#some alfarīd appreciation

[tired-reader-writer]

Can't write rn so have this:

“I'll kill them,” says the saffron-clad girl with jagged tattoos. “I'll kill them all. The fake-ass princes, the king, the nobles. Everyone. All of them. They'll never become a problem for my hometown. Never. I'm gonna make sure of it.”

Alfarīd takes in the sight of Ashaya's hidden face, the tremor in their lengthy frame. Takes in their voice, so full of bitterness and anger, so full of...

Fear.

Ashaya is afraid.

And who wouldn't be, when it's you against the world?

She lets herself plop down on Ashaya like she's seen cats do with each other. You can die at the hands of royalty, monkey. Consider it an honor. “Well, that makes it two of us, ey?”

Ashaya snorts. “Congratulations, you've just got a roadside fox stuck to your side for perpetuity. Now what?”

“Were you even listening to yourself? We're gonna rid the world of pests.”

“The rat bastard with the silver mask first?”

“The rat bastard with the silver mask first.”

[tired-reader-writer]

If you have any headcanons to share about ArSen characters (either canon or your OCs) and singing, I'd love to hear! :)

Aaaaaaaa I think I got a couple! Hold up lemme try to recall them:

When Isfan is doing something, he tends to hum soft lil tunes absently. Is it a particular song? Ehh, not really. Literally just no thoughts head empty just random tunes.

Zaravant whistles a lot. I don't know why I hc him that way.

Shapur has sung lullabies to soothe a smol Isfan countless times. Perhaps even every night. It helps little Isfan sleep, and calm down after nightmares.

I somehow can't get the mental image of Daryun singing something with an evil grin and Narsus trying to shut it out being all “STOOOOP YOU MONSTER”. I don't know what Daryun would be singing to get Narsus to react like that, but it's clear he's doing it on purpose to mess with Narsus.

Isfan tends to find a melody in nature— like say, the slow pitter-patter of raindrops, some frog croaking in the distance, stuff like that. His innate connection with nature also meant that he can feel out its melody. He thinks everyone else can do it too though. Oh and sometimes his humming can be influenced by whatever he hears out there in nature.

Merlaine appreciates a good singing voice. Maybe he'd prefer softer, quieter songs, perhaps to contrast his father's (very bad) loud boisterous singing voice?

Alfarīd likes to sing, and dance too. If there's a celebration or something she'd be one of the people dancing to the joy. I think she'd make quite a merry dancer, can't tell you why though.

I think Arslan would like to sing and dance too, but is too shy to do it, afraid people might think it's improper. Somebody should push him to do it.

Sam has a nice voice, but he often doesn't know what to sing so he just doesn't. What a waste!

It's been a very long time since Hilmes sang. He last did it for Irina, perhaps under the excuse of teaching her about Parsian music or something, lol. I think a smol Hilmes before the fire may have expressed interest in picking up an instrument or something. It's just the vibes I got.

Irina looooooves music. She sings and hums a lot too, and makes cute lil noises. She always asks Militsa to sing for her, and who'd say no to a face like that?

Ayyar always pesters his grandpa to sing for him. And he always sings along too.

In Winds of Wolfsong, the clan has so. many. things. centered around song and dance. Solstices and equinoxes? Let's sing and dance! Many of their history and myths? Songs! Celebration? Song! Funeral? Song! There are games played by families or just bored colleagues where they piece random songs together or come up with lyrics on the fly or stuff like that. Just... songs.

On that note, music is thought to be the bridge between worlds, the language of all languages that transcend barriers. It's used as a medium to communicate with spirits, and they have traditional dances— dances to old and ancient melodies endeavoring to sync up the body and soul to what the song is conveying, if that makes sense? It's also a form of magic. Not every clan member is a dancer, though.

Kazai's a dancer. Arslan is too. Gieve sings, and plays the oud as in canon, but with a magical twist of course. Maybe he too uses it to ask spirits questions. Ayunnen and Kashi used to sing together under the moonlight. In this AU too Farangis sings and chants melodic prayers— just not to the Parsian gods. Isfan sings a lot more in this AU too.

Ayunnen had the gentlest, most soothing voice you've probably ever heard. Kashi's voice was... hm, how do I describe it— stronger? firmer? Something like that.

Shapur seems like someone who'd sing for his beloved.

So this seems to be all I can recall at the top of my head for now! I hope you enjoyed it!!

[tired-reader-writer]

One of them looks fond of Alfarīd, aw.

Narsus revels in this sort of chaos, I fucking love this guy.

Bit too invincible a lot of the time but y'know what I'll let it slide to enjoy the sheer clamor he wreaks everywhere.

The soldier on the left, have I not seen you before?

But where?

Badass Alfarīd!! Appreciate my daughter! I bet she was also the one who loosed the arrow that landed in the butt of Rajendra's horse. (Poor horsey tho)

She has her Zott face paint on again despite it being night and she was just about to head to bed (and it's cold, washing your face in such cold weather is a PAIN T_T), it probably won't take long yet she still took the time to paint it on again, so there's some sort of pride in being a Zott. It matters to her that she has it on in battle.

I enjoy this face very much.

Look at the soldiers! Look at them cheering!

Bashful? You? (I remember now why I almost never talked about the guy before, I found him so very annoying!)

At first I just screencapped these tontake reference of the bed but these panels do be making me feel some sort of way. It's quiet, it's empty, he's all alone in such a big bed, and that's when everything comes crashing in (and he hides it, gods he hides it bc we never see any indication of him confiding in anyone or calling in anyone to help him deal with this, not until much later when they're in Sindhura, remember that scene w Daryun). And the panels are so small (the second one even smaller) and it communicates how small he feels and god. God.