#esmé acofaf

[couldthatreallyhavebeenit]

i think its a crime how little Chirp and Esmé's relationship and their family is talked about

the amount of love Chirp feels for both Esmé and their daughter is just. so apparent and so intense even though she knows it wont be forever (it's going to be so little time for her) she is okay with risking so much for them and its so so so beautiful

[best-d20-character]

REMINDER OF WHO THESE ARE:

Esmé (not pictured): Lady Chirp Featherfowl's wife.

Wuvvy: Satyr from the Court of Wonder (previously a champion of Hoof and Claw) who serves as an assistant to Delloso de la Rue.

Scratch: Kobold warlock whose patron is Binx. Dating Gwyndolin Thistlehop.

[tinylilemrys]

okay as perfect as acofaf's ending was, I really do want some kind of follow up because:

suntar is still out there and she doesn't strike me as someone who takes losing well

i need to meet esmé and peep. i just need to.

i need more squeremy

sylmenar x grabalba. i just feel like they make sense.

I would love to see wuvvy in charge of the bloom

i want to see andhera and hob get live in being fully themselves for the first time ever. and to see how their friendship develops

more binxhera. god those kids are so cute and i just desperately need to see them building a home together

i just... i would absolutely love a scenario where rue and hob are trying to sneak away to fuck and keep getting interrupted by innane things

RUEHOB WEDDING. RUE. HOB. WEDDING.

it doesn't have to be a full season. it doesn't even have to be more than a special. i just want to live in this world a bit longer

[theladyragnell]

Ficlet prompt: acofaf, any characters, an accidental meeting in the mortal realm

(I am not entirely sure that by "any characters" you meant "Chirp and Suntar running into each other," but this scene got stuck in my head and here we are!)

Chirp is getting very good at running errands, if she does say so herself. Why, she hasn’t brought back a tisane made of dewdrops and starflowers when Esmé just asked for bread and wine in months, or possibly weeks (she always does get those two mixed up, in the mortal realms, time always does move so strangely, straight ahead with no pauses or skipping). She even remembers to pay with money, most times! She’s practically indistinguishable from a mortal, really, nobody at any of the markets she visits has ever said otherwise.

(It does possibly help that Chirp likes to go to all sorts of markets, because she never knows when one will have some special treat for Peep or Esmé. The last time Squak came to visit they traveled for ages and brought back some very exciting things. Peep does keep asking for that candy again, Chirp had better find a way back soon. Not being able to fly on her own is very inconvenient.)

Today, Chirp is going to be especially good at errands, because she’s going to deal with an interloper. There’s another fairy in the market.

It’s not, of course, the first time. Coming to the mortal realm isn’t exactly a fad, though anything the Lords of the Wing do becomes fashionable very quickly—it takes bravery, to visit the mortal realm when Binx is very honest about what happened to the Court of Craft. Still, Andhera and Binx and the real Gwyndolin and their funny mortal friends have come to tea a time or two, and Squak visits with a lover or two at times, and even Hob and Rue have come by.

This isn’t any of Chirp’s friends. That’s clear from the glare she’s getting from behind the glamour the fairy is wearing. They’ve gone for being an old woman in a threadbare cloak, which is so traditional as to be cliché, but they’re not very good at hiding there’s something odd about them, so the bowl they’ve set up looking for money is empty.

If Chirp has an enemy this close to Peep and Esmé, she wants to know who, and she goes over with a coin and drops it in the bowl. “Here for me? Or just passing through?”

“I’d have avoided this place if I’d known your shadow had ever touched it,” says Princess Suntar. “I’m begging for scraps, which you reduced me to. My beloved betrothed.”

That’s probably fair, though Chirp would contest that she was much nicer than Suntar deserved, under the circumstances. “Is that my fault? Plenty of fairies find their way here and thrive. Those of us who don’t think we’re too good to make friends with mortals, anyway.”

“Friends? With these thieves?” Suntar snorts. It is very unattractive, and Chirp would tell her so, except she suspects if Suntar gets too mad at her there might be some extremely boring swearing of vengeance and then Peep and Esmé might be in danger. Before the silence can stretch, Suntar gives her a keen look. “You didn’t push me. You know I’ve got as little power in our realm as I do here, thanks to my dear brother, but I won’t risk starving or disappearing, there. If you help me to the portal, I’ll owe you a debt.”

A debt from a princess of a powerful court, even a disgraced one, could come in handy. “The kind of debt where I could trust that you wouldn’t turn around and try closing the portal again?” Suntar may have been doing it for power, but she believes in it too, if she’s still calling the mortals thieves. “No. Not yet.”

“If not now, when?”

It’s not Chirp’s place to teach people lessons. That’s always been the Court of Wonder, only giving their miracles to the people they call worthy and apparently scheming all the while to no longer have to do that to maintain their reputation. “That doesn’t seem like my problem.”

“The Lords of the Wing are declining in power. You would have had it. The mortals matter to you so much?”

Chirp laughs. It takes more effort than she’d ever want to admit. “Goodness, rumors do soar, don’t they? Grandfather must have invented those too. I shall have to congratulate him.”

“You don’t deny it.”

“I don’t need to. I’m the one with the power right now, or you wouldn’t be asking me favors.” The bowl inviting coins isn’t, Chirp suspects, wholly for show, though it isn’t money Suntar will be missing most, it’s magic. “I’ll give you one, but not the one you want. I have alliances I care about more than I care about your favors.”

“What favor will you so graciously bestow on me, then, Lady Featherfowl? And what do you ask in return?”

That’s as familiar as bargaining for bread at the market, or maybe bargaining for bread at the market is as familiar as dealing with other archfey. Chirp smiles. “I’m going to give you a little magic. Just a little, mind, I don’t want to have to go back from my visit too early, but dear Andhera would be so disappointed if I allowed you to dwindle into a bundle of rags or a shadow on a lake or something equally lackluster.”

“And in return?” Suntar’s voice is shaking with rage. Chirp does so miss this kind of thing in the mortal realms, Esmé keeps things so quiet. “For your gracious charity?”

She could ask for any number of embarrassing things. She could ask Suntar to write Andhera note of apology, except then Andhera might actually want to speak to her, and then Binx would be mad at Chirp, so that’s an unproductive line of thought. “Stop looking for the portal until this dose of magic runs out. Pay attention to the mortals. They’re funny, but they’re not as different as you’d think. Things are changing in our realm. You’ll get along much better if you understand a few things.”

“So I’ll be no closer to home than I am now. Just a stay of execution.”

Chirp shrugs. “Maybe you’ll find another way to get some magic. Or I’ll see you again. I’m in markets in this region often enough. Do we have a deal?”

Suntar glares at her for a few seconds. “We have a deal,” she finally says.

Much as Chirp loves to make a production of things, Peep and Esmé are waiting at home, and Chirp still has to do the rest of the shopping. She doesn’t draw it out, but gives Suntar a dose of magic, a decent amount of her portion for the day while reserving enough to defend herself from any threats, Suntar included. “There. Enjoy your vacation in the mortal realms, dear. I’ll see you sometime, I’m sure.”

“Sleep with one eye open,” says Suntar, but her shoulders are relaxing and her eyes are already brighter, which in her case means more shadowy.

“Some birds do that, you know!” says Chirp brightly, and wiggles her fingers at Suntar in a wave before she goes off to do the rest of her shopping.

Esmé shakes her head when Chirp turns up with a hair ribbon made of moonlight as well as the cheese and vegetables she requested, but Chirp kisses her and ties Peep’s hair up in a bow and keeps the rest of her adventures to herself.

[soubidou]

Give me all the info on Esmé pronouns she/they probably, 42, parent to a daughter, halfway through their life........

How did they meet?

What is the history?

If Chirp mates for a lifetime what does it mean for when Esmé has passed??

Did Esmé take the Featherfowl name in marriage or is Chirp pretending to still wear it when she has in fact taken her spouse's name?

Is Esmé a party person or rather a quiet, balanced person Chirp can call home?

We need more crumbs Emily

[scriptmyworld]

more thoughts on the ep when I finish it ehhhh tomorrow probably but I need more info on chirp and esmé’s relationship NOW. what was the wedding like. did chirp meet all of her human friends? do her human friends even like chirp? what’s their child’s name? how did they meet? what made this mortal so attractive to the countess of cluckingham? so many questions, and miss axford and miss iyengar I am BEGGING for answers

[biwitchofthewest]

Ok tagging Esmé as Esmé Featherfowl because THEY ARE MARRIED

[a-couple-of-notes]

I've been trying to gather my actual thoughts on this, but my reaction to Ruehob has been very confusing for me. I like it fine. It's just the only times I've genuinely been invested in it is when Wuvvy gets involved: with the duel or, in last night's episode, the failed delivery.

It's confusing to me because unspoken mutual pining is my shit. Characters turning away love for duty and service? My shit. But aside from Wuvvy's interactions with it, the Ruehob plot for me has been...enjoyable, but usually the least interesting part of any given episode.

I want to make it clear that this is largely a matter of taste. (Probably a good chunk of it is my brain being ornery and going, "You will latch onto the characters and romances that fewer people talk about.") I have had two (2) thoughts, though, in sitting with it:

Part of what makes the trope of "we cannot be together because of our duties/social classes" hit so hard for me is that, usually, it features characters who are extremely aware of the world and their position in it. It's this awareness of how bad the world could be to them that creates the tension. Ruehob occupies an interesting space where I completely understand and empathize with the coming out of the closet allegory - but the social ramifications for Rue themself have been negligible, and I am not convinced that Rue has a true awareness of their position in the world as it intersects with class. It makes Rue interesting to me as an individual, but makes their scenes with Hob feel...less weighty. A little cheesy.

As much as we talk about Ruehob being the regency-pining, unspoken great love of the campaign, pretty much all of the romances in ACOFAF have been clandestine, between-the-lines things. Chirp wrote a letter to her partner in episode 2 and it didn't come up again till episode 6 (and I'd actually argue that Chirp has both greater awareness of her position and clearer negative consequences if the world finds out about her and Esmé.) The catalyst for BINX/Andhera came in episode 5, but BINX doesn't explicitly confirm feelings until episode 8. Even Squak's betrothal carried an air of a long-held secret. Rue tips their hand, at least narratively, in episode 3, immediately after one moment in episode 2. And since Ruehob's secret pining is a) so sudden and b) the centerpiece romance of the campaign, it ironically feels less secret than the side romances building slowly in the background.

[theladyragnell]

For the three sentence ficlets: ACoFaF, the bird cousins and "The Baroness' Revenge", should that strike your fancy

(I didn't have much to say about this one that wouldn't have gotten into Explicit Land, which I wasn't in the mood for tonight, so have a ficlet with some of that implied!)

Chirp’s first sign that something has perhaps gone wrong during her visit to her family in the Mortal Realm is that she tries to take a drink of wine and tastes only sea water. In the spirit of science, she takes another sip. “Cousin,” she says, turning to Squak, who’s grimacing his way through his own glass, “it seems to me that perhaps someone has sabotaged your bottle of wine.”

“Just keep drinking,” he says, waving a hand. “It still gets you drunk, I have discovered over the past few days, it just tastes like the sea.”

Not just one bottle, then. If Squak had been on the same bottle of wine for three days, something truly would be gravely wrong. “Perhaps we could buy something new?”

“Oh, I’ve tried that. Then I bring it back to the next, and it’s sea water.”

Chirp considers that in silence for a moment. “Do you think that perhaps, cousin, this has something to do with, well. With the Seafoam Court? Or people within it?”

“Perhaps, cousin? Certainly, I would say. The first bottle of wine came with the compliments of Baroness Alven.”

“Ah.” Chirp puts her glass down. She’d like to be drunk, but not at this cost. “Your suitable but not suited match. She intends to hold you to your promise? Grandfather may have given us leniency, but I don’t know if he’ll allow it if she sues you for breach.”

“Blackmail would add a certain spice or our relationship,” Squak says, and they both consider that for a moment. He isn’t wrong, really. Still, it would be inconvenient at the orgies, if they were caught in some kind of vengeance duel. Squak seems to come to the same conclusion, because he sighs. “No, it will never do. I’ll simply have to fake my death. Do you think Grandfather would rename me Viscount of Peckerton?”

Chirp frowns. “That doesn’t seem likely to help. I don’t suppose you could, well, do as I did with Prince Andhera, could you? That is, put her off while making her think you care? You could tell her, quite rightly, that everything about Apollo was simply a ruse. Surely she would appreciate a ruse! Especially as he’s dead.”

“Then she might ask why I haven’t written to arrange our wedding.”

“You could at least talk to her. Esmé is a great believer in talking about things, and it does seem to work.”

Squak sighs and finishes his glass of salt wine. “I suppose it’s the only option I have left.”

*

Chirp stays around, partly to make sure Squak doesn’t ruin the beverages in the nest for the next several centuries and partly because she does love a good scandal. As soon as the baroness gets the message Squak sends (with a tern, of course, Squak wisely considers that a sea bird might soften her heart), the thing with the beverages stops, so at least it’s not too onerous waiting.

Baroness Alven, when she arrives, is dressed to kill, enough to make Chirp sigh a little over being married. “Lady Featherfowl,” she says, barely inclining her head. “I hope you have been well since the Bloom.”

“Oh, you know me, always in the beak of health!” Baroness Alven raises her eyebrows. “Do go easy on him, won’t you?”

She sniffs a little. “I haven’t once expected fidelity. Why should I? But I expect respect, and I expect information. And now I expect an apology. On bended knee.”

“I do hear he’s very good on his knees,” Chirp says encouragingly, and leaves them to it.

*

Chirp doesn’t see or hear anything about either of them until Baroness Alven comes out to drink tea for breakfast, looking very self-satisfied. “I do hope that our families can be on better terms again, after whatever negotiations you and my cousin engaged in last night?” she inquires.

“Negotiations were satisfactory, yes. I have an invitation to the next orgy. Perhaps I’ll see you there, Lady Featherfowl?”

“I wouldn’t miss it,” Chirp assures her, toasts her with her teacup, and moves on to discussing other gossip.