#I'm also like half asleep in bed- so u know DJDBDBD

[bells-of-black-sunday]

Mods are asleep I can post about t4t Vittorio and Tarhos-

I think it's just because I used to write another cringe fail divorce-arc ship for years that I really enjoy them two. Something about how Tarhos was treated like a rabid dog his entire life, forced into tight quarters with others never given the basic respect of being considered a person. His life could be bartered and sold on a whim, there was nothing he could even do about it, so he became bitter. Not angry at the world, but he developed his own world views to cope with it. His body is bathed in the blood of countless innocent lives caught between noble-mens egos, he had to cope one way or another.

Even in the mercenary camp it was highly competitive, people climbing over others to try to find a way to buy their own freedom even if they barely saw a cent of the bloody work they did. He lost friends as quickly as he'd gained them. Tarhos's entire life has been nothing, but violence from the time he was born to the time he was pulled into the fog. Of course he's going to believe the world works that way, why wouldn't he?

Then you have Vittorio who was born into money, his entire future was set for him. He never had to work a day in his life and yet he refused to entertain violence even for the sport of it. He is a pacifist who will never compromise his own morals and of course that got him sent to live with his uncle who was probably the black sheep of the family for being more into books and studies than anything else. He studied for years and probably didn't have many friends or really much connection with most other people, he's a shut in, but he believes there's good in the world. He wants to find paradise to help humanity not keep it for himself.

And then his uncle dies and the weight of everything is put on his shoulders. He's a young lord forced into the spotlight walking the tightrope that is local politics and negotiating. Maybe that's why he finally pulls the trigger to go on a wild goose chase looking for artifacts to free the watchers.

Tarhos takes it, because it's an easy job. Escort a stuck up prick for a few months, it's not like it's back breaking work and he needs the money. At first he utterly despises him. He hates his cowardice, he hates the way he justifies his existence, but most of all he hates the way he's treated as a person by him. It feels unnatural, scary even that only when he's given a title of nobility that he's finally a person, but he bites his tongue. Staying by him for as long as he'd need to. But... the annoyance fades and he slowly starts to enjoy that feeling of being wanted. Long nights alone turn into long nights listening to this lord speak about history and stories for hours.

How friendly banter turns into flirting and flirting turns into more until they're tangled in eachother. And for once Tarhos can start to believe there's good in the world, if God exists it's that feeling. Then... those moments fade while on the road. They have tiny arguments more, spats over differences in world view as the entity sinks her claws deeper into Vittorio's most trusted knights mind unknowingly dragging him closer to her. He seems more irritatable, more spacey. Tarhos sinks further into his own morals the longer he's around others, he hates the way people justify their violence like as if it needs to have greater meaning or purpose.

But he once again bites his tongue and keeps moving. It's one more job. He just needs to do this last job and then he can have his most trusted back and he'll be set for the rest of his life. He can put up with it. Except... at the last location Vittorio has the audacity to ask him to find another way. Are fucking kidding him? Find another way so he can sleep at night? As if his entire fortune wasn't born out of blood? The entity's claws sink deeper, exploiting his anger and hatred. No he will not find another way, he is finishing the job he was hired to do and if Vittorio can't appreciate the life he has he will take everything of his.

He will show Vittorio the ugly cruelty of the world he constantly hides behind his walls from. And he does. Bitter resentment fuels his crusade, he takes everything like the rabid dog he was always treated as. A beast that has no restraint in who it attacks and what blood it spills. And the worst part is Vittorio can't even bring himself to resent him in the same way Tarhos does him. He would rather believe Tarhos went mad from whatever he was searching for, a victim to the cruelty and violence of life rather than an animal driven by instinct. He hates him, but... there's part of him that knows it's not him. He has to believe that. He listens to him speak, the way he laments and talks about things that have happened to him like they happened to other people.

He listens and he understands the madness. He doesn't have to agree with it, but he understands. Maybe that's why the anger and hatred slowly faded away in the fog now that he knows what he was truly seeking out. Part of him blames himself for leading Tarhos in like a lamb to the slaughter, another victim for a God's twisted game. He still doesn't trust him, but... he can't really keep himself away.