#i see that a dynamic could be spicy if i am allowed to write wylls savior complex

[limpfisted]

@silksworn [ YOU ARE SOPPING WET IN A CARDBOARD BOX ALL ALONE, A MOUND AND A BLOB OF WET SHAPEABLE FEELINGS AND FLESH, AND I AM SO WRONG, BUT SO RIGHTEOUS, TO MEET SUCH A NOBLE VICTIM. THE AUTUMN BALL. ]

Iraestra may be just as prickly as the others----but Wyll gets along well enough with them, just fine. There is something to be said about a warrior's bond. Don't think he didn't notice her take his hand in the battle against Ketheric and bring him to his feet. Don't think he didn't notice the true passion and fire in her eyes----when she struck down Mykrul as if he was made of glass and not bone.

It is not that Wyll does not see that she is selfish, and unkind, and that she has rolled her eyes at him at every attempt of his own selflessness and kindness, but that, well... he sees the atrocities, and is pretending he can fix her, or that The Absolute is their truest issue, or that as long as she doesn't hurt anyone in front of him---he can rest easy knowing its not his fault, or he can watch her like a hawk and make sure she doesn't hurt anyone, and grow gradually to trust her as much as he thinks she's cool, just charismatic, intelligent, interesting, in ways some of the other party members fail to be. (He has average wisdom, for a human, and that means he can justify anything, reasoning it out in such logical tangles he can mystify himself with his own made-up mythos.)

She is something new, something shiny, proof that what they are doing---fighting against the Absolute, is just, even beyond the obvious.

And perhaps, perhaps, there is a part of him that wants her to smile at him, laugh at his jokes, for his own amusement. Can they not be friends? Can they not acknowledge him each other's humanity?

And she looks beautiful in the fae realm at this Autumn's Ball. Really, just dashing. This is the perfect chance to get closer to her. To get to know her. To show her he can fix her, make her better, rescue her---a damsel in distress.

And the night is young. And the night is just as dark and beautiful as she is, and just as full of secrets, and in Wyll's eyes... potential promise.

"Dance with me? Just one dance. I fear you are the only one who can match me beat for beat." The flames in his eye twinkle, as if kissed by starlight instead of Hellfire. "Please? Allow for this Devil's pact: You dance with me, I grant you one boon later. Anything you wish."

A dangerous, stupid thing to say. But he's hungry, to chew on her feelings, to forge a new, intimate connection that he can control and fantasize himself the hero in.

Wyll Ravengard is kind, but even the selfless can be a little too self-indulgent to speak their true fantasies out loud.

Acknowledgement of her humanity, indeed.