User blog:Redknight910/WWYD Doppelganger Freestyler6866

Prompt: You will never get my approval

I sit down across the table from my son, looking at him with a practiced stern glare. He knows something's upset me, and tries to ask what before I cut him off.

"I saw you with that... thing." His face turns red, and he casts his eyes to the floor.

"Oh." Is all he can muster.

"I'm going to ask this once, son. Why?" He looks back up, managing to meet my eyes.

"She was injured, crying. She sounded so... sad-"

"So you took pitty on it and brought it here?" I growl, getting a brief nod. "And why did you... sleep with it." His eyes start to harden before me, his deferred gaze turning as stern as my own.

"They're not what you think, father. They're not the monsters they're made out to be." I just scoff, thinking the temptress has been playing with him.

"I see. So our entire history of being slaughtered and eaten by these fiends is wrong, is it? Myself, your grandfather and his father have all been killing simple creatures looking for a place to live?"

"If I said you had?" His eyes aren't wavering, our family's determination shining through boldly.

"Then I'd say prove it. I've been out there, fighting these beasts for well over a decade, and you find one injured stray and think they'd tell you the truth?" I stand and turn away, hand on my hilt. "I'm going to find this beast and make it pull the poison from your mind before it dies." I hear a sword draw behind me.

"I can't let you do that." Turning I see my son, standing in fine form, weapon drawn and eyes fierce.

"You would pull a sword on your own father? For a monster?" I tighten my grip on my sword, eyes narrowing. "How long as she been feeding you lies? How long has a monster been soiling this home?"

"Three months, sir." Whirling around I see the monster stepping out of his room, her guise small and human, but the shadows at her feet showing her true self.

"Three months, you say. Then I have three months of poisoned words for you to take back." I step towards the small feminine figure, before my son leaps at me.

Well-trained and well-built, my son is a powerful man, but I have that same training, that same strength, and ten years of experience using it. I grab my son's arm, pulling him forward and punching him in the stomach, leaving him on the floor, coughing. I pray my blow didn't do any serious damage.

Turning back to the monster, I draw my sword, walking towards it. "Tell me, if I kill you, will your spell be undone?" She stands before me, not cowering, not afraid.

"Nothing will change the truth." I hold my blade to her neck, resting it on her shoulder.

"Your truth is poisoned lies. I'll ask one more time. Do I need you alive to return my son's senses to him?" She sighs and shakes her head.

"My death will make him hate you, my imprisonment will make him hate you. He cares deeply for you. I'm shocked he would draw swords against you, but I cannot change his convictions, no more than you can."

"If that's true, then my son is an unrepentant traitor, and you are responsible for it." I raise my sword and bring it down, only to watch her vanish before me. Spinning around I find her, kneeling next to my son, hovering over him like a caring partner.

"Father, please. Listen to me, not to her." My son groans, rising to a knee to look at me. "She's not a monster. Not in the way that matters. She's kind, and caring, and loving. I was the one who was injured and crying when she found me." I stand firm, not wavering in my stance. My son just shakes his head and sighs.

"Tell me what happened, son." I say quietly. "Tell me everything about how you met." He looks up with hope in his eyes, hope that quickly fanishes when he sees my face.

"I was in the woods, Lady Clarisse had just declared her love for Sir. Bravos. I'd been planning to make my own intentions known to her that day." He manages to rise to his feet, his sword forgotten on the ground. "So, I went into the woods, to our training space, and began training to clear my mind." He rolls up his sleeve to show a scar in his arm, one I'd never seen before.

"I broke the practise blade on a training dummy, and it cut across my arm. I fell to the ground, crying for my pained heart more than my arm." I nodded, understanding the pain of having the one you love give themselves to another. When my first love did so I broke her beloved's nose in anger.

"And then what happened." I rest my sword's point on the ground, still ready to move at the slightest moment.

"And then... she appeared." He looks lovingly at the creature beside him, warm smile on both their faces. "She changed to look like Clarisse, said she had been wrong to confess to another, and helped patch my wound. Of course when I confronted the Lady the next day, she looked at me as though I was mad." He chuckles at the memory, and the monster flushes.

"So, when she came to me the next day, I demanded to know who she really was, and why she was playing with my heart."

"And I said, I can show you who I am, if you promise not to be angry." The monster says, wrapping her arms around my son.

"And I promised her. When she showed me I was shocked, not only because she was a monster, but also because she didn't try to hurt me when I found out. She was still kind, still caring, and I still cared for her." His determined eyes shine brightly, a look I know all too well.

"And so you began to have relations with a monster." I finish, thinking hard on the story. After several long seconds I sigh.

"I do not wish to slay my own blood for betraying the church, nor to I want to have the inquisition torture you before they do the same." I straighten my stance and sheathe my blade. "I'm going to the church first thing tomorrow, to tell them a monster has taken my son." i glare at the girl, before my son steps in front of her.

"If you aren't far enough when I go, they will find you, and they will kill the both of you." I give him another stern look. "So leave. Now. And never let me see you again." My son's eyes turn wide, and after a few quick glances between me and the monster, he nods.

"Thank you father." He says, running off to get his things. I grab his arm as he passes me.

"I am no longer your father, and you are no longer my son. If we meet again, we do so as strangers, and as enemies. Am I clear?" He looks at me for several long moments, before nodding. He dashes off, and I turn to the monster.

"Thank-"

"Don't." I growl, hand instinctively going to my sword. "I did this for him, not for you. And if I hear so much as a whisper of you hurting him, I will be sure to hunt you down and end you without a second breath." She nods, gliding passed me on her feet of shadows.

I watch the two of them leave, dusk falling as they enter the woods, and sigh.

"Forgive me, Chief God, for I am weak. I could not condemn my son to holy justice." With that confession I retire to my bed, hoping for forgivness in the eyes of the Chief God.

My dreams take me to a cloudy land, tinted in pink light. As I wander I see angelic forms, some with bows and arrows, some with shining armour and spears, and some dancing with liquid silks covering them. My wanderings take me to a great, heart shaped throne, the creature sat upon it so clearly divinity. The land of Eros.

I kneel before the great goddess, earning a warm giggle from her.

"Stand, good sir." Her voice is like honey, soft, warm, and gentle. "I saw what you did, I've seen your toubles and your kindnesses." I hang my head.

"My apologies, my lady. I could not-" A warm hand lifts my chin, and I'm suddenly face to face with the goddess of love.

"No, it is because you could not, that you are here." She pulls back, resting once more on her throne. "I saw what you did, how you abandoned everything you knew was right to let them go." She nods. "And that, in itself, was right." I'm confused by her words.

"But, I let a monster go free." She nods, her soft expression not changing.

"Indeed. But in doing so, you allowed love to bloom." Her face turns pitying. "You have been deprived of love for so long. You lost your wife so many years ago, and still, your heart is lost without her." I feel a tightness in my chest, the mention of my dear beloved bringing back the memories of our final moments.

"Love is to be cherished, whether between humans or monsters, love is beautiful. I saw the love between you and your wife, and I can see the love between your son and his own partner." She waves her hand and the clouds part, revealing my son and the monster embracing by a fire. Both fully clothed, hands together, and enjoying each other's company.

"Many monsters are driven by lust. They are maddened and ensared by it. But this one, this one is good. She is kind and loving, and deserves what will come to her. And your son is the very same." The clouds gather once more, leaving only Eros to focus on.

"Do not fear for the act of kindness you have done. Know that you have at least one goddess today, and that you are loved for it." There's the sudden sensation of falling as the clouds beneath me give way, and I jolt awake in my bed. I look around me, making sure I'm in my own room, before calming down.

Was that real? Did Eros truly just condone my actions personally? I scarcely dare to believe my dreams, and as slumber takes me once more, I convince myself that it was simply that, a dream.

The next morning I make good on my word, reporting my son taken my a monster to the Commander. He's devastated that my only child is gone, leaving me without a successor, but is determined to provide a suitable candidate by the end of the week. I give him my thanks, and turn to depart.

As I'm leaving the Order's offices I bump into a woman. Turning to apologise I'm stricken by her beauty, the woman of middling age not seeming to bear a hint of it upon her face.

"Forgive me, Sir. I was lost in my own thoughts."

"Think nothing of it, milady. To gaze upon your beauty is kindness enough." She blushes furiously at my words, but smiles.

"You flatter me, good Sir. I am not a young flower anymore." I nod.

"While you may not be young, your bloom is still fair. Though I shouldn't be so rude, I'm still older again, I'd wager." She takes my hand quickly, shaking her head.

"Experience far outweighs youth on the field, I have found." I raise an eyebrow.

"Are you a soldier?" Agains she shakes her head.

"No, but I do aid the tacticians in their planning. And young soldiers are so often too keen to meet their foes." I nod, smiling at her.

"I agree. I've seen more young men and women injured or worse than I care to recount." She nods, before a slamming door catches her attention.

"Ah, my apologies, good Sir, but I must be off. We are having a meeting in mere moments." I grab her hand as she turns to leave.

"May I at least know your name, fair lady?" She looks at me for a moment, before nodding.

"Annabelle Dianne Basath. And yours?" I let her go.

"Davian Carlos Mathas." She nods again, smiling, before hurrying off to the meeting. Something about her, about not only how she looks, but about how she speaks, how she is draws me to her, and I can't help but hope we meet again.

Sitting atop the arches of the great halls, a cupid smiles, her arrows once more striking true.