[Image description: Digital doodles of Octopath Traveler characters. There are full descriptions under the cut. End image description.]
erm. whate'er.
citations: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven
[Image description: First is Alfyn wearing a yukata, his skin damp as though he's just had a bath. He holds his hair tie in his mouth and reaches to pull back his hair with a coy smile. A bust of Therion is drawn to the side, wearing a jinbei and eating an apple. He's also damp from a bath, but is simultaneously sweating and drooling a bit as he stares at Alfyn with a dark circle under his widened eye. He thinks, "microflirting by looking at you from time to time."
Next is Therion and Throné sitting cross-legged together on a fancy couch. Throné has a boa draped over her arms as she brandishes her dagger with one hand and and holds up two playing cards with the other. Therion leans back casually, eating an apple with one arm folded behind his head. The cursive writing above them reads "just two queens maximizing their joint slay."
Next is a comic. Alfyn holds a costrel and reaches towards Therion with a concerned expression, saying, "you're not safer in isolation you're just dehydrated." Therion wears a mask over his face and says, "outta my way gayboy i'm boutta liberate myself from the intractable longing for human connection." The next panel reads "(ONE BLACK MARKET LATER)" and the final panel shows Therion face down in the sand with three dead bodies slumped around him and blood everywhere. He holds up a single finger and says, "apothery." Alfyn looks on in the foreground, horrified.
Next is a two-page comic. The first page shows a framed painting which depicts Saint Alfyn and Saint Therion. They are haloed and sitting in the sand as Saint Alfyn bandages Saint Therion's leg with a small, gentle smile. Saint Therion is sweating, wearing only his breeches, and his upper left arm and stomach are also bandaged. He rests one hand on his stomach and looks over his shoulder at Alfyn with a slightly nervous or wary expression. In the foreground are the backs of Temenos and Throné's heads. Temenos says, "Ah, and here we have Saint Alfyn healing Saint Therion after his temptation in the desert. Scripture doesn't tell us explicitly who healed him; most assume the Madonna did, relieving his very spirit of its anger, its jealousy, its longing to be acknowledged once again by the man who betrayed him... Yet this artist has given that role to Saint Alfyn instead, emphasizing the earthly pain of Saint Therion's wounded flesh. How interesting..."
In the second page, the perspective shifts to show Throné and Temenos looking up thoughtfully at the painting. Throné turns to Temenos with crossed arms and deadpans, "Do you think Saint Alfyn and Saint Therion ever explored each other's bodies." Temenos turns to her and replies facetiously, "Why, that was indeed a point of dogma established at the Ecumenical Council of Merry Hills. Very astute, Throné."
Next is a comic where Temenos and Throné are sitting at a table with glasses of champagne. Their faces are drunkenly flushed. Temenos laments, "Only dullards specialize in fire magic." Throné splays her free hand mockingly and rolls her eyes, saying, "'I cast—' Let me guess, you're gonna make fire go at me again." A more sober Partitio sits on the other side of the table with his own glass and the bottle of champagne in an ice box. He says bemusedly, "Hey. Humanity has had a thing for fire for centuries." In an aside, he adds, "Uh, more like millennia...?" Throné points accusingly at him and says, "Fire was first made in 1895." Temenos takes a sip from his glass and says disdainfully, "and it wasn't even good."
Finally, Therion buries his hands in his hair with a distressed expression, holding a midwākh between his fingers. He is imagining himself kissing Alfyn's cheek, with Alfyn blushing and smiling delightedly. Next to him, Primrose puts a hand on her hip and smokes from a clay pipe with a dejected expression. She is imagining herself putting a hand on Hanít's shoulder from behind, with both of them looking at each other and blushing with loving smiles. End image description.]