#spelldreamer

        “ must you act surprised at everything i say i’ve never experienced before ? ”  asterin says it with a small chuckle,  despite her better judgement.  she had always been good at fighting through the aches and pains of her work,  her very purpose,  but catri must have been able to sense the tension and discomfort that asterin had been carrying.  this is the first night in almost a week that they hadn’t been camping in a clearing somewhere,  there was an actual roof over their heads and a bed that could be shared,  not two bedrolls pushed together as much as they could be.  there was no reason to sleep with armor on,  so catri had insisted she do this.

          and how glorious it was, when her hands started to rub the sore muscles in her back, especially around her shoulders,  as that was where the armor was more often than not the heaviest.  if she wasn’t sitting,  she’d have fallen to her knees in an instant.  asterin reaches a hand back when catri leans forward and presses a kiss to her shoulder,  tangling her hand in her lover’s wild red hair.  “ i’m sure my back will be forever in your debt. ”

“and it doesn’t concern you that your travel partner seems to be so heavily burdened by his?” viza isn’t ignoring the weight of the statement - in fact, she’s only further disturbed by it. maybe it’s the years of solitude, maybe it’s the immediate mistrust of anyone she meets, but the fact that auria doesn’t seem to be automatically perturbed by the fact that she’s traveling with someone who clearly has gained the attention of those with ill intentions… it’s strange. it’s unnatural. “look, i’m no… arcane expert. not even close to my realm of expertise. but a shifty asshole is a shifty asshole, magic or not. and while you obviously know him better than i do…” sighing, she leans back into her seat, shrugging slightly. “whatever. i hope you two are able to find the solution to that… problem.”

“No, you misunderstand me. I think something got lost in translation; I’m more comfortable speaking Moshi’i.” It isn't until she says it that she realizes she does struggle with other languages at times. She ‘speaks’ Moshi’i with Rino, of course, but that's only natural considering it's his first language. Odd.

it’s a touchy-feely kind of night  ||  accepting !

         “ oh,  am i now ? ”  asterin asks, raising an eyebrow as she pushes hair away from catri’s neck and shoulder so she might rest her chin there.  the arm that was draped over her waist in sleep tightens its grip, pulling her closer.  though catri was taller,  asterin knows that catri would never be one to complain about this sleeping arrangement,  not with the way she curls into it,  consciously or no.  “ i wasn’t aware that i had signed a contract of any kind.  do you have proof of this agreement, dear ? ”  a soft kiss is pressed to catri’s shoulder, and a few more slowly make their way up to her neck. 

masqueraaaaaaaade  ||  accepting !

       she’s uncomfortable.  asterin is so used to wearing armor and,  most importantly,  pants  –  so having to wear a dress,  with no armor on top of it,  and with no weapons allowed inside the ballroom itself,  she finds her fingers itching for something,  anything to do.  it’s why she has a flute of champagne in her hand,  if only so that it would give her something to do when sucked into idle conversation.  she’d even found it awkward when going to the seamstress to get a dress commissioned for this evening,  worrying if her broader shoulders,  muscular arms or the scars on her back would be mentioned.  they weren’t,  praise the heavens,  but…

        stop it,  asterin.  the look on catri’s face should have been more than enough to say to you that you would be fine tonight.  stop worrying.  still,  it’s strange to not have the comfortable weight of armor on her torso or to have her hammer by her side.  since when did palaces get so stingy about the person they were honoring defending themselves ?  she’d saved a prince’s life…  inadvertently,  she will admit,  but it was still a life saved,  and this was her thanks.  this massive party with hundreds of people she didn’t know,  all saying she was a hero.  thank goodness for humility.  

mememe

                            ❝i’m not stubborn.❞

        monaeria can think of a great deal many people, only one of them living ( unless catri counts, who quite clearly thinks her stubborn, ) who would disagree with those very words. monaeria before her death had been incredibly stubborn——she’d barked at her dog-man friend just to prove she could bark BETTER.

          clearly, even as a mostly-stoic, walking WEAPON, who claims to be uncaring ; she’s still just as stubborn, if not moreso ; to the point of being stubborn enough to claim she isn’t. ❝i’m not being stubborn,❞ she reiterates, this time firmer,