#modern inheritance

Been thinking about Murtagh and Arya being weird bickering stepsiblings in MIC.

- Arya offering side fist bump ‘back scar buddies?’ Murtagh sputtering and super offended before begrudgingly realizing that is a weird mix of compliment and togetherness from her and slump shoulder returning the fist bump with a subdued ‘back scar buddies…’ while Arya whoops ‘FUCK YEAH WE ARE!’

- Murtagh helping to change Arya’s bandages during the run from Gil’ead when Brom and Eragon are exhausted. Half the time Arya’s in the Trancing half awake sleep state and nodding off, but he’s patient. He knows how important wound care and scar treatment is.

- Arya encouraging him when he’s lifting weights in the Arngor gym to do just one more rep okay now one more just one more come on you got it while he’s red faced yelling at her to ‘shut yer feckin Eragon kessen mouth ahm havan ah anyeressem!!’

- Murtagh going to Arya for what he calls ‘girl talk’ aka walking into her rooms and flopping face down on her bed and yelling into it while she does paperwork calmly till he’s done yelling and then asks him ‘yeah that’s a valid feeling. Now tell me why you feel it, poster boy for emotional constipated in-law.’

- Murtagh yelling “EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!” And dramatic gagging sounds from clear across the cafeteria/mess hall at Arngor every time he sees Eragon and Arya kiss.

Working on bringing a new concept in with the Riders Signs. Not linked to the Riders really, but a method of reading and understanding body language that is ‘encoded’ in a way. I like to imagine that Brom, Arya and Glen spent years working on developing it between them, and once they had it down they spread it to a select few trusted members of the Varden and elves. For when even Riders Signs would be too obvious, in case of capture and oaths, it combines body language, small facial tics, muscle movements, and, most importantly, relies on the user having at least some previous experience with mental communication and direct eye contact.

It’s basically reading micro expressions but with more direct and specific words rather than involuntary emotions. When free to do so the sender can ‘pulse,’ sending a simplistic thought phrase that lingers like a ‘ghost’ due to the visual cues indicating the idea or thought pulsed out. It does not require lowering mental barriers for either on the message chain, though clarity is improved when the sender opens their barriers to send the pulse.

The pulse has a limited range, and thus is not a true requirement of this new method but it helps when the recipient or the sender are not completely comfortable with the method yet or when more complex things need to be communicated. Even with a pulse, these ghost messages and visual cues can only communicate a handful of words at a time, usually only one or two sentences.

AHAHAHA I LOVE THIS. Let’s go!

I feel like he would accept a lot about modern life with equanimity, but then other obscure things would, pretty much like shatter his mind. Like: “so we have to climb into this metal box to fly anywhere, and it’s totally inefficient and incredibly expensive, but every person also has these magical boxes with all the world’s knowledge in their pocket? Sounds legit.”

He would definitely scream at appliances and vehicles at first because he doesn’t understand that they aren’t sentient: “please, metal horse, I beg you. SLOW DOWN.”

If he were the one behind the wheel that boy is 1000% crashing the car. Thank god for wards.

Eragon would OD on caffeine with his first cup of coffee. Not even an exaggeration. He would be comatose and probably need healing.

If Arya were there with him in this scenario, he would cause her blood pressure to fucking SKYROCKET because there’s so much more trouble for him to get into.

Eragon: What is this object that you keep referring to as “weed?” *an hour later* HEY YO ARYA! Check this shit OUT! Arya, trying not to hyperventilate: take a deep breath take a deep breath take a deep breath-

Eragon would find modern technology fascinating, but kinda unnecessary since he can do magic? But that doesn’t mean he ain’t using it. He would be a force of such destructive chaos because he’s so inquisitive and wants to figure out how everything works, and would destroy things accidentally in the process. It’s easy to take things apart, hard to put them back together.

Would not have the best reactions to modern-day romance. “Did you hear? They’re having a baby!” *gasp of horror* “oUT OF WEDLOCK!???”

....or like, anything to do about how women dress in this era. Good intentions, but he would be so uncomfortable by how much everyone shows their skin.

Eragon would try so hard to learn how to swear using our words, and end up using them all wrong in an oddly adorable way that just... ends up being his thing: “what in the bitch tits?” “What the ass dick did you just say to me?” *glass falls and breaks* “ah, pussy!”

Same with modern clothing. A+ for effort. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.

One day he’s walking downtown in a big city and someone tries to mug him. He pulls out Brisingr ready to duel, thinking this is just another social norm he hasn’t yet learned. He doesn’t ever get mugged again.

(A/N: In my defense for my haitus, we can blame the new lathe I got and the constant feed of true crime content in my headphones not being conductive towards getting inspiration for writing. Here's what little I bashed out today of Eragon being cute and Arya liking his face.)

“Oh.” Eragon yawned, unable to stop himself. “Good morning.”

Arya’s lips curled up, eyes soft in the early gloom. “Good morning.” She kissed his forehead, wild fringes of her hair tickling his cheeks. 

Propped up on her arm as she was, legs still tangled with his, Eragon realized she had been awake for some time. “Been watching me sleep?” The teasing tone was lost in another yawn, almost embarrassingly wide.

“Yes.” Arya’s grin reached her eyes. “I like your face.”

The blunt honesty caught the Rider by surprise, the amusement in her voice underlain by a sincerity that made his heart both soar and ache with joy. He stumbled for a moment, breath caught in his throat before he finally stuttered, “Thanks, my uh…my parents made it for me.”

Arya laughed as Eragon’s cheeks flared red at the awkward response, Saphira’s chuff outside nearly drowning out the bright sound. 

Unperturbed and still smiling, Arya pressed her forehead to her mate’s, noses touching. “Well then. I’ll have to thank Brom when I see him today.”

Thorn: Simple. I was bored of all the waiting, I felt you were a good match, and you weren’t crazier than a usurping dingbat.

Murtagh: ….

Murtagh: Sometimes I regret teaching you my vocabulary.

Have no context random sweet moment from the never to be fully posted SwapAU side project.

I always want to talk about this thing when I’m working on it, but it’s so vague and with little to no prose sections that I can never get across what I was I guess trying to do.

Good god, look at those poorly drawn dorks. You can click the picture to actually be able to read things.

(Eragon got some help making tshirts for the new Riders to wear for school spirit. Yes, this early on, he was thinking of school spirit. Arya got ahold of the materials and made these just for them!)

Version Eragon has on his desk below the cut.