#eaglegard

for the first time in almost a year, dorothea is hesitant to approach her friend. for the first time, she is seeing edelgard as less than a friend and more the emperor she  ( is )  becoming, and now is when the sky comes crashing down on her. 

not when edelgard revealed herself as the flame emperor, not when she had to fight her own friend in a tomb because everything was happening so fast and edelgard had put herself on the other side and rhea was screaming from this side and no one had asked. no one bothered to ask where dorothea wanted to be. edelgard picked, rhea picked, and dorothea was left fumbling for her sword, feeling, at that moment more than any other time, like an actual live marionette, the strings pulling her arms up, guiding her feet. taking the control from her until she was just one more body in that fight, a sword that could easily have been anyone else’s slicing through those bodies.

dorothea’s stomach hasn’t settled for hours now. she may just be fighting back vomit. palm pressing at her stomach, she forces herself to breathe out. breath that back in.   hold.   then --

“  edelgard.  ”   and she sags with the weight of that word. edelgard. a name that will be scorned and spat and screamed in the time to come, as much battle cry as it is prayer. edelgard, oh edelgard.  what have you done ?   and what more will you do ?

something sour fills her mouth, and she grimaces around the taste of it.      “  this  --  how LONG have you been planning this ?   and when were you going to let any of us in on it, if you were at all  ?  ”

The axe bounces harmlessly off of the wooden mannequin, and Lelouch, in his frustration, throws the object on the ground. It lands with a dull thud amidst yellow strands of hay. At once his shoulder begins to throb. The pressure from a hand helps to push away the pain.

A grimace is quick to spread across his face. He’s never been the strongest, the fastest, the most agile, nor has he wanted to be those things. No. Lelouch is content to spend his days in the library, to bother Hanneman with questions, to mock people like Caspar who rely purely on morality and a quick punch to guide them to victory.

Lelouch was made for tomes and tactics and scrolls and sending battalions in to do the fighting for him.

But if he wants to lead well, he must learn how to handle himself in battle. So Lelouch has dedicated himself to the path of the Wyvern Lord. Wyverns are smart creatures, finicky, hard to shoot down. He can easily make up for his own physical incapabilities on the back of a wyvern.

All that said: he’s having issues with handling an axe: one of the essentials to being a Wyvern Lord.

the ballroom is a place of fantasy: where her brother loses grip of her hand, elysia already lost in the shine of all the event boasted. even the food seemed to sparkle under the crystal lights, the swish of dresses, and the chatter of adults, sophisticated, strong, secretive. here, she is different. here, she tastes the first bits of love -- of someone else offering their hand, of calling her ‘little miss’ and contempt traded for curiosity, for fun.

she could be here forever in the face of all it offers. she remembers the true meaning of the event for only a moment: the passing words of the servants, the unfamiliar faces, but instead her gaze fixates on another child, who, despite her age seems to blend in seamlessly with the others.

curiosity wins over anything else as elysia approaches the other girl, eyes wide and shining. ❛ HI! I DIDN’T THINK ANYONE ELSE MY AGE WOULD BE HERE! ❜ clasping her hands together, she smiles wide.  ❛ WELL, BESIDES MY BROTHER I GUESS. WHO ARE YOU? ❜ she then pauses, placing a hand over her mouth.  ❛ OH! SORRY. THAT MUST BE RUDE. UM, I’LL INTRODUCE MYSELF FIRST THEN. ❜

curtsying albeit impatiently, elysia catches the other girl’s gaze.  ❛ I’M ELYSIA OF HOUSE RAVALEN. NICE TO MEET YOU! ❜

i do what i want ferdinand

@lifelirius replied to your post “     “Remember everyone… do not smooch in church.”

don't tell me how to live

Despite traveling all over Fodlàn, Byleth actually wasn’t super familiar with the geography at large. He mostly just DRIFTED where ever Jeralt and his mercenaries moved, never asking specifically where they were or where they headed next. His lack of knowledge became far more prominent when he arrived in Garreg Mach, where not only did he know very little about the land, but nothing about the reigning religion.

“The students from the empire just seem much more uncomfortable in this weather,” he watches two such students walk by bundled to the nines in furs. “I’ve...never been to a big city before though.”