#or threatening to sell those diaries to historians. I know that's a low blow but maybe that will work.

[villain-in-love]

muahaha so at the end after thistle gets attacked by the winged lion. his desires got eaten right? including his desire to resist any bad thing that someone else wants to do to him. Idk you could probably write something really cruel and sexy about that.

ALSO im so glad we share a source now <3 i was actually thinking itd be so cute if our s/is interacted!! if that’s possible. i dont know what kiera’s situation is (like who is she what is she doing down here how did she meet thistle) but cath is just a normal adventurer hanging out in the dungeon sometimes?

- @minkymeatshop

Ah, the Winged Lion incident... I’ve been thinking about that for quite some time, actually.

But I have to disappoint you – I don’t think I would take advantage of Thistle’s loss of desires. To say that Kiera wasn't happy about Thistle's current condition would be a major understatement.

That is to say, there’s still plenty of suffering potential for this pair post-canon.

But first, I think I should talk a bit about Kiera separately. Good news: if your s/i is an adventurer, then they can surely meet.

To make it brief, Kiera is a 302 year old half-elf mercenary who decided to fight depression by getting addicted to adrenaline. She stands out thanks to her strategic talents, use of magic, and most likely illegally acquired regeneration abilities.

Kiera descended into the dungeon when it first opened, hired by the local authorities to explore it and to hunt down the Lunatic Magician, but it’s been years since anyone last saw her on the surface.

Technically, she also used to have a party – there was an entire team of distinguished warriors and scientists hired alongside her, but her companions long since abandoned her. Kiera doesn't mind it – despite how boisterous and eccentric she is, she has always been a loner.

Anyways, she’s a bit intense, but friendly. She wouldn’t mind hanging out, but probably not for long – she’s doesn’t like taking companions as they just slow her down. From the information you have given, I think Kiera would like Cath, mostly because she would find her interesting. However, she might try to provoke her to a battle... I think it would be fun to imagine how they would interact, but I really need to know more about your s/i first.

Now, when it comes to Kiera's relationship with Thistle, I must say that she never hated him. Her reasons to antagonize him and try to kill him are a bit more complicated. Also there were multiple stages to their relationship, their attitude and approach towards each other changing with time.

No matter how much she didn't want this to happen, by the time of the manga timeline, Thistle is Kiera's only friend, her favourite enemy, and the person she loves the most.

So to answer the question of "why did she try to kill him?" Well, at first she was just doing her job. But in later years she was only half serious. On one hand, she used "I'm trying to kill you" as an excuse to just start a fight because that's her way of entertainment. On the other hand, she was seriously trying to force herself to kill him to sever this unfortunate attachment, to protect her freedom and her peace of mind.

Everything else she did – hurting him, pushing his buttons, or just teasing him – was done because she finds Thistle's personality fascinating and she wanted to study his reactions. And he's oh so reactive. Fun thing about Thistle is how honest he is – he's bad at hiding his emotions, and he doesn't hold back when expressing his opinion.

So when Winged Lion ate all his desires... There's no point in doing that anymore. She sees no point in hurting him when he won't fight back or avenge himself, or even react at all. And honestly, she's scared of doing something wrong that could only worsen his condition. Because she wants her tiny menace to society back, and she will do everything in her power to bring him out of this state.

I can say that there’s still a lot of possibilities for suffering, since from now on things will be… difficult (well, things were already difficult before, but in a different way). Now, to name a few...

First of all, Kiera was also traumatized by Thistle being eaten. Thistle she fell in love with is expressive, powerful and driven. He's got a strong personality and a bitchy attitude. So seeing him so apathetic and passive was disturbing.

Imagine seeing your only friend being reduced to an empty shell. He's breathing, his eyes are open, he's probably even conscious, but he's completely unmoving and unresponsive. I think that when Kiera first saw him in such state she was close to a hysteric, trying desperately to wake him up. Made even scarier by the fact that no one at that moment knew what exactly Winged Lion did to him.

To think about it, if Kiera got really desperate, she could try doing something drastic to try and force some kind of reaction out of Thistle, hoping that maybe some violence might shake him out of his catatonia. But it is likely that she would just make things worse for them both.

Also! Since being devoured by the demon strongly parallels sexual assault and includes violation of the body, Kiera would have to be very careful with any future intimacy because it is possible that the wrong action might trigger him. Made even worse by the fact that Thistle lost his desire to resist so she will have to be super vigilant to read his reactions and know when to stop... And now I want to write a fanfic when something does go terribly wrong like that. Make it a smut that just turns into psychology halfway through.

But that kind of scenario will most likely happen at least 20 years into the future, when he's conscious and functional enough to gain an interest in sexual intimacy.

(Similar to what I said earlier, I'm not into dub-con or non-con, because I'm not interested in sexual activities if my partner doesn't show equal enthusiasm.)

There's also some misery reserved specially for Thistle: post-canon Kiera stayed in Melini, refusing to leave his side, yet she obviously misses the battlefield and is bored staying in one place. I imagine that realizing that now he finally has a person who loves him and will not leave him, but at the same time being stuck here because of him makes her miserable... Yeah, there's definitely quite a lot of guilt and maybe even self-hate here. Especially considering how Thistle always seemed to hold the happiness of his loved ones as the highest priority (even thought with time he stopped understanding what makes them happy)...

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Anyways, here's a cute picture of Kiera made in picrew because I'm too depressed to draw:

(The face of a girl who will sneak around your house, drink your liquor, and read your diaries when you aren't looking)