#miraak: 💘💘💘😍😍😍

[bougainvillea-and-saltwater]

Sometimes it takes you stab someone to fall in love!

I... I Did A Thing...🥲

Jia’s fingers linger on the scar—a place where her dagger had once sunk deep. Miraak’s bare skin is, in all its wintry nature, smooth and cool like ice, chiseled marble underneath her touch. Yet that spot, marked by the precise, clean cut of the ebony shard, seems almost like someone had tried to carve into a divine sculpture, hoping to draw forth golden ichor from within. He shivers under the gentleness of her touch, and she languidly lifts her eyelids to meet him. His gaze lowers to lock with hers, and, Gods, she feels the drowning urge to crawl over him, to cling to him like ivy, to wrap herself around his ribs like moss until she’ll grow to become a whole forest for him to sleep under. “I did this to you; back then, in Apocrypha,” she murmurs, her voice low as her hand rests on the healed scar at the top of his thigh. Though, there’s no regret or concern in her tone. Only an intensity so pure and so damning, it drives him mad, he’s made a slave of it. “It’s my greatest pride,” he manages, his voice rough and tight. “You almost make me want to bleed again; if only for the privilege of your hands on me.”

[illumiera]

I slide into your inbox to give you a 😍 and a 💘 for miss Ellie and the Moth of her heart... 🥺💖

from this ask game! ✨

😍: What does your OC find irresistible in others?

Elentari: answered here!

Miraak: Miraak, like Ellie, is less drawn towards the physical (although once he falls for someone, he finds everything of theirs beautiful) and incredibly attracted to intelligence. he's also, admittedly, into power—a person who can match him, who can do amazing things with their Voice or magic, will compel him to no end, and he'll love to see just what they're capable of. the biggest thing, though? something completely antithetical to the world he knew back in the Merethic Era? kindness. gentleness. he's unused to receiving it, and it breaks him down like nothing else.

couple 'power' and 'kindness' until you get someone who could use their staggering power for destruction but instead chooses, at every turn, to help, and it's really no surprise that he took one look at Ellie, the woman he named Light-bringer, and thought, "that's my future wife right there." 🥰

💘: Is your OC a very good flirt? Are they charming?

Elentari: Ellie, despite being very reserved, is very charming. a lot of that charisma stems from her upbringing in Daggerfall, from learning to talk to people, compliment them, and make them feel like they're the only person in the room—especially when she's smiling until she dimples, showing them kindness, and giving them little gifts to show she cares without saying it. but it can't be denied that her dragon soul and skill with magic help her out. I headcanon that the magic and Shouts a person uses most influence how they come across, and though Ellie feels unearthly powerful thanks to that Destruction skill, her Restoration mastery gives her an innately calming, comfortable presence. as for her dragon soul, it makes her command attention without effort; she feels not-of-this-world in a way that can't help but compel.

all in all, she's well-spoken, witty, and has a little bit of a mischievous side to her when she lets it show... unless, of course, she has deep feelings for the person she's speaking with, and then she feels like goes from Speech 100 to Speech 10—at least at first. I think Miraak's spellbound either way, though.

Miraak: Miraak is much the same in terms of his magic and his dovahsil—except perhaps the Bend Will Shout left an imprint on him, and now eyes bend towards him like grass in the wind. perhaps, for someone who isn't a Dragonborn like him, it's easier to agree with him, to find whatever he's saying utterly captivating in the moment. regardless, he was once a strong public speaker regarded as a good leader by his people, and after Apocrypha, he's well-read and full of interesting—and beautiful, I'd imagine—things to say. especially in that voice of his, a thing he's absolutely aware of.

he's good at flirting without speech, too—a handwritten letter or poem in a language the object of his affections might have to decode, a song played just for them on the lute, their hair braided into particularly meaningful Atmoran styles, loving touches that get them flustered (as well as him; he's quite possibly the most touch-starved creature on Nirn). however, he's only ever tried any of these methods on Ellie, so maybe it's less that he's Overall Good At Flirting and more that he's got an A+ in Ellie-Wooing, a thing that is both normal to want and possible to achieve. 😼