❝ turn around. you don’t need to see this part. ❞ + anthea/hythlo? if it works? EYEBALLS?
Thanks Ash you truly made me out to be a fool on this day. I hope this suffices and you feel the pain like I do. But also enjoy it!
Endwalker Spoilers, no other warnings
word count: 1.2k
Ao3
They clutch onto his hands, knuckles white and fingers cold, trying their best to hold back sobs that still come in waves even days later since his final decision. Anthea can’t bring themselves to look up, can’t trust themselves to keep it together when they see his lavender eyes one last time, can’t even speak as they know it will be nothing but pleas for Hythlodaeus to stay, or at least let them go with him. Despite their hand clutching his, Hythlodaeus still finds a way to bring it up to their face to dry the stray tears that have fallen and tilt their chin to face him. His smile is still as soft as the day they first met, in a building that had long since fallen when the skies first began to burn, a smile they can’t believe he still manages to wear even when the world around them calls for anything but that. Even while wearing that smile there’s a sadness in his eyes he’s never worn, impossible to hide and ever present, they wonder if Hades saw the same thing when he told him of his choice.
“Beloved, look at me,” he says, “This is not the end. I will make sure of it. I am ensuring that your story will go on as it should.”
“What kind of story will it be without you there? This is not how it was supposed to end, Hythlodaeus.”
“I will still be here, I promised you, did I not?”
Anthea shakes their head, eyes casting down once more, “This feels like an abandonment….”
He kisses their forehead, arms wrapping around them, “I promise you, Anthea, we will see each other once again, until such time I will be at your side always even if you cannot see me. Know that I will forever be with you.” They nod tears darkening his robes and arms tightening, his shoulders relaxing hoping that maybe now, this time, they will take his words to heart.
He pulls away, gently placing a kiss on their cheek, to rest his forehead with theirs, “Please,” Anthea whispers, one final attempt to sway him, “let me go with you.”
“Oh, my Anthea,” he breathes, bringing his lips to theirs, Anthea clutching onto the front of his robes until their fingers cramp. Such a soft and brief kiss, how could they ever live without it? “Believe,” he whispers, “and walk in faith. Let the light of your soul shine for all to see. Let it guide others as you have guided me, beloved, for you have not finished giving your gifts unto this star.”
Anthea opens their mouth to speak when another gruff voice approaches, “Hythlodaeus.” The two look over to see Hades donning his red mask, face unreadable matching the flat tone of his voice, “It is time.”
Anthea swallows back the sob with a small nod, looking back into Hythlodaeus’ eyes, “If there was only ever going to be one thing in my life that was perfection, I’m grateful it was you, my bieloved.”
Their lips crash into him, memorizing the taste of fresh grown strawberry and light sweet bread beyond the salt that’s begun to intermingle. How he kisses them with such an intensity and desire that never made sense when there was so much softness and adoration driving him. The way his hands feel holding their face and getting lost in their hair for the last time. How their arms feel wrapped around him so tightly feeling as if there were no fabric separating their warm skin. The way his soft lavender hair tickles their face as the ash filled wind attempts to hide the scent of spring’s fresh blooms and golden afternoons that will no longer smell as sweet as they do now. And oh how steady his heartbeat is even as Anthea can hear the muffled cracking between the shattering of theirs.
The warmth filling their chest is an unwelcomed feeling, even if it does dull the pain from when Hythlodaeus finally pulls away, thumb brushing along Anthea’s cheek. “I love you, Anthea, then, now, and always.”
“I love you, Hythlodaeus.” The only words they can muster in response without choking….but then again what more needed to be said?
With a final smile Hythlodaeus walks from their grasp, Anthea’s eyes blurring as they try to return one in kind. Arms outstretched as they take in every little bit of their skin against his until there’s nothing left to reach out for. The black hood and white mask finalize his departure as he blends into the crowd of others giving everything they are to save Etheirys. Others who were friends, family, loves, children, colleagues, all giving themselves for a cause with an outcome they will never get to experience. A selfless and noble act, but something Anthea selfishly wishes he never chose to be a part of, not unless they went together.
They look up to see their friend pull his hood up walking behind the growing crowd. Anthea runs after him, hand landing on his shoulder, “Had-. I mean Emet-Selch, might I ask you something?”
Hades turns to face them, with an expression that even this close Anthea can’t make out, “So long as you make it quick. There are a few things that need tending to still.”
They nod, “I understand, I just-. I was wondering if when you have finished, will you find the time to come and see me again? As friends?”
The unasked question, In losing him, do I lose you too?, doesn’t hang in the air like Anthea assumed it would as he gives the simple answer, “Yes. I will.” They refrain from embracing him, hoping that their gracious smile comes through the weight of their shared loss. He pats their hand, “I suggest you turn around, Anthea, and walk away. There is no need for you to see this part, I urge you to rest in one of your remaining sanctuaries for the time being.”
“I will stay for as long as I am able, though I thank you for your concern, Emet-Selch.” Hades sighs before giving a single nod and returning to his duties, leaving Anthea as they watch from above. Watch as bodies give way to aether surrounding a single white robed figure, their red mask the only color among the splendor of white. Watch as thirteen–no twelve–individuals encircle with bowed heads, concentration given to make dense the aether so it can be molded. Eventually two heads raise and even at this distance Anthea can identify them as Lahabrea and Emet-Selch, the one who designed the star’s savior and the one to make it manifest. Emet-Selch raises his arm high above his head, like Anthea has seen many a time before.
snap
A moment’s silence before Anthea watches the head of a winged and horned beast rises to reveal sharpened teeth and claws, letting out a rumbling roar almost reminiscent of when it all began. So this is to be our savior, Anthea thinks, A beast to battle beasts. Their eyes stray to where Hades stands looking up at the newly formed creature, May it work as intended, Hades.
For it is only the two of us left
20 notes
·
View notes
I would like to know about your disaster tiefling! Backstory, current romance, what drives them, anything youd be excited to share!
thank you for indulging me! I cannot express enough that I am like a vampire in that I have to be explicitly invited to do something, so I'm grateful
This is my disaster tiefling Mercury, they're a mephistopheles tiefling rogue (assassin specifically) and they're allergic to making wise decisions
I have a hard time grabbing good screenshots from my console sometimes so a few of these are Crunchy™ but I genuinely love the range of lighting the game has that makes them go from somewhat well-adjusted looking to mostly just glowing eyes. I'll put the rest about them under a read more!
Mercury usually sticks to decisions that will benefit themself or their friends above all else (and usually not through honest means), but they've been known to freely help children with no clear end gain. They had a great time around Mattis, the tiefling child, out-conning him. It's probably the closest to playful their group has come to seeing them be playful (save around Scratch/the Owlbear), since Mercury was using it as an opprotunity to teach the kid rogue techniques that would benefit him later from someone who's been at it for quite some time. It'd be cute if they weren't such an awful influence
Mercury's backstory is admittedly not something I've been able to work out past large overtones or some general character defining events, but they're a character that likes to keep their privacy and hold things that matter to them close, so I think it works out in the long run. They were fiery and loudly defiant against the world and its cruelty when they were younger, but as they grew older and realized that the only person they could rely on was themself, they grew more cunning, quiet, carefully composed, and discarded the intense emotions that once drove them. This change most likely came from being used + discarded by a disguised devil, and they have an extreme discomfort and distrust for devils or the Infernal as a result
I like to call Mercury a mirror - they're a reflection of the general harshness the city had on them (being a scrappy tiefling with nowhere to call home), but once they're surrounded by people who offer them kindness (Wyll/Karlach/Gale particularly being huge influences) they actually almost habitually return kindness + favors to the small group close to them. Their friends are one of the only noted exceptions, though; they still don't really do great in the empathy department otherwise
I could write several pages about Mercury's romance, BUT I'll try not to ramble too long (narrator voice: this was a lie). Mercury is romancing (spawn) Astarion + their dynamic drives me up the WALL. The two of them had a weird push and pull to their early relationship - Mercury was well familiar with the song and dance Astarion was performing when he targeted them and knew he certainly had ulterior motives, but they... truthfully, between the empty meaningless void that had become their existence and the inevitable certain death they would now be facing as a result of being tadpoled, and the fact that they could never remember a single moment in their life in which they were wanted (let alone desired by someone), they didn't care. So they let him use them and they played along as coyly as he did, fully aware that the more that they got involved with him or the others the higher the chance they might end up walking away caring. Which, unfortunately, happened.
A lot of factors contributed to changing Mercury's apathy toward the group and ultimately swayed the change to caring romantically about Astarion, almost none of which was even Astarion's doing himself. It started with Wyll, who was always kind and selfless without a second thought, who willingly chose to risk losing everything against Mizora because he'd rather stand by Karlach. And Karlach herself was easy to get along with - she cared deeply and loudly about those around her and wasted no time or consideration into treating Mercury with the same warmth as she did the others. Gale, maybe surprisingly, was the ultimate catalyst, though. He had formerly been a wizard Mercury kept at the same distance as everyone, one of the companions Mercury actually thought less often about despite traveling with him among the most, before they met Elminster along the roads to the Shadow Cursed lands. Mercury is hard to sway, but a goddess telling her most devoted follower that he only stands to make something meaningful of himself by killing himself ignited some long since extinguished anger in them - anger at the gods, anger at the world, anger at the shitty hands they and these people they're around were dealt - and Mercury drunk themself to sleep that night following the realization that fuck, this anger in place of apathy meant they cared. Astarion was next to show them a little vulnerability by letting them read his scars to him (and it drives me insane thinking about the level of trust he would've reasonably have had to have in them to turn his bare back to another rogue), revealing that he is only one part of an unknown whole, and that that unknown whole could very well be an Infernal pact. And so it goes - suddenly, Mercury was in over their head. Suddenly, they cared.
They both end up stumbling through figuring what a relationship (and even the full scope of what either of them truly want) means later, when they're both forced to face the fact whatever was between them is now real (and dangerous, Mercury reasons, because to admit they want to care and be alive means they have to invite back in all the hurt it could bring - hurt they're intimately familiar with - but they can't deny that what they have is nice.) Mercury is very much a deeply touch starved person, so they offer Astarion a lot of small, quiet moments of physical intimacy like leaning against him in camp, resting their hands on his, soft touches against his face to brush against his hair, stuff that, in general, he probably has no lasting memories of ever having. In turn, Astarion offers them a quiet sanctuary - a gentle reminder - that they have others they can lean on and rely on and that they don't have to bear their burdens alone. There's a lot of push and pull in this stage of their relationship, too, but it's less about a game they're performing and more about learning boundaries, limits, and the depths that they're both willing to admit to themselves about whatever it is they have.
By act 3, Mercury has no doubts about where Astarion stands to them, and truthfully I don't think Astarion does about Mercury either, but it's a bit harder for him to think about with certain looming disaster hanging over his head. Reasonably. He sort of lashes out the closer they get to dealing with the inevitable, not in the way he's harsh, but in the sort of defensive "I feel like a cornered animal so I'm reverting back to trying to pull the strings (new strings at that!) to use/manipulate you into doing what (I think) I want because I genuinely can't believe in a kinder future for myself" sort of way. Mercury by this point can see right through him and offers a constant, steady pressure by always pointing out "If you do this, you'll have to do a lot of difficult things, are you sure you're prepared to do that?" and by the point of the crypts, it's clear he'd be really fucked up by carrying through with it now that he's had to come face to face with both what he's done and what he stands to become by taking Cazador's power, especially after finding the scroll about the other vampire masters. So Mercury stands firm and becomes his reminder that things don't have to end in bloodshed, lashing out, and bared teeth - a lesson Mercury themself was taught by the kindness (a kindness they had always lacked) their companions (now friends) never gave up on. Their relationship is stronger for it and they're genuinely good influences on each other (somehow, Astarion has become some sembalance of the voice of reason and is a good 90% of the reason Mercury has stopped doing things with no regard to their own self preservation now) and they're both extremely well adjusted partners despite the so many issues both of them have. Who would've thought the local pair of murderers are an exceptionally sweet couple???
I have rambled for far too long and I have a thousand more things I could say about Mercury but I'll spare you because it is very early in the morning, but thank you for letting me speak a little about them!! I have a playlist and a pinterest for them if anyone is seriously further curious about them and my inbox is always open for more questions but I must sleep for now
7 notes
·
View notes