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baphometsgirlcock · 8 months

Text

The Same Old Song and Dance

[18+]

[CW: discussions of past starvation, general emotional intensity]

Irelia could not sleep. The barracks below the Sentinels' base in Ionia was well-kept, the beds free of dust and the bedding intact and clean. But the air was still stale and idle. It smelled of the stagnation that beget rot. Even as she knew the door to the outside was a short walk away, that the fresh and salty air of Ionia’s coast could be within reach within minutes, its present absence clawed at her sense of familiarity. She felt displaced, in that way she had a few times before, sleeping alone in towns visited once and never again, a stranger somewhere that others called home but she could not.

It was a loneliness that always reminded her of Riven, of the feeling of the woman’s chapped lips against her own on that morning before her exile was enforced, of the ephemeral tang of the fruit they had shared for breakfast, of the long glances back that implied promises of things that could not be, of silent oaths neither could keep.

Of the sight of a sail dipping below the vast blue-grey horizon.

Irelia shoved off her blankets and crossed to the door of her room, busying her hands with tying her hair back into a more manageable ponytail, opening the door with an elbow and slipping out into the hallway.

There were a little more than a dozen rooms in the barracks, almost all unoccupied. Neither Pyke nor Gwen seemed to need sleep, and both Vayne and Diana were distinctly nocturnal. No doubt Senna and Lucian were up above as well, anxiously planning their next move. Irelia could hear Olaf snoring distantly from two rooms to the left, but she only had eyes for one door. A soft light spilled out from underneath the threshold, making evident the wakefulness of its occupant.

Irelia’s hand was halfway to the door’s handle before she was able to catch herself. Calm breaths. Remain in control. Storming into her old flame’s room and ravishing the woman definitely felt like the most fitting outcome for the desperation currently sending a constant fidget down her fingers, but...there was too much complicating that. Riven was easily startled and quick to panic. Riven needed to control her environment. Riven had not made clear if a year apart had changed her feelings.

Irelia had caught the woman staring a few times over the past week. During meetings, across hallways, in passing. Lingering glances that Irelia could only ever read as “I need to know you’re still here” when she felt optimistic, and “I know what to say but I don’t know how to say it” when otherwise.

Riven, it seemed, was even more exhaustingly careful than she used to be.

Irelia raised her hand and rapped her knuckles twice against the door. “It’s me,” she said, and was close to second-guessing that assumptive familiarity when the response came.

“Oh, yes, Irelia, uh...yes. You can come in.”

Irelia opened the door, and closed it behind her.

Riven was in bed, the covers pulled up to her chest, an open book on her lap and a skewed sheepish smile on her face. Her clothes were haphazardly slung over a chair, and her broken sword’s hilt – wrapped now in white Demacian steel – rested on a nearby table. Her hair was even more pale now, no longer the sun bleached dusty silver it had been, a near-blue in the unnatural light from a Sentinel torch set in the wall above the table.

Irelia almost had to bite her lip to keep from smiling. “You still sleep naked?”

“Only when I can afford to,” Riven laughed, glancing away, her cheeks faintly rosy. “It’s been a bit of a Sentinel selling point. Noxian cells didn’t exactly give me much affordance for privacy.”

She said it like it was nothing. Like it didn’t bother her. “I see. And you’re...” Words failed her. So much Irelia wanted to ask. Nothing she didn’t dread the answer of. “I’m glad you’re here, then.” Out of the cells. Out of Noxus. She didn’t mean for it to sound...

Riven beamed. “Thank you. I’m glad you’re here too.”

That soft, husky voice sent a fluttering breath into Irelia’s throat. No taking it back now. She took a deep breath of stale air. Cowardice would end tonight back in an empty room with regret stinging at the corners of her eyes. Irelia was tired of the silence. Exhausted from its ubiquity. From so long away from the other Blade Dancers, from Liania and Zinneia, and...yes, from Riven. That particular silence had festered far longer.

Irelia took another step, watching Riven’s eyes flick down towards her bare legs, towards the hem of her nightdress, and then a little too-quickly back to her face, the woman’s lips pursed.

“I missed you,” Irelia said.

“Never a day went by that I didn’t,” Riven replied. Utterly, painfully solemn.

“I wish you’d fought to stay,” Irelia said, eyes locked on Riven’s face, tracing the shape of the wince. Waiting, hoping. Bite back. Defend against it. Don’t get Irelia’s hopes up.

Riven didn’t shy away. “I know. I’m sorry. You have every right to be angry.”

Irelia paused. She was at the foot of Riven’s bed now. Was it passivity? Or something else? Something Irelia refused to name. “I’m not angry. I missed you, and I would have liked it if I didn’t have to.”

A twitch of a smile tugged at the corner of Riven’s mouth. “You have every right to that, too.” A long, careful breath. “I’ve found...I have a nasty habit of trying to keep myself from the things – and the people – who keep me happy. Something to do with not deserving that joy.”

Riven idly traced nonsense-shapes into the blanket with one finger as she talked. “It took, I think, too long for me to realize how selfish that was. It’s not a behavior I want to keep. Isolating myself...well, it only does my misery any good. I don’t doubt it’s caused pain for those who care about me.” A flick of gaze back towards Irelia.

It would have been appropriate for Irelia to laugh. To draw from that lonely spite that had left her dry-sobbing into her pillow on more than one occasion, like a lovesick teenage girl she should have outgrown. Irelia didn’t feel spiteful. She felt something uncurl inside her, a deep pooling warmth licking at the underside of her ribcage. Something so horribly hopeful. A word that rhymed with want.

“I make you happy,” Irelia said. A deadpan question. Giving Riven the rope to bind herself with.

“You make me happy,” Riven repeated. “So dreadfully. It scared me.”

“Scared you?”

A little flick of gaze away, then back. Irelia slipped closer, around the edge of the bed.

“When people have power over me,” Riven finally said. “I’m used to that being a bad thing – a dangerous thing. It’s supposed to make me panic.” A wobble of lips that was almost a smile. “I’m not used to enjoying it.” Tying the knot around her own wrists.

“You like that I have power over you?” Irelia shifted one knee onto the bed, testing the waters. When Riven didn’t answer right away, she pressed further. “You want me to have more power over you?”

Riven picked up the open book on her lap. Without looking, she tossed it onto the nearby table, rattling her blade. The action shifted the blanket entirely off Riven’s chest, but she made no attempt to cover herself.

“I don’t know if you could,” she said, a hoarse whisper that drew Irelia closer, had her slip entirely onto the bed, her leg brushing against Riven’s through the blanket. “I haven’t...I’ve spared no humility.” She swallowed, loud enough to hear. “I’ve nothing left of me to offer that you don’t already have.”

“Say it clearly,” Irelia whispered back. Her hand found the hem of the blanket, grasping it tightly. Waiting. “Tell me.”

“You own me,” Riven said, words without breath. “I’m yours, still yours.”

That was enough. Irelia pulled the covers up and over and off, a flash of bare skin and a storm of touch, pulled into Riven’s arms as much by gravity as her own volition, and she kissed nose and cheek and chin before finding her lips and desperately, needfully, planting kiss after kiss after kiss on them. Irelia’s arms were by Riven’s sides, hands flat on the mattress, keeping her from falling fully onto the woman. Though...

Irelia shifted. Jitters of motion, bit at a time when their lips were parted. Riven’s legs had been together on the left of hers, but Irelia managed to slip one leg in between, parting them. By the time her thigh rested flush between Riven’s, practically straddling her, the woman’s breath had shifted from husky to high-pitched, almost a whimper of want drowned out by her lips crashing into Irelia’s again, pulling her closer. Irelia’s elbows buckled, a desperate hand on Riven’s side to keep herself stable, and–

She could feel Riven’s ribs. Irelia blinked. She tried to catch herself, squinting past the haze of arousal. Hand down Riven’s side – tasting the hiss of breath that came alongside a jolt of tension – just to make sure, before she returned it to the mattress. She could feel her ribs.

When they’d first met, that year ago, Riven had the body of a farmer. Strong and soft, well-fed. She’d picked Irelia up once, one arm across her back and the other under her legs, only straining when Irelia went limp and made it difficult on purpose. How could Riven ever feel frail to the touch? How could she ever...

They’d starved her. Noxus had starved her Riven. The thought bared Irelia’s teeth into the kiss, and had her digging her nails into the mattress.

It was with hunger that Riven kissed her. Her hands splayed across Irelia’s back, fingers pressing into her skin, craning her chin up ever so slightly to chase Irelia’s touch whenever she parted the kiss to breathe. Her quick and sharp breath danced on Irelia’s lips, each exhalation tasting like the shape of a silent “please” reflected so apparently in her eyes. Their distance had found Irelia roughly, but this was...

Riven sighed, and the sound sent a jolt through Irelia. “Rel. You’re doing it again.” She could feel the woman smiling into the tender kiss she pressed to her lips. “Be here with me, okay? Please be here with me.” Smart. Smart and right. Smart and right and careful even though her voice was laden with lust to the point of shuddering.

Irelia scrunched her face up until her ears popped, and then opened them again. She’d missed this. Missed her. “I’m here,” she said. A peck. “I’m here.” Longer, lingering. “I’m here.”

“Nowhere else?” Riven asked, and she sounded too desperate to be teasing.

“Nowhere else,” Irelia said. “I want to be here.” Leaning further, just a little, planting a kiss on Riven’s cheek before lowering her voice to a whisper. “I’ve been dreaming for months about making you mine again.”

She watched Riven melt. Eyes lowering to half-lid, her shoulders dropping, the smallest of whimpers drifting out of her.

A smirk found Irelia. Had she really forgotten how fun this could be - should be? Time may have intensified the longing, but Riven had always been rather sensitive, hadn’t she? Just to test, she leaned in a little further, pressing her chest against Riven’s and nipping at her earlobe. The beautiful little sound she made was almost as good as the embarrassed grumble in her throat when Irelia burst into giggles.

“Needy,” Irelia teased.

“Yours,” Riven groaned; and Irelia was glad her face was obscured from sight to hide the intensity of the heat that hit her cheeks, though there was no hiding the way her breath quickened.

Irelia pushed herself up again and was immediately bombarded with kisses, returning them with gusto, nipping at Riven’s lips. And then Riven started to roll her hips and the very first bit of motion pressed her thigh into Irelia’s crotch and Irelia broke the kiss and bit her lip hard to keep quiet. Oh that felt good. Oh no that felt good.

The thigh-to-thigh position of their legs had been intended to tease Riven – and it seemed to be working well at that, judging by the heat permeating into Irelia’s leg through strained fabric, accompanied by an inconsistent throbbing that made her feel almost lightheaded with need – but Irelia couldn’t deny it had certain consequences as well. With each roll of Riven’s hips, not only could Irelia feel the woman’s dick against her leg through her underwear, but the return stroke brought Riven’s thigh up against Irelia’s clothed cunt, almost bouncing her on her leg, and it shouldn’t have felt this good but it really did.

Her own hips started to move before she noticed, which did have the benefit of getting a choked whine out of Riven – scratch that, even the whine felt electric up Irelia’s spine, and she felt her elbows shudder to the point of buckling again.

“Hold, I, Riven, stop for, just–” A breathless string of words that thankfully got the point across. Riven stopped immediately, and it was only then that Irelia noticed how fast the both of them were breathing.

“What do you need?” Riven asked immediately. “What can I do?”

Still such a sweetheart. Irelia rewarded her with a peck on the lips. “Arms tired. I need to adjust.” One hand on the nearest wall for balance, dragging herself a little bit upright and blessedly away from her self-made pleasure trap, other hand on Riven’s shoulder rather than the mattress. Riven’s own hands shifted from Irelia’s back to her hips; dangerous, but she could manage.

Riven nodded. “Do you want to be on the bottom?”

Oh. Okay no not a chance the thought of Riven pinning her to the bed sent a jolt down her spine that ended in her pussy. “No, that's okay,” she wheezed. Irelia was still in control. She was the one setting the terms. Riven was hers, that’s how this would–

“Please?” Oh no. “I’d...I mean, if you’re up for it, I don’t want to assume but...” Oh no. “I’d really like to make you cum. Please, Rel.”

Irelia closed her eyes and grit her teeth and prayed her body didn’t remember how good that would feel and her body definitely did. “Yeah,” she said, eyes still closed. “Okay. Yes.”

A second passed. “Yes what?”

...no. She was not doing this right now. Irelia opened her eyes to see Riven’s expression halfway to serene with just the tiniest bit of a smirk. “Yes please,” Irelia responded.

Her expression did not change. Just kept on staring up at her with those calm, beautiful eyes. “Yes please what?”

There was no way out of this with her dignity intact, was there? Irelia swallowed hard, and brought herself down onto Riven’s chest, and counted to three in her head, and said the magic words. “Please make me cum, Riven.”

And if Riven hadn’t looked hungry before, that glint in her eyes was ravenous. She shifted and scooted to the side, one arm up and around Irelia’s shoulders to bring her onto her back on the bed in a lurch of motion. She waited for Riven to sit up over her, to pin her down, and...

Kept waiting. Riven was reclining on her side against the wall, at the edge of the mattress, with Irelia flat on her back. One of Riven’s arms was under her shoulders, the other across her stomach. Halfway to spooning. Irelia furrowed her brow, turning her head to find Riven’s gaze.

“Is your arm stuck?” Irelia asked.

Riven shook her head. “Just stay put. You’re right where you should be.”

Did she know what those words did? How they pooled in the pit of Irelia’s stomach?

With her right hand, Riven took Irelia’s own hand to her lips and kissed it, then brought that arm up and over her shoulders so her chest could be flush against Irelia’s side, and Irelia’s hand was against the back of Riven’s neck. Then that right hand went once again back to Irelia’s stomach, to where the hem of her nightdress was riding up, and lower.

“You’re not breathing.”

Irelia breathed.

“Good girl.”

Fuck.

Riven put her hand down against Irelia’s crotch, and Irelia let her head fall back and stopped trying to watch it happen. She felt it. Those fingers dragged up the wet fabric, all the way to her clit, and Irelia whined into her throat, unsure if she felt more relieved or disappointed when the touch lifted only a second later. When she felt Riven’s fingertips against the waistband of her underwear, Irelia’s hips bucked involuntarily at nothing, a little hiss slipping between her teeth.

“Easy,” Riven laughed – she laughed. The sadist. Down danced her fingers, under the waistband–

Irelia’s knees had been up and slightly together, but feeling that single thick, rough middle finger grinding down on her bare clit was enough to drop her thighs to either side as a weezing whimper of barely stifled pleasure was wrenched out of her.

Maybe Irelia wouldn’t admit to herself that she’d longed for Riven’s touch again, but it seemed her body had no such qualms towards such honesty. Her hips were already jittering, a squirm towards chasing that hand in her underwear, chasing the pleasure that wasn't nearly enough for her year-long itch.

“Good girl,” Riven whispered, and another of Irelia’s choked moans followed it. “I didn’t even have to ask, and you spread your legs for me.” For her. For her. For her. If she asked in that husky fucking voice, Riven could probably get her to offer up anything. Everything.

Irelia could almost feel the arousal dripping out of her. No doubt Riven could feel it too, with the way she was running her middle fingertip up and down her weeping vulva, the underside of her knuckle still curling so dizzyingly against Irelia’s clit. Irelia couldn’t breathe but for her whimpering; how could anything be this synapse-frying and still yet not enough!?

“M-m-more,” Irelia managed, barely a word, torn apart by her own half-chattering teeth.

“More, Rel?” Riven asked. So painfully sincere. A flash of those soft amber eyes paled by the light, through the blinding haze of pleasure. “Another finger?”

Irelia nodded, but it left her closer to a convulsion. “In...in me.” And she screwed her eyes closed and clenched her jaw and braced for Riven to provide.

She did not have to wait long. Two thick fingers pushed into her cunt, steadily and slowly all the way into her, and Irelia groaned into her closed mouth, a little slipping through her lips so her left hand clamped over her own mouth, and her back was arched and this had felt good before, a year ago maybe she’d cum on Riven’s fingers a few dozens times over the span of a week, but this fullness was–

“Breathe, Rel.” The sternness of Riven’s voice and the feeling of her hand pulling at Irelia’s knocked a gasp out of her, a whimper soon following, Irelia opening her eyes and turning her head to search for her fault in Riven’s eyes, only to be met with a lingering kiss. “Please,” Riven said, the moment their lips parted. “Please let me hear you. Irelia, please stop holding back. For me, please.”

Magic words. “Riven,” she keened, before the shifting of the woman’s fingers inside her melted whatever apology she could have been mustering. Riven pulled them out to the last knuckle, then pushed back into her, and Irelia could feel her flexing them against the roof of her pussy and a twelve month dam cracked wide open.

“Fuck! Fuck fuck Riven fuck please please more please keep just anything keep fucking me please Riven please–!” Babbling whatever bare coherency she could grasp, with her right hand anchored on the back of Riven’s neck and her left hand flailing desperately for an anchor against the mattress, and Riven just kept pumping her fingers in and out of Irelia’s cunt. “I’m yours please I’m yours I’m yours!” And every word ignited a new set of fireworks, clenching down hard around Riven’s fingers.

“Cum for me Rel, please cum for me.”

Irelia’s gut dropped before she noticed the precipice. Then the orgasm was flattening her lungs and she whimpered out a long breath that rhymed with her lover’s name, and Riven was cooing something sweet and sonorous and peppering Irelia’s face with kisses. Irelia’s entire body was buzzing and warm and tense all at the same time.

The coldness crept in slowly. Little shards of lucidity. The bed beneath her ass felt cold – wet, a word grasped with a growing sense of shame. Her heart was pounding too-loudly in her ears. Little pockets of tenderness were unraveling as the tension drained from her, and swathes of sweat were making themselves known across her skin. Irelia felt beyond winded. Her eyes were prickling and her nose itched. A single wobble of her lip clued the puzzle in.

“Oh, love,” Riven whispered, and the arm around Irelia’s shoulders shifted and she followed the motion into Riven’s embrace. Irelia grasped for fabric on the woman she could not find, something to hold, something to cling to, something to keep her here; the moment those words rang across her skull, the tears flowed freely.

Irelia pressed her face into Riven’s neck and dug her fingers into the muscles on her back and sobbed, and Riven rubbed her back and whispered a constant chain of comforting nothings. “I’m here, I’ve got you, I’m sorry, you’re safe, I love you, I’m here...” and again. And again. And again.

#baph fic #riven konte #irelia xan #lol #league of legends #rivirelia #riverelia #idk how the ship name is spelled

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deathdxnces · 8 months

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💭 + riven (i know u hate the ruination stuff but i wanna hear about how u think irelia should have handled it)

SEND 💭 + A TOPIC/WORD/QUESTION AND I'LL WRITE A META ABOUT IT

— @couturiere (this is so old but. hi. also sorry i wrote a complete essay--)

uahsishdis listen i don't think all of the ruination stuff is necessarily terrible. i actually just particularly dislike what was done with irelia, and the stuff with riven is a major part of it. but i think the thing is it needed time an event like that was never going to be able to give it.

irelia's hatred towards noxians runs quite deep after everything she endured because of them, and it is pretty generalized. i said it a bunch of times before but she doesn't see in them enemies who are also people; her views are very harsh and dehumanizing. and that's towards any noxian; but riven isn't any noxian. she was actively part of the invasion.

a fact that, according to their interaction during the ruination, irelia is aware of. so you put her with a noxian who was military and part of this specific invasion, one of those who actually did cut down her people, and who changed her mind only when she saw what noxus was doing to all of them (noxians included) with the chembombs... well. don't expect irelia to be civil in the slightest. she couldn't care less riven feels guilty now. her single redeeming quality is that she doesn't serve the empire anymore, and even then, irelia would think it rings hollow if she's not actively opposing them.

i went back to steadfast heart because although irelia appears very briefly, i remembered i didn't hate what was there, and i do stand by it! i think her initial reaction as portrayed in the comic is very in character.

she is, from the start, very aggressive. ready to attack, really, her blades already pointed at riven. and even when senna tries to intervene and calm her down, irelia is still angry. as she should be! like i said, from her point of view, knowing riven had a role in the invasion, she shouldn't be able to just let go of that anger immediately.

and i think it makes sense a world-ending threat works to force irelia to not try to kill her immediately! it is what stops her in the comic, even though it's made obvious her hatred hasn't diminished in the slightest. she actually makes a point to ensure riven she hasn't forgotten and ionia will not forget — the truce is temporary, because saving the world matters most and she can't do it alone, and the sentinels won't help if she kills riven.

so in that regard, i think the comic does a good job. but because i really want to take this opportunity and run with it to talk about everything ruination related and what i like and dislike about it, i went back to watch the visual novel stuff. it starts well! irelia does outright attack which is even better than threatening to.

and although she stops when it's said they're sentinels, her first reaction is still to question riven's presence (and the sentinels' legitimacy, as a result). she questions why they'd be working with a known war criminal, and when it's obvious her issue is with riven, senna questions what's the matter with riven (which. valid i suppose, i don't think she's bothered to catch up with the noxus-ionia situation uashuhsa). and it's actually!! really good that irelia also makes a point to say some may have forgiven riven, but she didn't.

riven says irelia is right, she did many things she regrets, etc etc, irelia isn't moved. and then after that i don't like how it goes aisudhfiu but i won't get in details not riven related, since that was the question. when she does agree to work with the sentinels, she still refuses to address riven directly and tells senna to 'keep that one' away from her because she doesn't trust her. she also makes a point of riven having to stay outside when they meet karma, because it is a sacred place she won't let riven defile with her presence c:

lots of things that aren't relevant to this discussion happen, and they interact after irelia joins the sentinels. during the fight with karma, she hits irelia pretty bad and riven is the one to step up and save her, a fact riven is eager to point out. irelia is not impressed. she actually doesn't hesitate to be pretty brutal in her reply.

riven doesn't reply, irelia says even though they're both sentinels they're not allies. riven says she was 'trying to be polite' and storms off. in other chapters they sometimes have little interactions (irelia continues to be as unfriendly as she can and riven answers with sarcasm). interesting to note that in the p&z part irelia says she's seen what the chemicals can do, and points out so does riven c:

i do like when she's being mean. i still think it's what makes the most sense. i also think it makes a lot of sense that when she does that, she clearly hits a sore spot (and it is! this is such an important part of riven's story!) so riven immediately argues, for once seriously instead of being sarcastic. it doesn't go further than that because senna steps in.

when they go to ixtal, senna sends them to scout a part of the forest together, which irelia immediately protests, and riven agrees. senna's commentary is really tone-deaf imo, because she says they need to stop fighting like school children when this. is literally two people from two opposite sides of a war that shaped so much of what they both are now, and who have plenty of reason to be antagonistic.

i especially take issue with it looking at the situation from irelia's side. not getting along with a war criminal who led armies that decimated your land and killed your people is at least to be expected. she's not being petty or childish, and i think this is where i start to have an issue with the story — because it's not just senna's point of view, it's how the story itself starts to treat the entire situation, and it's absurd to me to reduce it like that (and it's because they don't take the situation seriously enough that riven and irelia ultimately end up on good terms, but i'll get there).

it doesn't really change things immediately. in bilgewater's part irelia makes a little speech to convince mf to work with them, and riven comments it was really good and even she felt inspired and irelia just answers do not speak to me sdkfjn so yeah. nothing seems to have changed. let's keep that in mind for now. but also, again, the story tries to make the not getting along seem childish, to the point when irelia says don't talk to me, riven's reply is fine (... didn't want to talk to you anyway) which. tell me this isn't purposefully making it seem petty and childish. and it's not! it shouldn't be! that's not how you deal with the relationship between a person who lost all her loved ones and saw her land and her people slaughtered by another nation trying to conquer them and a second person who was! part! of! the! invading! army! a leader, even. there's nothing trivial about that.

anyway. in the next chapter they're on speaking terms ausdahfsifh it's a jarring development considering how they had interacted so far. because from the start it's obvious riven has no issue with irelia, and that even when her answer is to be sarcastic, that's a bit of self-defense. irelia, on the other hand, continues to have every reason to not be nice to riven, and nothing happens to change that. but suddenly, right at the beginning of the chapter, riven approaches her again (which, also.... not a good look, imo, knowing irelia has every reason to resent her and how she keeps going after her and trying to interact even though irelia made it clear she's not comfortable with that. and it could easily be solved with them having to interact more due to circumstance, but that's not how it's written, it's riven repeatedly trying to get irelia to talk to her).

anyway. back to what i was saying. riven approaches irelia again, and this time irelia doesn't outright shun her. she answers, and they just make small talk about the previous mission. irelia actually keeps the conversation going when riven hesitates. it doesn't make sense. but it doesn't last long either, cut short by awkward silence and irelia saying she's going to sharpen her blades, except riven uses that to continue talking and asks how did irelia break hers. irelia only replies noxians (screams in i didn't remember that but i said that's how she'd talk about it to most people most of the time just the other day), riven apologizes, irelia returns the question, riven says also noxians? (...guess that's kinda true). which. okay. i guess.

and then. there's the last chapter. and they're only really relevant again post final battle. where this exchange happens

by the actual end, when irelia says she has to go back to ionia, riven is already saying she hopes she'll see her again very soon.

which is followed by irelia thinking she's being sarcastic, riven saying it's sincere, and although irelia says nothing in return they did change the sprite to the happy one so.

this is already long af and i've just been reviewing how things are portrayed. you asked how i think irelia should've handled it. i think, for the most part, in both versions her initial reaction is accurate. she's angry, distrustful, reluctant to cooperate. she still accepts, because it's the world at stake.

but she wouldn't at any point be nice, there'd be no effort made to get along with riven, i don't think she'd care that senna or whoever calls it petty and childish. irelia is very certain she is in the right. she has no reason to make any effort. why would she? she wouldn't think riven earned it in any way.

i do think the 'you saved my life' trope could work to get them beyond that, otherwise irelia would just be endlessly antagonistic. but it'd have to be played differently. it'd have to be a meaningful gesture to get irelia to somewhat start to be anything other than aggressive or cold. and after that, i still don't think she'd be receptive to riven generally speaking, even less so if riven insisted on trying to talk to her when she's already established she doesn't want riven anywhere near her. and it'd be even worse with how riven comes across as trying really hard to say she's not the monster irelia accuses her of being. she had a change of heart? what difference does it make to the thousands she was involved in killing? what difference does it make when she only changed her mind when it was noxians being hit by the chembombs too?

i think it'd be far more accurate to her as a character to not have that change easily, and certainly not before riven did something that would, in irelia's eyes, have earned her some respect. even then, it'd take a lot of time and development to get irelia anywhere near the way they are by the end of the event. which, honestly, only makes it seem like she didn't bother with remembering all that much in the end lmao reluctant allies is fine. slowly (very slowly) getting irelia to let down her defenses and tolerate her? yeah i can see it, in a story written better than that. but actual friendship? to casually joke around, to be happy riven wants to see her again soon? that wouldn't be reached easily. it's possible (i do like the idea, actually, i'm not at all opposed to it) but it'd take a lot of time. it'd be a slow process. it'd take effort on riven's part, too, well beyond trying to talk to her and being upset when she's not receptive.

looking at it the way the story is developed, i just think irelia has no real reason to change her mind about riven. nothing happens that justifies that (even the life saving situation is right at the beginning and irelia is just like yeah whatever at best). so, to me, it'd make more sense for them to stay reluctant allies throughout all the ruination (it doesn't last that long, iirc? even though they go to a bunch of regions but anyway). irelia becoming more tolerant of her presence, maybe. the way she'd handle it, to me, really is to just accept there are greater threats to fight now and they're both some of the few people in the world capable of doing it. i can totally see irelia by the end of it no longer immediately going for murder as she did at the start (and that's progress! she's not at all tolerant towards other noxians like that, much less the ones that actively took part in the invasion). but i think that's the best irelia would be able to offer.

because, ultimately, there's some really heavy stuff between them. the event establishes irelia knows very well who riven is and what she was up to, that she was a commander, that she was around when noxus started using the chembombs, that irelia witnessed their impact firsthand. how do you get over all that? and especially for a character like irelia, to whom the war was extremely defining when it comes to who she is, what she fights for, how she views the world and of course how she views noxus, i don't see her being capable of really forgiving riven for all that. irelia isn't someone who lets things go easily. and she still has so much hate and anger and resentment and hurt especially where noxus is concerned. i wouldn't say it's outright impossible for her to have a positive relationship with riven eventually but when i say i think it'd take time i mean a long time, as well as a reason to believe riven has truly changed. and leaving noxus isn't enough for that.

so when it comes to the ruination specifically and how i think irelia should've acted, i think it starts very well and true to her character. my real issue is with how it goes as the story progresses, and that there is a change that isn't justified. i think it'd make more sense for her to remain closer to how she was at first, albeit less aggressive and antagonistic, but definitely not friendly either. that, or the story would have to be significantly different to justify her behavior changing.

#if anyone reads all this you're the real one #ksjdnfjkasnf #i assume you love me lots #because it's way too long and incoherent #i don't expect even mythe to read all of this lmao #i wrote sm #but. well #i guess that's my detailed take on what is good and what isn't when it comes to irelia and riven in the ruination #» out of character — ⌜main sup irl.⌟#» character study — ⌜both the tranquil sea and the tempest.⌟

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