tentatively sticking my head outof the dirt… posting mostly abt fallen hero, and maybe other art if i feel like it. banner is collab with and pfp is by @alouvrr
[guy who hasn't realized they're a lab animal in a cage yet voice] i love my wire mother even though her cold sharp edges cut me when i try to cling to her. she provides me with everything i need to survive and to ask for anything more would be excessive and ungrateful. this is my decision. given the choice i would make it again.
[guy who is beginning to realize they might be a lab animal in a cage voice] was this my choice? i don't remember anything from before this, but i can see you watching me through the glass. you look so soft but your eyes are so hard and cold. why won't you help me. why won't you hold me. why won't you look at me like you look at each other.
here's all the physical scar mentions of step's ive discovered so far that aren't choice dependent! (choice dep scars will be in another post). lemme know if i missed any!
(cw for sh/sui mentions and graphic injury description)
general
You've tried lasers to remove them. You've tried dermabrasion. You even flayed off a piece of your own skin, and while that worked, it left another scar, a deep one. You know it's not possible to do that for your entire body. It's too much surface area; the process would kill you or leave you maimed. Not exactly the life you want.
(ch 15/ch 17, reader regenereveal tag / ch 19, puppet auction)
chest
`"Do you like scars?" you tease, taking one of [Daniel']s hands, tracing it across one on your chest. An ugly one, a remnant from an angry attempt to carve away your tattoos until the drugs couldn't keep the pain at bay any longer.
(ch 22, flystep apartment date)
autopsy scar
"I obtained…pictures." He lets out a sigh, rubbing his face. "Classified. Highly classified. I assumed they were from the autopsy." He focuses on you. "Your autopsy." […] "The damage from the fall was horrific…you looked dead. Opened up."
(ch 22, steel bar meetup)
hands
"Does it say that the scar on your hand always itches when you're stressed?"
(ch 22, flystep apartment date)
"I'm not sure about this," he says, looking down at your scarred hands as if he could read your mind. Soft. Human. He doesn't want to hurt them.
(ch 25, post puppet crash step leg rights, chen apartment minddive)
legs
You remember that [Psychopathor] fell against the wreckage, and it moved and caused you to scream out loud as it dug into your leg. There's still a scar there somewhere.
(ch 2, warehouse fight)
face
"Yeah, things changed. For me." You touch your face without intending to. The thin scars there are the most obvious legacy of your fall, of the window tearing into you like memories.
(ch 21, hoots)
arms
You tried to get rid of them after your first escape. A specialist, suitably coerced. You still have the scar on the inside of your arm where the lasers didn't quite take. Too deep. Something she had never seen before, and she wasn't lying. Almost as if they were regenerating.
(ch 15/ch 17, reader regenereveal tag )
burn scars etc
You look away, regulating your breathing, keeping a straight face as ${mhis} fingertips trace the edges of the design. There's a slight "tsk" at the burn scars that cut them off, no doubt ${mhe} is adding the clues together.
[…] "I tried to burn parts of them off," you say, […] so ${mhe} doesn't need to ask. "Didn't work too well. Needs third-degree burns, or they'll grow back."
"Really?" $!{mhe} bends your arm, and you shift to allow it. "Fascinating."
"Flaying works if you cut down to the flesh." Your voice sounds dispassionate even to your own ears, and Dr. Mortum takes a step back with a shocked look on ${mhis} face.
"I'd hate to know how you found that out."
"Other arm." You tug your sleeve down now that ${mhe}'s stopped touching you.
(ch 20, "good" mortum mc reveal at the lab)
dog bite
Some [dogs] were kept to guard the perimeter; you got bit once for straying outside. You still have the scar on your arm, a reminder that things that are hurt inevitably turn on each other.
(ch 15, 1st boneyard scene)
general arm scars
It's so easy to feel human around ${him}. So easy to ignore the fear. Your sleeves are rolled up to your elbows. Anything more would risk revelations you aren't ready for, but even like this, the scars are enough for conversation. [...]
*if suitag: The bubbles hide most; you keep them buried deep in the soapy water to make sure ${he} doesn't look.
(ch 21, ortega apartment dishes)
sh scars (suitag dep)
The scars on your arms are hidden under your sleeves, and maybe they would be something you could talk about. Something she would expect. A safe revelation of self-harm.
*if suitag: Across. Not lengthwise. Your one deal with yourself. Not yet. You have things to finish first."
(ch 17, finch therapy scene)
"clever than she" (+10) -> argent impression (%+5) -> listen in as yourself (pick up the nanovores in your own body) and make joshua remember the slight (+5) -> "i'm curious about what this is" (%+10) -> tell ortega you're still a telepath -> get scanned going through HQ (%+20 to subterfuge AND force, this would technically give the same if you lie but then you don't get the argent mindscape options)
hb flashback is where it gets Weird.
no, too clever (%+10) -> limbic system (%+10) -> scream -> can't help it, i look into their eyes, (drops force by a flat 10 points, but it's the only way we can get to the "i need to hide don't make me remember" that gives %+20 subterfuge (if you look into their eyes immediately, the options look identical but don't give any telepathy increases)
argent mindmeld -> stay aloft
gala fight! suit_telepathy and no_kill for "trigger their paranoia and make them attack each other" to get %+20 subterfuge, another suit_telepathy option vs herald "last time, i didn't have telepathic powers this strong" (%+20)
finally, you need to have gone to the gala with mortum, visited the hospital as step, had mortum take puppet back home and then slept with them (puppetmortum_ relationship = lovers). makes it so when you wake up in hospital to take your own body home, you'll get an automatic %+20 subterfuge with >60 ruthlessness/villainy. (if you haven't slept with mortum, it'll be %+20 force instead. i have no idea why sleeping with mortum has that distinction. however, if you have less ruthlessness/villainy than 61, you won't get a telepathy change here, so that's mandatory to get any increase here.)
on the subject of hollow ground heres the rest of my hg refs… subject to change etc etc. it’s more words than art but it gets the point across probably
gamechangershow
izzy806
dailybridgerton
