#human beings are all haunted by the same thing or whatever. we're all curious about the same thing. we're all reaching for the same thing!!

[katierosefun]

god the way i'm not exactly a mathematician or a scientist but i'll always be obsessed with how certain scientists explain the way they see love in the world or when mathematicians see the poetry behind the numbers

[evanox]

Astraean MC Falls Face First Into a Cafe on Earth (Felix-Centric)

A continuation of this request!! Sorry @gwenene @sweet-milky-tea705 for the delay!!

m.list

"We're clooosed," Felix calls out, not bothering to look up from his book. Worst case scenario it's yet another customer stumbling their way in to make an order one minute before closing; best case scenario it's just the cafe ghost making a racket yet again. Felix swears this place is haunted but no one believes him.

She never told this to anyone, but Anisa has put so much thought into which tool in the bar is best fit to be a weapon, and now that a thief has come for her she can finally put that knowledge to use! Slowly she raises the porta-filter above her head and—oh my God, is your nose bleeding? The tool falls out of her hand and Anisa completely overlooks your fantastical get-up, far too focused on getting you an ice pack and some tissues after you've fallen face first into the floor.

You're from another realm called Astraea? Yeah sure Sage heard a few other crazy stories. This one might just take the cake since you're so committed to your bit.

Anisa is cautious but curious. Felix on the other hand is enchanted. That world you speak of sounds way too cool for him to care whether you've made it up or not. What's wrong with a writer committed to their bit if the world-building is on point?

All doubts vanish the moment you show off your magic. Only Sage remains slightly more skeptical—he's seen more impressive displays of sleight of hand; you're gonna have to do better. Freak him out by switching his ears for cat ears; now he's a believer.

Anisa has a million questions to ask and Felix brings his journal to take notes. When Anisa's done asking about the food and the knights and the royalty of Astraea, Felix starts grilling you about the magic system. How did you get your relic? How many other relic wielders are there? How do your abilities differ? What's magic school like? What are the chances he can cast magic too?

You're unsure if someone with neither relic nor magical heritage can cast magic, especially in a realm where these powers don't seem to exist. Perhaps you can get Felix started on sigils or potions until you figure out how to go back; surely, it can't be any more difficult than wielding these strange machines with which he concocted the delicious beverage he offered you.

Hell, you might not even be well-versed in magic yourself, but now you've got yourself an enthusiastic study partner—about time you opened these books your captain insisted you look into.

Anisa and Felix offer you a place to stay; Sage says he might have to check with his roommates before bringing someone in (wink wink) but otherwise you're still welcome.

Well, you've already promised Felix to teach him all about magic, so he becomes your earth tour guide until you figure out how to make your way back to Astraea.

Felix chalks it up to your fascination with a different realm more than anything, but he truly appreciates how intently you listen to his rambling about whatever. You're one of few people (if not the only one) to not react to his taxidermy hobby with repulsion or fear (you've probably seen far stranger things in Astraea).

For quite some time Felix has you up on this pedestal. You're a magical being from another realm and returning to your home is an inevitability. You, as far as Felix is concerned, are a star beyond his reach even when you're sitting in the same room together.

The longer you stay with him though, the more... normal you become. Not in a bad way of course, but you seem more human to him, therefore more approachable; perhaps he could even consider you a friend.

As soon as that mystifying veil drops, Felix feels like he's seeing you for the first time. He starts noticing the little quirks that make you you, and not just an Outlander from Another Realm: whether you're a morning bird or a night owl, how you like your breakfast, the sound of your laugh, your taste in fashion when he splurges on your new wardrobe, the little things you do when you're idle like humming to yourself or pacing around the house, etc.

He thought Anisa was a little silly for asking about knights and royalty when clearly, this mage from another realm had so much more valuable knowledge to offer! Now, however, Felix finds himself curious about the more trivial things in your world. Did you have ballrooms? Did you attend parties? Is there... any chance that you could dance with him?

It's an innocent question, really! It doesn't mean anything! But you're already pulling him up and towards you; it doesn't matter if neither of you is that good at dancing, what matters is that it's just the two of you right now, and you can dance like no one's watching because Stella has already fallen asleep on Felix's reading couch.

He's terribly stiff at first, caught off guard by your sudden proximity, but the longer you sway together the more he loosens up, throwing his head back and laughing freely when one of you stumbles over the other's feet. Then your footsteps fall into perfect tandem and you draw in closer and closer until you can feel his chest pressing against yours. There's a split second his eyes linger at your lips, which costs Felix his composure and sends him stumbling yet again.

A hopeless romantic like himself knows to find beauty both in the mundane and the strange but he truly believed that none of it was enough to impress you when your world has magic. Still, you regard all things new to you with a child-like wonder and he finds it very endearing, even if you're very subtle about it. Felix is quite the observant man when in love.

...In love? Felix's face glows a bright red the moment he realizes it. Hells, how does he always fall fast and hard?

You've even made him fall in love with making coffee, of all things. With your magic, you could easily enchant the cup and the ingredients to move of their own accord and fix your drink, yet you always choose to do it the long, boring way—something about the process, you'd always insist, and the effort that goes into it. (You just think the coffee machine is really neat, and wonder if Rivath has ever had something similar.)

Regardless of whether you feel the same way about him or not, Felix decides he wants to take you to all the wonderful places on Earth that he can afford if only to see the world through your eyes and fall in love with it all over again.

For now, though, you'll have to make do with the coffee shop and all the books there while Felix works; he feels bad about leaving you home alone without much to do. Tease him about how you don't mind spending an entire day with Stella, and there'll be just the slightest hint of jealousy to his pout.

If it's too early for anyone to have arrived, or if it's so late everyone has already gone home, Felix will show you how to operate the coffee machine since it fascinates you so much. You accidentally brush hands in the process and this man's soul ascends to heaven.

Finally, finally, he gets a potion/sigil to work and oh, the joy on his face makes all those sleepless nights so worth it. He takes you by the hand and shows off his work and you ask him to show you again, and again, and again, and he gladly obliges every time. Even Stella's interest is piqued when your excitement is so contagious it can be heard outside Felix's apartment.

The joy is short-lived though, as not too long after you announce you've finally figured out the way back to Astraea.

If you decide you want to stay longer on earth, he'll be so overcome with relief that he finds the confidence to finally confess to you. The moment you tell him you return his feelings, Felix feels like he could take on the world; he could travel abroad with you, find a new job, move to a better house, get married— Yes, yes, he wants to take it slow, but the man just can't help how his imagination runs wild when he's excited and in love.

If you're going back to Astraea, though, and you've got your portal ready, he'd feel very conflicted—he wants to tell you of his feelings so the what-ifs don't haunt him well after you leave, but at the same time, he wouldn't want to make the situation complicated or make you feel guilty for leaving.

So you'll have to take initiative this time: promise him that you'll come back to visit, and Felix will take your hands in his and promises to visit [distant place that drew your attention and you really wished you could see] together.

It occurs to him to ask whether he can follow you, but this whole time you've been teaching him to love his mundane life as it is; how could he let go so easily? Perhaps when you figure out a stable portal to go back and forth between realms, then, you can take him for a promised tour around Astraea.

Every day since your departure Felix has been tormented by his yearning. His coworkers had gotten used to the bored/sleepy expression he wore every day to work, but nowadays he looks like he's permanently lost in another world. Whenever something mildly entertaining happens, his eyes drift towards the beanbag you'd always sink into as you waited for his shift to end, and Felix wilts when he remembers you've already left.

And who would he share in his glee when he masters a new sigil?

Once in a while, when sleep won't grace his eyes, he'll play that melody to which you once danced the night away, and lets the sweet memory lull him to sleep. Sometimes he'll even pick up Stella and sway around with her, cooing at her like she's a fancy Victorian lady he's courting.

There's some solace to be found in writing letters. Felix knows he can't send them to you, but he likes to imagine how you'd react reading them, and what you might write him back. The letters are kept in a neat stack in a box he hides in his closet, and when you finally come back, he'll gift it to you so you can slowly unravel his heart and see all the ways he fell in love with you.

[fitzefitcher]

Is it okay to ask about the human kingdoms in the AU? Specifically I am curious about the connection between Gilneas and Kul Tiras! You mentioned the solution is still "werewolves but more controlled" and that sounds like a fascinating concept! Also like Jaina growing up with Tess and Liam sounds great cause I saw the art of Tess and she looks like she needs more friends lakjsdfljdf

admittedly I'm still working on gilneas (hence my asking for asks because brain just Will Not let me work on things unless prompted by outside sources) but here is what I'm thinking for gilneas and kul tiras:

okay so kul tiras allegedly was originally a gilnean colony right? so we're leaning into that, and having them have a much closer relationship as countries and allies. kul tiras is still independant of gilneas, but with the other human kingdoms just kindof one by one turning on each other, that relationship quickly becomes very closed off and insular to any kingdom that isn't each other.

in that same vein, also borrowing @nighthaunting's headcanon that katherine and genn are siblings, making the alliance of kul tiras and gilneas all the closer, and this is how jaina is cousins w tess & liam

tess do have friends she's just not Straight Married (Baby Optional) to Nebulously Human Men like Calia and Andariall are, and is Highly Suspicious of them (rightly so tbfh)

When the gilneas werewolf apocalypse happens is still up for debate but On God I will give them their fucking werewolf apocalypse

ostensibly the werewolfening would still happen along the same lines, with genn directing court wizard arugal to figure out a solution to all this demon shit, because fuck if they accept help from Lordaeron, yogg or no yogg

anyway arugal does some research, finds some stuff about the scythe of elune, then employs the help of the harvest witches to find it (bc gilneas and kul tiras are wayyyyy less into the church of light than other human countries because they already have their own haunted shit going on re: oceans and dark woods druid shit), they bring it back, and because there are harvest witches involved, arugal goes in with a little more informed consent, talks to the greymanes about it, and they agree to have either genn or mia be patient zero to test it, because something something, some hogwash about genn actually being a decent human being and ruler instead of whatever the fuck is happening in canon rn

anyway, werewolf time

I think it would be fun for mia first, because genn would think that her moon-frenzied werewolf rampage is Very Sexy Of Her

idk if kul tiras does werewolf time, I think they're just going fully into Ocean Madness because atp the church of light can't be trusted At All bc it's been getting infested w demons this whole time

idk if they're still getting brain fuggled by azshara, I don't think I want that. maybe n'zoth but definitely not azshara. maybe it's Literally Just The Sea that's fuggling them

anyway! that's how more controlled werewolves, kind of. Now it's voluntary, and Maybe a little more Spooky Religious in nature lmao