#and azura holds the family together she's like just the right note to make a harmonic chord with the group

[didsomeonesayventus]

on one hand I should probably branch out and not pair azura up with jakob for my nth playthru of fates rev on the other I simply cannot resist slightly messy but ride or die shigure + dwyer sibling bond

#katie rambles #look im just a sucker for their dynamic as siblings #at least in how i envision it which is pretty much older dwyer jealous + annoyed with shigure at first because he's so amazing + loved #in a way he is not (which makes him understandably mad) #but also loving him anyways even if he struggles to be nice about it because shigure's been thru shit he hasn't #and like hell is he going to be an asshole like his father over something he can't help #so he's a bit blunt and gruff but also he's the first one to sit down and check in on his little bro after a fight #and azura holds the family together she's like just the right note to make a harmonic chord with the group #(jakob/azura isn't really azura's best ship but sometimes it makes me a little soft) #(sometimes I think about jakob ready to throw knives at anyone who dares to slander his wife and coaching azura on taking less shit) #(because its what she deserves she deserves dignity and happiness) #but yeah like idk I think they make a really fun contrast you don't really get with shigure's other potential siblings #something messy and slightly strained until they understand each other like introducing a new kitten to ur grumpy cat #and then like a few weeks later catch them snuggled up together and the grumpy cat is hissing at anyone who tries to touch babey #'katie this is a lot to put in the tags are u good' im still emotionally compromised over a like c-tier pairing from a 6 year old game #you think im good

[blythefm]

I BET ON LOSING DOGS

when: some time after snow’s party / one year and three months after the 65th games where: district 7 triggers: alcohol, death, suicide mention, eye horror (?) mentions: @virgobydcsign , azura wildhill, @dawnhardn ,  @twigelphineson

                                                                          i broke what you gave me                                                       but you kept giving me more

There is a brown package waiting for you on your kitchen table when you return from the Capitol. You get your hopes up, quickly dashing towards it and ripping it open. With everything that happened in such a short period of time, you believe this has to be a sign from someone behind the rebellion. But, your eyes spot the name neatly written on front and you let it fall onto the table before you’re done unwrapping it fully. 

Trembling hands (you don’t know if you’re shaking out of fear or anger) reach for one of the bottles of homemade liquor you keep in your pantry. It’s one of the many skills the Capitol has gifted you. The trauma that makes your bones aches is only bearable when you numb it with copious amounts of alcohol. And it’s bad for you, you know this. Every time the liquor burns your throat, you remember Dawn’s looks of concern, how she has a silent way of pleading for you to start taking better care of yourself. Still, you drink. 

There is about half a bottle left when you redirect your eyes back to the package. Your calloused fingers caress Virgo’s handwriting, wondering why the fuck someone like them decided you of all people were worthy of their attention. The district is filled with traumatized fuck ups that are easier to deal with, so why you? 

You don’t know really them, just know of them. You’ve sometimes thought of cornering them, asking them if they’re playing an elaborate prank of you. Some nights, after receiving their letters, your thoughts become darker and you scream into your pillow and curse the Capitol because you swear the old bastard has put them up to this. Because apparently it wasn’t enough to bury every person you once cared for, the torture must never stop. You still haven’t learned your lesson, it seems.

Finally, you put the bottle down. Not for good, just to give yourself enough time to see what Virgo has done now. The very second the last piece of the sparkling wrapping they seem to love so much falls onto the ground and you see what they’ve given you this time, you drop it. You reach for the bottle, but your body has stopped obeying you and you knock over the bottle. Your stash still has more, but that’s not what concerns you.

It’s the damn streaks of blue paint all over Virgo’s panting that blind you. Your eyes swell with tears and you fall onto the ground with a crash. It takes you an enormous effort to bring your knees to your chest and start rocking your body. You appear some strong, but in that moment, that image dissipates into thin air and you’re once more the scared teenager who couldn’t sleep unless Dawn was there to hold you. Now you’re fully convinced they’re one of them. 

It’s an odd reaction to something as insignificant as a painting, but the Capitol, always so creative, ensured that you’d forever be scarred by it.

                                     i’ll live in the bathroom, surrounded by tiles                                                                            all so square and steady                                                       i will die in their cool, cool arms

She’s holding you in her sleep, her naked body pressed against your bare back. It’s all so blissful you don’t want to move, but you know you have to. You promised you’d get her the blackberries she loves so much, and you have never been able to deny her anything. And part of you feels guilty, like it’s not right you get to experience this kind of domestic bliss. It’s not meant for you, not after what you’ve done, what you’ve caused. And just as misery begins to set in, you hear a sigh next you. Azura is awake. 

And what you see next is something you could never get tired of. You position yourself carefully, using your arms to prop yourself so you can gaze upon her as she stirs in the half-sleep daze it always takes her a few minutes to shake off. It’s when you see her eyes staring at you that you think that maybe all the wrong you’ve done was worth it because now you get to be with her. And again, there is some selfishness there. Your family is no longer there because of you, because you never seem to shut up. You’re reminded of it every day as you pass the memorials Twig helped you build after they passed. He saw you were hurting and offered to share a coping mechanism with you, one that kept you from drinking yourself to death or worse. It’s because of him that your arms are still intact. In a shocking twist of events, Twig was the only one who was capable of ensuring your the veins on your arms that called for you to slice them open remain untouched. “You’re not alone. You still got her.” He said.

It’s because of him and those weeks you spent slaving yourself over the pieces of wood that now honor your family that you get to wake up next to her everyday.  They now stand in your garden, tall and proud, a reminder of Twig’s noble soul. It’s during those weeks that you finally admit to Twig how much you owe him. Slowly, you begin healing. She reminds you so much of Dawn at times, both having such a knack for comforting others when they’re at their worst. She picked up the broken pieces of the shell Blythe Beesly had been, and little by little, she glued them together. 

You spend what seems like ages in your bed because you don’t want to leave her. Unlike you, she is perky and cheery. She sinks her teeth on your bottom lip, holding you close before she reminds you of your promise. And of course, you can’t deny her. One last kiss is stolen from her lips before you reluctantly walk away from the bed and get dressed. 

Just as you are done adjusting your boots and grabbing your axe, Azura is behind you, wrapping your arms around your muscular frame. All those nights working with Twig and Azura’s cooking were what helped you recover when you stopped eating after your family’s massacre. She begs you to hurry, her arms masterfully spinning you around so you can face her. “Don’t get distracted. I don’t want your breakfast to get cold again.” It’s something that happens so often, but you don’t intend it to. You’ve just never been very good at keeping track of time. An embrace is shared between you two, and just as you rest your axe over your shoulder, she leans in and kisses the helve. “For good luck.”

You don’t know how much time you spend out there in the woods. You enjoy yourself too much when you’re out in the forrest, inhaling the scent of the diverse vegetation District Seven has to offer. Along with Azura’s berries, you chop some wood for yourself and Twig. With your backpack full, you head back towards the Victor’s village. Or at least you attempt to, when you’re distracted by a little girl asking for your help. Ever since your return from the games, you’ve become the town’s benefactor. Her mother is sick, so you head over to their cabin and promise to pay the healer with grains and berries for their help. It’s not until you throw in a bottle of moonshine that he accepts your offer. The family thanks you, that little girl stopping you from leaving as she just needs to thank you one more time. Then another. And another. You hold her close, wipe her eyes, and tell her her mother needs her. And so, you leave.

Something’s not right. You notice it right away, even before you step inside your home. The flowers that surround your family’s memorial have been stepped on, as if someone wearing heavy boots had ran out of your house in a hurry. 

“Azura!” You scream, dropping your things by your door before you kick it open. Usually, she is always waiting for you in the kitchen, but not this time. You start dry heaving, feeling bile wanting to make its way up your throat. Why does this reminds you so much of the games? You realize this is exactly how you felt when you were forced to choke that boy from district five. You remember the way the light left his eyes as your hands remained on his neck. He was going to kill you, it’s what you have to remind yourself of when the memory doesn’t let you sleep. “He would’ve prevented you from coming back to me.” Azura would say before singing you to sleep. It had to be done. 

You hold your hand against your chest, recover, and head outside for your axe. None of this is normal. Your home has been touched, and with Azura nowhere to be found, you start fearing the worst. The kitchen and living room show so signs of her, so you head towards the bedroom you’ve shared with her the past few months. You hold onto your axe, preparing to swing before you push the door open with with your foot. 

Again, you get nothing. You don’t lose your stance, though. The hairs on the back of your neck are still standing straight, sensing danger is still near. Your eyes travel all over the room, looking for a sign. The walls are clean, your drawers appear to be untouched. It’s your nightstand that holds the answer. 

There, next to your side of the bed, stands a jar with what appears to be— You drop your axe, the blade making a dent on your wooden floor when you realize the same eyes that plead for you to come home are now resting inside that jar. The rage that lives within you is nowhere to be found. You barely have the energy to crawl towards your bedside table and snatch the note resting on top of the jar. 

“Cedar Hawflake sends his regards.“

Now you understand. You thought your refusal for the Capitol to use you as a piece of meat is what caused your family’s deaths, but now Azura has been added to the list of people that are dead because of you. Maybe if you had just shut up and slept with the old man none of this would’ve happened, but you’re Blythe. You’re stubborn. You never shut up. You only know how to fight. Scream about all the pain the Capitol has caused. But is that even you anymore? Because the glance you steal from the damn jar just makes you want to throw up. And you do, it just takes you second to be able fully empty your stomach, the berries you had snacked on on your way home now resting on a puddle of your own vomit. 

Completely lost in a trance, you continue crawling, now heading towards your bathroom. You need water. Maybe a razor too. You don’t know. You don’t know what you’re going to do with yourself now. So, you crawl. You hold onto the tub and touch something wet. 

That wakes you right the fuck up.

Peeking into the tub, you see Azura’s now lifeless body. You scramble to get her out of there, but all you manage to do is join her. You treat her like the doll she’s always been to you. Even if she can’t feel anything now, you cradle her in your arms and beg for her to say something. Anything. You don’t care about the blood that has now stained your legs, you only care about her.

“Please wake up. Please wake up.“ You use your forefinger to attempt to close her eyes, the sight of her empty eye sockets killing you inside. And you feel absolutely useless too, because you promised to protect her, you promised you’d get better and make her happy, but all you’ve managed to do is earn her an early grave. 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I love you. I’m sorry.“ Snot and tears stain your face as you bury your nose in her hair, wanting to inhale her scent before it goes away from good. You stay in that position for what seems like forever. Her body goes cold and the putrid scent of oxidized blood fills your nostrils, but you still don’t move. It’s not until the next morning that the same girl you helped the previous day finds you in the tub, Azura still in your arms.

----

Virgo’s painting is now a collection of broken and charred pieces, now resting in a hole next to Azura’s grave, one you dug yourself. It’s always covered in flowers, not one day passing without you leaving a small token of your love for her. On her birthday, you leave her berries. 

The eyes, those you kept.

Whichever dog Cedar send to do their dirty job knew how to preserve them. The jar is hidden beneath the kitchen floor, the one Azura would dance on as she cooked you breakfast, the one she’d lie on with you when your nightmares caused you to break every piece of fancy china the Capitol gifted you. Every time you step on the third tile to the right of your table, the creak reminds you of the blue eyes you’ve hidden there. 

#happy late lesbian visibility day #sp

[3laxx]

Beneath Hexside High

When Boscha accidentally trashes the gym in Grudgby practice, Luz panics and pulls her in Gus' tunnel to avoid getting in trouble. Unfortunately for them, that only gets them in more trouble, as they discover some dark secret beneath Hexside...

Luz and Boscha fall through the floor into their rival school's ruins, Glandus, and discover that they aren't alone down there. Begrudgingly, they have to work together.

The summary is a little questionable but I'm tired xD I'm glad it attracted you anyway! Also I'm very open for summary suggestions, just shoot them in the comments!

In any way, have fun with this Oneshot, I had a lot of fun writing it and will hopefully be able to write more over summer.

Ao3 / FF.net

---

Grumbling, she leaned against her locker and let her head knock against the hard surface. How these things were actually alive while feeling so much like metal was still a mystery to her, even after the four years she had spent on the Boiling Isles.

She was nearing graduation now, and her choice to take all tracks took its toll now. Nowadays, she was hurrying from one class to another, trying to perfect her glyphs skills while also trying to cram as much theory into her head as possible.

Her ADHD wasn’t making her life easy, with just scribbling down notes while listening to professors droning on about something, but usually, it helped when the magic theory showed itself in the more practical lessons. Naturally, she had a lot more trouble getting all the history right, since the Boiling Isles had an entirely different chronology and events from the human world.

Here, nobody knew about the invention of the printing machine, the World Wars, or John F. Kennedy.

Instead, she was learning about the Savage ages, the emperor’s version of the history of the Boiling Isles (while Eda was teaching her all about the true history) and the different laws and establishments made over the past fifty years.

Well, her friends kept an eye on her at least.

Eda always made her eat enough, so much that she started reminding her of her mom back in the human realm by now, and King always managed to make her smile.

Willow and Gus helped her with Plants and Illusions and when Boscha had started being a little more open to the friendly human, her clique had started helping Luz along as well. With their help, Luz had managed to find a lot more glyphs still, and now at the age of eighteen, she had mastered plants and ice magic, as well as discovered useful glyphs for abominations, oracles, lightning, teleportation, and her personal favorite, mist. Well, it was more of a combination between fire and ice glyphs, which she had first discovered by mixing up drawing her glyph in class and accidentally created the mist glyph, which held properties of both the fire and ice glyph.

She could also summon clear water and had even managed to find a shield glyph, making it a lot easier on Eda and Lilith to protect the House from boiling rain.

She had even been able to find a healing glyph, which she had immediately given to the Healing Coven as well because they had a deeper understanding of their magic, and paired with the glyph, Luz had been able to learn advanced healing outside of Hexside classes together with some glyph interested healers.

By now, she could easily attend to scratches, wounds, lacerations and even ease the pain of broken bones. The healers over in the Coven loved using the glyphs as a first-aid painkiller.

The best aspect of staying here on the Boiling Isles was, of course, her chosen family and friends, but one person had managed to make her stay way sweeter.

Her girlfriend.

Opening her eyes, Luz smiled towards the chattering group of her friends closing in on her locker and locked eyes with Amity. The young witch smiled back and, upon reaching her, leaned next to her on the lockers, not minding the eye above her head blinking sleepily before closing again, and took Luz’s hand to interlace their fingers.

“Hi babe.���, she greeted and got a small meep! in return, making her smirk. Amity was still so easily flustered, she almost felt bad.

“Hi. You look tired.”, there it was. Luz hummed when she gave a noncommittal shrug, then she turned to Willow who was waiting for her attention to talk about the upcoming test in plants.

Amity and she had started dating two years ago when they had confessed during their Azura Book Club meeting. Or well, Amity had confessed, Luz had awkwardly laughed and kissed her hand.

Fond memories.

She bit back a chuckle before answering Willow while squeezing Amity’s hand softly.

“Hey Willow, by the way. I’ve had some trouble with the speed of growing flowers. Either I grow them too fast and they break or I grow them too slow and can’t get them to full bloom. What’s up with that?”, she asked, getting Willow’s full attention – and enthusiasm – for her question.

After Willow had switched to the plant track, it had become evident that the plat witch not only had quite some skill to show for this track but also the enthusiasm and interest to study hard for it. She had caught up with theory a lot faster than Bump would’ve anticipated.

Her girlfriend rested her head against her shoulder before answering Skara who had been gushing about some up-and-coming singer she heard about, and Luz couldn’t help but overhear the mini yawn she tried to cover. Apparently, she had studied all night again, and then she was calling her tired.

Luz nodded to the answer Willow gave about managing to bring the flower up to full bloom before keeping it right there, when the bell screamed and she reached down to shoulder her bag again, waving the others goodbye and tugging Amity along who was just laughing about a joke Gus made before turning back to her.

Another little yawn.

Luz hummed at that, kissing her temple. She didn’t even get a chastising clap on her shoulder, just a quiet, satisfied hum. Normally, Amity was pretty adamant about keeping public affection to a minimum, especially while they were nearing graduation. But sometimes, Luz couldn’t resist.

“I look tired while you’re dead on your feet.”, she mumbled and Amity tried to bite something back but instead, a big yawn now sounded. She grinned at that and lifted their hands, pressing a soft kiss to her fingers and coming to a stop in front of the abomination’s classroom.

Luckily, they would attend a practical class today. She was sure Amity would doze away otherwise with the state she was in. Humming, Luz turned to her and softly took her in her arms, resting her chin on the side of Amity’s head. Thanks to her heels, Amity was just tall enough for Luz not to reach the top of her head, but she was still small enough for Luz to cuddle her in properly. The abominations professor would still take a while, Luz had heard about some hold up in the oracles hallways and he had been called there to keep whatever it was under control.

Amity sighed and buried her face in her girlfriend’s uniform, before nuzzling her way up to Luz’s neck, breathing against her brown skin. Luz loved the way she was snuggling up to her, like a little cat. Whenever she was given the chance, Amity would take up any and all physical affection. Preferably in private, since she wasn’t a big fan of being observed doing so, but with her sleep deprivation, her boundaries had seemed to be somewhat adjusted.

Not that Luz minded. She loved affection from her, and she didn’t care about being in public. Sometimes she even liked it, because she could show people how much Amity was her little girlfriend.

“… Mm md m stud all nmmght…”, she mumbled and Luz strained her ears but couldn’t actually make out what Amity had meant.

“… What did you say?”, she asked and the witch huffed, before turning her head a bit so her mouth wouldn’t be pressed up against Luz’s collarbone and muffle her words.

“Mom made me study all night.”, she replied, now much clearer and Luz grumbled at that, “For the last test I got.”

Furrowing her eyebrows, Luz held her tighter, genuinely confused.

“Your last test was an A, how could she be angry with that?”, she asked and Amity huffed.

“I don’t know. I think she had a bad day.”, she sighed, then she pressed a small, hidden kiss to Luz’s neck and shook her head.

“No talk, more hug.”, she demanded and Luz knew exactly why. After this class, she would have to go to the gym to train for Grudgby and Amity didn’t like hugging her when she was sweaty. She assumed her girlfriend just didn’t like the smell. And after lunch, they both had some extra activities, which meant no Azura Book Club for the afternoon.

Luz already missed her until tomorrow.

Even after two years of a happy relationship, the longing for close proximity hadn’t lessened. Even a weekend occasionally was too long, resulting in some snippy, well-meaning comments from Eda until Luz would see her again on Monday.

The witch nuzzled closer to her and Luz leaned her head against hers, experimentally blowing some tiny baby hairs that stood away from her little ponytail, observing how they fluttered in the wind. Amity had tried resisting her mother’s demands to dye her hair again about a year back but had quickly lost the fight. Luz wondered what her hair would look like now since Amity had let it grow out a little more and kept it wilder and unruly. She would really like to see her naturally brunette hair on her. Maybe as soon as Amity turned eighteen, she was allowed to let it grow out.

Humming, Luz let herself fall back against the wall, pulling Amity with her and letting her rest on her chest due to the slight angle they stood in now, but Amity didn’t seem to mind. They waited for another bit until it became clear that the professor wouldn’t turn up anymore, so Luz coaxed Amity into following her to the communal space of the graduates, a room that was reserved for the grad class only, where they lied down on a couch together.

Sitting down against the backrest, Amity immediately slumped against her and Luz adjusted accordingly for her girlfriend to sit comfortably, before nuzzling her nose into her hair.

“What class you got after abominations?”, she asked softly and Amity hummed, a little strained.

“Runes. Can you just hide me?”, she asked and Luz had to smile about that, softly kissing her temple. Amity wasn’t even bothered by the handful of other students in the room, which painted a full picture of her exhaustion for Luz.

“I don’t think I have room to hide you in my Grudgby uniform.”, she timidly replied and Amity let out an exasperated groan, before turning to Luz and throwing both her leg over her lap and her arm around her chest.

“Pleeease, I’m so tired, I don’t wanna go to Runes.”, she whined and Luz decided she had never heard anything more adorable than her girlfriend’s whining.

“You’re top of the year. You’re not allowed to say stuff like that. Others are looking up to you.”, she jokingly mumbled, to which she finally earned the well-deserved jab in her ribs.

“You’re not allowed to say that to me, you’re my girlfriend.”, Amity grumbled and Luz giggled, somewhat sliding to the side so she leaned against the armrest instead and put her legs up on the couch after kicking off her shoes and coaxed Amity to follow her suit. Which she did and a minute later, they were lying down on their sides, cuddled up together.

“Sorry, Mi Amor, I won’t do it again.”, she mumbled, then Amity pressed her cold nose into the crook between her jaw and neck, which made her shiver. Amity loved to do that because she always had an exceptionally cold nose tip.

“Good. Accept defeat.”, the young witch huffed and Luz couldn’t help but giggle at her sleepy voice, softly kissing her forehead, before nudging her so Amity would look up. She looked up blearily, her eyes barely opened so Luz couldn’t even make out the molten gold of her iris, then she kissed her nose tip before Amity was allowed to lie back down on her chest, her nose pushing right back to the junction of Luz’s neck to her jaw. She supposed she wouldn’t ever be able to get Amity to stop that. Honestly, she didn’t want to, anyway.

“I accept defeat, oh almighty overlord.”, she softly mocked the girl in her arms and got an indignant, but nonetheless content huff back. Smiling, Luz listened to her breaths getting longer and calmer, while she kept her nose buried in her hair, enjoying smelling Amity’s very own scent paired with the shampoo she was using. Humming, the Latina finally closed her eyes as well, smiling to herself.

It didn’t take long until Amity fell asleep against her and Luz was just glad that the twins didn’t attend Hexside anymore since they had graduated two years ago.

It wasn’t that she didn’t miss their antics, but it sure made Amity a lot more comfortable not being annoyed by her older siblings all day long, since they still lived at home and she had them all afternoon still.

Luz was leaning against the side rest of the couch now and Amity had her arms slung around her torso, her cheek squished against Luz’s chest while she slept. The human smiled softly, before taking a picture on Amity’s scroll phone for her to find later, then she rested her head back against the cushion and hummed, closing her eyes as well.

She trusted the bell’s screaming to wake them up in time, so she let herself doze away softly, enjoying the feeling of her girlfriend in her arms and her head rested on her chest, their steady breathing aligning until they created a calming symphony.

Little did she know Gus found them as well after Luz had also dozed away, and taken another picture to send to them later, before sitting down on the couch next to them and starting to practice an Illusion spell he had been working on together with Luz, who had found the Illusion glyph just about a week ago.

 ---

Luz groaned when her head slammed into the stone floor and she opted to just stay on her back until the white spots of pain would stop dancing in her vision.

This decision wasn’t hers to make, though.

Because a rough pair of hands ripped her up and pulled her into a sprint. Or well, she was stumbling more than she was running actually until she regained her footing and was able to carry herself across the bumpy, uneven floor while behind them, a growl sounded.

“For fucks sake, Noceda!”, an incredibly charming voice yelled into her ear as if she hadn’t just taken the brunt of the fall for them both and she winced with the volume.

“Boscha, I swear, if it hadn’t been for you, we wouldn’t be in this situation!”, she grumbled, rubbing the spot where she had hit the stone, then she glanced over to the triclops girl.

The other teen didn’t spare her a glance while her seeking eyes followed the hallway they were running down, seeking a hideout or an exit or anything.

“That’s because you insisted on using that stupid tunnel the small faker dug to get away from Bump!”, Boscha growled and Luz finally ripped her hands away, so she could be running freely again.

“First of all, Gus is an Illusionist, not a faker. And it’s not my fault you trashed the gym just to show me off!”, she shot back and followed Boscha taking a sharp right.

“And it’s not my fault your stupid face makes me wanna throw things into it!”

The human groaned. They wouldn’t get anywhere with this.

After they had once again gotten into a fight in the gym, Boscha had absolutely trashed the place, leading to Bump demanding to speak to them and Luz, handling out of panic, pulling Boscha into the tunnel Gus had dug under the school.

The tunnel floor had opened up under the weight of the two girls, and given way to a hidden set of hallways, looking like the school floors above them. Luz had a bad feeling that they had been hidden and sealed off for a reason. Didn’t Grom live under the school or something?

She definitely remembered that Hexside had been built on the ruins of their opposing school, Glandus High. Were these ruins of the former Glandus school?

Well, it didn’t matter anyway. Because right after they had fallen into these forgotten hallways, something had started chasing them. Boscha had said it was something like rats, just essentially bigger versions from the human realm, but at the same time, she had been pretty uncertain.

That wasn’t anything like critters living off of crumbs down here. She was pretty sure it was a lot worse, maybe even Grometheus himself, but she absolutely didn’t want to find out. And to both their dismay, in their panic, Boscha and Luz had managed to find what was probably the only other hole in the ground and fallen through that as well. Now they were a long way under the school with no way back up.

Boscha took another aimless left and Luz huffed, still rubbing her head before running straight into a wall, along with Boscha who had looked behind them. Now, this was a dead end.

“Fuck. Any ideas?”, the three-eyed gaze found her and Luz quickly got up to grab Boscha’s sleeve in turn now and dart back to the hallway they had been coming from, before running again, away from the direction they had been coming from.

“I think these hallways are somewhat structured like Hexside above. If we follow this one and take a right, we might find some stairs and breakthrough.”, she rambled, her brain running a thousand miles an hour while she was trying to navigate through this maze. She hoped there would be some sort of stairs.

“Are you sure about this, Noceda?!”

Rolling her eyes, Luz shrugged and let go of Boscha’s sleeve.

“I’m assuming these are Glandus High hallways. I hope Bump somewhat resembled Hexside from it.”

Now it was Boscha’s turn to snarl.

“You really think Bump would resemble the infrastructure of our rivals?!”, she asked and Luz grimaced. She admitted, it seemed super unlikely, but if she was being honest, she had no idea. She just wanted to keep running for now. What was worrying her more was that the walls all along the hallways were somewhat lit. Which meant there was still magic lingering around here.

Was this a good or a bad sign? What if the creature chasing them was feeding off of it? Or even worse, it was the one keeping the magic alive down here?

Growling, Luz tried to keep her mind in the game instead of lapsing into theories.

They took another turn, running down a hallway and past a few abandoned rooms, but soon it became evident to Luz that if the hallways were somewhat close to Hexside above, they should’ve stumbled across some stairs by now.

“Maybe we can hide out in one of those rooms for the time being, until that thing forgets us!”, she yelped, pinching her aching sides, but Boscha didn’t lessen her sprint.

“That thing found us immediately when we fell down here! Pretty sure it uses magic tracking us!”

A nod was all Luz could muster. She groaned, taking a turn to some sort of communal area, then they sprinted into another hallway branching off of it, spending no time looking around. And sure enough, a few seconds after they left the room, she heard one of the old chairs cracking.

“Shouldn’t we find any sort of way upstairs, soon?!”, she questioned and the other teen growled, “I mean, we’re two levels below, somehow they had to be connected!”

After taking another turn, they stumbled into a big room, looking almost like an auditorium, and Luz had to break her sprint into a jog, favoring her aching sides.

“C’mon human! We gotta go!”, the witch yelled when she turned, but Luz was heaving. She couldn’t go on like that.

“I’ll try to block off here! Go around!”, she ordered and pulled a glyph, turning through the door they had been coming through. Boscha knew Luz was right. They couldn’t keep on running away like this, and she preferred the open space to the hallways as well. Grumbling, she jogged backward, then she turned and sprinted out into the hallway to go around. Luckily, they seemed to stretch all around this auditorium or gym.

Meanwhile, Luz tried to regain her breath as she threw the rock glyph, creating a wall underneath herself so whatever followed them would be confused first. Huffing, she crouched down on the ledge she had created for the beast to show itself. It had started chasing them down immediately after they had entered these halls and not let off of them. Maybe it was territorial, but it shouldn’t have found them as easily.

Groaning, Luz rubbed her sides. She was not used to sprinting that much, even after playing Grudgby for four years now. Against Amity’s endurance and Willow’s strength, she was still very much a nerd. Suddenly, silence filled the catacombs down here and the scratching and huffing from whatever had given them a good run for their lives stopped. For a short moment, Luz feared it had gotten Boscha, but she would’ve heard her screams. Probably.

Holding her breath, she fixated the door while she pulled the next glyph, a fire glyph, and remained quiet. Apparently, Boscha did the same, as she couldn’t hear a sound whatsoever anymore.

And then, hell broke loose.

Something was barreling through her wall and the next thing she knew she was falling down to the ground. Rocks of her summoned wall fell around her and dust filled her lungs before she roughly slammed on the tiles below, her elbow cracking and her head, once again, connecting with stone.

At this rate, she should consider wearing a helmet.

Quickly coming to her feet, Luz stumbled out of the dust cloud and for the first time, got a proper look at the beast that had been following them around for the past few minutes. It was big and scaly, but she couldn’t define what exactly it was. It almost looked like a mix of a rat and a lizard, just a lot bigger than was still acceptable. Its skin and scales seemed worn and battle experienced, but the beast didn’t seem old. On the contrary, it seemed quite full of energy.

A scream escaped her throat and the thing turned towards her. Where there should be eyes, there was just head. Her gaze flickering around, she saw no eyes. This thing had nothing that resembled eyes. Apparently, it was blind.

Figures why it found them so quickly.

It was completely relying on its hearing, judging by the big, mouse-like ears on top of its head. Luz breathed through. Maybe she could befriend and calm it down. After all, they fell into its territory, maybe they could satiate its rage somewhat and leave before anyone came to harm.

When it opened its big snout, though, Luz gulped and reconsidered.

These teeth looked very much made for killing.

She doubted this thing grew them for no reason. They looked like they could smash and swallow cows in whole. The thing started charging at her and she couldn’t move in shock until a fireball slammed into the side of its hideous head and she looked over to see a furious pink head between the rubble.

“Human! Do you have a death wish?!”, she heard and resisted rolling her eyes.

“How do we escape this?!”, she shot back and Boscha jumped over the debris of her failed wall, before joining her side, grumbling when she summoned fire around her hands.

“We kill it.”, she hissed and Luz slanted her lips, but she readied a glyph.

“I don’t feel like that’s the right thi-”, she began, but the triclops sent another fireball after the beast before grabbing her neck, her hand clasping too tightly she almost complained and forcing her out of the way while it charged.

“Either this thing or us!”, she called and the human sighed. Fine, she could see that logic. That still didn’t ease her mind.

“It’s blind! We could use that!”

Boscha shot her a glance and, while obviously heeding her useful information, she still seemed aggravated and annoyed with her. There was just no way to make Boscha happy.

Keeping their mouths shut and their feet planted to the ground, they held their breath. The beast shook its head after slamming into the wall, then it began sniffing around and Luz had to muffle a disgruntled groan of annoyance.

Cool, it could smell them as well. So much went for keeping quiet if it could still locate them.

Picking up her scent, it turned towards her and once again opened its snout, revealing its multiple fangs, before charging back at her and Luz could just so jump out of the way while it rushed past her.

“It can smell us!”, she yelled at Boscha who summoned some lightning to throw it at the beast, confusing it for a moment while she joined back up with the human.

“Alright then, new plan.”, the pink-headed witch shot her a glare, readying her stance, “We finally turn deadly.”

Grumbling, Luz pulled out a few new glyphs, furrowing her eyebrows.

“You do. I’ll try to cage it in.”, she held back and Boscha growled in frustration.

“Fine, you do you. As soon as you trapped it, I can kill it.”

She was just about to disagree when Boscha was already on the move. The witch sprinted towards the beast and sent powerful blasts after it, while Luz still pondered. She didn’t want to kill it. They had intruded into their territory. On the other hand, it was probably powerful enough to break out of everything Luz would cook up for it as a cage. And even if she could somehow capture it, it’d most likely starve once they left.

Huffing, the human gripped her glyphs tighter and ran after Boscha. She couldn’t prevent it and most likely, Boscha was right. They would either kill it or be killed and if she could choose, she preferred the first option to the second.

Slapping a glyph on the floor, she let a thorned vine shoot towards the beast but it smartly dodged the plant and instead opted for trampling Luz down in a big cloud of dust, while Boscha didn’t stop shooting it with everything she had.

Dazedly, Luz got back up after having felt her ribcage being compressed by about thrice her weight, then she threw another glyph to hinder it from reaching Boscha. An ice pillar slammed into its side just as it got ready to snap at the Grudgby team captain, then she huffed and propped herself up on her knees.

That had been close. The beast got back up way faster than she had been able to recharge and whipped its tail at the witch, but she managed to slam it back with a shield, causing an explosion where the tail connected with the shield.

“Human!”

Luz reacted fast and jumped to action, letting a plant glyph grow underground to resurface right before Boscha and foiling another attack, at least stalling the beast for a moment, until the witch could get herself a little farther away. She stumbled back, summoning lightning to disorient the attacker, then she made a run for it, past Luz and towards a wider space, so they could fan out and take it into their crossfire. The demon tried snapping at both of them but they were standing too far apart, both attacking it with the best they could muster until the beast managed to break through Luz’s defense and slam her into the wall behind her.

Groaning, she fell to the floor and immediately smelled the horrible stench of decaying organic material around her. The beast had her now.

She squinted her eyes and felt teeth snapping at her, yet the attacker was pulled back and only managed to bite onto her leg, dragging her with.

Opening her eyes, Luz saw Boscha having summoned a leash on which she had tried to pull it away from her.

“Fuck’s sake, Boscha! Let it go!”, she screamed in pain and gave it her best to punch and kick the beast wherever she could, but she had yet to find a weak spot.

“If you wanna be eaten, sure!”, the witch yelled back and despite the pain, Luz couldn’t help but groan in frustration. Sure, thank you, she was hanging onto that thing Boscha had caught.

Growling, she slapped a rock glyph on the floor and conjured a spike to impale the beast from beneath, but it jumped to the side. At least she had left an anchor to hold onto now, which she promptly did.

Immediately, the pull on her leg made her scream, and the beast snapped after her again in the hopes of getting more of her.

“LET GO RIGHT NOW!!”, she screamed and the pull stopped when the beast was released and jumped forward, ripping her in a different direction now, but she was prepared. A well-aimed blast from her explosion glyph shot the snout of the thing right open as the side of it had been exposed. Luz rolled away and tried coming back to her feet but there was no use.

“Strap it down!”, she yelled at Boscha who was already way ahead of her. The witch jumped past her and used the leash spell again to trap it, yelping when its razor-sharp teeth grazed her arm, then Luz slapped a glyph on the ground and a gigantic ice shard rose from the ground, impaling the beast right through the stomach and out its back.

Panting, the two teenagers watched its breathing stopping, then Boscha dropped down to the ground next to Luz.

“Titan’s fucking asshole, human.”, she fell flat on her back, panting, “Luckily for us I got skills.”

At that, the human could merely snarl as she sat up a little straighter, slapping a healing glyph on her impaled leg and making it a little better. She couldn’t quite heal up, but at least she had stopped the blood flow.

“Lucky for us I got enough glyphs packed for some reason. Oh wait, I know exactly why! Because I knew you would get us in trouble in training.”, she shot back and Boscha couldn’t do much else than laugh.

“… We’re actually a good team, Noceda.”, she finally said and Luz plopped down next to her before using her last healing glyph to stick it to Boscha’s arm, causing a low grunt from the witch as the pain subsided.

“We actually are, huh.”, grinning smugly, she turned back to the other teenager, “… ‘s that mean I’m off the bench?”

Boscha merely gave her a glare.

 ---

After a few minutes of catching their breath, they decided not to take their chances with the family of that thing.

Luz had discovered her arm that had taken the brunt of the fall from her wall was bruised and she shouldn’t move it more. At least she could move everything else. All over her body she was sporting scratches, smaller and bigger ones, and her leg had started bleeding again after the magic of the glyph had faded, even if the wounds had gotten smaller. The back of her head felt wet due to hitting it on the ground two or three times – she didn’t even remember anymore – but she didn’t dare to check if she was actually bleeding. For now, it was just a feeling and she couldn’t do anything about it anyway, because she had used up her healing glyphs.

Boscha looked just like her, except she had a laceration on her forehead from when the beast had decided to hit her force shield and sported some nasty gashes along her arm. Just like Luz, she was bruised all over.

Unwillingly, she still offered her support when Luz couldn’t put weight on her leg and let her wrap an arm around her shoulders before they could start to make their way towards the next hallway. Luz hobbled along to Boscha’s dragging steps and they made slow progress, but at least they couldn’t make out any other hostile noises for now. She didn’t suppose they could last another fight, Boscha’s bile sac was probably drained and her glyphs wouldn’t last them long anymore.

Luckily for them, they actually found a flight of stairs. It didn’t get them far, but at least they got back up to the level they had fallen into from Gus’ tunnel. Luz would really have to inform him of the maze down here, to mind when he would continue on his tunnel, not to fall down here on accident.

On the other hand, if she told him, he’d probably go down here on purpose to explore. Grimacing, she decided to tell Willow, so she could at least attempt to secure Gus’ tunnel enough so he wouldn’t do the same as Boscha and her.

Up here, the torches were all lit as well. In the dimmed light, they could see well enough to navigate around and watch for possible holes which they had been able to avoid on the level below. Which implied that this basement actually went down at least one level deeper than where they had been. At one point, Boscha requested a break, and Luz more than willingly agreed, groaning when she sat down and leaned against the wall. She had used her jacket as a makeshift sling for her arm and her leg was bleeding, not immensely, but she figured the amount she had already lost would be piling up in the future. It was just dribbling, but continuously. Boscha’s arm as well.

“Think we should just blast upwards? For all we know, Hexside’s halls should just be above us.”, the witch requested and Luz shook her head.

“There’s at least the height of Gus’ tunnel between us and Hexside’s ground level and the danger is too big that we’ll actually hit a wall and cause structural damage. Plus, we could be hurting other students.”, she quickly said while leaning her head against the wall, grimacing while she pulled her pants tighter around her wounds, in an attempt to make them stop bleeding. With just one hand that proved more difficult than she thought.

“Well, what do you propose, then?”, Boscha snarled and Luz sighed. She was not up for the snappy nonsense Boscha was pulling right now.

“We search the hole up to Gus’ tunnel and go up through there. We just took some lefts and rights. How hard can it be to find our way back?”

Boscha merely gave her a suspicious glance, then she sighed and shrugged, before helping the human back up to her feet.

“Fine, we can try that. I think it was a right, then left and two rights?”, she guessed and Luz furrowed her eyebrows.

“Wait, but wasn’t that left, right thing a dead end? Where we ran into the wall?”, she leaned against Boscha and the teenager groaned, closing her lower eyes in frustration while the third kept open, not to lose the direction of where they had come from.

“But wasn’t the big gym thing another left?”

“I think it was a right.”, Luz pondered, then she shrugged, “We’ll find it, pretty sure. We could follow some noises if you can hear some!”

Instead of broadcasting her frustration again, the Grudgby captain just started walking and pulled Luz along who tried to hobble the most balanced she could, before pulling a light glyph and activating it so it’d illuminate the way before them and help them have a little more sight than what the torches did. They bickered sometimes about the directions and ran into the wrong hallways quite a lot, but in the end, Boscha’s ears flicked when she picked something up.

“Hey, wait, I think there are some voices in that direction!”, she excitedly quipped and Luz considered this being the first time she actually saw Boscha being genuine. Just as quickly as that excitement came, she stopped it, though, “Thank the Titan, I was getting really fed up with you.”

At that, the human couldn’t help but snort.

“And what would you have done, huh? Just left me at some corner?”

Boscha shrugged non-committal and continued on until they finally saw a light that didn’t belong to the torches or the light glyph Luz had activated. Now she could also hear the voices of the students through the ceiling and let out a big breath of relief.

“Thank fuck.”, she sighed when they arrived at the hole up to Gus’ tunnel. Apparently, nobody else had discovered the hole down here. Which meant they couldn’t just pop up there looking like this.

Luz helped Boscha up into Gus’ tunnel and in turn, the triclops pulled her up. Deciding to follow the tunnel to the Grudgby field not to pop up somewhere in the school and attract any attention, they crawled their way to where Gus had shown Luz the tunnel ending beneath the bleachers. They emerged unseen and Boscha helped Luz hobble out towards the side where the bleachers were open, then they both breathed through. The sunlight hit their faces in what felt like hours to them when in reality, they couldn’t have been down there for longer than an hour.

“So, infirmary, huh?”, Luz finally broke the silence and Boscha nodded with a grimace.

“Maybe we can pretend we settled our dispute on the field.”, she added and Luz chuckled before agreeing. They made their way around the school and entered through the main entrance because that was the one closest to the infirmary when suddenly, a voice made them stop dead in their tracks.

“Stop right there!”

It sounded angry.

Luz gulped when she turned to see Amity stomping towards them, trailed by a furious-looking Willow and a guilty Gus. Trying a smile, she managed a small voice. Her girlfriend was looking like she could rip her up in the air. She was actually baring her fangs, and Willow wasn’t looking that much different.

“H-Heeey, Amity! Good that you’re here, actually, because-”

“Save it!”, she snapped and glared at Boscha who had shrunk just as much as Luz had, then she cupped her face, inspecting her up and down. When Amity pulled her fingers back out of her hair, they were tinged red, just what Luz had expected from her rough falls. Meanwhile, Boscha was arrested by Willow who was still trailed by Gus, with his shoulders pulled up, watching Willow grabbing Boscha’s ear and pulling her right to the infirmary while the Grudgby captain was weakly complaining and whining at the way she was being handled.

Luz fixated back on her girlfriend who was still looking at her red fingers, then she looked over the human once more, only now registering the injuries she was sporting. One twinge in her expression told Luz that their Grudgby lie would not hold up against her bitten leg.

“… Oh Titan, what happened to you…?”, she softly asked, so softly that Luz almost hadn’t heard her. Grimacing, she tried shrugging it off, even if her heart broke with Amity’s scared expression.

“I-I’m fine, Amity, I’m okay, it’s actually just-”, her girlfriend looked up to her and Luz cut her sentence off right when she saw her watering eyes catching her gaze.

The witch leaned towards her and pulled her head down with her hands cupping her neck, then their lips connected. Luz closed her eyes at that, savoring every little second she got of Amity’s kiss.

In the two years of their relationship, they hadn’t kissed in public, just little cheek or hand kisses. But never real kisses, on the lips, because of the public display of affection that Amity wanted to keep at a minimum.

Luz leaned into the kiss and hummed softly, enjoying how Amity’s body was pressing against her despite the pain. Her arms slowly weaving around her waist, Luz pulled Amity even closer, feeling Amity pouring all her concern and fear into the kiss. She couldn’t imagine how worried Amity must’ve been. First, they trash the gym, then they vanish completely, and now Luz turns up bleeding and injured. She must’ve been worried sick and Luz was feeling more and more guilty the longer she thought about it. Their kiss came to a gentle stop, but Amity didn’t have enough yet. She nuzzled back against her human and Luz captured her lips back, sighing with the small love confessions Amity granted her. She tilted her head a little more, allowing Amity more control, and even felt her girlfriend whining a little, mewling into their kiss. This was more of a reunion than it was a make-out.

Her fingers softly weaved into the locks around Luz’s ears, before she pulled back and her gaze sought out her human’s gaze again. Only now did Luz realize that her eyes were actually wet and that a tear rolled down her cheek.

“Oh gosh, Amity, are you crying?”, she reflexively asked and her girlfriend’s expression very quickly turned into something else. Something very different. She almost looked angry again.

“Yeah, of course, I’m crying!”, she suddenly shouted and pinched Luz’s ear, causing her to flinch and yelp, “I was worried sick about you! Nobody knew where you went until Gus said you might’ve used his tunnel and Bump got all weird about that! And now you come back injured!”

“Ouch, Ami, my ears!”, she tried but her girlfriend wouldn’t listen, “A-And about that, could we actually-”

“No, you’ll be listening to me now!”, she snapped and Luz immediately sealed her lips, her shoulders pulling up, “What you did in the gym was irresponsible and childish, and then disappearing like that is just plain careless! Am I being clear?”

Luz nodded, then she tried suppressing a little groan but Amity had caught it, her eyes suddenly widening.

“Oh Titan, that’s right! We should get you to the infirmary, immediately!”

The human nodded to that again and managed a strained smile before her girlfriend summoned an abomination to scoop her up and carry her to the healers’ office.

“… You don’t wanna carry me yourself?”, Luz dared to ask quietly and Amity turned around to chastise her more, though she could recognize a little teasing glimmer in her eyes.

“You’re covered in questionable substances and I don’t wanna touch that. As soon as you’re cleaned up, I can carry you around.”

Luz grinned at that.

---

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#the owl house #toh #luz noceda #boscha #amity blight #willow park #gus porter #lumity #beneath hexside high #fanfic

[rohad93]

Moonlit Masquerade: Sandcastles pt 2

i hate editing super long documents so this is gonna be in a few parts.

~

Amity isn't having the best week.

Sunday felt like it lasted forever, stuffed into an itchy, uncomfortable dress that her mother had picked for her to wear to her party where she had to spend several hours with a fake smile plastered on her face, till her cheeks hurt, playing her part along with the twins.

She's pressured into a few dances with the children of their parents' coworkers and it hits her that the same songs, that feel so short when she dances with Luz, can feel so agonizingly long with their clammy hands on hers and their much too stiff grip on her waist.

Songs aren’t nearly long enough when her girlfriend holds her and spins her around. It makes her feel light and she doesn't think she could possibly dance better then she does with Luz.

She feels slow and jerky dancing with the other children of her parents’ blueblood, society friends.

They smile in a way they think must be charming and dashing, but Amity knows better. Most of them are just as scheming and devious as their parents or just as uninterested in all of this as she is.

She was looking forward to Monday if for no other reason than to get out of her house and see Luz, which she did, just not as much as usual.

She had to go home straight after school to help Eda, which did happen sometimes.

She at least had Tuesday to look forward to, but the next day as she was arriving at school her scroll beeped with a message from Luz, saying she wasn’t going to be at school today, which yeah, was pretty disappointing. Tuesday had become her favorite day of the school week, even if her ability to take notes and pay attention to the teacher did slip quite noticeably on that particular day of the week.

Wednesday comes and Luz does come to school, with a bandage on her forehead, claiming she fell on the stairs, which is on par for her, but it’s quickly forgotten, along with Monday and Tuesday when she yanks Amity into a concealed corner to kiss her while their friends play watch.  

Lunch is normal enough, even though she tells her that she has to go straight home again after school, she at least got to see her today so she’ll make do.

On Thursday Luz arrives late, so they miss each other, and is then curiously absent from lunch, though she sends her a message saying they finally can spend some time together after school, but Luz seems distracted when she arrives.

They’re lounging around their secret room, reading and normally Luz is much more animated when they read Azura, but today she seems lost in thought.

“Are you okay?” Amity finally asks from her place reclined against her girlfriend’s chest.

They’ve been sitting on the floor, Luz’s back against the cushions with Amity sitting between her legs, back against her chest while she holds the third Azura book they’ve been rereading in her hands.

Luz has been strangely quiet, running her index finger over the tip of one of Amity’s pointed ears distractedly. She’s become quite used to being in intimate proximity to Luz but her face is still pink regardless, though faint. She’s beginning to get a little worried. Luz is hardly this quiet for this long, it’s a little unnerving.

“Hmm?” Luz hums questioningly and Amity knows she hasn’t been listening to anything she’s been reading either. “Sorry, what?” Luz glances down at her and mercifully the finger running over her ear stops as well.

Amity tilts her head back to look at her.

“I asked if you were okay,” she repeats the question.

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine, why?” she cocks her head.

“You’ve just been quiet today and you've been really busy and I...,” she trails off not sure how to say ‘You’ve been busy and I miss you’ without coming off as clingy or needy, because really, it's just been a few days; but the limited time they have together before or after school and on Tuesdays is special to her, and she finds herself not at all liking the sudden deprivation from it.

She doesn’t have to say it though. Luz’s confused face slowly turns into a grin as she looks down at her.

“Have you been lonely without me, Amity?” She asks in a syrupy sweet and knowing voice that makes Amity turn red and scowl at the same time.

Amity just huffs, turning away and Luz grins at the back of her head and wraps her arms around her, squeezing her close and pressing a kiss to her the back of her head.

“Lo siento, mi amor. Eda has just been working on a big project and has been needing my help."

Amity relaxes into her hold, mock annoyance, and any real annoyance or loneliness she’s been feeling at Luz’s sudden absence this week, fading as she holds her tightly. She has to remind herself that she can tell Luz anything without fear of judgment or being made fun of. It’s still a strange thing to her.

“I understand I just…” her face remains pink as she mumbles something under her breath.

“What was that?” Luz blinks and whatever she said is repeated at the same volume.

“Uh, one more time?” Luz asks and Amity makes an annoyed sound in her throat.

“I said… I miss you,” she finally says loud enough for her to hear, but the tone is soft, fragile. “I miss you when we’re not together,” she mumbles, but Luz hears her and is glad that Amity is still facing away from her so she can’t see the teary doe-eyed look she’s giving her.

“I miss you too, Amity.” She sat her chin on her shoulder and squeezed.

Amity broke into a wide grin as Luz smooshed her face against hers.

“Maybe... we could hang out this weekend? My family has a beach house on the southern side of the Isles and the twins got them to let the three of us go over for the long weekend by ourselves… would you like to go?” She glanced back and frowned upon seeing the grimace on luz’s face. “You’re busy aren’t you?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“Yeah… since they can’t use magic to carry things it’s all hands on deck for the monthly supply run Saturday.” Luz frowned, especially as she watched the way her girlfriend's face fell. Sure, she was lying for the greater good, and Amity would be so excited tomorrow when they surprised her, but that didn’t make the disappointed look on her face any easier to see right now.

“I’m sorry…,” Luz started but Amity shook her head.

“It’s okay…  I understand,” she assured with a small smile, but Luz knows better, she's gotten good at reading Amity's face and the tone of her voice; she's disappointed.

“When Eda's project is done we'll spend a whole weekend together, I promise, mi amor." She squeezes Amity close and smiles knowingly into her hair.

"Soon, I hope," Amity sighs, leaning into her hold, deciding to just enjoy the time they have now

'much sooner than you think' Luz thinks to herself.

When their time together is done for the day Luz hurries home through the portal and runs straight to her room to get her stuff ready.

Gus and Willow will be there before noon tomorrow so they can take her portal glyph to the beach house. She's been practicing with it and the size of the glyph doesn't seem to matter. It just needs to be big enough to walk through, and she can be anywhere on the Isles near instantly.

Out of curiosity she tried one and thought of the human world, but it went nowhere.

Much as she hates to think it, she can't find it in herself to be disappointed. No one can say she didn't try though.

Her bag is packed and ready by the door, along with the box of decorations the twins had given her at lunchtime today. Since she, Willow, and Gus will get there first, they're on decoration duty.

Next to it are two cardboard boxes of her surprise for Amity and she grins to herself at the thought.

Amity hadn't expressly forbidden her from buying her presents but she didn't like Luz buying her stuff when they went out by themselves or with their friends.

She told her she felt bad when Luz spent her limited funds on her.

So Luz had come up with a rather ingenious gift if she does say so herself. Something they don't have on the Boiling Isles.

She couldn't believe her luck when she'd been digging through one of Eda's human junk piles in one of the spare rooms.

Two large boxes full of the stuff.

She ran to Eda asking if she could have them and Eda waves a hand.

"Whatever you want in there, take it, Kid."

She couldn't wait to see the look on Amity's face. Everyone else's too.

It takes her a while to go to sleep that night, she's so excited she tosses and turns a while and King gets fed up with her and stalks off to Eda's room, mumbling under his breath.

She wakes up before dawn the next day and jumps out of bed and dresses before quickly running down the stairs.

Lilith is sitting at the table having her customary cup of morning tea when Luz skids into the kitchen. The elder Clawthorne smiles at her, though far more subdued then the manic one on the human's face.

"Let's get baking!" Luz throws up her hands and Lilith chuckles.

"Very well."

A few hours later the sun has risen and Eda and King have finally come downstairs, groggy and eyes barely open just as Luz is boxing up the cake.

"All done?" Eda mumbles as she pours herself some apple blood.

"Yup, just waiting on Gus and Willow!" She grins setting the cake box down the table and swats at King's hand as he reaches for it.

"No, King, that's for Amity's party," she scolds and the tiny demon grumbles, glaring up at her.

"Everything you do is for that cupcake smasher!" he squeals with rage at being denied.

"I do not!" Luz argues.

"Yes, you do!" King stands in the chair, pointing a tiny clawed hand at her.

"Well…!" Luz pauses not sure what to say to that. Maybe she does do a lot for Amity, but Amity does just as much for her, so she fails to see how that's a bad thing.

Eda is watching her and grins.

Luz of course talked her ear off about their date under the grom tree last month, including her impromptu confession of love.

She'd just been nodding along, half-listening, flipping through a book as Luz waxed poetic about how 'amazing' and 'romantic' it was until the words: "Then I accidentally said I loved her out loud…"

That made her sit up and pay attention.

Luz had a tendency to get carried away and she was suddenly worried she'd… how did the kid put it? 'jumped the gun?'

She listened much closer to the rest of the story.

"Did you mean it?" Eda asked her when she finishes.

"Huh?" Luz looked up at her.

"Do you love her?" the older witch clarified.

"Oh…" Luz looked away, smiling dopily to herself. "Yeah… I did mean it. I do love her." She nodded.

"How do you know?" Eda pressed and Luz looked at her confused and Eda frowned, trying to think of a way to word it that wouldn't burst Luz's bubble if she was wrong. She just wants to protect her kid.

"Look, Luz, I know you like her a lot, believe me, and I'm not trying to say you couldn't love her, but you are still young and you do tend to get ahead of yourself…, so I'm just asking, how do you know you love her?" she words carefully. This is new territory for Eda.

'The talk' she can give, she's plenty familiar with that, but love? That's never been her strong suit, and she has a long trail of broken relationships behind her to prove it.

Luz pursed her lips, trying to think of a way to explain it to her mentor, whose right of course. She knows she's still young and stuff, she's famous for leaping before she looks, but Luz also knows her feelings. She's spent enough time alone with only her feelings to know how to read them, she's had crushes, but she's never felt anything like this before.

"Being with Amity… makes me happier than I've ever been…, then I thought I could be…," she starts slowly. "And I want to make her happy too… and I'd do anything to do that." She looks up at Eda, who's staring back at her with an unreadable expression.

"Alright," she finally says.

"Alright?" Luz repeats, blinking. Eda nods.

"If you say you love her, I believe you."

Luz smiles at her.

"And if she breaks your heart, we'll feed her to Hooty…" she grins wickedly making Luz squawk.

"Eda!"

"Well…" Luz hesitates, trying to figure out what to say.

"You love her, that’s how it goes," Eda says with a shrug, drawing everyone's gaze.

""Edalyn, they've only been together-" whatever else Lilith is going to say it's cut off by Luz who grins.

"Yeah," she says with a grin. "And Amity loves me, so we do things to make each other happy,” she tells the demon looking up at her grumpily. “I love you too though." She bends down and kisses the top of King's head and he makes a little squealing sound. "But this is for Amity, I'll make a cake for you next weekend," she promises, and then there's a knock on the door. "Gus and Willow are here!" She sprints out of the room leaving a grinning Eda, a stunned Lilith, and a happily squeaking King in her wake.

Lilith looks to her sister who is grinning behind her cup, looking where Luz has disappeared into the living room, where she and her friends' voices are coming from.

"You knew about this?" she asks.

"Mhmm," is her sister's answer.

"And you didn't talk to her?" Lilith cocks a brow as Eda's eyes slide to look at her.

"I did," she says, then takes a loud slurp from her cup.

"And?"

"And she loves her." Eda shrugs. "What do you want from me?"

"Edalyn, she's fourteen, how could she possibly know that?" Lilith sighs, rubbing her temples. Eda leans back in her chair, holding up her cup and giving her sister a deadpan look.

"And how can we know she isn't?" she retorts.

"They… they…!" Lilith holds up her hands, trying to decide what to say.

"Look, the kid and I talked. She says she's in love and I believe it. I honestly think Luz would put her life on the line for that girl, and I don't think I'm wrong when I say the same thing for Amity, heck, I watched her jump in front of Luz to protect her from Grom, and that was before they were dating!" Eda threw up a hand.

Lilith looks toward the living room where they can hear the kids talking.

"I suppose time will tell…," she hums.

Eda just grunts in response, much to her sister's annoyance.

"Perhaps you really should give her… a talk…," Lilith says after a moment and Eda snorts into her cup, laughing.

"Already covered, in great, embarrassing detail," she says proudly.

"No doubt." Lilith rolls her eyes and her sister only grins.

Luz dashes back into the kitchen and carefully picks up the box containing the cake.

"We're heading out," she says. Eda stands and walks over.

"Have fun, kid." She ruffles Luz's hair, making her grin.

"Ah, Luz, before you go, I have something for you to take." Lilith pulls a small dark blue wrapped gift from her pocket and sets it gently atop The cake box. "Something for Amity I would like her to have… only if she wants it…," she explains.

Luz looks at the small gift before looking up at Lilith and nodding with a smile.

With that, she turns and walks quickly but carefully out of the kitchen.

A few minutes later a portal blazed to life in front of the owl house and then all the kids are gone.

"What'cha give the kid?" Eda asks curiously, glancing at Lilith out of the corner of her eye.

"Something I hope she finds useful…"

"I hate it when you're cryptic…" Eda grumbles and Lilith smirks.

#Moonlit Masquerade #lumity #Luz Noceda #Amity Blight #Eda Clawthorne #Lillith Clawthorne #King #the owl house #toh #fic

[flipomatic]

Internship Chapter 34: Day 27 - Amity, Emira, Edric

Author Note: I'm posting this chapter a couple days early, since I have a busy week coming up and I don't want to delay the final chapter.

First Chapter Previous Chapter

_____________________________________________________

As it turned out, their parents had already been informed of the incident by the time they made it home. They had been waiting in the study, not bothering to come to clinic.

Amity had left Ed and Em in their care, though they didn’t seem upset about what had happened.

No, they actually seemed pleased, which was super strange. Their mother said something about how the publicity of this would look good for the family, which Amity didn’t understand. Amity could hear them interrogating the twins as she left, asking for all the details.

It was hard to fall asleep that night, though not due to what happened with the twins. No, Amity realized that after visiting all of the major covens, she still didn’t know which one she was going to join. Sure, she had learned about each one of them, but she hadn’t succeeded at her true goal.

Despite all of the time spent searching, she didn’t have an answer.

She had no idea what to do about that, which led to uneasy sleep.

The next day, Amity went back to the library as arranged with Luz. The plan was to finish the conversation they’d been having about Azura yesterday, but Amity couldn’t focus on that.

They were sitting in the same spots they had been the day before, both flipping through a book. Amity closed hers and looked up at Luz slowly. She couldn’t hold it in any longer.

“Since we visited them all, have you decided which coven to join?” Amity asked the question that had been haunting her since last night.

Luz brought her eyes up, connecting their gazes together. “Nope.” She said the word with certainty as she closed her book. “They were all so cool, with so much awesome magic, I can’t decide.” She still sounded happy though, even without having come to a conclusion. “I really loved seeing the different beasts for beast keeping, oh and the future at the Oracle Coven.”

Thinking back to what the oracle saw in her future warmed Amity’s cheeks. “I remember.” She also recalled how excited Luz had been, looking around the covens, and how eager she was to learn new spells.

“Plants too, oh plants are too great!” Now Luz’s eyes were sparkling. Amity thought about the plant that almost ate Luz’s hand, and was less enthused. “It’s impossible to pick.” Luz stated with a firm nod.

“What will you do then?” This was the question Amity had been asking herself, for the whole month now. The question she’d been struggling with all this time, with no progress.

For Luz, the young woman who always seemed to know what to do, the answer came easily. “I’ll keep learning all of them!”

Was that the answer then, to learn all types of magic? It wouldn’t work for Amity, she knew that. But that wasn’t the point.

No, what Amity was starting to understand was that it was okay to still be learning. Luz felt perfectly comfortable stretching her wings and trying new things. She wasn’t prepared to choose a coven, and so she didn’t.

Amity could do that too. She’d spent the last month traveling around with Luz, after all, exploring what different covens had to offer. She had loved almost every minute of it, all of the time spent learning with her friend.

With Luz by her side, the possibilities were endless.

Even though Amity hadn’t come to the end with an answer, with a coven to join, she had still learned something.

“That’s just like you.” Amity replied to Luz’s exclamation, which surprisingly caused the other teen’s face to flush pink.

Luz broke eye contact and ducked her head slightly, seeming embarrassed. “What about you?” She asked.

“I haven’t decided yet.” Amity chose her next words carefully. “Do you mind if I keep learning with you?”

Luz lifted her head and looked right at Amity. Her bright brown eyes were wide with surprise. “Of course!” She almost shouted, then covered her mouth with her hands. “I mean, of course I don’t mind.” She looked so endearing like this, too cute.

Amity smiled; she couldn’t help it. “Thank you.” She then looked back down at her Azura book, which was lying forgotten in her lap. “Maybe after book club, we can get started.”

Luz’s hands fell away from her face. “For sure!”

The two resumed flipping through their books, though they had to try and remember what they’d been searching for earlier.

Later, after they were done, they would start trying to learn a healing spell. After seeing Ed and Em’s burns the day before, they felt that was the best place to start.

Progress was slow, but that was fine. Amity was in no hurry.

As long as she was spending time with Luz, expanding their limits together, she was happy.

____________________________________________________

The attic was dusty, despite its more regular use. Emira had been very careful while climbing up as to not irritate her healing side.

The burn had hurt quite badly on the walk home, which was only made worse by her parents fawning over her. It had been weird, and she got away from them as soon as she could.

The burn cream, which the clinic gave her, helped ease the pain. She had applied it carefully while changing the bandages.

When morning came, she mostly sat around the house. She couldn’t go anywhere, and with the internship over it wasn’t like she had anything she needed to do. School work wouldn’t start again until Monday.

Emira had been sitting in her room when a small magic symbol flashed on her desk; Ed was summoning her to the attic.

That was how she ended up carefully hauling herself up the ladder, taking it one step at a time. Ed had beaten her up there, which was no surprise since he put out the summons.

He had taken his bandages off to let the burns breath, which he could do since they were smaller burns. He was sitting on the same box as usual when Emira made it to the top, wearing his casual clothes.

“We could’ve met downstairs.” Emira protested as she got both of her feet onto the landing, moving to sit on a box and rest.

Ed looked her over, eyes stopping where the large burn was. “And risk being overheard?” He asked, with the real unsaid question being, would that be worth it?

The answer was no. “You’re right.” Emira sighed, slouching against a box.

A small smile crept onto Ed’s face. “Thank you.” He quipped, before the smile shrank back away. “Frederick sent me a note this morning, the coven is investigating Nick.”

That sounded like good news. “So, did we win?” Emira asked, still not sure of all the details involved.

“I think so, yeah.” Ed put his elbows on his knees, leaning forward so he could rest his head on his hands. “Can’t believe it’s over.” He muttered.

Emira understood how he felt. The second half of the internship felt like it had flashed by, like a firework. “Back to school on Monday.” Emira replied, causing Ed to roll his eyes.

“Unfortunately.” He grumbled. “Did you at least learn any new spells?” He asked, still leaning on his arms.

Oh, that was right, Emira hadn’t had time to show him yet. “I did.” She said with a smile. Though she hadn’t expected to, she learned a lot from Jen.

The internship had turned out far better than her first impression of it; she probably should’ve given it a better chance from the start. Emira would try not to make that mistake again.

Ed sat up straight, now intrigued. “What kind?” He asked, and Emira could practically see the gears in his brain already turning.

“A layered fireworks spell, I’ll teach you once I’m healed.” Creating fireworks while covered in burns wouldn’t exactly be responsible.

“I learned one too.” Ed replied, now smirking. “By that, I mean I created it.”

“Ooh.” Emira leaned closer, though had to sit back up when her side twinged. “What’s it do?”

“Creates a patch of anti friction ground, it’ll be great for pranks.” Ed then explained the basis of the spell, and demonstrated it on an object in the attic. Emira couldn’t wait to try it.

They continued talking about the spell, along with potential combos it could be used in, for a while longer.

“There is one more thing I have to do, before we go back to school.” Ed said as the conversation was winding down.

“What’s that?” Emira thought that dealing with Nick had been the last thing.

“Later, when Mittens gets home, I’ll show you.”

________________________________________________________

“This is the spot.” Edric stopped about a hundred feet away from the house, marking a patch of grass with his foot.

“Are you sure?” Em asked, with one eyebrow arched in his direction. They had already reassessed two different spots.

“Yes.” Edric ignored her sass and nodded. “Go ahead and cast.”

Emira rolled her eyes, but did as she was directed. She spun her finger in a large circle, casting an illusion mirror. It sat between them and the house, reflecting back the grass so that they couldn’t be spotted.

Amity had her arms crossed. “What do you want me to do again?” She asked, clearly annoyed with how long it had taken to choose a spot.

“Summon your abomination and have it dig, this is what we’re burying.” Edric tried to remain patient as he held up the item in question.

Amity called for her abomination, and it appeared out of a spell circle. It was a small one, to avoid being seen around the mirror. She directed it to the designated grass. “Abomination, dig.”

The purple creature obeyed, digging up the grass and creating a small hole. Once it was wide enough, Amity had it stop.

“Perfect.” Edric said, leaning over to examine the hole. He held the object in both hands. “Would either of you like to say a few words?” He asked his sisters.

“Pass.” Amity said bluntly.

“It was better than going to school.” Em supplied.

That was true, it had been better than going to school. Edric was not excited to get back to that, but at least he had a couple new tricks up his sleeves.

He looked down at the mask in his hands, the one he’d worn every day for the last month.

What had he learned? Well, a new spell, but what else? Watch out for corrupt authority figures?

New experiences weren’t so bad, or something like that.

“Good riddance.” Edric said, kneeling down to place the mask into the hole. It looked good there, better than it had on his face.

Amity then had the abomination cover it back up with dirt, leaving a slightly elevated patch.

Edric cast a plant spell, the only one he knew, to try and make some of the grass grow back. A couple strands popped out of the ground.

“Good enough.”

#the owl house #the owl house fanfiction #amity blight #luz noceda #emira blight #edric blight #and with that the fic is complete #I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading!

[kelltheowlenby]

OK I am going to be cringe and analyze my own video for you because I want to share my intentions when making it. If you’d like to watch it first and make your own analysis of it please do and if you see something different I’d love to hear. Anyways I just wanted to post something positive for the community and to share some Luz love :)

LUZ ORDINARY

I’ll break it down one ‘scene’ at a time but to start I want to explain why I made it. Hot take, but I’m actually not the biggest fan of the song, it just doesn’t fit my personal tastes. I like the writing and singing but it’s just not my cup of tea. I listened to it a few times to get in on the fandom hype and then... my mind just made the clearest picture for a PMV I’ve ever had (and I have many in my brain).  I wanted to make something about Luz, not about lumity. Obviously it’s a lumity song, but I wanted to do something similar to ThatOneDorkDraws where the first half of the song is about the character, and the end is about the ship. I haven’t watched nearly all the Ordinary animatics out there, but I haven’t seen anyone else do this, and Luz deserves to be independently characterized.

Now lets dive in.

Imho the intro is really rocky, I drew everything in order for the most part and I was still getting the hang of things. I used the grom picture of the girls to indicate Luz knowing about Amity’s interest without needing to bring Amity in too early. 

I like the song referencing not having enough poc in media, but the song is also clearly referencing Azura, who is a poc, so I decided to make it a more personal note for Luz. She wants to be a chosen one, to know she has a purpose, and whatever she does will lead in the right direction, but that’s not reality. She has a choice in front of her, make a life in the boiling isles, or go home.

To illustrate that she literally goes home, goes through the door. I wish I had something more interesting here, but I used “goes with the grain” as a through line to try and tie the animatic together. Each time it plays Luz interacts with a tree, this time hesitantly. She knows the human world isn’t where she wants to be. But she turns around, still unsure if the boiling isles is the right choice.

When Luz sings about amity in the human world, she is singing just as much about the world as a whole.

(also calling myself out, the full view of the house thats transparent-ish is roughly traced of a screenshot. It was just a placeholder but I forgot to replace it e-e all the other bgs are hand drawn though)

I wish I hadn’t made Luz seem so upset about being awkward. She likes her quirks, even if they don’t always play to her advantage. I would change her expressions a lot while she talks about being awkward if I could do it over again. That did partially have to do with me not being good at drawing faces though. Drawing luz smiling while singing was next to impossible x-x

then she gets on the roof, which when scripting this I thought was a canon location, but I actually think the fandom just decided this roof was here lol because I could not find ref for it

Then we get to the next “go with the grain” line, this time she’s moving forward, towards something great, but she holds onto the tree like she did before because she is still unsure.

When Luz looks at the key she is considering going back to the human world again, but she realizes magic is a part of who she is, and that finalizes her choice to stay. Both to stay on the isles and to be with Amity.

That part and the rest of the video is where I feel like I got the hang of this whole PMV thing, and I’m proud of the movement and framing and compositions and stuff. I think I made some clever choices here c:

With the final “don’t want to go with the grain” Luz fully rejects normality and the human world. (not to say she never wants to go back, but the boiling isles is her home) so she birsts through the treas instead of pausing at them. Mirroring Amity on Grom night with her impulsive choice to put her heart on the line.

Amity is hard to draw, but she only shows up a couple times so it’s fiiiine just ignore it lol

Luz shows her affection to amity and they like confess feelings before we go into the little finale shot

I know at this point Luz would not have the door, but I needed it for my concept so this PMV is not fully canon (it was never gunna be because the song doesn’t perfectly fit canon)

Anyways in the end it shows Luz giving Belos the door and blowing it up. She regrets losing connection with the human relm, but Eda and king are there to help her figure things out. Then she drags amity into the little family unit because we couldn’t end without seeing amity again for a sec

and here’s the proper link in case the one at the top is broken or you wanted to read before you watched (if you want to watch but IDK why you’re reading this if you didn’t lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zesQEGSZs68&t=41s&ab_channel=Kelliker

I did not and will not proof read this, enjoy

#sorry for wasting your time and cluttering your feed with my ramblings #I'm proud of the vid is all #and wanted to talk about it #luz #luz noceda #luz ordinary #ordinary pmv #ordinary animatic

[fatesdeepdive]

Entry 14: Groans of Increasing Discomfort

Heading back to the castle, it seems I’ve accumulated a ton of new buildings to buy. I can buy a statue of Mozu which probably costed more than her entire village, a ballista and shuriken launcher to use in castle battles, a bunch of puppets to give me nightmares (they fight for you in castle battles too I guess), a shop to buy new units (both generics and clones of the soldiers I already have), and a hot spring. Because fanservice. You can run into other units in there, everyone is in their underwear and blushing, half of the decisions that were made in this game’s development were solely for the sake of horniness, yada yada yada. I actually tried to leave and the game stopped me, because Sakura was showing up and it’s necessary to get that bath time with the teenage girl. The hot springs does have a use, admittedly, but it won’t become apparent for a few chapters.

Support: Lady Corrin/Reina

C: Corrin sees Reina talking to an old man and asks her about it. Reina explains that he reminds her of her parents, who cut her out of their life when she became a soldier. And also, apparently, don’t give a shit about her being the personal retainer to the goddamn Queen. Actually, wait, hold on. Where the hell was Reina when Mikoto got blown up? You know what? Her parents should be ashamed of her, she’s a terrible bodyguard.

B: Corrin tells Reina she should visit her parents. Which makes sense; Corrin points out that she’s an orphan and wishes for any relationship with a parent, no matter how strained. Reina tells Corrin that she became a soldier because she really, really, really likes killing people. Corrin volunteers to find out how Reina’s parents are doing.

A: Corrin tells Reina that her parents are doing fine. Reina retcons the last conversation by revealing that she became a soldier to protect her family’s peasants. Nowadays, though, it’s all about that murder.

Review: This one was fine. Corrin wanting to help Reina is a nice bit of characterization, but there isn’t much more to say about this one.

Now, you may be wondering why I referred to Corrin as Lady Corrin in the last bit. Reina actually has completely different supports depending on Corrin’s sex. Most characters have identical supports with Corrin, or if not that just minor dialogue changes (For example, Camilla and Laslow, off the top of my head). But characters like Reina, who can only support Corrin, get two conversations. I suppose it’s for the best, considering those characters would otherwise be incredibly out of focus as opposed to merely extremely out of focus.

Support: Lord Corrin/Reina

C: Corrin sees Reina carrying an apron, which weirds him out, because of the whole murder hobo thing.

B: Reina reveals her sheltered noblewoman housewife in training turned soldier backstory and says that the apron was a gift from her parents before they cut her out.

A: Reina says that her parents cried when she became a knight and that she keeps the apron out of gratitude for them.

S: Corrin, off screen, goes back to Hoshido to talk to Reina’s parents. Apparently they’re proud of her. And he asked to marry her, which she accepts, because she cannot imagine life without him. Apparently.

Review: So, these are kinda the same support? I mean, the actual words are different, but they cover the same information. It’s weird that they were split into two conversations. Whatever. The second one is better, because it gives this really fun characterization of Reina being a friendly team mom when she isn’t stabbing people so she can hear them gasp their last breaths. Also, it resolves the plotline. On the other hand, the S-Rank is really mediocre. Reina saying she relies on Corrin daily is ridiculous, given what we’ve seen. Overall, the problem with Reina is that she just has these two conversations. And one with Kanna, I guess, but that one is recycled from other characters. If Reina was a more fleshed out character that interacted with other characters, she might work as a character. But, as it stands, all she has is her recruitment and two mediocre supports.

Support: Hinata/Takumi

C: Hinata kicks down the door to Takumi’s room so he can tell him that he’s going to start a fighting tournament so he can beat people up.

B: Hinata beats people up.

A: Hinata reveals that he’s beating people up to cheer up Takumi, because Takumi looks happy when he cheers him on. I feel like he could have, I don’t know, asked Takumi how to cheer him up in advance instead of just assuming and doing something he said he didn’t want, but whatever. The two bond over Hinata beating people up.

Review: I think this one helped me hone in on why a lot of Fire Emblem supports don’t work. Supports are, by their very nature, just dialogue. So, when you get a support like this, that relies heavily on something happening, it ends up as telling not showing. That’s why the best supports rely on dialogue rather than explain something that happened off screen.

Support: Kagero/Saizo

C: Kagero and Saizo get into an argument over how to train royal guards, with Kagero pointing out that Saizo’s hard as nails “be ready to die for the monarchy” speech just stressed people out. Saizo blames the new recruits for being inexperienced.

B: Saizo endangers the life of his men to succeed on a mission and Kagero calls him out on it. Saizo points out that victory requires sacrifice and war is unforgiving. The two of them point out that they’ve had this exact argument again and again, and it’s the reason they broke up when they were dating.

A: Kagero and Saizo win a big battle together and admit that they work well together.

S: Saizo points out that their relationship failed because they kept trying to change each other and forgot that they loved each other. The two of them decide to give it another shot.

Review: This one has a much more solemn and reserved tone than most supports, which helps it stand out. It isn’t great, but it has a good tone and I actually don’t dislike Saizo and Kagero as a couple. Them being a flawed couple that broke up over their differences, then trying it again after maturing and becoming more rounded people is a lot more realistic than most relationships in this game.

Birthright Chapter 12: Dark Reunion

The gang arrives in Cyrkensia, a city in Nestra, a country that I forgot existed because this is the only part of the game where it is mentioned. Cyrkensia is a popular vacation spot with a big opera house that appeared in the intro.

A kitsune named Kaden goes up to the party and explains that he’s in town to repay a favor to someone. This introduction feels like when you introduce a new player halfway through a D&D campaign and they quickly explain their deal after walking up to the party.

Kaden introduces his friend Layla, who explains that she’s a singer at the opera house, but can’t perform tonight because her mother is dying. Also she’s singing for King Garon, the evil king who is on vacation a week after starting a brutal war. Azura volunteers to perform in Layla’s steed so the party can do some patricide. Now, you may be thinking, did the game do the stupid trope of having Azura and Layla look identical? Surprisingly, no, they didn’t. Everything else about this chapter is so cliche I assumed they would, but they actually remembered Zola has illusion magic that the party never uses. Also, because we helped the person Kaden has to help, he now owes us a favor, and will totally kill dozens of soldiers in a war he doesn’t give a shit about if we ask him to.

Kaden

Kaden is a Kitsune, this game’s equivalent of Laguz or Taguel from past games. He wields a special weapon called a Beast Stone that allows him to fight by turning into a big ass fox. His personal skill heals units who heal him. He’s a glass canon who does extra damage to cavalry, giving him an interesting niche. His human design is fine, but not remarkable. His fox design is cool, especially regarding the blue fire that floats around him; that said, the spikes on the legs are weird. Personality wise, he seems to be a go lucky idiot who stumbled into joining us.

When the party arrives at the opera house, Corrin notices Elise, who looks sad. Azura, who doesn’t look like Layla for the player, goes on stage. Azura sings the only song she knows, the magic one that breaks mind control, which makes Garon...groan in increasing discomfort, which makes me also feel discomforted. Also Azura does a bunch of crazy water magic, which is a bit extra.

Garon orders his troops to capture us, because Zola betrayed us. Gasp. Shocking. Zola does admittedly beg Garon to spare us. Garon kills him for even suggesting it, right in front of his young daughter, because Garon is a cartoon supervillain. Zola dies begging Corrin to forgive him and Garon calls Corrin weak for having sympathy. Takumi threatens to kill Garon, but Corrin points out that they need to leave if they want to live. Which is smart; Garon has ridiculously high stats.

This battle sees our units fighting on boats floating in the opera house, which is a cool setting for a battle. On turn three, some reinforcements arrive. Xander, who’s still pissed about the whole traitor thing. With him are Peri, a cavalier with cotton candy hair, and...is that Inigo? That’s Inigo, from Awakening. That’s fucking Inigo! What is Inigo doing here, and more importantly, why is he working for the very obviously evil bad guys?

There’s a Dragon Vein you can use to freeze all the water, which would make this level easier, if it wasn’t already a broken easy level. To beat this level, you need to get Corrin to a specific spot. Corrin can’t walk on water, so you need to fight through an onslaught of tough enemies. There’s just one problem: Hinoka or Subaki can carry Corrin directly to the end. I fought the enemies, because why not, but I didn’t have to.

I ignored Garon because he’s able to one shot literally every unit in my army, but I did decide to take on team Xander. Side note, I looked up Garon’s battle quote after the fact, and he says this to Corrin: “I may not be your father, but I will slap you down like a child.” I take back everything bad I ever said about Garon.

Peri, as it turns out, is a sadistic sociopath, because Nohr. Inigo...excuse me, Laslow, blushes when we stab him. And Xander steals Inigo’s famous crit quote from the Princess Bride.

Peri and Laslow went down easy, but Xander was almost as bad as Garon. Even with his bonus against cavalry, Kaden only did one point of damage per hit. I had to resort to the classic strategy of throwing disposable soldiers at him until he was weak enough for Corrin to Dragonstone.

This was a great map, with a creative setting, multiple ways to approach it, tough bosses, and an exploit that makes it completely skippable. Still, it’s the only Birthright chapter with a creative goal, so it deserves a little credit.

After escaping the opera house, Xander chases after us, despite being defeated ten seconds earlier. Elise gets in his way, telling him that if he’s going to fight someone, he should fight her. As Corrin runs, Xander warns that it is her destiny to fight him.

After escaping Xander again, Corrin finds Azura collapsed on the ground, exhausted. She’s going to die at the end of the game, isn’t she?

#xander fe #azura fe #corrin fe #kaden fe #garon fe #elise fe #takumi x hinata #saizo x fe #corrin x reina #saizo fe #kagero fe #wifi sucks so late

[munstarr]

The Guardian

Hello everyone!! I just edited this again and decided to re upload because I wasn't happy with it originally and I wanted to write something id love, now I can say I am super happy with the outcome!! This will be a slow burn, eventually nsfw! Currently working on the next part! Id love and appreciate some feedback! Please feel free to DM me! Thank you so much for reading!!!  ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ ❥ 

A little over eighty years ago Earth scientists sent out a signal into space in an attempt to make contact with other beings. In a surprising turn of events an alien alliance ship happened to be passing by, how had they missed earth before? Well the milky way was merely a skid mark compared to the rest of space. After months of back and forth between the alliance and Earth. Many planets had decided to make contact with earth with wonderful intentions and were more than willing to share their technological developments. In exchange most species requested to study human life and their history. After many trials and errors the Earth officially joined the planetary alliance. Together they worked out many systems and programs to mix species and learn from each other, Thus our current story begins!

Planet Yalnak was an unearthly forest filled planet with cool days and a deep purple sky. The program they had implemented was different from others in the Alliance. Humans could only sign up to live on Yalnak to be of service to the home species, the Nuks or to study a trade. Yalnak was one of the more stubborn planets who were hesitant, after learning of Earth’s hatred they were the last from the alliance to make contact. It wasn't until learning and witnessing of Human’s surprising endurance and loyalty that they joined and formed an earth acceptance program.

On Earth, Azura flipped through all the different planetary Alliance program brochures.She had been working as a hospitality and business specialist. Working towards her degree and getting to her dream job in less than three years time. After chasing her career goals she thought she would be happier. Another busy day of working had her coming home drained for what felt like the millionth time. She sure could use a change she thought. Sighing deeply she placed the brochures on the coffee table in front of her. ‘’Pfft’’ She blew a piece of coily raven hair out of her face, Maybe a hot bubble bath would ease her stress instead. Azura drew herself a relaxing milk bath, filling it with different oils; after setting out lots of candles she slipped into the hot soapy water. She sank into the tub closing her eyes, these were the only times she felt that she could truly relax. Her big bundle of raven curls spilled out of her clawfoot tub. Rubbing her rich mahogany body with her creamy bath butter, she whimpered. Her lathered up pink loofah traveled all over her , leaving a trail of bubbles all over her curvy body. It had been a long time since she’d had any sort of real pleasure. Not that she felt she wasn’t attractive, at twenty - four she was a small chocolate woman with a lean body and a bosomy frame ,or so she had thought. It had been a long while since she had been with anyone, let alone on an actual date. She sunk deeper into the warm bubbles as she roamed her body with the loofah, slowly caressing with the soft fabric. With closed fluttering eyes she imagined the type of person she fantasized to be with her. He was strong and tender as he gripped her throat tightly squeezing as he circled her clit with his strong roughened fingers. He caressed her hot button as her head fell back against his solid chest, nibbling her bottom lip as she let out a muffled moan. Azura imagined such a thing could happen to her. She’d gone through college as a studious maverick, putting her grades above all else. She was paying for it now she felt, getting nicely along in her career but feeling very lonely at times. She had been getting a degree in helping others have fun essentially, without ever really having any herself. Without even having any close family or even friends she was starting to feel more alone  than ever. “UGH” she grumbled aloud, splashing her hand against the water and huffing in frustration. Now she couldn’t even relax with herself! Of course, only she could make herself sad in the middle of a fantasy. She pouted and decided to drain the bath and cut her losses. After drying off and oiling herself up for bed, she slipped on a satin red slip with a lace peekaboo. Another night of eating dinner alone to the sound of terrible reality tv, after two episodes of bad reality she clicked it off deciding it was time for bed. On her way out of the living room she decided to toss her brochures into the recycling, none of the programs were right for her anyway she thought. Huffing she tossed them into the bin. One dark colored brochure had fallen out, she hadn’t noticed it before. It said very plainly in black letters on the outside the word “YALNAK” . Azura had heard of this planet, it had accepted the least amount of humans into their program, only posting new ads when they had specific positions open. She picked it up reading the first and only page which had ads for tradesmen to study and helper companions. Azura thought being a helper could be interesting but didn’t want to waste her time being a glorified errand girl. Every ad was submitted by individuals of the planet it seemed. There was an entry that caught her eye and was offering triple the pay! The only downside was that she had to submit qualifications and pass an assessment, she’d never been great at taking tests she thought.  The description was vague but seemed to offer interesting benefits and career opportunities. Her interest was piqued of course, so she decided to give in and opened her telepad to do the application, what's she got to lose?  After uploading her resume and completing the exam online she uploaded both to her telepad. This could be a long shot but she was ready for a new adventure, besides being a helper companion couldn’t be so bad. She decided to send an introduction to the ad placer to tell them about herself and to say how she could be right for the job and how she was ready for a change, whatever it was. Maybe it sounded desperate? No, she shook off that silly anxious thought and hit submit. After sending she smiled to herself and decided to go to bed, excited about new possibilities. A few days later Azura decided to check the ad to see the status of the position , since she hadn’t heard anything back yet. Checking her telepad she frowned, it said in bold red letters “FULFILLED”. She was disappointed but she knew it was a gamble to begin with and probably not even worth her time. Shaking off her unexpected disappointment she went on a run to clear her mind and think about her future. Her big coily space buns bounced on top of her head as she ran, her rich skin shining in the sunlight. After a few times around the block she was tired and decided to walk the rest of the way home to enjoy the cool breeze. Approaching her apartment door she noticed her mail had been delivered. She had received a large metal box and a thick black envelope place on top. Taking the huge box into her house she carefully sat it on her coffee table. “What the hell..” she whispered to herself. She sliced open the letter and it read  “ Congratulations Azura Elaine Emem from Earth, You have been chosen to be a helper companion for the honorable guardian Mirin”. She reread the letter in confusion, she was great at what she did but she wasn’t sure how she could be of any assistance to some honorable guardian! The letter continued “Please read the inclosed packets for further briefing on your new assignment”. Azura opened the box to find it contained brief information about the planet, it’s customs, and a request form for Earth foods she’d want while there, and last but not least a black square and a note. Azura picked up and inspected the intricate wax seal before carefully peeling it off and carefully unfolding the letter. In beautiful writing it stated simply ‘Dear Ms.Emem, I wanted to personally contact you because I am looking forward to working with you and want to set you up for success. Inside the black holding bonds I have included your uniform for the beginning days of training along with my crest, please wear this on your right side of your garment.’ With a short goodbye it concluded. Azura was stunned, she wanted a new life but wasn't expecting it to actually happen. She felt a new fire ignite inside of her, she was nervous for a new life but excited nonetheless. With a slurp of her melting iced coffee Azura smiled, wondering what sort of life she had signed herself up for.

#exophilia #my writing #munstarr #oc #slow burn #monster boyfriend #Intergalactic #Original Work #poc fic

[krahka]

mehra and zirseth for that meme make me cry i dare u

Rate how well they get along on a scale 1-10.

I would say like a 7? Like it goes between a 10 and a 2 a lot. (2 because he’s way more cooperative with her killing him than he reasonably should be, but like, he still wants to be left to cause as much destruction and death as he wants to cause without her getting in the way of his sacred duty)

What do they disagree about the most?

I mean “Mehrunes Dagon and Molag Bal good” vs. “Haha what the fuck” is pretty much most of what it boils down to. He’s trying so hard to get her on board but all of his arguments for why everyone should be worshipping Mehrunes Dagon and Molag Bal sound like complete nonsense to anyone who isn’t super deep into them already.

She’s not about to give him up to the Ordinators, she doesn’t care about that because who cares about heresy, but this is clearly a part of himself that’s extremely self destructive and making him miserable and his Masters won’t even let him think about how fucked up his relationship with them is and how much it’s hurting him. It’s hard to watch.

How much personal space do they keep with each other?

A respectful distance until they’re alone, and then it’s time to get as close as possible. He likes to sneak up on her when she’s reading or working to give her a kiss or to nuzzle on her.

How good/awful would they be at going undercover as family members or a couple?

I don’t think they’re all that good at pretending not to be a couple once they get together. And they probably do have to pretend to not be into each other because one of them is a respected wizard of House Telvanni and the other is an extremely dangerous criminal who is technically her slave. It doesn’t help that Zirseth doesn’t care about propriety or toning it down literally ever in any company because he knows when to lie and this isn’t when to lie. (The time to lie is when the Lord of Lies tells you to, at which point you lie because you believe what he says as truth because in that moment it is truth)

What do they trust each other with?

Probably too much, considering that they shouldn’t trust each other at all.

How would each react if the other died?

I mean the first time around he overreacted to the prospect of her death by making a deal with Mehrunes Dagon that involved killing all their friends and neighbors and well, uh, yeah. He’d do it again. He’d do it a thousand times again, and in a way, he already has.

This particular incarnation is weird because Zirseth becomes immortal and Mehra dies of old age, I assume. The question is, after Zirseth becomes a vampire, does he ever track her down, break into her house and offer to bite her and make her a vampire too? He would, if he thought that he could be trusted around her without hurting her, especially since he has a tendency to intentionally starve himself to induce a state of out of control bloodlust to better commune with Molag Bal’s perfect will, which means that turning vampires on purpose is hard because he’ll just drink them dry without being able to stop himself. But also it’d be super reasonable for Mehra to not be okay with him showing up unannounced at 4 am, giving no explanation for why he left her or where he’s been all these years except that he’s a vampire now and the Molag Bal thing has only gotten worse and tell him to get out before she calls the Ordinators for real this time

Either way he probably learns that she dies several years after the fact and he doesn’t handle the news well, but there’s no one to kill and he wasn’t there to do anything about it and he probably gets even more unhinged for a while. The one person that he’s ever really cared about spent a life without him and was better off for it. Now he has nothing to distract him from his Masters’ commands. People break and leave and die, but they are always with him. It was foolish of him to get attached to a mortal person in the first place.

What’s the biggest thing they have in common?

Intertwined souls, an ancient oath and an instinctive power over flames. (Though in DND terms, Mehra’s a Sorcerer, Zirseth’s a Warlock.)

Do they routinely compete over anything?

Less compete than experiment? Like they’ll try to do the same thing in different ways and record the results and see who did it the best/most efficiently/most interestingly and see if that holds true over multiple tests and just generally test against each other in the interest of science.

Who’s physically stronger and how does it influence how they interact?

They’re both spindley magic nerds so I’m not sure? I mean the fact that Mehra’s stronger magically does affect their interactions in that Mehra can just take any fire that Zirseth conjures and make it work for her instead of him. He finds this both awe-inspiring and a little unsettling. He obeys the flames, but they obey her, so what does that mean for him?

Who wins at chess?

It probably gets pretty intense but on the whole, Mehra, since he gets impatient and that sometimes causes him to act rashly.

Who wins at video games?

Zirseth tends to fuck around and just do things because it’s funny to him, and doesn’t have a ton of interest in games that have a point to them. Like he’s really into making weird structures in Minecraft or scorning one of his neighbors for no reason in Animal Crossing or making a horrible dystopia in SimCity. So in a competitive game he’ll probably lose super badly until he finds some bizarre exploit and breaks the game with it.

Would they be able to succeed at some intensely cooperative task together?

Mmmm probably? It depends on how the Masters feel about him doing that particular thing and how much his tendency to sabotage things just ‘cause would get in the way. (He’s an enormous shit in coop games because he thinks it’s funny)

What happens if you abandon the pair in the wilderness together?

Zirseth is actually pretty good at wilderness survival, since he’s had to survive out away from civilization on his own a lot, so he’d happily do all the work and they’d get by. It’s not going to be comfortable because he’s insufferable and puts a low premium on comfort. If anything, the cold ground is good, actually! Reminds you that there is only one true way to always be warm, and that the cold in your body is meaningless compared to the fire in your soul!

If they are on opposite sides of a conflict, how would they interact if they were on the same side? If they’re on the same side, how would they interact if they were on opposite sides?

I’m pretty sure they count as being on opposing sides of a long, cosmic conflict between two immortal deities of varying degrees of maliciousness.

I can imagine one of their incarnations where they both sort of work it out. I imagine that they’re both Ashlander, she’s a Wise Woman and he’s a brash Gulakhan and Azura just straight up tells her everything and she tells Zirseth and it’s early enough and she’s respected enough that he believes her and keeps an eye out for Dagon’s influence over his mind and actions and with her help, mostly keeps it under control and doesn’t ever turn to him more than absolutely necessary. At some point Mehrunes Dagon tells him he’s going to have to destroy more stuff to keep up his end of the bargain and they do that by just being extremely explosive to the tribe’s enemies, but not even that much more aggressive. He dies valiantly defending his people but there’s always the thought that maybe he was a lot more reckless than he needed to be because he was getting tired of constantly second guessing his thoughts and impulses just so that he wouldn’t destroy everything he loved.

On the other hand, Daedric High Priestess Mehra and the two of them run a cult that demolishes the entire world. Just imagine! We have always worked better together, my love! We are connected by flame and we should be together in flame! We should have never been apart, not when there’s so much we can do for Him! What are these people worth to you? They are insects, nothing, you and I and Him, we’re what’s real! We’re what matters!

What’s the worst thing one could say to the other? What’s the best thing?

I mean Zirseth doesn’t say it to her, but he chose his Princes over her. He chooses them over her almost every time. He doesn’t have to outright say it when he’s made it clear with his actions. Also “I’ll do anything for you” comes across way more sinister when that includes murdering a ton of people without even asking her about it, but does not include defying Mehrunes Dagon even in a minor way when that’s the one thing she actually wants.

And the worst thing Mehra can say was already said thousands of years and hundreds of lifetimes ago; she’ll stop him every time. No matter how much she loves him, she can’t let him go on like this. He’s wrong, other people do matter and are not there just to be toys for evil destruction gods. He shouldn’t have to go along with that and internalize that.

The best thing would be if Zirseth promised Mehra just one, last, quiet life. He’ll give up on the Mehrunes Dagon thing and she can give up on the Azura thing and they can break out of this cycle and let it end on a high note. No one knows like she does that sometimes, if it all goes right, one lifetime is enough.

And for Zirseth, he’d like nothing more than to hear Mehra pledge herself to the Masters by his side. That they’ll never have to come between the two of them again because they are united in service to their wills. That they can be together forever, as Mehrunes Dagon has always promised him they could be, if only she bows before him. Why would she want anything else?

#replies #thievesguilding #oc: zirseth salothan #long post #on mobile and shpuld put it behind a read more once i have that ability again #anyway this pairing is great its totally not fucked up at all

[darkchaosodin]

Things I’ve Learned from Takumi’s Support Conversations

After reading all of Takumi’s supports, there was a l o t of stuff that made me like him a lot more than I already did. Here are the things that stuck out to me. I decided to put them all together in one post. There’s spoilers(?) because it’s from the dialogue in his supports(?) You’ve been cautioned. Anyways, some of these may be more obvious, but I included them anyways.

Note that some of these support tidbits in Fates are localization only. The peeing thing was a thrown in joke from the localizers. In Japanese, he and Leon are actually huge philsophy buffs, not history buffs focused on battle. The localization also added contraditictions, such as having Takumi claim fishing is something he does all the time on the castle grounds. There's more, so just keep that in mind when using the localization to analyze characters. -Anonymous

he has no problem fighting on the battlefield because he has more confidence in himself, but when it comes to hunting, it’s a challenge because he’s yet to master the art of concealing his presence. (Kagero support)

he pees a little when he is scared. (Kagero support)

he can’t bear standing around waiting for something to happen. (Kagero support)

he’s nowhere near a good fisherman because has little to no patience (Kagero support)

he hates water training because it’s always about staying in the water and doing as little as possible (Kagero support)

it bothers him when people blow him off saying he’s not capable of doing as much as someone else (Kagero support)

he thinks part of his upbringing has left him spoiled (Kagero support)

Ryouma sees Takumi as not only a skilled fighter, but as a smart individual with a sharp mind who would make an excellent advisor to him when Ryouma becomes king. (Ryouma support)

he believes that if he isn’t the strongest warrior on the battlefield, he would be worthless to Ryouma. (Ryouma support)

he finds books on Nohr’s country, culture, weaponry, etc very fascinating. (Elise support)

he feels bad and it eats at him when he know’s he’s wronged someone no matter how small and petty it may be. (Elise support)

he cares too much about what others think. (Elise support)

he goes off deep into the woods to practice so that no people are around to distract him. (Camilla support)

he doesn’t trust anyone he’s just met. (Camilla support)

he fusses pettily and gets flustered often. (Camilla support)

he thinks Camilla must have many suitors because of how warm and beautiful she is. (Camilla support)

Leo and him believe they would never be friends, but they end being very close when they discover how many things they have in common. (Leo support)

he initially thought of Leo as a patronizing jerk (Leo support)

people start calling Leo and Takumi “the twins” because of how similar they are. (Leo support)

his favorite food is miso soup. (Leo support)

he loves to read history books because he loves to study the strategy behind past battles. (Leo support)

his favorite game is shogi and he’s the best shogi player in his family. (Leo support)

it’s hard for him to hate someone who he has so much in common with. (Leo support)

he loves to read and he often stays up way too late reading. (Leo support)

he tried to beat Mozu at farming, but gave up because it was too much work and he didn’t enjoy it. (he did end up trying again and this time he became a natural) (Mozu support)

he is astonished that Mozu will put all of her effort into something that can still fail utterly. (Mozu support)

he often offers to help people with just about anything, especially if he was a hindrance to them. (Mozu, Felicia, etc support)

he wants to be a royal who understands his subjects and the challenges they face. (Mozu support)

whatever is special to the person he loves is special to him as well. (Felicia support)

he prefers for people to only see the result of his work, but not the work itself. (Jakob support)

he is known as one of the best archers ever, but even though he knows people think of him this way, he is not satisfied with his level of skill. He knows he can become even stronger yet and that if he does, others will acknowledge him for it; he seeks approval. (Jakob support)

he is shocked by how much Rinkah eats. (Rinkah support)

his mother passed down a red jewel to him, telling him to hand it over to the woman he fell in love with. The jewel was given to the Hoshidan king as a sign of the friendship between the flame tribe and Hoshido. (Rinkah support)

he dreads going to banquets and parties. (Sakura support)

he doesn’t understand why people have parties when there are wars going on. (Sakura support)

he doesn’t like acting superficial and doesn’t know what to say when trying to hold a formal conversation with someone becaus everyone is so stiff. He wishes that could be left to someone else. (Sakura support)

He ponders faking a fever and hiding in the infirmary or setting all the guests hair on fire to get out of going to a party. (Sakura support)

he doesn’t want to ask Azura for help on surviving the party because he thinks she’ll just tell him to stop acting like a jerk. (Sakura support)

when he ends up attending the party, he panics and starts talking everyone’s head off and everyone loved him. (Sakura support)

he believes it’s important for him and his siblings to be accessible. (Sakura support)

he is suprisingly good with kids. This is because he pretends he’s talking to a younger version of himself. (Azura support)

he was mischievous and stubborn as a child. (Azura support)

he finds it hilarious when Azura tries to calmly reason with a child. (Azura support)

he has nightmares and recently he’s been dreaming of the night his mother died. (Azura support)

he sleepwalks. (Azura support)

he becomes embarrassed when he shows a vulnerable side to someone. (Azura support)

he’s always had a little crush on Azura ever since they first met. (Azura support)

Hana and Takumi used to train together almost every morning until one day he suddenly stopped coming. This is because one day when Sakura stopped by during their training and Hana suddenly proposed a duel with swords. Hana had just become Sakura’s retainer and she was eager to prove herself while Takumi was hesitant because he didn’t wantto beat up his little sister’s best friend in right front of her. Hana beats the daylights out of Takumi, she repeatedly hit him in the head over and over and although he says it no longer bothers him, he remembers it like it happened yesterday. Hana completely forgot about this. (Hana support)

He pretends not to hear people when he’s busy, hoping they’ll pick up on it. (Hana support)

He would feel awkward if hana tried to make it up to him for beating him to a pulp, but he appreciates the sentiment. (Hana support)

He doesn’t smile often and surprises people when he actually does. (Hana support)

Every time he sees Hana, he gets a strange look on his face, then he immediately and quickly heads in the opposite direction. Takumi says this is because he was worried she’d beat him up again and that it was for self preservation. (Hana support)

He enjoys teasing women he likes. (Hana support)

When Takumi was young, he used to snuggle a doll while he slept, although he denies ever doing so. (Orochi support)

Takumi and Sakura used to play with dolls together when they were children. (Orochi support)

He may be prickly on the outside, but he has a soft heart. (Orochi support)

Orochi babysat Takumi when he was a child and changed his diapers. (Orochi support)

He actively conquers his fears. (Orochi support)

He hid under his bed as a child, saying there were monsters in his closet, the cellar, and thetoilet. He came running to Orochi, asking her to hold his hand and he even managed to scare Orochi herself. (Orochi support)

He doesn’t like it when people bring up embarrassing things he did as a child and he tells Orochi if she keeps doing it, he’s going to lose his mind so he avoids her. (Orochi support)

He used to be really short as a kid, but he’s grown to be quite tall. (Orochi support)

He wants to be treated like the man he is. (Orochi support)

He wants someone to care enough about him to want to become close with him. He wants someone to know him well enough to tease him. (Orochi support)

He doesn’t mind having a dominant partner, but he likes to be the one on top every now and then. (Orochi support)

He’s stubborn. (Hinoka support)

He doesn’t want to accept help from others, especially his siblings. He wants to figure things out on his own because he thinks they’re only pretending to care. (Hinoka support)

He thinks his siblings would be better off without him because he believes they see him as useless so he wishes they would just leave him behind. (Hinoka support)

He remembers very well how everyone felt when Corrin was taken away from them. (Hinoka support)

He uses traps when he goes hunting, but Setsuna is who gets caught in them most of the time. He is baffled at first, but then quickly becomes exasperated and angry. (Setsuna support)

He doesn’t understand how his sister puts up with Setsuna. (Setsuna support)

He sees Setsuna as unpredictable. (Setsuna support)

He didn’t realize Setsuna could have romantic feelings towards others. (Setsuna support)

Oboro makes Takumi’s ceremonial outfits and everyone compliments Takumi on his style when she does. (Oboro support)

It’s unlike Takumi to shower praise on others and Takumi is unaware that that is how some people see him. (Oboro support)

He knew almost since she first started working as his retainer that Oboro was interested in him. (Oboro support)

Hinata was in a fighting competition before while Takumi watched because he wasn’t allowed to fight since he was part of the royal family. Hinata completely dominated the event. (Hinata support)

Takumi enjoys watching Hinata fight, he thinks it’s awesome and it takes his mind off the war. (Hinata support)

Kiragi can make shots that even Takumi cannot pull off. (Kiragi support)

His son’s talent will surpass his own in no time. (Kiragi support)

He notes how Kiragi is very different than he was as a child because he is so obedient. (Kiragi support)

He envies his son’s skill. (Kiragi support)

He admits to his son that the only reason he criticized his form was because Kiragi makes archery look easy. Takumi puts himself down, apologizing for being such a petty, terruble father and tells Kiragi he’s failed him. (Kiragi support)

He says that there are many great archers with skills superior to his own. (Kiragi support)

Kiragi says that Takumi is calm and cool no matter the situation, calling him amazing. (Kiragi support)

Takumi puts himself down again saying he;s not the incredible man Kiragi thinks he is because his archery skill is primarily due to Fujin Yumi’s power. His shots may appear to be perfect, but it’s not because of his actual ability. He only tries to be calm so that others will think he is coolheaded, but inside he calls himself a weak, anxious fool who cares too much about what others think of him. He says he’s the type of man who harbors feelings of envy towards his own son and then asks for Kiragi to forgive him while excusing himself to leave. (Kiragi support)

After Kiragi hears his father say so many bad things about himself, Kiragi sets out to prove that Takumi is more skilled than he thinks he is. Kiragi proves that you must be incredibly strong in order to use Fujin Yumi, not to mention strong minded to be able to will the arrows to appear, etc because the arrows will disappear again if your concentration breaks. Kiragi says it’s nearly impossible to hold the bow and concentrate at the same time. (Kiragi support)

Kiragi tries to get Takumi to repeat “I am an amazing person” in order to get Takumi to believe in himself more. (Kiragi support)

To Kiragi, Takumi is the coolest dad ever. (Kiragi support)

#fire emblem #fe #fire emblem fates #takumi #taco meat #fire emblem fates birthright #fire emblem fates conquest #fire emblem fates revelation #fire emblem if #fe fates #fe fates birthright #fe fates conquest #fe fates revelation #support conversation #support conversations #highlights #talk #pineapples are gay

[fematchups]

Can I have a matchup for all 3 please? I’m gonna spread my info across 3 asks if that’s okay! I’m a pansexual female, who’s INTP and Slytherin with a Pisces sun and Libra moon. I’m a full time criminal law student and I also part-time waitress at a Japanese restaurant. I’m about 5’3, average-shaped body, pretty busty (if I do say so myself), long dark blonde hair and green eyes. I love makeup, jewellery + fashion, and have what most people consider an ‘expensive taste’ 1/3

I’m an ambivert who sometimes comes across as cold and mature (even scary), but I have no problem engaging in polite, friendly conversation. I’m quite emotionally sensitive to things around me, but never let it show; I only open up to people I’m really close with. It’s really easy for me to become obsessed with things - once I find something I love (a uni project, a fandom, a hobby etc.), I put my whole heart and soul into it. 2/3I love to learn new things, & always try to deepen my knowledge of law, politics + history - I even hold season passes for a lot of local history museums and used to volunteer in my hometown museum when I was younger. I have a secret obsession with cute things and collect plushies, but I’m too embarrassed to tell anyone. I absolutely adore animals and already have my ‘dream dog family’ planned for when I eventually move out. I enjoy singing, reading, writing, ballet, poetry + playing piano. 3/3Wow you have so many interests! Also, your dog fam will be so happy & fun 😊 hope you enjoy, sorry I am so behind on these matchups!!!Nohr: Azura

🌊When Azura first spots you, you’re learning a song on the piano, singing quietly to yourself as you repeat a verse again to get it down correctly.

🌊Azura is mesmerized by your voice and piano playing skills, and can’t help but sing along to the song.

🌊Although you’re surprised that someone has heard you, you continue to sing along with her, and much to her enjoyment.

🌊You exchange names, and talk a little bit about how you learned to play piano and to sing and why these are hobbies of yours.

🌊Azura listens to you intently, seemingly hanging on to every word you say. She responds thoughtfully as well, and you can’t help but enjoy the rare company of someone so genuine.

🌊Somewhere in that conversation you mention that you’re also interested in ballet, and her eyes light up. She’s a dancer too, so she is definitely interested in learning a new form.

🌊Azura takes this opportunity to ask you when she can see you again; the two of you decide to meet for a dancing date next time.

🌊You’re both incredibly nervous while you’re teaching Azura some ballet basics, but as time goes on you grow more comfortable. She also teaches you some of the dance moves she often uses for her performances.

🌊Whenever you spend time together it’s always time well spent. You and Azura are excellent at making one another feel at ease.

🌊You eventually both build up the courage to open up to one another. You each tend to hide your emotions around those you’re both close with; so, when you decide to open up to Azura and vice versus it just shows how much you’ve learned to trust one another.

🌊Once she gets to know you better Azura becomes the kind of s/o who can seemingly read your thoughts or pinpoint your emotions in any given situation.

🌊Since it’s easy for her to read your emotions, Azura is an excellent confidant and comforter. She always knows exactly what to say to cheer you up, calm you down, etc. Azura also knows when to simply hold you when words can’t suffice.

🌊When Azura first sees your plushy collection, she can’t help but hug you because she finds it so adorable! From then on she likes to surprise you with more additions for your collection. She also never once pokes fun at you for it.

🌊One of your favorite pastimes is visiting local museums together. You two make an entire day of such visits—wake up early to dress nicely and grab breakfast, spend hours at the museum, go shopping at your favorite stores, eat dinner, then go home to relax for the rest of the night together.

Hoshido: Oboro

👒Oboro takes note of you while eating at the restaurant you’re working part-time at. When you serve her, you note that Oboro is an ambivert similar to you—appearing cold, but willing to talk if you engage her. So, each time you interact with Oboro, you chat her up some more.

👒Oboro ends up ordering different items just so she could spend more time talking to you. You realize what she’s doing, and take this opportunity to ask her out on a date so you can finish this engaging conversation.

👒Oboro is very taken with you at this point, so she agrees to meet you at the shopping market you’ve suggested for a date.

👒When your first date takes place you both compliment one another on your outfits a ton! You two then spend the day doing some shopping and browsing the various street foods laid on display.

👒Oboro notices right away that you have expensive taste in things, so she becomes your voice of reason while you’re out shopping. She’ll only advise you against buying something too expensive if you ask her to help out that way, though.

👒If you spot something too expensive and that you don’t really need, Oboro will help you rethink your decision.

👒If you see an item you do need and there’s a cheaper option available that’s just as good quality-wise, Oboro will suggest you go cheaper instead.

👒Oboro loves to make handmade clothing for you, and often gifts you with them for special occasions.

👒One of your favorite things to do together is relax at home together; you’d be flipping through your schoolbooks or reading leisurely while Oboro sews clothing. In moments like these, Oboro likes to throw out random questions to you about your area of study or about any political/historical curiosities she has.

👒If you ever are interested in learning how to make clothes, Oboro will be absolutely thrilled to bits! She’ll teach you for free and tell a bunch of little anecdotes about why she loves sewing clothes and about her passion for fashion. 

👒Oboro loves animals too, so when your relationship progresses to a certain point the two of you adopt a bunch of animals together, including the members of your dream dog family.

👒Oboro is also a big fan of surprising you. She loves showing up unexpectedly at the restaurant you work at, and especially since it’s where you two first met.

👒She’ll also plan spontaneous dates to your favorite spots, often whisking you away and letting you guess where you’re going the whole way there. You’ve never guessed correctly before, so Oboro has quite the knack for surprising you.

Awakening: Laurent

📓Like you, Laurent is a frequent museum-goer, and one who tends to visit the same ones you do.

📓One time, Laurent is looking at a particular painting on display when you approach him. You break the ice by explaining its historical and cultural significance to him.

📓Laurent is pretty surprised that you’re so knowledgeable about history, and gets a bit ahead of himself by politely asking you about a bunch of other exhibits for the remainder of this visit.

📓By the time you’ve covered the entire museum, you both have become pretty comfortable around each other, both having slowly dropped your colder façades as the day progressed.

📓Your shared interest in history gives Laurent the confidence to ask you out to visit a different museum next time, and assured you that he will act as the “tour guide” there. He also says he’ll pay for your ticket because he’s the one who asked you out.

📓When you show up to the date looking all dolled up in your nice clothes with matching jewelry and makeup. Laurent is honestly left speechless and a bit embarrassed, because he felt super underdressed. However, you let him know you don’t think he’s underdressed at all.

📓The date turns out to be a ton of fun with the two of you running around checking out different exhibits and ending the day with a nice meal at the museum cafe.

📓Many dates later, Laurent visits your home for the first time; he’s little surprised to see that you have such a large plushy collection, but he thinks it’s just really adorable.

📓When you him you’re a bit embarrassed about this obsession of yours, Laurent is quick to invite you to see his own. Even though he’s a bit insecure about his obsession, as people have made fun of him for it in the past, Laurent wants to help you feel less embarrassed about your plushies.

📓It’s your turn to be surprised when you see Laurent’s room chock full of books to satisfy his reading obsession. He’s embarrassed for you to see them, but you definitely don’t judge him.

📓Most of your time spent together involves trying out new activities and indulging in one another’s various interests. You each love learning more about the other person, and so this is a great way to do that.

📓You’ve taken all kinds of classes together (cooking, dancing, sewing, yoga, you name it), and each time it’s been an adventure.

📓You each credit one another for expanding your horizons and for encouraging you to be the best that you can be.Songs listened to:

Sunflower // Post Malone

Young Lover // St. Vincent

Semester // Dear Boy

Supercut // Lorde

Mermaid // Skott

Give Me the Night // George Benson

Uncomfortably Numb (feat. Hayley Williams) // American Football

I Want to Be Alone With You // Wishes

The Cure // Lipstick Gypsy

#matchup #fefates #nohr #hoshido #fe awakening #azura #oboro #laurent #anon #mini song list

[endless-vall]

What comes next? - Raydan (&Kenna) fanfic 😊

Summery : Raydan’s thoughts and feelings throughout the celebration after defeating Azura, before Kenna chooses her husband (or wife). While considering his next step, where he'd go and what should he do, Raydan already knows his heart belongs to a certain queen of Stormholt, and always will. But will he stay by her side? Author’s note : It’s something that was actually on my mind since that chapter was released haha 😅 How surprised Raydan must’ve been when Kenna proposed to him (if you choose him in the story), and what would his thoughts be if she hadn’t asked. Don’t worry, It’s totally a Raydan/Kenna fic! From Raydan’s POV. Scenes from the chapter included 😊 hope you enjoy! 😄

Raydan always knew his time with Kenna will come to an end. At first it was until she reclaimed her home, then until Luther was defeated, and then until they won the war against the iron empire. But it was always 'until'. It wasn't meant to be forever. Even though it got delayed a couple of times, it always had an expiration date. But Raydan didn't regret it. He wouldn't have had it any other way. It was hard to believe, down from the start, it was too good to be truth. And good things rarely happened to him. It was absolutely fantastic, while it lasted. He wouldn’t change it for the world. Raydan mingled at the party, remembering all the times he shared with Kenna. Feeling thankful rather than sorry, but also considering his next move.

What now? Does he stay? Does he go? Where would he go? His mind wandered from Annelyse and Adder. Now, with both on the same side as him, he could go back to either Aurelia or Lykos, but none of those places felt right. Felt like home. His home wasn't a place, no, it was Kenna. And Kenna would stay right here, at Stromholt. His eyes then wandered to Tevan, and he had briefly glanced at Diavolos direction as well. He closed his eyes, in pain, and agony. He overheard Jackson talking with someone earlier, on what should come next. Kenna would need to marry, Jackson suggested. Even if she got to make decisions for herself for the past few years, she would resume to her duty for her people and that would mean marrying someone and starting a family. Having a successor, running a country. And Raydan shouldn't be stupid enough to believe it would be with him. He wasn't royalty. Both Tevan and Diavolos were, simple as that. Even Dom was, with the evidence Raydan delivered from Fydoria. And they all proved to be trusted allies who Kenna was fond of. Sure, he knew she had only had relations with him this past year, even though they never discussed or announced their relationship (or even called it, a 'relationship'). But that was different story now. They didn't have those benefits now. Memories of their first encounter back in Aurelia floated into his mind. Annelyse gave him an order to watch the young traveler claiming to be queen without a kingdom, but something else made sure he wouldn't take his eyes off her. He took a risk with her, stepping out of the shadows, as he often found himself doing in the future for her. She obviously noticed him too. Being angry at first, but quickly relaxing as he reassured her, Raydan didn't know how or why has Kenna trusted him so quickly, but he was glad he didn't give her a reason not to. She accepted his offer, and met him at the garden, answered his silly questions, accepted the bouquet of flowers matching to her personality and even kissed back when he kissed her, not pulling away from him. He remembered clearly their first kiss, but not their 'last' one. Maybe because you never think it would be the last one. He was a smart, even a clever man, but such a 'tiny' detail seemed to easily escape his mind. He continued to think about Aurelia. With all that had happened in that short amount of time, betraying them (when Marco came) wasn't truly an option, and both he and Annelyse helped them escape, and even joined their alliance. He was glad, even though a spark of fear crawled through him. A fear he later realized, was due to her ability to make him step out of the shadows, due to the feelings he (later) developed to her, due to the fact he opened up to her, something he vowed not to do, never again, but none of those felt like a mistake, not with Kenna. Not even now, when everything seemed to come to an end, to fall apart. He opened his eyes again, everything around him stayed the same. He finished the goblet of wine he had been holding for a while now with a gulp, and handed it to a passing servant. He wasn't Raydan the ratter anymore, he wasn't standing in the shadows. He could still go back there, take comfort in the shadows, but he didn't necessarily need to. He was still a spy, a master of spies, and an assassin. But as Kenna made sure, he was also known as a hero. It was unusual for him, but this was just an impact Kenna had on him. He thought maybe, with that 'title' now, he could do good. He could go, and help kids who's in the position he was in when he was young. Yes, he could do that. That would also spare him from watching Kenna marry someone else. He doesn’t think he could manage to do that. He wanted to flee before that would happen. On his way for another glass of wine, thinking about calling it a night, his eyes meet with Kenna. She freed herself from a conversation with Jackson, and started making her way towards him. Watching her getting closer he knew, he wouldn't do anything to hurt her. Even if it meant staying for the wedding. Even if it meant staying forever. "Raydan…" she smiled and he felt as if the sun had smiled at him, all warm and inviting, but having the potential to burn him. He smiled brightly back at her, he couldn't help it. Despite all the doubts running through his mind he was still, head over heels in love with her. And Whenever she was near, all his worries seemed to get thrown to the side, his lips curving into a smile. He took her hand in his and pressed a soft kiss to the back of the palm of her hand. "Kenna, I feel as though I'm dreaming," It really did feel like a dream, all of it. Ever since he met her, but he continued, "before, I didn't dare hope that we would both make it through the storm." He told her. "You should have more faith." She answered, still smiling at him, tenderly. "I will never doubt us again." Saying those words out loud could be either a bless or a route to self- destruction. He couldn’t hold himself anymore, deciding to consult with the one who's opinion mattered to him the most. "So," he asked. "what is next, my queen? What happens now that the scourge of Azura is gone?" he didn't know what kind of an answer was he expecting. He honestly didn't know what she would answer, or even what he wanted her to. "Now, I lead my people. Not into battle, but into their future. Now, the real work begins." Excellent answer. Fit for a queen. Fit for Kenna. He was so proud of her. "And for that, I want someone like you by my side. Someone brave, someone clever, someone I know will always watch out for me." Now, her tone took a more serious note, as well as her expression. "An advisor?" He knew he would stay, if she had asked him to. And he prepared himself for that. So imagine his surprise when he heard her next words. "A king." "I…" His mouth fell open. He stared at her, not believing his eyes. With all the scenarios he run through his head, he didn't dare to even think of this one. Didn't dare hope this is how things will play out. Her earlier words rang through his ears once again. 'You should have more faith." Yeah, he defiantly should. "The great spymaster is speechless? where's that silver tongue I've heard so much ab--?" She started teasing, but he cut her off, dropping his wine to the grass, and seizing her with both of his hands, he pulls her into a hard, passionate kiss. He loses track of what happens around them, his whole world is Kenna, and he holds on to that for his dear life. His fingers twisting softly in her hair as he holds her close and kissing her, memorizing the taste of her lips, the feeling of absolute bliss he was experiencing right now. Even though now, he knew there would be many more kisses like that to come, he made sure he would never forget this feeling. This moment. Kenna always managed to melt all his worries away. All his problems faded as soon as Kenna walked into his life. True, they had some other obstacles they had to overcome, but they did it together. And they forever will. "So… is that a yes?" Kenna asks, when they finally pull apart. "Most definitely." His smile doesn't even begin to explain the way he feels at that moment. Back in her room, those words come out even before Kenna finishes closing the door. "Kenna… I love you." It was long overdue anyway. "Raydan… I love you too." She returned his feelings and he could feel tears of joy forming in his eyes. Not believing how fortunate he has been. How he had longed for this moment to happen. "Raydan," Kenna must've caught on that. "Forgive me, my queen. It's just… you have no idea how I've longed to hear those words." he captured her in another kiss. and another. and another...

#playchoices #the crown and the flame #kenna x raydan #raydan lykel #fanfic #my writing #kenna and raydan #i hope this is good 😧

[rune-chaser]

JFC Who let me Near a keyboard when I was like this- (A Lot Of Gay Shit about Naomi and Azura I was telling Masu at fuck all in the morning that I didn’t remember upon waking up today)

god It's just I have a vague idea of what they would want the song to be about I'm personally not good at writing let alone writing music If I could Country Rattle would already be a thing But I know they'd want the first half to be about Love and the healing of after the war.

Azura and Naomi adding onto the song as their life goes on because they don't have the foresight of Anankos So they write the song with the intention of being able to add onto it as they grow older

The tone of the love and healing part is upbeat as it's about their healing and adventures through the lands, since neither really go to do that as children, and the next part mellowing out into a more calm and soothing tone since this is when they would finally be settling down and starting a life and family. and the last part slowed down and peaceful but reminiscent of the original Lost in Thoughts All Alone, as it's the song that brought them together. and the very end making sure to tell the listener that their journey is just beginning and to go forth write you own story. I'm Emotions

Lays Down Gently hnnnnnng because I just have such vivid imagery of where they write these parts of the songs The first half is in the moment of their adventure. maybe when they're running through the woods. In the cave of crystals that is breath taking. In the moments where they're hiding from an angry flock of griffons And in their beds as they lay down and talk about what new adventure they had that day. and what new things they had done and seen.

the next part is in the calm moments. Maybe it's in the rain as they run for cover under a tree. having to put on hold, fixing up the old broken down home they found, the fixer upper they'll call home. Maybe it's as they lay in bed, still wrapped up in each others arms, Azura humming notes, Naomi attempting (and with varying success) to match or harmonize with her. Exchanging bits of words and phrases to go with them. And in the calm of taking care of the children when finally asleep. In the tired moments too. The two exhausted, but having fussy babies, Azura singing to them trying to lull them to sleep.

Then, as the years go by, it's when ever the inspiration strikes. sometimes it's in the strangest ways, during one of Shigure's art shows, words just seem to pop together as they couldn't be more proud of the artist their child has become. Maybe it's sitting in the once lively living area, now quiet, as the children have grown. and realizing that the children they raised are on their own now. and you can only hope you taught them well, and hope they visit every so often. Sometimes it's on the calm winter night, watching the snowflakes fall, and realizing how far in their lives they've come. how much they've done.

The last part is as they hold their grandchildren, seeing them walk and learn to talk. Realizing that these small children have such a long life ahead of them. That they will create their own stories, memories and lively hoods just as they have. And they can only hope to that they create such a vast array of memories and experiences. That they can hold them all close and dear to share with those who will come after them. wrinkled hands still writing just as they did when they were young. Voices not quite the same, but Azura's always beautiful, Naomi never quite able to get her notes just right still trying her best. And the two finally content, knowing this song they began, a look back at the life lived, and knowing their lives have been lived fully and surrounded by love. They only hope their loved ones lives continue on to be as grand even when they themselves are no longer there to watch it go by. Welcome to 2 AM Runey Emotion Fest-

JUST ESPECIALLY THE FIRST BIT WHEN THEY'RE EXPLORING THE WORLD NAOMI WAS LOCKED IN A TOWER AND AZURA WASN'T EXACTLY ALLOWED FREE RANGE OF THE COUNTRY EITHER. they visit so many places

travel for a least a good year if not more just. Exploring visiting attractions, natural wonders.

and Not even in like a (eye emoji) way but both finding a waterfall and lake in the middle of the woods with no civilization near, and not wanting to run back to their camp to change into swim appropriate wear. so they just strip down to their small clothes and jump in. Both standing under the waterfall and laughing and giggling as they just have a blast. Naomi jumping from rock to rock where it's clearly slippery and Azura telling her to be careful but Naomi slips and flops into the water any how. Azura being able to use water magic and hold her breath for a while (being a singer and all) diving down to the bottom of the lake or as close as she can get to pick up stones and other little things. Naomi getting worried when Azura goes under for an uncomfortable amount of time. And Azura sometimes using that to her advantage with a little water magic to startle Naomi. I Need to let my brain rest on ideas I'm A Mess

Okay I said I was done I lied

Something that isn't an uncommon occurrence is Either Naomi or Azura waking up and just. Stretching and attempting to fully wake up. Only to realize the other is still soundly asleep next to them. (Usually with terrible bed head) But with the light coming into where they are, whether it be filtered through the fabric of the tent they were sleeping in, or the speckled light coming through the leaves on the trees, or the small sliver of light coming through not quite completely closed curtains of a window and just. A warm smile appearing on their face as the look at the others face for a moment. sometimes moving a bit of hair from the face, carful not to wake them up. And then laying back down and just waiting for them to wake up too. And just, taking a moment to take it all in again. That 'you're here, next to me. Sleeping contently and soundly.' And that this is something they can wake up to every day. is the other right next to them. Okay Now i'm done- I should sleep I'm so sappy and cheesey rn that it's A Problem

#God 2am isn't even usually that LATE #Also. Masu after me telling her I'm posting this shit to tumblr: #have fun Outing urself u nerd omg #I remembered having Conversation but when I woke up I didn't remember A Lot #So LOOKING BACK AT IT WAS LIKE #OH #WOW I WAS #A MESS

[sakurafoxtail]

The Meeting (A Sakura x Malora Story ))

Authors note: My take on how Sakura and Malora first met, it’s not perfect but I tried my best and like I said it’s not perfect but I had fun with it none the less also some background on Sakura herself. Since I redid her whole origins and gave it some more concreteness.

The estate was fairly large, having few places to hide but no one paid much mind to the chocobo stables. A miqote sat among the horse birds watching her fellow free company members bustle about on their usual business. She liked it that way no one ever paid her much mind to often caught up in their own endeavors. “Where is that new girl..” a thought randomly came to the miqote as her ears twitched sensing something behind her but putting it to the back of her mind assuming one of the chocobos was just making a noise. There was a new member that had recently joined... the others were polite with their words but their eyes betrayed them. Their eyes showed signs of distrust and weariness and the stranger, the new girl seemed about as out casted as the miqote felt. “This is a odd place to hang out, don’t you think? You know I hear Miqote’s senses are sensitive..” A voice trailed from behind the miqote who sat hugging her knees, a hyur’s face dipped down in front of the miqote staring at her with pale sky blue eyes. “I prefer it here! and didn’t anyone teach you its rude to sneak up on someone!” pale red slits glared at the white haired hyur woman who stifled a giggle as she stood straight and skipped over in front of the cat woman that was clearly unamused with her. “Well yes but you looked lonely..” her voice seemed apologetic it made the cat’s ears lower almost in shame, least one could only assume. “Just forget it... what did you want anyways?” she mumbled before looking up to see a hand held out to her “Like I said you looked lonely, Malora, Malora Lyra, and you are?” there was a moment silence as the miqote hugged her knees closer as if to hide behind them, or they were a wall that separated her from Malora and her extended hand of what one could only assume was friendship. “Sakura... Sakura Foxtail” she finally said in a light tone, staring at the hand as if it was some foreign gesture or trick. “People usually aren’t nice me” she added before letting her knees go, as her legs straightened out she gently but cautiously took Mal’s hand, helping herself up with the hyur’s help. “Don’t think we’re friends!” she quickly added in a hiss which was only accompanied by the humans laughter. “Of course not.” there was a hint of sarcasm but the miqote hid her smile by letting her raven black hair fall over her face. Sakura led a pretty solitude life, she was a loner that was taken in by this estates company but the life here had never been easy she always felt alone, no one made any efforts to show her anything that dispelled the loneliness but this stranger... was different not that it made Sakura happy, or rather it did but also pissed her off. It made her feel conflicted she was so use to being alone and not bothered and people always went away in the end. No. To let this person in now would risk them to leave later, right? “It’s getting late, I should go!” Sakura exclaimed realizing she still had Mal’s hand and let it go stumbling clumsily away from Malora and into the medium sized house which sat on the free companies estate. Sakura had no room of her own or a home so she usually slept in the chocobo stables. After some time passed and Malora was out of sight the miqote snuck back outside and into the stables curling up by a beautiful blue chocobo. “Hi sweetie” she whispered in answer to the gentle “KWEH!” which was followed by a gentle peck on Sakura’s ears followed by a genuine giggle of happiness. Sakura cuddled into the feathers, a wing covering her like a blanket as she drifted off to sleep. They had been together for so long, if she had one friend only it was this chocobo. Malora had not been wrong her senses use to be sensitive but she’d grown use to conditions like this since her early childhood. Such example was dust from the many books her mother had owned. The next morning Sakura woke to two blue eyes staring at her and a smile, Mal was petting Azura the chocobo “Shes a really sweet chocobo, I found her protecting you like a newborn, hehe you must be close to her?” there was no answer but Sakura’s face was red as a tomato, did this girl not give up? “She’s very special..” is all Sakura muttered before escaping Azura’s wings and standing brushing off her fur, ears and tail. “She normally doesn’t let anyone find me though..” she glared at the bird that only answered with a happy kweh! as she was petted and pampered. “There a reason you invaded my privacy?” “Its a stable Sakura... kinda public.” she grinned “shut up!” Sakura’s cheeks were now red as a rolanberry. “Are you always this sassy?” “Sometimes, mostly to stubborn cats” Mal let out a giggle before smiling “Our ‘fearless’ leader asked for some fish from the river and I thought we could go together.” In truth Bon had asked Mal to go fishing as well as mining and gathering but Mal just had by luck been passing to hear the snoring kitty and came to investigate but did the details really matter? “Will you leave me alone, if I do?” “Promise a bard’s honor” Mal crossed her heart as she held out her hand... there it was again that feeling of hesitation, why did this human insist on this gesture. It was nice but Sakura would never admit it, not out loud least not yet her pride was something to hold on too. “Fine but in doing so you tell no one of this!” she took the humans hand it was soft and warm, it reminded her of her mother’s hand though the memory quickly faded as she lifted her self let go and dusted herself off quickly. “Lets get this over with..” she muttered at the girl who only stood smiling not once threw off by the cold shoulder, a persistent one she was.They’re fishing destination wasn’t very far just a small river not far from the free company’s estate, Sakura knew it well since she spent a few or more nights fishing it for food never caring for the meals the others would make she preferred fish most chalked it to being a miqote but no one could say she just was a very isolated creature, up till now that is, “Here’s good” Sakura said contently as she sat under a nice shady tree her eyes glued to the hyur who was tying a knot to her hook and trying to set the hook with bait. The knot was poor but it would work and the bait wasn’t ideal but it’d get the job done the one thing wrong was her cast but Sakura said nothing, it was obvious fishing wasn’t this girl’s ideal profession which made sense normally Bon asked herself to do the fishing but since she was hiding/sleeping Mal must of been the unlucky victim, after all Bon was a very lazy person and a lazy leader at that. As Sakura sat mulling over the thoughts in her head she was jolted back to reality from a huge SPALSH and water hitting her face as Mal let out a yell of terror or surprise one and landed in the water. Sakura gazed at the sight still slightly in the shock of being awoken from her deep thinking to see a fish flapping comically on Mal’s head, who was drenched head to toe in ankle deep water. The cat could not help it before she could stop herself she fell on her side laughing loudly at the poor human girl who was glaring, Mal went to throw the fish at Sakura “ITS NOT FUNNY!” but before she could the cat girl was gone “where did she- AH!” the fish fell off Mal’s head and back into the safety of the water as something helped Mal up and took her arm’s from behind. “Silly that’s no way to catch a fish..” the voice was gentle but clearly Sakura’s, another indication was the fact she felt a woman's chest pressed against her back, the intentions were pure this was clear but it was still a odd feeling from someone who acted so cold. “First off you cast like this..” Sakura’s hands glided down Mal’s arms to her hands grasping them gently guiding her each minute along the way of casting up till hooking the fish, this continued a few times before she finally let go. “There you go!” Sakura had a genuine smile, not realizing Mal saw otherwise she’d never allowed it but Mal said nothing just smiled back. “And for the record it was totally funny” she remarked a counter remark to the remark earlier. After getting a few more hauls they sat upon the bank to dry letting the fish sit on a rope in the water to keep them fresh. “So the stables.. why sleep there do you not have any family to stay with?” Mal finally asked sitting with her knees pulled to her chest, her chin resting on them as she hugged her legs, Sakura sitting by her likewise. Sakura thought it over for a moment before deciding to cave in this human deserved something she supposed. “No, least not anymore” she finally exclaimed calmly, though her eyes seemed to glass over as if getting lost in memory. “My mother passed after I was about ten” “My apologies... was she from around here?” Sakura’s head tilted but still rested on her knees as she looked at Malora. “Yes, she was a scholar, she lived in ul'dah but she had a small cottage she sometimes would stay at in Limsa but she originally came from Ala Mhigo” “And your father?” Sakura’s gaze drifted slightly but she continued “Lets see... My father I never truly knew mother always told me he came from the island nation  Thavnair, I never been myself but I’ve seen enough pictures and read enough books to know enough about the place, he was a merchant from what I was told, one eve he was selling elixirs and tonics in ul’dah and met a lovely miqote who stole his heart away and he her’s they never married something about business never allowing them to settle but that didn’t stop them from having a child. Mother always spoke fondly of my father and told me how one day we’d be a family and perhaps she truly meant it but I never minded it being just the two of us though she was often busy with her studies so I would often find comfort in books and tomes.” Her lips cracked a smile at the mention of books before it faded at the mention of the next part. “I did meet him though at age six.. My father... it was a hot day in the Ul’dah markets and there was a crowd of people I had lost my mother moment’s before in the crowd but curious I peeked through the crowd to see a human man lying in his own blood dead, of course.” her voice held no sadness but perhaps some resentment despite stating before she had not minded her father’s absence but no remorse, her eyes seemed distant and glossier than before. “Living in Ul’dah death wasn’t uncommon assassinations or deaths of gladiators or refugees taken by hunger or sickness you’d see these things.. even if you shouldn’t but this man before me wasn’t just anyone. I noticed his eyes were identical to mine and his features I shared a few.. before I could even react a hand had jerked me away from the sight it had been my mother. She clearly had been crying but she held a brave face for me, even held my face close to her breast and yet I can’t say I was sad... I had never known this man except for maybe a brief touch of my mother’s belly or a touch before I could remember him at all... and despite a few features we shared he looked nothing like me he was normal while I had ears, a tail, and fur... I would of liked to have known him I think..” her eyes became less glossy as sentiment now if only a little filled her voice “But I was never given a chance to so I could ultimately feel nothing...” She let out a sigh as she went on. “We were told by the brass blades it had been a unfortunate armed robbery, they eventually caught and trialed the thief but it was a hollow justice if anything, after my mother locked herself even more so away to her studies, her way of grieving I like to think, not that she neglected me any less she would check up on me more than often perhaps afraid of losing the last thing she had left... and she also gave me something the day of my father’s murder. A blue chocobo with a note tied around it’s neck. In said note was a letter from my father a gift, the chocobo’s name was Azura. Yes the very same you were petting earlier. Shes the only thing I have that was remotely close to the dad I never truly knew. My mother grew ill after I turned ten and passed away, she left everything to me but being so young it was given to the Immortal Flames to look after and myself and Azura were given as wards of the orphanage in Ul’dah.. for a time I was adopted shortly after around age twelve to a wealthy family who treated me like a princess.. not that I cared much for the luxurious life I always preferred my mother’s cottage by the sea as a child personally.” “They didn’t care about your.. appearance?” Mal clearly asked the question cautiously though it was fair answer. “No they were lalafell’s so I suppose they didn’t mind to much of my appearance though it isn’t often you find the wealthy so kind they truly were a rare sight. But yet.. they raised me up till my middle teens then I was sent to the guild of  thaumaturgy” she closed her eyes trying to hide a smile as Mal asked. “Why the mage’s guild?” “I might of set my butler on fire by accident.. just his shoe mind you but it was enough for concern. I personally thought it was funny.” she stiffled a giggle before opening her eyes. “Turns out I had a affinity for the dark arts so to control it I was sent there. And I spent the rest of my childhood there before leaving Ul’dah to  go to Gridania. The lalafells who raised me were kind but I never cared for the luxurious life I imagine they are living their high lifestyle still but I never went back after the incident of my butler and my possessions of my mother are still in Ul’dah mostly books, she left little gil, having mostly been funded by the city state and well that leaves me to now. My only family really is a traitorous horse bird.” she obviously was referring to earlier which made Mal giggle. “I’m sorry to hear that but you’d don’t have to sleep in a stable you know.” She leaned over kissing the miqote’s cheek gently, a kind gesture was all but it made the cat blush none the less. “I have a idea!” Malora jolted up with a eureka expression and gave a childish grin at Sakura. “From now on you will stay with me! AND NO BUTS MISSY!” she leaned forward pointing a finger at the miqote who was about to protest. “Azura can come too, I’m sure Elphie will enjoy company!” Mal winked and stuck her tongue out just a little to the side knowing she had won. “So much for leaving me alone” Sakura thought to herself but her lips betrayed her. She was smiling and for the first time she allowed herself to feel that persistent feeling she’d been feeling since meeting this hyur to flow over her. Perhaps... she had been lonely to long and it was time to have friends that didn’t scream Kweh!

#malora lyra #sakura lyra #sakura foxtail #ffxiv14 #fanfiction #origin story #fiction #friendship

[pikespendragon67]

Late Birthday Present for writer-of-worlds!

Beginning Commentary: SO, my writing friend, @writer-of-worlds, had a birthday in April. I, however, was too caught up with schoolwork to do anything for them at that time. But now I have a few days off before summer school, I decided to make up for that. Happy late birthday~!

This is a modern AU I came up with a while ago…which was developed because I thought Kaze would look nice in a short-sleeved dress shirt and glasses. If this is interesting enough, I can elaborate more on this.

“You know, Kaze, you seem to be quite distracted today,” the older man with his teal hair in a messy ponytail commented, placing a pile of books down on the closest surface he could approach.

The younger man with the clean-cut yet still relatively long (for a man, that is) green hair, aged to be around his college years, blinked and freed himself from his daydreaming pose.

“Ah, my apologies, Sir,” Kaze quickly spoke, immediately snapping his attention to his boss. “I won’t let it happen again.”

“Come now, Kaze. I may be your employer, but I’ve also known you since you were a boy. If something troubles you, I’m open to chat with you. I’ve yet to reach the level of heartless CEO, after all.”

True, Yukimura’s book shop was still in its mom-and-pop phase of business; he only managed to open it around four years ago. How it was being slightly successful in the digital area is up to anyone’s guess, though.

“Very well,” Kaze sighed. “Corrin’s birthday is soon approaching and I still have no idea what to do for her. I tried buying tickets for one of her favorite bands, but they sold out the second they were released to the general public.”

“Ah, I see. Are there any other performances she might be interested in?”

“Unfortunately, no. …Unless she were somehow into polka music.”

Yukimura chuckled slightly before clearing his throat.

“And I’m certain you’re far past the phase of giving each other gift cards, correct?”

“If it were just a gift card, I feel she’d think I would break up with her. No, I want this to be special, Sir. We’ve been together for a few months now, with this being the first birthday of hers where we’re a couple.”

“In that case, don’t go too overboard so that you don’t scare her off. If you show too much dedication, she’ll think you’re obsessed with her. I’d say hold off on the very expensive gifts after a few years have passed, such as jewelry.”

“Well noted. Do you have any other suggestions?”

“Hm… How about a trip to the observatory run by Professor Izana? I’ve heard he’s quite a romantic, so a tale such as yours could easily get you in.”

Now it was Kaze’s turn to chuckle, a warm smile staying on his face afterward.

“That might actually work. Thank you so very much.”

“Not a problem. …Though, could you please return to work? I know this might be a slow day, but I still want us to be ready for customers.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Once work had finished, Kaze returned to his apartment complex building. Before he entered his own, though, a thought occurred to him.

Would the observatory be enough for her? I feel she should also get a material gift. …But what?

Kaze thinned his lips, but then decided to go three doors down to hear other opinions on the matter.

He gently knocked on the door, to which he was greeted by his four-year-old nephew Asugi.

“Hi, Uncle Kaze!” Asugi exclaimed.

Kaze smiled and got to the boy’s eye level, soon ruffling his black hair.

“Hello to you, too, Asugi.”

“Asugi, I told you not to open the door without asking who’s at it!” A woman with her long, black hair in a ponytail and bangs covering her face gently scolded him.

“I’m sorry, Mom…” Asugi pouted.

She sighed, but then paid attention to the man in question. “Oh, hello Kaze. Saizo won’t be home from the restaurant until later tonight.”

“Sorry to bother you, Kagero. I was actually hoping you could help me come up with a present for Corrin’s birthday.”

“Get her a bunch of candy!” Asugi exclaimed.

“Now now, we don’t want her to get cavities like you would,” Kagero smiled. “How about you go play in your room while I help your uncle?”

“Okay, but I hope I get candy for my birthday.”

With that, the boy closed the door, and Kagero offered Kaze a place to sit on the couch.

“Can I get you anything?” She asked in the small kitchen.

“No thank you, I’m fine,” Kaze replied.

And so, they sat opposite of each other.

“So, what do you need my help in?” Kagero asked.

“Has Corrin told you about anything she’s had her eye on? I assume Orochi must gossip about these sorts of things and you are her closest friend.”

“Then why not approach her?”

“She drains too much energy from me, if I’m being honest…”

“Yes, she does tend to do that. Let’s see… I believe last Tuesday she told me that she saw Corrin walk into Oboro’s boutique during her lunch break.”

“Interesting. …It’s not too expensive there, correct?”

Kagero held a laugh in.

“Fear not, Kaze. I’m sure you can afford her wares on your salary. After all, you don’t have to buy her a complete outfit.”

“Ah…yes. Good to know…”

“…You were planning on that, weren’t you?”

“N-no, of course not.”

He soon looked away from her to hide his embarrassment.

Kaze made note to thank his lucky stars, as the observatory was only fifteen minutes away from town. Professor Izana, although busy with his work, was surprisingly approachable and…quite eccentric.

He’s almost an exact clone of Orochi… Kaze remarked to himself.

As he told his story the good astronomer, Izana looked at him as if he were telling the juiciest gossip, and gasped at the end. He wholeheartedly agreed that Corrin should be treated to a night under the stars, and told Kaze he would clear everything up by next Saturday.

Kaze thanked him, but before he could leave, Izana asked him to go over whether he wanted a laser show or not.

At first, Kaze was confused as he entered the boutique. It was clearly made for women, and he had no idea which item Corrin solely focused on. What if he got her something she would think was ugly by accident? He was half tempted to call Kagero and ask her to go with him so she could give him her input, or to at least get Orochi’s number so he could talk with her about this.

The store’s owner, Oboro, herself eventually walked out to see what was wrong, and he explained his woes to the blue haired woman. She snickered, saying that men tended to be clueless about these sorts of things, but still offered her help. Oboro apparently recalled Corrin looking at a new black and white scarf, but told her that she couldn’t afford it yet.

Ah, now I see. This would match with her hair and favorite headband, Kaze thought.

Fortunately, Kaze actually had the money to purchase said scarf.

Corrin was the kind of girl who preferred sleeping in on the weekend, which made being a light sleeper sensitive to light and sound quite annoying. Such as the case when her phone buzzed on the nearby nightstand. She groaned and pulled her sheets over her head, further messing up her long, white hair, until she remembered:

OH, RIGHT! Today’s my birthday!

Birthday texts began flooding since last night at midnight, with the first sender being her mother of all people. With all the texts, though, Kaze had yet to message her. She was starting to get worried until she got a buzz.

you are free tonight yes?

Corrin squeaked. He was always so formal with her and she thought it was adorable.

yep~! ;3

Perfect. i’ll pick you up at 6. :-)

She had to remember that her cousin and roommate, Azura, was sleeping in the next room and to prevent screaming on the top of her lungs, she buried her head in her pillow and squealed. Corrin couldn’t really explain why she was as excitable as she was now. Normally, she felt more of a mature bond with her boyfriend of seven months, as she did her best to act her age around him, but today she felt like a high schooler all over again.

Azura had given Corrin an iTunes gift card for $50 along with a cute little card with an iguana on it before she had to head off for rehearsals. She received a Facetime chat with her “siblings” (family friend’s children) all the way in Nohr (in order: Xander, Camilla, Leo, and Elise) all wishing her a happy birthday before Xander had to leave for a business meeting. A few hours after breakfast and a quick shower, her stepsiblings of Hoshido (in order: Ryoma, Hinoka, Takumi, and Sakura) had coerced her to eating lunch with them and spending most of the afternoon in the local square.

“We wanted to plan a surprise party, but our restaurant has another party planned tonight,” Corrin’s red-headed older sister Hinoka sighed.

“Yes, one of our shareholders Anna decided to have a family reunion,” the man with the long, spiky black hair named Ryoma added.

“Nothing wrong with that, I’m glad I can spend time with you at all!” Corrin smiled.

Ryoma gave Corrin a commissioned painting of flowers, saying that Kagero had quite an eye when she was serious about her artwork. Hinoka presented a model aircraft, which at first confused everyone until Corrin told them that the two of them bonded over flight shows. Takumi did his best to act like he didn’t care when he gave his older half-sister a copy of the fourth book in The Illusionary Mages saga, one of their favorite series. And Sakura timidly gave Corrin a little pink plush dragon.

After doing some window shopping, Corrin had returned home to relax and continue reading birthday messages as she snacked away on her hidden junk food stash. Azura was a complete health nut, so she had to make sure she wouldn’t get any crazy ideas.

…Speaking of crazy ideas…

babe are we going to a fancy restaurant tonight? Corrin typed.

After a few minutes, a response appeared.

oh no i’m sorry :-(

Whew, I can eat before we go, then.

dont worry i still love you <3 we can hang out after this?

i would like that very much :-)

Corrin laughed to herself, he started typing with emoticons not too long after the two started dating and even after all this time, he was still doing the basics. She couldn’t wait to see how he would react to emojis.

A knock on the door was soon to be heard, and after doing some last minute touch-ups, Corrin took a deep breath and opened the door.

“HEY!” She exclaimed, soon launching herself into her boyfriend’s arms. Fortunately, Kaze was grounded well enough to not fall backward in this surprise attack.

“Happy birthday, dear,” Kaze said after sharing a short kiss and pressing his forehead against hers. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yep, let me just lock the door behind me. So, what do you have planned for tonight, hm?”

“That’s a surprise.”

“Ooh, this is gonna be good.”

Corrin bounced a little, which Kaze found utterly adorable.

Kaze once again made note to thank his lucky stars, as his roommate Silas had agreed to let him borrow the car for this occasion. Silas was a pleasant guy in general, but he was serious about his car. One time, someone scratched it and it took all of Silas’ willpower not to yell at the one responsible.

“Saizo wanted me to tell you happy birthday as well, as he’s busy at the restaurant tonight,” Kaze said as he opened Corrin’s door for her.

“Ah, okay. For a second there I thought he disliked me,” Corrin joked. “After all, Kagero and Asugi actually sent me a video with him not there.”

“He’s never been one for celebrations, if I’m to be honest.”

Because it was her birthday, Kaze allowed Corrin to listen to her favorite station. However, he still preferred a quiet car so he could focus more and be able to speak clearly without talking over whatever music Corrin was listening to.

“We’re heading out of town?” Corrin asked. “Oh gosh, oh gosh.”

Kaze chuckled a bit.

“Don’t worry, dear, I’m not planning anything malicious.”

“Kaze, you’re too sweet to do anything malicious. I’m just getting excited is all.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Plus you have to remember I’ve been taking that self-defense class.”

“I remember, poor Jakob had his back out for nearly three days when you demonstrated your prowess to me.”

Kaze made sure to park a little distance away from the observatory, as he wanted to surprise Corrin as much as he could. He wanted to have her eyes closed until they approached it, but anyone could see the observatory nearly a mile away with how big it was.

“I haven’t seen this place before,” Corrin said. “Is it new?”

Whew, the surprise isn’t completely ruined.

“It is for you,” Kaze smiled, once again opening Corrin’s door for her and holding his hand out for her to hold onto.

They approached the normal-looking doorway and into a slightly dark hallway. Kaze made sure to help Corrin up a spiral staircase, and they soon approached Professor Izana standing in front of his desk and a telescope.

“Welcome, welcome! I’m Professor Izana, but please call me Izana!” He eagerly shook Corrin’s hand.

“Oh, hello. I’m Corrin,” she laughed awkwardly. “Nice to meet you.”

“Very lovely to meet you, as well. Your boyfriend here wanted to make tonight extra special, so you must be quite the special little lady.”

“Uh, thank you…”

Kaze cleared his throat.

“Oh, right! We’re in for a real treat tonight, so please, head back downstairs and follow the light filled hallway to find your seats.”

“He sure is spontaneous,” Corrin whispered.

“Indeed,” Kaze remarked quietly. “Still a nice fellow, though. I promise.”

The two found their seats, which Corrin remarked was like a movie theater, and the dome ceiling slowly opened itself up. Corrin gasped as the night sky revealed itself, a very nice shade of navy blue mixed with a few lighter shades, clear of any clouds, and thanks to the lack of city lights, the stars could actually be seen.

“There’s so many,” Corrin said under her breath.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” Kaze grinned as he held onto Corrin’s hand.

“They’re incredible!”

Corrin gasped once more when she noticed a shooting star. The first shooting star of that night, as it were.

“A meteor shower?! I can’t believe that the sky decided to give me a meteor shower for my birthday!”

Kaze was stunned, he certainly hadn’t planned for that to happen. He looked over to the window above him and noticed Izana giving him a thumb’s up.

Is this a special effect, then? Kaze thought.

“Oh, Kaze, this is wonderful!” Corrin exclaimed, soon wrapping her arms around Kaze’s shoulders and kissing his cheek in rapid succession.

“Well, I actually had another gift that I found the other day…” Kaze said as he tried to reach for the gift. Corrin halted after he spoke, and he managed to give her a small pink box with a black ribbon tied on it.

Corrin once again gasped (this must be a new record) as the black and white scarf appeared.

“OH MY… HOW DID YOU KNOW!?” Corrin squeaked.

“Let’s just say I had a friend to help.” Kaze pressed a small kiss on Corrin’s cheek this time. “Happy birthday, my love.”

Corrin felt like her heart could burst right out of her chest with how sweet Kaze was being. She immediately stood out of her seat and sat right on Kaze’s lap to wrap her arms around his shoulders once more and kiss him this time on the lips. …And repeated that action for a few minutes or so.

“Well now I have to find a way to make your birthday as special as this one,” Corrin spoke as she attempted to catch her breath.

“Honestly, you don’t have to…” Kaze blushed.

“But babe, you’re always such a sweetheart to me! Can’t I be a sweetheart to you?”

She gave him a big pair of puppy dog eyes and an overdramatic quivering lip. Kaze couldn’t help himself from laughing softly.

“Alright, I’ll let you do that. But just to let you know, I’ve always thought you were a sweetheart.”

#pikes writes #fire emblem fates #kaze #corrin #mint chip ship #happy late birthdaaaaaaaaaay~! #kaze x corrin #writer-of-worlds

[detectiveroboryan]

Tempest

Rating: M Ship: Lucina/Azura, because it’s me and because sometimes playing with my imagination makes things like this TW for alcoholism, self-harm, other assorted Less Than Fun Things. Not gonna be able to do all the days but here’s this. On AO3

Was originally going to be for FE rarepair week but they have a no dubcon thing and I figured the sex as self-harm thing was too close for comfort to that line. Posting here anyway, enjoy

The hangover is always worse when she skips dinner. It makes the mis-healed joints in her right arm ache like they do when it's about to rain, which throws her off, and after heaving the bile in her stomach into the nearest available place, she'll lie face-down on her low bunk and try to ignore the pounding in her head. Her room always reeks of stale alcohol and morning breath— or perhaps she does— and it's a long, stumbling, shameful walk to get her sheets washed once she peels herself from the sheets that, by the smell, would lead one to guess she sweated whiskey onto them all night. Severa will chasten her for being sloppy and Inigo will try to cheer her mood with a few jokes and Owain will ask her if she needs anything, but they'll all wish she didn't do this so often while simultaneously knowing that if they were in her shoes, they may have done the same.

Her head pounds. What is her name? Lucina. How old is she? Twenty-seven. Where was she born? Ylisstol. Where is her army? Everywhere, nowhere, too far away to respond to her rallying call but they're all still alive, she knows it, and it is mere selfishness to think that they'd stay. Where is her army? Anywhere but here. The answers to her questions hurt when she thinks of them and when she cannot think of them she's had enough to make it stop hurting. It takes a little more every night.

Afternoon sunshine hurts her eyes. She does her drills in the practice yard with thoughts of Nohrian shadowberry brandy running through her head. After dinner, she tells herself. It's been a rough week. She's earned it. It'd be easier to just walk back to her bunk now and drain the whole thing, not because it tasted good but because it made the hurting sharpen into a spike and then melt away like acid, leaving her feeling raw and bloody in the cold air. But then she could feel them, could make herself cry and shout and pound her fist into wooden beams until they bled, and when it was done she'd be tired enough that she could close her eyes and sleep without seeing monsters in the corners of her vision and watching her friends and family die, over and over again, in her dreams.

The sunshine hurts her eyes. She thinks of shadowberry brandy.

Falchion strikes the wooden training dummy so hard her arms turn to rubber from the impact, blade lodged firmly into its side. She lets the blade go and the dummy falls to the ground.

Azura is standing with her elbows resting on the fence. She's in white, blinding in the sunshine, and she's bright enough that Lucina has to squint to look at her. Her head aches in an annoying reminder that she's successfully avoided drowning in her own vomit that day.

"You're working hard," Azura notes, sounding passive. She always sounds passive. Lucina knows it's false— she makes herself sound like she doesn't care because she's convinced herself nobody cares about her.

"You know me," Lucina replies. She's too tired to bother smiling. Shadowberry brandy, she thinks. She makes herself smile a little bit.

Azura nods. She swings around the entrance to the ring, her slender hands tracing the grain of the wood. Her hips sway and the fabric of her gown brushes her shins. It's still bright, but the hems are fraying and it's getting threadbare where the seams are getting tired from constantly holding it together through wash after wash. Still, she's blinding in the sunlight. Lucina wonders if that's because she wears white or if it's because it's just the way she is.

"You ought to take a break," Azura tells her. She's standing an inch too close for it to be just a suggestion— this is insistence. Last time this happened, Lucina ended up staggering back to her bunk in her smallclothes, heart pounding so strongly she felt it between her legs, dizzy on the scent of the sky in the eye of a storm and drunk on the taste of heartbeat beneath her lips. Lucina is no blushing virgin by far, but she had never been with a woman so like a storm.

"Does this break involve spending the evening in your bunk?" Lucina asks, arching an eyebrow. She cracks her wrists and yanks Falchion out of the dummy.

"It could," Azura shrugs. "Though if you have a date with the brandy in yours, I understand."

Something in Lucina's core burns. The night with Azura felt like she was standing in the midst of a hurricane, her feet on the ground but standing in rushing water up to her knees that threatened to knock her down at any minute. The wind of her breath at once chilled and warmed Lucina's skin, her movement rolling like the ocean itself. Azura pretends she is beneath notice like rain dripping off eaves of a roof, but Lucina wonders what sort of person can think that after experiencing heartbeat like thunder rolling across the sky, motion like floodwater meant to push and sweep away whatever it hits, breath like wind that ushers in clouds and then rains, leaving miniscule droplets on sweaty skin. Physically it is satisfying but there is something about it that took Lucina's breath away— breath snatched in the fading winds of the storm. It left her shaking, unsteady on her feet, and yet feeling as if she'd just witnessed the sublime in all its terrifying and awe-inspiring beauty. Who would ever fail to notice Azura after that?

"There's enough to share," she says. Her mouth feels dry.

Azura's lips curl into a smile. Lucina has witnessed this enough that she knows it isn't real.

The brandy is forgotten the moment Lucina closes her door. Their lips crash together like waves against a cliff and Lucina is being swept out to sea with the tide; Azura's power is not in the way she wields a lance but in her words, how she sharpens desire into a blade and holds it to the throat of whoever she wants that night. Lucina has known people like that. They're dead now.

The thought of dead friends sends a chill through Lucina— it is enough that Azura, pinning her to the door, can feel her hesitation.

"Not tonight?" she asks.

Lucina shakes her head. She pushes past Azura and takes the brandy from her trunk. She uncorks it with a satisfying pop and takes a long drink.

"Just a thought," Lucina shrugs. "Don't trouble yourself."

Wordlessly, she offers the bottle to Azura. Azura hesitates, but sits down next to Lucina on the low bunk and takes a sip. She winces.

"Strong stuff," she comments. "I suppose the Nohrians would be serious about their liquor. What can you expect from a country where nobles shank each other for sport?"

"Weren't the Nohrians your family?" Lucina asks. It's not strong at all to Lucina. She needs strong in order to feel the buzz. Half the bottle will do. She'll save the rest for a bad day.

Azura laughs. It's so bitter Lucina can taste it like bile in her throat. "My family is dead, and I no better. Sometimes I wonder what my mother would think— knowing that her daughter is not only a political hostage, but a whore to boot."

She passes the bottle back to Lucina. Lucina takes it, and Azura stretches her arms over her head. Lucina says nothing.

"I fully expect that you'll be too hung over to remember this conversation tomorrow," Azura continues. "I won't judge. Everyone in this little army has their own way of dealing with things. I had a talk with Niles about it just the other night."

"Define talk," Lucina mumbles.

"That's fair." She shrugs. "It's exactly what you expect. The mushy part came later. A whole lot about being kindred spirits. He said we should meet up more often. He likes a woman with experience. I asked him if that was because he could make them do all the work and he rescinded his offer. I think I hurt his pride." Azura chuckles. That's the largest amount of words Lucina has ever heard her say. Lucina takes another sip from the bottle and passes it back. Azura takes a drink.

"Why do you do that?" Lucina ventures. "The sleeping around thing. It can't just be because you like the action."

Azura quiets. "You don't care about that," she replies, setting the bottle on the crate Lucina's using as a bedside table.

"I care about a lot of things," Lucina replies. "Nobody does anything without reason. Call it a silly leftover from my days leading an army, but knowing someone's reasons for doing something could be the difference between life and death."

Where are her friends? Died before she met them. Died before they could ever be born. Died young, too young. Clawed apart by the Risen. Crushed under collapsed buildings. Skewered on sword-point. Drowned in flooding rivers. Rotted in mass graves. Dissolved from the inside from the acid of the dead and dying. Hacked their lives out bit by bit with sickness. Shot with a dozen arrows. Bled out, slowly and painfully, while Lucina held their hand in hers and told them you won't die here, you'll be alright, and they just said just don't go, commander, don't go. The ones that lived scattered across the horizons and even the three that she could reach now were different, serving different lords and ladies, fighting another pointless, thankless war. Was she selfish, for wanting them home so she could make sure they were still alright? Was she selfish to want to see them grow and smile like she'd promised herself those years ago, when she was seventeen and the aunt that raised her was dead and the world was bleaker than it had ever been?

Probably. She chugs half the bottle and swipes the excess from her lip. Her vision swims. Lucina. Twenty-seven. Ylisstol. Anywhere but here. She hasn't had enough yet.

"There has—" she takes a moment to get her tongue on straight. "Has to be. I've dealt with people. Nobody does anything without a reason."

Azura shrugs. "A little more brandy and I might open up. We'll put this off another night. You're drunk."

"Give it another half-hour and I will be," Lucina says. "These things take time to kick in. You don't have to go."

"And what would be the point of me staying here?" Azura replies. She sounds like she's daring Lucina to argue. Lucina's head is getting foggier and she finds she wants to argue. Or cry, or have that night's breakdown about her dead friends and family and how terrible her life is, or whatever. Something tells her it'd be easier if she were dead and she tells it to shut up, Brad.

Lucina shrugs. "Want some?"

Azura takes her up on that offer. She takes a sip and coughs after it goes down. "You'll have to forgive me," she says. "I don't usually drink."

"So I'm special?" Lucina chuckles. "I understand if you're done for the night, though. I imagine you don't want to risk getting too drunk and spilling things you'd rather I don't hear."

Azura hums. "Aren't we perceptive."

"Actually, I'm usually not," Lucina admits. "I'm bad with sarcasm, and most metaphors. When I first met Selena, she told me she'd gotten arrested for grand theft when she was six and was going to be executed, but they put it off because she was too short for the execution block until she was nine, and then she'd gotten recruited into the army because of her particular thievery-related skillset. It didn't occur to me that she was making it up for at least a year. She mentioned a birthday party when she was eight and I asked wait, weren't you in prison then? And she laughed for at least an hour. Though she never did say it was explicitly false."

Azura snorts at that— actually snorts, then covers her mouth with her hand. "So today is special? Or is it me?"

"I'm not sure," Lucina shrugs. "I think it's because I know a lot of people like you."

Azura's not sure how to respond to that. She takes a swig from the bottle of shadowberry brandy and hands it back to Lucina. Lucina takes the bottle but doesn't take a drink from it.

"I meant what I said," Lucina says. "I do care. I do want to know. I understand if you don't want to share, but— you can understand my thought process."

Azura wants to brush her off, but Lucina doesn't sound like she's judging. She sounds concerned, honestly concerned, for Azura's wellbeing. Azura knows how to deal with judgement. This? This is new territory.

"Why bother?" she asks. "Did that one night really make you care this much? If that's the case, I'll have to check and see who else here can't have a simple one-night stand without dragging feelings into the mix."

Lucina shrugs. "Honestly, I don't know. I suppose it's just— instinct." Instinct was one word for it. It felt more like a feeling, a feeling of crashing waves and rolling thunder and wind that stings her cheeks, a whirlwind of a woman that left her reeling in her bunk and left with barely a word— the smell of rainwater in her nose and metal in her mouth. Sometimes storms are forgettable but sometimes they are so earth-shaking that one can feel the aftershocks at the slightest reminder. Azura is a storm and Lucina is the one standing up to her knees in the floodwaters, watching her roll past the horizon with her wind and her rain and her lightning and thunder. Perhaps Lucina was one of those people that couldn't have a one-night stand without dragging emotions into the mix.

Azura is quiet for a long time. She takes another swig from the bottle. There's not much left, but they can get more if they need to. Then she shrugs. "It's easy."

"Sex is easy?" Lucina repeats, frowning. In her experience it was anything but— it was complicated and all-consuming but during the end of the world it was a comfort, something that reminded her she was still alive despite everything. It was revelry sometimes, celebrating that the day had not killed her, and sometimes it was living life the fullest she knew how before certain death the next day. As a young adult it was tossed around among her friends, the ones that were adults, but it was never easy. They all understood the weight behind it. Hearing that Azura thought it was easy felt strange.

"It's just another dance," Azura shrugs. "But it's— well, what else can I do? I can't control who I've been fighting for, who I've been following. I have nowhere else to go and nobody else to turn to. I don't have a choice what my circumstances are and I'm pretty sure that if it weren't for Corrin and his peace crusade, I'd be stuck up some tower in Hoshido like a songbird in a cage, watching the little people get crushed in a war between two superpowers and doing my job for the royals, singing on command and never asking when I'll get to go home."

She takes a breath. "Sex is easy because I choose it," she says. "Nobody can tell me what I can and can't do with my body."

Lucina lets that sink in. "Doesn't it ever hurt?" she asks.

Azura laughs bitterly. "I wouldn't do it if it didn't."

"It's not supposed to," Lucina says.

"And you're the expert now?" Azura retorts.

Lucina hesitates. "It's not supposed to hurt," she says. "It's—" Not love, at least not romantic love— it's connection, celebration, living. Appreciating that you're not dead yet and embracing that you may die tomorrow. The epitome of youth in the midst of chaos.

"If it doesn't hurt then how do I know it's happening?" Azura finally says. "What am I supposed to do? How do I know it's really there and I'm not just— just slipping through the cracks?" Floating away, dissolving into puddles of rainwater that seep into the ground and vanish when the sun comes out. She's gripping her arm now, fingernails digging into her skin. There are bruises on the backs of her arms. Lucina can see it because her dress is sleeveless, cinched only at the sleeves and draped the rest of the way down, cut simply but Azura's slender figure makes it look elegant. It's fabric that's soft with wear and smells faintly like it was sitting in a massive bolt of fabric intended to be used for curtains or tablecloths, like making it into a dress was an afterthought.

And Lucina doesn't know how to respond to that. "You just know," she says, her voice hoarse. "There's— there's something that clicks when it's happening. Near the end, I think. The fact that someone else can make you move the way you do, feel the way you do, kind of sinks in and then everything that ever was makes sense. You feel so real and there and alive for a moment that it's almost a shame when the peak hits and then everything's a rush of sounds and feelings. That's at least how it's worked for me."

Azura considers this for a long time. She corks the bottle of brandy and sets it on Lucina's bedside table, then moves like she's about to leave the bunk. Her bare feet are nearly silent on the stone floor. Does she have shoes? But she doesn't reach for the knob— instead she turns back to Lucina, and moves so her arms are on Lucina's shoulders, and then they're kissing again. Lucina puts her hands on Azura's waist. Azura has one knee on the bunk and the other between Lucina's legs. 
"Show me," she says.

For a moment she wants to. But she's half-drunk and she knows this is another of Azura's attempts to make it hurt.

"I can't now," she says. "I wouldn't be able to touch you like you deserve." It's a romantic way to say that she's going to have trouble moving her fingers in the right way. Azura deserves better than a sloppy drunk for a paramour, if only for the night, after Lucina's just promised her something mind-blowing.

Azura laughs. "It's not funny," Lucina tries to say. But Azura just shakes her head and pushes Lucina's hair out of her face. 
"You have interesting notions about what I deserve," Azura comments.

And then she stands, and leaves, and takes the breath from Lucina's lungs as she goes.

#robo blabs #my writing #fire emblem #fire emblem fates #lucizura #femslash