#auggie answers

[mycatishandsome]

Manifesting (Law of Attraction) VS. Law of Assumption

Edit: adding this here- manifestation can be used within law of assumption, I feel like I didn’t make that clear😭 I’m sorry yall😔

——-

I've been responding to so many posts and getting so many asks about the differences between these two (LOAs vs. LOAt)so I thought, why not make a post?

SO as always, these are my opinions, and what I believe work within my reality

So what is manifestation (imo)?

-Manifestation is the act of "wishing" a desire into your present and future. (an example being: manifesting a new car into your life). With manifesting, you also have to actually pursue what it is you want (unlike LOassumption). meaning, if you want to manifest something, you WILL get it, but you still have to take the steps to getting it.

What is the Law of Assumption?

-The law of Assumption Is the idea that what you assume you have/or are/ or where you are, already is in your present. (an example being: assuming you have a new car already)

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Now, they sound very similar, and I've seen many people use these two terms interchangeably. I don't personally (again, imo and within my reality) think that these things are the same. I do believe they're 100% in the same boat though.

Let me give you another example in how I use them within my life:

When I want something new within my life, I generally Manifest (Law of Attraction). This could be something like- I want to go to the thrift store and i want to find something specific like a brand new pair of doc martins. What I'll do is affirm (manifest) by saying "I find a new pair of doc martins at the thrift store". While saying this (in my head or outload it genuinely doesn't matter) , I let myself feel like what it would feel to already have them. I will also picture me finding them and picture myself wearing them. -I will go to to that thrift store, and I can assure you, I will find those doc martins.

Here's the same example, but under the Law of Assumption:

I want a specific pair of Doc martins, I bypass the extra steps of manifesting. I assume I already have those Doc martins, because I do. I now have those doc martins.

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I personally don't think one is better than then other, more so that one can be better for certain things vs. the other. I think manifesting is better for smaller things that I don't mind waiting for, especially newer things (for example, I want to manifest new clothes, or new opportunities). I find LOAssumption better for bigger things that I want to "shift" into my reality, or into the reality that has this thing (such as legit different "realties".)

Notice how these two things can have a lot of overlap. Think of it this way: manifesting is for things you want to go through and see the process of getting. It also still requires you to put physical work into. (manifesting a new job-> an opportunity presents itself-> You interview-> you get the job!) LOAssumption is more for things you want in this moment (as you have always had it) (You get the desire to have a new job-> you assume you already have that job-> you now have that job!)

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I want you guys to also remember that as far as shifting goes, I believe in the multiverse theory, but also in the 3D/4D LOA theory.

I think both apply to my reality. Some don't believe in the same idea and that's ok! I wanted to make this post to share the general differences between these terms. Obviously different people believe in different things, this is information based off of my own experiences and general research from books as well. I think melting too many terms can muddle the pot so to say, so for me- I enjoy separating them out and making sure I know the differences!

I hope this post was generally informative and helps some people differentiate things better! have shifting and manifesting!

[doodlemartianzz]

It wasn’t that bad. I was kinda disappointed:(

oh dang

Alteast it wasnt horrible?? 👍

[shanastoryteller]

Happy birthday! FMA is possible or dealers choice

Annie grew up with so many things being good but not quite good enough.

She hated it and swore to live a life of too much, to indulge in excess, to gain fluency in not one new language, but four, to travel and eat and fuck until she was sick from overindulgence.

Loving like that hadn’t been her intention, but pattern recognition can be a bitch that way.

Of course she was the first to jump out of the plane during training at the Farm.

She loves the sensation of falling.

~

Ben had been like being struck by lightning.

She’d been sand, shifting and impossible to grasp and disappearing with the next tide. Then with a single strike, she was glass. Changed forever, with no choice but to adapt or break.

Annie had thought that for Ben, she could refocus her heart, if not shrink it. He was a feast, surely enough to sustain even her greed, so there’d be no need for hunger to draw her elsewhere.

In the end, she hadn’t had time to find out. He was there, then gone.

Even when she gets him back, when there are a glorious few months when she thinks that just maybe –

But, well. Pattern recognition is a bitch.

In the end, Ben can only be an indulgence. It’s sweet, when she can, but she learns not to rely on it, to rely on him.

~

Jai isn’t someone she sinks into. She wants to, thinks that he could, but that pattern recognition gets in her way. Something about him never feels quite right to her, but so few things feel right to her.

Still. He’s dependable. He looks out for her. Even when things sour, when he turns angry and biting while jockeying for power with Joan and Arthur, he’s still there for her. He protects Eyal because she wants him protected. He goes back onto the field to help her.

When he discovers something terrible, and believes he can trust no one, he trusts her.

He dies in fire right in front of her and her glass heart shatters.

He was her friend, he cared about her, she trusted him despite all the reasons not to, and now he’s gone.

Why does this keep happening? It’s hard not to focus on the common factor here.

Herself.

~

She should know better when it comes to Eyal, but it’s hard. He’s a foreign operative for a competing agency and he’s an ass but every single time she’s needed him, he has been there.

Pattern recognition is a bitch.

Annie is so desperate to be right about someone, to hand someone her heart and have them treat it gently. Eyal is always sweet to her, always has her back, but she’s learned her lesson. She lets herself like him, because she should like him, and that’s safe.

Then Russia happens. Then he goes off book to break her out of a Russian prison and smuggle her out of the country when what should have happened was her dead on those filthy stone floors.

She knows how it will end, because it’s how it always ends.

When he betrays her, it’s almost a relief.

Except as he confesses, it feels like he’s lying to her – but what does she know, anyway? Her blind spot is always the men she thinks she can trust.

~

Then there’s Auggie.

He’s not an indulgence. She doesn’t fall in love with him so much as step into it, head held high and eyes wide.

She hopes that mean it can last.

[auggie-arts]

I-

Wha-

when?

WHEN? DID YOU DO WHAT I DID TO MY SCHOOL PARENT?

DID YOU ADOPT ME AS A PARENT???? WHEN DID I ADOPT YOU?????

I LEGIT JUST BARELY GOT OUTTA SCHOOL.

[puppyeared]

How do you feel about OC & OC interactions?

Just a heads up, Im in the middle of overhauling all of my ocs rn so designs/stories can always change 🙇

[pangolinheart]

I just lost the housing lottery again after being bidder number 1 for DAYS, Then a person comes and bids and I lose...I'm so tired. I want to keep trying but every loss makes me sad and dislike the game. How do I get over this feeling?

WWWWWW I can provide you with solidarity as Guy Who's Lost 49 Housing Lotteries. I know how you feel. I wish i had better advice for you.

Honestly I managed to maintain my desire to keep bidding out of Spite. I could give up, but I'm determined to at least make a nuisance of myself. I also have felt a little better bidding on houses I REALLY like, even if they have more bids. It's less surprising when I lose, which helps. Another thing I've tried is bidding on okay-ish smalls, because I had enough gil to afford a medium AND a small. So I could at least have a place to gpose while I bid on something I like more. Obviously this didn't work, and since you said you were the only bidder for a long time it probably won't do much for you either.

If it's really bumming you out, though, and ruining your enjoyment of the game, it might be good to take a break. Not give up forever, just take a few weeks off. If you want a house to gpose in or decorate, you can do smaller scale projects in an apartment. If you have friends with houses, they might be willing to let you do stuff there. I've even seen people online looking for people to decorate their houses for them.

I'm sorry that luck hasn't been on your side, though. I can empathize. I hope this helps at least a little. I'm crossing my fingers for your next bid! Maybe my luck will help you out!

[grav3encovnters]

for : @caracarnn

ft. my muse : auggie stone.

auggie's   zone   has   always   been   in   the   kitchen.   he   is   at   his   stove   ,   hands   working   away   at   the   dinner   he   has   been   cooking   all   day.   his   chef's   apron   is   on   ,   even   though   he's   only   cooking   at   home   and   not   at butcher   block -   the   restaurant   he   owns   and   runs.   his   guest   is   sat   upon   the   counter   closest   to   him   ,   and   auggie   assumes   they're   watching   him   hard   at   work.    ❝   so   ,   uh   ,   i   forgot   to   ask.   you're   not   a   vegetarian   ,   right   ?   ❞

[budzthepotato]

Yay! Ok Don't tell Rona yet cuz they are trying to finish the family tree and there is a lot of people so let them finish first then I'll invite you to the discord server :3

that’s perfectly fine! :D

[wiedzmacienia]

Would you rather give up your magic to live a normal life, or keep your magic and never hold any genuine human connections? (There's no anon option, so I guess I have to be called out lol.)

eyes narrow in the light of the campfire, wood crackling and heat meeting her skin that's made it crawl for centuries yet she can not move with the young boy who's head lays on her lap having fallen asleep (she imagined she'd have to carry him back to his tent at some point). maybe she shouldn't have come here, even if the knightley boys had asked her to when she'd been to see beth. they'd found a few soldiers they'd felt able to confide in about themselves, soldiers who seemed to accept them once one of them had used his powers to save the other, and it's from this that such a question has been brought forth. she knows it is not out of malice and yet, it still awakens something deep within her. a memory she's locked away for ages in the depths of her soul. maybe they think her standoffish because she is so much less open than the boys. but she can not afford to be like them when she must direct her forces by the day. these boys were young. too young and had yet to truly understand the world even if they were serving in an army now let alone understand magic or it's role in the world.

there was one day, no, a mere few hours within her life that katarzyna had wished she could have shed her magic from her body and lived a so called normal life. that she could have been as human as the rest of her village. the moment men who had been smiling at the children just the day before entered their home with violence and tore her and her brother from their beds, binding them and dragging them outside. when she had screamed for her brother as wooden posts had been erected. there had been no trial or recourse. no amount of pleading for their lives had halted them from being beaten for speaking the foul words of creatures they'd said. it had been them who had brought the plague upon them they believed. yet was it not the twins whom only sought to save an elderly woman from the pain of such plague? fires had been lit and pain seared their bodies and in those moments she wished they could have been anything but what they were. for to have been born as such had been their death sentence.

but then they had been reborn from the ashes and her whole world view had been shaken. her parents had given of themselves to bring them back and she no longer saw her power as something to shy away from. her parents had believed in magic. had believed in the worth of her and her brother and what they could bring to the world. and she vowed to never seek to be anything but what she was again.

to never be weak and powerless again.

greenish-blue hues move over the fire and meet the human speaking to her. was she not making a human connection now? perhaps once she believed being what she was separated her from the human world. perhaps in the respect that she lived longer than humans it did. but this war and the people she had begun to meet made her begin to question such. maybe making connections with humans wasn't about how long you knew them or preventing one's self from becoming close because of the eventual loss but the value of the time spent with them. no, she did not think having magic equated to a lack of forming human connections, genuine ones. not if she didn't allow it to.

after all, while it had never been the intention, she cared for-- no, she could acknowledge it was more than that now as she ran her hand through the young boy's curls, she held a motherly love for auggie in a way she had never believed she could possess before-- and tended to the human child more often than not these days. sometimes the intensity of which she believed she would protect the boy scared even her for if there was a choice between him and someone else, she held no doubt of what she would choose even if it could mean burning the world in the process. but did her love toward the boy not equate to a genuine connection? and was her magic not the very thing which could allow her to protect him? was such love not a normal part of life?

"why can i not have both?" she questions, gaze drifting over the man's shoulder to see the major approaching. ah, perhaps she would not have to carry auggie back to his tent herself after all. still, she continues, looking back at the questioning soldier without care for the major hearing her words, for they were truth and she would not deny her connection to the boy at this point even if she has no idea what it would look like once this war was done.

"is there some book of rules which state i can not have magic and hold connections with humans who i love? that i can not still have something of a normal life with them?" and with that she looks down upon auggie and begins to shift him gently without waking him, picking him up so that his head falls to her shoulder. strangely, the heat of the campfire seems to affect her less, a different kind of warmth washing over her as she raises from their perch on the log and moves to meet tallmadge. "come to collect the little terror? i think him, cora, and furgus just about defeated half the soldiers in camp charging them while wearing your helmet today."

@honorhearted

[scarletvisionss]

Wanda hearing Auggie tell her I love you for the first time

(I couldn't get the idea of this out of my mind so i ended up writing a drabble for it.)

Wanda couldn't remember the last time she'd been this exhausted; the early days of Auggie's infancy were mostly a blur, and she knew she'd had some epically bad weeks of all-partying-and-no-sleeping during her worst years of college, but even those didn't compare to the bone-deep tiredness that clung to her entire body and weighed her down like a sack of stones. She hadn't slept in five days. At this point, Wanda was pretty sure she was going to lose her mind and be committed if Auggie didn't let her catch even just an hour or two.

Not that it was Auggie's fault - she'd come down with a terrible ear infection and had spent most of this week screaming her head off, refusing to take her antibiotics without an hour-long tantrum beforehand each time, and weeping miserably into Wanda's chest while tugging at her painful little ears. Wanda had never felt so helpless in her life than when she'd had to fight Auggie into taking her medicine, both of them crying, Auggie using all the vocabulary she had at the ripe age of eighteen months old to beg no, Mama, no no no bad! The bottle of antibiotics claimed it was supposed to taste good. Wanda learned very quickly that that was a big, fat lie. That, or Auggie was just too miserable to care about anything, no matter how Wanda tried to make it seem like fun. (As it turned out, pretending food was an airplane flying into your baby's mouth really did work. Wanda thought that shit only happened in movies.)

Despite the fighting, the medicine seemed to have finally worked: Auggie had settled down this evening, content to curl up into Wanda's lap with a sippy cup of warm milk and her cheek resting over Wanda's heart, but she still would not go to sleep. Wanda had tried everything - lullabies, rocking, nursing (out of desperation only, as she'd been encouraging Auggie's recent loss of interest in breastfeeding), even curling up on the couch and watching the most boring history channel shows she could find in the hopes that the droning narrator would lull Auggie to sleep so Wanda could put her to bed and crawl into her own. No such luck.

Wanda was ready to be committed to that insane asylum pretty much any day now.

"Mama," Auggie mumbled, rubbing her cheek against Wanda's chest. Wanda thought she was finally starting to look tired, though that might be wishful thinking. Auggie sniffled and curled her tiny hands around her warm sippy cup, hugging it to her neck. "Mama..."

Wanda ran her fingers through Auggie's short curls. Every day, Auggie's hair got curlier, and Wanda couldn't figure out where on Earth she inherited it from, since Wanda's family all had mostly straight hair and Vision (it still hurt to think of him, even now), had had straight hair, from what she remembered. Wherever Auggie got it from, Wanda didn't care: she loved those rust-red curls with all of her heart. Even if she knew that it would probably be a pain, someday, to get knots out of them when they were long enough. She loved them too much to care. "What is it, Bunny?" she said, when Auggie didn't say anything else for a minute. Wanda rocked her gently side to side in her arms, hoping that maybe that would convince her to finally drift off.

Auggie sniffled again, and tilted her head back, looking up into Wanda's eyes and smiling sleepily. As always, that smile made Wanda melt inside, and brought out such powerful, maternal, helpless devotion in her that Wanda knew she would do anything for her daughter so she could always be smiling like that. It was part of the reason Wanda hadn't slept in five days: she'd been too worried about Auggie to let herself fall asleep even when Auggie would cry herself into brief naps, too terrified Auggie would somehow get worse or need something and Wanda wouldn't be right there next to her when she woke up sick and miserable.

Auggie reached up and set her hand on Wanda's cheek, giggling when Wanda mimed eating her little fingers. "Mama... my Mama," she said.

Wanda smiled tiredly, leaning down to kiss her forehead. "My Auggie," she said back. "My Baby Bunny. Do you know how much I love you? Even though I'm so tired I feel like I could sleep for years, I'd still rather be with you. I love you so much."

Auggie patted Wanda's cheek clumsily. "Mama," she said, blue eyes wide and sweet and earnest. "Mama, love you."

Wanda froze, surprise flashing through her, followed by joy, adoration, and love. She lifted Auggie underneath her arms, raising her up so she was standing on Wanda's thighs. "Did you just tell me you love me?" Wanda said, her voice wavering with tears. "Did you just say your first real sentence, Bunny?"

"Mama, love you," Auggie said again, and stuck her pudgy hand in her mouth to chew on.

Wanda pulled Auggie back to her chest, cradling her close, laughing and crying, so so so so tired and so fiercely in love with everything about her daughter that she fell into weepy sobs before she could help it. "I love you, too, Bunny," she said, kissing those beautiful red curls, rocking her daughter and holding her to her heart. "Mama loves you so, so much. More than you could ever know." More than she could ever dream of conveying to the sweet little girl in her arms; she'd move mountains for this baby, fight a god, take on the world. Did Auggie know that? Wanda hoped, each and every day, that she did. Wanda wanted Auggie to always know that she was loved, and by no one more than her mother. "I love you so much," she whispered. "My tiny, clever, baby... so, so, so, so much."

Auggie ended up falling asleep a half-hour later, and as tired as she was, Wanda held her just a little bit longer. Your baby only told you they loved you for the first time once - Wanda wasn't ready to let the moment go quite yet.

[mycatishandsome]

i know this is shifting cause i never get ringing on both ears espicially that loud and i think it was vibrating

And if you assume that it’s shifting, than it is! As I said- YOU control your reality, so what you think a shifting symptom is, very well it may be :)

[stevebabey]

gasp! we’re exchanging kisses tonite <3 mwah

[hellfiresbestmember]

out of curiosity and for research purposes:

is steve, like, seeing anyone or anything? if so it's whatever but i'm, uh... curious!

-@augustinesinclair

idk let's ask him

@stevekingofhawkins i think august is into you

come answer her please!

i think that should do it :D

[auggie-arts]

Istg I've seen his monkey ass somewhere istfg who is this

He's from Monkie kid, I think his name is Sun Wukong?

[puppyeared]

In regards to the OC Ask post: 2, 3, 9, 19~☆

(unanswered go to auggie, already answered ones go to presto)

2. Is there a meaning behind their name, or a particular reason why they have it?

theyre a magician so they chose their stagename entirely based on cliches, since presto is a magic word!! her character design came first, so really i wanted a name to match what she already had (magicians suit, tophat, white rabbit, etc). i can also see her naming herself that too lol

19. If they had a theme song, what would it be?

this one!! i also considered it for augusta, but i think auggie is closer to Persephone by Sidney Gish.. this one is playful and it feels like all the words are there just for the fun of it, definitely something that fits presto <3

3. What does their voice sound like, in a couple of words? (ie soft, scratchy, seductive, high-pitched, etc)

Whenever I think of auggie’s voice I always think of like, young male voices. So like Lucas in smash, gumball TAWOG, etc.. I did a little digging and I think her voice claim would be strawberry crepe cookie’s eng dub; it’s like high pitched but kind of in a young way? Not too forced, kind of scratchy in some part but a rounded kind of feel idk

9. What is their main love language? (gifts, quality time, acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation)

Physical touch!! She’s a huge cuddle bug so she likes long periods of time just laying on someone’s lap or leaning on their side <3 she moves around a lot so she tries to work some physical affection into everyday movements (swinging arms while holding hands, patting hands on the back when hugging, etc). She purrs if you squeeze her hard enough lol

[pangolinheart]

(how far did you have to dig to find that post wow lol)

Anyway Lahabrea

[[Actually it wasn't that hard to find! My obsessive tagging system isn't only for forcing my followers to look at huge blocks of text they don't care abou - it's also so I can find posts when I want to go back to them without going through hundreds of pages of reblogs!

Anyway, when I saw this ask I thought this was going to be the hardest pairing to write for... but it was actually one of the easiest. At first I thought the only way to make something work was to do something Hephaistos/Azem, but I still haven't played Endwalker so I wasn't confident in my ability to write for that time period, and based on ambient spoilers it seems like Hephaistos was pretty preoccupied with his wife and child. Then I realized I didn't actually know what Lahabrea really looked like and, well...

I'm not super happy with the way this turned out, but I'm too lazy to edit it again so it's good enough.]]

Send me a character and I'll describe a ship with them and my OC.

Cid | M'zhet | Lahabrea

TW: Dubious consent (implied). Nothing graphic or anything, it's just, um, sketchy as hell.

What are you drinking?” He leaned over the bar, putting his weight on his elbows. He didn’t sit down – not yet. He waited for an invitation.  

The miqo’te perched on the next barstool looked him up and down appraisingly. She didn’t even bother to hide it. Not in the mood to play coy tonight, it seemed. Maybe she had had a rough day.  

He had waited for her to notice him from across the room. And notice she did. Their eyes met and he fancied he could almost hear her thinking to herself: He’ll do. 

“That depends,” She almost purred, “What are you buying?” 

She hadn’t asked him to sit down, but she might as well have. He slid onto the plush velvet seat. This was a nicer place than usual, he noted. A classy little place where respectable people came to get less-than-respectably drunk. Was she celebrating something? Or did she just want a change of scenery? Who could say? He beckoned the bartender over. Wine seemed like it would suit the mood. He ordered something red and expensive – it wasn’t as if money meant much to him, anyway. 

He was an elezen tonight – dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes. He usually preferred hyur, but this body had been available and seemed like something she might like. Then again, her tastes were wide and varied.  

Why was he doing this again? 

It was no use asking himself the question. He didn’t have any new answers. He told himself that keeping tabs on this shard’s Warrior of Light was his business, but even he didn’t believe that. This could hardly be called business.  

Maybe it was because she made him feel the echo of something he hadn’t felt in a long time: interest. How long had it been since he was really interested in something? Detachment had been second nature to him for so long that he had almost forgotten what it felt like.  

And she was interesting for a mortal, at least in some ways. In others she was almost offensively average. And yet there were times she almost seemed… familiar, somehow. Perhaps it was because she was a Warrior of Light. He’d seen plenty of Warriors on plenty of shards; he could hardly be blamed if they all started to blend together. If nothing else, though, she was interesting because of how interested Hydaelyn seemed to be in her. She had expended quite a lot of power to protect her from the might of the Ultima Weapon, after all. With her strength already waning, he couldn’t help but wonder why she had risked exhausting what little of her power remained on this Warrior of Light. 

The bartender returned with two glasses of wine, and he offered one to her. She accepted it with thanks and took a sip, though her gaze never left his. His own traced along the features of her face with which he had become so well-acquainted – her dark eyelashes over her mismatched eyes, the swoop of her bangs across her forehead, the gentle curve of her lips. He smiled, and she smiled back. 

The first time had been an accident, of course. Entirely improvised. It had been shortly after he had possessed one of her colleagues, Thancred, but before he had been able to manufacture a pretense for the man’s absence. He had, of course, watched his vessel closely enough to confidently impersonate him, at least for a short time. He had planned to slowly withdraw from the Scions, until his presence would no longer be missed. A contingency he had not prepared, however, for was Thancred being seized by the Warrior of Light herself and all-but dragged to a dive bar outside of Ul’dah. He had been caught off guard by this turn of events and he was left with no choice but to humor her, drinking and laughing (or at least pretending to) until the early hours of the morning. Fortunately, he doubted she would be able to remember the night clearly enough to recall if he had said or done anything out of character. His grand plan had also failed to account for being pulled into her sleeping chambers upon their return to the Waking Sands, and into bed with her. He had no way of knowing if this behavior was typical and expected or not. He had never seen it happen before, but that didn’t necessarily mean it hadn’t. He was a busy man, after all. So, he had decided in the moment to just… play along.  

It had certainly been a novel experience. 

“So,” He said in the elezen’s low, smooth voice. “Are you here waiting for a friend?” 

She twirled the stem of her wineglass between her fingers. Always so fidgety. “More like looking for one.” 

“Well,” He set his own wine glass back on the bar. “I’d be happy to keep you company while you look.” 

The second time had been… less excusable. 

After the debacle that was Ultima – curse Hydaelyn for her interference! – he had needed time to formulate a new plan. And while he devised his next strategy, he had had little else to do but keep tabs on the Warrior of Light and her companions. 

It was during this time that he had begun to recognize a pattern to her behavior. On a semi-regular basis, usually when she had quarreled with a compatriot or was otherwise upset about something or other, she would seek out an establishment that sold alcohol and spend several hours there, eventually leaving with someone else. A different person each time.  

Having been expelled from the body of Thancred, he had been forced to seek out a new host, presumably yet unknown to the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, and in his idleness he had begun to wonder… 

Would she even notice? 

She would not, it turned out. At least, she hadn’t yet. And that had been half a dozen times ago, give or take. It had become a fun little game to amuse himself with while he waited for wheels to turn. No round was ever quite the same, and he never used the same guise twice. He tried to vary his selections; different appearances, different origins, different genders. Recently he’d begun branching out into different races, as well (though they might as well all be the same to him). The other unsundered had always nagged him about the frequency with which he discarded his vessels, to which he usually responded that it was hardly his fault these fragments were so breakable and so boring. Not everyone’s scheme could include the industrialized production of clones like Emet-Selch’s did. In the event he hadn’t assumed a new vessel since the last time, though, projecting a different appearance was a small feat for an Ancient of Lahabrea’s caliber.  

He tried a different tact in each iteration, partly to avoid arousing her suspicion and partly because it made the game more interesting. He wasn’t always successful – sometimes she was only in the mood for drinking, other times there was another patron than interested her more than he did, which he found annoying. Once he had even said something that offended her for some reason. He couldn’t remember what it was. Did it really matter? 

She was watching him thoughtfully over the lip of her wineglass. She had half-emptied the glass already. He wondered if that was all it would take tonight. But when she opened her mouth, it wasn’t to invite him somewhere more private. 

“Have we met before? You seem familiar for some reason.” 

The question surprised him, but he didn’t lose his cool, didn’t miss a beat. 

“I shouldn’t think so. You don’t seem like the sort one would have an easy time forgetting,” 

Her grin took on a sly tilt. “Careful. With talk like that one might start to think you’re getting me drunk with ulterior motives,” 

Internally, he sighed with relief, though he didn’t let it touch his face. Instead, he gave her a coy smile and picked up his wineglass for another sip. “Perish the thought! I would hate for you to think me so ungentlemanly,” 

He probably should have stopped after one of her cohorts killed Nabriales. It was no small feat to kill an Ascian, even a sundered soul like his. In fact, he hadn’t even thought the mortals capable of it. Somehow, though, that only made things more interesting. It added the tiniest hint of danger to his little game, and he found he enjoyed it all the more. He had little real cause to worry, of course. Nabriales had been the architect of his own demise.  

Even so, after the last round he had sworn to himself he wouldn’t do it again. 

And had known with unshakeable certainty that he would. 

She set her now empty wineglass on the bar. She had shifted to face him more fully, and he might have missed the way she leaned ever so slightly inward had he not been looking for it. 

“Would you like another glass?” 

She considered it for a moment, or at least pretended to. “Please.” 

“Of course,” He ordered another glass and waited until the barkeep’s errand had taken him safely out of earshot. 

“You know,” he said, surveying her as she had him earlier. “I don’t believe I’ve given you my name.” 

Her lips quirked in a way that he found for some reason endearing. “I don’t believe I’ve asked you for it,” 

He raised his eyebrows in amusement and opened his mouth to respond with some quip or other when he felt someone tap his shoulder. 

He turned in his seat, a bit irritated by the interruption, to see a young Midlander with brooding grey eyes. “May I have a word?”  

He had never seen the man before, but he would recognize his brother anywhere. 

Oh dear. 

How was he going to explain this little caper? He wondered. His previous justifications had barely convinced him, so they certainly wouldn’t convince the Emissary. 

Ah, well. He was sure he would think of something. 

He was, after all, Lahabrea: Speaker of the Convocation. 

Okay in all seriousness this is definitely the most off-the-wall ship I was sent this round. I don't think it would happen, and if it did it would be a total shit-show. It's not necessarily because Lahabrea's a villain - there are of compelling villains ships out there. It's because he's both a villain and not Rhiki's type. He's braggadocios, megalomaniacal, and patronizing (and if there's one connecting thread between all of my characters it's that none of them would up with being condescended to by A Man.) And, for what it's worth, there's not really anything for Lahabrea to like about Rhiki. As an Ascian he's never portrayed as having any interest in or sympathy for mortals. The most any hyur, miqo'te, elezen, etc. could ever aspire to be to Lahabrea is "useful." To be honest, he doesn't really even seem to have any affection for his fellow ascians, though I'm aware there's something of a canonical reason for that. ARR really struggled with creating compelling antagonists, so Lahabrea (and most of the other villains) are painted as just... cartoonishly evil. I'm sure that he's given a lot more pathos in the Pandaemonium raid series, but I haven't played it yet so I can't speak to how well the original Lahabrea would have gotten along with Rhiki/Rhiki's Azem. Really, if you cut out all of the enw backstory, the above is really the only angle I could really see having any legs (as slimy and terrible as those legs are.) In realizing that I didn't know what Lahabrea actually looked like, I also realized that Rhiki has no idea what the real Lahabrea looks like. When I went over all of the times the WoL actually encounters Lahabrea, it dawned on me that the only time Rhiki sees him without his mask... he's Thancred, which is where the idea came from. (TBF to both of them I don't think ARR Rhiki would have had sex with Thancred no matter how shitfaced she was lol. This is just for the sake of exploring the possibilities.) Whether or not Rhiki actually found out about Lahabrea's body-hopping shenanigans is up for debate. I don't necessarily see how she would unless he or Elidibus told her. Lahabrea doesn't seem like he would have any motivation or opportunity to tell her. Elidibus might, if only to make it harder for Lahabrea to do anything stupid that might jeopardize their mission in the future. Obviously, Rhiki would not be pleased to learn this. I don't think any relationship the two of them could have could possibly change the trajectory of the story. The relationship isn't necessarily... romantic in nature. And I doubt there's anything about Rhiki that would make Lahabrea fall so head over heels for her that he would abandon his plans to resurrect Zodiark, which inevitably involves her death. Rhiki has no feelings for Lahabrea (except maybe anger, if she ever found out) but even if she did, she doesn't really have the opportunity to spare his life, since it's Thordan VII that ultimately kills him. BUT this was still a very fun thought experiment! I still apologize for everything that's happened above this point in the post, though. ^^;