#sparxxi

[fireskarr]

When you're just trying to get to the next rift event, but suddenly a wild leyline appears!

(this mastery is a blessing and a curse)

[sserpente]

A/N: Request by @sparxxy. Loved this idea! Enjoy, everyone! ♥

Words: 1409 Warnings: fluff and… falling off the roof I guess?

You should have brought your gloves. It was freezing cold, especially now that you were fiddling around with tiny cables and light bulbs on a wobbly ladder. Hypothetically, Tony could have done this in his suit and hypothetically, he wouldn’t run a risk of suffering from hypothermia in the process covered in layers of metal but if there was one thing you were both naïve and proud about, then it was setting up Christmas decoration all by yourself—and that included colourful holiday lights on the roof.

You could do this. It was fun, even more so with so much snow around you. In that hindsight, you were even okay with numb fingers.

You were so focused on setting up the lights that you never heard someone approaching you, even on the crunchy snow. But then again, Loki usually moved with the grace of a cat. Being around him felt like circling a bomb—you never knew if or when it would explode but overall, you were glad the Avengers and eventually even SHIELD had accepted the God of Mischief sticking around after Asgard was destroyed even though everyone but Thor met him with suspicion or even hostility; even you did, for the most part. With Loki, you just never knew. So while the God of Thunder had begun wearing Christmas sweaters, baking horrible gingerbread and asking every single one of the other Avengers what it was they wanted for Christmas to buy them presents with Tony’s money, Loki appeared utterly irritated by the festive season.

“What in the nine are you doing?” He asked, head tilted slightly.

You flinched, holding on to the gutter frantically to not fall off. “Geez, Loki… clear your throat or something!” The God of Mischief only chuckled. “I’m putting up the holiday lights.”

“Whatever for?” You could practically hear his frown.

“So our headquarters will look more festive?” You suggested. “Actually, can you tell me if this is straight?”

“These quarters are in the middle of nowhere. No one will be able to see it.”

“I will. Now is this straight or not?”

“I suppose it is.”

“That is not reassuring.” You retorted.

“Well, what is it supposed to look like? You are only going to injure yourself. This ladder looks rather unsafe and the rungs are frozen.”

“Yes, I know that, Loki, which is why I’m asking you if they’re straight so I don’t have to climb up here again! Don’t be such a Scrooge.” You had gotten him a present—it was nothing too fancy but you had seen him taking notes on a stack of paper he had presumably stolen from your office a lot. Apparently, Loki was quite the scholar. You usually spotted him surrounded by books whenever the Avengers didn’t make him join life-threatening missions. In this aspect, you were quite glad you were only an assistant.

Anyway, you had decided to buy Loki a beautiful notebook bound in real leather along with a fancy green and gold pen with black ink but if he kept going like that, you might reconsider giving it to him after all.

“What is that supposed to mean?” Loki frowned, making you sigh. You were done anyway. All you had to do now was climb off, switch it on with the little remote and see if you had indeed hung it up straight if Loki wouldn’t give you a proper answer.

“Scrooge is a fictional character in ‘The Christmas Carol’ and he hated Christmas. It’s written by Charles Dickens, one of the greatest—argh!” An ear-piercing scream escaped your lips, heart skipping a beat when you slipped on one of the rungs on the frozen ladder, your hands failing to grasp at the cold metal again in time. You hurtled backwards through the ice-cold air so fast you were hardly able to process you were going to kiss the hard ground and likely break your neck in the process, brazing yourself for a painful impact—which never came. Your eyes flew open when you landed in Loki’s arms instead. The God of Mischief, so you realised, must have darted forward to catch you.

Panting, you looked up at him with wide eyes, not even quite able to catch your breath in return.

“I told you so.” He said quietly. Oddly enough though, there was no scorn in his voice—quite on the contrary; you had never heard Loki speak so softly before. His warm breath ghosted over your lips as he talked, his blue eyes glued on your face, likely reddened from the cold.

“T-thank you…” You whispered. Oh Heavens… Had he always been this handsome?

Neither of you moved. Instead, you remained in your awkward position, with Loki still carrying you bridal style and his face only mere inches from yours until a thundering voice ripped you both from your weird trance.

“Loki, have you seen my gingerbread pop tarts? Oh… oh? Am I interrupting something, brother?” He asked with a sly grin. He was standing in the doorway, right underneath a mistletoe and he was holding up an empty box of pop tarts.

“No,” Loki said quickly all the while sighing and rolling his eyes. You only swallowed, finally managing to move your limbs again and struggle just a little so he would put down again. You did not fail to notice that even once your feet were on the ground again, his left hand lingered on your waist just a little bit longer than absolutely necessary—and you would be lying if you claimed it bothered you.

“If I recall it correctly, you ate them all last night.” He continued, clearly unimpressed.

“I didn’t eat all of them.” Thor raised an eyebrow. “Did you eat them?”

“No,” Loki emphasised. “I may be the God of Mischief, brother but I do not have a death wish. Perhaps you should ask one of your mortal companions. Stark likes to steal food quite regularly as far as I am concerned.”

You smirked when Thor pointed at him in a threatening manner. “I am going to rub snow in your face if I find out you’re lying.”

“You do realise I am a Frost Giant, brother?” Oh, yes, you had almost forgotten about that. That must have been the reason why he wasn’t even wearing a jacket.

“M-hm. I’ll leave you two to… whatever then.” Loki rolled his eyes once more. You could hardly complain about his reaction. Thor could be rather sneaky if only he wanted to be and the fact he had interpreted Loki basically saving your life to be something… something… well… what exactly?

You and Loki? He couldn’t possibly think you would… or would you? You cleared your throat once the God of Thunder had disappeared inside again and closed the door, if anything to not make matters even more awkward than they already were.

Then, to distract from the embarrassing situation, you finally grabbed the remote of the holiday lights and pressed the button. Dozens of little bulbs lit up at once, some green, some red, some blue, some yellow, some purple, all blinking away happily. It was beautiful—and it definitely was straight.

You hummed in silent triumph.

“I admit, it does look rather pretty.” Loki suddenly said.

“Come on, it looks amazing! Is that really the best you can do?”

He gave you languid look. But nothing could have prepared you for what he did next. “Oh, what a masterpiece you have created, my dear. This is a truly marvellous sight. You must be a sorceress to have constructed such beauty for this Midgardian holiday they call Christmas. What would the Avengers do without your talent and your skilled hands?” Sarcasm was dripping from his voice, along with a downright theatrical tone not of mockery but pure amusement and teasing.

“Okay, okay, stop it.” You laughed, wouldn’t admit, however, how your heart jumped when he called you ‘my dear’. It took you quite a while to recover from your laughing fit. And if that wasn’t enough already, Loki was actually smiling too. “I’ve got two others to hang up, one on the balcony and one on the terrace.” You announced then. “Do you… would you help me?”

There it was again. His blue eyes locked with yours, capturing you both in another moment full of tension and… fascination. Eventually, the God of Mischief nodded.

“I might as well.”

Huh. Perhaps, Christmas miracles were real after all.

-

A/N: If you enjoyed this story, I would appreciate it so much if you considered supporting me on Kofi! It’s either for caffeine or red wine, I’ll take both. ko-fi.com/sserpente ♥

[fireskarr]

Wishing everyone a happy holidays!

[fireskarr]

Asura Appreciation Week - Day 3

DAY THREE - AUGUST 22nd Does your OC have a krewe? What do they specialize in? How do they get along with each other? @asura-appreciation-corner

A bit late with this one because y'know, new expansion launch and all. And I'm dumb and didn't prepare any of these posts in advance

The story of Tenakk's little band of misfits is going to be a bit of a long post.

So I'll start with the first three:

Tenakk Aside from the krewes he was a part of during college, Tenakk never really had a krewe of his own for a while. He was content to work alone most of the time, which was part of the reason he ended up joining the Durmand Priory later on. Aside from his research into destroyers, he was also a really talented artificer, which he used to earn a little extra income.

Milo Milo was raised by humans, and so his mannerisms and world view is quite different from the average asura. His first visit to Rata Sum didn't go so well, and he struggled to understand and fit into asuran society. This is where he met Tenakk for the first time, and they became good friends. What Milo lacks in fighting ability, he more than makes up for it with his talents in healing magic and crafting medicines. He is very sociable, and has many contacts from the medical work he carried out around Divinity's Reach. If Tenakk ever needs a particular item or information, Milo probably knows someone who can provide it.

Sparxxi A typical Dynamics student; she likes tinkering with machines, and creating gadgets to tinker with more machines. She used to be part of a krewe in Lion's Arch, creating festival decorations and organising fireworks displays. When Scarlet's attack on the city destroyed everything she knew, she was left sitting around in one of the refugee camps with no home or friends. She noticed Milo and Tenakk helping out some of the refugees, and she pretty much latched onto them, refusing to go until they gave her a job. Tenakk eventually relented and offered her a job as an assistant.

For a short time, the three of them worked together in Tenakk's workshop/makeshift lab. They didn't consider themselves an official krewe at the time, it was pretty much 'Tenakk and Friends' doing odd jobs and projects.

And then Sparxxi heard about the Pact forces mustering in the Silverwastes, preparing to go to war against an Elder Dragon. She really wanted to get a closer look at the airships, and ended up sneaking aboard one of them. Just before the fleet set off into Maguuma to fight Mordremoth. Oops.

About two years later, Tenakk recieved a letter from her which essentially read: "Hey I found these awesome Mists researchers, you should come join us! Also, I'm alive!"

Which leads us on to the next three:

Tenkatt One of Tenakk's best kept secrets is his failed experiment with the Infinity Ball; a device intended to show a glimpse of a possible future. But unbeknownst to him it did kind of work, and an alternate future version of himself materialised. But unlike the in-game story character of 'Grand High Sovereign', this alternate Tenakk has no desire to conquer the world, he just wants it to not fall into Void as a result of killing Elder Dragons. So it's safe to say he's not a fan of the Commander.

He stayed out of sight for a while, and joined up with the Aetherblades to poke around with their Mist portal technology. He had no interest in working for Scarlet, so when the 'Blades ended up trapped in the Mists after Scarlet's death, he took the first opportunity he could to steal one of their airships and escape the Mists long before the others figured out how to do it (he's done this before). Problem is, the portal he opened up just happened to lead right into the middle of the battle between Pact forces and the Mouth of Mordremoth in the jungle.

Here he crossed paths with Sparxxi, and her reaction was basically: "Wow, Tenakk has a twin brother!" She offered to fix up his airship and persuaded him not to go after the Commander. Many of the events he had witnessed were different from the ones he knew from his alternate reality, so he decided to stick around to see how things play out.

He and Tenakk often bicker about the best course of action, and he still doesn't agree they should be helping the Commander. The one thing they seem to agree on is that cats are great. And if anyone asks: they really are brothers.

Trellia Not actually an asura, but an inquisitive Mist creature that Tenkatt encountered while stuck in the Mists (if you're a GW1 fan, basically like Razah). Technically genderless, but has chosen to take the form of a female asura in an attempt to blend in. Trellia is a skilled Chronomancer, and also seems to have the ability to detect and manipulate some Mists-related anomalies without the need for technology.

Mellu (The hat isn't canon, it's just the best screenshot I have right now) Mellu is a seasoned Mist Warrior who seems to have lost all memory of her life outside the Mists. She often ventures out into the Mist War and returns with a variety of resources ranging from useful materials to odd/bizarre trinkets.

Special mention: Fluffy

Fluffy was adopted as an adorable griffon chick under threat by Icebrood monsters in the Shiverpeaks. He allows the krewe to go places where an airship would draw too much attention (or can't reach). He likes griffon races, fish, and Aurene.

**---The Moebius Krewe---**

(sometimes I call them the Infinity Krewe because I still can't decide)

Officially formed in 1331AE to track and deal with the rifts left by Kralkatorrik's rampage through the Mists, although they had been tracking other anomalies prior to that event. They often collaborate with the Commander to collect data and send help to citizens affected by creatures which have escaped from the Mists. I guess you could call them a first response & rescue team specialising in Mists-related events and disasters, though they often take on side-projects in general Mists research.

[fireskarr]

It’s been a while since I made one of these dumb comics. 

Sparxxi embarks on a new mission to acquire an unhealthy amount of candy, because her candy dragon project probably exploded

[fireskarr]

Sparxxi’s projects usually end explosively

[fireskarr]

It’s totally a date

[fireskarr]

It’s spooky candy season!

[fireskarr]

Dragon Bash! Where dragons aren’t the only ones getting smashed!

[fireskarr]

It’s been a while since the krewe picked up Fluffy in Bitterfrost Frontier. He’s probably all grown up by now :)

[fireskarr]

GW2 Character Roster #6 - Sparxxi

The first of my engineers, Sparx loves studying charr machinery, and rummaging through scrapyards in search of useful parts to salvage. She’s currently an airship engineer, and really wants to master griffon riding, so she can fly through the sky with her snow griffon friend Fluffy.

I’m not that good at playing engineer, but the flamethrower build I found ages ago seems to be working well enough. When not using kits, I like equipping her with Ambrite weapons because they match her eyes :)

[fireskarr]

Path of Fire elite specialisations completed! 

I’m not sure how many of the new specs i’ll actually use, i’m happy with the HoT builds i’m using at the moment. When I get a bit more spare time (and gold) I might look into some of the PoF builds i’ve seen online.

[fireskarr]

Fluffy joins the krewe!

[fireskarr]

Tenkatt and krewe visit the desert! (I probably could have done this better)

Bonus:

[fireskarr]

Ambrite collection complete! With a little help from the organised Dry Top runs led by the [SAND] guild!

Sparxxi is ready for whatever new weapon the Engineer will be getting in the new expansion :)

[fireskarr]

I haven’t drawn anything for a while, so here’s my asura collection :)