Hector doesn’t seem angry or even exasperated when hit with a random projectile -- rather, he’s amused if anything, and Ephraim breathes a sigh of relief. Rarely did anyone other than Innes (or his sister) ever witness him slipping in dignity, and he’s usually reprimanded when it does happen. Having his antics laughed off is honestly the best possible outcome.

“Well, creative certainly is more flattering than a lot of other adjectives you could have used,” Ephraim says with a lopsided smile. “And I’m not too easily upset. If I had been, I probably wouldn’t have thrown chocolate.” Too late he wonders if the statement sounds like a threat rather than the straightforward way he had intended to come across. At the very least, somewhere out there Innes can be grateful Ephraim doesn’t consider him a real threat. (Or perhaps that would just serve to offend him further...) “Maybe I’m the one who should be worried, if so many people have it out for you.”

As though a fire has been lit within him, Ephraim perks up at the mere mention of a contest. The word itself has conditioned him to tense up and get ready for battle, though a fighting stance probably won’t help him shovel candy into his face any faster.

Hector had been searching the castle for what felt like hours to try and find where Matthew had wandered off to. He knew that the spy always ended up wandering around the castle to try and find something new and exciting to explore. He felt like he was playing an unwinnable game of hide and seek at the moment as he scoped out every room he could possibly think of. He sighed to himself as yet another room he had went into was met with unwavering silence.

Where in the world would he have went off to. The one time I actually have something to talk with him about and I can’t find him. He could have at least asked if I wanted to go exploring with him, he knows how much I dread having to deal with all this paperwork anyways. He thought to himself as continued his search, hell bent on finding him. But as time continued to drag on, he started to become a little worried about the spy and wondered if something had happened to him when he had been exploring. Thankfully, a few moments later he had caught a glimpse of him, the tail end of his scarf fluttering behind him as he made his way down a hallway that Hector didn’t remember being there before. He shrugged off the part of his brain telling him that something was wrong and ran after the spy, calling out his name to get him to stop. However, no matter how loudly he called for him, it didn’t seem like he heard him. He knew that he would never purposely ignore him, but wasn’t sure why he didn’t hear him. He finally caught up to him and instantly felt worry start to coil in his stomach. There was a huge looming mirror in the room that had never been there before, he was almost positive the room had never been there before as well. He could see Matthew walking towards the mirror and realized that’s what he had been transfixed by when he was trying to call out to him. Without a second thought, he ran over to him, careful to avoid looking directly at the mirror, and grabbed him before he was able to press his fingers to the dark mirror.

“Matthew! Matthew! Are you alright?”

He reached...

And jumped back at the sudden contact, blinking his way to consciousness with a start. The spy frowned, confusion writ across his face. He took a moment to himself, casting with his eyes about the room. His gaze settled, last but not least, on Hector. Sudden, unexpected contact had ever unnerved the spy, and Hector probably (maybe?) knew that by now - and so, it stood to reason there was perhaps an important reason for it.

"Milord?" Matthew queried, voice tinged with concern echoing his friend's. "Yes, of course I'm all right?" He sounded uncertain, as though questioning why Hector saw the need to ask him in the first place. "Fit as a fiddle in fact - but more importantly, what are you doing here?" What are we doing here seemed more the correct thing to ask, but he kept that to himself.

Then, as he turned to contemplate the dark mirror anew, his expression faded. The mirror hummed with unseen energy now, perhaps irritated that it had been deprived of its prey but more than willing to try again.

[ meme ]

I find I’ve struggled in the past with characters whose base natures drive them toward conflict. . . (cough azama cough my one asshole of an OC levenn cough probably a few others but the list is small tbh) ... and honestly, as time goes on, I’m growing slowly intrigued about trying to master this hesitation or fear of these punk-ass characters stressing me out. Others playing conflict-driven characters look like they’re having so much dang fun, after all! Never a dull moment :d

                                                                       eikonic asks [ x ]

garuda : how does your character react when they are angry? do they have a temper? describe what would happen if they were to lash out.

leif definitely has a temper, haha. he’s a young man who hasn’t had the proper circumstances in life to learn how to healthily cope with the trauma that he’s experienced, nor was he ever able to ‘grow up’ and live through a childhood that teaches him how to manage his emotions well. by nature, as well, he’s an impulsive and emotionally-driven person who is ruled by his feelings. he’s very prone to negative feelings on top of all that, and has a lot of buried anger and resentment that even he is not entirely aware of.

with all this in mind, he experiences a lot of frustration, both consciously and unconsciously, and does tend to let that boil over into a temper more readily than he would like. he knows that he has a short fuse, and it’s one of the many things he doesn’t like about himself and seeks to change, but old habits die hard, especially when he’s always stressed out and his fuse gets shorter when he’s under pressure.

his anger often, unfortunately, externalizes as physical aggression. i wrote about it at one point here, so i’m going to link that so that i don’t just end up repeating myself at length.

because the circumstances of his upbringing taught him that aggression and action are acceptable ways to react to stress, grief, and difficulty, he internalized that and has been using it ever since. of course, he had other figures to learn from growing up – some of his caretakers over the years, and dorias for sure – but most of them came and went, or at most were only there a handful of years. finn was the dominant guardian force in his life, and a constant. it’s no surprise that leif took most of his cues from him of what it meant to be a man in jugdral, and how men were supposed to react and act. 

some of his aggressive externalization is also, however, a reaction to finn’s aggression, as i talked about in that earlier post as well. so leif has a pretty complicated relationship with aggression and anger. on one hand, he’s learned that this is how to act, and he has trouble managing his emotions in any other way. on the other hand, he knows it’s not good, especially since his anger’s gotten the better of him a couple times and he’s lashed out at nanna and terrified her, which is the exact last thing he wanted to do, having shielded her from finn when he would do the same thing for years.

The chocolate is still in its wrapper, so it won’t cause any lasting damage to anyone’s outfit if he throws it. That’s the line of logic running through Ephraim’s mind as he tosses the candy idly, catching it in his hand as he considers the best angle of attack.

(Of course, if Ephraim’s actions were truly dictated by logic in the first place, he wouldn’t be chucking food at people like a child…)

Hector isn’t even his intended target – it’s Innes he’s after, as per usual; imagining the annoyance on the man’s face after he’s pelted with chocolate is too amusing an opportunity to give up. But Ephraim’s plans are thwarted when a much broader person happens to step in front of Innes as soon as he releases the projectile, and the candy unfortunately collides with Hector’s back. Behind him Innes remains blissfully unaware of the attempted attack, which is perhaps the most frustrating part of this fiasco.

Matthew’s foray further into the castle had yielded little to sate his appetite for a good mystery - until now, that was. The mirror beckoned to him, and he couldn’t help but heed its call. As soon as it had reached out to him, he’d found himself inexplicably drawn. Only at the back of his mind did the faint warning of something amiss whisper, but that whisper went ignored.

The only important thing was reaching his goal, after all. The spy navigated the halls as though he knew them like the back of his hand, and soon enough came to the room housing the mirror in question. It stood at the back of the room, from floor to ceiling. Darker than a regular mirror, Matthew approached its black surface and, two yards away, stood transfixed. The warning bells were going off again at the back of his head, but to him, in his current state, they meant nothing.