#rhitober
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Kira Grace Kingston
female, she/her
5'6”, slender build
shoulder-length, straight dark-brown hair
pale, lightly freckled skin
light brown eyes
bisexual (though I play her in-game as straight because I just really connected with the all-male Unit Bravo for some reason)
Taurus, born 28 April 1992; 25 at the beginning of Book 1, turns 26 between Book 1 and 2
left-handed
Romance: all of them, I’m using the same Detective for all routes
(infodump about her under the cut, for my own purposes mostly but also for anyone interested)
--Was inspired to become a cop to help people after having one help her when she really, really needed it. Wanted to pay it forward, so to speak.
--Kira is a natural leader and very good at deduction and problem solving (it’s her second highest stat, after people/psychology). She would have likely gone out for detective soon anyway, but didn’t think she was ready or old enough to be in charge of the whole station yet and was surprised when the promotion came. The rest of the station had been secretly considering her their boss for years before Detective Reele retired, but Kira somehow has no idea.
--Totally shot Adam. Feels really bad about it but would never tell him that.
--Will drink tea or coffee, but prefers tea. Her favorites are cinnamon tea and masala chai. If she’s drinking coffee, she prefers the sugary, flavored, Starbucks-like variety, but will sometimes drink it black just to unnerve people (people mostly being Tina).
--Doesn’t wear much make-up, but likes to paint her nails. Usually black or some other dark color, a “layover from her misspent youth.”
--Wears contacts. Has gold-framed glasses that she wears when she has to, but hates them. She’s farsighted, so if for some reason she can’t wear her contacts, she only puts on the glasses for reading.
--Plays guitar and lap steel guitar. Prefers to play blues music, but can play just about any genre. A pretty good singer, but very shy about it. Probably only Rebecca and Tina have ever heard her sing as far as she knows. (she sings to herself at her desk sometimes, but doesn’t realize it. All of UB have probably noticed; Felix definitely has, and is likely waiting for a good opportunity to tease her about it)
--She’s always been very close with Rebecca. They’re both rather independent-minded, so she didn’t mind her mother’s absences so much. Mum was always there when she needed her, and always willing to listen, and that’s what mattered. Now that she knows what she does, Kira is sure that she’s called her mother while she was on a mission before, but Rebecca still always answered, and that fact makes her respect and admire her mum even more.
--Lost a bet to Verda in regards to The Reveal. Verda had said the Murphy case and its oddities were supernatural in nature, Kira said it was science experiments gone awry. Technically, they were both right, but Verda was more right. Kira looks forward to one day being able to tell him, even if she’ll be out £50 for it.
--The only reason Kira isn’t some reclusive hermit is because of Tina Poname. Tina and Kira met when they were both in a very low place, and have lifted each other up and helped put each other back on their feet. Their friendship is very important to Kira, and the fact that she can’t tell Tina that the Hot Secret Agents they’re working with are Hot Secret Agent Vampires is the hardest part of The Reveal. She’s not used to keeping secrets from Tina.
--Tina and Kira have a monthly movie night. One of them picks the movie and the other picks the food, then they swap the next month. It’s more like an adult slumber party than anything else, really, lots of wine and gossip and venting if need be. It’s a tradition going back years now and neither would miss it for the world.
--Is very good with people, it’s her highest stat, but doesn’t actually enjoy being around them much. Very much an introvert, prefers silence and solitude or the company of close friends only. She works very hard to be as approachable as she is.
--Curses like a sailor. Poor Nate.
--Loves to read. Anything and everything. You put a book in front of her and she’ll read it. Mysteries are a favorite.
--Her favorite color is wintergreen like Adam’s eyes.
--Apartment style would be somewhere between cosy and dark. Kind of a Spooky Grandma’s House vibe. Lush fabrics and textures, soft sofas and chairs, but subdued colors. Black, gray, navy blue, with pale blue and wintergreen accents. Artwork is mostly made by locals or by friends from university. Bookshelves nearly overflowing. Apartment is kept clean, but always looks a bit cluttered.
--Preferred clothing style is casual but professional. Jeans, most often paired with a t-shirt or button-up shirt. Mostly long sleeves, but with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows. Usually black, sometimes white or gray, very, very rarely dark green or dark blue. Black leather jacket when it’s cold. Almost always wears black boots; she paid more for those boots than she did for her car (but that says more for how little she paid for the car than how expensive her boots actually are).
--Speaks seven languages. English, Sign Language, Spanish, French, German, Welsh, and, because someone dared her to at university, Sindarin Elvish. With the exception of the elvish, she learned most of them out of necessity or exposure.
--English literature major. Doesn’t serve much in her job, but she’s still proud of it.
--Very shy when it comes to flirting. She hates it about herself. She’s very confident and self-assured in almost every other situation, but if someone starts showing the slightest bit of genuine interest in her she flusters very easily.
--Dated Bobby in year one at university for a couple months. With him in journalism and her in English lit, they had a lot of class overlap early on, and he was familiar and clearly interested and that was enough, for a while. She regrets that she fell so easily for his flirting and has resolved since to not be such an “easy mark” in the future. Hasn’t dated anyone since and hasn’t wanted to (until UB barge into her office, obviously). Kind of hates him, but would never let him know that; she is, instead, very meticulously polite to him, never any more or less.
--At the beginning of Book 1, she has 4 tattoos. Gets a 5th one during the 2 months between Book 1 and Book 2.
-a small, stylized crown on her right wrist (Rebecca has a matching one that she hides under her watch band at work) because Kingston
-bars of music wrapped around her right bicep (watercolour-style effect behind it - the music is Tom Petty’s “Won’t Back Down”)
-a quote on the inside of her left bicep (“I have love in me the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other.”― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein)
-a large full-color floral piece from her left hip almost to her knee (forget-me-nots for her father, lupines for her mother, lavender roses and verbena for herself)
-new tattoo is a simple, black crescent moon on the back of her neck to symbolize a new beginning (keeps it hidden under her hair most of the time, especially at work).
--Preferred method of working out is rock climbing/wall climbing. Has some combat training, mostly just from the police academy, but she tries to attend aikido lessons when she has time. She likes that it lets her defend herself without being stronger than her opponent, especially now that she deals with the supernatural so much.
--Kira didn’t realize how attached she’d grown to Unit Bravo until the attack on her apartment. She wanted to stay to help her team; on every route, she has to be dragged away in order to get her to leave. Completely, 100% ride or die for all of them.
Kira is my only Detective and I’m using her in all four routes (sorry, folks, I can’t do the Love Triangle. I tried, but I can’t, it already hurts and I’m not strong enough). It’s been very interesting, since she has the same personality no matter what, to see in what ways she connects with each member of Unit Bravo, and the slight changes in her personality stats based on how she responds to romance-specific scenes.
Adam: arguably my “canon” romance for her, though I legitimately and completely love all of them. On his route, her stats skew a little more toward Stubborn and Impulsive because she’s spiteful and he’s kind of an ass, especially to start with.
They’re both headstrong and natural leaders, so they butt heads a lot in terms of authority. She doesn’t like that Adam tries to order her around, he doesn’t like that she refuses to listen to orders sometimes out of spite. But when they actually try to get along, they agree more often than not and could probably make an amazing team given time.
She’s completely, head-over-heels in love with him, but she hasn’t figured it out yet, though she knows she feels something for him. He makes her feel safe, which is how she knows that she’s in deep.
On Adam’s route, Nate is Kira’s best friend. Poor guy’s gonna be stuck between the immovable object and the unstoppable force for 7 fucking books.
Nate: On Nate’s route, Kira’s stats tend more toward Cautious, and also a bit more Heart on the Heart/Mind scale.
Of all of them, Nate would be the one Kira would be most surprised to find herself falling for. She’s not much of a romantic, generally, but she’s also never had anyone look at her like Nate does, or treat her like she’s something precious and important. She feels completely off balance with him and has no idea how to react. She has never been so overwhelmed with a desire to kiss someone before.
Personality-wise, they have a lot in common, both are good with people, compassionate, linguistically talented, and avid readers; to anyone except Kira, them getting together makes perfect sense. He probably doesn’t like how stubborn and foul-mouthed she is, but between Adam and Mason, he’s used to dealing with it.
On Nate’s route, Mason is Kira’s best friend. No one is more surprised about that than they are, and they aren’t really sure how that happened.
Felix: On Felix’s route, Kira skews more toward Easygoing and Impulsive.
In a word, Felix helps Kira relax. She’s a bit of a workaholic and he brings her out of her shell and reminds her that she’s more than just Detective Kingston. It’s refreshing and overwhelming. Romance with Felix is easy.
He’s the only one where she doesn’t end up 100% shy because, even though she still gets horribly flustered by him, he doesn’t make her as tongue-tied as the others do. Maybe it’s because he’s so much less intense than the others, but also she kind of feels like she’s always known him.
She wants to show him the world, all the little things about being human that she’s always taken for granted but he never had in Echo World. Paper airplanes and creepy travelling carnivals and movie theater popcorn and photo booths and everything. They’ll be good for each other, but them joining forces is probably very bad for everyone else.
On Felix’s route, Nate is Kira’s best friend. Unlike with Adam, he isn’t so much trapped between two opposing forces as he is an exhausted parent trying to corral overly-curious children.
Mason: On Mason’s route, Kira’s stats tend even more toward Genuine than they do on other routes, as well as Stubborn.
On the surface Mason and Kira probably don’t look like they’d work, but really I think they’re the pairing that makes the most sense. Mason doesn’t drain her social batteries as much as the others, even at the beginning when he’s as hostile toward her as possible. They both enjoy the quiet, and that’s where the first romantic feelings from her would form, in the calm and silent comfort she feels with him.
But obviously, it doesn’t start romantic even a little bit. At the beginning, she’s neither intimidated nor put off by his sharp, brusque personality, and she’s very flustered and intimidated by his intense manner of flirting, though she’s not really put off by it either. She doesn’t know how to respond to it (though he clearly enjoys how she reacts), but he makes her feel desired in a way she never has before. There’s a certain comfort to knowing that he only wants her physically, that he’s straightforward in his interests.
I imagine that she figures out she’s falling for him after he does something small that should be innocuous, some little off-hand affection that he didn’t even think about and she just goes “oh shit, I’m in love with Mason.”
On Mason’s route, Felix is Kira’s best friend. He definitely sees them falling for each other long before they see it and does everything he can to get them to stop being idiots and realize that they’re in love.
#the wayhaven chronicles#kira kingston#I'm also tagging this as#rhitober#day 12#day 13#because I've had a brutal migraine all weekend and can't concentrate to write creatively#but infodumping like this is easier#and since it's over 2k words I think it still counts as writing#I'm glad to finally get this all written down even if I'm probably the only one that'll read it#I've gotten really attached to kira#and I love the little details that change about her between romances even though her base personality stays the same#twc
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Here is your card for Bad Things Happen Bingo. Happy writing!
Hey all! I’ve decided to request a card from Bad Things Happen Bingo! I’ll likely fill some of these on my own since I don’t have a lot of followers who ask me things, but in the spirit of everyone writing and making art this month-- Well, I figured I’d post it here, too. Let me know in an ask if you’d like to see a prompt filled using one of these themes. Any characters are okay! You can request characters from fandom, one of my OCs, or one of your own OCs if they’re someone I know about (like the #godsquad or a D&D character). Keep in mind that while I enjoy hurting characters, I’m also a huge sucker for happy endings, so if you want things to end badly/ambiguously, please specify this in your ask.
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Rhitober Round-Up
Holy shit I did it! I am surprised and amazed and proud. Thank you all so much that sent me prompts and encouragement, I literally couldn’t have done this without you
Day 1 (Cait Cousland/Loghain Mac Tir, Dragon Age: Origins)
Day 2 (Carah Amell&Zevran Arainai, DA:O)
Day 3 (Kai Cirdani/Aloth Corfiser/Iselmyr, Pillars of Eternity)
Day 4 (Kai Cirdani&Vela, PoE)
Day 5 (Cait Cousland, DA:O)
Day 6 (Carah Amell&Anders, DA:O Awakening)
Day 7 (Cait Cousland, DA:O)
Day 8 (Detective/Unit Bravo, The Wayhaven Chronicles)
Day 9 (Kai Cirdani/Aloth Corfiser, PoE)
Day 10 (Kai Cirdani&Fassina, PoE)
Day 11 (Kai Cirdani&Kana Rua, PoE)
Day 12/Day 13 (Kira Kingston, TWC)
Day 14 (Cait Cousland&Anora Mac Tir, DA:O)
Day 15 (Aurienne the Sparrow, Pathfinder: Kingmaker)
Day 16 (Kai Cirdani/Aloth Corfiser, PoE)
Day 17 (Kira Kingston&Tina Poname, hint of Kira Kingston/Adam du Mortain, TWC)
Day 18 (Cait Cousland/Nathaniel Howe(&Anders), DA:O:A)
Day 19 (Kai Cirdani/Aloth Corfiser/Iselmyr, PoE)
Day 20 (Kai Cirdani&Edér Teylecg, PoE)
Day 21 (Kai Cirdani&Rekke (Kai/Rekke?), PoE)
Day 22 (Cait Cousland&Morrigan, DA:O)
Day 23 (Kai Cirdani/Aloth Corfiser, PoE)
Day 24 (Kai Cirdani, PoE)
Day 25 (Kira Kingston, TWC)
Day 26 (Kira Kingston, TWC)
Day 27 (Kira Kingston&Rebecca Kingston, TWC)
Day 28 (Kira Kingston/Nate Sewell, TWC)
Day 29 (Kira Kingston/Adam du Mortain, TWC)
Day 30 (Kira Kingston/Felix Hauville, TWC)
Day 31 (Kira Kingston/Mason, TWC)
#rhitober#day 'fuck I actually finished this'#pillars of eternity#dragon age#the wayhaven chronicles#kai cirdani#kira kingston#cait cousland#carah amell#this was so much fun!#I'm so glad I decided to do this#for those interested: kai was the most popular#which isn't a surprise at all#followed by kira but at least some of that was my own fault :P and my mom's lol#then cait#and then carah and ari#but the real ship here is rhi/starting her stories with dialogue#I'm pretty sure I did that every single time
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Rhitober, Day 22
(for the final prompt from here, selcouth for Cait & Morrigan)
“You are staring again.” Morrigan barely looked up from what she was doing, some sort of complex spellwork that twisted light between her fingers like a weaver’s loom. “Do you still fear I will turn you into a toad?”
Cait smirked, uncowed by the coldness in the witch’s voice. “If you do, do I still have to save the world? Or will you turn my enemies into flies so I can eat them?”
Morrigan’s lips twisted into a humorless smile. “You would never go hungry, I think.”
They fell silent, and Cait watched as the spell weaving became more complex, taking a slightly more familiar shape. A protective rune, maybe? She’d seen Carah cast a silencing rune once and it bore a passing resemblance, but what this one did she had no guess and no basis on which to make one. “I’ve never seen magic like yours before,” she said quietly, the words escaping without thought.
If the comment bothered Morrigan, she didn’t show it. “‘Tis not the kind taught to captive mages, true. I doubt you could find such spells even in all the books their halls could hold.” She finally lifted her gaze from her work, golden eyes looking molten in the firelight. “I am surprised you have seen magic at all, since you are not a mage yourself.”
“I’ve met a few healers.” Cait didn’t point to Carah, though she was the most obvious example. Instead, she grinned and added in an undertone, as if it was a secret, “I was a bit accident prone as a child.”
“Throwing yourself into danger is not the same as being ‘accident prone,’ I would not think,” Morrigan replied, amused. “Very well. Ask your questions.”
“No questions.” Cait shrugged. “I don’t think I have the capacity to understand even if you really had the desire to explain it.”
“That may be the most intelligent thing anyone has said since we left the Wilds.” She studied Cait, making no attempt to hide her curiosity. Cait tried not to squirm, feeling a bit like a deer caught in the gaze of a wolf. “‘Tis no weakness, to know what you cannot learn. You have power of your own.”
“Yes. Straight teeth and a willingness to lie through them.” Cait smiled, wide and playful.
Morrigan chuckled, a warm and smoky sound. “Indeed.”
#rhitober#day 22#this one ended up shorter than I'd like but I didn't have much time to write today#but it takes place very early in origins#probably on the way to lothering I think maybe shortly after#and I'm pretty sure this was the moment Cait and Morrigan started to understand each other#these two would have been a fucking unstoppable duo if circumstances hadn't forced them to go their separate ways#thank you one more time for the prompts and your lovely message anon <3#I hope you've enjoyed reading these as much as I've enjoyed writing them!
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Rhitober! That’s an excellent idea. How about the hug prompts: “Angry Hug (not at each other)” for Cait and Nate?
“I’m going to kill him.”
“No you aren’t.”
“Yes I am. And I’m going to kill Stroud, too, for not telling me.” Cait was pacing, marching back and forth across the room like it was personally responsible for the situation. “Three years! Three blighted years without a single Maker-blighted letter! I thought he was…” Angry tears prickled in the back of her eyes and she blinked them away in frustration.
Nathaniel stepped into her path and dragged her into a hug. She reluctantly let him, unwilling to let go of her ire yet. Still, his embrace calmed her like it always did. “He’s okay, Caitie. At least we know now. They’re both okay.”
Cait pressed her face into his shoulder. “I thought Justice at least was sensible enough to send me a note. Anders must be a bad influence on him.”
Nathaniel’s silence spoke volumes on how right she was, and Cait felt something akin to dread settle in her gut. It only grew stronger as Nate subtly changed the subject. “I think he wouldn’t mind if you went to visit him.”
“Maybe I will. I don’t like the idea of him being in a city like Kirkwall on his own.” Even she had heard horror stories of the way that city treated mages. His being a Warden wouldn’t grant him immunity from the templars forever - if it did, he wouldn’t have had to leave Amaranthine in the first place. That thought brought Cait’s rage back to the fore, until she was almost choking on it.
Nate’s arms tightened around her, as if he could hear her thoughts. “He isn’t alone. He has friends there.”
He has friends here, she wanted to say, but she didn’t. She was already thinking through the logistics of how she could possibly make enough time in her schedule to pop over to Kirkwall. And what she’d say to Anders when she got there.
“Maybe I’ll start by writing him a letter.”
#rhitober#day 18#oops Anders angst#fun fact! this scene or a variation on it may end up in SMBF or its sequel#another fun fact just for the people that read the tags: rhitober has done what I had hoped it would!#I have found my inspiration again and am working on SMBF again#I'm hoping to have it finished soon and start editing#so I can finally get it posted :D#thank you for the prompt allison <3#and for all your encouraging comments#allisondraste
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Ignipotent for Kai?
“Have you considered specializing in Evocation?” Fassina asked, flipping brusquely through Kai's grimoire. “You have an affinity for it, aimica.”
“I have an affinity for fire,” Kai corrected absentmindedly, looking through Fassina's spellbook in turn. There certainly was very little overlap between them. “And I don't like the idea of limiting myself.”
“That is one way to look at it, I suppose,” Fassina said dryly. “Why fire?”
“I don't know. Everything I cast ends up wreathed in flame. Even defensive magic.” Kai cast the smallest spell she could think of, summoning a tiny ball of light in her palm. It flickered warm orange like candlelight. She chuckled to herself. “The words come to me easier and take less energy. I thought it was a curse, when I was younger.”
Fassina scoffed. “Di verus. Yes, such a terrible curse, to have a natural affinity for one of the most difficult magics to control.”
Kai grinned, unperturbed by Fassina's venomous tone. “Not the worst curse I've ended up with, at least.”
Fassina scoffed again, but it sounded more like a stifled laugh. She still didn’t look up from the borrowed book, pen moving in sharp, aggressive motions on a scrap of paper at her side as she took notes of something she’d found interesting.
Kai kept talking, knowing the conjurer was listening even if she pretended not to. “My older brother told me once that that’s why I have red hair. I’m the only one in my family that does, and Gaius said it was proof that I was cursed. Called me fire-haired and said that everything I loved would burn to ash. I was young enough that I even believed him for a while.” It was hard to keep the cold bitterness out of her voice when she spoke of Gaius. Though she had long since reconciled with her sisters, Kai had no intentions of mending her relationship with her older brother. Those bridges could stay ashes for all she cared.
“Bazzo,” Fassina spat.
Kai laughed, but it was humorless. “You have no idea. He’s only grown more sour with age.” She studied her fellow wizard for a moment. “Is it a requirement to become a wizard? Having a shitty family?”
“Why else would anyone willingly spend so much time surrounded by dusty old books? Because they’re better than people.” Fassina handed her grimoire back. “Not much of use in there to me, aimica, but not completely useless.”
“Thank you,” Kai deadpanned. “Just past sixty years old and I’ve finally graduated to ‘not completely useless.’”
“It’s more than I give most.” Fassina held out her hand for the return of her own spellbook. Kai briefly considered holding onto it, just to see how long her friend would stay like that, but ultimately decided against it.
“True.” Kai said, though still dripping with sarcasm. “Perhaps in another sixty years I could even become ‘not that bad, actually.’”
“I would not get your hopes up if I were you.”
#rhitober#day 10#this went in such a different direction than I expected it to when I saw the prompt!#it was fun to write Fassina though I've never done so before#and I'm really glad I got the fire prompt for my fire-haired girl <3#thank you for the prompt ranna! :D#this was a lot of fun#rannadylin
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Marcid for a character of your choice
“Were you here all night?”
Kira looked up blearily from her computer screen as Tina walked in. Through the front of the police station behind her former partner, she could see the sky just starting to lighten with sunrise. She sighed and ran a hand over her face, knocking her glasses askew. She’d forgotten she was wearing them. She dropped them aggravatedly onto her desk. “I guess so,” she said eventually. “It’s just… it’s this bloody case. I can’t seem to step away from it.”
Tina walked over and leaned on the edge of her desk. This whole situation felt terribly familiar. “You aren’t alone, you know. I’m here to help, whatever you need. Not to mention your Bravo boys. I’m sure any of them would jump at the chance to help.” Her warm smile turned sly. “Especially a certain someone. Just the two of you, spending all night together working closely…” She trailed off, but her smile still spoke volumes about what she expected would happen in such a situation.
“Maybe,” Kira sighed. “Maybe not. I don’t want to slow them down.” She didn’t mean to say the last part aloud; it slipped out quietly, a confession.
“Slow them down? You’re one of the hardest workers I’ve ever met. They are lucky to know you and I’m sure they know that. I’m sure he knows that.” Tina put a comforting hand on Kira’s arm. “But you have to take care of yourself, too. You’re only human, Kira.”
“Yeah, that’s the problem, innit,” Kira muttered.
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing. Nevermind. You’re right.” Kira sighed again. She seemed to be doing that a lot this morning. “Can I ask a favor?”
“Anything.”
That brought a genuine smile to Kira’s face. “Can you cross-reference some newspaper archives for me? I’m looking for strange disappearances within the last twenty years. It would be from this time of year and either here or in the city.”
“Of course. I’ll check down at the library, see what they’ve got.” Tina shrugged her coat back on. “And I’ll stop by Haley’s and get you a coffee. Something strong enough to keep you awake for the day.”
“What would I do without you?”
“Crash and burn, probably,” Tina said cheerfully, then clapped Kira on the shoulder before making to leave the office. “Up and at ‘em, Kira, looks like your boys are here. I’ll see you later.”
Tina walked out as Unit Bravo walked in and took up their usual positions around the room. Kira tried to make herself look like she hadn’t been here all night.
Felix looked her over, and she knew his acute amber eyes saw right through her. “You look like hell.”
Kira rolled her eyes. “Gee, thanks, Felix. Good to see you too.”
He grinned. “Just saying it like I see it.”
There was a knot of concern between Nate’s brows that Kira tried to ignore; a similar one appeared on Mason’s face when he lit a cigarette and she didn’t immediately tell him off for it, but it was gone as soon as she noticed it and any other expressions he may have had were hidden behind a veil of smoke.
It was Adam who actually addressed the elephant in the room, because of course it was. “Have you been working all night, Detective?”
“Yes,” Kira said, because there was no use denying it. They could hear if she lied anyway. “But I think I’ve had a breakthrough.”
She put her glasses back on so she could find the right folder among the scattered papers on her desk, then handed it to Adam with exhausted triumph. She watched him as he flipped through the contents of the folder, over a decade worth of reports and documents from two different police departments and the Agency that she’d spend all night piecing together into something coherent. She saw the moment he connected the dots, one eyebrow raising as his pale green eyes flicked back to her.
“It’s not complete yet,” Kira said before Adam could comment, feeling strangely defensive even though he hadn’t said anything. “I’ve sent Tina on an errand that should help clear things up more, though.”
“It’s more than we had before,” Adam said, an unexpected softness in his tone. “It will narrow our search considerably. Good work, Detective.”
Kira beamed at the praise, feeling ridiculous but too tired to dampen it before it showed on her face. She at least managed to make her reply flippant, even if she knew they could all see through it. “Well, that’s why I’m here, right? I’m a detective. I detect.”
“I understand that this case is important to you, Kira,” Nate said carefully. She hadn’t seen him approach her desk while her attention had been on Adam. He put a hand on her shoulder and added, “but you don’t need to push yourself this hard to solve it.”
Kira bit back a harsh reply before she voiced it out loud. Nate didn’t deserve that, and she knew his concern and care for her was genuine. Besides, he was right. What she ended up saying was, “It’s easier to think when there aren’t any people around. No interruptions. If I’d gone home, I’d have just worked all night there instead.” She smiled at him then. “I’m a big girl. I can handle a sleepless night here and there. But thank you for your concern. Truly.”
The mood in the office was much better than it had been the last week now that they finally had something resembling a trail to follow. Kira sat at her desk and watched Unit Bravo as they filled in the gaps in the outline she’d put together. With the newspaper clippings Tina brought them, they confirmed a couple theories Kira had. By the time the weak winter sun started to set, they had something that might tentatively be called a plan.
“You should get some rest, Detective.”
Kira hadn’t realized she was dozing off until Adam spoke right next to her. She looked up to meet his stern gaze. “Is that an order, Agent?”
The smallest hint of a smile graced his lips, gone almost as soon as it appeared. “If it was, would you listen?”
“Maybe. Just this once.” She sighed and pushed her fingers through her hair. “You’re right. But call me if there are any other developments, please.”
He nodded. He opened his mouth to say something, then snapped it shut. Kira waited, used to this reticence from him by now. There was a long pause before he finally said, “It isn’t safe for you to drive in this state. I shall walk you home.”
“Okay.” Her smile felt too soft, too telling, but it was too late to bite it back. Adam’s eyes dropped to her lips, watching the smile widen, before he ripped his gaze away from her entirely, a familiar tension settling across his shoulders.
Kira said her good nights to the others, ignoring the way Felix’s knowing eyes followed her through the station. Adam opened the door for them, and then they both stepped out into the falling night.
#rhitober#day 17#this got really long! and it wanted to be longer I had to force it to a stop#I guess it was Kira's turn for Soft and Sleep Deprived :)#my poor OCs I never let any of them sleep#I chose Kira/Adam for this one because I know A is your favorite Saren#I hope you like it <3#thank you for the prompt darling#the wayhaven chronicles#serenbach86
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For Kai, hm...Wordless ILY #24?
“So what happens now?”
Kai stood on the pristine white sand of one of the many breathtakingly beautiful beaches on Neketaka Island, watching Vela and their black hound, Lady, chase each other through the waves.
Aloth sat next to her, watching them too. It was a long time before he answered her question. “I don’t know. I’ve never really thought about it. I’ve never really had the luxury to think about it.”
“Neither have I.” She picked up a thin piece of driftwood from nearby, tracing aimless patterns in the sand, watching as they disappeared under the encroaching tide. “Eder plans to stay here. At least for a while.”
“We could stay too.”
“Is that what you want?” she asked, though she already knew the answer.
“No, I don’t think it is,” he said quietly. “Is that what you want?”
“No.”
Kai wrote a big K, the lines sharp and dark in the pale sand. After a moment, she wrote the rest of her name too.
“We could return to Caed Nua,” Aloth suggested suddenly. It was the first time since they’d reunited that he had expressed any interest in returning to the Dyrwood.
“We could. I have enough favors I could call in to have it rebuilt in weeks.” There was a certain appeal to that, to trying to go back to how things had been before, but the new hall would echo with too many ghosts of the old one.
He seemed to pick up on what she was thinking. “But that isn’t what you want, either.”
“No.” She wrote his name next to hers. The ocean came and reclaimed half of it, leaving only Kai Corfiser written there. It made her stomach do a peculiar little flip.
“We still have a ship, a willing crew, and enough money saved up to make even your parents jealous. We could travel.”
“See the world together? I like that.” She kept staring at the words in the sand until the tide eventually washed them away too. “Hey Aloth? Do you want to get married?”
“What?” he squeaked.
“I…” She laughed ruefully, realizing what she’d just asked him, “gods, I didn’t mean to just blurt it out like that. Let me try again.”
Kai dropped her stick to the ground and started to get down on one knee. Aloth moved much quicker than she thought he could, catching her by the shoulders and keeping her firmly on her feet.
“That isn’t necessary,” he said, words spilling out of him in a rush. He was blushing all the way to the tips of his ears, but his smile was soft, if perhaps a little confused. “I thought you weren’t interested in marriage. In fact, you made it quite clear just how much you weren’t interested.”
“A lot has changed since then. I’ve changed since then.” That felt like an understatement after having her soul ripped out, scrambled, remade, and marked by both the god of light and the god of death - and that was just the changes outside of her own control. She paused, trying to find the right way to phrase it, to make sure he understood. Even if she had blurted out the question, she didn’t want to take it back. “I don’t know where we go from here, what the future holds, but I know that I want to face it together.”
Aloth caressed her cheek, fingers following the trail of freckles along her cheekbone, and his smile widened. “So do I.”
“Is that a yes, darling?” Kai asked, trying for a teasing tone but falling short. “You haven’t actually answered the question.”
He managed much better than she did. “Yes I have.”
He kissed her, and it was all the answer she needed.
#rhitober#day 23#oops! it's sappy nonsense o'clock!#I hear you asking 'rhi! why is it that none of your characters seem able to propose properly?'#well you can blame my own real life relationship for that#I proposed to my husband spur of the moment while we were playing video games together#and we got married about a month later#(on april fools day in fact!)#and that tends to bleed into my writing I guess#this takes place right after Deadfire btw#they destroy the cycle of resurrection together and kai is immediately like 'yes good let's elope'#okay that's enough tags now#thank you once again for the prompt ranna#you are one of the driving forces that keeps me writing and I appreciate it greatly <3 <3#rannadylin
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Rhitober prompt: Hug Prompts Leaping hug for Kai & Vela?
Kai stepped through the tall doors into Caed Nua’s main hall, the weight of the stone ceiling above her familiar and comforting. The doors closed behind her with a soft thud, and barely a second later a shrill, joyful shriek echoed through the hall from somewhere deeper within - followed by the rapid tapping of footsteps looming closer.
It was the only warning she got, and she dropped her rucksack quickly before her arms were filled with fur and frills that leapt at her from the shadows.
From under messy, too long mousey hair, a toothy grin emerged. “Hello, Mama.”
“Hello, Vela,” Kai couldn’t help but grin back. “I missed you, my darling.”
“I missed you too, Mama.” She wrapped her arms around her mother’s neck, and Kai was happy to let her stay there as long as she wanted. Too soon, she pulled back. “Did you have fun on your adventure?”
Kai pushed Vela’s hair away from her face until she could find her daughter’s eyes under all that hair. “I didn’t go on an adventure, I told you. It was just a quick business trip.”
Vela flung herself backwards, draping herself dramatically over Kai’s arms. “It’s always an adventure when you travel with Aloth.” Kai tried to figure out a way to explain to her daughter that ‘dismantling an ancient cult’ was not exactly the excitement or exploration that she seemed to think it was, but Vela was already changing the subject. “Did you bring me anything?”
“Hmm, perhaps,” Kai said slyly. “That depends entirely on how good you’ve been while I was gone.”
Vela immediately sat upright again. “The best! I am the best and sweetest little orlan ever.” She sounded like she was repeating something someone else had told her to say.
“I see. And what did the best and sweetest little orlan bribe Edér with to get such a glowing review?”
Vela flung her arms into the air. “I made honeycake!”
The door opened behind them and Vela shrieked like she had when Kai walked in. She rolled out of her arms like she was suddenly made of water and took off across the room. Kai turned in time to watch Vela launch herself at poor, unsuspecting Aloth. He only barely managed to keep from stumbling and taking them both to the floor.
“Hello, Vela,” he said eventually, as politely as possible.
“Hello, Aloth,” Vela said. She gave him an imperious look that Kai was embarrassed to recognize as her own. “Did you take good care of Mama on your adventure?”
“I… of course?” He held her like she was fragile and unfamiliar, even though she was neither.
Vela crossed her arms across her chest. “Did you keep her safe?”
Aloth finally smiled at that. “I always do.”
“Good,” Vela said with a decisive nod. Then she grinned. “Did you bring me anything?”
#rhitober#day 4#I feel like this should come with some sort of warning about the sweetness of it#it's practically cavity-inducing#special shout-out to my daughter who is 100% my inspiration for Vela#she's the 'sweetest and bestest little girl ever' according to her auntie#thank you for the prompt luna <3#supergenericteam
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Cafune for Kai/Aloth/Iselmyr?
“Good book?”
“No,” Aloth said through clenched teeth. “It really isn’t.”
Kai glanced over his shoulder, skimming the page he was on. The writing was cramped and tiny and what looked to be Eld Aedyran. It looked like a historical tome and was dry and bland even by academic standards.
She leaned a hip against the arm of his chair and brushed her fingers through his hair, pushing it out of his face. He leaned into it, eyes drifting closed in response to her gentle touch, so she did it again. “We’ll find them, darling,” she said softly. “It doesn’t do either of us any good for you to torture yourself with academia hunting for them.”
Aloth relaxed minutely, tension falling from his shoulders, and he dropped his head to her arm. Kai pulled him close and kept combing her fingers through his hair, the dark strands slipping through her hands like silk.
“I just know the answer I’m looking for is in this book.” His voice was slightly muffled, but carried less frustration than it had before.
“Maybe it is. It won’t do you any good if you work yourself ragged looking for it, though.”
“That has got to be one of the most hypocritical things you’ve ever said to me,” he said dryly. He paused, then added, softer, “Kai, how long has it been since you last slept?”
“A day. Maybe two.” He glared at her, and she felt color rise in her cheeks. “Maybe three.”
He gave her a stern, challenging look that from anyone else would have put her immediately on the defensive. From Aloth, it just made Kai feel guilty for disappointing him.
Then his frown broke, to be replaced by a tiny, affectionate smile. “Iselmyr has been suggesting we tie you to the bed and force you to sleep.”
“I doubt Iselmyr would have any intention of letting me sleep in that situation, darling,” Kai said, voice low and warm.
Aloth blushed scarlet, but the brief, playful twist of his lips told her she was correct in her assumption. She could see the war between Aloth and his Awakened half in their eyes, though neither of them said anything out loud. Then Aloth abruptly pulled away from her, hair falling to hide his face.
Kai chuckled. “She’s just going to tell me what she said later on.”
“Perhaps,” he squeaked, voice high and nervous. “But that’s later. I have work to do, I can’t be thinking about…” he trailed off, unable or unwilling to finish the sentence, and she let the subject drop.
She slid to the floor to kneel in front of him and brushed his hair back from his face again, waiting patiently until he met her eyes. “Don’t overwork yourself, okay, darling? You aren’t alone in this.”
“I know.” It was almost a whisper, soft and sweet and a little awed.
She tucked his hair behind his ear, then let her fingers trail down the line of his jaw. “I’m going to try and get some sleep. I’ll see you in a few hours when I inevitably give up, and then I’ll take over the reading for a while.”
Aloth looked like he wanted to argue, but eventually he just smiled at her. “Okay.”
“Okay?” He nodded and Kai smiled widely. She pressed a kiss to his forehead, then climbed back to her feet. “Okay. Good night, darling.”
“Good night.”
#rhitober#day 3#I missed Kai and Aloth so much! why haven't I written them in so long!#you know when I reblogged those prompt lists#this one specifically is one I really hoped to get#(and I actually got it twice! once from risu and once from a lovely anon so I'll be doing a second version later :D)#apparently Soft and Sleep Deprived is going to be a Theme with these#I feel like that says something about me#thank you again for the prompt risu <3#I legit had to stop myself from writing a whole long fic with this one lol#risualto
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Hmmmm, how about an "overdramatic arguments about non-important subjects" for Kai and your choice of her BFFs? :-D
“That should be ‘koska’.”
“I beg your pardon?” Kana looked up at Kai as she continued to glance over his shoulder.
“‘Codail’ is the Glanfathan word for sleep, not Engwithan. The rest of the writing looks to be Engwith, so that should be ‘koska.’” She shrugged and moved to head back to her own chair.
“Are you sure?” Kana stared at his paper for a long moment. “I’m fairly certain it’s ‘codail.’”
“That may be how they teach it at your college, but I assure you it’s incorrect.” Kai’s tone was clipped, but she picked her own book back up and pretended to no longer be interested in the conversation.
“If you say so, my friend,” Kana chuckled, but he made no move to correct his writing. “If it’s all the same to you, I will stick with the way I was taught.”
“That’s your prerogative, of course, dear.”
Aloth looked between the two of them incredulously. “Are you arguing about… grammar?”
“No, we are not arguing.” Kai turned the page in her book, somehow managing to make the motion look imperious. “We are having a discussion in which Kana is very clearly wrong.”
“Wrong?” Kana set his writing down. “I’ve been studying this for decades!”
“I was there!”
Kana stood up from his chair, so Kai did too. “In a past life! That hardly counts in this case,” he said in an offended, booming voice.
“Of course it counts,” Kai said, very carefully not raising her voice. “I’m literally fluent in Engwithan.”
“You’re also fluent in Aedyran, but that just means you’re wrong in both languages.”
Kai opened her mouth to say something else, but she and Kana both froze as Aloth’s voice rose over the room in a sudden, sharp “ENOUGH.” She realized with embarrassment that she had climbed onto a chair in an attempt to close the extreme height difference between her and her aumauan friend, perhaps hoping to intimidate him. He still loomed over her by over a foot. He also didn’t look very intimidated.
Instead, he laughed, any tension in the room abruptly dissipating with the sound. He clapped her warmly on the shoulder, nearly sending her flying from the chair at the strength of his affections. “I am very lucky to have a friend as passionate about history as I am.”
Kai didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just said “Indeed” and sat back down to continue her reading.
She only barely stifled a smug smirk when she saw Kana scribble a correction into the margins of his paper.
#rhitober#day 11#you know you're good friends when you scream at each other over verb conjugation#it was perhaps inevitable that this prompt would involve linguistics since it came from ranna ;D#thank you again for the prompt darling <3#I hope you're enjoying these because the next few are from you too hehe#rannadylin
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Sleepy hug for Kai/Aloth? :D
The air was thick with mist and smoke, obscuring everything more than an arm's length away, but the silence told Kai that the battle was (probably) over. She tried to reach out with her mind and find her friends, but she was too tired.
She was saved the trouble anyway when Edér’s voice rose over the smoke. “Everyone alright? Kiki? Aloth?”
“Present,” Aloth said, voice clipped with exhaustion. He sounded very nearby.
“I’m fine,” she called back. “Rekke?”
“Ta.” He sounded like he was somewhere to Kai’s left and she could hear the pain in his voice. “You always take me to the nicest places.”
“Tekēhu?”
“I could sleep for a week, I say.” He sounded like he was behind her, voice gravelly in that way that meant he was in his spiritform. Sure enough, the silhouette of a huge, bipedal hammerhead shark loomed in the smoke before he shrunk back down to the still-towering amaua. He stepped close enough that Kai could mostly see his face, lit by the gentle bioluminescence of his hair.
Tekehu offered her a hand up. Kai hadn’t even realized she’d sat down. Still, she waved him away. “I’m fine,” she said again. “Go help Rekke. He sounds hurt.”
He looked like he wanted to protest but didn’t have the energy for it. He disappeared back into the mist without another word.
Kai sat in the slowly dissipating smoke and tried to catch her breath. She could hear her companions’ voices, diffuse and directionless. She should really get up and go find them. Help them. She didn’t know why she wasn’t moving.
A hand fell onto her shoulder, and it took longer than it should have for her to react. She followed it up to find its owner smiling down at her, his already pale skin gone ashen. “Oan yer feet, Kiki. Cannae kip yit.” Iselmyr didn’t wait for an answer, just looped an arm around Kai’s waist and pulled her to her feet. Her smile was sly and playful. “Dae yi''ll need me tae carry ye?”
“Don’t you dare,” Kai warned, but the threat lost some of its strength as she leaned heavily against Iselmyr and wrapped her arms around her, barely able to stay standing under the weight of exhaustion. Iselmyr hugged her back just a touch too tightly, laughter warm and low in her ear. “You know what I’m thinking?”
“What’s that?” She couldn’t tell if it was Aloth or Iselmyr that answered.
“You and me in a room to ourselves,” Kai leaned up enough to press a light kiss to their jaw as she spoke. Iselmyr’s sly grin spread across their face, but the flush blooming on their cheeks was all from Aloth. “And twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep.”
Iselmyr laughed, high and a little manic. It was Aloth who replied, “I do love the way you think.”
#rhitober#day 9#I'm also gonna tag this#Watcher Wednesday#since it managed to line up like that :)#god this october writing challenge has really reminded me how much I miss kailoth and the pillars crew#once it's over I may need to write something a little longer form#thank you for the prompt cait <3#I hope you like it!#also: yes I know this is a terrible party comp - 2 wizards 2 fighters and a druid#but everyone knows the best party comp is just to bring your best friends with you#queen-scribbles
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Rhitober, Day 21
(continuing again from here, with psithurism for Kai & Rekke)
“I thought I’d find you out here.”
“Ta.” Rekke’s smile was warm, though he didn’t look away from the vista stretched out below them. “Hello, Kiki.”
Kai always enjoyed the way he said her name; he made it sound less like a nickname and more like a title, some word in Seki that she didn’t yet know the translation for. She thought about asking, sometimes, if kiki was a real word in his language, but she knew he wouldn’t tell the truth anyway.
She leaned against the railing next to him on the balcony. They could see most of Neketaka from here, the stone streets winding like a river through the gently swaying trees. This far up, the rustling of leaves didn’t sound much different than the rushing of rapids.
“I am glad I came here, I think,” Rekke said, still not taking his eyes off the view below.
“So am I.” She didn’t know if she meant she was glad he was here, or glad she was, but both held true either way. “Neketaka must still be very alien to you, compared to Yezuha.”
He laughed, loud and free, and bumped his shoulder against hers. “Alien. That is a good word for it. Now that the storms are gone, maybe I can show you. How are you at riding horses?”
She pursed her lips. “I… have met a horse once, I think.” Rekke laughed again and Kai laughed with him, the sound cascading over the city underneath them like rain.
“What is your home like, Kiki?”
When he said ‘home,’ Kai was surprised to find her mind went first to the twisting forests of the Dyrwood rather than Aedyr and its jungles. She told him as much and he finally turned away from the scenery beneath them to face her. Curiosity danced in his bright eyes as he studied her. “Home does not always mean ‘where you are born.’ Sometimes it is where you feel most at peace.”
“How very poetic of you, my dear,” she said dryly.
“Yes, I know. I am very good with words.” A very familiar teasing grin spread across his face. “Show them to me.”
“Show what to you?”
“Your home. Both of them, Aedyr and the Dyrwood.” Rekke’s hand found hers on the railing and Kai got a sudden impression of him in her mind, as adrift now as he had been when she found him all those months ago, hoping she’d help him find safe mooring once again. He didn’t want to return to Yezuha, but where does a man go when he doesn’t want to go home?
Kai remembered what that aimlessness felt like. She tried not to let it show on her face. Instead, she looked away, down at their hands. Between the two of them, there was an almost criminal amount of freckles.
She finally spoke when she was sure she could keep the emotion out of her voice. “Sure, why not? I think I know a lady with a boat.”
#rhitober#day 21#are they flirting? because this whole thing felt a lot like they were flirting the whole time I wrote it#do I ship this?#should Kai/Rekke be a thing?#is Aloth/Kai/Rekke(/Iselmyr) a thing now?#(okay but consider: 'kiki' is a term of endearment in seki#and rekke has been calling kai the equivalent of 'my love' the whole time and she has no idea)#oh god I need to think about this more now it has me feeling a lot of things#thanks once again for the prompt anon <3#I hope you like it!
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Rhitober, Day 20
(continuing from the prompts here, this time: balter for Kai & Eder :) using my modern au Cafe Nua setting because I love it and don’t visit it enough)
“Kiki, we’ve talked about this.” Edér had to yell to be heard over the thrumming, relentless beat of what Kai called music.
She lunged for her phone to turn it off. The sudden silence was startling and vast in its wake. “I’m sorry. You said you wouldn’t be home for a few days.”
Edér shrugged, clearly not actually annoyed by being awoken at 3am in such a way. “I got in about an hour ago. You okay?”
“Yeah.” He raised a pale eyebrow, disbelieving, so Kai said again, “Yes. I just… had another one of those dreams. I think they’re scared of you, my dear. I don’t have them as often since I moved in here.”
“Maybe you just feel safer with me around.” There was no arrogance in the way he said it, no bragging or insinuations. He just stated it as a fact.
The most terrifying part to Kai was that he was right.
Edér washed away the subject with a curling stream of pipe smoke, the sweet-acrid scent of it mixing with the aroma of sugar and baking things that filled the kitchen. “How many batches of cookies you made so far, Kiki?”
“Just two. Well, three. Third one’s in the oven now.” She indicated the cookies in question, a plate of ginger biscuits and another of snickerdoodles sitting on the counter. Edér grabbed one of each and leaned a hip against the counter, looking content.
“You know, I wouldn’t have a problem with you doin’ this if you had better taste in music,” he said once he was done eating. “If you’re gonna wake me up before dawn, at least give me something I can dance to.”
“You can dance?”
He shrugged. “Sure, anyone can dance. I ain’t any good at it, but that’s not the point.”
Kai, who had been raised to believe that nothing was worth doing if you weren’t good at it, bit her lip to keep from replying. She watched as Edér seemed to come to a decision, and he walked over to where her phone still lay on the counter and unlocked it, scrolling through as if looking for something. She considered protesting, but she’d gotten used to his loose interpretation of personal boundaries by now. He wouldn’t go into anything private, and if she really had a problem with it she could have fingerprint-locked her phone by now and she hadn’t.
He finally found what he was looking for and music filled the kitchen again, something upbeat and buoyant.
Edér held a hand out to her. “May I have this dance, Watcher?”
Kai shook her head. “Oh no. No way. I don’t dance.” She lifted her hands up in front of herself as if it ward him off, but he took the opportunity and grabbed her wrist, pulling her onto his improvised dancefloor.
However bad they may or may not have been individually, Kai and Edér were terrible dance partners. What he lacked in finesse, she matched in rigidity, and by the time the timer went off for the last batch of cookies, they both probably had bruises on their feet. But, eventually - very eventually - she started to relax and have fun, which was probably the point he’d been trying to make to begin with.
She tried to teach him to waltz, the closest thing she had to actual training in the art. Kai didn’t know how to lead and Edér didn’t know the steps and the room was too small for it, but they tried to make it work anyway.
It ended, perhaps inevitably, with them covered in flour after knocking the bag off the counter.
“You ever thought of dying your hair, Kiki?” Edér grinned, trying to clear flour from his pipe. “White’s a good look for you.”
“Is it?” Kai dipped her hands into the pile nearest to her and rubbed the flour across Edér’s face, leaving a trail of white powder across his nose and cheeks. “Oh yes, I see what you mean, dear. Very dashing.”
She made an undignified squawking sound as he picked up a handful of flour and threw it at her.
#rhitober#day 20#is that a weird place to end it? maybe#is that where it really wanted to end? yes#or go on for another 4k words but that I think defeats the purpose of the daily prompts if I turn it into a whole fic#I love Kai and Eder's dynamic#especially compared to Kai and Aloth#because with Kai and Aloth she is very much the cooler and more relaxed of the two#because Aloth is as unrelaxed as a person can get#but next to Eder it's clear that Kai is awkward and stiff and formal compared to absolutely anyone besides Aloth#and I just love that#this is way too many tags oops#thanks again anon <3
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Inspired in part by this lovely piece by @nataliesewell and all the lovely hug-related prompts I’ve been getting, this idea sprung fully-formed into my mind at 3am and wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote it down. It’s pretty short, but I’ve decided to post it as today’s Rhitober piece, since, well, I was up at 3am writing. Normal prompt fills will continue tomorrow :)
(I think this counts as my first Wayhaven Chronicles fanfic! I really cannot recommend it highly enough, y’all, go read it and tell @seraphinitegames I sent you ;D)
Adam’s hugs are careful. He holds you like you’re fragile, like you’ll break apart in his arms if he squeezes too tightly. His hands spread across your back, and every inch of him is tension, is a constant battle against the desire to pull you closer, to wrap himself around you until you can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins. He lets go too soon, but you see in his eyes it’s an effort just to let you go at all. You wonder if maybe, it isn’t you he’s afraid will break.
Nate’s hugs are warm. He holds you close, but not too close, neither too firmly nor too gently. They’re easy to get lost in, to spend too long in the love and safety of his embrace. He never pulls away first, always waits until you start to move before letting you go. There’s always the smallest flash of disappointment in his eyes when you finally do pull away, before his smile reasserts itself. You think he’d let you stay in his arms forever if he could.
Felix’s hugs are joyful. He hugs you every chance he gets, sometimes just a quick one-armed squeeze around your shoulders, other times a big, leaping hug that leaves you both sprawled on the floor and breathless from laughing. They always carry the slightest bit of awe, like he can’t believe that he’s allowed to, that he can just touch you any time he wants to. That you want him to. The best are the ones where you hug him first; the way he smiles is like the sun coming out.
Mason doesn’t hug. Not at first, not for a long time. When he does, you finally understand why, because Mason’s hugs are intense. He always holds you just a little too tightly, a little too long, one hand at the base of your skull and the other low on your waist, his face buried in your neck. He’s never had this before, never wanted this before, but now that you’re here he holds you like he’s scared you’ll disappear if he lets go. He pulls away all at once when it gets too much. You don’t mind giving him his space afterwards; you both know he won’t stay away long.
#the wayhaven chronicles#twc#seraphinitegames#unit bravo#rhitober#day 8#no really I was trying so hard to sleep but my brain was just like THINK ABOUT HUGGING UNIT BRAVO#so here we are#tired and a bit braindead and still thinking about hugging UB but at least I have this written down now
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"I've got you!" for Carah and one of her platonic pairings?
Sometimes when Carah opened her eyes, she didn’t know where she was. Six months on the road, and the open sky was still strange and, occasionally, terrifying - to see endless stars where you expected there to be familiar gray stone.
She didn’t remember what she was dreaming, but it wasn’t good. She jolted awake, only to be greeted by the open expanse of sky, like a vast, gaping maw that wanted to swallow her up.
Something touched her, a warm, firm weight on her shoulder, and she yelped.
“You are okay, Carah. I’ve got you.” The voice was familiar, teasing and concerned in equal measure, and she took a deep breath to calm her racing heart. “Do not let Oghren’s stories scare you, you cannot actually fall into the sky, you know.”
Carah turned towards the voice to find Zevran sitting beside her, face half in shadow by the firelight. “Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it isn’t possible,” she said, trying for a joking tone but falling short. She wasn’t really scared of falling into the sky. Really. She just… didn’t like not having a roof over her head is all.
She sat up and turned to face the assassin, tucking her knees up under her chin. “Why are you awake, Zev? Your watch shift ended hours ago.”
“You are not the only one that has bad dreams, my dear,” he said casually. His smile was sharp and white in the deep dark, but she could tell it didn’t reach his eyes.
“What do you dream about?” Carah asked before she could stop herself. She hadn’t meant to pry, but now that it was out there she didn’t try to take it back.
Zevran surprised them both by answering. “Familiar faces, watching from the shadows. The glint of a blade, too late to avoid it.”
“I have those dreams too,” she said softly. “Except in mine the faces in the shadows wear templar helmets.”
There was something like understanding in Zevran’s eyes for a moment, but he looked away before Carah could dwell on it. He looked out into the quiet night around them, and his voice was casual and playful when he spoke again, even if the words were not. “It is very exposed out here. Who knows what might stumble across our campfire in the dark.”
Carah looked around the field they camped in. It was well off the road, in a little divot that shielded them from the wind and hopefully from prying eyes, but he was right. Their fire could probably be seen for miles, if someone was looking for it.
Her voice didn’t hold the same humor that his did, she’d never been very good at joking around, but she tried. “At least we’d see them coming. No trees or bushes to hide behind. Unless Crows can fly like their namesakes can.”
Zevran laughed, a sudden surprised bark of sound. “I will add ‘assassins falling from the sky’ to my list of concerns then.”
Carah grinned back at him. “Better them falling down than us falling up.”
“Right you are, my dear. Right you are.” As his laughter faded, his smile lingered, and this time it reached his eyes. “Go back to sleep, Carah. Morning will be here before you know it.”
#rhitober#day 2#I am now 2 for 2 on prompts that didn't go where I expected them to!#it's been ages since I've written Carah it was nice to revisit her#she's so much sweeter and gentler than the others <3#thank you so much for the prompt risu!#risualto
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