#yes it's the Sylvain thing again BUT this time there are more characters!

[armatization-a]

You know I'm not surprised by Engage butchering French. Looks at 3H. But I mean it took me half the game to realise what the fuck Diamant was supposed to be bc I listen more than I read

Also I'm mad they pronounce Céline like that. Ah yes. Princess salt water.

[fireemblems24]

Scarlet Blaze Ch 14

So close to completing this.

MAIN STORY

How many chapters is this game? 15, right?

Typical Caspar excited to murder. God, he's awful in this route.

Dorothea breaking the 4th wall. She says she can't deal with any more doubling back lol.

I love how they dress up "kill everyone who resists until the Empire Imperializes Fodlan" as "unite Fodlan" lamo.

Felix, Sylvain, and Dimitri discussing strategy. Seteth and Rhea joining it.

They suggest retaking the monastery. Not a bad idea. Rhea also thinks this could flip some Alliance lords.

Haha, the "bad guys" are going to kill Bernadetta's awful father.

They think by doing this, it'll inspire the faithful to unite against Edelgard's war.

Dimitri says to keep quiet to keep Empire defenses down. Dimitri suggests tricking the enemy. It's funny how the only lord that doesn't use tricks and strategy is . . . Edelgard.

Ugh, so many side battles again.

MAP/SIDE QUESTS

See, this is what's so annoying. I talked to Raphael who wants to fight Dimitri because he's so legendarily strong (this game hypes Dimitri so hard, and I am here for it). Anyways, that's not my problem. My problem is that Raphael can't wait to ask Dimitri about his training routine after the war is over. Like, I get it's Rapaheal who isn't the deepest thinker, but this attitude is everywhere - like war is no different than play fighting and like, after going to war against someone, not only will they definitely survive, but will get chatty with you about training - not.

Dorothea, Ashe, and Yuri are the only characters who seem to realize they're about to go kill innocent people, lamo.

Hubert just insulted me. Seems the right time to declare my love for him with the merc whistle, lol. He earned it doing almost all the work this playthrough. (it's even funnier bc an NPC just asked if I had a special person, and Shez picked Hubert).

Add more to Caspar being a complete psychopath in this route - he's happy his brothe failed because now he could potentially rule his family's territory and make Edelgard's vision come to life (oh, yes, how amazing, passing it from one noble male to . . . the male noble's brother, viva la revolution! /s)

Shoutout to the NPC who's pissing himself over the idea of having to fight Dimitri, Dedue, and Felix.

Add Mercedes to the list of people who realize they're going to kill other people.

Claude talking to Byleth and being like, if I had you around, I'd probably be a decent person!

I had to fight Cyril :(

SHEZ & FERDINAND A

Ferdinand is pulling a Dimitri and working until tired. Unlike Dimitri, though, Ferdinand listens.

This support is shipping Ferdibert because it's Hubert who sent Shez, and apparently worried about Ferdinand.

It was kind of short.

EDELGARD & HUBERT A

God, I hope this is better than their final Houses support.

Haha, she's asking about Byleth. Wishing she could've recruited Byleth, lamo. I bet this goes differently if you're a better gamer.

It sucks that, once again, Hubert and Edelgard's relationship is reduced to Edeleth bait rather than being about Hubert.

And so, once again, Hubert's not going to be any credit for being the Eagles' single braincell.

Wait....... did they just confirm the Crest connection between Edelgard and Byleth?

God, I would HATE it if they did that to Dimileth. Idk, there's something about magic influencing people to like each other that takes away from the romance of the relationship.

How did Edeleth fans react to this?

Oh, we're actually talking about Hubert now.

Hubert is happy with the role groomed into him. To Edelgard's credit, she wishes things would reverse sometimes.

I love how different all the lord-retainer relationships are in this game. They made 3 distinct, interesting ones. No points if you guess my favorite of them.

LINHARDT & PETRA B

These two have so little in common. Also, I'm going to need to grind to get their A.

They know what diaphragms are in Fodlan.

Petra needs help with a letter. It's written in archaic language. I forget that poor Petra only gets a language teacher ones, and it's Blue Lions locked. Dedue for the win.

It's a love letter, lamo.

I headcannon it's from Dorothea.

Welp, headcannon squashed. She says she has no knowledge of the writer, and is rife with mistakes.

Linhardt finds the letter sacrilegious, but Petra's impressed.

PETRA & HUBERT A

One of the worst pairings in Houses.

An assassin goes after Hubert, but Petra shoots her.

Hubert's annoyed bc he can't question her, but grateful.

Hubert critiques the tactics that Petra uses to save him. Only Hubert.

He's more surprised that a queen would use a tactic than thinking it's a bad one.

Hubert's hating on chivalry and knights.

Petra doesn't understand their thoughts, and Hubert tries to explain it.

"It's peace we are wishing for." Uh, no. People who start wars don't wish for peace.

Hubert admits it has its uses though. But dislikes it.

Hey, at least this wasn't a support revolving around Hubert gurdingly accepting Petra as an "inferior" Edelgard.

HUBERT & FERDINAND A

Hubert calls Ferdinand the ultimate noble, not sure if that's a compliment or not.

Ferdinand's like don't sneak up on me while I'm training, dumbass.

But then Hubert's like you could just kill me right now if you wanted too! Which, is kind of weird. And Ferdinand's like, stop being weird. agreed.

Ferdinand doesn't see his father as the man who raised him.

Hubert admits that Ferdinand's matured. Ferdinand admires Hubert's obsession with Edelgard.

Ferdinand asks to stand alongside both of them as Edelgard's two jewels of the Empire.

And Hubert laughs at him.

And then it ends.

Ok, so why is this such a big ship again?

DOROTHEA & PETRA A

Bummed they only have 1 support. This is my favorite ship for both of them.

They go on a date in the marketplace and are happy to get away from all the death they're causing.

Petra is surprised to see it so upbeat, considering the war. Dorothea says life goes on for commoners regardless of what nobles are doing, but get upset when family dies.

Petra claims in Brigid, everyone is family. Dorothea says Fodlan's not like that.

In Brigid, they fight over thrones and lovers, but not land, like in Fodlan (like in Scarlet Blaze, lamo). Dorothea wants the tea.

They get accosted by random dudes, but Petra fights them off. Dorothea helps, I think.

Does this mean women get accosted in the market in broad daylight in the Empire???

Hahaha, Dorothea tells Petra that her skin is silky smooth and asks her to feel. Sadly, Dorothea doesn't act on that.

Petra calls Dorothea important to her, and to watch out, that she'll keep Dorothea safe. Dorothea promises the same.

My shipping heart is happy with this, though the random attack was a bit odd.

PETRA & RAPHAEL A

I could have seen this already in GW, though it's unlikely?

Raphael is howling to catch a wolf, but it keeps getting louder, so he's upset. Petra disagrees that he's not getting better.

They've made a team up, where Raphael scares the animals, and Petra hides and kills them all. So they make a good team.

Raphael is acting as a hound, he's upset that he isn't a wolf.

Petra thinks Raphael would fit in in Brigid. He agrees and plans to visit.

I honestly have no idea if I've seen this before.

DOROTHEA & BERNADETTA B

This is their highest support.

Dorothea sees her talking to someone. And the little bit on screen looked a lot like Yuri? Dorothea confirms that it's a man.

Don't Bernadetta and Yuri have a history? Dorothea thinks it's romantic.

Yep, it's Yuri. Bernadetta talks about the commoner friend she had once, which is Yuri.

Dorothea thinks this is the makings of a good opera. Bernie insists it's not love; Dorothea says that's how an opera would work.

Honestly, though, Yuri and Bernie may be one of the least compatible pairings possible in this game.

I've heard about this. Yuri's support retcons Bernie's father's abuse into "protecting." Which is such bullshit. Imagine excusing abuse as "I'm protecting you." It's really gross.

Bernie thankfully gets to set it straight in this game. Saying her father didn't love or protect her, but just a valuable item that he owns. SOOOOO glad Hopes took the opportunity to fix that awful implication the Yuri-Bernie support added.

Dorothea says her father treated her mother like an item too.

So more Empire men treating women like possessions.

Even in the Kingdom and Alliance when characters feels pressured to perform (Slyvain, Ingrid, Hilda, Lorenz, etc . . .) - no one talks about it being so bad they're dehumanized. This really seems like an Empire-exclusive, sexism thing. (also notice that, without thinking, I came up with male and female examples of both the Kingdom and the Alliance).

LINHARDT & BERNADETTA C

I feel like I did a much better job unlocking Blue Lions supports than the other houses and I don't know why since I paid close attention to all of them.

Bernie is messing around and the weeds, and Linhardt asks why.

It's to avoid a man and a woman going on a secret date, according to Bernie at least. She thinks they'll get mad at her for interrupting their date. Linhardt says she's no more significant than a pebble on the road to them.

Honestly, Bernie thinking everyone will blow up at her is a self-centered, isn't it?

Lin's like, they're lost in their own little world. And gets a bit romantic for appreciating them for sharing love when they could die on the battlefield tomorrow. Bernie argues that in fiction, they'd get together. Then Lin's like, that's fiction, not reality. Then Bernie argues fiction that's more realistic. And Lin's like, yeah, those stories exist bc people relate to it. And they go a bit in a circle.

Then Lin just falls asleep right there.

FERDINAND & EDELGARD A

Ferdinand asks for some compassion from Edelgard about killing his father, but then says that's just pity and tells Edelgard to just give him the order she wants.

Edelgard says she's not here bc she wants something, she just wants his typical effort.

Ferdinand can't die here or history won't remember him well.

Edelgard then says imagine what history will say about me if I lose?

Then Ferdinand says he'll gladly die to further Edelgard's goals because her life matters more.

And because he's not from Faerghus, that's a good thing because dying for Edelgard = good, dying for Dimitri = bad. Or Edelgard can't recognize her own hypocrisy (Claude, at least, thinks "dying for Claude = bad" per his "wtf, Hilda" in CF).

I know Edelgard approves of Ferdinand's attitude (which is the EXACT SAME as Sylvain, Ingrid, etc . . .) because she says he's such a great noble she wouldn't have to get rid of them if they were like him.

So, unlike Dimitri, who hates it whenever Ashe or Ingrid or whoever says "I'll die for you in battle bc your life means more!" and tells them not too, Edelgard is like "wow, that's such a great attitude that I wouldn't even need to start a war if they all thought like you." Yet, somehow, this game wants me to think the Faerghus fighting back against this idea is worse than the Empire glorifying it, lamo (since Monica has the same attitude in her Edelgard support, which isn't portrayed as a negative).

Ferdinand argues for the existence of the nobility and the structure they build, that she can't throw it away. She says that's not her plan. (so, has she like, not even told him her plans??? What happens if she dies?? Would anyone have a single clue what her plan was???)

Then it goes back to their CF support, where he argues for education. And this game makes it obvious that it never occurred to her that poor people can't just automatically compete with nobles. That this dodo bird has killed hundreds of thousands without considering the gap between the poor and rich, lamo. Hopes is gold for confirming she never thought of this, only Ferdinand did.

I know Yuri does the same for Dimitri, but Dimitri already had the right idea of knowing the poor needed their basic needs meant before they can advance (and familiarizing himself with how they live unlike her staying in her ivory tower), and he also, you know, didn't go killing everyone who won't bow their heads to him bc he thinks his plans are so brilliant.

SHAMIR & HAPI C

Shamir is in a church. Hapi is confused, until Shamir says she's looking for some peace and quiet.

Hapi's "not the praying type" either. But she also just wanted quiet.

Shamir doesn't seem annoyed with Hapi's nickname, which is why Shamir is never annoying. She's edgy, yeah, but not in an annoying way.

She's talking about some pagan statue in the abyss. I honestly don't remember that.

Ohh, Shamir wound up in the abyss after the war. Then ran into trouble with the church. And Rhea hired her.

That pagan is actually from Dagda. One of their deities. Cool lore. It's apparently their god of fate.

They both wonder why it's there. Good question.

SHEZ & DOROTHEA A

Dorothea is singing for Shez. Who's like, yeah, it's good.

She's disappointed with the lack of response, because Shez isn't very cultural lol.

He says it made him warm, like his mother growing up. So he actually does get it because Dorothea was singing a lullaby.

It's a lost song though, and Dorothea doesn't know the words (only sang lalala, you cowards, give us lyrics like Annette gets!) But the song got researched and her melody is a guess.

Shez tells Dorothea that her voice touches people even if they don't understand high-art, like himself.

Dorothea lost her passion while working while singing, but she's getting her passion back now, thanks in part to Shez.

Shez thinks Dorothea speaks beautifully and can reach people's hearts, and credits her training, so it wasn't worthless. Unlike Shez who can't string a sentence together.

Dorothea says that Shez isn't back with words. And that he was actually pretty smooth and flirty.

Honestly, super cute support at the end.

EDELGARD & BERNADETTA A

Edelgard lists her worries at night; Bernie walks in on her. It's one of the places Bernie goes to be alone.

Bernie asks if Edelgard is alright after hearing the list, and offers to listen, which seems a bit OOC for Bernie.

Edelgard appreciates it, but says Bernie would get tired of it.

Bernie thinks the curse eating away at her is the same as the one eating away at Edelgard. Edelgard is impressed with Bernie's insight because she guesses right.

Edelgard is upset that TWSITD is still around after thinking she's already beaten him.

Edelgard says being kind to people doesn't help people recover from pain. Consistent with her characterization, but I HATE "feminine" things like compassion are weak instead you gotta just man your way through it (bc it's toxic to your mental health) and the game mostly proves her wrong though.

HUBERT & CASPAR B

This is their only support.

Hubert gets a report that Caspar located enemies scouting the base. He attacked, no enemies survived, and he got hurt.

Hubert's questions were all hopeful that at least one survived, but because Caspar's an idiot no one should trust with command of an army, of course they're missing intel now.

Caspar brags about it to Hubert, lamo. What an idiot. Caspar's inability to read people is also not a good thing for a commander.

Hubert is unimpressed. Actually sees it as bad.

Caspar counters that Hubert is impressed with Berligtz does it, but Hubert's like "those were reinforcements, also, he's competent."

This is why Hubert is best boy in the Black Eagles. (he or Dorothea are by far my favorite Eagles)

Caspar is like well my gut said attack, so I went, not caring at all like the smartest guy in the army thinks his plot was stupid.

Hubert keeps lecturing him. Saying he'll get people killed.

Caspar's like "if you wanna make a name for yourself, you gotta risk death!"

So . . . Caspar doesn't care that he hurt the Empire's war efforts by killing spies rather than capturing them, nor that he got his men hurt by his rash actions, because he "proved himself in battle to gain status."

Caspar is just really awful in this game. Hubert, though, is gold in this support, as usual. Even when he's a dick, he's an entertaining dick (and usually supposed to be seen as wrong lol)

Caspar learned exactly 0 things in that support.

LINHARDT & CASPAR A

Caspar wakes Linhardt up, who's slept into midday.

Caspar claims he found something amazing. Linhardt is like usually you're wrong about that.

Caspar wants to show off a huge bear someone took down. Linhardt is grossed out by the gore. Caspar really has 0 ability to see any POV but his own and understand who he's talking too.

Caspar wants to hunt it. Linhardt's like, ok, then go. Lamo.

Caspar wants to fight a bare bare-handed.

Linhardt bring up when Caspar's dad took down a bare when he was younger than Caspar. Caspar still insists he'll do it, and used to drag Lin along while bear hunting. This is how he learned healing.

I think Caspar got really dumbed down in Hopes.

Lin's like, let's focus on the war, not bears, ok? Caspar at least agrees to this.

LINHARDT & EDELGARD B

Their only support.

Edelgard plays with a cat, only after making sure no one can see her. Then Linhardt walks in, and she's thrown off.

Edelgard pretends she doesn't know the cat. Lin calls her out.

Lin likes cats. I don't know why Edelgard is surprised. Lin is basically a human cat.

Edelgard likes cats because of how they help humans (get rid of rodents, etc . . .)

Lin keeps arguing that cats are awesome because they trick people into waiting on them hand and foot.

Edelgard asks if he's owned a cat. Lin's like, seriously, that's too much work.

She's being so difficult because she didn't want Lin to own the cat.

Edelgard made a funny, accusing Lin of aspiring to be a cat.

This gap moe Edelgard stuff works wayyyy better than the stuff in Houses, imo.

SHEZ & CASPAR A

Haha, Shez is like, "Oh Caspar, there you are," and Caspar assumes that he wants to practice, Shez is like, yeah, but with your dad.

This game really dunks on Caspar, everyone just talks about how much better his dad is lamo.

Caspar is like, you're too ordinary to spare with my dad.

Apparently Count Bersraser whatever his name is really hurts people when they train, and Caspar tells Shez to cancel his plans.

After the sparing, Shez is exhausted, but Shez did better than anyone else ever did.

MAIN BATTLE

I don't remember who I'm fighting this chapter.

Why does Claude get a picture in SB? Will I see it in GW too?

Waaaaiiiitttt, is Claude . . . turning against the Empire?

He's like, we only agreed to pair with Edelgard under duress and bc the other option is the Kingdom protecting Rhea - who invented racism, who is the only reason hierarchies exist, and who made Claude stub his toe this morning.

Ok, so siding with the Empire is stupid, but thinking the Alliance can fight the Empire, Kingdom, and Church is maybe the stupidest move yet, lamo.

He thinks Dimitri will "shackle us to their outdated customs" because, you know, Dimitri is all about ruling the Empire and Alliance and not improving the Kingdom at all or anything. Projection much?

This is so funny, and dumb. Not like the writing has ever cared about making Claude look like he has the intelligence to surpass a toddler in this game.

Yep, Claude turned against the Empire, lamo.

Cut scene time! They're just marching and talking about the battle.

Dimitri's here too. And Dedue's right beside him. Of course.

Claude too, and he's like "too bad we can't do something more civilized" - like, my dude, you are part of the problem.

Seteth coming in on a dragon looking badass. He's begging Flayn to retreat. But she won't. Please don't make me kill her :(

Edelgard's like "time to prove the Empire's supremacy!" and "anyone who stands in our way must be cut down!" But see, this is why I like her so much better in SB. It's just more honest and tries less to twist things around to make her into a typical princess type, instead of owning (at least a little more) the red emperor type she is.

Fuck, I have to defeat Flayn. She's healing people, not attacking, but I still have to take her out. If it was a side mission, I'd ignore it. Hubert mocks her like "is this the second coming of Saint Cethleann" - well, about that . . . .

Now Felix appeared :( It's also a main mission I can't ignore. At least it looks like he's retreating.

Only for Sylvain to show up, which isn't any better :( Fuck, he's claiming he's avenging Ingrid :(

OH FUCK. He actually died. Begging for forgiveness from Dimitri. SB is really the most bloody path :(

Dimitri sounded so upset. I really feel the like the villain. It's by far the route with the highest named character count killed (Rodrigue, Ingrid, Annette, Gilbert, Sylvain) AND my main goal is to kill Flayn because she's . . . healing people.

At least Flayn retreats. She makes Seteth promise to do the same :( (If I have to kill Seteth too, I swear to GOD).

Please let Dedue retreat :((((((

I also have to defeat Hilda :( Sad, but not big sad.

THANK FUCK. Dedue retreated. Dimitri sounded near tears.

Now I have to defeat Seteth too :( Thank God, he retreated. I think Hilda did too?

Now I have to defeat Dimitri and Claude. I am considerably more upset about the former. I wonder if they live or die.

I'm letting the other units fight Dimitri. I'm tired of killing him. I'll go kill Claude, which doesn't upset me much.

Lamo, Edelgard was like, go back to your people! Stop protecting the church - like, as if her plan isn't to take over Faerghus regardless? Dimitri smelled her bullshit at least.

If Claude retreated, does that mean Dimitri does too?

Ok, he retreated at least. Still Sylvain :(((

Ohhhhh, Byleth the final boss? Sothis has possessed Byleth though. But he seems along for the ride bc Byleth's pissed we killed Jeralt.

Shez vs Byleth cut scene again, except unlike in AG, Byleth is Sothis possessed and Shez is Shez, but then Shez goes demon mode too.

Shez is worn down, but wins bc Byleth stops glowing, so I think Byleth dies?

NARRATION

Yep, we killed Byleth. Shez feels empty about it though. And talks about this being a horrible mistake and wishes there was another way to solve this.

Funny how he only cares about Byleth and not all the other people who died (Sylvain, and tons and tons of people).

Arval feels freed though, from an old quest, and major relief, and starts crying.

So you have to either choose between Byleth dies, but Shez and Arval are on good terms, or Byleth lives and Arval and Shez aren't happy (I think, since he took Shez over in the special chapter, but I haven't played that in AG yet).

Ok, so this battle took me 26 minutes. AG took me 4, because Dimitri is just that absurd. He kills bosses so fast. Like before the dialogue finishes. It's just so absurd.

Edelgard is worried because Rhea and the knights weren't seen (or most of them), she's also under the impression Rhea would love a battle like this, but Rhea's never seen bloodthirsty? Vengeful, but not battle loving.

The main force will proceed with occupying Galatea :((((( That small bit of dialogue - knife to my heart.

No one even mentioned Sylvain :(

xxx

[fiction-box]

Hello hello I see requests are open 👀 I loved your "only one bed" fic w Ashe so I'm here to ask for more lol

May I get a fem or gn reader tutoring Felix and Sylvain (you can just choose one if you're not feeling inspired) in magic? If I remember correctly both of them have a budding talent in reason magic so maybe the professor saw that and assigned reader to help cultivate that talent??

Idk how much detail you like in your requests so feel free to ignore the rest of this!! But if you want more specifics maybe reader has always been a little nervous around the nobles in the BL house since they're a commoner?? And even though they have every confidence in their abilities they're not very assertive so Byleth wanted reader to learn how to take charge in a situation and actually tell people what to do lol

Thank you in advance!! :D

This is one of the reasons I value requests so much. There are so many ideas you guys come up with that I want to discover!

I took these two stories in two very different directions, but I think they both stay true to the prompt in their own way. The different sways of each story are heavily influenced on how I think one would have to interact with each character to achieve the specifics we're looking for.

In this case, I was inspired to write Sylvain's story with more edges and harsh moments, though Felix's was created with a much softer arc in mind.

Enjoy! Requests are open to all. Send in as many as you wish!

The stories will be continued under the cut.

Sylvain:

“N-No! No. Please wait!”

For what must have been the third time this session, you adjusted the position of Sylvain’s hands so that his fingers were curled inwards.

“Remember? If you don’t curl your fingers in, you aren’t directing the magic properly. That could cause the fire to spread sideways rather than forward, and then you’d be putting everyone around you in danger.”

“Right,” he chuckled. “My bad.”

You were quite certain he did remember, but you didn’t say anything about it. It was a trivial matter, really. Curling his fingers yourself every once in a while was nothing compared to what you knew he could do to you if you got even slightly too pushy with him.

“That’s alright, just…try to keep it in mind as we go through the motions, okay?”

Taking a step back, you sighed and relaxed your body a bit. You were going to make sure the only thing he lit on fire would be the target across from him. Burning down the training grounds was not an appealing idea to you.

“So, different people pull their magic from different places within them, yes? For example, Mercedes feels her magic from somewhere closer to her heart, while Annette describes her pull as somewhere within her head. Personally, I feel my own resonate within my palms.”

He nodded. Good. You were getting somewhere.

“I can’t just tell you where to pull yours from, though. What I can say is that once we find your source, the rest is easy. While we could do some research or studying to make a more educated presumption, I’ve found that the fastest method is just to guess and check.”

Sylvain stretched out his arms and hands, “Sure. Walk me through it then, professor~.”

You were just about to until he returned his hands to the wrong position. Again.

No, you were not going to sigh. You were not going to show any signs of impatience, you were simply going to breathe normally, approach him calmly, and gently reposition his hands.

And as much as the little nickname irked you, you wouldn’t say anything about that, either.

What was the scale of a commoner’s displeasure at a nickname when compared to that of the power of a noble? One with a crest, no less. He didn’t need to learn magic in order to ruin your life. Or order your death.

He certainly didn’t need to know you were intimidated by him, lest he get any ideas.

“You’re pointed at the target right now. I’ve adjusted your form so that it’s perfect. The only thing left is for you to pull the magic from your body and feel it spread into your fingertips.”

“Got it,'' he winked, then turned his eyes back to the target.

There. You were almost done. The only thing that was left was for him to find the magic. After all, you were confident in your ability to show him how to use it.

“...”

“It’s fine, don’t worry!” you reassured him frantically. Goddess knows what he might do if he thought this was your fault. “It can take a bit of time, just make sure you’re focusing on tracing it to your- NO, WAIT-!”

You rushed to his side when you noticed he had wrecked his form and yet was still trying. This time, a small flame did come out of his hands. However, thanks to his uncontrolled form, it began to widen to his sides.

“Woah. Uh, what do I do now?” he asked. A sliver of panic had slipped its way into his tone.

“Just aim at the target and imagine it shooting forward. Do it quickly; it’s too late to control the fire at this point, so we need to let it go before it-”

You let out a squeak of surprise as you watched it shoot across the room to the target. The widened flame hit it, but the fire didn’t truly catch onto the target. Though you were certain it would have missed if his form was actually correct, it had become clear what the professor had meant when she mentioned he had a “budding talent” in the art.

When you were originally assigned to work on magic with Sylvain, you had voiced your concerns to Professor Byleth.

“You want me to teach? And a noble, of all people? One that you claim has talent, yet has never even accessed his magic before?”

“Good,” she smiled, “so you heard me.”

“I…please, I don’t think this is a good idea. I don’t know the first thing about teaching, or…or giving orders…or…”

“That’s why you’ll be teaching one of your classmates. It will benefit us all for you to find your backbone.”

“Well then, what about Ashe? I’ll teach Ashe, or I’ll even teach Dedue, but…it isn’t really my place to teach a noble. Besides, I have a family, and if anything happens-”

“Okay,” the mercenary laughed, “now you’re definitely not getting out of this. It looks like you can learn quite a few lessons from such an experience, after all.”

“But-”

“Sylvain will be waiting for you at the training grounds. I expect you to arrive on time. I will check on you periodically.”

Well, so much for that, you thought to yourself. You hadn’t seen so much as the color of Professor Byleth’s hair since this whole thing began.

As you finished the task you had originally approached Sylvain to complete, you began to wonder how curling his fingers of all things would be the most challenging part of this lesson. He was clearly listening to you when you spoke, so the issue must be in your directions, right? Maybe you really weren’t cut out for this whole “giving-orders” thing, even though you thought you had been doing a good job, so far.

“Hey,” Sylvain began. “Why haven’t you said anything to me?”

You paused, “What do you mean? I’ve been talking you through the process this whole time.” Honestly, now you weren't sure if he was listening. Maybe he was the spacey type.

Sylvain quirked an eyebrow, “Every time I fail to go back into position, you just stop and move my fingers manually. I must have done it at least four times by now, and most girls would have told me to knock it off at this point.”

“I don’t…” four was an understatement. But did he really not realize the reason for your hesitation? “...know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes. You do. There’s this look in your eye every time you notice it. You have a lot more patience than I do, that’s for sure. Your tone of voice stays neutral or positive, and each time you maneuver my hands, you don’t move them any rougher than you did the time before it. But even with all of those behaviors combined, you manage to give it away through your eyes.”

What.

He’s been able to notice all of those…traits…of your behavior over the past two hours you’ve been working to teach him, but he still can’t do any better than a spread flame of-?

There’s no way.

“So you’re saying you know how to use the proper positioning?”

“Pssh. Yeah, I think it’s safe to say I got it the first time.” the red-headed noble teased, “But all those extra times you spent showing me really helped-”

“Do it, then.”

His brows knit lightly, “What?”

You pointed at the target he had only technically hit during his last shot, “Get into your form. Aim at the target. And light it on fire.”

Sylvain was too stunned to speak. Instead, he did as you said, turning to face the target and firing a small fireball at the center. Sure enough, it caught fire. Right on the mark.

His smug demeanor returned, “So, how did I do? Don’t you think I should get some form of a reward for all my hard work today?”

You slowly exhale, closing your eyes and calming your heartbeat. Then, you fire your own flame spell at the target. The hay is half ember and half ash when you turn to leave.

“We’re done. I’m done.”

“Woah,” Sylvain’s eyes went wide as he stared into the remains of the fire. Quickly recovering from his shock, he turned back to you, “You oka-?”

“Two hours of my life!” you snap, spinning on your heel to face him. “Gone! Wasted!”

“Hey, now, don’t get too upset. After all, I know a few women that would be jealous of someone getting to spend that much one-on-one time with me,” his signature smirk returns, and all you can think of is how much you’d like to burn the look off his face. “Why don’t we go out and get some tea together? Would that make you feel better?”

“Two hours! And now you want even more time?”

You actually wanted to cry, now, but there was no way you were going to give him the satisfaction.

“I was supposed to spend my time with Mercedes and Annette, this afternoon! I would’ve had tea with them! Then we would’ve studied for our certification exams, and…I didn’t need this! And you certainly didn’t need this much time from me.”

Sylvain actually looked a little hurt at that, and before you could truly process everything you had just done, you heard three small raps at the entrance of the training grounds.

“That’s quite enough, you two. Sylvain, please head back to my classroom and wait for me there. We’re going to be having a little chat about training etiquette, but not before I speak with your classmate.”

His regretful expression left almost as quickly as it came when he turned to face Professor Byleth with a wink, “Right. Don’t keep me waiting, Professor!”

She glared at him, and you were immediately glad her look wasn’t directed at you.

“Don’t tempt me. Maybe I won’t show up for two hours. Whatever keeps me entertained, right?”

The Gautier noble lost his smirk as your own mouth formed a thin line to keep from smiling. You weren’t sorry for him in the slightest; especially not after he treated you like a plaything for the better part of an afternoon.

“And no detours!” she barked as he left.

You stepped forward, “Professor…I don’t-”

“I disagree.”

You blinked twice, “What?”

“With what you said earlier,” she smiled, “about not needing this. I disagree.”

The tension in your shoulders dropped in defeat, “What are you talking about, professor? I must have completed what you told me to at least an hour ago, but I wasn’t even competent enough to pick up on it. There was absolutely no reason for me to stay any longer than that, and especially not with someone as depreciative of my company as-”

But it didn’t feel like she was listening to you. Her smile was just growing, and all you could do was trail off and watch as your professor turned and headed for the door.

“You’ve grown more than you realize. You were finally able to assert yourself today.”

You shuddered a little, “I’m still worried about what I said to him.”

With her hand on the door, Professor Byleth faced you one last time, “Don’t be. Now you know as well as I do. Those nobles think they can do whatever they want, so it’s an important lesson for us to learn.” She nodded once, “It’s okay to stand up for yourself, my student. Someone needs to keep them in check.”

The doors of the grounds shut behind her with a thud.

She was right, you knew. You felt more sure of yourself, just as she had asked you to become. Not only that, but now that you knew people like Sylvain were qualified to be nobles, you weren’t as scared to talk to them.

But now you had a new fear. One day, Fodlan’s future would rest in the hands of nobles like these.

If messing around was the best they could do, they definitely had their work cut out for them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Felix:

“It’s not working.”

“Don’t worry, th-that’s alright! This is only your first day, after all. I think you’re doing well.”

Felix huffed, “Doing well isn’t going to save my life when I can’t cut through someone’s armor. Stop flattering me and actually do something to help.”

“R-right! Of course!” you stumbled. You allowed your eyes to scan Felix’s body, evaluating his form and making a mental checklist. He was able to create the magic just fine, but the Faerghus noble was completely lost when it came to firing it.

“Well, your stance is great, and you can summon the magic easily enough. B-but I don’t have enough information to properly identify a problem area-”

“Then show me again,” he ordered as Professor Byleth entered the training grounds. She was carrying a handful of spears that she must have just bought.

“That’s enough, Felix. You're the one listening, here. Let your friend do her job.”

He balked at that. “She is not my friend. Neither of us are here by choice, in case you’re having trouble recalling the context of the situation you put us in!”

Your teacher began swapping out the new lances in her arms for the broken and rusted ones discarded around the training grounds. “Well, complaining about it isn’t going to get you anywhere. Just be nice and listen, and I’m sure this will be over before you know it.”

The swordsman turned to you, clenching his teeth, “Please. Show me how you performed the spell. Again.”

“Y-Yes!”

“Ah-ah. No,” you turned to Professor Byleth as she looked you in the eyes, “You’re the professor. You’re the one giving the orders. Felix isn’t teaching you how to teach. You’re teaching him magic.”

“Ah, right,” you stood a little taller, “In that case…Felix, I’m going to demonstrate how to cast the Thunder spell once more.”

Your posture faltered at the resounding sigh from across the room. “I’m going off to the shop to repair these weapons. I expect this…dynamic…to be fixed when I return.”

As you watched your professor leave, the noble next to you cleared his throat. Back to work.

“Okay, I-I can go slow. And I’ll talk you through it!”

You got into your original stance, going over each component from your feet to your fingers. Felix reproduced your efforts methodically.

Next, you informed him of the process of garnering magic from your internal source. As the Thunder gathered in your hands, it did the same in his. It was just as bright as yours, which had always come as a surprise.

You didn’t dwell on it too long as you came to the part of the system you knew you’d spend the most time on. You tried to describe it as best you could; tracing an imaginary line between your fingers and your target before letting it go. And while yours went, the lightning magic between Felix’s hands began to grow in size and glow ever brighter.

“Tch. Not again.”

“Hold on, I’ll get it!” you reassured him, running across the room to grab one of the logs you were using as targets. Returning to him, you placed the wood in his hands as it took the brunt of the power from his spell. However, the rest of it went into you.

“Agh-! Th…that’s-” you hug your arms to your chest, attempting to cradle them against one another lightly, “that’s definitely what a Thunder spell with double the power would feel like.”

While Felix didn’t outright ask if you were alright, you felt his eyes scanning over your arms. But as long as you were the one taking the hit and not him, he couldn’t get any more upset with you, right? A commoner teaching magic to a noble. While you didn’t doubt that you could, you were not exactly confident that you should. However, it wasn’t up to you. Professor Byleth called the shots.

Shots that you needed to be giving right now, you remembered.

“Forgive me! I need to focus.”

Felix opened his mouth as if in protest, but you spoke again before he could get any sound out, “So, tell me exactly what you’re thinking when you try to fire off the spell.”

He furrowed his brow, “Just like you said. I draw that invisible line in my mind, I run my arms along it, and I think of letting go. Releasing.”

“Hmm. I think that might be our issue.”

“You think?”

“Hey, I’m not exactly the best at teaching compared to just doing, in case you couldn’t already tell.”

Only after the words were out of your mouth did you realize what you just said.

“Oh no- I’m so sorry! Look, I…I’ll figure this out for you, you’ll execute it, and then we won’t have to do this again.”

“Calm down. You’re allowed to be frustrated, too,” he scoffed. “I haven’t exactly been a model student.”

“Right…a-anyway, try going through the routine once more, but instead of thinking about releasing, think of pushing. That way you’re using both mental and physical force.”

So you watched as Felix did just that. He got into his stance, gathered the magic into his hands, pushed his arms forward, and furrowed his brow.

But the lighting grew ever brighter, the supply of logs grew ever smaller, and your arms grew ever more sore.

“W-why-” you asked, cradling your arms together once more. Tears formed in your eyes as you looked elsewhere, fighting the pain. “I don’t get it.”

“Come on!” Felix shouted at himself. With your head turned away from him, however, you had presumed your so-called “student’s” anger was directed at you.

Consequently, you flinched away from him.

From outside of your view, Felix’s eyes widened slightly. He softened his tone a bit, “Woah…Hey, are you alright?”

“Please,” you pleaded, turning to fully face him. “I’m doing my best. I just…if you could just give me a bit more time to wor-”

“I’m not mad at you, and I’m definitely not about…to hurt…you…” he began to trail off.

He was staring at your arms. Once you followed his gaze, you could see why. With a gasp, you held them straight out in front of you.

The flesh of your arms was burned.

It went in a pattern that made it look like something had lashed at you. The last log you used must not have been as effective as you had hoped it would be. Your knees dropped out in shock.

Felix burst toward you. Catching your torso, he lightly lowered you to the ground.

Dread cloaked your thoughts like a shadow as your breathing became more shallow and stuttered. You couldn’t cast healing magic over yourself. Moving your arms at all was a special kind of torture, but performance of the spell you needed couldn’t be achieved without more range of motion.

“Teach me how to heal you.”

You opened your mouth to speak, but you were still too petrified to register what he had said.

“What?”

“Look, maybe I can’t fire off lightning, but we can both clearly see from your arms that the spell worked. If you can teach me how to heal, even if I can’t send it into you, you can still make use of the spell on yourself by placing your arms where you used to put the logs.”

It sounded like a reasonable enough plan. It was the best thing you had at the moment, anyway. You didn’t think you could move about to get help in this state, and you didn’t like the idea of being left alone in the training grounds, either.

So you walked him through it. Kneeling together on the floor, you told him to change his fingers into a cupped form. He was instructed to send the power through his wrists rather than his fingertips to get it to form. Then, with his hands glowing green and hovering over your arms, you directed him to give the magic directly to your afflicted areas.

Both of you were stunned when Felix was able to send the healing magic to you on his first try. You didn’t need to move into it, it just flowed from his wrists into your arms.

Your head gave an involuntary bow as you felt the magic wash over you. It was like a light breeze on a hot day. More like a cool salve on a burn, you supposed.

“Thank you,” you breathed, head still lowered. Your breaths continued, slow and deep as you closed your eyes.

It got you thinking, though. How was it that Felix could fire his healing magic effectively, but not the Thunder spell you had both been working on? It was the same principle, though you think you conveniently forgot to instruct him on it, this time.

Your eyes opened lightly as you felt the flow of magic dissipate from your body. Felix must have stopped, then.

As you tried to lift your head back up, your vision spotted and dizziness set in. You supposed you had never truly been injured that badly before. Sure, the attacks you had taken throughout the time of one battle all added together might total quite a bit of agony, but Mercedes was always around to heal you at intervals whenever you suffered anything noticeable.

“...ngh..”

“Easy,” Felix stated, moving his hands to balance your shoulders, “you’ll get up when you’re ready. Nothing good will come from you pushing yourself right now.”

Focusing on your breathing, you put your head back down and placed your palms in front of you for balance.

“What were you thinking…" you took another deep breath, steadying yourself. "When you sent the healing spell, what was the thought permeating your mind?”

His hold on your shoulders tightened subtly, “I was just thinking that I wanted you to take it.”

“There, then,” you affirmed as your voice returned to you in full. “That’s going to be what you need to do in order to fire your spells. Your objective will be to get the recipient to take the spell from you.”

Trying to lift your head up once more, you succeeded. You let your eyes blink a few times, then turned to the noble kneeling next to you.

“So, go do it. One more try,” you nodded. “If it doesn’t work, we’ll be done.”

His lips pressed against each other, and his eyes hardened. You could tell he was less than interested.

“I promise I have learned from my mistakes. You’ve already found the solution, Felix. You performed it just now. The only thing that’s left is to use the proper spell.”

“Got it,” he stood, moving into position a few feet away from his target. Before he gets into his form, though, he looks to you.

“If it backfires-”

“It won’t.”

He clenched his teeth, “It might not, but I’m telling you that if it does, you’re not grabbing that log. I’ll find a way to take care of it myself, understood?”

You laughed, “Don’t worry, I couldn’t stand if I tried.”

“I mean it.”

“I’ll stay right here. I promise.”

That seemed to be the answer he was looking for. The swordsman turned back to the target, took his stance, and you observed as the lightning formed in his hands.

You watched him shove the spell forward, and just as you predicted, the lightning flew from his hand into the center of the target.

“Just like that!” you smiled warmly, eyes fixed on where the projectile had struck.

Right on cue, the doors to the training grounds flew open, unceremoniously announcing the return of Professor Byleth. The first thing her gaze landed on was the scorched target across from Felix.

“Wonderful jo-” as she turned to address the two of you, however, her eyes caught on your own position.

“Why are you on the floor?”

“...”

“...”

“Uh…Felix knows healing magic, now…?”

After a quick interrogation to ensure neither of you deliberately hurt one another just so he might practice his powers in faith, the mercenary escorted both of you to see Professor Manuela.

Fortunately, she didn’t spot any remaining injuries on either of you. This led your own professor to become quite pleased with your performances, and she insisted that this become a more permanent arrangement.

You were originally concerned about how much time you would have to spend teaching until Professor Byleth began a weekly rotation system between the two of you.

Though you can’t say you were ever fond of the sword, you were definitely not expecting to ever become so experienced with one in such a short period of time. Now that you and Felix could both effectively use magic and metal interchangeably, the two of you possessed extreme versatility on the battlefield.

The Blue Lions were now more than ever a force to be reckoned with, and it was safe to say that the House overall was far from displeased.

[sunstone-smiles]

The Bubbly Blue Lion Tickle Fight

With the release of Fire Emblem Engage just around the corner, I finally finished the Azure Gleam route in Fire Emblem Three Hopes last month! To celebrate, I have once again created a fun fic with Shez wanting to make their friends smile, with the Blue Lions this time! (Somewhere in the process the word count became even longer than my Golden Deer one, but oh well-). I hope you enjoy! 

Series: Fire Emblem Three Hopes

Characters: Shez, Dimitri, Dedue, Sylvain, Ingrid, Felix, Ashe, Annette, Mercedes

Words: 4,522

Summary: Dimitri struggles to simply relax on his day off, so Shez thinks of a way to get him to take a break, but their original plan grows into a much more playful battle when the rest of the Blue Lions show up. (Note: There are no spoilers that are mentioned so please enjoy!)

—

The tides of war are ever changing, yet little by little the Faerghus army keeps clawing their way towards their end goals of peace. Turmoil occurred during their pushes for victory, but the army learns from every battle they fight. The key to their success so far has been their continued trust between allies, furthering the bonds between each other in the process. On days when the army is not battling for the good of the Kingdom however, they’re saving their strength for the next fights ahead.

Shez, a mercenary and commander for the army, spends their day off by doing a little reorganizing of their private quarters. Wearing comfortable black clothing rather than their usual armor, Shez places a box of old papers outside their tent. These types of quiet days give the entire army a chance to relax. Everyone does so except for the one person who needs it the most—the King of Faerghus itself—Dimitri.

Shez notices him working in the distance. He’s helping fellow army members organize their own boxes of weapons and materials near the rest of the camp’s private quarters. It’s kind that he’s helping, but what he really should be doing is resting. At this point, Shez can’t even count how many times they, or the rest of their friends have told him to take it easy. Yet despite what they say, he seems to be doing the exact opposite. With a huff, Shez makes their way over to Dimitri.

The king lifts up another wooden box filled with sword hilts sticking upwards. The metal of the weapons clang together as the box is moved on top of a cart. “That’s the last of them,” Dimitri steps away from the cart and dusts his hands off. The army men and women thank him for his assistance and cart the materials away. “Take care now,” the king waves goodbye to them.

“Well, it seems like you’re being helpful today,” Shez comes up behind him. Dimitri turns around in surprise.

“Ah, Shez!” he positions himself properly to face them. “I didn’t see you there. What are you doing over here?”

Shez crosses their arms. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Dimitri lets out a sheepish chuckle. “Yes, I know. You’re about to give me an earful about why I should be resting.”

As expected, he already had a feeling as to why Shez had come over. At least he was out of his bulky armor and in more casual attire, wearing a dark blue, long sleeved undershirt with matching pants.  

“Because you’re aware of your mistake, we’ll skip the lecture this time. And now that you’re done helping, you can go and rest now, right?” Shez responds.

Dimitri flicks his blue eyes away, “Well…”

“Dimitri,” Shez elongates the last part of his name like they are about to scold him.

“I know, I know,” Dimitri gives a guilty look, tilting his eyes downward, “But it’s difficult for me to simply relax when there’s work to be done.” After a moment to think, he lifts his head back up. “How about this, I’ll finish one final task I have to do, then I’ll rest for the remainder of the day. Does that sound agreeable?”

Shez feels sympathy for him. They really do. They want to agree with him, but they know that he’ll go off and overwork himself again unintentionally. He doesn’t know when to stop. What Shez needs is a way that can guarantee that he’ll relax. Something that can get him smiling in no time. Ideas bounce around in their head—and they finally set their sights on one particular, perhaps unconventional idea, that may just be exactly what Dimitri needs to finally relax. 

Shez puts on a serious face. “A tempting offer, but no.”

“What?” Dimitri is taken aback.

“Every time you say you’re gonna take a break you never do. You may finish one task, but another will just come up. So, I’m gonna make you take a break, right here, right now.”

“S-Shez?” Dimitri can only blink at them, “I don’t understand.”

“Oh, you will,” Shez smirks. They stroll towards Dimitri, keeping eye contact with the king until they circle behind him. Dimitri continues to watch them with a curious gaze. Shez’s smirk becomes increasingly larger. “Right after I do…this!”

“AHACK!” Dimitri suddenly lets out an uncharacteristic shriek when his sides are squeezed, followed up by the fluttering of Shez’s fingers into his sides. 

“Shehez! What are you dohohohoing!” Dimitri turns his head away into his shoulder to hide his boyish giggles from slipping out.

“I’m tickling you of course! What else does it look like? I thought it would be a great way for you to finally relax.”

“Shehehez wait—AH!” Dimitri shrieks again when Shez scribbles their fingers into his stomach. He tries to curl up his middle and hold his laughter in, as this silliness may be unbefitting of a king, but streams of giggles continue spilling out. 

“Shehehehez! Hahaha!” Dimitri attempts to twist away from the mercenary. He soon ends up  crumbling to the ground onto his back and Shez follows him down. They crawl their fingers up to his ribs, earning another giggly shriek from the king. He slaps a hand over his mouth upon hearing his own squeaks; behind his hand, pink hints of a faint blush can be seen rising in his cheeks.

“Hey! No hiding that smile!” Shez easily pulls his wrist away from his mouth, then dives both of their hands back towards Dimitri’s ribs. The king is known to have great strength, but even he is weakened by the tickles.

“Shehehez!” Dimitri curls up onto his side. Big, full laughter begins to flow out of Dimitri and a bright smile is clear on his face. 

“See? Now isn’t this relaxing?”

“Your Majesty!” a protective male voice suddenly booms. Shez lifts their head up, noticing Dedue rushing towards them. They temporarily halt their attack on Dimitri to give him a break.

“I heard a shriek and—Oh?” Dedue pauses when he gets close enough to see Shez and a still giggling Dimitri on the ground.

“What’s going on over here?” another voice, female this time, calls from behind. Shez turns their head, seeing Ingrid, Sylvain, and Felix rushing over from the opposite side. 

“Hey Dedue! Hey you three!” Shez smiles at all of them as if nothing is wrong. Their friends are all wearing comfortable undershirts as well instead of their armor.

“Well, this is an unexpected surprise,” Sylvain returns the smile.

Felix crosses his arms with a scowl. “You better have a good explanation for getting us all worried.”

After hearing his friends, Dimitri tries to lift himself up, “Dedue—Ack!” but Shez playfully shoves him back down and starts tickling him again, quickly earning more laughter from the king.

“Are you…tickling His Majesty?” Dedue asks, unsure if he should be concerned or not.

“Yep! Our king here was being stubborn and refusing to rest like we told him to, so I decided to show him a way to relax,” Shez casually responds while a squirmy Dimitri wriggles under their fingers.

“Dehehehedue! Hehehehelp!” Dimitri calls to his retainer through his giggles. 

As his retainer, Dedue knows full well that it’s his duty to protect the king, but that includes making sure he’s well rested. The corners of his mouth then turn upwards into a faint smile. “Very well, Your Majesty.”

Dedue positions himself behind the leader, hooking his hands right under Dimitri’s arms as if he was going to pull him away. Thinking Dedue is going to help Dimitri up, Shez stops their attack. However, in an unexpected turn of events, Dedue starts scribbling his fingers into Dimitri’s underarms.

“AHA! Dedue! Thihihis is nohohot what I meheheheant!” Dimitri clamps his arms to his sides and starts kicking his legs in the dirt.

“Is it not?” Dedue responds innocently with a smirk in his tone, “You needed help relaxing. I am simply helping you achieve that.” 

“Dehehehedue!”

Shez laughs, happy to see this playful side of Dedue come out. They then assist the retainer by diving their fingers back towards Dimitri’s stomach, increasing the squirms and giggles produced by the king. 

Sylvain chuckles to himself as he watches from the sidelines with Ingrid and Felix, “It looks like he’s still as ticklish as he was when we were kids.”

“You know…” Ingrid looks at the red-haired noble with a child-like mischief in her eyes, a giddiness rising up inside her that she can’t contain. “I recall you also being ticklish, Sylvain.”

Sylvain whips his head in the direction of Ingrid, his eyes expanding in horror.

“I-Ingrid! Now wait a minute!” Sylvain backs away from her when she takes a step closer, her fingers wiggling in the air. With that, he turns to make a run for it, but she darts at his sides before he can even take his first few steps to escape. Sylvain bursts into laughter, twisting in Ingrid’s hold to playfully shove her away, but he crumbles to the ground, falling to nearly the same fate as Dimitri as Ingrid follows the red-haired noble down to continue her attack. Felix rolls his eyes at Sylvain and Ingrid’s behavior, but he continuously glances back at the silly scene, also finding it quite amusing.

Shez softly laughs seeing Ingrid and Sylvain now join in on the fun, but the commander suddenly lets out a startled shriek when they’re yanked forward by a strong tug. They flop down on the dirt, and before they can look over their shoulder to see what happened, there’s fingers scribbling at their own ribs.

“AH! Hehehey!” Shez wriggles around on their belly, now noticing that Dimitri had escaped, and is the one who had attacked. 

“Ah ha! I’ve got you now Shez!” Dimitri digs into their ticklish bones, immediately causing Shez to flail around even more. “Prepare for your revenge!” Dimitri smiles and looks over at his retainer. “Dedue, I would greatly appreciate your assistance!”

Dedue returns a nod. “Right away, Your Majesty.”

“Nohoho! Dehehehedue!” Shez twists around onto their back in playful panic, now using their arms to try and defend themselves. “I thohohought you were on my sihihihide—AH!” Shez yelps again and kicks their feet in the dirt when Dedue slightly lifts them up from behind and wiggles into their own underarms.

“I was,” the retainer says in a serious manner, “But it’s only fair that His Majesty gets a chance to return the favor.”

Meanwhile, Sylvain continues wriggling on the ground, his arms squeezed to his sides, unable to roll over onto his stomach due to Ingrid’s nimble fingers scribbling into all his ticklish spots. His laughter rises in pitch the higher she flutters her fingers up to his ribs.

“Ihihihingrid! Quihihihiht it!” Sylvain giggles and tries to push her back, only resulting in her grabbing one of his wrists away for easier access to his torso.

“Quit what, Sylvain? Is there a problem? You’re going to have to be more specific,” Ingrid teases while her free hand tickles him to pieces.

“Ohoho thahahat’s it! Yohohour turn!” Quickly finding an opening, Sylvain darts his hand forward, which earns a surprised screech from Ingrid when he latches on to her ticklish side.

“EEK! Sylvahahahain!” She releases his wrist and topples over onto her back, unfortunately leaving her middle wide open to Sylvain’s attack. Ingrid tries to grab his wrists away from digging into her tummy, but Sylvain easily uses one hand to claw into her belly, earning another child-like shriek from Ingrid.

Dimitri looks over when he hears these giggly exclamations from Ingrid. He also notices that Sylvain’s back is turned towards him, which leaves him the perfect target. As sneaky as he can, Dimitri leaves Shez to Dedue and moves closer to the others.

“Haha!” Sylvain laughs triumphantly over his squirming friend, unaware that Dimitri is approaching. “What are you going to do now Ingrid—AH!” he yelps when Dimitri pounces at his sides, causing Sylvain to erupt into more laughter. He successfully yanks himself away from Dimitri’s fingers, but flops onto the ground in doing so. In a panic, Sylvain tries to scramble to his feet, but Dimitri catches his leg and starts tugging him back.

“Don’t try to run from me Sylvain!” the king exclaims with a smile.

Sylvain worms on his stomach, frantically clawing at the ground to pull away. “Why not?! I think this is an appropriate situation to be run—ING! Hahaha!” Sylvain yelps once more when Dimitri dives his fingers into his ribs. Sylvain clamps his arms down and wriggles around again in any attempt to nullify the vicious tickles.

“Did you forget how ruthless of a tickle monster I could be?” Dimitri grins from above.

“YES! Yehehehes I did!” Sylvain exclaims as he’s nearly tickled to hysterics.

“But that tickle monster is also ticklish himself!” Ingrid sits up and pounces towards Dimitri’s side.

“Ah! Ihihingrid!” Dimitri attempts to gently shove her away, which allows Sylvain the chance to quickly slip from his hold. He then attacks Dimitri’s other side, causing the king to curl himself up into a protective ball.

From above, Felix lets out a short laugh. “It’s surprising how the ruthless boar can be easily taken down by something so simple.”

“Why don’t you join us Felix?” Ingrid smiles up at the blue-haired noble.

“Hmph. No thanks,” Felix turns his head to the side.

“Aww come on! It’ll be just like when we were kids!” Sylvain adds on to the persuasion.

“I said no.”

“Then if you're not with us…” Sylvain smirks at Ingrid, signaling her with a wink of where he’s going with this new plan. He grins back at Felix. “Then you’re against us!” Sylvain exclaims and gets up to dart towards Felix, Ingrid following Sylvain’s lead.

“What?!” Felix flinches back, unable to move from his spot fast enough before Sylvain grabs his arms and pulls them in front of him. Felix growls as he tries to shake him away. “Sylvain! Let go of me—AH!” Felix yelps when Ingrid comes up behind him and squeezes his sides. The blue-haired noble immediately grits his teeth, refusing to let even a single giggle slip out. He arches his back to escape Ingrid’s wiggling fingers while trying to free his arms, but he bends backwards too far, slipping out of Sylvain’s hold and onto the ground. 

Ingrid switches roles with Sylvain, now being the one to position herself behind Felix and grabbing his arms above his head. 

The blue-haired noble gasps, then struggles to get out of her grip. “Ingrid! Let go!” Felix snarls at her. To make matters worse, he looks ahead and sees Sylvain staring him down with a sinister grin. 

“S-Sylvain! Don’t you dare!” Felix snarls again as the red-haired noble approaches him closer with wiggling fingers.

Sylvain’s grin grows even wider, “Oh, I dare!”

“Sylvain no! GAH!” Felix shuts his mouth tight when Sylvain dives his fingers into his underarms. His mouth forms a wobbly smile as he tries to hold in his giggles, but the dam soon bursts, resulting in the blue-haired noble breaking into rare laughter. He squirms from side to side, trying to yank his arms down, but he’s clearly at a disadvantage.

“Not so tough while you’re in this position, huh Felix?” Sylvain teases. In the corner of his eye, Sylvain also sees that Dimitri is finally lifting himself up from his previous attack. “Ah, you’re finally up, Your Majesty. You want to help us with Felix now?”

Dimitri chuckles, then makes his way over to Felix’s side. “I will gladly be of assistance.”

“Yohohou’re all gohohoing to gehehet it!” Felix’s laughter rises in volume when Dimitri aids by tickling his sides. Soon after, Ingrid lets go of his wrists to use her own hands to tickle him, turning the usually stoic Felix into a squirmy, giggly puddle against his three friends.

Due to the ruckus of laughter, the rest of the Blue Lions—Ashe, Annette, and Mercedes—also in casual clothes, come over to the scene after all the noise caught their attention.

“Oh my!” Mercedes exclaims with a smile when she sees the cause of all the commotion, “What’s going on here?” 

“Aww!” Annette clasps her hands together, “It looks like everyone’s having a tickle fight! Oh, how fun!”

Mercedes gazes down at Shez, who’s still being taken down by Dedue. “Shez, did you start this?” she asks.

“Yehehehes! Buhuhut it bahahackfired! Hahaha!”

“I know that feeling all too well,” Ashe giggles. “It reminds me of the tickle fights I used to have with my siblings.”

Annette’s ears perk up. She then glances at him with a little grin. “Soooo, does that mean you’re ticklish too, Ashe?” she ends her sentence with a poke to his side, earning a jump from the knight.

Ashe darts his eyes to the side. “I—Well…Hehehey!” he jumps again when Annette continuously starts poking at his sides. He turns away from her pokes, but Annette suddenly wraps her arms around him and scribbles her small fingers into his sides, trapping the knight in a tickle hug.

“Ah ha! I knew it!” she exclaims.

“Annehehehette! Hahahaha!” Ashe bends his middle forward to try and escape, but like many of his other friends, he ends up crumbling to his knees and flopping onto his back, where Annette follows him down to easily scribble into the rest of his torso.

After witnessing Ashe and Annette’s playfulness, Mercedes glances back at Shez and Dedue, observing that the purple-haired mercenary is still squirming about with laughter after all this time.

“Here, let me help you Shez,” Mercedes joins in on the fun. She leans down behind Dedue and scribbles into his sides. The retainer jolts in surprise, but no laughter.

“Mercedes? What are you doing?” Dedue asks over his shoulder, also halting his attack on Shez to allow the mercenary a breather. Shez lifts themself up on their arms, slowly sliding themselves over to the side to now watch the two.

“I’m trying to tickle you,” Mercedes responds, “You’re not laughing though.”

“I suppose I’m not ticklish there. I can’t remember if I am anywhere.”

“Hmm…Well, maybe you are in a different spot then,” Mercedes scratches her fingers up his ribs, still getting no reaction. “What about here?” the healer then moves her hands up to Dedue’s underarms. The retainer lets out a sudden gasp, followed by him clamping his arms down.

“M-Mercedes!” a quivering smile grows on Dedue’s face while Mercedes continues scratching at his tickle spot. Dedue drops forward, one hand holding himself up, while the other wraps around his torso, his body unsure of how to exactly react to the unfamiliar tickly feeling. Shortly after, soft giggles begin releasing from the retainer. 

“There we are!” Mercedes beams with success. She increases the pace of her fingers, prompting Dedue’s deep giggles to slowly increase and nearly causing him to drop completely onto the ground.

“Thanks Mercedes,” Shez smiles up at the healer. 

“Of course!” Mercedes then peers ahead to Felix’s situation, seeing that another one of her friends can use some assistance. “Annie! Take over for me!” Mercedes exclaims over her shoulder.

“You got it, Mercie!” Annette releases Ashe and quickly switches with Mercedes, leaving little no time for Dedue to regain his composure before being sent back into giggles. With Annette now taking over, Mercedes dashes behind Dimitri and Sylvain.

“Come on you three! Give Felix a break,” Mercedes drops to her knees, then shoots her hands forward to tickle the ribs of the male nobles with one hand each. The two jump and lean away in the opposite direction of her while another stream of giggles spill out of them.

Now freed from two of his attackers, Felix launches past Ingrid into an upright position and pounces at Sylvain, knocking the red-haired noble to the ground.

“Oh, you’re in for it now Sylvain!” Felix immediately starts digging into Sylvain’s sides, causing his friend to jolt with laughter.

“AH! Fehehehelix! NO—AHA!” Sylvain kicks his legs when the blue-haired noble scribbles down near his hips, sending Sylvain into hysterics. At the same time, Mercedes takes on Dimitri, easily making him topple over onto his back again from the gentle fluttering of his fingers into his middle.

“Thanks for the help Mercedes,” Felix acknowledges the female healer beside him as they tickle the two other nobles side by side.

“I’m happy to assist!” Mercedes smiles.

From behind, Ingrid quietly laughs at her friends, but apparently not quiet enough. Felix glances over his shoulder, glaring at her like he’s locking on to a new target. 

“Don’t think I forgot about you, Ingrid!” Felix leaps at her, knocking her to the ground like he did with Sylvain. She explodes once more into laughter when Felix scribbles into her belly.

In the meantime, Ashe recovers and notices Dedue in need of assistance as well. The knight lunges his hands towards Annette’s sides, resulting in the girl producing a high pitched squeak. Through her giggles, she twists herself all the way around in the knight’s hold to break free, but Dedue repositions himself to sit behind her. Using their significant height difference to his advantage, Dedue pulls back the squirmy Annette in his lap before gently scribbling into her sides. Ashe also helps, adding in some more scribbles into her tummy.

“Eek! Ashehehe! Dehehedue!” Annette shrieks again, loud enough for Mercedes to hear it over the laughter around her.

“Annie?” Mercedes lifts her head up. Unfortunately for her, that leaves her wide open for a counter attack from Dimitiri. Wasting no time, the king darts his hands forward and wiggles into the healer’s sides.

“Eep! Dimitrihihihi!” Mercedes crumbles to the ground and Dimitri sits up, successfully switching places with his previous attacker.

“My apologies for this Mercedes, but it has to be done!” Dimitri smiles while a flow of airy giggles is released by the healer.

As this all plays out, Shez curls their knees to their chest from the sidelines, simply watching everyone have a good time. They didn’t think that their silly little plan would turn into an all out tickle fight, but they’re glad it did. Sometimes they forget that everyone needs a chance to loosen up once in a while.

Another squeak from Annette snaps Shez out of their thoughts. Looks like it’s time to get back into the game and help out their friends.

“Hold on Annette, I’ve got you!” Shez gets up from their spot. They come behind Dedue and slip their fingers under his arms, earning a jump from the retainer. 

“Ah! Shehehez!” Dedue squeezes his arms down and can’t help himself from breaking out into giggles again.

“Don’t worry, Dedue! I’ll help!” Ashe lifts himself off the ground and heads for Shez. With a mischievous glint in their eye, Shez stays put. Ashe lunges at the mercenary, but Shez dodges out of the way and Ashe trips forward with a thud.

“Come here Ashe!” Shez scoops up the knight in a hug and pulls them into their lap, then drills their fingers into his sides.

“AH! Nohohohot again!” the knight squirms around in the mercenary’s hold. Annette then sneaks up from behind, wrapping her own arms around Shez’s middle to tickle them.

Through Shez’s giggly squirming, they reach behind and give a few squeezes to Annette’s sides, making the girl fall back with a squeak. Shez quickly escapes their friends and runs away. However, they accidentally head right towards Dimitri. The king easily catches the mercenary when they run by and Shez lets out a shriek when they’re yanked backwards into a strong hold.

“Dimitri!” Shez frantically tries to squirm away, having a bad feeling they know what he’s thinking of next.

“You can’t escape all of us at once Shez! Time to end this fight with the person that started it all!” Dimitri glances around at his teammates, “Everyone attack!”

Shez’s eyes go wide and their squirming significantly increases. “Noho!” they exclaim with a giggle as they attempt to escape from the king’s grasp, but they release another shriek as Dimitri dives his fingers into the commander’s sides. Shez immediately slides backwards onto the ground. Soon after, Dedue comes over to assist Dimitri, both tickling Shez from behind. The rest of the Blue Lions surround the mercenary—Ashe, Mercedes, and Annette get them on their right, while Sylvain, Ingrid and, surprisingly, Felix get them on their left. 

Shez squirms around from side to side, kicking their legs in the dirt as their laughter fills everyone’s ears. They had no idea all of the Blue lions could be this playful, but it warms their heart to see them all happy. Dimitri was right that Shez can’t escape all of them at the same time though.

“OKAY! Okahahahay! I give! I gihihihive! Hahaha!”

Dimitri and Dedue release Shez, soon followed by the rest of the Blue Lions moving their hands away to free the commander from their team attack. Leftover giggles slip out of Shez as they catch their breath, some remaining from the tickles while the others are just because they had fun. Dimitri lends them a hand to an upright sitting position and the rest of their friends huddle around them.

“Are you alright Shez?” Dimitri asks with concern in his eyes.

Shez still has to catch their breath, but shows him a reassuring smile. “I am…But the real question is…Do you feel relaxed?”

The king glances down, but it only takes him a moment to ponder the question before he responds with a similar reassuring smile. “Actually, I do. Thank you.”

Dedue places a hand on Dimitri’s shoulder. “That’s reassuring to hear Your Majesty.”

“Yeah, that’s a relief,” Sylvain leans back on his arm. “I was starting to think that we would never get His Majesty to take a break.”

“And that’s what really matters to us,” Ashe adds on, “Being able to see you take it easy once in a while.”

“Agreed!” Annette beams. “Plus, it was really fun! We should do it again sometime!”

Felix scoffs. “Fun? Speak for yourself. I wanted no part of it yet I was forced into it by these two.”

“Yet you still continued playing the game even after you were freed, didn’t you?” Ingrid nudges Felix with her elbow. The blue-haired noble scowls and turns his head away.

Mercedes lets out a soft laugh before looking at Shez with proud eyes. “It looks like your plan didn’t backfire after all, Shez.”

Behind them, Dimitri suddenly lets out a yawn, using a hand to cover his exhaustion. When he opens his eyes though, he notices everyone staring at him. Dimitri’s cheeks slightly flush. “Well, I suppose you would all like to see me get some rest now. I’ll make sure to do so right after I—” but Dimitri cuts himself off, not only hearing what he was saying, but also noticing the piercing glare on Shez’s face. “On second thought…” he catches himself, “I’ll make sure to get some rest now.” 

Shez smiles at him once more. Now those are the words they've been waiting to hear for a long time.

[professor-tammi]

hi! it's okay if you don't have the time or don't want to, but i was curious if you knew: in 3hopes, for the dimilix dining dialogue at their a support, dimitri says "i've always enjoyed watching you eat, felix. there's something almost heroic about it. hm? is something the matter?" to which a very disgruntled felix replies "if you keep talking, all i'm going to be able to taste is hot air. now let me eat my food in peace". would you say this translation is accurate to the original japanese? because i find it...............so weird. and so confusing? i literally don't know what it means.

I want to and have time! :D quick translation with some rambling under cut (hopefully clearing up what it means):

Japanese:

ディミトリ： フェリクスの食べっぷりは豪快だろう？ 俺はこれが昔から好きで……む、どうした？

リフェリクス： チェ、横でくだらん話をされて、落ち着いて 食べられると思うか？ この阿呆が……。

Translation:

Dimitri: Isn't Felix's way of eating glorious? I've loved it since we were... hm? What is it?

Felix: Tsk, how do you expect me to eat in peace when you're talking nonsense right next to me? Idiot...

--

So: yes, I'd say the English translation is fairly accurate, ahaha. I have a few things to comment on:

JP!Dimitri is addressing Shez here, and babbling to them about how much he likes Felix. In the English version, he's talking to Felix instead. This actually mirrors how their A Support Dining dialogue was translated in the English version of FE3H as well, hilariously (Dimitri regales Byleth with tales of baby!Felix in Japanese but speaks directly to Felix in English), despite the translations being handled by different teams!

The word Dimitri uses to describe Felix's way of eating in Japanese is 豪快, which Jisho.org suggests the following translations for: hearty; tremendous; magnificent; glorious; splendid; heroic; stirring​. The English version going with heroic is fair. (yes Dimitri is actually waxing poetic about the way Felix eats)

What does it mean? Well, for one, there are other instances of 3H characters talking about enjoying watching someone eat -- more specifically, with Ingrid. For instance, her B Support with Yuri has him go on at length about how much he likes watching her eat, which she ends up deriding as "flirtatious"; but more importantly, it comes up in both her dining dialogue (both in Hopes and in Houses) and her Hopes supports with Sylvain, where he similarly talks about how he enjoys watching her eat. This is likely intentional as the games repeatedly draw parallels between Dimitri/Felix and Ingrid/Sylvain.

tldr this dining conversation is both a) the writers drawing dimilix-sylvgrid parallels, again, and b) dimitri saying something that comes across as flirtatious without thinking which is why felix gets embarrassed about it. there is no heterosexual explanation

[childofaura]

Since I asked about your favourite 3H characters, who are your top 10 least favourite characters or characters that you absolutely hate?

Uhhh I’mma go ahead and tag this one out as discourse, because yes I do hate Edelgard. But at the same time I usually do my best to either not just spam Edelgard hate (besides my anti-Edelgard posts for FEH, which I actually feel is pretty valid because I’ve had so many people agree with me that Edelgard gets a stupid amount of favoritism in FEH; even people who LIKE Edelgard agree with me), and I do respect people’s opinions for liking Edelgard, even if I vehemently disagree with it.

So with that being said, I’ll list my least favorite/hated characters for 3H. Some I hate for character/story reasons, and at least one I hate for gameplay reasons (though I like him as a character). These will also be in no particular order but number one is definitely number one.

Edelgard. Won’t elaborate because I’m not here to start arguments.

Kronya. She killed Jeralt so she can eat shit >:(

Hubert. I get he’s filling the role of retainer, but man the shit he pulls and how he treats other people… he’s the exact opposite of Dedue.

Yuri. I admit to probably over-exaggerating how bad of a person Yuri is, but he still comes off as super annoying to me. He’s just not very personable or friendly, which isn’t a problem by itself but it’s more that you’re SUPPOSED to like him despite being all nonchalant all the time. And I really don’t.

Byleth. Yes, I don’t like the main character of Three Houses themselves; Shez was better executed as a character. Byleth is quite fully a Mary Sue/Gary Stu. Everyone’s infatuated with them, they’re practically undefeatable and don’t really have much to learn or grow from, they almost never make any kind of mistake, and they carry Sothis’s blood and crest; these aren’t necessarily an issue on their own, but altogether it makes for an incredibly boring character. And they’re so bland and expressionless.

Gilbert. I don’t hate him for his story, or his character. I think he’s great in those regards!… No, it’s because THIS MOTHERFUCKER is an IDIOT in Chapter 5. Runs right in range where the archers are located without moving into a safer position. There is no plausible way to keep this dipshit alive in Maddening Mode.

Sothis. I don’t HATE her, but I am definitely sick of her “incomplete” form. We should have had her regain her memories and become an adult again, that could have resolved SO many plot issues that were left open-ended, like with Rhea and maybe Nemesis and TWSitD. Maybe someday we’ll get Ascended Sothis in her original form from the mural.

Mathias. I ENJOY his story. I ENJOY the role he plays. Between the stalwart nobles and royalty that is Lambert, Rodrigue, and Gilbert, Mathias is the exact dark underside of the crest system that Dimitri believes is unjust. That being said, it’s still pretty fucked up how he treated both Sylvain and Miklan, and he’s decently responsible for how Miklan turned out (not to say that Miklan deserves no blame for his choices, he absolutely does. He willingly made his own choice of being a brigand and treating Sylvain like shit).

Dorothea. This one I’m mixed on because I don’t hate her or even strongly dislike her. But if there’s one thing I really don’t like about her, it’s how she gets really creepily seductive, especially in the Byleth supports. And in Ingrid’s support she straight up tells Ingrid she’s gonna physically sexually harass her (and she’s already verbally harassed her). Which is kind of stupid considering how gross she feels when people only view her for her physical beauty. So yeah, to some degree I dislike her enough to put her on this list.

Monica, actual Monica from Three Hopes. I’ve already mentioned how her character is poorly written into being yet ANOTHER character who ass-pats Edelgard for no plausible reason in the other routes. If Dimitri or Claude are the ones who save her in their respective routes, why is she so strictly loyal to Edelgard? Especially considering how Edelgard was fully aware of the Kronya plan in Three Houses which means she essentially let her die for her cause. I’ll never understand it.

That’s pretty much my whole list, this time I had to include Three Hopes because I actually wouldn’t have had ten characters otherwise for the list. And it goes without saying but this is obviously my subjective opinion and I respect that these are people’s favorite characters.

[cinnamon-bunni]

✨🦅✅

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉 god fucking dammit, idk man lmao I guess I like how I write comedy? Or more specifically how I write them in character. And yes I am talking about Asmo and Levi because those two are the only ones I know how to write lmao

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants? A little bit of each. I write rough outlines, mainly for my longer fics tho. The majority of the time I just write whatever comes to mind. Usually my outlines, as I said, are very rough and just events I wanna make sure to include, or lines I want to remember to keep

✅ What's something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don't mean to? Oh, I'm not sure, actually. I don't write many fics of the same fandom for me to keep track of. Unless you count my superb writing skills when it comes to Levi (because I do write the best Levi in all of the fandom, sorry but it's true), I can't think of anything. Maybe bonding with a sarcastic character and more of a happier-esque character? Got my Liam and Zoe fic coming up, Felix and Sylvain that's coming up, I'm sure you can find that sort of thing in one of my Obey Me fics...idk lol

[randoimago]

Linhardt, Joker, Bernadetta, M!Byleth and Dimitri with a best friend turned S/O who is like “what if we started dating? Just kidding… unless?” (Pre TS)

“What if we started dating? Just Kidding... Unless?”

FANDOM: Persona 5 // Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Character(s): Akira Kurusu, Bernadetta, Dimitri, Male Byleth

Type of Request: Headcanons

Word Count: 860

Note(s): Aw yes, my favorite Fire Emblem: Three Houses character, Joker.

I honestly had to look up to see if there is a Joker in Three Houses that I missed because I wouldn’t put it past them to name a character that. There is not so I’m taking it as you adding Joker from Persona for this one.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Bernadetta

You said that and she’s starting to pout and feel hurt. Because why would you joke about something so cruel? She could never date you because you are so much more than she is.

Bernie is definitely flustered about the joke but she is also now starting to panic because she’s such a despicable mess and yet you made that kind of joke.

There would have to be a lot of comforting and reassuring because Bernadetta’s self esteem is a big fat zero right now and that joke just gave her hope before she ruined it because she truly doesn’t think she’s worthy of you.

I mean you two are the best of friends, the only friend she really has. So you really need to do some persuading that you weren’t joking when you said what you did because you do like her a lot.

It’ll take some time but Bernadetta will eventually accept what you said. She’ll still be very nervous and not know what to do as she doesn’t want you being with her to give you a bad reputation, but she tries her best for you!

M!Byleth

Byleth just gives you a look when that statement leaves your mouth. He doesn’t say anything as he is expecting more to the punchline or just another comment to come out of your mouth.

When you are silently looking back at him, he will ask if you’re actually joking. Because your face says no but your words said otherwise.

The guy is seriously emotionally constipated so you would have to be really blunt with him. 

Byleth might also comment that you are spending too much time with Sylvain for such jokes to leave your mouth. Then again, Sylvain is more direct with his flirting and wouldn’t take back something he said... 

You can’t tell if Byleth is egging you on to actually ask him out or if he is just stating facts.

Dimitri

The tips of his ears just go a bright pink when you say that as it startles him a bit. The idea makes his heart thud. Then when you say, “just kidding” he goes to fake laugh with you despite still feeling super flustered. Especially when you add “unless...”

His palms are sweaty, knees weak, and arms are heavy cause he has entertained the thought a few times of if you two were to start dating since you are such good friends. He always pushed the thought away because he didn’t want to ruin the relationship that you two have.

Probably still thinks that you’re joking a bit because it was quite a set up with words that you threw at him. Would hesitate before asking if you’re actually serious or really just joking the whole time.

At hearing you’re serious then he lets out a soft, “oh” before he’s silent for a bit. He didn’t reject you, just trying to calm his thudding heart. Eventually he takes a deep breath and looks at you.

“Then can I hold your hand then?” You two have probably held hands as good friends do, but this time it’s different. Dimitri is just smiling happily and promising that he’ll treat you right. You’re still best friends, but now you’re also partners.

Linhardt

Linhardt is smart and has probably heard Caspar throw around that line to someone as a joke. So to hear it come from you, he’s a bit amused as he rolls his eyes.

Considering you two are best friends, Linhardt probably doesn’t really think you’re serious until he looks you dead in the face to see that your teasing expression had dropped a bit from your first statement.

“Well I can think of a lot of things we could do, but since you’re kidding...” Linhardt trails off as he teases you back. 

It’s honestly what you get for disrupting his brain from studies. Now he only has your words on his mind and it’s annoying because he had been tinkering with a new idea only for it to be lost.

If you do begin to try to explain that you’re serious then Linhardt cuts you off by leaning over and kissing your temple. He states that he wants that, but asks you to be a bit quiet so he can focus. Plot twist, he’s unable to focus because he wants to kiss you again.

Persona 5

Akira

“Yeah. Unless....”

Akira has a shit eating grin on his face due to what came out of your mouth. 

Of course he’ll play along because he wants you to actually come out and say it.

He would 100% begin listing things the two of you could do if you were dating. But, considering you were joking, too bad it won’t happen...

Acting cocky on the outside but trust me he’s a mess on the inside. He is really hoping you do ask him out. You two have been best friends for the longest time so if you did ask him out then he’d say yes.

But of course, these are what if’s and you already said that you’re joking... (he really wants you to take the bait. Just ask this guy out already. He is dying inside.)

[raidenenthusiast]

i know dimitri can get a lot of flack for the direction that his arc goes after rodrigue's death, and i've seen a lot of people call it rushed, or abrupt, or jarring. and i can understand where that opinion comes from, bc it was my own for a long time!! but after playing the game more than once, and really focusing on certain details, i've changed my mind. i think that the assumption that dimitri is "suddenly okay again" after rodrigue dies is entirely untrue. yes, the game could've done a better job of highlighting that outside of monastery dialogue and supports. but, this is three houses, and if ur skipping support scenes and monastery exploration, ur practically missing half the game. i think dedue's dialogue is probably the most important in the monastery after chapter seventeen.

it's interesting, too, bc dedue is residing in the knights hall, where dimitri, but also where leonie is. and leonie, who does not know dimitri personally (they don't have any supports together, iirc) claims that she's glad to see him "back to normal." this is the sentiment of a lot of characters who do not know dimitri very well/do not have any supports with him express; leonie, caspar, lysithea, balthus, to name a few. i think it's an interesting contrast that u will probably end up talking to leonie and dedue in the same few minutes, bc of where they're positioned. so u get a line from leonie about how she's glad he's "normal again," and then the lines from dedue about how he was never okay in the first place. i think it's very telling how dimitri's friends/those who have known him for years are speaking about him during this month. sylvain's dialogue stuck out to me specifically;

sylvain makes it clear that he isn't going to exactly forget everything that dimitri has done in the past five years, but as his friend and companion, he's going to support his recovery. his journey to recovery.

i also think it's important that none of his a or a+ supports can be triggered until chapter eighteen, and iirc, his entire support chain with gilbert is locked until then as well, since gilbert is not fully available to u until the timeskip hits. obviously, there's a lot of issues with support timings in this game, but i think this one actually works in their favor. he cannot begin to reconcile with felix, nor speak at the cathedral with mercedes, nor complete his support chain with dedue, until he is willing enough to listen to them.

one other thing i think players and the writers both vastly underestimate is dedue's role in dimitri's life. this dialogue in particular highlights that:

dedue's return in chapter sixteen also very clearly gives dimitri a glimmer of hope. the fact that it's optional is entirely ridiculous to me, and i cannot understand any other reason besides racism that the developers made the decision to allow his presence to be optional in the way they did.

basically, all of this is to say that i think people vastly misunderstand the direction of dimitri's arc when they say things like "rodrigue's death returned him to normal." he is not suddenly cured of his schizophrenia, nor is he entirely stable, nor has everyone around him automatically forgiven him or chosen to forget his actions. yes, these clues are mostly present in technically optional dialogue, and while i think that including very important story information in said dialogue is a little bit silly, i've learned to expect it from this game, and it's become a lot easier to know how to look for it. basically, the only way u'll miss these certain things is if u don't do supports, or if u skip monastery exploration. and in a game where those two things are essential to a full understanding of the overall story, i can't understand why u would skip them. yes, they shouldn't be optional. but to me, at least, the game feels incredibly empty without them. bc it is.

[lochnessies]

I guess my discomfort with the AM route could actually be summed up as

“I went straight from playing The Gayest House to the Most Heteronormative and Patriarchal House and even though it makes sense from a worldbuilding and storytelling standpoint, it still made for a very uncomfortable experience for me, the player.”

i’m not here to say what can and cannot make a person uncomfortable since that’s so heavily subjective and i personally also don’t like patriarchal undertones as well so i completely get it. however, i have always found it weird when people refer to the black eagles as the ‘gay house’ and act like that makes it superior to the others. i mean… i like edel, dorothea, and linhardt but their sexualities don’t make or break them for me as characters. and the ‘gayness’ of these characters only happen if you happen to s-rank them as the same sex and has no impact on the story. plus you can recruit 2/3 of them out of house and marry them there so it’s kinda irrelevant. the only house that doesn’t have canonically lgbt characters is golden deer and i’ve never seen people use that as a reason as to why they don’t like them. hell, i’ve seen people call them the ‘gayest house’ before. also blue lions does have a canon bisexual… mercedes. plus a lot of endings for the characters have a lot of homoerotic subtext… mercedes/annie, dedue/dimitri, dimitri/felix, sylvain/felix, dedue/ashe. opening an inn together, living together, being buried together, dying on the same day, loving a man more than his wife…. last i checked these are not very heteronormative things. quite the opposite actually lol

as for patriarchal…. are you sure you wanna say that about the kingdom rather than the empire? what makes the kingdom more patriarchal than the place that has a man drill into his daughter how to be the perfect wife, the emperor has lots of concubines, daughters are thrown to the streets, women are desperate for husbands bc it’s the only ways to gain stability, a woman used as a broodmare till it kills her, a noble woman with a crest can’t inherit her house and her daughter is almost forcibly married and raped to have children by her step father.

is it because a lot of the main characters for the plot are male rather than female? that’s not patriarchal it’s just slightly lazy bc patriarchy is systemic not a a problem of plot structure. once again, the golden deer only has judith as a female general/essential npc and the rest are men but i don’t see people get upset about that.

Imagine if I only played AM and I came away thinking this was a typical medieval fantasy where the men are all in leadership roles,

not all the men are leaders and some women are too. such as cornelia and edelgard and they hold a lot of it.

the women are all relegated to support roles and struggling against forced marriages,

no they are not. once again, edel and cornelia are major characters and definitely not supporting roles. also, nobody is being forced into marriage in the blue lions. ingrid’s father suggests suitors but she has complete control over saying yes or no. and in her endings she gets to be a knight. however, we do know forced marriages are a thing in the empire.

men act out their feelings with violence,

yeah, dimitri does get violent but it’s seen as extremely negative and as a sign of his poor mental health and lack of ability to rule at the moment. if this was a typical fantasy game then his violence would be praised and a sign of a warrior and king. dimitri has to let go of his violent impulses in order to become a good kings and as shown in ss/vw he will die if he continues down his self destructive path.

in azure moon byleth and everybody else is constantly telling dimitri to get his shit together where as cf everybody just vapidity nods along to edelgard’s violent impulses.

women in power are inherently suspect,

women are not inherently suspect due to their sex. they are suspect bc the main female characters are suspicious and they do shitty things that hurt the other characters and they are rightfully angry. hell, even male characters are suspect. for example thales and even dimitri himself is seen as suspicious during the academy arc.

hints of flirtation between women are aggressively shot down,

i assume this is about ingrid? i hate to tell you but rejecting somebody’s romantic advances isn’t homophobic and if you don’t respect people’s boundaries then i don’t want to be around you. all other female relationships are treated very well and the female characters admire and respect each other.

hints of feelings between men are treated awkwardly and uncomfortably.

once again, with feeling this time, opening an inn together, living together, being buried together, dying on the same day, loving a man more than his wife are not examples of feelings between men being treated awkwardly. hell, most of the deep and loving relationships are between men. some are strictly platonic (rodrigue/dimitri & gilbert/dimitri) and other are much more 👀. dimitri was even critiqued by some straight men bc he was so open about his feelings with bylad and many people read him as bisexual (my sister even hcs him as completely gay). he literally calls another man ‘irreplaceable’ and ‘cherished’ while he’s apparently shirtless.

Not knowing there’s a whole other route where multiple women are in charge,

just because a woman is in charge doesn’t mean she’s good at it and we know edelgard isn’t a good leader and is willing to stoop to the lowest of the lows. just bc she’s a lady doesn’t make her horrific actions suddenly #girlboss and #feminism

men pay women respect and never degrade them,

women are not above critique. and men don’t violent degrade women for no reason on blue lions (you could say felix and his ingrid supports but he’s a dick to everyone and sylvain whos a rampant misogynist regardless of route and the same could be said for lorenz on golden deer). also hubert does degrade petra and that’s a cf exclusive.

nobody ever suggests that there are inappropriate roles for any gender,

and i have good news! neither do blue lions! ingrid is wholeheartedly supported by her male peers and dimitri (by op’s definition a violent man) even wants her to be his knight and serve in his guard.

men are allowed to be soft,

dimitri, dedue, and ashe??? hello?!??

women are allowed to be aggressive,

ingrid and catherine??? hello????

everybody has at least one potential gay ending and it’s not treated as a shameful secret. 

i hate to be the one to tell you but none of the characters from any routes have explicate gay endings outside of the few with byleth. you can read into something all you want and make headcanons but that doesn’t change what is provided in canon. i find all the same sex endings in azure moon to have romantic undertones (outside of gilbert of course go home to your wife dude). and NONE of the endings are treated as a shameful secret. homosexuality is never talked about as being shameful in the game and that sounds like you projecting.

[bladesandstars]

fanfic writer tag game

Tagged by @mathclasswarfare - thank you, this was fun!

What’s your all-time favorite ship? Choosing one is hard. Impossible, even. The top-level, makes me emo about songs in my car even to this day, are: highspecs, ignyx, sylorenz, claurenz. How many works do you have on AO3? 146! Mostly FFXV and FE3H, but various fandoms and some original work, too.

What’s your total AO3 word count? 375,683 What are your top 5 fics by kudos? push till it breaks, a very E-rated Tadashi/Adam (SK8) fic that was so fun to write. I loved exploring their dynamic and personalities. I wrote this at the height of SK8 frenzy - I think it might still have been airing, even. I love all the energy from Tadaai fans and will definitely write for this pairing again.

and all for the want of a horseshoe nail, T, Sylvain (FE3H) character study. Ah, I’m so happy I looked and that this is #2! I love Sylvain so much, and early in playing this game had the “you NEED TO SEE how important you are to your friends’ lives!” instinct to shake him by the shoulders. Heavily, heavily inspired by It’s a Wonderful Life, one of my favorite movies of all time. I might even call this a crossover.

More fun under the cut!

Sounds Like Fun, E, Fleurentia & Prompto (FFXV) - I’m ALSO so delighted this is in the top five, it was hilarious to write. Poor Prompto can’t tell WHEN to interrupt his grossly-in-love roommates. I adore all of them.

An Unexpected Complication, E, Claude/Byleth (FE3H). This was a really early fic when I was playing - I think Claude is hella sexy, and apparently you all do too, based on this result. I see you! Sexy man having his plans interrupted by someone distractingly attractive is a real good vibe. I love people taking Claude by surprise.

The Dragon’s Dagger, E, Highspecs (Ignis/Aranea, FFXV). My first longfic! Just under 20k, it’s not all that long by some standards, but plotting and completing 10 chapters was an amazing accomplishment for me, and I’m still proud of it.

Do you reply to comments, why or why not? Yes! I promise! It may take an incredibly long time because sometimes I get weird and self-conscious, but I do respond to them all. Flailing and yelling over writing was one of the first ways I made fandom connections, and that will always be valuable to me.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? Dagger hurts because the end precedes Ignis heading to the Leviathan summoning. But in terms of sharp-ass feels, I think it has to be In Between Days, because Ignis is certain he’s lost the love of his life and he just...grieves. I’m not sure I could have written it if I hadn’t already been sure I was going to give Nyx back to him, but Ignis didn’t know that at the time, and it was sad and painful but very cathartic to write.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? I wrote a couple of gifts for Christmas, one Claurenz and one Mercievain, and both have incredibly happy endings. Excited to give them tomorrow! Do you write crossovers? I do! I wrote a Pacific Rim crossover starring Sylorenz for the FE sci-fi zine, and in my WIPs are Westworld and Person of Interest crossovers. 

Have you ever received hate on a fic? I’ve gotten a few comments that were odd, but nothing I would categorize as hate.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Hell yeah! One of my favorite things about fanfiction is exploring personality dynamics, and how they are the same or different with different romantic or sexual partners. Sex has an intensity I really enjoy writing, much like action scenes. And it can (though it doesn’t have to) provide a really good environment for emotional connection as well. I’m enthusiastic about sex and think it’s something that is good and fun to think about, so yeah! I write it a lot!

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I’m aware of! Please don’t, though.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Amazingly, yes?! My Ignyx fic Impossible Things was translated into Russian here. I still think that’s such a neat thing to have happened. (Also, this was the fic that took me from “damn, I ship Ignis with Nyx, that’s such a good ship” to Flaming OTP Status.)

Have you ever co-written a fic before? I have, and I adored the experience, and I’d love to do so again. Got at least three projects on the horizon where co-writing is part of things.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? Aranea/Nyx lawyer AU.

What are your writing strengths? Banter, spice, dialogue, and characterization, including the level of characterization where the details that aren’t dialogue really “sound like” the POV character. Also PLAYLISTS! I can slap songs onto anything.

What are your writing weaknesses? Me and long plots are Not Friends right now.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? This stirs up all my sexy “Faerghus as Russia” headcanons, as well as French Canadian Gautiers.  All super good, but I don’t speak another language well enough to try it.

What was the first fandom you wrote for? FFXV. Forever grateful to this fandom for bringing me to writing! I love it a lot!

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? I’ve mentioned a lot of faves already, but let me also hype the three-part Ignyx series I wrote, the odes to Lorenz and Ravus, and the Sylorenz Leicester Falls AU that’s consuming me lately. Tagging @heyitsrosencrantz @lunchtops @omgkalyppso @tehrevving @neist (only if you wanna, of course), and anyone else who wants to do this!

[fireemblems24]

Azure Gleam Ch 12

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that this is, by far, my favorite route. Spoilers below.

MAIN STORY

I forgot we had Claude on our "side" here.

Oh, here comes Byleth. This is AG's chapter for Byleth, right? And ugh, this time I need to actually recruit Byleth or else someone I love will die bc someone from Faerghus will die.

Oh, there's Randolph. Ready to die again. I swear to God this man is allergic to life.

He's hiring Jeralt, so yeah, this is the recruit Byleth chapter.

Adrestian nobles are real peaches. They're burning villages and looting, or a good handful of them are. I swear they have the worst nobility. Only Faerghus Western lords rival them.

If Randolph dies, than Jeralt's contract is terminated. So that means I have to trade Randolph for Jeralt and Byleth? Deal.

Man, that mint hair is a CHOICE. Whyyyyy. The darker blue hair is much better.

I like Byleth more after Hopes. I liked Byleth before, but Hopes has helped me see the characterization easier. It also makes the whole "one man army"/Ashen Demon seem more real.

And yep here's the sword again from the other routes.

I'm just so happy they gave Felix the high ponytail look.

Time to make Adrestia sweat.

Jeralt scars the Blue Lions way more than Randolph.

Leave it to Sylvain to strategize. Haha, Rodrigue says Sylvain reminds him of his dad, Sylvain isn't sure if that's a compliment.

I love how much you can tell all these people have known each other for so long.

OMG, there's so many side battles.

ANNETTE & FELIX B

Weird to only give them on support and it's only B given how popular their ship is.

Another support about Annette's songs lol. They really increased that in this game, but it's adorable so I'm good.

Dorothea and the church are performing operas for Faerghus.

Annette's "opera" song is about taking a hot bath when she's already hot. Felix is impressed with her mental fortitude. Lol.

Annette's flustered because it's supposed to be serious, not about bathing lol.

They basically set up a date to go see an opera together.

YURI & SHEZ C

I saw this in another route already (but forgot), so I unlocked it here too! But not going to write about it twice.

YURI & SYLVAIN B

These two rooted out spies together. Well, mostly Yuri lol.

Yuri's impressed with Sylvain's layers.

Neither of them are going to let Dimitri know what they're up to until after it's done lol.

Yuri's earned Sylvain's trust, but still threatens Yuri if he switches sides.

Yuri calls Sylvain out for being super loyal, which, yes, he is and that's often so overlooked part of his character.

Wait . . . Sylvain hit on Yuri with a bad pickup line? Lamo.

Sylvain mistook Yuri for a girl. Yuri is going to blackmail Sylvain with his back pickup lines for life lamo.

Yuri's open to a date with Sylvain though. Sylvain is into Yuri's flirting.

That would be a nightmare couple.

MERCEDES & SHEZ A

Mercedes looks at the little things and it reminds her of what it was like before the war - like tea parties with Shez and kids determined to get stronger.

Mercedes hates the war and wishes she could go back to those days. Getting really sentimental.

Mercedes used to just accept whatever happened and didn't realize how much she valued the past until peace got destroyed.

I had Shez be nice and tell Mercie that it's ok to get sentimental.

Mercie was happy with that.

Shez says she's always there to listen to Mercedes if she needs it.

So Mercie's like, let's tea party now! She bought new ingredients.

DEDUE & FELIX B

Their only support

Ohhh, Dimitri's in it too. They're talking strategy. Dimitri wants a head-on approach, Felix wants a sneaky one, Dedue withholds his opinion.

Dimitri tells Felix to stop pestering Dedue lamo.

Dimitri wants to head the mission, but Felix is like no, let me. Strategy resolved and Felix confronts Dedue.

Dedue values Felix's input and recognizes his unique role with Dimitri.

Dedue just stays amused the whole time and doesn't let Felix get to him.

Felix will not spit it out that he's so worried about Dimitri.

Dimitri returns and is about to tell Dimitri what went on but Felix cuts him off, which I'm sure just amuses Dedue.

I love how it's pretty much cannon that the vast majority of the cast never take Felix seriously when he's spouting his tsundere.

INGRID & MARIANNE C

MY HORSE GIRLS GET A SUPPORT CHAIN!!!!

OMG I'm so happy with this.

Ingrid's worried because her horse didn't eat all the feed. Marianne recommends hay and explains why.

Ingrid is happy and compliments Marianne, who of course downplays it and tries to get out of Ingrid asking more questions (likely about horses).

Of course, later Marianne tells Ingrid her horse (or pegasus?) is probably scared after acting up after being on the battlefield the first time. Marianne goes full horse whisperer and fixes the problem.

Then leaks that she's talking to the horse lamo. Ingrid catches it. Ingrid thinks it's awesome though.

Ingrid tries to give Marianne confidence; it doesn't work.

As a fellow horse-girl, I love this.

DIMITRI & BERNADETTA A

Dimitri catches Bernadetta out again, and ofc she gets scared, but Dimitri just wants food bc he's working too hard and missed dinner.

Haha, Dimitri hates being shut in all the time.

Bernedetta thinks Dimitri's work is spying on her, but Dimitri assures her that's not it bc he has too much work to spy lamo.

Bernadetta is amazed at what Dimitri puts on his plate because it'll taste awful, but like he can tell :(

So they cook together. And she tries to cook something he likes, which is kind of sweet actually.

She got too flustered and messed up the dish. I know where this is going lol . . . Dimitri and his iron stomach.

Yep, she's shocked that Dimitri just . . . eats it.

Oh, God, she's going try it, but of course she hates it.

Bernedetta thinks he'll have her executed now, and Dimitri's like "do you seriously think I do that?"

So I guess this is his Hopes "Dimitri can't taste anything" support.

I love how he seems immune to Bernedetta's antics though. He just calmly explains that her fears aren't true and moves on.

SYLVAIN & IGNATZ B

Ignatz figured out a general time period that Sylvain's painting came from.

Oh, geeze, it's a color made from crushed gemstones? That must've been $$$$. Geeze.

Sylain was reading up on saints to get more info on the picture and might've figured out who it was. An archbishop (was it one of Rhea's fake personas?)

Ah, they think she looks like Rhea. So I'm right. Hahaha.

They're confused about that. Never in a million years . . . .

So this does confirm that Rhea just keeps faking her death.

I'm pleasantly surprised by this support. I love Sylvain, but Ignatz is . . . not interesting, but I like how it expanded on Sylvain's studious side, and he's an art fan! Now I like him even more.

ASHE & FLAYN C

Ashe is fishing to feed the army. Ashe, sweetie, one fish is . . . not going to make a difference.

Naturally, though, Flayn is very interested. Because fish.

Does Ashe place well in the fishing tournament in 3H? Would be interesting to see if the lore stayed the same about Ashe's skills.

Poor Flayn isn't allowed to fish bc Seteth gets too nervous with her around water, but Ashe lets her fish like she used to.

Honestly, Flayn looks too young for most of the guys, but she fits Ashe's look (and personality) really well.

Flayn almost catches a large fish but fails to catch it. B support will be about her catching it, I'm betting.

DEDUE & CATHERINE B

Catherine comments that Faerghus now trusts Dedue and Dimitri more. Dedue gives all credit to Dimitri, lamo.

Apparently people gave Dimitri crap for choosing Dedue over everyone else.

Catherine isn't religious either. But I thought Rhea was a tyrant who only allowed religious people near her??? /s

Neither Dimitri nor Rhea get too wrapped up in their own titles.

Both spend their free time helping people out.

Catherine is like, maybe Dimitri is rested by helping people out like that. Something Rhea, Dimitri, and Byleth have in common.

Catherine and Dedue think they could be friends, as long as Rhea and Dimitri stay on the same side.

DIMITRI & RODRIGUE A

Not ready for this, guys.

Dimitri wants to know how Rodrigue felt when Lambert died. :(

Rodrigue didn't believe it at first, but accepted reality eventually and remembered the promise he made.

Dimitri then asks what if he'd died in Duscur too?

Dimitri also thinks Rodrigue intended to die with Lambert, but Rodrigue confirms that he never wanted to die, but wouldn't mind dying to protect Dimitri/keep him in line.

(hahahah, no)

Dimitri says losing Rodrigue would be like losing another father :( confirmation that Rodrigue is like a father.

Rodrigue calls Dimitri out for not valuing his own life enough :( (or that he doesn't even value it at all :( ) saying that he's only following his king's example then.

And Dimitri's response is like, yeah, guess you're right, I have no excuse - probably . . . not what Rodrigue was looking for :(

He's like, yeah, that was probably too harsh, but thinks Dimitri sounded a lot like Lambert :(

Rodrigue always wanted to tell Lambert that.

Dimitri's emotional about sounding like his father :(

Sounds like Faerghus people are always telling each other not to throw their lives away.

Haha, Dimitri's like, I'm jealous of your bond with your friends, and Rodrigue implies that Felix wouldn't like hearing Dimitri imply he's not close with his, lamo. Rodrigue is such a dad to Felix, like that teasing king, which is just perfect for Felix being so prickly lamo.

MAP & SIDE BATTLES

Sylvain would rather turn enemies into allies than attack them. He's talking about Jeralt's mercenaries, but it's just more proof that he disliked resolving conflict with violence.

The common folk find Dimitri more approachable now. He's working on being more relaxed lol.

Dedue and Ashe talked about how Dimitri broke a pen during a war council. Shez suggests they name the pens so Dimitri's more attached to them and is less likely to break them. I cannot with these people. (also, can you imagine how put out Dimitri would be breaking a pen he named?) They also talk about how some people are scared of Dimitri because of his freakish strength :(

Seteth is impressed with Dimitri, who asks him about tactics a lot (which, side note, I'm so happy to see this game heap more praise on Dimitri, I get that AM's plot structure didn't really allow it as much, but it's nice to hear. Also, that it's Seteth is so cool, because he's by far one of the most wise characters).

Back to Seteth though, he explains he knows so much because he's studied this military genius Saint Cichol and really recommends his book. No bias at all there, guys.

And the saga of Balthus being obsessed with fighting Dimitri continues, lamo. (nobody blames you, Balthus, because, same, how can you not be a little obsessed with Dimitri's body after seeing it).

Mercedes and Constance were friends! That's cool. Also, not two braincells between them. (and I say that with affection)

I love how the game is going out of it's way now to show that Dimitri is asking for advice from experts, then making a decision based on what he's learned. His FEH support was about that, and I always liked that, so I like seeing him do it here.

Also, it seems I can't use Rodrigue again :( Actually, here's here for the side battles, so maybe I can?

MAIN BATTLE

OK, guys, time to get Byleth. Please let this be easy.

Someone very kindly wrote up a guide for me in a message. I never posted it so I could reference it, so let's hope I get it right the first time.

We're in the weird dimension with Arval, who's on high alert bc Byleth. But this time we recruit Byleth.

"Defeat Randolph" - Don't mind if I do!

Ok, so step 1 is selecting "Locate Ambushers." But I don't see that?

Kidding. I picked it.

I can't use Dimitri??? Oh, shit. He's BY FAR, my strongest unit. This is a shitty battle to lose him for. And Rodrigue. So I'm down 2 of my actually trained units. This sucks.

No Felix either?? This is really bullshit at this point. I basically only have Shez, Sylvain, Ingrid, Dedue, and Mercedes and Mercedes can't do shit, Dedue is also pretty awful, and Ingrid always dies. Ugh. This is going to be impossible. So basically just Shez and Sylvain.

Honestly, if this is too hard, I'm just going to let Byleth die because, to be honest, I'm really sick of playing this game. This route IS the only one I actually care about finishing though.

Ugh, I knew I'd hate this chapter, but taking away 3 units with no warning is just total bullshit.

Dimitri following me around is kinda cute though. And I forget how good Shez is. It's just, Dimitri's so strong I'm used to one-shotting at this point, lamo.

I also love how when Dimitri's a green unit, he's still fighting and not getting protected like the other 2. He's also . . . not someone I have to worry about dying. He's, uh, level 57 and suggested level is 44 so um.

Ok, so far so good. I got Fleche to show up, which is the next step. Now I just have to kill her quick.

Defeated Fleche. Now I need to see a command to defeat a dude, and a side command I ignore (guessing either defeat Byleth or Jeralt, the side one that I ignore).

So pretty sure I messed up and I need to "kill" all the mercenaries attacking the base BEFORE Fleche.

Ok, got Alois before he invaded. Just got Fleche. Pretty sure what's left is to not engage Byleth and rush kill Randolph.

Took Randolph out because I saved up all my warrior gauges.

OMG, I finished Randolph before the side mission was even announced lol.

I DID IT!!!! I got Byleth and Jeralt 😭

And I did it without Felix OR Dimitri 😭

So Jeralt surrendered after defeating everyone bc they decided to use logic and know they couldn't win. Plus, they want new clients.

Jeralt doesn't care about the conviction with the Empire, only coin. But he wants to avoid Rhea because of their past, but Dimitri sets conditions to make sure that Jeralt and co avoid her.

Guys, I can't believe I'm seeing the recruitment and not character death (I know it's Rodrigue, I couldn't let him die, no matter what)

I just saw the Byleth is playable card 😭

Guys, I saved Rodrigue.

Most of the Blue Lions are like, this is weird, but good. And they want to bond by sparing bc that's what the Blue Lions do lamo.

Shez ran off though. She's talking to Shez and figured that's best done not with people around.

Arval is way more chill about it than I thought.

Shez still has a goal though, to win the war and bring peace with Dimitri and co.

Getting ready to attack the monastery. Still kinda wish Claude was our enemy like the other 2 routes.

Everyone is standing by Dimitri.

Oh . . . Mercedes thinking about Death Knight? Betting she'll run into him soon. Can you recruit him in AG?

xxx

[iturbide]

What do you think could have been done to improve 3H? Given the budget/time, what changes would you have done? Also, what elements do you consider KEY to a good story?

fffffff I would have done so many things differently in 3H it requires a read more but to your second question: I feel that characters are a key element of a good story. Possibly the most crucial element, to me. You can have the most epic, incredible plot in the world -- but if the characters taking part in it aren't interesting or able to engage the reader, then the story loses a huge part of its impact. It's only by caring about the people taking part that a reader can get invested in the story and its outcome; if you don't care about what happens to someone (either in a good or a bad way) then you're at best apathetic to the events, at worst bored by them.

Frankly everything else in a story -- narrative structure, conflict, etc -- is so malleable that I can't consider it key. You can easily make stories that have no classic conflict if you have characters that people care about, because just watching them interact with the world and each other can be beautifully engaging. So at least to me, the key is in the characters: whether you love them and want them to succeed or love to hate them and want to see them get their just desserts, they're the ones that do the heavy lifting in a story, so making sure they're compelling is one of the most important things to me when writing.

As for 3H though I have a lot of changes I would make. Throughout the whole game.

Academy Phase

Giving each House their own unique set of missions. I feel that part of why the Azure Moon route is considered so strong is because it's the most character driven, something that starts in the Academy Phase: everything from Lonato's rebellion to Miklan's theft of the Gautier Relic are highly personal to the Blue Lions students, with Ashe being Lonato's adoptive son and Miklan being Sylvain's estranged older brother (and someone who's well-known to Dimitri, Felix, and Ingrid on top of it). While these are both important events, for the Black Eagles and the Golden Deer there's not the same level of personal engagement: it's just a thing that's happening rather than a devastating blow to the students we love. While there are certainly missions that can and should stay the same (the raid on Seiros' tomb, Flayn's kidnapping, the Remire incident, etc.) having select missions be personalized by House to give that same level of engagement would have made for a far stronger narrative, since it enhances the player's connection with the students of their chosen House.

Just as an example: for the Black Eagles, rather than putting down Lonato's rebellion, maybe have their mission be aiding a small sect of the Church in the Empire that's being plagued by monsters or bandits. It gives us the chance to learn more of the history between the Church of Seiros and the Adrestian Empire, how close they were and how it fell apart a century before the game; Rhea might explain that she wants to improve these failing relations by having Imperial students go to aid this disconnected branch, and in private Edelgard could hint at her distrust of the institution and of Rhea herself even if she is following orders. Not only that, we could hear on returning that the Blue Lions students accompanied the Knights of Seiros in dealing with Lonato's rebellion, so we still get the fallout from those events and have a reason to choose the Blue Lions in another run.

Another example: for the Golden Deer, rather than going after Miklan and witnessing his transformation, maybe a report arrives that someone stole Failnaught and task the Alliance students with retrieving it. It lets us learn more about the situation in the Alliance, giving more details about Duke Oswald's situation, Claude's appointment as the heir to the Riegan House...and while he would never do it personally, have there be subtle implications but no hard proof that Duke Gloucester is behind the theft, just as he was the death of Claude's Uncle; on top of that, we could still get a battle against a Black Beast when Failnaught transforms the bandit, giving Claude a very personal look at how dangerous these Relics can be (something he likely wouldn't have had deep insight into, given his Almyran roots). And again, on returning to the monastery we could see the Blue Lions dealing with the fallout from Miklan.

More interaction between the House Leaders in general. There are only a handful of scenes where all three of them interact together, and I can only think of one instance where they're even in each other's company at the monastery (Claude and Dimitri in one of the early chapters). Having more of these moments where they're apparently interacting on the grounds or where we can see them together in cutscenes, giving us more insight into the leaders of the other Houses we didn't pick, would give us a lot more investment in them as people and make the eventual revelations at the end of the Academy Phase hit a lot harder.

Especially with Claude's ambition being what it is, it would have been a far better show of his character to have him hanging out with different students every month -- not just from his own House like Hilda, but from other Houses. Have him be talking with Petra in the dining hall one month, or with Annette at the reception hall another; if you sided with the Black Eagles or the Blue Lions, it would be very easy to suspect that he's up to tricks and trying to figure out individual weaknesses...but if you picked the Golden Deer, you'd likely realize very quickly that he's got no ulterior motives because you've been seeing him in action and getting Supports with him.

More Supports period. We were robbed of some fascinating interactions, like Ashe and Dorothea or Dedue and Petra, and some really strong Support chains stop before they reach their full potential (several Sylvain supports, including Marianne and Bernadetta). I want to see so many more of these and I would add in a ton if given half an opportunity.

Giving Byleth more agency. This bleeds over into the War Phase, too, but one of my biggest complaints about the game is how limited the response options are, especially when it comes to Edelgard and her frightening rhetoric as early as chapter 3. Give us more options with real varied outcomes, rather than it changing one immediate line of dialogue; give us real dialogue trees rather than minutely altered responses so that we have an opportunity to affect change. This runs the risk of drastically altering Byleth's relationship with the various House Leaders, but that potential is undeniably fascinating in and of itself.

War Phase

Azure Moon: Make Dimitri's turn more gradual. Show him grappling with Rodrigue's words more, have more scenes where he and Byleth talk and he tries to work through his understandably complicated feelings. It doesn't even have to take that much longer, honestly: every week for the next month, give us an extra cutscene and let there be a small change in how you can interact with him. For example, maybe he still doesn't attend the round table in the first week, but you do have the option of assigning him to a task around the monastery; in the second week if you explore, you have the option to invite him to a meal; in the third week he finally attends the roundtable and you're able to work on his skills again; and in the fourth week his supports finally unlock.

Azure Moon: Make Claude recruitable. Don't have him leave Failnaught and go waltzing back to Almyra, have him actually head up the Alliance in this time of need and volunteer to join forces with the Kingdom forces. You can have the option of turning him down, if you really want, at which point he might leave Lorenz in charge and go back home, but give us the option of bringing him on board along with any other former Deer that fought with him at Derdriu -- and furthermore, let us have some supports with Dedue and Dimitri to go with it. Ideally those Support chains would be available in the Academy phase and maybe you'd have the recruitment option only if Dimitr's Support level with Claude is at least a B (since you can get to A during the Academy Phase but not unlock it until the War Phase as I experienced many times). But still: Claude recruitment. Yes.

Verdant Wind: Make Dimitri recruitable. Having him die offscreen after Gronder is absolutely terrible, especially since we know for a fact that at least two people from the Alliance army saw what was either going to happen or directly happening. At the end of the battle, give us an option of going after Dimitri: if you choose not to, he still dies, but if you do you have the opportunity to save him and recruit any other former Lions with him. As abve, Supports between Claude and Dimitri would be great, and you could even keep Dimitri's Supports locked for a while and include scenes of Byleth and/or Claude and Dimitri talking and working with him until he starts turning around the way he does in Azure Moon. Dimitri's death in Verdant Wind is a travesty and it needs to be changed.

Verdant Wind: More character stuff in general. One of the things that makes Azure Moon such a strong route is that it's so deeply character-driven. Verdant Wind is much more plot-driven, and while it's still strong, it could have been more impactful if the characters were more directly affected and/or we got to see more of their individual actions. For instance: after securing Myrddin, have weekly missions where you actually go along and meet with the Great Lords and discuss with them before the final round table. Have Byleth and Claude go with Lorenz to talk to Count Gloucester and try to get his buy-in, and give us more dialogue trees where Byleth can contribute (for better or for worse) so that in the end you either get his full agreement or only grudging consideration because Lorenz intervenes. Get us engaged, show us more of the situation in the Alliance, and let us have a role in moving from this uneasy state of neutrality to full agreement that it's time to take action.

Silver Snow: A unique story in general. Basically everything in the route is a weaker copy of the events in Verdant Wind, and regardless of which came first, Verdant Wind handles the events in a way that makes more logical and narrative sense than Silver Snow does. So even if things could be changed in Verdant Wind to make it stronger and more unique, Silver Snow needs the most work and ideally should have a new plot made just for them that gives the Knights of Seiros a chance to really shine.

Silver Snow: More for Seteth to do period. Despite the fact that he's ostensibly our Lord stand-in for the route (since he's the one who meets you after the timeskip, where it's either Claude, Dimitri, or Edelgard who does in the other routes), he barely has a chance to do anything and doesn't make much of an impact on the route overall. Silver Snow could -- and ostensibly should -- give him a chance to showcase his talents and stand as a unique and engaging character, since his role in the Academy Phase was so minor; relegating him to the same general role in Silver Snow does him a great injustice.

Crimson Flower: Have Edelgard suffer consequences. This is one of my biggest complaints with the game on the whole: that Crimson Flower goes out of is way to glorify imperialism and Edelgard gets a rosy perfect ending with nothing ever going wrong according to her endcards. Logically the way she achieved her goal would have led to massive dissent, unrest, and civil conflict in the territories she conquered and subjugated; her route needs to show that, and make it clear that there are in fact consequences for her actions, both within the original Adrestian territry and without in the newly conquered ones.

Crimson Flower: Deal with the damn Agarthans. Given that she knows about them in detail the way neither of her fellow House Lords did, it's an absolute travesty that we never saw her go after them in her route: all she did was show her hand too early and cause hundreds of senseless deaths when the Agarthans fired on Arianrhod. Her route should have ended with a conflict against the Agarthan menace -- and likely a very hard one, harder even than the battle against Rhea, because she left them for too long and gave them time to bolster their defenses before she arrived. And given that she's killed Rhea, the end of that conflict would likely be a massive loss of life when Thales bombs Shambhala -- further consequences for her actions.

All Routes: Give Byleth agency. This is especially pertinent in CF where canon reduced Byleth to Edelgard's enabler: give them a chance to fight her, push back against things that either don't make sense or are only going to hurt people, argue and maybe force her to change her mind or see another viewpoint rather than continuing to barrel down a path of bloodshed and loss because she selfishly decided that war was the only way. But giving Byleth that same agency in other routes would be equally powerful: let them talk candidly with Dimitri, let them encourage Claude to trust his companions and reveal his Almyran heritage, just...let them have a chance to be their own person, with complicated relationships and the ability to speak freely.

[strfd]

aicidos

send URL for opinion. always open.

@aicidos​ ! you have been url dropped ! so i am merely assuming that they wanted me to write some positivity for you ( or do the URL opinion prompt ) . so i am here to give you just that ~

MY OPINION ON ;

character in general : you have quite the muse list there & i could ... honestly ? talk about only tifa , but you actually have a few other muses that i would be more than interested in interacting with because i LIKE them & know them very well . so i suppose i will give you a brief summary of those muses .

TIFA - honestly ... i originally started playing the game as a means to see if i could pick her up as a muse because i REALLY just love & adore her character . like yes , she’s really REALLY pretty . gorgeous honestly . but she just looks like she’s sweet but has that no - pushover personality . really though . she’s quite independent & means well . she has a tender touch but also can balance it out with strength . she’s beautiful , honestly . everything about her is just ... UGH . i would love to date her ngl . & even then , i think i would just be happy with being her friend . there’s just something about her that makes me go 🥺 like the more i played the game , the more i realised that she’s not really my muse type in terms of what i am able to write - at the very least , i dont think i would EVER do her any justice . she’s .... just .... too perfect for me . not to mention that she seems like a bit of an empath , and while i have plenty of muses that are ( i think they’re all OCs though ) , i would STRUGGLE with tifa . but i fell even more in love with her as the game progressed . which ended up with me shipping cloti HRNGH . 

RENO - look this man is a shit . no doubt about it . i have posted my thoughts about reno already before . so i will keep this a bit on the short side , but please understand that i fucking LOVE but also HATE him . i have a thing for assholes i suppose , but like ... it’s weird . also i like his character design ngl . idk . like i dont think i would enjoy his company but .... reno pretty .... T^T

DOROTHEA - i am actually very familiar with khalid & sylvain as well , but i will NOT go into depth about them as i unfortunately do not discuss them with others ( i have this weird reverse dupe anxiety about it since one of my very close partners ships sylvix with me & i , unfortunately , don’t have any interest in seeing another sylvain . but this also extends to khalid as well ) . i know that i have mentioned that FE3H is a bit of a nauseating topic for me just given personal history in that fandom , but i still REALLY enjoy the game & the characters . i do have to admit that i have fallen in love with dorothea recently due to her presence in a dimiclaude fanfic she is in . i am more than HAPPY to link you to the fic , but understand that it’s not complete ( & it’s not revolving around her ) . her role in the fic , though , is enough to make me go . damn . i love her . like A LOT . i think she is a character that some people sleep on at times . i know i did HRNGH please forgive me . honestly though . she’s such a diva - in more ways than one - but i just go ... mmmmm strong & powerful bi vibes . coupled with the fact that ... i adore mercie , & my go to ship for mercie is with dorothea . though that perhaps has to do with the fact that , again , this fic & discussion with a couple of people as got me all doe eyed for them . anyway .. dorothea is lovely . she’s amazing . she deserves nice things . 

KISUMI SHIGINO - lol i actually write nagisa ! though honestly free ! was one of the few animes that i really just got into but never had been able to get a strong foothold in general about talking about it to others . but it was the only sports anime i got into HRNGH . i do have to say , though , that i really do like kisumi . i liked how he looked & his personality & all . idk i just value & support supporting characters a lot ! im sorry i dont have much more than this for you T^T 

how they play them : uhhhhhhh .... honestly i will go with tifa & dorothea since i’ve seen them the most .

TIFA - yes hi so um ?????  fucking love her so much ????? man oh MAN . i have to like sometimes pull back & tell myself that i need to NOT make it sound like im wanting to ship them ( eventhoughishipthemsohard ) . but like even on a platonic level . i get so SOFT ... like ? i get so excited whenever i have something to write for you because my cloud muse just immidiately goes ‘ tifa ... 🥺🥺🥺 ‘ so yea ... i eat up ALL of your tifa content so much because it makes me so T^T she’s so soft & gentle & sweet & AHHH !! ( i am editing this & fallen started playing by gert taberner & im getting so soft again omfg ) honestly though its so clear & evident that you have such an amazing grasp in her voice & as a muse . it makes me REALLY thankful & lucky to have an opportunity to write with you . i know that we haven’t really talked lately but just know & understand that i appreciate you so much . thank you for writing her . my heart goes doki doki for your tifa .

DOROTHEA - i know you tag it appropriately ( for which i am VERY grateful for because sometimes i just need that warning due to having very little spoons ) but sometimes i do read what you have to write for her . not ALWAYS but enough to be like . ‘ oh i like this . i like this a lot ’ . i get a very healthy amount of dorothea content from you & it makes me really happy to see it . i’d like to see a little more , or , at the very least , get to talk to you about her cause i do technically have a FE3H verse for cloud dhsadshl LOL but i’m also just happy & content to just see her as well . she’s pretty ! i also would like to say that , it’s pleasant seeing dorothea written by you . it’s def helped me be a bit more comfortable seeing content & sometimes it makes me want to go back to felix to attempt to write with more FE writers instead of just flat out ignoring the fandom HRNGH . 

The Mun : i feel like i am going to go off repeating & rambling . & i feel like ... i may have already said many of these things to you but .... im 🥺 with you ! i love interacting with you or just seeing you on the dash ! you’re very sweet . not like SUPER sweet . like sometimes like honey & tea but sometimes i like to think of you as more of a milk tea than anything else ! you know what ... yea ! you’re very much like bubble milk tea to me ! meaning that i really LIKE you ! you’re very pleasant & sweet . i love that softness to you & i love that there’s never any pressure to get to anything . it’s just very chill & lax & cool .

OKAY but i also do have to point out the fact that we were both just ... SHY to approach the other bgdsakfjlgb we were both basically just looking at each other with admiration & awe but we were both chicken to like APPROACH with left us with the whole ‘ i want to interact with them but im too SHY to ask ‘ . i think that was just really FUNNY to witness dsaagdhsflkjb . but really thought . you are an asbolute sweetheart & i hope you know that you can ALWAYS come & approach me whenever you want about anything !

DO I ;

RP with them : YES . i mean i stare at tifa & cloud ...

Want to RP with them : omg yes always ??? with your other muses too like please . i would like that . but also i wouldn’t mind just tifa too though alkfdshgfb . give me more tifa & cloud interactions T^T lets do all the plots & threads ...

WHAT IS MY ;

Overall Opinion : i did say something about how you & sam being cinnamon & sugar . & i still think that LOL . because you guys are . don’t know if you are the sugar or the cinnamon but .... really though . you’re somft ... like a cute little marshmallow .. im T^T youre very cute ~

**Note: Mun’s answer are all to be completely honest. Don’t send url if you don’t want brutal honesty

[lapinbunwrites]

Title: Floral Engagement

Rating: G

Warnings: None

Fandom: Fire Emblem Three Houses

Characters: Sylvain, Byleth, Dimitri, Felix, Ingrid, Annette, Dedue, Ashe, Mercedes

Ships: Sylvain/Byleth

Additional Tags: Post-Canon

Word Count: 2,342

Ao3 Link

When Sylvain woke up, he woke up to Byleth sleeping next to him. He let out a sigh before smiling and giving them a little kiss on their cheek. Usually they were the one to wake up first and they were usually gone before he even woke up. If anyone found out that the Archbishop was sleeping in, it wasn’t going to look good for them. Sylvain laughed to himself, this was going to be his little secret. He couldn’t tell anyone, let alone Seteth, how peaceful Byleth looked while sleeping. It would be cruel. He moved their hair out of their face, giving them one last kiss before he left their room. 

He walked through the castle halls, making his way to one of the kitchens. He searched around for a picnic basket, filling it with food that was prepared the night before, once he found it. A smile appeared across Sylvain’s face when his beloved Byleth walked into the kitchen. They reached out their hand and he took a hold of it, feeling their callouses against his own. With his other hand, he traced theirs, remembering all the battles they have fought, gripping their weapon and clinging for their life. Now, they were lucky enough they didn’t have to spend sleepless nights treading barren lands to see an orange flow of an axe that seeps crimson red. 

Sylvain felt Byleth’s hand trail up to his chest and felt their lips pressed against his. After giving him a sweet smile, they gave him a peck on his cheek before wrapping their arms together. With his free hand, he shoved a small box into his pocket before grabbing the picnic basket. The two walked through the castle, making their way to the stables. Sylvain secured the basket onto his horse before he got on. He laughed as he watched Byleth trying, and failing, to get on their horse. He got off his to help them get on their own horse. 

They rode to a far away land that was untouched by war. The grass was vibrant green and the flowers were colors of red, blue, yellow, and purple that stretched the large open field. The sun shined brightly as he watched Byleth fall off their horse. He got off his and rushed to help them up. They wiped the dirt off of their body and twirled around. They smiled at him, rushing off further into the field. Sylvained sighed as another smile appeared on his face. It grew bigger as he watched Byleth twirl around. 

“Ah, this is the perfect place,” he said aloud.

They turned around, puzzled. “What?” 

“Heheh,” he chuckled, “nothing.” 

Byleth inhaled, trying to suppress a groan. They turned back around and continued to walk into the field.

“Ah, that was close,” he sweated as he thought to himself. 

Sylvain grabbed his and Byleth’s horse’s reins, following them into the middle of the field. He took the picnic basket off his horse, placing the blanket on the ground, and setting the basket on top of it. Sylvain took out his handkerchief, placing it on Byleth’s face and wiping the drool as they unpacked the basket. 

“Heh, you’re really hungry, aren’t you,” he said, placing the silk cloth next to him.

“I didn’t eat this morning and it took a bit of time to get here, so you tell me,” they huffed.

Sylvain chuckled. “It’s a good thing I packed lots of food then.” 

“All my favorites too!”

Sylvain smiled as they ate their food in silence. He felt Byleth place their head on his shoulder and hold tightly onto his arms. As he hummed a song, he could hear them sing along. Byleth’s tune slowly faded into a light snore. He moved their head to his lap. As they slept, Sylvain watched as the grass and flowers swayed back and forth into the breeze. 

He slowly, and trying not to wake up Byleth, reached into his pocket to reach for the box. He stared at the emerald stone and the silver band. He let out a loud sigh as Byleth yawned, waking up. Sylvain fumbled the box around as they stood up and stretched. 

“What do you have there,” Byleth asked, tilting their head. 

“Uuhh,” he let out, “nothing!” He fumbled the box back into his pocket and stood up. He reached out his hand for theirs. 

Byleth placed their hands in his and smiled. “Oh really? It’s never nothing with you,” they teased. 

“Ehehe,” he chuckled, stretching his cheek with his free hand. “Let’s not worry about it right now.” 

They glared at Sylvain. 

Distracting Byleth, he led them into the open field, and Byleth felt the tops of the flowers with the tips of their fingers. When they stopped, Sylvain placed his hand on their hips, swaying their bodies along with the grass and flowers. 

“My beloved love,” Sylvain sang in a low, gruff voice. “I will love you forever!~” 

As he sang, Byleth began to giggle. “You’ve been taking lessons from Annette haven’t you?” 

His smile became softer as he heard them hum along to his tune. Sylvain paused his song, twirling Byleth out of his arms and watched them dance further and further into the field. He was so happy that they were unaware. Sylvain took out the little box out of his pocket, slowly getting down on one knee. He felt his heart beating out of his chest as he waited for them to turn around. 

His eyes grew big as he saw them place their hands on their face and heard their soft gasp. “Byleth Eisner, will you marry me,” words spilling out of his mouth as his breath shortened. 

Byleth took a breath before reaching their hand out. “Yes,” they said as another breath left their lips. 

Sylvain’s smile grew big as he put the ring on their finger before he picked them up and twirled them around and gave them a big kiss. “I love you so much!” 

“I love you too!” Byleth shimmed down his body, feeling the ground beneath them. “I love you,” they repeated, pressing their lips against his. 

While they laughed, he clutched onto their hand and began to dance with them again. He felt their hands hold the back of his shoulders tightly, hearing their groans. 

“What’s wrong,” Sylvain laughed. 

“I just remember, we are going to tell our friends of our engagement,” Byleth groaned. 

Following suit, he did the same. “How are we going to tell them?” 

They repeatedly bonked their head on his chest, unable to come up with a way to tell their friends. “I have nothing.” 

He held them tightly in his arms, his laugh singing into their ears. “The leader of the Blue Lions House, the leader of an entire army that led to the downfall of the empire, the Archbishop of the Church of Seiros can’t think of a good plan to tell our friends that we got engaged.” He let them go, to see their eyes before giving them a kiss on their forehead. 

“Oh, like you have anything,” they snarked, moving out of his arms. 

Sylvain opened his mouth, then closed it. When he thought of an idea, he instantly lost it. 

“Now who was speechless,” Byleth began to laugh. Only a couple of seconds later, they snapped their fingers. “I have an idea.” 

“What would that be,” he sighed. 

“We get everyone together and come out with it,” Byleth smiled. 

Sylvain groaned, placing his hand on his face, running it downwards. “This is what I was afraid of. Where is the pazaz, the drama, the flare.” 

“I didn’t think you were one for that.” 

“I just want it to be more special than putting it bluntly.” 

“Uh, maybe we can celebrate with ourselves first and figure something out along the way?” 

Sylvain shook his head, unable to think of a better plan. The two cleaned up their stuff, Sylvain helping Byleth up onto their horse before getting on his. After they rode back home, they headed into a little town in the west part of Gautier territory. As the two walked around, the people were dancing, training, painting, shopping. They continued to walk around, stopping at some food stands filled with fruit, fish, a few spices, and a few other things. 

“Sylvain,” Byleth said, tugging on his coat. 

“What, my love,” Sylvain asked, stopping in his tracks and turning to look at them. “What is it?” 

“What if we send notes for everyone to come to Gautier territory for dinner and we can make the announcement,” they suggested, giving him a smile. 

“That’s getting somewhere,” he sighed. But seeing the smile on their face, he went with the idea. “Okay, if that’s what you want, then we will do it.” 

The smile on their face grew bigger. “We will have to pick a meal that everyone likes.” 

“Yeah,” Sylvain agreed, rubbing his neck. “Mercedes and Annette love anything sweet, but Felix doesn’t. Dedue, Ashe, and Felix love spicy food, but the other two don’t,” he paused, letting out a sigh, “and His Majesty will about anything.” 

Byleth placed their index finger on their chin, tapping it. “Fish.”

“Fish,” his eyebrows furrowed. “We aren’t doing fish because-” 

“We can have Two-Fish Saute. Most of our closest friends like this dish and the ones who just tag along can just deal with it. We only want a few people to know right now,” they reassured him.

“True, true,” he paused. He let the silence settle in for a few seconds to think. “Fine, you win. But we should get stuff for dessert too.” 

Byleth smiled as they tugged on his arm, dragging him to some of the vendors grabbing a few pounds of Caledonian Gar and Albinean Herring, some different types of fruit, and a few other ingredients. After they got all the food, they walked around the town, making their way back to the castle. Sylvain kissed Byleth before he watched them walk towards their room before heading off to the kitchen. He made sure to put the food in a particular place and told the chefs not to mess with them just yet.

Instead of going to bed like his beloved, he went to his studies, lighting up a couple of lanterns before sitting down at his desk. After he wrote his letters, he watched the ink dry before rolling them up, tying them up, and leaving a seal. Before he went to sleep, he found a messenger and sent the letters off. 

The next night, Byleth and Sylvain were preparing the food, and their friends gathered into the dinning room that was connected to the kitchen. They smiled as their friends talked and talked, wondering why they were here. 

“We are here,” Felix groaned, sitting next to Annette. “There better be something actually important than this dinner.” 

“Sharp tongued as ever, buddy,” Sylvain sighed, placing a plate in front of him. 

“It better be, this fish doesn’t cover it,” his gaze became sharper than his tongue. 

“Easy now,” Annette diffused. “It’s nice to be able to be with your friends. Plus, you need this. You’ve been overworking yourself with the restoration of our territory.” 

“It’s nice being able to see you when we aren’t working, Felix,” Dimitri agreed. “It’s like old times, just being able to in the presence of close friends and relaxing.” 

“‘Old times’ my ass,” Felix mocked. 

“Felix please,” Annette intervened. “You were the one who was really happy to see Dimitri the most when we received the letter.” 

“You weren’t excited to see me,” Sylvain pity cried. 

“Hmph,” Felix grumbled, shoving some food into his mouth. 

“Hehehe,” Byleth chimed in with a laugh. 

“He’s always been like this, babe,” Sylvain teased. “Whenever he wasn’t right about something, he would shove food in his mouth.” 

“I thought Ingrid would do that,” they smiled, placing a plate in front of her. 

“Where do you think he got it from,” Ingrid said, shoveling the fish into her mouth. 

Sylvain and Byleth sat down next to each other, eating and talking with their friends. They smiled as Ashe and Dedue talked about their marriage, smiled when Mercedes reassured Dimitri for bumbling over his words trying to be romantic, laughed when Annette constantly teased Felix, and laughed when Ingrid stuffed her face with dessert that Mercedes made. 

“Why did you ask us here, Sylvain,” Dimitri asked, putting his plate into the sink. 

“Oh, I almost forgot about that,” Sylvain laughed that faded into a sigh. 

Byleth frowned, glaring at him. 

“I’m sorry!” He took one deep breath in and let it out. He felt his heart beating fast, words weren’t coming out of his mouth. “By-By...We are...By...Marr…” He sighed when he got everyone's confused look. He shook his head and pointed in Byleth’s direction. 

They held up their hands, as well as Sylvain’s, showing off their rings. “We are getting married!” 

Their friends screeched and wailed, congratulating them on the next step of their lives. While getting multiple hugs, Sylvain realized two of their friends were missing, Dimitri and Felix. He grew increasingly alarmed when they heard bangs coming from outside. He, along with everyone else, went to go see what was happening, a giant fire. They rushed over to it, seeing that Dimitri and Felix were frantically trying to put it out. 

“What are you guys doing,” Byleth asked, putting out the last of the fire.

“We wanted to set off fireworks to celebrate,” Dimitri said, apologetically. 

“By setting an old war camp on fire,” they said, mockingly and irritatedly. “And what were you doing, Felix?” 

His eyebrow twitched as he sighed. “Helping.” 

“Not very well,” they sighed. 

“Now, now,” Sylvain chimed in. “Why didn’t you bring me along!” 

“This was for you, fool,” Felix said, salvaging the last of the fireworks. 

“Hehehe,” he laughed. 

With what they had left, everyone set off the fireworks and watched them explode. Byleth gave Sylvain a kiss on his lips as they watched the multicolored sky.

-------------------

Huzzah! I finally get to post my piece that I wrote for @sylvethzine I am hosting! I wrote a post canon fic of NB!Sylveth of Sylvain proposes to Byleth! sfakl;jdlakfjdskfasdf I love it when a character tries to make plans and plans it well and then it all becomes chaos.

Leftovers are currently open!

[glowingbadger]

BL modern day, taking care of their s/o who is sick? Ty!

Aww, yes, let's have a cozy time and let our lions take care of us~ Doing just the dudes for this btw cause the whole house is too many characters for one ask (technically even just the dudes it's more than I allow in a single ask, but eh lol)

Also the modern au side of this is... kind of incidental tbh xD

Blue Lion dudes x GN Reader

Modern AU, SFW fluff

Dimitri:

- He's definitely anxious about your health, and insists on checking your temperature and interrogating you about your symptoms as soon as you show signs of illness. It's not that he actually knows much about medical health, per say, but the sincerity is there.

- Dimitri hovers near you as much as he can when you're not well, evidently not caring at all if he catches whatever you have. He tends to take his own health for granted- yours is far more important. Honestly, it's best if you can give him a little task or favor he can do for you now and then- a spare blanket, a quick grocery run, etc. It soothes his anxiety to know he's helping somehow.

- He's totally the type to find himself smiling as he watches you in bed, his heart full to bursting with warm affection. Even when you feel like garbage, Dimitri sees you as the most gorgeous person in the world. If anything, having his protective side triggered like this just emphasizes everything he feels for you.

Felix:

- I actually think Felix would be surprisingly good at caring for a sick S/O- he's just gonna be a salty jerk about it the whole time. He'll think of something easy-on-the-stomach to fix for you for meals, remember any medications you need, and so on. It's a very pragmatic regimen- but if you don't follow it and take good care of yourself, he'll scold you harshly for it with a gruff, "Do you want to get better or not?"

- Basically, you being sick is the only way to bring out Felix's inner malewife. But it's mostly just to camouflage how worried he is about you. He occupies himself so much with the practical side of caring for you that you might have to give him puppy-eyes to persuade him to slow down and just come cuddle with you for a bit.

- Once you're well again, it's tempting to tease Felix a bit about how worried he was about you. If you do, he'll burn bright red in the face and grumble something about, "I wasn't worried, you just obviously couldn't take care of yourself."

Sylvain:

- Okay, Sylvain loves getting to be the good, reliable boyfriend when you're sick. Sometimes he worries that he doesn't do enough to prove how committed he is to you, and while he's obviously not happy that you're not feeling well, he is more than pleased to do any and everything to keep you comfortable. Arranging pillows and blankets, putting on something for you to snuggle and watch together, bringing you soup or medicine or anything you need- he's inwardly thrilled to do it all and more. You might need to tell him specifically what you need though, since he's no medical expert either, and enthusiasm doesn't always mean efficacy.

- He's absolutely going to take you out on a date as soon as you're feeling better to help you fully bounce back. He wants you feeling more than a hundred percent better, and thinks a romantic night out and maybe a spicy evening together is just the thing for the job. But he'll be softer and gentler with you than usual- he doesn't want to overwhelm you, especially if your illness was particularly bad.

Dedue:

- Oh, Dedue is the absolute best to have around at times like this. He's worried about you, but it tends to be expressed in a gentle, doting fashion that doesn't put undue pressure on you. And the food- you'd never imagine that a regular "feel better soup" could be so damn tasty. He even knows a few herbs that are said to be good for your immune system and spices to clear your sinuses- it's practically medicinal food, but with a gourmet flavor.

- He is the perfect giant teddy-bear when you're not feeling well. His big arms are so warm around you, and his strong, quiet demeanor is naturally soothing. Hell, the man will physically pick you up and carry you somewhere if you're not feeling up to getting out of bed. It may seem excessive, but Dedue is a dedicated sort, and he sees the effort put in to caring for you as completely natural.

- He may gently scold you if you don't take good care of yourself, though- pointing out if you haven't eaten enough or haven't taken your medication. While he won't push the issue, he's definitely firm about it.

Ashe:

- Ashe absolutely wears his concern for you plainly on his sleeve- he simply can't hide it. He's so gentle and handles you like you're made of glass, and if you don't talk him down, he'll fret over you endlessly. He'll look up remedies for your symptoms, take care of chores around the house, and more, all while tending to anything you could need.

- Naturally, one of the nicest things about having Ashe around when you're not well is that he's more than happy to read or watch something together with you and keep your spirits high. Hell, he's willing to read to you until you fall asleep if it will help. He's insistent on you getting your rest, but doesn't want you to get bored either, so he'll do his best to find nice things you can do to pass the time together.

- Ultimately though, he's pretty permissive and soft with you while you're sick. He'll get you whatever comfort food you have a craving for, and put a movie you've seen a thousand times on repeat for you if you want- he doesn't mind, he just wants to give you a reason to smile despite how you feel.