#fe:3h headcanons

[mixed-up-metaphors]

weird practice doodle comic thing idk 2/2

(first one is over here)

in case you are bamboozled and missed the first post this is just me ranting/rambling abt dimitri and ashe and ghosts in comic form

huzzah, the rest of the first one featuring uhhhhhhh idk lol its like the first one. But Now With A Brief Appearance From Our Special Guest, Dedue!!!!!!!!

[frickingnerd]

dating holst goneril

pairing: holst sigiswald goneril x gn!reader

tags: silly & wholesome fluff, simp!holst, established romantic relationship, holst spoiling his s/o like crazy

holst is such a devoted boyfriend, he would do anything for you! 

honestly, he's spoiling you rotten to the point where he can get a bit overbearing at times

he wants to make his partner as happy as he can and will always ask you if he can do something for you

he'll cook for you, he'll make you gifts and he's always protecting you in battle

if you wanted to, you would never have to lift a finger again in your life, because holst would do anything for you instead

though he does get really happy when you do something for him in return! 

he's especially happy when you cook for him and the two of you get to have a cute little dinner date all by yourself, somewhere a bit away from the base

he won't stop complimenting you for the food and he'll eat every last bit of it, since he doesn't want to leave leftovers after you worked so hard to make this food for him! 

he's also pretty clingy and would honestly love to spend as much time with you as he can! 

he always has an arm wrapped around you or when the two of you are going somewhere together, he insists on carrying you!

hilda is quite happy that someone else now gets all her brother's love and she has more time for herself again

though she does like you a lot and she appreciates how happy you make her brother! 

and holst is really happy too, knowing you and his sister get along so well! 

[edelgards]

people are so afraid of bisexual edelg*rd

[mynnthia]

compiling my headcanons for what video games dungeon meshi characters would like, if they were gamers in modern day

some taken from this post and my reblog additions there. added more characters, with some suggestions by friends/mutuals (marked by *asterisk ).

this can also be a games recommendation list based on your fav/most relatable characters too, if you want

characters that are not are included are bc i dont have ideas for them. if i only list the genre name but not any specific titles, its bc im not familiar enough with the character/genre to pick a specific game.

this list is, of course, biased towards games im more familiar with. feel free to ask me to elaborate on my choices or make suggestions in the comments

Laios' party:

Laios: plays lots of Monster Hunter. loves Spore but he doesnt often play past the tribal stage. likes Pokemon but he's more focused on catching the pokemon than following the story. played WolfQuest and DragonFable back in the day. enjoyed the concept of Bugsnax but wasn't interested in dealing with the NPCs

Marcille: mainly Dwarf Fortress, RTS games, some colony sims. but also sometimes The Sims, and dollmaker dress-up games. i could see her also enjoying Rollercoaster Tycoon and making elaborately-themed parks. might also occasionally indulge in some visual novels if she's in the mood for narrative she has Stardew Valley so she can have something to play co-op with falin, but its not a game she plays a lot of otherwise. when playing with falin, marcille micromanages the farm to maximize productivity, and does the decorations

Chilchuck: puzzle games and hidden object/escape room games as a video game-equivalent to finding/dismantling traps and lockpicking. i think he'd also enjoy Bejeweled.

Senshi: mainly Wii games and Cooking Mama. occasionally plays Snake on his 15-year-old nokia phone. i dont think he would enjoy games like Overcooked or restaurant manager games, because he likes to take his time making food, not stressing about customer service

Falin: some *Legend of Zelda games – she likes the exploration aspect in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, maybe also some of the toon zelda games like Minish Cap or Wind Waker she also plays Pokemon (*Pokemon Go when she's traveling), and i think she would enjoy some indie games, like Penko Park or Chicory: A Colorful Tale. plays Stardew Valley co-op with marcille – falin mainly takes care of the animals, mining, and picking the crops. occasionally makes improvement suggestions that marcille didnt think of

Izutsumi: i could see her enjoying games with parkour mechanics, like *Assassin's Creed, or Mirror's Edge. or maybe something simple but requiring cat-like swipes, like Fruit Ninja. despite her impatience, i think she could also enjoy action games with interesting longer narratives, as evidenced by [this omake] (relevant portion pictured below), so maybe *Final Fantasy 7 – my friend who's familiar with the game said "she’d find Cloud and Vincent relatable"

[ID: a dungeon meshi omake, where laios' party watches a nightmare monster manifest marcille's dream. there are snippets of dramatic soap opera-like dialogue. the rest of the party are initially enthusiastic but get bored over time, meanwhile izutsumi remains enthralled]

Kabru's party

Kabru: definitely Crusader Kings. maybe also some rpgs with relationship/faction mechanics, such as *Fire Emblem (one of the older ones or FE:3H) or Fallout: New Vegas (hes maxing out the speech stat asap) i think he would also enjoy mystery games like Pentiment and Return of the Obra Dinn – he would love the process of getting familiar with the many characters and deducing "who did what" in both games.

Rin: she takes pride in being an indie gamer (translating her disdain for upper class magic academy mages -> disdain for AAA games). given her chain-lightning magic in canon, i think she'd enjoy games with AOE-type magic, so maybe games such as Vampire Survivors. my mutual also suggested she might enjoy indie mystery visual novels like *Paranormasight, and that her AAA guilty-pleasure would be *Final Fantasy 14 – that rin is "a hardcore ff14 raider. would join PUGs and shot-call every week. #holm and diya might also play ff14 casually with rin but holm would be fishing mainly"

Mickbell: mainly Bethesda games like Fallout and Skyrim– enjoys the bootstrapper power fantasy in them. the type to go out of his way to pick up all the loot he can, to later sell

Kuro: enjoys the same games as Mickbell, but for the open-world exploration and investigation factors

Toshiro and Tansu's party:

Namari: her interest in fighting and weapons could translate to brawler/fighting games and action games with a focus on weapon stats – so maybe *Street Fighter, *God of War, and/or *Dark Souls. might play *Monster Hunter with laios but for the weapons. i could also see her occasionally enjoying truck simulators

Toshiro (Shuro): has the perseverance for soulslikes and other high-difficulty action and/or metroidvania games, but would take his time overthinking item/weapon synergies sometimes. given [his fondness for bugs], i could also see him enjoying Hollow Knight

Tade: would enjoy the cute aesthetics and lighthearted gameplay of Animal Crossing and Katamari. would also like idol anime rhythm games

Kiki: i think she would enjoy horror games such as Resident Evil, but would play it while super chill. i dont have much reasoning for this aside from vibes

Canaries:

Mithrun: plays Doom. got into Hollow Knight but still hasn't finished it because he keeps getting lost. senshi introduces him to Cooking Mama later on, which he finds surprisingly therapeutic

Cithis: plays Hitman and enjoys staging elaborate accident kills. i think she'd also enjoy The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, with her background as a devious fortune-teller

Fleki: surreal indie games like Hylics. also plays Team Fortress 2, and is a scout main. occasionally joins lycion in Animal Jam

Lycion: active WolfQuest and Animal Jam player. occasionally joins fleki in tf2

Pattadol: plays Stardew Valley – shes comparatively a normie, but on the meticulous side. she would enjoy perfecting her in-game farm

Otta: plays Genshin Impact. the serious reasoning is because of her (earth) elemental magic and how genshin has an elemental magic system (from my understanding. ive never played it). the joke reasoning is how some genshin players play to collect "waifus", and how otta goes through a lot of women in her dating life

Other:

Leed: runs her own guild in World of Warcraft

Winged Lion: god-games like WorldBox or Simmiland. and Darkest Dungeon (this ones mostly a joke)

Thistle: plays the original Plants VS. Zombies. also plays Minecraft and is very serious about it, but hasn't updated his game in years (translating the fact hes a 1000-year-old kid frozen in time -> playing "slightly old" games popular in the early 2010s)

[ID: tweet reply by twitter user ranchuppi – "thistle calls it lord delgal's server but he is the only mod. whole royal family is locked in spectator mode. Hell. living hell on earth."]

[emblemxeno]

I made a post on twitter a month ago about Byleth and how I didn't understand why so many people take the western centric take of losing their divinity as a good thing when Byleth's journey is a very Buddhist character journey. An Edelstan found it just yesterday, wrote this long ass essay about why I was wrong, with no sources but level 4 headcanons ie you literally made that tf up. I linked them to a really cool blog post that backs up all their sources about why it's Buddhist, all the motifs the game has with it shoutout to FantasyInvader's blog for alerting me to it and of course they come back with how I nor the blog poster don't understand Buddhism and also the game itself. Why? Because the blog and the Buddhist reading say CF continues the cycle of suffering when according to the Edelstan it has the "True Peace" motif. Oh and they cussed me out.

Anyway I blocked them after that but the point is, I'd be willing to give these people a chance and hear them out if they didn't act like babies and throw a tantrum when someone throws facts, logic and sources both from the game and analysis that backs up points with other material at them. Game is the true peacfe route? Oh look the banner is the only one with a black border why is that? Oh and this is the only route that ends with fire and darkness in the bg when every other one ends with light? Hmmmm.

I'm tempted to just drop a bunch of literature critical thinking questions anytime I interact with these people because boy do they not know how to do it because anytime they run into something backed up they yell until the person gives up and goes away. What a sad existence no wonder they all live in that server.

It's excessively strange how divorced from the home country people want 3H to be, that despite the game (like many FE games tbh) taking cues and morals from Japanese society, they'll just ignore it because "oh church = catholicism and christianity is bad" which is reductive.

I'd recommend just keep on doing what you're doing by blocking the people who come in with heat with no actual firepower to back it up.

[damoselcastel]

Dame’s thoughts on FE3H Margrave Gautier

Here I am, literal years late with headcanons about an off-screen no-first-name character: Sylvain's father, aka Gautier Sr. These headcanons are based on my own personal inferences and assumptions from only the og Three Houses game. They will run directly counter to Hopes, and I reject that secondary source's authority to substitute my own!

So to start with, I've got beef with how Hopes wrote Rufus. Honestly, I found it lazy and bad. Deposited him straightforwardly into mustache-twirling villain without really giving him much of anything else (an even more entitle version of Miklan? these high born boys need a solid dunking on).

Meanwhile the majority of canon dads got first names, faces...and redemption arcs? Not von Aegir, or von Varley, but Gloucester and Gautier seemed to come out golden compared to some unsavory implications within og 3H.

From plot events we can confirm Gautier Sr is 1) extremely capable as a military leader 2) absent in something as significant as his disowned son stealing a church/family artifact (can't be bothered to show up personally). And then we have the more subjective view of Gautier Sr from Sylvain and how he talks about him/his own self-worth measured by Crests. It's definitely not a clear view, but between this and any support details of what Miklan did during their childhood, seems extremely dysfunctional if not uncaringly negligent. I assumed he was a bad parent overall.

While in the thick of playing through Three Houses the first few times, I entertained the thought that Sylvain's rakish behavior might've been learned- what if all the men back home in Gautier flirted heavily and/or slept around? Were his negative opinions on women from larger societal assumptions he'd grown up with? (would end up with a pretty chauvinistic/misogynist area, but seemed to track)

So with all that in mind, I headcanoned Gautier Sr to be an aloof, stern father. First most concerned with the security of his lands/the Kingdom, but also indulging in the Gautier tradition. AKA would take women to bed, would not think it a big deal. He'd likely disapprove of his sons' unseriousness... but we also see he hardly seems to punish? Like??? (a complete absence of negative feedback can only be taken as approval)

In the years since, I do believe Sylvain's womanizing behavior is meant to be acting out/bad. Hopes seems to imply it was even to scandalize his father-- which, if so MAN the Margrave sucks at making his boys shape up. Bad behavior is tanked by the vulnerable public, they suffered both his sons bad behavior-- so honestly 'sucky dad' still applies! (the fact Hopes writes it was Miklan leaving the family and not ever crossing a line, still blows my mind considering the well story)

Anyway, my only other big headcanon for Gautier Sr is that he and Rufus are around the same age and attended academy together so are best buds. The Nepotist kind bailing each other out to the detriment of others. I admit, FE drama is more fun with a few scumbags here and there, and I didn't mind pinning Syl's dad as one.

[bi-leth-eisner]

*chin in hands* for the send in a character ask: how about Roy or Dimitri?

MY BOYS !!! (the one for Roy will be a bit shorter because the only exposure i have to his character are Smash Ultimate and Engage, sorry)

Roy

First impression: at the time i got into Smash, i didn’t even know Fire Emblem existed. he plays sort of like a brute with his sword dealing more damage on its hilt, and coupled with the flames around his special moves, i thought he was just like a really hot-headed boy.

Impression now: SON BOY ALLOWED!! he’s the sweetest.

Favourite moment: i really like his C bond with Amber, when Amber says he can’t believe the legendary Roy was in Brodia’s ring the whole time! and Roy slightly shakes his head and says, while smiling the most adorable smile ever, how he’s not that big of a deal. but he’s happy that Amber’s happy!

Idea for a story: as with all my non-3h faves, i like to think about them meeting Dimitri. befriending him during the academy days and fighting alongside him during the war.

Unpopular opinion: i don’t really know??? he’s my favourite Emblem though purely because of how much raw strength he grants at bond level 20 paired with the strength +6 from his inheritable skillset. almost every FE youtuber i’ve seen says Lyn or Corrin are like definitively two of the best Emblem rings.

Favourite relationship: i don’t know if this counts exactly but Merrin & Roy was an unstoppable pairing for me on my first run of Engage!

Favourite headcanon: this was literally made up on the spot at 5 am in a Discord forum post on this very day, but Roy uses he/they pronouns. to me.

Dimitri

First impression: while looking up the game Byleth was from, i found his timeskip design before his academy design, and immediately i was hooked. something happened to this man. and how come he’s so hot /j

Impression now: MY MOST FAVOURITE FICTIONAL CHARACTER OF ALL TIME, seriously he means the entire world to me. Azure Moon helped me process a lot of my bottled-up trauma and got me to not hate waking up in the mornings. he’s more precious to me than almost anything and anyone.

Favourite moment: at the end of Azure Moon, when he reaches out his hand to Edelgard despite the past five years, when he reaches out to her as his only surviving family member, calling her by the nickname she only allows people closest to her to say, reaching out to her like he’s finally, truly, looking forward instead of back. all of that is beautiful to me.

Idea for a story: Dimitri grows up with a little Shinx. by the time he’s in the academy, it’s a Luxio. during the war, when Byleth finally reunites with him after five long years, he’s guarded by a towering Luxray, missing an eye just like he is.

Unpopular opinion: dimi//leth is boring.

Favourite relationship: DEDUE DEDUE DEDUE DEDUE DEDUE, they mean everything to me your honour.

Favourite headcanon: he’d still be losing his eye in a modern au.

[neige-leblanche]

twst characters fire emblem class headcanons:

riddle: troubadour

ace: mage. ik he should be thief but i like thinking of him as the world's least friendly merric archetype

deuce: axe bro!!

trey: priest

cater: bard, but like in the jugdral sense (either these OR trey & cater are the green & red cavaliers)

leona: berserker!! ive considered doing an au where the beast boys r all laguz but aside from that. he's a pirate in this fic i have so on a personal level i think he could absolutely promote to berserker

ruggie: thief

jack: ok listen. ik he should be something tough and fighty like an axe bro but he'd make SUCH a good navarre archetype. he doesn't have obsessed with studying the blade energy but he does have obsessed with training in general energy i swear it fits he's a myrmidon. literally a laguz though so undecided

azul: SORCERER!!!!!! i wanna draw him in the awakening sorcerer outfit so bad

jade: paladin. vibes only

floyd: berserker as well. idk why the octas all have to be promoted classes sorry

kalim: dancer ofc!! i also really like kalim and jamil as a manakete/guardian duo

jamil: ik he should be a dark mage too but his vibes fit thief so much better ToT not in general just in the fe sense yknow. like he would get along with sooo many of the fe thieves

vil: dark mage

rook: tell me this man does not have ullr holy blood. he's a sniper

epel: VILLAGER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

idia: dark mage as well. or like a ballistician or some shit

ortho: maybe can only describe him as a manakete?? ik they had robots in 3h but iirc they were only big things like demonic beasts. manakete fits his canon attack type best lolololol

malleus: manakete ofc. i was gonna comment that fe hasn't rlly utilized a mysterious bishie type dragon yet & then went IM SORRY KURTHNAGA TELLIUS U WILL ALWAYS PROVIDE. hell is a room with two doors & the lolis get worse after your rest time in the tellius chamber

lilia: dread fighter/mortal savant

silver: pegasus knight

sebek: wyvern knight

chenya: trickster

neige: dancer

rollo: bishop

crowley: idk man.

trein: sage

crewel: mage knight/dark knight

vargas: warrior

sam: dark mage but the fun kind like henry

[aptericia]

yuri for the character ask game?

First impression:

omg......... prettyboy............ 👀

Impression now:

Definitely a contender for favorite FE character of all time!!! Apart from him being a prettyboy, a super fun unit, a joy to draw, and having a banger VA, I just feel like he's written ASTONISHINGLY well (esp given the baseline for 3H lmao). He's funny and quirky but not to the point where it's tedious, he has hidden depths but the game lets them stay partially hidden and doesn't dwell on his Tragic Backstory more than is necessary for exploring his character. Anyway I love him

Favorite moment:

Can I just say the entirety of his paralogue with Constance. Make that every interaction he ever has with Constance. Make that every interaction he has with anyone--

Idea for a story:

Idk I just think that he and the other Ashen Wolves should go on an extravagant modern AU heist where they get to dress up in fancy suits and wear sunglasses and snark at each other.

Unpopular opinion:

I don't ship him with anyone. and his timeskip design does him a huge disservice. Although I think both of those opinions are pretty popular in the local mutual circle lol

Favorite relationship:

Balthus ABSOLUTELY takes the cake, but I love most of his relationships tbh. Honorable mentions go to Constance, Dorothea, and Byleth.

Favorite headcanon:

I think I've said this before, but I think he literally doesn't even know what a mockingbird looks like and thinks they're beautiful little birds ✨ like him ✨, when in fact they are like the most boring, generic possible interpretation of a bird.

[fayesdiary]

oh you found a really good FE ask list, but since it would be a bit crazy to ask for every question let's go with...13, 24, 25, 31, and 37

Thanks Lore, made it myself😂

13) What do you like most about Fire Emblem?

Oh, that's... suprisingly hard to say because Fire Emblem's one of those series who's more than the sum of its parts.

But then again, I think I'd say the fandom. Or at least the niche circle I found here on Tumblr.

I found a lot of new friends here and really helped me open up at least in this space online wish i'd work irl too, but most of all... this series really opened my creativity in a way that no other piece of media ever did. Something about it feels... really approachable from a transformative standpoint.

Thanks to it I opened this blog, which led me to make lots of new friends (love you Lore btw <3), made some essays and thought pieces and most of all, I wrote fanfiction and art! Two things I always thought I was too talentless to make! And no matter what, Ill always be grateful to this franchise for me, despite how much the mainstream fandom sucks ass. Fuck 'em anyway, ignored them ever since before 3H release.

Speaking of this franchise inspiring creatvity, I always admired from afar the lovely folks at Feuniverse. The amount of hacks and fangames is astounding and I can't believe how many people made straight up fully fledged games from hacks! Maybe one day I will join her if I ever feel motivated enough. Maybe. I want to play more hacks at the very least, especially because FEE3 is one of my favorite fan events.

24) An FE title you wish would be remade?

Geneaology would be the obvious answer and don't get me wrong, I absolutely do want to see it remade and believe it inevitably will one day...

But if I have to be honest I want a rerelease of the Tellius games first because they're the hardest to play even through... illegitimate means if you're say, like me and only have an old laptop to emulate them with. Whether they'd be remakes or simple remasters, I don't really care as long as they play as they should.

25) Any general or specific headcanons you have?

Dragons have a lifespan of 100 times that of the humans.

It's never stated how much longer dragons live compared to humans, but given that Tiki is 1000 years old as a child and 3000 as an adult, i find the 100x multiplier fits really well and helps keep track of dragons' age more clearly, even if Fòdlan and Elyos dragons do seem to live longer than even that.

So by that logic in dragon years, Tiki is 10 in Shadow Dragon and in her thirties in Awakening, Nowi is 12 and Myrrh is 14.

Doesn't completely fit, but it sure helps visualize things more clearly.

31) Some moments of Fire Emblem you keep thinking of?

Speaking of the new things, um, the Twisted Joke, Engage ch11 and 17, most of the Engage endgame really. And Slayde bravely taking on a bunch of children in the Echoes prologue traumatizing the shit out of them and still getting his ass kicked (by Mycen, but still)

37) What's a weird theory or headcanon you have?

Rhea copes with her daily life through recreational drug use given that quest where she gives weed herbs to distressed students

[mixed-up-metaphors]

doodles be upon ye

[yanderefairyangel]

Hmm..I feel like that video is kinda doing the same thing as Cap's fic and meta did for 3H; change people's perception of the game to the point where people parrot their points. Although difference is Cap's fic and meta is based on headcanons whereas that video is more on "critiques" and opinions.

I am sorry Anon, I don't know what you are refering to. Mind explaining me what is the Cap fic you are refering to ?

Anyway, yes that video is defo playing a lot in the perception people have on the game cause when I watched it, and twice to make sure I wouldn't misunderstand any of the point made by OP (4 hours of my life I will never get back) I could undestand why someone who never played Engage or not enough would get the impression the game is garbage cause she is harsh on everything, she doesn't even acknoweldge that the gameplay is good !! And what's worse is that I checked the FE wiki and the answer to what she called plot holes are written in capital letter in the wiki, even quoting the chapter where it is from...

let that sink for a moment

[loregoddess]

1, 22, 26 for the FE 3H questions

1) What drew you to / made you pick up and play FE3H? I had played Awakening and Fates and was super excited for 3H, so I was already a fan of the series and excited to play a new game.

22) What character do you headcanon as ace or aro? Because I am ace I tend to default to reading every character as a little bit ace until I come across something to make me change my mind, and 3H isn't one of the games I have like, wildly specific character sexuality headcanons for to begin with but hmm...

I really don't have wildly specific "yes, this character seems [insert sexuality] to me" for hardly any of the characters bc FE casts in general feel very fluid for how they can be interpreted, but I guess if I had to choose characters who I felt fell under the aro/ace umbrella a bit moreso than other characters, I'd say: Byleth, Mercedes, Raphael, Caspar, and Hanneman.

26) Who is your overall favorite character? Dedue, my beloved. The funny thing is when I was reading through all the character profile cards when I very first started the game, I got to Dedue and was like, "Oh, he'll probably be one of my favorites." Dedue deserves the world.

[desudog-gone]

the weirdest widespread FE headcanon is how so many people are convinced rhea/the church in 3H is homophobic (as if rhea, the archbishop, isnt bisexual herself) like its so weird. you are literally so hard pressed for reasons to say the clear bad guy of the game is "actually good" that you just make shit up. i know some people legitimately cannot understand religion can exist without bigotry for some reason but its so weird to me. espessially when people against rhea in the game literally just often say 1:1 antisemetic remarks. like if we were to pull an actual real world religion to this fantasy fake world one, it wouldnt be the people woth "god hates fags" signs. its just a weird HC and i dont rlly trust people to have normal takes both on the game and on real life if they have it LOL? espessially about bisexual people

[noonslullabies]

*is excited to get FE: Engagement tonight*

Chaotic headcanon for Engage: the other students are in the 3H Bracelet, but they just moved further into the accessory to not be on the surface.

Yuri was the first to bail soon followed by everyone else and Hubert only vacations.

[annhellsing]

--  ignatz victor ft. getting loved with a love that is more than love  ❀

* read this and then send me stuff!!  ↳  gender neutral reader.

♡  he thought, for a while, that he could just change himself if he couldn’t be accepted for who he really was. finding different people to love him wasn’t an option

♡  ignatz had a plan for his life, one that would allow him to see beautiful places, even if he couldn’t paint them and be recognized for it

♡  he was scared to let people know that he cared for art more than battle, he was so ready to lock that part of himself away and to only think of it occassionally

♡  that was satisfaction, he told himself. that was how adults survived and he wasn’t a child any longer

♡  he recognized you without meaning to on the first day of classes. you threw your head back and laughed at something claude said in the golden deer classroom. all at once, ignatz knew your face

♡  he knew the curve of that beautiful smile, the way your eyes sparkled when you glanced at him of all people over claude’s shoulder. he’d seen it before, over and over again in the artist district of his home city

♡  ignatz found out later that your father was an artist, he used you as a model sometimes and made prints of your portrait to sell. he was absolutely amazed by this

♡  and you knew right away that he was an artist, too. you picked up his hand a week into classes and asked what he was painting, he had colourful stains on his fingers that wouldn’t wash out

♡  but when he recoiled and said it was really nothing, you let him be. you didn’t press, didn’t push to see parts of him he wasn’t comfortable with showing. you waited until he was ready

♡  it took some time, but eventually he came to you and asked if you could look at a sketch he’d done. he was proud of it, you could tell but he handed over his sketchbook like it was nothing

♡  he showed you a beautiful sketch of the statue of saint cethleann. his heart melted when you smiled and said it was simply breathtaking. you knew how much time he must’ve put into studying life drawings and anatomy

♡  you asked if you could turn the page, he hesitated but then said yes. and you were allowed to see dozens and dozes of little watercolours and sketches of the monastery grounds and your classmates

♡  you beamed at him and asked why he hadn’t drawn you, not even once. ignatz stuttered and pushed his glasses up his nose, he said he didn’t know why

♡  and you tilted your head, asked if he might draw you some time. it would be nice to sit for a sketch again, and you could send it to your father at his studio, see if he had room for another apprentice--

♡  ignatz couldn’t bring himself to decline right away. he wanted so badly for that to be his life once he was finished at the academy that he nodded, and spent the dwindling evening in your room sketching the lines of your beautiful face

♡  he couldn’t bring himself to destroy that dream until the next day. he spent all night hugging his pillow and thinking about how nice it would be to work side by side with you in your father’s studio

♡  you took the sketch from him when it was done after class. and when he told you not to send it to your father, you nodded and said you understood. that it was sad to see such talent go to waste, but you respected his decision to become a knight

♡  of course, he found out much later that you sent the drawing anyway. and when you showed him the glowing praise your father, a real, paid artist had for it, ignatz turned beet red

♡  you explained that there was no pressure to abandon knighthood, but that you only needed him to know that he had incredible artistic talent. you apologized and begged his forgiveness, which he gave with a slight crack in his voice

♡  you started sitting with him at meals after that, asking for peeks in his sketchbook every so often. and he let you, because the joy on your face made his chest feel tight. you made his cheeks feel warm

♡  he started waiting to walk back to the dorms with you. and when you asked to hold his hand, he bashfully agreed

♡  ignatz was bashful by nature, but you seemed entirely unfazed as you politely asked time and time again to do things that would bring you closer to him. he wondered if that was what love was like, the appreciation for another person’s preferred pace

♡  you took it upon yourself to be the forward one, true, but you were never offended when he wasn’t ready for something. and you agreed to define the relationship for him early on so that he wouldn’t be confused

♡  he wanted to know if he mattered to you. no, he needed to know he meant something. he’d never felt like much to anyone before, and the thought that someone as kind and special as you had chosen him? unfathomable, but he supposed he’d have to learn to fathom it

♡  you passed him little notes in class, often with a mess of heart doodles around whatever you’d written. oftentimes, you asked him to meet you somewhere once class was done. other times, it would be compliments to help boost his confidence

♡  he began showing the professor his drawings, and he showed them to the peers that took interest. lorenz in particular was a source of great inspiration for him, though you disagreed that ignatz simply had to become a knight

♡  still, you respected that he wanted that in some way. his duty to his family was admirable, but you often reminded him that he had a duty to his own happiness

♡  no one had ever told him that before. you held him in his room when he hugged you tight enough to bruise. you played with his hair while he did his best not to cry

♡  he pushed through life under the assumption that he would never be able to follow his heart. but you more than anyone challenged that idea. you asked him why he needed to give up part of himself to be happy. you made him realize he had no answer