#[ litriu mahariel ] i took a little journy to the unknown and i've come back changed

[scvcnofswords]

❝ you're gonna be okay. eventually. but first you gotta not be okay for a while. it's gotta suck so you can actually recognize when you're alright again. ❞ for Litriu || @abanbas

The reassurance does what is likely the exact opposite of the intent. The Warden's shoulders go rigid, and she goes very still, body halting entirely. Like an animal in a corner, a beast eyeing a trap it knows will cause harm. She looks to the speaker out of the corner of her eye, lips curling back just slightly from her teeth a moment before her expression willfully goes blank.

"I am fine." gritted out, vicious, ground glass in her throat. "I have no need for platitudes or appeasement to be effective. Mind your own self before you think to me and worry of mine."

She does not like to be seen, she does not like to be pinned like a butterfly to a board. And she feels it.

Instinct screams to retreat, to vanish into the shadows, but there's nowhere to go; so the bobcat weaving around her heels reacts instead, hissing a long, low warning to him.

"I am fine. I know myself and my limits. If I need help, I'll ask." words bitten-out and hard-wrought.

[scvcnofswords]

Starter/Plotting call specifically for LITRIU MAHARIEL

[scvcnofswords]

One thing about Litriu that I've always found really interesting while writing her is that she's deeply, deeply kind, beneath the bared teeth and claws. She will always insert herself between someone who needs protecting and what hunts them, will always try to help those in need. Coins to a beggar, hunting for a village where she can- especially after the 5th Blight, when she doesn't feel like she's got an axe hanging over her neck (the axe is Urthemiel)

However she will deny most of her kindnesses if asked about them, even by those who directly witness them.

She was asked once if it was because she didn't want to appear weak- but she has never considered kindness to be weakness. And it's not that the anger and the aloofness are put-upon, either, because they very much are her immediate instincts. Like an animal that's been hurt by people too many times to count.

It's fear. That the moment someone sees what's beneath the bared teeth and claws that they'll break it or turn away from it. She has never fit anywhere, she has never felt at ease anywhere (until, ironically, the 5th Blight and Amaranthine. Who'd'a thunk it.) She has lost 98% of the people who have seen the real her. Her clanmates- Tamlen especially, Merrill. Her parents. Hell even Duncan.

She does not trust anyone with the softer parts of herself unless they prove they CAN be trusted. And this also plays into why she never really faces anyone. Litriu is always looking at people from an angle- sidelong, through her hair, from under the brim of her hat, ect, ect, ect.

It's shielding a vulnerability. She shields, and shields, and deflects, and masks, and lashes out when cornered. Patience is the only real way to get to know her. That or try an approach she's not expecting. But once you do know her, she's loyal to the very marrow, and she won't give that up for anything. To her own death and detriment.

[scvcnofswords]

[ intertwine & kiss ]  –  for the sender’s muse to intertwine their finger’s the receiver’s muse and kiss the back of their hand. [ for litriu ] - @mournwvtch is feeling REALLY BRAVE TONIGHT

The touch isn't one she's used to - as if she's used to any at all - the immediate reaction when Gwen takes Litriu's hand, is a jolt and an aborted motion to pull away. She manages to stop herself before there's tension between the pair, but the elf twists to look Gwen in the eye, brows furrowed in an expression that can only be confusion.

And then the Mourn Watcher-

does

that.

Litriu's face flames as lips press to the thin, scarred skin on the back of her hand, and she opens her mouth to say something, but nothing comes out of her mouth. She closes it, and turns her face away, quickly, feeling-

Strange. Unmoored. Vulnerable.

She doesn't like it, but she doesn't hate it, stranger even. Her shoulders curve towards her ears, but she doesn't pull away, even as she bites her tongue, uneasy.

"What was the purpose of that?"

Why is she so WARM? Her face is nearly as red as her hair.

[scvcnofswords]

tag dump 1. [ litriu mahariel ]