#it's not something I'd want to happen to my own writing. look at how Edelgard is viewed now overall

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Wrt localization, I can understand wanting to change let's say a joke if the context of the joke would be lost on people due to play on the language. But when someone changes the content of a story and characterization to the point where it's a completely different experience and then they have the audacity to say "have respect for the localizers. You support gg" or some nonsense in response to criticism, it's really disingenuous.

Not sure if you saw when I mentioned it before, but yeah. There are times when they have to make cultural changes (Pokemon did it with food to make more sense to the western audience!), change jokes that won't land in translation, etc. Those are reasonable changes that have to be made or the audience will just be confused/uninterested/disconnected.

Sometimes there are also jokes that in different cultures would be deemed inappropriate (like the sex joke aimed at Edelgard in the middle of the night - that makes sense that it was removed because western culture would've been largely uncomfortable with it). Age differences also account for this, in that what's seen as appropriate to a teen audience in JP is not necessarily considered appropriate in the west.

My viewpoint toward localization is that it should only be that. Everything else should be a faithful translation as much as is able, i.e. doesn't alter the message given in the original script. It doesn't matter if the content is from Japan, if it's a JRPG or what have you. If it was of French origin, I'd still say the same thing: that the messages and narrative of the French originating story should be handled faithfully and should be telling the same story/characterizations/etc to all audiences in any location.

Obviously in translation you can't make everything one to one or the sentences would sound off and/or broken. That's why you reword things to have the sentences structurally accurate in the translated language. Doing that, however, should not involve changing the meaning behind the sentence or trying to sell a different narrative. Doing that becomes a different story, even if only in bits and pieces. When a story nudges really fuckin' hard trying to tell you something that's wrong is right or that something right is wrong, but that narrative is only added into a loc and didn't already exist, it's a disrespect toward the writers and their original intention.

Even if, yes, the writers were very bias toward Edelgard (which they were as that was, again, confirmed in an interview), it didn't come at the cost of other characters. It didn't come at the cost of Rhea being worse, Dimitri being worse, or Claude being worse. It didn't come at the cost of her allies all being disgusted by their enemies that they were invading. They loved Edelgard when they were writing her, but they didn't make that cloud how they treated other characters (and while yes, the Nabateans get largely ignored in favor of focusing on Edelgard and such, it's not at the cost of their characterization or to make them seem worse).

Even if the loc heaps praise upon praise toward Edelgard and that doesn't harm the original intent, it's what they do to other characters that disrespects the original content. It would be like if they took FE10/RD and had Ike (who was actually just and a good person) spouting nonsense about Micaiah that just wasn't true, hyping up his allies to kill her because she Must Die.

Personally, I'm no Micaiah fan. She was one of my most hated characters in the franchise until Edelgard (and Berandetta) showed up. I still am not fond of Micaiah and she's still pretty low on the rung for me. That said, I would not enjoy a narrative where Ike wrongfully labeled her and her allies and provided his people (and the Laguz Alliance by extension) a false narrative about her. If those things about her were true I wouldn't care, but they wouldn't be. Why does that not work for Ike? Because it's not who he is as a character to say those things, and thus if he did, it means something is off.

The original has some ??? points about Edelgard that favor her/lift her up, but again, it's not doing harm to other characters. Yeah, we get the whole "they are the enemy" stuff from her side, but like... that's the point. If you team up with her, you're on her side and are seeing the story through her perspective, which makes her enemies, well, the enemies. They're viewed in a bad light on that one route.

But when you actually come into contact with the characters in question? It's not as bad as she makes it out to be. She, as the protagonist of her own story, makes other named characters and their ways of living sound very bad because she views them negatively, but we don't actually see what she claims if we personally come into contact with those characters.

What the loc does is have her say those things, understandably from her side, but then trash the characters' very characterization and personality to match her and her/her allies' opinions of them. The characters reflect her views with no pushback whatsoever, when it should be that the pushback is how those characters she talks about behave.

There should be a dissonance between her thoughts about them and who they truly are. It should make you question, "is this really right?". You should feel bad when you kill genuinely good people (like Sylvain. You shouldn't feel like he's some trash scumbag, but feel upset about his death and find yourself questioning why he had to die - not cheering for his death).

Point being, the loc changed that stuff because ??? I guess they wanted Edelgard to shine at her very absolute brightest, and the only way to do that was to harp on all the characters who opposed her. I don't understand why they would do that tbh (like I know the intent, i.e. making her look good, but I don't know why they went to such lengths to vilify her enemies and not just say hey, maybe she's wrong about these people but I'm still going to fight for her, if fighting for her is what you decided to do. The one idea I have is the final paragraphs of this post).

It just makes it feel a lot like purist culture, where if you've sided with her than they can't possibly let her be actually bad and do bad things. You've sided with her, so she simply cannot be a villain! It makes the loc team seem afraid of a concept of siding with the villains, feeling the need to change it because it's BaD to play a game/route where you do that. It feels like it's portraying the idea that if you do bad things in a video game, you condone those bad things irl.

Whether that was their thought process or not, that's exactly what it comes off as, and that since they loved Edelgard they couldn't portray her poorly unless there was no other option. In the times they do finally portray her poorly via other characters, there's always pushback in some form, like someone defending her, giving her the benefit of the doubt after everything she'd already done and still intended to do, or being sad about fighting/killing her. In the original that was still there, but the loc just added to it - just by doing a whole lot of damage to other characters in the process.

Meanwhile with Rhea, there's always negative pushback. If she does something good, there's a negative thought following her good actions. Obviously there isn't space for that to happen literally every single time, but when possible it's there. Again, this is another thing the loc amped up, and I can only guess it's because she's the head of the Church (and churches are viewed as the enemy in most JPRGs) and the main person Edelgard opposes (with no acknowledgement from the loc team, about why that is, being a bad thing).

It's like, the one time there's a game where the Church isn't actually the enemy, they... made it so that the loc reflected that the Church is still actually the enemy. Churches being the enemy are so common that it was intentionally used in the original script as a red herring. You think they're gonna be the big bads because they always are in JRPGs.

The point of that was meant to fulfill itself as a red herring, making you focus on them and scrutinize everything they said and did even heavier than you would anyone else. It makes everything Edelgard does get swept under the rug and causes the player not to notice until it's fastballed at you. That's why you end up fighting her and not the Church except if you're specifically on her route.

That was lost in loc, of course, and it got so overwhelmingly popular in the west (which I do believe is a reason they did it to begin with, i.e. made the Church the baddies by western viewpoint because the west apparently eats that shit right up) that Hopes catered most strongly toward the western audience, making the Church the big bads (who... don't even do anything wrong whatsoever in this game and hardly even exist to do so, but I can only guess they got largely ignored because they were so hated, and less positive interaction with them meant less worry of killing innocent people/more not caring about them as the enemy) of two routes out of three; not because that was the original script's intent, but because they just went with what was popular even if it went against their home game's intention. I was pretty unsurprised to find out this went over very badly with JP players.

In other words the loc was so widely understood as the true canon/intent of the story (despite its vast and drastic changes) that Hopes was crafted around the loc more than it was the original script. The loc of Houses altered so much that it changed the perception of the audience consuming it, so whether the JP writers are aware that that's why the game was consumed the way it was or not, they just knew a chunk of the western audience loved Edelgard and hated Rhea.

When I play a game I want the same story and experience that everyone has playing it. I don't want to understand it differently than it's meant to be understood and was understood in the region it was created in. If it's a dark and mature themed game, it should stay that way. It western audiences can't handle that, then the game shouldn't be played by them whether it comes out in the west or not.

If you can't handle the content of a video game, you shouldn't play it, plain and simple. No amount of "oh but I like this portion of it!" changes the overall narrative that you can't handle and/or don't like (and you wouldn't know you like a part of it if you didn't play it at all, which you did play it despite knowing it's largely not for you. If you didn't know but play it and find out, you put it down and move on). The game's messages should not be altered to fit purists or baby the players. If it needs to be edited that strongly to work in the west, my feeling on it is that it should not be released in the west.

If it is released, the story should not be altered to baby its audience. If people do play it despite that and can't handle it, it's their responsibility to stop playing it and not bitch at the people who released it (in any region) or bitch at the loc team for not changing anything (i.e. bitching that the loc team didn't change creative aspects of the story to fulfill another region's agenda).

Why does that happen though? Capitalism, quite frankly. Companies prefer the money added to their coffers than to keep the originality of a creative piece of art. They'll follow any political agenda that's popular, any social media agenda that's popular, etc, even if it means changing creativity.

They want the most people possible to purchase it, so if more people will buy the product, even if it means sullying the creative work of the original writers, they'll do it. That may not be true worldwide, but it absolutely is with many western companies. If the narrative of a game doesn't fit what western culture agrees with, they'll change it to make it so that western culture agrees with it (re: the Church).

Localization shouldn't exist to change a work of art/to change any media form for the sake of just releasing it in another region for the profit, but it does happen; hence why I prefer translation to loc. Over the years I've grown to hate western localization more and more.

If localizers have to work that badly to change what already exists (including changing the intent of the creator(s)), I have zero respect for their "efforts" for trying to alter a story and possibly even pursue a particular agenda (because we play games to have fun and enjoy something, not to have irl agendas thrown back in our faces).

Translators who go through loops upon loops to make sure the story stays as intact as possible with only changes of necessity are the ones I respect. Translating things to keep the meaning of a story is a lot more difficult and trying than just going "well how about we just completely change this and then we don't even have to think about how to work it out".

Also, there's a difference between pursuing an agenda or writing something to fix a glaring issue like racism. If there are aspects of a media that got changed in the west to eliminate racism (which is often, especially in Japan from my understanding based on other media I consume, done because of ignorance and not genuinely harmful intent), that's understandable.

That alone shouldn't alter a whole story though, and if it has to because the racism or whatever it is is that bad, then the work should simply not be released in the west! Simple as that! If it's that bad, why support those things by changing them to sound nicer/better and let the original product still generate revenue?

Now, is all localization this bad? No. Is Houses' localization bad enough that it changed an entire region's perception on the contents of the game? Yes. That's a no no for me.

I respect localization that does its best to keep the same story and change what won't work in another region (including what may be deemed unacceptable in said region or really toes a line of general regional discomfort).

I do not respect localization that sticks in the team's own biases or tries to push any kind of agenda to appeal to certain people. If a piece of creative media is created without the intention to push any kind of agenda, it should remain that way and not suddenly have things added to it for that purpose.

I respect creative media. I don't respect capitalism and changing content to cater to a specific subset of an audience, including the staff's own.

#DCB Ask #my response to this isn't just about Houses (that's a chunk of it) but also about loc itself #if I ever made a book or even just an eBook that got translated #I would NOT want what happened to Houses happening to my writing #personally I'd just straight up ask it to be removed and unavailable in that region unless/until #the people behind translating/localizing it fixed it to fit the narrative I set for my /own/ writing #if there were consumers from another region who got a different story entirely from the region I released it in #there's something wrong that happened between regions and unfortunately most ppl don't realize that #most ppl will assume whatever is in the loc was the author's intent #which means anything that looks bad in that region now reflects on me as the author #and it's even worse if it causes controversy. for example like the stuff we get in Hopes #the amount of underlying racism. I haven't seen the entire JP script but like #at this point I don't know if my concerns should be aimed at the localizers or the original writers #I wouldn't want that for my own writing. I wouldn't want people questioning ME based on loc changes #when I view in depth how I feel abt smth I prefer to put myself in the situation #and figure out how I'd feel about it. that's why with Houses I don't find it acceptable #it's not something I'd want to happen to my own writing. look at how Edelgard is viewed now overall #she's the most controversial character surrounded by negativity that FE has ever seen #despite having a character borderline identical to her in the past in one of the most beloved and acclaimed titles #and most of that is... bc of the loc :(

[omgkalyppso]

A: How did you come up with the title to The Crest of the Waves? (i think it's so clever!)

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

F: Share a snippet from one of your favourite dialogue scenes you've written and explain why you're proud of it.

~ 🗡

Thank you for the ask!

A: Thank you! I was trying to think of something about the depth of the ocean, nautical terms, etc. And felt very silly when I realized I could title it a pun, even though I had no intention to translate Crests and their ilk into my mermaid au. The crest of the wave being the highest point, so far from the undersea terms I'd been looking through, was also kind of amusing...

N: I wouldn't want someone to finish one of my fics, they're too personal. I'll do them, I'll get to them, I'll let them be exposed in their own time. But extra blorbo content is always desired. I wish someone else would write a fic about Claude and Shahid as brothers, about Oswald von Riegan being old and sharp, about Dimitri's true feelings about fe3h Rufus postskip. And I've thus far had good luck with friends who've ever mentioned my oc's in their fics - I like this trend and expanded worldbuilding when it happens.

F: I have been quietly rotating Caspmitri in my head since writing that valentine's exchange.

.

“Annette said you don’t come to meals,” Caspar observed, leaning into Dimitri’s line of sight. “And Felix says you don’t train. How’re you keeping up your strength? Byleth says you haven’t been leaving the cathedral — does it have to do with prayer? Or the building? I don’t know that I could go without moving for so long—”

“Leave me,” Dimitri grunted, irritated that everyone was still gossiping about and around him when there was work to be done.

“No, it’s—” Caspar objected, faltering a little when Dimitri levelled him with an angry stare, “it’s a miracle. Look at you.”

Dimitri turned away.

“What you see is but an avatar of vengeance,” he growled, squeezing at his thumb, feeling the splinters in the bone, the ways in which he was fragile and the ways in which he was strong. Caspar’s gaze was drawn to his hands and Dimitri spoke louder to ensure Caspar was listening to him. Looking at Caspar dead on, Dimitri could still feel how others would interpret his impatience though his blind eye was towards the breadth of the cathedral.

It did not stop him from towering over Caspar like a beast with hackles raised. There was no hiding from the monster he had become.

“There is no person beneath the drive I have to overthrow Edelgard. She will pay for all she’s done. And if you think to distract me from my goals because of villainy or indifference then I will brutalise you and leave you for the rats, Bergliez. Am I clear?”

Caspar’s anger was plain on his face, and Dimitri started to sneer, having expected an Adrestian dog to be incapable of understanding the tainted purity of his motivation, but he faltered slightly, bewildered by the voiced nature of Caspar’s offence.

“Are you treating everyone this way?!” Caspar asked in loud accusation, gesturing with an open hand at the cowering figures outside of Dimitri’s vision. “Everyone in the monastery looks terrified, and I assumed it was because of the state of the war, and the corner we’ve all been backed into, but … it’s just you— You’re their leader!”

.

There are other times I've written Caspar where I've been concerned about him being too soft or idealistic but I really feel I hit the nail on the head in this fic. I think Dimitri's memories of him are boyish and that their present conflicts are mature and layered. Dimitri's inner conflict is centered, but I tried very hard to still be respectful of his intellect and the heart that drives his anger. It might be a little over the top / silly, but I do still like their dynamic in this fic.

#ask to tag #long post

[butwhatifidothis]

I'm honestly amazed how Cap managed to write the characters to be so dislikable. Cap and the characters themselves talk and talk about "how good and selfless they (specifically Edelgard) are". Yet all they actually think about is "me!me!me!".

Like "oh, you were victims of genocide and you live in fear that you daughter will be killed, well you did something that indirectly caused MY suffering so your just as bad as those who killed your literal family!!!". Meanwhile those who call out these jerks on how their actions are hurting others they go "wah! wah! these howwible pweople are lying and saying mean things about me that aren't truw because I suffered so these pwoeple must be bad! Bad!"

Like once I'd like these characters just to respond with "damn that sucks bro sorry that happened" without making it all about them and their suffering.

And reminder these are supposed to be the good guys.

Like, there's just. Such a baffling lacking amount of self-awareness to every single person on Woobiegard's side.

"Yes Seteth, it is bad of you to not foretell a thousand years into the future and preemptively fight against the prejudice humans chose to hold against Marianne's family instead of looking after your comatose daughter, now if you would please ignore how not three months ago Marianne helped kill her supposed friend with a peaceful tranquility in her soul while doing nothing to try and appease said friend's remaining family afterwards despite knowing that they're still alive in the present day."

"Yes Flayn, it is very good of you to acknowledge that you were being selfish for feeling happy about being safe for the first time in many many years, now if you would please ignore how Woobiegard and her friends constantly go on about how they're eating sweets and drinking wine while the people of Adrestia literally starve."

"Actually Seteth, that you allowed yourself to be seen as a Saint ever in the first place just proves your own self-interest is greater than you want to admit, now if you would please ignore how Woobiegard and her friends let the kids they orphaned make them out to be heroes while making no attempts to stop them from doing this."

"Actually Seteth, the fact that you chased down those Rhodos Coast priests despite them running away because of the danger they posed to innocent people makes you an awful irredeemable person, now if you would please ignore how Woobiegard chased down Judith and had Ingrid's help in trapping her in a match to the death before brutally and horrifically shattering her entire body against the pavement after Woobiegard was the one to invade Judith's homeland in the first place."

And this leaves out the whole "Yeah nearly your entire family might have been wiped out for being the wrong race and that even to this day you feel the need to hide your true identities from humans lest they try to kill you for your blood - you know that thing that almost happened to your daughter five years ago - but didn't you know that humans don't tend to like me because my ancestor tried to benefit from your race's genocide and it backfired on him? That makes me the real victim here right now, not you." Which even isolated from all the other things that make Woobiegard's side out to be sanctimonious ass-wipes in regards to their treatment of Seteth and Flayn, is itself an incredibly self-centered and terrible thing of Marianne to say.

Cuz, like, there's a very clear hierarchy when it comes to this fic. Woobiegard is top dog when it comes to Being Sad: no one in this fic is allowed to be More Sad than Woobiegard, for she must be the one that suffers in place of the innocent masses, angel that she is. But after that, no one in this fic is allowed to be More Sad than the (female) Black Eagles: outsiders' suffering always makes them horrible/selfish/manipulative/(the non-cute) crazy/otherwise "bad people," while the suffering of the (female) Black Eagles always make them pitiable/sympathetic/correct/otherwise "good people."

What's that? The first ~15 years of your life was spent growing up in an environment where your heritage was used by others as an excuse to hurt you, and where trusting others could easily get you killed, which includes not trusting some of your own family members? Well, have you perhaps considered that Woobiegard Was Sad Once Too and felt Super Guilt about her actions unlike you who Totally Only Cares For Yourself, which therefore makes her an intrinsically better person than you an a fundamental level?

What's that? You had to survive the horrific and ghoulish murder of your father, step-mother (who you thought died), friends, and innocent knights, before being unable to do anything to stop the genocide of a completely innocent group of people afterwards? Well, have you considered that that made you Crazy In A Non-Cute Way, unlike Woobiegard whose trauma never actually inconveniences her and in fact bails her out of literally any wrongdoing, which therefore makes her an intrinsically better person than you on a fundamental level?

What's that? You literally barely survived a genocide and had to live in the land you called home while hiding who you truly are in fear of humans finishing the genocide they nearly completed? Well, have you perhaps considered that you not considering how the lives of humans that won't be born until almost a thousand years after that could be affected by the society humans created made Woobiegard Sad, which therefore makes her an intrinsically better person than you on a fundamental level?

And this does affect the Black Eagles too, never you worry. Bernadetta mourning the death of Alois? Can't forget to include her crying over the fact that Woobiegard is safe in the middle of that! Ingrid talking about how she felt after Glenn died? Gotta cut to Woobiegard Being Even Sadder! And actually, literally, genuinely, any time any other character (that aren't Duke Aegir, Thales, or Cornelia - she'll pop up real soon) is opening up about their suffering ever at any time? Welp, gotta hard-cut to Woobiegard Being Super DUPER Sad, way Sadder than them, so she Understands them on such a DEEP and PERSONAL level, always and without exception!

But then you get Bernadetta lamenting the fact that her home of Garreg Mach is being attacked by the zealots of the Church... without ever acknowledging that Garreg Mach was their home first, or that she was the one to help kick them out of their homes first. You have Petra anguishing oh so much about how her people betrayed her and see her as a traitor... before she goes on to prove them right when she makes them bow their heads to their oppressors under threat of death. "Monica"!! Oh, isn't she so sad? This poor brainwashed child soldier! Everything she did and said before she Learned Better was just a result of a horrific and terrible and tragic upbringing and wasn't her fault at all, and Dorothea cares about her oh so much... and not the other brainwashed child soldiers in Chapter 51, where she calls them demons and has no hesitation in trying to kill them, because they were Mean To "Monica".

It's that hierarchy comin' into play: Woobiegard, then female Black Eagles, then maybe male Black Eagles, than Miscellaneous Little Girls, etc. etc. before going under the hierarchy pyramid and finding Men crawling around as evil sexual deviants who all hate women. It affects so many things in this fic it's actually crazy, and all it does it showcase Woobiegard and her side to be some of the most despicable people to ever walk the earth in this fic

#ask #anon #exqueuese me princess #o captain my captain #like GOD yeah for once I just want these bitches to LISTEN to someone talk about their own suffering #and NOT either make it about themselves or just fuckin' dismissing it entirely because it's inconvenient to actually acknowledge it

[indigowallbreaker]

I love those new prompts! I'd like to ask for holding hands under the table for ferdibert, if you're willing to write it.

(”if you’re willing to write it” honey, I wanted to do this one as soon as it came in. had two versions in my head and hopefully I picked the better of the two lol)

As the sun slowly set over Garreg Mach, it became clear to the Black Eagle Strike Force that Edelgard and Professor Byleth were not going to be coming back that day. 

“Let’s review the facts,” Linhardt began as they all sat for an emergency meeting. “Byleth and Edelgard left with their group yesterday for a mission. We know they headed north, and we know a major thunderstorm hit us from the north today-- so it’s pretty safe to assume they got caught in the storm somehow.”

“It is not safe to assume anything.”

Petra tensed at Hubert’s voice. He had been tight jawed and quiet all day. She pictured all of his anxiety coiling in him like a beast, just waiting for an invitation to swipe out at someone. 

Across from her, Hubert had both hands curled into fists on the table, glaring at Linhardt, who looked unimpressed. “This is no time to panic, Hubert,” Linhardt chided blandly.

“I am not panicking, I am stating the obvious. We don’t know for certain that the weather has slowed them down. They could have been ambushed or captured by the Church, or even betrayed by heir own troops.”

Petra bit her lip at the idea of those possibility. Everyone had been on edge since that afternoon, and imagining the Professor and Edelgard laying mangled somewhere made Petra shiver. “We cannot be knowing that any of those things are having happened either,” she put forth in a rush. 

Ferdinand, sitting beside Hubert, nodded to her in agreement. But it was Dorothea who said, “Petra’s right. Whatever the case, something stopped Edie and the Professor from coming back on time. I’m willing to bet the storm didn’t help matters.”

“You guys are worrying too much!” Caspar folded his hands behind his head. Maybe it was Petra, but his smile seemed forced. “The Professor’s one of the strongest people ever What could’ve happened to them that the Sword of the Creator couldn’t take care of?”

“A-And they’re only late by a few hours, right?” Bernadetta said. “They could show up after dinner! O-Or right before bed!”

“There is that,” Linhardt agreed. “We could be overreacting.”

Hubert shot up from his seat with a near growl. “When it comes to the safety of the Emperor there is no such things as overreacting!”

Bernadetta jumped in her seat. Even Dorothea looked to Hubert with alarm. Petra tried to remain stoic but her wince knocked her quill from the table. 

Hubert was seething. He pounded one fist the table. “You all should have let me leave with the scouts! What’s to say Lady Edelgard and the Professor are not currently locked up in Fhirdiad and in need of backup?”

“You’re not thinking logically,” Linhardt said coldly. “How could they have been transported to Fhirdiad already? That’s at least a--”

“We do not know the full might of the Church!” Hubert was shouting now. “As we squabble, the Church could be torturing them. Or twisting their minds. Or, quite possibly, slitting their throats--  and here we are having a meeting?!”

Petra was ready to spring out of her chair if Hubert made to leave. He looked about to, the beast tired of swiping fruitlessly and about to make a run for it. 

“The Professor--” Caspar began.

Hubert gave a humorlessly laugh. “The Professor has failed before. Unless you have forgotten those five years? We cannot place all out trust in their strength alone. We should have gone with Lady Edelgard! We should all be out there! I should have--”

He cut off abruptly. The fist on the table slowly uncurled as all the anger drained from Hubert’s face. Petra watched as Hubert, looking more crestfallen than she had ever seen him, sat back in his seat. Ferdinand was watching him just as closely. 

For the first time, Ferdinand spoke up. His voice was even and calm. “We will find them, and we will find them whole and healthy,” he stated. “There is nothing those two cannot do when they work together. We should have more faith in Edelgard and the Professor.”

Hubert rubbed his forehead with one hand, eyes on the tabletop. “I do have faith,” he said quietly.

Ferdinand nodded. “Then let us keep our heads.”

Gradually, the room relaxed. Bernadetta, who had scooted her chair back a few inches, shuffled up again. “Um, so, what now?”

Linhardt cleared his throat. “Now we make up a plan for if they don’t miraculously appear in the middle of the night.” 

A map was unrolled so they could get a better idea of the Professor and Edelgard’s intended path. With the tense air gone, Petra took a moment to pick up her quill.

She leaned over to get it-- and spotted something most curious.

Under the table, across from her, Ferdinand was holding Hubert’s other hand. As she watched, their fingers threaded together. Ferdinand’s thumb began stroking Hubert’s knuckles. 

Petra grabbed her quill and righted herself. Above the table, Hubert looked to be trying to regain control over himself. While the rests of the Strike Force poured over the map, Ferdinand stared at Hubert with open concern. He even leaned over to speak into Hubert’s ear directly.

Whatever he said caused the last of the tension to leave Hubert’s shoulders. With a nod to Ferdinand, the pair turned their attention to the map. Petra prayed to any spirit watching over them that Ferdinand wouldn’t let go of Hubert’s hand for a long time. 

(send me a ship or platonic pair and a type of hand hold!)

#ferdinand von aegir #hubert von vestra #petra macneary #ferdibert #fire emblem three houses #fe3h #hand prompts #the sequel im not going to write includes ferdinand sleeping in huberts room that night #'to make sure you do not run off on us' ferdinand will say #they will not sleep much bc hubert is too worried to rest #they talk about everything and nothing and finally fall asleep cuddled up together #its too warm NOT to sleep and ferdinand is big spoon so he can feel if hubert leaves #edie and byleth come back just past dawn and get an EAR FULL from the BESF #it was the storm that made them late this whole house is full of drama nerds #okay thats it thats the sequel ty for reading tag crew