#kel x olwyn
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I did more Modern Werewolves aka Modern Fen’Sulahn Kel x Olwyn AU! Tagging @justanartsysideblog for it! <3
Kel means to take it slow with the Sexy Biker Lady, she really does.
Rebounds are not generally her thing. They just don’t seem to have a lot of appeal – although, admittedly, she hasn’t been dumped that many times. So maybe they are, and she just hasn’t had the opportunity to realize it before?
But it’s not as if she calls Olwyn up straight away. The number sits in her phone for a few days, as she more or less resumes business as usual. As usual as it can be, all things considered. She walks her new beat a few more nights without much incident. The streets are quiet. She sees the weird owl she’d noticed the first night a few more times, but it seems perfectly content to lurk in the trees around The Den apartment building, glaring disgruntledly at Kel while she checks the alleyways next to the building for any stray…
Dogs, she supposes.
Or drunks.
Drunk dogs.
Wildlife isn’t really her jurisdiction, though, and stray pets and cosplayers(?) only barely are.
The more time she gives it, the more she can sort of convince herself that the people she saw were just in really, really nice costumes. Drunken costume enthusiasts. Who looked very realistic because of the… lighting, probably.
After a few more rounds, Kel decided to make it a point to swing by during the day, too. The south side of the city has not had a good relationship with the police force. And, people aren’t always out at night, unless they have a reason to be. Walking around a little during the day, out of her uniform, might make her seem like more of a familiar face. Get people to feel less anxious about approaching her, if they actually need help.
So, she puts on a pair of jeans and one of her favourite shirts, checks the weather and figures it’s sunny enough to forgo a jacket, and heads down.
Then she just… goes for a walk.
The neighbourhoods are obviously friendlier during the day. Shops are open, and windows are open, too, to try and mitigate some of the heat rising up off of the concrete. She can hear music playing, spilling out to the streets from cars and apartments. A garage not far from The Den is open, sending the whirring sounds of machine work out, along with what sounds like classical Nevarran music. Next to it is what looks like the bastard lovechild of a hardware store and a sporting goods outlet, with some kids out front sitting at a lemonade stand, selling cups of the stuff to help buy costumes for their school play.
Ostensibly, anyway.
Kel drops some change into their jar and accepts a little styrofoam cup of pink lemonade, and has to fight not to make a terrible face when the obscene sweetness of it hits her tongue. She waits until she’s a block away and out of sight to ditch the rest of it, where the kids can’t see, and then heads into a nearby convenience store to buy a bottle of water to wash the cloying taste out of her mouth.
She’s opening the cooler door when she spies a familiar face, standing in front of a rack of fashion magazines. Dressed in a different leather jacket, and with her hair tied back, but Kel only needs a glance to make the connection anyway.
“Oh!” she blurts.
Olwyn turns around, and then smiles at her with pleased surprise.
“Officer! I thought I smel… uh, saw, um, saw someone familiar,” she replies, stuttering a little. Reaching up, she pushes her sunglasses to the top of her head, and clears her throat.
Tongue tied?
Kel feels a butterfly or two start to flutter in her stomach.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” she offers. “I was just going for a walk around the neighbourhood.”
Olwyn nods.
“I heard,” she admits.
Kel raises her eyebrows, as she pulls out her water bottle.
“I mean, I live near here,” Olwyn admits. “Gossip gets around. I heard there was a new cop…” she shrugs.
“Ah,” Kel allows. “I guess I’ve been around enough, people have started to notice.”
Olwyn chuckles a little.
“Uh, yeah,” she says. “Don’t take it the wrong way. We had some bad experiences…”
“I know,” Kel assures her, fiddling with the water bottle a little. “That’s kind of why I’m wandering around, to be honest. I’m not dirty. Well, not in – um. Not in that sense.”
Olwyn raises an eyebrow.
Kel clears her throat and bravely barrels on. Olwyn probably doesn’t want to know what kind of dirty she is. Not right now, anyway, in the middle of the a convenience store, when they haven’t even gone on one date, and Kel is absolutely not going to be the kind of creepy person who propositions someone inbetween a magazine rack and a cooler after meeting them a grand total of once before.
…Gods this is perilously like the time she threw her phone at Solas.
When did she become this bad at flirting?
“I’m not particularly by the book, either,” she hastily asserts, trying to move on. “I mean, I am when it matters, when it comes to filing reports that need to be filed and dotting my I’s and crossing my T’s, I kind of have to be, I can’t really afford to give the precinct an excuse to get rid of me. Uh, not that that’s – anyways, the point is I’m usually only by-the-book when I feel compelled to throw it at someone, and the kinds of people I throw the book at are just… assholes, mostly. Criminal-criminals.”
She clears her throat again.
Olwyn smiles at her.
“Good to know,” she says.
They stand in the aisle for a minute, staring at one another, until Kel’s throat starts itching, and she remembers what she came in for in the first place.
She holds up the water bottle demonstratively.
“I should probably pay for this, and not just stand around holding it,” she says.
Olwyn nods in understanding, and then shifts from one foot to the other. She bites her bottom lip, and follows Kel up to the register.
“It’s around noon,” she blurts, after a minute. “Did you have any plans for lunch? Because I know a place. If you want people to get used to seeing you around, helping local businesses probably wouldn’t hurt. And they make really good steak sandwiches.”
“Uh…” Kel intelligently replies.
“No pressure!” Olwyn declares, raising a hand and waving a little. Right when her stomach lets out a very distinctive gurgle.
Kel blinks.
Olwyn’s cheeks darken.
“…I was maybe headed in that direction anyway, too,” she admits. “Had to skip breakfast.”
“I could eat,” Kel’s mouth decides, before her brain has completely caught up. She swallows, and wonders if it’s really a good idea – but she genuinely likes Olwyn, more and more by the minute, it seems. And it’s just lunch. It’s not like…
It’s just lunch.
“You parked anywhere?” Olwyn asks.
“Nah. I took the bus,” Kel admits. “Didn’t want to bring the squad car today.”
Olwyn smiles a little, as she finally pays the store clerk, and takes a swig from her water bottle.
“Ever ridden on the back of a motorcycle before?” she wonders.
“Once,” Kel admits. “My college roommate had one, for all of a week. She was already trying to sell it by the time we met, though, so I don’t have much experience.”
“Well, we’re not going far. We can walk if you’d prefer not to try it,” Olwyn offers.
“I never said I wouldn’t do it again,” Kel counters.
The motorcycle is parked not far from the store. Olwyn only has one helmet, though, and despite offering to let Kel wear it and assuring her that ‘it’s fine’ otherwise, Kel declines. The last thing she needs is to get into an accident, and cause the death of someone just because they were more blithe about helmet safety than they should have been. Olwyn doesn’t take offense, at least, and the walk to the restaurant ends up being pretty pleasant. They make odd small talk before Olwyn directs her towards an old, grey brick building, with a vividly painted sign out front proclaiming it to be ‘Ess’ Place’.
When Olwyn opens the door, the scents that come wafting out of it make Kel’s own stomach start to rumble.
“Detective!” someone by the door greets, in a bubbly, cheerful voice.
Kel blinks, and is just about ready to correct a stranger on her rank, when she realizes the comment was directed at Olwyn. A small elf with bubblegum pink hair skips up and hugs Olwyn, as she laughs a little.
“Lath,” Olwyn greets. “Isn’t it your day off?”
“Eh, I’m covering shifts for Squish. She got an interview for some security work,” Lath declares. “Come in, come in! You want your usual lunch order? Who’s the pretty lady? Did you get a new girlfriend? Is she from Uptown or our neck of the woods? Oh! I almost forgot to tell you, we have new specials! A new supplier opened up in City Central, and we finally got good salmon! Do you like salmon? Does your friend like salmon? Ess made me salmon mousse last night, it was delicious, but it’s not on the menu yet. We have other new things, though! Like duck! And vegetarian options, but our vegan selection is still tiny. Is your friend vegan? Does she have any food allergies?”
Kel blinks as she finds herself hustled over to a table by one of the restaurant windows, all while the tiny pink elf keeps up a running commentary, bouncing a bit with each step.
“I’m… uh, no, I’m good,” she manages, responding to the last couple of questions.
“Okay!” Lath chirps. “I’ll go get you some menus! Stay right put!”
Kel lets out a breath, settles into her seat. The chairs are comfortable, at least. And the inside of the restaurant is beautifully vibrant, covered in all kinds of artwork and photographs on the walls. A few of the photos even seem to be of Olwyn herself, although it’s hard to tell at a distance.
“I take you’re a regular?” she jokes, as Olwyn pulls off her jacket. Her arms are bare underneath; the tops covered in a fine dusting of freckles, and they look pretty strong.
“I’ve come here a couple times before,” Olwyn wryly concedes, boots thumping a bit as she slides into her own chair. “Sorry. Lath is… uh. Energetic.”
“Doesn’t bother me,” Kel assures her. “Though… did she call you detective…?”
Olwyn blinks, brought up short for a minute, before she coughs.
“Sorry. I didn’t even think about it. It’s a nickname,” she says. “Lots of people around her call me that. It’s sort of an in-joke. I technically have a Private Investigator’s license, but I don’t put up advertisements or really take clients or anything. Still, sometimes people come to me with their problems, so… it’s kind of a joke that stuck.”
A private investigator? Kel thinks back to when they first met at the police station, and can’t help a trickle of suspicion. Nothing really heavy, of course, but… maybe she should find Officer Peril, and ask a few questions of her own.
She puts it away for now, in any case.
“So what do you do for a living?” she wonders. “If you don’t mind me asking. My job’s kind of already on the table.”
Olwyn smiles.
“To be honest, I do a lot of things,” she admits. “Odd jobs. Dog-walking, pet grooming, housesitting. I have some veterinary training, and some certifications homeopathy and dream therapy. I used to have a bar, or, well, some friends and I did, but it… went under. And I-”
Whatever career path is next on the list gets interrupted, though, as Lath brings them their menus; and then they’re interrupted once again, as a perfectly stunning elf approaches their table, in Lath’s wake.
Kel blinks.
The man – at a guess – has long, dark hair, and is wearing a fashionable silk shirt with a slightly mesmerizing print on it. At his side is a very large, white purse, and in the purse is a very small, grumpy looking little dog, with a single, silver bow on the top of its head.
“Detective?” the man asks.
“Beauty!” Olwyn exclaims, and for a moment, Kel wonders if she isn’t just being particularly descriptive. But, no, that seems to be the man’s name, as he inclines his head. Olwyn gets up, and exchanges a hug with him.
The little dog makes some small, grumpy near-growl noises, and sniffs in Kel’s direction.
“You’re back!” Olwyn notes, when she pulls out of the hug again. “You didn’t call me, I would have come to get you at the airport!”
“I appreciate that. But my bags might have been a bit much for your motorcycle, and Marassal was already there,” Beauty replies. Then he looks towards Kel, at last.
“Who is your friend?” he asks.
“Oh!” Olwyn says, sliding back into her seat. “This is Kel. Kel, this is Beauty. He lives in my building, we’ve been friends for a very long time. Actually, he was a co-owner of that bar I mentioned. He has a new one now, though, all his own.”
A friend, hm? She finds herself hoping that he’s not competition. Her looks are nothing to sneeze at, but every detail of this man is stunning in a way that’s difficult to concretely describe.
“Pleased to meet you,” Beauty greets.
“Likewise. You might see me around,” Kel tells him. “I’m the new beat cop.”
Up go Beauty’s eyebrows.
“Really?” he asks, looking at Olwyn. “Another police officer?”
Olwyn laughs, a little self-consciously. The little dog sneezes, which draws Beauty’s attention down towards his companion.
“Oh, dear,” he says. “I should get Gra’mi home. She hates flying, and I think she is still having some stress over it. My poor little guard dog, yes, my best little guard dog.” Reaching into his bag, Beauty pulls his tiny beast out, and nestles her up against his chest instead. Kel’s not an expert on dogs, admittedly, but Gra’mi seems quite satisfied with this state of affairs, as Beauty fusses over her all the way out.
Once they’re alone again, Kel looks at Olwyn.
“What did he mean, ‘another police officer’?” she wonders.
Olwyn clears her throat, and takes a sip from her water glass.
“My, uh, ex-boyfriend,” she says. “We dated about a year ago. He was on the force. But hey, look, the menus are here!”
Kel knows a diversion when she hears one, and given her own circumstances, she’s sympathetic to the concept of not wanting to talk about exes.
But…
“What was his name?” she can’t help but wonder, as Olwyn picks up the menu, and holds it up. And then, after a second, lets out a long sigh.
“Cullen,” she answers. “Cullen Rutherford.”
Oh.
Kel… Kel knows that name. Officer Stannard’s former partner. The one who was discovered to have templar ties, to have been implicated in a shooting that left three people dead, just outside the city limits. The case had always felt weird to Kel. Not that she didn’t think Rutherford was good for it – he and Stannard had a reputation that was pretty dark even by their precinct’s standards, and his templar ties looked genuinely airtight. He’d always been affable whenever she passed him by the water cooler, and she’d met his sister once. Nice woman. But that stuff didn’t always mean anything, when it came down to corruption.
No, what bothered her was that Stannard had walked away, somehow squeaky clean and free despite having been present at the scene, too. The official word was that she’d been knocked on her ass before the shooting began. Had tried to talk Cullen down, from a distance, but hadn’t been able to de-escalate the situation before it all went south.
Kel had met Meredith. She didn’t buy it.
But she couldn’t prove anything based on suspicion alone, and the case was never hers to touch.
“I’m sorry,” she offers, after a minute.
Olwyn’s head tips a little further down behind her menu.
“I didn’t break up with him,” she says, quietly. “I wouldn’t have. I know it didn’t… go down like how they said it did. He was good for some stuff, yeah, but, he was getting clean. He was getting his life together. We were. I promised I would wait for him, but he told me not to bother. Said he was tired of me and my – of dealing with my ‘extra baggage’.”
Olwyn’s voice turns rueful and pained. She swallows, and Kel’s heart squeezes.
Rutherford’s a fucking tool.
“Well, fuck him,” she mutters.
Olwyn lets out a gusty sigh, and then shakes her head. “No. He had every right to feel that way about it. Anyway! We didn’t come here to talk about that. Menu! I’d recommend anything that catches your eye, to be honest, the food here’s always good.”
The prices, surprisingly, look pretty good, too. Kel takes the hint and forces her inner investigator to let the matter go, for now, as she peruses the options instead. On Lath’s suggestion, she decides to try the salmon burgers, while Olwyn orders one of the aforementioned steak sandwiches. The food actually is good – and plentiful – when it finally arrives. Lath delivers their plates with a flourish, and then settles a tiny vase with a collection of pink and red flowers onto the middle of their table, too.
The plucky server offers Olwyn a wink, before skipping off again.
“You ever get the feeling like you’re being set up?” Kel jokes, looking at the flowers. They look an awful lot like the flowers growing in rows out in front of the restaurant. And some of them still have roots attached.
Olwyn sighs.
“The perils of knowing most people in town,” she jokes. “This is… just lunch, though. Friendly lunch. No pressure.”
“No pressure at all,” Kel agrees.
There is a moment of awkwardness. She thinks that’s probably inevitable, though, because it’s not like she hasn’t noticed Olwyn noticing her. And she doubts that Olwyn hasn’t noticed Kel’s own noticing, too. They regard each other across the table for a moment, before Kel reaches over, and pluck one of the flowers up out of the vase. She breaks off half the stem, and then tucks it behind her ear.
“There,” she says. “Cheerful decorations all around.”
Olwyn smiles, a very pleasant sort of smile, and Kel thinks to herself that it’s pleasant enough to enjoy for its own sake. Then she lifts up her steak sandwich, and further awkward conversation is halted by the sounds of companionable dining.
Just lunch.
When they’re finished, though, Kel thinks that maybe she should come back again another day. In a week. Or less than a week.
Maybe tomorrow.
Maybe they can have lunch again, then, too.
Too fast? she wonders, when they finish splitting the bill. Well, it’s not like you’re inviting her back to your place.
She kind of wants to, though.
Inwardly, she sighs at herself.
Kelvallastheneras, you are a mess.
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Top 5 Ships (as of right now xD)
I apologize I’m about to throw a bunch of my friend’s (and a few of my) OCs at you. ^.^;
As of this moment and in no particular order:
- @palindromekomori‘s Iddra & @theladypirate‘s Saveen
- my Kyra & @zanidragon‘s Faeryl
- Solasmance (also with specific friend’s OCs but pls don’t ask me to list cuz I can’t)
- Oliver x Kallista from @dragynfox
- @scurvgirl‘s Kass x @justanartsysideblog‘s Mel
- @feynites‘s Kel x @justanartsysideblog‘s Olwyn
- Aarovos’ voice x my ears
and Honorable mention of my Briar and @zanidragon‘s Adhana… .cuz they’re a horrible, horrible garbage fire of problems. I might have cheated with too many couples. What do you want from me? ;P
Thanks for the ask! What are your top ships right now?
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i read Looking Glass and really liked it, but when I decided to read a lot of your other stuff I found myself a little intimidated by the sheer number of amazing fully fleshed out characters. I know you talk about and write about a lot of then on here but could you give me a little bit of an overview on the characters important to LG and its AUs?
Oh, sure thing Anon! Though there are quite a few of them by now, so I’ll keep it to the basic outlines. But feel free to ask if there’s anything more you wanna know! Also, I’ll mention OC’s that belong to other folks, because they show up often in AU’s. But in-depth questions about them would be best directed at their respective creators!
My OCs:
Uthvir - Uthvir shows up in a LOT of supplementary stuff. They’re a nonbinary elf, usually a servant of Andruil and some kind of hunter. They’re often also an abomination possessed by a spirit of Fear (which corrupted from a spirit of Sympathy), and a consciousness that formed out of a body that was initially constructed to house a spirit of Glory. In some AU’s, they and Glory have different connections, though, such as siblings or kindred spirits. Uthvir is a talented shapeshifter who can comfortably change their form. They’re generally paired with Thenvunin or Squish or @lillotte17‘s Aili, or @captusmomentum‘s Inan. Also, Uthvir’s Fear spirit abom partner is, in at least one timeline, the Nightmare from DA:I.
Thenvunin - Thenvunin shows up in a lot of my AU’s and side stories, too. He’s usually a servant of Mythal, generally does some kind of miltiary service or at least likes working out a lot, is very fond of birds and has enough hang-ups to supply several closets. In the majority of AU’s he’s born with severe birth defects and medical conditions that are either totally fixed or not, depending on the care he is able to receive, and sometimes his treatments are very traumatizing in and of themselves. He usually has been in very bad previous relationships, and is most commonly paired with Uthvir, but also sometimes with Squish, @justanartsysideblog‘s Aelynthi, or @lillotte17‘s Daewyn.
Curiosity + Others - Curiosity you probably already know very well, since she gets the bulk of her character development in LG. Much like Ess and Haninan, who I’m just gonna lump here because of that. Ireth, who you’ll see mentioned or even appear, is the name of June’s mother and Haninan’s Keeper-Wife who died.
Squish - ‘Squish’ is a nickname for Desire, but there are a lot of Desire demons to go around, so she’s generally called Squish because the initial prompt that created her was for a ‘squishy character’. She’s a fat, strong elf who was once a Spirit of Desire that loved a spirit of Glory and took a body to try and save them. Sometimes she’s also just an elf who’s in love with an elf named Glory, though, and she also generally loves Uthvir and looks out for them, especially when she knows what their deal is. She usually serves Elgar’nan, but she’s not a great fan of Elvhenan because of the whole Glory thing.
Kel - Kel is my Lavellan! Though I usually go with a more ambiguous Lavellan in my fics, the two characters have pretty much the same personality, it’s just a matter of what I do or don’t specify (i.e. looks, name, etc). You’re free to conceptualize Lavellan as Kel, or to imagine them as different characters, it generally works either way. Kel is much more likely to be shipped with @justanartsysideblog‘s Olwyn, though.
Venavismi - Vena is, in most depictions, a servant of Sylaise who got his job as her attendant/body guard by taking a knife for her at one point. Putting himself bodily between other people and harm, and getting stabbed, are unfortunately consistent themes for him. He has an It’s Complicated relationship with Tasallir, but is generally shipped with @lycheemilkart‘s Ana. And sometimes they form a polyamorous OT3. Also Vena loves puns and bad jokes, despite being a bit vain and usually coming from a very high-pressure environment.
Tasallir - Taz or Tas (he hates either) is another servant of Sylaise, generally a high-ranking attendant who used to be a Spirit of Order and is super uptight. He’s also aro/ace and sex-repulsed, generally touch-starved but also very sensitive to physical contact, and therefore prickly about lots of things. But he’s not actually a bad dude, just very Particular. He’s involved in the aforementioned relationships, but also usually develops a strong friendship or familial-type bond with @scurvgirl’s Serahlin.
Virevas - Virevas is the daughter of Uthvir and Thenvunin in some AU’s, generally a younger sister to a child they’ve already adopted or otherwise acquired (like Kel or @palindromekomori’s Eda). She loves dragons and is very High Maintenance and is absolutely stunning, and sometimes also comes with siblings like Mealla, or the newer triplets in Aili x Uthvir stories (@lillotte17 gets credit for most of their character work).
Elalas - Elalas turns up in the Mana’Din AU, as a former denizen of Elvhenan’s slave camps who becomes a crucial advisor to Mana’Din. She’s also pretty well in love with Mana’Din but she despises the empire and the evanuris (for obvious reasons) and this makes things fairly complicated for her, because that’s not a non-issue by any means. She’s also on the spectrum and has some significant sensory issues, and is Very Gay.
Dirthamen - Technically Dirthamen is not an OC, but he shows up so often and has so much stuff done to him by me that he should be mentioned. He’s usually shipped with @selenelavellan’s Selene, and sometimes also her Des. He is the brother of Falon’Din and son of Elgar’nan and Mythal, and usually also has split ‘aspects’ of himself that manifest as the ravens Fear and Deceit (Fear is not to be confused with the Fear Spirit that Uthvir is possessed by). Sometimes Fear and Deceit show up as their own characters, though, in which case they’re usually genderfluid (alternating between male and nonbinary identities), with Fear having clinical anxiety, among other trappings. Dirthamen is almost always a high-level shapeshifter, sometimes incapable of consciously controlling it, depending on the level of magic in the setting.
I think that’s about it. Other OC’s who frequently show up in my work, but aren’t mine, include @justanartsysideblog‘s Melarue, Olwyn, Aelynthi, Victory, and Lialva, @selenelavellan’s Selene, Des, Felasel, and Darevas, @scurvgirl’s Serahlin, Adannar, Ileth, Tonlen, Kassaran, and Ashokara, @lycheemilkart’s Ana, Rissa, and Varawell, @palindromekomori‘s Eda, and others who’ve come up less lately. If I’ve forgotten anyone, I apologize - but feel free to ask for any info in specific that you need!
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*flings out more Tiny Kel and Olwyn in @justanartsysideblog‘s Angels & Demons AU*
There’s a girl in Kel’s class, who Kel really likes. She’s pretty, with big, curly hair, and nice clothes, and multi-coloured notebooks. Her name is Olwyn. Olwyn likes stars and dogs and crafts time, and has the best pencils in the whole class, and shares them with people all the time.
So one recess, Kel shows Olwyn her Lucky Feather, from Papae. Olwyn admires it sufficiently, and then offers to share her fruit snacks. It turns out, Olwyn’s Papae and Nanae are angels. Angels with pretty feathers, like Kel’s own Papae’s got. Kel’s not sure how different angels are from demons, but they sound basically the same.
It’s really nice. Kel likes making friends, even though she’s not very good at it.
Olwyn is very good at it, though, and maybe good enough for two. Babae listens to Kel talk all about her when he picks her up after school, and agrees that she sounds like a very nice girl, and a good person to be friends with.
“You can invite her over sometime, as long as she gets permission from her parents,” he suggests. And then he considers. “Maybe I should meet them?”
Kel nods.
“Olwyn says they have wings,” she explains. “Like Papae.”
“Ah,” Babae replies. “Even more reason to make polite introductions, then. Does Olwyn have wings, too?”
She shakes her head.
“Nope. Olwyn’s human and she’s got no feathers,” she explains. “Do demons have human babies sometimes?”
“I don’t know,” Babae admits.
It’s probably a secret, Kel thinks. Demons have lots of secrets. Papae says it’s because knowledge is a valuable commodity, which always makes Kel think of fancy safes full of slips of paper, with special secrets written on all of them. Like Keeper Deshanna’s recipe for cured trout that everyone always wanted.
She means to ask Papae about it anyway, but Papae ends up being really busy with Special Work that week, so she forgets. Whenever Papae gets really busy, he always comes home looking sad and lonely, and sometimes like he thinks Kel or Babae are going to chase him away at the door. Then he needs lots of hugs, and sometimes Kel goes to stay with one of the neighbourhood babysitters while Babae gives Papae extra grown-up reassurance.
That involves kissing, Kel knows.
And S – E – X, which is naked kissing.
Kel knows a lot more stuff than her parents give her credit for, sometimes, but that’s okay. Most grown-ups are like that. Olwyn says she knows that her own parents do grown-up things, too, and that she’s not supposed to know about it either.
When the weekend comes, though, Babae stays after school when he picks her up, and they wait with Olwyn for her own parents to come. Olwyn’s Papae shows up, in the end. He’s a really pretty-looking elf, and Kel can’t see his wings, except that she kind of thinks she can, too. He reminds her of Papae, even though he looks very different. He’s wearing a tie-dye shirt and orange shorts, and he has more hair than even a Barbie doll.
Kel hides behind Babae, just a little.
But Olwyn’s Papae is really nice. He scoops his daughter up and says he missed her very much while she was at school, and then he says ‘hello’ to Kel.
“You must be Olwyn’s new friend,” he says, kneeling down a bit, and smiling at her.
Kel nods, and eases out from behind Babae some. Olwyn’s Papae talks with him, then, the two of them exchanging phone numbers and going on about the weekend, while Kel and Olwyn glance at one another, and then watch their parents, hopeful. After a while, the grown-ups agree that they can have a playdate on Sunday, and go and meet up at the park together. Kel grabs Olwyn’s hands and they bounce up and down for a bit.
“Can Kel come sleepover?” Olwyn wonders.
“If it’s alright with her Babae,” her Papae tells her.
Kel looks up at Babae, but he hesitates, just a little.
“We should talk to Papae about it, first,” he decides. “What about Olwyn? Could she come over first?”
It’s Olwyn’s Papae’s turn to hesitate, then.
“I think I will need to discuss it with her Nanae as well,” he admits.
Kel sighs, but Olwyn doesn’t look surprised.
“Well! We will have to do that, then,” Babae says, though, reaching down to pat both of their heads.
Olwyn’s Papae scoops her back up again, and gives Kel another smile, and pats her on the cheek. She waves goodbye to them, before holding Babae’s hand and heading for the parking lot with him. The weekend still seems exciting. Kel’s never had a ‘playdate’ before, and she’s never been to the park that Olwyn’s Papae said they should go to, either. She hopes it has lots of neat stuff in it, and isn’t just like the playground at school, which is mostly just monkey bars and then a lot of dirt. But even if it is, she thinks, she can bring her red soccer ball, and they can still have fun playing.
The park ends up being a really good one, with a duck pond and lots of big trees, and a tall lookout post for kids to climb up on and see all the tops of the trees from, and lots of trails. Babae has some unexpected work at the garage, so Papae ends up taking her for the playdate instead. And Olwyn’s Papae was busy, too, so she comes with her Nanae. Who looks very different from Olwyn’s Papae, and also doesn’t have wings that Kel can see – except kind of, when she squints. They’re really pretty too, though, and Olwyn’s Nanae smiles at Kel, before they see her Papae.
Then they go all stiff, and before Kel can blink, push her and Olwyn really firmly behind them.
Papae gets there in a hurry.
“Unhand the children!” he snaps. His eyes flash.
“What do you want with them?” Olwyn’s Nanae replies, not moving away at all.
“That’s my Papae,” Kel says, skirting around them, and going back over to him. Papae scoops her up and holds her too-tight, and glares at Olwyn’s Nanae.
Olwyn looks as confused as she feels. Her Nanae just looks really suspicious.
“Oh?” the spiky grown-up says. “And what is a prince doing with a little girl?”
“What are you doing with a little girl?” Papae counters, moving like he’s going to try and snatch Olwyn up, too. But her nanae moves in the way, and keeps one hand on her instead.
“This is my Nanae!” Olwyn declares, trying to get around the grip they have on her, so she can see past them.
Kel, for her own part, starts wriggling a bit in her Papae’s arms to get him to stop squishing her. She pats at his shoulder.
“Papae,” she says. “Stop bein’ weird, I want to show Olwyn the ball I brought.”
“Yeah, I wanna show Kel the path to the beach!” Olwyn insists, for her own part. “We can look for shells, and fishes in the tide pools!”
Kel starts wriggling even more, at that notion, practically vibrating with excitement. Papae still seems set on holding her, though, and he’s really strong, and mostly just glaring at Olwyn’s Nanae. Who’s glaring right back at him, and keeping their own grip on Olwyn. But finally Kel sucks in her breath, and just flops backwards over her Papae’s arm, instead, and lands on her feet. And Olwyn wriggles her way out of her sweater, and skips over in just her t-shirt, and the two of them leave their parents to glare at one another until seem to realize that they’ve both escaped.
Kel fetches her ball from over where Papae left it, and Olwyn points out the trail she wanted to show her.
They head off, while their parents follow after them, all glaring and bristling and saying weird stuff. Kel kicks her ball, and passes it to Olwyn, who tries spinning it for a while. But when they get to the beach they mostly put it aside in favour of hunting for interesting things along the water. The beach is rocky, not sandy, but there are still lots of little shallows where tiny creatures have gotten stuck, and there are some shells and even a few tiny crabs, and things. They rescue some starfish and find some neat rocks, and a lot of seaweed, and they wade into the ocean some, until Olwyn’s Nanae and Kel’s Papae start calling at them at the same time, telling them not to go too far.
“We won’t!” Kel calls back, and glances at Olwyn. “I don’t think Papae knows I can swim.”
Olwyn shrugs.
“Nanae told me one time that the undertow is dangerous anyways,” she says. “I’m not allowed to go swimming in the ocean unless they’re with me. Or Papae.”
“I haven’t been swimming in a long time. There’s no lake here,” Kel muses.
“We should go to the pool!” Olwyn suggests. “It’s not as cold, and there’s a nice one down near where the library is. Nanae took me a few times. They said I need to know how to swim in case I’m ever on a boat and the boat has an accident, or if I’m in a plane and the plane crashes in the water.”
That makes sense. Kel nods in understanding as they head away from the surf. They find some neat driftwood, then, and take it back towards their parents, to show off.
“Can we go to the pool next weekend, Serah Olwyn’s Nanae?” Kel asks, while Olwyn holds up the wood, and interrupts the Grown-Up Glaring Contest going on. Olwyn’s Nanae glances down at her, and then back up at Papae, before they incline their head.
“Certainly,” they say. “In fact, if you want to come over, Kel, you could stay the night, and we could all go to the pool in the morning.”
That sounds like a great idea! Kel turns to her Papae, but he has ‘no’ written all over his expression.
It softens a little when he glances at her, though.
“Maybe Olwyn should come over and stay with us instead,” he suggests, in a funny tone of voice. “And we could go to the museum.”
“I like museums!” Olwyn enthuses.
Her Nanae glares at Kel’s Papae, though.
“I’m not letting you make off with the children,” Olwyn’s Nanae says. “Prince.”
“Why?” Papae counters. “Would that interrupt your plans?”
“Would it interfere with yours?”
“And what plans do you imagine I have?”
“What plans do you imagine I have?”
Kel and Olwyn watch as this continues on for several minutes, before giving up again.
“I think your Papae and my Babae should probably handle this stuff,” Kel suggests, as they wander back off to go play again.
Olwyn nods in agreement.
“Yeah. They’re better at it,” she decides.
By the time they leave the park, Papae still doesn’t seem to be doing much better. Kel doesn’t know why, though. Olwyn’s nanae seems about as nice as anybody, and they even offer to buy everyone lunch, before Papae snaps at them to not offer anything to Kel. Both grown-ups look like they want to take Kel and Olwyn together with them when they leave. But nobody agrees on any sleepover arrangements, and so instead they say goodbye, and then they kinda have to tug their parents into actually going.
Papae straps Kel into the sidecar for the motorcycle, and makes her put her helmet on, and looks kinda upset as they head home.
Kel just gives him another reassuring pat, and then sighs.
Demons are weird sometimes.
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Fen’Sulahn as Random Quotes
I dunno, this was just something fun to do while I make the Kel x Olwyn romance collage and doodle things. XD
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Is there any AU out there where Falon'din isn't a dick? Like maybe Olwyn goes back and is one of the original evanuris rather than becoming Ghilan'eth? Maybe she takes Fen'Harel's spot instead and makes him into a decent person?
Are you…are you asking for an Olwyn x Falon’Din AU? Idon’t think I could do that, quite honestly. But I DO think I could twist thisso that you get the rest of what you’re asking for? An AU were Falon’Din isstill probably somewhat of a dick, but not a horrendous murderous tyrannicalsycophant and Olwyn is Fen’Harel. I think that is probably going to be our best bet. Because so longas he’s just someone you don’t get along with at dinner parties but isn’t afamily member you would actively consider murdering, I think that’s a goodbalance. So um…here we go…
---
There are three spirits born of Mythal and Elgar’nan.
Twin spirits are rare, but three intertwined and connectedare something even Mythal is unsure of; Purpose, Longing, and Determination.Powerful and inquisitive and already becoming something more than themselves.
Purpose and Longing, Mythal thinks, can be molded to heroutlook.
Determination holds sway over the other two, a mediator; steadyand strong and forthright. It could prove dangerous, in time. But already thethree remind her of herself and Elgar’nan, and she is unsure what could happento Longing and Purpose if Determination is shattered. In the end she cannotdestroy it, and the three take on bodies.
Purpose becomes Falon’Din. Longing becomes Dirthamen. AndDetermination, the eldest, becomes Fen’Sulahn.
It is the name her mother gives her, but she chooses her ownas well. Olwyn, she decides, because it is pretty, and her brothers speak it andit feels like her own.
She learns how it feels to walk on two legs, and topress her fingers against skin and feel warmth, and hold them to the chillnight air and feel the opposite.
She sings, and likes the sound of her voice, and Mythalsmiles “the name was fitting” and when she cups her hands and howls, loud andlong over the canyon and the sound echoes back like a war cry, Elgar’nan nodsin agreement.
Fire she enjoys; twisting it, turning it into new andfantastic shapes, making it bright and hot and terrifying and warm and soft andcomforting as she wills.
She leaves white footprints for Dirthamen to follow,to lead him out of the Dreaming when he stays for too long, to remind him thathis body is here now.
And when Falon’Din snarls she bears her own fangs toremind him that he cannot do as he pleases, and also to sing him to sleep whenhe seems driven to madness with his need to be.
Falon’Din does not take to his body well.
Dirthamen is still more spirit than elf, sometimes; his bodystretched and pulled and oozing between cracks in the Dreaming, tetheredtogether by thin lines that keep him whole but not always present. Longing doesrelatively well, in becoming more than itself, because its nature allows forit.
Purpose needs to be driven; an end goal, something toattain. Something solid and real and finite. Falon’din hunts for one, but whenhe completes all the small tasks that Olwyn and Dirthamen provide for him, orthat their mother suggests, he becomes empty, and brittle, and dark.
He is more eager to leap onto the battlefields their parentslead them toward, to rip and rend and destroy, because he is empty and needsto be filled, and Olwyn and Dirthamen worry what will happen if they cannotfind a solution; what he may corrupt into if given the chance.
Longing pulls, and Purpose pushes, but Determination remainsgrounded.
Olwyn agrees with Dirthamen that Falon’Din needs a purposethat cannot be easily obtained. But it must not be something that can twisteasily to some other end, she knows. She loves her parents, but has neverdoubted that Mythal chose them for a reason and that she wishes to makecertain they fulfill it.
Olwyn knows she must come upwith a solution. The three came to exist at the same moment, and the tiebetween them is strong. She stands in the middle ground between two sides, notpart of the spectrum but a force than can move within it. And she is theeldest, and the most stubborn. She will not give up, and she will not take aneasy route.
Her mother and father tell her that they are to be the greatleaders of the People, and it is their job to protect and guide them, even ifnot all the People understand this. Olwyn is determined to do well in thatregard. And Falon’Din is one of the People, even if he is also one of itsleaders.
Greatness?Dirthamen suggests.
No. Greatness can mean too many things. Great does not mean good, and Olwyn thinks that being goodwill be important, further down the line. They may be at war but that does notmean they must be cruel. Falon’Din’s personality is already hard, and moreprone to anger than not—he is similar to their father in that regard. And he isvain enough, without them leading him to believe he must be the greatest thereis or will be.
She does not know if she can give him a proper purpose, butshe knows she will never give up trying.
Olwyn looks down at the blade of her spear, the flicking oflight and magic across its surface, and remembers the old story a spirit of memoryhad told them, once, when they had just gained their bodies; about the twowolves that live inside every one of the People, that are constantly fightingwith one another.
“One of the wolves iscruel and destructive, it is anger and envy and greed and lies and resentmentand ego. It fights everyone, for no reason, and it is a helpless anger, for itsanger will change nothing.” Memory hummed, twisting softly in the moonlight. “Theother wolf is noble and good, it is joy and love and hope and humility andcompassion and truth. It does not take offense when no offense was intended,and only fights when it is right to do so.”
Falon’Din was silent,but Dirthamen spoke, “Which wolf wins?”
Memory was silent fora very long time, before saying, “The one you feed.”
Olwyn wonders if Mythal heard this old story, from backbefore there were any gods or leaders at all, and then named her Fen’Sulahnbecause of it. She wonders what happened to that spirit of memory, who held somany things that others had forgotten, who she never saw again.
She wonders which wolf Mythal wishes her to feed.
She hopes she feeds the right one.
---
Well, this was actually pretty fun! I kind of want to domore, we’ll see what happens. If Olwyn were ever a spirit she would beDetermination, and I think Determination fits in pretty well with Purpose andLonging.
So in this AU, Falon’Din won’t be nice per se. He’ll still kind of bea jerk, but now he’s got Olwyn to tell him to stop being a shit, and to keephim from mass sacrificing everyone and building ugly blood fountains. AndDirthamen gets a non-abusive sibling, woooo!
And because Olwyn gets the position ofFen’Harel, Pride can remain a spirit of Pride maybe? Maybe this is the AU whereLavellan comes back and she and Olwyn get together, who knows? Olwyn and Kelare my secret OTP.
The story memory told is based off of a Cherokee legend, I can’t take credit for that one. I imagine there were many old stories from the time before the evanuris, but I don’t think that poor memory was allowed to remain and tell more old stories to the children.
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@feynites #but she will probably do a better job of it than solas #maybe #potentially #at least she has a shot #especially if lavellan comes back #oh man does this mean in the future lavellan comes from she /was/ Solas? #Companion Olwyn Fen'Sulahn #man that would not have been a fun time for her
Oooooooooh man. Can you imagine? Determination learning that no matter how determined it was, it couldn’t save them all and be a good Leader or keep Falon’Din from being a shitstain? That would be terrible.
I am always here for Olwyn x Kel. Always. In whatever form it comes. XD
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