#servant of the bones

[crepuscule-pourpre]

[dark-but-just-a-game]

"Grief for those you don't know is easy. Maybe it is even exciting. But to be alone? That is to be alive."

~ Anne Rice, Servant of The Bones, pg. 203.

[cdchyld]

Just added to the Vintage shop!

~ “Servant of the Bones” by Anne Rice (1996) First Edition

[bones-of-a-rabbit]

he's thoughtful, he's kind, beautiful, elegant, charming, but one thing he is not. is smooth

[beedalee]

"this was supposed to be a warm-up" drawing of my V Rising-sona. I called her Moonlight to go with naf's Sunset. it's a fun game!!! 🦇

[foursaints]

goblet of fire, pg 691 / pg 641

does anyone else wake in a cold sweat & remember how barty crouch jr, robbed of bodily autonomy his entire life, subconsciously recreated the dark magic used to make a new body from a broken one

[teejaystumbles]

For Sandtober #6, "golden", and the Monsterfucktober bingo square "undead", I present you something based on one of the books that left an impression on my teenage mind and now that is all I can think of when I get "bones" and "gold" in relation to one another -

Servant of the Bones AU

In Babylon, about 600 years BC, Hob, a young handsome shepherd, is forced to become the new statue of the god Marduk but through a secret ritual conducted by a witch does not die and is made into an undying spirit who has to serve whoever owns his bones. The witch botches up the ritual and dies, leaving Hob with his mind his own - even if he has to obey the bones’ current master, he is able to think for himself and over the centuries he outsmarts a lot of his crueler masters, leading to their demise and to the box being inscribed with more and more warnings not to summon what is inside.

First AU variant: In 2022, Dream Endlos [lol let’s give him the German name variant for once], a successful author of books and screenplays, buys an old mansion (Fawney Rig) which is full of old occult stuff from the previous owner. While he sorts through the stuff he comes to the conclusion that he’ll have to hire an expert to ascertain the value of a lot of objects. He trips over a box on his way out and it falls over and unlatches, revealing a glimmer of gold inside. Curious, Dream opens it and finds the golden bones of what seems to be a complete human skeleton. The box is inscribed with ancient warnings in almost every language from cuneiform to hieroglyphs to Greek and Latin. Dream is both horrified and fascinated.

He reverently places the bones back inside the box, carefully handles the skull and wonders about the person they belonged to. He goes to bed, his mind spinning with possible scenarios and stories concerning the bones, the box, the warnings. He lies awake for hours. Late at night he gets up again and goes back downstairs. He takes the box back up into his bedroom and sits before it. “Who were you?” he asks the box, and there is a quiet whisper of a man’s voice near his ear. “My name. Is Hob.”

Second AU variant (that I like almost better because I know how it would end): 

Burgess gets his hands on the bones after he captures Dream. He uses Hob to try and get Dream to talk, in so far as that he sends him down to talk to Dream and learn his secrets, in the hopes it might work because Hob is a supernatural being. Hob is fascinated with Dream immediately and tells him that he should not talk to him so he won’t have to betray anything to Burgess. “You mustn’t tell me anything important, I cannot lie to my master. If he commands me to tell him what you said I’ll have to answer. But I can tell you about a lot of things, if you’re bored. You must be bored, right?”

Dream is in turn fascinated with Hob and his strange curse and after a while they talk about unimportant things, things they like and dislike, they tell each other stories. Hob tells Dream how he was made into what he is against his will. Dream aches with sympathy. Burgess is frustrated because he gets no results. Maybe he also tries to have Hob use force on Dream but luckily the magic circle and spells make it impossible for Hob to enter the sphere Dream is held in. Events happen like in episode 1, Alex inherits Hob’s bones but barely uses him to do anything because he’s almost more scared of Hob than he is of Dream. Hob talks to Paul more than he talks to Alex and he tries to subtly influence the man to let Dream go. It takes decades but eventually Paul is showing signs of having had enough. Hob warns Dream to be alert and begs him to please take his bones with him if he escapes. Events unfold like in canon and Dream breaks free. He leaves without Hob’s bones, too weak to search for them right away. He knows where they are but he can’t get them without reclaiming his power first. 

Hob thinks Dream has left him to his fate and is full of sadness and despair. He returns to the bones, his master caught in an eternal waking nightmare. Paul takes the bones and calls on him to help Alex, but Hob can't help and so he ignores the pleas and doesn't even manifest. Paul is frustrated and puts the bones into a safe and out of his mind. When Dream has got the sand, helm and ruby back he goes back to Fawney Rig and searches for Hob. He finds his bones and takes them with him to the Dreaming, putting them into his own private rooms. Hob does not answer him and Dream pleads for forgiveness and begs Hob to come back to him. Only when he places a kiss on the forehead of the golden skull do the bones start to vibrate and come together and Hob is able to form himself a new body, with the help of the power of the Dreaming, a body that holds his bones and is free of the box so he will not be bound to any master ever again. :)

[wcspriter]

The very first attempt of making a custom sprite character. I can't tell you how many times I had to go back and forth with the details on this guy. It went through several edits one after the other but eventually I was satisfied with what I had. Thus the Servant of the Flame was made; second-in-command to Captain Flameheart.

The Servant's role in the crossover used to have more significance in the story, including being the section's final boss. However I pushed him back to an important supporting role, setting up a plan to secure the pirate's life from the three whose roaming presence threatens their ideology of "Pirates for All Eternity". Also it'd be a pretty boring final boss, all things considered.

Also Reaper Bird important; wooden spies for the Reapers across the 2022 Adventure storyline.

[naughtyservant]

CW: Bones / Skull

A new pic completed, this time with the hungry cocky pred Silas, who belongs to SkeletonGoat. Thanks you so very much for your support!

Go to the club at night has its advantages, like a virtually unlimited source of fresh snacks to spend the night dancing and digesting the food~ But you also need to take some moments at the back of the club to let out all those…boney remains after a crazy eating night. And well, to wait until the last snack melt into bones as well :P

Don't forget like, reblog and follow me for more merciless demons °w°)r

[tossawary]

Happy October, everyone! I've been switching icons less frequently lately, but I've been sitting on this idea for a while; the base is a photo that I took of a real cassowary skeleton at a museum.

Not much to report on my offline end except that work has been going along as usual and I'm excited to appreciate the color of autumn while it's here. I may post some Whumptober oneshots here and there if I have the time, because I want to experiment with writing warm-ups and some of the prompts look fun, but I won't make any promises. I want to get out and about before it starts getting cold and dark!

The big news is that I've completed a fic for the Moshang Big Bang 2023 event (happening now! Right now! Lots of long, lovely Moshang fics in your area! Go check it out!) and the assigned posting date is October 25th! It's the second-longest fic that I've ever written (after PINTWILF) and I'll be posting a chapter a day for over two weeks. It's called "Servant to a Different King", based on some posts that I originally made years ago now, in which Shang Qinghua became Tianlang-Jun's servant instead of Mobei-Jun's, and it's basically a self-indulgent Demon Realm rom-com.

I wish everyone good weather whatever their season! (I'm not going anywhere but) See you all soon! ✈❤❄

[freyaloi]

I was on a call with a friend last night where I was streaming some gameplay when shenanigans ensued which spawned this nonsense.

For context, The Servant had Raven kidnapped to use her talents, thinking it would be no different from the previous times he had captured other witches of the Order... Only for him to be proven wrong and end up stuck with a chaotic, hyperactive mischievous little goblin-shaped thorn in his side. No worries though she's harmless... (well...mostly)

[azreths-arts]

one of my favorite pieces for a sot community contest entry. didn't win but still got a great piece out of it

[dark-but-just-a-game]

Anne Rice // Servant of The Bones (1996)

[radiantmists]

im re-reading Gideon the Ninth and i think it's fun that while most of the lyctoral trials seem to have been horrific, dangerous ordeals like winnowing or avulsion, the sixth house one was just a fun little low-pressure scavenger hunt to find the owner of a tooth. with a pun about the clavicle being the key built into it. cassiopeia seems like she must have been fun.

[bones-of-a-rabbit]

you: exists eclipse, sun, moon, anyone with taste: BEAUTIFUL, STUNNING, GORGEOUS,

[snowe-zolynn-rogers]

Relationships: None

Word Count: 1,345

Summary: Lord Lunar gets kidnapped and Servant Eclipse realizes he does, actually, care about his brother.

Warnings: Kidnapping, Chronic Pain, Broken Bones, Mental Breakdown, Panic Attack, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, let me know if I should add anything else.

Notes: @madcatdaderpydrawer-blog made me do it. They invoked the writing Gollum.

That’s MINE!

Now that Lunar was meditating, Eclipse sighed, letting up on the facade. Pretending was difficult, especially calling that little runt his ‘Master’, but it ensured his survival and that Lunar wouldn’t simply kill him.

He sat down, standing at Lunar’s aid constantly made his back ache and throb with overuse. His knees creaked by now like some old man when he did so and his hip joints popped to release pressure now that they were relaxing.

God, he was turning into an old man. Has this millennia truly changed him this much into a fragile old animatronic? Or had it been the star having effects on him? He had been close when the star summoned the Wither Storm. Maybe the Wither Storm had effect on him.

Amidst his own struggles, Eclipse let his careful guard fall. He didn’t know someone was there until he heard Lunar scream. He was up as quickly as he could get himself moving, nearly tripping over himself to get there and collapsing at the door as he opened it.

His Lord was held by his throat at the hands of another Eclipse, a far darker one. One who was in a more robotic body. The one little Gregory had described vaguely. And now he had his Lunar by the neck.

“Tell him goodbye, Lunar.” The double taunted.

“Never.” Lunar growled. The other Eclipse pulled Lunar by his neck and shoved his faceplate to look at Eclipse.

“Say it!” He demanded.

“Guard the dimension, Apollo.” He knew that. He knew that fake name. Apollo was a fake name, the entire sentence was fake. It was a code Lunar had drilled into his fake non-sentience as a code for danger and to go with the situation. It brought him as much rage as having it drilled into him had been.

But the Eclipse dragged off his Lunar before he could stop them. He looked to the star his Lord left behind. It was his only chance. He needed his Lord back. He grabbed the star and felt it burn. Their star was unstable after the Wither Storm, painful to use for anyone but Lunar. It was a miracle it hadn’t wiped him last time.

With a painful flash and much more screaming at the pain of it, Eclipse stood glowing, gasping at the sudden lack of pain and his body was piloting itself without him. He moved his hand to open a portal and saw a ball pit as he stepped through, an unfamiliar environment where the double was holding tight to his little brother’s neck and two other animatronics were surrounding them.

Eclipse pushed past the other two animatronics and grabbed the other Eclipse’s wrist, squeezing tightly and hearing it snap and break. The scream he gave was gratifying and annoying at the same time.

“Don’t touch my brother!” Eclipse heard his voice as a thousand echoes, the power of the star, he as the star.

“Aph!” Lunar held his arm, his given name, Aphelion, a tell to get him calm.

“And what will you do!?” The other Eclipse screamed. Aphelion grabbed the Eclipse by the neck.

“I will rip every circuit you have and wipe you from existence. Every backup. Every code. Every line. And I will make it hurt every single step of the way.”

“You don’t have the guts. If I wouldn’t, you wouldn’t.”

“You miscalculated. I love my brother and you hurt him, you scared him. Feel that burn? That’s all your backups deleting themselves.” Aphelion growled in his face. The other was cringing with pain now, which slowly descended into him nearly crying and choking his pain back with the burn.

“Apologize and I stop.” He directed the other Eclipse’s face to Lunar and, eventually the burning of the deletion got to hurt too much, outrightly crying and nearly screaming from the pain in his processors.

“I’m sorry!” The other broke with practically a scream. Aphelion halted the deletion and smiled.

“Do you accept, Peri?” Aphelion asked. That cutesy little nickname his Lunar gave himself so long ago of that long ago renaming to Perihelion. It calmed his brother greatly to hear such an endearment, he could see the tension melt from his stressed form.

“I do, thank you, Aphy.” Perihelion thanked him.

“You may live. But you will never hurt my brother again.” Aphelion growled as he dropped the other and Eclipse simply crumpled to the ground, shaking.

“Thank you. Thank you.” In all honesty, it felt empty to see this Eclipse practically praying his thanks at his feet. He thought it would give him such wonderful joy but it just felt…empty.

“Get up, wipe your face.” He directed him and he did so, his hands wiping the oily tears off his face from the pain of the backup deletion and the fear he’d induced. He was shaking and still hiccuping, like he wasn’t able to use his artificial lungs.

“Deep breath.” He instructed.

“I can’t. I can’t breathe.” So he was having a panic attack. He himself had had them before, still had them even. It seemed he’d finally broken past the facade this Eclipse put up and finally cracked him enough to make him show an emotion like his brother had long ago.

“Come here.” He pulled him into his own shoulder and felt him grasp on tightly with those claws of his digging into his casing, making scratches he could fix later. The sob he let out was a bit startling but he rubbed his back regardless.

“You’re safe, you did exactly as I asked. You’re safe now, you’re loved.” The same assurances he’d given himself after his own last panic attack. And they worked wonders upon this Eclipse, settling him and the touch let him relax in his arms.

“Okay, what happened here?” A solar model asked.

“You look pretty neat!” The lunar model exclaimed at Lunar.

“Thank you. Your Eclipse attempted to kidnap me. From what it seems like, my brother touched my Star again to try to save me and now he is my Star. Also your Eclipse had a panic attack like my brother has sometimes.” Perihelion told them.

“Are you okay, brother?” Aphelion asked.

“I’m okay, just a little startled.” Perihelion assured him.

“What’s your names, probably Lunar and Eclipse?” The solar model asked.

“When we travel, which isn’t often, my name is Perihelion, or Peri, and his is Aphelion, or Aph.” Lunar explained.

“Well, we’re Sun and Moon. We’re sorry for what happened with our Eclipse. He has been going completely rogue lately now that he has our universe’s star.” Sun explained.

“I wouldn’t worry about him anymore. If there’s one thing Aph can deal with well, it’s Eclipses. He broke the shell, I doubt he’ll be an issue anymore. If you want, we can take him with us when we leave. Give you a break for a bit to fix everything.” Peri offered.

“Thank you. When will you leave?” Sun asked.

“Given my brother looks tired, probably after he rests. He’s our way back after all.” Peri gestured to Aph, who did indeed feel a bit tired and he assumed his dimming glow was a tell now.

“Stay as long as you want.” Sun offered.

“Thank you. You’re kind. If you ever want to visit us, the door will always be open.“ Peri assured Sun.

“Family cuddles?” Moon asked.

“Only if they want to. Go ahead and ask, Moon.” Sun told his brother.

“Can we cuddle!?” Moon excitedly asked.

“Of course. Cuddles must be better with more than two people.” Peri smiled, coming to hold Aph’s hand to lead him after Sun and Moon, leading them to a bed they could rest in with their Eclipse in his arm still, nearly asleep against him from his sudden emotional outburst.

The bed felt almost heavenly under him as did the bodies against him, Eclipse buried in his arms and Perihelion against Eclipse’s back Aph’s arm around the both of them. Sun and Moon were on either side of them, everyone going into rest mode or recharging.