#from where she tussled with a kid who jammed a stick there hard enough for the resulting wound's scar to still be visible two decades later

[cannibalisticskittles]

amity, during an astarion romance, is eventually going to reach a point where they're being more genuine (or, well, he's being more genuine; amity has been pretty genuine this whole time) and he makes a complimentary remark abt her offhandedly and she's like "haha yeah. you remember you don't have to do that anymore right"

"do... what?" he asks

"you know," she says, "pretend i'm..." she waves a hand in the air, vaguely gesturing to herself. "...nice to look at. you don't have to do that anymore. it's okay."

and no matter what he says, he's. not going to convince her otherwise. not tonight. not tomorrow. not for a long time.

the most she can concede the point is to say that it's kind of him to say so. but she still doesn't think it's true, even a bit

amity's childhood fucked up her self-image BAD. children can be cruel. the patriar are, as a rule, quite cruel and callous. and patriar children?? woof. awful. and she is the tiefling bastard child of a new money noble -- one who got that money through merchant work, how gauche. so she was subsequently on the receiving end of... a substantial amount of unkindness. general distrust, at best, from those who weren't outwardly cruel, but quite a bit of outright cruelty

sorcerers, of course, do not learn their spells the traditional way, but more through desire. and amity learned the disguise self spell early, born out of an intense and desperate desire to Be Literally Anyone Else.

she has learned at this point in time that she has qualities that others may appreciate -- which was a hard-fought battle in and of itself, and is still a relatively recent revelation for her. but those qualities are still tied to what she does. her capacity to be kind, her ability to be helpful.

but her appearance? hahahahaha fuck no

[kingarthurblue]

First Page, First Draft

I think this is where I’m gonna share actual writing, so here’s a page or two from my first draft!

If you like how it looks, feel free to follow for updates!

—

Parminder brushes the long golden grass aside as they pass through the meadow, the forest on the horizon dark against the late afternoon sky, the dipping sun a silent threat of the night to come. But a much less silent threat rustles in the grass behind them- a quiet giggle rings out, and they smile to themselves, tension easing.

Red and green flicker through the grass. It’s much better than they usually do at hiding in the field, but not good enough. Still, Parminder averts their gaze, continuing forward as the two younger kids sneak up behind them.

Soon enough, a hand reaches out to grab at Parminder’s sword, and they whip around to scoop the boy up under their arm with a triumphant, “GOTCHA!”

“Ah! Nico run!” Felix immediately goes limp, forcing Parminder to drop him so they can take off after the girl that’s just darted away from them.

The grass whips at their faces, flattened beneath their pounding feet. Felix rights himself and runs after them, hot at Parminder’s heels.

Parminder throws themself forward, grabbing Nico’s ankle and pulling her into the dirt with them with a startled yelp.

“Noo! We were so close!” Nico tries to writhe away, unable to escape Parm’s headlock even with Felix pulling at the arm.

“Not close enough! Now face the consequences!” Parminder booms, dramatically stretching out their free arm and slapping it down to violently tussle Nico’s hair. When it’s suitably tangled, they drop her into the grass beside Felix, who had since given up helping and sat down instead.

“Ow… You dick. We’ll get that sword one day, mark my words.” Nico pouts, rubbing her sore scalp. She rolls onto her back to stretch out and stare at the sky, adding wistfully, “I’d look so cool with it.”

“You mean we’d look so cool with it.” Felix leans over to look down at her, “We should both get swords so we can both look cool.”

“You’d look great until you accidentally cut your hands off.” Parminder flops onto their back beside them, “Then you’d bleed out and lose your first lives and I’d laugh.”

“You wouldn’t laugh! Don’t be a dick.” Nico punches them in the arm, and they punch her back.

Felix scratches his cheeks as he ponders, before laying down with them, “I dunno, maybe Parm’s right. I’ve never used a sword.”

“Yeah but you’ve used a knife! That’s almost the same thing,” Nico objects, “Besides, it can’t be that hard if Parm can do it.”

Parminder laughs, and a soft silence falls between the teens as they gaze up at the darkening sky. The warmth of the day still hangs thick in the air but a cool breeze washes away the sweat and exertion from the day. Against the pink and orange tones, a flock of sparrows flies overhead, and for a moment they are envied by the three souls below them.

“Well lets not stick around and get eaten by monsters, the sun’s setting and shit. We gotta go.” Nico gets to her feet, “Besides, I’ve got a plan!”

“Another plan already?” Felix follows, with Parminder close behind, “I thought we were gonna spend some time mining.”

Nico waves her hands dismissively, leading the trek toward the dark forest hunched in the distance, “Parm can do that, they already spend their time doing all that stuff anyway! I have a way better idea now and this time it’s totally fool proof. But I’ll tell you once we’re inside. Can’t have any eavesdroppers.”

By the time the three have slipped past the tree line and made their way to the river, the sun sits dangerously low on the horizon, and already the forest buzzes with the groans of waking monsters.

They hop down into the river bed, sticking close to the wall of dirt and stone until they make it to a heavy wooden door embedded within it. With some effort, Parm shoves it open, and shuts it firmly behind them. A staircase drops in front of them, lit by flickering ever-burning torch light, and they make their way down until it opens into a larger space.

The ceiling is low and the stone is cold, but the air is made warm by the crackling of a stove as Felix relights it. Nico takes a seat at the table in front of it while Parm busies themself with the daily sorting of their inventory, storing things away into chests.

They pull out a piece of the wall and tuck behind it some of their more precious belongings, before replacing the piece good as new.

“So what’d you think of?” Felix pushes some large, salted slabs of meat into the oven, crouching in front of it.

“Okay so, I was following Blythe again- y’know, seeing what she’s up to and all, and I maybe snuck into a Rover meeting that she was attending.”

Parm whips around to face her with a look of horror, “You WHAT!? You know you’re not supposed to do stuff like that alone! They’re mercenaries, they would’ve killed you if they saw you!”

“But they didn’t! And while I was there- No- While I was there I heard something important about the festival!” Nico hurriedly continues, speaking over Parm’s sputtering, “They’re gonna use it as a cover to bring a shipment into the Lodge! It’s gotta be something big, they were talking about being hired to guard it, and if they’re getting the Rover’s involved it’s gotta be super important, especially if they’re keeping a secret!”

Parm takes a deep breath, chewing their dirt covered fingernails, “You want us to go all the way back to Firassonne county, where they’re totally looking out for us, and steal a super classified shipment of unknown stuff while it’s on its way to the capitol building?”

There’s a brief moment of silence.

“Yes.”

Slowly, Parm comes to sit at the table beside her. Felix has turned to face them, listening to the plan enraptured.

“It’s gotta be something valuable. Even if we can’t use it, what if we can get our tree house back!” Felix grins from ear to ear, tail swishing dangerously close to the fire. Parm leans over and nudges him away from it.

“The tree house… I do miss living above ground. It’s so much safer in town… Okay. Yeah. But it’ll also be super dangerous, I’ll have to try and remake you guys some armour and maybe some herbs, if I can figure out the invisibility tea then maybe…” They trail off, mind already racing through all the ways to get in and out of the place alive.

“Invisibili-tea…” Felix echoes, giggling as he receives a kick in the leg from Nico.

“We can totally pull it off. We’ll have to hit them on the road while they’re travelling, and we’ll need a big enough distraction to pull most of the Rovers away so me and Felix can get in and take everything! Maybe we can even get some of them not to show up at all!” She leans back in her chair, staring into the fire, “Like make them sick, or convince them to be cool traitors and help us!”

“I don’t think Blythe is gonna trust any of us after last time we messed with her. She’s still trying to make herself a new bow.” Parm worries, staring at a door across the room. Behind it, a staircase descends further down, and they know that monsters may be creeping in the unlit shadows. Worse, they worry that somehow someone has found them, and is listening to their every word, ready to run back to the Kingdom and report it. But no one would dare travel through the night.

“Okay, so maybe we don’t try to convince her,” Nico pipes up, “But we can make her sick! Would any of the other Rovers budge? Felix are you still friends with Simas?”

Felix paws at the meat in the oven, peering at it to try and tell whether or not it’s done, “Uh, sort of? We haven’t talked a lot lately cause I’ve been helping Miss Curie. You know that little shop she made on Festival Road? She wants to start making and selling jam, so we’re trying to figure out the recipe.”

“... Well that’s real helpful Felix thank you,” Nico rolls her eyes, barely repressing a smile as Felix pipes up with a cheerful, “You’re welcome!”

“Well then here’s the plan. Felix! You gotta talk to Simas and try and get them to at least abandon their post. And talk to Miss Curie and see what you can learn about the festival. Parm, you’re on tea and poultice duty, we need poison, invisibility, and speed probably.”

“What are you gonna do?” Felix pulls the meet from the fire, setting the platter onto the table and taking a seat next to them.

Nico takes a slab, hissing in pain from the heat but beginning to tear it apart with her fingers anyway, “I’m going to do the most important part- reconnaissance! We gotta learn which roads they’re taking and stuff, so I’ll be doing that.”

Parm takes the smallest piece of meat, humming, “Are you sure you should do that alone?”

“I’ll be fiiine! And if anything goes wrong, I’ll run and hide until you show up and save me!” Nico gives them a hard pat on the shoulder.

“Alright, if you’re sure.” Parm nods, pulling a blanket out of their inventory and draping it over Felix’s shoulders. Felix smiles and presses up against their side as the three settle into their meal, exhausted from the day but ready for the next