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Is there any other Starfolk who’s perfect for this prompt besides phoenix? Nope, so I have finally drawn my favourite starbird, based on one of my most dearly beloved mythological creatures.
Just a simple pin/ sticker design, that’s all. Might become Wildfire/ Puppet Dance! phoenix design, we’ll see…
Prompt list belongs to @ultrainfinitepit
Also off-topic but I am currently listening to “Elements” by Lindsey Stirling, which makes me thing about this one video about the phoenix that’s very nostalgic for me, which is this one ^v^
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Another drabble inspired by my Blinded Edda AU, this time the actual event itself... plus some Fluff.
It happened so fast.
One moment, Edda was shielding herself from the Phoenix's fire blasts, the other moment, Aven was running away with an unconscious Edda, his scarf wrapped around her face. The bird has just blasted her, directly in the face, with fire magic, leaving a massive scar, and an unconscious starfolk.
Luckily, the bird decided it wasn't worth the effort to chase them down, so Aven had a rather easy time going back to the Void.
Gris greeted them, admittedly very worried, "Dear stars! What has happened to you two?"
"Tried to fight a phoenix, but Edda..." he trailed off, "She... she got hit right in the face with its fire magic."
"Oh... oh dear," the Neutral whined, before casually walking off, getting some supplies from a nearby box, "I'm not too sure how well this would work, but it's worth a shot."
Aven laid his companion on the floor, before Gris crouched down, a rag, bandages and a strange liquid in her hands. "First of all, loosen up the scarf from her face." He did exactly that, and finally getting a chance to see just how bad the damage was.
A crack ran right in the middle of her face, diagonally, with several other cracks branching off of it. It was also stained a darker blue than usual, possibly because of the magic. Even her mask was glowing a lot dimmer than usual, which is concerning.
Gris gently wiped the starfolk's face, before taking the bandages and wrapping her head, careful to not make it suffocating. "I'm not too sure if she'll fully recover from this," she sighed, "There will be some form of lasting damage, most likely lost of sight."
"So you're implying that she'll be blind?" Aven drawled, "So... she won't be able to fight again?"
"No silly," Gris laughed, "She could learn how to use her other senses instead, so she won't be out of it."
For stars alone knows how long, Aven wandered around, completely alone. He managed to absorb some smaller starbeasts, practice in the Arena and... helped Gris get some longer grasses to make some mats for Edda, specifically to help her identify which portal is which. It was surprising, considering that he never saw Gris outside of the Void, but apparently she decided to somehow sneak around the fighting starfolks and get the materials herself... except she didn't have enough. So Aven fetched some more for her.
Then the time finally came, where Edda finally wakes up.
It was awkward, he was just about to go to the Sanctuary when he heard a soft, weak chirp. He turned around, and Edda seemed to be weakly calling out to him.
The poor light starfolk seemed... tired, her movements sluggish and weak. He felt incredibly bad for her. Gris popped in and crouched right besides her, clearly waiting on Aven to come closer.
"Hey... Edda," Aven spoke, "It's me, Aven."
"... Aven?" Edda chirped, hoarse and soft, "What... happened? Why does it feel like there's something on my face?"
Oh right. The bandages.
"Oh yeah... you... got hit by the phoenix we were fighting, right in the face," Aven sighed, "You... your injuries were really bad. Hence the bandages."
"Oh," Edda chirped, still weak, Gris helping her sit upright, "But, why it's on my face, and only my face."
"It hit you right in the face, remember?"
"Oh. Oh right, I think I remember what you're talking about... wait... since it hit me directly in the face. Does that mean... I'm blinded?"
"Not too sure, but it's likely."
"No, no no no no NO!" the light starfolk suddenly screeched, "I... I can't do anything that I like... including exploring and fighting."
"Hey, hey, listen. Just because you can't see anymore, does not mean that you're useless. Gris is already trying to help you with adjusting to it by making a bunch of mats near the portals so you can know which one is which. Plus, I'll be your guide, I'm not leaving you just because you can't see anymore."
"But, for now, please rest. You're still hurt and healing from that."
Location wise, it'd make *way* more sense if Phoenix was at the very top of the Spire, instead of midway up. Birb, birb like nesting in high places with open air.
Now, imagine getting to the top of the Spire. You've either fought Demon, lost, and are taking a short breather, or you've fought Demon and won. Either one works.
But then, you can see there's more *up* to the Spire - not very far, but you can tell the tower keeps going. When you keep going, you pass through a narrow vertical tunnel and emerge out into open air. You're on the roof of the spire - there's lots of grapples and not a lot of floor, plus periodic strong wind to account for. There's fiery plants and moss, and lots of flame motifs.
But, you get to the top, and you see this *nest*. Big, looming, and you can see bits of Lightfolk shell used in its construction.
And then an angry Phoenix emerges from the nest, screeching at you and flaring his wings.
If you haven't beat Demon, or have only killed him but not absorbed, the Phoenix is just being territorial, and hasn't lit himself up yet.
If you *have* absorbed Demon, he's 300x more furious because you just consumed his master and friend. Here, he starts already on fire, and opens with harder attacks. Maybe the fight overall is outright harder like this.
Oh, and you can't *leave* the area until you absorb him. When he dies too easily,
it actually costs you something. You're just stuck here until you win (I could see a caveat where if you let yourself lose the fight and "die," you can leave, because the Phoenix just straight up punts you off the spire, and you land somewhere down below.)
For additional fight mechanics, you could even incorporate something where if you fail to meet x condition or fail to feed enough fire to him, he just instakills you in an explosion because he got too unstable or something. Make it a hard fight to juggle, but hopefully it's more rewarding when you win.
And when you *do* win, a) you get your easy way down back, but b) you could have that petal up here instead, since Demon is already guarding a passage. Or have a health upgrade here instead of one of the less significant locations. Have it be in the nest, let the player go into the nest and walk around. Shoot, the reward could be *lore* and I'd be happy.
Also got any trivia for unicorns and phoenixes of the Eclipsed AU? Including Jewel and Kent?
Not tons, but it's time to remedy that >:)
Some general stuff:
Both Phoenixes and Unicorns are Stellpeci by default. However, they also have a significantly higher chance of full sapience than most Stellpeci.
They also can run into this interesting phenomena of very high sentience and/or partial sapience. Think sort of on the order of the dragons in HTTYD - very self aware and very emotive, but still definitively animals rather than a full on person.
When sapient, neither are very talkative, and often opt for shows of physical attention and affection to communicate rather than speech. Unicorns are slightly more inclined to talk, if only because they hate being misinterpreted.
Unicorns are soft spoken, most times. Calm, gentle, and usually considerate.
Phoenixes are a bit louder, though surprisingly not by much. They like to sing. They also tend to be just slightly more energetic.
Oh, also? You don't "own" a Unicorn or Phoenix. It doesn't matter if they aren't sapient, and it doesn't matter whether they're technically your mount in battle, they aren't really possessions. You are theirs as much as they are yours, and they are only yours insofar as they allow themselves to be (and vice versa). It's a very Narnian dynamic, really.
It is pretty common for Unicorns and Phoenixes to bond to a rider or keeper of some sort. The companionship comes naturally. They're as likely to choose you as you them. However, there is no particular rhyme or reason to who may end up with one - it's not like Ophanim where it's formatted and somewhat ritual.
They're also usually born in nebulas as roamers, because Stellpeci. But they gravitate towards Starfolk in a way uncommon to most Stellpeci.
These guys are very emotionally tuned in regardless, and when bonded are extremely perceptive to their companion's emotions.
As for our two specifically...
Jewel:
Jewel is a dear friend of Angel's. They've been together since being Starlets, and trust each other with their lives.
By extension, Jewel and Hasyut are also quite close. However, it took much longer for them to warm up to each other. Both reacted roughly with "Who's this? What do you mean new person?"
Hasyut was also a little... unsure and possibly jealous? Because Jewel was undeniably there first, and she can't refute that.
Jewel was more indifferent, with an air of "as long as you don't start problems, I'm fine with you." He was kinda aloof for a while, but eventually started initiating some interaction. He did so partly because he could tell that Hasyut was a bit insecure about her position around him, and he's not heartless.
Angel doesn't make a habit of riding on Jewel's back - partly because she doesn't exactly need to, and partly because it feels awkward to her. The most notable exceptions were these:
1) when she got injured in the Caravan Incident and Jewel - upon finding her when she was returned home - was her "wheelchair" for a good bit. He took care of transport and in many cases took care of her.
2) At one point when they were... fairly young, Angel was just... having a remarkably bad week, and getting depressive. Jewel was (reasonably) concerned, and just...scooped her up and said "we're going outside." He took her on a lengthy jaunt through the Midnight Forest and part of the Sanctuary, and by the end had concluded that the Silver Peaks were just... kinda too depressing for Angel at the moment. That was the start of Angel keeping plants in her room.
Like most Unicorns, Jewel takes some pride in his appearance. There is, quite frankly, not much better way to a Unicorn's heart than taking good care of them and grooming them thoroughly. (This is part of how Hasyut bonded with him, after he initiated an interaction or two.) He may not have much practical use for clothes, but he's got a carpet...drape...thingy that goes on his back that he can wear, and often does if Angel is riding (one simply Does Not, Under Any Circumstances, put a saddle or bridle on a Unicorn). He also has some additional armor that he's quite font of. Thanks to some minor levitative magic in his horn, he can usually outmaneuver it himself, although Angel and/or Hasyut often help him anyways.
He's got a playful streak - the foal in him never quite went away. You may catch a glimpse of it if you find him running full speed through an empty field, or rolling in the grass (if you catch the latter, do not say anything or he might die of embarrassment. He's got to maintain some dignity, after all).
Dignified is really the best way to encapsulate him, frankly. Dignified, regal, and composed.
Also, as per Octa's reply on the original post, Jewel is a reference to our beloved unicorn in The Last Battle (Narnia)
Khet:
Khet's name is simply the Egyptian word for "fire."
If there was ever something good Ceren did in his life, it was rescuing Khet.
He found her badly tangled up in a dormant Corospinae and rapidly losing essence, which the Corospinae was draining (this is a survival mechanism of their kind - if they must go dormant, they try to snare other Starfolk in their thorns to leech off of them.
Ceren (at that point... young-ish, think late 20's in human analog) took pity on her and untangled her. He'd intended to just... let her go, and do her thing, but then again... she was awfully hurt...
And then she pulled the wide, starry, wobbly eyes on him and he discovered that there is, in fact, one thing in this whole wide world that he is extremely weak to.
So he brought her home with him and nursed her back to health (perhaps not the most competently, but she recovered fully thanks to some input from Kleisme). Once again, the intention was to have her go free once she'd recovered, but...
Well, she did leave, technically. He was very firm and she did understand. She got... what, maybe two areas of the Spire away, moving at a good clip so as not to give herself time to think. And then she heard an amalgam of yelling and sobbing, and turned right back around.
Ceren met her halfway (once again at the urging of Kleisme) and the two practically barreled into each other.
Needless to say, Khet stayed from then on out.
Interestingly, when Ceren found her, Khet wasn't sapient. Pretty high on the self-awareness, but not sapient.
Over the course of taking care of her, though, she not only imprinted on Ceren, but started to match his sapience. About the time he tried to get her to leave, she was... we'll say Toothless levels of sentient.
After returning, and over the next few months, that crossed the gap into fully awakened and sapient.
Khet may also be the singular entity that Ceren most respects in his life. He's not got a good track record of treating his friends well. Khet is the sole and isolated exception. Khet he treats with utmost respect and care - she is nothing short of precious and priceless to him.
This is both part of why she stays around, and why when his other acquaintances leave, things don't go horrifically south (in... all but one case).
You'd think that maybe Kleisme would get jealous or resentful of Khet for being Ceren's favorite, especially given some of the nonsense he has to put up with from Ceren.
And... you'd be the teensiest bit right.
But the resentment is more leveled silently at Ceren, not Khet. Kleisme gets along quite well with Khet, and always has. They're good friends, and Khet has on several occasions kept an eye out for Kleisme.
Initially, Khet tries to carefully and subtly nudge Ceren out of being quite so awful to Kleisme, and it... kinda works? But it also becomes rapidly apparent that it's a habit, and not one that's going to break, so she's gonna be reminding him for the rest of his days. After admittedly too long of this, she slowly changes her tune to helping Kleisme, and (indirectly) encouraging space between the two. Things that put Kleisme at a distance for longer times, things that don't involve as much interaction, etc. - acclimating Ceren to his absence.
This feeds smoothly into Kleisme's eventual departure when it does happen.
Unfortunately, this is also the singular time that someone's departure from Ceren's life does go south, despite her best efforts.
