spite is 1/3 of this relationship and I'm tired of the game pretending he's not. playing cards? hilarious. let me suck his dick NOW!!! D:<
me and @dandyboyandy have been talking about lucanis (post-game) being able to give partial control to spite so they're able to co-pilot the body like it's fucking voltron or something. it's goofy as hell, but in my mind they've got sans undertale eyes during that "in-between" state
^ KINDA LIKE THIS ^
the limbs spite controls have a purple glow or smoke coming out of them (kinda like the wings do) and their voices will overlap sometimes
also, just to add on to what's already canon: when spite is in full control, he can grow fangs and claws because he's a little creature BUT when they retract it leaves lucanis sore for days so he can't do it all the time
When the final battle ends, Caelen feels overwhelmed by the emotions and thoughts he had been forced to push aside for so long. He shuts down as everything sinks back in, but Lucanis and Spite remain by his side.
The parchment is rough, irregularly cut, the ink soaked too deep in places. The handwriting is strange—almost Lucanis’, but not. There’s a lilt to it that doesn’t belong to him. A lack of control. Lines that start too hard and spiral at the ends. It tilts where his steadies, coils where his cuts clean.
Her pulse skips. Her breath catches.
Spite.
Spiterookanis with Renzo is kinda funny because it's just that meme with a dude turning to see another girl but twice. It's Spite=>Renzo=>Lucanis and Renzo is like. Part fascinated part flattered part spooked by a demon caring about him in any way before (in his mind) the host even gets anywhere near giving a shit.
I think he'd laugh about it, as he does with things that make him vaguely uncomfortable, but deep down he would either be a bit disappointed, because of course only a demon cares about him before anyone else, or just conclude that a demon finds him useful and that's why he cares, nothing new there, and at least he can keep an eye on Spite this way.
Spite, in the meantime, is just a little guy who thinks that Rook is a perfect helpful sunshine and the funniest person in the room. Oh, and Lucanis thinks about him too much sometimes for some reason.
Rules: Take the first line from your 10 (or fewer) most recent fics.
(assume all my fics are some variety of explicit)
1. A Lifetime Of Denial, Rookanis, Drag Bar Modern AU: "Donella has known the Dellamortes since childhood, all of them dressed like little dolls for display."
2. Late Nights, Drag Bar Modern AU: "On the nights Lucanis performs as Spite, Bea always feels like she's seeing genuine magic on stage."
3. Roots Planted In My Skin, Illario/Rook: "It's simple, at first, staying away from Illario."
4. So Sweet, OC / OC, Drag Bar Modern AU: "Maybe this is a bit much, Bea can admit it."
5. Core Memories, OC / OC, Drag Bar Modern AU: "Someone puts a sandwich wrapped in creased waxed paper down in front of Rafe, and he doesn't have to look up to know it's Bea."
6. Moonlight Magic, Illario/Rook, Mafia AU: ""Your regular's here." Ayden snarks at her from the other side of the bar."
7. Pull Your Boots Up, Lucanis + Rook genfic: "They're walking back through the Crossroads after another day of helping out in Dock Town. (Neve still won't look at either Rook or Lucanis himself. They show up anyway.)"
8. Sell My Sour Soul, Illario/Rook: "It's stupid. It's not like she hasn't killed before."
9. Headlock, Rookanis: "My husband is alive."
^ cheated on this one lmfao
10. Part Like Holy Water, Spite/Rook/Lucanis: "Spite visits her dreams, after their trip into the Fade together."
tagging @defenseattorneyofneve, @nonagesimus and @thewardenisonthecase <3
Spite purred and made little nippy sounds, biting at the air affectionately to show his appreciation for Saar's effort. His eyes were closed and he looked contented. In response, Saar blew kisses his way, looking even more like a lovesick fool.
Spite tilted his head, trying to come up with the best response to the blown kisses; the first one he 'ate', the second he did kissy lips back, but seemed unsure how long to hold it. The last one he 'caught' between his hands and 'ate'.
@dandyboyandy is an excellent rp partner that writes a fantastic spite. he's such a creature I needed to sketch this bit in particular =w=
OBVIOUSLY, I understand why Lucanis and Spite aren't written as a polyamorous route for Rook. The romance was supposed to focus on Lucanis, it just so happens that Spite is… also there, ALL of the time, inside of his head. A situation the devs just handwaved with "he just leaves to go read a book" (which is hilariously bad).
Sure, I understand we were never meant to feel attracted to Spite, and somehow I'm the weird one for wanting to fuck him. He's reduced to a sidekick even in canon. I get that a lot of people who romanced Lucanis wouldn't be interested in ALSO dating the spirit possessing him, and forcing them to would turn players off his route.
On the technical side of things, a polyamorous option would be far too ambitious for a game that was already cutting off chunks of content. Lucanis being a "solo" route makes the relationship more streamlined and easier to write, although you do need to keep dancing around the fact Spite's watching him fumble Rook in the pantry.
Not to mention you don't even have to get into the intricacies of what it means to date a spirit! You can just tell him to fuck off to a different room, however THAT'S supposed to work. Like, whatever, that's how it was always meant to be. Bioware was never going to let me fuck both of these dudes, because they probably didn't mean to write one of them as fuckable to begin with!!! (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
BUT I LOVE SPITE DELLAMORTE, and here's why I'd be invested in pursuing a relationship with him WHILE romancing Lucanis (because they're items frequently bought together, do not separate):
So, I've briefly touched on the logbook entries, and mentioned the potential in exploring Spite's unique way of interacting with the "real" world. I'm going to leave discussing Inner Demons for last, since it's arguably the most important piece for this puzzle. I'll start off with the stuff that speaks for itself in a series of bullet points.
-Him punching Lucanis because "he wants to talk to Rook" is very hot, and the fact Lucanis just stands there and takes it is also incredibly hot;
-"Spirit of Determination" (aka how he's introduced in the Hall of Valor) might be the sexiest title ever, along with "Demon of Spite" itself;
-I love that he's a little freak that just goes around sniffing people and wanting to eat candles or set stuff on fire. He's such a creature. Spite's who I immediately think of when I read words like gremlin or scrunglo;
-His unique speech pattern and the cartoonish voice he has. I remember the first time I heard him I immediately thought of a moustache-twirling villain tying me to the train tracks and going "GYAHAHAHA";
-I love to hear his opinions on other spirits, it really sets him apart from just embodying the concept of "spite", if that makes sense. His reaction to Manfred stands out to me, since Spite doesn't seem to recognize him as a wisp at first ("WHAT IS. FOLLOWING?"). One of my favorite things about their dynamic is his reaction if Emmrich turns into a lich. But I also love his apparent disdain for Compassion, and how both he and Lucanis aren't fond of the Great Necropolis or Keepsake and Curio;
-In a party banter between a Hardened Lucanis and Bellara, he pulls out the banger "We ate. A prisoner's nightmare. He dreamed... a bloodthirsty tree... with ten thousand branches." which is also incredibly hot to me;
-This is more of a joint reason to love both Lucanis and Spite, but the fact Lucanis orders for him at Café Pietra (during the quest A Moment's Peace) even though Spite can't drink it while non-corporeal is very cute. It quickly becomes a ritual for them, too, as evidenced by the banter with Emmrich in which Spite says "We. Have. An agreement. And coffee.";
-And just the whole "first non-mage with a demon" situation??? The characters don't acknowledge / talk enough about how they're forced together in something that was unprecedented and should've been impossible. One of the party banters that stuck with me the most was actually one with Bellara where Lucanis explains how it happened:
Bellara: You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, Lucanis, but… how did the Venatori stick you with Spite?
Lucanis: They fed me something. Like he was a parasite in uncooked meat.
Bellara: You know, I've spent lots of time around demons, but I've never heard of them being used that way.
Lucanis: Zara said she got the idea from some cult in Orlais. They used it on Seekers. Who are immune to demons.
Bellara gets a bit too curious about Lucanis's personal affairs regarding Spite, sure. But I can't deny how fascinating this is to me. Of course, it doesn't stop at how the connection was made, but the aftermath: Spite isn't interested in taking over or killing his host, like "demons" often are.
Harding: The wing thing, do you do that on purpose?
Lucanis: I don't. Why?
Harding: So you just naturally look amazing when Spite helps.
Harding: Some people get possessed and become mounds of pulsating flesh. You get wings.
Lucanis: Lucky me. My demon has a sense of style.
I've seen the argument of it being a survival instinct of self-preservation (which also applies to him controlling Lucanis to sleepwalk to "safety"). But where it falls apart for me is that... to be blunt, it's not like Spite's getting anything out of sparing his vessel?
From what I can remember, demons are shown to keep their hosts alive for two main reasons: 1. they need a physical vessel to use as conduit for their own purposes (Vengeance needed Anders to enact his righteous ideals); and 2. the demon is trying to incite their respective emotion on the person so they have something to eat. You see the issue, right?
Lucanis isn't even FEEDING HIM WITH SPITE but rather SHUTTING HIM OUT IN A LITERAL MIND PRISON. Spite gets nothing from this other than eternal torment of wandering a grayscale Ossuary. Yes, he takes over Lucanis at the end of Bloodbath, but other than that? He seems to be very patient. The most he will do is "throw a tantrum".
Now, in regards to my personal approach to the(ir) romance route...
I know people have found cut content (see x, x and x) in which we'd be able to romance Lucanis without saving Treviso, a choice that pivots his character quest from forming an alliance with Spite to wanting to get rid of him by any means possible. Lucanis is, as expected, opposed to the idea of "sharing" Rook with Spite. And it makes sense, because in this scenario, he doesn't even want to share his mind!
However, don't forget this is cut content. You can't romance Lucanis if you pick Minrathous, now. I personally think this choice by the devs (no matter how incidental) ended up being really cool to distinguish how Lucanis and Neve differ as characters, but that's a Veilguard positive rant for another day. @dandyboyandy said it best, so I'll quote him:
"[If the developers didn't mean to include Spite in the relationship] then they shouldn't have included him so heavily. He is the literal catalyst for Lucanis's healing [in his route]. Lucanis stays jaded, hurt and spiteful if you save Minrathous to the point that you can't romance him.
His not being romanceable is directly correlated, story-wise, to him not accepting Spite. Lucanis would still be in his head and ultimately would not open himself up further. Yes, Rook helped, of course. But Rook didn't even know Lucanis had SUCH an immense mental block, and wouldn't have gotten past it in their budding relationship if not for Spite."
I'm about to make an insane comparison, but to me? The ideal route to take Lucanis and Spite would be how they handled Eddie and Volt in Date Everything!. In my own, perfect little world, you'd have to spend an equal amount of time with both of them, and prioritizing one over the other would land you in a "bad end" where you don't get to date either.
You can't romance Eddie without Volt and vice-versa, they're a package deal. And to me, personally, you should have to romance Spite in order to date Lucanis. Despite what some character interactions might make us believe, Spite isn't a child, or a pet, or a purple guy in the cuck chair.
HE'S MY HUSBAND AND I LOVE HIM!!! >:[
(disclaimer for the piss on the poor website: this is just my opinion and personal preference, I'm not saying you have to be attracted to Spite to romance Lucanis)
