I accused him there with his tortured lamb

[fooloftheking]

WHO: Bobo Del Rey
WHERE: Butcher Shop, South village
WHEN: Throughout November
OPEN TO: All
WARNINGS: Talk of animal death and slaughter

---

There was a time when most of Bobo's life wasn't taken up with drinking and herding revenant cats and general being a fairly psychotic bastard. It's a time over a century in the past, and until coming to this place, he's been glad to leave it in the past, as buried as the man that had caused the curse that had changed everything for Bobo. This place though, it's like a damn time capsule in many ways, and it is finding a way to get under his skin and stir up memories of a man long dead though his body continues on.

He had once been a man who helped, whose entire life was devoted to another, to doing what he could for his town and for a hundred plus years he has lamented that being that man had caused him not only to die - that he was prepared for - but to be cursed and damned for it. People paid for that, yet now in this place, that all feels like someone distant, just as Robert Svane has felt to Bobo for so long.

Here in this place, everything has changed and much as he might deny it, Bobo is changing with it. Including needing to do more than cause hate and discontent. A talk with Margaery at the inn led him to spending a few days hunting and trekking through the areas to the north, away from others for the most part. Trying to clear his mind, to remember who he is, not was. Except even that didn't work. That man who died apparently wasn't nearly as gone and forgotten as Bobo likes to believe. In the end he ended up at the butcher shop with his coat hung on a nail, water brought up from the river and set to work scrubbing the place down.

Taking more time than he had so far with the house since poisoning the village is not acceptable. Working hard, harder than he has in a long while, using the soap left there on the counter and rags he made from those damn walking blanket things. It takes several days, leaving the doors and windows open to air the place out as he goes. Going so far that the first night he just curls up with his coat, not wanting to make the hike back to the North village.

By the end of the first week, the place is clean enough you could eat off the floor. Or at the very least eat what is killed and slaughtered there and likely not die. Maybe killing things isn't the best therapy for the aggression he still feels, the nature of the beast as it were, but he figures it isn't hurting people so, for now, it will work. Both for his own kills and, if others bring them in, butchering items for others in the village as well.

Eventually he can be found there most of the daylight hours slaughtering those creature he kills. Using that space to butcher them, and to cure and tan the hides. Some of the meat and fish he takes over to the Inn. Some of it he starts processing with red salt, hoping it will do the same as the salt curing he'd done before. Some he puts out on racks to dry, thinking he can turn it into pemmican for the winter.

Some days he can be found scrounging wood, looking to build a smoking shed out back to use on the salted meat when it's ready, knowing he's starting too late in the season to hold them all through the winter, but he doesn't care. He cares that some of the oppressive weight of hatred and loathing is lifted from his shoulders while he works, and for now that is enough.

Comments

[imareporter]

Venom understands that rage. That aggression. That anger. It's swirling in him constantly and he can't control it and it's hurting Eddie. This is the worst part of it.

So it steps out of the darkness. Almost 8 feet of black overly muscled monster with more teeth in it's mouth then anyone has ever thought possible. A long tongue snakes out of it's mouth.

We could eat you instead. But our other would be angry. The word is...pissed off.

Yes. It likes that word.

We don't want to make them angry.

[fooloftheking]

Bobo has been banished to Hell. He has lived a century wherein he watched men shot with a magic gun that sent them into the fires of Hell before his eyes. He's faced vampires and serial killers and various magical creatures. He is a goddamn demon.

And the creature before him makes him go still, chin lifting and realizing that he's going to need a bigger knife.

"Fucking hell, what the fuck are you?"

Muttering the words, canting his head to try and peer more closely in the darkness at something that is darker than the night. For a moment there's a flash in his eyes, fiery and red. His odds, especially in this place? Not good. There's also the thought if he dies here, he can't ever go back to Hell.

But is it worth taking the chance?

"You could. Yep. I'm sure demon tastes fucking great because I'm goddamn amazing." Probably not the right answer. "But you're right. It's likely to really piss someone off if you're trying not to make them angry. Want to know what else could make them angry?"

And then because Bobo is not always the smartest fucking asshole when he's angry, he takes a step closer than away.

"Taking food out of the mouths of those in the village, including probably your other. I can't even imagine how much food it takes to fill up a whatever you are..." And waving at him with his hand not holding the knife is probably still a bad idea. "But you can't just steal from others."

Says the sociopath that literally stole a human teen and raised her and then dated her.

"I do this for everyone, so you could just ask... right after you tell me what the hell you are. Are you behind this place?"

[imareporter]

Venom's growl is inhuman and deep. Eddie. Wake up Eddie! Eddie... Venom's eyes glint and it realizes...it needs him. It needs the other half, it's other, the being sleeping safely inside of it, but that's just it, Eddie is asleep.

If they hurt this man Eddie will be cast out. That would be fine, it would just be them, but without other humans what would it eat?

Who would Eddie speak to?

It's lip curls over it's teeth.

We are Venom.

The thing slides into a crouching position, And we are NOT behind this place! We are a prisoner! Just like you! When we find those who are responsible, we will rip out their eyes and set them on a table so they can watch themselves being devoured by us!

Or perhaps, we shall skin them alive. Then! Force them to eat it before eating them! We are a prisoner, tall man who smells of blood, slayer of animals. We are a prisoner and we are hungry.

venom has been thinking about a suitable punishment for trapping he and Eddie in this place.

If we do not eat we will eat everyone in the village.

Pause.

Stare.

We do not want to do that. Our other would be angry.

[fooloftheking]

"Okay then, Venom."

Because he'll be damned if he's intimidated by anyone or anything. Even the one thing he's faced that makes him want to be intimidated. There's just nothing he's ever seen in his life like this, and he's both nervous still having this conversation and dumb enough to want to move closer.

He manages to hold his ground.

"Well, Venom, on that you and I are on the same page. Also, I like how you think," he says, not surprised that this thing outdoes him on torture. He wonders if he could keep a revenant alive and do that to them. Hmmmm? He'll have to consider that.

"You know what? Everyone has to eat, and maybe some others will go mass murderer rampage if they don't," he points out, shaking his head and glad that maybe the hint of an eye roll might not be seen. "What you don't see is others stealing. So fine. You need to eat and have apparently enough impulse control not to want to piss off your friend so..."

He considers this, staring at the creature. "You can't just take. That? Will piss him off too, I bet. You hurt others by making them starve? He won't be happy, because I'm not happy. What are they doing to feed you?"

Because this is sane. Yep, that's Bobo right there. The sane demon considering how he can feed a monster. Sanity is overrated.

[imareporter]

We go outside. We eat the animals in the grass. My other sleeps. It's a moot point. Sometimes Eddie stays awake but he needs to protect him. This place has...changed me. Foul wretched beings. When we find them we will twist them into...pretzels. Salt their bodies with the blood of their friends and roast them over the fire! It will be...delicious and you are welcome to participate.

He is the best cook. No really.

...living beings are best. Human beings are even better, but since there are no human beings to eat we just eat as much as we can every night.

His claws clack, No one feeds Venom. We are not a...a...fucking dog..

[fooloftheking]

"Yeah yeah, I get it. All the death and destruction. We're on the same page on that. I'm all for the killing. Except... you don't shit where you eat." Which he realizes, as he says it, doesn't sound right at all to say to him. "It means, this is the only village you've got, and the last thing you want is to wreck everyone and the ecosystem and then you know what happens? You starve."

He's not sure if logic will work but he's got to try.

"I am cleaning animals to feed to the village, and they're not dogs either." He's glaring and knows he should watch his tone. "But do you know this place? Know how to handle things so your friend isn't pissed at you? Are you aware there's bigger game you could eat that could fill you up more than a damn goose? I'm talking human size without being humans."

[imareporter]

Here's the thing. Venom likes human beings. They're fascinating and for a species that's not a hive mind...strangely intelligent. This man...this man possesses a different sort of intelligence because he makes sense.

can the big thing with it's big white eyes look desperate?

We could survive here. We do not wreck the ecosystem because our other needs you and because you all could get us home.

Just. Point of fact.

The creature sniffs, ...Alive? One big hand reaches out for the goose, We know the pink things. They look like walking cotton candy. Where are these other creatures we can eat.

[fooloftheking]

"You could," he says, nodding to agree with... whatever it is. God, this is the weirdest thing in his life and he's actually a demon who has been to Hell. "You could learn to survive and thrive in this place, but not if you take."

Which is why when he asks, gesturing for the goose, Bobo sighs but he steps back and out of the way. "You asked," he says, nodding. "So you can have it yes. Then I'll tell you where we can find something bigger for you," he offers, shaking his head. "What even is my life?"

It knows about cotton candy. It's attached to someone that maybe doesn't want it hunting, or at least killing humans. He just can't figure out just what even Venom is, but he can understand the needs and sentiments.

[imareporter]

You are a human male. That is your life. Eddie does this too. Constantly questioning. Is this what life is like without a Hive mind? without constant reassurance? Thank goodness Eddie, Edward J. Brock, has him here in his life. You eat, shit, sleep, eventually produce offspring and then die, ignorant of the galaxy around you and the mysteries of the universe around you.

The big hand reaches for the goose and then squeezes it before - teeth. Row upon row of very sharp teeth and a tongue the length of the thing's forearm wraps around it and dissolves it with an almost comical gulp.

...It is not enough. It is never enough. We envy you human. For all your ignorance your are not consumed by the present omniscient hunger. The desperate need to feed

Does he regret? Sure. Absolutely. Sometimes Eddie makes it seem like there is more to the galaxy then just consumption. Then just...conquering.

We will return here tomorrow night and you will show us this other...food. In exchange we will bring you...something

That's what humans do right? They exchanges goods for services.

We have no money, but we will bring you something.

[fooloftheking]

"I'm male. That's the only part you've got right," he says, rolling his eyes. Though unlike this guy, he looks human and passes for it, and no one knows. Which oddly, after living a century and a half having everyone know it, even if they never bring it up, makes it odd to not have others know. So he's stopped hiding it. Besides, no one believes him anyway.

"Already died, adopted my only child, the rest I'll give you though sex is in there somewhere," he says, shrugging as he stands there, watching as they take down the goose, eating it with that face that just is not even close to comforting or comfortable. It left him shifting, but he doesn't look away and he doesn't run.

A brow does arch then. "Is there nothing you can do about it? Not trying to be a dick, but have you tried controlling it? Sounds like an addiction not hunger."

Not that he has a clue. They aren't human, after all. That means he can't know what it is.

Truth of the matter is, Bobo knows this is insane. Letting himself head out into the woods with whatever Venom actually is. A killer with too many teeth who just admitted he can't get enough to eat. Desperation is one of the most dangerous things a person can face, and he's accepting that. The worst part is, aside from curiosity, he's not even sure why he's doing it.

"Tomorrow night then. I'll show you, and we'll work things out. Don't steal from the yard though. If I bring them back here, I'm planning to skin them and now I don't have the feathers for quills and using for down for warmth."

[imareporter]

Addiction. Venom made a note to ask Eddie what that word meant because Venom didn't know. Eddie was asleep and Venom missed the constant presence of it's human's voice. His fear and confusion. Love he calls us. Love. To try and keep us calm.

...We cannot control it. if we do not eat we rage. We devour. Worlds. places. planets. Venom hopes Eddie is not awake to hear that. It is bad, a secret thing. And Venom...Venom wants Eddie to believe it is good. That it can make him strong.

...Tomorrow Night you will tell us of this...addiction. We will trade you...

What. Not Eddie. Never Eddie.

You will tell us what you want and we will provide it. At night. Only at night. We sleep during the day. Is this satisfactory?

He has seen Eddie do this. One massive hand pulls itself out of the darkness.

Shake on it if So.

[fooloftheking]

As if a conversation with a demonic seeming being unlike anything a man that's been to Hell isn't bad enough, he starts talking about devouring worlds. They don't know how much they're trapped here, or if their resources are renewable at all. Something with that kind of an appetite could be dangerous, but what choice is there if Venom is there already? All they can do is the best they can.

Which is how Bobo found himself reaching out to shake Venom's hand, unable to stop himself from considering how easily he could be pulled in and devoured as well as his geese had been.

Yet he takes Venom's hand, shaking and trying not to show himself as being tense. "Tomorrow night I will show you, and we can work out things so that you're not upsetting your friend." And people, and the world, aren't getting eaten. He's all for that.

[imareporter]

Venom has seen Eddie shake hands. He does it to honor a business deal and to impress people. And he smiles. Smiling is very important. The corner of the alien's mouth twitches upward and it's fangs are bared in a full display as it's tongue is sucked back into it's mouth.

We want everyone's help. Our host is a good person. He is the best human. He is strong. brave. noble. Heroic. He loves all of you humans and that is why we do not want to eat you. For him. He has faith that you are all...good.

He kind of has to, otherwise venom might just rampage into the distance.

Venom looks up and down at the house.

You should get a TV. There is nothing like TV on my planet. This place needs TV.

And then it goes bounding away, disappearing in a flash.

[fooloftheking]

Bobo's mouth opens and then closes, not even sure what to say. He is making a mental note though to try and find who this best human is and what kind of person he truly is that he's managed to stop Venom - whatever he is - from just going around killing as he pleases. Not like he doesn't have the physical means to do so, after all.

But then he's talking about televisions and vanishing into the dark. Bobo stares for a long time before he realizes that he's laughing.

"Well damn, this place just got interesting." Shaking his head, he turned and headed back inside.