#part 43

[arthur-lesters-emotional-baggage]

I can safely say that I've gotten heavier.

[anonymouscringe]

oh arthur lester screaming in horrible agony after death one bajillion we're really in it now

[tofindloveinpoison]

Part 43 of malevolent is just John goes to (violent) witch therapy

[saffusthings]

literally just threw my phone across the room after finishing 43😭

“Don’t go where I can’t follow, okay?” ARE YOU KIDDING ME MISS GIRL

this story is so good I’m literally in love with you but so help me god if they don’t get a happy ending I’m having a GENERATIONAL crash out

anywho love your mind diva🤍🤍

that one literally slipped out of my keyboard and onto the screen during one of my final reviews of the chapter and somehow i broke me own heart when i wrote it?? so i decided to keep it in ofc

looking forward to your generational crash out btw (purchasing life insurance as we speak)

[ceaselessims]

this speech really fucking made me cry because it exemplifies how far john has come as a character, but it also gives me the worst portentous vibes....

because "together we are whole" can be both the most sentimental, heartwarming, tear jerking confession of love,,,,, but it can also be a threat, a claim, and declarative statement meant to be challenged.

what worries me the most though is "i will let go of what no longer serves me" what do you mean by that, john 😀 because that can mean like letting go of parts of himself that he is not proud of, but it can also mean that he will eventually let go of physical things, people, who not longer serve his purpose in the long run.

john (love him so) does not have the best track record of telling the whole truth even to himself so i am Terrifed

[to-forgive-is-divine]

Just listened to part 43

Bro. What the fuck.

[otterdrws]

*SPOILERS*

YAAAY YY YAYA YAY YIPPEE YAY GOOD JOB JOHN WOOO LETS GET ARTHUR BACK

[late-to-the-magnus-archives]

Wrong - a Malevolent fic (spoilers for part 43)

There is a thread where it all went wrong.

Where Arthur, lost, has lost his hope.

Where John makes a choice to teach Arthur what it means to be human.

Part 43 spoilers! You have been warned.

AO3

----------

There is a thread where it all went wrong.

Let’s be fair, there are lots of them; but sometimes, the wrongness is spectacular.

Take this thread, where the righteousness of choice and the pain of consequence and rot of forgiveness and stench of fear has taken us: to an abandoned kingdom of tormenting terror, its roots buried deep in the world of the dead. A place into which a mere mortal soul crashed into, cast by violence and cruelty… smelling of him who had made this place great.

A kingdom which is no longer abandoned.

A kingdom whose former king chose to return after that mortal soul was torn away, and has found his empty throne occupied.

Time in the Dark World does not run parallel to anything else. Time in the Dark World does not even run consistently with itself, so was it really a surprise, in this thread where it all went wrong, that the Once and Former King should find the human who gave him hope now exercising the lack of it?

Should find that human embodying the one choice he never wanted, the one choice he fought to prevent. The choice he sacrificed himself for, gave up his throne for , traded with the devil himself to eschew?

The King’s throne is occupied. There is a new king. A second king. A cruel king who gave up hope, who lost his on the edge of a sword and in the writhing of maggots, whose bitter and burnt choices drowned in the muck of uncountable fallen years.

Most give up, here. It is not surprising. And yet.

The Once and Former King knows how humans are: changeable. Malleable. They learn. They grow. Even this one, who has chosen the worst of himself and carved its map into his skin, can still grow. So the Once and Former King tells himself as he bows the knee, as he joins Arthur’s side, and shows this man how to be more cruel and more dark and more punitive, all for the opportunity to whisper in his ear, to dust off forgotten truth, to reminisce (as if making mere conversation) of what compassions there once were.

The Once and Former King believes this hope will take hold. He believes because it once took hold of him, buried its roots deep into his soul so that he recalled their scent when they bloomed, even in this worst of places. Though for now, the seeds he casts bounce off hardened ground, free for the birds to eat, leaving Arthur's soil unrooted.

It doesn't matter. He will not give up on this man. This is the thread where it all went wrong... but it does not to stay that way.

Arthur has already drowned.

John will not let that stand.