Callout Post @umbral-knight Since He Wanna Be StupidJames: Im So High On Caffeine Right Now

Callout post @umbral-knight since he wanna be stupid James: I’m so high on caffeine right now

me: Okay, then stop drinking coffee and go to bed

James:.......No?😖

I guess this is what happens when your ship hasn’t received new content in 3 years. Can’t relate🤷🏾‍♀️

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.” 

8 year old Lucette after seeing Ornstein’s face for the first time: I’ll say this......He’s really pretty.

Artorias: Annnnnd?

Lucette: And what? That’s all I got.

Artorias: Annnnd?

Lucette, confused: And he fights good?

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.

Heads up: Dadverse Lucette has 5 kids later on.

3 boys, 2 girls

I haven’t named all of them yet tho

1. Twins: Leofred and Idmaer

2. Teodora

3. ?

4.?

5.?

Lucette and Artorias are the ones coming up with names for the kids because Koray just agrees with whatever name his wife asks him about. He’s not really focused on the names, he just wants his kids and wife to be happy and healthy.

Artorias is an excited grandpa and spoils all his grandkids rotten. Will literally find loopholes through Lucette’s rules to spoil the kids.

Lucette: Papa, don’t pick them up. We need to encourage them to walk more. They can’t always rely on being carried now that they can walk

Artorias: Okay *sits on the floor and let’s the babies climb on him*

Twins: Momma, can we have cake? Lucette: No, no cake before dinner

Artorias: *gets them cupcakes* “You said cake. You never said anything about cupcakes.”

Lucette turned the corner, the friction between her shoes and the stone floor making her shoes squeak. Not that she cared. She was too busy gloating and mentally patting herself on the back. She managed to sneak away from Bi-Han!

Or so she thought. She was so busy basking in her own glory, she didn’t see the portal until it was too late. 

Lucette felt the air change around around her and for a split second, she was weightless, the floor gone. The change startled her, making her trip over her own foot and fall face first onto a different type of stone floor. That sure knocked all the tiredness out of her.

“What the?!” What in the world just happened? What was that?

Raising her face from the floor, Lucette looked around to see that...she was definitely not in the hallway. It looked like she was in some sort of training area.

“How did I get out here? I know for a fact that I was heading to my room-Oh hi, Grandmaster! How.......How’s it going? What a surprise to see you....here.”

Lucette had to stop herself from talking about her almost successful escape attempt when she caught sight of Kuai Liang standing right next to her. Lucette rearranged herself into a more relaxed pose, still lying on the floor. Hoping that her smile would distract him. And hoping he didn’t see that.

“Uh, Grandmaster, I seem to have gotten lost. You see what happened was......I was going to use the bathroom and I some strange thing happened, probably a wrong turn, and ended up here. Isn’t that crazy?”

‘You are a terrible liar.”

kingarise

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.

Knew it.

Saibot watches as she slips out, thinking that she could get away without rousing anyone’s attention. Which, admittedly, was impressive work for someone that had not been trained by the Shirai Ryu or the Lin Kuei: with some correct training, maybe she’ll be as good as one of them later on.

The shadow entity glances at Bi-Han. If he had eyebrows to arch, they would have: with just a bit of focus, he calls up a shadow portal. He’ll have a bit of fun with this one, before the cryomancer inevitably calls him back into their shared vessel. Which could be immediately, or a few hours later when he inevitably would sense that he had left for too long.

He steps out into the hallway of the temple, in the wing where most of the guest quarters would be located. Should be coming around the corner any minute now -

Saibot smirks wickedly.

Two portals, one opens in the hallway just before her, one that would deposit her right in front of the Grandmaster in the training arena. Bit of a surprise for certain, and a better wake-up call.