Obscene Symphony

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

_{April 13th}

---

“Really, really, it’s—guys, it’s fine!” Emi couldn’t help but giggle as a commotion of basketball club members buzzed around her, trying to make sure she didn’t feel excluded on the sidelines of the gym. They meant well, but it really wasn’t necessary – she was perfectly happy “observing”. In fact, she could have done without the extra noise; the myriad slams of basketballs, barks of coaches and squeaks of sneakers were more than enough to overwhelm the senses without several people trying to talk to her at once.

At long last she managed to convince the club members that she didn’t need accommodating, and was finally left alone to her relief. Gym class was entertaining for her in its own way; she usually didn’t have to attend, but often did anyway. She could read something braille if she wanted, but listening was fun in its own right – and she couldn’t deny a certain smug satisfaction that she got to sit comfortably while the rest of her class had to run or whatever. As if to prove a point, she soon heard a muffled thump-thump-thump nearby accompanied by an annoyed grunt, and had to stifle a giggle when she realized it must have been somebody falling.

Yes, the gym was a nice distraction, but now that she wasn’t being badgered, her mind soon returned to the dream she’d had a few nights past – the one that had dominated her thoughts ever since, and had barely given her a moment to breathe today. What started out as hope had gradually morphed into dread; William told her she had until “the day after next” to find “his door in her world”, and that was on the eleventh. Today was the thirteenth – the last day, according to his cryptic message.

And her searching had been fruitless. The school, however suspicious she thought it was, was behaving irritatingly normal. Emi suspected that “a place consumed by flames that should be no more” might have referred to the wreckages of her friends’ burned-down houses, but given so much of their adventure together revolved around fire, she couldn’t be certain. And regardless, she couldn’t even pay them a visit to check – ever since her breakdown after the fires, her parents were excessively careful to keep her away from the fire sites. Something about “tormenting herself” when she paid so many visits to the sites after the fires occurred. She would have snuck out under some other pretense to investigate, but her parents were smart enough to keep closer tabs on her now that she’d gone back to school. And it wasn’t like she could tell them that her friends’ potential freedom from the Other Side depended on it.

Ugh. She knew they meant well, but she wished they’d be a little less invested.

Suddenly, darkness fell across Emi’s very limited vision. She initially assumed it was someone passing in front of her, but a chorus of frightened exclamations throughout the gym told her the power must have gone out. Weird, last she checked the weather was calm.

Emi gasped – was this her sign? Was this the start of whatever awful thing was supposed to happen today?

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind than a sudden shot of critical awareness struck her, stopping her mid-breath.

There’s a butterfly on the door.

Emi didn’t need to see or hear or touch the thing to know it was there; her Euryphaessa sense made it as obvious as if the insect itself had slapped her across the face. She rose from her seat before even realizing she was moving, making her way along the gym walls as if pulled by some unseen wire around her chest. Fear and hope surged in equal measure, fighting for supremacy over her. Hope seemed to be winning, pulling her toward the butterfly, but fear was close on her heels, telling her to slow down, to wait, that she’d never dealt with something like this by herself before.

There’s a first time for everything, she told herself as she neared the door, banishing the burgeoning cowardice from her mind. Besides, any one of them would do the same for me.

---

_{@Hero @Scribe of Thoth @Asura @Lord Orgasmo}

Of Blood and Magic

It wasn’t long before Lilie emerged from the crowd, looking to Aaron like a dove among pigeons as she strode toward him, smiling. He smiled too at the sight of her, heart fluttering as she drew near, remembering with disbelief that the feelings they shared, their kiss, everything really did happen. The past few weeks were so wild he wasn’t sure until now that it wasn’t just a dream.

Despite his delight, his heart jumped into his throat when he felt Lilie twine her fingers in his. Something ingrained and instinctive sounded in the back of his head, some alarm bell he didn’t even have the time to name, and by reflex he pulled away, glancing around to make sure nobody had seen. That was risky, right? Who knew who was watching, what might spark rumours – who knew what Count Benjamin might think, let alone Varis! The smart part of his brain told Aaron his reaction was perfectly logical, but even still, his hand felt intolerably empty the second Lilie’s left it.

It all shot through his mind in the space of a second, and realizing Lilie might be offended, Aaron recovered by placing his hand appropriately on her back, moving with an apologetic smile to guide her to a seat.

“I just got here,” he reassured her as they walked, eager to move past his awkwardness. In any case, even as much as leading Lilie to a seat, however chaste and proper, was enough to make his heart flutter. “How were your classes?”

The sudden movement spooked Lilie for a second, her eyes wide as she looked up at Aaron. About half a dozen questions popped into her head: Was that too forward? Did her nails accidentally scratch him? Were her hands dry? Did it feel weird? Did she do something wrong? Maybe there was some sort of mage etiquette that she had missed—Ben wanted her covered from elbow to knee but then continuously walked in on her, so she was shaky on the rules.

Lilie semi-recovered once she sat down, though her hands were a little more fidgety than she would have liked. “Um, they were okay,” She replied. “Though the Dowsing class I just had with Max is gonna be a little rough, the teacher is scary. I think anything that isn’t pure affinity is going to need a lot of attention on my part.”

“Dowsing?” Aaron asked, noticing Lilie’s discomfort and feeling like a monster for it. Maybe that was uncalled for, it was such a simple gesture after all – and not to mention how badly he realized he wanted it now that he’d pushed it away. Goodness, it almost felt like his first day at the Academy again. Not that his first experience with Varis was anything close to this exciting new path he was tiptoeing, but he felt the same sense of insecurity, not knowing whether he was stepping on solid ground.

At least this round of nerves made him giddy instead of sick!

“I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of ‘dowsing’ before; I haven’t the slightest idea what that means,” he chuckled, very interested in moving the subject on. “But you don’t need to give me a lesson. You must be tired I’m sure.”

He knew he was. And hungry – maybe they should continue this conversation after getting some food. But he just sat them down, would it be weird to get up again so fast?

At long last, Aaron had to laugh at his own awkwardness, running his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry, I must seem a wreck,” he finally confessed, looking bashfully over to Lilie. His eyes were doubtlessly bloodshot and rimmed with dark circles that even concealer couldn’t cover, and he had no idea what he was doing. Why pretend he was anything but a total mess? It was Lilie who wanted him to lean on her, after all.

“I’m just so glad to see you,” he finally said. His jaw worked for a second, thinking he had something else to say, but eventually he closed his mouth, realizing that was the only coherent phrase he could utter at the moment.

If Aaron thought she was tired, she wasn’t sure what he would use to describe himself. It had been noticeable enough for her to notice when they first met up, but now that they were on semi-even level, it was obvious the poor guy was ragged. Lilie wanted to ask, but now she hesitated; he already withdrew from her once, what if he reacted poorly to her asking? He did say he'd explain later, and it was later, so it was probably better not to. Right?

His apology poked at her already bubbling guilt, though it wasn’t until he admitted he was glad to see her that Lilie finally gave him a much more genuine smile. Ah, there were the butterflies! Maybe she really was overthinking things.

"I'm happy you're here with me, too," She replied cheerfully, clapping her hands together. "I think any hard class will be easy so long as I get to see you."

As she finished talking, she felt her stomach grumble. Oh, right, lunch! She got up and placed her bag on her chair, turning to Aaron. "Let's leave our bags here and get something to eat first, though," She patted her stomach. "My cycle's all messed up again. I tried to be good, but my inner clock gets so wacky when I go back home. I guess you never have to worry about that at the castle, huh?"

It was such a small thing, but even just that little comment made all of the unpleasantness buzzing in Aaron’s head melt away. He didn’t dream it the first time; Lilie was happy just to see him! He stood up dreamily as she did, still floating in the giddy warmth that spread over him at something so small.

“Good idea,” he agreed, following Lilie. He grinned at her comment about her day-night cycle. “Nah, I guess not. Although they do try to get me to sleep in when I go home, I always end up getting up at the normal time anyway. Old habits I suppose.”

An unusually quiet sense of melancholy tried to speak up in the back of Aaron’s head, remembering how miserable he’d secretly been at the realization that they wanted him to sleep in because they now had someone else to do all his old tasks. As painful as that had been to swallow, Aaron had a sudden thought that Noila castle seemed awfully dreary compared to the dining hall this evening – and present company.

Hm. Maybe with Lilie around, a year away from the Noilas might not be so hard to survive.

“But aside from that, you must have enjoyed your break, seeing your family,” he continued, filling a plate with a hearty, balanced meal. “They must be proud of you.”

Lilie followed suit, not being too picky with her choices. Admittedly she wasn’t completely paying attention to the food as she was hanging onto Aaron’s every word. As he mentioned her family, however, she couldn’t stop her frown.

"I don't know, they were a little weird this time," She ended up admitting. "I mean, the first few days were fine, and I guess my brother was the same as always, but they were...um, how do I describe it?"

How did she describe her mom's sudden distance? Her dad said it wasn't related to Lilie at all, but it happened from one day to the next! She kept staring at the pictures in the hallway looking depressed, too, and she usually only did that around the anniversary of Lilie’s grandmother’s death.

“...I don’t know how to describe it,” Lilie ended up admitting, shaking her head. “But it’s not just them that are acting differently. Everyone in town kept staring and whispering, and some of them were taking pictures of me! I mean, it’s better than getting glares, but this was just as weird!”

Letting out a sigh, Lilie felt like she was complaining too much. “It was good to be home. But there’s a lot of stuff that’s changing for everyone, and I guess I just need more time to get used to it, you know?” She tried to spin it as a positive, not wanting to drag down the conversation. “How about your family? I bet your mom was happy to see you.”

Aaron’s brow furrowed at the sudden sadness in Lilie’s voice. Things were chilly at home? And he’d just ignored her for weeks on top of that! He wanted to reach out and hug her, but that annoying little alarm bell in his head wouldn’t let him.

“They’re probably not used to having noble mages like yourself visit their town,” he offered, trying, like Lilie, to lighten the mood. As for his own family…

“She was, yeah. She always is,” he ended up murmuring the last part, remembering the pain he was about to inflict on the poor woman by cutting ties for a year. A year! Stars above, he’d been so wrapped up in how he would be affected by the distance that he hadn’t even spared a thought for his poor mother! Could she handle it? He knew nobody stronger in the world, but she was ill – it was hard enough on her when he left the household, how would she manage complete silence for a year?

Aaron felt sick to his stomach as the two of them returned to their seats, and his food was suddenly a lot less appealing. But he tried to push the thought away. She always insisted she was stronger than she looked, and she had Dora and Clara and Princess Ryner to look after her. And if he told her why he was doing this, surely she’d at least understand, if not forgive him for it. They’d all made sacrifices for their charges; it was time for him to make his.

“Of course, I kinda stressed them out the past few weeks,” he added delicately, doing his best to tease out an uneasy grin. “But luckily that’s over now, and we— I shouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.”

“That’s good!” Lilie was happy to hear that at least he was better. She picked up her fork as she looked down at her food, deciding now was a good time to get in a bite before continuing the conversation. As she did, she chewed slowly, a thoughtful expression on her face. She let out a small noise of discontent, inhaling sharply as she held her hand out to stop Aaron from continuing.

“Wait,” Her muffled word came out, though she took a second to swallow before giving Aaron a serious look. “What do you think of the food here?”

Aaron did a bit of a double take when Lilie spoke up, thinking for a moment that she was about to spit out her food. At her question, he simply stared for a moment, feeling immediately self conscious.

“Uh, it’s… fine, I guess? Good?” he answered slowly, not sure if he should admit that food was food to him and the food here nourished him as much as the food at home did.

Making direct eye contact with the blond, Lilie slowly shook her head. “Fine. Just fine,” She repeated his words before using her free hand to point to her plate. “Exactly. I cook way, way better than this. So when are you coming over so I can show you how much better I am than these cooks here?”

The laugh escaped before Aaron could catch it, the blond hunching over the table as his shoulders shook in silent laughter. “Don’t let Her Highness hear you say that, I think she hired these cooks herself,” he joked, composing himself enough to take a bite of his food as he considered her question.

When could he go over? The logical part of his brain said never, it was a ridiculous idea to start with and he would be a fool to attend. Come on, a visit, most likely unannounced, to another Count’s dorm just so he could have dinner with his mage? Ha! Anyone else and he’d have laughed the idea out of the room. What a ridiculous risk, and what a flagrant disregard for his own master’s confidence, especially since his sneaking around was the very thing that got him into the present mess.

But the logical part of Aaron’s brain was uncharacteristically quiet for the moment, and drowned out by a newer and significantly louder part that told him he’d be a fool not to do it. He was about to wilfully cut himself off from everyone he knew and loved for a year to cleanse himself of his sneaky, lying, untrustworthy sins – what was one more to finish it all off? It was just like in movies, when a character goes on one last binge before quitting drinking. If anything, it’d be smart to purge his last few rebellious urges before committing himself to Varis, right?

He almost chuckled again – the very thought of him, of all people, having a rebellious streak would be funny if it wasn’t apparently true – but his mind was already made up, and some deep part of him feared that if he reneged on his decision now, he’d never find the courage to make it again.

“I’ll have to get back to you on the time, but tonight would be lovely. I’d have to be done by six regardless, but I bet we can make it work.” He took a drink of water before he could take the promise back. Goodness, what on earth got into him? He wasn’t sure, but he was surprisingly steadfast in wanting to ride with it for as long as he could. Besides, tonight was prime for something like this; ironically, Varis’ annoyance would work in his favour, and Aaron predicted he’d want the dorm to himself for the morning. Plus, there was the fact that it was now or never – once he walked back through that door, he’d have to give up on sneaking for good.

Somehow, Lilie didn’t think she could possibly be any happier, but on Aaron’s answer, her face lit up considerably. For some reason she thought that he would say no, but she was delighted to see that he kept to his word. She couldn’t really stop her smile even as she ate, completely satisfied that he finally made the commitment. Sorta. But that was good enough for her! In the back of her mind, though, she figured at least she didn’t have to worry too much about impressing him—she meant no offense to Her Highness, but her skills in the kitchen were way better—and started mentally considering what she could make. Oh, she’d have to make sure Ben wouldn’t stick around, she wanted some private time for just the two of them to make up for the lack of communication. And maybe for something else that was better kept behind closed doors.

Lilie couldn’t keep her eyes off Aaron despite the tiny blush building up on her cheeks. “Then it’s a date,” She wanted to say it confidently, but her giddiness got the better of her, and it came out as the words of a lovestruck, shy girl as she batted her eyelashes at him.

Seeing Lilie light up further reassured Aaron that he made the right decision, and hearing the word date filled his stomach with butterflies. He busied himself with his food, hoping Lilie wouldn’t notice the red flush in his ears, though he did pause long enough to say, smiling, “Can’t wait.”

_@Hero

Of Blood and Magic

Aaron could feel fatigue creeping in as he worked, but he was so accustomed to it that it only served to encourage him, letting him know he was accomplishing something. Much like learning a new technique with Lucan, each attempt felt a little more controlled than the last, and recognizing his mistakes and how to fix them ratcheted up his confidence a little each time. He didn’t even notice the time passing until Professor Daun spoke up to tell him class was over.

With a deep breath he hadn’t noticed he needed, Aaron straightened from the hunch he’d sunk into while he worked, cracking his back and looking around like he’d forgotten what room he was in. In a way he had; even now his mind was swarmed with butterflies as his concentration reluctantly faded away. Aaron would have preferred to practice longer, but Daun’s praise was welcome, and his stomach complained almost on cue at the mention of eating.

“Yes sir,” he muttered amicably, giving the professor a smile with his thanks as he gathered up his things.

Out in the brisk winter air, the snap of cold helped Aaron shake off the fog of intense focus completely – of course, with the unwelcome side effect of remembering all the things other than magic that demanded his attention tonight. A glance at his phone for his schedule reminded him about Varis’ proposal; one that, if he was smart, he’d spend every spare moment weighing. Not that there was much to weigh – in every sense he’d already basically accepted. What choice did he have? It wasn’t like he could refuse. Even if Varis kept him around and didn’t dispose of him outright, there was no way he could serve a master who couldn’t trust him. The very thought brought back a wave of the intense shame he’d felt when Varis told him so. He meant what he said; whoever he was, it wasn’t right to force a vampire to live with a mage he couldn’t trust. And how could Aaron live with himself knowing he was nothing but an untrustworthy burden, rather than an asset? That would be a fate worse than expulsion from service altogether.

No, he wasn’t so much considering his choice as he was dreading what it meant. As much as he tried to convince himself that his old life didn’t matter, he couldn’t just shake off twenty-one years of utter devotion. And Starag or not, any mage would be daunted by the complete loss of contact with his family for a whole year, not to mention being banned from seeking Princess Ryner’s counsel. He knew this was the only respectable choice, but that didn’t stop him from agonizing over it.

It took Aaron a moment to realize he’d just been standing in the snow, but an insistent nudge from his stomach reminded him that he only had half the usual lunch period to eat and get going. Trying to leave his dark thoughts outside, he rushed to the dining hall, letting the warmth and the hum of conversation distract him for the moment. There was something else demanding his attention too – Lilie!

Just the name in his head lifted Aaron’s spirits.. Right, he’d promised her they’d meet at lunch, and talk about that lovely little date she wanted to treat him to! A giddy warmth replaced the growing knot in his chest at the thought, and his eyes brightened as he looked around the dining hall, searching for a streak of white among the heads of the students.

_@Hero

Fire Emblem: The Slumbering Goddess

_{@Scribe of Thoth}

Fingers of dread had been twisting Lienna’s stomach ever since they were summoned to the Cathedral. Her nerves never had calmed since that ill-fated conversation with the pegasus woman, and she swore that the feeling of being watched had only grown more intense since that day after training, but it only got worse as the eyes of staff and saints bore into her while they waited for the address to begin. She’d tried to remind herself that anyone watching her should be either the wall-top guards or her fiancé’s faceless chaperone and not to start seeing faces in the shadows, but nothing worked; there was nothing she could do to quell the deep-seated feeling of wrongness that she now realized had been haunting her, in one way or another, since her first day here.

And to make matters worse, the Archbishop validated her concerns.

Lienna’s fingers twisted the heavy fabric of her skirt into knots to stop them shaking, holding on for dear life as though a storm were coming to blow her away. So it was true. As ready as she usually was to expect the worst, there’d been some small, silent part of her hoping that woman had been lying, hitting her with some tried-and-true ghost story to get troublesome students in line. But she wasn’t so lucky. It sickened her further to think that all this time, that creeping feeling of dread that always seemed to nag at her was actually right. She brushed it off as a remnant of a lifetime of looking in the shadows for raiders and wolves, overactive instincts from years of having to take care of herself. But she was wrong; maybe danger just seemed to follow her, all the way from the borders of Sreng to the peaks of Garreg Mach.

Was nowhere in this saints-forsaken country safe?

She wanted to stand up and leave, send a letter to her fiancé – surely he’d take her back to his fortress in a heartbeat if she forgave his end of their deal. Her time at the Monastery was supposed to make her safer, help her build a network of powerful friends to call upon if she needed to; no one would fault her for opting out if the very venture meant to ensure her safety was the thing putting her most at risk.

But she stayed in her seat, glancing suspiciously around the Cathedral as her classmates filtered out. She’d need someone to write the letter for her, and to read the Count’s reply. Would Auberon do it? No, she didn’t need a lecture on cowardice from the likes of him in these circumstances. Kellen? He might be thinking of going home himself, unless whatever waited for him back there scared him more than the possibility of being snatched in the night, dragged away by dark-clad strangers, screaming into a gag as they recounted their horrible plans…

“Mmh.” Lienna squeezed her eyes shut, pressing a palm to her forehead as if to physically push the image from her mind. Maybe she shouldn’t bother her Housemates with this. Maybe… no, Professor Michail was out, he’d probably shrug off her concerns as silly under the supposedly watchful eye of the all-powerful Knights of Seiros. Professor Tomai would probably do his best to get her to stay, too, given their little “mystery”... Ugh, and that was another problem! Goddess above, didn’t she have enough to worry about?! At this rate she’d have been better off in Hima!

That got her out of her seat, striding to the aisle with hopes of leaving that train of thought behind in the pew. Maybe Clarissa could help her; she seemed put-together enough to keep her judgements to herself, and by the looks of her grinning to her Housemates, she wasn’t too frightened – or at least, she was savvy enough not to show it. Lienna made a beeline to the redhead, but tripped on the way, having to catch herself on a nearby pew.

Glaring back to find whatever she tripped over, she found it was actually another student, that small red-eyed boy from target practice with the weird Adrestian magic. Weird, she hadn’t even noticed him.

“Sorry,” she murmured, looking eager to escape as she straightened her skirt.

Of Blood and Magic

Aaron listened intently to Daun’s critique until Varis stood, at which point the Count got his full attention. He stood almost a little too straight as Varis spoke, and bowed a little too quickly, but he couldn’t help it; after the emotional roller coaster of this evening so far, hearing something positive from Varis had him strangely on edge, like there was another, much less pleasant shoe just waiting to fall. But aside from a brisk reminder about his conduct, none did; he bowed his affirmation and Varis quit the place, leaving both Aaron and the Professor intact. At the risk of getting too confident, Aaron would call that a success.

Daun’s joke brought a guilty smile to his lips, but the very concept of invisibility snapped his mind back to the lesson – it would take diligent work on the fundamentals for him to manage those kinds of feats, and he was all too eager to get started.

Turning his attention to the butterfly in the Professor’s hand, Aaron tried to do as he was instructed, studying the form and gentle movement of the butterfly until he thought he had a pretty good idea of the key features. Two overlapping wings on each side, six long legs, a strangely mechanical way of moving, and of course that iconic pattern… It would take a long time to memorize all the details, but he had a suspicion that if he captured the gist, he could probably convince most people it was real, even if the fine details were wrong.

“Should I consider my audience?” Aaron asked absently, eyes still locked on the butterfly. “Say, there’s probably less room for error if the person who’s supposed to be convinced by my illusion has more knowledge of the model, right?” The questions were almost rhetorical, the wheels in his mind turning as he looked over the model. What if he needed to replicate a person? He’d probably need to be near-perfect to fool someone who knew that person well, but could probably get away with some mistakes to fool strangers. And he’d probably have more room for error if he was trying to fool something like a camera system over human eyes, right? Not to mention vampire eyes – it beggared belief any mage could possibly fool them, but there must be a way. The possibilities stretched out endlessly before him, growing exponentially with every new variable and situation that came to mind. How on earth could anyone perfect illusions with that much to consider, let alone move on to the myriad more complicated applications of Light magic?

Ah, but he was thinking too big. Right now, he needed to think small – about the size of a butterfly. Without waiting for an answer, he closed his eyes and tried the exercise again, making sure to stay more conscious of the process. When his magic tried to go its own way, he reigned it in. Guiding the process “manually” was more difficult, but soon enough he had an orange and black butterfly perched in his hand, moving its wings up and down like clockwork.

It certainly wasn't perfect, but at least it wasn't glowing. “A few more tries…”

_@Achronum

Of Blood and Magic

Aaron didn’t miss Varis’ reaction. He was more interested in his creation than Aaron himself, but that tiny hint of a smile, however brief, did more to put a spring in Aaron’s step than any praise Professor Daun could heap upon him. That was probably the most approval he’d gotten from Varis in weeks, even if the Count never even spared him a glance.

The Professor’s feedback was valuable too, although to Aaron’s surprise, he had little critique to offer. It seemed he was on the right track, hesitant as he was to believe it. Realistically, Daun was probably just being nice, not wanting to criticize him in front of his master; after all, Aaron could point out a few issues with the illusion right off the bat, not least of which being the unnatural glow of the butterflies. But maybe realism was the next step. He’d be sure to get more detailed critique from the Professor next class.

Daun’s comment about birds earned him a ghost of a chuckle; had he thought about it beforehand, Aaron probably would have put himself in that category as well. Was it because of his association with the Noilas? Best to keep that quiet if so, given present company – his last foray with crows did not come to a pleasant end. But… why hadn’t he defaulted to a bird? Did the episode after Revel scar him that badly? He was fond of birds – crows, ravens, magpies especially – and had more experience with them than probably any other creature small enough to replicate, butterflies included. But the butterflies came out so naturally. Why?

Aaron spun his ring as he considered his options, carefully watching the butterfly in Daun’s hand. Ravens loitered on castle grounds at all hours, and he’d probably spent entire nights over the course of his life hanging out with them, feeding them, and watching their mischievous antics. If he had any artistic talent, he could probably reliably draw one from memory. Butterflies, on the other hand, weren’t even nocturnal; he’d probably only ever seen them in the castle gardens on the way to bed, late in the morning after a long night. But somehow they felt so familiar, those fluttering, golden wings pulling at something insistent in the back of Aaron’s mind. It was like grasping at the edges of a dream just after waking, the memory at once vivid and fading too fast to recall.

“That’s interesting that you ask that… I’m not really sure,” he admitted honestly, glancing over to the Professor. He could feel Varis’ eyes on him, no doubt unimpressed with his answer, but confessing ignorance was always the smarter choice than lying. He’d learned that the hard way. “When I was picturing forming the ball, I couldn’t really put a name to what I was making. But when the illusion materialized, it felt like just what I intended. I was never unsure or confused, but I couldn’t have told you what I was making, either.”

He trailed off, eyes still fixed on Daun’s butterfly as he mulled over the mystery. After a moment, though, he decided he’d best try again, and set his feet back into the circle, closing his eyes.

This time, Aaron could see a clearer picture of his end goal: a single, larger butterfly, no longer hidden from his mind’s eye in a chrysalis. The exact source of the image in his memory was still uncertain to him, but it seemed his magic remembered better than he did; before he knew it, he was drawing light into his hands once again, his magic molding it readily into shape. This time, the conjuring was far less dramatic. The ball of light stretched and pinched into a butterfly’s shape before his eyes, and his magic seemed to fill in the finer details for him, its figure and pattern growing more and more pronounced until a larger, more realistic, and notably less glowing butterfly sat in his palm.

“Ah,” Aaron breathed, stooping to get a closer look. He wasn’t sure if he’d made any species of butterfly that existed in life, but it looked pretty good to him; it was a little large, but passable, and had a little black body, antennae, and big, gold wings with black edges and eye-like markings in the centres. He held it out for Daun to view, noticing when he moved his hand that the image didn’t quite move in sync with him. All things considered, though, Aaron was happy; fine coordination would probably be a lesson for another night.

_@Achronum

Fire Emblem: The Slumbering Goddess

_@Eleven

Despite her own best efforts and the sauna’s dogged attempts to relax her, Lienna was still on edge – enough that a movement in the corner of her eye and sudden splash of hot water made her yelp, startled, as she shrank back against the wall of the tub. Expecting some cloaked assailant ready to drag her from the Monastery to Goddess-knew-where, Lienna couldn’t decide whether to be relieved or angry when her frenzied search for her attacker revealed nothing but an all-too-nonchalant girl with a half-amused apology on her tongue. She couldn’t remember the girl’s name – even if the girl somehow had a nickname for her already – but the fronds of pink hair clinging to her forehead did ring a bell. She was one of the Deer, not a crazed and impossibly stealthy murderer abducting people from the holiest place in Fódlan.

Probably.

The thought made Lienna scan the room one last time, revealing nothing, before slicking the water off her face, once more telling herself to relax. By the time she opened her eyes, the pink-haired girl was much closer, sliding right up next to her and whispering something in her ear. What? Attack her? Who was Ronnie? The girl’s words were relevant enough to her conversation with that pegasus woman to put her on edge again, but the tone with which she said them was way too casual for them to be talking about the same thing. A joke, then? Great, that meant her discomfort was visibly obvious to everyone. Awesome. But wouldn’t they be watching their backs too, if they heard what she had? Should she be spreading the word?

A desperate glance over to Clarissa told her no one would come to her rescue for the moment; she seemed much more interested in chatting up Veronica of all people than reining in her Housemates. Lienna had to admit some surprise that someone as seemingly decent as Clarissa would waste her breath on a piece of work like that at all. Maybe she was just playing politics – Veronica was some kind of foreign princess or something, wasn’t she? – or maybe Clarissa was just good at acting nice when she wanted something. Or maybe she was one of those infuriating people who just somehow got along with everyone, although given the number of times Lienna had seen her put the screws to her own House Leader, that probably wasn’t the case.

The pink-haired girl, however, fit the bill perfectly, gleefully occupying huge swaths of Lienna’s personal space, buck naked, with nary a blink at the sharp look she was given. She reminded Lienna of a puppy, all playful exuberance and thinking everyone was her friend. Of course, dogs liked her about as much as horses, pegasi, and any other livestock did – which was to say, not at all – so Pinky over here was even exceeding that comparison.

Resigned to a conversation with the girl, Lienna slid aside a bit, putting some respectable speaking distance between them. “Who’s ‘Ronnie’?” she asked in a sharp whisper, not sure if the girl was telling her the name of the killer prowling the Monastery or some mythical sauna monster. “And who are you again?”

Fire Emblem: The Slumbering Goddess

_{@Scribe of Thoth @POOHEAD189 @Hero}

The Goddess must have been suffering just as much from the stifling awkwardness in the sauna as Jorah was, because it could only have been by Her grace that the sauna started filling up before Kayden could even get a word out in response. First came Auberon, apparently blessed with a Crest power that notified him when his fellow House Leaders started waxing inappropriate, then Derec with a question so strange and innocent it was downright cute, and finally, a whole host of rowdy young strangers, bringing with them a pleasant background of voices and emotions to fill the small yet emotionally cavernous space. No longer obligated to focus on making conversation with the guy who nearly killed his friend or on the other boy’s nagging self-consciousness, Jorah was able to properly relax, his antsy Crest and puzzling mind finally calming down to match his body.

“What else is there to talk about?” he finally asked, raising an incredulous eyebrow at Derec. Was it just a thing that redheads were prudes, or were Derec and Clarissa separated at birth or something? Unless Faerghian peasant Derec was about to break out into a thrilling tale of exotic, faraway lands, Jorah could think of nothing more engaging to substitute. “Besides, it’s an earnest question; unfortunately, my travels never took me as far as Adrestia, and most of their trade comes over by land. I’ve never really had the chance to sample their ‘finer goods’, if you catch my drift.” He shot a mischievous grin in Derec’s direction, although he couldn’t help but laugh. “Unless you count Brigid as part of Adrestia, I guess – in that case, I’m quite the connoisseur!”

Jorah chuckled openly to himself at the thought, picturing the ocean of differences between the wild and free Brigidese she-sailors he used to chase all over the docks and shrill, stiff, supple-as-a-nettle Veronica, before Derec reminded him of Auberon’s proposal. “I don’t know; how badly do you want Saint Cethleann sizing up your nethers?” he shrugged, not too keen on the idea himself. He shook his head. “Better to do it the Almyran way; I hear they put mosaics of dancing girls on the walls of their bath houses, in various states of undress. Then again, those ‘dancing girls’ turn into female warriors half the time when Rai tells the story, and he couldn’t have been much older than twelve when he left the country – for all I know, the Almyran bastard was probably lying to me all along.”

Jorah’s wide grin fell a little flat; that was the point where Rai would usually butt in to defend his unimpeachable honour on the topic of honesty and nudity, but of course, such a retort never came. It was certainly a shame that Duke Gloucester pulled him out of the Academy, especially so suddenly. It was probably for the best, considering all the “fun” he missed at Luin, but Jorah still mourned the loss of his friend to the gilded cages of Gloucester. It was a wonder Duke Riegan didn’t pull him out, too, but Jorah wouldn’t lament that decision; Rai or no Rai, Luin or no Luin, he didn’t need to be clapped back in irons back in Derdriu again too. Even if it seemed like his father was less concerned about the fate of his only son and heir than Duke Gloucester was for a foreign orphan he’d adopted.

Jorah clued back into the conversation as the topic went back to women of flesh rather than ceramic, and once more, despite his lingering distaste for Kayden, he couldn’t help but offer his two cents.

“First off, no thanks; I’d take a romantic evening with one of the mares in the stables over a night with that viper,” he joked, referencing Veronica. “If I were you, I’d worry more about her coming for you than whatever poor unfortunate you set your eyes on. Secondly, it’s not like you can take any of the girls here home to Enbarr anyway. Even if they weren’t all wrapped up in diplomatic strings of their own, how well is the Empire going to take to a homewrecker for a queen?”

It wasn’t usually Jorah’s way to worry about such trivial matters as duty and propriety – and honestly, the civil war that would start if the Adrestian Crown Prince blew off his fiancée for some chick from the Officers’ Academy would probably be pretty fun to watch from a distance – but for Kayden to act like taking a lover at Garreg Mach for a year and then dumping her, marrying Veronica and going off to rule Adrestia was anything but using a girl and then tossing her aside was ludicrous, even by Jorah’s standards.

“That’s why you find a girl just as bogged down with obligations as you are for your fling,” he continued, concluding his reasoning out loud. “No broken hearts, no political nightmare, no pitchforks and torches; just some innocent, unattached fun before you go chain yourself down forever. Then who’s to say she’s not just using you, hm?” Jorah crossed his arms triumphantly, though the laugh bubbling out of his chest betrayed him. “At least, that’s what I used to tell the Gloucester girls before Rai and Clarissa came to kick my teeth in.”

High Stakes: Character Death and Injury in Roleplay

For me, forum RP scratches a very different itch than tabletop. Players enter tabletop games content with the idea that random chance will play a big role in their journey; in forum rp, the journey is up to the players and GM to plan out and design themselves.

To that end, character death and injury is usually planned out well in advance and serves a specific purpose in the story, rather than being unexpected like it would be in tabletop. To use someone else's example, your MMA fighter wouldn't get injured and leave you figuring out where to take his story next, but rather you would probably have suggested the injury yourself because you want to take your MMA fighter through that lifestyle change and explore how it affects him.

If I were GMing, that's how I'd handle it, though I think you'll find this issue breaks pretty cleanly on tabletop vs non-tabletop people lines, lol.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona

_{April 11th—Afternoon}

---

Emi giggled quietly at Linda’s enthusiastic acceptance of her offer, both in satisfaction that her on-the-fly excuse had worked and at the idea of being a taste-tester. “Of course!” she beamed at Mizuame, extending her cane to make her way to the counter. “Makoto-kun always did think I was good at that. One of the advantages of blindness, I suppose!”

She giggled once more as she hopped onto a bar stool opposite the ovens, propping her elbows up on the counter between her and the bakers. She didn’t actually know if the whole “heightened senses” thing about blindness was true, but she always thought it was a fun idea. She didn’t think she really had any heightened senses - well, aside from the one Euryphaessa gave her, but that was unrelated - but then again, she’d never not been blind, so for all she knew she could be a superhero when it came to taste and smell. Why not go with it, right?

She set her folder aside and simply listened for a moment, propping her chin up on her wrist. The nervous-sounding boy seemed to be coming out of his shell a little bit, and by the sound of his remarks, he was familiar with cooking himself. A knot formed in Emi’s throat as she listened to him and Maeda talk about eggs and heat and whatever else; she couldn’t help but notice that his meek tone of voice, paired with his relative expertise, reminded her a lot of Makoto. Come to think of it, the two of them shared many a moment like this before, Makoto talking the intricacies of cooking and her listening intently as the smells of his baking filled the room. It was bittersweet, to say the least. If only she had stopped to savour it back then, rather than reminiscing on it now.

A sudden bang on the counter made Emi jump, startling her out of her melancholy. Maeda’s following battle cry revealed the noise to be nothing more than an expression of enthusiasm, fortunately, but the ingredients he listed off sounded incomplete.

“Don’t you need baking powder, too? So they fluff up?” she asked, tapping her jaw. “Or are you making American pancakes? I hear they don’t really rise at all.”

---

_{@Hero @Scribe of Thoth @Lord Orgasmo}