#maybe I shouldn't think at all

[maggy-makes-art]

found this while looking through my wips and honestly I don't know what to think about it

[vaguely-concerned]

My two cents on how much of Mind!Varric is Rook’s mind trying to fill the blank space and how much is Solas actively talking through a convenient blood magic paper doll of the mind: I think it's a mix of both, a truly collaborative psychosocial horrorshow if you would, but waaaay more towards the second. It feels too directed and tactical at times to be anything else. Rook's mind is willing to go along with the denial phase as far as it can fucking carry them to not have to face the grief and regret and does its part in papering over details that don’t make any sense, the way brains will strive to create coherent meaning even out of deeply confusing input, but to my understanding it's a collaborateur in how that plays out, not the instigator or control center. Solas is using it as a path to agency and to gather insight into Rook as a person unguarded as he can't count on in his own guise. (That stoic option that leads to him being like 'oh I see you're cautiously denying me access to your inner life. well. at least you still have Varric to talk to. y'know as an outlet :)'. You absolute BITCH Solas! That alone convinced me that he HAS to have an active hand in it on some level.)

My guess is that it takes considerable effort on Solas’ part to make Mind!Varric do anything more involved or complicated than seeming to sit up in bed and give casual commentary, and that’s why he keeps having eerie five minute shallow pep talks with you before he announces he conveniently needs a nap aaanyway good luck kid you got this haha. When he’s just spouting NPC lines from his bedrest, I’m ready to believe that could be Rook’s mind being allowed to improv lines for him more freely because it’s less about Solas trying to get something out of them or working an angle and more ‘Still here! Still totally alive and fine and the mentor figure you know and love and trust :) don’t even worry about it! Thankfully there is no war in Ba Sing Sei, as we all know’ upkeep work lol. Rook’s mind is allowed to set the tone of Varric, the outlines, but not always the content. 

AND, on a (beautifully fucked up) character psychology level, I feel like Solas is indulging in actually getting to be the good supportive mentor figure to Rook with one hand to assuage the guilt he feels about what he's done -- and what he's going to do -- to them with the other. Same internal logic as he uses in Trespasser about the Qun. ‘Almost everyone is going to die from the course of action I’m doggedly pursuing eventually. But at least I can make their last years happier and freer and kinder than they would have been otherwise. and that kind of makes up for it right. a little bit. doesn't it. doesn't that make it better at least. I need that to make it better)'. Did I really take your beloved mentor and friend from you if you don’t know yet that I did? Some philosophers would argue not really! So it’s probably almost ok actually. Isn’t it even a little noble that I’m taking all this grief and guilt on myself and shielding you for now. With undertones that I’m not sure he would realize himself (and might be mortified by if he did) that he is so incredibly lonely, and even a dishonest and indirect emotional connection is more than nothing when you’re that desperate. In this setup he gets idk. Both the control he craves so incredibly badly in relationships and over himself, and the scraps, the fading afterimages, of intimacy and warmth and companionship, even second hand. The one thing Solas and Rook agree on deep deep down is that they really wish Varric weren't gone. They're handshake memeing this in the saddest and most creepy way possible.

I think an important element too is that Solas needs Rook and their team to *succeed* —  up to a certain point. He needs someone to hold the two other elven mean girls off until he can get out of here. Ideally, in a perfect world, even do all the hard work of killing them so he can swoop in at the end and do his thing when both sides are exhausted and out of resources to stop him, and then Bob’s your uncle! Same logic as he was using with Corypheus, and after that worked out so well, too! King of choosing to never learn from a single solitary mistake he’s ever made even though i fully believe he could have the capacity to Fen’Harel <3 The underlying idea isn’t flawed, you see, it was just unforeseen circumstances getting in the way. This time for sure it’ll all work out the way I cleverly imagined it in my head beforehand. Cue By Talos this can’t be happening etc. in the form of a statue almost crushing him like a bug. 

So he's providing guidance and forging Rook into a leader from two angles: one Rook might not trust, and one they probably will. Shaping them into what he needs slowly and carefully. He’s helping you hone your team into their most effective state, as he might have done with his own agents back in the day, setting up his chess pieces even if he has to squint through two glimpsed realities to do it haha. Pincer maneuver of an insidious stealth mentor you never asked for. Also… at one point mind Varric gives you a whole little monologue about how Solas' problem is that he’s always seen his interpersonal connections as flaws and see where it’s landed him, all alone and the worst part? it hasn’t even worked. it’s all been for nothing he’s back where he began with nothing to show for it but his mistakes. Like...that has such strong 'uh okay happy to play your therapist from two rooms away here what the fuck kind of traumadump is this' energy to me, I’m not sure Rook like. Thinks that much about Solas as a private person. So much of Solas' self-loathing and futile insights into his own flaws seem to shine through in Mind!Varric's dialogue all the time — I just can't believe that there's no guiding hand behind it as it were. 

Most of all. I feel like people underestimate the degree to which Solas is incredibly funny. As in, he has a very consistent and recognizable sense of humour. It’s one of my very favourite things about him. We must remember — it is crucial that we always keep in mind — Orlesian accent and wig Solas from May The Dread Wolf Take You (my beloved, the explanation for why I love this dude even with the. All of the everything else. No one does it quite like him). He is not at all above doing things or adding little flourishes for his own obscure amusement, in fact that seems to me to be one of his most consistent traits. The Randy Dowager Quarterly comment Varric has? The ‘Maybe this is the Dread Wolf’s revenge. Forcing us to house sit for him’ thing? To Me this is 100% Solas amusing himself in his boring Fade jail surrounded by the screaming hellscape of all his regrets. Source: it came to me as divine revelation through pure vibes trust me bro 

If nothing else I find it much more narratively interesting personally if the connection between Rook and Solas really is that defenselessly intimate and entwined (and so unbalanced!), and the sense of violation and invasion and betrayal afterwards consequently all the more nauseatingly intense. Even if you kept him at arm’s length in the open, he’s been under your skin the whole time, looking around, gathering what he needs to destroy you, wearing the face of a friend. Regretfully, probably, but choosing to do it every step of the way anyway. (Sound familiar, Inquisitor? Solas doesn’t have that many tricks when you actually look at it, he keeps returning to old tried and true ones like a dog with a bone haha.) Maybe he even genuinely meant some of it as mercy, which only makes it so much worse. It makes his sin against his own core principles of autonomy and the freedom of all beings in mind, spirit and body so much more juicily grave if it’s something he pursues actively and consistently, rather than it half-falling into his lap as a happy accident mainly orchestrated by Rook’s own subconscious. Solas, too, is at his very lowest point, the closest to giving in and becoming his own antithesis fully that he’s ever been, and it makes the choice of whether you still reach out your hand to him one last time or not all the more impactful and difficult.

[dykedvonte]

I think depictions of Anya being cruel to Curly or drawing out his suffering are artful and chilling but completely miss the point of the story and her character.

I'm not saying she doesn't deserve to have that "I told you so" moment with him but not in something callous or cold. Even if that is how it happened, she'd immediately feel guilty cause at that point she's not tormenting her tormenter or even the person truly at fault. She's doing something cathartic, similar to how Jimmy likely hits Curly to release rage he can't against the rest of the crew. She'd see herself as no different when she'd come back from the moment and see Curly cowering at her. She wants someone to take responsibility but how does being cruel to the defenseless help? Why would she want the power Jimmy has over her over Curly?

The idea of her extending someone else's pain is just so against the struggles she already faces and how she can't even bring herself to cause someone pain even to help them. Her very desire is to release herself from her own suffering and I doubt she'd even fine some sort of guilty release in being cruel to another.

[little-pondhead]

Danny moved to Gotham.

Freakshow is touring in Gotham.

Freakshow knows Danny is in Gotham.

Danny knows Freakshow is still after him.

Danny's faith in heroes has been shattered.

Danny turns to the only person powerful enough to run Freakshow out of town, hopefully for good.

Danny turns to the Joker for help.

The Joker is looking for a new punching bag sidekick after Harley Quinn left him.

Danny is just the perfect person to be shaped by the Joker's hands.

Danny becomes the new Joker Junior.

[anti-terf-posts]

hot take but plus size/fat people shouldn't have to sexualize themselves for you to be accepting of them.

[that-satireguy]

western trans people have a responsibility to use their privilege effectively and not speak over non-western trans people who try and point out that their statements can be dismissive of our experiences.

[celtrist]

Controversial opinion: Vox's design sucks

...

Because he should be wearing a NORMAL TIE. not a BOWTIE. It would:

Add to his businessman persona

Give a place for that wifi symbol to go that isn't awkward

Be a good opposing design to Alastor's bowtie

Potentially give the idea he's moved away (or attempting to) from Alastor. Especially if they had it that Vox USED to wear a bowtie.

Also, we joke about it but seriously, why does everyone have a bowtie when it doesn't make sense for some characters like Husk--

I rest my case your honors.

...

Rebuttle:

Vox having the bowtie could signify him latching onto his past with Alastor and not being able to move on

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

things we learn about scully in s1

she has a godson (and she told his mother that she thinks mulder is cute)

she did her residency in forensic medicine

she's good with dogs and is naturally drawn to all kinds of animals (even evil-looking monkeys)

she wants to keep her christmas tree up all year because her father always made her take it down as soon as the holiday was over

(and she was never positive that her father, who was in the navy and involved in the cuban blockade, was truly proud of her, because she joined the FBI instead of becoming a full-time doctor like he had wanted)

((and he didn't say "i love you" the last time he spoke to her. ouch))

when she was 14, she stole one of her mother's cigarettes, which she thought was disgusting, but she wanted to do something Forbidden for once

she once forgot her own birthday (which is february 23rd) when she was studying for her exams

she has a little cat sign on her apartment door <3

when challenged by the preacher's kid, she refused to deny the power of God; she was raised catholic, and remembers that "God never lets the devil steal the show"

(she's almost always wearing a cross necklace, even while declaring that she considers science sacred)

((and yes, her favorite movie is the exorcist))

she took some biology courses on bugs and is now going to tell you some bug facts

she has two brothers, one younger and one older

her dad- with whom she did not have the greatest of relationships- nicknamed her "starbuck"

(he called her this after the steady and rational first mate character from moby dick; all the more cruel when you consider he pushed her aside for joining the FBI rather than doing the "logical" thing, becoming a doctor. to cast her in a role of the dutiful daughter without her permission and then create a conditional sense of love is just. so mean. it's a miracle she didn't turn out as emotionally repressed as he did)

[vee-is-a-clown]

Ok you know what makes me angry? Why is Allura so mature and humble? She's a daddy's girl only child princess who was set to inherit a flourishing kingdom. Sure, she's well educated and probably elegant and graceful and tactful because that's how she was raised to act for diplomatic reasons but she was also probably spoiled throughout her adolescence. She probably got whatever she wanted whenever she wanted because her family had the resources to give it to her. Who's to say she isn't a spoiled brat who can otherwise act kind and approachable? Even if she isn't a brat, she was still handed her life on a silver platter. She has to learn how to operate and be self sufficient.

When she gets out of that pod, she should be scared. She should be angry. And she deserves to be so. Her father that she relied on for just about everything shoved her into a sleeping pod and suddenly she's awoken by someone who isn't him. Logically, that means he lost. She should be kicking and screaming. She should be having the worst panic attack ever. She should be mourning everyone and everything she's ever known. She should be mourning the status quo that will never again be maintained. She should be mourning the future that can never come to fruition.

She has to figure out life without any system or technology that she's ever relied on. Coran doesn't know how to fix and maintain everything. She's like one of those people that wake up from 10+ year comas and don't understand modern technology. She is my dad who has had the same flip phone since forever and now must figure out how to use a phone with a touch screen.

Every luxury she had as a princess is gone. The castle chef who knew exactly how she liked her food. Her mother's ladies in waiting who told her the castle gossip. Her own ladies in waiting who'd sneak out to festivals and other trivial things with her. The cleaners that arranged her room exactly as she liked it. HER MOM. I don't care if she was a daddy's girl, she still has got to miss her mom.

I feel like she should've had more outbursts. Seeing Keith in the red paladin armor should've made her cry. In fact, all of them should have. The new paladins in their armor is a symbol of a new era- an era without the people she loves. She deserves to scream at the top of her lungs and lock herself in her room and trash something. She should be yelling that life isn't fair. She should be angry. She should be so angry.

I don't care if she's trying to hold it together for the paladins in the show. She's holding together too well. She needs more moments of instability. She needs to grieve. She needs to be tired. She needs to be imperfect.

[thefandomenchantress]

We’re all familiar with the Xander-Ace arm wrestling scene. A lot of people cite it as one of their favorite funny moments from the series. And yeah, it is pretty funny when you don’t think about it too much.

The joke is pretty much, “Haha, Ace is such a wimp! He’s totally freaking out about a minor injury like it’s a really big deal!”

I don’t know if it was just me, but I sort of had this internal notion that Ace must’ve mentioned that his hand really hurt or something, and the joke was that he was wimp because it was such a minor injury, and it probably didn’t hurt at all.

But, uh. He never says anything about his hand hurting. Here are the lines he says (not all of which are featured in a text box, since Teruko and Xander are talking over him):

“AAAAAHHHHHH MY HAANNNDDDD!!!!”

*falls on the ground, gets up, screams again*

“OH GOD! You’re gonna put me down like a horse with a broken leg!!!”

“I’d rather die than not be able to eat cereal with my hand!!!”

“I’M NEVER GONNA BE ABLE TO RACE AGAIN!!!!”

Listening to all of the voice lines again, it seems less like Ace is panicking because his hand is hurting, and more like he's panicking because of what may happen to him if his hand is indeed badly injured. So it's less so about the injury itself, and more about what may happen because of it.

He first, of course, panics over Xander being a threat. That's completely expected, since making Xander angry just broke a table and assumedly hurt him in some way or another.

The cereal line is a bit confusing, especially considering his secret. A while back I came up with an out-there theory that he said that in order to try and deflect any suspicion about his secret, since an eating disorder can weaken your bones and if he got hurt too easily, people might begin to suspect something. So he rather clumsily brought up the subject of how he did in fact eat food. If we consider the fact that he's lying here, then him saying he'd rather die than do something makes a lot more sense, since we know he doesn't mean that at all. But in hindsight I may have been overthinking it...Still, I can't think of a better explanation, other than dismissing it altogether as a throwaway joke that didn't have much thought put into it.

The last line is what really makes this interesting. Ace hates his talent and anything to do with it. And yet one of the things he's panicking about the most is how he may not be able to race after sustaining an injury. And I think that this moment probably gives us our earliest insight into just how far Ace will go in order to race. In his first FTE with Teruko, he claims he doesn't do much work at all for his talent, until his performance anxiety forces him to. By saying that, it makes it sound like his talent doesn't completely dominate his life.

But this scene, in the same exact episode of his FTE, quickly proves to the viewer just how desperate Ace is to continue his talent, to the point where his own well-being becomes less important than it. Ace's extreme reaction to being injured isn't because he's a wimp that can't deal with pain, it's because he's spiraling about what this could mean for his career and, therefore, his status as a failure. "What if this injury prevents me from racing?" is the question that comes first, causing him to panic instead of being able to focus on how bad the injury actually is.

...I guess the thing that made me want to write about this scene is just how...Smart it is. It does so much at once. On a first viewing, it's really funny, and it still is on other viewings. Yet in hindsight, it's easier to notice just how distressed Ace is, and that no one is taking that seriously. No one ever takes his fears seriously, and in the end his fears drove him to murder, proving how important they really were. Even if his worries seem silly from an outsider's perspective, they're very real to him. And that's something that no one in-universe could realize until it was too late. This scene does an amazing job summarizing just how the cast's attitude towards Ace helped push him to becoming a culprit.

...Or maybe I'm taking the silly arm-wrestling scene too seriously, haha.

[buckyscap]

you know when you experienced something so traumatizing or grieved too hard your brain sort of temporarily locked that memory to protect you from the pain? i think that's what's been happening to me after deadpool 2 bc tell me why every time i rewatch that movie, i always forget how painful these scenes are?

they always leave me sobbing and totally wrecked but with each rewatch i'd just... forget they would eventually happen and i'd eventually get hurt??

[deanpinterester]

having sally yell at baby percy feels so fundamentally wrong. i didn't mind when she got frustrated with him in the pool because that was just one instance of sally losing her temper but now it's like oh. this is just how the show version of her is.

like. idk. one of sally's defining traits was that she never got mad at percy. that didn't mean she was weak. that was her strength. that she could pull through tough times by putting a smile on her face, so that she didn't scare percy, so that she could protect him.

i just feel like it would have been a much more well-defined scene if we got to see how sally manages to talk percy out of the car by. being nice?? coaxing him??? explaining the situation in a way he would understand instead of just saying "there are things i have to do that you don't understand" (if you say that to a kid they are 100% not going to listen to you bc. yeah they don't understand!! so you have to explain it in a way they WOULD understand!!)

if sally had already been dating smelly gabe at this point, she could have leveraged this. she could have put a funny spin on it and said "i'm just trying to get you away from smelly gabe's stinky gym shorts." if she wanted baby percy to not feel like she was abandoning him and separating him from the rest of society, she could have said "the kids in there are just like you." she could have given him a keepsake, to show she will always be with him. there are SO many ways the writers could have spun this and they just didn't. they went the easy way out.

all of these flashback scenes are painting a very unfortunate picture that percy didn't actually have a good relationship with his mom. and i know that's not the vibe the show is trying to go for, but they've got to understand!! that not everyone who's watched the show has the read the books! we don't all automatically know that sally and percy have the bestest mother-son relationship ever! if you only show sally being frustrated at baby percy, we start to think oh dang, maybe this whole time percy doesn't actually have a good relationship with his mom!

[msnihilist]

Finally watching Smile 2, I'm a little over halfway through and I'm not sure that I'm liking it quite as much as the first one. It's very good still! Very freaky, I love the cinematography and the elevated levels of mind-fuckery. But I feel like the first one had a much tighter grasp on the mental illness angle, in regards to the symbolism.

[allastoredeer]

The Egg Bois have no one to take orders from after Sir Pentious dies. Then they see Lucifer and immediately follow him around and unlike Alastor who didn't like being tailed by the annoying yappy yokes, Lucifer is enthralled by them because they are like little ducklings forming a line as if Lucifer is their mother

One egg boi, Frank, is the only one that stuck to Alastor, and Al makes it clear he wants him to go away but Frank stays with him. One time when Al was cooking, Frank asked if he could help and Al thought for a moment, grinned, picked up the egg, and plopped him in the boiling pot. Unfortunately, Frank did not hard boil, in fact, he enjoyed the hot bath, and the rest of the egg bois ran inside as Lucifer entered the kitchen and screamed in horror at the display but the rest of the eggs hopped around Al's feet, pulling at his trousers asking to join the bubble bath.

FRANK STAYING WITH ALASTOR IS SO CUTE MY HEART JUST EXLODED

Alastor trying to boil Frank is just fogjwenweln 🤣 I can see that. The fact that it's not working AND Frank's enjoying himself AND the other eggbois want to join in makes it all so much better.

Also, the other eggbois following Lucifer around like ducklings 🥺 that's adorable.

[rush-the-stars]

CIELO GOD GOD GOD GOD

happy new year vic <33333

gender neutral reader x war god morax/zhongli

cw: blood. biting? the reader is a captive of war. um maybe out of character morax....but im picturing him younger in his long life. a lil more hot blooded. you know.

***

the sun is a bloody dash in the sky. an open wound from the heavens that turns the world crimson and russet.

it's fitting, for a day like this, with so much fighting, so much bloodshed.

the blood of gods gleams gold. it covers you. you are stained in it and in those last, burning rays of the sun, you shine and shimmer.

some of it is your own. most of it is not.

you sit primly despite it, with your knees tucked beneath you and your back straight. you sit serenely with your head poised in a graceful upward tilt— a refusal to surrender the last thing you have now; your pride. your knowledge.

you know something he doesn’t.

and, at the end, you have the pride and knowledge that you almost bested morax the dragon. morax, the god currently winning the archon war. morax, who has finally captured you.

your hands are bound with stone he'd (painstakingly) created. you feel the heat of their power, humming, burning into your skin. it is an attempt at subduing your own divine abilities.

when he appears before you now, he is dressed in black armor. his hair is bound up in a high ponytail, which reveals the chiseled lines of his face. the dragon scales along his temples gleam like precious stones. dark horns curl atop his head proudly, the dragon of this land, with his eyes like the center of the molten earth.

"tell me where you've hidden it."

his demand is met with silence.

you hold his gaze.

more silence.

it stretches long and thick between you.

you let it grow.

he lets out a heavy sigh eventually. and then he moves closer, only to stand over you.

you fall into his great shadow.

"you've lost. you're lucky i didn't kill you." he says and his voice is surprisingly gentle, low and smoky, a rumbling that settles somewhere deep inside you. "and now you can help me win this war and end it."

you turn your face away from him and he is met with your profile. more silence.

"stubborn little god, aren't you?" he hums and it is just shy of wry.

you tilt your head up, gaze focused away from him still, on the camp ahead. his camp of allied gods and mortals and adepti. you focus on the world beyond, as if you might see the hills of heather further on, or the sea itself.

"you'll save lives if you tell me where it is."

you want to look at him and ask why he thinks you'd help him—why his mortals should mean anything to you? why should you want him to win and end the war? but you force yourself to continue to gaze away, to bite back any words threatening to break free from the cage of your mouth.

and then there is a touch at your jaw, careful, almost delicate, as his fingers curl themselves around your face.

he forces you to look towards him, eye level for a moment with muscled thighs beneath onyx armor. and then he pulls your gaze up to find his own, smoldering gold in the evening sun. like the blood you're covered in. like the blood he has washed from himself.

"since you don't feel like talking, then listen to me well."

his thumb caresses your jaw the way a lover might. a careful pass over your skin.

"we can do this peacefully or with great difficulty. i am prepared to offer you freedom if you agree to join me and help me end this war; which is far kinder than i've been to many other gods that have been in your position now. or i will banish you to the dark sea and find what i need on my own.”

“how magnanimous of you.” you finally sneer.

calmly, he says;

“i thought so, too.”

you lurch forward like you might try to strike him, but the binds around your wrists constrict sharply, burning into your skin.

you cry out.

he steadies you.

“easy,” he murmurs, crouching finally to be on your level, face to face. “it hurts, doesn’t it?”

you feel heat in your face; humiliation or frustration. deep, horrible anger. and pain. searing pain that slips up the sinews of muscle in your arms. it tangles in your shoulders, sends pulses of anguish over your back, all over.

you don’t answer.

“i made them especially for you.” he admits. “i made them months ago—long before i caught you.”

“what makes you think i’d help you?” you bite out.

“your desire to be free?” he asks, “the promise of my protection and aid?”

"i don't need your protection—"

"no?" he asks lightly, "you were bested. you are captured."

you jerk your head away from his touch. his hand falls away and he stands again. he gazes down at you.

you snarl, "you are the only one who has done that. before you, i had not been—"

"then consider it protection from me. if you work with me, i will not harm you."

you inhale sharply. your anger constricts around your rib cage like a massive snake. your body aches with it. how dare he—

you force back another rash attempt at striking him.

instead, you gaze beyond him again, as if you could see the future now alongside those heather hills or swirling sea. you wrestle your anger until it will allow you to speak clearly.

you lift your voice and the breeze carries it, laced with venom;

"when i am archon, you'll beg to serve me loyally.

but i will curse you to live beneath the earth and you'll wander in an endless, dark maze. every time you believe you near what you search for, it will change before your eyes, and again you will wander. you'll search for eternity, never to find it.

once in a millennia, i will visit you, and i'll tell you this maze is your protection from me."

you turn to find his eyes. a fissure of heat—the air is charged and sharp with the tang of divinity. a bristling. you think his eyes darken, pupils narrowing to the slits of a reptile.

when he calls out, voice rising to that of a general, you catch the flash of sharpened teeth, "prepare the prisoner for transportation."

immediately, soldiers surge upon you.

"are we preparing them for the dark sea?" one asks.

morax stares hard at you.

"no," he says and when they pull you to your feet, you think about running. you think about shoving them off of you. you wonder how far you'd get or if stone binds would seize and paralyze you.

you wonder how well he had to know you to create them.

"where to then?" another soldier asks.

"to my quarters at the other camp. i will join you." he says.

momentarily, you are stunned.

"sir, are you sure—"

"make haste." he says simply, and then he steps to you, towers over you, even at your full height while standing now. and when he speaks again, it is softly and could be his own curse to you;

"the god isn't to leave my sights. i'll see to all of their needs from now on."

"i'll make your life hell." you promise.

his smile is almost amused, but his eyes are smoldering embers.

he lifts his hand to brush a stray piece of hair from your face. his voice is even;

"just as you'll be archon?"

this time, when you lash out, you turn and sink your teeth into his hand. you bite to break skin. his blood floods your mouth.

(you have already gotten a taste, now you want it all—)

he wrenches his hand away, examining it, lifting it to his face to gain a closer look. it burns gold with his blood which slides down his wrist, over the slope of his forearm. he flexes his hand, the muscles jumping, strong and proud. your ring of teeth marks is like a halo along the meat of his hand.

"when i make you a muzzle, should i call it protection for me or for you?"

"i hope my bite scars you." you hiss.

he lifts his hand higher to the scarlet sun, bathes it in light. you catch a flash of fang from the corner of his wry smile.

"i hope it does, too."

[parasitoidism]

Nothing ever changes in scrap world