❝   thank you,   edelgard.   for  thinking of me.   ❞   it would be a first.   he takes the box and plucks the lid off gingerly,   studying the silver brooch with an appraising eye.   it is charming,   objectively speaking,   and tasteful.   something he might have purchased for himself,   had he any wealth left to his name.   ❝   it is lovely.   do you need anything else from me ?   i have much to attend to today.   ❞

❝   i am not arguing.   ❞    she started it.   yet the question brings a still,   ominous breath to his lips,   digs into his shoulders like an itch.   there is something tasteless,   demeaning,   about accepting a gift from someone who has  taken  so much,   even one in good faith.   part of him wishes she had not remembered  at all.   stiff,   courteous,   he lets the breath free:   ❝   i  …   will take it.    what is it ?   ❞

☀️ — A QUESTION, MORE DIFFICULT TO ANSWER THAN SHE MAY REALIZE. His tongue clicks behind his teeth as if it would loosen the answer from where it’s trapped at the roof of his mouth. Foolish, as there was no answer in the first place. He would hope he could explain what draws him to the corners of the earth untouched by humans, yet unguarded by entities. The serenity of silence, the ABSOLUTION of solitude - it brings him comfort as much as it unnerves him. 

“I suppose it just comes naturally to me.” When he does eventually speak, it’s so deadpan and BLUNT one would think he put no thought in the answer at all, “but I’ve always liked nature - my father would bring me to places he’s seen just to get away from everything.” 

    edelgard feels no rush to answer, instead fixing her eyes to the water and watching the surface ripple with every little motion. if she squints she can see movement underneath, enough to convince her that there’s no way byleth alone could fish this particular pond dry. she wonders if there’s a more effective way to get the fish to find your hook, but she supposes byleth doesn’t come here for efficiency. 

❤ ━ do you have any crackships for your muse?

confession: i have no idea what constitutes a crackship. i used to think that only referred to the really ‘out there’ stuff like, idk, edelgard and rhea or something, but i’ve also seen it used to describe anything non-canon. given the nature of fe3h i’ll talk about the ones i like that don’t have an A support. 

edelgard / mercedes: hhhhhh! 💃💃💃 mercedes finding the strength to be independent and individual with edelgard’s support? edelgard seeing the value of faith when it’s applied in compassionate ways? i haven’t thought too deeply on it because if i do i’ll yearn, and i don’t currently have anyone to write it with, but on the surface they have a lot of potential. 

edelgard / marianne: honestly marianne’s little speech about how radiant and strong edelgard is is literally enough to make me Want This. i think it’d come as a surprise to marianne that edelgard can be quite emotional being too. and i always want good things for marianne, and edelgard would be such a good thing for marianne.  

edelgard / lorenz: this would be highly dependent on portrayals and would be an incredible rollercoaster of a relationship that has the potential to flourish and become unbreakable, or fall apart too. similar to ferdinand, lorenz’s values line up with edelgard’s far better than they seem to on the surface, especially when he learns to express them a little better. it’d be interesting to see them going from pseudo-rivalry colleagues in the war to more. 

edelgard / annette: this is basically a new flavour of white rose, which is one of my favourite ships from rwby, so it already has a special place in my heart based on that. 

☀ ━ how long have you been roleplaying? how did you get into it? 

i got into it a bit older than most of the folks i know (when i was 19) but since i’m an old fogey, that makes it 8 years now! 

i actually got into it from playing amnesia: the dark descent. i’m a big pissbaby when it comes to playing full on horror games like that, where i need to be streaming to make any real progress, or otherwise taking frequent breaks. the way i got through it while playing amnesia was via posting screenshots and commentating on them to my personal tumblr via steam’s internet browser. this also got me through playing amnesia: justine. 

this, particularly a screenshot that included commentary re: justine’s mental health, caught the attention of a justine rp blog, who asked if she could use the idea in her roleplays. i didn’t know the roleplay community existed at this point, and was absolutely blown away by the concept. i followed her on my personal back when that wasn’t a crime, and watched her interact with her rp community with great interest, and asked her questions now and then about words i didn’t understand (like canon and au and such). 

♣ ━ share five random facts about yourself

until the age of thirteen-ish i fully believed that if you touched someone else’s blood you’d die. it was one of many things my older sister convinced me was completely true, somehow. even now i still feel more squicky than one usually might when dealing with other peoples’ blood!

i can’t sleep in total silence, and usually listen to spooky story narrations to help myself sleep. my favourite yt channel for it is being scared. the low tone of voice folk always use for a spooky atmosphere and the rain background of bs’s videos in particular is just really soothing.

despite intense social anxiety and introversion i genuinely enjoy working in face to face customer service, and i’m good at it. i hold an actual certificate under the scottish qualification authority in professional retail, which i’m both proud of and embarrassed about 🤪  

i have the rarest combination of hair colour and eye colour in the world, and have a significantly greater chance of skin cancer for my trouble. i also have a higher chance of anaesthetic just… deciding not to work on me at random, and have had it happen to me at the dentist. i’m literally terrified of the idea of surgery for that reason.

❝   i   —–   well   ——   i had some fine tea.   ❞    he folds his hands into the jut of his hip defensively.   what a crude comparison:    she is the emperor.   he is but a general with nothing to his name,   precious little else to lose himself to.   ❝    i do not see what the big deal is.   hubert   did not celebrate his earlier this month,   either.   you are not lecturing him !   ❞

☀️ — HIS GAZE DRAWS UP TO HIS STUDENT, his legs swinging off the end of the dock where he quietly waits for fish to bite at his line. He ought to have an answer ready for her, but his lips merely part before pressing together again, downturned and firm. He looks back at the water’s surface. 

“I never really thought about it.” His foot taps the surface of the pond, watching a single ripple stretch out in response. “I think I would EXPLORE, find the best corners of woods and mountains and just…sit for a while.” 

    the notion alone is enough to spark tales unravelling of the cryptid that can sometimes be glimpsed between the trees of the darkest woods --- and yet not a soul has ever seen it move. ashen demon might be more fitting for a story like that, of an ambivalent creature whose gaze is said to bring luck --- though one never knows whether it’ll be good or bad. 

❝   ah,   that.   well,   it hardly matters.   we are at war;   there are far more important things to worry about.   besides,   i have not celebrated mine for several years now.   we are usually in battle.   ❞

     ❝ and here i thought you’d offer to carry me yourself… ❞ dorothea shoots her a pout, though it doesn’t last for longer than a moment. ❝ but no. what i meant to ask is if traveling the underground is supposed to be as discrete as it is. if i remember right, they hadn’t even intended to reveal its existence… ❞

    “what would you have done, had you not become a professor here, my teacher? presumably your father would have been roped into rhea’s service nonetheless, leaving you to your devices. what would you have done with the freedom?” 

     ❝ oh, you’re sweet, ❞ dorothea smiles. she has the instinct to rest her hands on edelgard’s hips but crosses her arms casually and takes a step back before they’re a second away from discovery. ❝ so, edie, have you decided how you’re going to take me down there? ❞

❝   oh ?   and what detail might that be ?   —–   of course,   i cannot blame you.   i am a very dynamic man.   it would be difficult for anyone to keep track of my  many nuances.   ❞

     ❝ thank you. i see the future emperor is also training to cajole every women she meets, ❞ dorothea murmurs, looking either ways for a sign of people in the corridor before she leans down to steal a quick peck from edelgard’s lips and whispers, ❝ your lips suit me too. ❞

     she pinches either side of the chain between her fingers, arms accidentally squeezing her chest together. ❝ you noticed? i love how you have such an eye for detail, edie. ❞