#diadembound

[skysteelsun]

diadembound replied to your post: haurchefantgreystone replied to your post: ...

//This one just wants to fly.

“The first Count de Haillenarte to be the captain of an airship fleet! ...No?”

[cloudtoprose]

“............Twould seem I am far outnumbered.”

[skysteelsun]

diadembound replied to your post: illustrisxarma replied to your post: ...

//Steph and aurvael tag-teaming people to see if they’ll put up with both of their introductions

Absolutely Better yet, them introducing each other

[skysteelsun]

diadembound replied to your post: My aesthetic is Stephanivien relentlessly ruffling...

You can’t give noogies IF YOU CAN’T CATCH HIM >;C

There is nowhere far enough in all of Hydaelyn you could run.

[skysteelsun]

@diadembound, do you even remember this

He woke before the sun was up, as was his wont these days, hurrying to dress (in clothes still stained with yesterday’s grease) before the rest of the household had begun to stir. Already work at the Skysteel Manufactory would be well underway: the forgemaster had doubtless arrived hours ago to set the furnaces and forges to blazing, the bellows pumping heavy clouds of steam through the heavy pipes to power the enormous machines used to shape cannons, airship parts, and... and so many other things!  Stephanivien was already at the manor door, his mind filled with cogs and gears and the sounds of engines churning to life... when he paused, and his wild-racing thoughts found purchase upon something more immediate, more solid: Aurvael, and a promise made some weeks ago. How could he have allowed it to slip his mind? They’d had to work so hard to convince Father! It had taken all their wheedling, all their begging - even Mama had been recruited to their aid in the end, and Stephanivien was quite certain ‘twas her coaxing and cajoling that eventually won the brothers their desired permission: Aurvael could visit the manufactory for a day, only a day, no more. It was something, Stephanivien decided: he did not suspect Aurvael would fall headlong into love with the workshop as he had, after all, and though the suspicion was a thorn in his heart, he was no less eager to introduce his ‘twin’ to the work he himself was so enamored with. And so he waited near the door, shifting impatiently from one foot to the other, drumming his fingers on his arm - how long would Aurvael sleep? Thinking on it, had he not heard a cough now and then coming from Aurvael’s bedchamber last night? Stephanivien’s heart sank with misgivings... ...Misgivings which were immediately confirmed when his brother hurried down the stairs, looking pale and drawn, and that voice! Stephanivien blanched, shaking his head and catching his ‘twin’ by the shoulders.  “Oh no no no,” he scolded, gently pushing his brother back from the door - one step, then two. “Has Mama seen you yet this morning? Brother mine, you are ill! You ought to be still in bed!” Stephanivien pressed a hand to Aurvael’s forehead, his brow knotting with a frown. “Warm. Nothing for it, Aurvael; back to bed with you before you take a chill. Come, I’ll see you back upstairs; is Mama yet awake, do you suppose?”

[skysteelsun]

((Fraideoux and Joye o3o in general if you want but especially around each other))

I could go for days about Joye, so I’ll give some basic Fraideoux headcanons first:

He’s the sort of man who’s been told all his life he’s never going to amount to anything - he was orphaned as a boy and grew up scavenging and doing odd jobs where he could, gaining gil in any way that would let him scrape by. The “jobs” could be humiliating and unpleasant, but if it gave him money to eat that week, he’d take it - but it left him with a deeply damaged self-image and no self-esteem to speak of.

Fraideoux is anxious to an extreme, jumpy and jittery, quick to flinch away from conflict. He dislikes loud noises and loud people - which makes it surprising to him that the Skysteel Manufactory so quickly starts to feel safe and comforting to him, and that he so quickly becomes so fond of Lord Stephanivien.

He has no friends outside of the manufactory, and indeed, even most Brume natives wouldn’t recognize him if they saw him - he kept to himself outside of seeking whatever work he could find, and never tried to socialize for fear of rejection. The workshop employees are the first friends he’s had in more or less his entire life, and in many ways he’s at a loss as to how to act around them. 

Stephanivien is the first person to treat Fraideoux with anything approaching respect, let alone genuine kindness, and for that, there’s not much he wouldn’t do for the odd noble.

And now some Fraideoux-and-Joye headcanons:

He tried to apologize for the role he played in her father’s kidnapping, but Joye refused to accept his apology, insisting that because he couldn’t have known what he was being ordered to guard, he was blameless. In truth, she takes pity on him; he clearly feels awful for it, and just as clearly, has suffered enough in his lifetime.

He still has no idea how to approach her most of the time: she’s a figure of peculiar awe to him. That she has never been anything but kind and encouraging toward him doesn’t seem to help this much; he still tends to struggle with exactly how he ought to talk to her.

Fraideoux is one of the few trainees Joye takes care never to yell at once she becomes master of marksmanship; he won’t respond well to it, and she doesn’t like to spook him more than he already is.

Strangely enough, one of the people who befriends Fraideoux after he joins the manufactory is Joye’s father, Agu, who plainly holds no grudge against the man who guarded his prison. Indeed, sometimes Fraideoux wonders if Agu even knows it was him, and wrestles with whether or not he ought to ask.

Agu knows.

[skysteelsun]

@diadembound “I suppose this is the least-offensive way you could pass the time!” He grins. “You’re fit to drive yourself half-mad, Aurvael. Are there no other lands unknown to which you might travel in the meantime?”

[skysteelsun]

Bad Ideas:  Haillenarte Style

Redbud: .... Okay but small aurvael learning magic, tries to use aero to make a flying carpet.

LeFox Sanaii: ...Steph makes him a hoverboard instead

Jay: Oh god no Aurvael stop

LeFox Sanaii: Things get broken

Jay: Steph don't encourage him

LeFox Sanaii: THAT'S HIS TWIN HE CAN'T HELP IT

Jay: Haurchefant's in the background unsure what he's exactly supposed to do bc he can't really talk them out of it but they prolly shouldn't be doing it

LeFox Sanaii: He's.

He's the spotter.

He's there to catch Aurvael when he inevitably falls off of this contraption.

Redbud: It should be simple in theory! Sit on a rug, cast an aero spell to form under it, FLY TO INFINITY! :D

Redbud: ....smolvael does not think it through

Jay: If Haurchefant tried to catch Aurvael they'd just end up sprawled on the floor because he couldn't catch and ended up a cushion

Redbud: Pfffff

Redbud: Pile of smolls

Jay: Flattened Haurchefant

LeFox Sanaii: Steph laughing his ass off while making sure his brother and best friend are okay.