#cw text descriptions of body horror stuff

[naavispider]

YOUR FIC ABOUT SPIDER RUNNING OFF WAS AMAZING AND SO DAMN SCARY 😭😭😭

I got a little ask for you, if it’s too gorey I totally understand:

What if, while trying to escape the soldiers through the vents, Spider escapes into laboratories? They’re empty, but on one of the operating tables the kid sees something so horrid that his body, breathing, even heartbeat goes still.

There, on the table, lies a dead, half-dissected Na’vi.

If that’s too much, then perhaps Spider sees that Na’vi yet unharmed, but the tools around them imply that the poor child of a Eywa was going to be dissected like some sort of animal or plant. The sight shakes him to his core and the world turns into a blur as he is apprehended, and suddenly Quaritch is in his face but he doesn’t react, still deeply in shock as his eyes water at the unfairness, at the cruelty of it all. Miles notices the body and realises what the boy had witnessed.

My question is — how would he behave in that situation? Would he still go through with physical punishment? Would he believe that the horror Spider saw was enough to deter him from going on another escapade? Would he perhaps feel bad?

CW: body gore, description of corpse, swearing

As he crouched in the too-small tunnel, it was the smell that first alerted Spider that something was wrong. A hazy, blue light was shining up eerily through the slats in the vent, and Spider's heartbeat thumped loudly as he crawled slowly towards the grill. The smell was a mixture of sterile cleaning supplies and something much, much worse. It was like a decaying animal, which Spider was no stranger to after living for years amongst the forest, but this was somehow fouler. It was obvious the stench had been tried to be masked by the cleaning supplies.

Peering down through the slats, Spider could make out a large room with a shiny floor, and tables with tanks set upon them, with occasional tubing connecting different set ups. He couldn't see much more from this angle in the ceiling. He stared for a moment longer, knowing that he should just move on - but the room was too curious. It looked like some kind of lab, and there was no one in sight. It was completely quiet, apart from the sounds of bubbles from some tank or another.

He took a deep breath before using the keycard to skilfully unscrew the grate at the corners, a technique he had perfected on this little adventure through the air vents. The lack of a reaction to the noise he was making when he slid the grate to the side confirmed the lack of anybody down below. He poked his head down fully to double check anyway, hands almost slipping on the smooth metal of the chute with nervous sweat. The room was bigger than he'd first assumed, and that strange blue light was coming from several upright tanks filled with a thick fluid that looked something like the stuff Grace Augustine's avatar was kept in. Bubbles were floating to the surface like little orbs drawn to the top by Pandora's flux.

Not a soul was in sight, so he nervously gripped the sides of the chute and lowered his body down. He landed silently, padding over to the nearest desk for cover. He couldn't discount the idea that someone could walk in at any moment.

The floor was cool under his bare feet, and he cast his eyes over the papers on the desk, trying to ward off the shiver it caused him. He'd never been amazing at reading, but he wasn't stupid. There were stacks of different coloured paper files, some in neat piles and some spread out open. His eye caught one labelled, 'Specimen 21 and Oxidation due to Fibonacci neurotoxin'. He frowned, repeating the words until he extracted some sense from them. The Fibonacci was a plant that the Na'vi used to dip their arrows in before battle with the Sky People, or if the occasion called for it, with other clans. Why were the RDA studying its effects? He opened the file.

He was not prepared for the wall of text that painted the paper, immediately deciding that was too much hassle. "I'm happy for you, or sorry that happened," he muttered to himself, flicking past the text to the other pages, looking for images. The file opened on a double page spread detailing a diagram of...

Spider swallowed. That was a Na'vi, and around the drawing were smaller anatomical diagrams, of what he assumed were body parts, though they looked anything but. There were lungs breaking apart, a heart with sections shaded in black, and captions detailing what must be the effects of the neurotoxin on a Na'vi body. Necrosis begins immediately. Membranes disintegrate upon contact. Flesh swells.

Spider gasped, taking a step back from the desk. The RDA were evil, but being faced with the brutality of their war games brought it into stark clarity.

Wait, if the file was called Specimen 21, and it was about a Na'vi...

The smell.

Goosebumps sprung up over Spider's entire body, and he suddenly became very aware of the area behind the tanks, almost like someone was suddenly watching him.

Heart hammering, Spider turned slowly. Between the blue, fluid filled tanks, he could make out what looked like a table behind. He didn't want to move, but his feet carried him forwards anyway. He watched as if he was a passenger in his own body as he edged closer to the area, putting a hand on the outer-most tank as he rounded the corner to see what lay behind.

A cry escaped his lips at the sight.

He wanted to run, he wanted to scream. He wanted to sink to the floor. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wanted to say the ceremonial prayer for creatures that had returned to Eywa.

Instead he froze. Though he wanted to, he couldn't tear his eyes off the dissected corpse of the Tipani clan member, lying so still and open on the cold metal table. The man's face looked eerily peaceful for the state his body was in, and Spider understood that no wonder the smell was so pungent. Blackened flesh and congealed fluid filled the man's open chest and stomach. It looked like acid had been poured inside the cavity, corroding everything it touched and making his torso seem unrecognisable from the smooth blue stripes that should be there in its place.

He blinked an angry tear out of his eye, as at that moment a door suddenly burst open, followed by loud shouts and angry voices, all swarming into the room where Spider stood. He recognised his name, but he was frozen in place; he couldn't move. Seconds later, what seemed like a whole unit of soldiers had surrounded them, and a large blue hand was on his shoulder. Spider still hadn't looked away from the Na'vi, and jumped as he realised that someone just like the Tipani man was grabbing him by the shoulder.

"Spider!" Quaritch called, pulling Spider around to face away from the man on the table, bending down to be at eye level.

Spider found Quaritch's eyes but was still too lost for words to say anything.

Quaritch had known about his. There was no other explanation for the recom's hardened frown, the set way that his eyes were pinned on Spider... the complete lack of surprise at finding a dead Na'vi mutilated on the table a few feet away.

Shock gave way to anger as Spider stared at Quaritch.

"What do you think you're doing boy?" Quaritch's eyes were angry too, and roughly shook Spider's shoulder as if to bring him back to reality. "Huh? You think you can just steal a keycard and go off parading around Bridgehead? You think this is a holiday camp?" The man growled and let go of Spider's shoulder, stepping back and appraising him as he balled his fists, clearing trying to control his frustration. "Fucking hell!" He let out, and Spider blinked, finally realising that he'd been caught - that the game was over.

When had it turned into a nightmare?

"You knew about this?" Spider choked out.

Quaritch glanced at him, then closed his eyes in an irritated frown, addressing the other soldiers. "It's fine, I got the kid from here. Thanks."

The rest of the men cleared out, leaving the two of them alone in the lab. The blue light flickered over both of their faces as they waited for the door to finally inch shut. Then, Quaritch grabbed Spider's arm and hauled him out from around the tanks, back into the open space where the Na'vi was no longer in sight.

"Yes, Spider, I knew about this. Why the Hell were you here?"

Spider stood his ground, narrowing his eyes. "You..." He didn't know what he was trying to say. "Why is there a Tipani warrior on the table?"

Quaritch's tail lashed. "I understand this was a shock for you to find, Spider, but what did you expect? The Na'vi use chemical warfare themselves, of course the RDA is going to learn from that and use it back against them!"

Spider shook his head. "You... you experimented on him..."

Quaritch sighed heavily. "Listen kid. We're at war." His tone rose angrily again. "I don't see you complaining every time a damn savage dips their arrows in the stuff. Or is it okay for them to murder innocent men and women?"

Spider hissed - something he hadn't done in a long time. He couldn't help it.

To Spider's surprise, Quaritch let out a laugh. One that sent a shiver down Spider's spine.

The man looked at him again before speaking. "Kid, they've really done a good job on you."

Spider bristled at the insinuation. How dare he. "Screw you! You think I'm brainwashed or something?"

"You're doing a damn good job of acting like it!"

At this, Spider didn't know what to say. Quaritch took advantage of his momentary silence.

"It's okay for them to use the toxin, but not us?"

"No, the difference is they don't display their dead to be used and experimented on! Everyone deserves dignity, especially in death!" A lump was forming in Spider's throat. Hold it in. "That warrior should have been returned to Eywa."

Quaritch was nodding, but his whole demeanour was sarcastic. "Uh huh? Brainwashed, just like I told you!" He gesticulated as if it was obvious for anyone to see.

"Fuck you!" Spider cast around for the closest object to him, picking up a stapler from the nearest desk and hurling it at Quaritch. The man ducked, for a moment unsure how to react, but he didn't have time to say or do anything before Spider reached for the holopad lying on the desk and threw that as well. Quaritch dodged it and it smashed with a clatter on the hard floor.

"Put it down!" Quaritch shouted as Spider went for the stool next, lobbing it at the recom with as much force as he could muster.

Quaritch hit it away without too much difficulty, lunging towards Spider just as the boy turned to the tanks.

Spider could tell that Quaritch had clocked his intentions and before he could muster the strength to tip the tank over, strong arms grabbed him from behind.

"You gonna be cool?" Quaritch yelled as he wrestled Spider over his shoulder. "Or are you gonna carry on acting like a five year old?"

Spider wanted to scream. How could Quaritch just be treating him like some bratty kid? He threw his arms against the man's back and kicked as best as he could against the recom's firm grip on his legs. "Put me down!"

"Cut it out!" Quaritch yelled, walking them over to the door. "Jesus Christ, you're embarrassing!"

Spider roared in frustration, finally going limp against the man's hold, only because he couldn't be bothered to fight any more. His blood still pounded in his veins and his breathing was still deep and uneven. He searched for Quaritch's kuru to pull, knowing it was a low blow, but the man had tactfully pulled it in front of his shoulder.

His face burned when they stepped out into the corridor and he was faced with being carried through the hallway like a toddler. "Bastards!" he shouted. "Put me down! I can fucking walk!"

Quaritch stopped, unceremoniously rolling Spider off him and pushing him to walk in front. Soldiers muttered as they passed for the entire walk through the base. Spider ignored them, only occasionally throwing out the odd insult of his own, until noise from behind alerted him to a scuffle. He stopped in confusion and turned to see Quaritch with an RDA soldier pinned up against the wall by the scuff of his uniform, looking shocked to find himself there.

"Problem, soldier?" Quaritch growled.

The rest of the corridor was silent.

"N- no Sir!" yelped the man, who had turned bright red.

Quaritch let him down roughly, and shoved Spider on without an explanation. Spider had no idea what had just transpired, but he quickly gathered that although Quaritch was allowed to be mean to him, it seemed nobody else was.

[stellar-solar-flare]

🍂 leaves: what does your editing process look like? how does your wip typically change as you work on it?

👻 ghost: can you tease some wip ideas that have been haunting you/something you want to write in the future?

💜💜

This ask is in response to October Themed Writeblr Ask Game. I apologize for taking forever to answer, and thank you for sending an ask!

Answers as well as a 1k sneak peek to a werewolf Bucky x Reader, Steve x OFC fic I'm very excited about is under the cut!

🍂 leaves: what does your editing process look like? how does your wip typically change as you work on it?

Depends on the fic, really. I don't outline or do a first draft in the very pure sense of the world - I aim to write pretty finished text since my way of writing is mostly about telling myself a story. My editing usually only involves making sure things make sense and elaborating where I need to, such as adding descriptions in between dialogue to make the scene more vivid, or changing sentence structure so that it flows better.

I usually finish an entire scene or even a short chapter before editing, but especially with longer chapters, I often edit in between writing new text since it's a good way for me to get in the flow and do something creative during the days when I don't feel super creative and bright. Most stuff that I publish goes through four phases: 1) writing, 2) general editing, 3) quick once-over, and finally 4) fixes and polishing once it's back from my beta reader (who is a precious angel with the patience of a saint and who always makes my chapters better).

I would say time-wise, writing takes about 70 percent of the time a chapter takes and the rest is editing, unless I end up doing a huge overhaul to a chapter, which happens pretty rarely.

👻 ghost: can you tease some wip ideas that have been haunting you/something you want to write in the future?

Sure! This one is something that right now has a working title Under a Violent Moon. A slow burn romantasy would be how I'd describe it, with some horror and action elements. It'll be an EXPLICIT fic when out but this sneak peek doesn't involve anything beyond a T rating.

CW: kidnapping, mentioned violence, mentioned mob life

The basic premise is that there exists a werewolf underground society that has a lot of mob elements to it - everyone sort of knows about it but it's not something that anyone would want to associate with unless you're looking to do bad stuff. Reader sees Bucky do something that she (or any outsider) should not see, and he panics and forcefully (but not violently) brings her with her to the magically protected place of residence of the pack and in front of Steve, who is the alpha of the pack.

🌙.

There was no sound – at least one you would’ve been able to hear – but regardless, both Bucky and Steve quieted down in the middle of their argument, as if someone had severed their conversation with a sharp knife. Your gaze followed theirs as they turned their heads towards the entrance of the hall and the short woman that had entered.

Save for Steve in his three-piece suit, all the members of the pack that had gathered in the hall favored a mixture of military and hiking clothing. The woman who was now making her way to you was the other exception to the rule; she was clad in a floor-length, flowing white silk dress that would’ve been suitable for a bride at a relaxed beach wedding. Its boat neckline would’ve left her shoulders and arms bare, but her almost white platinum hair spilled down her upper body in a luxurious cascade. Despite it, you could see the scars on her collarbones and arms, and she had brushed her hair away from the left side of the her neck to wear the bite there like a badge of honor.

You did not know which honor, and yet, she carried herself with pride that would’ve hinted at someone important even if every head in the hall hadn’t gently bowed down as she passed. Her eyes, burning bright yellow that shone its own light, locked onto you, and her lips curved up to a smile you didn’t know how to decipher. There was something deeply unsettling abut her, as if the ethereal beauty was simply a skin she wore to get close enough to her prey. She stood against the practical impression you had gotten of everyone else – she was a seeress from a myth, somehow present here and yet truly a citizen of entirely another world.

She was loaded with jewelry; it sparkled on her hair and neck and wrists and even the dress was belted with more platinum and pearls and colorless and yellow diamonds. On her left ring finger sat a giant round diamond flanked by two crescent moons, all set in platinum. Her gaze left you and found another target, her expression melting into a smile. Again, you turned your head to follow the direction of her eyes.

You had thought that getting kidnapped by a werewolf mob would’ve rendered anything else that happened today as entirely unsurprising, and yet, you were struck with shock as you saw Steve, who held the otherworldly woman’s gaze.

The change on him was almost laughable and yet, it made your throat feel tight. He was looking at her with bright, glowing eyes that shone with love and affection, with the kind of smile on his face that would’ve made you believe that she’d personally reached up into the skies and pushed aside the clouds of eternal night to reveal the full moon for him. You hade never seen such warmth and devotion on anyone’s face, and to see it on the face of a werewolf alpha was such a strange thought that it took you a moment to recognize the emotion lingering in your chest as jealousy. Not for Steve but for the love that she had.

You had hear many tales of werewolves – how they were cruel, brutal creatures, more animals than humans and thus unable to process higher emotions than those that followed directly from their animalistic needs. The unconcealable beacon of affection that shone on Steve’s face was the complete antithesis to those claims. No one in the world would have been able to look at him and consider it anything but love stemming from the depths of one’s very soul.

The woman stopped in front of you, turning so that you were standing face to face. Her wolf-eyes searched yours, and for a moment, you felt fear beyond anything you had yet experienced. Whatever power she carried, so plain to see and yet so hidden, was one thing – every hair on your body stood up in her presence as some long-forgotten instinct attempted to define a threat it had could not classify.

The way Steve had been looking at her was another. It was obvious that if anyone would do as much as look at her the wrong way, he would tear them into pieces with his bare hands. They had not spoken, and yet Steve stepped behind her and wrapped his giant arms around her midriff, engulfing her in an embrace and a measure of protection at the same time. She melted back against him, and in the flickering candlelight of the hall, it was almost impossible to say where one of them ended and the other began.

“What brought you here, little human?” she asked, and while the words could’ve been an insult – especially from someone who seemed like she was in her thirties herself, not much older than you if at all – they were too gentle to be that. “It is not often that any eyes that aren’t of the pack see what lies behind our gates.”

You swallowed past your dry throat. The cadence of her speech, as well as the old-fashioned words, reminded you of how different this world was to the one you’d known. Did that mean they would never let you go? But she didn’t seem to be accusing you of anything; she was waiting for your answer patiently, her pale fingers brushing over Steve’s forearm in a caress. The rings that were there somehow made the giant rock of the wedding band look even more enormous.

“I wasn’t given a choice,” you said carefully, deciding that the truth was the best option here.

She smiled. Her hand smoothed another touch over Steve’s forearm, and then she turned her arm so that she could entwine her fingers with his – as your gaze was drawn there, you saw a simple gold wedding band on Steve’s left hand, too. He made a humming sound against her temple as the rings clinked against each other, and her expression turned even softer.

“Fate rarely gives us a choice,” she said gently to you before turning to Bucky, who was standing frozen next to you. “You have brought a human here. You know our ways; you know our law. You know what follows.”  

🌙.

[joswriting]

Writer Q&A

Finally doing this, thank you for the tag @lexiklecksi!!

I tag: @wheres-all-the-tea-gone and @atmospheric and anyone who wants to do it

What motivates you to write?

An inherent desire to communicate and deal with certain feelings I have (usually bad ones). My big WIP On The End Of Everything is about characters that are very dissatisfied with their lives and with who they are but have no way of changing this, as well as an exaggeration of the apocalyptic feeling we get when we don't have our lives completely together (might that tell you something about me?). Both this story and my short story anthology WIP make political commentary in the stupidest way possible, like any scifi story should.

Every character has a trace of me and every trace of me is examined and judged in all sorts of situations. It's both a form of self-therapy and a way to unload nonsensical ideas and peculiar humour.

A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

I like my poems best of the stuff I've written in the past 3 years, and there's a rather long one with some body horror elements (CW), but here are two verses from that one:

you may climb to the valley but the descent is steep there the partyhouse is filled to the brim here lie the parents, not awake nor asleep tie them together for their bodies are thin down the sea over yonder and into the deep see them drown and wonder, why had they no skin? a fly on the water comes to pose a conundrum if your face were another would you feel any different? then all insects fall dead to beat of a drum the wet blows are approaching and becoming vociferant another face is growing over your own now, how fun the next mouth utters sweetly the cry of an infant

What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

I'm not sure but I used to think descriptions? Especially of rather gorey and disturbing scenes, that's what I used to think. I haven't done that sort of thing in a while though, I hope I get to do it again soon. Well, apart from poems, as you can see.

But I think desciptions in general, they are my way of bringing the humour.

What do you enjoy most about the Writeblr community?

The fact we all stay curious about other people and their work! Plus everyone here is so earnestly in love with writing, it's nice.

A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

Those synonym and rhyme websites, translators, but in my case especially wiktionary.org

A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

I like the world building in On The End Of Everything's first universe the best, but it's a sort of mystery so I don't want to spoiler it. To give you an idea of the current vibe (after all the worldbuilding that is to be uncovered); it is a universe with no sun, one planet that is able to support human life due to geothermic activity and an ecosystem of bioluminescent critters, and a human population with names like Nestlé (my main girl of this universe, I love her).

What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

If you're stuck just write Anything else. Could be a completely unrelated story idea you have or you can try to write the scene from someone else's perspective or write what someone completely different is doing somewhere else in-universe right now. Just because it won't be part of the finished story doesn't mean its not valuable. And hey, depending on the tone of your writing or how exciting the scene is you could just put it in anyway. For example: i dont really know how to write my current scene so instead i just wrote about a random bioluminescent dog called Stephen Colbert and his take on the scene. My writing is silly.

[desultory-novice]

Do you have any headcanons on Marx Soul?

Do I have Marx Soul Heacanons...?

...This does remind me that sometimes I end up with several headcanons for a character that, oh, maybe differ from each other or conflict in some way? But heck, I typically love them all and want to play with all of them, so I just kind of juggle from one to another as the mood hits me! (I'm frequently balancing several different Kirby "universes" in my head for this reason.)

So I can't just give you one static Marx Soul HC that is my favorite. What I will do is take this opportunity to share several Marx Soul ideas I'm fond of, as well as just gabbing about Marx Soul (and Marx) in general, because there's some cool things going on there that can't easily be wrapped up in HCs alone!

---

Marx Soul is a fusion of Marx and Nightmare

...This one is my baby. Mostly because I think I'm the first one (?) to come up with it? This is entirely based on the similarities Marx Soul shares with Nightmare (color palette, necklace) and the fact that Marx Soul's JP pause description doesn't specify that it is Marx's "evil soul" that resurrected after the collision. Aka, what if a part of Nightmare got stuck in Marx (through any number of methods, but obviously, I favor the "he was once a peaceful Noddy hit by Nightmare shrapnel" theory) and when Marx was on the verge of death, Nightmare "woke up" and took over his unwitting host.

I like this one a lot because I, err, maybe kinda like body hijacking as a plot point...Oops... But also I just love love love the Dreamer (Marx being a Noddy) vs Nightmare (Nightmare being, well, a "nightmare"...) parallel and putting them together in one body gives me even more fun ground to play with there!

This way, Marx Soul has DOUBLE the reasons to want revenge on Kirby! I would argue that you could use this as an explanation for the infamous Marx Soul flash frames that occurs right before Marx transforms!

Because there's like a frame or two before Marx grows his wings and goes all boss mode where he actually looks like Marx Soul. And this is back in the original game, before Marx Soul was even created! Which is just fascinating...! 

So, if Nightmare IS lurking inside Marx, that flash could be a hint of Nightmare's power resurfacing/awakening with the sudden surge of energy? Also, Marx is *exceptionally* pale during that brief flash, with his skin turning a pale, sickly, corpse-like purple, just like Nightmare's skin!

Ahem. Outside of my desperate attempts to find enough evidence to make other people latch onto my favorite HC, I also just like it because it would make Nightmare more of a threat too. Which I always enjoy. Gotta give credit where credit is due to the OG "scary" Kirby boss. (...Even if the scariest part was how surprisingly easy it was to run out of time in the orb phase of the fight.) 

And if Nightmare, in *some form* carried on over into a second game (aka, Super Star) we'd have an antagonist who makes a much better foil to Dark Matter/Zero! Now we've got “The Dark Matter Trilogy” and “The Nightmare Trilogy!” Or maybe “The Fountain Trilogy?” Err, duology! Because I can't link a third game into this. Unless I'm missing a relevant game somewhere...?

(...Smash Bros Ultimate...??)

Oh, yes! Another thing that's kind of fun/funny about this theory is that, if it were true, in light of the connections Forgotten Land gives us regarding the Galactic Novae, then a Nightmare-carrying Marx Soul has the potential to be a fusion of THREE lifeforms, depending upon if the Novae are made from a living Elfilis simulacrum or a fake one. (But again, the *heartbeat*...)

Anyway, three may honestly be too much, but I absolutely believe Marx Soul is a fusion of two lifeforms, minimum. You COULD see the "splitting in two" at the end as just a random creepy thing, or some kind of ironic fate based on his black hole attack, but I can't believe it’s unrelated. The Kirby series has too many meaningful lore and background bits tucked away in innocuous places for that and I think the splitting is a sign of...SOMETHING. 

Just not sure what.

--

Marx Soul and Void...?

I've been trying to think about WHY Marx Soul and Void share a battle background. Obviously, I considered the shared BG to be an important element in my Nightmare v Marx comparisons. They're not identical, such that you could say they occur in the exact same place, but they are close enough to be noticeable.

But I really have no idea why...! The fight with Void's core takes place inside Void Termina's shell body (?) and it's difficult to say WHERE that space even is.

Given that Marx Soul is absolutely an Ancient artifact-fueled beastie made out of various Nova parts, it's not unreasonable to suggest that the weird polygonal beehive-esque space these fights occur in is one that spawns when you break or otherwise corrupt some kind of Ancient power source? ...Or rather, something the Ancients USED as a power source? ...A twisting of reality?

Void Termina wields the Master Crown as a weapon. And I think Void/Void's power must have been the inspiration for the physical crown's creation on Halcandra. Plus the Ancients (presumably/possibly) built the Novae based around Elfilis's dreamscape-creating/dimension traveling powers. 

Man, what little we know about the Ancients, we're already getting the feeling their "best" creations came from stealing the powers of other lifeforms...

Would you believe that, as big a Marx fan as I am, I hadn't even made the connection between Void Termina's glass wings and Marx's glass wings until it was pointed out to me? Ahaha... I guess I just associated Marx's with all that pretty color-changing, where as Termina's wings looked so static. But they are the same shape...ish. And I think that's relevant! Somehow! Again, it's a little hard to make a solid connection, unless you can somehow connect the Void-born species and Elfilis with each other...? That is, a connection outside of "A Voidborn and a fragment of Elfilis went on a journey together in Forgotten Land!"

(Also, why am I suddenly interested in calling Kirby's species "Voidborn?" What is this weird Bloodborne/Gothic-Horror Kirby crossover building in my head...?)

Oh, oh! But another thing that's kind of neat (BIAS TALK INCOMING) is that, partly due to their popularity in the fandom at large, Marx and Magolor ARE slowly working their way up into sub-main character status of the Kirby series! And I'm not just talking about the concert promotion either...!

I can't say if this was in all 30th Anniversary merch, but I got the Kirby Room Light (sooo cute) and it came with a booklet introducing the various major characters of Kirby and right alongside the four heroes (and Rick, Coo, and Kine) were Marx and Magolor. Not only does this please me for personal reasons, I think it's a REALLY GOOD CHOICE.

One way or the other, whether Magolor is just a Halcandran fanboy (fan cat?) or an actual Halcandran, whether Marx is just a jester or some sort of green goop producing semi-clockwork being now, the two of them provide an excellent link to the broader Kirby cosmos! They were villains once, are no longer serious villains now, both survived (?) their experiences, and they can be "friendly" to the heroes (...if you have enough REAL CASH on hand. Or maybe they’ll ambush you mid-credits sequence because it's funny!) 

Anyway, the brilliance of upgrading them to major characters is that the dev team can keep the main 4 relatively free from weird, complicated Ancient backstory hijinks (...although Meta Knight, should he also be Voidborn, remains a big, untapped secret...) while still giving us players a cute orb-sized link back to them any time they choose! And that's another reason Void Termina is such an interesting fight! Because while Void calls back to pretty much every Kirby boss, the two bosses they call back to the most are... Marx and Magolor.

.........This was about Marx Soul. Right. Sorry. Didn't mean to get distracted.

(But WHILE I'm distracted, I meant to say that part of what this means to me is that, if we were to get a new, more faithful Kirby anime, I can totally see/respect/want desperately for Marx and Magolor to become a Team Rocket-esque pair of reoccurring villains this time around. A selfish, greedy Dedede as villain of the week needs to go. Let the selfish mischievous jester and greedy lying wizard cause all the problems!)

--

Ahem. Now back to Marx Soul. And headcanons.

So, I dropped this idea out there once, but I headcanon Drawcia as Marx's magic teacher pre-Milky Way Wishes, and the reason for that is almost entirely due to their connection as Soul bosses and the inherited move set. I mean, he turns INTO PAINT! Who else could he have picked that up from but the living painting herself?! Of course, moves would be carried over from Soul boss to Soul boss after that, regardless of any potential ties between them, but eh, this one is too firmly entrenched in my mind that I just can't get rid of it!

...I like to imagine Drawcia made Marx's training anything but easy. (She IS a villain.)

--

Marx Soul and Death in the Kirby-verse

This one gets a little complicated because it's tied to a bunch of things and is more of a philosophy(?) thing rather than a headcanon thing? I’m going to talk about it anyway though because why not!

So, I think, in general, the understanding/implication is that Marx either died or was very near death after the collision with the Nova. His body is an ashen grey and he's not moving after that. This would, in a sense, make Marx Soul out to be Marx's animated corpse. (Yikes...)

But death is WEIRD in Kirby. There's that line in one of the early material books or earlier interviews or something (although every time I get asked about a source for these things, I end up being wrong so take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt, please!) but I RECALL a bit about the creatures in Popstar coming back "like the grass in summer." ...Or maybe it was weeds...? 

And yes, it might've been referring to the respawning system in the 2D games and NOT a lore element. But I'm ridiculously fond of this one as lore for whatever reason and I tend to work it into my generalized Kirby headcanon almost every time: the idea that things on Popstar never really die.

(It’s a stretch but then again...the critters in the Forgotten Land DON’T respawn like the Popstar ones when you destroy them. Now, that's because there's no "screen border" you can cross that means its safe for them to do so...and they DO respawn if you exit and re-enter a room. It’s an out there idea, but isn't it kind of interesting...?)

So, anyway! Popstar as a weird Fountain of Eternal Youth/paradise planet where nothing ever dies! Maybe it's energy of the planet? Maybe that's why everyone is attracted to it/always wants to invade it? And if Marx and Kirby had fought on Popstar, maybe Marx would have just been sent flying ala King Dedede in Dream Land 1? But they fought juuuuust outside the bounds of Popstar, so when Marx makes a magnificent crash into a Galactic Nova, he's a little more messed up than typical. (If Popstar residents CAN’T get permanently injured or die, that crash must have been a real system shock to poor Marx...)

And now you have this weird dead/dying/undead/undying Marx (...all the worse if he had just enough lingering Popstar energy in him so that he COULDN'T just die post-crash, but wasn't alive either...) Anyway, depending upon how deep you read into it, what you get there and the emotional implications of it are all kind of horrible, really. Because Kirby has never really faced or had to contend with, err, death before... Not yet, at last. Anything that's been an invader to Popstar is destroyed or dispersed in a safe clean way, but Marx is different because Marx was at one time alive and now...isn't.

I imagine, sometimes, what that must be like for Kirby. Kirby wouldn’t be exactly responsible for Marx’s death or the creation of Marx Soul because it was Marx himself that went spiraling out of control, but still... 

Even though Kirby games have no specific timeline, I occasionally think about how various events would take their toll on Kirby. Affect Kirby’s growth. (Like the stuff with the friend hearts in Star Allies and how Kirby goes on to save EVERYONE in FL, right off the heels of being unable to save either Secty or Haltmann. When you look at the big picture, it DOES tie together.) 

Long story short, I have various thoughts about the fact that the next mainline game to be released after Super Star Ultra is Return to Dream Land - where Kirby is (implied to be) constantly in the company of Meta Knight, Dedede, and Bandee. Maybe they thought Kirby shouldn't be alone after, well...after the ghost of a former foe came back from the dead for a ghastly revenge...? And boy is Marx Soul ghastly. At least for the early Kirby series. The awful noises, glitchy movements, and the weird bits of sanity-slippage you get from that fight does play strongly into the "zombie Marx" theory.

Speaking of Marx Soul graphical weirdness, I love how, among the new animations for him, we get this cute (?) little one where he curls up into a ball...? Except the way he tucks his wings in so that they slowly cross over him/vaguely meld into his body...? It's not your typical HORROR horror, but there's something unnerving about it. Maybe it's that "creepy cartoon" effect?

...Brief aside. I’ve only watched, like, 10 episodes of Steven Universe but I did watch the movie, thanks to a friend. And my mind almost can't help but make visual parallels between Marx and Spinel. At least as far as "creepy cartoon characters who are creepy specifically BECAUSE they are a cartoon."

What makes this one move of Marx's even more weirdly dissonant is that when you stop to look at the sprite, he's got this surprisingly peaceful expression on his face for squishing himself into a physically impossible little ball of impossible.

--

Marx Soul is Marx's Negative Impulses/Thoughts

This HC is one I barely use myself, but I LOVE to see it??? 

I'm not at all into Marx/Marx Soul selfcest, which, frankly, is where I see this headcanon pop up the most, but ahhh, I can't help but enjoy the concept of a Marx Soul continuing to linger in the back of Marx's mind whispering all sorts of horrible things in his head even after Star Allies. As someone with negative intrusive thoughts, it feels kinda good to see versions of a comfort character struggle with them too, in either a mental or physical form...

It also makes for some damn good fanart.

On that note, temptation is strong to make a parody of Guchiry’s Flower song "Abnormality Dancing Girl" that plays into this version of Marx + Marx Soul.

--

Back to random Marx Soul observations!

You know what I also love? The minor detail of Marx Soul's hat switching colors! Regardless of WHAT Marx Soul is, we understand him to have needed to use the power of the Nova to reconstruct/revive himself, and I occasionally like to think the reversed hat is a possible representation of just how wrong he was when he came back. Yes, it doesn't exactly work out logically or physically, because Marx wasn't (yet) split in two when he near-died, but it's almost like, while absorbing Nova's parts to remake himself, he (or it) put himself back together in the wrong way. His eyes are more prominently facing outward too. I'm not exactly saying his left eye is on the right and his right eye is on the left now but...maybe?!?

 So much body horror in one tiny jester 

...Oh geez...! Speaking of...

This just came up in my feed today, but Super Star was supposed to have one last mini-game included in it that was horror-themed and it was initially planned that Kirby would have his *mouth sewn shut* by the villain so he couldn't use copy abilities?!? (Yikes yikes...) And he'd have to collect them instead? 

This is, I gather, the base of the system used in Milky Way Wishes? 

The lost game theory makes sense, because Milky Way Wishes is more like a rehash/revisitation of the other Super Star mini-games. Every planet is made of reused tiles. The most original element in it is Marx. So...if Marx was originally planned to be the villain of that horror game (...and it fits, what with him being a scary clown...) Well...you can sort of see why Sakurai's original version of Marx is a whole lot scarier if THAT is the kind of thing he'd do to Kirby...

...Also, I don't know why...but I get the strong feeling that, seeing as how Marx in MWW suffers a very karmic "He's destroyed by the very comet he wished on!" defeat, the ending to this horror-themed Kirby game would probably have the magic Marx used on Kirby backfiring on him in a very bad way... 

Imagine a zombie Marx Soul making Those Noises with a stitch-ripped mouth... 

...Or don't, because, you know, that's awful.

...

...

I CAN'T END THIS ON THAT IMAGE IN GOOD FAITH SOOOO....

...Aha, I know what I can still talk about! The Roses! 

Marx Soul's roses! Who told them they were allowed to add roses to Marx's attack patterns?! It's so...gah, it's so interesting! How is it Marx goes from thorny vines (...thorny catci?) to blooming roses?! I have NO idea. Kumazaki, why did you give Marx Soul roses?! Marx isn't tied into the plot of Triple Deluxe in any way, is he?! It's just...I mean, roses have a ton of associations, of course. One for every color. But Marx Soul's roses are blood red.

And he has those hearts on his wings. What do those mean??

I actually ended up doing some research on this, because I was trying to figure out if there could be some meaning to Marx's heart wings. Tbh, the first thing that came to mind was "...Is this a Dio Brando reference?" Because of the heart-iconography + crazy villain thing. But through that, I learned that the "heart shape" actually existed in Japan for centuries! Only it wasn't a "heart," it was a boar's eye(?) And it was a symbol of good fortune and to ward off evil. Interesting how, even if it didn't mean love yet, it was still a positive symbol.

So why is Marx associated with these positive symbols?! But this may be another Void connection because Void is all heart imagery all the time!

...And...so is Elfilis...

Huh. Wasn't I just wondering about ties between Void and Elfilis toward the beginning of this essay? If Marx's hearts are Elfilis's hearts are Void's hearts...?

Alas, I don't have an answer. Ran out of headcanons.

In any case, I really do hope that Marx's rising popularity means a consistent appointment to the position of semi-regular character (like with Magolor) because there is just SO MUCH packed inside this little jester to explore!

[hyper-cryptic]

Hello there!

ᓚᘏᗢ Name's Reko, but our online persona is Void (it / he , agender).

19 years old ( 26/12 ). I am mexican and have ADHD , Autism, Dyslexia and currently developing silly levels of Carpal Tunnel. I'm also the host of a plural system. :3

↳ I post drawings and deranged ramblings. I also reblog art/funny posts some times, tho I like to keep this blog clean...as much as I can. ↳ This blog is MULTIFANDOM !! It is a mess! and I tend to have phases on staying on one fandom for a year most of the time, LMFAO. ↳ My askbox is always open! I love interacting with y'all so feel free to ask about whatever.

I am the mod on @journalistsobssession (inactive at the moment tho) and @rekos-graphic-hoard where I do cool graphic requests and hoard them.

↳ Last updated: 31th of Oct. 2024_

[ palestine blinkie by xumoonhao ]

---------------------------------------

⁖ More info + tip jars + comms!

💌 Carrd ¦ 🌲 Plurality Carrd ¦ ☕ Ko-Fi ¦ 👛Paypal ¦ 🛒 Comms ¦ 🐕 Adoptables

⁖ Other socials ( fairly active on most of them )

🏠 ToyHouse ¦ 🎶 Spotify ¦ 🏛️ Pinterest

---------------------------------------

🌠 Media interests ( in order of which interests me the most atm ): Resident Evil , Sonic The Hedgehog , Trigun , Akudama Drive, Warrior Cats , Fallout 4, FNAF.

🌺 Favorite characters ( in order of who I am hyperfixiated on the most atm ): Sonic The Hedgehog, Shadow The Hedgehog, Leon S. Kennedy, Claire Redfield, , Vash The Stampede, John Hancock (FO4), Nick Valentine , Lúcio Correia Dos Santos.

-----------------------------------------

DNI , Warnings and Tag system below !!

---------------------------------------

🛑 Don't follow...or interact for that matter

If you are:

🚫 If you are a MAP/pedo , a zoophile or an anti-anti / pro-ship/ support incest.

🚫 LGBTphobic, exclusionist, Radfem/TERF.

🚫 Racist, xenophobic, anti-BLM, Blue/All Lives Matter, etc etc.

🚫NFT / crypto / AI art bro.

🚫 Generally just an asshole, makes fun of people for interests and identities that don't harm anyone at all.

---------------------------------------

🎫 Tag system:

↪ #my art (self-explanatory!)

↪ #hyper ramblings (my rants and dumb stuff I say!)

↪ #hyper drabbles (if i ever write anything, lmao)

↪ #not my art (self-explanatory, reblogs/submissions of somebody else's art)

↪ #not my post (reblog, probably text!)

↪ #my oc

↪ #heart of chaos au (my sonic au that is the only thing i draw about LMFAO /exaggeration)

---------------------------------------

🎃 Cws / tws (in order of more abundant to less), stay safe!

↪ loud text / all caps, bolds , italics, swearing.

↪ No ID / Image descriptions (I am horrible at describing I'm so sorry)

↪ staring / eye contact

↪ eye strain , bright colors

↪ cartoon violence, major/mild scars, blood / gore

↪ knives / sharp objects , guns.

↪ suggestive stuff, not straight up nsfw tho!

↪ fictional toxic relationships (mostly dbd ships, I do not support toxic relationships. its mostly for the narrative and all that psychology gizmo I rlly like.)

↪ fictional death (includes animals), body horror.

[hoarder-of-danmei]

Blogkeeping (post version for Android phones)

(Most recently updated: February 2022)

Things we currently tag:

Fandom tags: tgcf, mdzs, svsss, 2ha, shl; character tags: xie lian, nie huaisang, etc.; ship tags (romantic/platonic not differentiated): hualian, guzi and qi rong, etc.; motif/trope tags: hualesbians, hualian underwater kiss, etc.; dynamic tags: sub hua cheng, top xie lian, etc.; headcanon tags: hua cheng is trans!!!, xie lian is autistic!!!, etc.

Things that function both as warnings and organization tags: nsfa (“not safe for Apple” - for porn and adjacent), kissing (for fully visible mouth kisses in fanart), genderbend, /noncon, /dubcon, /incest, /underage, /[kink name] (ex. "/bondage")

memes, post posts, funny things, fanfic, fanart, art (for official art), relatable, comic

my captions (for image descriptions we write), described (for all fully accessible image posts), my posts (for original posts), my additions (for reblogs with text), asks, anonymous, [asker’s username], my writing, q (for queued posts)

Warnings we currently tag, with a “/[word/phrase]”/“/[word/phrase] mention” system (so, for example, "/abuse" or "/antis mention") (this is mostly just copied and pasted from our main blog, a lot of these probably won’t come up):

csa (for IRL only), rape (for IRL only), abuse, suicide baiting

transphobia, homophobia, racism, ableism, sexism, transmisogyny, transmisandry, exorsexism (for anti-nonbinary bigotry), aphobia, whorephobia, antis, antisemitism, misgendering, fatphobia, ageism, biphobia, queerphobia

medical, suicide, death, blood, injury, bugs, gore, body horror, eye horror, christianity, food, pregnancy, abortion, sex work, alcohol, drugs, scars, police

Other things we currently warn for, without that two-tag system:

long (for long posts), very long post, uncaptioned, partially uncaptioned, video, gifs, self rebloop (for self reblogs), signal boost, donations, nsfa mention (for mentions of sex), /noncon mention (for fictional only), /dubcon mention (for fictional only), /incest mention, /underage mention (for fictional only), animals (for pictures and discussions of animals)

negative (for vent posts), caps cw (for at least several words in all-caps), caps in tags (same but for stuff that stays in the tags), ask to warn (catch-all for things that feel like they should be warned for somehow - feel free to suggest warning tags)

Please let us know if you need or want something tagged that isn’t on this list! We might actually already tag it - I keep finding more tags that I forgot to put on here. But please ask.

[hoarder-of-stories-27]

Blogkeeping (post version for Android phones)

(Most recently updated: March 2022)

We try to find image descriptions for accessibility as often as possible, because that’s important, and sometimes write them ourselves for undescribed posts.

We get into discourse (link goes to our opinions page) sometimes (rarely more than an occasional reblog, recently).

A lot of our warning tags are censored, I’m sorry.  This is to avoid Tumblr shadowbanning us, while still giving the option of blacklisting each specific tag.

Things we currently tag:

tgcf, mdzs, svsss, shl, 2ha, murderbot diaries, homestuck, doctor who, star wars, leverage, character tags (dirk, eleven, clara) and ship tags (murderbot and ART, dirkjake, twelve and clara) for most fandoms

funny things, puns, story time (for IRL stories), stories (for fiction), fanfic (for fics), art (for original art), fanart, comic, encouragement (for positivity), music, post posts (for those things where you put a bunch of text posts on screenshots of characters), memes, [specific meme], satire, for when i'm sad (personal organization tag)

tag games (for posts asking you to answer something in the tags), ask games (for posts asking you to send asks/asks being answered for those posts), tumblr appreciation (for things we like about this site), NOT tumblr appreciation >:( (for things we dislike about this site)

bees!, dragons!, relatable (for relatable posts), fanfiction (for things about fandom), capitalism (for things about how capitalism is bad), callout culture (for things about how callout culture is bad), kindness (catch-all for most stuff about morality), judaism, christmas, accessibility, image descriptions, dancing (for videos of people dancing)

my captions (for image descriptions we write), my posts (for original posts), my additions (for reblogs with text), asks, anonymous, [asker’s username], q (for queued/scheduled posts), described (for images), transcribed (for audio), functionally captioned

autism stuff, paraphilia stuff, system stuff, gender stuff, queer stuff, aspec stuff, chronic illness stuff, empathy stuff (for how “low-empathy” doesn’t mean “evil”), rehabilitative justice stuff, activism stuff, auditory processing disorder stuff, dermatillomania stuff, disability stuff

Warnings we currently tag, with a “/[word/phrase]”/“/[word/phrase] mention” system (so, for example, "/abuse" or "/antis mention"):

csa, rape (for IRL), noncon (for fictional), incest, underage (for fictional), abuse, suicide baiting

transphobia, homophobia, racism, ableism, sexism, transmisogyny, transmisandry, exorsexism (for anti-nonbinary bigotry), aphobia, whorephobia, antis, antisemitism, misgendering, fatphobia, ageism, biphobia, queerphobia

kink, nudity, genitals, partial nudity

medical, suicide, death, blood, injury, bugs, gore, body horror, eye horror, christianity, food, pregnancy, abortion, sex work, alcohol, drugs, scars, police

discourse (for miscellaneous discourse), fiction discourse (will contain antis), ace discourse (will contain aphobes), queer discourse (will contain assorted queerphobes - TERFs, transmeds, exclusionists, etc.), syscourse (will contain anti-endos)

Other things we currently warn for, without that two-tag system:

long (for long posts), very long post, uncaptioned, partially uncaptioned, untranscribed, video, gifs, self rebloop (for self rebl/ogs), signal boost, donations, tgcf spoilers, kissing (for fully visible mouth kisses in fanart), /nsfa mention (for mentions of sex), animals (for pictures and discussions of animals), genderbend, pulsing lights (for flashing), /misinfo (mostly for jokes that may be unclear)

negative (for vent posts), caps cw (for at least several words in all-caps), caps in tags (same but for stuff that stays in the tags), ask to warn (catch-all for things that feel like they should be warned for somehow - feel free to suggest warning tags)

Please let us know if you need or want something tagged that isn't on this list! We might actually already tag it - I keep finding more tags that I forgot to put on here. But please ask.