#milo next

[mooreaux]

Fully fae Milo is a mood ✨

[night-market-if]

Milo being jealous of Lamplight to the point he fought with Malcolm multiple times then Milo himself falling in love with Lamplight just when the "ex" came back from the death. It's like a full circle of hell for Milo and I love you for it

This is going to be a conversation that will come up in the poly route because I think it will be delicious. The inadequacy he feels in the eyes of both MC and Malcolm is intense.

[prettyandsarcastic]

A couple things I want from Book Two of The Night Market (@night-market-if ) because I've had brainrot on and off since finishing book one.

Spoilers if you haven't finished Book One.

• a gut wrenching scene of our MC clawing their way out of their own grave, fueled by rage and pain and heartbreak. And the visceral description of them making their way back to Hazel's or Gabriel's or Bella's, staggering through crowded streets like some eldritch being

• a scene where we see a lone raven keeping watch over the unmarked grave

• a new scar in the center of our MC's chest from where their ribs were literally ripped open and all the RO's crushing reactions to it.

• Milo knowing exactly when our MC wakes up because the Night Market seems to pause, take a breath, the laterns become almost impossibly bright for a moment and the air fills with the smell of gravedirt

• our MC having always known where Milo was hiding (if he's been hiding in the market) because our MC is The Night Market and there's nowhere he could truly hide. And one day he comes back to his hideaway to find them sitting at his table.

[mycurrentobsessionis]

I get why people are so mad at Milo, I really do...

(spoilers for The Night Market)

But, first of all, accidently summoning fucking Cthullu because you literally Do Not Know how to do your job is, uh, relateable somehow. Then proceeding to stab Cthullu because you panicked is objectively funny. Like. I got over the initial shock of that ending (because wtf, Milo?!?!?), and the confusion (like what did I do to get the bad ending???), and then it was ALL laughs. Like, daaaaamn, Malcolm is gonna be pissed, dude!

Legit, Milo isn't even malicious here, y'know? He's, like, a horse loose in a hospital -- he's just as confused as you are! He's never been in a hospital before!

Also, on a serious note, it's like, fair enough, okay. Because Hazel won't leave the Market, because she won't leave without Malcolm (living, dead, or undecided). Malcolm either can't or won't leave. Every probably can't leave. Milo probs doesn't care if he dies, but that's his family. And, I mean, the MC was dying irregardless. In his brain, this was the thing that would save them, too. All he had to do was give up their trust and love (platonic or otherwise), and they walked away. Limping and heartbroken, sure, but alive. Not saying it's fair, but you know. People do massively fucked up shit for love and for fear, and Milo has both. What he does is selfless from a certain point of view -- he gave up the affection and goodwill (that he probably thinks he doesn't deserve anyway), and everyone lives. He loved them all enough to lose them. And yeah, it was in fucked up way that is not the way to do shit, but.

As a future trauma-informed clinician, Milo's brain is legitimately built different. That man is on fight-or-flight 24/7, and I'm not convinced he isn't in a manic episode for at least part of the book. We know he's not sleeping and is drinking pretty heavily toward the end. That does not bode well.

Honestly, it was a shocker ending only because I didn't expect the author to go there, but it makes sense. This is a severely mentally ill man who spent ten years literally carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders, on top of his own unprocessed grief and trauma, and trying to make sure his equally mentally ill friend is alright, and sort of single-parenting a dead child. Then you have the fact that he was meeting pretty regularly with Baron fucking Palpatine, who was probably manipulating him. And yeah, you can say that he's a grown man but... When you live your life focused on survival, you literally do not develop the kind of executive functioning skills you need to withstand that shit. You can develop them later in life, but it is significantly more difficult.

In a lot of cases, I do not argue for mental illness being a defense for the kind of fuckery that he got up to, but shit, man. Milo has such a deep-seated sense of self-loathing, and the amount of vitriol thrown against him so intense and utterly unsympathetic. The whole cast uses the MC for their own ends. They all put the MC at direct risk. At least Milo believes he's saving them.

Anyhoo... romanced him because Zinnia won't let me play as his therapist LOL.

[indigofoxpaws]

"you looked at that mess of [a] man and said, I’ll do you one better.”

I love the fashion of the Night Market setting, so I wanted to draw how I imagine my mc Vesper's outfit! (I did this piece before the Book 2 demo, so this is his Book 1 look.)

[paperbugzz]

Drew these a whileeeeee back

It’s Milo ,Mal and my Mc Brair

I think this was my second time doing the Milo route , I don’t quite remember.

From the if game :the night market

Its really cool check it out @night-market-if

[basket-of-cats-and-witches]

All the World's a Stage, and You're the Playwright

Hello! It's been a while. Life really catches up to you, huh?

In the interim, book 1 of one of my favorite interactive fiction novels just dropped, and I've been devouring it.

Speaking of which, this is set post book 1 of The Night Market, in the interim between book 1 and 2 (since 2 will be a wip for a while and I'm impatient and I adore this work so much).

If you're not entirely sure what's going on, use dream logic. Because I intended for this to be a very different piece and then Milo Next said "no I want to be sad and tormented".

There are SPOILERS in this for the ending of Book 1, and mentions of Child Death, and Death in general. I don't get explicitly into detail about it, I'm not that kind of a writer, but if those heavy topics aren't for you, I recommend avoiding this piece.

Ember/Blaze is my OC! They use any pronouns.

Without further ado....

-

He knew he was dreaming.

Milo remembered the acrid smell of blood in his nose, looking down at the crimson stain on his hands (or was it silver? Or chrome? Or an oil slick spill of color?) and seeing their wide eyes staring back at him accusingly. A pearlescent tear sliding down their cheek as they gasped their last.

It was a dream he'd had many times. One he'd have many times more.

He shuddered, holding them close. His handsome lover, reaching out and cupping his face, their lips trembling. The black smoke of their hair drifted out to mingle with the late-night mist of the gardens, almost as if desperate to cling to the fabric of this world.

The world he'd excised them from.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. Apologizing the way he never would have in the waking world, baring his bleeding scarred heart.

In the dream, he always did this. Like two actors upon the stage, a single lantern dangling over them like a spotlight.

If he looked out, he knew he'd see a full amphitheater, their breath held tight with anticipation.

A sea of masks watching his mistakes over and over again, witnesses to his crime.

"Save him!" A voice shouted from the audience, soft and sweet even in its anger. A mask made of woven willow branches, with glistening sap tears that spilled out of the eyeholes.

"You deserve to rot for your crimes," another called, from out behind a featureless onyx mask cracked and gilded with silver, heartachingly beautiful in its kintsugi design.

A third raised its voice, powerful and commanding even amidst the crowd. "You didn't deserve her. You've killed us all." Eyes stared accusingly at him from behind an ornate devil's mask, the golden snarling mouth turned copper from lipstick made of blood.

As always, he braced himself for the last voice, the voice that never came.

The empty seat in a full theater that terrified him as much as he was desperate for it.

He stared down at the lifeless body in his arms. He had once embraced this body with his own, whispered frantic words in hidden alleyways mingling brightly with loving laughter.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. If I could bring you back…" He held out a wooden heart, the red paint cracked and peeling. A prop on the stage of his dream. Red fabric slid down his chest in stop motion across the empty courtyard.

He knew how this would end. The curtains would draw on his false heart, the audience booing in dissatisfaction.

They wanted a proper ending. His body at the gallows, his crimes paid for.

They wouldn't get it.

He would relive his guilt again and again, night after night upon the stage for all the world to see.

Milo bowed his head and waited for the lights to dim.

That's it?

A voice slid across his mind, and he gasped, jerking his head up. Looking frantically around.

The dream always ended afterwards. No one else had lines.

Hands slid around his own, grasping the wooden heart.

Squeezing tightly, punishingly.

Don't you think I deserve more than this? A false caricature of your heart?

He looked down.

To his horror, his dead lover stared back at him. Hollow, empty eye sockets stared back at him, keeping his attention.

A perfect pair of lips moved, and he heard their voice become clear, as if he had been listening to them from underwater, and only now had begun to surface.

"Don't let the curtains draw, Milo. The audience deserves a proper ending. It is you who expects the Gallows." They tugged at the wooden heart emphatically, and he watched as it rotted and crumbled between his trapped hands.

"If you truly wish to change things, you must change the ending. Malcolm has always been the Gatekeeper. You knew this from the start." Ember reached out, cupping his face. Her hand was incredibly warm, almost searingly so.

"Become the Storyteller, Milo. Make the ending your own. After all, I'm not the only one who you made a promise to. I'm not the only one you left behind."

They glanced out to the audience, and he followed their gaze.

A lantern slid down from an invisible ceiling, a spotlight on a single seat.

Malcolm's seat.

Milo's eyes widened with horror.

Wood became metal, and the corpse in his arms grew warm, hot with life. Skin became unbroken, and cheekbones swelled, eyes forming and staring at a spot in Milo's warehouse.

On the woven circular rug in the epicenter of his room, sat a little girl clutching a stuffed cow. She watched in anticipation, a child listening to a story told by their parents.

Milo's hands trembled.

He had forgotten.

No- he had purposefully pushed thoughts of her away.

He'd left her behind when he ran away, and here, in his dreams, he couldn't run any longer.

Ember's hands squeezed around his own, and he glanced back at the man in his arms.

"She deserves a happy ending, Milo Next. Not everything has to be a tragedy. We adults soak in the jaded pain of our lives, we sometimes forget the children we once were. We have to teach them to hope. That death is not the result of punishment, or despair." He nodded towards Ever. "That her death may have been frightening, but it is not the end. Death is just another part of life. The cycle that always begins again."

Ember looked up at him, warm amber eyes flickering like lantern lights-

No. Like a blaze of fire. Burning brighter, with no intention of stopping.

"Show her, Milo. Show her this is not the end. Show her that you can be kind. She needs you. She needs to hear it."

Milo shuddered, feeling tears beginning to leak down his face. "But death is scary. It is the end. How can I lie to her? How can I tell a kid that sometimes people die?"

Ember, no, Blaze laughed softly. "It is adults who are afraid of death. Children don't know to be afraid until we teach them." Their gaze was sorrowful. "And sometimes, children die. Lovers die. People die. It is our duty to ease them into the inevitable. To twist the story into something hopeful. Show her, Milo."

Another voice spoke up over his shoulder. The voice he had been dreading from the start.

"Show her that death is not the end." A hand grasped his shoulder tightly. "Show her that even you know how to forgive and be kind. Show her your heart."

Milo didn't look at Malcolm. He couldn't. Not when his gaze remained captured by Blaze.

Tears streamed down his face, and finally, he sighed.

"Okay," he whispered. "Okay."

Milo Next reached into his chest, pulling out his bleeding heart. Beating wildly with the frantic pulse of life.

The audience in the theater gasped.

Ever leaned forward, her eyes wide with wonder, with the innocence of children.

In the garden, in the still quiet by the fountain, he leaned down.

Just the two of them.

Blaze and Milo.

A corpse and its murderer.

He pushed his beating heart into the keyhole of Blaze's chest, and watched it be swallowed whole.

"I'm sorry," he said. Milo watched as color began to bloom in those cheeks, filling pink lips with life. A chest that began to rise and fall, as it had done so many times before.

"I'm sorry," he repeated firmly, trying not to choke on the words. "I love-"

"-you."

Milo woke up with that last word on his lips, and gasped, sitting upright in his makeshift bed. His chest heaved, and he clutched at it, feeling for the frantic beat he'd known his entire life.

It was still there.

Hastily he scrubbed the tears away from his face, night sweat drying on his skin, and felt something smear across his face.

He pulled his hand away.

Silver/red/chrome/oilslick blood still lingered on his fingertips.

In the silence of the waking dawn, Milo Next wept.

[sunsofdawn]

a web weaving of milo & the night market, from the @night-market-if interactive fiction /

taylor swift, my tears ricochet / oresteia, robert icke / ethel cain, strangers / marina tsvetaeva, earthly signs: moscow diaries, 1917–1922 / josefa de ayala, the sacrificial lamb / taylor swift, my tears ricochet.

[falon-fen]

I also got around to making a playlist for my other favorite IF @night-market-if oc, Avin with RO of choice Milo. Another must read! Go buy it if you haven't, you'll love it!! Zinnia's writing is wonderful and draws you in.

As always, I will continue to add to this playlist. I think it's funny that I went into reading this fully expecting to romance Gabe first because he's the type I tend go for. Milo not so much. But after a first playthrough that changed COMPLETELY, now he's Avin's canon RO. (So excited for the poly with Mal). Anyway, tastes are subjective and I'm older so that changes it somewhat. Enjoy.. or don't, regardless go read the book/game. <3

[artanogon]

finished the night market demo while doing a romance route with milo. jesus christ.

[mooreaux]

Just me thinking about the poly Milo/MC/Mal situation in @night-market-if ‘s stupidly beautiful game

Milo made Mor sad 😞 Mal is helpin to soothe the pain.

[night-market-if]

I completely forgive Milo! He was doing what he thought was best! I would have probably done something similar in his shoes! I will, however, hold this over his head for the rest of his life. Not in a mean way! But! Death affords me certain privileges and one of this is saying "this is almost worse than THAT TIME I DIED"

Any time they are in an argument

MC: "You have to concede."

Milo: "I don't. You are wrong. You know you are wrong."

MC: "You killed me!"

Milo: "Nine years ago!"

MC: "You killed me and I forgave you!"

Milo, head hanging. "You win."

[nyxchipz]

The next mutation is not good. In fact it is bad. But I can still hallucinate and pretend Venus and Donnie had an active sibling rivalry based off like 2 jokes in the show because I love Venus and I kind of liked Donnie too.

Venus I will save you.

Also the catchphrases are so terrible in this show but I haven't been able to stop saying "certified-turtlefied" all week and it's ruining my life I hate this show but I can't bring myself to hate this show

[mycurrentobsessionis]

Chapter 11 of The Night Market be like

[night-market-if]

I like the idea of changing clothes each book. Little upgrade each season.

"you looked at that mess of [a] man and said, I’ll do you one better.”

I love the fashion of the Night Market setting, so I wanted to draw how I imagine my mc Vesper's outfit! (I did this piece before the Book 2 demo, so this is his Book 1 look.)

[comicviolence]

lots of mark wahlbergs in this comment section

you guys ever go to wahlburgers

me either