Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Marma1ade flipped through the pages of yet another spellbook. She knew already that there would be nothing about the void or its magic, especially not about how it affected people. But still, she needed a distraction from the weird feeling it was giving her.

The writing in her book blurred in her vision, the words not sticking. She must have re-read this section about six or seven times, now. That twinge in her gut wouldn't go away, the light ache in her teeth just enough to be a bother. The void hadn't actually done anything, really, but somehow she just knew that it was the reason she was feeling ill. If only she knew how to cure it, or how to get the void to tell her how to cure it.

If the void needed to be fed, then it would scream. Marm knew this much. It would scream at her, and only her, until she let herself fall down into its grasp and be consumed, a willing sacrifice. A tradition, at this point- they almost had a whole system. But the void had been silent for days, now, not so much as a faint ring or a misplaced block anywhere.

If this illness kept up for another few days, she'd go and talk to someone else about it. It had only started that very morning, so it couldn't be any immediate effects of void contact. More likely, there was just something weird stuck in her code from when she fell last time. Repeatedly falling into the void like that likely wasn't good for her.

At first, it had actually felt like when she was hungry. Unfortunately, eating a full meal hadn't done anything for either the twinge or the ache, and so she'd crossed hunger off of the list of potential maladies this could be. And now, virtually every cure she could think of- respawn included- had been tested and proved fruitless, so all that was left was to busy herself with random tasks to just give herself something to do.

Marm sighed, flipping the page.

She still didn't really remember what that section had said.

~~~~

Evening fell over the Mangrove swamp, the last rays of sunlight sparkling on the many pools of water and the amethyst crystals in the ground, a faint breeze making the vines rustle and the branches of the trees sway ever-so-slightly. Marm was still feeling the weird feeling, and if anything, it had only gotten worse as time passed. She didn't know what to do. She gripped her fishing rod tighter. After spending most of the day poring over her books, and gaining nothing from them, she figured that fishing for lily pads was a better use of her time.

What she hadn't anticipated was that being outside, closer to the void, would make her hands and feet spark with magic.

And not even her natural swamp magic- her gifted void magic. Shining silver sparkles, resembling stars, danced at the tips of her blackened fingers and toes. They fell to the ground below her and fizzled out, but Marm wondered why her void magic was manifesting even more physically.

"Oh, what do you want from me? What is happening? Do you even know?" Marm asked aloud. If anyone was listening, they might have assumed she was talking to herself. For all Marm herself knew, the void wasn't listening to her at all and she was just talking to herself.

As she expected, the only response she received was silence. The void was usually silent when it didn't want something.

No matter how much she racked her brain, she couldn't figure out why the void made her ill if it didn't want something.

A short time later, a tug on her fishing line brought her out of her own head. It was a fish, a salmon. Marm slumped over, and added it to the others. She recast her line, and continued to wait. When she did, though, she realized that the sky had darkened significantly since she last looked at it. She should probably go to sleep, soon- maybe rest was what she needed?

The fishing line came back up with a small scrap of leather attached to it.

Marm got up and retired to bed for the night. As she closed her eyes, she realized with a frown that she wasn't nearly relaxed enough to sleep. Her illness was still bothering her, enough so that she was too uncomfortable to sleep.

Oh, well. She could just lie here and hope for the best...

~~~~

The next morning, Marm awoke with a barely choked-back scream. 

Her jaw felt like it had been broken and then put back together again, and she only realized she'd bitten her lip when she tasted blood. Opening her mouth made the stabbing feeling oh so much worse. 

The little sleep she'd gotten last night was interrupted by fits of discomfort, and the constant clenching and unclenching of her jaw had added soreness on top of the full-blown agony that she was currently experiencing. The feeling in her gut was almost worse than that; she could barely stand up with the help of the windowsill. Her hands and feet were itching where the void had infected them, and she didn't need a mirror to know that her eyes had darkened like they always did when she used her void magic. 

Her feet didn't want to be stood on, clearly, since her legs gave out underneath her and she was left with her elbow keeping her upright, hanging on the windowsill and leaning up against the wall. Gently, gently, she let herself slide back down onto the floor. 

For a period of time whose exactness was unknown to Marm, she lay there on the floor of her small hut, curled up and clenching her fists around handfuls of the fabric of her dress. Eventually, the pain subsided enough for her to think clearly-ish. 

Oh, she felt so hungry. 

She dragged herself over the floor to the chest in the corner, where she was able to find a few pieces of cooked fish. Normally, they would have been quite appetizing, but for whatever reason, the thought of eating cooked meat was nauseating to Marm. But none of the raw meat that she had looked good either. 

Maybe she could force herself to eat a piece of fish, to tide herself over until she could find whatever it was she needed to eat. Or she could call someone else to help. That might work, actually- Marm put the fish away, but before she could reach her comm unit to send an emergency help message to everyone else, a loud voice called from above the island. The itching sensations grew worse, and Marm absentmindedly licked her lips. 

"Marma1ade!" The cheerful voice belonged to none other than Avid, founder of OSSHA. The reason why the void was hungry. The reason why she was hungry...

"Marm? Where are you? Are you in your hut- oh my gosh, are you okay?" 

The door to the hut swung open, Avid not having bothered to knock, but Marm didn't really care. Someone had come to find her, and he would help her. His bright magenta eyes were full of worry, but she didn't pay that much mind. 

HE was here. AVID WAS HERE. SHE NEEDED HIM-

Marm lurched forwards, unable to stop herself, another pained gasp ripping from her throat. She knocked into Avid, and the two fell down into the swamp. 

They landed with a splat, and Avid grimaced. "Agh, Marm, what the heck? You got my fur all muddy! What's going on with you?" 

If she could think straight, she might have responded, but she was completely overwhelmed by the fact that she knew what she needed now, and she could get it. Her fingers dug into the slimy mud and muck of the swamp. 

"Marm? Should I call someone for help? Uh... your eyes are all funny." Avid was standing, now, above her. His leg was within her grasp, she saw. She reached forwards, gripping onto it, as tight as she could. But before she could latch her teeth into his flesh, he slipped out of her grasp. Damned mud. "Let go of me!" Avid stumbled backwards.

Quickly! She needed to act quickly, now. Before he flew away again, leaving her here alone, to starve-

"Something's wrong, I know, but you're acting really weird, and I don't like it. I don't like anything to do with the void or your new weird magic, you know this! So please, enlighten me, what's going on-" 

The second time Marm tackled him, she made sure that he wasn't able to get away. She landed on top of him, seeing his eyes widen in pure terror as she bit down into his left shoulder. She pinned down his free arm with one hand, stopping him from fighting her off.

Blood filled her mouth, and monkey fur, and it tasted good. She needed this, she needed to feed, she needed more! 

The first chunk Marm had taken out of him was mostly skin and fur, so she took another bite, relishing the metallic taste. The stuff underneath his skin was way better.

The last dregs of guilt she felt for hunting her friend like this, like he was simply prey, evaporated into nothing as the ache in her jaw began to fade. She swallowed what she'd bitten off. Her stomach still hurt a little bit- she hadn't eaten her fill yet. But she would... oh, she would. Even if Avid's fur felt weird in her mouth. His screaming (the sound not unlike her own, just before he arrived) was background noise as Marm tore another piece out of his shoulder. Her teeth were a lot sharper than she remembered. 

That was a good thing!

Her void magic was sparking all over the place, the tiny stars now shooting in all directions like fireworks. The itching wasn't really an itch anymore. Instead, she could just feel raw power flowing around her limbs. She was hardly in any pain or discomfort at all anymore. In her short distraction, Avid tried weakly to push her away with his injured arm, so she promptly grabbed it and bit off half of his hand. The small bones crunched nicely, splintering between her teeth. The other half went soon after. 

She'd made a complete mess of both herself and Avid. Both of them were covered in blood now, along with the swamp muck. Avid's left arm was completely mangled, and he wasn't really screaming anymore, but he was paler than Marm had ever seen him before, and was breathing heavily. Marm wondered how his ribs would taste. 

She tore open his jacket and shirt with her nails, which were also considerably sharper than she recalled. His chest was rapidly moving up and down, so she didn't get the best first bite out of his ribcage, but the crunch of bone cracking was satisfying to both hear and feel. 

Peeling back his skin, she could see his ribs even better. A voice in her head, one that she figured was the last of her sanity, reminded her that Avid would in fact die almost immediately if she ate any of his vital organs. Well, then, she'd save those for last. 

The meat on his ribs, though, she would eat. First, though, she bit off Avid's right arm above the elbow to incapacitate it, then used her now-free hand to grab a rib and pull. 

Past-her had thought the sound of a rib cracking a little bit was nice, the pop that the complete break made when it snapped off was enough for her to devour the rib completely with hardly a second thought. This bone was a lot harder to chew than Avid's hand bones, but no matter- her void magic shattered the thing inside her mouth like it was glass. 

Marm decided that she liked the taste of his ribs better than his arms, so carefully, one by one, she began to break off pieces of them. She left about a third of them, so he'd be alive just a little longer- he could respawn when she was finished. 

His severed arm went down decently fast, and since it was, well, severed, Avid at least didn't feel it when she tore off sections of his muscles into strips. 

Marm would never eat regular food again, now, this was too good for her to ever go back... why would she ever need to eat things like carrots and fish when Avid was here? He would come back after this, perfectly fine, like this had never happened, like Marm had never tackled him to the ground and eaten him alive piece by piece until she was satisfied and her hunger had completely gone away. 

She let her bloodied hands fall onto his chest. A weak thumping sound came from just below them. 

Avid's heart. 

How did a person's heart taste? Even before she'd gotten her void magic, she'd wondered once or twice what it would be like to bite someone's heart. Well... now, she had the perfect opportunity, provided she did it quickly. Avid wasn't going to stay alive much longer. 

With more care than she'd taken at all so far, she pried open the front of his ribcage, and reached inside, letting her hand hover for just a moment over his warm beating heart, feeling it, and then as fast as she could, wrapping her hand around it and pulling it out of his chest and forcing the entire thing into her mouth and down her throat. 

It tasted of the iron in his blood, and was wonderfully savory, with just a hint of sweetness to it. In her hand, it had been deliciously warm, and soft while blood leaked from the severed arteries.

What remained of Avid disintegrated into dust underneath her, but the pool of blood stayed, and so did the delicious feeling of being full. Marm closed her eyes, basking in it. 

She could feel the blood and gore underneath her nails, and streaked down her face, and all over her dress and in her hair. 

But the satisfaction of a good meal was worth it. Her void magic wasn't acting up anymore, her body was back to the same way it had been before- save for her unnaturally sharp teeth, at least. 

She ran her tongue over the sharp points. She could taste the last remnants of her meal, proof of what she'd done-

Oh...

The magical high or whatever had fueled her while she fed (fed!) drained out of her. With it gone, the full weight of what she'd just done to Avid hit her like a hammer. Suddenly, the feeling of blood underneath her nails made her want to throw up. 

That wasn't an ideal situation, since she would probably just get hungry again and this would happen all over-

She all but threw herself into one of the water pools, scrubbing her skin clean of Avid's blood, all the while repeating to herself in her mind over and over again it wasn't your fault. You weren't in control of yourself. It wasn't your fault! 

A sob choked its way out of her throat. Then another, and another. 

Would it have been better if she just stayed hungry and in pain? If Avid had never had to be eaten alive? He had to have respawned by now- where was he? Was he back at the Jungle kingdom, still mentally recovering? Had he gone off to find someone else, with the goal of trapping her somewhere she couldn't hurt anyone again? Marm realized she minded the latter option less than she probably should. 

She just couldn't let herself be near any other of her friends, not when she could lose control of her own mind and body and attack them like this! 

Looking in the water below her, she caught sight of her reflection. Even in the blurriness, she knew she looked just as much of a mess as she felt... and, she noticed, her eyes were back to their regular, ordinary purple. They appeared completely untouched by void magic.

Marm didn't want to go back into her hut yet. Instead, she crawled underneath the roots of one of her trees. The sprawling limbs and thick, leafy vines shielded her from view- not that anyone would be coming over to see her, if Avid told everyone else what had happened, that he'd been ambushed and then eaten alive by Marm, and that for their own safety the Mangrove swamp should be avoided at all costs, and Marm herself was dangerous-

She hadn't even noticed her breathing had picked up. She was getting dizzy, too. Her thoughts continued to spiral, all she could see was Avid's terrified expression when she attacked him and all she could hear was the sound of him screaming and she couldn't remember if he'd said anything or if he was in too much pain to form words at all. Her hands found their way to her hair and were tugging at the long, messy curls, the lily pad she wore as a hat and the orchid flowers behind her ears had fallen out at some point, the last things that might have made her look less scary. 

The taste of blood was sickening. She forced her mouth to open, spitting out a glob of her own saliva mixed with the blood dripping from where she'd cut her tongue on her own too-sharp teeth. The sight of it as it hit the water and dissolved sent another wave of guilt flooding through her systems. She slammed her body into a clump of roots. Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks. Her hands were shaking, her teeth were chattering, her scalp tingled where she'd pulled her hair, she was still hyperventilating.

What had she done? What had she become?

~~~~

An unknown amount of time had passed when the sound of something other than Marm's own crying or the wind rustling in the leaves reached her ears. Unlike earlier, when it was Avid's screeching that found her, it was the faint whistling of an elytra and the whoosh of a rocket. 

Still crying, wiping snot on her sleeve, she quieted down. Footsteps softly padded around the area- only one pair, though. Marm would bet good money that whoever it was was staring at the puddle of blood next to the staircase of her hut. Hopefully, this person would assume it was just another accident and there was no need to investigate further. 

Sadly, luck was not on Marm's side. The footsteps grew louder, coming closer and closer towards the tree she was hiding under. They stopped just outside of the cover. 

Then, they spoke, and the sound of their soft, gentle voice made Marm feel like her stomach had dropped down into her lower gut and her heart skipped a beat. Her head snapped up, staring in the direction their voice had come from.

"Marm? Are you in there?"

She half-gasped, half-sobbed. 

Why would Avid be here? Why would he be even want to see her, let alone be actively looking for her? He should have been somewhere far away, where she couldn't hurt him! She didn't answer his question- she was almost scared to breathe. 

Avid didn't pull back the curtain of vines that shielded her from his view. "Marm? I... I really need to talk to you. You scared me real bad!" He chuckled. She couldn't see his face, but she imagined him awkwardly trying to laugh off the tense situation, and a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her lip. "Uh... you're, like, yourself again, right? You're not planning on attacking me out of nowhere?"

"'M sorry," she murmured. Her voice was just as shaky as she'd expected it to be. Marm didn't trust herself to say anything, and especially didn't trust herself enough to pull back the vines, to properly see Avid. Being probably okay meant that for all either of them knew, seeing him would just trigger whatever weird void magic that had been active before... but then again, she thought, last time it had been triggered by just Avid's voice. Maybe it'd really, actually be okay for her to see him?

But because Avid was Avid, and he was kind of dumb, he took that as a go-ahead to crawl into the pool and sit right down in front of her. To his credit, he still looked a little shaky, but his eyes looked more worried than anything else. She was still covered in his blood. That at the very least was certainly unsettling.

Marm didn't know what had happened, and she didn't want Avid to ask, she didn't even want to talk. Her head hurt and she just wanted to curl up and hide away for... until she felt safe letting herself be around other people. Which would be a long time. Avid was out of luck, if he wanted answers. The void still hadn't told her anything. 

The two sat together in silence. Avid was fidgeting. Marm still had her chin tucked into her knees, eyes cast downwards, occasionally glancing upwards to see if Avid did anything. He didn't, except look confused, but what he could be thinking about was a mystery. 

Suddenly, he sucked in a breath. Marm looked up properly, tired eyes drooping, but she was looking. Avid opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again and spoke. 

"So... I'm going to assume it was something involving void stuff. Something you probably didn't know about before, like, today. Is that right?" 
At least he had the courtesy to ask a yes-or-no question. She nodded plainly, and did her best to give him a deadpan stare. He hummed. 

"Yes-or-no questions only, for now?" Marm nodded. "Alright... yeah, that's fair. So the void or its magic inside you or something relating to those things made you go all weird, and you didn't know. Did it start this morning, when I came to see you?" She shook her head. "Huh. Within the past couple of days? I'd have noticed if you were acting weird before then." Yes.

While Avid thought over that, Marm began to trace small patterns into the mud. Under the water, though it was foggy enough she couldn't see it, the mud was soft beneath her fingertips. It helped to ground her. 

Avid started to talk, again. "I'll be honest, I still have no idea what the void could have done to you, but I don't think it meant to hurt you, because it really, really seemed to want me to come back here." 

Now that wasn't something Marm expected to hear- she kept running her fingers through the mud, but the confusion had to have been obvious on her face. 

"Oh, yeah. As soon as I respawned, I was, well, a little bit out of it, you know? But the void didn't like something I was doing, because it started to make an infernal screeching noise after about fifteen minutes. I remembered you saying that that meant the void was probably hungry, but I wasn't about to throw myself into the void to feed it or anything, so I didn't. I was worried about you, of course, but also wasn't sure whether I wanted to come back here just yet, in case I'd get, well, attacked." 

Marm silently thanked him for using the word attacked instead of eaten. 

Avid sighed. "It didn't freaking shut up. I couldn't do much around my base with the noise, and I don't even remember what I was doing when it happened, but I tried to jump down into the Underswamp. And, well, I missed. I could've sworn I put a landing pad there. But I fell into the void, and nothing happened other than I respawned again." He threw his hands in the air, frustrated. "So I knew then at least that the void wasn't trying to kill me. I decided, why the heck not, I'll come and see you. If you're feeling better, then you might be able to help me, and if not, then I'd probably figure something out." 

He looked up and grabbed a leaf off of one of the vines growing around them. He held it for a moment, then started rubbing at it. "As soon as I saw the sign that declared I was officially in the Mangrove kingdom, the void stopped its racket. I looked around, but I didn't see you anywhere, but I did see the... mess. There were some smears on the ground that led over here, and I guess you know the rest."

Once again, neither of them said anything. 

That was certainly a strange story that Avid had told. She'd been the only one the void ever tried to scream at, but it went to Avid? And it wanted him to come see her? 

Almost as if it felt bad for doing whatever it was that it had done to her. 

With some of Avid's side of the story, Marm could make a little bit more sense out of this situation, even if it still wasn't much. If the void felt bad about Marm's illness, then it wasn't likely it had done anything on purpose. 

What did she know about the void? All of it was from her own experience- none of the information on it could be saved in any books, and she'd looked. 

The void was sentient. It lived below the lowest building height. It could transmit corrupted messages from other people, and it screamed at them when it needed something, which was usually a sacrifice, because it needed to consume people to keep the balance. 

Wait a fucking second. 

It needed... to consume people. It got hungry. Only a person's sacrifice could satisfy it. 

Marm's eyebrow twitched, and her stomach turned over. The nausea had come back full-force. She swallowed back the vomit, but she couldn't stop the new wave of tears that poured down her cheeks. Her hand that was under the water in the mud clenched a fistful of the stuff, and she felt it seep out from between her fingers. Suddenly, the feeling was too close to that of Avid's blood, and she shook out her hand, rinsing the mud off. Her other hand came up to her mouth, and she let out a single sob. 

Somehow, the connection between her and the void had wound up with her gaining its need to eat. Its need to eat people. 

But Marm wasn't some eldritch being under the world, she was just a player that got caught up in the world of ancient magic. She wasn't made to do that sort of thing- 

Only she was, now, she thought. Her teeth and nails were so much sharper, and stronger, too. She'd been changed. 

What would she do? When the void was hungry, she simply fed it, and everything went back to normal. It got hungry regularly... would she feel that way as well? Every once in a while, have to consume the body of one of her friends so that she didn't suffer from whatever horrible things would happen if she starved? 

"Marm?" 

Avid was leaning towards her, his arm outstretched.

He- he still wanted to comfort her, to make sure she was okay. She was, physically. She didn't think she was going to end up attacking him again. If her theory was correct, it would be a while before she needed to eat again. Her arm shook as she took Avid's hand. 

Still unable to get any proper words out, she opted to pull herself through the mud and water and sit next to him. 

"Do you just want to sit here for a while?"

Yes. 

~~~~

Marm sifted through all the thoughts in her head, trying and failing to come up with the best way to phrase hey, Avid, sorry about spontaneously jumping on you and literally eating you! It might have to become a semi-regular thing, if I'm right! 

Because saying it like that, while it might have been accurate, wasn't happening. 

"Hm." She sighed. Avid was fiddling with his leaf again. At her quiet hum, he glanced over. 

"You feeling better? Do you think you can talk again?" He murmured. 

Taking a deep breath, she managed to croak out, "Yeah... thank you, Avid." 

He gave her a smile. "Of course, that's what friends are for. Um... I'm ready to talk about... you know. The thing that happened," he stuttered. 

"What, my void magic having the unfortunate side effect of making me lose control of myself and eating my friend alive? That thing?" Marm raised her eyebrows, deadpanning. Avid rolled his eyes. 

"Uh-huh. That. So, even if we know it was your void magic that did it, I'm drawing a complete blank on why it did that, do you have any ideas?" 

Another deep breath. "...Actually, I think I do." 

"Wait, really?" His eyes widened. 

"I think- at least, I'm pretty sure- that the void's need to eat somehow transferred over to me through the magic. I don't know why, or how, just that my teeth are sharper and my hands are stronger, and seeing you this morning when I had been feeling the hunger for a day literally made me lose my mind." 

He whistled. "Wow. That's... wow! It makes a little, teeny-tiny bit of sense, though? Wait... the void has to- ugh, I hate this- eat somewhat often, according to you anyways, or else it'll start going after bridges and things. 'The balance will be disrupted' and all that. Right?" 

Marm had a suspicion she knew what his question was. "Yeah. Unfortunately, I do think that I'll have to eat every once in a while. I don't think I could handle it if not, nothing I tried could get rid of the feeling- and it only ever got worse." 

"That must have been- that sounds awful, I'm really sorry you had to go through that," Avid gently rubbed the back of Marm's hand. "If it helps, I don't hold it against you for any of it. I'm never going to be a fan of the void, but you're still my friend, and that won't change because you were corrupted by some ancient, powerful entity!" 

Strangely, he looked guilty for a second. It was gone so fast she assumed she imagined it. She cared more about Avid's real, verbal assurance that he was still her friend. He wouldn't have come over here to see her if he didn't want to be, again, but hearing him say it out loud still solidified it for her. 

"I'm glad. I was a little worried you'd be mad at me, or at the very least be uncomfortable around me."

Even so, just because he didn't hold any hard feelings for an accident didn't mean he'd be okay with any... future incidents. Marm would still need to eat. If Avid wasn't okay with it, she could probably find someone else to help her, but explaining the situation to anyone else didn't sound fun.

Oh, well... better to ask now and get it over with. 

"...I have a question. It's okay if the answer is no," she began. Marm carefully considered how she phrased her next sentence. "I told you already that I'm probably going to get hungry again. Would you... ugh. Hang on." She tugged on a strand of her hair. "If, or when I start feeling weird again, could you... help me?" 

Avid bit his lip. "Well, I guess it does make sense to ask me. It's alright with me, I think, as long as I get a quick heads-up beforehand and all that. I don't really want to be surprised. That part wasn't very fun- who am I kidding, none of it was fun. It hurt a lot. But if it's something you need, I'm not opposed to an arrangement of sorts." 

Marm teared up again. She didn't deserve a friend like Avid. "Oh, thank you! I don't know what I'd do without you- of course I'll let you know. It was a full day at least before it got bad enough to hurt, I'll definitely be coherent enough to know what's happening before I lose control." She squeezed his hand once and rested her head on his shoulder, hiding her face, relieved. 

"Wait, it was hurting you? You never mentioned that part!" Avid's voice was incredulous. 

"...Oops?" 

"Marm!" He dropped his head on top of hers. "You were dealing with pain on top of weird void corruption? How bad was it?"

"When you get hungry enough to really, really feel it, only ten times worse. I was running on pure adrenaline when you found me." 

His silence must have been that of horror, because he tightened his grip on her hand just enough for her to notice. 

"I'll come see you before I let it get anywhere close to that bad, don't worry, Avid. It just feels a little weird in the beginning, mild discomfort at the most. I'm fine," she tried. He grumbled a bit in response. 

"Stupid void, why does it have to do this..." 

She snorted. Avid really did hold a burning hatred for all things relating to the void, and it seemed that every new thing he learnt about it only fueled that. Marm herself only really disliked this one specific side effect of her void magic!

It would all be okay in the end, though. Avid was there for her, he was her friend, and he would let her eat him when she needed. 

She smiled into his shoulder. "Thank you, again. I'm glad we're friends." 

"Always, Marm." He shifted, moving so he could hold Marm's hand with both of his. "I've got you."

They stayed there for a while longer, in the mud, under the mangrove tree, hidden by the vines. 

Chapter Text

Avid woke up and all but jumped out of bed. He was excited for the day! He wanted to go exploring with someone today, and he knew that Marm still wanted lily pads. They could go looking for more woodland mansions together, and he might even get the chance to tell her a little bit more on why she should stop convincing people to throw themselves into the void. She didn't even know she was actively sabotaging an extremely powerful deity with her antics. Olm probably hated her more than he hated Avid himself!

He sighed. He should forget about this for today- he couldn't let it affect his mood! 

Flying away from the Jungle kingdom, he set course for Marm's mangrove swamp, whistling a happy tune under his breath, knowing and not caring that it was lost in the wind. Before long, the stepping-stone bridges below led right up to the edge of the island. He landed, jogging around with a bounce in his step. He couldn't see or hear his friend anywhere around, so he took flight again. 

"Marma1ade!" He called, jovially, as he passed over top of the two witch huts. Of course- it was still technically morning, Marm had probably stayed up too late reading and was still asleep. He laughed cheerily, of course that's what she'd have done! She really did love her books. 

He landed, and walked up the steps, opening the door of Marm's small hut. "Marm? Where are you? Are you in your hut- oh my gosh, are you okay?" 

He'd found her, at least, although not in a good state- Marm was on the floor, obviously in pain, and she was staring at him with an expression he'd never seen before. It unsettled him greatly. 

Suddenly, before he could try and help her, Marm gasped loudly, leapt towards the door, and grabbed onto him. They fell outside into the swamp. Mud and swamp plants got stuck in Avid's fur, which felt horrifically uncomfortable. He shivered. "Agh, Marm, what the heck? You got my fur all muddy! What's going on with you?" He exclaimed, rolling away from Marm, who whimpered in what he guessed was pain. Had she done something to herself? 

He stood up. "Marm? Should I call someone for help?" He cautiously stepped closer to her. Looking closer, he could see now that her eyes were the void-touched black that they were when she used her void magic. Her hands were also, strangely enough, sparkly. "Uh... your eyes are all funny," Avid frowned. 

Trying to offer a hand to help her up, maybe walk her back to the hut to see if she could tell him what happened to her, he ignored the dread that was pooling in his gut from that haunted look on her face and forced himself to smile semi-reassuringly. But Marm, quick as lightning, reached her hand out and grabbed his ankle. Her hold was much stronger than he would have expected it to be. 

"Let go of me!" With a fair amount of difficulty, Avid managed to wrench his leg away. He would be lying if there wasn't a dash of fear mixed in with his already-present feeling of worry. 

"Something's wrong, I know, but you're acting really weird, and I don't like it. I don't like anything to do with the void or your new weird magic, you know this!" Another small step backwards. "So please, enlighten me, what's going on-" 

Really, he should have expected Marm to tackle him again. His right arm was pinned above his head, and she moved too quickly for him to wiggle away this time, holding his body down as she bit down into his shoulder with what felt like fangs. 

Avid's eyes were wide in both pain and what he was no longer ashamed to admit was fear. A peek at his shoulder- which felt like it was on fire, actually- revealed a very gruesome sight. There was a whole chunk taken out of his skin, and blood was leaking everywhere into his torn clothes and mixing with the mud underneath him. 

Marm was chewing. What the fuck, she was chewing, she was eating the piece of him she'd bitten off what the fuck was happening-

He let out a scream, when Marm bit him again. His left hand was tingly. He tried to lift his arm up, a last-ditch effort at escaping this nightmare of a situation. She grabbed his wrist.

Marm did not just bite off three of his fingers- 

His throat stopped making sound, and he was probably going into some form of shock; he was hyperventilating as he watched his best friend swallow the remaining parts of his hand. This was a nightmare- this was a nightmare in all senses but literal, this had to be some of the worst pain he had ever felt in his entire life, and he had no idea why Marm was doing it! He was beginning to feel lightheaded, which was most definitely from the blood loss.

Then all of a sudden, he felt a burst of cold air on his chest combined with the same searing heat and pain that was throbbing in his entire left side. The insides of his chest were not supposed to be exposed to the outside air! His ears were ringing, and his brain was starting to feel fuzzy. However, sadly, that didn't mean the feeling of a rib cracking hurt any less- just that it meshed into the rest of it. 

He squeezed his eyes shut, gritting his teeth, tears rushing down the sides of his face. Avid was almost startled when the pressure on his right arm vanished for a moment. 

That was then ruined by more terrible agony when he couldn't feel anything below his elbow in that arm anymore- his guess, on account of Marm detaching it.

A valiant attempt at zoning out was made, his last trick to try and escape- if only in his own mind, then so be it- but as hard as he tried, he just couldn't get himself to focus on anything except the unbearable torment when he felt what had to be Marm's hand dig inside his chest and break off one of his ribs. It was as uncomfortable as it hurt... 

And the hand kept pulling his ribs out of his chest, one by one, the sound of his bones snapping one that he knew he'd never be able to forget. He couldn't muster up the energy to even move, anymore. Avid was barely able to force himself to keep breathing, which he did in fast, quick breaths. His heartbeat was pounding in his eardrums. He almost didn't notice that Marm stopped her assault on the parts of his body that he was still attached to. 

It was a very short reprieve, and it was broken when he felt her reach back inside his chest and there was a weird pressure in the middle and then suddenly everything went quiet because there was no more heartbeat he couldn't hear it he couldn't feel it Avid didn't have a heart in his chest anymore-

Avid fell off the top bunk in the Jungle kingdom's treehouse with a gasp. 

Luckily, he was able to catch himself with his arms that he was incredibly grateful were now both attached to his body and in one piece. He tried to stand up, using the wall as a support. The dizziness hit him full-force, and he took about three wobbly steps in one of the directions before tripping over his own feet and landing on the floor again. Something was uncomfortable, he realized... oh, his arm was stuck underneath his body. 

Rolling over gave him only a second of relief, since the sturdy wooden floor disappeared out from underneath him, and he was at least lucky enough to find himself bouncing on the slime packed underneath layers of moss outside on the actual island parts of the kingdom. 

As soon as he stopped bouncing, he sank into the slime, and it was nice until his brain spit out the thought that it was too sticky, too similar to blood, he's back in the other swamp, he's in the mud, his body is being torn apart and he violently flung himself away from it onto the worn dirt path, landing on his stomach again. Avid felt itchy all over, like his fur was trying to rip itself off of him. His upper body felt tingly. And he had a headache. Phantom pains remained in his left shoulder and chest, pulsing, and after a somewhat pitiful try at sitting up, he collapsed onto the ground. 

He had died, he realized. Marm had killed him. 

...More specifically, she'd eaten him alive and that had killed him because not having a heart was a really good way to die. He shuddered, remembering how silent everything had been once his heart was gone. Marm had really just pulled it out of his chest, hadn't she?

And now, here he was, freshly respawned, back home safe and sound. 

The tip of Avid's tail was rapidly flicking all over the place, and his foot was twitching. His hand wandered around and found some vines, and he held onto one of the stems as tight as he could, flipping one of the leaves back and forth with his thumb. It did help to relax him a little bit- leaves were one of the better things to fidget with whenever he got particularly antsy.

Still, lying on the floor facedown for a day or two to recover sounded like a nice idea. 

~~~~

Not nearly enough time had passed when the ringing in Avid's ears returned. He had been mostly relaxed, even! 

Well, his brain had finally realized he wasn't in any pain anymore. He still couldn't sit still, but to be fair, that hadn't really ever been something he was good at.

The noise was... getting louder, now, which was annoying. But it had to pass eventually! It was just some background noise that wasn't really there, a very faint high-pitched screeching, something that would go away within a few seconds. 

Any second now. 

Any second now.

Alright, maybe it wasn't going to go away for a bit. It would be fine, Avid could still do things! His original plans for the day, exploring with Marm, were definitely cancelled, but there was a lot of building left to do that he could busy himself with. 

He sat up, slowly, finding the ladder up to the treehouse and holding onto it. The dizziness was gone, which was a pleasant surprise. Nothing was in actual pain, he just felt kind of fuzzy underneath his skin. That was normal, probably. He wanted to remember as little of the past hour or however-long-it-had-been as possible, but the ghost of the sensation of Marm's nails tearing underneath the layers of his skin and ripping it off made him shiver. 

And, once he remembered Marm, an sickening concoction of fear and guilt and worry mixed its way into his stomach. Going back to the swamp was off the table for at least a while; Avid might be concerned about how strange she'd been, however, he wasn't ready to go back to the place he'd just been attacked. Not yet. Later, probably- once he was feeling better and trusted himself to make a quick escape if needed.

He didn't want to think about what she'd done to him, but he couldn't shake the thought she just hadn't been acting like herself! In fact, the magical-looking sparkles showering from her hands and her wide, dark eyes were signs that she'd been suffering from her own void magic. 

The void! Of course it was the void at work again- that stupid thing just couldn't leave Marm alone. Why did it always have to come back to the void?!

Avid facepalmed. The sound he was hearing wasn't his ears ringing at all, it was the void. What did it want with him, though? 

Remembering a conversation he'd had with Marm a long time ago, he assumed that if the void was screaming at him, then Marm must be unavailable to... feed it, or whatever. Well, it was out of luck, since throwing himself into the void on purpose was absolutely NEVER going to happen. 

"You listen to me, uh, void!" Avid shouted. "I'm not going to jump down there! You're just going to have to find someone else for that!"

He would just put up with the noise. It couldn't get that much worse. 

~~~~

Avid was wrong, the noise could and did get so, so much worse.

It was so loud he could hardly hear his own thoughts. He had even tried fleeing up to the top of the ant farm, to get as far away from the void as possible, and his efforts only proved fruitless. The sound didn't fade the slightest bit no matter where he went. 

He looked over the edge of the rope bridge, seeing the Underswamp below. Jumping off, he aimed for where he'd aimed a thousand times before, an island he knew the exact location of. But when he fell, his heart dropped- he missed the slime island platforms entirely! He missed the vines and the waterfalls, unable to climb or swim back upwards, and he'd forgotten to wear his elytra. 

The void below suffocated him, its cold embrace an unsettling feeling. No matter how familiar the feeling was, he couldn't shake the horrid sensations away. The sounds of the void's screeching didn't change in volume.

When Avid respawned for the second time that day, he realized with great irritation that the void hadn't shut up. 

He'd fallen and died! Was that not what Marm always did to feed it? What was he supposed to do, then, if it wasn't hungry?

Marm. She might know. Or... maybe the void magic was still tormenting her and she wouldn't be able to do anything. He wouldn't know unless he went to go and look himself... 

If he ended up getting jumped again, and still wasn't able to figure out why the heck the void was still trying to get him to do something, he didn't know what would happen. But he was getting really sick of the sound, so he decided to cut his losses and fly over right then. 

Avid grabbed nothing other than his elytra and some rockets, and began the short flight over to the Mangrove swamp- again, for the second time that day. The sound of the wind rushing by went nearly unnoticed. 

Once the lush dark greens and murky browns and greys of the swamp appeared, he clenched his fists. Whatever happened next, no matter what it was, it was going to change the entire relationship between him and Marm... him and the person he'd consider one of his closest friends. 

The sign that alerted him he was entering the Mangrove kingdom flashed its loud warning- enter at his own risk, indeed- and then, surprising him enough that he nearly fell out of the sky, the void went completely silent! 

It didn't fade out. It didn't go slowly, it just stopped. All of a sudden, it was there, and then it was gone, like it had never even existed in the first place. The silence left a ringing in his ear- he wasn't quite readjusted to the lack of screaming yet. 

Just because he was here now didn't mean he was going to land right away. He flew over the swamp, trying to see if he could spot Marm anywhere, but if she was still here, she was hidden well. Avid touched down a little ways away from where he'd been last time, in front of Marm's hut. He still couldn't see or hear Marm anywhere nearby. 

Slowly, he walked over to where he knew he'd been... attacked. The evidence of what had happened was still left behind. A large pool of blood sat in the mud and muck. 

Avid's blood. Stuff that had been inside his body just that morning.

He shuddered involuntarily. 

He still had a mission: to find Marm. The void had shut up once he'd entered the swamp, so he didn't need her help with that anymore, of course, but some voice inside his brain told him that if he left the kingdom now, the noise would start right back up again. 

There were smears of more blood on the ground that led over to a small pool of water, in a cluster of trees. Avid cautiously walked over. He mentally applauded himself for not running away or turning back, even though he was definitely physically shaking. The blood trail ended in the water. Marm must have tried to clean herself off. 

A soft sound came from behind the curtain of vines to his side. Avid recognized it... it sounded like someone gasping a small breath as quietly as they could, when they didn't want to be heard or found. 

Well, he'd found Marm. 

"Marm? Are you in there?" He called as gently as he could, hoping he didn't sound scared. 

There was the same sound again, but louder this time. She was definitely hiding under this tree. Avid didn't peek under the roots, but there was no way he was leaving. "Marm? I... I really need to talk to you. You scared me real bad! Uh... you're, like, yourself again, right? You're not planning on attacking me out of nowhere?" He tried for a chuckle, but it fell flat.

Listening closely, he heard her voice, barely above a whisper. "Sorry" was what he was pretty sure she'd said- he wasn't completely sure. Still, that was enough evidence for him. Marm was definitely herself again if she was hiding away here, whispering apologies to him. But she sounded like she was hurting, too...

Avid pulled the vines to the side, crawling underneath the mangrove roots to join her. He surprised himself with his remaining jitteriness, his legs still trembling. He plopped down in the water and mud, caring much less about his fur getting messy again once he saw the state that Marm was in.

She was still absolutely covered in blood, but it did look like she'd tried to wash it off her hands and face, at the very least. The dark browns and greys of mud streaked down her dress. Her hair was tangled and wild, and the plants that normally decorated it were gone. Avid didn't know if they were there by magic or not- he hadn't asked. Marm looked weird without them. 

When she looked up at him, his heart ached. Her eyes were purple again. Their ordinary, non-magical, un-corrupted, healthy purple. And the sadness, the regret, the guilt reflected in them almost let him forget what she'd done to him. 

Even if Avid hadn't heard her crying, he'd be able to tell. The water might have erased the tear-tracks on her face, but her reddened eyes gave it all away.

How- how could he try and start a conversation? He still needed to talk to Marm. The void, in his opinion, could go fuck itself, it had not only done something to Marm that led to him being eaten alive, but whatever had happened to her during that whole thing had completely destroyed her too. How could someone possibly try and talk about that? What was there to even say? 

He tried and failed to find the words. He shifted where he was sitting, unable to stay still. Across the small hideaway, Marm was still silent. Did... did she know what had happened? 

Avid got ready to say something, but accidentally made eye contact with a suddenly-more-alert Marm, and whatever he was about to say died on his tongue. He gaped, opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water. Quick, say something, say something! 

"So... I'm going to assume it was something involving void stuff. Something you probably didn't know about before, like, today. Is that right?" He mentally applauded himself. He'd stuttered a bit, but he got through it!

The look Marm gave him, even through her clearly-just-crying eyes, almost made him snort. She nodded, but didn't say anything. 

Right...

Avid recalled, at some point in the past, Marm mentioning that when she got especially overwhelmed she wouldn't be able to talk much- or at all. It was entirely unsurprising that... this... would cause that to happen.

"Yes-or-no questions only, for now?" He asked, receiving another nod. That was fine- he could work with this! "Alright... yeah, that's fair," he reassured her. "So the void or its magic inside you or something relating to those things made you go all weird, and you didn't know. Did it start this morning, when I came to see you?" 

Starting point. Whatever had happened, the void was at fault. Baby steps.

She shook her head, which surprised him. He'd have thought she had only just today been affected. "Huh. Within the past couple of days? I'd have noticed if you were acting weird before then." 

Yes. Well, that wasn't the worst it could be. At least it was... dealt with... soon? He frowned. He didn't understand why the void would have done something like this. And even more so, he didn't understand why it had screeched at him until he'd come back to the swamp.

"I'll be honest, I still have no idea what the void could have done to you, but I don't think it meant to hurt you, because it really, really seemed to want me to come back here," he admitted, watching Marm fiddle with something under the shallow water. She looked surprised to hear him say that. 

He explained. "Oh, yeah. As soon as I respawned, I was, well, a little bit out of it, you know? But the void didn't like something I was doing, because it started to make an infernal screeching noise after about fifteen minutes. I remembered you saying that that meant the void was probably hungry, but I wasn't about to throw myself into the void to feed it or anything, so I didn't. I was worried about you, of course, but also wasn't sure whether I wanted to come back here just yet, in case I'd get, well, attacked." 

Shrugging, Avid hoped his rambles made sense. He sighed, continuing. "It didn't freaking shut up. I couldn't do much around my base with the noise, and I don't even remember what I was doing when it happened, but I tried to jump down into the Underswamp. And, well, I missed. I could've sworn I put a landing pad there."

Now that he really thought about it, the void might have had something to do with that too.  "But I fell into the void, and nothing happened other than I respawned again." He threw his hands in the air, frustrated. "So I knew then at least that the void wasn't trying to kill me. I decided, why the heck not, I'll come and see you. If you're feeling better, then you might be able to help me, and if not, then I'd probably figure something out."

Marm was staring at him strangely, but she didn't make any indication that she wanted to communicate anything. Avid noticed his hands were clenched into fists. He plucked off one of the leaves of a vine near him to fidget with. The texture of the veins was nice. Leaves were nice. Taking a deep breath, he finished. 

"As soon as I saw the sign that declared I was officially in the Mangrove kingdom, the void stopped its racket. I looked around, but I didn't see you anywhere, but I did see the... mess." He shivered involuntarily, remembering the enormous puddle of his blood just outside Marm's hut. "There were some smears on the ground that led over here, and I guess you know the rest." Was 'some smears' a severe under-exaggeration? Yes, but neither of them needed to be any more freaked out than they already were.

Avid didn't know what else there was for him to say. Marm's brows were furrowed, so he assumed she was thinking over... something, but he was clearly missing some important context or a vital detail or- or maybe he just hadn't connected the dots? 

People occasionally teased him for being oblivious, for not seeing the obvious when it was right in front of him. Usually he'd laugh along with them- they never meant it maliciously, and to be honest, he did often miss things without meaning to. 

Now, though, it was just annoying. He needed to help his friend, because she was hurting, and he knew what had caused it but nothing about how or why it had, let alone how he could make it go away! 

He grit his teeth. The leaf in his hand had a small split on the edge where he'd squeezed it too hard. 

Then, Marm moved. Avid's head snapped up, his mind jumping back to the present moment, and he watched as she began to cry, splashing in the water. "Marm?" He reached out to her, taking care to keep his voice quiet. She looked torn, but did end up taking his hand and letting him gently pull her close to him. 

Once she was settled, Avid asked her one last question. 

"Do you just want to sit here for a while?" 

Marm nodded a yes.

~~~~

Avid sat with Marm for a while, holding her hand and letting his mind wander. Marm would talk about what had happened when she was ready to, even if he really wanted to know what she knew. But to be fair, he knew he wouldn't be able to get through the whole conversation without struggling. 

The leaf he had been messing with was starting to fall apart, it had a few more cracks now. Avid ran his finger over the smooth edge.

Suddenly, Marm made a sound, like a soft hum. Looking over, he smiled reassuringly. "You feeling better? Do you think you can talk again?" He asked. 

"Yeah... thank you, Avid," she whispered, her voice slightly scratchy-sounding. 

He smiled a little wider. "Of course, that's what friends are for. Um... I'm ready to talk about... you know. The thing that happened." 

...And that's a point for past-Avid, guessing correctly that he'd immediately stutter through his first sentence...

Marm gave him the driest look he'd ever seen. "What, my void magic having the unfortunate side effect of making me lose control of myself and eating my friend alive? That thing?" 

He rolled his eyes humorously. "Uh-huh. That." Marm had to have at least one theory on what the void had done. "So, even if we know it was your void magic that did it, I'm drawing a complete blank on why it did that, do you have any ideas?" He asked.

"...Actually, I think I do," she answered after a beat of silence. But she'd said it with much more confidence than he'd expected, even if he was sure she'd have more of a clue than him.

"Wait, really?" He exclaimed, louder than he meant to.

He opened his mouth again to apologize, but Marm kept going. "I think- at least, I'm pretty sure- that the void's need to eat somehow transferred over to me through the magic." 

What? That- that was...!

"I don't know why, or how, just that my teeth are sharper and my hands are stronger, and seeing you this morning when I had been feeling the hunger for a day literally made me lose my mind."

Avid tried to collect his spinning thoughts. He whistled, breathing out roughly through his teeth. "Wow. That's... wow!" He laughed, out of shock, probably. Marm's theory was almost too believable. It was, quite frankly, horrifying... 

Especially the fact that the void, supposedly, didn't just get hungry once. 

"It makes a little, teeny-tiny bit of sense, though?" He cringed. "Wait... the void has to- ugh, I hate this- eat somewhat often, according to you anyways, or else it'll start going after bridges and things. 'The balance will be disrupted' and all that. Right?"

Marm bowed her head. "Yeah. Unfortunately, I do think that I'll have to eat every once in a while. I don't think I could handle it if not, nothing I tried could get rid of the feeling- and it only ever got worse."

"That must have been- that sounds awful, I'm really sorry you had to go through that," Avid gently rubbed the back of Marm's hand. He felt her shiver once, but she didn't pull away. "If it helps, I don't hold it against you for any of it. I'm never going to be a fan of the void, but you're still my friend, and that won't change because you were corrupted by some ancient, powerful entity!"

He hoped that, if she ever found out about the forever-crying shadow, the piece of him that was still trapped in that awful place where no one could help him, she would extend the same mercy to him for all that he was doing to keep other people away from there.

That she wouldn't be mad at him for making the choices he'd made, just wanting the place and the people he cared about to be safe and out of Olm's reach. Olm could have Avid, but damn it, they wouldn't be going anywhere near his friends if he had anything to say about it. Not that he could, realistically, do much to actually stop them, but Olm wouldn't need to hurt anyone else if Avid let them do whatever he wanted with him.

Would Marm be upset about that choice of his?

Avid brushed off the lingering feelings of guilt- Marm wasn't done talking, he could go wallow in his own sadness later.

"I'm glad," she said. "I was a little worried you'd be mad at me, or at the very least be uncomfortable around me..." She trailed off, looking thoughtful for a moment. "...I have a question. It's okay if the answer is no," she looked up at him, and he steeled himself for whatever it could be that she was about to ask of him. "I told you already that I'm probably going to get hungry again. Would you... ugh. Hang on." Avid was pretty sure he knew what she was about to ask, and he already knew what his answer would be. He watched as she reached up and tugged on a strand of her hair- one of her nervous habits. "If, or when I start feeling weird again, could you... help me?"

There it was. 

He would, of course, help her with whatever she'd need, but he did want to make a couple of clarifications. "Well, I guess it does make sense to ask me. It's alright with me, I think, as long as I get a quick heads-up beforehand and all that. I don't really want to be surprised. That part wasn't very fun- who am I kidding, none of it was fun. It hurt a lot. But if it's something you need, I'm not opposed to an arrangement of sorts," he rambled, all in one breath.

"Oh, thank you!" Marm started to cry again, but it seemed to be out of gratefulness this time, thankfully. "I don't know what I'd do without you- of course I'll let you know. It was a full day at least before it got bad enough to hurt, I'll definitely be coherent enough to know what's happening before I lose control." She rested her head on his shoulder.

Well, then, that was that- as long as Avid had a little bit of time to mentally prepare for getting... eaten alive, everything would be fine- wait, did she say that it'd been hurting?!

"Wait, it was hurting you? You never mentioned that part!" He almost-shouted. He felt a little bit less bad about the volume this time.

"...Oops?"

"Marm!" He sighed in affectionate exasperation, dropping his head on top of hers. "You were dealing with pain on top of weird void corruption? How bad was it?"

"When you get hungry enough to really, really feel it, only ten times worse. I was running on pure adrenaline when you found me."

Marm's words sunk in, just adding even more horror and guilt to the mix. He caught himself subconsciously holding her hand just a bit tighter.

"I'll come see you before I let it get anywhere close to that bad, don't worry, Avid. It just feels a little weird in the beginning, mild discomfort at the most. I'm fine," she explained.

He grumbled. He hated the void. Every new thing he heard about it was only more fuel on the fire. "Stupid void, why does it have to do this..."

She snorted, and Avid thought he felt her smiling. "Thank you, again. I'm glad we're friends," she said.

"Always, Marm." He turned his body, dropping his leaf and watching it float away out of the corner of his eye. He used his now-free hand to hold Marm's more securely. "I've got you," he murmured.

Even if he hated the void, he could never hate his best friend. If Marm needed someone to be there for her, he would show up.

But right now, he was content to just hold her, comforting her, and listen to the sound of the wind rustling in the trees. 

And she was, too, clearly- after a short time, she was relaxed enough to fall asleep.