"you should know i take my partying seriously. we’re going to shimmy and swing ‘til dawn, so you can forget about sleeping!"
a pandreo (fe: e) rp blog, affiliated with theofficersacademy and unaffiliated faculty if you squint. art by roisale and @d4ggerfish.
pandreo from fire emblem: engage, as written by lilly.
a high priest from the far-off queendom of solm, pandreo's here to shake things up and make every day a party for the students ( and the other faculty ) at the officers' academy. while he oversees a congregation of his own, he's more than happy to lend an ear to anyone who needs it as a counselor, friend and frequent event organizer. pandreo is in the process of his solo ending and is passively observing the religious practices of other nations and thinking of ways to incorporate them into his own belief system in a way that's not only respectful, but opens up elyos to other possibilities. ( though, the divine one will always be, well. the divine one! )
quick links: muse | stats | tracker
notes for portrayal + how to interact with me are as below:
portrayal notes:
pandreo wasn't here for very long! because of that, he never actually finished any of his threads so it might be easiest to just operate off a clean slate. but, let me know if you wanted to preserve any interaction into the relative "toa" canon!
if they have a support chain, i'll assume that it'll be at a rank unless told otherwise! if not, then pandreo will assume that they're at least on speaking terms if nothing else.
with respect to his job, pandreo functions as a counselor of sorts. that means sometimes people are tasked to show up at his "office," though he never actually makes good on making people come if they don't want to. instead, he'll sometimes go to them.
which alear is his? good question. i don't know either.
me notes:
i use small text and format to some extent. let me know if it's illegible or difficult for you to read and i'll happily edit. i try my best to check beforehand, but if i forget: just tap me! i never mind.
inbox is open to anyone in toa! i like ask memes if i repost them. i like random asks here and there. all i ask is that, if something is in response to something happening on the dash, that it is an event that your character would reasonably be able to know.
shipping: for the constraints of the toa timeline, pandreo's singleship. but as always, good luck with that, lmao.
nsfw? not if he still wants to walk in the grace of the divine one.
iiiiiiii am very slow. chronically slow. that's by and large in part because of my work schedule! i will occasionally have huge bursts of energy to buoy myself through rapid-firing replies, but if that's not to you? don't take it personally! feel free to remind me! just don't do it all the time. i promise i remember.
content warnings: there's the standard warnings that come with fire emblem, that being death and violence. but, additionally, pandreo's character does deal with alcoholism and parental neglect. both will be tagged as it comes up!
one thing can be said about the letter she receives — it’s certainly full of character. she reads it once, then again, before happily settling down at her desk to respond.
dear pandreo,
i hope this isn't your way of asking a lady for her age?
dorothea shifts in her seat, a hint of amusement crossing her face in the privacy of her room.
...but since we're clearly on the fast track to becoming friends, i suppose it wouldn't hurt to let you in on the secret. i'm eighteen—soon to be nineteen later this month. you'll have to tell me if you're older or younger; then we can decide just how embarrassing this is for you.
( said in good fun, i assure you ).
i'll accept both your apology and your proposal, on the condition that you maintain a steady correspondence. being stood up in person is one thing, but through letters? a terribly dismal thought. i trust you wouldn’t subject a girl to such a thing, yes?
the mention of elyos prompts a hum of recognition. she dips her pen into the ink, continuing:
funny you should say that! i've already met a handful of people from your homeland. two princes, fogado and alfred—have you met them? and a professor, who i recently discovered is a dragon, rafal—did you know? i never would've guessed. it came as quite the shock to me, actually. i also briefly met someone named alear. i'd be curious to know what brought all of you to fodlan at the same time.
a smile spreads at the sight of the drawing. she won’t bother sketching one in return—there aren’t any special sights on her end worth sharing.
i’d love to visit your desert someday. i recently traveled to an archipelago for the first time, and despite certain circumstances, found it rather pleasant. i’d choose warm weather over cold any day. winters in fodlan are pretty miserable, as you might know if you arrived in the last few months. but the springs are lovely—they’re by far my favorite time of year. everything always feels more hopeful, somehow.
this addition is made later in the day, tacked onto the letter before it's sent off:
before coming to the academy, i worked as a diva at the opera. it’s big in adrestia— if there’s one thing the nobility loves, it’s glittering costumes and a good time.
do you have anything like that in elyos? performances, i mean. i’d be interested to hear more.
he nearly spits out his tea when he reads what immediately comes after his name. no one's ever accused him of being clever with his words, and pandreo thinks for a moment that he may have found a dangerous partner to exchange letters with. she's plain-speaking, and then she isn't: that dangerous turn of phrase that makes him second-guess his answer on at least more than one occasion. not because he's afraid of the outcome, but because he reasons he might be able to learn from it. and learning, he finds, always shows the difference of ability too soon.
so, when he replies ( and he does as promptly as he's able to between everything else ), he's thought about at least for a day before he answers back—torn between proposing another guessing game, and just telling her straight:
to dorothea,
you caught me red-handed! there was probably a better way to ask, but i've been raised better than that at least.
saying his mother did anything that could be considered as "raising" was a bit of a stretch, but he'd learned well enough to leave that question alone. she was always twenty-five, no matter how many years had passed and no matter how old he'd gotten. fourteen, fifteen, twenty-now—she was twenty-five.
for the record, i'm older. not by much. can you guess by how much? i guess i shouldn't say i'm surprised that you've met ( the word lord is scrawled in tight quarters between ' met ' and ' fogado, ' the title of respect forgotten between old friends ) fogado, or lord alfred! they're pretty friendly. it's the mention of the divine one that gives pandreo pause, though he thinks nearly everyone in the army short of him, the twins and sir vander called them by name.
lord fogado's a riot at parties. haven't gotten the other his highness to one yet. i think he's the type that prefers tea parties.
he taps the tip of his quill. another professor? a dragon? there were at least three that he knew of, but—the other two ...
maybe it's just a coincidence. i didn't follow anyone here, myself, though the queen asked me to keep an eye out for her son.
the desert can get pretty cold at night too. but, you're right. this is all a pretty far cry from what i'm used to. i think i heard another professor say that it was mild weather. meanwhile, my nose was just about ready to fall off from how cold it is.
entertainment, hm? solm was a place full of beautiful and interesting things, but he doesn't think there's an opera or anything close to it.
you're a singer, then? impressive! we have the choir at my church, but i can't say they can very much carry a tune. as they say, the congregation reflects its preacher. though, now that he thinks about it, he's never really had many complaints about his singing. his dancing, on the other hand. there's another crude illustration, this time of seadall and his dancing. it almost looks like a person in the right light. no opera, but we do have some pretty impressive dance styles back home. is it similar?
"Well well well, look at what the wolf dragged in!" Panette announces her presence from behind, sure that would get his attention. And if it didn’t then…
She catches up with Pandreo to shove him in the arm, in a normal sibling fashion. Not hard enough to break his bones, but with enough force to hopefully knock him off his feet a little.
“Though I am not that surprised, I suppose I could say I’m glad to see you regardless of the reason,” her eyes flicker to his attire briefly, expression neutral. “But how did you manage to slip past my notice when leaving Elyos I wonder… Unless! You’re not my brother, but one of the corrupted? Only one way to find out…”
She thrusts forward a jar of pickled peppers packed with flavor and extra spice. No need to ask where she retrieved the jar from, she has her ways. She shakes the jar a little with a mischievous grin. “Go on, prove you’re the real one.”
she could've been nicer about it. learned habits send pandreo stumbling to the side when she shoves him, hissing all the while in pain. priest, retainer, older brother—clutches at his upper arm as he squints back at his would-be assailant, pantomiming agony for a beat of sympathy. maybe he shouldn't be surprised that she doesn't take much acknowledgment of it, charging on in the conversation as she's oft to. so, he continues on too with a thump of his index finger to her forehead: "i don't see merrin around, do you?"
he's glad to see her, at least:
it's not been that long since he left elyos. her either, he assumes but—when you'd finally gotten used to seeing your little sister again, who wasn't so little anymore, nearly every day only for the two of you go to your separate ways even though the two of you literally served the same royal family ... his thoughts are interrupted as she presents him with a jar of hellfire incarnate, pandreo only able to quirk up an eyebrow in exasperated reply. was she serious? he'd just get all red and blotchy and start crying and, "no chance, but." he does unscrew the cap.
he does shove his hand in too to pluck out a few morsels before abruptly shoving them into his sister's face. "enjoy!" lesson number one of their shared household: don't dish out what you can't take.
They got caught. They took their weapons. They dragged them to their stupid bandit base and threw them in a locked room somewhere.
“I’m a total failure.” Yunaka’s voice is muffled from her lying face down on the floor, stewing nicely in her cocktail of shame and embarrassment and disappointment.
What kind of assassin got disarmed by bandits. What kind of assassin got captured by bandits!? Her master would have given her such an earful if she came back from a job as sloppy as this one was going so far.
Moving as slow as the horrible, easily captured slug that she is, Yunaka crosses her arms to use them as a pillow so she can turn her head and look over at Pandreo of all people. Another Elyosian she’d been surprised to run into here in Fodlan. Better him than somebody who actually knew she was supposedly a good fighter, if she had to find a bright side.
“You’re not hurt, are you?” Her voice comes out flat and dull. Being Zappy is reserved for people who didn’t fuck up the one thing they were supposedly good at. “Cause if you are, I think you might just be outta luck until we either bust out or get rescued…” And neither of those was looking particularly likely.
Yunaka sighs heavily. What to do, what to do… “Any chance Fogie’s got some kinda magic lord sense to tell when his retainer is in trouble?”
so, turns out there are pros and cons to meeting god. not that pandreo would've ever considered it anything less than a blessing to have been found by the divine one that fateful day. but, while grateful that he's gotten the chance to know them for who they were—it is undeniably harder to curse them for his plight. because, you can't really say that this is all in the divine one's plans when you knew being captured was. well. he supposes it could be worse.
a nice, cushy makeshift prison cell with plenty to eat and space to rest.
granted, he couldn't use his hands.
or his feet ( don't ask, party-goers make do in incredibly specific situations ).
but, there was technically food, and good company in the wriggling shape that is yunaka on the floor just a small distance away. he stares blankly at the ceiling, wriggling his fingers in a feeble attempt to get blood circulating again even though he knows all semblance of it has long vacated his extremities. at least! at least! at least! and his brain keeps supplying more in an attempt to keep him in good spirits while memory tries to work sparks to the tips of his fingers to do something.
"just my pride," he jokes in reply, sounding just a little too optimistic maybe for the situation at-hand. tangerine hair flops uselessly to cushion his head as pandreo turns to face her, his smile faltering a beat. "are you hurt?"
he could manage a heal spell, he thinks. they didn't use staves here or focuses of any kind. he wasn't used to it, but—frankly, pandreo hadn't been used to magic either when he'd been learning it, so. "nah, it'd be nice if he did." well, now that he thought about it: "actually, he might." but, he wouldn't really want his queendom's prince waltzing in here, horse ablazin' when he's still convinced they could break out on their own. "did you figure out when they make their rounds yet? the bandits?"
Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is. Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing! Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together. Credits to Neffi.
Name: lilly!
Pronouns: they/them.
Birthday (no year): april 4th.
Where are you from? What is your time zone? pst (gmt-8).
How long is your roleplay experience? well, i started when i was eight, so twenty? years now? embarrassing for me.
How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? neopets, LMFAO.
How were you introduced to TOA? i'd just finished up the gd route for 3h when chuu, an old member, posted about a fe group on twitter. so, i dmed her and then asked about it and then delusionally manifested a blog and url in like roughly 8 hours. fun fact: prior to that, i'd only ever played one canon, lol!
Do you have any pets? yes, my awful little dog.
What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) wiiiiinter. it rains the most and i can just get jackets to be warm if it's too cold.
What is your IRL occupation? used to be a journalist, now i'm? in product development for stationery, lol.
Some interests and things you like/enjoy? mostly handicraft stuff? i like building lego sets, assembling dioramas, doing puzzles. i started learning how to crochet yesterday! i'm very bad at it!
What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? mostly jrpgs, but lots of puzzle-y indie games. i started playing sea of stars reeeecently, but haven't gotten very far on it. a metric ton of otomes, lmao.
Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: dragon, and dragonite! close runners up are bewear and ludicolo, lmfao.
Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! i jokingly mumble "i'm thinking miku miku oo ee oo" when i'm struggling, but so my brother took that as "i really like hatsune miku" and now i have four figurines of miku just spread out in my room. i fear every time he goes to round one because i will just have another one.
How did you get into Fire Emblem? an old friend of mine told me to give awakening a try because she thought i'd like that i could date people, lmfao. it worked. NJKLRENGJKLRGR.
What Fire Emblem games have you played? eeeeverything post-awakening, short of three hopes. i also gave sacred stones a try and then got intensely mad when tana kept dying, so i stopped.
First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: awakening, then rrrr. i haven't touched one in a while, so i actually couldn't really say.
List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! inigo, fogado, hubert (toa pilled)—this is where i admit i don't actually have any favorites in game, but i do in toa, lmao.
Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! sobbing, i don't have any. I'M A SHAM.
Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 naur, but i one day wish to experience chasing the high everyone else does.
If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays?
- Awakening: chrom by curse, but olivia.
- Fates: inigo. PARDON ME, LAZZY. tttheeen, idk. kaze. lmao.
- Three Houses: claude...... and sylvain now. i love a man that's all red flags. it's a parade, not a warning!
- Engage: pandreo................. still pandreo.
Favorite Fire Emblem class? PEGAKNIGHT SUPREMACY.
If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? in my greatest delusions, i'd be an armored tank unit, but the reality is i'm probably the villager hiding in their house after you swung by to let me know something was coming to murk me/us.
If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? golden deer, lmao. i just like their vibe.
If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? wwww, i actually started doing archery recently and i'm not bad at it, so i think probably something in that vein for a boon ....... i'm also weirdly strong, so maybe gauntlets? lmfao. everything else is what i'd be bad at, rifp. an athletic creature i am not.
If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? probably firene. it'd make sense for my name to be lilly, eh.
How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔t-o-a, lmao.
Current TOA muses: shiro & pandreo!
Past TOA muses? cynthia, shigure, lon-qu, constance, bylad, kiragi, kinu—i forget all the other ones if any, oops.
Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? cynthia! and maybe? lmao, she's evolved so much past her baseline in my head that i think it'd actually be quite difficult to pick her up again, but she also has such incredible capacity for interesting relationships.
Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? clown, usually with depression.
Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? oooof, really calculating and intellectual types! i'm not very good at it and my style of writing doesn't super lend itself to that because i tend to spell out their every thought, lmao. the only reason i could write constance is because she was simultaneously the smartest and stupidest person in the room at any given time.
What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? oh, i'm a comedy relief writer first and foremost. any situation where i can put people into a yes-and context is fun for me. but, i am realizing i do really enjoy dramatic scenes too for character study and exploration.
Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? nnnnnot right now. i find that most of the spiciest moments i recall are ones that just happen by circumstance instead of planning.
Favorite TOA-related memories? on chapril, i got the mods and everyone else to change to chad icons when a new member abruptly showed up and i died laughing.
Present or past tense? present! past? i do both. king of tense changes that make no sense.
Normal size text, small text, no preference? no preference. i just use small text because i like lookin' at it.
Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 if i entertain it for even a second, i will have to make the blog right now and i don't have time for that but god i want to.
the letter comes in the form of perfumed parchment and a deep, burgundy colored ink. it is addressed to: @revelale
Dear Pandreo,
So, another fresh face making waves among the faculty ranks! It's rather impressive — I've heard you're quite young yourself. Clearly, you possess a remarkable depth of knowledge. Did you always know that you wanted to be a mentor? I'd imagine it comes with its challenges, but I'm sure it's rewarding in more ways than one.
There's something I have to get off my chest. A confession, I suppose. I've done a bit of snooping before writing this letter. I do hope you'll forgive me. I can't say I completely regret it...I mean, it's all so exciting, isn't it? And what kind of penpal would I be if I didn't make the effort to learn more about you beforehand? Of course, there's only so much you can get to know about a person from asking around — it's always better to talk to the source directly. I'm sure you're chock-full of interesting stories and insights.
You'll tell me about your home, won't you? Where you're from, and what it's like there? I bet you miss it already. There's only so much traveling I've done in my life so far — one day, I'd like to see the rest of the world for myself. I'm sure that beats reading or hearing about a place.
the letter is met with a bit of laughter and ends up tucked somewhere between the papers on his desk that still haven't been cleaned up. the letter she receives is less impressive. the ink is a simple black. the paper is likewise of unimpressive quality, corners streaked with curling squiggles from when the writer was testing the tip of their quill. a double split line—one smaller and thinner than the other—implies that it needs replacement. it smells faintly of rosemary.
to dorothea,
more to look at than those old graybeards, huh? it's a little embarrassing to be called a mentor when i've found i'm even younger than some of the students here; you wouldn't happen to be among their ranks, would you? i don't know if this is something that is a responsibility i've always wanted, but it seems like a natural extension of the path that the divine one set me on. a thoughtful hum, then the tip of the quill scatters a few flecks of ink here. he'd been thinking.
not much of a letter writer, pandreo.
i'll apologize to you for having not done the same. i thought it might've been—well, i just hadn't thought about it. i know one two things, at least: that your name is dorothea and you like this wine color.
i have a proposal for you.
i'll tell you a bit about my homeland since you're interested, then you tell me about yourself. seems like a fair exchange if you ask me? i'll go first; the queendom is
another stutter of ink, then blots of them at the starts and ends of letters as he considers the shimmering dunes and the warmth that he so misses now as this place emerges from the winter into spring.
is in elyos; have you heard of such a place? he doubted it. he's seen more of the emblems than he could've ever expected. but, these ones—they were real. people that had lived and lost. it's mostly sand, sand and more sand. but, the tullah desert is a marvel unlike anything i'll guess that you've ever seen. there's a crude illustration of it now, coupled with a sun with a cheery smile and something that almost looks like a lake. an oasis, if she would venture a guess.
the letter is left unsigned, the thought unfinished but it is sent anyway with the thought that he had done either when his idle hands are given work.
it turns out that, contrary to popular ( see: 'fogado' ) belief, sneaking on to any old boat does not automatically turn it into a super awesome party barge, no matter how many streamers and funny little hats you bring. it also is such that, should the people on the boat you sneak on turn out to be pirates, despite the stereotype that such a group are friends of drink and merriment, they will not hesitate to tie your sorry arse up and string you up on some whatever island. fogado's all about hands-on experience, but as his wrists chafe against their coarse rope binds, he finds that this would have been a much better lesson to learn in a book or something.
what's odd is that, somehow, fogado was not the only unwelcome stowaway on the ship. peering at the mop of orange hair next to him, it is very clear that pandreo, his dear retainer and beloved super-ultra-bestie, had the same idea. now they were both stuck on this island. guh-reat.
well, at least pandreo's here. that lessens the pain of being stranded and also the sun that is definitely cooking him into a fogado fritter.
" not, " pandreo's swinging around, and fogado can really only speak to him when their faces meet.
" super, " here he is again, but only for a bit.
" great. " please, please, please do not throw up from the spinning.
fogado has practiced untying knots specifically for situations such as these, but he isn't well-versed on sailing knots---and those things are used for anchors and stuff, so they're tough as all get out to untie. crapppp, he shouldn't have packed those extra party hats so he'd have room for his rope cutter...
but through all his worrying a sudden sandy splat brings him back to reality. pandreo has somehow undone his binds and has fallen to the sand below, which is a huge relief---not that he'd actually hit the ground, fogado would never find relief in that, but the fact that he was free. " i dunno about rope tying classes, but they sure do know how to tie people up, " he huffs, wiggling around. " be a retainer pal and help me out here? "
"nothing like lythos, huh?" that party was at least half? maybe three-quarters of the reason pandreo had stowed away in the first place. the other, maybe, quarter? was that fogado had all but disappeared one afternoon. while he wasn't quite in the business of keeping constant tabs of the guy ( literally, why would he? he lost the queendom's one and only prince in the sands practically ever other sunday ), it probably wasn't the greatest idea to let that scallywag run off on his own when pandreo was but one half of a duo in a foreign country.
but, mostly it was the prospect of a fun boat party.
call it a happy coincidence if they did throw it back together!
pandreo wriggles around on the beach a while longer, pressing his cheek into the sands while sputtering out every grain that'd made its way into his mouth. "yeah, give me a second." oops, just a little bit of drool snuck out there. so, pretty much just like home. it takes a few seconds before he starts to get some feeling back into his hands. flopping over so his behind was firmly planted in the sand, pandreo set to work on relieving his dear friend of the bindings.
not without a gross uurrrrp! that just barely got tamped down after having temporarily served his time as a fun little party trick, though.
"up past the dragon, down to the stables and then we loop through the gardens and—back out of the castle!" the ropes release from his friend's wrists. the tips of the priest's fingers graze against the raw skin left in its wake and a muttered incantation under pandreo's breath bids any aching away for the time being. he turns his attention back to the knots keeping his ankles together next, peeking at fogado from the corner of his eye as he worked to undo them. "so, what're the odds you happen to be keeping a boat in those pockets of yours?"
Divine Dragon priest and Fell Dragon sinner, two to stand before a ritual circle alleged to summon demons. No pair was more curious than they, and no situation to greater bewilderment. Still, one could make the most of it - or in Rafal's case, work to completion of the task as fast as allowed. The sooner done, the sooner rid.
Turning away from his partner, he crouched down to the ground. Slapdash work as far as could be seen, the constituents of bloody symbols and concentric chalk markings cobbled together with the obvious hand of a student. Hasty and far from symmetric. Dark and viscous with the ichor of some long rotting creature, the rub of his moistened fingers brought itself closer to his nose when sight alone did not suffice. Smell did not bring much more certainty despite his confident avowal.
"Animal blood. Perhaps chicken, or cow. Hog. Cat or dog." A broad and merely hypothetical spectrum unable to be narrowed further, if it had been narrowed down at all. Sharp eyes nevertheless shot sidelong, daring his fellow Elyosian to contest, and with a provocative twist of his mouth at that. "—perhaps human."
He stood with an unbothered brush of knees, without awaiting reaction, and already trekking deeper into thought. A former failure would be remiss to forget his roots. Once, he leaned upon such fantastical methods as this ritual attempted to employ. Fervent prayers to greater powers to patch the void of his weakness; seven bracelets assembled to turn ambition to reality, his fluid longing into a state of unquestionable substance; both were not quite so different from channeling the supernatural. In witness to more professional efforts, he might have sympathized with the intentions of their maker. This scenario, however, was surely a hoax.
A skeptical scoff wrested hold of pale features as the dragon gazed all around, hand on hip. "To think this is the source of all needless commotion. Ridiculous. I see no demons in sight. The summoning was either a failure or the method is a dud entirely. Both are a sore waste of our time."
pandreo has so many questions. the least of them being why it is that lord rafal has the capacity to distinguish blood by smell and smell alone when it all wafts over his own nose the same way—tinny, and just the tiniest bit nauseating when in overabundance. he has to bite his tongue from saying something about how little the fell dragon's suggestion narrows down the sacrificed animal of the students' choice, but he does quickly jab back in reply: "that'd be pretty hard to hide, don't you think?"
not that he thinks any of the kids here are entirely beyond it either.
his attention skims over the markings, uncertain.
this wasn't really his field of expertise. he'd played plenty with offensive and healing magic before, but this was different even with fódlan's idiosyncrasies. they might've used glyphs or done away with focuses altogether. but, that didn't mean they could just forsake the rules that the medium was guided by altogether; could it? he'd been hopeful that lord rafal might've been able to provide more of an answer there.
though, part of him wonders if maybe he should've just asked lady veyle instead.
pandreo hems and haws, half-way between deciding that this might've been a sign he was too old for some party tricks and that summoning unknown entities through blood was patently a bad idea for just about anyone.
"ah," he scratches the back of his head as pandreo glances in lord rafal's direction and pointedly ignores the comment about the very minor investigation being a waste of time. "if it's fake, then that's a good thing. but—"
but, he didn't really want to be a killjoy either and tell the kids to knock it off just because it was bothering some people. "no one's gonna stop just because someone," as in not him, "said so either. i think we have we've got two options: let 'em keep doing it and hope the blood doesn't soak into the flooring or we try to, ah. convince them. through other nonsuspicious means."
This was bad. When the guru had mentioned exposure therapy she hadn't taken it too seriously, not because there was no possibility it could work but for the fact she expected it to be over minor fears and not... THIS.
When she had left the man's stand she had walked out calmly and ready to continue on with her day alongside Pandreo, but the moment she turned around an empty street she froze at the sight of the figure before her. A corrupted, what was it doing here?! How did it get here?! If the guru had something to do with this and not the giant dragon a past self would have seen as her "father" that man had either terrifying powers or was wonderful at creating illusions to put his clients on said therapy plan.
But illusion or not as the undead approached her slowly and with unnatural movements Alear stood in place, incapable of even drawing her sword. Had she known she'd be faced by this, then the Divine One would have prepared herself for the encounter but surprise had won.
A fear carried by past and current self, one explained by the former as many of her siblings had been "disposed" of by their "father", the fear to die the same way as siblings she forgot despite now being also a child of Divinity carried heavy on her shoulders. Her past self hated the corrupted and hated that she behaved like them as to not die, her current self still hated them no matter what—
She was terrified.
From the corner of her eye she looked at her ginger "hero". As flight won over fight she hid behind him with heavy breath and fingers clutching tightly against fabric. "The corrupted! P-Pandreo! Please help!!" She only needed a moment to calm herself down. Yes, only a moment so her legs would stop begging to get away from there. She would be fine with deep breaths, somehow, hopefully. There was nothing to fear, nothing!
as a concept, the logic seemed sound. fear was born of the unknown. between people's wild imaginations, what they didn't know or couldn't understand became terrifying beasts beyond their wildest imaginations. bugs were a pretty common one. rats were another. then, there were the more abstract things that people were afraid of: mortality, their own shortcomings. it stood to reason that to conquer those fears that they'd have to face it head-on.
but, even agreeing with that, he didn't really expect anything to come of it. not like a guy could keep every horrible little terror in his tent or cart or whatever unless he was catering to niche fears like, oh.
he doesn't know. long words? that'd have been an easy one.
what he doesn't expect is a corrupted here in a country beyond the fell dragon's reach. pandreo stumbles forward instead of back when the divine one dives behind him, her face buried in his vestments and pleading that he help her. guilt finds him before any blade could. "get behind me!" but, the poor soul neither lurches at him or brandishes any ax or sword. its breath trembles and veins pulse with an unnatural red light. the beginning embers of a fire flicker out at his fingertips and the high priest hesitates as he takes a cautious step forward.
one hand goes aback to gently pry her fingers from the fabric, mindful to not crush a tightly closed fist but ease it back open.
"wait a second. i don't think it's—real, divine one." not in the way that they knew them to be, at least. he kicks a pebble from where he stands and the stone skitters past the illusion. the rippling after image is all but confirmation of it.
@losojos-decupido | yep. that's him. he's also wondering how he got here. ropes strain with his weight as pandreo swings forward, then backwards, then forwards again as he uselessly flops his body around to try and loosen its grip on his wrists. but, the bindings just dig in deeper. the only difference now was that whatever blood and feeling had been left in them was absent because he could pretty confidently say that he'd dislocated either his shoulder or his wrists trying to flop around like a dead fish through the air in open defiance of gravity.
"how's?" his legs whip through the air past fogado's face.
"yours?" and there he goes again.
"going?" sooner or later, he's going to have to stop spinning, right?
he's always considered himself pretty much an expert when it came to having parties, organizing parties, being the party. there'd been plenty of stickier situations that he and fogado had landed themselves in before. none that come to recent memory because the sun's kind of cooked his brain into a soup, but really! really, if you thought about it, this could've been a worse situation. could've not had pants again.
that would've made this whole swinging around thing pretty unpleasant for one of them. "do you?" oh, he's getting dizzy. "think? those pirates took? knot-tying? cl—" crrrrrrrk! oh, and there pandreo goes. smack, face-down into the sand.
You quickly learn that it isn’t just an island you’ve set foot on - it’s a whole archipelago! That said, there are no bridges connecting these separate isles, so when a real nasty storm rides in, sucks your barges out to sea, and leaves you in the lurch… Surely help won’t be too far at hand, but in the meantime it’s best you do what you can to survive. You know, just in case you’ve got to hunker down for longer than anticipated.
@goldoanheart | it's an easy enough ask to make good on. compared to the other tasks that'd been presented to him? tagging along on a would-be exploration of the tidepools along the shore was a cake walk. while everyone else would've been baking in the sun trying to make a bridge or set up some inexplicable labyrinth—every day, he thanks the divine one that fogado, princess timerra and the queen herself weren't as eccentric—he'd be taking it easy.
he would be, at least, if he could ignore the faintest pang of guilt for knowing he wouldn't have minded if it'd been sentinel work. or at least pretended it was. if it'd been for a good reason, then he'd have been there in a heartbeat. but, since it wasn't?
pandreo presses the heel of his palm into his chest in a half-hearted effort to assuage any shame for slacking off, smiling at his would-be charge—a scant few years younger than himself and, likewise, just a few inches shorter. but, his bright and wide eyes reminds him vaguely of some of the kids that he'd seen in his congregation when he'd last been in the queendom.
nnnnnnot of panette, though.
he's pretty sure all that joy and optimism in the world had been snuffed out by the time she was five. who could blame her, really? maybe they would've been like him if things had been different. "tidepools, huh? i don't think i've ever seen any before." there might've been a few up by the azure coast. but, he spent most of his time between the desert and the church and the last time he'd been up by the coast had been ... well. bygones, and all that.
"i shouldn't be stepping in them, right?"
There’s something calming about island life when you’re not in the thick of work. The odd breaks you’ve managed to carve out for yourself offer the opportunity for an activity unique to coastal surrounds: exploring tide pools! These little pockets of seawater dot the intertidal zones of the rocky beaches about this section of the archipelago, and are treasure troves of marine microbiomes waiting to be discovered.
@desertslegacy | for a rich guy, he was pretty stingy. it isn't the most gracious view, he knows. if it's his assets and this was how he chose to spend it, then that was up to his discretion. that he would only give them the assets to build some flimsy, but apparently workable traps was up to him. but, and here's the big but: the fact that the church of seiros was capitalizing on it was a bit tasteless? it'd been passing conversation between monks when he'd caught wind of it at all, having first thought that the proceeds would've at least gone to the academy itself.
then, came the question of what tuition might've been paid and where that money went and he ended up standing face to face with their handful of saints cast in bronze and other more expensive metals in the cathedral as an answer.
not—that the matter seemed to be at the forefront of anyone's minds when they'd all boarded the vessel to take them across the sea to an island that screamed of a familiar sandiness and more humidity than he'd ever encountered in his life. everyone'd been so excited that the last thing he wanted to do was complicate it with moral quandaries were, probably, just another reservation about the church that he ought to have kept to himself at the risk of sounding close-minded.
didn't make him very fun for conversation either if he's been in his head for the better part of an afternoon about it. pandreo smiles as he turns to face his companion—igrene, his mind helpfully reminds. his cheeks and the bridge of his nose are already red after what's been a little too much time in the sun. "have you seen anything trapped? they said they were pretty smart, but you'd think we'd at least hear them running away if they're even a quarter of the size of these." he raps his knuckles against one of the open cages. sand muffled, but trees wouldn't.
Right, so, about those monsters! It turns out they might be smarter than you are, because you can’t just walk up to them and start swinging, and they also look to have little interest in your cute traps and snares. You’re going to have to get creative about it, before the hunters become the hunted. [Grants Any Skill +1]
MM, YES. THE RETURN OF PANDREO. aaaalright, let's do this one last time for the month ( hopefully! ) looking for a few of the mission prompts to get him up and running again. pandreo falls under the unaffiliated umbrella, so that automatically qualifies him for everything. worth noting is that he's never actually been on an actual mission or anything that took him out of the monastery really! so, it'll be fun. as always, dm me, ping me on discord, dm me on here:
ANY SKILL +1: he'd be a vegetarian in theory. he feels kind of bad about trapping monsters since it's not really his thing, but trotting around in the sand is. still! while not an overly idealistic pacifist, trapping monsters on a deserted island to "clean up" for some rich guy to buy the island so he'll fork over money to the church doesn't quite seem right. he may call into question the ethics of this and may ask you to help him set some of them free. this might touch a bit on his aversion to paying tithes to the church, as it relates to his mother.
DESERTED ISLAND: when the going gets tough, the tough get going. pandreo isn't the type to really sit around and wait. while he's optimistic and sure that they'll probably get rescued, he'll make sure that they can get a shelter, food and all that nonsense. for a priest, he's surprisingly adept at the work. by vague explanation, he'll say this isn't the first time and. hello? what's that all about, sir?
TIDEPOOLS: well, it's not like it's all that common in solm unless you happen to be lucky enough to be up by the coast. just kind of a cute thread and something he'd take interest in. nothing too challenging, but flexible to interest!
PENPALS: sure, he'll take a few! why not? pandreo's not the most eloquent of writers, but he doesn't mind exchanging a letter or two if it helps him acquaint himself better with the student body and other faculty. topics of discussion might just kind of have to depend. but an easy swing for elyos muses that are familiar with pandreo is literally just communicating with him prior to his arrival.
CLEAN UP: ah, well. no one likes chores, but no one knows how to clean up after a party-related disaster area than pandreo. though, he does have to admit he regrets not having been able to attend it himself. as a counselor, he's doing his best to try and keep track of the points. he didn't expect someone to steal his score cards or—unexpectedly sabotage other people's work? let's investigate.
FAITH +1: it doesn't seem like a complete loss of an idea. pandreo's even interested in seeing how it works so that he might be able to use this so-called exposure therapy for others. it could be played as the guy's a total sham, so maybe it's a post-event comfort thread in that he's trying his best to make you feel better? could also be played as surprisingly helpful. pretty flexible idea-wise!
REASON +1: honestly, it'd just be funny to have pandreo trying to blend in and be normal about the fact that the kids are summoning demons.
i'm happy to also just workshop some casual threads. as i mentioned briefly on discord, i do literally still have drafts from old threads so i'm happy to pick those up again if you're still into it but otherwise glad to think of new entry points or resuming old plans! i do ask that if it's a non-prompt-related social thread, that you have some ideas before we pop into it! pandreo's a big partier. obviously. but, i'll need a little more to work with than just "let's go pop it at the club" so we can have a fun thread!
a collection of words to describe the strangeness of being human.
✧ agnosthesia: the state of not knowing how you really feel about something.
✧ alazia: the fear that you're no longer able to change.
✧ altschmerz: a sense of weariness with the same old problems that you've always had, the same boring issues and anxieties you've been gnawing on for decades.
✧ apolytus: the moment you realize you are changing as a person, finally outgrowing your old problems like a reptile shedding its skin.
✧ bareleveling: trying to improve yourself without anyone else knowing about it, afraid that they'll think it's silly or grandiose or unnecessary, or that they'll end up calling too much attention to your efforts.
✧ bye-over: the sheepish casual vibe between two people who've shared an emotional farewell but then unexpectedly have a little extra time together.
✧ candling: the habit of taking stock of your life on the occasion of your birthday.
✧ craxis: the unease of knowing how quickly your circumstances could change on you.
✧ daguerreologue: an imaginary conversation with an old photo of yourself, in which you might offer them a word of advice, or maybe just ask them if they thought you had done justice to the life they built for you.
✧ dead reckoning: finding yourself bothered by somebody's death more than you would have expected, even if they were only an abstract presence in your life.
✧ dolonia: a state of unease prompted by people who seem to like you too much, which makes you wonder if they must have you confused with someone else.
✧ endzoned: the hollow feeling of having gotten exactly what you thought you wanted, only to learn that it didn't make you happy.
✧ énouement: the bittersweetness of having arrived here in the future, finally learning the answers to how things turned out but being unable to tell your past self.
✧ etterath: the feeling of emptiness after a long and arduous process is finally complete.
✧ falesia: the disquieting awareness that someone's importance to you and your importance to them may not necessarily match.
✧ feresy: the fear that your partner is changing in ways you don't understand, even though they might be changes for the better.
✧ fool's guilt: a pulse of shame you feel even though you've done nothing wrong.
✧ harmonoia: an itchy sense of dread when life feels just a hint too peaceful, with an eerie stillness that makes you want to brace for the inevitable collapse, or burn it down yourself.
✧ heartspur: an unexpected surge of emotion in response to a seemingly innocuous trigger, which feels all the more intense because you can't quite pin it down.
✧ immerensis: the maddening inability to understand the reasons why someone loves you.
✧ inerrata: a kind of mistake you wouldn't take back even if you could.
✧ insoucism: the inability to decide how much sympathy your situation really deserves, knowing that so many people have it far worse and others far better.
✧ justing: the habit of telling yourself that just one tweak could solve all of your problems, which leaves you feeling perpetually on the cusp of a better life.
✧ kairosclerosis: the moment you look around and realize that you're currently happy, which prompts your intellect to identify it, pick it apart, and put it in context.
✧ keep: an important part of your personality that others seldom see, that remains a vital part of who you are even if nobody knows it's there.
✧ kuebiko: a state of exhaustion inspired by senseless tragedies and acts of violence, which force you to abruptly revise your expectations of what can happen in this world.
✧ lackout: the sudden awareness that you're finally over someone, noticing that the same voice that once triggered a cocktail of emotions now evokes nothing at all.
✧ leidenfreude: a sense of paradoxical relief when something bad happens to you.
✧ liberosis: the desire to care less about things.
✧ lyssamania: the irrational fear that someone you know is angry with you.
✧ mauerbauertraurigkeit: the inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends whose company you generally enjoy.
✧ mcfeely: to be inexplicably moved by predictable and well-worn sentiments, even if they're trite or obvious or being broadcast blindly to the masses.
✧ nachlophobia: the fear that your deepest connections with people are ultimately pretty shallow.
✧ nighthawk: a recurring thought that only seems to strike you late at night.
✧ opia: the ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable.
✧ ozurie: the feeling of being torn between the life you want and the life you have.
✧ pâro: the feeling that everything you do is always somehow wrong.
✧ povism: the frustration of being stuck inside your own head, unable to see your face or read your body language in context, only ever guessing how you might be coming across.
✧ proluctance: the paradoxical urge to avoid doing something you've been looking forward to, stretching out the bliss of anticipation as long as you can.
✧ punt kick: a quiet jolt of recognition that it's time to become a better version of yourself, sensing that all the strategies that brought you this far are no longer working.
✧ rasque: a moment you instantly wish you could take back, feeling a pulse of dread right after crossing the point of no return.
✧ rubatosis: the unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat.
✧ scabulous: being proud of a certain scar on your body, even if it hurts.
✧ slipfast: the longing to disappear completely, so you can take in the world without having to take part in it.
✧ soufrise: the maddening thrill of an ambiguous flirtation, which quivers in tension halfway between platonic and romantic.
✧ tiris: the bittersweet awareness that all things must end.
✧ the whipgraft delusion: the phenomenon in which you catch your reflection in the mirror and get the sense that you're peering into the eyes of a stranger.
✧ tichloch: the anxiety of never knowing how much time you have left.
✧ tornomov: the weird hollowness of trying to imagine the distant future.
✧ yu yi: the longing to feel things intensely again.
