#Beauyasha AU

[khalliys]

I've been playing a lot of Breath of the Wild while I was sick in December and had an unnecessary amount of ideas for an AU. Maybe I'm gonna draw some things for it here and there.

Here you have some amnesiac and not sure if they know each other Beau and Yasha taking in their surroundings and being confused about waking up in some creepy cave, submerged in a pool of glowy liquid, among other things.

(Background is an edited in-game screenshot)

[artemis-pendragon]

Okay gay people hear me out: The Mummy (1999) but it's Beauyasha. Is that anything

[luckylenses]

u think this is enough to prove that i am mentally unwell about fictional lesbians

anyway i figure I'll post these since I've been rlly busy with artfight.

[critterpdf]

more beauyashas for the bf (and also for me) (im on episode 5 now!!! yipee!!! :D)

[casukaga]

i’ll uh. i’ll see myself out.

(beauyasha stardew valley shenanigans, based on @stardustedknuckles and i playing as beau and yasha in our game. here’s the tag for some more of our beauyasha stardew stuff! ✨)

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[mini-minish]

m9 pirate + essek joins earlier + speedrun any% au 🏝

disclaimer these are just sillies for fun bc i wanted more pirate times please don't think too much about plot divergences; feel free to add your own ideas in the mix!

spoilers for the mighty nein

• fjord becomes a captain earlier

• caleb escapes the prision earlier

• while on the run and covered in tears and mud, he meets beauregard in one of her many cobalt soul escapes

• a lone half-orc captain with a cursed sword but no ship or crew walks into a bar, sees two anxious looking humans in the corner: a scrawny woman with a grumpy face and a scrawnier ginger with a towel to his recently broken nose

• seems easy enough.

• girls night!!! they steal their first boat

• rule #1 of stealing methods of transportation is that you should watch out for blue tieflings stowaways trying to get as far away from a recent problem as possible

• back on land they loose beau (got got by the soul ☝️😔), caleb gets locked up in a shady storage while looking for her and there he meets nott the brave

• fjord's first response upon seeing a goblin following his navigator is to pull the sword on it

• nott's first response upon seeing some green dude shove a sword in her face is to pull her crossbow at him

• they look up and down for beau, but she finds her way back to them eventually

• still, they'll need more hands if they want to keep their totally legally owned ship afloat

• still on land, The Circus Plot happens and they acquire two more crew members 🎉

• molly loves the ocean, yasha likes the wind

• all of them like to go up to the crow's nest and bother caleb, nott more than the others; eventually he stops hiding up there so much

• yasha starts getting anxious about her unfinished business at the same time jester stars getting anxious about their clothes not being pirate-y enough

• they lose their first ship (of pristine papers as long as you don't look at them in the light) and have to travel on land until they manage to borrow a new one without asking it's owner and with promises of never returning it

• they also lose molly :(

• but they get caduceus :) who's not very keen on being in a boat for long periods of time but he'll adjust

• one thing he'll have in common with the cat

• fjord has a problem: The Voices in his head telling him to get back on the water

• jester has a conundrum: they got all of these nice, proper pirate outfits but now they have no ship

• love wins

• she did get frumpkin his very own little coat

• in the night, as the mighty nein crew wispers around two pushed together inn tables, a cloaked figure approaches upon hearing they are in need of help

• dezran, or dez, for short, for friends, an inconspicuous sun elf from, you know, around these parts, who is in dire need of work and oh would your captain be so kind to-

• insight checks fly around the pushed together inn tables

• but all of them know each of them is running from something or someone, and not all of them have a destination in mind, so really it's not like they're going to ask.

• plus nott thinks she saw a really nice boat on the dock with it's lights all out

• welcome aboard!

• cue the guy running from stealing things having to steal things

• cue a disguised drow's inventory slots full of the strongest sunscreen balm he could find this side of the continent

• maybe caduceus or jester finds out first, around when ess- dez, for friends, got a little too reckless and a little too hurt some time or other

• but the wildmother shows caduceus a lonely star when he asks, and artagan hasn't been paying attention, and anyways that's dez, that's right, their friend who has been nothing but helpful and fun, if a little skittish depending on the weather, and who always tries jester's pastries

• besides, far from him being the only person with a fake identity at the function. he's not that special.

• when fjord and beau find out, they're suspicious, but they won't make him walk the plank. there's protocol for that.

• yasha is not one to question someone running from their past

• when nott the brave finds out, she doesn't ask what he really looks like

• when caleb widogast finds out, during a siege on the ship, he grabs essek's arm and sees the drow underneath the disguise, and wants to know who are you, but circumstances are that later, they'll talk about this later.

[bloopitynoot]

Shadowgast Space-AUs I love

I read a LOT of Shadowgast fics, and one genre that has my heart in the best of ways are the Space AU's and Space-Opera AU's!

Here are some of the ones that I just love (not all of them are complete, there is one WIP that I am following).

1.Icarus to your certainty

Icarus to your certainty (11429 words) by @essektheylyss Chapters: 1/1 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Summary: Essek Thelyss is an arrogant researcher trying to reach a black hole on the edge of known space when his mistakes and intellectual zealotry result in the deaths of the rest of the crew and leave him stranded with nothing but a short-range radio. After seven months alone on his space station, the black hole spits out a shuttle, as lost as he is.

Why I loved it: I read a lot of sad/sappy/and poetic genres and this one was just that. The way it was written was so intentional and so to the point, every phrase just added to the development of the story. The writing style, the character development, and the raw emotional processing of survivors guilt was just so beautiful to read through.

____

2.The wine dark sky (series)

**I went with the second fic in this series because it was much more Essek/Caleb centric but honestly ALL of them were fantastic to read.

The Schwarzschild Solution (13650 words) by dawl_and_dapple (if you know their tumblr, let me know and I will tag them here!). Chapters: 1/1 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Series: Part 2 of the wine dark sky Summary: Caleb pressed his palm into his chest. The weight of this affection grew and waned in intensity while Essek drifted in and out of his life, like a moon and her tides, but they never showed signs of withering in spite of the uncertainty of their relationship. As it stood, Essek was a satellite. He seemed happy enough to remain as such, as far as Caleb could tell, and Caleb was more than happy to be blessed by the tides of his love. A series of meetings between Caleb and Essek across the Wynandir galaxy. Written for Shadowgast Week 2021 - Day 1: Gravity/Attraction

why I loved it: The writing style of the entire series is just gorgeous. I love when the chronology of a story is played with and the story is told almost like each segment is a short scene in a movie. This story in particular was just beautiful in the way that it shared moments between Essek and Caleb- it really felt like the ebb and flow of a tide (also I am such a sap for happenstance meetings and two souls connecting so naturally). Anyways lots of space and space travel and I totally recommend for a shorter read.

___

3.A Tapestry of Stars

*Currently a WIP but it has been wonderful so far.

A Tapestry of Stars (100725 words) by cinderstorm (if you know them her eon tumblr, let me know and I will tag them!). Chapters: 39/50 Rating: Explicit Summary: “This is not a negotiation.” Deirta Thelyss’s voice cracked the air like a thunderclap, sharp enough that even her ever-bustling flock of attendants twitched. “You will agree to this marriage, or I will have you cast from Den Thelyss for dereliction of duty. Is that clear?” Essek held himself stiffly, his shoulders rising in affront. A dangerous lapse of control, considering the woman standing before him, and one he would berate himself for later in the privacy of his tower, but he couldn’t help it. To be bartered off as—as a diplomatic representative of all things. It was absurd, insulting. Was the prestige his accomplishments brought to the den not enough? The Bright Queen herself had awarded him the title of Shadowhand for the advancements he’d made to the field of dunamancy, advancements that had secured countless victories in the war. Why should he have to upend his entire life to accommodate some human he’d never even met? Or: A Shadowgast Arranged Marriage AU in Space~

Why I love it: I adore the arranged marriage but they fall for eachother slow burn happy ending AU's (I don't know if this will be a happy ending but I am hoping for it very much so). Put that arranged marriage au in SPACE with a looming war, secrets, and blackmail and well- I will take that space opera. This AU is so well written, my heart goes out to both Caleb and Essek and I am just happy to be here on the journey while the plot unfolds.

___

4. Among the Nein

Among the Nein (124172 words) by @nellasbookplanet Chapters: 14/14 Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Summary: Beau only needed someplace to hide for five minutes; she never intended to stow away on a glorified research vessel headed for Ruidus. Caleb only wanted a chance to get at the arcane knowledge surrounding the further moon; he never meant to get involved with the foreign spy hiding among the crew. Both of them were making do with the situation at hand. And then someone murdered the captain. AKA the Among Us-inspired AU no one asked for (no prior knowledge of the game required; if you like space and murder you'll be fine).

Why I loved it: The space opera-au/Among Us fic I didn't know I needed. I fully admit I had no knowledge of Among Us going into this fic (it is not at all needed) but I am so happy I decided to read it anyways! It was such a good story! A happy ending after a path of secrets, trust issues, and loads of self-loathing. It is a multi ship fic so you get shadowgast but also lots of beauyasha as well. I did not sob, but I did tear up- so you know this story is a good one.

------

One more: Special shout out to one of my absolute favourite shadowgast fics and an absolute space opera (I wanted to mention it here but I have already mentioned it in my "Shadowgast that Made me Ugly Cry" list) it get's an honourable mention

5. what luminous worlds await another fantastic piece by @essektheylyss . This fic has my entire heart. I was destroyed and rebuilt in this Space Opera-AU.

[demenior]

On the heels of the latest Mighty Nein Solstice show, I felt like my setup for a BeauYasha + Astrid situation was (barely) relevant again.

This is set, in theory, post-campaign 2, and prior to Ruidus shenanigans.

--

Beau tucks her napkin into the collar of her shirt and patiently waits for Yasha to bring dinner to the table. Beau set all the cups and bowls and everything out, but her wife likes to bring the meal.

“Are you ready?” Yasha calls.

“I’m so ready!” Beau calls back.

Yasha rounds the corner, a steaming dish in her hands. She’s wearing a black apron that says ‘kiss the cook’, and nothing else.

The apron is suitably sized for someone a little more average than Yasha’s big, muscular frame, and so it’s really working to keep her decent.

Beau’s thoughts are far away from decent. She can’t pick her jaw up off the floor.

Yasha’s face flushes— she still blushes when Beau hits on her even though they’ve been together for like 8 years now, and married for 3 of those. It makes Beau fall even more in love with her. And then her wife tries to do a sexy walk over to the table. Yasha is anything but graceful— she’s a force of nature— and Beau’s too far gone to think this awkward strut is anything but hot.

Yasha sets the serving dish onto the table, and lifts the spoon out of it. There’s definitely something doing it pretty good for Beau with how the strew is thick and dripping. And that’s also something she’ll take to her grave because it is so embarrassing that stew can make her horny, but in her defense it’s being served by the hottest woman in the whole world.

“Hungry?” Yasha purrs.

“Starving,” Beau says, and opens her mouth.

And that’s when Caleb appears in the room. He’s holding someone.

“Send me back!” Astrid screams, “I had him!”

Blood hits the floor in a loud splat.

“Help me!” Caleb shouts.

Astrid bares her teeth, and raises her arm to strike and— Caleb’s holding her left arm over his shoulders to keep her up. Her right arm doesn’t raise because it’s gone.

“Fuck!”

Beau flies out of her seat, and is across the room.

As Astrid registers her missing limb, as blood continues to fly from the wound, Beau skids to a stop at her side. She catches Astrid as her knees go out, and together she and Caleb get Astrid to the floor.

Beau registers the smell of smoke, of arcane magic. Astrid’s tattoos are still bright and pulsing on her remaining arm. Both her and Caleb are covered in soot, in blood. Their hair is singed. Caleb’s got that jittery, caffeinated look he has when he’s been working heavy magic. Beau rips off her loose top and tries to staunch the blood.

“You had no right,” Astrid snarls.

“He was going to kill you,” Caleb snaps.

“Blood for blood,” Astrid hisses, “I’ll take his fucking head!”

Astrid fights at Beau and Caleb, and she’s too weak to push either of them off.

“What the fuck?” Beau shouts.

And it’s now that Yasha reaches them, a fucking angel who’s entire body lights up as she reaches for Astrid. She’s still wearing the apron and nothing else.

Astrid’s back arches as the healing magic surges through her. When she drops, her whole body goes limp. Yasha checks her pulse to make sure the shock of healing didn’t kill her.

“That will keep her from dying, but she needs to see a real healer,” Yasha says.

“Dude what the fuck?” Beau demands.

Caleb groans out a sigh, and wobbles like he might collapse as well. He braces both hands on the floor to keep himself stable, “she— she went after him. I tried to stop her, but she—”

“Who? Trent?”

“Ludinus.”

Beau’s stomach drops. She looks down at the unconscious idiot between them. Despite Yasha’s healing, Astrid is white as snow. Her eyes are closed. Beau checks the wound— the bleeding has stopped, the amputation appears as if it’s had a few weeks of healing, but it’s still raw and red.

Caleb nods, as the severity of the situation sets in, “I— I had nowhere to go. They’re still fighting— the Assembly, and the Volstrucker. Other factions. She might have started a civil war.”

“Or a massacre,” Beau realizes, “Ludinus— fuck! He’s the fucking guy! We don’t have enough to pin him yet, and now? Fuck! I thought she was helping us, what happened?”

She has to shake Astrid to wake her up.

One of her eyes is red with blood. Thanks to Yasha’s healing, the wound is handled, but it will take time for that to clear out. It gives the woman a decidedly unsettling look.

Astrid glares up as they lean over her, and then turns to Caleb, “did you take me to a fucking titty bar?”

[romeoandjulietyouwish]

ooo may I request soulmate au?

Marion hugs Fjord constantly whenever she sees him since Jester told her that they were soulmates. He's been feeling her hugs since he was a little kid and it's just so comforting to him.

When Caleb has been working too long at the Academy, Essek will flick his own forehead so Caleb feels it. And it always works for summon him home sheepishly.

Yasha always knew that she had two soulmates. Even though she was with Zuala, she could feel Beau. But after Zuala died, when she was under Obann's control, she didn't feel anything. She thought that when Zuala died, so did her capacity to have a soulmate. And then she woke up in the temple and she felt the rain on her skin and she felt a pain in her hands that certainly wasn't hers.

I think that Molly and Yasha are also soulmates in this au, there's really no other way to explain it. So just imagine that she felt him die...

All of the M9 use their soulmate bods to summon their partners to them when they're in need. Especially Jester, which Fjord finds very endearing.

[khalliys]

For a botw AU I imagine Dairon in roughly Impa's place, and over the course of the +100 years that Beau and Yasha were asleep they left them actually usable armor to use when they'd wake up and not rags, lol. She visits the Shrine of Resurrection every year to check on the stuff and whether it needs replacing and always updates a note inside with the current year.

So, when Beau and Yasha finally wake with no memories and find the note (Yasha opens the chest with the note and immediately hands it to the other girl without being able to explain the reflex) that mostly just says to find Dairon in Kakariko, it just really hits Beau that her memory bank is blank. Because WHO the FUCK is Dairon, WHERE'S Kakariko and HOW is she supposed to tell who of them is who, if she can't even remember her name- and Yasha's just unimpressed like "I am big. This chest is labelled Beau and the stuff in it is tiny. So that's you." and throws the shirt in her face.

[artemis-pendragon]

Imodna/Vex'leth/Beauyasha Star Wars au. Thoughts?

[lyricalporcupine]

BYW DAY 3: Pride | Mythology AU No story for this one, sorry! Fics will resume tomorrow! 💕

[tunedtostatic]

A year after the defeat of Trent Ikithon, Astrid and Eadwulf are settling into their lives as Eadwulf works helping other former scourgers and Astrid contends with her fellow archmages of the Cerberus Assembly. But when Wulf's voyage to a white stone city across the sea leads to a method for the safe removal of residuum--and the powers it bequeaths--and Astrid's plans put her at odds with the headmaster who sent them to Ikithon two decades before, both have choices to make about their magic and their future.

--

Astrid Beck/Eadwulf Grieve, Eadwulf Grieve & Cassandra de Rolo, Astrid Beck & Cerberus Assembly, Astrid Beck & Marion Lavorre, Astrid Beck & Eadwulf Grieve & Beauregard Lionett, Astrid Beck, Eadwulf Grieve, Cassandra de Rolo, Percy de Rolo, Marion Lavorre, Caleb Widogast, Essek Thelyss, Yasha Nydoorin, Beauregard Lionett, Owelia (Critical Role), Unnamed Human Scourger (Episode c2e070), Ludinus Da'Leth, Zivan Margolin, Other(s)

Shadow Magic (Dungeons & Dragons), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Angst, Death, Suicide, Grief, Combat, Gore, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Additional Warnings in Author's Notes, intramural sports jock Eadwulf, if you want emotional conversations but also 2k of Astrid 4vs1 high-level wizard battle you are the target audience for this, Glyph Chant, Bioluminescence, neither a recovery arc nor a corruption arc but another secret third thing

[silversky-art]

Beauyasha kitties!! 👊⚔️

[ariadne-mouse]

For the AU game: Beauyasha in 1920s noir

Who can the smoking, drinking, slouching-but-hard-hitting private eye detective be but our Beauregard Lionett? She's hot on the trail of The Angel Of Irons, a mysterious organization that's been disappearing people. After a long day she finds her way to a bar where soft-spoken bartender-and-bouncer (and sometimes illegal cage fighter) Yasha Nydoorin pours her a drink on the house at least once per visit. It's love, or something. She's putting together more evidence with the help of her journalist friend-and-disappointed-mentor, Dairon, when suddenly Yasha goes missing too. Has the Angel of Irons struck again? It seems so, except when Beau starts digging into Yasha's past, it seems it might not be as simple as a kidnapping... the or something Beau has been feeling hurts a hell of a lot when when she realizes Yasha has been an Angel herself, but it could also mean Beau has an in to take the whole operation down...

"You can't smoke in here." Beau isn't going to get a smoke in anyway, because her fucking lighter isn't working. "Ah, fuckin-- you got a light?" "No." There's a clink of glass, then two fingers of whiskey, neat, just like always, slid across the bar. God, looking into those gorgeous mismatched eyes is a bit like doing drugs. Good drugs. It's also magic, apparently, because the lighter finally does its fucking job and Beau takes a sweet inhale. She tilts her head back to breathe the smoke away. Then, because she's not rude, she turns her wrist and offers cig to Yasha. "I'm working," Yasha says in that soft, quiet way that makes people underestimate her. (But not Beau - never Beau.) Then easy as anything, she leans on her elbow over the counter and takes a drag from the cigarette Beau's still holding. The paint on her bottom lip leaves a tiny blue smudge. Keeping eye contact, she sighs, blowing the smoke directly in Beaus face. "And I said no smoking." Christ on a stick. Beau is probably going to have to walk from here straight to the emergency room. Or into heaven. Yasha Nydoorin is going to be the death of her.

[send me an AU and I'll share the plot of the fic I'll never write!]

[flowtatoes]

A Special Kind of Weird; chapter one (cross posted on AO3)

Jester Lavorre is a Traveler fan.

Okay, maybe a lot of folks are fans of The Traveler, but none are as enthusiastic about them as Jessie. She’s read his books since she was old enough to vaguely understand the concept of romance — back when her mother would read her children’s stories, and the little tiefling would steal her books off her bookshelf in the dead of night.

She’s just… a big fan. Yeah. Big fan.

So why is The Traveler making college so fucking difficult?

It’s the first week of September; college is on the horizon, with students just getting into their dorms, meeting their roommates, the likes. It’s a time that, as a child, Jester looked forward to — and now, as she sets a box on one of the three beds in her cramped dorm, butterflies dance around in her stomach. Her roommates have barely arrived too, which she’s thankful for — it gives her a last few minutes with her mom, the Ruby of Nicodranas — famous singer and performer, who Jester wishes she could be like.

She tears into the box as soon as Marion leaves for another… in it are posters of The Traveler’s main character, Garmelie, a satyr who goes on… well, to Jester they’re romantic escapades… to others, they’re sexual flings that would normally result in a bunch of STDs. The poster she first gets out is signed by The Traveler himself — one she was lucky to get in a giveaway online, even though she’s never met the man. The second one has Garmelie and a unicorn — unicorns are Jester’s favorite animal — and the third and forth share The Traveler’s cloaked portrait, with his right index finger up to his lips, as though he’s telling the photographer a deep, dark secret that’s not for anyone’s ears but theirs.

Oh, how romantic…

“Sapphire, did you pack your toothbrush?” Jester instinctively shoves the forth poster back into the box as the Ruby comes back, holding a stack of boxes labeled ‘Jessie’s clothes’ and ‘fun thingies’. She sets them down beside her daughter’s bed before going to give her a tight hug. “I can’t believe it… my baby is a college student. It’ll be so lonely without you, little one.”

“Aww, Mama! I’ll email you like, every single day,” the blue tiefling says through the squished hug. She squeezes her mother back, only to feel sad when Marion backs up after a few solid minutes of hugging. She sits down on the bed, staring up at Jester, who’s… trying hard to be brave. For her mama. For school.

For The Traveler.

“Do you know when your roommates are coming?” Marion takes a look around the small dorm; there’s a small desk to the left, and a bathroom that the three girls will have to share — the three beds are bare, just boxes atop them, no bedsheets or pillows to make it look homey. It almost makes the blue girl want to dig out her paints (that she brought, of course) and paint everything a nice pink or blue… maybe yellow? “I’m sure they’ll be… more friendly than the kids at school.”

More friendly could mean anything for any kid. For Jester, it means ‘kids who don’t pick on me for writing nasty fanfiction instead of going to beer pong parties’.

Yeah… her old friends are a relic of the past.

The girl takes one of her posters and heads to the corkboard above her bed, where she starts to pin it up with pink starry push-pins. “Ah! Oh my, doesn’t he look just so cute ?” I’ll avoid Mama’s statement if I can, she thinks. “Mama, do you think you can convince Bluud to invite The Traveler to the Chateau during the winter break?”

Her mother doesn’t suppress her giggle. “I’ll ask him, little Joy.”

Just as the pair are about to banter on, the dorm door bursts open with a ca-thud . Two girls struggle to go in, each saying “after you”; one looks like a sad poet, and the other looks like she could bench press Jester like she were a sack of flour.

The ‘poet’ is the first to enter. A white haired girl, she’s wearing an Orphanmaker shirt and ripped leggings; she has only a small bag with her, and a pillow under her arm. The other girl, who Jester feels both intimidated by and also… very interested in, has dark brown hair, brown skin, and striking blue eyes; she’s in gym clothes and has three duffel bags in her arms. A little boy no older than three is running after her, yelling, “Beau! Beau! Beau, you’re gonna miss me?”

“Yeah, you shithead, I’ll miss you.” The girl, Beau, says to the toddler as she throws her bags on the bed closest to the bathroom. The toddler simply giggles. “Don’t tell Mom that I swore and I’ll get you a… fuck, what are kids into? — a toy or something, when I get home. Yeah?”

“Okay!” The boy screeches and runs back out of the room, most likely to whichever adult was helping Beau take things in. She swings herself onto the foot of the bed, narrowly missing the bed frame’s wrath.

Beau looks at Jester with peak curiosity. “You one of the new roomies?”

“Yeah…” Jester’s voice goes quiet; she looks over at her mother, who’s helping unpack her clothing and putting it in the trunk at the end of the bed. She takes in a forced breath before turning back to Beau with a plastered-on smile. “I’m Jester! You’re—”

“Beau. Just… just Beau,” the other girl says with a smirk on her face. She looks like she could pick Jester apart just by words alone, and yet— “Oh, you a… a raunchy book fan?” She points to the poster. “Not gonna lie, I’ve only seen the movies, but they’re better than Fifty Shades, really.”

Thank gods… Jester’s forced smile turns more genuine at the thought of someone knowing her passion — and oh, how this series is a passion! She takes a seat at the desk nearby, looking at the ‘poet’. “And you are…”

“Oh…” the girl with the white hair is hanging stringed lights from her cork board and bed frame as she pauses to speak. She’s a good six feet tall, if possible. Jester has to really look up to meet her eyes — colorful ones, too. “Yasha… you’re pretty uh, colorful?”

“Thank you, Yasha!” The tiefling looks down at her own clothes (a pink skirt, pastel, of course, and rainbow Converse — a custom made one she bought recently with money from the café she part-timed at) with a wide, toothy grin. “You look kinda… are you into poetry?”

Yasha stops hanging the lights, holding the strings in her hands for a solid minute… before nodding. “I like… poems. My sibling and I write together, though he prefers, ah, songwriting… he’s also a tiefling, if that means much to you..?”

Tiefling? Another one? “Is he here, too?” Jester inquires, with an ounce of hope in her voice.

Yasha nods, not looking away from the stringed lights. “Yeah… his name’s Molly… er, Molly mauk , but everyone calls him Molly, really. He’s weird, but he’s… you know, a good kind of weird. Like—”

“Like me!” Jester says enthusiastically. The white haired girl chuckles as the blue girl gets up and spins in the tight quarters. Marion beams.

“Sapphire, I better get going.” The mother stands from her daughter’s bed; she’s tall, too, but nowhere near as tall as Yasha. She takes Jester into a tight hug, kissing her forehead, before leaving the room, trying (and failing) not to look sad.

Jester isn’t used to being away from her.

“Man, did she look like she was gonna cry or what?” Beau blows a bubble of pink gum and pops it. “Jess, you’ll be fine. There’s like, no need to cry.”

Am I crying? The tiefling touches her cheeks; her fingers come back damp, and she’s quick to wipe her tears off on her sweater. With a sniffle, then an eye rub, she heads back to her side of the room, grabs another poster, and starts to hang it up…

xxx

“Ja, I-I know, I know, Essek —” click .

Caleb Widogast sucks at relationships. Period. He was in a relationship of three, maybe four years that blew to smithereens by the time he graduated high school… then there was his summer boyfriend Essek, who didn’t seem too awfully thrilled about a long distance relationship with the human boy.

The human throws his phone down on his barely-made bed as his roommates snicker. “Shut up,” Caleb mutters; Mollymauk chucks a pillow at his head, just narrowly missing him. “Molly!”

“Look, I’m sorry Mister ‘I bring three fucking toothbrushes with me to a sleepover’ is mad, but you’re too damn adorable for him.” Molly is a short genderfluid tiefling with spiky black hair that falls to his shoulders, and has a habit of wearing funky outfits to ‘find myself a partner’ (his words, not Caleb’s). His other roommates are a half orc boat lover named Fjord, and a giant firbolg known simply as Caduceus, who’s not really studying anything, but he runs the library at school for tuition. “You shouldn’t waste your time with him! Find yourself a new man — or woman, whatever your little Zemnian heart desires.”

“Please… stop.” Caleb feels his face grow red just in time for Molly to ‘ooooh’ about it; thankfully Fjord elbows the purple circus man in the neck, making him shut up. “I didn’t… think he’d break up over the phone.”

“As opposed to in person?” Caduceus isn’t very versed in romance; he’s more of a ‘watch and learn’ type, whether that be from his years as a ‘homeschooled’ kid or just… general ‘Deuces vibes. “At least it wasn’t in front of your family.”

Ah… family.

How did he tell them about his fucked up family? Maybe he would ignore it; maybe he’d pray that his ‘dad’ wouldn’t show up for band practice or fun days. Maybe…

“Well, it’s over, which is good, ain’t it?” Fjord asks. The half orc is quite short for, well, one of his kind, but it doesn’t stop him from trying to sound big. In all fairness, no man is as tall as Caduceus, so Fjord has little to fear.

The human groans into the palm of his hand. “It’s… I actually liked Essek, though,” he mumbles; prays nobody picks up on what he said. “He was… fascinating. Breathtaking, even. It’s… I don’t know—”

“Can’t you just, like, bone someone and call it a night?” Molly flops onto Caleb’s bed, sprawling his body out like a cat.

Caleb’s cheeks burn red. “I— listen, circus man , it’s frankly none of your business, ja ? Yeah.” He tosses a small box on his bed before deciding, albeit last minute, to open it.

Inside, amongst pictures of Essek, is his favorite book by his favourite author — a known Traveler, who a girl in another hall idolizes…

Here’s hoping Caleb isn’t the only Traveler fan in freshman year…