I don't know what you could dobwithbthis prompt but a role switch? Like corvo is the outsider (or the raven or something) and Levi is some street rat corvo likes
Levi knows now why the Abbey so adamantly insists that it’s woefully easy to be seduced by the Outsider. They said that he promised power, that he whispered in people’s dreams, that he lured good folk away from good lives guided by Strictures.
They did not ever say that he was handsome enough to make a man swallow his own tongue.
And so Levi remains speechless for a moment, mostly because the Raven God is often thought to be a scary bedtime story for children rather than a real thing but also because said god is tragically beautiful. In the Void, Levi forgets his hunger, forgets the chill in his bones from Dunwall’s terrible winter. He forgets the threat of plague rats and gangs, forgets the often cruel City Watch. The Void feels cold and lonely and empty, save for this one mesmerizing stranger, and Levi thinks briefly that it might be better to stay here.
“Hello, Levi,” the Raven God says, and his Void-layered voice sends chills down Levi’s spine.
Levi glances back at the alley that makes up his shelter. The brick is split apart where the building walls meet the street, and there is no street to walk into.
“Hello,” he replies with an air of caution, because maybe he isn’t a child anymore, but maybe - maybe - the Abbey had more sense than he thought.
The Outsider’s black eyes crinkle at the corners. His smile is a little mischievous, a little sly, and perhaps a bit overly fond. “I’ve been watching you,” he says.
Levi pauses long enough to find his tongue. “Me,” he says, less of a question and more of a disbelieving statement.
“Because you are different,” The Outsider admits, almost reluctant. “I have watched humanity for a long time, and there are few like you.”
“There are always men like me,” Levi objects. “There are thousands in Dunwall alone, just as broken and downtrodden and hungry. There’s a story about a child with your blessing, in circumstances much the same as mine.”
The Outsider tilts his head, brows knitted thoughtfully. Levi finds his black eyes to be near too much, and studies the man’s face instead - dark hair, olive skin paled from lack of sunlight…Levi might’ve called him Serkonan, if he was human, with that strong jawline and wide nose.
“Is that all you think to describe yourself with?” the Outsider asks after a moment.
It isn’t. Levi knows he’s smart, resourceful, ambitious, but most starving folk are. He’s never cared for the Abbey’s preaching, but he still says, “You haven’t called me here to flatter me. Try to make me feel special all you like, but if you wish to tempt me, you’ll need to do better.”
The Outsider smiles again. Levi feels that his remark wasn’t received the way he intended it to be.
“Billie Lurk,” he says, and Levi stills, “is wanted by the City Watch for the murder of Radanis Abele. If you’re caught with her, you’ll be killed.” He vanishes in a cloud of black shards, and Levi stumbles back in surprise as he appears again, right in front of him. “Yet you offer her shelter,” he finishes, voice softer now, his strange eyes betraying his fascination.
Levi’s heart is still pounding in his chest from his scare, though he still manages to speak with an air of defiance. “The Watch holds no friends of mine,” he says. “I am not obligated to give them anything, not even a wanted woman’s location.”
The Outsider’s delighted smile only broadens. He knows, of course, of the two guards Levi killed once, cornered and desperate in a back alley with nothing but a knife and his wits, all for a stolen bit of elixir. “Most of Dunwall’s citizens would disagree with you,” he murmurs.
“Most of Dunwall’s citizens are cowards,” Levi spits.
The Outsider reaches out to take Levi’s hand. Levi tries to pull away, but the Raven God’s grip is strong, and Levi’s hand burns. “You were right in thinking I did not call you here to flatter you,” he says. “I called you here to give you a gift. You have affected the world in a way you can’t yet see, Levi, and I am intrigued enough to grant you with the ability to do it again.”
There’s a weight in his chest now; Levi suddenly feels the Void’s deathly chill strongly, and every bit of him aches. Dunwall’s streets suddenly seem more desirable. “What is this?” he asks, choked, and looks at the mark on his hand when the Outsider releases him.
“Seek out the shrines raised in my name, and the runes they bear,” the Outsider instructs, “And you will have power unlike other men. What you do with this power is your choice.”
The Outsider takes his chin, and Levi is so startled by it all that he doesn’t move as the god angles his face to meet his eyes. “And, dear Levi,” the Outsider says, stern now, “Mind the witch that lives just off Clavering.”
Levi jolts awake on his makeshift bed, his alleyway draped in shadows and open to a street now, as it always was. Billie Lurk sleeps and shivers next to him, her knife still tight in her right hand.
There’s a dark tattoo on his left.
kaledo-art
annaxmalina
jbbartram-illu
yousharknotpass
jacobvanloon
stormborns
gummygunk
