#and maybe he'll get that eventually.

[ariereii]

nandor said humans are temporary. none are special. i said oh, i'm sure. this is simply his way of coping with the fact that he's going to lose guillermo to the perils of being mortal. he'll eventually become a memory. acting as if he doesn't care to cope for the inevitable.

[skunkes]

nyalon

[askblueandviolet]

For Bai he :3

what do you think about wukong if he was a cat?

Also have a cookie🍪

MASTER POST

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[brennacedria]

I have so many cozy scenes for Kaela and Lucanis and even Spite.

Like Kaela reading adventure stories to Spite every night so that he doesn't move around too much and disturb Lucanis's sleep. The deal is that after at least an hour, but often more, Spite has to lay in bed quietly for Lucanis's sake.

Lucanis figuring it out, and coming to read Kaela stories when she inevitably gets sick from not getting enough rest herself. He reads until she falls asleep, then sits with her, resting while being nearby in case she wakes and needs anything.

The both of them cuddled on the sofa in the dining hall, reading to each other after dinner.

Her surprising him with cinnamon cookies, because she can't make churros but she DOES make really good cookies and having them ready when he wakes up from the mandatory nap she makes him take.

Him not meeting her at the eluvian after trips to places like Hossberg, but rather he goes directly to the baths (oh yeah, the lighthouse provided a Tevinter bath in the new basement to the dining hall) and preparing everything for her to scrub down then soak for an hour, so she can get all the blight and grime off and just relax while he and Bellara prepare dinner.

Her moving to another room in the lighthouse (with a real bed!) with windows for her but heavy drapes to block out the view of the Fade for him, so that he doesn't have to spend time with the meditation room's aquarium, which Kaela assumes would remind him and Spite too much of the Ossuary.

Lucanis making more and more trips to Kaela's new room at night, not officially moving in because he still feels most comfortable in the confined space of the pantry, but still spending enough time in her room that he may as well move in. Their relationship has eventually progressed by this point, but still most nights they just lay together until falling asleep, or reading to each other still.

Occasionally Spite still wakes up while Lucanis sleeps, but he and Kaela have their agreement now, where he stays calm and sits with her while she reads, or they play cards, or anything relaxing like that. She wonders at one point, can Spite read? If not, she finds a way to teach him, and then he joins in the tradition they've all developed of reading to one another in quiet, cozy moments.

Spite never becomes other than spite, he's given enough opportunity to live his role, but he gains more of the traditional traits of Determination and Affection in the progress, and he doesn't rail against the transition.

Ultimately, the time comes to leave the Lighthouse for good; Lucanis just can't push off the Crows any longer, and his responsibilities to them become more than he can manage from the Fade. They all move to Treviso, but not to the manor proper; a cottage on the grounds (if it could be called that--it's still more grand than Kaela's childhood home, which was not insignificant) is more appropriate for the intimate little life they've all built together.

They continue indefinitely while he leads the Crows, and she uses the eluvians to spend her days in Minrathous rebuilding the Shadow Dragons, this time with the official support of the Archon. Every night they both come home to their cottage, and read or play cards or other little games. Lucanis teaches Kaela to make churros, and she teaches him her mother's recipe for cinnamon cookies.

Their friends don't get to visit as often as they like, in spite of having eluvian access; they come for important dates and anniversaries though, including for a long-delayed wedding at the main Dellamorte manor.

[adriartts]

why dont you go sit in the river and maybe you'll feel better

[phantom-overdose]

((When I get back after this weekend... if I added Pee.ta from Hun.ger Ga.mes, Sn.ow from HG: Bal.lad, and An.akin from SW as kinda test / highly selective muses... would anyone want to write with them a tiny bit?

They wouldn't be super consistently written because this blog is meant to focus on Phantom Overdose and Black Rapture first and foremost... but, yeah, I'd like to write them some...))

[outlying-hyppocrate]

drew my little mascot, janequin, after a year !!

[then-be-a-warrior]

He's getting attached and I don't want him to be alone in the end...

[precious-pentious-travels]

Secure, Contain, and Protect him! Put him in an SCP containment so that he is protected from harm! He may see visitors on a daily basis.

This feels highly unnecessary. I can only be really killed by angelic steel! And the hotel is plenty safe!!

RELEASE ME THIS INSTANT!!!

[trensu]

A part of a continuation of Hawkins Halfway House for Homeless Horrors which is also on AO3.

Robin liked to make fun of him but she didn’t understand his early bird tendencies. Steve grew up playing multiple sports. That kind of lifestyle gives the body expectations. If Steve didn’t do his morning jogs, he’d be crawling up the walls halfway through the day with all his pent up restlessness. He’d tried on multiple occasions to convince her to join him since it hadn’t escaped his notice that Robin was also full of restless energy. She laughed in his face every time.

Okay, she might also have been laughing at him for his jogging outfit, but screw Robin! What did she know about athletic clothes? And there was nothing wrong with yellow! It was a happy color! Why wouldn’t he want to wear his favorite color doing one of his favorite activities?

He ran his usual route. It took him down the main street where he got to see all the shop owners get their stores ready for the day. He waved at Mr. Newby as he jogged past his electronics shop. He liked Mr. Newby. He’d helped Steve pick out the walkman he used during his morning run, and then fixed it when Steve dropped it and Robin stepped on it two days after Steve bought it. When Steve jogged past the diner, Benny gave him his usual nod of acknowledgement, which Steve returned with a smile.

Steve mapped out his jog so it lasted him the better part of an hour and finished with a quick circuit around his neighborhood. Between the main street and his neighborhood was a pleasant patch of green. There were enough trees to attract small woodland critters but not so many trees as to block out the morning sunshine. It provided a nice division between living quarters and the modest shopping district Hawkins boasted.

Steve started to slow his strides now that he was entering the last leg of his route. He looked down to fiddle with the walkman clipped at his waist in order to fast-forward the tape to the next song. In the moment of distraction, Steve tripped over a ball, of all things. Steve managed to catch himself before earning what would’ve been his third concussion. Feeling a bit huffy, Steve bent down to grab the ball that nearly murdered him.

It was a well-loved thing. A red, white, and blue basketball, scuffed up and worn smooth from use. He had no idea what it was doing at the side of a road near the woods.

Except no, wait a minute.

Steve blinked rapidly, trying to clear his eyes. He was on the sidewalk in front of an unfamiliar house. A black boy was peeking over the battered old fence surrounding the house. He had a bandana tied around his forehead and a sheepish expression on his face.

“Sorry!” the boy called. “I didn’t mean to throw it so hard! Can you give it back, mister?”

“Uh, sure,” Steve said, still trying to figure out how he arrived here. He didn’t recognize the street at all. Instead of throwing the ball back, he walked it over. The boy grinned at him when he handed the ball over the fence.

“Thanks!”

“No problem, kid,” Steve smiled back. The boy looked ready to dash back to the big tree off the driveway that had an old basketball hoop attached to the trunk. Steve cleared his throat. “Hey, could you tell me what street this is? I think I got myself turned around.”

“Oh, sure!” the boy said. “This is Upside Down Avenue. If you go that way and turn right, you’ll be on Flayer Drive, but if you go this way and turn left you’ll be on Creel Street.”

“...I don’t think I know those. Do you know which direction to get to the shopping district?”

The boy opened his mouth to reply but was interrupted by barking. He let out an ‘oof’ when he was bowled over and out of view. The barking grew louder and more agitated. Was this a dog attack? Dogs could do some really bad damage on a kid. There wasn’t any screaming but what if the kid had hit his head and lost consciousness?

Steve, in his worry, ran and leapt over the fence. He barely cleared it but the fact he cleared it at all would be very impressive later when he wasn’t trying to save a kid.

When he landed on the other side, the boy was sprawled on the ground with a very, very large puppy on him. It growling and tugging at the collar of his shirt. It didn’t appear to have actually bitten the boy, though, so that was good.

“Erica, get off me! He was just asking for directions!” the boy said over the growling. He rolled over, taking the large puppy with him. He grabbed at the long black fur on the puppy’s neck and yanked her off him with surprising strength.

The puppy struggled out of the boy’s grasp and plopped down next to him. It had stopped growling and seemed to be sulking. The boy got to his feet and tried to dust himself off but the grass stains were not going to come out either, Steve knew this from experience. Steve crouched down next to the boy.

“Are you hurt?” Steve looked closely. He thought he had seen some scratches on the boy during the scuffle, but they were gone when he tried to find them now. “I thought that dog had you.”

“Nah, that’s just my dumb little sister. She can’t hurt me that bad,” the boy said with a shrug. The puppy let out a yappy sort of bark and the boy stuck his tongue out at it. Steve looked between the two of them.

“Your sister?” Steve asked. The boy’s eyes widened and a small growl started up in the dog.

“My little sister’s dog!” the boy yelped. “That’s what I meant. This is my little sister’s dog.” The boy looked really nervous. He was probably embarrassed. Steve gave him a smile.

“That’s alright, I get my words mixed up sometimes, too,” he said easily. Steve thought the dog snorted at that, but that was ridiculous. He probably imagined it. He got up and went over to grab the battered basketball that had gone flying when the boy had been bowled over. He threw it to the boy who caught it with ease. “So, you like basketball?”

The boy’s face lit up. “Yeah! I wanna join the team when I go to school.”

“Heck yeah, bud,” Steve grinned. “I used to be captain of the basketball team when I was in high school. It’s a lot of fun. What grade are you in?”

“Fifth,” he said. “But I’ll be going to Hawkins Middle School next year so I wanna be ready to try out by then. Hey, hey, can I show you what I can do? And you can tell me if I’ll make the team or not?”

Steve checked his watch. His run had already gone longer than it should have, and he still had to figure out how to get back to familiar ground so he could get home. On the other hand, he was stuck with another lousy afternoon shift. He didn’t technically have anything urgent to get done before then. He ran a hand through his damp hair to clear it from his face. He wondered where the kid’s parents were; they’d probably freak out about having some random guy watching their son shoot hoops. The kid looked at him so hopefully, though.

“Sure, I can do that,” Steve said.

The kid pumped his fist in victory, but the puppy started barking loudly. It circled the boy agitatedly. The boy tried to shove the puppy away but the puppy pranced out of reach before circling him again.

“Shut up, Erica! You’re spazzing for no reason,” the kid snapped.

“Lucas!”

A red-haired girl stomped across the yard at an alarming speed. Wisps of hair not tied back with the rest whipped around her face as a gust blew over the yard. Lucas nearly dropped the basketball with how quick he turned to see the girl. He did trip over the–still shockingly big, seriously, Steve didn’t know puppies could get that big– puppy who had stopped circling him the minute the girl shouted but had sat directly behind Lucas. The ball rolled over to where Steve stood.

“Max!” Lucas said, flustered, as he picked himself up. But Max didn’t acknowledge him. Instead she planted herself firmly between him and Steve. She glared at Steve furiously.

“Who are you?” she demanded. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

“Max, it’s fine,” Lucas said, reaching out to touch her shoulder but she shrugged him off roughly, her wide eyes never leaving Steve even as the wind picked up.

“No, it isn’t. He could be anybody,” she said. Her hands were balled into fists and trembled slightly. She saw him noticing and paled. She crossed her arms defensively so her hands were completely hidden. In response, Steve relaxed his stance. He kept his hands in full view and kept his movements gentle. He knew what fear looked like when he saw it.

“You’re right,” Steve said calmly. “I’m Steve. I got lost and Lucas was nice enough to let me know where I was so I can try to find myself back.”

“You told him what?” Max asked, alarmed. It was Lucas’s turn to get defensive.

“He was on the other side of the fence! It wasn’t a big deal. And now the fence let him in, so it’s all okay anyway.”

“It will be,” Max hissed. “Eddie heard Erica barking. He’s on his way.”

“Shit,” Lucas groaned, burying his face in his hands.

“Language,” Steve scolded reflexively. A stronger gust of wind blew around him. His eyes started to water from all the wind. He rubbed his eyes to relieve some of the grittiness and kept them at a squint to protect them from the wind. He could barely see anything.

“How did you get here before Eddie?” he heard Lucas ask Max, apparently ignoring Steve’s scolding entirely.

“I told you, I’m a zoomer.” For the first time since she arrived, Max’s voice held a hint of playfulness.

“Zoomers aren’t a thing,” Lucas snorted in amusement.

The wind let up enough by then that Steve could open his eyes, just in time to see a man walking towards them. The puppy shot off towards the man and then kept pace with him, yipping the whole time. If it weren’t a dog, Steve would have thought it was tattling on him. With the wind whipping that dark curly hair around, Steve couldn’t get a good look at the man’s face, but he moved his body fluidly and with surety. Seeing such confidence in movement always made Steve’s stomach swoop pleasantly.

When the man reached them, he placed a gentle hand on Max’s shoulder.

“You can cool it now, Maxie,” the gorgeous man said, gesturing vaguely upwards. His voice was tender and low and Steve had the ridiculous desire to swim in it. Max didn’t look at Eddie but nodded firmly once. The wind around them finally died down. “Why don’t you three go inside?”

“But nothing happened! Erica is making it sound worse than it was,” Lucas protests. “And I still need to practice!”

“You can practice later. Go inside now,” Eddie said. Lucas looked ready to argue but Max grabbed his hand and started to drag him back. Lucas all but melted when her hand touched his, and he followed her, starry eyed. The puppy was close at their heels. In unspoken agreement, they both waited until the kids were out of sight before conversing. Steve reached out to shake Eddie’s hand.

“Hey, I’m Steve–”

“I know who you are,” Eddie scowled. “How did you get in here? That fence is warded and I know you don’t have Jeff’s card anymore.”

Warded was a weird way to say locked, and Steve had no idea how Eddie knew the guy that scammed him that time. Unless it was someone else? Jeff was a common name…but there was only one Jeff that gave him a card. Steve shook his head.

“I don’t know if the gate was locked or not. I sort of jumped the fence?”

Eddie blinked at him. “You…jumped the fence.”

“Yeah? I mean, I don’t go around jumping into people’s fenced off property, but I thought Lucas had gotten hurt so I kind of reacted without thinking.” Steve ran his hand nervously through his hair. Eddie had eyes that were…wow. They’d probably be prettier if they weren’t glaring at Steve, sure, but Steve wouldn’t survive if Eddie’s eyes looked at him with the same softness he had when he had spoken to Max.

Eddie stomped over to the fence and hovered his hands over the top of it. Then down the side of it without ever actually touching the wood. Whatever it was that he was doing, it made his brow furrow. He looked back to the house, scowl still firmly in place.

“What are you doing?” Eddie asked loudly.

“Nothing!” Steve responded. He was literally just standing there, confused as hell.

“I’m not talking to you,” Eddie snapped at him, then returned his attention to the house. “You let him jump over like it was a regular fence? What are you up to, huh?”

Steve felt a retroactive burst of fear when he remembered electric fences existed. He felt stupid a split second later because the fence was the plain wooden plank kind. It wasn’t even a good wooden fence. Frankly, it looked about ready to collapse in on itself.

Steve was about to say so when he saw the house shiver. It shifted like a guilty child shuffled their feet.

“What the fuck,” Steve said instead. “What the fuck.”

Eddie let out a long sigh.

“Seriously, did you see–”

A captivating song flooded his senses. There was a brief moment of ‘this has happened before’ but it was washed away before Steve could grasp it. It wasn’t important. What mattered was that beautiful Eddie was singing his beautiful song.

“Go home, Steve,” Eddie said while the song swirled around them. “Forget.”

–

Steve threw his keys in the bowl kept near the entry. Far more gently, he took off his headphones, coiled them around his walkman, and set it next to the bowl. On the couch, Robin lounged and read one of her weird literature books. Clearly she was enjoying her day off. She looked up when Steve entered.

“Hey dingus, what took you so long?” she asked.

Normally, Steve’s morning run cleared his head. It helped him get ready and focused for the day. Today, though, Steve’s mind felt like a muddy puddle. He half wanted to go on another run but that probably wouldn’t have made a difference.

“Steve?” Robin asked. She wore a concerned expression. Steve realized that he hadn’t answered her question.

“Got turned around,” Steve mumbled.

“You got lost,” Robin said in disbelief. “On the run you’ve been doing every day since we moved here?”

Steve shrugged. “Some kid gave me directions, I guess? But I'm home now.”

He didn’t know why he said that last part out loud. It seemed important but obviously Robin could see he was home. Robin’s expression became even more concerned.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Steve nodded numbly. He didn’t want her to worry. There wasn’t any need for it. He was home now.

“Yeah, I’m just tired,” Steve said. “I think I’m gonna take a nap before work.”

“Okay, if you say so.”

Robin did not sound convinced but she let it go, much to Steve’s relief. He headed to his room. A nap would help him get his head straight.

[xenomorphicdna]

Flames,, blanket boy, my beloved

I gotta draw more art like this of him, he's such an odd creature I love him so much

There's so much to his character that I never talk about aaa I'll make a lore post eventually

[kariachi]

Yet more for that Argit pokemon series.

The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. Yes even if you get that one thing you swear is gonna help.

~~

Every pokemon center has a corkboard available for public use. Advertisements for jobs or events, requests for items, missing pokemon and person posters, all and more go up on the board for use by locals and those passing through. Argit checks them every evening before heading out, though there’s normally nothing worth the bother. Sometimes there’ll be a strong trainer looking for challengers, then they’ll consider the odds. They’re even starting to consider maybe sticking around for a battling competition if they see one advertised. Gimmighoul struggles to pull its weight, but salandit is strong, and they’ve managed a good seventy-percent win rate so far.

For the most part though it just people looking for pokemon, items, or skills they don’t have. That being the case, it hadn’t taken long for them to settle into a rhythm. Come downstairs, skim the board for anything with potential, and leave for the day. Exchange a few words with the nurse on duty when they got back, but otherwise ignore the other trainers. Why bother, when they didn’t intend to stick around or group up, and anything anyone had to offer would be up on the board with the rest of the nothing?

Probably it said something, about the quality of trainers around or about Argit themself, that it took until the sixth stop on their journey for anybody to properly catch their attention. A human, either an adult or almost, they aren’t great at telling, sat at one of the tables with a black and orange ghost-type hovering over their shoulder. On the table is a sandwich, a mug, a few papers, and a sign saying ‘Gourgeist To Good Home’.  Curiosity has their feet moving before they even realize, and their ear twitches as the human notices their approach as grins broadly.

“Hey there,” they say, standing and reaching over the table to extend a hand to shake, “I’m Jules, and this is pumpkaboo!” Argit takes the hand cautiously, tries to maintain a firm grip as they shake.

“Argit and salandit,” they say, hopping onto the chair Jules gestures too more to see over the table better than anything. Salandit hops onto their lap, then the table, it and pumpkaboo immediately setting to inspecting each other. “What’s up?”

“Pumpkaboo here is shaking to evolve and would love to travel.” Jules gives a depreciating little laugh, running a hand through their hair. “I just don’t have the space for a large gourgeist, don’t care for travel, so I was figuring a passing trainer would be it’s best bet.”

They slide one of the papers across the table. It’s a fact sheet about the pokemon in question, loaded with information a trainer might need to know. Ghost/grass type, large size, all shots, no pokerus. Hasty nature, good perseverance, knows confuse ray, disable, shadow sneak, and bullet seed. Ability is pickup.

Argit’s ear twitches again. What was that they’d said, way back when? That if gimmighoul couldn’t pull their weight maybe they could trade it for a pickup pokemon like they’d intended to catch. Without a thought their tail curls protectively around their bag. It isn’t pulling it’s weight, and despite the empty pokeball sitting in their bag they haven’t found a pickup pokemon.

Over two months it’s been though. That’s a long time. It left it’s chest to comfort them just weeks ago.

“What about you guys, what do you have going on?” Jolting slightly, Argit’s eyes flick up from the paper and their plodding thoughts. Jules is smiling at them, and an ear follows pumpkaboo as it floats over and begins inspecting Argit now. From the way salandit just watches it do so, they assume the pair get along well enough. With a deep breath to knock away the tightening in their chest, Argit slaps on a smile.

“Been travelling here and there, don’t really have a destination right now.” Sure there are no bad vibes so far, but they’re not telling anyone where they’re headed. “Haven’t been at it long but, I grew up around ghost types, got one myself already, know how to handle them.”

They also, again, aren’t sure they could afford another pokemon. They can do math, with three they’ll be paying more to keep their team fed and healthy each week than they do feeding themselves. Just to add another ghost to the team, bundle up on those weaknesses.

“Oh, that’s perfect,” Jules says, a hint of relief in their voice as they reach out and carefully scratch salandit’s head. Argit’s proud to say that as much of a skinny runt as they are, it looks in as good a condition as you can expect from a travelling battler. “If you’re interested, here’s the species I’d take in trade.”

They hand over another piece of paper, this one a simple list. It doesn’t, to Argit’s relief, have gimmighoul on it. Instead there’s almost a dozen other pokemon, each of which that Argit recognizes is, they’re pretty sure, relatively small when fully evolved. Well, at least Jules understands what they need from these things.

“Think I saw some of these on my way in,” they say as they go down the list, “can’t you just go out and catch one of ‘em yourself?” Jules laughs again, giving pumpkaboo a wistful look as it begins to join the perusing.

“If I could go out and catch my own pokemon,” they say, “I wouldn’t have gotten one I’d have to say goodbye to so soon.”

Argit hums a near understanding- saying goodbye isn’t easy- and refocuses on the papers in front of them. A grass type would help with salandit’s ground and water weaknesses, and that ground one would only get worse for the team if they ever got gimmighoul evolved. But those dark, ghost, and eventually fire weaknesses, and the extra care costs… Pickup would be helpful though, could easily double the amount of money they made. In that case pumpkaboo would more than pay for itself. And there’s that stupid- team cores made from fire, water, and grass types are a whole thing, they’re pretty sure…

Pumpkaboo draws their attention with a wispy mewl, floating in front of Argit’s face. Yellow eyes meet yellow eyes, and they can’t help but smile a little more honestly when it mewls again, drifting curiously from side to side. With a little huff of a laugh, Argit drops a hand on it’s head, warmth rising in their chest as it shoves it head deeper into their touch when they begin scratching.

“Give me a couple nights, and I’ll see what I can get ya.”

~~

The first thing Argit does, once arrangements have been made, is go actually get a room for their stay secured. The second thing is sit down at a free computer and look up what’s available in the area. One of them they don’t trust themselves to be able to catch, but a few of the others look promising. Then, they have to go buy three pokeballs. It’s an expense they don’t like, and they do have one still that they found along the road, but the odds of successfully catching something are better with more than one ball to throw.

Besides, if they’re considering what sort of core they want to build into their team? Then there’s no denying they’re going to be doing more battling going forward. They do get more money per battle than they do most days hocking stuff, and with a new, stronger pokemon on the team they can hopefully win more of them against opponents with, hopefully, more money. Plus, with a pickup user around Argit will, with any luck, be able to split time more between item hunting and battling. But, if they’re going to focus more on battles, then they’re going to eventually need to balance out their team better, and that’ll take pokeballs.

Like keeping the one that had been used on gimmighoul, they’re making a calculated investment.

Once all that is done and plans are in place, they take the rest of the night to acquaint themself with the town before turning in for the day.

Most of the pokemon on their narrowed list are easy enough to find, but it still takes them until the third night to find the right one. Despite all evidence, they are not their ma, and while they don’t know if there’s any specific rule about it, it does seem in like something she’d do- catch a pokemon for a trade without letting it know she wasn’t keeping it. Instead Argit spends two nights wandering up and down the paths outside of town, trying to figure out the best way to tell the pokemon what’s going on. Eventually they settle on just saying it at the start of every battle with the appropriate species.

That this has, on most occasions, led to the pokemon immediately turning and leaving, is more than a bit disheartening. More than a bit annoying as well. Still, they keep up, despite the voice in their head telling them to just catch one of the stupid things and be done with it. They are ten-years-old and desperate to be better than that. So wasted time it is. Over, and over, and over. Not even to mention the pokemon that salandit has just been too strong to weaken enough to catch without driving them off, or gimmighoul too weak to even bother without it’s backup.

Eventually, though…

“You wanna live in a small place in town?” The skwovet blinks, beady little eyes pulling away from salandit and towards Argit. “Looking for a pokemon for somebody in town, nice enough, but no travelling, not a lot of battling I don’t think, and their place is small.” It continues to stare, long enough that Argit wonders if it understands what they’re saying. Enough that salandit turns to them, itself now confused.

The skwovet turns it’s attention back to the fire-type and enters a battle stance.

“Poison gas,” Argit calls, heaving a sigh of relief as a cloud of purple fumes streaks from salandit’s mouth, engulfing the skwovet as it puffs up it’s fur. All the fur makes it difficult to see any telltale purple tinge, but there’s no sign of it eating a curing berry as the gas clears in the breeze. “Ember it!”

As the skwovet throws itself forward, it’s met with a face full of embers, colliding with salandit’s tail as it swings it. The force of the blow sends both pokemon toppling head over tail, scrambling against each other until their settled enough to break apart and face each other down once more. Skwovet cringes a little, nose crinkling, but it stands firmer than salandit does. Argit’s ears tilt back. This is one of the stronger ones then, and much as they love their pokemon, high defenses it does not have.

“Get evading,” they call, and the words have hardly left their muzzle before salandit is releasing another plume of poison gas at it’s feet. Already poisoned, the nose crinkling is an easy sign, the skwovet wastes no time in throwing itself into the cloud. A smirk slips onto Argit’s face as aggravated squeaks erupt from the gas, realizing salandit’s moved. The purple cloud works it’s way around the field, pokemon releasing gas as quickly as it can to shield it’s exact location. It’s in real trouble if the wind kicks up, or if skwovet gets lucky, but it’s fast and all it needs is time. The normal-type throws itself at where it thinks salandit is again. Misses again.

A third time. The skwovet is chittering more fiercely.

Fourth. It wavers, just slightly, as it eyes the moving cloud. There are brief flashes of salandit and Argit can tell it’s noticed them. Smart, for a skwovet, too.

Fifth

“Ember!”

If Argit was a better person, they would feel bad for the poor normal-type. An order timed right as it moved and suddenly it finds itself sailing just in front of it’s target, in prime place for a full blow to it’s side as salandit flings fire free of it’s tail. As it is, they have to bite back a snicker as it chatters away even more angrily than before, tumbling across the ground and barely managing to get back to it’s feet. By the time it does they have a pokeball in hand, missing the first throw (thankfully nobody but the pokemon are there to see it) and nailing the second. In a flash of red light, skwovet is inside.

It shakes twice before catching.

Salandit is breathing heavily when Argit scoops it into their arms, chittering praise and stroking down it’s back as they approach the ball. They heft it in their hand a moment, give it a weighing toss, before sticking it in their bag.

“Don’t know if Jules is looking for a security pokemon,” they say as their attention turns to checking the damages against their starter, “but I think it’ll do the job anyway.”

~~

“Oh, aren’t you a cutie-patootie!”

Jules, it turns out, likes the skwovet. Which is good news, because Argit isn’t getting them another one. They can’t afford to get them another one. Not unless they start eating skwovet. Dip into the emergency fund that is gimmighoul’s coins.

They may not survive that.

“I take it we got a trade then,” they only half ask. It only takes a moment for Skwovet to launch itself up onto Jules’s shoulder, pumpkaboo already in conversation with salandit.

“Yeah.” Jules laughs as they say it, scratching skwovet’s little head. “Ready when you are.”

The trade station is just on the other end of the pokemon center, a complex machine that swaps identifications and registry information and stuff. Argit had never seen one until they first entered a pokemon center (all the pokemon their ma gave out were, for all intents and purposes, their ma’s until death) and even now is a little bit wary of it. They’re careful, as the return skwovet to it’s ball, to make sure that their eye stays on it. As if if they look away salandit or gimmighoul’s will appear in it’s place. It’s a long moment they spend looking, and it gives them something to focus on besides the tearful goodbye between Jules and pumpkaboo, complete with hugging and teary eyes that leave something Argit doesn’t want to acknowledge lodged in their throat.

When they’re finally done and call the ghost-type back into it’s ball, they seem to have an easier time inputting their trainer id than Argit does. They hesitate less on putting skwovet’s ball in the machine though.

For some reason, Argit realizes, they expected something flashier out of the machine. It dings, it shuts, a depiction of a pokeball spinning and transforming into a great ball, an ultra ball, a premiere ball, a master ball, appears on the screen, sings again, and opens. The ball on their side is older, scratched and dinged like gimmighoul’s. While they’re still reaching for the ball, cautious, Jules has already grabbed one clean new one on their side, releasing skwovet to their own tears and the pokemon’s very obvious pleasure.

Argit takes a deep breath as they hit the button on pumpkaboo’s ball and hold it as a mass of white light emerges. As it grows and grows until it’s taller than they are. Not by much, but by enough to make them fidget. The mass solidifies, bursts in a scatter of light that has salandit hissing, leaving behind another orange and black pokemon. Tall, with long, limbs? Maybe? And a face etched into it’s belly. Their brain supplies ‘gourgeist’ just in time for the pokemon to cry out in joy and fling it’s limbs around them.

The world freezes for a moment, instinctual panic and the need to keep their quills flat warring with each other in the heartbeat before salandit is flaming and hissing displeasure. Gourgeist thankfully gets the message, slipping away to just float in circles around them with sorrowful little moans. The way their limbs hover just outside of touching distance, like they want to try again but aren’t certain, is warm is Argit’s gut.

They flash their new pokemon a smile, an honest one, reaching over and up to scratch around the curl? stem? at the top of it’s head.

“Welcome to the team.” To their side, salandit settles down as gourgeist croons, leaning hard into their touch. “Hope you don’t mind work, ‘cause we got a lot of it waiting.”

“Argit.” Jules is smiling when they look, bittersweet. “Thank you.”

“Not a problem.” It was a problem. They just hope it proves worth it in the long run.

“Still, take care of gourgeist for me? And visit sometime, maybe?” Argit nods, even though they know that if all goes to plan they’ll never see this place again. Never see this region again. Taking care of the pokemon, that at least they- They’ll make it work.

They will.

They have a plan.

“Next time we swing by, I’m sure it’ll lead me right to ya.”

~~

A little local battle competition with a cash prize goes up on the board about a week into Argit’s stay, and they decide to stick around, see how well they do. They’ve got a fully evolved pokemon now, after all, and the cash prize is very attractive. Any cash prize is attractive at this point.

First place sits tantalizingly out of their reach, but the entry was free and they do get a brass third place medal and seventy-five bucks.

It’s enough to serve as a proof of concept.

Argit still ends up breaking into a local store at the break of dawn, to make up the big difference now there’s three pokemon to feed. For the whole little ‘excursion’ they feel like they can’t breath, gritting their teeth against their ma’s smirk in their mind. As soon as they get back to the pokemon center they shove the money into gimmighoul’s chest, where nobody will look. The whole rest of their time in the area they feel like there’s a blazing target on their back, but no one suspects them (no one ever suspected them-) and all they need is to get to get to a bigger place, one with more trainers. One with ruins nearby, now they’ve counted out the coins and realized how fast they’re getting gimmighoul to evolution.

They can’t hock them, not when they’re halfway there.

There’s a new plan. Better plan.

This one’ll work.

[avirael]

The Frozen Lake

It was the third day since he had stopped feeling like dying.

About a week ago he had woken up from his far too lifelike fever dream and a few days later the last spikes of the fever itself had been gone too just like the hallucinations it had brought in his sleep.

He still had been sick though and welcomed Rael telling him to stay in bed until he was perfectly healthy again all too eagerly.

While he still sneezed every now and then, it was at least tolerable now, still annoying but he didn’t feel incredibly uncomfortable anymore.

That day, just like the last and also the ones before that, he had awoken late. Against Rael’s order to stay in bed he had found the courage to get up and take a look out of the window. It was a sunny day, which in Coerthas still meant that it was bitterly cold though. But the sun was shining brightly and already high in the sky too which meant it had to be almost midday. He had slept way too long again, way to many hours for a surprisingly dreamless sleep. Or maybe it was exactly the lack of dreams that allowed him to finally rest, after all in the past there rarely had been good ones…

For a moment he considered to go downstairs and ask for a late breakfast if that wasn’t too insolent given the late hour but then a knock sounded from the door.

Quickly he hurried back to bed, just in case it was Rael, but the person who carefully peeked into the room a few seconds later wasn’t a viera.

“Ah, you are awake! That’s good!”, Haurchefant exclaimed happily and brought a small tray with hot soup and also something warm to drink. “It is so late already, you must be horribly hungry. Alphinaud checked in on you earlier but you were still fast asleep and he didn’t have the heart to wake you.”

A little uncertain on how to answer to that, A’viloh just nodded. Haurchefant grinned, put down a mug on the bedside table and handed A‘viloh a comfortingly warm bowl filled with some rather delicious smelling stew.

Instead of fetching the chair from the small desk by the window, Haurchefant sat down at the lower end of the bed balancing the tray with his own lunch on his knees. Rael once told him that ishgardian society had an absurd amount of strict and antiquated rules and so A’viloh couldn’t help but wonder, that although it seemed like a very appropriate distance to him, in Haurchefant’s hometown the fact alone that he dared to sit on someone else’s bed was probably scandalous.

“I hope you don’t mind me having lunch with you.”, the Elezen asked as he noticed A‘viloh staring.

Quickly the Miqo’te lowered his gaze to his bowl of soup. “Not at all.”, he muttered and tried a spoonful of the food just to change the topic. “Mhh, this is very good!”, he mumbled, still chewing, surprised by how good this really was compared to the bland food and bitter teas Rael had usually brought him these last few days. It must have been the Viera’s way of punishing him for running away.

Haurchefant laughed and then for a while they ate in silence.

“You look a lot healthier already.”, the Elezen stated after a while with an amiable smile on his face before taking a sip from his mug.

A‘viloh shrugged a little embarrassed, since it had been his own fault that he hadn’t been well in the first place. “Only because all of you took so good care of me.”

Haurchefant nodded. “You know, you had us all horribly worried right?”

“Sorry about that.”, he said and guitily looked into his mug.

Curiously Haurchefant eyed him for a moment. “Why did you do that anyway? Run out into the storm.”

A bit surprised A’viloh looked up. Had they all thought he had done this on purpose? “There wasn’t a storm when I left! What do I know about weather? I didn’t expect it to start snowing, let alone that much!”

That made the Elezen chuckle again but he still looked at him expecting an answer.

“Still… why did you leave?”

“I assumed Rael told you…”, A’viloh replied not sure what Haurchefant wanted to hear exactly. He nodded. “Rael did. But maybe I want to hear it from you…”

A’viloh sighed. His plan hadn’t been very smart and he felt a little uncomfortable having to explain his reasons to someone else, when in retrospect it didn’t make much sense even to his own ears.

“You know the… circumstances under which we fled Ul’dah… I couldn’t… um… the fact that we didn’t even know what happened to our friends… I wanted to find out, because it doesn’t seem fair to me that we escaped while all of them didn’t…”

“Mhh…”, Haurchefant nodded thoughtfully but let go off the topic for now. Instead he asked, „And how are you feeling today?”

Somehow that question confused A’viloh even more.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a simple question, isn’t it?”, he said still smiling politely.

Of course it was a simple question. Just the answer felt unreasonable complicated to him. To make things even more difficult people who asked such a question usually wanted to hear “I‘m fine, and you?” or “Very good, thank you.” for an answer and rarely the truth. They certainly didn’t want to hear “A few days ago I was convinced I was going to die and honestly it wasn’t that bad, so now I‘m still not sure wether I am happy to still be alive or not”.

“Alright… I guess.”, he mumbled instead. He had never been a good liar and could only hope that this fact wasn’t too obvious for the Elezen.

“You know what?”, Haurchefant proclaimed after watching him thoughtfully for a second. “Today is a wonderful day. We should go for a walk.”

“A walk?!”, A’viloh exclaimed wide-eyed, as if he had just asked something unreasonable of him.

“Why not?”

A’viloh couldn’t think of a good reason why not, other than that he was supposed to stay in bed, so he shrugged.

“Where’s Rael?”, he asked instead.

Haurchefant smirked. “Do you need Rael’s permission to go outside?”

“Of course not.”, the Miqo’te protested. “But Rael will be mad if I run off again, especially against their orders to stay in bed.”

“Rael and Alphinaud went to the observatory earlier.”, Haurchefant explained. “We’ll be back before they are, I promise.”

What was A’viloh supposed to say against that and also against the expectant look on the Elezen’s face. He took another glimpse towards the window and decided that it looked nice enough to go outside.

“Fine.”

“Good!”, Haurchefant exclaimed happily and collected their empty bowls and mugs. “There should be warm clothes for you in the wardrobe. If you need anything else just ask someone. I’ll wait for you by the northern gate.”

After Haurchefant had left, A’viloh remained sitting in his bed for a moment longer contemplating on the Elezen’s question. Yes, he felt better again. But better in what comparison? Better than a few days ago when he had felt and also been half-dead? Though he didn’t feel sick anymore now, there still was a weigh on his heart. From his plan that had failed so spectacularly and even more so from the dreams he wouldn’t have minded to keep on dreaming forever.

Vehemently he shook his head and decided not to think about that now or he would just crawl back under the blanket of his comfortably warm bed again. Instead he got up and took a look into the wardrobe. Almost none of these were his own clothes of course since all he possessed were the ones he had worn on his body that day they fled Ul’dah. Very unsuitable for this climate. But neither did he see the borrowed clothes he had worn that night when he had tried to run away. Everything in here looked even softer and warmer like someone had wanted to make sure he was feeling comfortable. To his surprise the things didn’t look that much too big for him either, unlike his last set of clothes. Besides a few Hyur most people here at Camp Dragonhead were grown up Elezen but these clothes looked like they belonged to neither. Maybe it were clothes for Elezen children, he wondered and also thought that in that case someone must have brought them here just for him.

Grateful for so much effort he picked a few pieces and got dressed. Lazily he ran his fingers through his hair to get rid of the worst knots but the look into the small mirror at the washbasin, where his tired face stared back at him reproachfully, just made him sigh. Once he was ready he took the warm coat out of the wardrobe too and went out to look for Haurchefant. Just as he had said, the Elezen was standing by the gate that led to the north-east, towards the ruins of the Steel Vigil.

From afar Haurchefant already recognised the Miqo’te, his bright red hair a singularity among all the people living here. Pleasantly smiling as always he waved at him and A’viloh couldn’t help but smile a little too and wave back as he hurriedly walked towards him.

“There you are! I see the clothes fit you nicely.”

A’viloh nodded.

“They do. Thank you very much for these.”

Haurchefant dismissively waved with one hand. “It’s the least I could do…”

But he had done a lot more than that, A’viloh thought. “I think there’s more I need to thank you for. Rael told me it was you who saved my life.”

“Mhhh…”, Haurchefant tilted his head as if he wasn’t sure if this statement was entirely the truth. “Rael is too humble. They played a bit of a role in that too. After all it was Rael who noticed you were gone. And it was also Rael who didn’t leave your bedside and tried their best to heal you.”

A’viloh remembered waking up and finding the usually quite touch-averse viera cuddled up to him with a look on their face so horribly sad like he had never seen on them before. Rael had pretended it was nothing but it had been a very unconvincing performance. Asked about it Alphinaud had only offered a few sentences about how worried Rael had looked and how they had used all kinds of spells he himself had never seen or heard of before, all of it to try and save him. It had made him feel even more guilty for his stupidity.

So maybe Haurchefant was right. But still it had been him who had risked going out into the storm to find him.

“Anyway. I still want to thank you! Honestly.”, he insisted. But how honestly was it really?

Sure, he was glad to still be alive. After all his plan hadn’t been to run out into a blizzard and freeze to death, although some of them seemed to think that was the case. But once he found himself in this situation he had to admit that he had welcomed his fate rather willingly. A fact that shocked even himself a little looking back at it now.

“You’re welcome. After all you wouldn’t be any help to your friends frozen to death out there.”, Haurchefant joked with a wry smile on his lips.

“I guess not...”, A’viloh muttered, the topic of his friends making his mood visibly sink again.

Of course the Elezen noticed and his smile turned into a playful grin. “But I acted a little selfish too, you know? I think Camp Dragonhead is a lot friendlier with your company and I would like to have you and your pretty smile around a little longer.”

For a moment A’viloh’s eyes shot up to look at the others face before he quickly pretended that something somewhere a little bit to his left was a lot more interesting. Sometimes Haurchefant randomly said things, A’viloh hadn’t had the slightest idea how to react to. Not because he was that oblivious but simply because it puzzled him. Nonetheless the air suddenly didn’t feel that cold anymore on his face.

Haurchefant was always very kind to him. Well, he mostly was kind to everybody but sometimes he seemed to admire him especially. Him of all people, although there was nothing special about him. Haurchefant sometimes spoke of him like he was one of the greatest heroes of all time and it felt so ridiculous to him. He was just silly, cowardly A‘viloh! What had he ever achieved in his miserable life to justify such admiration? The people called him a Warrior of Light but wasn’t that some grand overstatement? Some days he thought all of this had been a horrible mistake. A great misunderstanding! Then he wondered how he had ever gotten entangled in this madness in the first place and also if he ever would get out of it again. But what else should he do with his life anyway...

While A’viloh’s brain still screeched in desperate search for a proper response, Haurchefant seemed to realise he had flustered him and glossed it over by gesturing to the gate.

“How about we walk a few yalms? There’s something you need to see!”

Still too dumbstruck to speak or to even wonder what the Elezen was talking about, A’viloh nodded and then proceeded to follow him out into the snowy landscape.

After a few minutes Haurchefant paused and took a deep breath. “Isn’t the air wonderful today?”

A’viloh followed his example, breathed deeply and let his gaze wander over the snow covered landscape with a few pines here and there and the mountains and ruins of the Steel Vigil in the distance. The air was cool and fresh, still cold enough that the warm sun couldn’t melt the snow. Instead the rays of sunshine made the scenery shine and sparkle as if everything was covered not in ice but in millions over millions of tiny diamonds.

“It is.”, he answered and smiled, surprised how beautiful this inhospitable landscape could be, before with a sudden spark of curiosity he finally asked. “Where are we going?”

“It’s not far anymore.”, Haurchefant said with a grin on his face and pointed into another direction. Shortly after and only a bit further ahead they reached a small lake.

As they got closer A‘viloh noticed that it not only was covered in a layer of snow and ice but also that quite a few off-duty soldiers, given the proximity to the camp he assumed they had to be, were standing right on top of the frozen lake. No, they were not quite standing. It looked more like they were dancing or flying maybe. More or less gracefully they moved over the lake‘s surface in fluid swift strides, some just moving in wide circles and other swirling around this way or that. A’viloh had never seen something like this and it looked strange and impossible but at the same time very beautiful to him.

The two of them had almost reached the lake by then, A’viloh a few steps ahead to get a better look at the wondrous people on the ice and he already wanted to ask how they did that, when his attention was drawn elsewhere by a curious squawking sound.

“Oh! Look at them!”, the Miqo’te exclaimed, his fascinated smile still turning a little brighter, as he gestured to a small flock of wild geese resting at the shore of the lake. With ruffled feathers they sat closely huddled together at the edge of the ice and suddenly A‘viloh couldn’t help but worry about them. They looked so unbothered by his presence, sleeping through the day and all the hubbub around them, looking all exhausted and frozen with their puffed up feathers. Like anything could happen to them and they wouldn’t even mind.

Strangely he wondered what he himself had looked like when Haurchefant had found him unconscious in the snow. He must have been a pitiful sight. Had the Elezen thought him beyond saving too, just like he himself had. What if he had found him a little later or not at all? Maybe that would have been better, a voice murmured to him just like it had so many times before and for a moment, tempted by the grief heavy on his heart once again, he almost believed it.

But no, he would be dead then and while he would have liked to imagine that this would mean he could be with his loved ones again, it was not exactly what either of the tribes he had lived with believed.

Vaguely he remembered his father working for hours, digging a grave at what used to be Wellwick Wood. An elderly woman too exhausted by their long journey, his grandmother if he remembered correctly, had died shortly after they had arrived there. With a sad smile on his face his father had explained to his children, who had stared down into the hole in the ground with confusion in their eyes, how by returning her body to the earth there could still grow new life from this death.

Or the drake tribe of the Sagolii Desert, who always burned their dead and left the ashes to be carried away by the desert wind, believing that it would make it easier for the deceased‘s aether to return to the Aetheric Sea and create something new elsewhere.

With a sudden sharp pain in his heart A’viloh realised that neither of the people he loved had gotten the burial they would have wanted for themselves. And neither had A‘viloh himself wanted to die in the coldness of Coerthas and be forever forgotten under a thick layer of snow and ice. He had thought about dying before but never had he been this close to it. For a second he wondered if this was something worth speaking to Rael about, but he wasn’t sure they wouldn’t misunderstand and get mad at him again.

“Why do you make such a sad face now?”, Haurchefant asked having noticed the smile slip from the Miqo’te’s face. But A’viloh just vehemently shook his head and focused on the geese again.

“They must be horribly cold.”, he wondered in a voice that suggested he already planned to take all of them to the safety of his comfortably warm room.

Haurchefant chuckled. “Don’t worry, they survived the storm out here after all. They keep each other warm, that’s why you‘ll rarely see one of them alone. A bit like you and your friends.”

“Maybe…”, A’viloh answered thinking about this comparison for a moment. “I just wish it wouldn’t always be me who needs to be taken care of. But as proven in Ul’dah and now once again I am simply too weak and useless to keep myself alive, not to mention anyone else.”

The Elezen’s face got a little stern as he folded his arms in front of his chest. “Don’t say that, I am sure it’s not true! This was just bad luck! You are neither weak nor useless!”

A’viloh shrugged. “But that’s how I feel right now...”

Slowly Haurchefant nodded before speaking again with a silent but determined voice. “Listen. I‘ll never forget how bravely you fought for Francel although you barely knew him. You could have gotten yourself in trouble with that and you helped him anyway.”

“It’s not like I did that on my own -”, A’viloh tried to protest but was immediately interrupted. “But you still helped! And I’m sure even without Rael you would have done so!”

Another shrug was all Haurchefant got in response, so the Elezen thought for a second before making an offer. “You want to make yourself useful, right? Get stronger? I could teach you how to fight like a real ishgardian knight, with sword and shield. Or we have some dragoons at Camp Dragonhead too! I’m sure there’s a lot you could learn from them.”

A‘viloh‘s face turned to disbelief. “I really don’t think I could fight with armor and weapons this heavy…”

“You can’t say so if you don’t try! And I have you know that dragoon armors are surprisingly light. How do you think they could still be this agile otherwise? Promise me to at least try training with them a little!”

He didn’t really want to agree to that. He knew he would make a fool of himself. But how could he say no with Haurchefant trying everything in his power to cheer him up. Weakly he shook his head and muttered: “Fine…”

“Perfect!”, Haurchefant exclaimed with a bright smile on his face. “I think an early reward for your efforts is appropriate then!”

Confused A’viloh watched him take a small bag off of his shoulders, which he hadn’t even noticed until now. For a moment the Elezen was busy undoing a knot before he opened the bag and presented to A‘viloh a set of two weirdly shaped blades attached to pieces of wood with leather straps. He had no idea what these constructs were meant to do and that was plainly visible on his face. “What’s that?”

“Ice skates of course!”, Haurchefant said as if that would explain it all but the Miqo’te‘s face remained clueless, so Haurchefant gestured to the lake behind them. “You attach them to your boots so you can walk on the ice like this!”

“Oh!”, A’viloh exclaimed as he understood what Haurchefant was planning. “I don’t think-… I mean I‘ve never-… You don’t really want me to step on that lake do you?” The idea somehow scared him.

“Why not?”, Haurchefant asked for the second time today with this smile that made the question sound like a challenge.

“It’s just a bit of ice!”, A‘vi objected. “What if it breaks?”

The Elezen shook his head and proceeded to fasten the metal blades beneath his boots. “Ah, don’t worry. The ice is thick enough, it will take at least a few more days to melt.”

“I don’t know…”, was all A’viloh replied as Haurchefant pressed another pair of skates into his hands. But the Elezen remained determined and took a few wobbly steps through the snow and onto the ice. “See! I can stand on it and it doesn’t break! You are a lot lighter than me, so why wouldn’t you be able to?”

Oh, you don’t know my bad luck!, A‘viloh thought but Haurchefant didn’t look like he would take that for an excuse. Instead he stretched out a hand towards the Miqo’te. “Come one! Believe me, this is going to be funny!”

For a second A‘viloh pondered his options. The idea of nothing but a little bit of ice between him and the water still terrified him but Haurchefant seemed so excited about this and the other people actually seemed to have fun too. Maybe he should at least pretend to try... Reluctantly he sat down on a rock and tried to put on the skates just like Haurchefant had done a moment ago.

“The clasp on the back too. Make sure none of them are loose… Yes, that looks fine!”, Haurchefant helpfully explained. As A’viloh got up, he almost flopped right back down into the snow. It was a weird feeling to balance his whole weight on only two thin pieces of metal. As he carefully took the first few steps towards the lake Haurchefant reached out for him once more. “Here! Take my hand! I don’t want you to fall…”

Hesitantly A‘vi stepped onto the ice and immediately felt like the ground was being pulled away beneath his feet. He struggled for balance, feeling himself falling backwards, so Haurchefants arm was a very welcome thing to hold on to.

With a chuckle the Elezen tried to loosen A‘vi‘s desperate grip on his arm and instead took each of his hand in one of his own before carefully making slow steps backwards pulling A‘viloh over the ice, which A’vi could swear was making suspicious crackling sounds below them. There was no way to tell the blades beneath his feet not to move, so all A’viloh could do was try not to fall and plead to Haurchefant with ears flat on his head and panic in his eyes, as he slowly was pulled further onto the lake. “No, no, no. Take me back, that’s a horrible idea!”

“Calm down. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I promise.”, Haurchefant said soothingly and continued to explain to him how to move on the ice skates. And in fact the Elezen’s calm voice slowly made A’viloh feel less anxious. His hands, frantically clasping at Haurchefant’s, relaxed along with his legs. It was still a weird feeling to be standing on the ice but now it felt a lot easier to remain balanced. He glanced at the people around them while remaining as still as possible, studied their movements for a moment and then tentatively tried to mimic the way they slowly pushed their feet above the slippery surface. To his surprise he really moved forward without much effort and also without feeling the sensation of falling again, closer to Haurchefant who had steadied him with his outstretched arms so far.

“See! It’s not that difficult.”, he said while making another step backwards so A’viloh had to follow with another step forward. The Miqo’te, strangely excited about the fact that he was actually moving on these weird ice-blades, laughed happily. “You are even going backwards!”

Haurchefants laughed. “One step after the other. Let’s teach you how to go forward first, hm? I‘ll let go off one of your hands but don’t worry, I still got you. One feet after the other just like you did before…”

In fact it almost felt easier now that he could use one of his arms to balance himself. Very slowly at first they floated above the icy surface of the lake but soon A‘viloh got braver. Once he almost lost his balance but for a comparably tall and strong person like Haurchefant it seemed like a very easy task to keep a small Miqo’te on his feet. Almost falling had felt like a shock for a second but only moments later they were laughing about it and in the end A’viloh was surprised and also a little proud how quickly he had learned and how much fun this was.

He wasn’t sure how much time they spent there on the frozen lake but at some point a bell sounded from the nearby Camp. Startled A’viloh looked up (and almost lost his balance again). “How late is it? I’m sure you have more important things to do than this! I’m sorry if I’m keeping you from doing your work.”

But Haurchefant just laughed and teased, “What could be more important than prove to you that not all of Coerthas is a deadly wasteland trying to kill you? But I think we really should return soon. I don’t want you to get cold again and after all we also don’t want Rael to find out about this little excursion, do we?”

For a second A’viloh wished the viera could see him now and wondered what their reaction would be like. The thought made him chuckle.

And as they floated, one last circle around the lake, A’viloh couldn’t help but wonder that maybe it was happy moments like this. The reason he was still here. Moments that made his life worth living.

---

inspired by the poem The Reversal by Leila Chatti

[harrenhalyuri]

opened Pinterest for work but got slapped in the face with this. thanks it's not as if i already think about that elf 24/7

[juniperhillpatient]

mood board for when ur friend group of teens is investigating something but u have all the subtly of a brick <3

[count-woe-laf]

Hi guys! I'm so normal!!