Flame Reaver abducting you because you remind him of the 'you' he knew from his timeline when his life and world were still fine and not facing impending doom.
Nothing about this is healthy because whatever makes the Flame Reaver hold onto you are broken fragments of his memories and feelings for you.
It is not you he's shared a life with once, it's not you who he's held dear once... He knows this but he cannot let you go either. A part of him clings to what he remembers.
He lets you in on who he is - who he once was - and reveals everything to you. What he's doing, what he's trying to achieve and how there is no other way.
And yes, you might feel drawn to him. Maybe the remnants of a past life get awoken by being exposed to his presence for long. Or maybe the revelation of who he truly is changes the way you feel too. Maybe he shows you he's not actually evil. He saves you from creatures from Black Tide, provides you with necessities while you're (forced to be) with him...
So what do you do? Oppose him and try to escape? He won't kill you if you try to run away but won't let you leave either. If you try to fight he might not see another way for your fate either and he would raise his sword to you too.
What then? Stay with him and hope for your friends to save you? Or try to help him and hope to find a way to change his ways? Because maybe his goal is the right thing, it's what everyone in Amphoreus would want, but his means to get there are destructive and horrible.
He has no limits to what he would do to achieve these goals and thinking you could change his way is wishful thinking at best and utterly delusional at worst.
hi krokus i was wondering if you had any yummy thought brewing abt flame reaver? (˶>⩊<˶)
Hi anon!! (￣▽￣)ノ
Hnng I do have some thoughts brewing about my kinda bad, kinda hot, and totally I-don't-know-what-your-deal-is-yet-but-I'm-scared-and-horny-anyway pookie (˘˘ ♡)
Though, they do all kinda relate to the scenario I shared some time ago
I'm gonna share a few small things that I'm including in the smut fic but since they're more in the dub-con territory I'll share them under the cut~
(also I apologize, I wanted to write like a short headcanon but this turned a tiny bit longer. Treat it as a part of the smut fic from his POV because the fic itself is from Reader's POV)
-- -- -- -- -- --
I like to think that Flame Reaver looks at you and is flooded with a surge of images that he's not even sure are real. He can't grab a hold of a single one of them, all blurred and faint images, nothing he can specifically identify but it leaves him with feelings. And all these sensations collide with his motivation, his goals, his very purpose.
It hurts but they're so overwhelming that he acts on them. On mere instinct.
That's why he doesn't attack you. That's why he reaches for you and vanishes with you instead. Why he's removing his mask, why he is approaching you without a sword in his hands.
And why he ultimately moves in on you.
Somewhere, far beyond the corruption from the Black Tide, a part of his conscience still tries to break through. And it makes him realize that what he's doing is not right. Not what he should be doing. He had a purpose after all. He had a task to fulfill.
But he does realize it's mostly wrong to you. He shouldn't be doing this. No matter how you react, the sounds you make...
But all he manages to do in this state - delirious, yearning, and overcome by feelings and sensations he hasn't experienced in so long - is to turn your head away whenever you try to look at him.
He makes you avoid the eye contact - mask or not. You don't - shouldn't - see him like this.
Whatever a part of him saw in you - be it a fragment of a memory or if you are the same you just in another life - you shouldn't see him like this.
-- -- -- -- -- --
I hope you like it, anon ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡
And thank you so much for sending this ask and enabling my tiny obsession with this guy ♡(>ᴗ•)
“Take it off… Please. Let me see your face," she whispered, her fingers ghosting over the metal mask hiding his face from her and from the world around him.
“… No. You shouldn't... perceive me… in this state," he said, his voice strained from the effort it took for him to speak at this point. It made her stomach churn, though the realization that she had nothing to offer him to ease his pain stung even more.
“Please, I want to.”
“… why?”
“Despite it all, behind this mask is the man I chose."
And she would choose him again. Despite his suffering, the desperate and dire mesaures he took to bring about a new chance for this crumbling world, she would choose him again. In this lifetime or the next.
Thank you so, so much @scarameownya for this commission! I absolutely adore these little guys and looking at them brings a smile to my face every time ♡ Also an extra thank you for going along with this idea and drawing a mask instead of face for this ♡
This took me so long but I'm so happy and proud that I finally finished this ♡
I do treat Flame Reaver x Lina as a separate ship from Phainon x Lina, although they're technically the same person.
Flame Reaver x Lina will eventually end with Phainon and Flame Reaver both surviving(or staying separate if that merging theory turns out to be true). Essentially, Lina makes a choice in that verse that has her stay with FR, helping and trying to mend whatever she can of his broken soul when the corruption from the Black Tide fades and his goals fulfilled.
There's a whole lot more to unpack there and I have a lot of thoughts about it but I leave it at that.
Though, I don't think I'll draw him again haha He was so difficult and the coloring took forever, especially since I wanted to avoid using pure black as much as possible(I only used it for the darkest shadows) and I'm really proud how it worked out.
I used refs for the pose and to get the size difference right.
aka Lina encounters the Flame Reaver for the first time
Words: 1k
Tags/Warnings: Angst
Lina didn’t know they would encounter him. Not here. Not anytime soon. Especially not when she was separated from the rest, asking her to stay here - in presumed safety - until they checked out the ruined area ahead.
Fighting was not her strong suit. She could hardly deal with any enemy at all. She was in the destroyed outskirts of Okhema as support, to bring healing supplies in case they encountered wounded soldiers from the city.
Even so, she probably should’ve declined and stayed home. Leave the task to the soldiers and actual healers.
But, Phainon had asked her to. They haven’t seen each other for days by now because of the Flame-Chase journey. And after his failed trial, Lina didn’t want to leave his side more than she absolutely had to.
But now, regret crept up inside of her.
The Flame Reaver hovered in the air, his presence suffocating. His figure was imposing, as if his mere presence devoured the light around him until only dread and darkness remained. That Kephale’s light did not reach here anymore made him all the more menacing among the ruins of what once was a thriving village in the outskirts of Okhema.
Lina stared at him, but she remained frozen in spot.
What could she do? He would have impaled her on his sword before she could manage to turn around. Maybe she could scream, though the outcome would remain the same.
Lina swallowed and out of instinct took a step back.
It was as if that subtle movement broke whatever stillness and tension had ruled the moment.
The Flame Reaver turned his head to her, watching - observing - her from behind that unsettling mask.
“You…” he said and the distortion in his voice sent a shiver down her spine, “Divinity lingers on you.”
Lina’s eyes widened. Out of instinct she wanted to protest, defend herself because no, she was neither a Chrysos Heir nor in any other way related to the Titans. She knew Phainon of course, was as familiar with him as one could be, she’s met Lady Aglaea before or encountered Lord Tribbie in the streets of Okhema but that was the extent of her connection to anything divine.
Phainon had mentioned that when Lady Castorice was at the Grove, the Flame Reaver had given them a chance to retreat before they fought him.
If he truly was only after the Coreflames then she was not his target. She had nothing to do with any of this.
She didn’t get a moment to utter a single word.
The Flame Reaver moved and within a flash he was right in front of her. Imposing and his huge frame towering over her.
Lina yelped, stumbled backwards. And was caught by the ruins of a wall behind her. She stared at the dark figure with wide eyes and a pounding heart as he hovered so close in front of her, his sword glistening in the faint light from the torches around them.
Phainon, where are you?
The Flame Reaver made a sound, akin to a groan, and for a moment he lowered his masked and hooded face. To look at her, study her, and despite the mask it seemed as if he was staring right through her. Lina held her breath, her back pressing into the wall behind her, as she could do nothing but wait. And hope.
For him to realize she was not a Chrysos Heir, did not hold a Coreflame…
… And for Phainon to arrive here on time.
“You,” he said again. It sounded strained this time. As if he struggled to make sense of something. Of her.
“You should not be here,” he said, his voice full of melancholy and grief and a faint frustration. And for a reason she couldn’t fathom, it tugged at her heartstrings. His masked face stared at her, watching and observing before he lifted one hand as if to reach out towards her in a gesture so slow that it should scare her. It should make her cower in fright since death was obviously about to claim her.
Yet, death never came.
The Flame Reaver’s hand hovered in front of Lina’s face before he lowered it, as if giving up.
"This fate is… inevitable," he said but it sounded as if it was turned inwards. Words spoken to himself instead of her but that was not what made her pause, what made her widen her eyes.
Even through the distortion in his voice she could hear the defeat and sorrow in his voice. A sorrow that sounded so familiar to her that it was the sole reason for how her stomach churned. Not his figure, not the looming threat.
Just…
Although the moment lasted barely moments, she realized how lost in thought he was, how his gaze behind the mask was turned inwards. Turned towards a memory of something that got lost in the destruction of the tide, a remnant of something from a time before the darkness took a hold of him. Before he became this figure of shadows and ruin.
And nothing scared her more than the realization just how familiar that something felt to her.
Not her own experience.
But a sorrow and grief from someone who lost everything.
The Flame Reaver vanished in a pool of shadows in an instant. Left her pondering this strange encounter by herself within the ruins around her.
Calls of her name filled the air eventually and Lina barely managed to look up before catching sight of Phainon’s clear blue eyes. His smile was gone, nothing of his usual enthusiasm when he saw her remained, and he reached out to her full of worry. The fear and grief at the prospect of potentially losing her ruled every spoken word and touch of his as he pulled her into his arms.
Lina’s chest clenched painfully as she realized how this familiarity from before kept lingering, kept beating like a pulse in her soul with each word of concern Phainon whispered to her.
This would actually depict the relationship after the game's story. Basically when the Black Tide is gone and Amphoreus is saved, when there's no more need to hunt for Coreflames or to wear a mask, but it felt wrong to use a picture of Phainon for it :')
Enemies to lovers is also rather one-sided because FR never once considered her as such.
I adore them so much and I love indulging in this ship (°◡°♡)
