* SHATTERED PROMISES.

others are broken ;    forever carrying massive shame / regret on their shoulders for what they've done                         inlcuding hawkeye and the now colonel that both will never forget what they've done & seen.  the horrors prevailing & the memories tormenting whenever eyes close, sleep approaches, but sometimes even during the day when you let thoughts wander astray for just one moment.   teetch clench as fire licks, her breath deep as he instructed, eyes wide when the pain burns & burns, keeps on burning for far too long, riza wondering already if she's finally breathed her last & has been swallowed up by the hell she deserves.   forever burning for what she's done, for the lives her hands have taken.  her mind tried to settle on the way his ungloved palm feels against her naked skin, but nothing could overpower the blinding, all-consuming pain that erupted from her back, crawling into every corner of the lieutnants being.  yet, no sound falls from her lips.  a quiet suffering, only gasp burned away by the orange / yellow / red of the flames consuming her skin                           sweat breaking out on her brow, dripping down as she feels tears sting at eyes.   auburn-hazel wide,  so very wide,  as she wonders when it was over.   wonders if that's how all those people have felt?  a wave of nausea crashing over her,  swallowing helplessly as she tried to control her bodies reactions. 

she's asked him to do this                          so no one else would ever be able to use it like he has :   prepared to take her father's research where it belongs, to the realm of the forgotten & discarded knowledge & make sure that it'll never fall into anyones hands again.   ' i believed in you. i trusted you. '   words spoken,  her confidence in him has been shaken, but not entirely destroyed.  redemption was a luxury for those who did not wander into the heart of carnage, following their rotten countries orders, told to to obey & not question, told to keep the atrocities under lock & key forever. finally, it stops.  face wet, the blonde did not relax just yet, body stiff / rigid where she's sat, sure he could feel how taunt her entire being was                           muscles locked into place because of the pain still lingering.    ' one more '   another snap, the pain worse than before nearly enough to make her scream, but again she does not.  lips remain locked, a violent shudder going through her as her body cramps from head to toe, locking up due to the high stress it caused. sagging forwards,  ' the most powerful type of alchemy '  destroying its own origins, she did not fall, instead he was there to pull her close.   a ragged breath finds its way from her lips, pinkish plush dried & bitten while her cheeks were wet & flushed from crying.   the pain has been unlike everything she's ever experienced, but she did not deserve to scream from it, as those flames have consumed the innocent.   it was acknowledging the harm her father's alchemy has done,  the ruin it has brought to the people of  ishvalan because she's shared it,  the burden it has been since it was tattooed into her skin by her own parent.  making her carry a weapon on her own skin ;    wanting it  gone.   gone.   gone.   GONE  so often but he never allowed it. she was to follow his orders, even when he departed from the world of the living.

the sterile water / antisepctic was barely acknowledged, eyes glossy & gaze far away as she simply sat still, wishing for one selfish greedy moment that it would cause more damage than intended.  atoning for her sins with her own life :   but then again, their goals needed her around to change this world,  bring justice to their country & ishvalans.   change the rotten system from the top to bottom, leave no corner unturned / unchanged.   something like this would never happen again.      ❛                            will you stay tonight ?     ❜     white bandages cover her torso & back, finally gaze seems to refocus as words roll of her tongue in melodic drawl, seemingly neutral but there was an undertone. something ugly & desperate, something horribly vulnerable as she knew she'd be unable to rest for weeks if left alone :    their demons ever haunting / body broken until it'd scar over.   a breath is sucked in, bottom lip quivering as she feels pain burst behind her eyes for a second, stars dancing in view as well as black spots.      ❛                            i'll not be able to cover myself.  you're warm.        ❜      the reasoning sounded fair to her own ears, raw-cried hues meeting his & keeping them hostage as she searches his gaze unafraid of what there might be to find / discover for herself.   hand finds his, taking off the glove in a moment of tenderness she usually pushes down deeply.  never letting this side of her show too much, reel its head in any shape or form,  but this was different.    roy mustang has always been the expection of the rule, bringing out her best & her worst alike, causing her to forego logic for emotions at times.

    ❛                                   promise me to do it again should anyone ever use what's left to study it again.   burn it until nothing's left.  don't hold back from just scarring parts of it, if it ever comes down to this, okay ?     ❜        she sounded desperate, usual neutral / stoic mien entirely replaced by urgency as she grips his fingers with surprising strength / insistence ;    studying his gaze with open panic written all over pale & tear stained expression.  the fear still remained, guilt ever-present & eating away at the sniper.        ❛                         you said we'll fix this country together.  add this to the conditions.    ❜      

@nekurooma  

lorelei was a former player character of mine in an call of the netherdeep campaign - so you can bet i have so many thoughts about them sO STRAP IN!! and thank you for reading 🥺 lorelei & solus both mean so much to me so i love yapping about them. art of them both is done by sexiimurder and was commissioned by me ♥

Lorelei was extremely impressionable once she enrolled into the Soltryce Academy - she tried to keep herself back and stay in the background since she joined under a false name & is technically on the run for the murder of her father - but magic has been her literal lifelong dream. her fingers itch with it and she's too young to know how to hold back, despite everything. and when trent saw her potential, discovered her...frankly badly hidden past - he knew exactly how to use that for his gains. insert himself as a father figure to her, take her in ;; and she fell for it hook line and sinker.

trent turned them into an incredibly sharp weapon for the empire, but one thing he never quite managed to get rid of was their love for the night sky. the stars and constellations. they've been a comfort to lorelei ever since she was a baby, following the stars with her finger while laying on the roof of their little farmhouse. it is the first thing of solus that peeks through their soul from the start, closely followed by their fascination and innate talent for magic. (to this day, if they feel a little fancy, their magic will look like stars. constelations connecting into whatever shape they need at the moment)

magic comes incredibly easy to her. it'll take her a long time to realize why (she's gone through all of it once before after all, as solus in the kryn dynasty - he's studied dunamancy to the point of mastery, where he was able to mold it to his needs and adapt it to his fighting style. its what he got consecuted for. its what he ended up dying for) lorelei didnt actually start exhibiting any signs of dunamancy until much later in their life, when more memories of solus start to break through in their mind - muddling their training, their ironbound loyalty for the empire. but once it does, they finally begin to break apart bit by bit until it ends with them on a mission and abandoning it in favor of trying to discover what the hell has been wrong with them all their life. through the help of an...slightly unwilling contact, lorelei makes it to xhorhas and manages to learn about the concept of consecution there - to finally connect the dots of all their strange dreams, these visions they keep experiencing. all memories of a former life, a drow, a dunamancer - solus duen dalos.

its during the start of their travels through xhorhas where they acquire their bloodhawk "dalos" - the name has been bouncing around in their mind for a while, without any context. later on they find it ironic enough to keep it that way.

lorelei definitely isnt a very well adjusted person. as a ex-scourger alone they have more issues on their plate than most, and now add to that the fact that they are a former consecuted drow spy on top of that ;; who was betrayed by one of his own people and sold out to the enemy - trent ikithon is now a person that fucked up two of their lifetimes and the fact that that man is still alive grates on them more than anything. it is fact that they simply cant move on without wanting him dead beneath their blade - so no matter what they end up doing in the end, the death of trent ikithon will always be their goal.

lorelei, in their time as a scourger and right after deserting (no matter how unwilling it was at the time) - tended to use polymorph to turn into a wolf a lot. to escape all the thoughts, the memories - all of it so overwhelming. so they turn to a comforting childhood story, one their father had always told them. a story about the lone wolf who found a child in the mountains and safely escorts it down to the village, saving its life. so whenever lorelei feels lost, broken and out of control of the situation - they would turn themselves into a wolf to soothe themselves.