#luken roth

[kromabelle-art]

Flufftober Day 8: shooting stars

OCs: Luken Roth & Lilika Adler

more Luken&Lilika prompt entries:

fluff2022-wearing each other’s clothes

whump2020-crying|oc2020-craft|whump2021-dehydration|oc2021-truce

whump2021-revenge|oc2021-smile

“What are you doing all the way out here?” Luken’s voice, though soft, cut through the night air in a way that reminded Lilika of someone walking through a still pond. Gently but unavoidably stirring up the water around them. She turned, and stared a moment at the way he looked in the starlight. A little bit ethereal, between the softness of his eyes, the way the breeze rustled his hair, and especially in the way he almost seemed to glow with starlight himself. Lilika wouldn’t be surprised if he just constantly emitted light now.

“Hey,” she said after another moment, nervously fidgeting with the dirt under her fingertips. “It’s the peak of the Geminids tonight. I thought I’d come watch.”

Luken nodded quietly and sat down beside her. Lilika didn’t bother asking how he found her. His powers over knowledge, truth, and light were growing exponentially, lately, and she was proud of him for it. He took his hoodie off suddenly, and handed it to her. With a soft smile, she took it and traded back her own sweater. Luken’s hoodie was the most cozy and comforting piece of clothing she’d ever worn. It was when she wore it that she felt closest to what she imagined peace to be like.

“Lily, look!” Luken pointed suddenly, using his affectionate nickname for her to get her attention quickly. She looked and saw a bright streak cross the sky above them. “Beautiful. Do you think we’d get a better view if we laid down?”

Lilika nodded in response. She waved her hand over the ground and grew a patch of cushy moss so they didn’t have to lay on the hard earth. For a moment, as they laid side by side, a sort of awkward tension hung in the air. And then she slowly reached out and took his hand in hers, entwining their fingers together. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him turn his head and look at her in surprise, but she gave it a moment before she looked back at him. An amused smile was playing on her lips as he continued staring at her like that.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never held a girl’s hand before.” Her comment was met with silence, and she had to choke back a laugh. “Luken…. You had a whole-ass girlfriend. Did you not hold her hand?”

“Of course I held her hand. We did a lot more than that you know.” There was a pause in which Lilika struggled to keep quiet as Luken turned red. “I didn’t mean it like that!”

Lilika couldn’t hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing, breaking the calm atmosphere of the world around them. It wasn’t long before he joined in laughing with her and by the time they settled back down, the awkward air was gone. Another shooting star streaked across the sky, and Luken pointed at it excitedly, inadvertently using the wrong hand and hauling her own hand skyward with his. She broke out into giggles once again as he tried to apologize. She shushed him, insisting they point at every meteor like that.

As they watched the sky, the stars seemed to get a little brighter. The meteors moving along their track more slowly, leaving a glowing trail behind them for longer. Lilika wondered idly if it was Luken’s doing. And then the stars seemed to dim back down to normal. She turned her head, and smiled as she saw he’d fallen asleep, his hand still in hers. For a moment she contemplated waking him back up, but he looked so at peace, she didn’t really have the heart to. She held his hand a little tighter and returned her gaze to the sky until the stars faded in the morning light.

@flufftober

[kromabelle-art]

Flufftober 2022 Day 1: wearing each other’s clothes

OCs: Luken Roth & Lilika Adler

More Luken&Lilika prompt entries:

whump2020-crying|oc2020-craft|whump2021-dehydration|oc2021-truce

whump2021-revenge|oc2021-smile

“Psssst, Luken.” A whisper came from beside him, startling Luken out of his mindless doodles while the teacher droned on about equations. He glanced over at Lilika, who grinned softly as soon as they made eye contact. Her hazel-green eyes always seemed to sparkle with amusement no matter what was going on around her, almost as if she were some kind of fairy, detached from human consequences. “Can I have your hoodie?”

“My hoodie?” Luken blinked. “But it’s mine.”

She let out an airy whispered laugh, reaching across the aisle in what appeared to be an attempt to grab at his sleeve.

“I’m cold.” She looked at him expectantly, still trying to steal the sweater while he was still in it. When Luken continued to resist, she dropped her arm and gave him the biggest, saddest puppy dog eyes he’d ever seen. This was unfair. No, it was more than unfair. This was psychological warfare. He stared her down, trying to resist giving in, but it was no easy feat.

Lilika was deceptively cute. Soft features, freckles splattered across her face, a short bob of soft brown hair that looked almost fluffy. She chose clothes he could imagine on a gardener who lived in a cottage. Her hands were frequently covered in paint or charcoal or dirt as she surrounded herself with plants and art and beautiful things. Add to that, she was about a year and a half younger than Luken, and seemed to know how to take advantage of how sweet and adorable she looked. Because that was the other thing. Lilika was the youngest in his calculus class—and consistently at the top of it. She had a spark of genius in her, more than Luken had, and used it to manipulate him.

Sighing, he pulled of the hoodie, and placed it in her expectant grabby hands. She slipped it on, pulled the hood up, and promptly put her head down on her desk for a nap. Luken decided to just let her be.

Before he knew which way was up, it had become a routine. Lilika would tug on his sleeve, or whisper his name, or even just lean in his direction, and he’d be pulling it off already, and watching her put it on with glee.

Don’t you think I deserve some kind of compensation?” He asked her one day, the hoodie already halfway over her head. She tugged it down and gave him a curious look, her head tilted ever so slightly.

“What kind of compensation?”

“Well, you’re always wearing my hoodie, it’s only fair if I wear something of yours, right?” It seemed to his sleep-deprived brain to be a good idea, but he’d forgotten about it by the time she showed up at his locker the next morning, holding something bulky, knit, and rose-colored in her hands.

“What’s this for?” he asked, gears refusing to move. She tilted her head at him again.

“You said you wanted to wear something of mine. It’s an oversized sweater I made a while ago. Figured it’s one of the few things from my wardrobe that’d fit you decently.”

He took it cautiously, noticing how Lilika stared at him expectantly until he pulled it on. Then she gave him a big grin and raced off down the hallway, calling out, “See you in calculus!”

Luken tried to ignore the sideways looks he got throughout the day, but then someone tried to comment on the large knitted flowers decorating his arms and torso, and he found himself snapping back, “Bet I’m way cozier than you are though” And he realized it was true. The sweater was very comfortable. He almost felt slighted when Lilika traded the sweaters back while they left school. She could’ve at least waited until they both got home. They lived right across from each other, after all.

She must have noticed he liked it, because the next week, she handed him a light, silvery gray sweater, and when he tried it on, it fit perfectly. She simply nodded in approval and pulled on his hoodie, not saying a single word the whole time.

This became the next routine. Swapping sweaters in first block calculus, and trading back as they walked home together. Even when their world was falling apart around them, they kept it up. Even when Luken learned to see the weave of magic around him, learned to see everything, and realized Lilika put the essence of life into everything she made, effectively protecting him any time he wore her sweaters. Even as Luken wondered what kind of benefit she sought from his hoodie when her own sweaters were properly magical. Until one morning, Lilika moved to hand him the newest sweater, and stopped short.

“Where’s your hoodie?”

“Oh,” he started, already feeling uncomfortable as the girl’s face turned sad. “I lost it. I’m sorry.”

“Oh…”

“I’ll get a replacement, okay? Promise.”

She nodded softly and handed over the knit sweater but kept staring at him even as he turned back to his classwork. He wasn’t sure how to tell her the truth. That he’d given it away freely, to another version of her he’d met as he was traveling through the timelines. It seemed a small request from the other-Lilika at first. But he’d seen her lose everything else and knew he couldn’t stay. He knew intuitively that it had meant everything to her, to give his hoodie, and that it would mean just as much to this Lilika—his Lilika, some small part of his mind offered. He didn’t know how to say this to her, but he had to wonder at the way she seemed to look right through him, which of them really saw more.

@flufftober

[kromabelle-art]

Flufftober 2022 Day 18: Soulmate AU

OCs: Luken Roth & Lilika Adler

fluff2022-accidents don’t just happen accidentally|fluff2022-wearing each other’s clothes|fluff2022-shooting stars

Ever since he was a kid, Luken had a tendency to find things. Usually small stuff, like pens, and markers, and half-done origami that he’d try to finish. Up until his parents asked him why he had a girl’s hairbrush in his room, he’d accepted it as ordinary. But then, his parents excitedly told him he was among the lucky few who had a soulmate. Anything he lost, would end up with her, and everything she lost, he’d find. Immediately, he wrote a letter to his soulmate, and tossed it out the car window while his parents drove him to church. He wrote,

Hi! My name is Luken. We’re soulmates! What’s your name? Do you have my action figure I lost last week? Could you please return it by losing it again? Unless you like it, then you can keep it, I guess. I can always get a new one. What kinds of toys do you like to play with? Do you like comics or cartoons better? What’s your favorite cartoon? What’s your favorite food? I like mac n cheese! What’s your favorite animal? I really like dogs! And cats and bears and wolves and lions and dragons! Write me back pretty please!

It was a week of nervously waiting for Luken, until an envelope, covered in stickers and doodles of flowers, appeared on his bed. He turned it over, and saw scrawled on the back, TO: LUKEN. FROM: YOUR SOULMATE. Next to it was a barbie doll, dressed fashionably, but covered in dirt and with its head caved in. Eagerly, he opened the letter as quickly as he could without ripping the drawings, and read it.

Hi Luken. My name is Lilika! I had to ask my parents what soulmates were, but usually I’m really good at keeping secrets, I promise! I have your action figure, and I’m keeping it. Please accept this barbie of mine in return. (I’M SORRY IF IT’S MESSED UP. I THREW IT OFF A CLIFF!) I like barbies, and things, but I really like to draw and paint and make things. And I like playing outside. I’ve never read any comics, but I like cartoons. I don’t have a favorite. I like cupcakes and I love all animals. I like the woods. Do you like the woods? Do you believe in magic?

Luken was over the moon for days. He wrote to her again and again, and she always wrote back. She started including little gifts she’d made, which excited him at first, but then he got worried. His parents quickly noticed and pestered him until he confessed, he didn’t know what to send back.

“You could send her some art supplies,” his mom suggested. “We’ll buy some. She’ll appreciate those.”

But that wasn’t enough. He wanted to make something himself, and give it to her. Problem was, he didn’t feel he could make anything. And then he came home from school one day to find another half-done origami creation on his bedside table. Inspiration hit him immediately. He’d been learning the craft both from her, and on his own. Carefully, he unfolded the paper, wrote a message on it, and turned it into a little swan, making sure part of his writing was visible.

Dear Lilika, it said. Let’s send each other notes like this!

Lilika took to the idea immediately, and it wasn’t before long that he’d find a pile of little boats and birds in his room on a weekly basis. Over time though, they stopped talking so frequently. They were growing older, and being faced with bigger problems and more intense schoolwork. Sometimes, they’d write essays on their life’s hurdles for the other to read. And sometimes, they’d go months without speaking. Each of them had gotten to the point, too, where they never lost things unintentionally anymore. Lilika had even seemed to stop making origami, only sending him regular notes. He worried if maybe she didn’t care much about him at all, anymore.

And then one day, he stepped inside his house and realized he’d accidentally forgotten his sweater at the bus station. Hurriedly, he scrawled out a note.

Lilika. I lost my hoodie, I need you to return it to me right away, please. I had sixty dollars in that pocket.

No more than a minute later, he found sixty dollars on the kitchen counter, attached to a note that said, with a heart beside the name,

No. -Lilika

A few years later, Luken’s parents told him they were moving to some blink-and-you-miss-it town in the mountains. He didn’t expect much of it. He definitely didn’t expect to pull up to his new house and see one of his new neighbors, a shorter girl with a bob of soft brown hair, wearing his hoodie.

“Lilika?” He called out to her, opening the car door and stepping out before it was even parked. The girl whipped around to look at him, her eyes wide.

“…Luken?”

@flufftober

[kromabelle-art]

Flufftober Day 15: accidents don’t just happen accidentally

OCs: Luken Roth & Lilika Adler

fluff2022-wearing each other’s clothes|fluff2022-shooting stars

Lilika probably thought she was just having a run of good luck. The homework extension right when she’d lost her essay. The way her favorite hat showed up in her locker after she lost that, too. The new claw game in the cinema that seemed to fail for everyone up until she tried it. There was plenty more. Just serendipitous little things, and narrow misses with misfortune.

In truth, Luken was behind it all. Every single time. He’d seen enough timelines where things had gone south for her. Where people stole her homework to sabotage her grades, or took her things. Luken was the antidote. Gaining sympathy from the teachers, using his powers to find her stuff. There was no real harm if he pushed a few other things in her favor, was there? It made her happy. It made her smile when she won prizes or had something good happen without having to fight for it. And when Lilika was smiling, Luken found it hard not to smile, too.

@flufftober

[kromabelle-art]

OC-tober 2021 day 11: truce

OC: Luken Roth

more Luken prompt entries:

whump 2021- dehydration

whump 2020- crying

oc-tober 2020- craft

Luken nervously tapped his fingers as the seconds ticked by, no sign of Lilika in sight. Everyone else was here already. Adrien, Hannah, and Ashley stood to one side, arms crossed, offering only boredom and scorn. Opposite them, was the only other person who looked as worried as he felt—Will, Lilika’s older brother. His gift, his domain of power, was the skies.

“Come on, Luken,” Adrien drawled. His gift was death. “I think it’s pretty clear by now, she’s not interested in a truce. What are we still doing here?”

“She agreed to this truce, just as you did,” Luken said, coolly, as he looked at him, and caught a hint of smugness in his eyes. He felt his hackles start to rise, and pushed it down. He needed to stay unbiased here. But as he caught the eye of Ashley, he knew, and she knew, that was going to be impossible for him.

Ashley was his opposite—her gift was illusion, emotion, instinct, and intuition. It was a losing battle to try and hide your true feelings from her. Not that his feelings were unfounded. His own gift was knowledge, wisdom, light, and truth. If he closed his eyes, he could see the cage they trapped Lilika in. Thick, cramped bars of stone surrounding her on all sides, courtesy of Hannah’s gift. His ex-girlfriend ruled over earth, ocean—everything natural, physical, and non-living on the surface of the planet. Wrapped around the cage was an aura of death, courtesy of Adrien, that would prevent Lilika from seeking any kind of help from her realm of living things.

Out of the corner of his eye, Luken caught Ashley tense. Lilika must be on her way, then. Sure enough, after only a minute more of waiting, there was the crunch of footfalls through the woods, from the side of the clearing opposite himself. Ashley shifted behind the others, holding her hands close—she had only recently healed from Lilika breaking both her wrists, after all.

And then, speak of the devil, Lilika herself emerged from the trees. She looked perfectly whole and healthy as always, but was absolutely drenched in blood, which was already drying and flaking off in places. Luken didn’t know what she’d done to herself to escape, and he didn’t want to know. It was in the past now, he didn’t need to see it. She had her crown on as well, an impressive headdress of twisted, living wood, covered in flowers, with a glittering green gemstone set in the middle. It extended downwards into a mask which covered half her face, and was complete with two large, curving horns on each side. Through the holes of the mask, her eyes were a vivid, glowing, yellow-green. Her pupils, slits. It was a clear show of power over the others, displaying just how much further she’d come with her gifts then them, and made her look like some kind of old forest god. Inhuman, unknowable, deadly. She turned toward the group of three.

“Adrien,” she regarded him coldly.

“Lilika,” he responded, with an equal amount of contempt, “we were waiting on you.” Luken had been glad when those two broke up. Adrien never deserved her, anyway.

“Fashionably late,” she quipped, then turned to Luken. “Shall we get this underway?”

He swallowed, all eyes on him. As the Champion of Light, he was the de-facto leader of their group, fractured as it was. The truce was his responsibility. But given the tension in the air, he’d be lucky if this meeting didn’t devolve into all-out warfare. More than that, there wasn’t a single person in the clearing who didn’t know, Luken was certain to favor Lilika. He took a deep breath and readied himself to speak.

@oc-growth-and-development

[kromabelle-art]

OC-tober day 11: craft

my oc, Luken Roth, making origami

@oc-growth-and-development