An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Rating: Teen
Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Fandom: Tales of Arise
Relationship: Alphen/Shionne Imeris
Language: English
Words: 2073
Summary: "Oh no, he's hot." Shionne dealing with her attraction to Alphen after seeing (half of) his face for the first time. Post-Balseph, pre-Rinwell, but with hints at bits of lore not explained until much later in the game so beware of spoilers.
Notes: I was inspired by @kaysper 's post a few days back about Shionne's reaction when she first sees Alphen's face, and made a little fic about her dealing with that.
Preview:
Oh no, Shionne thought to herself as she crouched beside Iron Mask and began healing him. The Gates of Fire sizzled in the distance, and an odd, sharply pungent odor in the air from melting rocks was stinging her nose. Balseph was dead, consumed by astral energy which was then used to tear down one of the symbols of his oppression. She wasn’t worried about being attacked now, just making sure that Alphen survived that massive flow of energy. How had he managed to channel so much astral energy, anyway? A Dahnan, with no astral artes to speak of?
That didn’t matter right then. What did matter was keeping him alive, and not losing herself in the determined gray gaze that had been exposed, at least partially, when Balseph had broken that mask. When had that happened? She hadn’t noticed until just now, and her thoughts were a mess because she just kept thinking, Oh no. He’s hot. She already liked his voice, his muscled body, and now to find such a handsome face had been hiding under that full helmet?
He stood up, ignoring her concern, ignoring his injuries and the fact that he was burning from the inside due to all that fire coursing through him. He looked out over the trench he had created by sending all of that energy outward in a singular, powerful blaze, and shouted the name he had recalled.
Alphen.
Then, he collapsed.
She cried out, called his name, the one he just remembered, the one she had just learned.
Alphen.
Her eyes lit up as she sent powerful healing through him, desperate to keep him alive. She needed him if she was to complete her goals. She couldn’t let him die here and now, not when the way forward finally seemed to clear to her. So she healed him, channeling every bit of energy she had into him, only barely keeping him alive.
It wasn’t until much later, back in Ulzebeck with the help of Zephyr and the other Crimson Crows, that she thought to herself that it had been in bad taste to think of his attractiveness as hot at a time when he had nearly turned his organs into charcoal.
Welcome to Keep the Flame Alive, a three week event from September 9th-30th for Tales of Arise! We have three weeks worth of prompts focused around the three main pairings, but gen, platonic, romantic, SFW, and NSFW content is all welcome!
Please see our Prompts Page and FAQ for more details! We also have a Twitter and a Discord Server, which is welcome to all Arise fans regardless of participation in the event!
I still need to edit it, which I'll do in a few days (unless someone else wants to look it over for me, otherwise I gotta wait so I can go in with fresh eyes)
But! Intro scene to short fic (~2k words) for early-game (post-Balseph, pre-Rinwell) exploring Shionne's "Oh no he's hot" reaction to seeing (half of) Alphen's face for the first time x3
It's.... MOSTLY spoiler free, though some lore stuff that doesn't get explained until much later is hinted at, so I'm not sure I can rightfully call it truly spoiler-free.
Oh no, Shionne thought to herself as she crouched beside Iron Mask to begin healing him. The Gates of Fire sizzled in the distance, an odd smell in the air from melting rocks stinging her nose. Balseph was dead, consumed by astral energy and turned into that energy in turn, then used to tear down one of the symbols of his oppression. She wasn’t worried about attack now, just making sure that Alphen survived that massive flow of energy. How had he managed to channel so much astral energy, anyway? A Dahnan, with no astral artes to speak of?
That didn’t matter right then, however. What mattered was keeping him alive, and not losing herself in the determined gray gaze that had been exposed, at least partially, when Balseph had broken that mask. When had that happened, anyway? She hadn’t noticed until just now, and her thoughts were a mess because, Oh no. He’s hot, she kept thinking. She already liked his voice, his muscled body, and now to find such a handsome face had been hiding under that full helmet?
He stood up, ignoring her concern, ignoring his injuries, the fact that he was burning from the inside from all that fire coursing through him. He looked out over the trench he had created by sending all of that energy outward in a singular, powerful blaze, and shouted his name. Alphen.
Then he collapsed. She called him, called his name, the one he just remembered, the one she had just learned. Her eyes lit up and she sent powerful healing through him, desperate to keep him alive. She needed him, to complete her goals, she couldn’t let him die here and now, not when the way forward finally seemed to be clear. So she healed him, channelling every bit of energy she had into him, barely keeping him alive.
It wasn’t until much later, back in Ulzebeck with the help of Zephyr and the other Crimson Crows, that she thought to herself that it had been in bad taste to think of his attractiveness as hot at a time when he had nearly turned his organs into charcoal.
Boy, it sure is nice to enjoy the romantic relationships in Tales of Arise without complaining about said game's romance being "too straight", "heteronormative", or "heterosexist" just because the game committed the unforgivably grave sin of not having a queer romance or gay subtext in it.
I've been toying with the super self indulgent idea of dropping Shionne into Alphen's past life. It's self indulgent because there's essentially no consequences for this.
Scientists are just like 'Let's use the immortal girl to test time travel.' And drop her 300 years in the past on Dahna, and then that's just a thing she now has to live with.
She has her thorns. I think i want them just to naturally fade over time because her connection with Rena is all screwed up from telechrono-hijinks.
I think Alphen is just born with the inability to feel pain. He's just Like That.
They raise the doll making kid together. Alphen becomes a smith after leaving the army. Maybe teaches Shionne metalworking and they craft together. Maybe make ✨️designer swords✨️or something idk.
I COULD try and do more with the time travel nonsense. I've considered a serial kidnapper sending party members and maybe some enemies back in time as well. I GUESS I could make that a thing about stopping the invasion of Dahna or something.
I COULD.
But. That's work. And right now I'm just enjoying messing with the idea of Shionne living a pastoral life and being loved and Nothing (truly) Bad Happens Ever. I mean, minor conflicts, but.... it's almost entirely self indulgent fluff in my head right now.
