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varteeny1234 · 1 month ago

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the next installment in this completely normal (/silly) au!

Summary:

Marm and Avid have somewhat adjusted to Marm's new void magic-related predicament. And if you asked Avid, he'd say that even if neither of them particularly liked the circumstances, their bond was definitely stronger than it had been before.

Words: 1572

Chapters: 1/1

Warnings (PLEASE READ): Temporary character death, graphic depictions of violence, intense blood and gore, cannibalism, fair bit of guilt

No romantic ships, just Marm and Avid being friends<3

*frantic* THE TITLE IS A JOKE GUYS THERE'S NO SMUT IN THIS+++

"I'm just saying, you complain a lot for someone who literally agreed to this."

Marm laughed, blood dripping down the sides of her face. She was a mess- she licked her fingers, which were covered in even more gore. She tore another piece out of Avid's side- he was lying underneath her on the floor of her witch hut, trying not to bleed out too fast. He had a death-grip on a rag that he'd found, in the hand that was still attached to his body. One of his legs was missing everything below the thigh. The other was pinned in place by Marm.

"AGh- it hurts! I am allowed to complain that it hurts!" Exclaimed Avid. "I am missing half my body! I'm bleeding out on your floor! I'm not going to leave you to starve, but I definitely don't have to like it!" His face was also covered in blood- just about everything in the room was- but it was in one piece. Part of their deal was that the flesh of Avid's face was off-limits; the sensation of that being torn away was just too much for him.

"I never said you did. And anyways, it's not my fault you taste so good. I'm leaving the best parts for last, too." Marm poked him. It sent another sharp twinge of pain running through his systems, but it was drowned out in the rest of the agony within a second.

Doing his best to give a deadpan glare, Avid wheezed, "But your favorite parts of me to eat are the ones that would kill me instantly. Doesn't that just make it last longer- AAH!"

Another chunk of his midsection disappeared down her throat. She hummed in consideration. "Well, it wouldn't be a full meal if I only ate a few especially tasty bits. If we did that, then I'd have to kill you more than once to be satisfied. Is that what you'd prefer?"

Avid was going to reply, but Marm decided at that moment to break off one of his ribs. It was always the ribs. He just barely held back a shout, and he slammed his fist into the ground. The sound that the bone made when Marm bit down on it was... less than pleasant. Nothing about this situation was pleasant for him, to be fair, but the sound of his bones being crunched was particularly icky, alongside the fact that it hurt even more than when Marm played 'what combination of guts and organs will I get with a random handful of Avid's insides.'

He... didn't like that game very much.

"Why do you always go for the ribs," Avid choked out.

Marm laughed. "They're good. It's an experience unlike the rest of this, in and of itself. The delicious meat's stuck to the bone, and so you have to scrape it off with your teeth, sort of? I'm not really sure how to explain it other than that... and the bones are strong, but not too strong, so it's very satisfying to chew them into little pieces." Taking out another rib, and ignoring Avid's scream, she continued. "Lucky there's a bunch of them, and you don't immediately die if I take a few. They're wonderfully savory, and sweet. Did you know?"

"No, I didn't know! Why would I need to know how my ribs taste?"

Even though his eyes were closed, he could imagine Marm's devious grin on her face as she spoke again. "Well, you won't understand why they're my favorite if you don't know."

"You're weird about ribs. Honestly, it'd be easier for me if your favorite was, like, my heart, or something! But it's ribs- AH!"

"Hm. What I think is that you're weird that I have a favorite part of you to eat. Wait, I've just thought of a good idea!"

Avid didn't trust her at all. In this situation, none of her ideas really turned out well for him.

"Maybe you'd understand if you got the opportunity to taste a rib!"

...There it was. Did Marm really expect him to eat raw meat, from himself at that?! "I am not going to let you feed me a piece of my own body, thank you very much," he said. The words came out all in one breath. He could tell he was running out of time before he respawned, and he knew Marm could too.

She laughed again. "Ha! You're silly, monkey man. You don't think I'm talking about your ribs, do you? What I mean is that you should try some of mine!"

She was suggesting him eating her?! That was somehow even worse! Marm eating him was one thing, since she needed to or else she'd starve to death- her void magic wasn't all fun and games. But Avid was still, technically, an ordinary player! He got by on normal food just fine, he had no good reason to eat his friends. The thought of his and Marm's positions swapped made his stomach turn. He shook his head as best he could.

"Alright, if you're sure. Ribs are reeeeally good though."

"I THINK I'LL JUST TAKE YOUR WORD FOR IT," Avid yelled out as fast as he could. "I'M GOOD!"

As his vision began to go spotty, he stopped putting in the effort to form coherent thoughts. He was pretty sure Marm polished off at least half of his ribs before he felt his whole body go numb, and he woke up in the bed that was only a short ways away.

His limbs were tingly. They were always tingly at this stage. He closed his fists, and flexed his fingers, making sure he could feel his whole body before opening his eyes again. There weren't any lights in Marm's hut, which helped. Squinting, he looked over at Marm, who had moved so that she was sitting back against the wall with her eyes closed, appearing deep in thought.

Avid knew that, despite her joking banter while she ate him, she hated the fact that she needed to kill him for her own health. They'd settled into this routine long enough ago that it wasn't as bad- she was more desensitized to the guilty feelings. And she hadn't had any complete breakdowns like she'd had the first time. But still, he couldn't help but feel bad for her. A small smile formed on his face as he sat up- slowly, though, he was still a little disoriented from the respawn.

"Marm, I'd come over there and hug you, but you're still covered in gross stuff." He let some amusement leak into his voice.

Marm smiled. Avid heard her breathe in and out, deeply. She stood up, putting a hand on her hip. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. You're just afraid to get all messy again," she teased. She wiggled her fingers in his direction, eliciting a laugh from him. "Give me a minute."

"Hurry up and change or something so I can hug you already!" Avid exclaimed.

She went outside to wash off the blood, and put on a new dress. In the few minutes she was gone, Avid steadied himself, slipping off the bed and onto his feet. He used the rag he'd been squeezing earlier to wipe up some of the blood- he didn't want to make Marm have to clean up everything. There wasn't a slick, red puddle on the floor anymore, at least.

The dirtied rag went into the corner on top of a chest, just as Marm returned, now blood-free. She spun in a circle once.

"All clean, now?" She asked.

Avid walked over and grabbed her hand, no longer feeling wobbly, and tugged her over towards him. "Yes. Cuddle time, Marm," he demanded. He folded her into a tight embrace. Marm returned it, burying her face in his hair. "You okay?"

"Mhm," she responded.

"Well, alright then. I believe you."

"Thanks for checking in, though. It's not easy for either of us." Marm's voice had lowered to a whisper. She was definitely getting tired, then. The refreshed feeling of being full, they'd found, was quickly replaced by exhaustion from the extreme use of void magic, even passively. She yawned, proving his suspicion.

Avid hummed. Then, in one quick move, swept Marm up into his arms. "Nap time for you, Marm, I can feel how tired you are."

She glared at him- knowing her, she was likely thinking about protesting- but she yawned again, and gave up. She curled up a little smaller instead. "I was going to argue, but I'm too tired to deal with that. Which would also only weaken my case, wouldn't it?" She said.

Nodding, Avid dropped her gently onto her bed. "It would. Scoot over, Marm, make some room for me!" He poked her shoulder, which earned him another grumpy look. But she did move! He flopped onto the bed next to her, giving her a grin.

He pulled the blanket over them both. Marm reached over and grabbed his arm, holding it close to herself, cradling it like it provided a form of comfort to her... it probably did, Avid realized. He readjusted himself so he was holding her hand, and he squeezed it three times.

Marm didn't notice, of course. After all, she'd fallen fast asleep in only a matter of moments. Avid smiled, leaning forwards to press a gentle kiss to her forehead.

"Sweet dreams, Marm," he whispered.

#my stuff #marmvid #marmvid cannibalism au #cannibalism #blood #gore #mart #gotta include my special tags. mart<333 #sbk

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varteeny1234 · 3 months ago

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PART 2 OF THIS :D

Summary:

The same series of events, but from Avid's point of view :3

Words: 5598

Chapter: 2/2

Warnings (PLEASE READ): Temporary character death, graphic depictions of violence, described nausea but no vomiting, intense blood and gore, cannibalism and all the emotions that come with that, extreme guilt

No romantic ships, but centers Avid & Marm's friendship :D

Avid woke up and all but jumped out of bed. He was excited for the day! He wanted to go exploring with someone today, and he knew that Marm still wanted lily pads. They could go looking for more woodland mansions together, and he might even get the chance to tell her a little bit more on why she should stop convincing people to throw themselves into the void. She didn't even know she was actively sabotaging an extremely powerful deity with her antics. Olm probably hated her more than he hated Avid himself!

He sighed. He should forget about this for today- he couldn't let it affect his mood!

Flying away from the Jungle kingdom, he set course for Marm's mangrove swamp, whistling a happy tune under his breath, knowing and not caring that it was lost in the wind. Before long, the stepping-stone bridges below led right up to the edge of the island. He landed, jogging around with a bounce in his step. He couldn't see or hear his friend anywhere around, so he took flight again.

"Marma1ade!" He called, jovially, as he passed over top of the two witch huts. Of course- it was still technically morning, Marm had probably stayed up too late reading and was still asleep. He laughed cheerily, of course that's what she'd have done! She really did love her books.

He landed, and walked up the steps, opening the door of Marm's small hut. "Marm? Where are you? Are you in your hut- oh my gosh, are you okay?"

He'd found her, at least, although not in a good state- Marm was on the floor, obviously in pain, and she was staring at him with an expression he'd never seen before. It unsettled him greatly.

Suddenly, before he could try and help her, Marm gasped loudly, leapt towards the door, and grabbed onto him. They fell outside into the swamp. Mud and swamp plants got stuck in Avid's fur, which felt horrifically uncomfortable. He shivered. "Agh, Marm, what the heck? You got my fur all muddy! What's going on with you?" He exclaimed, rolling away from Marm, who whimpered in what he guessed was pain. Had she done something to herself?

He stood up. "Marm? Should I call someone for help?" He cautiously stepped closer to her. Looking closer, he could see now that her eyes were the void-touched black that they were when she used her void magic. Her hands were also, strangely enough, sparkly. "Uh... your eyes are all funny," Avid frowned.

Trying to offer a hand to help her up, maybe walk her back to the hut to see if she could tell him what happened to her, he ignored the dread that was pooling in his gut from that haunted look on her face and forced himself to smile semi-reassuringly. But Marm, quick as lightning, reached her hand out and grabbed his ankle. Her hold was much stronger than he would have expected it to be.

"Let go of me!" With a fair amount of difficulty, Avid managed to wrench his leg away. He would be lying if there wasn't a dash of fear mixed in with his already-present feeling of worry.

"Something's wrong, I know, but you're acting really weird, and I don't like it. I don't like anything to do with the void or your new weird magic, you know this!" Another small step backwards. "So please, enlighten me, what's going on-"

Really, he should have expected Marm to tackle him again. His right arm was pinned above his head, and she moved too quickly for him to wiggle away this time, holding his body down as she bit down into his shoulder with what felt like fangs.

Avid's eyes were wide in both pain and what he was no longer ashamed to admit was fear. A peek at his shoulder- which felt like it was on fire, actually- revealed a very gruesome sight. There was a whole chunk taken out of his skin, and blood was leaking everywhere into his torn clothes and mixing with the mud underneath him.

Marm was chewing. What the fuck, she was chewing, she was eating the piece of him she'd bitten off what the fuck was happening-

He let out a scream, when Marm bit him again. His left hand was tingly. He tried to lift his arm up, a last-ditch effort at escaping this nightmare of a situation. She grabbed his wrist.

Marm did not just bite off three of his fingers-

His throat stopped making sound, and he was probably going into some form of shock; he was hyperventilating as he watched his best friend swallow the remaining parts of his hand. This was a nightmare- this was a nightmare in all senses but literal, this had to be some of the worst pain he had ever felt in his entire life, and he had no idea why Marm was doing it! He was beginning to feel lightheaded, which was most definitely from the blood loss.

Then all of a sudden, he felt a burst of cold air on his chest combined with the same searing heat and pain that was throbbing in his entire left side. The insides of his chest were not supposed to be exposed to the outside air! His ears were ringing, and his brain was starting to feel fuzzy. However, sadly, that didn't mean the feeling of a rib cracking hurt any less- just that it meshed into the rest of it.

He squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth, tears rushing down the sides of his face. Avid was almost startled when the pressure on his right arm vanished for a moment.

That was then ruined by more terrible agony when he couldn't feel anything below his elbow in that arm anymore- his guess, on account of Marm detaching it.

A valiant attempt at zoning out was made, his last trick to try and escape- if only in his own mind, then so be it- but as hard as he tried, he just couldn't get himself to focus on anything except the unbearable torment when he felt what had to be Marm's hand dig inside his chest and break off one of his ribs. It was as uncomfortable as it hurt...

And the hand kept pulling his ribs out of his chest, one by one, the sound of his bones snapping one that he knew he'd never be able to forget. He couldn't muster up the energy to even move, anymore. Avid was barely able to force himself to keep breathing, which he did in fast, quick breaths. His heartbeat was pounding in his eardrums. He almost didn't notice that Marm stopped her assault on the parts of his body that he was still attached to.

It was a very short reprieve, and it was broken when he felt her reach back inside his chest and there was a weird pressure in the middle and then suddenly everything went quiet because there was no more heartbeat he couldn't hear it he couldn't feel it Avid didn't have a heart in his chest anymore-

Avid fell off the top bunk in the Jungle kingdom's treehouse with a gasp.

Luckily, he was able to catch himself with his arms that he was incredibly grateful were now both attached to his body and in one piece. He tried to stand up, using the wall as a support. The dizziness hit him full-force, and he took about three wobbly steps in one of the directions before tripping over his own feet and landing on the floor again. Something was uncomfortable, he realized... oh, his arm was stuck underneath his body.

Rolling over gave him only a second of relief, since the sturdy wooden floor disappeared out from underneath him, and he was at least lucky enough to find himself bouncing on the slime packed underneath layers of moss outside on the actual island parts of the kingdom.

As soon as he stopped bouncing, he sank into the slime, and it was nice until his brain spit out the thought that it was too sticky, too similar to blood, he's back in the other swamp, he's in the mud, his body is being torn apart and he violently flung himself away from it onto the worn dirt path, landing on his stomach again. Avid felt itchy all over, like his fur was trying to rip itself off of him. His upper body felt tingly. And he had a headache. Phantom pains remained in his left shoulder and chest, pulsing, and after a somewhat pitiful try at sitting up, he collapsed onto the ground.

He had died, he realized. Marm had killed him.

...More specifically, she'd eaten him alive and that had killed him because not having a heart was a really good way to die. He shuddered, remembering how silent everything had been once his heart was gone. Marm had really just pulled it out of his chest, hadn't she?

And now, here he was, freshly respawned, back home safe and sound.

The tip of Avid's tail was rapidly flicking all over the place, and his foot was twitching. His hand wandered around and found some vines, and he held onto one of the stems as tight as he could, flipping one of the leaves back and forth with his thumb. It did help to relax him a little bit- leaves were one of the better things to fidget with whenever he got particularly antsy.

Still, lying on the floor facedown for a day or two to recover sounded like a nice idea.

~~~~

Not nearly enough time had passed when the ringing in Avid's ears returned. He had been mostly relaxed, even!

Well, his brain had finally realized he wasn't in any pain anymore. He still couldn't sit still, but to be fair, that hadn't really ever been something he was good at.

The noise was... getting louder, now, which was annoying. But it had to pass eventually! It was just some background noise that wasn't really there, a very faint high-pitched screeching, something that would go away within a few seconds.

Any second now.

Alright, maybe it wasn't going to go away for a bit. It would be fine, Avid could still do things! His original plans for the day, exploring with Marm, were definitely cancelled, but there was a lot of building left to do that he could busy himself with.

He sat up, slowly, finding the ladder up to the treehouse and holding onto it. The dizziness was gone, which was a pleasant surprise. Nothing was in actual pain, he just felt kind of fuzzy underneath his skin. That was normal, probably. He wanted to remember as little of the past hour or however-long-it-had-been as possible, but the ghost of the sensation of Marm's nails tearing underneath the layers of his skin and ripping it off made him shiver.

And, once he remembered Marm, an sickening concoction of fear and guilt and worry mixed its way into his stomach. Going back to the swamp was off the table for at least a while; Avid might be concerned about how strange she'd been, however, he wasn't ready to go back to the place he'd just been attacked. Not yet. Later, probably- once he was feeling better and trusted himself to make a quick escape if needed.

He didn't want to think about what she'd done to him, but he couldn't shake the thought she just hadn't been acting like herself! In fact, the magical-looking sparkles showering from her hands and her wide, dark eyes were signs that she'd been suffering from her own void magic.

The void! Of course it was the void at work again- that stupid thing just couldn't leave Marm alone. Why did it always have to come back to the void?!

Avid facepalmed. The sound he was hearing wasn't his ears ringing at all, it was the void. What did it want with him, though?

Remembering a conversation he'd had with Marm a long time ago, he assumed that if the void was screaming at him, then Marm must be unavailable to... feed it, or whatever. Well, it was out of luck, since throwing himself into the void on purpose was absolutely NEVER going to happen.

"You listen to me, uh, void!" Avid shouted. "I'm not going to jump down there! You're just going to have to find someone else for that!"

He would just put up with the noise. It couldn't get that much worse.

~~~~

Avid was wrong, the noise could and did get so, so much worse.

It was so loud he could hardly hear his own thoughts. He had even tried fleeing up to the top of the ant farm, to get as far away from the void as possible, and his efforts only proved fruitless. The sound didn't fade the slightest bit no matter where he went.

He looked over the edge of the rope bridge, seeing the Underswamp below. Jumping off, he aimed for where he'd aimed a thousand times before, an island he knew the exact location of. But when he fell, his heart dropped- he missed the slime island platforms entirely! He missed the vines and the waterfalls, unable to climb or swim back upwards, and he'd forgotten to wear his elytra.

The void below suffocated him, its cold embrace an unsettling feeling. No matter how familiar the feeling was, he couldn't shake the horrid sensations away. The sounds of the void's screeching didn't change in volume.

When Avid respawned for the second time that day, he realized with great irritation that the void hadn't shut up.

He'd fallen and died! Was that not what Marm always did to feed it? What was he supposed to do, then, if it wasn't hungry?

Marm. She might know. Or... maybe the void magic was still tormenting her and she wouldn't be able to do anything. He wouldn't know unless he went to go and look himself...

If he ended up getting jumped again, and still wasn't able to figure out why the heck the void was still trying to get him to do something, he didn't know what would happen. But he was getting really sick of the sound, so he decided to cut his losses and fly over right then.

Avid grabbed nothing other than his elytra and some rockets, and began the short flight over to the Mangrove swamp- again, for the second time that day. The sound of the wind rushing by went nearly unnoticed.

Once the lush dark greens and murky browns and greys of the swamp appeared, he clenched his fists. Whatever happened next, no matter what it was, it was going to change the entire relationship between him and Marm... him and the person he'd consider one of his closest friends.

The sign that alerted him he was entering the Mangrove kingdom flashed its loud warning- enter at his own risk, indeed- and then, surprising him enough that he nearly fell out of the sky, the void went completely silent!

It didn't fade out. It didn't go slowly, it just stopped. All of a sudden, it was there, and then it was gone, like it had never even existed in the first place. The silence left a ringing in his ear- he wasn't quite readjusted to the lack of screaming yet.

Just because he was here now didn't mean he was going to land right away. He flew over the swamp, trying to see if he could spot Marm anywhere, but if she was still here, she was hidden well. Avid touched down a little ways away from where he'd been last time, in front of Marm's hut. He still couldn't see or hear Marm anywhere nearby.

Slowly, he walked over to where he knew he'd been... attacked. The evidence of what had happened was still left behind. A large pool of blood sat in the mud and muck.

Avid's blood. Stuff that had been inside his body just that morning.

He shuddered involuntarily.

He still had a mission: to find Marm. The void had shut up once he'd entered the swamp, so he didn't need her help with that anymore, of course, but some voice inside his brain told him that if he left the kingdom now, the noise would start right back up again.

There were smears of more blood on the ground that led over to a small pool of water, in a cluster of trees. Avid cautiously walked over. He mentally applauded himself for not running away or turning back, even though he was definitely physically shaking. The blood trail ended in the water. Marm must have tried to clean herself off.

A soft sound came from behind the curtain of vines to his side. Avid recognized it... it sounded like someone gasping a small breath as quietly as they could, when they didn't want to be heard or found.

Well, he'd found Marm.

"Marm? Are you in there?" He called as gently as he could, hoping he didn't sound scared.

There was the same sound again, but louder this time. She was definitely hiding under this tree. Avid didn't peek under the roots, but there was no way he was leaving. "Marm? I... I really need to talk to you. You scared me real bad! Uh... you're, like, yourself again, right? You're not planning on attacking me out of nowhere?" He tried for a chuckle, but it fell flat.

Listening closely, he heard her voice, barely above a whisper. "Sorry" was what he was pretty sure she'd said- he wasn't completely sure. Still, that was enough evidence for him. Marm was definitely herself again if she was hiding away here, whispering apologies to him. But she sounded like she was hurting, too...

Avid pulled the vines to the side, crawling underneath the mangrove roots to join her. He surprised himself with his remaining jitteriness, his legs still trembling. He plopped down in the water and mud, caring much less about his fur getting messy again once he saw the state that Marm was in.

She was still absolutely covered in blood, but it did look like she'd tried to wash it off her hands and face, at the very least. The dark browns and greys of mud streaked down her dress. Her hair was tangled and wild, and the plants that normally decorated it were gone. Avid didn't know if they were there by magic or not- he hadn't asked. Marm looked weird without them.

When she looked up at him, his heart ached. Her eyes were purple again. Their ordinary, non-magical, un-corrupted, healthy purple. And the sadness, the regret, the guilt reflected in them almost let him forget what she'd done to him.

Even if Avid hadn't heard her crying, he'd be able to tell. The water might have erased the tear-tracks on her face, but her reddened eyes gave it all away.

How- how could he try and start a conversation? He still needed to talk to Marm. The void, in his opinion, could go fuck itself, it had not only done something to Marm that led to him being eaten alive, but whatever had happened to her during that whole thing had completely destroyed her too. How could someone possibly try and talk about that? What was there to even say?

He tried and failed to find the words. He shifted where he was sitting, unable to stay still. Across the small hideaway, Marm was still silent. Did... did she know what had happened?

Avid got ready to say something, but accidentally made eye contact with a suddenly-more-alert Marm, and whatever he was about to say died on his tongue. He gaped, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. Quick, say something, say something!

"So... I'm going to assume it was something involving void stuff. Something you probably didn't know about before, like, today. Is that right?" He mentally applauded himself. He'd stuttered a bit, but he got through it!

The look Marm gave him, even through her clearly-just-crying eyes, almost made him snort. She nodded, but didn't say anything.

Right...

Avid recalled, at some point in the past, Marm mentioning that when she got especially overwhelmed she wouldn't be able to talk much- or at all. It was entirely unsurprising that... this... would cause that to happen.

"Yes-or-no questions only, for now?" He asked, receiving another nod. That was fine- he could work wit this! "Alright... yeah, that's fair," he reassured her. "So the void or its magic inside you or something relating to those things made you go all weird, and you didn't know. Did it start this morning, when I came to see you?"

Starting point. Whatever had happened, the void was at fault. Baby steps.

She shook her head, which surprised him. He'd have thought she had only just today been affected. "Huh. Within the past couple of days? I'd have noticed if you were acting weird before then."

Yes. Well, that wasn't the worst it could be. At least it was... dealt with... soon? He frowned. He didn't understand why the void would have done something like this. And even more so, he didn't understand why it had screeched at him until he'd come back to the swamp.

"I'll be honest, I still have no idea what the void could have done to you, but I don't think it meant to hurt you, because it really, really seemed to want me to come back here," he admitted, watching Marm fiddle with something under the shallow water. She looked surprised to hear him say that.

He explained. "Oh, yeah. As soon as I respawned, I was, well, a little bit out of it, you know? But the void didn't like something I was doing, because it started to make an infernal screeching noise after about fifteen minutes. I remembered you saying that that meant the void was probably hungry, but I wasn't about to throw myself into the void to feed it or anything, so I didn't. I was worried about you, of course, but also wasn't sure whether I wanted to come back here just yet, in case I'd get, well, attacked."

Shrugging, Avid hoped his rambles made sense. He sighed, continuing. "It didn't freaking shut up. I couldn't do much around my base with the noise, and I don't even remember what I was doing when it happened, but I tried to jump down into the Underswamp. And, well, I missed. I could've sworn I put a landing pad there."

Now that he really thought about it, the void might have had something to do with that too. "But I fell into the void, and nothing happened other than I respawned again." He threw his hands in the air, frustrated. "So I knew then at least that the void wasn't trying to kill me. I decided, why the heck not, I'll come and see you. If you're feeling better, then you might be able to help me, and if not, then I'd probably figure something out."

Marm was staring at him strangely, but she didn't make any indication that she wanted to communicate anything. Avid noticed his hands were clenched into fists. He plucked off one of the leaves of a vine near him to fidget with. The texture of the veins was nice. Leaves were nice. Taking a deep breath, he finished.

"As soon as I saw the sign that declared I was officially in the Mangrove kingdom, the void stopped its racket. I looked around, but I didn't see you anywhere, but I did see the... mess." He shivered involuntarily, remembering the enormous puddle of his blood just outside Marm's hut. "There were some smears on the ground that led over here, and I guess you know the rest." Was 'some smears' a severe under-exaggeration? Yes, but neither of them needed to be any more freaked out than they already were.

Avid didn't know what else there was for him to say. Marm's brows were furrowed, so he assumed she was thinking over... something, but he was clearly missing some important context or a vital detail or- or maybe he just hadn't connected the dots?

People occasionally teased him for being oblivious, for not seeing the obvious when it was right in front of him. Usually he'd laugh along with them- they never meant it maliciously, and to be honest, he did often miss things without meaning to.

Now, though, it was just annoying. He needed to help his friend, because she was hurting, and he knew what had caused it but nothing about how or why it had, let alone how he could make it go away!

He grit his teeth. The leaf in his hand had a small split on the edge where he'd squeezed it too hard.

Then, Marm moved. Avid's head snapped up, his mind jumping back to the present moment, and he watched as she began to cry, splashing in the water. "Marm?" He reached out to her, taking care to keep his voice quiet. She looked torn, but did end up taking his hand and letting him gently pull her close to him.

Once she was settled, Avid asked her one last question.

"Do you just want to sit here for a while?"

Marm nodded a yes.

~~~~

Avid sat with Marm for a while, holding her hand and letting his mind wander. Marm would talk about what had happened when she was ready to, even if he really wanted to know what she knew. But to be fair, he knew he wouldn't be able to get through the whole conversation without struggling.

The leaf he had been messing with was starting to fall apart, it had a few more cracks now. Avid ran his finger over the smooth edge.

Suddenly, Marm made a sound, like a soft hum. Looking over, he smiled reassuringly. "You feeling better? Do you think you can talk again?" He asked.

"Yeah... thank you, Avid," she whispered, her voice slightly scratchy-sounding.

He smiled a little wider. "Of course, that's what friends are for. Um... I'm ready to talk about... you know. The thing that happened."

...And that's a point for past-Avid, guessing correctly that he'd immediately stutter through his first sentence...

Marm gave him the driest look he'd ever seen. "What, my void magic having the unfortunate side effect of making me lose control of myself and eating my friend alive? That thing?"

He rolled his eyes humorously. "Uh-huh. That." Marm had to have at least one theory on what the void had done. "So, even if we know it was your void magic that did it, I'm drawing a complete blank on why it did that, do you have any ideas?" He asked.

"...Actually, I think I do," she answered after a beat of silence. But she'd said it with much more confidence than he'd expected, even if he was sure she'd have more of a clue than him.

"Wait, really?" He exclaimed, louder than he meant to.

He opened his mouth again to apologize, but Marm kept going. "I think- at least, I'm pretty sure- that the void's need to eat somehow transferred over to me through the magic."

What? That- that was...!

"I don't know why, or how, just that my teeth are sharper and my hands are stronger, and seeing you this morning when I had been feeling the hunger for a day literally made me lose my mind."

Avid tried to collect his spinning thoughts. He whistled, breathing out roughly through his teeth. "Wow. That's... wow!" He laughed, out of shock, probably. Marm's theory was almost too believable. It was, quite frankly, horrifying...

Especially the fact that the void, supposedly, didn't just get hungry once.

"It makes a little, teeny-tiny bit of sense, though?" He cringed. "Wait... the void has to- ugh, I hate this- eat somewhat often, according to you anyways, or else it'll start going after bridges and things. 'The balance will be disrupted' and all that. Right?"

Marm bowed her head. "Yeah. Unfortunately, I do think that I'll have to eat every once in a while. I don't think I could handle it if not, nothing I tried could get rid of the feeling- and it only ever got worse."

"That must have been- that sounds awful, I'm really sorry you had to go through that," Avid gently rubbed the back of Marm's hand. He felt her shiver once, but she didn't pull away. "If it helps, I don't hold it against you for any of it. I'm never going to be a fan of the void, but you're still my friend, and that won't change because you were corrupted by some ancient, powerful entity!"

He hoped that, if she ever found out about the forever-crying shadow, the piece of him that was still trapped in that awful place where no one could help him, she would extend the same mercy to him for all that he was doing to keep other people away from there.

That she wouldn't be mad at him for making the choices he'd made, just wanting the place and the people he cared about to be safe and out of Olm's reach. Olm could have Avid, but damn it, they wouldn't be going anywhere near his friends if he had anything to say about it. Not that he could, realistically, do much to actually stop them, but Olm wouldn't need to hurt anyone else if Avid let them do whatever he wanted with him.

Would Marm be upset about that choice of his?

Avid brushed off the lingering feelings of guilt- Marm wasn't done talking, he could go wallow in his own sadness later.

"I'm glad," she said. "I was a little worried you'd be mad at me, or at the very least be uncomfortable around me..." She trailed off, looking thoughtful for a moment. "...I have a question. It's okay if the answer is no," she looked up at him, and he steeled himself for whatever it could be that she was about to ask of him. "I told you already that I'm probably going to get hungry again. Would you... ugh. Hang on." Avid was pretty sure he knew what she was about to ask, and he already knew what his answer would be. He watched as she reached up and tugged on a strand of her hair- one of her nervous habits. "If, or when I start feeling weird again, could you... help me?"

There it was.

He would, of course, help her with whatever she'd need, but he did want to make a couple of clarifications. "Well, I guess it does make sense to ask me. It's alright with me, I think, as long as I get a quick heads-up beforehand and all that. I don't really want to be surprised. That part wasn't very fun- who am I kidding, none of it was fun. It hurt a lot. But if it's something you need, I'm not opposed to an arrangement of sorts," he rambled, all in one breath.

"Oh, thank you!" Marm started to cry again, but it seemed to be out of gratefulness this time, thankfully. "I don't know what I'd do without you- of course I'll let you know. It was a full day at least before it got bad enough to hurt, I'll definitely be coherent enough to know what's happening before I lose control." She rested her head on his shoulder.

Well, then, that was that- as long as Avid had a little bit of time to mentally prepare for getting... eaten alive, everything would be fine- wait, did she say that it'd been hurting?!

"Wait, it was hurting you? You never mentioned that part!" He almost-shouted. He felt a little bit less bad about the volume this time.

"...Oops?"

"Marm!" He sighed in affectionate exasperation, dropping his head on top of hers. "You were dealing with pain on top of weird void corruption? How bad was it?"

"When you get hungry enough to really, really feel it, only ten times worse. I was running on pure adrenaline when you found me."

Marm's words sunk in, just adding even more horror and guilt to the mix. He caught himself subconsciously holding her hand just a bit tighter.

"I'll come see you before I let it get anywhere close to that bad, don't worry, Avid. It just feels a little weird in the beginning, mild discomfort at the most. I'm fine," she explained.

He grumbled. He hated the void. Every new thing he heard about it was only more fuel on the fire. "Stupid void, why does it have to do this..."

She snorted, and Avid thought he felt her smiling. "Thank you, again. I'm glad we're friends," she said.

"Always, Marm." He turned his body, dropping his leaf and watching it float away out of the corner of his eye. He used his now-free hand to hold Marm's more securely. "I've got you," he murmured.

Even if he hated the void, he could never hate his best friend. If Marm needed someone to be there for her, he would show up.

But right now, he was content to just hold her, comforting her, and listen to the sound of the wind rustling in the trees.

And she was, too, clearly- after a short time, she was relaxed enough to fall asleep.

#my stuff #sbk #marmvid #marmvid cannibalism au #blood #gore #cannibalism #mart

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