A fellow Cassarian shipper hosted a Cassarian Month in August 2023, and I decided to turn my entries for it into a month of different AUs! So here they are, along with short stories to go with the art!
AU: Soulmates receive the same cuts, scars, and injuries that the other does.
Varian has been in prison for a while now. For exactly how long, he can't say. Weeks? Months? Who knows? All he does know is, he has to find a way to get out of here somehow...
"Ouch..." He says, feeling a sharp but brief sting on his face. He has no idea who his soulmate is yet, but whoever they are they sure seem to get a lot of small cuts. What on earth could they be doing to cause them?! Though, he's one to talk. Whoever his soulmate is has received plenty of alchemical burns over the years from him.
"Another one?" Varian's cellmate, Andrew says. "That's the third one this week!"
"What can I say? My soulmate is committed," Varian says. "Although, to what, I have no clue..."
Andrew lays back on the hard cot. "Yeah, that never happens to me. It's for the best, I guess."
"You never get injuries from your soulmate?" Varian asks. He has never heard of this happening before. "Does that mean... you don't have one?"
Andrew shrugs indifferently. "Never really thought about it. Don't really care," he replies, folding his hands behind his head.
Varian settles on to his own cot, and attempts to get some rest. But after a few minutes, there is a sudden, intense pain in his right hand. It is immeasurably extreme, unlike anything he has ever felt before. He screams out, and rips his glove off. Tears instantly pour from his eyes as he gazes down at his hand. It is now blackened and shriveled, like a severe burn worse than he has ever seen in his life.
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"What is happening?!" Andrew shouts, more than a little freaked out.
When Varian finally stops screaming, he clutches his hand close to his chest. Whatever just happened to his soulmate, it was bad. Really bad. His hand still hurts, but he can bear the pain now.
"I... I don't know what that was all about," Andrew says to Varian. "But whoever your soulmate is, they must not believe in being careful."
Varian isn't sure he agrees with Andrew. He doesn't have any idea what happened to his soulmate to cause this terrible of an injury, but he hopes that, whoever they are, they are still alright. Not just from the physical damage, but from the emotional damage an injury like this can cause, as well.
At least one good thing might come from this: It'll be a lot easier to figure out who his soulmate is. How many people in the world have a blackened, shriveled hand?
