#◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞

[incendiorum-arch]

azzy waits until he hears prolonged silence behind the door, and then elects to shove his way in. col doesn’t even look up from behind his desk, unbothered or distracted or both. the man in one of the other chairs, however, jolts in surprise. “ sir - ”

“ you’re done, ” azzy tells him, picking up the back of the chair and dumping him out of it. “I need the room.”

“ sir, ” the man tries again, flustered.

“ my associate told you to leave, ” col says, toneless, as he flips a pen between ink-smudged fingers. distracted, it is.

brows furrowed and mouth thin, the man leaves. azzy doesn’t bother watching him go. instead, he slams himself down into the empty chair (still warm. gross) and drapes his arms over his bouncing knees.

“ stop that, ” col tells him, finally looking up. he blinks, as if realizing who it is, and then promptly hands over a yellow legal pad with a list of names. “ they’re building a new ship. some of your handlers would like to retire permanently from the field. ”

azzy takes the pad, leans forward to grab the pen out of col’s other hand, and immediately crosses out three names. “ none of them have experience in venator, ” he explains. col just hums.

“ why are you here? ” he asks, turning his attention instead to a pair of computer monitors. azzy sits back, knee starting to bounce again. he’s gathering his thoughts, and he knows that col knows this. the sound of a mouse clicking fills the room.

“ six of my hunters are dead. ”

the clicking stops. “ six. ”

“ six, ” azzy snaps back. a cool blue gaze slides towards him, and azzy doesn’t shy away from it, even if he really, really wants to. col has a stare that could stop a bear in its tracks. “ what the fuck is with your parent lately? ”

“ io, ” col corrects. “ we aren’t related. ”

azzy rolls his eyes towards the ceiling. “ uh-huh. ”

col leans back in his chair. “ what happened? ”

leaning forward, azzy sets the notepad down, abandoning his current side-project of trying to remember everything that samwell morris currently does for the hounds (everything…? and a frowny face is scribbled in sloppy handwriting in the margin). “ I wasn’t even there. I couldn’t help them or save them or anything. ”

“ azzy, ” col says, softer.

azzy takes a deep breath and looks away, staring around the room, instead. it’s a cluttered old office, which always surprised him. col always seemed like the kind of guy to have a clean, white office with nothing in it. instead, there’s bookshelves laden with books stacked right-side up and sideways both. the cherry-wood desk is banged up and scratched and the leather cushions of the seats are so old and well-used that they seem to have permanent dips in them. there’s a ship-in-a-bottle on the desk, too. supposedly, it’s a replica of the first ship col ever bought for venator. the full-sized version still exists, somewhere, but azzy has never seen it. he stares at it now, following the curves of the gold name painted on the side with his eyes.

“ rose called me, ” azzy starts. “ she said she had iovita practically in their hands. that they were really going to do it this time. I made her go over the plan with me five times. she said it the same way every damn time. ” she had laughed the third time he had said run me through it again. and sighed heavily on the fifth. “ it sounded solid to me. I told her to go ahead. ” he looks up at col for this, and sees no change in expression. “ I tried to call her later and she answered, but I didn’t hear anything on the other side except for… noises. ”

“ what kind of noises? ”

“ I don’t know! noises! shuffling and groaning, I think. a word or two, but I couldn’t make them out. ”

col nods. “ and then? ”

azzy takes a breath. “ she called me again ten minutes later, and said she’d lost damian and nathan. throats burned out. both of them. so, iovita picked them off at some point. ”

“ evidently, ” col agrees.

azzy squints at him. col doesn’t look surprised. instead, he looks resigned, as if he already knows where this story is going. pulling the legal pad back to his side of the desk, col rips off the top page and sets it aside. in careful print, he writes the fulls names of both damian and nathan. “ was it an ‘i’ or a ‘y’ for damian’s last name? ”

“ ‘y,’ ” azzy replies. his voice sounds far away.

“ his mother is catarina. ”

“ yeah. ”

“ I’ll be in colorado next week. I’ll visit her, personally. ”

“ thank you. ”

col sets his pen down. “ alright. continue, please. ”

“ I didn’t get a call back until the next day, ” azzy says, lacing his fingers together and squeezing them so hard it hurts. “ rosa was in the hospital and barely coherent. I told her I’d fly out immediately - and I did. but by the time I got there she had already died. burn wounds, of course. ” his voice feels stuck in his throat. he swallows, but it doesn’t help. “ fuck - you should’ve seen how bad they were. I don’t know how she made it away. ”

col’s gaze is carefully blank. “ and the rest? ”

azzy gestures, vaguely, his own gaze sliding away to fix onto the corner of the desk. “ scattered across the city. found in alleyways here and there. best I can tell is that iovita led them on a chase. or… chased them, I guess. ”

he hears col lean forward, pen to paper again. “ rose, damian, nathan…? ”

azzy finishes the list for him, “ lewis, sam, and TJ. ”

col sucks air through his teeth. “ I was hoping to promote TJ. ”

“ he would have made a good handler, ” azzy agrees, voice heavy. silence falls for a moment, but he’s quick to break it. “ what the fuck was their problem this time? usually they don’t tussle with six hunters at once. my hunters, at that. ”

col gives him a look. “ and what would you do, if six witches were coming after you? ”

azzy sits back. “ I’d do my goddamn job. this isn’t iovita’s fucking job. ”

the withering glance col gives him is enough to make azzy blood boil. his voice rises.“ six of my hunters are dead, col! six! and you know who gets to tell their friends and families? do you know who gets to bury them? do you know who gets to be at every single one of their funerals? ”

col puts a hand out. “ do you really think they would have taken out io? ”

io. col always calls them io. it’s annoying. azzy grits his teeth. “ this time? yeah. yeah, they would have. ”

“ stop that, ” col’s voice carries an edge this time, “ and tell me the truth. ”

“ I’m not delusional! I really think they would have. ”

col lifts an eyebrow. when azzy doesn’t back down, he nods. “ alright. I believe you. ” he taps his fingers against the desk. call it a gut feeling, but azzy knows he doesn’t actually believe him.

and why should he? all six of azzy subordinates are dead. he knows that when he closes his eyes tonight, the police reports are going to flash behind his eyelids. every burned corpse and every unseeing pair of eyes.

azzy takes a long, slow breath. it doesn’t help. “ you’re… busy with that superpack in the states, right? ”

“ mmhm. ” col’s gaze slides towards his monitors. “ two-thirds should be gone by december, if everything moves smoothly. will you make an amendment to io’s file? make the entire thing on hold. I don’t want to lose more hunters right now. ”

“ you know some will still try, ” azzy points out.

“ I don’t want to lose more of our good hunters. ”

“ oh. ”

col doesn’t say anything else. azzy shifts in his seat, but he knows col’s dismissal when he sees it. standing up, he goes to leave.

“ azzy? ”

turning around, he sees that col has leaned sideways to fix him with a hard look. “ that means you, too. I need you. ”

“ I won’t do anything stupid, ” azzy promises. col raises an eyebrow, but says nothing else.

as he closes the door behind him, azzy pulls out his phone, scrolls through his contacts list, and taps on a name.

[ sms sent , 16:15 ] newest location for iov s?

[ sms received , 16:18 ] pending.

[ sms received , 17:21 ] one lead. will know tomorrow if good or not.

#◜❝ 𝚆𝚁𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶. ⟩⟩ a life spent talking when my epitaph would do. ❞◞ #there was no reason for this to be 1400 words #◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙰𝙺𝙰 𝙰𝚉𝚉𝚈. ⟩⟩ like a shotgun in a fistfight. ❞◞ #anyway you know how i said i'm realizing that azzy is filled with hate? specifically towards one witch in particular? #yeah

[incendiorum]

io keeps their own private collection of various books and arcane items upstairs, in inter mundos's apartment. and in one of those many books is a hidden cache of news articles. some of them old, yellowed, and fragile, and some much more modern. all of them have something to do with col. a lot of them mention a maritime shipping company named venator, which is col's creation and operates even now as the oldest shipping company in the world. it provides funding for the hounds, and jobs besides hunting if they desire them. other articles might mention col when he inserted himself into various political or business affairs. all of his business and appearances always circle back to the hounds and what he does for them. but it's the only information about him that io can reliably get their hands on. a guilty secret tucked into one of their many bookshelves.

#⌜❝ 𝙸. we are never what we intend or envision. ⟩⟩ #𝙼𝙰𝙸𝙽 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃. and if you make it out alive hold that bloody head up high.❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻 𝚂𝙰𝙻𝚅𝙸𝙴𝙽𝚄𝚂. how did we get so dark? ❞ ⌟ #i think it would be a weird discovery for someone who's mortal/unaware of the supernatural tbh #bc while col does what he needs to do to pass himself off as. not. immortal #that's an entire book full of evidence of him genuinely being the same person for CENTURIES #otherwise it's just... kind of a sad thing to stumble across I think #esp bc it's not hard at all to put together the pieces #there's only two people in the world with the name salvienus u know

[venenorum-archive]

          tbh it’s not far fetched to make the connection between col and io. or at least, go ‘hey these two people might be related.’ strictly because of the last name. salvienus isn’t exactly common, since it’s from a dead language. and col isn’t currently hiding. his name is very public because he’s the ceo of venator. and, for anyone who is supernatural, he has a massive name for himself with all of his hounds.

          if anyone does come to io asking about col, io either goes one of three routes about it. if they don’t trust/know a person enough they wave it off as coincidence. for people they do trust and know well, io either shuts down completely about it or explains who col is. the latter of which tends to be a slow, painful conversation.

#◜❝ 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃 ⟩⟩ now i’m afraid that i’m waking up the ghost. ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻 ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark. ❞◞ #io and col is jut like #these are two notorious people with the same surname and it's not unlikely to make someone go 'hey wait-' #IF you want to/want to be involved in that #otherwise i gently sideline them

[incendiorum-arch]

also col has a very assured confidence when it comes to dealing not with io, but with people io is close to. no matter their anger towards him, col knows that io would never forgive them for hurting him and will say so. he is very aware just how much of a weakness he is for io.

#◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #'you can't kill me because they would never forgive you' kind of confidence

[incendiorum-arch]

was thinking about this and I want to clarify/point out some stuff with io and col? io could never. NEVER. forgive him for what he did. there is never a possibility of reconciliation. for good reason - col killed lucius. col tried to kill io the same way. the trust was lost in that moment and can literally never be put back together again. the trauma that io carries from just that one day will always weigh them down beyond understanding. col was a child that they raised, once upon a time. that they held when he cried and encouraged when he faltered. a child that they taught magic to. that joined them hunting and fishing and playing games by firelight. who raced horses with them and joined them while they cooked or wandered or picked up shells on the beach. col was a child once, and io loved him in that powerful way that only a good parent can. io still loves him - col wants io dead and io wonders if he's happy. if he ate a good dinner or did something that made him smile. and they hate that they think about that. but the trust is always gone. io resents him. io loves him. io is stuck in perpetual grief even though he isn't really gone. col did something absolutely unspeakable. it's no wonder that io has such a tenuous, rocky relationship with the concept of trust. if the boy they raised could do something so terrible, then to io, anyone is capable of anything.

#◜❝ 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃. ⟩⟩ i’m losing myself to rage. ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #and someday io will have to bury him too #which isn't... bad #it just means that io can ACTUALLY grieve #not stay stuck in the same terrible cycle that they are now #col's terrible! he's not good! but io STILL sees that little kid with the big grin and messy hair and wonders desperately if they could #have stopped this or prevented it or /something/ #they love him and they wish they had never met him all at the same time

[incendiorum]

I will say, that even though col did take after his father (lucius's confidence, ambition, and pure stubbornness) he took far more from iovita. and a lot of it is... negative? he learned io's anger, their passion, their rage. he learned, specifically, their calm, suave rage. the smooth, lowered voice and little head tilts. the relaxing of the body to ooze cool confidence. the you fucked up kind of rage that leaves a chill down your spine. and io hates that he did.

#⌜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻 𝚂𝙰𝙻𝚅𝙸𝙴𝙽𝚄𝚂. how did we get so dark? ❞ ⌟ #col isn't their bio son but I still think its so so obvious that he IS still their son #the way they both stand? #straight-backed #shoulders straight #chin up #the /cockiness/ they both exude and have an absolutely irritating /right/ to exude #col is io's son through and through and through #down to the ugly side of it all

[incendiorum]

any physical pain io's experienced has nothing on the emotional pain that they felt when col betrayed them. to know that your son, the boy you raised and loved wanted you dead? that he killed the man you loved, his own father, in the attempt? that he would so willingly rip apart an entire life and family out of ambition? io was disoriented by it for a long, long time. I still think they are. they've never had a chance to truly grieve the son they lost that day, because he's still alive.

#⌜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻 𝚂𝙰𝙻𝚅𝙸𝙴𝙽𝚄𝚂. how did we get so dark? ❞ ⌟ #I'm just.... thinking #no one else alive except for latona knows what col was like as a child #io knew him as happy and curious and loveable #io connected to col before they connected to lucius or latona bc he had all the innocence and childhood they never had #they taught him how to use his magic #they picked up shells on the beach with him. poked at bugs. turned over rocks and stones together #they tried to get back from traveling when they /said/ they would bc they knew col hated that lucius was gone so often or came back late #and didn't want to leave him alone #io let him be a kid in a situation where otherwise he absolutely would have grown up far too fast in #and to do all that? only to be tossed aside bc of /ambition?/ #beyond heartbreaking #their parents gave them trust issues and col just reinforced them

[incendiorum]

tag dump #1

#⌜❝ 𝙾𝙾𝙲. until next song. i will live until you die. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝚆𝙸𝚂𝙷𝙻𝙸𝚂𝚃. the curse of small desires easily acquired. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙸𝙾𝚅𝙸𝚃𝙰 𝚂𝙰𝙻𝚅𝙸𝙴𝙽𝚄𝚂. don’t you look good in red? ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙻𝚄𝙲𝚁𝙴𝚉𝙸𝙰. deep into the night with the moonlight as my guide. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻 𝚂𝙰𝙻𝚅𝙸𝙴𝙽𝚄𝚂. how did we get so dark? ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙻𝚄𝙲𝙸𝚄𝚂 𝚂𝙰𝙻𝚅𝙸𝙴𝙽𝚄𝚂. take the best parts of me and know that i’m forever by your side. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙾𝙽𝙰. kill your conscience. better you than me. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙰𝙺𝙰 𝙰𝚉𝚉𝚈. now i just wish that you’d send me off that ledge so i can finally fucking take you with me. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙷𝙾𝚄𝙽𝙳𝚂. what doesn’t kill me makes me vicious. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙻𝙾𝙽𝙸. tibi credo itaque mihi crede. ❞ ⌟ #◜❝ 𝙷𝙴𝙺𝙰𝚃𝙴. ⟩⟩ si aeternitas solitaria fit tum manus mecum coniunge. ❞◞ #⌜❝ 𝙳𝙴𝚂𝙸𝚁𝙴𝚂. there’s blood on your tongue when you kiss me goodbye. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙸𝚂𝙼𝚂. your lips are poison and sweet but trust doesn’t come cheap. ❞ ⌟ #I have nawt made all of them yet rip me #I added like x2 more than I had originally for ~organization~

[incendiorum]

azzy waits until he hears prolonged silence behind the door, and then elects to shove his way in. col doesn’t even look up from behind his desk, unbothered or distracted or both. the man in one of the other chairs, however, jolts in surprise. “ sir - ”

“ you’re done, ” azzy tells him, picking up the back of the chair and dumping him out of it. “I need the room.”

“ sir, ” the man tries again, flustered.

“ my associate told you to leave, ” col says, toneless, as he flips a pen between ink-smudged fingers. distracted, it is.

brows furrowed and mouth thin, the man leaves. azzy doesn’t bother watching him go. instead, he slams himself down into the empty chair (still warm. gross) and drapes his arms over his bouncing knees.

“ stop that, ” col tells him, finally looking up. he blinks, as if realizing who it is, and then promptly hands over a yellow legal pad with a list of names. “ they’re building a new ship. some of your handlers would like to retire permanently from the field. ”

azzy takes the pad, leans forward to grab the pen out of col’s other hand, and immediately crosses out three names. “ none of them have experience in venator, ” he explains. col just hums.

“ why are you here? ” he asks, turning his attention instead to a pair of computer monitors. azzy sits back, knee starting to bounce again. he’s gathering his thoughts, and he knows that col knows this. the sound of a mouse clicking fills the room.

“ four of my hunters are dead. ”

the clicking stops. “ four? ”

“ dead, ” azzy snaps back. a cool blue gaze slides towards him, and azzy doesn’t shy away from it, even if he really, really wants to. col has a stare that could stop a bear in its tracks. “ what the fuck is with your parent lately? ”

“ io, ” col corrects. “ we aren’t related. ”

azzy rolls his eyes towards the ceiling. “ uh-huh. ”

col leans back in his chair. “ what happened? ”

leaning forward, azzy sets the notepad down, abandoning his current side-project of trying to remember everything that samwell morris currently does for the hounds (everything…? and a frowny face is scribbled in sloppy handwriting in the margin). “ I wasn’t even there. I couldn’t help them or save them or anything. ”

“ azzy, ” col says, softer.

azzy takes a deep breath and looks away, staring around the room, instead. it’s a cluttered old office, which always surprised him. col always seemed like the kind of guy to have a clean, white office with nothing in it. instead, there’s bookshelves laden with books stacked right-side up and sideways both. the cherry-wood desk is banged up and scratched and the leather cushions of the seats are so old and well-used that they seem to have permanent dips in them. there’s a ship-in-a-bottle on the desk, too. supposedly, it’s a replica of the first ship col ever bought for venator. the full-sized version still exists, somewhere, but azzy has never seen it. he stares at it now, following the curves of the gold name painted on the side with his eyes.

“ rose called me, ” azzy starts. “ she said she had iovita practically in their hands. that they were really going to do it this time. I made her go over the plan with me five times. she said it the same way every damn time. ” she had laughed the third time he had said run me through it again. and sighed heavily on the fifth. “ it sounded solid to me. I told her to go ahead. ” he looks up at col for this, and sees no change in expression. “ I tried to call her later and she answered, but I didn’t hear anything on the other side except for… noises. ”

“ what kind of noises? ”

“ I don’t know! noises! shuffling and groaning, I think. a word or two, but I couldn’t make them out. ”

col nods. “ and then? ”

azzy takes a breath. “ she called me again ten minutes later, and said she’d lost damian and nathan. throats burned out. both of them. so, iovita picked them off at some point. ”

“ evidently, ” col agrees.

azzy squints at him. col doesn’t look surprised. instead, he looks resigned, as if he already knows where this story is going. pulling the legal pad back to his side of the desk, col rips off the top page and sets it aside. in careful print, he writes the fulls names of both damian and nathan. “ was it an ‘i’ or a ‘y’ for damian’s last name? ”

“ ‘y,’ ” azzy replies. his voice sounds far away.

“ his mother is catarina. ”

“ yeah. ”

“ I’ll be in colorado next week. I’ll visit her, personally. ”

“ thank you. ”

col sets his pen down. “ alright. continue, please. ”

“ I didn’t get a call back until the next day, ” azzy says, lacing his fingers together and squeezing them so hard it hurts. “ rose was in the hospital and barely coherent. I told her I’d fly out immediately - and I did. but by the time I got there she had already died. burn wounds, of course. ” his voice feels stuck in his throat. he swallows, but it doesn’t help. “ fuck - you should’ve seen how bad they were. I don’t know how she made it away. ”

col’s gaze is carefully blank. “ and the other three? ”

azzy gestures, vaguely, his own gaze sliding away to fix onto the corner of the desk. “ scattered across the city. found in two different alleyways. best I can tell is that iovita led them on a chase. or… chased them, I guess. ”

he hears col lean forward, pen to paper again. “ rose, damian, nathan…? ”

azzy finishes the list for him, “ TJ. ”

col sucks air through his teeth. “ I was hoping to promote TJ. ”

“ he would have made a good handler, ” azzy agrees, voice heavy. silence falls for a moment, but he’s quick to break it. “ what the fuck was their problem this time? usually they don’t tussle with four hunters at once. my hunters, at that. ”

col gives him a look. “ and what would you do, if four witches were coming after you? ”

azzy sits back. “ I’d do my goddamn job. this isn’t iovita’s fucking job. ”

the withering glance col gives him is enough to make azzy blood boil. his voice rises.“ four of my hunters are dead, col! four! and you know who gets to tell their friends and families? do you know who gets to bury them? do you know who gets to be at every single one of their funerals? ”

col puts a hand out. “ do you really think they would have taken out io? ”

io. col always calls them io. it’s annoying. azzy grits his teeth. “ this time? yeah. yeah, they would have. ”

“ stop that, ” col’s voice carries an edge this time, “ and tell me the truth. ”

“ I’m not delusional! I really think they would have. ”

col lifts an eyebrow. when azzy doesn’t back down, he nods. “ alright. I believe you. ” he taps his fingers against the desk. call it a gut feeling, but azzy knows he doesn’t actually believe him.

and why should he? four of azzy subordinates are dead. he knows that when he closes his eyes tonight, the police reports are going to flash behind his eyelids. every burned corpse and every unseeing pair of eyes.

azzy takes a long, slow breath. it doesn’t help. “ you’re… busy with that superpack in the states, right? ”

“ mmhm. ” col’s gaze slides towards his monitors. “ two-thirds should be gone by december, if everything moves smoothly. will you make an amendment to io’s file? make the entire thing on hold. I don’t want to lose more hunters right now. ”

“ you know some will still try, ” azzy points out.

“ I don’t want to lose more of our good hunters. ”

“ oh. ”

col doesn’t say anything else. azzy shifts in his seat, but he knows col’s dismissal when he sees it. standing up, he goes to leave.

“ azzy? ”

turning around, he sees that col has leaned sideways to fix him with a hard look. “ that means you, too. I need you. ”

“ I won’t do anything stupid, ” azzy promises. col raises an eyebrow, but says nothing else.

as he closes the door behind him, azzy pulls out his phone, scrolls through his contacts list, and taps on a name.

[ sms sent , 16:15 ] newest location for iov s?

[ sms received , 16:18 ] pending.

[ sms received , 17:21 ] one lead. will know tomorrow if good or not.

#❝ 𝚆𝚁𝙸𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶 (𝙸. 𝙼𝙰𝙸𝙽). bitter blood builds our prison cell. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙰𝙺𝙰 𝙰𝚉𝚉𝚈. now i just wish that you’d send me off that ledge so i can finally fucking take you with me. ❞ ⌟ #⌜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻 𝚂𝙰𝙻𝚅𝙸𝙴𝙽𝚄𝚂. how did we get so dark? ❞ ⌟ #reposting this one #with some rlly minor edits

[incendiorum-arch]

col is not io's blood, this much is true, however his similarities to io are blatantly obvious. the way both of them stand is remarkably similar - the same stiff, straight stance. shoulders straight, chin slightly up. his stubborn attitude, his ambition. the way he curls a finger over his nose when he lies. the slant to his gaze, the mellow way he talks and the gravel to his voice when his emotions get the better of him. and perhaps, the worst of all: his anger is iovita's. the last thing io wanted to happen was to pass generations of anger onto him, and they failed. the cycle was not broken. col is filled with as much rage and passionate fury as io is.

#◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃. ⟩⟩ i’m losing myself to rage. ❞◞

[incendiorum-arch]

if you could say anything to them right now, what would you say? ( hekate to io about col tbh )

SILENCE PERMEATES THE ROOM AFTER her question. for a long time, it seems like iovita won’t answer it, instead fixated on filing a rough patch on a ring with a certain kind of vigor that says they’re just taking their frustration out on it.

finally, they sigh, and put the ring and file down. “ I would want to tell him a lot of things, ” iovita says, eyes still fixed firmly downward. “ I would tell him that I’m disappointed in him. that I’m still proud of him. that I wish I had never met him. that I wish he had never done what he did. I would… I would tell him that I miss him. ”

“ he was… just such a sweet kid. I still can’t understand why he would… ” like an opened floodgate, it all comes pouring out. “ he was so talented. so purposeful with his magic. I don’t know where he learned his control. because I know I was the only one he wanted to learn from. he didn’t even want luc- his father to show him anything. he’d always come running up to me with this big grin. I wasn’t the... most stable person back then but col always made it easy to be happy. ”

they swallow, and pick everything back up, running their thumb over the ring shank until they find another rough spot to file. “ I miss him, ” is all they say, softly.

@dcwnrisen , for deep conversations.

#◜❝ 𝙸𝙲. ⟩⟩ bring myself out cause i can’t be tamed #→ 𝙸. 𝙼𝙰𝙸𝙽. ⟩⟩ out in the wild. broken off the chain. ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙷𝙴𝙺𝙰𝚃𝙴. ⟩⟩ si aeternitas solitaria fit tum manus mecum coniunge. ❞◞ #dcwnrisen #this was fun to write! i'm in pain!

[incendiorum-arch]

col always seemed like the kind of guy to have a clean, white office with nothing in it. instead, there’s bookshelves laden with books stacked right-side up and sideways both. the cherry-wood desk is banged up and scratched and the leather cushions of the seats are so old and well-used that they seem to have permanent dips in them.

this is also fun to me because inter mundos is the same way. it's old, weathered wood and well-used furniture and the books are shoved haphazardly into shelves that are already laden with trinkets and plants and other items. the tables in inter mundos are a litlle beat-up and the counter in the shop part has scorch marks and water stains and scratches and dents.

like parent like child, tbqh, no matter how much col might deny it.

#◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃. ⟩⟩ i’m losing myself to rage. ❞◞ #funny funny funny

[incendiorum-arch]

          col and io are both merciless individuals... but it’s two very different kinds of merciless. col just doesn’t give chances. you don’t get caught by him and then get away with your life because you begged for it. he doesn’t care. he sees a bigger picture, and someone begging for their life is not part of that picture.

          io? io’s just, and pardon my language on this one, a nasty motherfucker. io is merciless because they’re cruel. they tap into their anger and live in it. if io killed someone quick it’s because they had to. they’d much rather play with their food, so to speak. if you begged for your life and io smiled and let you go, it means they’re gonna come for you later and it’s not going to be pretty.

#◜❝ 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃. ⟩⟩ i’m losing myself to rage. ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #love love love comparing/contrasting characters it's literally my favorite thing to do #I just think it's interesting how they can share a trait but go about it in such a different way #like for io to be merciful would to just. let things be water under the bridge OR give quick deaths when they thought it necessary #col? he just has plans and mercy doesn't fit into his plans #neither of these people are /good/ either which is fun for me too? #col sees him and his hounds as good but he's not #and even if they're the main character IO isn't good #god they're so far from it #io went cruel a long long time ago and they'll never be the person they were before that ever again

[incendiorum-arch]

[ NPC PROFILES 1/? ]

NAME. col salvienus. NICKNAMES. n/a.

BIRTHDATE & AGE. june 8th, 240 C.E., 1,782 yrs. GENDER & PRONOUNS. cis male, he/him.

HEIGHT. 5’8”. NOTES ABOUT APPEARANCE. slim build. short-medium length black hair, the longest strands brush the bottom of his ears. blue eyes. straight, wedge-shaped nose. face is often serious, but he has a charming smile when he needs it. always stands straight and stiff.

OCCUPATION. CEO of venator shipping company, which conducts maritime trading. he is also, most importantly, leader of the hounds. LIVING SITUATION. various apartments across the world. a permanent, favorite penthouse in france.

FAMILY. lucius salvienus (father, deceased), currently unnamed mother (deceased), iovita salvienus (parent, alive).

TRAITS. persuasive. hypocritical, dangerous, manipulative, merciless. cunning. charismatic, diplomatic, born leader. ambitious.

what is one of the worst things that you, as a roman citizen could do?

commit patricide.

and yet, col still did it. to wonder about his thoughts or his struggles with this concept would to be afford a murderer sympathy. he deserves none. only the lonely child deserves any ounce sympathy. the one coerced down a path he could never turn back on. or perhaps the most sympathy should go towards his parents: the one killed, and the one left to pick up the shattered pieces.

col salvienus was born in northern rome. his mother died during childbirth, leaving lucius to care for him, alone, while also juggling a group of people who kept the peace between nonhumans and humans. col was a rather serious and solemn child - truthfully, he only opened up when he met iovita, who showed him their magic and gently encouraged col to learn about his own. in the witch’s presence, col turned into a smiling, giddy child. the fact that his father left often became a lesser pain. he had iovita to rely on, even if sometimes iovita seemed a little irritable. a little mean. but they never turned this ire on him. col could touch their arm and the witch would smile instead. he had less luck when iovita turned glassy-eyed and distant. but eventually the witch would come back and smile and show him something cool to do with his magic.

and then, the first step to tragedy - iovita fell in love. pierced right through the heart by cupid and tied just as fast to their lover. they followed lucius all over the empire and col, once again, found himself alone. he was older now, but still hurt. he wasn’t bitter yet. that would come later.

during the times he was no longer watched by his parents’ careful eyes, more radical members of lucius’s group would talk to them. they were good and kind, at face value. they told col they were sorry his parents were gone. that they were sorry he felt so lonely. but they also asked, “why couldn’t you go with them?” at first col had frowned and shrugged. but, eventually, he also found himself asking why couldn’t he?

more questions. more carefully placed statements. iovita is a bit dangerous, don’t you think? didn’t they say they’d be back by today? lucius was supposed to take you hunting with him, wasn’t he?

and there… there came the bitterness. and it festered for years. iovita was dangerous. and volatile. and they used their magic for it. other witches did too. so much violence and anger and hatred were reacted to with magic. what a dangerous tool. lucius didn’t see that. he always grew angry when he heard col say these things. but…

col grew older. grew more set in his ways. when lucius ignored the voices of the group who spoke more radical ideas, col listened. how could these people be wrong? they had always treated him with such kindness. lucius always choice peace first and foremost. violence was a very, very last resort. and col saw weakness with this. a witch like iovita… a witch like iovita was always dangerous. iovita could not control themself. and many others could not, either. not to mention many, many other supernaturals.

but lucius was immortal. col could not wait until time took it’s natural course to secure leadership of the group. so, he took matters into his own hands with a poisoned bottle of wine. it should have killed both lucius and iovita, but in a split-second decision, iovita turned down the bottle and instead watched their husband die slowly.

col took over the group from there. renamed it the hounds. he didn’t see the point of peace like his father had. col was merciless. and he had every ounce of leadership in his bones that lucius did. from this moment, the hounds grew and grew and grew, until they were an empire.

in 1654, col created venator shipping company, wedging his foot into maritime trade. the company has persisted into the modern era, and has existed for 368 years, helping fund the hounds as well as provide work for any hunter who desires it.

an empire, indeed.

#◜❝ 𝙽𝙿𝙲 𝙿𝚁𝙾𝙵𝙸𝙻𝙴𝚂. ⟩⟩ and this little beast was nature’s own error. ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #whoooo this is long #I did not proofread the stuff under the readmore #so. :) #see y'all later btw! #idk if this lab is gonna last long or not but we'll see #it probably will ngl #also sorry col's mother I literally have not given you a single ounce of info ever i'm so sorry

[incendiorum-arch]

          col, io, and latona are all the living relics of the roman empire, and each one tends to continue to haunt the places they frequented hundreds of years ago, even if those places are under different names. io likes to frequent places in italy, spain, greece. col went a little further north than them - as he went that direction after rome was sacked in the fifth century - and ending up establishing hound headquarters in southern france, but also tends to frequent italy and spain as well. latona, on the other hand, was born in northern africa and continues to spend most of her time now in libya and egypt.

#◜❝ 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃. ⟩⟩ i’m losing myself to rage. ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙻𝙰𝚃𝙾𝙽𝙰. ⟩⟩ kill your conscience. better you than me. ❞◞ #latona is rlly the only one who would ever even veer close to the city she was born in #lepta magna is p much just ruins now tho #and io would rather die than step foot in antium/anzio ever again #and col has a birthplace but not a childhood home

[incendiorum-arch]

so i know you talked about it before, but like io's flames can get pretty hot, but like are we talk the sun supernova hot or worse? also i can't remember but col can't use magic or something right? or rather, he can but doesnt? also if he could, would he?

          I love stars so much. I think they’re the coolest things in the entire universe - literal forges. they are, very, very hot, though. much hotter than anything io could manage without killing themself for even thinking about fire that hot. the surface of our sun is ~5800K (~9900F/5500C). the core is even hotter at a staggering ~15 million degrees Kelvin. but, uh, it’s also performing hydrogen fusion. io being a near-literal wildfire is bad enough. could you imagine them as a mini nuclear reactor?

          before I get further into how hot io can make there fire, here’s some quick facts to put it into perspective:

a campfire averages ~900F/480C. this, of course, can get much hotter depending on fuel and size.

bodies are cremated at about 1400-1600F/760-870C.

iron melts at 2800F/1538C. the melting point of steel varies depending on the type, but will melt around the same temperature.

3rd degree burns reach the fat layer, and require skin grafts. burns of a higher degree can reach bone and char the skin black.

          the heat of io’s fire is restricted by range and how much power io can pour into it. within the palm of their hands, io can manage upwards of 4000F/2204C. I would, perhaps, put the cutoff at about 4500F/2482C.

          within a five-foot radius, they can create fire at 3400-3800F/1871-2093C.

          within a 10-foot radius: 3000-3300F/1648-1815C.

          within a 25-foot radius: 2,500-2,900F/1371-1593C.

          the standard temperature (io’s either not trying, or their fire has grown so large they can’t feed it like they can smaller amounts) would be 1700-2000F/926-1093C.

-

          now for col! he is capable of magic, he just chooses to not use it due to his views on magic. he believes all magic dangerous, including his own. which is a shame, because col at full strength is at a range just beneath io in terms of power. he comes from two witches (lucius as well as his mother) and they came from witches, too, giving him a fairly powerful bloodline.

          I view magic in io and col’s world as something that needs constant use and practice, though, otherwise it atrophies like a muscle and becomes much, much harder to use. no matter how much power someone has. that helps lend itself to io’s power, as they use it every day. col, on the other hand, rarely ever uses his, and because of it would struggle to even light a candle wick.

@dcwnrisen , hc questions.

#◜❝ 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃. ⟩⟩ i’m losing myself to rage. ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙼𝙰𝙶𝙸𝙲. ⟩⟩ i’m not the old town crier i’m the one who sets it all on fire. ❞◞ #◜❝ 𝙲𝙾𝙻. ⟩⟩ how did we get so dark? ❞◞ #I literally thought about this question in particular all night so I couldn't resist answering rn #fire tw #ask to tag