#🦊🥀Tails of the Fallen... AU

[honey-minded-hivemind]

For Tales of the Fallen... AU, what would Reader be doing in the modern or semi-modern era in the remote town by the forest, and why are theu there?

My guesses are:

• it's a haunted forest of lost or upset souls

• bodies are usually hidden there, so mononoke abound in that area

or, the funniest in my opinion

• the town is f*cking nuts

Reader, a guardian who has to defeat mononoke, also has to deal with the people, the beings, and the reincarnations of all kinds of old friends and foes... Sadly, theu don't get a vacation very often, and their nails get broken every now and again. They can't even have a good cup of tea or juice without something scraping at their senses, screaming in the woods, or bursting through their wall (amd always the same wall)...

Ugh... they need to reconsider this place... it never seems to sleep...

@sugar-soda @thewickedweiner @crow-crystal

[crow-crystal]

A cabin, cozy as it is, never seems to hold more than one person in its walls. Not that anyone in town noticed. The cabin wasn't too far away. It's only half an hour by car. Yet, its owner never was one for socializing.

Readers their name, a bit on the quiet side but nice enough. Then again, many people in town play by the same rule of, "You leave me alone, I leave you alone." So they don't care much. Sure, they came to town for groceries and such, but they really just stuck to themselves. Most everyone in town did, but Reader still had a few friends. Even if it was only a few people, and yes, Bob the old man running one of the small stores counts, no Reader doesn't care if he's basically like a grandpa to them, it still counts!

Anyways, they weren't the most normal person, but they hid that well enough. Exceptionally, actually. No one ever thought much of their makeup, not that they wore it all the time, but sometimes they went into town with it. The town was full of all sorts of different cultures, after all. Perhaps that was why they settled here? Either way, the witch doctor look they had wasn't any cause of concern, heck a bunch of kids dressed like it nowadays.

It'd been a normal day. It was supposed to be a normal day. They'd finished grocery shopping, putting their stuff away, and they were supposed to take a nap they oh so needed. Yet, fate had other plans they supposed, and who were they to question that? It was a small habit they had, going out into the woods that blended into their cabins backyard, one they'd gained after one to many hunters leaving animals to die in traps they'd forgotten. It wasn't like Reader hated hunters. They hunted themself when they needed to, but they always did hate it when people took more than needed from nature. Survival was one thing. Hunting only to cause suffering to the animals was another. Like always, they shoved that anger towards whatever idiots left bear traps- (in an area, bears rarely showed up in mind you. Ms. Lucy and her cub Paddington, lovingly named by Reader, stayed in a different area of the woods after all.) -around down to deal with later. Following the sounds of the forest and whatever was trapped, along with the faint smell of blood. Only, they didn't find an animal. No, instead, they found a small kid.

Oh, spirits, this is bad

The kid was hurt, badly, considering a pretty complicated trap set off, and their leg was in a bear trap now. Without much thought, Reader found themselves rushing to the kid. Keeping as calm as possible as they gently speak to the clearly terrified and in pain kid. "Hey, hey, I need you to try and breathe, alright?" After a bit, ignoring their internal screaming, they managed to calm the kid down and get the bear trap off. Gently picking the kid up as they explain, as softly as they can, that they were going to their cabin to patch the kid up.

○●○●○●○●

Wich kid is it? Up to you.

How old is the reader? It'd probably make more sense if they were older than the kids but not quite a full adult yet in human standards. Like just starting their 20's. Still tho, up to you.

●○●○●○●○

(Kid's name) didn't exactly know why they thought it was a good idea, getting so close to the human town. They just wanted to explore! Now they were so going to be grounded when they got back... this human was nice, though. It was a bit blurry, probably because of the pain, but they spoke so softly, and (Name?) didn't know if it was the blood loss, but this human just felt.. safe. By the time they woke up in an unfamiliar area, leg bandaged and a pair of clean clothes set aside on the nightstand-wait nightstand? Oh, they must be in the cabin the human had spoken of. They couldn't remember much..

(Reader, after bandaging the barely conscious bleeding kid, decided that the guest room of their cabin was finally needed. Concidering they couldn't just let the kid sleep on the couch, they needed a real bed! No Reader didn't have a panic attack over the situation. You're crazy. *insert footage of Reader panicking and pacing after fixing the now passed out kid up*... shut it.)

Time skip, because I suck at this, Reader ends up nursing the kid back to health. Making sure they rest and all that so no long-lasting damage was made. Before the two knew it, the kid was walking normally again, and Reader was telling the kid they should head home now. (Weren't their parents worried? Reader isn't qualified for this geeze-) Suprisingly, there was a hesitance in leaving. After all, Reader was so nice, they made great food, they treated them so normally, and they helped heal them! They just felt safe. Couldn't Reader come with them? The adults would love to meet them! Still, the kid leaves, preparing for the grounding they'd get once they got home. They'd been gone a couple weeks after all, and Readers cabin was.. well, they didn't know, Reader said something about the forest not liking uninvited visitors when they'd asked why they'd never seen them before.

That's okay, though. They couldn't wait to tell the others about the super nice human they met, not to mention the food! Even if they'd be grounded for being gone so long, geeze, the adults weren't going to let them explore alone for a long while, weren't they? They hoped no one noticed the small wobble in their steps, Reader said they were all healed but needed to walk more so their body realized they were okay again. The kid not noticing how once they got to a certain point, the forest itself seemed to shift behind them, and their location changed unoticeably. As if nature had spit them practically in Readers backyard to get the kid help, only to put them back once they left. After all, the forest didn't like uninvited guests. The forest couldn't have Reader being bothered now, could they? The kid continued on their way, making back to the others with ease as familiar terrain came to them. Unaware of nature's change.

... maybe they should visit Reader again next time?

@honey-minded-hivemind

@sugar-soda @thewickedweiner I have watched... Mononoke!!! (Not the princess, the weird fox magician/exorcist person)...

So, um, new au idea:

What if Reader and the mutants are all different creatures/monsters/beings from all kinds of mythology and fantasy, but because of something bad happening to them? And Reader is the person trying to help them heal, or stopping them from killing someone, or letting them do so if their victim deserved it?

We have all kinds of mythological creatures to give dark backstories to that can be the mutants, like kelpies, sirens, kitsune, bakeneko, changelings, etc. !!!

Ye or no???

[honey-minded-hivemind]

Hahaha, amazing, @crow-crystal! Utterly wonderful!!!

I'm going to say our Medicine Seller Reader (perhaps a kitsune or some kind of fox spirit/guardian/part-human/etc.) was about 18-20 when they first became a guardian who fought and slew mononoke or dangerous demons...

As for this child, hmmm... if this is when Reader first became a guardian, say, I their first decade or century, then it could be... one of the adults as a small child!!!! In that case, I'd say either Erik/Magneto, Raven/Mystique, or Charles/The Professor.

If this is set after the first century of their job, so, anywhere between 120-500 years down the line, it could be Kurt/Nightcrawler, Kitty/Shadowcat, Todd/Toad, Evan/Spyke, Scott/Cyclops, or even Pietro/Quicksilver!

Logan/Wolverine and Victor/Sabretooth are older than Reader, and happen to be some kind of nature spirits and had guarded a family or two for at least two eons... Ororo/Storm is a storm/weather/rain goddess, who had ties with a mortal family when she or her sister took one for a spouse, and this Evan came to be, a gift child from the goddesses of rain and snow and thunder... Jean/Phoenix ends up becoming the next reincarnation of the Phoenix!

Now, I watched Ayakashi, the series before Mononoke and where the Medicine Seller originally was from, and I've watched Mononoke and it's movie, A Phantom In The Rain (and a video explaining the ending, because they showed rather than told what happened. So my guess was mostly right, but i had to know for sure what the ending meant)

How should Reader dress? Is this in an older time period, or modern? And does anyone have any creatures of myth or folklore you think any of the mutants would be in this world?

@sugar-soda @thewickedweiner @vivid-bun @danniloversugar @crowwithguns @opossumdaydreamz @crow-crystal

(Extra: Reader loves sweets, rice, and chicken; they like odd stories; and they happen to have fluffy hair, with one end held back with a hair tie or ribbon, like the Medicine Seller, or a fox tail)

@sugar-soda @thewickedweiner I have watched... Mononoke!!! (Not the princess, the weird fox magician/exorcist person)...

So, um, new au idea:

What if Reader and the mutants are all different creatures/monsters/beings from all kinds of mythology and fantasy, but because of something bad happening to them? And Reader is the person trying to help them heal, or stopping them from killing someone, or letting them do so if their victim deserved it?

We have all kinds of mythological creatures to give dark backstories to that can be the mutants, like kelpies, sirens, kitsune, bakeneko, changelings, etc. !!!

Ye or no???