#bentbranch

[synzya]

whenever i fall in love with a wholesome character SE knocks ‘em out...  why SE why-?

gotta add the bottles around the Moogles and tinker a few things more xD (Gridania intro will always be the best! <3)

[cathedralcomic]

[to bentbranch] ahaha how are you that small

[miyasukeietada]

Attunement

(Art source)

Just as soon as the hunter’s eyes close, Miya thrashes to life in a lily-filled pond where she surfaces for air. Night hangs heavy in the forest surrounding her emergence point, stars peeking their cold light through the broken leaf canopy overhead. She spits water and looks wild-eyed into the darkness as panic wrenches a crushing grip around her chest. Her hands fly to her midsection to feel with incredulity until she can be reassured that there is no sign of wounding. Am I dead?

Before her question can be answered, the soft sound of splashing nearby catches her attention and the dull throb of her own heartbeat rises in her head. Whatever pacifying force had guided her in the River was long gone, leaving her to her own flighty devices. She searches the dark with dulled wits, watching a shadow quietly elongate along the surface of the water before she thinks to speak. “Ezen...?” she calls out timidly, slicking back her sopping hair. “Is this real?”

Much to her surprise, the shadow calls right back. "We're here," he rumbles plainly, "Check your things. That will tell you the truth of it."

As the terror mercifully relents its hold of her heart in response, she considers the world as it reveals itself to her, lets her senses return one by one and attune. Life is teeming at every corner, from the sleepy wink of fireflies to the gentle frogsong above the babble of fresh water. The moon’s broad face casts a pale glow that softens the rough edges of being awake rather than giving cover to the hungry nocturnal beasts that seem so impossibly distant now. They’re alone in the safest sense.

She wipes a wet hand over her face in a stupor and finds herself gliding effortlessly through the water in slow strokes. Before he can right himself from his graceful float, she grabs his shoulder in plain impulse and plants her mouth on his. He turns upright as she kisses him and pulls her close with a familiar, radiating warmth. In the sweet, dizzying haze of the moment, he listens faintly to their surroundings and speaks against her lips. "I think we're awake...and everything is normal. But this place—I'm not so sure. I've been here before...In another here."

"We're in the Shroud, I see this now," she whispers, clinging to the man like he’ll slip away at a moment’s notice as he treads water for the two of them. “Bentbranch, I think...”

"I know," he adds, looking away from her to inspect the environs with a gaze that is briefly distant, "It was here where I went to another part of the Shroud...with Liana and Inika. An in-between world. It was here and not here."

Miya draws her head to his shoulder, weightless in the still water. She remains perfectly unmoving and quiet, letting the sound of nature filter in while the less-ideal thoughts of wakefulness grow buoyant and rise to the surface. "There must be an entry and exit point around here. A thinning of the veil. Are...you sure we’re really here?"

"It doesn't feel off." He takes hold of her hand and swims for the low edge of the water. He pulls himself out first with a heavy rush of displaced water and reaches down to tug her safely after. "We're in the world—the real world. I’m sure."

She shivers against the sudden rush of air, her gown clean of blood and stuck on like a second skin. Her arms fold in front of her as she shrinks against the night, overwhelmed by the bounty of a natural world, free and clear of whatever curse had befallen the River they’d waded in. Although there were only more questions wrought from the encounter, the sins of the past felt small by comparison to the rush of survival, forgiveness inconceivably easy when all she could feel was the distinct and sharp pleasure of existing in the first place. The question rapidly became an obvious one. "Can I stay with you?"

"Yeah. Follow me..." But before she can pad along barefoot behind him, impulse turns the hunter around. He sweeps her up in an effortless motion and disappears down the path.

(⏣ Ko-fi ⏣)

[xiv-ravenmelody]

Did some smol [Yda] from Stormblood trailer in hype for SB! :D Close as I could get ;-;

[cathedralcomic]

Wh—

What if Bentbranch and Milkstar traded eyes?

much 2 think about

[soundlessecho]

Bentbranch

[ssff0x0]

[ssff0x0]