heartstringbound - Tumblr blog

[heartstringbound]

…she’s pretty sure there’s blood in her head now.

Every once in a while, one of the pups will come over to sniff at her curiously. Setsuna can’t really do much for them, sadly. It’s hard to give a pup a pet when your arms are tangled up in leashes, so she can’t really do much from where she’s hanging but stare back at the puppy and try not to move too much when one of them starts to lick at her face.

…the puppies are at least nicer to her than Lady Hinoka’s pegasus.

Setsuna sighs. Well. She can’t really do anything. Which she does feel a little bad about, because she did tell the knights who told her to come take care of them that she would do her best to make sure the puppies were happy. She still wanted to do that, but she would need to get down first, and while she was sure someone would find her if she waited long enough, she would feel really bad if Lady Hinoka flew all the way across the ocean just to get her untangled.

So…what was she supposed to do now? Setsuna hums to herself and closes her eyes as she wonders…and hears the sound of footsteps outside the kennel. Oh! She doesn’t have her bow to shoot and get their attention, but…

“Hello? Is somebody out there?”

@optimismxmagicism

mount garou looks different

Anniversary 2024 | Riding +1

[heartstringbound]

"Miss Setsuna!" the petite priestess bpwed her head in sign of respect, after she happily approached the familiar retainer. "I'm so glad to have you here as well!" she was obviously referring to Azama, but the hint of disappointment of not seeing Hinoka with her was quietly present in her pale visage.

"How are you doing?"

Oh. Oh dear, this wasn't good. Setsuna isn't really as close with the littlest princess of Hoshido. She has no idea how familiar is too familiar. But she's pretty sure at least that a princess shouldn't be bowing to a retainer. Lady Hinoka definitely told her that before.

"Hello, Lady Sakura." Setsuna raises her hands awkwardly, wondering if she should lift the other woman up from the bow she's doing. Thankfully, she does it first, though Setsuna still frowns worryingly.

"It's good to see you too. Though it's kind of like you never left. Your retainers talk about you so much, sometimes I forgot you were even gone."

Seeing no more surprise formalities from the princess, Setsuna smiles and nods. "I've been the same as always...I haven't had the chance to look around much yet. Lady Hinoka said I shouldn't stray too far from the monastery though. I think she's worried I might walk off a cliff or fall down the mountains."

She laughs. "That's silly though. I don't need to get anything at the bottom of the mountain."

[heartstringbound]

The person who handed her her Baby-That-Was-Not-A-Baby gave her a very tired look and wished her good luck before telling her she’d meet her partner in the hall. Which was funny. Cause it kind of looked like the look people usually gave Lady Hinoka sometimes when they were talking about her and Azama. Which was also also funny because Lady Hinoka didn’t need things like luck, she was amazing and had Setsuna and Azama already!

Setsuna appreciates the luck though because…well she doesn’t know who thought it was a good idea to give her a baby, even if it isn’t a real baby. She guesses if you tilt your head and squint, it’s kind of the same as taking care of Lady Hinoka…if Lady Hinoka was smaller and portable and very hard to the touch.

…oh, she didn’t even know who the father was. That wasn’t good. Her parents wouldn’t be happy to hear that she had a Not-Baby and didn’t even know who the Not-Father was. She’d definitely get more letters from them about that for sure, and then Lady Hinoka would find out about the Not-Baby and then…

Setsuna raises her head as she steps into the hall and blinks slowly. “Oh, hi Azama.” Did she have to name the Not-Baby? Did the Academy offer new parents any kind of benefits? She doesn’t remember there being any bows small enough to fit in the Not-Baby’s hands…

…wait. “Azama?” Oh! Setsuna smiles and pinches his cheek. Not a ghost…wow… “I thought you were dead.” She tells him cheerfully. He’s the only one in the hallway…maybe her new partner is late then? Setsuna holds up the Not-Baby, which she was holding by the ankle. “Do you know who I’m supposed to take care of this with?”

@carefreemonk

tag two blokes who do fuck all

Anniversary 2024 | faith +1

[heartstringbound]

Setsuna is definitely, absolutely confident that working at the counter is something she can handle. It was just like when they took turns running the stores in the army! Setsuna liked working those days, even if people always made funny faces when they saw her there, because it meant she got to say hi and talk to a lot of people. And they always talked with her a lot! She remembers them talking to her very carefully, and very slowly, and nicely listing out everything they wanted and making sure that she gave them the right gold amounts for it…it was very nice of everyone.

She thought it’d be just like that. Everyone here was a lot less nice.

“Hey…” She doesn’t remember the green guy’s name. People don’t usually like it when she asks their names a bunch. She can remember it. Probably. “Forceps.” Setsuna gestures down at the screen of the cash register. The woman placing her order huffs and angrily crosses her arm. She’s been saying something the whole time, but Setsuna hadn’t really been listening while she focused on her problem. It probably wasn’t important compared to how red the lady’s face was getting.

“I’m not sure how to remove this…” A hundred fish sandwiches seemed a little extreme, but that’s what happened when Setsuna had pushed the button like she’d been shown to do, so the machine was probably right and probably knew better than she did anyway. “Should I just tell her that’s how many she’s buying now? That seems like a lot for one person to eat.”

@viridescent-lance

ma'am this is a wendys

anniversary 2024 | Authority +1

[heartstringbound]

fanart i drew of hinoka’s retainers dying in a glue trap

[heartstringbound]

exemplaris​:

Timmy fell down into the well?!

“I don’t think it’s noble to help someone—” Ferdinand paused in his searching, hearing her voice float up from the hole. He had been on the brink of retorting something back, something suitably offended, but then she continued before he got the change. “I think that’s just being a good person.”

He stared at the tool kit he had open with a look of mild confusion. What was she talking about? What was the issue there, exactly?

“But those can be the same thing,” he protested, opening and closing a pair of long shears in his hands with a rusty squeak. (For a village without a functioning well, it sure had been humid in these parts overnight.) “A noble should strive to do good, and it is necessary to do good to be noble!”

There. That made sense, didn’t it? Ferdinand set the toolbox aside, finding nothing of use, and while returning the kit to the workers’ resting site where he had found it, nearly tripped over the remains of a fire pit. There were bottles left behind, the burned remains of roasted sweet potatoes and shells of nuts… But most importantly, Ferdinand’s eyes widened as it settled on the fire poker. It too had been rusted, but there had been a backwards facing hook about an inch from the end. He grabbed for it immediately.

“The well would not fit both of us,” Ferdinand argued, dusting the poker off. Not to mentioned that with the rope down there, there was no way for him to leverage himself to the bottom without injury to himself, and inevitable injury to her as the person already down there. What good would they be if either of them broke a limb? “Besides, even stacked atop one another, there is no one else awake at the moment to get us both out.”

Then they would both be stuck down there. Ferdinand couldn’t see how that would help.

“Are you certain you cannot throw it even a little bit? As an archer, surely you are able to generate some momentum in propelling objects with your arms…” And in that moment, the light at the bottom of the well dimmed a little as a head of ginger and the attached face came over the open top of the well. Ferdinand had been lying on his stomach—this was what one was supposed to do when rescuing people who had fallen through ice, was it not?—and peering down the bottom. One hand, holding the poker, reached down into the pit, swinging the hook back and forth. “If you can get it at least this high, I may be able to fish it up to the surface and pull you out!”

“Can be.” She agreed easily. “But that doesn’t mean they have to be.” He seemed to mean well enough when he said it. He seemed to even believe it genuinely, not just as something nice to say. That was sweet. It was a shame that he was wrong though.

“How many nobles do you know personally that actually do that?”

It was plenty easy to think of people who said one thing and did another after all. Things weren’t as bad in Hoshido, she could easily imagine Lord Ryoma or one of the other royal family members stepping in when things got bad. That didn’t mean it didn’t happen. And Nohr had tons of stories, even if things were improving now that the previous king was gone.

If he thought that never happened anywhere...he was going to hurt himself like that. But Setsuna also wasn’t sure it was her place to change that, necessarily.

“Hmm...” Setsuna hummed thoughtfully as he explained the reasons that he couldn’t just come join her down in the hole. They made sense. It would be much more silly if they were both stuck in the hole instead of just one of them. “That makes sense, I guess...you’re pretty smart.”

She blinked as his shadow blocked out some of the light again, as well as a strange new shape he didn’t have before. She squinted up at him, but couldn’t identify it anymore than a small stick...maybe? Oh well. “Fine...I guess I can try, if that will make you happy.”

Though that did mean she had to stand back up first. Setsuna let out a sigh before shifting and letting her legs come down from where they had been propped up against the wall. They were a little unsteady at first from having been like that for so long, so it took her a moment of shaking and fumbling before she was able to stand up properly in the hole. She took a second and brushed off the dirt from her back leisurely before looking around for the rope again.

“Alright...do my best...” Setsuna grabbed onto the rope and turned to squint up at where Ferdinand was dangling the little stick. She aimed carefully, feeling out the weight of the rope as much as she could before pulling back and throwing the rope upwards and towards him.

[heartstringbound]

exemplaris​:

Timmy fell down into the well?!

Peculiar. But then again, Ferdinand supposed Edelgard was the same way, and it hadn’t been an imposition on any of the Eagles to honour her wishes to disregard decorum. Unorthodox, but well-intentioned. Nevertheless, Ferdinand would err on the side of caution first; better to be overly-prudent than to accidentally overstep, to be sure.

“I would hardly say you are unimportant,” Ferdinand frowned, peering down at her. “For example, I would wager that the Academy would be quite cross if we were to return without you, and which is exactly why I, Ferdinand von Aegir, would consider it my noble duty to retrieve you… Also, the villagers should not be kept waiting for clean water.”

(Having a body in the well, even if alive, was not conducive to that goal.)

It would… Just be easier if there had been anything to use at ground level. The well had been quite deep; water had not been easy to access in this area, and any viable water table had to be tapped from further than one would have normally looked (or so, the villager assisting with the initial land surveying had so kindly explained to him). By the looks of it, the longest rope they could manage to assemble was coiled up under her and around her legs where it had fallen in along side her… 

“I do not suppose you could throw that rope back up? Perhaps even just the end of it?” Ferdinand called back down the well-to-be, all while looking around for something else he could use. There were tales of prisoners tying bed sheets together to scale the walls of towers and dungeons, but that would involve… Well. Getting a lot of other people involved, and it would be a terrible imposition when they were meant to be here helping them. “I understand that your… current position and the space constraints would make that difficult.”

(Maybe halters and leads? Surely they had enough tack to string together, but would that hold her weight…?)

Setsuna isn’t quite sure that he’s right about that, her being not unimportant. She is quite certain that nothing much would change for anyone if she went back home. Wasn’t that being unimportant to the academy then? Whether or not it was, it felt like a depressing train of thought to travel down, and Setsuna wasn’t sure that she wanted to give it anymore thought than what she already had.

Oh...he sure did have a long name. Setsuna blinked and titled her head as she ran it over in her mind again. That was so many names for just one person, especially one who was still practically just a kid. She wondered if it got heavy, carrying all those names like that. She wondered if he even knew how heavy that might be.

Whether or not he did was not her business. She blinked and hummed. “I guess having a body in the well would make it hard to get water out of it.” It would probably make the water taste bad too. Though Setsuna wasn’t quite sure how good she tasted. She thought she might taste alright, but she was biased. She should get an unbiased opinion. Later though. For now, she would get out of the water like she had been asked.

“I don’t think it’s noble to help someone.” She muses. “I think that’s just being a good person.”

She looked over at the rope he mentioned and frowned. It would take a lot of strength to throw it back up there properly... “I don’t think I can...maybe if I had my bow, I could shoot it back up. But I didn’t plan to have my bow down here in the hole, so I don’t have it. That makes it hard to shoot the rope, so I guess that plan doesn’t work at all...”

Maybe she could just climb...or maybe... “You could come down here as well and give me a boost. I could probably get a lot higher than I could on my own if we did that.” Maybe she would even be able to just reach up and climb out with that extra height. She couldn’t see how tall he was from down here, but maybe that would work.

[heartstringbound]

theindigoflirt​:

guess who

If he can’t make his dream of having every woman in the realm swoon at hearing his name, then being known for enjoying tea is good, too. Yet the older he’s gotten, the more friends he’s made, Inigo thinks the best legacy of all is simply making others smile. 

And today, he’ll earn a smile from Setsuna. Even if they have to stay and chat until well after dark. She talks as if he should just know who and what she’s talking about, and in another life, all these names would make sense. For now, his eyes light up at the question. “I love the snow. Excuse me a moment, Lady Setsuna! Best we enjoy our tea and pastries as we talk, eh?” 

He stands and gives her a quick bow. Spins on his heel to order tea. After all, he does have loads of knowledge and experience! 

Tea ordered, he plops back down across from Setsuna. “Where were we? Ah, snow! It snows nearly every single day during winter in Ferox. Especially when the blizzards hit, though that can be scary, because the snow falls so thick you can’t see the nose on your face.” A cook delivers the requested tea and pastries. “Thank you!” Inigo chirps, accepting his steaming cup of tea. The pastry he passes over to Setsuna first, then takes his own. 

Inigo extends his cup to her. “A toast, to new slash old friendships.” 

Laslow brightens in a way that surprises Setsuna, just for a second. He has always been happy and cheerful, the surprise isn’t that, but he always felt kind of...warmly cold. He was nice, but he was distant. Like he wanted to keep space for some reason Setsuna didn’t know. And probably wouldn’t ever, if this Laslow wasn’t Laslow.

It didn’t matter. That was then and the future, and not the now. The now involved Laslow returning to the table with tea and treats and Setsuna plucks up one for herself as she nods and smiles absently.

“Ferox...sounds nice...except the blizzards, but sounds fun!”

She plucks up her tea cup and holds it up to match his, clinking the tea cups together delicately. “Yeah...for friendship...” It’s such a genuine, outright statement. Setesuna laughs. It’s really sweet.

“So, let’s see just how good these are...”

[heartstringbound]

ostianshadow​:

a hunting we will go

He beamed proudly. Wasn’t even gold or anything, although it could debatably count as treasure… Certainly, it was one of a very select few heists Matthew had ever deigned perform with a partner in tow. That things hadn’t initially gone their way mattered very little - aye, rather, succeeding was but a mere half o’ the thrill of the hunt.

He would smile enough for the both of them, if he had to…

but he hoped he’d not have to.

“Aww, come onnn, give yourself some credit,” the thief asserted with a grin and a light pat-turned-squeeze of her shoulder. (That he spurned unexpected touch from others had never stopped him being forthcoming with it himself… was that odd?)

“We did it.” We. “After what we’ve just been through, I’m highly doubting I’d have managed it on my own. But here we are, none the worse for wear, each the new ownerw of our very own black pegasus feather… rumoured, they say, to amplify a mage’s power.”

And maybe it was just a silly rumour the students had started, something in order to better heckle their classmates into trying something challenging. But if there was even so much as a chance it was true… 

Regarding his own feather briefly as he twirled it in thought, Matthew proffered the other. “We should go grab a drink or a bite to celebrate.” A wink.

Matthew reached out and patted her shoulder. Setsuna paused at the action, blinking curiously at the spot where contact had been made after he took his hand back. Oh. She thought he didn’t like that. Maybe it was just specific kinds? She didn’t know, but she knew enough to know that asking to know was probably going to come off rude when she tried it. She settles for humming absently in response.

...what had they been talking about?

Oh, right. Setsuna smiles sheepishly and laughs and hopes that he will let it go if she doesn’t say anything else about it. She hums and tilts her head and nods along as he insists that they did it. “Sure...if you say so...I was just happy to get to see them.”

She wondered how Lady Hinoka would have liked to see these pegasus. They really were pretty, even if they had a bad temper...Setsuna plucks the feather that she had apparently won and twirls it curiously between her fingers. It just seemed like an ordinary feather... “Maybe we should find a mage to see if it actually does anything.” Setsuna knew for a fact that she didn’t know any magic. Unless she knew it secretly. That would be a surprise. She didn’t think she could keep secrets even from herself.

“Hmm?” She blinks and looks back to Matthew. A drink? Or bite? Setsuna pouts slightly as she considers it before nodding and breaking out into another smile. “Sure, sounds fun...your treat, right? Since you suggested it?” Setsuna laughs.

“I’m glad I came along though...” She confesses. She reaches up and tuckes the feather underneath her headband. It should be safe there. Absolutely. Unless she fell. So she would just have to make sure not to fall until they got to wherever they were going to eat. “It was fun. Thanks, Matthew.”

[heartstringbound]

lalamines​:

fly me to the moon

Mercedes tried to cover up her gasp of horror with a well-timed cough as Setsuna decided to join in. How were the students supposed to forget her presence, even for a moment, if she kept speaking to them? Unfortunately there wasn’t much she could do about it. If she spoke out she’d draw even more attention to Professor Setsuna, likely sending her floating back upwards to the clouds above. She had to react quickly and keep the attention on herself, or at least on anything but their levitating professor.

“Cat, cat, leap, sneak– oh no, I meant snake!” A little white lie, surely the Goddess would forgive her just this once. Mercedes covered her mouth and giggled a little louder than was strictly necessary. Thankfully, no one called her out on it. “Silly me, I guess I better take a penalty. Hmm. How about for a first time offence I have to hop on one foot everytime I speak?”

“Cat,” hop, “cat,” bounce, “leap” another jump on one leg, “snake, cat, dog.” Each word was punctuated by a hop as all eyes turned to Mercedes. Good, it seemed to be working, Setsuna had drifted a little closer to the ground. “Pocket!” She finished with a bounce and a twirl for good measure, passing the turn to the student next to her.

Mercedes started trying to do...something to get the student’s attention. Setsuna thought it looked kind of silly. But what Setsuna had noticed was the brief look Mercedes had sent her way after Setsuna’s attempt at quietly mumbling through the game to herself. The same kind of look the other retainers would send her when she said something that they thought was incorrect, but they were too polite to correct her in front of the royals.

Ah. She was one of them, then.

Fine. Setsuna shrugged to herself and closed her eyes. If Mercedes thought her speaking was bad, then Setsuna had plenty of more fun things she could do besides speaking.

It took some time, but eventually Setsuna’s feet grazed the ground. She blinked her eyes open and pouted, disappointed that her fun little rest had come to a close. With a sigh, she straightened herself up from her lying down position and soon enough, she was back on the floor, feeling very much like someone who was solidly on the ground and not going to float away again.

“Aww...that was fun!” Setsuna smiled as she looked at the students who had been attempting the spell. A few of them burst immediately into apologies, which Setsuna just laughed and waved off. “Good job. It might be smart to figure out how to get people down first before you try again though.”

She wasn’t quite sure what this spell could accomplish that couldn’t be done by just getting on a wyvern or pegasus. Maybe it was just a spell for fun. That would be neat...they should try making up more spells like that, that are just for fun. “It’s getting late though...you should all get dinner before you miss it...”

[heartstringbound]

ostianshadow​:

a hunting we will go

“We’ll just have to see,” he said, and just like that, he was back to his usual ghost of a smile. Stung ego aside, it wasn’t like he had proven her right here, today, so far. So, the only way to fix that was to get ahold of them feathers.

And that was exactly what he planned to do.

“Let’s!”

Setsuna wasted no time, earning from Matthew a small chuckle as he, too, strode to get himself in position, just slightly out of the way behind a small outcropping. He circled around and, hunkered down, peeked around the corner for a look. That hum… It really was something else. By the time the game was afoot, he still wasn’t sure what to make of it, really. It wasn’t unpleasant. But it was… different… Something about it pricked at his skin.

Certainly, in any case, it looked super useful, and he was glad she was here and willing to try it out. Now was the time to move. Quiet on his feet as ever, the Ostian crept out from his hiding spot. The way the pegasus was so taken by her… he almost couldn’t believe it, ever as he neared and one, two, pluck!

It didn’t like that.

Anticipating such a response, Matthew was quick to skitter back and away as the winged equine reared and snorted in a mix of surprise and annoyance before taking off into the sky. Soon enough, it was a small dot in the distance.

“Hah!” Hand held up, he produced the bounty of their teamwork: two pristine jet black feathers. “How’s that for a ‘good thief,’ heh!” But his smirk quickly softened, replaced by a curious gleam of awe. “I don’t know how you did that, but that was amazing, Setsuna. You were amazing.”

He’d never seen anything quite like that.

Setsuna thought that maybe the problem the last time they had tried to pluck a feather was that she had gotten distracted. A split second of non-focus that let the pegasus get bored of her song and go flying off before they could complete their crime against pegasus kind. But if that was a problem, then it had an easy fix. She just had to not get distracted and not lose focus and not lose the pegasus. Easy.

...for anyone that wasn’t Setsuna.

So as Matthew creeped his way towards it, Setsuna made sure to keep her eyes on the pegasus and not on Matthew and whatever he was doing because that would absolutely definitely get her distracted, which was not what she wanted right now. No, she just kept looking at the pegasus and humming her little song and watching as it didn’t move and doing a great job and

The pegasus suddenly reared back and Setsuna stopped humming, surprised. Had she done something wrong? Did it not like the song anymore? Oh no, maybe it was immune...whatever it was, she didn’t know, and the pegasus went flying off before she could start again and find out.

She was going to apologize, but Matthew laughed loudly. Setsuna blinked. Why was he laughing? When she looked at him, he proudly held up the two feathers they had been trying to get and oh. Oh. It flew away because their plan had worked.

Setsuna smiled and let out a laugh of her on. “Wow...good job!” She meant it too as she made her way over to him. “I think it was a perfectly normal job for a good thief. Which makes it a good job. Like I said.” And much better than what she’d said earlier, which she still felt bad about. She hoped he knew that.

Her smile falters though as he turns the attention to her. “Me?” She didn’t think she did anything special. She just. Did what she could. Which was only a little. But she still did it. She laughs and glances away at the feathers instead. “I just did a trick. It’s not special. Not really.”

[heartstringbound]

exemplaris​:

Timmy fell down into the well?!

There hadn’t been too much that he could do to alleviate the anxieties and panicked concerns of the village folk; the questions they asked had also worried away at Ferdinand’s mind, and after weeks of careful deliberation and platitudes, Ferdinand was no closer to having a solid answer than when he got there first, riding alongside the Church’s convoy with the air of a boy looking to escape whatever awaited him back at the Academy. But a well? He could do that.

So they dug, and based on the land surveys, they should have been able to hit a water table if they dug down further and further right there. All that was left was to lay down the brickwork so that when they finally pierced the shelf of rock underneath, the water that seeped up to the surface wouldn’t simply churn into a muddy mess the second it swept along the sides of the well…

So it was with some surprise that Ferdinand came up to the well that morning and heard something from the bottom. He hadn’t thought they had come so close to the water table that it would have sprung up by itself overnight. The stone was too sturdy for that.

(‘Should we not cover this up?’ He had asked the night before when the villagers who lent a helping hand to the Church knights had begun to take their tools back into their homes, ready to lay the finishing touches the next day and ride the excited momentum of… Any accomplishment. One that would come in handy with this bizarre dry spell that hit their village hard.

‘Nah. Not even the squirrels out here are daft enough to fall in,’ one of them laughed, and with a shrug, Ferdinand let them do as they pleased.)

“Hello–oh.” Ferdinand frowned, peering down into the dark, dark depths… The rope that had been on the top side for hoisting workers out of the pit had fallen in, and at the bottom, there was a woman. Blue. One eye staring back up at him.

“… Lady Setsuna.” He recognized her. Not familiar, but well enough to know that she was one of the faculty at the Academy. Perhaps someone like Bernadetta, more adept with the bow, would have known her better. “You were not what I was excepting to find down there–no worried, however! It would be my pleasure to get you out!”

The hole wasn’t so bad, once the pain of her abrupt landing had faded away. She had pushed the rope off to the side so it did not sit uncomfortably under her, and if she laid down on her back at the bottom, she could prop her legs up on the sides of the wall. Gravity would probably make it hard to sleep like this, but it was more comfortable than tucking her legs under her or sitting cross-legged for hours. No, she could definitely live out a comfortable life like this until Lady Hinoka came and found her.

When someone suddenly blocked the sun from the top of the hole, it was rather surprising. She didn’t expect Lady Hinoka would find her that quickly. But the voice that came echoing down was definitely not Lady Hinoka. Lady Hinoka didn’t sound like a young man after all and-

“Ew.” She would never call Setsuna that. She pouted unhappily as she frowned up at the shape above her. It was hard to see their face with the light coming from behind them. A student, maybe? Probably. That made the most sense. But not from the house she was supposed to watch. So she had no idea what his name was, or if she should even know it.

“Please don’t call me Lady.” She calls back. Did she look worried? She didn’t feel worried at all. She thought she looked rather calm and casual, actually, especially with how her arms lay comfortably over her stomach. “Just Setsuna is fine. Lady makes me sound like I’m someone important. Which I’m not.” Comparatively, anyways.

She wondered what he was expecting to find down here. Water, probably. It was a well after all. But she was sure they had made it clear the well wasn’t ready to be filled with water yet. Surely he should know better than to expect well in a well that wasn’t a well yet.

“That’s a weird pleasure.” She informs him. “Usually people are annoyed to find me like this. Especially in important holes.” After all, they couldn’t just make a hole into this hole to get her out. Then they would have to fill the hole. Or make a new one. And that would be an excessive amount of holes.

“Oh, you can just leave me down here if you wanted. It’s fine. Lady Hinoka will probably take a while to get here from Hoshido, but I’m sure she’ll get here eventually.”

[heartstringbound]

theindigoflirt​:

guess who

He ignores her comment, choosing to salvage whatever’s left of this not-date. 

Green tea. Fingers drum against the wooden tabletop as he thinks. He’d recently been introduced to matcha, and soundly rejected the grasslike taste. She may enjoy it, if she doesn’t enjoy sweet stuff. Or another one called Snowy Mountain, though he’s not sure if the monastery kitchens carry it. 

“The house green tea is fine! Not too sweet at all. Do you want any pastries?” You can’t have tea without pastries. There are savory pastries, even though they don’t taste as delicious…

“I’ll order for us! I’m still a gentleman, you know.” Dancer winks, eyes bouncing around the dining hall. It’s quiet, this time of day. Relaxing. 

“…so, you really think I’m a tea expert, eh?” Setusna doesn’t strike him as the type of person to compliment someone without believing it. His cheeks bloom a soft pink; everyone likes being complimented. 

“I know I’m not supposed to ask, but what is Nohr like? Does it snow, there?” He can’t imagine living in a place without snow. Deserts are the worst environment—burning wasteland of his original future notwithstanding. “That’s all I want to know.” Probably all he can know, but if no one has come through a portal through time screaming at him for ruining time, again, asking questions can’t be all bad. 

Naga, his head hurts. 

“Oooh...” Savory pastries sounded tasty to her at least, even if she wasn’t sure how good they could go with tea. She’d just have them separately if it was an issue. Besides, everything in Fodlan was so different form what they served in Hoshido. She was curious and excited about all of it.

“Okay, I trust you.” And she does her best not to comment on him calling himself a gentleman, because that very much does not match what she remembers hearing others say when they talked about how Lord Xander had put Laslow under house arrest for bothering local village people again...but she thinks that is too much information to try and explain, so she would rather not bother.

“...hmm?” When Setsuna looked back, Lasnigo was blushing a light pink. Setsuna tilted her head curiously. “Oh. Well yeah. I don’t think I know anyone who goes out to tea as often as you do.” Hinata tried she thinks, but he wasn’t very good at getting girls to agree, from what she’d seen...Lord Ryoma and Lady Hinoka had their preferences, and Azama found serving people bad tea on purpose quite funny. “So you’ve got lots of experience and knowledge. Who better to let make that choice?”

Does it snow in Nohr? “Maybe...Flora and Felicia’s are from the ice tribe, which is up near Cheve, so they probably get snow in that area...It’s always so dark when we go to Nohr, so it feels like it’s cold everywhere compared to Hoshido.” But maybe that was biased. Nohr was dark and cold but people still lived there, so there had to be something about it that people liked that Setsuna didn’t see.

maybe.

“Do you like the snow then? We never get too much of it near the castle...”

[heartstringbound]

princessmacedon​:

for those we can yet save

“Oh!” That was right! Some people didn’t like being called Miss, did they? And not even by name! But… The woman smiled– laughed, too!– and Maria’s head canted the other way, round eyes peeking up at her. “Is it okay if I call you that? Should I call you something else?” 

Ribbon woven through her fingers, she pulled her hands close to her again, her other hand trailing along the length of the fabric as Setsuna spoke. It felt almost like cheating, getting to learn so much about Shiro and his mom at the same time. Of course, she wasn’t surprised to hear that he was funny and sweet, but it was still nice, hearing the stories. And hearing his Mom, too! How much she loved him, and how it carried through the way she simply was– it was wonderful to simply listen to, and her smile widened every passing second. 

“Hee hee!” Maria had never heard it explained like that before, but she wasn’t wrong, was she? “I’d like to think you’re nice, too!” Having a nice mom who loved you so warmly… She couldn’t help but think: “I bet Shiro’s really happy. And nice, too!” 

Another laugh at that; Maria turned her eyes back to the sky a moment, watching the clouds roll by for a fleeting moment. Between her and Miss Shiro’s Mom… their families were shaped differently, but they weren’t so unalike in the heartstrings, were they? Just as Maria loved her brother and sister with all her heart, so too did Setsuna love her family. 

“I think it’s okay if you’re the one who knows my wish,” the little princess concluded, turning back to Setsuna with her hands cupped around her mouth. Her voice dropped to a hush suited to this most grand and simple of wishes. “Actually, I really want all three of us to be a family again.” She smiled again, though it was softer this time, the edges faded by a timeworn understanding. “It’ll come true! I know them better than they think, hee hee.”

“Really?” A sweet peal of laughter cut through the fluttering quiet veil, dashing it ere it ever settled. “Then you can count on me! I’ll do my very best to make sure your wish comes true, too!”

“Just Setsuna is fine.” She tells the young student immediately. It’s...different. When it’s someone who doesn’t know. She doesn’t mind it then. She minds it a lot more when it’s people her age, who know better. Because usually when they do it, they don’t mean it like they say they do.

Maria seemed sweet enough to not have a double meaning when she said that. Or at least, Setsuna hoped that was the case.

“He’s..” Setsuna faltered. Was Shiro happy? He certainly fought a lot with his father. But...They were better than they used to be. Him and Setsuna were better than they used to be, even if there was still a distance and awkwardness that hovered over them at times, even if she still struggles with being as good as he deserved. But...she remembered when he was younger, how much he’d protested and yelled and the times he’d cried and... “Happy. We could do better. But he’s happy.”

But that was a future problem. One Setsuna supposed that she could wish for now. She wondered how strong this little ribbon was. If it was strong enough to carry something with so much weight. She hopes so. She’d hate to ruin so pretty a ribbon by putting too much expectations on it.

Setsuna hums curiously as Maria promises to share her secret. Setsuna leans in, making it easier for her when she cups her hands around her mouth and whispers to Setsuna a precious secret.

Her wish is...oh.

Setsuna blinks. She does not know how she should respond to that. There’s so much history carried in so simple a statement, and Setsuna doesn’t know any of it. She thinks to ask, but no. It isn’t hers to carry or know, not unless Maria wants to share. So Setsuna just nods and smiles and hopes it doesn’t look too sad when she does so.

“I think that’s sweet...and I hope it works...” And that’s really all you can say in response to something like that.

Setsuna’s laugh doesn’t quite echo the way Maria’s does, but it carries the same emotion as she smiles and nods. She still needs to...write her wish down on the ribbon, right? She should do that. “Thanks...that’s nice of you.”

[heartstringbound]

lalamines​:

fly me to the moon

Mercedes stared at the other students. This was certainly an unexpected turn of events. She’d expected levitating someone to be the risky part, not bringing them back down to earth. Setsuna looked as lackadaisical as ever but how would she teach from up in the air? How would she sleep, cook, bathe and live her life floating several feet above the ground. It seemed rater impractical.

The spellcasters seemed absolutely clueless about what to do next though. And pale, as if they’d come to the same revelation that they couldn’t simply leave the woman floating up here on the mountain.

“Magic requires concentration, doesn’t it?” Mercedes keeps her tone hushed and level. Panicking wouldn’t help anyone here and perhaps the solution was far simpler than anyone realised. If they simply stopped paying attention, the spell might break itself. It was worth a shot at least - worst case scenario nothing would happen and they’d be no worse off. With a reassuring smile, she gestures for the attention of her fellow students. “You should try not thinking about it. Hmm… everyone look at me instead.”

“Now, I’m going to say three words and the next person repeats them and adds one,” it was a silly childish game she was suggesting but hopefully it would be enough to draw their attention away from their levitating professor long enough to break the spell. It was a long shot, admittedly, although no one else seems to have any idea what to do. The others looked at her strangely, so she continued to explain. “If you get it wrong you take a forfeit, like standing on one leg or saying ba in between every word. We use games like this to distract patients from pain, it might help break the concentration the spell requires ”

“Okay, my turn. Cat, cat, leap!” 

Setsuna blinked back to the moment. She looked over at Mercedes, watching as the student explained the little game she was going to be starting with the mages who had casted the spell. Setsuna...didn’t get it. What was saying random things going to do to make them stop casting magic?

Unless...oh...was Mercedes getting them to repeat things to cast a spell of her own on them.? Kind of like the curses that Orochi or Hayato’s daughter would cast on people...she didn’t think that people in Fodlan would do stuff like that. Cruses. Everyone seemed so hung up on whatever the church said, and the church didn’t seem very approving of curses and stuff.

Setsuna crossed her arms in the air as though she had a shelf in front of her to rest them on. She rested her chin on her arms then and watched as the next mage student started to carefully recite the words that Mercedes said. He added another one (wait, was that part of the game, or did they just mess up? Setsuna wasn’t sure...) and there was an awkward pause before the next student started, slowly reciting the words themselves.

Cat...two cats...leaping? She wondered what they were leaping over...were they leaping over something important? Did they get stuck when they leaped? (A student slipped up and there was hesitation before she shifted onto one leg. Setsuna floated downwards, just a bit.)

“Cat...cat...leap...snake...cat...dog...” Setsuna mumbled to herself.

[heartstringbound]

avemaera​:

a little close to home ♚ arvis//setsuna

He remembers very little of her. Many memories of that month were blotted out, like paint stolen from a canvas; leaving only lingering impressions. But what he does recall is not particularly favorable.

Airheaded? Leading to shocks for both of them. On separate occasions.

So he is surprised to find her first words to him are rather astute.

“I must agree with you.” He huffs. Entering the room proper and setting the basin down where she gestured.

“Twice now they’ve roped us together to make up for their incompetence?” No matter in complaining. Arvis rolls his sleeves up before beginning to dampen the clothes and wring them dry.

His tone lowers to a more conspiratorial volume. “What is the status of our patients?”

Lady… Setsune, was it?

Setsuna remembers a lot about Arvis. How miserable he’d seemed the whole time. His talk with that strange women. How Priam had dropped him. How he had disappeared from her sight in that last fight, how she did not see him again until...no, she did not see him at all, not until that ghost had turned on her and lifted her sword and sliced through her and-

And Setsuna remembers Arvis. 

She blinks back to the moment and hums, joining him at the basin. She takes the wet clothes and folds them, carefully, putting them on a tray she had been told to clean carefully to make sure they were dragging around things that would get the already sick students even sicker. “Maybe they’re just busy...I’ve helped out before, when things went really badly after a battle...though usually that was just getting things or sending messages...”

He whispers and Setsuna blinks. Why did it need to be a secret? The sick could feel how sick they were.

“They’ll be fine, I think. But I’m not a medic.” Mostly fevers, from what she’d seen. Those just took rest, and then you were fine, right? “But it sounds like it stopped spreading, so they just need to get better now.”

[heartstringbound]

princessmacedon​:

for those we can yet save

There was something purely pleasant about the way she smiled, Maria thought– most especially at the mention of family. It was as though a thousand little lights had lit up in the backdrop of her eyes, not quite so obvious but still quietly, genuinely lovely; she could not help but smile back. And then it flickered. The little princess’ hands curled into each other, ribbon pressed between the back of one hand and the palm of another, worry twisted on the tip of her tongue. Her eyes widened before she could unravel it. 

“Shiro?” The one with the loud voice? Who gave her a present straight from his pocket just to give her something at all? “Hee hee!” Her eyes crinkled and narrowed, crescent slivers of sun peering over the hillside, hands gleefully untwined. They fell slowly to her sides, swinging further to clasp behind her back. “I know him! So please don’t worry too much, Miss Shiro’s Mom.” That was what parents did, right? They worried all the time, even when other people wouldn’t… She’d never been a mother, but she had been a loving sister; was that enough to understand, if only a little bit? 

“I don’t know if he thinks of me as a friend…” She flashed her teeth in a confident grin. “But I’d really like to be! He’s nice, and funny, and makes you smile when you talk to him! He’ll make lots of friends, for sure!” 

Her head tilted, body canting to one side as she peeked up at the woman, searching for any sign of what had caused her smile to dim before. Was it worry? Was she still stuck on what wish to make? 

“…Hee hee, thank you.” Her smile pulled more slowly across her lips this time, a melting warmth writ in the seams. “I’m not going to tell them, though. They don’t believe in my wish… Oh! Not because they’re mean or anything! They’re just stubborn, hee hee. But I can tell you, if you want! And maybe if we make our wishes together, they’ll be even stronger!” 

Something about the mention of Shiro bring mirth to the small student. Really small. So small...Setsuna wondered if she was smaller than even Mitama. She always forgot how small Azama’s kid really was until the archer saw her again. Maria seemed to be racing to take the title of smallest from the shrine maiden by doing...no growing whatsoever at all.

But she laughs and looks excited and oh. Was it mean to say she was surprised to hear that Shiro was making new friends at all? Maybe. But Setsuna smiles and lets out a quiet laugh of her own. “Miss Shiro’s Mom is a strange name to be called.” She muses. But she likes it. Only she gets that. Nobody else. She continues smiling as she unfurls the little strip of ribbon again while Maria talks.

“Oh, he’s very funny. Sometimes when he tries not to be. But I think it’s sweet. His father is very serious all the time. It’s funny to see them together.” Except when they were arguing about something. Then it was no fun at all. But it was usually about stuff with them being royals, and Setsuna didn’t really have much place to step in and say one thing or another, even if she wanted to. 

“I’m sure he would happy to have you as a friend. He likes making them.” He was always so cheerful and excited to meet new people. It was cute. He was better with his words than she was...though neither of them were as good as Ryoma was. “And you seem nice. Though I suppose it’s early to say that. We’ve only just started talking. You could be horrible and just acting nice and I would have no way of knowing what was real until it was already too late. But I would like to think that you’re nice.”

“Oh...” that seemed...hmm. To be so sure they wouldn’t believe in it...that seemed a shame. She looked too young to be certain of things like that. That should only come to people when they’re older, if at all. “If you want to tell me, I don’t mind listening.” She didn’t mind much of anything, really, but this seemed especially harmless to listen to.

Setsuna smiled. “You seem very good at wishing. I bet you’re strong enough to make both our wishes come true on your own, if you tried to.”