#exhalts

your eyes can be so cruel, they said. what a strange, albeit not necessarily untrue, assessment of his character. his smile, wicked; but his eyes never cruel? perhaps no one noticed before. dwelling beyond the beauty of lilac irides, something inhuman found comfort behind a pastel barricade, awaiting the day it outshone the bright glimmer of deception. the glow dusts his cheeks in soft crimson shades, brightens the ivory smile. but he is no less sinful beneath the mask. 

❝  well, aren’t you observant.  ❞ devastatingly sweet tones add to the fabrication of man, but the serpent ‘neath the flesh hissed loudly and bore it’s venomous fangs in defense. the monastery harbored monsters, eden slowly rotted away with their stench; but the church, ever so carefully, masked it with scents of rosewater, lavender, and chamomile. the archbishop and her clandestine knights, how they kept up appearances for their people was astounding. he simply adapted to their habits, perhaps; stole their facades, twisted them and made it his own. 

@exhalts​ said:

“  i never asked you for help ! “  she spits venom . ( i did not mean that to be so harsh ... it hurts ) byleth’s right arm is slung over the hounds shoulder , other limp at her side and she is bleeding . she struggles , weakly , breath coming in painful heaves . she cannot be taken from the field yet ... ( the students are not ready . ) “ please ... “

unprompted | always accepting

if there is one thing to be learned from joining an army, it’s that battle plans will always change. enemies will bring in backup your generals didn’t anticipate. someone you counted on will fall. you’ll have a single minute to save yourself or save everyone, to make a life-or-death decision. you’ll see time slow – and your heart stop – and you’ll feel the world around you narrow into a single held breath.  byleth wasn’t supposed to fall. she’s too smart, she’s too important to the haphazard war-shy students on the field around them, they’re counting on someone to lead them; persephone knows she’s likely the second-most experienced person here, but taking charge would risk blowing her cover.  even so, what good is it to be a spy if you’ve no one to spy on? carefully, she lowers the injured professor so that she’s sitting against a tree, and makes quick patchwork of stopping the bleeding in her side. ❝ don’t care if you didn’t ask. you’re not gonna drive me away with that defensive tone, yeah? sounds just like what i do when someone tries to help.❞ 

it’s not good enough. if this battle doesn’t end fast, byleth will bleed out, and neither of them are carrying vulneraries; the ones available are needed by the students, entrenched in a losing battle with a demonic beast. one gloved hand grips the back of byleth’s neck as persephone dips her own head to look the professor in the eyes. keep her in the moment, keep her focused.

🍇  :    how would my muse describe their childhood?  how much has it impacted the person they are now,  or will become as an adult?  around what age did they or will they start to mature,  and why?  do they wish to go back to their days as a child,  or have they embraced adulthood?  

A SYMPTOM OF his autism is his poor memory – byleth has difficulty with episodic memory and tends not to remember much of his childhood as a result. he has a few memories that stick out, but how much of them are real, and how much are recollections of retellings, he does not know. his childhood was overall fairly simple and HAPPY, and he enjoyed it. it taught him hard work and common sense – and he uses that a lot. growing up with the lack of support that a travelling mercenary tends to have, he developed into a very self-sufficient person. he’s embraced adulthood, although he misses the simple days before he came to garreg mach.

🍐  :    how intelligent is my muse overall?  are they smarter than the average person,  or less than?  are they primarily self-taught,  or did they acquire most of their knowledge in school?  are they more street smart or book smart?  

“ LOOK AT YOU, BYLETH. YOU’RE A MESS. ” despite being younger by several minutes ( at least, as far as they were able to wheedle out of jeralt ), jun has always played the role of the doting older brother. some students have drawn allusions between them and seteth & flayn -- the same dogged pursuit of their sisters’ health & happiness in their own image. jun could wield a hair-brush like the best of them, despite keeping his own style relatively simple -- he did it for byleth.