#white cleaver

WHO AND WHAT ARE THE CLEAVERS???? they apparently have consciousness, their own mond to think and PAIN but are diligent enough to obey every order they're given no matter the situation so are they being controlled? Are they human? Probably not since they're so strong but what are they?! Is there ever an answer for that?

Are they just slavered and mind-controlled? It doesn't make sense!

This bothered me since the first time ive read about them. I have a lot of questions and im concerned about the ethical implications here.

It's a saving grace for everyone that the white cleaver prefers close combat. Something about it being more satisfying.

Grimoire Art Joe Lillington (LillingtonJoe on Twitter)

A lot of the art for the grimoire has already been publicly uploaded to the artists’ portfolios on Arena Illustration, so I’ll be showcasing all publicly available pictures here too, splitting the posts up by artists.

I mean, imagine the white cleaver walking in after Nef has gotten the living hell beaten out of him by Skulduggery, but instead of abandoning him like in the books, he saves him, picking him up bridal style and carrying him to safety, all the while Nef is struggling and kicking bc ‘I can still win this!!’ until they finally reach safety and the cleaver shoves Nef against the closest wall, hand around his throat and him being so close to Nef’s face that his helmet is touching his forehead “It’s over, the book of names is destroyed, you have lost.” A short pause. “Lost this round, at least.”

ofc Nef is throwing a hissy fit bc he refuses to give up that easily all the while the cleaver just watches him wordlessly, tilting his head to the side slightly, but it’s impossible to see what’s going on in his mind with his face hidden behind the helmet. suddenly he pushes the visor up, uncovering the lower half of his face, cups Nefs face with one hand and pulls him into a kiss, effectively shutting him up. after a few seconds the kiss breaks

“how dare you!? I am your master!”, Nef hisses before pulling the cleaver back into the kiss bc , damn(!), he’s into it

(( Bonus points if the cleaver has a stubble/3-day beard~!! ))

Nef is way too fricking shippable for his own good and I’m always a slut for master/servan ships, especially if the servant is physically stronger/protective of their master :3c

EDIT: The reason for the cleaver suddenly behaving like this in this AU is bc whatever the f- Nef did to him accidentally broke the brainwashing they used to turn them from people into mindless drones. Turns out the cleaver wasn’t a particulary good person pre-brainwashing. And Nef being a hottie plus a bad influence is only making it worse.

It's not like that at all. And the first cleaver got beaten to death, the second one got pumped full of chemicals and then got killed by Nef pushing a dagger through his heart.

In that AU the stuff Nef did to the cleaver broke the brainwashing the Sanctuaries put on him. The cleaver now wants revenge on the Sanctuaries, so he keeps serving Nef eventho he has a mind of his own now.

I talked more about that here.

Non-canon compliant, but I also like the idea that once they started running out of volunteers wanting to become cleavers, criminals were given the choice between the death penalty/prison or allowing themselves to get brainwashed and serve the Sanctuaries for a shorter amount of time than they would have served in prison. An additional downside to that is the loss of their discipline even after they are done serving. So the white cleaver is not only a bad person, but he was also one of those criminals.

So their dynamic is criminal boss x bodyguard bc I'm a sucker for bodyguard AUs. The cleaver's job is to keep Nef unharmed, which is an issue bc now that he's black-blooded Nef has even less of a self-preservation drive than before. Just imagine Nef standing there quite smugly and not even making an attempt to protect himself. Yet when they shot at him his cleaver shows up out of nowhere and deflects the bullet with his scythe at which point Nef's smile grows wider.