FFXIVWrite Prompt 13: Check
Rating: M
Word Count: 1169
Warnings: Mild descriptions of blood
Summary: Persephone's made her decision, and now she has to go through with it. [Vampire AU, Hythazemet, Continuation of Prompt 12.]
Master Post
Persephone fidgeted nervously, rubbing her arms to try to chase the chill of the house away. Her warm and cozy robe they'd given her was set off to the side, so it wouldn't get dirty, Hythlodaeus had said. A little part of her brain still thought she was crazy, completely mad, but not only did she just desire to keep living, but her lavender haired host was kind and friendly, someone she could see wanting to get to know better and have in her life. Someone she wouldn't be afraid to ask questions of when…
No, not ready to think about that, it seems.
But his…friend? Roommate? Lover? She still wasn't completely sure what their dynamic was, but it was clear Hades was more cold, calculating, and withdrawn. A real hermit of a vampire compared to Hythlodaeus. She wasn't too sure what to make of him yet, but if he was willing to help save her life, then he couldn't be all bad, right?
Earlier that evening, after she blurted out her decision, he'd appeared in the library. Hythlodaeus had jumped up excitedly to tell him the news while she shrank a little into her robe, aware that the chair she sat in was Hades'.
"Did you hear? She decided she wants to stay!" her new friend smiled, but Hades just scowled an exasperated frown.
"Wonderful. I suppose we're going to need to invest in extra furniture then," he commented dryly. He and Hythlodaeus then discussed how and where best to perform this ritual, and now here they were, in the smaller guest room. Hythlodaeus had mentioned it because he remembered having strong chills during his "infection" and figured a smaller room would be easier to heat without making the rest of the house unbearable. She winced as she reached up and started peeling the bandage from around her neck, dried blood pulling at her skin as she did.
"That brute really did a number on you," Hades commented from just by her shoulder, causing her to jump. He took her chin and moved her head back and to the side to check the marks there. "You can rest assured I'll not be so careless."
"Uh, thanks?" She swallowed awkwardly as he released her, and he fell silent again, moving to sit at the edge of the bed.
"Go on," Hythlodaeus gave her a little nudge between her shoulders. "I'll be right here." And somehow that did make her feel better about it, even though she'd known both of them for roughly the same amount of time. And that amount of time being hardly any at all.
"How do I know this isn't all just some setup to get me to trust you, hmm?" She meant it jokingly, but when her feet refused to move she wondered how much of a joke it really was.
"You're welcome to wait out the bite you have and see what happens," Hades droned. She bit her lip. It's true, if she really thought they were lying, she could just say no and leave. And if she was wrong she'd turn into a mindless monster and do this to more people…
"No, no, I'll do it," she said more firmly. She walked over but then stopped awkwardly. "Um, what am I supposed to do?" Hades rolled his eyes.
"Told her everything, did you?" He quipped at Hythlodaeus, then addressed her. "Sit here, facing away." He patted his legs.
"I feel like I'm a kid going to see a mall Santa," she muttered, following instructions. "Now what?"
"Hold your arms out in front of you, wrists up. They don't have to be straight in front, you can rest them on your lap," he continued, and she obeyed, resting her arms with her wrists up on her knees.
"Why does it matter where my arms are?"
"Because there are magic symbols he needs to draw there," Hythlodaeus chimed in helpfully. It didn't ease her anxiety.
"Magic symbols, right," she muttered, then felt breath at her neck. "Wait, wait, I'm not-!" Hythlodaeus knelt before her, resting his hands in hers and not breaking eye contact.
"It's okay, it won't be like before, okay?" He ran his thumbs over her fingers, trying to soothe. "It'll be done before you know it." She took a few steadying breaths before nodding. A comfy, well lit room, she wasn’t alone, wasn’t being chased… Yes, this was nothing like before. She could do this. Before she had the chance to say anything else, Hades sank his teeth into her neck.
Persephone couldn’t help but yelp and try to pull away, but an arm around her shoulders kept her still, and Hythlodaeus continued holding her hands; a moment later she would feel bad for squeezing so tightly, but he didn’t seem to mind. The initial sharp, stabbing pain faded, and she took a deep breath. It didn’t hurt as sharply now, only a dull ache. She felt fingers, Hades’ she realized, prod at her neck, then move to her wrists. Trying not not move her neck too much less the wounds pull, she glanced down to see him drawing an ornate sigil on one wrist with what she realized was her own blood. She watched him finish the one, then draw its mirror on the other. Persephone felt the pressure increase on her neck; she tried to stay stoic, but a small whimper escaped, anyway.
Then he released her, and it was like he’d done nothing at all, her neck feeling just the same as before. Perhaps even better than when she’d woken. Hythlodaeus helped her up, quickly cleaning her neck but leaving the sigils on her wrists where they were.
“How long do these have to stay?” she asked, peering at one as he led her to the small chair at the desk. A small mirror hung on the wall where Persephone could see that her neck had healed over, even where she’d just been bitten, leaving only some deep, dark bruises.
“Until the change is complete,” Hades answered as he stood, straightening his clothes where they’d wrinkled. She blinked at him.
“You don’t think it’ll, I don’t know, smudge?” Persephone asked, and Hythlodaeus chuckled.
“Try wiping it off,” he invited, and though she worried about messing up the process, she felt confident he wouldn’t set her up like that. Persephone scrubbed at her wrist with her thumb.
The sigil didn’t move, even a little bit.
“Magic,” Hythlodaeus said with a smirk. “It’s good for some things.”
“Why didn’t you use it to fix my neck in the first place?” she asked, with just a slight pout.
“It’s part of the ritual. The sigils fixed your wounds. The bruising will fade too before the process is done,” Hades explained. She gave a little acknowledging nod.
“So…how long until I start feeling like I’d really like some Nyquil?” Persephone tried to joke about it, but the worry was still there. Hythlodaeus’ face softened into an understanding smile.
“We shall see.”
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Wanders in and vomits this on your lap
So update! Life's been doing what life does to everyone!
Curb stomp them in the middle of a glass covered alleyway!
Despite this I'm still chugging along. I'm currently building a surplus of pages I can use to queue up so I can ATTEMPT to do a set schedule instead of like having it be uhhh one page PER DECADE. Because I uhhh wasn't doing that earlier because I was a dumbass
The biggest issue has been breaking the model, updating the model because of the breaking, adding new models that will be used in one page for a gag then never again, fixing the models that will never be used again, and getting sucked up into Final Fantasy XIV
There's a certain yellow-eyed, sassy, smug, bitch of a villain from that game that's been living rent fucking free in my head for the past couple months and he's pissing me off but I can't bring myself to kick him out even tho he hurts my feelings.
He is being beaten with a fly swatter as we speak
I've barely started Endwalker months ago and haven't touched it
Ignoring games that are weirdly far removed from the one this blog is centered around...
I'm not dead!
I hope you aren't either!
I have a lot of stuff lined up and ready. When my depressed lazy ass gets around and finishes more pages I'll start posting asap!
Also Elly's new model and design is finished and I hope you like how she looks!
Because I got carpel tunnel from the redesign!
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Have some more apothecary![Name] because I have Apothecary Diaries brainrot. Season 2 hype! I swear to fucking god, at some point I'm going to turn this into an actual fic. Please, someone shoot me, I just don't know how to stop.
I imagine that similar to in the Apothecary Diaries, [Name] has lived in the red light district their whole life and was working as an apothecary there. Until they got kidnapped and sold off to the rear palace as a simple servant. They were planning on just working there until their contract expired, but then the universe decided that they haven't suffered enough. Through some shenanigans, they end up being promoted from glorified laundry maid to the lady in waiting for one of the Emperor's concubines.
And that's when the Chain fell into their life. Literally.
During a trip home on one of your rare days off, a girl from one of the pleasure district's brothels comes running to you in a panic, saying something about a group of strange men that need medical attention.
And things kinda spiral from then. You cure one of them from poison (you think his name was Wars? Strange name, really. But, still, none of your business), hand them some medicine and are about to head out until you get roped into solving the 'mystery' behind this little incident. The universe just loves telling you to play detective.
And when you led them out of town and see them off, you somehow end up getting pulled into one of these 'portals' that they kept talking about when they thought you couldn't hear.
The Chain is kind of more trusting of you in the beginning, you did save Wars from almost dying after all, but your stand-offish personality and obsession with drugs is a little worrying. Still, you do your work, don't complain, don't cause fights and lend a hand when needed. And your medicines do wonders when potions run out and Hyrule's low on magic. You're passive in a way.
"I'm a simple servant, lowly of birth." You say when questioned. "I know where I stand."
Bruh you're going to give them trauma flashbacks every time you put something in your mouth. Especially if you're the only human and they have no idea what things are poisonous to you vs them. They always have some emetic agent on them in case you decide to indulge in your 'hobby.'
I could really twist the knife with how the romance would go in this. The Chain knows that you're not the most extroverted person, but they wish that you didn't scoot away from them when they want to get closer to you. Maybe it's because you've grown up in an environment where the lines between 'love' and 'lust' are more than a little blurred - both celebrated and made irrelevant, both idolised and abused at the same time - where the lives of lower class people are tossed aside without a thought, the way your family life hasn't exactly been the most 'normal'... Maybe that's why you're so adverse to romance, why you insist that 'love' is an emotion that you are incapable of feeling.
In a way, they want to save you. Not from Ganon or monsters with sharp teeth (though they will save you from those, too, of course), but from this shadow looming over you.
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In love with the inherent tragedy of the Warrior of Light. In love with the inherent horror of the Warrior of Light.
Spoilery musing beneath the cut!
The Warrior of Light is a terrible mantle to cast upon someone, Hydaelyn ultimately cursed the wol to a life of deep pain. The wol takes this in stride and carries on with resolute strength of course, but there is a tragedy in who they have become. The warrior of light is greater than them, it outshines them, a Legacy and expectation and power and light all weighing upon them. The wol is the torch that ushers in a new era, they welcom the 7th dawn, they gather myriad people around them and inspire countless to be better. And like a torch they burn themselves in the process, they lose form and identity, their life stops being their own in the service of others and their very soul stops being their own under the strain of Azem’s legacy. The Flame grows ever larger, ever brighter, and the Torch itself becomes consumed.
And then there's everything with Azem's soul. The game frames it as heroic but can you imagine it? Being one amongst many, a fragment of fragments. The potential for a cacophony of memories, emotions, and voices rattling in the wol's head at all times. The dread that their body is not their own, that they host many as one. A patchwork of Azem's self, a half-formed reflection, a collective all forcefully smashed into one body. The potential for the wol to dream other's dreams, to have memories of world's destroyed, to have knowledge they couldn't possibly have.
I'm equally obsessed with ideas of fanfic for when these moments come to a head. In the Dying Gasp Emet has to confront the half-formed revenant of his dearest friend, sees their being torn to pieces and stitched back together, it must be horrifying. Or in Ultima Thule, facing the Endsinger at the edge of creation, does the real Warrior of Light appear? Not the wol, not an adventurer, but a being of resplendent light, an 8-fold soul, THE Warrior of Light. When the wol faces zenos after and is killed, but keeps fighting, is it the wol or the Warrior of Light that gets back up? Is it the wol or the Warrior of Light that comes back to the Ragnarok? Does Y'shtola see the wol laying there, or does she see glimpses of that full being in all its terrible beauty?
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Not me realizing that I'm obsessed with Emet Selch because I fell in love with Solas first.
(Spoilers for FFXIV and DA:I ahead so pls don't read if you plan on playing)
Solas's goal is to tear down the fade, to undo what he did and free his people and old gods.
Emet's goal is to undo what Hydaelyn had done, to rejoin the 13 mirrors to the source and revive his people.
Solas mentions that you're real and it changes everything, but it can't.
Emet slips up, talks about how you wouldn't remember Amaurot, then tells you later that you're just a fragment of his lover friend.
We offer to help both men by finding a different way forward.
Also just remembered that the face Emet wears in Shadowbringers is of one SOLUS YAE GALVUS.
New headcanon. Dragon Age Inquisition is one of the 13 mirrors.
I think, just maybe, I have a type.
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people i want to get to know better!
I got tagged by @emets-selch so yeah okay why not I haven't done one of these things in years
last song: Devil 'fore the Fall by Lydia the Bard
favorite color: green, I need more green in my wardrobe I hardly have anything in green and that makes me sad
currently watching: I don't have any show I'm watching right now um... idk. does youtube videos count? if so I'm gonna say ProZD Plays Games becasue I watch that channel everyday
last movie: I've also haven't been keeping up with movies lately god I need to fix this uh, I can't think of any movie this year I have watched so... I should watch some tv and movies
sweet/spicy/savory: I love all three for different reasons, like probably sweet but I can't have too much sweet or it upsets my body
relationship status: been with my beloved partner for a few years now, love you Carla! <3 <3 <3
obsessions: FFXIV is probably my biggest one, my icon both on tumblr and discord is FFXIV related, and Azem related too now that I think of it. I do also want to throw in here interactive fiction games, that's what my blog mostly is lately right now I feel like. but I'll go back to FFXIV once there's new stuff to play. I do need to get more playtime when I have the money to finally get my padjal alt to the end of DT but that will have to wait for now.
last thing i googled: "fallout 4 fourville walkthrough" I've been playing fallout 4 quest mods lately and trying to figure shit out in a mod becasue I'm easily lost
um I don't know, I don't normally tag people in these but uh here... @monochrome-night, @elegantunknownphantom, @princesspeachsuperstar
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Y'know. I'm really glad there's not a loud minority in the Gale fandom that insists God!Gale is his good ending.
Then again, he kind of *DIES* in that ending, so it puts a damper on it for us.
Like. Do not get me wrong. I like fucked up stuff/ships.
FFS, I have read some DELISCIOUSLY FUCKED UP Emet-Selch/WoL fic where the line between Dubcon and Noncon is so thin you may as well just list it as Noncon and Dead Dove. And guess what? Evil as fuck Emet who is unhinged in his obsession over WoL/Azem is fucking *HOT*.
But at the end of the day, I always gravitate back to my AU where he and Hyth come back to my WoL and live. Maybe not a wholly good life, but a life that is way more fullfilling and what they need before they all 3 die (or die again) and move on in the Aetherial Sea.
The same goes for God!Gale. The power difference, the authority difference is intoxicating and having him lose himself and get more cold and condescending to an increasingly desperate Tav or redeemed Durge? Absolutely a *Chef's Kiss*.
But that ain't his good end. And we Galemancers understand that all too well.
Too bad the Ascended Astarion/DJ Shart fans can't seem to see that.
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