For the Pitch Black with another fear spirit S/O, I am also a movie only man, but it did spark some thoughts, even if it's probably not in the vein you wanted.
Pitch Black has always been the fear of what was lurking outside the cave mouth, beyond the little circle of firelight where humanity huddled. His was the fear of the unknown, of what was lurking in the shadows, of what it might do.
But fear and faith come in many shapes, and they are not all shadows of the Nightmare King. Sometimes, instead of the creeping fear of something stalking in the night, there comes the certain concrete terror as the tiger leaps, a moment not of anxiety but of knowledge before the fangs clamp down.
That fear is what feeds you, not of the unknown which the human mind fills with terrors, but fear of knowing and not being able to escape.
For millennia you subsisted from those moments of terror at the end of a tiny life, far beneath notice, far beneath personification. Over the centuries, though, you began to grow stronger as humanity learned and learned to fear. The dawn of farming meant failed harvests and the sickening knowledge of hunger to come.
Then the start of science. Copernicus. And better, Darwin. Mortals slowly stripped themselves of their comforting arrogant assumptions about being the centre and pinnacle of creation. The horror of it nourished you, even as Pitch started to fade away into a children's tale.
There are no words to describe the anger felt by the slowly fading shadow of Pitch Black. He despised you, turned his thoughts from the Sandman, and set his sights upon toppling your throne.
You might not even notice for a while, too giddy on your new life and sudden strength, but Pitch finds his way in. Little whispers in sleeping minds of all that is unknown between the stars and beneath the sea. One mind in particular was made almost as much of fear as the two of you. A writer, Howard, who feared everything he did not know and then feared most of what he learned. You could have glutted yourselves on him alone if he were not so frail and mortal. Still, it was your first meeting as equals that he didn't try to turn into a battleground.
He was taken aback by your greeting. How couldn't he be? Didn't you know what you had done to him? First the Guardians and now you try to push him out of the world, and you - what - want to be friends?
Or more than friends? He grins, sharp teeth flashing white in the gloom. Oh, he can use this. He can use you and the Man in the Moon has no irrational fondness for a fear spirit.
He tells himself this as he gathers his army of Nightmares. He does the same thing when he lets them loose and sends a delicious wave of fear to bolster you both. The lie that there is no affection there doesn't crumble even when his horde turns on him and drags him down into the darkness beneath the world. That only happens when you turn the hungry Nightmares aside with a wave of your hand.
(~goodgriefwhatanerd)
@goodgriefwhatanerd I have been hoarding this ask and rereading it like -
I love this interpretation of pitch being horror and anticipation, with the new spirit being terror and certainty – a delightful twist I don’t think I’ve seen before!!
Also I could be wrong but that Howard writer – HP Lovecraft reference? The inventor of cosmic horror being haunted by two literal fear spirits is such a delicious thought. Have you seen the comic by rinpin on deviantart? They were one of the storyboard artists for ROTG and did a brilliant little comic about Pitch and Lovecraft meeting.
I’ll be honest I’ve got nothing to expand on this right now, mostly because I think you’ve done a devastatingly good job – do you take request/post plotbunnies often?? Because you definitely could and I would read the hell out of all of them.
Oh wow I had entirely forgotten about this, I'm glad you enjoyed reading my thoughts! The Howard was indeed good old Horrible Phobia Lovecraft, and I think that comic was in my mind when writing this.
I haven't really done any requests for ficlets or headcanons in ages, and even then it was almost all on my @kainissoable sideblog and mostly for ancient games. But if it's something people would be interested in, absolutely hit me up here, there, or my main @lancrewizzard (I think I was too much of a beanie weenie to link my selfshipping thoughts to my main at the time, but no longer)
