#and lysithea is nice to him in response. and when she's nice about it! dimitri offers to buy her sweets!

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

pictured: banner 69, featuring dimitri and claude, and the third wheel placed by edelgard because she was sick of third wheeling their kissing

don’t tell me they aren’t kissing, bc they were kissing here too

[emblemxeno]

I'm sorry I need to get this out to someone and I feel like you'd understand my frustration. I explained nicely to a friend actually El is a villain and linked to the interview. This was the response I want to tear my hair out I've had it with these people. This is really long sorry feel free to ignore

Here's the thing: Just because writers intend to do something doesn't mean they succeed in doing so. The original thought might have been to make Edelgard a villain, but that is not what came through in the final product. A villain, by definition, is a character whose evil motivations and actions drive the plot. Nothing about Edelgard's motivations are evil, and her actions are no more evil than any other Fire Emblem character, including Claude and especially Dimitri cont

To point, here are Edelgard's motivations / goals:1.) End Rhea's rule over Fódlan (Rhea's in specific; Edelgard says numerous times she has no qualms with the Church as a whole or people's belief in Sothis, but JUST the Central Church)2.) End the crest system and establish a meritocracy so nobles can no longer oppress commoners3.) Kill TWSITDThese are not evil goals. cont

Yes, she has to start a war in order to accomplish goal one, and War Is Bad, but unfortunately there is no such thing as a bloodless revolution. While Rhea was severely traumatized, her rule WAS going too far and she WAS running a dictatorship right down to having Seteth destroy any records that would reveal the truth behind the church. She needed to be stopped. And importantly, Edelgard never wanted to have to kill her. cont

Doing so at the end of CF was a last resort brought about by Rhea ordering Catherine to burn a city of innocents alive. This is why in the other three routes Edelgard merely imprisons Rhea, and in 3 Hopes is shocked when Claude asks her if she wants Rhea dead, saying, "Is it not enough to remove her from power?" It's also why Seteth, Flayn, Claude, Lysithea etc can be spared. Edelgard had to start a war for revolution, but she spares as many as she can. cont

Even though Claude COULD come back from Almyra with an army, and she KNOWS this, she lets him go. Because she doesn't want him dead. So no, she's not a villain, any more than Dimitri is a villain. Stopping Rhea's rule was just. Establishing a meritocracy is just. Killing TWSITD, the ACTUAL villains, is just. Edelgard's actions are morally gray, but she's not evil and therefore not a villain no matter what the writers' intentions were cont

Edelgard isn't a fascist because none of her actions hit the requirements for facism. In fact, again, the Central Church controlling what information people are allowed to have, entwining religon and the government, and also killing anyone who dares to stand up to them comes closer even if it's still not true facism. Edelgard isn't a dictator because she abdicates the throne IMMEDIATELY after establishing her meritocracy, as explicitly stated in her endings with Byleth and Lysithea. cont

She's not an attempted genocider because again she lets Seteth and Flayn go and only kills Rhea as a last resort, i.e. she never wanted to kill the Nabateans, she just wanted to remove them from power. So I don't want to argue either, but I've been dealing with this since FE3H released all those years ago and I'm tired of it. She's not any of the things her haters claim and I disagree that she's poorly written

How do you deal with this day in and day out? I actually want to die, thanks for letting me get that out

No worries anon. Truth be told I deal with it day in and day out by angrily typing up a post and then deleting it. Not saying you should do this or I'm bothered by the asks or anything! Just that, some times it helps writing shit out and just hitting delete before posting or replying or whatever. There's a looooot of shit that I've written about and to people that nobody has seen because it's just me venting and being angry, but having the self control to do away with it.

But onto the main topic: the person you were talking to in question is, like a lot of Edelgard's stans, looking at it in a remarkbly surface level way. And when they're not doing that, they instead are ignoring canonical lines that prove otherwise.

"Wants to stop Rhea's dictator like rule over Fodlan" sounds good on paper, but bringing in actual canon? Rhea is hardly doing anything. The Empire has not had major religious influence for over a century by Edelgard's time. The Alliance was created without any input from Rhea or the church. Faerghus is the only country that the church has any hand in assisting.

The censorship and banning of certain things? Fluff and window dressing that has no bearing on Edelgard's views because she doesn't know that the church banned shit and while she knows the church changed history, she is completely wrong on what was changed and why it was changed in the first place.

Not only that, Edelgard's campaign is fueled by ignorance and misaimed hatred towards a system that was already established before the church, since Nemesis in his incredibly long reign of terror, had these people called "The Ten Elites" who helped his ambition and conquering of the land, and the Elites offspring were already treated with prestiege because that's what happens when you're related to powerful warriors with shiny weapons that make you kill people faster or make you survive longer.

Rhea, as described by the writers, rewrote history for her benefit, but what's important is the details: she kept the Elites in a positive light because mass popular opinion was that they were good people, and-once again described by the writers-she didn't want to rule over Fodlan with an iron fist, she only wanted to keep the peace.

As for Edelgard "not wanting to kill Rhea", 1) the basis for this was one knockoff classroom question (that unfortunately Hopes tried to make canon cuz actual story consistency doesn't matter), when 2) she has a line before Rhea even sets fire to Fhirdiad about wanting to obliterate her and the other children of the goddess.

And sparing as many as she can? Edelgard? The person who victim blames people for fighting back until the end? The person who blames Dimitri for "keeping the war going" when he's merely defending his home? The person who orders you to kill a retreating commander who has already lost??? Never mind the fact that Edelgard herself isn't doing any of the sparing: it's Byleth. It's Byleth's choice to spare Claude, Lysithea, Seteth, and Flayn. Edelgard accepts that choice because Edelgard-in a Doylist sense-is written to defer to the player because you can't risk waifu marketability.

"Establishing meritocracy is just" is where I start taking this less seriously, at least from my position as a very left leaning person. Meritocracy is never just, because people shouldn't be judged on an arbitrary value of "how good they are at something" because it never works. It sounds all sunshine and rainbows, but once a bigoted person gets power? Merit becomes meaningless. The U.S. is technically a meritocracy in our social worksphere, yet a black man can work 10 times as hard as his white counterpart does but won't get hired because the man in charge is racist. That's what kind of environment a meritocracy can and will eventually fester: people's proven work ethic being snubbed in favor of the bias from the person up top. And given that Edelgard also has lines regarding her disdain for religious people in general (her words in regards to Almyra not "blindly following a goddess", her view of religious people being too weak), her disdain for people who can't do things by themselves, her disdain for people with no work ethic or drive to work... Yeah, she's gonna be a shit ruler.

To top it off, yeah her actions are fucking evil. Declaring war on independent nations with the purpose of assimilating them into your empire is evil. Utilizing monsters created from human experimentation is evil. Assisting in kidnapping is evil. Being complicit in regicide of another country and inciting coups in the same country in order to make it collapse, when that country did nothing to you, is evil. Having a serial killer be your attack dog and sating him with hunting grounds where he gets to kill people willy nilly is evil. Having Hubert as a retainer is evil (I'm only half joking on this last one too).

But yeah, all in all. Not surprised. Hope you have a good one anon, take a rest, if that person was your friend they... sound like a lot haha.

[faroreswinds]

Golden Wildfire - Chapter 13 - Chapter 14

I am so close to the end, I can taste it.

Story

Linhardt doesn’t want to ask for a break because since he’s from the Empire, he’s afraid Claude might “allow him to rest permanently” (I do doubt that though)

The Slithers are trying to “prolong” the war again apparently. 

They are giving Marianne’s father some redemption here, showing he does care about her, that’s nice.

Also, everyone is praising Claude and the Federation for coming back so quickly.

“This never would have happened if we weren’t at war.” I mean, the war itself isn’t your fault. You know what IS your fault though? Joining Edelgard, believing her words, and invading the Kingdom. 

One of the side maps is getting rid of enemies to get the Empire in your debt. 

Ok, let’s just get to the battle at hand. 

The opera house is coming? That... is a REALLY weird flex. 

Wtf, this is so dumb. 

THIS IS SO DUMB

This is basically a copy of the same chapter 

Including the Slithers attacking innocent people, needing to rescue a recruitable character who got poisoned (Dorothea), Solon appearing, shadow walls that mages need to be killed to take down, and a demonic beast in the middle of a battle. Even have to lower a bridge. I’m sure it’s even the same map too, just during the day time. 

But Solon knows Lysithea and did the experiments on her

Of course, they are just going to tease us about Shez’s past and tell us nothing, aren’t they? 

I was ONE kill away from getting an S, which means... I have to do the map again

Wow, we actually get a scene with Dorothea if she’s recruited. 

Edelgard wants us now. The Kingdom and Church is attacking the monastery. 

Well, here comes another “three way battle” (not really). 

Chapter 14

Lorenz, my man! Suggesting they abandon Edelgard so her empire would fall.

“Now we are all turning into Claude a bit” Oh god no. 

So, Claude isn’t going to do that because of what happened to Randolph. 

And thus, Claude is ok with having Edelgard in his debt instead. 

I’ve noticed that Judith has become absent as a character, regardless if she died or not. Pity. Hope that doesn’t happen to Rodrigue.... 

Petra feels that the Kingdom will be losing much power and hopes Brigid can take their place in relation to the other nations

I can’t remember, did Shamir show any sadness when Catherine died in this route?

An imperial NPC says she sees a lot of similarities between Claude and Hubert. ..... KEK

Ooohhh, an NPC’s family survived the attack because they fled to the church (eastern church most likely). Hmmmm, seems like the church can have more than one purpose

Judith literally says that the people in the Federation had either little faith or simply respected the Central Church but were followers of the EASTERN Church mother fuckers didn’t even TRY to make this route ironic this is all played straight

MOTHERFUCK-

I’m putting this response my wraith into a different post which I will link here. 

Lysithea really wants to unify Foldan.

Myson appears in a side map... for some reason. 

Some maps have the kingdom attacking. To be fair, we DID attack first

Sylvain also appears in a side map. And Gustave. 

Man, we are literally rescuing Edelgard. 

Well, to get favors from her, really

We have to save Varley AGAIN?!

So, we have to escort Edelgard, then defeat Dimitri and ignore his cries about you killing the margrave and his people, And defeat Rhea the first time

Claude and Edelgard talk after the battle. He doesn’t want the Kingdom gone, but Edelgard basically does since they are “one in the same”. 

And now he thinks Dimitri tried to distance himself from the Church by trying to take the monastery. 

These two acting like the they didn’t fucking start or worsen the war. 

PATH SPLIT - IF YOU RESCUED BYLETH

If you rescue Byleth, the Secret Chapters happen, of course. 

IF YOU DIDN’T RESCUE BYLETH

Well, literally you get no extra scene like you do in scarlet blaze building up to this encounter with him one last time. He just appears in battle randomly to kill you and that’s fucking it. 

Edelgard goes to conquer the Kingdom and Claude allows it while going after Rhea himself. 

Paralogues

Leonie, Byleth, and Jeralt’s paralogue is available now in chapter 13. Meh...  Already did this in SB so again, will not be repeating myself here. 

Chapter 14

Lysithea has a paralogue of her own here

Gloucester holds Lysithea’s father in very high esteem 

Last of the rogues, I guess, time to go put them out of their misery. 

Damn, Lysithea is NOT happy, even calling Claude cruel for not sending more to help. 

I actually really liked this paralogue. It was nice to not only see the Count just be... nice, but it’s also nice to learn more about the times at the roundtable and Lysthea’s father.

Except, Lysithea makes it clear she suffered under Empire tyranny. I wish she expressed more hatred for them, but she doesn’t really. 

Supports

Looks like some supports opened up in chapter 14

Lysithea and Claude A support - Lysithea’s father is thanking Claude for bringing the fight with the Kingdom to an end? But... the Kingdom wasn’t even FIGHTING you. Also, he is getting very ill. 

Wait, didn’t she want to end the House? 

Claude and Shez A support - Another support about “how we didn’t get to learn about your future” and how ending the church will end the war. :/ 

Holy crap, the Slithers will be taken care of after the war, it’s literally CF all over again 

And Claude STILL hasn’t told anyone else that he is Almyran Prince

Why the FUCK does Dorothea have supports with Hilda but is literally only available in the last two chapters?!

And their B support isn’t even worth talking about

Books

Book of Seiros V (my note: you can get this book in this route)

The Five Eternal Commandments

Dare not doubt or deny the power or existence of the goddess.

Dare not speak the goddess’s name in vain.

Dare not disrespect your father, mother, or any who serve the goddess.

Dare not abuse the power gifted to you by the goddess.

Dare not kill, harm, lie, or steal, unless such acts are committed by the will of the goddess.

The goddess cares for and protects all that is beautiful in this world. The goddess will never deny the splendors of love, affection, joy, peace, faith, kindness, temperance, modesty, or patience. Follower her example and, in doing so, abide her laws. 

History of Foldan I

Under the tyranny of ruthless disorder, the people endured a long period of suffering. 

Nemesis proclaimed himself the King of Liberation, and delighted in war and bloodshed. People fell to his depths in a mad scramble to attain power through murder and theft.

41 years before the Founding of the Adrestian Empire - Saint Seiros appeared in the land of Enbarr. She spread many miracles and light across the land.. She joined the shattered hearts of the purest people in Foldan, who went on to form the Holy Church of Seiros. 

Imperial Year 1: First year of the Adrestian Empire. Its name was gifted by an oracle, and its future blessed by the goddess. Its capital, Enbarr, was chosen to govern the southern reaches of Foldan, where the divine Saint Seiros also lent her power. 

Imperial Year 32: The War of Heroes - Wilhelm Paul Hresvelg, the Adrestian Emperor, raised an army in pursuit of the unification of Foldan. With his might, he hunted and destroyed any house’s territory that dared to seek more power. 

Imperial Year 46: The Battle at Gronder Field - Houses allied with Nemesis and the Imperial forces of the Empire clashed here. Empire emerged victorious. 

Imperial Year 91: The Battle of Tailtean - Nemesis’ forces faced off Imperial forces again. Nemesis is felled. 

Imperial Year 98: The War of Heroes Ends - Lycaon I, the successor of the Great Emperor Wilhelm I, succumbed to sudden illness. The Empire took this chance to put an end to the seemingly endless fighting. 

History of Foldan II

Imperial Year 721: The First Mach War - Dagda invaded from across the sea. Empire warded them off, but the land of Mach sustained considerable damage. 

Imperial Year 728: The Invasion of Brigid = The Empire invaded the Brigid archipelago where Dagda allies of Brigid occupied. As penance for their refusal to surrender, the people of Brigid were relegated to a life of Imperial subjugation. 

Imperial Year 731: The Invasion of Dagda - With the boon of strong foothold in Brigid, the Empire mounted a large-scale invasion of Dagda. Their attack failed. 

Imperial Year 747: The Faerghus Rebellion - Loog, descendant of one of the houses that first quarreled with the Empire, raised an army to demand independence. Became known as the War of the Eagle and Lion

Imperial Year 751: The Founding of the Holy Kingdom - Loog and his army were victorious. The Holy Church of Seiros mediated between the two, and the Kingdom earned their independence. 

Imperial Year 801: The Leicester Rebellion - A rebellion broke out in the Imperial lands of Leicester. The Kingdom occupied the region and declared it its territory. 

Imperial Year 861: Faerghus Divided - Following the death of King Klaus I, three princes became archdukes and split the Kingdom into three territories to rule. 

Imperial Year 881: The Crescent Moon War - The archduke of Leicester succumbed to illness. The lords in Leicester refused to acknowledge the next archduke in like, instead plotting to rule jointly as an alliance. 

Imperial Year 901: The Founding of the Alliance - The Alliance was officially formed after the subjugation of hostile nobles and the removal of opposing forces. Duke Riegan was the heart of the newly formed Alliance. 

Imperia Year 961: The Almyran Invasion - The great eastern nation of Almyra crossed through Fodlan’s Throat and invaded the Alliance. The Empire dispatched troops in order to help ward them off. 

Imperial Year 1101: Construction of Foldan’s Locket - All three nations joined their efforts to build Foldan’s Locket to ward off future Almyran invasions. 

[dmclemblems]

"Realistically, if Claude was the sneaky and shady person they tried to make him out to be in Hopes, he would’ve taken Lorenz’s advice and left Edelgard to die." This. 100% but the problem is that even THIS doesn't work! Because if Claude truly cares about - as he claims - having fewest casualties as possible, then WHY ally with Edelgard at all?! The inherent premise is flawed! Not yelling at you tho. I'm yelling at Clyde. His decisions are moronic. End the war by killing Edelgard immediately!

Oh no I totally agree with that. I think it was a mistake to ally with her. I understand that he wanted to reduce causalities and allying with her would prevent the Alliance from losing more people, but I think that it should've been, in both versions (recruiting Byleth or not), his plan from the beginning that it wasn't a real alliance and that he always planned to turn on her.

From the perspective of trying to reduce causalities, I get that, but if I recall, Claude/the Alliance had the upper hand at the time. He could've been the one making demands, but they made him mister nice guy again for this and just formed an alliance to avoid more deaths instead of doing that and giving her an ultimatum.

Part of the issue for me was how back and forth they made him. It's like they wrote him as not being able to make up his mind, but you can't do that when you're involving yourself in a war, and even more so if you're a leader of a faction. You can't just make decisions that will take lives or bring about invasions nilly willy like that.

If he took the route of pretending to side with her to get her guard down, I could understand that. If he was just doing it to actually keep the Alliance from losing more people, I'd get that. It falls apart though when Lorenz points out that the war would be done if they let Edelgard die, because regardless of what Claude thinks is the right thing or whatever his feelings on the matter are, if he allied with her with the intention of just using her etc etc (which he says was the case), then he should've had no problem with her dying to end the war. If he still wanted to fight Rhea, maybe he could've been talked out of it by discussing the problem with Dimitri, but there was literally no reason imo for what he did outside the devs not wanting to kill Edelgard in this game.

Also, to be fair, he could've left her to die without even dirtying his hands. He wouldn't be seen as "responsible" for it if he just so happened to not make it in time. By aiding her he basically gave her the okay to continue the war and causing more people to die. He says he has no issue with the Kingdom, continuously insists he doesn't want to take over the Kingdom or kill Dimitri, but he's enabling her to continue fighting them. He even knows if Faerghus lands were split between them that he'd get the short end of the stick and he also suspected she'd come for the Alliance eventually anyway, so why bother aiding her at all?

To me the whole thing just reads as dev favoritism for Edelgard, because the story could've finished up with them fighting TWS. It's really awkward that Lysithea can be recruited in SB but not AG when she can't even get closure in GW, so you'd think she'd be able to be recruited to the routes that actually deal with the real problem. GW was just written to be VW's exact opposite in every way, right down to the final boss being Rhea for no reason instead of Thales/Nemesis.

It doesn't help that the reasons he wants to fight Rhea seem to be a problem with like... the Alliance itself at best. All the things he mentioned to Dimitri about wanting to fight her for are things Dimtiri has been fixing for two/three years at this point and Rhea hasn't said a single word to him about stopping what he's doing. Seteth is in his army at his camp all the time, so he could've told Rhea what was happening if he thought she'd care. Point being, all Claude's concerns were obviously not things Rhea was trying to control - it was just how the system got used to being and so the people know it and abide by it. If he wanted change, he could've done the things Dimitri has been doing, but also, enough people need to want that change. It's not up to him if he changes things if the majority of people don't want that change. It's not fair of him to just waltz into Leicester and be like oh I don't like this system and even though I didn't grow up here and have only lived here for a few years, I'm coming in and totally turning your entire political system on its head even though it's actually working for you guys perfectly fine.

Point being... Erwin was right about him in this game lol. He was a stranger who just came in and fucked up everything and couldn't be trusted with leadership. By allying with Edelgard even if temporarily, like for real and not faking it, he caused more of his own people to die by attacking the Kingdom, and Hapi even mentions at camp that the Kingdom isn't gonna forget that they invaded them. Couple that with, iirc, the Kingdom being pretty aware that Sreng was suspiciously notified about what was happening, giving Sreng incentive to attack, I don't think they're gonna forget it any time soon. Then on top of telling Sreng, they also killed Matthias of all people, so instead of Claude just trying to distract the Kingdom with Sreng, he assisted Sreng's invasion which will cause more Kingdom citizens to die. It just makes Claude out to be like "well I don't care who dies as long as it's not my people" and that's... not Claude. It doesn't matter if he's a darker, sneakier, shadier person in general - it's still part of his core character that he wouldn't want all those people dying. I can understand "any means necessary" to do what he has to do, but he wants to do those things without a bunch of people dying.

Again though, what he wants to do is another thing entirely. It's not up to him to just walk into another land and change their politics. Having blood from somewhere doesn't give you the right to suddenly come in and be like okay I don't like how this entire continent is being run so I'm gonna change Leicester and then the rest of Fodlan too. Imagine if I just went to a place I had blood from and went "well my blood is from here so I'm gonna come in and change your entire continent now". Like... no lol nobody would accept that. Even the people in Leicester weren't really okay with it and Lorenz said it was like, a long discussion and it didn't sound like it was a good one. It more or less sounded like Claude was forcing the roundtable to accept it. Like GW Hapi said... the Alliance's (basically Claude's in this case) behavior is scummy.

[crackimagines]

Class VII Supports

TOCS AU Masterlist Here

—–

Class VII was greeted with open arms in the monastery, and the general opinion of them are high, mostly.

The most liked students are: Rean, Elliot, Gaius, Laura, Emma, Millium, and Towa.

The most students who seem to be at odds are: Crow, Machias, Angelica, and Alisa.

The universal supports for Class VII is each other, and Byleth.

Closest Friends: Byleth, Jeralt, Alois, Catherine, Manuela

Sara is noted to be one of the strangest out of the group. While she is more drunk than Manuela, she is by far the strongest of them. Those who have seen her in combat put her up with Jeralt and Byleth, if not more skilled. She gets along with all the students, even if she is more than a bit lazy. 

Sara is extremely suspicious of the church, but keeps these doubts only to herself and Class VII.

“That woman can go from completely plastered to absolute bastard in just a few seconds...”

Closest Friends: Dimitri, Leonie, Yuri, Annette, Mercedes, Byleth

Rean is said to be the unofficial leader of Class VII, and anyone who hangs around him long enough knows why. He is said to be a very trusting individual, and always seems to go out of his way to help others. He is also a very skilled swordsman, and is the most mysterious individual. With his Divine Knight, Valimar, and skilled fighters around Garreg Mach state that he seems to be holding back, people want to find the answer, but have been unable to. Rumors state he might be hiding something dark within him. 

Rean gets along with mostly everyone, but is suspicious of Rhea like Sara.

“He’s a really nice person, but by the Goddess he’s oblivious when someone’s hitting on him.”

Rest of Class VII under the cut!

Elliot

Supports - Golden Deer, Ashe, Annette, Caspar, Dorothea

Closest Friends: Ashe, Dorothea, Hilda, Caspar

Elliot is one of the most liked students of Class VII. His soft personality makes him very easy to befriend, but seems to be easily intimidated by the standoffish students. That being said, he is surprisingly brave, moving up to the frontlines with the rest of the class despite his less than ideal physique for a military academy. People constantly asks if he can play his violin for them, which he is more than happy to oblige. He can be found near the church, playing for the choir or with Dorothea.

“Elliot’s nice. Though, too much so for his own good.”

Machias

Supports - Golden Deer, Dedue, Ferdinand, Constance, Dorothea, Ashe, Edelgard

Closest Friends: Ignatz, Raphael, Dorothea, Ashe

Machias is hands down the most problematic student when it comes to relations. He hates Nobles with a passion for their “holier than thou attitude”, and is not afraid to state these sentiments to their face. He has the most hostile relationship with Ferdinand, Constance, and Lorenz. However to commoners, he seems to be far nicer and patient with them. Hatred for Nobles aside, he is quite gifted in both academics and combat.

“As long as you aren’t a noble, he’ll talk to you. Otherwise you’re better off talking to a wall. Plus you’re less likely to get shot at.”

Gaius

Supports - Golden Deer, Petra, Dedue, Cyril, Ashe, Flayn, Mercedes

Closest Friends: Petra, Dedue, Claude

Gaius is the most calm of the entire group, seemingly never letting anything get under his skin. He is a caring individual, and his homeland is a topic that fascinates everyone, seeing how different he is from the rest of Class VII. He doesn’t have any problems when it comes to talking to the people of Garreg Mach and is a reliable friend.

“Gaius is cool and everything, but sometimes I wish I understood what he was talking about. Especially about the winds.”

Emma

Supports - Golden Deer, Annette, Flayn, Mercedes, Constance, Sylvain,

Closest Friends: Claude, Lysithea, Marianne, Annette

Emma being the actual representative of Class VII, or in their terms Class President, she speaks with Rhea and the other house leaders the most, though she is joined by Machias and Rean. She doesn’t seem to be particularly noteworthy according to others, saying she is booksmart and fully capable in combat, but seems a bit off. Her magic seems to be far greater than what she uses, but it seems that’s kept under wraps.

“She seems nice enough, but it’s kinda hard to read her sometimes, ya know?”

Jusis

Supports - Black Eagles, Flayn, Felix, Lorenz, Constance, 

Closest Friends: Ferdinand, Hubert, Bernadetta, 

Jusis is the second quietest of Class VII, and seems very intimidating. However, he just doesn’t have much to say and has a bit of trouble saying what he truly thinks. While seeming rude and condescending, a lot of the time he does not mean for it to come off that way, and is acting a how he thinks a noble should. While he finds Ferdinand and Lorenz obnoxious with how much they boast, he shares the sentiment that it’s their duty to protect the common people. His fencing style is stated to be very elegant and deadly.

“Man, he’s so cool looking! I wonder what goes on through his head when people like Felix and Constance talk to him though...”

Crow

Supports - Black Eagles, Sylvain, Yuri, Claude, Shamir, Seteth, Rhea

Closest Friends: Edelgard, Sylvain, Yuri, Claude, Byleth 

Crow is referred to as “yet another Sylvain”, seemingly careless and always trying to hit on any pretty woman he can. He is shockingly very skilled in combat, and can hold his own and sometimes displays his responsible side, though that is very rare. This side comes out the most when he is with Towa and Angelica. He is notorious to be very bad with money as he constantly gambles and usually loses it.

“Never give him any money. Ever.”

Fie

Supports - Black Eagles, Annette, Mercedes, Lysithea, Ashe, Raphael, Shamir, Jeralt

Closest Friends: Dorothea, Bernadetta, Raphael, Hubert, Caspar, Byleth

Fie is the quietest of Class VII, and somehow outsleeps Linhardt. She has even less to say than Jusis and rarely engages conversations on her own. That being said, people love speaking to her due to how “cute” she is, much to her dismay. She is extremely skilled in combat, and agile to boot. She has been seen to jump around constantly during battle striking at precise enemy locations to disrupt them without breaking a sweat. The second deadliest of Class VII, right behind Sara, she has been known to be friendly with very few people.  

“Fie is adorable! But, man she scares me sometimes.”

Alisa

Supports - Black Eagles, Sylvain, Ignatz, Leonie, Mercedes, Ingrid

Closest Friends: Caspar, Mercedes, Leonie, Ignatz

Alisa is notorious for holding grudges for an insane amount of time, leaving people doing their best to avoid her. While no doubt gifted with a bow, people state she has a very quick temper, making her the second most disliked of Class VII. However those close to her would defend her, they have a hard time denying what people say. Despite her problems, she is fiercely loyal to anyone who sticks by her, and seems to be a reasonable person. Most of the time.

“She’s a bitch sometimes, but she’s a good person...I think.”

Laura

Supports - Blue Lions, Leonie, Raphael, Caspar, Balthus

Closest Friends: Annette, Ingrid, Ashe, Felix, Balthus, Dimitri

Laura is the most physically strong person in Class VII, as she is known to be using a greatsword that’s almost bigger than her. Aiming to become the strongest, she is constantly challenged by those of similar mindset in the Monastery, and can be found in the training hall for a majority of her freedays. Despite being so intimidating, she is friendly with those who approach her, even being friends with those weaker than her. Though, she is known for no knowing what to do when it comes to doing “girly’ things.

“I’d say that her sword is comically oversized if I hadn’t seen her cleave armored knights in half with it.”

Millium

Supports - Blue Lions, Bernadetta, Hubert, Lysithea, Flayn, Cyril, Alois

Closest Friends: Alois, Flayn, Bernadetta, Dedue

Millium is the youngest of Class VII and seems to act very childish. Underneath her youth lies a fiercely intelligent girl, having been trained in covert operations and intelligence divisions. However, despite this training she seems to blurt out insensitive, rude, and important details as if everyone else had figured them out already, shocking anyone around her. Rudeness aside, she is very friendly to those she deems she wants to be friends with. The person in question has no choice in the matter, and better like them, cause she is known to pester them to no end.

“Millium is so cute! She’s like a little sister! Though, she’s everything good and bad about a little sister...”

Angelica

Supports - Literally every female in Garreg Mach, Dimitri, Claude, Yuri

Closest Friends: Dorothea, Edelgard, Ingrid, Hilda, Byleth

Angelica is a terror among the females of Garreg Mach as she is constantly hitting on all of them, even moreso than Sylvain. Libido aside, she is friendly enough with all students, even the guys. What shocks people the most about her is her form of combat, which is purely hand to hand. For someone who is relatively small, her punches have killed, even though she’s hitting people in heavy armor. She is known to be the most friendly with Towa and Crow.

Towa

Supports - All Three Houses

Closest Friends: Dimitri, Edelgard, Annette, Yuri

Towa is the friendliest of Class VII. She is a workaholic to those who can see her, and the kindest girl anyone has ever known for those close. She cares for everyone in the monastery and takes the time out of her day to make sure everyone is okay and if she can help them with anything, acting as an unofficial school counselor. No one has been able to abuse her kindness for helping with work and get away with it, thanks to Angelica, Crow, Sara, and Rean.

“That poor girl needs a break, I’d buy her tea everyday if she would stop working herself nearly to death each night...”

[goldenlionimagines]

How would the FE cast go trick-or-treating? I wonder which of the professors would actually give out candy to them if the students DID trick or treat...? Anyway, just curious about concepts of halloween!!!

I wrote for almost every character. I’m sorry.

Golden Deer

Claude goes out with a basket of eggs and a few rolls of toilet paper. Nobody joins him.

Raphael gets wildly excited every time he gets candy, despite knowing how Halloween works.

Lysithea pretends that she’s not equally excited, but as soon as she’s back in her dorms, she stuffs her face.

Marianne doesn’t say “trick or treat”, she just apologizes after she knocks.

Hilda doesn’t even bother to dress up, simply holding out a bag when the door opens.

Ignatz paints a burlap sack and makes a work of art to carry his candy.

Leonie considers this a waste of time, but the thought of free food makes her change her mind.

Lorenz also finds trick or treating worthless, but this is an opportunity to show off his costume, and he worked too hard to pass it up.

Blue Lions

Dimitri is overly polite when knocking on doors and asking for candy.

Felix bickers with Sylvain about anything he can think of, but he enjoys himself secretly. He also gives all of his candy to Ingrid.

Sylvain flirts with most of the women who open their doors. The doors are slammed in his face immediately.

Ingrid won’t stop eating her candy. Sylvain tries to make fun of her for it. Once.

Mercedes is more ghost hunting than anything else, but the candy is a nice addition.

Ashe regrets walking in front of Mercedes, as he’s forced to listen to increasingly terrifying stories.

Annette tries to cheer him up, eagerly bartering candy and talking over Mercedes.

Dedue lags behind the group, feeling simultaneously awkward and happy to be invited. He has a small smile on his face the entire night.

Black Eagles

Edelgard forms a battle plan, mapping out which houses to avoid and which to got to first.

Hubert stands by her side the entire time; he doesn’t need a costume, the grin he wears is scary on its own.

Petra doesn’t quite understand the holiday, but she enjoys herself. She asks “treat or trick?” at every door.

Dorothea sings her “trick or treat”. She never eats all of her candy, sliding about half to Bernadetta.

If Bernadetta leaves her room, she hides behind whoever she can, refusing to ask for candy or go anywhere near peoples houses.

Ferdinand is just a bit obnoxious when he asks for candy in a booming voice, but he flashes a grin to cancel it out.

Caspar is on a bit of a sugar high, bothering everyone until he crashes, lagging behind and staying very quiet.

Linhardt is at the back of the group, nose in a book or blankly staring off into the distance. He doesn’t bring a bag because he doesn’t want to carry it, content to beg others for candy the next day.

Church

Seteth is in a bad mood; his office was egged by an unknown student, so until he finds the culprit, the door his locked and any knocking is met with a grouchy response.

Flayn is standing outside of Seteth’s office, refusing to let the egg incident get to her. She hands out candy as Seteth grumbles behind the door. Her secret? She’s going to wait until he leaves to “utilize” a roll of toilet paper she’s hidden away.

Manuela is drunk in the infirmary, quietly sobbing into a pillow. She’ll try and hand the students a half empty bottle, but it’ll roll out of her hand before she can grab it.

Alois makes himself cry laughing with the Halloween puns he can use. His bellowing laughter is terrifying when it echoes late at night.

Catherine gives out strips of jerky instead of candy, refusing to support unhealthy eating habits.

Shamir is nowhere to be found. Someone tried to prank her with a centipede in her bed, so she’s decided to leave Garreg Mach for the day, maybe a year.

Cyril has never been trick or treating before, and he doesn’t really see the point in it. He follows along semi-reluctantly, but doesn’t deny that he enjoys getting free candy. He mutters about having so much work to do the entire night.

~Mod Ayama

[msbluebell]

Since you have done the Eagles, how do you think that the Deer will react to this new of Byleth being captive? Like I said, I can see Lorenz betraying the empire after have learning it (not that he was very faithful to Edelgard since he was kinda forced to work for the empire) for join Claude and telling him. Claude likes Byleth, in the BL route so...

The Golden Deer have a less mixed reaction to Byleth’s imprisonment. They’re all outraged.

Claude isn’t surprised, per se, political prisoners are a dime a dozen and Edelgard always had an obsession with Teach. Still, it’s the intent behind it more than anything…and it’s pretty unromantic and creepy if wooing the Teach is what Edelgard was going for. Not only that, but political prisoners are usually treated very well, being important nobility and whatnot. They’re usually free to roam the castle or something as long as they’re guarded. Teach was never nobility, but there’s no denying their importance either, and they’re very clearly related to Rhea in some way. They should have, at the very lest, been under house arrested rather than locked in isolation. Prisoners of War aren’t treated as nice, he knows that, so technically Teach is lucky, but still…it’s a whole lot different when it’s someone you know. It’s kinda gross what’s happening, and it’s seriously making him reconsider prisoner treatment and whether it needs to be reformed.

Hilda is probably the least surprised of the bunch. She was pretty sure Byleth was dead, but never gave stock to it without a body or something. She is utterly unsurprised because, heelllllllloooooo, Eddie has always been crazy guys. Did you guys not remember that crazy stuff she said before the Mock Battle? Clearly she has always been a werido. And everyone knows she was super jealous Byleth ended up teaching the Blue Lions. It totally makes sense she’d lock Byleth up in a tower like some kind of fairytale princess. 

Leonie is the most outraged of all, even if Byleth and Leonie never got any support convos. Byleth is Captain Jeralt’s child, his ONLY child. Everyone knew Captain Jeralt loved Byleth more than anything (and oh, how jealous that used to make her), and knowing they were treated like this is an outrage. Not only that, but the people who were responsible for KILLING the Captain kidnapped his child and held them in isolation? It’s an outrage, it’s insulting, it’s downright unforgivable. She’s harbored guilt for years that the Captain’s kid died mere months later, and now she’s learning they’ve been locked away? It takes most of the other Golden Deer to keep her from storming out and staging a rescue right then and there. She cools down after a bit, but even mentioning the situation gets her blood boiling again. She vows to get Byleth out and make sure something like this never happens again.

Raphael isn’t a noble, he’s from a merchant family. He doesn’t care how Prisoners of War are normally treated. All he knows is that a former teacher got locked up for years by the lady that started this whole war in the first place. It ain’t right. Teach was strong, and pretty nice, a little weird, but helpful and nice and important to a lot of people. They didn’t do anything wrong, so why do they have to be locked up like that? He can’t help but think of if this happened to his sister, and how furious he would be. He’s not about to storm the place like Leonie is ready to, but he does think a rescue mission should be added to their plans.

Ignaz is also from a merchant family and a bit more liberal on the issue. He knows, objectively, that the processor is better off alive and relatively taken care of than dead, but it’s still wrong in his humble opinion. Especially hearing rumors of Dimitri’s infamous breakdown. While rescuing the teacher shouldn’t be the first priority right now, it is something he would very much like to help with if he can, and the professor would make an invaluable ally.

Lorenz is most likely the one who figured out first, working for the Empire and whatnot. He’s…surprised…to say the least, when the information is slipped to him. Actually, he’s aghast. The professor may be a commoner, but it doesn’t seem befitting to treat them in such a…unfit manner. No one could argue the professor’s importance, of course, or their power, but even if they’re a prisoner seems to him that they should at least be free to roam the tower. And that their imprisonment should have been publicly announced. The point of a political prisoner is so that no one would dare attack the Empire due to the harm that would come to them….unless…unless they’re not a prisoner for political purposes…the though unsettles him deeply.

Lysithea is horrified. She knows what it’s like to be locked up like that, and she never wanted it to happen to anyone. She doesn’t care how well Byleth is being treated, it’s unforgivable to her. They kept Byleth locked away from friends and loved ones for years, years Byleth could have spend with them, wasting valuable time they could have spent together. Edelgard let them all think Byleth was dead! People mourned. Hope was lost for some. It’s absolutely sickening.

Marianne is horrified as well. She couldn’t imagine life without the chirping of birds or the soft fur of a kitten beneath her hand. It seems too cruel to lock away anyone like that, let alone a former teacher she remembers kindly of, and let alone someone so clearly blessed by the Goddess. It’s a sin, pure and simple, and she hopes they can free Byleth as soon as possible.

[kendrixtermina]

for the ship thing thoughts on claumitri and ingrid/dorothea?

ingrid/dorothea?

General:

Rate the Ship -  Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs - IDK why everyone wants Ingrid to be sapphic when she’s the one (1) character who explicitly says that she’s not sapphic. Or at least, shoots down Dorothea’s flirting in the B support. I think there’s value in having a non traditionally girly character who’s still hetero, many girls who want bfs get told that they will never get one if they don’t act stereotypical and that sucks. Or you could even read her as aspec given that she’s not too interested in pairing up or being attractive, and that the Glenn thing was arranged. She can still admire him and be sad he died without necessarily having the hots for him after all they probably grew up together. Also I don’t really see the particular appeal of those 2 characters together, they don’t have that much in common and Dorothea has a bajillion better options including sapphic ones. 

How long will they last? - As long as it takes Ingrid to say she’s not interested

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - I kind of see why Dorothea might think she’s hot or mistakenly assume she’s into girls as the whole tomboyish look is something ppl sometimes do to communicate that, and she probably finds something relatable about their experiences re: slimy jerks. She does indisputably kick butt and have pretty hair

How was their first kiss? - I’ve had the experience before where the other person gives it a nice, proper try but you can tell they’re not really into it

For the rest of this meme I will not be a spoilsport and entertain the thought/ try to think about what it would be like if they DID get together. It’s certainly inconceivable to read it that way, perhaps Ingrid simply wasn’t ready yet at that time/ or it was an internalized thing.

Wedding:

Who proposed? - I’m certain Dorothea explicitly tried that on screen in the paralogue XD

Who is the best man/men? - Ingrid might try bringing Sylvain, Felix or Dimitri if we’re in a timeline where he lived. 

Who is the braid’s maid(s)? - Petra or Bernie

Who did the most planning? - Dorothea

Who stressed the most? - Ingrid

How fancy was the ceremony? -Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.  Neither would be much for ostentatiousness but I think Dorothea would want a bit of romantic florish

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - Their jerkish ex suitors, even if they are important nobles of [winning faction]

Sex:

Who is on top? -  Definitely Ingrid

Who is the one to instigate things? - Dorothea

How healthy is their sex life? -Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now  

How kinky are they? -Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head  - I can’t see Ingrid being very kinky, but Dorothea might ease her into it. 

How long do they normally last? - a while

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - Very much so

How rough are they in bed? -Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? -No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory. Dorothea really wants to have a relationship so once she gets one she’s gonna want PDA, Ingrid will probably be more stiff and proper - but I can see how a situation where she explores this/eases into it might be interesting to read. It’s not like Ingrid is completely unromantic given all her lofty ideas about honor and how she likes these high fantasy-eque books. It’s somewhere in there

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - Would probably not have babies. 

How many children will they adopt? - Dorothea canonically looks after oprphans at least in Silver Snow so now entirely unlikely like two or three

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - Ingrid being the responsible one

Who is the stricter parent? - Ingrid

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - Ingrid

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - Dorothea

Who is the more loved parent? - Dorothea

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? Ingrid

Who cried the most at graduation? - Dorothea

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - Dorothea

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - Ingrid

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - Neither

Who does the grocery shopping? - Ingrid. 

How often do they bake desserts? - Often enough. Gotta appreciate how so many people in this game heartily enjoy their nom stuff, even the girls. I think Lorenz is the only one noted as not having much of an appetite. 

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - This is Ingrid we’re talking about. We’re not partying until there’s a roasted stuffed pugket involved

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - Hm. On the one hand Dorothea’s the romantic on the other hand Ingrid takes her obligations & loyalty seriously. But I think Dorothea would be the sort to really enjoy being the surprise-ee so let’s say Ingrid

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - Dorothea

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? - Neither. 

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - Both

Who is really against chores? -  Neither. 

Who cleans up after the pets? - Ingrid, mostly cause it’s her pets (Horses & pegasi chiefly)

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - Dorothea

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - Dorothea

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - Ingrid. She has a jar where she collects all the spare change

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - Dorothea

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - Both, though probably Ingrid more often cause she likes the outdoors

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - Dorothea strikes me as the decorating kind so regular

What are their goals for the relationship? - Probably to find their freedom together  and also help the poor. I suppose that is something they might have in common

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - Ingrid

Who plays the most pranks? - Dorothea

claumitri

General:

Rate the Ship -  Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs - Sure why not?  There’s nothing in particular that makes me think “Wow those would go super well together” but also nothing to the contrary. I’ve seen good fic for it.  I guess they’re just the two dudes who get the most characterization and also sorta get along/interact, so there’s a lot to work with.

How long will they last? - Hm. Dimitri would strike me as someone would like to be serious and longterm about things. They would need to work out the politics first but there’s no reason why they couldn’t last

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - I’d say it wouldn’t take them that long to get started, but somewhat longer to really get to a deep level. Largely because Claude is quick to build surface friendships but slower to really show his real feelings, but also Dimitri wouldn’t necessarily realize that he’s holding something back or press the issue. It helps that they are both just likeable people tho. Dimitri is not going to pass up a chance for a heart-to heart talk. If he got through to that hidden more idealistic side of Claude I think they’d click and get something lasting going. They would definitely always have disagreements about their methods and are fairly different in how they deal with their feelings, but they both have the will to work with ppl with different opinions and build bridges. 

How was their first kiss? - Claude probably quipped something about how it was surprisingly passionate. Dimitri turned into a tomato that same instant. 

Wedding:

Who proposed? - Dimitri

Who is the best man/men? - Dedue and either Nader or Byleth.

Who is the braid’s maid(s)? - Not applicable. But if it were, probably Hilda and Mercedes or Flayn. 

Who did the most planning? - Claude. He likes them feasts. 

Who stressed the most? - Dimitri. Thankfully Claude is chill enough for both of them and knows to distract him

How fancy was the ceremony? -Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.  

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - Lorenz’ and Sylvain’s jerk fathers. They might be important nobles but they’re jerks. Edelgard, Arundel and Rufus would already be dead in the AM timeline but if they weren’t they wouldn’t be invited anyways. Claude seems like might actually counteract Dimitri’s tendency to take bad treatment out of politeness. Felix might say that he won’t come but then show up anyways.Or there would be some conspiracy to kidnap him and make sure he comes. Lysithea came up with the plan and recruited Ingrid, Hilda and Sylvain to help her.

Sex:

Who is on top? -  Hm. I could see either doing it. Perhaps Claude would suggest that they switch it up for novelty. But Dimitri is definitely the little spoon, despite his actual size XD

Who is the one to instigate things? - Claude

How healthy is their sex life? -Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now  

How kinky are they? -Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head  -  The discussion would be absolutely hilarious cause Dimitri’s easily embarassed and Claude is a bit of a troll. But he wouldn’t go overboard or make Mitya uncomfortable Claude generally knows when to stop the gremlin act see that one scene with Flayn 

How long do they normally last? - average but it would be pretty intense

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - Not necessarily I can get either getting a kick out of just being the one administering the pleasure. 

How rough are they in bed? -Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. - You’ve got one person with super strength and one with super toughness/regeneration. There is potential here. 

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? -No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory. Methinks Dimitri would be pretty affectionate while Claude’s certainly flirty but the genuinely vulnerable/emotional stuff would have to be in private behind closed doors

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - Perhaps Claude found some magic mpreg magic right next to where he got the magic cure for Lysithea…

How many children will they adopt? - No jokes aside Dimitri strikes me as the sort to want kids and also to make a point to choose to adopt. The people of Fodlan better get ready to get some adopted Almyran or Duscurian war orphan as their next king. Dimitri would just proudly stand by his adopted kid and Claude would handle the political fallout. 

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - Dimitri

Who is the stricter parent? - Dimitri

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - Certainly not Claude

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - Dimitri

Who is the more loved parent? -  Both but in different ways. Dimitri is the affectionate parent who comforts the kids when they’re upset, and Claude is the designated fun parent that you can openly talk about everything with. 

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - Dimitri

Who cried the most at graduation? - Dimitri cried so much

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - Claude

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - Claude

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - Claude

Who does the grocery shopping? - Claude

How often do they bake desserts? - Probably not that often

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - Claude certainly likes a good serving of nom stuff. And Dimitri’s huge, probably needs some fuel to keep functioning

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - Claude strikes me as the surprise plans sort

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - Claude

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? - Dimitri

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - Not Claude. Dimitri tries but he’s clumsy

Who is really against chores? -  It’d not that Claude’s against it perse he just gets distracted thinking about stiff

Who cleans up after the pets? - Claude

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - Claude

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - Dimitri

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - Dimitri

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - Claude

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - They do it together. Both like walking out in nature. 

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - Dimitri isn’t much for decoration and Claude forgets about the holidays half the time

What are their goals for the relationship? - Just to be happy. Dimitri would want to have some separation between that and the politics - but it’s certainly helpful for the peace between the countries if the Kings are an item and they both care alot about promoting peace perhaps in slightly different but potentially complementary ways. 

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - Claude

Who plays the most pranks? - Claude

[gascon-en-exil]

FE16 Blue Lions Liveblogging

Chapters 17-18. Lots of heavy plot content here.

The further along I get in the war phase the more superfluous the monastery content and calendar system becomes. I haven’t gotten any new paralogues since Annette and Gilbert’s, because I believe you only get ones for characters you’ve recruited and I’ve exhausted all of those. I’ve read that Dimitri may have one toward the end, and Mercedes shares hers with Caspar of all people so that’ll have to wait for a playthrough when I do inter-house recruiting, but apart from that everyone in my army has had one. There’s little to do at the monastery but grind professor rank and Renown, mostly for supports and a last few skill ranks. What little there is in the way of quests is just Gilbert asking for resource contributions. It’s like the endgame WoW of years past, only without even the option to do group content (not that I would, but regardless).

The enemy AI for the school phase’s Battle of the Eagle and Lion allowed it to feel like a genuine struggle between three opposing armies, but round 2 in the war phase sacrificed narrative for the sake of difficulty. The Alliance forces charged my position after a few turns and didn’t go for the Empire at all, leaving me to play more defensively to neutralize their flying archer lord (...I really hope Claude spontaneously getting a wyvern gets some kind of explanation in the Deer route, something more than “because Almyran, just go with it”). Dedue once against punched Edelgard into submission because he’s distinctly good at that - really goes along with the hunting her down and killing her bit in another route, which TVTropes is now claiming can still happen if you choose to spare her. Huh.

Student kills: Ferdinand and Bernadetta from the Eagles, Lorenz, Raphael, Ignatz, Leonie, and Lysithea from the Deer, with the others either retreating or still unseen in the war phase. Petra was the only one who really surprised me by retreating instead of dying.

Starting in Chapter 18 Dimitri can be interacted with again like a normal unit. While I have issues with some of the presentation behind his change of heart (see below), it’s good to have him working on supports and building his skill ranks during training sessions again. Not that he really needs the latter; his stats are massive and both his sword and lance ranks are nearly maxed out.

The story map for Chapter 18 introduces magic/technology hybrids that act like either monsters or siege towers, on top of having at least one enemy caster with a traditional siege spell. Adding a lever far into the map to shut down the lightning towers was a nice touch.

Most of the master classes have been a pain to grind toward, as only a few units have what it takes to be true hybrids. Sylvain is evidently one of them, but sending Mercedes through cavalier to work on her riding for holy knight made her borderline useless. At least some of the advanced classes are good enough to where they could feasibly work for endgame (but I do still want a holy knight, so Mercedes will continue poking things for a while).

Story/Character observations

I’ve been getting all kinds of A supports. Dimitri/Dedue and Felix/Sylvain are as gay as advertised. Catherine/Ashe is one of those rare plot-heavy support lines, where we find out more about Lonato and Ashe’s own drive for revenge. Byleth/Gilbert is not even slightly romantic even late into their A support, which makes me wonder why he’s an S rank option for either gender when it’s more about pushing him to go home to his wife. Ditto Gilbert’s supports with Annette. Ashe/Annette gets kind of cute in the end, but Felix/Annette involves entirely too many of her comically bad songs to be endearing. Manuela cuts out the cougar routine when she spies on Sylvain being an asshole. Catherine thought young Dimitri was a maiden based on his haircut (as seen in the CG of him dancing with Edelgard - this guy is forever doomed to multiple varieties of bad hair) and repeats Felix’s taunt that Dimitri used to get so excited while training that he’d break swords in half but he’s better with lances even though they have less durability? I forget with whom, but Dimitri shuts down the impossible dream of fellow lance lord Ephraim by acknowledging that his traveling the world as a warrior would be irresponsible. The gender of Shamir’s first love might depend on Byleth’s - will have to see how the f!Byleth support words it. 

As for the story, this is the moment where Dimitri makes his turn back toward sanity and a sense of personal responsibility. Just as I predicted, his decision to allow that unnamed orphan girl to join the army turns out to have been a bad one. After Rodrigue takes a blade for his prince and Byleth shows himself again adept at swift executions, Dimitri is moved by the death of yet another of his loved ones to go walking in the rain and respond favorably to vaguely inspirational dialogue choices. While I understand what the writers were going for, I have two issues with this sequence of events. The first is minor, in that the CGs used for them - of Fleche preparing to stab Dimitri and Rodrigue stepping between them, of the dying Rodrigue cradling Dimitri’s face, and of Dimitri in the rain - don’t do a very good job of matching the intended mood. The first two use sunset lighting and thus appear much too soft, while Dimitri in the rain with his hair plastered to his head alone against a black background looks unsettling and almost creepy for what’s meant to be his big moment of redemption. That’s a small quibble with artistic choice, however.

On the other hand, my other issue will take a whole post to explain. I’ll be saving that for a larger Dimitri/Dedue project after I’ve completed playthroughs of all the routes routes, but my basic argument is this: Dedue being removed and then optionally re-inserted into the Blue Lions storyline was necessary for Dimitri’s emotional arc to make sense, and to allow Byleth a much larger role in said arc than they otherwise would have had. Yes, I have major shipping goggles on here, but try to imagine a scenario where Dedue saves Dimitri from prison and they go on the run together for five years, before reuniting with everyone at the monastery.

To no one’s surprise, Dedue takes up watching after the prince in the monastery the chapter after he returns. In Chapter 18 he comments that he’s the only that Dimitri hasn’t really changed despite appearing more sane, that he’s still too kind and sensitive to the suffering of war and that Dedue admires him for that. They’re just laying the subtext on thick now.

Related to my problem with the Alliance AI in the threeway battle, it’s never explained why Claude joins the battle at Gronder Field (apart from getting him into that cutscene they all share, anwyay). Prior to that battle House Reigan opposed the Empire and even engaged House Gloucester’s pro-Imperial faction to distract them from Chapter 16′s bridge.  As the next chapter’s title references the Deer however I imagine I’ll get an explanation sooner rather than later.

Cornelia’s cleavage may be impossible, but as far as under-dressed female villains in this series go she wasn’t terrible. She doesn’t flirt with anyone and apparently got her lofty position in the Kingdom through her talents at magic and infrastructure reform (which may have included the turrets and giant robots in Fhirdiad? Was that the implication?). Her dying revelation about Dimitri’s stepmother would have landed better had we ever seen anything of her, but I suppose as Edelgard’s birth mother she’ll be brought up again in some capacity on her route.

[allie-writes]

nth time’s the charm

Rating: General Audiences Warnings: None apply Category: F/M Relationships: Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Annette Fantine Dominic Additional relevant tags: Modern AU, Meet-Cute Word count: 6460 Language: English Read on: AO3 | Fanfiction.net

 She’s alone, dancing by herself in the middle of a public park just before noon, and she smells like a whole bottle of cheap perfume.

 Felix can’t help but stare.

i.

 As with unfortunately many things in Felix’s life, it all starts with Dimitri.

 Or, rather, Dimitri’s infuriating behaviours—above all, his lack of a spine that could put a squid to shame. Their team had decided how to go about handling a new client weeks ago, had prepared everything accordingly, had put hours upon hours into getting in contact with business partners to ensure they could pull it all off without a hitch, and then someone had come up to Dimitri yesterday, asked really nicely if he could just screw over their whole schedule, which had been, again, established weeks ago, because they really needed the help. And the idiot, the absolute moron, had, all on his own, decided that his team would of course help.

 So Felix had gotten up in the middle of the meeting, gave Dimitri a few choice words, and clocked out for lunch an hour early.

 Now, ten minutes later, with no appetite to speak of and twenty minutes left to his break, he finds himself sitting on a park bench, fidgety with anger and excess energy. When he gets back, he’ll probably be greeted with one of Dimitri’s lengthy apologies—not that he shouldn’t apologise, because he is definitely at fault here, but he’s also in love with the idea that he is to blame for everything, ever, so a simple ‘sorry’ usually turns into an hour-long self-flagellation session. Felix is not looking forward to that.

 He gets up and stretches, sweeping his gaze over the mostly empty park. The sky is overcast, turning even the scenery sad and dreary. If he were any more upset, he’d go and kick a tree or ten, but the last remnants of his self-control deny him even that much. So he walks—briskly and aimlessly and with too much intent for someone who has no idea where he’s going.

 He’s still stalking around the premises when a scent hits him. It’s flowery and vaguely familiar, similar to the perfume he’d gotten Lysithea for their Secret Santa last year, but perhaps not exactly that. It’s so surprising, still, that Felix stops in his tracks and looks around for its origin.

 And its origin is... curious, to say the least.

 It seems to be coming from a petite woman—maybe still a girl, even—who appears to be fully immersed in a book she is silently mouthing the words to, absentmindedly moving her feet in something close to a waltz. Her orange dress, a crass contrast to the grey-in-grey weather, sways with her steps and she twirls once before turning over the page.

 She’s alone, dancing by herself in the middle of a public park just before noon, and she smells like a whole bottle of cheap perfume.

 Felix can’t help but stare.

 And then, unfortunately, the woman stares back. Her eyes go wide for just one second before she stumbles, letting out a “Wah!” before her book goes flying. It lands unceremoniously on the dirt path, but at least the woman catches herself before she falls, too.

 “Sorry,” Felix says, because he doesn’t exactly know what else to say, and steps forward to get the book for her. “I... uh... didn’t mean to...”

 “You can’t just,” she huffs, “stand there and gawk at me.” She seems less offended than embarrassed, though, judging by how red her face is. “It’s rude! And—oh, I didn’t look too goofy, did I? I sometimes get lost in thought, and then I forget my surroundings.“

 She fists a hand into her hair—ginger and slightly messy—and groans. “You’re not a bad dancer,” Felix says, and she pouts at him. He holds her book out towards her. Loog and the Maiden of Wind. Huh. “A medieval epic?”

 “Oh, yes,” she says and takes the book back. A little smile tugs at the corners of her lips, and Felix has to fight back the reflex to smile in return. She lovingly smoothes her hand over the cover. “It’s a friend’s favourite. He let me borrow it and—oh no...”

 Her hand shoots to one of the corners. “It’s dented,” she says, fingers tracing the damage. “Oh, he’s gonna be so mad.” She worries her lip, then looks back up at Felix. “He’s one of those people who will tell you it’s fine and that they’re not mad, but really, you know that you messed up, and you feel horrible for it. And then you try to make it up to them, and they appreciate it, but you also know that it’s not enough.”

 Finally, she deflates with a sigh. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to...”

 “It’s fine,” Felix says, looking at his feet. “I’m sorry for making you drop the book in the first place.”

 The woman huffs. “Even worse, you watched me dance a jig like an idiot!” she says, but when Felix glances back up, she’s smiling. He feels his face heat up in response. “Though you said my dancing was fine, so maybe I didn’t look that bad.”

 “It wasn’t exactly up to ballroom standard.”

 She grins. “Oh, you’re a straight-up villain!” she shouts, cheerful and just a bit too loud. Then, she gasps. “Wait, do you know what time it is?”

 Felix fishes his phone from his pocket, wilfully ignoring the three missed calls from Sylvain, and reads back, “It’s just past 12.”

 “Crackers!” the woman says—crackers!—and pulls her book against her chest. “Uh, it was nice talking to you and all, but I really gotta—“

 And then she’s rushing past Felix, almost tripping over her own feet in her mad dash, and leaves him standing right there.

 He can do little but stare after her, his phone still in his hand, and he wonders what exactly just happened. His ringtone rips him out of his reverie, though, and Sylvain’s name lights up on screen. With a long suffering sigh, Felix picks up. “Yes?”

 “So you do know how to pick up!” Sylvain chirps from the other side of the line. Some shuffling follows, like he’s adjusting his position, and, more worryingly, Felix can make out sobs in the background. “So, we kind of have a situation on our hands here. I think Dimitri won’t rest until he can talk this out with you, so...”

 Felix sighs. “Alright,” he says, giving the book-sized imprint on the ground one last look.

  ii.

 “Don’t you want to see how our dear old friend Ingrid is doing?” Sylvain asks, one arm slung around Felix’s shoulders in a friendly gesture that doubles as an inescapable chokehold. “You can just sit down and mope around in a corner, if that’s what you want.”

 Felix huffs. “It’s not like I don’t want to see her,” he says, subtly trying to pry Sylvain’s arm off. “I just have better things to do with my Saturday than annoy Ingrid.” Which is an argument that probably doesn’t resonate with Sylvain, considering how it’s been one of his favourite hobbies since childhood, but Felix tries anyways.

 “Well, too bad,” Sylvain says and throws open the glass door leading to the bookstore Ingrid co-owns, dragging Felix inside with him. At least he didn’t bully Dimitri into coming along this time.

 Ingrid is behind the checkout counter and looks up when she hears the chimes above the door jingle. “Oh, it’s just you two,” she says flatly, and Sylvain finally, finally lets go of Felix to whine at Ingrid for being cruel and not suited for customer service and so rude to her oldest friends, and hey, hey, Felix, she really is, isn’t she?

 Felix tunes it out after the first three sentences and meanders off, but he feels Ingrid’s eyes burn holes into the back of his head until he ducks between two rows of bookshelves. The classics section is not exactly interesting to him, but it’s better than being stuck listening to whatever Sylvain is bothering Ingrid with.

 At least their conversation has gotten quieter now.

 Felix scans the titles on the spines with no particular interest, yet his eyes catch on one in particular—Loog and the Maiden of Wind. A bright orange dress comes to mind, and he can’t stop himself from reaching out and taking the book off the shelf.

 He cracks it open, flipping through pages upon pages of needlessly wordy plot fit into neat metres. Ingrid loves these things for some reason, but she also loves feminist literature and magazines about brushing horses. And she isn’t half as bad about them as her business partner, anyways.

 Felix’s half-hearted reading is interrupted when someone starts humming, maybe as close as the other side of the shelf. It’s sweet and melodic, just loud enough to be audible from a few steps away, but it doesn’t disrupt the quiet of the bookstore.

 He closes and shelves the book again. The humming continues, steadily increasing in volume. Felix looks around before he decides to poke his head around the corner to peer into the next aisle.

 What greets him on the other side of the shelf is a vaguely familiar mop of red hair from a few days prior. I sometimes get lost in thought, and then I forget my surroundings, echoes a voice in the back of Felix’s mind that just so happens to be the humming voice’s perfect match.

 Not wanting to repeat his previous offense of wordlessly staring at her, Felix clears his throat. Immediately, the woman before him goes silent, turning her head to look at him with an embarrassed flush to her cheeks. “Sorry, was I being too loud?” she asks. “Wait a second. I recognise you from somewhere.”

 “In the park, the other day,” Felix supplies, and the woman lights up immediately.

 “Oh, right!” she exclaims, smiling with a flush still high on her cheeks. “You saw my... dancing...” Her face falls further and further with every word before she buries it in her hands and groans. “Ugh, why is this the second time you have to come across me doing something embarrassing! My humming was probably way off-tune, too, wasn’t it?”

 Felix feels like a deer in the headlights, way out of his depth. “I don’t think so?” he offers weakly, and the woman sighs. Her hands fall away from her face and she shakes her head with a wry smile.

 “I swear, I’m not usually this bad,” she says, looking at the shelf in front of her to avoid looking at Felix. “But I’m not making a strong case for myself here, am I?”

 “I honestly don’t care,” Felix replies. The woman freezes up, and maybe that came out a bit harsher than intended. “Your dancing was fine. And your voice is... kind of nice. Not that I have much to go off, but it sounded good.”

 She goes as red as her hair. Felix can relate, because he, too, is getting flustered, caught up in all this awkwardness. Normally, he would have run away from this train wreck of a conversation already, but somehow, he finds himself unable to leave. Instead, he watches as this tiny woman purses her lips, twirls her hair, and ultimately breaks out into a wide grin. “Are you sure you’re not just teasing me?” she asks, but it lacks any seriousness.

 “Maybe I am,” Felix replies, and she laughs. It’s sweet—as if the sound was what her voice was made for, and as if Felix wasn’t terribly unfunny at all.

 “My name’s Annette, by the way,” she says, only now turning to fully face Felix. “Might as well introduce myself if we’re just gonna keep running into each other.” She doesn’t offer her hand for a shake, but her smile is a bashful sort of inviting.

 Felix clears his throat again. “Felix,” he says, and Annette’s smile brightens so much, he has to look away from it.

 “That’s a nice name!” she says, maybe only conversationally, and turns back towards the shelf. Felix, for his part, is glad that she does, because his cheeks feel very warm. Unperturbed, Annette prattles on, “You see, I was looking for a book a co-worker of mine wanted to read, and I told them they’d probably have it here but—oh no.”

 “What is it?” Felix barely manages to ask before Annette is scrambling out of the aisle, shaking her head.

 “I forgot—I didn’t think—work!” she yells as she dashes past the checkout counter, almost crashing into Sylvain, and then out of the door. Ingrid, still behind the register, stares after her in surprise before she redirects her attention towards Felix.

 “What did you say to her?” she asks, stern.

 Felix frowns, because Ingrid has no right to immediately assume the worst of him, and crosses his arms. “Nothing,” he says. Ingrid narrows her eyes as if considering him and Felix scoffs. “Really.”

 iii.

 “Why am I here?”

 Dimitri smiles at Felix from the seat to his right. “Because we were personally invited, and it would have been rude to show up one person short, Felix,” he replies evenly, hands folded neatly in his lap. “Besides, I was under the impression you enjoyed musical performances.”

 Felix decidedly looks anywhere but at Dimitri. “I do,” he concedes, watching some stage hands do some last check-ups on the equipment. It’s terribly dark in this glorified bar that only sees an audience because Sylvain’s friend Dorothea cons people into coming. “Just not like this.”

 “Next time I go see an opera, I’ll make sure to bring you along, then,” Dimitri say cheerfully, tone-deaf as ever.

 “Please don’t.”

 The screech of a microphone back coupling interrupts whatever Dimitri wants to say next, and he recoils at the noise instead. One of the stage hands throws a sheepish smile in the direction of the still sparse audience. “Regardless, I think this concert is going to be wonderful,” Dimitri eventually says when the silence between them had just become pleasant.

 Felix sighs and props his head up on one of his hands. “Maybe Dorothea oversold it,” he mutters and Dimitri chuckles in reply, just to be polite. He doesn’t believe it, of course, and neither does Felix, not really, but disagreeing with Dimitri is simply what he does. “She’s annoyingly confident.”

 “What, am I not allowed to be?”

 Felix freezes at the sing-song of a voice before a hand settles on his shoulder from behind. He cranes is neck to look at the icy smile Dorothea throws his way. “I should be honoured you came at all, shouldn’t I?” she says, giving Felix’s shoulder a squeeze that could be both, a greeting or a warning, before letting go. “But don’t worry, it’s going to be good. The band is amazing.”

 “I’m certain they are,” Dimitri says, maybe to remind her he’s still there, too, before adding, “but I have no doubt that your performance will be great, too.”

 Dorothea coughs into her hand to hide her laughter. “Oh, thank you,” she says, pretending to take issue with her perfectly styled hair to avoid looking at Dimitri’s overly earnest expression. Felix huffs and turns to look towards the bar where Sylvain is still chatting up the poor bartender and Ingrid, one drink in each hand, looks dangerously close to dropping them in order to drag Sylvain away by the ear.

 “I’m sure you need to go prepare, don’t you?” Felix asks, turning back to Dorothea. She frowns at being shooed away like this, but probably knows not to expect much more out of him by now.

 “I guess,” she says. “Tell Sylvain the bartender is taken, would you?” She stretches once, then throws him and Dimitri a quick smile and walks off in the direction of what is probably a backstage area or glorified storage room. She greets a few people along the way, and this only serves to support Felix’s theory that she ropes personal acquaintances into coming here to fill the seats.

 After that, Dimitri and Felix sit mostly in silence until Ingrid and Sylvain come back with their drinks at last. It’s getting more crowded, and the band begins tuning their instruments with a few stagehands assisting them. “Why did we have to come so early?” Felix asks Sylvain, now to his left, and he shrugs.

 “Dorothea said we should come around six,” he replies. “Maybe it was her idea of a prank.”

 Felix scoffs. “You probably pissed her off somehow, then,” he says, and Sylvain lets out a squawk of protest before coming up short when it comes to defending himself.

 Eventually, Dorothea and what Felix assumes are background singers climb the stage and take their positions behind some standing microphones. The singer furthest in the back aggressively waves at someone in the audience, and after a second, someone in the third row raises their hand to wave back. Actually, now that he’s looking more closely, that singer seems oddly familiar, and it takes Felix only another moment to realise why.

 Which also happens to be the moment in which their eyes meet over five or so rows of audience.

 “Hello,” Annette mouths on stage (or at least some other greeting, probably), now waving at Felix with both hands at once while looking strangely frantic about it. Felix just nods at her, and she beams before ducking back behind the other singers.

 It makes something giddy and stupid rise up in Felix’s stomach, so he grips his knee with too much force and pretends to be unaffected while chugging half his drink in one go. “Easy there,” Sylvain chides him while sounding awfully close to laughter, and Felix has half a mind to dump the rest of his glass into his lap.

 When the lights go dim, the audience falls silent. Dorothea, centre stage, runs a hand through her hair and puts on her best smile before greeting everyone and introducing the band. With two measures counted ahead by the drummer and otherwise very little preamble, they start into their first song.

 And, well, they are good. Dorothea is admittedly as skilled a singer as she makes herself out to be and maybe for that reason, Sylvain’s lovelorn puppy eyes aren’t as annoying as they could be, but Felix feels restless now. More than the front woman, he wants to hear a certain background singer.

 He wants to know if Annette’s singing voice matches her humming from the other day, and what she would choose to sing if she was left to her own devices. And maybe he’s getting a bit obsessed with this, and that’s a feeling he isn’t too familiar with. It’s frustrating.

 He wants to know things about Annette.

 The first half of the show draws to a close with Dorothea announcing that they will be taking a short break, and before Felix can stop himself, he’s already out of his seat. “Felix? Where are you going?” he hears Ingrid shout after him, but he makes a bee-line for the stage, bumping shoulders here and there as he weaves through the crowd.

 When he gets to the front, he finds Annette already talking to an older man, her smile surprisingly strained. Their conversation doesn’t carry amidst the noise of all the people in the room, but if Felix had to chance a guess, he would say that the man is probably her father or uncle, judging by the greying red of his hair and the fact that he looks out of place enough to have come for Annette specifically.

 Felix feels kind of stupid now, standing a few feet away from them with no idea what to say to Annette and no intention of interrupting her conversation. So he helplessly looks to the seat he vacated and the confused Dimitri and displeased Ingrid he’d left in his wake. “What the hell?” is what Ingrid mouths, probably, and he frowns. She shakes her head and says something to Dimitri who perks up and throws Felix a thumbs-up. Ingrid promptly buries her face in her hands.

 “Felix?”

 He doesn’t jump. He really doesn’t. When he looks down at Annette, with one of her hands gently hovering over Felix’s arm, she looks like she’s holding back laughter. “Uh,” he says to her, intelligently, which only seems to amuse Annette further.

 “I... uh... didn’t expect to see you here. I was so surprised earlier!” she says, smiling. Felix averts his eyes and coughs.

 “A friend is friends with Dorothea, so he got us roped into coming here,” he explains, probably a bit red in the face and staring at his shoes. “I didn’t know you sang.” I don’t really know anything about you, he doesn’t say.

 But Annette doesn’t seem bothered in the slightest. “Oh, yes!” she says. “It’s only a side-gig for me, but... well. I mean, I don’t have the kind of voice and presence that someone like Dorothea has, but I enjoy it a lot. Being in the background is no less fun, and it’s way less pressure.”

 “I’d still like to hear you sing,” Felix blurts and kind of wants to die right there. He chances a quick look up at Annette, only to see her smile with some mixture of embarrassment and happiness. She’s probably red in the cheeks, somewhere below her stage makeup.

 “Oh, Felix, you just want to laugh at me,” she says, giving his shoulder a friendly shove. She’s still smiling, though. “What do you think of the show this far, by the way?”

 Her segue comes out of left field, but Felix ultimately shrugs. “It’s good,” he replies, and Annette grins several kilowatts bright.

 Dorothea retakes the stage before he can say anything more, and Annette scrambles off once again.

  iii.b.

 “Have you considered,” Ingrid asks, stirring creamer into her coffee, “that maybe, just maybe, you have a crush?”

 Felix scoffs and resents the fact that his coffee isn’t yet cold enough to chug defiantly. “Don’t be stupid. I know next to nothing about her,” he says. Ingrid gives him an unimpressed stare over the rim of her cup and takes a long sip. It’s aggravating and Ingrid knows it.

 “So how about you go and actually ask her to spend time with you?” she offers in her most patronising tone—the one usually reserved for Sylvain. “Annette’s a regular here, and close friends with Ashe to boot. I could forward her your number.” As if to show what ‘here’ encompasses, Ingrid gestures around the mostly dark bookstore with her free hand. She follows it up by taking another demonstrative sip. “So don’t go making up excuses about not being able to get in touch.”

 “No thanks,” Felix replies. “For one, because this isn’t a crush—“ Ingrid coughs a laugh, “and also because having you playing matchmaker is even worse than having Sylvain do it.”

 “Alright, so not a crush,” concedes Ingrid, still sounding too bemused for Felix’s taste. “Are you trying to make a friend, then? You’re not used to not knowing people you’re close to since you were this tiny, do you?” She gestures only a few centimetres above the ground to drive her point home, grinning. “Must be hard.”

 “Shut up,” Felix says and decides to screw it all and drink some of his coffee, heat be damned.

 “I mean, it wouldn’t hurt you to be more sociable, either way.”

 Felix sighs. “I don’t need this to turn into one of your lectures,” he says.

 “Would you rather have this conversation with Sylvain, then? I’m sure he’d be really happy to help you,” Ingrid says flatly, as if that thought alone didn’t trigger Felix’s fight or flight response. “He’d probably think this is his field of expertise, you know.”

 “You’ve made your point, now let it go,” Felix snaps, more harshly than strictly necessary. Ingrid gives him a disapproving frown but leaves him be, instead opting to sulkily finish her

coffee.

 Eventually, she sets her empty cup down on the checkout counter, most likely to leave it for tomorrow. She stretches once before shooting Felix a tired smile. “Come on, I want to lock up for the day.”

 Felix chugs the last bit of his now lukewarm coffee in one go and slams his cup down next to Ingrid’s with more force than necessary. “There,” he says, and Ingrid laughs.

  iv.

 It’s 4AM on a Sunday, and Felix, for some ungodly (six-foot-something, blond and clinically depressed) reason, finds himself all alone in the cheese aisle at the grocery store, trying to decide whether to get gouda or cheddar to appease the beast.

 The entire place is deathly silent, save for the mind-numbing bubblegum pop playing on the radio. With some of the fluorescents overhead flickering at intervals, it all feels like a horror movie in the making. Felix swallows a lump building in his throat and grabs both cheeses, shoving them into his shopping basket with a vengeance.

 Now that he’s already here, he decides to buy something for himself as well, although he has yet to figure out what he wants. He aimlessly walks around the snack aisles for a while, staring at fruit bars and candy as if he could actually stand the stuff. Maybe his tired mind just doesn’t recall that he dislikes sweets, he thinks after he’s maintained a solid minute of eye-contact with a cartoon parrot on a box of hard candy.

 “Ooh, Mercie, I just remembered!” someone suddenly shouts, an aisle or so away, and Felix is ripped out of his trance. “I wanted you to try those sugar cookies they have here! They’re so good.”

 ‘Mercie’ laughs in reply and their two sets of footsteps are loud as encroaching thunder in the empty store at four in the morning. Felix belatedly realises that he is still in the candy aisle, and that he’s probably going to run into the only other customers in the store right now. Bolting proves ineffectual, because the second he turns to go anywhere else, he comes face to face with the one person he always runs into in the strangest places.

 “Felix? What a coincidence!” Annette greets him, in a pair of kitty-patterned pyjama pants and a bomber jacket. Next to her is a woman almost a head taller in a similar state of dress, with a serene smile and her hand casually clasped around Annette’s. Not a crush, insists a voice at the back of Felix’s mind when a misplaced bout of anger—not jealousy, because this isn’t a crush—flares up inside him.

 He coughs and shrugs one shoulder. “Yeah,” he mumbles, and Annette keeps coming closer, dragging ‘Mercie’ along with her.

 “What brings you here so early?” she asks, brightly. She takes an exaggerated peek at the contents of Felix’s basket. “A sudden cheese craving? I sometimes get those, too!”

 “It’s not for me,” he replies. “I’m just playing errand boy.”

 Annette lets out a thoughtful hum. “Well, we still ended up running into each other! I mean, what are the odds?” She smiles before visibly recoiling. “Oh no, I forgot to,” and here, she tugs ‘Mercie’ forward, “introduce you!”

 “Mercie, that’s Felix—you know, Felix, who I keep running into!” she explains. “And um, this is Mercie, my best friend in the whole wide world! And my roommate, too.”

 “Mercedes. Pleased to meet you,” the taller woman says, disentangling her hand from Annette’s to offer it to Felix. The gesture is jarringly formal, but Felix shakes it on instinct. Mercedes’ hand itself is really soft while her grip is anything but. “Annie has mentioned you on occasion. It really is quite curious how you bump into each other so much.”

If there’s a threat hidden behind her words, Felix has trouble telling so, if only because Mercedes’ tone is unwaveringly sweet and even. “It’s only chance meetings,” he mutters, and pulls his hand back.

 “It’s actually weirder that we haven’t met before,” Annette says. “He’s friends with Ingrid—you know, the one who works with Ashe? And yet, we somehow managed to never meet. It’s so weird.”

 Mercedes laughs lightly before looking at the shelves next to her. “Were you looking to buy sweets, Felix?” she asks. “Annie and I could give you some recommendations if you’d like.”

 “Yes, we know our stuff! Don’t we Mercie?” Annette beams and Mercedes laughs. Felix feels like his head hurts from looking at the brightness of the two women before him for too long. Annette leans toward him. “Truth be told, Mercie is a regular patissier,” she stage-whispers.

 “I don’t like sweets,” Felix replies, and watches the women’s faces fall in tandem. “I was looking for something like crackers or chips, maybe.”

 “For your friend?” Mercedes asks, and he shakes his head. “Oh, I do know a great brand of chips! If you haven’t tried them yet, may I recommend them to you?”

 It becomes extremely clear to Felix then that Mercedes is someone who is used to carrying conversations in a non-offensive manner. She gently guides him by the arm, steering him towards the savoury snacks opposite the sweets—and why hadn’t he been looking at those in the first place?—and plucks two bags of chips from the shelf before dumping them into Felix’s basket. He feels a bit like a little kid.

 “Can we get some of those, too, Mercie?” Annette pipes up from behind them, and Mercedes smiles before getting another bag. “You’re the best!”

 “Of course, Annie,” she laughs before the both of them end up staring at Felix once again. Before either of them can say anything, though, Felix’s phone goes off. The ringtone is awfully loud in the quiet store, and he frantically fumbles for it to get it to stop.

 “What.”

 “Did you get my cheese yet?” comes a sullen Dimitri’s voice from the other end of the line. “You don’t have to, if it’s too much trouble.” Felix has to restrain himself from chucking his phone into the next aisle. Instead, he takes a deep breath, reminds himself that Dimitri is in one of his moods, and looks down at his basket.

 “Not yet, but I’m already on my way to checkout,” he says, which isn’t really a lie since he has no business here anymore, “and I’ll be at your place in ten minutes.” He hears Dimitri inhale as if to say something. “And don’t apologise for anything right now.”

 “Alright,” he says. Then, quieter, “Thank you, Felix.”

 “Whatever.”

 He hangs up and looks at Annette and Mercedes, who don’t even pretend to not have listened in. “I, uh, gotta go,” Felix says.

 “Of course,” says Mercedes, smiling, while next to her, Annette makes a shooing motion with her hands.

 “Go already, your friend needs you!” she says. “Don’t leave them hanging now! Their cheese cravings depend on you, Felix!”

 “Alright, I got it,” he says, and has to fight back a smile as, for once, he is the one to walk away to twin yells of take care!

  v.

 The Laundromat’s humming and the steady spinning of Felix’s blacks and colours inside is actually kind of hypnotic. He’s been staring at the drum tumbling his clothing around for almost ten minutes now, and he’s surprised by how meditative a state it’s left him in. The monotonous motion chases away any and all thoughts, and it’s great.

 Someone begins loading a washing machine a few paces away, but Felix keeps staring at his clothes getting tossed.

 “I’m washing my clothes today,” the other person suddenly starts singing, “washing all the filth away.” They’re tapping their feet along with it, too. “Stains, and dust, and old food crusts; getting all the dirt out of my t-shirt!”

 The lyrics are absolutely asinine, but the voice singing them is sweet and steady and actually kind of familiar, and when Felix looks up, sure enough, it’s Annette again. She’s swaying her hips as she stuffs her laundry into the drum, smiling cheerfully. “And when I lose another sock, this time I will know where to look, I—no, that doesn’t really rhyme.”

 She huffs, and Felix sees that as his chance to very casually clear his throat. Annette yelps, and whips around, probably already intending on apologising to her unintended audience when she realises who it is. “Oh no, you heard that, didn’t you?”

 “I think the sock-look rhyme was okay,” Felix says, and Annette goes beet red in the face.

 “No, oblique rhymes aren’t okay at all!” she insists and drops a blouse just so she can cover her face. “Ugh, I can’t believe you had to hear that! You wanted to hear me sing and now this is how it happens. I swear I’m usually better than this! I’m just not warmed up!”

 “It wasn’t bad,” Felix insists. Annette chances a peek at him through the gaps in her fingers. Felix feels heat rise to his own cheeks. “I mean, you have a good voice. It’s nice.”

 “You’re not just saying that?”

 “Why would I lie about that?” he snaps, and Annette practically flinches away from him. He coughs into his fist and pretends he doesn’t feel how much hotter his face is getting, still. “Though I would like to know where the socks go.”

 Annette huffs and finally removes her hands from her face again. “You’re just teasing me now,” she says, picking up the blouse she dropped before practically slamming it into the washing machine. “If you really want to know—they get stuck in places you can’t see them a lot. Close to the rim, at the top, you name it. But this is a Laundromat, so they don’t keep them, I don’t think.”

 She picks up a shirt and puts it into the drum. “I learned that the hard way. I lost one of my cutest socks here. I had to throw the other away, Felix.” It sounds like a life-changing incident to her, and Felix can’t help but snort. Annette shoots him an indignant look that almost immediately melts away into a fond smile. “Mercie tried to tell me there was a type of malicious spirit that steals clothing from young women for two weeks, and eventually, I started believing it.”

 Felix laughs, short and unbidden. Annette looks elated about it. “Smiling is a good look on you,” she says, eyes bright and honest. It does something to Felix, and all of a sudden, he finds himself drawing a complete blank. He just stares at Annette, feels his heart hammering away in his chest, and thinks, oh.

 This is a crush after all.

 “I need some air,” he says, sounding winded just from having the metaphorical air knocked out of him, and Annette looks worried for a second. Felix shakes his head as if to say that he’s alright and moves past her without waiting for a reply. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

 He bolts from the store and walks just far enough to the side so Annette can’t see him through the glass front. He pulls his phone from his pocket and scrolls through his contacts for Sylvain’s name when he pauses, his thumb hovering an inch or so above the call icon. Maybe this isn’t the best course of action here, he thinks, moving one contact up—from Gautier to Galatea—and calling Ingrid instead.

 “Felix?” she says upon picking up in lieu of a greeting. “You never call. Is something wrong?”

 “You were right.”

 Ingrid sighs, maybe because she realises that nothing seems to be on fire, and shifts her phone about. “I usually am.” More rustling follows. “What is this about?”

 Felix exhales shakily, then forces himself into an act of nonchalance with a shrug and sheer willpower. “It is a crush,” he rushes out. “I have a stupid crush on Annette.”

 “Oh, Felix,” says Ingrid, “it’s not stupid.” She refrains from assuming the tone she usually reserves for preaching and scolding, at least, Felix thinks. He almost feels like she isn’t being patronising for once. “You have nothing to lose from asking her to spend time with you. I’m sure she will agree to it.” Something shifts again and Ingrid speaks to someone in the background. “It’s not rocket science. Just be nice to her about it all.”

 “As if you know anything about these things.”

 Ingrid scoffs. “Who called who, again?” she shoots back, and Felix hangs up on her before she can get actually upset with him.

  v.b.

 “Are you feeling any better?” Annette asks when Felix steps back inside. She’s sitting on the bench in front of her Laundromat, back turned towards it as if she had been waiting for him. It makes Felix feel kind of bad.

 “Yes,” he says. Then, “Sorry.”

 Annette stands up with an almighty sigh. “You got pale all of a sudden,” she says and walks over to him. “I was worried, you know!” She doesn’t seem too angry, at least. If anything, it looks like she’s holding back a grin.

 Felix mentally steels himself for what he’s about to say next. “Can I make it up to you somehow, then?”

 “Like how?” Annette asks, and she sounds genuinely confused. What would Felix give for her to catch on more quickly right now.

 “I don’t know,” he says. “Maybe buy you lunch after this.”

 His face is probably red as a tomato by now, judging by the heat. Annette stares at him with wide eyes and he can’t keep looking at her. “Felix, say,” she begins, slow and tentative, “are you asking me out?”

 “I am.”

 It’s surprising how resolutely that comes out, because Felix feels terribly out of his depth. Talking about feelings—implied or otherwise—is something he doesn’t usually do.

 “Well, I mean, I could go for some ice cream after our laundry is done. It’s so nice out,” Annette says like it’s just any other conversation. When Felix chances at glance at her, she is almost as red in the face as when she’d realised she had been singing for an audience earlier, though. “But if you don’t care for it, that’s fine, too,” she adds, hastily.

 “It’s your call,” Felix replies and actually makes an effort to maintain eye-contact. They’re both red-faced and awkward, but eventually, Annette breaks out into a bright smile.

 “Alright! And until it’s done,” she says, spinning in place before dramatically flopping down on the bench, “I’ll sing you one of my more refined songs. Just to show you that I know how rhymes work!”

 And as Annette drags him down by the hand to get him to sit next to her, and as she begins to sing what turns out to be an album’s worth of bizarrely themed songs, Felix realises that, maybe, he already knows a thing or two about Annette already.

[crackimagines]

Megumi Sakura as a Professor AU

When an actually sane and kind person is put in charge of a class of Garreg Mach Monastery, only mayhem and chaos awaits the poor soul.

-------

School-Live! AU Masterlist Here

Byleth took out a quill and a sheet of paper to write on.

He started writing quietly as Sothis materialized behind him, seeing what he was writing.

“Byleth’s report on our new instructor: Megumi Sakura. 

From what I have seen throughout the past few weeks, she has been a very dedicated teacher for the children. 

Though, there are times when I have seen them try her patience...”

-------

Megumi sighed as she walked away from the explosion marks. Leonie coughed before she spoke to her professor.

(Leonie) “Hey Megunee, we managed to put out the fires. Should we get some water?”

(Megumi) “Yes, please.”

(Leonie) ”Got it.”

(Claude) “Er...My bad, Megu-nee. I shouldn’t have put up a stand of a vampire that popped out to scare Lysithea.”

(Lysithea) “I apologize for my overreaction as well. Using an explosive spell wasn’t the best response to a pop-up scare.”

(Megumi) “Don’t call me that, it’s Professor Sakura.”

She waved away some of the smoke as she sighed again.

(Megumi) “An explosion going off in the middle of lectures is definitely going to come up in the staff meeting...”

(Claude) “Cheer up, Megunee! At least there weren’t any casualties!”

(Megumi) “Eh?!”

(Megumi) 

“CLAUDE, I’M GOING TO BE A CASUALTY!”

-------

"Everytime I thought she was going to absolutely lose it, she managed to keep her cool and ensure a healthy environment for her students.

Funnily enough, I think she can be a bit too caring for her students sometimes, because she’s ensured that no one could ever see her as a real instructor, because they all see her as a second mother now.

-------

When Megumi came up to the library to return some of the books she borrowed for the day’s lecture, she saw Annette face first into a book.

She quietly chuckled to herself as she silently returned the books and grabbed a nearby tarp. It wasn’t exactly the greatest blanket, but it was something at the very least.

Nodding in satisfaction, she left the library for the night.

The next morning, she entered the Blue Lions class and heard Annette and Felix talking.

(Annette) “And when I woke up in the Library, there was a blanket over me! Who do you think did it?”

(Felix) “I’m not sure. I don’t think anyone was in the library at the moment.”

(Dimitri) “Oh, I was!”

Megumi smiled, knowing Dimitri most likely saw her.

(Dimitri) “I didn’t seem to notice anyone, though I SWEAR someone was in the library.”

(Annette) “Huh, whoever was there must not have that much of a presence.”

(Megumi) “ACK?!”

(Felix) “Er, Megunee?”

(Megumi) “I...don’t have a...presence?”

(Annette) “Megunee?”

Megumi stood in the corner muttering to herself for a few minutes before realizing that the class was looking at her.

(Megumi) “Um...L-Let’s begin class!”

-------

Despite all that, she is someone I am glad to call a fellow instructor. 

And a friend.

Sometimes she’s a bit too shy for her own good, but she cares more for us than she does for herself, which is the one thing I think she needs to work on.

Byleth stopped writing when he heard Caspar outside his room. Raising an eyebrow, he got up from his seat and looked to see what the noise was.

Opening the door he peeked out and saw Caspar and Hubert in front of Megumi.

(Caspar) “Come on, Megunee! We got something to show ya!”

(Hubert) “I believe she has stressed that you call her Professor Sakura. And do you have to be this loud? But yes, if you could follow us, professor.”

Megumi followed the two and Byleth decided to tag along from a distance.

When Megumi entered the Black Eagles classroom, she was greeted by the Black Eagles class.

They moved out the way and revealed a large basket of flowers.

(Petra) “Megunee, these flowers are for you!”

(Ferdinand) “We picked them ourselves as thanks for you!”

(Dorothea) “You’re a great teacher, and you’ve been working really hard as of late!”

(Megumi) “Huh? N-No, I’m just an assistant, I can’t teach you about combat like Byleth can. I’m not that good of a teacher-”

(Linhardt) “That may be true, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that you’re like family. Now stop being humble and take it, it’s just flowers after all.”

(Caspar) “Yeah, come on Megunee!”

(Bernadetta) “W-We really appreciate you for being so nice!”

(Hubert) “Thank you for what you do...Megunee.”

Edelgard took the basket and placed them in Megumi’s hands.

(Edelgard) “Thank you, Megunee!”

Megumi wiped away a tear and smiled at the class.

“Don’t call me Megunee, it’s Professor Sakura!”

Byleth smiled and walked back to his room to finish his report.

But other than that? She’s what this academy needs.