Summary: Blade is a master in the art of violence, but lately the art is feeling empty.
Warnings: Blood & violence, implied torture, choking, implied sexual content
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Blade learned at a young age how malleable flesh can be. How it gently parts for the sharpest blade and blooms beneath the roughest hands. He might have considered it beautiful, once. Crimson streams flowing through canyons and mountains dotted with blue and purple and green like fields; glistening on canvasses in every shade.
It wasn't so beautiful, most of the time. Wasn't anything. Manufactured, identical trash printed to please demand — no artistry permitted, no joy derived. Body after body beaten bloody and bruised for the sake of warning or punishment or covering their tracks.
It wasn't that he didn't think his Purpose was beautiful. He didn't dare think otherwise. It wasn't even that he didn't enjoy the work he did for it.
Still, over time the artistry was lost. He could only truly indulge on occasion — everything else was just… the same as ever.
He hadn't even noticed the change until Erik was his canvas. Purple and blue on honey-brown skin provided such rich contrast he wasn't sure he had ever truly seen colour before. The crimson was velvet draped over silk so smooth he was sure he'd be chasing the feeling for the rest of his life. Every breath he stole was a piece he never wanted to return.
He would cut, and Erik would writhe. Tears would streak glittering paths across Erik's cheeks even as their lips pulled into a pained smile. Blade would grip his throat a little too hard and Erik would choke out a shuddering sigh like the hand of God was upon them. He would bite and they would arch like their body couldn't be close enough; like the bruises were markers on a map that always led to him.
Sometimes they would make art together. He would watch Erik slice and snap and Blade would cut and bruise and the bodies they left in their wake were statues paying tribute to the carnage. Erik's craft was brutal and swift. They did not take their time the way Blade did. But the flow of his body made the violence a dance; the glint in his eyes a spotlight he directed where he pleased. They were a pleasure to watch — a stage show to accompany Blade's carvings.
When Blade went under the knife, over and over in service of the boss's art, he did not feel like a canvas. He did not feel malleable. No amount of crimson and blue could make his ashen skin a landscape. For a time, Erik had looked at him like he was. Erik would tend each cut and bruise and crimson trail like he was made of delicate painted porcelain. Admire the mottled, mangled shape of him like he was meant to be that way.
When Erik left, so did the artistry. Without the dance, the carvings meant nothing. Without brutal, his artful was flat and empty. Beauty became business. Colours faded to the same muddy dimness they always had been.
He tried to convince himself he was still an artist. Tried to find pleasure in the torture. Convinced himself delirium was the same as euphora. Fear was the same as worship. Stabbing was the same as carving.
Still, in the end, he was empty. Blade could little more derive pleasure from his art than he could pretend the agony was worth the finished product. Purple and blue was just bruises. Crimson was just blood. Pain was just pain.
Snowflake: What's something that your character is sensitive about?
oooh, given that my current WIP is Bitter Truth, I'll give you the MCs from that <3
Erik:
At first glance? Nothing. Erik is outwardly perhaps the most shameless person you'll ever meet. And he mostly is! Just don't touch on their past too much. He's real sensitive about the shit he's had to do in the past and trying to convince him it wasn't his fault is a one way ticket to killing the vibe.
I want to say I was a bit slow here and yeah, all essence is connected to Huey because he was created by the elemental spirits, but even now I'm second guessing myself. Is there something about Blade and Huey that maybe we just haven't learned yet or am I reading too much into it? But then there's the detail that Blade's section of RN is happening 100 years after Huey's and Kuya's journey there, so Huey came back for some reason and I wondered if it was specifically to thwart their plans (I mean, they do end up sending Blade to Klein after all where Huey let's him find him). So it is indeed possible Huey showed himself to him with the purpose of intimidating them, but I still wonder if the feeling of familiarity was coincidental and just due to him containing essence (on a different vein, did Huey say "nah you need to improve him before sending him my way"? lol since he doesn't completely demolish Blade).
I don't know how far in the past Blade's section happens before the main story but I suppose this professor would be really old now right? He's lowkey another character I would like to see again. He was creating dangerous weapons on top of Blade, but the fact remains that he named him, didn't want him used for anything other than combat, and didn't factory reset him. It could have been his pride as a scientist but I still want to know whether this professor that created weapons got a little attached to the one that kept asking him questions (one of the notes refer to him as Researcher D by the way).
ah there.
I love forgetting things (the surprise in my notes is because he has no data on adamantite among other Saian things, mostly because they were training him to travel to Klein and didn't want classified information to fall into the wrong hands). But yeah, in hindsight he should not have been able to detect Huey's essence even if he knew of elemental spirits.
I would write something down and then the next line they would explain it lmao But yes, Blade is a treasure.
I never really thought about the amount of essence Blade had. I just thought that him having essence in and of itself was significant regardless of amount. But considering there was very little essence in Saia I wonder how long did it take them to gather all the essence they gave Blade (or again, where did they get it from?). In Blade's intimacy rooms for that event there's a group of hoodlums human trafficking people from Klein, so it's possible that was the case (and they are still doing it).
...
So I initially wanted to do a much more organized post but I somehow ended up rambling after reading.... Maybe I can still do that organized post haha... oops
