#Adrestia stuff | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

slotumn · 21 days

Text

Thoughts and ponderings on how to make the Golden Deer eviler™ and more involved in Fódlan politics and the war and why that would be good for the worldbuilding (note: GD are my faves)

First and most obvious imo: war profiteering. It would help establish their character as mercantilists who can be just as cruel as others even without direct bloodshed, if they sold supplies and weapons to both Adrestia and Faerghus over the five years and profitted off said bloodshed.

Extension of the above: price gouging. Oh your country had bad harvests this year? That's so sad. So, how much are you willing to pay to make sure your troops don't starve?

More extension of the above: loan shark shit. Especially cruel if Adrestians and Faerghans are forced to borrow from a Leicesterian cartel just so they can buy stuff from... another Leicesterian cartel.

Possibly the final boss of "evil shit to sell during a war": drugs. The frontlines are said to have been in a stalemate for a while, meaning the soldiers are just stuck there up north without making much progress, for a couple years. That must be painful both physically and psychologically. Thankfully, your good friends from the Alliance have juuuust the thing to make you forget the painful reality! Ever heard of opium?

If that's not enough action, then how about: Leicester doing various operations to keep the conflict going and ensure that it can't end, either by compromise or surrender. Sabotage potential deals, do false flag operations, anything to make sure the Kingdom and Empire both fight until the last soldier, because that way they won't have any left to attack the Alliance with.

There must be desperate people escaping Kingdom and Empire and coming to the Alliance for various reasons. But it's difficult to feed all these new mouths, not to mention that it might aggro the Empire if they accept too many people from Faerghus or defectors from Adrestia. What's Leicester to do? Use them as slave labor in some remote place like the Goneril mines, obviously. They've trafficked Almyrans, they'll gladly do it to Adrestians and Faerghans, too.

Aside from making Leicester more involved in the politics, I think this is a good way to justify and set up a true three-way conflict instead of Kingdom vs Empire feat Alliance.

For the Empire, it gives a good reason for them to go on an active military campaign against Leicester (as in CF) before heading to crush the Kingdom. "Evil underhanded motherfuckers are trying to destroy us by selling us drugs and sabotaging our operations, we can't let that stand for the future of Fodlan" + stomp on them to make sure they don't try any funny business in the future.

For the Kingdom, well... I think it makes it somewhat harder to justify the Derdriu rescue part in AM*, but I do think it gives more justification to why they're totally unwilling to cooperate with the Alliance at Gronder, even aside from Dimitri being feral. Like from their POV, tf you mean "what does it achieve," you put us in debt and destroyed our economy and now you're trying to imply we should team up?

(*If it's presented the same as in canon, I think it can still work if it's framed slightly differently, like Leicester growing desperate enough to grovel for help from the same faction they were previously trying to sabotage and Dimitri decides to do it for the greater good and the future of Fódlan instead of holding a grudge)

Also a good way to fuel tension between Church and Alliance in VW even though they work together; Alliance uses the fact they've got the money to basically blackmail Church into giving them legitimacy for propaganda purposes, Church thinks Alliance is dangerous and unfaithful, partially because they've got sticks up their ass but also because they are, in fact, kinda fucked up. (And Byleth is just stuck mediating between the two rip)

Most of all, this is my personal taste but I like that it makes Fódlan even bleaker than it already is. Like if you take a step back and just look at the factions as nations instead of focusing on the virtues of the individual leaders, it's: superiority complex irredentist imperialists vs inflexible outdated zealots vs greedy backstabbing opportunists, feat. religious institution that has long since grown corrupt and complacent. If you are a random person (probably commoner) in Fódlan who does not know the leaders personally, war would look pretty bleak, especially the longer it goes on. It would look like no matter which faction wins, the average person would lose.

And I think that would make it all the more impactful when Byleth appears and ends the war, especially in SS. The chosen one and savior isn't a noble raised to lord (lol) over others, it's someone raised as a commoner* doing the dirty work (fighting and killing) for others. When they get to lead and/or the leaders listen to them, something finally changes. I have issues with how Byleth was handled as a character in base Houses (even though I grew to like them eventually), but I still think their existence and role is nice symbolically and thematically.

(*You can argue that Byleth isn't a "regular commoner" considering the Crest + their heritage, but like, they don't know about the Crest until they've lived ~20 years as a merc and in some routes they don't even fully learn about the heritage so for all practical purposes they lived and grew up as a commoner)

Think I went on a bit of a tangent but the point is: let the Golden Deer and Leicester be evil, I think it would have been really fun if they destroyed the other two countries' economies with the power of money and friendship* then had a feast afterwards like a bunch of psychopaths (*among themselves I mean, not friendship with the other factions).

#fe3h #fire emblem three houses #meta #i think #golden deer #leicester alliance #the virgin 'my fave did nothing wrong'#vs the chad 'my fave needs to do more wrong and everyone needs to commit more atrocities in general'#slotalks #fe3h meta

19 notes · View notes

sunflowersandforgetmenots · 2 years

Text

A Bond Like No Other ~ Werewolf Kassandra x Reader

You’ve known Kassandra all your life. She was your closest friend, your greatest encourager, your strongest desire. You kept her secret faithfully, knowing that other mercenaries would jump at the chance to hunt down a Lycan. But the night before a full moon, Kassandra doesn’t feel well at all, and she’s left alone in your care. And her own desire isn’t being held back.

RAGH I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SCREAMS!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm SO sorry this took so long!!!!! I just wasn't feeling it for a while and now I will be able to write other stuff!!!! I hope you all like it!!!!!!

Note: Please don't tag this as Furry or other related stuff. I am uncomfortable with NSFW Furry stuff. This is monsterfucking. Thank you

Potential CW: Drawing blood

Tagging: Werewolf, size difference, voice kink, Switch Kassandra, Switch Reader, Monsterfucking, Attempted Knotting (if you squint), overstimulation (mentioned)

Word Count: 4973

Kassandra of Sparta was a beast. Not just on the battlefield and, if rumors were to be believed, not just in the bedroom. No, the misthios from Kephallonia was literally a beast of myth and legend. A human that, during the full moon, unwillingly changes her form to that of a wolflike beast. A lycan. A bloodthirsty werewolf. Something that would shake the knees of even the burliest of soldiers.

But here she was, sprawled out on the floor of your living space, nude and asleep. How she had gotten out of the room you lent to her; you had no idea. If she had killed anything or anyone, that you also had no idea about. As soon as you had come down into the living space, your hand slapped over your eyes. Now, you’re slapping around for a blanket or a rug to toss over her to keep her decency. (Though you had dreamed about seeing her naked, you have hoped before that it wasn’t when she was passed out from exhaustion.)

You find one, a thicker blanket meant for the winter months, and you toss it over her. Finally, you remove your hands from your eyes and examine the room for any damage. The table is cracked, and the door to the room she stays in during the full moon was torn off the hinges entirely the night before. Surprisingly, however, there are no trails of blood, there is no damage outside. Did she not leave the night before? What did she do?

“Kassandra.” As you nudge her with your foot, she groans, rolling onto her side. Her hair is loose and tangled, face covered in drool, and your heart skips a beat because of it. “Wake up. You broke my door again.”

“Shhh… you are so loud, (Y/N).” She grumbles, hiding her face with her forearms.

“You destroyed my door!”

“And I will have it fixed, spitfire. Come lay down with me.” She shoots you a sleepy grin, peeking up at you. She’s lucky she’s charmed you already. If you were any less in love with her, she would be paying for far more than just the door at this point.

You settle down next to her, laying flat on your back to look up at the ceiling. You feel her fingers brush against yours for a moment, and as you look over, you are very starkly reminded that Kassandra is naked underneath blanket you draped her with.

She’s looking at you, and those brown eyes are ringed with gold even after her transformation. The look is intense and makes your face flush. You turn away, heart pounding, and you hope that the next month she comes to your little abode, you’ll have the courage to tell her how you feel.

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

Kassandra does have your door fixed, but no explanations for you. She had left, only leaving you with a quick hug, money for the door and the room (though you insist that it’s not renting), and the broken door. You had watched her from your step, her tall form slowly disappearing into town where the Adrestia was docked. Then you turned back into your home to clean up, kicking yourself for not confessing.

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

“Chaire, my friend!” Kassandra is beaming as you open the door for her. In her arms is a chest, small, though it seems to be heavy. “I’ve brought you gifts!”

You look at the box warily, closing the door behind her as she sets it down on the table. “Gifts? Why? Did you do something?”

“Must you always think that I’ve gotten myself into trouble, (Y/N)?” She laughs a bit. “Come open it, I promise, it’s just a gift. Another thank you for taking care of me and putting your life at risk.”

Your heart melts a bit, though you frown. You’ve talked to Kassandra about this before, that for some reason she’s never even growled at you, much less threatened you, so there was no reason for her to fear for your safety in her presence. It weighs on her, being a lycan, and you know that the only reason she kept the Adrestia and her family near her is because she has a safe place to stay during the full moons, far from people and her friends and family. Except for you.

Despite this back and forth, her insistence of her danger and your return of her safety, you accept her gifts. They were signs of her affection for you, though platonic, and you know it brings her comfort that you are being paid for your service to her, though you see it as a favor more than anything.

“Fine.” You sigh, sitting across from her. You flip the box latches open, the wood creaking as you let the lip drop. “Oh my gods.”

Inside is the most beautiful tapestry you’ve ever seen. You’re a weaver, and you pride yourself on your work, but that means your home is covered in fabrics of your own creation and of others’. The collection was sizeable and it seems that Kassandra has brought you the crown jewel of them all. As you hold it out, it shimmers in the sunlight. Depicted upon it was the tale of Eros and Psyche, beautifully designed and woven in a way that made you nearly swoon.

“Kassandra, this is…” You run your hand over it gently, then look up at her. “This is beautiful!”

“Only the best.” She says in response. As your arms toss around her neck, squeezing her tight in a grateful hug, she holds you back, strong arms wrapping around your waist. She presses her face into your neck, picking you up a bit as she normally does when the two of you hug.

Then you feel her sniff, pressing her nose against your skin and taking a deep smell of you. Her hands grip you just a bit tighter, sharp nails digging into your hips painlessly. There’s a rumble in her chest, and if she wasn’t literally a dog-person, you would say that she’s purring.

“Kass? You… You okay?” There’s no fear, only confusion, but the stutter in your voice must have scared her. She sets you down quickly, taking a step back.

“Are you okay? I don’t know what came over me, fuck.” She curses, looking over you worriedly but not reaching out to you at all. Instead, her hands are fidgeting, running through her hair, twitching a bit, and her foot taps.

“I’m fine!” You insist. “You didn’t hurt me.” You step forward, causing her to step back. “Kassandra.” Another step, another backstep.

“I can’t control myself well building up to full moons, I should have been more careful. Let my instincts take over.” She moves around the chair she was sitting in, not letting you touch her at all. “I’m sorry, (Y/N), even if I didn’t hurt you.”

“You didn’t even upset me, Kassandra. Will you please, let me be a good friend and comfort you?”

“If I give in, I might start turning early.” She says, though she stops in her tracks despite her slight protest. Even in her armor, so tall and big as she is, Kassandra looks nervous, like she is much smaller than she was. Whatever she is worried about, it’s something that the ever-confident misthios couldn’t fight with her own will alone. It worries you, but you can’t let her see that, it might make her run off to the room before you can actually spend any time with her.

“What does your instinct want you to do then?” You ask, keeping your distance for her comfort. “I promise, you won’t hurt me. And if your instinct wants you to hurt me, we can go ahead and get the room ready, and we can talk in the morning about it. I’m not afraid of you, but I want you to feel safe and comfortable when you change.”

The expression you get in return of your little speech is one of surprise and, you notice with joy, relief. Her shoulders relax and her hangs a bit, much like a puppy who might be in trouble.

“I don’t want to hurt you, in any way. But I do fear that what I want… might hurt you on accident.” There’s something under her tone that sends a thrill down your spine to a spot you now try to ignore. Her eyes are slightly glazed over, like whatever she was thinking about was too distracting, and there was only one thing that you could think might be what she wants.

“And what is that?” You step forward, and this time, she doesn’t move backward. She watches you, and now both of you are aware of the obvious tension in the air. Her eyes flick down over you before meeting your gaze, slowing over your curves as she does so. Her teeth are sharper, nails already starting to turn into claws as she starts to give into whatever desire she had.

“I want you.” She breathes out. “I want you to be my mate, I want to be yours. I want…” You see her press her thighs together. You can’t help but breathe a little harder as you get closer. “I want you to crawl into my bed and stay there until I’m satisfied. But I might lose control. I look different when I’m transforming, when I’m transformed. Do you really want that risk?”

You’re standing in front of her now, only half a foot away. If you get any closer, you might not even make it to her bed.

“For you? I would risk everything.”

That consent, that resounding ‘yes’ to her desire, seems to snap the last bit of resolve she has. You crash into each other, hands roaming like you were on a time limit to hold each other like this. Your lips press into each other, messy and rough, more teeth than lip. Her hands, so strong and capable, scoop you up under your thighs to carry you into the room she stays in.

A whine escapes you as she pulls away, tossing you onto the bed that’s much more a pile of blankets and pillows so she can close the door. Then she’s back to you, on top of you now, pressing her lips to your neck and throat, barely skimming her teeth over your skin. You want to warn her to be careful, to make sure that no blood is drawn to avoid cursing you, but you hesitate. Does she want to be in charge, or…

You take the risk. Tangling your hand in her braid, against her scalp, you tug her head back to look you in the eyes. You sit up, and to your amazement, Kassandra follows submissively, expression quickly changing into surprise and a tinge of excitement.

You hover your lips over hers, holding her back to keep her from reaching your lips. “No biting, Kassie.” The husk of your tone surprises both of you, but neither of you seem disappointed. “You want me in your bed until you get what you’re satisfied? You have to be a good girl.”

The last two words have her straightening her back, and she nods as much as she can against the firm grip you have on her. You let go, and she carefully goes back to your throat, kissing and sucking on the skin now instead of near biting. You praise her, noting that the words have her rut against the bed a bit. You praise her again, voice soft and sweet, and she lets out a little moan. Her claws dig into your hips a bit, and you wrap your legs around her hips, pulling her in.

“There’s….” She pants out. “There’s an olisbos in my.. in my bag.”

“Then go get it.” You encourage, untangling from her. The moment you do, she’s running for her bag she left in the living space, and you hear her armor drop carelessly to the floor. When she returns, she’s in her chiton, short and stained from countless battles, and she’s holding a black phallus in her hand, along with some kind of belt. Her eyes, now golden, are blown out, teeth and claws dangerously sharp, features shifting to a more wolfish form, and her skin is taking on a greyish tinge. She was close to transforming, but this, whatever this was, was keeping her semi human.

“Good job.” You coo, and she grins at you, rejoining you on the bed. The olisbos and belt are set on the side table and she kneels between your legs obediently.

“What… what do you want me to do now?” She’s shying now, clearly a bit out of her element with this submission, but luckily for her, you were just as floundering as she was.

But there was something in your brain that knows what it wants, knows how to handle this, and so your hands slide up her arms teasingly. “If you’re careful with your teeth…” Her ears perk up. She’s already so wolflike in appearance and behavior, and it makes you feel a little more daring. She was being so… obedient, something you had previously thought wouldn’t appear in the bedroom. You take the risk. “You can eat me out…” It came out shyer than you intended, but it’s enough to have Kassandra taking action.

Her hands slip under your chiton, ripping it off you in a smooth ripping motion. You protest slightly, moving to close your legs, but you earn a growl from her, her lips already pressing against your stomach. She slips off your undergarments, being a bit more careful with her claws. Kassandra rumbles a bit, pressing a kiss to the skin of your hip, sucking gently to leave a mark. A whine escapes you as her claws run down the inside of your thighs.

“Kass…” The breath leaves you in short bursts, you curl your hands into the blankets, sitting up on your elbows to watch her descent upon you. Gold eyes lock onto yours as you can feel her breath against your wet heat. They were intense, glowing in the afternoon light that streams through the window.

“You smell perfect.” She says, voice low and warped, closer to growling than actually speaking. You pray to the gods that she doesn’t notice it causes you more arousal, finding the fact that her voice can turn you on first of all embarrassing, and second of all, ammo for Kassandra to use against you.

“Go on.” You urge, using a hand to pet her cheek. “Pretty Kass…”

Another rumble from your werewolf, then she finally goes down, swiping her tongue flat against you. Your back arches a bit, and you whine from the pleasure. It felt like electricity, to finally be touched by her like this. You feel her tongue enter your folds, shallowly running between them. You feel her groan, like your taste got her off all on its own.

The short flicks of her tongue set your nerves on fire, sending shocks up your spine to make you gently cry out her name and praises as she carefully eats you out. She was being so careful with you, her teeth only barely graze you occasionally. Her hips shift behind her, and your gaze meets, two sets of eyes both heavy with arousal.

“Come up…” You bade her to come closer, despite your own dripping cunt, because you know she needs relief far more than you do. “Come on, Kassie.” Your hands cup her cheeks as she pulls away just enough, the wetness on her mouth and chin glistening in the evening sun. You pull her up, guiding her over you.

You kiss her, delightfully tasting your own bittersweet nectar, and she kisses back eagerly, the wolf woman pressing you into the blankets and sheets. Kassandra groans against your mouth, and you shift your leg.

“You wanna get off, pretty girl?” Your breath is heavy, overtaking your voice in a way that makes it come off as more domineering than you were really expecting you can do. She nods, whining into your hair.

Her hands roam your body, pressing you into her body while she tries to find friction. “(Y/N)…” She groans, pressing her face into your cheek before you slither away, propping yourself against the wall of pillows. “No…” The look she gives you as you separate is near heartbreaking, but despite that, you take in her appearance.

She’s half transformed, face a strangely alluring combination of human and wolf. Her skin is tinging grey, fingers elongated into claws, already large form slightly larger. Her golden eyes are blown out still, staring at you with the saddest puppy eyes in the whole world. You position your legs comfortably, running your hands down your front to rest on your thighs.

“Right here, Kassie.” You hum, patting your left thigh. “Sit here, and we can both get off. Does that sound okay?”

“More than okay.” She whispers, moving over quickly to take the position you offered her, stripping her clothes off along the way. You move your hands, resting them on the slightly furry surface of her thighs and hips. Her knee presses against your warmth, making you sigh at the pressure. “I am… not crushing you?” The words seem to take a lot of effort from her, and you tap her thighs gently.

“You’re not crushing me, Kassandra.” You assure her, stroking her skin before running your hands up over her stomach, her chest, her neck, finally stopping at the sides of her head. You have to sit up slightly, reaching as far as you can to do so. “Are you okay? We don’t have to do this. I don’t want to… take advantage of this.”

“You’re… not.” She shakes her head. “I want this.” She leans over you, pushing you back into the pillows, pushing her own hips against your thigh and making her shudder. “This… it’s so good.” The misthios whines, continuing her ministrations with increasing enthusiasm, her leg pressing into you in the same rhythm her ruts take on. “I want… to take you. To ruin you. Make you beg for me… but it’s so nice, just to have this…” She punctuates her words with soft whines and moans, pressing her lips and tongue and teeth against your neck, against your throat. “To do what you want. I can do more.” She insists, nibbling on your ear in a way that has you shuddering against her.

The pressure between your legs and in your abdomen build, making you tense your legs and try to squeeze them tight to no avail. The werewolf on top of you chases her pleasure, leaving you senseless in the wake of her rocking thigh and her wandering mouth. You were close, and Kassandra knew it, with her lips pressed against your collarbone. Her hands grip your hips, keeping you still despite your pleasured squirming. But you want her to come first. You want to see her unravel on top of you, to focus on herself for once.

You reach up despite the growing haze and grab her by her chin. The motion makes her pause and you take the advantage to use your other hand to brush her hands off your hips. A pillow falls to the floor as you shift, moving away from her leg pressed against your cunt, but keeping hers against your thigh. You bump your leg up, pressing into her more, and take your free hand to slither between your skin and her warmth. Two of your fingers press into her slowly and stay there, butt of your palm against her clit.

She arches her back, looking down at you with clouded eyes. She groans, low in her throat, and you pull her down to rest her forehead against yours, still gripping onto her chin. You know she can break it if she wants. You know that she won’t. Kassandra holds herself up with her arms on either side of you, staying still as she waits.

“Cum on my fingers, Kassie.” You whisper to her. “Be a good girl and chase your own pleasure.”

She whines once more, deep, low, and long. Nevertheless, she rocks her hips, gasping and moaning out garbled curses and versions of your name. Her walls squeeze around your fingers, warm as her wetness drips down your hand and thigh. You glance down between the two of you, watching as she grinds against your hand.

As she finishes, legs tightening around your thigh, panting in your ear, you pump your fingers in and out of her in rapid succession, pushing her through her orgasm. The sun finally dips below the horizon with perfect timing, the room finally going dark as you slip your fingers out of her and lick them clean. She stays above you, breathing heavily.

“You did such a good job.” You assure, petting her face, watching the slow change of her face.

“I want…” She pants out, reaching behind her with a clawed hand, pawing for the olisbos and it’s attached belt. “To make you feel that… ten… ten times over.” Her voice is so deep it’s nearly a growl, and she uses the last bit of her concentration to fix the phallus onto her hips.

No… that wasn’t the last bit. She leans forward, kisses you tenderly on the forehead, and points to the set of drawers next to the bed. “Silver… in there… just… just in case.” She’s sweating a bit, eyebrows screwed up in concentration. There’s no point in fighting her on this point. You nod and pet her cheek.

“Take me, Kassandra.”

She surges forward, adjusting quickly to kneel between your legs and split them open. She looks more wolf than woman, but you still see her in there, beneath the changes. She grins at you, her normal, heartwarming grin, and pushes her full length into your warmth.

You cry out as she fills you out, pressing the back of your hand to your mouth and holding onto her arm as though it would steady you. Thank the gods she has enough sense in this form to wait, sniffing at your face and cheek with a gentle concern. You wrap your arms around her neck and shoulders, pressing your forehead into her neck, and she thrusts into you in an exploratory way. After a few of those gentle thrusts, when you have no complaints other than a very gentle “Please”, she thrusts into your cunt with vigor, pounding into you with enthusiasm.

Your hold on for dear life, digging your nails into her skin, feeling the fur under your fingers and against your front, the long olisbos drilling into you. It hits deep inside of you, stretching your opening out in a sweet and painful way.

“Ah- Kass-“ Your moans ring out through the little room, likely carrying out through the window. Already, the thought of neighbors was slipping through your mind. You grip tighter onto her, being pierced through by her cock over and over again.

She grabs your hands, forcing you to stay on your back as she sits above you, rocking her hips into yours in a perfect, steady rhythm. Her hands, her claws, grip onto the soft under of your thigh and lifting it to rest your calf on her shoulder. She angles you, pushing you onto your side to split you open more, drive into you more. The base of the olisbos meets your opening, making you squeeze around it as you prop yourself up just a little bit, reaching for the hand at your hip.

She growls a little, and it startles you, making you pull your hand back, but before you can, she grabs your fingers, holding onto them tightly as she thrusts into you. She leans forward a bit, stretching your leg out just to kiss the tips of your fingers. Her kisses aren’t soft anymore, more teeth than lip, but just the press of the two of them together makes you sigh happily, relaxing into the mattress as she fucks you.

You reach your first orgasm with a crash, squeezing your walls around her with a loud moan. You tense, squirming as the previously lost crest finds you again, and the force of it, the way that Kassandra speeds up to fuck you through your orgasm, makes you hazy as you come down, moaning and going nearly limp in her grasp. You press your face into the pillows, overwhelmed by the feeling.

The werewolf bringing you to this point pulls out of you, leaving you empty and dripping and cold. She says nothing, merely cooing and pushing you onto your front. She lifts up your hips, bending down to nose at your entrance.

Her tongue, warm and alarmingly human laps at your cunt, catching the dripping wetness from your orgasm and devouring it. After she essentially cleans you, she rises up again, pressing the olisbos against your cunt.

You turn your head to look at her over your shoulder, starting to prop yourself up on her arms. Your actions are met with a soft growl, and she pushes between your shoulderblades, pushing you back down into the mattress.

“Stay.” She growls out.

“Kass…” You moan, pressing your hips back against her in an attempt to goad her instincts. You need her in you, you need her to take you viciously. She takes the bait eagerly, bending over you to fuck you properly into the mattress. Her teeth press against your shoulder, against your nape, against your face as she slams the olisbos into your warmth. Her nails dig into your hips drawing a bit of blood, but the pain makes it all the sweeter as you gush around the smooth stone of the olisbos.

She holds you down, her weight on top of you keeping you in place as she keeps her brutal pace. You rock back with all you can, trying to meet her halfway, and the futile efforts of moving urges her on more, groping at your bleeding hips, your shaking thighs, your quivering chest. You note, just barely through your blissed out haze, that she focuses a lot of her attention onto your chest, holding you close to her own by grabbing at your soft skin.

Kassandra growls into your ear, her pants growing louder. She presses you into the bed with more of her weight, slowing down but not letting up on the force of her thrusts. It was too much, the sensory overload of the noises she’s making and the warmth of her transformed body distracting you from just how many times you had cum from this onslaught of pleasure. You feel wetness on your cheeks as you turn your head to rest your cheek into the pillow. You can’t feel your legs anymore, you can barely feel the rest of your body as the werewolf on top of you claims you over and over again. But it's perfect. It’s exactly what you wanted, what she needed. The complaints of the pain will come in the morning, but right now, it was the only thing you could ever ask for.

Then, the onslaught stops, Kassandra pressed hilt deep into your weeping cunt as she grinds into you slowly. Her mouth opens, resting her sharp teeth on the side of your throat as her hips twitch. You freeze, keeping as still as you can as your lover rides out her orgasm, growls slowly fading away as she comes down.

She doesn’t pull out of you, though her teeth are removed from your throat. She nuzzles into your face, cooing softly at you with a garbled, twisted up voice. “Perfect… mine.” Kassandra rumbles, holding you close as she flops to the side. She slips out of you a bit, but with enough finagling, she finds a position to keep you close, to keep herself sheathed into her warmth.

You lay on top of her, head resting on her furred shoulder and straddling her hips. A blanket is draped over the both of you, though the warmth from the misthios under you has a thought of ‘too warm’ drift through your hazy mind.

You wake the next morning naked, sticky, and hot. You lift your head, blinking blearily in the sunlight streaming through the window. Kassandra snores from underneath you, human now, and her arms fall from around your waist as you sit up.

The blanket slides off of your shoulders easily, and you shift to take it off completely, only to be starkly reminded of the thick object still pressed all the way inside of you. Still sore, you wince as you slide off, face burning. It glistens with the wetness of your spend last night, and as you look at Kassandra, sweaty, muscled, handsome with the olisbos still secured to her hips, a very stupid part of your brain urges you to clean it off with your tongue and give her a surprise.

Instead, you poke her shoulder and face, earning a grunt and two strong hands grabbing your shoulders and pulling you in, rolling to keep you against her chest.

“Kassandra-!”

“As I said last month, (Y/N), you are so loud.” She whines, pressing her nose into your throat. “Lay with me a bit longer, my love.” Your silence and the heat of your face cause her to laugh. “Just a bit longer, then we can bathe. How does that sound? A bath and a massage for those perfect legs and hips?”

You huff and roll your eyes, affection building in your chest. She loves you. This wasn’t a one-time thing because she loves you. You muster all of your affection, love, and patience into your next sentence.

“Stop flirting and go back to sleep, you big dog.”

#kassandra x reader #Kassandra of Sparta #not minor safe #monsterloving july #reader insert #My writing

195 notes · View notes

fireemblems24 · 6 months

Text

Azure Gleam Ch 10

Onto AG Ch 10. Slowly making my way through all the Hopes routes.

MAIN STORY

Guys, I finally made AG Ch 10. Between wisdom teeth and a concert and FE Engage and other stuff I haven't had a lot of time to actually play much.

Aegir is not leading Adrestia well. It's so funny to me that so many dads got white-washed but they still left him an idiot.

So we're starting part 2. And Adrestia has gone to shit. I guess the nobles went full maniac the second Edelgard's gone. It's really a nation of sociopaths.

Rhea just said "knaves." I love that word.

Ohhh, Rhea brought up that lack of donations that Dimitri noticed in Houses, cool call out.

And they're putting it all together. Thomas, Cornelia, Thales - I love this, you guys. Dimitri and co getting to go after the people who did Duscur. Don't get me wrong, Edelgard is the far superior villain to TWSITD. And if I had to pick between the two, I'd pick her. But given that Dimitri gets two stories, I'm glad one of them gets this.

Claude is here!??? Does this mean he's not siding with Edelgard in AG? It'll be funny if he's the smartest in Dimitri's route - again.

Oh, we get a Claude and Dimitri team up? That's pretty cool. I doubt we get to use him though.

So it's cannon now that all three (church, Kingdom, and Alliance) are all weaker put together than Adrestia as one.

I also just noticed since Adrestia went full evil, that Dimitri is morally right in invading them to rescue the citizens lamo. He's really the "good boy" in Hopes. Though, he always was if you just removed the massive trauma events.

We're going to reclaim Garreg Mach! Cool.

Pretty cool seeing Rhea, Dimitri, and Claude all talking strategy.

Claude seems like he still wants to get rid of the church. But Dimitri's too realistic about it haha. The only one not living in an anime power fantasy.

Oh, cool, got some Golden Deer members playable now. And Lorenz uses his few lines to drag Claude lol.

If Rodrigue is in the West, does that mean no Rodrigue this chapter? Big sad.

MAP/SIDE QUESTS

Haha, some random merchant just said Dimitri lifted a whole ass cart out of the mud (she only later found out Dimitri did it).

This is the only route that lets Catherine and Shamir be girlfriends. By default it's the most superior.

Ingrid's alive again 😭

Interesting fact, Sylvain's mom actually really cared about Miklain.

Dedue is worrying about Dimitri and his overly enthusiastic work ethic.

I love how Edelgard is like we must have war to end nobility and promote commoners, meanwhile Dimitri is knighting and promoting commoners left and right and no one gives a shit. Meanwhile, Edelgard can't promote willy nilly because the Empire nobles will throw a fit. I wonder if she actually bothered to learn anything about Faerghus she'd realize how different it is and how they'll solve their own issues on their own terms.

SHEZ & ASHE A SUPPORT

Shez didn't get any answers about her mother.

Shez makes peace with it by saying she still loved her mother as a good mother regardless of what past she might has had.

They make some guesses what the mom's past is.

They were happy with the journey even if the destination was a disappointment (or never happened at all)

OH! Ashe got a letter at the end! But that's their A Support. So what's in the letter?????

SYLVAIN & ASHE A SUPPORT

They're learning strategies from Loog's past battles and learning more about Loog (who's pretty mysterious).

Sylvain is impressed with how smart Ashe is.

He's also jealous that Dimitri gets a knight like Ashe and offers to "steal" Ashe, but he shoots that down saying "only Dimitri." That just makes out of AG Ashe hurt worse.

Oh! Dimitri offered for Ashe to take over the land Lonato used to rule rather than always be a knight. Ashe likes that.

Ashe fawns over Sylvain's intelligence too.

I love seeing this mentor, teacher, more mature Sylvain.

ANNETTE & MERCEDES A SUPPORT

It's their only support, but at least it's A!

Since they're both nervous about the battle, they decide to chat.

Awww, I love that we're getting some details about their time at the sorcery school together. Apparently they'd chat together till dawn.

They talk about how they've stuck together through everything. Which makes outside SB Mercedes depressing.

Haha, Annette saved Mercedes from a bandit trap, but was in such a panic that SHE fell into the trap and needed Mercedes to heal her lol.

"Everything's better with you." Annette to Mercedes.

They plan to make lists of things they want to do after the war and then will do them once it ends. (if they had this discussion and then Mercedes defects, that hurts)

That was so wholesome.

MERCEDES & INGRID A SUPPORT

Ingrid is kicking ass in training, so Mercedes brings snacks to reenergize everyone.

Oh course, it tastes amazing, because it's Mercedes.

Ingrid wishes they were as relaxed around her as Mercedes, but Mercedes says that Ingrid is kind to them in a different way (mother Mercedes is here again!)

Mercedes bring up Ingrid's brothers and how it's probably like that.

Hahaha, Ingrid says she's going to show Mercedes her affection. And Mercedes is like "where is this going?!" Poor girl probably got excited lol.

You know what I also just realized? With Dimitri in charge, Ingrid doesn't feel pressured to marry. She's just a knight and living her best life and I love that for her (and we stan a king who stans women)

DIMITRI & BERNADETTA B SUPPORT

Is it petty that I feel a bit smug about Dimitri getting an Empire support but Edelgard didn't get a Kingdom one? lol

She's sneaking about and Dimitri finds her and she freaks out. So typical Bernie support lol. Poor thing trips over crates.

OMG. Bernie is like "this is the worst" and Dimitri naturally assumes HE's the worst lamo. OMG, Dimitri, baby, no. Thankfully she clears that up.

I kinda wondered why these two got a support and it actually makes a lot of sense. Dimitri doesn't sleep and Bernie sneaks out at night, so yeah they'd run into each other.

Dimitri's not offended because her being from the Empire means she's afraid of the Kingdom's king. Fair.

Bernie thinks he's going to execute her and he calls her a valuable ally instead. That's a bit sweet, not going to lie.

Dimitri then swears by his father's name, and Bernie's like "ok, I'll tell you." It's pretty funny how sincere they both are in very different ways.

Bernie exhausts Dimitri lol.

SYLVAIN & YURI C SUPPORT

Starts with the classic "..."

They're talking about Miklain. Yuri's like the rumors about his violence seem exaggerated. Sylvain's like "naw." You have no idea how much I love that Sylvain is like captain of the "stop making excuses for Miklain club"

Yuri makes it sound like Dimitri preyed on Miklain's inferiority complex to recruit him (saying uncrested people could get a chance to prove themselves).

Sylvain's impressed with Yuri's cunning.

Man, Yuri thinks Sylvain is just waiting to kill him for some reason and has a murderous smile. But this impresses Yuri. Sylvain is like "mixed messages, dude."

SYLVAIN & INGRID A SUPPORT

Ingrid's overwhelmed by noble work, which makes her appreciate Sylvain, Felix, and Dimitri more.

Sylvain responds by . . . asking her out (well, to dinner)

Sylvain said that they're "basically family" and said Felix and Dimitri feel the same way 😭😭😭😭 I can't.

Sylvain says we appreciate the things that stay the same because we can't stay in the past (or shouldn't) which is actually kinda deep for an FE support convo at least

Of course it devolves into Ingrid and Sylvain bickering about him gawking at her eating lol

Hearing them talking about how much they love their friendships and how they'll always be dear to each other makes recruiting any of trio to CF just criminal. I personally find it way more cruel to recruit them away from their homes and families than to kill them (i.e. the true way to play CF in "evil mode" is to recruit most of the Blue Lions and I will stand by that)

SYLVAIN & SHEZ A SUPPORT

Sylvain feels bad that they dragged Shez into the war, and that they only reason they're even fighting it is to keep their homes from getting destroyed.

"If we fail, we'll lose everything. Our houses, our families, the places we grew up." - see this is why recruiting them to CF is actually the evil thing to do. Then they gotta deal with that guilt.

Shez, of course, has nothing at stake unlike the Faerghus people

Poor Shez doesn't know what it's like to have a home.

I had Shez deny that it's just money she's in it for. And then calls Faerghus her home. 😭😭😭😭

Sylvain is inventing weapons. We stan a genius.

This support was seriously so sweet. It made my soft spot for both characters even bigger.

DEDUE & CATHERINE C SUPPORT

I have no idea what these two will have to talk about, but I'm still excited to see it. Maybe Dedue will try to recruit her back.

Dedue is suspicious of her because she shows up to a city where only people of Duscur are living. It's sad that he's got to be that way, but I'm excited if this support gives us more Duscur crumbs.

Neither Rhea nor Dimitri let him know what she's doing there lol, she's just helping after a big fire.

Catherine points out that the church is always helping people out, plus they feel a debt to Faerghus for giving them a home after Edelgard did her usual.

Apparently Rhea "jumped" at the chance to help. No one in the church cares that the people of Duscur don't worship the same religion, they just want to help/pay their debt.

SHEZ & INGRID A SUPPORT

I feel like I unlocked a million supports, but I'm not mad about it

Dedue put Shez on ingredient shopping duty.

Ingrid is flustered getting spotted by Shez in the market though. She looks like a deer in the headlights lol.

She's fangirling over the market since it's more lively and prosperous than Galatea.

Shez asks Ingrid to go on a shopping/eating date, but Ingrid feels she shouldn't be meandering markets as a future count.

Ingrid wants to help and protect Dimitri so bad as a knight. She also brings up her farming endings too.

I had Shez offer to help Ingrid out. She even offers to be Ingrid's personal mercenary. It's kinda cute.

Shez got Ingrid to blush a bit too. Happy Ingrid is a good Ingrid (and Shez too)

DIMITRI & INGRID B SUPPORT

It's sad that they only go to B, especially since we know how badly Ingrid want to be his knight (and has a crush on him, but like, girl, I get it, no one is immune to Dimitri)

Dimitri was planning with Duscur forces - how to use their unique fighting styles and avoid in-fighting with regular Faerghus forces

Dimitri asks her about Duscur, but Ingrid's moved on, and understands that it wasn't just Duscur.

She feels ashamed for putting it all on Duscur, and is not afraid to interact with them.

Dimitri of course blames himself for not insisting harder to Ingrid, but they were both dealing with shit. Dimitri's still upset with himself for not having the right priorities.

But like, Dimitri, even Ingrid herself says they weren't allowed to see each other (fuck Rufus).

Ingrid said she wouldn't have even listened to him. But like Dimitri just wanted to blame someone, so did Ingrid. Which, never really thought about how they dealt with it in a similar way before.

Dimitri takes her to a Duscur run Inn so help bridge the gap. She thinks she can do it with Dimitri there to help her out.

The character growth. Man, this is another missing discussion from AM that AG blessed us with. I swear AG doesn't have a single bad or boring or unnecessary or repeat support (no I'm not biased, why did you ask?)

INGRID & FELIX A SUPPORT

Felix is handing out compliments. Sound the alarm.

Aww, Ingrid has a rough battle, and Felix is worried about her.

Ingrid had Glenn's spur with her. 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 She says that helped her through the battle 😭😭😭😭.

Felix is obviously confused and worried that Ingrid is relying too much on remembering the dead, but Ingrid argues it can be a strength too. And Felix . . . AGREES.

GUYS 😭😭😭😭 Felix is growing up. 😭😭😭😭 He's understanding that his views aren't the only ways to exist. 😭😭😭😭

He tells her to visit Glenn 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 OMG, guys, he's encouraging her to keep using Glenn's memory as a source of strength and hoping she'll visit his grave and give him flowers.

Guys, he's not only understanding and accepting that people feel differently, he's ENCOURAGING them to continue using that opposite way because it works for them. Guys, he needs a cookie or something.

Ingrid is just that powerful.

Ingrid wants Felix and Dimitri - Rodrigue, Sylvain, and Gustave - and everyone to come visit and just have a festive time near his gravestone. Haha, Felix gives in too.

SHEZ & DEDUE A SUPPORT

Dedue commanding soldiers. We love to see it.

The people of Faerghus are warming up to Dedue 😭😭😭😭, the wounds of the past are healing (the soldier's mom died in Duscur)

GUYS. DEDUE ARGUED BACK. The soldier gave Dedue shit, and Dedue stood up for himself. OMG. He gets a cookie too!

Both Felix and Dedue showing real growth back-to-back supports, I can't . . . 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Shez called Dedue her friend. 😭😭😭😭 Says that's why she's happy for him, because they're friends. 😭😭😭😭

Shez is determined to prove herself. Dedue says she doesn't have prove herself, that he trusts her.

Shez asks if Dedue really does despite her powers. Dedue doesn't deny that he's concerned about the powers, but it doesn't define Shez.

Haha, Dedue still adds in that if Shez ever did turn on Dimitri, he'd cut her down. Which, yeah, that tracks, which Shez agrees.

DEDUE/INGRID/FELIX PARALOGUE

3 of my favorites in one paralogue about the tragedy of Duscur. Yes please (they're also fully leveled up so I'm not broke!)

Everyone is down in the dumps because they're near where the attack took place. Probably a bit awkward with that trio.

Guys, we're in Duscur, it's exciting.

Aww, Dedue is telling Ingrid she doesn't have to fake being happy while their (because he knows about Glenn).

They're fighting Duscur :( having to put down a rebellion. Not everyone wants peace with Dimitri.

Dimitri keeps coming back in attempt to continue to make peace.

Oh, so the leader of the insurrection lead the group who killed Lambert and Glenn. This is intense.

They aren't allowed to kill him because they need information, but Ingrid wants to kill him, but won't.

Haha, that's why they didn't take Dimitri, well why he didn't go. Dimitri trusted them to handle it.

Felix said king, not boar everyone.

I can't wait to see the end of this paralogue.

Oh, we're rescuing Duscur soldiers? Glad Ingrid is a pegasus knight. She can zip around fast.

We're not killing, just subduing.

Ingrid requested this assignment to help her move on from the past.

Ingrid and Dedue put their faith in Dimitri to figure out the motivation.

Dedue wants to stop by a childhood spot that got trampled and he's wanting to see if it recovered. Ingrid asks to join him and he does. Shez also wants to come. Felix accepts grudgingly lol.

Ingrid has shown such growth in this game. I love it so much.

It's recovered 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 Dedue used to come there with his sister.

Dedue invites Ingrid to come back and keep checking on the field. Felix is just hanging back though. Typical Felix.

Felix says he's focusing on his duty to protect the same things Glenn did and Shez can say the lands or . . . well you know who and you KNOW which one I have to pick.

Felix says protecting Dimitri is the same as protecting Faerghus, and makes Shez swear not to tell Dimitri (well the boar but you know). I had Shez tease Felix big time by claiming she was going to run around and telling everyone lamo.

The Dimilix is real in this game.

MAIN MAP

So the Empire's going full scorched earth tactics.

Annnnd of course Dimitri's blaming himself for other's actions. He's getting all worked up too.

Oh, geeze, they killed all the citizens too. Shez says the Empire was always rough, but not this bad.

I still can't get over the fact they wrote themselves into a corner with Edelgard - either team up with TWSITD again or Dimitri and Rhea, so instead they just zapped her lamo.

Oh, that's cool, the map battle zone flipped spaces because the Western Church attacked.

Arval hoping to strike down TWSITD is rich since you know he's (she's, they're?) connected.

Poor Shez is worrying about her power again. I swear she's much better integrated in AG, then SB, and GW it's like why is Shez even there? They have no plotline.

I think my Dimitri is too strong guys. He just. Kills everything.

Myson escaped. Ohhh, now he's confronting Shez. And asking about Avral I'm assuming.

Arval makes a good point, that the power Shez has keeps saving lives. And brings up Dimitri's point that power isn't evil or good, it's how it's used.

Ashen Demon brought back up again. Arval really wants us to kill Byleth, hunh. Except this time I'm determined to recruit Byleth.

I wonder if Arval will eventually turn on us, esp once I don't kill Byleth. Because he really wants us to kill Byleth.

Rodrigue is back! My beloved.

Oh, hi Claude. Not sure where he stands with me right now. I vastly prefer the Claude who has two braincells.

Judith being alive again is good though.

I do like hearing about how Claude and Dimitri are making plans together to trick the Empire.

So our goal is to retake the Monastery. Makes sense.

xxxxx

#azure gleam #fire emblem #fire emblem three hopes #three hopes #three hopes spoilers #azure gleam spoilers

27 notes · View notes

star-arcana · 1 year

Text

Why the Fire Emblem Three Houses/Hopes discourse surrounding Almyra is unfairly biased against them!

I expect everyone to know about Almyra and Fódlan, so I will not go over in great detail as to the history and mention all the bad points right away to be debunked, but first a little intro:

The continent of Fódlan is attacked from time to time by Almyra, a persian-coded empire that once tried to conquer Fódlan and was beaten only marginally by the combined effort of Adrestia, Fearghus, Leicester and the Church. Afterward a large fortification called Fódlan’s medallion was placed between the border of Leicester and Almyra. Then the Church of Seiros established the Officer's Academy and attempt to prepare the young nobles for a future of conflict. To the present day, we see small attacks from Almyrans on the border and that might make one think that they are pure evil and pretty much the bad guys from 300...wrong for following reasons:

1. We only get Fódlans view of things and never that of Almyra. Cyril doesn’t count because he himself admits to not know why Almyra attacks in his support with Hilda and would have been 5 years old when he was orphaned and as many of us know, our me memories of these early years is not clear, so he cannot be seen as completely reliable narrator on such matters, especially when he is wrong about some of Almyra’s stuff as I am mentioning now.

2. Almyra has no real incentive to conquer Fódlan. After a century, no real invasion took place with the exeption of some border raids that counts as nothing, since such small scale conflicts happened a lot in history, and they still persist even in Fódlan as Jeralt mentions battles taking place. Coming back to the Cyril point, the Almyrans have a powerful navy, more advanced than Fódlan (which casts doubts about Cyril mentioning how inferior Alymran tech is, because they appearently can’t build a structure as grand as the Bridge of Myrrdin). With that, they should have taken easily the Alliance capital, the Fraldarious territory as well as the Kingdom capital and debilitate the Empire, allowing them full control over most of Fódlan this way. One might say the hero relics, but how much good will it do against high advanced tech?

3. Another problem is that the King of Almyra has no interest in a invasion and many of his officers as well as many others do also not think of invading Fódlan. This led to Shahid being betrayed by Nader and before that having his soldiers fight with low morale to the point where the GD conclude that had the Almyrans been serious, they would have been in big trouble and presumably lost.

4. If really Almyra was such a big threat, why are there no long-term consequences for missing out on the paralouges in Three houses where you battle them. If we are meant to think that they are this dangerous, why is there no punishment? It makes no sense.

5. Finally, saying that all can be blamed on Almyra is also against the GD’s theme of Isolationism and ignorance clouding our senses as we see how aggressive Fódlan is to outsiders and even if Almyra is as bad as people say, not wanting peace with them is what would lead to more death and more hate and this is pretty much what the story criticizes; The Nabateans and Agarthans are unwillingly to let their past go and because of this, they burend the continent asunder and nearly wiped out all life on it. So for the sake of future generations, Almyra and Fódlan have to put aside their differences and work together for a new dawn.

If you have disagreements with me, tell me and I’ll answer gladly.

#fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fire emblem three hopes spoilers #almyra #Fódlan #Golden Deer #misunderstood #biased #claude von riegan #Cyril #alliance #church of seiros #Officers accademy #nabateans #agarthans

54 notes · View notes

randomnameless · 1 month

Text

Ionius died of salt per the wiki !

Pour one for the slug emperor :(

#Fodlan nonsense #Is it the Ionius hour ?#Who edits those wikis ?#Tfw they forgot to add Sothis to the list of dead parents caused by Thales's plans #Adrestia stuff #Fandom woes

22 notes · View notes

dimiclaudeblaigan · 9 months

Text

"wow how pathetic it is of a man who isn't much of a fighter to be afraid and want to live in the middle of aggressors invading his lands"

WHY WON'T U JUST GIVE UP AND STOP DEFENDING YOUR LANDS THAT WE'RE INVADING AND ATTACKING ON TOP OF YOU LITERALLY DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO US

#DCB Three Hopes Run #i care for you dearly monica but this just ain't it #at the time of posting this I've cleared most of the maps in the game on all difficulties #save for a chunk of AG's stuff which the lead up maps I'm still going through #and am not sure if I plan to finish the maddening ones during my next full playthrough #but boy am I enjoying being out of the victim blaming zone. I don't mind the chapters that are like #internal struggles like Ludwig or the returning to Enbarr assassination attempt chapter #but it's when it gets into all the Kingdom/Church (and somewhat Alliance) stuff that it just feels gross to me #SB wouldn't have been all that bad probably at all if it focused on Edelgard versus #internal strife in Adrestia and fighting TWS bc those chapters are all fine???#literally like any chapters not revolving around the conquest aspect are fine #but then you get dumb shit lines like these that remind me why I hate Edelgard's routes #and it's not just that I don't like her as a person/character but also like the way the narrative itself tries to #frame the whole victim blaming as being correct and the right thing and the right side and stuff #like at least admit as part of the immediate narrative that the victim blaming just ain't cool #have like idk Ferdinand say something abt it (but ig he can't bc Hopes reduced him to yet another Edelsimp)#don't try to frame it as lol yeah they're ACTUALLY shitty ppl for defending their home from aggressors invading #posting this in the dead of the morning bc i wanna bring it up but also like #fewer ppl on at this time lol it's just smth that rly frustrates me bc SB had potential and they squandered most of it

7 notes · View notes

ludaroace · 2 months

Text

zephyr brain rot time qsmp fire emblem 3h au thing because the pla one made me Need to get my thoughts into order and talk about it - not really exactly basing them off of the characters in the game or a specific route just the vibes u gotta trust me . also forgive me stealing some skills and stuff from fates that aren’t in three houses because i want to and i think that fates having pegasus knights not be gender locked was a based decision

i HATE to pull this immediately after saying i'm not basing it off of any characters literally a jeritza mercedes situation. i feel like a similar thing ends up happening, house martritz falls and bagi and cellbit are both born with a minor crest of lamine, which makes them and their mother the only people with that crest alive. because of this, they then attempt to flee to fargus but somehow cellbit gets separated and left behind in adrestia, and ends up meeting bad who ends up explaining the whole rundown of the church and agarthans to him. he's got some feelings about faith magic because its kinda stands for everything that put him in the situation he's in (his crest being based around faith magic, faith magic being directly tied to the church) but he's like secretly REALLY good at it.

bad is a victim of the crest experimentation done by those who slither in the dark (twsitd) but in this au instead of drastically decreasing your lifespan, it does the opposite and they've basically made bad functionally immortal. he was like an ORIGINAL original experimentation, being one of the first people to actually be given crest by serios (he has a major crest of serios) but willingly joined the agarthans and after the creation of the ten elites and defeat of nemesis, he was given a minor crest of blaiddyd against his will which turns him both against the agarthans and the church. he runs into cellbit (who was ..."adopted" into another noble house) and sees someone who is pretty similar to him, and after a while explains the situation (but does not tell him about having two crests)

now bagi is in fargus and is living as a commoner basically, and kinda has a similar story where she knows her brother is out there and wants to find him to bring him to fargus. despite legally being a commoner her status is known to the royal family, and she trains as a non-traditional knight (she uses axes instead of lances) until she ends up at garreg mach where she pivots into some magic training. most people do not know about her crest because she literally will not divulge that information unless she has to. when shit goes down MUCH later on, she more or less immediately defects to adrestia - not because of her brother but because she does Not like the church. she has so many problems with the crest system its crazy, and when told there is an organization against it she doesn’t even hesitate to join even without knowing about crest experimentation.

also some other stuff:

cellbit

minor crest of lamine

personal skill: survival instinct (+4 Strength, Magic, Dexterity, and Speed for one turn after defeating an enemy when initiating combat.)

boons: lances, reason, brawling

banes: authority, heavy armour, riding

budding talent: faith

bad

major crest of serios, minor crest of blaiddyd

personal skill: confidence (+15 Hit and Avoid if user's HP = 100%.)

boons: lances, riding, authority, heavy armour

banes: faith, reason

budding talent: bows

bagi

minor crest of lamine

personal skill: rallying cry (+2 damage dealt by all allies within a two-tile radius of the user)

boons: flying, axes, faith

banes: authority, bows, heavy armour

budding talent: reason

#qsmp #3h au #maybe i will post more (i will)#also the church is the federation in this au kinda imagine cucurcuho as a less sympathetic rhea #also ok little headcanon i have for the actual game too is that crests have these side effects right #those with the crest of lamine are naturally protective + have higher resistance to magic + are very smart due to their magical inclination #so cellbit and bagi are just inherently better at figuring things out than other people because their brains are wired for magic #due to only having a minor crest of blaiddyd the insane physical strength doesn't hit bad too often #but every once in a while he will use Too Much Force and accidentally break something #and the crest of serios makes him very charismatic but unable to lie (nothing about half truths though !)

6 notes · View notes

themoomoorn · 1 year

Text

Vaguely Autistic RN Goes Back On Their FEW3H Bullshit despite having completed FEE: Azure Gleam Edition

This won't be a full-blown advertisement for blood pressure medication like the Scarlet Blaze(d) series, but I also got to the parts of Azure Gleam where I can now comfortably agree with some opinions of it having some really stinky parts.

Of course, the Azure Smell was slung on it in poo form by the other two routes, alongside Koei/IntSys because they're really trying to sell this plausible deniability and and and

Anyway

So 3/4ths of Sreng is a winter wonderland, but designated corner where Macuil dwells is pure desert. Why not just make the place a snowy cold desert like the Katpana Desert and call it a day?

Ingrid continues to display her awareness and shame over her misplaced xenophobia, yet there's still static over House Goneril's racist history with Almyra being erased or...a lot of crap with Adrestia and how they view Brigid and Dagda...

Claude: Continues to scream about how Flayn and the church actually killed his half-brother while ranting how trade is apparently illegal despite plenty of evidence to the contrary

Dimitri: "Y'all hear sum"

Lambert's pitch of trying to play nice with at least one more neighbor, especially regarding the whole continued antagonism with another, is tyrannical madness to these limp-dick fuckheads. Please remind us why we should sympathize with both the western nobles or the western church, again???

Flayn continues to display Clark Kent-levels of disguise failure, but I suppose it can easily be passed as her being eccentric. On the other hand, this is yet another display of this universe's carelessness with its continuity, since Houses clearly established Macuil being the one blacksmith. On the other other hand, Indech is also established as being good with his hands, so them working together to craft stuff works just as well.

Still doesn't explain the logistics behind the Sacred Weapons though. Or how Labraunda wound up in some stockpile that the Empire plundered because they suck.

Miklan is a fantastic example of how these games run on the accidental theme of responsibility and how laying blame on one factor doesn't mean anything if the person laying the blame is a sack of doodoo, which is exactly what Miklan is.

Miklan was disinherited, but he was also always a dick, he was the son of Matthias' beloved first wife (her death being the catalyst for his cynicism), Matthias let him stay at House Gautier until his abuse of Sylvain went too far (which is arguably a dick move in and of itself since Sylvain had to put up with it for years), and Miklan himself here made the final move in fully severing his ties to the House. And he still blames Sylvain for his lot in life, as we see in Houses 5.

Eff Miklan.

So here we have one of the straws that broke the camel's back. Just as Dimitri is about to defeat and imprison Edelgard, Thales hijacks the scene, chucks a Crest stone of Maurice(!?) at Edelgard, turns her into the Hegemon Husk, and after that she lays waste to Arianrhod and is whisked back to Enbarr. During this scene, Edelgard accuses Dimitri of allying with Thales before it's shown that obviously isn't true. Oh, and she also throws out there that Thales killed his father, which is kind of manipulative given how she gives negative fucks about Duscur or how a later scene shows that yes, her mommy was one of the conspirators in the Tragedy after all (something that Houses waffles on).

It's also at this point that the game robs her of her agency and tries to convince the player that Agartha is behind everything, even when we get clear displays of Edelgard and the Empire clearly wanting to go Napoleon/Genghis on the continent for reasons divorced from what the Agarthans want.

Case in point.

Keep in mind that Edelgard gets a whole Support scene with Balthus that she's more than content in carrying out this war, because of Empire supremacy. Or how she tells Claude to his face in Zahras that no, she won't stop playing conqueror even once the church is stamped out. Or that she tells Monica, to her face, that her life is ultimately disposable to her and that if she had died like she did in Houses, then so be it.

You can put as much lipstick on a pig as you want - it's still a pig.

Between this statement and Edelgard's and Ionius' in Houses and this journal entry about the Dagda-Brigid war, it's plain as day that Thales' manipulations aren't as all-encompassing as people want them to be. It's ridiculous to try and pass the buck when there's so much evidence proving contrary.

Clyde may be more opportunistic than he was in Houses, but in AG his one braincell stops shitting itself for five minutes and he actually does the sensible thing by teaming up with Faerghus. We even get a decent scene of these three strategizing how to retake Garreg Mach out of it.

I've heard criticisms about how the lack of trust in Claude is unwarranted here, but after actually playing this for myself, I'm inclined to disagree, as there's a clear scene before the Arianrhod battle showing outright that Claude's going to side with whoever winner of that battle is, even if one of said options could care less about his country's welfare. But then again, Claude looks down on his people half the time anyway, so meh.

And now for some positivity...

Ayo? 🏳️‍🌈

AYO!?!?!?!?!? 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

Ay-Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

🏳️‍🌈???

Balthus, at this rate you should probably consider a career change if that's what you like doing.

#few3h #clob von riggles #dimeetwee awexandre bwayiddyd #egglegard #rhee rhee fe #moomoorn plays viddie games #moomoo's dumb opinions

22 notes · View notes

slotumn · 20 days

Text

Apparently I'm having a lot of 3H worldbuilding thoughts this weekend. This post is on: on what Adrestia (+Agartha) was after, exactly, by invading Faerghus first in most routes

So the ideological/political explanation is that Faerghus is close to the Church and will defend them so you automatically have to go after them if you go after Church etc etc very cool, but what do they get, materially, by going into the frozen north first thing? That they don't have as much of in Adrestia (or Leicester)?

Metal and mines, apparently:

On top of this, regions adjacent to Faerghus— Duscur and Sreng— are also known for metalwork and weaponry.

Of course you can say it's because the Slithers have deeper infiltration up north (with their involvement with Duscur and Western Church plus Cornelia) so that obviously makes it easier, but I think it's the other way around. Meaning, I think the Slithers put more effort into infiltrating Faerghus because of the metal resources.

Following from that, I think the decision to invade Faerghus first in non-CF routes was a compromise between Edelgard/Adrestians and the Slithers, where Edelgard gets the ideological/political points but Slithers get the material benefits. Ideological stuff listed above aside, if you want to do wide social/civil reforms and make Fódlan less myopic, wouldn't it be more practical to take over the country with fertile farmlands and ports and industry and finance and trade first?

Well, that's what the Empire does in CF, where the Adrestian side presumably has more leverage on operations thanks to having Byleth and the Creator Sword on their side. Situation's a bit different in Hopes but I think it's interesting that in SB, the official invasion as led by Adrestia (instead of Lonato jumping the gun) does end up waiting until after securing the pact with Leicester.

Back to Houses though, it's not hard to see why Slithers want metal and mines. They want to make weapons, and not just regular weapons, they're out here making big fucking mechs. Probably fantasy computers (which also require metals, including precious metals) to operate them, too.

And on the one hand, seeing the Agarthans drag all the actual spoils off to their underground lair so they can make whatever fucked up weapon that they'll use for their own goals probably pissed the Adrestians off. But on the other hand, what can they do when the Agarthans are also providing the military technology (ex: Aymr) that the Adrestians use for their own goals?

Given all this, I think in non-CF routes, by the time Byleth wakes up again, the Empire is actually in a far worse state than we think. The Adrestian troops who are actually doing the fighting are stuck up north where they haven't made much progress in years, and any material gains they have there just go straight into Slither pockets. Back in Enbarr, the Adrestians and Agarthans hate each other even more than they already did at the beginning of the war and are probably doing everything they can to sabotage and spy on one another, while fighting a war on the same side.

At that point, the greatest common motivation the Adrestians and Agarthans would have in finishing up conquering the continent is probably the prospect of finally getting to go at it with one another.

And the letter Hubert leaves in SS/VW telling Byleth about the Slithers: the suddenness of that plot point aside, let's just appreciate how petty (complimentary) that is, politically. "I know you killed us and all, but we really hate the guys we were doing this group project (war) with. Can you kill them too. Thanks."

Tl;dr the Adrestian-Agarthan war councils in non-CF routes probably gave multiple people high blood pressure

#fe3h #fire emblem three houses #adrestia #faerghus #agarthans #those who slither in the dark #twsitd #meta #slotalks #fe3h meta

14 notes · View notes

nowis-scales · 6 months

Note

Do you prefer Three Houses or Engage?

Whew, okay. I am happy to answer your question, but please be prepared for me to talk a lot, because I have a lot to say on this topic.

I haven’t played all of the routes of Three Houses. At this point in time, I’ve played Verdant Wind and Crimson Flower. As for Engage, I’ve played all of it (though my playthrough posts sure make it look the other way around, heh). From this perspective, it might seem like there is a possibility for a bit of bias here or there. And while I agree that that could be true…

In this specific case, however, I don’t think it matters. I greatly prefer Engage over 3H.

Now, I should start off by pointing out that some of the stuff I say is going to be hyperbolic. I’m at a point where I’m quite jaded with 3H and many of its fans. There’s only so much discourse and disrespect a girl can take before she becomes a little disenchanted with the subject in question. That being said, though… honestly, none of that stuff affects my overall view. It’s mostly just about the way I might be delivering the message.

The thing to understand about me is though I love video games, if it’s a video game with a story as a major point, it automatically becomes the most important part. I enjoyed both 3H and Engage, but… the best way I know how to put why I would choose Engage over 3H is that while both have their share of writing problems, 3H’s bother me that much more.

To me, it just seems like Koei Tecmo and IntSys had this wide scope for 3H and couldn’t narrow down on what they were doing. And yeah, stones in a glass house comin’ from a Fates fan, I hear the people — but for all that 3H gets called this morally grey masterpiece, half the time it just seems like the “grey morality” comes from the fact that they couldn’t agree whether or not EdeIgard was in the wrong. In developer interviews, Kusakihara of IntSys, calls her the villain. Her route is referred to as one where you bulldoze everyone else to get what you want. It’s not exactly flattering, yet that same interview also states her popularity with the creative team. In my playthrough posts of CF, I know I mentioned to the point of annoyance that she rarely, if ever, faces a proper consequence or sacrifice for what she wants. And in Hopes it only seemed to get worse, with the developer interviews there actually confirming that she is actively happier than she ever was in Houses… Even her ending in Azure Gleam, which is sexist and disgusting, can be read as being in her favour, because how can you accuse her of anything anymore? She looks like a grown woman, but she’s mentally a freshly teenage girl! No more consequences! It feels like they’re just constantly flip flopping between “oh she’s right” or “oh she’s wrong”, which is not something you want from a perpetrator of conflict in the narrative. One minute they’re saying she’s villainous, and the next there’s a convenient & unclear excuse that tries to make her a good person for doing it. If something doesn’t favour whatever the devs wanted to highlight in that moment, it just gets unceremoniously swept under the rug. The Agarthans are proof enough of that. That’s not grey morality, that’s just being indecisive and, quite frankly, the opposite of impartial in Koei’s case.

That’s another problem that gets me about 3H’s story. I hate, hate their supposed “worldbuilding” trick where they just throw out minor details about like, a country’s problem with sexism or a group of people like the Almyrans or the Dagdans and just… never elaborate. I’m particularly interested in the Nabateans and the sexism of Adrestia myself, but are those points that ever get elaborated on? No, because it’s time to talk about crests and the crest system, which could have been an interesting look at classism if the concept actually stood up under scrutiny. It is very difficult for me to believe that there is some specific-to-Fodlan classism issue going on when Crests don’t determine whether you become or stay noble. Byleth is not immediately noble once it’s acknowledged that they have one, and Constance’s house fell in spite of it. Considering the possible marriage option for Ingrid in her paralogue, being nobility is not even the only way to ensure success in society. And all this is without even acknowledging the ridiculousness of the idea that the Nabateans would want to perpetuate a system that was actively soaked in the blood of their own. It just feels like, rather than engaging more clearly with how the crest system would actually work and subsequently be attacked, it just becomes this abstract thing that all other interesting thoughts get sucked into, without any concept that it’s real aside from EdeIgard and Sylvain mentioning it. I don’t feel passionately about it, it’s just kind of something that’s there. It could have been interesting to execute, but the way they went about it just doesn’t make it seem real to me — so, again, any attempt at a morally grey conflict there is lost on me.

And then there’s the problem with tell don’t show. I’ve seen people saying that Engage has this too… but 3H is god awful for this. The whole time I was playing Engage, I just remember thinking how much I loved how naturally emotional everything was. When you fight Hortensia again in the Solmic castle, the fact that she’s crying that she just wants her family back is sad. It’s natural. You don’t feel like the game is holding your hand, trying to make you to feel upset on Hortensia’s behalf. You don’t need to be told that Hortensia is trying so hard to be independent and strong and leaderly. You can just hear it in the way that she instead whimpers about how nobody will give her what she wants. You can tell that she’s angry that she cannot emulate her father or Ivy, and that she can’t get Ivy to do the things she wants her to do when it should have been so easy in theory. The way she reacts to the situation laid out before her shows us that yes, Hortensia has been through a lot the last little while and is getting to a breaking point where we might be able to help her. It’s what makes it that much more cruel when Zephia mind controls her to rip her away from us. 3H’s kind of pale in comparison at times, really.

The best way I know how to explain how 3H kinda flops at this is to continue picking on EdeIgard a little (sorry). I’ve rambled about it before, but presumably in an effort to show the legitimacy of EdeIgard’s suffering at the hands of the Agarthans in Crimson Flower, they put in this scene where she sees a rat and gets scared. The implication is supposed to be that there were numerous rats in the dungeon where she was kept when she was being experimented on, and that she now has a trauma response to them. However, when you actually get to the scene, her reaction is obscenely unrealistic — because it’s about being cute. This is a trauma response she’s supposed to be having, and Byleth can tease her about it. When responding to the stimulus of the rat, she doesn’t even respond with intense fear or anything symptomatic of the actual mental illness she would probably have. She just screams, and then tries to act like it didn’t happen, but of course she gets all blushy about it. It is entirely ingenuine, and I can’t just bring myself to emotionally invest if they only know how to give characters subdued, acceptable reactions or have them just tell me that something made them sad or scared. Just hearing that this character has had a sad life — and, conveniently, almost all of them have had a sad life — doesn’t make me feel emotionally connected to them. Representing the more human parts of that struggle does.

Bottom line, I shouldn’t feel like the game is holding up an “APPLAUSE” style sign that says “BE SAD” whenever the characters talk about things that have happened to them.

These are three big things that I just feel really tamper with my enjoyment of 3H to its fullest extent. The game just makes me feel too micromanaged, like it doesn’t trust me to be smart enough to pick up on the things it wants to say. For all that people say it’s the best story FE’s done in years, I would actually disagree on that. It’s the characters and the lore that carry this game. The story is just not that well-organized, nor is it willing to give you any sort of space.

That being said, I do not dislike 3H! At the moment I am… admittedly incredibly sick of it, but I don’t dislike it. There are plenty of things that it manages to do well! Like I just said, I think the lore is really interesting. The Nabateans in particular have always been a subject of interest for me, because there’s something so intriguing to me about them sort of being a parallel being to humanity, but still being so viciously discriminated against. The conflict between Duscur and Faerghus was also pretty attention-catching, and while I’m not super crazy about how the Insurrection of the Seven is portrayed, I do like that this is a kind of political conflict that they would confront.

In fact, the fact that this game does try to confront the more political side of things is another thing I like about it. Whether it does this well all the time is a different situation entirely, but just the fact that they decided to put this in is something I enjoy. One thing I know that I instantly enjoyed about Persona 5 that was also reflected in 3H was the way it brought up how the socio-political issues were affecting the society that everyone was living in. Each country had its own individual problems, with Adrestians struggling with sexism & classism, the Faerghans with their unstable government and newly developed tendency toward anti-Duscurian racism, and the Leicester Alliance with its imbalance/disagreement between people and the doubt surrounding its new leaders. To have these things helps us better understand what the characters are going through, as well as the causes for a war. It also makes the world feel more alive, because now we know what kinds of things each group is up against. It develops them. I’m still not a fan of how sometimes these things are just brought up and dropped in favour of one thing or the other, but there is often enough thought in them to make it most of the way, and that most of the way is awesome.

As for the characters, they have to confront a recruitment mechanic that completely throws their motives out the window at times just to conform to a specific narrative… and they still turned out pretty good, so that really speaks to how great they are! There is a lot of detail to put into each character’s life, and for the most part, the devs took care to make sure that everyone had a tie to someone. If they didn’t, then that felt intentional in some way. Relationships in particular really humanize characters, and I feel like 3H took that into account. I know I said it eons ago, but I’m still so delighted that we know about Maya Kiersten. Other FE games don’t tend to give these minor characters that a main character loves a name, but here we are, getting all kinds of details about her. Same goes for Holst and Rodrigue. It’s fun, and I really like that this happens. It also intrigues me that some of these characters aren’t total angels, and have their ugly sides as well. I need to put this in big bold lettering, but I do not condone the racism of Hilda or Ingrid. However, I do think that it’s an interesting addition to each of their characters. With the ways they are otherwise portrayed, it is possible that you could get too rosy of an image of the two girls. Their own racism undercuts that, it makes them feel more realistic, because bigoted people aren’t all one-note. They can seem otherwise kind and dependable, and still not be able to separate their head from their ass when it comes to being considerate of others. It fleshes them out. Details like this do add a little more to them, even if I wish they would actually explore them more in the context of the world as well. Racism that doesn’t get improved or worked upon is just racism for realism’s sake, and why should people who experience irl racism have to deal with that? They’re very aware of what the real world looks like, thank you.

The thing about 3H in comparison to Engage is that it just trips so many more times. I didn’t know what it was about Engage that just caught me, but once it had me, it had me. The emotional influence was definitely part of it, which I already mentioned, but I think another thing that I just liked in comparison was the fact that it didn’t try as hard as 3H did for some of that stuff. Thematically yes, Engage is more straightforward and doesn’t pile on the angst quite the same. It’s lighter and doesn’t take itself painfully seriously. Nonetheless, the stuff it does try to do comes out beautifully. It (for the most part — we need to have a whole other post about Alcryst) knows when to make you laugh, when to make you feel sad, and when to instill feelings of suspense or hope. It cares deeply about its characters and seeing them to the end of their journey. I never felt like I didn’t know the thesis of the game, and I almost never felt like there was a moment where I really wished they would just tell that part of the story differently. The whole thing just felt very carefully put together to me, and made for a better impression overall because there were no conflicting accounts of what was meant to go on based on the writer at the moment. I could tell that the game trusted me to draw my own conclusions. It made for a much more fun experience, because I love finding these small things woven in by the developers and mining them out like little gems. That’s part of the reason why I love Fates so much. While everyone else is complaining about how awful it is, I get to be searching for and finding all of these amazing parts that just got totally missed. I love stuff like that.

The worldbuilding in Engage is also something that I feel was a lot stronger. Things don’t just drop off. Tensions between Brodia and Elusia, for example, constantly inform the way the characters approach situations. Even conversations that are supposed to be silly, like that of Étie and Goldmary, are informed by that tension. Characters don’t forgive and forget everything that happened to them in relation to their societies just because they’re working together now. Citrinne doesn’t forgive Yunaka for her assassinations right away, she remains suspicious of her for a long time. When Ivy plays a part in the summoning of the Fell Dragon and ends up being part of the reason why Morion was killed, Alcryst holds a grudge against her — even though Ivy was part of the solution for the rest of the group, and even though Ivy herself turns out not to be a Fell Dragon worshipper at all. Things like these are constantly informing the plot and the characters. They don’t just disappear when it is inconvenient for them to exist. This is just one of many examples, but it really made the conflict feel like it was distinct, and thus was more meaningful when they came together.

I also just generally feel like the cultures in Engage ended up being more unique as well. I’ve played the entirety of Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind, as well as about 8 chapters of Azure Moon, and I’m not sure I could do as much to show how the cultures vary as much as I could with Engage. However, to give credit where credit is due, one could argue that the cultures of the Alliance, the Empire, and the Kingdom are less distinct than Elusia, Solm, Lythos, and Brodia because 3H’s conflicts need to build up to the final concept of uniting Fodlan. Nonetheless, the whole point of the nations breaking up from being just Adrestia is at least partially because the cultures are too different, and even if they weren’t… This would still just be more proof of my point that EdeIgard gets stuff weighted towards her. Therefore, I kinda prefer to think that it is not as much of a deliberate choice because the purposeful interpretation is straight up glorifying the imperialism element of the game. It’s just different in the case of Engage, where the differences and similarities are there with much more explicit purpose. The peace of Firene is played quite like the freedom of Solm, for example. Both nations have this seemingly leisurely thing that they value above all else, and it’s something that they know must make them seem overly gentle or carefree to outsiders. Nonetheless, once you start to spend time with characters like Céline and Timerra, it becomes clear just how viciously they fight to protect their people’s right to having those things in their lives. And this, of course, isn’t the only similarity, nor is it the only difference. If you need to see more of what I mean, emblemxeno made a great post on this that might help fill in some more gaps. It’s stuff like this that makes me prefer the way Engage executes its worldbuilding, because you can feel the way the countries influence each other, as well as the things that come innately from themselves. It’s not quite the same as Fodlan’s sort-of similar cultures. The ideas from each place don’t bounce off each other quite the same, so I find they’re not as entertaining to observe.

I could probably keep going on for awhile longer, but the answer to this ask is like… probably way more than you bargained for when you initially sent it, so I might leave it off at that. Any further, more specific questions can always be sent at a later date! I’m certainly not opposed to getting more asks after all ;)

At the very least, hopefully I was able to shed some light on my opinions on the contrasts between 3H and Engage, and why each one either does or doesn’t work better for me. Thanks for taking the time to ask!

#3H spoilers #fire emblem engage spoilers #fodlan fault-finding #shut up about del

9 notes · View notes

butwhatifidothis · 1 year

Note

Okay, I'm morbidly curious, how racist is this chapter? Did Cap really outdid himself here with the dehmunaizing language and rhetoric? And Sothis bless you for enduring through this trashfire. I can't believe people legitimately think this is a must recommendation to understand E**lgard's character and 3H in general with some treating it as more canon than the base game.

Okay, so. Buckle up cuz it’s a bit of a doozy

To start with the “””””””small””””””” stuff, there’s that whole “There was no name in Fodlan’s language for what to call this monstrous form” comment that is very clearly explicitly racist towards Nabateans. Ignoring the fact that Dragon Claws are a weapon in 3H and thus the concept of the word “dragon” exists in 3H’s world, which the Immaculate One is very much a staple example of and thus could easily be described with that particular word in Fodlan’s language - that “monstrous form” is just a state that Rhea’s race can naturally become as a part of their natural biology. Being unable to find the words to “properly” describe how inhuman and beastial she sees this form, when a perfect apt word literally does exist that has no racist undertones at all, would make Woobiegard, at the FUCKIN’ BEST, seem outrageously callous. But that wouldn’t be the first time she’s called Rhea a monster though:

“All that monster had to do was wear a funny hat, and spout some meaningless platitudes about mercy…

(oh, maybe she means “monster” as in Rhea as a person is a monster-)

“ And now, just like Seiros, Woobiegard was alone. Would she lose herself, just as the Saint had? Would she descend into madness, believing in her righteousness even as she damned herself? Without her loved ones, her father and Byleth, perhaps that nightmarish form, that husk she had seen in her dreams, would reveal itself — just like the Immaculate One.

(oh, well, no, not really. Describing Rhea’s other form that is natural to her biology to the mutated “nightmarish form” of the Hegemon Husk - classy!)

Then we get to this bit in Chapter 63:

“The Crests were to blame, not just because of the rapes and kidnappings and savagery that they legitimized, but because they told the world what people could be.

So, the natural blood of the Nabateans that was stolen by humans and made important to human society by humans are to blame for society’s horrific shortcomings. Humans are innocent - it’s the Nabatean’s fault for having magic blood! Humans can’t be expected to not commit genocide and steal Nabatean blood to use for their own gain, or to not directly benefit from said genocide, or to not fuck each other over in the pursuit of this stolen blood of genocide victims, or anything silly like that. We must blame the natural product of this race’s blood that they had no say in humans having.

(also, uh, ignore that mask slip of “could be” and not “should be,” since that implies Crested humans actually do have a choice which Woobiegard very much wants people to think they don’t until she saves them)

And mind, Woobiegard, does, in fact, know about what Nemesis did, and what happened from it. Chapter 50:

[Nemesis] murdered Seiros’ entire family, in a bid for power.

She knows of the genocide, she knows that power was gotten from said genocide, she knows a human committed said genocide to gain said power - still Crests’ fault tho! If Crests (aka, Nabateans) never existed, everything would be so much better for everyone!

And then there’s the top dog, the Big Boy, the culmination of a repeated racist sentiment vomited across the course of the fic. Woobiegard had a line waaaaay earlier in the fic that was already omega racist, right? This one, from Chapter 9:

"Of course, the Church had “mediated” that separation [of Faerghus and Adrestia], and given what Woobiegard now knew about the immortal archbishop, she strongly suspected Faerghus' independence was a pretext to keep humanity divided and weak, dependent on the Church’s protection.”

She then says this waaay later, in Chapter 63, bold mine:

"Woobiegard glared at her opponent. “You speak of betrayal, Archbishop, but who was the one who claimed to speak as the Goddess’ Voice?! Who allowed the Southern Church to ferment rebellion in the Empire, and sanctified a Holy Kingdom?” She felt the anger tumble out of her in a righteous wave. “I swore the same oath that Wilhelm did, upon the red blood and the white sword, the ancient covenant between the Hresvelgs and the Church. I promised to achieve peace for all, Crest or no Crest… have you done the same?””

So basically, her racist conspiracy theory she mentally spouted out in Chapter 9 and over the course of the fic is being given legitimacy here; she's being presented in the right for saying Rhea was wrong for separating Faerghus from Adrestia, the act of which Woobiegard believes Rhea did so that she could install herself as the shadow ruler of the country. And this coexists along other moments of Woobiegard thinking this (asterisks mine):

Chapter 49:

“As soon as I am finished retaking this continent for humanity, *the children of the Goddess will no longer control Fódlan‘s destiny.*”

Chapter 50:

She had even witnessed the secret past of this continent — the *lies and manipulations of the children of the Goddess,* infusing their faithful followers with the blood of the Immaculate One.

Chapter 50, bold not mine:

The Flame Emperor looked up at the eager face of one of the children of the Goddess, the *very rulers she had sought to overthrow.* How could this be? How could she stand alongside the Black Eagles, and fight for humanity’s future?

Chapter 53:

She turned, and saw the one figure she had hoped to avoid above all else. *Woobiegard despised the Children of the Goddess for what they had done to Fodlan — standing above, concealing the truth from the people…* despite her sobriquet, the Flame Emperor’s soul was given more to cold, icy rationality then the burning flames of hate. Yet when she looked at Flayn, some long-concealed anger roiled within her.

With all this capped off a bit earlier in Chapter 63, when Woobiegard says this in response to Rhea calling her a mutinous whelp (which, to be clear, Rhea does call Canongard in canon, least in the ENG version):

“A mutinous whelp, am I? So you admit you stand above all of us, striking down those who dare to stand against your rule.”

And she like. Says this one. Like out loud. Meaning her racism is no longer confined to just her thoughts, but spoken for the whole class to hear... and say nothing against. The closest the fic’s come to doing this before is Marianne and Seteth in Chapter 54 and the shitty things she said to him then (that the Church - aka, the Nabateans - hurt Marianne the same way Nemesis hurt them). But she'd never said that it was Nabateans as a race that were to blame (and we don't have access to her thoughts to know if that's what she thought), and also at that point in the fic the possibility still existed, however minimally, for Seteth and Flayn to change everyone’s minds. They could have shown Woobiegard that she was wrong to think of the Nabateans so horribly - and not because “there are goods ones,” but because making blanket assumptions about an entire race is, like... inherently wrong.

But this chapter, and this quoted line, pretty much conclude that nahhh Woobiegard WAS right all along! It’s not that Seteth and Flayn showed her that Nabateans haven’t taken over the government, their whole point in joining her side was to rebuild themselves into better people as recompense for having taken over the government, with her guiding and righteous light leading them down the path of redemption! And - shot in the dark here, haven’t finished the chapter yet - should the pattern be upheld, Rhea can join them too :)

To almost be fair to the fic, Canongard also believes in the racist conspiracy theory that the Nabateans control every facet of the government and must be destroyed as a race to eradicate their influence from humans. But you see, Canongard is, y'know, wrong in believing that? And is racist for believing that? And in every route other than hers, the villain route, she gets killed by the heroes? And Rhea is saved from Canongard's clutches? Which isn't happening here: Woobiegard is right, she definitely isn't racist, and she is the one true hero. All the times she would think the most racist shit ever about Nabateans are, in this chapter, being completely validated.

Any chance for the fic's tendency to lay the blame for everyone's woes on the Nabateans' shoulders to ever be rectified has been made monumentally harder to pull off with this. This close to the end, and the protagonist is righteous in spouting their racist beliefs to the face of the persecuted minority they are trying to murder - which they are trying to do, in large part, because that character is a specific race that the protagonist explicitly says they despise. Their racist conspiracy theories are being proven "correct." The persecuted minority is definitively in the wrong and is guilty of everything the racist protagonist accused them of.

And as you can see from the quotes, Woobiegard has not been blaming just Rhea. She has not been specific about the person she despises. She very clearly says that she blames Nabateans as a whole. She very clearly states that she despises Nabateans as a whole. And that hatred for Nabateans, at least at the point of the chapter I'm at right now, is being justified as right. And in the entire narrative of this fic, Woobiegard isn't just right, she is the only person at all, in any timeline, who is ever right.

I am prayin' on my damn knees that by the time this fic ends this shit will have the mother of all explanations as to why this ISN'T astoundingly racist on its face, but brother that's gonna need a mighty big mama to be good enough

#ask #anon #o captain my captain #when my head hit my hands reading this like holy shit #I really want to say that maybe I'm just overthinking this? But it just looks. SO bad #basically the thing with this chapter is the validation of previously stated racist sentiments more than it is straight up ''more'' racism #before you could argue that it was just Woobiegard's warped perspective and not that she was actually right - now? not as much

37 notes · View notes

author-morgan · 2 years

Note

Hi! I would like to request a one-shot for Alexios. Can it be where he finds another demise god that didnt know until the Cult tries to find her, so he then takes her in and then they fall in love? Some fluff and angst and *cough* other stuff if you want to. Thank you and I love your work!!!

Here you go! Sorry it took so long! Hope you enjoy it! ❤️❤️ Alexios x fem!Reader

ALEXIOS LINGERS IN the shadows —watching, waiting, listening. Those in the agora pointed him to Kresilas's Residence to the south of Kydonia, near the Temple of Artemis Diktynna. Between the clues and the whispers overheard in the cave beneath the Sanctuary of Delphi, his search for Melite has led him here to Messara. Another cultist to fall upon the Spear of Leonidas.

The sea breeze rustles the dry shrubs and carries more whispers. The old fortress one of the guards mentions, looking toward the towers rising along the rocky coast see if he can squeeze out any information. Alexios flexes his fingers, draws in a slow breath, and disappears into the night. He will find Melite at the Kydonian Fort.

The fort is built on the ruins of a lost civilization, and the tunnels beneath wind into the darkness. Alexios follows them until they spit him out into a cavernous room with felled stone columns and wooden scaffolding with a line of iron holding cells. The fort’s prison. At the center is a whipping post, and strung up by shackles is a woman, beaten and bloody with a man circling her —Melite. Alexios moves along with the shadows cast by the burning braziers, steadily moving closer.

Blood fills your mouth. Melite’s torturer had done a fine job. Your struggles earned you a bloody nose and mouth and three fewer fingernails. Four more, and Melite promised they would start taking fingers and toes. He tilts your head back, and through one strained eye, you can make out his twisted smile. It’s the same questions every day. Who is your father? Where is your father? Questions to which you know not the answer and not even lies will suffice to spare you from the pain.

“I told you I don’t know!” You cry, voice cracked and strained. The same answer you’ve given a dozen times over. “I grew up an orphan in the streets of Kyrene.” Tears streak your face, carving paths through the dried blood and filth from the endless days. Melite shakes his head and loses the flaying knife on his belt, but Alexios will watch no longer.

The Eagle Bearer surges forward, nigh silent, and thrusts the broken spear up and into Melite’s back. The point of the Leonidas spear emerges from the Cultist’s chest, bloody but shining in the firelight of the burning braziers. Melite goes limp in seconds with no resistance, no sound. Alexios pushes the corpse aside, but you shuffle back as much as you can —startled and frightened, unsure if this stranger is your savior or destruction.

Alexios reaches behind him, slowly, sheathing his spear back to its place on his quiver, then lifts his empty hands to show he means no harm. “I’m not going to hurt you,” he says, reaching up to unbind your fetters. Your arms drop down, and you rub the broken skin on your wrists —the rush of blood brings throbbing pain.

“I’m Alexios,” he says, introducing himself as he kneels in front of you, frowning at the dried blood and bruises on your face. He helps you stand on shaking knees, but there is something strange about his touch —something calling to you, as though you’ve found something you hadn’t even known was lost. “Do you have anywhere to go?” He asks, and you shake your head; it’s been years since you had anywhere you would dare call home.

HE CAN NOT leave you like this, so Alexios returns to the Adrestia. There is always room for another aboard the old trireme, but above all, Alexios needs to know if you had felt the same spark when his fingertips first brushed against yours. He has no doubt members of the Cult can be cruel for cruelty's sake, but there must be a reason Melite kept you. When your legs can no longer hold you upright, Alexios lifts you into his arms and makes his way down through the city and to the docks, and by the time he reaches the Adrestia, you are fast asleep —or unconscious, he is not sure which it is.

Barnabas and Herodotus are quick to make room when Alexios steps onto the trireme’s deck, calling Leda and Iola to help. They will have more skill than he and the others and a kinder touch to tend the open and angry wounds —Leda assures the Eagle Bearer that you will be in good hands and tells him not to linger, for there is little he can do now besides wait.

Alexios nods, looking back toward the fortress from whence he came and to the city. The answers he seeks must lie within. “Where are you going?” The old captain calls when Alexios sets back off for the heart of Kydonia.

“I still need answers,” he replies, raising the hood of his dark chlamys before disappearing amongst the dockworkers and merchants preparing for the day.

ALEXIOS RETURNS IN the dark of night after several days with newfound answers, more questions, and his pockets heavy with drachmae. Almost everyone is asleep, above or below deck. Several rowers sit on the edge of the deck, legs dangling over the water as they pass a skin of wine back and forth. He goes to the helm, standing in the center of the painted Hellas map, wondering where the winds will take him next. Running a hand over his face, he sits one on of the stern benches, then removes his sword and quiver, placing them within arm’s reach.

Though, he doesn’t expect to see you looking at him from the opposite side of the Adrestia —eyes shining in the moon and starlight. The cuts have all scabbed over, healing cleanly by the looks of it, and the bruises are fading, but Alexios knows healing physically is only half of the battle to recover. “Thank you,” you tell him, smile still weak and tired. It breaks him from his trance.

“What did they want with you?” Alexios asks, then curses himself for asking such a callous question. He has his suspicions even if he has no answers.

Your gaze flicks away, wondering how big a fool you’ll sound for speaking the truth of why Melite had captured you and strung you up for days. "They think I have the blood of hereos," you start, looking back to Alexios, but there is no ridicule in his gaze. He believes you. “Because of my father, whoever the malákas is.”

Alexios picks up the Leonidas spear and holds it out. Your brows furrow on seeing the broken spear, uncertain why he is offering it to you. “Hold this,” he says, placing the wooden lance into your palm and curling your bandaged fingers around the cloven weapon.

What happens next cannot be described. Eyes slipping shut, you focus on the spear and the energy thrumming through your body —calling to something that has yet to be fully awakened. Alexios knows you must feel something from your sharp inhale. “Do you feel it?” He asks. “Power, warmth, strength?” You nod, releasing the broken spear and focusing on him once more. “Then you do have the blood of heroes,” he tells you, lips quirking upward in a kindly smile. “As do I.”

You swallow the lump rising in your throat, unsure if you can process everything that has happened so quickly. None of it makes sense. You’d grown up without a family —on the streets of Kyrene— stealing food, conning those who came as tourists, and working small jobs to afford the clothes on your back. An odd start in life for someone with the blood of ancient heroes.

“Melite was a member of the Cult of Kosmos,” Alexios explains, and you nod weakly, having heard your captor speak of the Cult before and their penultimate goal of world order. In Egypt, the whispers were of a different group —the Order of Ancients. “I’m hunting them down. They have…” his voice trails off, searching for the right words though you can see the pain and anger flare up in his tawny gold eyes, chasing away the kindness, “…wronged my family.” Part of you is curious, and a budding question forms on the tip of your tongue, but the other part already knows the answer after having endured Melite’s hospitality.

He reaches out unwittingly, the backs of his fingers brushing over the fading bruise on your cheek. Alexios finds strange comfort in being this close —and he can’t help but wonder. You and he are the same, and it feels good to know he’s not alone anymore. You search his expression, unable to decipher what Alexios is thinking, but a fleeting smile kinks his lips. “You can stay, if you like,” he starts, knowing the Cult would never stop hunting you or him, not until they are all ripped from Hellas by the root. “I will protect you.” Alexios means it as a promise.

THE STARS SHINE bright overhead, and the waves softly rock the Adrestia to and fro. Time has slipped from your grasp since joining Alexios and the others —all you know is the wounds inflicted by Melite and his myrmidons no longer ail you, having left faint scars. Now, it all seems like a bad dream from a distant memory. You lie in the center of the painted map, Alexios’s head is next to yours, his legs extended in the opposite direction. He looks at you; all his curiosities have yet to be slaked. “Kyrene,” he starts, having heard you speak of the city before, “where is that?”

“South. In Libya,” you tell him, remembering the many days and nights you spent underneath the stars there, wishing one day to be able to run far away. But it's the surrounding red-rock faces and fields of flowers that you are most fond of when thinking back to childhood. “They grow poppy and silphium there.” You shift, turning to look at him. There remains much you do not know about the man who rescued you from the grasp of the Cult of Kosmos. All you know is he is kind, handsome, charming, and has the blood of ancient heroes flowing through his veins —the same as you. “Where are you from, Alexios?” You ask, wondering if he will tell you about himself.

“I was born in Sparta,” he explains, not ready to tell you of his past yet, especially given what happened when he returned to Mount Taygetos, “but grew up on Kephallonia.” For years he dreamed of the quickest way to leave the island and its miserable inhabitants behind. Now he almost longs to return to the simplicity of life before Elpenor showed up and offered him the contract for the Wolf of Sparta. He would gladly take the Cyclops over the Cult of Kosmos.

The name of the island piques your interest, knowing Ithaka lay just off its shores —and you know the stories of the great people who hailed from there. “Have you seen Odysseus’s palace?” The tales of Odysseus and the Trojan War had been among your favorite to listen to from storytellers and your favorite to watch when sneaking into the Kyrene theatre.

He nods. “The ruins,” Alexios says, “yes.” The great palace is nothing more than felled stones, fading paint, and crumbling columns —overrun by bandits and deserters from the war between Sparta and Athens. Alexios looks back at the stars with a soft sigh. “I found the Shroud of Penelope among the ruins,” he starts. You turn on your side, smiling, hoping he will tell you more of his discoveries and victories.

YOU INSIST UPON learning how to fight properly, and Alexios finds out just how stubborn you can be. He relents after you pulled Barnabas to your side of the argument. Despite his promise, Alexios will not always be around to protect you. He circles you on the deck of the Adrestia, appraising how you hold your short sword and shield —a heavy bronze piece with the fading colors of Lakonia. “Keep your shield up,” he instructs. You heft it up farther so the curved edge hides your chin and nose. Alexios nods his approval.

“You are Spartan,” you refute, following his pace. “Why do you not use a shield?”

“Slows me down,” he answers. Alexios had not endured the agoge, had not learned to fight with spear and shield in the Spartan way. Everything he knows has come by harsh ordeals —fighting to survive. It’s by sheer luck he’s managed to come out of so many scuffles unscathed. He sees the protest forming on your tongue, and before you can say anything, he shakes his head, pushing your shield back up into position. “But first, you must survive the fight,” he says, smiling. “And a shield will help with that.” You know he is right, even if it seems you could be just as quick as him. “Good,” he remarks, stepping back.

Alexios lashes out without warning, his blunt sparring sword swinging low. Enemies would not be so courteous as to give a warning during a fight. You bend at the knees and lower the shield to block the blow and push back. “Better.” Then he is upon you again, blunt blade thrusting forward, but it skids off the bronze shield and to the side. It’s then you catch the opening, an opportune moment, and press forward —throw your weight behind the shield and into him. The force of the sudden impact is enough to send Alexios backward. He doesn’t regain his balance fast enough and finds himself on his back, looking up at you —surprised.

You smile at him, and from the helm of the Adrestia the old captain laughs. “Hubris, my friend,” Barnabas calls.

THE POPPY FIELDS of Samos are in bloom under the summer sun, their petals a bright orange-red against the clear blue water. Since hearing you speak of Kyrene and fields of flowers, Alexios has made it a point to bring you here. But it is only now that the winds have been kind enough to guide the Adrestia back east after a lengthy pursuit of four more members of the Cult of Kosmos —only a few weeds remained to pluck from the earth.

As Alexios looks upon you, it is hard to see the same woman he’d found so long ago. Before him a warrior, though with more to learn in time. And that pesky feeling tugs at his heart again when he sees how the sunlight and shadows dance across your face.

You’ve caught him staring, he knows you have from the blossoming warmth on your cheeks and the almost shy downturn of your gaze, but it’s no matter. You step toward him and reach for one of his hands hesitantly. “Thank you for everything, Alexios,” you start, knowing words are not enough to express your gratitude for his friendship. Had he not found you…you don’t care to imagine what would have happened. “You’ve been so kind to me.”

Something is shining in your eyes Alexios has not seen before or at least has not taken notice of until now. It makes his throat feel tight and his heart heavy. “You shouldn’t look at me like that,” he says. Your brows furrow with how close he is and how his dark gaze flits down to your lips, you can’t help the way it makes your heart start to pound. “I may do something I regret.” He’s not going to let this moment slip away. Alexios’s fingertips brush over your cheek and back into your hair, then he leans in, warm breath ghosting across your lips. “Like this.”

His lips are soft and rough, with the slightest hint of salt from the sea breeze upon them, and his kiss is slow and confident. He cradles the back of your neck, and you meld into him, arms slipping over his shoulders to draw him closer. The spark you both felt upon first meeting flares back to life, turning to flame. “Alexios.” His name is a breathless whisper as you both part, his forehead resting against yours, then his arms settle around your waist —a gentle cage you do not wish to be freed from.

“Stay with me,” Alexios says. He does not wish to be parted from you after the gods brought you into his life —you are the same as he, and Alexios does not want to be alone in this world again. You smile and make your promise with a slow and sweet kiss, and Alexios’s lips tug into a smile against your own.

[ Alexios taglist: @wallsarecrumbling @novastale @maximalblaze @erzsebetrosztoczy @kitkitvm @overratedsun @alexandra-alle @thepreciouspurrsian @missmannequin @chaotic-spooky @mrsragnarlodbrok @certifiedlittleshit ] if your name is italicized, tumblr would not let me tag you. if you’d like to be added to my Alexios taglist, or any other taglist, just let me know with this Google Form!

#Alexios #Alexios x Reader #Alexios Imagine #Alexios Fanfiction #Assassin's Creed Imagine #Assassin's Creed Fanfiction #Assassin's Creed Odyssey #AC: Odyssey #my writing #anonymous #requested #remember if you liked this pleases reblog it #alexi-ohs is back #kinda #return of big sexios #also i dont think ive used that pic before?#oops if i have i dont remember shit no more

138 notes · View notes