongly to that upon which it grows. And all of these layers, every single one, comes back to permeability of the soul, and Ianthe's consumption of Babs, despite her skepticism. (20) Piquant - having a sharp or otherwise stimulating flavour. (21) I feel confident that this is what's intended by the tingue toungle bit, the implication that Ianthe might be getting drunk on her false wine, or at least is pretending she might. (22) Pétillance is much as Ianthe describes it, a light sparkle in a drink, or a sense of very mild fresh tingling from a very low carbon dioxide concentration. (23) OK I really haven't seen anyone mention this before but there's a fascinating thing going on with quotation marks as Ianthe replies here. Her direct responses to Pal, that she does not believe in permeability, all the way through to her aside, it's all in extra quotation marks, which Pal's statements don't have. (24) Pal was personally privy to one in the Doctor Sex story, after all. (25) Yes, I counted. Didn't you? It's very gracious of her to let all this stand as the one question for the sake of the narrative. (26) And here, indeed, is where the mysterious scare quotes end.

(27) I bet NONE of us guessed that this line belonged to Dulcinea when Tor did the pre-reveal puzzle. (28) Ah, but Dulcie, they've been slowly becoming Paul all this time. (29) I know I said I'm ignoring all the numerology, but I find it interesting that 7 and 1 are the only swap here, when Pal has just agreed to try to be more Ianthe. (30) This one's tricky. It's not an actual condition. In modern usage pneumatic just means engineering relating to air and air pressure, like pneumatic tires. But likely here it relates to the lungs (like pneumonia). And "apocope"… now that's a real puzzler, because it means the loss of the final sound or vowel in the pronunciation of a word. But, it comes from the Greek term for cutting off, like an amputation. So, I think Ianthe is referring to cutting out of the lungs. (31) I don't have the full context, and search engines are… really, really bad right now, but I do know that "a bigger, blacker dick" is a white response card in Cards Against Humanity, meant to outdo the card "a big black dick", and outdone itself only by the card "the biggest, blackest dick". This game was very popular a decade or so ago, because we were all edgelord jerks. (Yes, I have regrets.) At any rate, I assume they got the reference from somewhere, possibly a Chris Rock comedy routine title? But I can't find anything, er, definitive on the subject. (32) This, on the other hand, I can very much point at definitively. A scene in the TV show Community had the dean of the school hoping that watching a person in a dalmatian costume flex doesn't awaken anything in him. (33) Anyone who suspected the Phoenix Wright reference from this stage direction, job well done.

(34) OBJECTION! Alright, that's not the best video, but I couldn't find a simple one from the games that included both the slap and the pointing. There are compilations of the pointing animations of all the characters who ever object, but not the slap that comes first. (35) I do sort of love that they call attention to it to make sure you understand that it's a reference, but… Look, LOOK, look me in the eye and tell me a little of Jod isn't rubbing off on Ianthe already, that proximity to him isn't melting things across a little, and tell me you don't believe Jod absolutely played those games. Permeability of the soul need not be limited to literal contact with the soul: I think Muir is hinting that every time you let someone into your life, your souls are connecting, exchanging. And, isn't that true in real life? Can you say, for absolute certain, that your friends, your interactions, even your experience on social media, haven't changed you? I'm all about looking at the Watson and the Doyle, and I think this carries the weight of both. (36) What she says is "It's a fair cop, guv'nor." which has proven very difficult to run down as far as a specific reference, with guv'nor on the end, but generally is used to mean "I admit it, you caught me". (37) See, besides being a fairly common excuse given for committing crimes, I think this might be more evidence of Jod's influence. He's really good at blaming his problems on anyone but himself. I feel like I don't know as much about Ianthe, despite spending almost as much time with her. I could believe that she had a habit of it before… but given the whole point of this story, why not read more into it? For funsies. (This also makes the previous line a loose Monty Python reference, a skit of theirs included the line "All right, it's a fair cop, but society's to blame.") (38) Closing the stable door after the horse has already escaped. Ianthe sees the quest for a better Lyctorhood as pointless. If you recall, even she had the good sense to be awed when Paul emerged, but I like the context this gives to that.

(39) As a bonus question, when this scene takes place within the storyline of NtN, do we think that Ianthe still believes that Harrow's body is Harrow returned to the fold? Questions I have to ask myself the more I think about them… (40) Well, and left unsaid is that Corona was the older twin, the rightful heir, and Ianthe's jealousy has probably always been mixed evenly with her superiority because she got the power and Corona didn't. (41) Insert all the exaggerations here, because I'm fascinated at Ianthe's implications, as I see them. Abigail Pent ended up exactly where she wanted to be. Ianthe only seems to see the death, the wasted ambition and potential. She didn't know Pent at all. (42) I'm just glad Muir didn't try to write out Porky Pig's speech impediment to get this one across. (43) We joke a lot about Babs only ever being for consumption, never being a person, just an object. But it's also very much the truth. Ianthe never overestimated his worth to her. She just underestimated what he had done and would do to her. (44) Is this Dulcie hinting that Pal is already subject to his own permeability, even right before the cigarettes? (45) Gubbins - a collection of useless bits and bobs. Ianthe is so mean about Gideon, considering the friendship bracelets. Then again… Kiriona is the saddest girl in all the world, so she probably knows Ianthe doesn't really mean any of it. (46) Which is, of course, true. She was the protagonist of her story. But it's so interesting to see Ianthe, of the clever, quiet, observantness that still managed to miss so much, catch that behaviour. (47) Saw a post about how Pal makes this astonished face with Kiriona starts spouting necromancy facts, and how this line gives it new context. I just. Love. These books. I love Muir's brain. Every line can be looked at under a microscope and then the entire book totally recontextualized by ten words in a bonus story.

(48) Once he realized that Cytherea was not Dulcinea, and he had nothing to be jealous about, really. (49) The line from Hamlet is "Use every man according to his desert and who should 'scape whipping?" The short version of the context is Hamlet chastising Polonius for saying he'll give the guests what they deserve, because if we all only get what we deserve, who gets anything more than corporal punishment? So, where did Dulcinea get this line? Some force across the River? (50) This line is driving me feral. We both? Is that Dulcie and Pro, or Dulcie and Pal? Which we, Muir? (51) I want to believe this is a reference to Fullmetal Alchemist, but I have no supporting evidence for the case, just a suggestion that you go watch Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood or read the manga. (52) Another observation from a post I saw, but, what an incredible way to reframe a lack of success. "I missed the bus. Truly, wonderful news for my haters." It's a silly thing, but I bet if you tried, it would lighten the burden of a lot of everyday "failures" into a much more average sort of vibe. (53) Awful, as in awe-ful, as in filling one with awe. Incredible how THAT one twisted over the centuries, amirite? (54) I think this definitely confirms the part where both Pal and Cam were in some sort of polycule-y thing with Dulcinea. (No, I don't think Cam and Pal are in romance or sex with each other, but I do think that some relationships defy the simplicity of the labels we have access to.) (55) His conversation with Cam, earlier in Nona, that Nona heard on the tape. That Cam would rather carry his soul than live in a world that didn't contain him. They're such a mirror for Harrow and Gideon. (56) Does that mean she's beyond even a Resurrection? (57) I want to start singing that old, old song. Somewhere, beyond the sea, somewhere, waiting for me… It's a river, not a sea, but I must wonder if Muir ever smirked at the thought of it regarding Dulcie and Pal here. But, this recontextualizes a TON. One, Pal not telling Cam before the Paul-ification that he'd spoken to what he truly believed was Dulcie. Two, his saying "beyond the river" in that same final exchange. Three, everything we've ever been told about the River in the narrative... (58) If what ends well? What does "well" entain?

(59) Daniel 10:6, Douay-Rheims translation as Muir is so fond of it: "And his body was like the chrysolite, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as a burning lamp: and his arms, and all downward even to the feet, like in appearance to glittering brass: and the voice of his word like the voice of a multitude." Daniel, speaking of having seen an angel. I got goosebumps when I realized. (60) Cute is insufficient to the moment, Dulcie. And you well know it. (61) Has anyone guessed at what game they're playing? It's not proper poker that I can tell, because you don't play that many cards down in it and they're not betting per se. Also, they play more cards than they're described being dealt or picking up. (62) Pal confirming his suspicions as we race to the end. (63) One assumes, her playing unfair up front and interpreting his first clarification as a question. (64) It was never just about her use of Babs as a puppet, adding his name to clarify to the readers of Nona that it wasn't Ianthe's body on the page, it was her somehow retrieved cav. It was always for this. She was always Naberius. Fuck.

#the locked tomb #tlt #nona the ninth #ntn #nona the ninth spoilers #ntn spoilers #the unwanted guest #ianthe tridentarius #palamedes sextus #dulcinea septimus

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seventeenlovesthree · 9 months ago

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I really enjoy these posts. Something I had commented makes me wonder if you could go into more detail about.

And that is how Takeru and Yamato have inverse perspectives when it comes to sovialdynamics.

Takeru notices things about individuals from a personal perspective, however Yamato notices things about others from a group perspective.

Just wondering if you could go into that some more.

Taichi and Hikari also have a similar but different dynamic. I just think these dynamics between the sibling pairs is awesome and it’s amazing to contrast them!

Mhhh, that is definitely an angle I have never thought about before. Whereas I believe that I have the dynamics of the Yagami siblings pretty much figured out for the most part, the Takaishida brothers are a completely different beast.

But what you said there really got me thinking - it makes sense that they've got different perception styles, based on how their priority systems are functioning.

Throughout the course of Adventure - keep in mind that they're pretty much both still children here -, their main focuses are very different:

Yamato's main objective is to take care of Takeru, so the majority of his actions, decisions and even his aggravations revolve around this perspective. While he obviously still interacts with most of the other characters, his bonds are not as elaborated on - he even realizes that he doesn't fully understand what "friendship" means by himself. And I maintain that this is BECAUSE he is hyperfocusing on protecting Takeru at all costs, mending their bond, being there and being needed by him. If he gets mad at Taichi and his decisions, you can assume it's because he is worried that they may affect Takeru negatively. The same applies when he gets mad at Jyou, at Sora, the pattern continues. He IS observant of his surroundings, but more as an outside observer who has to keep everything - and thus, the whole group - in mind to keep his brother safe. He may also project his own perceptions onto the group, which is why he shouts at Taichi to be more considerate and leave everyone time to mourn.

Takeru's main objective on the other hand is not to be perceived as a burden. He is painfully aware that he is the youngest member of the group, "a kid and a crybaby", he already deals with abandonment issues that are only fueled further by the events taking place... It's pretty obvious that he adores his new found family and wants to be part of it at all costs, he wants to be equal, not to be underestimated. That's why he seeks to be close to those who validate him - such as Taichi or Sora, who don't belittle him and his emotions, but encourage and even give him tasks of higher responsibility, such as protecting Hikari. And since he hates to see the group drift apart, he will go out of his way to keep the team together - like I pointed out, he knew exactly how to cheer Sora up and validate her in return!

Analyzing their behavioural patterns in 02 and onwards is a little bit more difficult. 02 in particular is turning their characterizations on the head a little; Takeru is more prone to "generalization", he still watches and observes the behaviour of people around him and adapts accordingly (like playing the troll towards Daisuke or the protective shield towards Hikari - whom he also hyperfocuses on btw.), but he tends to think very black and white when it comes to the power of darkness. And considering his past experiences, that makes perfect sense, because darkness threatens his found family and he can't let that happen. Yamato on the other hand, ever since his own dark cave moment in Adventure, is a lot softer in 02 and approaches people a bit more personally (like when he drags Taichi out of his self-doubts, talks to Iori about Takeru's trauma or explains to Koushirou's mother why her son is worried about her).

Tri isn't exactly making Yamato anti-social again, but puts more emphasis on him getting angry and shouty once more; sure, he had those moments in 02 too, but this time, his hyperfocus does not revolve around Takeru, but Taichi. I still believe that he has moments where he is observant towards others (like whenever he is protecting Meiko), but the majority of his actions, group-related or not, have Taichi, his state of mind and behaviour, at the back of his head. He investigates things on his own and offers to abandon Omegamon because he feels Taichi is not ready for the burden, he takes over the role of the leader for Taichi's sake, etc. (A similar situation happens in the stageplay, even though the main focal point here is Gabumon.)

Takeru feels a little more like an extension of his Adventure self here, he is still dealing with self-esteem issues (hence why he and Meiko keep apologizing to each other whenever they talk), his biggest fear is to see the found family or even just single members (Digimon included) disappear and so, paying attention to them individually is crucial (like validating Sora, taking care of Koushirou, teasing Yamato, etc.).

In Kizuna onwards, Yamato has a hard time staying in touch with the majority of the group aside from Chosen Children duty, but he is still resourceful and goes investigating on his own, knowing that the 02 group may be capable of providing vital information. Takeru on the other hand is fully engulfed in focusing on his writing career, so him being observant has not only manifested as a part of his personality, but it's a thing he enjoys for the sake of his future profession as well.

Tl;dr: I personally feel like Yamato is a lot more goal- and less people-oriented, which may sound contradictory, because his goals DO revolve around certain individuals he hyperfocuses on. He tries to be empathetic, but not for the sake of the individuals, but for the sake of THAT one individual. (I hope I could put that into words well, maybe I need to sleep over it once again, it's just really difficult to convey what I mean.) Takeru on the other hand is more people-oriented due to his abandonment issues, which is why he may be paying closer attention to how and why people act in certain ways.

#my two cents #meta #personal #answered #dgmn #yamato ishida #takeru takaishi #analysis

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hell-drabbles · 1 year ago

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Just read the eldritch reader and non Solomon reader post

I love both ideas!

I've been meaning to ask

Does Ra-on exist in Eldritch au?

If not/if so

How would/how does it affect the eldritch au

How would/How does Ra-on's existence impact the eldritch au and how would/does Solomon feel about his descendant

Also I enjoy the idea of a reader that got dragged into hell with Ra-on and has to be the one that beats non-horny common sense into their brain

I've been working on a little thing myself

One of the comics in WHB implies there are/were multiple descendants of Solomon and the angels there hunting them all done

So I currently have a version of Whb reader/oc that's another descendent of Solomon and was dragged into hell by like Asmodeus or Belphegor and due to circumstances the rest of the kings/hell hasn't met them yet

Their like a parody of Ra-on I guess or just the complete opposite of Ra-on

Made them a exorcist and wears priest robes even though they don't care for religion all that much

They don't engage with sexual stuff with the demons all that much and even if they do it's very rare and they won't let the demons do what they want to them

They decide what they themself what the demons to do

Overall their not too serious

Kinda really chill humour not giving a crap about stuff but also sobers up enough to be serious in situations

Still fleshing them out

-Dante Anon

Hmm let's see, initially I was going to have it where Ra-on does exist at all, but since I wanted the Eldritch to actually be known to the angels, I have it where, when the angels initially rounded up their armies to go on a killing spree for all the descendants and the friends close to them, all those angels suspiciously went missing without a trace.

Well, they all returned. As one fused mass of feathers, limbs, and faces.

Simply put, Solomon's bloodline became pretty much a taboo subject in Heaven because of that. But, Gabriel being Gabriel, decided to test out the waters since it's been years since this happened and went after the weakest descendant, one that nobody would really miss. A truly useless existence.

So, Ra-on does exist but the family is still alive. And Ra-on is still pretty much a slob and gets kicked out of the house on multiple occasions so that they're forced to do something that's not watching porn at home all day. Of course, Ra-on just goes over to Minhyeok's house to watch porn there instead.

So, Gabriel shows up, looks around for this being that caused that twisted mass but cannot find them no matter how far he traveled. So, while he's disappointed that his first hunt had to be done this carefully, he figured he may as well have some entertainment in the years of hiding they've all been doing.

And so he marks Ra-on with his blood and basically threatens them to run. Really, nothing more than a warmup toy. Though before Gabriel can call forth the others, Eldritch pops out of Hell and snatches Ra-on up. Hence kick-starting the whole invasion of Hell because their scent was more familiar than anything. And the Eldritch Inheritor is more than welcoming this challenge. It's all so fun for them. That and this will keep the angels eyes away from the humans on earth.

Oh, and because of Solomon's unusual "death" so to speak, Ra-on does not have any sort of magical perk from being a part of his bloodline. Ra-on just have the looks and that's about it. Nothing really remarkable about them and this causes Ra-on stay in Hell to be... kind of painful, in a way.

And by that I mean Ra-on not getting railed like he wants. The devils aren't really as eager to fuck Ra-on, if at all, beyond just liking sex in general. It's a necessity so they're just having fun with it and that's about it. Ra-on wants the sex but also wants an emotional connection. Basically those one-night stands that clearly shouldn't be doing one-night stands because they want a romantic relationship alongside it.

Solomon is right there, inside the Eldritch's body and can come out anytime he pleases! Why would they look at Ra-on?

So yeah, in this au, Ra-on will have to deal with a lot of loneliness and general feelings of isolation, and that nasty, naaaasty jealousy. Ra-on finally has an exciting change to his stagnant life, but then Ra-on's put right back into this life of unable to make connections, keep anyone close for long, and is just made to feel aware of how socially stunted they really are.

Solomon, in this AU, doesn't really the strongest of feelings towards Ra-on, just saddened that they have to go through this because of him. Will probably ask his dearest Eldritch not to scare Ra-on too much, but does know he's powerless to stop them from intentionally drawing out the worst sides out of Ra-on. Solomon may not want to see it, but he also knows that the Eldritch finds beauty in this flawed side of humanity.

Truly, Solomon's faith towards the Eldritch Reader is unwavering.

#admin #eldritch inheritor au #dante.anon

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blackjackkent · 10 months ago

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Hi hi! For the OC ask meme - you pick who you're jonesing to write for! <3

🍒: Has Your OC had their first kiss yet? If so, with who?

🍆: Does your OC have any favourite form of affection, physical or otherwise?

🌽: How does this OC feel about acts of affection? What's their favourite act of affection, physical or emotional?

🍰: What's something your OC counts as unforgivable?

🍩: What's a crime your OC is most likely to commit? What's a crime they're most likely to get arrested for?

Oooh, lotsa prompts. :D Thank you!

(Odd OC Asks)

I'm gonna stick with Hector again bc as I said, he's on my mind tonight. XD (Rakha is too - looking forward to getting her liveblog back up and running - but she's still in Act 1 and I don't have strong answers for some of these questions just yet because she's still figuring herself out. :P )

🍒: Has Your OC had their first kiss yet? If so, with who?

Indeed! I don't actually think it was Karlach, either, though she is his first relationship/sex. I think I established at one point that Hector had a brief flirtation with a girl in the village near the monastery when he was in his late teens; it didn't get tremendously far but they definitely had a few secret rendezvous to make out.

However - his order isn't celibate but it was sort of frowned upon to get caught up in that kind of thing and so the whole thing got stomped out by the then-Abbot and after that Hector buried himself in his studies and didn't really come out again until the Nautiloid caught him.

🍆: Does your OC have any favourite form of affection, physical or otherwise?

This kind of relates to the above - Hector has been pretty touch-starved his whole life and also knows that Karlach ALSO has, so their relationship is VERY touch-heavy and he's sort of fascinated by it, by just being able to reach out and feel her near him any time he likes and get that same gesture in return. Any time he's near her and his hands aren't otherwise occupied he almost always has a hand on her arm or around her waist or shoulders, and she is the same way; it's not really even a deliberate thing on either of their parts, just instinctive, automatic.

With friends, he's less touchy-feely (although he got more so over time - there were a lot of hugs during the epilogue party), and I think his biggest gesture of affection comes around discussing each others' interests. He's always very actively interested in the things that are important to his friends (looking back, he absolutely first started to fall for Karlach when she infodumped about demons at him :P ), and super excited when someone (often Gale and Shadowheart) bring up something he's interested in and let him ramble in return.

🌽: How does this OC feel about acts of affection? What's their favourite act of affection, physical or emotional?

Oops. I guess the above answer was supposed to be just about receiving affection, and this one is about giving affection? I sort of answered both at once, lol.

🍰: What's something your OC counts as unforgivable?

My initial instinct was to say blasphemy but that's actually super untrue; he got close to Shadowheart even before she gave up on Shar, he was ready to throw hands with Mystra for Gale, etc. So his relationship with religion got very complicated very fast as soon as he left the monastery actually, which is interesting to think about.

Looking at the moments where Hector got the most angry/upset during the game, the answer seems more likely to be cruelty or indifference to those in need and unable to defend themselves. His biggest snap moments were 1) his temper tantrum at Shadowheart in the House of Healing, which was really at Malus Thorm except he was already dead, 2) Arfur Gregorio and the gunpowder in the refugees' toys, 3) Valeria not giving a shit about the outcome of her investigation, 4) seeing the Steel Watcher killing a little girl through the brains in the Foundry, 5) Wulbren Bongle, nuff said, and 6) the asshole running the dog kennel. (And, of course, everything to do with Gortash, Orin, Cazador, Raphael, Viconia, and Mystra.)

🍩: What's a crime your OC is most likely to commit? What's a crime they're most likely to get arrested for?

Hm. There isn't a TON of criminal activity Hector would be involved in. In a lot of ways he is the guy from that Club Penguin meme ("They can't do that, that's illegal!") - he got, for instance, super incensed about the djinn rigging the carnival game in Rivington. XD

However - he has definitely killed and will kill again, albeit for self-defense and/or civic duty reasons, so y'know there's that.

The real answer here, however, is that by Act 3 he was SUPER willing to steal all the shit from anyone who was a jerk to him/his friends/those in need (see previous question). It was for the most part a very Robin Hood-esque instinct (he didn't really want the money/goods for himself particularly and definitely paid it forward). But yeah the answer here is definitely petty burglary against jerks. :P

#crownedinmarigolds #hector carlisle #thank youuuuu! :D these were fun

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llycaons · 2 years ago

Text

ep21 (p2): a lot of pensive staring in this one

this was a strange scene, and one that still baffles me. many questions:

why do we need to see the wen prisoners this early? we see wq later on her own, and it makes more sense for her to wander for a while alone than get captured and then escape leaving her granny behind. we see the wen prisoners later too, their harassment and their murders and their imprisonment.

what is wwx DOING? the smoke seems to flare up when he's angry about something then he plays and causes an avalanche. we've already seen that his music can do damage! and we see and hear him say later that his powers are connected to his emotional state

next question is whether his cultivation is connected to the yin iron, which is turns out it can be, but this scene has nothing to do with the yin iron either so ??????

it's very odd and if I was a novel reader I'd definitely be annoyed. one of the weaker choices from the drama

also wen qing in full makeup with one smear of dirt artfully applied to her forehead. okay!

and then he's SO DRAMATIC coming in lmao the wind coming in at his back everyone covering his eyes, and he's all cryptic despite lxc's best efforts to figure out what the fuck he's talking about

he says this but he still closes his eyes to inconvenient political situations if questioning them would cause any disruption in his sect or the system. his defense of jgy is out of compassion for a man discriminated against, but it's also out of a personal affection for him. and lxc is uncomfortable with injustuce, but he's an able politician and he doesn't have the intensity of lwj towards his principles, nor wwx's comittment or clearsightedness

oh boy, this scene. is there a more loaded silence in this entire show?

lwj lies so fucking much as a teenager it's hilarious how he got his reputation

jc lmao

this is a weird thing to say. first of all, it's hurtful when wwx clearly cared about lwj a lot, and second of all does he really think lwj was so determined to find wwx just out of wartime camaraderie? it's easy to assume lwj disliked wwx in CR, but surely three months of frantic searching and the threat of torture led jc to realize that maybe lwj cares about wwx on a personal level

...god, maybe not. jc and lwj were really never going to connect, huh. jc takes him at face value and lwj extends no compassion towards him in return

coming from YOU?!

this scene made me laugh. jc like 'get rid of your naughty toys!' and wwx like 'suuuure, yeah I'll DEFINITELY do that'

their dynamic here is pretty fun ngl

ah! the depression setting back in. his eyes look so empty...some of it misery over the general situation, losing lwj etc. but also. the trauma

oh I love this scene. the restraint behind not knocking. ah! my heart is a-flutter

walking away in the middle of a conversation bc he's mad ♥♥♥♥♥ truly he and wwx were made for each other they love leaving situations

I love this expression of his. truly does look on the verge of tears and MAD about it. a really important thing about lwj as a character is that he is so so seething with emotional at any given moment and he can't verbalize it so he expresses it physically. or artistically.

here, he's attacking wwx as all his pent-up anger and frustration and hurt erupt and it's a language that wwx knows how to speak too and responds to. I don't know how they would have started talking again if it wasn't through this fight. going up to him and saying 'hey can we talk?' would only have resulted in more deflection, lies, and manipulation. but they're honest when they fight like this

and this shot. whew

personal highlights:

jyl was incredible in this episode! I know most ppl's favorite scene for her is dressing down jzx, but I like to appreciate her more everyday acts of love and guidance as well

wwx referring to himself as 'no longer a child' fucking ruined me

lxc explaining the fact that nuance exists in a really kind and nonjudgemental way

that tense meeting of the two sets of brothers

jc and wwx conversation where jc expresses concern like a normal person and then does an epic eye roll

lwj and wwx both lying point blank to their families

lwj being SO reserved at the door makes me feel like a victorian maiden

the abrupt attack was really fun too. FIGHT!!!

#cql re-rewatch #literally almost everything wwx says in this ep is a bold-faced lie

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riot-in-bloom · 2 years ago

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you know what? the day is today. here goes (spoilers for the entirety of r/b below the cut, it's also going to be pretty long.):

for this au, the theme stays being about bonds. except, instead of the siblings show, it's the... siblings and best friend show. most the characters stay the same, but characters affected are isami ↔ asahi and saki ↔ katsumi.

minato asahi and mitsurugi saki. two seemingly normal teenage girls who happen to be childhood best friends. asahi is into happiness (with a side of nursing) and saki is a bit more reserved (albeit eerily cute upon asahi's request), tech savvy, and also quotes famous people a lot.

mio's still disappeared fifteen years ago, leaving ushio to take care of the kids themselves. saki doesn't live with them, but she's around frequently enough. either way, they both want to make sure ayaka-shi is safe when mio returns, for asahi's sake in saki's case.

and of course, the person consistently left out: minato isami, asahi's older brother. studying cosmoarcheology in university, he's considered the spitting image of his missing mother, in both personality and appearance. to asahi, he's the nerd older brother, but to everyone else, he's alright, sometimes stepping in when ushio's worried and calling it "teenage development".

aizen... is still aizen. he's still trying to be the true hero, an orb fan, setting up misfortune in the city, but more of his time is spent figuring out the history of ayaka-shi, and the ultrawomen's relation to it.

in the second half, there's katsumi, someone who's traveled around the world a lot, and has a knack for baseball and a growing interest in fashion. he eventually takes over aizen, as saki canonically does, but along with his destiny to destroy leugocyte, he's been looking into something he can't help but feel is missing. he also owes his neighbourhood approved personality to the kindness of those around the world who helped him live.

like canon rosso and blu, this rosso and blu are also better with far off and close range attacks, respectively. only difference is that it's somehow more techy (a la ultraman x?) with the far range attacks, instead of baseball.

the age order for the ultra siblings (this case in arms) is also reversed.

while saki is tech savvy, she's not a geology nerd. therefore, a lot of the equipment they use to find out the location of a kaiju is still isami's: often peeping at his laptop or phone while he sleeps in to find out a kaiju's whereabouts.

now, for things that definitely happen:

grigio bone shows up in episode one the exact same way. only issue is, saki thinks this thing looks a little familar, so she goes off to investigate. asahi, ever the person to be by her side, goes with her, runs away with her, and grabs her arm as they're engulfed in the flames, causing them to become the ultrawomen.

saki's a little better at being ultrawoman rosso than asahi is ultrawoman blu, but she still fights like she's holding herself back. this is only noticed by one aizen makoto.

the day mio disappears is a bit different: it's bring your child to work day, and she brings isami along. when all is said and done, isami comes home alone, after hours of being considered missing with his mother.

even if asahi absolutely despises arguments, there's a few arguments between the two, as like in canon episode 2. these are either resolved by themselves, or isami steps in at times, aggressively mentioning that the two girls can do anything when together.

the baseball episode, in this case, is probably some kind of technology competition for saki. she wants to make sure the school team wins, but she has to be ultrawoman, and thus loses. regardless, the coach is still proud of her.

the icarus episode, on the other hand, is a school project involving medicine: more so, studying herbs on the mountain where the wind flows by best, which is how the wind crystal is found.

the aizentech episode's pretty similar: saki's dragged there on asahi's whims. isami comes with, quoting that he needs to be the responsible adult, but is found out pretty quickly for wanting to analyze their inventions.

komanee arc is pretty much the same. asahi's traumatized, asahi can't transform the next episode, even if she's trying to be happy. although, similar to aizen in episode three, komanee could swear isami was older, and definitely not this good at figuring out her patterns.

although, by now the cogs are well in the works: who exactly is this mitsurugi saki, with too much history behind her? and how does she change age so often?

well, the orb dark arc reveals it all: she is ultrawoman rosso, and lost both siblings in arms when the ayaka star fell. this is also how she manages to say "a friend once said," and can actually say they're friends (although this has been previously passed off as a vivid imagination).

despite this, as saki finds out after an episode of trying not to talk to asahi, asahi is willing to be by her side, always, no matter who or what she is. i'm thinking this is revealed by asahi, as blu, saving saki somehow.

naturally, during this crisis saki is having, aizen still goes around acting a true hero and ranking how good asahi and saki are at being ultrawomen. in fact, he even interrupts the asahi and saki day out (canonically the minato day out episode) by becoming horoboros.

isami finds out they're rosso and blu in the exact same way. the only difference is, while asahi canonically sheds tears, he's a bit more angry about it.

as with asahi in canon, isami… is also not in the pictures, no achievements, nothing that proves his existence whatsoever. this causes him to run away from home, although he does come back refreshed after being convinced by saki and asahi.

some of the excuses for everything regarding isami involves perhaps being a camera shy child, being the eldest and being the spitting image of mio (as in mio may have taken his birth certificate).

katsumi strolls into town around the same time with a r/b gyro in hand, thinking aizen may have the key to something he's looking for. unfortunately, aizen's of pretty much no use due to being beat up, so katsumi takes over the company, thinking being ceo might help him, even if he has to blow up the planet in a couple of months.

he also bumps into isami, and hits it off pretty quickly, even making sukiyaki for isami when the latter runs away from home. although, it does taste a bit familiar, and katsumi does feel slightly off if he sees the minatos happily spending time together.

the halloween episode exists entirely because of isami's curiosity of kaiju. he drags katsumi along, because hey, katsumi hasn't been here long.

turns out, everything katsumi's looking for is tied into isami's lack of appearances: it was katsumi that went missing when mio did, although he was never found. meaning, his last name's minato, which he finds out after digging into a little bit of aizentech archives with d.r.l.n., which explains to the cast why he reminds them of ushio just a bit.

katsumi was found further off with no recollection of anything apart from his first name, along with a gyro and a sense of mission/destiny to destroy leugocyte, which he's been preparing for.

of course, since isami's distorted to the world to include his existence, the minatos forgot they had a missing older brother/son, and thought that isami had gone and come back. mio even says that if asahi had been a boy, his name would have been isami.

katsumi gets into an argument with isami as a result: turns out his only friend is supposed to be a version of him of sorts, and took away what could've been his life. the confrontation is teary on isami's behalf, angry on katsumi's, and isami even offers to give up what he has to let katsumi have the family he's always had.

katsumi ends up refusing, even if he's found the answer to what he's looking for, because he doesn't have the time to make the memories he wants to (with leugocyte's arrival being nearby).

they do make up later, though. isami still doesn't want katsumi to die. (insert teary "in another world, maybe i could've been your big brother" quote from katsumi).

saki's way more wary of katsumi than asahi is. they both disapprove of isami believing in him (although asahi is more forgiving), but are all united in caring for and protecting isami if need be.

i'm still not sure if i want katsumi to be alive at the end. it'd be more faithful if he dies and hands his gyro to isami (who'd become ultraman grigio) but it'd also be nice for the family to save the son they couldn't the first time around, and for him to wake up in the hospital. in that case, he goes into fashion design, which pleases his father.

the end is still similar, though, isami disappears, and then reappears for the rest of the family (and saki) to catch him. and mio still doesn't want the girls to transform and save the day, until they do.

the talk at the end that's originally asahi representing everyone's happiness? isami represents everyone's dreams.

at some point, i'm probably going to talk about my r/b au where the two major girls swap with the two major guys. it's... admittedly still a work in progress, but i keep getting hit with ideas for it like a freight train.

#ultra r/b #as i said it's a work in progress and is therefore a bit rough

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boleynns · 2 years ago

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lemme just add on to my insane meta...

...about how the show is framing daemon x rhaenyra, both their romance/dynamic overall and in regards to the 10-year gap and their long-term relationships with other people (original: here)

now that we've seen Episode 6, I claim vindication! we weren't even shown daemon and rhaenyra kiss their partners...like, Rhaenyra barely even spoke to Harwin 😬 it is pretty clear that, as far as the narrative of this show is concerned, those relationships were basically irrelevant to the story they are telling for these characters. (as I book reader, yes it is sad that we didn't get more of them, but I am not a purist, so 🤷‍♀️ I'm on the hype train)

And to return to my Long Meta Format of comparison, the show SO EASILY could have made their respective relationships immediately more intimate/impactful by doing relatively little work.

Rhaenyra and Harwin are obviously comfortable with each other, but they barely spoke or interacted! If the show wanted this to be a great loss for Rhaenyra, or even just wanted to imply more feelings beyond "This hot and caring man was here for me and condoms don't exist yet" it would have been extremely easy to just have Harwin sit down and kiss/hold with Rhaenyra in that scene where they're alone with the baby!

They definitely also could have had Harwin and Rhaenyra have a private farewell, again with any physical/romantic vibes at all. But instead it was more about Harwin saying goodbye to the kids, and Rhaenyra worrying about everyone, including her son, knowing that Harwin is the father. Because of the way they wrote it, it feels much more like Rhaenyra's upset is about losing a comfort than about losing someone she really loves.

On the other side of the Narrow Sea, there were even more opportunities for the show to frame Daemon and Laena's relationship in some kind of romantic light, but again they just don't. In the initial dinner party scene, instead of including a kind of disagreement-tension, even if they disagreed later, still could have had Daemon actually looking at Laena with fondness or had him reach for her hand instead of the other way around. Or just seem interested in her...

In the following scene when Laena confronts him about possibly accepting the offer to settle there, have him actually kiss Laena instead of just her baby bump. Or again, have him look at her with real passion/affection. Or just have him seem interested in her...

And the rooftop!!! This is the most dialogue we get pertaining to Daemon's current state-of-mind, and he is completely closed off to Laena. The way we figure out what his state of mind even is is through Laena's speaking it into existence and through his long broody silences in between. Like, he won't even admit to the idea of missing anything back home to her, even though they both know he just sits on the roof all the time wishing he were home!!! He isn't honest or open with her at all, and even when she says she knows she is not the wife he would have chosen his entire protest is just "Laena..." like. There are about thirty thousand different ways they could have injected some amount of romance into their interactions, but they chose to include ZERO of them 😅

all of Rhaenyra and Daemon's scenes with Harwin and Laena could have been romantic without barely any effore, but instead the show was like "...nah" in both the writing and the acting and the direction.

All to say, they have both have had these long-term relationships that are framed by the narrative as kind of just the result of the circumstances they happened to find themselves in, but ultimately not very moving (in Rhaenyra's case) or explicitly unfulfilling (in Daemon's case).

(a little more on their individual characters and random other thoughts under the cut)

not to mention, just like Episode 3 when Daemon and Rhaenyra weren't on screen together, the writing of their stories continue to parallel each other!

Daemon is lonely and kind of without fire or purpose, sitting on the roof at night drinking and brooding and staring at the stars, basically in self-exile (because in the show he hasn't actually been exiled here) to stop his uncontrollable emotional involvement that happens when he's in Westeros. And also Rhaenyra is having babies with someone else, and that makes him bitter.

Rhaenyra is lonely and stifled at court, gawked at and humiliated all the time and without much real support from anyone, basically in exile - but worse because she is literally in the building, and having to deal with the constant barbs of Alicent, Crispin, and Company. P.S. CRISPIN BETTER WATCH HIS BACK BECAUSE I WILL KILL HIM IF I SEE HIM like when he called Rhaenyra a "spoiled cunt" I literally yelled at my TV i hate him so much and I really want a scene where he is somehow forced to watch Daemon and Rhaenyra get it on just to torture his stupid face even more.

Sorry, back to the point...they are both kind of just staring off into space, all despondent and listless, not fitting in with the life they have ended up in. They are trying to fit into boxes that they don't belong in. And they clearly haven't been able to recreate anything close to the support/emotional-honesty/general-"pushing each other to be better" bond that they had with each other

And then respective partners both die in a fire by the end of the episode. RIP.

On a completely separate bullet point to close things out, I think its interesting that they kind of implied that Daemon actually isn't the best dad so far. Certainly not bad, especially in this world, but they clearly highlighted that he has a favorite child -- and its the child with the dragon. And that the unfavorite child knows this!

And then that scene where his daughters are grieving and he kinda just walks off. Like. Daemon!!! That really is his Signature Move when thinks get too emotionally intense for him isn't it...

I will be super curious to see the whole blended family in the coming episodes and how those details are circled back to once Daemon isn't so 😕 about all of life. He is missing all his edges and drive and fire in this episode, and clearly has been like this for a long time. And what better to relight his fire and his "If you look at my family wrong, I will kill you" trait than being reunited with Rhaenyra, finally sleeping with her, and then almost seeing her get stabbed in the face while she's trying to protect their little pack of children 😂

Needless to say, I want to time travel to next Sunday and see them finally reunite and find their fire again, with each other!!! They are gonna talk a bunch! Probably in Valyrian!!! And caress each others faces! And kiss! And have sex on a beach after a funeral, on an island where their entire families are staying for said-funeral!!! And then Family Mode will activate with all the "Alicent Trying to Stab Rhaenyra (and/or her kid)" drama! AND THEN THEY WILL GET MARRIED, I THINK ALSO ON THE BEACH #theirspot, IN A DRAMATIC-ASS BLOOD SHARING CEREMONY i can't, it is going to be so good, even just typing this paragraph out is making me lose my marbles

#hotd spoilers #hotd #hotd meta #daemon targaryen #rhaenyra targaryen #daemon x rhaenyra #daemyra #going to listen to 'vindicated' by dashboard confessional now

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terry-perry · 2 years ago

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Could you write a single mum/plus sized reader with the moon boys, meeting for the first time and she has low self esteem? I’d very much appreciate it ^^ I love how you write them :3

Steven came to work as he normally did. Keeping a good pace to lower the risk of Donna getting at him for being late again. He really needed to find something to help with his sleepwalking. He's basically become more zombie than human as he mindlessly wanders about to who knows where doing who knows what. The chain wasn't being much help either, it seemed. He still wound up somewhere somehow.

After sharing his usual pleasantries with J.B., he was welcomed by someone else. This was a new change of pace as he looked down to found a young toddler boy seated on the floor in the middle of the museum. Sweet little thing in his own little world as patrons paid him no mind. Steven jogged over to him right away.

"Hey little man! What are you doing on the floor there?"

He was about to pick the kid up until he saw someone approach them. He froze, staring at a distraught woman on the verge of tears coming their way. She was a pretty one, even in such a distressed state. The young boy caught sight of her and held his arms up, his way of asking her to pick him up.

"Gregory! I'm so sorry! Oh my god!"

Right away, she lifted him off the floor and gave him a good snuggle. Something to soothe them both. She was too invested in having her boy back in her arms to notice Steven. He couldn't look away, for some reason. He offered her a sympathetic smile.

"I take it he's yours," he told her.

"Yeah, he's a little explorer. Likes to wander off. Have to keep a close eye on him."

"I can imagine," he turned his attention to the toddler, back in his mother's arms. "Like to give your mother a fright, don't you?"

"Keeps me on my toes," she giggled. She returned Steven's smile as she looked back at him. Making full eye contact with her got his heart beating a bit. She was very pretty. Where was her partner?

"Sure you and your husband do what you can to try to keep this guy out of trouble, huh?"

Smooth, Steven. Smooth.

"No husband," she responded. "Gregory's dad isn't really in the picture."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to imply anything."

Real smooth, Steven.

But she kept on smiling, not seeming affected by what he said.

"No need to apologize. It wasn't anything bad. Expected. It's just us, and that's how we like it."

Steven smiled back then, offering it to both her and her little one who gave him a small wave as he babbled. Friendly little guy.

"Thank you for stopping for him," she said then.

"No problem," he smiled back at her.

Their eyes connected again as they kept smiling. She broke it then.

"Well, bye," she quickly walked away in the opposite direction, much to Steven's disappointment. He didn't want to think he came on too strong or felt it had been too inappropriate to inquire about the kid's dad. At least they're in the museum, so maybe he'll be able to see them again when they leave.

----

Y/N turned her head back to check out the guy she talked to. She's so stupid, she didn't even bother to get his name or tell him hers. It's just as well. No guy that cute would want to bother with a single mom, let alone one like her.

He must've thought she was a train wreck with how she could barely handle her son. Probably also thought she wasn't in the best shape to take care of him. It was one of the reasons Zach left her, after all. She never got her figure back after Gregory was born, and he felt neglected when she placed more focus on their boy.

Well, she didn't need a man like him anyway. But she couldn't help but look back at the other guy. He was at the gift shop now, working the register. She shouldn't try to start anything, but there wouldn't be any harm stopping by before leaving. Gregory might life a Taweret plushie or some chocolate that looked like scarab beetles.

#steven grant x reader #steven grant #x reader #mom!reader #marvel cinematic universe #steven grant x y/n #oneshot #single mom!reader #imagine #mcu #mcu au #request #moonknight #drabble #mcu fanfiction #steven grant fluff #marvel #moon knight

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slasherhaven · 3 years ago

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How would slashers react, when their s/o climbs on them (or hug them very tightly) in the middle of the night, because she has terrible nightmare? I mean in their earlier relationship, when they're not used to snuggling neither sleeping so close to each other yet. Thank you :) btw your writing is amazing, I can read the hc and stories over and over and it always makes my day ♥

The Slashers reacting to their s/o (or future s/o) coming to them for comfort after a nightmare:

Thomas Hewitt

You had been staying with the Hewitt family for a little while now. You had become a member of the family and you had grown closer to Thomas than anyone else. You had been given your own bedroom and that was something you were grateful for.

You and Thomas really had become close and he had really started to relax around you.

You woke up from a nightmare, gasping and breathing heavily, quickly switching a light on.

You were shaken and couldn’t get back to sleep, you even felt uncomfortable just sitting on your own. And there was only one person you could go to.

You wandered out of your bedroom and over to Thomas’ room, knocking on the door. You didn’t want to just barge in on him.

You knocked again and waited when you heard movement from inside the room. It wasn’t long until the door opened, revealing Thomas.

“I’m sorry for waking you up” you apologised but he shook his head, silently assuring you that it was okay. “I had a nightmare and...I don’t want to be alone, I’m kinda freaked out, could I stay with you tonight?”

Thomas would pause for a moment, considering your request, before finally nodding. You looked shaken and a little embarrassed, and he wanted to help you, he just couldn’t turn you away.

He let you in, closing the door behind you. He was a little awkward as you both got onto the bed and got comfortable.

But you noticed that he was just laying on his back, with his mask on.

“You can take the mask off, I promise I won’t look” you assured him.

Thomas was a little reluctant but believed that you wouldn’t lie and figured that the light was off so the room wasn’t well lit. So, he removed the mask, placing it on the bedside table before settling back down.

You kept your promise, making sure not to look at his face, but you still moved closer to him.

“Thanks Tommy” you rested your head on his chest, draping an arm over his waist.

Thomas is a surprised by your actions but pretty much just melts, wrapping an arm around you in the hopes of making you feel safer.

Michael Myers

You and Michael had technically been sharing a bed for a while but for the longest time you never even saw him sleep. Once he became more comfortable with you, you’d catch him sleeping for short periods of time in your bed. And finally the two of you would share the bed at the same time.

Still, sharing a bed didn’t mean you were cuddling at night. The two of you tended to stay to your sides of the bed and he would be gone in the morning since he usually woke up much earlier than you, usually sleeping less that you do.

So, when you woke up from a nightmare, you just wanted to feel safe and comforted but weren’t sure how Michael would respond to that.

When you woke up, you jolted and that woke him up (always on edge and still a relatively light sleeper) but he didn’t react, knowing it was just you.

You thought he was still asleep but he was completely aware of you shifting closer and cautiously tucking yourself under his arm.

He honestly isn’t sure how to react but he doesn’t stop you. He knows it was a nightmare because of how you woke up and you’re not doing any harm, so he allows it...

You slowly settle and relax, resting your head against his chest and draping your arm over his chest.

Michael will be awake until you’ve fallen asleep again, feeling comfortable and safe being so close to him. Then he’ll finally fall back to sleep.

You’ll wake up the next morning to find one of Michael’s arms casually but protectively wrapped around you. He’s not good intimacy but he is protective.

Jason Voorhees

Jason is very sweet and very cautious about making you uncomfortable. He fully lets you sleep on the bed while offering to sleep elsewhere. You had tried to assure him that you really didn’t mind and that it was his bed, if he wasn’t comfortable you would sleep on the couch. But Jason insisted.

So, when you woke up from a nightmare, you were alone and freaked out.

You knew where Jason would be and you knew that just having him around would make you feel better, he always made you feel safe.

So you didn’t think much of it when you climbed out of the bed and searched the cabin for Jason, finding him in the living room, sleeping on the couch. You hated that he felt the need to sleep out here in his own home.

“Jason?” you walked over to stand by his side, the gentle call of his name being enough to wake him.

When he saw you, he sat up in a slightly panic, figuring that something must be wrong and worrying about whether you were okay or not. Especially since you looked a little shaken.

“I, uh, I had a nightmare and I can’t sleep...can you just come and lay with me?” you asked but Jason didn’t response instantly, he just looked at you like he was trying to come up with an answer. “Please?” and that was all it took.

You looked shaken and clearly had been tearing up a little, so he knew that he couldn’t just leave you.

He would nod and stand, following you back to the bedroom.

You got on the bed first, patting the space beside you to encourage him to join you, and he did.

Jason would lay beside you but not purposely touch you, still just thinking he was being respectful.

So you were the one to move closer, happily making yourself comfortable against his chest.

Jason is just a little flustered by finding himself cuddling with you, but he would wrap his arm around you, maybe even stroke your hair to comfort you.

You’ll fall asleep again pretty quick but Jason would be up for a little while, getting used to the feeling of holding you and relaxing. Finally he would fall asleep, and he would sleep well with you in his arms.

Brahms Heelshire

Despite all of Brahms’ wishes, the two of you weren’t sharing a bed on a nightly basis. Cuddling wasn’t completely out of the question, you would hold him when he needed to comfort him but that was where it ended.

But when you woke up from a nightmare, you didn’t want to be alone and you knew that Brahms wouldn’t have a problem with that. So, you didn’t really hesitate before heading for his room.

He didn’t wake up when you entered his room, closing the door behind you.

“Brahms?” you asked, making him stir. “Brahms?” you repeated, moving closer to his bed.

This time he woke up, sitting up when he saw you standing beside his bed.

“Sorry, I uh...I had a bad dream and can’t get back to sleep, do you mind if I just stay with you?” you explained yourself.

It was a little strange, it felt like the roles had been reversed to an extent. Normally you would comfort him and now you were going to him for comfort.

Brahms nodded instantly, moving over to give you enough room to lay down.

You lay down beside him and pulled the sheets over your body. As you lay down, Brahms would look at you questioningly, as if waiting for some sort of reassurance.

With some gentle encouragement from you, he will lay down beside you, happily pulling you into his arms to hold and comfort you. He just wanted to make sure he wasn’t getting ahead of himself, restraining himself for once.

But once he has you in his arms, he’s holding you close and not letting you go, nuzzling his face into your hair.

He’ll whisper some gentle reassurances, telling you that it’s okay and that he’s here for you now.

His hold is comforting and you quickly find yourself relaxing in his embrace and holding him in return.

The two of you are falling asleep again before you know it.

Bo Sinclair

You had been staying in Ambrose for a while now, the truth about the town beginning to feel normal to you. You had been staying with the twins, in a spare bedroom that they had.

When you first arrived in Ambrose you had quite frequent nightmares, understandably. But things had changed, you were more comfortable and even happy in the little town and you had become friends with the brothers, even becoming close to Bo.

It had been a long time since your last nightmare so this one was a surprise and affected you more than you would have expected a nightmare to do. You knew there was no way you could get to sleep, barely even wanting to close your eyes again, feeling paranoid and unsafe even if you knew nothing was different from any other day.

You just didn’t want to be alone, so you had to make a choice. Did you seek out Bo or Vincent? While you knew Vincent was a sweetheart, it was Bo that you had developed a better connection with.

So you climbed out of them and wandered down the hallway until you you came to Bo’s door, taking a breath before letting yourself in.

The room was dark but you could see well enough, including where Bo slept on his bed.

Bo had technically invited you into his bed multiple times but you were pretty sure he had just been trying to get under your skin, and you had always turned him down.

You padded over to his bed, truly not knowing how he would react to you coming to him like this for comfort.

You weren’t sure whether you should wake him up or not, you didn’t need to be mocked for having nightmares.

But he woke up pretty quick when you approached the bed.

“Been dreaming about me?” he teased, a smirk on his face, assuming you had come to his room for very different reason

“Shut up. I had a bad dream” you confessed, face red with embarrassment.

He’s mostly confused but rolls his eyes at you, muttering before going to turn around to sleep.

“Bo?” you got his attention again. “Do you think you could...” of all the people to be asking for comfort, you knew Bo was the most like to scoff and tell you to get out.

He got the idea of what you were trying to ask and sighed.

“Come on then” he mumbled, acting disinterested as he lifted the blanket, inviting you in. You gave him a small smile before climbing onto the bed.

Bo assumed you would keep to yourself but he was wrong, and he was surprised when you shifted closer and wrapped your arms around him.

He could tell that you were still shaken by whatever your dream was and he was too tired to deal with it in any other way, so he just gave up and wrapped his arm around you, letting you cuddle up more against him.

“Not a fucking word about this to anyone” he muttered, to which you nodded, suddenly feeling safe and comfortable enough to fall back to sleep.

Yeah, he’s absolutely going to tease you about this for a while.

Vincent Sinclair

Since you were staying in Ambrose, you needed a place to sleep. Vincent had gone out of his way to tidy up a spare room for you, which you greatly appreciated.

You liked having your space and some privacy, even if you enjoyed spending most of your days with Vincent, finding his presence calming.

When you woke up in a dark room from a terrible nightmare, you felt alone and unsettled. You just knew you couldn’t go back to sleep, images of your nightmare flashing in your mind whenever you closed your eyes.

You didn’t even question it, Vincent calmed you, so you headed for his room.

Even in your shaken state, you respected his boundaries, so you didn’t turn on any lights in his room, so that you wouldn’t be able to make out the features of his face.

You woke him up gently, calming him when he startled slightly.

“I, uh, I had nightmare and I don’t want to be alone. Could I just stay here for the night?”

Vincent’s hair fell over his face, hiding the scarring but leaving the unharmed half of his face slightly visible in the dark room. He paused for a moment, thinking about his answer, but nodded.

You seemed upset and he didn’t like that, he wanted to help.

He lets you climb into bed but turns away from you, so that you wouldn’t see his face. Poor guy thinks it would only scare you more.

You and Vincent had been growing very close so you didn’t think it was too weird to shift closer, wrapping your arm around his waist as you rested your head against his back.

He tensed for a moment before relaxing, feeling comfortable like this.

When you woke up the next morning, you would find yourself in a reversed position. Vincent laying beside you, his chest against your back and his arm around your waist.

Lester Sinclair

Since your stay in Ambrose, you had moved into Lester’s home. Mostly because you and Lester got along so well and Bo thought it would be better if you weren’t in town all the time, especially when ‘visitors’ came by. Lester wasn’t sure how to go about your new living situations, so he gave you the bedroom and insisted on sleeping on the couch. He didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.

But you finally managed to get him to share the bed with you, feeling bad about making him sleep on the couch in his own home. Plus, you weren’t uncomfortable with sharing a bed with him. Still, he made sure to stay on his side of the bed to avoid any awkwardness. He’s just being sweet.

Lester is a pretty deep sleeper, especially since you moved in and there was another person in the house. So, when when you startled awake and sat up, he just slept through it.

You did feel better than you would have if Lester wasn’t there at all but you just felt like you needed a little more comfort and Lester was a good friend.

But you didn’t want to just wrap yourself around him or anything, so you tried to wake him up.

You gently shook him awake while saying his name. He woke up, assuming something was wrong since you were waking him in the middle of the night, and asked what was wrong when he saw the worried look on your face.

“Everything is fine, don’t worry. I just...I had a nightmare, it really freaked me out and I can’t get back to sleep”

Lester would do anything to make you feel better, and he asks what he can do, but you simply ask him if he can just hold you,

Of course, Lester agrees, nodding and shifting more towards the middle of the bed.

You thanked him quietly as you settled in his arms, wrapping your own around his waist as he held you against his chest.

If Lester hadn’t been half asleep, he probably would have been a little more awkward or nervous, but he was tired and happy with the idea of holding you.

Cuddling becomes a very normal thing between you both after that night, both of you simply enjoying it and finding comfort in it.

Bubba Sawyer

During your stay with the Sawyer, you had definitely grown closer to Bubba than anyone else.

So when you woke up, freaked out after a pretty terrible nightmare, you barely even thought about it before heading towards Bubba’s room.

You were going to knock on his door but were a little worried about waking one of his brothers or something and making a much bigger scene than you meant too.

But Bubba wouldn’t mind you letting yourself into his room or waking him up.

Bubba would never turn you away, especially when you just had a nightmare or where upset.

So, he’s invite you in, making sure you were alright.

He tries to be respectful of your space when you’re in his bed, but you just wanted to be close to him and be comforted. So, you cuddled up to him.

Bubba would instantly hold you and cuddle you in return, he’s more than happy to do so.

And he gives great cuddles, you’ll be falling back to sleep in no time, with no thoughts of your nightmare.

If you ever need him again for some comfort, you know where to find him!

Billy Lenz

Befriending Billy to the extent you had took some patience but it was fair to say that he now trusted you with everything he had. And you felt a similar way.

It wouldn’t be the first time you had fallen asleep together. You had fallen asleep on the couch together but also on your bed, cuddled up in blankets while watching a movie.

But it wasn’t a nightly thing, Billy still usually stayed in the attic while you slept in your bed.

This night was just the same as usual, except for the horrible nightmare you had. You woke up in a cold sweat and a gasp, breathing heavy.

You took a moment to calm down but you knew that you wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep, not if you were on your own anyway.

But as you gathered your thoughts and looked beside you, you saw Billy curled up on the other side of the bed. He must have had a bad dream too, or just couldn’t sleep. This also wouldn’t be the first time he had done something like this.

You knew to be cautious, not wanting to startle him, but his presence relaxed you a little.

So, you shifted closer, gently resting your arm around his waist and pressing your forehead to his back.

This caught Billy’s attention, gently waking him up. When he felt you against his back, he turned around, making you pull away slightly.

“Sorry...I had a bad dream” you explained yourself with a light blush of embarrassment.

“Me too” Billy mumbled as he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you closer again and making himself comfortable.

You made yourself comfortable again as well, cuddling into him. You comforted him a lot but he was very capable of comforting you as well.

Asa Emory (The Collector)

Asa isn’t much of a cuddler, so even when you’re laying in his bed after spending the night with him, he’s not really cuddling you. You kind of have to initiate that.

You woke up with a slight jolt, breathing heavy as you sat up, looking around the room to process your surroundings and calm down.

Asa felt you wake up and heard your unsteady breathing, he quickly puts two and two together, assuming you had a nightmare,

He rolled onto his back and looked at you, holding an arm out for you.

You quickly accepted the invitation, moving into his side and laying your head on his chest.

“Bad dream?” he asked lowly, wrapping his arm around your body while closing his eyes again.

You just nodded, nuzzling your face against his chest some more as he tightened his hold on you.

It wasn’t a huge gesture but you did find comfort in it and you always felt safe when he held you, a reminder of what was real and what was only a dream.

Asa could be cold at times but he made you feel safe, and he always came through for you in the end.

Jesse Cromeans (Chromeskull)

Jesse enjoys cuddling more than one might assume, so he is already holding you. An arm around your waist and his chest pressed to your back. He’s not going to have you in his bed and just be ignoring you.

So, when you wake up from the nightmare, you’re instantly soothed just a little bit because of the feeling of being held.

But it wasn’t quite enough.

You turned around, burying your face in Jesse’s chest and wrapping your arms around his waist, bringing yourself closer to him.

Your sudden movement woke Jesse up, and the way you seemingly clung to him made him a little concern.

He tightened his hold on you a little, stroking his hand over your hair and up and down your back.

He holds you securely, making sure you felt safe and protected.

If you wanted to talk about it, he would listen, but you seemed like you just wanted some comfort.

He would hold you and sooth you until he felt you falling back to sleep, then he would fall back to sleep again.

Otis Driftwood

You had been ‘staying’ with the Firefly family for a little while now, spared for reasons still confusing to you. Otis had made it extremely clear that you were welcome in his bed anytime but you had never taken him up, for perfectly understandable reasons.

However, it was undeniable that you and Otis had been getting closer during your time with the family. He’d make you smile and laugh, you’d sit and talk, by his standards he was nice to you, and you were growing more comfortable around him.

He was still a flirt, he still offered you a place in his bed, but you never took him up on the offer. Even if your restraints were slowly weakening...

So, the night you woke up from a terrifying nightmare, you knew where you would be welcome.

You had tried to shake off the feeling and just go back to sleep but you couldn’t, you didn’t even want to be alone at the moment.

And so, you crept out of your room, staying quiet to not wake anyone up, and headed for Otis’ room.

You let yourself in, closing the door behind you, and saw Otis laying on the bed, sprawled out carelessly with a thin blanket lazily draped over his body.

You took a breath, a little nervous to disturb him and being completely sure that he was going to mock you for this, but you walked over to the bed.

“Otis?” he didn’t wake up, leaving you standing beside the bed awkwardly.

You knew he wouldn’t mind you getting into bed with him, so you decided to just got for it. Climbing onto the bed and carefully positioning yourself in the small free space beside him.

You laying beside him seemed to wake him up, though.

He’d squint at you for a moment, processing the fact that you were laying beside him, curled up and facing away from him.

But he isn’t known for being particularly shy, so he’d just turn to face you, wrapping his arm around your waist and pressing his chest to your back.

“Ya could’ve woke me” you could feel him smirking against your neck.

“Just had a bad dream” you mumbled, ready for him to make fun of you.

He was silent for a moment before just sighing. “Alright” was all he said, and he didn’t loosen his hold on you since you didn’t complain about it.

The two of you just lay like that for a moment before you relaxed some more.

Otis wouldn’t make another comment, mostly because he didn’t know what to say. So, he decided to say nothing and just leave you be. He was only half awake anyway so he was already falling asleep again, and so were you, now feeling surprisingly more safe.

This would definitely have an impact on your relationship and sleeping beside him would become a much more regular thing.

Baby Firefly

You had been staying with the Fireflys for a while now and you and Baby had become good friends, she just made you feel better about everything that was going on in the house while you were living there.

Because you were such good friends, you had moved into her room. You had been sleeping in the living room, on the couch, but you felt a little in the way of the rest of the family. So, Baby had offered to let you stay with her.

You had found sleeping at all difficult when you first arrived at the house but now you slept fine, at least until tonight when you were woken up by a dreadful nightmare.

You woke up with a jolt and gasp, glancing around the room as you grounded yourself.

Your sudden movements woke Baby up, squinting at you as she asked what was wrong.

You were just honest with her, telling her it was bad dream.

If Baby likes you, she’s a very affectionate person, so she’s up and comforting you.

She’ll pull you towards her, letting you rest your head on her chest as she strokes your hair, lulling you back to sleep.

After this, cuddling becomes a very regular thing.

Yautja (Predator)

It was the early stages of your relationship, you were definitely together but it was still early.

Still, it wasn’t uncommon for him to stay at your home. Because...why not? You liked spending time together.

You never feel safer than when you’re with him, so when you had a nightmare it only made sense that you wanted to be near him.

So, you climbed out of your bed and left your bedroom to search for him, finding him in the living room.

Of course he is concerned when he sees you awake this late, asking if you’re alright.

“Yeah, just had a nightmare...could you come and stay with me?”

Well, all you had to do was ask!

He doesn’t need much of an excuse to be near you and if you need him, he’s going to be there.

The two of you head back to your bedroom and climb onto your bed.

He’s happy when you move closer to him, he’ll even move you so that you were laying fully on his chest, letting you get comfortable.

And to help sooth you, since you were still a little shaken by the nightmare, of course he starting with those little purrs, which you’re able to feel vibrating through his chest.

It’s incredibly soothing and you feel protected in his embrace, so you fall asleep again pretty quickly.

Well, there’s no way you’ll be spending your nights any differently now.

3K notes · View notes

saltymongoose · 2 years ago

Text

MSG: What if…. Tf2 characters in MadCom universe?? This came in my head suddenly, I'm sorry 😭 - @gr4cefully-bon

Honestly, I really love TF2, the characters are all blorbo material. Having all the Mercs from the game in Madness Combat would definitely be very chaotic though lmao. Typically the people we discuss have some sort of serious disposition (like the Batter or Doomguy) or they're very innocent (Kirby), but the Mercs are almost the opposite of them.

To start off with them as a group, I think they'd be at odds with your grunts most of the time. It's highly likely that they believe they can do jobs faster and more efficiently with their specialization and how they work together - and they're actually correct. It's not surprising, considering how incredibly smart some of their members are and the fact that there are simply more of them in their group. For this reason, the boys see them as being more of a substantial threat in their competition for your favor. However, your main vessels also have their own problems (or lack thereof) with each Merc individually too.

(Rest under the cut because this is a long one. I'm not joking, this is very general but also somehow fic length? 😅)

Starting with Scout, I can definitely see them disliking him for how much of a loudmouth he is, and he would definitely get into arguments with Deimos a lot (because of course they'd start fights with each other, they're too headstrong not to). I also think Scout's tendency to trash-talk your vessels (because he's obviously better than them) would be very grating to Sanford and Doc specifically. Those two are just trying to be cordial most times but it's so annoying to have him constantly badgering them about everything.

Hank, on the other hand, is more offended by how the Bostonian tries to show off around you. Whether Scout does it for romantic reasons or not is up for interpretation (because Ms. Pauling is still someone to consider, even if she's not there), but he still tries to impress you, which puts him at odds with your vessel. Even worse, it's not like Hank can just kill him to get rid of him since his Medic will just bring him back again. (Very ironic, all things considered.)

Scout’s very competitive by nature, so most of his views on your vessels are initially related to how he can prove that he’s better than them. He already has them beat on speed (although Deimos comes close), but he’s sure he can find some way to scheme his way past their ferocity. It’s not hard for him to notice that your grunts do nearly everything for your approval, so a part of him figures that you can be the incidental “judge” over this (another reason why he shows off so much around you). Although, he also makes jokes about how they “suck up” to you, only to realize that they’re completely genuine about going unbelievably far for your affection. It’s kinda weird, but since he also becomes friends with you, he can get it. Sorta.

He likely ends up befriending Sanford further, especially if some of the details about Scout's Ma are revealed. Scout's pretty close with his mother, or at least to the level of being pretty protective over her, and Sanford's the same way with his. I can see Sanford kinda nudging the Mercs to cut it out if they make jabs at Scout about this specifically, which definitely makes the Merc in question see him in a new, better light. It's probably why he'll interrupt the others (Spy) when they try to get real friendly with you as a way to return the favor, which also has the bonus of improving his relations with the other grunts too.

Maybe a few well-times jokes might liken him more to Deimos (he is "the funny one" after all), but he's probably a bit scared of Hank no matter how much time is spent around him; the man's kinda like Pyro but without any of the innocence. Scout enjoys combat, but not to the horrifying level Hank appears to. It makes him uneasy. Doc is fine enough, but his whole meddling with death and mortality reminds him a bit too much of his own Medic. But, you know, a lot more closed off and cold. Like everyone else in his group, he's mostly fine with them at the very least, since you've got a pretty good handle on them in terms of behavior.

The Engineer is probably one of the more tolerable for your grunts, simply because he's pretty polite and hospitable. He's probably one of the Mercs who actually acknowledges that you're all on the same side, so there's no reason to go picking fights. However, he does still flex his technical knowledge a lot of the time, which might tick off Deimos (and Doc) a fair bit. It's still pretty tame, though. Sanford is probably just chill with him, although Hank might try to target his turrets and such just to get a new gun out of it, if possible.

Engineer’s thoughts on them, on the other hand, are very similar to that of his own crew. Hank reminds him of the violence everyone is capable of, Deimos is fairly similar to Scout (even their hats/visors are practically the same), and Sanford reminds him of a mixture of Demoman and the more lowkey members of the Mercs. 2B shares a lot of practical traits with Medic, which is to be expected as well. As a result of these similarities, he finds himself warming up to that rather quickly. Plus, he's used to how rambunctious a group of murderous people can be, so he's able to adapt to whatever they throw at him. (Although it still annoys him when Hank tries to break one of his machines - if you could make him not do that, that'd be great.)

Despite your boys’ initial dislike of him, I could see them becoming friends down the line. Engie is really nice and down to earth, and I think he would understand why the boys weren't exactly happy about his group arriving (in reference to you, of course) which means that he can also lessen whatever tension is there.

Heavy is another one who the guys wouldn't have that big of an issue with since he's just very mellow. His love for combat (and use of his minigun) is something Hank can appreciate, especially since he doesn't really do it for your attention. Deimos and Doc seem to like his rather morbid sense of humor, and Doc finds him likable on an intellectual level. Also, as it turns out, Sanford can whip up some pretty good sandwiches, so that's something for them to "bond" over in addition to everything else. It's to be expected; Heavy is a pretty likable guy.

In Heavy's view, he starts off pretty indifferent to them in the beginning. They get along well enough, since he’s not exactly new to being around a group of murderous mercenaries, but he likely won’t be as close to them as his own squad. This might change, with time spent going over weapons with Hank, cooking with Sanford, and having lively discussions with Deimos (who is notably not as obnoxious as Scout) and Doc about literature and such. (A lot of the things Heavy has read are actually nonexistent in Nevada, which just makes the topic more interesting to the grunts. Luckily for them, you also want to know what they're discussing, so they get to be with you when they do it. Does this make the grunts like Heavy more by proxy? Maybe.)

Medic, on the other hand, has disagreements with 2B a lot. Oddly enough, it's usually just Doc's problem. Medic's very eccentric, more so than any scientist 2B's come across before (well, save for Tricky). Then you add this to the fact that Medic is very intelligent, and actually has concrete knowledge of the medical field (including reviving people), and you have someone who could very easily take Doc’s place in your little group. Of course, realistically speaking there isn’t actually any chance of that happening - but the fact that you now go to Medic instead of 2B for anything medically related makes that fear rear its ugly head once in a while, no matter how irrational it is. (You probably just do it so you aren’t “bothering” 2BDamned with things he might have to work to research. He really wishes you wouldn’t worry about that; he’d spend weeks pouring over textbooks just to give you a single answer, and would be happy all the while just because you thought to ask him.) It also doesn’t help that Medic had a far better first impression with you, showing genuine interest in you and your abilities and accepting your power immediately instead of the doubt and suspicion Doc gave you.

Doc’s direct confrontations with him are kicked off more from his obvious skepticism of Medic’s experiments, but they don’t go very far, since Medic is too busy actually working on them to entertain anything else (unless it’s his teammates getting themselves injured and/or killed, which happens a lot). Sanford is probably very wary around Medic since he views the man as wildly unpredictable and dangerous (besides, who knows what experiments he’d end up doing with a whole other species to use). Deimos has the same reaction for the most part, but he does have a lot of curiosity about his experiments too, just because they’re interesting. The medigun is also an engineering marvel in his eyes, so I can see him trying to formulate some way to ask about it. As for Hank, well, let’s just say that the ÜberCharge is something he finds fascinating. Being bulletproof would make taking out enemies (and impressing you) so much more efficient for him, and it could cement his place as more of a powerhouse among the grunts you use as vessels. Plus, with how big he is, Medic might not even have to find a Mega Baboon heart to do it which could make the idea more tempting for him. (Now, how to get away with it without 2BDamned trying to prevent it-)

As for Medic’s thoughts on them, he thinks they’re interesting. They’re a team that operates like his, but without all the maximized specialization. Adaptable as teammates, and brought together for the single purpose of working for you, their collective Player (which is admittedly a lot better than working for either of the Mann twins). He can also probably view parallels between them and his own group, which makes him a lot friendlier, in his own way. He’s still absorbed by his work, of course, but he won’t pass up a chance to have some conversation with them if they’d like. He’d probably be quite intrigued by the entire “mythos” of Nevada, with the Employers, the Higher Powers, the Other Place, S-3LFs, etc. - and grunt biology, naturally. So the potential conversations with your cross-faced vessels would be a good way to learn about it, which is a bonus for him.

However, he finds it a bit strange that they seem so hesitant to discuss you. They are obviously fond of you, so why would they shy away from talking at length about your abilities? (It’s actually because they don’t think he deserves to know everything about you, which he’ll likely come to figure out rather quickly. The behavior from them is too weird not to. Luckily he can just ask you directly.)

Demoman and Soldier are probably some of the more inherently likable Mercs, since they honestly fit right in Nevada’s wasteland and are genuinely funny (even if they don’t mean to be). Sanford is your group’s explosive expert, so he probably tries to get some pointers from Demoman about stickybombs and how to make himself more effective on this front (to assist you better, of course). And considering how personable Demoman is, and the fact that he's more than happy to explain his craft to such an eager "student", it’s really no trouble at all for him to do it. He probably becomes friends with him over this too, which makes things easier for you. Deimos and Hank also have a fascination with the explosives, but the latter comes closer to outright taking them to use them (so Demoman appreciates how the others in your group (and you, mainly you) stop him from doing that). Doc’s rather curious about why his eye doesn’t grow back after Medic heals him but decides not to ask after Medic started going on and on about monsters and demons when he tried to discuss it one time.

Soldier’s an absolute riot, and I think Sanford and Deimos are the types to play along whenever he “orders” them to do something like common soldiers. Nevada doesn’t really have any military forces in the traditional sense (no use for Bootcamp when Nevada is such a violent place anyway), so it's weirdly fun for them to indulge in it. Soldier also probably favors them because of this, which you find hilarious.

However, Hank is more disapproving of anyone trying to order him around (because he only accepts your word now - and maybe 2B's still), which would become a small source of conflict between them. Even more annoying is Soldier's view that Hank just needs to be whipped up into shape to behave "properly" (which is never gonna happen, cause this is Hank). Doc doesn't interact much with Soldier, even if his actions are very entertaining. It's simply not in 2B's nature to be around such outgoing people for long periods of time; he finds it draining, and he'd loathe if he ended up missing out on time he could've spent with you if he's too busy recharging his social battery. There is one thing they all appreciate about Soldier, though, this being that his bravado is constant. Soldier's grandiose attitude and overzealous methods aren't restricted to when he's in your presence, which is part of the reason why all your boys like (or at the very least, tolerate) him more than some of the others.

Sniper evokes a lot of disgust from the whole jar weapon he uses (o_o), but his “professional” demeanor makes him very easy to be around. Your grunts don’t have a trained ranged specialist (2B doesn’t count since field work isn’t his primary role), so they suppose that you using him isn’t too bad. It’s a lot easier to focus on people they’re fighting for you if the opposing side’s snipers are being taken care of by one of yours. They’ll still pout about it and try to one-up him of course, but they won’t be as deeply offended or irked as with some others.

However, Sniper being charming and notably enjoyable company also means you like being around him, which makes your boys less than enthused. It’s not like Sniper is trying to be that way, but it still makes them tense. Although, Sniper notices how they are around you (it’s very obvious) so he’ll tease them about it, maybe even siding up closer to you every now and then just to see how mad they get. Nothing serious, but enough to make jokes about you having your own guard dogs (which doesn’t actually offend them, weirdly enough). It’s a bit tense on their side, again, but Sniper’s lax enough not to let it bother him. Besides, with how quirky his own group is, he has more than enough tolerance for the grunts’ weirdness.

Pyro is actually pretty harmless from their viewpoint. Your boys see how you two draw little pictures of unicorns and fairies together, and how cheerful he is despite being overly violent, and they just can’t find him all that threatening. Hank is amused by his jovial attitude concerning literally burning people alive, while Deimos enjoys showing off his pyrokinesis to the weirdly-innocent pyromaniac. It’s kind of a bonding point, and I think all of your boys would find Pyro rather endearing in his genuine attitude, even if Doc and Sanford are a bit worried about his psyche. (Was it combat and trauma that made him like this? The mask he wears?-)

Pyro probably just sees more new friends when he meets your grunts, like how he views the Mercs on his own team (and even the other nine Mercs). He’s excessively friendly and upbeat, constantly inviting them to whatever you and he are doing (tea parties, drawing, fixing up his flamethrower, you helping him sharpen his axes, etc.) and they agree each time, which makes him even happier. He's probably the one they have the best relationship with, purely because they don't think of him as a threat in any sense, so they're alright with him getting all cozy with you. So long as it's not too cozy, of course. You're still their Player too.

Finally, there's Spy. Otherwise known as the single Merc which your boys just cannot stand in any capacity; the one person out of the nine eccentric humans who they have the most conflict with. Why? Because of his propensity to flirt with you anytime and anywhere possible. He’s a suave smooth-talker, a gentleman among homicidal maniacs, and he just won't shut up when he's around you. Always complimenting your eyes, comparing you to flowers, and calling you terms of endearment. Talking about how your beauty puts the sunrises and sunsets of your world to shame, and how the stars could only feel ashamed to come so far from how brilliant you shined in comparison. And you always blush and roll your eyes, because you know it's probably not that serious, even if it's flattering.

You even tell your grunts about this, hoping to make them ease off from being so threatening towards him. However, this just exacerbates the problem. Who the fuck does he think he is, just flustering you for no reason? Pulling you around like you're some kind of toy he can play with for entertainment?

Spy doesn't deserve to even think such terms about you, especially if they're ingenuine. And even if they weren't, it couldn't measure up to a fraction of the love they have for you. It honestly makes them consider outright killing him, consequences be damned. It's not like anything would be permanent, since Medic could just revive him anyway. But your sure disappointment in them and inevitable hurt from this prevents them from doing so. (Spy doesn't know how lucky he is, that the grunts' fondness for their Player surpasses even their bloodlust.)

Instead, they settle for glaring, pulling you away from him, distracting you whenever you're about to interact, or just outright blocking him from viewing you (Hank, Hank does all this the most). Deimos will also loudly talk over him, insult him, or just fluster you himself by using his voice (and looking smugly at Spy when you blush from a small, genuine comment (and/or innuendo) from him). Sanford will point out how worthless his comments are if he doesn't mean them, and how you deserve better than some womanizer. Doc can come up with any excuse under the sun as to why you need to be doing something other than talking to him and make it sound believable. Anything to stop him from flirting with you.

So it's definitely a mixed bag insofar as your grunts' reactions to the TF2 Mercs. Some are closer with them than others, which is only natural. However, all of this only stands if the Mercs themselves don't have a confirmed romantic (and/or obsessive) level of interest in you, which would make things worse by far lmao.

#tw: yandere #scout 🤝 sanford - being mama's boys #I could probably expand more on this too so just lmk if you have any questions lol #mutuals ✨#gr4cefully-bon

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