#v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned

[acemenagerie-a]

Ace Goes into Discussing Their Avatars’ Feelings Toward Their Respective Entity and This Whole Apocalypse Business

pt. 1 - Elias

Lonely!Elias is barely aware of the existence of “Entities,” to be honest.  He cultivated the Lonely in himself without being aware of it and now takes the power and causing/consuming fear in stride.  He had no reason to do further research and so hasn’t.  As such, his feelings toward the Lonely are decidedly neutral because he’s barely aware of it as a Thing.  Its wordless urging along unnatural instincts to bring it into this world go thoroughly unheeded.  Elias is not oblivious, per se, but he’s not doing jack shit for anyone anymore. 

Upon the Apocalypse happening, though, Elias is chill with it.  His Domain is fine for him and he doesn’t have to hunt anymore, not really, so his hollow feelings tick slightly over to the positive side.

End!Elias is super aware of all the Entities.  He does revere the End, respects its power and inevitability.  He opposes the Apocalypse because Jonah wants it, that’s all.  Death comes for all, what does it matter how long it takes to happen?  Upon it happening, his tips the scale in the End’s favor both to spite Jonah and the Eye as a whole, but also from a place of “gifting” it to the End.  He knows the end does not care about him in turn, and does not mind this at all.

Dark!Elias similarly reveres the Dark.  The Dark saved him from Jonah and stuck with him even when he left the Church, he’ll give it his all.  The failure of the Extinguished Sun, however, turned him off causing the Apocalypse himself.  There’s a drive to do it, but he’s too aware that pieces are missing ( and that any way Rayner wanted to do something had to be bullshit because fuck that hypocritical, bodystealing shit head ).

He wants to ruin Jonah and, to be honest, stopping Jonah’s Apocalypse is a side-effect of the revenge.  Once the Apocalypse happens, Elias is Not Thrilled.  His divorce from the Eye means he’s sitting outside of it all, which he’s fine with because being subservient to the Eye is the last thing he wants.  However, it also means he has no Domain and is stuck scavenging for scraps in London or at the fringes of another’s Domain.  Plus he knows Jonah has to be gloating up in that obnoxious tower so he is pissed about the whole thing.  If there weren’t Archivists blocking the way, he would go up and gut Jonah himself.

#ace the helpful place | ooc #v { elias }; tears falling down at the party | lonely avatar #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #v { elias }; the light we must destroy | dark avatar #death mention #ruler of everything | queue

[acemenagerie-a]

(( I am going to also adjust how End Aligned Elias works in the context of the Apocalypse since we now know what Jonah’s up to.  He does still try to tip the scales in the Panopticon, but Martin makes his canon choice and so Elias is left to being patient once again.

Given the fact Jonah had possessed Elias prior to the Dark’s Ritual and that was when he tested the viability of single-Entity Rituals, Elias would have witnessed all of Jonah’s physical planning for his grand Ritual.  Anything Jonah thought would be missed, but if he jotted down any notes, Elias would know.

So Elias has, ostensibly, had the same amount of time to figure out how to push things in the End’s favor.  To stack the deck, as it were.  Personally, I like to imagine that when Jon started reciting the actual Ritual portion of the statement, Jonah joined in - particularly with the fact that the Eye plopped smack dab on Jonah’s location and has him as the Pupil.  Elias has gotten very good at having his own thoughts even when Jonah is speaking and so recites his own version that puts the End at the core.

Now Elias is not nearly as powerful, he’s not even an Avatar™, and two of the three people reciting are Eye Avatars and he’s only heavily aligned and thinking very loudly.  So, upon immediate observation, not a whole lot is different.  The Eye is king, the Fears are there, the dichotomy is Watcher and Watched.  But Elias did tip the scale.  I still like the idea of him leading to the End to be a bit of a blind spot for the Eye, nothing obvious but, say, Jon would notice that End Domains are a little harder to pull info from, a little harder to see coming. 

Also, and this is new, things die.

The canon Apocalypse has been pretty confirmed to be a closed system where, eventually, everything will perish given time.  But Elias’s help gives the End more pervasiveness through the Domains even before its exhausted its own supply of fear. 

Things don’t always die and it doesn’t happen often, but there’s a chance.  That soldier the Slaughter wanted to wake up, see his own corpse, and push forward?  Gone.  Someone dies of smoke inhalation working the Desolation’s furnaces.  The curtain closes on Act 45679 of one of the Web’s plays and never opens again.  Random, slim probability.  Heightens the fear of death by making it real and present in all corners since the start.  What if death never comes for you?  What if it does?

End Avatars 100% notice this because they can’t not notice.

Meanwhile, since Jonah’s body is, apparently, obliterated, his consciousness is fully in Elias’s body and they are mutually aware of each other now.  Jonah is very aware that he Fucked Up.  It’s tough for them to do anything; they still have Being The Pupil shit happening, but Elias is the one more recently used to existing with no physical control at all and to someone using him as little more than a wire to push information through.

When Jon gets Elias’s statement, one which is radically different from the canon one because My Character Now, Elias and Jonah would join in at different parts.  Elias would speak with Jon during his parts of the interview, while Jonah speaks as the interviewer.  I think Jon would still say Elias is gone and the statement was just an echo because Elias is still a hole in the Eye’s retina.

Killing Jonah would bring Elias back, though, and would probably fuck up the Eye for a little bit since Elias’s being also got tangled up in being the Pupil, though gonna be honest and say I have no idea how that would ultimately shake out. ))

#ace the helpful place | ooc #university gave you a paper | elias headcanons #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #death tw #tma s5 spoilers // #long post //

[acemenagerie-a]

(( Also Dark!Elias absolutely also has the TOMAT OSOUP knuckle tattoos.  Got them not too long after escaping the Church in a fit of ‘I have control over my life!’ and then had a crisis about the fact he gained autonomy and one of his earliest acts of independence was getting TOMAT OSOUP on his hands.

Honestly the only Eliases without the TOMAT OSOUP are the pre-possession, and Lonely Eliases

I was gonna say End Elias too, but honestly if he gets his body back and gets to go full Avatar, he should also get TOMAT OSOUP.  pov u r minding ur business & a stranger dressed like a bowling alley carpet with ‘TOMAT OSOUP’ on his knuckles gives u a vision of the death u’re most afraid of

Love this enby a whole bunch ))

#ace the helpful place | ooc #v { elias }; the light we must destroy | dark avatar #v { elias }; tears falling down at the party | lonely avatar #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #university gave you a paper | elias headcanons #death mention

[acemenagerie-a]

share 3-5 songs that represent your muse !

tagged by:  @beheldeyes tagging:  go for it & tag me!! ^^

Dr. Dee Fisher

🧫 Birth of My Creation - Frankenstein: A New Musical

Frankenstein, we find your ideas to be an affront to all that is moral and decent!

"Madness"! "Folly"! "Insanity"... Little minds have belittled my dream But I- could I...might it be The greatest triumph man has ever seen!

🧫 Cells - They Might Be Giants

Within the cell there's a tiny spiral staircase That tells the cell just how it's going to grow The instructions are spelled out in letters One on every step In a language that the cell knows how to read

🧫 Dr. Sawbones - Creature Feature

There goes Dr. Sawbones Engaging in his nightly hunt Strolling through the dirty streets Judging which soul to confront

End!Elias Bouchard

💀 A Fate Worse Than Death - Creature Feature

Don’t worry your head off There’s always a fate worse than death Pray you go quietly Quick and not violently No need to worry We all meet our end someday Pray you go silently Into the bleak dead of night

💀 Glashtyn Shanty - S.J. Tucker

When the tithe came callin’, where were you? When the tithe comes callin’, there is nothing you can do. Haul away haul away haul away Haul away haul away haul away

(( okay that one is kinda specific to the fic i wrote for end!elias where he & peter were a thing before the possession bit. it’s the interplay of sea shanty + death elements and liSTEN this definitely makes sense ))

💀 The Horror and the Wild - The Amazing Devil

Remember me I ask. Remember me I sing Give me back my heart you wingless thing

Jonah Magnus

👁‍🗨 Bourbon Street - Jeff Tuohy

Every night I breed a new disaster I might be right, I might be wrong Try to get away and I will bring you right along, so Sit back, have a seat

👁‍🗨 Punishment Game - Kururingo ft. Miku & Gumi

Punishment game, but it’s a total plot twist

You shouldn’t use up all your number cards before the end–isn’t that true?

(( au where peter and jonah decide the fate of the world over a game of uno ))

👁‍🗨 Impostor - SharaX 

(( yo just listen, u can’t miss the Vibes ))

#(( me sharing what songs remind me of muses: does this make sense to literally ANYBODY else )) #affront to all moral and decent | dee aes #weed socks | elias aes #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #drink in all that is not yours | jonah aes #ace the helpful place | ooc #play in this space | dash games

[acemenagerie-a]

(( dash: talking abt apocalypse domains me: yes perfect time to share my end!elias in the apocalypse ideas but not in a very coherent manner bc that’s how i figure shit out

Because, honestly, the End!Elias AU is set to default toward the Apocalypse happening since I try to keep certain verses close-ish to canon to make them easy to hop into.  Depending on what Jonah is actually shown to be up to ( give me my bastard man where is he where is bastard man ), I may also have to change up this but fuck it let’s go.

I just like the idea of Elias lowkey giving some amount of influence to the Apocalypse’s Whole Deal because he and Jonah kinda exist on top of one another.  He didn’t influence a lot and it’s still very much Eye-flavored, but I am enchanted by the idea that Elias’s existence makes the End and its domains slightly harder to see.  

Jonah has this huge blindspot toward Elias’s little facet of the End which makes the Eye in general have a slight blindspot toward the End. 

[Insert poetic bit that people have talked about before about the Eye being able to see everything except the future which is specifically a thing the End has been able to show]

It’s probably not even that noticeable of a difference between seeing other domains but like... perhaps... if there was someone... doing an Apocalypse world tour... that someone would perhaps maybe notice... that End domains are harder to get a beat on.... perhaps.

Meanwhile Elias is just “Hey Jonah, if you tripped and fell out of this Panopticon and splattered on the pavement would that be fucked up or what?” except Jonah 100% does not know why he is suddenly getting a stronger stream of fucked up what if scenarios of his demise.

Elias’s domain is small and personalized for Fuck Jonah Magnus.  If he could be an avatar of Fuck Jonah Magnus I Hate Him he would. ))

#(( i love ppl w their well-written metas but that is not my style #we throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks on this blog #always ready to change stuff around )) #ace the helpful place | ooc #death mention #violence mention #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned

[acemenagerie-a]

(( Figured I should probably compile some of my thoughts about Elias’s appearance’s evolution.

Starting with hair, Elias’s hair is naturally black.  Once he got to college, he started bleaching the middle section of it blond and shaving down the sides.  For how much trouble he had with keeping up with other things, he was generally good at keeping his roots touched up and wouldn’t let them grow out too far.  

Jonah grew out Elias’s hair a bit, keeping it on the shorter side but long enough to slick back.  He honestly started dyeing it grey only a few years after possessing Elias.

So post-possession, Elias kinda has a period of wacky hair shenanigans.  As his hair grows out, it’s black but also the stress of being un-possessed and dealing with all that shit has him going prematurely white too.  Until he gets it cut, his hair’s like part grey with black roots with flashes of white.

Eventually, he settles into a shaggy pure-white and waffles back and forth on whether he wants to shave the sides and back again or not.

Eye-wise, his eyes were dark brown.  After coming back, he keeps wearing a bandage unnecessarily because he’s self-conscious about how his lack-of-eyes looks and refuses to get prosthetics - the idea of putting anything even vaguely eyeball adjacent makes him panic.  The additional triangle shades are just because he’s obnoxious and I like how the triangle glasses looked.

End!Elias doesn’t worry about covering his sockets - though he does wear the shades.  He’s not self-conscious about it mostly because he also has a more firm ‘no, FUCK eyes’ stance. ))

#(( me: has shit to do / also me: slams the 'think abt elias' button )) #ace the helpful place | ooc #university gave you a paper | elias headcanons #v { elias }; nothing but a pencil pusher | before body snatch #v { elias }; years forever lost | after coming back #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #eye injury mention

[acemenagerie-a]

(( pre-possession elias: my wardrobe is like faded bluish-grey, beige, and distressed denim with a bit of flair in w.eed socks and some like old graphic tees

post-possession elias: can u please direct me to the section of the store where no matter what i grab i will look like a bowling alley carpet? thank u very much ))

#(( this is true of end!elias too #out here making u experience ur most feared death while looking like the background of a 90s educational video )) #ace the helpful place | ooc #university gave you a paper | elias headcanons #v { elias }; nothing but a pencil pusher | before body snatch #v { elias }; years forever lost | after coming back #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #(( 'ace stop making muses that dress like bowling alley carpet' no absolutely not ))

[acemenagerie-a]

oof please do elias for GAME OVER

Game Over.  Try Again? || ACCEPTING @praemetuere

Elias’s hands are slick with sweat, though Jonah has chosen to clasp them behind his back to keep from being found out.  Terror thrums at the back of Elias’s skull, though the feeling is nestled in complete confidence.  Jonah fears death too much to ever feel entirely at ease discussing it, but firmly believes that he holds the game-winning ace.  He has hustled his opponent and will come out on top.

Unfortunately for him, he has been playing blind - utterly unaware of the other player nestled in his stolen skull.

“No, the only choice I think that matters is whether you want to kill me or not.”  Jonah says the words with ease, smiling.  His eyes glitter in the dark, flicking periodically to the metal of the knife in Martin’s hand.  Elias settles in to Jonah’s fear.

He puts his thumb on the scale.

In the swirling of choices and power plays and questions of who is doing what for whom, comes another idea.  Killing Jonah Magnus is right.  Not in the way of anger hazed revenge, nor in the sense of fulfilling some grandiose heroic plot, but in the same way that an apple falling to the ground when you drop it is right.

Apples are supposed to fall.  Jonah Magnus is supposed to be dead.

Whatever bet sits between these two men matters little in the face of the cosmic gamble life has made with death.  It is simply time for Jonah to pay up.

As Martin more closely regards the body of Jonah, Elias feels his breathing start to pick up.  If one was watching closely, they might notice the breathing of the eyeless body has also picked up pace.  Elias’s mouth dries and his heart thuds in his chest.  The bud of fear in the back of his skull blossoms into delicious panic.

The knife catches the limited light beautifully as it is raised into the air.

Jonah lets out a choked, terrified plea, pulling out a random horrific bit of information to lob into Martin’s skull like a brick - anything to weasel free of losing.  Peter claps his shoulder with a smug grin and mist clouds Jonah’s eyes.

“I win, Elias.”

“No! No no no no no...!”  Elias and Jonah’s bodies both hyperventilate, slightly off-beat with one another like there is a delay in the signal.

Elias feels Jonah being stabbed a moment after the knife slides between his ribs.  Jonah is howling with his throat, trying to claw out of Peter’s grasp like a wounded animal.  A bloodstain begins soaking through the shirt and vest adorning Elias’s body, right where Jonah’s has been stabbed.

Jonah’s grip on Elias body begins to go slack and Elias pushes to have his space back.  However, Jonah clings fervently to life, fighting the encroaching oblivion with every stuttered gasp and bloody cough.  Then, collapsed on the ground, clutching a wound in a stolen body, Jonah watches himself die.

Elias, for his part, gets the tiniest moment of pure nothing that he’d longed for before jolting back into consciousness.  He sits up, coughing up more blood in the middle of Peter talking.  Unconcerned with whatever he’s interrupted, he leans forward and taps the back of his skull to get Jonah’s eyes out.  Then he stands and squishes them like grapes beneath his shoe.  

For now, he is still warm, but a death pallor has already begun to settle in.  Blood continues oozing from the wound and marks the only bit of movement on his chest.  He is not breathing, though he flashes a languid smile and waves.

“Hey, nice to actually meet you guys; Jonah really did me a disservice, yeah?”

#(( bad end in that being an avatar is not exactly *ideal* #kind of also a two for one of game over for jonah too sdhjfghjsdf )) #(( listen this is a fun verse sandbox im having a Time sdhjfjsdgf )) #ic; pot smoking good for nothing | elias bouchard #ic; king of a ruined world | jonah magnus #v { jonah }; winning gambit | elias bouchard #v { elias }; how could i ever forget | conscious while possessed #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #taste of truth | answered ask #praemetuere‌ #violence mention #blood mention #eye horror mention #death tw

[acemenagerie-a]

(( oh but yeah, through writing that fic i did figure out End Avatar Elias’s like... big ability

He can force someone to experience the death they most fear.  It’s an entirely mental experience and, if they can get away, physically they’ll be fine unless they had like... a weak heart and literally died of fright.  To note, though, the experience is not a premonition; the person’s actual fate remains unchanged.  However, now, they may be more paranoid and frightened of death - desperate to avoid that worst-case outcome.  ( And maybe something will nag at them saying that there’s some death so much worse than what they imagined that they can’t even conceive of always lurking around a corner. )

Elias also has no idea what the person experienced.  He just knows if they were frightened and how much fear he ultimately got out of it.  Depending on the person, he may be able to guess but it would just be a guess, he wouldn’t know for certain.

I imagine once he got a little more practice, a little more power, he could cause real damage.  It’d be kinda like that one bit with Mike?  Y’know sorta the ‘i know you’re sitting in a chair, you know you’re sitting in a chair, but whether your body will know that...’ ))

#ace the helpful place | ooc #university gave you a paper | elias headcanons #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #death mention

[acemenagerie-a]

(( i am absolutely losing it thinking abt how the aftermath of the little ficlet i wrote would go hjfgdjshfghjdfg

end!elias can add such a beautiful amount of chaos heightened by the fact that he’s still, like, elias and im loving thinkin abt this verse ))

#ace the helpful place | ooc #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned

[acemenagerie-a]

(( fearpocalypse end!elias is so funny bc i’d imagine elias gets slightly buffed and also there’s this little pocket of end now in jonah’s stronghold so just

jonah:  haha! i’ve done it! jonah: jonah:  why do i hear boss music

admittedly it’d probably be a little bit more like when u hear enemy music & cant find the enemy but still ))

#ace the helpful place | ooc #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned

[acemenagerie-a]

(( it’s v funny to me how much end!, lonely!, and dark!elias are just ‘do NOT perceive me, i will kill you if you perceive me’

meanwhile mainverse post-possession elias is ‘oh fuck oh please someone perceive me i am begging ppl to acknowledge my existence please oh fuck’ ))

#(( i mean pre-possession elias waffles on whether he's more afraid of being known or being alone #so it's interesting to see what pushes things toward one or the other #admittedly end!elias is more willing to be generally perceived but hates Eye nonsense so i guess hates being Perceived™ )) #ace the helpful place | ooc #university gave you a paper | elias headcanons #v { elias }; nothing but a pencil pusher | before body snatch #v { elias }; years forever lost | after coming back #v { elias }; tears falling down at the party | lonely avatar #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #v { elias }; the light we must destroy | dark avatar

[acemenagerie-a]

(( the dark and the stranger during apocalypse in end!elias au: gee end, how come u’re slightly immune to eye bullshit?

the end: made friends w a stoner ))

#(( this is dumb but im not apologizing hsdfgjhsdgfjhsdf )) #ace the helpful place | ooc #whoopsie daisy! | crack #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #drug mention

[acemenagerie-a]

(( as much as an important & good Thematic Element that Jonah being 100% unaware of End!Elias’s continued consciousness is

i also love the apocalypse starting to pop off and Jonah discovers Elias was 1000% there the whole time as he both gets his ruined little kingdom & absolutely gets trapped in Elias’s domain ))

#(( tfw u're big afraid of death & now ur literally sharing a body w a person aligned w that very fear #& now u're likewise stuck in an apocalypse such that u will not be able to get away from this horrific feedback loop of a fate )) #ace the helpful place | ooc #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned

[acemenagerie-a]

(( sometimes i just think abt the Tension™ and Themes™ between end!elias and jonah and just... it’s v good, v tasty ))

#(( end!elias is a v good verse in all its iterations #tho i should play more in the space of more following canon and the apocalypse happening #bc that's fun to chew on )) #ace the helpful place | ooc #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned

[acemenagerie-a]

(( me: man i gotta manage my time & study & also me: i will now devote my time to writing a fairly niche fic of overlapping v specific aus and that will be all i will be able to think abt 

anyway here’s the fic if ur curious (mind the warnings) & i will try to wrangle my brain into thinking abt the responsibilities we have thus far neglected in favor of it shgjdfhjgdsjfgsd ))

#(( if i get one thing done i will consider it a success sdhjfgsjdhgfjhdf )) #(( also gonna tag #v { elias }; dancing on his own grave | end aligned #bc it's relevant & i'll organize my blog how i want jhdsgfjhgsdfjh )) #ace the helpful place | ooc