ascarletflame

[ascarletflame]

Well... I think I’m leaving this group, officially. I wanted to stay so I could interact with my friends that are still here, but with my other groups and gaming, I just can’t force myself to continue writing here. I made a lot of good friends and I’ll miss writing with you guys :’(

I’ve been in this group since its inception, and it probably doesn’t need to be said I’ve had an utterly miserable time ever since I started writing this character. Between having a mod’s character tell my character what his life and existence is when I didn’t share that interpretation, being villainized by a select few for speaking up about member concerns, and watching friends of mods shit talk people who criticize the moderation behind locked accounts... Yeah, it’s not felt like a great environment for a while.

I’ve genuinely felt more like a child who needs to be put on a leash than an adult trying to enjoy a creative hobby so I don’t accidentally have fun in a way that isn’t Authorized™. I’ve heard the reasons, and while I understand where they’re coming from, the ironfistedness of the rules has done nothing but cause problems, arguments, and strife. I do not believe it has benefitted anyone, and now that I’ve experienced other groups that allow more freedom, I’ve recognized that those groups have far less problems by nature. So many lovely and creative people were chased away by how this group operates and just how poor the communication levels have been.

Of course, it hasn’t been all bad, either. I made good friends. Some of my best writing has been done here, and I still think about that fondly. I’ll miss the wackiness of the talent agency very much. Even my other characters like Gwyndolin who made adorable friendships. In that, there’s a huge sense of loss of something that I’ve had in my life for four years.

While Isola has serious clique issues, there are a lot of wonderful and welcoming people here and witnessing everyone’s love and creativity for their muses has been amazing. Keep writing, friends.

And no, while I don’t expect my words to change anything (if it was ever going to do that, it would’ve happened a long time ago) or even be read at all, I wanted to say them regardless. To end, I hope you all continue to enjoy writing here. You and your characters are all lovely... and I will miss you. ♥

#; intermission {out of character} #stay gold ponyboy....

[ascarletflame]

this is a note to say elden ring and monster hunter rise have taken me over so, basically hiatus for a bit other than a few things i might toss out

#; intermission {out of character} #tbd #i feel so bad i got a starter from martel and then disappeared #I LOVE YOU MARTEL

[ascarletflame]

baddestdangerboy​:

Badou, as if snapping out of it, shrieks right back and while he doesn’t unhinge his jaw or anything, he does lift a foot to kick Grimm in the face, hopefully blocking him.

Wow, that’s a screech. Grimm is rather surprised. The audience is surprised, too. They seem to be watching both in horror and morbid fascination, a train wreck you can’t look away from.

The “Judge” has his head shoved back by the kick, but he’s still clinging claws into Badou’s clothes (the true victim here). Truthfully, he was never planning on hurting the unfortunate guy... just scare him a little. A little.

“CAN WE HELP YOU TWO?” the bailiff is also now shrieking.

#baddestdangerboy #Badou 05 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #isola event #event: crew call #maybe

[ascarletflame]

palevessel​:

It seems Grimm can wait for later to explain himself. This may be for the best, as by the time they arrive at the apartment, the Hollow Knight has exhausted its limited store of energy.

There is no end to the surprises, however. Grimm never mentioned that he had a child!

The child’s stare is met by an equally curious gaze. It has never seen the child before, but there is an unavoidable familiarity nonetheless. What a tiny bug—amusing to think that this one will grow up to be a god.

Then again, it was once a tiny bug itself.

…

This is a more difficult question than it should be. It strains to remember anything of Hallownest as it once was, from the brief time before it was sealed away forever. To think too hard brings distress. But… it thinks it knows what a hot spring is.

You must ask for a reason. Is there one here?

“Yes, a hot spring.... sort of! Each living space has one, no matter one’s social status. Amazing, no?” Grimm explains, a feature that he quite likes about the land outside of Hallownest. He hurries into the bathroom, waving for Hollow to follow as the child simply keeps staring like it’s found a new fascination.

He’s quick to run the bath, and it barely needs any time for the water to heat up. Mammals do know how to live, he thinks! Although... look at the size. It’s built for someone of human stature. The Knight might not be able to completely fit... its poor knees might not get to enjoy the heat. Still...

“Go on, get in,” he insists while pouring in some tea tree oil for the nice scent and relaxation factor. “You can help wash the little one. Maybe it won’t put up a fight while it’s interested in you... ha!”

#palevessel #Hollow 02 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #this would be weird if they weren't bugs #it's fine they're always nakey

[ascarletflame]

baddestdangerboy​:

“How are you sure I am who I say I am, when you don’t even know who you are?”

Okay is he playing like, an Oracle kind of role in all this? Perhaps this is the Matrix…

“What’s really reality though….”

He stares. Silent. Badou/Not Badou is clearly taking him for a ride. Grimm does not like when people take him for a ride. Only he is allowed to take others for rides.

Grimm shrieks like a banshee, gigantic mouth full of sharp teeth, and leaps at Badou like some sort of hellspawn creature. Oh! Now the audience is paying attention to the two.

#baddestdangerboy #Badou 05 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #SORRY BADOU

[ascarletflame]

palevessel​:

Does this disappoint him?

If so, he’s hidden it well enough. It cannot exactly be blamed for not meeting a lot of people here, when it wasn’t supposed to have any attachments… it lives as if dreaming most of the time, with rare flashes of painful clarity.

This request of Grimm’s is strange. Surely he is the one better equipped to gather information about others…?

Or… no, that can’t be it. Can it?

Is this the new purpose you would grant me? To run your errands?

“Aha, if I wanted to have you run my errands, you’d be getting baby formula from the supermarket.”

They soon end up at apartment 304, Grimm entering and waving to a person already there. She says something about how it’s ‘been good’ and he takes out his phone to pay her. A wonderful transaction! As the mystery lady leaves, Grimm bounds over to the couch to pick up his tiny little beloved worm child.

“Nyeh?” it says from the arms of Grimm, staring over at Hollow. Big bug! Big horns! It might be tired, but it’s more interested in the other now.

“Now Hollow, did you ever enjoy the hot springs in Hallownest?” the moth asks, rubbing the child’s head.

#palevessel #Hollow 02 #; summoned flame {isola ic}

[ascarletflame]

baddestdangerboy​:

Badou squints, then raises an eyebrow.

“You didn’t know what a period was? Wow…ignorance is bliss, isn’t it.” 

Badou still seems to be calm about it all. It’s hard to tell, just from his expression, if he knows what’s going on or not. Or if he’s just waiting to dangle these carrots in front of Grimm’s little proboscis or whatever.

“So what, you think this is all…a reality show inside a court tv show?”

“This was a conversation to you!!” he screeches, unable to tell if he’s being played with. “Don’t tell me you don’t remember it, either?!”

It’s entirely possible that Badou is in the same position he is... or he could be in on it. Grimm just doesn’t know. He can’t trust him...

“Forget the play going on here! I’m talking about reality!”

#baddestdangerboy #Badou 05 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #isola event #event: crew call #badou finally getting back at grimm #you love to see it

[ascarletflame]

palevessel​:

It’s reluctant to let go, nearly grasping for Grimm’s hand as he withdraws it. Finally it wraps its arm around itself, tucked under its stained cloak. There is no comfort to be found in its own cold shell.

But there is a great relief in having somewhere to go, instead of wandering aimlessly. It follows without question, taking some time to process Grimm’s line of questioning.

Could this capricious old god truly care what the answers are? Whether he does or not, to have any questions asked about its experiences is new. Its mind feels strange, fuzzy: its thoughts expand in unfamiliar directions.

Memory… is oft unclear. After so long spent without timekeeping, such things are difficult to grasp.

Its gaze remains fixed on Grimm as it walks slowly, lagging behind him.

This world… changes. Lives. For some time, it slept, blanketed under freezing cold. Now, it begins to wake again.

There are some who have attempted conversation, but none have long kept my company. It may be for the best.

So, Hollow is basically saying it has no friends and hasn’t been paying attention to how long it’s been here.

“I see...” Grimm responds plainly as he continues the walk back to the apartments, uncertain of what he was expecting to hear. “There are... a few people I’d like you to investigate. Difficult, it shall not be.”

Ismael, especially. Why the extensive text message conversations between the two of them, and for how often they’d apparently met. Enough that he’d sent her a holiday gift without truly knowing. Martel, too—someone he’d supposedly planted flowers with and had left notes for himself in the apartment to make sure he checked on them.

“You can do that, yes? I believe you can.”

#palevessel #Hollow 02 #; summoned flame {isola ic}

[ascarletflame]

baddestdangerboy​:

Badou sighs loudly, and ignores the continued and constant arguing of their defendant and plaintiff. Even the audience is getting in on it.

The redhead perks up, his eyebrows raised.

“I’m your coworker, duh.”

“We are not coworkers! We don’t work here!”

He sighs. The audience is more focused on the strange story of the mystery ball meal, still. Good, he supposes? Grimm yanks out his phone, holding out the screen showing their latest text messages—Badou surely remembers the earliest of which entailed him having to tell the Very Foreign Troupe Master what a period was.

“I NEVER WROTE ANY OF THIS!”

...That he remembers, that is.

#baddestdangerboy #Badou 05 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #isola event #event: crew call

[ascarletflame]

palevessel​:

Grimm’s reaction speaks more than his words. Tension hangs heavily in the air as the Vessel stares, its cautious hopefulness fading into a cold resignation. If a god of dreams couldn’t find him—make that two gods, as the Old Light never caught him in her snare either—then he must be somewhere long out of reach.

Then, he is…

This comes as little surprise, but it hurts nonetheless. It had always held the thought, a childish wish, that one day it should see Father again. A thought which had been leveraged against it, burning its way out from the inside…

It takes Grimm’s hand, holding on as if life depends on it.

Let us speak no more of this. Please.

Grimm squeezes that hand lightly before letting go and motioning the Knight to follow, a likely futile comfort to one that has lost so much.

“I have things for you to do. Information I want to find.”

And hopefully in these tasks, the vessel will explore the city and interact with many. It might find something it enjoys, the more it gets comfortable. Then again... what was it doing before Grimm found it? Perhaps it had made some progress on its own?

“Before that, I wish to show you to my residence. For now.” The god certainly does hate being told where to stay, but it’s convenient enough for him to roll with it for the time being. “How long have you been here? Have you met any people? Found them interesting?”

#palevessel #Hollow 02 #; summoned flame {isola ic}

[ascarletflame]

baddestdangerboy​:

Badou bangs his head against his desk, now. Maybe if he brains himself he’ll wake up and it’ll be another weird dream….

He raises a hand as if in a school zone. “Yeah, can I quit? Think they’ll give me a good severance package?”

“Hmph, you’re not allowed to quit yet.”

Grimm might be pretending along with this little game, but he can’t allow his little assistant to escape. He’d read through their (very odd) log of text messages on the phone, and clearly Badou knew who he was. There were people here who knew him, but that he didn’t know—an impossibility for a god tied to a realm of memory. He turns his attention away from the circus in front of him.

“Not before you tell me... who are you really, Badou Nails, and how do you know me?”

#baddestdangerboy #Badou 05 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #isola event #event: crew call #run

[ascarletflame]

palevessel​:

It was never meant to end.

The Eternal Kingdom: Hallownest. This was the weight which rested upon its shoulders. To have it lifted would be to break every promise, waste every sacrifice. For a god who exists in a perpetual cycle of rebirth, perhaps it is easy to move on and begin anew. But for a being whose purpose was to deny the passage of time…

Father said…

It freezes then, so close to accepting Grimm’s help. Father. It can picture his shining crown, a brilliance so unlike that of the Old Light. But when it tries to recall his face, there is nothing but blank space. It feels itself reaching in the dark, grasping at the edges of a question it knows it won’t like the answer to. Surely the King watched the decline of his kingdom up close, and knows better than anyone what went wrong. What would he think, to see his child in this state? Would he be angry, or disappointed? Would he feel anything aside from disgust?

Though its silent voice lacks any tone, there is a hesitation to its next words.

What became of Father? It has been long since I have felt his presence.

He freezes in an equal manner upon being asked that question, hand still hovering there. Should he be honest? Not that he’d gone to confirm his suspicions, but... the brightness of Wyrm’s divinity was hardly there at all when they arrived in Dirtmouth. Only in what remained. To be honest, he’d tried his hardest to not think about him.

“That is...” Grimm pauses, “I have not seen... nor sensed him. He...”

His last memories of the King were of desperate arguments. The Pale King burying himself in work. To stave off the guilt, Grimm thought. Destroying himself. And that desire to chase everyone away succeeded in getting Grimm to leave him alone, forever.

“I don’t know.”

#palevessel #Hollow 02 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #teehee #heeeeeeeeeee

[ascarletflame]

baddestdangerboy​:

“I KNOW IT WAS A BALL!” The victim hollers, rising to his feet. The audience gasps.

“I just– wait I just mean that it didn’t taste like any ox balls or– YOU KNOW!” 

Badou slumps in his seat further. 

The sinner in question is already standing, probably, and hisses right back– “It’s because he asked for it! He said he’d eat ANYTHING, even if it’s weird. It’s a verbal contract!”

He’s not getting paid enough for this. Actually, is he getting paid at all?

“Is he implying he has tasted such a thing before? Either way, I feel as though the contents of the meal should have been explained beforehand... Your thoughts, assistant?”

#baddestdangerboy #Badou 05 #; summoned flame {isola ic}

[ascarletflame]

palevessel​:

A gift, he says. What gift is this, to be forced to carry on without purpose, a forever incomplete being? If its hurt cannot be healed, can it not be put to rest?

The Hollow Knight is no more.

Its memory is hazy, light-bleached. But in this moment, it recalls one sight clearly: the small figure of its usurper sibling, come to cut it down.

What was to become of that little thing? Could it succeed, or was it doomed to the same fate, another casualty in an unending chain of tragedy?

…No. In truth, it never was. Its mission… my mission, saw no possible outcome but failure.

All was for nothing. What is left?

Unfortunately, Grimm no longer remembers what he’d learned here previously. Of the Ancient Light’s defeat and the little vessel’s ascension, of his own success in being reborn, or what any of it might mean for the future of that world.

“All things come to an end. That is truth. To punish oneself for the nature of reality is nonsensical. Though... It is not to say all has ended. You yet remain. And you would not know, but all have the ability to become something new—that includes you, my friend. You will become something new.”

In his experience, bugs who have never known freedom don’t know what to do with it. In the worst cases, they may not even be able to decide upon something as simple as a favorite color. When everything is decided for them, thought becomes like an unworked muscle. Such things must slowly be exercised.

“There are many paths to take. But if you find it too difficult, then... follow me, and I will tell you what to do.”

The god offers a hand, as he has done for so many before.

#palevessel #Hollow 02 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #grimm tells you to: take a bath. go to bed

[ascarletflame]

palevessel​:

The god’s scarlet eyes seem to burn into its shell, seeing through the flimsy attempt to hide its weakness. What is this feeling it has? Not pain, not rage, but it aches nonetheless.

It is… ashamed. Perhaps it shows in its hunched posture, or somewhere in the darkness of its gaze as it finally turns to face him.

Does he know? The sum of its being, the sole reason for its existence, has all come to nothing. It cannot even be afforded the dignity of death. It spent their promised eternity in agony, powerless to do anything but sense the world slowly crumble to dust around it. Does he know?

Does he know? The thought is powerful enough that it might reach into the mind of another. There is no use in pretending anymore that it doesn’t think.

If he knows, surely he should leave in contempt. There is nothing here but remnants of failure.

“Failure...” Grimm repeats. “That is so, yes. But a being is more than its failures. And so is the Hollow Knight—though you have no more need of such a moniker. And most importantly, you live. Do not waste such a gift stumbling around like this, my friend.”

The god cares not for this society he’s found himself in... yet he would do anything to assist the Hollow Knight. Pitiful creature born and raised to trap his sister, forced into servitude and now freedom far from home.

#palevessel #Hollow 02 #; summoned flame {isola ic}

[ascarletflame]

baddestdangerboy​:

If Badou shifts a little shiftily, to cover his crotch protectively, well, it’s no one’s business. And no one should make gifs of it in this universe. 

Mr. Ofa stands to his feet, face red as he slaps the podium before him. “That’s not going to happen! I need mine…and it’s utterly dreadful that you lot go along with this! It wasn’t anyone’s ball….IT WAS AN OX’S BALL.”

The audience gasps again.

Badou just sits down, head in his hands.

That’s so much better... not really. Grimm waits for the gacking noises from the audience to quiet.

“Should that be the truth, then I suppose the victim’s safety is assured, though perhaps not his sanity... but the proof is gone, is it not? That is unfortunate. Why exactly was this made as a meal and why should I not punish you?”

#baddestdangerboy #Badou 05 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #isola event #event: crew call

[ascarletflame]

palevessel​:

Pressed against the window, it fails to see a second reflection growing closer. Still, it senses a presence: a divinity diminished, but not destroyed so utterly as its own.

Warmth touches its back, and for a moment it recoils, remembering nothing but searing light and heat. But, this… it doesn’t hurt.

It should. Pain at least is something it knows what to do with. Its suffering had a sacred purpose.

The Hollow Knight turns its head toward Grimm—then away again, realizing its own pitiful appearance. He would not like to see it in such a state. It raises its one arm to shield its visage, covering up the permanent scar.

From the knight given armor so shining and pure to this scarred face, dulled cloak... it is rather pitiful, he thinks. But Grimm is not a god that turns away from pitiful creatures out of disgust. He may simply ignore many such things in his own realm, but it’s always felt different in the physical plane. And this one is... special.

“For what reason do you turn away?” he asks, removing his hand to rest back beneath cloak and not turning his gaze.

#palevessel #Hollow 02 #; summoned flame {isola ic} #a special pitiful creature :)