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lord-squiggletits · 1 month

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I think the key component to my personal reading of post-Delphi Pharma is that he's trying to be a horrible person on purpose. Not "on purpose" in the way that people have free will to exercise their own choices, but in that Pharma's "mad doctor" persona is a performance he puts on to deliberately embrace how much everyone else hates him. Basically, if people already think you're a "bad Autobot" and a horrible doctor who just kills his patients for fun, why try to prove otherwise to people who have already made up their minds about you? Just fully embrace the fact that people see you as an asshole. Don't try to change their minds. Don't plead for their forgiveness or understanding. Just stop caring. If you're going to be remembered as a monster, you might as well be a memorable monster, and eke as much pleasure and hedonism as you can out of it before karma catches up to you and you inevitably crash and burn.

I mean, I guess you could just go the route of "Oh, Pharma was always a fucked up creepy guy and Delphi was just him taking the mask off," but I really don't like that interpretation because, for one, it feels really wrong to take a character like Pharma becoming evil under duress and going, "Oh well clearly he did the things he did because he was evil all along," as if somehow Pharma breaking under blackmail/torture/threat of horrible death was a sign of him having poor moral character. As opposed to, you know, suffering under the very real threat of horrible death for himself and everyone he cares about while being manipulated by a guy who specializes in psychological torture.

The second reason is that it just doesn't make sense to write Pharma as having been evil all along. I mean...

Occam's Razor says that the best argument is the one with the simplest explanation. Doesn't it make way more sense to take Pharma's appearances in flashbacks, his friendship with Ratchet, his stunning medical accomplishments, and the few we see of him speaking kindly/sympathetically (or in the least charitable interpretation, at least professionally) towards his patients and conclude "This guy was just a normal person, if exceptionally talented." Taking all of these flashback appearances at face value and assuming Pharma was being genuine/honest is a way simpler and more logical explanation than trying to argue that Pharma for the past 4 million years was just faking being a good doctor/person. I mean, it's possible within the realm of headcanon, but the fact is Pharma's appearances in the story are so brief that there simply wasn't room in the story for there to be some sort of secret conspiracy/hidden manipulation behind why Pharma acted the way he did in the past.

I just can't help but look at things like Pharma's friendship with Ratchet (himself a good person and usually a fine judge of character) and the fact that even post-Delphi, pretty much every single mention of Pharma comes with some mention of "He was a good doctor for most of his life" or "He was making major headways in research [before he started killing patients]" which implies that even the Autobots themselves see Pharma's villainy as a recent turn in his life compared to how for "most of his life" he "used to be" a good doctor.

And although Pharma doesn't know this, we as the readers (and even other characters like Rung) know about Aequitas technology and the fact that it actually works, so... if Pharma really was an unrepentant murderer, why couldn't he get through the forcefield too? The Aequitas forcefield doesn't require that a person be completely morally pure and free of wrongdoing or else how could Tyrest get through, just that they feel a sense of inner peace and lack feelings of guilt. Pharma has murdered and tortured people by this point, and put on quite a campy and theatrical show of how much he sees it as a fun game, so why then can he not get through?

It circles back to my headcanon at the start of this post that the "mad doctor" persona is just that-- a persona. Delphi/post-Delphi Pharma's laughing madman personality is just so far removed from every flashback we saw of him and everything we can infer based on how other people see/saw him before that, to me, the mad doctor act is (at least in large part, if not fully) a persona that Pharma puts on to put his villainy in the forefront.

To avoid an overly simplistic/ableist take, I don't think Tarn tortured Pharma into turning crazy. To me, it's more like the constant pressure of death by horrific torture, the feeling of martyrdom as Pharma kept secret that he was the only one standing between Delphi and annihilation, the physical isolation of Messatine as well as the emotional separation from Ratchet, being forced to violate his medical oaths (pretty much the only thing Pharma's entire life has been about), etc. All of that combined traumatized Pharma to the point that the only way he could avoid cracking was to just stop caring about all of it. Because at least then, even if he's still murdering patients to save Delphi from a group of sadistic freaks, Pharma doesn't have to feel guilty and sick about doing it. As opposed to the alternatives, which were probably either going off the deep end and killing himself to escape, or confessing to what he did and getting jailed for it.

In that light, Pharma becoming a mad doctor makes sense. It avoids the bad writing tropes of "oh this character who was good his entire life was actually just evil and really good at hiding it" as well as "oh he got tortured and went crazy that's why he's so random and silly and killing people, he's crazy" and instead frames Pharma's evil as something he was forced into, to the point where in order to avoid a full psychological breakdown and keep defending Delphi, he just had to stop caring about the sanctity of life or about what other people might think of him.

Then, of course, the actual Delphi episode happens, and Pharma's own lifelong best friend Ratchet basically spits in his face and sees him as nothing more than a crazy murderer who went rogue from being a good Autobot. Then Pharma gets his hands cut off and left to die on Messatine. At that point, Pharma has not only been mentally/emotionally broken into losing his feelings of compassion, he's received the message loud and clear: He is alone. Everyone hates him. Not even his own best friend likes him any more. No one even cared enough about him to check if he actually died or not. He will only ever be remembered as a doctor who went insane and killed his patients.

So in the light of 1. Having all of your redeeming qualities be squeezed out of you one by one for the sake of survival and 2. Having your reputation and all of your positive relationships be destroyed and 3. People only know/care about you as "that doctor who became evil and killed his patients" rather than the millions of years of good service that came before.

What else is there to do but internalize the fact that you'll forever be seen as a monster and a freak, and embrace it? People already see you as a murderer for that blackmail deal you did, so why not become an actual murderer and just start killing people on a whim? People already see you as an irredeemable monster who puts a stain on the Autobot name, so why beg for their forgiveness when you could just shun them back? You've already become a murderer, a traitor, and a horrible doctor, so what's a few more evil acts added to the pile? It's not like anyone will ever forgive you or love you ever again.

Why care? Why try to hold on to your principles of compassion, kindness, medical ethics, when an entire lifetime of being a good person did nothing to save you from blackmail and then abandonment? Why put yourself through the emotional agony of feeling lonely, guilty, miserable, when you could just... stop caring, and not hurt any more?

#squiggposting #pharma apologism #i'm sure the doylist reason for the writing is just that pharma was a designated villain #so since he's a villain and 'crazy' it's fine for everyone even the good guys to treat him like complete trash #i just think from a watsonian perspective taking a sympathetic approach is way more interesting and logically consistent #what i mean is like. from a meta perspective one of the best ways to show that a character is super evil and not worth saving #is when even the good guy heroes. the ones who are supposed to be kind and compassionate and wise. see him as dirt #and this is also kind of a necessity in most plots bc TF is the kind of series that just needs action villains and long-term antagonists #so not every villain is written or has a plot to be made redeemable. and pharma is one of these bc he's not important or a legacy character #so from a doylist (meta) perspective you could read the autobots' disregard of pharma as a sign of #'this guy is not meant to have your sympathy as a reader. pay no attention to him'#but from a watsonian (in universe) perspective it paints a miserable picture of pharma being utterly forsaken by the ppl he served alongsid #and like yeah i'm super autistic about pharma so of course i view him with sympathy but like #the idea of being a loyal and good person for years only to be subjected to a Torment Nexus of #being blackmailed into breaking all of the oaths you held sacred. under threat of you and all your comrades dying horrible torturous deaths #then when your comrades find out about it they focus solely on the 'harvesting organs' and not on the 'blackmail' part #and then you get literally left for dead by your comrades and best friend hating your guts #and then you get rescued by a guy who uses you as a test subject for his evil machine #this is a fucking nightmare scenario like pharma could hardly be suffering more if the author TRIED to make him suffer #and for me it's like. the evil pharma did can't be decontextualized to what drove him to that. as well as the question of like #how easily ppl can write someone off as evil and turn a blind eye to (or even find satisfaction in) their suffering bc theyre evil #and either brought it on themselves or it's just karma paying a visit #like. i feel like if pharma WERE a shitty doctor and a terrible person his whole life then the delphi situation would feel like karma #but the way it's written and the lore retroactively put in makes it feel more pharma getting thrown in a torture carousel #and THEN becoming evil. but then being treated as if he was always evil or was some sort of bad apple #bc like i'm not opposed to LOLing when a villain gets a karmic torture/death related to the wrongs they committed #but in pharma's case it feels less like karma and more like endless torture + being abandoned by ppl who should have been more loyal

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soaked-ghost · 3 months

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sooooo I had the idea of nightmare being a merchant and I have a lot to say about it hihi (see tags)

(comic under cut cuz it was getting too long)

#okay so I thought about how would nightmare interact with the main cast of heros and I thought him selling stuff made the most sense!#idk but the silly merchant that has been selling u trash for the entire game actually being the big bad of the story is funny to me #and it also gives him something to do instead of staying in his castle. torturing people.... or whatever....#and it also ironic for his character because he keeps talking about being king but he literally sells trash lolz #He does sell food but he mainly sells very dangerous weapons to humans so they could do no mercy runs #and all he has to do is sit back and enjoy as the human is doing the job for him!#he also doesn't risk ending up like flowey who gets killed ever after helping the human. cuz he's a shopkeeper!#and humans can't harm shopkeepers!#also he does this in many different aus. and when the no mercy run is done in that timeline (or not) he moves on to the next #nightmare sans #sans au #frisk undertale #utmv #art #myart

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potato-jem · 7 months

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i know it's been said, but the one thing i need from the pjo show is poker face playing in the lotus casino. without it, it would be like remaking twilight without supermassive black hole playing over the baseball scene

#you just can't do it #it's impossible #if the torture of twilight was worth anything it was that one baseball scene #i know good cinema when i see it #what's going on in nero's mind?#percy jackson #percy jackson and the olympians #the heroes of olympus #pjo #the twilight saga

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save-the-villainous-cat · 7 months

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Request idea if you get the time.... Hero sneaking into a fancy ball at the vampires lair to try and find info on them, but gets caught when they try and sneak away (:< thanks!! Love your writing

“Leaving us so soon?”

The hero spun around, air stuck in their throat. Admittedly, they had a thing for danger. At first they hadn’t realised it. Their job was demanding physical and emotional endurance like no other but after a while, they saw beauty in the thrilling.

They couldn’t say anything. Their larynx didn’t allow it.

“It’s not even midnight, yet.” It was their first time dealing with a vampire, they realised. They had studied them for weeks, and yet seeing them in person made them uneasy.

As if they couldn’t comprehend who was standing in front of them.

“I’m sorry…” they answered and they didn’t know why exactly that came to mind.

“Oh, don’t be sorry, little dove. I’ve been watching you for a while now. These people aren’t exactly your type of people, are they?” The villain cocked their head with warm gentleness. “You should be more careful.”

A sweet warning. The vampire closed the heavy door behind them, silencing the music.

And the hall was long. The hero was sure they couldn’t outrun a vampire here on this slippery floor. Not in those shoes.

“I’m sorry, I…I’m not really familiar with these etiquettes.” The vampire smiled softly and the hero was quite sure they could see the ends of their fangs peak through their lips.

“It’s all just hypocritical pretentiousness. Don’t mind this.” The vampire took a step forward and the hero considered taking one back. But they didn’t. “I think we both know we’re not talking about high society, though.”

“Well, I was.” Again, the vampire smiled at the hero’s answer. They were very calm, very patient. The hero hadn’t read about that in any of their books.

“Cute little thing…Who are you, dear?”

“I have an invitation, actually.” The hero took out the little card, waving it in front of the vampire cheerfully. “So, you should know who I am.”

“Hm.” The vampire’s hand was around the hero’s wrist before they even realised it. The waving stopped and the hero’s breathing too. “An excellent copy. You’re getting more interesting by the second.”

“It’s not—”

“Oh, it is…” The vampire leaned in, voice lovingly low. “You’re smarter than this. Don’t think you’re the first human in my home.”

The hero tried to resist, tried to get away but the vampire’s grip was like steel.

“And don’t think I’ll let you go that easily, dove.” The tip of their nose touched the hero’s neck and for a terrible second, the hero got anxious. They didn’t know what they were feeling. This was a little more than “loving the danger.”

“I don’t want any trouble.”

“Liar,” the vampire whispered. They pulled away, hunger in their eyes and chuckled. “When you came here, you expected trouble. When you stayed here, you did too. But don’t worry. I can give you all the trouble you want.”

The hero wasn’t quite sure if they were excited or terrified.

#quick one sorry it’s not my best #what a tragic creature let me torture them #writing snippet #heroxvillain prompt #heroxvillain snippet #heroes and villains #hero #villain #hero x villain #heroxvillain #an answer for an ask #request #wait is this even heroxvillain ugh I dunno #vampire #human x vampire #humanxvampire

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whump-and-other-misfortunes · 3 months

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Whumpuary 2024 Day 14

14. (Jan 27-28) Flinching / Breakdown / Sleep Deprivation

cw past trauma, implied noncon/torture, hurt/comfort, aftermath of whump

“You’re slower than usual,” Hero teased when they pinned Villain to the wall. “Lost your edge after that little vacation you took?”

Villain was breathing heavily. Their hands grasped at Hero’s, which were fisted in the front of their suit, but Villain lacked their typical strength. “Wasn’t a vacation, you jerk,” they huffed. “And I’m doing my best here.”

Hero pulled one of their hands back, and their heart jumped when Villain flinched away from them; they’d never reacted like that before. The instinctual fear was clearly visible in their eyes.

“Whoa, hey,” Hero said softly. “I was just gonna—your mask is slipping.”

Villain looked down, frowning. “Sorry. I just...go ahead.”

Hero raised their hands slowly and adjusted Villain’s mask, noting the sharp intake of breath when Hero’s fingers grazed their cheek. As they put it back in place, Hero could see a dark bruise hiding under the mask. The slightest bit of purple spread up their cheekbone.

Villain was trembling when Hero stepped back.

“Are you okay?” Hero asked. Logically, they knew they should take advantage of Villain’s weakness and bring them in. But they just couldn’t bring themself to be that cruel.

“When I was gone this week,” Villain whispered, “I was...Supervillain took me hostage. I’ll spare you the details but...they did some shit to me I wouldn’t even do to my enemies.”

Hero felt their heart ache at the admission and the pained expression in Villain’s eyes when they looked back up. “I’m sorry, I—I had no idea.”

“Not your fault,” Villain said with a shrug. They tried to force a smile as well, but it didn’t quite work. “But it messed me up pretty good. I can’t sleep. I can’t move without remembering their hands on me.”

A sick feeling curled in Hero’s stomach as they imagined what the normally collected Villain must have been through to have them on the verge of tears at the memory. They slowly reached out, giving Villain enough time to stop them—but when they didn’t, Hero pulled them into an embrace. “It’s over,” they muttered into Villain’s hair. “You're safe now.”

Their words seemed to open the floodgates, and suddenly Villain broke down. Hero didn’t know what to do, so they just held their nemesis as they cried. The fact that they’d been in the middle of a fight passed through Hero’s mind, but it didn’t matter now. They were a hero—their job was to help people. Even if those people regularly made their life hell.

“I’m sorry,” Villain choked out. “This is pathetic. And I—I deserved it.”

“No one deserves to be hurt like that,” Hero said, rubbing their back in soothing circles.

Villain tried to steady their breathing as they looked up at Hero, eyes glistening with tears. “Thank you. Just—give me a minute, and we can get back to it.”

“What do you say we get a rain check,” Hero asked with a small smile, “and you let me buy you a coffee instead?”

Villain sniffled and rolled their eyes. “As long as you promise to reschedule. Because I was looking forward to kicking your ass.”

Hero laughed. “Okay, deal.”

Although the coffee may not have truly fixed anything, it was a welcomed comfort.

taglist: @morning-star-whump

#whumpuary2024 #whumpuaryno14 #flinching #breakdown #hero x villain #hero villain writing #hero caretaker #villain whumpee #implied torture #implied noncon #aftermath of whump #past trauma #hurt/comfort #whump #whump writing #whumpblr #snippet

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epiclamer · 25 days

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Part 1 somewhat sexual torture scene, anyone?

Sidekick didn’t even dare to breathe as the villain carelessly ghosted their knife point against their bare chest. Occasionally, letting the razor sharp tip of the blade scrape or scratch the surface of Sidekick’s skin.

Hero had taught Sidekick how to handle pain, how to breathe through it, how to control their bodily reactions. But no one had prepared them to have bodily pain waved in their face but hardly ever acted out.

It felt like some sort of psychological game of the villain’s. As if they were planning to reduce the sidekick to tears and a begging mess by only ever suggesting pain, without ever using it.

At this rate, the adrenaline pumping at full speed through the sidekick’s veins—exhausting them—worried them enough to wonder if Villain’s method would actually work. If eventually they would beg to have the villain just hurt them already and stop playing games.

Villain dragged their knife up until the point rested between the sidekick’s collarbones. “I think I’ll start here… Make a cut allllll the way down the center of your chest,” they cut a thin straight line as they spoke, from the sidekick’s sternum to just above their belly button.

It stung more than Sidekick would’ve liked to admit, it burned even if it wasn’t deep and droplets of blood pushed through faster than the skin could settle from the intrusion of the blade.

“Push the blade in nice and deep, leave your whole chest open for me to see…” They pierced a little deeper into the skin at the bottom of their previous cut, emphasizing their point enough for the sidekick to yelp. Villain smirked at the reaction, “what do they call those? When you open someone up in the chest?”

Sidekick felt bile rise into their throat and they stifled a gag. “A-A vivisection?”

The villain hummed, their smirk only growing as they brought the knife back up to circle the hero-in-training’s shoulders, watching intently as the blade broke skin occasionally and the sidekick flinched adorably so. “Exactly. What a smart little sidekick, hm? I see why Hero picked such a prodigy as yourself. Although, I might’ve picked you for a reason other than your brains.” They winked, squeezing the sidekick’s thigh with their freehand.

But Sidekick couldn’t focus, they could hardly hear anything over the rush of blood and fear that ran to their head the second they realized the villain wanted to cut them open on a hotel room bed; prop their ribcage up and squeeze all their organs, slowly and agonizingly killing them.

“Y-You don’t really mean that, right?”

Villain’s eyes and attention pulled from their knife, back to the trembling sidekick beneath them. “Why? Does that scare you, Sidekick? Is such a gorgeous specimen like yourself scared?”

They would’ve said no. They should’ve said no. Yet they could only manage a terrified squeak before shutting their mouth once more, desperately attempting to calm their racing breaths.

“Maybe I should invite Hero… I’m sure they’d love to watch helplessly as I carve you up. Maybe leave the both of you tied up for Hero to slowly watch you slip away right in front of their eyes.” The criminal grinned as they watched the sidekick writhe in their bonds, fighting harder and harder to break free from the villain’s entrapment. “Do you think they’d enjoy that? Watching their perfect, hot, innocent, sidekick beg for mercy; beg to die?”

“Please—”

“Hm?”

“Please, please, please—” Sidekick heaved an anguished breath, sucking in air desperately like many of the villain’s waterboarding victims had.

They pulled their knife back, resting it instead against the bed below the sidekick and pressing a strong hand to the center of the other’s chest. Pushing Sidekick back down slightly to ground them from any oncoming panic attacks, even if it meant smearing some of their blood onto the villain’s palm.

Villain rolled their eyes, realizing they might’ve gone a bit hard on the poor trainee. “Relax, Sidekick. I’m not going to kill you, or cut you open, or experiment on you, or do any of the terrible things I’m sure you’ve already thought up.”

Sidekick flinched, their whole body twitching against the pressure of the villain’s hand. “You… You’re not?”

The villain’s grin stretched as they shook their head. “No. I might’ve, if your charm and good looks didn’t intrigue me so much. But fortunately for you, I think I’d rather get to know you before I plunge a knife into your heart.”

A skip in the sidekick’s heartbeat told them it was okay to take another breath, somewhat out of relief now. They did their best to ignore the burning wound on their chest and instead play grateful for their life’s sake, but somewhere deep down they were actually looking forward to it.

“However, unfortunately for you,” Sidekick’s heart sank along with the villain’s previously friendly smile. “I noticed in your struggle you hit the handicap emergency help button, which conveniently alerts the front desk of an issue in this room—as I’m sure you’re already aware.”

Villain reached out again for their blade, plucking it off the bed while they shuffled their position to pin the sidekick down by their neck. “And as much as I know someone will be here to rescue you any minute now, you must understand that I won’t let you get away that easily.”

Before Sidekick could react they felt the villain’s knife pierce the skin just above their collarbone. They tried to shout, struggle, anything, but Villain was fast, precise and had an advantage against the struggling sidekick from above.

They carved, almost reaching the other’s jugular vein, but their knife work was educated enough to miss. And once they were done they moved their mouth to the wound, gently sucking the blood from their raw skin, before standing up and turning on their heel to make their escape through the window.

Villain hesitated before they jumped, looking back at the wreck of a sidekick they had left tied to the bed. “Tell Hero I said hi! Oh, and that I think you’re delightful~”

With that, the villain was gone, and the rhythmic drumming of knuckles against the room door sounded in perfect timing as the villain’s carved initial bled from its spot above the sidekick’s collarbone.

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nastiiuu · 9 months

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In safe hands

#totk #tears of the kingdom #tloz totk #zelda #link #my art #listen it may be funny to torture those little guys #but consider: holding them gently and link humming lullabies to them #especially since he is their hero

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tmmyhug · 5 months

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the loyal attack dog has been done. the stupid goons have been (over)done. give me the villain’s henchman who’s arguably more evil than the actual villain and so has to be kept on a leash like an overeager puppy lest they kill their 17th random civilian

#in my head are a bunch of emperor’s new groove style bits #the villain wakes up to blood on the front door. ugh did you kill ANOTHER mailman? we’ve gone through six already! where am i supposed to #put all these dead mailmen!#they capture the hero. henchman begs the villain to let them kill them. after much arguing (murder? NO MURDER. murder? NO MURDER. murder?)#the villain agrees to let them torture the hero. JUST torture. NO KILLING #IF YOU KILL THEM IM DOCKING YOUR PAY #does anyone see my vision #vees train of thought

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tserastour · 2 months

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The Eras Tour in Tokyo, Japan on February 7, 2024

#eras tour #midnights #swiftie #swifties #taylor swift #the eras tour #anti hero #anti-hero #bejeweled #lavender haze #ttpd #the tortured poets department #lover #lover era

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go-see-a-starwar · 2 months

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Coming April 19th. Featured tracks include “Coarse, Rough, Irritating, Everywhere”, “Haunted By The Kiss”, “Where The Fun Begins”, “My New Empire”, and (the famed Track 5) “Not Your Failure”

#releasing her album on Hayden’s birthday?#the padawan braids?#anti-hero??#Taylor is a total stanakin change my mind #Taylor swift #hayden christensen #anakin skywalker #the tortured poets department #ttpd #my graphics #silly

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reddamselette · 8 days

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valgrace as soulmates except they could never live at the same time so even tho they weren’t killing each other directly, their actions led to the other’s death (jason reluctantly letting leo sacrifice himself. leo coming back to life, jason’s death). and during the time that one of them was alive while the other wasn’t was spent in grief and mourning over what they could’ve done and what they could’ve been bc they didn’t confess to one another since they thought they had enough time (they didn’t)

#valgrace #jason grace #leo valdez #heroes of olympus #pjo #hoo #i tortured my bsf w this information and he deleted my msg from the gc #i love valgrace sm guys pls #percy jackon and the olympians

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chaotic-orphan · 3 months

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INTOXICATING FEAR — PART IX

Read part one here

Continued from here

TW: overall content warning, very uncomfortable, forced self-harm, self-harm, mentions of self-harm, explicit self harm, gory self harm, blood, cuts, knives, cutting, explicit detail of blood/wounds, gross depictions of blood, torture, threats of violence, hopelessness, sadistic whumper

This one is even a bit squidgy for me at parts so take care of the warnings and of yourselves! Enjoy!

*~*~*~*~*

“Wakey wakey, Hero,” Villain sang. That was their only warning before a slap echoed around the room and Hero’s eyes shot open in shock. Villain was crouching in front of Hero, red lips tilted up into a half smile as Hero jerked forward. They didn’t get very far though.

Hero’s arms were kept restrained awkwardly behind them, bound tightly wrist to wrist. Hero frowned at Villain in question.

“Where’s Superhero?” Hero asked, voice erring on cautious. If Villain had managed to subdue or god forbid kidnap Superhero and use them as their own little puppet toy play thing then there really was no hope for either of them.

“Oh don’t worry your pretty little head about Superhero, Hero. They had to nip out on an errand which gives us some much needed alone time,” Villain said, their voice too high and pleased with themselves as they spoke, but their eyes… Hero swallowed the lump in their throat at the pain they promised. “Ah, there you are. There’s my scared, timid little Hero. You forgot yourself before, it’s okay. You can admit it, it’s only the two of us here after all.”

“I didn’t forget myself,” Hero snarled, bearing their teeth at Villain and jerking forward in the chair as far as they were able to. “I am done playing by the rules of your sick twisted games.”

Villain tilted their head to the side, dark eyes drinking in Hero’s threat. “Did seeing Superhero make you brave, Hero?”

“They’re going to see right through you,” Hero sneered, “and when they do I’ll be there. Watching as they beat the—”

Villain jumped at Hero, one hand going to their throat while the other pressed a knife against Hero’s cheek. Villain wrenched Hero’s head up so they were staring directly into Villain’s eyes with that cute little defiant look. Villain revelled at how still Hero went once Villain introduced the knife to their face.

“You won’t be able to watch if I pluck out those pretty little eyes, Hero, would you?” Villain mused. Hero struggled to free their head from Villain’s grip but Villain tightened their hold and pressed the knife in deeper until Hero stopped. “Ah, ah, ah, Hero. Play nice or my hand might just slip.”

“Take my eyes!” Hero spat, their voice taking on a feral growl to it, as they struggled furiously at their restraints. “Take whatever the fuck you want because you will fuck up sooner or later and it’s only a matter of time until Superhero finds out who you really are! So go ahead!”

Hero craned their neck up further, pressing into the knife that Villain held. Daring.

Bold.

Villain pulled away, dropping all contact from Hero. Hero let out a scoff as they dropped their head and rolled their shoulders.

“Yeah, thought so.”

“You know, Hero,” Villain said with a sigh, pressing the tip of the knife against their index finger and twirling it thoughtfully. They turned their back to Hero, walking towards the front door.

“You’re right. I didn’t really think the whole sickness thing through, if Superhero comes back and you’re still as feverish as you were, well,” Villain said inclining their head, with a wan smile: “they’d probably recommend a hospital or a healer… both of which I have no need of.”

Hero remained silent, they just glared at Villain as they continued.

“So, while you were out of it I was trying to think of a way to get Superhero off our backs and I had a little lightbulb moment, Hero,” Villain said, and looked over their shoulder at Hero with a grin, “you wanna know what it was?”

“I’m sure you’ll tell me anyway.”

“You’re so un-fun, but I will,” said Villain, turning to face Hero now. “Sometimes stress manifests itself as illness, Hero.”

“Well I am sick of you, so that makes sense,” Hero grumbled and Villain laughed.

“And sometimes, it manifests as mental illness.”

Hero’s brows furrowed in question. Villain smiled. “Don’t you want to have a guess at what I mean by that?”

“Not particularly.”

Villain shrugged. “Good. So we can begin then.”

Hero tensed in the chair as Villain walked purposefully towards them, and then around the chair out of sight. Hero turned their head, but Villain pushed it back so Hero was forced to stare forward.

“Hey! Hey! What’re you—”

“Oh, not so brave now are we?” Villain asked, sarcasm dripping from every word.

When the cool metal pressed against Hero’s wrist they jerked forward, trying to get away but Villain said: “stay still,” and the sludge like command melted Hero’s brain until they were forced to remain completely still.

The metal pressed against Hero’s wrist again and to Hero’s surprise, Villain cut them free of the ropes or whatever was tying them to the chair. They still couldn’t move but for some reason being free didn’t exactly make Hero’s heart sing with joy. Something like dread settled at the bottom of their gut instead as Villain walked around the chair again.

“Now, Hero, illness… sickness, physical sickness can be treated by a healer or a doctor but mental illness? Especially from stress, perhaps… oh I don’t know, work related stress of being a Hero, for example. That is treated by time away from the stressors.”

Villain paused just to let their words properly sink into Hero brain. Villain didn’t speak again until Hero’s wide eyes met Villain’s with a panicked kind of hatred.

“No,” Hero said. “No! You can’t—”

“Oh, yes, Hero. Yes I can.”

“Superhero would never… they wouldn’t—“” Hero blubbered before furious eyes met Villain’s dark ones. “They would check on me everyday—”

“Would they? A good soul like Superhero? Or would the guilt of having maybe pushed you too hard, or not seen the signs earlier prevent them from coming regularly?”

“Wait, Villain. You can’t do this!”

“Oh I can,” Villain chuckled.

Hero’s mouth screwed up desperately, their breathing coming out a bit faster than necessary. “But— but, I won’t be as fun if you can’t fuck with me when I’m at the Hero tower, and you won’t learn about anything or be able to take down the Heroes from within, or— or—”

“Oh relax,” Villain said with a wave of their hand. “This isn’t going to be permanent, Hero. Just a long enough break away from the stressful environment of being a Hero. Some good old fashioned R&R with yours truly will set you right.”

Villain bit back a grin when they saw tears gather behind Hero’s eyes as they struggled to try and fight Villain’s compulsion.

“Please, Villain. Please! Anything but that, please. I’ll be good, I’ll do whatever you want. Please, I’ll stop fighting you. Please just don’t— don’t—” Hero cried, cutting themselves off with a heartfelt sob, sniffing as the tears started falling down their cheeks.

Villain moved closer then, cooing at Hero’s pathetic display of desperation. Villain pressed a cold hand against Hero’s cheek, and brushed the tear streaks away with the coarse pad of their thumb. A sympathetic smile on their stupidly too-red lips.

“It’s okay, Hero. Everything will be fine. Come on, walk with me to the bathroom. The blood will be easier to clean off there.”

To Hero’s horror their body obeyed Villain’s command. Every neuron in Hero’s brain was firing at them to stop, to not go with Villain, to fight, to regain control over their own body but it was all in vain.

Hero stood from the chair and followed Villain across their living room into their bathroom. Villain turned on the light, and turned to grin at Hero, holding out a hand.

“What?!” Hero barked, wiping the angry tears from their eyes.

“Well you have two choices Hero, you either; step into the bath or hold your arms over it,” Villain said, leaning their lower back against the sink and crossing their long legs. “The choice is yours, it doesn’t really affect me.”

“Is it?” Hero asked, coming to stand in front of Villain, their heart thundering against their ears. If they could stall for time and wait for Superhero to come back, they could catch Villain in the act. They’d know that Hero was suffering at the hands of a fucking tyrant.

The corner of Villain’s lips quipped up. “Knock yourself out, Hero. Enjoy the freedom.”

“Except it’s not freedom cause either way you’re going to make me do one of them, aren’t you?”

“Well obviously,” Villain blinked, then smiled wide, “but I can wait if you want. We can wait until your precious Superhero comes back and instead of hurting yourself you can hurt them too. Would you like that, Hero?”

Hero swallowed, eyes narrowing into the points of a sharp dagger. “You said you wouldn’t read my mind anymore. Takes the fun out of it, have you changed your tune?”

Villain rolled their eyes and stood to their full height, stepping forward and knocking Hero back a step with their shoulder. Hero’s eyebrows rose in surprise as they stumbled back, forgetting that Villain was taller than them.

“Honestly Hero, I try,” Villain said with another step. Hero matched it with one backwards, still glaring up at them. “But sometimes it’s so rare that you think anything in that little noodle of yours that the thoughts are too loud for me to ignore.”

Villain pressed a finger into Hero’s forehead and tipped them back another step before Hero batted their hand away.

“Real funny, Villain. Hah-hah!”

“I try,” Villain said, flashing a charming smile. “But you’re right. I have decided. In the bath is better than out.”

Without pausing Villain pressed their palm flat on Hero’s chest, fingers spread and shoved Hero backwards. Hero hadn’t realised how close they were to the bath and with the hard push Hero was forced back, their thigh hitting the edge and they reached out to steady themselves but fell off balance. Villain getting further away as Hero fell, their head smacking off the tiles as they landed awkwardly in the tub.

“Motherfucker!” Hero cried, rubbing their head with a scowl as it pounded from the whack.

Villain shrugged leaning back against the sink again, arms folded across their chest. “I did give you the choice to get in the bath of your own accord. This one’s on you.”

“Maybe I want to lean over it,” Hero grumbled, fumbling to right themselves. When they settled Hero glared up at Villain from the tub. “Well we don’t have all day. Force me to do whatever you want, I don’t care anymore.”

“Hero,” Villain chided. “Don’t have that attitude, come on. Make it fun for me. Struggle a bit.”

“What’s the point? You’ll just use your powers on me and get what you want eventually. Let’s just cut through the bullshit.”

Villain shrugged. “Fair enough.”

Villain leaned off the sink and handed Hero the knife in their hand. “Hero, I want you to take the knife and roll up your sleeves and cut your wrists.”

Hero felt the blood drain from their face.

“What?” Hero whispered as their hand reached for the knife against their own wants. “Wait! Villain, you can’t want to kill me I thought—”

“Oh hush, Hero. Don’t be dramatic. Make the cuts horizontal. Not deep enough to bleed out or need stitches but enough to leave scars.”

Hero was rolling up their sleeves as Villain spoke. “Villain, wait please. Please! Wait! Stop! Why can’t you do this to me? Cut me? Make them believable? Please?! Villain please I don’t want to do this.”

Villain crouched so they were eye level with Hero, looking into Hero’s too bright eyes that were already tearing up at the mere thought of Villain’s command.

“What makes you think I care about what you want, Hero?”

Hero let out a sharp hiss as the blade sliced through their skin. Hero didn’t look down. They didn’t want to see what their body was doing to itself. Instead they stared at Villain as they cut and Villain stared at Hero, never dropping eye contact for a second.

That was until the third cut which hurt like a bitch. Hero sucked in a sharp breath as they banged their leg against the wall of the bath, wrenching their head up to stare at the ceiling and breathing slowly out through their mouth with a pained hum.

“Alright there, Hero?”

“Never bett— AGH! Fuck!”

This time Hero looked and they wished they didn’t. Sticky blood surrounded their wrist, thick and dark and gloopy looking. Hero couldn’t even tell where the cuts were because the blood from the last cut had washed over them all and left streams of blood racing down Hero’s palm. Splashing down onto the white floor of the tub.

Hero was going to be sick, but there was no time as their arm mechanically moved back to slice again. Hero looked up pleadingly into Villain’s dark eyes and found nothing but their own pathetic reflection staring back at them. Hero bit their lip to stop crying out on the last cut before Villain moved.

“Okay, Hero. That arm has enough. Mo—”

“Wait,” Hero croaked, licking their lips. “Waitwaitwaitwait, wait…”

Villain paused, tilting their head, eyebrows arching at interruption. They didn’t punish Hero though, or chastise them so Hero took that as an opportunity to continue.

“The… the blood— my knife will slip. I need to—”

“Okay Hero,” Villain said softly. “We can wait while you fix yourself.”

“Thank you,” Hero breathed, dropping the knife onto the tub floor with a clatter. Hero’s hands were shaking violently as they wiped the blood on their tracksuit bottoms, biting their lip to quiet the pained whimpers.

Villain clicked their tongue and said, “Hero stop. You’ll ruin them. Use the water.”

Hero blinked up owlishly at Villain, eyes glazed over as if the thought of using the bath hadn’t occurred to them. Hero nodded dumbly and reached over to the tab at the end of the bath and turned on the cold tap. The water was freezing. Before Hero could talk themselves out of it they grit their teeth and plunged their arm under the tap.

Hero let out a startled gasp of pain, making their other hand a fist and beating it off the side of the bath because the cuts stung under the icy water. Hero bit their lip and rubbed the sticky coagulated strings of blood from their arm and hand. They did their best to not watch them slither down the drain and instead focused on turning the tap off.

Hero looked down at their arm to see fresh bright red blood surface in their cuts. None of them too deep. Just exactly what Villain wanted.

Hero pushed themselves back to the middle of the bath, their tracksuit bottoms wet as they scooted across. Hero found Villain’s eyes with their own as they wiped the fresh streams of blood on their tracksuit, half to dry their hands, half to fuck with Villain just because.

Hero grabbed the knife and got comfortable, balancing their knees against the inside of the bath, feet planted on the bottom of the tub. They cocked a brow at Villain, as if to say I’m waiting and Villain had to laugh inwardly at the gall.

Villain’s lips quipped up at the simple defiance. “Okay, Hero. Now cut your other arm.”

Villain relished Hero’s shaking hand as they drew the knife over their skin. They wanted to record all of Hero’s micro reactions in their brain just so they can think on it whenever they’re feeling down. It was intoxicating.

To watch Hero’s hand shake, their body fight against Villain’s power and not be able to do a single thing to stop them. They could feel Hero’s mental resistance trying to fight Villain’s compulsion off them as they made the second cut. Villain drank in their expressions, every muted wince that they tried so hard not to show Villain.

It was pure turmoil they put Hero in, and it was addicting to watch. They could watch it all day, and never get bored but that was just with Hero.

Most of their other victims had a weak constitution and gave in a few days into Villain’s mental assault, in hopes that Villain would get bored and let them go, or maybe out of sheer weakness but not Hero. How long had it been now? Weeks? Months? And Hero was still fighting them.

Even if it wasn’t fighting Villain’s powers mentally it was their little looks of defiance, their unwillingness to concede even if it would make life easier on them. No… Hero was a fighter and Villain couldn’t get enough of them.

Their favourite part was coming up now… ah yes. After the third cut, Hero bit their lip to stop the sudden cry. A deeper cut. They brought their head up and stared Villain directly in the eyes, that defiance still evident through their pain filled, glassy eyes on the verge of tears.

It felt like Christmas and Hero was a gift for Villain to toy with, to batter and break and fix and break again, but a toy doesn’t give you that same satisfaction. The euphoria of seeing Hero’s white knuckled grip tight around the handle of the knife as they sliced through their flesh against their will, and tried to hide the pain in their expression. Trying and failing to hide it, but that just made it all the sweeter.

Villain leaned forward. “Two more, Hero. One deep, one shallow.”

“Nn— no,” Hero whispered, their hand shaking harder now. “No…”

“Remember little Hero, what you are. You’re my little puppet. My play thing, you don’t get to say no to me. Now, deep enough to hurt but not deep enough for hospital.”

“Fuck you,” Hero whispered venomously as they sliced through their arm deep. Hero cried out loud this time, craning their neck back to glare at the ceiling and Villain leaned closer. Observing the strain in Hero’s neck, their jaw their voice.

“FUCK! Ughh!” Hero groaned, stamping their foot against the wall of the bath again, trying to exert the pain in their arm and transfer it to the bath.

“Look at it, Hero,” Villain said, and Hero shook their head.

“Go fuck yourself, Villain.”

“Hero. I said, look at the mess you’ve made.”

Hero fought the command like they always did but still their head turned down against their will and their eyes fixed on the massacre of blood on their arm again. Villain watched as Hero visibly paled at the sight with a soft smile.

Hero made another cut while they looked at their arm and then Villain plucked the knife from Hero’s hand. Hero glared up at them. Villain just grinned.

“Clean your arms with the water, then change out of those clothes and put them for the wash. I’ll get the blood out of them, Hero don’t worry.”

“You’re so gracious,” Hero spat. Villain looked over their shoulder at Hero.

“Hero, slap your cuts for me.”

Hero barely registered the command but the sharp sting had them letting out a diminished howl through gritted teeth.

“You fucker!” Hero screamed after Villain, but Villain had already walked out of the bathroom laughing at the good of it. “I hate you!”

“I know, sweet Hero.”

*~*~*~*~*

Continued here

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