Arcana Fanfiction 🔮!!

Holding Their Hands - Courtiers

🍇 Valerius 🍷

"And *what* do you think you are doing, magician?"
If you're in public, he pulls his hand from you with a disgusted look.
He apologizes when you're in private, saying that he's not ready to be public about your relationship (platonic or romantic, either way)
If you're in private, he doesn't make a move to pull away or to hold your hand too. Simply letd you hold his.
Eventually, after enough tries in private, he lets you hold his hand in public.
The first time he does, he squeezes your hand a little hard and you can tell he's nervous about what people might say.
After he gets comfortable, he never wants to let go of your hand, private or public.
It's still 50/50 on whether he'll put his glass down to hold your hand or not, you can see panic in his eyes when he has to choose
Cold hands, but not unnaturally so.
His hands are fairly soft, he's almost certainly never seen a day of work in his life.

🕊 Volta 🍽

*excited Volta noises*
The first time you do it, she's so happy she just freezes for a whole minute
After she snaps out of it, she can't stop talking and shaking, just the happiest little demon
Very touched that you would consider her so close as to hold
She definitely cries after her excitement ends
Her hands are the softest and most human of the Courtiers, albeit she is quite dusty

🐷 Vlastomil 🪱

Really doesn't like being touched most of the time (except by worms), so you ask him first
At first, he says never and asks you, very accusingly, why you would ever suggest such a thing
After he calms down, he might apologize, if he doesn't, it's more likely he got distracted by worms or tea or he found some weird thing growing in the bathroom or something
He remembers that you asked though, he thinks about it a lot.
Maybe one day, while you're riding to the palace from his estate, he puts his hand on yours. He looks away, blushing and obviously uncomfortable, but not unwillingly so.
His hands are sooooo moist, like, you never need to moisturize again
They're also really squishy, like, you can feel the bone, but the bone is like cartilage more than actual bone
And cold, like cool soil

🔥 Vulgora 🪲

Automatically thinks you're trying to do battle with them.
Throws you. Probably not onto something too hard.
Doesn't apologize, because apologies are for WEAKLINGS
Does take you to a doctor, if you got seriously injured
After you explain what you were doing, they seem confused, but not opposed
After holding their hands a few times, they start to get it and initiate sometimes
Squeezes a little too hard, too often, but loosens a little if you ask
Gauntlets are hot and burn a bit, they're also really sharp, so you have to be careful if you hold their gauntlet
Their hands on the other *hand* (haha) are warm, more than a normal person's should be
You feel like there's something in their hands, crawling around... sometimes you can even see things crawling around
Their fingernails are very long, sharp, and jagged, crude bite marks lining them
Their hands themselves are pale, moreso than even Vlastomil's
Their veins pop out and are a vibrant blood red, if you press on them you can feel the "blood" moving around
It seems like they aren't used to having hands instead of gauntlets (normally it's just bugs under there, oogie boogie style)

💉  Valdemar 💀

They don't react at all as long as you don't get in the way, their fingers just sort of limp there
If you are in the way, they stare at you and tighten their grip until you loosen yours
After you explain to them what you were trying to do, they ask you a lot of questions about it and how they all make you feel, some of them much deeper than you'd appreciate
From now on, they suggest you only hand their hand if they aren't busy and if you simply must hold their hand while they are busy, they will offer you a preserved hand of your choice instead (they have a wide variety to choose from, of course)
The next time you hold their hand, their grip it back and you can feel them surveying the bone structure and muscles and veins within it
If you try again while they're busy, their hole arm goes limp and a new one forms in its place
The old arm dissolves in your hand, becoming a rotten puddle on the floor, which they, of course, ask you to clean up, since you were so kind as to make the mess
Their gloves are colder than ice and rubbery, they don't feel very nice to hold.
When they remove their glove, their hand is long and bony, covered in wrapping, long bony claws escaping from the bandaging
Their hand is as cold as their gloves, the wrappings at least, however, are soft-ish
Their grip on your hand is tight and you can feel every muscle and bone in their's