#Haaruma

[springvaletales]

((To make up for the fact that I haven't finished my drafts yet, here's a bunch of picrews I did of the party (as best they would fit) for motivation.))

[bookofvesper]

@springvaletales sent from Haaruma

“Should I leave a light on for you?”

"No... I don't think that's a good idea. I might... get up and knock the candle over in the middle of the night..." Vesper chewed at her lip, confessing to one half of the couple that had taken her in for the night.

"I sleepwalk. That is why I asked you to lock the door from the outside. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Did I wake your wife, too?" Vesper was still young, not yet 30, but looked more of a child than ever when she was in her bedclothes and recently woken and worried over a nightmare she could hardly remember.

[solitaria-fantasma]

((Had a lonely day at work today and got some full body sketches done of the characters from my D&D blog! Bashur was too big to fit on the page with the others tho. T_T You can see the seam where I had to tape on extra scrap paper to fix my bad planning.

From top to bottom, left to right:

Vashael, shape-changed brass dragon prince with too much confidence.

Michael, human warlock with as much confidence as he has memories.

Haaruma, Yuan-ti rogue who takes pride in never speaking before she thinks.

Naoka, half-elf cleric who cheated in a drinking contest to win a first date.

Bashur, Minotaur paladin who is the holder of the Party Braincell.))

[criticaldragonsarchive]

❝ this is a bad idea but i’m already committed so i might as well not half-ass being a dumbass. ❞ ((From my Haaruma to your Ashton?))

@springvaletales answered here

[springvaletales]

[springvaletales]

@wanderingarcherviola

"Oooh!" Michael finished taking off his apron and tossed it over the back of a chair by the kitchen table. That was a little better than he'd expected, actually. "I can promise I won't throw up, then." Theft didn't typically involve death and decay, so at least they wouldn't have to deal with a mess.

"Do we need to do this with stealth, then?" He asked, moving to the open window where Viola had appeared in his mother's garden. "I've got a friend with sticky fingers and steps lighter than a shadow's, if need be."

[springvaletales]

Michael, not even turning around from the stove: “You know, if you’re going to sneak bites behind my back, you should at least give me some kind of critique.”

Vashael, about to toss a bite into his mouth:

Haaruma, with her mouth full:

Naoka, having just swallowed:

Bashur, actively chewing on a stolen bite: “Tasty.”

Michael: “That’s not critique. That’s praise.”

[springvaletales]

@wildskissed listen we've only done like three responses to each other but this scene has been plaguing me for the past two days so-

Michael, waking his friends at 3am, on the verge of tears: “Would you still love me if I was a sheep??”

Vashael, half-alseep: “Why would you be a sheep??”

Haaruma, also half-asleep: “You’d be delicious…~”

[springvaletales]

((Couldn’t settle on just one image to promo this blog, so I made one per muse. Don’t @ me I just really like glowing eyes. Maybe I could do multiple promo posts, and just space them out in my queue to keep from spamming the tags?))

[springvaletales]

((Audit’s coming up soon which means no phones at work, so here’s some work sketches now that I’m off.))

[springvaletales]

"Stop making me laugh! It hurts!" - From Curumë for Haaruma? :') ((plot twist and im throwing in a bit of happiness in between the angst))

Happy Sentences, Vol. 2

"I can't turn off a natural talent~" The Yuan-Ti's forked tongue poked out of her mouth in a cheeky 'grin' as she let her voice fall back into her normal tones, rather than a (lovingly) mocking mimicry of their mutual friend's. "Buuuut I suppose I could give the comedy a rest before he hears me."

[springvaletales]

Though they've tried many options for healing both magical and mundane, the scars on Michael's arms and legs are more or less permanent. He had them before he was cursed, and no matter what he does to heal them or mask their appearance, they always return when his body reforms.

After only a few attempts, Michael gave up trying to get rid of the scars, and simply started covering them with sleeves and armor instead. Very few people even know he has them, as he's incredibly self conscious about their origins, and fears people judging him for them the way many in Springvale did when he was first brought to town.

[springvaletales]

A memory about life and joy!!

🌸- A memory about life and joy ((Sorry for the wait! This one demanded a bit of worldbuilding before it could be written. XD))

When she was a little girl, Naoka had dreamed of a grand wedding.

Her caretakers had always told her stories of the grandeur of her mother’s wedding (though her mother, herself, was a busy woman who had no time to reminisce with a child still too young for court appearances). They spoke of bouquets brimming with exotic flowers, specially cultivated to grow in a foreign climate just for the ceremony, and gleaming lanterns hung from the ceiling on chains of silver and gold. In an otherwise stiff household, Naoka’s young mind had flourished in these stories.

She had wrapped herself in loose bed sheets when the housekeepers weren’t looking and paraded around her room, imagining herself in a beautiful train adorned with gems and embroidered forests. She had ‘borrowed’ her mother’s jewelry when she should have been studying and stood in front of the mirror for hours, practicing her noble wave and curtsy. Her journals were filled with sketches of elaborate latices of braided vines dotted with flowers, decorative embroidery for her future bridal gown, and even an ever-changing list of those she’d want to invite, when the time came.

But as she’d grown up, she’d grown away from this dream.

Bejeweled dresses and sparkling headpieces lost their luster after she’d grown enough to learn the truth - that her mother’s wedding had been lavish, yes, but a union of politics only. There had been no love behind the flowers, the lanterns, the place settings…they had all been selected to impress the important guests, and demonstrate the wealth the joining of two powerful families created. Dismayed, Naoka had abandoned her journals, and left them to gather dust in her foot chest. She threw herself into new hobbies and skills to try and replace her shattered dream, and found combat training to be quite cathartic. Her wardrobe changed; gowns were traded for trousers, and slippers for boots. By the time Naoka had been approaching a marriageable age, no suitor in her father’s court had shown any interest in her, as she was far from the demure, courtly woman they were looking to wed.

This was fine though, as Naoka had decided somewhere between her Celestial lessons and listening in on her brothers’ political lectures that men were just not to her tastes.

When her brothers were old enough to be presented to the wider public, her parents had broken the news of her engagement. They had found a suitable young man from a wealthy family with whom her father wanted to make a business deal with, in a kingdom on a continent an ocean away. They called it a ‘blessing’ through thin smiles and cold eyes. A taste of the ‘adventure’ she was still childishly chasing while still fulfilling her duties as the eldest daughter.

Naoka saw it for what it was - a banishment.

She had been given three days notice before her departure, and Naoka spent all of them in her room, pretending to not notice the staff member coincidentally stationed outside her door. The first night, she’d cried. The second night, she’d packed. On the third night, she’d departed with a tearful goodbye to her brothers, but not a word for her parents. She traveled two nights by carriage to reach the coast, and then nearly a month to cross the Grand Ocean to reach her destination.

As she stood on the deck watching the shoreline grow nearer, Naoka briefly debated disappearing straight from the docks. She was arriving with a decent amount of finery…surely she could sell some of her baggage in town, buy a horse, and ride away with no-one the wiser?

But though these thoughts were tempting, ultimately, Naoka had chosen not to run.

Her betrothed, Vaxa’liian, was in a similar situation as her, and they’d bonded over their shared circumstances. She found his passion and skill for alchemy charming, and he seemed amazed by her strength and agile footwork. They agreed not to wed, to what was sure to be the outrage of both their families, but remained friends.

Naoka was 17, and she no longer dreamed of grand weddings.

.......

At the age of 22, Naoka found herself standing in a small courtyard in a temple to a god she barely knew, in a country she’d never before visited.

She held the hands of a woman her parents would have despised, and whispered vows written only hours before to love and cherish, in sickness and in health. Her bridal dress was plate armor, battered and scarred, and she wore not gems in her hair but wildflowers, picked just that morning at the edge of town to match the color of the sunset shimmering across her beloved’s scales. Vaxa’liian held a sacred amulet above their clasped hands and whispered a sacred oath from an old tome ‘borrowed’ from the temple’s shelves, uniting them under the eyes of the Firstborn.

It was not the wedding she had dreamed of as a child. It was not grand, expensive, or publicized. There were no guests, no food, and no music, and she was not bedecked in jewels.

But it was hers, and that was all she needed, in the end.

[springvaletales]

"Ooooh, someone's in troooouublllllleee~" Haaruma teased in a sing-sone tone as another unfortunate captive was tossed into the cell beside hers. She leaned over as much as she could without falling (stupid ropes) and pressed the side of her face into the bars nearest to the door of the other cell. "Oh faithful," She mock-pleaded to the cultist shutting the door. "Won't you tell me what horrid crime this monster committed? Loitering? Sweetroll theft??"

"Yours is 'bout to get upgraded to 'mouthing off', and the punishment is losing your forked tongue." He growled, locking the cell door with more force than necessary. The Yuan-Ti sat up comically straight and made a show of closing her wide mouth. She watched the man walk away until he was out of sight, and then let out a sigh.

"Yeesh, tough crowd down here...so," Haaruma pressed her face against the shared bars once more, this time speaking to her new neighbor. "What did they get you with? Was it the pitfall trap? One of the hidden nets? That's the one that got me."

[springvaletales]

For Haaruma, stealing is as mindless as fidgeting, and she'll snatch many a small object from the shelves of inns, tavern tables, and pockets of unsuspecting folk on a busy street without really thinking about it.

Her friends often have to remind her to empty her pockets before they leave the area.

[springvaletales]

Though she puts on a confident air among her friends and peers, Haaruma is extremely self-conscious about her lack of poison sacs and missing fangs - especially when in the presence of other Yuan-Ti.