focused characters ♥ orlain orthos & captain luka cytos.
a study in ♥ normalcy - even when everything around you isn’t, facing your fears - even as your hands tremble, spitting blood in the face of death - knowing it may be the last thing you do, making it work - even when the world says it never will, daring to dream - even when everything else demands you give up.
fandoms included on the blog ♥ undertale, assassin’s creed, kingdom hearts, kamen rider, genshin impact and critical role. (sexy smattering of original lore as well.)
mun info ♥ lunos, 21+, fae vampire extraordinaire. dnd nerd who collects lore from EVERYTHING like a hoarder. send me things, i slurp it up.
“ oh yeah. ” the genasi grinned, leaning forward to retrieve his drink and take a pre-game sip, placing it back on the table before focusing on the task at hand. “ well if you’re sure. i’m not gonna force you. there’s always the water compromise. alcohol just makes it more … interesting. ” because answers became more open and honest the more they drank. “ yeah. and if you don’t wanna answer, gotta take a drink and get another question. ”
their brows raise at the question, they certainly didn’t expect that to be the first one, but had to give her credit, she was bold. “ the dream? shit. huh - i guess just less. less running away from shit, less people trying to kill me every fucking day. people i care about and exist with. ” with that they take the glass again. taking a hefty few gulps. “ didn’t start off easy did you? well then. where’s your friends? where’s your crew? you come to marquet all the way from tal'dorei … alone? what the fuck is up with that? ”
she can’t help the brief glimpse of a real smile, one that isn’t so glaring like the sunlight and hope she presents to everyone, as they answer the question. it’s information tucked into the back of her mind, left there until it’s needed, until it’s required of her to dredge up. like most information, it would wait until a better day.
and then she blinks, surprised. well, she did hit him with something strong off the bat, so she can’t help but giggle. “Less is always nice. I do not blame you, for wanting less of everything.” she almost elaborates, breath catching on the next words before she realizes the name of the game. ah, a talking game. she sees.
she leans back in her seat, thinking on how to answer this.
“Some are dead. Some wish they were. Some are off saving their homes. The people I’ve come to know and love, the people I trust, are losing hope, in themselves, and in the world around them. Decided I would take a break. I’m particularly good, I’ve found, at running away when things get tough… but thankfully, trouble finds me wherever I go, so I always have company.” she half-laughs, half-scoffs, reaching for the glass and drinking a few swigs before gently settling the glass down again.
with a painfully bright but still soft smile ( how can you smile at a time like this, aryin? ), she continues the queries. “I believe fate is a seamstress working against the grain of the weave. What about you, hmm? What the fuck is up with that?”
She doesn't want to make Aryin upset. She doesn't want to make anything worse. Gwen just... wants everything to be better. Everything that's been happening lately had been chipping away at the hope that it could be. Slowly but steadily. Even the one 'win' they'd gotten had been a partial one at best. Reaching up, gently running her thumb over Aryin's cheek as she looks at them with a sad, scared look. Hesitating for a long moment, wishing they'd just look at her.
"Would... would you... talk to Viv 'nd Smoker?" She curls in again. Worried that, once again, just talking wouldn't change anything. And she'd be left feeling worse than ever. After all, what's the point if she can't even help the two people she loves more than anything else? "Tell... tell them the truth? About how you feel?... About the whole thing with running your family?... That... that you don't actually want to do it?"
there’s a soft sigh, that comes out sounding almost muffled, like speaking into something of a blanket of sorts. only for it to clear up as she hums absentmindedly, gaze snapping back to gwen with a … smile?
it’s hard to distinguish what the look she’s wearing is. a mix of tired and uncertain, but nonetheless pleasant. not quite resigned, not quite afraid, something else. it’s as if she doesn’t know what she should be feeling and is trying to feel something that is appropriate for the situation.
“Well, ah… I will try! I don’t exactly know what to say to them, but I will bring it up to them. Um…” Uncertainty creases her brows for a moment before she relaxes again. “How would I bring that up? I don’t mean as in talking to them, I mean as in… how do you ask to rewrite a decision like that? I still want to help people!” she looks off to the side for a moment, then back towards gwen, confused. “I am confused. Is me being sovereign the issue, or is it the fact that I am not doing something peaceful?”she seems genuinely uncertain.
He could feel the chill against his knuckles as they had connected with the man’s face, and a grimace crossed his face when he realized that it only seemed to sink into his bones. Something that Andrii willingly ignored.
There were more important things to worry about. Like the fact that this guy was laughing like a maniac.
Can’t say he was surprised. Nothing he had heard about this man sounded even remotely ‘sane’. People like him shouldn’t be a father. It was amazing that his kids turned out so vastly different.
Lord Cytos would probably be surprised when an arrow would fly through the spell, crackling with purple lightning as it aimed right for the man.
“And if I am here because of 'your’ kids?” While the arrow had been dead center through the fire spell, Andrii himself had now moved to the side. “You’re not exactly building the greatest case for yourself either, chucklefuck.”
He let the bow vanish as he summoned his sword to his hand instead. The dimly glowing blade was now pointed at Cytos, ready to defend if he tried that again. “You see here, Mister Cytos… And no, I’m not calling you 'Lord’. You don’t get that respect from me. Shouldn’t get it from anyone, honestly. But people like you are good at this sort of thing, aren’t you? You know just how to get someone to trust you. All it takes is a sweet smile and a few false promises, right?”
There is a moment, and then Andrii’s weapon lowers for a bit. “I’ve dealt with people like you. Who say that they have nothing but the best in mind, while simultaneously destroying the people they’re supposedly doing this for.”
“I’m still here, Cytos. What can you do that the gods cannot?”
his sword slowly lowers as he feels the spell connect with… something, but then in that split second, he notices the flash of a fletch through the air and he tries a little bit too late to dodge──
he hisses in pain as it misses his chest and hits him square in the collar, barely missing a vital vein and his eyes flare with a hateful glare in them. a sort of enraged glow about them, breaths heaving into something more animalistic as he reaches up to his collarbone and snaps the arrow in half.
he listens, because that’s what he’s taught his kids to do. they’ve never been good at it, bless their SORRY FUCKING SOULS. but he is. he always listens, and knows when to stare down a threat versus when to run. his eyes are half lidded, lowered in that icy glare that burns with a cold flame from hell, the stillness in the manor seeming to choke the life out of everything that isn’t himself.
“Simple answer, little s p e c k ? I won’t go quietly.”
There's a quiet muttering, as a certain princess cuddles in to a specific knight. Gwen wraps her arms gently around Aryin, leaning in and just generally being affectionate. Moreso that usual. She just quiet for a long moment.
"Aryin?... Do you... If I asked you to do something, would you?" She pauses, turning her face into their shoulder for the moment. Her fingers tightening in worry. "It wouldn't be anything bad, I wouldn't do that to you, ever... It's just... importnat. I... think."
this time, the cuddles felt different. less gentle, more desperate.
curse her natural gift for reading people.
a slow blink meets the query, the knight’s gaze moving before her head does, turning to look at the princess with a curious and worried twist of complexion. indeed, being asked to do anything felt much more like a trap these days, especially through all the nonsense of making people routinely upset. she was starting to understand what it felt like to be by luka’s side - hell, some days, she felt what it was like to be luka. and it grants her no short measure of concern for her elder brother.
“Mmnh?” there’s a confused noise for a moment before she looks forward again, softly multicolored irises dimming with a sort of understanding that this is something that she can’t really avoid. and it felt much like a rat in a maze. social situations were never her and luka’s strong suit.
Andrii always did have a poor opinion about parental figures. This ‘Lord’ Cytos guy fit in with that quite perfectly, the brunette grimacing as he listened to this guy just go on and on. As if he was in the right, and had been all along.
It would only be a moment of silence before Andrii scoffed. Meeting the man’s eyes as he rested a hand on his hip. Unwavering. “You say that like it’s supposed to mean something to me?” Maybe, if he was actually a part of their universe. If he didn’t straddle two worlds where kings did not rule, and the gods spoke with the people as casually as a day at the market.
So Andrii had absolutely zero issue with swinging his fist at Cytos without another word to the man, aiming to at least crack a tooth.
“Unfortunately for you, I’m very pissed off right now. And I’ve heard that you’ve hurt a few people that I actually like.” He rolled his wrist as he talked, mentally cursing himself for not holding his fist correctly. Oh well. “I figured two birds with one stone, so…”
“Grit your teeth.”
it’s a flicker of a recognition when he notices the way that the boy speaks. the dialect is not one that the tyrant king finds himself recognizing, and throughout the many worlds he’s visited in his youth, he’s learned to mimic quite a number of accents and different dialects. he has studied worlds, studied people, studied them like artworks, like statues, like articles of clothing, but never like a person. it tells him immediately, one thing.
no one would miss the boy, should he… “disappear”.
and it’s why there’s a flash a smile before andrii’s fist connects with his face, a willing gesture as he finds himself wanting to pretend that it actually hurt, but finds that it actually did, making him stumble backwards a few steps and hold a hand up to his jaw, feeling the blood and reacting saliva build in his mouth as he finds that persistent chill that wrapped around him like a cloak absent, but he knows that those ice shards have buried themselves temporarily into the younger man.
…and he begins to laugh, as he spits out a single tooth onto the ground, along with some blood and spit.
“Oooohhh, you’re here on behalf of my kids, aren’t you? Those worthless runaways tricked you into believing that they’re worth fighting for, did they? Rest assured, you’ll die like everyone else who has fought on their behalf: wishing you never set foot near them and choking on your own blood.”
and he straightens out, holding out one hand at his side, as an astonishingly very sword like looking keyblade settles into his grip, colored black along the blade, hilted with gold and engraved with crimson.
“You want to do something that matters? Then die like the dog you are.”
and he levels his blade at the target, marking him with a dark firaga burst.
“Mm. I think I’m due for a vacation…Perhaps travel to a more mild climate would be nice, no? How about it? Realm travel can certainly make for an interesting way to pass the time. I’m sure the human realm can handle itself for a while.”
“That so, my love?” the edges of violet eyes crinkle with a sort of ageless wonder as chin rests in the palm of a currently human hand. a chuckle rumbling through his chest like a spark against kindling. “Then why don’t we? Get away from here for a while. Go someplace new, or go someplace familiar, just go. Anywhere with you is a gift.”
Technically there is a book in front of him, yes. Is he paying any attention to it? Absolutely not. It’s not that it’s not an interesting read, it’s just — well, the captain is far more interesting. With a smile Mollymauk leans in. “Hey, Cap, can you tell me what this says?” As Luka leans in, they press a quick kiss to his cheek. Looks smug as hell for it.
UNPROMPTED . @tcaleaf characters: captain luka & navigator molly
it’s an absentminded thought to look up from what he’s doing to snap his gaze over to what molly is reading, knowing full well that molly sometimes tries to challenge themselves with reading books based at least half in heartless speech, if not entirely so. so it’s an easy gesture to look over and begin to drop into a factual statement of what his dear navigator is reading, only for there to be a kiss against his cheek.
it brings him pause for a moment. a blink, another, and he looks up from the book to molly, a creeping heat starting from his chest and reaching up past his neck and towards his ears. it felt almost like a tv show, in a way, heating up from embarrassment in such a way. and yet, that crooked grin settles onto his face naturally.
“I think that says you’re trying to distract me from work.” he purrs.
affiliated.private. & selective. multimuse blog ft luka cytos affiliated with @pleiadeshalo, @breathofcosmos, @stellafortunae@mardivine and @zodiac–muses lore kept and loved by lunos, art credit found here and here. verses available for dnd muses of: modern, critical role, and their own worlds. other verses upcoming.
