sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] One-Man Show

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[MINGLE] One-Man Show

WHERE: Inari Shrine and elsewhere
WHEN: 25 January 2019 through ?
OPEN TO: All opted in characters
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Jesus Fucking Christ. Bobo is a monster. An abusive, dangerous monster that kept a child prisoner in hopes she would help him. He's killed and tortured. He's not sure he's any better than the man in this image they've just lived through. Of course, he's pretty sure he's better than the asshole kid that blew the superhero kid off, so there's that, but he does know one thing.

If that bastard was actually standing here, Bobo would take him apart literally piece by piece.

"I'll survive," he says, wheezing with laughter since they all know better than that but he comes over, dropping down onto one knee where the pair are. "You know you didn't do anything wrong, right? He's an abusive asshole." And because distraction is key, right? Sure.

"And what I am is cursed. I was human, and then I died and was cursed and it was horrifically worse than that. If you want more details, it's probably distracting." The idea of talking about it is miserable to Bobo, but he's bad with this empathy thing, but he'll try.

Venom is...pissed.

No, pissed is putting it mildly. He's furious. Whatever is here has seemingly crippled Eddie. Bobo is apparently inhuman which means that his own senses are considerably dulled, and now... Venom can guess what comes next. The woman comes next, some sort of horrific story will play out and-

"It's not horrific it matters!"

Eddie bursts out with it - talking to Venom not to Bobo but it probably would still count.

Eddie get up and move. Protect the woman. Protect him.

I can't! I didn't mean it! I was gonna give them back-

No such thing as can't.

Venom pauses, Eddie staring at his hands.

She's next right? I can't-I can't think can you-

Satisfaction fills his mind as the man nods to himself before meeting Bobo's gaze with...decidedly inhuman eyes. White faded to black veins, and then nothing. It's Eddie's body, Eddie's voice, but it's Venom in the driver's seat as the other man slowly stands.

"It all matters. Just not right now we think. Another one of those could start at any moment."

The fact that those eyes are not directed at Karen really doesn't do a lot to blunt their impact. It isn't even the same voice that comes out of Eddie, and she doesn't think she can be blamed for rearing back, nearly falling on her ass but catching herself on an outstretched hand in time, the floor shockingly cold beneath her fingers.

"What the—" she begins, eyes rounding as she scrambles to get her feet under her, only to have her boots scuff to a stop as this merry-go-round of pain loads up another memory, a jagged blade that hits her square in the chest, lodging firm in muscle and bone as her mouth opens, a fish out of water, unable to breathe.

"No," she manages, a faint sound lost to the roar of a truck engine and the crackle of flames.

"No," she repeats, the tremble beginning slowly, climbing from hands to elbows to hunching shoulders, fingers grasping blindly at the front of her coat, knotting in fabric as another anguished breath scrapes into her lungs.

She could look away, could close her eyes... Except that she can't. She has to see it, has to swallow it all down one more time, that raw ache that she deserves. Because it's her, it's always her, she doesn't know when to stop, she doesn't know how to—

The car hits the guardrail and it's so fast that she's left gasping, both hands clutching over her open mouth, hot tears spilling down freckled cheeks. It had felt like an eternity, living it. Like if she might have had the will, she could have reached out and changed things amidst the balletic spin as they rolled.

Here, though, it's a blink and done. A life snuffed out, quick as that.

Only when the images fade does she look away, curled in on herself against the hot rush of shame, sliding gracelessly to the hard, cold floor and staring dully at a lone leaf, dry and papery, that's blown in against her fingers where they're splayed and shaking against the ground.

Bobo has never known what to expect when Venom talks to him about Eddie and just how any of that works. Seeing it though in person, to have those eyes turn on him and he's at a loss. He literally fought a demon, was banished to hell, and has lived with nearly eighty people cursed and watching Eddie's eyes seemingly bleed away to something Bobo has only seen in the dark is something he's not prepared for.

"I'm dead," he says, shaking his head, not looking away from those eyes, from Venom. "All over again. It doesn't..."

Whatever he's about to say though, it's gone in an instant as the world around them shifts again, changes. Darker, the brilliance of flames, and all of those words die on his tongue, burning away in the heat of emotions and the flames that spark through the air before them.

Caught up in those images, in what she's been through, lived with as he watches the car flip, knowing before she looks over in the image what is coming.

"Karen."

He says her name softly, backing towards her, towards where he heard her voice. Watching Venom though, worrying he might bolt any minute.

It's odd, but not entirely different than the times when Bobo had to hold the revenants together, to make sure things didn't go from bad to worse.

"That's it then, right? Maybe?" He needs it to be, because if the next one shows the short of torture he went through in Hell, he's not sure he'll handle watching it. "Venom, are you and Eddie okay?"

Even as he asks, Bobo starts shifting out of his coat, shaking it out before moving to try and wrap it around Karen's shoulders.

We're fine. Physically he's still Eddie but Eddie has given him complete control. That feels wrong. The host and klyntar are supposed to cooperate. To work together.

This is... a violation and it makes him angry on Eddie's behalf, and theirs.

Severely muted abilities are one thing, but this cold is another. Glancing back to Bobo and Karen Venom/Eddie snarls - a very animalistic noise before spreading his arms wide.

Are you finished?! We are Venom and these paltry projections do not frighten us. Klyntar fear nothing (except the void). These are strong humans under my protection.

It's Eddie's hands and Venom doesn't know how to do comfort with them - at least not well. His wrist twitches and Eddie pats Karen's shoulder - like a child patting a stuffed creature.

What were these things? That you all shared?

Strictly speaking, Karen doesn't need the coat. Not as much as Bobo probably needs it now that the visions have faded and the outside chill has begun to seep into their terrible little bubble. The weight of it is a comfort, though, and when she rocks back to sit on her heels, she lets it stay.

Her body feels sore, exhausted, like she actually experienced the accident again rather than just witnessed it. She shudders out a breath at the pat to her shoulder, nominally more aware, but doesn't look at either of them when she speaks.

"Things to tear us down," she answers, because that much is clear. "Maybe things to put us in our place." She lifts a hand, wipes the dampness from her cheeks.

Actually giving comfort is still something that is long distant from Bobo's experience, a remnant of a memory that he's still not sure what to do with but at least trying. Not that any of this is normal, or that they have any idea how to handle emotions like this. Not any of them, he suspects from the way that they're all reacting.

Straightening, trying to pull himself together. The cold is bitter, and in that moment welcome for the time being. It's hard to wallow in his own thoughts when the cold is sharp against his skin, and it definitely keeps thoughts of Hell at bay. It's almost as if needing the cold to remind himself that he's not in Hell. Not yet.

He can't argue what Karen says though. Not after what he's seen before, coupled with this.

"So let's not let them win," he says, knowing that in a way they had failed with him. He's a bitter man who has now lost everything. He has nothing left but this place and those here with him. Both in this moment, and in the village.

"Maybe they want us broken, Karen. They want us to stay here, and wallow, and maybe we'll give up," he says, knowing that out here, without supplies, they would die if they didn't start moving soon. Or at least risk that happening. "Except, we're not going to give them the satisfaction. Okay?"

"Okay Big Guy," he says, looking at Eddie, who he knows isn't Eddie. In the end, he truly thought Venom was more a demon friend kind of a thing rather than a demon house guest of his body kind of a thing. "You're here with us, right? Tell me you're not starving or something."

Which makes him think about Liv and Blaine, about the others with special needs in the village who are now away from the village, the best he can tell. Which means solving that first.

"Either of you got a clue where we are?" He's looking to Karen though as he asks. "Karen? You been here long enough to have a clue?"

I'm not hungry. Eddie has given me full control he is... Eddie's body looks strong, ready to fight, eager even, but his eyes are still inhuman and his voice is inhuman as well. Not well.

Broken is putting it mildly. There's a lot more and Venom can see it - A car crash, screaming, blood, more screaming, crying, childhood misshapen. Venom feeds Eddie as many positive memories as he can - Anne and he at Christmas with her looking at a ring kissing in front of a softly lit Christmas tree. Showing his mother a macaroni picture. A kitten that curled up in his lap, his first kiss, his first sexual experience...

It does nothing. I'm innocent. I'm innocent. I'm innocent.

So. Eddie turns to Bobo and Karen, Tell me what you need from me.

"Joke's on them," Karen replies, lifting sober, red-rimmed eyes to Bobo, a faint, mirthless smile curving her lips. "I'm already broken." This is just salt in a wound that never heals anyway.

They do need to figure out where the hell they are, though, and get their heads straight enough to come up with a game plan. It's easier, so much easier to focus on something like that, something that can be tangibly solved, even if it makes her feel like a coward to do it. She scrubs both hands over her face with a sigh and tips a glance to the rows of red columns marching off into the distance.

"I think, maybe, we're in the temple at the top of the eastern mountains," she says at length, her mouth twitching down. "I won't be able to say for sure, though, until we get out of here. Another group got beamed up there awhile back. Like..." She pulls in a breath, trying to envision the timeline through the blossoming throb of a post-breakdown headache. "Before summer, for sure. Before that party we talked about with the jukebox."

She slides a wary glance Venom's way. "I don't know what we need from you. What can you do?"

Bobo rubs his hands over his face, feeling emotions welling up within him that he hasn't faced in so long. Feelings of responsibility, of caring for others because they are community and not because they could do something for him, and of wanting to rally the troops and save as many as they could. He hasn't felt that way in long enough of a time that it's almost painful.

He listens, pressing his thumb to the corner of one eye, thinking about the reality of where they might be and why they would bring them to this place. Hell, how they brought them there. He hadn't know anything was happening until he came to suddenly. Whatever drug they were using that could knock them all out, especially Venom, it has to be serious and beyond anything he can think of, and it means they can stop them at any point, he suspects.

Bobo barks a chuckle though.

"Well, when he can be himself," Bobo says, glancing at Eddie who is Venom. "He's a giant black creature that eats my large waterfowl whole," he points out, shaking his head so that his hair whips about his face, hanging in his vision. "So if there's anything out there that might try and kill us, I think we've evened the playing field."

Which isn't likely the most helpful, but Bobo finds it fair game. He looks to Venom. "About it, right?" He wants to ask so much. About Eddie. About how this is even a thing. About what Venom actually is then. He's always thought of him along the lines of Bull and the big green leafy guy, but now he realizes he doesn't have a damn clue.

Pacing as he thinks, though he turns, looking at Karen once more. Staring at her for a long time, thinking about what they've just seen. Another toss of his head, whipping his hair back.

"Karen..."

He closes the distance between them, moving to where she is and sinking down in front of her. Balancing on the balls of his feet, his gaze intense as he tries to catch her gaze, hold it. "There's nothing else they can do to us then, Karen. When you're broken, they can try but they won't win. Worse they can do now is kill us now."

And he's already a dead man, so he's not that worried about that. Less than he had been before.

"But I refuse to stay here and wallow in knowing that five minutes after Willa betrayed me, her sister killed me," he says, which is definitely reducing it all down to half of what it is. "And Venom and me? We're not leaving you here." He nearly smiles. "We can be broken together."

We are not broken. Venom sounds slightly affronted, We are stronger together. all species are stronger together. I will carry Eddie and the three of you if I must.

He lifts his gaze to the wind, If we are going to travel and we are needed to kill things, we should travel at night and sleep during the day.

Comfort them V.

Eddie oozes out of his hidey-hole in his mind. Venom cocks his head to the side. Listening.

...We've been practicing.

C'mon V.

Eddie's body crosses it's arms over it's chest and Venom drops it's hands, ...This is callous and cruel. You both were hurt and you did not deserve to see this. Eddie was also hurt but he was a child and all of this...

The noise that Venom makes is decidedly inhuman. When we find them we will eat their eyes last so they can watch me devour them!

Karen meets Bobo's gaze, holds it. "That's naive and you know it," she says, although there's a resignation underpinning the syllables. She's done this dance before and knows the steps well, knows it only helps so much to cling to her bitterness.

"I'm not wallowing, I'm getting my bearings," she adds, her mouth twitching down. "I don't think that's unreasonable, particularly since you don't even know the half of it," she adds with a vague motion in the direction of where the crash had played out in front of them.

She could almost laugh at Venom's reaction, though, might have if it wasn't all so damned perceptive, the id in them all snapped free of its tether. It reminds her a little too of Frank, ready to become a savage in the face of the world's savagery.

"As much as I sincerely appreciate that you are a bird-killing bad-ass, I've seen what comes out of these woods at night, and I'd rather not risk it if it's all the same," she tells him — It? — before realizing she still has her pack on her back. She pulls it around and unzips the top, although she knows exactly what she has in there.

"I've got a KABAR knife, a paring knife, a pretty good length of twine, some jerky, a sort of nut trail mix, a plastic tarp, an extra pair of socks, a scarf, and sunglasses," she ticks off, and then looks back up to the pair of them.

"Naive as all hell, but it's better than you sitting there staring at space," he notes, giving a nod towards Eddie's body. "He's right. We're stronger together, and naive or not? I'm going back, and the truth? I'm not leaving you here, Karen. One way or another."

It's not a threat, and it's not cruelty. It's more the behavior of a man without the knowledge of how to interact with others as well as he should, who is used to ensuring things are done, whether everyone likes it or not.

"And honestly? I kind of like that idea. Start with the toes, leave them panicking as long as possible before the kindness of death," he says with an approving nod. He did appreciate those that knew how to bring about torture.

Though he arches a brow at that pack, head canting, looking at Karen with curiosity. "Do you always sleep prepared for kidnapping?" Not that he should be surprised, given that it's how they came to be in this place, after all. "All I have is a rough stone knife, and a stone scraper. I had been working in the butcher shop and curled up in the corner to sleep."

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[MINGLE] One-Man Show

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video cw: violence (firearm & battery), car crash

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