#also using detlaff/regis from the witcher as reference

[palespawn]

ok but consider ascended astarion but his features become more bat-like when experiencing extreme emotions, like giving into anger, in the midst of a fight or hunting, because

[nightsofvangogh]

BLOOD IN THE CHEEKS (DetlaffxSyanna)

Syanna was afraid.

The sight of the ruined fortress did little to reassure her. They were a long way from the city, but also a long way from what she considered home.

"This is the end", she thought. "Detlaff has caused all the massacre for me and now it will not stop."

Geralt the witcher and the strange guy named Regis were guiding her, but they soon stopped. They did not enter the fortress, but stayed in the huge courtyard. He did not take long to appear, anyway. Suddenly, she heard a faint sound, like whispering and darkness, swirling behind her.

She did not turn. Out of pride or fear, she did not turn, and her lover, the only one whom she had ever considered more than a hobby, passed her and did not turn either. Although she did notice his sideways glance, like an enraged animal about to attack. They both knew how vulnerable Detlaff was next to her. He faced her.

"Rhen ..." said with a throaty voice. "Syanna, Syanna ... I must ask you something." He fully materialized. "Have you faked everything? Was everything between us a simple scam? "

Syanna was terrified. Regret twisted her guts, but she had to face whatever happened. "Detlaff... It's not that simple, I-"

"No, Syanna, it is very simple. Say only if you've been using me all this time, just that". His face began to change to the grotesque image of a bat. Sharp, long, deadly claws emerged.

Syanna heard a metallic noise behind her. It was Geralt, ready to use his silver sword against the vampire. Against her lover.

Detlaff took a step toward her and held her head high, forcing her to look into his eyes. Syanna then saw a flash of doubt and sadness. Right before the claws headed straight to her heart.

The woman closed her eyes. In that brief moment, she took the opportunity to pray to any of the gods who would watch over her. She also thought how much she regretted what she had done to this man; how she had wasted all the affection between the two of them out of simple hatred for her sister, out of revenge.

She waited for the outbreak of pain, but it didn't come. Instead she felt the sun on her face and the sound of the birds around her.

She carefully opened her eyes. And what she saw didn't surprise her too much. She was back in the world of tales. But she was not alone. The enchanted ribbon had just saved her life, and not just her.

Detlaff was a few steps away, sprawled on the ground. "What the hell happened? It was only supposed to work with one person. Bah, surely the magic of this piece of cloth is as old as that of this world."

She looked at Detlaff, who was beginning to get up with great effort, and thought about running and hiding, but... Where? No matter where she ran, the vampire would find her.

"Rhen... Syanna..." the woman heard behind her with a plaintive sound. Something was not quite right.

She turned worriedly to her lover, unable to remain impassive any longer. She walked quickly towards him. It gave the impression that he had come out of a battle or that he had fallen from a great height. Without even thinking about what had just happened in the material world, she knelt in front of him, trying to figure out what was happening to him.

"It's ... the magic of this place ... it's not good for my ... power." Syanna wondered if the high magical charge here really had that effect on him. She assumed that it was, and not without difficulty helped him up. But Detlaff did not thank her, but looked at her suspiciously and gently but decisively pulled out of her touch.

"Detlaff ...". She said to the panting man. " I´m sorry". The heavy feeling in her chest barely lightened. She hadn't apologized for it, by far, and she wasn't quite sure what she expected of it either.

The vampire didn't react inmediately, it took him a few seconds to process the apology. He knew it wasn't a lie; this time it wasn't. But he was confused and hurt. The woman he loved turned out to be nothing more than a cruel deception, a lie that hurt him like a sword. He had never come to love anyone like that, to the point of feeling vulnerable, no matter how human they were. But in that charade he was the loser from the beginning.

"Why?" Detlaff said facing his beloved. "If... I had known from the beginning... everything that happened to you, everything that the world made you suffer, I would have done anything, anything for you. But instead of trusting me you decided to blackmail me, you got me into your fraud. I was terrified. " He couldn't hold back anymore. All the feelings in him surfaced at the same time. Rivers of bitter, night-black tears ran down his cheeks. It was a strange feeling for him. Perhaps having spent so much time among humans had led him to feel like them. He had never felt so tiny and miserable.

"I was scared," Syanna said in a cracking voice. "I never stopped being a scared child. Detlaff- "

"Enough". The vampire interrupted him. "I've heard enough." He began to walk, not without difficulty, to nowhere. After a few meters he snorted and stopped. He did not know where he was. All he knew was that this place was so overloaded with magic that it was choking him.

"Can't we talk about this like adults?" Syanna yelled at him, starting to get fed up. Detlaff snorted again and turned. Seeing Syanna with tears on her face, something stirred inside him. He was silent, implying that he was listening.

"Maybe at the end of our thing ... I used you," he lowered his eyes in shame. "But if you gave me another chance ... I really think it might work-"

"Stop". Detlaff interrupted again. "I can't trust you after what you've done to me." But they didn't look away, and Detlaff seemed less and less sure of his own words. He'd come this far for her only to find that she herself had used him to rid of the ghosts of the past... What killed her inside. Then he understood.

"I need to know why you didn't trust me." He stood up to his towering height, deciding that he would lower himself no further. If she didn't answer honestly, he would know and that would be the end. Syanna was silent, but recovered instantly.

"I could not. What happened at the edge of the forest I will never forget, and I wanted... no, I needed revenge. I was afraid and I was ashamed. Only that. I have never told anyone what happened and I knew that if I entrusted it to you, you would burn and destroy everything in your path. And not just Beauclair, but the entire continent. I didn't want there to be more victims than necessary; although apparently the last thing did not go too well".

"And then what? Would you reappear with your fake name from your "kidnapping"? Would you pretend not to know anything about it? Could you live with that, Syanna? " She began to realize what she had really done. She shrugged and tears welled up.

"Answer me". Detlaff demanded. He knew why she did what she did, and he may never forget that episode in his long life. But seeing his beloved in that state broke him. The black tears reappeared.

"I'm sorry, my love, I'm so sorry ...". She was sobbing non-stop and did not subside when she noticed that her lover was crying in the same way. He really did look like a human at times. They embraced, unable to bear the little distance that separated them anymore. They cried together for a long time, bringing out their weaknesses.

"Don't ever lie to me again, please, never again. You know I can help you and I want to. Promise me that you will trust me. "

"I´m sorry, I´m so so sorry".

"It is okay, my love. Just tell me if you want to try again".

"I promise, Detlaff, to trust you. I promise". The vampire placed his hands delicately on the cursed princess's cheeks and she closed her eyes. He gently kissed her forehead and they both smiled at the same time. Maybe it wasn't the end after all. After a long time, they regained their composure and realized that they were still in the magic world. And that it was not going to be easy to get out of there.

"Tell me please the exit is not too far ..." Detlaff complained, referring to the effect that such powerful magic had on him. Syanna grimaced and shrugged.

"At least we have time to spare." What happened next wasn't really important, except perhaps the memorable moment they spent together in the curious place in the clouds.

[itsclydebitches]

I greatly enjoy how I finished Blood and Wine, got the “bad” ending...

... and liked that one the best. 

Based on information gathered from all three playthroughs I don’t trust Syanna one bit. Someone who has harbored resentment most of her life and plots that elaborate an assassination attempt doesn’t just drop it because the guy who caught you suggests, “Maybe forgive your sister!” and you talk childhood memories a bit. In the tragic ending she’s very persuasive in saying that she hates Anna Henrietta, would absolutely try to kill her again if given the chance, and is pleased to finally be able to express that honesty. The “good” ending might end on a high note of them hugging, but there’s no way I trust that to last. 

The tragic ending is, well, obviously tragic. Syanna is dead anyway, so Detlaff was ultimately killed for nothing. Especially when we consider that Anna Henrietta’s resulting death erases all the good you do by killing “The Beast” and lifting the kingdom’s spirits. With their ruler gone it all falls apart and, as Geralt says, chaos now reigns. 

Meanwhile the “bad” ending has so much going for it?? The biggest issue to my mind is Dettlaff’s massacre going unpunished, but you simply gain too much else to prioritize that alone. Syanna is punished in a more fitting manner, at the hands of Dettlaff himself, rather than through Damien trying to protect Anna Henrietta. Or worse, her basically getting off scott free because we know Anna Henrietta blindly favors her sister, no matter what she might say about treating her like any other criminal. She got a cushy palace “cell” while kept as an actual prisoner. No way is much going to happen now that they’ve actually made up. Some might consider death via vampire too harsh a punishment for her crimes, though I’m not sure I do, especially since we only have her word that the knights really treated her as badly as she says/deserve death for it. Syanna tells so many lies throughout that I simply don’t trust that sob story at face value. Particularly when combined with the revelation of other twisted information. She accuses Anna Henrietta of never looking for her and we learn that’s also a lie born of her desire to paint her sister in a cruel light: “I did... you just didn’t want to be found.” Syanna has a solid history of manipulation, twisting information, and outright lying to paint herself as the victim, so it’s possible---likely even---that this extends to her “they beat me, starved me, and left me out in the winter cold with only a lace dress” story. We do know none of the knights were perfect men based on Damien’s information---harsh business practices and rumors of dealings with the criminal underworld---but de la Croix was just... stingy? Hardly the worst vice in the world, especially compared to all we see in the DLC. He likes money but he also stood up for and befriended Detlaff, the story putting more emphasis on his compassion than any cruelty. And by all accounts except Syanna’s, Milton was an upstanding knight. He mentions that his past weighs on him, but whose doesn’t? For all we know he could be referring only to following the order to banish Syanna at all, not to any mistreatment along the way. Dandelion’s journal entry even reminds us, “Was he also a good man? That I do not know. Geralt told me later some incidents from his past gnawed on his conscience. We shall never know precisely what moral burdens he carried, for Milton de Peyrac-Peyran perished in the palace gardens, the Beast's fourth victim. May he rest in peace.” So again, we’ve only got Syanna’s word here. As she herself points out, this was supposedly the behavior that comes forth when no one else is watching and she made sure she was the only witness left to tell the tale. 

Regardless of whether the knights deserved revenge killings, we ultimately can’t say Syanna didn’t bring the consequences of that down on herself. Syanna outright tells you in The Land of a Thousand Fables that she’s either going to burn everything down or get burned herself. She was prepared for an outcome like this and was willing to risk it. Dettlaff, meanwhile, finally gets to be free of her manipulation. He’s also no longer a threat to anyone given a) that specific context of manipulation, now finished, is unlikely to ever repeat. He only kills because he’s being blackmailed with a loved one’s life, b) him outright promising to stay away from men now (a common theme in the game: letting monsters go if they promise to do better), and c) having Regis tail after him to keep doing the work of teaching him how to better control his emotions. Anna Henrietta is still alive, keeping her kingdom intact. She’s now reconciled with Dandelion in her grief. Damien kind of hates you but he was never interested in having the full picture anyway... 

...and then there’s Regis. From nearly the start this contract is built around his friendship, his loyalty, and his desperate desire to help Dettlaff rather than just killing him like a common beast. Something that resonates all the more if you do the Unseen Elder quest and talk to him about how living here is akin to the most uncomfortable scenario you can imagine with the added “bonus” of people trying to kill you if you put a single toe out of line. He needs all the friends he can get, regardless of life debts he might owe them. Plus, those friends include you, as Geralt. You find out Regis is miraculously alive after (almost) dying for you in an effort to save your daughter... I wasn’t about to turn my back on him if there was any possible way to save his blood brother. Especially once you learn about the punishment one higher vampire receives for killing another. It would be one thing to tell Regis, “Sorry, your friend has done too much wrong. I have to kill him” and something else entirely to say, “Sorry, your friend has done too much wrong so you have to kill him, considering that’s literally the only way to end things. And once you do you’ll be forced to leave your home and be hunted by your own kind forevermore. The notes in your journal? About not being human but not feeling like you fit in with vampires either? I’m going to make that a reality.” 

Yeah... saving Syanna’s not worth all that in my opinion. Obviously each ending is meant to be bittersweet in its way, there’s no perfect happy ending as we expect of the Witcher, but only one keeps a kingdom intact, punishes the puppetmaster who started all this in the first place, and allows Regis---someone actually innocent and just wanting to help---to keep his home and remain a part of his people. I’ll just be over here then, thoroughly embracing the “bad” ending with absolutely no regrets lol