#aerincore

aerin, slamming open the doors of luthe’s hall so hard they crack: WERE YOU EVER GOING TO MENTION THAT MY MOTHER WAS AERINHA?

luthe:

luthe: i did?? i thought i did. 

aerin: YOU MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT.

luthe: 

luthe:

"aerin," tor says the second time this happens. "five different people saw you painting him orange today. horses don't even come in orange. what are you doing."

"he looks sick as hell," aerin says. talat whinnies his agreement.

they try to keep him hidden from prying eyes while aerin is "looking for a new horse". sometimes, he gets out; they're not sure where he goes, but aerin has an inkling.

("what the fuck," luthe says, staring at the horse in his kitchen attempting to chew his hair. "what the fuck??"

Aerin: a nice hug!! she's a little anxious about it, especially if she doesn't know you very well, but she's big and warm and solid, and for some reason eternally smells like an herby campfire if you're into that. 9/10

Arlbeth: it would be nice if you couldn't tell he's thinking of six million other things, because he smells nice and is Strong, but he's distracted and his grip is pretty weak. 4/10 not that bad during but leaves you feeling inadequate after

Galanna: she could give nice hugs if she wanted but she's awful. occasionally gives a hug if she needs to manipulate someone. 0.5/10 she smells nice i guess

Luthe: too spindly and bony to be very good at hugging, but he's not bad. if you really need a hug (provided you're his student/similar, or aerin or tor) he'll give you one. if he'll let you, he's better for being the recipient of a hug, because he's very bendy and willing to stay there for a looooong time. it's very grounding. 7/10

Perlith: -100/10 doesn't give hugs, would look down on you for needing one, why are you asking perlith for a hug in the first place go to literally anyone else

Talat: not great at hugs on account of having no arms and too many elbows. he'll probably chew on your hair, or if you're not aerin he'll bite you if you try to touch him. 2/10

Teka: often, hugging teka means you end up spilling all your problems, and if you don't she knows something's up anyway. she might not know what to do about them, but you feel better for having talked about it. 12/10 you probably get hot malak and a delicious meal or snack before she sends you on your way

aerin: *eats a whole branch of surka, giving herself fever and nightmares for years*

luthe: can't imagine what it is

aerin: *discovers kenet by setting herself repeatedly on fire*

luthe: hmmmmm......

aerin: *almost dies trying to kill maur with nothing but a bootknife*

luthe: aha! i remembered! time to see what the child is up to.

aerin: *has been laying in a stream for weeks, unable to move*

luthe: ah.

luthe:

luthe:

from the bottom of my heart, i want to thank you for this ask, and also apologize for its length + wish fulfillmenty-ness. here’s the snippet from my notes that started the whole thing:

Corlath walked into his study to find Aerin Dragon-Slayer seated at his desk.

“I have done something you are not going to like,” she announced.

He wasn’t entirely sure this wasn’t an exhaustion-based hallucination. “What?”

in this, aerin is Slightly More Physical than canon/word of god implies, because it’s funnier. she probably tried the dream method before realizing that harry is entirely too no-nonsense for that to work. eventually, she starts visiting harry at night, when harry can't sleep anyway, enticing her with stories of badass women, before eventually asking her to aid damar in the war.

i feel like it can go one of two ways:

1. she coaxes harry out into the desert after leaving a vaguely-worded letter telling her loved ones not to worry (cough cough, aerin, that doesn't help people not worry) and aerin has a very similar training sequence as mathin did in the desert

2. aerin brings harry to luthe’s mountain and does the training around there, while harry chafes and is like “alright this is cool but can we go back to the desert pls.”

i feel like the first one is more plausible. also, we never found out how long corlath’s camp was in the desert for but in this au harry spends A Lot More Time training? so it’s only kind of ridiculous that she wins the trials.

on the subject of swords, i feel like luthe probably has one laying around that aerin can borrow. (even the least materialistic person will end up with a junk room after +2000 years.) 

i’m not sure where she gets a spare horse - maybe she borrows/steals that from corlath? i want harry to have sungold. i’m not sure where she learns to ride like a damarian, though. maybe harry learns to ride on talat, because this entire au is wish fulfillment and talat being immortal is my dearest wish. if aerin steals sungold, she also steals narknon, but mostly on accident.

“You can’t come with me,” she told the big cat, who was now lumped over her feet. “I’ve already taken enough of Corlath’s things today, I don’t want him to be more exasperated. Even the Dragon-Slayer has her limits.”

Narknon only purred harder. Aerin gently extracted herself from the tangle of cat and left the stables, shutting the door behind her.

- later -

“Lady, there’s a cat following you,” Harry said uncertainly.

Aerin twisted around to see Narknon trotting down the path, twitching her whiskers in a cat laugh.

i’m not sure what would happen during the second half - corlath and the riders wouldn’t have the same connection with harry as in the book, and even if she’s got aerin guiding her they’re not going to be immediately inclined to kindness (+ they don’t feel guilty for having kidnapped her lmao.) i’m not sure how she would still make friends with them! senay and terim would be the same, i think, but the riders are also all very important to me.

harry would still receive gonturan, but i don’t think she’d be made a rider. (i’m also not sure how corlath finds out harry’s got kelar? maybe he just Looks Into Her Eyes when she’s angry and is like oh. oh fuck.)

before i stop, some assorted Ideas I Like in no particular order:

- corlath says Some Shit about northern/half-northern/outlander people. and aerin is like fam. i am half northern. she’s mostly outlander. of the two, i am the worse thing. also, you’re descended from me, YOU’RE part northern.

- aerin: aren’t you tired of being nice? don’t you just wanna go apeshit?

harry, despairing: everyone wants to go apeshit all the time! that’s why we have society! to stop people from going apeshit!