Trails of Cold Steel II (2014) Trails of Cold Steel – Northern War (2023)

Doodles sometimes turn into fanart and said art here's got me pretty hyped. Anyone else looking forward to Reverie?

Shit. Now I'm half obligated to also drawing Machias, aren't I?

The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Artwork/Concept Art

Alisa told her mother at one point (I think in CSI) that when she graduated, she was going to run the company "the way it should be run." Over the course of the series, we know she was influenced by the selfless examples of people like Towa and especially Rean, not to mention the way Class VII's field studies helped many people. I was just thinking about all that and how it helped lead to things like Alisa showing the others her Orbal Gear and explaining that it also has non-combat applications, such as performing rescues. Though her mother is still her superior in the company, Alisa now has enough influence to use the company's resources to do things like arrange to have those motorcycles delivered to Rean's new Class VII at the branch campus. We know she was bothered by the focus on WMD manufacturing, so I like the signs that show that she's pushing for more focus on construction and less on destruction, more helping and less hurting. She's come a long way from the stubborn yet insecure teenager she was in CSI.

The Holidays Are a Time of Togetherness and Giving but Sometimes People Can Take Both a Bit Too Far in the Service of Being Petty as All Hell

Fandom: The Legend of Heroes/Trails, Trails of Cold Steel

Summary:

Lechter Arundel has an idea, in the spirit of the season: host a homecoming party in Ymir for Erebonia's hero, Rean Schwarzer. Just some friends, family, and a few decorations. Nothing too bad! Things get a little out of hand.

Read the fic here and check out an excerpt/my thoughts below!

Excerpt:

Lechter Arundel wasn’t supposed to hear this conversation. He wasn’t even supposed to be in Ymir, frankly. There was an all-Ironbloods meeting occurring the next day at Valflame Palace, so he was supposed to be in Heimdallr at the least in the event of any unexpected circumstances. However, the weather was miserably cold, and he needed just a quick dip-what was the harm? He had the timetable all worked out too: 1. Get to Ymir the night before. 2. Hit the Phoenix Wings. 3. R&R 4. Snowboard? Snowboard. 5. Head back to Heimdallr, getting to the meeting either on time or (depending on if he felt like sleeping in) fashionably late. 6. Optional: Gloat to the others about how refreshed he was. He had his disguise all figured out too, a lesson he picked up from the Debaucherous Prince. His hair was covered in a toboggan hat, he was wearing a pair of colored contacts (he always wondered what it would be like to have blue eyes), and he dug out his old Crossbell tourist duds for the occasion (though with an extra layer or two to combat the cold). With a nice warm towel wrapped around his neck, and a cup of hot cocoa, he looked like any other nobody. Which is why neither of the Schwarzers recognized him (he hoped) when they sat at the bar in the Phoenix Wings, fresh from a bath of their own.

Author's Note: The second in the Kiseki In-Between-Iverse series, this one I especially had a blast with because for as much as I love the Sky cast, it's just so easy to slip into the voices of the Cold Steel characters. Being able to sort of bridge that gap between Sky and CS was also a treat, and seeing if I could top my previous over-stuffed cameo list with fun cross-sections of character interactions. Just a fun time all around.

Finished Trails of Cold Steel 1 and eager to embark onto the second instalment in 2024

Arya didn’t know how much Robb would pay for her, though. He was a king now, not the boy she’d left at Winterfell with snow melting in his hair. And if he knew the things she’d done [...] “What if my brother doesn’t want to ransom me?”

immediate tears

“Why would you think that?” asked Lord Beric. “Well,” Arya said, “my hair’s messy and my nails are dirty and my feet are all hard.” Robb wouldn’t care about that, probably, but her mother would. Lady Catelyn always wanted her to be like Sansa, to sing and dance and sew and mind her courtesies. Just thinking of it made Arya try to comb her hair with her fingers, but it was all tangles and mats, and all she did was tear some out

-ARYA VII ASOS

oh. oh ok (falling to the ground, eating the carpet)

eleven years old arya contemplates her family could not want her back because her hair is all messy and her nails are dirty and her feet are all hard. she thinks of her mother, that has never managed to get through her (or has she?) and her first instinct is to fix herself. but the mess is beyond fixing now and all she does is tear some of her hair out. i am clawing at the walls.

Cloud: who broke it?

*guilty silence*

Cloud: I’m not mad I just want to know.

Angeal: it was me I bro-

Cloud: No, no you didn’t. Zack?

Zack: Don’t look at me, look at Kunsel!

Kunsel: What I didn’t brake it!

Zack: huh, that’s weird. How’d you even know it was broken?

Kunsel: because it’s sitting right in front of us, and it’s broken!

Zack: suspicious.

Kunsel: no it’s not!

Roche: if it matters, probably not, but Genesis was the last one to use it…

Genesis: lier! I don’t even drink that crap!

Roche: oh really, well what were you doing over by the coffee cart earlier?

Genesis: I use the wooden stirrers to push back my cuticles, everyone knows that cockroche!

Angeal: okay, okay, let’s not fight! I broke it let me pay for it Cloud!

Cloud: No, who broke it!

Zack: Cloudy? Sephiroth has been awfully quiet…

Sephiroth: REALLY?! Oh my goddess, you’re really going to call it like that huh?

*they all continue fighting for an hour*

Lazard: so who broke it? Did you find out?

Cloud: oh, I did.

Lazard: …???

Cloud: it burned my hand so I punched it.☺️

When Genesis attempts to cheer people up:

LATER

Editing those last two panes was a pain (yeah, I said it). Also, I had so much difficulty trying to make Sephiroth not look like he was short in the last frame but I couldn't get the perspective tool to work with me. So he'll just have to stay like he's melting out of his chair out of embarrassment, and that is okay with me.

Pushing through the final dungeon of CS4 caused this image to burn quite irreparably onto my retinas

That's a real nice coat, doe

so I forgot I had this unfinished Station-of-Awakening-style piece for Genesis just sitting around in my files for like 2 years

so uh, yeah

drawing all those Genesis copies was...an experience