Hi! I just discovered your blog. Your art is beautiful! If it has not been requested before, can I ask for Ignis as a kid with the color pallete "Guidance"? Thank you in advance :)
Smol Ignis Scientia in Guidance for @blossattic! I hope you like it!
Aaa! Thank you for the lovely compliment!! 🥰 I hope this live up to your expectation hehe!
Tbh if I made this palette I will definitely name it Shrek.
Send to my inbox a character and a palette! (It’s totally okay if you want the same character or palette I’ve already posted! 🥰)
Pokemon AU headcanon that as a child, Ignis rescued an Applin being attacked by Rookidee. Applin came to live in Iggy's garden, and likes to go to the market with him to pick the very best produce for baking.
I was working on this piece before the sylleblossom pic; it’s a bit rough and whatnot, but I like it, so have another dreamy, chibi-fleurentia pic! 📚✨✨✨
Summary: Noctis skipped out on lessons again and Ignis has to find him.
Notes: Just a small thing set in the Chirp Verse, a wing AU I have. I haven’t updated that in forever but want to! But this will have to tide me over for now. How you enjoy!
Ao3 Link
~
It was a beautiful day outside, and Ignis couldn’t have been more annoyed. He was wandering the gardens with a frown set on his face, glasses occasionally sliding down his nose as he occasionally stopped to search the shrubs. Every once in a while, he also had to pause to pick twigs and leaves out of his wings.
He did enjoy days like this, honestly, but only after his studies were over. Unlike a certain wayward prince that he knew. He’d been asked to find him after lunch, as he’d skipped all his lessons after he finished with his music studies. Which meant that Ignis didn’t get to shadow his Uncle after lunch like he’d wanted.
Eventually, he got tired of simply looking, and started calling his name along with searching.
“Noct! Come out please!” He looked around, trying to remember the last place he’d found his friend when he’d hidden. “We’re supposed to be studying!”
It was hard to keep the whine out of his tone, but he did his best. He didn’t like missing lessons, or getting dirty. And both were happening now.
He kept searching anyways, and it was only by chance that he heard a giggle coming from further into the gardens, off the path and into what could have been mistaken for the wilds to his young eyes. He knew they weren’t but for some reason he was a little afraid of getting lost anyways. He’d like to think he was sensible for a nine-year-old, but occasionally had to be forgiving to his own age.
“Noctis?” He called hesitantly as he stepped off the path and through the bushes.
He didn’t notice the root until it was too late, and rather than stepping through like he wanted, ended up falling through. He landed in a sprawl with a soft thud, and his glasses ended up bouncing somewhere in the grass. With an almost offended squeak he pushed himself back up to his elbows, and frowned at the grass stains that were now on his shirt. He could guess that he pants were now in a similar state. Behind him, his wings fluffed up, signaling his mild distress.
“Noct? Are you there?”
“Ignis, shouldn’t you be studying?” Suddenly came his uncles voice from the shrubs.
A deep frown crossed his face, and a small chirp of confusion left him, “Uncle Amo?”
He crawled forward to get himself fully out of the shrub, and then felt around for his glasses. When he found them, he reached into his pocket for his glasses cloth and cleaned them before putting them back on.
“Uncle?” He tried again, this time looking around himself.
“Iggy, the prince when back inside, you can go in now!” Suddenly he heard both his and Noctis’s caretaker, Bunny they called her, say. Or her voice rather. He got to his feet then and crossed his arms.
“That isn’t funny Noctis!”
Noctis, being a young magpie, could mimic people’s voices. Something he often used these days. More than once had Ignis been tricked by him. It was becoming a habit of his to borrow other people’s voices. Another giggle soon followed after that, and Ignis was able to find his way to the base of a tree. And when he looked up, Noctis was sitting in the branches smiling down at him, his wings happily fluttering behind him.
“Hi Iggy!” His legs were swinging back and forth, and he seemed to be at home on the branch he sat on. Ignis made a mental note to remember this tree in the extremely likely event that Noctis snuck away again.
“Noct, you know that you’re supposed to be inside! You missed lunch!” Ignis said, looking up at him.
In response Noctis suddenly allowed himself to fall backwards and hang upside down. Ignis had to walk around to the other side to see Noctis’s face.
“But it’s so nice out Iggy! Can’t we stay a little longer?”
Normally, Ignis would be hard pressed to say no to the bright smile that his friend was giving him. However, he was a little miffed still and shook his head, “I think you’ve been outside long enough. Maybe we can come back tomorrow after lunch, if you stay in your lessons.”
“Aw…” Noctis gave him a soft frown, and his wings pulled in against his back. “But it’s reeeaallly nice out!”
It only took a few more moments of that frown before Ignis sighed and gave a little. “I know it is Noct, but at least come inside for a late lunch?”
Noctis, seemingly sense that Ignis was edging toward a forgiving mood tried pressing his luck, “Can it be grilled cheese?”
“The cooks made cold sandwiches earlier for us, but we can see if they could make one maybe?” Ignis offered with a shrug. “So…please come down?”
Noctis looked like he thought it over, and then nodded, “Okay.”
Ignis watched as Noctis twisted and turned, and his wings drooped at what he knew had happened. Noctis tried for a few more moments to get back up on the branch, but couldn’t, and gave up.
“Iggggy. I’m stuck!” He whined, looking back at Ignis. He may have sounded sad, but his face was set in a frown and his wings had puffed up behind him. He was more annoyed than anything else.
Ignis stepped forward, and the two argued back and forth for a while. Ignis would try to grab part of him to push back up, but then Noctis would yelp that he’d nearly slipped, and he’d have to stop. Eventually, after doing this a few times, Ignis realized that Noctis was doing this to waste time. With an annoyed huff, the next time Noctis nearly slipped, Ignis instead tugged on one of his legs, which slipped off the branch with ease.
A surprised gasp left him and Noctis’s arms flailed before latching onto Ignis, “Iggy! I’m going to fall!”
“At least you’ll be out of the tree,” Ignis answered back.
Noctis quickly realized it was a mistake latching onto Ignis and tried pushing him away instead as he felt him tug on his other leg, “Ignis! Stop it!”
“You’ll be down in a moment Noctis!” Ignis said, trying to grab him. As a last resort Ignis poked Noctis in the stomach, which caused a shrill giggle to leave him, and also made him curl up. As a result, his other leg slipped from the branch as well, and he yelped, grabbing onto Ignis to catch himself. Ignis had thought he was prepared to catch him, but overestimated himself. Instead of catching him, he ended up falling with him. They both landed in a heap on the ground, but were unharmed.
Ignis checked over Noctis just to be sure, who was frowning at Ignis like he had just forced him to eat a carrot.
“There. That wasn’t so bad,” Ignis began, “Now we can go -ack!”
Noctis suddenly jumped at Ignis and started poking his sides. A loud yelp left him at that, and his legs began kicking helplessly. Unfortunately for Ignis, he was one of those people who grew weak when tickled, and couldn’t fight Noctis off.
“You made me fall!” Noctis said loudly, and Ignis couldn’t stop his laughter.
“You were stuck!” Ignis said between laughs, and flailed again. This time he managed to tip Noctis off of himself. And before Noctis could grab him, got to his feet and started to dart back through the bushes. Noctis was right behind him and right before Ignis was all the way through, caught up to him.
But Ignis forgot about the root again.
They both fell out of the bush with a surprised chirps, and ended up staying on the ground for a short moment. Or rather Ignis did. Noctis had landed on top of him. After which they both got up, and Ignis, taking advantage over the fact that Noctis was chasing him, darted for the doors. But also, he was pretty sure the only way he could escape Noctis’s wrath was to find Bunny. And Noctis followed close behind again, not realizing that Ignis was leading him back indoors.
Far above them, looking down from his office window, Regis smiled at their antics, and got back to work.
HI everyone! It’s such a nice day outside and all is well... But I feel the urge to share some old sad that I wrote on Discord awhile ago and just didn’t share anywhere else until today...
Please enjoy this old sad!
Prompt by @mandakatt: "Person A giving Person B a sealed envelope that says “DO NOT OPEN UNTIL YOU’RE HAVING A BAD DAY.” Years later at the end of a long and hard day Person B finally decides to open it."
The ticking of the clock was unbearable. The sunlight through the Citadel windows a physical weight crushing him. His bones would not settle properly in the familiar chair, and he kept shifting like the faux leather was made of broken shards of glass grinding against his skin through his clothes.
They were yesterday’s clothes, which were the same clothes as the day before—when was the last time he went home? Maybe it was the same night he last slept. Probably around the same time he could keep a meal down. Fortunately, he had toiletry necessities here in his desk—so he could brush his teeth, wash his face, and shave. There was always plenty to do, and little reason to leave.
Little excuse for it, too.
But now he could do nothing. There was a chasm leagues wide between his hand and the pen on the desk, and even if he could reach it, it weighed tons he couldn’t lift. The stack of folders demanded his attention, but the only thing that pulled his attention from the depths in that chasm between himself and the work he needed to do was the sight of the boys on his office couch.
Noctis and Ignis had found him in the hallway earlier this morning. The young Prince had taken one look at his face and then ran over, throwing his arms around his legs and bawling. Even no-nonsense Ignis had looked just shy of tears himself, and he struggled to keep a stiff upper lip. When he’d picked up the Prince, Noctis had clung to his neck fit to strangle him, so Cor couldn’t pass him off to anyone else. He didn’t want to leave him. Ignis had come and shyly taken his other hand.
‘We miss her too.’ was all he said.
‘They’ve forgotten her but I don’t want to forget!’ Noctis had sobbed into his collar. Cor had tried to say something appropriate—about how they hadn’t forgotten the late Queen of Lucis, and were in fact, busy trying to plan an appropriate funeral while also running a kingdom still at war—but his words had sounded hollow to his own ears, so he’d stopped trying to say anything. Instead he brought them here. He couldn’t think of another place to go.
Gladiolus had come later and found his young charge wrapped up in one of the late-Queen’s shawls—the one she’d left here once, and he’d kept in his closet for reasons he couldn’t determine—clutching an earring she’d lost that he’d kept safe for her in his desk drawer and had forgotten about until…
… until just a few days ago… when it was too late…
Noctis still didn’t want to leave. He was sad and angry at everyone else in the entire world, he said. So Gladiolus had stayed and given Cor too many concerned glances, until his own emotional and physical exhaustion dragged him into sleep.
A small sound drew Cor’s attention, slowly, and he saw that the Prince had dropped the stray earring in his sleep. The pen was a lifetime away, but he found the strength to fetch the earring.
It had been forgotten in his desk drawer… what else had he hidden away from prying eyes, there?
A sudden, feverish curiosity took him back to the chair and his hands trembled as he fumbled with the drawers. There, in the top one, tucked far in the back was a small piece of delicate stationary from her desk, folded in half. The edges seemed tatted, though he knew they’d been cut with a razorblade by a very dedicated craftsman back in Altissia who’d been commissioned to fashion this exact pattern for Her Majesty’s letter writing and personal musings.
‘This is for you’ she’d said with something sly in her usual cool and distant smile, ‘but not for now. Put it away. Read it when you have need of it.’
‘How will I know I need it?’
‘You won’t have that question when you do.’
He probably needed it now. Like food. Like sleep.
They’d told him these things… Regis and Clarus had told him these things… and now…
… They said they were sending someone to take him home, now. So he would eat and sleep.
They were worried about him. He needed to take better care of himself. He probably needed whatever was in that letter now. But mostly… he was quite sure he just needed her again.
But he’d squandered her. He’d loved her for so long, from so far away, and even when he was finally permitted to have her near… He’d held back. Out of fear, maybe. Or pride. Or shame. Some misplaced concept of ‘duty’. He’d owed her everything and she’d never demanded it of him. She only asked what he offered. He only offered what he was prepared to risk...
Now it was too late, and he saw the injustice sneering up at him from the chasm…
He didn’t deserve whatever comfort she had left for him.
His deadened fingers toyed with the edges, and a faint curl of her perfume flickered up from the paper. Immediately his stomach clenched and his chest seized, and he was filled to bursting with pain and longing.
He’d all but put her in the grave himself. Her safety had been his duty. She should have been able to rely on him.
But that was always the thing, wasn’t it? He’d always only let her down when it mattered most, and she always suffered for it.
Well… Perhaps she suffered no more. Now she was beyond his fumblings.
One-handed, breath stilled and burning in his chest, he opened the folded paper, listening to it creak like an ancient door. Her fine, elegantly looping script stretched across the unadorned middle of the page.
Ever have you inspired only the best in me. I have seen the dark in you, and I have seen you stand ever-vigilant before it, to bar its way. I can do no less with such an example to follow.
Yours,
- A
His lungs burned, his throat burned. His eyes and nose stung.
Yours.
She’d never once signed her letters this way. ‘With Regards’ for business, usually, ‘Affectionately’ for personal discourse. Not even notes for her husband, the King, were ended in such away.
‘Yours’. His.
She’d been his. And he’d missed his chance to be hers.
If his Crownsguard escorts noticed his red-rimmed eyes, they said nothing about it.
