Warning: Religious Trauma, Religious Injury, Branding.

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Devoted Soul

This Dark has history with a particular Phantom (@the-original-red-devil). And sometimes history comes back to haunt us. -=-=-=-

The shadows curled in closer, darkening their surroundings as the demon leaned in towards his victim, half-tangled in dark threads and twitching like a fly in spiderweb, already bloodied and beaten. Clawed fingertips scraped over the prisoner's scalp, curled around a fistful of vibrantly purple hair, and yanked their head back, bending their neck to an awkward, almost painful angle. "Stubborn." Dark mused, studying the flashes of defiance playing like sheet lightning across stormy blue-grey irises. He tugged a little harder on their hair, watching the way their lip curled in response - anger and pain warring across their pale face. "All this would be over if you'd just give me an answer. I know you're one of his. Loxeio's precious Collected..." He let go of their hair, and watched them slump forwards again, either too tired to keep their head up, or simply not caring enough to keep an eye on him. The demon paused, straightening his tie, glowering down at the stubbornly silent soul. "Three souls in one. Trapped in a mortal skin, with two pathetic little worms that don't know when to shut up. I need a soul demon. Unfortunately, the only one I can think of with enough power to remedy this mess is him." His claws caught under their jaw, digging in either side. Shimmers of red, just slightly too iridescent to be the blood of a regular human, trickled down from where the skin tore under the pressure he was exerting. Thumb and forefinger cutting into their face, the others curling into their neck. "...so, I'll ask again. What alias is he hiding behind now?"

The soul's eyes flashed, blazing bright in their defiance. "I'd sooner die than tell you." Dark couldn't quite suppress the vicious snarl that left him - nor did he keep his temper well enough to stay calm, collected, and not kick the soul painfully in their ribs. They yelped in pain, the already-cracked bones yowling their protests at the rough handling, then glared up at him, hatred flickering in their eyes. "Bitch." The demon drew in a deep breath, briefly closing vantablack eyes in frustration. And then he crouched to his prisoner's level, head tilting to one side as he reached out, tilting their chin up with a surprising gentleness, staring into their eyes. “Oh, but you can’t die. I know that as well as you do." He withdrew his hand, straightening up, spikes of shadow coalescing around him. The first of them shot forwards, piercing the soul's shoulder and making them gasp with pain. Thud. "Which means..." Thud. "...that there's no end to this..." Thud. "...that I can just..."

Thud. "Keep." Thud. "Going."

Whoops! Show's over, Jameson!

(don't worry, he's fine. Those are friendship strings and he's yawning. he's just sleepy there's no puppeteering happening here)

But y'all I found a new drawing program and now the rut I've been in is COMPLETELY gone. It feels so good to create again 😭

The impulsive OC I mentioned in a poll a week or so ago. Her name hasn't come to me yet, but it will eventually.

After multiple Canva crashes, I FINALLY got it. Even then, some lyrics couldn't fit, so I'm posting them as separate images.

THIS THIS THIS.

ah yes i remembered the other thing i was thinking about after my second thunderbolts watch (spoilers)

this was more just me piecing things together, but

that whole final scene in the lab was spectacular. i like how the movie makes you believe that bob is fighting his depression and he is putting an effort into recovery by standing up to the void, but as he starts beating up the void, you see that he is losing control. he is beating himself, he is punching himself.

the void will always be a part of him, his mental illness with always be a part of him. so when he fights it, he’s fighting himself, he is hurting himself. all those hints of him thinking he makes everything worse, he’s letting it all out, he’s exploding (which is what happens when you ‘push it all down’ like yelena suggested), and i really relate to this. when he lost control, he started hurting himself. a lot of representation of mental illness shows people externalizing and hurting other people, but internalizing is very real too, when the person loses control and hurts themself. that’s what bob was doing

turns out, as he is ruthlessly punching the void, it’s only hurting him more. the darkness is spreading through him and overtaking him, showing that the whole action of shoving your pain down is dangerous, because it always bubbles up and comes out worse than it would have before. it ends up hurting more, it’s more dangerous and terrifying than it would have been. the more you feed into the darkness, the more it hurts you. that’s why bucky said “this isn’t right”, because bob is hurting himself, he isn’t healing. that’s also why yelena said “you’re giving him what he wants” because when you hurt yourself, you’re giving the depression what it wants, you’re feeding it. that’s why the void just kept smiling and laughing as bob hit him.

one of the main themes of this movie is basically it’s fucking hard, but you have to keep fighting, you have to keep fucking trying. so i like that the movie has you realize that bob fighting that dark and dangerous side of him only hurts him more. his mental illness is part of who he is, the goal is just to find a way where he isn’t defined by his illness, where he can find a way to live with it and still thrive. that’s an incredibly important message, that mental illness and disabilities are not necessarily something to be fought off, they are something you need to learn to accept and live with, because it’s a part of you.

Excelsis is probably my favorite off this album. THE WHOLE THING IS SO GOOD. IM GOINF FERAL

THIS IS THE FUNNIEST TUMBLR POST IVE GOTTEN

Ngl I hated him for a while but he's so well written... after thunderbolts* I've found that he's growing on me

Ship or not, John is Bob’s second closest Thunderbolt after Yelena:

Despite his initial animosity, John seemed genuinely concerned when Bob sacrificed himself to distract the special forces from pursuing the trio. He ignored Ava’s instructions to leave, waiting for Yelena to say.

Aside from Yelena, he was the only one who faced Bob’s dark essence before the final battle (Bob probably also saw what was going on in his mind).

Despite seeing John as a complete ass, Bob treated him far more gently in the fight than he did Bucky and Alexei, though John was just as aggressive as they were (attacking, shooting).

He was the one who encouraged Bob and who praised him.

He was also the first to rush to help Yelena restrain Bob, despite having been impaled by a piece of iron just a minute before.

When John learned that Bob’s abusive father used to call him “Bobby”, he stopped doing it.

Other little thing: John was the one who freed Bob and saw his capsule in its opened state.

What the fuck??? 87 hits in less than an hour?? I guess I underestimated how feral this fandom is for content 😭 I'm going to write something else Thunderbolts* related soon, don't worry

AHAHAHAHAH

Lord pls someone rp with me