#a pathetic old man whose ruined so many lives in pursuit of the unattainable

[coldgoldlazarus]

Also, my RvB binge last night and my Lariska brainrot today are melding in interesting ways.

Cause like, I couldn't help but draw some parallels between Lariska and Carolina. Teal armor, super fast, highly-trained and hypercompetent killers working for a morally bankrupt organization, and having a decidedly... complicated relationship with the leader of that organization?

This, along with a post I saw interpreting TSO's rather... weird... form as a sort of raptorlike shape, plus my own interpretation of Lariska being quite obviously Velociraptor-inspired, got me thinking about the possibility of headcanoning TSO as like, basically her dad? Like the Director with Carolina. Obviously with Bonkle, reproduction doesn't happen and parenthood as we know it thus isn't really a concept, but regardless, the idea could sort of work, still.

Them actually being the same species, and TSO having taken her under his wing a long time in the past, essentially adopting her. Then time passes, she becomes more personally proficient, and he becomes the coldhearted dickbag we know today, and somewhere during that the Dark Hunters are founded, and their dynamic goes from father and daughter to boss and employee. And then it just, breaks entirely when he has her arm removed, and replaced with a bad prosthetic instead of being allowed to rebuild it properly.

And so there's just this sort of fundamentally broken dynamic now where any bridges between them are completely burnt and collapsed, but because of their roles they're still working together, seeing each other every day, seeing the ruins of the connection that once was there and mutually understanding that there's no repairing it, neither of them even particularly want to repair it, but they're just dealing with that because they're still boss and employee. And Lariska fully intends to kill him someday, and TSO fully intends to not let that day come, but they both know it's going to come sooner or later regardless. But it's because there was once such a strong bond there once that this is unavoidable now. There's nothing positive left to be found there, not even a sliver of remorse of "maybe we can go back", yet still the memory of the care that used to exist is why they're so unstoppably at odds now.

Idk, part of me feels like this is maybe a bit too... idk, melodramatic? Soap-Opera-ish? But at the same time I feel like it could really add some additional meaning and emotional heft to their exchanges, in a way that doesn't undermine the inevitability of their arcs.

And unlike Carolina, when finally given the chance to kill her father figure, Lariska would indeed follow through.