#kestrel writes

[lost-kestrel]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

@mcsr-events 2025 Mini Exchange gift for @personifiedsmol ! Vaguely historical, fantasy au with hunter!Couriway x blacksmith!Feinberg x fox!Fruitberries, which is a fun and funky dynamic I really enjoyed writing!

Remaining two chapters will be posted in the next two days. Happy holidays, everyone!

[thatonebirbnerd]

Twined In Thorns

Siofra challenges her liege’s title, and a trial by combat becomes a trial in the bedroom. When both sylvari are used to being the one giving orders, who can come out… quite literally on top?

In which an ace writer's Nightmare Court blorbos are much spicier than she is. Not safe for work whatsoever. Involves all four letters of BDSM, and then some.

Read on AO3 [NSFW]

[lost-kestrel]

Now that AUfest (@mcytblraufest) has finished and anon has lifted, here are the two fics I wrote!

all is gold and gray (T, 2.1k), aka lighthouse keeper Couriway goes through it.

why the ocean empire is not allowed to assemble IKEA furniture (T, 1.6k), aka the Empires Lizzie Pokemon au that is also exactly what it says on the tin.

[lost-kestrel]

Summary:

Poundcake just wanted to try out his new retro videogame console, that's all. But now he's a ninja, Feinberg is a trident, and they're being given a quest by a strange man in a strange vehicle with dubious intentions. Something about a temple and an eye?

They're god-tier runners, they can figure it out. Probably.

~~~

@mcsr-events MCSR February gift exchange for @silentcascades​ !! 

Go my scarab Jumanji AU.

[lost-kestrel]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Empires SMP Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Jonny | Pixlriffs & Oli | TheOrionSound, Jonny | Pixlriffs/Oli | TheOrionSound Characters: Oli | TheOrionSound, Jonny | Pixlriffs (Video Blogging RPF) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Slice of Life, Queerplatonic Relationships, they are to me Summary:

Oli, Pix, and life after the apocalypse.

@extremetimedchallengeexchange gift for @rebelpeas !

[lost-kestrel]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Summary:

It can't be a dream, Couriway muses as he mechanically frees himself from his bedroll for the fourth time. Third time? First time? Dreams aren't recursive.

Or,

Couriway somehow gets caught in a time loop while trying to kill a dragon.

...

For MCSR Winter Big Bang @mcsr-events

Life did Not want me to finish this fic. But! I persevere. Mind the tags, folks. Time loop’s gonna time loop

[thatonebirbnerd]

"Steady, Áedh. Steady."

"I'm trying, sir."

A small sylvari with a low, raspy voice speaks through gritted teeth to a Flame Legion charr. Both their bodies course with flame: the charr's rests within his heart, easily visible through bare skin. The sylvari's - Áedh's - is restless and wild, straining to escape from the singed roots on his head and a wedge of loose bark on his right cheek. He is visibly tense and terrified.

"Keep drawing it in - just like we practiced. Fire is easier to control if you let it live within you."

Áedh doesn't respond. His breathing is heavy, and he's desperately trying to focus. His body ripples with heat.

"I did this, every Flame shaman like me did it. I don't know how well this works with a sylvari, but we have to try..." The charr is trying to be reassuring; it doesn't seem to be working.

"Dacius, please - if it takes over again -"

Struggling to speak, Áedh braces himself against a tent pole. Memories flash through his mind, each one a fresh wave of relived fear and rage.

A familiar, searing pain surges upward from his hands and feet, and fire ripples out, cracking the bark above it into loosened shreds. It threatens to spread further, but the damage stops at his elbows and knees.

"Oh, no. Medic? Do we have a medic here? Áedh, are you-"

The sylvari whimpers. He knows what comes next. Years later, his body still bears the scars.

The heat reaches Áedh's face, and his eyes glow; a lick of flame nestles itself into his cheek, split and twisted long ago. He cries, a ragged cry -

And then, nothing. The fire doesn't overtake him, the way he thought it would - the way it did once.

"Áedh! I brought - oh, wow."

Áedh looks up at Dacius, wide-eyed, his breaths still shallow.

"I... I think you got it. Didn't end up in all the usual spots, but it's a part of you now. It can't hurt you anymore. I promise."

The flame in the sylvari's cheek drifts upward, obscuring his right eye. It seems to have taken root within him, rather than continuing to burn into his eye socket. He lets go of the pole, trembling but able to stand now, and looks down forlornly at his wrists.

Dacius continues. "I can only imagine what's going through your head. I'm not so good at comforting people - charr aren't big on it, and Flame Legion... ha."

Áedh looks up again, smiling a little and chuckling hoarsely.

"But if you need anything... just ask, in whatever way you can, alright?"

The sylvari hesitates for a moment, then reaches out with one hand. Dacius holds it in his paw, carefully so as not to break anything - fire makes wood brittle, after all. Then Áedh pulls toward Dacius, who kneels down to let the young elementalist's head rest on his thinly furred shoulder.

Áedh sheds no tears - they burnt away long ago - but he sobs, exhausted and relieved.

"What will they..." he whispers.

"It's not as gnarly as you think," says Dacius. "Look - the fire is dying down already. It hasn't changed that much. And I have to say, your face -"

Áedh flinches...

"- looks really, really cool like this. It's like the fire was supposed to be there all along."

...then relaxes. He wraps himself around Dacius in as much of a hug as he can muster, considering their sheer difference in size.

Such a leap of progress for a pyromancer is not an average day for Dacius, who is also even less used to hugs than he is to comforting anyone, so perhaps he will take this with him for a while to come. He might even recall it as "that time I figured out that holding someone very small feels nice."

But Áedh will always remember this as the moment he began to conquer his past and his fears. For him, it's a new beginning.

[thatonebirbnerd]

The shaman seems lost in thought. You presume she will notice you out of the corner of her eye, but after several fruitless attempts to make yourself known, you call softly - "Hello?"

"I- oh! Sorry." Her voice is gentle, and perhaps a bit distant. She turns slowly, and you meet her gaze - glassy eyes the color of rose quartz, framed by alabaster skin, dark swirling tattoos, and lily-white hair. "You might understand now why I didn't see you coming."

The shaman reaches out, and you try very hard not to startle when you notice that her hands are little more than skin and bone, clicking as they move. You give her a bit of time to orient herself and take a look at you, and you may as well do the same in the meantime.

She's strikingly beautiful, even if she's also as macabre as you would expect a necromancer to be. She is bedecked in raven feathers and dark pelts; the collar upon her shoulders appears fashioned from some macabre trophy, perhaps the jaws of a Risen, and dark magic wafts from her shoulder blades in clouds the shape of ravens' wings.

Your brief train of thought is interrupted when she speaks again. "I am Hvítra, disciple of Raven. What brings you to our lodge?"

"My name is Aghi. I lost my mother recently. I wanted to speak with her, make sure she made it to the Mists in one piece. Someone told me you could help."

"That I can do, for a fee. I'm sure you have many questions; you may ask away as I prepare. I should warn you in advance that the Mists have become... fickle. The end of the dragon cycle, and Kralkatorrik's demise in particular, has wrought some havoc. I may not be able to reach your mother, or something... unexpected might happen if I do. But I hope I can bring you some closure nonetheless."

"Unexpected?"

"As you can see - though I can't really -" (You chuckle alongside Hvítra at the joke.) Such intimacy with the Mists, even with Raven's guidance to temper the blow, has a price when something goes awry. Something in our world is marked by death. If I'm lucky, it's a twig or a mouse nearby. If I'm not..." The shaman stretches her fingers, letting you get another good look at them. Then she gestures to guide you over to a pair of benches, placed to face each other. You imagine it's easy for her to recall where they are after years of practice. "Shall we begin?"

"Yes. Let's begin."

Hvítra walks slowly to her bench, then feels her way over the floor below. Her hands stop at a small box, which she opens to take out a blindfold. "To hide what remains," she explains before you can ask. "What was your mother's name?"

"Vali. She wove tapestries that seemed to hold the elements themselves."

She puts on the blindfold, sits down, and pauses for a moment before saying a prayer. "Raven! I call upon you to guide me through the veil between this world and the next, and to allow me but a few words with one we have lost. Vali, weaver of legends, your son seeks you."

Hvítra's hands twitch as she raises them, and begin to glow with green energy. The magic at her shoulders flares, now appearing much more like actual wings, though still immaterial.

You expected Hvítra to have a bit more of an act, you suppose, but the trance she is in has not been exaggerated for effect. She simply sits, hands and forearms raised and facing skyward, her head tipped back as she draws insight from the Mists. She does not speak in Vali's voice, but you see her lips move. When the shaman finishes, she makes a sudden exit from this state, her head rolling forward and her hands landing in her lap. You reach forward to catch her in case she might lose her balance and fall to the ground, but recoil when you find that she's quite cold to the touch. "Whoa, are you..." You trail off. You wouldn't like to be rude at a moment of truth.

Hvítra is able to speak after a few deep breaths. "It's the magic. I assure you I am still on my first life. I'll be alright." It takes her some time before she regains the composure to remove her blindfold and deliver her findings. When you see her face again, you swear something looks different about her tattoos...

"Your mother is safe. The journey was treacherous, for the reasons I mentioned to you, but Raven led her the whole way. Vali is with her ancestors now, happily telling tales of her own feats - and yours - and knows that she will see you again one day."

You feel relief wash over you as you take a few silver pieces out of your pouch and place them in Hvítra's still-frigid, skeletal hands. "Thank you. I'll tell my family. This will help all of us move on."

"Thank you for visiting," says Hvítra, "and may Raven bless all of you."