I guess one more way for Hunter to make Vee furious is to beg she doesn't tell Luz that Belos made her 'involved' with how Hunter treated the basilisk? Even now he is very much still protecting the princess and 'choosing' her over the actual victim (who is an 'irregular' species like him).
"What's going on?" Luz demands.
She's mostly heard Vee's furious voice and Hunter's pleading one through the walls. The scene before her is not as bad as she'd feared - Hunter is unpinned and uninjured, although his hands are up, and Vee's tail is lashing furiously.
"Yeah," Vee hisses, full of venom, "what's going on, Hunter?"
Hunter shakes his head. "Don't."
Luz places herself between them, instinctive. It's a position she's gotten used to occupying; taking responsibility for Hunter's nonsense has been second nature since long before she knew Vee.
"I'm sorry," she says, "for whatever he said. Whatever he did, I-"
"You always are, aren't you?" And now the anger in Vee's face is leeching away, replaced by all-too-familiar pain. She seems so tired. "Titan forbid anyone let you be kind."
"Vee," Hunter says, quiet and strained, "please. Don't."
Vee ignores him. "The Emperor used to talk about you," she says. "His little princess. His little prodigy. Your legacy."
Luz rocks back half a step -- her usual reaction to unexpected mentions of Belos. Even now, the thought of him makes her so sick. The thought of him discussing her down in the dungeons, his voice fond and casual and paternal, while doing unspeakable things to the people down there-
"He used to talk about you with Hunter," Vee continues, and then she laughs. "Oh, you don't like hurting the basilisks, Hunter? You don't like it when they scream for help? You don't like listening to them beg for scraps through the bars? Well, maybe Luz will be more accommodating!"
Luz only realizes she's backing away when Hunter takes her arm to steady her. She should jerk away, but even now, she's not angry with him. Even now, all she wants to do is lean into him. Close her eyes. Pretend this could all go away.
She can't do that. She won't do that.
"You don't know what you're talking about," Hunter tells Vee. "You don't understand-"
"No, no, I do understand," Vee says. "I understand it a lot more now. I didn't, before. I thought he meant Luz would like it. But it's because she'd cry, right? He hated the crying. She'd cry and he'd hit her and then she wouldn't cry anymore. The one lesson you would never let her learn."
Hunter's fingers curl tighter around Luz's arm, involuntary. She knows it's involuntary because it's starting to hurt.
"Or maybe," Vee says, "he wouldn't. Maybe he wouldn't. Nobody's ever wanted to hit you."
Even as she says it, Luz can see the regret in her eyes - she doesn't mean to sound so bitter. She doesn't mean to hate Luz for being the Emperor's favorite pet.
Luz doesn't blame her.
"Maybe," Vee finishes, breathing hard, "she would have gotten me out."
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Please....talk more about objectum ink... I'm interested..
projecting really really hard but I think not only do they personalize objects and talk to them and has a different and complex relationship to each of their plushies, figurines, and object that he has a history with.
but also has a thing for big hulking machinery, or things like radio towers and electric polls and the like
this is probably the coolest thing for ink. he wants to be tangled in those wires SO BAD. number on guy in the hugging computers competition.
I think he sees something 'holy' in machines, which makes sense, cuz I have this hc in my head that creators are interlinked with machinery and computers and such. but also I think if he keeps thinking about his toaster too hard he would start wanting it.
speaking of which, did u guys remember his little radio? that he hears the creators with? his relationship to that radio makes me go crazy.
that radio is the personification of the very beings he loves dearly. it is the most normal everyday object there is, yet it speaks his gods' words, that object is an actual holy artifact to him.
but it is also the very personification of the extremely unbalanced power imbalance between ink and the creators, as the radio is a one way communication line that only transmets what the creators say and not ink's, showing how little ink matters for his words to not even reach the creators. yet he doesn't see that, cuz that radio is everything to him. and he wants it so bad.
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