#murder by proxy

[proudfreakmetarusonikku]

Day 14: Die A Hero Or Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain.

The Disc Finale in a Protegeinnit AU. Ordered by Dream to kill Tubbo, Tommy's confidence falls apart once Tubbo shows he really does care. Reluctantly carrying through (more for Tubbo than anything), he's prevented from even doing funerary rites. Warnings for abuse, broken friendships, referenced human experimentation, self dehumanisation and victim blaming, referenced non-consensual body modification (enchantment tatttoos), self hatred, a weird combination of assisted suicide and murder by proxy, graphic descriptions of death and corpses, and religious themes. AO3 link, if you’d prefer.

“Tommy?”

Tubbo’s voice sounded different to how Tommy remembered it, the tiniest bit deeper, the slightest bit more mature. He’d grown older, Tommy realised with a pang of jealousy, and no matter how much Dream made him hide the evidence through hair dye and raised collars, he would not.

He was taller, too. (Tommy hadn’t grown an inch.) He’d gained back some fat and muscle, and was looking healthier. (No matter how much Tommy ate- Dream insisted, for some fucking reason, even though he was never hungry- he stayed stick-thin and far too weak for a proper protege). His hair was tied back in a messy ponytail, and he wore his favourite green shirt. (Prime knows Dream would throw a fit if Tommy so much as tried to do his own hair, let alone choose his hairstyle or clothes).

Jealousy cut through him like a hot knife.

Maybe he could do this, then. Maybe he could kill the boy who claimed to be his best friend, who’d sent him astray, who he now suddenly felt such hatred towards. Maybe he could prove to Dream that he was worthy. (Maybe Dream wouldn’t go through with his threat of switching the revival experiments to Tubbo because he didn’t want anyone to have to go through that suffering who didn’t deserve it, and Tommy knew he deserved far worse.)

And then Tubbo tackled him into a warm embrace, tight but not like the imprisoning vice grip he was used to, and all that certainty vanished.

“We thought- we thought you were dead. I missed you so, so, so much. I’ll get you out of here, I promise. I’ll get you home.”

Tommy furrowed his brow. He was home. He didn’t deserve L’Manberg- the residents had made that clear- and it was gone now anyway. He was a stupid kid who couldn’t survive on his own. His only place was with Dream- and besides, not only did Dream all but own him, he was the only person in the world who’d not only care about an annoying brat like him but see him as the diamond in the rough he apparently was.

Just what was Tubbo going for with this?

Tubbo pulled away, almost as reluctant as Dream always got, looking down at Tommy in concern. “I’m sorry, I should have checked if you were… Are you okay? Has he hurt you? Why are you here, bossman?”

Always answer questions. That was part of the rules. “I’m fine. Not unless I deserve it, usually. Because this is my home.” Tommy kept his voice measured, calm. He didn’t know how Tubbo would react, didn’t have that intuitive sense of what to do that he’d learnt around Dream, so being guarded seemed like the best option.

Tubbo looked at him like he’d grown two heads, and Tommy flinched back, so sure he’d be hit that he didn’t understand why he couldn’t feel the familiar guiding pain, only to open his eyes and see Tubbo with his arms raised in a gesture of peace.

The two stayed there, staring at each other, for an amount of time that could have as easily been seconds or hours, before laughter made them both jump.

“What a touching reunion.” Tommy relaxed at Dream’s voice, while Tubbo tensed. “Unfortunately, I don’t have all day, so maybe you should just say your goodbyes. After all, you haven’t forgotten the whole point of this, right, Tommy?”

Tommy hung his head. “Course not, Dream. Sorry, man.”

“Wait, Tommy, what the fuck is going on?” There was no panic or surprise in Tubbo’s voice, just genuine confusion. “Why the hell are you working with that green bitch all of a sudden?”

Tommy took his mask out of his inventory, pausing to examine the cat-smile and sharp eyes crudely drawn onto it with a sense of sadness. That was the one part of his appearance he had any sort of control over, and he loathed to take it off. Dream made him when they weren’t on missions, of course, but he’d ordered Tommy to wait without it here for reasons that suddenly seemed to make a lot more sense. “I’ve… it’s been me the whole time.”

There was no betrayal on Tubbo’s face, just a sad acceptance. “I thought you sounded familiar, you know. I heard you crying that one time.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Tommy’s face flushed with embarrassment. He’d broken down after destroying L’Manberg, and just started sobbing and screaming and throwing a right tantrum on his way back to the base, instead of doing it in his room like he’d grown accustomed to. Of course, he was swiftly punished for that slip-up, but that hurt less than the idea of an enemy catching him at his lowest. “Fuck you, fuck you, that never happened.”

Despite everything, Tubbo chuckled at that. “Glad to see you’re still yourself, man. I…” There was an expression on Tubbo’s face that Tommy couldn’t place, and the unpredictability frightened him. Things he didn’t know usually equalled a new type of pain. “What did Dream do to you?”

“He fixed me.” Tommy took out his sword, glowing netherite with enchantments delicately carved in the same handwriting as those tattooed on his wrists, covered by the bulky red-and-green “friendship bracelets” Dream insisted he wear. For some reason, his palms were slippery, shaking like a leaf, and he fumbled, trying not to drop it. “And now, I’m going to fix you.”

Tommy expected anger. Fear. Some sort of fight. Instead, Tubbo just gave him a sad, sad smile, and closed his eyes. “Well. Go ahead.”

“I- what?” Tommy blinked, convinced he must be hallucinating again.

“I’ve had a good run, y’know? I’ve done a lot. Besides, if I had to die at anyone’s hands… it’d be you.” The laugh Tubbo gave was humourless. “You know I don’t have anything left. With you and L’Manberg gone… maybe, y’know, I wasn’t meant to be around this long anyway?”

That was what finally made Tommy choke up, from a few scant tears to bawling his eyes out in seconds. His sword dropped unceremoniously on the floor, and he fell to his knees.

Tubbo knelt down in front of him and, with as shaking hands as Tommy’s own, pressed the sword back into his hands. “C’mon, if there’s one last thing you can do, even if we’re not friends anymore… just, do it quick. Please.”

The idea felt wrong, itchy on his skin, but… they really weren’t friends anymore, weren’t they? That, too, was a lie he had to discard, the idea that he could ever spend time with Tubbo like in the old days. No, Tommy’s friend- his only friend- was Dream, and the sooner he admitted that, the easier it’d get, both for Tommy and those he foolishly tried to drag into the painful process of Dream healing him.

No, Tubbo wasn’t his friend anymore, but Tommy could do this one thing for him and pretend, just for a moment.

He closed his eyes, and shakily thrust his sword forward.

Death wasn’t pretty like it was in the movies. Tommy knew that well from his own experiences, and strangulation wasn’t even that bad, really. No, this was worse- the resistance of flesh and bone giving way to an awful cracking sound, choked gasping, blood soaking his fingers wet, and it was so hard for Tommy to bear opening his eyes. Hard, but necessary.

Tommy had never been to a Primian funeral, but he’d learnt the rites the night before he first went into battle. Muttered the prayers under his breath to the bloodied jacket of Wilbur’s- he wouldn’t have appreciated it, and he didn’t deserve it anyways, but if it even gave the slightest chance that the Primes could guide his soul somewhere better, he’d have done it a million times.

“M-may your spirits be cleaned in the light of the Bells.” Tommy’s voice was shaky as he started tracing the holy symbol on Tubbo’s forehead, not daring to look down any further. Even then, it was a horrific sight, grey eyes rolled back, strawberry blond curls matted with blood, and somehow a content smile on his face that barely seemed forced. “And-“

He flinched as a hand grasped his shoulder harshly, dragging him. “We’re done here, Tommy,” Dream said, his voice harsh like the strike of his axe. “Let’s not waste any more time.”

“Please, just let me- let me bless him, Dream, just give me a few seconds, please. I can’t let-“

Tommy’s panicked stream of consciousness was cut off by a sharp slap to his face, and he could feel barely-healed bruises starting to swell up again. “Why do you care? He’s an enemy. He doesn’t deserve the love of the Gods. What, did you forget he abandoned you? Are you that stupid?”

Tommy lowered his head. “No, Dream. ‘M sorry, Dream.”

“You better be. Now, let’s get going.”

Tommy didn’t resist as he was dragged away, but he closed his eyes and finished a silent prayer in his head.

And may you one day sit with the Gods and the Prime above, watching over us all.

[adaki]

Yk I think Toby is by far the least freaky crp in design but the thought of an encounter with him is terrifying.

[edwinisms]

it’s actually so wild to me that this fairly quirky YA type show gave both of its main characters deaths that can, in one way or another, solidly be considered hate crimes. they were both flat out murdered as a result of being A) gay and effeminate or B) brown (south asian, specifically) and you could argue whether or not those kids thought of it that way in the moment or whatever but the bottom line is that they would not have been in the situations that killed them if they weren’t of their respective minorities. like legitimately that is a ballsy choice for this kind of netflix show, let alone for the two Main Characters, and i respect it big time

[destielmemenews]

"Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the Missouri woman who plotted to kill her mother who had abused her and forced her to fake serious illnesses in a case that sparked a frenzy and inspired a TV series, was released from prison early Thursday."

"Blanchard had been serving a 10-year sentence on a second-degree murder charge for the June 2015 slaying of her mother, Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard.

She had conspired to kill her mother with her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, who fatally stabbed Dee Dee Blanchard as the daughter hid in the bathroom of her mother's home in Springfield, Missouri, the Springfield News Leader reported. Godejohn was sentenced in 2019 to life without the possibility of parole."

source 1

source 2

[umblrspectrum]

the day of reckoning has come. Matrick Patrick has covered Murder Drones, and oh my god it sucks so bad I don't care about spoiling people he literally

I'm actually about to lose it half his argument boils down to "Murder Drones is a Show that follows a plot", he makes no attempt to acknowledge the fact that all of the disassembly drones have solver, makes up a character on the spot to pin all the lore onto, incorporates TWO gags that are almost 100% jokes as part of his evidence, doesn't mention that he is not the first person to theorize that n was the reason nori died, never acknowledges doll other than to give blatantly wrong information, and gave us the brilliant line of "we can't talk about Murder Drones without bringing up World War II"

[hannibal-is-my-comfort-show]

[melsimps]

Pov: Quickie is a simp for a monster cutie.

[horror-thriller-brackets]

[rometabss]

succession (2018-2023) / interview with the vampire (2022-)

[distinguishedstudentfishalien]

After OFMD and GO, execs have to realize how good middle-age gay men are for business.

So I hope Bryan Fuller has a power point presentation ready for after the strike is over, in which he explains in detail why an even gayer new season of Hannibal would make NUMBERS, so we can finally have the true murder husbands season we all deserve

[the-black-parade-system]

Bro i just realized how much i love them SHAKING. LIEK OMG?? IM SO LUCKY TO BE WITH THEM

(yes this is about @just-some-loser-kid cuz yeah :3)

[caffeiiine]

i would like to see either nikolai or sigma's sentences please :3 /nf

THANK YOU!!! YOU ARE FUELING MY TWO FAVORITE THINGS!!!

under the cut bc length. [it got REALLY long]

anyways, nikolai and sigmas prison sentences as they would be in michigan.

note: i’m not using the wiki for this. i doubt it covers everything, so im going back through the manga and analyzing everything from there. aside from finding out manga appearances, everything else is research and pre-memorized info.

note 2: i may have made a few mistakes with the sentencing but it should be accurate enough give or take 10 years.

note 3: there’s no minimum sentence since majority of research i’m doing leads to me picking the minimum years since it usually states “punishable by life imprisonment or any number of years” which is unspecific and sucks so i just dropped the category

nikolai!!! - crimes - sentence - reference state - references/citations

Crimes :

first degree murder [7 accounts]

second degree murder [1 account]

domestic terrorism [16]

mutilation of a corpse [1 account]

shoplifting [implied, counted as 1 general account/misdemeanor]

assault with/using a deadly weapon [1 account]

impersonation [2 accounts]

[1]

disturbing the peace

theft of public property [2][3] [1 account]

verbal assault/threat [4] [1 account]

aiding and abetting

aiding in prison break

drugging [1 account]

attempted poisoning [5] [2 accounts]

fleeing arrest [1 account]

[6]

robbery/general larceny [4 accounts]

unlawful possession of explosives

attempted first degree murder [implied] [7]

kidnapping [4 accounts]

aiding a convict

breaking and entering [1 account]

sentence :

at maximum = 14 life sentences + 61 years + 186 days and/or up to 7,063,000$ in fines; no parole

reference state : michigan

references via michigan legislature : [first degree murder] Section 750.316 Act 328 of 1931 + [second degree murder] Section 750.317 Act 328 of 1931 + [domestic terrorism not counted, i can’t find definitive punishments and it'd probably be with the supreme court] + [mutilation of a corpse] Section 750.160 Act 328 of 1931 + [shoplifting] Section 750.356 Act 328 of 1931 + [impersonation] Section 750.217 Act 328 of 1931 + [felony assault] Section 750.82 Act 328 of 1931 + [disturbing the peace] Section 750.170(?) + [theft of public property] section 750.356 act 328 of 1931 + [terrorizing/verbal assault/harrassment] section 750.411h act 328 of 1931 + [aidinh and abetting] section 750.450 act 328 of 1931 + [aiding in a prisoners escape/aiding a convict] section 750.183 act 328 of 1931 + [attempted poisoning] section 750.91 act 328 of 1931 + [fleeing arrest] section 760.479a act 328 of 1931 + [robbery] section 750.529 act 328 of 1931 + [unlawful possession of explosives] section 750.200 act 328 of 1931 + [attempted first degree murder] section 750.91 act 328 of 1931 + [kidnapping] section 750.349 act 328 of 1931 + [breaking and entering (with explosives)] section 750.112 act 328 of 1931.

Sigma!!! - crimes - sentence - reference state - references/citations

[8]

threatening an officer [2 accounts]

domestic terrorism [16]

unlawful possession of explosives

attempted first degree murder [1 account]

criminal negligence [9]

aiding and abetting

negligent attempted mass murder [10]

attempted first degree murder by proxy [several accounts] [11]

felony assault by proxy [12] [3 accounts]

[13]

attempted manslaughter [14] [2 accounts]

attempted second degree murder [15] [1 account]

aiding in a prison break

aiding a convict [1 account]

breaking and entering [1 account]

felony assault [3 accounts]

sentence :

at maximum: 5 life sentences + 45 years 93 days and/or up to 8,000$ in fines; possibility of parole

reference state : michigan

references via michigan legislature: [aiding and abetting] section 750.450 act 328 of 1931 + [felony assault] section 750.82 act 328 of 1932 + [aiding in prisoner escape/aiding a convict] section 750.183 act 328 of 1932 + [unlawful possession of an explosive] section 750.200 act 328 of 1932 + [attempted (any type of) murder/manslaughter] section 750.91 act 328 of 1932 + [breaking and entering (with explosives)] section 750.112 act 328 of 1932 + [threatening an officer] section 750.478a act 328 of 1932 + [criminal/gross negligence] section 8.9 michigan legislature

[umblrspectrum]

just cause im also gonna post other stuff doesn't mean the murder drone content is over

[fatalism-and-villainy]

I am having so many profoundly insane thoughts about Will and Hannibal’s dynamic in the Red Dragon arc - the way their affect is so tense and jagged-edged when they’re together, the warmth they shared gone, but with residual intimacy that allows them to hit each other where it hurts. But what I’m thinking about specifically is the fact that the moment in which they connect the most and start to fall into their old dynamic together is in their most antagonistic moment at that point in the arc - at the end of And the Beast from the Sea, in the wake of the Dragon’s attack on Will’s family.

It’s that scene, where Will gets angry at Hannibal for the first time (and Hannibal is forthcoming but tense and guarded, not delighting in his evils the way he so often does with Alana and Jack) where they recapture their old rapport. The confrontation yields a dialogue where they build off each other and Hannibal guides Will towards a breakthrough in understanding. Will starts off angry, and when Hannibal starts to discuss Dolarhyde’s personality, Will angrily responds, “And now he thinks he can do anything! Anything!” Hannibal continues from that train of thought, but in another direction - he explains that “the dragon represents freedom” to Dolarhyde, turning Will’s line that “he thinks he can do anything” from an angry outburst to the literal truth, that Dolarhyde’s murders convey power and invincibility to him in his mind. Then, when Hannibal says, “he craves change,” Will (with the anger abating somewhat) comes to the epiphany that Dolarhyde thinks of killing the families as “changing” them*. This kind of exchange is the marker of so much about how they communicate earlier in the show - their back-and-forth involves a lot of quick subject changes and shifts in tack, but the underlying development of ideas remains the same and is understood subliminally by both of them.

(*And there’s an interesting meta quality to that shift - the show is much more concerned with empathic understanding of killers, the narrative and aesthetic symbolism of their crimes, than the practical forensic process of finding them, and that’s reflected in the show’s adaptational approach to the book. The book’s plot centers heavily on the question of how Dolarhyde chose his families, and it’s key to finding him, but here’s it’s less important than their emotional significance to him, his drive in preying on them. Will has been prioritizing the former in an effort to stay emotionally detached, but narratively, in terms of his character arc, understanding the latter, being able to operate on Dolarhyde’s level, is more significant - and this is the moment, rebuilding his connection to Hannibal again, where he starts to lean into that more.)

And Hannibal’s ability to steer Will towards a shared understanding, the way they both speak the same language in how they communicate and how they interpret others, has been key to the unique bond they share. This scene shows that the dialectic is still there even when their dynamic is suffused with bitterness. And Hannibal is able to guess at Will’s darker impulses, specifically his nightmares and counter-fantasies about killing Molly, when he asks “When you look at her, what do you see?” and Will answers “You know what I see.” And even though Will is angry at him, there’s a kind of relief, I think, that Hannibal instinctively recognizes this side of him, and that he’s able to admit it freely.

Furthermore, what Hannibal did is a continuation of the games they used to play, where they used third party proxies to unleash violence on each other. Hannibal has turned Dolarhyde into yet another figure to be manipulated into facilitating the charge in Hannibal and Will’s partnership/rivalry. Except it’s different now, because now Will has a life outside of Hannibal, and there are innocent people outside of the show’s bizarre murderous otherworld involved. Hannibal quotes “Two souls, alas, are dwelling my breast,” referring to the two sides of Dolarhyde vying for control, but of course he’s also obliquely referring to Will, which is made explicit in the last line, when he asks, “Don’t you crave change, Will?” Will split himself in two as well - he built a life away from everything to do with Hannibal and the FBI, but he chose to come back and seek out Hannibal, and Hannibal forces him to reckon with those two allegiances. (Suitably, Will walking out of Molly’s hospital room is edited to merge seamlessly into him walking up to confront Hannibal.) The attack on Molly and Walter draws Will’s internal conflict outside of him, reminding him what he’s known already (as he’s been having nightmares about killing Molly even before this): that he can’t cut this part of himself out. But it’s also a reminder of what Will and Hannibal could have again, if Will would come back to Hannibal. (It’s hilarious that Will responds to Hannibal saying Dolarhyde probably thinks Will is as evil as Will thinks Dolarhyde is with “Is this a competition?” Of course it is, Will! You know it is! Hannibal loves to pit his murder protégés against each other. You’ve been here before.)

So with that said, it’s telling that when Will is the angriest at Hannibal for interfering with this other life he’s made for himself, it’s also, simultaneously, the moment when he manages to recreate the intimacy he shared with Hannibal, the reminder of the dangerous games they used to play with each other, and the uncomfortable fact that he found those games exciting and pleasurable. This is probably on his mind when orchestrating the triangular murder showdown with Hannibal and Dolarhyde in the finale. He picks up the gauntlet Hannibal threw down and deploys Dolarhyde for his aims in getting revenge against Hannibal, and, of course, ends up teaming up with Hannibal and loving it. [Bedelia voice] that’s reciprocity.

[card-queen]

Burnout

It got me.

I got burned out on my novel. So I've decided to switch tack and do some work on my mystery game.

I may invoke old ask games just to answer them with the Accessories cast. Pictures and stuff below the cut

I've cobbled together some quick, simple art to use in a temp RPG Maker project to test the puzzles, clue distribution and general pacing, but I think it's pretty neat. Here's Stella, Ilya & Lilah, plus Eliot (who isn't recruitable in this portion of the game, so that's why he's facing the other way)

And some rough images of two side characters: August & Joshua

The Squad

[whumperofworlds]

@vampiricbloodyraven From my main account!

Sorry this took so long! Finally got a space done for my BTHB! Special thanks to @gadget-rocks and @thequestingbunny for beta reading and giving me concrit!!! Y'all are awesome ❤️

HEED THE TAGS.

Red = completed

Blue = requested

White = planned