oath of light

MYTHRA from XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2

tsundere to the extreme - can definitely hide it a bit better now but it’s super easy to set her off into her tsundere nature

do not mock her cooking (do not eat her cooking) because she loves to cook, okay? what do you mean she’s not considered for the cooking competition

boundaries? don’t know her. she was pretty much awakened by someone who has a distinct lack of minding his own business as her first driver, and she has his same lack of minding her own business but without the jovial attitude

also deeply traumatized and while she’s more inclined to trust other people and herself there’s still a few unresolved issues regarding some serious Spoiler Trauma

      ☾ ❝ A celebration for the summer… I see. Perhaps I will be able to witness such a thing with my own eyes, then. I also wonder how warm the temperature will become, as well. ❞

“Well, I don’t know if it’s celebrating the summer exactly.”

     This definitely ain’t the first time he’s noticed someone staring at his weapon… Honestly, even after all the time he’s been here, Ragna’s pretty sure a single day hasn’t gone by without that particular wandering gaze. … Why is it that in a city full of weirdos, he STILL ends up feeling like the one singled out?!

     But her sharp words swiftly cut off the Reaper’s mental tangent, now focusing back on the blonde herself. Seems like she’s got a fair bit of intuition to pick up on the peculiar air Aramasa gives off… but only enough to just notice it, little else.

          “Somethin’ up? … That’s about the vaguest way you could have put it, ya know.“ A roll of the eyes cut up his response, hands now resting on his hips. “Not really sure how ta answer that. Pretty sure it’s a one-of-a-kind sword, but it’s not like it’s alive or somethin’.”

     That’d just be stupid. … Maybe. … Actually, a talking sword would have made all the traveling from before a lot more tolerable– or worse? … Hm, what a conundrum.

“Well of course it’s vague! My first guess apparently doesn’t exist here other than me!...And maybe one other person, I’m not entirely sure.” She knows that last part kind of defeated most of her argument, but the first point still stood! How was she supposed to know who was a Blade and who was a Driver and what kind of sword this guys dumb sword was?

“And swords can be alive you know. Or part of a living being. Things just aren’t what your narrow mind can grasp.” While she wasn’t entirely going to call the weapon of a Blade alive, there was a part of her physiology that was inseparable from her weapons, even now. Well, not the wooden sword she had been given. That wasn’t her.

But even as a regular Blade, it was difficult to fully separate her from the Aegis, even conceptually.

“Really? You must have a lot more experience than I do. My group would always tell me I could do something else or take a break when it was my turn to cook.”

“I’d like to try your food sometime!” Mythra was almost always brusque with him, but as far as he knew, she’d never lied.

“I wasn’t being ungrateful! It just seems like a bad idea to leave something so dangerous on the plate.”

“Sometimes they’d try and butt in, or stop me from cooking, but I never understood why.” She huffed.

“These all sound fine to me. Do you have a lot of experience cooking?” 

Wait. 

“Umm… Aren’t sculpin poisonous?”

“Of course I do. I used to do a lot of the cooking for both of the groups I was in! And I was in a cooking competition once, too.”

“Ah, we’ve summoned her.”

“The Deity of Desserts…”

He wonders how many people he’ll be apologizing to on behalf of his not-sister’s sake.

“Everyone’s sense of dessert is so boring. Something as normal as plain chocolate needs something like...”

Once the trapdoor opened under her feet, she realized she was in trouble. With a small yelp, Mythra fell into the first open trapdoor and tumbled back to the entrance. There had been a mention about having a partner, and when golden eyes opened up they met blue and her face fell.

There wasn’t anybody else here. Sighing, she stood, dusting herself off. Hands on her hips - a pretty normal pose here for her, she started to feel like - she knows she can’t be particularly choosy.

The issue was...

“...Well, don’t just stand there. We have to figure this out.”

“Believe me, you’re not my first choice in partner, but obviously they put us here for a reason.” She had just gone in ahead of Shulk, in part hoping to be able to just brute force her way through. Unfortunately, she had completely missed the note where this kind of situation would require patience.

Shulk likes to think of himself as a very even-tempered individual - at least, ever since a certain genocidal god stopped taking up residence in his head. At the same time, he also thinks that his response to a woman around his age suddenly stepping up to him and demanding answers to confusing questions was a normal one.

“’Well,’ what?! It’s my face!”

“Why shouldn’t I have it?” He’s wondering just how he could possibly answer or even begin to understand what she’s talking about with her second - incredibly open ended - question, when she points at his Monado with clear recognition in her eyes. His blood runs icy cold, like he’s dead all over again, but at least he can answer that question.

“This,” he brandishes his Monado at her, “is mine. It’s part of myself. How do you know it?” The Monado shines brighter and brighter. Whether it’s in reaction to his own emotions, Alvis’, or some unknown third factor, he doesn’t know. “And where do you know my face from? Are you one of Zanza’s Disciples?” If this world really did really pull from different timelines in multiple universes, it wasn’t that unlikely she had been under Zanza’s rule in the past. Not with all the evidence currently stacked against her.

Distracted by her rude manner, he notices for the first time that she houses incredible power - but not just any power, like the magic users in the city hold… Ether. It’s the first time he’s sensed it from someone else in Spirale. Now he actually looks at her and sees what look like ether gems embedded into her armor. One in particular catches his attention. One that looks similar to a cross.

“Where did you get that ether gem?” He’s slightly bewildered and lowers his sword a little. It’s almost the same as Alvis’ except for the color… “Do you know Alvis? Are you a computer system too?”

Then if it was his face, that was even worse. Walking around like that, looking like the Architect - not that Mythra hated him or anything, but the entire situation. Having a Monado - or what she thought was a Monado - was already more than enough. Especially since hers had been taken away from her. And then he had the gall to ask her if she was someone’s Disciple!

“Walking around looking like that, and carrying something like that - you have to expect questions!” She huffed, “You’re not a Blade - you’re not anything like a Blade. Which means you’re a driver, and that’s definitely a Monado.” She points to the sword, a bit exaggeratedly. Both her frustrations as being disarmed and the fact that this boy was calling this Aegis his own were both battling for what annoyed her more.

And if it was a Monado, and she didn’t hers, and Malos was destroyed, then. “Don’t tell me, Ontos?” There was no way Ontos would look like that, though. As close as she was to putting it together, that was buried under some layer of frustration at the whole conversation. Even if that other half of Father knew what was going on, he wouldn’t awaken Ontos on his own. And wasn’t Zanza...

“I’m not anybody’s disciple, first of all.” Hands on her hips, she frowned, eyes narrowed. “And this is my core crystal, which should be pretty obvious. I don’t know who Alvis is, but if you want to simplify an Aegis like that, then I guess I used to collect and disseminate data.” But who the heck was Alvis? Wouldn’t that Blade belong to Ontos...? There should only be the one left.

“For me?” She felt her face heat up a bit, but she was far too excited to care. Standing on her toes, she took the pastry into her hands and held it in her palms. The elderly lady at the cafe she had helped out - Addam’s and Rex’s voices ringing in her ears when she saw the owner drop some groceries - had treated her to something that looked way too delicious. It was flaky and there was some kind of cheese and some kind of raspberry.

Golden eyes filled with joy. She turned around after thanking the owner, and then-

Bumped right into some jerk who was walking into the store. The delicious treat almost felt out of her hands, but she caught it at the last moment. “Hey!”

His sword was odd. Not in the way that perhaps a Blade’s sword could be odd - for a Blade’s weapon could be many different weapons - but in the way a human’s sword should be considered odd. In the absence of a Blade, then a human should not have a sword like that. There was something about it, although now she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe there wasn’t something entirely odd about the man himself.

When his mismatched eyes met her golden ones, she huffed, looking away.

The sun had finally risen, and while it seemed like time hadn’t slowed or anything in particular, there were moments in which she wished it had sped up. Having been the only Blade she had seen thus far, the glowing was beginning to become more of an annoyance and something to be stared at by people she had passed by. Especially with how much she glowed.

“What’s a rave anyway...?” Crossing her arms, she continued on her way. Mythra apparently had some measure of dwellings here, and it wouldn’t be bad to get back to. Golden Ward? Golden city, Golden country...Tch. The words swirled together in her memories, leaving a sour taste in her mouth at whatever this bad joke was supposed to be.

And then she saw a face - younger, but a face that would have been difficult not to recognize. Brow furrowed, after her brief pause, she stepped forward - quickly and with indignant footfalls.

“Why do you have that face? What’s going on?” Klaus. He looked like a younger version of The Architect.

“And then there’s that-” A Monado. How could she not recognize a Monado for what it was? Pointing indignantly, she tilted her head, waiting for an answer. Maybe this had all gone from a bad joke to an awful one.

Curiousity had seen the eclipse in the sky quite easily in her explorations. And an eclipse could only mean one thing, that there were new people to question. It had been easy to hurry to the hole and wait it out to see who held the most promise. The weird looking spiky dinosaur? The blue haired kid? What about…

Oh, someone was yelling. Curiousity looked over to see a woman lit up in the dark, literally. Target acquired. The lady even started asking her questions upon approach, a sign that she might have some common sense!

“I’m not lost. You’re glowing. Why are you glowing? Are you radioactive? Is that why you have all those crosses on your clothes?” 

“Radioactive?!” She planted her hands on her hips, looking down at the brat. She wasn’t entirely sure what that was, but it definitely wasn’t her. “I’m glowing because I glow. I’m a Blade, obviously.” As though it were completely obvious, and she wasn’t in some sort of strange situation without any of her abilities or anybody she knew and she couldn’t even summon her own sword - as tiring as it was to use it anyway.

“This is pretty basic stuff - even kids know that.” Her core crystal was on display, sitting whole and hale on her chest. Frowning still, she stared down at the child.

The wooden sword clattered as it hit the ground. Honestly, it was pretty worthless - she was, herself, pretty much a blade. So she could just...

A flick of her wrist, and then nothing. He brow furrows.

She could just--

Nothing. A frustrated growl. The Aegis Sword wasn’t here at all, and a blade without a weapon was pretty much not much of a Blade at all. She thrust out her hand and -

“Nothing!?” The outburst caught the attention of people around the platform, and she crossed her arms, turning her head in a slightly embarrassed huff. Pouting, she looked down at some raggedy child who was still looking at her.