#wrathanswers

[wrathbites]

Ooh Me and the Devil for the WIP ask game?

From here :)

"Me and the Devil" is the working title for the oneshot I'm working on for Lucanis' time in the Ossuary post-fusion with Spite. It's not an easy ride for either of them (and hasn't been for Lucanis up until that point).

Current content is subject to change, but here's a snippet:

The thing inside him stretches, further and further and further still until something inside must surely break, bend, buckle. It hooks him up by the gut, arching his spine and flexing his fingers, his toes, pulling his head so far back he can't swallow or scream or breathe - Stop, he says, gasps, wheezes. He won't beg, not now and not ever, not for this thing or Zara or any other. He won't, but it will kill him if it continues - And he so desperately wants to live. It swivels like the flip-flop swoop of nerves in the stomach, an awareness creeping out like darkness slinks in in those scant moments before a faint. Lucanis blinks one-two-three and everything is tinged purple - the cell and his skin and his fingers curling over the edge of his cot (too long, all joints, nails gone curved and sharp). The violet eyes gleaming at him from the shadows underneath, two and four and six fixed in a stare. He freezes. W h y? it asks from within, a dozen voices plucked from his memories and layered in echoes upon his ears, a darker rasp tucked in the depths. Why? W h y. S t o p? Y o u. D o. N o t.

[wrathbites]

24 for the Rook codex entries !

From the codex entry prompts on this post (thank you! ♥)

24. (the many attempts at) a letter from Rook to a faction leader

Caterina,

I'm paying the courier three times their standard asking price to return this to sender, a kind reminder to refrain from killing the messenger

Firstly, how dare you

KINDLY FUCK OFF

No words in trade, elven, Antivan, Tevene, or otherwise can ever accurately convey just how much I

I take my hat off to you for having the absolute gall

Perhaps we should take you to a healer, you appear to be suffering ill effects from exposure to blood magic or a bump to the head

~

Dear Caterina,

Please kindly take your invitation and shove it where the sun doesn't shine

~

Caterina,

I regret to inform you my attention is required elsewhere for the forseeable future

~

Caterina of House Dellamorte,

Please accept my thanks for your kind words and generosity. Your letter was a most welcome surprise, and it would be my honour to accept your invitation.

I will be in Treviso within the week. Should this be insufficient and you require earlier attendance for such arrangements, please do not hesitate to contact the Fifth Talon, and I shall endeavour to hasten my return.

Kindest regards,

Mewyn de Riva

[wrathbites]

for the wip game, intrigued by Soul Shell.

From here :)

"Soul Shell" is the working title of how Spite views the body of its host at any given time. One could argue the term should be spirit shell, but Spite's not one for entertaining that kind of debate (boring).

The basic gist of the idea is that it's a reality in which Lucanis dies at endgame, leaving the "shell" entirely vacant for Spite to control. And Spite would - except there's an expectation that Lucanis' body will be cremated, leaving it with nowhere to go at all and no way to keep its promise to him in his final moments.

Enter Mewyn - reeling just as Spite is from the loss, who loves (loved) Lucanis as fiercely as Spite does (did), screaming and grieving and angry, so very angry. The world is still crumbling and an unstable mage is a beacon for demons and she's alive, Spite's alive, and Lucanis isn't and they don't have time -

And she touches her forehead to his-theirs-its and cups the still face between her hands and whispers for only Spite to hear.

"I can't lose you both. If you agree, we walk out of here and we make them suffer and we bleed them dry. We kill them. We survive this, we remember him, we live. If you're willing, I welcome you, Spite."

And Spite accepts, slips ever so carefully into its new shell.

Because its last promise to Lucanis was to keep their Rook safe.

But it's... difficult for me to write. I want to do it, but delving into love and death walking hand in hand is... a heavy pain for me to visit. Raw, still. So it'll be slow going, and only touched upon every so often. I don't know if I'll share the finished piece when it's done - but. We'll see.

[wrathbites]

For the Fanfiction Work-in-Progress Guessing Game: "promise"?

Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

This is technically a future bad end that's hurting my heart so much to write I'm only doing it in fits and starts and it likely won't see the light of day for many months yet. Cheating here and providing two sentences instead.

The power swimming in Rook's blood would be enough to stretch the skin and break the bones and reshape the form to fit him perfectly, in ways Lucanis never could, and any other would be pressing the advantage, grinding her down and flushing her out and silencing her forevermore - but Spite made a promise and it's one he'll never break. He will keep her safe.

[wrathbites]

For the writing game... let's try bold, travel, and/or value and see if I catch anything with these. :)

Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

I don't have anything for bold or travel, but there is a little something for value.

"I can't offer you safe passage out of the city, Rook - if you value your life you'll leave now."

[wrathbites]

For the WIP ask game: knife OR weapon

Send me a word, if it’s in my wip document I’ll answer your ask with the sentence that it appears in

Thank you! I keep going back and forth on how this scene plays out, and which POV best suits it. I originally set out with it from Spite's perspective, but I think I might go with Rook's instead.

Illario's mistake is thinking her harmless with the removal of her foci, assuming his safety with power borrowed after however many weeks spent on bent knee - but Mewyn's had years with hers, a lifetime spent sharpening the weapon in blood and bone and breath to a precision point and she will not miss.

[wrathbites]

🪻 What is the most painful injury your Rook has received? How has it affected them once it healed/scarred?

And

🌷If Rook needed to get away from their responsibilities for a moment, where would they go? Where is their safe space outside the Lighthouse?

For the Rook Flowers meme, please! Happy New Year 🎊🎈🎆!

From these prompts here (thank you 💜)

🪻 What is the most painful injury your Rook has received? How has it affected them once it healed/scarred?

You'd think the answer would be from the fight with fellow Crows during her exile that resulted in the scars marking the side of her face and neck, but no.

Mewyn's most painful injury (to date) is from when her magic first manifested as a child. It's elemental and highly destructive, and did not announce its presence gently - absolutely certain she, Mahanon, and the halla were about to die, lightning answered her screaming.

Were it not for her brother's initial work with healing magic (her opposite, more grounded, gifted with a talent she'll never be able to grasp in her lifetime) and her Keeper's intervention, the strike would have killed her.

She gets phantom, body-wide pain like her very bones are on fire whenever she uses lightning and so she typically avoids it as much as she can. She's not as well-practised with wielding it, as a result, and so there's a very real risk of "friendly fire" with the party, and the damage output is... somewhat unpredictable.

🌷If Rook needed to get away from their responsibilities for a moment, where would they go? Where is their safe space outside the Lighthouse?

One of Viago's old bolt-hole apartments on the outskirts of Treviso - the loft, specifically. She's weighed the hatch down, and warded the frame with ice runes to keep noses from prying where they shouldn't, to buy herself precious seconds for an escape (Fade-stepping up onto the roof itself) if the interloper isn't a friendly face.

He didn't catch her the first night they were both under that same roof, so he lost the right to eject her. Not that he will - the additional runes she plants around the place whenever she slinks down from the loft are another safety measure, and respite, he sorely needs.

Her exile is almost a physical presence in the apartment, since the runes run dry without frequent touch-ups from her magic. It feels wrong, like she's dead.

It's not really a safe space, not when another Crow knows about it (and her Talon, to boot), but if Viago's relaxed just enough to sit still for five minutes and heave a sigh and sling off his cloak? It's five minutes she can relax, too.

[wrathbites]

Hello!! Your Spite and Lucanis first meeting fic was EXTREMELY cool and I'd love to make a podfic of it, if that was okay with you? (If you're not familiar with podfic, it's essentially audiobooks for fanfic. I'd record myself reading the story, crediting you as author, and post the recording on AO3 with a link back to your fic.)

Ah, thank you so much!

Of course you can make a podfic of it - my only requests are that you don't seek to make monetary gain from the fanwork I've created (not singling you out with this, t's a blanket request for anyone seeking to podfic or translate any of my fics), and that you link back to the original piece/credit me as its author.

For anyone wishing to read the fic in question, you can find it here on tumblr, or here on AO3.