#a little bit of sad and how to train your dragon in here :>

[alpineshift]

Ohhhh! If it inspires you, “things are easier with you” for the prompt fic thingy ❤️

I am most certainly inspired 🥹🌸❤️ I hope you like this lil fantasy universe!

"Oh."

Nico wonders if he should be surprised that Jack is the only person waiting at the scenic top of Calfic Summit, but then he thinks back to Halley's uncharacteristic vagueness in her invite, Claire and Bishop's secrecy, and Justin's straight-up inability to keep a poker face, and decides, no; he's simply the fool for not questioning his meddling apprentices further.

Judging by the flurry of emotions on Jack's face, from surprise to pinched aversion to realization and somewhat exasperated resignation, he's also been duped as well.

"I'm guessing there's no actual training session going on here," Jack sighs.

"Nope," Nico agrees, popping the p softly, and Jack snorts, planting his hands on his hips as he shakes his head.

The awkward silence that falls between them could almost make Nico burst out laughing; here they are, both experienced instructors and accomplished, sky-scraping dragon riders toughed by both wind burn and fiery wars, and still they cannot hold a proper conversation between the two of them anymore.

"It figures," Jack finally mumbles, the first to break the silence. "I thought those little shits were being particularly sneaky about something."

"I'm sure they thought they were doing something good."

Jack snorts, the sound loud but not rude. "Oh, they'll be hearing from me, good intentions or not. I had plans to fly up to Dome Peak tonight, but decided against it because they said they wanted canyon-diving help. And now here I am."

"Here you are," Nico echoes, then glances around. "Um. Where's Atria?"

Jack's gaze unfocuses for a second, and Nico watches as the soft blue of his irises flickers into narrow reptilian slits, familiar teal-grey dispersing around dark lines for a split second before his eyes are human again.

"Down the east side of the mountain," he answers. "I think she's looking for fish in the stream."

Nico takes it as a good sign that Atria didn't immediately come launching her way back up the mountain the moment she scented him—and she absolutely would have, with the direction the wind is blowing. Despite their history, she clearly doesn't consider Nico a threat to Jack.

"Nice," he manages, and the eye roll Jack sends his way would be infuriating if Nico didn't also feel ridiculous with his own answer.

"And Linaria?" Jack asks, and even though Nico definitely doesn't have the draconic oculus trait—that's a dying ancestral gene unique to the House of Hughes only—he's got a perfectly functioning bond with his own dragon. Who, at the moment, is taking a really nice nap at the bottom of mountain, unaware of the turn of events.

He tells Jack as such, and maybe he's imagining it, but he sees the momentary softness sweep over the other man's expression.

(Jack had always, always had a soft spot for Linaria, in a way that most dragon riders rarely give to dragons that are not their own.)

Another gust of wind blows by, carrying with it the faintest traces of other reptilian scents in the air, and both Nico and Jack turn their gazes up to the sky, still warm from the lingering traces of the setting sun.

"Wild clans," Jack hums, unbelievably perceptive about the ongoings in the sky as usual. "Going northeast."

"Think they'll try to go through the that weird stratus patch?"

"Not if they can get under it. But it looks like it's going to rain, so maybe they'll diverge."

"Tough," Nico shakes his head. "I'll be sure to warn Timo, he'll want to know the migration routes. And Brett and his pack are likely to run into them if they have to diverge over the plateau route to avoid interacting."

"And that's why you were the Captain," Jack huffs, but to Nico's surprise, he's more amused than he is bitter. It throws him for a bit, and he'll blame that for the way the words tumble from him unfettered.

"You fared just fine as an Alternate."

Jack slants him a look. "I was never as good as you, so don't even try it."

"I'm not lying." Nico scuffs the toe of his boot against the ground, feeling the metallic creak of his prosthetic beneath the warmed leather. "You were always my greatest alt, Jack. You know this."

Jack has gone very, very still, the way Atria does whenever she's calculating the right time to lunge. Maybe that ought to be Nico's sign to run, but when it comes to Jack, he's never been sound in his judgement for that man.

"Don't," Jack says, very quietly. "I've already spent far too much time thinking about the what ifs and what could've beens for the last month we've worked together. I—we—can't afford any more distractions. Or to get stuck in the past."

It's too late, because Nico's already stuck at Jack's admission from the very start.

"You think about me?"

"Oh, fuck you," Jack snaps. The scar bisecting side left side of his mouth twists as his lips turn downward into a deep frown, expression shuttering. "As if you haven't been watching my every move since I came back to Calfic Base."

"Yeah, because I missed you." Consider Nico's brain-to-mouth filter completely obliterated, because the sight of Jack here, like this, glowing under the light of golden hour fading across the sky, is becoming unbearable. "And watching you train the apprentices brought back far too many memories I've spent years trying to bury."

"Like all of the apprentices we've buried too?" Jack fires at him, and the words would've hurt like a rusted knife twisting into Nico's chest had Nico not known the very mention of their past apprentices would be the equivalent of Jack squeezing that rusted blade with his bare hands. Their failures tortures them both in equal amounts—as it always will.

"Yes." He watches Jack close his eyes, grief washing over his expression, before he continues. "But more than anything, it made me think of how things were easier with you by my side. And how that hasn't changed, even with all that time in-between."

Jack inhales, sharp and affected. His hands clench into fists by his side.

Nico takes a gamble, and reaches out. He carefully catches hold of Jack's terse fingers, and merely cradles the curl of Jack's hand in his own until slowly, little by little, Jack concedes and unfurls each digit with minuscule movements.

And Nico laces their fingers together as soon as he's able, slotting their digits together like they'd never let each other go; like they hadn't torn each other apart before carrying their broken hearts away in shame.

Like they still have a second chance together.

"It hasn't changed," Jack finally says, quiet and vulnerable. Nico looks to his right, and Jack is already looking back at him, expression pensive and thoughtful and—dare Nico say it—hopeful. "The way things are, here, now—it wasn't just back then. Things are easier with you. And it always will be, I think."

[togeppy]

everywhere, everything ;

liam mairi x reader

liam and reader make sure that they're with each other everywhere and through everything, including death ✧ : honestly I just wanted to use the chorus from everywhere, everything by noah kahan in a fic and this seemed appropriate. also i discovered i might be incapable of writing a fourth wing fic that doesn't include at least a little bit of something sad?

You knew what you were signing up for when you agreed to stay in Resson and fight, but it doesn't make the fear humming through your body any more manageable. You're terrified, and you're doing the best you can to stay alive, but every instinct is telling you to run, to flee, to be anywhere but here. You're a first year cadet - while the other marked ones are skillfully using their signets to fight off the wyvern, your heightened hearing is doing next to nothing to help the battle. The venin move with lightning fast precision; by the time you hear them approaching, they've already closed the distance, ready to engage in a fight.

You feel as if you could slip out of your skin at the feeling of impending doom, but you force yourself to tighten your hold on your dragon - you made your decision to defend the townspeople and you will not back down, regardless of how much you wish you were safe behind the wards right now. Everyone rider present is willing to die an honourable death fighting for the defenseless, and you figure that if you were to meet Malek, this is how you would want to do it. So you forge on.

All you can do is close your eyes and focus on sound cues so that you can direct your dragon towards areas you think the wyvern and venin are headed. You try to drown out the sound of dragons and your friends yelling commands, and focus on the sound of the wyvern's distinguishable wingbeats. Seconds pass and you catch onto a pattern that seems to be not far from where your dragon is currently flying.

"Up ahead!" you yell to your dragon, who instantly understands your cue, and shoots forward in the direction where you heard the wyvern approaching. Surely enough, ahead of you are two riderless wyvern, poised to attack. You're not prepared to take on two wyvern alone, and you can feel the panic once again rising in your throat, before your dragon comforts you through your bond.

"Deigh and your mate approach," they comment just as you hear the familiar sound of Deigh's wings approaching not far from your right. You only have a brief moment where you catch Liam giving you a small smile from atop Deigh's back, meant to reassure you that you're not alone and he'll be there fighting with you through this all.

Liam had been a constant pillar of support in your life, and nothing seemed to change even now, in the midst of battle. Growing up, he was a friendly smile that treated you as an equal, even when the older boys were bigger and stronger than you and easily took you down in training. When you were sent to separate foster homes, him with Xaden and you with Sloane, his letters weren't only about how his sister was faring. He always checked in on how you were doing, knowing that you had no family left and no one else that you could be vulnerable with. In the quadrant he was a deterrent for anyone who tried messing with you. He didn't care when someone muttered remarks questioning his own loyalty, but the second the comments were aimed at you, he was ready to defend you in a heartbeat. It was because of his constant support that you fell so deeply in love with him.

As Deigh swoops in to help fight against the wyvern, you find the fear gripping your chest lessening. Now that Liam is with you, you feel like you're capable of handling this fight. The two of you work well in combat together - your signets made you the eyes and ears of your squad, so you have a solid defense, preventing most sneak attacks that might come your way.

Liam begins channeling from Deigh, shooting spears of ice at the wyvern closest to him, while your dragon shoots flames at the wyvern directly in front of you. They're both momentarily stunned, and the two dragons take that as an opportunity to fly in, your dragon immediately flying over the wyvern and swiping their claws against its wings. The attacked wyvern buckles at the gashes now hindering its ability to stay in the air. The beast tries to counter by clawing back, but your dragon is too fast, clasping its jaw around the wyvern's neck and shattering it with a crack, causing it to fall out of the sky and crash into the ground below, killing it on impact.

You look over to the side, and Liam and Deigh have similarly deftly dealt with their own foe. You and Liam lock eyes, and he smiles once again, quickly lifting his right hand to his heart as a sign of vulnerability to you. Over the past year, the two of you had used that motion as a silent 'I love you' for moments like this, where you wanted to show that you were there to support each other when you couldn't tell each other with words. It was a sign that the two of you would be together everywhere, through everything. You do the motion back to him, but you're broken away from your moment of solidarity when you hear the sound of more wingbeats from further behind you.

Your dragon immediately alerts Deigh to what you've heard, and the four of you are shooting off in that direction before you can even register that the decision was made. You're flying fast, the cool wind prickling your skin as you take in the smell of smoke surrounding you from all angles. You're so focused on the wyvern that you're heading towards that you don't realize your mistake until it's too late.

Ahead flies a riderless beast, but the bigger concern exists behind you where two wyvern are following you in close pursuit, each with a venin atop its back. You suddenly feel your stomach drop as you realize the gravity of the situation you're in. Liam can at least use his ice to deter the venin until he can go in for the killing blow, but you don't have a signet that will help buy you time, and the alloy-hilted dagger strapped to your thigh isn't doing much until you're within a dangerous proximity. By that point, you've already reached a situation that there is no coming back from.

"What are our odds of survival if we go in for the attack?" you question your dragon as they veer from their original course, similarly realizing the precarious situation you've been put in.

"Lower than I'd like to risk," they respond, and you know it hurts them to admit it. Your dragon is prideful, and for them to back down from a fight means that they know that it's not a battle that's likely to be won. If there was only one venin at your rear, you and Liam together could have a chance at killing it. In a two on two fight? You would be meeting Malek in seconds.

Deigh seems to come to the same conclusion, both of you splitting off in opposite directions, each with a venin on your rear. You don't venture far from each other though, eventually circling back so that you're now flying in parallel to one another, venin not far behind each of you. Both dragons and riders acknowledge that taking on the fight together may grant you with a higher chance of survival than fighting alone. You soar past some of your fellow marked ones, and you can't help but send up a prayer that one of them is free enough to come to your aid.

You're busy trying to formulate a plan of attack, before you see a flash of movement from off to your right where Liam is flying. The venin behind you are busy sending balls of flame at both dragons, but you're able to evade them with sufficient ease. However, you notice Liam standing up on Deigh's back, running towards the dragon's tail.

"What is he doing?" you ask, alarm lacing your voice, but your dragon stays silent, focused on evading the attacks coming from your rear.

You can't help the gasp that escapes you as Deigh launches Liam into the air towards the wyvern. Within seconds, Liam lands in a crouch on the wyvern's back, pulls out a runed dagger, and slits the venin's throat before it can even attack. You don't even have time to react before Deigh is below the falling wyvern, catching Liam. Seeing Liam deal with the wyvern with such ease brings you some confidence to be able to defeat the enemy that's been trailing you all this time.

"We will fight," your dragon finally pipes up from within your mind, confirming your own thoughts as they bank left in a steep turn.

"I can't do what Liam did, they'll see it coming," you reason, trying to think of the best way to deal with the opponent still chasing you down.

"We will face him together," the voice in your head affirms, pivoting once again to face the venin head-on. Your dragon lets out a strong breath of fire directly at the wyvern, but it has little to no effect. Before you can even fully comprehend what's happening, the wyvern is flying past you, and the venin uses Liam's strategy to launch itself onto your dragon's back. Your heartbeat picks up, and you're quickly unsheathing your daggers, standing to give yourself a fighting chance against the venin. You've lost the element of surprise, but it doesn't mean this battle is lost. You're a good fighter, and you picture the enemy before you as just another one of your sparring partners on the mat.

"Just give up now," the venin spits out, a smirk evident on his face, "It's clear that this this fight is not in your favour."

He might be right, but you're not going to give up so easily. You palm one of the runed daggers, holding it so that you can easily strike when the venin approaches. You're on the defense, not offense. The venin notices this, and moves in to strike at you with its staff. Your dragon is trying its best to stay levelled so not to knock you off, and you use this to your advantage, ducking out of the way of the attack. You use the momentum of the attack to try and slice at the venin's leg, but he notices your attempt and nimbly moves out of the way in response. The two of you stand staring at each other, both anticipating the other's next attack.

You were wholly focused on this fight, trying to scope out your opponent's weak areas, only to be broken from your concentration by the scream of a dragon that you hoped never to hear. Your head quickly jerks to the side as you realize it's Deigh's scream, your eyes frantically searching for a sign that Liam is okay. You spot him with Violet atop Tairn's back, but panic rises in your chest seeing Deigh losing a fight against a wyvern not far away from you.

The venin immediately notices your distraction, using this as an opportunity to strike. He moves in once again with his staff, but you've snapped back to attention in time, able to avoid the strike. You use the venin's confidence against him, a sure slice across the neck that kills it on impact.

You're about to sigh in relief when you notice the venin has died with a smile, and you're momentarily confused. It's then that you feel as if someone has dumped a bucket of ice cold water over your entire body, and every nerve ending in your body is on fire. You look down at where the venin's non-dominant hand would have been, and finally notice that as you made the killing blow on him, so did he deliver the killing blow to you.

A dagger is lodged in your chest, blood slowly dripping out of the wound. You feel your legs go weak, and you move to sit back down on your dragon, lest you die prematurely by falling off their back.

"NO!" you hear your dragon's voice shriek in your head, matched with an equal ear-shattering roar in the physical world.  Only seconds later, you hear another scream, this time from Deigh.

Your dragon makes quick work of trying to lower you to the ground, and you hazily see Violet on Tairn's back looking over at you as well, eyes wide as she catches sight of the blade protruding from your body. Liam is also on Tairn's back, and though your vision is beginning to blur and the ability to think critically leaves you, you realize that something is wrong for them as well.

You look down at the dagger still embedded in your chest. Maybe this is all a dream, and this blow isn't about to kill you. You touch the wound gingerly, and pull your hand away when it comes back soaked in your own blood. Not a dream.

You know better than to pull the blade out, knowing that it will only cause you to bleed out faster and expedite your imminent death. You want at least one more moment with Liam and your dragon before you face Malek.

Your entire body is jolted as your dragon makes contact with the ground, lowering itself to the ground. A blast of grief runs through you and you reach out to your bond.

"Deigh is gone," your dragon informs you. For a moment, you don't know how to process the information. Deigh, who was there alongside you just as long as your own dragon was, has fallen in battle, and you can't help but wish that the red daggertail didn’t suffer as he died. Largely because of the effect of your own injury, it took a few more seconds for you to realize the implications of the loss.

"Liam-" you manage to sputter out, "What happens to Liam?"

You crane your neck over to the side, and notice the dragon's body lying unnaturally, not far from where you still rest atop your dragon's back. A rider whose dragon dies will also meet an untimely fate - Liam is also moments away from death. You can still feel the sorrow emanating down your bond, your dragon well aware that this is the end for you as well - it's inevitable that you will have to say your goodbyes.

"Thank you for everything," you whisper, sliding down from your dragon to the best of your abilities, wincing at the pain from the wound now oozing with even more blood. Your dragon has swiveled its head to be directly in line with yours, and you can't find the strength to stand. You place your hand on their snout and they lean into your touch, closing their eyes, "Thank you for choosing me, and for fighting with me until the very end."

Your dragon blows a gentle huff of steam in your face, a comforting gesture, as tears begin to stream down your cheek, and you close your eyes to rest your head against their snout, where your hand had been only seconds before.

"It was my honour to fight alongside you, every moment of the way." The two of you sit there for a few seconds, and you're only interrupted when you hear Violet's footsteps approaching, eventually coming to a halt beside you.

"Do you want me to bring you to rest beside Liam? Or would you rather stay with your dragon?" she asks, her voice choked as she asks you the question. You open your eyes and stare into the eyes of your dragon, who gives you a small nod.

"Go be with your mate," they respond, moving away so that Violet can help guide you towards the area where Liam lays, not far from you. It's clear he's already said his goodbyes to Violet, and a pained smile ghosts his face as he catches a glimpse of you approaching, supported by Violet. Your blood is soaking her flight jacket, but there isn't much that can be done about the situation when she lays you next to Liam.

Your hand reaches out for his, being able to relax slightly at the feeling of contact with your pillar of support.  After a few seconds of silence, you finally speak, just barely enough strength in your voice to form the last couple of sentences before you both meet your fate.

"Couldn't let me meet Malek without you, could you?" You try to joke as your head rolls lightly to rest on Liam's shoulder.

"What kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you die alone?" He laughs softly, turning his head to place a soft kiss on the top of your head.

Your body by now feels like it's on fire, every movement agonizing, but you find it in yourself to lift your right hand and raise it to your heart. "I love you, Liam. Always and forever, to the grave and beyond. Through everything." By now, your cheeks are soaked with tears, and black starts to dot your vision. You notice other marked ones approaching, the sound of footsteps becoming more frantic, but you can't seem to care - you just want to ride out your last moments with the man you love. Your hand starts to slip, no longer having the strength to hold his own in yours. He moves to intertwine your fingers so that they're joined together with less effort. "Please don't let go."

"Everywhere, everything," Liam mutters, using the last of his strength to raise your joined hands to his lips, pressing a weak kiss to your hand, "I'll love you 'til we're food for the worms to eat. 'Til our fingers decompose, keep my hand in yours."

Both of you are moments away from death, and you can feel your life force slipping away.

"Thank you for loving me, Li," you gasp out, knowing that this is the end for you, "And for letting me love you."

"It's been… my honour." He responds weakly, his pulse slowing beneath you.

Just as everything before, you and Liam are facing your final moments together. The man who was there for you in every waking moment is there alongside you as you breathe in your last gulp of air, and he's there to walk with you into death, hands joined as you enter the afterlife. You let a smile grace your lips knowing that you're in good company for the rest of eternity. You let out your final breath, and everything fades to black.

[b1asho]

So yeah, how to train your dragon is a big deal to me. I'm not going to watch the live action movie grrghhhhg

Here’s some design stuff? Headcanons?

I my head toothless is literally just that weird anchovie as a dragon. He buzzes around like a bug, and his species intentionally mimics common or gardens as a part of their life cycle on land. The only things that mark him out from the bazillion actual common garden subspecies are the blue wings and webbed feet. He looks all big headed and has no teeth because relative to that 1000 year life span, he’s just a fish fry.

Speaking of common or garden browns, I think it’d be funny if Horrorcow actually *was* herbivorous or mostly-herbivorous because that’s just what subspecies she was and the humans just can’t tell the difference because ’it’s a dragon it must eat meat duh’ and they lump all them together. Honestly it’s prolly for the best she peaces out to the caves for a bit, girl is not built for being in that close proximity to a Main Character.

Fireworm is just a bully, Rottweiler sized and classically dragonish. I tried not to think about making them all super realistic or thinking about how all their species could be related because the books don’t really do that super in depth and that’s part of the fun, so she just looks like a dragon (tm) even though the term dragon also covers things that have fur, or feathers, or produce milk, and look vastly different, Her claws are retractable and her leg spurs help fight off other monstrous nightmares. It’s so funny to me that she just immediately defects to the rebellion, it’s so in character even though she seems to have at least sorta vibed with snot.

I really liked drawing Stormfly as a kid, and the fact that she’s dragon meowth/ can just speak Norse because she can is also fun. She’s not feathery, those are like. Skin flaps or something that can move and change color. Very squirmy.

Windwalker is also one of my faves, I’m sad we didn’t get to see the metamorphosis but the mystery of it is also fun. It was also nice to see him start talking again after meeting hiccup. His ability to out-altitude other dragons is his species’ general hunting strategy and eventually his wings will straighten out (but his are in particularly bad shape because of his time working in the enclosed tunnels of the mines.) (Btw it's still crazy to me that dragon and human slavery is just a thing in the books and we just have to deal with it)

Wodensfang is that classic shriveled Old Man. I think that over time, they molt off their size (through literally freezing up, shrinking a little in a shell of their skin, melting bones and muscle and then coming out smaller, like the reverse of shedding skin to get bigger. Just don't think about it too hard, magic is basically canon here ) over time and leave the ocean to leave more room for the whippersnappers who are just coming in from the land. He’s missing most of his teeth, but the envenomed fangs still work.

I also have the book of dragons, it’d be fun to one day go through and draw all of them (I’ve already done that but those were on notebook paper and lost to time)

[sea-owl]

I've been rewatching How to Train your Dragon again, and I want to talk about Astrid.

I'll be so honest. I don't think she ever wanted to actually kill dragons. I think she wanted to protect her home and those she loved. As she leaned, growing up the way to do that was to fight.

I think this is demonstrated really well in the maze scene, too. There's a small moment after Astrid breaks the shield on Stormfly, where we see her give a brief look where she almost looks sad, maybe a little contemplative. She struck the dragon, and while most would consider that an accomplishment among the trainees, she doesn't.

This is hidden quickly when she, rightfully, so if we're gonna be honest, lays into Hiccup. Her speech leads me more to believe that she's just trying to protect her home. "Our parents' war is about to become ours." The active danger to their home is about to become their responsibility, and they need to take it seriously.

Rewinding a little bit in this scene, her actions also prove to her protective nature. She sees Hiccup on his own in the arena and instead of leaving him there distracted, she whispers out to him, bringing him to focus on what was currently happening around them. Waving him over to join her and Snotlout.

Which is why she's mad at Hiccup here. In her eyes, he was not taken this seriously. It was just proven to her when Hiccup continued to ask questions about a dragon that no one had seen or lived to tell the tale while there was an active threat against them in that arena. Astrid will protect her home and those she cares about, even if it's someone from the inside.

We see this again when Astrid corners Hiccup in the grove. She's pissed at him, suspicious because she knows for a fact no one gets as good as he did in such a short amount of time he did without something or someone. But without hesitation, the moment she spots Toothless, she pushes Hiccup out of the way, axe ready to defend them both. She never leaves Hiccup until he confirms that he befriended Toothless. In her perspective, he befriended one of the creatures actively threatening their home.

I also feel like this explains why she was easily convinced later, too. During that flight, she learns of a different side to the dragons. She also learns it's not the dragons but the Red Death, and they're just trying to survive as well. That's why she's ready to jump on board with Hiccup, why she convinces the others to join. He showed a different way, one that would permanently help their home, and get rid of the threat that plagued them for generations.

[argisthebulwark]

This Weight Upon My Shoulders Won't Fade

summary: How they react to seeing you cry. gn reader, no pronouns or y/n used. feat: Vilkas, Cicero, Miraak, Farkas, Brynjolf, Erandur, Arnbjorn warnings: brief mention of injury, lots of stress masterlist

Vilkas panics. He's terrified that you're hurt and begins searching you for injuries. Hastily, he takes mental notes - no sign of blood, no apparent bruising, perhaps it's internal? You haven't been eating well, it could be causing you pain. He pauses when you sniffle and tell him that you aren't injured it's just been an especially rough week. "What do you need?" He's earnest, prepared to shoulder any task that will make your life easier. "What can I do?" "Just - just sit with me for a bit." He eases into the chair at your side and tugs you onto his lap. Vilkas' heart breaks when you cuddle into him and he feels the quivering of your shoulders, uneven breaths puffed out against his skin. He's content to hold you while you cry, pressing kisses to your head and promising that he will take on all of your duties if you need. He's no stranger to responsibility.

Cicero's soft fingers frame your face and peppers kisses across your sore cheeks. Gentle thumbs swipe at your tears, his voice dripping with compassion when he finally speaks. "My Listener, I vow to kill whoever hurt you. I will hunt them down." Your laugh eggs him on, the sad little smile on your face all the encouragement he needs. "Would that make you feel better? Your loyal Cicero to put someone in the ground for you?" His threats escalate, becoming goofier and more outlandish with each giggle he summons from you. He's deliriously proud of himself when you're laughing through your tears, eyes squeezed shut and thankfully beginning to dry. "Should we go out together? I'm sure there's a contract or two waiting around." Cicero urges, offering you one of his beloved blades. "You already made me feel better." You sigh, a grateful kiss planted on his lips. Cicero's a bit shocked - he made you feel better? "I don't deserve you, my Keeper."

Miraak threatens to burn the world for displeasing you. He sinks to his knees, malice lacing his voice when he demands the name of whoever has dared to harm you. He doesn't bother worrying over any repercussions - his world has narrowed down to the tears brimming in your eyes. "Miraak -" "A name, my love." He softens his tone, terrified by the tears spilling down your cheeks. One scarred hand raises to wipe them away but they do not cease. Miraak's blood runs cold when you collapse into his chest, sobs racking your body. "I will tear it all down." He murmurs, allowing you to burrow into his robes. "I will burn the world for hurting you, my dragon." "Can you just stay here instead?" He's relieved to hear a touch of humor in your voice. "Burning the world down can wait. It's not going anywhere."

Farkas gathers you into his broad chest, one hand rubbing across your back. He knows just how much you've been handling since becoming Harbinger and wishes he could take some of the burden for you. He's witnessed the ways your role has broken you down - dark circles under your eyes after the sleepless nights and cheer in your voice nearly gone after another boring meeting. "So proud of you." He mumbles, allowing you to cry into his tunic. "It's so much." His heart drops at your voice - gods, how he misses the easy way you'd once laughed together. "It's all so much, I don't know how much more I can take." "I'll handle all the recruits." "No, that's not your job -" "It is now. Recruiting and training is mine." Farkas wipes at your messy face, relieved when you nod. "And Vilkas can handle all the stuffy meetings." "I couldn't put that on him." "He'll bitch and moan but he's good at that stuff." He kisses your head once more, resolved to never let it get this far again. "Don't worry, honey. We'll take care of everything."

Brynjolf extends a hand for you, offering to show you somewhere quiet. His footsteps are silent when he leads you down to the docks and clambers atop the fishery. The smell isn't exactly pleasant but he's correct - all that chatter from the market and the Flagon are gone, replaced with the soft lapping of waves against old wood. Nestled far from the rest of town he bundles you into his cloak and kisses the top of your head. Lake Honrich's winds are chilly but his warmth keeps that at bay. "Alright, love." He sighs, one arm slung over your shoulders. "Let's hear it. Get it all out." God, it feels good to get everything off your chest. Brynjolf has no shortage of responsibilities but you've never experienced anything like being the Guild Master. You are constantly pulled in a dozen different directions. Everyone needs your full attention at all times. Tasks and assignments have piled up over the months until you're practically drowning under them. "Y'know, I hear you've got a second in command you could assign the bullshit to." Brynjolf finally speaks once you've spilled your guts. "Fairly competent if my reports are correct. Handsome lad, too."

Erandur is fairly sure his heart breaks at the sight. Careful fingers wipe at the fat tears rolling down your cheeks as sweet words fall from his lips. He's seen you hurt before, certainly - he's carried you for miles after attempting to heal a broken bone or close a terrible wound but this anguish is new. "What can I do, my beloved?" He coos, gathering you into his arms. He can't help it, this compulsion to fix everything for you. "Should I draw you a bath? Or we could retire to bed early this evening, chores can wait until the morning." When he sinks into a warm bath at your side, Erandur's terrified by the clammy hands that clasp his. You are powerful, his fearless savior. He's never seen this bone deep exhaustion in you. "It's all so much." You finally mutter when he massages soap into your tense shoulders. "Being the Dragonborn - it's more than one person can handle." "I will carry whatever burdens you permit me to, my love." He murmurs, glad when your tired eyes fall closed. He will offer you anything he can, even if it is simple comfort.

Arnbjorn freezes. His brain halts at the sight of you storming past his workstation with angry tears shimmering in your eyes. It's been years since he's been this emotionally invested - he's forgotten how to handle this. "Hey." He's shocked by the rage in your eyes when you glare over at him, hands clenched at your sides. "Meeting go badly?" "You cannot imagine." Uh oh, he hasn't heard that tension in your voice in ages. "Wanna hit somethin'?" Your acceptance is quite the relief. He keeps a careful hand on the hilt of his latest sword, ensuring that it remains on the workbench when your hammer slams down on the blade. Over and over the sound of metal rings through the Sanctuary, a convenient cover for the angry sobs that slip past your gritted teeth. The forge has dried your tears before they can fall. Once your arms are numb and muscles feel dangerously limp you turn to him, all that burning rage drained away. Arnbjorn doesn't say a word, merely plucking the tools from your quivering hands and pressing a kiss to your sweaty forehead.

[vulpixisananimal]

[A: 4 C: 73]

[Thai belongs to @lavender-tea-dragon]

(Siffrin) {Mal Du Pays} <Null> |Asterion| +Rosmarinus+ =Socks= [Loop] [(Saffron)] 

{You wake up to a fever. Your entire body is aching, and you can feel pinpricks of little hairs and specks of dust that irritate you. You feel a small, warm body pressed against you. The warmth is both comforting and irritating, and you want to ask whoever it is to leave. You open an eye.}

{The blinds are closed, which is good, because opening your eye gives you a headache. You saw blankets and pillows on the floor, bundled. Ramos and Isabeau slept on the floor so you could have the whole bed. Sweet. Then who is. . . Oh.}

{Good morning, Boniface.}

{You very gently move a hand up and touch their head. Pat. Pat. You start to move, taking care not to wake Bonnie up. Eventually, they are resting on a pillow and you are able to sit up.}

{. . . You look down at your hands. They do not feel like yours. You turn them over, and it feels like it takes reality a second to catch up, they feel wrong, they look wrong. . . You’re seeing things. You check the pocket watch on your side table. It’s half past eight. You sigh, and pause a moment, looking around before standing up.}

{You feel both light as a feather and as heavy as lead. You stumble, but catch yourself. Okay, do not walk, then. Craft exhaustion. You are recovering from craft exhaustion. You breathe, and turn back, and lay back down on the bed, and close your eye.}

{. . . . .}

{You’ve been having such strange thoughts lately. . . Is. . . Is any of this even real? Or not. You, remember. . .}

{You held Siffrin down by the throat. You wanted to kill them. No, not kill them, to break them. To break them into pieces so he could break himself. You shudder at the memory. You held Siffrin down by the throat, and he just, reached up, and put his arms around you.}

{“It’s okay.” They said. “It’s okay to be afraid.”}

{There was only Siffrin, then. Loop, you knew Loop was buried in their soul, but had yet to appear. No, that wasn’t it. . . You, you were a sadness, inner sadness, and wanted to. . . Then, you disappeared. Loop showed themself, and then you did, just like any other alternate personality.}

{But you are a sadness, always were. But then you forgot, just like your progenitor.}

“Sif?” {You crack your eye open. Isabeau is standing over you. The warm body that had snuck into your bed was gone. You blink a few times, then lazily wave at him. He smiles at you.} “Good morning, sleepyhead!”

“. . . Mhh. .” {You pull the covers over yourself a bit more, closing your eye again. It took you a moment to realize you made that noise. You made that noise? You couldn’t have made that noise, right?}

“Are you feeling any better?” {He kneeled down and reached a hand towards you, but paused.}

{You slowly reach out and grab his hand, and pull it to your cheek.} “. . . Mm. . .”

“O-oh-” {He squeaks. You hold him there, keeping your eye trained on him. You slowly blink at him, and mouth the words ‘I love you.’ You see his face get flushed.} “. . . I-I love you too.”

{You lean up and kiss him.}

{He feels so, hot, and close. . . You could feel his want, his kindness, his yearning. . . You didn’t want this moment to end. You reach up and grab his shirt, pulling him down onto the bed, still kissing you. You wanted him close.}

{He made another noise, you held him there, he didn’t retreat. You felt him push further, a hand on your cheek, a hand on your side, you waited for the tingling and ice spikes of touch that you hated. You felt it, you felt it through your body, but it was anything but unwelcome.}

{You finally let him free from the kiss. He’s panting.} 

{Isabeau looks away, sweaty and flustered.} “. . . . I-I. . .” {He couldn’t even get the words together to talk. It was cute. You wanted to- what are you doing?}

{What are you doing?}

{You want to tell him how much you love him. You want to tell him what he means to you. You want to keep him here away from everyone else. You want to do unspeakable things to him. None of this, NONE of this is like you. Not like the protector you are. What happened to keeping you all safe?}

{You. . .}

“. . . M-mal. . ?” {Isabeau finally guesses who you are.} “. . . M-miss me?”

{. . . You need to tell him. With. Your. Own. Voice.} 

{You open your mouth, and-} “I love you.”

{You and Isabeau were both frozen on the spot. That was, your, voice? No, no it wasn't yours. You knew that voice; you heard it just moments before after all.}

{It was Isabeaus.}

{. . . You just told Isabeau. In his own voice. That you loved him.}

{You take your hands back and hide your face, internally screaming. Stars, STARS. How did you do that? How did you, did you talk?!? Every time you’ve tried to talk before it’s come out as that language you can’t understand, and now it’s his voice?!?! That’s. . .}

{Not impossible. You’ve done it before.}

{Once with Polaris, yes, but more times before that. Far before that,  you used to mimic voices to hurt him. To, to. . .}

“Mal?” {His voice reaches you, you feel his hand on your cheek.} “. . . I-it’s okay.”

{You, part your hands, just a little. You look up at him and. . . He, doesn’t look mad? You open your mouth, then close it. You shallowly nod.}

“You okay?” {He asks, you nod again.} “Okay, good. . . D-do. . .” {He pauses, and looks away, then back.} “Y-you, can, do you want to. . . t-try, talking, again?”

{. . . . . . . That. . . . You nod.}

{You. Open. Your mouth.} “. . . Isabeau.”

“H-HUH-” {He blinks, surprised. That was Odiles' voice.} “Uh, y-yes?”

{How do you. . . Try Loops voice.} “. . . Cat got your tongue, fighter~?”

“UH-” {You sounded like Loop. Loop from back in the loops, even. Isabeau looked conflicted, then he smiled.} “. . . Can you, mimic anyone?”

{You open your mouth and see who comes out.} “Oh of course I can! It would only make sense.” {Ah, Percival, ew. You make a face.}

{He makes a face back.} “H-haha- Y-yeah not very good sweet talk with that one.”

“Then how about this?” {You say first, in Siffrins voice. Then you point to your eye, make a heart shape, then point to him. “I love you.”} 

“!!!!!!!!” {He blushes. Hard.} “I-I love you too--”

{You giggle, and kiss him again. And again. And again. And again-}

|S-stars what’re you-|

{You pull away from Isabeau again, smiling. You talk in Asterion's voice.} “Oh Isabeau. . . You beautiful, beautiful man. . . . If only you knew how I felt. . .”

|W-WHAT-!?!?|

{You giggle. Isabeau giggles, but then hides a bit.} “U-uh, w-wait does, does, he-”

{You nod. You tap two fingers to your temple. “He’s here now.”}

“ASFBHSANDGBASHND” {Isabeau covers his face. You laugh again, getting up.}

|You- Mal du Pays, you are a menace!|

{You are. You get up. Oh! Yes! You turn to Isabeau, now looking at you again, and spell out b o n n i e and make a sleeping motion.}

“Huh- o-oh!” {Isa gets up.} “I asked them why they snuck in, and they said they woke up from a nightmare, Nille was out, so they snuck into our room and cuddled up to you.” 

{You raise an eyebrow, then do a motion of pulling a hand out of your other hand. “Went out?”}

{Isabeau shrugged.} “Y-yeah, apparently she couldn’t sleep either. Alex checked, no mind craft stuff.”

{. . . . . . Hmm. You huff.}

“Yeah, I know.” {Isa goes over to the door.} “I wouldn’t dwell on it Mal, c’mon, wanna go get breakfast?”

{You nod. Hungry.}

{. . . . . . You could prank someone with this new skill.}

>>>

“He-llooooo?”

(You and Ramos walked into the loft apartment above the Tea-vern. You almost knocked on the door before being reminded that in Vaugarde you just walk in. Vaugarde is so weird. . . You were here to check up on Thai.)

“Oh hey!” (To your surprise, Ark was in the living room with a fast asleep Thai on her lap! Well, you shouldn’t really be surprised, they were bonded after all. You should have been more surprised than the Tea-vern was closed! There was even a stranger waiting in front of the store when you got there. Ark waved at you.) “Quiet down, I’ll throw you out the window if you wake Thai up.”

“Yeah Sif.” (Ramos teases, sticking their tongue out.) “Keep it down!”

“H-hey-” (You sink in your cloak a little, but you both walk over.)

“. . . So, how’ve the two of you been?” (Ark asks.) 

“I’ve been okay, still training.” (Ramos sits down.)

“Recovering.” (You sit down also.) “Got craft exhaustion, had to lay down for a few days.”

“A few days?” (Ark raises an eyebrow.) “Sure you did some crazy moves, but to knock you out for a few days?”

“UHM-” (CRAB!!! U-uh, uh-)

“Kidding!” (Ark raises her hands, chuckling.) “I know you both got freaky craft stuff going on.”

“UHM-” (You and Ramos exchange a look. She did mention knowing about Ramos and Percis mind craft, b-but. . . You look back to her.) “I-I uh, don’t what you mean?”

“Listen.” (She subtly covers Thais ears.) “I’m in charge of keeping this town safe, so if I smell something stinking I put my nose down and start digging!”

(. . . That makes sense, but. . . You shuffle on the spot. Maybe, you should leave-)

“I can manipulate people's minds, yeah.” (Says Ramos.) “It’s called Mind Craft.”

“R-RAMOS?!?” (You turn to them.) “Y-you-”

“Quiet!”

“S-sorry. . .”

(Ramos rubbed their arm.) “. . . Eri gave you their bow, didn’t they?”

“. . . Yeah.” (Ark sat back.) “And their old job. Damn. . . I’m sorry, Ramos. They were awesome.”

“. . . Yeah, they were.” (Ramos pauses for just a moment, takes a breath, then continues.) “So, I trust you. How’d you figure it out, though?”

“Well, ever since I moved here a few years ago I’ve wanted to keep this place safe. Then the Monets came back from one of their trips and some people started acting a little bit different.” (She leans closer again.) “Took a lot of investigation and a little bit of luck.”

“And you didn’t do anything?!?” (You blurt out.)

“Didn’t know if I should.” (She sighed.) “He wasn’t doing harm about it, just stories. I just made sure to keep some distance and keep an eye on them.”

“B-but, I didn’t really, use any of that stuff here. So how did you. . .” 

“Mint.” (She taps her nose.) “Kept smelling mint when you fight, a few other times, and when looking into whatever crab happened at the library.”

“R-right.” (Ramos sinks down a little.) “. . I promise I won’t do anything bad with it.”

“You’re Eri’s kid, you’re clean.” (Ark turns to look right at you.) “YOU on the other hand!”

(Eep!)

“You run up to Perci and instantly collapse to the floor sobbing, and then know exactly what to do.” (She smirks.) “Not even just then, when you guys first showed up too. You guys had been running for a while to get to Wolworth just moments before I got overrun. Way too convenient.”

“. . . . S-stars. . .” (You rub your face.) “. . Okay. I do. Not saying what, but I have something. A-and I won’t cause trouble, promise!”

“Ha! You’re sharing spit with Ramos, I trust ya.”

“WH-”

“U-UHM---”

“HA!!!”

“Meh. . . ?” (Thai stirs a little, Ark pats his head.) 

“Whoops, too loud.” (Ark chuckled, then leaned down to kiss Thais head.) “Morning sleepyhead, we got guests.”

(At least that got, sorted out. . . .)

(. . . You glance over at Ramos as Ark cuddles Thai. Should, you ask her? Ask her about that old military stuff she was a part of? The things she couldn’t remember? Should you ask about her using blinding?)

(. . .)

(. . . You’ll talk it over with the others.)

[critterbitter]

More asks under cut! Yippee!

@scarftale-bryan Trip for trio right? If so, I'm working on a comic for that ;0 But to help answer, I've head cannoned Elesa to originally be from Sinnoh. She and the twins didn't have the greatest first meeting, but, well, you see how they turn out later in the future so all that starts subpar ends pretty well. @bat-in-disguise NICE NAME. VERY WOOBAT THEMED. Second of all AYYYY this is where I resurrect the shambling corpse of this fandom. Please. I desperately want to have more on the train men. @mynamesaplant AH,,, YOU READ MY ONE SHOT,,, Okay look. Look. I love drawing comics as much as the next person. But if there's an interest towards fanfiction maybe I'll write a bit more... HMMM. HMMMMMMMM. (But anyways THANK YOU FOR YOUR KIND WORDS! They keep the hearth cozy.) @dracally3 Don't worry about the rambles! If you wander through my ask box, you'd see I ramble. A lot. That out the way-- I'm sorry to hear about the drama! Man. I got into submas towards the tail end, which I'm a bit sad about (wish I got to interact with some of the bigger creators, but they moved on to other hyperfixations and I respect that). Drama's scary though, so maybe it's for the best I dodged the entire canonball. I'm glad my silly little characterizations of found family are healing! And I wish you the best too-- here's to happy futures ahead free of drama and full of shenanigans. @saffalilac AYYY Togekiss is so cool! I (heh) also only drew volo's togekiss once but the fact you're the second person to talk about how much you love them makes me chuckle. That in mind, here's a doodle.

@chime-of-bells Hello! I remember your ask about saying how much you liked togekiss in my style. Drew some togekisses and thought you'd like them too :) @impossiblynoisyrebel AYYYY I LOVE drawing the eel dog lamprey dragon thing. Just. A tube with teeth. And giant eyes. and lovely fins. And bioluminescence!! Who doesn't love that? @onimusha095 Look look your local floating nightlight has SOME manners. (But also, Ingo and Litwick do come to an agreement at somepoint on who the ghost type can actively chew on. Emmet's fine with it. Elesa, who has less experience with Litwick's everything, probably would not be less fine with it, and Ingo really doesn't want to loose a friend.)

@magicfeatherbean4 Hello I see you're back! (I'm fine with this. I like snail mail from folks hhehe.) That out the way-- oh yeah they're DEFINITELY getting into fisticuffs when the mood strikes. And uhh Emmet starting battles only for Ingo to finish them off? Mercilessly? Without pause? Yes. YES. I am EATING this headcannon rn. Shuffling this into the comic ideas as we speak.

[seramilla]

DRAGON BLOOD CURSE AU, Pt 1 of ask

Sera is franctically looking around, blocking the shock of seing Carmilla completelly. Emilly was just recently born and she already lost her! That can't be! She hears a soft giggle in the corner and her gaze falls on a dark figure holding her little one. She glares and almost goes to attack him.

Luckilly, the figure gave her Emilly almost immediatelly after noticing her panicked state. Upon recieving Emily into her arms, Sera instantly calms down. She craddles the little one close to her, admiring the joy on her little face.

After a few minutes, when her mind has returned to the right state and she slowly turned to Carmilla.

"Hello, Love", a soft voice leaves Sera's mouth. Carmilla is standing there, looking at Sera and then Emily. Carmilla wants to respond, to say anything, ask about the little one, hold them both in her arms.

"Hi, Carina." Sera smiles at her, coming a bit closer. SCarmilla moves her arms towards Sera, wanting to try to hold Emily, but retracts. Emilly is a lot smaller then her girls were. What if she hurts her?

Sera is having none of it.

She places the bundle of joy into Carmilla's arms. Carmilla is struck with huge white eyes, surrounded by blue, like a cloud laying sround in the sky. The small being giggles, showing her gummy smile and babbles a bit. Such a fragile little one.

"She is so little... I wish I could have been there for you... By your side..."

Meanwhile 10 year old Odette an Clara are watching on the side. They were unsure about the situation going on and are just observing them. Carmilla notices and invites them forward.

Sera gasps when she sees them. "How long has it been since you were exiled dear?"

Carmilla sighs and looks away from Sera. She pets the twins on their heads."10 human years... Or 10 summers."

Sera repels and chokes back a sob. "I should have come sooner."

"You couldn't have done anything dear. We both know how commplecated fae dymension is. Time is never linear. You could have ended up somewhere further in the future or far past. I am just glad you are here." Carmilla softly kissed Sera's cheek, embracing her with Emily between them.

The embrace is a bit akward. For Carmilla, due the time passage, for Sera, due to new form of Carmilla's. The twins are standing akwardly on the side, wondering who the heck is this chick? And why is she hugging mama?!? That's their mama!!! They growl a bit under their breath. Dragon part of them is a bit possesive.

As Carmilla hears little growls she moves away from Sera to look at the dragon fae twins. "Mijas, this is Sera. She is your other mama."

The girls stare at the woman up and down.  The woman resembles them quite a bit. But...

Their thought were distrupted for a moment by BIRD FEET. Their other momma has bird feet!!! Is that why they are so fluffy? And those wings on her back. There is six of them. Bug like wings, all different sets. They are pretty certain they are from a beetle, dragonfly and a bee. They both had sparkels in their eyes. Clara was first to react.

Clara:"You are so pretty!"

Odette: "And those wings are so interesting. How many bugs are you made of? And what kind of bird feet are those. They look like ravens."

Clara: "Can you fly with those? They look so fragile. And you are so tall. Doesnt make sense at all."

Odette shakes her head: "Clara, calm down. We got distracted, that wasn't the first objective. Those questions were supposed to come later."

Clara: "Oh yeah... Right."

Sera is amused by the twins actions. She watched them in fascination. She missed so much of their childhood.... So much. and now they are grown.

Her train of thought was broken by Clara's next question. "Where were you?"

Sadness fills Sera's heart. The words caught in Sera's throat but she swallowed the discomfort. It was a small price to pay to finally be reunited with her love and their daughters.

"I was in Fae realm, time works differently there- If we stayed together and council hasn't exiled your mother, you and Emily would have all grown up together and been the same age. "

😭😭

Part 1 | Part 2

[gravity-what]

More art to go with story blurbs I may or may not actually write.

This piece is definitely one of my biggest as far as number of characters is concerned but I am actually pretty happy with how it came out! Shout out to @grasshopperdoingdogpaddle for being very kind and finding screenshots of the temple dinning room for me to reference!

Anyway: blurb under the cut that explains context!

“Okay thats it! I am tired of pretending everything is fine and okay with all of this and if Dashi isn’t going to do anything then maybe Guan will!” Rai yelled across the dining table, his hands pressed against the table and his breaths coming hard in anger. “Chase is going to turn Heylin and become an evil dragon monster!”

An awkward silence fell over the table only broken by Dashi himself as he let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like it was supposed to hide a laugh. The silence stretched until Dashi finally seemed to get ahold of himself and spoke up.

“Sorry kid,” he said with an air of nonchalance, “guess I should have told you when we were chatting earlier: you are about thirty years late on that information.” he said slowly, indicating to Chase who was looking away and drinking tea to try to hide a physical wince. “already happened.”

There was another long pause as Guan rolled his eyes and the Dragons in training looked at their time traveling guests in various expressions of shock. They all seemed to recover at once and a collective “IT WHAT!?” Filled the room, including Omi who was looking at Chase with something like shocked sadness. ‘Poor kid’ Dashi thought, chuckling under his breath ‘spent the whole day with the guy and had no idea’.

“I don’t see what is so funny about this situation.” Guan cut in with a glare, making it obvious that Dashi wasn’t doing as good a job as he thought in hiding his laughter, “we are wasting time continuing to stay here, and the longer we wait-”

“What? What’s going to happen?” Dashi asked, reclining back against some air, “Come on buddy, we are in the future! We can get back to the past at any point we want. Hell, we could even go back to before we left! Although that, uh…might complicate things…”

“I hate to agree with Guan, Dashi, but I am with him on this one.” Chase cut in. “As good as it has been to see Omi once more and to be…somewhat myself again, we really should not put off taking care of Hannibal longer than necessary. I do not wish to think about what could be happening in our absence.”

“Hey, hey hey!” Dashi said, waving his hand again at his two companions, as temporary as they might be, “look at it this way, both of you! We are in the future and it’s looking pretty bright to me so obviously we did something right! Right?”

“I’m sorry,” the future Dragon of Fire cut in, “can we uh…go back to the whole ‘Chase is already an evil monster’ thing?” She said, indicating a little frantically to said ‘evil monster’, “because he doesn’t exactly look like it right now.”

Chase sighed and looked away again, though really he had been avoiding eye contact this whole time, “The monstrous half of me, or, I suppose more accurately, the Yin side of me, has been trapped in the yin-yang world thanks to Dashi’s little toy.”

“Hold up!” Dashi argued, sitting back up again, “They aren’t toys! They are powerful magical devices!”

“It was a yo-yo.” Chase deadpanned.

“A Yo-yo that opened a portal to another dimension that we managed to trick you into and back out of!” he added in a teasing voice. The exasperated look that Chase sent Dashi was mirrored by Guan.

“So…this is your Yang self?” Omi asked, sounding a little bit too enthusiastic about the realization.

“Ah-ah kid! I can see those wheels turning,” Dashi waved a finger at him, “and, let me tell you, this isn’t a very good solution to the overall problem you are trying to fix. No one can go around as only half themselves forever. It just doesn’t work like that.”

“Even if Chases other half is a mindless beast.” Guan added in, sounding bitter.

“I am working on that!” Chase insisted with a hiss, obviously only meant for Guan to hear even though the room and table were really too small for them to talk just between themselves. “Do you think I enjoy having no control over myself and my actions?!”

“You certainly seemed to be enjoying ravaging that village before we tricked you into that portal-“

“Guys, Guys! No fighting it front of the kids alright?” Dashi quickly cut in. He was pretty sure those kinds of gory details weren’t kid-appropriate, even if these kids were the future Xiaolin Dragons. “besides, we’re here to relax, recuperate, and come up with a plan right? No fighting allowed.”

Both Guan and Chase let out a groan and an eye roll but did get back to their meals once more as Dashi reclined back on his gust of air. It really was nice to have the gang back together, even if it was going to no-doubt be short lived.

[gingervitus]

First Line Game

oh man thank you @thatgaymerguyb for the tag. I had to think a lot about this before committing.

The game is to post the first line from your 10 most recent fics, and I counted back to find is mostly Dragon Age stuff, but we will dip our toes lightly into BG3.

What I've learned, though, is rather than finding a hard hitting creative first line, I prefer to reel people in by dumping them into dialogue. So there's that.

1. “I was thinking about something.” - Grief: In Three Phases (WIP) - a Davrook fic, where everything is sad.

2. When Davrin and Taash return from a training session in Rivain and Assan isn’t bouncing around the courtyard anxiously awaiting their return, he finds himself just the slightest bit concerned. - Wild Mountain Thyme (one-shot) - a little slice of life look at the Lighthouse while a very smitten Davrin searches for Rook and Assan

3. “I thought you might be up here.” - Beneath the Stone Fruit Trees (WIP) - a post-canon look at the life that unfurls for Lucanis and my canon Lucanis-mancing Rook, Ella. (Most of the rest of this are fics starring these two idiots)

4. A young woman sits in the heart of the Memorial Gardens quietly and by her lonesome. - A Circle Unbroken (one-shot) - my first weekend writing challenge that got out of hand lmao, but this is a look into long term Fade exposure, seen through the eyes of Ella's and Lucanis's daughter, Bea.*

5. "Up for a climb?" - A Long Fall Off a Tall Cliff (one-shot) - another slice of life in the Lighthouse/during some downtime between missions, this time between Ella and Lucanis

6. Rook stares at the small volume in her hands, the spine of which was carefully bound with intricately stitched thick deep burgundy thread. - Deals Between Friends (one-shot) - Spite takes Lucanis sleepwalking out of the pantry because he wants a chin scratch (that's most of it tbh)**

7. Oddly enough, the Lighthouse has proven to be more of a comfort than anticipated. - Solo en el Duelo (one-shot) - an early Lighthouse interaction between Rook and Lucanis

8. Ghilan’nain is dead. - Ópalo De Fuego (one-shot) - Rookanis but make Rook say "i love you" in the heat of the battle at Tearstone before she gets sucked into the Fade.

9. Rook passes through the doors of the dining hall with a lingering smile on her face and a set of empty plates in her hands. - Mariscos del Amor (one-shot) - my first DATV fic because I couldn't stop thinking about how I didn't believe that the post regret prison kiss was the first kiss between these two - I wrote most of this at work

10. Gale wasn’t sure what he had done in his past life that had deserved the reckoning he had received over the year prior, but whatever it was, an illithid tadpole seemed to be par for wretched course. - Under Cotton and Calicoes (WIP/On Hiatus) - ah, and here we are at our BG3 finale. This was meant to initially be a very long oneshot showing Gale and my Tav, Orla, falling in love over the course of the events of the game, but it spiraled into a multichapter fic about the very same thing. I could very feasibly end it where it is now, but it initially had two other chapters planned for it. Who knows, I may revisit it in the future.

I am so sorry to yap about each story, but I loved writing them all and like to give a blurb so no one else has to read what they might not be interested in, you know?

Also I am a professional yapper, so just know you will always get a paragraph answer when probably a sentence could do the trick

OKAY BYE. IF YOU SEE THIS AND WANT TO PLAY, THIS IS NOW YOUR TAG.

* I did a fair amount of light reading into radiation sickness and other chemical air exposure side effects - what I'm saying is this was so interesting to do light research for

** Ella's mother is a Nevarran mage, who knew Emmrich very briefly through mutual research

[ask-postcrash-curly]

(The dragon deadpans)

I...will admit that I forgot you guys use credits instead of euros, for reference, to live comfortably in Spain, it's 2,5k a month, I will asume that the conversion is the same, but in any case they do get payed way more than a freighter captain

Honestly, and I say this with all the love for you and all the disgust for them

Tough shit, they signed up for medical work, dammit, they teach you to be prepared for stuff like this, they are tired? You are way more tired than them, the only thing they have to do is change your bandages, give antibiotics and painkiller, they haven't even intubated you, which thank GOD for that, if you were to lose your airway now, I just...

(The dragon groans)

I cannot actually send you a little video I had prepared for you, since I.. kinda have to remake it and i can't right now, but i can assure you, with 100% certainty, that its quite illegal, it is classified as assault, or bodily harm, they would get jail

Insulting isn't a crime xdd, what i meant is that maybe they have it against your crew, and they are taking it out on you, that's honestly our main theory, either that, or they are lazy fucks who can't be bothered to make use of those good few years they spent in medical school

Hell, you made my point for me, Anya, not even a licensed professional, "gives them a thousand spins" (spanish phrase) on medical treatment, she could take all their jobs at the same time and do it better, she fucking rules

(The dragon huffs)

Let's...change the topic, before I get heated, not by you, I promise not by you, by the doctors (sorry excuses of anyways...)

About the...incident i mentioned, um....

Ok we are still not sure what the fuck happened, but um, there's been the mother of all blackouts, no electricity or phone data, which meant, no fridges, o heat, no trains, no lights, no streetlights, not absolutely nothing, middle ages over here

I also couldn't send anything to you, the connection works by electricity too I guess, funny that

It wasn't only in Spain, it was in Portugal and a little bit of France too, some say it even reached Germany

Main theory is cyberattack, that or solar flames

Anyways, luckily there hasn't been a world shattering accident while the lights were out, no calls for me, not that i could go anywhere, no car...

Before I forget, here's the second song of the musical: https://youtu.be/b-wQQwMLK7Q?si=bns-I9LZEqZkBvzj

(The dragon curls up again)

right…

don’t want you to be disgusted at them, though.

okay well all i’ve been doing is lying in bed.

there’s not been ANY assault or bodily harm, don’t�� don’t say that.

they haven’t taken anything out on me! for fuck’s sake, how many times are you going to make me say this?

i know anya fucking rules. that’s not the point.

shit. that’s terrifying. really glad you’re okay.

…

the hell? this— god, he’s not going to drop the baby, is he…? he is— awful. fuck. that woman, that’s the mother—?

that was… that was really bloody sad. well-made though, won’t lie.

[juvinadelgreko]

imagine you’re coming into school on your first day of third grade, and you’re bummed out because you have to share pencils with your older brother instead of getting your own pack because your family didn’t have enough money for two packs this year. you watch him walk down the hall towards fifth grade, and you’re so focused on waving to him that you don’t realize you forgot to ask him for pencils on the way here. the train was really crowded this morning and the guy next to you smelled like old cheese, so it wasn’t your fault you forgot about it until now.

it’s too late, though, your brother is lost in a jumble of really tall fifth graders. you don’t have time go find him now! you hope that one of your new classmates has an extra. you walk into your new classroom. none of these people look familiar and they’ve already split off into their little friend groups, that you still can’t figure out how to break into.

lucky for you, there’s one kid sitting alone—but he looks kinda scary. he’s got spiky black hair and smudges of dirt on his face and a nasty bruise on his arm that you know came from a fight. he might punch your lights out. it’s a weird saying, you think, but you knew what it meant because your big sister had said it to your dad just last night:

i catch you stealin’ their lunch money again, i’ll punch your fuckin’ lights out!

your big sister’s been using that word more and more lately. she still never lets you use it.

it had sounded serious, and you know you don’t want your lights punched out, whatever it means. but you can’t do the first day of school without a pencil!

you sit down behind the scary boy quietly. you peek over his shoulder carefully. you did this to your brother last night and he’d called you nosy. you’d responded back that no, actually, you’re curious, because you’d studied your vocabulary words every night last year and you knew that curious was the grown up word for nosy.

his drawing is a fire breathing snake of some kind, maybe a dragon. it’s really good. you’ve never seen another third grader draw that good. you wish you could draw that good. you think of your favorite book in the school library from last year. it had a dragon on the cover. maybe you could write a story like that to go with his picture.

but if you’re going to do that, you need a pencil. you hope he has an extra in his worn out backpack. his older brothers probably handed it down to him the same way as yours. maybe they know your older brother. you’ll have to ask him later if there are any kids in his class that also have spiky black hair and are kinda scary looking.

you take a deep breath. he’s just a classmate. classmates are supposed to share with each other. you’re not a second grader anymore. you’re not afraid of him. you’re a big bad third grader, you’re not afraid of anything!

can I—can I borrow a pencil?

the boy whips around and you jump back. you hadn’t meant to scare him.

you ever talk to me again, i’ll fuckin’ kill you.

something clatters on to your desk. you look down. the eraser’s almost gone, the end is all chewed up, and it’s barely sharpened. but it’s a pencil.

you don’t say anything else to him. he’d told you not to. you get it now, why he’s sitting alone. it makes you sad.

you turn the pencil over in your hands. it’s short. lots of other kids have used it. you wonder which one chewed on it. you definitely won’t, because you know it hurts the pencil. also, it just tastes bad.

you stand up and walk to the pencil sharper. you know this is going to take a minute, but it’s ok. class hasn’t even started yet, and you know it’ll write beautifully if you just give it some love.

@psychicskulldamage your comic bit me…

[princessofmerchants]

Cassian dreaming of Gwydion and foreshadowing Ataraxia and his own HEA 😭🙌🏻

[Cassian observing Ataraxia on Rhys's desk]

"The great sword's hilt was a simple cross guard, the pommel a rounded bit of metal.

Gwydion, the last of the magic swords, had been dark as night and as beautiful.

How many games had Cassian played as a child with Rhys and Azriel, where a long stick had been a stand-in for Gwydion? How many adventures had they imagined, sharing that mythical sword between them, as they slew wyrms and rescued damsels?

Never mind that Rhys's particular damsel had slain a wyrm herself and rescued him instead."

—ACOSF, ch. 42

My absolute favorite HOFAS spoiler after the break as I lose my mind over this moment in ACOSF after having read HOFAS 🥹

I am screaming at how this moment is in ACOSF, Nessian's book — then cut to HOFAS where Cassian's badass mate Nesta slays a damned wyrm with the same magical sword he's looking at here (which she herself Made by the way 💁🏼‍♀️), the same one that makes him think of Gwydion, which in fact is in his very same mate's possession by the end of HOFAS 😭🙌🏻‼️

All the times I read this before HOFAS, there was always something kind of bittersweet and sad about the way Cass's train of thought here ends on Rhys and Feyre and how badass his High Lady is, and how grateful Cass clearly is for the way she saves his brother by loving him...

I always assumed SJM was partly leaning into the fairytale trope of dragon slaying by looking back to that very first book in the series where she brought the Middengard Wyrm onto the page and used it to further characterize her main heroine at the time, Feyre.

Little did we know SJM, with this moment in ACOSF, was also pointing to the future and, for Cassian in particular, creating an echo simultaneously forward and back in time to when his own mate would go on to not only slay the same kind of wyrm, but would do it wielding the immense power of the very same new magical sword, Ataraxia, on the table before him — and only because he loves her and trains her to wield it 😭🙌🏻

Cass is filled with such longing in this moment. I'm floored in the most amazing SJM-induced way that this longing ABSOLUTELY gets fulfilled.

And again, in past readings of ACOSF that fulfillment was legible in part by how at the end of ACOSF Nes finally claims Cass as her mate then literally saves him when she erupts and Un-Makes Briallyn, in whose thrall he is trapped. That was always amazing enough, a beautiful HEA in its own right.........

BUT TO THIS CASS OF ACOSF CH. 42 I SAY: YOU HAVE NO IDEA OF THE RICHES OF DREAMS FULFILLED YOUR HAPPILY EVERY AFTER WITH NESTA HAS IN STORE 😭 JUST YOU WAIT MY DUDE

(Can you even imagine how Cassian must have felt, what his reaction was when Nesta came home after her adventures with Bryce in the tunnels under Prythian, and he learned what Nesta did to that wyrm with Ataraxia? He must have melted into a mated puddle of goo to the tune of "That's my fucking mate, y'all!" 🥹)

[howtowhumpyourhiccup]

A Sense of Vertigo

Summary: Written for Day 21 of Augusnippets 2024. Set in a Modern AU, Sci-fi AU. Mind Full AU. Only two weeks back with his mother, Astrid no longer recognizes Hiccup.

Warnings: Dragon Attack, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse

Rating: Mature

Dead Dove: No

Words: 467

Prompt: Vertigo

Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon

Characters: Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless, Meatlug, Stormfly

Pairing: /

Author's Notes: Ah yes, the fic in which I whump someone else for a change.

Enjoy!

-XOXOX-

Astrid can’t believe it. They were making such progress with Hiccup, just getting him away from his dragons for a bit allowed him to recover a little. He could talk, he was starting to feel his own body again, relearning to take care of himself. And now there he is again, only two weeks after he’s back with his monster of a mother and his eyes once again have that distant, thousand yard stare, like he’s not all there in his own mind and yet much too present.

Like he doesn’t see that it’s her he’s catching in the act.

“Hiccup…” She takes her hands off the latch to unlock the much too small cage of a nest of baby Nadders. The lot squawks and squeals inside, clearly wanting to be free. They aren’t Valka’s, but her human weapon did come here just for them. Different warehouse, a third party, yet similar circumstances.

There is not a single look of recognition, like she’s nothing to him. He looks towards Toothless, giving the silent order to grab her, but the dragon hesitates.

Weeks ago, he would’ve done it with a growl and no mercy, but Toothless knows Astrid now. She and her people could’ve hurt him and the other dragons, could’ve hurt Hiccup and she didn’t. Instead, they tried to help his human or he would’ve felt his distress across their connection. Instead, he felt an indescribable sadness and a longing to be free Hiccup tried to repress.

And a longing for a man Toothless has since caught glimpses of in their entangled mind.

Meatlug whines in the background, she doesn’t want to follow the order to get Astrid either. Hiccup can’t even look surprised, there is only the slightest change in his expression.

Catching on to what’s going on, Astrid steps forwards. Her heart racing and her head lightheaded. This whole thing gives her vertigo. “Hiccup, please, you don’t have to do this.”

And for a moment he opens his mouth, appears to try to say something and there’s a glimpse. But his mouth shuts, his eyes squeeze closed, his face contorted in pain. Her hope is gone just as swiftly as it arrived when Hiccup holds his head and Stormfly takes it upon herself to do what Toothless and Meatlug refuse to; listen to their Handler. She gives chase when Astrid runs, but with her head swimming, it’s hard to get away.

Before long, the Nadder throws her to the ground and her heavy clawed foot settles on her back. Those claws dig in, pierce the tender flesh of her sides. And if she could, Astrid would’ve screamed, but every ounce of air escaped her. Instead, her eyes roll to the back of her skull, her head swimming, and she passes out immediately.

It’s a mercy.

[horsegirlwarcrimes]

would u tell me a bit about some svsss thoughts, au‘s ideas or wips of yours?(<- half way through a 9 hour train/bus journey & really bored) please?🥺

i could tell u about my tgirl-sqq/sy au that i’m never gonna write, cuz i genuinely don’t enjoy writing? or maybe show u a picture of my sisters newborn (cutest baby u have ever seen)

omg PLEASE tell me ur thoughts on tgirl sqq I love trans sqq (any direction but esp transfem it's so special to me)

let'sss see, I have a lot of wip and au thoughts at the moment as I nervously procrastinate several important projects 😅

I had a cold earlier this week so I wrote half of a fluffy fic inflicting my cold onto SQQ:

“Liu-shidi is out at the moment,” Shen Qingqiu said, an awful rasp to his voice that Luo Binghe hated.  “Surely Shizun can call him back?” Luo Binghe pleaded.  “For what?” Shen Qingqiu asked, waving a sleeve. “A small cold? This master has managed worse. He’ll return when he returns, and until then it's not so bad.”  “But Shizun–” Luo Binghe tried to object, but Shen Qingqiu gave him a stern look that caused Luo Binghe to fold at once. He redoubled his efforts of looking sad and concerned and despondent as a quick countermeasure, and Shen Qingqiu sighed.  “It’s not so bad,” he repeated. “This master can still perform his duties just fine. Most likely it will pass before Liu Qingge even returns.”

outside of that, i have been on a major qijiu brainrot kick (i have a 8k fic for them i should be posting as soon as i decide if it needs a stronger dose of sqq or not + decide how to end it (sob)), and also reading a ton of disciple days/canon timeline bingqiu and having big feelings about how much i love them. ive also been returning to my unhorny women and gender studies liu qingge omegaverse fic that i am always contemplating but never actually writing, in which liu qingge is a not-like-other-girls omega in PIDW omegaverse and tries to marry shen qingqiu due to fantasy comp het

besides that, here are some concepts ive jotted down in my notes app this week loll:

dragon!YQY hoarding peak lords

this is literally all i have written down for this but i want it to be something SO BAD. save me dragon yqy. dragon yqy save me

Yue Qingyuan is cursed into an endless sleep The other peak lords call on Shen Qingqiu to enter his mind and wake him up as the person closest to him, only... SQQ actually barely knows this guy! He and Binghe take a dream journey through YQY's subconscious and eventually find that SJ is haunting him and eating his power which is keeping him asleep. They must either banish him ORRR.... Sun and Moon Dew mushroom time

i dont think ill write this so if anyone else does....... please take this idea and run w it haha

Sy transmigrated into the little palace Mistress??? Ahhh...

i THINK this came after reading stiltonbasket's SY!QWY fic, because i was thinking about the old palace master being a huge creep and shen yuan dealing with that from inside huan hua palace. i really see shen yuan going on a journey of gender discovery (his own gender AND the perils of misogyny that he never understood as a cis internet man(he thought he was cis at least)) and political intrigue as he tries to get to the heart of whats wrong with huan hua while dodging and or attempting to track down luo binghe. plot??? idk her

Deaf Shang qinghua!! Mbj doesnt notice

someday i must write this bc i love writing my favs as deaf or hoh. id love to explore shang qinghua as being both physically and culturally Deaf and how that plays into his interactions with the world post-transmigration, where there is even less accommodations or access for someone with a disability and he is cut off from his community, especially in terms of his work on an ding and relationship with his martial siblings. mbj not noticing a major facet of his life feels in character and like great drama lol, and i think the conclusion is definitely mbj learning ZGS that teaches him and he ends up liking using it way more than speaking verbally, both for sqh's ease and because he doesnt like to talk lol

i hope this is what u meant hahaha i could talk abt wips and svsss ideas all day. they are living in my head rent free 24/7 ｡ﾟ(TヮT)ﾟ｡ i hope your trip goes by smoothly and quickly!!

[nczaversnick]

Range of Emotions Tag

Lot of people sent me this one so thanks to @the-golden-comet, @illarian-rambling and @willtheweaver

Joy

From my outline of Ch 20

Iris nods and leaves them as Adrian turns towards Caspian, but sees that he’s already rounding around him to continue walking towards the little girl. Adrian: [he arches an eyebrow and sees the daughter] Daughter: [looks up when she hears approaching footsteps and her eyes brighten up when she sees Adrian, but not Caspian] Uncle Andy! [she rushes past Caspian and jumps into Adrian’s arms] Caspian, a little hurt by this, watches Adrian catch the little girl and swing her around, almost as if he had done it a million times. It was different seeing this side of Adrian, a nice different though. Daughter: Come play with me, uncle Andy! Adrian: Of course, Lady [Daughter]. What shall we play? Caspian couldn’t help the small laughter snort which causes Adrian to momentarily break out of character to glare at him, which prompts Caspian to whistle and look somewhere else as if he was laughing at something else, and Adrian looks back down at the daughter. Daughter: Well, first, we’re going to play Princess and the Dragon- Adrian: A fine choice. [he sets the little girl down and she takes his hand and pulls him in the direction of her playing area, listing off all the games she had in store for the both of them].

Anger

ch 4 of a previous draft

“I usually don’t have to force people down here,” the man yawned and stretched his arms as he climbed to his feet, “but you were giving me more trouble than you’re worth.” Caspian scoffed at this. “As for who the Hell I think I am. I’m Adrian, you know, the man who just saved your life. You’re welcome.” “Thanks, but no thanks. I didn’t ask for your help.” “The way you were sobbing in the alleyway, it sure did look like you needed my help.”

Sad Scrapped draft of book 2

Adrian leaned against the young cherry tree. Frost covered his arms and legs. It covered the ground at his feet and the tree against his back. “How do I fix this Aurelia? You’ve always been here when I got hurt...no matter how stupid or reckless I was..you were always there to make it better. To help ease the pain.” he took a shaky breath, “But this is different. This is different from the broken ribs and sprained ankles. Different from the bruises, bleeding and burns..but you’d know what to do. I know you would know what to do...I feel like Caspian stuck his hand into my chest and just...pulled my heart right out…” he said softly, before sniffing and trying to wipe the tears from his eyes before they could spill over onto his face. But in the end there were too many tears to be had and he gave up, just letting them run down his cheeks. “I miss you so much..”

Anxiety I do have a scene for this one but I haven’t actually written it down But Adrian’s constantly anxious. Anxious for his friends. For the other deviants. Anxious that he’s putting a lot of people at risk for his cause.

Fear Scrapped draft of book 2

Adrian had gone outside I know that much probably checking on the garden. “You like Caspian right?” Quinn responded mockingly. Adrian shut up and looked away. Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Oh my god you actually do like him.” “I dont know. I dont know. I do feel…..something. Something is there. But...what if its not real? What if I’m...what if “ Adrian just couldn't figure out how to phrase what he was feeling. “I uh dated Athena for a bit back when we first met but it didn’t last because I was...into her because she was nice to me not because I actually...not because i actually..yknow..liked her.” Iris nodded slowly. “And you dont want the same thing to be true of Caspian.” Adrian nodded. “But like this feels different. Like it hurts sometimes. Like like it hurts when I’m not with him..”

Disgust A bit of the ch 20 draft

Cas started at getting a bit of a big head at all the praise as Athena continues to boast about how well he’s doing with his trainings with everyone. “You seem to be forgetting our mission here. I heard the intel from Zeke about how the mission went. What you did may have been considered ‘kind’, but it was thoughtless. The last thing we need is for someone to get too big of a head and think they’re indestructible. That’s how you end up getting killed.” Adrian said gruffly. Cas turned to look at him, “I thought we were here to help people?” “We are here to help people, but we are also here to protect ourselves. There’s always a better option, even if the two options are the worst. You have to think about every single possibility when you’re out there. “I feel like I can protect myself just fine.” “Oh? Should we test that theory?” Adrian sneered

Tags [comment to be +/-]

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