#Day 6: Mind control

[lemissingmask]

[ID: Sketch of Jacob Stone enclosed in a glowy blue column and sitting on a stool, holding one arm with a bandaged right hand, looking at Cassandra beside him, who is calculating something in her head, and with Jenkins in the foreground watching them. End ID]

-

Day 6: Mind control

Ficlet explaining this below the cut

-

Stone hadn’t been acting right.

First, he kept spacing out.  Getting lost in thought in a way he usually only did if studying artworks, portfolios or works of literature.  Except, when he sat down to actually do that after they’d finished an artifact retrieval, Eve didn’t see him write a single note.

He had dismissed her concerns with, as she expected, a kind but guarded smile, and a simple, “I’m good.”

That didn’t do anything to make her less concerned, but she did conclude that maybe it was something personal.  He had a lot of pain in his past, and Eve barely knew the smallest part of it.  Add that to his habit of thinking a lot…maybe he just had periods like this, triggered by something none of them could guess.

Except, then he showed signs of pain.  Or, not pain.  Discomfort.  Pressing the heel of his palm over an eye, wincing from apparently nothing.  And, when she picked him up on this, his, “Nothing’s wrong,” was sharp and unfamiliar.  Nothing like the soft smile Stone had offered a couple of weeks before.

She backed off but kept close watch.  Close enough that she saw when he recklessly - almost deliberately - threw himself at their claw-endowed foe in the middle of a fight.  Ezekiel saved him from a very probably fatal injury, managing to use the distraction to pull the evil ruby from the back of the crab-looking, scaled created, just in time for it to crumbled into fragments before that massive claw could cut Stone in two.

Ezekiel had grinned as he held up the gem, said something expectedly cocky, and the day was saved.

Stone looked angry.  Ferocious.

Eve only placed the expression hours after they were back, after Cassandra and Ezekiel had gone to grab victory drinks.  Well aware of the sadness discord among the group caused Cassandra, Eve waited until then, grabbing Stone’s arm to hold him back from joining them.

She didn’t waste time with skirting around the question.  What was wrong with him?  Why had he been so reckless?  He needed to get it together or someone was going to get hurt.

In short, an earful.  The sort of lecture she rarely needed to give the librarians anymore.

He had responded with confusion, a hurt and lost expression, and then suddenly that ferocity again.  No word accompanied the changing demeanour, and he walked away without saying a single word in his defence or apology.

“Did I miss something?” Jenkins asked, watching the empty space Stone had just vacated.  The question was really just a prompt for the explanation he had to know was coming.

“Stone’s acting wrong.”

Jenkins hummed the ‘I believe you are right’ hum, “I too have noticed the change.”

She shook her head, “Today, in a fight, he almost got himself killed.  And it didn’t look like an accident.  He just threw himself into the danger without a plan or a decent strategy.  Which, maybe two years ago, could be normal, but now…” “And it takes no pleasure in art,” Jenkins added, “Is distant.”

“And angry.  He looked angry when Ezekiel defeated that crab…thing.  Like he wanted to be the one to do it.”

Jenkins hummed the ‘you are wrong’ hum.

Eve sighed, “Do you have any theories?”

“I may…but it would…”

“Baird!  Jenkins!” Cassandra sprinted in, catching herself on the doorframe to keep from literally sliding beyond it in her haste, “We need your help.  Stone’s…”

She broke off, choking on a sort of sob, and shook it off, “Just come!”

Eve caught Jenkins’ worried glance for a split second before they were both on their feet, running after Cassandra until they saw what she had called them for, and Eve sprinted ahead.

Stone was lying on the floor in the corridor, outside one of the innumerable rooms, a pool of blood beneath him and his left shoulder soaked in it.  From years of habit, she assessed that along with several other wounds - his hand was scored in a row of three deep gashes, the left side of his head was reddened and grazed, and he wasn’t moving.  Ezekiel leaned over him, his own shirt balled up and pressed onto Stone’s shoulder.

“He tried to fight that big ass scorpion thing!”

“The Aqrabuamelu?” “Whatever!” Ezekiel moved back to let Eve and Jenkins take over, “We were going to ask him to join us and he just ignored us.  We followed and then he just walks in.  Stands there and the scorpion guy went for him.  We dragged him out, but…”

But he had once again almost got himself killed in an act far too stupid for someone so intelligent.

The reasons could wait.  Right now they needed to deal with the very severe, deep wound that cut deep into his shoulder.  Deep enough she could see bone beneath the confusion of blood and flesh.

“Do we have anything in the library that can help with this?  It’s not a magical wound, right?”

Jenkins pursed his lips, “Let us hope not…first we need to put pressure on the injury and bind it, hold the sides of the gash closed…”

Eve fell back into an old habit.  She listened to the resident medic, did as they instructed to stabilise the injury, transport the victim, assist in the treatment, clean the victim up.  It helped.  Helped her not to think about the two pairs of terrified eyes watching everything, of what might be going on with their art historian to cause him to be so reckless.

In the past when this happened, with an injury like this, it often culminated in the soldier being sent to a proper hospital as soon as possible and from there home, or the soldier dying.

This time, Jenkins had a useful elixir that helped stem the bleeding and knit the wound partially closed, leaving only a moderately deep cut that they could dress and bind.

That part was better than any previous incident like this.

Worse, however, was that when Stone woke up a few hours later, he was back to that ferocious anger again.  Silent, but with hatred in his gaze.  Specifically, hatred for Ezekiel and Cassandra - the ones who had pulled him to safety.

Jenkins watched this thoughtfully, then, speaking over the indignant words of Ezekiel directed at their ungrateful rescuee, “Colonel, please bring Mr Stone into the annex with as much force as is required.  Miss Cilian, if you could assist me, please.”

He walked off, Cassandra running after, with a final, worried, look back towards Stone.

Eve hesitated, briefly became the object of that angry gaze, and grabbed Stone by the back of his shirt collar and his uninjured arm to manhandle him after the former knight.

In the annex, Jenkins stepped in to take Stone from Eve and push him unceremoniously onto one of the stools.

Immediately, a blue light erupted from beneath him in a tall column of light.

“That should keep him from doing himself further mischief for now,” Jenkins said with evident satisfaction, “And give us time to resolve this matter.”

“The matter of Stone trying to kill himself,” Ezekiel clarified.

“No,” Jenkins held up a finger, “Trying to get himself killed.  There is a distinction.”

“Not in the outcome.”

“The outcome is not the important factor here,” Jenkins continued, “Colonel, when did you say you first noticed this strange behaviour?  About a month ago now?”

“Yeah.”

“Shortly after you retrieved the lead-covered tome from Malta.”

“I think so…”

“Just so,” Jenkins nodded, “He was distracted, lost interest in his passions, grew agitated, and finally began to put himself into fatal situations with apparent deliberate intent.”

“Yeah.”

“There is a creature…” he left the sentence hanging as he went to retrieve a book, returning and continuing as he leafed through it, “Called a remora-”

“The-”

“Ah, yes, no,” he cut off Cassandra’s exclamation, “A different remora.  The fish was a…well, one should not undertake the classification and naming of creatures after two quarts of neat spirits.”

He stopped at a page and stepped back so they could peer collectively at the etched print of a slug-like creature with three rows of sharp teeth.

“This remora is a magical creature.  Was, in fact, human once.  Before Zeus took a disliking to him and, well, did what Zeus does.”

“One of the things Zeus does…” Eve muttered.  Stone had been telling her some of the stories of Greek mythology while he was studying some recently uncovered pottery sent to be examined by one of his aliases.

Looking back to Stone where he sat now, she saw nothing of her friend there.  Just cold anger.  Hostility.

“The unfortunate human had been a particularly handsome sailor, reputed to be unrivalled in his ability to get the greatest speed from any ship, beloved and admired by all those who saw his abilities.  On transforming, the creature was compelled to latch onto ships moving through the water, seeking what was familiar to him, and yet his doing so could stop the ship entirely.  He became hated and feared by sailors.”

“That’s so sad,” Cassandra whispered.

“As is the fate of most who angered Zeus during the height of his power.”

“Okay, but this doesn’t explain Stone trying to kill himself.”

“Get himself killed,” Jenkins corrected, “The remora has been known to enter into humans, latching onto them as it will with any surface, and burrowing inside.  Its home, where it wants to be, is the water.  The open oceans, and on finding itself inside a host, it seeks escape.  This it does by attempting to control the host.  Just as it can control ships, to an extent, it can control living beings.  Not entirely, but enough to eventually find its way out of the host.  Pliny the elder, for example.  Sailed directly towards an active volcano, impelled by the remora, and met his unfortunate demise.”

“And you think Stone picked this remora up in Malta?”

“It may have been attached to the book you recovered, or perhaps free in the water at the time Mr Stone went in.  In any case, it found its way into him, and since then has been gradually gaining control over his mind.”

Eve looked again at Stone.  The remora had his expression fixed in something cold and angry, but apparently indifferent to their presence and their discussion.  It was watching, but not really seeing.

“So,” Ezekiel prompted when the silence had extended for too long, “How do we get this remora guy out of Stone?”

“Death of the host is the only means ever documented.”

“Well we aren’t killing Stone, so let’s find a new way.”

“An exorcism?” Ezekiel suggested, “Or, like, some kinda variation on one?”

“Exorcisms are very specific rituals, Mr Jones.  Variations on them to the extent of eliminating formerly-human creatures with a physical presence in this plane do not exist.”

Ezekiel huffed and they fell silent.

Stone shifted in his seat, pressed a hand against the barrier containing him, glowering yet more coldly when it didn’t yield.

“Why did that thing get in him anyway if it just wants to get out again?” Eve asked.

“There would have been no intent behind the action.  An accident.  Latching onto a surface not as resistant as the hull of a ship.”

“So, maybe it just doesn’t know another way out,” Cassandra said with that spark of excitement that foretold some genius, “If we can guide it out the way it came…”

“How do we do that?” Ezekiel waved a hand in front of Stone’s face, and received that same empty coldness - aware but not really observing.

“We use something it wants.  The ocean or a ship…do we have an ocean or a ship?”

“We have several rooms with some sort of oceanic portion to them, but they have existing uses.  I would prefer not to introduce the remora into any of our occupied rooms.”

“And we can’t let it loose to do this to more people.”

“What about shipwrecks?” Cassandra said a stream of confusing statements about velocity and currents that apparently led her to the conclusion, “If we pass something that resembles the hull of a ship past Stone at a precise velocity in a body of water with salinity matching the ocean where we found the remora, it should move out of him and to that.  The cut in his shoulder would provide an easy path so it should be able to reach the external medium before the falsity becomes obvious.”

“Okay…” Eve nodded, understanding enough and trusting in Cassandra’s judgement, “Then that’s what we do.”

-

Holding one of her best friends down, half underwater while simultaneously trying to stop him from drowning himself, at the same time as two other friends orchestrated a carefully timed motion of some copper-covered wooden planks over the immersed part of the first friend…Eve reflected once again that her life had become incredibly bizarre.

Stone’s relentless efforts to immerse his head in the water prevented her from any deep reflection, since she had to prevent that while also keeping him from knocking the fake ship’s hull and ruining the illusion.  There was also the small matter of his very much open injury seeping blood into the water around him.

Somewhere beyond her head, Cassandra was using a pulley to move the object through the water, while Ezekiel and Jenkins used yet more string-linked objects to create the correct motion of water to suggest a ship to the remora.  Cassandra had drawn out a diagram of the fluid dynamics required and how to create it, and now Eve was poised over the water - hanging from a harness Ezekiel assured her was secure - trying to move as little as possible as the obscure procession of wood began.

As soon as the wood moved close, she released Stone, trusting the calculations and theory that this would work and she hadn’t just let Stone go and drown himself.

The fake ship passed slowly over, Stone remained motionless beneath the surface of the water.

Ten seconds passed.  Fifteen.  Twenty, and the ‘ship’ suddenly stopped.

Beneath it, Stone moved, tried to sit up, hitting his head against the fake ship.

He scrambled out from beneath the immobile copper-coated wood, blood blossoming behind him, and emerged from the water coughing violently.

Eve unfastened herself from the harness, dropping the couple of feet to the water.

“Stone?!”

He was trembling, breathless and not just from the water, and suddenly very pale.

Gripping her arm, he nodded, and turned to look back at the wood, still unmoving in the water.

Beneath it, a small, dark shape lurked.

“Thing has…so much hate,” Stone murmured, voice weak and unsteady, “All this…built up anger.  A-An’ it doesn’t even know why.  It’s got no…no memories left.”

Those fractured, almost inaudible, words, were all he said of the remora aloud.

They treated his shoulder, made a room for the remora, and carried on.  Bizarre and dangerous events were part of their daily life, and this soon became just another of those.

But not for Stone.

Eve knew that he spent a lot of time visiting it, sometimes with his laptop, sometimes with a book.

Several months later, when the entire incident felt like nothing more than a distant memory, Eve saw Jenkins reading an academic paper on little known Ancient Greek folklore, authored by one of Stone’s aliases.  She skimmed over it herself, and found a detailed, sympathetic, extensively researched background to The Remora.

Stone’s way of helping the creature that was beyond help.  Telling its forgotten story, and recounting the few times that a ship had been saved by its sudden, abrupt and inexplicable deceleration in the water.

-

[aprocessionofthoughts]

To lose control

ai-less whumptober 2023 day 6- mind control fandom- Danny Phantom x DC TW- loss of control summary- Danny's been working part time for the JLD when they come across and artifact he'd hoped to never see again.

ao3 ai-less whumptober masterlist Part 1 of ITR

Danny had been a consultant for the Justice League and part time member to the JLD for over a year now.

They both thought he was just a human with a connection to the occult. He planned to keep it that way. He didn’t really want to get back into hero-ing. He had had enough of that and was quite happy that most of his rogues were now his friends. And any ghost that wasn’t friendly was often taken care of by his parents who had greatly changed their views after he had told them his secret.

With his luck, he should have known that all his work at keeping Phantom a secret from the heroes would eventually go down the drain.

********

Danny paced by the side of the warehouse waiting for the League to finish taking down the summoners. He was merely here to help with the cleanup and to help determine which artifacts were dangerous and to collect any tomes for the JLD to review later.

Danny thought that Constantine could handle that on his own, but apparently since he was still ‘new’ the League had thought it necessary to send him so he could get more experience.

Finally, his comm dings and he makes his way to the door.

Constantine is inside along with the Bats, Danny really only recognizes Batman and the current Robin, the rest look familiar but he can’t remember any names. 

Though that one with the red helmet sure feels familiar. Almost as if…

He’s cut off from that train of thought when he senses pick up another familiar energy reading. One that makes him freeze in place, eyes wide.

“What’s wrong?”

Danny stumbles back. Holy Ancients! That’s Batman. How had he gotten so close without Danny noticing? Oh right, he was distracted by the energy he had hoped to never feel again, already he could feel memories trying to pull him into a panic.

Danny ignores the Bat who’s looming over him in favor of looking around the room. There was obviously a fight and Danny can see a summoning circle in the center of the open space with knocked over candles around the edge and piles of scattered herbs. The scent was making his nose prickle.

Danny ignored it as well as the Bat who seemed to be getting broodeir. Where was… There. He zeroed in on one of the cultists. A cultist who was wearing a necklace with a red gem. A very familiar red gem. 

Danny lets out a small gasp and Batman follows his gaze, his own eyes narrowing. 

“What is it?” 

Constantine is turning to them too, as are the other Bats.

“What’s wrong, mate?”

Danny can see the other Bats tensing,

Danny opens his mouth to tell them about the dangerous artifact, no need to tell them about said artifact’s abilities, when the cultist looks up and meets Danny’s eyes. Then he grins his eyes glowing faintly as the shard of crystal also glows.

“Look what we have here.” comes the raspy voice. “And here I’d been upset when our ritual was ruined.”

“What’s he talking about?” says the bat with a blue bird shape across his chest. Robin is starting to approach the cultist. 

“His necklace—”

“Stop.” says the man and Danny’s jaw clamps shut. He can feel the Red starting to haze his vision and he fights against it.

“Mind.. control..” he rasps, his body twitching as it fights to throw off the gem’s effects.

Robin has nearly reached the cultist. 

“Stop him.”

Between one blink and the next Danny finds himself having flung Robin away. Everyone is ready to fight now and the Red is still fighting to take over his vision.

“Run!” he manages. He doesn't want to fight them. Not if they don’t have the proper equipment. They don’t know what he is, what he can do. He doesn’t want to hurt anybody, except maybe the cultist.

“Strange, that you have a ghost working for you. Though I’ve never seen one look so human before.” Danny hears the cultist say, but he can’t move. He feels like a passenger in his own body. He can see everyone giving each other uncertain looks. They haven’t moved yet, but they will soon if they don’t think Danny’s a threat.

The bats have started to move towards him when the cultist says, “Attack.”

Danny feels the Red wash over him as he fires an ecto-beam at the nearest bat. At the last second, Danny’s able to redirect it to miss.

At least everyone’s on higher alert now.

But his body keeps trying to attack everyone and even though he’s fighting it, Danny knows it will only be so long before he succumbs to the Red. 

As he’s grappling with Batman he manages to grunt through gritted teeth, “Find– Manson–” 

Then the cultist shrieks, “Get over here!” and Danny finds himself putting up a shield between the cultist and the hero wearing black and blue. “Get me out of here.” the cultist growls.

Danny turns to grab him, making them both invisible and intangible as the Red drowns him.

He can only hope that they’ll find his friends before he does anything too terrible.

Then, there is only Red.

[kittykatninja321]

post #1637272 about Lost Days Jason and Talia (I’m sorry):

I’m pretty sure the background for Talia’s sudden turn against Bruce in lost days #6 was Talia getting mind fucked by her sister and a bunch of other stuff that happened in Batman: Death and Maidens, which is what she was referring to when she said that her father was dead and Batman was responsible. So when she’s suddenly like “you know what Jason you’re right. Bruce needs to be punished” she’s currently Not Sane at that moment. I don’t know I just think it’s funny that the second Talia loses her marbles Jason no longer has anyone holding him back and the plot of utrh immediately kickstarts

[not-so-superheroine]

April 6th is coming up soon :)

i have been asked to film a short video of my testimony of the book of mormon.

i want to know how it has impacted your life. the scripture within. what parts speak to you. why you consider it to be sacred scripture.

i don't know what i will do yet but i think i may speak on how it convinced me of continuing revelation, contains messages of liberation and is anti-wealth inequality, it gives solid spiritual advice in growing your faith in God (and has grown my faith and my relationship with my Creator), a focus on the Living Christ, and is spiritually empowering.

i'm going on too long because i started planning. but does anyone else want to join in and post theirs (not necessarily as a video but a text post. but use any medium you'd like.) on April 6th?

not sure of a good tag, but lmk if you have a better one than

#BoMTestimony

lmk and i'll update.

and yes, nuanced views are totally okay. mine certainly is. i'd love to see them.

if you want it up anonymously, you can anon DM me on anon. i will, of course, screen those.

i also ask that we keep it to the Book of Mormon and the Restoration as a whole rather than a specific church to be inclusive of those in other mormon sects.

and be careful to not insult other non mormon religions.

i haven't seen any religious insults on #tumblrstake , i think y'all are respectful and chill. i just like to cover my bases bc i have seen it elsewhere. but the vibes are much different on tumblr than on reddit. thank you all.

[marenwithanm]

Girl help I've become a trekie a few decades late.

[all54321]

The Watcher’s Fledgling

[AO3]

This… is the worst Whumptober prompt so far (emotionally). So I apologize for this.

Additional Warning: Major Character Death

Day 6: Mind Control / Forced to Hurt Someone Else

Summary: Everyone had panicked when Grian suddenly vanished, especially after Pearl told them about Evo, so they were all glad when they found him unconscious at spawn. Worried, but glad that he’s back. If only he would wake up.

—————

Scar dragged his feet the whole time Cub lead him away from the ‘hospital.’ He wasn’t obsessed with watching over Grian, he spent a reasonable amount of hours waiting at his bedside.

Yet his brother still insisted on taking him out to eat somewhere else in the server. Completely unreasonable. Especially since Cub forced him to stay away for hours.

Scar is more than eager as he hurries back to where Grian is, Cub having voiced his disagreement, but let him go. Just as he is approaching the building, it explodes, the shockwave throwing him off his feet.

He pushes himself into a sitting position, panicked and eyes wide. Purple smoke trails from the hole in the building, and a figure shoots into the air, white wings spread wide. Purple eyes cover their wings and hover in the air around them.

“Grian!” Scar exclaims, panic and worry clashing in equal measures, because that’s Grian, but something is wrong. Even more so than before.

Instantly Grian snaps his head in his direction, bright violet eyes glowing. Scar quickly scrambles to his feet, but Grian is already in front of him. Purple energy condenses in his hands and he slashes through the air, creating a trail of the magic.

Before Scar can react, Grian snaps his figures and the magic flies at him. He gasps as it hits his chest, pain shooting through his system as it leaves a deep gash across his chest.

He falls back to the ground, crying out in pain. He looks up at Grian to see his eyes cold and expression emotionless. He raises his hand up, the purple magic gathering again.

All that’s racing through Scar’s mind is why. Why is this happening to Grian? Why is it happening at all? Why Grian?

Scar lets his eyes close and hangs his head, there’s no way he can fight against Grian, even if it’s to save his life. He doesn’t even open them when he hears Xisuma shout, “Grian!”

He screams as he feels something stab him, impaling straight through him. Right through his heart.

Darkness claims his vision moments later.

[howtowhumpyourhiccup]

The Depths Are A Mercy

Summary: Written for AI-less Whumptober 2023 Day 6. Set during Httyd 2. Toothless comes to after Drago’s Bewilderbeast took his mind. He remembers nothing, but that isn’t a mercy.

Warning: Canonical character death, major character death, mind control

Rating: General

Characters: Hiccup, Toothless

Pairing: /

Words: 667

Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon

Prompt: Mind control, Forced to hurt someone else

Whumpee: Hiccup, Toothless

Author’s Notes: Saw these prompts, thought of Toothless in Httyd 2, though I already had a fic like this, but apparently that wasn't true!

Enjoy!

@ailesswhumptober

XOXOX

When he comes to, Toothless doesn't even remember the battle. The farthest his memory goes is the fun in Valka's den, but even that is vague. So when this strange veil lifts from his mind and the mental pressure lightens, he sits and tries to get his bearings. At first, he’s disoriented and confused, but not in any kind of distress. Why would he be? As far as he’s concerned, there was no battle taking place and the utter silence of the snowfield doesn’t convince him otherwise.

But despite his confusion, his immediate instinct is still to look for Hiccup.

Who runs past him, straight at the unmoving form of Stoick the Vast.

He lies in a pile of ice chunks and Toothless knows that should strike him as strange, but it doesn’t. Not immediately. It’s like he’s not entirely there yet.

It’s not until Hiccup is in distress and the other Dragon Riders are landing that he catches up completely, that he knows something is wrong.

“Dad!” Hiccup shouts as he rolls his father onto his back, Valka dives in and listens for a heartbeat.

All remains quiet for a second too long, the other Dragon Riders- both human and dragon alike- show a growing dread.

Toothless approaches in disbelief. The battle still rages behind them, but the Night Fury only has eyes for his family as Hiccup lies draped over his father. He’s sobbing, his shoulders shaking, and Toothless is afraid.

What happened while he wasn’t looking? He remembers nothing! One moment Stoick and Valka were singing and dancing and Hiccup was enjoying himself, the next moment there’s… this! All kinds of possibilities run rampant in Toothless’ head, but there’s one in particular that he fears the most. Just thinking about it shreds his heart to pieces.

Please, don’t let his worst fear come true. Don’t let that be it.

With a scared heart pounding inside his chest, thoughts a jumbled mess, Toothless warbles at the motionless figure of the mountainous man and nudges his hand with his nose.

Only for Hiccup to push his nose away harshly.

Immediate shock overcomes the dragon. It overcomes everyone, who weren’t expecting him to ever reject his best Bud. He and Hiccup could be rough with one another, but this didn’t feel rough, it felt angry. And looking up to his human’s face, anger is exactly what he sees.

No, anger doesn’t even come close. There’s rage in those eyes. Those familiar foresty pools that he knows as filled with such warmth are now cold and in pain. And all of those emotions are directed at him!

“No! Get away from him!” Hiccup shouts at his dragon with venom in his eyes.

Toothless recoils and then warbles up at him, confusion tears him apart. He’s never been afraid of Hiccup, he isn’t now either, but fear fills him either way.

“GO ON! GET OUT OF HERE! GET AWAY!” His soulmate shouts at him again, demanding that he disappear from his sight and Toothless doesn’t know what would’ve hurt more; being struck in his heart by a spear or this.

But he does as he’s told, shaken up enough by Hiccup’s out of character behavior that he doesn’t even try to fight it. Fishlegs tries to stop him from leaving, but Toothless avoids him easily.

Looking over his shoulder, Toothless finds Hiccup slumped over his father again and his heart breaks for him. He knows he loves his father from the bottom of his heart and losing him was always going to be devastating for him.

Somehow it’s happened and Toothless has a hard time grasping the fact that he has something to do with it.

Stoick is gone. Dead. And somehow it’s his fault.

He fought the Bewilderbeast’s control as hard as he could the last time it took him, but when it comes for him this time, Toothless welcomes it with open arms. Feeling numb and not in control is better than what his reality is now.

[baby-come-bach]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Final Fantasy VI Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Rape/Non-Con Characters: Tina Branford | Terra Branford, Kefka Palazzo Additional Tags: Mind Control, Dubious Consent, The Teen Rating is Accurate, Nothing explicit just want to be safe, Drugging, chained to the wall, Implied/Referenced Torture, Past Torture Series: Part 6 of AI-less Whumptober 2023 Summary:

Chained up, unable to use her magic, and freezing in her cell, Terra learned that when the jester visited, it meant torture was to come.

[hlvrai-stuck-together]

((OOC))

Sorry I keep updating at like. midnight. I honestly dont have an excuse besides i go to work and i get home and i'm tired fghsdajk

Gonna take me a little while to get into the swing of this. I've never done an askblog like this before (though I have hosted... technically 3 in the past? (EDIT: no, 4 actually.) But never like this, and none of them went anywhere), so trying to get into the swing of it has been weird.

Glad people seem to be enjoying it, though! I had no idea it'd take off like this, aha. Hopefully I can get a bit more consistent and stop uploading at 2 AM, lol.

That said, I don't know what my schedule's gonna be (if I even start one). So if there's a couple days where I don't upload, it's not because I abandoned the AU or anything, it's probably just because I'm busy IRL.

Feel free to keep sending in asks even if I'm not online! I've already got a lot of really good ones sitting there that I'm gonna hold onto for a bit (for. reasons).

This has been really fun so far, and I hope everyone's having fun, too! Just bear with me while I figure this out. I'm hoping to get out a ref of [ERROR] soon, and also stop calling him that soon, but getting into character is proving to be a challenge when you do it on and off like this. But that's never stopped me before and it won't now. Like I said, this has been fun so far!

That said, if anyone has any suggestions on a meta level, I'm all ears. I realize now that I've run into this basically blind, so even though I did a couple week's worth of preparation in advance for this blog, I'm also still floundering a bit. Learning more every day, though! And I'm hoping I can pick up the pace soon as well. After Day 1's rapidfire replies, going at a more leisurely pace feels really slow, and I both wanna fix that but also don't know how because, like I said, I keep uploading at midnight gfdshjk

TL;DR I'm working on it dw lol

-Mod Dimonds

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[femme-malewife]

...Not tonight though. I have work in the morning.

[quibbs126]

Out of curiosity, do any of you think the Sovereign of Darkness is going to show up in Cookie Run Kingdom?

I find the Sovereign pretty interesting (and full of angst potential) and I just think it would be neat. But also, I’m not sure it’d work with the story?

Again I haven’t gotten to Episode 14, but I may or may not have watched a video showing the cutscenes for the last two stages of that episode, and what I do know is that Dark Choco willingly left the Cookies of Darkness, along with the Strawberry Jam Sword, and left to go find a new path it seems, and likely later down the line a redemption arc

On one hand, having the Sovereign of Darkness happen would be really tragic; Dark Choco finally puts the sword behind him, taking it out of his life so he can live a better one, only for him to be thrust back into the darkness unwillingly and the sword having more control of him than ever, and now he’s unable to fight back whatsoever. And having Dark Cacao Cookie, along with other characters who know about Dark Choco’s leaving seeing him being forced back into being their enemy, the angst potential is just so good. And then maybe at the end Dark Choco Cookie finds a way to resist control, and ends up breaking the Strawberry Jam Sword once and for all

But at the same time, it might be an unnecessary addition? I mean, we see Dark Choco finally leave to try and turn over a new leaf, having him just go back to being part of the evil team might feel like a cop out, especially if it happens the next time we see him. Like we get a bit of progression with him only to backpedal it all. I feel like it could work better if Dark Choco’s heel turn happened only around the Cookies of Darkness, with no other characters present, and when he attempts to leave, Pomegranate Cookie and/or Dark Enchantress Cookie stop him and force him to comply, and while we don’t see what happens to him onscreen, when we next see him he’s the Sovereign, but that’s not what happened. Also I’m not sure if Devsis is cruel enough to do that

And does he really need to go back to that? Do we really need to see him be evil again?

And I mean, it’s just a costume from Ovenbreak, it doesn’t have to mean anything for the story of Kingdom. I mean yes, his other one did, but it was his flashback look and since his backstory is relevant in Kingdom, it just makes sense to use it. Sovereign of Darkness on the other hand (I presume), is not relevant to his canon backstory, nor is anything from Ovenbreak, so I mean…

But I dunno, I think it’d be cool?

[iwritewhump]

whumptember day 6-7

title: a curse taken 

prompts: “you know what you have to do”, mind control, hurting a loved one, “don’t leave me”

warnings: cursing, blood, slightly intimate whumper, poisoning, death

characters: sidekick, villain, medic, hero

1180 words 

a/n: this one kinda got away from me but i like how it turned out! reblogs appreciated

~

Sidekick walked into the house and past the living room where Villain was watching the news. Villain mumbled a hello, which Sidekick ignored. 

Here’s what you’re going to do. 

Sidekick opened the fridge and grabbed out whatever lunch meat there was and a slice of cheese. He pulled a paper towel off the roll and folded it over once and made a sandwich. 

Give this to Medic, make sure you only use half. 

He pulled the vial, barely thicker than a pencil and less than an inch tall, out from his pocket and set it on the counter next to the bread. 

Make sure they won’t notice it, hide it in some food or a drink if you can. 

Bread on the towel, meat, cheese, meat; he pulled the cork out of the top of the vial and sprinkled some of the contents on the slice of meat; he pushed the cork back in the vial and hid the vial in his pocket again, meat, bread. 

Villain can’t know anything’s happening. No matter what. 

He walked past the living room again and Villain nodded as he passed and Sidekick ignored him again. 

Villain rolled his eyes and scoffed playfully, “Bad day?” 

Sidekick ignored them again, eyes clouded with tears. Villain’s eyes followed them as they walked down to Medic’s room and opened the door, but he stayed in the living room. 

“Hey Sidekick! How was your day?” Medic asked, they noticed the sandwich in his hands and reached for it, “Mine? I hope so; forgot to eat lunch today.” 

He handed it to them and nodded. They inspected the meat and smiled.  “You’re a lifesaver. Ooh! It’s ham, I thought we were out of it. Villain must’ve bought more.” 

Sidekick sniffled and nodded, then walked out. Medic said something just before he closed the door, but he didn’t catch it. 

Once you’ve taken care of Medic, find Villain. 

Villain was still sitting on the couch; the news had been muted and Villain had scooted over. He patted the seat next to him and sighed, “Do we need to talk?” 

You have to surprise him if you want any chance of winning. 

Sidekick took a deep breath and shook his head. He screwed his eyes shut and shook his head. He didn’t want to do this, did he? 

“Sidekick?” Villain asked, “You alright?” He stood up and took a few steps toward Sidekick. His arms hung at his side, and he left his knife on the coffee table. 

You know what you have to do? 

Sidekick lunged at Villain, forcing him to the ground and pinning his arms to his side with his knees. 

“Sidekick? Oh god, no. I told you not to go see Hero. I told you not to.” Villain said, finally noticing the cloudiness in Sidekick’s eyes. “Sidekick, you have to fight it.” 

You know what you have to do. 

Sidekick grunted and pulled his arm back. He hit Villain square in the nose. His hand stung, this wasn’t right. He didn’t have to do this. He didn’t want to do this. Villain was good. Villain had kept him safe. Why was he doing this?

You know what you have to do. 

He hit Villain again, and again, and again, he hit him until his hand was swollen and the skin on his knuckles had split, then he hit him a few times after that for good measure. 

Once Villain can’t fight back anymore, you can stop. Do not kill him. 

Sidekick’s eyes unclouded and he saw Villain underneath him. 

“Villain?” he asked tentatively. He stood up and looked at his bloody hands, then again at Villain. “Did…did I do that?” 

Villain grimaced and shook his head. “Not really,” he rasped. “I told you not to meet with Hero.” 

“Oh,” Sidekick said. He shook his head and knelt down next to Villain, “I didn’t meet with her though. I didn’t. The only thing I did today was…no. I didn’t meet with her. I didn’t.” 

“Let’s not get caught up in what did and didn’t happen, just go get Medic for me, will ya? They probably have their headphones on so don’t just yell.” Villain said. He pushed himself up and moved so he was leaning against the couch. 

“Yeah, I’ll be right back.” Sidekick stood up again and walked down the hallway. He pushed Medic’s door open and walked inside. They were laying down on their bed, a half-eaten sandwich on their lap. 

“Medic, Villain needs your help.” he said. They didn’t respond. He stood above them and shook them by their shoulder, again they didn’t react. “Medic?” 

“They won’t wake up.” 

Sidekick spun around, his hands up ready to fight. Hero chuckled and rolled her eyes. “There’s no point in that, Sidekick. We both know you don’t have enough energy to fight me right now.” She walked into the room and reached into Sidekick’s pocket. His jaw clenched and he closed his eyes until she pulled away again. She held a vial in the palm of her hand, it was half full. She shook it gently and held it out in front of him. 

“You gave them this, don’t you remember?” she taunted. Of course he didn’t remember, not with what she’d done to him. 

“What’s your game? What do you want from me?” he asked. 

She hummed and closed her eyes with a small smile on her lips. “What I want from you…is something you’d never give me. That’s why I had to take it from you.” she turned her hand and her sleeve fell down just so he could see her wrist. 

The bracelet an old friend had given him was back around her wrist, sitting just above the cuff of her sleeve. He breathed out slowly and reached to his wrist, where the bracelet had resided hours before. 

“You took it back?” he whispered. 

She nodded and he laughed. “What’s funny?” she demanded. 

He threw his head back and laughed, “You took it back!” 

She grabbed his jaw and pushed him against the wall, “This isn’t funny. This was the last thing you had of her and now it’s gone! You can never have it back! Don’t you understand that?” she screamed in his face. “I took it from you! Which means I win!” 

“Oh, you win alright. And I can finally leave. After thousands of years, I can finally leave!” he kept laughing, even as she pushed him harder against the wall, “that wasn’t a gift, Hero.” he spat, “That bracelet was a fucking curse, and I’m finally free of it. So thank you. And goodbye.” he muttered something under his breath and disappeared from under her hand.

Hero fell forward and hit the wall, her breath knocked out of her from the force of the fall.  

“Don’t leave me!” she shouted to no one. “Don’t you fucking leave me! I won! I fucking won! You can’t leave!” her voice broke and she looked at her wrist again. Instead of pride, a wave of nothingness flowed over her. She was still alone. 

[seenthisepisode]

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[713-4th-ward-g]

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[mainfaggot]

tw eating disorder talk in the tags btw. just me being open for the first time in a long time but no numbers or specifics that could be triggering do nawt worry