This fic is here to celebrate the 4th anniversary of Crusaders Reborn. It's my first Jugdral fic that is not in continuity with C.R. The opening is incredibly long and written like a scatterbrained journal entry. I openly admit that. I did this for fun. I love the concept of the multiverse, so I thought this was a decent excuse just to write whatever came to mind and establish my concept of one firmly. Believe it or not, I actually cut some stuff from the opening. We'll see, this could be the start of a new series, it depends on how its received and how I'm feeling about it afterwards. I'm putting the journal parts in italics. If you want to skip all that crap, skip the italics. I hope you guys get some enjoyment out of this. I did. As always, please leave a review and enjoy

P.S. part of my inspiration is an old piece of fanart. Type in Seliph and Larcei somewhere you can find fanart, and you should find the picture. I believe it's called "Trade a sister for a wife, trade a brother for a husband".

-Cyber Emblem

I can go anywhere, you know. The omniverse is vast and endless. I can go someplace completely and utterly new fairly easily. And yet, I never seem to. I'm always drawn to the same few multiversal streams with little exception.

I honestly don't know why I find the worlds containing a Fire Emblem so fascinating, I just do. So I'm constantly visiting them, and out of all the locations I currently know of, Jugdral is the one I visit most frequently.

And one thing I noticed about this continent, and its major conflict, is that despite the fact that most of the couples on the heroes side can be made up of essentially any two individuals, the same individuals keep winding up together with remarkable consistency.

I've checked multiple times. Technically, only the unions of Quan and Ethlyn and and of Deidre and her two husbands are considered set points in time, and yet the same few couples keep popping up despite the fact that there should be some variety. I have to go out of my way to find that variety actuality, which… honestly intrigues me.

Why is this a thing? Honestly, I have better things to do than stick my nose into the romantic lives of Sigurd and Seliph's armies, and yet, for some reason, I keep checking for variety whenever I visit a new Jugdral.

Here's an example. the lacerating Larcei, daughter of the awesome and annihilating Ayra. Technically, she can wind up with any of the boys, but she usually winds up with either one of the Dozel brothers or… her cousin Shanan. Which is incredibly creepy if you ask me. Then again, half the time, the Dozels are her cousins too so…

It's like this, like… 95% of the time. I had to go out of the way where she wound up with someone else, and the Dozel boy actually wound up with someone else in the army. I have seen her wind up with Seliph, like, three times. And no one else. He's the only exception I've witnessed so far. And I've visited well over twenty Jugdrals.

As for Seliph himself, I usually see him wind up with Lana, though I have seen him fall for either Tine or Patty a couple of times. Or someone who usually doesn't exist. I don't think I've EVER seen him wind up with Fee, Nanna, or Lene or the counterparts. Ever.

I guess that despite having OPTIONS, the multiverse loves consistency. Like constantly screwing me over. That's a complete option you know, multiverse… you don't need to keep doing that. You don't have to keep giving me crap. I've had more than enough at this point.

So anyways, this log is designed to tell stories. So I guess I'll make great use of it and use it to tell of one of the times that Larcei and Seliph wound up being a thing. I suppose that's a good use of my time and abilities. Yea, I guess that this proves that you don't have to be a woman in order to be a gossipy hen…

Of course, this whole time I've been complaining, multiverse, omniverse, so some of you might be wondering just what the hell I'm talking about. Since you are here for a story and not a long winded explanation, I'll keep it a short as a guy who loves to monologue can possibly keep it.

Imagine that the omniverse is a giant cork board Now, the cork board I had back at home wasn't all in one piece. Instead, it was divided into several large squares. Each square is a multiverse set. What do I mean by sets? All of the realms that contain Fire Emblems, all the ones that contain monsters that fit in your pocket, and all those involving a plumber who doesn't actually do his job each make up an individual set.

All the holes in the cork? Those are actually multiverses in themselves. Jugdral is one hole in the cork, Magvel is another, etc. Each individual universe is inside those holes… somehow. I think it's whatever the hell that is holding the cork together. I don't know, I don't do science, I just take advantage of it.

If you want an explanation of nexus realms where worlds or people who shouldn't meet do. Umm… all the cork is on a single wall, and they are all technically touching/are adjacent to one another. That's all the explanation you're getting right now.

I have my own organization system for all of this crap, but that's not important right now. I'll explain at the end. Maybe.

But yea, to boil it all down… this crap is complicated, and I had to go to a transition point to find the universe that this tale takes place in. Basically. ¾ of cork is the same events with "little" variations, making up normal Outrealms. That last quarter? Outliers where the normal rules of the timeline get thrown out the window. A transition point? The meeting place of the two.

I usually visit these when I want to see something that normally doesn't happen. Like Eliwood marrying Fiora, Roy marrying anyone other than Lilina, or Xander, Azura and Corrin not throwing common sense out of the F *&ing window.

As a result of this, Larcei/Seliph was probably one of the most standard hookups I saw in that world. Let's do a checklist, shall we? Lachesis found Holyn attractive this time around, and somehow wound up with him.

Ayra and Beowulf were trying to help one another in their attempts to woo the former two… and wound up wooing each other in the process.

The womanizing knight from Chalphy SOMEHOW seduced the angelic knight, the girl who had lost her cheer found kinship and comfort with the thief, the dancer gave the ugly knight some TLC.

The priestess who started it all wound up with the priest who predicted the end of it all, and the heir of Jungby gave her ear, then eventually her heart and womb to the hopeless romantic from Velthomer.

Actually, that last one is an interesting story in of itself, but you're not here for that. No I can talk about the odd couples later, for now, I'm here to tell you the tale of the twins of Isaac and the heirs of Grannvale.

Larcei was never very interested in personal romance. She wasn't opposed to it. The matters simply was… it just wasn't her thing, as like Lachesis before her, she set for herself some particularly high standards that she didn't actually expect for anyone to pass.

However, despite her disinterest in romantic pursuits relating to herself, she loved to play matchmaker with other people. For example, her best friend, Cridne.

The poor girl had almost been violated, and had thus entered a passionate misandry phase. Larcei managed to break through to her through talk and finagling Diarmund into her life. The young man was a true gentleman, essentially the epitome of his mother's standards for the male sex.

He was so incessantly kind, that Larcei wasn't sure that any other man could have broken through her shell. Now the two were a dedicated couple. It was almost a shame, he pretty much fit all of Larcei's standards as well.

If it weren't for the circumstances, she might've actually given him a chance herself, he was simply that great a guy.

Larcei also helped that family by nursing the romantic life of Cridne's twin, Dalvin. He'd been fond of an Isaacian cleric in training named Mana for quite some time. Thanks to Larcei's incessant prodding, he'd finally stepped up and gotten his girl.

She was rather proud of that one. But all of her scheming and all of her plans were secondary to her main goal, finding a match for her twin brother.

He'd dated a few of the Tirnanogue girls, but he'd always break it off after a few months at best. Larcei was pretty sure that the current record holder was Lana, lasting for three months.

This gave Larcei an impression, that her brother wasn't interested in the Isaacian stock, but rather in "exotic" women. Though, let's be frank here, Larcei's definition of "exotic" was "doesn't have black, brown, or blonde hair or look remotely Isaacian".

While this still gave her a broad range to work with in a world with a population of Technicolor hair, it did help too narrow her search. Especially since she actually had a specific hair type in mind. She was looking for a silver-haired maiden.

She had noticed in their youth that Ulster had always seemed awestruck by images of the late Empress Deirdre. And she also vividly remembered a couple of incidents where they met a woman with silver hair a Tirnanogue. While everyone else had reacted to her presence in a relatively normal fashion, Ulster would stare at her wide eyed and openmouthed, with no explanation. Every time.

Taking this into account sealed the deal for her. She knew a war with the empire was coming, and as soon as they started moving, she would seek out a silver-haired maiden, bait her, then throw her in Ulster's general direction.

Then eat popcorn in the aftermath. (I made that last one up. They didn't actually have corn in Jugdral. It sucks to be them).

As you probably know, she didn't need to search very hard. Lewyn delivered Julia right into her clutches. Of course, she had to do a balancing act, because at about the same time, Johan was recruited into their ranks and he was very interested in courting Larcei. Thus she had to balance her matchmaking attempts and being matched herself.

This is where Seliph comes into play. Larcei had always considered him a good friend. He respected her boundaries and generally acted as a voice of reason, which she acknowledged that she kind of needed. Her matchmaking schemes could get a little insane at times, and he was consistently there to keep her grounded.

Once, she had blown him off… only for her scheme to spectacularly blow up in her face. She didn't blow him off anymore. So, while on their way to the Isaacian capital, she related her plan to him.

"Umm… I'm like, 95% certain that Lewyn sees her as a daughter and that that translates into 'I will freaking murder you if you break her heart in a matchmaking scheme. Or match her, period.' That's the vibe I'm getting anyways." was how he responded.

"…The way I see it, he wants us to bring her comfort and happiness. What, do you think that Ulster can't do that?" responded Larcei after a brief hesitation.

"I'm not saying that, but are you sure that you've guessed correctly? About Ulster and silver hair, I mean."

"You saw how he reacted when Julia first showed up. You tell me if I'm right, Royal Blue." retorted Larcei.

Seliph considered this for about half a second before he said "OK. Yea, I think that you're right about Ulster's type. But how can you be certain that she'll love him? She only seems interested in following me around."

"Oh, that's simple. Just keep Ulster and I near you at all times. Claim we're bodyguards, or something. That way, we'll be near when she is near if she's going to follow you literally everywhere."

"OK… I can see Ulster being satisfied with that, but are you sure that you'll be happy, being kept away from the thick of battle like that?"

Larcei snorted "Kept away? Royal Blue, you're like, the imperial enemy number one. They're going to be targeting your pretty head on a pretty consistent basis. Being stuck by you will probably keep me in the thick of it. Besides, constantly being with you will help me."

"…How's that?" asked Seliph, almost afraid to ask.

"You'd be keeping me away from mister Dreamy Dozel. There are going to be social events, war or not, and he'll try to cut in and dance with me, I can guarantee it. You can help me stop that by dancing with me instead. You'd appreciate the opportunity, wouldn't you?"

Now poor Seliph nearly had a heart attack. The truth of the matter was, he'd had something resembling a crush on Larcei for a while now, and he was a bit jealous of the attention that Johan was attempting to shower on her. This statement immediately made him think "Oh gods! Does she know?!"

Larcei didn't actually know until this precise moment, when she witnessed Seliph's reaction to her statement. Seliph had an awful poker face, while Larcei had mastered hers. So while he panicked, she thought to herself, "Huh, so you actually have a thing for me, Royal Blue? Eh, could be worse. I'd rather screw you than that Dozel boy any day. This could make things interesting. Balancing you, pawning off Johan onto someone else, and taking care of my brother… this could very well turn out to be my best matchmaking game ever!

With this mindset ingrained into her thoughts, she moved forward with her plan. When Isaac was taken, the people held a celebration in their honor. Larcei made sure to keep herself attached to "Royal Blue", throughout the whole thing, in order to deny their respective prospective lovers a chance.

She was somewhat displeased by the fact that Ulster didn't jump at the chance to dance with Julia, and that for the first part of it, she was standing to the side looking morose and lonely.

So, Larcei decided to make a gamble, during a lull, she approached Julia, and said, "do you want to hear a secret?"

Julia jolted in surprise "Oh! Umm… if you want to tell me, I guess it's ok…" she mumbled.

Larcei grinned and whispered in her ear "You see my brother over there, the guy with black hair and armor like mine standing on his own? Here's something he never intended to be public knowledge. He loves silver haired maidens."

"What?!" squeaked Julia, face rapidly growing red.

"Oh, don't worry, he's never consummated his love, but he's always been fascinated by girls with silver hair. He always adopts the same stupid gob-smacked expression whenever one shows up, and he always goes silent. He never goes into detail about it, but it's my duty as his twin sister to take note of these things." said Larcei, grinning like a shark.

"Why don't you go and make his day?"

"What?!" squealed Julia, like a pig about to be slaughtered.

"Go to him, ask for a dance. Don't worry, he'll be just as embarrassed about it as you. So you'll be perfect together."

"But…I…umm…he…" whined Julia.

"I have eyes, you know." whispered Larcei. "I've noticed how you've been looking at my Royal Blue. I'm keeping him as my dance partner for my own reasons. But if you do me this favor and give my brother his dream dance, I promise, I'll let you have one with my Royal Blue."

Now, Julia had sharp ears, and she had heard of Larcei's matchmaking habit already, so she had an inkling of what she was up to. She had actually hoped that she'd use that skill to help her get Selph's attention.

While she was disappointed about how things actually turned out, she noticed Larcei's word usage. How she referred to Seliph by a pet name, and how she kept referring to him as "my" when she referred to him.

Thus, she came to this conclusion. That Larcei wanted Seliph for herself, and that she had noticed Julia's own attraction. Instead of acting in a stereotypically jealous manner, Larcei was instead trying to get rid of her romantic rival in a nice way, by setting her up with someone else.

The facts that she was still willing to offer her a dance with Seliph, and that the guy she was trying to set her up with was he own twin, indicated that Larcei bore no malice towards her. After all, why would she want someone she hated as her sister in law?

Julia didn't want to strain the goodwill she had received, so she relented to Larcei's scheme.

Larcei grinned from ear to ear. Julia also had a terrible poker face, so it told Larcei that she had gotten the desired reaction. Larcei had chosen her words deliberately, and Julia was having exactly the reaction that she had intended, as far as she could tell.

She guided Julia by the hand to where her brother was. "Oh Ulster! Someone would like to dance with you. Why don't you treat this sweet young thing." she chirped in a singsong voice.

As Ulster gawked at them and Julia started to move forward, Larcei decided to go the funny route, and she manually shoved Julia into Ulster's arms and ran.

In the meantime, Johan had started out just as morose as Julia. He'd turned traitor, his father and brother were dead, and he couldn't even get a dance with the girl that he wanted.

Larcei had taken this into account, so she decided to attempt to throw him a bone and throw another girl in his direction. So, just before the dance, she had pulled Fee to the side and talked her into attempting to cheer Johan up.

So she catted him up and danced with him. It helped that she wasn't particularly fond of Arthur due to his… behavior. He was capable of being cheerful and friendly, but the way he displayed such emotions was somewhat… off-putting. She couldn't quite place her finger on why she felt that way about him.

As it turned out, she'd need to stay near Johan on a regular basis. The Isaacians, who made up most of their force, and Johan's defectors from Dozel did not get along very well at all. So, Fee thrust herself betwixt them as a sort of intermediary. (As Silessian nobility, her bias was considered less focused in this situation).

So, over time, Johan grew fond of her and her upbeat attitude, while she actually enjoyed his poetry. As a result, they actually wound up becoming a couple, and much sooner than Larcei would've anticipated, eliminating her, "I need to keep away from Johan" reasoning for sticking near Seliph. And she was frustrated by Ulster and Julia, as they were not visibly romantic (though they were working something out between them).

Then, along came Tine, and she wound up making a mess out of Larcei's mind. The young girl showed an obvious attraction to Seliph. Consciously, Larcei's first instinct was "oh, I should help her with that." but she quickly found that she didn't actually want to do that, for whatever reason.

This forced her to take pause and engage in some self-reflection. Then she realized, "Wait… am I getting… jealous here? Oh shit, I am. I guess my plan worked a little to well, and I'm falling for the Royal Blue after all!"

She sighed. So it seemed that now it was now time for her to take on a challenge she had never seriously considered. Matchmaking herself. But first, she had to take care of Tine.

After some consideration, she decided that perhaps the blunt approach would be for the best. It might be hurtful in the short term, but it could work out better for everyone in the long run.

So, she pulled Tine to the side and explained things to her. "Look, I like to play matchmaker, so I tend to notice when people are making longing glances. Like the ones that you've been giving Royal Blue."

"Who?" asked Tine.

"Seliph." said Larcei.

"Oh. So… are you… going to… help me?" asked Tine meekly.

Larcei hissed through her teeth. "Well, see, that's the thing, kid. My first instinct was, 'I'm totally going to help this kid.' But then, I quickly realized that I didn't actually want to help you. Which is weird for me, because I love doing this. So that's when I realized… yea, sorry kid, but it turns out that I want the Royal Blue for myself." she said, rubbing the back of her neck and delivering the most awkward grin in existence.

"…OH." said Tine, looking away. Larcei could hear her heart breaking with that one syllable. So she tried to intervene.

"OK, look, I wasn't planning on this. I grew up with him, and I always saw him as a good friend. Lately, I've been staying at his side more often as part of some other schemes I've got in the works. I guess I made them work to well and on myself unintentionally. Believe me, this wasn't part of my plan."

She shook her head "Look, I'm only telling you about this because I'm afraid of what I might do if I get jealous. I've always been a bit hot blooded, and I'll be the first to admit, I get nasty when I'm pissed. And, well, gods know that you don't deserve to have me angry with you for no good reason. That's just unfair and heaping an extra layer of cruelty on top of what you've already been through."

Larcei sighed. "So, look. I can help you otherwise. I can help you find someone else. It's the least that I can do in this situation.

Tine just gave her a look. "Do… you really think that you can find someone else?"

Larcei swallowed guiltily "I'll do my best, kid."

Tine was reluctant to trust Larcei or to go along with her, and so, for a while longer, her affections remained with Seliph. Eventually, Larcei managed to steer her in the direction of a certain other Noble Blue that she was familiar with.

His jokey demeanor actually managed to make her smile with regularity, something that she desperately needed in her life after the life she had lead. Though now, as a result of this Larcei had to contend with an angry Arthur, who was not pleased with Larcei's shenanigans.

Not only was he upset about his little sister's emotions being toyed with like this, he was upset with her because he'd been interested in Fee himself, and he knew what Larcei had done. This gave him the impression that Larcei was working against him.

So Larcei decided to attempt to hook him up with another Pegasus knight in order to get him off her back, but how to manage that? He was now on high alert and incredibly suspicious. He'd have zero trust in her involvement in any way if she attempted anything for his benefit.

She went to Seliph's room one night to complain about her difficulties and to see if he had any advice.

"See, this is what happens when you interfere with other people's romantic lives. Now, you're in too deep and you've screwed yourself over." said Seliph, sighing.

"Why did you have to interfere with Tine, anyways? You said that she was into me, right? I mean, I'm available, so I at the very least would have given her a chance. She's like an abused puppy that deserves a treat, if you ask me. Who knows it could have worked, I can think of a couple of reasons why we might have actually worked as a couple."

At that, Larcei froze and swallowed hard, then looked away as she said "Yea… well… it turns out that I don't exactly want you to be considered available."

"What… what do you mean by that?" asked Seliph, heart skipping a beat.

Larcei turned around and settled herself on his lap. "I mean… when I thought about working my magic between the two of you, I realized… I had already been working my magic on myself, and I don't want a rival." Larcei looked at him and grinned "I see that you're catching my implication."

Seliph turned red and looked away.

"I know that you're interested but don't want to impose on me. I noticed a while ago." now she snuggled closer, if that was at all possible. "Now, I'm telling you… I'm interested. What do you have to say to that? Oh… wait, you don't have to say anything, I already know how you feel."

Seliph finally looked at her, face crimson. Finally, he stuttered "C-Can I…?"

"Yes." said Larcei, smiling.

"Bu-! You…You don't even know-"

"It doesn't matter what you were about to say, you can do it." she whispered in his ear. And with that, she had him caught.

He leaned forward, clearly trying to psych himself up for a kiss, so she took over and snogged him.

Ulster went into full on panic mode once Julia got kidnapped, because at that point, he was sincerely in love with her.

On her end, having her memories restored threw Julia's emotions into a tizzy. At that point, she'd hadn't been quite in love with him, but she was well on her way there. But now, knowing who and what she was did something to her on an emotional level.

She simultaneously wanted to push him away and hold onto him forever. Knowing the truth about her family made her feel… cursed. That she was doomed never to have a happy family because of her blood connections and attempting to find love would only lead to tragedy.

But at the same time… it was precisely because of what had happened to her that she wanted to throw caution to the wind, and take what she wanted because she had no idea what could happen to her. She wanted to throw everything to the side and wrap herself in a lover's arms. She… she couldn't bring up these conflicting emotions to her father when they spoke.

When she was finally freed, Ulster came running, calling her name. Then he slowed to a stop as she stared at him. "Julia… do you remember me? Do you still… care about me or… or do you want me to leave-"

He was interrupted by Julia doing the boldest thing that she had ever done. She leapt into his arms, all of her limbs attaining a vice like grip. Then she kissed him. Then she said "I've been… putting my mind together. I know who and what I am now, but… I still want you, if you'll have me."

Once the war ended and everything got settled, both couples were officially engaged. Since it was two families uniting, they decided to make it one wedding. It was a tremendous affair, and there were a good number of people who were scandalized by the fact that the emperor and his sister were marrying Isaacian royals.

After all, didn't this entire mess start with those Isaacians? Of course, explanations were made and the blame was properly spread instead of concentrated.

Of course, not everyone was satisfied, but after this, it was generally decided that these unions were fitting. Since the horrors of the past two decades began with the two nations trying to kill one another, it was fitting that their heirs would fall in love and unite them and intermingle their bloodlines.

Julia brought a fancy bouquet, and Larcei brought a fancy bouquet and a sword. Because of course she did.

Ulster found the entire affair to be incredibly embarrassing and awkward, but both ladies thought that it was the most fun that they had had in years. Forever after they were glad that Larcei's game had gotten out of her control.

Because life and love is just a game, isn't it. They were lucky that it all turned out so well for them.

END ENTRY FE-AVJY-TP: 00000605 J Armsmaster's log.