@4freedoms continued from here.
There were plenty of nights when Eden was tasked with the role of ushering any strays to their barracks. They’d dodge, scamper, hide at the unmistakable sound of her approaching. Air of authority, intimidation — her boots would simply hit the ground and they would go running, darting off in hopes of avoiding discipline. They never got far, of course. Eden had begun to know them well — their habits, the cover they’d take, the signals they’d give each other to warn of her approach. She always found them, always spotted them. She’d bark and order and they would slink away, tails between legs. They’d regret it in the morning. They always did.
Nearly always.
On that night in particular, whilst Eden did her rounds — she spotted familiar, bright locks, whipped by breeze. Moonlight reflected off fiery wisps. Bronwyn is perched atop a building, arms wrapped around her knees and pulled flush to her chest. Eden knows why she’s there, why she stares into the sky, at stars no doubt blurred by grief-filled vision.
She contemplates leaving her there, turning a blind eye — letting her stay in solitude and connect with her fallen idol in the only way she knows how. But her heart betrays her; her legs carry her. She’s climbing atop the building and approaching Bronwyn from behind.
Eden offers a hollow statement to announce her presence — and it is returned by an equally as hollow response. It’s formality; she’s out past curfew, she shouldn’t be out. But the young girl continues, voice raspy, lost through anguished howls that ripped and tore at her throat. Bronwyn’s words compel Eden to glance at the stars herself. She’d perched upon rooftops many nights herself. Gazed up, comforted by their sight and by the one who sat beside her. And Eden supposes that one could even connect with the fallen through those bright flecks in the sky.
And even as the younger begs, bargains — Eden’s previous words hold a heavy truth. She shouldn’t be out here by herself. The stars could only offer her so much on their own.
Eden is not much of a woman, not presently much of a weapon. ( Hell beckons her, but not now. Not on cool, quiet nights like these. ) — But she perpetually remains a collection of ghosts. Reflections betray her, empty barracks taunt her. And in an odd way, that large, empty office at the end of the hall she has walked down so many times haunts her too.
And Bronwyn has collected her own ghosts as well. Perhaps she even names the stars — turns a haunt into something brighter. Something warmer.
Eden won’t make her go back inside. No, she decided that before she even climbed up onto the roof to join her. But Bronwyn shouldn’t be out here by herself.
So, she will stay.
Wordlessly, Eden moves forward now. Boots reach the edge of the building before she lowers herself down to sit beside the young soldier. So young — bearing the burden of such heavy, heavy loss. And her heart weighs more too, no doubt — the fallen clutch, dig their nails into it. They linger, and she’s keeping them here, in a way. As she gazes up at the sky again, Eden briefly wonders if their fallen comrades can see them. She wonders if they’re watching.
❛ I’m relieving you of your duties tomorrow. ❜ She finally speaks after a long drag of silence between them. She’ll talk to the Captain about it later. He trusts her discretion, anyway.
A few more moments pass before Eden reaches into the inside pocket of her jacket and pulls out a piece of fabric. It’s a remnant of her own ghosts, her own losses: the patch from Oruo’s uniform. Eden turns it over in her hand, index finger idly fiddling with its rough edges. She’d ripped it off in haste, desperate to keep a part of her best friend.
And she’s painfully aware nothing she can say in that moment will heal Bronwyn’s wounds, will allow her a feeling of relief. Loss was a familiar feeling to them all, but that didn’t make it easy. It was never easy.
❛ They’re never really gone. ❜ Eden speaks again. It’s an odd statement of sentiment, coming from her. But it’s true — for better or for worse, damn, it is true. She can’t escape them, the ghosts, those she’d lost. But perhaps it’d offer the girl some comfort. Perhaps the light within her would receive it as something to hold within her heart. Transform her mourning into something else.
❛ We keep fighting. We stay alive. For them. ❜
Yes, transform the embers of grief within her to a fire — a will to stay alive. To push forward.
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follow my instructions very closely .
❛ Alright, I'm listening. ❜ He's holding the walkie-talkie in his hand, eyes scanning the dark room before him. It's useless ; he can hardly see a foot in front of him. So, Michael flicks his flashlight on, warily shining the beam around before pressing down on the walkie-talkie's button again. Before he can even open his mouth to speak, he hears a noise in the distance –– the kitchen. It shouldn't pose too much of a threat... for now. ❛ What do you see on the cameras? Tell me where to go. ❜
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"He's right behind me isn't he..."
I've read and reread @warriorstale001 's amazing fic "One Small Difference" twice now and this image stays glued in my head!! If you haven't already I highly recommend checking out this fic, it may not be complete but it absolutely rips your heart to pieces and is easily one of my favs <3
In my heart Nightmare is so sorry and the very next morning he goes to see Dream and immediately has a change of heart and they both go to therapy and Dream goes to the doctor 🧡
Version without the text below the cut! <3
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how would you interpret Maria hugging hunter in her visceral? i always thought of it as some sort of mockery from her
Sort of, but in the way that her whole fight is sort of a "mockery" of the concept of a dashing Heroic romance (In the Shakespearean sense of the term). Let me explain.
First, we have to understand Maria's character design in that she is of the bifauxnen archetype. The bifauxnen is a handsome, gentleman-ly type woman portraying all the traits we associate with a dashing hero: courageous, refined and sometimes aristocratic, and androgynous. She is the counterpart to the bishonen, the contrast to the more coarse Lad-ette. The most famous of this archetype of course is Lady Oscar from Rose of Versailles. She is essentially a Female Prince.
The Lady Maria reflects this design. Out of all the Hunters and Byrgenwerth crew, she is the one dressed to the Nines, wearing dashing Cainhurst fashion to something that is essentially nasty and wet and all the other things (the Hunt). She's wearing jewelry (the Lumenflower brooch) the cravat, the fact she curls her hair, the aristocratic looks and backstory (the fact that she's the Lady Maria, a Knight of Cainhurst Vileblood royalty), the fact that she was the one taking care of the Research patients and they worship her, etc. Her outfit fits along the lines of the Lady Oscars, Alucards, and so forth. The fact that she is the only one to realize the atrocity of her actions, to regret her actions and reject her calling as a Hunter, is so fucking introspective at the cost of noticing Gehrman's mania for example reads very much in line of a Romantic hero. She is presenting a Look and this Look says she is meant to come off as rich, handsome, and heroic as she's slaying monsters. At least, those are the visual cues the player is meant to read in that sense. And that is carried over into her actions.
Lady Maria fights the Hunter to "liberate [them] from [their] wild curiosity" - she is taking the role again, of the hero. The villain here, being that need for Insight and she is saving the Hunter from the call of blood. She then engages you a fight, a dance really, set to waltz - again, playing with those romantic hero tropes (assuming you don't parry her to death). The visceral attack therefore, plays into that fantasy. She treats you so gently cause of course you are the Victim enslaved by your thirst for knowledge, she is the romantic hero, mercy killing you with the sweet kiss of death. She steadies you as your now heartless body bleeds out onto the floorboards of the clocktower.
But like everything in Bloodborne, there is a catch you see. Cause the Lady Maria is not a hero in fact; she is a bloody coward.
Yes, Maria is the only member of the Byrgenwerth crew (and amongst the few Hunter in general) to make a dry stop + u-turn from the Hunt and the atrocities associated with that. But unlike someone like Djura, who at least is trying to be productive in his redemption, Maria runs from her mistakes. She casts Rakuyo into the Well and leaves. She joins the Research Hall and contributes to more atrocities there, but hey at least all the patients there love her right?? (😬) And when her brooding (or maybe insanity? who says she was immune to the Beast plague? Or Kos infecting her brain??) was too much for her, she takes her own life instead of you know, working to dismantle the systems - both the Research Hall and the Hunt itself. Her issues and her guilt - that is more important to her than actually helping or saving people. She the Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, Lord over nothing else but the reminder of her greatest failure. Both in life and in death.
Cause you see, her stopping the Hunter isn't really about saving them from their wild curiosity. The Fishing Hamlet is dead and gone. The effects are echoing throughout all of Yharnam in this day and age. Heck, the Hunter just came in from the Research Hall itself. It is well and truly Known, to prevent future atrocities of that scale, one has to know the events that led to those atrocities in the First Place. Lady Maria isn't helping you, isn't saving you from anything you already knew to begin with. She is, once again, trying to alleviate her own guilt and shame and trying to prevent others of knowing of that shame. So she tries to kill you. But you know, in a Heroic way. Hence why the whole fight is a sham and mockery.
She also hates your guts. I consider this to be tertiary canon at best, but the deleted lines has it so that she calls you insufferable, and baits you to kill her. She Does Not Actually Give a Shit About You. It cannot be more blatant than that. And how couldn't she? You make her recall her greatest shame, force her to break the last of her principles (no Vilebloodbending) so that your ass does not learn of what she's done. You also keep coming back, so you're a constant reminder that no matter what she does, her actions really do mean nothing, not before, and definitely not now.
Also she stares at you like this the whole fight if looks could kill well, you would be dead and not coming back (The way you ought to. Bastard. Stay dead already!! - Lady Maria, probably):
So yeah, she is mocking you with a oh so sweet kiss from the Handsome Hero type as she rips your heart out (breaking it) and kills you very dead. Cause fuck the Hunter specifically.
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