I like thinking about Laurance's shadow form lately. The power of it, and its drawbacks.
The ability to grow in size, and have the strength of ten men. But the transformation requires his body to forcibly re-shape itself, and his body was never built for it. Every second, both of the transformation and to maintain the new form, would be absolute agony.
He can protect those he loves, perform great feats of strength, and beat impossible odds... All while every moment makes his grip on sanity slip just a little more. And when he's done he crumbles to the floor, sobbing in pain. The transformation leaves no visible injuries to treat, but the ache lasts days. Everything about it is nightmarish for him, the proof he's becoming a monster.
And yet those around him see it as a nessescary burden. Aphmau thinks of it as a hidden weapon to pull out when things go south, and the others have never seen it, or how it hurts him. So they believe her.
And as time passes, he's unable to see her as the sweet, innocent woman he once knew. She mourns a man she barely knew to the extent of blocking out all else, and barely even seemed to care when they thought Garroth would die in the Irene demension. She sees his Shadow as a tool, not as the beast that haunts his every moment.
And he begins to resent her. He gave his life for her once, and now she knows she can make him do it again. He wonders if she sees them all this way. Garroth as her greatest bargaining chip, Dante as the loyal dog that will waste away waiting for her return. She's played them all for fools.
But he still wonders if it's the Shadow speaking those words, so he forces them down. And then he runs, out of fear he can no longer bear to look at the woman he now despises. He won't kill her, he swore that much. But he cannot stay by her side as he watches her grow distant and uncaring. She seems a stranger now. A stranger in his best friend's skin.
So yeah, I'm working on the framework for my rewrite of Laurance's madness arc lol
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