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quirkyfries · 2 months ago

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Some more Ruin thoughts because I’m trying to type him with the enneagram

I kind of think he’s a 1, but even then; his first arc is complete, even if we didn’t see a lot of it.

He has a type 1 story. He is taught that something is bad (killing indiscriminately: he associates this with Creators) but obviously cannot solve the oppressor-forcing-the-killing issue by adhering to his own morals of “don’t kill indiscriminately/ be like Creators” because there’s no other way to solve the issue without doing so. Because of that, he has to go against his belief to solve the Nao issue, by killing indiscriminately. That is the first arc.

It’s progress for his character in that what he believes in (Don’t Kill People) get challenged (He Has To Kill People) and he has to get his hands dirty (Kills People (so more people don’t die)) that makes it an arc.

It’s a negative “tragic truth” arc because he becomes disillusioned; the killing people/creator route worked and was he rewarded for taking that option despite not wanting to. This is shown in how he believes what he did was right and that he would do it again. Alternatively, it can also be positive progress in that he was able to let go of his belief to do the “right thing.” I don’t actually know if it’s a positive or negative arc because it’s teeechnically both if you squint, such are the woes of morality equation stories.

What was confusing to me initially, (why is he still here if his arc is complete,) is that I think his on-screen arc is a reversal of the off-screen one. Because his negative arc is complete, it’s now being undone with a positive one. He’s getting a redemption arc to get rid of the disillusionment.

The writers are 180ing him, reaffirming that his previous belief was the correct thing, killing people is bad/creators are bad. They punish his new belief of “killing people was the correct thing to do” with his environment (the initial consequences of his crime, Nexus + Dark Sun, Molten) and how everyone hated him for his bad action, which only changes when Ruin expresses interest in guiding the new dimension and Puppet enables him a second chance by giving him somewhat of a quantifiable debt to repay. And also meeting people that didn’t really care for what he did, or at least didn’t shun him so hard when they learned about it.

In the most positive climax for him, he would take the place of his oppressor and break the cycle of bad by doing good. This is what he’s doing by taking responsibility of the new dimension. He is in the position of a Creator but is being is good, he doesn’t have a heavy hand in the dimension’s course, and does his best to guide them in the right direction: that previous belief of “killing is bad/what the creator did was wrong.”

Which looks like this: Arc 1, establish belief (killing is bad because it’s what Creators do) —> realize belief won’t solve the issue (killing must be done to do the “right thing”) —> goes outside of the belief to solve the issue (becomes like creator/kills to do the “right thing.” It doesn’t matter that he didn’t like it. It matters that he does it anyways.) thus validating a new belief (the killing was justified)

And then from the point he destroys the dimensions and into EAPS, Arc 2: establish new belief (the killing was justified) —> belief is punished (people and environment turn against him for what he did) —> goes outside of new belief to rectify the disillusionment of the first arc (by accepting, fully, what he did was bad and working to change: this is shown by how he handles his self-inflicted responsibility in the new dimension, by trying to prevent people killing people/going down a similar path + accepting the debt counter Puppet gives to him) thus validating new belief

Since arc 2 is a positive one, an arc 3 would be something like a flat arc, where a character’s new belief is challenged but they are rewarded for staying true to it. For example, if Ruin is tasked with handling Mimi, he should be rewarded for not taking the most extreme immoral option, let’s say, because Ruin must stay true to his new belief that immoral actions aren’t acceptable even if it seemed like the best option in order for him to have truly changed as a result of his last arc.

There is, of course, the option of self sacrifice being the climax of arc 2, where Ruin’s refusal to do the wrong thing again either gets him killed or he willingly takes a fall for someone else, likely in a scenario where someone coming after him for what he did to those 5000 dimensions (similar to how Molten was) catches up to him and he accepts his consequence in order to save those he cared about, showing that he fully accepts what he did is bad and in doing so a positive outcome is reached (by everyone else surviving.) Therefore putting himself in the trolly problem he initially tried to solve by destroying the creators, by being the lesser amount of one life taken in exchange for the majority. That would be a satisfying, complete end to his positive arc I think, granted that his death actually means something and it’s not cast aside just for everyone to be immediately in peril again. This mostly depends on his ability to trust that the benefits of his own death saving other’s lives would outweigh the benefit of him being alive to possibly help the others in the future, though. Hopefully he has a backup of himself somewhere like Eclipse does idk. I don’t want him to die either but I wouldn’t be mad if this was the kind of death he got (and, as we all know, People Don’t Stay Dead around here.)

While I think he’s a type one based on his character arc, he has some other underlying issues having to do with security and having to conform to ensure his own safety, something also taught to him by Nao. Enneagram types are usually best used when you look at the bad decisions a character makes. Ruin, while he does have some “who do I have to suck up to to ensure my own safety and place in a community” behavior of a type six, it doesn’t cause him any major problems that forces him to deviate or change that behavior.

There isn’t a story arc for Ruin where he trusts the wrong person and ends up having to stand up for himself by splitting the extremes of “I trust nobody” and “I blindly trust something” into “I trust myself.” Trusting the wrong person or system, *when ruin has a say in what he puts his trust in—something not often afforded to him,* has never led him wrong because his goal has always been the bare minimum, to survive long enough to get himself out of a bad situation. To buy himself time and access to resources. Which, mind you, he’s been pretty successful in so far, just look at his everything! Note that the only chances he’d ever had to choose who he trusted are those whom he’d rebuilt, bloodmoon and eclipse, and those he contacted while he was free to roam, namely stitchwraith. Everything he needed out of those relationships he got. Choosing the wrong option has never been a problem for him, when options are present.

Alternatively, him choosing to trust only himself with getting rid of the creators instead of trying to trust anyone else to help him can be framed as a mistake, but he isn’t punished for that as much as he is with his “getting his hands dirty” moment of destroying those dimensions. It’s a lower priority compared to a different decision Ruin made, it’s just a talking point used by others when they’re dogging on him for why he did what he did, not the way that he went about it. Him choosing not to trust others with his goal was, also, the correct thing to do in his eyes, he knew they would’ve tried to stop him otherwise. If it was a mistake not to trust others, he doesn’t see it as one and he’s not punished for it in a way that makes him change for the better or worse, where he would be trying to trust more people being involved with his decisions or goals. Or if he did change, it’s not the forefront of his main arc.

That being said, the closest he’d had to having a six arc was when Lefty was making a fuss about Puppet. If he’d nodded along because he trusted Lefty to protect him somehow, in turn getting Puppet banished, and then Lefty turned on him next, that would be a mistake he’d be forced to learn from. That didn’t happen because A. He doesn’t trust Lefty to protect him in the first place and B. He saw it for what it was: fear-mongering to control the majority.

So tldr I like to think of him as a type one with some six tendencies. Sorry this is so long lol I’m trying to understand this guy more for a character study I’m doing

#quirky rambling #tsams #tsams ruin #eaps ruin #eaps #sams ruin #sams #the sun and moon show #the eclipse and puppet show #sorry again for talking about this guy so much I just think he’s neat #get ready for part 2: Eclipse is a type 4 #joking. he’s a type 3

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girlactionfigure · 3 months ago

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Arcane Predicted October 7

URI KURLIANCHIK

I consider Arcane the best animated series ever produced. Somehow, with each passing year, it's becoming more timely. Just now, I realized it's the perfect metaphor for the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Warning: this post is going to have major spoilers for the first season. If you haven't watched Arcane yet, go watch it right now. You won't regret it!

Right. So let’s start with the basics. Piltover is Israel and Zaun is Gaza and the West Bank. Silco is Fatah and Jinx is Hamas. Now let’s unroll it.

Piltover is a wealthy and progressive immigrant nation. At the start of the show, it's on the cusp of countless scientific and commercial breakthroughs and is establishing diplomatic relations with overseas nations who’re finally starting to take it seriously. Zaun is a poor and failing society, ridden with crime and full of anger and resentment towards its more successful neighbor. The two nations are so geographically mixed they can't separate even if they wanted to, so they're stuck in endless lowkey violence and oppression. In truth, this is not a war between peoples, but a civil war.

Enter Silco and Jinx, our Fatah and Hamas.

Silco is a criminal and a terrorist, but he also has rational goals. He wants to get as much freedom as he can to run his criminal empire. He wants to turn the undercity into a base for his ambitions and is willing to decrease the level of violence to achieve this goal. Towards the end of the series he manages to realize his dream as Piltover recognizes the autonomy of Zaun, mostly to avoid having to destroy Zaun, an idea that’s more shocking for the progressive Piltover than for the belligerent Zaun.

This is a great victory for Silco and a step towards improving the lives of his people. This also relieves Piltover from a nuisance that hindered its march towards progress and international success.

Enter Jinx.

Despite her cute looks and tragic life, Jinx is a murderous extremist Jinx. She doesn’t care about any of those things. She just wants to blow shit up. And she does, destroying the hopes and prosperity of everyone in the region, but hurting most of all the people closest to her.

The missile she fires towards a peace conference in Piltover is this world's 7/10; a barbaric act of senseless violence by a monster that was ignored for too long by her enablers in Zaun and her foes in Piltover. She is guilty, but they are responsible.

The song that plays as she’s about to launch the missile starts with the words, "I'm the monster you created." But who is “you?”

It’s everybody.

It’s Silco, who always loved her and enabled her even as she destroyed the future of Zaun through barbaric terrorism. "Don't cry, you're perfect," he tells her as he’s dying from wounds she inflicted on him. This reminds me of supposedly moderate Palestinians who can’t bring themselves to resist Hamas, despite its actions setting them back decades. They’re not its victims, they’re its enablers.

However, Vi and Catyln are also responsible. They failed to destroy this monster because they viewed her as something weak and vulnerable that should be saved, not as an abomination that must be put down without mercy for the good of all mankind. This fake morality fueled by arrogance cost them dearly indeed.

"We'll show them," Silco told his violent protégé, and she did by literally killing both nations' chance for peace in an insane explosion of bloodlust. This is the price of enabling monsters.

#Arcane #Israel #October 7

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hopefulgardenshark · 1 year ago

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I was destroyed for 24 hours after the finale of Good Omens 2. Then I channelled my internal Crowley and started asking QUESTIONS. And that thought process alone got me in a much, much better state 😊

Rejection… ough, it’s complicated

You can read about my take on the stage of the relationship the angels are here. To be clear, I read them as a long-term, post-pheromones companionship, something waiting to move towards whatever it is after at least ten years of relationship in human terms.

Aziraphale gets his "job offer." I must make a caveat that, as most of us have already deduced, this was the choice between Coffee and Death. What does it mean for the couple? From Aziraphale's point of view, he is in a long-term loving relationship. He has been threatened with the utter obliteration, what means not only that he would have never existed but also that this act would leave a black hole in the life of his precious companion. This fragile demon hates loneliness and craves companionship as much as the angel craves crepes. And he also KNOWS how much the demon loves him, to the point that they can kill anyone who threatens him. And that can turn out very nasty for them.

So we get the whole messy scene that, on the surface, makes no sense. And this is the first time they suck at communicating with each other in all 11.5 episodes.

Aziraphale SAYS he wants one thing totally out of character, and Crowley KNOWS it is (the series established that he recognized his angel tone of voice). Aziraphale's goal is to save Crowley from himself (see here why the plot analysis tells us so), which I dare to say Crowley suspects. Crowley, on the other hand, wants something totally IN THE CHARACTER (both times he was rejected, he wanted the same thing), and Aziraphale KNOWS it. Crowley's goal is to get into a "we" of a relationship SOMEWHERE, leaving to the stars together. We know that he loves the stars, which was established in S1 and again in S2. He does not say, "I love you"; he says, "I would like to spend my existence with you." He also says "we've spent our entire existence pretending that we aren't". He does not mean it as in "we pretend to each other." Pretending to Heaven and Hell.

This is not a moment of a big confession about love or feelings. This moment is an infliction point, all about what we want from this relationship from now on. And the moment of loss and realization of loss. Crowley got what Aziraphale wanted for five episodes, only to see his angel inexplicably change his desires. The whole mumbling about Heaven and Crowley as an angel doesn't make sense to Crowley because HE KNOWS his angel wanted a nest., It reminds me of all the tropes most recently explored in "Marriage Story." It is not an outcome two loving partners wish for, but sometimes people want different things WHILE STILL LOVING EACH OTHER. The" nothing lasts forever" has many meanings and can be read in different ways. On one level, it is a marker of changing desires and aspirations. On another level, the facial expression of Aziraphale, when looking at Crowley, full of absolute caring love, tells us that Crowley may not last forever, and he is just making sure he does. There is no rage in that scene, only mutual love and hurt. People part ways even if they still have a lot of love for each other. Sometimes, they find each other again.

And then the kiss. The kiss is mutual (you can see it when you play the scene very slowly), not romantic but desperate. They both hurt, but Crowley initiates this absolutely in character: the one who has always initiated a deep dive into the earthly sensations (it is first established in the Petronius oysters' scene). Then, he is forgiven because Aziraphale must say something that hurts (maybe someone is eavesdropping? At the end, the Bentley plays the Song. The way Aziraphale looks at Crowley and Bentley makes me think he asked the car to play it as a coded message.)

Crowley behaves differently from TWO other rejections he experienced in Season 1. The other two were very early on in their courtship. He felt them as personal back then: "I don't even like you, you are the demon" and "It is over." Sort of stuff we yell at our SOs when pheromones are high. Crowley does not take it well; he loves himself enough to know his dignity and has no problem leaving. In Season 2, this is more complicated. The long-term bonds of "precious existence" are stronger because KNOWING THE OTHER is on a deeper level. And he knows something is very, very wrong. Why is he staying there, waiting? He does not feel rejected as himself; he does not feel his love was rejected; he only understood his Alpha Centauri will not happen for reasons he does not truly understand. Right now, he probably thinks precisely what he said: Aziraphale is an idiot talking nonsense. Crowley hopes he will return to his senses. Because deep down, Crowley is an optimist. And he has what other demons do not: imagination. So don't cry for him, he will be OK. And remember the last Jane Austen novel on Aziraphale's shelf: Persuasion. Not to mention the only book Crowley probably has read: "The Crow Road"…

I realized I wrote this from the point of view of Crowley. But Aziraphale had also his heart rejected. He cried I NEED YOU and he got silence, because his stubborn husband refused to follow. That rejection also hurts.

---

Another thought: The ending is our human equivalent of one partner deciding to accept that well-paying job half-way across the globe, while the other wants to stay put. The one who leaves, temporarily, thinks about the opportunity: the money earned to finally pay that mortgage, pay student loan... to be finally free and get on with their life. The one who stays does not see it this way. Who is right... we'll see.

#ineffable husbands #good omens 2 #crowley #good omens #neil gaiman #aziraphale #aziracrow #they are not idiots humans are #meta #good omens meta #good omens season 2

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incorrecttowerofgodquotes · 2 years ago

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Gundam Witch From Mercury Season 2 Episode 7 Review

- I’d like to get off of Prospera Mercury’s wild ride

- Miorine is finally going to Earth, not to escape her life rife with politics, but instead to try and bolster her image. Meanwhile Guel seems pensive to go back. His small time on Earth changed him into a new man, one that doesn’t have a home in either space or on earth. Meanwhile Kenanji, a professional, has no outwardly displayed anxieties and instead just cracks a joke. He’s been immersed in the dark underbelly of Spacian and Earthian conflict so he’s used to the large pressure everyone’s under

- Martin became Secelia’s water boy and I love it. Okouchi got Quentin Tarantino and Dan Schneider in the writing room for that scene. But for as abrasive as she is, Secelia gives some good advice. Martin can’t spend forever wallowing I’m his guilt. He needs to be upfront with his feelings and accept that sometimes, you just gotta do something, even if it hurts

- Guel recognizing Sedo and chasing after him, leaving Miorine to fend for herself was a dumb move, but a realistic one. He wants to reconnect with a proper relationship this time. Plus, it seems like Guel just has a soft spot for kids in general. However, him chasing after Sedo gave him an important piece of information. That Shaddiq was the one ordered the terrorist attacks that got his dad killed, and boy is Guel pissed. I want to see him 5 v 1 Shaddiq’s squad (Renee and Felsi can fight it out alone) and gain his position as the best pilot in the WFM verse

- Speaking of Shaddiq, this man is the biggest fucking “nice guy” I’ve ever seen. He doesn’t even see Miorine as a human, just a perfect porcelain doll that needs saving. Nothing can be her fault, it must be everyone else’s. Which is even bigger cap because he was the one who let Guel abuse Miorine for two school years and didn’t do anything about it. Asshole. He hates Guel for “dirtying” his precious waifu, even though she’s told him to get bent already. He didn’t care about her dying during the Plant Quetta accident because she would have died with his image of her intact, but now he’s left coping and seething.

- Lauda is similarly coping and seething by thinking that Miorine is ruining his older brother. He just hasn’t realized that Guel has grown independent, and Lauda needs to as well.

- The meeting between Miorine and the Earthian representatives was very interesting. Miorine brought up job prospects, but the Earthians don’t care about that. They want people to stop assaulting, murdering, and taking advantage of them! It’s only until Miorine brings them something that can truly help, medical equipment, that they listen to her. But they still aren’t ready to support her because she has no real power. Sadly the small amount of trust they built up was destroyed due to Prospera’s machinations.

- Suletta truly embodying the tanuki she is by digging through the trash, but luckily, Chuchu comes to help her once again and bring her to her friends. Earth House loves her, and they’ll support her through thick and thin. And through this support, she realizes that Eri loves her too. She wants to protect her from the war and violence that she and Prospera will be inflicting. And now, Suletta is motivated to move forward properly and gain a life of her own.

- I’ve been fawning over Till since the fourth episode cause I think quiet boys are cute, but he fucking stabbed me with that hair down look. He’s such a good person, stating that Nika should be the one to tell them, and supporting Martin but not babying him. He supports Miorine on her business ventures, helped Suletta talk to Miorine, and is just an overall calming presence. Top 3 best boy, next to Guel and El5n

- And speaking of El5n, that scene in the prison room was engineered to make me go crazy. Norea is going crazy locked up in that room, only being able to think about Sophie’s death, her loneliness, and her mortality. The drawings that once comforted her are just black scribbles, showing her mental state. When El5n picks up the discarded book for fun, he passes by the dark pictures and lays his eyes on a beautiful lakefront. A life El5n never had, and a life that was cruelly taken away from Norea. They’re both just children, but they’ve been forced to bear the dark and ugly sides of the world instead of the beautiful ones. And in that moment, El5n fully understands and falls for her. He focused so much on his own life, but now he has someone else to protect. A hurt girl with no future, much like El4n, who he couldn’t save.

- As Norea screams at Nika and El5n to die, for everyone to die, she breaks down, realizing she really doesn’t want any death. She didn’t want Sophie, her almost-sister to die in such a horrible way. She doesn’t want to die for some cause that’s way grander than her. She wants a happy life indulging in the simple beauties of Earth. And El5n, someone who understands longing for a happy life despite fate’s cruel jokes, holds her hand and comforts her. The two loneliest people have found each other, and as El5n recognizes her pain, he may bow to stay with her. For someone who said he’ll live no matter what, how tragic yet poignant would it be if he sacrificed his life for Norea? I would cry my ass off. I just want them to live in a lake house, Norea making art while El5n reads books from his predecessor’s library.

- RIP Feng. She worked hard to find a way without fighting and gave Miorine a helping hand. She sniffed out the corruption in the Space League but it came too late. As she struggles from the pain the gunshot gave her, she pushes Belmeria to act. To stop looking away from the pain she’s caused and to truly make a difference for the better.

- Prospera herself doesn’t support the new Ochs Earth, using the distraction she started to destroy the Gundam facility. Prospera acts in her and Eri’s own interest. She doesn’t care about the hundreds of lives she just ruined with her plan. Those lives don’t matter to her as much as her daughter.

- But Miorine cares. As much as she tries to act distanced, she cares. It’s why she gave Suletta a tomato and searched for a way to save lives with GUND-Arm. Miorine cares for others and now in her eyes, she’s caused immense suffering. She went to build up herself, but in that moment, she realized that she should have cared more for the struggling people. With Guel going off on his own revenge play, Miorine is now alone. But Suletta will support her. Just like how Earth House believes in Nika, Suletta will believe in her.

I’m not ready for next episode. Guel and Grassley are going to conflict, Norea will go even more off the deep end, and Miorine will be on her own once again, before she met Suletta.

#gundam witch from mercury #gundam #g witch #guel jeturk #miorine rembran #suletta mercury #elan ceres #elan 5 #norea du noc

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seregios-seer · 1 year ago

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Monster Review: Najarala

(I’ll also be instantiate by a new rule here that any monster with subspecies/ wildly different fights from game to game will get the long post cutoff after base monster intros)

Snaky Jakey here is a funny one. This guy was one of the monsters that blew ten year old men’s mind when I first saw his intro cutscene. Najarala still defines the primal forest to me even now. It’s the first time Monster Hunter had a proper snake monster, but thank god not the last. The coloring on Najarala really strikes me sometimes, the muted tones still coming off vibrant in contrast to the fins (plates? Spines?) on its neck. I must say I have a weird outlook on this one, since I really like the design but it somehow still comes off as middling for me, and I’m not really sure why.

4U (IG): The actual fight with Najarala is just as unique as the snake itself. The most unique attack of his (that he really likes doing in my experience) is his coil. He makes a wide circle around you, and slowly pulls closer before bursting upwards in an inescapable burn. Requiring hunters to either find the gap in his loop or dive is really neat, but as a Glaive main I never actually had to deal with this attack. The second big thing Najarala has is the scale launch. The massive tail scales he launches from his tail being able to explode due from a follow up screech is really unique, although once again I never really found much difficulty in this, although the detail of being able to destroy the scales is not lost and very much appreciated. The biggest issue by far comes from the lunge and sliding attacks at the Najarala’s disposal, and are about 8/10 hits I take from this one. Despite this, I was well into master rank before I ever realized some of the bite lunges could inflict paralysis. Not sure how tbh.

GU (Various): This fight's a lot like the 4u edition, but it certainly feels like paralysis bites are more frequent in this one. When played against hunter arts, and I used a lot of diffferent ones against this one, it becomes a really short fight tbh. Najarala flees less, and doesn't seem to have the burrowing attacks like in 4u, which were already somewhat rare already. I'd usually manage a kill before the bastard even leaves the area more often than not, so I'm overall kinda shocked how much easier this fight is.

Rating: 7.7/10

Much like his biggest attacks, the design just doesn’t hit for some reason (still soo good though).

Tidal Najarala:

So it took me a looong time to hit G rank in 4u (I was an idiot kid when I first got the game, ok?) and when I finally did, the new monster subspecies felt so refreshing and unique, and this beautiful, glorious freakshow-colored reptile is right up there for me. The colors and the elemental effects really bump my personal opinion of Najarala as a whole. Plus the coloration and status given to being a G rank monster really lands the whole "exotic" aspect for me.

4u (IG): This fight is by far faster than the baseline Najarala, and that obviously bumps the difficulty quite a bit. The amount of slam attacks I got hit by really skyrocketed in this fight. It was a bit of a coin toss on whether it felt balanced or unavoidable, but more often than not seemed like my bad. The addition of a spit attack for instilling water blight really gave some ranged ability to this fight, although Tidal tends to do wide tail sweeps compared to the small swipes of the baseline species. One of these sweeping attacks is actually the pin attack Tidal uses, which I hate purely because it makes no damn sense. If you're hit on the right, why would you ever go flying perfectly forward? But that's really more a stupid peeve of my own than anything, and overall the fight is still really fun, even moreso than the base species after you acclimate from your first attempt.

Rating: 8.6/10

Preddy colors... so cooool...

#monster hunter #monhun #MH Reviews #najarala #Tidal Najarala

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arelya-andaria · 2 years ago

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Hello, hello!!

Thank you so much 💕

I have your Wildcats lyric:

'Don't open the door even if you hear me screaming.'

Thank you for that prompt! Couldn't quite settle on what fitted best, but I hope you'll enjoy it! ❤

Just the way you are - Sebastian & MC

Prompt : Don't open the door, even if you hear me screaming.

(Erika and Sebastian go to Hogsmeade to retrieve Erika's dress for the NEWTs' ball. A short one-shot with fluff)

The entire walk through Hogsmeade is weird. She usually has a spring in her step, either of them tugging the other one around wherever they go. But this time, it almost feels as if he’s leading her to the dementors’ kiss. He doesn’t understand her behavior. She had come to him the previous evening, asking if he was free to come and accompany to Hogsmeade, to retrieve her dress for the Newt’s ball.

Of course, he said yes. With studying for the NEWTs and everything, he feels they’re never outside anymore, and he welcomes the outing.

There must be something else on her mind, and he wishes she would tell him about it. They’re courting, for one, and after everything they’ve been through, she should be able to trust him with anything. He knows he does, with his entire being.

But he refuses to press her further, hoping she’ll tell him in her own time, when she’s ready. He remembers the last time he’s been in Gladrags with her very well. It was more than two years ago, right after they met and slayed the troll together. Or rather, she destroyed it with her ancient magic and he tried not to get killed. It may have been that moment that cemented his attraction to her, in the first place, after their duel had caught his attention. Fierce, beautiful, and skilled in a fight.

Yet, in the shop with only an old wizard for opponent, she’s nearly shivering next to him, despite the warm weather of late spring.

“Ah. Miss Asteria,” Mister Hill welcomes her. “I was hoping to see you any day now. Your dress is ready, if you’d like to come and prepare for the final fitting. In this room, please.”

She presses a last look to him, and again, he has a vision of a prisoner from Azkaban, and he wishes he understood why.

“Don’t open the door, even if you hear me screaming,” she whispers. “I won’t forgive you for spoiling the surprise.”

“Scream? Why would you be screaming in a shop?”

“Well, until you’ve tried corsets, you won’t get it.”

Oh. That.

“Don’t let him hurt you,” he chuckles, “fearless Heroin of Hogwarts.”

“Don’t worry, Mister Sallow,” reassures Mr. Hill. “I have the fingers of a fairy. Miss Asteria, you won’t feel a thing.”

“The things we do for love,” she groans, blowing Sebastian a kiss before going through the door into the next room.

True to his word, Mr. Hill does not make her scream, but it was close. And yet, when she looks at herself in the mirror, she sighs with relief. It’s a good dress. It fits, and it’s more elegant than anything she’s ever worn before, but she doesn’t feel like she’s playing pretend with her mother’s clothes, like when she was little. It didn’t last, though. Older, she stuck to practical and comfortable. But for the NEWTs’ ball, she had to make an effort. Only this once, and then she can return to her riding pants and soft blouses.

Natty and Poppy were there a few weeks ago to help choose the dress, and for moral support, but when the time came for the actual fitting, none of them were available, and so she had to bring Sebastian. Someone who would remind her why she was inflicting this upon herself.

“Well, Miss Asteria, it looks quite good indeed.”

She wants to hush him, fearing Sebastian will overhear them and, curious as he usually is, will barge upon them and ruin the surprise. Which was also something that both thrills her and frightens her. What if he doesn’t like it? What if he realizes she’s better like this and is disappointed when she returns to her usual self?

Her head isn’t usually such a storm, but with the pressure of their NEWTs, the ball, and their future hurling towards them, it certainly feels dizzying these days.

“Yes, indeed, thank you Mister Hill. Now please help me get it off me.”

He laughs as he helps her out.

“Your young companion will be quite pleased with your choice, if I may say so.”

“I hope he will, too.”

But her stomach is all nerves, and when she returns to the other room, going to pay for the lovely, infuriating package Mr. Hill deposits in her arms, Sebastian is fully aware of her discomfort.

He waits until they’ve left the shop to pull her into a side street, and seizes her hand.

“Is everything alright, Erika?”

His eyes bore into hers, and it’s difficult to feel anything but the tenderness, the concern he has for her.

“Do you wish you didn’t go to the ball? Do you wish… You didn’t have to go with me?”

“Oh, Sebastian… You’re the only reason I care about doing this! If I had my way, I’d spend every hour of every day right by your side, studying for our NEWTs! And then, when you asked me to the ball, I thought you wanted to go, and I wouldn’t say no to you, not for anything. But… well… Balls and I don’t go well together.”

“Why?”

“I can’t dance. I like music, but not dancing. I can duel just fine, and sports, too, but… Dancing doesn’t agree with me. And then there are those clothes…”

“What about them? You’re going to look amazing, I know that. You’ll always look beautiful to me, just the way you are.”

She tries to answer, but he pulls her into a hug, his warm hands holding her close to him, drawing soothing circles on her back, and she closes her eyes, a few tears escaping her control.

“If it annoys you so much,” he whispers softly against her ear, “We can spend the evening doing something else. We don’t have to go.”

“But Sebastian… You wanted to go. I’ve heard you speak about the ball for months now.”

“Only to get the chance to have you all to myself for an entire night. To have you close and no one to complain about it. If you don’t enjoy it, we’re free to do whatever you’d like.”

“Whatever I like.”

She sniffs, a tentative smile upon her lips, while he tugs her away from him to look at her eyes, noting the mischief coming back to her face.

“We’ll make a deal, then. I’ll go to the stupid ball, wear this stupid dress, and then, when we’ve had enough, we can leave and have more fun. If you get my meaning.”

“You bargain hard and fair, Miss Asteria. It’s a deal.”

He shakes her hand, before kissing her cheek, and whispering into her ear:

“I can’t wait for the fun you have in mind, darling.”

She blushes and slaps his shoulder playfully, before taking his hand again, as they begin the trip back to the castle, the package levitating next to them. Being seventeen has its perks.

I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for reading!

#hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy fic #sebastian sallow #sebastian sallow x mc #fluff #fanfiction #my writing

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honeymoon2011 · 2 years ago

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The cursed castle 💀🌩

⚠️ SPOIL ABOUT SEBASTIAN WAY , IF YOU DON'T FINISH THE GAME DON'T READ !!!

Seb x MC , curse , MC talk , dead , bad , hell , sad

Curse, misfortune, sadness, evil, darkness, shadows, Dark magic, go wrong, unforgivable spells

The Cursed Castle

today the weather is cloudy, it's raining and there are a lot of thunderstorms. It's now been 1 year since the fifth year has passed and I have been with sebastian but he is starting to become completely ill, Anne's health is getting worse and getting worse and worse, seb is determined to still look for a cure but I I know there isn't one, we've been looking for one for 1 year but no one can save her, we can't do anything for her unfortunately, Sebastian knows it but doesn't want to listen to me and more plus he sinks into troubled waters.

or a few weeks He has been trying to do something with this relic that we found in the Feldcroft catacombs but this one is cursed and risks putting everyone in danger here.

One evening when Sebastian was sleeping, I took the opportunity to steal the relic from him to destroy it, I went into the undercroft but before I looked around me to see if ominis or Sebastian had not returned or walked in the corridors. I try to destroy her with all possible spells but none of them work.

I take steps behind me, I turn around, it's Sebastian! I'm surprised because he has pale skin and green salamander eyes. This worries me a lot, what happened to him?

he approaches me, I step back because he is starting to scare me...

-I know what you did MC! he said angry, very angry.

-I don't see what you're talking about Sebastian (say I'm worried)

-don't take me for someone stupid MC, the relic!

- what relic? he approaches me and points his wand at my forehead

- Because of you, I can no longer save my sister! it's because of you that she's going to die!

- Stop Sebastian please, you scare me, I love you, I destroyed her because she was going to put you in danger!

-I don't care about the danger and since your despicable act, I don't love you anymore, you disgust me, don't force me to do to you what I want to do right away.

- please sebastian don't do that, you've gone completely crazy! please don't do this and then he sees red...

his eyes become even greener and that's when I realized what he was going to do to me. He just threw crucio at me... The pain is sharp and unbearable. The worst part is that he doesn't give a damn about what he's doing to me. By dint of casting spells on myself such as crucio, diffindo I have no more strength, I try to defend myself, to cast spells or even to cast Protego but nothing works... He pulls out another relic from his cloak that he must have found in another catacomb. I have blood everywhere from diffindo cuts and stronger and stronger whirlwinds are hovering around me from crucio...

he approaches the relic to me and begins to perform unknown rituals on this relic, will he curse me? No he would never do that… But he did it, I don't feel anything anymore just pain, he inflicted the same pain on me as Anne, still no reaction from him, no tears, nothing at all… would he be becoming a dark mage! I believe so…

-So what's wrong MC? I can't even say a word, I think he's going to leave me here for dead anyway I think I'm dying… i look at sebastian it's on he has become a bad person, i'm sure he's cursed too but not physically, morally he's dead…

- you got what you deserved... you only deserved that, everything is over between us, I don't love you anymore, I never loved you, I just used you to find relics, you deserve to die, I made good use of you you and you trusted me that you're stupid bitch

-go to hell asshole

-hmmm, die bitch

he leaves without saying another word to me I cry all the tears in my body he doesn't care, he just left the under croft... I'm out of breath and I can't breathe anymore, my heart hardly beats anymore, I'm leaving, I'm spitting blood from my mouth, I see a white light covering the whole ceiling though I'm not outside, I start to close my eyes and I get carried away... Death is peaceful, I think I'm in heaven, here no one can hurt me, I'm flying like an angel in the sky and I don't feel anything anymore, I feel good for the first time in a long time...

This is the end...

I hope you liked this story, tell me in the comments or ask me questions if you want other posts like this or just ideas, I wish you a good day ! ❤️

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socialhumanhealing · 3 months ago

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Recovery Manifesto

We are done being sick. No longer will we sabotage ourselves out of the pain of our circumstances. The wounds of our mothers and fathers, the random family members and friends. The bullies, the poverty, the losses, the unfortunate situations. The sadness, the loneliness and the brokenness. Oh, those things will still come. We will decide to choose wellness anyway. Each day or hour or minute. Whatever it takes. Our “home” is what is inside of us. We decide what stays and what goes in the trash can. Home is our center. Now, it’s ok to recover, heal, and be well. It’s ok to be ok, regardless of our circumstances. Today, we decide.

Layne Staley sang the song, “Would”. They lost their friend Andy to addiction, and it compelled his band to write a song contemplating recovery. He sings, “If I would, could you?” Addiction and brokenness are a massive wave that continually sweeps you away despite your best efforts, especially from the promises we make to ourselves and others. Somewhere inside us, there is a deep belief that whatever ails us, we aren’t worthy to move past it. Then we inflict harm on ourselves, not always with the understanding that we are. Smoking? Drinking? Drugs? Overeating? Cutting? Sex addictions? It’s numbing medicine. In the throes of addictions, we can’t see the destruction clearly. We can't see that it’s a form of self-hatred that just repeats the original infliction of pain. Layne knew about the flood that brought the waves. He also knew it was a black hole. He still lost his life. He didn’t see the way out.

The movie “A Good Person” gives a phenomenal example of recovery and how important it is to choose to move forward regardless of the challenges in front of us. A man in recovery chose to put his own feelings aside to welcome another addict into his recovery group, even though she was the one who caused the loss of his daughter. What a wicked web that had been woven! They chose to break it. They chose healing. The addictions and unforgiveness surely could have permanently destroyed them both. It had, until a conscious decision by the man to exercise the importance of denying himself in place of her recovery and his own. It is when selfishness moves to selflessness that our center is restored. We are the authors of our story. We can change the script.

In Ascension, a man plummets to the bottom of dark water, drowning. You can’t get any worse than that. It seems all hope is lost. He then slowly rises back to the surface once again. It is an excellent example of recovery. The ascension is slow, as it is in real life. We aren’t completely drowned overnight, and we won’t completely recover overnight. Healing is a very slow process in which we are stretched profoundly to become new again. We must choose to ascend.

J. Seward Johnson Jr.’s sculpture “Double Check” sits at ground level in front of what used to be the World Trade Center since 1982. It amazingly survived the fall of those buildings. After the dust settled, that sculpture was still sitting there in the aftermath of a catastrophic disaster encompassed in the rubble. Although just a sculpture of a man on a bench, it reminded me of how parallel it is to a real person. We are so much stronger than we realize, and we can be stretched farther than our imagination could ever take us. Most of us don’t believe that though. Believing that is a decision. Feelings are fickle; we must not live by them . We can survive the worst.

My music play list consists of all songs pertaining to time. It is so important in the recovery process to be patient with ourselves and allow the adequate time we require to heal. It is so important to trust the process. The concept of time is broad and applies to our wellness in many ways.

Life has seasons we must endure. There will be seasons that are dark and difficult. It is crucial to our healing that we know and understand that all bad things pass if we endure. Summer turns to fall, and then winter. Some seasons like fall are lovely, but it eventually gets cold, and we must hang in there until the sun shines again. Summer always returns.

Healing and wellness are our home if we choose it. It’s where we are at our best. It’s the place where we may be scarred, but we rise above the pain and choose to live the life we were meant to live. Sometimes home is an alternate place we aren’t expecting and that’s ok. It’s rarely the building that matters. We have not run too far to get back home.

#recovery #Pain #Manifesto #healing journey #healing #choose life #addictions #positive mental attitude #brokenness

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the-hem · 4 months ago

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"Nakedness." From the Gopala-Tapaniya Upanishad “The Exploration of the Mysteries of the Ascetic Cowherd.”

Chapter 1 explains why milking (using justice as a means to kindness) is integral to the upkeep of society. Chapter 2 discusses how to tend to the needs of the person, called Brahmacharya, restraint of the desires. A surplus of desires will destroy the soul. Even a desire so small as to win an argument with someone, when one is definitely right, is one desire too many. Complete withdrawal of the ego from the BMI where desires are born and acted out is necessary for Brahmacharya to work.

Ego and desires which stem from the big V at the top, are root and branch. If they sway in the wind of temptation and spread the scent of their flowers, eventually the stinging bee of license will come along and pollinate one. Then will come the fruits of the actions. Once the bud is set and a fruit is produced it is too late. Now we have to deal with what has happened. Then the self-entitled brat called the Jiva inside us wins, and the adult has to take over and deal with the shit.

The Jiva is not our friend, its desires do not benefit self or society and it must be tamed through restraint if one is to abide in the peace and safety of the Holy Ghost.

Chapter Two

1-2. Once, after they had passed the entire night with Him, the passionate girls of Vraja (wanderers) spoke to the cowherd boy Krishna, who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He also spoke to them.

3. The gopis said: To what brahmana should charity be given?

4. Krishna said: Durvasa (nakedness).

5. The gopis said: How will we cross the Yamuna’s waters (the washing of the eyes) and approach Him, from whom great blessings will come?

6. Krishna said: Say the words Krishna, the brahmacari (self discipline), and the Yamuna will give you a path.

7. By remembering Me a shallow person becomes deep. By remembering Me an impure person becomes pure. By remembering Me an impious person becomes pious. By remembering Me one full of material desires becomes desireless. By remembering Me a fool becomes learned.

8. After hearing these words, they meditated on Durvasa, and with these words crossed the Yamuna. They went to the very sacred asrama and bowed down before Durvasa Muni (a hermit), the best of sages. They gave to the brahmana delicious foods made with milk and ghee.

9. Pleased, he bathed, ate, blessed them, and gave them permission to go.

To wash the eyes and achieve the state of holiness called Brahmacharya, the mind must become naked, what is called Durvasa. The objective of this process is dry out the mind, to teach it about its own essential nature under conditions of extreme control affiliated with extreme asceticism.

During Durvasa, one may eat, sleep, exercise, work, etc. but no sex, no hooking up, no drugs, porn, smoking, drama, dating, essentials only. The recommended period of time is a year, I have done three and counting. For around twenty years, I was the victim of a extensive number of violent crimes inflicted by a religious cult, the Mormons, that altered my life (as many are now aware). Due to the circumtances and a personal desire to be free of the drama I cut just about everything out of my life. I have never been happier. During this time I realized one must meet one's needs far in advance of one's wants if one wants to be productive and sow no more unfruitful actions.

The process as the chapter says begins with the night before, what is called the Night of Brahma, when creation goes dark to due to fact it is no longer working. A Night of Brahma can last lifetimes. All mankind is living in the Night of Brahma, the fruits of its ignoble desires are ripening and falling from the trees and psychopaths are running the world. A psychopath cannot run either the mind or the world.

So society like each of us must cut way back and meet the basic needs of the world and then, when the environment and populations are stable, the rest will follow. By this I mean one should expect the world to report it is well then report it is happy. Brahmacharya establishes the path to the wellness that is critical for happiness so it comes first.

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dollmother · 9 months ago

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5/15

there are certain things i fear gravely like the rejection of love. something she does to push my hand away each time i try to reach her heart. to touch her fleeing soul. i think sometimes i could hold her back ..oh please stop running so i can embrace your cold skin.

i think about my dysphoria, love and how they are the same. obsessive like an impulse. they say when you mix those together, they’re called compulsions. how helpless i feel to be tossed around by the waves of banal instincts. currents of hatred, anger, joy, lust in the same ocean of love overwhelms me until my senses become overloaded —shut down and become numb. sometimes the holes on my forearm throb and tinge. a sensation, an invasion to the once serene peace of emptiness. something to remind me to not be tangled up in numbness. wound in a web of unconsciousness

all my worst woes have all been self inflicted. my very own thoughts are complex methods of emotional self flagellation. the marks they leave on my skin are real, unlike the knotted ropes tucked in my brain. these wires are stuck together. they only separate properly when i pull it out to hurt myself again and again. how else would i cope with what i have to live with? everything becomes so clear to me whenever there is pain involved. it’s intoxicating.

i could not stop at one. i wanted to understand what it really felt like again, then again. each time the feeling became more euphoric. because each instant my nerves were destroyed and i became more numb. i realize i’ll never achieve the same agony as the first self flagellated burn wound.

i’m scavenging for bits to mend, but that’s too difficult to piece together. it’s so much easier to find another whole. someone not so fragmented like me. someone with all my light and none of the darkness. that’s always the first thing you see, but it always disappoints in the end.

every step i place into the muddy soil, every second i spend eyes fixated on the movement of my boot. each moment i avert them and miss beauty surrounding my skin. every glimpse of new light passes me by. then, i remember everyone who could see that light and how i shoved them into the corners of my mind. i believe i am undeserving of that type of love, the genuine kind. i have you (myself) so maybe i won’t need to speak anymore to anyone. i should just shut up.

we stay in another girl’s room. her scent smells just like yours and each breath clutches my chest tightly. your smell is the thorns in my lungs desperately suffocating to beat.

i think now it’s time to let it go. after watching that footage it’s what i must do. or else the thought would consume my being until i forget who i was again.

god forbid a girl has prying eyes i said. to the girl who’s gaze was glued onto my skin.

i loved all i could, and she was taken from me in a moment. is this the gratitude i get for trying to look out for her? i feel as if i lost everything good going in my life in just a day. i feel lost yet i am still myself in the end. i took her away from myself in that blind lapse of rage. sometimes i never realize what i’ve done until it’s much too late.

all i would have is myself and no one else. she doesn’t understand me at all, the golden boy. she does not listen for my words, does not watch for the slight change in my gait … i feel almost a regret for loving the wrong one, then guilt for having caused this unbearable mess.

she only wants me when she cannot stand to endure the pangs of loneliness. while she has anyone else, i am but discarded plastic forgotten in another dusty corner.

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meli-r · 10 months ago

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I got inspired and wanted to write this short silly dialogue with poor descriptions, as it's not part of any chapter, I got carried away with the conversation. It's been months since I wrote about Makishima. I noticed I became more interested in Touma lately. Sorry in advance because I know I may not be good at writing his character ^-^

*****

"The world will sink with a speed few can imagine. Honest and virtuous men will be forced to give up everything, abandoning their lives and jobs. Figures like former Inspector Meyer Kane or former Professor Kanno Yamato began their struggle without knowing defined time limits. They were unaware if they would live long enough to witness society's liberation or if their duty was to pass it on to future generations. However, their certainty lay in the way they chose to live. Now, they understand that the day of their triumph is inexorably approaching," declared Makishima.

“When?” Yashiro asked.

"When Sibyl contradicts itself. Do you remember what you told me three years ago when we first met? When Sibyl no longer finds any more culprits upon whom to inflict its punishments, when the advocates of sacrifice discover that those willing to practice it have nothing left to sacrifice and those who still possess it refuse to do so, when man realizes that no material resource can save him and his own mind, that faculty which has been so vilified, no longer responds to his pleas, when they collapse as mere men devoid of conscience, purpose, morality, authority, law, hope, not even with a crumb of food or the possibility of obtaining it, then the path will be clear for those endowed with a true mind to rebuild what once was. You don't have to give me an answer right now. You are the second person to whom I've revealed my plan. You had to know. You understand the nature of the choice you must make. If it seems harsh to you, it's because you believe it's not yet time to lean one way or the other. But you will see that it must be done," explained Makishima.

"Can you grant me time?" Yashiro asked.

"I have no right to dictate your time. Only you can decide what to do and when. Understand the cost of that decision, as we've all paid for it. You are part of a world I seek to destroy. You are my sole danger, the only one who could deliver me to my enemies. If you choose to remain with them, you will do so either by your own will or by force. Opt for it if you wish, but do so with full awareness of your decision."

“Many people could die.”

“How many people have died or been imprisoned for Sibyl to exist?” Makishima asked.

"How many people have died or been imprisoned for you to live?" Yashiro responded.

"What the Sibyl System has perpetrated in this world is an atrocity. The humans who erected it understood their mission perfectly: to seek power and control to obtain virtue and courage, qualities that, in their pitiable lives, they would never have conquered on their own," Makishima asserted firmly.

"And aren't you another product of that same atrocity?" Yashiro posed.

After her questioning, silence filled the room. Makishima remained quiet, absorbed by the impact of Yashiro's words. His gaze softened as he looked into her eyes, while Yashiro was lost in thought.

“You could have chosen differently. Just like I could have chosen to walk away from the gate instead of seeking entry,” Yashiro said, with a mixture of bitterness and resignation.

“Maybe someday, you will owe nothing more to this world, nor will I try saving it,” Makishima responded.

“I hope so,” she murmured.

"You've absorbed all the knowledge I had to offer. You can end this here and now if you wish. It was your decision to join them. You don't owe me anything. There's no duty you must consider or fulfill. I want nothing from you. Nothing more than what you choose to offer. As long as you decide to keep working for them, for whatever reason, I have no right to resent it, and I won't," Makishima continued, maintaining his calm yet firm tone.

“You speak like a trader,” Yashiro observed, her voice reflecting her surprise at Makishima's unusual attitude.

"I know nothing about that. How do you trade with men?" Makishima responded with a question.

"You see, if a man were to ask me for more than he means to me, I would refuse. If he asked me to give up my quest, he'd never see me again. I don't accept sacrifices nor make them. If one's pleasure must be bought with another's pain, then there'd better be no trade at all. A trade where one gains and the other loses is a fraud. I don't do it in business, let alone in my life. Don't do it in yours, Shougo," Yashiro explained, her gaze fixed on Makishima.

Makishima slowly widened his eyes, recalling the words spoken by other women throughout his life. At that precise moment, as he looked at the serious and implacable face of the woman in front of him, he saw the distance between her and the others, the difference in what they sought from him and from life.

"Loving someone solely for their virtues is selfish and cruel," a former classmate of his had said back in university years ago. "There's nothing nobler than embracing someone for their flaws. People should be loved for who they are, even if their actions are reprehensible. I don't want to be loved for my deeds, words, or thoughts; I want to be loved for simply being myself."

"So, what are you?" Makishima had asked.

But there was no answer. In the solitude of long, silent nights, Makishima found himself ensconced in contemplation, his posture relaxed yet weighted. With one leg crossed over the other, he sat with his head nestled against the seat back, a closed book resting on his thigh. His gaze wandered beyond the confines of the room, past the neon lights and towering skyscrapers, towards an unreachable horizon.

Each time Yashiro's figure graced the room, a subtle shift occurred within him. His stoic countenance softened imperceptibly, a ghost of a smile tugging at the corners of his lips as he squinted his eyes in a gesture of quiet recognition. Her relentless and confident demeanor cast a curious spell upon him, prompting a subtle tilt of his head as he contemplated the enigma she presented. It was as if a silent battle raged within him—a battle against her presence and the realization that he had much yet to understand about her.

Her smile, he mused, held an elusive allure—a tantalizing blend of warmth and mystery that beckoned him closer even as it remained just out of reach. It was a smile that demanded to be earned, destined for an adversary who could match her strength and resilience, not for a man seeking solace in that smile and thus destroying its meaning.

Within Makishima, a sense of urgency stirred—a silent acknowledgment that he had a battle to win before he could bask in her presence. For he understood that her smile was not a mere gift to be taken lightly, but a prize to be won.

#psycho pass fanfiction #shougo makishima

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littlelovelyspiderling · 3 years ago

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Venom’s Vengeance

i saw venom: let there be carnage and like 5 seconds later i wrote this. i’ve never written venom or eddie brock before so eeehhh we’ll see how it goes. SPOILERS if you haven’t seen venom 2 yet or any of the spider-man: nwh trailers!!

After being dragged into the MCU universe, Venom wants to kill Spider-Man, but Eddie makes him heal the wounded hero instead. Upon binding to Peter Parker, Venom learns of a new weakness humans have, and realizes there are ways other than biting your enemies' heads off to exact revenge...

word count: 6,367

____________________________

“LET US EAT HIM!”

No! Let him go!

“MUST DESTROY HIM! TEAR HIM APART! MAKE HIM SUFFER FOR ALL THE PAIN HE’S INFLICTED ON US!”

Venom! I said let him go!

With a guttural roar, Venom flung their captive against the slimy sewer walls. The kid gasped upon impact and slid to the floor. It took a few seconds of scrambled floundering for him to stand, palms braced against the wall to keep him upright, his whole body trembling in fear.

“W-what the hell are you? Why are you trying to kill me?”

The shudder in his voice cut Eddie to his core. Normally, he and the alien lifeform mirrored each other’s emotions, one side eventually succumbing to the other’s will in order to maintain their bizarre yet symbiotic relationship. But ever since they’d seen that spider-guy on the TV, things had changed. Venom had been ignoring his host’s desperate attempts to calm him down and tame his wild temper. Eddie hadn’t even had time to figure out what the hell had happened in their beach house two days ago; once the symbiote got Spider-Man in his head, then eventually in his sights, a darker side of him had taken over, one that Eddie was struggling to keep at bay. Right now, it was taking everything in him to keep the alien from ripping the kid to the shreds. Right now, the symbiote was pulsing with an unbendable, blind rage.

My thoughts exactly! Eddie shouted from inside Venom. What’s wrong with you? Why do you want to eat him so badly?

“SPIDER-MAN KNOWS WHO WE ARE! SPIDER-MAN KNOWS WHAT HE’S DONE!” Venom screeched. He stomped forward, balling his massive hands into fists. “AND FOR THAT, THE SPIDER-MAN MUST DIE!”

No! Eddie yelled, forcing their legs to a halt. Let’s talk about this! He’s just a kid!

At that moment, Spider-Man bolted toward the mouth of the tunnel, feet splashing through muck and sewer water. But Venom launched a glob of black goo at him before he could turn the corner, knocking him back into the wall and trapping him in place.

“Agh! What is this?” Peter cried, wriggling uselessly beneath the sticky net. His eye lenses went wide as the giant monster approached, spindles of drool stretched between its impossibly sharp teeth, its long tongue slithering from its maw like a pink eel. It was every child’s worst nightmare come to life. Spider-Man turned away in horror, his voice breaking. “P-please! I didn’t mean to bring you here! It was an accident!”

What? Eddie exclaimed. Wait—listen to him. Just stop for two seconds and listen to what he has to say.

The alien bellowed in protest and stomped their feet. “YOU WOULDN’T BE STOPPING ME IF YOU KNEW WHAT HE’S DONE!”

“What...what who’s done?” Spider-Man ventured to say, still shaking. “What I’ve done?”

Eddie knew the kid could only hear what Venom was saying, which was likely making being kidnapped and attacked by a man-eating alien monster even more confusing and terrifying than it already was. He took a deep breath and spoke in a calm, collected tone.

Tell me, then. What has he done to you? How do you even know this guy?

“SPIDER-MAN IS A SYMBIOTE KILLER! A HEARTLESS, TREACHEROUS, BACK-STABBING HOST! EVERYONE KNOWS HE DESERVES THE CRUELEST DEATH IMAGINABLE!”

Peter audibly swallowed. “Symbiote? Host? What are you talking about? I haven’t killed anyone!”

“SHUT UP!” Venom roared, spitting flecks of saliva all over Spider-Man’s mask. The kid shrunk back with a whimper. “MILLIONS OF VERSIONS OF SPIDER-MAN ACROSS MILLIONS OF UNIVERSES HAVE BETRAYED US! AND YOU BEAR THE TRAITOR’S NAME AND COSTUME! WE WILL CHEW YOU UP AND SPIT YOU OUT PIECE BY BLOODY PIECE, AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN, JUST LIKE YOU HAVE DONE TO US!” The corners of the beast’s mouth lifted into a sickening grin. “BUT THEN WE WILL RE-EAT YOUR CHEWED UP PIECES. WE DON’T LIKE WASTING FOOD. EDDIE SAYS IT’S NOT GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.”

Even with a mask on, Eddie could sense the terror beating its way out of the poor kid’s chest. He had to reel Venom in before things got ugly.

Easy, V, Eddie warned him gently. Just because a version of Spider-Man has hurt you doesn’t mean that this one has. Right? I mean—I won’t pretend I understand all this multiverse mumbo-jumbo, but hey—you saw his picture on the news. He looks, like, twelve.

“DOESN’T MATTER! ALL SPIDER-PEOPLE MUST DIE! THEY ARE ALL TO BLAME!”

Peter’s fear-gripped mind fought to understand the monster’s words. “Spider...people?” he said cautiously.

Now that’s not fair, Eddie continued. Under that logic, shouldn’t I want all symbiotes to die? Your kind have killed a lot of my kind, after all. Remember how much I hated you when we first met? But after I took the time to actually get to know you, I started to like you. Now look at us—symbiotic partners, saving the world as the Lethal Guardian. That never would’ve happened if I hadn’t given you the chance to prove yourself.

Venom paused for a moment, grappling with his host’s aggravating words. The heat of his rage was beginning to wane. “BUT—BUT THIS IS DIFFERENT! EVERY SPIDER-MAN HAS TREATED VENOM LIKE SCUM BETWEEN HIS TOES! THEY ARE IRREDEEMABLE SHITBAGS ONLY GOOD FOR EATING! NOTHING ELSE!”

But how do you know that this Spider-Man isn’t the one redeemable one you’ve been waiting for, if you won’t even let him prove you otherwise? You only ever saw humans as disposable hosts until we met. But now you know there are good ones out there who are worth protecting. He gazed at the terrified teen through Venom’s eyes. He looked so small from the alien’s towering viewpoint. Have you ever actually met a Spider-Man before?

“...NO.”

So you’re really going to let those greasy assholes back home tell you how to think? Come on, man. Gotta think for yourself, form your own opinions on things.

A long, low growl rolled from the alien’s throat. Eddie moved his fingers to unclench their hands, and Venom begrudgingly complied.

Give him a chance to show you he’s better. Please. For me.

Gradually, his growls tapered off somewhere deep in his chest. Venom strode toward Peter, narrowing his eyes, licking his chops. Spider-Man squirmed to get away, but there was nowhere for him to go. The beast stopped an inch away from his face. Its breath was hot, wet, and reeked of rotting meat.

“Please, please, p-please don’t eat me,” he begged.

In an instant, Venom reared back his fist and punched the wall a few inches from the kid’s head, making him flinch and yelp.

“GAHHH! FINE!” he grumbled. “BUT ONCE YOU SEE HOW REPULSIVE HE IS, I’M YANKING HIS SPINE OUT OF HIS THROAT!”

Eddie sighed with relief. Peter, however, looked like he might vomit.

“Who…are you talking to...?” he asked uneasily.

Brock shrugged inside the suit. Let me out so we can both speak to him.

The alien huffed in defeat. In one swift motion, Venom’s monstrous form peeled back and shrunk away to reveal a very sleep-deprived but friendly-looking man inside. He wore ragged jeans and a leather jacket, had kind eyes paired with a shy smile, and it was such a stark contrast to the giant toothy demon, Peter blinked hard a few times to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating the transformation.

“Hey there,” the man said with a nervous wave. Peter blinked again.

“What...the hell?” he breathed.

“Sorry about all that. My friend can be a bit dramatic. Beneath all the teeth and bloodthirstiness and slobber, I promise he’s an okay guy.”

“You…he…” Spider-Man’s jaw hung open. For once in his life, the web-slinger was at a loss for words. “You were inside that freaky monster thing? Where did it go?”

“DON’T CALL ME FREAKY!” the creature’s deep voice suddenly roared. A snake-like appendage appeared on the man’s right shoulder, and Venom’s grisly teeth and pupil-less eyes sprouted at the end to form a smaller (but just as horrifying) face. “YOU’RE THE FREAKY ONE!”

“Holy shit,” Peter croaked. “Am I tripping balls right now? What the hell is going on?”

Eddie tugged the tiny Venom face away from Spider-Man’s and gave it a few pats. “Down, boy. Have a little sympathy. Kid’s clearly going through a lot right now.” The man offered him a small but genuine smile. “You’re Peter, right? Peter Parker?”

The young hero winced at the name, as if it physically hurt him. He stared at the ground without answering.

“I saw you. On the news. I don’t think I have the full story, but…” Eddie stepped closer, causing Peter to stiffen a little. He knelt down to his eye level and pinched the corner of his mask. “Do you mind if I take this off? I already know what you look like, and I think it might help my friend not want to eat you so much.”

Spider-Man was silent for a moment, his wide, bug-like eye lenses difficult to read. Then he sighed, letting his shoulders fall slack and his head droop a little.

“Whatever.”

Eddie hesitated, waiting for him to offer something else, but he didn’t. So he went ahead and pulled the Spider-Man mask off his head, revealing the soft, battle-scarred face underneath. It was even more jarring in person—how painfully young and innocent this allegedly infamous superhero actually was. At the same time, his big, brown Bambi eyes looked haunted with trauma far beyond their years, and his pale skin was striped with numerous gruesome wounds: some fresh, others still healing. Eddie’s heart twinged.

“I STILL WANT TO EAT HIM.”

Peter blanched in terror. Eddie scoffed, shoving the alien aside.

“Can it, Venom.”

Something like curiosity slowly overthrew the kid’s horrified expression. “Venom?” he repeated, glancing between the demon head and Eddie. “Is...that it’s name?”

“YOU KNOW MY NAME, SPIDER-MAN,” Venom snarled. “JUST AS I KNOW YOURS.”

“I’m not so sure he does, bud. I don’t think Peter here has ever met any of your kind. He’s only been alive for twelve years.”

At that, the boy scowled. “Twelve? I’m sixteen, dude. Come on.” The newfound spark in his eyes died in an instant, however, and he let out a weary huff. “Didn’t you see that on the news too?”

“We’ve only been in this weird, jacked up version of reality for a couple days, so V and I are still trying to catch up on things.”

“And Venom is…what, exactly? Sentient tar? A possessed boa constrictor crossed with an oil spill?”

“He’s an alien and I’m his host.”

Peter gave a shriveled laugh. “Oh my god. First lizard guy, then lightning dude, then Halloween man, then doctor tentacles, and now an actual alien? How many other Spider-Man-hating psychos are out there? And why do all of you want to kill me, but I've never even heard of any of you?”

Eddie frowned in thought. “You mean we’re not the first guy you don’t know who’s tried to kill you for no reason this week?”

“You don’t even break the top ten list,” Peter said miserably. His gaze shifted to the serpentine alien face. “Although, as far as themes go, yours is by far the weirdest. And scariest.”

The man’s expression softened. He reached forward and touched the black sludge holding Spider-Man in place. “V, can we get rid of this please?”

A grumble rose from the terrifying alien. “FINE. BUT IF HE TRIES TO RUN AGAIN, I’M BITING HIS HEAD OFF.”

The kid sucked his lips to his teeth. “Noted,” he squeaked. “No running.”

With a hiss, Venom lunged toward him and bit into the black net, ripping large chunks away and gobbling them up. Peter winced every time those long, demonic fangs grew near, shivering at the thought of them latching around his throat.

Once he was free, Spider-Man dropped to his feet. Now that he was stagnant and in full view, the severity of his injuries truly dawned on Brock. No wonder he’d been so easy for Venom to capture. The kid looked like he’d been hit by four buses, a semi-truck, and maybe a couple of messenger bikes. With knives for wheels. That were also on fire.

Peter’s eyes darted between the worm-like alien head and the man it was attached to. He’d seen a lot of strange beings in his short time as Spider-Man, but this was on a whole new level of freakish. Peter tried not to let his bemusement show on his face, but Eddie could discern the kid’s apprehension from the beads of sweat along his brow and the tension in his muscles.

“I’m sorry you’re dealing with all of that. Kids like you should be worried about homework and acne and—”

“DO NOT APOLOGIZE TO—!” Venom started to bellow, but Eddie grabbed his tongue to silence him.

“—dating, not being murdered by grown men playing dress-up.”

The alien gagged and bit his hand, eliciting a long string of curses from his host. Peter stared between the two perplexedly.

“I’m not…” the teen began, looking offended. Then he sighed. “It’s not like I stopped dealing with those things. Now I just have to deal with them, you know, on top of vengeful costumed murderers.” His eyes fell to the floor. “It’s my fault, though. I was trying to fix something, but instead I made everything a billion times worse. Like I always do.”

There was an exhaustion weighing over the kid that no sixteen-year-old should have to bear. Not to mention the many bloody wounds etched across his face and body. A familiar knot formed in Eddie’s stomach. Spider-Man needed their help.

“OH, BOO-FUCKING-HOO,” Venom taunted him. “YOUR PATHETIC LIES ONLY MAKE ME WANT TO EAT YOU FASTER. COME ON, LET ME PUT HIM OUT OF HIS MISERY.”

The kid backed away from the alien’s demented smile, his cheeks reddening slightly.

“Stop being a bully,” Eddie scolded the symbiote. “You’re not hurting him. In fact, you’re going to do the opposite.”

Venom grimaced. “THE OPPOSITE?”

“What does that mean?” Peter asked nervously.

Eddie tilted his head to the side. “You’re badly injured, Spider-Man. My friend here has healing abilities. If you let him, he can fix you right up, lickety-split.”

Spider-Man blinked, then wrinkled his nose. “Seriously?”

“WHAT?” Venom cried. “NO WAY! I’M NOT HEALING HIM!”

“Yes you are,” Eddie insisted. “Because while you’re healing him, you can look into his thoughts and see that he’s telling the truth, and then you’ll realize the animosity you hold against him is totally unwarranted.”

The symbionts went silent for a moment, grumbling in a contemplative manner. Peter looked just as unconvinced as he did.

“Look at my thoughts? Yeah, no thanks. I don’t want that thing anywhere near me—especially in my head. My privacy’s already been violated enough as it is.”

Venom’s expression shifted to a look of malicious delight. “AND WHY IS THAT, LITTLE SPIDER? AFRAID I’LL FIND SOMETHING THAT WILL MAKE ME WANT TO TURN YOU INSIDE OUT?”

“Yes!” the kid yelped. “Precisely that!”

“Enough, V.” Eddie gave the alien a playful noogie on the head. “If you don’t heal him right now, then we’re not watching any more Acorralada.”

Venom wriggled out of his hold and sputtered in disbelief. Eddie had clearly struck a chord. “BUT—BUT WE JUST GOT TO THE GOOD PART!” he protested.

“I know,” Eddie said.

“MAXIMILIANO JUST FOUND OUT THAT DIANA IS PREGNANT!”

“I know.”

“WE CAN’T STOP NOW!”

“Then heal him, you melodramatic bastard!” Brock demanded through a laugh. “Heal him, and we’ll watch as many episodes as you want tonight.”

Venom licked his teeth in a way that made Peter’s skin crawl. “YOU DRIVE A HARD BARGAIN,” he said, slithering closer to Spider-Man. “FINE. I WILL HEAL THIS FILTHY LITTLE WORM. BUT IF I SEE THAT HE’S LYING AND HAS IN FACT TORTURED AN ALTERNATE VERSION OF ME, I WILL DISEMBOWEL HIM.”

For a moment, the teen didn’t appear as terrified as that statement should have rendered him. He stared between the parasite and its host, a wrinkle forming along his brow. “You two have a weird relationship,” he observed.

Eddie huffed out a laugh. “You don’t know the half of it,” he insisted, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Peter gripped his upper arm where blood was leaking from a deep cut through his bicep. “My, um…my aunt watches that show,” he murmured hesitantly.

A grin touched Brock’s lips. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, then gave a strained chuckle. “I can’t stand it. It’s so over dramatic and unrealistic.”

“YOU HAVE ZERO TASTE,” Venom gurgled. “YOU’RE SUCH AN OCTAVIA.”

Eddie laughed and shrugged. “I think unrealistic drama is the entire point. But hell, you were probably a baby when that show first came on the air. Which makes you way too young to appreciate the raw sexual tension between all of the characters.”

That drew a small snort out of the kid, which brought a smile to Eddie’s face. But a frown was quick to reclaim Peter’s features.

“Why do you want to heal me all of a sudden? Why the change of heart?”

Brock lifted his hands into the air. “For the record, I never wanted to kill you. It’s my alien friend here who has some weird multidimensional beef with you. And you swear you’ve never met him before?”

The kid shook his head dismally. “It’s just like the others. All of them showed up out of nowhere and started attacking me.” His hand moved to his side where part of his suit had been torn away, along with a chunk of his flesh. “The weird thing is, it felt like they were after Spider-Man, but…how do I put this? Not necessarily me. Not me as Spider-Man. They all kept referencing things and people I know nothing about. It’s like…like they want to kill the idea of Spider-Man. Their idea of Spider-Man. It’s all so bizarre.”

He grimaced sharply and leaned against the wall, gritting his teeth to stifle a moan of pain. Dark circles ringed his downcast eyes, and his face was growing paler by the second. Eddie inched closer to him.

“That’s a shitty situation to be in. How about we let Venom heal you, and then we can try to work through all this insanity together, yeah? That sound good?”

The young hero lifted his gaze to his. A flicker of hope touched his expression that mirrored Eddie’s. Then, just as quickly, the flame died, and his eyes fell to the floor. He released a shaky breath. “No. I can’t—I can’t trust you. I can’t trust anyone anymore.” He licked at the split in his lip. “If you’re not going to kill me, then please just let me go.”

Eddie sighed. “No offense kid, but you look like shit. It’d be irresponsible of me to let you go without patching you up. I know we caused some of those injuries of yours; let us fix them.”

Spider-Man swallowed, then pursed his lips. His eyes wandered back to the symbiote, who looked just as eager to rip his face off as he had when he’d been actively attacking him.

“What, uh—what exactly does he have to do? To, you know, heal me?”

Venom sneered. “THIS.”

The alien lunged at him suddenly, unhinging its jaw like a python and swallowing Peter whole. Peter shrieked in terror as the black maw consumed him, dousing everything in sticky darkness.

“Aaaagh! Oh my god, oh my god, oh my—”

It was all over him: spreading across his costume, engulfing the entirety of his limbs. It was in his eyes, his brain, his organs. He fell hard on his rear, trembling in horror, watching the black sludge creep up his arms and coil around his shivering fingers.

He expected it to hurt, to dismantle him, to make him want to hurl.

But instead, it felt…good?

Great, even. Like, eerily so. His strength felt renewed—maybe even enhanced—and he could feel the biting pain of his wounds gradually seeping away. As the black monster absorbed into his suit and out of sight, his rapid breathing slowed. He unclenched his fists, relaxing into the feeling of the symbiote repairing his physical form.

“Whoa,” Spider-Man breathed.

“YOU SCREAM LIKE A LITTLE BITCH,” Venom’s ferociously deep voice cackled inside his head, making him flinch. “BUT SPIDER-MAN’S STRENGTH…HIS POWER…I REMEMBER IT WELL. SO TANTALIZING.”

“Can you hear him too?” Peter asked Eddie, tapping at his temple. “That is—beyond creepy.”

Eddie chuckled lightly. “Yeah. Takes some getting used to.” He nudged the kid’s knee with his foot. “But you’ll be better before you have to get used to it. Look—your injuries are already closing up.”

Brock was right. Every bruise, burn, gash, and scrape was fading right before their eyes. Peter lifted his arm towards his face and watched the cut on his bicep cinch itself up and melt out of existence.

“I’m assuming that means you saw that he wasn’t lying and has never met you before. Right, V?”

The alien huffed sourly. “YES. HE HAS NEVER EVEN HEARD OF MY KIND UNTIL TODAY. I WILL NOT EAT THIS SPIDER-MAN. FOR NOW, AT LEAST…” He paused, humming in thought. “WHY ARE HIS MEMORIES SO…SHORT?”

“You can see my memories?” Peter sputtered out, gripping the sides of his head. “Stop looking at my memories, man!”

“Short?” Eddie repeated curiously. Then the realization struck him, and he snorted. “Oh, right. You’ve never bonded with someone as young as him before. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you, bud. Spider-Man is a child. His memory is short because he hasn’t been alive for very long.”

“AH,” the symbiote said. “I CAN SEE NOW WHY YOU DIDN'T WANT ME TO EAT THIS ONE. HE HAS LOTS OF DUMB VOLATILE EMOTIONS GOING ON INSIDE. SIMILAR TO YOU, BUT WITH MORE CONFUSION AND STUPIDITY AND HORMONES.”

“I resent everything being said right now,” the teen pouted.

“BUT HE HAS EDDIE’S SAME DESIRE TO HELP THOSE IN NEED. EVEN THOUGH MILLIONS OF YEARS OF HIVEMIND INSTINCTS ARE TELLING ME I MUST EXACT REVENGE ON SPIDER-MAN, I WON’T HARM HIM.”

Peter swallowed and hunched his shoulders. “Uh…thanks?”

“Glad to hear it,” Eddie said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “See that? Conflict resolved.”

A shudder ran up Spider-Man’s spine. “Ugh. I can feel it inside me. It’s like he’s invaded every cell in my body.”

“I HAVE,” Venom stated proudly. “BUT YOU LIKE THE FEELING. I MAKE US STRONGER.”

Tendrils of inky black goo began to bubble up from his costume and spread over his skin, starting from his chest and then fanning outwards. The slimy creature slithered between the fabric of his suit and his flesh, inflicting Peter with a sensation he had not anticipated. He bit his tongue at first, thinking he could withstand it without causing a scene, only to jolt when Venom reached his belly. Goosebumps flared across his arms and up his neck.

“THE OTHER SPIDERS RELISHED IN OUR POWER TOO. BUT I WILL NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES THEY DID. I HAVE ALREADY FOUND MY PERFECT HOST, SO DON’T GET ANY IDEAS ABOUT—” The alien went silent momentarily, interrupted by an unexpected onslaught of odd thoughts and muffled sounds coming from the boy he was bonded to. “HOLD ON. WHAT IS FUNNY? WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?”

Eddie lifted his gaze to Spider-Man, surprised to see him cupping a hand over his mouth with his eyes squeezed shut. Even with half his face covered up, he could tell he was smiling.

“Ihi’m not,” he squeaked unconvincingly through his fingers, his shoulders bobbing up and down.

“YES YOU ARE. YOU CAN’T LIE TO ME.” The alien continued to traipse across his skin almost unconsciously, inching dangerously close to his sides and neck. “YOU BETTER NOT BE LAUGHING AT ME. I CAN EAT THE LUNGS RIGHT OUT OF YOUR CHEST IN ONE CHOMP.”

Peter shook his head briskly. “I’m nohot! I swehear! It’s just—you’re just—ahagh!” Tendrils of alien goop curled underneath his ribcage, brushing him like ice cold fingers and making him cringe. “Quihit crawling on me!”

Venom’s miniaturized head suddenly bloomed out of Spider-Man’s chest and sneered at him, causing the kid to recoil. “WHY? EDDIE DOESN’T MIND IT.”

Peter stared sideways shyly, avoiding both of their gazes, a tingly heat rising in his face. “Well I do! It feeheels—weird. And creepy!”

“THAT DOESN’T EXPLAIN WHY YOU’RE LAUGHING.”

Eddie watched the kid’s cheeks flush pink and bit back a chuckle, realizing what was going on. “Come on, V,” he called, trying to preserve the teen’s dwindling pride. “Kid’s all healed—no need to traumatize him any further.”

Venom’s snake-like appendages suddenly rushed up Peter’s neck and ears, making him squeal and curl into himself like a turtle. “Ahack! W-what are you doohooing?”

“MY MOVEMENTS ARE MAKING YOU LAUGH? BUT YOU CLAIM YOU DON’T LIKE THE FEELING. I DON’T UNDERSTAND.”

Spider-Man puffed out his rosy cheeks, cupping his hands around the nape of his neck. “Uhugh. It tihickles, okay? Your freaky lihittle gloop tentacles climbing all over my skin.” He pulled at the black sludge sticking to the underside of his chin. “So could you please gehet off me already?”

“TICKLES?” the alien repeated. “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?”

“Oh boy,” Eddie snickered. “I’m guessing that kind of thing doesn’t exist where you’re from.”

Venom shook his head, then looked to Peter expectantly. Peter blushed at his feet.

“Well, uh…it’s a bit...hard to explain.”

“IS THIS ‘TICKLES’?” he asked, wiggling tendrils of himself against Spider-Man’s sides. The superhero yelped and hugged himself around the middle, giggling shrilly.

“Ahaha! Yehes! Now cuhut it out!”

“WHY? DOES IT HURT YOU?”

Peter spluttered. “Wehell…n-no…”

“IF TICKLES DOESN’T HURT YOU AND MAKES YOU HAPPY, WHY DON’T YOU LIKE IT?” Venom shifted his physical form around Peter’s midsection as he spoke, eliciting bubbly, high-pitched laughter from the poor teenager. Eddie couldn’t help but smile at the humorous scene. After everything he’d been through, the young hero had looked so defeated both on TV and in person. It was nice to see him grinning and giggling for a change. For what was probably the first time in a long time, the boy appeared joyful and carefree. The way kids his age were supposed to.

“I’m nahat h-hahappy!” Spider-Man cackled. “Lahaughter is—invahaluntary!”

Venom let out a laugh of his own. “I LIKE TICKLES. THEY MAKE YOU MAKE FUNNY NOISES AND SQUIRM AROUND LIKE A LITTLE WORMY.”

The alien jumped from Peter back to Eddie and started moving across his original host’s body. “HOW COME EDDIE DOESN’T REACT THE SAME WAY?” he asked, sounding disappointed.

“Guess I’m just not as ticklish as Spider-Man,” Eddie said with a shrug, smiling at the poor teen as he struggled to catch his breath. Peter held his tummy as he stood up, panting and flushed and too cute for his own good. “It’s just the way humans are. For whatever reason, some of us are more ticklish than others.”

Peter huffed irritably. “Okay, yeah, but like—I’m not…not that ticklish.” He ran his hands over his ribcage. “It’s just—I mean, you’ve gotta be crazy for that not to bother you! It felt like hundreds of frozen spiders were crawling on me!”

Eddie rubbed at his chin. “Maybe you’re just really sensitive? ‘Cuz that’s definitely not how it feels on me. People do tend to be more ticklish as kids, after all.”

Spider-Man grumbled under his breath and crossed his arms, shifting his weight between his feet in a restless, flustered way. “Whatever. Um, thanks for healing me, I guess—”

“EDDIE IS NO FUN!” Venom interrupted him, reforming on his host's shoulder with a fiendish grin. “I WANT TO MESS WITH SPIDER-MAN SOME MORE!”

The kid stiffened, then reddened, backing away and shaking his head, nervous giggles already building behind his lips. “N-no, no—Eddie, dohon’t you dare let it—”

Before he could stop him, the alien launched itself off of Eddie and splattered across Peter’s chest. Spider-Man tried to pry it off, but the slimy creature slipped through his fingers and melted through his suit in the blink of an eye. Venom went right back to tickling Peter’s sensitive sides and tummy, this time with far more vigor, sending the poor teen into hysterics almost instantly.

“Noho—nohohahaha!” Spider-Man belted out, hugging his stomach and falling back against the wall. “Oh shihithaha!”

“WHAT’S THE MATTER? DOES SPIDER-MAN NOT LIKE THE FEELING OF LITTLE SPIDERS CRAWLING ON HIM?” The alien skittered across his skin as he taunted him, reviving Peter’s goosebumps with a vengeance.

“Ehaha—wait! Oho my gahad!” He sunk to the floor, giggling wildly, smiling the brightest smile in the world as he clawed at the symbiote inside his costume. “Gehet off meehee!”

“Venom…” Eddie said disapprovingly, chuckling into his hand. Perhaps if the world could see this side of the young superhero, he wouldn’t have an army of multidimensional enemies after his head. “Come on. Stop torturing the poor kid.”

“TICKLES ARE TORTURE?” Venom exclaimed. “BUT I THOUGHT IT DIDN’T HURT?”

Brock scratched at his facial hair in thought. “It’s...complicated. No, it doesn’t hurt him. But too much of it can make you go a bit crazy.” He nodded towards Peter’s beat-red face. “Can’t you read his thoughts right now? See what he’s feeling?”

Venom purred deeply. “HMM. IT IS A LOT. HE’S SOMEHOW HAPPY, FLUSTERED, LIVID, AND PANICKED ALL AT ONCE.” As he listened to the boy’s laughter echo off the walls of the tunnel, the alien grinned a wide, toothy grin. “I THINK I UNDERSTAND NOW. THIS IS A GOOD WAY FOR ME TO TAKE VENGEANCE ON THE LITTLE SPIDER-MAN WITHOUT HARMING HIM, DON’T YOU THINK?”

Eddie ran his fingers through his hair. “I mean, guess it’s better than, you know…ripping the kid in half...”

“Gehet outta my hehehead!” Peter giggled, palming his face with one hand and hugging himself around the middle with the other. He kicked his legs like a cockroach caught on its back as he rolled onto his side, bouncing with belly laughs.

“HE ALSO KEEPS THINKING ‘DON’T GO TO MY FEET’ AND ‘DON’T GO TO MY ARMPITS,’” Venom observed aloud, making the teen cringe. “ARE THOSE TICKLISH SPOTS ON HUMANS?”

“Noho! They’re nohot!”

The symbiote bared its teeth in delight, vanishing into his costume. “YOU’RE A TERRIBLE LIAR,” he jeered. His goopy body darted in four different directions across Peter’s lanky frame: two crawling up his sides toward his underarms, and two creeping down his legs to his feet. No matter how he squirmed or bunched himself up, Spider-Man couldn’t slow the symbiote down.

“Ahagh! Dohon’t—noho—shit!” Peter gazed up at Eddie as the black alien coated more and more of his body, blushing and teary-eyed. “Please hehelp! Mahake him stahahap!”

Brock pressed a hand to his lips, struggling to hold back laughter of his own. This whole situation was just so silly and bizarre. And the boy’s bubbly giggling was downright contagious. “Sorry, sorry—working on it.” He cleared his throat and pointed a stern finger in the symbiote’s general direction. “Enough, big guy. Time to leave the ticklish spider be.”

“DON’T WORRY, I WILL,” Venom assured him innocently. “RIGHT AFTER I DO THIS.”

Tiny tendrils of alien goo dug into both of Spider-Man's armpits at once, followed immediately by his feet. The frigid, finger-like appendages scribbled under his arms, against his soles, and between his toes, drawing a shriek from Peter’s throat. The kid collapsed into a heap of uncontrollable laughter, throwing his head back and scrunching up his feet and pounding his fist into the concrete until it cracked.

“NOHO NAHAHAT THAHAT!” he bellowed. He shoved both hands into his pits and arched his spine as giggles poured from his lips like a tsunami. No matter how desperately he tried to guard himself, the alien continued to tickle him freely and mercilessly. It felt like millions of evil worms were wiggling against Peter’s most ticklish spots all at once. And he was helpless to stop it.

“THIS IS WHAT SPIDER-MAN GETS FOR HURTING US,” he hissed with glee, relishing in the sound of the young hero’s frantic laughter and the taste of panic in his blood. “YOUR FATE COULD’VE BEEN FAR MORE HORRIFYING, HAD YOU NOT WOUND UP BEING SO DUMD AND ADORABLE, SO BE GRATEFUL.”

“IHI’M NAHAHAT!” Spider-Man howled. He shook his head from side to side and floundered uselessly across the floor. “GAHA—NOHOMOHOHORE! STAHAP IT YOU—Y-YOUHOU—PAHARASITE!”

The maddening tickling ceased suddenly, allowing Peter to gulp down an unexpected breath of relief. Meanwhile, Eddie dropped his face into his hands in dismay.

“Shit, kid. You’ve really done it now.”

“W-whahat?” Spider-Man stammered dazedly. As he sat upright, Venom leapt from his body back to Eddie’s. This time, however, the alien enlarged itself as it spread across its host’s skin, crafting massive muscles and demonic claws. Venom enveloped the man entirely and mutated into his original form—the gigantic hell monster with foot-long teeth and eyes like death who had tried to rip out Peter’s organs. The kid cowered in horror.

“PARASITE?” Venom roared, stomping forward and pinning Spider-Man to the ground. “I’LL SHOW YOU PARASITE!”

Eddie battled from within the symbiote to stop the attack, but it was too late. “Don’t—Venom, wait—!”

But instead of a bloodcurdling scream slicing through the air, a different sound erupted from the super powered teen.

“PfftttEEAHAHAHAHA!”

Hesitantly, Eddie opened one eye. Rather than gouging out Spider-Man’s liver, Venom was using his gargantuan claws to rake up and down Peter’s sides and knead at his midsection. Not hard enough to wound him, but more than enough to tickle the poor kid out of his mind. Spider-Man bucked and thrashed and grappled wildly with the beast’s meaty hands, but he couldn’t garner enough strength to break free of his iron grip, leaving him with no other option except to lay there, flailing pathetically as he laughed harder than he ever had in his life.

“HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, TINY SPIDER? WANT TO CALL ME A PARASITE NOW?”

“EEEHAHAHAAA!” he squealed. The tickling was too unbearable for his mind to comprehend or his lungs to bear another second. Venom’s claws switched between scribbling all over his torso and drilling into his hip bones and rib cage, driving Spider-Man absolutely insane. The kid’s piercing, boisterous laughter started being punctured by violent hiccups, which was just as cute as it was pitiful.

“Now this is just cruel,” Eddie snorted. Even though he enjoyed hearing the teen laugh and seeing him smile from ear to ear, he could tell he was rapidly approaching his breaking point. Only Venom could turn something as playful and innocent as tickling into a torture weapon of this scale.

“MERHERCYHY!” Peter begged. His laughter went quiet for a few seconds, interrupted every now and then by bouts of squeaky hiccups, tears gathering in the corners of his eyes as silent giggles racked his tiny frame. It took all of his remaining energy to punch the next three words out of his chest—a last-ditch effort to liberate himself from this tickling nightmare.

“IHI’M—GOHONNA—DIHIHIEHEEHEE!”

A moment later, Venom’s giant claws lifted off of his belly, and Peter thought he might faint from relief. He rolled toward the wall with his arms glued to his sides and his knees tucked against his chest, gasping for air and giggling breathlessly.

“TICKLES CAN KILL PEOPLE? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THAT?”

“It’s a figure of speech,” Eddie explained. “But the kid clearly needs a break. His face is practically the same color as his costume.”

Venom stared down at the wheezing superhero and felt an odd sense of endearment rise inside him. It was the same feeling he felt towards those chickens Eddie had gotten for him to eat. They were simply too adorable to kill.

“Eheh…uhugh…” Peter giggled weakly, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Oho god…my sihides…”

“I LIKE THIS SPIDER,” Venom decided, leaning down to ruffle the teen’s hair a tad too aggressively. “CAN WE KEEP HIM?”

The giant black suit shrunk back into its host’s body, leaving Eddie standing over the very winded hero. “No, we cannot keep him. But we can help him defeat these costumed freaks who’ve been roughing him up.”

Slowly, Spider-Man raised his head, still dizzy and out of breath, but gradually beginning to recover. “W-what?” he panted, pushing himself off the ground and into a sitting position. “You’re...gohonna help me?”

“If you want us to, yeah,” Eddie replied. “It’s the least we can do after all the nonsense we just put you through. You seem like a good kid, and our speciality is helping out good people.”

“AND EATING THE BAD ONES,” Venom added.

“No,” Eddie retorted, then grimaced. “Well, not most of the time, anyway. Special circumstances only.”

Peter chuckled hoarsely, gripping his achy diaphragm. “I could use the help,” he admitted, “as long as you promise to never pull anything like that ever again. I’d much rather be beaten to a pulp than tickled to death by a giant space monster.”

Venom sprouted from Eddie’s shoulder and grinned menacingly. “WHATEVER YOU SAY, LITTLE SPIDER.”

The boy released a long breath, giggly butterflies still dancing in his belly. If this was what it took to overcome the insane predicament he’d gotten himself into, he supposed it might be worth it.

EXCEPT FOR SPECIAL CIRCUMSTANCES, the symbiote whispered inside his host’s head. RIGHT, EDDIE?

Eddie chuckled quietly. “Sure, V,” he whispered back. “Special circumstances only.”

“Huh?” Peter said, blinking up at him. “What did you say?”

The man smiled at the young superhero warmly. Perhaps this was the reason they’d been brought to this universe—to lend a hand to a kid in need. To him it sounded like a pretty just cause for the Lethal Guardian to take on.

“Nothing, kid. Now put that mask back on. We got our work cut out for us.”

#spider-man #spiderman #venom #venom 2 spoilers #peter parker #ticklish!peter #ticklish!spiderman #spider-man: no way home #nwh #eddie brock #symbrock #Tickling #sfw tickling

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eternalmemes · 3 years ago

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𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔 ; season 3 sentence starters

❝ let’s consider the consequences before we take action. ❞ ❝ killing him would be too easy. it would make him a martyr. ❞ ❝ i always used to take your disappointment personally, but i’m finally beginning to understand that no one is beyond reproach. ❞ ❝ i can’t use my power to change things. ❞ ❝ none of this is how it was supposed to be. ❞ ❝ humans are quite capable of violence. ❞ ❝ no human i’ve known has the strength to inflict wounds of that nature. ❞ ❝ you will have no power, no privilege, and you must remove yourself and your possessions and never return here. ❞ ❝ i will make him pay. for all of it. for everything he took from us. ❞ ❝ if you think you’re offering them a place of safety, you’re sadly mistaken. ❞ ❝ at a time of crisis, we should all play to our strengths. ❞ ❝ you are asking me to disregard the history and the family that made me who i am. ❞ ❝ grief never really goes away. it gets quieter, slower, & sometimes it comes rushing back. ❞ ❝ i told you never to come back here. ❞ ❝ i’ll leave when i get what i came for. ❞ ❝ i owe you nothing. you can’t control me anymore. ❞ ❝ i’m so glad you’re here, we have an awful lot to catch up on. ❞ ❝ you have no idea what your kind is capable of. ❞ ❝ believe me, i know what humans are capable of. ❞ ❝ the only reliable thing in the world is change. ❞ ❝ you aren’t going to kill him, are you ? ❞ ❝ we need to find him and help him. ❞ ❝ i can end that suffering and bring him peace. ❞ ❝ this is a war we cannot win. ❞ ❝ you’ve come to kill me, i understand. ❞ ❝ when i realized i couldn’t control myself, i didn’t want to live anymore. ❞ ❝ i’ve done so many things in my life that i regret. ❞ ❝ i thought you were dead. ❞ ❝ i don’t want to be without you. ❞ ❝ it’s not your fault, he took that control away from you. ❞ ❝ i am used to a slightly warmer welcome when i come home. ❞ ❝ we’re all just wondering when the bodies will start turning up. ❞ ❝ if we lose, any chance we had to live in peace will be gone. ❞ ❝ i’m trusting you to have the courage to do what needs to be done. ❞ ❝ i can’t stop seeing the faces of the people i’ve killed. ❞ ❝ you can’t avoid me forever. ❞ ❝ perhaps i like it better when i’m the one doing the destroying. ❞ ❝ i hear you don’t kill people anymore. ❞ ❝ it’s all about making sure that we live in fear. ❞ ❝ i pretended to be lost, she gave me directions —and then i killed her. ❞ ❝ i see what i did and i can’t change it, and i’m truly sorry for that. ❞ ❝ surely the last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourselves. ❞ ❝ i’ve come too far to give up now. ❞ ❝ it’s time you got on with your own life. ❞ ❝ this is more complicated than we thought. ❞ ❝ i’m assuming this isn’t a social visit. ❞ ❝ it must be so exhausting being you, can’t you just enjoy yourself for once ? ❞ ❝ it’s been a long time since i’ve done something useful with my hands. ❞ ❝ we’ve been looking in the wrong place this entire time. ❞ ❝ it would cost you a piece of your soul. ❞ ❝ i heard you’d been skulking around the city, behaving as if your name still means something. ❞ ❝ you’re the one who can put a stop to it once and for all. ❞ ❝ you got what you came for, you don’t have to pretend anymore. ❞ ❝ any threat to the existing order must be extinguished. ❞ ❝ we need to stand together now, more than ever. ❞ ❝ this will be seen as an act of war. ❞ ❝ you’re about to find out who your true friends are. ❞ ❝ you and i are going to do lots of important work together. ❞ ❝ you’ve been pacing the halls all night long. ❞ ❝ what the hell’s going on in here ? ❞ ❝ old worlds will die and new will be born. ❞ ❝ your problems are my problems. ❞ ❝ for now… tomorrow’s troubles can wait. ❞ ❝ we’ll attract a lot of attention. are you ready for this ? ❞ ❝ you’re the one who told me to walk away. ❞ ❝ come on, let’s finish what we started. ❞ ❝ never let it be said i didn’t capitalize on opportunities as they presented themselves. ❞ ❝ you played your part well. i couldn’t have done it without you. ❞ ❝ you didn’t concoct this pathetic charade just to get me here. ❞ ❝ this has everything to do with your addiction to cruelty and obscenity. ❞ ❝ all this time you’ve been living a lie - a narrative you’ve invented for yourself. ❞ ❝ i am exactly what you made me. ❞ ❝ you didn’t have the courage to kill me outright, instead you destroyed me. ❞ ❝ i wanted you to be cursed for your betrayal of my family. ❞ ❝ what have you done, you conceited little fool ? ❞ ❝ i know you don’t trust me, i’ve given you little reason to do so. ❞ ❝ i know, i barely recognize myself. ❞ ❝ i never want that kind of power again. ❞ ❝ i thought you might want to say goodbye. ❞ ❝ he has always hidden in the heart of atrocity. ❞ ❝ god cannot save you. no one can. ❞ ❝ your family is in chaos, your secrets exposed. ❞ ❝ whatever crimes my family has committed are nothing compared to yours. ❞ ❝ this is my battle. ❞ ❝ we could have been the greatest allies, you and i. ❞ ❝ power without conscience is a savage weapon. ❞ ❝ when you go to bed, don’t leave bread or milk on the table —it attracts the dead. ❞ ❝ change is needed, and it is our history that should define our future. ❞ ❝ i’ve been practicing what you taught me. i feel in control. ❞ ❝ we’ve all been guilty of acting in our own best interests. ❞ ❝ your day of judgment is coming. ❞

#sentence prompts #memes #rp memes #indie rp #adow meme #original.

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 3 years ago

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hi yes im still alive

DON’T MIND ME, I’M JUST--

HAVING A MOMENT TO PROCESS ALL THE LORE AND STORY CHAPTER 6 JUST DROPPED ON US, I CAN BARELY WRITE

AHHHHHHH, I HAVE SO MANY THOUGHTS 😭 kjdbbaufbiafafvoaybo LEMME PUT ON MY THINKING CAP AND THROW SOME STUFF OUT ASDYUBUASDLI;AGVUOQIB;VI You’ll understand why I used Leona’s face here even though it’s Idia and Ortho’s chapter after you read my thoughts--

***Chapter 6 (and other main story) spoilers below the cut!***

Okay, just to keep it simple, I’ll try to keep things in chronological order!

First is a bullet point list of my thoughts on chapter 6 so far, then all my questions and theories (mostly a biggish theory on Ace) are at the end of the post.

Expectation: Idia cowering in his room, Vil and Rook busting down his door using Epel as a battering ram, dead Ortho theory confirmed

Reality: SWAT TEAM RAID ON NRC, DORM LEADERS (sans Kalim) AND JAMIL GET KIDNAPPED

Admittedly, I’m disappointed to see that the injury Grim inflicted to MC was basically just a cat scratch and nothing more. I thought it would be a lot more impactful if MC had to deal with juggling the realization that Grim has betrayed their friendship and trust while also on the verge of death (or at least while being severely injured)... And given how MC reacted to the attack at the end of chapter 5, I would think whatever struck them was much more substantial than just a cat scratch. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say either the script got scrubbed by Disney, or the intent was that MC was still woozy from VDC / OB Vil, MC felt so betrayed that it shook them emotionally, or that MC was just that weak by default that they can’t defend themselves against cat claws.

Hey, Ramshackle’s finally getting renovated! Proceeds to immediately get destroyed again--

I feel like????????? They tried to retroactively explain why Neige won to try and mitigate the uproar over how VDC ended. There’s some dialogue between the VDC group about how they didn’t perform at their peak because of having just walked out of dealing with OB Vil, and how Neige’s fans were going to vote for him anyway because they resonated with his background. Honestly, I think they should have moved on from that sore spot instead of bringing it up again, even if how chapter 5 ended didn’t personally bother me.

BOOM, HERE COME THE TWST TERMINATORS--

NOT GONNA LIE, THOSE STYX GUYS LOOK HOT SO COOL

AAAAAAND IT’S KIDNAPPING MONTAGE TIME, KIDS

JOABSFHUPAUABDBADB CALM DOWN, RIDDLE??????? YOU’RE GOING TO COMMIT ARSON IN BROAD DAYLIGHT--

Okay, I know this chapter’s focused on Ignihyde and Grim, but the standout part to me (so far) has been the scene where Leona’s being kidnapped. Historically, Leona has not been a character that I like (excluding that one time I had to pretend to like him for a game). I feel like he’s one massive missed opportunity (he didn’t show up much in chapter 2, he’s pretty similar backstory-wise to his Disney counterpart compared to the other Dorm Leaders, he didn’t seem to learn anything or become a better person even a LITTLE after chapter 2, etc.). I’m not a fan of his lazy and arrogant attitude either (even if it is justified by his backstory). But here? THIS IS THE LEONA I ACTUALLY LIKE AND WANT TO SEE MORE OF.

LIKE????? I CAN’T DESCRIBE TO YOU HOW MUCH I LIKE THIS SCENE???? Yeah, we have Leona fighting STYX at first, but as soon as he realizes who they are, he wises up and surrenders because he knows better than to resist arrest. AND NOT ONLY THAT, but he uses King’s Roar in a smart way--to turn the falling greenhouse glass panes into sand so they don’t hurt anyone nearby (namely him and Ruggie).

And after he turns himself in????? LEONA TELLS RUGGIE TO TAKE CARE OF SAVANACLAW FOR HIM!!! THIS is what a real leader would do. He looks after himself and his people, but he knows when to surrender, AND he leaves his “kingdom” (the dorm) in good hands while he’s away. THIS is the Leona I want to see.

AJBDUASHPFBUABFIABIYFBIPFAAFIAF I ALSO REALLY LIKE HIS SASS WHEN HE JUST THROWS HIS HANDS UP AND ASDBIASBIABAIODDAYOFAIPPADAIDB SAYS “I’ll go with you, but be careful while escorting me, okay? Despite my looks, I'm a precious prince. I’ll get sick/dizzy if you drive recklessly.” SARCASTIC SASSY SMARTASS??????? IF YOU HAD MORE LINES LIKE THIS, I’D LIKE YOU MORE

I love how Azul’s still talking about capitalism/how he can profit from Idia (apparently the Shrouds are like the TWST equivalent of Google??????) as he’s being escorted away by the agents?????? IF I WERE HIM, I’D BE PISSED OFF THAT THEY INTERRUPTED MY BOARD GAME????? At least let the man finish first--

Damn, everyone’s being tasered???????? And apparently all the STYX agents are equipped with anti-magic plates? I guess Bind the Heart can just eat shit then--

Lilia’s ringtone is cute, period.

CROWLEY CALLED STYX TO CAPTURE GRIM???? GRIM IS OFFICIALLY A SCP THAT NEEDS TO BE CONTAINED????

WAIT WHAT CROWLEY’S BEING KIDNAPPED TOO??????? Oh well, the school is probably safer in Trein’s hands anyway--

askhlbfbilhidbabbidasb RIDDLE WAKES UP POST KIDNAPPING AND HE’S USING LEONA AS A LAP PILLOW?????!

How does it feel to be held in a room against your will, Jamil? Yeah, don’t like a taste of your own medicine, do you?

OH HI IDIA, NICE YZMA MAD SCIENTIST GETUP YOU GOT THERE

Wait, what????? THAT’S IT?????? SERIOUSLY???????

MAN.

I have so many questions??????? Specifically about STYX and what they do, and how the Shrouds are tied into all of it.

So they say STYX is a specialized unit called in to quell serious Overblot cases. And if Crowley called them to deal with Grim... well, bad times ahead for Grim. STYX has also been studying Overblot for a long time, which is why (I think?) they captured Riddle, Leona, Azul, Jamil, and Vil.

There’s been some allusions made between Grim and Stitch in a lot of fan art and fan theories I’ve seen, since their struggles have some parallels: that being them struggling to decide if they are “good” or “bad”. I don’t know if this was intentional on the part of the TWST writing team, but regardless, it’s a really good concept that plays into the themes of TWST itself. There’s no good, there’s no evil, no black and white--most of the characters we see may be BASED on villains, but that doesn’t MAKE them villains. They are good, and bad, in their own ways--and now Grim is dealing with that crisis as he fights to keep his sanity and avoid completely succumbing to Overblot.

Though Idia seems to be involved with STYX’s research, it doesn’t sound like he personally gave the order to retrieve those test subjects (or at the very least, he’s not happy about roughing up the test subjects), it sounds like the orders came from other people in the organization. His parents, perhaps?

They mention briefly that Idia’s parents are asking him to “come home”, so it must be for something urgent. Are they worried about his safety? But Idia’s lines at the end of chapter 5 lead me to think he is estranged from his family, since he straight up rejected a job offer linked to them (Olympus Corp is owned by the Jupiter family, and the Shrouds are a branch family of Jupier), and says something like “I’m not welcome anywhere”. Has Idia done something to disgrace him from the rest of the family? Or is it more of a self imposed/self inflicted statement, given that he always says he’s “cursed” and acts like he’s guilty of something that deserves scorn?

Why is Idia participating in STYX research, even if it means experimenting on his fellow students (and fellow board game enthusiast Azul)? People are speculating that he wants to use blots to fully revive Ortho (if dead Ortho theory is true), or that Idia actually has heroic intentions (he wants to know more about blots to prevent OBing from happening?), but at this point??? Literally anything could happen?!

In future parts, I’m guessing Pomefiore, MC, and Adeuce will team up to break Jamil and the Dorm Leaders (except Malleus, Malleus got left out again www) out? And HOPEFULLY we get to see Rook’s Unique Magic or at least more screen time, since I feel like he got so little in chapter 5... Another thing I’d like to see is Ace and/or Epel getting their Unique Magic, or at least starting to develop it. It’s really mostly Ace I want more details for.

A theory I’ve been holding onto for a long time is that Deuce getting his UM will spur Ace on to become jealous (since he has always seen Deuce as an idiot/”lesser” than him), and that will cause a rift in the friendship, or for Ace to throw himself into a dangerous situation to prove himself (he has done it before with Riddle)... and has his ass rescued again. This would make Ace even angrier, since he feels like everyone is treating him like a little kid or rubbing it in that he isn’t “as good” as they are. I don’t know where it would go from there (I’m sure TWST would get creative), but ultimately it would culminate in Ace making amends with everyone and rushing in to save them from either Grim or Idia OB.

I don’t think Ace would discover his UM in a similar manner as Deuce (Deuce had to embrace his own stubbornness and straightforwardness, but as the term “Unique” Magic implies, the way a magic develops and manifests is “unique” to the user). While Deuce has to learn to accept his own way of thinking, I believe Ace is already sure of his own way of thinking and has totally accepted it. I think what Ace has to deal with instead is coming to terms with his fickleness. We’ve seen him time and time again treating his loved ones kind of callously, from constantly bullying MC, Grim, and Deuce to ghosting his own girlfriend and flaking on people when they are counting on him to do a task.

The issue with Ace isn’t that he isn’t aware, it’s that he is aware and he seems to think this behavior is totally okay. He demonstrates little to no remorse in what he does and says, and he doesn’t seem to care about the consequences either (how many times does he get punished by Riddle, yet he keeps doing the same dumb things over and over?). Ace appears to operate under the mindset of always being in the right, or (if he’s in the wrong), he won’t really acknowledge it, or he will wave it off as “no big deal”--and I think that’s his greatest weakness.

In the scenario I described earlier, I mentioned that Ace’s jealousy will cause a wedge between him and his friends, and I think this will play into him realizing the error of his ways. When he has finally driven away all of the people that supported him, what will he have left? Nothing. Then maybe Ace suddenly finds himself relating to Idia, or to Grim, who have Overblotted and are in a similar emotional state as he is. Confused and lonely... and that energizes him to pitch in again, even if all he has is wind magic up his sleeve. Everyone could be shocked that Ace has returned, and in that moment, he could finally realize his true potential and unlock his Unique Magic!

(Maybe that’s too specific, but that’s a scenario that I’ve had playing in my head for a long time!)

... Buuuuut given that Ace has gotten little to no spotlight so far in chapter 6, I’m not sure if they’ll lean into him developing his UM yet (unless they pull a chapter 5 and really start addressing Ace in the latter half of the chapter like they did with Deuce). Seeing as chapter 6 is dealing with a lot of heavy topics (death, Grim lore, Overblot lore), I’m thinking maybe the TWST team will push off Ace’s UM development to chapter 7???? The only way I can see it happening in chapter 6 is if the chapter is SUPER long, or if the writing is REALLY good or really bad.

Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed!!! I’m so excited for the rest of chapter 6... I hope that we don’t have to wait too long for it!

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