Lucette Tossed A Pillow In His General Direction, Stuffing Her Head Into Her Blanket To Groan Loudly,

Lucette tossed a pillow in his general direction, stuffing her head into her blanket to groan loudly, making sure everything nearby knew she was miserable. This was bullshit!

“This is pointless!” She shouted into her blanket, already dreading to get up. Her body did NOT want to move even an inch. And it certainly didn’t want to go out into the cold air.

“What difference does it make training in the morning or afternoon? Training is training.” 

‘Unless you want him coming back inside and dragging you out, I’d suggest you get up, bathe, and get dressed. Breakfast will be served soon and since he said that you will train until Midday Meal with nothing more than 5 minute water breaks, you can’t afford to skip.’ “How come you are up so early? What do YOU do?” Lucette burrowed further into the blanket, relishing in her last few blissful moments of warmth and comfort. 

‘Make sure my idiot host doesn’t end up late and missing breakfast. Because guess who will have to deal with your whining? Me. So up up! Get to it!’

“Uuuuugggh, fiiiiiine. I’m up, I’m up.” 

Lucette pushed aside the blanket, body shivering against the rush of cold air, sighing heavily as she pulled herself out of bed and began to head to the bathroom. Something told her that this was gonna be a rough day.

kingarise

She hissed when he opened the curtains, being blinded by the bright light and fleeing underneath her blanket. It was so bright and so early! Why does she need to be up?!

Lucette squawked in dismay at being told that she will be doing training. Is he serious?! “WHAT?! Why do I need to train? I already know how to fight just fine.” Lucette knew she was whining but she didn’t really care.  When he listed that Kuai would want this and that it would help her fit in better, Lucette rolled her eyes, giving in mildly with annoyance.

“Do I really have to get up at the asscrack of dawn to train? Can’t we do this in the afternoon or midday? Wouldn’t that be more reasonable? Especially in the cold!”

Lucette lifted up the blanket and peeked out only her eyes to send a tired pleading look at her new teacher. You would assume that being a princess and thus always expected to be up early with countless lessons and training, that she would be used to it, but no. She did everything in her power to gain a few extra hours or minutes, at best. What’s the difference between doing training in the morning instead of midday, anyways?!

“Yes, in fact, the other recruits would be up in a short moment.” Bi-Han hums, then grins wickedly, his face half shadowed by what little of the dark there is in the room. “And you know how to fight, now?” 

Saibot piped up, his warbling laughter ringing in his ears. 

‘She ought to demonstrate it to you. Would be rather helpful too, if we are to gauge how much she really knows and how much she would have to be taught.’

“Now, up and up, breakfast is in 10 minutes, then it’ll be your private one on one… I am interested to see a little demonstration from you, Lucette, since you claimed that you know how to fight.” He peers over his shoulder, having crossed the room in a few brisk strides. This is going to be fun, ha! 

“By the way, we don’t do more than 5 minute water breaks around here, at least until Midday Meal.” 

I GOT NEW BRAID BRUSHES! AND THEY’RE BRAIDS FOR BLACK HAIR!

YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?!

IT WON’T TAKE ME 500000 YEARS TO DO CORNROWS. I CAN GIVE MY GIRLS AND BOYS THE BRAIDS, TWISTS, AND DREADLOCKS THEY DESERVE!

I really need to pick out names for the rest of Artorias’ grandkids.

Taking a quick glance around the room under her lashes, Lucette saw that everyone was busy doing their own thing and Bi-Han was more focused on his food. Perfect.

‘You cannot be serious right now.’

“I’m very serious. I deserve five more minutes of sleep. And come hell or high water, I’m getting those 5 minutes. One way or another.”

Lucette stood up and casually and silently made her way to the hall, doing her best to seem casual, as if she was just going to use the bathroom or something. That’ll be her excuse. 

‘And if they find you NOT in the bathroom but on your bed, peacefully napping the day away?’

“Well, I’m a woman. And sometimes womanly things come up and I have to rest to get better.”

‘That is the weakest excuse I have ever heard.’ Lucette rolled her eyes, now sneaking along the wall towards the direction of her room, mind already partly daydreaming about the the soft pillow and warm blankets awaiting her.

“If it works, it works. How many times have you called my plan stupid and it still worked?”

‘Out of luck, not skill.’

“Denial and excuses.”

When she was far enough away, she broke into a sprint to her bedroom. Nap time, here she comes!  Bi-Han can easily wait til afternoon, a reasonable time, to bully her.

kingarise

Lucette quietly grumbled as she made her way into the room where the others were. She was dressed in the uniform, hair still wet from her bath. No doubt that was going to come back and bite her in the ass later. ‘Are you allergic to properly drying your hair, girl?!’

“No, but it takes forever for my hair to dry. You know that.” Lucette grumbled back, sitting behind an empty table and beginning to eat. She reminded herself to savor the meal because it was going to be a good long, suffering while until she gets more food. It was a struggle to keep her eyes open and not fall face first into her food. How was she supposed to fight and train like this?! ‘By making a new routine and getting accustomed to waking up early. It would do you some good in your daily life as well.’ Lucette rolled her eyes, taking a sip of the tea, only to scrunch her nose up at the taste. Such odd flavors but it will have to do for now. Hmm, she wonders if she could sneak out of training….

‘Consider paying attention to your new student, I don’t think she was quite pleased with being woken up at the asscrack of dawn.’ Without waiting for a response, Saibot materializes out of him - Bi-Han shuddering at the cold that suddenly ran down his spine, a different sort of chill to his cryomancy -

‘What’s it with you and randomly appearing from nowhere? You’re going to spook the shit out of someone eventually.’

Saibot shrugged, opting to seat himself against a nearby wall with arms folded across his chest -

Anyone would be able to guess, on the assumption that she was indeed royalty, she would not be used to being woken up on time. The shadow muses with a light mental chuckle: this ought to be fun. If Bi-Han wouldn’t keep an eye on Lucette, then he would. If she tried sneaking away… should be rather amusing. The cryomancer would never be able to, but he would, warping from one shadow to another.

The Lion and the Pup

Alright, let’s talk about Ornstein and Lucette. Ornstein, Captain of the Four Knights and Lucette, daughter of Artorias, the Wolf Knight. 

I have a lot of feelings about these two that I want to articulate but...haven’t quite figured out how to yet. So if this comes off ramblely, my bad.

When Lucette is first brought to Anor Londo, she was entranced and amazed by everything and at the same time, felt scared of it all. Everything and everyone was big and bright, exuding this aura of untouched brilliance.

Ornstein, in this child’s POV, is essentially the personification of that. The first time she saw him was in the throne room and she immediately was intimidated by him, more than by anyone else except Gwyn. She could tell that he was important and very serious.

Since then, Lucette has been extremely intimidated by Ornstein, almost to the point of fear. Luckily for her, that was normal for majority of other people that weren’t close with him. Especially the other children. Whenever the children are playing and run into Ornstein or even cross his path, the atmosphere of the room changes and becomes subdued. They apologize for interrupting him and leave as fast as they can. But at the same time, when he’s faraway and focused on something else, they will eagerly watch him from a distance in awe and make jokes about him.

Lucette is the same way. She will watch him from a distance and yet hide when he’s near. Except, its kinda worse for her because her dad is friends (and something closer) with the other guy. Artorias tried his best to get Lucette to not be so scared of Ornstein. Sometimes, he would bring her to watch the two spar and train. That would be the first time she saw him without his helmet. She would quietly comment (to Artorias) that he was pretty. He reminded her of a greek statue.

That’s as good as she can give. She would still hide behind Artorias’ legs or cape anytime he came to speak with him. Artorias tries to help her by telling her that Ornstein wouldn't harm her and that he actually has a soft center. Not that Lucette believed him.

Keep in mind, she was 7-8 years old.

However, as she got older and became an adult, Lucette’s fear of him lessened and faded over time. By the time she was 20, she was able to have a full conversation with him without being nervous. 

When she was getting married, she heavily encouraged her father to invite Ornstein to the wedding with him and was made sure that the two sat together. Yes, she does ship them. She was honestly mindblown when Artorias told her that they were dating but happy to see her father happy.

This post is getting really long, so I’ll end it here. I’ll talk more about the relationship from Ornstein’s side later on. When I get more of my thoughts straightened out.

Talk about when Lucette finally, truly saw Artorias as her dad

Oo, that’s a good one. I would say it wasn’t like a definite moment that you can point to. It was very gradual and subtle. It took almost a year, about 9-10 months of them being together, for her to start seeing Artorias as a father figure. At first, she saw him as a protector. Since that essentially was what he was to her. 

Then as they get closer Anor Londo, Lucette start unconsciously doing mannerisms and habits she would do with her bio dad with Artorias. Such as grabbing his hand when walking, asking him for stories, sleeping curled up next to him, etc.

Whenever people asked if he was her father, she would just say yes because it was too long to explain. And she would feel a tiny surge of pride whenever someone told Artorias how sweet and adorable his daughter is.

Then they arrive at Anor Londo and when Artorias introduces her to Gwyn and the entire court as his daughter without hesitation, the way it comes out so naturally, she feels a larger surge of pride. It just makes sense. Feels like 

I feel like the final part, when she actually physically calls him Papa for the first time is when they’re having a family portrait being painted and she sees it for the first time and says “I look so pretty, Papa!”. And she sees nothing wrong with it. Neither of them do. It just fits right.