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The Skittering Chaos (Worm/Hazbin Hotel)

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Thread Necromancer, Aug 7, 2020.

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  1. VisV

    VisV Lost in the Dungeons of My Mind.

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    On the wiki, wiki didn't cite it though. so who knows.

    Apparently they can also get more powerful by defeating other demons and stealing their energy.

    EDIT: The Wiki did cite it! I'm just blind! live stream number 6!


    Something they did cite though, is that demons make up their own nicknames when coming to hell!

    Wiki cited a stream for australian wildfire charities for that one.
     
  2. ElegiacCrown

    ElegiacCrown Neither grandly nor intoxicatingly innocent.

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    *Escalation intensifies*
     
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  3. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    Definitely not something that she would learn from Skidmark or Squealer. I wonder who could teach her about this...?
     
  4. VisV

    VisV Lost in the Dungeons of My Mind.

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    Could very well be something she stumbles upon.

    She's gonna fight someone at some point after all, and lets face it, she's probably gonna win, depending on how you decide that sort of thing works, she could just take a chunk out of the losers power automatically.

    (and considering its Taylor "Wrong thing for the Right Reason's" Hebert, she might very well just constantly rip rival overlords to shreds until their drained of everything.)

    As for deal making.

    Depends on if it requires the deal to be for someones soul or not or if it requires a magical contract or something, If its just any deal, then she might very well stumble upon that rather quickly as well.
     
  5. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    The nickname and such for Skitter given by Skidmark and Squealer isn't her proper demonic nickname. Rather they, in this version of them, are the kind of people that give people cutesy nicknames, or at least Squealer is, Skidmark gives out nicknames in regards to their actions or personalities. Squealer after all we are pretty sure squeals in bed and such. For Skitty, well she already has the name of Skitter, so that describes her power and such, so Squealer nicknaming her Skitty is just for Squealer's sake. Skidmark is fine with just calling her whatever she prefers to be called and such. I haven't given Taylor's demonic nickname as much thought, though I've always leaned towards Skitter in this.

    Just wondering, is there a reason to take a demonic nickname at all? Taylor is said to just want to hang up the alternate identities and just be Taylor during Golden Morning so she might just not want to take a nickname for now. She could still later but at the moment, she might just want to be Taylor for a bit.

    I honestly didn't know that demons were basically gamers, getting EXP and shit. Damn if I had known that... This is going to end up with Skitter gaining more power quicker than before, and finding out about it faster. Or perhaps to fix the power she didn't take from the lizard, I might make it have to be an activated ability. Taylor, if she gets a mentor, might learn it from him/her.

    In regards to deal making, way I'm thinking, I'll probably make it a greater incentive to make deals than to just turn to RPG mob grinding since that can be boring to both read and do.
     
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  6. zarabg

    zarabg I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Could also just say souls are powerful so avoid grinding by just taking on souls, human souls should be more powerful, at least a neutral power source having equal parts magic and soul exp, while demons of course have more magic but less soul exp. I donno making it up as I type here.
     
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  7. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    I might lean more on the soul is where a person's magical potential is and such, thus by taking a sould you increase your magical potential thus increasing your max power maybe, or that by making a deal, where you'd have to kill a demon many times to get all their power, making a deal gets you all the power in one go.

    Despite describing it as being like a gamer power Ill probably not bring the gaming metaphor in since Taylor has never shown an interest in video games as far as I know.
     
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  8. zarabg

    zarabg I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    That works, no hud system with tons of little details like exp gains and abilities learned would be nice. Always felt that cluttered the story with trivia just to fill the chapters word count.
     
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  9. zarabg

    zarabg I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Wonder what Taylor gonna think of Charlies idea of redemption. Like she sees the song and dance number (really likely to go wtf this staged?)
     
  10. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    Likely to think that the idea has merit. Taylor isn't someone that thinks that people aren't beyond redemption, she just won't let that get in her way when it comes to the mission. Sure if she takes you in now you could possibly be redeemed, but she isn't going to go out of her way to redeem people as she has more important things to do. If you want redemption, redeem yourself why don't ya? Taylor is too busy with other things to try and deal with that stuff.

    Regarding the idea of being redeemed? Taylor is the master of self justification and even in the end didn't really regret almost anything she did except for a few things like leaving the Undersiders for the Protectorate and being a drill Sergent to the Wards. However the last one she doesn't really regret as it lead to them being better prepared for when shit hit the fan. So while she would like the idea and even support it, she doesn't think she needs redemption for herself as despite realising she deserves to be in Hell, she doesn't think she needs to be redeemed and doesn't regret most of the things that she did. She merely accepts that those things were things that needed to be done.
     
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  11. VisV

    VisV Lost in the Dungeons of My Mind.

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    Taylor needs to think a bit higher of herself.

    Oh well, being in hell will probably help her learn a bit of selfishness eventually.

    But in a sane cosmology God would have looked at all the crap she went through for the sake of saving a bunch of universes worth of people (quite a few of whom, quite frankly, didn't deserve it and continue to prove they didn't deserve it), and promptly gone "Put her in a nice purgatory where she can work through her issues and find happiness, then make her the patron saint of atheist's"

    Because if you are an actually benevolent god, worship and belief shouldn't matter, only actions.

    Did taylor do some regrettable things? yeah.

    But jesus straight up killed a kid as a little boy, and flipped out and beat a bunch of people that one time.

    So like, i think the precedent exists for you to still get in god's good books in spite of few dick moves.
     
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  12. shade argost

    shade argost Experienced.

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    Hmm, idea, maybe Taylor did get a little bit of power from the Lizard she killed but it was so little and Taylor is so inexperienced that she didn't notice the boost.
     
  13. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    Dealing with new senses can make it hard to realise what is going on especially if you have no basis for realising what is happening. Plus Taylor was in the zone and was more focused on what was happening to the other lizard man.

    Thing is Taylor has always been way to selfless, Lisa was starting to try to help her, but because of the mindwhammy stuff that was happening with Dinah and such that we discussed in the Unrestricted Worm Thread, all Lisa's progress towards getting Taylor to actually appreciate that she actually has worth beyond serving in some mission. I took this into account when writing up Taylor's goals. Her self worth is utter dog shit and only thinks about others. Even here all she's thinking about is how to make Hell a better place for her friends and maybe others and has basically adopted it as her new mission to replace the old one. Unless someone realizes it, Taylor is continuing her self destructive path and mission thought process even after dying. Someone is going to have to eventually get through to her and help her heal from the literal years of viewing herself as just a tool to make the world better for other people.

    Despite the "therapy" she got, Yamada from what I heard never really touched on her self worth as a person, and most of the therapists are probably only really looking to continue pushing the wards towards continuing to be in the Protectorate in a semi healthy way and maybe on the off chance solve an issue or two. Being a "Therapist" in the PRT/Protectorate if you don't really care about the patient is probably like a dream job. You don't have to care or even remember your clients for longer than a few months and then your shipped off somewhere else. Way I see it, most therapists will be like the therapist in GTA 5 where they don't really care, will talk to you about some issues and come up with some solutions, before moving on and getting a fat check by the government for "helping" their child soldiers and heroes continue to be heroes rather than go off the deep end.

    Granted that's just my interpretation of the time Taylor spent in the timeskip section.
     
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  14. VisV

    VisV Lost in the Dungeons of My Mind.

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    Thats what she'll have lisa for, (I Hope we get their relatively soon, set up is important but the reunion with lisa is definitely one of the things I'm really looking forward too.)

    Besides that mindset is useful for bulldozing over a couple of overlords!
     
  15. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    Exactly! Maybe Charlie too if Charlie really tries hard to try to redeem her or something.
     
  16. VisV

    VisV Lost in the Dungeons of My Mind.

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    I really hope we don't spend too long on setup, things like Taylor getting her warlord groove on again, and the various reunions (Taylor with her mom, and Lisa) are one of the big selling points of the fic for me.

    Along with interaction with The Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss cast and the unfucking of Ward.

    Spending too much time on initial setup can kill a fic stone dead in my experience, and that would be a shame.
     
  17. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    Part of why I'm not sure about the summoning stuff to the places yet. Might bog down the story. Unless your talking about fighting and that. That'll come soon enough with a special guest appearence from some one not really that special.
     
  18. zarabg

    zarabg I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I meant her reaction to watching charlie sing about her idea of redemption.
     
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  19. danget

    danget Know what you're doing yet?

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    Love this!

    Also, remember to take the wiki with a grain of salt, unless cited. That this is held together with duck-tape and leftovers from Angel's place.
     
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  20. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    That stuff ain't very strong...

    But yeah I kind of know that it's basically a bunch of nonsense. Still it gives me a bit of info for the setting at the moment.
     
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  21. Threadmarks: Chapter 3
    Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    The Skittering Chaos 3

    This chapter, atleast at the start, was like pulling teeth since it was mostly just transitional stuff until it got to the second part of the chapter. I had planned more things to go on but Taylor’s introspection got away from me and the chapter was getting both long and I reached a point that seemed like a good place to cut it off at. The next chapter however promises action in the future as long as nothing changes.

    As always, any and all feedback is highly appreciated and taken into account.

    Edit: Broke up some paragraphs to increase readability.

    Edit 2: Went through and tried to fix the tenses to increase readability

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

    I look down to my plate of food that the Merchants had served up. Fresh made bacon and eggs. The bacon had just come hot off the stove, it’s juicy and greasy, with the eggs being nice and fluffy. Skidmark has proven to be something of a good breakfast chef with Sherrel apparently handling the other meals. I joined in last night in helping Sherrel with the meal preparation, either by paying attention to little baby Mark when he was getting fussy or just helping Sherrel by passing her ingredients. It was nice.

    When was the last time I’d helped out in the kitchen? In fact, when had been the last time that I had freshly made bacon and eggs? The PRT cafeteria didn’t exactly have the best food there; most of it was cheaply bought and haphazardly cooked since most of the budget went to tools to help fight parahuman crime, and the PR budget. Everything else got slashed all the time when it was time for some “budget cuts.”

    No one who had even a little bit of disposable income ever ate at the cafeteria for long or by choice. It was always somewhere else. I think I was the only one that was regularly there except for the night personal. I didn’t exactly have access to my own funds during my time on probation in the Wards. My handler had always taken care of it and I was content to let it happen. I wasn’t about to waste my time arguing with my handler and eventually their superiors because I wanted full access to my stipend of the month, I had more important things to do. As usual when I was there, I was spending my time doing what I thought had been important back then, trying to stop the apocalypse. Not that it helped.

    Sherrel’s just to my right, having just finished feeding Mark and had started digging into her own food. Skidmark, or rather Adam, finally sits down after he finishes cooking a second batch of bacon just for himself. I grab a strip of bacon from my plate and pop it into my mouth. As I had hoped, it’s tender and juicy, not like the cafeteria bacon, that bacon was small, thin, and best left on a piece of toast with some egg on top. A bite of eggs also proves that they were just as good as they look. Sherrel and I take our time with our food, while Adam inhales his as if he’s starving.

    “Well I da-d-darn well say that was the best bacon I ever did make,” I nod along while Sherrel makes an affirmative sound at Adam’s self aggrandisement.

    “What exactly will we be doing today?” I ask. If I had a basic idea for what is going on in the day the better questions I can think to ask concerning whichever part of the job I might have concerns about.

    “Straight to business huh? You were always the quiet and serious type weren’t ya?” I had been, from the Undersiders to the Wards. Whenever I was in costume I had been the one that was creepily standing there not moving, talking big in negotiations, or I was fighting as hard as I could to end a fight quickly.

    “Well since we got some more product and such, I was gonna do a lil run over to the usual customers,” Adam continues.

    “Who are the usual customers?”

    “Lemme think, some vending machine company, some trying to get off some of the harder drugs around here, that’s what my special weed’s for, some desperate sinners trying to find a reason to keep going, oh and one that wants to spite his boss,” not as large of a customer base as I would have expected, but then it also sounds much more business like considering that they are selling to a vending machine company of all things. Were drugs just something common enough in Hell that you could just buy them in vending machines?

    “They sell drugs in vending machines?”

    “Oh yeah,” Sherrel answers, “They sell everything in vending machines these days, ever since that Japanese guy showed up in Hell, they started making vending machines that sell everything, not the highest quality, and mostly just small stuff, but they can be pretty good, heck I bought a couple of spare panties a couple of days ago from one, had to wash it but hey, whatever works,” My brows scrunch at hearing that. I hope I’m not wearing one of those pairs, granted it probably didn’t make much of a difference, but something inside of me is revolted at the idea of wearing someone else’s underwear, even if it’s washed well enough.

    “Yeah, was our first big break, mostly just wanted ta sell our weed ‘n’ sheeee-ooooot. Though we do sell some “Merchant Nose Powder” to them as well, mostly to send to far off vending machines and such in the outskirts of Pentagram City.”

    “It must be nice to have drugs legalised here,” I comment. Adam makes a so-so gesture before continuing.

    “Well less legalised and more people don’t really care. Sshhh… stuff’s chaotic enough as it is here, what with our demonic overlords fighting over parts of the city and other parts of Hell. Plus, anyone that even cares to try to get rid of it usually has to spend more manpower trying to stamp it out than they can afford. Nowadays, only people who try are just vigilante groups,” Adam makes a face at that.

    “Bunch of low life raiding scum if you ask me. Especially the ones that don’t got territory and still try to uphold Earth laws as if they were still part of the living world. Bas… uh buggers?” Adam looks searchingly at Sherrel who gives a nod. Smiling, Adam continues.

    “Got a couple of the buggers in the city, especially after a ton a people started showing up. Bunch of them got annihilated by the local Overlords, or heck, one time the big man himself came and took one group down that was getting real rowdy. Just a big light show and every demon in the area got turned to bones and such. Didn’t even break a building. They’re strung up outside the city I think,” that kind of power… that was scarily reminiscent of Scion’s blasts, only instead of just pure and total destruction, it killed everyone in the area and left everything else intact. Either that showed an immense amount of self control on Satan’s part, or the power he used just wasn’t designed to destroy anything other than demons.

    “What did they do?”

    “I heard it had something to do with kidnapping one a the newest kiddies of the big man. Charles or something. Wanted to get the big man to help them with cleaning up the city and putting them in power,” Sherrel pipes in and starts giggling at the group’s stupidity, as Adam joins in with the giggles, even Mark seems happy as he starts clapping his hands and giggling in that babyish gurgling way. Meanwhile I just shake my head. There's making trouble around where the Endbringer sleeps, then there is actively disturbing the sleeping Endbringer.

    “Well they got one of those things at least,” Sherrel says after she finishes giggling.

    “Yup, cleaned up the city a bit. Things been a little calmer since then at least,” curious, who could have thought that plan up? I know the PRT weren’t exactly the smartest when poking at powerful capes, the decision to kidnap Purity’s child had lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage, and likely would have turned to the millions if us Undersiders hadn’t have gotten involved and helped her get her baby back.

    “Who was leading the group?” maybe I’ll recognise some names. I swallow despite nothing being in my mouth, I feel something in my throat but I don't know what. In fact I started feeling whatever was in my throat since a little bit after last night’s dinner.

    “I don’t know, some big shot PRT man that knew his magic and stuff. I know that he had a few “heroes” join up with him as well. I heard that they forced Heartbreaker to work for them, some deals or whatever that went south for the old bas-bugger, and they had a few of the big man’s kids join up as well.”

    “I heard on the news that he nearly became an Overlord or was just as powerful as one. Just needed to stake a claim and take a part of the city, then he would be one of the big shots,” Sherrel adds in as she bounces a gurgling Mark on her lap.

    “I would have thought that if they had taken this “Charles,” Satan would have taken a more delicate approach.”

    “Pff, they didn’t even get close ta Lucy’s kid, one of Lilly’s broads found out about it and told the boss, big fuc-uh, fricking fire fight or something as she was escaping.”

    “I heard she was an Owl demon,” Sherrel remarks.

    “Like it matters,” Adam shot back. “I saw a little bit of the crap that was going on on the news, was like an action movie, only people actually reloaded and died when they took cover behind couches and stuff,” Sherrel checks the clock on the wall before getting up with Mark in hand, pulls out a phone and hits a button. A ringing sound comes shortly after.

    “We ought to get heading soon here Skiddy if we wanna make it to the rep’s place in time,” Sherrel says as she walks off towards the living room.

    “Yeah, alright I’m coming,” Adam turns from Sherrel and looks at me. “So you gonna come along ‘n’ help or you wanna sit around while we head out and make some dough?” while the thought of just taking it easy is somewhat tempting, I need information more than I need time to rest.

    “I’ll come along and check things out. I can at least ask some more questions about what’s going on.”

    “Alright, sweet. We don’t got much for masks and shit if you need it, but I got some bandannas and stuff that we like to wear on our runs and shit,” it seems now that Mark is out of the room Adam has the green light to start swearing again. Rather than answer him immediately, I decide I might as well show off a bit. Last night I had been practising with my magic, feeling it out with the help of my antennae. Before, I had only really known how to transform my wings into the fluffy coat that I had been wearing, and how to release a blast of magic energy around me. During the night I had managed to figure out how to make other types of clothing through transformation magic.

    With my magic, I transform the fluffy pyjamas I had transformed my wings into, into a near replica of the costume I wore during Golden Morning, modified to take into account my extra set of arms. For some reason though, I had something of a short fluffy mantle that covered my upper body and neck, likely just a quirk of my improvised transformation process. Meanwhile I transform my antennae into the mask I had after leaving the Wards. It wasn’t exactly the same, since it was magically transformed antennae rather than the actual mask, but it’s decent enough.

    “Well damn, don’t you look snappy, almost like how you were when you were alive and shit,” Adam said as he looks me up and down. “I guess we won’t need the bandanna”

    “I guess not.”

    “Anyways, let's get down to the van, need to load it up for the delivery.”

    <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

    We load up the van and Sherrel once more takes to the wheel. The sights and sounds of Pentagram city pass by the window as I look out of it. Most of the sounds of the city are distant cracks of gunfire, or booms of explosions. The sights mostly consist of ruined and depressing looking ghettos, places under construction or repair, and finally, areas that look much like the boardwalk in Brockton did, filled with shops, clubs and lights that brighten up the city and make it look like less of a shit hole. That’s likely where the rich and powerful live.

    Sometimes the areas are walled off, sometimes they’re not, all however seem to have some sort of private security. The Security in the rich areas generally look like professionals, like the Enforcers back in Brockton Bay, not always however, especially in the less affluent looking wealthy districts, the private security there looked much more like gang members. As before, Sherrel drives like a madwoman. Swerving in and out of traffic, taking turns way too fast and cutting people off as she drives. I swear, when I finally learn how to drive, I will drive better than Sherrel, this is just madness!

    We turn down onto one of the wealthy districts. It’s actually quite close to where the Merchants had helped me out when I was fighting those lizard people. The security, I notice as we slow down from highway speed, has the same sort of patch on an armband on their suits as the gang members did who had jumped me.

    “Will there be any trouble?” I ask, remembering back to how the lizard folk I had fought had mistaken me for one of their common whores.

    “Well, you don’t look like a ho, so I think you're fine. Plus your with us, and them Valentino boys in suits and shit don’t like to start fights like some of the guys further from Valentino’s club, disturbs the shows and shit he’s got going if people start shooting up the place,” that made sense, much like when I used to be in control of a section of the bay, I hadn’t wanted people being harassed unless they were intruders of some kind. Considering that we were here to do business, and the Merchants thought it was okay, then the Valentino enforcers likely didn’t see us as invaders.

    The van pulls up to a curb by one of the apartments by a club and Sherrel shoots off a text with her phone. Adam opens his door and looks back.

    “You coming Skitty? Give me some back up? I don’t expect nothing, but eh, you never know these days what with all the newbies,” I nod and step out of the van. As we make our way to the apartment building, Sherrel calls out to us.

    “Anything happens, send me a text!”

    “Will do!” As we walk to the door, I feel I have to ask;

    “Skidmark, how did you two get phones? As I understand it, the Merchants aren’t exactly affluent.”

    “Afflu-What?”

    “Wealthy.”

    “Oh this shit? Standard phone contract shit, have it back up on Earth. How don’t you know?” was it common? I had never really dealt with cell phones, either getting them from Lisa. After I joined the Wards, the PRT and Protectorate had provided a cell phone so I never had to deal with it.

    “My family never really liked cell phones, and I never really dealt with them.”

    “Wait, so you never had a cell phone? How the shit the other of your Undersiders get in contact wit ya?”

    “I did get a cell phone, it’s just that Tattletale or someone else always provided it rather than me getting one on my own.”

    “Ah so you never had to deal with the phone contracts and shit. Makes sense makes sense I guess. Well tell you what. You sign up with us, and we can take ya to a phone store or some shit, you can go and pick out a phone and me and Squealy can get ya all set up on it. Heck, we can even help you not get fucked by your contract and shit.”

    “Oh… thank you.”

    “Hey no problem Skitty!” Skidmark reaches out and pulls me into an awkward one armed hug as we enter into the building. I’m not really sure how to react. Not really knowing what to do, I awkwardly, after a moment reach out and return the one armed hug. “You gonna join the Merchant family, you got to have a way to keep in touch and shit. Or heck, waste time and shit if nothing's happening. Helps with Mark too,” as we enter the apartment building, I notice a group of demons just sitting around in a circle on whatever they can use as seats, smoking and drinking while they talk. One however seems to stare right at me. The demon watching us looks vaguely like some sort of humanoid birdman, with a very small beak and grey feathers. Remembering my lessons from Dad in the Bay, I keep my mask from looking at him directly while I watch him. He’s watching us intently, and only shifts a little bit as his head tracks us. Was he an addict? It would make sense if he saw Skidmark everyday coming through with packages like we were.

    I feel a knot form in my stomach as we pass. That there was probably another life ruined by drugs. Spending what little he could make on his special brand of narcotics, booze, and cigarettes. I’d have to consider this when I really thought about whether I want to join the Merchants. Despite drugs being highly commercialized, considering the vending machines and such, they are still, in my opinion, a destructive element of society. I had never allowed the peddling of drugs myself in my territory and tried my best to keep them out despite my rather lax enforcement of it, however, I had made it known during my time as a Warlord of Brockton Bay that I would rather drugs not be brought into my territory.

    We head up the stairs and arrive at a door, floor six, apartment nine, though the nine has fallen off and only the silhouette of it remains. Not very well cared for then. Another life ruined? Skidmark knocks and we wait a minute before the door swings open. Rather than some sort of bum, I’m met with the rather white and fluffy chest of someone in a white suit. The fluff bulges out in a way that implies breasts of some kind. My eyes travel upwards and I’m left looking at a rather effeminate looking spider demon.

    “Skiddy! How the hell ya been!?” the effeminate spider shouts out and gives Skidmark a hug which he quickly returns. “And ya brought a friend! So who’s lil’ miss dominatrix?” dominatrix?

    “I’ve been doing good, I’ve been doing good. This here is Skitty, possibly a new Merchant,” the spider demon grins.

    “Haha! Nice! I always thought you gaggle of chucklefucks needed someone who actually could look scary. So that her demonic nickname or just one of Squealers cutesy lil nicknames?” demonic nickname?

    “What do you mean by a demonic nickname?” I ask. The demonic spider looks surprised for a moment before looking back to Skidmark.

    “What you guys ain’t even told her the basics?”

    “Hey man I was pretty fucking busy.”

    “Oh yeah sure! Busy sucking on those milkers your girl calls tits,” were it not for the mask my blush would have been easy to make out. The Merchants hadn’t exactly been quiet while they went about their night time fun. It might have been quiet enough to begrudgingly sleep through, except for certain parts, had it not been for my enhanced senses. For the entire time that they had been going at it I could hear every small little detail. It was part of the reason I had just stared at my breakfast most of the morning. Until business had entered the conversation, I hadn’t been able to look either of them in the eye that morning, not wanting to think about what had happened last night that caused Sherrel to squeal like she had.

    “What are they anyways? F-cup?” the spider demon continues.

    “Nah you cracker, since she had Mark she’s a fucking G now.”

    “Ha! With how big those udders are getting you’d think she was a cow demon. Any ways come inside, we don’t wanna disturb the neighbours.”

    “What you finally got that sound proofing in?”

    “Just a couple a days ago. Now not even the lady with the good hearing underneath us can hear when I bring a friend over or two.”

    “Would have been useful last night…” I remark under my breath. Not that I was angry about it. While it had been annoying, it had kept me up long enough that I had started to experiment with my magic before I went to bed. Were it not for them keeping me up I’d have never figured out how to transform my wings and antennae into different forms. It was vaguely similar to changer powers in a way, it didn’t exactly correlate with magical transformation, but it gave a good basis for where to start my experimentation, from there, I was able to perceive using my antennae what I was doing, what was going wrong in my experimentation, and correct it with something that worked out better.

    By the time I finished experimenting and found out how to transform my wings into something similar to my last costume, the two Merchants had finally finished their “Nightly business,” and had dozed off to sleep. From there, it was a simple matter of transforming my wings into a nice and cozy set of fluffy pyjamas and an old timely night cap so I wouldn’t hear their snoring all night, and I dozed off for a good few hours. As I look up from my musing, I notice that my remark hadn’t exactly gone unnoticed.

    “Hahahaha, you beast! You trying for another kid or something,” the spider demon exclaims.

    “Hey my mama had six kids before she turned out any bad eggs so I think we ought to be able to do the same.”

    “What were you? The seventh?” the spider demon jokes.

    “Eighth actually,” the spider demon continues to chuckle at Skidmark’s joke. I decide to enter into the conversation however. I came on this trip to gather information to make an informed decision after all.

    “Excuse me, Mr~?” Skidmark notices how I trail off and his eyes go wide and his face morphs into something akin to surprise.

    “Oh shit, sorry I forgot to introduce the customer here.”

    “Pfft, some salesman you are.”

    “This here is Angel Dust. Cracker’s been dead longer than the both of us combined.”

    “You know it nigger,” Angel Dust said as he made finger guns and pretends to fire at us.

    “Angel Dust, like the drug?” I ask. It sounds almost like a cape name. Was a demonic nickname just some sort of cape name? or something to help reinvent yourself?

    “Damn straight, that’s shit was my jam when I was alive, and still is. Hey Skiddy, you got my package right?”

    “That’s right, got it right here, you got my money?”

    “You know I’m good for it ya Cockroach. It’s the same place as always,” Angel Dust says. He put a fair amount of emphasis on the ‘cock’ in cockroach.

    “Yeah yeah, I’ll go get it. Here!” Skidmark says as he tosses Angel Dust a small baggie of “Merchant Powder” before walking off towards one of Angel’s rooms. Angel on the other hand walks over to a couch and falls into it, lounging and gesturing towards a seat opposite of it.

    “Come on take a seat,” graciously I accept. Unlike Angel Dust however, I don’t immediately start lounging as he had. Angel Dust as he waits for me to sit down opens the baggie a bit before taking a little sniff of powder.

    “Oooo yeah, that’s the good stuff. Any who, you must be pretty new to not even have a nickname yet right?”

    “That’s right, I died some time yesterday and woke up in the street,” Angel Dust winces at that.

    “Oof, sorry… didn’t mean to bring up any bad memories. You doin’ alright?” Angel looks concerned as he asks me how I’m doing. Funny how despite all the propaganda and lies that get spread around by the PRT about villains, drug addicts and dealers, along with so many other people that we are supposed to look at with fear and disgust, turn out to be fairly decent people half the time. The same could be said of the various heroes I've met during my time both as a villain and a hero. Half the time they are decent people, or they grow to be decent people. Other times, they are just rotten, or don't deserve what they have. I can think of various heroes I've met during the various meet and greets that look down on me for being a former villain and gang leader, yet just as many of them will pat me on the back and congratulate me for joining the forces of good.

    I never tell them about my doubts, how at night, when I was laying in bed, sometimes I would wonder if it was worth it, if throwing everything away was actually accomplishing anything. In the end, I would banish those thoughts from my head. There wasn't a point in pondering on them before the fact. If we succeeded would be the ultimate test in whether this was all worth it. If we managed to save the world, having to deal with everything here was worth it, otherwise... and that was were I would leave it, because there was no time for doubts, not when I had to fit in training, studying, and patrolling into my day to day.

    “I… think I am, I wasn’t exactly in the best place when I died. I’m not exactly sure if it was mercy, but… I didn’t exactly try to stop her…” I don’t explain further. I still haven’t fully thought through my own death.

    “Hey no problem, Hows about we switch the subject to something less gloomy. Like ya nickname!” ah yes, the demonic nickname we had been talking about before.

    “Do I need a demonic nickname?”

    “Eh, not really. Getting a nickname ain’t for everyone, but it gives ya an opportunity to reinvent yaself. Plus it’s good for keepin’ any enemies ya mighta had off ya back. Myself, eh, I just chose what makes me happy.”

    “Makes you happy?”

    “Yeah, made me happy, you know, made things not so bad. Like everything was shit and stuff and nothings going right, and to ease off some stress you take a hit of the powder. You're lying there, and you kinda realise, things just ain’t that bad anymore. Like, what happened, all that shit before, it wasn’t so bad. Kinda made it easier to deal with life when you were taking the stuff. Then it would end and you needed more. It’s shit but it was a way to cope with a shitty situation, ya dig?” I do “dig.” Drugs had been a big part of growing up in Brockton, even more when going to school at Winslow. I’d heard how for some of the people there, it made life bearable. It lined up with how Angel described it. I wonder if he was like some of those kids that tried drugs and got hooked. Tried them out, and realised they weren’t all that bad as people said, they even made him feel great when he took them. I wonder when he died, or how things were in life for him? Maybe the drugs were the only thing he could look forward to in the day?

    I’m glad for a moment of the incident on the bus now, where a drug addict went ballistic on the bus and started freaking out. It did more to scare me straight than any of the various DARE programs and hero guest visitors that went around to schools to talk about the evils of drugs. Drugs had a way of making you feel good in some way. I had always thought it was just like a hit of dopamine, or those tingles that I would get back when Mom would give me head massages. With the incident on the bus with the drug addict my younger self wouldn’t have gone and tried anything, not that I had any friends back then that would have tried to pressure me. Perhaps if it hadn’t been for that event, then I could see myself falling head first into them.

    There had been some days where the only thing I wanted was for the pain of the day to go away. Had an enterprising Merchant kid gone and approached a younger me… I had latched onto Julia when she had pretended to make friends with me. She had become my new best friend, a lighthouse on a stormy night, then she took it away from me. What if it had been a Merchant? Would I have ended up like Angel Dust here, or the addicts downstairs, or even those people that Skidmark had said were just trying to get through the day to day? Probably. I had dived head first into villainy and stayed with it because of the friends I made. Hell, at the end I had been planning on going back anyways. Maybe in some ways, I am an addict.

    “You thinkin’ of a name or what?” Angel Dust thankfully interrupts my thoughts, pulling me away from my dark musings. Right, a nickname. Angel Dust had said that he chose his nickname because it was something that made him feel good. Maybe I should start there. When had I felt happy, truly happy? It definitely wasn’t when I was with the Wards. That had been because I had thought I had to, not because I enjoyed it, and it still ended with Golden Morning and all that shit happening. So taking the name Weaver for my nickname was out. Perhaps I could just be Taylor? I had thought about just being Taylor near the end there. Not wanting to hide behind a mask, not being Skitter the villainous warlord, not being Weaver the brutal hero, just Taylor. Just being me.

    Though who was I really? I hadn’t really been Taylor for years despite that being my name and people calling me that out of costume. Who was Taylor? Was Taylor the chatterbox youth? No, not any more. That Taylor died a long time ago, murdered by her best friend who plunged a knife into her back. Taylor’s best friend and sister left her to die, bleeding out in the halls of Winslow, to be consumed by a new Taylor.

    Was I Taylor, the loner, the loser, and the person who naively believed in the cultural propaganda that all villains were evil and all heroes were the epitome of good? That all masters were villains in the making that could do no right without the guiding hand of the Protectorate? Was I the secret master cape who cowered from the thought of being found out? No… she had died as well. Not a violent death like the younger Taylor had, no, she died as her world was shattered into a million pieces. When the heroes were the villains of her story, and the villains, became her greatest friends and allies.

    Was I Skitter? The villain and warlord of Brockton Bay, the one who was spurned by the heroes, who sacrificed much on the path to Hell just to save a little girl who betrayed her in the end. The one that conquered territory and used that territory to improve the lives of those who fled into her hive for safety? Was I Skitter? Some might argue that Skitter had died when she tried to give herself up to save the world, but had I truly been Weaver? At the end, Contessa, I think she called me Khepri. They had called me that at the end apparently. Khepri.

    Who was I then?

    Every identity along this road has been a part of me, even if they died along the way. All were masks, roles I had played. Some had been shattered, others, put away. I had the choice now. Who was I? Who was I really? All of them were Taylor, some more than others, but who was I, or rather, who should I be? What mask would be most useful to try and help my friends… My friends…

    My friends had been the ones to mold me. To shape me. Every person is defined by their experiences and their interactions with the people and situations around them. Right now I’m a probationary Merchant, but that might not always be the case, especially as my friends were coming here eventually.

    When had I been the happiest in my short life on Earth? I was my happiest when I was a chatterbox, when mom was still alive, when I was innocent. That Taylor as I acknowledged before, however, was dead. So then when was the next time I was my happiest?

    It was when I was surrounded by my friends, by my team. When I was with Lisa, Brian, Alec, Rachel, and Aisha. Those days, those days had been the happiest in my life since the day that my younger self had died.

    “Skitter” I say in a soft voice. “My name… is Skitter.”
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2021
  22. VisV

    VisV Lost in the Dungeons of My Mind.

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    I liek this.

    i liek this a lot.

    It is past 2 AM over here, so i can't really anything more eloquent.

    But i like it.

    It is good.

    Gib moar soon plz.

    Also did i see Annette get referenced there?
     
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  23. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    Thank you for the kind praise!
     
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  24. Knightfall

    Knightfall Nui Harime lover, Cynic, and Archivist

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    Why do I have a feeling that PRT guy was Tagg?
     
  25. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    Probably because he is the easiest to pick out for scummy tactics isn't he, though then again, from what I've heard, the Anchorage PRT director was pretty scummy, or tried to be. I wouldn't be surprised if more than just Tagg were scum bags.
     
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  26. Zeushobbit

    Zeushobbit I use my mind and yours doesn't matter.

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    That was my thought on reading this section too. If so, nice bit of foreshadowing Necro.
     
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  27. theBSDude

    theBSDude Space Ace

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    She talks about drugs to a bunch of school kids in 23.4, as part of a metaphor on the villain lifestyle.
     
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  28. Thread Necromancer

    Thread Necromancer Creator of "mean" and/or "excessive" things

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    Minor changes made in regard to Taylor's drug speech and her monologue on drugs within the story. Not big changes I just added a few sentences to the start and end of the paragraph.
     
  29. Oddboy

    Oddboy The Trash Cat

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    Someone had the balls to try kidnapping Charlie? Points for effort and ambition, not so much for wisdom.

    It does sound like Tagg. The guy is many things, but half-hearted or lazy ain't it, and it wouldn't be the first time he did something questionable for the supposed greater good.
     
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  30. doomlord9

    doomlord9 Experienced.

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    Really? Nobody is thinking it was Coil, the guy with a long history of kidnapping young girls to achieve his goals and was a PRT Director at the time of his death?
     
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