#and the Cat King would react to a cat daemon

[sthilarions]

Thinking about a daemon AU for Dead Boy Detectives

(We’d have to say that if you become a ghost your daemon doesn’t disappear, obvs)

Charles has a female St. Bernard, Belinda, goofy and affectionate and great with kids and loved ones and will straight-up kill you if you mess with said kids or loved ones. Edwin’s (male) daemon, Prokyon, spent most of its youth as some sort of fancy cat, an Abyssinian or Siamese, but actually settled as an American Raccoon, much to everyone’s surprise. (Fun fact: raccoons rank just below monkeys in intelligence, well above standard household pets. Though they used to be thought solitary, they actually form small social groups of 2-5 animals with raccoons of the same sex.) He never talked in public while Edwin was alive, so that people wouldn’t hear his voice and realize he was male. Edwin still refers to him as “she” when around strangers or when stressed.

(Belinda is from Belinda Carlisle, who wrote Heaven is a Place on Earth, and Prokyon is the Greek word from which Procyon was derived; Procyon means “before-dog” and is both the name of one of the brightest stars in the sky and the first part of the Latin name of raccoons.)

Prokyon curled against Belinda as Charles died.

Belinda regularly scruffs Prokyon to carry him out of danger - and has gotten a couple minor scratches to the muzzle in the process.

The first time one of them touched the other’s daemon, they’d already known each other for 14 years. Belinda was injured in a fight with another ghost’s boar familiar and, once back in their office, Edwin - with great apologies - asked for permission to touch her in order to heal her. Charles, already gasping in pain from the injuries, agreed, expecting agony. But when Edwin lays gentle, delicate fingers against Belinda’s side, it feels like home, it feels like a prayer, it feels like a dream, it feels like solving a mystery.

Monty’s immediately drawn to Prokyon; raccoons and crows just fit together. Monty has no daemon; he tells everyone that his daemon is a bug and kept in a box for safety. His crow form is covered in scars - hidden by his feathers - from where he has been slashed by Esther’s harpy eagle daemon.

The Cat King is his own daemon, changing between daemon form and human form.

Charles first touches Prokyon when they are in Hell. Belinda is too busy fighting demons and wraiths to carry him, and Edwin is too injured and confused, so, with a muttered apology, Charles scoops him up. Charles is holding Prokyon cradled in his arms as Edwin confesses his love.

Crystal’s daemon is a violet-backed starling, and they learn in Port Townsend that he can fly great distances like the daemon of a witch.

Niko’s daemon is a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog.

[acaciapines]

so....abt that adventure time daemon au....sits down with folded hands. im SO SO curious as to what your thoughts are and lowkey wondering if theyre anything like what ive been cooking up in my twisted mind...slash joke...YOU GO FIRST I WANNA KNOW!!

jkdfgdjfkg yeah im gonna focus on the fionna + cake aspects since thats what i posted but if you wanna know about someone else send a followup!! i have the strongest ideas for marceline and more scattered thoughts on everyone else but!! i turn this around in my head a lot lol.

under the cut bc i am incapable of being short

so. the reason fionna world is Like It Is despite nominally being a human au is bc i decided that in ooo, humans are the only people with daemons! everyone else has Something Else, but that something else isnt actually a daemon (this bit is still fuzzy lol since it would just be more bg in anything i write).

so that means the only characters in adventure time who have/had a daemon are finn (tossing around the name honey for her?? shes unsettled but mostly dogs bc they grew up with dogs lol), marceline (she lost her daemon upon becoming a vampire, gets her back at the end of stakes. do not ask me what she is settled as idk as of now lol), and simon (lost her upon becoming ice king, he does Not get her back. i think its fun if she is a penguin bc that makes ice king surrounding himself w penguins super tragic. he knows something is gone but cannot articulate what.)

also i guess people like susan strong and the humans on the human island but shhhh i dont have super strong ideas for them lol.

ALL THAT TO SAY. since fionnaworld was created by prismo (gonna be real idk what his deal is but he is obviously His Own Thing and as a deity type deal he probably is granted w 'can see dust' powers and thus has no idea what daemons are all about) and lives in ice kings/later simons head (one who doesnt know about daemons and one who is mourning the permanent loss of his own) when fionna and cake were "created" finn jake and finn's daemon were mashed into two characters, who are! human and daemon.

everyone else either never had a daemon in normal ooo (ex. pb) or didnt have them at the time fionnaworld was created and thus they werent carried over (ex. marceline.) of everyone tho probably marshall WOULD know the most, this is why he has a line in my fic where he's like, do you know what i'd do for a weird cat? as a sort of hint that he SHOULD have a daemon, but. alas.

uhhh. where am i going with this.

OH RIGHT so yeah basically when fionnaworld became de-magicked it took with it a lot of people's points of connection--everyone ends up way more isolated than they were. since simon is mourning his own daemon that translates to daemons just Not Existing, and so fionna and cake are very much isolated from each other. they dont have the words for their relationship. all fionna knows is she needs cake with her, and vice versa.

cake IS still a daemon, but without that framework shes stuck in the 'normal cat' role even though she does a lot of noncatlike things, n her and fionna are very very good still at sorta knowing what the other is thinking and reacting accordingly. the people closest to fionna (so, really just marshall and gary lol) have SOME idea of what is up but if asked its more leftover instinct than like, the ability to actually explain any of this. fionna and cake try to interact w the world as a human-daemon pair but that doesnt work when the world has no fucking idea what that is.

uh. that. probably answers some question!! i think the plot of fionna and cake itself is MOSTLY the same...really fionna and cake just find out there is a word for who they are to each other n get that relationship reestablished which isnt a far cry from canon. i really like the stuff they do with betty/simon so i wouldnt want to change that, though i imagine there is a bit of simon mourning his lost daemon too--idk i feel like you could tie those feelings in if you were to write a full adaptation but i!! dont think enough changes to do that so i wont be lol.

i mostly just wanted to do episode one bc again. daemon in a world that doesnt know wtf a daemon is. truly the funniest and most tragic thing in the world.

[lyannaelia]

I wouldn't call myself a Catelyn fan, but re-reading ASOIAF and watching HOTD I...appreciate her as a character a lot more.

In many ways, Catelyn's a pretty traditional character and generally accepts and ascribes to traditional gender roles. I would say Cat generally has a bit more power in the North than the average lady, but her and Ned are a pretty classic lord-and-lady relationship. I doubt she's ever even thought about combat training, and her motivations center around her family, specifically her children.

In House of the Dragon, one of the things that bothers me is the idea that Rhaenyra and Alicent (and Rhaenys somewhat) never make decisions or want anything. Say what you will about Catelyn, but she's an active decision-maker in her story even if the decisions are wrong.

After going through her grief over Bran's fall, she almost immediately took it upon herself to go to King's Landing.

She thought quickly and made river lords kidnap Tyrion (again a bad decision but still a decision).

While the northerners are skeptical of her, they still respect her.

She was the one to be at Renly and Stannis' parly.

"Give me Cersei Lannister, Lord Karstark , and you would see how gentle a woman can be," Catelyn replied.

While she was under the influence of grief when she freed Jaime and once again, despite it being a bad decision, it was still hers and there's a difference between being emotional and mad.

Compare that to HOTD where it seems like both Rhaenyra and Alicent don't actually want things or actively choose to do things and more just react. Rhaenyra doesn't want war or her crown Daemon has to convince her of it. Alicent doesn't want Aegon on the throne, she just "misheard" Visery's wishes, and she didn't even know that anyone was trying to usurp Rhaenyra!

I have a lot of issues with GRRM, but it feels like his female POV characters, Arya, Daenerys, Cat, Arianne, Brienne, Cersei, and even Sansa (I would say the POV character in the most passive position) all have agency and active desires in a way HOTD doesn't yet.

[fixablebubble]

Hypothetical question for you! Bastards area BIG DEAL in Westeros if you're one of the top guys and if you're a woman it's even worse. Seeing how Lady Stark handled Jon, how do you think Rhaenyra or Allicent would react when faced with a Bastard? We know they tried to keep Rhaenys from knowing about Corlys's for how she'd go murderous lol but thoughts on the other two?

Ohhhh I like this hypothetical. Let’s start with Alicent:

I don’t think Alicent loved Viserys or enjoyed being intimate with him. I think she took on the caretaker/supportive role out of duty and no other choice, not out of any love or bond with Viserys. She seems very rigid and curt with him most times, especially towards the end. I think that she would relish in the fact that his attention/affection isn’t on her so she can be left alone. Also, being a queen and generally passive/submissive to men in most scenarios, I think she would know it’s her “duty” to look the other way if her husband has any affairs and subsequent children, as queens have always done in reality and in Westeros.

Alicent is very much led by her sense of “duty” and her role as a Queen and a mother. She knows that husbands, especially kings, are not always faithful. Bastards happen, especially in male dominated societies where men can do -basically- whatever they want when it comes to their wives and extramarital affairs.

This is mind, I wouldn’t at all be surprised if she tried to prevent any bastards by giving the women “tea” if they happened to be members of court. Like “do what you want with my husband but let’s not make this a daycare.”

As much as I dislike and distrust Alicent, I don’t see her as the Cersei type because she’d have no reason to kill/go after any bastards since she knows HER children are legitimate and that’s all that matters in the end. They aren’t a threat, and it means that Viserys is getting his lovin’ somewhere else.

[I could make a separate post about how her reactions to bastards here could be reflected in Helaena as well, since she seemed totally indifferent to where Aegon was and didn’t give a single shit that they couldn’t find him. I don’t think Helaena would blink an eye at Aegon having bastards because Alicent probably 1. Told her that’s just how things are and 2. Helaena is totally fine not being around her husband for reasons I could go on a 45 minute hypothetical presentation for]

Now Rhaenyra on the other hand…

I think Rhaenyra would be hypocritical if she got upset to the point of causing a disturbance/having a huge reaction if she found out Daemon had bastards.

Rhaenyra, too, understands the role of a Queen and Wife, even if Daemon is just Prince Consort. His children wouldn’t be a threat to her legitimate ones, it would just be an issue of loyalty, which we know Daemon probably never was loyal to anyone other than himself in the end, no matter how much he may love them [I don’t mean this to say he doesn’t love/care about anyone but himself, but many of his actions are in some way fulfilling something he wants/needs. Rarely is it selfless. We’ve seen it, but it isn’t a common occurrence].

I think she’d forbid them from being at court/shown to their courtiers or acknowledged in any way, and since she’s the Queen, what she says goes. I think she’d harbor some resentment and mistrust of Daemon but I think they could somewhat recover, similar to Cat and Ned, though it would depend on how many bastards we’re talking about here (lol).

Also in the book Cat felt that she could’ve overlooked many bastards if she didn’t have to see them/if they weren’t quite literally being raised with her legitimate children. I feel Rhae would take that stance as well or at least a very similar one and make sure she wouldn’t have to see them/they wouldn’t be seen by anyone **important** to keep appearances and to keep herself sane.

I hope this is a good answer to your hypothetical! 🥰💖

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

The Cullens Master Post III (General)

Ranking the Cullens

The Cullen Death Count

The Cullens Ranked in Terms of Physical Strength

The Cullens Ranked by Speed (Or A Cop Out But Bella Is Very Slow)

The Cullens Ranked by Speed (Anon Pulls Through With Science!)

The Cullens Ranked by Fighting Ability

The Cullens Ranked by How Delusional They Are

The Cullens Ranked by Attractiveness

The Cullens and Drawing

The Cullens and Cringe

The Cullens and Being Set in their Ways

Bullet Pointing the Cullens

Which Cullens Would Want a Baby if Possible

The Cullens’ Sexuality: They’re All Gay

Who Among the Family Could Murder a Cullen?

What Would It Take the Cullens to Realize Edward is Edward and What Would They Do?

The Cullens and Texting

A Closer Look at the Cullens and Their Relationships

The Cullens and 21st Century Music

How Could Each of the Cullens Work Through Their Issues and Become Better People?

The Cullens Will Never Get a Pet Dog

Which Cullens Could Create a Vampire?

The Cullens and Modern American Politics

Which Cullen Would Have Sex with Their Clone?

How Would the Cullens React if <Pick Random Twilight Character Exploded> in Front of Them?

The Cullens, Dogs, and Cats

The Cullens and TV

The Cullens and Their Fancy South Korean TV

The Cullens and Prom

The Cullens on their Days Off

The Cullens and Accents

Did The Cullens Ever Go Back to Financially Assist Their Family?

What if Vampires Could Feed on Humans With 0 Consequences Whatsoever to the Human? Would the Cullens Still Animal Diet Then?!

Which Cullens Thrive in College?

Songs for the Cullens

What Pets Would the Human Cullens Have?

If the Cullens Ate People How Would They Choose Victims?

The Cullens and Their Dysfunctional Relationships with Their Human Families

What Non-Predators Do the Cullens Resemble?

Who Would Help Renesmee Hide Jacob Black’s Body?

What Daemons Would the Cullens Have?

The Cullens and Karaoke!

If the Cullens Could Change One Thing About Vampirism Each, What Would it Be?

How Would the Cullens React to Meeting Someone with the Same Gift?

Which Cullens Would Like Passion of the Christ?

What Would the Cullens Eat if They Could Have Human Food Again Only Once?

If the Cullens Completely Fall Apart and Each Go Their Separate Ways, Who Stays on the Diet?

What Languages do the Cullens Speak?

The Cullens’ View on Religion

The Cullens and Halloween Costumes

How Would the Cullens React to Jacob and Renesmee Dating?

The Cullens as Cats

The Cullens and Clothes

The Cullens and Familicide

The Cullens and Identical Alternate Gender Twins

The Cullens Locked in a Room with a Human

The Cullens and Tumblr Aesthetics

The Cullens and Pod People

Which Cullens Join the Avengers and Are Useful?

The Cullens as Buffyverse Vampires

The Cullens and Anime

The Cullens and Computers

The Cullens and Dogs

The Cullens and Getting Cursed by Evil Dolls

The Cullens and Escaping Silent Hill

The Cullens and the King in Yellow

The Cullens and Socialism

The Cullens and Being Smart Phones

The Cullens and Disney Songs

How do the Cullens React to Being Robbed of Everything?

Which Cullens Could Throw Off the Imperious?

The Cullens and the One Ring

The Cullens and Pyramid Schemes

The Cullens and Pokemon

The Cullens and Breaking Bad

The Cullens and Growing a Beard

The Cullens and Renesmee’s Stunted Growth

The Cullens and Substance Abuse

The Cullens and Favorite Months

The Cullens and Animagi Forms

The Cullens and Halloween

The Cullens and Sports

The Cullen Cover Story

The Cullens Aren’t Always in High School, You Know

The Cullens Don’t Go to Picture Day

Yes, the Cullens Do Go to College

What if the Cullens Were Accused of Being Vampires?

The Cullens and Faking Ages

Some Thoughts on the Cullen Backstory Permutations

Who Came Up with the High School Scheme Anyway?

Why Don’t the Cullens Ever Change Their Names?

Would the Cullens Have an Easier Time if They Pretended to Be Amish? (No, it’d be Much Harder)

Thoughts on the Denali-Cullen Cover Story

The Cullens and Group Projects

Why Bother with the Cover Story at All?

Why Don’t They Ever Change Their First Names?

What Cover Story Would Be Better? (The Cover Story is Fine, Guys)

Why Haven’t They Been Caught Yet?

Why Didn’t the Cullens Leave America? (Or in Amerika We All Know Neighbors)

What Happens to the Cover Story After Renesmee?

The Reason Why Esme Can’t Go to School

Why the Cullens Like Mild Weather

No, Charlie Being a Vampire Would Not Make Them Look Less Weird or Incestuous

The Cullen Family

The Cullens (Except Carlisle) Do Not Value Human Life

Why No One Stayed in New Moon

The Cullens and the Quileute Tribe

Renesmee’s Punny Fake Name, Alice’s Escape Plan, and Bella’s Bad Habits

Where Do the Cullens Get Their Sporting Equipment?

Why Edward and Rosalie Can’t Both Be Carlisle 2.0

Bella and Rosalie’s Relationship Post Breaking Dawn

Why Was Hunting Such a Big Deal in Breaking Dawn?

Have the Cullens Ever Killed Someone to Protect the Secret?

Didn’t the Cullens Know that Jake’s Going to Marry Renesmee? (No, Jake Insisted it Could Be Platonic and Bella Desperately Wishes to Believe Him)

Without Irina, How Long Could the Cullens Have Hidden Renesmee? (Long Enough but Still Not Long)

Wouldn’t the Cullens Have for Sure Lost Breaking Dawn Even with the Wolves? (Unclear)

The Cullens Would Not Keep an Immortal, Consenting, Pain Free Human as a Blood Bag for their Own Convenience

Conditions for a Cullen Town

No, The Cullens Are Not Setting Up the World’s Sketchiest Fake Charity to Eat Blood of Those Ineligible to Donate

The Cullens and Nicknames

If Emmett Can’t Eat Bears He’s Off the Diet

A Very Merry Unbirthday to the Cullens

The Cullens Being Called Skinny Legends

The Cullens, Farting, and Bella Swan

The Cullens and Fun Facts in Front of Class

The Cullens and Halloween

The Cullens and High Fashion

What if the Cullens Had to Hide Another Swan Family Member During the James Debacle?

Cullens and Graves

Alice vs. Bella’s BMI

What Do the Cullens Do for Bro Time/Girl Time?

Babysitting With the Cullens (It Doesn’t Go Well) and Anon Argues that This Fandom Can Have Fluff with Babies

How Often Do the Cullens Have Visitors?

The Cullens Hobbies

What if a New Cullen Joined Who Cared About Human Life?

Do the Cullens Ever Live Apart?

The Cullens’ Favorite Season

Did the Cullens Ever Look at Bella and Feel Responsible for Her Misfortune?

The Cullens Hogwarts AU

What Do Carlisle’s Friends Think of the Family?

The Cullens and Christmas

What if Esme Led the Cullens/Why Was Carlisle in Charge Anyway?

What if the Cullens Had Red Eyes?

The Cullen Family Without Technology

Have the Cullens Been to Disney World?

The Cullens and Gaming

Who Will Die First: Edward or Bella?

How Long Do Cullen Hunting Trips Take?

The Cullens and Thanksgiving

Which Cullens Don’t Listen to Alice’s Visions?

How Would Bella and Edward Divide a Cake?

Do Any of the Cullens Talk About their Feelings?

How Do the Cullens Feel About Bella and Renesmee?

The Cullens Compared to Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Do the Cullens Argue?

Would Any of the Cullens Become Vampire Hunters?

Would the Cullens Stay Together and on the Diet if Carlisle Died?

Why Do Edward, Alice, and Bella Conclude that Bella’s Not Gifted?

Okay, But Would the Cullens Realize Imprinting Isn’t Okay if Renesmee Was a Gross Baby?

Alright, But Would the Cullens Ever Actually Be Cool with Carlisle Running off to Volterra With Renesmee? (No, it’d be the Destruction of the Family)

Would the Cullens Ever Be in a Musical?

What Would the Family Dynamics Be Like if Carlisle Didn’t Have a Perfect Record?

How Do the Cullens Feel About Vampires?

How Rich Are the Cullens?

What if They Were Able to Mentally Mature a Few More Years?

If the Cullens Were Much Older Then Would They Do the High School Thing? (They’d Be Very Different People)

The Cullens and Group Projects

The Cullen Kids and Parttime Jobs

What if the Cullens Had Realized in Twilight How Creepy Edward Was Being?

Were Alice and Esme Really That Good at Fighting and Edward Was Right in Jasper Being Overprotective?

If We Swapped Everyone’s Backstory, Would They Be Different?

When the Cullens Leave Society Behind, What Happens to the Money?

Who Could Rob the Cullens?

The Cullens and Goncharov (1973)

The Cullens are American

The Cullens are a Dysfunctional Family Dinner

Freud’s Thoughts on the Cullens

What Happened When Maria Visited?

The Cullens Would Not Go Off the Diet Facing Impending Doom with No Way Out

The Cullens and Why It’s Okay That They Avoid Christmas Parties

Would Bella Be Allowed to Join if She Refused to Do the Diet?

Would the Cullens Go to Therapy if the Volturi Had a Therapist?

What Would People Think of the Things in the Cullen House?

Why Did the Cullens Even Come to Forks?

Could the Cullens Run an Alpaca Farm? (No)

What Would the Cullens Think of Lestat from Interview with a Vampire?

The Cullens and Clothes

Would the Cullens Have Sought Vengeance if Victoria Had Killed Bella?

Why Facebook is Bad for the Cullens (And Also, Vampires Revealing Themselves is Very Bad for Humanity)

Do the Cullens Race Cars?

What if Bella Beat Edward in a Car Race?

Do the Cullens Actually Play Chess Games in their Heads?

How Would the Cullens React to Jacob’s Disappearance/Death?

Why Can’t the Cullens Drink Expired Donated Blood?

Why Did the Cullens Stay After it Was Revealed to Charlie?

Can the Cullens Watch Gory Movies?

What About Trail Cameras?

The Cullens Are Not Inherently Evil For Having Biases

What Would the Cullens Think of Walter White?

How Would the Cullens React if Renesmee Murdered Jacob in Vengeance?

What do the Cullens Think of Bella and Edward’s Wedding and Plan to Have Sex While Bella’s Human?

Aro Did Give the Cullens a Clear Deadline

Do the Cullens Have Made Up Twin Languages? (Edward and Alice Do, No One Else)

What Would Make the Cullens Go off the Grid?

Would the Cullens Agree to Be Mind Controlled to Give Them Better Control?

The Family Didn’t Think Edward Was Obsessed with Bella at First? How Would They Know?

Cullen Birthdays?

Which Cullen Woman is the Most Callous?

Which Cullen is Most Like the Romanians?

Which Cullen Man is the Most Callous?

Is 2023 Too Late for the Cullens and Technology?

What Would the Cullens Think of a Vampire Who Needed to Sleep?

Do the Cullens Have Sex Every Night?

The Cullens and Living Underwater

Do the Cullens Realize the End of the Human Charade is Near?

Do the Cullens Donate to Charity?

What Does the Grocer Think of the Cullens?

Okay, But Do the Cullens Donate the Food They Purchase?

Would the Cullen Kids Guess Carlisle/Aro If They Saw Them Interacting? (Did Fandom?)

Why Didn’t the Cullens Find it Weird When Edward Grabbed Bella’s Face in the Vote? (Or If Fandom Can’t Be Impartial, How Do You Expect the Cullens to Be?)

Would the Cullens Go Back for Bella and Search if they Knew Edward Had Just Left Her in the Woods?

Do People Think They’re in a Cult?

The Cullens vs. Scientology!

Yes, the J. Jenks Thing is Illegal

Why Didn’t the Cullens Reach Out to Maria in Breaking Dawn?

The Cullens Aren’t Hobbits

How Would They React to a Renesmee Stronger and Faster than Vampires?

Bella and Edward Watching Nosferatu 2024

[fangirlmiv]

death in red

Ignis x Aranea, fantasy AU.

Prompt: Day 4, Comforting/Omen!Character (AKA dark/evil!Character).

Rating: G.

Warnings: None.

Words: 673.

(A drabble I had floating around that at least fits the evil! part of the prompt of day 4. Srry, it's an AU. Playing around with daemon possession and a more fantasy-like, conservative setting. Think the Spanish Inquisition and exorcism. Kinda.)

He finds her where he expects her to be. Kneeling in front of the Altar, brazenly positioned in the middle of the aisle. She would not have it any other way, he thinks, as he takes a moment to observe her before crossing the threshold to the Prayer Hall. She is straight-backed, head held high, and her red robes pool around her like a sea of blood. Her hood is thrown back, and her long, silver hair hangs loose, gleaming in the light of the crystal beacons. There is nothing about her that do not speak of strength and cunning and steely pride. Even in stillness, she is magnificent. Placing a hand on his sword to remind himself of his duty, he walks under the arch, adorned with the likeness of sylleblossoms carved with such craftmanship one might think them alive if not for the cold shine of white marble.

Slowly, he begins to walk down the aisle, his boots whistling across the stones that generations of feet have worn smooth. The Prayer Hall is empty at this time, all good, law-abiding citizens awaiting the coming of the Dawn behind bolted doors, the space is vast and cavernous and dead silent around them. But even at this hour of Darkness, there should have been someone keeping vigil.

“What have you done with the priest,” he says quietly as he approaches.

She doesn’t reply immediately, and he stops at the last beacon before the Altar, the crystal reacting to his innate radiance and flares up.

Then she shakes her head, silver hair rippling like silk, and says, without turning her head: “Don’t worry your pretty little head, he’s in a better place.”

There is mockery in her voice, though he is not sure at whom it is directed. He cannot help but remember times when she spoke words to him that at first sounded harsh but upon closer inspection turned out to be anything but. Anything but. He grits his teeth and says the words that has weighed him down like lead ever since he set out to find her.

“I will add him to the tally of your crimes. Lady Aranea Highwind, in the name of King Noctis Lucis Caelum, you are under arrest. You will have to answer for the atrocities you have perpetrated, before men and Gods,” he intones.

She rises, in one smooth move like a cat, her robes falling into place around her and the jagged outline reveals that she is in full armor underneath the red fabric.

“Big words,” she drawls, turning and faces him, and Gods be merciful, she should have remained with her back to him. Looking into those deep green eyes, like silvery forest ponds, there is a clenching feeling in his chest, and it is a struggle to keep his voice steady.

“Do you deny your crimes?”

“No, I am no fool.”

He dares to hope this can be resolved without violence.

She laughs, and the hope crumbles.

“And if you think I will come willingly, you are a fool.” Perhaps he is. Ignis is not a philosopher, but he has never heard that matters of the heart are be ruled by wisdom.

“I have fervently prayed it would not come to this,” he chokes out, unable to prevent his pained heart from spilling over.

Her expression softens, and for a mere moment she is no calamity, only a woman, and he knows that she is no liar. The tenderness in her eyes is real, and it makes it so much worse when the mask slips back on.

“Your King worships death, how could it not come to this?” she huffs. Her eyes begin to glow red and the accursed black stain seeps down her face. Mercifully, she pulls up her hood, hiding the mutilation. Her lance appears in her hand and once more, she is death in red, and he has no choice but to draw his sword, call upon the Light and become death himself.

If only tears could cleanse the soul.