#reyson can have it. as a treat.

[gloamvonhrym]

some birds with some basic bird conservation tips for earth day! 🥰

(ETA: managed to post this with a slide missing. it’s fixed now!)

alt text & relevant links below the cut

[a series of images with Serenes Forest as a backdrop, also featuring reyson, leanne, and rafiel from the fire emblem tellius games.

slide 1: reyson crouches singing to various songbirds. transcription: happy earth day! bird populations in North America have declined by nearly 3 billion in the last 50 years. habitat loss, pesticides, human infrastructure, and loss of food sources all contribute to decline. climate change is a thread multiplier. here are some simple actions you can take to help birds!

slide 2: leanne sits beside a window, nursing a head injury. transcription: windows! an estimated 1 billion birds suffer window collisions every year in the US and canada. lights can confuse birds - help by turning off your lights or drawing curtains at night. further birdproof your windows by using decals, tape, or paint to disrupt the reflections! (you can purchase window decals just for this purpose!)

slide 3: reyson recoils dramatically from ranulf in cat form, who mutters “bro I am just sitting here.” transcription: cats. domestic cats are not natural predators in north america, and kill 1-4 billion birds each year. many of these cats are feral or stray: support local shelters and rescues with trap/neuter/release programs to reduce feral cat populations. if you own a cat, don’t let your cat outside unsupervised! leash train your boi or build a catio.

slide 4: rafiel ruefully holds yune the bird in his hands; she is lying stunned. transcription: beware pesticides. insecticides are the biggest bird killer. neonicotinoids (or “neonics”), deveoped since the ban of DDT, are used everywhere in the US - farms, cities, and suburbs. they infect entire food chains systemically. avoid neonics in your own home and garden: if you buy plants, read labels to avoid neonic-treated specimens. buy organic produce if you can. the EU has banned outdoor use of many neonics, but the US has not - support local and national initiatives to regulate insecticide use!

slide 5: get involved! this is all bigger than the individual. climate change is a big issue and we can’t fight it alone. seek resources for native plants, bird feeding, and bird monitoring efforts in your area. be sure to look up: your local audubon society; conservation orgs in your area; and climate action plans by indigenous communities near you.

final slide: sources and resources to look up:

bird populations: https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/ pesticides: https://chicagobirdalliance.org/blog/2023/5/20/year-of-helping-birds-avoid-pesticides cats: https://abcbirds.org/program/cats-indoors/ windows: https://www.fws.gov/library/collections/threats-birds-collisions

cornell ornithology lab: birds.cornell.edu american bird conservancy: abcbirds.org national audubon: audubon.org hawkwatch international: hawkwatch.org

[theia-eos]

So, what about Tellius in particular got you hooked on it?

TL;DR Everything. The Tellius games are very much my comfort games.

I think part of it was definitely the fact that the worst years of my life, so far, were from 2002 to 2006, and those games came out in 2005 and 2007. The messages of the games, the way Micaiah, Ike, and Elincia deal with their tremendous burdens without losing themselves, was something I desperately needed at that time in my life. Honestly, playing through those two games did more for my mental health than therapy was (recommendation: find a therapist who is a good fit for you. I have one now. She is amazing).

Beyond that, the world is just so interesting to me, there's so much to it and the characters feel very well written. Soren's adaptation from his childhood, Reyson and his combative personality, Jill unlearning her prejudices against the laguz, Shinon and Janaff's relationship, Skrimir's growth as a wiser leader. All of the character writing hits pretty hard, honestly, and there are no moments I can recall where I feel like "there is no way an actual person in that situation would say or do that," and the trauma responses felt both pretty accurate and treated with respect, not as over-top humor that falls flat. On the writing, there is just so much lore and so much to think about and before those two games, I'd never seen games with such world building or thought out characters before. I'd read books like that, of course, but to have this intersection of visuals, music, writing, and interactivity was truly captivating to younger me.

Speaking of the art, I've always loved the CG renders and how much they draw me into the world. I used to draw a lot more back when I was playing the games for the first time, and that style is something I very much used to want to emulate. The music is iconic to me as well, in that I can hear any song from the game and remember the feeling and image of the game when I was playing it and hearing that song originally, I can't do that with full game soundtracks normally. For years, I would play the galdr songs to soothe my anxiety, calm my mind and get to sleep.

The Tellius games, and Fire Emblem as a whole, are games that my spouse and I talked about a lot while we were younger and just beginning to date, and our mutual love of the series is very much a cornerstone of our relationship. My spouse has a very lovely singing voice and would sing the galdr to me if I was struggling with my mental health, or do the funny voices used for reading the scenes to lift my spirits when I was feeling down back then when the games were still new.

[lapinbunwrites]

Title: A Childish Tea Party

Rating: Gen

Warnings: None

Fandom: Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn

Characters: Humor, Friendship, Post-Canon

Additional Tags: Friendship, Humor

Words: 795

Ao3 Link

Naesala couldn't remember the last time he had a pleasant conversation with Sanaki. She was always more condescending than he was, and everyone has told him his is the worst. He, for some reason, took great pride in that. But when he heard it coming out of a small child, he realized, it probably wasn't the best thing in the world. Last thing he wanted to deal with her complaining since that she is an Empress, she could do whatever she wanted. Naesala has done it, and it never worked for him so he's a little irritated a child could get away with it.

"Naesala!" Sanaki demanded his attention.

"What?" He said, focusing his attention to her.

"You haven't paying attention like you should," she pouted.

"I'm sorry your royal empress," he sighed, taking a sip of his tea. He was hoping this little tea party of hers would be rather different from what it was. He thought is going to be more pressing than what she wrote him about. "Listening to you talk about the food you've eaten in the last day isn't all that interesting."

She let out a little growl, giving him a stink eye. "Well I think it's better than hearing you talk endlessly about Leanne."

Naesala pinched the bridge of his nose. "That was weeks ago and I'm surprised you were paying attention."

"Well, I thought I could find something to use as blackmail against you," Sanaki teased.

"I'm surprised that you would use it, considering that you have no need for it," Naesala smiled, taking a sip of tea.

"I was hoping for a something juicy so I could try to con sweets out of you," she laughed, trying to take a bit of her treat.

"Well, you can keep trying, but no one is going to say anything," he reminded her.

"Hmph, I could always ask Tibarn, Reyson, or even Leanne," she said.

"They won't say a thing, or at least I hope not," he said, getting out of his chair.

"Where are you going?" Sanaki asked, yanking him back to the table. "This isn't over."

"Well, I have more important things to worry about having a tea party with a child," he said, trying to pry her fingers off of him. "For someone who is only thirteen, you have one hell of a grip."

"I am fourteen now!" She reprimanded him, roughly pulling him back.

"Yeesh kid," Naesala said, using his strength to pull her out of her seat and holding her off the ground.

Sanaki held onto Naesala's arm tightly as she kicked the air, trying to look for the ground.

"What are you doing?" He asked, waving his arm up and down.

"PUT ME DOWN!" She demanded.

"Fine, but I'm leaving afterwards," he sighed, placing her on the ground.

"Why, I thought you were excited to be here?" She asked, smoothing out her clothes. "I just wanted to spend some time with you."

"I didn't think you would enjoy my company," Naesala grumbled.

"I really do," Sanaki murmured, walking back to her seat. "I don't have many close friends, especially many near my age. So I was hoping that maybe you would like to be my friend."

Naesala wishes he could say that he was hard for him to make friends, but he always had Rafiel, Reyson, and Leanne. He's known them since a very young age so he's never had to worry about being alone in his life. He couldn't imagine what Sanaki would of gone through by herself without any friends. She ascended the throne at such a young age without any true childhood to talk about. Most of her life he could imagine that she was in and out of meetings, war councils, and training sessions. It really wasn't a traditional childhood to him so he could see her not having any friends to have. Sure, she had Sigrun and Tanith, but they were more guardians than anything.

He took on deep sigh before letting giving her a smile. "Fine, I will stay and listen to you-"

"Oh, hooray!" Sanaki said with a sparkle in her eyes.

"But," he smirked.

"But what?" she asked, her earth shattering for a split second.

"You must listen to me and what I want to talk about," he bargained, sitting his seat.

"Fine fine! If you insist," she agreed, taking a bit of her food.

Naesala smiled as he ate his food as he listened to her talk. Thinking about it, being in her presence and listening to her talk, wasn't such a bad thing after all. Maybe he will take her up on more of the tea parties she invites him to. Maybe even make it a tradition only to see that smile of hers.

---------------------------------

Consistent writing style, who's that? Anyway here is yet another revenge fic @aptericia! Hopefully this two little bickering duos feel you with the same amount of joy you gave me!

[reprisalet]

[ Sweet Bun Trio ] - A selection of traditional Faerghus pastries, all small enough to be eaten in one delicious bite! The first bun is filled with sweet cream and topped with icing and a candied cherry. The second is a sweet roll filled with almonds, pecans, and dried cranberries and glazed with honey. The third is a bun sliced in half, filled with almond paste and whipped cream, dusted with powdered sugar on top.

"Reyson!" Leanne flutters over to her older brother, excitement visible in her body language as plainly as in her heart. In her hands she holds the remaining one of the three sweet buns Rajaion had given her; the first two were fulfilling enough, so she'd strategically saved the one that she feels Reyson would be most likely to enjoy. She hands it over now without a word of explanation about the pastry, instead keeping up a train of enthusiastic chatter.

"I can't believe beorc throw parties like this! Isn't it amazing?" she says, "I even heard there was something called the White Heron Cup last year, where they had a dance competition!"

Which is kind of silly, when she thinks about it — if it's named after them, shouldn't it be a singing competition instead? Maybe the silly beorc just don't know the difference!

"Oh, and look what they gave me," she looks down, taking up her brooch with the black feather and placing it against her brother's white wings to see the contrast, "It looks pretty cool, right? Here, you can have this one, and then you can try to collect all of them!" She wants her brother to have the most fun he possibly can tonight, after all!

he smiles delightedly at his sister as she comes by, eyes already on the delicious-looking snack she carries. he does not dare ask for it—if his dear sister's heart is as generous as he suspects, then she is here to share. if not, then that is her right as the youngest to keep it for herself.

oh, but it seems luck is on his side. he accepts the treat without a word and immediately takes a bite, pleased with the flavors.

"thank you. your generosity knows no bounds," he says, smiling brightly. he is in a good mood, which good music, food, and company are sure to give him. his mood is better still among family.

"these beorc have thrown an interesting party. i... admit, i didn't know what to expect. silly of them, though, to name a dance competition after herons. we're much better-known for our voices than our steps, but i can't blame them for being ignorant. i guess."

he takes the offered brooch as well, and passes her his own in return. the one bearing the small bell that he has is pinned carefully to her outfit. "i'll be collecting, then. take this in the meantime."

he pats her on the head. "are you having fun? meeting any new people?"

[adelle-ein]

feh build dump as i've been cleaning out my fodder stash....had a lot of good free pulls/pitybreakers lately

waiting impatiently for julian to get his prf/refine (i have not been keeping track but i don't think it's too far off? could still be like a year though lmao) so he can be finished up. flayn's refine should be in the distance too, and guinivere (who i've been holding off on giving fodder to, her base kit is workable and the refine isn't THAT far away...) also always in need of more staff fodder....more.......

there aren't that many units i really want left who don't have at least one version in the game by now. mostly some engages (goldmary, zelkov, fogado mostly) and yashiro tms (i can dream...). and mitama, franz, elphin, and calill (someday, i hope?) plus would like better versions of a few guys (NOIRE, a nyna with some kind of prf, a non-fallen maurim). legendary l'arachel starting to seem not-impossible. and the maribelle and reyson alt dream never dies.

gonna snag celine when this hall of forms is over too (speaking of Needs An Alt, can i dream of her maybe someday getting a better outfit in feh?) got my first rennac (was never willing to spend much on him but always wanted him to finish team l'arachel so building him up now) and actively working on sp training some more little guys. feh is just a game for giving little guys treats i think

[aptericia]

Oh, and Reyson, too!

sexuality headcanon: he is gay birb

otp: again, none really...

brotp: Ike :) Reyson would understand him even though he's bad with people, and would also learn to accept that there are genuinely good beorc who do their best to treat laguz right

notp: uhmmm I guess I don't personally support a lot of popular Reyson ships... Ike is ace, Tibarn is his big bro, Naesala is a bastard... I don't mind if other people ship them though

first headcanon that pops into my head: Reyson acts like a stereotypical jealous girlfriend to both Tibarn and Naesala, although he's not in love with either of them. He's all like "Naesala, you wronged me!! I believed in you!! How dare you turn out to have such a blackened heart!" and "Tibarn is sooo strong and hot! But why is he such a macho guy who can't express his true feelings?! I need him to tell me he cares about me!"

favorite line from this character: I don't remember any especially cool quotes... although there's something to be said for his introduction line being "No amount of human blood can slake my thirst for vengeance!"

one way in which I relate to this character: wants to be big & buff but is very much not

thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character: I guess all his yelling about destroying humans XD

cinnamon roll or problematic fave? hmmmm he's really straddling the line... I think I'm going to go with Problematic Fave again

[regnumaves]

🎭 MASKS - do they act differently around certain people? what's different between the way they act around friends, family, strangers, etc.?

OC emoji asks | accepting

Oh, absolutely. Tibarn's behavior towards others has an absolutely massive range, going from the gentle and doting older brother figure that he is towards Reyson and Leanne, all the way to the hateful wild beast or sub-human, as they would call him, towards those who disrespect and discriminate against the laguz.

It's interesting to see that Tibarn's attitude towards others can shift pretty quickly. In Path of Radiance, he goes from the beorc's greatest enemy who may or may not have been thinking of going to war against them, to lending Ike his most trusted men and becoming his faithful ally in the span of one chapter, as soon as he realizes that Ike is not an enemy of the laguz and was trying to protect the Herons. But then, on the other hand - no matter how far we are into the games, no matter how much time he has spent fighting alongside the good beorc, Tibarn's boss conversations against certain enemies (ahem. Lekain) have him embody the savage beast that they accuse him and his people of being, speaking openly and joyfully about tearing them to shreds in retaliation for their crimes against the laguz.

The way I look at it, Tibarn's behavior towards others often mirrors the way in which they treat him. If you respect him and his people, and are willing to aid them when they need help, you will get the exact same in return with honesty and earnest. If you want a monster, you will get a monster.

[reprisalet]

reyson rolls his eyes. he knows that despite naesala's best efforts, change comes for them all. no one can live through what naesala has and stay stagnant. no one can achieve lasting peace after great sacrifice and emerge unchanged.

still, he does not press. he merely presses a kiss to naesala's cheek before he takes one end of the popper at his urging.

and pulls !

inside is a little treat. candy of some sort. he smiles, beacuse though it isn't something he share, it is something he can give to naesala to make him smile.

that is enough, isn't it? to have something to give to one's love? reyson is hungry, too, but he knows naesala is always more so, and he does love to share.

turning around, he presses it to naesala's lips. "all yours, love."

end !

all i want for toabaldrsbounty is youuuu

[randomnameless]

In defence of some people who are arguing things about Nabateans...

The game makes a crappy job with them !

Like, some people still think “Seiros” is Rhea’s birth/creation name - she only mentions it’s not (a name she has taken after Zanado) in an infodump, only available at the end of one route. And, it’s kind of understandable because it’s only one small line thrown in a sea of infodumping where the games wants the player to react more to “OMG there’s a rock in Billy” than in literally anything else Rhea just mentioned “Freikugel is your brother’s hip?”.

Bar that, compare how Nabateans were treated to other races/people in Tellius.

Lilia is Reyson’s sister, who died long before the beginning of the game, but we have her name, know how were her last moments, see something she’s wrote on a wall, learn she had befriended Elena and “taught” her to hum the Galdr of Rebirth.

Lilia has no sprite, but she still exists in the backstory and she’s still present in the current story.

Rajaion’s reveal is shoehorned in the final CG (or penultimate CG) after defeating the boss of the game! And yet, through FE9, Rajaion is the “hidden” reason why Ena, who should despise Daien for their treatment of the Laguz, is here, and why Nasir ultimately betrayed Ike.

Come FE10, and Rajaion’s actions (and torture/death) gain a new magnitude, his torture/death is part of Almedha’s guilt, a reason why Deghinsea might have scorched the world, the reason why Kurthnaga goes to meet his sister and yet still hides his identity - and ultimately Rajaion isn’t only tied to death his gruesome end, because Rajaion also gets a posthumous kid in the credits.

Like, Ashnard’s mount/the dead prince has more importance in the plot as a NPC/Dead character than, idk, FE10!Mist or Gareth (i know it’s a low bar).

No one can deny what happened to the Goldoan Royals, or say they weren’t discriminated against because they were royals. Ditto for the Heron Clan, everyone talks about Serenes, Tibarn refuses to help humans for this reason, and Rafiel’s reveal of who was truly responsible starts Radiant Dawn’s War.

The Dragon used to make Freikugel has no name, no identity anymore. Yes, the Watsonian reason is Rhea hiding everything about her race and siblings to protect the 5 ish Nabateans left. With the big reveal though? Nothing, not even a footnote in an ending card. There’s nothing about it.

Doylist wise - IS only conceived Zanado as a “lore dump” or a background event, but forgot to make their characters react to it. Bar Rhea, no one else talks or even mentions it. Macuil does not like Humans descending from the 10 Dudes, Seteth and Flayn ? Nothing. Momo? Not a single line against the playable Nabateans, or the reason why he has a femur on his forehead. Nemesis? Who cares.

We had to wait for an external Word of God interview to learn why Zanado really happened, what happened and who were the Nabateans.

Rajaion got a human sprite. Macuil and Indech... did not. 

If the game does not care about Nabateans, why should the fandom care?

We know Nabateans were governors of human lands, but we still don’t know what was the name of the Nabatean turned in Luin, or if they are still “alive” in relics.

Of course, it doesn’t not excuse the racism, ableism and, ignorance* regarding those opinions - and yet, the game doesn’t help them at all (if they can be helped to begin with). 

*ignorance and reluctance to learn, almost like a certain character

[albaccelerando]

Well they have to do something with dead bodies, right?

A short meta on headcanoned heron funeral practices. 

[minor tellius spoilers, talk of death and dead bodies, and discussion of the serenes massacre below.] 

Well, here it is. My first meta post. I like to study death practices and death culture, so I figured I’d use it for once to create some headcanons around how the heron tribe treats their dead. It is also quite topical, and I think it’ll be a nice end to my event posts. 

When I create metas or headcanons, I like to start by putting all of the canon information that could be relevant on the table. For this project, I decided to start by looking at the herons’ relation to the forest, specific fashion trends we see in the royal herons, and a culture focused around music. 

We know that the herons are extremely connected to their forest. So much so, in fact, that most of them burned with it. Some interpretations of the massacre say that the herons who tried to run were hunted down and killed, while some say instead that the herons just didn’t run, and allowed the forest to burn around them. While I don’t lean towards either interpretation, I think the fact that both are believable says enough about how connected the herons are to the forest. There are also these lines in POR chapter 17- 

Reyson

...The forest is whispering something. (What is it?)...What are you trying to tell me?

The forest can talk to Reyson even after it’s been destroyed. The forest calls to him all through the chapter to tell him that Leanne is alive. I imagine heron funerals would involve the forest. Perhaps the tree roots would pull up from a galdr and take the body for nutrients? I think, while a bit scary, that’s the most likely solution. It also keeps the herons from having to bury the dead themselves (since they’re famously fragile), and keeps the fire in small, controlled places. 

What do they do to the body before they give it to the trees, then? I think, looking at the three onscreen herons, it’s very likely that their hair is important to them. I think it would be braided up or somehow tucked out of the way, and their clothes would be simple so the body would be accessible to the trees. I think any extra jewelry would be left off of the corpse, though sentimental pieces might be buried with them (things like Reyson’s circlet, for example). 

Okay, but what do they do before all of that? How do they grieve? 

A heron funeral is a quietly musical affair. I’ve always thought the aesthetic of a silenced musician was tragic, and because this is my meta, I’m adding it here. The day a heron dies, those mourning stay near the body, preparing it for the forest in silence. They spend the night next to the body, and when the sun rises, they bring the body to a tree, and sing their mourning galdr. The silence isn’t sorrow all of the time, and it’s often used as a time for reflection on the dead, to honor what they did in life rather than dwell on their death. After all, they’re going to return to the forest. 

Final closing notes - none of this is based on any specific culture and I did no research into specific practices to write this. This is all guesses based on what little bits of heron culture we see in the games. 

Perhaps I’ll write more of these. If Janaff dies too expect one on hawk funerals. 

[final wordcount - 606]

[theofficersacademy]

                                   TEAM SEALED FOREST

                     Saias  Sigurd  Arvis  Kris (M)  Kana (M)                      Dew  Katarina  Ares  Setsuna  Reyson                      Priam  Ishtar  Marth  Linhardt  Lorenz

REPENT [August 16th - August 22nd]

Tag: #UnlockedSealedForest2021

Setting: Agarthan Research Facility

It takes courage to tread into the unknown. There is so much about this place that is foreign. Perhaps it might have been better off staying that way, but as each group progresses deeper into the underground facility, they begin to grow more intimate - like it or not - with the horrors and curiosities it has to offer.

Three of the four paths before you come now to an end - the only place left is the library, a room which feels oddly anachronistic in the face of the strange technology otherwise witnessed thus far.

In short order, you may begin to rejoin the remainder of your comrades... but before then, it seems things are to take a turn:

Before Marth, Kris, and Kana, R’wena begins to cough blood. The dark circles under her eyes speak of illness - perhaps she is worse off than she let on... but to make matters more complicated, Kris, Marth, and Kana begin to feel ill as well.

Saias, Reyson, Dew, and Sigurd face off against the last of the chimaera’s heads. They have their plan: pacify it with treats from the vending machines. But before they can put their plan into action, the chimaera rears and flies out through the broken window back into the enclosure below... Sigurd in tow!

Katarina, Linhardt, and Lorenz are down a teammate. Was his sacrifice worthwhile? Only time will tell. In the meantime, a decision awaits: though you feed the young chimaerae, what will you do with them next? They are clearly feral and still ravenously hungry - and their keeper, the corpse sat next to them, clearly isn’t fit to do ought about it. The chimaerae begin to turn on each other.

Finally, after an electrifying pitstop or two, with a new companion in tow, Setsuna, Arvis, Priam, and Ishtar make their way to a library. The wall beyond it depicts a strange mural: an almost perfect depiction of a mural spied in Garreg Mach’s monastery, save for a few startling changes... Well, there’s little time to wonder about that as Fitzwilliam sudden starts to thrash as though in pain, blind to friend or foe. What to do?

What you know:

Apparently R’wena can decipher some of the foreign writing in the odd tablets. Says Kass taught her a little before he up and disappeared.

Speaking of R’wena, it seems she - and a few other party members... - have begun to feel mysteriously ill. Strange.

This place is kinda messed up. It’s clear now they obviously do some kind of twisted research... the presence of the chimaerae suggests that perhaps its former occupants like to entertain playing God.

What to do (suggestions):

Marth/Kris/Kana: discover what you can from the terminal before making your way back to your teammates (hopefully without waking any beasties).

And while you’re at it, maybe see if you can find out why you’re sick.

Katarina/Linhardt/Lorenz: decide what you’re doing about the young chimaerae. Mourn. Head back to your teammates.

Sigurd/Saias/Dew/Reyson: probably you might wanna go get your boy. Then head back to your teammates, circumstances permitting.

Setsuna/Arvis/Priam/Ishtar: calm that darn lizard and then go relax and read some books I guess! Or reconvene with your teammates and drag them back with you.

You are still first and foremost after any information pertaining to the creation of the Labyrinths.

Any other potentially pertinent information is a bonus.

Talk to Mod Key for additional information.

[allegreta]

"There's something amiss here...I have seen them before, yet they treated me like a villager. Before and after transforming, even." Leanne taps her foot, thinking. Laguz don't exist in Zofia, and none of these men have seen her transform before. There's just no explanation that makes sense for the way they treated her that doesn't involve some warping of perception. "I wonder if there's some sort of illusory magic at play here."

Kent is distracted, insecurities swirling as he puts on a brave face. He's a knight through and through, a servant who's found himself thrust into a position of leadership. Leanne wants to say something, but he's clammed so tightly perhaps it is for the best that they continue walking in the silence he's purposefully cultivated.

They've not much time to discuss things anyway as they explore the temple. It's battered and bruised, a sacred place of life holding on for all its worth, and Leanne feels a great sorrow for it. They must find the source of this ongoing damage, and soon.

Kent's sudden stop is punctuated by a rush of emotions, each more potent than the last. Shock, relief, worry--then he says the name Sain with such unfiltered emotion it sends a shock through Leanne's system. This is someone precious to him, someone dear--and it is a little too convenient, all things considered.

"Kent, was Sain on the ship with you?" Leanne glances at the green-clad knight, unable to hide her suspicion. He looks normal to her, feels like a human person, but after her encounter with the guards and the strange energy in the air, she just isn't sure. "Would he say this?"

Leanne steps forward, willing to cross the line Kent will not, cannot. She walks up to Sain, hand glowing with healing magic as she propositions him with the sweetest smile she can muster.

"You seem injured. Would you like the aid of a healer?" She studies him carefully, looking for any potential cracks. "How did you get here?"

“Nah, don’t bother.” Oddly, Sain isn’t throwing himself onto Leanne. “I doubt you’ll be much help anyways. Just sit tight, doll, before you break your wings.”

Sain saunters towards the damage, taking stock of what’s happened. “You could even go back to the academy if you’d like. Let other people handle your problems.”

"Why, you-!" Leanne catches herself before she swears in a recognizable language, instead uttering a quick string of insults in ancient that would make Rafiel blush and Reyson proud. It's more important to focus on the problem at hand, but airing frustrations is important!

Anyway, this absolutely cannot be Sain. He isn't even hitting on her.

"You can stop pretending now. You're very good at this, but your grasp on character is just a little bit off." Maybe if she was feeling a little bit less irritable, she'd have drawn this out further, but at this point she's had enough. If Kent isn't willing to call this out, she will. "You didn't even answer my question of how you got here. If you'd gotten here the same way we did, you'd know going back is not an option right now."

“Going back is always an option,” Sain replies dismissively. “This isn’t your home. What kind of obligations do you have here?”

“I’m just saying! Altruism is a swell thing, sure, but… what does this place mean to you, really? Not much at all.”

"You gonna die for a place that you can’t even call home?”

"Kent, this clearly isn't Sain." If whoever this is wants to ignore her, she'll act just as flippant about them. "I don't know what they're trying to do, but we should be cautious."

She then turns back to the faux-Lance, planting her hands on her hips and glaring at him.

"This isn't your home either, you know. And yet you're supposedly risking your life for a place that doesn't mean anything to you?" Leanne thinks of Markus, and his deep care for his brother. Of Carmen and her gang, going about rescuing people from human traffickers. Of Cole and his flock, of the villagers doing their best to settle the land in the wake of the deaths of their gods. Zofia may not be her home, but it is a home, and that is enough for her. "You do not know me, if you are making this claim."

Sain walks behind a pillar, and out comes Reyson. “This place means nothing to me. I care not for Valentia. Not for Caelin in Lycia. And less for Serenes Forest. Their worlds could drown in the floods, and I wouldn’t shed a tear for them.

“But Fódlan? That is a different story.”

"How dare you take my brother's image in vain!" Leanne's eyes flash with a malice, an anger that lurches her stomach and grounds her simultaneously. She draws her sword, shakily pointing it to her faux-brother's throat. "If you do not tell me who you are this instant...I will strike!"

If this being can trick her physical senses, there's no reason it shouldn't be able to trick her emotional ones too, right? The man standing before her looks, feels like Reyson, but there's no way Reyson would ever say something like this. Clearly, this is the same entity who was masquerading as Sain before.

She steels herself, instead placing the flat of the blade against his throat and pushing him to the wall.

"I'm not going to ask again. Who are you?"

There was a time when Reyson, the real Reyson, may have said something very similar, except about Serenes itself. Everything could drown in a second flood if it meant bringing back Serenes--or using that flood to avenge it. Through her anger, she feels a strange understanding settle within her, and she brings herself oh so close to the entity, Levin Sword crackling with unused electricity as the dulled metal caresses the pale skin of the heron prince.

"What is Fódlan to you?"

"...Home."

Reyson says it with such determination, passion. "Fódlan was my home. And it was taken from me, my people left to rot in the dark by traitorous monsters and the ignorant masses." His eyes flash. "We fight to return to the surface. To return home. Though I suppose it's pointless to expect empathy from people like you."

"...you may not be my brother, but your words could have been his, once." Leanne's breathing is shaky, her pulse quickening as he leans into the blade. Paper-thin skin bruises and bleeds, leeching arsenic into the emotional air. "What you describe...my people can relate to, to an extent. How can you expect me to extend empathy when you have not given me the chance?"

heilmittel

[cavaliant]

🗣️ how do ur muses feel about reyson

🗣️ = How does your character feel about Non-Human intelligent races? If they are one how are they treated?

I’m just gonna go with the ones I remember have met him lmao

Balthus: Didn’t call me dumb for gate punching ouo

Beo: Son’s boss or something. Feisty. Wild shit usually happens in his vicinity. I’d flirt normally but somehow I don’t think it’d go over well and I’m not THAT keen to mess with Fergus’ business u__u

Diar: Why does he think I’m Reinhardt’s brother TwT

Fergus: It’s the boss!!! He’s kind and supportive and brings me food all the time. I know he’s not as strong as he’d like to be but I still think his powers are cool.

Homer: Aspiring to be my biggest critic or something??? What’s his deal

Lach: Beo asked me to heal him one time and I can’t say he’s the smartest but :/ I suppose I too would do anything even if it meant breaking every bone in my body to make the people who wronged me SUFFER

Mach: I was just trying to raise some money u u

Oscar: He’s angry a lot but a lot of bad things have happened to him. I’m--honestly surprised he even hangs around us considering what beorc have done to him and his kin in the past. I try my best to understand him like anyone else and just hope I don’t say the wrong thing.

Ranulf: He’s a handful but hey! Variety is the spice of life. Who says all herons have to act the same? I can’t say no to the extra help, and...how could any of us fault him for wanting to join the battle? I can’t even imagine losing everyone in Gallia...I doubt any of us could.

Rein: Somehow...I feel that he does not think very highly of me. Or that he at the very least believes me to be rather strange. Though I suppose none of that matters in the end.

Tibs: One of my dearest friends. Stubborn, wilful, utterly determined to do anything he sets his mind to no matter the odds against him. Stronger than he believes himself to be, even if those words might ring hollow to him when neither of us can do anything to change what he was born with. That’s why I’ll do anything in my power to help him--if I can’t help him become strong the way he wishes, then I’ll be his strength.

Zelgy: Loud and foolish. What is the purpose of trying to strive for something that he knows very well will never be possible?

[gascon-en-exil]

Lords and their Knights: When FE Chivalry Goes Gay

@mwritesink prompted me to write about my favorite tropes in FE and how they evolved over the course of the series. I already crossed a few others off in an earlier post, but this one is a particular favorite of mine where M/M romance in this series is concerned and one I felt had enough examples to constitute a piece of its own. Let it not be said that this is merely the gay variation on the well-worn heterosexual romance trope of a lady and her knight (ex. Eirika/Seth), because negotiating the fundamental power imbalance in this type of relationship takes on different dimensions when both parties are male. I draw a closer comparison to courtly love, which in the traditional sense is also socially transgressive (being adulterous) and not consummated via marriage or other public means...which in FE terms means an S support and possibly a eugenics baby. A vassal in love with his lord rather than his lord’s wife is not only cutting the female intermediary out of what can already be a very homoromatic scenario, but it’s directly tangling together a kind of martial romantic love and ideas about what knighthood/vassalage even is or ought to be - two topics FE loves to explore. I’ve therefore compiled a few of the most notable examples of this trope across the series to talk about in more detail, because if one is willing to be liberal with subtext there’s surprisingly quite a few to pick from.

(And yeah, this is also in part because I like hot rich men who take orders, and this series already has plenty of gay or otherwise ambiguously non-straight mages, thieves, archers, and their ilk without my help.)

The Sad Gay Knight: Quan/Finn

This one I’ve talked about before in a fair amount of depth, from my hopes for how a Genealogy remake will treat Finn to speculation on just what Quan got out of this relationship besides a devoted retainer and (we may assume) a nice piece of ass. The summary here is that Finn’s love for Quan supersedes anything he’s shown to feel for any of the various women he can hook up with and quite frankly astonishes in its ramifications for the future of Leonster and Thracia as a whole. It’s poignant, adulterous (but Ethlyn’s probably ok with it?), and messy as all hell once you factor in whatever’s up with Glade and whatever Lachesis wasn’t feeling about the whole situation. It is also, naturally, very sad; Finn loses his lord when he’s only around eighteen, and with their kingdom collapsing around him and the entire continent consumed by war he dedicates the next twenty years of his life to raising Quan’s son to be the king Quan himself had wanted to be. And for all his labor he apparently derives no lasting satisfaction, spending his epilogue wandering around the Yied desert and at last returning only to (possibly) pen the history he’s helped to make. 

Finn is the embodiment of knighthood loyal unto and beyond death, and that paired with all the romantic and erotic subtext surrounding the two of them - Finn as Quan’s treasured favorite, his catatonia after Yied, the obsessive polishing of the brave lance that Quan gave to him, his inability to satisfy women in some vague way - makes them the defining example of this trope in Fire Emblem. I look forward to seeing how remakes will handle them; Finn’s presentation in Heroes is definitely cause for hope there. As for the issue of yet another story in media of gay men beset by tragedy and death, I did draw up a long headcanon on the technically crack pairing of Diarmuid/Tristan that specifically plays into the lord and knight trope while also allowing Finn a chance to pass his experiences on to a later, happier generation. IS is free to take notes, just saying.

Pretty Blond Twinks and the Men Who Love Them: Perceval/Elffin and their lasting influence

Moving on from Jugdral, I’ve got to say that I’ve really been sleeping on the original gay Elibean duo. Before Raven and Lucius (but chronologically after, because these games are out of order) there was another feminine young man with long blond hair beloved of a severe-looking warrior. Binding Blade gives us the bard Elffin, who in another life was Etruria’s Prince Mildain and Perceval’s liege. The Knight General takes Mildain’s alleged accidental death about as well as Finn takes the death of his lord and lady; he turns grim and humorless, and without a dying dream to guide him he follows the command of the corrupt revolutionary faction of Etruria with little protest. It takes learning that Mildain is alive and in Roy’s army for Perceval to drop the halfhearted Camus routine and switch sides, and the strength of his fealty not to his nation or even to his king but to the prince he’d thought dead is absolutely touching in the moment not to mention incredibly useful since the guy is one of FE6′s best units. 

Binding Blade doesn’t give anyone but Roy and his harem paired endings, but there’s still a fair bit to be gleaned from their support lines, both what is in them and what isn’t. Perceval and Elffin each have supports with women, but nothing remotely romantic - Perceval’s support with Larum is particularly amusing since he clarifies that her, ahem, dancing does nothing for him. Also worth noting is that neither of them can support with Clarine, even though one would think they’d make fine romantic choices for her given their statuses and physical resemblances to her beloved brother. Their own support line is quietly intimate. Elffin has changed since his near-death experience, and Perceval is still struggling to accept that their relationship can’t be as it was, that in fact for the time being they can’t now be a knight and his prince. Perceval also frets over Elffin’s refusal to see his father the king, and he later extracts a promise from Elffin to come home to Etruria after he’s done traveling the world as a bard, in one of the series’s several instances of writing what sounds like a marriage proposal in ambiguous terms. Per Elffin’s ending, he’s only gone for a few months after the war, so their promised reunion isn’t long delayed. I’m interested to see what a remake would add to their relationship, because as it stands Perceval/Elffin has an established romance arc that deserves a paired ending or at the very least more suggestive epilogues.

Further compounding their underrated signficance, it’s not too difficult to trace a line from Perceval/Elffin to a number of other M/M pairings in the two later GBA games and in Tellius that present some variation on this theme:

As mentioned above, Raven/Lucius is physically similar and performs a nearly identical gameplay function, with the pretty blond waif again responsible for recruiting his surly but protective boyfriend from the ranks of the enemy. 

Gerik/Joshua meanwhile borrows the character of the end of their support line and turns it into a genuine paired ending, with a prince incognito recruiting a swordsman to come work for him. They being who they are however, it’s all handled a bit rougher, with Gerik being impressed by Joshua’s “swagger.” Take that as you will.

Ike/Soren may be the defining seme/uke dynamic in Tellius’s overflowing fount of queer subtext, but Tibarn/Reyson smashes that trope together with this one and FE’s power couple unit archetype plus a dash of whatever the avian equivalent of furries is for wholly unique results. Although both of them are technically royalty, only Reyson is a prince by heredity whereas Tibarn presumably became king of Phoenicis by beating the crap out of any rival contenders as most laguz prefer to do. One can therefore read shades of a courtly relationship in Tibarn’s decision to zealously take up the cause of justice for the Serenes massacre in Reyson’s place. Combine this with Reyson’s characteristic edge that even Tibarn is forced to rein in at times and their relationship comes off as surprisingly more egalitarian than the sum of its parts. Oh yeah, and blond waif dancer + premade OP unit with ludicrous physical stats and movement again.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the conflict of the Tellius games Zelgius -> Sephiran explores what would happen if a gay Camus archetype chose instead to dedicate himself to an antagonistic lord. Sure, you can still recruit Sephiran via a convoluted and unintuitive process, but Zelgius is doomed no matter what.   

They Can Say It, But They Can’t Do It: Awakening and Fates

Ugh. If I must....

I’ve made no secret of my ambivalence toward FE13 dragging the series into open acknowledgement that same-sex attraction is a thing that exists, handled as it was with a lot of explicit homoerotic denial and an assortment of cheap gay panic jokes and...whatever the hell Victor and Vincent are supposed to be. Chrom/Frederick, hot though it may potentially be in fanon, is one of those jokes, making a parody out of a knight enamored of his lord and leaving it to mean absolutely nothing since Awakening’s relationship endgame is invariably S supports for time traveling eugenics babies. FE has taken cracks at the overly dedicated knight before - see just about everything involving Kieran from Tellius, up to and including his overzealous devotion to his superior officer - but Awakening plumbs the depths of Frederick expecting Chrom’s nude image to raise the army’s morale. Just..what do you even say to that, apart from the awkward sputtering that comprises most of their support line?

FE14, for all its stumbling steps toward something less completely offensive, fares little better in this particular regard. Leo/Niles is a deeply troubled albeit thought-provoking callback to the subtextual lord/knight relationship, one where it’s hard to imagine them finding a healthy way to navigate the power differential. Then there’s Ryoma/Saizo. It’s nothing special in localization, but the never-localized festival DLC involves Saizo’s ardent desire to warm Ryoma’s clothing in his cleavage. That sounds like absolutely normal behavior for a servant and not a rehash of Frederick’s shenanigans, uh huh. Fates may indeed be said to be slightly better about playing palpable homoerotic tension for drama rather than comedy...but only slightly.

Paving the Way for an OT3: The Deliverance

This is, incidentally, yet another reason to appreciate Echoes for doing so much to redeem the 3DS games in the realm of (male) queer content. Yes, there’s a large and unaddressed divide between the openly gay and very modern Leon and the heavily subtextual faux-historical queerness of the Deliverance, but taken independently the two presentations work for what they’re each separately aiming to be. Among Clive’s gay entourage are not one but two men who’d dearly love to be the knight to his lord, and Forsyth’s strong desire to put Clive on a pedestal evokes the earlier spoofs of this kind of relationship precisely because Forsyth is that kind of vassal, the kind that would read Ribald Tales of the Faith War and cry like a heavily erect virgin bottom getting his first taste of dick at the brief interludes of tender manly love between Quan and Finn. He’s played for comedy just as much as Kieran or Frederick are, and yet Echoes comes across as less down on the concept as a whole for several reasons, being that

1) Python’s snark over Forsyth’s attraction to both Clive and Lukas is genuinely funny, much more so than when it’s the object of these affections quietly groaning his way through them,

2) Lukas is also there, and his desire to be Clive’s beloved knight is not played for comedy at all but is allowed to be unrealistic and unsatisfying because Clive will never get it,

3) everyone wants to screw Clive for some reason, not just his subordinates but also his sister and the estranged BFF who dies in his arms...and the guy is shown to be unworthy of all of them, and

4) all the characters involved are allowed other avenues for romantic attraction outside of a lord who’s just not that into them. Forsyth has Python, Lukas has both of them as friends and possibly more later, Clair has Gray (...at least he’s not her brother?), and Fernand has a bad rebound that goes to hell in the manner of Zelgius and Sephiran but at least ends with him getting to reconcile with his former friend before he dies. 

The setup for the Deliverance’s overarching queerness is a bit strange as it rests on all these characters somehow finding Clive attractive, but nonetheless it makes for an unexpected and refreshing critique of the lord and knight trope, given a situation where the lord just isn’t that into it and in fact doesn’t seem to realize that he can be into it. It’s a good reminder that this isn’t a particularly good dynamic for a stable and lasting relationship, and that as hot as it can be it takes more than impassioned one-way devotion to make it work in the long term.

The good news if you’re into this kind of relationship like I am is that it’s a trope with some life in it yet. Echoes came at it strong, and prerelease information on Three Houses suggests a few possibilities for this dynamic in that game. I’m especially keeping my eye on Dimitri and Dedue, whose relationship appears to contain echoes of the original duo of Quan and Finn. I highly doubt there will be anything on the level of S supports acknowledging this type of attraction, but I’ll settle for some suggestive A supports.

[herousanimarum-moved]

Never before have you seen such a sinful sight–such a delectable treat, spread out just for you. Laid bare, the object of your desire beckons, sensuously alluring in looks, scent, and no doubt taste as well. Just one breath is enough to make you want more, to incite a burning desire that demands to be satisfied. The first mouthful is nothing short of bliss–heavenly, divine, and there's no way you can deny yourself from having more for even a moment longer. This chocolate cake is all /yours/ now.

Well, it’s still a sin–

CAKE, FUCK YEAH–!

this could be reyson or fergus, they’ve both given him cake, altho the one fergus gave him was also technically from reyson so?

[nanigma]

Can I ask more than one or should I make a different ask? Anw if you're not up to it you may choose just one ! :) 1)Ryouma or Hinoka 2)Leo vs Takumi and 3) Leo + Sakura ! (Or if you want nonfates related then maybe Naesala + Reyson?) Thanks in advance!

Hoo boy, I’ll try and answer all! :)

1. Hinoka

While I obviously don’t adore the older two Hoshidans as much as their baby siblings, I still enjoy both of them a lot. Between the two, Hinoka does come out on top though. I just enjoy her tomboyish attitude a lot, as well as how powerful of a pegasus knight she is in the game. I also think she had a lot of potential as a character, with some very intriguing flaws that the game sadly never explores. There’s a lot I like about her that I basically extracted from bits and snippets of material, so how close my image is of her to canon is unclear at this point. haha;; I also think her design is very very appealing and attractive. haha

Ryouma mostly loses out, because he is a bit too trapped in the traditional role of Samurai Prince. There’s more to him than that, especially some traits to his character I enjoy. I also did some “extracting” when it comes to his material, but Intsys is much more up front with paving over that potential to uphold the standard Samurai image. (ie. him being a bit neglectful towards his younger siblings as an interesting character flaw, which was shown to be unintentional when Warriors just had him shown to be perfectly considerate of them all. Because he is just that flawless, guys. *yawn*).

2. Leon vs. Takumi

Oh gods this actually a very interesting one.

Let’s look at it purely from a gameplay perspective:

Leon’s max stat as a Dark Knight (with Brunhilde) vs. Takumi’s max stat as a Sniper (with Fujin Yumi)

Takumi’s Res stat is pretty pitiful, but still not low enough that Leon could take him out without doubling. Which is unlikely to happen under normal circumstances, since Leon’s max speed is just awful compared to Takumi’s. Meanwhile, Takumi has to go up against Leon’s very good Def stat if he wants to win, but he has the advantage here, because he is A) almost definitely going to double and B) very very likely to crit too because of the Fuujin’s bonus. While Leon critting isn’t out of the question, it’s much less likely to happen. 

So I’ll have to give the gameplay round to Takumi.

In the story though, Leon is described as a very powerful mage, who could probably stomp Takumi with a single spell. Likewise though, the Fuujin’s power is made out as such that Leon’s armour probably wouldn’t protect him adequately from it. In a situation like that, it all comes down to who hits first. We aren’t given a good indication of how much time it takes Leon to cast a crippling spell with Brunhilde and since we can be very sure that Takumi is going to shoot extremely fast, I am leaning sliiiightly towards the pineapple prince making it. Again, a very very close outcome that could be influenced either way by multiple factors, so don’t take this as me saying Takumi’d definitely win at all times. haha;; (like imagine Leon having Brunhilde’s trees shield him and then attacking at the same time)

Just for fun: If it came to melee combat, it’s an even more interesting question. Of course Leon actually comes with a sword built into his class-set, so he’d be more used to using it in battle. However, the way it’s framed in story, it seems like his sword training is mostly just there to augment his primary fighting style of magic. I doubt he’s a slouch with it, but it’s not something he tries to master fully. Meanwhile, Takumi is shown to be training with Ryouma almost daily with a fervor normally reserved for actual battle. He is very invested in becoming good enough to beat Ryouma and does manage to hit him once. However, we get no indication that he has learned how to fight someone who uses a Nohrian sword-fighting style. Meanwhile Leon probably has some experience engaging Samurai on the battlefield. I’d say Leon would have good chances at winning the first couple of times, but if they continued to spar Takumi would triumph more often than not.

 3) Leon + Sakura

Platonic. 

I think they have a good chemistry and potential dynamic. However, I felt Leon was a bit pushy in their support and I guess that impression has just stuck with me. Most of what I get out of their interactions (Leon developing a good amount of respect for Sakura and being considerate, while Sakura comes to look past his somewhat aloof exterior to see kindness) is something I can get out of a friendship between the two or being in-laws cough  just the same. I just don’t feel the need to ship them romantically, however I have read some nice fics with this pairing

4) Naesala + Reyson

Yes Tellius!

Anyway, this is a complex relationTM for me. I actually like to imagine that they may have had something of a history with each other as more than friends. Not outright lovers, but I imagine there was potential for it. I guess I just have a weakness for young Naesala having a crush on both young heron siblings. haha;;However, Reyson staying with the Hawks after the Serenes massacre put that one on hold (since Reyson was too deeply into grieving and Naesala isn’t exactly the most welcomed guest in Phoenicis). Over time, I feel they both just moved on and then Reyson fell for Tibarn. And then... well the whole deal with Oliver happened.

Look I understand that Naesala couldn’t have just blown off a member of the senate, but he treated that situation very... flippantly. In chapter 19 of PoR he’s just like “Gosh Reyson, it’s not like I wanted to sell you into slavery permanently. I was planning to come by after an unspecified amount of time and pick you up, no need to be so dramatic!” And Reyson quickly comes around to forgiving him for it, without even knowing the real reason, but just because it helped find Leanne. Which is not exaclty an achievement Naesala should be credited for but whatever. I just think that’s a massive betrayal of trust that could have been resolved better and I have trouble shipping them romantically afterwards.

I do still really like them as friends though. Like, they obviously care for each other. Naesala is still concerned for Reyson’s well-being, while Reyson can’t quite seem to believe that Naesala would just betray them out of cruelty. I especially love how when Naesala sees all the herons collapsed when the medallion is about to blow, he shows concern for both Leanne and Reyson. I think it’s a very interesting and often heartwarming dynamic, just marred by one big, ugly incident.