Day 3 Creature Feature: ASOBAL fanart for @mistandmemories
Spoilers‼️ beat boards based on chapter 23 of A Song of Bonds and Legacies, with steamy flashforward vignettes from chap 33 (classic me)
Song is Mein Herz brennt by Rammstein
SN: The blue blood on Eris is just a visual cue to represent the faebane in his system.
Thank you to the great and powerful @chunkypossum for commissioning me!! You are such an angel, and an incredible author and artist to this community. I can't believe you commissioned so many of us to create pieces for our dearly beloved azris authors. The stars truly aligned for me as Mist was exactly who I was hoping to get picked for. I def got carried away attempting to make my love letter to her as full as possible. She and her writing deserve the world.
I took a few liberties but nothing could ever serve enough justice to Mist's incomparable, brilliant fuckin writing. Please if you haven't read it yet what are you even doing in life??? This is one of those fics that ruined novels for me. It'll change your world, satisfy your loins, fix your health, glow your skin, open your mind to another dimension. Go reread. Go surrender. Go FEAST.
ayooo my voyeur x exhibitionist azris fic continues! I'm shifting focus to some other works, with azris week coming up, so there might be another long wait between chapters since I don't have any more complete after this one haha. So I figured I'd update now, as a treat.
Anyways, the specs:
Rating: E
Chapters: 2/?
Chapter Word Count: 5137
Total Word Count: 8003
If you'd like to go straight to chapter two, click the link above, and if you want to start the fic from the beginning, click here.
A snippet and my taglist below the cut! Let me know if you want on or off!
The next time Azriel showed up in Eris' rooms, some days after he had first been caught out, he was chagrined to find that his shadows still didn't seem to work on the High Prince.
He knew because the first thing that happened when he arrived, wrapped in twice the amount of obscuring darkness he'd normally call on, was Eris' gentle utterance of, "Oh, you're back."
It was so plain and unaffected that Azriel almost forgot how wrong it was that Eris could see him.
It was late, too. Azriel had hoped to catch the male once he'd already gone to bed, having taken most of the day to gear up his confidence to return to his assigned post. But Eris was still in his day clothes, waistcoat unbuttoned, the upper section of his hair still mostly tied back despite the many wisps that had broken free. It was the most undone that Azriel had ever seen the Vanserra since he'd begun his assignment.
It occurred to him distantly that perhaps, this time, he actually had taken Eris by surprise.
Other than his unbuttoned state of dress, however, the Prince made no indication of such. He offered an unstrained half-smile that sent hot embarrassment straight to Azriel's cheeks.
"Thought I'd scared you off," Eris commented blithely, taking his coat from the back of his chair, where he'd apparently hung it instead of in his closet or on a coat rack.
Azriel had never seen Eris use the back of his chair to hang his coat before.
He wondered just how much the Prince had changed about his routines, knowing that he was being watched. And, in wondering such, Azriel arrived at the disquieting realization that Eris had likely known about his presence the entire time.
"You caught me just before I was to retire to bed," Eris told him, his timbre colored with that same familiarity, infuriatingly warm. His voice had always matched his elegance, smooth and easily manipulated. It could fold into any tone with such subtlety that often, he seemed to remain almost entirely impassive, even if he was speaking pure vitriol.
Azriel felt that he would prefer pure vitriol to whatever this was.
Eris went to his closet to hang up his coat in its proper place, turning his back to the Shadowsinger, who remained submerged in his pointless darkness.
"I would say you're welcome to stay," the Autumn Prince called from his closet, "but I don't think I have much choice in the matter, if you're able to get through both my and my Father's wards." After a moment of rustling in there, he emerged, his hair no longer half-bound, sleep pants slung low on his hips.
No top.
For the past few weeks Azriel had been watching him, Eris had always worn a matching nightshirt to bed. The heat clinging to Azriel's face increased, and he kept his eyes steadfastly focused on Eris' mischievously unaffected face.
"Frankly, I should be offended that your High Lord finds me so untrustworthy," he opined, eyes glimmering like he'd told a marvelously smart joke. Azriel did not reply. Eris shrugged. "Though I suppose trust does, indeed, have to be earned," he reasoned, and executed the following steps with the same lack of tension he had the last time Azriel saw him: he went to his liquor cabinet, procured the same whisky decanter along with one of his matching glasses from the previous night, and left it on his little high table. He looked at Azriel meaningfully, nodded towards the unpoured liquor, and then retreated to his bathroom.
Azriel stared at the closed door, the strangeness of it all sending his stomach into knots.
It hadn't loosened by the time Eris emerged all washed and brushed, some water still clinging to his hairline from when he'd cleaned his face. Without so much as a glance in Azriel's direction, he stretched his arms up over his head, forcing the Shadowsinger’s attention down towards his half-nude body. The stretch elongated his already slim, muscular torso almost to the point of grotesqueness. His ribs stuck out, his chest rose, his hips tipped back, and right when Azriel thought Eris couldn't stretch any further, a faint pop sounded from the Prince’s back. The High Prince relaxed. When he opened his eyes, he threw Azriel a look that had him averting his own. The stretch had been as much a theatrical performance as it had been a structural realignment, that look told him. And he had watched in rapt attention, fallen right into Eris' little game.
Before Azriel could process it, Eris went over to his desk and blew out his candle, plunging them both into the darkness that the Shadowsinger was so familiar with. He could hear Eris getting into bed, settling in without any further protest to Azriel's presence.
And while he didn't go near the bottle and glass Eris had set out for him, Azriel stayed until the Prince fell asleep, as he had every time before.
Alas, that still wasn't how it really began.
Azriel wished that it was. He wished that had been the beginning and the end, that he had recognized the shift, the transformation of his dynamic with Eris, and let it die young. But he hadn't.
These are probably just purely an amalgamation of headcanons I’ve seen here but he lives in my head rent free so this is just word vomit to bring me some relief.
🍁 He’s super freckly, like all over. They’re not necessarily dark freckles, but they’re there. And everywhere.
🔥 He’s a control freak, he doesn’t mean to be, but he gets so uncomfortable with being out of control. As a result, he hates surprises. Surprise gifts he can tolerate slightly more, but if you try to plan a surprise date? Oh he freaks out. He tries not to, he tries to be grateful but he hasn’t planned for this, and unknown variables have been dangerous in the past. It’s not intentional, it’s pure instinct.
🍂 His men really like him and are very loyal. He is fair but firm with his men, he very much leads from the front, he won’t ask them to do anything he hasn’t/wouldn’t. He has their deep respect, they don’t serve the Autumn Court, they serve Eris Vanserra (Beron doesn’t realise this).
🍁 He has his mother’s colouring but looks so much like his father it makes him sick. It’s part of the reason he has such long hair is so there’s more of his mother to him.
🔥 He has a bad temper but keeps a tight lid on it as he hates losing it because he just feels like Beron when he does. However, he doesn’t really have a good outlet for his anger, so he’s just a boiling pot and occasionally goes and destroys part of the forest when it gets too much. He hates this and always apologises to the land. The land always forgives him.
🍂 He smokes something similar to human weed (like mirthroot). It’s the only way he can sleep and it helps with the pain from injuries healed wrong over the centuries. He has chronic nightmares, even after smoking. But the nights he can’t smoke for whatever reason, he just doesn’t sleep. It’s easier to stay up.
🍁 He tries to take the brunt of his father’s abuse, which is pretty easy as Beron still holds his refusal the night with Jesminda over him. He only needs to bring attention to himself with a sarcastic remark or disagree with Beron slightly for him to forget his prior target.
Inspired by @irithiadourden's sports AU idea with swim captain Eris Vanserra and hockey player Azriel. Y'all--you don't even know what kind of smoking hot scenes she has cooking. It's so hard not to spoil and chat about them, but they're HOT AS ALL GET OUT💦💦🥵💦💦Thank you so much, Iri, for letting me bring their tension to life :D It felt very self-indulgent to draw some eye candy of them both 🤤
"We're called daemati--those of us who can walk into another person's mind as if we were going from one room to another. We're rare, and the trait appears as the Mother wills it, but there are enough of us scattered throughout the world that many---mostly those in positions of influence---extensively train against our skill set." --- Quote from ACOMAF:
I built my personal daemati magic system based on my amateur knowledge of psychology and I felt like sharing it! SJM obviously doesn’t dive into the specifics of what a daemati can do, but I find the power incredibly interesting and wanted to sort out my thoughts and ideas. I have an Autumn OC featured in my fanfic A Court of Embers and Sunlight who is a daemati, and thinking about the depths of his powers as well as Rhysand and Feyre’s powers as daemati really pulled me into a rabbithole.
Please note that I don't know tons about psychology, even though I do use my amateur knowledge of certain terms to explain my thoughts, so there may be a simplification of definitions / topics that are much more complicated than a simple chart like the one I created.
The different levels of the mind:
A list of a daemati's potential talents in order of difficulty (easiest to most difficult) as well as other thoughts:
Reading the person’s self-conciousness (immediate thoughts)
detecting secondary emotions: emotions more complex than primary: usually the emotions we get as a reaction to a primary emotion. (feeling ashamed after getting scared, feeling angry after getting sad, etc)
reading the person’s recent memory (can range from short-term memory to their memory of the past few days)
reading the person’s memory of the distant past (years or decades)
Communication talents: having the ability to speak into a person’s mind
Manipulation talents:
can create or take away pain
can create or take away an emotion: creating the feeling of fear, lust, happiness, eetc; taking away fear, lust, happiness
creating sensory process issues: making a person lose a certain sensation temporarily or permanently aka under-responsivity; over-responsivity, making someone sleepy, etc
manipulating or erasing specific aspects of a person’s short-term memory: making a person forget a name or piece of information they just learned, etc. This would be manipulating specific information, not the entire short-term memory
Short-term memory loss: making a person lose the ability to retain new information. Can be permanent or temporary
Long-term memory loss: making a person forget a past memory, and important moment in their life, or making them forget important cognitive functions such as how to do a certain activity or bodily function
Manipulating a person’s reality by placing new memories in a person’s mind: making them think they lost a family member or friend who has not died; they have a family member or friend who does not exist; making them recall a scenario that did not happen; changing their beliefs
Manipulating memories associated with a specific person or emotion: think Peeta being hijacked in the Mockingjay where the Capital manipulates him to associate pain and fear with memories of Katniss. Is much more complex than 2. creating or taking away an emotion since it involves access to an assortment of memories
What can limit a daemati's power:
Distance: powerful daemati can access minds regardless if the person is next to them or miles away, while others might need to be close to the subject.
The subject's mind walls: a person can be good or exceptional at fortifying and maintaining their mind walls against a daemati. This can be natural based on a person’s fortitude and mental capacity, or something that is taught.
Examples:
in ACOTAR, Nesta was unaffected by Tamlin’s spell, and in SF, Rhysand was also unable to access Nesta’s mind due to the iron walls she kept up.
Rhysand teaching Feyre how to put up her mind wards in ACOMAF
Eris also says that he knows specific techniques for keeping a daemati's powers at bay quote: "I knew it was a matter of time before one of you arrived to take care of my memory as well. Too bad for you, I learned a thing or two about daemati. Too bad for my brothers that I never bothered to teach them."
A typical full-blooded human could usually have walls that are significantly easier to break through compared to the average fae
The daemati's skill level: some daemati can be skilled at breaking through the walls, while others can only access a mind if its walls are easy to break. If the walls cannot be broken through, a daemati will not be able to access the person’s mind at all unless the person becomes vulnerable
Vulnerability: certain things can make a person more vulnerable to a daemati's attacks:
few of the upper levels of the mind can sometimes leak over, such as a person slipping up and expressing pain or a primary emotion
a person's walls could break down when they experience a specific emotion like fear, lust, anger, or when they experience pain
faebane or bloodbane
A person's mind easier to break into during sleep
If the walls are difficult to break through, a skilled daemati could spend hours or days hacking into a person’s mind to gain access. This can be more aggressive / violent, or done slowly to be undetected. Example: Feyre was able to slip into Tarquin's mind by basically pretending to be him. Quote: "There was a shield in place---a shield of sea glass and coral and the undulating sea. I became that sea, became the whisper of waves against stone, the glimmer of sunlight on a gull's white wings. I became him---became that mental shield".
General ideas for a daemati's varying skill level:
Some could only read a mind to a certain level but not have the ability to manipulate, while more powerful daematis can do both detection and manipulation.
Some could have difficulty with detecting emotion, which makes it hard to detect or manipulate certain memories that are influenced by a certain emotion
A person subconsciously supressing a memory or emotion, making it difficult to access
A daemati's lower constitution prevents them from using their abilities affectively. A daemati who struggles with pain cannot find themselves able to read a person's pain or give them pain. A daemati who struggles with anger or depression cannot deal with reading memories that involve anger or depression. Experiencing another person's mind must feel so viceral, and it is probably incredibly hard to deal with that depending on the person.
Specific powers:
Communication / mind speaking:
A daemati can have the ability to communicate with a person mind to mind. This depends on certain things:
Distance from the subject can make communication more difficult depending on the skill level
a person’s mind walls
varying talents: some daemati could have the power to speak into a person's mind but not manipulate the mind, while some can manipulate but not have the ability to mind-speak
Language (I think this could be more complicated because the daemati could still access feelings and maybe a passive process of thought, but not memories that contain another language the daemati does not know(?))
Animals:
Some daemati could have the ability to read, manipulate, and communicate with animals. This is not necessarily a harder or easier skill: it’s just different since an animal’s mind/way of thinking could be different compared to a Fae or human. Some daemati can read an animal’s emotions, manipulate emotions, and even communicate and read their thoughts just like they could with fae and humans depending on skill level.
Okay, I'm all done! I hope this was enjoyable to read and not too confusing. I would love to have a discussion about this because as you can tell, I'm obsessed
That's what I've been SAying!! Fuckin YES. They on dat Bauhaus, dat sisters of mercy, dat good good Siouxsie, dat ASF, dat Lebanon hanover etc. And they rockin them bats nests and death hawks too, hngfng you got me way too pumped for a Monday morning
I feel so bad for Eris Vanserra; he keeps correctly reading the situation and then having people get mad at him for doing what they wanted him to do.
Mor sleeps with Cassian in the hopes of that ending her engagement with Eris. Eris hears about it and is like, she slept with Cassian? I am ending our engagement. For all we know he gave Mor a fucking wink and thumbs up from across the room as he said it; I doubt she would have noticed or cared regardless.
Mor gets dumped on the Autumn Court border by Keir (and it’s weird that all the blame and anger about this situation seems to be directed at Eris and not Keir, you know the one who actually tortured her). And Eris is like don’t touch her or she’s our responsibility. Hey Mor, checking in, you don’t want to become our responsibility and be forced to live in the Autumn Court, right? And Mor is like I’d rather die, asshole. And Eris is like, got it, roll out boys. And given that we know Eris sent an anonymous tip to Tamlin when Lucien went on the run, it does not seem crazy to assume that after the encounter with Mor, Eris might have secretly sent Azi a note like come get your girl.
And then we have the plan to have Nesta seduce Eris at the ball in order to strengthen his commitment to their alliance. And after he dances with her he goes to Rhysand and is like, hey, I noticed you had Nesta come seduce me and yes, I am in, let’s discuss marriage alliance.
And yet somehow he’s the asshole in these situations. Poor guy.
