THE CHARIOT.

post-canon arvis of velthomer. ( fe4 ) unaffiliated faculty member at the officers academy

[loptyrny]

─── ⋆⋅ into the quiet darkness.

[ non-mission board ] - reunion thread.

[loptyrny]

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

[maerablooded]

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?"

[maerablooded]

ghost supper | arvis & azelle

mission board: aphotic [ sword + 1 ]

[azelfire]

Azelle has anxiety.  He doesn't mind at all when he's told he'll be on dinner duty tonight, but he worries about being late and disappointing whatever professor he'll be working with, so he shows up quite early.

It's not all bad.  It gives him time to re-examine notes from class.  He still can't quite get the hang of Fódlan spell casting.  He needs to focus on formulae and logic for their spells, and he's certain that if he understands this it will only help his magic in general, but Azelle is too used to tapping into the instinctual energy thrumming in his blood to fully see the connection between the two.  And there's gotta be a connection, right?

He's leaning on the counter with his gaze fixed on a book, searching for that connection, when he hears a semi-familiar voice call his name.

Azelle looks up instantly with the reflex ingrained in hearing his name before considering the voice.  He sees red, quite literally.  It's an older gentleman who styles his hair almost identically to his brother, wearing clothes almost identically to his brother, sounding almost identically to his brother.

Lady Deirdre had grown older.  Lady Edain had grown older.  Why not Arvis?  (Why not Azelle?)

“A-Arvis?” he responds, wide eyed.  He hurries to close his text book and places it down.  “You…  Y-you're here?”

[maerablooded]

arvis' eyes are still narrowed, just for a moment, as he processes this. they widen at the words spoken, though.

azelle sounds... nervous.

this isn't unusual for the boy, of course. he thinks this thought with guilt and certainty both, but he doesn't speak for a moment. he wants to calm or placate, to say just the right thing to alleviate the worries of his half-brother, but he can't think of what that might be.

things aren't as they used to be. they cannot be again.

but that said—azelle's reaction, nervous as he clearly is, isn't quite proportionate to what arvis had expected. a small mercy, maybe. he doesn't expect forgiveness or forgetting, but he'll take something as small as this gladly.

he does not wish to be rejected by a loved one, even after all these years.

"i am, yes. as are you."

he enters the room properly and begins surveying it for ingredients. there's a variety, some familiar and some not.

i am being repetitive, foolish, i need to get myself together, he thinks to himself.

"i hope you came prepared. we can talk as we work. i trust you've been well?"

[maerablooded]

𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙪𝙨 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙚 — arvis && deirdre

[nagaficat]

She hears his voice sometimes. A whisper in a quiet corridor but, when she turns around, there is no one there. It has never stopped her from checking.

She turns around now, expecting just another trick of the mind but he is there.

He has visited her before now. In her dreams. When she closes her eyes while lonely. But he always looks the same. He always appears as he had the last time they saw each other. Tall, proud, happy.

That is how she knows this must be real. He is older. His eyes are tired. How long has it been since she left him alone?

She thinks about what her son had told her not that long ago. Has he yet met his end at her Seliph's hands? There are so many terrible questions she would ask but, right now, she is content to let herself enjoy this moment. She has been waiting quite long for it, after all.

"Lord Arvis!" Her pace quickens as she closes the distance between them. "I have been waiting for you! I hope I have not kept you too long."

[maerablooded]

as ever: she is happy to see him.

it seems that no matter what else happens, this hasn't changed. the relief that thrums in his veins at this cannot be overstated. he does not dare reach out to touch her yet, though, too afraid that she'll simply disappear if he makes one wrong move.

still, she's close enough to touch—a light in the darkness. that fact alone is plenty.

is he delusional or dreaming, he wonders, just for a moment.

but no, this is blessedly real.

"you... waited for me?" he asks, taken aback but almost joyfully so. he'd nearly forgotten how to smile in the waning years of his life, but it's coming back to him, bit by aching bit.

"please, walk with me. it has been... far too long."

[maerablooded]

𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙗𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙪𝙨 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙤𝙢𝙚 — arvis && deirdre

[maerablooded]

once, the world was perfect, and arvis would have even considered himself to have been happy. he took that happiness for granted, of course, and so was unprepared when that came crashing down. the death of his wife, his son possessed, his daughter gone beyond his reach.

this is only one in a long line of mistakes.

but he is not here to recount those. no, he has spent enough time lamenting, more than enough time pondering what could have been, tracing the lines of each error to determine what he could have done instead, because what matters is not what could have been, but what was. and what had happened was this: deirdre was dead. he had seen her die, held her in his arms as it had happened, cursed fate and happenstance and everything else (too soon, he had wanted to say, deirdre had left him too soon ).

fear and grief and bitterness had put out the remaining light in his heart. he regained it only upon seeing his daughter again ( too late, julia had returned to him too late ).

that is why he now does a double-take, upon seeing what can only be deirdre. it is summer, but summer no longer feels alive. it is as if everything in his life has come to a standstill in this moment as he sees her. nothing withers, nothing will wither again for as long as she is within his sights.

"deirdre—!"

@nagaficat !

[maerablooded]

the future theory — arvis & seliph.

mission board: aphotic [ heavy armor + 1 ]

[maerablooded]

While the ship bearing the inbound students and staff may have made it here, it has been left in a sorry state. Even without their captain's expert eye, the crew are unanimous in their call: if it is going to be in seafaring condition, everyone will need to get to work immediately—yourself included. It's all hands on deck gathering quality materials, repairing what can be repaired, and replacing what cannot. Volunteers from the Church have been split into two groups: those who are constructing on site and those who are making the trip to the viscounty Menja for further supplies. After all, who better than the largest producers of sea vessels in the Empire? [Grants Heavy Armor +1]

shipbuilding was not within arvis' skillset. he was a man of many talents, but day-to-day work, menial work, important though it may be, was not one of them.

which was how he had found himself sent off to gather materials. the viscounty of menja was not somewhere he had been before, but the journey was sure to not be too arduous. the issue is not with the travel, however, and more with the—the company.

he opens his mouth as if to speak, closes it again. what is there to say?

he had not seen seliph since the boy killed him. he had acted in a way that he had hoped would inspire action, but it was far from his proudest moment. he doesn't ask, wouldn't ask, how successful his act was, at the end.

the church hadn't known. when officials told the two of them to make the journey and retrieve those shipbuilding materials, they had known only that they were assigning the task to two people ill-suited for the more direct work. no more thought had been put into it than that.

oh, fate was agitating and cruel.

no sense drawing things out, however. he glances sideways at the boy, counts familiar features on his face ( the ways in which he looks like his mother, the ways in which he does not ) and finally speaks.

"well... no sense in dawdling, is there? i trust you've been well. come, let us be off."

@virtuoustyrfing !

[maerablooded]

all things and one thing \ like a solid door. — arvis & andrei

mission board: aphotic [ authority + 1 ]

[maerablooded]

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 house is old, poorly taken care of, exactly what one might expect from a supposed haunting. arvis does not believe in ghosts, but he does believe in superstitious people and the oft-peculiar applications of magic, in the weakness in the hearts of men, in even unexplainable phenomena which can later come to be explained.

all of this is to say that he feels little apprehension when he walks into the 'haunted' house, even as a chill runs up his spine. the air is noticeably colder than outside, but he has always run hot, and will simply deal with the way the faint breeze feels wrong in here.

rumors of a house whose ghostly inhabitants kill all who enter must surely be—dealt with. and the first step is to uncover the source of them, he supposes.

there is enough daylight to navigate the home with relative ease, but layers of dust coat even the windows, making things hazy in certain places. arvis steps carefully, especially as he hears what sound like footsteps around a corner. his eyes narrow, and he readies himself for a fight with whatever malicious individual ( not a ghost, not an entity, only a person, he is sure ) resides within this place. rounding the corner, his eyes widen as he does nearly collide with a ghost—in the most literal sense: a person who should be dead, but who instead stands before him.

a man he has not seen in a very long time.

he takes a step back, not taking his eyes off of the ghost of andrei of yngvi.

@ulircursed

[maerablooded]

ghost supper | arvis & azelle

mission board: aphotic [ sword + 1 ]

[maerablooded]

With Fódlan closed off from all the other continents at present, several students and faculty members from overseas are hit with an even stronger sense of homesickness than they would have been normally, not knowing how long it shall be before the waters will be open again. Even letters don't seem to be enough! The kitchen is overwhelmed by requests for foreign dishes. Every day of the week celebrates some different continent, helping alleviate the blues to some degree, but there's only one problem… those assigned to kitchen duty have no idea how to make some of these menu items! Submitted recipes wildly range in quality, some being expertly written and others being much more confusing or dubious. Can you save tonight's dinner? [Grants Sword +1]

prepare a supper from grannvale.

that was the instruction arvis was given, and his familiarity with the empire used as an excuse to shove him into this role. there are hungry, homesick students, he was told. fix this, as if it's that simple.

it's a reasonable enough request, but being voluntold is always aggravating, and he feels his teeth itch as he's informed that he's to be assisted by a student from the same homeland.

there are very, very few people from grannvale that he would like to see. familiar faces are likely to be a source of difficulty, all things considered. all he can do is wait for his—assistant, whomever they may be. he mentally goes through a list of dishes favored in the empire, trying to think of a suitable one that might appeal to the largest number of people, then narrowing it further to things they might actually have the ingredients for as he walks to the kitchen. nothing pickled, nothing too fishy... maybe a compote could be a good base?

he enters the kitchen with a flourish of robes, then immediately freezes when he catches sight of the student who he assumes must be assisting him. there is no way this could have been intentional on anyone's part, but it feels particularly cruel.

someone the spitting image of his younger brother, from all those years ago. even after all this time, he would recognize azelle anywhere. his eyes narrow slightly as his mind tries to process what he's seeing before him.

"azelle..."

@azelfire !

[unfleured]

graceful trick night ☆

[ aphotic 2025 ] - authority +1

[unfleured]

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]

Alfred isn't sure what to expect.

So he does the most reasonable thing and doesn't go to investigate alone. It's not hard to get people to agree to tag along with him, he thinks, since he often is so earnest in his requests. This man is a little odd, maybe a little withdrawn -- Alfred hasn't painted a full picture of him in his mind yet, but he likes what he's seen so far! A capable mage, from the looks of it, and with Alfred's (alleged) brawn and Professor Velthomer's brains there's no way they can't solve this problem together!

He smiles at the other, then looks back at the manor in front of them. "Okay, so they warned us there might be ghosts," he says, and while he's not sold on the idea he's not going to disregard it entirely. "But if there aren't, it's probably more bandits and the like, right? People down and out on their luck. We can try talking them down if it comes to it."

If it is ghosts, then he's sure his lance won't do much to help the situation. Hopefully he won't just be dead weight here.

@maerablooded

[maerablooded]

he does not believe in ghosts... per se. there are many perfectly reasonable magical explanations for anything that one might come across when dealing with a supposed haunting. it isn't his area of expertise, of course, but he's well-read, and knows how these sorts of things tend to go.

but knowing there is a rational explanation doesn't make finding it any easier.

"bandits cannot be ruled out as a possible explanation," he says, and he is glad he doesn't have to state that ghosts are... unlikely. this young man seems rational, which is good. he doesn't want to have to wrangle someone who's likely to jump at every shadow.

the students at this academy seem very put together. it's refreshing.

"if it is a situation involving banditry, we can deal with that mundane problem in a mundane way. if there's a magical element, we will need to take care to dismantle it safely. be prepared for anything, and move carefully as we proceed through the building."