#cw: eye stabbing

[blackjackkent]

All right. Time to go in and see Malus.

-----

The blood smell is even worse in the surgical theater. The air feels thick with it. Rakha can taste it as she breathes in.

Like the rest of the House of Healing, this place was once fine and has deteriorated terribly. The walls are lined with seating and stairs and balconies of polished wood long since left to rot. The tilework floor is stained with long streaks of dirt and blood. The creeping vines of the curse have broken through the ceiling and walls.

At the very center of the room is a raised platform even more stained with blood than the rest. Four more of the strange, blank nurses stand in a circle around a half-naked body stretched on an examination table. And next to them is a form quite unlike anyone Rakha has ever seen.

A tall, lanky figure - his ears are elven but the rest of his body looks deformed, misshapen. His arms and legs are wrapped and stretched and replaced by tarnished mechanical limbs twice their intended length. His metal "hands" twist, revealing sharp, curved, blade-like fingers. His eyes are covered by a strange goggled mask that gives him the appearance of a staring, gaping madman. Every part of him, every fiber of his clothes, is drenched in blood.

"The objective of the scalpel, sisters," he is crooning softly, somewhere between an academic lecture and a lullaby, "is to soothe, for the scalpel indeed is an extension of Shar. See how the patient reacts when I but stroke the right nerve. Hear its comfort. Hear the very melody of mercy..."

He drops one of his long, taloned claws and drifts the blade eagerly across an open wound in the side of the body stretched before him.

Their victim, it seems, is very much still alive. At the brushing touch of the blade, the broken man squirms and cries out in terror and pain, too weak even to put full voice behind the sound.

"Pray, sister," Malus says. "Show us the extent of your beneficence." He gestures one of the nurses forward.

She steps forward, lifts a rusted-looking scalpel in one hand, and takes an unsteady swing with it down into the victim's midsection. There's a sudden splash of blood. The man whimpers piteously.

"STOP!" Malus snaps. "Stay your hand, for it slaps where it should stroke. We can hardly hear the patient's sighs of solace..." The man's whimpers seem to punctuate this speech.

Malus turns slightly. His eyes are hidden by the goggles, but his gaze has clearly fixed on Rakha as she enters the room.

"Perhaps it is our unexpected audience that makes you quiver..." he purrs. "Come - step forward!" He gestures again with his strange mechanical hand, this time to Rakha, gesturing her towards the dais. "You are no sister, but that matters none. Every student is welcome!"

Rakha's mouth has gone very dry. She doesn't move.

She is remembering, suddenly, the flickering set of images which the noblestalk provided to her in the depths of the Underdark. The only clear memory she has ever attained of her past before the nautiloid.

Rakha and Sceleritas, side by side at a vivisection table. Blood spatters across her hand as she severs capillaries one by one, delicate, careful. The search for perfection in agony. She shoves Sceleritas's face into the corpse as he clips the aorta, killing her victim too quickly. Another failure. Another not-quite-perfect death...

The blood pulse thumps in her head and her vision blurs. Yes, growls the beast in her head. This man understands. He knows... everything that we once knew...

"A student. Yes," she hears herself say, her mouth moving without her volition. "Do please... enlighten me..."

"Absence..." one of the nurses murmurs vaguely.

"Absence," Malus agrees with a sort of casually manic satisfaction. "No other word captures the heart of Shar so very perfectly... it is the scalpel-led journey that leads from pain to peace..."

As if to punctuate his words, he turns and swings two sharp blows with the knives of his hand, puncturing into both of the restrained man's eyes. The man screams weakly and spasms on the bed as a new river of blood pours out onto the soaked wooden floor.

"Hells," Wyll hisses under his breath. "Only a monster would inflict misery and call it medicine."

Malus looks down at the bleeding, shivering man before him and smiles, pleased. "See? What is the light of eyes but the cancer that causes one to witness the laceration of being? If light is the symptom, then darkness is the cure, for in light there is presence, but in darkness there is absence."

"In light is presence, in darkness absence," all the nurses intone together in unison.

Malus turns back towards Rakha. That unsettling smile still touches his lips. "But you... look how the succor of Shar eludes you!" he cries. "See how painfully present you remain. We do not wish to see you suffer so..." He takes a step forward on his long, gangly, metallic legs, his smile widening. "Let us cure you..."

Rakha's head has begun to ache. Her vision is whiting out at the corners and the beast is roaring in her head with sudden eagerness - and with anger. In her own voice it cries out within her, echoing down from that memory of the long-ago vivisection.

No. He does not understand after all. He has it wrong. There is no peace to be found in this slow torture. One kills to see the body twist and writhe and bleed and pass out of the world in unpeaceful agony, with no answers, no closure, and no serenity.

Kill him. He insults his craft.

She shakes her head sharply, trying to clear it of these thoughts. Malus is monstrous, yes, but Wyll would find these thoughts in her head equally so.

And yet this is who she once was, isn't it? Another killer, another cutter and slicer of flesh. They are two monsters staring each other down over this brutalized half-corpse, each only differing in the philosophy behind their blades - Malus and the beast, with Rakha as she is now caught between them like a struggling fish on a hook.

She clamps her jaw down tightly and tries, desperately, to focus.

[INVESTIGATION] Examine the sisters and their implements.

Narrator: The sisters' blades are bloodied and dully. Only the most measured hand could make a clean incision.

Pitiful, murmurs the beast. This is not perfection. This is amateur. Slipshod. Pathetic.

"Their blades are uneven," she says abruptly. "Efficient surgery will require further training." There is a plan forming in the back of her mind - and she cringes inwardly even as she thinks of it, because it is the beast's plan and not hers. It smells of viscera.

Malus tilts his head thoughtfully. "Their incisions are, as yet, still streaked with imperfection - that much I must concede," he says, with the air of a man discussing the weather. "How to steady their hands, I wonder..."

Rakha's harsh, off-kilter gaze bores into him. [PERSUASION] "Why not have them hone their skills on each other?"

Her mouth is operating without her. This is the beast speaking, the past version of herself that exists only in that single fragmented memory, reawoken by the familiarity of this blood-soaked room.

And Malus drinks every word down eagerly. "Yessss..." he hisses, his smile never shifting. "For are we not all in need of a cure?"

He draws back, lifts both grotesque hands in the air, and calls out to the nurses. "The scalpel does not discriminate! Let each and every one of you partake in its soothing journey! Absence, sisters! Acquaint yourselves!"

It's incredible, the alacrity with which the sisters obey.

Within moments they have cut each other apart. Four fresh corpses lie stretched on the floor, and Rakha sways dizzily as the beast feeds on the sight with eager hunger.

"It is a proud moment," Malus says dreamily, "when one sees one's teachings so lovingly taken to heart."

He turns slowly towards Rakha and flexes the mechanical joints of his piercing fingers. "You are to be commended for their graduation," he murmurs. "Rewarded with the promised cure. Come... I will acquaint you with the Lady's dark-fingered embrace..."

Rakha tips her head to one side and the beast's strange, feral smile tugs at her lips. For a moment she is aware of no one else but herself and Malus - of his madness and her own. [PERSUASION] "I would rather acquaint myself," she says, her voice calm and flat. "If you show me how."

(A/N: Slight artistic license - Rakha had a [BARD] persuasion option here instead, but it was much more verbose and performative and not Rakha-ish. This is the actual fallback dialogue line that is normally offered if you don't have a class-specific option.)

A long silence. Then Malus smiles again.

"Your diligence is exemplary..." he murmurs. "Very well. Your own scalpel will you be. Observe - then succeed me, into the succor of Shar!" His voice lifts in a sudden fanatical yelp--

And then without the slightest hesitation, he sinks one of his blades directly through his eye and into his brain. His body topples over backwards with a heavy, clattering thump and is still.

-----

Silence.

Rakha sinks slowly to her knees, staring at the sudden pile of corpses which has taken over the dais. She is trembling all over. The beast purrs in her head, sated, satisfied.

"What... in all the hells... was that?" Wyll asks faintly.

She jumps. She'd half-forgotten that he was there, or any of the others. "I... I don't know," she mutters. "I hardly knew what I was saying."

"An efficient resolution," Lae'zel says, just the slightest bit dryly. "Though I would not have objected to a fight."

"It is as I have already said," Minthara says, quiet and disdainful. "The Sharran philosophy is selfish, self-indulgent. This was a foolish performance, and Rakha put an end to it." She fixes Wyll with a pointed glance. "Or do you wish to say she has erred in securing that abomination's death?"

"No...ooo," Wyll says cautiously. "He had to be dealt with, that's certain. I'm just surprised, that's all."

He knows, of course. He was the only person to whom she explained the memory that the noblestalk gave her. He knows this echoed something terrible in her, and that she gave that echo voice, even if the cause was good. He is kind enough not to say anything, but he knows, all the same.

She hates it, all of it. And she hates that he knows, most of all.

[citrusinicake]

in another universe

[sandeewithtwoe]

TW: BLOOD

Dtiys for @its-paperd !!

Congrats on hitting 400+ followers 🎉

Killer belongs to rahafwabas

(Alt versions under the cut)

[wonderingcheese]

Lieutenant Commander yes🧎‍♀️; @eyesofshan-if <3

[junkanimate]

My lady <3<3<3<3

[fernnshxj]

tested sum painting type shit idk i think they look cool

ft ofc my oc miori

one is an angst piece the other was for funnnn

i suck ass at realizsimm i’m goin back to not coloring the whites in eyes

[audi-art]

Anti-Weeb Dot of @weeb-warners from a few weeks ago!!

[insomniatm1023]

soooooo beeen a bitttt but hey have goretober art! :D

this is the list im using so heed this as your warnings lmao

NOW ONTO THE ART!!! I am a few days behind but ykkkk

[drawnecromancy]

Recurring Nightmares.

Sometimes the fact that Abron looks a LOT like his grandfather, Keryth, who murdered Maran's family and also stabbed Maran that one time, hits a bit hard. Sometimes Maran's nightmares get weird about it.

(Keryth and Abron belong to @lee-thee-bee)

art taglist :@jezifster@isabellebissonrouthier (feel free to ask to be added to it!)

[lifesver]

keep also thinking about a particularly fucked scene of leland getting tossed in a freezer w body parts already in it, waking up and just fucking freaking out, hyperventilating, slamming at the lid trying to get out. when he does get out there just being , bodies wrapped in plastic, freezer burned staring at him from the walls of the cold room. forcing himself to get up, think about his friends. anyway he gets really claustrophobic after that and a lot of his nightmares later are about the cold room.

[habitual-creatures]

*Tea starts violently freaking out more towards Observer than anyone, attempting to stab one of his eyes with her spider-like legs*

...T3A?

~CHA0TICALLY, DISC0RD/🕕

FINE.

Catcarrieritis,youlittle...

AGH- FUCKER.

STAY.

YOU'REABADTEAPOT,TEA.

GOTIT?!

ABADTEAPOT.

[h0ll0w-gr0v3]

RAVEN! SNAP OUT OF IT.

~Joanne✒️📖

I.. I'm sorry-

Poor Joanne... Who will take care of your kids when I get to em? Hah...

[ Raven, or Smoke, who was in control, grabbed Joanne's arm. Pulling her closer and lifting the hellblade up, getting a easy stab straight through to Joanne's heart. ]

NO- Please.. I'm sorry- Oh god..

[fictionkinfessions]

SO. MANY. BAD. MEMORIES,

FUCK, WHY DID I TRAR MY SOUL APART. WHY WOULDNT I TAKE MY VIALS WHEN I HURT PEOPLE. EHY DIDNT I FUCKING LISTEN TO DREAM!!?? IM SUCH A FUCKING IDIOT. IM SORRY FOR WHATEVER THE FUCK I DID, JUST FUCKING GIVE ME ERROR BACK!! GIVE ME MY ZUCCHINI (QPR partner) BACK!! ~Ink sans

That fucking apple is the bane of my existence. It was so delicious and its texture was amazing but I wanna vomit thinking about it. And WHY DIDNT I FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE VILLAGERS!? Actually, no. I’m done blaming myself. WHY. IN THE INFINITE MULTIVERSE. WOULD THEY TORMENT A CHILD. THEY BROKE MY EYESOCKET!! THEY THREW ME INTO A LAKE!! WHY DIDNT MOM STEP IN!? IM STILL TERRIFIED TO PUT MY HEAD UNDERWATER IN THIS LIFE BECAUSE I ALMOST DROWNED IN THE LAST ONE!! ~Passive and Corrupted Nightmare

Give… us… back… our… BROTHERS!! ~Dream sans and Chara

Ow. My soul hurts. He only stabbed it in the beginning, and he stopped using soul contracts after recruiting me, but it still hurt. FML. ~Killer sans

Sorry, I just needed to scream…. I feel better now…….

x

[lilandetime]

Everything is Going to be Okay

Please pay attention to the content warnings. None of this is fun.

Sunny's heart pounds as he jolts up from his sleeping bag.

What time is it? It's certainly still the middle of the night.

He sits up, a bad feeling in his gut.

Maybe he was still feeling the effects of that steak.

But, maybe…

It was something else…

He stands.

He has to check on Basil.

As Sunny cautiously walks to Basil's room, he calls out for him.

… Well, he less called out, and more shakily whispered his name.

"Basil?"

Sunny puts his hand on the doorknob.

Why?

Why were his hands shaking?

Sunny opens the door.

He steps into the dark bedroom, illuminated only by the moon's eerie glow.

The only other living soul in this room was Basil.

Simply staring out of the window.

As Sunny closes the door, Basil flinches, turning to face him.

"Ah… Sunny… it's… just you…"

… Sunny wants to wave to his friend. But stops himself.

"I'm glad you came… It's… it's so good to see you…"

Basil's breaths shake. The room's silence is suffocating.

"... It came to you that day… the day Mari died.

When… when Mari fell…"

Basil tries to force a smile.

"You… you couldn't have done it. It was Something behind you, wasn't it?"

… Sunny tries to force his words out. But they fail to leave his throat.

"You're a good person, Sunny. I know you're a good person!

A good person wouldn't do something like that…"

Basil shakily exhales.

"After all this time, you've finally come back for me…"

He averts his eyes.

"But tomorrow… you're going away…"

"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?!"

The words burst from Basil's throat, as his voice breaks.

"That's mean, Sunny! That's so mean!"

He yells through tears, pulling at his hair.

Creeping through the shadows…

"A… ah… there's…"

Under Basil's feet…

"There's Something all around us, now…"

Up Basil's body…

"Can you see it, Sunny..?"

Around his waist…

"There's no way out of this, is there?"

Sunny backs away.

He turns, wanting to run, wanting to get help.

But Something lingers at the door. Causing his legs to freeze up.

He turns back, only to see two blue eyes staring into his, as Basil had gotten close to his face.

"Where are you going? Stop trying to leave me-!"

Basil's body breathes with panic and desperation, as Sunny barely has room between Basil and Something at the door.

"S-Stop it!

Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!"

Basil repeatedly screams, shaking his head.

Basil opens his eyes.

"I…"

He quickly backs away to the center of the room.

"I don't… want to be… alone… not again…

You can't… leave me… again…"

Sunny takes a few steps towards Basil, his body shaking.

"No… You wouldn't leave me…"

Basil smiles.

"That's not like you, Sunny! It's Something behind you again, isn't it?"

… It's spreads to each corner of Basil's room. Its mouth wraps Basil's waist.

"Ah-! There it is now!"

Basil's hand reaches to his end table.

"Can you see it?"

His fingers curl around the handle

Of a pair of sharp, shiny garden shears.

He points it in front of him, and yells out.

"Stay away! Stay away from Sunny!"

Basil breathes heavily.

"I'll protect you no matter what, Sunny. You can count on me..!

When Something killed Mari…"

Basil's hands shake.

"When Something ruined all of my photos…

I didn't say anything… I didn't want people to think it was you, Sunny."

… Again, Sunny failed to speak.

"Sunny… Sunny wouldn't do something like that…

…

Don't worry, Sunny. I'll save you again!

Something behind you… I'll get rid of it once and for all!"

… Sunny tries to leave.

But there it is again. Something behind him. Forcing him to back towards the shaking, armed Basil.

"Sunny… Don't be scared…

I'm scared, too, but…"

Basil tries to smile.

"This is for the best.

Everything is going to be okay."

Basil grips his shears tight.

"Everything…"

Something herds Sunny close to the flower boy.

"... Is going to be okay…"

Sunny's breaths accelerate. Faster…

Basil's eyes pour with tears.

Sunny can't concentrate. He tries to calm down.

Take a deep breath…

… But he can't. He chokes on his lungs.

"There's no other way out of this, is there?"

… Immediately, Sunny snaps to attention, as a blade sinks into his shoulder.

"Ghk-!" He fights the urge to yell, trying to shove Basil away.

Sunny tries to focus… block out all of the little things…

But as Basil's eyes stare into his, as his shoulder stings in pain, he feels like wants to throw up.

Sunny barely avoids Basil's blades.

Sunny tries to persist… but his legs continued to shake.

Basil's shears scrape his arm.

Sunny tries to grab them, but Basil avoids him.

"Sunny… am I selfish for doing this?"

Sunny is stabbed in the arm. He retaliates with a punch.

"S… sunny… do you hate me?"

Sunny once again tries to grab Basil's shears. But he's thrown into a table, as the legs of it break and the flower pots crash down on him. … There's a snap within him.

"Stop it…"

Sunny struggles to stand, as he's stabbed again, just barely missing any organs. He shoves basil away.

"Stop struggling… I'm so tired…"

Sunny breathes heavily. His mind was a mess. His heart was pounding out of his chest.

Why?

Why was this happening?

His fear dissipates, and turns into pure stress.

Basil was going to kill him. This isn't a fight. It's survival.

Sunny tries his hardest to get away, getting in as many punches as he can.

"Please stop it…"

Basil can't be talked down. He had to get those shears away from him.

Sunny grabs Basil as he's almost stabbed again, turning them against him in panic.

"Why..? Why won't you stop?!"

Sunny grabs Basil by the arms, and shoves him against the wall.

Basil breathes heavily. He stares into Sunny's right eye.

"I see it…"

As Sunny's hand moves to grab his shears…

… Half of his vision goes black.

Sunny holds his hands against what used to be his right eye, stumbling back. His left moves, to see the blood dripping from Basil's shears. And feels the blood dripping from his eye.

"Bas…."

As Sunny collapses, Aubrey is jolted awake in the living room, by the loud heavy thump of his limp body hitting the ground.

"What was that?"

As Sunny collapses, Basil's eyes widen, now seeing the red pooling under him.

"Sunny? S… Sunny?!"

Aubrey stands, stretching, before heading to the hallway.

"I… I just killed my best friend…. I just killed my best friend."

This sends Basil into a panic, as he drops to his knees, screaming.

"I JUST KILLED MY BEST FRIEND. I JUST KILLED MY BEST FRIEND. I JUST KILLED MY BEST FRIEND. I JUST KILLED MY BEST FRIEND. I JUST KILLED MY BEST FRIEND. I JUST KILLED MY BEST FRIEND!"

Aubrey arrives at Basil's bedroom door. "Basil-? Are you okay in there?"

Basil breathes heavily…

"My best friend is dead…"

His mind starts racing. And the old voice returns.

Why are you putting it off?

Everyone you love is gone.

Do it.

Basil opens the shears. He points them towards himself.

"I'm… I'm coming in, okay?"

Aubrey opens the door.

And that moment is when it happens.

First she hears the squelch. Then the snip of the garden shears.

Then she sees the pouring red.

"A…" Aubrey screams in terror of the scene before her.

Two of her friends on the floor, not yet dead but not alive.

Polly had heard the scream, she runs to see what happened.

"What's going o-" she sees Sunny and Basil, gasping.

"A…Aubrey..! Wrap their wounds in anything you can find, I'm going to call an ambulance!"

Aubrey doesn't move for a second, before running into the room, grabbing the sheets and blankets from Basil's bed, trying to stop the bleeding the best she can.

"S… stay with me, please..!"

She breathes heavily, tears flowing from her eyes.

[chimneysweepghost]

the fuck was this guy thinking signing off on this portrait. laughed my ass off in the gallery at it. the sheer gall.

[covenscribe]

2023 03 15 - The Ides of March

Debated posting this since it uh, ended up more gruesome than I intended . Not that assassinations aren't grisly by nature.

Anyways Cesar's last words were "See you in hell you Weeaboo shits."