#all that black is king foolishness to then just go and distribute her work in an apartheid state 💀

[ohello0]

Beyoncé when I catch you……

[ask-de-writer]

QUEST FOR ANCIENT CANTERLOT!  An  RP : PAGE 2, A New Plate, Old Memories!

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

Return to Role Plays with De Writer

QUEST FOR ANCIENT CANTERLOT!

An RP by @wind-the-mama-cat​ and @ask-de-writer

Scene setting Part 1 :  LUNA AWAKENS CELESTIA

Scene setting Part 2 : AIRSHIP!

Scene setting Part 3 : ONE LAST VISIT

Scene setting Part 4 : SCOUT’S PRIZE

Scene setting Part 5 : REBOOT / START UP

Scene setting Part 6 : CELESTIA AND LUNA GO TO MEET TWILIGHT

PAGE 1, THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!

PAGE 2, NEW PLATE, OLD MEMORIES!

As usual for a developing story, new text is in BOLDFACE type.

© 2021 by @wind-the-mama-cat​ and @ask-de-writer

Role Play begun 05/26/21

All rights reserved.  This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

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All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

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@wind-the-mama-cat

Learning to Fly

Wind watched as Choco and Rose put their heads together to design the potential wing suit. As she watched, her eyes drifted to Rose's wings. Once upon a time, from what she recalled from her memory files, her Unicorn overlords once tried to give her sisters a means to fly.

She shook her head silently at what she 'remembered”.

One of the Unicorn engineers had come across an ancient picture, which, interestingly, showed the Rom Pegasus Angel with her artificial wing. Using that as a basis, and nothing else, the Usurper King thought it would be a good idea to give the battle droids wings.

The results were disastrous.

During the first round of testing, the wings where too small, as they made them proportionately to Pegasi wings. They lost 20 droids.

The second round of testing went no better. While they made the wings larger, they didn't anticipate the increased power draw. They lost 30 droids.

Dark nudged Wind back to reality.

“Wind?” The black mare asked quietly. “What's on your mind?”

Wind looked down at the mare. “Just recalling somewhat painful memory files.” She nodded at Rose and Choco. “Did I ever tell you how the Unicorns tried to give their droids wings?”

Dark shook her head. “No. You never did. However, we did get reports from Princess Twilight and her scouts about falling droids with reported wings.”

Wind snorted. “The idea had merit, honestly. Instead of using ships to transport the droids, they could simply fly into battle. The way they went about it was foolish and pointless. Now that I think about it, that tends to be how they do most things.”

The earned a chuckle from the small horse.

“Where you thinking of making wings for yourself, Wind?” She asked curiously.

Wind nodded. “Aye. Perhaps.” She tapped her chest. “I'm very heavy. Even with my new legs that you gave me, I still weigh over two hundred pounds. Two hundred and fifty, if we're being specific. The wing suit that those girls are designing won't work on me.”

“So, why don't we design wings that would work for you?” Dark asked. “Thanks to the dismantling of the Renaissance, I have a surplus of material to use for pretty much anything. Even with the demands of the Hammer, I have lots of carbon fibre, copper, steel, aluminum... you name it.”

“Well, a fixed-wing style would work best, I think.” Wind said. “But I don't want permanent wings.”

“So, a backpack that straps to you, and the wings fold up and extend?” Dark asked. “That you can control with your hands?”

“Right.” Wind said with a nod.

Rose's ears quirked. “You guys are designing your own glider?”

Wind sighed. She had forgot how sensitive Rose's ears were. “Now that the cat is out of the bag... yes. Not a wing suit like your design, Rose. More of a backpack shaped glider, like your wings, but not powered.”

Rose thought for a moment. “Well, they would have to be powered. Considering your weight, an unpowered winged glider would have to have a wing span of at least 22 feet.”

Wind and Dark shared a look.

“Yeah. That math checks out.” Wind sighed.

“Now, if you were to power the backpack-glider-thing with a single, central jet turbine, that would provide enough lift for the wings to be smaller.” Rose said. “Not as small as mine, but small enough to fold up.”

“A jet turbine could work.” Wind said in agreement. “Like you wings, I take it?”

Rose nodded. “Only with 3 fans stacked on top of one another, spinning and causing thrust.”

“Right.” Dark nodded. “Really small fans. But how would you power it?”

“Not with my central crystal.” Wind admitted. “It powers me and has a high power output, but I doubt it would power me and a... jet engine.”

Choco was frowning. “This all seems very complicated.”

“I certainly am.” Wind agreed. “As a result of a combination of mechanical parts, crystals – both magic in nature – and Soulblade, I am very complicated.”

“So, why not make your glider like Fenrir?” Choco asked. Upon hearing his name, The wolf stood up from beside Dark's shop and wandered over to the group. The small horse giggled. “Oh, hey Fenrir.”

Dark kneeled in front of the wolf and placed her hand on his cheek. “You're just like Wind, Pup. Technical and magic in nature.”

He blinked slowly at her.

“So, a separate crystal to power my wings.” Wind nodded. “Sounds like a good place to start.” She looked at Dark. “Now, a large egg-sized crystal would be impractical. One the size that powers me would be best.”

Scout giggled. “Except your chest crystal took most of my magic to charge, and it's maintained by your food processing systems.” She pointed out. “A jet pack with wings would require more power.”

“Well, my crystal is the size of a lemon... and Fenrir's is the size of a dragon egg. So...” Wind thought out loud. “Say somewhere in between.”

“A phoenix egg.” Dark said. “As for charging it? We can use my solar charger. It worked for Fenrir after all.”

“Right.” Scout said. “We can all work together on this project. If Wind is going to be testing this new technology, and Choco is going to be testing hers, safety is paramount. Lots of prototypes and testing and scale models, just like Dark said earlier.”

The five girls got to work on their glider project. Rosie and Choco worked on their wing suit, while Dark, Wind and Scout work on theirs. Occasionally, the two groups would stop and share notes, and miniature models, and other ideas.

Eventually, after a week of testing, Choco's first prototype suit was ready for a test flight.

Wind's jetpack however was far from ready, as it was more complicated.

On the morning of the day that Choco was ready to go up, with Rosie's help, that is, Dark got a call on her mirror.

“This is Dark.” She greeted the other Rom.

“Dark? This is Nala of the Topographical and Plate Locator Scout Team.” Nala greeted. “We discovered a new plate, just below plate 16. We're calling it plate 17 for now. It's three plates below your plate.”

Dark nodded. “Have you scouted it yet?”

“Not yet.” Nala answered. “It's mostly desert. Naturally desert, to be honest. Not like the desert plate like plate 1, which formed when the unicorns took the water with them during the shift.”

“Wait.” Dark said suddenly. “Are you saying that plate 17 is originally desert?”

“We are.” Nala nodded. “It does have a stream however, which wasn't affected by the shift either, surprisingly.”

Dark blinked. “Well... that means...” She nodded. “Don't worry about scouting that plate. I'll go and scout it myself.”

“Roger that, Dark.” Nala smiled. “Nala out.”

Wind and the others looked at Dark. “Dark?”

The small mare smiled coyly. “Wind... you have Wind's memories. What's the one location that is desert, but has enchanted water that no magic can affect?”

“The desert that the Rom originated from.” Wind answered. “Where...”

Dark smiled when Wind trailed off. “Marchhare's original resting place.”

“Whoa.” The gathered Rom gasped.

“We'd have to go and look for ourselves.” Dark said. “But I'll bet a hundred bits that it is there somewhere.”

“Isn't that also the location of the Lost Wood mines?” Choco asked. “It's a story that we Forest Horses grew up on.”

Dark shrugged. “I'll have to go and see.” She looked at Wind. “Wind? I'll need you to come too. Your scanning systems and memories will help me.”

Rosie nodded. “That makes sense. As old as I am, I won't really be of help. Besides, I want to stay here and work on my suit.”

Scout pouted. “And since Midnight has me on stress-rest, I can't go either.” Wind smiled and hugged her.

Dark smiled. “We'll have to hire a glider team.” She looked at De Writer as he, Tia and Midnight came wandering over to help with the glide test.

“Some good news, De Writer...” Dark said as she explained the call she just got.

@ask-de-writer

Old De Writer thoughtfully stroked his beard as he thought through the news.  Nodding, he agreed, “That MIGHT be a portion of the old Sunset Mountains and Celestia's Anvil.  The many disruptions caused by the Shattering did actually open some new springs, so what was seen might not be Sha Ja Shehan. “There appears to be a modest river with a valley on the opposite side from the observed desert. It would not be at all unlikely that it is part of the old Red Branch and fed by the Maze.  If so, it could even hold Morton's Swale and the ancient Wood Mines.”

The others were staring at him and slowly realizing what they knew but never really had to grasp.  The amazement showed on their faces as it came home to them just how ancient De Writer was.  He was speaking of those places and times as if they were recent memories.  Places and times that were lost in the mists of time, thousands of years BEFORE the Shattering.

Choco looked over to Dark, whose eyes had gone puffy with tears and slowly sorted out, “Dark, if you find Marchhare's Lake, do you think that maybe he is there?”

Wings shuddering with suppressed sobbing, Dark sat and shook her head. “No, Choco, not really.  After he came back from the Lake of Paradise, we could never speak to him at his Lake.”  She gave a slightly broken smile as she snickered at the memory, “Unless he was right there beside us laying a stone for himself.  The first time that he did that the Rom had been on the Roads of Equestria for 844 years.  He thought that laying a stone for himself was a great joke!”

Putting her face in her hands, she wailed, “I miss him so much!”

Choco looked on helplessly.  Knowing that Dark was immortal did not prepare her for the consequence of carrying grief that could last five hundred years and still be this raw.  She quietly sorted out that Immortality had some serious drawbacks.

Midnight crouched down and simply wrapped Dark in her midnight blue wings, holding her and gently rocking the weeping pegasus.

She murmered, “We know, Dear, we know.  Tia and I Laid the Stones for him ourselves.  Sometimes with him along side us, cracking a joke. He was always serious about the actual Stone Laying and saying that he was glad that we were taking such good care of his bones.”

Dark looked up from her crying and wondered, “Even if we find the right place, will there be anything left?  Five hundred years is a long time for his bones to be un attended.  He could just be weathered away to nothing.”

It was Tia who thoughtfully answered that.  “Dark, dear, if nothing else has scattered his bones but weathering, there should still be traces.  Teeth should last and some other larger, heavier portions of bone.  His harness had metal fittings.  As dry as that area always was and, according to scouting reports, still is, those should still remain.

“There is another there that we might find as well.  On the old river course side of the mountains was the Wayside where Sando went to the Lake. Finding him would be a wonderful treasure.”

Dark nodded slowly, “That is true.  If this is the right plate, it holds a number of treasures, some of them are more valuable than just physical things.”

De Writer looked about and suggested, “We are going to need a big cargo glider to carry this crowd.  I suggest that we all set up packs of supplies for exploring and then contact Air Trafic Control to see about getting a large enough glider to carry this expedition.”

It was Midnight who pointed out, “We mustn't forget to take along at least a pair of Stones.  One for Sando's Lake and one for Marchhare's.  It has been too long since they got that simple bit of respect and our love for them.”

Dark had to grin and pretend to calculate, “Let's see, five hundred years, at at least two visits a year, that makes about a thousand stones EACH.  Me, Wind, De Writer, Midnight, Tia, and Choco makes about SIX THOUSAND STONES to carry.  I don't think that there is any glider on any Rom plate that can carry that much along with us and our supplies!”

Midnight snickered and suggested, “Maybe we that have wings could carry the stones, IF we flap REALLY HARD.  Then, the glider could be a lot smaller!”

De Writer snorted, “If you all were mimes, you couldn't find your way out of a box that isn't there!  Let's all go and pack for the trip.”

Back at De Writer's Fair, the old pony quietly took Dark into his arms and gently rocked the small black pegasus.  Softly, he offered, “All of us that knew him, miss him dreadfully, Dark.  I wish that I could tell you that he will be there, waiting for us at his Lake.  Not even I can tell you that without a lie.  Wherever he has gone, I am certain of one thing.  He knows how much you love him.”

She quietly sniffled, “I do know that, De Writer.  It must sound really nutty to say this, but I want to show him how much I love him by playing Poison Grandpa one more time.”

De Writer nodded gravely as he agreed, “I actually do understand that, Dark, my dear.  With you, it makes perfect sense.

“Now, about packing for this little expedition.  We are going to need cartographic equipment and supplies to map the new plate.  Let's see, a first aid kit, a tent and sleeping bags.  Anything else?”

Dark grinned her shark like grin and retorted, “Food.  You don't really need it and I can survive without it, being immortal, but I really detest starving.”

De Writer snorted, “Right.  It is a comfortable habit and the others might not really like it if we forget it.  Some of them will starve without it and Tia and Midnight just recovered from starving for five hundred years.  They might not appreciate doing it again so soon.”

Dark was quickly to work packing things into neat bundles.  She casually added a pair of picks and shovels.  “Might need to dig some if that plate is where the old wood mines ended up.  Could be useful for other things as well.”

@wind-the-mama-cat

Holding Close

  Wind watched her “cousin” Dark gather their supplies. She knew that the Rom gliders were big, and could carry a lot of weight. However, with over six thousand semi-precious stones, and mining equipment, and food and water, not to mention 4 adult sized Rom, and Dark, they would need three gliders to get to the new plate.

She walked over to her now Wife, Scout with a thought.

“Scout?” She asked, as she sat down next to the Horse in the shade of their caravan, “I don’t suppose there’s a spell you could use to make all of our supplies feather weight, by chance?”

Scout shook her head. “Spells like that would need to be in constant use. Even for someone like Tia and Midnight, it would be exhausting.”

The cat-bot pursed her lips. “Darn. Looks like we will need to go with three gliders then.” She sighed heavily. “Not to mention, getting back up once we’re done with our exploring with all the added weight.”

“It’s a shame Auntie Esper isn’t here.” Rosie chirped as she doubled check Choco’s wing suit. “Out of all the Rom, thanks to the Spirit that lived within her, she could teleport unlimited weight miles and miles without breaking a sweat.” She shrugged. “She could move all of you down to the new plate, and all the equipment.”

Wind looked at Scout. “She could?”

Scout nodded. “From what I was told be De Writer, the first week Esper came to the Rom, she shifted 10 caravans and all the horses about 2 miles, all by herself.” She smiled at the thought. “Not even Black Lotus could have done that.”

Rosie looked at Choco. “Are you ready to test our first prototype, Choco?”

The young mare nodded. “Roger.”

The pink cat pulled the shoulder straps of the parachute tight. “I’ll be right up there with you, but it never hurts to have a back up.”

Choco nodded in agreement. “Better safe than sorry.”

Rosie pointed up. “I’m going to fly you up to the Ponyville plate directly above us.” She scooped Choco up Bridal style, spread her wings, revved her turbines, and took off.

Wind stood up. “I’m going to go help De Writer pack.” She bent down and kissed Scout on the nose. She walked over to the Blue horse’s caravan, and opened the door. “Need help, De Writer?”

He looked at her and smiled. “Can’t seem to find my Pre-Shattering maps.” He said as he shuffled through his bookshelves. “Mind going through my chest?”

Wind shrugged. “Sure.” She knelt in front of De Writer’s chest, and opened it. She gasped as the inside of the chest appeared to be as large as his caravan, and deeper. It also appeared to hold everything the Old Horse ever owned over his entire life. She looked inside it, and did a double take at the outside of it. “Uh…”

De Writer chuckled. “Just think  about what you want, and it will appear in front of you.”

Wind thought about the maps, and lo and behold, a green, ordinary looking, shoulder bag appeared in front of her. “What the hay?” She grabbed the bag and stood up. “So, uh… I thought of the maps, and this old looking shoulder bag, um, appeared.”

De Writer walked over to Wind, and took the bag from her. Tears played at his eyes as a serene smile a came to his face. “Oh my… I had forgotten that I had this.” He looked at Wind. “This is Wind’s bag of holding.” He chuckled. “She took this bag everywhere with her. In fact, it was this bag that helped me design my chest.”

“It’s larger on the inside?” Wind asked.

“Much.” De Writer answered. “You are familiar with the concept of infinity, yes?”

Wind nodded.

“Well, this bag of holding… is infinite.” He explained. “Or more like a gateway to a self-contained dimension of infinity. She could put anything in this bag, any object of any size, of any weight, so long as it could fit through the opening, and carry it with her.” He smiled. “And to find an object within the bag, just like my chest, all you had to do is think of it.”

“And the bag… wouldn’t get heavier?” Wind asked.

De Writer smiled. “Exactly.” He reached into the bag, and pulled out his maps. “Here they are.” He set them on the table, and then reached into the bag again. He pulled out a pink, well worn, cloak. “Oh my…”

Wind’s forehead crystal flashed. “My cloak.”

De Writer sniffled and set the bag down on the floor. He then held the cloak with both hands and held it at arms length. “Yes, Wind. This is your cloak. You remember it, don’t you?”

“I…” Wind but her lower lip briefly. “Mama Dragon gave it to Wind… on her 16th birthday. It belonged to Shia, her other mother.”

“Indeed.” He brought it closed to his nose and sniffed it. “Wind loves this cloak. She wore it that night she… passed to the Dream World.”

“Passed to the… huh?” Wind blinked. “She didn’t travel to the Lake of Paradise?”

“No.” The blue horse said. “Even though she was a Rom, first and foremost, she was the Watcher of her World. Watchers… don’t really die. When they find their Dragon, their life force becomes connected to the Source. As they use the source, their Dragon, they age, grow old, and when the Source is used up, they simply fade away.”

“Where do they go, if not the Lake of Paradise?” Wind asked gently.

“The Dream.” De Writer answered. “They join the other Watchers, along with their mates.”

“So, Wind and Penny… are together again?” the cat asked. “In the Dream? Along with Mama Dragon?”

“I can only guess, but I certainly hope so.” He smiled as he handed the cloak to her. “Here. She would have wanted you to have this.”

Wind took it and draped it over shoulders, fastening the brass clasp. “Thank you, De Writer.” She looked at the bag. “De Writer… I think we have the solution to our weight problem.”

“Weight problem?” He repeated. “Oh, with all of our supplies.” He looked down at the innocent looking bag. “Yes. I do believe you are correct, Wind.” He picked it back up and held it out for her to take. “This is as much yours as it was the other Wind’s.”

Wind took it and held at arms length. “Is there anything else that once belonged to Wind? I mean, with Rosie here now, should she not get some of her mother’s belongings?”

“I understand what you’re saying, Wind.” De Writer sighed. “I actually do have something for Rosie, that once belonged to Wind.” He walked over to the chest, rustled around some, and pulled out a silver looking chain shirt.

“Wind’s mithril shirt.” He said as he stood up. “Her birthday is next week, and I was going to give it to her then.”

“Oh.” Wind said. “I…”

“Rosie is not the jealous type.” De Writer said simply. “Sure, when she first met you, she was a little sore about Soulblade, but she understands that the blade is not inherited, She chooses herself whom she goes to.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “Wind was my daughter, and I want you to have the cloak and bag. Rosie has no need for them, trust me.”

“And she won’t think I’m… trying to emulate her mother?” Wind asked. “Become more like her?”

“No.” De writer assured her with a gentle tone as he put the shirt away and closed the lid to the chest. “But come, let’s go help Dark pack for our trip.” He picked up his maps, and The two Rom headed out of his caravan. “Speaking of Rosie, where is she?”

Wind pointed up. “Choco is about to jump of the edge of Rom plate #2, to test her wing suit prototype.”

9 miles up, standing on the edge of Ponyville plate #2, Rosie watched as her marefriend tested the flexibility of her wingsuit.

The wings were made from a very thin, yet strong, carbon fiber cloth, and held together using a light-weight from of rom wood grass. Each wing was ten feet in width, and in theory, could sustain flight, when not being pulled by a Pegasi, for 18 miles.

“So our goal today is to fly straight.” Rosie reminded her. “No maneuverability tests. We’re just seeing how the wingsuit performs under weight, and checking for stress points.” She smiled. “And testing a smooth landing.”

Choco nodded nervously. “Roger.”

Rosie pulled down her goggles, and watched as Choco did the same. “I’ll be right beside you.” She pointed to the Edge of the Rom Plate #1. “Aim for the Rom Gunner Battery. It’s about 18 miles away.”

Choco gulped and nodded, and spread her wings. “For science…”

Some time later, Rosie landed at Edge Battery #10 and looked up to the sky. She watched as Choco angled her body to slow her decent.

“Knees bent, Choco!” Rosie encouraged her. “Slow yourself, just like we practiced!”

Choco landed a little faster and rougher then she had planned. Rosie acted quickly and caught her.

“I’m shaking…” Choco said through chattering teeth as Rosie hugged her.

“That’s the adrenaline.” Rosie said softly as she stroked Choco’s back. “It will wear off in a minute.”

Choco took deep breaths as she tried to calm herself. “That’s one heck of a rush. You know… flying. Or falling with style.”

Rosie giggled “I felt the same way when I tried to fly for the first time. I was one. You get used to it the more you do it.”

Choco giggled too as she slowly stopped hovering.

“Hey.” A voice said suddenly.

Rosie looked to her left. It belonged to the Wrecker captain, Nala. A beige mare Pegasus with long red hair.

“We had sights on your flight the entire time.” Nala said with an approving nod. “You did really well, Choco.”

Choco smiled “Thank, Nala.”

The Captain examined the suit. “So, you girls are just going with a personal glider approach, huh? No sustained flight?”

Rosie let Choco go. “We discussed that. We just want to make a personal, short-range glider to use on the Penny’s Hammer.”

“18 miles is short ranged?” Nala asked.

“Yeah.” Rosie nodded. “Most large wing gliders have a glide ratio of 4 to 1. We were 9 miles up. So, we got a glide ratio of 2 to 1. Not bad for a prototype.”

Nala looked towards De Writer’s fair. “So, um, how are you guys going to get back?”

Rosie smiled and scooped Choco up bridal style again. “I’ll fly her back.” Her wings revved up as she took off.

18 miles later, she landed back in De writer’s fair and set Choco down gently. “You okay Choco?”

Choco nodded absent mindedly. “Huh? Oh. Yeah. Okay. Just… feeling overwhelmed.” She removed her parachute, handed it Rosie. She then unzipped her suit and stepped out of it. “I think I just need a nap.”

Rosie nodded in understanding. “Oh. Sure. Want me to wake you for lunch?”

Choco smiled “Sure.” She handed the suit to Rosie. “We need handles on the wings. Holding onto the wings by the top bar was really difficult.” She yawned and headed into her caravan.

Rosie watched her go, and didn’t notice Scout sidle up to her. “How’d the test go?”

The Catter started for a second. “Gah!” She calmed down and looked at Scout. “It went well. I have to make some changes to it, no surprise there. It is work in progress after all.” She looked towards Wind, De Writer and Dark packing for the trip.

“Is… that my mother’s…” She walked over to the group and up to Wind. “Is that My Mama’s bag?”

Wind looked down at her. “De Writer took it the night your Mother passed on to the Dream. He gave it to me.”

Rosie nodded “Well, that solves your weight issue.” She looked to De Writer. “Are you guys leaving soon?”

@ask-de-writer

TO BE CONTINUED 

Return to MLP Fan Fiction

Return to Role Plays with De Writer

Scene setting Part 1 :  LUNA AWAKENS CELESTIA

Scene setting Part 2 : AIRSHIP!

Scene setting Part 3 : ONE LAST VISIT

Scene setting Part 4 : SCOUT’S PRIZE

Scene setting Part 5 : REBOOT / START UP

Scene setting Part 6 : CELESTIA AND LUNA GO TO MEET TWILIGHT

PAGE 1, THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!

PAGE 2, NEW PLATE, OLD MEMORIES!

[vore-scientist]

Garden Gnomes, Except They’re Elves (In Which There Are Thieves) [M/multiple prey safe, soft GT vo.re]

A Tale of the Mystic Woods

Yonah (the “evil” giant wizard) deals with thieves on a regular basis. They are rather a nuisance but they do taste good!

Almost every encounter with a thief follows a pattern: 1) Thief breaks in to the tower. 2) Yonah catches and eats the thief. 3) Yonah releases the thief and if they accept it, gives them some money for their trouble.

“In Which There Are Thieves” are a collection of stories that follow that pattern, but each is unique!

Note: this encounter takes place before Sophia comes to live with Yonah. Miryan the witch features in this story!

Content warnings: Yonah is a bit mean in this one when taunting his prey as they really pissed him off. So a little more emotional distress than usual. 

----

In the quiet misty morning we find Yonah HaEsh taking care of his garden. Normally an imposing figure, dressed in sun bleached pink pinstriped shirt, overalls, and a wide brimmed straw hat in place of the tall wizard one, Yonah looked like a rather jolly farmer. Especially as he whistled a little tune while weeding a bed of daliah’s. They weren’t magical, nor were they edible, but they came in such vibrant colors and their petals arranged so perfectly and impossibly round, they might as well be made of pure arcane joy.

A mage’s garden takes a lot of special care. In addition to the common plants which have different needs when it comes to fertilizing, watering and pruning, the magical plants all have additional special requirements.

Weeping Forget Me Nots needed extra salts and minerals in their water. SnowHeart Raspberry bramble had to be pruned of all leaves to produce the most potently frozen berries. The tops of Bickering Radishes had to be untangled from each other, pity they refused to grow in isolation. You get the idea.

Things were going smoothly until it was time to feed the Fire-Breathing Snap Dragons. As carnivorous plants had to be fed weekly. Yonah had spent years perfecting the recipe to the food blocks he fed to his Snap Dragons. It was a tricky balance between adding extra nutrients and maintaining a flavor that the Dragons would not just tolerate but enjoy. Plus they would get bored with one flavor after a while, so Yonah had developed several varieties to keep them satisfied.

Yet they were refusing to eat today! It couldn’t be the food blocks, this particular flavor was one of their favorites. He had to pinch their jaws to force them open. And they were reluctant to let him do that, holding their flowers away from his fingers. But they were still plants and couldn’t actually go anywhere. When he finally grabbed a flower on the stalk of indigo blue heads, the other stalks turned and breathed fire at him. This did nothing to him. In fact it was pleasant, or it would be if it weren’t concerning.

This wasn’t coy, playful fire, this was “get away” fire.  

“What has gotten into you?” He asked knowing they couldn’t respond.

Maybe it was just a funk. Plant emotions are mysterious. It was irritating however, as it took three times as long to feed all 20 of the stalks. Fortunately, once food was in their jaws they couldn’t breath anymore fire. Unfortunately, with all the fire breathing they would need to fed again in a few days, throwing off the current schedule! How annoying.

Wait.

There were only 19 stalks. The black stalk was gone! Roots and all. 

Shit. Well, that explained their bad mood.

His heart racing he furiously scoured the rest of his magical plants.

In addition to the missing Snap Dragon he found the stump of a stem of a ruby rose blossom, knife marks were thorns had been scrapped off the invisible dusk blooming choke vines, and a missing golden apple.

A Garden thief! That was the worst kind. Yonah had to keep his hair from crackling and sending off sparks; not all of his plants were fireproof. He was able to keep it at the usual smolder.

Judging by the freshness of the cut from the rose bush, the thief had come the previous night. And they might try again.

It was time for a stake out! And for that he would need to make some preparations.

But it was early in the day, and he completed the rest of the gardening before returning to his tower. His plans of checking the perimeter to see what had shifted since last week could wait. Checking the perimeter wasn’t something he ever needed to do, strictly speaking. It was a practice he had picked up from his mother who patrolled the woods around her village, and a skill that he had hated learning but now found incredibly useful. It also got him out of the tower and walking around, even if he couldn’t go very far.

But today he wasn’t going on his walk, he was preparing to catch a thief.

Being so large there wasn’t anywhere he could hide, even in a reduced state. So taking some dried out invisible dusk-blooming choke vine thorns that he had collected not too long ago, he powered them and mixed them with lemon juice. Distilling that made a very dirty invisibility potion. Since he had not applied any spellcasting it only worked at night when the choke vines bloomed. But adding a spell to it was more expensive and time consuming; he only needed it during the night. The quick version was fine.

Next was trickier. Despite his mother’s best efforts, he never learned how to walk as silently as she. And the pathways in his garden were not conducive to keeping silent. That was by design, so that no one could sneak up on him while he worked.

Enchanting a pair of boots for levitation was not a simple task, even if one only wanted to levitated a few inches. It took a lot of pixie dust, which was not easy to get. Yonah had been slowly purchasing/trading for small pinches for years. This would drain his supply.

And there was no avoiding spellcasting for this one. At school Yonah had learned to enchant carpets. Boots were very different, it was more like enchanting a broom, which wizards didn’t learn. Witches did, but his father had never taught him.

The boots needed a spell to account for shifting weight distribution and to bind the levitation magic in the dust to the boots. A carpet’s large surface area handled that already. However carpets needed program spells so it would take commands. The boots needed no such programming, they would just sit a few inches above any surface at all times. Carpets needed advanced propulsion spells to fly, and sensory spells to someone could steer/brake/accelerate by leaning to or pulling the sides. With the boots movement was achieved with one’s own body.

Of course, every wizard had experimented with levitation spells applied to oneself. It was ill-advised and dangerous, so while he had an idea of what to do from past foolishness, he was basically building an unfamiliar enchantment from scratch.

Could he have used his mirror to purchase levitating boots? Sure, if he wanted to drain his savings, such a purchase couldn’t be put on the king’s tab, and delivery was not guaranteed to happen by tonight. Magical deliveries were never a sure thing.

Plus it was more fun to design it himself. There wasn’t anything Yonah really enjoyed more than researching spell design. Except for researching spell design with other wizards. Sadly no one answered his calls, and he couldn’t expect them to come help him last minute.

That and... they would ask why he needed to design such a spell. He couldn’t tell them it was to catch thieves; that could easily lead to them finding out he ate the thieves. His friends did not know that he ate people, and he wanted to keep it that way. Since they were people, and already knew he fancied their taste. They might never visit him again if they found out he wanted to and could easily eat them, even if he would never act on that desire.

Enough introspection.

By the end of the day he amazed even himself, for he had a pair of levitating boots so well enchanted that they almost felt like one was still walking on solid ground. Almost.

Now the real difficult part: Staying awake. After a day of research and casting he was extremely tired. Not to mention he had forgotten to eat both lunch and dinner. He managed to have a nap and a quick snack but with the sun down he had to take his place outside. Before climbing down he took the invisibility potion, just in case someone was watching the tower they would not see him and assume he was asleep.

It would have been impossible to stay awake if he had to stay still. But with his levitating boots he could slowly patrol the garden like ghostly sentinel. Not hearing his own footsteps was unsettling and yet… powerful. Is this what his mom felt like stalking beasts at night? He would have to ask her.

The moon was full and illuminated the night with a silver glow. The air was crisp and refreshing in the lungs. And it was completely silent. No thief. Not yet.

As the hours wore on the need for sleep increased. Yonah made his way to the golden apple tree. Surely if the thief came back they would go for another apple. No one could resist golden apples, being gold after all.

He knelt down next to the tree and closed his eyes.

And snapped back open when an apple landed only inches from his feet, hitting the round with an odd THUMP. Yonah looked up. Someone was in the tree.

“Hey Jakyl!” came a voice from over by the roses. “Careful with the produce! If it’s been bruised there will be consequences!”

“It’s made of gold Jakrin!” said the person in the tree.

Two thieves!

Yonah stepped to the side and Jakyl landed right where he had been sitting.

Were these little children? They were rather loud and Jakyl was barely over 3 feet tall. But their voices were mature.

They picked up the apple and examined it with glee as Yonah snuck up behind them. And lunged. With a hand over their face they couldn’t scream and he held them tight.

And they weren’t a child. They were an elf. Short, pointed ears, and thoroughly confused as they were held by an invisible person.

He tucked the elf into his arm and headed into the garden proper to catch the other.

“Jakrin!”

A third voice!? Was tonight his lucky night?

“Hey Jakrin, what was the plant I wasn’t supposed to touch? Was it the Fanged Timbleberry or the Sneezing Feverfew?”

Another elf walked right into Yonah’s line of sight. They had clenched fists and were stomping rather loudly. That must be Jakrin. The one in his arms struggled but Jakrin didn’t see their floating comrade.

“I told you three times already Jaccuzi, figure it out yourself!”

They stomped back to the rose bush.

“ACHOO”

Yonah’s head snapped in the direction of he sneeze. Hm… Jacuzzi would be easier to catch, they seemed a bit dimwitted.

And indeed, in the midst of a sneezing fit they did not notice Yonah’s approach until they too were tucked into his arm.

Now for the leader.

Unfortunately with the sudden silencing of Jacuzzi, Jakrin had caught on to Yonah’s presence and was keeping out of sight. Well, he had two out of three. Maybe it was time to see how close they were.

He made himself visible, and grinned down at the two elves in his arm, the moonlight glinting off his teeth. He took one in another hand. Jakyl maybe? And held them up. They whimpered.

“I have your teammates, surrender yourself or I‘ll start crushing skulls,” he didn’t shout but he gave his voice an earthquake quality that spread in all directions.

Jakrin appeared from behind the bed of dahlias, murder in their eyes.

“Put them down!”

“Run Jakrin!” the elf squealed, “save yourself!”

Jakrin nodded solemnly and bolted.

Fortunately elves had very short legs, and Yonah had very long legs. Jakrin didn’t get far and soon found themselves reunited with the rest of their team.

“That was rather fun, wasn’t it?” Yonah growled at them.

“No!” Jakrin spat in his face, “What are you going to do with us!?”

Yonah grinned again licking his lips and pressed the three elves against his gut. As he thought about how good they would taste it rumbled in anticipation.

“I’m going to eat you.”

Their ears fell and their large black elf eyes nearly bulged out of their heads, the moon filling their shimmering voids.

“You-you lie!” said Jakrin with little hope, “Humans don’t eat elves! What kind of sicko are you?”

“Not human,” Yonah growled, bringing fire into his eyes as he walked to the side of the tower.

He sat down with the elves in his lap, all of them secure in one arm. He took his staff from his hat and dispelled the reduction. The elves, now in his hands, screamed. Taking Jakrin he held them up above his head and opened his mouth. He dropped the elf inside.

Humans were savory, elves were sweet. And small enough that he could fit them entirely in his mouth. Jakrin screamed as Yonah licked them like a candy, drool escaping from his mouth. The other elves were staring up in shock and shrieked when he tipped his head back and swallowed dramatically.

He didn’t wait for Jakrin to make it to his stomach, he selected another elf and tossed them up, catching them in his teeth with uncanny gentleness, and drew them into his mouth to be gulped down.

Two elves in his stomach and he wasn’t even full! But he didn’t eat the third. Not just yet. The other two were pounding against his insides, making it move slightly, and they were yelling themselves hoarse. He held the third against his gut, and they whimpered as they heard their fellows’ screams and felt their struggles.  

“It would be cruel to break up the team,” Yonah said, as he brought them to his mouth. Their face was streaked with shining tears. Good! He felt no sympathy for these flora filching fuckers!

The saltiness of the tears complimented the sweet taste as he licked the third elf bodily before eating them too. 

With three elves he felt full and looked full! They were certainly stuffed in there but there was still some room to stretch, struggle, and protest. It was delightful! It was rare that he got to have multiple snacks at the same time. With humans it always hurt more than it felt in anyway good. The sensations made him a little drowsy. He would have to be careful not to nod off.

Woah! Or not! 

Energy surged through him from a jolt that slammed into his stomach, waking him up and heightening his senses. He chuckled. One of them had cast a spell.

“Nice try, but that’s not going to work,” he lied, patting his gut, causing the elves to freak and scramble. It was pure chance they has chosen to cast fire magic which his body absorbed.

---

From the tree line they watched the events unfold. The elves arriving, getting pick off one by one, and chased down. Once the giant wizard had eaten all the elves and was lounging against his tower, a little too pleased with himself, they nudged their broomstick forward.

The giant looked up and his villainous grin was replaced with a genuinely friendly and excited one.

“Miryan! What brings you here?”

They stopped their broom a meter from his face, it was their turn to smile wickedly.

“I was watching from the woods. Those little shits stole from my garden too.”

“Oh dear, did you want a shot at them?”

They shook their head and Siv, who was sitting on the broom bristles, meowed, “and ruin your fun? I wouldn't dream of it!”

At a low gurgling noise they glanced down at Yonah’s middle. Even in the dark they could see occasionally twitches and trembles as the elves continued to fight; their cries piercing but muffled. Yonah giggled and rubbed at it.

“Do you want to join the party?” Yonah’s eyes glinted playfully.

“No thanks,” they said, seriously. 

But Yonah was unfazed, “Can I at least get a taste?” he asked without a hint of disappointment.

They flew closer, past his lips and to his cheek.

“Only if I get one first,” they said, pressing their lips to his warm skin. The still glowing eyes that looked down at them.

As they alighted on his shoulder Yonah turned his head to kiss the dwarf witch’s fuzzy face, sticking the tip of his tongue out briefly. Dwarves were not as tasty as humans or elves, but he had come to find immense delight in Miyran’s earthy flavor.

They laughed and eventually pushed his face away.

“How are they doing?” They asked. 

Yonah looked down and poked at his gut making the elves squirm and panic. To Yonah it felt like a ticklish massage, so he poked again. The elves definitely didn’t like that, but he did. 

“I think it’s time you pardon them, don’t you?” posited Miryan. 

“I suppose so,” Yonah sighed and pushed himself up onto his knees.

Miryan hopped back on their broom to hover around Yonah’s face. They were unsure if they wanted to watch this. They had experienced it from the other side and it was deeply unpleasant. But their curiosity got the better of them.

Their giant friend pressed both of his hands to his full gut and convulsed. Once, twice, three times. Each time the elves screams grew louder. With a pained grin and a triumphant snarl he started hacking and heaving. Spit flew from his mouth and Miyran narrowly dodged the offensive fluids, backing up another meter as Yonah leaned forward, gagging and holding his hands under his face.

He choked, and an elf fell into his hands. Again. Another elf. A third time. No elf. Miryan grew worried, but Yonah shuddered let out a horrible sound like Siv with a hairball, and the final elf tumbled out with a splat on top of the other two. He curled his fingers over them before they regained their senses enough to escape.

Miryan flew back to his shoulder. They could both feel and hear Yonah’s pulse raging alongside his wheezing breaths.

The elves regained their voices first.

“Let us go!” They pleaded.  

“He already did! Or did you leave your brains in his stomach?!” Miyran shouted down at them.

Six shining eyes locked onto the witch. Another person they had stolen from. They might be out of the giant but weren’t out of the woods yet, not by a long shot.

Yonah sat up and slumped against his tower. He held the elves up to his face, breathing hot air over them. They shivered and squeaked out fearful noises. They were not giving up, especially now that they weren’t being eaten. And now that they were covered in slime it was hard to keep his grip without hurting them. 

Catching his breath as quickly as he could Yonah sat up straight and focused, glaring at the elves. They froze, their big black eyes reflecting the orange glow of his own. 

“You caught me in a good mood, little morsels,” he hissed, “care to make it better by giving back what is rightfully mine?”

The elves, though scared out of their little elf minds, shook their heads.

“We! We can’t!”

Miryan flew to Yonah’s hands. Their boots sticking into the saliva. That... would wash off.

“Why not?”

“We need them! For a potion.”

The witch and wizard narrowed their eyes at the creatures.

“Our village has been taken by a plague, we have been traveling far and wide for ingredients! It’s our only hope!”

With a loud CRACK Yonah’s head hit the stones behind him and he groaned. Of course they had to have a worthy and righteous cause for their crime. He And Miryan were going to have to do the right thing here. CRACK CRACK. 

Miryan ignored Yonah and knelt in front of the elf who was speaking, Jakrin, and stroked their beard. Shaking, Jarkin peeled their eyes from Yonah to look at Miryan. 

“I’m starting to think you never had brains to begin with. If you’d led with that we might have been willing to help you, and you would have had to get eaten.”

Jakrin sniffed, wrinkling their nose as the smell of drying mucus and spit hit them, “We have no money! Our village is poor!”

Yonah stared up at the moon but still spoke “Then you work for trade! Or trade with work!”

“That would take too long!”

Yonah dimmed his eyes and looked at Miryan who nodded. The dwarf looked back to the elves. 

“Tell us about the sickness and the potion you need, I’m sure we can work something out.”

The elves brightened at this, even if they were still held tightly in Yonah’s grasp.

—-

Back in Yonah’s tower, washed up, given cups of tea and a plate of bread and jams, the elves told them everything.

The disease as they described it was real, Miryan recognized it as Resplendent Frozen Fatigue and indeed it required a stupidly convoluted potion to cure. They had been sent out to retrieve the ingredients, and by retrieve they meant steal. And had they collected the items from Yonah and Miryan’s gardens successfully they would move on to the next targets. Certain ingredients were extremely rare.

But not impossible to get. Not for Miryan or Yonah at least. They even had a few of the more obscure oils and animal parts. 

Of course they weren’t going to give these to the elves for free. They might have if they hadn’t used theft as their first course of action.

To pay for the items they had to work in the gardens, for a month. They were elves after all, plants liked them. Even if these elves weren’t gardeners they were quick learners and their elf magic helped significantly. And they were hard workers.

For their cockiness, Jakrin ended up in Yonah’s mouth twice more and swallowed once, but other than that they gave the wizard no trouble. Jakrin avoided getting eaten a third time by working more with Miryan. The other elves managed to avoid such punishment and got along rather well with Yonah, all things considered. He would still tease and lick them.

What did take some convincing was getting the elves to give up some of their blood. Elf blood is very magical, if you extracted it right. They were eventually swayed when they smelled the cookies Yonah had baked that they would get to partake in after giving their blood.

Miryan actually prepared the potion once all of the ingredients were acquired. And sent the bottles with one of the elves back to their village. The time it took to deliver the medicine and return was not counted against their month of servitude.

Eventually it was time to say goodbye and the elves were told they could each pick a ripe golden apple to take with them. The elves thanked them profusely and went on their way.

“I’m kind of sad to see them go,” Miryan waxed sarcastically, “They had a knack for agriculture.”

“Indeed!” Yonah agreed. 

“And they were delicious!”

[FIN]

[Thanks for reading! please reblog! for more mystic woods go to vore-scientist.tumblr.com/tagged/+mystic+woods+story or search ‘mystic woods story’ on my blog! For thief stories only search “MW Thieves”]

[eerythingisshaka]

Wakanda Got Y’all Pt. 7

[Black Panther x Insecure Mashup]

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Word Count: 2.2k

The outreach center was operating in its usual mode.  Children playing in the gymnasium and fitness centers, tutoring area giving one on one help to kids on their studies, lunches and snacks distributed on schedule.  Luckily attendance rose with the stat of the regular school year.

Issa helped in the tutoring room with Frieda and a couple of other volunteers.

“Issa!  We have really picked up our numbers since the first week, isn’t this exciting?”  Frieda asks with a smile bigger than her hair.

Issa couldn’t help but admit the same.  “I know! I really can’t believe it, but I guess T’Challa was right.  They will come eventually, long as we are consistent and patient about it.”

Frieda puts on a thoughtful look peering at Issa.  “Wise words, from a king nonetheless. Have you guys been...getting along?”

Issa instantly starts to sweat.  “Hey Bradley! Don’t let those equations divide your attention.  Multiply your knowledge young’un!” Issa yells out across the room abruptly, causing the other students to sit up and look at her suspiciously.

“Which one is Bradley…”  Frieda asks searching the room.

There was no Bradley, Issa just needed an excuse to change the subject from T’Challa.

“He back there.  So, um, have you seen Nakia around today?  I was hoping to get to talk to her a little bit to go over some stuff.”

“Oh no worries.  I already got with her about the one piece she wore.  I saw you couldn’t keep staring so I asked where she got it, but she said it’s exclusive to her tribe so we probably shouldn’t appropriate.”

Issa blinks wildly, shaking her head.  “Wait, did she say we shouldn’t appropriate?”

Frieda shakes her head.  “No, that’s my thoughts on it.”  

“Frieda, it wouldn’t be appropriation if I did it.  You passed the diversity training with flying colors, I don’t know why this trips you up still.”

“Ohhh, right.  I’m sorry I almost stripped you of your Black identity to your roots.  Honestly, I can’t believe my foolishness.”

“Plus that wasn’t even what I was talkin about.  I need her to-”

“Can y’all take this conversation outside or put a pin in it?  My thesis ain���t gonna write itself.” One shiny, round boy boy spoke up from his laptop.

“Sorry!  Bradley…?”  Issa asks.

“Stefon, lady.  Damn!” He corrects.

“Young man, remember the clean language policy please.”  Frieda warns gently.

“How about y’all just REMEMBER, ma’am?”  The boy says with some neck work.

Issa mutters to herself.  “Damn, he really is a Stefon.  Um, sorry. Frieda, I’m going to find Nakia, you got this?”

Frieda waves her off.  “No doubt. Take your time!”

Issa walks out of the tutoring area towards the administrative offices where Nakia is located.  The secretary says hello as she confirms with Issa that Nakia was present and wrapping up a meeting.  

Issa sat down and pulled out her phone to pass the time, seeing a message from Kellie in the group chat.

(K) Is Tiffany covering the bill for this girls night since this was her damn idea?  Shit is high as hell, even after happy hour discount.

Molly pops up.  No girl, just stick to what you can do, we’ll wind down at my spot afterwards anyway.  Save your drink money.

That’s👏 what 👏 I’m 👏 talkin 👏 bout!  Kelli emotes.

Oh, Molly, you cool if Nakia is at your place too?

(M) She comin??

I’m about to ask…

(K) Oh!  If we bringin plus ones, lemme bring my Butterball to the function too!

(M) NO!  Y’all ain’t fuckin in my damn apartment.

(K) Woooow, like I’m that disrespectful.  Fuck you too then!

So is that a yeah or…

(M) If you get the balls to ask, she can.  But she ain’t my business, so if things go south, she out!

Issa hears Nakia’s door open followed by laughter.  Nakia walks out with T’Challa, stopping to give him a hug, making Issa squirm uncomfortably.  T’Challa breaks away and turns to see her.

“Issa!  Hello, you look well.  Were you waiting on me?”  T’Challa asks, while striding over to Issa, holding her hand to stand her up.  His sunny demeanor was hard to ignore, especially when she wasn’t sure if it was truly for her or from Nakia.

“No, actually, I am here to see Nakia.  I wanted to have a little talk, girl talk, you know.”  Issa says, stammering slightly.

T’Challa smiles looking back at Nakia.  “Be kinder to her than you just were to me, eh?  Issa, I would like to see you later. Call me when you are free.”  He says kissing the back of her hand with a wink.

“Issa, come in.  I was hoping to see you actually.”  Nakia’s ethereal voice calls out to her as she gracefully turns to go back into her office, beckoning Issa with a twirl of her fingers in the air.

As Issa walks in, she is caught up in the decor of Nakia’s office.  Earth tones set her mood at ease with the dark wood panel walls, rich tapestry lining the wall behind her.  Exotic plants emit fragrances to tickle her senses. The babbling of a large waterfall running over the plastic rock formations sing in her eardrum as she takes a seat in the comfy chair.

“Wow, I didn’t know you worked in a spa.  I should’ve came here more often.” Issa says in amazement.

Nakia smiles sweetly, folding her hands on her desk.  “Trust me, this wasn’t in the budget, but I figured I could splurge myself for a home away from home.”

Issa nods.  “Yeah, I can only imagine being outside of where I’m from.  It’s kind of exciting but scary too.”

Nakia waves this notion off.  “Oh no, I am used to being away from home.  I have traveled all around the world as a War Dog for Wakanda.  This is a vacation in comparison.”

Issa blinks, feeling her anxiety grow.  “Excuse me? War Dog?”

Nakia nods, looking at Issa in surprise.  “Yes! I thought I told you? Anyway, a war dog is like a spy.  It’s how we keep tabs on the happenings around the world, intervene when necessary, other classified things.  It’s so exciting, for selfish reasons really; half the reason me and T’Challa couldn’t work out.”

“Oh.”  Issa says softly.  The reality of being the one after Nakia to T’Challa breaks her confidence down further.  

Nakia cocks her head to the side with concern.  “I hope us working together does not make things uncomfortable for you.  He seems to believe in you a lot and T’Challa’s judgment is pretty sound for the most part.”

“No, not at all.  We’re taking things slow anyway.  I would barely call it a relationship, I mean, we’re talking but nothing deep, you know.”  Issa stammers

“It’s all good!  Long as everyone’s happy I’m happy.  And speaking of, I wanted to talk to you about We Got Y’all.”

Issa sits up straighter.  “Yeah, go ahead.”

Nakia twists her hands together anxiously.  “I wonder exactly how well we mesh together as a unit.  Don’t get me wrong, I still feel that the benefit of mixing us together helps our causes more than it hinders but there are little parts that may be a challenge to the overall goals we are trying to achieve.”

Issa furrows her brow.  “Well, ok. Could you be more specific?”

Nakia bites her lip.  “Some of the coordinators seem a bit out of touch with the culture here.  And that is coming from me, I’m, certainly not tied to America in the slightest, nor would I permanently choose to be.  But some are either too, let’s say ‘engaged’ with the students and their needs to the point of concocting worse backstories on assumption, while others are completely aloof to put it nicely.”

Issa knew exactly the ones that Nakia was talking about.  “I get it, you don’t even have to say a thing about it. Like you said, they try for the cause by showing up but it’s hard for them to see past innate differences sometimes.  You should’ve seen them trying to use me like a cheat sheet on what to even say to you guys, and even Erik, and he’s from here!”

Nakia shakes her head in disbelief.  “It’s outstanding the lengths people will go to appear accepting only to trip and fall on their own face, when you’ve asked for none of it in the first place.”

Issa nods encouragingly.  “Can we just say it now? White people?”

“Pssh, I was just about to, you beat me to it!”  

They share a genuine laugh that felt so good for Issa to let go, like a weight was lifted from her shoulders.  “I can talk to them, try and make things a little less tense and remind them you guys aren’t aliens.”

“The curly haired nervous one, she can be that way sometimes.  Very knowledgeable but everyday does not have to be CNN.”

“Right!  Just talk regular, she is an easy fix.  Frieda is the ally you want to have around here.”   Issa assures Nakia.

“Noted, thank you again for your input.  I won’t keep you from your weekend any longer, please have a good day.”  Nakia gets up, collecting some papers on her desk.

“Actually that is something I wanted to bring up.  Me and some girlfriends of mine were gonna have a girls night out, and we haven’t gotten wind down time together.  So I thought maybe you’d wanna come?”

Nakia’s eyes lit up.  “Sure! That sounds like a good plan!  I’d love to join your friends, just let me know what I should bring.”

Issa dismisses her, getting up.  “Oh just bring yourself. You’re my guest, it’s not problem.”

Nakia stands coming around to give Issa a strong hug.  “Thank you for the invitation. I cannot wait!”

“Great!  I’ll give you the details later!”  Issa says goodbye, leaving her office on cloud nine.  Their talk went way better than she ever expected, and now the other girls will get to meet her too.  Issa began to look forward to the night even more now. And with a ding of her phone, T’Challa gave her reason to leave work a little early.

Before she texts him back, she messages the girls.

Hey! Confirmed one more head for our night!

(T) I don't know her. Molly may not have room at her place...

(M) Uh, don't shade my apt...

I thought we were eating out?

(K) Call your man for that.  Tiffany tryna be bougie cheap is all.

The hell is bougie cheap?

(K) Avoiding tipping by doing a house party which is more expensive.

(T) whatever.  I just couldn't find a reservation last minute. But she can bring something to contribute.

Ok what are we needing?

(T) No no. She can bring something. We don't know her, let her impress us.

It wasn’t even Tiffany’s party and she was already running shit

---

T’Challa wanted to eat out tonight, so he picked her up for a night out to a mid range restaurant for them to enjoy.

“Ooh!  I think I’m going to get the shrimp.  I’m feeling fancy and delicate.” Issa says, bopping in her seat slightly.

T’Challa looks at her, staring at the candlelight illuminates their table romantically.  “Whatever you like sounds good to me.”

“No, you have to get something different.”  Issa protests.

“And why is that?”

“....so the table can have some variety?”  Issa mutters.

“But the meals are individualized.”  T’Challa asks in confusion.

“Well, if you don’t have a preference you should try the chicken marsala, that sounded good to me too.”

T’Challa closes his menu.  “So, if you have shrimp, and chicken marsala, what am I eating then?”

Issa looks up at the ceiling in dramatic thought.  “We haven’t seen the dessert menu yet.”

T’Challa chuckles, taking his glass up to Issa.  She mirrors him. “To dessert then. May it be sweet enough to lick the plate clean.”  He sips his wine looking at Issa with desire. Issa almost chokes on hers, sputtering and wiping her mouth dry.

“So, did you have a good talk with Nakia today?”  T’Challa asks looking back to his menu unphased.

Issa blinks a incredulously, unprepared to discuss his ex so soon.  “Diving right in huh? Well, yeah, it was good. She wants me to kind of talk with my folks about their methods around the kids and I invited her to go out with me.”

“Oh!  Is she stealing you from me now?”  T’Challa quips.

Issa looks sideways.  “I mean, she kinda pretty.  We’ll see after these drinks we bout to have Saturday night.”

T’Challa’s mouth hangs open before melting into a smile.  “I’m glad you are in good spirits considering.”

Issa sips from her glass.  “That she is your ex and you didn’t tell me ahead of time?  Yeah, I’m pretty fucking good.”

T’Challa calls over a waiter.  “It’s not like I wasn’t going to tell you, it’s just that I hadn’t gotten a chance to.  And I also didn’t expect it to have to be explained. I didn’t get into this program expecting to fall for one of the coordinators.”

“Well pick yourself back up.  This is going to stay as professional as possible out of respect.”

T’Challa shrugs.  “Then we will be going dutch on the meal, then?”

Issa cranks her neck back.  “Uh, don’t be rude. You invited me anyway, so that’s the rules.”

T’Challa squints at her.  “Wakanda is a bit different than America.  I might have to claim ignorance on that.”

They laugh as the waiter approaches.  “Welcome to Chez Magnifique. I’m L-”

“Lawrence?!”  Issa gasps.

“Yes, Lawrence.  She will have the shrimp and the chicken marsala.  We are sharing tonight.” T’Challa smiles at Issa but it swiftly drops when he reads her expression.  “What’s wrong?”

Part 8

Masterlist

RagTag

@hbicprettyprincess @theunsweetenedtruth

@kimianostalgia @airis-paris14

@afraiddreamingandloving

@chaneajoyyy

@myfavemarvelfanfics

@nys30

@blkintrovert

@allhailnjadaka @cutewylie @bidibidibombaclaat @muse-of-mbaku @wakanda-inspired @klaine15689

[burndownthehousetonight]

((This is something I’ve been thinking about doing with story driven threads of RPs. If there are NSFW parts that can be skipped over, I will post a SFW version so more people will be willing to read it! If you’d like the NSFW version of this @jack-rabbot​ RP, you can find it here!))

Complicated technology was still in it's early and most expensive stages, reserved mostly for the rich. Simpler technologies still existed with the commonfolk. Clocks, motors, plumbing and some electricity, but technology just wasn't there yet. The few specialists who worked with those technologies were always pushing the envelope, testing what they'd already done and perfecting it. But transportation was still being developed, and the best designed vehicles were kept secret from the public... or closely examined, carefully build in secret, and distributed to a few specific royals, all by a certain two tailed fox.

So when the commonfolk saw some kind of automobile speeding down the streets, everyone paid attention. Especially with the royal Yezek family crest on the front of the vehicle and Queen Aleena and her children looking out the windows.

"Your Majesty, something appears to have come up." The wolf had been waiting outside the meeting hall for a while, impatient to speak to the king. "The royal family of Mobotropolis arrived in the automobile. They want to speak to you immediately, they've been escorted to the throne room."

Jack didn’t bother with most of the technology that was being developed in secret. The most he had was the limbs that kept him up and walking. The rabbit was doing his best to keep up his look of being stern with keeping the marriage between him and princess Sally either on hold or cancelling it all together if he could ,but unfortunately it was all a facade. He was quite nervous of what this investigation would bring to light if anything was found at all, who had committed the crime and why? Was it someone close to Jack’s family? Was it a plan to coup? An act of revenge maybe, a plot from a different kingdom to swoop in and take control when the royal family was slain?

Jack had no clue and with each passing day he was slowly becoming more and more nervous of himself breaking the facade he had been trying to hold onto. After the latest meeting Jack saw the waiting wolf and listened to what he had to say. Manic’s family? What were they here for? Jack nodded as he walked with the wolf to the throne room. “Have they said why they wanted to speak with meh?” "They said it's top secret," the wolf informed him, "and that it's necessary for the safety of both your kingdoms." The entrance to the throne room normally had one or two guards, depending on the time of day. Not so much with the royal family there, bumping that number all the way up to six guards. Two of Jacks, four from the royal family. The nodded for the king, silently and ominously opening the door for the king, and no one else. The wolf was held back, so much so he wasn't allowed to look into the throne room. The queen made her stance clear. She sat firmly in the king's rightful throne, her gaze quietly judging the young king as her three children stood to her side and said nothing. Sonia and Sonic looked mildly uncomfortable being there. Manic did not. His arms were crossed, his head held low... was he trembling a little? The sight of the king gave him another jolt of fear, visible in the way he wobbled. Silently, the queen stood up and stepped forward. "Hello, your Majesty." She said, her eyes half lidded and belying anger. "Step forward, we have a lot to talk about." But the king was stopped short of the raised platform the thrones were on, and one of Aleena's thin fingers pas pointed at the ground. "Kneel." Top secret? The safety of both kingdoms? What had happened that could cause such problems? As Jack thought, him and his guard got to the throne room and with only him allowed to enter the room, the rabbit entered the throne room alone to see to the visiting royal family. He had been wearing more regal clothes since his facade had started as that helped keep his image. The clothes he chose for today was a black suit with thin white stripes with a black cape behind him, this was one of his most formal of attires and seemed to get him the most respect from his peers at least he hoped that was the case. He was slightly put off with the fact that the visiting queen was sitting on his father’s throne when she had no right to it, although he was worried about Manic as he saw his lover stand there in his current state. The other two royal children didn’t give him confidence.

Jack listened to the queen and while her look did slightly unnerve him he did his best to stay composed. It was when he was stopped and the queen spoke again did he feel more then just put off with her actions of late, kneel? Did she seriously ask him the king to kneel before her while in his kingdom, while his throne room while sitting on a throne that does not belong to her? Jack was not one to be quick to anger but like everyone he had limits, he kept himself for Manic’s sake before speaking.

“With all due respect Queen Aleena, ah believe proper protocol dictates that it is the visiting royals that must bow to king not the other way around. Ah assume yeh'r trip must’ve been tiring, ah hope mah father’s throne was comfortable for yeh but ah must politely ask yeh refrain from sitting on a throne that does not belong to yeh. Now may ah ask what is this top secret that threatens our kingdoms?” Jack asked doing his best to stay civil for Manic while also slightly showing his distaste for the queen’s choice of words and actions so far. "Interesting." Aleena pretended to be in thought, not backing down from her firm stance on the pedestal the thrones sat on. "Your throne is private property? I should've assumed. Royalty should be given some kind of privacy and respect. After all," She glared down at Jack, her height over him only increased by her position. "It would be horrible for any king to disrespect another monarch's wishes." She stepped forward. "You understand that homosexuality is widely hated in most every kingdom. Every romance through my court has to go through me to make sure it wouldn't stir any international incidents, and you've stepped far beyond that. I understand you've been seeing Manic for two months now? Sneaking out after dark and doing whatever you do?" Another step, so she was uncomfortably close to the rabbit. "You've risked ruining both of our royal families with this little affair, and with how things are going now, I'm afraid keeping this secret isn't an option." The same angle, the same motion. Aleena pointed at the ground in the same way she had before. "So when I say kneel, I don't mean kneel for me. Kneel for the two countries and countless lives that are risking losing everything for what you've done." Jack felt like she was insulting him as she spoke while standing over the throne. “Well ah doubt yeh wouldn’t be too happy if ah was to visit yeh'r kingdom and then tell yeh to kneel while sitting on yeh'r throne.” The rabbit replied as he then listened to what she had to say. When she mention the taboo in question jack started to get nervous and knew why Manic was looking as he was, she found out? Ruining the royal families? There wasn’t any family left for Jack to ruin so there was only him to bear the burden, but he felt she didn’t really care as this would mostly affect her status as ruler as it would him.

Was she blackmailing him? Was she honestly using one of her children and the feelings the two had for each other to blackmail the young king just so she could keep her power and save face? What else could he do? Unfortunately not much else accept to do as she told him, as he gritted his teeth he slowly kneeled in front of her while having a very high distaste of her, if it wasn’t for Manic and his siblings who had done so much for him this conversation wouldn’t even be happening as he would’ve had her escorted out by now. The boiling blend of fear and anger the queen could see in Jack told her she pushed her luck far enough. "We've had a doctor come in to talk with Manic about some issues he's had recently with gaining weight and nausea. And as it turns out... someone has impregnated him." She said, finally cutting to the chase. "Sonia finally spilled who he was seeing, and I have no reason to doubt her." The way the queen spun flung her dress, making the move to glare straight at the now shuddering prince all the more dramatic. "Unless you've been sleeping with Scourge in private again?" "I'm not!" Manic said quietly, anger only held back by crushing fear. "I haven't slept with him in years!" "And is there anyone else who could have been the father?" His silence spoke volumes. There was no one Manic wanted to implicate for this, and by the time he had figured out a good lie, Aleena was already facing the king again. "What do you have to say, your Majesty?" Jack kept his head down as Aleena spoke. It was only when she spoke of Manic and what happened to him did his head quickly look up to the royal family, Manic’s pregnant?! When could that have happened? Jack and Manic only engaged intimate acts three times, and all those times Jack thought Manic was on those pills that stopped him from being pregnant. Back then he was still new to stuff like that and had no idea how pregnancy worked. This sudden news was quickly breaking the facade he had bringing him back to the point he was almost when he first met Manic.

Jack watched and listened as the queen spoke to Manic and so on, it was only when Aleena turned and spoke to him again that the rabbit flinched himself before speaking. “I-it was meh, ah take full responsibility for what has happened. A-ah hope ah can make up for this and earn yeh'r forgiveness.” The rabbit said, sounding and feeling defeated and depressed. Manic was the one person who made him happy and the foolish rabbit pretty much ruined his life. Jack kept his head as he stayed on his hands and knees in front of the queen and waited for her verdict. Jack was defeated, she'd gotten her confession. That was all she needed, and her power games were over. "I don't want him to stop seeing anyone if it makes him happy," Aleena started, "regardless of gender. But there's no good option here. If the public finds out any of this - that he's trans, that he's gay, that he's eloped with another royal - they'll have our heads." Her arms were held to her side. "But you are the father. I'll give you and Manic three days to put a plan together for this child. If you can't decide on a plan, I'll handle this personally. Understood?" Jack’s ears were lowered quite a bit, almost reaching the ground as he knelt and kept his head down in shame. This was the worst he’d ever felt and it was his fault this had happened, he should’ve stopped himself that night it all started, then at least Manic wouldn’t be in this mess. Although saying that, what would’ve happened to the rabbit if their meeting had never happened? Jack listened to Queen Aleena and kept his mouth shut the whole time. When she told the rabbit what to do and how long he had to do he kept his head down as he spoke. “Y-yes Queen Aleena.” A-ah understand.“ His facade broken, he was back to his timid frightened self again, it was probably the most shameful he looked with him on his knees with his head so close to the ground. ◇        ◇        ◇        ◇ Manic was sitting on Jack's bed, arms supporting him. His dress shirt was unbuttoned, showing off the baby bump. Before, it was possible to pass it off as weight gain. But the way it bumped out was unmistakable. "The doctor said she thinks I'm two months in," Manic said regretfully. "It must have been the night we met." When they were alone Jack was sitting on a chair opposite the bed as he looked at Manic. He was conflicted, he hated himself for what he did with Manic and he didn’t know what to do in this situation. "A-ah see, d-didn’t yeh say yeh was on pills to stop this happening?” Jack asked as he looked at Manic’s baby bump. The pills must’ve been faulty if this had happened. Manic's legs crossed in shame. "That kinda medical stuff's still kinda sketch. We don't really know what works yet, and... we can't really know 'til it's too late. Medicine never works on me, anyways." But his own emotions weren't his concern. "Angel, babe, she's just- she didn't realize what this meant, but goddamn. Don't let her scare you. Everyone fucked up here, you aren't alone. I should've... Should've stopped this that morning." He was already up, helping Jack out of the chair by his hands. "C'mon, let's go to the balcony, get some air. It'll help." He quickly did up his shirt buttons again, covering the bump enough to hide it's true nature. The midday summer air was warm and fresh, cool breezes relaxing them as they worried about absolutely everything. "I don't even know where to start," Manic said. "Mom said I'm too far in to terminate this, I've gotta take it to term. What the hell are we gonna do?" "A-ah see, it wasn’t yeh'r fault Manic.” Jack replied as he looked at Manic crossing his legs. If it wasn’t for everything that had happened and all the negative things that would’ve come from this, Jack might’ve been less worried. He might’ve even been happy to have a child with Manic, but unfortunately with things as they were, it just couldn’t happen. Jack continued to listen to Manic speak as he sat in his chair and looked down. He didn’t deserve to be called an angel, not after what he did and what he was putting Manic through now, he blamed himself fully and would take the blame for Manic as well. With Manic’s help he was soon out of his chair and walking to the balcony as he watched Manic button his shirt to cover his bump. Although the cool breeze helped a little, it didn’t help completely. Jack had no idea how to get through this he was still worrying about Manic. “A-ah don’t know Manic, as much as I don’t want to say it we can’t keep the child, maybe someone we can trust could take it when yeh’ve had it.” "I don't know who that'd be now," Manic said. "I mean... Really, I dunno how I'm gonna stop being seen for seven months. Like, I'm used to just disappearing for a while, but that's a hell of a long time even for me." He rested his chin on his hand and his elbow on the railing of the patio. "I don't know what this is gonna mean for us, either. I know it's fun, but like..." No, that negativity wasn't going to help. "I really do care about you, man. You're a great boyfriend. I don't wanna burden you with having to deal with changing diapers and listening to screaming..." He went silent. The thought had echoed around his mind several times before, but now that Jack knew their whole story, Manic wasn't sure if it was a good idea to suggest that route. Maybe it was best if he just glossed over their name. "Hey, if the baby can't stay at my place or yours... I think I know where it could hide out. I've disappeared there whenever someone's after me for whatever reason, but it's kinda far away." He turned back to the king, doing his best to grin and pointing at the castle grounds with his thumb. "If we take my hoverboard, we can get there before sundown. You up for a little ride?" Jack listened to Manic speak and was having trouble thinking of any more ideas himself. What could they do? Manic had to carry the child to term and then what? There was no way either of them could have the child in with them without questions being asked, and who could they trust to look after the child if they had to leave the child with someone? There was no one Jack knew who would take a child in a situation like this. Jack listened to Manic speak and was happy that Manic still cared about him despite what he had done to Manic.

As he listened to Manic speak his idea, Jack looked at his lover and wondered where they could go. "Yeh do? Where can we take it?” Jack asked before Manic pointed to the grounds and spoke again. Jack wasn’t sure of this, but if Manic thought it was a good idea then he’d go with it, as he nodded to Manic and packed a few things for them for the trip. ◇        ◇        ◇        ◇ The outside of the foreign castle may have been behind an imposing wall, but that didn't mean the grounds themselves were imposing. Actually, the place felt warm and inviting with the few children running around in the evening air. A little orange wolf with sharp pointed teeth, a dark blue rat chasing the wolf close behind, and a little purple hedgehog with two tiny horns, none of them looking older than four years old and all wearing regal attire. Nannies of the king were standing around, letting the children play and have fun while making sure they weren't getting hurt. But they couldn't stop and watch. Manic took the lead and walked Jack into the massive castle, with royal purple decorations covering the stone floors and walls. The room was massive, full of warm lighting and elegantly carved doorways and decorations, but the tiny gargoyles scattered in the carvings gave the room an air like the prince and the king were being watched. Guards bowed at their entrance, as a fox with a black fringe greeted the two. "Hello, your highnesses," he said, not sounding like he cared in the slightest. "Why are you here?" Manic stepped forward. "We need to speak with king Scourge. Immediately." Jack wasn’t sure where he was and while he was a bit nervous seeing the imposing walls outside the castle, he couldn’t believe he was in the same place as he saw the grounds. He watched the children play as he and Manic walked into the castle. Jack wasn’t sure who owned this castle, as the only reason he was there was because of Manic saying this person might be able to help them at least take care of their child when Manic had it.

Jack looked around as the two walked through the castle and it felt a lot different then back home, he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous but as long as Manic was there and he trusted whoever they were seeing, then that was enough for Jack. Hopefully this should at least make things a bit easier for them. Jack stayed quiet as they reached the guards and the fox who, while he didn’t seem to care, still asked them what they were there for.

It was only until he heard the name that Jack found out why they were here, Scourge? He was the to help them? Jack wasn’t sure if this was a good idea but he stayed close and kept his mouth shut as he didn’t really have any other choice. "The king is in the throne room, practicing loudly." He said, already turning and walking. "This way." That harsh sound they heard as they approached the throne room was unmistakable. Not many technologies were available to the public, but some were quick to find a new use for it; music. The doors were opened and there was Scourge, practicing on an electric guitar and not looking like he was taking anything seriously. "Your loudness," the fox said, almost pushing the royals in and leaving through the door, "two royal visitors have arrived." The slam of the door was followed by the sound of Scourge's guitar plomping onto the cushion of the single throne in the room. These weren't a royal's clothes, these were the leather jackets worn by street punks, just made of fancier materials. "Knew you couldn't stay away forever," Scourge said, walking up to Manic with a dangerous yet charming grin. He wrapped one arm around Manic's shoulders, and pointed one finger casually at Jack as he spoke. "Why'd you come with, Jack?"  He asked, not really knowing quite. "What, don't tell me Manic didn't come here just for me." Jack stayed close to Manic as they followed the fox to the throne room. The loud music was a bit much for the rabbit as his sensitive ears were ringing quite loudly as they got closer to the source of the noise. Was the fox honestly just pushing them in and leaving? As they were shoved in with the door slamming shut behind them, Jack was relieved when the music stopped and it was more quiet now as he watched Scourge walk up to them.

Jack wasn’t sure how to feel with how Scourge spoke and acted towards Manic, even though he knew they had been together a while ago he couldn’t help but feel a little protective of Manic as he watched Scourge wrap his arm around Manic. Now came the awkward and quite possibly risky part, Jack wasn’t sure how they were going to explain to Scourge the situation they were in. “U-um, well not exactly, we need yeh'r help king Scourge.” Jack said as he looked at the other king. "Yeah, this ain't a political thing or whatever." Manic stepped up next to Jack. They had a lot to explain. "I mean... Jack and me have kinda been together for a while. Uh..." Even Manic had to swallow out of anxiety. "He knocked me up. And I can't terminate it. I've gotta stay hidden from the public 'til it's born. I really need your help, man." The king looked on at the two, now noticing the vague bump in Manic's chest. "You sure it's Jack's kid?" He nodded. "I still don't know a lot about our relationship." He had to admit." I don't know if we're open or strict, or how we're gonna see each other when I'm trying to get this baby out, or-" And he sighed, stopping himself from prattling. "I've only been sleeping with him. I don't think he's got anyone else in his life, I don't want to cheat on him." Scourge nodded and thought, looking at Jack. He looked like he was silently looking Jack over, like he was appraising his body. It only lasted a few moments while Manic spoke, but his gaze was obvious. "That's a long stay. What are you gonna do with it when it's out? And how you planning on paying? Keeping someone for months ain't gonna be cheap for me." Jack kept quiet as Manic spoke, it was probably for the best if Manic was the one explaining to Scourge what happened between them and why they needed his help. As Manic went on Jack felt a little nervous as Scourge looked him over, he wasn’t sure if Scourge would help or not and he was kind of dreading of what might happen when they ask him to look after the child.

He hoped Manic would explain that part as well as he gulped quietly and spoke as well after Scourge said his piece. “A-ah’ll pay for Manic’s stay, how much do yeh want? Ah can send it over saying that it’s a gift of peace so there’s no hard feelings between our kingdoms from before.” Jack replied hoping that might help a little depending on Scourge’s price. "You're new to this king stuff, kid." Scourge himself wasn't a master of diplomacy, but he had years of experience still. "You wanna know something? Royal courts are assholes. All of 'em. They wanna fight with everyone who's sneezed the wrong way near their kingdom. And we've got more than that going on here. Those small fights after we got the Anarchy Beryl, you think they've forgotten those? Your court probably sees it as taking something that powerful from an 'evil ruler'. Mine see it as being robbed of some national treasure." He held one hand out to his side. "Point is, it's a chore, and a bunch of cash ain't gonna make things better. We'd want that Anarchy Beryl back before we'd make peace, and givin' out national treasures is just gonna piss off your people." There was an insecurity to Jack Scourge couldn't ignore. "I'll go easy on you, kid. Cause you're deep in shit and you know Manic." One of the rare moments of Scourge showing kindness. What would be an appropriate payment...? Money sure as hell sounded good, but Scourge was only kind to a certain point, and he was starting to get into a more greedy part of his mind. The king stepped up to Jack, maybe a bit too close, and lifted his chin with one finger. That jagged smile would be terrifying if he didn't know how to make it so charming. "Manic sure knows how to pick 'em. He said you could see other guys if you want, right?" A twist on his words, but something that was true when he was with Manic. "You ever wanna try out a different ride?" Jack felt a little down hearing Scourge’s words, it was true he was new to being king and had a lot of things to learn. After hearing what Scourge said he had no idea how he was going to pay Scourge for taking care of manic and possibly taking care of their child as well. “R-really? T-thank yeh so much king Scourge, w-what can ah do to repay yeh? A-ah’ll do anything.” The rabbit said pretty much walking himself into the situation that was about to unfold.

Jack watched and wondered as Scourge thought of how the rabbit could pay him. Jack was a little nervous but he hoped that he could pay Scourge not only for his own sake but for Manic as well. Then Scourge moved a little too close to the rabbit and Jack blushed a bit as he felt his chin being lifted by the other monarch. Jack blushed and listened to Scourge speak and when he finished his sentence Jack blushed even more, did Scourge actually ask Jack that? Did he want the rabbit to pay with his body? His face was quickly getting flustered as he looked up at the other king as he shyly spoke.

“A-ah see, I-if yeh want meh to pay like that t-then ah will, for Manic, j-just promise meh he’ll be okay while he’s here.” Jack replied, agreeing to pay scourge with sinful pleasure to make sure his beloved Manic was safe during his pregnancy. At least it was behind closed doors and only the three people in the room would know about this right? "He'll be treated real well, Kingy. Lemme show you." Scourge banged on the door three times. "Guards! Show 'em where he'll be staying, and bring Jack back. Alone." The walk through the castle certainly promised a cushy stay. This was more gothic inspired than the castle either of these two lived in, somewhat menacing like the king. But it was well maintained, clean, maids and butlers scurried about. And their trip accidentally gave Jack one more promise of good care. Visible through an open nursery door, a pink baby porcupine was sniffling in the arms of a nursemaid singing a lullaby and rocking her to calm her down. Large, well kept rooms. Helpful staff. And a promise of invisibility from the public eye. If it weren't for the cost, Manic would have been thrilled. "Hey, Jack... You don't gotta do this if you don't want to." Manic assured Jack. "I can go in there and pay for you... I mean, he's kinda a softie if you hit the right points, I can barter another deal out of him. You can sleep with whoever, but don't just sleep with him to pay for me, alright?" Golden eyes glared back at Jack's bright green. “T-thank yeh king Scourge.” Jack replied as the guards came to show the two where Manic would be staying. Jack bowed before Scourge before going with Manic. Jack looked around as they walked through the halls and while he was intimidated by the menacing look of the castle, he couldn’t help but admire the gothic themed architecture that filled the castle. Jack felt quite relived that Manic would be safe here, from the looks of the place he’d certainly be comfortable enough and to be out of the public eye was a bonus.

One more bonus was the nursery they walked past. This place was pretty much perfect for Manic to stay and have the child, seeing all this at least made the price he was going to pay not as bad as it was certainly going to be worth it. He listened to Manic speak and when his lover was finished Jack held Manic’s hands gently in his. “Manic, ah promised Scourge ah would pay his price, mah kingdom has done enough harm to his so at least he’s been willing to at least let that slide for us, ah’m not going back on this.” Jack said as he hugged Manic lovingly and held the prince close in his arms.

“Anyway, ah would pay any price for yeh Manic, ah mean this is the least ah can do for yeh since ah got yeh into this mess in the first place. Ah promise yeh mah heart and soul will always belong to yeh no matter what. If ah may ask yeh to manic, while ah’m with Scourge if yeh could think of how we’re going to tell yeh'r mother how we’re going to do this, okay?” After Jack finished speaking, he kissed Manic on the lips softly before pulling away. “Ah love yeh Manic, more then anything.” With that, he left Manic to do whatever he needed to do as he went with the guards to go back to Scourge and pay his price for keeping Manic safe. "I'll figure it out," Manic promised with a nervous smile. The guards split up. One lead Manic into the room he was to be staying in, while the other started Jack on the long walk back through the halls. There was no one for him to talk to this time around on the walk, leaving him to his thoughts. This place wasn't as sinister as it looked, right? The walk dragged on, and by the time he reached the throne room, it was as though hours had passed. "You majesty, your guest?" As soon as Jack was through, the door shut. In a moment, the door was locked behind him. No going back. Scourge had taken the time to get a little more dressy. He wore his crown, a small but hard to ignore sign of his power. He was draped in a finer dress shirt, and even had a fur-lined robe on his shoulders and draping over the throne. Even sitting casually with his legs crossed, he looked totally powerful. "Come a little closer, Jack." Scourge beckoned, waving one hand lazily to get him to move closer. Jack kept his eyes on Manic as they were spilt up as Manic was going to his room while was going back the long way back to the throne room to pay his debt. Since he had no one with him beside the guard who kept quiet the entire time they walked down the hall, Jack was indeed left to his nervous thoughts. While this place seemed frightening at first things seemed to be going well ever since they got there. Sure there was a price to pay for it but pretty much everything had a price to it these days, and honestly if all it took to keep Manic safe and sound for quite a long time with a child on the way was to pay Scourge with his body, then that was a price Jack was obviously willing to pay.

It seemed Scourge really cut Jack some slack on this it seemed to the rabbit. The other king could’ve asked for anything, riches, power, he could’ve tried and manipulated the rabbit to try and steal back his nation’s treasure, but for some reason all he wanted then and there was just Jack. It actually confused the rabbit a little, why of all things would Scourge ask for Jack as payment? Surely the other king was just being generous in a sleazy punk king kind of way, there was no way he honestly wanted Jack’s body that bad, right? Up until now Jack had always thought he was worthless, that he couldn’t do anything or be of any use for anything.

It was only until he met Manic did he have a slightly better view of himself, but not that much as the incident with Manic’s mother just reminded him what a clumsy worthless fool he was. But now Scourge, king of Moebius wanted the rabbit for himself and in doing so, Manic would be safe to carry their child without fear or worry. Once Jack was back in the throne room he flinched as the doors loudly slammed shut and locked behind him as he looked towards the king before him.

He did as he was told and made his way closer to Scourge and once reaching the king, the rabbit got on his hands and knees in front of Scourge and his throne before he spoke. “K-king Scourge, before we do this ah have to ask yeh something, why me? Out of everything yeh could’ve asked for payment yeh chose me, why? Yeh knew ah would pay pretty much anything for Manic’s sake, yeh pretty much had me in the palm of yeh'r hand and yeh chose one of the most worthless things to ask for, w-why? What am ah worth to yeh?” Jack asked doing his best not to break down while exposing his obvious fear and lack of self confidence or self worth as he looked up to the other monarch and waited for his answer. Scourge just grinned at Jack. He was even kneeling for him... This was the kind of power he wanted. "You couldn't give up that Anarchy Beryl if you wanted," Scourge told him. "What else'd I get outta you? Money? I got all the cash I need, I ain't getting your throne for this." Once again, there came a devious smile. "But you... I know a good partner when I see one. And you are fucking luscious. I knew at that bar I wanted to see what you were packing." Scourge uncrossed his legs and faced Jack directly. "Finding someone as cute as you's real hard to do," Scourge admitted, "ain't just talking looks, neither. That way you talk and walk and kneel-" He had to stop himself from droning on. "Guess I missed out on getting you all to myself, don't mean I can't take a nice juicy slice."

Fortunately or not for Jack, whatever happened behind those doors was going to stay behind closed doors.

◇        ◇        ◇        ◇

Jack was a little surprised to say the least as he wasn’t even fully aware of aftercare, except the little bit he did with Manic when they finished their nights together. Once the rabbit was cleaned and dressed in new clothes along with Scourge, he stayed close to the other king as he felt Scourge’s arm around his waist.

The rabbit blushed a little, did he say he’d let Manic stay for free? Then what was the point of paying him? Jack thought as he listened to the dominant king and blushed a little more as Scourge mentioned the next time they would be doing that together. Once his arm was off the rabbit’s waist and he showed Jack where Manic was, the shy rabbit blushed as he gently kissed Scourge’s cheek. “O-okay, t-thank yeh ever so much for taking Manic in, a-ah owe yeh so much.” Jack replied before quickly leaving after he had left a kiss on the dominant king.

Following the hall and going left out of the door like Scourge said, Jack soon found himself reunited with his beloved Manic as Jack hugged him lovingly. “H-hello manic, how are yeh feeling?” "Doing good over here," Manic told him, sitting on the edge of the sofa. "This place is gonna be perfect." The guest room Manic was staying in wasn't a guest room at all. With how large it sprawled, it was essentially a guest house! A drawing room, a bedroom, a small kitchen, a full bathroom, even a balcony. The rooms were smaller than most in the castle, but if a pregnant person was supposed to move around in there by themselves, short distances were perfect. The living room was the only room Jack had seen yet, but it promise a lot for the other rooms. Instead of the harsh colors of the castle rooms he'd seen, this was warm and delicately colored. Cozy, even. Gothic furniture was replaced instead by soft Victorian curves. Less drama, less excessive details. A small temporary home. But what was most obvious were two things; a set of drums had been wheeled into the room, yet to be set up, and Manic had changed into what looked like a maternity shirt. "This castle... they're good to their guests," Manic said vaguely, concerned about how another guest was treated. His arm was around Jack in almost the same way Scourge's had been, but it somehow felt gentler. "He... he didn't hurt you, right? You gonna be okay, man?" “That’s great to hear, ah’m glad yeh’re okay Manic.” Jack replied as he moved closer to Manic and gently kissed his cheek. Jack had a little look around the room they were in and it seemed okay to him, it wasn’t like the rest of the castle but softer and less intimidating, Jack was happy that Manic was going to be fine in the guest area Scourge was letting him stay in. It was definitely worth what he payed even though the other king admitted there wasn’t any need for payment, Jack would’ve still paid whatever needed to be paid to make sure Manic was safe and happy.

Jack did notice the drums that were brought in and hoped Manic wouldn’t be pushing himself too much during his time there and he did notice Manic’s change of clothes, he’d probably be wearing those shirts for a good time while he’s there. Jack listened to Manic speak moved a little closer as Manic wrapped his arm around the rabbit, Jack shook his head as he spoke. “N-no, he didn’t hurt meh Manic, it was a bit rough but he was quite patient with meh and was quite gentle after we finished.” Jack replied as he nuzzled Manic, the rabbit would still be sore in the morning though after his time with Scourge. "Alright, just making sure you're okay, babe." Manic sat where he was, nuzzling the rabbit. "Guess if I'm living here, I've gotta meet all of Scourge's kids, right? And figure out how I'mma do my workouts and drumming and shit with this going on..." There was a lot they would have to figure out immediately. "Let's just relax, man, you've earned it. You sneak back out tonight, tell me family that... ..." “Ah’ll be fine thank yeh Manic.” Jack replied giving Manic soft loving kisses as they nuzzled up together. “More then likely, ah’m sure that’ll be fun to get to know them, just whatever yeh plan to do don’t push yeh self too much okay?” Jack spoke to Manic making sure his worry was noted. Jack nodded a little and rested with Manic and listened to what he wanted the rabbit to tell his family, when it was time to leave he kissed Mnic lovingly on the lips and after thanking Scourge once more, he left for home. ◇        ◇        ◇        ◇ "...Prince Manic has met with an unfortunate accident," Queen Aleena announced. Jack was right there by her side, her assistant in executing Manic's cover up for his disappearance. "This wasn't the first time he's fallen off a horse, but never one running so fast, and King Jack was nice enough to get the best attention for him." It seemed the whole family was good actors, as Aleena was able to make it seem like this fake accident had truly touched her. "As such, my son shall be... going abroad for surgery and rehabilitation. We isn't expected to return for anywhere from six months to a year." The lie was in place, and after her announcements, she turned back to Jack. "I want you to make sure to visit him," Aleena told him, firmly but not cruelly. He seemed more humored, as if their previous meeting hadn't happened at all. "He loves having friends around." Once he returned he told Manic’s family what Manic told him to say, and once everything was ready the announcement and lie was made. Jack had to be a good actor for this to make it seem real, even if he wasn’t good at lying he didn’t have to speak much just say a few words when he was spoken too and let the queen say the rest. Once everything was and the queen spoke to him he gulped quietly and nodded. “Y-yes, ah will visit him, as many times as ah can.” Jack replied still a little nervous under the queen’s presence. "I hope you understand my hostility, it was a very... terrifying discovery." She said, as though that could excuse all of her actions. The news and the public would have a field day with this announcement, but at least they weren't going to have to awkwardly hide Manic in their castle. Even someone as strong as her could ooze concern, and Scourge was definitely the kind of person that could bring it out. "I'm glad you're visiting... be careful. And make sure Manic is absolutely safe whenever you're there. King Scourge is..." A pause to collect her thoughts passed. "...Unofficially, he's a horrible person. In many, many ways. A thief, an adulterer, an all around violent man. Frankly, if it weren't the most secure castle, I wouldn't let Manic stay there at all. Be very wary, you don't know what's going on in that castle." Jack stayed quiet and listened to her speak as she seemed to apologize for her earlier actions. At least Manic was safe now and the risk of this being found out was now slim to none at all hopefully, he nodded as she spoke of keeping Manic safe while he was visiting Scourge’s castle. Jack could understand that while Scourge wasn’t the most gentle of people or the most liked person, he couldn’t be as bad as she made him out to be right?

While Jack knew from personal experience that some of the things about Scourge was true, Jack wasn’t so sure about everything. If it was then Jack would’ve had to give up a lot more to make sure Manic was safe there, and Scourge wouldn’t have gone easy on the rabbit if he was as bad as the queen made him look. “O-okay, ah’ll make sure Manic’s safe whenever ah’m there, ah promise.” Jack replied as a sort of reassurance for the queen as he looked up at her. She just smiled and bowed her head gently, as was proper for a queen to do. "And you watch your back, too, King Jack." Her tone was severe yet concerned. "I've only met with the King a few times before. I don't know what's lurking in that castle, but I know there's something terrible there in wait..."

[flyrtreynolds]

Noisey: Is Okay Kaya Living in Pop Music's Future?

Noisey published an abridged version, condensing down the lead so that it read more generic, in my opinion. Here’s my first draft, which I’m more attached to.

Pictures taken by the wonderful Lauren Geisswein 

The San Damiano Mission, like many houses of worship these days, is rolling with the punches. With the encouragement of the Diocese of Brooklyn, two friars have come up with a “novel approach” to cure the dwindling followership of the over-100-year-old Catholic church located between Williamsburg and Greenpoint, mainly consisting of hosting concerts and hucking booze during off-service hours. Thus what once had a congregant of god-fearing Slovak immigrants at the turn of the 20th century now has a Resident Advisor page. 

Maybe no act the church has booked thus far exemplifies that change more than Kaya Wilkins, also known as Okay Kaya. Beneath a mural of angels ascending to heaven — the venue’s Romanesque decor remains very much intact — and bathed in blue light, the stoic and willowy 27-year-old singer hums out a bawdy question to a room full of her faithful adorees:

Do you dance like you fuck? Or do you dance like you make love?

With it, some of the crowd noticeably withers with delight in the pews. I can’t help but view the declaration of such candid words in this setting as a metaphor for the 27-year-old’s best work. Within the timeless format of a pop song, she can place a blunt truth that turns the experience on its head, making it both refreshing and more relatable.

Would you come with me to get an IUD? She coos on the first line of “IUD,” the lead single off her upcoming debut, Both.

Maybe, if you come with me, I will let you come in me.

This candor doesn’t immediately shine through in her persona offstage, however. I learn this the afternoon before the San Damiano show, talking with the songwriter, model, and actress in her cozy (New York tongue for “tiny”) Greenpoint apartment, pleasantly aglow with some springtime sun. Kaya—whose real name is Kaya Wilkins—sits perched on top of her bed, cross legged, talking in small pours, allowing her thoughts to slowly fill the glass. Her demeanor is dulcet and reflective, traits you wouldn't necessarily associate with someone who’s often in front of a camera.

“I think I’ve always had trouble communicating,” she says amid a soft smile, admitting that she’s still getting the hang of interviews. “I found mediums to express what I was feeling.”

Those mediums have grown steadily since her move to New York from her birthplace Norway eight years ago. In addition to her music career, which started with an Arthur Russell-inspired Soundcloud mix of her redolent vocals and has blossomed into a rep as one of the city’s more honest singer-songwriters, she also has her long-time modeling gig that’s recently placed her on high-profile runways around the world. Then there’s her acting work, which started with a flash of brilliance in last year’s Thelma, a Norwegian film about a student who struggles with her feelings for another woman (played by Kaya) and the supernatural powers that get intertwined in them.

But these successes haven’t necessarily come naturally to Kaya; with each new artform, she says, comes a growth period when she must discover where her identity fits into things. Whether it’s flooding a church nave with placid truths, rocking “silk skunk” (a real thing, yes) in a Calvin Klein campaign, or auditioning for a role without much prior acting experience, the underlying strategy of it all is to let her personality be the catalyst for the creativity. “I don’t know how I could get away with it otherwise. I don’t have the skills necessarily, but I do have me,” she explains. “I’m sure of my own voice, my style. And that feels good cause I’m insecure about everything else.”

Like many of us, finding her voice has been a journey for Kaya, one that can be traced back to her childhood in a small peninsula community outside of Oslo. There, in a cottage-like house only 10 minutes from the beach, she grew up with her mother and three brothers (her American father, a former marine that was stationed in Oslo at one point, raised her other two brothers in Boston). She has warm memories of summers there, swimming and playing in her mom’s garden, where she would match her clothing to the purple and yellow flowers that adorned it. She found the frigid winters to be bleaker, however, and the area’s homogeneous community to be problematic in relation to her ambiguity, both in identity and appearance (her mom is white and father black).

So she turned to art, at least in part inspired by her mom who worked as a proofreader by day and a painter by night and was just as likely to play Prince around the house as she was a Swedish jazz singer or Cypress Hill. Kaya would twiddle around with a guitar and sometimes play with her older brother’s metal band, but her first obsession became movement after a dance instructor in high school showed her examples of famous performers who “moved funny,” a descriptor she would often get in ballet classes. She realized she could use her uniqueness as an advantage, turning her small gestures, deemed awkward before, into innovative moves.

While we talk, I can see some of these gestures in her hands, which she nimbly tilts and curls through the air while describing things, like she’s peeling back an invisible curtain to examine them. “I just love to feel connected...like, ‘Oh someone is doing something that doesn’t have as many rules,’” she says of finding her creative niche.

She planned to pursue movement into the future, even pondering going to a “modern mime school” in Paris (“I was going to be like a clown basically”). But fate intervened, and she was discovered by modeling scouts, who encouraged her to take up the profession. After a year of trying to make it in London, she moved to NYC to make more money as an e-commerce model, posing as a “shell of a human” on retail websites like Ann Taylor’s LOFT.

It was during this period, feeling under stimulated, isolated and alone, that she decided to revisit music. She picked up a guitar and started recording short tunes to send to her friends and family back home. To get their attention, she would create rough covers of records by artists that differed wildly in tone than her, like Nate Dogg or the Curtis Mayfield-led Impressions. The songs came out soulful and slow moving, gorgeous recreations of upbeat jams. Eventually, combined with her original recordings, she had enough material to consolidate and post online.

“It’s something I just wanted to work on for a while. That’s all I know really,” she recalls of her first musical sketches. “It felt very necessary.”

What happens next Kaya finds strange to talk about, a familiar situation for seemingly any woman trying to break into the music industry. An A&R found her mix and approached her about management, promising to put out her work and introduce her to notable producers. She agreed, and together they released the songs that would announce her Okay Kaya project to the world, including the heart-tugging “Damn, Gravity,” a slowburner centered around love slipping through the fingertips produced by King Krule and Sampha collaborator Rodiadh McDonald. But the A&R also made strange requests, like pressuring her not to tell producers that she was in a relationship (Kaya has been dating songwriter Aaron Maine, also known as the singer Porches, for the past year). The process began to feel “grimy,” she says, and “really uncomfortable.” So she walked away, leaving behind both a deal with a prominent East Coast imprint and distribution through indie powerhouse XL Recordings. Suddenly the idea of an album seemed distant.

“It didn’t make me happy or even wanting to try for a minute. I think it took like three years for me to feel like I had my voice and...just going back to what I wanted to do.”

With “do,” she gestures her arms in upward circles, indicating the significance of the room surrounding us, where she recorded over half of Both, now set to be self-released on June 1 through her own label, Heavy Body Records. The apartment has become the epicenter of her work and a symbol of her newfound self-reliance in music. A small recording setup of a mic and mixer sits against the wall, next to a scribbled setlist for tomorrow’s show; a pile of clear garbage bags, full of merch Kaya designed with a friend, crams a corner. The soundtrack buzzing softly out of the speakers is made up entirely of women singers—Caroline Polachek, Nina Simone, Sibylle Baier—Kaya found inspiration in during the record’s writing process.

Both is a work of cogitation, poking at concepts and feelings Kaya has encountered in her journeys from Scandinavia to New York, the runway to the silver screen. “Emulate,” for example, examines the idea of projecting love and whether it leads to genuineness or manipulation, a question that lies at the heart of the two young women’s dynamic in Thelma. More directly, “Calendar Girl” was inspired by a time when Kaya felt it difficult to leave her apartment so she’d write simple tasks on a calendar—“walk around the block”—as motivation to break her self-confinement. Most of the arrangements that propel these thoughts, aside from a few co-produced by Maine, are her own.

Which brings us back to “IUD,” a single that many women have accepted as a righteous ode to self care amid the current tumultuous political environment. Kaya has a unique perspective on the situation, as she comes from a country that provides basic healthcare services, no questions asked. Thus, while talking about it, she’s able to underlie its significance and how foolish the alternative would be. “I just wanted to be transparent about it and be like, ‘This is happening. People need this.’”

It’s here that we possibly get a glimpse of the future. Kaya’s music, deeply personal in nature, is slowly becoming tangible outside of her own consciousness. In other words, her songs are no longer just her’s; she now shares them with others. We ponder this truth together in the kitchen, where we’ve moved so she could lean out the window and smoke a cigarette. The sound of hammering wafts up from a renovation on the first floor, placing our words to a grating rhythm. A table cloth of husky red roses, maybe a small ode to her mother’s garden back home, ties the room together.

In the self-financed and -choreographed videos for “IUD” and “Dance Like U,” the second single off Both, Kaya presents her feelings as physical embodiments identical in appearance to herself. One twin is irritating and cumbersome, representing trauma and sadness; the other is gentle and understanding, symbolizing acceptance. The “weird sisters,” as Kaya has dubbed them, were born out of a simple concept—a dualism that could serve as an album’s core theme (hence the title Both) and an interesting visual driver. But first and foremost they’re pieces of her, now barer than ever.

So much on the horizon—the show tomorrow, the album drop, the press that will follow—will put those pieces on display. She admits she’s nervous.

“I have no idea what it’s going to be like,” she says with an exhale of smoke. Her tender smile returns as she remembers the most important lesson she’s learned thus far.

“But wait, who am I trying to be? I’m just trying to be me.”

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/qvxxmd/okay-kaya-interview-future-of-pop-both-2018