#viago the man that you are

[aqun-athlok]

starting a collection of times that viago has (or hypothetically would) knock illario out

[wanderingibon]

a flock of birds, a crow family — everything aside, despite viago's frosty, stern demeanor I think both he and teia care about rook like family, in a way that goes past the pretenses of being a crow or just part of house de riva, they're literally found family to meeeeee

and while you have time, please consider finding a family on op. olive branch 🍉 and supporting / sharing their campaigns, especially the ones with low funding <3

[partially-controlled-chaos]

Currently in the middle of a Crow!Rook play through and if there’s anything I’ve been able to gather about Rook’s relationship with Teia and Viago, it’s this.

And then this bonus because I can’t leave out the Dellamorte family:

[vigilskeep]

had to share this along with what caused it actually. it’s one of the most important viago lines of all time. right after “mild curiosity was his favourite mood.”

[lady-ephemeral]

I desperately, DESPERATELY wanna know what Viago’s face looks like if Crow Rook even mentions the word “Elope”

[rambutanjpeg]

just admiring your good looks

[rambles-on-dragon-age]

Viago seems so C3 to me

Anon, you were 10000% correct. I feel this is how he looks in that one fight if you're a Crow!Rook.

[ir-abelas-vhenan]

Viago: Making my way downtown,

Viago: walking fast

Crow Rook: Hey! Hey! Viago! Hey! Over here!

Viago: Walking Faster

[novembueri]

How Lucanis's companion quest went

(the original comic is called The Ki Sisters by Bumbae on Webtoon!)

[chaoticstrata]

Spiteful Fire

No particular time frame, just after Rook and Lucanis establish their relationship.

------------

“Kai.”

“Hmm?” Rook looked up at Lucanis around a spoonful of oatmeal. His lover sat down across from him with his own bowl of porridge. The older man locked eyes with him, dark orbs giving him a very unamused stare. A small amount of panic rose in Rook’s gut as he tried to think of what he’d done to warrant that gaze…

“Have you been trying to teach Spite how to use fire?” the older Crow asked, stirring his own breakfast with a spoon.

Rook froze and looked at the man wide-eyed. 

Oh shit.

He blinked a few times before slowly pulling the spoon from his mouth and swallowing the bite he’d already shoveled in. Setting the spoon down, he laced his fingers together on the table.

“Hypothetically,” he started, “if I said yes…would you be mad?”

Lucanis frowned. “Kai…”

“I said hypothetically!”

The older assassin looked even less amused.

“Rook.”

Oh, he was in deep shit.

Lucanis’ stare was unrelenting, and the younger man didn��t take long to break under it.

“Spite kept giving me puppy eyes!” Rook blurted out.

The rogue closed his eyes and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Those are my puppy eyes…”

“Yeah, I’m well aware…and they are still very effective,” Rook pointed out, “Actually, it’s a little scary how well he can use them…”

Lucanis sighed again and just gave him a look. “Kai…no more teaching Spite fire.”

“But…”

“Want. To do. Fire!”

“No,” came the firm response before Lucanis looked at Rook pointedly, “he does not need to know fire.”

Rook sighed, shoulders dropping in defeat. “Fine.”

“Want-”

“No,” Lucanis said again, rubbing his temple. He looked at Rook again. “Promise me that you won’t try to teach him fire anymore.”

Rook kept his face looking as miserable as possible.

“I promise, ma vhen’an, I won’t try to teach him fire anymore.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that evening, in Rook’s study.

“Right,” Rook clapped his hands together, looking beyond gleeful. “Lucanis said I couldn’t teach you fire magic…he said nothing about lighting. Let’s start with the fundamentals!”

[sotc]

missin my crow familia so baddd rn 💔

[bloodurged]

lucanismancer rook bullying viago into the polycule by telling him about how lucanis praises him in battle and asks rook to let himself be poached into house dellamorte. his end goal is, of course, not to seduce viago (he has done this already), but rather to unfumble him for lucanis.

[wanderingibon]

the viago-crow rook dynamic makes me crazy i fear!!! the found family!!!! the layers!!! the care of it all!!!! the 'i am afraid of losing my protégé who I've come to regard as family but I don't exactly know how to convey that so I have to be stern toward them, remind them not to abandon their contract, so they aren't eaten up by the antivan crows like I know the organization can do and has done time and time again' i am literally rambling rn but i could write a whole essay i fear

[nightingaletrash]

...so Viago realises that if he manages to fulfill that ambition of his to be king, he'd need to have kids right? He realises he'd either have to marry and secure a queen for himself or go the same route his father did and keep a mistress in order to have an heir, right? He knows that Teia's current life plan is to die young and be immortalised in song as a celebrity athlete legend of Antiva, and probably wouldn't be down to have a kid just for his sake while being the illicit, scandalous side lover, right? Viago realises that becoming king would mean perpetuating the exact same cycle that he's always resented, right?????

also being king means he'd have to socialise with people like my guy, I think you're better off being the power behind the throne, not the arse sitting on it

[vigilskeep]

On crows and ambition... thoughts on Viago actually making a play for the throne of antiva? First Talon Teia and King Viago and their on again off again relationship sounds like a nightmare for the politics of antiva and I personally would love to watch.

it would be really dreadful so obviously i want him to do it

i mean, realistically i’m too much of a sap to handle it, because i think there would be no wins in this for anyone and that he would near instantly lose teia for realsies. (let alone the general consequences of a viago who has fully bought into his own sense of entitlement, if there’s anything neither of those people are remotely emotionally equipped to handle, it’s teia in the same role of king’s mistress that viago’s mother played. good grief.) a throne would inarguably make him worse not fix him HOWEVER. i can’t say i don’t want to see what would happen.

[funeralhomewifi]

Exile (A Rook Fic)

aka Rook de Riva and Viago fight after her fuck up and she begins her exile feat. a splash of Lucanis and Illario for funsies

This wasn’t a fight between a Crow and her Talon. 

It wasn’t a power struggle between an assassin and the man who molded her into a weapon. 

It was a fight between a girl and the man who raised her.

Viago pushed Hemlock into his office. She’d survived her stunt on the Antaam, survived eight (well, seven… actually six, Hemlock didn’t think Teia’d want her head) Talon’s calling for her to an example of what happens when a Crow royally fucks up long thought out plans. 

Viago circled his desk, palms flat on papers that had been abandoned when he’d been heard. When he had to get to Hemlock first. 

Hemlock assessed the blood stuck under her nails, the First Talon’s call for her head ringing in her ears. “Vi–” 

“Leave your leathers, your knives, you can have ten min–” 

“Wait.” Hemlock’s stomach dropped, her silver eyes blinking in confusion. “You can’t–”

“Hemlock.” Viago rose from the desk and stalked towards her, all precise and deadly Talon that he was. Hemlock could smell his cologne, the poison seeped into his clothes, if she truly focused, Hem could smell Teia’s lotion streaked through his hair. But Viago bore down on her, hovering, in a way that prickled the fear she hadn’t felt since before he’d found her. “Hemlock, look at me.”

If Hemlock could stand to look into his eyes, Hem would see the horrid mixture of frustration and anger and inkling of sadness hidden in his dark eyes. Instead she focused on his shoulder, on the floor, his desk. “Get away from me, Vi.” 

“Do not–”

And for her final mistake of the night, Hemlock slapped Viago, determined to put space between them again. The sound reverberated through the office. 

And in a snap, Viago was her Talon again. 

And Hemlock landed against the bookshelves so hard, the walls shook. 

Even dazed, Hemlock drew her knives, because surely he’d hate her more if she didn’t. But Viago dragged her up by her pinkish hair and kneed her in the stomach before dropping her again. 

Viago’s one mistake was turning his back as Teia entered the room. Hemlock rose, clenching her blades and was mere seconds away from the blade piercing Viago’s shoulder. But in a simple move, her Talon slammed the smaller girl against the desk. 

“Hemlock,” Teia admonished, slowly closing the office door. When Viago slammed Hem’s head against the corner of the desk. “Vi…”

Just kill me. Just kill me. Just–

And Viago pulled away. His eyes meeting as Hemlock’s formed unshed tears. Her breathing caught. 

Just go. Just go. Just go. 

Slowly, Hemlock slid from the desk and wiped her eyes before tears fell. Her pointed ears burned from anger and embarrassment. 

With horribly unsteady hands, Hemlock unclipped her cape. 

“Pack your–” 

But Hemlock threw her blades across the desk. 

“I’m clearly not meeting expectations anymore. And apparently dropping me into a canal knowing I can’t swim is both too easy and admitting failure, so…”

She removed her Crow equipment–the leathers, the belts, her gloves. Hemlock emptied her pockets of what little gold she carried with her, let her favorite charms fall to the floor (a snake arm band from Viago that reminded her of Emil, a bracelet from Teia when she made it from Fledgeling status, a small crystal cat from Vi that served as a good luck charm that clearly ran out of luck.), even let her staff fall backwards, uncaring if it broke.

Lastly, Hemlock plucked the vials of poison she’d been trained to dose herself with daily since she was thirteen and gently set it on the corner of his desk. 

With a pointed nod, Hemlock brushed by Teia and left the Cantori Diamond . 

Did she have a plan? No. 

Did she care? Kind of… Not really… No. 

Hemlock leapt across rooftops and weaved through the city until she was certain she was no longer being followed. She rested on a ledge against a wall of climbing vines close to Cafe Pietra. 

“Long night?” A horribly familiar voice emerged from the window above. When Hemlock peered up, Lucanis Dellamorte cocked his head before sipping his coffee. 

Illario Dellamorte peered down at her, leaning over with his own mug in his hands, eyes roaming her bare arms and weaponless form. “Catarina would be overjoyed to find you like this.”

Hemlock scoffed, rising and plucking away Illario’s coffee. She took a pointed sip, then thoughtfully considered Lucanis. 

I could get away from Illario… Lucanis, however… 

But in a moment of good fortune, or mercy, Lucanis looked away. 

And Hemlock threw the hot coffee in Illario’s face before jumping from the ledge and resuming her disappearing act. 

Catarina Dellamorte already wanted her dead, why not add to the list? She just needed to get out of the city. 

Cold and exhausted, with a pounding migraine, Hemlock passed through the city limits. Anxiety prickled her nerves, she never left Antiva unless for a contract or an event, she always had a plan, Viago’s carefully laid agenda laid out in front of her–kill, acquire, incapacitate. 

“Ready to go?” 

Hemlock blinked out of her thoughts to consider the Dwarves that emerged next to her. Varric and… Lace, if she remembered correctly? Antaam prisoners before her grand fuck up. 

“You cleaned up quickly,” Hemlock managed. She didn’t want to know about the aftermath, how much more she’d fucked up. 

“Ah, well, you should see the other guys.” Varric nodded to herself, “You have an idea of what you’re doing next? Happens that we do need a Crow.” 

“Ah, well…” Hemlock motioned to her weaponless form. 

“We can work out the specifics on the way.” Varric started off. “Let’s go, Kid.”