Have been thinking a lot about Cleo and the Boogyman Curse. Of every single member who’s ever told her that she doesn’t know what it feels like because she’s never had to be the Boogyman before. How she doesn’t understand because she’s never been put in that position.
Thinking of the backstory Cleo gave for her character. How after she died, she became scourgified. How she killed her entire family under the influence of mind control. How she was fully conscious the entire time it was happening.
Thinking about how she’s spent her entire life trying to atone for that fact. How she lets her allies kill her. How she sacrifices herself for others. Her telling her friends that if they are ever the Boogyman to simply ask and she will gladly give her life to help them. Thinking of the guilt that must eat away at her knowing that nothing she does could ever possibly be enough to atone for what she’s done.
Thinking about every single one of them and their illusions of choice. They were cursed. They had to do it. They had no choice, they said. How infuriating that one sentence must be for Cleo. As if any single one of them understands the power of choice. They, who HAD choice. They, who were capable of conscious action, decision, and foresight. They who absolutely had it in their power to simply walk away, and they, who, despite this fact, still killed their closest friends and allies anyway, and in fact made that conscious decision willingly.
Thinking about how Cleo has never once been the Boogyman. About her friends defending their actions to her. Do you think she loses faith in humanity every time she watches them make that decision again? Have they no remorse? Have they no guilt? Thinking about every time they tell her she doesn’t understand, and how she would do the same thing if she was in their shoes. How she would be selfish too if she only understood the stakes. Thinking about how maybe it is them who doesn’t understand. Because only she knows that if they truly understood their actions, they would have never tried to justify them.
Thinking about how the literal Zombie has more humanity than any human on the server.
(For those curious about what backstory I’m talking about —> https://www.tumblr.com/zombiecleoprime/188179804260/cleo-please-share-your-dark-internal-backstory?source=share%20)
