(OOC) Application
Series: Guilty Gear
Series' Medium: Video Game
Character: Venom (birth name unknown)
Age: Unknown - he’s somewhere around his early to middle twenties
Sex/Gender: Male
Canon Role: Grey-area antagonist. He’s the current leader of the Assassin’s Guild, but not many people are calling him a complete monster (ie: even the police officer thinks he’s a decent person despite trying to arrest him all the time.)
"Real" Name: Vincent Lant
How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?: I think it’s been around… 3 years now? 2 and a half? It’s been a while…
Where have you roleplayed in general and/or with this specific character?: Eh, nowhere important.
Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?: I’ve tinkered with pretty much all of the games with story modes (sans GGX+, which wasn’t released in the US, though I have read a translated script for it), listened to all the Drama CDs I could, even read that mostly unrelated manga… Me and GG are like. Bread and butter. Or at least crackers and mustard.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
To really understand Venom’s life, it’s important to understand the world he lives in. Guilty Gear takes place in a world where modern technology has fallen out of favor (and in most countries, outright banned), having been replaced after the discovery of Magic, a natural, unlimited energy source. As wonderful as this discovery might have been, it didn’t take long before humans began to experiment with this power, eventually fusing Magic into the DNA of animals and other humans to make the living bioweapons known as Gears. The first official command-type Gear, Justice, rebelled shortly after her creation and proceeded to completely destroy the island of Japan, kicking off a world-wide war between humans and Gears that lasted for over a hundred years.
Venom was born near the end of this war, having lost both his parents to it and picked up by the Assassin’s Guild at a young age. While the Guild was originally created with the noble cause of taking out any tyrannical or unjust leaders that may have sprung up during the world’s chaos, the group’s morals began to slip in the wake of their founder’s retirement. As such, the focus changed to money instead of justice, its attitude became ruthless instead of watchful, and children like Venom became tools who had to do as ordered or face the consequences.
Yet despite the cold environment, Venom was never much of a cruel child. He hated the sight of blood, he hated the thought of taking lives, and despite all his potential he refused to be a part of what was ordered of him. As he grew older, he grew more cynical and quiet, unable to understand what meaning his life served or if he even had one at all. This existential crisis eventually culminated in the Guild’s decision to execute him for his inability to follow the rules.
It’s never stated whether Zato-1, the Guild’s new leader, knew Venom before this incident or if it was just random happenstance that he decided to spare the boy, but before he could be killed, Zato stepped in and offered to take Venom in as his subordinate. From that one act of kindness and sympathy, Venom decided he did have a purpose: to serve and protect his benefactor at all costs. He took the man up on his offer and began training under him, determined to do everything in his power to make Zato happy.
Zato hadn’t always been leader material, though. In fact, only a short time before his rise to power, Zato was just as much as a low ranking member as Venom was. Canon hints that he might have been talked into it by members of the Post-War Administration Bureau (a shady group that seems to have been looking into Gear-related technology. They’re later responsible for creating clones of Justice.), but regardless of how he found out about the procedure Zato gave up his eyesight in return for the power to control shadows via a parasitic Forbidden Beast (a type of anti-Gear technology that was evidently a scrapped idea from the war). And along with Zato came someone who knew him since before even then: Millia Rage, a woman who’d undergone a similar procedure as Zato (and was possibly coerced into it by Zato himself) in order to control her hair as a weapon.
To say Millia and Zato were close is a bit of an understatement, as would be saying that Venom was only a little jealous about it. For as long as Venom and Millia knew each other, it really sounds like they’ve never gotten along. Millia would tease Venom for his insane amounts of devotion and not-so-subtly rub her intimacy with Zato in his face, Venom would persistently attempt to get her in trouble for even the smallest bending of the rules and generally make her life more difficult, and Zato would have to begrudgingly play referee to all their arguments. This went on for years.
There was a turning point, however. The end of the war saw Justice sealed inside of a dimensional prison--effectively shutting off all lesser Gears under her command--and all the soldiers and mercenaries remaining at the end of the battle meant a new source of competition for the Guild. Zato, having shifted along with the idea of the Guild as a business instead of a vigilante group, became increasingly more concerned about the idea that these soldiers could easily remove the need for people to pay for the Guild’s services if the Guild did not keep itself powerful and relevant. While Venom remained loyal to the cause regardless of his personal issues with the matter, Millia was less than pleased with this harder approach, especially since she’d always been miserable being a hired murderer in the first place--and especially once she had been kidnapped during a mission and assumed she had been left to die by the Guild (rules state any assassin who is captured will not be rescued). Slayer, the Guild’s founder, took note of this corruption and began to step in, first speaking with Millia about her feelings on the matter and how she should do what she thought was right, saving her from her captors, then confronting Zato about the situation (i.e.: beating the daylights out of him when Zato got defensive and snide about it, as he is wont to do occasionally). Unfortunately, Zato was not aware of Millia's rescue. Despite the rules, he refuses to let her die and had gotten into contact with her kidnapper: a man by the name of Lord Manning. In return for Millia, they would assassinate the king of Catalonia.
The king of which was 2 years old.
It’s about here where the trio’s relationship began to fracture even more than it already had. Millia-- already strained from the Guild’s work, Zato’s stubborn ways, her discussions with Slayer--finally snapped. She tried pleading with Zato, begging him not to go through with the mission and killing an innocent child. Having spent the past week constantly being reminded that Zato had feelings for Millia, that he trusted her abilities more, and that Zato would always let her get away with most anything, Venom seeing Millia blatantly trying to go against Zato’s wishes when the entire mission was put up to save her broke his calm facade. Angry, he stepped into the conversation, slapped Millia to the ground, and proceeded to yell at her for always thinking of herself instead of thinking about what was better for the Guild-and especially for Zato. And even though Zato pulled his subordinate off and scolded him for being emotional, he did nothing to change the mission. They were going through with what he planned, Millia was going to do as ordered, and that was going to be the end of it.
When it came time to actually do the mission, Venom was sent off first to take care of the security. While Zato did make an attempt to smooth over his relationship with Millia once alone, even tried to feed her little compliments about how she was beautiful and strong, Millia was obviously not as interested as she used to be. Once they made their way into the building and where king were being kept, Millia broke the relationship off for good: she literally stabbed Zato in the back and fled the scene, leaving him for dead.
On her way to freedom however, she bumped into Venom, who had just finished taking out the main security. Immediately seeing that Zato wasn’t with her, he questioned her about his whereabouts. In a stunning act of honesty, Millia admitted to killing him and pointed out that since Venom was injured from the fight with the security he would most likely get killed trying to get revenge-something she said she didn’t want to happen to him. Not having any of that, Venom demanded that she take him seriously and fight this out with him or he was going to kill the king himself. After having almost killed each other in the ensuing altercation, Millia finally asked Venom why he was so determined to kill her-he hated killing people just as much as Millia did and, like her, he was an orphan too. The threat he made was… odd, coming from him, even if she had killed Zato. In what was possibly the straw that broke the camel’s back, Venom told her that should she ever defect and try to jeopardize the mission, he was under orders by Zato himself to kill her.
Needless to say, Millia was not happy to hear that news.
Still, before they could actually succeed in murdering one another, the two were distracted by the sound of Zato, still alive, in a fight with something in the distance. It turns out that when Millia left him, Slayer stepped in for a chat with him. After having been shanked with extreme prejudice, Zato finally got the picture that he was controlling the Guild in the wrong way, that Millia had every right to be upset with him, and now he’d totally lost her. Since they were currently sitting ducks though, that gave the leader of the base ample time to come in with his mutated soldiers and attack. Pulling themselves together again, Millia and Venom got back to Zato and the three of them took the soldiers out, much to Slayer’s approval. After the battle, Millia and Zato got together one last time to part ways, Zato explaining that while he’s letting her go, it’s still the rules of the Guild to assassinate any traitors. He does, however, tell her he would give her a head-start.
Millia still seemed pretty hung up about the whole “ordering Venom to kill her” thing though, because she took that head -start, contacted the International Police, and had Zato trapped and arrested in return that the charges against her were dropped. With Zato arrested, the Guild fell into chaos and became victim to constant in-fighting and power-plays, its strength crumbling. Venom did his best his keep the company together, but with all his attention on Zato’s safety…
Speaking of crumbling, as the years went on so too did Justice’s seal deteriorate. In the wake of this news, a tournament was formed, supposedly for the purpose of finding those strong enough to defeat her should she break out. However, the panic this news caused made many people glance over the fine print; specifically the rules allowing criminals into the fray and allowing the fighters to spill blood. Even Zato, having just been imprisoned, was freed by a mysterious man named Testament in order to participate. Millia of course heard this news and joined as well, determined to put her old co-worker back in his place.
As it turned out, the tournament was actually ruse set up by Testament, Justice’s right-hand man and a human-converted Gear, to use the blood of the contestants to break the seal of Justice’s prison. While Testament succeeded in this goal, he was defeated and Justice was killed. Millia, uninvolved with the incident with Justice and Testament, succeeded in bringing down Zato, but failed to kill him. And after being weakened by all the fighting, Zato lost control of his shadow. The beast had grown sentience, now calling itself Eddie, and began to eat Zato’s mind, will, and completely take over his body.
Vigilant for any news about Zato as he was, Venom soon heard what happened and left the Guild to save his master. Still, he also kept himself loyal to the Guild and juggled his search with completing what missions he had been given (which was suspiciously a lot). Eventually, one of his missions had him again bumping into Millia, who was also after Zato. She suggested the two of them team up and find Zato together, despite their completely different goals once they got to him. Though he initially brushed her off, she gave him a little information she’d gotten while she was away: the Guild wanted Zato dead and replaced. The reason Venom was constantly being put on missions was just to distract him-the members knew he would never let anything bad happen to Zato and he would get in the way of their plans, so they kept him busy while they searched for Zato themselves. Seeing no other choice, Venom relented and took Millia’s offer. If they worked together, they would no doubt find him before the unloyal Guild members did and Venom would be given a chance to save him.
And they did find him. Eddie, overcome with the confusion and loneliness of being a self-aware weapon, had been searching out a like-minded individual after a rumor started spreading about a still-living Gear: Justice’s daughter, Dizzy. With all the bounty hunters tracking down the same girl, it wasn’t so hard to track Eddie, and subsequently Zato, either. So yes, they did find Zato.
And Millia killed him.
The specifics of what happened are never given, but all the characters, herself included, confirm Millia murdered the man (though Eddie tells Venom it was his fault in his win quote against him. He didn’t know about human limitations or that his taking over Zato’s body was killing him of exhaustion). Though even with Zato dead, it wasn’t enough to take down Eddie just yet. The beast fled with his body, taunting the two surviving assassins with the reasoning that if someone hated him, he’d at least be remembered. While Millia began tracking down Eddie to kill what was left of Zato, Venom, distraught as he was, returned to take control of Guild and protect what was left of Zato’s legacy.
A week later, Slayer returned to disband the Guild. Yes, Venom’s life is pretty much just a long list of shit going wrong.
After everything he had gone through, Venom refused to let that happen. Even clearly knowing that Slayer was far stronger than him, even stronger than Zato was, he set out to do what he had wanted to do years ago: kill Slayer. Every person that got in his way was officially a training dummy and he did not stop until he and Slayer fought for the fate of the Guild.
Which was a fight Venom lost.
Still, Slayer took notice of his junior’s determination and decided that, as misguided as he was, the Guild was most likely in better hands with Venom than someone else. He officially gave Venom the right to lead the Guild and left him be. Over the next few months, Venom worked his hardest to return the Guild to its original state, succeeding in pulling it from the brink of destruction despite also having to fight off Eddie (to reclaim Zato’s body and finally let the man rest in peace), Millia (as both punishment and revenge), a multitude of other people who would much rather see him dead, and his own guilt-ridden nightmares.
And then came Landel’s.
As jarring as it was to wake up from a nightmare and find himself in an asylum and surrounded by monsters, Venom adjusted relatively quickly-he was no stranger to death-traps. In the next two weeks, he formed alliances with those he could, most notably Sora and Edward Cullen (probably being the closest thing he’s had to friends aside from Zato) and began piecing together all the information given to him. Though the progress was slow and peppered with bumps and roadblocks, he was determined to destroy the institute for its crimes against him and, having seen the resurrected and brainwashed form of Zato-1 during a ‘visitation shift’, break the Next-wave programing and save his lord once and for all.
And then school happened to me and I freaked out and I didn’t have to because turns out it’s slow and I’m dumb. 8|
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
Um. From where I left him, really. But it’s mainly because if I had to make this stubborn bastard work to get his previous CR back, I will punch myself in the face. It took him almost two years in real time to not hate everyone in the building.
Yeah, right where I took him.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Venom’s a very cold man. He’s abrasive, formal, blunt, prone to commanding others and getting annoyed when those commands aren’t followed. He tends to try to correct behavior he perceives as unprofessional, preferring to keep things as business-oriented as possible. If there are set of rules he’s under, he’s most likely to follow them and scold anyone who doesn’t do the same. When things become chaotic, he tries to remain calm and will order others to do so as well. If something goes wrong, he’ll work harder to set it right and get things back on track. Everything is about the job for him, even if that means he has no time to rest or have any fun-fun itself is a foreign concept most of the time. Overall, he does everything in his power to act exactly the way you’d expect an assassin to: quiet, efficient, and brutally professional.
But of course, there’s more to it than just that. Underneath all the bluster and professional pride he carries is just an unhappy, awkward, and surprisingly innocent (if not just incredibly naïve-I’ll explain that later) man. As stated earlier, Venom’s main fault within the Guild was being too kind-hearted. Hurting innocent people isn’t something he enjoys, he hates the sight of blood, and killing someone outside of his work only leaves him wracked with guilt. He’s normally sympathetic to people in similar situations as himself, kinder to children, and caring with the few people he opens up to. As much as he’ll do anything to hide his emotions, there is a lot more there than expected for someone so outwardly collected. And yet for someone who seems so complex, his motivations are usually very simple in their roots: survival, meaning, loyalty, love, and hate.
The most obvious-and usually intertwined-motivations are love and loyalty. This is especially visible with Zato, someone he respects and adores so much that he’s willing to toss aside his own survival to ensure the other’s. Loyalty is often considered the most important thing to him, almost to the point of a sort of childish innocence. If someone can manage to get past all those walls he puts around himself and he decides to that the person is kind, or good, or deserving of loyalty, he will give it and give it unconditionally. It doesn’t matter what needs to be done or what they ask of him; he will do it and never ask for anything back. And should he fall in love with someone… multiply this times ten. Anything terrible they might do to him will immediately be blamed on someone else. In his mind, the object of his affection can never do anything wrong and they are a beautiful, bastion saint of compassion and generosity regardless of their flaws or crimes. He will hear nothing less, deny all statements to the contrary, and god forbid you disrespect that person in front of him. Most of all, however, he will always consider his own happiness second to theirs, even if that means having to constantly bend over backwards for them, die for them, or see them with someone else.
As sweet as this may sound, it’s really a double-edged sword. While he’s always been a bit reserved, Zato’s death has left him especially withdrawn and depressed. He’s become obsessed with the idea of preserving what little is left of the man and making his spirit happy. Anyone who decides to make that difficult or get in the way of it is going to get the other side of that loyalty blade: hatred. Just like he’s easily manipulated by love, he’s just as prone to being blinded by rage. While it’s usually bottled up like everything else, should he ever direct his hate at someone, he will do everything possible to kill them, beat them, or generally make their life a living hell to teach them a lesson-even if it kills him in the process. He will very much cease to care about anything else so long as he’s thinking about the person who pissed him off. As an example, according to various characters the amount of hatred he feels for Millia is corruptive enough to be psychologically damaging. A woman who felt a similar amount of hatred for similar reasons turned into a vengeful spirit fueled by nothing more than her burning rage when she died. However, usually the easiest way to stir that amount of loathing in him is to have caused harm to/disrespected Zato, and since Zato is dead, it’s safe to assume he isn’t going on any roaring rampages of revenge, at least not as big as the one directed at Millia, Slayer, and Eddie.
On the whole, he isn’t as terrible as he makes himself out to be. He isn’t an evil man, just a very passionate one. He doesn’t enjoy the fact that he’s not as cold and heartless as an assassin is supposed to be though, and will hide it for as long as he can. It’s been said that the easiest way to tell he actually is a nice person is by looking into his eyes, which may explain the hair…
So, yes. Venom’s a bit like a burnt marshmallow: dark and uninviting on the outside, melted and gooey on the inside. And will burn the shit out of your fingers if you poke him.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
…oh, Venom. You, uh. You certainly stand out in a crowd.
Standing at 5’10 (which I guess in Landel’s is like standing at 4’5) and muscular to boot (more runner or swimmer muscular, though, not the wrestler-type muscular), you could say Venom’s actually an attractive man. His face is angular, but not disgustingly so, his skin is a nice, dark brown, and his eyes are a surprising blue color… but his hair, long and white, is constantly in his face. And I do mean constantly. There is no getting around how much his hair is in his face. It’s like if Cousin It and Halle Berry had a kid and one of them were English. So long as it is there, there is no discerning what the hell he looks like. And coupled with the fact that resting on his bangs is a large, blue tattoo-like eye that remains to stare at everyone…
Yeah. He can’t hide. Anywhere. It’s just not going to happen.
Since arriving in Landel’s though, there are two differences from his usual norm. On the right side of his throat is a large, grey scar from a certain vampire mauling him the first time they met (it’s also a few degrees colder than the rest of his body. Edward. >:|). His bangs have also been cut unevenly, though still covering his eyes and most of his nose, due to an unfortunate incident involving having to run through fire (ALSO EDWARD >:|).
What kinds of otherworldly abilities does your character have, if any?:
Like most of the fighters of the GG universe, Venom uses a lot of Magic, though what type is never mentioned (for example, Ky uses lightning elementals, Sol uses fire, Chipp, Jam, and Kliff all use Ki, Millia and Zato had Forbidden Beasts…). It seems to mostly be summoning objects and teleportation. His main attacks come from the ability to materialize what appear to be cue balls that can stay suspended in the air until hit, though they dissolve into nothing if left on their own long enough-or he could just rain them down on someone like hail. He can teleport short distances, but usually only to where the last billiard ball he set up was placed. The most frightening is probably his ability to charge those earlier attacks: if done correctly, the cue balls he summon can be charged with electricity, others can be surrounded by a dark energy, and, the most damaging of all, forming a ball of volatile energy that is almost taller than he is. If pressured enough, he could also turn his opponent into a billiard ball.
No, I am not making that up.
Unrelated from most of that, he does occasionally make mention of being able to read the auras of other people. Stop being a hippie, Venom.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
This time around, I’m willing to be a little more lenient and not take everything away. He still won’t be able to pull off the more powerful feats, but can still form at least two to three billiard balls (non-chargeable) a night. They’d be far more brittle than usual, probably just enough to stun something for a second or two, and will dissolve quickly if nothing is done with them. Considering the headache that’ll come with it, it’ll most likely only be for really sticky situations.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Having been raised as an assassin his entire life, it’s fair to say Venom is a bit hard to kill. While he’s never been much of a hand-to-hand fighter (and is noted to have less than average skill on that front), giving him a weapon is usually a bad idea if nothing wants to be dead. The Guild is very keen on studying human anatomy and Venom’s no different; even with most 21st century science having died out, he’s well-versed in finding a person’s center of gravity, where they’re most vulnerable, and where he has to hit them to take them down. In the same vein as the other assassins using items not normally thought of as weapons, his specialty is using a billiard cue. On top of that are the speed, flexibility, and agility that comes with the rest of the assassins. While the ability to charge down enemies is there, he’s much more of a distance fighter and is notoriously bad at getting himself out of corners.
He’s also good at pool. I don’t imagine that coming in handy, though.
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
Venom’s goals haven’t changed much. He’ll still be very determined to figure out what is happening in the Institute, how it’s running, WHY it is running, and who’s behind it, but now he’s pretty obsessed with Next-Wave, its programming, and how to reverse its effects. With the idea in his head that they might actually have Zato and that he may be in danger… oh yeah, he wants this solved as fast as possible. As it used to be, he’ll try to find as many resources and people who can help as he can. If it means saving Zato, he’s willing to put aside all Guild business and lead a different group.
But that means learning to rely on and trust other people. Venom’s already vividly aware he can’t do everything by himself-the fact that he doesn’t have other Guild members to order around is already spiking his stress level higher than it normally is. He really needs to learn that he can’t immediately brush a person off as an ally because he does not like them personally. As easy as it was for him to do that in the Guild, putting aside your differences is really important in a place like Landel’s. I also kind of want to see him open up a little to the people who DO get past his defenses. He’s normally very avoidant of personally expressing himself and his emotions to other people (with the exception of Zato-who asked him how he felt once, then immediately told him that it was a bad question and to forget it ever happened-and Millia-who even with her, he eventually cuts himself off and swallows everything back down again-who of which he’s known for years) and I sort of wish he could show that kinder side at least a little. Come on, Mr. Grumblecakes. You can’t hide yourself behind your hair and icy exterior forever.
And while I’m a little less adamant about it as before, I still think it would be really interesting to have him grow out of constantly depending on Zato and his memories of him. It’s been shown that he’s actually a much better and happier person without the man in his life, and I’d be totally thrilled if he could step back at least a little. He can respect the guy and not have his whole world revolve around him.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:
Look at his history. Now back to this question. Now back to his history, now BACK to this question. Obviously, his history answers this question. Look down. Now back up. What do you see? It’s an assassin who’s gone through so many mind-breaking situations that he should logically be insane by now. Look again: those situations have now been curb-stomped.
He’s a badass.
Third-Person Sample:
Somewhere, in the back of his mind, Venom registered the notion that he could no longer scold Edward for his constant distractions with Bella. If anything in the world could knock him off his higher ground, it was this.
“You smell like blood.”
The hand in his tightened slightly, the body it belonged to trying to adjust to being led about, and a small part of him guiltily recognized how much he wanted to feel the warmth of that skin through the glove over his own-this wasn’t supposed to mean anything. His eyes flicked to the ceiling, watching the unsteady beam of light dance along its surface. It was most likely a bad idea to have given his source of light to a blind man, but he dared not correct him.
“I’d gotten into a fight before I found you,” he admitted, his other hand firmly gripping the little glass vial he’d filled, tempted to spin the thing along his fingers in order to do something with the nervous energy filling his bones. He kept his fingers still.
The other man tilted his head toward the response, blond hair falling across the bandages over his eyes. “Were you hurt?”
Venom shook his head, though was immediately unsure as to why the moment he stopped. “I’m fine. Please don’t concern yourself about me, Master Zato.”
“I wasn’t concerned.” There was a certain ease in his voice as he said that, and Venom saw the man shrug his shoulders out of the corner of his eye. “You can handle yourself.”
He could feel himself smiling in turn, honored to hear that his lord believed in him. But as much as he appreciated those words… “I’m concerned about you.” Master Zato had been so strong, and he had always been able to survive even the most horrible situations. All those missions: Catalonia, Seoul, Tokyo, and so many others… He had gone through all of them personally and Venom could always trust that strength. But now… “You don’t have the abilities you used to. You’re in danger here.”
Master Zato gave a huff, as if offended to even be reminded. “Tokyo couldn’t kill me.” The words slipped out of the man’s mouth as if he had been reading his co-worker’s mind, some grim smirk pulling up the corners of his lip. “You didn’t need to worry about me then. I don’t need you to mother over me now.”
Venom finally pulled his sight from above to turn his attention to the man gripping his hand, watching his expression before looking back to the hallways in front of them. As painful as it was to admit it, he had been preparing for that response. Still, he spoke with quiet acceptance, never going against the older man’s wishes. “Yes, sir.”
Silence followed after that, tainting the earlier... well, it wasn’t entirely a joyous feeling. Yes, Venom had been nothing if not overjoyed to see his lord once more, but the notion that Master Zato was plainly in danger, that he was here, and the knowledge that he was less than open to the idea of his subordinate’s feelings… It had been a hard battle to reign in the outpour of emotions that came with his joy. The atmosphere had been more familiar than happy, and now that that exchange had been made and the two settled into the quiet of the halls surrounding them, that familiarity became strained.
Zato broke the silence first, idly twisting the lens of the flashlight his associate had given him between his fingers. “You never answered me when I asked where we are going, Venom.”
He hadn’t, had he? Venom shook his head again, mirroring the blond’s actions by carefully twisting the lid of the vial he held. “I apologize, sir. I need to deliver something to an acquaintance of mine.”
“An acquaintance…?” Venom could see an eyebrow rise under those bandages, as if the man were surprised to see his second in command being amiable with others. After a moment, he rolled his shoulders, clearly uninterested. “Make it quick. If everything you’ve explained is true about this asylum, then we have work to do.”
“Of course, sir.”
They lapsed back into silence as they made their way through the halls. After having run into the other assassin, Venom’s simple mission of acquiring Edward blood had almost turned into a night-long affair. He hadn’t meant to get so distracted, but the point remained that he had what he sought out to get. With everything in order, it didn’t take long for him to escort the new arrival to the vampire’s room.
“We’re here.”
There was no warning for Venom’s actions after he said those words. All at once, the lid of the jar he held had been pulled off and its contents were unceremoniously poured down the other man’s back.
Zato reacted as much as anyone else would when their closest friend was spilling blood on them; quickly turning back to Venom and forcefully knocking his hand away. He stepped back and toward the door, “staring” at his partner as his mouth contorted in disgust. “What do you thin-“
The warmth immediately left Venom’s voice when he interrupted that question. All the previous adoration and respect was drained and replaced with a calm loathing, and he stared hard the man standing in front of him. “Japan was destroyed before either one of us was born.”
The blond kept quiet for a long while, mind attempting to process what that meant. Eventually, he tried to speak again. “…What-“
“You never went to Tokyo.”
That was it. A light went off in the blond’s head, the realization that he had said the wrong thing dawning over his face, that he-it-had been playing along with a fake memory. Angry, its mouth opened, teeth elongating into razors as it gave an angry snarl-- before the door behind its back swung open and inhumanly strong hands dragged it into the room. The only thing to fill the air after that was the sound of screams.
Fifteen minutes later, Edward emerged from the doorway, his skin, clothing, hair, and mouth all stained heavily with blood, but certainly looking far better than he did in the morning. He ran a hand through his hair, almost awkwardly so, as he examined the red smears across the tiled floor. “I’m sorry about that. I just lost…” He dropped his hand to his side and changed the subject. “Was that your flashlight that he had? I think it broke.”
Venom’s eyes had gone to the floor the instant those screams had started and they didn’t turn back up until he’d turned away from his business partner. “It doesn’t matter. We have more work to do.”
Back to the fray, then…
First-Person Sample:
Our earlier hypothesis has turned out to be correct. Certain creatures in this institute (Edward has thoughtfully dubbed them as “mimics”) are in fact capable of shaping themselves into the images of other beings by using the memories of their victims. While their actual forms are still unknown to us, both their teeth and hands revert to a more primitive and predatory form prior to attacking.
If the victim is able to create a false memory of the person the mimic has chosen as its guise, it can be fooled and easier to spot if it acts on said memory. After tricking the creature, it can safely be killed without having to worry if it is actually an ally.
I suppose I can only thank my own paranoia that its attack wasn’t successful.
Give this information to Sora. It’s important he protect himself.