blades-in-the-shadows

[blades-in-the-shadows]

draufgxnger:

Even if Hector didn’t quite believe her words, he did find himself smiling, eyebrows still raised, though his expression was more curious than accusatory at this point.

“Alright, alright,” he said.  The gift didn’t look very good, which he supposed was all well and good.  If she’d stolen something to give to him, he’d have wanted something prettier for sure.  Its appearance confirmed she was telling the truth…  Even if it wasn’t the whole truth.

He tucked the empty box of chocolates (that he had planned on giving her) under his arm and unceremoniously tore open the wrapping around the box…

Perhaps it was a good thing that her crafting skills were nonexistent; it would’ve been a lot of hard work lost in an instant, with the way Hector tore it apart. Leila lightly knotted her fingers behind her back when the little box of chocolates was revealed.

“Regular candy,” she confirmed, “and I promise, I didn’t make it myself.” Still her smirk widened, still she let her expression say more than her words; she chuckled at his hesitation.

“You don’t trust me.” she was almost proud, “hmm, well, that doesn’t make it any less fun.” Her fingers plucked a chocolate before he could stop her, and she popped it in her mouth. “Almond filling.” she feigned surprise, “that’s the kind you hate, isn’t it?”

“Well, for shame, half of these things just so happen to be almond. I guess that means you’ll just have to share.”

[blades-in-the-shadows]

“Steal? Me?” Leila scoffed, but the smirk never faltered, even as she shifted her weight.

“No,” she said, “I made the box myself, that’s why it looks so bad, just for you.” There was a look in her eye, a glint, that spoke more than her words did. She didn’t elaborate on what it meant.

“Go on, open it.”

cont from

@blades-in-the-shadows:

“Awwh,” Leila smiled, “If I didn’t know better I’d say you were making a jab. You didn’t really think hiding the box where you did would stop me did you?” She looked at the empty box, and her smirk only widened.

“Get in line, you know how many people gave me chocolates I didn’t care enough to eat? You should be pleased.” She reached into her bag then, to pull out a small box, clumsily wrapped, and hold it out in offering.

“If it’s that important to you, have some chocolate back.”

“I’m not pleased,” Hector argued.  “I bought these yesterday and you couldn’t even wait until now.”  He rolled his eyes, only slightly interested in her proffered gift.

While the thought was certainly sweet, he couldn’t help but quirk an eyebrow at the box.

“…Did you steal these?”

[blades-in-the-shadows]

Happy Valentine's day, I was gonna give you this box of chocolates but seeing as how you already ate them all that's no longer necessary.

“Awwh,” Leila smiled, “If I didn’t know better I’d say you were making a jab. You didn’t really think hiding the box where you did would stop me did you?” She looked at the empty box, and her smirk only widened.

“Get in line, you know how many people gave me chocolates I didn’t care enough to eat? You should be pleased.” She reached into her bag then, to pull out a small box, clumsily wrapped, and hold it out in offering.

“If it’s that important to you, have some chocolate back.”

[blades-in-the-shadows]

[blades-in-the-shadows]

tagged by @waywardwxnderers​​

GENERAL

» NAME: Leila » AGE: 24 » BIRTHDAY:  She’s a Gemini, so somewhere between May 22nd and June 21st.

» SPECIES: Human » GENDER: Female » SEX: Female » ORIENTATION: straight » PROFESSION: An Ostian Spy

PHYSICAL ASPECTS » HAIR: Dark red (sometimes dark pink, depending on the art?) » EYES: Same as her hair. » SKIN: Very pale. She doesn’t get much sunlight in her line of work. » HEIGHT: 5′4″ » WEIGHT:  Around 115lbs. For her size, she’s actually pretty small. She doesn’t always get to eat when she’s on the job.

FAMILY » SIBLINGS: None. If she did, they probably wouldn’t have gotten along, all things considered. » PARENTS:  Leila’s mother is an artist-- a painter specifically-- and her father is a merchant; he travels to town each day to sell the crafts that she made. They’re average villagers, but they live comfortably. Watching them at work set Leila up to be good at talking, and good with her hands, from a very young age.

Her parents care about her a lot, but Leila hasn’t talked to them in years. In fact, when she began working as a spy for Uther, he convinced her to send word back to them-- so that they wouldn’t think that she was dead.

It’s not that she dislikes either her mother or father, but Leila has a lot of guilt over what she put them through, and since she doesn’t know how to apologize, she keeps putting it off. The nature of her job makes it easier to do so-- she can hide behind the excuse that they’d be safer if she stays out of contact.

» GRANDPARENTS: » OTHER RELATIVES: She has no direct familial ties, but Oswin and Uther are like older brothers to her; they’ve given her advice at her worst, and helped her to her feet when she’s fallen. She has the utmost respect for them.

Hector too is like a brother, but a younger one. That she likes to pick on a whole lot. She actually worries about him a lot more than she’d admit.

Matthew is... He must never know how much of her world he is. It’d go right to his head. 

She holds Mark in high regard as well, though what exactly their relationship is... Well, she hasn’t decided yet.

» ANY PETS?: She loves animals and is actually very good with them-- there were a lot of them in her village growing up, and knowing how to keep them quiet and content is useful to her job. She doesn’t have to worry about them stabbing her in the back, or betraying information-- she can just enjoy their presence. Unfortunately, her job doesn’t make owning a pet feasible-- it’s too much work to take care of and she wouldn’t be around enough.

She dreams of getting a cat one day though.

SKILLS » PHYSICAL PROWESS: She’s scrawny. Very good at acrobatics, and very fast, but in the strength department she doesn’t have much to talk about-- her lacking weight doesn’t help her either. Generally she avoids fighting, but In battle it’s her wits and reflexes that keeps her alive. » ABILITIES: Leila is good at everything she does pertaining to her job. She’s good looking, good at talking, good at moving and stealing, perceptive where it counts, and downright vicious with her blades. She can think on her feet and see well in poor conditions, takes pride in being impossible to read, and can rig traps like it’s child’s play. Don’t mess with her, you’ll regret it. » HOBBIES: stealing, flustering people, stealing, petting cats and dogs, stealing....

TRAITS —— POSITIVE ——

Leila is witty, charming, and has a great sense of humor. She’s loyal to those she cares about and will do anything to ensure their safety, even if it involves dirtying her hands. She’s cautious and careful in her work-- always planning three steps ahead-- and she’s always ready for the next job.

——- NEGATIVE ——-

She’s awful at talking about herself, or being honest. She can’t do anything outside of her work-- cooking, cleaning, sewing etc-- because she’s so caught up in her job she can’t be bothered to learn. She steals compulsively-- a bad habit she picked up as a kid and never kicked-- and takes great joy in keeping even those she cares for on their toes. The more flustered they are, the less questions they’ll ask. The easier it’ll be to keep them at arm’s length.

She’s spiteful to those who get on her bad side, and when it comes to people who even consider hurting those she cares for, Leila doesn’t know when to stop. She knows the game. She knows how to find peoples’ weaknesses, and she knows how to destroy them piece. by. piece. She is a destructive force, and oftentimes she needs someone to inform her that with great power comes great responsibility.

LIKES

» COLORS: Red, purple, and green. Such colors aren’t exactly conducive to spywork, but she makes them work anyways. » SMELLS: fire, paint, matthew » FOOD: She’s not picky, because she doesn’t always get to eat. Despite her penchant for blackmailing people into buying her expensive food however, Leila actually prefers peasant food. It reminds her of home. » DRINKS: She actually likes apple juice more than anything. Her parents had a tree growing up, so she had ‘apple’ stuff a lot-- especially when they couldn’t get anything else. She used to hate it, but now she misses it. » ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES?: She prefers the lighter stuff. The less she can taste the alcohol, the better.

OTHER DETAILS » SMOKES? Nope » DRUGS?: Too risky with her job » DRIVER LICENSE?: What’s that? » EVER BEEN ARRESTED?: It’s basically how Uther hired her.

> Done! Now tag 15 other people to do it! 

Are you reading this right now? Have you done this thing yet? No?

Tag, yer it.

[blades-in-the-shadows]

This blog will be accepting trick or treaters for the entire weekend of Halloween!

{Send ‘Trick or Treat’ to get some candy from the muse!

This blog will accept any trick or treaters from Friday- Sunday (Oct 30 - Nov 1st)}

[blades-in-the-shadows]

Blog Announcement! (About drafts I owe here...)

Originally posted by disneytasthic

{So I haven’t been very active here– or on any of my FE blogs– and I’m aware of that. I’ve been a bit burned out and it’s been hard for me to write. To clarify, I still have a muse, but for some reason it’s hard for me to find the energy to reply to my drafts.

I think what I need to do is just start off small until I can really get back into the swing of things– not overwhelm myself trying to force long replies, y’know?

So here’s the plan:

All of my current RPs are being put on a hiatus of sorts. They practically are already, so it’s not much of a change. I don’t want to drop them because I do genuinely like them, but I wanna be able to do good replies, so Ima wait until such a time that I can.

- I realize this is a pain. If you’d rather drop your thread with me I understand, just let me know.

In the meantime I’d like to start up newer, probably smaller, threads and get back into the swing of writing. This’ll either be in the form of open starters, in greeter posts to newer followers, or starters for people who’d like one!

I know it’s not ideal, but I think it’s the best option for me. So thank you for understanding and bearing with me!

Tl;DR: Read the bolded parts.

‘Nuff said!}

[blades-in-the-shadows]

✒︎

Leila learned how to read in the same classes where Hector was in his regular noble classes-- learning history and such.

It became a bit of a competition between the two, and it was probably one of the few times in terms of learning that either of them bothered to focus on work. Uther was pleased to see that neither skipped classes the other was also in with them, which is why he eventually reworked the schedule so all their classes were together.

Their friendly rivalry evolved into a good friendship as time went by.

[blades-in-the-shadows]

✒︎

Leila and Oswin have a good relationship, but it didn’t start that way.

Originally, as I’ve mentioned before on this blog, the way that Leila met Uther and started working for him was because she’d tried to steal from a noble merchant’s caravan and got caught.

The one who caught her and brought her to the capital was Oswin. During the trip they developed a grudging respect for each other, though they certainly didn’t see eye to eye. It was only after Leila started officially working for Ostia that they began to develop a better relationship.

And today, they’re actually very close.

[blades-in-the-shadows]

Send me “✒︎” for a random, dumb, pointless fact about my muse.

[blades-in-the-shadows]

“Hmm...”  So the cloak was something Mark wouldn’t be seen without, even if it was hot? Leila had heard of people making fashion statements, but he wasn’t the sort to do that.

Maybe it had belonged to a family member? It was plausible, she supposed-- but Mark had never even mentioned his family, and while staying tight lipped about that sort of thing was common for her... Well... It was a bit odd for him. Especially given the fact that Lady Lyndis had picked him up after he’d fainted somewhere in Sacae... That already posed a lot of questions about his familial situation.

His dialect was loosely Ostian, so she’d always assumed he was from there. Had he fled Ostia because his family died somehow? Why had he gone towards Sacae?

...And just how did the damned cloak fit into the whole puzzle?

Mark’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts, and she put the cloak down to glance at him once more. He was flustered. So it’d be the perfect time to get information out of him... Assuming she was that mean anyways....

She was.

“So what makes that cloak so special?” She asked, choosing to simply pet the towel rather than bring it to him. “Did you get it from a family member, hmm?”

Oh dear, now Leila was interrogating him about his cloak. That was one of the few things Mark absolutely had not wanted to have happen. Leila was getting suspicious, and he knew, he absolutely knew that she’d end up finding out why he wore those damn robes. She always had a way of getting what she wanted, and Mark was absolutely powerless to stop her. He might as well give up now and spill the beans just to get it over with.

“I guess it’s a bit hot, but I’d rather not go anywhere without it,” Mark responded, still trying to make himself as small as possible beneath the surface of the water. If he could avoid Leila’s question, he would, but he knew quite well that she’d have more questions. Still, he didn’t absolutely have to tell her everything, now did he? She couldn’t really see his body from where she was standing. Perhaps he could just dash out of the water and into his robes while her back was turned.

…No, that wouldn’t work. No matter how badly Mark wished he could do that, he knew it wouldn’t be possible. Leila was holding his cloak, and his robes were scattered on the floor on the other side of her. Besides, he was sitting in the bath right now. If he got into his robes right away, they’d get soaked, and they were horrible to wear when they got wet. They were already heavy enough when they were dry. He’d have to suffer, it seemed. But perhaps there was still something he could cover himself with. Mark couldn’t stand being so horribly indecent around anyone, even Leila. He had to cover himself up with something as soon as possible.

“Towel,” Mark squeaked, unable to meet Leila’s eyes out of embarrassment. “I’d, um, greatly appreciate it if you could hand me my towel. It’s next to my robes. And, um, it would be wonderful if you could shut your eyes for a minute after you hand it to me, please.” He had never been one to tell Leila what to do, but he couldn’t grab the towel himself without getting out of the bath, and he wasn’t about to do that with Leila nearby.

[blades-in-the-shadows]

There wasn’t much that surprised her. After so many years on the job, Leila had seen a bit of everything-- the good, the bad, and the ugly. She’d seen things that most men would quail at, and she’d learned not to flinch. She’d done things that most people would shy away from... And.... Okay, sometimes she enjoyed that part-- it certainly made for good money at least.

But suffice to say that with the way she’d chosen to live her life, there wasn’t much that could phase her.

...But there were some things that could.

When she’d arrived back from her mission, Leila had figured her report could wait. There wasn’t much substantial to be said-- the situation hadn’t really changed-- but she’d still ended up going through a good number of sleepless and hungry nights to find that out.

So a little R&R could hurt. And there was someone in particular that made relaxing that much more.... calming.... Leila figured she could find her favorite little tactician and--

--find that he was already bounding up to her?

She hadn’t seen him so excited in awhile, in fact she almost looked around to make sure it wasn’t another person he was looking for. Instead she chose to crack a smile of her own as he led her back to his tent, only half listening to his babble. She was tired, after all.

...But then Mark did something that surprised her. He crossed the distance between them and planted a kiss on her cheek.

He’d actually kissed her.

Not her teasing him with the other way around.

Leila stared for a long moment, and touched her cheek in disbelief before recomposing herself enough to return the gesture. Placing a kiss on his cheek, she smiled and asked,

“Did you miss me?”

❖ - blades in the shadows

As much as Mark would like to pretend Leila was nothing special to him, just another one of his allies, it simply was not true, and it was more than obvious at this point. He was always smiling (and blushing and stammering like an idiot) around her more than he did around anyone else, and whenever she left to fulfill her duties as a spy, Mark moped around and sighed just a bit too often. If ever questioned about it, Mark would vehemently deny having any feelings for her, but it was quite obviously a lie.

When Leila returned from spying, however, was a completely different story. As much as he wanted to wait until they were alone to really welcome her back, it was quite apparent that he was excited to see her return safe and sound. His face was practically aglow from happiness, his eyes shining and mouth split into a wide grin.

“You’re back!” Mark exclaimed, having a hard time containing himself. For once, he actually kissed her– just a quick peck on the cheek, but still enough to turn his own face bright red– before retreating a few steps, still grinning excitedly. At least they were alone in Mark’s tent, so nobody would know that he’d done that (unless someone else was spying on them). That was assuming, of course, Leila wasn’t about to include that in her report on what she’d learned during her mission.

[blades-in-the-shadows]

Raising the bar (closed starter)

It’d been a long time since she’d returned to Caelin-- especially when she wasn’t working.... At least, not officially...

Really, the place wasn’t any different than the last time she’d been there; it was nice to see it in times of peace rather than the constant tension among the villagers, but their bustle and lifestyle remained the same.

...So it was a little boring, sure, but at least she didn’t have to spend every moment watching her back-- that was definitely a plus.

And hey, she knew where the bar was in the area around the capital too, she could stop in and have a peaceful drink and--

--see a familiar face?

“Oh?” Leila smiled charmingly as she made her way over to Kent. “Sir knight, this is not the sort of place I expected to see you in.”

[blades-in-the-shadows]

Anyone want a starter?

{I’ve gotten a lot of new followers, and it’s been awhile since I’ve done a starter call on here.

So anyone who doesn’t RP with me yet, do you want a starter?}

[blades-in-the-shadows]

It was a bit odd, of all things, to be sharing an inn with the tactician. Leila wasn’t a babysitter, but when push came to shove Mark needed to be protected, and with the way things currently were, staying with one of the lords was the same as painting a giant target on him. Charging the best spy in Ostia to keep him safe and hidden was the safest bet.

... But that didn’t make it easy.

Leila didn’t like sitting still, Mark liked peace and quiet; she liked going out on the town to gather information, he preferred the opposite. Frankly the most frustrating thing wasn’t the worry about what might happen, but trying to find a compromise that didn’t drive them both insane-- like right then.

Why he had locked the door was beyond her. She was the only one around, and locks weren’t more than a mild annoyance. All Leila wanted was her brush, so she could run it through her hair before... Well, she wasn’t sure what, but it was better than sitting still reading.

“Relax.” She said, focusing more on her own task than on him, “If I see something I haven’t before I’ll throw some gold at it, ‘kay? I’m just looking for my brush... And there it is.” It’d been hiding underneath his cloak... Which... now that she held it.

“Isn’t this thing a bit heavy to be wearing at this time of year?”

§-- from leila. yer choice, ya loser. owo

My muse has just gotten into the bathtub when your muse barges in unannounced. Send me a § for my muse’s reaction.

Oh dear sweet Elimine preserve him, Mark had never imagined that Leila would run in on him like this. He was so sure he’d locked the door too (not that locks had ever stopped Leila anyway). It was, in short, quite alarming to be walked in on like that. He wanted to object and politely request that she leave, or perhaps request less than politely if he had to, but he couldn’t. He didn’t think Leila had ever even seen him without all of his robes on. She’d never seen how utterly small he was underneath them.

Instead of yelling or even stammering something incomprehensible out of sheer embarrassment, Mark just sank down a little deeper into the water, chocolate eyes staring at Leila with a mixture of shock, embarrassment, and fear. What would she say when she realized how skinny he was? How much of him had she seen? He wasn’t sure, but he really hoped she hadn’t seen very much at all. It was just a shame that the water couldn’t really obscure his body, as much as he wished it could.

[blades-in-the-shadows]

ask-lucius-of-cornwell:

rorberyllium:

I spent the whole Lyn’s story segment assuming Lucuis was a girl. Androgyny seems to be a thing among mages and monks. I feel like I should have known better. My hips have been known to be occasionally dishonest.

Art by Tuinen

Ah–yes–that’s been known to happen ^^; I’m sorry for the confusion!

[blades-in-the-shadows]

“Apparently there’s a boobfest going on? Hmmmm....”