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darkhymns-fic · 3 years

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The Stars Pull Us Together

Having recently transferred to Luin Academy, Colette prepares to start on one of her first assignments - which she needs to use the school's own observatory for.

She didn't expect to literally run into Lloyd on the way.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters/Pairing: Lloyd Irving/Colette Brunel Rating: G Mirror Link: AO3 Notes: For Colloyd Week, Day 4: Stargazing! Because I need to write at least one modern au fic of them.

It was still early evening when Colette arrived at the observatory, the sun just teetering at the edge of the horizon, painting the sky in shades of pink. There were only two of the dome structures, a bit smaller than she expected, just off to the side of the campus grounds and overlooking the undulating hills that made up the Asgard terrain. The autumn season made the air brisk, the wind slightly strong as it tugged at her hair. She had to hug her books close, hunch her shoulders just to withstand the sudden cold.

I just need to get inside, she told herself, feet crunching against the gravel. A hand reached out to the door handle of the first observatory, pulled on it and… found it stuck? Oh…

It took Colette a good minute to realize that this was the wrong observatory anyway, once she saw the construction sign to the left of her, half-hidden in the shadows. Slightly embarrassed, but at least relieved that no one was around to see her blunder, she then walked to the second observatory.

She sensed there was something different here, until she noticed the rows of potted plants that lined the steps and small ledge that circled around the building, from small ficuses to even a charming aloe vera. It was a pleasant spot of greenery over the stark whiteness of the observatory’s walls. There were no construction signs here – unless you counted the little greeting by the small steps (with a small cactus plant placed next to it) that said, ‘Welcome to the Luin observatory! Please watch your step!!!’ The letters looked to be handwritten, and Colette couldn’t help but draw her attention to it, marveling a bit at the multiple exclamation marks…

And by looking at it, she didn’t watch her step at all.

Colette flailed, and by doing so, she had let go of her books to fall to the ground. She was about to crash headfirst into the door until it suddenly opened inward, along with a shout of, “Whoa what-!?”

So she wasn’t the only one at the observatory tonight.

Papers falling around them like lost wings, a groan beneath her chin, and Colette was ready to faint from the shame of not only falling down, but bringing another person down with her… “Ah… I’m so sorry…” she voiced, blinking open her eyes to find herself inside the observatory now. It was mostly bare except for a few laptops on a nearby desk, a coffee maker to the side, and of course, the great telescope that was in the middle, its end pointing upwards to a currently shuttered roof.

Another groan. “S’okay… I kinda walked into that one anyway.”

The voice was familiar to her. Colette looked to see a guy half-seated, one hand planted against the floor. His plaid jacket caught her eyes on the rich redness of the fabric, reminding her suddenly of winter flurries that would freeze her cheeks, and summer storms that always came by so fast, and how he would try to shield her with a broken umbrella… “Wait, Lloyd?”

He blinked, looking so confused for a moment that she wondered if she was mistaken. But the tousle of brown hair on his head, going off in different directions, told her otherwise. “Hold on a sec… Colette! It’s you!”

“Y-yeah!” When he smiled, she was brought back to the boy with the scuffed sneakers, whose home she’d visit that was off the road, overrun by bramble on the way. “I haven’t seen you since we graduated.”

“Right, like that was what, three years ago?” Lloyd mused on that as he tried to shift upwards, and then couldn’t with Colette still half on him. “Um.”

“Oh, right. Sorry.” She giggled as she hurriedly got to her feet, trying very hard to not slip and fall again. She inwardly winced at her laugh, that nervous tic that she could never get rid of, even now. “Guess I’m still a klutz.”

“Don’t worry about it… It’s good, because I’m still catching you!” He laughed too, and the sound brought back even more memories out on the grass, with the sky stretching overhead that, for a brief moment, she was lost in it.

Lloyd looked older, now that she got a better look at him when she wasn’t at a tilt anymore. There was only the hint of a stubble at his chin, but his hair had grown out more, even as it made the same waves that she remembered back from childhood. He wore similar clothes from high school still, with his plaid jackets, his frayed jeans, and his work boots. It was so familiar, that she wondered if maybe they had never separated at all.

“…Colette, you alright?” Lloyd asked her, in a tone that felt comforting all at once. “You didn’t really hit your head, did you…?”

“Ah, no no, don’t worry! I’m still just… surprised to see you!” Her hands clasped each other as she looked up at him, noticing the few inches he had gained in height now. “Does this mean you go to Luin Academy too?”

“Oh, well… about that…” Lloyd’s gaze shifted to the side, and she thought she caught something pass in his expression – that is, until a flying piece of paper smacked him right in the face. “Ack!”

“Oh no, I forgot!”

After a hectic dash of Lloyd and Colette trying to grasp the sheets that had escaped her textbooks, some of them flying far back outside to the second observatory, eventually they’d gotten them all. Or, Colette hoped they did. But at the end, she was shivering and felt a little winded from chasing about various articles that her professor had given her all over the grounds.

“It’s seriously cold out. You don’t have a jacket with you?” Lloyd had latched shut the metal door, leaving them both in the observatory that was basically one mid-sized room with a giant telescope in the middle. Colette noted the metal staircase on the side, leading to the curved ceiling and any other mechanisms that she missed. There was even more of an assortment of plants here, some set nearer the ceiling while others were at the table she sat at. There was the soft hum of a laptop next to her, which she carefully placed her books near. Lloyd was already brewing up coffee, the scent quickly filling the air.

“I didn’t think I’d need it.” Colette shivered in her blouse. Though long-sleeved, the material was still light. She gratefully took the warm mug he handed to her, heating up her palms. “It gets even colder out here than back at home.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Lloyd took a seat next to her easily. “I can give you one of mine if you want.”

“I’m sure I still have the last one you gave me!” She laughed, making sure to swallow her sip of coffee before doing so. Not too hot, not too bitter. In fact, it had a sweetness to it – of vanilla creamer – and she was surprised he still remembered.

“That old thing?” Lloyd asked with such curiosity in his eyes that it made her smile even more. “It’s fine if you wanted to throw it away! Does it even still fit?”

“Yup! It fits me like a blanket still!” And it was true, that old spare jacket that Lloyd had once given her as a joke gift, but she had treasured it all the same. It wasn’t uncommon for her to wear it often when they went to school together, getting stares from other students, but neither caring at all.

She clutched the now half-full mug, looking at Lloyd with a bit of awe. He was holding his, its surface a bit more scratched, but fitting him oddly well. “You know, I thought you went to that other college?” he asked, scrunching his forehead as he tried to remember the name. “The…Spirit…something?”

“The Spiritua University,” Colette corrected kindly. “But, I was having trouble adjusting, so I transferred to Luin instead. Sorry, I think I forgot to tell you that in my last email.”

“Oh, don’t worry.” Lloyd rushed a hand through his hair, grinning. “I kinda…forgot the password to that email anyway… Genis was supposed to make me another one but he’s been busy over at Palmacosta.”

“I haven’t talked to him much either.” It had been so many months without seeing her old friends – yet here was Lloyd before her, as if walking straight out of her memories.

Maybe she had been staring for too long – a nervous chuckle from Lloyd, the exact same tone that she remembered from years back. “It’s probably weird to just find me here, huh?”

Colette shook her head. “I don’t think that’s weird. I think it’s lucky that we’re able to find each other again.”

Lloyd visibly relaxed his shoulders. “Heh, you know, I think so too.”

She took her time studying him even more, from his more grown-out (but still messy) hair, to the way he sat on the plastic chair. The lights inside of the observatory were dim, just bright enough for reading, but not too much light pollution to make using the telescope difficult. It felt relaxing being in here, with him.

She remembered his words from earlier, then gently asked, “How come you are here though?”

It only took a moment longer before Lloyd explained himself. “Well… I did actually try to get into Luin. Did the application and everything. I think I wrote the longest essay of my life too. But… my grades really held me back anyway, I guess.”

Lloyd had still been undecided when she left for school back then. He would travel instead, he told her, or he’d take over Dirk’s specialty workshop. She’d never asked him if he’d wanted something else entirely. “I’m sorry.”

“You dork, you’re still apologizing for nothing after all this time?”

“I can’t help it!”

Another laugh, feeling as warm as the dim lights around them. “I don’t think I’m a good fit for it anyway.” Lloyd shrugged, but she saw the grin still on his face, boots tapping the floor in barely concealed excitement. “But you know? One of the teachers read my essay and contacted me! He…kinda kept talking about all the spelling mistakes and junk, until he told me about a side job I could do here. I wouldn’t have to be in classes but he said he’d teach me anyway.”

Even Colette was stunned at this random act of kindness from a stranger. “Really?

“Yeah! And, it definitely seemed a little weird that he just offered, but then I thought, why not? So that’s why I’m here!”

Curious on the story, and having her suspicions, she asked. “Who was the teacher that spoke to you?”

“Oh, it was…” Lloyd scrunched his forehead, but then his eyes lit up, remembering. “Kratos Aurion, I think. Maybe you know him? He really liked what I wrote.”

“He’s my astrophysics professor! I’m actually doing an assignment for his class.” Colette was slowly figuring out what he must have written. She gauged it from where they sat at, from the past nights they’d both lay on the grass of his backyard, matching patterns in the black as much as they could go. “You did always like the stars, didn’t you?”

The same smile she would sometimes think about before she slept beamed at her just then. “So do you. That’s why you’re here, right?”

She nodded, feeling more excited than before – or maybe it was just the caffeine in her system taking over. “And now you work at the Luin observatory. That’s great, Lloyd!”

“Yeah! But uh… I didn’t realize that you basically needed to know math to be an actual astronomer… So I just clean up things here and make sure stuff is working alright. It’s good enough!”

Colette giggled, looking around at the small room, neatly tidied up, just how much coffee he drank in here. “You even got some of your plants here too!”

“Hehe, well at least the ones that at least don’t need much sunlight. So no flowers or anything..”

So natural had they fallen into the rhythm of talking aimlessly like they used to, that Colette nearly forgot why she was here. It took the beeping of her phone alarm – to warn her of the small time window that she had – to jog her memory, as well as Lloyd’s.

“Oh shoot, sorry! You came here to use this thing, didn’t you?” Lloyd quickly got to his feet, downing the cup of coffee in one go, surprising Colette that he could do so while it was still fairly hot. “I may not be smart, but I’ve been learning how to operate these machines. It’s not too hard once you get the hang of it.”

“Ah, well, maybe then…” Colette went to grasp the papers, at the numbers she had written out hastily over the gridlines. “Professor Aurion gave me some coordinates to look up, can you use these?”

She suspected Lloyd wasn’t as bad at math as he claimed. Because when it came to something he really liked, he always did try his best. He looked at where she pointed, then gave her a thumbs up. “You got it.”

Luin’s observatory was a first for her, but she had used such things before. She gathered her notebook in her lap, looking over at the telescope that was bigger than most. It swiveled gently as she moved it to the right, checked over the viewing piece. It was well-maintained, which she had expected.

“Ready?” Lloyd called from the side, hands hovering near a panel.

“Ready!” she called back. Her hands turned the dial of the telescope, and then adjusted the contraption just a bit on its tripod so that it hit the exact angle for her. It was a tall piece of equipment, so she had to perch on a metal seat just underneath to view it properly.

Once the lights dimmed even lower, the ceiling of the dome shifted. She could see it rotate to the coordinates she had told Lloyd of. Another small shake, and then the middle shutter of the dome slowly panned open, revealing the now clear night sky, the blanket of stars up above.

Sometimes it was a gamble when the skies would be good for observing, especially during the cold seasons – but the cold season was also the best time to stargaze too. That was one thing that she remembered from back then.

And looking at the stars had always calmed her.

“Can you see through it okay?”

“Um, just a bit…” She tried to get more comfortable in her seat, but the metal of it was prodding her leg, and soon she knew she had edged out too far to nearly stumble off.

By then, she already felt hands on her shoulders, Lloyd quickly climbing up to join her in the observing seat. “Do you need me to be your seatbelt?”

Colette hoped her happiness didn’t show off too obviously, but his hands felt even stronger too now. “Hehe, maybe for a little while if you don’t mind it.”

She leaned back to the telescope and near the eyepiece, hands gently placed on the handles while she felt Lloyd nearby, keeping her steady.

The night was clear, and the coordinates Lloyd had set the observatory had been right. She didn’t have to get used to any haziness, or peer through a cloudy sky. The stars were so numerous, painted against greyscale, or an old film reel. But she found the cluster she had been looking for, and already set to write down her findings.

“Lloyd, you should see this too!”

“You sure? I’ve looked through it plenty of times this week.”

Colette shook her head, bringing Lloyd’s hands from her shoulders to the telescope. “I think you’ll like it.” She winked at him. “Besides, have you seen it from this spot?”

“Ya got me there.” And like an excited kid, which she had already suspected had never left him, he looked through it too, hands handling the telescope with care and precision. Colette craned her head to look past the instrument to the sky above. While specific nebulae and clusters were hidden from her, the stars to the naked eye were still spread out, like a trail through the dark.

“That’s awesome! That’s the Hercule something, right?”

“The Hercules cluster, yeah!”

It was and yet wasn’t like stargazing out in the fields, with just the crickets and the gentle breeze for ambience. A metal room instead of outdoors, (though the plants helped) and the sky partially blocked from the roof, but she still saw the same light in Lloyd’s eyes – always whenever he would look up at the starry skies.

“So, what did Kratos wanted you to do for this?”

She tilted her head. “You know, it was kind of strange but… he just said I should count the stars here.”

Lloyd turned to her in disbelief. “Huh? Wait… all of these stars? There’s too many! And just plain impossible!”

“He said that too! That an average human lifespan isn’t enough to count every single one…not to mention new ones appear while others fade away.” She tapped her pen against the paper, feeling a smile curve her lips. “But he said we should try anyway.”

“Man… this guy’s weird.”

“Hehe. But he’s very kind. Don’t you think?” Colette took Lloyd’s hand, held it like it was second-nature. “I told him about Iselia. I wonder if he figured out that we knew each other.”

“Huh.” Lloyd gripped her hand back, still half perched on the side of the observing seat, not at all mindful to the height. “He could’ve just asked one of us.”

Colette, feeling more confident then she had in years, scooted a bit from her seat and gestured for Lloyd to come near. “There’s room for both of us here! Maybe if we counted together, we could get it all.”

Lloyd barely hesitated, sitting next to her in only a somewhat tight fit. But she didn’t mind the feel of his jeans pressed against her leg, the scent of him comforting in its familiarity. “I bet I could count more! Though, can we even share the telescope between us?”

“Hmm…we can take turns!” And even as they did at first, giggling as both tried to take their stay at the eyepiece for longer, they eventually leaned back to watch the stars through the open shutter, clear from light pollution and misty clouds.

She had always liked the stars too, she thought, with Lloyd leaning against her shoulder, eyes bright as the night continued, way past the closing hours for the observatory. But now, she knew the exact reason why.

#tales of symphonia #lloyd irving #colette brunel #colloyd #colloydweek2021 #fanfiction #one shot

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goron-king-darunia · 3 years

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Annon-Guy: How different would the original Symphonia's story go if Emil/Ratatosk, Marta and Richter were part of the group back than, helping them against the Desians and Mithos?

Honestly, this is a really hard thing to answer. They existed during the Symphonia timeline, they just didn't participate in the main story. So we honestly have every reason to believe not much if anything would have changed except with the possibility of Ratatosk since, well, no one knew where to look for him at that time and I don't imagine Aster speed running that discovery since the only reason they started looking was because the climate was weird when the planet came back together all jumbled. If they had somehow stumbled upon Ratatosk their own way, either we would have gotten a redemption speedrun because Lloyd and Colette have plot armor and would have been able to keep him under control or we would have gotten some, like, devastating calamity way earlier because someone "important" would have died. Or they would have had to invent another underappreciated redshirt like Aster to take the bullet. I think if we saw DotNW's cast in Symphonia, we likely would have gotten mostly side-character reference and not much else because I think trying to involve them would not only have made the DotNW we got impossible (i.e. Marta couldn't have a reason to hate Colette if she was there with Colette when the tree went rampant. She would know how and why it happened. Emil would have to be the Real Emil Castagnier and it would remove some of the suspense and mystery from DotNW because if the changed appearance didn't give it away the unjustified hatred for Lloyd would because in non-game material I think we got to see the real Emil's journal and he made one last entry when the Blood Purge began and he seemed really confused that Lloyd, a guy he knew as a hero, would be terrorizing town. If DotNW had followed Real Emil, I think he would have been more confused and sad than angry after the blood purge. It would be more "Why would Lloyd attack Palmacosta and kill my parents? That doesn't make sense for such a hero. What made him change, and why did he attack MY parents?" Since Ratatosk/Emil didn't know Lloyd the way the Real Emil did, he had no framework for what a hero Lloyd was before. He has no attachment to the heroic image of Lloyd. That's part of why DotNW's Emil is so easily able to just hate Lloyd. He's not conflicted. He only knows Lloyd as "The person who killed my parents but everyone treats as a hero." and not "Lloyd, the former hero, who for some reason went out of his way to kill my parents." Richter I can't see as having a role in Symphonia 1 given how the half-elves are still either running human ranches and making everyone terrified or subjugated and exploited basement scientists under the thumb of Sybak Research Academy. If Richter had any role at all, it would probably be something akin to Kate's role. Helping the party but ultimately being a side character of little note. Which honestly would rob from his presence in DotNW or at least not add to it. Most people's favorite character from Symphonia isn't Kate or Chocolat or even Marble, even though they all have roles to play. Most people barely remember Virginia Sage is alive because she's so easy to miss and forget about. So anyone who did remember Richter, would probably be like "This guy is the villain now? Why? Why does this dude get the spotlight, he didn't do anything in the last game." Aster would probably end up being the same way. I doubt Aster would leave Richter all alone to go galavanting around Sylvarant with the heroes. And if he did, honestly he'd probably just end up being another Colette since they have similar sunny personalities and I doubt Symphonia would be able to do much with him since he doesn't have any special battle skills that would look cool and doesn't fill a role that Sheena, Zelos, or Regal aren't already fulfilling. Marta could theoretically fit but like I said it would get in the way of her character motivation in DotNW. But I'm not sure what she has that's unique that she could contribute since Raine is already a healer and the Vanguard isn't a thing yet, so a lot of her insight that was helpful in DotNW doesn't exist

yet. As a whole, I think putting the DotNW cast in Symphonia wouldn't work all that well because, well, it's not their story. Similar to how the Symphonia cast doesn't add much to the DotNW story because, again, it's mostly not their story. Now that doesn't mean it wouldn't have been AWESOME to see them interract. Richter as a broody young man getting carted around with his best bud Aster because he and Aster somehow have some special knowlege of, like, the history of Kharlan or something? That could be fun, but that requires a whole new thing added to the main story. Marta getting to join up because she knows a lot about the ancient history of the Sylvarant Dynasty? That could be neat. Emil being brought into the fold because as a native of a fishing village he's just, like, ridiculously good at fishing? That would be awesome. But these are all things that wouldn't necessarily be integral to the main game. Lloyd is the hero. He's just always right by virtue of optimism and plot armor. He has to be there. His dad is a smith and his other dad is an angel, so both those connections also help. Colette is necessary because she's Lloyd's motivation. She's sympathetic and gives the player someone to want to save. Her luck and power as the chosen and an angel and a pure maiden are all benefits to the party. Raine is a healer, is smart, and has extensive knowledge of ruins and can work most of the tech in the game. Her memory of the otherworldly gate is useful and contextualizes a gameplay element for the player. Genis is a best friend support type, a magic user, a half-elf, and sympathetic to Marble and later to Mithos. He not only affirms Lloyd's belief that everyone is worth saving and keeps Lloyd grounded and motivated but he's also useful for understanding the motivations of the bad guys. Sheena is a summoner, and the summon spirits are very important to the story and saving the world, but she also represents the anxieties of Tethe'alla, worried about the end of their prosperity. Zelos has power he never asked for, a testament to the broken system of Chosens and their purpose. He has connections as a political and spiritual leader as he has connections to the King and to the Pope. Regal has monetary connections, knows what it means to sacrifice, is unbelievably strong, but honestly, he's probably the least special person in the group. Presea knows her way around charms, sneaks the party into places they have to get to even before she regains her senses, and is basically living proof of why Mithos's misguided attempt to create a race of lifeless beings is stupid. Kratos has connections to basically everything, even if he's a betrayer, and is ultimately the reason Lloyd is even able to pact with Origin which is one of the final keys in the game. I feel like you could work fishing master Emil, historian Richter, scientist Aster, and distant heir to a dead dynasty Marta in to Symphonia, but a lot of Symphonia was written around the specific characters it needed for the story. So not only do I think it robs them of their rightful places as centerpieces of their own stories in DotNW, but it's also just trying to cram too much extra into Symphonia. Aster, Richter, and Colette being friends would be great though. (And Rilena too, honestly.) I think their personalities would play off Richter nicely and just... 3 blonds all dragging a grumpy redhead around and he'll never admit he likes it even though he absolutely does is, like, very wholesome. Marta, Colette, and Presea just being animal nerd geeks would be great too. Emil I'm not sure on because DotNW Emil isn't real Emil and IDK enough about what real Emil likes to know who he'd be friends with. But Ratatosk getting a defaut support system and getting to actually confront Mithos? Holy hell. That would be a game, man. But I don't think it could happen since the only reason Aster went looking for Ratatosk was because of the messed up climate and I'm not sure if Ratatosk could even be awake with the planet separated. But boy howdy that would be interesting. So while I

don't think there is any one answer and while I don't think it's entirely possible to put the DotNW cast we know and love into Symphonia without changing a lot, it IS fun to think about. But I honestly think it would not only make the first game too crowded and messy but would take away some of how special it was to meet Richter, Emil, Ratatosk, Marta and the rest of the DotNW cast in DotNW. Besides, it sucked enough to see Genis have to struggle with fighting against a fellow half-elf. Imagine teen angst Richter having to do it too.

#Letters from Annon Guy #Long post #Tales of Symphonia #DotNW #opinions

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mousathe14 · 4 years

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As I dispatched my feelings on Tales of The Abyss earlier, @adda-j wished for my thoughts on a few other characters, specifically Organization 13/2 The Six God-Generals and Master Van.

For those not in the know the Six God Generals are our quirky mini-boss squad of this story thus far, and Master Van is the mentor figure of our nominal hero Luke Fon Fabre.

Unfortunately I am not far enough to have any strong opinions on a lot of them. They’re just sort of generic antagonists right now.

Sync is kind of an over confident brat, Largo is just sort of big and there.

Arietta is just a meek version of Anise: a little girl with great magical power in an unusually high position. I will say that the game did me dirty on drawing her ire.

There was some Ligers terrorizing some locals and the game gave me no choice but to kill the queen. Like, game was talking about the choice of killing or not killing the liger queen but I, the player, had no actual say in the decision. Just got to watch Luke agonize over it before having to actually do the deed.

In fact I wanted to talk about it ages ago, I didn’t want to kill her at all! And now Arietta hates us because she can talk to animals and was raised by Ligers! I’m just as mad as she is and I’m getting blamed for this! It’s not cool!

Okay, that rant out of the way, I love Dist. Dist is hilarious. He is this big over the top dude who fancies himself a brilliant mad scientist super villain without an ounce of irony, and no one is having any of it.

He’s going around in his floating chair with his smug lean, hair covering half his face, and glasses illuminated in the light, and no one cares. It’s beautiful. And he’s so bratty about it, it’s hilarious. Of course Jade has thoughts on this guy, and they know each other, which makes it all the more delicious. I can’t wait to see Jade interact more with this loser.

I guess this just leaves Master Van who I pegged as a traitor very early on. He’s a stern but reasonable and caring dude who seems to want what’s best for Luke. He’s very convincing, and maybe some part of him does actual care for Luke.

But also, like, I could sense a betrayal coming as soon as he was introduced. I don’t know when it’s coming, I could be totally wrong. Or hell, I could be half right and he comes back to the hero’s side after the betrayal. Maybe it’s a Kratos from Tales of Symphonia thing where your choices determine whether he stays with the bad guys of joins you.

The point is that I almost trust him. But what’s worse is that Luke trusts him, which means that character-wise it would be an emotionally devastating turn.

You know, I was extremely convinced that Luke had a crush on Master Van. Jury’s still out on that but the writing really really emphasizes how much Luke likes and wants to be around Master Van.

What really sold it to me is that Master Van wants to take Luke far away from here and Luke’s enthusiasm to leave behind his friends, family, and comfort to get away from it all with this tall dark confident dude who has been teaching Luke life lessons and how to fight and stuff.

If the game series wasn’t so hetero I would almost say it’s not subtext, it’s just text.

Of course this queer reading of the text would also need to take into account that this older dude Master Van wants to spirit away this 17 year old boy who only has half his memories. So that makes Van a potential predator taking advantage of Luke’s obsessive admiration.

So that’s two readings that I’m not sure how to feel about.

I just know there are too many unanswered questions about the mystery of Luke’s childhood kidnapping and memory loss and Van’s mysterious involvement so whether Van’s intentions are benign or part of some bigger malignant conspiracy are still entirely up in the air.

But I do think that the writers may have wanted us to see Luke’s interest in Van as admiring a really cool fatherly or uncle-like figure and may have over done it so now it looks Luke just really wants Van to sweep him off his feet and tell him what a good boy he is.

#tales of the abyss #tales of #video games #commentary #analysis #Dist #Largo #Sync #Master Van #Van Grants #luke fon fabre #namco

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nightcoremoon · 5 years

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ok so let's talk twilight. girl meets vampire. girl falls in love with vampire. vampire falls in love with girl. girl and vampire start dating. evil vampire wants to eat girl. vampire kills evil vampire.

new moon. vampire leaves girl. girl gets depressed. girl rebounds with werewolf. werewolf wants to fuck girl. werewolf realizes he's the rebound. werewolf leaves girl. girl seemingly attempts suicide. vampire learns about this and attempts suicide. girl goes to tell him she's not dead. vampire king gives a warning.

eclipse. vampire and girl are back together. evil vampire girlfriend wants revenge. evil vampire girlfriend makes evil vampire army. vampires and werewolves kill evil vampire and army. vampire king gives another warning. vampire marries girl.

breaking dawn. vampire and girl get married. and fuck. girl gets pregnant. baby will kill girl. but abortion is ~evil~. girl dies and gets turned into vampire. werewolf wants to fuck the baby vampire. vampire king shows up to kill the baby. it was a big misunderstanding lol. happily ever after except for the people who died.

that's the gist of things for anyone who doesn't remember.

ok so there's two groups of people. team edward, people who are satisfied with the canon. team jacob, people who say "fuck that, girl should be with werewolf instead". and many people on team jacob proceed to say that team edward all condone pedophilia and stalking and other terrible things. fandom wars happened. and in the end, most people moved on.

...

but not me.

now, I wasn't an obsessed super fan. I thought the first book was boring as shit until the second half. it took me a month to read the first half and three days to read the second half. I read the entire second in literally one day. the entire third in like 3 days. and the entire fourth in like 5. I watched all the movies in theaters. but none of this was by choice. my mom and my several sisters basically made me, but it was okay I guess. personally my fandom progression started with final fantasy 12. it moved into eragon, death note, jak and daxter, avatar the last airbender, invader zim, tales of symphonia, a dash of harry potter, sly cooper, my little pony friendship is magic, dead space, red vs blue, twokinds, resident evil, etc. I'm not in the twilight fandom by choice, but I know all the lore and trivia so fuck it. I might as well be.

I'm team edward.

I know what you're thinking. "but he's 100 years old trying to fuck a teenager! he watched her sleep! he almost killed her drinking her blood! he made her suicidal and depressed! he was super jealous and possessive whenever jacob was around! he broke her bones when they had sex! he impregated her with a monster baby that killed her! HE IS TEH EVILEST EVAR!!1"

let's take this one piece at a time.

1- he didn't try to fuck her. she tried to fuck him. but he said not until she's a full grown adult capable of making her own decisions, and not until marriage ~because premarital sex is wrong~

2- yeah watching her sleep was a little creepy but we can attribute that to stephenie meyer thought it was romantic because she's a dumb white mormon cultist

3- he is a VAMPIRE, and not by choice. and it was either suck the poison out of bella or let her become a vampire. which he didn't want to happen because ~being a vampire sucks 🥁~ so yeah he saved her life. and he managed to not drain her dry and kill her even though her blood is so goddamn delicious because she's a fucking mary sue

4- he didn't make her suicidal and depressed by leaving the country so she didn't get in any life threatening situations like being around jasper who has the self control of a fat kid in a twinkie factory. bella just took the breakup really really badly, and if someone reacts badly to a breakup, it's on THEM, not the other person. saying any differently is, what's the word, toxic and clingy. her emotional instability for plot is just indicative of the author's inherent misogyny (which makes sense, as dumbass mormon cultists are rife with the stuff)

5- he was not jealous and possessive. JACOB was the one who was toxic, since "that cold one will TAKE MY BELLA AWAY FROM ME". jacob wanted bella for himself because he had a crush on her since they were kids, and it was a super unhealthy obsession. edward could read his thoughts and was pissed; consider his backstory in hearing potential rapists' thoughts and killing them. but edward couldn't kill jacob because he was bella's friend. nothing more, though, and jacob fumed in his nice guy fedora

6- again, edward is a VAMPIRE, and a horny bastard at that, because he is a gentleman and therefore probably was a virgin too. he even told bella countless times that it would happen but bella thought it was #WORTH to get some of that hot vampire dick. I guess she's into some super kinky shit. no wonder 50 shades of grey made sense as a twilight fanfiction. anyway, bella seems to have fully consented, otherwise she's the world's most unreliable narrator.

7- the monster baby plot arc was propaganda against female bodily autonomy because "teh babby haz a SOUL and abortion is MURDER even tho she'll LITERALLY DIE otherwise but hey backwoods redneck mormon values are more important than the lives of women, right? anyway, ironically enough, he respected her bodily autonomy by not fixing the mistake he didn't think could happen (uterus vampires can't get pregnant but dick vampires can get other people pregnant? NANI, THE FUCK???) because bella didn't consent to him killing the fetus that was literally breaking her bones from inside since ~abortion is wrooOOoong~

and now, counterpoint.

...and counter-counterpoint.

"edward groomed bella" edward's main focus when she was 16 was to not kill her and drink the delicious cherry fanta, and his main focus at 17 was to make sure she didn't die and that nobody else killed her and drank her delicious cherry fanta, and only when she was a full ass adult was he like "alright fine you wanna marry me sooooo bad here's ur fuckin diamond ring". yeah they made out but like, consider that a FUCKING MORMON WROTE THIS BOOK. one can't fault a character for the dumbassery of the author. that's why in this house we stan james potter. and besides, a few years ago whilst playing truth or dare I at 21 was dared to kiss a 17 year old and I did- granted I didn't know he was 17 at the time but that doesn't even matter because granted edward was a lot older than 21, but granted that doesn't even matter anyways because you know how many teenage girls would make out with oscar wilde, keanu reeves, chris evans, or danny devito jason momoa if they had the chance? I know I would have. it isn't necessarily sexual unless you want it to be. besides, the argument could be made that brain development stops when you become a vampire, considering their body stops developing too. technically edward had the brain and body of a 17 year old, he was just 17 for a long time. so any way you slice it, there are acceptable explanations justifying this in the magic fantasy land of what-ifs and JUST BAD WRITING.

we good?

now let's tackle jacob.

he demanded she "choose" him over edward. he was just as childish and petty as mike. oh, poor mike. he was just too dumb. SWM be like. anyway, he literally abandoned her, his friend, because she wouldn't fuck him, when she needed her best friend the most. because that's who jacob was to her. he was her best friend. she kinda ignored him because edward is smexy and it overpowered her tiny teenage girl brain, or at least that's the author's excuse (yay for internalized misogyny). when they were in the mountains and he was keeping her from dying of hypothermia edward literally had to ask him to stop thinking about fucking her. while she was unconscious. which is kinda rapey. and then to top it all off, he wanted to fuck her baby daughter. so jacob is literally every single thing people called edward. he is jealous, possessive, creepy, obsessed with bella, and a whole bunch of other stereotypes associated with brown skinned man wanting to fuck white skinned women.

...

oh dear god.

wow I can't believe that the white woman who took an existing native american tribe and rewrote their culture to fit her vampire love story for white girls to have a sexy ~exotic~ savage feral werewolf boy in the love triangle turned out to be a racist all along.

so ideally, jacob would be the ideal partner for bella. lore-wise as well. bella and jacob grow old together in their plain regular normal human lives (and hopefully bella's face doesn't get clawed off like sam and leah BIG OOF FOR THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE), edward and tanya get married like they were supposed to do all along and gallivant off and do vampire things, all that jazz. edward isn't creepy and weird, bella isn't a magic mary sue with a magic fucking jean grey mind shield, jacob isnt an asshole.

but after reading the books and the evidence provided, I cannot in good conscience be team jacob over team edward.

thank you for your time.

fuck stephenie meyer.

and fuck all the dudebros who dog on girls for liking twilight anyways, as if dudebros don't watch and consume shitty media all the time.

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cygnahime · 5 years

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FFX Relivebloggening Part 3

Meanwhile, back in Kilika...

What was Dona intending by coming back to the Cloister? She was apparently looking for Yuna, and it's not like she knew Tidus wasn't an official guardian. Did she finally think of a comeback and actually have the guts we all wish we had to actually go back and say it? The Kilika Cloister of Trials is always the hardest for me. Every time, I forget a step or get one out of order. This time I forgot which type of sphere needed to go into the pedestal for the Destruction loot. Tidus, as usual, is the only one who finds the fayth creepy. Also, "willingly" may be a stretch - or an outright lie. It's not like there are release forms on file. They seem relatively chill with it now, but then again, they are also asking for help with dying. I'm not talking to Lulu as much as usual, because I want to keep my affection with her low. It's odd, coming off playing Tales of Symphonia where Colette gets a massive affection boost at the start, that it's so easy for the canonical romance to not be the person you get the optional dialogue with. At least for me, it's usually Lulu. (It's because she has so much interesting dialogue in the early game. I often go straight to her to chat, and up goes that affection value.) It's not that Tidus craves being the center of attention, exactly, but he's used to it, it's part of the world-as-he-knew-it, and seeing everyone focused on Yuna reminds him of how that's not the way anymore. I always save like crazy on this boat ride, because I will get the Jecht Shot. Tidus is learning to take the easy route of saying he's toxin-brained, but Yuna has never taken the easy route in her life and doesn't mean to start now. She's also...the only person in the world who actively says she believes in Tidus and his Zanarkand. (Also, flirting again. That's how people flirt, right? Say they'd like to see your home and stuff?) (Tidus definitely wants to flirt back, but unfortunately, well, "As if I had a place to show her.") It's possible to miss that conversation with Yuna entirely, or not go up the stairs to listen to Wakka and Lulu. I did the former last time I played, so I made sure to do it now. Lulu wants someone to complain with, but Wakka's too easygoing to get a good kvetch session going with. I don't entirely blame her; a lot is happening, and she's under a lot of stress what with Yuna's impending death and all. "Be discreet." Lulu, this is Wakka you're talking to. No, that's not fair, Wakka can be discreet...ish...sometimes. "Sin just takes everything away from us." And of course he's not just talking about their parents, but about Chappu, and Yuna, and everyone else they've lost or are expecting to lose. An NPC says "Sin's attacked Besaid so many times I lost count"; they've probably lost friends then too. And back to Jecht, as I flex my proto-QTE fingers. This is a straight-up memory, and he does not come off well, even though I think he's...trying, or upset that he doesn't know how to try. I think Jecht is the kind of father who thinks he must be doing okay because he's not hitting his kid the way he was hit. He doesn't realize that emotional damage also fucks people up. One reset later: meanwhile, Tidus has recognized more fully that the way he was treated was wrong, and his response is to avoid it in how he treats others. In contrast to Jecht saying no one else could do the Jecht Shot, Tidus says, "Anyone can do it if they try." Even though in blitzball, only Tidus can in fact ever learn the Jecht Shot. I checked. Yuna remembers a lot about Jecht for someone who was seven - but then, she was probably trying as hard as she could to remember the last time she would ever have with her father. All this time, and so few people have ever known that guarding a High Summoner is a death sentence. Yuna still assumes gossip would have told her if Jecht were dead - and Auron, even though neither of them have been seen in Spira since Braska died. Tidus feels like something bad's going to happen. Buddy, this is Spira. Something bad is always going to happen. Tidus is so happy to finally be in a place with a lot of people. He's a city boy at heart. I really love the announcers; they make the world feel so lived-in and "normal". I love patter like that. I mean, I also want to glare at them for badmouthing my Aurochs, but you know. Different parts of the brain like different things. Introducing: the Zombie Space Pope! And not one of your modern popes, either. One of your serious kingmaker popes. Although, I guess he's just fully king, since the maesters appear to be the holders of all temporal power in Spira as well. (Except for the Al Bhed.) Nothing will ever make Seymour's clothing make sense. Nothing. Somehow, Seymour could tell that Yuna's a summoner in the midst of the crowd. At least, he seemed to zero in on her very intently. Creep. When I was a kid, I thought he was creepy, but I didn't have a sense of the age difference. As a 30-year-old, someone who's around 27 professing interest in a 17-year-old is double creepy bad. I mean also he's planning to use her death to destroy the world, but. You know. There is only one Auron, Tidus. No one has double names in fiction. It's against the rules. The Psyches Tidus talks to definitely understand him, but pretending not to means they don't have to respond to people, especially if they're rude. Yuna is clearly angling to hold hands here, and Tidus just does not notice. "Hey what if you whistled for me like a taxicab?" "...Not what I had in mind but okay." (Of course they manage to make this heartrending later.) To Tidus, this is "a pretty big town"; to Yuna, this is a city, the second-largest in the world. Cultural context is everything. Yep, Tidus, you thought you were famous before. Back there, there were still plenty of people who didn't care about blitzball. Here, it's this or studying scriptures. Forever amused by how the building they walk into is clearly labeled, "Bar", while the building next door is labeled "Cafe". Maybe there's a reason you didn't find Auron there... I assume Yuna got "kidnapped" by someone overhearing her asking about Auron, saying they knew where he was, and leading her off. I assume she was too polite and didn't want to kill anyone, or she could definitely have Valefor'd them to smithereens. (Maybe a Silence Attack was involved. Does Silence cut off summoning?) Don't ask about blitzball physics. Or biology. Or...anything, really. Just destroy your opponents. Was claiming to be holding Yuna hostage for the game a cover to avoid admitting that they were really kidnapping the summoner for her own good? Seems weird. I have to assume the "Psyches" in this game are ringers relying on "all Al Bhed look alike", because there's no way the Aurochs got that many goals on Nimrook at level one without their best forward. Lulu just fucking. teleports onto the boat. She has no feet and therefore cannot jump. Among my favorite exchanges in this game: "I hope you hurt them." "A little." There's definitely something to be said about Yuna being mixed-race with the complicated way actual mixed-race people are treated in Japan (and the US, for that matter). Buttttt I am not the person to say it. I'll just gently whisper that Yuna is matrilineally Space Jewish. One of Lulu's flaws that she has to get over during the game is that she's dealing with her grief over Chappu by comparing everyone, especially Wakka, to him. Maybe Chappu was a better blitzer than Wakka, or would have been fine after having what I assume are several cracked ribs from illegal tackles, but the fact that Lulu says it in no way means that it's true. #WakkaDefenseSquad2k19 That said, what Wakka has to get over is his racism. Which is obviously a much bigger issue. It seems almost benign here, since it was in fact Al Bhed who just attacked Yuna, but...it gets worse. I'm probably going to have to see this cutscene several times. But I will be victorious. I am, however, impressed that Lulu can catch Wakka when he collapses (Yuna plz heal his ribs) without going down with him. He's a big guy and most of it is muscle. And the inscription actually says, "To the memories of childhood - farewell," which is particularly touching and, of course, sad. If this were fencing, a decent referee would give Bickson a black card for unsportsmanlike conduct. (For those of you who are unaware, a black card means you have to leave not merely the event but the venue. Non-participants such as coaches can also be black-carded.) First try: kept the score tied 2-2 in the first half, got Tidus the requisite level so he can use Jecht Shot. Got off a Jecht Shot early in the second half and kept the Goers from scoring until Wakka came in. Aaaaand I got Wakka the ball at the four-minute mark for our fourth goal and victory! I AM SUPREME! I'm not saying I would have realized I was gayce a lot sooner if not for that FMV of Auron slipping his arm out of his coat, but I'm also not not saying that. So cool! Auron is not cool. This is an important fact to know about him. He seems cool, but internally he is panicking 50% of the time and sad and gay the other 50%. But I was a teenager and didn't know that competence is fake actually. Spiran ecology count: another dog, happily observing the Aurochs' farewells. Speaking of said farewells, they're kind of unnecessary as I will be getting Wakka back on my team the very second I have an opportunity. Tidus is...not entirely wrong about this all being Auron's fault. I mean, on a macro level it's not since he's just doing the best he can with this shitty situation, he didn't create the situation, but on a micro level he definitely did toss Tidus into Sin's magic traveling sphincter. Like, this was definitely in the plan, although it goes much better than he has any right to expect - he was probably expecting to pick up Tidus and Yuna separately, not find them already buddy-buddy. I really respect Auron for telling the protagonist some facts at least earlier than your average protag gets to know what their father has become. Which is a chronic protag problem. He's also gently patting Tidus on the back, which is about the limits of his emotional support skills. He tries, but... Auron, when he's done being a cagey bastard, correctly identifies Lulu as the One To Talk To if he wants to receive information. She has the map, the color-coded notes, and the safety pins stuck to the inside of her purse. She's the big sister I wish I could be. "I understand. I think." Tidus does not understand, because Yuna is deliberately not telling him the important part: she needs to practice smiling when she's sad about how she's going to die soon and people are so encouraging and happy to see her do it. And now, the scene that everyone loves to make fun of. Look, people, it's not bad. If the ha-ha-ha were supposed to sound like normal laughter, that would be comically bad, but it's not. It's a couple dumb trauma babies fake-laughing badly until they give themselves the giggles while their friends watch in confusion! "I want my journey...to be full of laughter." She may not have much time, but Yuna wants to pack in as many good things as she can, while she can.

#Final Fantasy X #FFX #Cygna Fantasy X

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flightstone · 7 years

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Let's Talk About Tales! (Berseria Edition)

the-honey-bear said to flightstone

: I know not all the questions are applicable since u only watched a play through, but for the meme I pick..... berseria!

1. best girl? Eleanor, hands down. I really enjoyed the contrast between her and the rest of the party. Plus I find her "good girl" personality and the way she interacts with characters like Laphicet and Kamoana endearing. I've never had a "waifu" before, but if I had to pick one, it'd be Eleanor. I just love her.

2. best boy? Eizen. I have so many earth seraph sibling feelings... and I love the whole "cool edgy guy who is actually a huge nerd about dumb stuff" trope. I'm also pretty fond of Rokurou, and Zaveid is on the upswing.

3. any ship/s? To be honest I'm complete and total garbage. I'm here for Oscar/Teresa.

There are a few other ships I have some mild interest in, but haven't really committed to yet. Things like Velvet/Niko or Rokurou/Velvet or Eizen/Rokurou (particularly). Zaveizen is pretty okay as well - that whole sidequest just killed me. Eizen and Aifread? I also like one-sided Laphicet crushing on Velvet...... (/sweatdrops.)

4. favorite part of the game? That one heart-wrenching scene in a field full of flowers (no I'm not talking about Tales of Graces). Also Laphicet aggressively eating an apple. Anything with Eleanor being a sweetheart. That part near the end with Magilou was also pretty fascinating. The duel of swords.... The more I think about it, this cast is pretty stellar and has lots of great moments.

5. opinion on the mascot character (if applicable)? Bienfu....is kind of annoying, sorry. If he didn't talk he might be a little cuter.

6. opinion on villain/s? (in the least spoilery way) I'm feeling the Symphonia vibes so hard... Obviously I really love the abbey sibs and everything about them, but I also liked the return to a team of "antagonists" working together, and "antagonists" with connections to the party. Abyss did it so well, and Berseria did a good job of it too. It made everything so PERSONAL, and I really liked that. The final two bosses.... uh. Well one is beautifully and tragically designed and the other has a lot of complexities that I appreciate.

7. main team of 4, and who did you play as mostly? I watched a playthrough on Youtube so.... n/a. Though from the gameplay I watched, Rokurou would probably be the one with the battle style most similar to the characters I usually play as.

8. favorite town/city/area? Loegres

9. favorite or most used arte? Form 9: Final Judgment and Howling Dragon, I guess?

10. favorite music track? "Magilou, the great sorceress"

11. favorite monster? The... the one in the field of flowers. ;_;

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moonraccoon-exe · 7 years

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Get to know me tag

Get to Know Me Tag, tagged by @expectogladiolus! Aadjs, thank you :3

Tag 20 blogs you would like to get to know, I’m using this as an opportunity to learn about some of my new followers and mutuals: 20 blogs, ohmygod, no. I’m a bit shy cause I don’t have any close pal here or so and yeah >///< But if you want, @poisonous-panda and, uhm, idk, maybe @ignoctgirl and *hyperventilates thisisnotevencloseto20* what about OHIKNOW @vinsmoke03 because you like these :3 and maybe @kwpn93 bc I’m curious. You don’t have to if you don’t want, tho. Also, if you want but I didn’t tag, go ahead and tag me there; I’d read c:

Nicknames: None really, but a few friends sometimes call me Cuervito (little crow). Mom calls me the spanish equivalent of “fat" or a single word for “curly-haired”, because I was a curly haired fat baby; grew up to the opposite, but she still calls me that. Brother calls me monkey.

Zodiac sign: Capricorn

Height: ...5'1 ;____;

Last thing you googled: The expected weather in my city, yesterday. Weather said “Ah, it’s gonna be lots of sun, and maybe a cloud or two :)”. There was rain and also hail. Good side is it stopped by the time classes were over :)

Favorite music artist: *Hypeventilates* GREEN DAY.

Song stuck in your head: Well, I had none till this question, thank you. Thinking about Dark Pit’s Theme. It’s just so good ;___;

Last movie you watched: Koe no Katachi (A Silent Voice). I don’t watch movies often so this is still the last I watched.

What are you wearing right now: Office suit! A loose Beatles shirt and a pair of red shorts. No footwear. It’s hot. The office is my room.

Why did you choose your URL: There’s this joke from high school in which I’m really a raccoon; I’ve gone around life since then with such idea. The moon is my favorite thing and a major plot in one of my life goals (not gonna become an astronaut, tho), and I found Moon and Racoon made a pretty phonetic pair in english, so there it goes. The -exe is because I couldn’t make it .exe; the joke’s in Megaman NT Warrior, originally called Rockman.exe. Navis all have names, but their original archives are listed as .exe: hence Megaman is Megaman for friends, but his real archive name is Megaman.exe, and so for all navies. So I’m a raccoon who comes from the moon but is also a digital archive with a gun by hand.

What did your last relationship teach you: bOI. I learned what love is out of what it is NOT. I also learned the difference between who loves you and who loves the idea/concept of “you”. The difference between loving and wanting to be loved. And I learned to not say or do things just because “if you don’t you really don’t love me”. BOI was it bad. I’m perfectly fine, and the ex seems very ashamed, so there’s no hate, just no plans (from my side, at least) to talk again. There’s no point in offering love (even if just friendly) to someone who will say (sometimes in literal wording) “don’t love me like that; love me the way I tell you to do”.

Religious or Spiritual: Spiritual, I guess, but I don’t meditate or do any kind of ritual. I just love the cosmos?

Favorite color: Leaning towards dark shades of blue and red.

Average hours of sleep: hmm...8?

Lucky number: 11 and 9. Sometimes 2 too (aahaha too too).

Favorite characters: *badly gasps* Okay.

Ignis and Gladio from Final Fantasy XV, Shaoran, Kurogane and Fai from Tsubasa Chronicles, Sakura, Touya and Yukito from Sakura Card Captor, Megaman.exe, Megaman Starforce, Emil Castagnier from Tales of Symphonia 2, Sheena, Lloyd and Zelos from ToS, Machiavelli from “The Secrets of Immortal Nicholas Flamel” (BOI go read the series, it’s SO GOOD), Newt from Maze Runner, Danny Phantom, Pit and Dark Pit, BOI I LOVE MY FANDOM WORLD.

How many blankets do you sleep with: well, it’s this thin-fabric bedsheet that I don’t think even exist for you USA/rest of the world guys (or at least I couldn’t find an appropiate word? And then I have two blankets as in the warm thick-fabric one. And then a thin-fabric sheet as cover?

So...four? except this month I’ve slept on top of/without them. It’s been too hot.

Dream job: *hyperventilates* BOI. Well, I do feel a bit shy about two of them, and even though I feel very shy about this one too, I’ll share it anyway: voice acting. Sad part is I won’t get to participate in videogame voice acting: most of voice acting over here is for series, movies and animes that need dubbing. There’s less but still lots of original content in spanish. But there’s only very little of videogame, bc they either leave it with english voices and spanish dub, or the games they DO dub aren’t usually in my range of interest (there was dub for Halo, for example, but no Final Fantasy [so far I know]).

It’s a shame. I woulda have liked to one day be fantasy/adventure game character, protagonist or sidekick. I still could if they needed someone with accent. Except I’d be a poor, badly developed sidekick filled of stereotypes with 3 dialogues and that will most surely die bc apparently that’s what we do |D And which...is of course not my point at all.

I’m rambling. Again. Apologies :’)

#thanks for the tag!#moon racoon #dis is meh

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darkhymns-fic · 3 years

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Heroes & Thieves

Whether rich or poor, everyone has heard of the pair of dual-wielding masked thieves that roam both countries of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla - the Red Phantom and the Blue Angel. And of course, their frightening hound that would whisk them away into the middle of the night, leaving no trace behind. (Well, almost any trace, if one ignored the person-shaped holes that would decorated a ransacked mansion or vault).

But after breaking into a mansion with its overabundance of unopened presents, the famous thieves may have just met their match. Who was this weird ninja?

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters/Pairing: Lloyd Irving/Colette Brunel, Sheena Fujibayashi, Zelos Wilder, Noishe Rating: G Mirror Link: AO3 Notes: Colette has her item thief arte, while Lloyd knows how to lockpick. Obviously, they should work together as thieves! This is basically that fic.

Around 8k of silliness and dastardly thievery (kinda). Let me know if you enjoyed!

Meltokio usually didn’t get quiet until late into the night. Nor did it get dark enough either, with the lampposts, powered by magitechnology, lighting up the cobblestone streets. Every lone passerby, usually a high noble that had stayed over at a gala party far too late, was illuminated by the soft glow on their path. Sometimes it would also be a merchant rushing back home after finally closing up shop, or a beggar trying to find a soft place to rest now that local guards of the upper level patrolled a bit less.

Still, even with night owls roaming the streets, there were pockets of shadows just out of the light’s reach. Perfect for hiding those who wished to stay hidden, who wished to be as stealthy as they could…

“I think this is the wrong street,” spoke a voice that broke the night’s stillness.

If one could hear the soft padding to the right of the pathway, they’d only catch the fleeting image of a creature on all fours, with two figures riding atop it. But when Noishe really, really tried, he could be as silent as he could, the pads on his feet minimizing all sound. Although, when his claws were too long, they tended to clack against stone…

Lloyd, hearing both Colette’s concerns and Noishe’s click-clacks , tried to problem-solve this in the span of a minute. He already had a map out, which he couldn’t see much because, well, it was really dark here when they were out of the light like this… “Are you sure? This place looks pretty fancy…”

“I think this is the shop district? Not the residential area!” Colette sounded apologetic, even as Lloyd was slowly realizing that she was very right, and that he was very wrong… The potion shop that they had just passed was a bit of a dead give-away.

“Argh, dammit… Okay, new plan!” Lloyd patted Noishe on the head, getting his attention. “Go up the stairs over here, okay boy?”

“I always worry we’re too heavy for him…” spoke Colette, even as Noishe followed instructions obediently (but not without a whine), loping across some bushes to get to the giant stone stairway, still keeping to the shadows as much as he could.

“Don’t worry, Noishe is strong! And he can run like the wind even with double us on top! I just… forgot to clip his nails earlier…”

Of course, the constant click-clack kept making Lloyd wince, but luckily, the guards were not really outside tonight. As they reached the top of the stairs, Lloyd noticed one castle guard standing by the great doors ahead, leaning on his pike, his snoring echoing inside his helmet.

Colette must have noticed Lloyd’s look, poking at his shoulder just then. “Lloyd…”

“Huh?” Lloyd started in guilt. “Ah I know… We’re not going to go to the castle… Not tonight at least…”

Colette nodded, her smile bright enough for him to see in the dark. Or it was probably just because his eyes had adjusted by now. It was really only that smile, along with the lower part of her face, that he could see clearly, everything else covered by a dark mask. Although, he could see how the moonlight reflected off her eyes. “Yeah, but we can next time!”

“Hehe, definitely.” Despite the fact that he and Colette were talking in normal-volume conversation, very few people were outside, so it was much easier to be sneaky now anyway. Facing once again into the night, Lloyd adjusted his own mask, keeping it more firmly in place. The night would mute the bright red he had insisted for its shade.

Noishe rushed faster down the street, past rows of what Lloyd could only describe as mansions, with their three-story heights, their marble balconies, their stucco designs and overflowing gardens that decorated what seemed to be a mini-plaza within what seemed to be a high-class cul-de-sac.

The people here were ridiculously wealthy, even more so than the other cities they had visited. It only further strengthened Lloyd’s resolve. He knew he was doing the right thing, even if…

“That’s the one,” Lloyd pointed a gloved hand towards one mansion in particular, more grand (Grander? Was that the right word?) than the rest. It’s salmon-pink walls seemed to gleam within the moonlight. The color was a weird choice, but it wasn’t like Lloyd understood rich people very well. “Er, or is it, Colette?”

“Um…” Colette perused through the map they had brought, finger angling down the paper. “I think so! Just before the end of Regal Street.”

“Alright, let’s go!” He winced again. “Sorry, I keep shouting…” They were supposed to be sneaky!

Lloyd also tried to move extra carefully as his swords strapped to his waist rattled, just a little bit at least. Maybe these swords were usually too big to sneak around with, but they were his trusty set, also having both of them would make him stronger anyway! Holding onto one of the hilts, he tried to tiptoe towards the home, his boots barely making a sound across the pavement.

Colette had less of an issue with her own weapons, her double chakrams strapped behind her back, hidden away so that no gleam could be seen off their surface. Lloyd had his own swords in his scabbards but they still weren’t exactly light…

She was also the first to slide off Noishe’s back but was the last to leave him. Lovingly petting his long ears and shushing his whines, she calmed him down enough to lay near a rosebush, hidden well-away from the lights on the road. “It’s okay, Noishe. We’ll be back.”

But once she rejoined Lloyd, he could see her own determination in her eyes, reflecting his. She was as serious about this as he was, her unbound hair slightly shifting with the breeze. “Ready.”

Lloyd nodded. “Okay.” From his pockets, he pulled out something small but sharp, grinning at Colette with a bit of excitement. “Wanna bet how long this will take me?”

“Hm,” Colette visibly pondered on the question, her face still half-shadowed from the dark. “6 minutes?”

“Way too long! I’ll get this done in 30 seconds flat!”

“Wow, good job, Lloyd! That’s amazing.”

“Congratulate me after I lockpick it first!”

But he was already motivated by Colette’s belief in him, already kneeling in front of the ornate door and looking over its way too fanciful lock. Lloyd ignored its gaudy color, already setting himself to work inserting both pin and pick to fiddle at its mechanisms.

No one could lockpick better than a blacksmith apprentice like himself after all!

“And…got it! Too easy!” Lloyd nearly punched his fist in the air victoriously before realizing that maybe now was not the best time. “Heh, sorry. So how long was that?”

Colette, looking just as excited as he with the released lock, stared off into space for a moment. “Um… oops. I forgot to count while you were doing it!”

Lloyd’s pride suddenly fell flat at that. “Aw, I really wanted to know if I beat my record.”

“Maybe you could try again?”

Lloyd, very much considering the option to lock himself out of the mansion, shook his head. “Nah, just remember for me next time, okay?”

While it was fun to play these games, they had some work to do! Games could wait!

Lloyd carefully pushed open the door, peering inside to find only darkness. He leaned in even more, and promptly bumped his head against what seemed to be coat hanger next to the door. “Ow. Why’s that there?”

But he got ahead of himself, once again quieting his voice to a near whisper as he turned to Colette. “Do you hear anyone?”

It was one of Colette’s many talents; few had as sensitive of hearing as she did and could put it to good use. So when she moved past the doorway, angling her head to detect any stray sound, Lloyd did his best to hold his breath so that she didn’t pick any noises from him instead.

After a moment, she shook her head. “Mm, I think the coast is clear!”

Lloyd could barely contain himself. With a grin, he rushed in (while carefully closing the door and also quieting his swords) to finally get a look at the place they were going to do work in tonight.

…And it was much, much bigger than he had anticipated.

“Wow…” Lloyd whispered, looking around the main lobby with the plush couches, the grand piano off in the corner, and a fancy portrait of a woman hanging off the right corner, as if wanting to be hidden from view. Both him and Colette softly tread across the tiled floors onto plush carpets. Barely a hush to their movements, the air so still. No nighttime servants or guards that hung around, which surprised Lloyd, but he took it as a positive sign.

Still, he couldn’t help but be a little shocked when he kept finding new things every time he turned his head. The fireplace to his left was massive, dwarfing his own back home! And it was made of expensive material too, with etchings in its stonework. This didn’t even compare to when he looked ahead and saw glass doors that led to even more rooms.

“This guy must be loaded!” Lloyd had to say, then once again winced. He really wasn’t good at being quiet… “Though I guess everyone on this street is technically…”

But at least he wasn’t the only one shocked. Colette looked around as well, blue eyes wide beneath her mask. “We might need to make several trips…” she suggested, already heading towards an ornate dresser, its drawer handles seeming to be made of gold. “Since there’s an upstairs too.”

“Agh, that’s gonna be annoying. Let’s just try to get everything we can in one go! Noishe can help carry the rest.”

With that, Lloyd unhooked a satchel he carried at his belt – and proceeded to loot every expensive item in sight!

“I call the living room!” he half-yelled, half-whispered as he rushed towards the left side of the room.

“Ah! No fair…” Colette whined but he could see her already rushing away to another part of the house to do her own job as well.

When it came to stealing, there were no better thieves than he and Colette! But only for high-class places like this, even though this place was probably the fanciest they had hit just yet.

A place like this has to have jewels…. Or vaults full of Gald! Lloyd passed by a table placed in the middle of the room, overflowing with what looked to be wrapped presents. Hm, was it okay for him to look through these? Some of them hadn’t even been opened, and presents felt somewhat different… Wait, why am I worried about that?

Lloyd didn’t find any vaults so far, but there was no lack of Gald in this house regardless. Some of it just seemed to be laying around the furniture, including the plush sofas (which he made sure to check in-between the couch cushions for!) and even some were inside the presents? Not a very creative gift, but at least he could take it easy…

By the time Lloyd decided to pick up some items, he heard Colette from behind him. “I’m all set!”

“Huh? Already?” Lloyd turned to Colette, clutching a few expensive-looking hairbrushes in both hands. The fact that he had found more than one hanging around the living room was already kind of odd. “I don’t get how you do it so fast!”

Colette had her own satchel filled with taken goods. Though he couldn’t see, he could hear the soft clink of porcelain, along with what must have been the clatter of Gald. “Hehe. I’m a pro at item thief, remember?”

“Yeah, that’s-“ Lloyd stopped, narrowing his eyes at Colette, then sighed when he noticed the bruise on her forehead. “Did you trip earlier?”

“Um…”

“Did you trip yourself on purpose?!” Lloyd moved to see if she had any more injuries, hands reaching out and, well, still holding onto the hairbrushes and may or may not have brushed her hair in the process. “Colette, you don’t need to hurt yourself just to pick up stuff!”

“But it’s much faster this way! And I’m more likely to succeed at getting stuff if I use it!”

“I don’t…really get that…” But then again, she was right. He had witnessed that plenty of times! He just wished she didn’t have to hurt herself in the process.

Colette adjusted her bag of stolen goods one more time, but he knew it wasn’t heavy for her at all. Already his back was aching at just looking at the weight of her satchel. “Ready to go, Lloyd?”

Lloyd looked around the room. Nothing much else except some of the presents, and the rest had been filled with spoiled fish. Rich people had weird tastes in gifts. “Yeah, but uh, you think you can take one of these brushes…?”

Lloyd didn’t even get to finish his sentence. He saw Colette’s eyes widen, saw her turn around. He knew what that meant.

“Someone’s here!” she whispered, setting her bag down to retrieve her weapons.

Lloyd finally had the thought to just drop the brushes and reach for his own swords – but not before several objects surrounded them both. They were small, just the size of his palm. They looked like paper cards…?

“Show yourselves!” shouted a voice. Suddenly, a light erupted from those floating cards around them.

“Gah!” Both Lloyd and Colette shielded their faces from the brightness, but it wasn’t enough to hide them away for long.

The voice had come from the stairway railing up above (they hadn’t even gotten to explore the second floor!) and there stood a black-haired woman in strange attire – but she looked on them both as if what they wore was even stranger!

“So… you’re the infamous thieves that’s been targeting all of Tethe’alla!” She held up another of those strange cards between her fingers. “Gotta say, surprised you didn’t get caught sooner with that get-up.”

“Huh?!” Lloyd looked back down at his outfit, not understanding what the problem was. “Hey, red is a good color!” he shouted back.

Indeed it was! Though Lloyd and Colette wore masks over their faces to keep their identities a secret, this red jacket, with its arrays of silver buttons and collar strips that flowed out of his collar, was the most comfortable he had ever worn. And it looked cool too!

…That said, it was pretty awesome that they were famous apparently! With pride, he stood up tall, one hand on his hip while the other held out both his thumb and forefinger, trying out his new pose that he’d been working on. “I mean, what else do you expect the Red Phantom Thief to wear?”

“Phantom?” The woman raised an eyebrow. “Wait, I thought you were the Red Robin.”

His cool pose instantly faltered. “What?! Why do people keep calling me that!?” What part of his cool persona had anything to do with a bird?!

“Look, it doesn’t matter! Both the Red Robin and the Blue Angel’s thieving days are over!”

“Oh, she got my name right though!” Colette waved at the lady, not as worried about hiding herself anymore. Though her outfit only had some accents of blue, the name still fit her well, along with the mask that more or less resembled wings, filigreed with azure in comparison to Lloyd’s crimson one. “It’s nice to meet you!”

“Colette, she’s trying to put us in jail…”

“Ah, I just thought we should still be nice, since she must only be doing her job…”

Sheena stomped on the railing, making it creak. “Stop whispering to each other, you criminals! You’re going to give back what you stole!”

“Oh… but we didn’t technically steal anything yet!” Colette piped in helpfully.

“Don’t admit it!” Lloyd whined.

“Sorry! Unless she means the other things we stole… but we don’t have them anymore…”

“Huh, that’s right… Are we supposed to carry all that stuff around?” Lloyd scratched at his head, thinking hard on the concept. “It’d be too heavy and Noishe wouldn’t be able to carry all that and us too…”

“Why do you guys keep ignoring me?!”

“Uh, sorry about that,” Lloyd said, voice a little subdued.

Colette bowed her head. “I’m sorry too!”

“That’s not- argh!”

With that, the lady clearly had enough. She leapt off the railing, flipping numerous times through the air which made the pink sash of her outfit flow along with her body. Lloyd and Colette watched in awe as she gracefully landed a few feet in front of them, feet just past an elegantly detailed carpet that was behind her. In all her motions, she barely missed a beat.

Colette clapped. “Wow, that was really good!”

Lloyd couldn’t disagree. “Yeah, no kidding! That was cool!”

The lady stumbled slightly, losing her graceful composure, even for just a second. “W-What? You guys are the strangest thieves I’ve come across.” She shook her head, staring hard at them once more. With how quiet she had moved, so quiet that not even Colette had heard her at first, Lloyd wondered if she would make a good thief too… That would be competition!

“The name’s Sheena Fujibayashi. I’ve been tracking you two down for quite some time. Going all over both Sylvarant and Tethe’alla territory. Heard you took a fortune from Palmacosta’s coffers, but you bit off more than you can chew by coming here.” She narrowed her eyes at them, sharp in her gaze. “Your thieving days are about to end.”

That had caught Lloyd off guard. “Huh? You’ve been spying on us? That’s rude!”

“Criminals don’t get a say in that! And it’s not rude!” Sheena scoffed a bit. “It doesn’t take a genius to know you’d try to rob this place out of all of them.”

Lloyd groaned. “But that was our secret plan!”

“I guess it’s not a secret anymore…” Colette said sadly.

“However…” Sheena said carefully. “What I don’t get is how you guys even got past Meltokio’s walls? All the gates are closed. Including the sewer!”

“Sewer?” Lloyd asked, but he was careful to not slip up on his and Colette’s escape route! A thief never revealed his secrets after all! Well, unless she somehow spied on that too… “You’re gonna have keep guessing on that!”

“Oh, I just tripped is all!”

Lloyd nearly fell on his face at Colette’s admission.

Sheena raised an eyebrow. “Tripped? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Nothing! It has to do with nothing!” Lloyd tried to subtly signal to Colette. “We don’t know how we got here at all! Right, Colette?”

“…Oh, right! Hehe, messed up.” She laughed and stuck out her tongue playfully. “We don’t know anything!”

“…Okay…weird…”

Seeing Sheena’s initial confusion, Lloyd saw this as a good opportunity to try and escape. Giving a tiny nod to Colette to catch her attention, he tried to see if they could rush to the door quick enough…

“Not so fast!”

That was when Sheena made a quick motion with her hands – looking almost like a prayer except for the rapid succession of signals she did – and the same cards that hovered around them suddenly glowed red. Lloyd felt a strange weight on his body, as if someone had just dumped luggage right onto his shoulders.

“H-Hey!” he shouted. He tried to turn to Colette, but could barely do it! “Let us go!”

“With my seals, you’re not getting away. I was sent to stop you and that’s just what I’m doing.” Sheena looked a bit smug as she spoke, a smirk on her lips. “So don’t blame your fate on me.”

“I can do exactly that!” But even as Lloyd struggled, he couldn’t seem to break free. Whatever powerful bindings were in these paper cards, they were more than he could handle. Who knew paper could even be considered a threat!!

“And…why do you keep calling us thieves?” he threw out during his struggles. He felt he was loosening his foot a bit! Just a little bit though.

Sheena said nothing at all at first, practically speechless in her shock until she sputtered. “Because… that’s what you are?!”

Colette shook her head politely, from what Lloyd could tell. Actually, she didn’t seem to be as restricted as he was… “But we’re not thieves. We’re heroes for the less fortunate! Right, Lloyd?”

“Yeah!” he said, trying to nod and instead just… stretching a little. Good enough. “We don’t take the money for ourselves, but for those who need it most!”

“…That’s still stealing,” Sheena intoned. “You’re taking stuff from other people to do that. That’s still being a thief.”

“It’s way more than that!” Lloyd argued, never stopping in his struggle. “The Red Robin doesn’t steal for himself… Wait, I meant Red Phantom!” Dammit, now that dumb name was stuck in his head too!

“Even if that was the case, it doesn’t change what you’re doing right now.” Sheena stared at the bags of stolen goods that were on the floor, all gathered from Lloyd and Colette’s wandering hands. “Things like this… they can’t go unpunished. And if you’re stealing from this place, then I definitely have to stop you.”

Lloyd blinked. “Is this your home? Is that why you keep bringing it up?”

“Huh?! Who said anything about that! Don’t be stupid!”

What was up with that reaction? Lloyd only felt more confused now! “Okay, sorry…I was just saying stuff…”

“I see.” Colette’s voice was tranquil, moreso than Lloyd had expected. She really wasn’t worried they were basically trapped right now… “This home is important to you, because it belongs to someone you care about. I’m sorry. If we knew that, we wouldn’t have come here.”

“W-What the heck do you mean? I never said that!” Any smugness Sheena had now completely left her face, now replaced by confusion. “And how would you not coming here if you knew make any sense?!”

“She’s got a point, Colette… We didn’t even know her until now.”

“Oh, that’s right!” In her blue, angel-wing shaped mask, Colette scratched the back of her head, giggling. “But, if we did know each other before, I bet we would have been great friends!”

Sometimes Colette went off-tangent on a conversation so fast, that even Lloyd couldn’t keep up. “Have you been thinking about being friends with her this whole time?”

“Is that weird?”

“Not really, just… maybe not the best time-”

“You two seriously need to stop messing with me! Ugh.” With a groan, Sheena pulled out an array of cards from her sleeve, holding them up to her face as if she had her own deck of aces.

“Hold on! Back up a sec, it’s true what Colette said. We’re giving all the money we take to give to those who need the help.” Lloyd tightened his hold on his swords, bringing the blades close, or as close as he could. “Haven’t you seen this city? People just have all…all this …” He tried, but mainly failed, at gesturing to the display of wealth; to the fancy velvet drapes along the windows, to the tiled marble floors, to all those fancy presents on the table. “Yet they don’t worry or help those who are living in poverty right beneath them!”

Sheena hesitated, even if for only a moment. Did she think the same thing too? She must have known of those slums just within the city, of the multitude of poor villages where so many starved during the harsher seasons…

Lloyd had felt that even in Iselia, always hearing of the far-off city of Meltokio and its vast treasure trove of wealth. But knowing that even here, where some people dined in golden houses, there were others living in the mud. “You have to see that isn’t right at all!”

“Lloyd…” Colette’s soft voice tugged at his chest. He had let his emotions run off again, but it was true what he believed. Every word of it.

“I understand what you mean…” Sheena said – and then her voice grew hard, ruthless. “But that’s not for you to decide. You can’t know every person’s intentions with what they own. You can’t know how the owner here plans to use what he has…” She got into a stance, one that Lloyd had never seen before.

“And a thief is still a thief! But if you want, you can talk all about your grievances with the king.”

He really had no idea what to expect from her, especially from someone who fought with cards. Lloyd tried once again to move, but he felt like he was stuck in quicksand. His feet just stayed rooted to the floor. Aw man, and he thought he had been moving his left foot before! “Stop!” he called out as Sheena moved forward.

And then Colette moved forward too. Wait, she wasn’t trapped?

Sheena was just as shocked as Lloyd was. “H-How did you get out?!”

Colette stood in front of Lloyd, holding out her double chakrams in front of her. She blinked, and it seemed she would join with the others in their confusion. “Ah, was that supposed to happen? I’m sorry. I think your cards must’ve missed me!”

Oh goddess, sometimes Lloyd really couldn’t believe Colette’s luck! (And his own unluckiness when it came to these situations.)

Sheena seemed to be on the same page there. “I missed?! Well… I won’t this time!” Sheena’s cards in her hand began to glow. “You can have a taste of one of my Guardians if you-!”

“Ah, whoops!”

Really, Lloyd should have expected what would happen next.

Colette tried to move to the side as much as she could, while also still covering for Lloyd who stayed frozen in time. Clearly she didn’t want to hurt Sheena at all, but also wanted to protect Lloyd. The brief conflict of indecision made the tip of her boot catch the edge of one of the many plush rugs that covered the first floor of the mansion.

“Watch out!” She tried to warn her enemy (or friend?), but Colette was already tackling right into Sheena who, by the force of the push, practically flew back down to the rug-covered floor.

That was when the rug seemed to pull right into the center where Sheena fell, further and further until-

“How did you know about my back-up trap NOOOOOO!!” But Sheena’s words were replaced by screams as she fell right into a strange makeshift pit that seemed to have been dug right into the mansion’s tiled floors.

“Oh.. I messed up…” Colette said, realizing what she’d done.

By then, the cards hovering around Lloyd drifted down to the floor, releasing him from their invisible binds. Lloyd wobbled on his feet, his previous struggling nearly making him kick out wildly in the air before he regained balance. “Whoa…” He shook his head, never wanting to be put in that weird situation. “Uh, did she just…fall…?” He leaned over to what looked like to be a giant hole in the ground, right in front of him. “And how is this even here?” He had so, so many questions. Maybe he wasn’t as unlucky as some people…

Colette was kneeling on the edge of the floor, her face so full of worry, clearly seen even through her mask. “Is she okay? I didn’t mean to do that at all…”

Lloyd shook out the previous stiffness from his limbs, sheathing his swords before walking towards Colette, kneeling with her. “Well, I mean she was going to arrest us. And she was going to fight you too!”

Colette pouted, hands clasped before her, still staring into that dark pit that seemed to have no bottom. But really, how did they even make a pit inside this mansion in the first place?! Maybe it was another rich people thing…

As she kept staring down, Lloyd gently placed his hand on her shoulder, getting her attention. “Lloyd, should we call for help?”

He sighed. “That’s…going to be kinda hard with what we were doing.”

Colette, lover of puppies and doggies, was able to pull off the look of the animal she so adored. Lloyd could barely resist that gaze.

“Agh, alright, alright! Maybe we can leave a note for the guards nearby or-”

“Hunnyyyy~!” called a voice from upstairs, freezing Lloyd’s words right in his throat, as if he had just been imprisoned again. “You there? What’s all the noise about?” The voice yawned in mid-sentence, its tone so casual and airy.

Lloyd stood up quickly, grabbing Colette’s arms to bring her up with him. “See? Help is on the way! Now let’s get out of here!”

“Ah, if you’re sure-” but Colette barely got to finish her sentence before footsteps echoed from above. Both of them grabbing their satchels of stolen goods (Lloyd with one, Colette with about five), they rushed through the door, as stealthily as they could!

…Until Colette dropped a few expensive plates from her satchel onto the floor. “Ah!” Crash crash kerplow!

The casual voice from upstairs shifted gears then. “What the hell-”

“Colette, leave those!” Lloyd grabbed Colette by her free… er, overcoat flaps on her back, since both her hands were a bit occupied carrying things. They made it out to the doorsteps, the night sky still dark. “We just gotta find Noishe and-”

…And their dog was nowhere to be found in the bushes they had left him in.

Lloyd sighed even more this time, the action pulling out his very soul from the pit of his stomach. “He ran away again!”

Colette’s tone held a bit of a reprimand in it, rare as it was. “You know he gets scared by himself, Lloyd.”

“But he whines too loudly to bring him inside houses!” Another sigh, but smaller this time. He adjusted the satchel easier on his shoulder. “Guess we’re hoofin it.”

“Okay,” Colette nodded. She piled on her bags onto her shoulders as if they were just a bunch of stuffed animals she carried around. “Where to first?”

Lloyd shot her a grin. “To where we can make all this flashy stuff finally useful.”

And like two thieves in the night – which they were not! – both Lloyd and Colette rushed off, past sleeping guards that never knew what happened.

Zelos had only just heard the commotion a little bit ago. Usually, he was a bit of a night-owl, but not this time when he had to just wait instead of having any fun…

So he might have slept through his time, for a little while, and he might have an angry Sheena on his hands because of that… But it couldn’t have gone that bad, right?

That was answered for him when he finally leaned over the banister and saw the giant, carved-up hole in the middle of his downstairs floor. “Uh,” he uttered, trying to remember if this had been part of the plan Sheena had detailed to him earlier. “Hunny?”

A brief pause before the voice of what sounded like a haunted spirit floated up from that pit. “Where the hell have you been?”

Zelos grinned, quickly leaping over the banister to land expertly on his slippers. (He forgot to put on his shoes). He was just a few feet away from the hole. “Catching up on my beauty sleep, what else?”

“You were supposed to stand by and back me up! You idiot! I-” But the ghostly voice was interrupted by a strangled screech. Zelos straightened up immediately, the hint of any smiles completely erased from his face.

He reached down, grabbing Sheena’s hand before she fell, fingers gripping tightly over his wrist. He had seen her hanging onto an outcropping in whatever pit she had made before she lost her hold. With sudden adrenaline, Zelos pulled her out, kneeling beside her as she finally made it to safe ground.

Sheena panted, one hand pressed against the floor while the other stayed locked with Zelos’. After a moment, she raised her head, staring hard at him.

The saucy grin came back to him so easily. “Thought you said you wouldn’t fall for me,” he teased.

She ripped her hand from his grip to curl it into a fist and give him a deserved smack against his shoulder. “Are you serious?!”

“Ow! Well if you’re going to be rough with me…”

“You call that rough?” Sheena got to her feet, face completely red, and already Zelos could tell she was stuck in several shades of embarrassment now. “You don’t even ask me how it went! ”

Zelos shrugged, knowing that would only anger Sheena further, knowing that would only make her feel like she failed even when she hadn’t at all. But it was the best action he had right now. The downstairs also looked a bit… empty, for lack of a better word. Certain knick-knacks seemed to be missing from their shelves, and he might have been missing a few presents actually?

“What’s there to know?” he asked, also standing up, face as serene as water. Most nobles of Meltokio were generally laid back, but Zelos had such a relaxed nature at times that he knew others found unsettling.

With Sheena though, she just got more annoyed. “Do you even care?! Months of tracking them down and planning and this is what happens… We could have avoided this if you were actually nearby like I said to be!”

Zelos held up his hands to her. “Whoa, whoa! Calm down, babe. It’s not the end of the world! I mean… maybe the pit wasn’t the best idea, just throwing that out there.”

“You think I don’t know that?!” Sheena ran her hands through her hair, groaning and looking ready to fall right back into that pit. “Of all the times I had to trip!”

When she yelled, he knew it was mostly aimed at herself then at him, most of the time anyway. So he didn’t take it to heart, watching the words prick herself. “But you still got them tracked, don’t you?”

Sheena let down her hands and sighed. “Yeah… Corrine is still following them. They don’t sense him at least.”

“See now? Gotta keep things on the bright side!” Zelos deftly walked around the pit, eyeing again the empty tables. Most of the stuff was replaceable anyway, though his eyes strayed to a certain painting hidden away in a corner. Interesting. Maybe they didn’t think it was valuable enough to take? Or maybe it was just too big to carry? Zelos wasn’t sure how to feel on that at least.

“Besides,” he said, turning back to Sheena with a flourish. “Not like we were actually going to arrest them anyway.”

Sheena frowned, but she didn’t deny it. Instead, she only looked more and more frustrated, her right eyebrow twitching. “I know that. But they didn’t.” Sheena paused, also noting the stolen items, leaving the lower floor of the mansion nearly barebones except for the furniture. “I still don’t understand.”

“Understand what?” Zelos asked, purposefully acting the fool and knowing that she knew.

“What you’re aiming for. We had orders from the Pope… You’re really sure he won’t find out?”

“Hey, if I was sure of anything, I probably wouldn’t even be here.” He winked at her. “But that’s why you wanted to be part of my master plan, right? Gets you excited.”

“I’m excited to kick you right in the kneecaps if that’s what you’re aiming for.”

Zelos laughed, the sound echoing even more harshly in the open room without all the clutter in the way. “See? You have so much energy!”

“I’m only going along with this because I don’t trust the Pope… Even less than I trust you.” Sheena scuffed the bottom of her heels against the floor, truly getting the ‘disgruntled bodyguard to a carefree playboy’ right down to the details. “But we’re going to have keep tracking them so you can finally get to have that talk you want.”

“Perfect! Then we just need a do-over, how hard is that?”

Sheena rolled her eyes. “But now they’re onto us. And why would they talk to us now when they think we’re enemies?”

“Trust me, we can’t have it any other way.”

He knew Sheena was trying so hard to make sense of his logic. “And this is why I still can’t understand you.”

“Then it’s all going according to plan then.”

And Zelos was ready to get his plan into action, but there was, maybe, just one tiny hurdle they had to deal with right now.

“Seriously though, how did you even manage to dig a hole in my floor?” And also, was she covering this? But he didn’t ask that.

“I have my ways of doing things, and you have yours,” she said in a huff. “It’s not even that deep of a hole…”

“…You certainly made it sound like it was.”

“I was just flustered, alright?!” She groaned. “This hole was supposed to be a backup plan… These guys must have known somehow! That’s why they tripped me…”

Zelos nodded, but if truth to be told, he only half-believed her. Sheena was so clumsy, but only at the worst times. Life was tough on the girl.

“Okay, but uh, we’ll need to have this fixed pronto. Don’t want ol’ Sebastian to fall in while he takes care of the place while I’m away.”

Sheena swerved on him immediately. Yes, he could already tell what his plan was. And why she didn’t like this at all. “No, you don’t mean…”

With an ecstatic smile, Zelos wrapped Sheena up in his arms, scooping her off her feet. “That’s right! I’m coming along to chase them down right with ya, hunny~!”

Honestly, even with the bone-crunching punch he received just after, it was worth it.

Sometimes you need to sacrifice a little comfort to go and help change the world, after all.

There was something about the Meltokio slums that reminded Lloyd of home, even as he and Colette’s boots would get stuck to the muck of the roads occasionally, or when they’d nearly slipped down the stone steps because it was damaged, city never sending in workers for repairs. (Okay, it was Colette who had slipped, and Lloyd had to quickly catch her, along with the numerous satchels she carried).

The air was quiet as any other part of the city, but the atmosphere of it was on edge, a bit frenzied. Lloyd saw a few eyes peek through the slats of a much too small window. The roof was caved-in, the boards rotted from mildew and infestation most likely.

Once they made it down one road, where it was too squared in by the buildings on either side, the mud building up even more around here – Lloyd signaled for Colette to stop.

“This is as good a place as any,” he said, putting down his own satchel to the muddy ground. Some of it splashed on his cool red jacket. He sighed, but now was not the time to be worried about that stuff.

Colette nodded, putting down her own multiple bags with barely any trouble. “You still think it’s not enough?”

Lloyd looked through the opening of his bag, took a moment, and shrugged. “Maybe for a little bit… I need to step up my own game to catch up to you.”

“It’s okay, Lloyd! I was following your lead the whole time.” Her mask reflected the moonlight, shining both azure and pink. It almost looked like she was ready to go to a fancy costume party with it on – and he wondered if he seemed the same way.

He cleared his throat, opened the bag more, then called out to one of the raggedly-dressed children he could see hiding behind the corner of a building. “Hey! Can you get everyone to come here?”

The child was speechless at first, looking ready to flee. But then they stopped, moving a bit into the light when they saw just who the pair was. “Who… Wait, you’re the Red Phantom?” A turn of their head, gazing at Colette. “And the Blue Angel!”

Ha! They got my name right! Just one other reason why the ruling rich class was no good if they couldn’t even remember the right titles.

Lloyd stood with a flourish, hand up in his signature gesture, with thumb out and pointer finger aligned towards the sky. He flashed a grin at the child. “That’s right! We came here to help.” And with that, he reached into the bag, pulling out what looked like a fistful of pure light to the child.

The child’s eyes widened, more pronounced on their weathered, somewhat pale face. Perhaps from so many nights of hunger and cold temperatures. It only hardened Lloyd’s resolve.

“I’ve… never seen so much Gald!” they breathed. Lloyd could barely tell their face in the dark, but the wonder in their eyes was all too recognizable, too familiar. There was sudden life in the face, compared to before. “Who is that for?”

He didn’t make a show of it this time. Lloyd said it seriously, remembering what he was here for.

“They’re for everyone in the slums. So you don’t go hungry.”

The child gawked at Lloyd, then back the precious coins he held in his hand. “But…this is too much. And the shops are closed anyway…”

Colette piped in, kneeling beside the child. “There should be a few open tonight! Especially the one nearby the inn. Do you know that one?”

One could almost hear a stomach grumble in the night at the mention of food. “The place with the Wonderchef?! We could eat there…?”

Lloyd nodded, carefully taking the child’s hand and giving him the money. “Show your family this if they’re doubting. But we should have enough for everyone in the slums.”

Maybe it was the way the kid’s eyes welled up at that moment, or maybe when he saw more and more people start to gather later, getting up from their beds to see if the rumors of charitable not-thieves were true – but Lloyd felt every burden lift up from his heart as he and Colette gave all that they could sell, all that they could gather.

And all while the rich up top continued to slumber away the night.

They didn’t stay long, as some residents would say later that the masked duo whisked away into the shadows the moment they dropped the very last Gald into an outstretched hand. Lloyd and Colette didn’t give any more words or speeches, this time moving just as silently as they did when they had been up on the higher levels.

… No one would notice them both now in the quieter part of the great city, both seating themselves on one of the many marble arches, watching the sky with its familiar patterns.

“It’s amazing we could sell what we could on the same night thanks to Professor Sage,” Colette commented, her voice a little winded from moving so much tonight. But there was something proud in her tone too, something that Lloyd could relate to right now.

It really was surprising just how much Raine knew of a few connections, like certain dealers that could take a few treasures and exchange them for Gald. Lloyd and Colette couldn’t always estimate just how valuable their goods were, so it was helpful their old teacher knew just how much…

“As long as we get her those relics while we’re out doing this, huh?” Lloyd said aloud, inwardly groaning at the idea of going to another stuffy ruin next. “Maybe we should just look for lost treasure in those places ourselves and sell them. Last time she got so scary when we gave her stuff, I thought she was going to steal us next!”

“Oh, that doesn’t sound too bad.” Colette winked. “We’d never be late to classes!”

“Colette, this is like my worst nightmare, please.”

Even a small tease felt too real, even as he couldn’t stop grinning from what they had accomplished tonight. Lloyd leaned back on his hands, looking up at the sky. It stretched out, so long and dark, its wide array of stars taking over everything.

Still, he had to wonder.

“Colette… do you think what we’re doing is right?”

Colette moved to seat herself closer to him (or tripped, he couldn’t really tell), her expression thoughtful. “I’ve always believed in what you were doing, Lloyd… That you wanted to help people. And you are!”

“I know, I guess somehow.” The little nagging voice in his head kept repeating itself – and it sounded exactly like that strange lady they had met at the mansion before she fell into her own pit. “But maybe there is a better way to do it. And I know dad wasn’t a big fan of the idea of us doing all this either.” With that, he puffed out his chest, clenched both fists, and did the best impression of his dwarven father that he knew how. “Dwarven vow number eleven! Lying is the first step down the path to thievery! Also, eat your tomatoes, lad!”

“Wow, you sounded exactly like him, Lloyd!”

“Heh, thanks. I’ve been practicing a lot.” The trick was getting the gentle raspiness of his father’s voice just right! No easy feat.

But even that brief little ego boost couldn’t last, remembering the meaning of what he just said. “I guess I haven’t exactly been following those vows. Although… I didn’t really lie! Er, that much, I mean.”

“Hm.” Colette tapped a finger against her chin, thinking on his statement so much, and so seriously, that it was kinda worrying Lloyd a bit?

“Hey, you don’t have to think about it that much…”

“Oh! But I just wanted to find a way to help you.”

“Yeah, but now I’m thinking I definitely did something wrong here if it’s got you worried.”

She shook her head. They were both no longer wearing their masks now after their delivery to the poor of Meltokio, and now Lloyd could see the fullness of her eyes. It was a blue of a lighter shade, like a water’s surface during a sunrise. When she wore her mask, he couldn’t see that as much. Maybe they didn’t need to wear their masks all the time…

“I’m not really worried,” she was saying, her breath held rhythmically. She was choosing carefully what she would say next. “It’s just… In this world, there’s not much we can do otherwise, you know? So many people are suffering, and yet, those who have the power to change it, they just… don’t do it. Or they don’t care to. We can’t rely on them.”

From Colette’s words, Lloyd heard his own thoughts echo back. Some people, like his dad, could depend on himself, from building his own home to even taking in a human child that he barely knew. But not everyone could do that, he knew.

“There’s another vow your dad says all the time.”

“Huh? Oh, you mean…” He sighed, but the smile on his face was full of gratitude. “Never abandon someone in need.”

“Yep. And, I think we’ve been doing that the best that we can.” She grinned, a lock of her hair falling across her cheek. “Even if we’re using money from those higher up to do so!”

“Not like that money is being used for anything else! All that Gald was literally just sitting there!”

“Yeah! Though I guess we don’t know if they were going to use it on something good… Maybe they were going to donate that same money!”

“What?! Aw man, now you’re making me question it, Colette!”

But she simply laughed, the sound traveling through his chest and somehow making his heart feel a little less heavy. He smiled, laughing with her.

“Fine, let’s just say we did it faster for them,” Lloyd reasoned. “So now that family can eat tonight.”

“Yeah. Maybe…someday we can do it differently. But I like doing it your way!”

“Honestly, this wouldn’t have turned out so well without that item thief move of yours. I can lockpick but that’s kind of it…”

“And you’re the best at it! You beat your whole record by ten seconds!”

“Hey, I thought you didn’t count it last time!”

“Hm… maybe I just wanted to tease you.”

“Mean, Colette!”

But their continued laughter finally brought back someone familiar; the soft padding of feet along the pavement below them, with a whine that echoed throughout the night. Lloyd wouldn’t even chide Noishe this time, his mood lightening up much more than since when they left that mansion.

“Come on, boy,” he called out gently, and Noishe loped forward, putting his great head against Lloyd’s outstretched hands. A few scratches here and there and the dog’s fluffy tail began wagging, even as his whines continued. “It’s okay. Just bring us home, alright?”

“Will Dirk be awake now?” Colette asked, also patting Noishe along his back, fingers digging through the green fur. Colette would never pass up an opportunity to pet the whining animal.

“Probably… Let’s just sneak inside, we’re good at that! Uh, maybe we are.”

Colette already climbed atop Noishe’s back, the action as natural to her as tripping. “We can get him something from here, like a souvenir!”

Lloyd climbed on too, giving one last scratch behind Noishe’s left ear. “It’ll have to be something we bought and not stole, and I forgot to buy things… I’ll just make him something on the way!”

Meltokio’s walls were high, but there were many hidden cracks in their foundations. Some brought on by the ravages of time, some from disrepair or a lack of maintenance…

… and then some made from a person plainly tripping into a wall. Already as Noishe was rushing along the city, they saw it – that tell-tale Colette-shaped hole, from when she had tripped across an upturned grass tuft and tumbled right into stone like it was nothing.

At the sight, he could hear Colette make a sound full of embarrassment. “I hope I didn’t ruin this wall…”

“No way, it’s fine! Besides, this turned out for the best!” Lloyd would have to squeeze through it himself, as the hole wasn’t exactly his height, but even in Colette’s tumble, she had made sure to make her accident luckier than most.

And just as they finally made it out of the city, and were once again on open plains, with the stars so much brighter without the constant lights from below, so much wider that one could see the silhouette of the Fooji Mountains up ahead, Lloyd turned to Colette.

“Thanks, Colette.”

He knew the words had caught her off guard. Without her mask on, the flush on her cheeks was so much more obvious. Her eyes were bright from the two moons overhead. “Ah, for what?”

“For reminding me of what we’re really doing. I started questioning everything but, I know that we’re doing good. Especially having you with me.”

And maybe, it was kind of cute, her blush, and the way she looked at him just now. “I really do help you, Lloyd?”

“Yeah, of course! I’d have gotten caught on my first job if you weren’t there to tell me that people were still inside that one house.”

“Ah, right. You were just about to barge right in there!”

“It seemed like a good idea at the time!”

Colette’s hands reached out to grasp Lloyd by the shoulders, balancing herself as Noishe walked. She did this all the time, but it felt different now, like the sky overhead, and the air so brisk against their skin. “But… thank you too, Lloyd. You gave me a way to help people.”

He grinned. “Then let’s keep doing it then.”

And they would, on another night, at another place. But for now, they let Noishe lead them on, past the mountains and for the trees far off in the horizon. Her hands on his shoulders kept him steady until the morning came.

...Yet in all that time, neither noticed the little shadow that trailed after them, its normally colorful fur of azure and orange now muted within the shadows it hid inside.

Sheena is counting on me, thought Corrine, his soft pads making no sound at all as he leapt after the thieves and their dog. It may have been fast, but Corrine could catch up, sensing them from way further behind.

Still, he followed, a small ringing in the dark.

#tales of symphonia #lloyd irving #colette brunel #sheena fujibayashi #zelos wilder #fanfiction

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darkhymns-fic · 4 years

Text

Voiceless

The Chosen's journey continues on, but Colette is still determined to save Lloyd from his fate.

It's getting much harder to find a solution.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters/Pairing: Lloyd Irving/Colette Brunel, Genis Sage, Raine Sage, Sheena Fujibayashi Rating: G Mirror Link: AO3 Notes: A gift fic that was written for @frayed-symphony for Christmas! Last year I wrote about her concept of Lloyd as the Chosen, and decided to continue it! This is much longer, so only the first chapter will be on tumblr with the rest on AO3. I very much enjoyed writing this and am hoping to keep going with this in another story someday!

At Hima, Colette noticed that the night was quieter than others before it. The reason for it hung in the air, cold and heavy. It stayed ever present, just like the long, heavenly structure that divided the night sky. Clouds floated around it like shrouds, floated around them as well. For this was one of the highest points in the world, lifting them away from everything below.

Even so, it wasn’t long before she heard someone travel up the path to the cliff.

“It’s getting late now,” Professor Sage had called out. Colette turned, seeing the warmth of the inn’s fireplace flush her teacher’s cheeks. The moon shone brighter at this mountain village, making ripples across the Professor’s silver hair. A noticeable pause, then that tone that would always usher children back into the classroom. “It would be good to rest up for the night. We have a long day tomorrow."

Colette, obedient to fault, started to nod, soon getting up from her comfortable seat on the ground. “If that’s…”

But she was stopped when she heard Lloyd shift to her side. She remembered. “Ah! Sorry, sorry,” she said, sitting back down and shuffling a bit near him, offering her hand. “Go ahead.”

She didn’t have to imagine Raine’s frown. Her tone said it all. “You two now…”

But Lloyd, his coat a bright white that painted itself against the night’s shadows, only smiled at her like he always did. He took her hand in both of his own, already tracing a familiar word against her palm.

‘Dork.’

Colette pouted. “Heey…”

But his words continued, tracing more against her palm. Lloyd told her, ‘I wanna stay here.’

At least…she thought that was what he told her? She could easily read the dork comment, for he traced that word all the time! But when it came to more complicated sentences, she didn’t always understand Lloyd’s broad, sometimes too rapid strokes. But she was learning, she must have been learning if she could translate his motions from before. If she could sometimes think she heard him even.

She needed to, ever since Lloyd lost his voice.

“Um, Professor? Would it be okay if I stayed up with Lloyd?” She turned to her teacher, knowing her tone was pleading. “Just for a little while?”

Raine didn’t look too pleased. Maybe she was already suspecting, yet it had been too difficult to keep away from Lloyd’s side for the past few months. Always a soft hush to walk further off to the glade, or taking a corner for themselves when settling down for rest at their camps. Colette couldn’t stay away, not ever since she knew – and not even before it, too.

Raine knew this, and perhaps that was why she conceded so easily.

“Not too late,” she simply said, walking back down the path. The wind was blowing harshly at her robes, but she went on ahead, only looking back at her two pupils with concern. “Just remember, Colette. A protector needs her rest still.”

Colette bit her lip, then nodded. “Yeah… of course.”

All throughout, she felt Lloyd’s hand on hers, the way he tightened their grip, just a bit.

It was a surprise to most that the ones who would save the world consisted of a group of children and their schoolteacher.

No one they had met expected the Chosen’s group to be such as that – but Colette could see how some seemed comforted however at Lloyd, despite his young age. For, after all, he carried his weapons openly, and many were impressed that he could use two swords even! A few adults had marveled at it, and even the local children had asked Lloyd to showcase his swordsmanship. Of course, he didn’t waste any opportunities to show off what he knew!

“I call this one Double Demon Fang!” Lloyd said with excitement to the kids gathered around their savior, some even curiously pulling at the long white strips from his collar, which he didn’t seem to mind. They were at the port city of Palmacosta, the waves continually crashing against the quay, the breeze from the sea continually ruffling Lloyd’s hair.

Much of the plaza was clear by sunset, and Colette had wanted to join Lloyd along for the performance he was giving. She stood to the side, one hand always absently going to her necklace. She only wanted to make sure it would still be there, that was all.

“That’s so cool!” shouted one small boy, looking up at Lloyd with wide eyes as he performed the technique on a wooden dummy meant for the soldiers’ training. “Can only the Chosen do that?”

Lloyd sheathed both swords, but not before doing a cool flourish with them, which included flipping them both into the air before catching them just in time. Colette had given a little gasp at the spectacle, along with the kids – even though she had seen Lloyd do it plenty of times herself after they battled with monsters.

“Nah, you don’t need to be a Chosen,” Lloyd explained. “You just need two swords! But it has to be two!” A pause. “Well, I guess you can do it with just one… but it wouldn’t be nearly as powerful for sure!”

“Yeah! Lloyd does it all the time,” Colette piped in, then pressed a hand against her mouth. “Uh, whoops! I meant the Chosen does it all the time. Sorry.”

“Colette, it’s fine…”

Still, even as Lloyd showed off his prowess, the sun setting below the ocean’s horizon, painting orange against the cobblestoned streets, there were those that questioned.

“Does the Chosen not have need a bodyguard?” one man had asked, coming up to both Lloyd and Colette after the children had dispersed to their homes. He had the looks of a merchant, carrying a crate full of fruit on his way home.

“Huh? I have one though,” Lloyd said, confused. With both hands on his hips, he stood up straight, his next words holding a proud tone in them. “Colette has been my protector on this journey!”

“I’m sorry, who?”

“Her! She’s right there!” Lloyd then proceeded to wave at Colette who had kindly tried not to interrupt their conversation. “Hey! Colette!”

Colette nearly stumbled at the mention of her name. “U-uh?” She had been so caught up playing with the necklace in her hands – the perfect circle it had been shaped into, the glow of the red jewel in the center, the engravings around its edge – that hearing Lloyd call out to her so suddenly had nearly made her jump. “What is it, Lloyd?”

“This guy really wants to meet you!” Lloyd was shouting ecstatically. The man next to him merely blinked at Colette, shifting the crate more comfortably in his arms. “He wanted to meet my bodyguard!”

“Oh! Right, sorry! That’s me!” She gave a wave to the man (he seemed so confused. Maybe he was lost?), until she realzied it was probably rude to just wave and started walking up to them. On the way, she then decided to brush down her dress - the same dress she would usually wear to the schoolhouse back in Iselia (she had never been sure what to change it to). It was all dusty from their traveling. “Hi! My name’s Colette, and I’m his-”

Then the tip of her boot hit against the edge of a slightly upturned cobblestone. She was already flying straight for the man and his box of fruit, even as Lloyd tried to reach out to save her.

Strange that someone needed to save their protector, she thought before she collided into her fate.

Afterwards, her dress had a fair share more than just dirt on the fabric.

“I messed up, Lloyd… Sorry…”

“It’s fine. I mean, I don’t think you made him drop all of the fruit!” Lloyd tried to smile helpfully, still occasionally brushing off a piece of sticky fruit from her shoulder. (One time he had pulled off the half-smashed remains of a tomato and immediately flung it over the dock walls and into the sea). “You just kinda ran a bit fast…”

“I know,” she said. “I didn’t seem very impressive…” She thought again to Lloyd performing his techniques in front of the children, looking more excited than he had been in weeks. She looked back down at herself, her dress so plain and her own weapons hidden from other eyes. “But… I’ll keep trying though. I’ll train harder so I can be worthy of protecting you!”

She realized that they had somehow gone past the inn and ended up near the docks, the sea breeze a little stronger here, enough so that she could taste the salt in the air. Lloyd had directed his gaze up to the sky that had finally grown dark, the stars coming out in all their familiar patterns.

“Hey, Colette…” he started to ask, still looking up. “Does the wind feel nice?”

She almost started to question him at first, but she was beginning to learn fast now. She saw the wind once again ruffle his hair, shifting away the collar of his white jacket. If she looked hard enough, she could catch the gleam of his Cruxis Crystal, the red surface of it nearly matching her pendant. He always tried his very best to hide it, buttoning it up until nothing could be seen. But his swordplay in the plaza must have loosened the buttons.

Colette turned back to the sea, the brine so strong on her tongue, the wind rushing against her neck. “Yeah, it does.” Her finger absently twirled the golden chain, watching the pendant bounce from the motions. Through all these months, through all the fighting and the traveling, the chain had not broken once. “It’s really strong too…Not like at the wind seal. It’s not strong enough to knock me over… Well, maybe, hehe.”

Lloyd didn’t turn to her, but she heard him give a soft chuckle, one that made her feel warm, despite the wind.

“Did dinner earlier taste okay?”

Though she knew that Lloyd wanted honesty, she still felt bad about what she would say next. “Um…it was unique!” she finally settled on, unable to resist a frown from forming. “Since Professor Sage insisted on cooking.”

Another chuckle. “I felt really bad for you and Genis. That stuff looked… brutal.” It was then he wrenched his gaze from the sky to gaze down at her. He smiled, but she could see the sadness in it, despite how harsh the wind blew.

Lloyd could still not feel or taste. And she knew that later tonight, he would not even be able to sleep. But maybe hearing the waves from his window at the inn, and seeing the stars shine over the ocean’s surface, would be comforting?

She shyly reached for his hand, twining their fingers together, gripping hard as if hoping her mere desperation would be enough. That maybe something would reach him through what the trials had done to him, from those that had granted him wings that blended with the morning skies while robbing him of dreams and sensations.

She held him so hard, that her own hand started to ache.

“Colette?” He noted her silence, the strange look in her eyes. She felt his own hand hold her back – had he felt it? Or had it just been because he saw her reach out for him?

“I’m sorry… I also promised… that we would find a way that you wouldn’t…” She trailed to a stop, worried that she was ruining things again for Lloyd. What protector was she? To let this keep happening to Lloyd? To keep going towards something terrible? “Maybe at Lake Umacy with that unicorn… or maybe that kind assassin might know something…”

She heard Lloyd sigh. “You mean that girl that was trying to kill me?”

“I don’t think she was!” she argued back. “She had such kind eyes. Didn’t you notice?”

“Not really. She was too far off while you were busy fighting her, remember?” He grinned. “See? You’re already pretty good at protecting me! Even from assassins who you want to be friends with for some reason.”

“Well, you’re the one that saw her play with those kids in Luin! So you know she must be nice!”

“Heh, yeah, I guess you’re right.” His own voice trailed away, stolen from the sea breeze. Again, she caught the gleam of his Crystal before she realized he had moved in closer.

“Can you tell me how this feels?” he asked, softer, lighter before he bent down to kiss her.

Again, she wished she had the courage months back to give him this, before the power of the angels numbed his lips. But she was selfish still, pressing against him, tasting the salt on his own tongue. If he could not taste it, she would do it for him.

Even after they separated, both stayed close, his breath rushing against her mouth. A moment passed before she remembered what he had asked.

“That felt warm,” she said, letting one hand lay against his chest, tracing the church symbol that lined its surface. Dirk had gotten it down exactly, denoting whoever wore this to be the savior of Sylvarant. “And really soft… really nice…”

His laugh was so low, she thought she could feel it echo within her limbs. “You’re making it sound like I know what I’m doing.”

Colette smiled back, looking up at him, at how the stars framed around his features. “Maybe it just means you’re getting better!”

More laughter from them both, hands still clasped, the wind still rushing through. It was something that she had only dreamed about before – even as the unease from everything else still seeped through.

It had been months of traveling, ever since Colette had left her town of Iselia to follow her best friend. Months of watching him take a pain that only he was allowed to shoulder, watching him refuse everything on his plate, watching him sit much too near a campfire that Colette had to warn him to sit further back. But even with the months, everything was passing much too quickly, and still they had not found an answer.

They had not found a way for Lloyd to live at the end of his journey while still saving Sylvarant.

The feel of him near, his warmth combined with the chill of the wind, his taste combined with the salt from the sea – at least she could experience this for him. But one day, you can feel this too, she promised. I’ll find a way that you can be human again, Lloyd. And then we can go back home to Iselia together.

For if she didn’t promise that, then what kind of protector would she be?

Yet even then, with all of her promises, all of her resolve to train harder, to better watch out for Lloyd as enemies struck against them, to always lend a hand when she saw him summon his wings, their span as wide as the grief in her heart when she saw the discomfort it caused him – it had only happened again.

At the Tower of Mana, Lloyd then lost his voice.

The stairs had been much too numerous to climb, already making both their legs and their spirits tire, but for a while, it had only been the two of them, rushing forward while everyone held the doors opens with ancient mechanisms. Exploring the tower with its strange mirrors, its bridges of light, its books that Lloyd said made his head hurt from even trying to read them. For a while, it just seemed like a small adventure for them, all until they joined with the rest and finally made it to the very top for the fourth seal.

And then Lloyd had fell, and Colette clung to him, closely, closely, never wanting to let go. He had looked at her as the others gathered around in worry, but she had already known when he had fallen and not even a groan left his throat.

Lloyd had not taken this next loss of himself very well.

It was hazy; the rush to make camp for the night, Lloyd finally leaving her arms, hand continually going to his throat, only to flinch when his fingers brushed against the Crystal. “Do you want to go on a walk?” she had asked him later on, seeing him well enough to stand, but he had only shaken his head, mouth open to say something – then realizing he could not. He would then turn away.

Sheena had finally joined their group by then. Colette felt her eyes watching as Lloyd further went to a side of the camp, eyes fixed ahead. “This is what a Chosen has to go through?” she had said, and Colette thought she saw something fleeting in her eyes, but it scurried away like a frightened animal before she could question it. “How does this world have so much suffering? There has to be some way to stop it besides…this.”

And Colette could hear the tone that Sheena uttered, a resolve that made Colette question so much of herself.

What kind of protector could she be to Lloyd if she couldn’t have such resolve herself?

She put away her weapons by the packs, the chakrams glinting burnished gold from the campfire’s light, and once again tried to be at Lloyd’s side. He had not been as feverish feeling as with the other seals, but his skin was still pale from the shock of it all. She saw how occasionally his hand would reach up to his throat, only to flinch when his fingers would brush against the crystal.

Her foot stepped over the grass, finding twigs in their wake. Lloyd turned, the white strips hanging from his collar whipping around him.

“Ah, s-sorry, I know you wanted to be alone, just…” She fiddled with her thumbs before finally stepping towards him more, her voice drying up at her nervousness. But, how thoughtless it was to think that with what Lloyd had just been through… “I just…um…”

She felt a pat on her shoulder, Lloyd somehow able to smile at her, despite everything. He opened his mouth and she could somehow already tell what he meant to say. ‘I’m fine now. Don’t worry about it!’ Apparently, Lloyd thought he had been about to say the same thing – but nothing would come out, even as he tried to clear his throat, as if he had just swallowed something and it was stuck.

“Oh, does it hurt though?” she asked, remembering. “With how it…”

Lloyd could answer easier this way. He just shook his head, but then gave a small shrug, his smile now a bit more strained, a bit more tired.

‘It doesn’t hurt, but, nothing hurts now.’

Again, nothing she could hear, yet she felt those words echo inside her. She must have really wanted to hear him.

“Maybe…we can find a way around this,” she said offhandedly. “Just for a little while. You can still talk to us. Is that… why you’re over here?”

Lloyd looked to the side, and then shrugged again. She recognized this side of him - a side of him when he wasn’t as happy as he was that day at Palmacosta. There were times, even back at Iselia, when Lloyd would be so somber and barely utter much words at all. And now, as he was losing pieces of humanity, Colette couldn’t blame him for his retreat.

Still, she reached for his hand, urging him to look at her again. “Lloyd, I have an idea. Do you wanna listen?”

Lloyd blinked, but he looked at her, his curiosity obvious, so much so that she could hear the words, ‘What is it?’ from him.

She grinned, feeling a bit proud of herself for coming up with this idea. “Let’s ask Genis! He’ll know what to do!”

“Guys,” said the young elf, seated on a log as once again Raine insisted on cooking (but this time Sheena trying to buffer her efforts by intervening with her own suggestions). “I’m not sure why you came to me for this. I literally don’t know what to do.”

“Oh no…” Colette said with a sad air, then sighed. “I’m sorry again, Lloyd. I messed up.”

Lloyd waved away her apologies, but kept his gaze to Genis, frowning slightly.

“What?”

With a roll of his eyes, Lloyd tapped against the side of his head, then pointed towards Genis, still with a frown.

“Agh, are you trying to say I’m not smart? Even the smartest people would have trouble with this!”

“Maybe if we all put our heads together, we can figure out how best Lloyd can talk to us!” Colette had to find that resolve again, and she would make sure that Lloyd could still find some happiness, no matter how grim the situation. “Oh! Lloyd, maybe you could write to us!”

Lloyd blinked, which just prompted Colette to excitedly explain.

“You know! It can be like the notes we’d pass each other in class!” she said, clapping her hands. “And we could draw each other little doggies as we write notes…”

“Why would you need to write stuff down, Colette?” interrupted Genis. “You can still talk.”

“Huh? Oh… right, sorry. I forgot!”

Lloyd sighed again. It was the most he could do with the lack of a voice. He shook his head, then tried to use his hands mimic writing something in his palm that must have represented paper…

“Oh, you’re right, Lloyd. We don’t have much paper on hand…” Colette said. With his nod, she knew she had gotten his meaning right. “Maybe if we asked the Professor? She must have plenty of paper!”

Lloyd emphatically shook his head.

“Huh? Why not?”

“It’s because he doesn’t want to give Raine the idea of giving us more homework if we asked her,” Genis offered as explanation.

“Ohh…”

“Anyway, we’re going about this all wrong. I’ll show you how much of a genius I am then, Lloyd.” At this, Genis grinned, crossing his arms proudly. “Heh, you could do something easy like charades for us! You’re good at moving around for that kind of stuff!”

Lloyd frowned at the smug-looking Genis, but Colette gasped in delight. “Oh, I love charades! Every time we talk, we can make a game out of it!”

“I bet I can guess more of his words than you can!” Genis dared, and Colette fiercely rose up to that challenge. She faced her friend, fists clenched in determination.

“No way! I can guess the most!”

Meanwhile, Lloyd stood before them and waved his arms. Though he couldn’t say anything, his expression was plain in his question, ‘Do I really get no say in this?’

Colette turned to him, hearing him (maybe?) but excited that perhaps they had found some way out of this dark cloud. At least for a little while. “Why don’t we try it? Yeah?”

Lloyd may have been voiceless, but she saw the interest in his expression, saw his frown slowly shift into a smile as Colette’s enthusiasm spread to him. ‘I guess I do like charades…’

“Let’s start with something easy. Like…what you want for dinner!” At that Genis winced, remembering. “Ah…right, I meant…”

Lloyd shook his head, then gave a thumbs up. ‘It’s okay!’ Looked like Lloyd did want to try this out!

Soon enough, all three got prepared. Genis straightened up in his seat, while Colette sat next to him, both facing their Chosen friend who was busy thinking up a word, his shoe tapping against the ground. Then it was clear when he had an idea.

With a grin, he held up one finger, then two, then three. Three words total. Colette clenched her fists, concentrating as hard as she could. She would win this!

Lloyd then held up one finger, then tapped his forearm once. Genis automatically noted aloud what that meant. “First word, two syllables.”

“Um…puppy! Is that right?”

Lloyd paused. Genis turned to Colette. “But…we’re talking about what he wants for dinner?”

“Oh, whoops.”

Shaking his head, Lloyd then repeated the motion. One finger up, followed by two short taps on his arm.

“It’s some kind of food… I bet something with protein, I’m sure.” Lloyd grinned and nodded, while Genis laughed. “So, like...chicken?”

Lloyd shook his head.

“Bacon!”

An interested smile, but still a firm headshake.

“Sausage?”

“Why are you guys just shouting food names over there?” Sheena yelled towards them. “Not like Raine here is making anything that sounds edible – OW!”

“Oh, my staff must have slipped out of my hand. My apologies.”

Despite the interruption, the kids kept at their game. Genis thought up hard for another food item “Tofu?”

Lloyd didn’t even shake his head this time. He just made a disgusted expression, tongue out, and visibly winced.

“Hey, that has protein too!”

“Um, cookies?” Colette piped in. “Pastries? Apples? Fruit tart? Oh no, wait, that’s two words…”

“Colette, you’re just naming off desserts!”

Lloyd shook his head even more – which he’d been doing a lot of lately! It was even enough to mess up his hair a little.

“Ugh, we’re trying, Lloyd!” Genis crossed his arms, thinking hard. “First word… two syllables… turkey? Is it a rabbit you want?”

Colette looked at Lloyd with wide eyes. “Why would you want to eat a cute bunny rabbit, Lloyd?”

With a jump, Lloyd still shook his head. Nothing was right!

“Gah, all I know is that you like your beef so much…” Lloyd’s eyes lit up then, looking at Genis with hope. “Wait… is it beef? But that’s just…”

But Lloyd gestured for Genis to continue, patting his arm again twice, with more emphasis on the second tap. “So I got the second syllable… wait, is it roast beef?”

Lloyd grinned, giving Genis a thumbs up. He did it! Colette made sure to give Genis some congratulatory applause – even if she had just lost. But she was happy for her friend. “Way to go, Genis!”

“Wait, but that’s two words, not one! Lloyd, did you have us play charades when you didn’t even get the number of words right?”

Lloyd blinked, looking at the hand placed on his arm from his fervent tapping.

“We spent ten minutes trying to solve that!” Genis growled out.

“Oh?” Colette blinked. “What’s the second word then? And isn’t there supposed to be three in total?”

At that, Lloyd looked a little blank. A hand reached to scratch the back of his head as he smiled shamefacedly.

Genis groaned. “He forgot the rest of what he was going to say.”

Afterwards, Colette could only blame herself. The night was getting colder and darker, and everyone was already preparing themselves for bed.

Everyone except Lloyd, who sat on the grass, looking up towards the sky.

It felt so natural to go up to him, to take a seat beside him, even as he made no motion, no indication at all for her to sit. But she felt his eyes flicker towards her, his left hand placed between them both on the ground.

“Maybe…we can try hand signals?” Colette spoke the first idea that came to mind, looking at the grass. “It might be easier than charades.”

Lloyd tilted his head, with a look that told her, ‘I’m not sure about that.’

Something about that look made her smile a little and, instinctively, reach for that hand with both of hers. “We can just make up our own! Like…” She curled his hand into a fist. “That can mean when something we fight is gonna be real tough! As tough as a rock!”

Though Lloyd shook his head, she saw the hint of a smile. It made her confident, made the excitement fill her blood. She kept going.

“And, you can use this signal!” she said as she formed Lloyd’s hand to hold up two fingers. “For when you’re going to fight. It’ll look just like your swords!”

Lloyd was grinning wider, turning more to her as he let her play with his hand like her own little world. He made no hesitance as she manipulated his fingers into what she wanted.

“And maybe… can do this?” She flattened out his hand, palm upward. “When you want to stop, or rest. Yeah!” She raised her head. “See? We can already say three things!”

Though Lloyd still smiled, she saw a curious expression in his eyes. That was when his other hand reached over, taking her own in his. The touch tickled against her palm, made her head brim with a heat that she didn’t want to ever get over.

What he wrote on her hand, it made her giggle even more.

“Lloyd!” she said, happy to find a way through this, happy that she could do this while feeling his touch. “I guess you’re right…” she said, interpreting his strokes. “It really was just rock paper scissors, hehe.”

Lloyd’s smile was the best thing she had ever known, and it didn’t seem to fade this time with the night. Fingers traced over her palm again, their meaning clear – so clear she could have sworn she heard it whispered in her ear.

‘You were right the first time. Writing is the way to go.’

At Hima, the world felt so much larger than before. When all she had ever known was Iselia, she felt her eyes open more and more with each step on this journey. Would Lloyd understand that feeling too?

The night was quiet once it was just them again after Professor Sage left. Colette’s gaze was fixed up towards the sky. “Hm…are you still trying to count them all?” she asked as she turned back to Lloyd. He was still holding her hand, fingers laying against her palm.

His eyes were also fixed towards the sky before he turned to her, then to her hand. The same soft tracing that tickled her a little bit, making her giggle. ‘I think that’s impossible… there’s too many!’

“Hm, but what if it was both of us? I counted the stars too for the past few nights. We can just combine what we found!”

A grin and a shaking of his shoulders. She barely had to imagine his soft laughter then. ‘That sounds smart! Okay, what you got?’

Colette, happy to help, looked back up at the sky to quickly calculate where she had left off the other night. “From that star that looks like a cute doggy’s nose, I went all the way to the Tower.” A short pause, a brief reminder of what would happen, but she pushed through. “So about…367!” She had gotten very sleepy on a few instances of her night counting, but she was sure this was the right number.

‘Every star looks like a doggy to you…’

“Not true! It’s a nose so it’s different!”

Still, Lloyd kept grinning. He also raised his head to the sky, Colette watching the way his eyes gently flicked around the length of the expanse. Then another quick tracing – she was getting better at reading him. ‘I got 640. From the doggy nose star to the ocean.’

“So many!” Colette marveled. It was a marvel because she knew how much Lloyd didn’t really like math… and yet he had counted so high. “But which way’s the ocean again? We left Palmacosta a while ago.”

Lloyd blinked. It wasn’t just his writing that she could understand better, it was his body language too. Like the way he shook a little sometimes with a smile, letting her know it was with silent laughter, or the way he would stay still when he was thinking very hard on something. He was thinking hard now, eyes slowly going around them before turning to her. He grinned. She knew what that grin was, smaller than the usual, but not sad, just embarrassed.

‘I can’t remember now… Whoops,’ he wrote down, but Colette was already giggling away before he even finished.

“Lloyd! What if you’ve been recounting the same stars again?”

‘It’s not my fault! They all look the same!’

“But not the doggy nose star,” she stated proudly.

‘You’re right. Not that,’ Lloyd readily agreed, his smile making her feel so content.

Even though he couldn’t laugh with her, she would laugh as much as she could for them both. But eventually, even her laughter faded away with the wind, which only blew stronger the later it got. She shivered, watching the way Lloyd’s hair ruffled with it, pulling at his clothes. The gleam of the Cruxis Crystal twinkled lightly before disappearing again within his collar.

She was careful not to say something thoughtless about the weather, knowing what Lloyd could not feel. Yet in her hand, he asked what she had thought to ask. ‘It’s cold, isn’t it? Did you wanna go inside?’

Colette shook her head. “No, I’m okay. I want… to stay with you.” And something there, in the way she had said it, so thoughtlessly. She had tried so hard to not. But it came and then a wave of emotions flooded her throat. “I want to stay with…”

She tugged at his hands with both of her own, looking at them, at the way their fingers curled around each other so naturally like ivy. “Lloyd…I’m sorry. I’m sorry I haven’t done enough for you.”

His hands remained motionless within hers. But if he still had his voice, she knew he’d remain silent. She was only ruining things now, but she couldn’t help the hot tears that started to overflow. Her hands continued to clutch his, shaking.

“But I – I won’t let it happen.” Her voice cracked, and air was hard to come by, even during the rough cold winds, but she kept going. “I won’t let you die.”

Lloyd’s hands flinched. Despite knowing, despite understanding, neither had ever said it out loud. It was the voiceless threat, always lying in wait. But now that Colette said it, the truth of Lloyd’s fate fully dawned on her. More tears fell. She would cry enough tears for them both.

She worried Lloyd would pull away, but he only clung back to her, tighter. ‘Colette.’ He didn’t write it down for her. But she still knew.

“I promised you that I would help you find another way. And…and I will!” She finally had the strength to raise her head, to look at Lloyd. But his own eyes stayed locked onto their hands. “We don’t… we don’t have to go to there tomorrow.”

Something thoughtless said, but it left her, and it emboldened her suddenly. “We don’t have to go to the Tower,” she said again, to make it true.

Lloyd finally looked at her, confusion plain in his eyes. Again, his hands stayed still, but she couldn’t bear to let the silence continue.

“We can tell the others maybe… and, just say we need more time. Sheena talked about another world. Maybe someone there could help us? Or we can keep figuring things out ourselves! We… we don’t have to go yet.” Colette still felt the tears fall, bowing her head again but still trying to stay strong. A protector needed to stay strong. “I don’t want you to go.”

‘I don’t want to go either.’

She blinked, the warmth of his finger leaving an imprint in her palm. With Colette still in her stunned state, Lloyd once again wrote in her hand. ‘We won’t go tomorrow then.’

“You…you mean it?” Colette asked. She had expected Lloyd to argue, to say it was useless, or maybe say nothing. But his words reverberated in her head, despite never hearing them aloud. “Lloyd…I, I promise I won’t let you down this time! We can- we can find a way to save everyone!” The happiness she felt, and Lloyd’s hands keeping her steady, she suddenly felt so much hope. If Lloyd believed in her…

Then Lloyd motioned for her to get up, still holding to her tight. Colette tilted her head in confusion. “Huh?”

‘Come on, I wanna show you something,’ Lloyd said. Well, wrote. Except he didn’t write anything. She was only imagining it again, because for most of her life, she had always heard Lloyd, always heard this boy that lived in the Church that she could see in the distance, even from her home. And she had always felt sad that Lloyd didn’t seem to have a home in the village, a home where he could play and make those fun crafts he did or draw pictures of animals that she’d want to keep.

But his smile was invigorating, and soon Colette was following him, nearly tripping as she did so. But he caught her, and that was when she saw the wings sprout from his back, the mana from them capturing the stars in their shape.

“You…want to fly?” she asked. Because, ever since that night Lloyd had gotten his wings, he had rarely used them. Not during battle, not even to travel. She knew how much he disliked them. “Why?”

Lloyd only stepped back from her slightly so he could write in her hand again. ‘Flying is only fun with someone else.’ He deemed that to be enough of an explanation as he then pulled her forward to wrap her in his arms, spreading his wings and slowly lifting them into the sky.

“Ah! Lloyd!” Colette clung to him, feeling the ground leave her. It was a familiar feeling – all her trips and stumbles had made her acquainted with the air. But she wasn’t roughly falling to the dirt to get scratches across her knees. She was held aloft by Lloyd, his hold on her so tight, as he started to fly them through the night sky. “Too high up!”

But Lloyd smiled at her, calming her beating heart, if only a little bit. His grin broke through her fear, until she could only mirror it back. Then she was laughing, feeling the wind in her hair as he dove all around the air. So cold! But Lloyd’s arms around her kept her warm.

“Can we go to the doggy nose star?” she asked, arms wrapped around Lloyd’s neck. He answered with a nod, and then another great beat of his wings got them flying toward a part of the sky.

She felt the chain of her necklace whip around her wildly as they flew, the pendant of it still hanging on. But she knew it wouldn’t break. Lloyd had made it for her. And he always made such wonderful things.

They would have to still decide on where to go tomorrow, on what to do. She still saw the Tower of Salvation behind them, like a beacon that was difficult to turn away from. But Lloyd said he would stay by her side. They could figure out what to do together.

Read the rest on AO3!

#tales of symphonia #lloyd irving #colette brunel #colloyd #genis sage #fanfiction #multi chapter

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goron-king-darunia · 4 years

Note

Annon-Guy: Finale - 1. Why was Richter surprised that Marta said "Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality"? I know Richter learned it from Aster and taught Emil it, but still. 2. How come Marta and the others still care and look out for Ratatosk despite killing Aster? Marta still loves him because he's a part of Emil as they're the same person.

1. I figure Richter was surprised because he hadn’t expected the phrase to catch on or mean anything to Marta. For Richter, that was always something between him and Aster, and he only taught it to Emil because he thought it was something Emil needed to hear. I guess he didn’t expect it to be something meaningful to anyone except people like him, like Aster, like Emil. 2. I’m sure a lot of why everyone sticks with Emil is 1) The side of Ratatosk that IS Emil clearly feels bad about what he did to Aster and WANTS to be good, and Ratatosk, while he’s reluctant to outright say it because he’s a dope that doesn’t talk about feelings, also seems to feel bad even though he felt justified in attacking Aster at the time. 2) Emil and Ratatosk are a summon spirit, an entity necessary to the balance of the world, the closest tangible thing the world has to gods. There are people of many different religions who worship gods that did some pretty terrible things. So I’m sure part of it is some sort of “Emil/Ratatosk did something bad, but he’s necessary for the world to be healthy so we can’t blame him too much since we really need his help. But I’m sure the part the game wants us to focus on is that, on top of changing and wanting to be better and make amends for killing Aster, something he obviously regrets, the party, especially Marta, understands that part of the reason Ratatosk lashed out at all was because of what happened to his tree. So it’s some combination of those factors. Kind of like I might forgive Richter for trying to stab Marta. From Richter’s perspective, he’s avenging Aster and preventing a minor deity from committing a genocide he is perfectly capable of enacting. Like, I want to punch Richter because “Dude this is not how you deal with trauma and if you have genuine concerns you should ASK FOR HELP and not try to do it on your own and/or manipulate people!” But I understand why he did what he did and I think if he worked hard afterward to make up for what he did, I could forgive his actions in the game. Similarly, if we understand Ratatosk’s perspective, how he's lashing out because he’s afraid, upset, in pain, and just wanted to be alone to grieve after he just woke up and some uppity mortals show up, don’t treat him with any respect, make demands, and then get in his face about how “actually, the creatures that killed your tree are very important” it gets easier to forgive the unforgivable. Killing Aster, also, was only one action. A crime of passion. What Richter did was a series of mistakes. He dug himself a hole and instead of asking for help he just kept fucking digging whereas Ratatosk, apart from being just a little too trigger happy and having a temper, really only did the one bad thing. Like, honestly, this entire game is a massive case of “people who were hurt tend to hurt other people.” Like, both of these boys need therapy and a hug but also some spanking because like... they clearly don’t know how to process trauma. So like, on the one hand, yes, both these boys deserve forgiveness and happiness and Emil unconditionally supporting Richter is definitely something Richter needs even if he doesn’t “deserve” it for everything he did in the Vanguard. Similarly, Marta’s unconditional support of Emil and Ratatosk is definitely something they both need even if Ratatosk might not deserve it for squishing Aster like a bug to make a point. On the other hand, both these boys have serious issues and as much as I like to “solve” Richter’s trauma by shipping him with Emil, Richter and Emil should, ideally, have some sort of therapy and prison sentence because like... they’re directly or indirectly responsible for people losing their lives and that not having a consequence, as much as I don’t WANT it to have consequences, is kind of shitty for the families people that died. If Brute and Marta are going to take responsibility, Richter and Emil/Ratatosk should too. Unless they all get freedom in which case unrealistic but it’s better than Brute doing jail time, Marta getting community service, Richter being stuck in the Ginnungagap for 1000 years/his whole life depending on how Ratatosk deals with Richter aging, and Emil doing whatever he ends up doing with Marta. Like, IDK, I feel like they all deserve happiness, despite what they did, but, like. That’s not how the justice system works so... IDK, the game does a REALLY good job of making EVERYONE the victim, and you just can’t help but woobify them because the circumstances they had life deal to them are just terrible and they didn’t deserve anything that happened to them. Ratatosk didn’t deserve to lose his tree, Richter didn’t deserve to lose Aster, Aster didn’t deserve to die while trying to help the world, Emil didn’t deserve to come into being to pay for Ratatosk’s mistakes, Marta didn’t deserve to be part of the Vanguard and watch her dad slowly go insane after she just lost her mom, Brute didn’t deserve to be manipulated into a militant organization’s leader. Everyone in the game got dealt a shitty hand in life and they all suffered because of it and because they suffered, they inevitably caused harm to others. IDK, if there are real gods in the Symphonia universe, not just the Spirits and not just “Martel” but, like, actual gods that influence the events on Aselia? They need to be slapped. “What if we just give these guys unresolved trauma on purpose?” is, like, great from a narrative’s perspective but it’s so fucking cruel and I’m still mad at the writers for hurting my boy Richter like they did and then continuing to hurt him in Rays. But I have to admit, I probably wouldn’t like Richter as much if he wasn’t damaged.

#Letters from Annon Guy #DotNW #again #I just make everything about Richter huh?#Sorry for my one track mind #opinions #Anonymous #ask GKD

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darkhymns-fic · 5 years

Text

Your Gift Shines

Collin treasured the necklace Lloyd gave him, but isn't foolish enough to think it could mean anything more than a gift from his friend. He was just another boy that Lloyd felt he needed to protect, that was all. He could learn to be happy with that.

AU where Colette (named Collin) is a boy - but the feelings are the same.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters/Pairings: Lloyd Irving/Colette Brunel Rating: G Mirror Links: AO3 Notes: Because I had been thinking about possible Lloyd and genderbent Colette scenarios for a while, so here’s a tiny idea. But more importantly! Beautiful art of a scene from this story by @frayed-symphony!

Collin didn’t realize he had been fiddling with the necklace until he felt Genis’ eyes on him.

“Ah, sorry! Were you saying something?” he asked, looking to his friend.

Genis shrugged. “No, I was just going outside for some air. You alright though?”

Collin felt a little nervous, but covered that up with a smile, as he was used to always doing anyway. Good enough that maybe even Lloyd wouldn’t pick up on it. “No, I was doing the same. The night breeze feels really good!”

Ozette’s sole inn was small but it was within the forest, the air still feeling so crisp and clear. Even through the gigantic trees that overtook the sky, Collin could still see the stars, wondering if they were the same ones he tried to count back then.

“Yeah, guess it does.” Genis stood next to Collin, soon smiling brightly. “Good thing Lloyd has some uses, huh?”

“Lloyd’s always useful!” Collin argued, knowing Genis was mainly joking. Still, he wanted to defend Lloyd… He couldn’t help but reach for the necklace again, it’s shape even and the metal shining from the moonlight. Then he kept staring at it…

“So do you feel okay though?”

Ah, he was blanking out again! He smiled down at Genis. “Yeah! Is there, um, something wrong?”

“Well, you got your soul back! I’m curious if you’re feeling the same, that’s all.” Genis eyed the necklace again. Collin wondered why, then soon figured out an answer.

“Oh, did Lloyd not give you a present?”

Genis blinked. “Huh? Why do you ask that?”

“Well, your birthday was before mine… he didn’t get you a necklace too?” Maybe Lloyd was still being late with presents. But only probably because he wanted to give his best effort!

“Wh- why would he give me a necklace?”

Collin could only just keep feeling confused. “Because Lloyd is good at making necklaces?”

Genis sputtered. “But – he’s not – argh!” The younger boy frowned. “Think about what you’re saying.”

Collin really tried to but… “I’m sorry?”

A sigh. “Never mind. Just… this is good confirmation that you’re definitely the same, Collin.” Genis shook his head. So much like when they were younger, all three boys hanging outside Collin’s home. Lloyd would be so eager to share stories his dad had told him, while Genis continually questioned their truthfulness. But those were some of the brightest days for Collin, sitting between them and listening, Lloyd’s eyes catching his occasionally.

Genis shook him out of his thoughts again. “Anyway, I think I’m already tired. Good night.”

“Good night!” Collin waved as Genis went back inside the inn, his steps creaking against wooden floorboards. Then the Chosen of Sylvarant turned back to the sky, still clasping the necklace between his fingers.

Lloyd was just good at making necklaces. It didn’t mean anything more than that, no matter how much Collin might wish it to be.

Collin had always been a weak Chosen, even though people would be too kind to ever say that to his face. A boy like him should be strong! He should be brave, and be everybody’s protector, and not just want to pet cute doggies all day! (But he loved cute doggies so much…) A boy like him, especially one that was a Chosen, should have the courage to do his duty and, for a while, he felt he did that. Even though he couldn’t learn a proper men’s weapon like the sword, the chakrams gave him an advantage. And it was still okay if he used it well! He could fight, even if it was in a way people didn’t expect.

But in the end, he had been so scared. He felt so much guilt now, even as he felt relieved on being able to feel and taste, to just be himself again, thanks to the friend he had always admired.

A boy like him should be as strong as someone like Lloyd, as courageous like Lloyd, as handsome – wait. He hadn’t meant to go in that direction.

But, um. He did think that though. He thought that a lot. And a boy like him shouldn’t really be thinking that, especially a Chosen anyway.

Collin went back inside the inn, already missing the wind that lifted at his short hair. It had grown a little during his journey through Sylvarant, and Lloyd had helpfully given him a haircut. A bit messy looking, but short enough so that he could easily feel the cool breeze against his neck. Lloyd was always kind like that, just like Lloyd had always been kind to him as a child, making fast and easy friends with him.

Going back to the room, he was surprised to find that Lloyd wasn’t in their shared room, though his belongings were scattered around the floor. There was his satchel, some of it spilling over with some of the crafting tools he carried around. Collin felt that maybe this was a good opportunity to change at least. It always felt a bit strange doing that with Lloyd around, even though they were both boys, so really, it was no issue at all…

The door opened behind him suddenly, nearly making him jump.

“Oh! Collin, you’re back!” Lloyd went in quickly, grinning wide. “I was getting kind of worried.”

The same little burst of happiness that always floated through Collin’s chest at times like these did so again at Lloyd’s smile. He did his best though to not touch the necklace, now fully hidden underneath his overcoat. “Lloyd! Sorry, I just wanted to go for a walk… Were you looking-”

He stopped, noticing what Lloyd was holding in his hands. A wooden carving, with the design of something familiar on it. Oh…

Lloyd saw where his eyes were pointed at and couldn’t help but show off his latest work! “Ah, yeah I was just working on this for Sheena! She’s been down ever since Volt’s temple… but I thought like, making like one of those wish tags might help cheer her up a little? I was trying to get Corrine’s shape right in this…” And there was the imprint of the summon spirit’s curvy tails, and even the fur tufts, and paws…

Collin smiled back at Lloyd. “That’s great! She’ll really love it, I bet.” Sheena would like Lloyd’s creation for sure. He had noticed how often Sheena tagged along Lloyd, even before the final seal back at Sylvarant. Once he got his soul back, he still saw that, and how Lloyd clearly enjoyed Sheena’s company. That made sense! Sheena was smart and brave, and she was very beautiful too. Zelos complimented on Sheena so often, so Lloyd for sure would have noticed that as well.

A boy like Lloyd would like a girl such as Sheena! It made sense, and Collin was happy for them. Yes, he was really happy. And he showed that by keeping up his smile.

“Oh, were you going to ask me something? Sorry, I guess I kinda started blabbing there.” Lloyd laughed, the sound traveling through Collin’s ears with warmth.

“U-um… I, was just asking if you were looking for Sheena! Since you were making something for her…”

“Hm? No, I was just trying to find a quiet place around here… Zelos wouldn’t stop visiting me in here.” Lloyd said this with an irritated frown. “Kept asking so many dumb questions.”

Collin blinked. “Really? Like what?”

“Just dumb stuff… Anyway! Have you been sleeping okay? Did you wanna get like a snack or something?”

Lloyd had moved past him to put his stuff away back in his satchel. His red jacket was unbuttoned, probably also wanting to enjoy the night breeze that Ozette gave. Collin watched Corrine’s relief vanish from sight, but still saw clearly how hard Lloyd had worked on it. Suddenly he couldn’t help but remember…

“Heeey, so you’re the little angel everyone’s been missing!” Zelos leaned near the other boy, red hair tumbling down his shoulder to brush against Collin’s cheek. “Hm, you know, when I ran into you for the first time, I thought you were a short-haired hunny, heh.”

“Um!” Collin started, vaguely recalling how his soulless self had just thrown Zelos over his head with barely restrained strength. “I’m sorry, also, um, what?” There were a few things Zelos was throwing his way, none of them making much sense.

Zelos laughed. “Man, could have fooled me. Complete with those wings and all.”

“Oh. Are my wings bad?” Collin did suppose they were weird looking on him, with their pink color especially…

“Nah. They suit you. Anyway, just wanted to let you know how we Chosen gotta stick together! Brothers-in-arms and all that!”

“Um… yeah!” Collin agreed. He was another Chosen, after all! Someone like him! Well, in some ways at least. “I don’t have a brother, but if I did have one, I bet he’d be someone like you!” He hadn’t really understood what his earlier comment had meant though…

Zelos looked perplexed at first before grinning. “Okay, I can see why country boy sticks by you. You know, for a guy, even I gotta say you’re kind of a cutie.”

Collin wasn’t sure how to answer that? He only laughed nervously, finally trying to speak. “I- I’m not that… I’m sure other people are much cuter!” Oh, that sounded weird to say…

“Well, you’re right. The hunnies in our party are pretty cute. Little rosebud, the cool professor, and of course my voluptuous hunny… ya got a favorite?”

Collin clasped his hands before him, really at a loss. He… couldn’t say what he was really thinking, who his actual favorite was... “I think they all look nice!”

Zelos narrowed his eyes. “Okay… Well! I gotta go with Sheena, my hot firebrand. Although she sure is getting chummy with Lloyd lately. They did any bonding over back in your world or something?”

Collin suddenly didn’t really want to think on this. “Well, she did help us out a lot… I’m not sure.”

But the other Chosen seemed so interested in them. “Gotta tell ya, bud needs to be clear on what team he’s playing for. Next thing I know, they’ll be kissing under the moonlight before I get to make my move!”

That made Collin stand still, completely at a loss on what to say at first. Finally, all he could settle with was, “What about teams?” That didn’t make sense to him either.

Zelos sighed, much like Genis tended to. “Never mind… I guess I’m one to talk, heh.” For a moment, Zelos looked away, lips twisted in his smile, before turning back to Collin with a flail. “I mean, not like that though! I ain’t interested in guys!”

“Okay…” Collin said, but still he figured Zelos, as a Chosen like him, was still nice in the end…

Collin realized he had blanked out again, only after Lloyd had been calling out to him a few times.

“Ah, I’m sorry! I didn’t hear…”

“I was saying if you wanted that ice cream stuff they sell at the store here?” Lloyd was asking. At some point, he had moved closer to Collin again, which made oxygen once again hard to come by for him. “Are you really okay? Is your necklace still working right?”

“Yeah! I’m still myself, aren’t I?” Collin proved that with a smile, then held out his hand, fingers flexing in on his palm. “And I can feel things again too thanks to you!”

“Heh, yeah!” Lloyd looked proud then. He took Collin’s hand in a handshake, not wearing his gloves at the moment. Collin could feel the heat of Lloyd’s hand, something he had known for a long time. He had missed it when he felt those senses of his fade, his voice silent, resorting to doing little patterns over Lloyd’s palm.

“Actually, um, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Lloyd started to say, his voice a bit low. He was still holding Collin’s hand, thumb running across his skin. He must have not realized he was doing that. “Do you like it?”

Still a bit distracted by Lloyd’s touches, Collin took a moment. “S-sorry. Do I like what?”

“Your, um, necklace. I wanted to ask before but… well, things were happening.” Lloyd smiled again, his face a bit red. Maybe he was getting hot? “I-I kinda rushed through fixing it, so we could get you back. I can make it better later if you wanted!”

“Oh… Oh I really love it a lot!” he said, but then realized saying that was probably too strange coming from a boy. “I mean, it’s great! You made it look…” Beautiful. “Really cool!”

Lloyd blinked, seeming to expect something else but then laughed. “Heh, I did want it to be kind of cool looking…”

“It is!” Collin tightened his hand over Lloyd’s, also not realizing what he was doing. “I bet when you make Genis’ necklace, it’ll also look cool.”

Lloyd, still with his smile, looked at Collin blankly. “Uh… huh? Why Genis?”

Oh… he had said something wrong, but he wasn’t sure what! Maybe Lloyd didn’t want to be reminded he was late on his present? Sometimes Collin said dumb things and this was just one of them now. “Ah, I was just… you make really good necklaces. And I’m sure Genis would… like one too?”

“Um.” Lloyd looked to the side, as if searching for an answer. “But… I only made… I mean…”

“Sorry… I said something stupid, didn’t I?” Collin slipped his hand out of Lloyd’s grip, feeling ashamed.

“N-no! That’s not… hm…” Lloyd seemed to be really confused too! “Just, forget it.” A pause. “Hey, uh, did you still want that ice cream?”

Collin couldn’t help but think it was a bit late for ice cream… and clearly he had hurt Lloyd somehow. He hadn’t meant to do that. “If you want to? I’m sure Sheena would like some too!” Maybe that was what would fix the weird situation he had put both himself and Lloyd in. Sheena would make Lloyd happy for sure.

“Oh, um, I guess so? But she’s probably resting. Come on, let’s go! I think my money is somewhere… around here…” Lloyd went to search in one of the little drawers in the room, intently searching for his missing gald.

“We could just tell her though? You sure you don’t want that?” Collin kept hedging, needing to make this right! Lloyd needed to be happy right now.

“It’s okay! Can just go another time with her?” Lloyd was turned away, still searching, and for some reason, Lloyd’s back to him made him so nervous that he couldn’t help but burst out what he would say next.

“I just, um, I think it would be a great date thing together with her! I don’t need to tag along if you don’t want.”

Another pause. Lloyd had stopped shuffling through the drawer. Then he turned around.

“A date? What?”

Collin felt like he wanted to sink into the ground. Why did he say that? Why did he say that??

“Um, because you two get along so well! And, it’s great that you are! And you were making the present for her because you like her…” Oh no now he was rambling. He shut himself up, smiling at Lloyd nervously.

Lloyd blinked, looking at the floor, then back to his face. “Uh… I like her enough but… wait, you mean like…”

Please, could he just turn back time and never say something so stupid ever again? “I’m sorry. I just… I just wanted to say I’m happy for you, that’s all!” Maybe that was enough?

But Lloyd only seemed to be more lost by the second. “Wh- Collin, what are you talking about? Why do you think I’m…”

There was something in Lloyd’s tone that Collin couldn’t quite understand. He was hurting Lloyd somehow. With all the wrong things he was saying. Collin nearly wanted to cry himself at having done that to the person most important to him. The sensation was relieving, for all those times he hadn’t been allowed to cry because of his angel state, and also painful, because a boy shouldn’t do something like cry at all. Even if Lloyd had cried for him that night when he found out, but Lloyd had always been different and…

“It’s… nothing! Never mind, I’m sorry.” Collin turned away, heading for the door. “I’m… I’m just going for a walk. We can get ice cream later!”

“Collin! Hold on a sec-”

He moved outside quick, hands gripping the necklace fast, its weight comforting, remembering how it hung on him when he was still trapped within himself, unable to move or say a word. Only when that lady had tried to take it, eyes narrowed in disgust at how he wore it…

But it was precious to him.

Ozette was naturally a secluded place, so Collin soon found a private enough area – one wooden balcony that stretched out onto the giant boughs. At the very least, this place helped him gather his thoughts a bit more… and realized how stupid and petty he must have sounded then.

It was just, Lloyd had always been his friend, always so interested in him, despite the other people at school. Lloyd always paid attention to him, always gave him things – like those doggy figures, or a messy drawing, and then the necklace but…

He knew in the end he couldn’t keep that. Becoming an angel once ensured it, yet after coming back, he had gotten too greedy. But he couldn’t wish for something like that, not when he was sure Lloyd wasn’t interested. And Collin knew he shouldn’t think that either… but it was hard to not. These were not feelings he could just shut off.

But it would be so much easier if he could.

“Collin, you over here?”

He wiped at his eyes quickly enough, thankful that his tears had been little at the very least. His grandmother had told him, now now, boys shouldn’t cry, you know. And he tried his best, but he had never been like the others and…

“Y-yeah! I’m here, Lloyd! Just wanted some air, hehe.” Even his voice sounded too high pitched, so he cleared his throat to lower it down. “Did.. did you need something?”

Collin had been sitting on a bench, hands placed neatly in his lap. He heard Lloyd seat himself next him, feeling his heat again. Just the hint of his leg pressed against his was enough to make Collin try to swallow his nervousness.

“Um, can I ask you… something else?” Lloyd said, mimicking his nervousness. Collin hated that he was only making Lloyd uncomfortable, that he was making him think he had to run after him. Lloyd always had to do that, ever since they were kids, and he was sure he’d rather do that for someone else that wasn’t…

“Do you know why I gave you that necklace?”

Collin hadn’t expected that question. He turned to Lloyd. “My necklace?”

Lloyd was staring at him, a little closer than he realized. “Yeah.”

He could never explain why looking at Lloyd’s eyes sometimes left him breathless, in ways that maybe a few schoolgirls might have felt, or he felt some must have… Again, the guilt rose in him sharply, but he tried to stem that away to answer Lloyd. “To bring me back. And it worked!” He smiled. “I’m happy it did.”

Lloyd didn’t look unhappy at the answer, but, he didn’t look fully happy either. “Well… yeah, that was one reason I guess. But, well there’s another reason.”

Collin was feeling stumped. He searched through his brain again. “For my birthday?”

Lloyd sighed in aggravation. “Okay, yeah, that too! But… like…” He reached for one of Collin’s hands in his lap, holding it fast in his own. “There’s… a really specific reason I made a necklace for you! Do you not get it?”

Collin blinked, feeling even stupider than before. “I…” His hand trembled in Lloyd’s grip. “I’m not… sure what you mean?”

Lloyd then placed his free hand against his face, groaning more. “Seriously?!”

“I’m sorry! Maybe um… you wanted to test out a new necklace design? For when you make your best one for…” Ah okay, he should be quiet. He could tell, even through Lloyd’s hand that covered his own face, that this wasn’t making him happy at all.

“Collin! Come on already!”

“I… I’m trying!” But he could only come up with more blanks. “I really don’t know…”

Lloyd let his hand fall from his face, closing his eyes. “This isn’t a thing I give to other guys, okay? Or… or girls, like you seem to think or something.”

This didn’t help make things any clearer for Collin. “But… why not? You always make really beautiful things, Lloyd.” Oh, he shouldn’t have said that. Now he definitely sounded weird!

“Gah, why are you… so stupid?!”

Before he could apologize again, Lloyd had moved closer, bringing their clasped hands together to help Collin meet him halfway. His mouth was warm, pressing against his own hard. Collin felt an arm wrap around his back, so tempted to sink into this hold that he hadn’t really dared think about before.

“Ah, I.. Lloy…” But he fell more against Lloyd who seemed determined to kiss away his protesting, his hands strong on him, and feeling so nice overall. It almost made Collin want to cry again, but a boy shouldn’t cry, but then he shouldn’t be doing this with Lloyd either, except…

The mouth finally let him go, but only to pant against his lips, barely an inch away. Collin couldn’t stop looking into Lloyd’s eyes, which encompassed him entirely.

“Oh..” Collin could only breathe, sounding so winded. “Um… sorry, I…”

“Don’t apologize, okay?” Lloyd gave him another kiss, shorter and lighter this time, sending an even sharper thrill through Collin’s chest. “But… you understand me now, right?”

“Yeah…” Collin spoke softly, as if afraid he would wake from this dream too soon, because it had to be a dream. Even so, he was apparently determined to ruin this. “But… wouldn’t you rather…” He stopped, but the meaning was clear. A girl, instead?

Lloyd heard, and he sighed in response. “Collin. I mean… you don’t get why I like you?”

“Um, not… totally,” he answered. He still had so little air in him…

“Because… you’re funny! And you’re kind and strong and you’re cute and… I like that? I just really like you… a lot.” Lloyd smiled then, the kind of smile that always made Collin feel a little weak, that he sometimes thought to himself that such a smile was only for him. It had been a silly thought, at least he had always believed so. But now… “I just want to be with you. When I lost you, I didn’t know what to do. I… I guess I thought it was obvious how I felt, but I forgot people act weird about this kind of thing. I didn’t realize until Zelos started asking me about teams and garbage like that…” Lloyd’s voice turned lower, into a grumble. “And this place… people kept giving looks when I was helping you up off that tree branch.”

“O-oh… yeah, hehe. I’m sorry about that. For the tree branch! And… everything else.” Collin played with Lloyd’s hand in both his own, tempted to trace something there. Maybe that had been strange too, but Lloyd had accepted that so easily.

“Hey,” he heard him say, and raised his head to meet those eyes again. “I should have asked before, just… I needed you to know. I won’t kiss again if you don’t-”

Collin let go of Lloyd’s hand to grip at his jacket, staying close. “I want you to kiss me again. If…” He bit his lip, then looked back to Lloyd. “Please?”

Everything about him had always been less. A boy like him should be more, maybe someone like Lloyd… But Lloyd was Lloyd and he liked having that. And maybe it was okay for Collin to be himself. Lloyd seemed to think so…

With that smile that made his heart shake in his chest, Lloyd leaned in to kiss him again, one hand cupping his cheek, fingers brushing through his short hair. He could stay like this forever, and it was only the weight of the necklace on him that reminded Collin that this was real. He didn’t have to worry about waking up.

#tales of symphonia #colette brunel #lloyd irving #colloyd #fanart #lloyd x colette #genderbend

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darkhymns-fic · 6 years

Text

A Little Too Sweet

Lloyd gets a bit obsessive when making Colette's favorite meals.

Genis never wants to see another piece of strawberry ever again.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters: Lloyd Irving, Colette Brunel, Genis Sage, and the rest Rating: G Mirror Links: AO3 Notes: It was Tales of Symphonia's anniversary on August 29th! (Which I forgot about!) I had nothing for it except this short fic from a while ago that makes no sense. Have fun.

Getting through Latheon Gorge was both frustrating and confusing (especially when the weird wind gusts from the vibrating flowers that dotted the landscape just didn’t seem to work) but after a long trek, the whole party decided to settle down for both rest and sustenance.

Unfortunately, almost (and key word, almost) no one was looking forward to it.

“Hey!” Lloyd shouted from the side of the glade they all sat in, his face beaming. “Just got lunch ready!”

Genis, seated by the grass, gave a deep sigh. “Is it fruit salad agai-”

“It’s fruit salad! Everyone dig in!”

The boy in red had a huge platter held in his hands. It was stacked with rows of neatly cut slices of pineapple, strawberries, apples, lemons and oranges, and was sprinkled with a wide assortment of blackberries here and there, with occasional almonds to add in some more texture to the softness of the meal. Some of the group gave weak smiles, some looked to the ground tiredly, but only one had her eyes lit up at the sight.

“That looks so good, Lloyd!” Colette sat neatly on the ground, just before the dining cloth. “Oh! You even made part of the salad into a cute little doggy face!”

“Heh, yep!” Lloyd set down, admiring his own handiwork in the culinary arts. “That’s what the blackberries were for! To make the nose and eyes!”

“…Is this why you sent me out into the woods to search for those?” Zelos asked incredulously. His clothing looked a little frayed. Even his hair sported the occasional twig. “That took me like two hours!”

“Yeah, but it was important!”

“Lloyd…” Genis started, looking at his bowl that Lloyd was happily dumping some of the fruit into. “Do you think you can like… I don’t know… let me cook next time?”

“I don’t mind making stuff for you guys!” Lloyd proclaimed.

Sheena had to intervene. “Yeah, but, we’ve only had fruit for the past three weeks.”

“Fruit is very healthy for you,” Presea commented. She dumped some kind of sauce onto her bowl that no one really knew what it consisted of.

“And also very sweet!” Colette smiled with happiness after each bite. “Oh! Maybe we can make fruit sandwiches next time?”

Lloyd gave her a thumbs up. “Yeah, no problem!”

“That is not a thing.” Genis glared at both of his friends. “That is not a thing that you make. I don’t care.”

“Presea is right however.” Regal had his bowl very close to his face, courtesy of his shackled hands just making everything difficult for him. “Fruit is healthy. It provides your daily value of fiber.”

“We’ve had plenty of fiber!” Genis tried his best not to shout, but that was the result of being force-fed all assortments of fruits for an extended period of time. “Too much fiber! Sis! Say something!”

Raine was munching pleasantly on her share. “There are lemon wedges. I suppose it’s satisfactory enough.” She gave her little brother a frown. “Even if Lloyd stops making us food, it’s not like I would ever have a chance to experiment with meals of my own, according to everyone’s complaints.”

For Genis, it was either food boredom or actual death. He wasn’t sure what was worse.

“Well, I’m not complaining. My bud is a master at this stuff! And-” Zelos squinted at his bowl, mussing it around with his fork. “Um, no uh, no melons?”

A familiar groan from a familiar ninja. “Of course you miss your damn melons.”

“Oh! I forgot about that, Zelos! Don’t worry. I made you your own dish!”

Zelos was close to having tears in his eyes. To think that his friend would do that for him. The venture out into the woods to collect ingredients for Colette’s doggy portrait was completely forgotten. “Aw, Lloyd!”

“Here you go!” Lloyd plopped the prepared dish in front of Zelos. “Eat up!”

It was fried octopus. A really big one. A really big, fleshy looking, eye bulging octopus.

The dish also had with it some tuna and red snappers to the side, but… the tentacles of the octopus were… touching them…

“Oh, that looks pretty good.” Sheena pointed at the plate, her mouth full. “Got your own seafood platter there.”

Zelos sat there in dejection. “…Yeah.”

Genis saw how it was. He could always see through his best friend, and these past three weeks had made it all the more obvious. But this didn’t mean that Lloyd should subject the others to constant fruity meals just to impress a girl that didn’t even need impressing!

He scuttled close to Lloyd, trying to drag him away from his conversation with Colette with all the force his little arms could muster.

Lloyd turned to him with confusion. “Genis? What is it?”

“Lloyd, you need to stop,” the child stated. “The fruit cocktails were pretty cool at first, until you kept making them four nights in a row. That fruit sculpture was honestly neat, but it took you like half the day to make it and you didn’t even sleep because of it! Also, you can’t make sandwiches, Lloyd. We all know this. Don’t try to make fruit sandwiches. I don’t care what the Wonder Chef told you, he’s completely wrong. Don’t you miss eating beef, Lloyd? Like actual protein? We can’t live off fruit for the rest of this journey!”

Lloyd blinked. He gave a brief glance to Colette, who looked to be in heaven with her meal, then he turned back to Genis. “But I gotta.”

“No. No, you don’t.”

“Colette likes it.”

“She can handle some beef stew once in a while! If this is about making up for not getting her birthday present on time-!”

“Hey, Zelos!” Lloyd shouted suddenly, looking past Genis’ head. “How do you like that dish?”

There was the distant sound of Zelos sobbing.

“Great!”

“Lloyd,” Genis pleaded. “Please listen to reason. I don’t think my digestion can take it anymore. I don’t know how the heck you and Colette can.”

Lloyd looked back down at his own fruit share, already half-eaten. To the side of it, some lemon wedges and apple slices were pushed to the side, looking like someone’s face and long hair. Oh no.

“But I gotta,” Lloyd said, more to himself than to Genis.

Genis put his face in his hands. “I want to die.”

A week later and they were finally back at Altessa’s after some important events happened, but honestly, Genis was past both caring and remembering what they were. He had been pushing through fatigue the entire time, having had no iron intake in the slightest.

Even his sister was looking paler than usual, leaning on her staff as they all stumbled into the house carved into the mountain. “I’m going to take a long nap,” she muttered.

Tabatha greeted them at the door, her robotic motions having long gotten used to by everyone. “Hello. I was. Just making dinner. Roast. Beef. With potatoes. And garnish. Would you like-”

“Please,” Sheena uttered, falling to the floor in a heap. The malnutrition was finally catching up to people. Even Regal and Presea could barely hold their taciturn composures, their eyes lighting up on the thought of actual cooked food on their plates. Zelos was not technically starving, but he was suffering plenty, choking on his octopus-fruit cocktail that Lloyd had insisted on him eating on the way back for some reason.

Of course, Lloyd and Colette were perfectly fine! Just peachy! They were both eating actual peaches at this very moment that Genis was so tempted on burning up with his fire magic. “I’m full now, but thanks Tabatha!” Lloyd told her.

Colette nodded. “Me too! Oh!” She stood up straight after thinking up a… oh no. “Lloyd, do you know how to make peach cobbler?”

“Do I?” Lloyd said to her eagerly. After a moment, he emphasized his answer when she still waited for it. “Yeah, I do.”

“What if we make some for everybody for dessert?”

Lloyd pumped a fist in the air. “That sounds great!”

Usually such a treat would be enough to make any mouth salivate. But all Genis wanted to do was hurl. No more fruit… please…

When Genis failed to convince Lloyd to stop with the meals, he just fell to fate. After everything Lloyd did to save Colette, it made sense that he would try to make up for lost time, to make Colette feel happy, despite the hardships of the journey. When one thought about it, it was rather sweet and romantic. Making her favorite dishes whenever he had the chance to, and as luck would have it, Colette never getting sick of it once! Not! Once!

Genis kinda hated Lloyd a little right now.

Watching his two dearest friends make their way to the kitchen with Tabatha, a dark thought burrowed in his mind.

Once this journey is over, Lloyd, I’ll make some fruit dishes for you all right. It’s your favorite thing now, isn’t it? I’ll sneak in some grape tomatoes for you. Colette likes those, but you’re going to hate it. And you can’t hate it because it’s a fruit. You’ll have to gulp it down for Colette’s sake! Then you’ll be sorry!

But even Genis knew he would never follow through on his revenge plan. In the end, he was just tired. Besides, if he was getting a real meal today, he supposed more fruit in his already fruit-saturated diet wouldn’t be too bad.

He could just send a fireball Lloyd’s way in their next battle anyway. Say it was a mistake. Maybe singe Lloyd’s hair a little. That was good enough revenge for Genis, and he would take it gladly.

#tales of symphonia #lloyd irving #colette brunel #genis sage #tales of #implied colloyd #fanfiction #one shot

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goron-king-darunia · 3 years

Note

Annon-Guy: What do you think the 14 Symphonia would think of Amane Nishiki and Relius Clover? I know the guys would be embarrassed by Amane attempting to scout them sense Amane likes to recruit cute boys or handsome men (Emil, Lloyd, Genis, Zelos, Regal, Kratos, Richter and Decus all fit the bill). Of course, he would find the girls cute too. I do know that they would all despise Relius for only seeing people as objects (only souls mater to him). I think even Alice and Decus would hate Relius.

Lloyd likes to look for the best in people so while he might be embarrassed by Amane, I think he’d mostly just think he’s a “strange guy” without really judging too hard. Relius he might have a problem with because Relius values souls more than people and their lives and that’s similar to how Mithos valued an imagined ideal for equality over the actual quality of people’s lives. Genis would probably dislike both Relius and Amane because neither of them would really be seeing him the way he wants to be seen. Genis has a big complex about being short, to the point where growing 1/4 inch was enough for him to brag to Raine. Amane treating him like a cute new recruit would probably irk him because as much as he might enjoy being cute by dressing up as a Katz with Presea, he doesn’t want to be considered cute just for being young and short. So I’m sure he’d interpret Amane’s interest as him not taking Genis seriously. Relius of course would just see him as a new soul for experiments and Genis is already pretty resentful of getting that sort of stigma for being a half-elf, to the point where he really empathized with Mithos over their shared discrimination, which is why fighting Mithos was so difficult for him. Mithos is what Genis himself would have become without friends like Lloyd to show him that he could be valued as a person without having to LITERALLY change the fabric of reality the way Mithos wanted to. Colette, I think, would probably just consider Amane silly. Colette is the kind of person who, like Lloyd, sees the best in people, and befriends others easily. Even Richter, who attacked her, was considered “a nice person” even though she was willing to help Emil fight him in the end. So Amane would probably just be a quirky potential friend to her unless he did something actively and relentlessly malicious to prove himself an enemy. Relius fits the bill for actively malicious or at least actively misanthropic because everyone is reduced to a potential soul for him to experiment with, so I’m sure Colette would be willing to fight him. That said, Colette’s never actively hateful toward anyone, so while she might be angry at the way Relius thinks and acts, she probably would work with Lloyd and the others toward finding the least harmful way to stop him from hurting others. Raine would 100% be against Relius as a scientist and as someone who doesn’t value the lives of others, he deems test subjects. Like Genis, Raine is aware of what it’s like to be seen as just a guinea pig. So while she might respect his work ethic and dedication, she would 100% be against the inhumane things he does in the name of “science.” I’m not sure what Raine would think of Amane, but it’s possible she’d see him as an interesting case study and would be interested in learning more about him. Sheena might be put off by Amane at first since his flamboyant nature might remind her of Zelos, but since Amane seems more interested in beauty and especially male beauty she might be a little less put off? Sheena would absolutely be down to kick Relius’s ass. Unlike Lloyd and Colette, she would probably actively hate him and unlike Raine and Genis, it wouldn’t be for any personal reason. She and Zelos have a shared hatred for self-righteous people that think they can just do what they want and toy with the lives of others. Zelos would probably get along with Amane if Amane didn’t gush over him. XD Then again, Amane gushing over him might feed his ego. Depends on if Zelos is homophobic or not. I’m going to say no because I can’t recall Zelos ever being uncomfortable with anyone commenting on his looks, male or female, and I think if he’d be more likely to just be like “Glad you think I’m hot shit, but I’m just here for the hunnies~” Then again, since Amane is pretty effeminate, Zelos might accidentally hit on him. Again, not to beat a dead horse, but it would definitely be an exception if anyone DIDN’T hate Relius. So suffice to say that Zelos is not going to vibe with Relius treating people like cattle. Presea is more of the same with Relius. Unlike people like Mithos or Richter, whose pain she could probably understand (despite being the least expressive, she seems to be one of the most empathetic characters in the Symphonia crew) Relius seems mostly to be doing what he does because he CAN. Mithos did what he did for his sister and for equality for half-elves. Richter did what he did for Aster and to try to save the world from what he thought was a real threat (Ratatosk DID threaten genocide.) Relius is willing to throw his own family away in pursuit of his ultimate goal: his research. So while Presea might feel pity or sympathy for another adversary, she would probably fight Relius with no hesitation. I think Presea, as a craftsman, would vibe on some level with Amane, though Presea seems single-minded in what she considers aesthetic: animal cuteness. So I’m sure they could have debates about art but Presea probably doesn’t have much interest or experience with dance and doesn’t have a particular interest in human beauty because people don’t have pawpads that she can squish. Regal, as a noble, and a bit of a renaissance man, could probably understand the pursuit of beauty, aesthetics, and performance that Amane is interested in. Regal might even be flattered at being scouted. But Regal is pretty modest, all things considered, so I feel like he would decline an invitation to be in Amane’s troupe because it doesn’t really work well with his ultimate desires to help his friends and make up for having to kill Alicia. Again, probably a no-brainer that Regal wouldn’t like Relius, though he would definitely have an extra layer there of Relius turning his wife and children into tools to fight with. Regal had to kill Alicia to spare her the fate of being a monster and spare others from being hurt by her and it’s painful for him. So for Regal, it would be unthinkable to actually HAVE THE CHANCE to be with someone who cares about you, to have children that love you, and then just throw that away for power. Regal literally GAVE UP one of his greatest strengths, his powerful punches, to avoid hurting anyone ever again and to repent for hurting Alicia. So Regal would probably be disgusted with valuing power over people. Kratos would probably pity Relius. Having followed Mithos for as long as he did and after being shown the light by Lloyd, he’d probably know better than anyone that a single-minded pursuit of any goal, even a noble goal, can lead to terrible outcomes. And for that goal to just be the furtherance of science rather than any good that science could do for humanity would be enough for Kratos to be against him. Kratos would probably think Amane is strange, but kind of in a grandpa kind of “kids these days” way like “Lloyd? Lloyd is it trendy for guys to dress and act like this now? First Zelos and now this guy? Times are changing faster and faster. Wow.” I don’t think he’d necessarily mind being “scouted” but he’d be confused. He probably doesn’t see himself as an exceptional example of beauty, and it doesn’t really mesh with any of his goals. Emil is very shy and reserved and self-deprecating so he would be flattered by being scouted but would 100% think he doesn’t deserve it and would fall over himself trying to explain that he’s not a performer and he doesn’t know how to dance. Same story, different character, Emil would probably hate Relius, mostly for his shamelessness in hurting so many people and feeling no remorse. Emil found out the other version of him, Ratatosk, killed ONE person and was willing to throw himself on the swords of his friends to try to make up for that, Emil can’t IMAGINE what would have to happen to make a person just willingly use and hurt so many people and just NOT be bothered by it. He HATED Lloyd for the longest time because he thought Lloyd was like that and caused the massacre at Palma Costa and then just DIDN’T CARE about it. Post-game Emil would probably be softer on Relius because his friends saw a path to redemption for Emil that didn’t involve a death gambit, and even Richter who he’d hurt most saw fit to give him a second chance. So while Emil would absolutely want to take Relius down, I think he’d be with Lloyd and Colette in the “reform Relius if possible” team and not the “Beat sense into him by any means necessary” team that, say, Sheena and Zelos might fall into. Marta would definitely gush with Amane over how cute Emil is but every time Amane wanted to talk about anyone else Marta would get mad and just be like “No, this is gush about Emil time, I don’t care about Zelos.” I think Marta would also love to incorporate the whole “beauty of dance and fighting as a type of dance” into her own fighting style. Dead horse whipping hours again: Marta would be with everyone else trying to stop Relius but would also probably be “team soft punishment” like Emil and Lloyd and Colette because killing Alice in self-defense (or in defense of Emil) hurt her enough and I think she’d want to avoid having to kill anyone again. Richter would fall probably more on the side of pity and disgust with Relius for disgracing science, but I’m unsure if he’d also hate Relius for representing the sorts of people at Sybak that saw him and his kind as disposable labor (like how Relius turned his wife into a machine to fight) or as test subjects. I’m leaning toward yes, he’d hate Relius and would kill him if necessary, but Emil and Aster both impressed a sense of forgiveness on him, so I’m not sure if he would follow through with it or regret it if he did kill Relius. I think Richter would be a bit of a tsundere if Amane tried to scout him because when Aster echoed Aqua’s assertion that he was handsome in the manga, he got flustered and yelled at Aster to shut up. It’s unclear whether he’d be more uncomfortable with the fact that the praise is coming from Amane or whether it’s because he’s receiving praise at all, since the few times Emil praised him he seemed to be flustered by it. Richter’s also not big on dance so I don’t think he’d be very interested in being in a troupe with Amane. Alice would vibe with Relius’s pursuit of power by any means but would probably be disgusted just from the fact that she’s kind of jealous. Part of the reason Alice is so power-hungry is that she sees the world as a dog-eat-dog world, where the strong subjugate the weak. She doesn’t ever want to feel powerless again, so while she would admire Relius seeing what he wants and taking it, it’d be sort of the way a jealous prince would admire a king. If Alice had the power to crush him, though, she absolutely would. Because under all the layers of “I have to be strong so no one can ever hurt me” I’m pretty sure a small part of her recognizes that Relius is abusing his power and is pretty vile. Alice I think would vibe with Amane with the whole “Fight well and look cute doing it” aesthetic but would be pretty neutral with him otherwise. Decus would be flattered by Amane scouting him and might even join up with him if Alice would come along (and she probably wouldn’t unless it was Amane joining THEM instead. She only worked with Richter because Richter promised her more power because he had a contract with demons.) If he can’t be with Alice he’d probably just say “Love the offer but my one true purpose is to devote myself to Alice. Don’t blame you though! I do my best to be as attractive as I can be for Alice!” Decus would be willing to kick Relius’s ass for Alice but ONLY for Alice. Though if we remove Alice from the picture, I can see Decus having an issue with him because as much as Alice claims to only want power for power’s sake, she protected him. So he knows there’s goodness and love in her. With Relius, he probably would have no reason to believe there’s any goodness in him.

#BBTAG #Letters from Annon Guy #Relius Clover #Amane Nishiki #Anonymous

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goron-king-darunia · 4 years

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Tagged (by vague gesture of “if you wanna do it, TAG!”) by @biophilie like, 2 years ago, so I’m finally doing it. Rules: Choose any three fandoms and answer the questions, then tag 10 people you want to know better.

My Three Fandoms: Legend of Zelda, Tales of Symphonia DotNW, and One Piece since those 3 have taken up big chunks of my attention over the years. Would do Darkwood since it’s a current interest but since there are so few characters, it would make the meme here harder so... Darkwood will have to wait.

The first character you loved: LoZ: I was a slut for Link as a kid, TBF I liked most protagonists, but I liked Link a LOT. DotNW: I actually liked Ratatosk a lot at first because he was cool and mysterious and tough! My first impulse was really liking Richter’s design but the first character I loved/really liked based on gameplay and actual characterization was Ratatosk. One Piece: I really liked Red Haired Shanks and was sad when he didn’t really show up again for a LONG time.

The character you never expected to love so much: Loz: There’s a few so I’m gonna cheat a bit. In OoT and MM, Ruto and Skull Kid were just kind of characters that existed but I didn’t like much. Didn’t actively dislike them but didn’t really bother taking an interest in them. But I like them a lot more now, especially with how they’re characterized in “non-canon” material like the Manga and Hyrule Warriors. The only other character I can recall from the game series that I was surprised that I liked was Peatrice from Skyward Sword. At first it was just like “Oh, yeah, she’s just the girl who stores your items, whatever. She’s neat I guess.” But then she started changing. She got more cheerful when Link came around more and showed an interest in him and when she asked if he liked her I just couldn’t say no! And then she just became so obnoxiously bubbly and happy about it and I LOVED THAT SO MUCH. Unironically I ship Peatrice and SS Link because, like, Link and Zelda are great friends but they don’t interact much since Link has to try to save her and Zelda has goddess things to worry about. Peatrice is just always there and unlike Zelda who already has a good rapport with Link at the start of the game, you get to SEE Peatrice warming up to him and I am SO soft for that! SO SOFT! Actually, one more also from SS. Groose. He’s an obnoxious, selfish, gloating bastard man, but by the end of the game with all the changes he went through, he totally grew on me as a cool dude. Especially with how he and Impa got along. DotNW: Slight cheat here too since the character didn’t debut in the game but... Colette. I honestly didn’t like her that much in Symphonia. I just kind of viewed her as an object that motivated Lloyd for a while and the impetus for everything happening in the game and it wasn’t until the end of Symphonia that I really started thinking of her as more than just a ditz that Lloyd happens to like. I’m not really sure when it happened but I started really appreciating her after DotNW, and not really because of anything she did. I guess I just eventually noticed a lot of her finer points and all the ways she contributed and how her kindness is actually super refreshing and hopeful and how soft that is considering what she’d gone through. See also my next point on Nami because hooo boy I was kind of a shitlord kid and needed to get through some things... One Piece: Nami. I HAAAATED her when I was young. Partially because of internalized sexism (probably shit I learned from sexist media, my dad, and just the lack of trust I had for any girl that wasn’t my friend because of massive bullying as a kid, but I digress.) and partially because one of the biggest parts of Nami’s arc early on was her utter betrayal of the crew. Like, we find out WHY later, and obviously I TOTALLY get where she was coming from now and all but as a kid that was just UNCALLED FOR. I also HEAVILY viewed her as the “no fun allowed” type that was actively impeding my new fave, Luffy, from having all the fun he could want because that shit costs money and the money is HERS. As a broke Millenial, I now 10000000% get where Nami is coming from and her financial responsibility is honestly hella impressive because she absolutely DOES NOT withhold the treasure from the rest of the crew, she fucking BUDGETS it. In general, I tended to dislike a lot of leading females for being catty or killjoys or a lot of other things when honestly, they were just being completely normal humans. Glad I grew out of that shit because while Nami still isn’t my fave, she’s fucking amazing.

The character you relate to the most: Loz: It’s changed over the years. I relate to Ruto a lot more now because yo, I would also just fuck off into the gut of my people’s patron Deity if my dad was being a pain and trying to marry me off (okay, so this is Manga exclusive, sue me) and 10/10 would give a precious family heirloom to a cute boy that rescued me. But more than that, IDK, she’s just... a lil’ spoiled but in a cute way, a lil’ tomboyish, but overall, for a Princess, she’s just kind of doing her thing, she’s responsible when it matters. But for OoT, y’all KNOW Darunia is my patronus because DAYUM. Chunky but strong (I’m a wuss but shut up), Grumpy butt but cares about his people, actually totes a fun dude when he’s not stressed about a food crisis, says “fuck you” directly to a fucking evil asshole despite the consequences, treats a fucking 11 year old kid like a full human being (I do not agree with leveraging a kid to fucking fight a dragon but... Link could handle it so...) names his own kid after Link because why the fuck not, befriends anyone that does him a favor and treats them like family. Dude’s just got chill old man vibes and I dig that shit. 10/10 relate to just being a fat dude that is grumpy but also wants to befriend everyone. HOWEVER, I think my top tier relatable character is Midna from Twilight Princess because that bitch is just me. Cursed to be a hot bitch trapped in a cute chunky body (I am working on myself. XD) 10/10 spoiled and bitchy as fuck, cheeky lil’ asshole who’s actually very sweet, think’s Link is dumb but also cute, cares about her world but ALSO cares about Link’s world, a lil’ selfish but also HELLA selfless because she cared more about Link and Zelda than her own life and cared more about her people than her own safety because she just fucking WENT TO FIX THAT SHIT when Zant started causing trouble, even though she didn’t have to. She’s everything I am or aspire to be. 10/10 one of the best Zelda characters. DotNW: Hard to say. I identify a lot with aspects of Richter, Aster, and Emil. I don’t have a lot of self confidence and am a bit of a shy bean, lil’ grumpy, but also a complete goober and an idealist, 10/10 would walk into hell for someone I love without thinking twice and would make deals with demons to try to save someone I care about because I am a dumbass. I love the DotNW boys because the DotNW boys are me. One Piece: Chopper. I just really fucking vibe with the whole “nobody likes me EXCEPT HOLY SHIT SOME PEOPLE SOMEHOW LIKE ME, WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO DESERVE THAT?” thing he has going on, as well as the whole glutton for praise but telling people to shut up when they praise me thing he has. I for real wanted to be a doctor when I was younger BECAUSE of Chopper. I’m just a weird little bean that doesn’t fit in anywhere very well while also being a slut for praise and wanting to take care of others and help them because other people have cared for me. Low key also vibe with Usopp because dude absolutely gels with kids, is a huge fucking wuss but deals with it anyway, will literally fight someone over petty shit and then come back and fight side by side with his bud’s again.

The character you’d slap: LoZ: Mmmmm. Hard to say. Like, obvs the villains but IDK who else I’d really want to slap? Does it count if I want to slap Anjuu/the Cucco Lady but, like... gentle and on the butt and in a sexy way? IDK, man. I’d feel bad but maybe Slap Mido? He looks like a kid so I’d feel REALLY bad for it, but aren’t Kokiri literally just kids forever? Asshole could be 100 years old, man... Either way he’s kinda a brat. 10/10 would slap early-game Groose from Skyward Sword also, but I’d feel bad about it because he ends up being a decen guy later. Also would slap Ghirahim for being both sexy and evil. DotNW: Alice for deciding that “never being weak again” means treating everyone else like garbage, even though I 1000% get where she’s coming from. Richter for being a fucking dumbass and not asking for help and deciding that demons were a good option and manipulating a child older dude with a magic core was a great idea even though I would do the exact same thing in his shoes. Ratatosk for being a murderous prick and starting the whole thing even though I absolutely understand where he’s coming from and I would also probably accidentally smite someone if I was a fucking spirit and in a shit mood because the only thing I really cared about was fucking ripped away from me. Honestly, mostly just me slapping people that remind me of me for doing exactly what I would do. Sensible me slapping actual me because actual me is a fucking dumbass emotional bitch with violent tendencies. One Piece: The fucking villains, obviously, Dr. Hililuck/Hiriluck for being a fucking bastard in the manga, holy shit was he an asshole! And also FUCKING SANJI. Jesus fuck, I am not over the pervy shit he does, what a creep.

Three favourite characters (in order of preference): LoZ: This is gonna be REAL hard because I love a lot of characters so... Midna, Link, and Darunia? It’s hard man. I love a lot of characters SO MUCH and it’s really hard to pick faves! DotNW: Richter, Emil, Aster. Emil and Aster share the same level of favoritism, but Richter is my number one. One Piece: Chopper, Zoro, Luffy. I used to like Luffy way more than I do now, but he’s still a fucking dork and I still like him tons.

A character you liked at first but don’t anymore: LoZ: I can’t really think of any, but I guess the character I waffle on a bit is Malon. Sometimes she’s like “Heck yeah! FAVE!” and sometimes I’m like “Eh, she exists...” IDK, I really like most of the characters. DotNW: I used to like Zelos a lot, but not anymore. Yeah this is kinda cheating since he ALSO didn’t debut in DotNW, but he’s in it so... TBF I like him in DotNW BETTER than in the first Symphonia, but not as much as I used to like him overall. One Piece: Fucking Sanji. I used to like him before the creepy factor set in. What really hit home for me was the Thriller Bark arc where he outright says he wanted the power of invisibility to creep on girls. Fucking nasty. The womanizing thing was just a quirk before that. I don’t think I’m ever gonna be over it. So gross and creepy now knowing he actively thought about creeping on girls using a special power. I know guys say this is a common thing and just how dudes are but no. That’s fucking sick. It’s one thing to say “yeah, I want to oggle women because tiddies are sexy” or whatever. It’s another thing to say “I WANT TO SPY ON WOMEN WITHOUT THEM KNOWING SO I CAN SEE TIDDY.” and it’s a third thing to say that IN A WORLD WHERE IT IS PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE TO BE INVISIBLE that you WOULD USE THAT POWER TO STARE AT WOMEN WITHOUT THEM KNOWING.

Three otps: LoZ: Link and basically everyone, but let’s narrow that. Link and Zelda is a classic, Link and Ruto is a guilty pleasure, Link and Peatrice is the underdog ship that I dig a lot. DotNW: Every combo of Richter, Emil, and Aster, enough said. One Piece: Luffy and food because he’s Ace, just let him fucking eat. Zoro and whoever he ends up liking. Tashigi maybe. Chopper and Milky.

Tagging: Anyone that wants to do it~

#ask meme #fandom meme #about me #kinda

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darkhymns-fic · 7 years

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Burying Our Troubles

It wasn't friendship at first for them. But all it takes is a helping hand.

Fandom: Tales of Symphonia Characters/Pairing: Sheena Fujibayashi/Raine Sage Rating: T+ Mirror Links: AO3, FF.net Notes: Written for Tales of Femslash Week 2017, Day 7: Free-for-all. I tried my best...

“That gash across your arm needs to be treated.”

“I got it.”

“It could get infected.”

“I know how to treat my own wounds.”

Sheena grumbled as she wound bandages across her forearm, pulling at one end with her teeth. She ignored Raine’s disapproving frown, the soft tsk she made between her lips. It angered Sheena more than she would admit. The bug monster had lunged to her right with its quick mandibles, so her reaction time had been somewhat mishandled.

“Raine is an exceptional healer. It would be prudent to make use of her skills.” Kratos was just by her shoulder, his face as impassive as the day she had assaulted their group. Though they traveled down to the ranch together, Sheena still felt out of place in this party. It was amazing that she felt more comfortable around her target, and the two younger boys with her.

Unfortunately, they were a ways off, already rushing ahead after Raine assured them she would care for Sheena’s wounds.

Like she’d trust someone with such devious eyes.

“It’ll heal well enough. I have my own medicines.” She gestured to her small pack strapped to her side, where small bottles of salves from Mizuho were contained in.

Raine had a concerning expression. “Holistic medicine?”

She had no idea what she meant by that. “Just homemade medicine from my village.”

“…I suppose I shouldn’t expect the healing artes to be too common, given the circumstances.”

Sheena had to re-assess Raine’s comment in her head several times, turning it over like an alien instrument.

Did she just insult her?

Kratos interrupted her thoughts. “Do you need me to administer first aid?”

“I said I have it handled!” Sheena didn’t mean to raise her voice that loud. With a clamping of her lips, she marched down the path, hoping to catch up to Colette and the rest.

Raine’s frown didn’t leave her head.

It’s hard to hold a grudge forever, especially when it was inconvenient.

Not like Raine’s heals only focused on her obviously. Of course not. Lloyd’s form would have a green aura every ten seconds when knocked down by a particularly aggressive bear, and Sheena wasn’t far behind in the number of scrapes she’d get after every fight. She stopped flinching whenever she felt Raine’s magic wash over her. It was like getting used to an overlarge blanket tightly fitting around her, when at first all she wanted was to kick it away.

And then she started fighting the summon spirits.

After the battle with Undine, Sheena had to keep herself from wincing once they made camp for the night. As the campfire crackled in the evening, accompanied by the soft snorings of the group, she checked underneath her clothes to find a dark bruise blossoming over her right side. She wasn’t sure just how she had gotten that exactly. Shouldn’t it have been healed away by now?

Some healer.

“Something wrong?”

Sheena jumped slightly. Being seated, she only moved to a crouching position, and nearly unbalanced herself as she did so. Her side protested the motion, so she could only place one hand on the ground, looking up awkwardly at a standing Raine.

There was that frown.

“For an assassin, your reflexives are a bit… lacking.”

What a devious-!

“You are clearly hurt, however. Why did you not tell me sooner?”

Sheena moved herself back to a comfortable position, turning away from the elf. “Thought it would be out of your skill set.”

Only silence at first. She was mildly glad that she could render the Professor speechless. Usually her wit wasn’t that quick.

“Well, that is why we searched out for the summon spirit, so that we can retrieve the Unicorn Horn.”

Right. Sheena hadn’t forgotten she still needed to help that man.

“Let me see it.”

“What?”

A sigh. “Don’t be difficult. Let me see your wound so I can heal it better. I only administered first aid on you, so you might need more mana concentrated in a particular area.”

Raine was already kneeling next to her, her face impassive and having little patience. Sheena bit her bottom lip. She didn’t want to admit she found the woman slightly intimidating.

“Fine, here.” She lifted up one end of her gi, revealing only a bit of her stomach. The binding that covered her lower torso didn’t allow for her to lift much. Half of the bruise was still covered.

Of course, Raine wasn’t satisfied. “This won’t do. You’ll need to remove some of your clothes and lay down.”

Sheena wasn’t sure why she felt a little panicked at that suggestion. “W-what for? Just cast your spell and get it over with!”

“From what I see from that bruise, a general spell won’t cut it. I have to ensure none of your organs are damaged.” A line appeared in Raine’s forehead. “Also, keep your voice down if you want no one looking this way.”

Sheena’s anger quickly swayed to embarrassment. She turned her head. Only Kratos was up, as always, the strange dog laying by his side. His gaze was watching the road. Everyone else stayed asleep.

Raine’s hand gripped her shoulder. “Now hurry up. Or do I have to force you?”

Why was she treating her like a child? She wasn’t that much older! “F-fine!” She gulped, fingers slipping up on the tight knot she bound around her stomach. She could feel Raine’s judging eyes on her, and had to restrain a sigh of relief when she finally got the tie unraveled.

Shivering and still leaving the upper part of her gi around her shoulders, she laid her now mostly bare back on the ground. She reflexively brought a hand up to her chest, covered only by her brassiere.

Raine methodically took Sheena’s wrist and placed it on the cold ground. “You act as if I don’t know what a woman’s body looks like.”

“That’s not the reason!”

“Again, keep your voice down.”

Sheena’s anger tipped to a point she didn’t think possible. But she kept her mouth shut as Raine’s hands prodded her stomach. A thoughtful hum there, another disappointing tsk here, and all the while Sheena felt like she would catch a cold from the night air.

Oh, she was sure Raine could cure that, too.

Finally, she felt the magic taking place, and the ache in her side noticeably dimmed. She clenched and unclenched her fists, eyes staring straight up at the moon named after her world. She tried to ignore Raine’s form at the edge of her vision.

“You’re lucky. It was most likely caused from that water stream attack from earlier. You were very close to getting a rib fracture. Any more pressure, and it could have broken and punctured a lung.”

Sheena blinked at the woman’s explanations, mildly fascinated at the path she took to reach her conclusion. “But… it was just water! Sure, it hurt, but water doesn’t actually damage you!”

Raine looked at her in pity. “Water can be just as heavy as stone when there’s a lot of it, and when it’s propelled at you at fast speeds.” A pause. “Also, we were fighting a summon spirit of water. Surely you know they could make their elements rather deadly if they desired to.”

Sheena turned away with a pout. She had the feeling she had just been scolded.

Raine patted at her own knees in finality. “Well, you should be fine, now. Next time, don’t hide your injuries if you want to live through this journey.”

She got up, making her way to her spot near her sleeping little brother. Sheena sat up, pulling the gi over her chest.

“You were willing to let me die the first time.” She stared at Raine’s back. “Why all the concern now?”

The campfire highlighted Raine’s body, a tinge of orange outlined her, coloring her silver hair. “Only because the children asked me to at the time.”

“But why now? You were just saying how I was hiding it. Could have left me to suffer on my own. Then I’d be out of your hair like you’d want me to, right?”

The fire made it hard to see Raine’s face. Sheena shifted forward.

“Why do you have to act like you care? At least be honest! I hate two-faced liars like you! Just-”

“Go to sleep.”

Raine walked away, not even staying to hear the rest of what Sheena had to say.

With trembling lips, the failed assassin fumed for the rest of the night.

It was back at the inn in Palmacosta that Raine would finally speak to her alone again.

“If you would like, I could teach you.”

Sheena did more than jump this time. She somersaulted in the air, nearly hitting the ceiling fan of her room, and pulling out her seals. “How the hell do you keep sneaking up on me?”

Raine, arms crossed, noted her battle stance. “Well, at least you were quicker on your feet. I suppose it’s safe to say that you’re in good health?”

“Why are you in my room?”

“Colette and I decided to switch for tonight. At my suggestion.”

That conjured nothing but suspicion for Sheena. “Your… suggestion…”

“Given that you’re her assassin, I think it only makes sense to do so. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Oh. Well. That did make sense, she supposed.

“I already said that I was on your guys’ side for now.”

“For now,” Raine emphasized and sat down on her bed.

Sheena was tired, but didn’t want to sit on her own bed, as if she was copying Raine. So instead she remained standing, fiddling with her cards, pretending to organize them. Her mind kept nagging at her, and she couldn’t help but look over as Raine gathered her satchel to pore over her gathered relics again.

“What did you mean that you could teach me? Teach me what?”

The professor raised an eyebrow. A stone tablet gathered from the Balacruf Mausoleum slowly went back into her pack. Sheena recognized that one. It was apparently a scribe’s account of a certain famine or other, which Raine wouldn’t stop blabbering about in one of her moods again.

“Teach you to heal.” Raine nodded. “So that you can treat your wounds yourself.”

“Myself?” Sheena frowned. “I already have my medicines.”

“Yes, your snake oil. But what I offer to teach you would be more practical.”

“Snake oil?! You wicked-!” She stopped. “Only elves, or half-elves even, can use magic. Why would you think you could teach me?”

“Because you are a summoner,” Raine said, as if that was answer enough.

It wasn’t.

Raine sighed. “Must I explain? Summoning is a long-forgotten arte – an elven arte. Though you may not have any discerning elven features, I think it’s safe to say that you have some elven blood in you from a distant ancestor.”

“Oh.” Sheena rubbed her arm. “Well, yeah, I knew that. Does this mean Kratos has some elven ancestor, too?”

“Perhaps, but that’s not important,” Raine immediately brushed aside. “I’m saying that with your heritage, it is possible to teach you some healing. If you would like. Then you would never need to be bothered by me again.”

“I mean… I also use my life seals to heal myself anyway.”

“Again, I’m talking about using something more practical.”

Oh, come on! “You really have a way of talking down to people, you know that?”

Still, it didn’t sound too bad. Corrine was currently scouting around the city, and Sheena could barely sleep as it is. Might as well learn a thing or two before she called it a night?

“Why do you want to help me with this?”

Raine shrugged. “Think of it as research for me. To see if it is possible to teach someone First Aid that has the genetic disposition to do so, but is a bit cognitively disadvantaged.”

Sheena stomped her foot. “Is this about the water thing!?”

“No, I just remember your test scores from back at the academy.”

“…Oh.”

“Besides, it’s simple to learn.” Raine moved closer to Sheena, took both of her hands within her own.

Sheena was surprised to feel the softness of the Professor’s fingertips. They hadn’t felt like that when she had prodded her side that other night. She stood there dumbly, self-conscious all the sudden of her own calluses that must have felt as tough as leather.

Then suddenly, a sting. Sheena flinched. “Ow!”

Raine rubbed at a sharp fingernail. “Now, try healing that.”

“You could’ve given me a warning beforehand!”

“Oh, now stop it. It’s just a little cut.” Raine held the uninjured hand of Sheena, hovering it over the palm where what looked like a papercut trailed across the surface. She had even undone the coverings that usually wrapped around Sheena’s palms without her noticing. “Now concentrate, and heal the affected area.”

Sheena felt herself shiver. The dull throbbing in her palm kept distracting her from Raine’s closeness – and she found it to be a bit intrusive. “That’s it? No incantation or anything?”

“Only for complex spells. But this, an elf child could do.” Raine motioned Sheena’s hands in her own, making her press her own fingertip against the cut. Slight pain, but only that. “Focus the mana into that area, and will it to be whole.”

“…Am I just wishing for it to go away then?”

A sigh. One that she felt against her ear, ruffling her dark hair. “If that makes it easier for you to understand, I suppose you can see it that way.”

Not that Sheena didn’t believe in the power of wishes. She’d send off wish tags into the rivers every once in a while; wishes to be stronger, to not let her few friends down, to help her get the Chief to come back.

Sheena turned away from Raine’s thoughtful face, from pursed lips painted in soft gloss. She… hadn’t thought the Professor to wear make-up, and felt foolish for not immediately noticing. She focused back on their joined hands. The cut wasn’t bleeding, just a scratch on the surface.

“There’s…not much mana to gather,” Sheena admitted, waiting for a reprimand.

Raine nodded. “I know. That’s the state of the world we’re in.”

Sheena paused, her heart beating frantically.

“But if you focus on your current environment well enough, you can find the resources you need.”

Raine stepped nearer to her, pressing against Sheena’s arm. It was hard then to ignore her form, despite her loose-fitting robes.

Sheena suddenly felt an urge to escape. “Uh-”

“Now, search for your resources.” Raine tightened her hold over Sheena’s hands slightly. “Wherever you may find them.”

It was a hint.

Sheena curled her fingers around Raine’s, still keeping her forefinger over her cut. A soft aura of green, like wild grass and curling vines, engulfed both their hands.

Her palm was healed, not even a scar left behind.

Sheena then realized what she did. “I took your mana.” She clenched her fist. “I- I’m sorry.”

Raine moved back, but not by much. She still kept one hand on top of Sheena’s. “No, I simply offered it to you.”

Sheena went through a thousand answers as to why, but could find none. Her throat struggled. “Wha- But… isn’t that dangerous?”

“My mana will replenish by morning. It’s not equivalent to my actual life force, not when it’s so little of it at least.”

A slender finger tapped against Sheena’s knuckles, considering.

“No cost is too great for helping someone learn,” she continued.

Sheena considered as well. “Even when it’s an enemy you’re teaching?”

There was something in Raine’s eyes then. A glint of something mischievous, or devious. “Then you can think of this as satisfying a curiosity I had in mind.”

She didn’t believe her. She scoffed, decided to invade Raine’s own personal space. See how she liked it. “So that’s it? Just research purposes? How can you be that heartless?”

She didn’t expect much of a reaction out of Raine. Just another disapproving a frown, a mocking jab at her abilities maybe, then going off to bed. It was the same soft hands that left her hand to touch her cheek that caught her off guard.

Raine was expecting something. And Sheena panicked again. She leaned forward and kissed her before the other could say anything.

Her lips were very soft, and the sensation sent a jolt through Sheena that nearly made her knees buckle. It was weak and embarrassing of her, so she continued, opening her mouth slightly, and finding Raine responding in kind.

After a moment, hands placed against her chest, gently pushing her back.

Despite a soft flush of red, not much of Raine’s expression changed. “I wasn’t anticipating you to be this forward.”

Those were not the words Sheena expected. Suddenly, she felt all too much aware of what she had done. Her own face was very hot, and the first signs of sweat made her hair stick to her forehead.

“Wh-what were you anticipating then, huh?!”

Raine placed a thumb and forefinger over her chin, eyes off to the side as she thought about her answer so obviously. “I am not sure.” Eyes swiveled back to the frantic girl. “But I appreciate the surprise.”

Sheena wasn’t sure how to make sense of the situation now. And that had been her first kiss, too. “Whatever. I, I know that was stupid.”

“No. Impulsive, maybe. But I wouldn’t say it was the wrong choice.”

Fiddling with her fingers, Sheena wished she had just gone to sleep earlier tonight. “So, what now then?”

At that, Raine smiled. She took hold of Sheena’s shaking hands, a soft caress enough to still them. “Wherever this takes us. I will say you have been very fascinating as of late.”

There was that tone in her voice. It reminded Sheena of a voice that was used to keeping secrets. “So, there was more than one reason you wanted to switch with Colette tonight?”

“I thought it would be a nice opportunity to know each other.”

While she could not help but like the invitation, that was one thing she could not betray just yet.

Sheena shook her head. “Sorry, but I don’t think you’ll get much from me.”

Raine shrugged. “Fair enough.” Her eyes examined Sheena, and just the simple action of it heightened the ninja’s nerves, making her hold tighter onto Raine’s hands. “Still, that doesn’t stop me being curious.”

She was looking all over her with more than an intriguing eye. “What do you mean?”

“Nothing much, just your clothes…”

One of Raine’s hands had left Sheena’s to trace fingers over the material, over purple and pink fabric, over the red string that bound around Sheena’s waist.

“They’re very familiar.”

Sheena couldn’t take it anymore. “Are you trying to tease me?”

And for once, Raine looked completely out of her element. An answer she hadn’t at all expected. “No. Of course not.”

“Then be careful of what you’re trying to say to me and just say it.”

Why are you even interested in me? Are you suddenly in love with me or what? Just say it, just say it.

But she didn’t wait for Raine to say it. She moved to kiss her again, for she had already done it once, so why not another? She pressed into her, and those same hands gripped at her clothes, memorizing the stitches in her gi, the shape of her bow tied behind her back. Raine could continue examining her clothes, and everything else if she so wanted to, but Sheena didn’t want to keep drawing this out.

Sheena’s kisses were unexperienced, but she tried a closeness and a deepness she could barely follow through on. Still, Raine was patient, and gentle, keeping her close and responding well to her with a soft sound or two.

In the back of her mind, she hoped Raine had remembered to lock their door earlier.

#tales of symphonia #raine sage #sheena fujibayashi #talesfemslashweek2017 #tos #fanfiction #one shot

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