#divineshadows

[fallenconstellation]

@divineshadows

"Hey, Emil... where are we?" The mist around them had shifted, giving way to a space that, while sort of unfamiliar, felt eerily like he had been here before.

He's careful not to fall as they advance, taking a few steps ahead of his companion.

'We've heard that a new tree has been born.'

"Is that... me? And look, Emil, Richter's up ahead!" He keeps walking, then hesitates, looking back toward his friend.

"I don't remember this happening, so, it must have happened after I was brought here, right?" He closes his eyes... it feels like he's got a headache coming on.

"Tell me the truth, OK? Is that... you?"

[twohundredpower]

“Emil..”

Lloyd tenses at the sight of the boy before him as he steps into the next room, by the look of sheer terror on his face alone-- this wasn’t a place he should have ever been taken to, no matter how strong he was, no matter what else he’d endured in his life. As horrible as the memories were for Lloyd here, for Emil.. to see remnants of the tree that was once his own, corrupted and broken across the tower.. he couldn’t imagine how that would make him feel.

But the vines were dangerous, even if parts of them seemed dead, unresponsive to those around them-- memories of Sheena fighting against them, of Presea being pulled away by them immediately making Lloyd’s frame shudder. He reached out, grabbing Emil by the shoulder; trying to hide the pain on his own features.

“Emil, look at me. It’s not safe here-- we have to leave,” it was clear that it was taking everything in Lloyd to keep himself together; knowing he could fall apart at any moment if he gave himself the chance, but the end goal of the tower was keeping him grounded for the time being. He needed to be strong for Emil, too-- knowing if he couldn’t be, his friend might not be able to find the courage to keep going. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but we have to get out of here first. We're running out of time.”

                                                ❱❱  :   —   ( @divineshadows​​ )

[eternalrecurrxnce]

There was a part of Richter that was still trying to piece together how he'd been talked into exploring the depths of the island's great crater, though considering who had decided that they were going, he supposed it wasn't all that surprising. It wouldn't have been an adventure, Aster said, without bringing Emil along; and while the half-elf was always happy to see him, he seemed to be teetering on an apology for not being able to control the other boy's excitement over the prospect of discovery.

At the very least, this place had allowed Richter all of his abilities back; retrieving his blade from the broken earth below him after finishing off a particularly ravenous monster. Placing both axe and sword back into their respective holds, he passed a glance to the world around them; emerald eyes narrowing in contemplation.

".. this place is at least somewhat similar to Aselia, but these monsters.. they're particularly aggressive. It would be wise to avoid them as we venture further. We weren't asked to fight, after all; just to chart what lies ahead. We can steer clear of anything that appears dangerous, and save ourselves the trouble of--"

But of course, midway through his words, Aster was already heading to a particularly dark looking cave, and Richter immediately lunged forward to grab him by the scruff of his coat.

"-- Aster!!"

"Did you not hear a single thing I just said?!" with a sigh, Richter reached up with his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, attempting to recollect his composure as he glanced at their friend. "He won't listen just to me at this point, Emil. Is this the direction you would like to go in, or would you prefer to listen to my advice?"

@divineshadows && @fallenconstellation

[heclingmuzik]

@divineshadows​

“I’m in the back!” Ismael calls out from the backyard. The door that leads to the backyard is open and so she hopes Emil can hear her when he enters the house. Maybe keeping the front door unlock wasn’t a good idea, but it isn’t like she left it unlock all night. The moment she had shot Emil a text was when she unlocked the door. She’s responsible! 

“Look! I’m growing a tree!” She huffs out a laugh, “I hope I’m doing this right. I read some books and looked online.” And she’s super hot, if the amount of sweat is anything to go by. She wipes her sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. “I’m gonna grow some flowers around the tree, too.” 

[spiderstaff]

@divineshadows​

“Hm? Emil?” Kay had come to the big tree in Cotes for the shade-- it’s usually a pretty quiet place to think. But even despite the sunlight, she was able to spot someone up in its branches. That’s pretty high up to climb, how’d he even get up there?

Even without low-hanging branches, a quick spider-climb was able to help Kay climb up to reach him, swiftly scrambling onto a branch beside him.

“Hey.” Now that she’s up here, she realizes she doesn’t really know what to say. He looks kinda pensive, maybe she’s interrupting. “Is now a bad time? I can go if you wanted to be alone, and, um...”

...

“Is that mud on you?”

[necroticrose]

@divineshadows​

“This tree... does it have some significance?” Her hand is surprisingly gentle as she touches the trunk of the great tree, gazing up at its leaves.

In her exploration of the Cotes, she was surprised to see such a tree actually in the city. It’s something she had considered for the world she wanted to build so long ago-- nature fusing with the cities themselves.

...though she knows now a world like that is an impossibility.

“Surprising how it thrives with so many people around frolicking beneath its branches... where I’m from, people have no such respect for the natural world. Such parasites would have surely killed a tree like this.”

[greatseedling]

@divineshadows​ | subsistence pt 2​

✿           she’s not used to this. it’s like having a turning reaction to something once so natural. although having been conservative in how often she resorted to casting offensive artes, she’d always been capable of handling her own-- she was proud of that. but without an exsphere, the remnant of crystalized mana burned from the flux of mana leaving before she could properly rest and recuperate. 

she’d done too much, too quickly.

instead of cautiously babying the feeling, martel found herself blind in a tunnel, unable to even think. her lips felt numb, her next step painful, and then everything disappeared as she stumbled another step forward before collapsing to the gravel.

for a moment, there was nothing but the pounding of her heart in her ears.

[redlichbluelich]

@divineshadows​

“Aster?” It has to be, this time, with those green eyes. “Hey, good to see you’re doin’ alright after the, uh, the storm, the other week.”

And speaking of said storm, he’s still not sure if the person he talked to was Aster’s twin or something else, so he adds, “Met your doppelgänger, by the way. What’s up with that?”

[fcxrcin]

@divineshadows​

This is the second time this has ever happened and she doesn’t feel she’ll ever get used to it. That feeling of just BRIEFLY being sent home. JUST for that short amount of seconds being home only to be pulled away and dragged back here. She isn’t angry. In fact, this place has become quite like home to her. 

“I thought I wouldn’t be coming back.” It’s a fear she didn’t realize she carried until now. 

[compassionatefade]

@divineshadows​

“Two as one and one as two,” Cole calls, quiet but carrying, his toes dangling down into the air from the branch he’s perched on. Up high is better, most days, and though he hates the fright often sparked by a voice from nowhere (it isn’t nowhere, but up is a place so many people forget about), but they’ll usually be frightened no matter what he does. If he’s farther away, they tend to feel - not better, but less bad.

This will be - difficult. It isn’t their-his fault - it’s Cole’s, or, it isn’t - because that’s the problem it’s all wrapped around, and the problem of this problem especially. It’s not the same, obviously. But it’s bad enough, how tangled he gets when it isn’t too close to muddle him. He needs to be better about keeping it separate, needs to find someone to help, or to practice.

He hasn’t found anyone for that, yet, or a good way to keep what’s separate straight. It would be... better, if he had before, or if he could wait - if he-they were talking it through, if someone else was helping heal. But it’s all been pushed aside again, and - well, he’s here. So, ham-handed half-help it will be, for now.

“Is it hard, only one speaking to anyone but each other? When you have words, but pushing through means pushing past, so if you can speak sounds you’ve just swapped silences. I can hear you both, if you want.” Or if they don’t want. But it would be nice if it was helping.

[firstclassrookie]

@divineshadows​

“Hey, Emil! Wait up.” Leon waves, then puts his hands in his pockets as he catches up with him. They haven’t seen each other since the winter festival, and he’d been meaning to talk to him again. Especially since...

“Met your uh... clone? Earlier this month at a Valentine’s Day party.” He raises an eyebrow. “He had quite a story about a cloning experiment gone awry, that true?” While he wouldn’t rule anything out at this point, the kid did seem a little out there.

“Thought he was you 'til he started talking. Really went for it, I don’t think I got a word in edgewise.”

[fallenconstellation]

@divineshadows​

“Hey, Ratatosk...? Just hear me out for a second, OK? I know you don’t want to see me, but please don’t leave. I... this is important to me.” It’s been a little while since his reunion with Richter, and he’s stuck pretty close to his friend’s side since then. He has no idea if Richter had any idea where he was going today, but even though he begged him not to seek Ratatosk out...

“Richter told me what happened.” He sits down next to the other identical boy, looking over at him. He knows Richter asked him to stay away, too, and they’re both in hot water if he finds out, but this is something he can’t ignore any longer. More than anything he wants to smile at him, and tell him everything’s going to be all right, but there’s still so much he doesn’t know. Still, he isn’t afraid-- he doesn’t think Ratatosk means him any harm. At least not now. It’s hard to think that this quiet person had... well.

“I’m not here for a fight or anything, if that’s what you’re thinking,” he says softly, folding his hands in front of him. “I'd just like to hear about what happened from you, if you don’t mind. I really don’t remember.”

[fatedatonement]

@divineshadows​

“Emil? Are you in?” Regal knocks on the door gently... he knows things have been tense between them, since... well, neither of them really recognized each other the first time they met in Spirale. And then there was the incident with the doubles, and he’d heard a bit from Lloyd and Zelos, but...

...

He made a little extra food tonight and decided to bring it over-- he knows the boy is capable of cooking for himself, but he also wants to make sure he’s taking care of himself. Hopefully Emil had the time he needed to process things-- the last thing Regal wants to do is be another unwelcome source of stress.

“It’s Regal, I wanted to see how you’re doing. Is now a good time...?”

[eternalrecurrxnce]

“.. Emil.”

“You were harder to find than I expected.” Once, he would have greeted the boy with warmth; with an extended hand to help guide the both of them through this strange, new world that they’d found themselves in. But Richter offered no such pleasantries to Emil as he stood before him; arms crossed loosely over one another while his fingers dug deep into the sleeves of his coat.

It took everything in the half-elf to remain as composed as he was, though he was sure that Emil could see the fire coursing through his eyes; threatening to consume his very soul the more the pair stood staring at one another. Even if they had parted ways before their final battle could take place, that hardly seemed to break the tension between them; those horrendous feelings he’d been holding onto, combined with the pure shock of finding Aster again contorting the expression on his face into one that was hardly readable. 

There was no denying that Richter was furious. He should have been relishing in the chance to live alongside his friend again, but instead, he was once more plagued with Ratatosk’s selfishness; hiding behind a false sense of hope, of promises to keep Aster in the dark.. it was the last thing that he’d ever deserved, after losing his life by the summon spirit’s hand. And if Emil thought for one moment that he’d have a chance to pursue Aster further, Richter would be putting those desires to bed before they could ever surface.

“Tell me.. when exactly were you planning on telling Aster the truth? Or if not for my appearance, would you have continued to uphold that damn lie to the face of the person Ratatosk murdered?”

                                                                               –   ☼☽;   ( @divineshadows​​ )

[fellstcr]

⚔️ //  she  had  quickly  found  a  USE  for  the  wooden  sword  at  her  disposal.  it  served  as  a  fairly  functional  training  weapon  ,  and  so  train  with  it  byleth  did.  using  a  DUMMY  in  the  proximity  of  the  aja  aja  dojang  ,  byleth  assaulted  it  with  as  much  ferocity  as  she  could  muster.  like  flames  in  a  forest  fire  ,  emotions  she  had  harbored  swelled  in  her  chest  ,  directing  every  slash  and  jab.  frustration  and  fear  ,  confusion  and  despair.  but  one  memory  surfaced  above  the  rest  -  and  the  archbishop’s  words  still  rang  clear.

        “everybody  here  ,  young  and  old  ,  is  in  YOUR  hands.”

       and  she.  wasn’t.  there.

         byleth’s  voice  ripped  from  her  lungs  ,  loud  enough  to  echo  into  the  nearby  mistwood  as  she  plunged  the  training  sword  clean  through  the  dummy’s  chest.  her  pulse  pounded  in  her  chest.  her  eyes  stung.  resisting  the  urge  to  crumple  to  the  ground  right  then  and  there  ,  byleth  simply  steadied  her  labored  breathing  and  withdrew  the  sword  from  the  dummy’s  chest.  her  aggression  had  left  a  decently  sized  CAVITY.  one  that  demanded  repairs  if  others  intended  to  use  it.  sighing  heavily  ,  byleth  clipped  her  sword  to  her  belt  and  turned  -  only  to  find  she  had  amassed  a  sort  of  AUDIENCE.  (though  whether  he  had  simply  happened  by  or  had  waited  a  while  ,  byleth  was  none  the  wiser.)

          “. . . were  you  intending  to  train  here  as  well?”

@divineshadows​

[spiderstaff]

@divineshadows​

“Emil! Are you enjoying the party?” Kay beams up at him, a small bow as he approaches.

“I must admit, I was a bit wary of attending the event without my parents, but I’m glad I did. I’m having such a lovely time...” Her mind’s a bit fuzzy on that last bit... where are her parents? Shouldn’t they be here? It would make sense at a party...

She shakes her head, snapping herself out of it. It wouldn’t do to act like this in public!

“It’s no matter, though. I know I can count on you to protect me, right?”