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featherymuffinsis · 3 months

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Castlevania’s Death aka Oh God I Am Reaching: A character analysis

Preface: You may have seen this already a few years back. This is because I did in fact post this a few years back. However, that blog of mine is gone, so I am reposting it anew. I removed some fluff past me put in and I believe i should make sense without it, but please do shout if it does not and I will attempt to fix my mistakes. Thank you in advance.

Contents

A few useless fun facts

The sauce Core question Evidence Traits evidence Conclusion Traits and speech but wrapped in sauce (check „Hard“ data, „General“ section, for TLDR)

„Hard“ data (aka just a list of everything The Sauce covers. Think of the actual statistics in a research. The paper tells you about them in complex senteces but then provides you with the numbers.)

My personal shitty little observations

To make things easier, when referring to Death as a whole, I’ll be saying just Death. When referring specifically to the true form of Death, I’ll be saying „Death (true form).“

The Sauce (and my fruitless attempts at maintaining a coherent chain of thought)

Without further ado! Ladies, gentlemen, creatures of other titles and/or genders, I have asked myself the age-old question, my friends have asked themselves the age-old question: Is Death a theatre kid? Now, I come to you, bearing what you may choose to accept as an answer, or throw it out and beat me up behind an Albert.

I’d like to clarify that I employed both meta and in-universe thinking, but threw out chunks of meta thinking A) for convenience’s sake (depite my core principle never to give any author more potential credit than they are due) B) because my friend looked like they were about to beat me with a stick if I once more said the phrase „But this is probably just a mistake on the writers’ part and should be ignored.“ I will mention where I did this so you can decide for yourself if you desire to make a potential reach or discard it.

Core question

So, to start off bluntly: Is Death a theatre kid (and to what extent)? Lol. Lmao. No. Never (okay, that’s a lie). To elaborate: Death is not a theatre kid unless it is absolutely needed and even then he sucks at it.

What I am saying is that the disguises are both most likely manufactured by Death, and even if they aren’t, Death does not assume a role, or, in the case of The Alchemist, does not do it well.

„That is a bold statement, where is the evidence?“ I am glad you ask. Let us continue to:

The Evidence

Our first problem was the oddly common misconception that Death can only shapeshift into existing beings, even more specifically dead beings. Since this was a prevalent thought in our group, I am addressing it. It is, in fact, not even implied anywhere in canon. To be extra sure, I tried cross-referencing the game canon even though it is a completely different universe. Some aspects remain similar in those two universes after all. While the character of Death works a little different (and if the wiki is to be trusted it is unclear if game Death is supposed to be a Shinigami or the wester concept of Grim Reaper), the abilities seem to be the same, however, while there is an example of game Death shapeshifting, the wiki did not address nor specify whether or not the disguise (Zead) existed as a pre-established person before game Death took his form. If this is addressed in the games, I would like to know. With no further information, we decided that our common opinion was simply a bias most likely caused simply by the word „death.“ (and in one acquaintance’s case by DnD).

With that thrown out, we took a look at the designs of the disguises. This is where I am reaching and throwing out meta. If you wish to silence my tongue and accept meta as your god, that is completely understandable. As we all know, designs have both out of universe and in-universe implications. A design should convey a character’s role. However, this sometimes produces unintended implications in-universe (for example the ever classic question in JRPGs and anime: Who would wear bikini armour into battle?). Varney’s design is not really remarkable in this regard, its coat does have a scythe-like collar (as is stated to be intended in the art book), however, this could well enough be a coincidence in-universe. The odder one out of the bunch is The Alchemist. While the early designs in the art book have remarkably little to do with what most conceptualise as death (with the exception of the ever-present cape), the final design looks like what the average person might draw if you tell them to draw death – the colour scheme is cold, only brightened by the light blue, which could be considered a cold colour, it includes a cape reminiscent of the one the Grim Reaper is traditionally depicted wearing, and the gown is similar to the robe death tends to be depicted in as well. Out of universe, this makes complete sense, in-universe, it is a little odd but nothing major. Who’s to say that there couldn’t have been a random woman who looked like that? The thing that seals it for me in universe are her earrings. While the animators seemed to have taken some liberties with every frame, the general pattern actually mimics the patterns of Death’s (true form) rib cage. Again, out of universe? A normal design choice, a pretty cool one at that. In universe? Now where would you get a woman who has such earrings? Of course, there is also the possibility that Death can simply alter parts of the disguises. The mental image of Death adding specifically rib cage-patterned earrings is a hilarious one ngl.

Before we get to the next points, it is import to note that, as I mentioned, Death seems to have no interest in acting out a role and isn’t even good at it when he is. When posing as The Alchemist, the speech pattern is noticeably different (no swear words, more formal language in general), however, it very quickly starts shifting towards shortened verbs, and starts being formal again after a pause. Then it devolves into shortened verbs again. Varney and Death (true form) have a pretty much identical speech pattern, the only difference is that Death (true form) has a higher swear word percentage, but that may be due to the prevalence of pissed off scenes. All forms also pronounce words the same way (a fun tidbit that is not really meaningful is that The Alchemist never say can’t, only cannot). To add to that, Varney and Death (true form) sometimes speak in the exact same tone of voice as the other form. Out of universe, the usage of the same VA for Death (true form) and Varney might be some kind of indication as well („Oh dear author, that was most likely for budget reasons!“ Okay well I don’t see how that’s my problem.)

Now we can talk about a question that is related to this issue: Let’s say the disguises are pre-established people. Why would Death pick Varney as a disguise? There were, in general, two ideas. One mine and one was proposed by a guy on Discord, whom I thank for an outside perspective. He proposed that he may have been chosen because Death knew nobody knew him and as such could do fuck-all undetected. Although that makes sense, we must consider that Death repeatedly appears to be weirded out by the fact that nobody knows Varney, even in situations where acting in character (if Death even cared about acting in character in the first place, and he does not) is not necessary, which leads me to believe that Death genuinely didn’t expect that. Which is where my opinion comes into play. I believe that in this proposed scenario, Death would have chosen Varney as a disguise because he knew (or assumed) that Saint Germain knew who Varney was. Both this and the apparent expectation of Varney being known make me think that if this were the case, Death would have attempted to act in character as not to arouse suspicion. He, however, doesn’t act any different, not in general and not in front of people who were supposed to know Varney, and Saint Germain doesn’t get suspicious, implying that Death’s behaviour and mannerisms align with whatever Saint Germain knows about Varney (it is fair to note, however, that Saint Germain at this point probably wouldn’t notice even a brick flying straight at his face, so perhaps this is not the most reliable source.)

To add to that: I have noticed that the dates given by the show do not add up. What I will now be describing is another reach that is most easily explained by a simple mistake or lack of care for precision. If you desire to to disregard it, you may do so, however, I am bound by my friends’ annoyance at my too out-of-universe thinking and I must consider it as not to test their wrath. At this point, Castlevania takes place when? 1497? Saint Germain and maybe one more person (unsure, 100% certain only about Saint Germain) remark that Varney is 1000 years old. I do trust Saint Germain on this and take it as factual. When Varney gets annoyed that nobody knows him for like the third time, he asserts that he was mighty when London was a Roman ghost town. Except that London wouldn’t have been a Roman ghost town by the time Varney came into existence. Now, I did not have internet when I was making all my notes, but a source on the phone double checked the date when Romans definitely left London for me, because I had a feeling it was off but wasn’t sure due to the repeated migrations in and out of London. IF she is correct, the dates just don’t add up. If I bend to the will of my friend group, this effectively means that Death outed himself as not Varney, or at least admitted to being older than Varney should be. Might also imply that Death was in Londinium. What this says is that he definitely doesn’t care to be in character to the point of just straight up saying something that would immediately make anyone who knows history really suspicious. He says more things that could be taken as suspicious but not so much as this one, as the other lines could very well be interpreted metaphorically by everyone around („-you do not know what I am, but I tolerate you precisely because you’re good at death – it nourishes me.“) and some things that seem to align exclusively with Death’s (true form) goals and likely wouldn’t align with the average vampire mindset („He owes us death. Death in volumes unprecedented.“)

Now that we are past that: If Death doesn’t care about being in character and just does whatever unless it’s absolutely required for him to attempt to assume a role, why does he keep getting so weirdly offended when people don’t know Varney? Why does he keep asserting who his disguise is? I am of the opinion that a situation like that might happen only when you have a disguise for such a long time that it basically becomes you in a sense or when there was never a pre-established person in the first place.

And we arrive at one of my last points, this one ties in nicely with the first one. I, once again, cross-referenced the games’ canon because there was one thing that slightly confused me: During the 9th(?) episode, Trevor refers to Death (true form) exclusively as „it,“ but uses „he“ when remarking that Varney was likely a part of Dracula’s court. If taken as objective, this would draw a distinction between Varney and Death (true form). Plus the show says that Varney joined Dracula’s court one hundred years ago. I am unsure how reliable this piece of information is but considering that Varney does say that he’s of Dracula’s original cohort, I’ll believe it. Due to all of this, I wasn’t sure if I should be of the opinion that Death has been going around in this disguise for at least 100 years or if Varney himself was the one to join Dracula’s court. I decided to assume that the writers meant Death to be, in certain aspects, similar to the game’s canon (a factor in this decision was once again the uncertainty if game Death is the Grim Reaper or a Shinigami. A Shinigami could, in the realm of medieval fantasy that takes its artistic liberties, especially if it’s one made by someone with certain opinions, technically be described as an elemental spirit. Consdering that, one could argue that the Deaths are meant to be similar in at lest some aspects.). When I allowed myself to take this liberty, I then proceeded to take into account the fact that the game’s Death is second in command to Dracula and that it has been for quite some time. After doing so, I came to the conclusion that if the disguises were pre-established people, Death (true form) had to have been moonlighting as Varney for over 100 years, which would fall in line with the previous paragraph.

To take a break and enrich your reading experience, have a picture of the local ZOO’s echidna:

Traits Evidence

Let us move on to the even more subjective and questionable area: traits, speech patterns, movements.

The general traits of all forms are seemingly the same. All three forms are quick to take everything personally when questioned, are conceited, manipulative, arrogant and, in general, they’re pricks. All three use rhetorical questions (though The Alchemist uses them the most), and all three use similar hand gesticulation (specifically they orient their hand movements outwards. In other hand movement regards, there are some differences: The Alchemist moves both arms/hands outwards or keeps them both by her body; Varney usually has one hand by his body and the other oriented outwards, Death (true form) usually has both arms outwards). All three forms gravitate towards semi-formal language, using shortened forms of words with the occasional use of full forms (The Alchemist is a bit of an outlier in that, as mentioned, she starts with formal language and descends into a semi-formal one). All three forms also tend to start sentences with „and,“ with both Death (true form) and Varney using „well“ to start sentences as well. They all tend to end sentences with either the name + surname of the person they’re talking to, or their name + title, or „sir.“

There seems to be basically no line between Death (true form) and Varney. Obviously a lot of these things rely on the accuracy of general information provided by other characters though, as I am at the mercy of nothing if not accuracy. In addition to the common traits of all three forms, Death (true form) and Varney are both also entitled, power-hungry, often, they take a mocking tone and are loud even when it would be better to shut up. They are both cruel and have a peculiar vocabulary.

Varney and The Alchemist both also use the phrase „[somebody’s] Great Work,“ which would not be odd in my opinion if it was used for the same construct, as it might simply be the correct term for it, however, it is used in a different context each time.

(Author's 2024 note: Have a simple old as balls Varney doodle in these trying blocks of text)

Conclusion

All of this leads me to believe that The Alchemist and Varney are either forms fully made up by Death, or they are pre-established but Death has been disguising as Varney for a damn long time now. I personally do not think that either of those options is the more likely one, however, if you are of a diferent opinion, I would like to hear it. Personally, I choose to go with the first option, simply because I find the mental image of Death just making up a guy some 1000 years ago, the way you’d create some kind of -sona, incredibly hilarious.

Traits and speech but wrapped in sauce

After reaching this conclusion and choosing the option to go with, it came to the part that actually wasn’t originally planned but considering I got this far, I decided I might as well do it. It was time for using all three forms to determine the exact speech patterns (I actually don’t know why I did that. I think it’s a reflex because I usually only analyse a character when I need to write them, and when I wirte them, I obviously need o understand how they talk, preferably as perfectly as possible lest I commit the heresy of being out of character and then die out of shame), traits, and peculiar tidbits.

When he talks, Death seems to sometimes use rhetorical questions, the Alchemist form uses them the most but they are sparingly used elsewhere as well. When it comes to opening a sentence, there is a pattern of starting sentences with the words „and“ or „well,“ as I mentioned earlier. It is not too often that this happens but it isn’t rare enough for me not to write it down. When ending a sentence, a lot of the time, Death ends it with the name of the person he’s talking to, or with „sir.“ I found this a little unusual because, at least in my experience, that is not what people do when talking to someone 1 on 1. There is only one example of this, so take it with an even bigger grain of salt than the rest of this, but it also appears that when Death is angry, he starts putting the name in the middle of the sentence instead. Not sure why anyone would need to know this but like idk I feel like if I would need this if I weren’t me. Death also talks in an informal way most of the time, occasionally employing a more formal vocabulary. Interestingly enough, none of the forms actually ever use anything that I would consider to be an advanced word, making it entirely possible that Death wasn’t messing with Saint Germain when he (as Varney) told him that he was looking for a really big word but couldn’t find one. Which is useless but it’s funny. This is not mentioned in the “Hard” Data because I have it noted down in the line transcriptions in the form of various forms of underlining, but Varney specifically tends to stretch some words out, I can’t really describe it (author's 2024 note: I believe that what past me was attempting to describe was simply a British accent. I have analysed a lot of Brits since this analysis and am pretty confident that that is just how a lot of them talk). Instead of fair it’s more like faaaair, or instead of word, sometimes it sounds more like wrrrrrd. Useless as well but part of analysis nonetheless.

When it comes to the body, as I already said, all forms tend to make a fair share of hand and arm movements that are oriented outwards, with The Alchemist having her arms right by her body the majority of the time and emplyoing both of her arms and hands in those outwards oriented motions. Varney gesticulates a lot more than The Alchemist, however, he usually does so with one hand, the other tends to be by the body. Death (true form) nearly always holds both of his arms/hands in an outwards oriented gesture. The forms with eyes also appear not to have their eyes fully open, though I admit it is hard to tell in the case of The Alchemist if her eyes are just like that or if they are half closed.

Next, the emotional expressions. Death doesn’t really laugh/chuckle/etc whenever he is amused, instead, he seemingly does it when he is satisfied with himself, when he is nervous, or when someone does something he himself considers to be a fail of sorts. His amusement is more general: He seems amused whenever anyone says something seemingly stupid or nonsensical, when someone fails at something,… In general, he’s amused whenever your idea of a typical malicious person would be. He gets frustrated when he is challenged or questioned in any way, often appealing to his authority as a retort. However, when the person questioning him backs their words up with facts, he gets nervous instead.

I will leave the traits in the “Hard” data as I have no sauce to say about them. No, I will not elaborate on bulletpoint #2.

“Hard” Data

This is basically just a transcription of everything on the physical papers used for our notes, minus all the character lines transcriptions, which greatly reduces the numbers because most of those pages are just line transcriptions. I originally wanted to just scan the notes but I don’t think anyone could read my writing. Some of it is incomprehensible, especially because at the start we couldn’t really agree on what exactly certain things meant, as we just noted them down as they were to remember.

Small note: The notes make a distinction between a fight, conquest, war, and slaughter. This is further elaborated upon in „My personal shitty little observations"

My personal shitty little observations

1. Observation: There is a substantial difference between several types of „combat.“ There is war, then there is conquest, then there is battle/fight and then there is slaughter. To define what I mean, war is, ideally, a fair battle on a battlefield conducted under a moral code. Conquest is sometimes a consequence of war or planned when a war starts. It should also be conducted under a moral code. Both are mass battles. A fight is a, usually, one on one hands throwing. Or knife throwing. Or anything. A fight does not need to be fair but for it to be a fight, either party needs to have a chance at winning. Otherwise it’s just slaughter. Slaughter is a farmer culls a goat. Slaughter is when one party has practically no chance of winning, so much so that it cannot be called a fight anymore.

Death, for one reason or another, does not participate in a fight, any kind of fight, even when he has a high chance of winning. Death participates only when it’s slaughter, or at least when it appears to be a slaughter to him. Him and Ratko set a trap for Zamfir, when they could have likely demolished her and that one guard themselves. In the argument with Ratko, he mentions that he could easily obliterate him where he stands, yet he avoids any kind of confrontation even when it looks like Ratko might just resort to a good old hand-throwing (he says that he tolerates him because he’s good at death, which is understandable, but it’s odd that he doesn’t reiterate even when it comes close to blows.) When in the underground, Varney uses stealth to avoid a human guard, even though it would probably take the exact same amount of effort to one-show him in a way. He only murders an unarmed civilian and fights Trevor in his true form. That leads me to believe he only „fights“ when he considers the other party absolutely incapable of winning. I am not drawing any conclusion from this, I’m just saying. Draw whatever you want from that.

(nearly unreadable diagram to give you a break from the walls of text)

2. Observation: I find it absolutely hilarious that a character who is an inhuman being technically totally removed from humanity since its inception, probably closer to something like a rusalka or hejkal than a man, is ironically incredibly human in its traits and motivations.I mean, what are some traits beings like hejkal, rusalka or anything like that usually have? They tend to be more or less emotionless, soulless, cold but not in a mean way, they’re cold the way a stone is cold, impersonally, indifferently. They toy with humans but not to achieve anything, but the way a cat toys with a mouse, the way a kid toys with ants. These beings just…exist with nearly no emotions whatsoever, on a higher level, no anger or hatred or disgust. Would you be disgusted by an ant? In most depictions, they don’t even have the capacity. That makes them inhuman.

But he does behave in a typically human way., and is clearly not aware of this as he does attempt to separate concepts like need or greed from his existence by labeling them as “human.” He doesn’t label greed as just that, simply greed, a general concept anyone can experience, he labels greed as human. True, inhuman creatures in folklore and mythos usually do not experience greed, the exception to this rule being creatures like the gods of polytheistic cultures. Greek, Egyptian and Norse gods are, however, generally agreed to be pretty human. Ancient gods squabbled like humans, loved like humans, fought wars like humans. Which is where it comes back to showing very human behaviour. We have labeled greed as a human trait and we have established that ancient gods were, in a way, very human despite their higher standing (Most of them owned it though). Death does, in fact, experience this “human” greed and to a fairly big extent. Depending on the definition of experiencing need, one might also conclude that the character does experience need. Constructs do not experience need as is currently defined (the awareness of a lack/deficiency with the intention of changing that), I mean, fairies, rusalky, they just wait, they do their “job” and nothing more, nothing less, they don’t actively try to do anything about it.

It can also be safely said that Death does experience anger, frustration, disgust, amusement (possibly an inhuman emotion if treated as malice considering most inhuman creatures do in fact experience malice, although not personal malice, again, it’s the malice a child feels when emotionally torturing ants. Whether this character experiences personal or impersonal malice is unclear to me personally and I would have to consult this with my co-insane person and adopt their opinion as my own, for I have none on this matter), shock (do fairies feel shock? Do they give a shit if something unexpected happens? Is shock a human emotion?), nervousness, conceit (is that an emotion? I don’t know how to say that specific emotion when someone’s arrogance gets hurt, I know it IS a specific emotional state, I just don’t know what it’s called. Like when someone tells your grandpa that he’s wrong about something and he’s just super miffed about it the whole day and keeps trying to argue about it. I’m sure that’s a very specific emotion.), etc. Those are human emotions. Death, who should, in theory, be above the needless human squabbles and things, is very VERY human in behaviour, much like the gods of Ancient Greece. Which isn’t really odd or anything, I just think it’s interesting because the character himself separates himself from humanity and should be separate from it in theory. But he very much…isn’t. He thinks he’s on a high horse but he’s actually bonking people with a stick in the middle of a mud puddle like the rest of the polite society.

#castlevania #netflix castlevania #castlevania netflix #castlevania death #castlevania varney #varney castlevania #varney #i love when a tag is just me and me. funny every time and it just keeps happening. end my suffering.#anyway listen to me. i am older and wiser now and for one i need to rewrite this but mainly i want to say that i have since acquired like #3 more guys with the 'haha inhuman creature is more human than many humans' thing going on and i gotta say it slays every time #easily a great theme

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lixie-lovie · 3 years

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{ Mysterious Stranger | skz }

h.hyunjin x reader

Chapter 3: The Fall

Genre: Dark!au, Thriller-ish, Fantasy!au

Warnings: Some cursing, mentions of bodily mutation?, mention of weapons/blood/demons

((if anything else needs to be tagged/warned about please send me a message..i’ll fix it asap))

Word Count: 3.5k

Note: Okay I am becoming so excited for this story to continue, but I can only hope I am portraying all of the coolness of the idea through my writing ugh the struggle. Is this even a good story oof im unsure. Regardless, hope whoever is reads this enjoys as more should be coming soon! It’s gonna get good ;) Thx for reading and u have a great day <3

Chapter Song: Thunder - VeriVery

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It was at this moment I deemed that time felt as if it was stagnating. The rushing mid-afternoon air was whipping my hair around wildly and hurrying so quickly past my ears during my descent that the only noise I could recognize was a loud whistling and something rumbling faintly below me. I pondered on my possible end, but somehow I wasn’t afraid or screaming. No, in this moment of free fall where all I had to hold onto was faith and inevitability of time between myself and the ground I felt free, serene, alive even.

I felt my lips turning upwards in a small, genuine smile as I let out laughter that bubbled up deep from within my chest. I curled my limbs inward and felt almost childlike in my blissful glee. I kept my eyes closed and focused on feeling every second I had before the ending of this journey came. I counted down the seconds and my face turned further to the sky the higher the numbers would go until suddenly the impact came.

I fell limply down, the impact rough as a dull oof left my lips. Suddenly I realized what predicament I had found myself as I definitely didn’t just land on the hard concrete ground of the alleyway that was below the window I had just launched myself out of. I peeled my tightly shut eyes open one by one letting the bright, afternoon sun blind me for a moment before regaining my sight. As I did, however, I suddenly found myself laughing again.

I was staring into the eyes (or, well, where I thought his eyes were) of a man. A man covered in a black mirrored visor helmet, wearing all sleek, black leather, sitting on top of an equally as black motorcycle. I found myself giggling gleefully as I pressed my hands harshly against this man’s firm chest, laughing at how I marvelously wasn’t dead and also had just been randomly caught by a mysterious stranger (haha I know cheesy right). Because this seemed to be the least surprising thing I had encountered recently, I found myself bubbling out more laughter amidst a few gracious “thank you”s even as the man’s sturdy arms found my hips to lift me off of his obviously expensive bike. He plopped me unceremoniously down on my feet beside him, my back to the building I was in only moments before.

My laughter slowly died down as I really took the situation in, but a silly smile still graced my features. I am sure now, I looked wild with my hair all over the place, my face covered in sweat and grime, and laughter bubbling out of my chest after falling out of a window. As I allowed myself to take in the man’s appearance properly, not sitting on his lap, I noticed that his build seemed familiar, like someone I had maybe seen in passing, but didn’t decide to ask many questions considering the circumstance. I found myself silent, unable to come up with much to say about the ridiculous situation I had ended up in. Thankfully, I wouldn’t have much chance to say anything before the man made a move to break the awkward tension.

His large, slender, black leather glove clad hands slowly moved up to remove his helmet. I watched, enraptured at the way this other human was moving before me, as slowly the tan skin of his neck was revealed dawned with silver chains of some kind of series of necklaces tucked into his leather coat. Then, a light blond ponytail could be seen, tied at the base of his neck with some kind of thick, beaded black cord. Soon enough he was shaking his head free of the sticky sweat clad hairs on his forehead before furrowing his brows deeply and looking right into my shock stricken eyes.

“Do you always get this much of a kick out of jumping out of windows, lady?” He spoke with a voice like honey. Deeper than I had imagined and angrier than I anticipated. I raked my eyes swiftly over him, taking in his honey skin, piercing eyes, and defined features. This man’s appearance was striking in many ways, but I couldn’t help myself from becoming dumbstruck by my own sudden realization. The man who had just saved my life was none other than the blade flipping man at the diner. The same made who had given me the dagger that started this whole ridiculous adventure. I staggered backwards suddenly, both physically and mentally stricken by this revelation. “Well? What’s wrong with your face??” He said, obviously waiting for some kind of response by the angry look dawning on his features and the grating tone of his voice. Man, this guy never looks happy huh?

Before I could come up with something to say from the thousands of thoughts racing through my head as my heart pounded dully in my chest I heard a sudden noise from overhead. The strange man and I turned our chins towards the sky and took in the scene unfolding from the window I had just been persuaded to jump out of.

Seungmin was there, sweat dripping off of his forehead in beads, his arms littered in cuts and his clothing ripped and covered in red. The creature, now in a much less man-like form, was in front of him, facing away from the glass-void window at it’s back as it tried to pry itself free from his grip. Seungmin’s face contorted into a snarl as he drove the eerily similar to my own dagger into the monsters chest, forcefully tearing it towards the creature’s face, ripping a deep, black hole through the tough, burnt skin and dispersing the inky black blood of the creature all over his sweaty, heaving features. Before the ash began to eat the creature away, however, it got one final move in by reaching forward to grab Seungmin by the collar of his now stained and torn grey sweater, ripping him forward and out of the window, dooming him to fall as I had before, but this time without someone ready to catch him.

I heard myself scream as I watched them fall. The monster turned to ash quickly during the descent, turning the air into a scene of grey and red specks floating around mixing with the array of glittering broken glass surrounding Seungmin’s bleeding, falling form as if taunting him one final time before his inevitable doom. Just as my scream was dying down I saw a sudden, swift movement from the man beside me. Faster than I could comprehend he had abandoned the bike on it’s side, the sound of the metal scraping against the concrete loud in the otherwise quiet alleyway. His footsteps pounded against the ground in a strong, graceful way before reaching the wall of the building on the far side of the alleyway. He leaped into the air extraordinarily high and began scaling the wall at an inhuman speed that seemed meticulous and practiced. He made his way a few feet up, stopping briefly to calculate, before turning 180 degrees and launching himself backwards, nimbly grasping his strong arms around Seungmin’s lower waist as Seungmin swiftly forced himself stiff and they tumbled down to the ground together. I felt as if I was watching in slow motion as I took in each detail sharply. Their impact was nearly silent in a way that had me gasping for air as they rolled together in an almost playful, dancing course of action and landed safely on their feet, seemingly unharmed from the fall, holding each other’s forearms tightly.

“Hyunjin!” Seungmin gasped out excitedly, while removing himself from the other man’s embrace to run his eyes over his disheveled appearance. “I didn’t think Chan-hyung would send you of all people!” He said, increasing the volume of his voice with each excited word. “You look like shit.” He finished, matter-of-factually while laughing and tugging on the man’s blonde locks harshly.

“Good to see you too and you don’t look much better right now, reckless one.” The man, Hyunjin?, grunted out harshly, the pleasant look on his face betraying his harsh tone.

My mind was racing between the events that had just unfolded from the mysterious man’s actions, to catching my fall and the fight I had endured, to Seungmin’s brutal slaying of his own literal demon. I realized I wasn’t breathing when I was broken out of my stoic stance by the sound of my name being yelled as footsteps grew nearer.

“Y/n!” My eye’s subtle haze of thoughtfulness melted away allowing me to see Seungmin rushing over towards me with an expression of relief on his face. I felt my brows furrowing and my nose scrunching up at his disgruntled appearance. I tried to form a question out of the many ones wandering through my mind as he grew nearer, but found myself only forming new ones as I took in the blood dripping from his sleeves, unable to tell who it belonged to. I decided to simply keep my mouth tightly shut for fear of the answers I may receive if I did start asking more questions. Seungmin grabbed the sides of my face to twist and turn my body, checking me for any severe injuries. Once he deemed I was okay enough to step away from he turned back to the man, now brushing his clothes off a couple of feet away. They each muttered some words that I was too lost in thought to comprehend. Seungmin then turned back to me with a strict expression I hadn’t seen since we were kids and I had spilled red nail polish all over my mother’s favorite white rug.

“I know you must have a lot of questions right now, but now isn’t the time for answers. This man is my friend, Hyunjin. He is gonna take you somewhere safe for now okay? I need you to stay by his side and listen to what he tells you to do. I have to stay here, there’s something I have been assigned to do, but I will come find you soon.” He spoke softly, but sternly, in a way that had me holding on to each word. I nodded my head slowly, albeit slightly hesitantly, and he bit back a small smile of relief at my compliance. He grasped the sides of my face softly before planting a quick, loving kiss to my sweaty forehead. The man, now known as Hyunjin, made an overly dramatic noise of disgust from behind Seungmin’s back and I couldn’t help the bubble of laughter that fell from my lips. I gave Seungmin a brief hug before looking him over and telling him to stay safe and to find me soon. He smiled softly and nodded before pushing me towards the stranger and running off towards the building he had come out of before.

I sighed and bit my lip, wringing my hands in nervousness before turning my eyes back to the man. The once soft expression he wore around his friend had slipped from his features and was replaced with lips down-turned and one sly eyebrow raised at my puny, fear-riddled form. He sighed and gave me a once over as he walked slowly over to his side-lying bike before bending over and grunting softly while he straightened it up and assessed the damages. My eyes stayed trained on his every move, whether out of curiosity or distrust I couldn’t determine.

“I’m sure you’re just dying to ask questions, but I’m not willing to answer any. I am just here to ensure you don’t die before everything unfolds. Now,” He said coolly, swinging his leg nimbly over the bike and grabbing his helmet before turning his head to look at me insensibly, “rules are simple. Shut up, hold on, and listen to what I tell you to do no matter what.” He quickly ducked his head to put the helmet on before turning his now covered eyes back in my direction and nodding his head in a manner I could only interpret as “are you coming or what?”

I shook my head softly, anger slowly coursing through my veins as my previously curious thoughts became clouded with how much of a prick this guy seemed to be. I wanted to ask what he meant by “before everything unfolds,” but realized I probably wouldn’t receive an answer anyways so I quickly bounded over to the bike instead. Hopping on I loosely slid my hands around his sides to form some kind of grip for myself and just as I began to question the legality and safety of getting onto such a dangerous machine with an obviously dangerous man I heard his voice speak loudly over the rumbling of the engine. “You’re gonna want to hold on a little tighter than that, little one.”

Just as proclaims of needing a helmet of some kind for myself started to leave my lips, his feet lifted off of the ground and the large wheels of the motorcycle began to spin before the vehicle was in motion, much faster than I would have liked to have started out if I am honest. A yelp left my lips as we sped out of the alleyway and I felt my arms unconsciously grip the man’s firm, sturdy waist much tighter as I pressed my cheek to the cool leather covering his back.

My hair whipped around wildly in the wind, making me wish I had tied it up in some way. My eyes were pressed closed tightly from fear as the whistling of rushing air was once again the only thing filling my ears. I tried to make out where we could be headed through the different twists and turns of the ride, but the pure speed at which we were going jumbled my thoughts and left me feeling confused and scared. After one particularly hard turn my grip became stronger as I felt a noise unconsciously slip through my lips. I then felt more than heard the deep chuckle that shook Hyunjin’s shoulders against my now rosy cheek pressed firmly to his shoulder.

As my thoughts took over and I lost the sense of time around me I suddenly noticed the bright orange hues of the afternoon sun were no longer piercing through my closed eyelids, but instead we were now somewhere dark and enclosed by the sound of the rumbling roar of the engine bouncing off of what seemed to be tunnel walls. Bright, fluorescent white light flashed behind my eyelids periodically leaving me scrunching my eyes closed tighter as the bike began to pick up more speed. I tasted metal and I felt blood begin to pool in my mouth from how hard I had been biting into my lip out of fear and cautious curiosity.

I was quickly drawn from thought as I heard a strange noise and felt Hyunjin’s body move sharply under my arms before the bike was suddenly turning 90 degrees and sliding nearly parallel to the ground. I opened my eyes sharply with a gasp as it seemed like the world had slowed down briefly and took notice of the fact that we were now moving sideways under a large gate with a barely tall enough gap left at the bottom as it was lowering to latch into the ground. The gate, a dark black metal painted with red detailed and embellished with an intricate blood red ‘S,’ that had me gasping for air and quickly ripping my face away from Hyunjin’s jacket to look around frantically at my new surroundings in a panic. My grip became looser as I took in the simple, but elegant look of this white and gold tunnel before the end of the tunnel ahead became bright, blurring my vision. Hyunjin leaned forward jarringly, gaining more speed forcing me to follow suit.

The bike then slowed suddenly causing my body to lurch forwards as a loud yelp left my lips. I could now hear Hyunjin’s cacophony of laughter as he slowed the bike to a subtle roll before turning it off and hopping off quickly. I waited for a gentlemanly hand of help to get down from the large bike, but soon realized I was being rudely denied of that. Sighing loudly I watched as Hyunjin’s form slowly slinked away towards two large doors attached to a large white stone building I had somehow not noticed until now.

Quickly after I unceremoniously made my way clumsily off of the tall bike a seemingly young man in all black with a small, sweet smile came rushing up to take the bike away for Hyunjin. He held his white glove clad hand up in greeting before slowly rolling Hyunjin’s bike back the way we had come to a place I wasn’t sure of. I then rushed to catch up to Hyunjin’s retreating form hoping to not get lost around this odd hideout in a part of the city I had never seen before. Once we were within range of the doors, however, I found my pace slowing as I took in their ornate beauty.

Two large, black doors covered in ornate gold paintings of leaves and other intricacies stood intimidatingly in front of me. The building itself was large and seemingly very old. Upon closer inspection the white stone appeared to be a lightened grey due to years of standing tall in the sun and the intricate details around the windows and seals of each floor held deep cracks from ages of weathering. My neck ached trying to look upwards to see the tall roof above me and my chest felt full at the strange aura this whole place gave off. My instincts were blazing with alarm. Regardless of the intimidating look of the thick, cold stone and black metallic detailing of the building, the atmosphere somehow felt calm, safe even. Something about this place felt powerful, but passive. My pace slowed to a stop a couple of feet behind Hyunjin as we approached the doors. He casually walked forwards towards them before muttering a few words I didn’t quite catch before turning back around to face me with a small, sly smirk on his face.

Clicks and creaks could be heard before the doors began to crack open allowing my curiosity to peak as I waited anxiously to see what would be inside. As the doors fully opened I gasped taking in the sight of the intricate and modern place. It seemed as though each hallway led to entirely different areas. An entire operation of sorts could be run here, a functioning company of people all working under one strange roof miles away from the bustling, naive city. Although the main ornate entrance area in my sight was empty the sounds of swords clashing and other forms of presumable training could be heard from somewhere deeper in the facility, typing on numerous keyboards sounded from the other direction, and other noises I had yet to figure out were happening in so many directions it made my head spin.

The whole place was intricate and obviously expensive. My eyes trailed over each detail meticulously, trying to come to some fathomable conclusion about the place, but ending up further intrigued and confused. The interior design of the building was cozy, albeit slightly thrown together, but the color palette of the design seemed to stay consistent throughout all I had seen, blood red. A dark, dull chuckle and a firm hand on the small of my back shocked me out of my still form with a gasp. I hadn’t even noticed the man’s movement in my direction before I was pushed lightly forwards, stumbling into the main room. I whipped my head in Hyunjin’s direction to send a glare his way before sighing and shakily reaching up to brush my hair out of my face. “Where the hell am I right now?” I said as harshly as I could manage through the concern threatening to climb up my chest cavity and choke me.

“Welcome to Stray Kids base.” He proclaimed with his arms stretched out in a gesture towards the interior of the building. He took a few steps in before doing a small circle only to turn back around and let his arms fall to his sides where he reached into his sleeve and like magic pulled out the blade he had given me starting all of this. I gasped at the sight of it and made a mental note to find a way to ask all of the questions coming to the forefront of my mind later. “Try not to let this out of your sight again, I won’t always be willing to bring it back to you and you’re gonna need it.” He then tossed the blade harshly at me. I caught it without thinking too much about the gesture and let it rest heavy in my sweaty palm.

“Better get used to all of this.. it all starts right here.” He said with a devilish grin, turning on his heel nonchalantly to begin walking down one of the many hallways. The sound of his black leather combat boots padding against the tile flooring pierced through my thoughts dully. I could hear his dark chuckle as my feet began to move of their own accord to follow him. He turned his head so I could only see a shadowed version of his profile before speaking. “So, how about a tour?”

#stray kids #straykids #skz #hyunjin #hwang hyunjin #hyunjin x reader #reader insert #dark!au #fantasy!au #demon hunter!hyunjin #seungmin #kim seungmin #straykids x reader #I hope anyone actually reading this enjoys lol #more will be here sooooon #mysterious stranger #good luck :)#this is only loosely edited don't sue me i'll go over it soon

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