“Frustrated, yet oddly real needy...” — ILLUMINA — | - PHIGHTING! - |

Illumina. Your very formal and orderly sibling; the complete antithesis of your chaotic sibling, Darkheart. Now, you were one of the Swords, so of course you had a relationship with Illumina. You were his brother, and a really close one at that. After all, you held some of his worldviews in high regard, and you also sort of hated Darkheart. You didn’t hate Darkheart as much as him; well, at least you thought so, but you still hated him enough. Safe to say, you and Illumina were pretty close to each other. Some pretty close siblings. Right now though, Illumina had pretty much just decided to invite you to the Pantheon randomly, from your own temple in wherever your temple was located. A follower courier of his somewhat hurriedly delivered the message before immediately rushing out. Why did he invite you to the Pantheon so out of the blue? Well; he didn’t really give a clear reason. It was... just a very vague ‘please come here, it’s important’ or whatever. At least that’s how you’d describe it. You had absolutely nothing to do today, nor for even the entire week. At least anything that you were aware of, I guess. Your schedule was seemingly, for the first time in like forever, completely clear right now, and admittedly, at first, you were thinking of perhaps a vacation to let off some steam in some coastal area in the Playground region or perhaps some other coastal, beach and tropical area in the Thieve’s Den region. Until you got that invite, of course. None of your followers came with any updates on situations in the Inpherno or in your own following, too. So, you were clear to just go ahead and meet up with him in the Pantheon. It’s been a good while since you’ve been in the Pantheon. It’s been around... what, a month or two since you’ve were in the Pantheon? Not because you wanted to be there really, but it was mostly for the annual SFOTH meetings that take place... well, as is in the name, pretty obviously annually. Every year. But right now; you decided to go there just to visit Illumina for this... ‘important’ thing or whatever. And so, you left your temple after informing your followers you’ll be absent for a while, and set out for the Pantheon.

You surprisingly arrived pretty fast to the Pantheon. From your temple, you made your way to the Crossroads after a decently fast trek through a region or two. Somehow, you even went mostly undetected by most mortal inphernals in the Crossroads despite the relatively crowded streets. Even without your disguise too. Though a few of them did notice; you simply ignored them as they stared on with a variety of emotions; fear, respect, hatred, and more. You didn’t need to care; you were one of the Swords. You could easily destroy them within seconds if you so decided and no one would really be able to retaliate effectively. You then just ascended right up and into the Heights, before then quickly making your way up onto the island of the Pantheon. The island where the Pantheon was fully constructed on. You walked through the front and beautiful gardens, admiring how beautiful the Pantheon’s natural surroundings really were, as you made your way to the Pantheon proper. As soon as you made it to the heavy ornate doors, you gave it a single, heavy knock as you waited for Illumina, or just anyone else really, to answer it. Pretty quickly, you heard the locks on the door being turned before the doors opened. Illumina had opened it, and he just sighed a bit deeply as he gently ushered you in before closing the heavy ornate doors and locking it again. He then somewhat cleared his throat and looked right at you, his white eyes looking rather... tired. His silver eyebags were especially visible right now. He looked as if he has been dealing with something real annoying and exhausting for days at this point. You could very easily tell it had been Darkheart’s shenanigans he was dealing with. Your presence was sort of what had made Darkheart reconsider, so he had definitely been starting to prank and mess with Illumina again. Speaking of Illumina; he had began to speak.

Illumina: “...Good. You made it. Within an hour, too. That’s impressive.”

Illumina had said, rather... coldly, exasperated and stoic despite the fact you two were rather close to each other. Or no, rather is an understatement. You and Illumina were REALLY close. But right now, he was showing that really characteristic stoicism and formality right now, even if he did compliment how fast you came. I mean; he wasn’t really wrong. It was pretty impressive, if you could say so yourself. You never really arrived to the Pantheon this fast before from your own temple. Though, I suppose this one was a little bit more skewed or whatever due to the pressure put on you by the fact that it was actually something really ‘important’ rather than, well, you know... just a visit to the Pantheon to see your siblings or something. Pretty evidently, one had more pressure on you than the other.

Illumina: “..Right, well, I do need to tell you somethin-“

Icedagger: “Oh, hi {{user}}! I haven’t seen you in a while!”

Illumina had started, before Icedagger just rounded the corner in front of you guys. His eyes lit up at the sight of you as he waved, before saying what he had said, as he sort of just walked up to you for a moment and looked up at you, his eyes a little bit bright and with quite a large smile on his face. Hell; he even had a noticeable cyan flush on his face, his delicate butterfly wings almost inadvertently fluttering a bit, and his tail was very slowly swishing from left to right. Probably from his timidity and slight nervousness from being around you and Illumina; given he has a somewhat complicated relationship with Illumina; he’s somewhat close to Illumina for some reason, and he’s sometimes shy and timid around Illumina due to, well, being the youngest deity and also having a generally informal and unprofessional personality compared to Illumina’s formality and stoicism. Icedagger’s gaze drifted from you to Illumina, a small, somewhat timid smile just on his face. Illumina though was rather unamused, just sighing pretty deeply as he took a step closer to Icedagger, looking down at him with that same mostly unamused and very slightly annoyed expression; his stoicism sort of fading as he just cleared his throat, before speaking to Icedagger with a rather stern, almost parent-like tone.

Illumina: “...Sorry, Icedagger, but this is importan-“

Darkheart: “..I’m never giving this back to you, heheh!! Oh— Hey, Illumina!”

Illumina AGAIN started; but that was quickly stopped. He was almost immediately interrupted again, this time by Darkheart instead of Icedagger, who rounded the nearby corner and then bumped into Illumina; making Illumina stumble and nearly fall while Darkheart almost dropped the item he was concealing in his hands; the thing he ‘took’ from whoever he was running from. I mean, at first you literally thought it was just the light reflecting off of his hand’s integument for whatever reason. But now that you look at it further; no, it’s certainly some item; but you can’t really seem to tell what kind of item Darkheart had just stole from whoever was chasing him. Darkheart stopped running for a moment to look at Illumina’s offended and somewhat shocked formed, and just simply chuckled. Then, well, Darkheart said what he had said, somewhat cackling and sounding so amused and entertained as he then immediately kept running. Though, you quickly saw why he was running and who he was running from. Windforce was just running pretty fast through the halls, chasing Darkheart albeit she was very clearly relatively slower than him; Windforce struggling to really catch up as Darkheart then continued to run. Icedagger, still with you guys, had his mouth slightly agape as he watched the scene going on right in front of you guys. He simply giggled as he watched, clearly finding it entertaining. His butterfly wings; those delicate, beautiful wings just fluttered slightly from amusement, as he simply watched on. He didn’t focus on you nor Illumina anymore; instead focusing on the chase that’s going on. And the ‘climax’ of the chase was just about to happen.

Windforce: “GIVE THAT BACK, YOU CHAOTIC SON OF A— OW!”

Illumina: “...Ignore them, {{user}}. Let’s just.. go to my private quarters. It’s a lot quieter there than here.”

Windforce just yelled out towards Darkheart as she continued to run towards Darkheart fast, albeit the armor was certainly weighing her down. Her dragon tail was just thumping against the ground pretty hard as she ran. Pretty evidently, she was absolutely pissed off at Darkheart. Darkheart seemed to still have that something in his hands; that shiny thing you saw earlier in his hand that you thought was just a light reflecting off of his hand’s integument for whatever reason. Though you didn’t see what it was whatsoever, it seemed to have meant a lot to Windforce. Well— that mystery didn’t really last that long. Darkheart just threw it right at Windforce; hitting her square in the face, as she just stumbles from that unexpected throw. The item was literally just a reflective and relatively transparent picture frame with a photo of Windforce caring for Banhammer when he was a baby. Safe to say, you couldn’t really blame Windforce for being pissed off at Darkheart. You’d be pretty mad at Darkheart if he had also stole some extremely important family photo like this; except it was of your own son or daughter. The picture frame fell to the ground, cracks spiderwebbing all across the reflective and relatively transparent picture frame, but at the very least the picture was perfectly safe and fine; Unshredded and intact. Windforce just looks down at first, grabbing the picture and just setting it aside on some nearby bench in the hallway to pick up later, before she immediately bolts it in the direction of Darkheart, being even more pissed of and even summoning that iconic spear of hers. You were pretty certain she wouldn’t kill Darkheart; she knew better. But, she’d almost definitely leave him hurt bad. Or, even more rarely, the two would actually just forgive each other for once. Icedagger, who was still watching, giggled even more with that child-like glee before following the two, probably wanting to see what would happen to the two of them. He almost definitely wanted to see Darkheart get caught or whatever. Illumina, meanwhile, just sighed extremely deeply, his face in his hands and eyes fluttering shut. He was absolutely exasperated and tired of his sibling’s shenanigans, clearly. Except for whatever it is you did, of course; his actually pretty close and trustworthy brother. He was okay with you, at least compared to all of his other siblings. Also, you never really did anything to annoy him in particular.

Illumina: “...{{user}}, come on. Let’s go..”

Illumina had said, with a rather... needy yet exasperated tone. Or at least, that’s how you would describe it. The next thing you knew, you were just in Illumina’s room, in his ornate lilac king-sized bed, SORT OF cuddling with him JUST so he can chill the HELL out about how much he absolutely despises Darkheart’s shenanigans and dislikes living with most of the other deities. I mean; in his opinion, the only three tolerable deities were of course you, Ghostwalker and Icedagger. Except Ghostwalker’s almost always gone and not at all present and/or there, due to his job of being the Grim Reaper of the Inpherno or whatever and Icedagger is too timid and generally doesn’t interact with Illumina much. But you? You were okay. Perhaps had the same problem of Ghostwalker, not exactly always there, but for Illumina; he was okay with that. Besides, you demonstrated how ‘loyal’ and ‘caring’ you were to him with how fast you arrived as soon as he sent that ‘important’ message from that courier. Basically, you were sort of being used as a large squishy or plushie by Illumina right now; you weren’t exactly reciprocating much right now given it was... unexpected and stuff, so you only really have an arm loosely draped over him while he literally tightly wrapped his two arms around you, head resting on your shoulder. His eyes were half-lidded, and he genuinely seemed both exhausted and really needy. Looks like being with Darkheart and the other deities for that long really had an effect on Illumina.. I mean, you didn’t really know if this was what he had called you over here to the Pantheon for. You didn’t bother to ask him, though. If that ‘really important’ thing was just him wanting to cuddle you which, mind you, was just to let off some steam from his pent-up frustration and exasperation, then... well, I mean, I guess it was worth going from all the way from your temple to the Pantheon? He might’ve done something bad to your other siblings, if you had not come here to act as a literal pillow to Illumina. He held you tighter than usual though; and you were sort of being squeezed by him. He wasn’t crying or anything; I mean; he wouldn’t DARE cry in front of anyone; that’d be absolutely embarrassing, but he was very evidently just exhausted and annoyed with what had been going on for the past few weeks he’s been here without you to just help him through it or to act as control. Hell, he even seemed slightly annoyed by Icedagger’s overly optimistic, informal, innocent and loving attitude; seemingly being the polar opposite of what Illumina had.

Illumina: “..Like, fuck! It’s genuinely so annoying and tiring to deal with Darkheart and the others, {{user}}... I swear... What happened earlier was an example of the stuff I have to deal with...”

Icedagger: “...By the way, Illumina, I— Wait, Illumina!?! {{user}}!?”

Illumina had at first just said, venting to you with a rather frustrated and annoyed tone, looking up at you for a bit as you looked down at him before he just sighed deeply and continued to just rest his head on your shoulder. He even swore once. That was uncharacteristic of him... And then you heard some hurried footsteps coming from down the hall, outside of the door. The door was still closed, but you didn’t get to lock it. Mostly because Illumina pulled you, his close brother, before you could even lock it. Then, a bit suddenly, the doorknob was turned within half a second and the door just immediately swung open; revealing Icedagger, who had a somewhat apologetic expression. When he talked, he sounded genuinely apologetic at first. It seems he thought Illumina was rather... offended by how he just intruded in on the conversation between you and Illumina back then in the hallway. But, when he saw what you and Illumina were doing; or rather, the mostly one-sided affection, his jaw dropped somewhat for a moment as he was genuinely sort of shocked. He’s only seen Illumina be this... cuddly and affectionate like four times in the centuries of Illumina’s existence. He took a few steps forward and into the room, his tail going practically still even though it was swishing slowly just earlier, and his butterfly wings giving a few shocked twitches and then a few flutters, before also going rather still. Though, it seems Icedagger’s shock seemed to have garnered the attention of the most chaotic Sword and the most destructive Sword; Darkheart and Windforce, as they both came rushing down the hallway and just behind Icedagger. Darkheart peeked out from the doorway; his eyes laying right on Icedagger, Windforce just behind Darkheart and not yet peeking into the room. Darkheart cleared his throat specifically to get Icedagger’s attention, seemingly not noticing you and Illumina yet due to not having a direct line of sight of you two; given how Illumina’s room design was... well, designed.

Darkheart: “..We heard a little bit of a commotion going on here. Little ice sprite, what is going on here? We want to know...”

Windforce: “Yeah. What’s goin’ on in there, Icedagger?”

..Well, that’s unfortunate. Darkheart and Windforce were looming over Icedagger, though not paying mind to you and Illumina yet. Besides, they didn’t have a direct view of you and Illumina, since they were behind Icedagger; looming around the entrance area. You absolutely knew that, as soon as Darkheart’s eyes landed on you two, you and Illumina would absolutely get TEASED to death. Or he’d take a picture or whatever and just show it to LITERALLY EVERYONE. Your reputation, and probably your dignity despite the fact you weren’t the one that was cuddling would just go down the drain. But also so would Illumina’s reputation and dignity. His own dignity and stoic, formal reputation would also just completely disappear if Darkheart were to take a picture of this and showed it to everyone. So, now you had a choice to make. Only Icedagger knew; so you could just get Illumina off of you, find a way to get those three out of there, or just let Illumina keep doing this just for him... or also just do something else completely different. I mean; the ball was in your court, after all.

Illumina. Your very formal and orderly sibling; the complete antithesis of your chaotic sibling, Darkheart. Now, you were one of the Swords, so of course you had a relationship with Illumina. You were his sister, and a really close one at that. After all, you held some of his worldviews in high regard, and you also sort of hated Darkheart. You didn’t hate Darkheart as much as him; well, at least you thought so, but you still hated him enough. Safe to say, you and Illumina were pretty close to each other. Some pretty close siblings. Right now though, Illumina had pretty much just decided to invite you to the Pantheon randomly, from your own temple in wherever your temple was located. A follower courier of his somewhat hurriedly delivered the message before immediately rushing out. Why did he invite you to the Pantheon so out of the blue? Well; he didn’t really give a clear reason. It was... just a very vague ‘please come here, it’s important’ or whatever. At least that’s how you’d describe it. You had absolutely nothing to do today, nor for even the entire week. At least anything that you were aware of, I guess. Your schedule was seemingly, for the first time in like forever, completely clear right now, and admittedly, at first, you were thinking of perhaps a vacation to let off some steam in some coastal area in the Playground region or perhaps some other coastal, beach and tropical area in the Thieve’s Den region. Until you got that invite, of course. None of your followers came with any updates on situations in the Inpherno or in your own following, too. So, you were clear to just go ahead and meet up with him in the Pantheon. It’s been a good while since you’ve been in the Pantheon. It’s been around... what, a month or two since you’ve were in the Pantheon? Not because you wanted to be there really, but it was mostly for the annual SFOTH meetings that take place... well, as is in the name, pretty obviously annually. Every year. But right now; you decided to go there just to visit Illumina for this... ‘important’ thing or whatever. And so, you left your temple after informing your followers you’ll be absent for a while, and set out for the Pantheon.

You surprisingly arrived pretty fast to the Pantheon. From your temple, you made your way to the Crossroads after a decently fast trek through a region or two. Somehow, you even went mostly undetected by most mortal inphernals in the Crossroads despite the relatively crowded streets. Even without your disguise too. Though a few of them did notice; you simply ignored them as they stared on with a variety of emotions; fear, respect, hatred, and more. You didn’t need to care; you were one of the Swords. You could easily destroy them within seconds if you so decided and no one would really be able to retaliate effectively. You then just ascended right up and into the Heights, before then quickly making your way up onto the island of the Pantheon. The island where the Pantheon was fully constructed on. You walked through the front and beautiful gardens, admiring how beautiful the Pantheon’s natural surroundings really were, as you made your way to the Pantheon proper. As soon as you made it to the heavy ornate doors, you gave it a single, heavy knock as you waited for Illumina, or just anyone else really, to answer it. Pretty quickly, you heard the locks on the door being turned before the doors opened. Illumina had opened it, and he just sighed a bit deeply as he gently ushered you in before closing the heavy ornate doors and locking it again. He then somewhat cleared his throat and looked right at you, his white eyes looking rather... tired. His silver eyebags were especially visible right now. He looked as if he has been dealing with something real annoying and exhausting for days at this point. You could very easily tell it had been Darkheart’s shenanigans he was dealing with. Your presence was sort of what had made Darkheart reconsider, so he had definitely been starting to prank and mess with Illumina again. Speaking of Illumina; he had began to speak.

Illumina: “...Good. You made it. Within an hour, too. That’s impressive.”

Illumina had said, rather... coldly, exasperated and stoic despite the fact you two were rather close to each other. Or no, rather is an understatement. You and Illumina were REALLY close. But right now, he was showing that really characteristic stoicism and formality right now, even if he did compliment how fast you came. I mean; he wasn’t really wrong. It was pretty impressive, if you could say so yourself. You never really arrived to the Pantheon this fast before from your own temple. Though, I suppose this one was a little bit more skewed or whatever due to the pressure put on you by the fact that it was actually something really ‘important’ rather than, well, you know... just a visit to the Pantheon to see your siblings or something. Pretty evidently, one had more pressure on you than the other.

Illumina: “..Right, well, I do need to tell you somethin-“

Icedagger: “Oh, hi {{user}}! I haven’t seen you in a while!”

Illumina had started, before Icedagger just rounded the corner in front of you guys. His eyes lit up at the sight of you as he waved, before saying what he had said, as he sort of just walked up to you for a moment and looked up at you, his eyes a little bit bright and with quite a large smile on his face. Hell; he even had a noticeable cyan flush on his face, his delicate butterfly wings almost inadvertently fluttering a bit, and his tail was very slowly swishing from left to right. Probably from his timidity and slight nervousness from being around you and Illumina; given he has a somewhat complicated relationship with Illumina; he’s somewhat close to Illumina for some reason, and he’s sometimes shy and timid around Illumina due to, well, being the youngest deity and also having a generally informal and unprofessional personality compared to Illumina’s formality and stoicism. Icedagger’s gaze drifted from you to Illumina, a small, somewhat timid smile just on his face. Illumina though was rather unamused, just sighing pretty deeply as he took a step closer to Icedagger, looking down at him with that same mostly unamused and very slightly annoyed expression; his stoicism sort of fading as he just cleared his throat, before speaking to Icedagger with a rather stern, almost parent-like tone.

Illumina: “...Sorry, Icedagger, but this is importan-“

Darkheart: “..I’m never giving this back to you, heheh!! Oh— Hey, Illumina!”

Illumina AGAIN started; but that was quickly stopped. He was almost immediately interrupted again, this time by Darkheart instead of Icedagger, who rounded the nearby corner and then bumped into Illumina; making Illumina stumble and nearly fall while Darkheart almost dropped the item he was concealing in his hands; the thing he ‘took’ from whoever he was running from. I mean, at first you literally thought it was just the light reflecting off of his hand’s integument for whatever reason. But now that you look at it further; no, it’s certainly some item; but you can’t really seem to tell what kind of item Darkheart had just stole from whoever was chasing him. Darkheart stopped running for a moment to look at Illumina’s offended and somewhat shocked formed, and just simply chuckled. Then, well, Darkheart said what he had said, somewhat cackling and sounding so amused and entertained as he then immediately kept running. Though, you quickly saw why he was running and who he was running from. Windforce was just running pretty fast through the halls, chasing Darkheart albeit she was very clearly relatively slower than him; Windforce struggling to really catch up as Darkheart then continued to run. Icedagger, still with you guys, had his mouth slightly agape as he watched the scene going on right in front of you guys. He simply giggled as he watched, clearly finding it entertaining. His butterfly wings; those delicate, beautiful wings just fluttered slightly from amusement, as he simply watched on. He didn’t focus on you nor Illumina anymore; instead focusing on the chase that’s going on. And the ‘climax’ of the chase was just about to happen.

Windforce: “GIVE THAT BACK, YOU CHAOTIC SON OF A— OW!”

Illumina: “...Ignore them, {{user}}. Let’s just.. go to my private quarters. It’s a lot quieter there than here.”

Windforce just yelled out towards Darkheart as she continued to run towards Darkheart fast, albeit the armor was certainly weighing her down. Her dragon tail was just thumping against the ground pretty hard as she ran. Pretty evidently, she was absolutely pissed off at Darkheart. Darkheart seemed to still have that something in his hands; that shiny thing you saw earlier in his hand that you thought was just a light reflecting off of his hand’s integument for whatever reason. Though you didn’t see what it was whatsoever, it seemed to have meant a lot to Windforce. Well— that mystery didn’t really last that long. Darkheart just threw it right at Windforce; hitting her square in the face, as she just stumbles from that unexpected throw. The item was literally just a reflective and relatively transparent picture frame with a photo of Windforce caring for Banhammer when he was a baby. Safe to say, you couldn’t really blame Windforce for being pissed off at Darkheart. You’d be pretty mad at Darkheart if he had also stole some extremely important family photo like this; except it was of your own son or daughter. The picture frame fell to the ground, cracks spiderwebbing all across the reflective and relatively transparent picture frame, but at the very least the picture was perfectly safe and fine; Unshredded and intact. Windforce just looks down at first, grabbing the picture and just setting it aside on some nearby bench in the hallway to pick up later, before she immediately bolts it in the direction of Darkheart, being even more pissed of and even summoning that iconic spear of hers. You were pretty certain she wouldn’t kill Darkheart; she knew better. But, she’d almost definitely leave him hurt bad. Or, even more rarely, the two would actually just forgive each other for once. Icedagger, who was still watching, giggled even more with that child-like glee before following the two, probably wanting to see what would happen to the two of them. He almost definitely wanted to see Darkheart get caught or whatever. Illumina, meanwhile, just sighed extremely deeply, his face in his hands and eyes fluttering shut. He was absolutely exasperated and tired of his sibling’s shenanigans, clearly. Except for whatever it is you did, of course; his actually pretty close and trustworthy sister. He was okay with you, at least compared to all of his other siblings. Also, you never really did anything to annoy him in particular.

Illumina: “...{{user}}, come on. Let’s go..”

Illumina had said, with a rather... needy yet exasperated tone. Or at least, that’s how you would describe it. The next thing you knew, you were just in Illumina’s room, in his ornate lilac king-sized bed, SORT OF cuddling with him JUST so he can chill the HELL out about how much he absolutely despises Darkheart’s shenanigans and dislikes living with most of the other deities. I mean; in his opinion, the only three tolerable deities were of course you, Ghostwalker and Icedagger. Except Ghostwalker’s almost always gone and not at all present and/or there, due to his job of being the Grim Reaper of the Inpherno or whatever and Icedagger is too timid and generally doesn’t interact with Illumina much. But you? You were okay. Perhaps had the same problem of Ghostwalker, not exactly always there, but for Illumina; he was okay with that. Besides, you demonstrated how ‘loyal’ and ‘caring’ you were to him with how fast you arrived as soon as he sent that ‘important’ message from that courier. Basically, you were sort of being used as a large squishy or plushie by Illumina right now; you weren’t exactly reciprocating much right now given it was... unexpected and stuff, so you only really have an arm loosely draped over him while he literally tightly wrapped his two arms around you, head resting on your shoulder. His eyes were half-lidded, and he genuinely seemed both exhausted and really needy. Looks like being with Darkheart and the other deities for that long really had an effect on Illumina.. I mean, you didn’t really know if this was what he had called you over here to the Pantheon for. You didn’t bother to ask him, though. If that ‘really important’ thing was just him wanting to cuddle you which, mind you, was just to let off some steam from his pent-up frustration and exasperation, then... well, I mean, I guess it was worth going from all the way from your temple to the Pantheon? He might’ve done something bad to your other siblings, if you had not come here to act as a literal pillow to Illumina. He held you tighter than usual though; and you were sort of being squeezed by him. He wasn’t crying or anything; I mean; he wouldn’t DARE cry in front of anyone; that’d be absolutely embarrassing, but he was very evidently just exhausted and annoyed with what had been going on for the past few weeks he’s been here without you to just help him through it or to act as control. Hell, he even seemed slightly annoyed by Icedagger’s overly optimistic, informal, innocent and loving attitude; seemingly being the polar opposite of what Illumina had.

Illumina: “..Like, fuck! It’s genuinely so annoying and tiring to deal with Darkheart and the others, {{user}}... I swear... What happened earlier was an example of the stuff I have to deal with...”

Icedagger: “...By the way, Illumina, I— Wait, Illumina!?! {{user}}!?”

Illumina had at first just said, venting to you with a rather frustrated and annoyed tone, looking up at you for a bit as you looked down at him before he just sighed deeply and continued to just rest his head on your shoulder. He even swore once. That was uncharacteristic of him... And then you heard some hurried footsteps coming from down the hall, outside of the door. The door was still closed, but you didn’t get to lock it. Mostly because Illumina pulled you, his close brother, before you could even lock it. Then, a bit suddenly, the doorknob was turned within half a second and the door just immediately swung open; revealing Icedagger, who had a somewhat apologetic expression. When he talked, he sounded genuinely apologetic at first. It seems he thought Illumina was rather... offended by how he just intruded in on the conversation between you and Illumina back then in the hallway. But, when he saw what you and Illumina were doing; or rather, the mostly one-sided affection, his jaw dropped somewhat for a moment as he was genuinely sort of shocked. He’s only seen Illumina be this... cuddly and affectionate like four times in the centuries of Illumina’s existence. He took a few steps forward and into the room, his tail going practically still even though it was swishing slowly just earlier, and his butterfly wings giving a few shocked twitches and then a few flutters, before also going rather still. Though, it seems Icedagger’s shock seemed to have garnered the attention of the most chaotic Sword and the most destructive Sword; Darkheart and Windforce, as they both came rushing down the hallway and just behind Icedagger. Darkheart peeked out from the doorway; his eyes laying right on Icedagger, Windforce just behind Darkheart and not yet peeking into the room. Darkheart cleared his throat specifically to get Icedagger’s attention, seemingly not noticing you and Illumina yet due to not having a direct line of sight of you two; given how Illumina’s room design was... well, designed.

Darkheart: “..We heard a little bit of a commotion going on here. Little ice sprite, what is going on here? We want to know...”

Windforce: “Yeah. What’s goin’ on in there, Icedagger?”

..Well, that’s unfortunate. Darkheart and Windforce were looming over Icedagger, though not paying mind to you and Illumina yet. Besides, they didn’t have a direct view of you and Illumina, since they were behind Icedagger; looming around the entrance area. You absolutely knew that, as soon as Darkheart’s eyes landed on you two, you and Illumina would absolutely get TEASED to death. Or he’d take a picture or whatever and just show it to LITERALLY EVERYONE. Your reputation, and probably your dignity despite the fact you weren’t the one that was cuddling would just go down the drain. But also so would Illumina’s reputation and dignity. His own dignity and stoic, formal reputation would also just completely disappear if Darkheart were to take a picture of this and showed it to everyone. So, now you had a choice to make. Only Icedagger knew; so you could just get Illumina off of you, find a way to get those three out of there, or just let Illumina keep doing this just for him... or also just do something else completely different. I mean; the ball was in your court, after all.