lust's end

[3:07 AM] Kiri: anyways since it was put on my mind I figured I'd ask
[3:08 AM] Kiri: did I ever vocalize what I wanted Lust's whole look and fight were gonna look like, or was it just the part where they want to bone down on Calamitas
[3:09 AM] Leafia_Barrett: I remember you mentioned that he was no god, and is visibly hindered by his injuries as the fight goes
[3:10 AM] Kiri: well to start with I'm probably gonna be using 'they' pronouns just because honestly making Lust's idealized vision of beauty bereft of gender is more poignant than just a booby lady
[3:10 AM] Leafia_Barrett: I assumed we were avoiding that, at least, hence my assumption of male
[3:11 AM] Kiri: second, yeah, I wanted it to be a thing where they were probably the most mortal of the wardens, presumably one picked from the humans they created to round out an even 10
[3:12 AM] Kiri: So I had images of just like... they're largely humanoid, maybe strangely featureless in a few places. 'Would make them hard to describe, even if you know it when you see it' sort of thing. 'shape of a nose', 'I don't think they had ears'
[3:12 AM] Kiri: maybe to sort of convey the idea of just, subsuming their identity for the one they care about
[3:13 AM] Kiri: and in terms of what they're capable of, I think I mentioned the idea before that they were the one keeping hell hot.
[3:13 AM] Leafia_Barrett: yeah
[3:14 AM] Leafia_Barrett: without them, hell cools and solidifies
[3:14 AM] Kiri: If you think Sol is capable of making 'lots of fire' then this person exists solely to impress.
[3:14 AM] Kiri: 'Lust, the Angel Ablaze' came to mind. Burning Angel, something like that.
[3:15 AM] Kiri: They reach the surface and legitimately everything just turns to fire.
[3:15 AM] Kiri: 'The air is burning' is one of the few good things to come out of Calamity, might as well put it somewhere
[3:16 AM] Kiri: and another big thing in my head is that they have a really strong connection with Rilicia, considering she was probably the most prominent demon of their circle for a long time I was going to suggest they might actually straight be close friends
[3:17 AM] Kiri: hence the thing I said a while back that Calamitas might hold that over her head when we first fight her, 'Strike me down, and nothing will breathe life into them. You know this.'
[3:18 AM] Kiri: if Rilicia's gonna have entries I can see them being in, like... flashback, maybe memoire format, where she's just reminiscing about time they spent together
[3:18 AM] Kiri: Winding up relying on each other to cling to their humanity, since that's what they saw in each other
[3:19 AM] Kiri: Discussing the nature of what put them both where they are, and if there's any hope they can still change, since we've discussed before how strange and vague 'lust' is as a sin
[3:19 AM] Kiri: And thus why Lust degenerates so much when Rilicia vanishes
[3:20 AM] Leafia_Barrett: considering Rilicia's behavior in WJ, there was probably something causing them to drift apart by that point already
[3:21 AM] Kiri: The idea I mainly wanted to present was just that, when Lust appears so they can be fought, I kinda wanted it to almost be... surreal, in the way that it happens
[3:22 AM] Kiri: Their mere presence beyond the veil of the earth's mantle is making the world burn, and yet they don't actually seem to actively want to cause much wanton destruction
[3:22 AM] Kiri: They appear, and specifically ask for the actual party, because that's what Calamitas wants.
[3:22 AM] Kiri: 'Do what you need to so they might burn'. All she needs to is ask, realistically.
[3:22 AM] Leafia_Barrett: they don't seem to want much of anything themselves, is the idea?
[3:23 AM] Leafia_Barrett: they've lost most of themselves by that point
[3:24 AM] Kiri: They literally just stand there, pelted by arrows and bullets, most of them striking the ground around them as molten slag before even reaching them, but some of them sticking home, and they don't even stop to pull those out until they realize 'oh, I need to make myself presentable'
[3:24 AM] Kiri: At which point they're melted or yanked out, with the wounds scarring over as the heat cauterizes them
[3:26 AM] Kiri: Maybe Rilicia's off doing something else and is absent for the initial few blows of the fight, or maybe she just chose not to show up because she can't be made strike down her last friend
[3:27 AM] Kiri: But one way or another, when things turn more dire for Lust, whether they're struck with a really nasty, clean blow, or Rilicia finally arrives and they simpl can't deal with her presence, eventually they just... fall to their knees, and start to scream
[3:27 AM] Kiri: At which point the blazes swell and churn before creating the image of a massive, bellowing dragon made out of flame
[3:28 AM] Kiri: Unknowing to everyone but the one that loves her, the last mad effigy they make to the one they love
[3:29 AM] Kiri: With everyone scrambling to figure out how to deal with this, Rilicia steps forward after a few seconds of heartsunken disbelief
[3:29 AM] Kiri: and she just says to whoever's nearest her, 'I'm going to stop her.'
[3:30 AM] Kiri: So she spreads her wings as if to fly straight the fuck into this monster made out of flames that are presently melting the earth
[3:30 AM] Kiri: and when someone tries to get her to not probably kill herself, her reaction amounts to 'If I'm crazy, then try and stop me.'
[3:31 AM] Kiri: Since, you know, as an actual, full-blooded demon, she's the only one present who really stands a goddamn chance in the literal belly of the beast
[3:31 AM] Kiri: Like even Celia's kids are like
[3:31 AM] Kiri: there's enough not-demon in them that they would still be rent to ashes just getting close to that thing
[3:32 AM] Leafia_Barrett: she's the only one who can actually withstand the flames of lust, fittingly enough
[3:33 AM] Kiri: And while on the outside, this stark raving mad image of a dragon made out of fire is pretty much sieging the settlement with only Red's shield between it and accomplishing Calamitas' wishes, everyone assumes that Rilicia's either already dead, or enduring the hardest fight of them all
[3:34 AM] Kiri: ... When she made it inside of the dragon's heart, it's like the eye of a storm. It's only a chamber for Lust's bloodied, beaten form to curl and cry within.
[3:35 AM] Kiri: There's really no more fight to be had. They're dying. The dragon is simply a magical machination of their raw, unfettered emotion, hardly even considering their input
[3:37 AM] Kiri: And Rilicia... She takes out the spear, she knows what has to be done, but it was easier to push herself through the fire than to rob herself of the last thing she cared about.
[3:38 AM] Kiri: So... Lust's final moments are the two of them simply... enjoying one last moment of respite together.
[3:38 AM] Kiri: Indulging in a devotion not to a vain and impossible love, but one to each other.