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@loptyrny
loptyrny → PINNED!
toa affiliated julius from fe4 (fire emblem: genealogy of the holy war) ✯ student in the ashen wolves ✯ portrayed by arden.
toa canon: Julius is taken after his defeat at the hands of Seliph. He is no longer possessed, but Loptous' influence has left its mark upon him permanently. For additional information, please read his about (linked below.)
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light & dark & what lies in between.
[ aphotic 2025 ] - authority + 1
Seliph knows little about vengeful spirits or how to appease them. All he finds is a thick layer of dust covering furniture in the long-abandoned home. A white tablecloth on a dining table has yellowed over the years, and cobwebs hang from forgotten corners.
That was downstairs. It's the second floor where the ghost stories converge about a family murdered in cold blood. Theories, ranging from absurd to spine-chilling, whispered among his classmates come surging back as Seliph gazes upon the family portrait. A man, a woman, and their children stare back at him.
Seliph, however, isn't here for apparitions, and he doesn't intend to disturb the deceased. He is here for his mother—just in case something happens. So far, nothing seems amiss. Or that's what he thinks until something breaks the silence.
"...Did you hear that?" Seliph whispers, eyes flickering between his mother and the stairs. At least, he thinks it came from downstairs. Or was it his imagination playing tricks on him? No, the creaking of the old floorboards answers.
Someone is coming up the stairs.
His hand lands on the hilt of Tyrfing. "Stay behind me, Mother." Turning to face the stairs, Seliph steps in front of her. He knows it could be students from the academy; a few of his classmates have dared each other to explore the manor. The only problem? They are far too quiet.
"You are—!"
A stunned beat later, Seliph doesn't hesitate to point his sword at the one who might as well be a ghost.
@nagaficat
Deirdre did not expect Seliph to come with her when she expressed her interest in exploring the abandoned home. The story had touched her. Rumors of what had happened to this family reached her heart, reminding her far too much of how her own family had been torn apart.
She sees her family in the faces of the portraits decorating the abandoned house. Smiling faces, unaware that that, one day, disaster will strike.
Her heart beats loud and fast in her chest and she looks over at her son, wondering if he might hear it, too. A silly thought. He, of course, appears unafraid, eyes forward, determined. Just like his father.
Mother and son make their way through the home, searching for, well, anything that might signify that there are spirits about. Deirdre does not know what it could be, exactly, but she is sure she will know when they do find it. And yet, there is nothing in the entirety of the first floor.
It is not until they reach the second floor that they hear a noise to indicate something unusual. Seliph leaps to action, drawing his sword. Deirdre listens and stays behind him. As much as she would like to protect him, she knows he is capable.
That is until the source of the footsteps reveals himself.
Even if she has not seen him since he was a little boy, Deirdre knows in an instant that this is her son.
"Julius...?" At first her voice is a whisper but, as she pushes herself past Seliph and his sword. "Julius!"
@loptyrny
Julius himself is a specter. A ghost, wandering these halls that he has no right to haunt. He shouldn't be here in this particular house, he should be somewhere else thousands of miles away or better yet -- dead and buried, his grave a monument to those heroes who slayed him.
He's out of place, but he doesn't let it show on his face. He looks at his mother and his half-brother with narrowed eyes and a slightly furrowed brow as he keeps his tome raised. Ghosts or not, they surely would not welcome him with open arms.
When his mother steps in front of Seliph, Julius does not have it in himself to even feign surprise. Even if she is a figment of his imagination, his own past coming back to haunt him, of course she would put herself right in danger's path in order to get a better look at her child.
He scoffs, flips his hair over his shoulder and looks at both of them with contempt. "What a surprise," he speaks slowly, deliberately, still assessing the situation. He doesn't feel the need to run -- would the Scion of Light dare to strike him down in front of their mother?
He gives Seliph a look to communicate that. Smug, pleased with himself. "You're looking for ghosts, did you think you'd find one so personal to yourself?"
@virtuoustyrfing
off to the races.
[ epidemic 2025 ] - riding +1
Recently, certain denizens of Garreg Mach have been looking a little more flush. As it turns out, horses from the monastery stables are being used for races off-campus, on the back of which an increasingly prolific gambling scene has evolved. All of it, of course, is completely unsanctioned. The monastery staff cannot take action on the perpetrators without knowing who they are, and risk a scandal if the issue becomes public. Will you help them in their efforts to end this quietly? Or are you interested in seeing the races—or the gold—for yourself? [Grants Riding +1]
This monastery is a disaster.
He's not sure why it's up to the public to find the perpetrators of this illegal horse gambling ring, but it appears that their tactic is to utilize the students and staff for free to root out the troublemakers. He is not willing to get too involved, at least not in a way that anyone would misconstrue as 'helpful', but he is interested in the commotion this is causing. After all, watching a little sport could pass the time, couldn't it?
He doesn't wish to interact with the gamblers up close; he finds it distasteful and beneath him. His eyes scan the crowd and sees money being exchanged alongside those who eagerly lean in and watch, jeering and cheering for their favorites. They wear their greed on their sleeves, caring little for the entertainment this brings and more for the gold that will line their pockets.
There is someone who catches his eye, though. He looks like he's... talking to the horses? Or maybe he's just inspecting them. Julius isn't sure, but it piques his curiosity nonetheless.
He approaches, eyebrows raised slightly. His expression is one of boredom, aloof and uncaring, but still he speaks.
"Are you rigging the races by whispering curses into their ears?"
@corvusi
𝚠𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚌 "𝚐𝚘𝚞𝚍𝚊 𝚋𝚘𝚢" 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚍𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎.
[ epidemic 2025 ] - gouda boy
A popular store in the marketplace aimed at children, Gouda Times Play Arcade, has recently been under investigation by the Knights of Seiros. As it turns out, the man who plays the store’s mouse mascot, Gouda Boy, has been distributing heretical materials. You’ve been tasked with taking him into custody, but there’s a problem… his identity isn’t known. The only way to bring him in would be to catch him while he’s at work… in front of all the children.
How Julius got involved in this mess he's still not sure. He's not pleased with the idea of having to chase around some nonsensical character because they've done something against the Knights of Seiros. This is not his church, and even if it was one of Loptous' domains he knows he would not need to deal with something as trivial as this.
He pushes his hair back and narrows his eyes. He knows the only place to capture this alleged menace is in front of the children. He cares not for protecting the youth's fragile minds; if they must be a sacrifice for Seiros, then that is what they shall be. Most gods demand blood, and if he is to slay this "gouda boy" in front of innocents then that is what must be done. He has no qualms about it.
He crosses his arms as he waits for the mysterious mascot to emerge. He knows he is not the only one here with this mission, and though he does not enjoy making small talk it would be good to figure out if this person will try to convince him of a different path.
"We will kill him as soon as he shows up," he says bluntly. "Bringing him to custody is too much work, for what will be too small a reward."
@adalrikr
─── ⋆⋅ cirque magnifique.
[ aphotic 2025 ] - circus open starter !
Rebuilding efforts took time, the prince knew that intimately. One of the most important parts of such rebuilding efforts was entertainment. How else would he raise the spirits of those placing their trust in him? How else would he bring joy into the malaise of life after war? It should come as no surprise, then, that the prince found himself face to face with the manager of the circus.
Repairwork wasn’t the prince’s forte but he was a swift learner. Enough to find confidence in at least easing the worries of any performer. Or those would be his thoughts were the performers… human. The urgency of the call made more sense now, rowdy animals could hardly be reasoned with.
As the manager spoke, mostly of the gold to be gained, the prince found himself shaking his head. “There is no need to worry about that, what is most in need of repair?”
Some could call it altruism but the prince only saw it as the least he could do. Surely, they would need the gold to further the circus in the future? Not only that, it would be cruel to take from them when he had as much privilege as he did as a royal.
“The caravan, the wheels are beyond repair and…” Mr Foley trailed off as a concerningly loud scream came from one of the performers. He shook his head, smiling apologetically at the prince. “One moment, I’ll explain right after I sort that out.”
The prince only nodded, a reassuring smile on his face. He had time to spare, there was naught for the other to worry about. Just as Mr Foley left, however, another joined him. The prince blinked as he turned to face them.
“Oh, yes, it would be a shame for the circus to stop now. Are you here to do the same? I’m sure they would be delighted to have more helpers.”
Julius was... curious about this man. There was something regal about him, something that seemed wholly good -- it reminded him a bit of a certain scion of light if he was being completely honest with himself, and that made him just a little uncomfortable. He hid it well enough beneath a polite smile, his hands behind his back as his gaze shifted from the circus to the person in front of him.
"I hadn't decided what I wished to do."
He paused. Standing around was a waste of his time, sure, but what would be in it for him to help out of 'the goodness of his heart'? As if to answer his own question, he heard another cry out from within the circus -- the beasts were getting restless, and Julius might be able to see them up close if he played the role of good citizen.
This delighted him, to think that he might be able to see some sort of accident; he was separated from Loptous, yes, but he still remained stained by his cruel streak. Thinking about carnage and chaos triggered that childlike joy once more, though he kept his body language perfectly polite.
"Though it does sound like we should, doesn't it? Things might get out of control if we don't."
He certainly hoped it would.
NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2025
total skill points: 4 -> 6
activity point, 4 -> 5: Reason +1 (C -> C(1/2))
activity point, 5 -> 6: Reason +1 (C(1/2) -> C+)
new classes accessed: n/a
classes mastered: n/a
rank and event rewards: n/a
─── ⋆⋅ cirque magnifique.
[ aphotic 2025 ] - circus open starter !
Come one, come all, to see the one and only Madame Grimsbane’s Circus Magnifico! … would be what you’d hear booming throughout the streets of Garreg Mach were the circus actually open for business. As it turns out though, Madame Grimsbane’s traveling show has hit a spot of bad luck on the way to their true destination, which has forced them to make a pitstop in town. Mr. Foley, the manager, is offering real gold to anyone willing to help repair the caravan and placate their restless performers. However, this is no ordinary circus; other than Mr. Foley and, presumably, Madame Grimsbane herself, the rest of the performers are creatures like you’ve never seen before. Watch out for the manticore’s poisonous tail, or the basilisk’s evil glare, but maybe if you do your job right, you’ll get a chance to see all these fantastical beasts in action. From a safe distance.
This is not to be an act of charity.
Julius stands a comfortable distance from the circus with a blank expression. It is one that he wears when he feels something is beneath him, like he doesn't need to pay attention to the details at all. In most situations, he would walk away, but there is something enticing about dealing with strange animals that keeps him rooted in place.
Thus, his conundrum: stay here and wait for someone else to take the offer of gold in exchange for their services, or walk away and never truly get to look at these creatures and performers up close.
Perhaps it is a rare streak of childishness in him that makes him stay; curiosity more than amazement grows in the pit of his stomach. This is not really like anything he's experienced before, after all. He stares at the animals from a safe distance, wanting to step closer but not wanting to draw attention to himself.
He frowns a little, tilts his head as he watches the manager speak with someone he's not seen before. His feet are moving before his mind can tell him to stop, and he finds himself standing next to the stranger.
"Are you planning on assisting them, then? So the circus can continue it's journey?"
toa open !
"A replica of what you are familiar with, correct?" His thumb hung over the edge of the tome, fingers sprawled atop of the dragon's silhouette in the center — as if Bruno contemplated sliding it over to the other mage. "Does it not tire you, to remain in constant conflict with your own weapon? The voice of Loptous, even in a mere copy, is… persistent."
It was sweet, tempting even. His own dreams felt exposed, merely used by the dragon; wishes for strength had been confounded and twisted in such a manner that he had deceived himself into doing harm. Memories of looking through fog and deep into the night of the arena were troubling, evident by his growing grimace — not for the dark, but for the tremble in his casting hands as he fell into compliance.
Slowly, his hand flattened into a sprawled palm and clamped the cursed tome against the table. Answers, he was here for; answers, he would find; then judgement, he could deliver. Bruno steeled himself with a long breath, fingertips digging into the tome until they had turned white.
"Tell me. When you fight, is it yourself or the evil that holds control?"
He seems to know something about the sort of book that Julius is looking at. He's normally more secretive, more closed off, but for some reason he doesn't really mind this man looking at what he's looking at -- perhaps if he cared to look, he could see a kinship there. But he doesn't care, really, so he does not look.
Loptyr is a part of him, as much as his hand is a part of his body. Though his direct influence is not as obvious -- there are no whispered words in his ear anymore -- Loptous is still very much there; Julius was formed alongside his cursed book, nurtured in it. To separate them would be to diminish their relationship, something he has no interest in pretending.
"A complicated question," Julius says flatly. He watches the way his fingers tense around the book, like a warning. "Not one easily answered. It would require us to see the difference between myself and this evil, wouldn't you say?"
─── ⋆⋅ into the quiet darkness.
[ non-mission board ] - reunion thread.
this late in the night, arvis does not expect to run unto anyone, much less someone he knows.
much less someone he wishes he could avoid.
julius' presence is a shock, for many reasons. he could list them, he supposes, but that seems wasteful.
instead, he merely stares. eyes forward, taking in the appearance of his son. did sigurd's boy fail, then? or is did the same mysterious magic that pulled arvis himself from the waiting arms of death extend itself to julius as well?
he cannot be sure. he does not even know precisely why he is here, so he cannot begin to speculate on anything else.
the night air is cool. arvis wears a heavy cloak to keep the chill back. his strength has been expended, and he has no will to even argue.
but julius' words are as poisoned as they always are. he takes a step forward and nods, not wishing to let the fatigue show on his face.
"i was merely going for a walk. i... had no idea you were here. when did you arrive?"
Julius thinks he sees the wheels turning in Arvis' head, thinks he sees the consideration in his father's expression as he looks at him. It doesn't matter; whatever Arvis thinks, Julius would discard it just by nature of it being his father's thoughts. His speculations mean nothing.
He does not avert his gaze. He looks like his father, just as Julia looks like their mother. There is no escaping this, their fates have been sealed in their genetics long ago.
He lets Arvis approach. He does not back away. Instead, he looks at his nails and hums. "Not very long. Only a week or so ago, I would guess," he says. It seems that he too has no idea how the both of them got here.
How terribly annoying.
"I assume you've been here longer, since you seem to already be acclimating to the academy lifestyle."
⊹ ࣭ ⭑ in foreign literature.
[ aphotic 2025 ] - cursed book.
It’s been with you for days now. An aching that refuses to leave no matter what you do or try. It doesn’t feel life-threatening…though you have no doubts it’ll become unbearable before long. You try recalling the time where the sting started…your memory only tracing back to a foreign book abandoned in the library. Some textbook about a “Shadow” god of some sort? Not long after you finally remember, the whispers begin to amplify - voices for your ears alone. They contain commands, direct demands even, to betray the ones you know and love. And whoever this voice is, they make it clear to keep your intentions silent or else. But…anything to stop the pain, surely?
Julius is no stranger to possession. This time is different, however; the shape is rough, clunky, and does not sit right in his mind. It is not the fine powder and slick oil that coated the space between his brain and skull, the incessant itch that was Loptous. No, this is a weak thing. This is beneath him.
It irritates him, and he wishes therefore to command it.
Short of that, he wishes to have it punished for its arrogance in choosing Julius as a host. He keeps those thoughts to himself, he does not think this thing can hear all of his idle musings. So he pretends he doesn't notice the rot, and instead makes his way to the library -- back to where it all started.
What he does not expect is for this being's power to be halved -- divided into two hosts, foolishly. He senses a pull towards a particularly dark, unused section of the library and makes his way there with nothing but a blank expression.
"..."
His eyes settle on another figure and he pauses. A sly smile forms over his youthful features -- looking now more like a devil than a young man. "Good evening. Are you doing research this evening here as well?"
@grxstnnefealltoir
light & dark & what lies in between.
[ aphotic 2025 ] - authority + 1
Even in a place as bustling as the town of Garreg Mach, there can be found little secrets tucked away in forgotten alleys and abandoned streets. Among such secrets is a two-storey manor not far from the central square, average in all ways except for the fact that it’s stood empty for who-knows-how-long. Lacy drapes still frame the dusty, vacant eyes of windows, and the stone pots sitting along the porch hold the dried, dead remnants of what had once been flowers, suggesting that the house has never been fully relinquished to another owner. Although it’s gone unnoticed for quite some time now, rumors about hauntings and paranormal activity in this house have begun to circulate among the students of the Officers Academy. It’s said that this house - colloquially called the Lily Bolden House, after its last owner - contains the vengeful spirits of the Bolden family murdered by one of their own, and that they kill all those who dare set foot inside. So, naturally, as confident as you are in your own abilities to escape certain death, you’d want to see this for yourself, right? [Grants Authority +1]
The building looms over him, casting a shadow in the dying light. Julius has decided since arriving here that he would not come from the underground for anything less than dusk, and certainly would not go exploring in broad daylight. No matter how tempting, some things are meant for the darkness.
Whispers of this place had reached even the depths of the abyss, so its infamy piqued Julius' interest. He's not sure if he puts any faith in the ghosts that they proclaim haunt this home. He's not afraid either way, even with his powers greatly weakened after his resurrection. Any foe that he finds here cannot be as challenging as Seliph once was.
He enters the house. The door creaks, and he slips inside. He pulls up the hood of his robe and narrows his eyes in the dimly lit home.
Soon, it will be full-dark, and he will not have to worry about being seen from the outside as anything other than a ghost.
The floorboards creak with his weight as he approaches the stairs. They wind up, obscuring what is above him so he cannot see the landing of the second floor. That does not mean, however, that he cannot see the shadows that are cast on the wall across from him.
It's the shape of someone else. Someone human. So, he's not alone here. It's a slight disappointment, of course, but he did consider the possibility of there being others present. Either because they have made this their home, or because they are exploring as well -- it does not matter. He draws his tome out -- the only one that he's found he can wield here -- and approaches the stairs with a confident step. He has no fear in his heart.
@nagaficat && @virtuoustyrfing
─── ⋆⋅ into the quiet darkness.
[ non-mission board ] - reunion thread.
Julius' footsteps on the cobblestones are light. He is not trying to be quiet -- there is no one whose presence he feels the need to avoid just yet. The darkness provides enough cover to shroud his face in shadow, to keep him anonymous -- this scion of darkness, this inheritor of Loptous and all his power. He does not know what he wants from this place, but it certainly seems to be better than dying.
At least so far.
His eyes flick from one area to another. The dining hall, now empty so late into the evening. The pond, abandoned by all except a few stray cats. A greenhouse, locked up and inaccessible for the time being.
He looks back to where he came from. He belongs in the abyss with the others who have something to hide from, but tonight he wanders around in his Loptyrian robes, exploring his new residence.
Silence wraps around Julius like a cloak and he glides around the corner. His eyes narrow as he spots another figure in the dim moonlight, someone who he did not expect to see here.
A reunion for father and son. Even death could not separate the two. It would be too much to spare the headache that is Arvis and his meddling in Julius' greater machinations.
"Father," he speaks, so that he has the first word. He does not pull down the hood of his robe, just peers at him through the shadows. "You have nothing better to do than to spend time in the darkness, muttering to yourself?"
@maerablooded
daily reminder that i love Julius fire emblem
