#which i'll post sometime soon

[offorestsongs]

OC INTRODUCTION ❣ ELIOTT EMBERS

BASIC INFORMATION

full name ✒️ Eliott Embers nicknames ✒️ ― species ✒️ human height ✒️ 182 cm age ✒️ 17 y/o birthday ✒️ 30.06 gender ✒️ cis male (he/him) sexuality ✒️ gay hometown ✒️ Queendom of Roses dorm ✒️ Cendrea (my Cinderella fandorm) class ✒️ N/A club ✒️ Home Economics favorite subject ✒️ animal linguistics dominant hand ✒️ left talent ✒️ doing house chores quickly hobby ✒️ watching tv shows, writing, collecting rocks favorite food ✒️ pumpkin soup least favorite food ✒️ anything made out of eggs pet peeve ✒️ people making a mess after he cleaned twisted from ✒️ Cinderella

PERSONALITY

Eliott is, first and foremost, good at finding the good side in almost every situation. His family treating him like a servant? Well, at least he's gaining a lot of skills that may be useful to him in adult life! His step-brother is fighting with him again? Maybe he can use their fights as an inspiration for dialogue in his next fanfic! Hope is the only thing he has, and he holds onto it as tightly as he can.

At home, where making himself be too noticed would probably do him more harm than good, Eliott is quiet and obedient ― he knows when to put his head down and bite his tongue, keeping the complaining to himself, and when to exit the scene. Away from home, though, he transforms completely. He's cheerful and full of energy. Even if he can sometimes be a bit awkward when talking to others, he's still very friendly (sometimes to the point of not knowing when to stop talking) and loves meeting new people. To make up for having to be quiet and calm at home, he often indulges in a bit of harmless chaos. He jokes around a lot, tends to pull little harmless pranks on people, and is not above a little rule breaking if he knows he won't get into too much trouble for it.

Amongst other Royal Sword Academy he has a reputation of being always willing to help others, though Eliott himself is not exactly proud of it ― he's not sure how much of it is the natural goodness of his heart, and how much is just a habit of agreeing to other people's demands without even thinking.

A dreamer at heart; he spends most of his time fantasising about the life he will lead once he moves out of his house or, better yet, completely strange worlds. Often times, he gets lost in his own fantasies, making him seem a little airheaded.

Signature Spell -> A Dream, A Wish ; It allows him to bring to life things he had written about, within certain limitations. For the thing to came out looking good and actually function as intended, he needs to describe it in as much detail as possible, and the bigger, more complicated the thing, the more magic it requires. Most of the things disappear after a some amount of time.

BACKSTORY

A leftover child ― that's what Eliott calls himself, usually when trying to make a joke about his situation. He never knew his mother; she died in childbirth. His father, trying to give his son a good life, remarried quickly, not noticing that his new wife seemed to be more concerned with his money than his son.

After Eliott's father died too while Eliott was still a young boy, his step-mother sold their house and their family moved into a more prestigious part of the town. His step-mother didn't hold too much affection for the son of her late husband, either leaving Eliott to take care of himself, or pushing him around to do whatever needed to be done at the house, and clearly favouring her biological child.

Growing up, Eliott quickly found ways to escape his situation. Sometimes ― quite literary, as he would start to spend more and more time at his friends' houses, his absence often unnoticed by his step-mother. Other times, he would escape into the world of fiction, devouring one tv show after another or, even better yet, discussing his favorite shows with people online.

RELATIONSHIPS

Grace Celestique [OC] ― Eliott's vice-housewarden and his senior, they basically adopted Eliott the moment they saw him. Eliot can see that despite Grace's usual silliness, they can often be pretty mature and he trusts them with helping him run the dorm well. He often comes to Grace for advice, and even without that, the two of them hang out a lot ― they simply compliment each other's chaotic energy quite well. Duncan Lawerence [OC] ― Eliott's freshman year roommate. At first Eliott was afraid that the two of them wouldn't get along, considering how cold and aloof Duncan was acting. Luckily, the two of them quickly bonded over their favorite tv show and now not only is Duncan a part of Eliott's closest friend group, the two of them have also co-authored a few fanfiction together. Allan Embers [OC] ― Eliott's younger step-brother. To say that the two of them never got along would be an understatement. Eliott was always jealous of Allan getting all the attention and support, while Allan, being the spoiled child, would often treat Eliott horribly just for the sake of it. Growing up, the two of them would either constantly fight or ignore each other for days. Now, with Eliott going to RSA and Allan going to NRC, their relationship seems more strained than ever. They simply don't talk to eachother at all, and during every interschool event, Allan seems to be avoiding his brother like the plague. Eliott isn't sure why Allan suddenly stopped picking on him and started to just ignore him the whole time, but he chooses to think of it as a blessing. That way, he can have some peace. Trey Clover ― Growing up in the same neighbourgood, the two of them quickly became friends. Not only did they spend hours playing together, Eliott would spend most of his free time at the Clover's house, adoring the atmosphere there. He very much sees Trey as an older brother figure, and even if they can't spend as much time together now, they still keep in contact and meet up as often, as they can. Che'nya ― The two of them are childhood friends as well, and they grew even closer after they both got into RSA and if Eliott is not spending time with the friends from his dorm, he's usually always with Che'nya. Separately, Eliott is almost a model student, but together with Che'nya, they're the staff's biggest headache, as Che'nya often happily enables Eliott's mischief seeking behaviours. ♡ Riddle Rosehearts ― They're both childhood friends and neighbours, as the new house Eliott's family moved into was next to the Rosehearts' house, with the windows to the boys' bedrooms being opposite eachother. Eliott would often see Riddle through the window and grew curious about the boy, readily taking the first chance to befriend him. Despite how different their temperaments were, they quickly grew close ― when they couldn't see each other anymore, they would exchange letters through their windows. Eliott didn't understand why after some time their friendship suddenly stopped altogether, with Riddle ignoring his letters, but he assumed he must have done something to make the boy upset. He missed his friend, but there was nothing he could've done about it, and with enough of his own problems, he didn't have the time to dwell on it. They only rekindled their friendship after Riddle's overblot; they slowly learn how to be friends again, often meeting up on the weekends or after school, if Riddle has the time.

TRIVIA

he's the housewarden of Cendrea. he took the position at the beginning of his sophomore year, after being chosen by a popular vote by his dorm mates at the end of the previous school year

Eliott is a passionate ― and a quite prolific ― fanfiction writer. he specialises in writing long-winded modern AUs for fantasy shows that may be bittersweet, but still always have a happy ending. he's not particularly shy about this interest of his and will happily show his works to whoever asks about it

his dream career is becoming a children's books author

while he is good at doing all the various house chores, he doesn't especially enjoy them

not only does he feed the mice living in his house, he also gives them names and talks to them as if they are his friends ― he's been doing it since he was a child

he has an old shoebox that he keeps under his desk, full of the rocks he collected on his walks

most of the time he stays at RSA during the winter and summer breaks

he doesn't like eggs because when he was younger, he often had to cook for himself and eggs were the easiest thing he could cook in different ways, so now he says after eating them so often, he got bored of them

he likes to wear baggy/oversized clothes

dividers. intro template by @/ai-kan1. coffin icon template by @/moonyasnow. taglist (ask to be added <3): @thehollowwriter @tixdixl @scint1llat3 @s-t-y-x

[lienwyn]

This is one of the illustrations I did for the @reforgedzine that I can finally show you all! And yes, it's my favourite — warm colours, soft lighting, and tooth-rotting fluff. Plus some really impressive metal texturing, if I do say so myself.

Also, there's a leftover sale that starts on the 10th of February, so head on over to the website if you're interested in buying one of the zines! And you can find the AO3 collection for all the amazing fics here :D

[valdotpng]

yea so um. hello everybody!!!!! looong time no see. im alive and very sorry for the radio silence this past half of a year. i Really didnt think my hiatus would last that long but then bad stuff just kept happening again and again and again n all of it was really difficult to process/start coping with. honestly im still not in the best shape (both physically & mentally) to this day.. but i thought that i might as well come back online, even if i end up posting little-to-no art

[blusherbaker]

TWST Kink Headcanons: Heartslabyul Edition

Minors/ageless blogs DNI; all characters are 18+ for these scenarios

Each character is given a short write-up of one of their main kinks, as well as a list of other kinks they may like (with a little more info added in some cases), and a list of things they would dislike ^v^

Warnings: Smut, discussion/mention of multiple kinks of different varieties, including those related to D/s dynamics, food, pain, etc.

| Savanaclaw »——>

Riddle: Submission

Riddle is always a bit contentious in terms of what his kinks may be, some seeing him as leaning towards more dominance-related kinks, others seeing him as leaning towards more submission-related kinks, some seeing him as having completely different interests, and some seeing him as almost totally vanilla. Personally, I think that Riddle would be likely much more towards the submissive side, loving the feeling of being in that headspace. But, he requires a very caring soft dom, maybe even someone akin to a caregiver. Now, Riddle doesn’t necessarily like age play, but he enjoys letting go of control for a bit. He gets so sweet and obedient when he’s being gently guided, cared for, and even coddled a little, but above all, made to feel safe and loved. He absolutely adores submission when he is in an environment where he feels safe enough to let someone else take the reins and have power and authority over him, and this would both give him a sense of security, and excitement at the same time. 

Other possible kinks: 

PRAISE

Nipple play (he can orgasm just from having his nipples played with)

Biting

Hair pulling

Dominance (he's a sub-leaning switch ♥︎) 

Collaring (Prefers his partner in a collar, rather than himself. Works well with his Unique Magic!)

Dislikes: 

Humiliation, especially regarding his size or his capabilities

Impact play

Choking

Ace: Brat play 

So… we can all agree that Ace would be - really, already is - a brat, right? He’s cheeky, he’s playful, he’s a troublemaker and kind of badly behaved most of the time. He craves an opportunity where he could let that free and already know how he’d be punished and/or rewarded. He’d be SO into letting the full intensity of his bratty side loose. Ace would more or less have the green light to talk back, disobey, tease, and generally be a little shit to his heart’s content, and he’d know that his behaviour would only make things better… for the most part, that is. Because, of course, he really wants to be made to submit. That's where the real joy and excitement would begin for him: when his partner finally puts him in his place.

Other possible kinks (mostly receiving): 

Degradation / humiliation

Praise (and bonus points if it's humiliation and praise all in one!)

Masochism

Exhibitionism

Light CBT?

Gagging

Edging

Mental bondage

Dislikes: 

Other forms of bondage

Role play

Deuce: Praise

Deuce isn’t the kinkiest boy, but he would LOVE to be praised - absolutely no questions about it. No matter what role he’s in, whether things were leaning more kinky (in terms of what he likes) or pretty vanilla, you give him a little praise and he’ll melt. Well… his heart will melt; his cock will be rock hard. It doesn’t even need to be intense praise, or poetic, or anything of that sort. The simplest phrases, a little comment on how good he’s making you feel, or how happy he makes you, or even just something positive about how he looks or behaves (especially in the bedroom), and that’s it. Even if he was pinning you to the mattress, completely controlling you in every other way, you'd be the one making him feel more pleasure than he'd ever expected. A few sweet words, and you'll have Deuce in the palm of your hand.  

Other possible kinks: 

Light bondage / restraint (especially handcuffs, or just with hands or body weight)

Domesticity

Lingerie (on himself OR his partner)

Dislikes: 

Degradation and humiliation, especially regarding his intelligence

Sadism

Really, most things that could cause physical or mental discomfort for you or him. This sweet boy just wants things to be nice and pleasant for you both (*´◡`*)

Trey: Stuffing

Okay, so… I have a feeling Trey would be really into stuffing. He doesn’t necessarily like feedism; I don't believe he would find the intentional weight gain aspect of feeding to be very enticing. But seeing his partner fill up on his food, or - even better! - feeding it to them by hand DEFINITELY would appeal. He adores the control he has over them in that situation; the intimacy of feeding his partner, and of seeing their body temporarily change because of him, their belly gradually becoming round and taut as they're stuffed full of something he made specifically for them. His slightly sadistic side would also like seeing their expression shift from pleased, to content, to uncomfortable as they ate the dishes he made for them, his gaze intense but his voice soft as he coaxes them to “just have one more bite”. Then afterwards, soothing them with gentle touches and loving words once they're overfull and sleepy… now that would be something that Trey would enjoy immensely. 

Other possible kinks (mostly giving): 

Sensation play (he definitely uses his UM!!) 

Teeth (obviously) - also includes biting! 

Orgasm control

Breeding (as a fantasy, NOT reality)

Dacryphilia (crying)

Cockwarming?

Soft domination (possible Daddy kink?)

Dislikes: 

Food play (he doesn’t like the mess)

Pet play

Exhibitionism

Cater: Overstimulation

Giving, receiving, it really doesn't matter to him - Cater simply LOVES overstimulation, in any form. Seeing his partner gradually fall apart from his touch and his words, completely overwhelming them with how much pleasure he gives them... or pain... or, pleasure so intense it becomes painful, it's all a dream to him. If you let him, he will gladly make you so sensitive from his touch it hurts, whether from very lightly raking his nails over your skin over and over and over, playing with your senses in other ways, or making you feel so good for so long that you’re begging him to stop. And he can do this all either by himself, or with help from his clones (thank you, “Split Card!”) He also ADORES being overstimulated himself. Probably even more than doing it to you! And this could be in a few different ways, too: teasing him for extended periods of time, binding his body, playing with textures and temperatures on his skin, giving him spicy food, edging, spanking, or - probably his favourite - forced orgasms. No matter the method, though, Cater likes how overstimulation makes him turn off his brain. He never cums as hard as when his mind is filled with nothing but static, the sound of your voice, and the feeling of what you’re doing to him. 

Other possible kinks: 

Bondage

Sensation play

Dumbification (think for him - he’ll love it ♥︎)

Voyeurism

Being filmed (technically a form of exhibitionism I guess? however, he keeps the recordings private)

Hair pulling

Mirror sex?

Group sex, more specifically clone sex

Orgasm control (especially forced orgasms, as noted above)

Dislikes: 

Degradation

Forced feminization

Whew! And that concludes my headcanons for the possible kinks of these 5 Heartslabyul lads. Let me know what you think, and if you have any other ideas or opinions! I'd love to hear them!!

You can read some extra ideas about these kinks here!

[hide-your-bugs-away]

wet beatles jumpscare 😔

[unproduciblesmackdown]

has happened plenty around iconis goings on but what an all-timer

[avirael]

The Frozen Lake

It was the third day since he had stopped feeling like dying.

About a week ago he had woken up from his far too lifelike fever dream and a few days later the last spikes of the fever itself had been gone too just like the hallucinations it had brought in his sleep.

He still had been sick though and welcomed Rael telling him to stay in bed until he was perfectly healthy again all too eagerly.

While he still sneezed every now and then, it was at least tolerable now, still annoying but he didn’t feel incredibly uncomfortable anymore.

That day, just like the last and also the ones before that, he had awoken late. Against Rael’s order to stay in bed he had found the courage to get up and take a look out of the window. It was a sunny day, which in Coerthas still meant that it was bitterly cold though. But the sun was shining brightly and already high in the sky too which meant it had to be almost midday. He had slept way too long again, way to many hours for a surprisingly dreamless sleep. Or maybe it was exactly the lack of dreams that allowed him to finally rest, after all in the past there rarely had been good ones…

For a moment he considered to go downstairs and ask for a late breakfast if that wasn’t too insolent given the late hour but then a knock sounded from the door.

Quickly he hurried back to bed, just in case it was Rael, but the person who carefully peeked into the room a few seconds later wasn’t a viera.

“Ah, you are awake! That’s good!”, Haurchefant exclaimed happily and brought a small tray with hot soup and also something warm to drink. “It is so late already, you must be horribly hungry. Alphinaud checked in on you earlier but you were still fast asleep and he didn’t have the heart to wake you.”

A little uncertain on how to answer to that, A’viloh just nodded. Haurchefant grinned, put down a mug on the bedside table and handed A‘viloh a comfortingly warm bowl filled with some rather delicious smelling stew.

Instead of fetching the chair from the small desk by the window, Haurchefant sat down at the lower end of the bed balancing the tray with his own lunch on his knees. Rael once told him that ishgardian society had an absurd amount of strict and antiquated rules and so A’viloh couldn’t help but wonder, that although it seemed like a very appropriate distance to him, in Haurchefant’s hometown the fact alone that he dared to sit on someone else’s bed was probably scandalous.

“I hope you don’t mind me having lunch with you.”, the Elezen asked as he noticed A‘viloh staring.

Quickly the Miqo’te lowered his gaze to his bowl of soup. “Not at all.”, he muttered and tried a spoonful of the food just to change the topic. “Mhh, this is very good!”, he mumbled, still chewing, surprised by how good this really was compared to the bland food and bitter teas Rael had usually brought him these last few days. It must have been the Viera’s way of punishing him for running away.

Haurchefant laughed and then for a while they ate in silence.

“You look a lot healthier already.”, the Elezen stated after a while with an amiable smile on his face before taking a sip from his mug.

A‘viloh shrugged a little embarrassed, since it had been his own fault that he hadn’t been well in the first place. “Only because all of you took so good care of me.”

Haurchefant nodded. “You know, you had us all horribly worried right?”

“Sorry about that.”, he said and guitily looked into his mug.

Curiously Haurchefant eyed him for a moment. “Why did you do that anyway? Run out into the storm.”

A bit surprised A’viloh looked up. Had they all thought he had done this on purpose? “There wasn’t a storm when I left! What do I know about weather? I didn’t expect it to start snowing, let alone that much!”

That made the Elezen chuckle again but he still looked at him expecting an answer.

“Still… why did you leave?”

“I assumed Rael told you…”, A’viloh replied not sure what Haurchefant wanted to hear exactly. He nodded. “Rael did. But maybe I want to hear it from you…”

A’viloh sighed. His plan hadn’t been very smart and he felt a little uncomfortable having to explain his reasons to someone else, when in retrospect it didn’t make much sense even to his own ears.

“You know the… circumstances under which we fled Ul’dah… I couldn’t… um… the fact that we didn’t even know what happened to our friends… I wanted to find out, because it doesn’t seem fair to me that we escaped while all of them didn’t…”

“Mhh…”, Haurchefant nodded thoughtfully but let go off the topic for now. Instead he asked, „And how are you feeling today?”

Somehow that question confused A’viloh even more.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a simple question, isn’t it?”, he said still smiling politely.

Of course it was a simple question. Just the answer felt unreasonable complicated to him. To make things even more difficult people who asked such a question usually wanted to hear “I‘m fine, and you?” or “Very good, thank you.” for an answer and rarely the truth. They certainly didn’t want to hear “A few days ago I was convinced I was going to die and honestly it wasn’t that bad, so now I‘m still not sure wether I am happy to still be alive or not”.

“Alright… I guess.”, he mumbled instead. He had never been a good liar and could only hope that this fact wasn’t too obvious for the Elezen.

“You know what?”, Haurchefant proclaimed after watching him thoughtfully for a second. “Today is a wonderful day. We should go for a walk.”

“A walk?!”, A’viloh exclaimed wide-eyed, as if he had just asked something unreasonable of him.

“Why not?”

A’viloh couldn’t think of a good reason why not, other than that he was supposed to stay in bed, so he shrugged.

“Where’s Rael?”, he asked instead.

Haurchefant smirked. “Do you need Rael’s permission to go outside?”

“Of course not.”, the Miqo’te protested. “But Rael will be mad if I run off again, especially against their orders to stay in bed.”

“Rael and Alphinaud went to the observatory earlier.”, Haurchefant explained. “We’ll be back before they are, I promise.”

What was A’viloh supposed to say against that and also against the expectant look on the Elezen’s face. He took another glimpse towards the window and decided that it looked nice enough to go outside.

“Fine.”

“Good!”, Haurchefant exclaimed happily and collected their empty bowls and mugs. “There should be warm clothes for you in the wardrobe. If you need anything else just ask someone. I’ll wait for you by the northern gate.”

After Haurchefant had left, A’viloh remained sitting in his bed for a moment longer contemplating on the Elezen’s question. Yes, he felt better again. But better in what comparison? Better than a few days ago when he had felt and also been half-dead? Though he didn’t feel sick anymore now, there still was a weigh on his heart. From his plan that had failed so spectacularly and even more so from the dreams he wouldn’t have minded to keep on dreaming forever.

Vehemently he shook his head and decided not to think about that now or he would just crawl back under the blanket of his comfortably warm bed again. Instead he got up and took a look into the wardrobe. Almost none of these were his own clothes of course since all he possessed were the ones he had worn on his body that day they fled Ul’dah. Very unsuitable for this climate. But neither did he see the borrowed clothes he had worn that night when he had tried to run away. Everything in here looked even softer and warmer like someone had wanted to make sure he was feeling comfortable. To his surprise the things didn’t look that much too big for him either, unlike his last set of clothes. Besides a few Hyur most people here at Camp Dragonhead were grown up Elezen but these clothes looked like they belonged to neither. Maybe it were clothes for Elezen children, he wondered and also thought that in that case someone must have brought them here just for him.

Grateful for so much effort he picked a few pieces and got dressed. Lazily he ran his fingers through his hair to get rid of the worst knots but the look into the small mirror at the washbasin, where his tired face stared back at him reproachfully, just made him sigh. Once he was ready he took the warm coat out of the wardrobe too and went out to look for Haurchefant. Just as he had said, the Elezen was standing by the gate that led to the north-east, towards the ruins of the Steel Vigil.

From afar Haurchefant already recognised the Miqo’te, his bright red hair a singularity among all the people living here. Pleasantly smiling as always he waved at him and A’viloh couldn’t help but smile a little too and wave back as he hurriedly walked towards him.

“There you are! I see the clothes fit you nicely.”

A’viloh nodded.

“They do. Thank you very much for these.”

Haurchefant dismissively waved with one hand. “It’s the least I could do…”

But he had done a lot more than that, A’viloh thought. “I think there’s more I need to thank you for. Rael told me it was you who saved my life.”

“Mhhh…”, Haurchefant tilted his head as if he wasn’t sure if this statement was entirely the truth. “Rael is too humble. They played a bit of a role in that too. After all it was Rael who noticed you were gone. And it was also Rael who didn’t leave your bedside and tried their best to heal you.”

A’viloh remembered waking up and finding the usually quite touch-averse viera cuddled up to him with a look on their face so horribly sad like he had never seen on them before. Rael had pretended it was nothing but it had been a very unconvincing performance. Asked about it Alphinaud had only offered a few sentences about how worried Rael had looked and how they had used all kinds of spells he himself had never seen or heard of before, all of it to try and save him. It had made him feel even more guilty for his stupidity.

So maybe Haurchefant was right. But still it had been him who had risked going out into the storm to find him.

“Anyway. I still want to thank you! Honestly.”, he insisted. But how honestly was it really?

Sure, he was glad to still be alive. After all his plan hadn’t been to run out into a blizzard and freeze to death, although some of them seemed to think that was the case. But once he found himself in this situation he had to admit that he had welcomed his fate rather willingly. A fact that shocked even himself a little looking back at it now.

“You’re welcome. After all you wouldn’t be any help to your friends frozen to death out there.”, Haurchefant joked with a wry smile on his lips.

“I guess not...”, A’viloh muttered, the topic of his friends making his mood visibly sink again.

Of course the Elezen noticed and his smile turned into a playful grin. “But I acted a little selfish too, you know? I think Camp Dragonhead is a lot friendlier with your company and I would like to have you and your pretty smile around a little longer.”

For a moment A’viloh’s eyes shot up to look at the others face before he quickly pretended that something somewhere a little bit to his left was a lot more interesting. Sometimes Haurchefant randomly said things, A’viloh hadn’t had the slightest idea how to react to. Not because he was that oblivious but simply because it puzzled him. Nonetheless the air suddenly didn’t feel that cold anymore on his face.

Haurchefant was always very kind to him. Well, he mostly was kind to everybody but sometimes he seemed to admire him especially. Him of all people, although there was nothing special about him. Haurchefant sometimes spoke of him like he was one of the greatest heroes of all time and it felt so ridiculous to him. He was just silly, cowardly A‘viloh! What had he ever achieved in his miserable life to justify such admiration? The people called him a Warrior of Light but wasn’t that some grand overstatement? Some days he thought all of this had been a horrible mistake. A great misunderstanding! Then he wondered how he had ever gotten entangled in this madness in the first place and also if he ever would get out of it again. But what else should he do with his life anyway...

While A’viloh’s brain still screeched in desperate search for a proper response, Haurchefant seemed to realise he had flustered him and glossed it over by gesturing to the gate.

“How about we walk a few yalms? There’s something you need to see!”

Still too dumbstruck to speak or to even wonder what the Elezen was talking about, A’viloh nodded and then proceeded to follow him out into the snowy landscape.

After a few minutes Haurchefant paused and took a deep breath. “Isn’t the air wonderful today?”

A’viloh followed his example, breathed deeply and let his gaze wander over the snow covered landscape with a few pines here and there and the mountains and ruins of the Steel Vigil in the distance. The air was cool and fresh, still cold enough that the warm sun couldn’t melt the snow. Instead the rays of sunshine made the scenery shine and sparkle as if everything was covered not in ice but in millions over millions of tiny diamonds.

“It is.”, he answered and smiled, surprised how beautiful this inhospitable landscape could be, before with a sudden spark of curiosity he finally asked. “Where are we going?”

“It’s not far anymore.”, Haurchefant said with a grin on his face and pointed into another direction. Shortly after and only a bit further ahead they reached a small lake.

As they got closer A‘viloh noticed that it not only was covered in a layer of snow and ice but also that quite a few off-duty soldiers, given the proximity to the camp he assumed they had to be, were standing right on top of the frozen lake. No, they were not quite standing. It looked more like they were dancing or flying maybe. More or less gracefully they moved over the lake‘s surface in fluid swift strides, some just moving in wide circles and other swirling around this way or that. A’viloh had never seen something like this and it looked strange and impossible but at the same time very beautiful to him.

The two of them had almost reached the lake by then, A’viloh a few steps ahead to get a better look at the wondrous people on the ice and he already wanted to ask how they did that, when his attention was drawn elsewhere by a curious squawking sound.

“Oh! Look at them!”, the Miqo’te exclaimed, his fascinated smile still turning a little brighter, as he gestured to a small flock of wild geese resting at the shore of the lake. With ruffled feathers they sat closely huddled together at the edge of the ice and suddenly A‘viloh couldn’t help but worry about them. They looked so unbothered by his presence, sleeping through the day and all the hubbub around them, looking all exhausted and frozen with their puffed up feathers. Like anything could happen to them and they wouldn’t even mind.

Strangely he wondered what he himself had looked like when Haurchefant had found him unconscious in the snow. He must have been a pitiful sight. Had the Elezen thought him beyond saving too, just like he himself had. What if he had found him a little later or not at all? Maybe that would have been better, a voice murmured to him just like it had so many times before and for a moment, tempted by the grief heavy on his heart once again, he almost believed it.

But no, he would be dead then and while he would have liked to imagine that this would mean he could be with his loved ones again, it was not exactly what either of the tribes he had lived with believed.

Vaguely he remembered his father working for hours, digging a grave at what used to be Wellwick Wood. An elderly woman too exhausted by their long journey, his grandmother if he remembered correctly, had died shortly after they had arrived there. With a sad smile on his face his father had explained to his children, who had stared down into the hole in the ground with confusion in their eyes, how by returning her body to the earth there could still grow new life from this death.

Or the drake tribe of the Sagolii Desert, who always burned their dead and left the ashes to be carried away by the desert wind, believing that it would make it easier for the deceased‘s aether to return to the Aetheric Sea and create something new elsewhere.

With a sudden sharp pain in his heart A’viloh realised that neither of the people he loved had gotten the burial they would have wanted for themselves. And neither had A‘viloh himself wanted to die in the coldness of Coerthas and be forever forgotten under a thick layer of snow and ice. He had thought about dying before but never had he been this close to it. For a second he wondered if this was something worth speaking to Rael about, but he wasn’t sure they wouldn’t misunderstand and get mad at him again.

“Why do you make such a sad face now?”, Haurchefant asked having noticed the smile slip from the Miqo’te’s face. But A’viloh just vehemently shook his head and focused on the geese again.

“They must be horribly cold.”, he wondered in a voice that suggested he already planned to take all of them to the safety of his comfortably warm room.

Haurchefant chuckled. “Don’t worry, they survived the storm out here after all. They keep each other warm, that’s why you‘ll rarely see one of them alone. A bit like you and your friends.”

“Maybe…”, A’viloh answered thinking about this comparison for a moment. “I just wish it wouldn’t always be me who needs to be taken care of. But as proven in Ul’dah and now once again I am simply too weak and useless to keep myself alive, not to mention anyone else.”

The Elezen’s face got a little stern as he folded his arms in front of his chest. “Don’t say that, I am sure it’s not true! This was just bad luck! You are neither weak nor useless!”

A’viloh shrugged. “But that’s how I feel right now...”

Slowly Haurchefant nodded before speaking again with a silent but determined voice. “Listen. I‘ll never forget how bravely you fought for Francel although you barely knew him. You could have gotten yourself in trouble with that and you helped him anyway.”

“It’s not like I did that on my own -”, A’viloh tried to protest but was immediately interrupted. “But you still helped! And I’m sure even without Rael you would have done so!”

Another shrug was all Haurchefant got in response, so the Elezen thought for a second before making an offer. “You want to make yourself useful, right? Get stronger? I could teach you how to fight like a real ishgardian knight, with sword and shield. Or we have some dragoons at Camp Dragonhead too! I’m sure there’s a lot you could learn from them.”

A‘viloh‘s face turned to disbelief. “I really don’t think I could fight with armor and weapons this heavy…”

“You can’t say so if you don’t try! And I have you know that dragoon armors are surprisingly light. How do you think they could still be this agile otherwise? Promise me to at least try training with them a little!”

He didn’t really want to agree to that. He knew he would make a fool of himself. But how could he say no with Haurchefant trying everything in his power to cheer him up. Weakly he shook his head and muttered: “Fine…”

“Perfect!”, Haurchefant exclaimed with a bright smile on his face. “I think an early reward for your efforts is appropriate then!”

Confused A’viloh watched him take a small bag off of his shoulders, which he hadn’t even noticed until now. For a moment the Elezen was busy undoing a knot before he opened the bag and presented to A‘viloh a set of two weirdly shaped blades attached to pieces of wood with leather straps. He had no idea what these constructs were meant to do and that was plainly visible on his face. “What’s that?”

“Ice skates of course!”, Haurchefant said as if that would explain it all but the Miqo’te‘s face remained clueless, so Haurchefant gestured to the lake behind them. “You attach them to your boots so you can walk on the ice like this!”

“Oh!”, A’viloh exclaimed as he understood what Haurchefant was planning. “I don’t think-… I mean I‘ve never-… You don’t really want me to step on that lake do you?” The idea somehow scared him.

“Why not?”, Haurchefant asked for the second time today with this smile that made the question sound like a challenge.

“It’s just a bit of ice!”, A‘vi objected. “What if it breaks?”

The Elezen shook his head and proceeded to fasten the metal blades beneath his boots. “Ah, don’t worry. The ice is thick enough, it will take at least a few more days to melt.”

“I don’t know…”, was all A’viloh replied as Haurchefant pressed another pair of skates into his hands. But the Elezen remained determined and took a few wobbly steps through the snow and onto the ice. “See! I can stand on it and it doesn’t break! You are a lot lighter than me, so why wouldn’t you be able to?”

Oh, you don’t know my bad luck!, A‘viloh thought but Haurchefant didn’t look like he would take that for an excuse. Instead he stretched out a hand towards the Miqo’te. “Come one! Believe me, this is going to be funny!”

For a second A‘viloh pondered his options. The idea of nothing but a little bit of ice between him and the water still terrified him but Haurchefant seemed so excited about this and the other people actually seemed to have fun too. Maybe he should at least pretend to try... Reluctantly he sat down on a rock and tried to put on the skates just like Haurchefant had done a moment ago.

“The clasp on the back too. Make sure none of them are loose… Yes, that looks fine!”, Haurchefant helpfully explained. As A’viloh got up, he almost flopped right back down into the snow. It was a weird feeling to balance his whole weight on only two thin pieces of metal. As he carefully took the first few steps towards the lake Haurchefant reached out for him once more. “Here! Take my hand! I don’t want you to fall…”

Hesitantly A‘vi stepped onto the ice and immediately felt like the ground was being pulled away beneath his feet. He struggled for balance, feeling himself falling backwards, so Haurchefants arm was a very welcome thing to hold on to.

With a chuckle the Elezen tried to loosen A‘vi‘s desperate grip on his arm and instead took each of his hand in one of his own before carefully making slow steps backwards pulling A‘viloh over the ice, which A’vi could swear was making suspicious crackling sounds below them. There was no way to tell the blades beneath his feet not to move, so all A’viloh could do was try not to fall and plead to Haurchefant with ears flat on his head and panic in his eyes, as he slowly was pulled further onto the lake. “No, no, no. Take me back, that’s a horrible idea!”

“Calm down. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I promise.”, Haurchefant said soothingly and continued to explain to him how to move on the ice skates. And in fact the Elezen’s calm voice slowly made A’viloh feel less anxious. His hands, frantically clasping at Haurchefant’s, relaxed along with his legs. It was still a weird feeling to be standing on the ice but now it felt a lot easier to remain balanced. He glanced at the people around them while remaining as still as possible, studied their movements for a moment and then tentatively tried to mimic the way they slowly pushed their feet above the slippery surface. To his surprise he really moved forward without much effort and also without feeling the sensation of falling again, closer to Haurchefant who had steadied him with his outstretched arms so far.

“See! It’s not that difficult.”, he said while making another step backwards so A’viloh had to follow with another step forward. The Miqo’te, strangely excited about the fact that he was actually moving on these weird ice-blades, laughed happily. “You are even going backwards!”

Haurchefants laughed. “One step after the other. Let’s teach you how to go forward first, hm? I‘ll let go off one of your hands but don’t worry, I still got you. One feet after the other just like you did before…”

In fact it almost felt easier now that he could use one of his arms to balance himself. Very slowly at first they floated above the icy surface of the lake but soon A‘viloh got braver. Once he almost lost his balance but for a comparably tall and strong person like Haurchefant it seemed like a very easy task to keep a small Miqo’te on his feet. Almost falling had felt like a shock for a second but only moments later they were laughing about it and in the end A’viloh was surprised and also a little proud how quickly he had learned and how much fun this was.

He wasn’t sure how much time they spent there on the frozen lake but at some point a bell sounded from the nearby Camp. Startled A’viloh looked up (and almost lost his balance again). “How late is it? I’m sure you have more important things to do than this! I’m sorry if I’m keeping you from doing your work.”

But Haurchefant just laughed and teased, “What could be more important than prove to you that not all of Coerthas is a deadly wasteland trying to kill you? But I think we really should return soon. I don’t want you to get cold again and after all we also don’t want Rael to find out about this little excursion, do we?”

For a second A’viloh wished the viera could see him now and wondered what their reaction would be like. The thought made him chuckle.

And as they floated, one last circle around the lake, A’viloh couldn’t help but wonder that maybe it was happy moments like this. The reason he was still here. Moments that made his life worth living.

---

inspired by the poem The Reversal by Leila Chatti

[honeydots]

I would like some teasers about that Xander - Soleil father-daughter support fic please 💖

HEHEHE that'd be my pleasure~~!! i'll put a couple things under the cut c:

the fanart nattie drew for me is from their c-support!! the gist of it is that xander's employing a similar punishment to soleil as he did to laslow for excessive flirting :3 but as they're working in xander's office, they both end up falling asleep, hence the little scene in the art <3

the rest of the support is about soleil lying through her teeth about how she totally isn't flirting anymore so she doesn't get in trouble again, and xander completely seeing through her lie and doing a dad-thing of trying to make her come clean herself instead of directly calling her out !!

[ranvwoop]

i try to avoid my acc being Just vntposting . in this world. but man is it going

[mirrortouchedsea]

Day 20

Madara pulled the yarn through the final stitch and looked at his… scarf. It was an attempt and while it didn’t look awful, he could tell that his tension had been maybe too tight and there was a weird dip a few rows in, but at least it was finished. He grabbed a yarn needle and tried to weave in the tails so he could properly call it finished. 

Leo had been complaining about losing his scarf the week before and Madara had the genius idea to try and make one himself. He had tried knitting but three dropped stitches later he decided to try something else. Kuro had suggested crochet since it was much more beginner friendly, and Madara had to agree. Despite everything, at least the scarf in his hands wouldn’t fall apart if he forgot a stitch somewhere. 

It still looked like a pretty messed up rectangle though. He debated just making a second one when the door opened to the craft room and he felt someone drape themself over his shoulders. 

“Mamaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,” Leo whined. “Why are you ignoring me?” 

Madara turned his phone on and noticed a dozen missed calls and several unanswered texts from Leo. Oops. 

“Sorry Leo-san, I got distracted.” He turned to press a chaste kiss to Leo’s lips. “I tried to make you something but--” Leo’s eyes lit up and he reached for the garment in Madara’s hands. 

“Wahaha! You’re the best Mama! I love it!” Leo had already wrapped the scarf around his neck despite being indoors. “Oh I’m filled with inspiration! Do you have any paper? I need to write an Ode to Mama’s Scarf immediately!” 

Madara laughed and pulled out the notepad he had started carrying with him from his bag. Leo grabbed it and began scribbling, singing the melody as it came to him. When he was finished he tore out the page and folded it into his pocket for later. 

“Thank you, Mama. I mean it.” Madara felt a light blush on his face, a rare occurrence in their relationship. 

“Anything for you, Leo-san.” 

[kuiinncedes]

ty for tagging me @justgleekout teehee 🥰🥰🥰🥰 it's been so long since i did smth like this lmao

Rules are post gifs from your 10 favorite shows without naming them, then tag 10 people.

also idk if i even have 10 shows i would like enough to put here but we'll see lol c:

that's 7 but i don't rly have others i would say are favorite tv shows atm so i'm just gonna repeat from these LMAO

beep beep boop boop i'm not gonna tag anyone bc i feel like i barely interact here anymore and i feel awkward abt tagging lol 😭😭😭 naur but if you see this and want to do it at all i tag you fr <33

[orcelito]

i miss akechi goro so much. maybe even enough to finally finish that ladue chapter 3

[ahaura]

i've gone out driving twice today once with my mom and then my dad after he got off work. this time around i've only had 1 and a 1/2 days to prepare bec they had a cancellation and on one hand. i havent been driving lately so i feel a bit rusty but also maybe not being able to over-prepare is good? and since i only had less than 2 days warning my dad says it's no big deal if i dont pass but i WANT to pass and this time im exhausted and tired which is both better and worse. the good news is that my dad is able take part of tomorrow off so he can take me to my test.

[obeymeow]

being neurodivergent is all fun and games until you remember those hourly quote bots on twitter and think well maybe I can't make a bot anymore but I could schedule a few quotes a day, that shouldn't be hard. it sounds fun to have a bunch of quotes of my favorite character Thirteen from hit mobile game Obey Me! and its sequel Obey Me! Nightbringer. and then you think about how arduous collecting the quotes is going to be but she's only been in the games for maybe a year and a half with little screentime and you love collecting things so you start but then you remember that you love collecting things so naturally you have ALL of her screentime in the game and suddenly you have 45k characters of quotes and are several lessons into season 4 (which is truly a trial in and of itself) but not nearly close enough to the end but you refuse to just stop collecting the quotes and make the account with the EXCESS of what you have already because you literally only have season 4 to get through and if you don't do it just seeing the bot (because now you've been informed you can make tumblr bots instead) will haunt you with that knowledge even if nobody else would ever know. this is a general anecdote of a situation that could easily happen to anyone though and not in any way related to my life

[batfossil-fr]

I have another skin I've been wanting to get some progress on and then I remembered that I haven’t streamed in one million billion years. if people are interested in a jank little ipad stream (oh god I’ll have to figure out if that’s even possible) maybe I’ll try my hand again at streaming my art. no promises I’m still trying to crawl my way out of Only Making 2 Pieces of Art Per Year so I cannot guarantee when the mood will strike me

[front-facing-pokemon]

Will you ever do Charizard X? I didn’t see it when I went back to the start.

WHOOOPSS well. that was a long time ago and my standards for this blog were probably different back then. i only started this back up after a two-year-long hiatus a few weeks ago but i would've done it now. i'm hesitant to post a pokémon out of natdex order and i imagine i would've done it for some reason like… i didn't want to post more than two forms of the same pokémon. or perhaps the model was messed up and i didn't know better how to fix it back then—it does have fire on it

ultimately my answer is a resounding Idk, Maybe If Enough People Want It since i'm hesitant to break natdex order considering i already told someone i'd do their fave Whenever I Do. doing charizard X out of order would seem like favoritism