#niki hath returned

[hopeinthebox]

62 ressurected and we don't talk about the casualties

....too many to count

[rainbowtransform]

The thing about the festival is that there’s only one person Dream takes his armor off and is comfortable with forever. And that’s Puffy.

So that means that they’re either going to get Puffy on bored with killing her duckling (doubtful) or they’d have to trick Puffy into making her duckling take off his armor/put it somewhere else and then kill him that way (more likely).

And how upset would Puffy be to realize that she’d been tricked? How much angst would be put into her character’s development because she’d been tricked by Niki’s home country. And how Niki would try and explain, but that’s Puffy’s kid. And Niki must have known, because Niki fights on L’manberg’s side, and Puffy would have fought with L’manberg at one point, before they tricked her. (No matter how Niki would beg, Puffy won’t).

They killed her child. And Philza knows the pain of losing a son, but the way Puffy would rage and she’d grieve quietly. Philza knows that hell hath no fury like a mother angry.

(Dream wouldn’t show up again, not until he’s finally gotten over his own grief of the one of the people he truly trusts, his own mother, betrayed him.)

But each time she’d see L’manberg, see the child-president and his Cabin, and she’d seeth quietly. Angrily. She’d stay her post at Eret’s side because she made a promise to them, but her heart goes to her duckling gone somewhere she can’t follow.

(Punz promises the talk to Dream, to explain what happened and how she didn’t know. Though, he’s wary to talk to her and says that he’s doesn’t know where he’s at. And Puffy’s grateful.)

(When Dream does return, he’s wary of her. Doesn’t take off his armor, but his shied lowers and his axe is put away and that’s enough for right now. He doesn’t blindly follow her, either, he asks where they’re going and she answers. It’s a step in the right direction.)

Puffy knows that one day she’s going to have to do something. She’s going to need to gain his trust again, and she knows it won’t be easy. But the moment he does offer his trust again, takes off his armor (though she doubts it), then she knows that she will never join another.

(He’s her duckling. He’s hers, and the fact that she had killed one of her children, though she didn’t know it, had an impact. Philza plays favorites, even he can’t deny it. He’d killed his second son and ran off with his first, left both his youngest children to run a country by themselves.)

She decided to play favorites as well. She’s not afraid of it, and she makes a promise to her duckling. “I won’t betray you, or leave you,” she promises. “By my sword, Duckling, me and you. Until the end of the line.”

Punz stays on the outside (and he’s her son as well, she can’t deny him) and her other two are on opposite sides of the War. Her King is on the other side of the War, protecting L’manberg from her Duckling’s rage.

“You swore loyalty to me, Puffy,” they tell her when she decides her Side.

“They killed my Duckling, without my knowledge. They used me, Eret,” she tells her King. And she turns her own head away, refuses to acknowledge him until he walks away.

L’manberg and Dry Waters all pat their back, whisper something into their ears and Puffy turns her back. Her Duckling’s waiting behind her, mask blank but his body lanaguage is angled toward her.

“We could have used your intel as a spy,” he tells her.

“But I don’t want to be used or betrayed anymore.” She replies.

“Then you won’t be.” He says.

“By your side, Duckling,” she said. “Until the sun sets on the Final Day.”

And he smiles a bit. “By my side?”

“Not even the Dragon can separate us,” she affirms.

He laughs a little, and she doesn’t look back at L’manberg. Instesd she keeps an eye on her son’s hair, pulled in a messy bun and clucks her tongue.

“Won’t it be better in a braid?” She asks.

“Don’t know how to,” he says. “Karl and George would do it, before.”

“I’ll teach you,” she offers. “Remember how I used to do mine?”

/Roleplay