unnamedcorvid

[unnamedcorvid]

Do you think the Dollmaker has any extra Arthur parts?

I think they should. Not enough though

[unnamedcorvid]

Okay I have some thoughts about John hunting down and killing all the alternate Arthurs

While I’d love to think he did it to make Arthur stronger, to make him a god, I don’t think that’s what had been going through his head at the time. he makes such a point to talk about how the Dark World fucks with your head, your emotions, stripping away all the good parts of you and twisting you into the worst version of yourself. I think he was doing it out of his feelings for Arthur, but after the Dark World twisted them into something befitting such a place.

What if he did it out of obsession. as he split with Arthur, as he fought the King, he did everything he could to cling on to the memory of Arthur, keep his face in his mind, as a reminder of the humanity and life and what good he had. But after he was sent to the Dark World, it got twisted. He could only think of Arthur, couldn’t get the image of him out of his head, needed him, needed to have him. And so he hunted him down, searched for that face he couldn’t get out of his mind, until he found him. or, found one of him. when he looked closer, he saw this wasn’t right. this didn’t match the Arthur he knew so well. And in his rage (and despair and loneliness? twisted forms of love?) he killed him. and the hunt continued. Over and over and on and on, hunting down an Arthur just to see it wasn’t His Arthur, killing him and adding his bones to his citadel, the symbol of his growing power. his regression to the King, throne and all.

what if Arthur being the most powerful because he’s the only remaining version is just a byproduct, something good that came out of what John sees as his worst moments?

[unnamedcorvid]

So I think narratively it’s probably that John was just killing Arthurs because the darkworld took any positive and negative emotions and focused all of his rage on the man who put him there the second time, but I think it would be interesting for someone to play with the idea of John finding versions of Arthur because he feels dependent on Arthur to exist, and then when that Arthur isn’t his perfect idea of Arthur, breaking them for being wrong. Just a concept. Just an idea.

[unnamedcorvid]

Well I guess there goes my headcanon that John slowly started to forget what Arthur's reflection looked like in the Dark World until it was a blurry mess since they hadn't really seen themselves in a mirror since before the pits so what he saw out of his eyes and what he remembered didn't line up and so he longer he was there the more messed up those memories got! A big reason why "What If I Forget Your Face" is in my John playlist and Malevolent playlist is that and I was Just About to Add "Who Is She? (reprise)" to at least one playlist based off that headcanon (and also the potential idea that Kayne shapechaged to look like Arthur during the deal to drive home how far John's fallen) and !!! No he found multiple other Arthurs. Over and Over and Over. He hunted and killed and ripped out their bones and made a cathedral out of them. (note- I like how he calls it a cathedral not a citadel) and. ... Wait actually I can still have the headcanon. Different Arthurs are bound to look slightly different. And these weren't his Arthur (oh the ourthurchestra was just a kick to the face for John wasn't it). Was the scar below Arthur's right eye more like this one or this other one? This one has a mole on his left thigh; did Arthur? Can he trust any of these?

I am. I'm having . I'm processing this reveal of information. It's . It will take time to process. And then I can theorize. But also. I need to talk to put some thoughts outside myself.

THIS

you know?

[unnamedcorvid]

How does one describe how bad of a sign it is that Arthur’s body will be provided by a Dollmaker, making him a doll? He is a body to be manipulated by malevolent forces once more, woven in their webs and pulled where they will.

[unnamedcorvid]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Malevolent (Podcast) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Andrew Larson | Wallace Larson & Jack Larson | Uncle Characters: Jack Larson | Uncle, Andrew Larson | Wallace Larson, Original Dog Character(s) Additional Tags: Fluff and Angst, no spoilers you just gotta know who Larson is, pre canon, you get to choose when this happens!, wallace larson having an okay time?, Not canon related, Animal Death, enjoy this break from wallace larson torture, wallace larson feeling things against his will, make that immortal man experience the full range of human emotion!, and also repress it!! a lot!!, enjoy your regularly scheduled break from larson torture, well sorta. the best way I like to torture him is to make him feel things, Fluff, Hurt No Comfort, lets explore how good old wallace copes with loss, Dogs, pet owner larson, also jack/uncle being sad, we don’t get enough of his character so im changing that, very slight description of a dog corpse, vague reference to the dunwich horror, iykyk Summary:

A stray dog shows up at Wallace Larson’s doorstep. A touch of humanity ensues.

Hello again Larson nation and welcome to Larson having an….okay time??? Kinda?? Just read and see! Huge thanks to @unnamedcorvid for the idea in the tags of this post <333

Also @jaidens-ghost CONGRATS A FIC YOU CAN LOOK AT!!

[unnamedcorvid]

i think it’s crazy how jarthur’s relationship is compared to the scorpion and the frog and then later in the series that same scorpion tells that same frog “i won’t let you drown” btw

[unnamedcorvid]

When I first listened to part 20 of Malevolent, I was completely convinced Kayne had killed Lilly. Until Arthur and John started saying that he wanted them numb, meaning the King. That the King, specifically, had killed Lilly. To hurt John and Arthur after they had escaped the Pits, that he had seen them have one positive interaction and had hurt Lilly to make a point.

I started wondering if I was wrong, but still was 80% sure that Kayne had hurt her, that she'd been collateral in his boredom and whatever web he'd started to spin for Arthur and John. I thought it would be interesting. New Character introduced! And he's fun and interesting and wants to have fun watching the protagonists but also likes how the antagonist is struggling to kill them; not good not bad, just chaotic and bored - and then the reveal that this potentially helpful yet really dangerously powerful being had maimed a harmless creature (not just the unnamed people and beings of Carcosa, no now we knew someone who was hurt by him) while bored waiting for the protagonists to show up, then gave them a dagger use to finish the job. Or, I thought, maybe Kayne had killed Lilly on purpose, to see how it would affect Arthur, to study that and cause him to be more distressed and off balance when going to confront the King. More interesting results and a more fun performance to watch. I wondered why Arthur and John hadn't connected Lilly's death to Kayne, despite all the other carnage being Kayne's fault, and decided that they really hadn't realized how powerful Kayne was, or that they had thought the King saw the destruction of Carcosa, and choose to kill Lilly as well - both as a small way to lash out against what was happening (you destroy my toys? fine I didn't want them anyways watch me throw this one) and a way to hurt John and Arthur..

And then once I finally caught up with Malevolent and started interacting with the fandom, I realized that as far as I could see, Every One else thought the King killed Lilly. Clearly I was wrong. No need to mention what I'd thought, no need to reveal my inability to understand media.

Except... Lillith. Thinking back over episodes 51-52 again, I'm wondering if maybe I was right. If Kayne heard them name her Lilly, and killed her. Maybe she wandered into the city, he remembered they'd named her that, and left her as Arthur and John found her, slowly bleeding to death and in pain. To see what would happen to them and what they would do, how it would affect them, yes, but also. Lillith.

[unnamedcorvid]

(Okay I was in the tags but it got. Way too long so hi hi hello I love her so much)

She deliberately chooses weird forms over a more humanoid one! like. In 52 it’s Kayne that forces them into the womanlike Lillith form, she showed up as Scratch originally, both there and in 51 (they do ask Arthur if he prefers the Lillith form, and when he says he doesn’t care, she chooses to shift back to Scratch) and that’s so cool to me, he had the weird Dream Visitor form which evolved into Scratch, and even after Scratch was freed, they chose to keep using that form, preferring it to their Lillith form. They actively want to be a weird purple Shape rather than a beautiful woman and that’s so special to me

Her choice with Alia also fascinates me. They call humans meaningless, says they’re so insignificant, just worthless collections of cells and tissue, and yet. He watched/has full knowledge of Alia’s life, knows what she went through and all the horrible things that go into being a Seraph. They got so passionate and genuinely angry talking about what Alia had been going through. They genuinely cared about her, she had compassion for her. Despite saying murder is a joke because humans are too pointless to matter, she Chose not to kill Alia. She deliberately gave her a peaceful sleep “filled with a song of freedom and a whisper of justice”. They watched Alia’s life and felt bad for her. wanted to help. witnesses the horrors she went through and that stuck with them. One Person’s suffering mattered enough to them for them to craft an entire new ending for her, the best ending they could. He deals in sleep and fear and dreams and nightmares, and deliberately chose Not to inflict that on her. Not to use Alia to fuel that fear. (That specific aspect of her means so much to me I’m sorry)

Her father issues! She absolutely hates Kayne’s guts (with good reason! the first time she’s ever mentioned in podcast is in 20, and it’s Kayne muttering under his breath calling her a bitch like. leave her out of this. get her name out of your mouth) She gets so incredibly angry when Kayne is brought up/called her father. That’s one of (if not the) only things that get a rise out of her. She’s insistent that Kayne isn’t her father, that Nyarlothotep is. (I haven’t looked nearly enough into the implications of this) The only reason she wanted the Blackstone, went through all of this, had all these manipulations and nightmares, was to be able to talk to Kayne. They knew that was the thing he wanted, and was doing everything they could to get it so they could speak with him. And yet. Kayne traps her. She can get out four words, can’t even finish her first sentence before he silences her. Kayne even says she wanted the Blackstone to get him here, so they could Talk. He says letting her talk to him and destroy him are the same to him. (rereading the transcript for this and. holy shit the way he treats her makes me insane I need him Dead) okay this is kinda turning about Kayne but I just thing the dynamic between the two of them is very interesting, between her getting so angry over him, saying he’s not her father and him belittling her so very much, silencing her and forcing her form to change and everything (i want them to kill him so bad she deserves it)

i mean personally I think the canonical dream vivisection is so fun because they do it Twice. they did it once (with so many unnecessary freaky details that they just. Did) and enjoyed the results so much they did it Again. it kinda goes back to the way she views people/humans, she just toys with them how she wants because they are just too insignificant to her. he just puts humans in dream situations that mirror their worst experiences and watches them scramble around and relive their terrors for Fun. humans are just kinda like little bugs she can fuck with, put them in situations and take them apart and move around like pawns and who really cares? and yet she gets attached to some. she can torture Arthur all she wants but she does it in dreams, without any lasting damage. she doesn’t actually cause him any real physical damage (that I remember) and yeah, she saves Alia.

I need to take more notes when I get up to s4 but I remember really loving the way not-Edward William Allen talks about them. “It speaks of fear and the taste of evil, yet I feel a prickling at the back of my mind as if it wants more, as if this… is merely a character it’s playing. A demonic sheet with holes cut for eyes.” (I had to go find the quote) and yeah, its Lillith using the Nightmare Dweller form to get the portal open, and then getting split into Scratch and using that, but they still prefer the Scratch form, like they got attached to it? oh i actually really need to get up to that part so i can listen for all the details about this

i feel like this is getting really long im just. oh i really love her so much ajsksk I may not have many New things but i think about these aspects a lot

I need to think about Lillith malevolent outside of whatever connection she has to Arthur and her suicidal ideation. Those are like all I think about with her most of the time. She's got 4 different pronouns. She's purple sometimes. Sometimes they're an owl. Specifically an owl that a human she likes really liked as a kid --shoot i'm doing it again. Uh she canonically dream vivisected a guy! shoot She (no that relates to her suicidal ideation) She likes people! likes messing with them yeah but also finds them interesting and cares in some way. Problem is she's an eldritch god and doesn't quite get why people don't appreciate how she helps. She gave Antoine nightmares just because she could. He finds people interesting and watches their nightmares and eats their fear. Tried to kill her dad. Had a situationship with a journal author that ended up with each of them destroying the other. Was trapped in a dream prison for what felt like 200 years. Is one of the like 2 beings who can travel between universes. Gained that ability in her quest to kill her dad. Femme fatale who's beyond the word woman and also decided she'd rather look like an owl/ vaguely humanoid purple shape while interacting with Arthur. has long black claws. Calls people "pet" and "favorite" and eats their fears. Did I mention she's beyond the word woman and appears as she wishes when she wishes. Less organized cult and more showing up in people's dreams and saying "hey do this" or eating their fears or hearing someone pray and answering them just because. Spent the last several minutes of her life unable to move or speak before her dad killed her. Probably is still alive in some capacity and is in hiding. She's so cool and interesting and I need to think about her more.

[unnamedcorvid]

Fiction podcast people, I need your help

I want to know which fiction podcast made you cry (like actual tears)

Both because I want to feel Emotions and because I’m nosy

Doesn’t matter if I’ve listened to it (putting the podcasts I’ve listened to in the tags), I’m just curious :3

[unnamedcorvid]

okay relistening to Part 19 and. I’ve been thinking about the part near the beginning where Arthur starts quoting Invictus to himself and John asks what he’s saying and Arthur snaps “it’s not for you”

cut to Arthur, months later, having given up all hope, laying broken and sick on the ground waiting for death to take him, without the strength or willpower to get up. Saying his final wish is to read Oscar’s letter.

cut to John. Faced with his only friend. The only person he’s ever known, that’s ever known him, dying. Holding with shaking hands a page he hopes will have something to strengthen him, or at least something to dull the pain.

The page is blank.

cut to John. Staring at a blank paper held by a dying friend. There are no words here that he can pull from to help him. There is nothing else here he can use to possibly help this man he loves so much.

cut to John. Using those same words that he knows Arthur’s taken comfort in before. Those words that were “not for him.” Softly speaking that poem to his friend who feels he has lost all hope. Those words that were “not for him” bringing his friend back from absolute despair. How long has he held those words in his mind, how long has he turned that poem over and over in his thoughts, saving them for this moment? Or did they just come to him, the words belonging just as much to him now as they do to Arthur.

They are his words, now.

[unnamedcorvid]

One of my semi real half baked predictions currently for the end of malevolent is kayne sort of half succeeds before they defeat him, in that the universe still exists but there’s suddenly a power vacuum that needs to be filled in order to prevent everything from ending. So John ‘sacrifices’ himself, becomes a god again, and fixes the world, pushed by his love for humanity and Arthur to make it just a little bit nicer and a little bit more creative. So Arthurs left alone on earth (maybe John manages to give him faroe back maybe not) and at first (after the immediate screaming and begging) Arthur tries to move on and get over it but unfortunately he can't and he starts reading about how to contact beings at the outer edges of reality and going down some weird rabbit holes. And then arthur becomes a cultist. And then the cycle begins anew.

[unnamedcorvid]

the jokes are funny, but i feel like the funnier aspect of canon is that john and arthur's desires to go to Torture City are very rarely overlapping. sometimes john will be like "arthur, this looks like an abyss of infinite darkness. some kind of designated torture zone. i think we should avoid it." and arthur will go "i'm not going to let you order me around just because you're feeling overly paranoid >:( " and then he goes in there and it's the torture zone. and then sometimes john will be like "arthur, listen to me. you should walk into this abyss. i need you to do this. for me." and arthur will go "well this seems rather inadvisable but i don't want john to think i don't trust him so i guess i'll walk into the abyss. for friendship." and guess what: it's the torture zone again

[unnamedcorvid]

Once again thinking about John during the second half of episode 18. Arthur's unable to hear him and is blindly wandering, navigating by things that aren't there. John yells at him to stop moving, that they're being herded - could he see the guards? Did he realize where Arthur was being guided and that he couldn't stop it? By the end of the episode, Arthur's stopped moving, is dragged by the guards into pit and thrown in. When did Arthur fall lax to the ground? Did John try to use his arm and try to move away? How easily were they surrounded and dragged towards the pits? How long was Arthur unconscious in that pit? How heavily did they land? Did it hurt? How long was John aware of where they were going, had an idea of what might happen to Arthur, and that he couldn't stop it. All John really could do the second half of 18 was watch and wait for Arthur to wake up.

[unnamedcorvid]

Anybody have any good ideas for Larson fics where hes NOT suffering. Because admittedly the last few fics have been him suffering and I wanna change it up

[unnamedcorvid]

oh my god yeah,, we can kinda hear him calling to Arthur at the beginning just after he got repressed, I wonder if he kept talking and we just stopped being able to hear him, or if he realized it was futile and gave up, tried to focus his efforts elsewhere? I wonder if any of the hallucinations Arthur was experiencing might have been John trying to use his hand and snap him out of it or something

and yeah just something about John recognizing this place as a place made to worship him. these are his guards. and when it comes down to it, to his and Arthur’s safety, he can’t protect them. he can’t call off the guards. Maybe he felt some guilty gladness in that, that they didn’t obey him anymore, further showing his distance from the King? but this is the one time and place where that past would have saved them. and now he has no way to help. He can only watch, powerless and being hunted down in a place created to worship him

I totally think he could have felt some relief at Marie’s,, the evil is still happening, he still can’t do anything to help, but it’s not his fault this time. There isn’t any information he’s been hiding about this, it’s not connected to Him. this at least is some foreign entity that they can work through together, not something he knew about or could have blamed himself for. He’s completely in the dark here and there could be a comfort in that? just the not knowing, not being able to do anything? I never thought about John just having to sit there while Arthur goes back to sleep after Hattie oh my god, I wonder if he tried to wake Arthur back up? Tell him it’s not safe here, to leave, or just asking for reassurance that he’s alright after all the pain he heard. or maybe he decided Arthur needs rest, his questions can wait, Arthur’s sleep is more important now

Once again thinking about John during the second half of episode 18. Arthur's unable to hear him and is blindly wandering, navigating by things that aren't there. John yells at him to stop moving, that they're being herded - could he see the guards? Did he realize where Arthur was being guided and that he couldn't stop it? By the end of the episode, Arthur's stopped moving, is dragged by the guards into pit and thrown in. When did Arthur fall lax to the ground? Did John try to use his arm and try to move away? How easily were they surrounded and dragged towards the pits? How long was Arthur unconscious in that pit? How heavily did they land? Did it hurt? How long was John aware of where they were going, had an idea of what might happen to Arthur, and that he couldn't stop it. All John really could do the second half of 18 was watch and wait for Arthur to wake up.

[unnamedcorvid]

Once again thinking about John during the second half of episode 18. Arthur's unable to hear him and is blindly wandering, navigating by things that aren't there. John yells at him to stop moving, that they're being herded - could he see the guards? Did he realize where Arthur was being guided and that he couldn't stop it? By the end of the episode, Arthur's stopped moving, is dragged by the guards into pit and thrown in. When did Arthur fall lax to the ground? Did John try to use his arm and try to move away? How easily were they surrounded and dragged towards the pits? How long was Arthur unconscious in that pit? How heavily did they land? Did it hurt? How long was John aware of where they were going, had an idea of what might happen to Arthur, and that he couldn't stop it. All John really could do the second half of 18 was watch and wait for Arthur to wake up.