#oc: ahravani al karim

[saturniandragon]

The problematic (affectionate) stepsibling dynamic.

[saturniandragon]

[10% of this snippet was written with the help of ChatGPT]

Zanri reaches the other side of town, where there’s no shortage of wounded civilians to help. Gust of wind from the deserts of Elsweyr briefly brushes some dirt and dust away from his fur and chestplate, still under the warm sun of Reaper’s March.

On the other side of town is Cariel, having returned from Marbruk after delivering report and receiving orders from the higher ups, to be passed to Eyes of The Queen.

“Cari.”

“Are you alright, Zanri? I heard—”

“I’m fine. What’s the order?”

“Wait for evac, get the survivors to safety, and get back to Marbruk to debrief.”

“Alright.”

“I guess for now I need someone with these bloody rags. Can you clean them for me? I need them for bandages.”

“Sure.”

Zanri takes one of the buckets on the table filled with blood-stained fabric, and brings them to a nearby river.

Along the way he contemplates, whether what he’s been saying to Vani was the right thing to say. He’s not proud of what he said, but he’s unsure if his arguments were appropriate for the situation. Everyday in his line of work has never been particularly easy, both for the body and the mind.

Mindlessly he dances his hands on the bloody rags in the stream, watching as the red flows away into the distance. Time to time he rubs the tricky stains with a bar soap.

“Zanri?”

A voice calls from behind him, under the shadows of the trees. Shazah, unexpectedly, is standing behind him, carrying her iconic magic staff on her back.

“Wh… Mane?”

“Oh, come on. We agreed not to use our titles with each other.”

“I’m- um, yes. Shazah. Sorry.”

Shazah notices what Zanri is doing, and kneels beside him. She takes one of the bloody rags from the bucket, and starts washing it in the river with him. An act he didn’t expect from her, but he warmly welcomes it.

“Thanks.”

“My pleasure.”

The two pass the afternoon together beside the stream, cleaning dirty rags thoroughly and putting them under the sun to dry. It’s been a while since Zanri and Shazah got together, so he appreciates the moment with her.

“What’s the occasion?”

“Lord Gharesh-Ri said there’s been conflict here. I wanted to observe.”

“Yeah, we… tried to stop it. But things happened.”

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.”

Zanri and Shazah continue spending the midday together outside the city perimeters, peacefully doing a mundane task in the field that no one expects an Eye of The Queen or the Mane of Khajiit to be doing. But from the looks of their faces, they seem to enjoy each other’s company.

“I met your step sister. She’s adorable.”

“Hah, yeah… only sometimes.”

-

“And um… Raz told me you two don’t get along well.”

“…”

-

“Is… that true?”

“Well, maybe that guy needs to shut up more often.”

Zanri stops what he’s doing to take a breather, staring at the shines of the water in front of him.

“Sigh…”

“What’s wrong, Zanri?”

“This is not a place for her.”

“Why?”

“I just don’t know if she’s ready for what’s to come.”

Shazah also stops what she’s doing, to look at her companion in his troubled eyes. She’s known that he has a strong heart, after their endeavor in Reaper’s March some years ago, but this feels like something else. Something more than just Zanri being protective of Vani.

“But she’s a fighter, I thought? She looks more than capable.”

“She is. I’ve seen her fight, and admittedly she’s very good.”

Zanri hesitated, his mind racing with conflicting thoughts. He knows the saying that describes Vani, “like she’s born with six claws”. But on the other hand, he couldn't shake the feeling of protectiveness and fear that came with being an older brother, not after knowing what Vani has to endure all these years. Losing her family and her friends before that chance meeting of them.

“So, why the worry?”

“I don’t know, I guess it’s a mix of things. We both have lost family. Now I’m the only family she has left, and she’s the only family I have left.”

-

“I see, I know that feeling too when my father passed away.”

“It’s not the whole story but… well, it’s the best I can explain right now.”

Shazah put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. It’s a gesture that he hasn’t had for a while.

“She’ll be fine. You just have to trust her. Like when you trusted me before.”

Zanri smiled back, feeling grateful for her support, grateful to have known her in his time. It’s not everyday he gets to see those beautiful pair of jade eyes in her, but he knows they always comfort him. And it’s true again today.

“Thank you.”

“If you need me, I’ll be by your side.”

The pair continue the task at hand after that wholesome exchange between them, one by one going through more bloodstained rags. The sun now hides behind the trees of Valenwood, but he still feels the warmth from her presence.

“Is that your way of saying you want to be with me?”

“Mhm, I don’t know, do you want to be with me?”

“Well, depends on what you think about—”

“Hey, lovebirds. Not the time. We have injured people to help.”

Their conversation is rudely interrupted by Cariel, standing behind them while giving a slightly judgmental look. They snapped out of it, Zanri giving her the annoyed look while Shazah chuckles it off.

[saturniandragon]

Zanri: What's the dumbest thing you've done?

Vani: Awfully bold of you to assume I've peaked.

[saturniandragon]

My OCs in a nutshell

Alien dragon in a polyamorous relationship with three girlfriends. One of them isn't even the same species (Adra, Jesse, Mira, Aeryx)

Archer cat and her lesbian companion (Merri'sa and Elrain)

CIA agent cat, his step sister and a defecting mad scientist (Zanri, Vani, Adrastea)

[saturniandragon]

🌌 MILKY WAY: What was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

For your TES OCs

Oh, oh goodness, Nebu I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to ramble a million words so things sort of make sense. I hope you have the patience to read this entire thing.

🌌 MILKY WAY: What was the inspiration behind your oc? what was the first thing you decided about them?

---Skyrim---

Draqanar: (I practically never talk about this dude anywhere in my blog, because he's pretty much retired, but I want to tell the story anyway)

It's a bit complex, Draqanar (Khajiit male) was both my first and my second Skyrim OC I've created. He is first, in a sense that I first completed the game with this character, although he is second in a sense that he's not the first character I produced from the character creation menu.

Technically speaking the first Skyrim character I created was an Argonian, predictably named after, you guess it, Adrastea. I came into Skyrim totally blind, not knowing anything like naming conventions or the lore about the universe (hell I didn't even know you could create your own character), other than "arrow in the knee" references in memes. He chose the Warrior stone, with sword and shield equipment.

Bleak Falls Barrow was the time I realized sword and shield did not fit my style at all. I consulted to my best friend who was pretty much a Skyrim veteran that time (and by that time, I mean, 2019 lol, I was that late to start playing the game) and asked which race would be suitable for more of a stealth play style. He suggested Khajiit, so then Draqanar was born.

So he was created because I wanted a stealth playstyle. I wasn't aware yet that you could go back to previous saves or choose a different standing stone.

I used a Khajiit name generator because, like I said, I have zero idea of Khajiit naming convention, and I wanted to be fully immersed in the game. His full name is Draqanar Raitannil, but after some hours into the game and discovering that Khajiit NPCs only have single-word names, I unofficially removed his last name.

His appearance was pretty much bare. I think I chose one of the available presets, modified it a bit and just decided it was good enough. I thought I would make this dude an evil reckless character, hence the dark coloration, but he ends up being possibly the nicest guy you would ever meet. And with him I also discover just how effective stealth archer playstyle really is, in Skyrim.

He's married to Shahvee. After some 600 hours with him, I decided to retire him since there's no more lore to develop for him.

Adrastea: And then Adrastea. The proper Adrastea. Not an Argonian this time, but an Argonian-based race which was pretty much an Argonian-dragon hybrid called Draconian. By this time my copy of Skyrim was filled to the brim with mods.

No inspiration this time, I just wanted to insert the Saturn Adrastea into Skyrim to see how close I could replicate him.

The second reason is I wanted to try a proper sword and shield style, after canceling the first Adrastea (why yes I just realized, I have too many versions of Adrastea across the board, but fuck it). And for funsies, I messed around with console commands to make him noticeably taller than most NPCs, by setting his height value to 1.05.

The third reason is I wanted to marry Mjoll the Lioness with a different character. Like Draqanar however, he also ended up retired. He has no lore to begin with, and no lore to end it with.

By this point I was pretty much running out of ideas to do in Skyrim. All vanilla marriage candidates are pretty boring, added by the fact there are no Khajiit marriage candidates.

Until I ran into a mod that adds 4 fully-voiced Khajiit marriage candidates, Khajiit Will Follow. They are Ma'kara (F), Bikhai (M), Nanak (M) and S'ariq (M).

Dar'sien: Dar'sien is a lost character, lost in a sense that his save file was in my previous laptop and it broke down to the point it's not recoverable. Basically he's like an alternative Draqanar, but he's orange furred instead and has cowardice trait. Purely created him to marry Ma'kara.

This is the only image of him that I can gather.

Ma'kara questline was long, but it was well written and well constructed. I was blown away. Like, holy shit, if Ma'kara questline was this good, I needed to try marrying the other Khajiit from this mod.

Merri'sa: And now here comes Merri'sa. My current active Skyrim character. Like Dar'sien, she was created purely to marry one of the Khajiit from the mod. This time I chose Bikhai.

Another obstacle, of running out of Khajiit designs and names, especially because I've never designed a female Khajiit before. I turned to Google, and found a female Khajiit preset that looks so good yet simple to replicate, with a fitting name included in the package.

Merri'sa - Khajiit Racemenu preset

Yes, I'm kind of ashamed that Merri'sa is not a name that I came up with (well, I guess Draqanar isn't either, because I used a generator). But the preset looked so good, I just had to grab it. Once in-game I applied some minor modifications, notably the eye color, but largely it's similar to the preset.

And I grew attached to her. Never before I've seen a character look so good. So attached, I decided to develop a mountain of lore that isn't even completed by the time of writing this tumblr post.

She did end up marrying Bikhai. Bikhai's questline doesn't quite have the same quality compared to Ma'kara questline, but I loved it regardless. Plus, I have a female Khajiit to be obsessed about. In fact now she has much longer lore than any of my previous Skyrim characters.

Now the lore is that she was rescued by an Imperial soldier from a burning caravan wreck when she was just a cub, somewhere along the roads of Cyrodiil. The soldier and his wife have suffered 2 years of childless marriage, so they decided to took her in and raised her as their own.

But why she decided to move from Cyrodiil to Skyrim remains to be seen :)

---Elder Scrolls Online---

Now a new title of Elder Scrolls for me, Elder Scrolls Online. Like Skyrim, I came into ESO completely blind, only carrying with me the bare basics of informations of TES races from Skyrim. May 2021 was my first touch in ESO.

Yes, I suppose I did refuse to read the Steam page of ESO before I downloaded the whole thing. But I wanted it to be that way, I want to start from the closest I can be to absolute zero.

Except, those information from Skyrim can't be used here, not in ESO. I was surprised to learn about factions in character creation screen, and every race is tied to at least one of those factions except Imperial race. Which I didn't have, I was playing base game ESO.

More surprise for me to find that Khajiit race is tied to Aldmeri Dominion, a faction that I think a good portion of Skyrim players dislike, especially Skyrim players who have no experience with ESO. I was conflicted, already too accustomed to playing as Khajiit in Skyrim.

I think I was going to choose Argonian, but Ebonheart Pact just sounds way too foreign for me. At least I've heard of Aldmeri Dominion before. So a bit reluctantly, I decided to roll a Khajiit as my first character.

Zanri al-Anaqi:

Now this is a name that I took way too long to come up with. It took so long that I was kicked from character creation screen because of 10 minutes of no activity. If that's not the record for the fastest a player has been kicked from ESO, I don't know what is :))

"Zanri" is a play of "Ryzen", derived from AMD Ryzen, a CPU brand name. I swapped some letters around and added flavor so it sounds Khajiit/Ta'agra.

Next I wanted to add a twist of my own. During my time of Skyrim I notice that Khajiit names have a small Arabic influence in them. In fact, apparently in Arena and Daggerfall "Mohammed" is listed as a possible Khajiit name.

And what other things that are known to have Arabic names? Stars in the night sky! Astronomy was a major thing during Islamic medieval period.* The star Gamma Andromedae is known in its Arabic name as "Almach", itself is derived from "al-‘anāqi", which is Arabic for caracal or desert lynx. I've never laid eyes on Elsweyr, but there's been multiple accounts of Elsweyr being a desert region (there's a reason Skyrim Khajiit NPCs use "warm sands" as greeting). So, naturally a perfect fit.

(*in fact to this day astronomy community around the world still use some Arabic names for stars, like Aldebaran)

Let's use that. Zanri al-Anaqi. Still sounds perfect to this day.

Appearance wise I went with gold/orange fur color and green eyes. Who else has green eyes? Adrastea (Saturn), although I only realized that these two have green eyes after a few months of playing as Zanri, a lucky coincidence.

Oh how times have changed :)

My decision to roll Aldmeri Dominion character in my first playthrough proved to be immensely worth it because of figures like Razum-Dar and Queen Ayrenn.

Ahravani al-Karim:

Ahravani, Avani, Vani or Karim for short. She was created because I wanted some kind of companion character to go alongside Zanri. Something that's closer than just a friend, but not as close as a girlfriend or a wife, if that makes sense. So, step sibling.

I couldn't make her his sibling, because Zanri's lore was already set on him being the only child in his family.

I was going to apply the same naming convention as I did Zanri; Ta'agra first name and Arabic-esque last name. And I also wanted her last name to be derived from a star name, like Zanri.

At first she was going to have "Ainrivva al-Debaran" as her name. Al-Debaran is a star name in Arabic, meaning "the follower", because she was meant to follow Zanri everywhere. But then something changed, I felt her name was a bit off, so I set out to find a replacement.

(eventually Ainrivva al-Debaran became a name for a Khajiit character I have in PCNA server)

I couldn't come up with another fitting name for her. "Ainrivva" was good but felt a bit off for whatever reason. I went back to Khajiit name generator, and obtained "Ahravani" as a replacement.

But I wasn't done. "Ahravani al-Debaran" sounded a bit too long now. I went back to wikipedia, look for another Arabic star name, but couldn't find any other that fits her. Still, I wanted her to have Arabic-esque last name.

Then I remembered, there's a character in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) named Farah Karim. She's like this very fierce militia leader, unorthodox in her ways but a benevolent character overall. I took her last name as inspiration, modified it from just "Karim" to "al-Karim." Al-Karim is Arabic for "the generous."

(A weird train of thoughts I had just to name a Khajiit character innit lmao)

So there you have it; Ahravani al-Karim. Nowadays I'm a bit lazy to type the entirety of her full name, especially when writing fics, so often I shorten it further to just Vani al-Karim.

Adrastea Drago:

Same case as with Adrastea (Skyrim). No inspiration at all, I just wanted to insert Adrastea (Saturn) into ESO to see how close I could replicate him. Although I did eventually develop some Elder Scrolls-compliant lore about him, so that's something.

-

Well, that concludes it. That was a hell of a roller coaster from start to finish, even for me as the author :)

[saturniandragon]

I thought about this the other day.

[saturniandragon]

From your most recent ask game I thought 18 and 19 sounded like they would be fun to combine. Oh and 32 looks interesting if you wish to add that as a bonus. 36 too in fact but don't worry if that's too many. With any OC of yours that you wish to choose. Although I would very much like to see your TES characters if I may request that :D

Trying to be careful not to accidentally delete an ask draft like that one time I tried to answer your anon ask from a while ago.

And yes to anyone's wondering, spinn-virus is the anon that has been sending me oc asks. I've obtained permission to reveal her identity.

18. How easy is it to become their enemy?

Zanri: Zanri isn't one to hold grudges often. Except if you commit acts that in real world would be the equivalent of Geneva convention violations. Terrorism, unlawful torture and executions, taking hostages, to name a few.

Or insult his mom Queen Ayrenn.

Vani: The fighter Khajiit from Orcrest has no more family left, so when Zanri adopts her into his little Dominion family, one can be sure whoever brings her step brother into harm's way will not see the light of day again. Awkwardly they are being overprotective of each other, and they're not fully aware of it.

Adrastea (ESO): Just step on his pet dwarven spider, whether on accident or intentional. Or bring him cold tea. The man is unpredictable on what will trigger him and what will not.

Merri'sa: Merri'sa possesses similar demeanor as Zanri regarding combat. She's by no means a soldier of the Imperial Legion or related to any armed forces in any way, but her Imperial father was. And she has inherited his teachings of battle.

-

19. How easy is it to become their friend?

Zanri + Merri'sa: You make a perfect friend of Zanri and Merri'sa if you're an archer, not a racist, a scholar, or any combination of them. In general though, anyone socially decent and respectful can be their friend regardless of background.

Vani: Do you like knives? Close range combat? Making the biggest mess possible in the kitchen? You will like Vani, and she will like you. Whether her step brother will also like you is another matter.

Adrastea (ESO): You have to be educated. Like, extremely educated. Especially on Dwemer. The way he filters out fake friends from real ones is by throwing in some Dwemer-related terminologies in his sentences and see how long they will last. And you have to know how to make a good tea. It's a bit unclear if those are requirements to be his friend or his servant.

(yes I just realized I'm basing his personality off of Neloth from Skyrim)

Adrastea (Saturn): Adra has plenty of interests so chances are one of your interests will align with him. Supercars, firearms, trance music. Or sometimes about adult stuff. He's horny.

Aeryx: Aeryx behaves almost like a house cat. Give her a little affection and she will probably cling to you for a while. Even just complimenting her coffee is enough to make her ecstatic.

-

32. If they could change one thing about themselves what would it be?

Zanri: Zanri wishes he can read people better. Numerous times he felt he was used or lied to because he couldn't take hints except the obvious ones. Sarcasm is his enemy because it can take a few hours to a few days before he realizes what his interlocutor actually meant. This stems from him not wanting to judge people too quickly, which has proved to be a little bit of a double-edged sword.

Vani: Vani has been trying to take her step brother's advice of "chill the fuck out a little", though she hasn't been able to because she was born with 6 claws according to the old Khajiiti saying. Admittedly on day to day life she has learned how to keep her temper down since Zanri adopts her, but it's gone out the window when blades are out.

Adrastea (ESO): Does he need to change anything about himself? If anything, being full of himself is one. Though he believes it's just because he's still being stationed in Western Skyrim when he would appreciate somewhere warmer a lot better.

Merri'sa: Merri'sa currently seeks to be better in close range combat. It's never in her blood to be proficient in a fight that takes place within 3 meters, other than when she stealthily assassinates a bandit from behind with her dagger. Granted she is rarely involved in close range combat, but it's a skillset she wants to have.

36. Would they ever kill someone? Have they already?

Not applicable to my Saturn ocs because they're all upstanding civilians :)

Zanri: Zanri has taken plenty of lives, probably unnecessarily too many, although none has been civilians or non-combatants. From simple bandits to Dremoras he has seen a lot of blood splatter caused by his arrows. It's easy to brand him as a cold-hearted assassin who blindly follows orders from his Queen, but he knows that some evil are necessary for the greater good. And he's perfectly willing to forgive anyone who wishes to abandon their wrong ways. Except Mannimarco.

Vani: Vani doesn't have anywhere near the same kill count as Zanri. As a hot-tempered fighter however she is more willing to draw blood as her way of solving a problem. Like Zanri however, she won't fight those who can't defend themselves.

Adrastea (ESO): Adrastea used to be a Pact sergeant before he deserted, and he's slain a few dozen soldiers from other alliances, Covenant and Dominion alike. Some Pact soldiers used to call him the Incinerator because of the amount of charred corpses he left in his wake from his aggressive use of sun magic. Though it's not a name he's particularly proud of.

Merri'sa: Merri'sa has killed a lot of bandit leaders in her time, both in Skyrim and back in Cyrodiil. Though she wonders if it's possible to form a society where execution or assassination isn't necessary to solve the worst of problems. A world where there's no need to carry out a war or a battle, despite how impossible it may sound. For now she has been treating her enemies as archery target practice.

[saturniandragon]

Played ESO a bit but didn't do much. Just changed Vani's outfit to match her step brother.

[saturniandragon]

Vani: I want to be held.

Zanri: Like a hug or at gunpoint?

Vani: Surprise me.

[saturniandragon]

Razum-Dar: How does Zanri approve of the things you do?

Vani: I mean, if he doesn't start his sentence with "what the fuck, sister", then it's acceptable.

[saturniandragon]

I can't have cats in real life (allergic parents) so I may as well have cats in virtual world

[saturniandragon]

Oh do the "asking for help" one next! My phone won't even display that emoji so you're gonna have to imagine it again. Also all your OCs are so neat but if doing so many is too much just do your favourites.

Hah! Anon, this is the only way my OCs will get my attention at all. Every year I get less and less time for drawing anything. I remember 5+ years ago when I used to be able draw every week and now I can't even finish a WIP in 3 months.

You've helped them get the attention they should deserve :)

🩺 - Does your OC accept help easily? Are they willing to admit when they need help?

Elder Scrolls:

Merri'sa: Merri'sa is fairly independent on most things she does. As a marksman (markswoman?) being in total control of her environment means she can adjust her pace freely, improving the outcome. Although that's in terms of combat. Out of combat, especially with manual labor, she'll call out to her husband instead since he has significantly more muscle power compared to her.

Zanri: Before adopting a step sister Zanri has lived his first 24 years of life pretty much alone, being the only child from his family. And even before his entire family collapsed he's had more than enough experience working things out unaccompanied. But will he turn down offer for help from friendly faces? Absolutely not. Especially if it's Razum-Dar.

Vani: Vani doesn't usually ask for help. Except when she's trying to reach for the cookie jar at the top of a shelf. Or do anything height-related. In which case she will hand it to her brother instead.

Adrastea (ESO): Adrastea doesn't ask for help. His pet Dwarven spider does whatever he asks it to. Furthermore he doesn't believe anyone is smart enough to provide the proper assistance he needs at any given moment. He is very specific with his words.

-

Personal OCs:

Adrastea: Very rare of Adra to ask for help. Not because he's jack of all trades, but because he's too lazy to do anything out of his expertise, especially if it's something he can't immediately think the solution of. Can't be arsed to spend that much brain power and prefers to let someone else do it than having to embarrass himself from potentially fucking up. Which he often did in the past, and that has become a lesson for life.

Aeryx: Aeryx is the epitome of "please help me I'm baby." But also she's the "I got this" type (spoiler: she doesn't). The needle swings randomly from one way to the other.

Jesse and Mira: Unifying these two because they are not very different from one another in terms of facing a difficult situation. Both certainly more creative than Adra although when they are completely stuck, neither are willing to accept defeat. Jesse resorts to looking up the solution on the internet while Mira's problem solving method may involve "hit it a few times" or "if it doesn't work, you haven't put enough duct tape on it."

[saturniandragon]

Presenting you the latest addition to my little ESO family: Ahravani al-Karim.

Name: Ahravani al-Karim

Title: N/A

Alliance: Aldmeri Dominion

Class: Nightblade (dual wield)

Alignment: Neutral Good

Age: 22

Height: 1.64m (5' 4")

Background:

Goes by Vani, Avani, or less commonly, Karim. If there's anything that she and Zanri share other than being Khajiit, it's that they both are victims of family abuse and on the run to start a new life somewhere else. And just like Zanri, she loves doing noble and benevolent deeds for the people of Tamriel, true to her name as the al-karim (الكريم), the Generous.

But that's where the similarities end. Zanri is handy with bow and arrow, Avani is more efficient with a pair of blades. In the field, Zanri is slow, thoughtful and methodical, while Avani focuses on delivering as much damage as possible in the shortest amount of time even if it means getting her life just one claw tip away from death. Zanri always believes that there's a peaceful way to do things, while Avani focuses on what choices are available at hand and doesn't consider much on a potentially better solution.

Granted she's 3 years behind Zanri and still has much to learn from him. And unlike Zanri, she's more hesitant to reveal the details of her family abuse as they're "too painful" to remember.

Despite the differences, Avani has regarded Zanri as her big brother, and Zanri has accepted Avani as her little sister, on their adventures across Tamriel. Even though they were having a rather rough introduction as Zanri was reluctant in keeping her by his side, in fear of not being able to protect her, she's proven time and time again that she is more than capable in combat. And over the years, the two's bonds are as close as genuine brother and sister, even it is clear that they're both from different parents.

[saturniandragon]

Characters: Zanri, Vani

Word count: 1026

“Zanri?”

“Go on in.”

Middle of the day in Vulkhel Guard, 2E 585. Vani visits her “brother” in one of the Aldmeri Dominion offices in Auridon. 2 years now they’ve been together like siblings, even though they both know they’re hailing from different parents and culture. But in the last 2 months, the pair hasn’t been as close as they want to.

“More paperwork?”

“Never ends. What’s the weather?”

Vani rests her twin daggers on one of the desks by the doorway, and lowers her leather hood to neck level.

“Rain, as you can hear.”

“I know. But it looks like you have something to tell me.”

“Honestly, I just want to visit.”

Zanri continues his paperwork; signing Dominion documents, proofchecking letters, making sure everything’s in order. Ever since the political situation has died down both internally and externally, there’s been less field work for Queen’s Eyes. Both him and Razum-Dar have been reassigned for… less face-beating and more logistics-dealing type of task. Although Razum-Dar is stationed in Skywatch.

Vani observes Zanri’s office. A moderately sized room with the typical elven architecture, multiple desks and shelves overflowing with scrolls, books and papers, and a fireplace with a makeshift kitchen for consumption. It’s well-lit by two windows, lanterns and magic light orbs.

“So, this what you do all day?”

“All day.”

“Not bored of it?”

“Not yet.”

Vani sits by the still lit fireplace to dry her clothes and to warm herself in the current weather. Summerset -and to an extent, Auridon- is typically warm all year round, but when it does rain, it gets considerably cold. Not Skyrim-level type of cold, but enough to make one seek warm shelter.

Vani notices a small kettle on the fireplace. Plumes coming out of the spout gives off a familiar scent, filling the whole room.

“Tea?”

“When you’re my age you will understand why tea is better.”

“Brother, you’ve lost your touch.”

“What, by drinking tea? You got to admit the elves make great tea, you should try it sometimes.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it will taste… tea-rrific.”

This is what Zanri deals with on daily basis. Teasing and word plays from his sister, since the day they agreed to be together. Some days they can be a great cheer-up for him, other days not so much.

End of the day he loves Vani as much as she loves him.

Zanri gets off from the desk and approaches the fireplace, deciding it’s the moment for a small break. He grabs a teacup from the cupboard, pours tea from the kettle and sprinkles some ginger powder as flavor.

“You sure you don’t want some?”

“Nah, I’m good. I’ll settle for mead in the tavern later.”

“Alright, your loss.”

Zanri sits on the couch by the window, looking out the glass pane while sipping tea every once in a while. Despite the rain, civilians are still out and about with their businesses, from trading to communal activities to idle chatter.

Vani decides to sit beside him.

“Where will you go after this?”

“Wherever the Queen sends me.”

“You don’t choose?”

“Not exactly.”

Even though his role has descended down to office work, Zanri is still directly under the Queen’s command. That means doing whatever she asks him to do at any given moment and situation. Over the years this has trained him to be a multipurpose Aldmeri Dominion official, and thus prepared for pretty much anything.

And by the looks of it he hasn’t grown tired.

Vani inches closer to Zanri on the couch, and rests her head on his shoulder. Zanri doesn’t mind her getting this close to him, she can get pretty clingy in certain moments.

“Actually, I do have something to tell you.”

“Let’s hear it then.”

“Brother… I miss you.”

.

.

.

“Why? I’m right here.”

“I miss our days together outside. In the wilderness. Spending days under the sun, and nights under the stars."

“Well, it’s not like I can simply walk out of this room and abandon the Queen’s commands now, is it? I wish I could.”

Zanri finishes his tea, leaving only the charred leaves at the bottom of the cup. The smell of ginger still emanates from it. He sets it beside the kettle by the fireplace, before returning to his quill and ink bottle at his work table.

More paperwork requires finishing.

“Zanri.”

“Yes, sister?”

Vani pauses for a while, but ultimately decides not to say her mind. She packs up and heads to the doorway, not bothering to look at her brother in the eyes.

“Actually, nevermind. I’m going. See you around, I guess.”

“Sister, wait.”

Zanri stands up from the chair and sprints to the doorway, to intercept Vani before she leaves. He holds her by the shoulder.

“You don’t have time for me, brother. I know.”

“Yes, and I’m sorry for it. But when the time is right, we’ll be together again, alright?”

“…”

Vani stays silent, still hesitant to maintain eye contact with her brother. Zanri’s heart sinks seeing the state of his sister’s emotions, but he tries to convince her that she matters to him.

“I still love you, sister. I really do. And I miss us too. I just need you to give me time.”

“…”

“You know what, here. Take this with you.”

Zanri reaches around to his back to reveal his spare dagger, the one that he has had since he left home for a backup weapon. It’s clothed in leather sheath with elven engravings. And he hands it to his sister.

“It’s not much, but I hope this can make you feel that I’m with you.”

“But you need it.”

“In an office environment? Unlikely. But you have better use of it.”

Vani accepts the dagger with heavy heart, for she knows she still won’t be able to be back with Zanri anytime soon. It’s been 2 months since last they had their pseudo-sibling bonding moments, and gods know how much Vani longs for that moment again.

Ultimately there’s little that they both can do, at least for now.

“Thank you, big brother.”

“Now be safe out there, alright? I love you.”

“I love you too.”

[saturniandragon]

"I’ve come to a point in my life where I need a stronger word than fuck."

—Vani at some point, probably.

[saturniandragon]

Vani: Zanri, can you buy this for me? Zanri: Sure. Razum-Dar: Wh- you can't just buy things for her like that! Zanri: Why not? She's my sister. I can treat her anything. Razum-Dar: Not in monopoly!