#scope slime

[ranposweetworld]

Dandadan Momo and Ken(okarun) stim board because they are cute

xxx / x-x / xxx

[gubgam]

Shoutout to oozes

You are so pretty and we love you!

The growing indifference - or even outright hostility - to ooze and other slimelike fluids is indicative of a larger societal issue. I haven't decided what the issue is but its making me reallymad

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

octavinelle’s “happy endings”

***SPOILER WARNING: This post will go into detail about the dreams Azul, Jade, and Floyd experience in the book 7 part 10 update.***

OKAY, so there’s a debate in the TWST fandom about whether or not Azul and the twins consider each other “real” friends or just business partners. I’ve shared my own thoughts on this topic in the past (which you can read here!). After the most recent main story update, it’s now more clear to me than ever that they do treasure each other even if they don’t express that in traditional ways.

Let’s discuss them in order that they appear in book 7 part 10!! I know there’s some vagueness surrounding how much of the dream is Malleus actively controlling the scenarios (hence the limited and shallow scope of them) and how much the dreams actively pull from the innate desires of the dreamer, but for the sake of the argument let’s assume the latter is more influential in shaping and structure of the dreams.

First up, Floyd!

So Floyd is known as the “I do what I want when I feel like it” guy. He hates two main things: 1) being told what to do/having his freedom restrained and 2) being bored. To ensure that Floyd is happy, the dream consistently shifts to locations so he vanishes explore and experience new things.

What you might notice is that Azul and Jade aren’t around in Floyd’s dream. This doesn’t mean they don’t exist or that Floyd doesn’t know who they are though. When asked, Floyd replies that Azul is simply doing his own thing (focusing on his business ventures/schemes) and Jade is there supporting him, thus leaving Floyd to his own devices. The fact that Jade and Azul are still present in Floyd’s dream, just not in an immediate capacity, makes complete sense.

In the waking world, Floyd loves to stir up trouble with his brother and Azul. The thing is, Floyd also dislikes it when they tell him off, order him to do something he’s not in the mood for, or punish him for acting out. Yes, Jade for the most part enables Floyd to misbehave, and yes, Azul has largely learned by now that it’s best to sit back and let Floyd fuck off/finish throwing a tantrum rather than intervene. However, there are still times when they order Floyd around or get upset with him. For example, Azul scolds Floyd for damaging the vault where they keep the contracts in book 3 and for not selling the drinks he’s supposed to in book 5. We see numerous examples across vignettes as well: Jade forces Floyd to stand in line at a famous patisserie for Trey as penance for eating special fruits meant for a VIP client (Trey Labwear vignettes), Azul and Jade wring Floyd for his eel slime (Azul Ceremonial Robes vignettes), Azul orders Floyd to secure the rights to Sam’s Mystery Drink even though Floyd shows a clear disinterest in the task (Floyd Dorm Uniform vignettes), etc.

In spite of these grievances, Floyd doesn’t entirely despise Jade and Azul, nor would he be happier without them. They’re an important part of his life, hence why they still linger in the dream, just in the periphery where they can’t butt in with whatever Floyd wants to do. Jade and Azul aren’t present and compliant since that, too, would quickly bore Floyd. He loves those two goobers in part because they’re chaotic and unpredictable, not because they’re yes men to his every action. The dream might not be able to keep up with that demand; it only seems to operate in extremes rather than conjure enough nuance to keep Floyd stimulated and content. This is why all the places Floyd already visited bored him; he got showered with too many conveniences and eventually got fed up with it all.

If you need even more damning evidence, all previous dreams would manifest someone closely tied to the dreamer in an attempt to keep them in the dreamscape. Who does Floyd’s dream summon? AZUL AND JADE. If Floyd genuinely found them annoying or didn’t want them near, the surely the dream would spawn other people. BUT NO, it specifically spawned THOSE TWO in an effort to convince Floyd. It can be argued that they could very well be a source of hatred since Kalim and Neige showed up for Jamil and Vil respectively, but I genuinely think Floyd doesn’t feel that degree of negativity toward Jade and Azul; the kind of hatred that Jamil and Vil have for their respective counterparts has never been expressed by Floyd toward Jade or Azul.

Floyd reacts to dream!Jade and Azul in a manner that’s very different from the dreamers that came before him… with anger. And a LOT of anger too. He immediately clocks them as phonies and, he, fully waking, demands to know who the fakes are, because they certainly aren’t Jade and Azul. Floyd points out their faces and voices may resemble theirs, but they’re acting in a way that they never would (suggesting a “boring” way of living). That pisses him off to the point where he cuts the fakes down all by himself. Brutal violence aside, this tells us a lot about Floyd... as well as Malleus.

We see that Floyd has become lethargic and bored despite the dream's attempts to sate him, which just demonstrates that Malleus, whose magic has a hand in crafting these realities, has a shallow understanding of what makes people happy. (Edit: to be clear, Malleus having a “shallow understanding” of happiness is not a personal take; this is a direct statement made by Idia in-game and this is where I am pulling my phrasing from.) He thinks that removing all obstacles and challenge to what you want is what leads to a happy ending when, in truth, it clearly isn't the case for Floyd, who craves stimulation and change. While Malleus is motivated outright controlling the details of Floyd’s dream down to the wire, his autonomous magic has decided to get rid of any challenges Floyd may face in his pursuit of happiness. (I would continue about the Malleus portion, but since this post is about the Octatrio, I will instead direct you to this post, which shares many of my own thoughts ^^) I think that's why Floyd truly "woke" when he was faced with dream!Azul and Jade; a part of him recognizes how wrong it is for the two people he chose to spend his time with because they're so fun are now turning around and preaching complacency. It tells us just how well Floyd knows those two and values their... unique perspectives, shall we say?

Next, just Jade!

What's immediately fascinating about Jade's dream is that it's also underwater, despite Floyd and co. suspecting it would be on land/in the mountains. Floyd even changes from his merform to his human form prior to hopping to Jade's dream because he was under the impression that it would be on land. This ends up not being the case, although Malleus's magic does manifest the underwater equivalent of "mountains", which are volcanic vents at the bottom of the sea.

We see Jade happily exploring alongside a dream!Azul and dream!Floyd, who are both very different than the real ones. Dream!Azul has big, watery eyes and is much more of a coward and crybaby than the real Azul is. He also seems to be very dependent on Jade, who derives great joy from watching dream!Azul flail about while trying to attain his goals (in this case, access to a gold vein). This is in-character with what we already know about Jade; he amuses himself by watching others struggle--especially Azul, whom Jade frequently teases, such as tricking him to dance as a mummy in the first Halloween event and comparing Azul's greedy attitude to the positive traits of other dorm leaders. Jade also prefers to have control over the circumstances, so he likes it when people defer to his word or advice. So what better to hand him than an Azul that listens to his every word and also provides entertainment value in his tears?

As for dream!Floyd, he presents with a very goofy face and seems to lack his usual aggression and flippancy. Instead, he has a fixation on eating other sea life around him (crabs, shrimp, etc.) and happily goes along with Jade's mountain exploration. Like dream!Azul, dream!Floyd acts dependent on Jade to guide him and even acts cowardly in a fight. Now we can sort of get a glimpse of how Jade feels about Floyd too. Dream!Floyd's pliant and agreeable nature may come in part from the dream seeking to provide Jade with more free entertainment, but it could also be that Jade wants Floyd to share in his interests. But here Floyd is not gung-ho about mountains; instead, he acts very innocently, almost like a kid going along with whatever his parents decide to do for the day. It gives me the impression that Jade doesn't see Floyd as threatening but as someone cute and child-like. This idea is reinforced when, in an attempt to keep Jade dreaming, dream!Azul tells him that Floyd is cute and not some thug (like the real Floyd is). AND JADE 100% BUYS IT. He 100% believes that dresm!Floyd is the "true" one, that his Floyd and Azul would be useless without his support.

Idia makes an important comment at this point in book 7. He explains that Jade is having a hard time waking up because he believes in himself too strongly. That also means that Jade is distrustful of others; he is the only person he counts on. This reflected in how dream!Azul and dream!Floyd present. Both are heavily reliant on Jade to tell them what to do. In real life, too, Jade uses his competency to get into others' good graces (including the notoriously hard to please Vil; see his Dorm Uniform vignettes) so then he can reap the benefits that relationship offers. Jade is just that confident that he can succeed. Indeed, he often is the one coming close to tasting success when all others have failed. If we look back at Ghost Marriage, Jade was about to win over Eliza's heart before Floyd rudely interrupted and pointed out the flowers Jade was gifting were poisonous. Back to Idia's comment; because this is dream's Jade world, he's perhaps too invested in the dream that he has made, thus Jade is choosing to believe the dream that he conjured over the reality staring him in the face. It takes fistfighting with Floyd AND a jolt from Sebek's UM to properly shock some sense into Jade. He is otherwise too stuck in his own head to consider a truth that isn't one he has constructed for himself.

Still, I find it revealing that even though Jade is essentially stuck in his own headspace, dream!Floyd and dream!Azul are the only other people around. Floyd and Azul’s dreams feature way more NPCs, but Jade’s dream is pretty lonely. He could theoretically have several influential people to whisper in the ears of, but instead Jade’s desire is grounded… just being able to explore nature with his twin and Azul. They’re the ones he chooses to spend his time with. No one else. And Jade actively, fiercely defends this simple thing despite usually not being one to resort to violence right off the bat. The only major time in the main story where Jade does this is in book 2, when be noticed that he’s being tailed and does not appreciate the violations of his privacy. That’s exactly what this dream sequence is. It’s another violation of his privacy, and he detests that. You shouldn’t be here interrupting his happy, chill time with his friends business associates. It’s best for you to clear out.

I think it's also worthwhile to note that Floyd and Jade's waking sequences mirror one another. To quote myself from another post:

Something I find interesting is that the twins’ moments of waking mirror each other’s usual approaches to a task. Floyd usually foregoes a plan and prefers to use his fists to get the job done. However, he is slowly roused by reminiscing about his memories at NRC and the promise of being presented with a challenge. The final blow that shocks him awake is the presentation of a dream!Azul and dream!Jade who attempt to lure him deeper into the dream. Floyd doesn’t fall for it; in fact, he gets mad instead, and that fury, so biting and clear, snaps him awake. The opposite is true for Jade. He is someone who meticulously plans before acting, and would rather control the circumstances and use other roundabout methods before resorting to violence. But ironically, the master manipulator Jade is the one who falls for his own dream’s manipulations—all because he trusts himself above all else. He only wakes up because of a very strong physical force (ie Sebek’s UM) striking him. Prior to this, Jade was putting up a very good fight and the blows be was taking were not sufficient to wake fully him. So… Floyd, the brother who prefers brawns, woke up after reflecting and experiencing strong cognitive dissonance between his fake reality and bis true reality. Jade, the brother who prefers brains, woke up after being smacked the right amount. They woke up after experiencing an intense shock related to what is essentially the opposite of their preferred problem solving strategies.

And last but not least, Azul!

We’ve arrived at what I think is the juiciest part to dissect on the subject of the Octatrio’s friendship. To start off with, everyone suspects that Azul’s dream will be one in which he is a highly successful businessman with Mostro Lounge as a chain with even more locations stretching as far as the Coral Sea’s depths. That isn’t the case though! They quickly come to learn that Azul is the leader of Golden Trident, a reigning Coral Rush team. In this dream’s reality Azul was always popular and well-liked. Because he was never bullied, he never started up his shady business in middle school and thus never attracted the interest of the twins. Notably, Jade and Floyd still exist in the dream (as Azul remembers the Leeches from elementary school), but they never got close.

Before we get into the Octatrio’s dynamics, I want to say that the setup of this dream already tells us that a lot of Azul’s desire to become a successful business owner really stems from the longing to be accepted as he is. He uses his businesses and accumulation of contracts to reinforce and inform his self worth. Azul has formed a false belief and identity entering around the concept of success and likability equating to talent and material goods. This explains why he’s so fixated in his public image and being perceived as smart, confident, reliable, and trustworthy, and why he loses it so quickly when he’s denied his collection of golden contracts. Azul is insecure as heck about his shortcomings (athleticism being one of them) and the dream may be latching onto that, as well as his desire to be liked by his peers, to overcompensate.

A little thing I'd like to call attention to is that Jade refuses to divulge the private details of Azul's past in which he was bullied. This is significant because most other instances of the twins bringing up Azul's past usually results in them making fun of him for it and continuing to rag on him to the point where Azul becomes annoyed and tells them to quit it/reminds them that they swore to not talk about it. In those other instances though, the twins never tread that far; they'll at most comment about how different Azul looked or acted back then. They never went so far as to point out how badly he was bullied and here we see Jade respecting Azul's privacy by vocalizing that he refuses to release that information. And this JADE we're talking about, the one who has zero qualms with scoping out prospective new students for their personal info so Azul can later hold it against them (Jade Ceremonial Robes vignettes). Jade even blackmails older students to attain what he wants (Ortho Athletic Gear vignette). It says a lot that, when given the option to openly blab about what Azul experienced and have a laugh about it, Jade clams up.

sdjbaslidbasib OKAY I GOT SIDETRACKED, BACK TO AZUL'S DREAM. So he remembers the Leeches from elementary school, meaning that their existence was not entirely purged from his dream world. It's just a different timeline of events since he wasn't bullied in this reality. Azul is quite friendly to the twins and invites them to join his Coral Rush team at his mother's restaurant for a celebratory dinner. When we arrive at the restaurant, Azul and his team mates start to make fun of the land creatures for very similar things that he actually got bullied for in the waking world. (For example, being clumsy and uncoordinated in their swimming.) He's no longer the bullied, he is a bully. In a twisted way, Azul is getting validation of his own identity by looking down on others; this mirrors his behavior pre-OB in book 3, as he also mistreated his anemone'd peers back then. Tellingly, the only people he doesn't bully are... that's right, Jade and Floyd. Azul instead asks them to play Coral Rush with him. Again, this parallels what we saw in book 3: Azul is asking the twins to essentially "join" him in the midst of him abusing his power and lording over others. He still cares deeply about Jade and Floyd's approval specifically. Nowhere is this demonstrated so clearly as the method by which the twins finally get Azul to start questioning the construct of the dream. They start smashing up the restaurant but then grow bored and make as though they're going to casually leave. That triggers a memory from book 3 in which Azul is angrily shouting about how he'll always be alone. Alone. That's what Azul fears, being that lonely little octopus crying in his pot. That's why he's surrounded by adoring team members and fans in his dream. That's why he breaks down emotionally and OBs after the twins refuse to hand over their UMs to him in book 3. That's why he becomes distraught enough to shake the dream at the suggestion that Jade and Floyd, his two closest friends, are threatening to leave him. In book 4, Azul tries to be cool and play off this fear as the inevitable, that he's fully aware that the Leeches will discard him if he stops being entertaining to them, and that he's prepared for that when it happens. But... is that really the truth, given how Azul reacts in book 7? Everything leading up to this moment seems to imply Azul was just lying to himself, perhaps in an attempt to quell his own anxieties about the possibility. And given how Azul is shown to be calculated in cultivating a put-together public persona, I would not be shocked to learn that. It wouldn't make him seem strong or confident if he displayed weakness or fear over losing his right-hand men. I don't even know that he's purposefully telling a lie. It could very well be something Azul tells himself and believes in, but deep down he cannot truly know how emotional he would get if it ever happened.

As soon as Azul starts to wake, the mermobs of his Coral Rush team are the ones who come in and pull him deeper into the dream. Interesting to have just mobs doing this rather than a dream!Jade or dream!Floyd, given how important they seem to be to Azul. Maybe that's just how the surface level of the dream works? Like, it prioritizes lavishing Azul with general attention rather than the attention of two specific people since, in this dream's reality, Azul never bonded with Jade and Floyd (so those two wouldn't be as convincing?).

When Azul is being dragged into the darkness, Jade and Floyd don't go after him. Instead, they kinda just sit back and claim it's Azul's choice to dream more deeply so who are they to interfere? It takes some convincing from Ortho to convince the twins to pursue Azul into the next layer of the dream--but after the twins depart, Ortho wonders if Jade and Floyd being this cold is actually their way of showing trust. This sort of behavior is why I stress so often that we cannot take what the Octatrio do and say at face value all of the time. They have completely different ways of expressing that they care, and they don't always mean what they insist they mean. (KEEP THIS IN MIND BECAUSE IT COMES BACK INTO PLAY SOON.) In the second layer of Azul's dream, we revisit the events of book 3 had he been successful. He's setting that final class trip picture on fire and relishing in his total conquest of Night Raven College. Azul has ~500 golden contracts, the UMs of the other dorm leaders, and even has Crowley under his thumb--and this time, there's a dream!Jade and dream!Floyd to enjoy that victory with him. The rescue squad has to trick Azul into accidentally sanding his own contracts again, and it's that loss that finally breaks him. Again, we see how much of his own self-worth and value Azul places in that which he collects. It all ties back to that fear of not having anything of worth--not even allies to call his own--if he loses what he believes makes him desirable. At this point, Azul begins to sink into that final layer of his dream (the part where he confronts his OB self). This time, the twins lunge after him, calling out Azul's name and instructing him to grab onto them (+ Jade tells Floyd to help him pull). UM, HELLO????? The "take my hand" imagery, that symbol of trust and connection, from all the way at the start of the game is rearing its head here 😭 AND YOU KNOW WHAT'S EVEN CRAZIER???? The twins just... let go after that??? But not because they don't give a crap about Azul--no, it's because they care and believe that he can fend for himself, that he's no longer a weak person who cries and needs their support to stand on his own. Jade sends him off with a "good luck" and Floyd asks of Azul to not go to hell. Azul casually says the same right back to them before descending. And, just as the twins suspected, Azul is able to win against his inner demons and return to them, safe and sound. They were right about Azul, and Ortho was right about the Leeches. For as cold as Jade and Floyd seem to act, it's actually a front for how much they care.

In the segment where Azul faces his Phantom, he cites that the weight of everything he has taken from others has made it difficult to move. Taken literally, it of course could refer to the tentacles of his merform making it hard for him to swim. Metaphorically though? It can easily mean that he can't achieve personal growth if he's burdened by the weight of his sins (stolen talents, items, etc.). These things he stole may glitter, but they are not gold and he now realizes they aren't things he actually finds valuable. Azul wants to go out there and find things of "real value". I interpret this to mean intangible things that can't really have a price put to them, things that cannot be bought in stores... like friendship, the very thing he has with the twins but failed to call it that this entire time.

Everything in these dreams, and more specifically Azul's dream, demonstrates the Octatrio's mutual respect and trust in one another. Jade and Floyd acknowledge Azul as a strong individual, and Azul's subconscious reveals that he deeply values the twins and seeks their approval even when they've been removed from the picture.

[arc-misadventures]

The High Elf’s Tale

Lady Willow Schnee…

She was a high elf that had lived to be nigh on a thousand year. She was a mother of three wonderful children, two girls, and a boy. And, she was unfortunate married to a repulsive, slime ball of a high elf.

It was a forced marriage her parents put her through; something about keeping the bloodline pure. They said this as if it was something sacred, and special to uphold in high regard. Yet keeping the bloodline pure often lead to a unsanitary deal of inbreeding, and the various noble bloodlines of the human nations had taught anyone who had eyes to see the vile, and various consequences of inbreeding.

Luckily for, Willow this animated corpse was only her second cousin. Though the thought of having married that decrepit spawn of goblin dung never sat well with her.

To escape her ‘loving’ husband, Willow eventually fell into drinking: Elvin Wine, Dwarf Ale, Faunkin Brandy, even the feeble excuse of alcohol that was, Human Beer. For nearly a hundred years she drunk herself into a stupor. If it wasn’t for her daughter’s, she dare say she’d still be a drunkard.

After recovering from her addiction of the bottle, she escape that sentient trash heap of a living being, and became a scholar at the kingdom’s national library, one of the largest repository of knowledge in the know world.

Willow spent her time there delving into ancient knowledge, magic, and history of the world. Nearly two hundred years had passed since she had arrived there, and she had swiftly became a premier scholar, having read the majority of the library’s vast collection of tomes, history books, fine literature, and grimoires. And, thus becoming a wizard of great renown throughout the kingdom.

Willow had thought she would live a peaceful life studying her books for the rest of her life. But, all of that changed on the day that during her studies she stumbled upon the most curious sight: A human knight scoping about the library.

A curious sight to behold; human scholars were a rare, but not uncommon sight to be seen perusing about the vast elven libraries. But, a human knight in their library was something else entirely. So, she grew curious, Willow said she had developed an inquisitive side to her, no doubt due to all the books she read. So, with her curiosity peaked she decided to say hello to this human knight, and ask him why he was here.

Little did, Willow know that simply saying hello to this human lead her down a rabbit hole that seemingly had no end.

Who would believe that just by saying hello to a human knight named, Jaune Arc would result in her assisting him in his quest to slay a dragon, and to battling hordes of bandits, slavers, and all other of vile barbarians just to back a dragon-stone to her kingdom.

Nor, would it have lead them to discovering a vile, and treacherous secret plot being made by her, bastard son of a whore husband’s to overthrow the reigning monarchy in an attempt to take over the kingdom.

Who could have foreseen her shit flinger of a husband was merely being used by a cult that has used the dragon-stone they had acquired for an vile arcane ritual that was being used to summon a, Demon-Lord in an attempt to destroy the kingdom.

Willow, would never had thought she would wind up in a book in the very same library she stood over of as a member in a tale of hero’s who would fight along side, the Knight of the Rusted Order, Jaune Arc, and his companions to slay a, Demon-Lord, and save the entire kingdom.

Willow would have never had expected that after all the travels, and adventures that she would wake up in the arms of this young knight after the victory celebrations. And, considering how loveless her marriage was, and dull, and repulsive the times they spent in bed together, she could have never foreseen how enjoyable, and overwhelming pleasurable it was to sleep with a man she genuinely loved.

In all of, Willow’s life she had never expected to fall in love with a man, a human no less. Let alone marry a human knight that was a thousandth her age, and least of all bear several wonderful, beautiful children with him.

But, that just how life goes; unpredictable, but unforgettable, and wonderful nonetheless.

[vulto-cor-de-rosa]

If the slime was actually Charlie's blood that means that Ranboo actually cut someone open and scoped their insides. Ranboo or actually murdered someone or Charlie was alive and awake through all of that

Not only that is terrible information, when sneeg is given the cap he is able to see through the fog which means that he saw Charlie cut open with his guts all over the place

NO WONDER HE FREAKED OUT

[chickenparm]

Nothing New Under the Sun (Wriothesley/gn!Reader)

AO3 Link

Wriothesley/gn!Reader 2,229 Words - SFW Awkward dates, pining, fluff

---

When you first suggested it, you’d already gone in with the assumption that the answer was going to be a solid no. That he’s too busy right now, that there’s some crisis he has to handle, that the upcoming mandated day off required him to have a presence in the Fortress to prevent any trouble. 

But then he’d looked at you from behind the rim of his teacup, the smallest crease at the corner of his eye to betray his little smile, and he agreed. 

Honestly, you hadn’t thought you’d even get this far. Stammering over your words, you deliver a time later that afternoon and nearly sprint from his office to the elevators that will take you to the surface once more. You hadn’t gotten anything ready; he normally says no. God, maybe that’s why he said yes, he had to have known you didn’t expect it. 

Hotel Debord does takeout, don’t they? If you hurry, you can get there, order a few things to take with, and stop off at home… yeah, this should work. It will work. 

The aquabus doesn’t run any faster or slower than it always does, but it feels like an eternity as your knee bounces and you tune out the sound of Elphane’s usual script about the surrounding area and points of interest. You’d lived here long enough and taken this aquabus so many times that if Elphane ever needed a day off, surely you’d be able to fill in. 

Never mind the reason you’ve used the Navia Line so many times.

Does he like sweet things? You ask yourself as you search Debord’s menu. He has to, at least a little, right? He takes his tea with two sugars. Okay, Pate de Fruit, then. Maybe some Garlic Baguette. Would Lasagna be too unwieldy to eat? Probably - Tomates Narbonnaises it is, then. 

Ah, shit, the drinks. 

You can handle that at home, you have a few thermoses. Impatiently, you wait for the food, accepting the box with profuse thanks for their efforts in stashing pyro slime condensate inside to keep it all warm. The bag of Pate de Fruit sits neatly on top and you watch it carefully as you hustle home. A blanket or two should do it - oh, and the tea. 

It’s embarrassing how scattered this has made your mind. A simple, “Sure, sounds great,” and you’re in shambles like a child dealing with their crush. Well, you kind of are dealing with your crush, but it’s not like he knows that. Though, knowing Wriothesley, he probably does and has just been messing with you. 

Though, that comes with a whole host of thoughts about his motivations. As you fold the blankets to tuck into your backpack, you try to reason with yourself, murmuring beneath your breath that Wriothesley isn’t cruel. Far from it, actually, and if he did know about your feelings, it would be extremely out of character for him to mock you or string you along. 

No, he either doesn’t know, or there’s something else afoot. 

A quick glance at the clock soothes you - you have more than enough time to get to the location you specified. Then it’s a matter of scoping out a good place and making sure there aren’t any unwanted parties nearby. Hilichurls would have a field day with your goods, probably. 

Just North of the Fountain of Lucine, there’s a hilltop angled just right to get a view of Coppelius and Coppelia spinning idly at the Icewind Suit, with a backdrop of the Court beyond it. Wildflowers dot the hill on the way up, and their scent fills your nose as you make the short hike and ensure everything is clear. Nothing to worry about except how you’re going to make conversation with this guy. 

Your cheeks warm as you lay out the blanket - checkered, to be cliché. Another thing you weren’t prepared for. Usually you have time to think of arbitrary reasons to talk to Wriothesley when you head down to the Fortress once a week. But this is all purely casual; are you supposed to just talk about the weather? 

God, you feel like a mess. Carefully, you set the box of lunch on the blanket, sweeping your hands against one another in little claps as you look at the little setup. Not too bad on this front, you think-

“You look exhausted. Run a few too many last-minute errands?”

The hill nearly takes your life as you almost tumble down it, catching yourself with waving arms before you turn and irritation overtakes your nerves, “Don’t sneak up on someone like that!”

“I wasn’t sneaking, I even called your name from the bottom of the hill. Not my fault you were daydreaming.” Wriothesley doesn’t hide the little half-cocked smile on his face as he tilts his head, making a show of looking at the spread behind you. “Either way, those errands paid off, huh? Looks great. Next time’s my treat.”

Next time, next time, next time-

“Uh… yeah, sure. I got a few things, I wasn’t sure what you’d like.”

“I’m not picky.” Wriothesley answers simply, stepping closer to take your elbow with his hand - it’s warm - and steer the two of you to the picnic you’ve so carefully laid out. “Checkered blanket? Cute.”

Not a single response comes to mind. You could address his light teasing, or his eating habits, or the way his fingers still wrap gently around your arm as if to help you sit down. They don’t pull away until you’re comfortable, and then he takes the space across from you, leaning back on his hands as his legs stretch out in front of him. The bottom of his boots are off the blanket, an attempt to keep from dirtying it. 

God, you wanna kiss him. 

Shaking your head to get back on track, you try to address any of those topics and instead you weakly ask, “So uh… weather’s nice, huh?”

And his head falls back while he laughs. Not meanly, or cruel, but this odd surprised sort of sound, like he hadn’t expected that at all. Neither did you, to be honest. There’s no attempt made to try and backpedal as you watch enraptured at the shake of his shoulders and that little flash of teeth from his laughter. 

Lifting his head it looks at you, eyebrows raised just enough to make him look deeply interested despite his grin, “Yeah, the weather’s great. Lots of sun.”

You want to slap your palm to your forehead, but you instead tense your shoulders and set to work unpacking the box containing your lunch. A bit of steam wafts out thanks to the slime condensate, and as you reach in for the containers, you hiss a little at the sudden sharp temperature. 

Thankfully, he doesn’t chide you for being careless, but he does quietly sit straight and all but takes over the distribution of food for you. You’re normally not so clumsy but you’re also normally not in the presence of the man you can’t get your mind to let go of. Wriothesley’s arm reaches out to offer you one of the takeaway bowls, and your eyes follow the lines of his veins, the shift of muscles beneath his skin. 

If he notices how your hands shake when you accept the bowl, he graciously says nothing, and instead just reaches for the thermos of tea. Singular. 

“Ah, shoot. I forgot the other one on the counter at home.” You murmur, watching as he stops in the middle of unscrewing the cap. 

His eyes dart from the tea to you, then he shrugs. “We’ll just share, then. Here.”

Your bowl of food is warm on your lap as you reach for the thermos, taking it and quietly thanking him before taking a drink. Thoughtlessly, you pass it back without further scrutiny of the situation, only to be blindsided when he accepts it and turns it so that he can drink from the same spot on the rim that you did. 

And when he swallows, his tongue darts out a little, and your fingers are dangerously close to cracking your bowl with your grip. He has to know. He has to know. Because there’s no way a person would ever cause this much mental damage without it being deliberate. 

Your mouth opens and closes, trying and failing to say anything at all. Wriothesley looks at you, face downturned a little toward his food, waiting patiently to give you some time. When it drags a little too long, he’s graciously merciful, “You know, it’s pretty nice out here. Good view, and it’s quiet - one thing I don’t get much of in the Fortress. I’m sure the Palais Mermonia is just as busy for you, yeah?”

Mutely you nod, and just before taking a bite of the food, he says, “We can just enjoy it, then. Don’t feel like you have to fill the silence for my sake. Plenty to be said about spending time with someone in peace.”

Relief floods through you. It’s like he can read your mind, and you enjoy the ambient sounds around you as he smiles knowingly and takes another sip of tea from the same spot. Then, offers it to you. 

Surely this is a test, and you look at it unsurely for a moment before he wiggles the thermos a little as if to say, “C’mon, it won’t bite.”

You’re going to pass it, you’ve decided, and you take the tea with a murmur of thanks before shifting it with your fingertips to turn in your hand and drink from that same spot as well. Wriothesley sits up a little, then leans back on one hand again, and looks oddly satisfied for something so simple. 

The quiet makes things easier when there isn’t a looming expectation for you to be a good host. The food is finished, and your hunch about sweets was right as he lounges on the blanket and rummages in the back of candied fruits. Unable to keep from watching, you wear a little smile as he chews one thoughtfully, then takes another in quiet approval.

Catching your gaze, he tilts his head a little toward you and asks, “Want one? These are pretty good.”

Nodding, you hold a hand out for him to place one, but he holds his fingers up. They’re visibly coated in little sugar crystals, likely sticky from the candies. “No use getting your hands dirty. Open up.”

Not a single thought rolls through your mind. Nothing at all. Just an odd sort of white noise as you watch him pull a candy from the little bag and hold it with his fingertips, fully intent on feeding it to you. If you back down now, you’ll surely kick yourself for it later, and with bated breath you open your mouth. 

The sweetness blooms across your tongue before the candy even touches it. One of his fingertips just barely grazes across your taste buds as he deposits the slice of fruit, and you look at him with wide eyes and your heart pounding hard enough that it must be visible on your chest. You want to die, or maybe you’re already dead, and your mind is shooting its last bits of electricity before you pass on. 

“Good, huh?” Wriothesley asks like he hasn’t caused you to toe the line of passing out. He brings his fingers to his mouth, lips wrapping around his index, then his thumb, and he murmurs around it, “Want another?”

How do you explain that if he does that to you again, you’re going to perish? 

Luckily, your stunned silence is enough of an answer that he finishes off the candied fruits on his own, sprawled out on the blanket with one arm tucked behind his head and the other idly eating from the bag leaning against his hip. This is a disaster of the best kind, you’re not sure how to recover it. Is this even salvageable? 

“I really should be getting back. There’s a lot on my plate today.”

“Oh, if that’s the case, you didn’t have to-”

“No, I didn’t, but I wanted to make an exception. So I did.” Wriothesley sits up, waving one hand as if that would be enough to ward off your worries about taking so much of his time on this picnic. Except he seems more relaxed, like the weight on his shoulders isn’t as heavy, and you wonder if it was a waste at all. 

Wriothesley tries to help you clean up, but you nudge him away to give him an excuse to get back to work. As you pack things up, he awkwardly stands there for a moment just watching, before finally asking, “Should we just have our next date at Hotel Debord, then? Less hassle in carting things around, even if this was really nice.”

“Oh, yeah, sure, just let me know when.” You say absently, and he lets out a pleased little laugh before agreeing and leaving you alone. Only when you’re on your way back to the Court do you catch what he’d said, and the bowls in the box you’re carrying clatter together as you realize his proposition and drop them.

A letter with his wax seal is already on your desk by the next morning. It smells like him. 

[z0-ne]

Fish eyes (!PLATONIC! UNCLE ILLUMI X CHILD READER + FATHER KILLUA)

This story is based off the illumi portion of THIS scenario! I know a lot of ppl like to think in the future he'd be better and suddenly understands what he did was wrong but like- what if he doesn't???

!warning!~ This story includes, stalking, kidnapping, hurt no comfort, child abuse and some gore.

READ WITH CAUTION!~ illumi is NOT a good person in this story.

Being one of the children of one of the greatest accomplishments in the zoldyck family is a blessing on one hand.

Your father doesn't follow in his own father's footsteps, something you are grateful for, your mother the same. Both assasins within their own right have taken another path with children of their own.

They're loving parents, well, as loving as they can be with the emotional damage they've received, specifically your mother. She's sweet in her own way, but if you had to pick between who was more playful and affectionate it would be your father for sure..

You always assumed it was because she's paranoid, of who? You have no idea, but you do overhear your parents conversate over someone you can only assume to be a bother to them. Sometimes your Uncle Gon would visit as well and be included in the conversation after dark.

Its ominous, you've never heard everything they said, because you would always end up having to sneak out before they mention a name, but you do know that there may be more than one person.

Its nothing to worry too much about right now though, you're still young, and you have two of the strongest people yet as your parents, not to mention your auntie alluka who tries to keep tabs on you all at all times, and your uncle Gon just in case you get lost.

Of course that is if you ever make it outside the mansion grounds, but you never travel that far. As the second youngest of six siblings, you have a lot of people on your back, watching you and making sure you don't wonder too far off.

It makes you wonder what's beyond that, why security suddenly got so strict, then again right now you're only seven, maybe it'll loosen up a bit as you get older, but it is odd. Your oldest sister said things didn't use to be like this.

You tried asking why, first your father but he just told you 'you're too young right now, stay here were you're safe' and rubs his thumb over your forehead to brush off the question. Then your mother, but of course she basically does the same, saying it's best to stay here. Even auntie alluka seems hesitant to tell you much of anything.

Uncle Gon is out of the question, he tells you about all the big creepy monsters out there, some are gross, like the evil giant bugs that roam around, or some gross snail person that leaves a trail of slime that leads to nowhere. Uncle Gon is like reinforcement to make sure you don't get curious about wondering.

Sometimes it works, other times you think you can take those monsters head on. It makes you more curious about the world outside that your oldest sister and her friend travel freely.

You tried asking her about it, since she travels with a girl who trains under your uncle's wing. She's not his daughter but she looks and acts so much like him from what your father told you about them back when they were your sisters age.

Unfortunately, they just share a look of worry then mask it up with a smile and tell you that your far to young to know.

On one hand its a blessing being a child of one of the Zoldycks greatest accomplishments...on the other...it's a curse.

_______________________________

Asking those older didn't seem to work out well, and you were weighing your options on asking your second older sibling, he's usually outside, fiddling with a drone he built, to gaze at the world outside and scope out where he'll go next.

Ultimately you decided to approach him and ask the question. "Why isn't it safe outside the mansions security?" Its an innocent question overall, maybe switching it up a bit will get them to answer.

He glances at you from over his shoulder and grunts a response. "What did dad tell ya?" you furrowed your eyebrows in frustration. Him brushing you off like you're a bother doesn't help answer your question.

"Come ooon...tell me." You said, somewhat demanding but also putting in a hint of annoyance in there as well as you pull at his sleeve.

"No way! If dad already told ya then forget it, go play over there or somethin!" He says as he moves his sleeve away from you and points over to a tree a few steps away from you with a frustrated expression..

Glaring up at him you huff but shrug as you stuff your little hands in your pocket and go over to the tree he pointed you towards. 'Stupid brother...' you think to yourself as you kick a rock. Its frustrating not being told anything.

Then, as you kicked the rock again you noticed something...it's small but you see something odd in the corner of your eye a weird figure, black floating all around it, little specks of green and yellow...since it's so far you can't see much else so you ignore it.

Your focus is not being able to figure out what's really outside the mansion walls, you want to know.

__________________________

'A curious lil thing' is what your uncle gon would always say, maybe it was because you were curious. It was why you were running from your nanny to the front gate right now.

Both parents out, your oldest sister on a trip of sorts with her friend and your brother in his room somewhere.

You've thought about it many times and honestly, when you get to the gate...climbing it seems like the best option, and you throw your caution into the wind.

You know you can climb this even at your age you've climbed higher trees. So you hoist yourself up and look back to see how far behind your nanny is, and you hear her call out your name but her voice leaves an echo behind, you giggle and continue up the wall.

It doesn't take long for you to make your way completely over and you take a look around, its...more forest? No worries, you keep running, curious about what lies ahead of those trees.

"(NAME) please! Come back it isn't safe!" You hear your nanny call out for the upteenth time but can only giggle as yyou keep running, your childlike delight and innocence not picking up on the danger you were about to be in.

You take a few turns here and there, until suddenly something feels...off...the playful atmosphere you had just moments ago replaced with something...scary...

Running comes to a halt, and you take a look around as to where you are. Your arms at your side and hands balled up, you don't recognize it.. the trees are taller...much taller than you remember, and when you look up all you see is leafs...covering everything.

"Huh..? Nana Misa?" You stand up straight and call out,, as you try and retrace your steps from where you are, but something about that feels wrong too.

Its not until you feel a pit in your stomach, your heartbeat picks up and ththere'a sudden shortening in your breathing that you quickly turn around...and there's some...stranger...

Very long, black hair, as black as the night sky...probably darker than that. Skin painfully pale, almost as pale as snow...and those eyes, they're pitch black and they remind you of a fishes eyes...

You once again, stand up straight your hands out of your pocket now stuffed inside them again as you look up at the strange man. "hey...who are you?" You question with a tilt of your head, despite that unnerving feeling you got from him earlier.

He stares at you, those unblinking eyes seem to stare into your soul as he doesnt say anything for the longest time.

"You're just like him..." The strange man speaks, and his voice is smooth like butter but just as unsettling as his appearance, its like looking at one of those creepy characters from a scary movie your oldest sister use to watch.

"Hey! I asked you a question!" Despite your fear you try and mask it with false confidence and a demanding tone.

"I won't make the same mistake twice..." A large hand attatchef to one of his long lanky arms reached out to grab you, and it was like you just froze.

What is this..? This feeling? You can't move, you know you should jump back,, swat his hand away, bite, kick, scream do something to prevent him from grabbing you but you can't. Your brain screaming for you to move away but your body isn't responding.

Its like you're in a trance...a terrible...terrifying trance that's taking over your entire body, freezing it in cold unexplainable fear...

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" A shout, a familiar voice snaps you out of that trance, and you see her, who you believed to be your savior.

"Nana! Nana Misa!!" You don't know what happened but all of a sudden you felt your body and your mind get back in order,, and you dashed over to her, hot tears rolling down your face as you rushed to her and gripped onto her dress, burying your face into it and smudging tears all over the white cloth.

Her hands made their way to caress your head, gentle, warm, comforting and overall protective. Its so familiar, you were always being protected and now is no different...

"Oh...An obstacle... How unfortunate..."

Except it is different.

The man from before, you turn your head to look at him. That tone, nothing behind it but evil...its so scary...you want to look away, but when you feel your nanny's hands begin to tremble, you look up and see her face painted with the same fear yours was, the only difference is that she has some resolve.

"Please...(Name)...run..." her voice trembles....you had never heard her voice tremble before up until now, and it only intensifies your fear

"Nana...?" A crack...there's a crack in your tone, from confident to worry...you've never heard her usually soft calm kind voice tremble, you've never seen such a look of fear in her eyes, sure you've seen concern or worry but never...fear...not like this.

"I said run!" A sudden yell from her and you look up in surprise. She yells at you, not once breaking contact with the man with fishy eyes.

You try to protest, but she shoves you to the side when he steps forward. From there on it all happened so fast... you didn't even have time to run.

"Stay away!!" You hear her yell out, watching the scene in slow motion as she takes a dagger from her sleeve, and raises it above her head, in preparation to strike.

The man however just stand there...those fishy eyes...standing there...watching her as she prepares to slam the blade down upon him.

Why can't you move?

In an instant, he walks past her, and your nanny stops. She stops and doesn't move for awhile, before suddenly she falls to her knees, eyes wide tears at the sides threatening to spill, her lips parted and her eyebrows still furrowed...

Then all you see is red...

Dark red...crimson...it spits from her neck...when did he cut her? it spills out like a sprinkler on the sink, like thick water it spurts from her neck and her entire body jolts around limply.

You stare on horrified, not even noticing the man approach you, not hearing him..let along seeing him reach out to grab you.

The blood spurts from her neck for what feels like hours, covering the once green grass beneath her and painting it red...her body jolts around aimlessly before it slumps limp to the ground with a sickening thud.

Loose pink hairs fall over her pale face, dark red blood drips from her once pink lips and her uniform, the once white apron now dirty with what could be blood and mud.

You can't speak...you can't move, you only look on hopelessly as she lays there...watching her hand twitch...once...maybe twice before nothing...

"I won't make the same mistake twice..."

Then a cold feeling overwhelmed you, a cold feeling of someone grabbing your arm, their grip was rough, not even bothering to handle you with some gentleness like your father and mother or even uncle gon. Its not warm like them or Nanny Misa. Its cold and rough,but you can't move or even resist as it begins lifting you up.

You hang there like a rag doll as you stare at the corpse, the corpse of someone you cared deeply for, like she was an extension of your mother, an aunt of sorts. now just a corpse and through that unnatural coldness...you fell warm tears fall down your face...

"Nana...Nana!!" Your voice echoes, but not enough,, it cracked and you reached out to the body but it was too late.

It was too late for anything, because that strange man was already on the move, running with you like some rag doll, carelessly like you were less than a human.

He stops infront of a car, a limbo, its long and black, pitch black like his eyes and hair, and as you sob he sighs like he's frustrated with it and throws you in the car and climbs in himself..

"Oh a crier, how dreadful...~" another voice says with an odd tone, expaserated and dramatic.its just as unsettling as the other man who threw you into the car.

You can't see through your blurry eyes and the heavy tears that fall out of them,but you can tell that it's a long drive...a long... draining drive because the one who called you dreadful made hints at shutting you up for good. The man that kidnapped you however immediately shut it down.

Eventually the car did stop, and it was time to leave the car, which threw you into a big hysterical fit. You kicked your legs, swung your arms and screamed and cried as the man tries to find an opportunity to grab you..

"Your struggling is useless." That cold voice points out as he grabs your arm and yanks you out the car, forcibly dragging you through what seems to be the woods.

Your sobbing doesn't stop, like you're hoping your parents will hear you, uncle gon, your sister...anyone... maybe you had even hoped the man would have some mercy and return you.

However as they kept walking and there was yet another heavy sigh from the other man with the off voice you figured that it was much too late to be returned.

A loud creak could be heard then a slam, the immediate feeling of a cold breeze hit your face and if you weren't scared before you definitely are now..

Your cries get louder, echoing through the halls as the man holding your hand firmly simply walks, his heels clicking against the hardwood floors, dangling you above the ground from his height alone.

Then it stops. Another loud creak of a door as he lifts you up by your arm to make eye contact with him but your too scared, still crying. He sighs.

"Since you won't calm down ill have you stay here until you stop being so hysterical." His voice blank and empty of any sympathy as he tosses you in the room.

You land on the cold hard floor with a loud thud,, your body throbs in pain as you snap your head up and look to the door,, you quickly stand up run over only for him to slam the door shut, a loud bang following.

"NO!" You scream out, scratching at the door, twisting and yanking at the knob, and you even went as far as to slam your body against it..

In the end however...nothing worked... jt just left your little body sore and you're heart torn to pieces as you realize you can't get out... and you were back to where you were before, sinking to your knees, sobbing as you call out to anyone who could help...your father...your mother...uncle gon...your sister...your brother.

The thought of never getting back home...it brings you to your knees as you sob loudly for them, hoping they'll come...come and take you home..

^___Bonus! ^-^________^

Letting out a heavy sigh, Killua slumps back on the side of the ship he and his wife boarded, a trip back home after a weeks work of work. It was exhausting but going home to see his kids would be pretty rewarding, he brought gifts back as well.

His hair grew in the back so he pulled it into a low pony tail but other than that the front remains the same. He looks out into the distance and suddenly his eyes twitch a bit.

"Something...feels wrong..." he mumbles under his breath, but he doesn't know what...not yet at least.

[silverskye13]

So, the thing about being damseled, Welsknight is rapidly realizing, is you don't really have to be a damsel to do it. Or have it done to you, that is. Being damseled isn't really a gender thing, like all the old knights tales would have him believe. He doesn't have to have long blonde hair, or a princess dress. He doesn't have to make deals with obscure fae gods or spirits, doesn't have to know how to weave golden thread. Heck, he doesn't even have to be locked in a tower. Damseling -- that is, the state of being a damsel in distress -- is a much broader scoped state of being. It's not so much a trope or a role, and more of... An essence. A vibe. If one can be trapped and helpless and in need of a knight in shining armor to save the day, one can in fact be damseled just fine without any of the key fairytale hallmarks.

How does Welsknight know all this? Well, because he's managed to damsel himself, of course.

Welsknight is trapped. He should have known better. Well? Should he have known better? Eh. Even if he should have, he definitely shouldn't have expected to. He's new to Vault Hunting.

Iskall and Stress made it sound so easy. Yeah! Just go find a vault, gear up, don't be afraid to run for your life. Nothing can go wrong if you're careful. Beware the curses and traps and tripwires. Don't eat anything growing on the walls. Fight. Survive. Win! They do it all the time, with their adventuring teams and alone. Whatever suits their fancy. Just don't anger the gods and do run screaming if something way beyond your skill level wanders into the room. Cowardice? Nonsense! Vaults aren't duels, they're thrills. Thrills that sometimes glean cool treasure, and treasure, while awesome, can't challenge your honor and isn't worth your life. So go, kill some monsters, have fun, run when you need to. It's low-high stakes, choose your own adventuring at its finest!

And Wels is a knight errant, alright? He's slain dragons. And withers. And, yes, rescued a few damsels. He's good at what he does. So when he and Iskall went for some drinks at a local tavern, and Welsknight whined that he was getting bored of escorting mining parties and killing oversized lizards for neglectful nobles, well, Iskall had smiled and pointed him to the Vaultlands. And Welsknight, bored and stupid in his boredom, had decided raiding vaults was a great idea.

"If I get out of this," Welsknight vows in his most solemn, oath-binding knight's voice, "I am going to punch Iskall right in his grinning, stupid face."

He is barricading a door with anything he can find, all while the screams and shrieks of some persistent undead challenge his fervor from the other side. The undead here are different than they are outside the Vaults. The slow, lumbering, hollow things that amble blindly around deep caves and unstable mines don't hold a candle to these creatures. These are malevolent undead, things that seem to hate Welsknight personally, inhabited by the dreams of sleeping gods that were, probably, sealed in these Vaults for a freaking reason. He's pretty sure one of them is jibbering with the voice of his dead brother, which is, honestly, demonic scales of unfairness. And he would know demonic unfairness. Welsknight has fought exactly one demon, and while he certainly isn't an expert, he knows more about how much they cheat and torment than he had ever wanted to know. And anyway, how is he supposed to kill that kind of malevolence in the undead? He's not! For heaven's sake, he's faced fae with less personal malevolence, and the fae court is the most petty place on earth!

Welsknight kicks his barricade with an armored boot, making sure it'll hold. The stack of pilfered detritus shakes but stands firm. Somewhere in that lot is his broken sword, barring the door shut. The blade shattered in four pieces when he was tackled by some wight-creature, not because the creature was that strong, but because he'd just used it to fight some sort of corrosive slime, and really, the fact that living acid slime exists in the Vaults is unfair, and something Iskall really should've warned him about. At least it hadn't gotten on his armor.

Welsknight backs away from the barred door, listening to the angry screams of what lay beyond it. There's a lot of name-calling going on. "Come to your death, coward!" And "Brother please! Help me! Don't let it take me!" And "Sleep with us forever knight! Aren't you tired?" Screech and groan through the air as though the door and barricade aren't there to muffle it. There's hysterical cackling as well, which is kind of typical. He can't tell if the loudness of the noise is supernatural, or if it means there's another entrance to the room he hasn't noticed yet. As unsettling as the supernatural option is, he kind of prefers that right now. Weaponless and exhausted, he's not sure how well he'll manage if the undead just start pouring in from a side door somewhere.

Welsknight blinks, and belatedly realizes he's blinking back tears. His hands shake as he wipes them away. Yeah, okay, maybe the screaming-with-the-voice-of-his-dead-brother thing was getting to him more than he thought it would. He's a knight, not an iron golem. He still has feelings. He tries to be detached and gentle about it. He knows what fear is. The first time he fought a dragon, he cried. He cried a lot, actually. After it was dead he lay on the ground sobbing for a good hour, which had been terribly inconvenient at the time, since it had broken one of his ribs. Terror kind of just, does that to him -- makes him cry. He learned a long time ago not to be ashamed of it, no matter how badly timed it could be.

"Right," Welsknight croaks into the room around him. "Cry about it later. Escape now."

It's not a big room that he's trapped himself in. It has the trappings of an ancient hall, with some newness to it, indicating he isn't the first adventurer to stumble in here. Rotting boxes and chests are tumbled against a collapsed wall, the smell of damp rot wafting off them. One has candles and two plates on it, someone's makeshift dining set up, and there's the scorched remains of a campfire. It looks pathetic compared to the massive columns and reliefs it sits beneath. Maybe this place was a temple? It sure seems kind of temple-y, but Welsknight has yet to encounter an altar to any Vault Gods -- which is probably good. Iskall had mentioned those were guarded by scary creatures, and if "malevolent undead who steal the voices of your loved ones from your memories to torment you while they devour your flesh" hadn't registered on Iskall's "scary creatures to warn Wels about" index, he really, really doesn't want to know what insane creatures might guard the altar chambers of the Vault Gods.

"Probably like, undulating tentacle demons with acid breath," Welsknight mutters out loud as he meanders the chamber, searching for something useful. "Or maybe the Gods themselves just come down and use you as a hackey sack until you prove your worth or die. That sounds about right."

The cold stone walls make no comment, which is probably for the best, since given current trends, they would probably talk back with the voice of his disapproving parents, or maybe the old knight he'd been squired to, which would really start straining his already stressed out psyche right about now.

He can still hear his brother's voice calling to him through the door.

For as impressive as the room is, there really isn't much in here of use. The boxes from the old expedition have let the moisture in the room in. There's old, indecipherable food inside that is now mostly black sludge. The candles might be useful if he had anything resembling a tinderbox to light them with. Everything else in here is far older, and mostly carved stone too heavy to pilfer. This place has obviously been picked over before. No relics are on the walls. The one chest he finds that is (probably) older than the boxes contains only a single glorious cobweb as a prize. Welsknight has just about submitted to his fate to die in obscurity in a random Vault somewhere, when he encounters a corpse. It is not reanimated dead, though he does give it a few good kicks to make sure it doesn't feel like crawling to life and talking with ominous voices.

"Well, at least the ambient necromancy going on in here has limits," Welsknight sighs, squatting down on the balls of his feet to pick the corpse over. "Well, friend, I don't suppose you've got anything helpful on you?"

Their chainmail is rusted, their features, save for a few whisps of black-brown hair, are decayed away. He manages to find a coin purse with some woefully old looking coins -- so the chances of some other adventuring party stumbling to his rescue are quite small then. He picks up a shield from them that, though dry rotted, looks like it could block one or two more hits before giving up the ghost. On their back is a scabbard so rusted, it looks like the sword might be fused inside. Welsknight grimaces, then shrugs and concedes that even a brittle sword is better than none. Still, it doesn't make prying the sword belt off the old bones any more pleasant. There's a lot of brittle cracking, and a lot of wincing on Welsknight's part, before he finally manages to get it free.

"Sorry friend, but I think I need this a little more than you do."

The skull rocks a bit on the floor as it settles, but otherwise doesn't seem to care. The sockets aren't even facing his direction. Welsknight takes that as his sign that he isn't horribly cursed... Or at least no more so than when he first got trapped in here. Welsknight rubs at the blade, trying to see how much of the rust is superficial. A bit chips off beneath his fingernail, revealing bright silver beneath.

"A silver scabbard?" Welsknight raised his eyebrows at the corpse, "Well, weren't you a glamorous fellow?"

Welsknight grimaces and, taking ahold of the hilt, draws the sword. It pulls a lot easier than he thought it would. The rust holds it for a moment, and then smoothly releases, revealing bright steel underneath. The sword unsheathes with a ringing hiss.

"--ON'T SHEATH THE SWORD YOU IDIOT!"

The scream is right by his ear. Welsknight lets out a startled yelp and turns to face the voice, tripping over his feet and landing in an inglorious heap on the floor.

Standing in front of him is a knight garbed in black armor, a fiery plume rippling from his helm. His back is facing Welsknight, and he stands with his shoulders hunched, one arm reaching forward like he's trying to stop someone. The knight takes a step back, surprised, then rocks on his heels.

"Oh." He says, then looks down at the skeleton by his feet. "Oh."

He stares at the skeleton for a long moment, shrugs, and then gives the skull a hard kick, sending it clattering off across the room. "Serves you right, you asshole!"

Welsknight is crying again. He can't help it. He's scared and overwhelmed, and this knight is so, so terribly familiar. From the armor to the way he stands, to his voice. And when the knight turns to face him finally, the face is familiar too.

"Hels?" Welsknight whispers.

Helsknight, his definitely-dead brother, looks down at him with uncomprehending eyes. Then he scowls, "Nope. Sorry."

"I-- but--"

"I am the Spirit of the Sword," Helsknight cuts him off, rolling his eyes petulantly. "I serve the wielder of my blade, loyal in death, as I wasn't in -- blablabla. I take the form of the protector, the guardian, the comforting, and yes, I'm used to the whole "oh you look just like my dead loved one" thing. So let's skip the unnecessary angst, okay?"

A particularly loud shriek from the ghouls outside echoes shrilly through the room before Welsknight can even attempt to gather his response. Helsknight spins to face the barred door and takes a threatening step towards it.

"Oh would you SHUT UP? We're in the middle of something!"

The sounds behind the door fall abruptly silent. Welsknight stares in bafflement, feeling just confused enough to stop crying. The Spirit Of The Sword That Looks Just Like His Dead Brother offers a hand to him.

"Come on, get up." He says as he pulls Welsknight to his feet roughly, and then gives him a long, appraising look. "Well, you look like you might know how to swing my sword, so there's something at least."

"I'm-- I'm a knight errant," Welsknight tells him, trying to recover some of his senses. "What-- are you another trick of this terrible place?" Anger starts to bubble underneath everything else he's feeling, and his fists clench. "I'm tired of the stupid mind games and the trickery, and everything screaming like Hels and---!"

Helsknight holds up his hands, looking something between annoyed and appeasing. "Aye, yes, I understand. My last wielder did die in this Vault. No I'm not a demon, or an evil spirit -- unless you intend to use my sword for evil, in which case, I'm evil by proxy." Helsknight ushered to himself. "The enchantment in the blade turns me into something you're familiar with. Whoever I am, I don't have his memories or his mannerisms--" his lip curls in something like disgust as he adjusts his breastplate, "--or his taste in armor. Really, what's wrong with some nice high mobility chainmail? Or leather? Leather is amazing! It's quiet and doesn't feel like I'm carrying a whole damn armory around."

Welsknight screwed his eyes shut and breathed. Alright. Alright. He's okay. He can deal with this. He can-- well at least he can ignore the specter of his brother following him around for as long as it takes to get out of this Vault. But when he gets out ohhh, oh Iskall owes him six pints at the nearest tavern and a damn good explanation.

"Sword Spirit," Welsknight asks after another set of calming breaths, "can you fight?"

Helsknight looks down at his hip where a sword is sheathed. He draws it, tests its weight and shrugs. "I'd be a poor sword spirit if I couldn't."

"Alright then," Welsknight picks up the magical sword from where he'd dropped it and walks towards the barred door. "Let's get out of here, then."

Well, there is one good thing about being damseled at least, Welsknight thinks bitterly as Helsknight begins moving the debris. Someone always sends you a knight in shining armor.

[eldritch-spouse]

How would the TCE boys hold up in a zombie apocalypse?

Putting aside the fact that Krulu and Miara would never let that happen.

[A zombie apocalypse setting is very intriguing, because you have to ask yourself a series of questions here. Are there only human zombies or monster zombies too? What properties do monster zombies have in particular? What has started the apocalypse? How does it spread?? It'd take so incredibly long to piece this all together coherently. So I'm going to go with something quite generic.]

TW: Mild gore; Unsanitary acts; Mild angst.

Morell has a very unique skill in this bleak scenario. Provided the zombie isn't too old, Morell can probably cook it in a way that still provides some type of nourishment and doesn't infect you. Or maybe it does... Just a little bit at a time. Maybe that's why he's been a little more bloodthirsty and twitchy lately. Is that a dark patch spreading around his cap? Zombies have began to avoid him, perhaps because he's a freak even to them. A zombie that eats zombies...

Grimbly is not having fun. But for one reason only mostly. Undead blood doesn't taste good, and it hardly sustains him. Depending on the scope of the invasion, he may die of starvation, or simply have to target survivors. Otherwise, he'd likely have an easier time avoiding zombies due to his speed, and killing them likely isn't that big of a hassle either. Grimbly could make a living wiping out groups of zombies for people and getting paid in blood.

Gallon would move to water bodies and mostly remain there. Zombies are sluggish in water generally. Slimes can remove nutrients from a surprising amount of things, so his biggest fear Iis only getting distracted enough to get bitten, and that the infection starts rotting his slime too fast for him to regenerate in time. He's so alert he's going vastly insane and extremely murderous towards most.

Santi is... Existing. He fucked a few zombies, don't judge him! Some of them are entertaining and clean, others just kinda... Well. He doesn't really find them to be ideal meals. Especially when he has to crush their jaws and break limbs so they don't infect him during coitus. He doesn't exactly feel threatened, but he does feel lonely and always a tad hungry. He's waiting to attach himself to someone and gain a steady stream of food, preferably someone weaker so he can act as their guard dog. Please he's so tired of limp zombie dick and lumpy pussy. They can't even suck.

Vinnel is getting a little too silly with it. Zombies can't pierce his suit, it was made by a God, after all, no rotted teeth and claws can ruin it. So he just floats around, picks some of them up and performs for absolutely no one but himself. The jester has put clown makeup on at least five zombies. They have names and they're his best friends! Except Pogo, the little shit keeps tearing the tutu off. Ungrateful fuck. Not everyone has the privilege to look good during the apocalypse, Pogo. Vinnel is also always starving to a degree. He doesn't kill survivors anymore out of desperation for genuine conversation. Most people just run from him.

Nebul, as an undead, has nothing to worry about. He will actually weaponize large hordes of them using his abilities as a wraith. Nebul is a creature to be feared during an apocalypse. He's likely the mastermind behind organized zombie attacks. His goal? To establish control of sizable portions of land and inflict total submission on those living he comes across. It may devolve into an apocalyptic cult. He's having a grand old time really! You may find him walking around with several bare humans in leashes crawling by his side. Somehow, someway, Purpur can eat zombies and be perfectly fine.

Patches, likewise, is not a target. Except he's less preoccupied with domination and more so trying to fight his instincts to put the living dead back into their graves. It's strange, his dullahan instincts don't usually react like this to other undead... He's holed up somewhere like a hermit, trying to study the source of the infection and keeping Stitches from exhausting himself in an effort to kill all zombies. Curiously, the sound of his yelling as a dullahan causes great confusion and fear in these particular types of undead. He has succeeded in controlling at least one zombie, but killed it shortly afterwards.

Belo is devastated, like any angel ought to be watching the Earth get populated by corruption that Dorem ought to have fixed. He kills most zombies he comes across and cannot be infected as far as he knows. Zombies avoid him, actually. Belo spends his time finding groups of survivors and attempting to help them fortify their bases. After all, they're all that's left... Even if they're demons, anything is better than those rotting husks. In a way, Belo feels as if he's been abandoned a second time, his existence is vastly miserable.

Sybastian is having a strange time. The zombies that have a fainter sense of smell don't pick up on him when he mimics them, the rest do, forcing him to be very careful. He's not having an easy time considering his method of dispatching zombies is very physical and he could get bitten in zones of his body that he fails to harden. Sybastian has lost many a mimicling to the apocalypse and lives mostly to protect the remaining ones, who have managed to survive alongside him. He too wants to find a group, in spite of adult mimics not being pack species.

Fank-e is having a... Boring time, mostly. He's not a target, in fact, he's loud and grating enough to drive zombies away. He doesn't need food or water. But he does need maintenance, so it's imperative he finds someone who can work in robotics minimally well or he'll perish eventually. Truth of the matter is he can't exactly die from battery loss, he may just lie dormant collecting moss and dust until someone with enough resources finds him. It's just as likely that he'll get torn into pieces and reused as armor or plating for other important machinery.

[bleue-flora]

Well since everyone’s doing staged duo headcanon I might as well follow @dr3amofagame [post] and @elmhat [post], and throw in my two cents, which is probably less headcanon and more interpretation of canon.

c!Dream and c!Punz’s insistence on answers and power is only half true. Or at least not the full picture. They do want knowledge and answers but not because of power or greed, but because they were hurt by random people like c!Tommy and c!Wilbur showing up with no explanation. The power they strived for wasn’t a ruling, controlling power but the ability to protect what they value, whether from the rest of the server or death.

c!Dream did tell c!Punz about the torture. Debatable on how much detail he goes into but he does tell him, even if prompted first. I think this for a couple reasons. Firstly, to c!Purpled, c!Punz says, “But they were, Dream told me how Sam let him in freely and allowed him to do unspeakable things to him, that wasn’t a prison that was Hell in a box,” basically telling us that c!Dream told c!Punz and while this could be argued as manipulation, it also just makes sense. He also says “And Quackity was allowed to go in and torture him Every. Single. Day. Purpled, do you know what that does to a man, do you know the limits that people have it—it goes beyond those limits, it's not okay,” and his highlight of it being daily is telling to me. It didn’t have to be daily to be brutal and horrible and have lasting effects. Unless he watches Quackity go in and out covered in blood Every Single Day, at which point would cause some serious concern, then how would he know it was daily unless c!Dream told him? And I am of the opinion that if he had noticed Quackity coming in and out of the prison covered in blood, suspecting c!Dream was being tortured then he would have said something to c!Dream or in his own inner thoughts during the Jailbreak stream. Secondly, as someone with the Revive book it’d be kinda reckless to not inform c!Punz about what happened. He kinda should know who is a major threat and what lengths people are willing to go. After all, should they find out he has the book somehow he needs to be informed on what that could mean for him. But even so, I don’t think c!Dream just offered up that information without c!Punz either asking or doing/saying something that persuades c!Dream to tell him. c!Punz definitely suspects first before he learns more details.

c!Punz did not know why c!Dream wanted Quackity’s location or what he intended to do with the information in the scrapped lore. So, he didn’t take time to scope it out, it was more of - here’s where he lives sorta deal (like if c!Dream asked where Kinoko Kingdom is, then it’s not like c!Punz is going to scope out the place for booby traps and such, he’d just give the location). So, he doesn’t learn about the torture till after, when c!Dream is way worse for wear and tells him what happened in Pandora’s Vault, but I do agree, not about what exactly happened in the scrapped lore (it would make him look too weak).

I think I do have to agree with dr3 and elm on c!Punz going behind c!Dream’s back when going to Purpled. I don’t think c!Dream would risk c!Punz’s exposure like that after everything he sacrificed to keep them a secret and yea c!Dream definitely doesn’t have the info on c!Purpled and c!Slime to put together that plan. I could definitely see it as c!Punz’s own like redemption for the failed first attempt at revenge that he is inadvertently at fault for. Like after finding out about the torture and why c!Dream wanted to know where Quackity was, he is upset and goes to form a plan for better revenge, which after a certain point of success he ropes c!Dream in.

c!Punz does visit the prison, but not before Dream breaks out and not like all the time but just because c!Tommy or c!Sapnap may be watching the place doesn’t mean c!Punz can’t sneak it. He’s a spy after all, it’s kinda his job. I get this impression based on how c!Punz and c!Dream seem to show off the prison together in the finale - ‘let’s show them a part they haven’t been to before.’ And while the deterioration of the prison is a great parallel to Tommy’s overgrown home, both representing the poor mental states of the characters, I think it is worth noting that it’d be really suspicious if the prison was all nice. Like yea ideally no one gets in, but if they do it’s a good deterrent for the place to look dirty and abandoned. After all, who would live in such a mess? Is similar to the mindset or who chooses to live in their own torture box? Who chooses to live in their own hell?... 

c!Punz is jealous of c!George.

[thewertsearch]

EB: [...] jade is my slime clone sister, and dave is your slime clone brother, and we were all born today! TT: Yes. EB: yes? TT: I figured that out. EB: oh.

Rose has been looking for answers - and this is a secret that the game is perfectly willing to reveal. I wonder how she took it?

EB: rose, i am fairly sure i saw your mom! [...] EB: she was with my dad. TT: That's interesting. [...] TT: Did she seem happy?

What the hell is Mom even doing?

Initially, I assumed the parents travelled to Skaia to face Jack, but he's long gone. If they have other plans, they aren't showing it - so far, it seems like they've just been aimlessly wandering the Battlefield. Why did they come here?

The White Queen believes that Mom is acting out of love for 'her children' - Rose, but possibly also Dave. What can she do on a ruined Battlefield that could help the Players?

EB: now stop being so spookily mysterious and tell me what you've been doing! TT: Investigating, mostly. EB: investigating what? TT: Everything there is to investigate. TT: Information hidden in the lore of our lands, concealed in ruins and riddles. TT: I'm looking for whatever there is to discover about the game, and more importantly, whatever exceeds its boundaries. TT: The cloaked traces of myth beyond its scope.

Sounds like Rose is trying to datamine Sburb, and access information external to their session. Sburb is the game, but Rose wants to learn about the console - or perhaps, the developer.

This is, of course, an interesting prospect - but it's important to note that it doesn't actually answer John's question. He asked about her activities, but she's replying with the big-picture motivation for her activities - and completely neglecting to mention her new friends. She's still dodging.

EB: oh, rose, did you know that we are supposed to be creating a universe with this game? TT: [...] it won't happen. TT: The writing is on the wall. Literally. [...] TT: This session was never meant to bear fruit. TT: It's barren, so to speak.

The Alpha Timeline decreed that this session was a dud - and by the laws of Paradox Space, that means it was a dud all along.

Karkat talked about failed sessions like this before. He considers them a cruel joke - but in this case, I'm not so sure. If this session really is pointless, why isn't this timeline a doomed offshoot?

Whatever the Alpha really represents, the fact that we're still in the Alpha would imply that this timeline is still contributing to some larger picture. This is all leading up to something, even if it's not a universe.

EB: that's a bit of a bummer! EB: i am still skeptical about that, though. TT: That's why you're our leader, John. [...] TT: Optimism through stalwart skepticism is a defect not everyone is lucky enough to be cursed with. [...]

John's not a tactical leader - but he is the perfect antidote to the flavor of nihilism that Paradox Space peddles. If someone tried to tell him he didn't have free will - even if someone proved it to him - he'd just be like 'nuh, uh', and carry on with his life.

This inspires people. It certainly inspired Karkat.

EB: i'm not your leader, i am your FRIEND, there is a BIG difference! TT: Statements like that are also why you're our leader.

He's also just nice.

[witchofthesouls]

Did Tarn ever get mad at the nurse or vice versa during the carriage/marriage?

(It's absolutely Tarn’s fault. He tried doing oral, but you shrieked at what's under his mask. For very good reasons, even if you did knee his face and got Nickel involved.)

Your servos are absolutely professional, face and field schooled in medical neutrality.

You inwardly seethe and rage at the mech's complete stupidity.

The exposed mechanisms of Tarn’s face shutter and click as you dig out the infection with a scalpel and scrap out the dead mesh and wiring and smooth out the flayed edges. Not even the pre-round treatment could fully wash away all the corrosion and slime of dead nanites.

If he wants to refuse a very recommended Class-A pain patch, then fine, you're not stopping his sadomasochistic, self-inflicted tendencies.

You're already debriding his half-rusted face with an open panel in a clean towel. You can't bring yourself to care, especially when you had to dip your arms inside a Class-C medical sealant because not only your idiot of a donor allowed a very treatable infection to set deep and fester under the mask and you had to squirt a treatment up into your valve and slather it across the folds and down your legs, Nickel needs to scope your gestational chamber to check if there's contamination in the fluids.

And because you're carrying and the stupid fuck under your hands has to go under several rounds of treatment, Nickel is currently whipping up more because she's the only one that's not a potential health hazard for the nice, sterile pharmaceutical corner.

Through the entire process, the knee that touched the active infection aches because you ferociously scrubbed it clean and applied the treatment, and thick, cold sludge is slowly, ever-so-slowly dripping out of your confused valve.

There's a set schedule and your frame has gotten used to it, especially your pelvis.

(And until Tarn is fully treated and all his masks make several runs through the autoclave, your valve will keep itself warm with the Thing's company and your own hands.)

“Tilt back,” you command and he follows, and you stretch out the heavy bottom lip at the corner with a thumb, pulling it taunt to get a full view of the rusted protoform, which slowly crawls to his jawline.

Tarn's pretty. He has strong features and scars on the cleaner half of his face. There are scars that bisect his lips and several across his nose that trail into the raging cesspool.

You wonder if that's how it started: a facial injury and no care for preventative measures and his weird tendency towards self-inflicted pain.

“Breathe in,” you command, placing the scalpel at the slimy-brown portion of the infected lip. And he inhales through his nose, the exposed cabling of his check and temple twitch, nervecircuits spark and spasm at the air exposure, and in a few parts it was absolutely necessary to dig so deep you can see grey endoskeleton.

Tarn is surprisingly expressive as well. Pupil mechanisms fully dilated, corners of his optics pulling, nose flaring as he remains stiff, courtesy of the med-berth's partial frame-paralyzation.

Well, you did warn Tarn, and he isn't asking for a pain patch, even now when you're deliberately giving him a moment.

This will be the most excruciating part of the ordeal. The mouth has many specialized sensory suites and pressure sites. Plus, you need to excise the infected inner lip as well. Perhaps the gumline, too.

Tarn isn't a newbuild. His profession deals with frame functions and processes. He’s far more knowledgeable than the average lay-mech of sensory mechanics.

And he has your comm line to literally ask for the damn patch.

“Breathe out,” you command, and he exhales. You make the first scoop, and to his credit, Tarn doesn't flinch, nor did you have to command the med-berth to fully paralyze him.

[anonymous-dentist]

Okay, now here’s a crazy qsmp theory:

The qsmp duck? That’s Quackity.

For one thing: duck. Self-explanatory.

But there’s one problem, and it’s that q!Quackity is a seemingly-unknowing participant in the explicitly canon human experiment going on on the qsmp. And the Duck? It’s a mascot, but it’s also the ‘host’ of the island. It’s a stand-in for the experimenters, think Usami/Monomi from Danganronpa 2. How could that be Quackity if Quackity is participating in the experiment itself?

This is where it gets crazy.

So far, we have confirmation that this is an experiment. Watch the video announcing the egg event and come back. This is an experiment, and the eggs have been consistent across this and the previous experiment. That comes from the lore teasers from before the smp’s announcement. There were eight eggs/eight players (it’s unclear) before, and now there are 16. The experiment’s scope as increased. What’s important, though, are the eggs.

Q!Quackity’s character arc properly began only after the death of his son Tilín. Everyone else doing major plot had their arcs start prior- take q!Roier and q!Luzu as examples here. He’s been consumed by his grief to the point of desperation.

And his kindergarten’s homework assignments are on the official egg tasks list.

And he’s been saying not to trust Cucurucho/the Census Bureau Creature since day one.

And he explicitly dislikes Arin/AI Luzu.

And Arin is where this theory starts becoming super weird, because he can see the server’s “code”. Combine that with the literal code monsters flying around hunting him down and trying to kill the eggs, and the message during the funeral that said to break out and remember, it’s pretty clear that the qsmp is an electronic simulation with its members as unknowing and possibly unwilling members of a human experiment. Every member added got the digital ticket to the island through minecraft and in a digital version of their streaming setups, except for Quackity, who was only properly announced the day of the server’s start, and for Rubius, whose announcement poster was a glitched mess.

Q!Rubius is the devil/angel with creative and spectator mode, and with connections to God/Satan. While he and Cucurucho don’t seem to get along, they are on the same side, more or less. When Juanaflippa was essentially promised a life from Rubius, she was declared dead at the funeral, much to q!Slime’s anger. And when q!Maximus asked at said funeral what was going on, Trump responded with “I don’t know, but they’re strong…” These guys? Sus.

But back to Quackity.

This last bit is very Anime, but also he did say that he was inspired by Attack on Titan, and so I feel like I’m a little bit justified when claiming that the q!Quackity we see now is the same person as a hypothetical Experimenter Quackity. It’s a bit like Kamukura from Danganronpa 2 if you think about it, or a bit like Eren from Attack on Titan. Spoilers for the end of AoT, but it’s made canon in the end that, the whole time, Eren has been looking back from the future and has manipulated the series in that way. There are an infinite number of timelines because of this. And then with Kamukura, he’s literally the experimenter plugged in with amnesia into the virtual experiment. It writes itself.

Just why Quackity is doing this is unclear, though maybe it has something to do with the multilingual nature of the server (vape wizard, anyone?) or the eggs (again, his character arc only kicked off after the death of Tilín, which could mean that he’s going through these experiments to try and make a world where Tilín lives.)

But, hey, that’s just a theory- a game theory.

[wra-1-th]

I’m gonna ramble.

Genloss is just. Holy fucking shit.

I’ll admit, the first episode lowered my expectations. I saw the content warnings, I knew it was a horror project, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. Gl ep1 was not that, until the very short scene with the tv, after which it reverted back to more of a video game/comedy show. It was interesting for the most part, but it didn’t feel like a horror project.

That scene showed what genloss was going to become. It said that what Ranboo was going through was a show for ‘their’ entertainment and it showed that this video game-esque show, with its challenges and goofy villains wasn’t just that. It was a horror project.

Then episode 2 came out yesterday.

Ranboo’s reaction to cutting into a living body in order to find a key was not the most excited. He was disgusted by the idea, but when Charlie started joking around and well, he wasn’t really human, he was more okay. He wasn’t hurting anyone, not really. It was just gross. Then his mask malfunctioned, and Charlie’s insides were no longer the green of slime. He was screaming in agony and that was Ranboo’s fault. Then nothing. Everything was fine. Oh look, a hot wheels car! Isn’t that just hilarious?

Again, he reacted perfectly humanely when he found out that he would have to choose who got to live and who had to die upon seeing the carousel. He had just spilled out a man’s intestines, and now he would be responsible for more pain? One of them was sobbing. He had to interview them and decide who deserved to live? What kind of sick horror was this? Did it really feel real though? The man’s children, oh so funny. The slime man’s back! What’s he joking about this time? Oh Frank, we missed ya buddy.

The villain’s really not even that scary.

Faster and faster he adapted to avoid what should have been horrifying. A woman shot dead. A man killed by an anvil. Someone was eaten. Still, Ranboo was emotionless. Even when his mask began blinking, someone was there behind the scenes to fix it. It was just comedy for ‘them’ after all. They didn’t want their Hero too scared. So he was desensitized to everything.

His words often came out as generic as a video game character. Well… that’s what he was, to ‘them’. Ranboo played along because he had no other choice. His mask controlled him, though I’m not sure if it controlled how he perceived everything or how everyone else viewed the game as well.

When the person in the TV finally contacted him again and managed to shut the mask down, however temporarily it would be, Ranboo experienced everything again. He saw everything. Even when his mask had flashed and he was able to snap out of the game temporarily, he didn’t see the full scope. The cameras, the microphones, the people just watching him.

He is a pawn in their game, but now he’s beginning to realize that he may have his own moves he has to make.

[cishetlessfashion]

you will always be a woman 🫶 but you go keep being delusional pooner, in the end you will always be a cis girl with a female brain

That pussy better stank, otherwise I don't want it

Popped a Perc 30, got straight to fuckin'

That pussy dulce, smokin' fentanyl-laced cereal milk, I see God

This shit ain't nothin' to me, man

That pussy got me screamin', cryin', pissin', shittin', shootin' ropes

Yeah, we gettin' that Pirate Bay, alien shish kabob, cordyceps money

I hope them aliens are real, so that I have more things to fuck

Smokin' the Qui-Gon Jinn, Vietnamese, Phillips-head runtz

She suck me, like a cordless Dyson V8

I'm in a k-hole lickin' balloon knot

When I got the meat cannon, I bе shootin' straight rope

This shit ain't nothin' to me, man

Chanel optics got mе seein' shit

I need fentanyl, slime

I just popped a whole garbanzo bean, fuck you mean?

I smoke real Emrānī, rapscallion ghost nuggets

Y'all can't fuck with me

I'm him, I been him, I will continue to be him

Yellow rubies glistenin', like piss

Gulpin' sea monkeys by the gallon, my tummy feel crazy

That coochie yummy, slime

That coochie doin' it for me, slime

They thought they could stop a demon, I'm back

The zaza got me speakin' Esperanto

This shit ain't nothin' to me, man

We out here cloud seedin', the scope gleamin'

You can't trust me, I don't even trust myself

I don't even know who I am anymore, I'm gettin' too much money

Ass so fat, I'm peakin' off this Danny Phantom, slime

Can you remind me who I am?

Get the president on the phone now

I fronted him a brick, I need my money

[itti-the-mouse]

Been thinkin a bit about my monsterfucker dungeon crawler and what kind of monsters I want in it.

I wanted floating eyes with tentacles, and bunnygirl mages, and I really wanted slimes... but that's a lot going on for what I think is going to be a relatively small game.

I've been thinking of making the scope of monster types smaller for the sake of potentially easing the workload on the coding side of things.

In this case, I thought maybe the dungeon could exclusively have giant bugs~

But I want to know what my fellow monsterfuckers think:

Oh, and please reblog this one if you vote. Last monsterfucker poll I did got an abysmal sample size because those who voted just left it there. Thank you ^w^