#faelmont

Content Warning: Shadowbringers Spoilers

When would people start making sense?

The answer was apparently never. People just didn’t think. All it took was some attractive individual to sweep them off their feet emotionally, and no one understood that infatuation wasn’t the same thing as love. This was a fact the perpetually shut off Esredes knew well, but no one around him seemed to.

“Alastor,” Esredes had tried to tell his foolish Miqo’te friend when he got back from rescuing his latest boyfriend from being tempered for the Ascians. He even put on a smile and that delicate tone, he was not upset in the slightest like he had been in the past when it was Haurchefant. “Are you sure you want to get married… this soon? You don’t want to take it a little slower, you know, give it some time so he can… readjust? This is a big commitment, and you haven’t exactly been able to talk recently, or you know… live normally.” But no, Alastor insisted. Their souls proved they were meant to be together. Esredes wanted to groan. “Your soul also dated a man who wanted to kill everyone, and you killed him.” Esredes said. “Just because you were compatible in a past life doesn’t mean your reincarnations are.” And so they were married. Esredes ultimately shut his mouth and just enjoyed the outdoor scenery of the Shroud, but he couldn’t help but sigh to himself. There really was nothing he could do to convince that Miqo’te to think properly before he acted.

This just happened over, and over again.

The earlier phases of the Iceheart movement. A couple allies had been captured, so had many civilians and uninvolved, and a Garlean base turned out to be at the center of it trying to perform experiments with the blood on people. So his people destroyed it— or more accurately, the scientist at the head of its brother did, along with the four other Garleans who turncoated with him.

What a pickle indeed. It wasn’t a situation where you could just execute someone who helped you- but did the man’s seemingly genuine apology about following his sister really make up for all the people permanently disfigured? Not really. So he tried an idea slipped into his head, even though he wasn’t sure it was a sound one. “Levi,” Esredes said to the man when he caught him at a good moment. “I have an idea as to how we can test the genuineness of Quincy. You should get him emotional and see what he says under pressure.” Despite kidnapping the man, Levi kept claiming Quincy cared for him and it was more his sister, even taking his own eye out to give him a chance to escape and be rescued by Esredes’ people. And there was little denying such drastic measures, but Esredes needed information, and it was hard to be certain merely asking the man was revealing everything. Levi was hesitant, but he agreed. He seemed pissed at Esredes afterward for it. And then he came back to him telling him they ‘worked it out’. Esredes was grateful until the others clarified what exactly ‘worked it out’ meant, and then he felt sick to his stomach. He had not asked that of him. Not with the person who he was a captive of. What the fuck, Levi. What the fuck.

Still, he probably didn’t get as sick to his stomach as he did that one time far more recently. When a Dragoon woman who introduced herself as Elodie had approached him at his previous workplace, and talked to him all about how she wanted to help people like him but wasn’t a counselor, merely wanted to make people smile, he had an idea he thought at the time was a good one. He gave her a couple names, names of people he knew he couldn’t get to, and sent her off to see what would happen.

The regret filled him like an ocean when he witnessed the man propose to her in front of him at a party. She threw her arms around Esredes later, thanking him for being such a ‘matchmaker’, despite the fact she had just said yes to who had to be some kind of sociopath who wanted to kill Esredes.

Why was it always the cheery and high energy types in particular? And Esredes could say nothing for fear of his own life. You simply didn’t play with Dragoons, they had a worse kill switch than he could ever.

At least he managed to save another from disaster at least once. At least Yulionne could realize, even through the harshest of methods, how she was making a mistake being with Murielle, that a heretic and Inquisitor could never be together. Maybe a heretic and two fellow monsters that were less annoying than him could be together, even if he had threatened or tried to kill both of them, as was the case with Heilyn that Esredes reluctantly came to accept later. Though not before telling Divah that he would never be with someone who literally stabbed him in the back, even if she couldn’t die. And maybe a forced heretic could be with a loyalist, as was the case with Murielle’s son falling for a woman who was hiding the blood. Unlike Murielle, it actually changed him, and he meant his word to not go against people like her ever again. Elouan and Baptiste had Esredes saying nothing at first, seeing an Elezen and Miqo’te together, but Esredes put his original feelings in a coffin and threw them into the ocean when he saw how much they really completed each other in their respective emotional issues. Yes, all right, it all seemed as illogical as the rest at first, but it eventually made sense.

He didn’t even bother to warn Vlamont about Seraphiaux, he knew Vlamont wouldn’t understand that his little brother was incapable of loving another person at the time, but even Vlamont sort of listened later on, when Seraphiaux came back. They took it slow, they felt out if they could try again or not. And Esredes said nothing as they slipped upstairs to have an alone moment at a Masquerade. It was their journey to take.

But most of the rest still didn’t make sense. At some point, he had to accept that people would continue to be spontaneous and illogical with their feelings, falling for the worst possible choices, and all he could do was keep trying to prevent fires before they happened.

At least he knew better for himself. As he continued to spark nothing at the thought of romance, even with his beloved Alise, he knew the world needed certain mistakes not made. And he was proud to help it out by not making them.

—

@thecalmnessandthestorms / @heartofthefury Heilyn, Alastor, Seraphiaux, Murielle, Trystan (unnamed mention), Lisette (unnamed mention)

@eternal-finis Divah, Yulionne, Vlamont, Ketuseki (unnamed mention)

@momokarp Levi, Alise, Quincy

Mystel Elodie

Arius Ivarault (unnamed mention)

@shieldbcund Elouan

None of my relationships have gone poorly quite frankly. Rocky yes, a little messy yes. But neither of the two could be considered the worst as I still remain with them. Both I love dearly, consider my rocks in rough times, and though they may have begun with a rough beginning, I frankly couldn’t imagine life without them and cherish both of their existances. 

“This is the right one.” Esredes announced to his companion as he stood in front of one of the many lakes in Coerthas, at least, one that wasn’t presently frozen over like most of the rest. “The plant material my associate needs should be right at the bottom. It’s faintly glowing, it should be impossible to miss.”

The ashy, tall Elezen man looked down at Esredes as he spoke. There was always a certain look to his eyes that threw Esredes off- Heilyn described Faelmont as a former Nidhogg heretic like himself, one who wasn’t just a pathetic lump of misery and actually… participated. And yet it always perplexed Esredes how that mess of a man could make such a devil out of what Esredes did while being with two different monsters who most certainly both ate people. Was it just because they hadn’t hurt his son?

Esredes had let go of his bitter feelings for Heilyn recently, hence his comfort in asking his lover for this task for the convenience of it, but it was still hard to wrap his head around the man’s thought process. Nonetheless, the look was always there, a bit of shine in his eyes that really made the man feel disconnected and naive to the world around him. A little like a child that must not understand how the world works.

Regardless, Faelmont looked a little confused at Esredes’ words. "...You make strange request of me, and I wonder why you cannot get yourself." The man said. Esredes stared up at him for a moment, trying to formulate the words to explain something so simple. "But I will not pry!” Faelmont followed up. “I will be back, small firey red man."

And without any further hesitation, he transformed into a long finned dragon and dove right into the lake.

Esredes crossed his arms and let out a sigh of relief. It was nice to not have to spit the words out, after all.

I can’t swim.

He figured the man… dragon… would have figured it out by the sheer fact he asked him in the first place, but no, seemed he remained naive to people and their social implications like so many who got stuck between two worlds. Esredes merely stared at the water’s surface and waited.

Maybe by now, he should have learned. Between flying over Vylbrand’s ocean, the every once in a blue moon venture to Costa del Sol, the fact someone would absolutely push him in if he ever attended a pool party and he might actually be at risk on top of the usual ridicule… but eh. It obviously wasn’t important enough for him to make it a priority, if he was standing out here and waiting.

Faelmont soon emerged with the glowing moss in question, nicely attached to several rocks he had in his mouth, eyes expectant to Esredes. He knelt down and took each one gently from his mouth with a round of thanks. Truly, he was just like an oversized water dog… an oversized water dog that probably ate innocents unknowingly.

He smiled at Faelmont and couldn’t resist patting his head a moment to further express this thanks. The man purred in response. …Maybe he was some kind of hybrid.

Uncontrollable past aside, it was nice to spend a little time with the man. If only he had become one of his- Esredes was sure more moments like this one together would have been quite fun and productive, especially with a form as large as that one.

But for now, the task was complete. “Let’s head back,” Esredes said as he turned and carefully put the rocks away in his bag. “I don’t want to let them sit out here too long.”

—-

@eternal-finis Faelmont

For Heilyn it’s his lovely wife (Divah) and dear husband (Faelmont).