> Entry: 13/04/25
rusty venture character study
was bored and figured i'd write a fic/character study of rusty since he has. A lot going on at every given moment and i barely see people really dig into it the way i do. i don't write things like this too often so i hope people enjoy it!
Leaning against the railing of his balcony, lost in thought, Rusty watched the world go by beneath him. Cars, trucks, people who looked like ants crawling along the floor—he watched it all.
It had been about 5 months since he’d moved to this tower from the compound, and while everything had been going as fine as it could possibly be with how his life generally is, he still felt as if something was missing from his life, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint its source.
Rusty felt this emptiness all the time, but it was so much stronger than he can recall it ever being previously. Could he not even enjoy his new life here without some mysterious force gnawing at him and dragging him down? He’s very used to it—but that doesn’t make it any easier.
Suddenly, he felt a small weight on his arm. To his surprise, it was a butterfly. A Monarch butterfly. Rusty rolled his eyes as he stared at it.
“Alright, what do you want this time?” He asked it, and for the first time in months, his voice lacked that perpetual hint of annoyance. This time, it was filled with curiosity, something rarely seen from Rusty towards anything even slightly related to his arch enemy. He began to observe it closely, to see if he could spot some sort of camera, or anything technological really. He was always getting better at hiding things on butterflies, considering it’s something he’s been working on for decades.
“I didn’t even think butterflies flew this high.” Rusty spoke, mostly to himself as he continued to closely study it—though he did wish someone was there to hear it.
The butterfly walked across his arm onto his hand before uncoiling its proboscis. Rusty didn’t notice, too busy trying to confirm to himself that this butterfly was not carrying anything unnatural and rather somehow just ended up here on its own. It made him feel… strangely disappointed? No, it felt weird. It made him feel very weird, this wasn’t supposed to happen, this should be apart of some elaborate arching plan, but it isn’t.
He quickly recalled that The Monarch, his arch enemy, wasn’t even allowed to arch him for the time being, which meant that this butterfly truly had simply flown all the way up here on it’s own. Shouldn’t he be happy about this? That’s what everyone would expect of him, anyways
He then noticed it sucking on his flesh—it had chosen him as a source of salt for today apparently.
“Ugh! Ewwww! What the hell?” He let out a weirdly high pitched yell, flicking it off with his hand. He watched it fly off, towards all of the commotion below him.
Rusty felt what he thought was relief, for a moment, before missing the presence the butterfly had brought, though it was rather brief.
He was then hit with a sense of profound loneliness he had not felt in years.
He finally realized was it was—what the emptiness was.
But why? Rusty didn’t understand it, why would he miss the person who has been so dedicated to making his already horrible life hell? What separated him from every other person who had tried to kill him in the past 20 years?
Rusty was no longer staring down at the commotion surrounding Ventech Tower, he was now looking up, staring at the sky. It was partly cloudy, nothing too special—but it did help his mind settle down. How long had he been out here, anyways? He had completely lost track of time, as he often did while he was working on something in the lab with Billy and White.
He backed away from the railing a little, he didn’t trust himself. How could he? When his brain had come to the conclusion that it did.
But the thought would still linger.
Was it because The Monarch is the only truly consistent thing in his life since his father died? Was that it? Did he miss the familiarity that seeing this incompetent man in a butterfly costume nearly blow himself up in a failed attempt to drag them both down brought?
He thought about that butterfly again. He was a man of science—he didn’t believe in signs from the universe, everything that has ever happened could be explained in a lab if needed, but he couldn’t help but think it must’ve come for a reason, everything was pointing towards that conclusion.
Rusty still didn’t like it, though. Or did he? He wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure of anything lately. All these new level 10 arches constantly pissing him off day by day, making him unable to truly relax in his new home, he had barely that much time to himself to just think about everything that had been happening around him until…well, until right now.
The more he thought about it the more he realized how much he would prefer being arched by The Monarch over these losers. They only targeted him for his status and name, they didn’t actually hate him personally. That’s how it’s always been since he could remember, and the only person who was truly dedicated to hating him as a person was The Monarch, and he did provide good company sometimes.
Rusty knew The Monarch would never actually attempt to kill him, they had been through way too much bullshit together for that to happen, and Monarch knew that as well. Maybe it was this fact that separated him from every other person who’s ever tried to hurt him? Because they share a history together?
Of course. That must be it, right? Well, close enough for Rusty to be satisfied with what he’s been able to come up with. Only problem now is that he couldn’t do anything about it without admitting he missed his literal arch enemy and just wanted to talk to him. He’d never live it down. Who just wants to talk to the people who make their lives hell? That’s stupid, it’s embarrassing.
And it wasn’t like Monarch could do anything about it either. Rusty would just rely on him to set up some doomed to fail arching plot that led to them just having a civil conversation with eachother for once in order to achieve this, but that wasn’t possible right now. Because Rusty’s “Important” now, and The Monarch is a total nobody, not that he wasn’t before, but now it was like that professionally, or whatever.
Rusty knew Monarch must be in a hell of his own creation right now. His obsession with him constantly made him break guild law just so he could throw a brick at his head or whatever he had planned for him that day, and it was kind of impressive that Rusty hadn’t seen him at all these past couple of months.
Unless… No. There’s no way in hell that’s him. He’s far too incompetent to pull something like that off for more than a week or two. Why had this Blue Morpho character done a better job of clearing out his new arches than Brock as of late anyways? Who even was he, and why did he want to help him out so much? And why did he take the persona of someone he had known as a child?
Rusty wouldn’t complain though. He didn’t mind having a second guardian angel, especially since people rarely did look out for him or care for his wellbeing in such a way.
“Hey, Doc? You alright?” The sound of his first guardian angel’s voice jolted him back to his harsh reality as he turned to face him. “You’ve been out here for a while.” he continued.
“Oh? Uh, Yes, yes. I’m fine.” Rusty blurted out faster than he intended as he stared at Brock.
“...Okay.” His bodyguard responded, before heading back inside and shutting the door.
This completely destroyed his train of thought. Thank god, he was sick of his own mind at this point. Rusty realized he was still staring towards the door, and figured it was about time he headed inside. He needed to make himself a doctail more than ever.
But it would still linger.
thanks for reading ^_^
