#you're cooking up a gourmet meal with this i'm so honored i get to hear about it

[hydrachea]

This is a continuation of my previous ask/short fic about Scara housing Nahida in his gnosis compartment. I am writing the long version but I am impatient, so here's a brief summary: Hanahaki au but it's Scara coughing up leaves as Nahida grows and sinks her roots into his body. We call her Nahida but to be accurate Nahida sacrificed her memories to quell disaster, and the personality of the Irminsul branch that was left behind has somewhat reverted back to that of a human child (trauma-induced dementia, in a nutshell). When Scara does his artificial breathing he can feel her inside him straining against the confines of his body, but with the help of Amurta continues to nurture her at the expense of himself. She grows so very fast that branches sprout from his orifices and it take more and more effort for him to fly. Eventually he's put under observation in a greenhouse where he meditates and works on his latest thesis while Nahida decides to test out her regained dream manipulation powers. Because the both of them are made of Irminsul Nahida is able to view Scara's memories and keenly feel his emotions even if she doesn't understand them, and this has some influence on Nahida's "new" personality (I'd like to think she becomes more sassy than canon Nahida). Sometimes he lets her use him as a second Katheryne and she like freaking visitors out by suddenly switching him out and speaking through him. I think it would make sense if Amurta eventually found a way to separate Scara from Nahida without harming either but I'm very enchanted by the image of Scara letting Nahida overgrow and merge his body with hers to form the new Irminsul and eventually the new avatar of Irminsul is a mixture of both of them. Plot is subject to change but the main idea is there.

The previous ask!

Oh, this continues to be fantastic, I'm very excited to see the long version where you'll get to share everything you've thought up for this AU!

I love the idea of Nahida's branches starting to peek out of Scara wherever they can (I'd say I especially love it, but I especially love the whole thing). Since his natural gaps and orifices aren't convenient, and his body is artificial, I wonder if he makes voluntary cracks in his frame here and there to let her grow from. Heavy branches extending from his shoulders like wings, from his skull likes antlers. Something both horrifying and beautiful in a twisted way. It'd eventually lead to what you described in your last idea, an avatar of Irminsul containing both their souls.

Nahida being influenced by him sounds like a lot of fun, too, and her taking over every so often and scaring people. There's something to be said about her mostly using puppets rather than people to do that, first with Katheryne and now with Scara. But since Scara is more tied to Irminsul, I wonder if it makes them more "compatible" in some way, making switching control between them seamless and allowing the one who isn't in control to "spectate".