Archiving some three-sentence fics from July

[shinon]

A Link Between Worlds
Link studied the Ice Rod’s instruction card. For as long as he’d been staring, he must know the thing by heart by now - not just the words, but every smudge in the paint, every facet of every icicle - so that Ravio almost wished he had spent more time getting it right, but how was he to know anyone would actually look?

“It’s, uh - it’s not like it’s art, y'know - just trying to move merch.”

Tales of the Abyss
The first meal Ion remembers having is an assortment of grilled vegetables, with someone behind him telling him which ones he was supposed to like or dislike; he had a role to play, and maybe his tastes would innately be the same as the original’s, but maybe they wouldn’t, and no one could take that chance.

Luke is sitting in a courtyard eating sour candies, and as Ion wanders by Luke offers him the bag with a grimace. “Asch doesn’t like these, but I was kinda hoping I would - is that dumb?”

Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold
1. (Bertrand, Arianna)
“Sir Bertrand, do you have a quarrel with me?”

Arianna had ambushed him on his way back from poker night at the Stickleback, so by rights he should’ve had a better bluff lined up than “Nah, we’re good” and a complete failure to look her in the face, but there you had it.

She stopped him, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, “I want us all to be friends,” and then he had to look - the resemblance hit him like a boot to the gut - and for three whole seconds he forgot what century he was in, and couldn’t speak.

2. (Bertrand, Chloe)
So Bertrand kinda-sorta tried to kill himself yesterday, but apparently some people weren’t cool with that, and apparently, turning into a giant monster and making your friends and family beat the snot out of you is, quote, a “dick move.” Beyond that, the situation is changing fast and he’s not totally sure what’s happening, but he stands outside Chloe’s room, which is locked, and says, “Hey, any interest in a steak dinner?” because this is a thing people do when they’re still a part of the world, which, for some reason, he is.

“STEAK IS NOT AN APOLOGY,” she yells through the keyhole, “but yes.”

Fire Emblem: the Sacred Stones
1. (Artur, Joshua)
“Call it in the air,” said Joshua, but Artur didn’t want to bother; there was no beating this man, either in games of chance or in those dreadfully long nightly sparring sessions he always demanded as forfeit.

But this time Joshua fumbled - the coin went askew and rolled off into the dirt - and Artur thought, I could look at it now, I could see if it’s double-sided, this is my best chance to find out if he’s cheating.

Then he felt bad for entertaining the thought, and handed the coin back unexamined.

2. (Rennac, Tethys)
“It’s a shame to see such beautiful material ruined by the battlefield,” Rennac said casually. “But if you need a replacement - I could make some introductions, you know; I’m acquainted with some very exclusive dealers.”

He wasn’t wrong, which was annoying - this scarf had come off worse in an encounter with a thornbush and was fraying beyond her ability to patch it up - but somehow offering to do business about it came off even sleazier than his usual offers of breaking and entering.

3. (Lyon)
When you see that something is falling apart, isn’t it natural to try and hold it together? If your friends have outgrown you, don’t you try to pull them back?

He wishes that his father weren’t dead - that he could hold that hand, too, without crushing it to dust.