This is my first ever post on tumblr, but I wanted to have a place where I could share my thoughts on my hyperfixations and writing what with the whole tiktok ban and what not :)
I have never used tumblr before so if the formatting is weird, please be nice, I am. struggling. ToT
Anyways! Here's a little bit about me!
I'm Faceless_Aces, or just Ace! I'm a musician, writer, cosplayer, and general lover of all things crafty! You *probably* know me from one of my hypno fics, in which case you'd know that one of my long time interests is hypnosis! I'll probably be posting a lot about that, either educational, or just general thoughts :)
Some of the fandoms I'm in are Gravity Falls, Epic The Musical, and The Stanley Parable. Gravity Falls is my most current hyperfixation but I love all of them!
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Hi! I just have a few clarifying questions on boundaries and reporting harassment @jackpyroscythe, and I wanted to ask publicly so that the answer would be accessible to everyone regardless of whether they are blocked or not (which hopefully makes sense, given the questions being asked). You said earlier today via discord:
"i don't want anybody getting harassed. that's why i want all reports of poor behaviour, of either people harassing past shippers or of people continuously and maliciously breaking my boundaries, to be handled privately through tickets as it's the safest way for all parties involved."
I'm glad that you don't want anyone getting harassed! I really appreciate the unambiguous statement. I do want to clarify: you say you want reports of poor behavior such as "people harassing past shippers". Just to confirm, that was a non-exhaustive list, and you would also want to know about accounts harassing current shippers on your behalf?
How would anyone who is blocked/banned be able to report harassment to you? They would by definition not be able to access your discord or ticket system. I assume block-evasion is not the encouraged policy, so I would appreciate clarification on how they should inform you when harassment occurs.
dm me. if you have names of people harassing both past and present shippers dm me. Harassment is not ok under any circumstance and anyone sending death/rape threats has no right in the community. Sorry this hasn’t come from him directly like I know you would have wanted it to but I did see this first and figured as someone with a decent amount of say in who’s to be removed from his spaces it would still be somewhat meaningful. it genuinely breaks my heart to see some of you receiving such vile things :(
Thank you so much for reaching out!
From a utility/moderation perspective I would suggest creating a more neutral/non-DM-based solution in the future, such as an official mod blog or email address? DMing any individual person is not a perfect solution (for example, if you have anyone in the community blocked they wouldn't be able to tell you. Also it's just not fair for you to have to singlehandedly process/intake those reports) but I genuinely really appreciate the direct assurance and I'm glad to know someone who folks can reach out to with concerns.
(Thankfully the specific person who was sending sexual harassment + SH images to shippers 'on Pyro's behalf' was banned by tumblr after direct reports. They didn't have a connected discord/it was a burner account so I don't think there's anything to forward there vis-a-vis accounts to look into.)
I'm not going to say a lot on this subject - a lot of people have made very eloquent posts on the matter, and I encourage everyone to consider those with an open and critical mind. A lot of what I would have to say would just be repetition.
What I will say is that seeing very dear friends of mine receive death and rape threats over the past couple days has made me realize I cannot just let this blow over. This is the type of fan environment I will never assist in cultivating, and refuse to participate in.
Dictating what information and forms of creative expression are 'allowed' to be produced and accessed to any degree in the world for the comfort of the few has and always will be an infringement on fundamental rights to intellectual exploration and expression. This is not just about shipping, and has never been; This is about the standard being set of allowing one individual to dictate what the public may explore. Respect each other yes, people have a right to control their own personal spaces and what they do and don't want to see, and people should never personally force subject matter on others who don't wish to view them, but understand that this control cannot be cleanly applied to online spaces - outside of one's own personal filtering and blocking - without the very types of witch-hunting and harassment we are currently seeing. This leads to vulnerable people being attacked.
The things you see in an online information space (in this case fanart and fanfiction), which is akin to browsing subject matter in a library or archive, is not the same as information being curated and presented to you, as a gift or otherwise, from one individual to another, and cannot be condemned as such. On the same wavelength, sending death and rape threats to others directly and attacking people in comments sections is not a moral equivalent to seeing art in a public space where anyone who wishes not to see it can easily filter it out or choose to scroll past - if you see something you dislike in a public online space, then that thing was simply not intended for you. It is not a personal attack or violation. You can choose to not engage.
My account has always been for me and the topics that I wish to explore in both fan works and original fiction, and I will continue to create what makes me happy. I hope that other people continue to create what makes them happy as well.
If you disagree with any of this, please exercise your right to controlling your own space by blocking me, and all the best to everyone.
This isn’t a smear campaign, but a collection of problems people are trying to genuinely communicate to you all in one post.
Boundaries are supposed to protect your space, but the internet is a public space, so while you can set rules for your twitch chat and discord, you can’t ban shipping as a whole on both public and private spaces. It’s unreasonable and encroaches on other artists' ability to create art for themselves.
Because boundaries aren’t rules, and you cannot weaponize them as such.
You can’t make rules which apply to everyone that even without your watchful eye would make you feel uncomfortable, and it’s incredibly controlling to nitpick how you want characters you made for a story to be interpreted.
And it’s not being attached to ships that’s the issue here, but how you want to control how everyone else views character relationships for your sake, in a space where people want to share their creations to each other and not you.
Not every piece of fanart is a “gift” to you, not every piece of fanfiction wants to be read by you and demands your attention. You can perfectly avoid all these works with tags, both on ao3 or like so many people have suggested, a dni tag on tumblr as many other cc’s have used.
There’s a reason why so many cc’s have normalized dni tags, it’s because like any other person on the internet, you should filter what will trigger you and not expect every other person to just never post about your one trigger.
Cc’s such as Martyn, Cleo, Abolish, Legs and Graecie to name a few understand this concept well enough.
Yes these are the characters you created, but the moment you monetized them and grew a large following from a story being shown like any other, you lost the right to how everyone will view your character and grow attached to them. How they interpret your characters outside of you, shouldn’t be your business because they aren’t talking about you, once again character and content creator should remain separate.
No you aren’t a content machine, you can choose how you want to roleplay and act, you can choose if you want characters to share your name or not, but you can’t get mad at everyone else for then taking those characters as characters, whether their interpretation is what you want or not, accurate or not, it shouldn’t be an issue to you or your partner.
Especially when a lot of people within these communities are minors and or significantly younger than you.
You have so many artists who have drawn works genuinely directed for you while also making their own fan pieces for the fandom they upheld, that's what got vsmp so popular to begin with. Yet you only seem to want the pieces directed to you for your approving eye.
That’s why I don’t understand how you continue to deny the use of a dni tag, as if you’re purposefully trying to run into works not made for you.
Or how you will continue to “flirt as a joke” as you and Maddy said on stream, queerbate, but ban anyone for even writing fanfiction that has been properly tagged.
How you choose your words deliberately, with your “birds” basically policing a fandom, or how to not harass past shippers, not extending that to how you shouldn’t harass anyone to begin with. All while having your mods clarify how the “birds” was a joke that no one understood, or how a clip of you clearly only stating “past shippers” clearly included current ones in general as said by a mod.
All these clarifications don’t even have courtesy of coming out of you directly, so how are we supposed to know the true intent of the words or what you meant, in an important stream which you wanted many to view, you didn’t make this information clear or accessible to anyone not watching the stream.
Evidence if anything is edited or removed:
And there are already cases of harassment coming out because of the very words you said. link
You get hundreds of people on your streams now, and it clearly shows you weren’t ready for the influx of viewers you got after vsmp and the flight smp. Going from a few chatters in your previous streams on even cowboys smp, to now a constant stream of messages in your chat at all times.
I hope you realize by now that your community very much does idolize you, we are all human and we all make mistakes, however it is up to everyone, especially someone with a large following as you, to know when they overstepped and know that they can take back previous statements after making an informed decision.
If your defense tactic is to ban people from your twitch and discord because they posted something far too “ship like” with their “repeat offenses” after you looked for it and didn’t make a safe space for them to post it without your viewing or community’s harassment, then yes it’s immature.
And I implore you to take time off to think about these things offline, defend yourself and make clear boundaries but not rules to the fandom as a whole, and have a conversation with your partner if the idea of knowing people like making two minecraft fictional block characters kiss is so distressing.
Because at one point, it isn’t simply about boundaries but control.
Also please don’t make someone as young as 16 mod for your chat when you clearly state how minors shouldn’t even share their age in your communities. Minors will of course jump at the opportunity, but it is you as an adult almost a decade older than those 16 year olds to know it isn’t safe for them.
-- from someone who once called themselves a fan and found your streams entertaining
sighhh i wasnt gonna make a post abt this but im tired of this word getting misused so much (yes this is about the pyroscythe thing, but feel free to reblog it for reasons unrelated to that as this is still important information to know)
boundaries are NOT RULES. you cannot use "boundaries" as an excuse to have control over something or someone.
a boundary is like if someone was uncomfortable with hugs, so they said "please dont hug me, that makes me uncomfortable" so no one would hug them. it is not them saying that no one is allowed to hug anyone ever again. hugs are banned. even if they dont see the hug happening, its still not allowed.
if you are going to set boundaries, that is you saying that you dont want it to happen to YOU, you dont want it to be shown to YOU, it is saying NOTHING about what anyone does in their own private spaces
you can say "i do not want to see this specific thing" but that isnt an excuse to go into someones home that they built and tear out any semblance of that thing
boundaries are not rules you set for everyone else to follow. they are personal guidelines you set for yourself, so everyone else can know what youre comfortable with, so you can work together to make sure you dont have to see/do that thing. boundaries are not, never will be, and never have been rules that everyone must follow even when youre not around.
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if you dont respect cc boundaries, i dont have to respect yours!! i can do whatever i want to you. hell, if i want to write a 5k word fic about pinning you down and raping you slowly, thats completely allowed, isnt it? because im not tagging you!!!
im too tired of you future rapists to argue anymore. ill put it in plain language you can understand: youre retarded, and one day youll rape somebody, and i hope in return that person slits your throat
waste of space and a piece of shit
im not a pyro fan even, i think this whole mcyt thing is stupid now purely because of the amount of teenage girls shipping these friends together. its near impossible to have an mcyt experience online without blocking 3/4 of the fans. imagine how it is for the ccs. oh wait. you dont. because their boundaries dont matter!!
so neither do yours.
sorry you said you were gonna write a 5k word fic about raping me and i got so hard i blacked out
this is the kind of enforcement pyro is talking about, no mattter how much you say "no harassment no harassmwnt" youve delivered an edict that is enforcable only through harassment. this will happen to anyone who breaks his boundaries, im vocally opposed and am really not bothered by this kind of thing, but itll happen to young people who dont know better. these are the 'birds'. is this really the kind of community you want to enable?
anyway antis are soooooo normal, this is a normal and measured response to a stranger on the internet saying hes going to keep shipping the characters of a guy who he has blocked on every platform and will never see it
Seeing the assumption that all of the people suggesting the tag/block option as a better scenario MUST be a case of "i can do whatever i want you cant stop it! your oc belongs to ME!" or "the internet is free range get over your discomfort and get used to it lolll" I shrivel like a raisin in the sun.
The idea that no one cares about the real people involved also keeps being expressed on both ends, with different priority on who "the real person being harmed" is, which is also frustrating to watch.
With that in mind, the option to me, that I think keeps everyone safest, and thus why I am for it, regardless of fan or creator status, is the use of clear tagging and blocking, to prevent anyone from being exposed to things they do not want to see, and to prevent anyone ""deserving"" or not, from being hunted down with malicious intent.
If you are a creator, you should not have to be forced to see what makes you uncomfortable. That is the end of the sentence. There is no following call to arms of "so hunt down anyone who makes it Wrong and report back." attached. No. You shouldn't have to see it, so people should take steps to not show it to you, and you should also be taking steps to not find it. It should not show up near you, because you are the one effected by it, that does not mean it should never show up anywhere ever for anyone.
Boundaries, for anyone, is when you state a line and what YOU will do for YOU when it is crossed. Boundaries are to keep YOU safe. It is not laying down a line and saying anyone who steps on it when you're not even in the room should be shot. You cannot inflict boundaries on another person, that is called a rule.
And at the end of the day, a large chunk of what "boundaries" in mcyt are enforced for, and I'm not saying every single one that's ever been done is this way, largely come down to personal preference, not fundamentally harmful or inappropriate things on their own.
It could just be me as an artist, long time blogger, or just a human being that exists nervously under other peoples eyes, but Ive long been well aware that how people read you, actions you take, and the things you create, will be experienced and interacted with differently than how you want or intend them to come across.
Any time I put my own words or characters out for other people to see, I am aware that they are not going to be viewing it with the same lens or intent that I have. There are things I would not want to see made, and that is the part where I ask not to see it or they will be blocked, not start a crusade to sniff out "the traitors" to have every instance of what I do not like reported to me.
That is creating more harm than it is ending, and solving no one's problems.
In one instance I am safe from anything unpleasant to my tastes and another person is left to their own devices unharmed, the other I am repeatedly distressed and strangers are encouraged to enforce their own justice in my name.
Just as much that you cant control what people do and how they will perceive your creations, you cant control what people will say and do in defense of those rule lines you have laid as enforceable for those creations.
I have seen too much paranoia, obsession, and death threats in all fandoms of all ages to trust groups of strangers to be the gavel to strike each other down fairly in any capacity.
If your requirement is do not think about it, do not say it even in private, do not imply it, no matter what even if I am not there or involved with where it takes place, or else i will inflict it on myself and hunt you down for it- I really hope I do not have to clarify that is neither a good or lastingly functional mindset to impose on yourself or anyone else, in any context, nor is it one that has ever worked well or safely.
I am not saying this because I think fans have an entitlement to anything they want from a creator, I am saying this because the framework you are trying to use does not and cannot function or hold up with the intent of what you want to happen in the reality we stand in.
Joe Hills has the most correct opinion on fanart, being: he's not paying for it, so he has no say in the art direction, so do whatever the fuck you want
one of pyro's fans is now mass spamming people's inboxes who didn't like that they were calling for harassment and calling them rapists on pyros behalf, which is, you know, exactly the harassment pyro called for. I hope he's happy!
TLDR: PLEASE, for the sake of aroace visibility, STOP misusing the term QPR in fan media to fit your desires to keep shipping your favorite characters. C'mon, seriously, guys, it's still pride month.
I hate how so many people go straight to Queer Platonic Relationships as an alternative for romantic shipping. They're so commonly misinterpreted as romance but like toootally not. Which, every QPR is different, but that misrepresents the entire idea of a QPR.
I have been in multiple fandoms with aroace characters where the fans are obsessed with shipping them regardless. And when they get told that erases asexuality and aromantics in media? They say, "Oh, they're in a QPR! It's not /actually/ romance! Or sex!" Bro. You are watering down the idea of QPRs to fit your own desires: a romantic or sexual relationship between your favorite characters (who happens to be either aroace or their creator has put up boundaries against shipping their characters.)
But, I get it. Fandoms are built off of ships and romance. It's what allo (not aroace) people are drawn to. It's familiar and makes interesting story! But by misrepresenting aroace terminology to mean "friends with benefits" or some crap like that, it erases so much visibility for aroace people. What is the point of calling it a QPR if you are pretending it's the less controversial way to ship your characters together?
THIS RANT IS NOT SAYING TO NEVER PUT YOUR CHARACTERS IN A QUEER PLATONIC RELATIONSHIP! When they're done correctly, they can be so incredibly important for aroace representation, and even better, an incredibly interesting part of any plot of a story! QPRs can be so important in aro/ace lives. They can mean so many different things for so many different people, yet that type of relationship is just so underexplored in media.
I absolutely LOVE when fans are able to make characters care so much about each other without any of them feeling the need to have either romance or sex! Hell, you can make them have sexual feelings for each other without romantic feeling or visa versa /as long as/ you make it clear that they are without the other feeling. QPRs look different for everyone, and correctly raising awareness of them would mean so much for not just the aroace community, but for everyone.
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Ignoring the ethics of boundaries or the morals of limiting creative expression or anything else, setting rules about what people can and can't do with your characters just doesn't work. It cannot and will not accomplish what you want, and it will create a bunch of new problems.
Theoretical goal of banning things you find uncomfortable as a CC:
Bad things you don't like will stop being made and existing about you/your character.
Actual outcomes of banning things you find uncomfortable as a CC:
Bad things you don't like will Still Exist.
Subsets of your community will harass & abuse other fans. Trolls will make upsetting bait content that devoted fans feel a duty to engage with & fight against. Well-intentioned fans who don't know the rules exist will break them and get yelled at. People will arbitrarily interpret rules to bludgeon other fans' headcanons & send hate campaigns after each other. This WILL happen, no matter how many times you caveat with 'but don't harass anyone': You have issued an edict whose only enforcement mechanism is harassment.
Some of the fans who are most viciously defensive of your rules will still create stuff you find uncomfortable. Life finds a way. If you ban peanut butter, the fandom will create a series of intricate excuses as to why ground peanuts with sugar added is totally a different thing, and moreover how dare you imply they would break boundaries. The stuff you dislike won't stop being made, it will just be mislabeled and harder to avoid.
Artists will inevitably make cool shit that technically breaks your boundaries but Is Cool. Engaging with it will get that artist harassed for ignoring your boundaries (even if you say this one is fine).
Less people will engage with your work. You will have a smaller audience and much more limited free advertisement.
Everyone following the rules will create a constant need for judgment about things at the edge of your comfort zone. 'Ask for permission' means you have given yourself a part-time job arbitrating to strangers on whether it's okay to draw you mad at another minecraft guy.
More earnestly: By and large the people who are most online, who take boundaries seriously and actually care about seeking permission, are teens and very young adults. That's who you're setting rules for and telling that they can't depict certain things. The kinksters and smut writers and grown-ass adults are generally going to be unaffected, because their self-esteem doesn't hinge on the approval of a Twitch streamer.
Genuine question: Do you want to have to stare at an ask on Tumblr and consider whether to give permission for some 14-year-old to write a fic about your character self-harming or having cancer or being sexually assaulted? To say yes or no, while knowing that this person is probably asking not out of prurient interest, but because it makes them feel a little less alone to imagine an older, stronger character going through what they are?
That is the actual effect of setting those rules.
(The better boundary, btw, is 'I don't want to see things that make me uncomfortable': it's still not perfectly enforceable unless you entirely abstain from the internet, but it is much more actionable than 'make that stuff stop existing'. Having a dedicated 'don't look' tag blocked solves a lot of problems. Another strategy would be letting friends/trusted fan-acquaintances vet the best work and send it to you to gush about, rather than scrolling your tags at random.)
At some point if you tell stories in a public setting, people will want to pick up and play with those characters too; if you can't handle that (and a lot of people can't, this is not a value judgment) then the role of 'professional public storyteller' may not be for you.
The first rule of fandom is have fun. The second rule of fandom is find an enabler and become an enabler. Yes you should write that fic. What if it was even hornier? What if it was angstier? What if you wrote it just for me?
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*Rings bell* Pyro's Hitlist propaganda, come get your Pyro's Hitlist propaganda!!! For the @vsmppolyshiptournament
CW: More gross descriptions of Czeslaw's body as a drowning victim, but not really explicitly gory
Pyro picked his way through the pale banches blocking his way, dead leaves crunching under his boots as he climbed the hillside. He would have preferred to bat back to the castle, but Abolish's ambush earlier that day had left his body heavy and his reserves drained. The long hike was supposed to offer quiet; a thin respite from all the fighting,a chance to let his thoguhts settle into something resembling calm. To anyone watching from a distance, he was simply a solitary figure lost in contemplation as he climbed.
But the chattering of two invisible spectres shredded any hope of silence.
"—I mean, just think about it! You've got two kills under your belt now. You're practically a seasoned expert."
Czeslaw's mocking drawl was a familiar companion. Pyro had scarcely gone a day without hearing it, even before the other's death. With the phantom stuck in another realm, it was at least slightly easier to ignore the needling comments about every insecurity Czeslaw could get his gnarled hands on.
"—I still can't believe I was right, you did kill someone. I mean, I actually did kind of figure that you were just like this, but I thought it was the vampirism that made you violent—"
Avid's comments on the other hand were a newer addition that they really could've done without.
His rambling words grated on Pyro's ears and their jaw tightened until his teeth ached. His claws dug into his palms until they drew pinpricks of old black blood, the sting a familiar, grounding pain.
He refused to entertain either of them. They were dead and Pyro was…well not quite alive but definitely closer to it than the phantoms trailing behind him. If nothing else, if he just ignored literally everything else, he could just suck it up and deal with it. At least until they could leave. At least until—
"I mean what would you do even if you could leave?"
"Has Shelby found out about me yet? Has Scott?"
"Could you stop talking about Goldsmith for one blasted second?"
Pyro whirled around with a snarl, chest heaving with barely contained rage. His red eyes burned holes into Avid's startled face. Heat flooded his veins, that familiar, sickening rush of control slipping through his fingers. His hands trembled at his sides, claws still wet with his own blood.
"He's not even your sire, he's mine," they bit out, trying to wrestle back some composure from the sudden outburst.
Avid floundered, an embarassed flush creeping up his translucent neck. His mouth opened and closed as he tried to form a defensive response.
"Ooh, that struck a nerve."
Czeslaw looked utterly delighted by Pyro's outburst, his milky eyes gleaming with a predatory shine, the look of something that had scented blood in the water and was already swimming closer. "Go ahead Avid, ask why he's so touchy about his precious sire."
"I—" Avid started, his expression twisting into something deeply uncomfortable. His wide eyes darted between the two of them, realizing too late that he'd stepped into something far more dangerous than he understood.
"Shut up Czeslaw," Pyro's voice dropped low, bordering on a growl. It was the warning sound before a strike, but also the sound of an animal trying to hide its wounds before they could be targeted as easy prey. They knew that look on Czeslaw's face. They'd seen it nearly everyday since childhood.
"No, no, no, he should get to hear this!" Czeslaw's grin stretched wide and mean, . He clapped a slimy hand on Avid's shoulder, the wet smack of it making Avid flinch. "We're all pals here aren't we?"
Czeslaw began to circle the pair, each squelching step deliberate and unhurried. "I mean, you gotta think about how it feels right? Goldsmith's first fledgling, in this town at least. Always thrown to the side. Useless. Second best."
His eyes narrowed as he looked right at Pyro, the unseeing gaze that somehow managed to pierce into any shields they could possibly throw up. "Not that that's anything new."
They couldn't meet his gaze, their eyes instead dropping to the ground in front of their shoes. He could feel his pulse in his throat, a dull, insistent throb as he swallowed the words that felt like glass. Something cold and hollow was settling in their chest, his fingers gone cold despite the heat still burning behind his eyes.
"Who'd want to deal with a monster like you?"
"Not me, that's for sure!" Czeslaw laughed, clapping Avid hard enough on the back to send him stumbling forward. "Not his parents, not the Capitol, not the town, not even his precious sire."
Pyro's throat tightened. The words landed like they always did, finding the soft bruised places he'd never managed to armor over. His chest constricted, a physical ache blooming behind his sternum. They thought they'd gotten used to these words by now, their bully never failing to remind them of their failures whenever the chance arose, but there was a new humiliating layer for Avid to see them like this. Czeslaw had known every deplorable part of Pyro, had dragged each one out with patient, practiced cruelty until Pyro had nothing left to hide. But Avid?
Perhaps it was naive to hope that he wouldn't see the monster Pyro truly was, the one that existed long before the red eyes and fangs.
"You try so hard to be liked," the ghost continued, stalking towards Pyro, each wet squelch of his boots making him flinch. "To be useful. To be wanted."
He stopped in front of Pyro, crouching down so they could get a good look at his face. He was close enough that Pyro could smell the river on him, that stagnant, silty stench of deep water and decay, of things rotting in the dark where no light could reach. Czeslaw's face tilted, not bothering to hide his pleasure as he drank in every reaction, every flinch and tremor.
"But no one wants a beast."
Pyro squeezed his eyes shut, a shudder wracked through him, violent and involuntary. His voice came out cracked, barely a whisper.
"Stop."
But when had that ever stopped Czeslaw?
"And then you came along!" Czeslaw straightened and turned around with a chuckle.
"M-me?" Avid squeaked, pointing at himself. His voice cracked on the single syllable. His expression was a strange mixture of confusion and growing dread.
"You." Czeslaw's grin sharpened. "When poor little Pyro here was first turned, starving, trying to reign in the beast that had always been inside him, there you were. So quick to call him all the names he was too scared to accept. Monster. Beast. Vampire."
Each word landed like a stone, each one a separate blow, and Pyro could feel himself retreating, pulling back from the surface of his own body. He could feel Avid's eyes on him, but he didn't look up. Couldn't.
"But hey, at least he could talk to his sire about you right?" He paused at Avid's confused tilt of his head, a delighted grin spreading as realization dawned. "Oh you didn't realize? They hated your guts. All of them, Owen, Pyro, your little 'sire daddy'. Said they'd rather final kill you than ever turn you. What a relief that must've been! He wasn't alone for once. Someone else was the problem"
Pyro glanced up, unsure of how Avid would react. He watched the words hit Avid, watched the flicker of hurt that crossed the hunter's face. Don't, he wanted to say. Don't let him see it. Don't give him that.
"And then you got turned."
Czeslaw's voice dripped with mock sorrow as he leaned against Pyro, the cold of his soaked clothes seeming to seep through fabric and skin alike. River wate dripped onto Pyro's shoulder, each drop a tiny, icy shock that made the muscle beneath twitch. They didn't move. Couldn't move.
"Of course it was Shelby, she was always so soft. But at least they were still going to keep you at a distance right? Just like Apo and Drift?"
"Except—no. No that's not how that went was it?" Czeslaw scratched his head in exaggerated confusion.
"Oh, that's right." He snapped his fingers as if the thought just occured to him, the sound sharp and wet. "Goldsmith actually got attached to you. Moreso than he ever did to his actual fledgling!"
Pyro made a sound. He didn't mean to. It was small and wounded and escaped from somewhere deep in his chest before he could choke it back. His claws pressed harder into his palms, reopening the half-healed wounds, even as he couldn't feel the pain past the numbness slowly crawling through his limbs, his chest, his throat.
"Poor Pyro. Always. Second. Best. When will you learn?" Czeslaw shook his head, clicking his head in disappointment. The mockery of sympathy was almost more painful than the cruelty. He leaned in close, blue lips nearly brushing Pyro's ear. The words were soft, almost intimate, and yet still devastating enough that it seemed the whole forest could hear.
"No one actually wants you."
Pyro's vision blurred at the edges. The world felt distant, muffled, like he was hearing everything from underwater. Which was fitting, maybe. Czeslaw would appreciate the irony.
"I mean you tried so hard it was really quite sad. 'Sire' this, 'sire' that, he had you running like a dog for him." Czeslaw's grin stretched impossibly wider. "So so loyal and what do you get? A consolation prize and the entire town turned against you. Any chance at living an innocent life—well as innocent as you could get after me—dead and buried."
"But Avid." Czeslaw turned, pointing at the spectre with one gnarled finger. "Scott's number one hater. Onto him from day one! Congratulations on that by the way. Maybe if more people believed you someone wouldn't be a vampire right now."
Both Avid and Pyro flinched at that. Through the haze clouding his vision, Pyro could see the way Avid's shoulders drew up in defense, the way his mouth pressed into a thin line as he restrained himself from saying something that he'd quickly regret once again. Something complicated moved behind his eyes as he glanced away.
"But even after all that," Czeslaw continued, relentless, "pushing Pyro off a tree, trying to kill them at any chance you could get—even before Pyro decided to throw his hat in with Goldsmith—positioning yourself as a problem and an annoyance at every opportunity, you were the one who Scott picked. And it wasn't even a competition!"
"No, he threw Pyro away like—" Czeslaw shrugged, the gesture almost lazy.
"Well. Like trash."
One final pat on Pyro's shoulder, cold and wet and lingering a moment too long, and Czeslaw stepped away. For a fleeting moment, they almost missed the contact, disgusting as it was.
"I- I didn't know-" Avid started, soft and halting. Something almost bordering on concern flickered in his eyes, fragile and uncertain. His gaze kept darting to Pyro and then away, as if he couldn't bear to linger on the implications. That the vampire he'd hunted, the creature he'd pushed and ostracized and tried to kill, the one who had killed him, had been drowning long before the fangs ever came in.
"No, you don't, do you? That's the problem." Pyro's voice finally surfaced from somewhere deep inside him, cracked and whispered but still simmering with a fury he used to cover the humiliation and misery threatening to swallow him whole. "But that's never stopped you before, has it?"
He watched Avid flinch again. Watched his mouth open and then close, for once without a quick retort or defensive accusation. It didn't make Pyro feel any better. If anything, the lack of fight made the ever-present ache in his chest yawn wider.
His claws dug fresh crescents into his already-healing palms as he turned around, resuming the journey back to the castle without another word. His pace quickened, just slightly, and Czeslaw's soft, knowing chuckle followed him all the way up the hill.
Go my Pyro's Hitlist propaganda! For the @vsmppolyshiptournament
Avid and Czeslaw's first meeting is...not a great first impression.
CW: Very gory body horror description of a chest wound and drowning victim.
"Ayyy welcome to the club!"
A freezing cold arm slung itself around Avid's shoulders as he was wrenched awake with a gasp.
"W-what? Where am I?" He turned his head and came face to face with a grotesque smirk. Sopping wet hair dripped rivulets of water into bulging, milky-white eyes. The chill of river water seeped through his borrowed clothing, mingling with his own cold sweat and trailing down his spine in an involuntary shiver.
He flung himself backwards, away from the disgusting creature as he scrambled for distance. Dark chuckles echoed off the claustrophobic stone walls of the hole, the grave Avid belatedly realized, too small, too closeT. he sound slithered into his ears with a wet gurgle choking off the end as he got a good lookat the thing.
Pale, blue tinted skin, stretched thin over bones, stood as a stark backdrop against a web of blackened veins. A thin dribble of pinkish-red foam leaked from the corner of puffed blue lips stretched grotesquely into a mean grin. It's milky white eyes didn't seem to look at anything in particular, and yet still seemed to pierce through Avid in a way that made him flinch back.
It's clothes were drenched, shedding water onto the stone floor in a puddle that crept outwards with a hungry purpose, stretching towards Avid's feet greedily. He stumbled back another step. It's hands, thrown out to his sides in a mockingly grandiose welcome, were gnarled and pruned into deep whorls, nailbeds still packed with dark river silt standing out against the bleach-white fingernails.
"Where else do you think?" The monster, for what else could it be, stepped forward with a wet squelch, water squeezing from its shoes. "The afterlife of course!" Another step. "Can't believe the little rat actually had it in him."
"The afterlife?" Avid's voice cracked. He backed up until the stone wall bit into his shoulders and pain flared through his chest, radiating outward in sharp pulses. He looked down and his vampiric pallor went even whiter.
The wooden stake jutted out from his chest, crudely carved from one of the fallen branches in the dead woods. Blood had dried around the wound in a dark, sticky halo, dead heart sluggishly oozing secondhand blood that was dark as ink. He could feel every inch of the wood inside him, a splintered pressure that exploded in a thousand spikes of pain with every panicked breath.
"Yep." The creature closed the distance and clapped one of those gnarled hands onto his back with a careless force. The contact sent a fresh wave of that bone-deep cold radiating through him and Avid gagged as he felt something in his chest grind against the stake. "Real cozy isn't it? Better get used to it soon, 'cause you're stuck here."
"I'm WHAT?" he shrieked, shoving himself away and stumbling. He looked around desperately for an exit, stepping backwards and feeling the disorienting sensation of walking through something. He looked down and saw his own body, saw his foot calf-deep inside of the bloodied chest cavity, felt the undead chill through his bones.
"No no no no no no-"
His voice climbed into something ragged, the words blurring together. His chest heaved and the sound of his own panic filled the chamber, loud and thin and echoing.
"No."
The word was soft, barely audible beneath Avid's spiraling, but it cut through nonetheless.
The drowned creature's grin grew impossibly wider. "Ah, well. Look who decided to join the party."
