#Cronyl Eldenwere

[tryingtimi]

Hey! If you’d like to do the Spotify drabbles, then perhaps song 45? 💖

The Turning

Shape of Lies by Eternal Eclipse. It's a half finished snippet, and the final chapter before the epilogue in the first book, so yeah. The song was just to perfect for that.

Context: The Metalsea is turning, and therefore the world is changing in its core.

BOOK I EXPLORATION | ACTION | DEATH AND DESPAIR | WC: 576

The world began to rip apart around Cronyl.

He squinted with his metal eye, keeping his red one closed just so he could never lose focus. Buildings cracked and split, two half crumbling into dust. People scattered around the falling bits, running for their lives as metal columns rose from the ground.

Cronyl inhaled deeply, doing everything in his power to seal his mind, keeping out every scream, every destruction.

Then, he kicked off dust and dirt as he began to run.

His hand grabbed a nearby child’s shirt, along with her mother’s basket, yanking them away from the falling rock bit. With dagger-sharp wrist spikes, he slit through the skirts of the girl who was stuck by a brothel’s entrance, the heavy wooden door nearly crushing her. The building wobbled, and he pulled the girl closer, turning around and around, chased by collapsing, painted walls in their way. His tunic was torn to pieces as she held onto him with sharpened nails.

Cronyl let her go when the building lay in ruin, running forward with a speed he didn’t know was in him.

He ran, kicking and shoving into the open field as many people as he could reach.

His metal eye could catch glimpses of where the columns would break out from the earth, yet he was only mortal. People screamed as some stuck on the tops, sliding down and banging to the earth below. Someone hit the ground right before Cronyl’s feet, forcing him to stumble back.

Focus.

He did not let his gaze fall on there, staring only forward to regain momentum. Only to be knocked off of his feet entirely.

Head hitting the dirt hard, sharp nails sunken in flesh, Cronyl held onto the body that tried to mash him. Two arms clenched around his torso like a heavy lock’s crushing embrace. He didn’t let them stop, using the emerging metal platform to roll farther on the ground, grunting and yelling. The collapsing world spun before his eyes, someone’s deep and desperate voice echoing in his ears. He smashed his wrist spike into the other’s hand, slicing up the arm from wrist to elbow. Earning a release along with a shout, they fell in position, Cronyl laying on his attacker with his back, he hopped on his sore feet.

Not wasting a minute, he spared just a glance for the aggressor.

Crimson blood stained the sparkingly white uniform, the Ivory Guard’s emblem on the shoulder half-ruined. The hulking man’s face screamed of agony, yet a sneer let out its mouth as he tried to get up, looking right at Cronyl.

But he didn’t have time for this.

Cronyl took off, hearing the swears and the destruction that most definitely buried the Guard under itself behind him. He picked up an abandoned piece of shield-in-the-making from the corner of the blacksmith shop’s ruins.

Two columns from under.

He jumped over the cracking earth, arriving with a long roll in the dirt, cutting and hitting every part of his half-naked body. A group of men shepherded their family under a bridge, that was about to collapse. Cronyl shouted as he rolled to his knees just in time to put the shield over some of the group before they were crushed by falling rocks. They ran with all they had, crying in their shouting agony.

[tryingtimi]

2✨

Too Old For My Hometown

Air by BamBam. It's a bop, but I actually sneaked in another song for this snippet. Which is more fitting lol. It's HOLO by LeeHi. Also, lmao, this one is from last year. Anyway, it's a fun lil experiment for writing a tale that another person tells to others. Enjoy!

MODERN AU | METALSEA AU | FLUFF | ANGST, CUZ A BIT SAD | WC: 1513

Avelyn was that girl to Cronyl.

They met on a chilly spring day when the sun just touched the horizon to dive under. He’s been back in Anore for two weeks, yet he was still an outsider. His job didn’t change much, in fact, it lessened. In the city, he needed many sleepless nights to keep up with work. Here, however, he could have a sleeping break at lunch if he wanted to.

It should have been peaceful.

He should have enjoyed a little bit less after having such a busy life for years.

Still, he didn’t.

For Cronyl it wasn’t appealing how friendly the neighbours were. He didn’t like that everyone could know each other by name. He did not crave the peacefulness of a quiet and seemingly happy village.

Not after a bloody divorce anyway.

And so he remained the ridiculous lone wolf he always was, never chit-chatting, never blending. Helping out wherever he could nevertheless, despite his distaste of the place.

Because he liked the village as an environment.

The quietness and simplicity might not have been what he sought — considering how he would have drowned himself in work rather than thinking about Syonehlia — but the view, well, that was decent.

So, he walked home from work on the usual pathway — sunflower fields framing both sides, the lively people still far away. The wind cooled down the early spring’s heat, so Cronyl could stroll the way he preferred to do it; briefcase and jacket draped over his shoulder, hanging from his fingers, shirt’s sleeves rolled up leisurely. He was tired, though not the satisfying kind you feel after a busy day full of accomplishments. It was more what you would call numbness, if anything.

Cronyl closed one of his eyes when the sun decided to give them a proper showdown of sunshine as a slow goodbye.

He kept his stare at the sky, nevertheless.

It was a little thing he started when he moved back, and that still gave him some kind of comfort.

Sure, it was his hobby, if you will. And the very thing that almost cost his life. (Yes, baby. I’m overexaggerating for dramatic effect.)

Cronyl could faintly hear the rattling of the old bicycle which raced down from the nearby hill every day. Yet, he only noticed how loud it became, when a moderately high-pitched squeak squeezed out of the mess of blonde locks, as she collided with him.

Avelyn gifted a bouquet of bruises and two cracked ribs to Cronyl on their first meeting.

He always says he can still smell the frowzy dandelions that spread in the nursing room. You see, Anore was so small, that they had no proper hospital, only a rural nursing building. Which seemed to be enough most of the time, and this time wasn’t an exception either.

Cronyl still needed to stay in, which definitely dragged some grumbling out of him.

She visited from the first day.

Avelyn — as it turned out — was one of the neighbours’ daughters; a local since birth. She wore the gentle smile of the anorean, farmed so diligently as his father, and cooked so deliciously as her mother. Which she showed Cronyl as well when she brought him soup as an apology.

Avelyn didn’t leave without a scratch either. A scraped knee and some aching parts of her body weren’t as important in her eyes as Cronyl’s injuries.

She didn’t say a thing when she entered the room, only looked around and when she found a chair, she pulled beside Cronyl’s bed. Her eyes searched for his, serious and determined. Then, when her gaze met his cocked eyebrow, her features turned sheepish, a lovely shade of red dancing across her cheeks. (Mhm, I saw it, I was there.)

She came the next, the one after and every day again, until Cronyl was eventually released.

He didn’t know where to put her. Cronyl was not someone used to such care from strangers. It made no sense why she kept visiting him after he made clear it was nothing. She seemed shy, yet chatted with him as if he was a close friend. Amusement was what she brought to Cronyl, something he didn’t really think he would find in here. He quite literally awaited her arrival at the end.

She asked him out the day she walked him from the building.

Rejection isn’t something that usually follows this, right? Spring blossomed on the cherry trees around them, but the doom-and-gloom wasn’t over yet. The numbness I mentioned, remember? A divorce is a tricky thing to get over if you can at all. It’s a transition from being with someone every minute to coming back to your hometown, alone. It leaves you with the feeling as if something was missing, even though everything you had was with you. Makes you numb for a time, too.

This is why, Cronyl did not go out with Avelyn.

He’d always been a strong-headed nitwit, and it wasn’t Anore, his hometown that would make him change. Or so he thought. Standing beside the awkwardly smiling Avelyn, he only seemed to think that they weren’t teenagers anymore to start off like that. As if he was way too old for this little friendly town, where life was as simple as falling in love.

“Oh god, don’t look at me like that. I’d rather you just be angry than do the whole disappointed face,” was what he said to my reaction to the confession. As if being angry at him would have changed anything. Just like I said, strong-headed nitwit.

Life had so much more stored for them, though. Bumping to each other every corner even if they didn’t try to meet, living beside one another, never escaping the parents’ favours from Cronyl to come to them and help out. You’d think it was embarrassing for them.

And oh how wrong you would have been then.

Despite everything, Avelyn never treated Cronyl differently than before. She brought him lunch whenever he helped out on the fields, joked about their frequent accidental meetings, and kept being shy about how much she loved her kindergarten job. She asked and listened like no one in this little community. Cronyl, in return, grew a meadow of respect for her in his chest. Never too close, never too approachable, they became friends. His first friend, since he moved back.

The lengthening peach days of spring didn’t seem to go by as fast when they met. His walk home was accompanied by the quiet rattling of the bicycle as she joined to the daily routine. Cronyl still didn’t enjoy the lessened work and the all-time happy people. But, his numbness began to falter.

It took a year for him to realise that she must have been the cause of it.

A year, which after Avelyn seemed to leave work way too early. His routine turned to peeking inside the kindergarten after leaving his tiny, flat-roofed workplace, so he could notice it before everything. Smiling at his worry when he mentioned the change, Avelyn told him she’d tell him only when his numbness faded away completely. Because even then, Cronyl clearly lived a life among the greying clouds, sheltered from the bursting yellow fields.

Most moments come to us unnoticed. Good or bad, happy or sad, the most memorable parts of our lives can build up without us being aware of it. Inch by inch, it piles, until we stop and look at it. But we can only see the result.

That was exactly how Cronyl felt when after another half a year, he faced two things.

Firstly, Avelyn called in sick more times than she went to meet with the children. They met more and more along the way to the nursing building. She slowed, however much she smiled. Their time didn’t thin away, yet it was clear to him that she forced herself sometimes. He might have been dense, but he wasn’t stupid. His time was waning by the minute.

Secondly, Cronyl couldn’t remember how it felt to be numb anymore.

It surprised him so deeply, that he left work way, way too early. Even though I only heard about this from others, he actually went grocery shopping right after that. Some said he was more in a rush than a summer rain on a peaceful night.

Cronyl couldn’t hide his soft heaving when he just caught Avelyn leaving the nursing building. They almost bumped into each other, like they did so many times in the early morning market. Soup in his hand, a bicycle bell in the other, he stood before her, silent. The scent of dandelions danced them around, Avelyn’s bright face open with a question Cronyl answered the moment after.

And that, my darlings, is how your dad met your mother.

[tryingtimi]

“we have just met and yet it feels like i have known you for a lifetime.”

We Have Just Met and Yet It Feels Like I Have Known You for a Lifetime

PART I | PART II

Oh man, this isn’t something I thought I’ll write for this. But here we are. Thank you for the prompt even tho it’s been a minute! (I used it more as a title, because it just fit more as one in my head.) It’s a Metalsea AU and I’m not sure if it makes sense or is any good, but it’s something. Inspired by Dope Lover by DPR IAN.

MODERN AU | AVELYN AND CRONYL | DYNAMIC EXPLORATION | WC: 1,492

Neon streaks stalked the dance floor, pink and blue snuggling among the sweating, perfumed bodies. Every beam caressed the people from their twirling toes to their unruly hair that lost shape from the muggy air. Slipped-up skirts, loosened pants, unbuttoned shirts, grasped blouses, long hairs stuck to foreheads, short cuts ruined by fingers tangling among the locks. However big the nightclub has been, the people pressed together as if desperately trying to mold into one big mass of longing.

Cronyl tore his gaze away from the crowd as they waved in unison to the music.

He raised his glass to his lips, thinking for a moment before he swallowed down the burning whiskey with one swift gulp. The beats of the song thumped in his head as he put his glass back with the slightest grimace on his face.

“It’s fine,” he dismissed the bartender trying to pour him more with a hand over his glass. He couldn’t decide if the bending music made his voice so hoarse or if it’s always been like that.

“Are you sure? It’s medicine for rough days.”

Cronyl lifted his heavy lashes. The bartender’s face bathed in the dim reflection of the neon lights that bounced back from the mirror of the dance floor. Yet, he could still make out the softness of her features and her pale blonde ponytail that cascaded onto her shoulder. Her blouse opened only a little over her moderately tight vest that hugged her torso.

She was holding a bottle of water over the counter.

He pulled his hand back. “Am I that obvious?”

“Hm, oh no, I walk around asking the same from everyone.”

Loud, chest-trembling electric bass repressed Cronyl’s half-hearted chuckle as the bartender filled up his glass. The motion seemed way too delicate for anyone working in a nightclub, even if a fancy one. She wiped off the mouth of the glass bottle with a rug, then tossed it over her shoulder and leaned onto the counter.

Cronyl cocked an eyebrow as he took a sip from his drink.

“Yes?”

“Nothing.” Her blonde ponytail slipped from her shoulder as she watched him, a smile spreading across her lips. “Just trying to figure it out.”

“My rough day?” he asked, no amusement coloring his tone. There was something in people that worked in nightclubs that chased Cronyl’s apathy to the surface. Their openness, or nosiness, maybe.

“Your drink.”

Embers of the many faces of desire reached higher behind him when the music reached its peak, the quick silences for effect, the deepening of the bass, and the cacophony of electric waves following each other to blend. Pink-blue merged into a sensual purple, wiggling and bouncing shadows dancing on the bartender’s figure.

Cronyl clicked his tongue.

“I’m not in the mood for cryptic flirting.”

Her smile widened. “Good, wait then. I think I got it.”

She pushed herself from the counter, turning around with momentum. Her hips swayed for the melody as she grabbed two bottles, one holding a black, the other a golden liquid. She moved with a dancer’s delicacy, collecting two more ingredients and her shaker. Cronyl had seen many different movements on the dance floor, yet none could have challenged her motions. The bottles swapped in her hands as if they were mere playthings, little details to aid her performance with flavor. Ice cubes snickered and aluminum clinked as she did her thing, her smile glued to her face.

Long locks bounced and flipped to each side as she shook the shaker, her figure in perfect sync with the music.

“Try it,” she purred, when she eventually turned with a shallow glass full of a pitch-black liquid, its mouth sprinkled with what seemed to be ordinary granulated sugar.

Cronyl found it hard to tear his gaze away from her. She looked at him from the glass, her face – surprisingly – radiating a kind of excitement he hadn’t found in this hole of lost souls anywhere else. Then, she smiled at him, gently pushing the glass forward.

He eyed the drink before he took a moderately big sip of it after a tiny shrug.

His throat caught on fire, some kind of alcohol and cinnamon burning up from the inside. However, a slight sourness washed it away, soothing it hand in hand with the overwhelming sweetness that sealed the experience. Cronyl’s mind ran away from him as he closed his eyes for a second, far from the nightclub back to a peaceful room. A closed place that felt vaster than the world under the open sky, because there was no rush, no crowd. He had no worries, nor he was alone. He’d been seen, bare and raw. The taste has been the one's who somehow knew him, but he couldn’t know her yet. Tender excitement spread inside his chest, a wait worth bearing. Sweat and perfume evaporated, and his nose filled with the strong, biting scent of cloves, and cinnamon, accompanied by something soothingly sweet.

Cronyl opened his eyes again, looking straight into the bartender’s eyes.

“Silent Night,” she said, biting her lip while smiling. “It fits you, don’t you think?”

He remained silent, the music changing and with that, he’d been violently yanked back into the present, all the quiet peacefulness disappearing.

“It does. How did you know?”

“Well, I’ve been watching you,” she admitted, her fingers playing with the rug in her hands. “You didn’t come here for the company or to lose yourself in the party. I thought you’ll drink yourself down, maybe. But you didn’t. Some things hold too much weight to drown them in alcohol. So, I guessed the silence you seek is not on the outside, but on the inside.”

A beginning smile found his lips as he put his elbows on the counter, holding her smiling eyes. He squinted, though, contemplating how she could figure this out. Those shadowed, golden-brown eyes pulled him inside, not making that so easy. The people’s chaotic crowd reflected in them, yet all he could see were those soft features, the way she played with the cloth’s edge, her lip still being held back with her teeth, all these so to speak nervous movements that didn’t match her slightly provocative way she put her clothes on today. Her genuine care beamed from every particle of her presence, but her waiting eyes told Cronyl something else.

She pursed her lips before she softly pulled on his shirt’s collar so she could invite him into a kiss.

He couldn’t deny his tiny surprise, but he didn’t pull away. Her soft embrace of a kiss found him tender, gently deepening as she licked the remaining drink off of his lips. Sensual, and forward, she leaned onto him showing up her eagerness. And that made Cronyl realize how hard she tried to cover something that might have been way too obvious to notice if you’d watched carefully. He didn’t know what exactly, nor how could he be so sure about that, but still, something deep within told him he should hold onto that feeling. And he if something, he knew that feeling way too well.

His fingers found her face, just before she slowly pulled away, breathless.

She looked at him with searching eyes, lips still smiling, with a great weight of visible nervousness.

“You’ve grown tired of not getting a taste of your creations, I take it.” He earned a moment of pause before a giggle bubbled up in her throat.

“You’ve got me.”

She wiped her lower lip with her thumb, maybe trying to cover how she looked away for a second. The neon streaks didn’t reach them anymore, and the changing music lost its edge, not being as loud as it has been before. It seemed as if the party turned its attention away from them as the night deepened onward.

Which meant in the shadows of the bar, Cronyl could get a glimpse of tiredness on her face.

“Do you want to get out of here?” she blurted, just before he could say anything else.

Cronyl thought of stopping looking at her for a second, but instead, he focused on her slightly reddened face, her full yet somehow empty eyes, and as she tried to hide the barely visible fidgeting of her body. She didn’t seem to be used to this, but something drove her to make this decision. And he could see in her reflection of her eyes that he looked exactly the same. It was strange and yet familiar. She was ready to run away from something and put her trust in him for that. And he realized he did the same when his answer materialized in his mind.

“Yes, yes I do.”

[tryingtimi]

happy blorbo blursday timi! which of your characters are meant to be foils of each other and how?

Damn Eggy, you and your cool questions! Thank you ��

This one is hard to be honest, because I never thought about continuosly making any of them foils of each other. Cronyl and Darmon might have a lot in common, but while Cronyl has a tragic past where he lost his loving family, Darmon never had such a strong bond to his family, since they basically just never noticed him/ acknowledged his presence. However, they might be the two characters who I would make foils of each other.

[tryingtimi]

“ come to me, okay? whenever you need someone. “

@bloodlessheirbyjacques ✨

Painful Endings, Reluctant Beginnings

@bloodlessheirbyjacques and I had this lovely sprint session back in the last decade (kidding obv, I'm just slow with writing and could only finish it now) and we used Brave Enough to Love You by Lindsely Stirling and Christina Perri's beautiful song as a prompt. Listening on repeat, we've both created a scene for it, and so a little angsty, little hurt-comfort Cronlyn had been born from it on my side and an amazing, angsty Elistrea on Jaq's. I also mixed the vibe with this prompt to clear my drafts out as well hehe. Context: The team find out that the driadlin society's religion was a lie that the villain's side planted out back in the days, so they could lure the clueless driadlin into their traps without anyone finding out the truth. Avelyn was one of the loyal Pristess apprentices of their religion.

CRONYL AND AVELYN | ANGST | HURT/COMFORT | SLIGHT SELF-LOATHING | WC: 1,736

Veilnieve’s Priestesses could never take off their veils. The truth was so hidden in the world, they needed the purest sight to find even the tiniest pieces of it. It helped them. Their oats chained the veils to them.

Was the whole thing just a lie?

Avelyn felt the tiny bruise she made as her nails scratched across the soft skin of her thumb. A little blood appeared there as she glanced at it. She couldn’t bring herself to care about it, though. Not now, when she didn’t even know what to believe anymore.

“Here.”

A cloth was pushed into her vision, followed by his usual, even voice. Avelyn didn’t need to look at him to know, he didn't even turn to her while handing her the piece. He knew what she did without sparing her a glance, probably. Oh, Veilne…

Avelyn reached for the cloth so hurriedly, she ended up snapping the thing out of Cronyl’s hand. Great. She wasn’t even capable of controlling herself now.

Was this a punishment? Her punishment? She found and studied forbidden knowledge, after all. She may even have been responsible for dooming their world, wasn’t she? How could she care about a little blood on her fingers after all that?

She squeezed her eyes together for a moment, leaving the cloth to rest in her lap without using it. She breathed in deeply and allowed the air to slowly find its way out of her lungs. Her concentration sharpened with this, so she could focus on her surroundings for a short time.

The small room they were in, the wooden chair she was sitting on, the table beside her… Cronyl, leaning against it. His presence was ruling the place as always. He couldn’t hide there, even if he tried to. Even when she didn’t see him.

Strictness, seriousness, loneliness… tenderness, care, trust. She felt it all, as he soundlessly half-stood beside her. Her mind was full of grave thoughts and with every new one that found its place there, her heart only sank deeper.

And yet, she didn’t feel lonely.

She was lost; more than she had ever been in her entire life. But with a quiet companion, she didn’t feel lonely.

Avelyn opened her eyes, her thick, pearl-white veil blocking her view to be completely clear. She saw the world through the net of lies.

And how tiring it felt to do that now.

She wanted to reach for the string of her veil, but her hand wasn’t taking orders from her, not now, not anymore. It was something too deeply nested in her core to just get rid of it this easily.

So instead, she looked at Cronyl.

The man, who didn’t let her alone, when everyone else shared the thought of leaving her be. She didn’t want that, and Cronyl somehow knew this. How, she couldn’t tell.

He was watching the other side of the room, maybe inspecting something or he was as lost in his thoughts as Avelyn. He leaned at the table, so he didn’t need to support his whole body with his legs, hands beside him. He wasn’t staring at her. Avelyn saw all this, but only through a muted layer, so she couldn’t be sure about anything.

Only that, Cronyl still wore his half-broken glass on his forehead, one, still unharmed side pulled down at his red eye to keep it at bay.

Avelyn could have dragged her gaze off him, but she didn’t want to. Instead, she recalled their first meeting and all the things that happened since then. How much things have changed. How the hero to monster slowly grew in her eyes and turned into something beyond a hero. She realized Cronyl wasn’t a monster even if he bore one inside himself. He was closer to being a legend by not letting all that power rule him.

Admiration and something else stirred inside Avelyn’s chest. It was a feeling that made her blush, but she was also moderately aware of what it was exactly. She wasn’t enough for it, though.

She couldn't even deal with the weight of the recent events. She wasn’t brave enough to face her shadows, let alone love someone like Cronyl.

Her hands finally let her lift them and reach toward her ears. It wasn’t something she could rush, but something she forced herself to do anyway. When her fingers softly brushed her ears, she almost shivered. She knew if she took her veils off then, she wouldn't take them back. Ever.

The strings were in her hands.

How heavy some silk-like strings could have felt. She closed her eyes. Those ones that everyone said to be treacherous, but legendary. Those ones that made her lose her faith long before she knew the truth. A tiny, bitter smile found her lips.

Has she truly believed anyway?

With a deep breath, she let her fingers pull the strings off of her ears. If they had a grand weight when they were on her, without them, she felt even heavier. Heavy and weak…

Her heart skipped a beat.

A small, delicately decorated mirror caught her sight when she opened her eyes. It was so light, she didn’t even notice when it was placed on her lap.

Avelyn’s mind let all thoughts run free, her feelings exploding as strabugs would burst out their stars on a busy night. She carefully picked up the trinket, letting the veil hanging from one of her hands only. She felt her throat dry out and turn into a desert where all the water evaporated into the air. She gulped then and with a deep breath, she lifted the mirror to look into it.

Veilnieve’s devotees were not allowed to use mirrors. She hasn't seen herself for years now. The only reason she knew her eye color was the wrong one was that her apprentice friend and Priestess Rheata told her.

A mountain grew on her shoulder as she glanced at the reflection. A reflection of someone who had no round, but a delicately narrow nose. Of someone who had no rosy, puffy cheeks, only the soft lines of the face and jaws. There were no longer, curvy, smiling lips on the bottom, but more strict and strongly outlined ones. The hair was fine, long and so cared for as it framed this face. The face that bore those eyes; those golden eyes which about bards have sung songs of tales old as time itself.

Avelyn’s breath was shaking, when she realized who she faced wasn’t the innocent child that lived in her memories.

Who she faced was a woman with possession of something that shouldn’t have existed anymore.

A woman and a face she did not recognize.

The mountain only grew and buried her heart under a terrible weight as those foreign golden eyes became glossy from tears grieving a life lived through lies. A life that wasn’t even one in the first place. If nothing is real, then how could one call that a life anyway?

Avelyn wanted to close her eyes to stop her woe from running free on her cheeks; she couldn’t take off her gaze from the mirror, however. These trinkets showed the reflection of real things, they said.

They never told her it also revealed what is real at all.

She caressed the thick, beautifully carved frame of the mirror as one teardrop started its journey across her face. No more, only one. Finding out the truth finally meant her facing something she had no chance to, what she couldn’t.

Her weakness lasting so long deserved only one drop of sadness.

Heart sinking deep enough to never be found again, she placed the mirror down on the table beside her before she decided to look at Cronyl again. At him, who still faced the door, yet, she knew he was listening and watching. Waiting. Waiting for her to calm down, to begin processing what happened. For her to speak if she feels the need. A gentle smile crept upon her lips, as she somehow just knew, if she wouldn’t say a thing, Cronyl would still stand there until she would decide to silently leave the room.

Avelyn slowly rose from her seat, cloth slipping from her lap whilst she walked before him. She kept her distance to not disturb his privacy, yet she was close enough. His piercing metal-like gaze carefully wandered at her then, that one eye he was forced to leave free. Something he couldn’t hide, no matter how much he wanted to.

Carefully, with certain hands, she reached for his spectacles on his forehead. Not directly, but steadily to give him time to see what she’s going to do.

Cronyl visibly tensed up as he leaned back slightly, the same way a stray cat would draw back from a stranger who was trying to caress them. One of his hands seemed ready to stop her even. He didn’t raise them, however. The only thing he did was look into Avelyn’s eyes as intensely as ever and as if he found what he was looking for; he closed his eyes eventually.

A tiny, soothing wave washed over Avelyn’s deeply rooted loss when she finally touched the glass. She noticed his ears sharpen ever so slightly and heard the faint scratching sound of the table as his sharpened nails dug into it. He let her take off his glass nevertheless.

Revealing the scar on his eye made her sigh soundlessly, but it didn’t stop her from replacing the glass by binding her veil to his forehead.

A surprised expression spread out on Cronyl’s face, as Avelyn stepped back when she finished. He immediately raised his hand to touch the fabric, which she folded into a bandana. It was thicker now, so it could protect his eyes.

“Come to me, okay? Whenever you need someone,” she added quietly.

After a moment of standing in their content silence frozen in time, he pulled one side down at his scarred eye, then opened them up. There was no confusion, nor question in his stare. He only nodded.

“I will.”

[tryingtimi]

Like Veins

Wrote it a long time ago, but I'll post it just to get a glimpse of how Cronyl and Avelyn will work together with their different eye focuses. Also, of the possible buff they will find when they find the humans in Book 2 and 3.

Context: Izohr, the human MC shows Cronyl and Avelyn the powersuits people built a long time ago. Humans couldn't use it yet, so they try and succeed on figuring out how to make it work.

CRONYL AND AVELYN | IZOHR | BOOK 3 EXPLORATION | WC: 287

“The elders built it for us, but we can’t use it,” Izohr stated, gesturing towards the artifact.

Cronyl’s metal-focused eye sparkled ever so slightly as he looked at it.

“It’s full of some kind of tanks. Little thread-like holes are leading to them, it’s like a web inside the suit.”

“…Like veins”

Both men turned to Avelyn.

“What?”

“Based on your explanation, these threads connect the whole thing, which means, it was built like a human – or driadlin – body! The threads are the veins,” she explained, her excitement bubbling in her chest.

Izhor seemed lost in thought upon hearing this.

“’That… sounds strange, but possible.”

Of course, it could be possible. Cronyl, however, frowned a bit, his ever-skeptical expression spreading across his face.

“Okay, yeah. But then what are the tanks for?”

“Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

She looked at the crawling golden mist that fled from Cronyl’s body and aimed at the ceiling. Luckily, he was exhausted enough to leak a ton of energy. Avelyn concentrated and made some gestures with her hands, inviting and then guiding the smoke-like energy to the suit.

“Where’s the entrance?” she asked, keeping her eyes on the mist. She was sure about Cronyl will understand who she speaks to. And, fortunately, he did.

“On the wrists, and the elbow… and the heel? Wait, it’s like…”

She pushed the mist into the suit by the wrist, which started to travel through the threads. She could see it clearly, even though the suit’s structure wasn’t visible to her. The energy spread and then concentrated in little tank-like shapes.

Then the artifact started to glow.

[tryingtimi]

Happy WBW!

Your OCs are going out for drinks at the bar. What are they ordering, if anything? Non-alcoholic orders welcome!

Hey, thank you for the ask, lovely <3

Well, go for some Metalsea characters then.

Cronyl: Silent Night, because I can't imagine anything else for him since that one short story I placed in the modern world in a whim. It fits him well.

Avelyn: Anything sweet, probably strawberry & cream Baileys.

Syonehlia: Martini.

Darmon: Ouzo.

[tryingtimi]

Wait wait wait, Metalsea has LOADS OF BROMANCE? Where where where? What characters? Pls tell me more 🙏 @writingonesdreams

I'm SO happy you're this excited about it!!! ♡

The main bromance will be going between Darmon and Cronyl, since they are kind of the mainest main characters too, but they won't know each other until the first quarter of the story, so :D. They also won't start on very good terms, but that's just how they start most friendship/relationship. They're gonna be mostly frenemies until the last quarter of the story. However, what brings them together is that they have the same issues, emotional and mental hardships, therefore they're the only ones from the group who can truly understand what's the other one is going through. They'll also push each other forward in a way that Cronyl is basically Darmon's moral ideal, while Darmon is Cronyl's social ideal. They're the kind of friends whom sit beside each other when one of them is feeling down and stay in slience through the whole time.

The another important bromance will be between Cronyl and Bra'aka. They have a bit of an age difference, because Cronyl is a kind of 22-23 years old diradlin, but Bra'aka is at least a ten years older draar, which is not confirmed tho since the draar age a little differently. Either way, they're gonna stumble upon each other after a turning event in the beginning and will team up, even though they're gonna have a lot of differences (who doesn't have that with Cronyl lmao). Their personality is on of them. Cronyl is a very closed off person because of his heavy past and the fact that he wants to stay alone, while Bra'aka is more goofy and open, who always needs people around him. Both of them having a bad experience with the driadlin gonna make them bond over this, and then the fact that they both want to end the pointless racism and rivalry between their nations. They're gonna bicker verbally a lot and the only reason they don't fight is because Cronyl has issues with that. Despite their goals aligning their friendship definitely involves friendly rivalry and brutal honesty. These appeal them the best in each other. Finally someone isn't afraid of them, nor judging them. Bra'aka will help Cronyl to open up to him and in general to others, so he's gonna be basically the reason why Cronyl and his love interest get together. (Bra'aka is also gonna be veeery close with Cronyl's love interest first, they're best friends too lol.)

There also some side bromance between Darmon and a driadlin named Eldnar. Eldnar is a very easy-going personality, who was captured by Darmon, so when Darmon frees him and the others who inprisoned, Eldnar is the first one to start talking to him. Eldnar is one of the reason why Darmon start to think about differently of the new folk. And Darmon is one of those rare people who Eldnar can't make emembarrased with his direct and cheeky comments. His basically the joker character, but I plan to give him some more depth than that. Darmon also can make him upset with some comments on the driadlin at the beginning, so he also help Darmon to get himself together and pay attention to what he says, how his thinking and attitude still wanders back to the time when he was with the villain. So, esentially, Eldnar helps Darmon to adjust himself into their society, while Eldnar will get some self-esteen boost from Darmon, because he will be the first one who noticed that the driadlin has this issue.

Then, what comes into my mind too is a not necessarily bromance, but a future-son-and-father-in-law-mance (?) between Darmon and Litan. Litan is Darmon's love interst's dad, who he meets in the prison, when both of them gets captured. It's a fun little dynamic, because they are having a little different world view, but at this point of the story, they both want to learn how to act and understand the people around them properly. They also gonna talk about Syonehlia, who's the love interest and the daughter too, but they will never say the name of her, so they're gonna have no clue it's the same person. Nevertheless, they will still convince the other one about something important towards their relationship with Syon.

I think this is it yet, but more can form as I go forward with the story. Darmon and Eldnar is a little half-baked yet, but this is kind of the base idea of their friendship.

Thank you for your question and interest, dear!! ❤️🥺