#arcaeda

two parents like caeda and ephraim, it's a wonder how this child ended up the way she did.

meet asherah (goes by ashe for short), the spoilt to the core daughter of ephraim and caeda. genetically very blessed, but unfortunately, her personality is what others might consider 'horrible'.

ashe was likely born after the reconstruction of magvel, simply so that her parents would have more time to care for her. she has never faced war, and likely has never even picked up a weapon, but that was alright with her parents. they had worked hard so that their child could live a carefree life.

though others might describe her as obnoxious and haughty, her parents would not be able to reconcile that with their daughter. with her parents, she can be rather clingy or needy, but she has always respected and loved them. this is a wholesome family, and she is grateful that she was born into it.

in an attempt to give her a happy life, her parents might have coddled her a bit too much. she is royalty to the extreme, and is not afraid to let others know. she doesn't have too much experience with the outside world, or even people outside her direct family. while she comes off very over the top and full of herself, she's only emulating what she feels a princess should act like. because her parents have never seen her act like this, they have never been able to correct that perception.

she is particularly close to her mother, caeda, who gives her an infinite amount of attention and care. together they share all kinds of secrets that ephraim would never be able to unravel. he's simply happy to see the two people he loves enjoying what he worked hard to protect.

though she doesn't understand her father's duties, or why he's such a hard worker, she is proud of him. flaunting him around like a fancy dress or piece of jewelry. though it embarrasses him, ephraim would suffer anything for his beloved daughter. when ashe is feeling down, or is seeking someone to take action, she knows her father will always be there for her.

aunt eirika feels like an all knowing genius to her, almost like a goddess placed on earth. when she gets to see her, they go on all kids of adventures in town together. ashe particularly loves the stories she holds about her father, which always make her laugh out loud. she sometimes wonders though... what happened to her father before she was born to make him as he is now. even aunt eirika, who seemed to share every detail, would be quiet about it.

her family is nearly perfect, and she doesn't forget it, which is why she insists of paying respects to her lost grandfather. her father doesn't speak of him often, but she knows that her grandpa was someone very important to ephraim. she'll get the courage one day to ask about him...

ashe particularly loves her vacations to talys, where she gets to enjoy the water. her mother lights up, too, which is always a plus in her book. getting to see the only grandfather she has left is nice too.

‘Three days from now, on the third night, I’d like to show you something special—

What I have in mind demands a bit of preparation...

...Will you wait for me?’

               Rising above a busy whirl of monographs, lectures, and undying obligations is still a man utterly of his word. Even with his studies at the academy to reserve him from dawn to dusk, Marth has not failed to count the days. Several in passing, in fact- all spent diligently tending to the preparations that will construct his queen’s revelry. The arrangements must be perfect, he decides; love is not a master that deserves mistakes.

               His Caeda knows nothing so much as his discretion has revealed. Nothing of the charming old cottage nestled in the castle-town’s easterly blotch of wilderness. And nothing of the thermal watering hole that remains to most a closed off secret, but to Marth, an offhand discovery. It’s better if he can surprise her, and even better if she would be pleased. Wars and dragons and ugly surprises have taken from them such precious time that will be slow to repay... but here is the chance to make it right. Here is the chance to simply be, not as king and queen—not as heroes sallying to the aid of every woe—but as husband and wife.

                As if answering these prayers, before them soon sprawls their duly decided evening. The satchel tied over his shoulder reverberates with the delicate sound of glass, padded with several layers of cloth as not to shatter the contents against one another. His steps graze him past the townhouses, marching him onward to the rendezvous point as a bloom of sunset-red melts orange into the sky.

               On the cusp between town and wilderness, he waits, and waits, until a beautiful blue-haired woman emerges to meet him. With a wave of his hand and a gentle smile, Marth assures that he hasn’t waited long. “Caeda, over here! Forgive me, I’d have liked to walk together, but there was a final string of shops I wished to visit first. I trust it wasn’t too difficult to find your way from the monastery?”

As the Ethereal Ball is only a little ways away, students and staff are doing their best to prepare via dancing lessons, outfit shopping, and event planning. This year a vendor arrives in town with a wagon full of flowers from all over the world in full bloom. They’re quite the romantic though, so luckily for you, they’re even offering corsage and boutonniere lessons. gift your crush, significant other, sworn enemy, or whoever it may be a lovely floral arrangement that you hand-picked and handmade! They won’t judge if it looks ugly, but.. maybe the person next to you is better at arranging.

"Er... Well, maybe you shouldn't pick that one either, Miss."

For what is far and away from the first time, Katarina pulls her hand back, still yet to touch a flower in the many minutes she's been here. Still half of that time has seen the vendor become all but her personal advisor, the bulk of the floral guidance left to their assistant while he himself remained perpetually a grimace away from tut-tut-tutting at the mage's next choice.

"Oh..." The deep purple of the flower nearly glows as the sun passes through its thin petals, a sight like unto butterfly wings. Delicate and beautiful in equal measure, and still somehow so understated while surrounded by the bright colors of its brethren. "Um..."

The vendor heaves a sigh, more pitying than scornful. "That there's monkshood -- or aconite, if you're one o' them fancy folks. Thought you said you liked this fella?"

"I--!" The immediate protest splinters into a flush-faced squeak that only works against her. "No! I, I said... they're important to me..."

"Mm. Right." And this must be what a shit-eating grin looks like. The vendor taps his finger against the cart-- rather solidly, in fact-- a couple times. "Well, ennyway, this thing's all wrong for you, Miss. Means 'hatred' and all that."

"...Oh." Her palm lays against her chest as she visibly deflates.

"Cripes," he hisses under his breath. "Now that's a crowd. Here--" A sturdy hand against her shoulder gently ushers her in the direction of another, though Katarina all but locks up as she realizes just who it is. "--this lady here's been doing just fine. Let her help you, aye?"

"W-wai--" But he's gone, and Katarina is left with arms held to her chest as if to cradle her chosen flowers -- if only she'd manage to choose in the first place. The rosy tint of her cheeks returns in full force, her gaze dropping to the ground. "...Um... H-hello... Queen Caeda..."

“Ah, winged Caeda, have you a moment to spare?”

Sain approaches, not with flirtatious intent, not with burning fervor—but the promise of a genuine concern. His face does not wear its characteristic smile, for on this lovely afternoon it has become deeply upset! Instead he frowns, his shoulders slump low and an overcast drapes from his headband. He’s in the dumps about it, and he naturally does a good job of making that fact known.

“I have seen the way you converse with others. Such charisma, it might even move mountains!” his mouth forms a round ‘O’ to communicate his surprise, eyes now flitting with the despair he holds in his heart, “Yet none seem to reject your embrace… You are not slapped or run away from. Truly, for the sake of love and beauty, I wish to learn this skill!”

Ducking in close, Sain’s hands clasp together to plead for Caeda’s assistance. All vows of knightly honor and willingness to protect the students fall by the wayside; desperation has wriggled its way in, and it shall stay as long as Sain grieves his rejection.

“Ordinarily I would see such troubles as the fierce trials of a knight, but watching you… Ahh, I feel… Differently.”

python's opinion hour

"Pushy as usual...🙄"

Okay, now to address his actual opinion underneath his silly attitude he likes to put on with her: when he playfully called her "dangerous", he kind of meant it. She has the charisma to sway people to her will, and the reach as a queen to sway a lot of people. It's not that he believes she would use it for ill, but the difference between their stations in life still flashes above her like a neon sign for him.

like this <3

Even if Caeda wants them to interact as equals, he still does not materially believe this to be true. He doesn't dislike her personally for this any more than he dislikes any other noble/royal, but it colors his view of her all the same. She's a queen with a whole palace back home. She can hold feasts, write policy, wage wars. If another war ever came, he's still just another foot soldier.

Wall/gate repairs with @arcaeda and whoever else would like to join!

Roy wasn’t used to this sort of manual labor, but he was willing to do his best. He sat on the ground, studying how a broken piece of a wall was constructed, imagining it without the splinters. He looked to the rest of the wall, which was intact, and figured he could make a piece patched in to fix the gap.

“Oh, hello Caeda.” He smiled at her, lap full of the broken piece he’d just taken off. “The wall needs quite a bit right here, but we can probably get it done within the day. I figure that replacing what’s been broken can be fitted over like a patch and then nailed in, or maybe we just go bit by bit?”

His hands stayed busy as he chatted, sorting what was salvageable from what was only suitable for kindling.

Assist with chopping wood [Max 2 muses per thread] - Gains 1 bundle of timber per post - Axe rank grants multiplier for thread [C or higher = 2x yield] - Can now talk to Lonán during this task @arcaeda

Restlessness has taken hold of her like a ghost, eyes refusing to shut and fingers possessed to twitch no matter how still she tries to be. They need to rest -- they need to get the walls back up before sunset brings the threat of monsters again.

And so she finds herself back in the forest with an axe in hand. Fatigue fights her every step, muscles tense and unwilling, but it doesn’t matter. Every report that creeps through the town regarding the strange wounds of their sleeping friends, every scratch on the doors of the homes in which they rest -- fear is enough to keep her moving.

A head of blue hair shifts about the trees, caught in her peripheral. Corrin yanks her axe free from the tree with a huff, turning to look at the woman proper.

Brows furrow with concern.

Patrol your companions’ quarters [Max 4 muses per thread] - Restore 1HP to houses per post - Can now talk to Mairenn during this task

     Even looking still as death, Edain’s hands are still warm when he grasps them.

     That unchanging fact keeps Andrei’s anxiety at bay as the weeks bleed into one another without a single sign that their allies are close to waking up, while the outside world around them is met with one trouble after another. At the very least, inexplicable injuries notwithstanding, all of their allies are still breathing, though that is small comfort given the circumstances. Despite making a conscious effort to spread his patrolling among the four houses in somewhat equal measure, he cannot help but return to this house, this room, more often than any other.

     (He’d promised to try and keep her safe.)

     And it is here that he stands again, after yet another night of exhausting battle, after the chief had seen them making their usual patrols to check on their companions (they weren’t wounded by outside forces last time; what could they possibly do against a power beyond their reach?) and made a cryptic offer, one that loops endlessly in his mind, even now.

     Be with them forever, peacefully and happily, in a world free of pain...

     ...Why wouldn’t he want that? A world without all this pain and bloodshed. A world with Lady Sister, and Father and Edain, and whomever else each of them would choose to complete their family, without a single one lost. A world where conspiracy and the greed for power never touched any part of Grannvale.

     A world where he’d never had the choice to tear his family apart.

     “You’d want it too, wouldn’t you, Sister?” Andrei asks the sleeping figure before him, doing nothing to hide his desperate, anguished expression in a room without waking, judging eyes. His hand trembles in hers. “Even if it’s only a dream... If it’s one where nothing had gone wrong... Wouldn’t we all be happier for it?”

     He isn’t sure how long he stands there in silence, as though awaiting, begging for an answer, before he startles at the sound of the door behind him being pushed open. Hastily withdrawing his hand, Andrei turns, blinking at the familiar face that appears through the entrance.

     “Ah... Lady Caeda,” he greets, not quite meeting her gaze, for fear his thoughts might be laid entirely bare to anyone who sees him, “You— you are here on patrol as well, I take it?”