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crystallizedday · 23 days ago

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Heya! I saw your fic request announcement & I just HAD to jump to the opportunity! I’d love to see how you write for Demongo during the events of the game, ie while he’s powerless & relying on others to get stuff done. How is he holding up? How does he feel about the other people around him?

Honestly, I’m all for whatever direction you wanna take. I’d just love to see more Fusionfall Demongo content.

I love Demongo as a character in the game too! Hope you enjoy:

Shooting at monsters from atop the fortress walls that surrounded Huntor's Crest wasn’t the most thrilling exercise, but at least it gave him something to do. Outside of monitoring, the other fusion fighters stationed at the outpost barely wanted much of anything to do with Demongo. Most feared him—as they rightfully should—so the distance suited the demon just fine. He didn’t care for their pointless chatter, their Weird and Worldly show, or their ‘hibachis.’ He was there to regain his powers and do his master’s bidding. Nothing more or less.

He couldn't understand it at first. Aku was not one to tolerate failure. After his fight with the Samurai, he should've died, or perhaps met a fate worse than death. Instead, he found his consciousness clawing back from the darkest abyss. A familiar, stentorian voice called for him, and he answered it as if it was his only lifeline.

A lot had happened in the years he’d been gone. The dark shogun's influence had significantly shrunk, the displaced prince having worn him down enough to send Aku scurrying into the deepest, most isolated parts of the world—hiding like a rat. The world was healing itself and a new generation was growing up without his near-omnipresent evil looming over them. Things had fallen into a truly pathetic state.

That was why he'd been giving a chance to redeem himself: Aku needed to build back his forces slowly, surely, and secretly. Although his master assured him that he wouldn't get a third chance, Demongo was at least relieved to know that he wasn't a card that Aku could easily toss out of his deck. For several months, plans were going well. One-by-one, the assassin collected various warriors to restore the army he had lost. With each victory, he felt a little more of his own might return. And then a new player entered the game. An alien entity known only as Lord Fuse began a widespread invasion against Earth.

It wasn't too uncommon an event. When his master first allowed the universe's various criminals to settle on the planet, there were many that needed to be put in their place. Such insolent souls were either wiped out or left to other parties to deal with, like those obnoxiously noble Plumbers. However, this being was different, with abilities almost similar to his master's that gave even that vile Samurai a challenge.

As if that wasn’t enough, the newcomer had the power to create his own forces. He started with small, but countless fusion spawns that then went on to possess objects and evolve into more formidable foes, and then began copying the planet’s strongest fighters. The sheer humiliation Demongo had felt facing off against his own doppelganger, who easily stole all of the souls that he had painstakingly gathered, was still fresh in his mind.

He half-expected Aku to snuff him out a second time for that blunder. Instead, he had been given a new mission: To join the planet’s forces in a temporary truce until the second-rate dictator was finally dealt with. It sounded easy enough at first, however…

“You got any eights?”

“Go Fish.”

He peered down the opposite side of the wall and frowned, where two soldiers sat near the gates playing cards. Hastily assembled from competing military groups, adrenaline junkies, desperate volunteers, and wanderlust children, the self-proclaimed ‘Fusion Fighters’ were a far-cry from a well-oiled machine. Really, they ran more like—how did one KND operative put it—'a wooden go-kart held together with duct-tape and a prayer.’ Even after the disastrous loss that was the first battle Hero’s Hollow, there were many soldiers that had begun to slack off even more as soon as they’d been given a fraction of fragile hope.

Granted, there wasn’t much for them to do at the Huntor's Crest outpost. Here, the average soldier’s daily routine was to move supplies, make repairs, and ensure that the infection that consumed the bulk of the Darklands didn’t spread any further. That and, again, to monitor him—for whatever little that did to help them sleep at night. Even in his current state, Demongo was certain he could take out most of the soldiers nearby and vanish before they ever thought of calling Samurai Jack to their rescue. Nevertheless, few of them were worth the effort and he did agree to ‘behave.’

One of the soldiers noticed him staring and flinched. If he remembered correctly, this one was S.A.C.T. Agent Powers. The only reason he bothered to remember him at all though was because of how annoying the human was—always making a point to complain about the demon, but never having the guts to say anything to his face. Aside from similar cases or those audacious enough to approach him themselves, the rest of his ‘allies’ were worth his notice about as much as ants.

On another day, Demongo might’ve gotten some amusement out of scaring the agent. Today, however, he didn’t bother. With a dismissive wave of his hand, he stepped back over to the other side of the walkway atop the wall and looked for more targets. There were none within firing distance.

He hated being stuck like this. He sighed, staring at his hand in frustration, flexing his fingers before digging them into his palm with almost enough force to draw blood if he had any. How dull…

Truth be told, he wasn’t in as bad a shape as he was when he was first brought back or when his fusion stole the souls he had collected. Picking up stray spirits and absorbing the energy from various artifacts had been fruitful, but slow. To regain more of his power, he needed stronger essences to feed on. He’d sent out some of the few souls there were under his control to collect more, but they’d yet to return. He didn’t want to send out too many at once, just in case certain cretins tried to steal them from him too.

Demongo had taken to paying off the soldiers he couldn’t frighten into doing his bidding as an alternative. The army’s independent agents were regularly willing to do any sort of chore for a decent price and there were relatively simple means of handling those expenses.

It didn’t mean he liked it. Every now and then, he captured an obstinate soul that refused to do as he said, but he had ways of making them bend. He wasn’t used to bargaining with weaklings. Or back-talk.

Patience is a virtue… he reminded himself more than once. And luckily, he was very good at playing the long game. Once this whole affair with Fuse was done with, and once that accursed Samurai took his gaze elsewhere, he could burn down the whole camp if he wished. In the meantime, he could use the long lulls to gather information.

If there was any benefit to war, it was that the loss of Earth’s heroes had forced unexpected talents to rise up in their place. Moreover, his fusion had made the mistake of calling attention to those talents.

Demongo had to admit it wasn’t a bad plan. Even though he’d personally never agreed to join the nano project, nanos of him had begun to appear seemingly at random nonetheless. Since fusions were made using materials that possessed the essence of their original models, accidents did occasionally happen: All it took was to pick up that material for a nano by mistake. The issue was that his fusion worked much like he did: He was sneaky, scheming, and let the warriors under his command do his bidding first. Reports of the fusion’s own movements were few and far between.

To him, that meant only one thing: It all had to be intentional. Once a nano was a part of the project, anyone could technically copy their available data. However, there were few people interested in keeping little versions of villains, monsters, and demons at their side. In contrast, if their creation was ‘just an accident,’ more were inclined to take up the responsibly. Unless those conditions, the nanos were a perfect tool to mark interesting subjects.

He'd met a few of those soldiers, after he’d given in and said he would whichever of the miniature versions of himself were sent his way. Some where unremarkable, but many were individuals of striking potential. If his doppelganger was going to paint such open targets, then fine. Demongo would just use that to his own advantage—swiping them up before the fusion could. An ugly grin pulled at his mouth at the thought. Turnabout truly was fair play.

That wasn’t a theory he planned on sharing with anyone though. Why alert a bunch of cattle to which among them was primed for slaughter? No, he’d let this game play out and strike only when the time was right.

#yeeeeeeeeeee!!#thank ye for this!#I remember you talking about how individuals with Demongo Nanos were ‘marks’ for Fusion Demongo #I’m glad to see that idea brought back up here!#your take on Fusionfall & how its various concepts work has always been fascinating to me!#I love hearing more about it!#Fusionfall #Demongo #samurai jack #reblog

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crystallizedday · 26 days ago

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no one asked about my interpretation of tenna, spamton or their relationship but im writing it anyway- (haha long post of rambling)

(disclaimer! this i my own view on things based on what i know and feel about it etc. im not judging anyone for how they see it; i do like this ship, characters and the game as a whole (obviously??), im here to have some fun, i dont care enough to debate about who is more "correct" or whatever. these are my current thoughts that can change any minute and im not like .. cemented into, this isnt a religion lol, also not trying to "excuse" anything, i just like to think about the reasons for things, okay? okay :)

i made a post talking about tenna before so i will be repeating some things of that but i have wayy more to say since then;

Tenna: i honestly think its pretty hard to make any sort of 'clear judgement' on tennas character, mainly bc what we see of him is 1. him quite literally trying to not die and 2. we rarely, if ever, see him without the fun gang around and if so its still under the pressure of point 1. (as in im sure he acts differently around teens he wants to entertain and also needs to keep distracted at all costs .. while also still under the threat of literally dying)

when you meet him hes already barely holding it together, the entire chapter is essentially watching him spiral further and further; hes barely been used at all in years, so little the TV was unplugged as a whole and we dont know what that means for a darkner like him, we can infer that its not a good feeling at the very LEAST given how afraid he is kris will do it again (and implying they threatened him with it in some form too; still dont know if the deal with kris and the knight is the same one) he even admits hes been alone for a while (though i do think hes downplaying it) and the others in the TVworld dont appear to be very fond of him (like ramb saying "well i guess SOMEONE has to appreciate him" when you tell him the games are fun …) though i can absolutely see it coming from the whole downwards spiral starting wayy before you even meet him, i dont think it has to mean that hes always been shitty to others (do any of them even know about the deal?? if not it must look like hes literally lost it..) the second he turns against his deal with the knight (which was that if he did what he was told he would get an audience again, which is pretty impossible to say no to given how deprived hes been of doing what hes made for, especially if the other option is death, whether that is by being literally killed by them or thrown away to slowly die somewhere else- he knows toriel is planning to throw him out and even does it when he survives .. but if he dies she keeps him?? in the house???) he gets cut to pieces by them (even if you do all nice things susie says that they had to search for him and when they found him he was barely alive anymore ..)

the entire time hes under the direct threat of death (and/or being unplugged which would eventually also result in death im sure) after already suffering from abandonment issues (spamton??), loneliness and a deep fear of growing obsolete- which .. i dont think is how you get to show your true nature, rather obviously id say it pushes you to do extreme things you would not have done otherwise (he shows regret about it too in the secret sword game dialog); personally i dont see him as all that manipulative either, i mean, keeping the fun gang busy is literally the deal (even if hes having fun doing it at first) and idk what the knight was doing but they sure took their sweet time bc tenna has to scramble and try to keep it going longer and longer losing everything more and more as it goes on, desperately trying to keep the act up no matter what, in the end you push him to the literal brink, when he has nothing left at all, and only then he actively fights the gang as the last attempt to survive/keep his part of the deal (man what a great set up tbh, the mix of his utter desperation while also trying so hard to keep his whole act going qwq)

(also until then he also doesnt do anything against the other darkners, like, they ignore whatever contract he set up, everyone leaves him behind, they steal everything from right in front of him and he doesnt do anything against them but complain a little and then try to act as if he doesnt care ..)

tenna and spamton: this is how i (currently) think about their relationship; i dont think either of them actually hated the other at any point despite the shit they talk about the other, i think the shit talk is superficial, its an act to try and make themselves believe they never cared, when they both did and still do, deep in denial and to position themselves above the other, above it all- tenna constantly brings spamton up, often to shit talk him and make himself look better yes, but to me its another case of lying to himself all the while making sure everyone else believes it too, he needs everyone to know that he never cared, how could he! look how much he hates him!! if everyone believes it maybe he can believe it too!! wait wha- sometimes he genuinely seems to forget hes supposed to "hate" anythign regarding spamton (like the mailroom? why is he reacting like that unless he forgot spamton isnt there), nevermind that bringing him up this much is weird if he actually hated him in the first place (usually you would try to ingore and forget people you hate no?), hes comparing himself to him, likely bc of his still persistent idea that spamton embodies the future and new technology which is somethign he sees as a threat to him, playing into his fear of growing obsolete and ever since spamtons gone there no one to really give him any sort of feeling of security in that regard, theres no one willing to "teach him technology" (which, if taken at face value is so .. cute? it sounds like a genuine offer- ... though i also like the idea of it being a bad pickup line that went utterly over tennas head), of course he would start spiraling into paranoia etc

now then, theres the dialog where he recounts the events that separated them, and i think this too is mostly tenna lying to himself mixed in with telling it truthfully, the whole thing about the "sweet talk"? haha he never actually flirted with the guy, he totally never cared! he was just using him! obviously it was his genius scheme! haha ..haha ..... hm. the thing about signing a deal? deals are more spamtons thing anyway arent they? maybe, just maybe it wasnt like that at all either, what if spamton genuinely felt secure enough with him to actually tell him, and now hes trying to make the whole 'i was totally only using him heehoo' seem more believable, what would that all be for unless he trapped him in some kind of contract! obviously that was the goal haha! hes totally not hurt so deeply he needs to reivent himself as some kind of master manipulator in retrospect!! and then the phone rings, and whatever is said to spamton is so horrifying that he takes off and runs away

(which really begs the question WHAT it was, being told he needs to cut all contact with tenna or he loses his status cant be it bc he lost it anyway, the prophecy bit? idk, not as in if he stays it will cause it but he cant bear to see it play out? possible? he loses his status now that he went against his deal with *telephone guy* by nearly telling someone else and his insecurity about tenna only wanting him as a bigshot tm got the better of him? another play at this instead? like being told hey this guy you love doesnt actually and is just trying to steal everything you now have, no one can genuinely care about you? something else that was horrible enough to make him literally drop everythign and run? all believable imo)

that was a genuine retelling i think, though i feel a little weird that tenna picking up the phone instead of going after him is seen as .. weird of tenna? bc really if your partner was about to tell you a secret and then the phone rings and the call makes them run away immediately without even putting the thing back? i think its perfectly reasonable to pick it up to see what the hell is going on there- but then him saying he picked it up bc he thought it was his chance to take his place? i say thats a lie again! why? well if that scene jsut played out ... who, even if we bought into his ooh master manipulator persona, would pick up a phone call that made the guy you were about to rip off (somehow??) run away without a word thinking that it would be his turn? maybe its jsut me but thats so??? who would believe they would get hired if they continue on the same phone call the other guy was threatened with hoping for anythign good? it doesnt make any sense to me we dont know how fast spamton can leave darkworlds but given hes spam mail id say its pretty quickly, would tenna even had the chance to go after him at all? nevertheless it would be to late even if he checked the phone only briefly im sure

and then he goes back to "woah he totally ripped me off" which sound like a very flat lie to me again, hes not hurt or mad his partners gone like that, no no no, hes mad bc he got ripped off!! yeah!! the line of ".....i wish they never brought that laptop home....." is a pretty .. heavy line i think, especially with those pauses, thats not really how i would think someone that got scammed would put it imo, its a half hearted wish they never met bc then he wouldnt still be hurting.

and you might say 'but he says that thinking hes all alone hidden in a game version no one is supposed to be able to get into, why would he lie even then??' ... yeah. why would he lie to himself like that even when he thinks hes all alone in a hidden area in a game no one should have access to? why would he hide himself in the most lonely corner of this dark world recounting the event that lead to this breakup, changing it up so hes is not being deeply hurt and confused, just ripped off, just had this deal he masterfully pulled along fail. yeah. why. obvisouly, the guy never cared in the first place, and neither did he. totally.

(it gets even worse when i take my hc into account that tenna is very much in the closet/in denial about his sexuality too, i think that idea fits very well bc hes stuck in the past and needs to perform well in order to keep his audience etc, so if spamton came along and they formed such a close bond only for it to be ripped away just like that, without knowing any sort of definitive reason? he would try to bury all of it even more behind a fake persona no? he cant let himself be seen as anything off center, he cant accept that he felt like that about someone, oh how stupid to allow himself to fall like that in the first place, no one would like him like that anyway)

(i honestly dont quite know waht to make of the pipis scene in reagrds to tenna though, just that that it might have been the worst moment for spamton to try and come back and talk since like ... tennas quite literally losing every single thing, losing all control over anything while still being under that deals pressure)

spamton:

i dont have all that much to say about him, in part bc im very sure he is gonna play a role again, theres much unknown i think, and uuh ... im not smart enough to analyze all of deltarune .... hes been, im pretty sure, a loner right? the black sheep of the addisons until the phone guy somehow gives him the ability/knowledge to make it big, and everyone resents him for it, and after his fall hes really just a punching bag living in the literal dumpster, he too is at his lowest when you meet him too (isnt that poetic .. both tenna and spamton are at their worst and lowest in their life when you first meet..), clawing for survival and freedom in his case too, even if he was a prick his whole life thats not somethign he deserves imo, idk i feel very bad for him tbh and dont find him all that weird or off putting, theres so much we just .. dont know, but what we do know is pretty terrifying- just like tenna i think hes playing a persona whenever talking about him, obviously tenna never cared about him, he was just trying to rip him off, to get his secret out of him and steal it alllllll- just like everyone else, who would genuinely care about him after all!!! and then when he sees undeniable proof that he did care- immediately tries to talk to him even after all this time, though choosing possibly the worst moment possible for that, and after being 'rejected' swears to not try it ever again, like, as much as a joke that scene is that kinda hurts,,, just a little bit, but if you learn anything from this its that .... well he doesnt hate tenna all that much huh, maybe not at all, not saying there is no bitterness or something oh absolutely not but its just so .......................... perfectly mirroring each other, tragically so but also ... oof (which once again leads me to question what the hell was said in that phone call...)

i cant really subscribe to the idea that, sicne spamton is spam-mail, all he can do and wants to do is scam people, bc i feel thats kind of .. against the point? darkners arent supposed to feel things, they arent supposed to do thigns they arent meant to, but they still do, and spamton especially, i think, wants to break free from it all, thats his entire thing isnt it? at the lowest of lows to try and break free no matter the cost- and then realizing he cant be free on his own, being cut down and then gives up to try and help the fun gang instead (the end of the neo fight haunts me)

(sidenote here, i .. dont know how exactly his speech quirk works but like, at the end of the fight he talks to you in lowercase and normally doesnt he? hes not fully incapable of talking normally then- unless that was someone else talking through him (like in his shop when i guess dess calls for help? and he says that someone was talking to you??) pretending to be him ... which is a terrifying thought ngl ...)

(also realyl like the idea of him being just email at the start, but as the internet progresses he gets corrupted and turned from soemthing no one knew to something people liked/success to being treated like trash, bc thats how you treat spam, you are disgusted by it and throw it away, annoyed! put off!!! but maybe he wasnt always, maybe .. he doesnt want to be ... )

i mean they still share phrases to the point you cant tell who got it from who, their themes are basically conjoined at the hips man okay i am so normal for typign all this nonsense over the course of hours late at night getting less coherent with each word written and somehow losing the points i was trying to make ...

either way, i think, despite everything, it is still them.

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