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remycroft · 4 months

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Cross my heart, hope you die || Heimdall X Reader

Chapter 5 - Adventure

The rest of the time in Vanaheim was intellectually stimulating, my mother explained to me the history of certain monuments, and events that happened in the Aesir-Vanir war. We helped people who died during that war, Vanir who had turned into revenants after dabbling in Seidr magic. We also gave my mother some closure.

She broke the bowl and circlet that was used during her wedding, but the sword, Mardöll, one she and Odin plunged into a rock signifying unity, she kept it. She had said it signified her relationship to Baldur, the valkyries that she was the first queen of, how Asgard was hers just as much as Odins.

She then bestowed onto me Thrungva, the sword bestowed onto her by Baldur, she said that Thrungva had been earned with my practice in sword play and my loyalty. I asked about Baldur as a person, she said he was a sweet, kind, boy before the curse, always wanting to impress her and Odin, but he was driven insane by the curse. I appreciated her talking about it but I wish I had know him myself, that I was able to forge my own opinion of my brother, actually know him.

The sword was perfectly balanced in my hand, it fit with the daggers and bow that Lùnda and Brok had forged, I had been able to use them on our travels, practicing my combat on Einherjar and creatures alike. I did owe Brok and Lúnda big time, much to my mother's dismay, I should never be in someone's debt apparently. I didn't really care because as long as I'm not indebted to an Aesir god, the obvious enemy then I think I'm okay.

One of the people we helped will always stick out to me though, Gunhild the person who came up with the Seidr magic idea. She told us to free her revenant friends, kill them, and when we did, something wierd happened. People who dabble too far in Seidr magic are driven to insanity and become mindless creatures hellbent on killing, but the ones I encountered, they hesitated before being killed by Kratos. I don't know why they didn't attack me and I knew no logical explanation why, I asked my mother but she said she had no idea too, when she said it though her voice broke, there was a lie there. A secret which she had no intention of letting me find out.

We also told stories, or histories on the boat ride, Mimir asked for what Hrimthur had told my mother. The giant who had built the wall, Odin had made a bet with him that involved her and the giant lost. He had told her that his father had been killed and built a flaw into the wall behind the realm tower. The odds were now starting to become equal, we may still be losing but there was a chance to actually win this. Kill Odin and anyone who stands by his side, Ragnarok is averted and we all get to live happily ever after. I hope so anyways, I want to live the rest of my immortal life in peace.

We walked through the gateway and a question came into my head, "Mother, Freyr said something previously about being burned by them, could you explain, please?"

"Yes, we weren't at war yet, but relations between our factions had been hostile for ages. Freyr got it into his head that he could improve relations by sharing our magic with them, Vanir techniques for bountiful harvests, enough to feed their whole population. Getting set on fire was the thanks he got." Oh my god, so he tried to help them and they tortured him in return. For a hundred years I was under the impression that the Aesir were monsters in a godly disguise, this just cemented that impression in stone. "It's true, the Aesir were too undisciplined and impatient for the subtlety of Vanir spellcraft. So when things went wrong, they blamed their teacher." My mind went back to my own lessons in magic, I was disciplined and patient and yet it never worked. I was the daughter of one of the most powerful goddesses alive and my mortal blood was stopping me from being just like her. That was the only explanation.

"So Freyr was a guest when Odin burned him?" Kratos joined in, he sounded angry, I had never heard it before but it was there. "Not exactly, Odin didn't mind locking Freyr up, he saw the potential of magic and wanted to know more than how to improve crop yields. It was a mob of lesser Aesir, bitter and shortsighted, who tied him up and lit him aflame as punishment for the sabotage they imagined him guilty of."

"And Odin didn't stop this?"

"He didn't care, my lady. He did care when Freyr escaped his grasp though. This made war inevitable."

"Freyr certainly wasn't the same after that, at least for a while. His carefree ways were replaced with nightmares, paranoia and lashing out." He seemed to be slightly better now, maybe his son helped him through it, I wonder what happened to the mother. "It doesn't excuse what he said at my wedding, but I do understand where his anger came from."

"Well, brother, before you see the lad again may we discuss an approach?"

"He will tell me where he has been, that is my approach." Atreus had been sneaking off? Was that what the argument at the house was about, Atreus leaving and Kratos not knowing where he was? "You can't force him to tell you things, he has freewill. If you want him to tell you you're going to have to appeal to him." Kratos just grunts and ignores me, for hels sake I was right, if he forced Atreus into something it will cause even more of a rift then there seems to be. "Wait, did you say Odin invited him to Asgard, and then he disappeared for two days?" She's not thinking he went to Asgard? Atreus has to have more sense than that, he's seen what Odin has done to the likes of Mimir and my mother, he can't be that stupid.

"Aye, but surely the lad's got more sense than to-"

"Don't underestimate Odin's powers of persuasion."

"Surely, Atreus must be immune to them, he's seen you, seen Mimir. He has to know what sort of evil Odin is."

"He could twist the truth though, say that were bias, that that was done in rage and he regrets them deeply. He could appeal to Atreus." I put the warning in my mind.

The door appears and we walk through the gateway to a large, majestic tree with the same colour scheme as the rest of the realm between realms. The house, the dwarves' presumably, was absolutely beautiful. It was built into the tree, with gold accents and blue fauna, they weren't just good at weaponry, they were good at decoration too.

We also were welcomed with the sound of Brok yelling, "And you tell that one-eyed nut-sucker he owes me one!"

"Bite me now and eternally!" A squirrel(?) replies, okay so squirrels can talk now, nice to know.

"Well, looky there! Glad you could make the trip your goddessnesses." He looks at my mother directly, "I put your sigil magic on the young turd's bow, but then he and Sindri got into it over somethin'. I don't rightly know who's yellin at who in there, but I figure they both got it comin'."

We entered the house, Brok summoned Tyr who then proceeded to talk to my mother and Kratos went to speak with Atreus. I with no one to talk too, went to genuinely make things right. I had read things wrong initially, the dwarf may be rude and too forward but his intentions were good, he was good. I could tell he was fond of people and when he cared, he genuinely did, I admired it.

I go to Brok and say those exact things, albeit not smoothly and he accepts my apology. "This doesn't mean you still don't owe me one."

"I know, and I will pay in full. I had the chance to try 'em out before, I'm impressed and grateful, scared for what I have to do since there's a sense of uncertainty, you know?"

"Of course they're good, we're dwarves. And don't you worry your pretty little head over it." I don't know if it was meant to be a dismissal or consolation because Atreus burst into the room with Kratos at his heels.

"He doesn't have any faith in me! It's fine if he keeps secret, it's fine if Mom did-"

"It is not fine! Her secrets haunt every step of this path." So the discord was secrecy and lies, sneaking off, normal teenage stuff I suppose. It would make sense if we weren't about to fight a fucking war. I could understand why, we're figuring out that our parents keep things from us, they aren't the truthtellers we thought they were so we run off and hide, I did it.

I used to go as close to the tree line that was the stave (too scared of what was outside), hide behind a rock, eat some cheese and read a book, it was fun and calmed me down, after four years of begging for the truth my mother gave in and I never did it again.

"Oh, okay, so you don't believe in her anymore either?"

"This is not about your mother! What you have done is lie."

"Wonder where I learned that?" His sarcasm was out of order, we should be all getting along, arguing wouldn't help any of us. Atreus needed to stop the lies and rebellion and Kratos needed to tell him the fucking truth.

"That's quite enough!"

"Atreus!" Mimir and I scream in unison, "Since when do you take his side?" He looks at Mimir, "Since he became the one making sense!" He then turns to me, "Y/n? Wait, you're here?"

"Yes, I am. So is my mother, by the way. You need to stop this, we should be uniting not arguing, it won't help us win this war. Please listen to me, as the Goddess of logic and accuracy, I command you to see the logic in my words." This was the first time I used my title and I felt the power that came with calling myself it, it seemed to have gotten to Atreus too since his heartbeat was more steady and his breathing less ragged.

"Look, I was only thinking about going to Odin. But I swear it's for a good reason." There is no good reason to go to Odin, and my mother voiced that thought to Atreus. "He'll only cloud your mind." This is the first words I've heard come out of Tyr's mouth and I already like him, I don't care if he's an Odinson, he turned cloak and that makes me happy. Could other Odinsons be turned too? I doubt it Baldur's dead and Thor seems like the person to follow every command from what I've heard, and there was no others that I knew of.

I don't like the Aesir at all but a thought did cross my mind, if Tyr was able to turn against his father, ouldn't other Aesir do the same? Maybe not, after Tyr and the beginning of Ragnarok I bet the All-father is wanting to keep his people on a very tight leash.

"But I'd be going for us, I gotta stop something bad from happening." Something bad did happen, My mother had her home taken from her, her agency, her love and son. Tyr was imprisoned for God knows how long, and tortured. Mimir lost his fucking body and was tortured for centuries. I grew up without a father and only an emotionally unstable mother who couldn't look at me for the first decade of my life. Freyr was burned and imprisoned. Mimir voiced most of this to Atreus, that Odin destroyed us all.

"What's got everyone caterwaulin' all-a sudden?"

"Atreus wants to go to Asgard."

"Asgard? He get kicked in the head or something?"

"Great, I guess everybody's against me now." We weren't, not at all, we just wanted him safe. I put my hand on his shoulder and he turned to face me, "We aren't, we're just concerned. I'm begging you to stay with your father, with us. This way you are safe, we can plot Ragnarok and the war and then we can turn Asgard to dust." He smiles and I swear I'm getting through to him, and then Kratos comes in, "You must choose who you are going to be. Are you going to continue to lie and keep things from me or are you my son?" Great parenting, Kratos, give him too options be a deciever or be blindly loyal, it isn't much of a choice at all. "Choose? I never get to choose. Just leave me alone." Atreus goes to leave but is grabbed by Kratos. "Listen."

"Let go of me!"

"Listen!"

"I said Let go!" Atreus turns into a large brown bear and before I know it, I'm on the ground a large sting of pain on the side of my face, he fucking cut me. I hear Sindri's pleads and I know I have to fight, I have to get up.

I struggle on trembling knees, I gather my balance and make a run for it, I see Atreus in human form smashing his key onto the door. Shit, I rush him and try to bring him back but I mess it up and fall through with him onto a cold, desolate, white bed.

I stand up my entire body now shaking, I see blood on the snow and I get scared for a moment, Atreus. I see another drop fall and then realise it's my own face, Atreus' cut. "Atreus!" I yell to the top of my lungs, my mind was running faster than a cheetah and my senses were overwhelmed, my vision was looking everywhere thousands of feet in the distance, my hearing was blocked by an annoying ringing sound, the taste and smell of my metallic blood was overwhelming. I wanted to scream and cry, I wanted my mother.

"Yeah?" And my senses were returned, my mind given back to me. I run to him and hold onto him tightly, "You're okay, you're okay, you're okay." He lightly shoves me off, "Of course I am, you aren't though. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you."

"It's-" I'm interrupted by Hel-walkers and Atreus starts shooting arrows, I decide this is the time to test Thrungva. We fight side by side Atreus filling them full of arrows while I cut their heads clean off making them shatter into diamond-like crystals. "We need to get somewhere warm or find a gateway so we can get back."

"You can go back, I'm not. I have to go to Asgard." He's kidding, right? He has to be. "Atreus, there is no logical reasoning to go to Asgard, unless you have a death wish."

"So trying to save my father is a death wish?" Has Odin threatened his father's life? I'm sure Kratos could handle it though, he ended an entire pantheon of gods. "No, but I'm sure your father can handle Odin, yes he's powerful but your father killed lots or powerful gods."

"Let's just get somewhere warm, we can talk about this more when we're there."

"We're fairly close to my house, we could check up on Chaurli while we're there too." I hoped he was okay, mother refused to let me out of her sight after the raider incident, and to be completely honest, I didn't want to be out of it. Now I was and I had to be the mature one, the one to get Atreus to safety and keep myself alive too. I was so scared, what if something like that happens again? They'll keep me alive until they're finished but Atreus, Atreus is no use to them. They'd kill him and be able to say they killed the God-slayer's son and they tarnished the daughter of Freya. Maybe they'd be too late, maybe I already was thanks to another group of them.

After a few moments Atreus blurts out, "Goddess of logic and accuracy, huh?"

"Bestowed onto me by my uncle and the rest of the Vanir while I was in Vanaheim."

"It suits you, you had me convinced before father got involved."

"Can I convince you now?"

"I don't know, now I'm here I really want to go, to find out more about them, be a spy, maybe." That was suicide. "You go to Asgard and spy on them you're a dead man and I'll also be dead since I'll stay by your side." He beams up at my words, "You will?" I nod, "Thanks and I guess your right."

We reach the red- leaved trees and I use my vision to check for Hel-walkers, wisps, revenants that still refuse to attack me, and other monsters, there was none. I still had to he safe and this tactic had helped Atreus and I get our actions ready, our battle plan was for him to fill them full of arrows from behind while I attack from the front, the strategy worked well.

What I did see was Chaurli, on the ground, not moving, or awake. I focused on his heart and it was faint, slow, weak. "Chaurli!" I screamed and ran towards the great creature, "Wake up! Come on, open your eyes for me!" His eye opened and I let out a sigh of relief, "You're okay! Cold, but okay. We need to get you warm, you need to rise. Heimili! Heimili!" Chaurli rises and I run inside. I go to the fire place, put some wood inside and lay my hands over it, "Logi!" Sparks shoot from my hands and the wood is set aflame, "I'm sorry, Chaurli. That I couldn't help you." He didn't mind, he knew that I couldn't leave my mother. "Why didn't you help him?" Atreus, in my fear for Chaurli I had forgotten about Atreus. What was wrong with me? I had forgotten about the reason I came here, how can I protect him when he's not the axis my world revolves around, he should be, he really should. "My mother wouldn't leave and I couldn't leave her, not in her state." And I was terrified but he didn't need to know that. I had to be strong, to show independence without my mother. I had to be the Goddess I have been proclaimed.

"I have to go check this cut, I can heal it if I actually have an idea of where it starts and ends. Make sure you're still here when I get back." Atreus hums in response and I leave to my room.

I open the frozen door and I see a ghostly memory of what my room was, all the colour had decayed and become frozen, webs of spider fluid and ice was the main decoration and in the ice was my reflection.

I looked into it and saw a long angry, red, mark run down my face to the bottom of my neck line. I brought my fingers to a pinching gesture and I started to heal the cut, closing it in just a few seconds, leaving a faint, pink scar.

I looked around the room and noticed one thing that hadn't seemed to be affected by the ice much, my books. I remember begging mother before we left to allow me to take at the very least one so I wasn't bored, she said no. Clearly she had cast a preservation spell over them, I'd have to thank her when I next see her, if I do.

Atreus is scaring me, he might actually go to Asgard and I don't want to leave him in such a horrible place on his own, there would be no one who would actually protect him against the people there. If he goes to Asgard, I have to go with him, I could live or I could die, but I'll die knowing I tried to be brave.

"I have to go. If you're coming with me that's fine but I can't sit around and do nothing." I walk to Atreus and lay my hand on his shoulder gently, "I'll be by your side every step of the way." He smiles but I don't think he truly understands the connotation of what I'm saying, "I mean it, promise me you will stay in my sight. If you are ever in danger, you come to me and we do our best to leave. Promise me, Atreus, promise me!"

"I promise, but don't worry. We'll be fine." I hope so, I really fucking hope so.

Ravens suck, they genuinely suck, Asgard is stunning though. The place we were not so gently teleported to by said ravens was ethereal, the mountains in the horizon were taller than anything I had ever seen and I could see the snowy peaks surrounded by a large body of water making the place seem so tranquill, it was very different to how I was feeling after being dumped into said large body of water.

I was just glad Atreus was okay, the ravens had helped him along and glided him along to shore. They let me almost drown and struggle to get to him, I really wish I had been taught to swim.

I honestly have no idea how Atreus is still calm, can't he see that there is a high chance of death. No, he can't, he still is obsessed with trying to save his father and gaining information that he can't see this is a fool's errand and Odin will try to kill us, he's already tried with me once, despite allowing me into Asgard. Maybe he allowed me here for leverage, if he has the remaining child of my mother it means he has something to hold over her head, again. Oh my hel, what have I done? My mother is finally free of him and now I can be used against her, I won't allow that to happen, I'll kill myself before I become a tool.

I sensed around us and I noticed a few things;

1. There were other people here, mortals. I focused my vision for where I heard the noises and I saw a settlement of them. I looked inside it and they seemed to be living there normal lives, I saw children playing in the streets, men working to improve their lives, women hanging out laundry and doing housework. Is this what normalcy is? Before I learned of my father, I knew of my brother. I used to imagine a boy playing with me, maybe sparring, or just random bullshit, I didn't care. I just wanted someone. I wish I had the life these children have, the women I don't know. I liked being a warrior, someone who was good at strategy and fighting. I don't know if I could do something as mundane as being a housewife, it felt like a punishment, to have to obey your husband, bear his children, take care of the home, it sounded boring and painful, there was no fun in it.

2. The monsters roaming outside of Hrimthur's wall would he an issue. There were lots of them, revenants, nightmares and wights alike, Atreus and I would have to fight hard to just get to Odin.

3. There was someone waiting for us on top of that wall. I don't know if they knew about us, I couldn't see them it was like something was obscuring me from doing so, but I heard his paces rumble through the rock. I don't know if they're hiding from my sight using magic or it's the wall itself hiding them with magic but this could be an issue.

I tell all this to Atreus and he gets excited about the fact he could see more people. He tells me not to worry about the creatures, that we could take them together and that the person is probably just waiting to take us to Odin and that they're probably friendly. How could someone be so fucking naive? He saw the best in people and I'm envious of the fact he can still see that but now is not the damn time.

We continued to walk and fight the creatures that awaited us and I consistently tried to figure out who was on the top of that wall, it scared me that I couldn't see inside or the top. This person could be a threat and I don't know who they are, what weapons they carry all I know is it's one person, probably an Aesir god, which means trouble.

We reached the settlement and Atreus now got to see the place, that in my search while I was looking for the mystery person, I had let my eyes drift to. I saw a boy by the bridge and before I tapped Atreus on the shoulder he spoke, "You need help? You, uh, you look a little lost."

"Just getting our bearings." I reply as we walk over, "Well, there's nothing to see this way except a big wall."

"Is there a gate to go through?" I could answer this one, no. Hrimthur built the wall with no structural flaw apart from his hidden one, the Aesir didn't want it to be so easily broken, according to mother. "Nope. Not unless you're an Aesir god, but I guess you'd know that if you were an Aesir god." Was that resentment in his voice?

"Me? No, I'm from Midgard."

"What? No shit! Me too! I'm Sköldjr." He reaches his hand out to Atreus which is taken, "Loki." Why the fuck is he calling himself Loki? I know that's his giant name but Atreus is his given name, the one his - Oh. He's doing it most likely out of resentment, Loki is also a native name not foreign like Atreus, so the conclusion is he's trying to fit in. Why in hell would he want to do that? Our identity is something that actually matters, it's who we are. That is exactly why I wish I knew my brother, saw him with my own eyes, not my mother's rose tinted lenses, or Atreus and Kratos who only saw him as an enemy.

Sköldjr then reaches his hand out to me, "And you are?"

"Y/n, Im from Midgard too."

"Holy shit! That's so cool, to see more mortals I mean."

"Hang on, are you all from Midgard?" Atreus walks over to and gestures to the entire settlement. I hope they are but I wonder why Odin has them here, I don't know the man well enough to understand the logic behind bringing them here. Sköldjr explains that they were brought here by Odin after the Desolation. So Odin brought them here to maybe raise public opinion? No, that can't be it, he's powerful enough to make himself feared instead of revered, he can still hold onto total power.

He brought them here at the beginning of Ragnaroks events and left them outside the wall. He's using them as cannon fodder, he's not being benevolent like they believe obviously so this is the only logical option. They're the first line of defence when we cause Ragnarok. Is is still right to do it? Yes, it is, Odin must die and therefore they have to as well.

A hand waving in front of my eyes takes me out of my thoughts, "You coming? We're climbing the wall." I looked at the white structure and the solution made absolute sense so I continued. Here goes nothing.

"Hello."

"Uh, hi."

The person I was looking for, who was hidden from me before, was clear to me now. Did he hide from me? Did he know what I was? If so I was in danger right now, I was hanging onto the wall safely but if he intervened with that safety, maybe stomped on the wall hard, I go down and the only anchor Atreus might have is this mystery man who is Aesir, so an enemy. That can not happen.

He held onto Atreus' arm while Atreus had his other hand on the wall. I was completely terrified and I didn't know what to do, I had to keep Atreus safe, I'd sacrifice my life if I had too. He was all that mattered right now.

"So, what part of the enormous wall made you think, "Oh, visitors must be welcome"?" Did he not know about Atreus' arrival? Odin knew we were coming, why not alert this guard? The most likely answer is that he was just being his normal dickhead self. "We were sent for actually, by Odin."

"The All-father sent for you? Ha! Great." He took a bite of the apple I had just noticed was in his hand, "Then why are you out there and not in here?" Because Odin is a prick who wants to watch us dance around him, show that Atreus is determined to be in his clutches, determined enough to climb Hrimthur's fucking wall. I noticed the man clench his well-defined jaw, maybe he's just angry he wasn't told or the fact that he has to deal with us. "Why don't we ask him together?" He raises his head in thought and then he drops his apple.

This causes chaos. Atreus loses his grip for a moment and I go into grab his wrist, momentarily losing my own. He gains his grip back but I still make sure I'm close enough to catch him if he falls. The entire ordeal left me feeling faint, or maybe that's just the elevation. All I know is I hope this man, whoever the hell he is, to be in a world of hurt. "Are you finished? Now, what could Odin, All-father, King of the Aesir, possibly want with the likes of you?" The way he described Odin, the tone in his voice when he sang the All-father's praises made me want to throw up. This man was blindly loyal to Odin, and if we didn't die here, he's probably going to be a problem for us later.

"That's between us and Odin." He pauses for a moment and seems to stare right into Atreus' soul, his entire self, it was kind of creepy. "You don't even know, do you?" He laughed a maniacal laughter, one that sent even more shivers down my spine and sent uneasy feelings all throughout my body. "Think you could pull us up or -?"

"No I don't think I will. I think maybe I'll drop you. Yes, I'm going to drop you. Goodbye." Shit, I rushed to Atreus' side as the man started to let go but Atreus gained his grip and placed both hands firmly round his wrist. He was deeply offended by this, the look was so funny that I had to try and stop the laughter, I succeeded.

"Wait, wait! Think how mad the All-father's gonna be when he finds out you killed his guests!"

"Loki, of the Jotnar." He seemed even more angry, his rage a volcano just waiting for the right words to explode. There was something about the look though, the way his violet eyes shone, that was strangely alluring. I didn't know how to explain it, but looking at him carefully made me see an ethereal beauty, it reminded me of the beautiful landscape I had just seen. "And you are?"

Who was I? I could not say who I really was, not here. Odin would know but this person did not which means I might be able to keep Atreus safe for a longer amount of time before I was judged by Odin. Something popped into my head, the revenants, the ones that haunted me since I fought them earlier. "My name is (Y/n), I'm from one of the Midgardians Seidr witch clans and I've revoked my people's ways so I can protect this boy with my life." It was a lie, but certainly a believable one.

"The Jotnar and the witches? Both enemies of my people?"

"We're not your enemy." He smirked to himself which made me feel even more strange, something was wrong, he could tell something was off. I know it, I fucking know it. He's going to kill us.

"I will be the judge of that." He drags Atreus up. Okay, maybe I was wrong. I lift myself up and pull Atreus of the floor.

I looked behind me and I saw the horizon I had seen previously, the higher ground changed it. It made it even more perfect, otherworldly.

I heard the footsteps of Atreus and the person Atreus had identified as Heimdall and rushed forward to Atreus. I didn't know of Heimdall, my mother told me of Odin, Thor, Baldur and Tyr, that was it. Maybe he was just low ranking?

"Now feel free to drink in the splendour of Asgard. This is a rare sight for outsiders. Especially giants and witches." He mutters the last part under his breath and I know he's trying to insult us but he needs to try a bit harder. I've been alone all my life, I have always been an outsider, and being an outsider to Asgard is basically a compliment anyways.

I do look into the main city though and he was right. This place was enchanting. The way the fog hid it from the clouds made it seem special and when I looked at the inner workings of the city, to the naked eye busy and disorderly, was to me purely logical. Each district was in the same area and every place was connected so simply.

I hated to say it but this place was pure logic and natural beauty. I guess Asgard was perfect and the people were what ruined it. "Come join me on the platform, the All-father doesn't like to be kept waiting." Atreus was already there and the fact that I was admiring the place for so long made me a tad bit flustered. I join them on the platform and Heimdall starts the descent.

"Ask your questions already."

"How do you know I had questions?"

"It is my job, next question."

"What is your job?"

"I protect the realm I love from trouble."

"And you think we're trouble? You only just met us." To be fair, I did claim to be a Seidr witch who have a reputation for turning themselves into soulless monsters, and Atreus is the son of the man who killed my brother, a fellow Aesir to Heimdall. I see the logic in thinking we would be an issue for him. "And I can already see you are eager to prove yourself, way too eager. Probably due to an overbearing father figure who you can never live up to." That was overly accurate. He didn't know who we were obviously so there is no way he could know that. How the hell could he know about Kratos? "Good guess."

"I would also guess that you are, disrespectful," that was kind of accurate, the way he acted towards Kratos and everyone back there was horrid. "entitled," from what I know that's inaccurate, Atreus isn't someone who believes he is deserving of something for all he's done, he does it to be a genuine person. It was nice to know Heimdall wasn't completely accurate. "and impulsive." That was completely accurate.

"You don't know me at all. I help people." That was correct, he helped my mother become better, he helped me become more free. In all the darkness of Fimbulwinter this child was the light that helped my family. "Oh, you are here to help people? No, no. You are here to help yourself, to manipulate and lie to whoever you have to to get what you want. I know your young, your voice probably dropped while you were climbing the wall. But, what a twisted little soul you have. You are chaos in a spiffy archer suit." That couldn't possibly be true. "Now, she is here to help people, specifically you. Which makes her no better because she is so blinded by naivety that she can't see what you are. You will destroy her and I will enjoy the chaos that that brings."

What? Atreus has helped me, he wouldn't hurt me, and I was no longer naive. The word he chose was too personal. "Yes, he would." He could see into my head. That was the only explanation for everything that had happened during this interaction. He knows what I am. I can't have him in my head any longer. He can't find out about the raiders, it's too private.

I felt a surge of power, energy. It was like a shield was forming around my entire mind suffocating and protecting it at the same time. I felt tired immediately and I stumbled on the platform grasping for the side.

The platform stopped at the bottom and I saw Heimdall's face go bright red with rage. Did I just block him out? If I was right then that means I have a protection against him which might make my life easier. If it didn't end today, of course.

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I hope it wasn't too long till this cross post.

#gow ragnarok #heimdall #heimdall gow #heimdall x reader #god of war ragnarok

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shivasdarknight · 9 months

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ask 3 of 3

16. What does your WoL do to relax? What sorts of distractions do they seek? Do they foster any bad habits as a result?

{original question collection post - curious about anything else?}

Another long one! So under the cut this goes:

Surkie has the most on-hand distractions and bad habits out of the group; she seeks these out the most, and winds up with a large variety of things to try and decompress with. When she was still just an adventurer, she was dragged off of the streets of Gridania by Fufucha because that woman could see the fact that this was going to be yet another adventurer caught up in the nonsense of war and whatnot and she had a very good feeling that Surkie would - in all likelihood - die in combat and wanted to give her an outlet to not so heavily rely on adventuring. And It Worked. Surkie got really heavily involved in botany and botanical research, and as a result she started documenting what stuff she could find on her adventures and that led into keeping an apartment full of plants every which way you look. Many of them are experiments to see if she could keep them indoors, and then it led to the greenhouse project with Aymeric - so yeah, she really enjoys keeping plants now. She also picked up Triple Triad when she was traveling and is an avid collector, she really likes playing mock matches by herself since none of the others really like it (Sera humors her, but he's not good) but it ends up being a competitive thing between her and Estinien. She's also a very voracious reader when it concerns anthropology textbooks, especially about Mhach and the original Coerthan cultures prior to Halonic mandates, and she has as much of a book collecting problem as she has a plant collecting problem. She does metalwork (blacksmithing and such), she knows how to tailor her own clothing and finds some relief in that as a distraction due to the repetitive motions, she doodles from time to time but these are all fairly decent things to be distraction. The bad habits that she picked up as distractions were her tendency to fall into flings to try and fill that void post-Ysayle's "death", and how early msq Surkie would frequently pick fights. It's something she grew out of as she got older, especially as the desire to fight like that just kind of...died?, but she used to put herself in situations where a fight could break out and help initiate it mostly to burn off energy and shit feelings. Cute side note though: that sewing habit - as taught to her by her captain so she could be self sufficient - has turned into her making clothing for her kids. She made a fair amount of stuff for the twins during her forced downtime which means they have a fair amount of clothes meant for infants (especially tailed infants); she has also tried her hands at stuff like blankets and small toys (she's trying wrt toys, it's v hard for her); and she's made Allie stuff which ends up as more a more involved activity between them. Part of it is that whole attitude from her captain coming in and helping Allie become self sufficient, but there's a part of it where it's the two of them working together on projects as a bonding activity - like Allie's new formal clothing, traveling clothes, etc.

Gwendoline and Surkie share habits in reading and gardening, but Gwen is often reading medical texts and her garden is less for experiments and more for reagents. So even her destressors are still feeding back into what she does as a white mage, an alchemist, and as a necromancer. She's married to her work and that's as good of a bad habit as any, as she's constantly getting bugged to find a hobby that doesn't have anything to do with the stuff that brings her stress. She argues that necromancy is that, but the others won't take it. She'll go "Oh, I sew" but even Surkie calls her out because 1) medical stitching doesn't count 2) STITCHING CORPSES TOGETHER DOES NOT COUNT. They'll let her have embroidery because she does have an interest in it, but they're still suspicious of it because it's just more things to give her hand cramps and not actually destress (they're suspicious because they care and she's a workaholic). I'll say this: even if it's kind of morbid, she actually collects bones and has a full collection of various things she can preserve because she thinks they're Neat. She views flower pressing in the same category, so you'll see her with her pressed flowers in glass cases next to. Skulls and vertebrae and phalanges and shed skins, and the like. She finds something relaxing about cleaning off bones she's found - like processing off flesh, boiling off stuff etc - just for the sake of keeping it around. She doesn't know if she wants to do anything with it, but it's nothing she uses for her necromancy. It just exists as a catalogue of things that once were, and she does enjoy adding to it.

Seraphin is into woodcarving and is the one who convinced Surkie to pick up some creative outlet (which turned into mechanical drawings (illustrating journals and whatnot) and blacksmithing). He makes stuff for friends and family and is actually responsible for a few of the hilts that he and his adoptive siblings use since a fair amount are made out of wood. He has both practical and for the hell of it skills with it, and he just likes sitting down with a knife and messing around with a small chunk. He doesn't think of it as anything grand, but he finds the carving to be cathartic since he can work slowly and meticulously. Tons of scars from it, but he doesn't particularly care - it's just funny that he has worse scars on his hands from carving mishaps than anything from combat. He genuinely enjoys sparring because he sees it as a good way to connect with allies, and he knows too well that it's a good way to vent out frustrations and often coerces allies into fighting him so they can get something off of their chest. He doesn't have many bad habits compared to the two above, but he's neglectful about his own stress and has to be sat down and reminded of the stuff he preaches.

Teodore is really into puzzles, like really into them. Mostly things he can take with him - so like 3D puzzles or things where you try to separate two items to the best of your ability - and tons of like. Mental stuff. He sometimes will read off something he's working on and the whole group just kind of stares at him like he's crazy and it's a toss up of who guesses it right based on the logic of the puzzle (eg surkie doesn't fall for that math thing that leads you on and then asks the name of the conductor, he tried to get her with it and she just gave him the stink eye lmfAO). He'd do jigsaw puzzles more often if they weren't constantly on the road, but he would love a rubiks cube if it existed in lore. He does have some trouble because these things weren't made with hrothgar claws in mind, but it doesn't really bother him. Worst habit is that he often gets lost in these distractions and has chronic insomnia, but who in the group doesn't? ...Well, Seraphin, but of course it's Seraphin.

#original #mxkelsifer #asks #answered #answered wol question #answered wol questions #writing #surkukteni #surkie #teodore #teo #seraphin #sera #gwendoline #gwen #ffxiv #final fantasy xiv

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yue-muffin · 1 year

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I’ll write a full review of the Liyue arc soon, but onwards to Inazuma for now! I only sped through Liyue because of the Lantern Rite event, otherwise I’d probably still be on the first act now lol.

I find it very interesting that they chose sakoku-era Japan! You hardly ever see that time period represented (period dramas aside, but those are normally taking place in that era but the sakoku itself isn’t the main point). It actually fits super well into the theme carried over from the Liyue arc (wherein Zhongli was pushing the nation to a more modern era where they rely less on the power of the gods/adepti and more on their own merits and abilities by removing himself from the equation with his ‘death’).

We’re definitely heading towards an overarching theme of coming to rely less on the gods, the era is slowly changing even though most of the people don’t seem to notice (though the people of Liyue got the biggest shock, since they revolved so much around their archon and to have him suddenly die after 3000 years...that’s rough). Same thing with the Inazuma arc, wherein the archon having too much involvement is a very bad thing and everyone’s kind of miserable.

This whole thing started way back in Mondstadt, which was sort of like that to begin with. The people themselves rely a lot on their faith of their archon, but Venti himself hasn’t had much to do with them for a long time and only comes back to help an old friend and save the city from getting wrecked by him. When the Fatui steal his gnosis, it doesn’t even really affect anyone in Mondstadt. So that was our soft start with this whole theme, then we get slapped in the face with it when the Geo Archon suddenly ‘dies’ in the Liyue arc.

All that is to say, the plot of Genshin certainly is going somewhere. I’m not sure where it will go after Inazuma. I’ve heard some things about Sumeru, so I don’t know how well this theme is going to hold up, but we’ll see!

Also, I’m no music connoisseur, but I love the soundtrack and how distinctive it is across regions. If it’s not a super memorable soundtrack, I normally forget all about it since I don’t have an ear for music, but it’s super atmospheric.

In addition, I thought I wouldn’t like Electro Traveler but he’s pretty fun...Anything is better than Geo Traveler though. I could not with the geo constructs popping up every time I used his skill.

#genshin impact #suddenly turned into a thematic analysis oops

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oathofmoonlight · 9 months

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meta: relationships

It's safe to say that Kaguya is... not super keen about pursing any sort of relationships in whatever world(s) she ends up in. Nothing serious, anyway. She likes to joke that her love life is just as cursed as she is, considering her two biggest relationships... well, they're complicated.

The first was Katsurou, a long-time friend and one of Kaguya's original teammates, before the downfall of the order. Katsuro was a samurai (fighter, samurai subclass) and one of Kaguya's best friends. They had a long history together and you could basically consider them high school sweethearts. He was the last surviving member of their original party after the curse struck. Kaguya wanted them to go off together in search of a way to lift the curse, while Katsurou... having all his friends and family die around him made him less inclined. He tried to convince Kaguya to give up and abandon the adventuring life instead, where they might be able to live more safely. Kaguya was not so keen on this idea, and to put it simply. They didn't part on the best of terms. (Both of them wound up regretting this.) Three years later, after a lot of very unsuccessful efforts to lift the curse, Kaguya tried to locate him again in the hope of finding some help and maybe also apologizing for some of the shit she'd said when they last parted. She found out pretty quickly thereafter that: 1. he had also been searching for her; 2. he was dead, and; 3. his soul had been stolen and turned into a monster controlled by one of the phantasms. She ended up having to kill said monster, so it's safe to say that particular relationship ended quite poorly.

The second was Phoebus (fighter, echo knight), and the whole thing was immensely more complicated, mainly due to the fact that there's some time bullshit involved. They were initially less friends and more rivals. And also kind of couldn't stand one another, at least initially. But they were brought together by a mutual friend and did respect one another's skills, so... somewhat friendly rivalry? Or that was the case until an extremely complicated series of events that I do not have time to explain resulted in him going to the dark side, getting killed, and all memory of him being erased from the current timeline, after which he was replaced with a version of himself from another timeline. Like I said, immensely complicated. But in that world, Phoebus and Kaguya had a much less contentious relationship. One might even call them friends. So, being re-introduced to Phoebus for what she thought was the first time, they hit it off much better this time. Albeit with some awkwardness, considering this Phoebus had a Kaguya in his original timeline who this Kaguya was not, and Kaguya had a very detailed journal of her travels that mentioned Phoebus before, but... in a far less positive light. Nonetheless, they were kind of in a relationship - insofar as the adventuring lifestyle would allow - until the point at which they had to part ways, as Kaguya's quest for answers was taking her in a different direction. Still, being that they were adventurers, they both assumed they would reunite again in the near-ish future, because adventurers tend to run in smaller circles than you would think. They were correct, but not in a good way. Turns out Phoebus was a Phantasm and went dark side, again. And thus Kaguya had to kill another of her exes.

Paired with the loss of her closest friends and remaining family, Kaguya is... understandably averse to allowing herself to have any serious feelings for most people, romantic or otherwise.

#phoebus was played by a friend in a series of oneshots #it was. wild.#i'll regale the dashboard with the Epic of Beans someday #𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 ☆ meta.

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the-cat-chat · 2 years

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October 29, 2022

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Three film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.

JayBell: Out of all our Halloween picks for this year, I thought this one would be the scariest by far. All I have to say is wow. Just wow.

As it turns out, most of this movie involves three annoying idiots screaming at each other in the woods for several days. It goes like this: big fight, crying, semi-jokes, big fight, more crying, and on and on and on. I’m not gonna lie. I found our three characters so annoying that I couldn’t wait for them to die. Even when they’re sad and emotional, I didn’t care about them or their fate.

I do think the idea for this film has some merit. That’s why the marketing for the film was so famously successful. The mockumentary aspect helps blur the line between reality and fiction, so the scares (hypothetically) would feel more genuine and authentic as opposed to produced. Also, shaky footage supports this anxious and unsettled feeling. However, we are supposed to believe that these are some wannabe filmmakers, yet they can’t hold a camera still to save their lives? They can’t set up a good shot or even frame a shot correctly? A five-year old could hold a camera better than that. Also, the acting wasn’t great, which takes away from the faux realism of the whole thing.

I think my biggest complaint for this movie is how it wasn’t scary at all. As a viewer, I felt safe during the scenes that take place in the day time. The scares should then come at night. However, the night scenes were incredibly short, and the scariest things that happen are faraway baby sounds and our characters running a lot. And then it’s day time again. Also, a pile of rocks is somehow the funniest death threat to me. I was expecting the entrails of animals or scratches not rock piles. And why aren’t they trying to find weapons?? Why aren’t you sharpening some spears or something?

Long story short: I did not enjoy this movie.

Rating: 2/10 cats 🐈

Anzie: I really thought this would be a lot scarier. I understand the suspense and anticipation is really what is getting the audience nervous and all that, but still- maybe 23 years ago it was absolutely terrifying but it was just kinda meh. And annoying.

Let’s just get this out of the way - they are all film students. RIGhT??? So WhY iS tHE CaMeRA SO SHAKEY?!???!! Like for reals I wanted to vomit- and I GET it it’s soooo scary. They can’t even hold a camcorder- that’s the true horror. The actors did a great job in shifting their attitudes- but my gawddd Heather was annoying. And the screaaammming and biting???? Anyway the little kid laughs weren’t too creepy but ummmm if I’m in the woods at night—— I am NOT getting out of the tent and looking.

My biggest peeve is just how everything scary and creepy does happen in the last five minutes- and really connects the different scary aspects of the movie, whether it be the witch or whatever is actually going on to the group.

Uggg I’m just grateful it was semi short- but really could’ve been like 30 minutes if we’re being honest.

Rating: 1/10 Black Cats 🐈‍⬛

#movie #movie review #horror #horror movie

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anthonysstupiddailyblog · 2 years

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Anthony’s Stupid Daily Blog (103): Fri 24th Jun 2022

Normally I don't get into politics because its not my forte but seeing some of the reactions to Rowe vs Wade being overturned prompted me to get involved. The thing that pisses me off the most is people saying that this is a win for science but that's bullshit because the guys elected to the Supreme Court who overturned the law were hardcore Christians so I think it's safe to say that science played no part in this ruling. The other thing I also find ridiculous is the notion that life begins at conception which is what the conservative Christian folks always trot out as an anti-abortion excuse. If they think that life begins at conception then that means that the pre-fertilization sperm is not "life" in which case how does it manage to swim to the egg to fertilize it? I don't see how they can say that a mixture of egg and sperm is life but sperm on it's own is not. The thing they're angry about is that with every abortion a potential life is extinguished because under the right circumstances that fetus will eventually become a human. Well this is also true of sperm, under the right circumstances it will also become human. Well, one of them will. Don't forget with each conception only one sperm fertilizes the egg while millions of others die. So why aren't these anti- abortionists concerned about the millions of other potential lives that are extinguished every time a child is conceived (or when someone jerks off). Also I find that the kind of people who are against abortion are also against their taxes going to fund universal healthcare so they can't claim to be pro-life since refusing to pay for universal health care means that some people will inevitably die due to not being able to afford the help they need.

I've decided to start watching Neighbours since in just over a month it will be going off the air. I haven't watched this show since 2005 but when I did watch it I really enjoyed it and I guess this is my way of paying my respect to the show. Man I don't know what it is but watching this show knowing that it's only got another month left is fucking creepy. I can't describe it but the whole time I was watching it there was a sense of doom looming over the show because I know it's winding down and it will be over soon. It's a bit like if you had the ability to travel back to the day before Mount Vesuvius erupted and although you could teleport out of Pompeii when the eruption happened and would be fine, you weren't allowed to tell any of the other residents what was about to happen and you just had to let the poor bastards go about their business not knowing the chaos that was about to hit them. Of all the characters who were in the show when I was watching back in 2005 only Paul Robinson, Karl Kennedy, Susan Kennedy and Toadie remain. I guess I can't expect that many characters to still be there but still I was expecting more than four. I did a bit of research and it turns out that no character that joined the show from 1998 - 2007 is still on the show which seems strange. Maybe these where the years the show went through a dip in quality and the actors decided to get the fuck out of there ASAP. Though I had no idea who the characters were the storylines were pretty decent. There was one character who had been kidnapped by a drug dealer and when he wasn't looking slipped some cocaine into his flask of water which is quite clever (Maybe Bill Cosby should have used this as an excuse. He should have said that the girls accusing him of rape had actually kidnapped him and he drugged them so he could escape). Then there was a remembrance ceremony for some kid who recently died name Hendrix who was the stepson of Susan and Karl. I'm sure that if I had any idea who the fuck this kid was it would have been more emotional but like I say I haven't watched in 15 years. I felt a bit like I had stumbled into the wrong funeral by mistake but didn't want to cause a scene by leaving so decided to stay and keep my head down. So while I don't get much out of watching the new cast members he final month of the show is going to feature cameos from past characters turning up to say goodbye so maybe I'll get something out of that. Kylie Minogue has turned down every past invitation she's received to make a cameo on the show every time it reaches a milestone but she's agreed to make a comeback for now that the show has been cancelled. I like the idea that maybe the show hasn't been cancelled but perhaps Channel 5 pretended it had just to get Kylie to come back.

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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Uncle Ben and Little Luke

AKA we combine several types of time travel for maximum Soft Chaos, let’s go

EDIT NOW THAT I’VE WRITTEN THIS UP: jfc this ended up much angstier than initially intended uhhhhhhhhhh sorry

So a common enough thing I’ve seen in time travel fics is characters getting de-aged when tossed back physically, to neither the age they should be in that time, nor the age they were from the time they left, but whatever is most convenient. This is usually de-aging OT Obi-Wan into his TCW self, for reasons relating to, chiefly, removing the damage of Tatooine absolutely destroying his body alongside PTSD-driven alcoholism, but also because fic writers are horny, and Ewan McGregor playing a late-thirties negotiator is on average more appealing to people than Alec Guinness playing a vaguely feral desert hermit.

So, here’s how it plays out:

We take Luke and Ben from some point in the OT. There are a variety of options depending on how angsty we want it to be. My first instinct is ‘right after Owen and Beru die’ but I want to have that sweet angst where Luke knows that his dad is Vader and that Obi-Wan was trying to convince him to kill his own father without telling him that.

We’ll go with shortly after Bespin, and then they end up significantly before TPM. The Obi-Wan of the timeline proper is, eh, let’s say eighteen. Not really ready to be a knight, but old enough that we don’t have to worry about “if we go save Shmi, do we somehow wipe out Anakin?” which is absolutely a worry. Anakin is a toddler, and is in no place to be evil, on account of being literally two years old. He can’t even explode people with his brain yet.

Now, Ben finds himself mid-thirties, as is traditional. He’s not upset at this, because his joints hurt so much less than they used to! His knees aren’t exactly teenage-perfect, but by the Force are they better than they were in the years before he died! His hair has color! He doesn’t have arthritis! And, goodness, no physical withdrawal symptoms! The psychological aspect is still there, but nonetheless, he’s in much better shape than he last remembers being.

Luke looks like he’s about six. He was recently twenty-two. This is not an upgrade. Ben keeps having to carry him. He can’t see over the counter when they enter a bar for information. He can’t enter the bar in the first place. He’s very annoyed by all of this.

Ben is not annoyed. Ben is having a lot of emotions, actually, but annoyance isn’t one of them. He didn’t get to help raise Luke the way he might have if Anakin hadn’t lost his shit, okay, he sees a small Luke and he wants to hug him and cry.

Luke would like to be able to purchase a speeder part without the lady at the stall asking him if he needs his “dad’s” permission.

Once they figure out when and where they are, they need to decide where and how to leave. There are general shenanigans to gamble their way into enough money to hire a ship. They are in the ass end of nowhere, but definitely not Tatooine. There appears to be a jungle. There appears to be a significant variety of man-eating creatures. There appears to be a temple to the Force of questionable origin. None of this is actually helpful, except for the moment they find a “baby’s first lightsaber” in the temple.

Luke only has one hand and, being a six-year-old, his body is growing too fast for him to bother with getting a wired-in prosthesis the way he could as an adult. He can get a more basic prosthesis, but nothing that attaches to the neurons. He’ll outgrow it too fast.

He’s tiny and he’s not used to doing things with just one hand. He uses the Force to do what one hand can't, and every time someone tries to tell him he's misusing the Force he whaps them with the empty sleeve.

So, you know, they find out what year it is. Ben has a breakdown. Luke is upset that he left behind his friends. Ben admits to him that Leia was his twin. Luke stares in horror because dude, she kissed him, you couldn’t have mentioned this earlier???

Ben points out that Beru and Owen were keeping Luke away from him for nineteen years, and then they had about three days of awkward travel to find Leia in the first place, and then Ben died. He didn’t have a whole lot of time to figure out how to tell him.

(This sparks an argument that lasts several days. All onlookers assume that Ben’s son is throwing a tantrum. He doesn’t correct them, even though this is a very valid reason to be upset, because the truth is much harder to explain.)

Sooooo they travel. Mostly, Ben plays Sabacc, cleans house, and pays their way towards Coruscant. Luke still really wants to learn to be a Proper Jedi, even though Ben is pretty sure that Luke would have... a lot of difference of opinion with the Temple, but sure. Coruscant. They can at least stop by, and see Qui-Gon, and Mace, and Quinlan, and Bant, and everyone else that’s still alive and not tragically deceased in the horror following the start of the Clone Wars and then the birth of the Empire, and Ben can have a nice sob over all his dead friends being alive again.

Ben is only barely holding it together while Luke is in the room with him at any given point. But it’s fine! It’s fine. He’s fine. All of his loved ones have come back to life! It’s great! HE’S FINE.

He is not fine.

Luke is also grieving all the people who haven’t been born yet, but he’s... significantly more okay than Ben is.

The closer they get to the Core, the more often people just assume Ben is Luke’s father, and then look shocked and uncomfortable when Luke flatly calls him by his name, and they just... compromise. This is the point at which Luke starts calling him “Uncle Ben.”

Ben cries in his bunk later that night. Luke overhears it and wonders how the HELL Ben is more unstable now, when there’s a chance to fix things and no Vader or Empire trying to kill or capture both of them, and all his friends are alive.

(Luke will later learn a lot about PTSD and realize this is actually a fairly normal situation, to process significant events and emotions only after gaining safety or catharsis.)

(Twenty years on a ball of sand with an alcohol addiction and debilitating fear of the man you raised as your own brother is not, in fact, safe or cathartic.)

At any rate, they’ve settled into that pattern by the time they reach the Inner Rim. The Inner Rim is the part of the galaxy at which they’ve collected enough money (and mental stability) to travel a little better, and to take a few more risks.

Risks like “manipulate people with those baby blues.”

Ben tells Luke that he’s a menace, after he pouts so cutely that he gets a free scarf added on to a purchase that Ben makes. Luke responds that Ben has no room to talk, since he flirted a free breakfast out of that one inn owner.

Also, Luke is currently physically six. That is objectively a situation that sucks. He deserves to use it for all it’s worth if he’s stuck like this.

“You know, if you keep wearing all-black and looking longingly at the velvet cape and Space Chanel boots, the temple is going to worry that you’re a darksider.”

“Uncle Ben... you told me, yesterday, that I sparkle so brightly in the Force that it’s almost blinding.”

“Yes, but the gloves--”

They don’t agree on this, but Ben relents. He does actually understand good fashion, unfortunately, and he’s not unaware of how much Leia taught Luke about such things.

Luke’s about forty years ahead of the curve, of course, but Skywalkers are prone to such things. It’s usually in regards to technology, granted, but...

They get to Coruscant. Ben is very obviously a Jedi. He knows all the right words and walks like a Soresu master and feels warm and comforting in the Force. They let him in with minimal questions. They note down “my first padawan left the order to have a child, but died shortly after; I consider Luke here to be my nephew, and have raised him as such,” and move on.

Luke is vaguely annoyed because he already had an uncle (and aunt) that raised him, but he admits that a person can have more than one uncle. He can live with this. Ben was more family to Anakin than Owen was, in some ways, so it’s kind of true. Luke is even working on feeling more childish affection for Ben instead of the complicated mess of emotions that come from being lied to about some very large and important subjects, and then seeing the person saying those lies have regular emotional breakdowns due to something as small as Luke saying he likes the curve of the hull on that freighter.

(Apparently he sounds just like his father did as a child. This is almost heartwarming.)

The thing is! The thing. The thing is, they almost make it to the Halls of Healing to get looked over for weird viruses, or Outer Rim Parasites, or whatever the hells needs to be happening. They almost make it without Ben having a flashback to dead younglings or brainwashed troopers or the declaration of a Sith Empire. They almost make it without incident.

Then Ben sees Qui-Gon, and freezes, and does not move again.

Luke cannot get him to restart.

People are staring.

They haven’t even made it to Medical, Uncle Ben, come on.

Young, local Obi-Wan comes over and asks if there’s something he can do to help. Or maybe this “Ben” knows Qui-Gon? Master Jinn doesn’t recognize Ben, but maybe Luke knows more?

Luke does know more, but what Luke actually says is “he probably needs a mind healer.”

(Ben will not appreciate this.)

(Ben is unfortunately standing in the middle of the hallway and completely unresponsive, and is unable to argue with this assertion.)

(Ben is pretty much proving this assertion entirely correct, actually.)

Obi-Wan is helpful, if a little bitchy in the manner of most late-teens individuals, and offers to help get Uncle Ben down to the Halls of Healing. It involves Obi-Wan gently pushing on Ben’s shoulders, and Qui-Gon offering to carry Luke so he can be in Ben’s sights (because Ben is a Mystery, and Qui-Gon is quite fond of those, so he wants to stay involved). Ben kind of just... shuffles on down.

There are medical tests. They ask about how Luke lost his hand. He refuses to talk about it. They ask how Ben got all his scars. Luke says he doesn’t know. They ask if he knows why Ben looks like he’s been through a war. Luke says it’s because he probably was.

They check for foreign viruses. They find evidence of thus-far-unpatented vaccinations. They ask Luke if he knows what he’s vaccinated for.

“How would I know? I’m six.”

They agree that this is a good excuse.

(It is not. He’s lying. They do not know this.)

They do some more tests. They find a lot of questionable medical bullshit in Ben’s body. Most of this is from the clone wars, but they don’t know this. Someone realizes they haven’t gotten a ping back from the Shadow Network regarding “do we have permission to pull the medical file of a Jedi that isn’t in the normal database? We’re assuming you know who he is, since we don’t.”

The Shadow Network does not know who Ben is.

The healers, of course, go “huh, that’s weird, but maybe the name he gave his nephew was fake. We can’t exactly ask ‘Ben’ for more details right now. We already had to sedate him. Let’s check the DNA!”

The DNA pulls up as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The padawan who brought this guy in two hours ago.

“Huh, that’s weird. Let’s call in Kenobi and ask if he knows what’s going on.”

Obi-Wan absolutely does not know what’s going on.

They ask Luke.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he says, lying through his teeth and not even pretending otherwise.

“You’re not a very good liar,” teenage Obi-Wan tells him.

“I’m not trying to be,” Luke says. “Can you get Master Yoda? I feel like we’re going to need him.”

They normally wouldn’t get Yoda on the request of a six-year-old, but they also normally don’t have a catatonic thirty-something Jedi who looks like he’s been through a war popping up in the medical database as the pimply teenage padawan that broke his pinky trying to do a Badass Ataru Flip last week.

Or... whatever Luke i... is... oh dear.

“Young one,” Qui-Gon asks, while people whisper-shout behind him, not realizing he’s cutting the Correlian Knot and just asking the kid himself. “Do you know why your midichlorian count is so high? It’s almost unheard of.”

“Uncle Ben said my dad was the Chosen One,” Luke says, because he is capable of being a little shit and is actually really eager to let Ben deal with some of the fallout. He feels for the man, really, but he’s also tired of being the one to field every single question.

Also, the expressions that pass on Qui-Gon’s face are hilarious.

(Luke may or may not be more affected by his six-year-old brain than he would like to admit.)

“Thank you,” Qui-Gon says, sounding more than a little strangled about it.

It takes another three hours for Ben to wake up.

He listens to the questions. He hears what they say his ‘nephew’ said. He looks at Luke.

“Is this revenge for not telling you about Leia?”

“It’s not revenge,” Luke does not lie. “I just don’t know how to explain it.”

“It’s pretty easy to explain.”

“It’s not my secret.”

“This is revenge for the Leia thing.”

“No,” Luke says. “Revenge for the Leia thing was when I ate a live frog in front of you.”

This is the point at which someone interrupts and points out that they appear to be stalling.

“Oh, he is,” Luke tells them. He gestures at Ben. “I can’t tell you more, because it’s more his story than mine.”

“I’m afraid, Master, that I am very likely to have an emotional breakdown if I allow myself to consider the reality of this situation for longer than the fraction of a second I already have,” Ben reports, full of false cheer. “Suffice to say, I am far from stable and have only held out this far for Luke’s sake.”

“Can you explain why you have my DNA?” Obi-Wan asks, as the person who’s most concerningly involved in this situation.

“You can,” Ben says, smiling like there is absolutely nothing wrong in the slightest, ever. “I’m you, from the future. I actually died and spent a few years dead before coming back. I’m not sure why I’m younger than I was when I died, but I appreciate being able to put on my shoes without my knees attempting to mutiny.”

“He needs a mind healer,” Luke reiterates, in case the strained grin hasn’t made it clear. “So do I, but not as much.”

“I have felt literally every person in this Temple save for Luke and Yoda die,” Ben reports, looking a shade more manic than a few seconds earlier. “It’s very overwhelming to feel you all being alive again. I may be approaching a mental breakdown, and I’ve been rather strictly advised against using alcohol to treat my traumas again.”

Luke kicks him in the thigh. It’s not a very hard kick, because he is very small, and he does actually like Ben. “I’m not letting you turn into an old drunk again.”

After several seconds of silence, a healer quietly suggests that everyone clear the room, and asks if someone could fetch Master Yoda as the youngling requested.

(THIS IS ALMOST THREE THOUSAND WORDS. I started it less than two hours ago. Why am I like this.)

#Ben Kenobi #Obi Wan Kenobi #Luke Skywalker #Qui Gon Jinn #Time Travel #De Aging #Phoenix Posts #Uncle Ben and Little Luke

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jaskiersvalley · 3 years

Text

Witchers didn't have daemons, that was a known fact. They were terrifying in their solitude, unfeeling and unaffected. Monsters made to fight monsters, they didn't need part of their soul for that. What the general public didn't know though was that the daemons weren't imprisoned somewhere, nor were they dead. The mages had figured out a way to separate daemon from child and force it into the most unnatural of shapes, another human. It meant two Witchers from a single child and the best part was, neither child nor daemon felt any connection to their counterpart once the process of the trials was complete.

In an effort to make sure full separation was certain and not even a sentimental link remained, daemons and children were separated and trained in different schools. Lambert had arrived at Kaer Morhen, still tripping over unfamiliar human feet and seething at being separated from his human. Over the years he tried to remember his human but, like all Witchers, they were given new names when they got their medallions and Lambert didn't think Luca still went by that name, nor would he be the scrawny kid Lambert remembered him as.

Whenever Lambert met another Witcher, he couldn't help but wonder whether it was his Luca that he was meeting. Though he wanted to believe that there would be a spark some kind of recognition there. He had been a little relieved when he met Letho and there was nothing there between them.

Of course Geralt had to be the first one to find his daemon. The smug bastard had found a bard who told people his daemon was a flea which was just like him; unnoticeable until he causes a nuisance. Most pitied him but Geralt had seen through the charade. He watched the bard without a daemon, curiosity and caution allowed him to permit Jaskier to tag along. The story tumbled out eventually.

"My great grandparents bought me. I was some kind of freak novelty some merchants were selling."

That was all Geralt had needed to hear and he was all but dragging Jaskier back to Kaer Morhen in the winter. Nobody had expected Vesemir's face to close off completely.

"I remember you!" Jaskier said in way of greeting. "You were a dick."

"Julian." The reply was terse and tight.

Lambert got a front view seat to seeing Geralt's face flit through more emotions in one second than he usually did in a whole year. The embrace was tight, Geralt's nose buried in Jaskier's hair.

Jealousy trickled through Lambert's veins. For all he knew, his human was already a dead Witcher. There was no link between Witcher and daemon, the trials severed it all completely so when one died, the other didn't even notice, let alone die from it.

"Why isn't he a Witcher?" Eskel asked, eyes glued to the happy reunion.

"Kaer Morhen needed money. Your cohort, the daemons didn't become Witchers. We sold them to the highest bigger."

Lambert didn't expect Eskel to punch Vesemir across the jaw but he was sure as shit glad he saw it. It meant he didn't need to do it on behalf of Geralt and Eskel. For the first time though, Lambert had an optimistic thought.

"It might mean he's living a happy life somewhere. I mean, look at Jaskier. He's had it better than us."

That was a topic that came up repeatedly over the next few weeks. They dreamed up all sorts of fancy lives Eskel's daemon could have lived, the wonders he would have seen. Through it all, Lambert bitterly wished his daemon could have been anything but a Witcher. Alas, Vesemir rapidly disillusioned him from that idea.

"He's become a Witcher, probably dead by now. And if you met him, you'd probably wish he was."

"Is that so?" Lambert drawled, emptying his tankard with a disappointed sigh. He couldn't believe it was empty again.

"You suffered the same shit fate I did. Your human was trained by Cats. Guxart turned into an utter dick."

The words were muttered darkly and Lambert tried not to take it to heart how much hatred Vesemir oozed. It made him all that much more determined to not go the same way as the bitter old man. Instead, he turned to Geralt with a leer. "So, is it gay or is it masturbation to want to get off with your own daemon?"

To say the table erupted in uproar was an understatement. Geralt was scowling somewhat fierce, arms crossed over his chest in protest. It only egged Lambert on further.

"I think it's incest," he declared with a shit eating grin. "Technically it's part of your family because you have the same parents."

"It's masturbation at most." Geralt was growling and glowering. "Because the daemon was still part of you."

Through it all, Eskel stayed rather quiet. It was only when the other two looked to him for opinion that he leaned forward, propping himself up on the table with a serious crease to his brows.

"I think-" the words were low and measured, "-that as long as everyone involved consents, it's fucking hot is what it is."

"The only thing it is," Vesemir finally butted in, "is a disaster waiting to happen. You don't want to meet your counterparts. Trust me."

Except that only made Lambert all the more keen. He wanted to both prove Vesemir wrong and also have what Geralt and Jaskier seemed to be hurtling towards. So, come spring, he set out with the intent of fulfilling one contract only. It was one that he would pay himself for in emotional fulfilment. He was going to find every Cat he could until he found Luca.

He met Gaetan along his travels who laughed in his face and said he was much more into snakes than wolves. That was an encounter Lambert was more than eager to cut short because he did not want to think about how Letho and Gaetan were oddly complementary. It was also another jolt of bitter jealousy, another Witcher and daemon had been reunited while he was still out there looking for his own. Assuming Luca had survived.

Meeting Guxart was a bit of an accident and Lambert wished he'd not encountered the old Cat. He growled and hissed about his stupid daemon who would probably have turned into a useless pigeon if left alone. There was obviously no love lost between them and Lambert desperately hoped he wasn't going to have the same fate.

Third time lucky, as the saying went. Lambert had trailed the new Cat for a few days, learning his habits and watching him work. There was no ounce of recognition or familiarity. But then again, the last time Lambert saw Luca, they were being dragged away from each other, foreign hands on his rapidly shifting body so his eyes could barely adjust enough to see the screaming, tear filled face of his human. It was quite possibly the worst last image he could have had of Luca.

Satisfied that the Cat wasn't someone Lambert wouldn't want to associate with, he approached in the evening when the campfire was still bright but slowly settling.

"I was wondering when my shadow would make himself known," the Cat said easily enough, barely glancing up from where he was whittling something.

The last two times Lambert had tried to be careful with exploring the idea of the Cat Witcher being his human. He was tired and cut straight to the point.

"Luca?"

By the fire the man froze. It was only luck that meant Lambert could hear the shuddering exhales of someone trying to keep up the façade of calm and collected. Finally, the man set his carving aside and stood with an easy smile that felt like a thousand lies.

"I go by Aiden." It wasn't a reply and Lambert knew it.

"I don't remember my name," he admitted softly, desperately hoping he wasn't about to make an utter tit of himself. "People call me Lambert. But I'm looking for my Luca."

He didn't expect to suddenly have an armful of Witcher clinging to him like their very lives depended on it.

"It's really you!" Aiden sounded close to tears. "You never did have a single name, usually going by Idiot, Pain In The Butt, Menace and so many other equally flattering names."

"Guess that never changed," Lambert laughed wetly. He held Aiden close, wishing he could feel as he used to when they were connected. "We have a lot of catching up to do."

It was just that start of something Lambert never thought he'd have. Easy companionship, shared disdain for the whole Witcher thing, stories upon stories of contracts gone well, gone wrong, or just plain gone. By the time winter rolled round, Lambert was firmly of the opinion that he and Aiden would travel together, fuck the Path and all the teachings about it being lonely. If Geralt could have his bard then they sure as hell could have each other.

Getting to Kaer Morhen, Lambert gleefully had an arm slung around Aiden's shoulder, introducing him to the rest of his family. He especially delighted in the flaring of Vesemir's nostrils as he took in the situation.

"Cats and Wolves don't mix. You of all people should know that."

"And you should know it's my life's mission to prove you wrong, old man," Lambert shot back.

Perhaps the most curious part of the whole winter was that Geralt was already back with not one, but two guests. Jaskier was a known quantity and Lambert greeted him warmly. The other though was a near silent man who watched them through eyes that looked way too old for his body.

"This is Cahir," Geralt said when the man didn't even introduce himself. "We'd heard rumours of a Nilfgaardian without a daemon and went to investigate."

"Not a Nilfgaardian," Cahir grumbled with a half-hearted glare.

It took Lambert a moment to figure out just why Geralt would bring such a man back before his eyes widened in delighted realisation.

"You think that-"

"Mhm."

That was the extent of their conversation because Lambert was cackling in delight. He looked Cahir over with a newfound interest. Young, like Jaskier but so very different in behaviour. As much as they'd wondered about Eskel's daemon's fate, this wasn't one they'd predicted.

Three days later Eskel was leading Scorpion into Kaer Morhen's courtyard. Lambert and Aiden were all but bouncing with excitement, not wanting to miss the moment Eskel met his daemon. In their opinion Geralt was drawing things out and making it less fun by not having them all meet in the stables. Instead, Eskel was allowed to venture into the kitchen in the company of Lambert and Aiden who were vibrating in anticipation.

"Eskel," Geralt greeted him with a warm hug. Jaskier and Cahir were behind him, even Vesemir had ventured out to see what the outcome would be. "It's good to have you home. Allow me to introduce you to Cahir."

The two looked at each other with guarded gazes and Eskel gave a terse nod. It was as anticlimactic as fuck. No recognition, not interest, nothing. Just a slow once over which, if Lambert had thought about it, was pretty much a mirror image of each other, equally considering and closed off.

Despondent, he dragged Aiden off, helping lay the table for a shared meal. Vesemir was quick to follow, there was no way to tell whether he was disappointed or relieved by the lack of drama. Geralt and Jaskier wandered out, oddly deflated. Not two seconds later there was an almighty crash from the kitchen and they were all racing back. Only to turn right around and flee after a glimpse of Cahir pinning Eskel to a wall and kissing him like Eskel was the last gasp of air for a drowning man.

"So, are they?" Jaskier asked, glancing towards the kitchen. Something else crashed and thumped but it was best not to investigate.

After a moment it was Vesemir who tiredly said, "Does it matter? It doesn't seem like they much care."

All in all, Lambert didn't think he cared either. Cahir and Eskel seemed happy enough in their new acquaintanceship, trying to figure out their past could wait, if they even wanted to explore it. Though Lambert had a hard time imagining Cahir as a goat. Over the years he'd heard Eskel lament enough about how his daemon preferred to take the form of a goat.

Regret came the next morning at breakfast when Eskel and Cahir appeared at the table, seemingly indifferent. If the rest of them hadn't see the two almost violently making out in the kitchen before disappearing to a bedroom, they wouldn't have guessed anything had gone on between them.

"Hey Geralt," Eskel called, face passive. "You know the difference between a goldfish and a mountain goat?"

"A mountain goat could live in Kaer Morhen but a goldfish couldn't?"

Eskel rolled his eyes. "No, a goldfish mucks around a fountain."

"And a mountain goat fucks around a mountain," Cahir finished the joke. He and Eskel high fived without looking at each other. Lambert only smacked his head on the table when Cahir continued, "And I am no goldfish."

#geraskier #lambden #eskhir #geralt/jaskier #lambert/aiden #eskel/cahir #unhappy vesemir/guxart #geralt of rivia #jaskier #lambert #aiden #eskel #cahir mawr dyffryn aep ceallach #vesemir #daemon au #tldr: witchers' daemons are humans when the connection between them is severed

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esamastation · 3 years

Text

Xerxes au snippet

The first official political overture the small desert nation of Xerxes makes towards Amestris in over fifty years is a year after the end of the Ishvalan Civil War. Though it is expected to concern the war, and the border between Amestris and Xerxes, or perhaps even Amestrian use of Alchemy in the war, is has nothing to do with the bloody conflict, or it's relation to Xerxes' famously pacifistic view on alchemy.

It is a simple, polite appeal to the Amestrian Government – an invitation for an Amestrian automail mechanic to join the Xerxesian court.

"Bit odd," Havoc mutters, after a copy of the letter has gone around the office a few times. "What do they need an automail mechanic for – isn't Xerxesian medical alchemy, like… world famous?"

"For given the value of fame, yes," Roy agrees, fingers crossed together and a thoughtful look on his face. "They say early Amestrian alchemists learned from Xerxesians. We still use a lot of their symbols in our alchemy – but if Xerxesian alchemists are world famous about anything these days, it's their reticence. No outsider has seen much about the way they go about things these days, if they even practice alchemy anymore."

Of course there are rumours, there are always rumours, and there's history – the great and wealthy kingdom of Xerxes, alchemically on top of the world and widely known for their wisdom and knowledge and the miracles they achieved… who reached too far, tried to achieve the power of gods, and got struck down by said gods for it. How accurate that is, no one knows, but it's known that some disaster hundreds of years ago devastated the kingdom, killed most of its people, and it never fully recovered. Now it's people can only barely scrape by, living in huts and caves and underground, and they don't treat with outsiders much beyond the absolutely necessary.

Beyond trade routes established to get Amestrian goods through Xerxes to Xing, there's never been much interest for Xerxes, except maybe for it's grand history and it's many ruins. It doesn't help that Xerxes, as far as anyone knows, has never really reached outside, keeping to its isolationist values – and since it has little to offer to other nations… no one reached back, either. As far as anyone knows, Xerxes hasn't advanced at all scientifically or technologically in the last hundred years.

Which makes the fact that they want specifically an automail mechanic, an craftsman of one of Amestris' most advanced technology, rather interesting, doesn't it?

"I hear they took a lot of Ishvalan refugees during the war," Fuery says – he's the one holding the letter, reading it through.

Roy hums grimly. There's that, though took in might be stretching it a bit. Xerxes didn't do much to protect its borders – there was no need, with a desert all around their kingdom. So, when Ishvalan refugees sought to escape the conflict and set out to the desert, there was nothing but the terrain itself to stop them. Who knows how many Ishvalans made it through the desert, on foot and probably hurt…

"Why'd they send this to our office?" Breda asks, casting a look at Roy.

"They sent it to Grumman who sent it to us," Roy sighs and leans back in his chair. "The Lieutenant General wants us to find a suitable mechanic and then escort them – along with the Fürher's greetings – to Xerxes. The mission isn't exactly time sensitive, but since we're in the East…"

There's probably many reasons it was thrown their way, really. Way to keep those uppity brats from East busy, easily justified with them being closest to the matter at hand. It also wasn't exactly vital as diplomatic missions go – but it was still a diplomatic mission to a foreign nation, which means that Roy would want to handle it himself instead of leaving it to any of his subordinates. Especially since it's to Xerxes – what Alchemist wouldn't give an arm and a leg for a glimpse at how Xerxesian alchemy is these days? So, it was expected that he'd go himself. Which would get him out of people's way for a while, and maybe open up a slot for someone else to be promoted to his place, depending how long it would take.

How annoying. Grumman can be one clever son of a bitch when he wants to be.

"Right," Roy says while his team exchanges looks. "I want a list of all automail mechanics of East on my desk by the end of the day – if you can figure out their feelings about Ishval and if they have any history with the Ishvalan Civil War, that'd be a plus. Get to work."

"Sir!" his team answers, and immediately get to it, Fuery and Fallman both heading out to probably check records, while Havoc fishes out a phone book and Breda gets the phone. Beside Roy, Hawkeye gives him a look.

"Should I start preparing for travel?" she asks mildly.

"If you please," Roy says, turning to his paperwork. "We'll take Breda with us."

"Understood."

Over the course of next two days, they list and investigate various automail shops in the east, Roy privately wincing at how many there are, and how many of them are less than a decade old. The Ishvalan Civil War had been a boon to the business, and a lot of mechanics from the south moved in to take advantage of the situation. Lots of new up and coming mechanics, cutting their teeth in on a lot of freshly traumatised soldiers.

It left a lot of them… unsuitable for a mission likely to involve Ishvalan refugees.

"Known for his Anti-Ishvalan sentiments," Breda says, crossing out another potential automail shop. "This one has a No Refugees sign on his shop front, which probably means the same thing. This one has a pretty high record of automail rejection syndrome. This one has had two patients die on the operation table…"

Roy rubs a hand over his forehead, already imagining having to reach for the Southern District to find someone sensible in Rush Valley, when Breda offers him a potential. "Rockbell Automail, in business for decades before the Ishvalan Conflict even began."

"Rockbell," Roy says, lifting his head. "Any relation to the two late Doctors Rockbell?"

"Yep. Son and daughter in law of Doctor Pinako Rockbell, the head mechanic of the shop," Breda says and lays the file on his desk. "Their daughter is currently an apprentice mechanic in the shop, too."

Roy grimaces at that, but accepts the file, leafing quickly through it. Old, well established shop, known for their skill and efficiency, with very high praise from a lot of former customers and no known record of either deaths on operation table, auto mail rejections, or any anti-Ishvalan sentiments. There is a slight issue of the head mechanic being an old woman and the only other mechanic being a young girl, but…

It's promising.

"Phone," Roy says, and Hawkeye quickly lifts it on his desk, turning it toward him so that he can dial easily.

"Rockbell Automail, Pinako Rockbell speaking," a woman's voice answers the phone promptly, her tone brisk.

"Doctor Rockbell, my name is Roy Mustang, I'm a Lieutenant Colonel from the East Area Headquarters – may I have a moment of your time?"

"Certainly," Doctor Rockbell answers, no noticeable change in her tone. "What can do for you, Lieutenant Colonel? Aside from automail, presumably."

"I am currently looking for a skilled automail mechanic to take part in a diplomatic mission, likely to involve Ishvalan refugees," Roy says. "Your shop came up as highly recommended."

"Hrm. What kind of diplomatic mission? Don't the military have their own automail mechanics?"

"There are some, but none in the Eastern Headquarters," Roy admits – probably because the East has such surplus of civilian mechanics these days. "And I'll be frank, the likely length of this mission makes it difficult to use any of our military mechanics. The mission is to Xerxes, and will likely take weeks, if not months."

"… Xerxes?" now the old woman's voice changes, growing a little incredulous.

"Yes, the Xerxes Royal Family sent the Amestrian government an appeal for a skilled automail mechanic to join their court, and I was tasked with the mission of finding one," Roy explains and leans back, turning to look out of the window while he talks. "You would be well compensated for your trouble, however long it would last."

"Is this… a permanent position? In Xerxes?" Still incredulous.

"We don't know as of yet, the treaties are yet to be drawn. You would naturally be part of the negotiations and your wishes and needs would be taken into account," Roy assures her. "I understand this is a bit much so suddenly, and I will hold it in no way against you if you refuse outright – though I am hoping that if that is the case, then perhaps you, as a well established mechanic, might be able to point me in the way of more suitable candidates…"

Honestly, with a shop as old and as well established as hers, Roy doubts very much she would take him up on the mission – she probably has a whole lot of regular clients and steady stream of income, and no need to move. But, it never hurts to ask.

The phone line is quiet for a moment as the old mechanic thinks. "I need to talk with my apprentice for a moment, can I call you back in, say, two hours?"

"Certainly," Roy agrees, and gives her his office number. "We'll be looking forward to your call."

"Right – one more thing. You said it's likely to involve Ishvalan refugees," Doctor Rockbell says. "How'd you mean?"

"We don't know for sure, the appeal didn't explain the need for a mechanic. But during the Ishvalan Civil War, many Ishvalan refugees fled to Xerxes. So we thought it safe to assume the two are connected."

"Ah," the mechanic says knowingly. "And they put a State Alchemist in charge of finding a solution."

Roy swallows. Ah. She knows about him. It's not entirely surprising, but… "They did indeed," is all he says. There's no real explanation he can give, no excuse. It is what it is."

"Hm," Doctor Rockbell answers, noncommittal. "I will call back in two hours."

And she does, accepting the mission with two conditions. The military would help her pack up her entire shop and all the materials and tools would be transported with them – which was understandable, even if it tripled the estimated convoy size. The other condition was that she was taking her eleven year old apprentice with her. Both conditions Roy readily agreed to, tasking Havoc and Fallman with her packing while the rest of the team arranged the convoy.

"Guess we're going to Xerxes then. We're going to need a lot of camels," Breda muses.

"Yes," Roy agrees and sighs. It would be a hard journey and probably a hard mission, and likely one for very little gain in the end. Still. Xerxes. His alchemy master would've killed for the opportunity. Might as well take full advantage of it, and learn whatever he can, even if it's only from broken murals on ancient ruins.

Hmm... not sure I’m getting Mustang’s voice right.

Edit: Also tumblr eats italics for breakfast apparently.

#fanfiction #fma #fullmetal alchemist #au #roy mustang #pinako rockbell #etc

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weareallstardustfallen · 3 years

Note

Minecraft world building is always interesting!! What are your nether worldbuilding ideas? T

well i do Not feel like giving the entire 4k so i will just talk about my thoughts on the history of the nether bc that is the part that i like best of it

so the nether was canonically not always like that; the soul sand valley might have once been "a habitable paradise full of huge, bygone creatures," the ancient debris is the remains of historical netherite mining by piglins, stuff like that. as such, i decided that i wanted to take what we're given in the game, use that to figure out what the original nether was like, and then go from there to the modern nether.

and me and @bananasofthorns were listening to some of the ambiance tracks for the different nether biomes, and we realized that hey, some of these sound very Hm. like, there's a couple in the basalt deltas that sound a little like laughter, or like war drums. and after listening to literally all of the nether ambiance tracks and tossing ideas back and forth and such, i settled on this idea, under the cut because it's Long:

the nether was originally a much more habitable place, with a lot more biodiversity than exists now. originally, there were four intelligent races, not just piglins, and they were loosely settled into the four biomes which existed at the time- the crimson forests, the nether wastes, the basalt deltas, and the soul sand valleys, though they weren't very wasteland-y or soul sand-y at all, so they were probably called something else.

the soul sand valley was home to a bunch of very powerful mages, as well as the massive beasts which became the fossils. they were probably the most able to use magic of all of the societies, and any overworld enchantments which can be found originated in the nether (like the ones on piglin armor) are actually a completely different form of that enchantment derived from ancient enchanted books from this society; soul speed was essentially reverse-engineered from them. the valleys were probably the most utopian of all the biomes at the time, full of many, many different kinds of flora and fauna.

the basalt deltas, on the other hand, were very hostile even then, with practically nothing living there except for the delta warriors. they were very warlike and probably conquerors, and were the ones who built the nether fortresses for military purposes. they spent decades at war with the valley mages, and while they most definitely had access to some pretty powerful magic it was not to their level of artistry.

there was also a society in the nether wastes, which has been next to forgotten. both the biome and the people were caught in the crossfire between the valley mages and the delta warriors and over a very long period of time, their entire civilization pretty much got wiped out. the land itself is still basically barren, and sometimes unstable.

the fourth, of course, was the piglins of the crimson forests. they didn't get involved with the wars, and managed to avoid getting much damage from the massive amount of fighting. they, and the hoglins, are the only mobs who are still around from this period of time.

the war did, of course, come to a catastrophic end in what i'm calling the cataclysm. the delta warriors gained access to very powerful and very volatile magic. what did they do with it? attempt to smite the valley mages off the face of the earth, of course- a little too effectively.

they did manage to totally wipe out the valley mages, which was their goal! they decimated the mages, as well as literally every other living thing in the biome, their own society, and did a lot of Bad Shit to the environment of the nether as a whole.

because the area and the people were so charged with magic already, the mages weren't just completely killed- instead, they were trapped in the newly-created soul sand, half-alive, with their souls only being released upon the sand being burnt. the valleys are now completely devastated, and you can hear the mages whispering or calling in the distance, sometimes enough to lure an unwary traveler to their death, though this isn't out of malice.

the delta warriors, also killed by the cataclysm, became the wither skeletons and skeletons of the nether. those who were in the valley at the time of the cataclysm became the wither skeletons due to the magic of the area; they spend their eternities protecting the fortresses they built. those who weren't there are the normal skeletons, forever attempting to provide reinforcements for a battle which is long since over.

and the piglins? they were adversely affected by the cataclysm, of course, everything was, and their glory days are past. but they're alive, where the other two are not- despite this extinction-level event, they are still continuing on, essentially the same as they were before. and this continues even through the most major thing that would harm the crimson forests after the cataclysm, that being the introduction of the warped forests.

the warped forests were essentially corruption which crept in just after the cataclysm when the environment was still unsettled; it began to slowly expand, eating away at the crimson forests, and it is also very... weird, as far as the biomes go. it's not really hostile, it won't kill you to enter or anything and there's even some helpful stuff there, but... it is Deeply Wrong. the endermen there are numb and expressionless, like they're sleepwalking. they never really react to stimuli other than being looked in the eye, but sometimes they scream in the distance like they're being tortured.

and, bonus, because i'm not sure whether it's piglin legend or reality but i think it's cool:

each of the biomes has an Entity to it, not quite sentient but enough to have intent, like a manifestation of the ones who used to live there. it's not quite a god, not quite real, but it is there and you can feel it, when you step into its domain.

the basalt delta is a conqueror imprisoned, the warrior who lost. the Entity of the deltas is trapped far beneath the surface, but it is still there, angry and vengeful, straining to get out, and sometimes you can hear it laughing, or the distant echo of the drums of war. the basalt delta is angry. the basalt delta hates you. the basalt delta wants you fucking dead.

the soul sand valleys are asleep. it's not quite dead, nothing with so much power and life could just die like that, but it isn't quite there, either. the valleys are a tragedy of unimaginable scale, and there is murmuring in the distance, never quite close enough to make out.

the nether wastes are dead. they are barren, empty, lifeless; nothing really grows and nothing really lives. the wastes died a long time ago, even before the cataclysm- the only trace of it is in the occasional odd noise, and the way the rock shifts and crumbles at random, unsettled by the fighting which reduced it to nothing.

the crimson forests are the only one left as it was- weaker, tired, but still alive and still awake and still free. the crimson forests do not get involved with wars not their own, do not play with the kind of power that can reduce a civilization to dust. the crimson forest, and its residents, are survivors above all. they will still be there, living, and so will the forests.

the warped forest, on the other hand... the warped forest is not of the nether. the warped forest is a foreigner, come slinking into the gaps left behind and slowly gaining ground, bit by bit. if any of the biomes has a mind, it's this one- the warped forests make odd, terrifying sounds, and the endermen are screaming in the distance or wandering like ghosts, and there is something laughing, low and heavy.

best not to stay too long.

#mc ambiance noises are TERRIFYING and i love them #if anyone wants to know which ones inspired certain stuff just ask #minecraft #minecraft lore #minecraft worldbuilding #minecraft nether #rain chatter

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eponymous-rose · 3 years

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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E123 (Feb. 2, 2021)

After last week’s thoroughly relaxing and brief episode, tonight’s guests are Sam Riegel and Liam O’Brien!

Brian, to Sam: “You look like Tim Curry moved to Nantucket to become a sommelier.”

How did Caleb and Veth approach the ally-ship with the Tombtakers? Sam: “I mean, we got some information, and I think we got a little closer to Lucien and knowing whether he has any of Mollymauk inside of him, which is I think the most important knowledge that we’re seeking right now. Is there someone to be saved inside there? We got glimpses, and we got a little hint that Mollymauk is maybe still in there? Maybe? And we got a little more insight into their plans, so that was useful.” Liam: “We know why we were having that fucking dream.” Sam: “But other than that, it was just a road trip with assholes.” Liam: “All our plans have been ripped in a new direction, and it’s just been improvisation.” Sam notes that it feels like we’re always about to rip into Caleb’s backstory, but haven’t yet followed that thread all the way through. Liam: “It’s partially frustrating, to be sure, but also I like the idea that-- his whole shit has been selfish, it’s been dealing with the trauma that he’s been through and not the greater world, and that’s been shifting somewhat.”

Does Caleb think the book was worth it, and is he still interested in reading more? Sam: “How do you ask Caleb not to read a book?” Liam: “Caleb has spent enough time with the Nein to know you shouldn’t put a hand on a hot stove. After what happened with the book, he knows it’s a terrible idea. But maybe. But it’s a really bad idea. But reserve judgment, but it’s a really terrible idea. I think that Caleb is very aware that mages and people like him very easily fall prey to their curiosity and it can lead to bad places. But there is still that amount of scientific endeavor where you think there is value in knowing and learning, and maybe we can ride that line. He was True Neutral at the start of the campaign, and maybe he’s Chaotic Good now, but part of him is hubris, even if it’s a little bit, still.”

What about Otis has drawn Veth’s focus? Sam: “I mean, he’s a little shit. She was curious about Otis because he’s a small like she is, and in talking to him, he seemed to be real creepy, but he was just creepy and distant and didn’t value his past or family or anything like that. She sees someone who’s like her, but so not like her, and maybe that scares her a little bit more.”

How does Caleb feel about Beau being on this ride with him? Liam: “The dream is another example of how Caleb had very narrow vision of the things he wanted to do. It used to seem so massive to him, but now... To have Beauregard involved feels right. If anyone in the group is going to stop him from grabbing something he shouldn’t, it is probably Beauregard. She’ll punch him in the fucking face to stop him, which I think he needs, to a certain extent. They’re two different kinds of nerds, and I kind of like that, that this group of nine philosophers, they’ve reached out and somehow grabbed the two nerds in the party.”

How do Caleb and Veth see the Somnovum? Sam: “I mean, they seem real bad. Anything that’s a quorum of powerful entities heading towards your planet to unleash an energy of any kind, typically bad? I assume they’re bad, or at least the Tombtakers wish them to do ill.” Liam: “I think they want the kind of peace that comes from snapping your fingers and turning people to dust. Caleb sees them as a cautionary tale; they’re the worst-case scenario for arcane inquisitiveness.” He sees Allura Vysoren as the antidote to that.

Why the staunch refusal to use Halfling Luck? Sam: “I don’t like Luck! I just don’t like Luck. I think it’s cheap, I think it’s a cheat, I think it’s stupid. It just feels like a do-over.” Liam: “I am your antithesis! If I ever voice a halfling, I am going to hammer that feature!” Sam: “What I love about D&D is that you don’t know what’s going to happen. If you roll bad, okay, that’s it. If you roll well, it makes the success more enjoyable to know that it’s a pure success and don’t one where you’re like well actually... it’s so stupid. If someone was about to die, I would probably use the fuckin’ Luck feature. Well. It depends who. If it was Travis, yeah, no, he’s fucked, sorry.”

Liam drops that he’s picked Sam’s character class and race again for a hypothetical campaign three. Sam: “It’s not what I was thinking for future characters, but I’m excited to explore.”

Cosplay of the Week: an amazing Mollymauk by KatofValkyrie!

What was it like to bring the Tombtakers into the tower? Liam: “It is complicated, because he does not like him. Lucien’s just a fucking dick. But Caleb also knows that Molly’s in there somewhere. That tower’s only for the M9, and Lucien’s not in the M9. Their situation with these people is shitty, it’s terrible. Caleb doesn’t feel like they have the upper hand. He doesn’t like that they’re even going on this journey per se, because life is bigger than his bullshit. He feels like they’ve been losing over and over again, so it was a gamble to try to get on equal footing.

What spurred Veth into making sure she and Yasha have some one-on-one time? Sam: “Yasha hasn’t been getting a lot of moments to shine. Now that she’s back, I just got the impression that Yasha feels out of place sometimes, or timid, or unsure of herself. When Veth was Nott, Nott certainly had her share of those moments. I think she sees a kindred spirit and wants to make sure that she’s been giving all the opportunity she can to flourish and thrive. Dani, you’re just laughing at my mustache, aren’t you?” Dani: “Yes, that’s the only thing I’m laughing at through this whole bullshit.” Sam denies all knowledge of trolling, but eventually admits, on the topic of Yasha and Beau getting together: “They’ve made me wait this long... I’m going to make them wait a little bit longer!”

What was it like to show his friends the upper floors? Liam: “I kinda expected somebody to sneak up there before that. That being part of the tower is not even a conscious choice of his, it just is. The reason Caduceus has creeped Caleb out for a long time is because he talks about how-- Caduceus is a really kind person and wants Caleb to let go of the past. And in a really simplistic way, turn that frown upside-down. And that’s just not who Caleb is, and it’s not who everybody is. There is something to be said for trying to stay open and positivity, but thinking you can shut out the past, especially a traumatic one, is just not true. When things happen to us, we carry them. But to candy-coat it and say, ah, I’m free, or everything is good, or I’ve turned the corner... life is way messier than that. It’s not flipping a switch, it’s not bad-to-good, it is such a work in progress. Even when you make strides and start to get to a better place, you can backslide a lot. So the tower is who he is, and the tower is 7/9ths love for his friends, and 1/9th hope, but there’s still a percentage of him that carries everything from the past, and knows that he should, and knows that he should not go back to where he was. And the way to do that is not to say everything is rainbows, but to remember it. The tower is just like an extension of who he is. He’s never going to forget the past, and he’s never going to be like, I’m good, or I’ve turned a corner. He should remember the past, and he should do better, always.”

Does Veth still believe it’s possible to get Molly back? Sam: “Well, she was a person trapped in another body for many years, so has some experience there, and definitely believes that the spirit and soul of Molly is in there and just needs to be unlocked somehow.”

Fan Art of the Week: an amazing group shot by HarpySN!

How are Caleb and Veth dealing with their guilt and fear about being in the middle of this? Sam: “It definitely was a deep conversation that might have repercussions going forward. The problem with all of what we’re doing now is that we don’t have time to deal with our petty problems anymore. It’s all high tension all the time!” Liam: “It’s true; they’re not in control of their situation at all anymore.” Sam: “It’s good to have these check-ins, but it’s not like we can do anything about them. We’re reactive right now.” Liam: “He’s not happy with where they are, but they wouldn’t even be this far if the goblin hadn’t pulled him out of the mud. So part of it is, you saved me from where I was and got me on my feet again, and now it’s disconcerting to see it all just get knocked sideways by something he never could’ve predicted. I think Caleb felt nostalgic for when things were simpler, in a way, for them, when we’re both troubled drifters.”

What was it like to see Gelidon’s return? Liam: “I am the least superstitious person at the table. Ashley’s dice suck.” Sam: “It was fun fighting a dragon!” Liam: “Two massive battles in one episode, neither of which came away with a victory. I guess surviving is a victory.” Sam: “I’d forgotten about the dragon, honestly.” Liam: “I loved it. I was so upset at the idea that we were going to stealth and not get into it.”Sam: “Mercer doesn’t keep a live dragon around and not do something with it. That dragon’s coming back.”

How do Caleb and Veth feel about going to see Essek? Sam: “He can be very helpful, I believe, but as Sam Riegel, a player of D&D, I’m super suspicious. What the fuck is Essek doing up there, so close, now? I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him. And I can throw him pretty far because he floats.” Liam: “I 100% agree with you. I do not understand what Essek could bring to what we are going through. I know the audience loves him, I love him too. He’s a really cool character. But he’s fucking toxic. He out of curiosity caused a war between two nations. And Caleb has been changed for the good by the M9 from months of travel with them. Essek has had none of that. Caleb has changed for the good, but not because of people like Essek. Essek is where Caleb came from. We kept the lid on the pot during the whole treaty at sea and it almost all went fucking sideways, and only because we pressed him into a corner. I hope that guy finds some sort of balance and peace for himself, but I do not see how his input here would be helpful. There’s other heavy hitters that I would try to pull in.”

Liam notes that the Cloven Crystal is in the Bag of Holding. Sam: “Do I have Fluffernutter, or is Fluffernutter gone?” Liam: “Nope. 300 pounds of fireworks? Gone. A dead mage, a threshold crest, and fireworks.” Dani: “Your basic essentials.”

#critical role #critical role spoilers #talks machina #talks machina spoilers #long text post

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robininthelabyrinth · 3 years

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Curse-breaker (Chapter 4/4)

- ao3 -

“You know him, right?” Jiang Cheng asked Lan Xichen. He was trying not to appear as nervous as he felt in asking, but he was pretty sure he was failing. “Nie-gongzi?”

Lan Xichen smiled. “I do. And thank you for calling him that, he prefers it.”

There were those that had started calling him Curse-breaker, as if it were a proper title; Jiang Cheng had heard it said a few times, and while he didn’t personally disagree with the moniker, which seemed appropriate, he also knew better than to just drop it into a conversation.

Luckily. He was trying to make a good impression here.

“What’s he like?” Jiang Cheng blurted out, then immediately wanted to kick himself. “I mean – it’s just – I didn’t see him much when he visited the Lotus Pier –”

He was making it worse.

It was only that he’d never quite met anyone with so much presence as Nie Mingjue: taller even than Jiang Cheng’s father, with that strange eye that seemed to see everything and anything. His features were generally set in a neutral expression that made him seem almost unworldly, like some god untouched by human concerns, but which sometimes softened a little when he approved of something – or someone.

Jiang Cheng could feel his cheeks going red, and tried to suppress it.

“Mingjue-xiong liked you,” Lan Xichen said, and Jiang Cheng lost the battle at once, his whole face heating up until it felt unbearably hot. This was worse than the time that Nie Mingjue had come to the Lotus Pier and told his parents to value Jiang Cheng more or else, and then his father had come in with a smirk and a snarl and somehow made them do it. “He said so.”

“He did?”

“Oh, yes. He said you were talented and faithful, with a good heart, and that we’d see great things from you.”

Jiang Cheng was going to die.

“That’s nice,” he said, with an effort. “I thought very highly of him, too. He’s…great.”

Wow. ‘Great’. Was that really the best he could do?

Lan Xichen studied him for a moment, then nodded. “He really is,” he said, and sighed. “I had the same reaction, you know. He’s…a lot.”

Jiang Cheng felt seen. “I know,” he said effusively. “He’s just – you know?”

“I do,” Lan Xichen said. “Just –”

He waved his hand in the air. Not even making some sort of gesture, just a meaningless sort of wave, but for some reason Jiang Cheng understood him completely.

There really just weren’t words sometimes, when you wanted to describe things or people that inspired feelings that went beyond the merely describable. Nie Mingjue was one of those – Jiang Cheng had known that Lan Xichen would understand, and sure enough, he did.

And to think that Wei Wuxian liked Lan Wangji better!

Really, his shixiong might be more talented than Jiang Cheng in many ways, ways that were often a matter of jealousy, but Jiang Cheng clearly had better taste.

“Oh, there you are,” a voice said, and Jiang Cheng tensed and turned to look – but it was only Wen Qing, so that was fine. “Lan-gongzi, Jiang-gongzi, I was sent to spend some time with you.”

She probably meant that she was sent away so that the adults would have time to talk about issues they thought were too sensitive to involve the younger generation, or else they just wanted to start drinking earlier in the afternoon than usual and didn’t want her judging them from a medical standpoint. Either might be true – Wen Qing was widely acclaimed as one of the most talented in their generation, as terrifying with her needles as other people might be with their sword, from more or less the first moment she’d finally been allowed to join the rest of them on equal grounds.

They greeted her, trying to stand up to be polite, but she waved them down irritably and took a seat instead. “What are you two talking about?”

“Nie Mingjue,” Lan Xichen said, and Jiang Cheng nodded. “We were just commenting on his many admirable qualities.”

Jiang Cheng nodded a second time, even more emphatically.

Wen Qing looked at them both with that critical eye of hers for a long moment.

Then she sighed in a huff. “He’s really all that and more, isn’t he?” she said.

“He is,” Lan Xichen said.

“He’s just –” Jiang Cheng tried the same gesture as Lan Xichen earlier, and was gratified when Wen Qing started nodding herself in total agreement. “Right?”

“Right.”

Nie Mingjue was aware that many people liked to stare at them, but they had assumed it was because of how unusual they were – even putting aside the eye, which was their most obviously not-normal feature, their behavior was not always in line with regular people’s. They didn’t show their emotions on their face as easily, being more naturally inclined towards sternness, and their manner was both sharp and incisive, straightforward and blunt; they had missed critical years of social development while lost in what amounted to seclusion, too busy solidifying their sense of self, consolidating their we into an I.

(They were still trying to figure out gender, a process complicated by the fact that it hadn’t made much sense to either of them to begin with. They were starting to suspect it would be better to just give up on it entirely.)

It turned out, according to Nie Huaisang, that that was not why all those people were staring.

“When you say they like me…”

“Sexually or romantically attracted, usually both,” Nie Huaisang said. “You have a lot of would-be suitors. Lan Xichen, Jiang Cheng, Wen Qing, Wen Ning, Jiang Yanli –”

“I don’t think you’re supposed to use their names directly like that,” Nie Mingjue said, though they weren’t sure about that. They’d forgotten more etiquette than they’d ever learned. “Also, isn’t Jiang Yanli getting married to Jin Zixuan?”

“He’s another of your admirers. As is Meng Yao…no, sorry, Jin Ziyao. You know he secretly thinks that you killed Jin Guangshan for him, right?”

They’d killed Jin Guangshan because he was rotten through and through, and he didn’t even have a qi deviation or a tormenting heart demon to blame for it. He just thought of people as things, even the ones he supposedly liked, and acted accordingly…they hadn’t really thought through the consequences of killing him when they’d done it, having long ago forgotten the concept of political considerations, but it was really amazing what could be covered up or excused if multiple sect leaders put their minds to it while the rest just breathed a sigh of relief that Jin Guangshan was gone.

“That seems like too many people,” they said. “They can’t all be my…admirers.”

“You think that’s it? I haven’t even gotten to Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian – both at once, if that’s your preferred flavor – and even that feral child Jin Ziyao found in Kuizhou…you know just the other week, he loudly declared that you were better than sweets and the entire room sighed all at once in agreement?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m not. There are even rumors that say that Sect Leader Wen might be interested…”

They shrugged.

Nie Huaisang squinted at them. “Da-ge. Did you know about that one?”

“Sect Leader Wen is not subtle,” they said dryly. “But if it makes you feel better, his interest is purely a matter of cultivation, and also our father has already hit him for even making the suggestion.”

Nie Huaisang didn’t look impressed. “Are you sure it’s purely a matter of cultivation? Would you be able to tell if it wasn’t?”

Nie Mingjue considered how little they’d recognized any of the other people who were purportedly interested in them. “No,” they admitted.

“Hmm. What about Teacher Lan?”

“What about Teacher Lan?” they asked, suspicious.

“Nothing, nothing. Just something I read somewhere…”

Probably one of those spring books that he was always sneaking around, they concluded.

“Though…you have been going out of your way to meet up with Teacher Lan more often recently…”

“He’s helping me figure out some of the bureaucratic intricacies of changing succession,” they said. “He’s had the most experience, having to do it twice – once to get his brother out of the line of succession, and another to get him back in. He’s a good teacher.”

He was, too. For all of Nie Huaisang’s tall tales about Lan Qiren’s strictness and overly-rigid insistence on orthodoxy, the man himself had a very calming presence, still and tranquil. It made them think of a musical instrument and, using the Nie cultivation method as a base, start to think strange thoughts…

Though not the sorts of thoughts Nie Huaisang had in mind.

“I mean, I guess. Even I learned eventually, and – wait. Why do you need to know about how to change succession? You’re already the heir.”

“That’s the problem,” Nie Mingjue said. “I need to figure out how to abdicate my position in your favor.”

Nie Huaisang gaped at him.

“No, I’m not joking,” they said, because they knew their little brother. “I’m not suited for politics. I don’t think I ever was, and after everything that happened, I’m even less suited.”

They really weren’t. Too blunt, too sharp, too concerned with justice, too inhuman – they were good at fighting, in the sense that they knew how to be a saber as well as a human and could wield sharpness in the same way, a slash from their fingers being enough to cleave a man in half, but that wasn’t what being a sect leader was about.

No, Nie Huaisang would be much better at it.

“Da-ge, you can’t do this to me!” Nie Huaisang wailed. “Do you know how much work it’d be? Anyway, you can’t – our father’s already promised all of Qinghe Nie to your future spouse! So there!”

“Then I just won’t ever get married.”

“What?!” Nie Huaisang waved his hands wildly. “You can’t do that! You – you – do you know how many hearts you’d be breaking?!”

“So you’ve informed me,” Nie Mingjue said dryly. “It’s all right, Huaisang. I rather like the life Teacher Lan has made for himself, traveling all around and coming back every few seasons to teach something. I want to fight evil, and there’s a lot more evil out there than there is in here.”

Or, at minimum, there was more evil of the sort they were allowed to just stab. That was apparently frowned upon, in politics – there was a reason they said they weren’t suited for it.

“You’re not suited for fighting evil with a blade,” they added while Nie Huaisang was still spluttering. “But you can do wonders with people, if you’re given enough time to plan it. Being sect leader will put you in the position that will let you fight evil best, in your own way.”

“Not everything is about fighting evil, da-ge!”

“Isn’t it?”

Nie Huaisang didn’t seem to have a good answer to that.

After a while, he finally said, “…you really think I’d be good at it?”

Nie Mingjue pulled their younger brother in for a hug.

“You’ll be magnificent,” they promised.

They liked travel, just as they’d suspected they would.

People always recognized them – the eye was very distinctive, and they were also very tall – and immediately rushed over to share all their problems. They were very happy to help. Some of them they could fix personally, generally the ones that were stabbable, while they had a wide enough set of acquaintances to deal with many of the others: those who needed healing to go to the Lan sect or Wen sect, depending on whether problem was mental or physical; those that needed advancement to the Jin sect or Jiang sect; mysteries to be solved to the newly established Wei sect over in Yiling; and anyone with anything more abstruse than that over to Nie Huaisang personally to sort of.

Their little brother liked a good puzzle.

As for Nie Mingjue’s part, they liked fighting evil, and they liked helping people, too, if they could manage it, so it all worked out quite well. The road could be a little lonely at times, all alone with no one around, but it wasn’t really that bad. They were welcome at just about every cultivation sect and most of the other places they’d passed by, so it wasn’t like they were lacking for company if they wanted it.

It was only sometimes that they wished that there was someone else who might want to share this type of life with them.

It was a difficult life, always roving and never satisfied, intent on fighting evil for an eternity and prizing the doing of it over normal things, everyday things; they knew that they couldn’t ask someone else to take on a mission so absurd as stamping out all evil in the world, and so they didn’t. Who would be so foolish as that? Not everyone could leave behind all their responsibilities and ties to the world the way they did, passing instead through their beloved one’s lives by chance like a leaf tossed in the wind – nor should they, if those ties gave them joy.

Take their current mission, for example. One of Nie Mingjue’s earlier trips had taken them from Yiling to the Baixue Temple, with the highly unorthodox Wei sect’s equally unorthodox head disciple, Xue Yang, tagging along with them so that they could – in Wei Wuxian’s words – beat some sense into his head, and it had been on that trip that they had met Song Lan, who was thoroughly charmed by the idea of a sect established on principles of brotherhood rather than blood.

He'd also been rather charmed, they thought, by Xue Yang himself, and the interest had been mutual.

(They were getting better at recognizing that sort of thing.)

So Song Lan had gone off with them, with Nie Mingjue dropping both him and Xue Yang back in Yiling, and when he’d gone back again another time they had seemed very happy. But Song Lan had been thinking about his master and martial brothers back at home, and he’d asked if Nie Mingjue would be willing to carry along some letters that he didn’t dare trust to the post.

Nie Mingjue, suspecting a request regarding marriage was involved, had readily agreed. Sure enough, once they’d dropped it off, the entire Baixue Temple had all but exploded in excitement – they’d barely managed to make it out of there in time to avoid being dragged into all the fuss.

And now they were wandering around nearby, shaking their head in amusement at all the noise they’d left behind, looking for something more interesting to do. Some evil to fight, or something like that.

They found both.

“Well, that was exhilarating,” they commended to the cultivator in white that had worked together with them to defeat a rather astounding number of evil creatures in an effort to save some rogue cultivators who’d gotten in over their heads. Nie Mingjue’s reputation was already ridiculous, and was only going to get worse, they knew, but really this was a lot even for them. They wouldn’t have been able to manage it without help.

“It was,” the cultivator said, and smiled at them. “My name is Xiao Xingchen, disciple of Baoshan Sanren. Who are you?”

“Nie Mingjue,” they said. They thought they’d heard of Baoshan Sanren before, but they weren’t entirely sure – they had a tendency to forget things that weren’t that important to them. They thought it might be something to do with Wei Wuxian’s mother –something to do with the immortal mountain, and a doom that fell on those who descended from it…?

“If you don’t mind me asking, why did those rogue cultivators call you Curse-breaker?” Xiao Xingchen asked.

They thought about it for a moment, then shrugged.

Xiao Xingchen laughed.

It was a warm sound.

“Where are you going?” Nie Mingjue asked. “I can escort you, if you like.”

“Don’t you have things of your own to be doing?”

“Not really,” Nie Mingjue said. “I want to eradicate all evil in this world, a task that’ll take me a lifetime – and evil can be found anywhere. Why not with you?”

Xiao Xingchen ducked his head. “I don’t have a destination either,” he admitted. “I came down from the mountain because I wanted to help save all the people in the world.”

Nie Mingjue blinked. That was nearly as stupidly idealistic a goal as theirs.

“Well, then,” they said, and smiled. “In that case, why don’t we go together?”

It would be nice to have company, unrestrained by any obligations tied to the mortal world, and in return they could show Xiao Xingchen everything there was to see – introduce him to all the people, eat all the food, fight all the battles. And if in the end it turned out that that doom people talked about in regards to the mountain really was a thing…

Well, they’d see about that.

After all, Nie Mingjue had a bit of experience with curses like that.

#mdzs #nie mingjue #jiang cheng #lan xichen #wen qing #xiao xingchen #my fic #my fics #cursebreaker #hey remember when I asked for help in deciding the ship

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cafecourage · 3 years

Text

The moment they realized they loved you. (Isekai Au Edition) Part 3

If you want more information on this AU here is the Link!

Hyrule:

- It confusing and full of yearning.

- The Fae Folk are very affectionate in nature. Physical touches and platonic kisses are just normal. Hyrule growing up briefly with them had adopted this habit.

- You are like that as well so you’re the one to take care of Hyrule when he wanted affection. Since other then Legend, it’s awkward to ask the others.

- He finds however while he still asks/gives you affection. He gets more flustered and embarrassed when you initiated contact.

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Admittedly Hyrule never had a clear understanding of Hylian social norms. Some things were easy to pick up when he was just traveling by himself. However, there was a lot that conflicted with Fae social norms. While yes, the Fae were more mischievous and could be borderline malicious, they are very affectionate creatures. Which was the one of many things Hyrule picked up when he was being raised by the Great Fairy.

Before you join the chain, he had to hold himself back from being overly affectionate with the group. Yes, when he had chances, he would give a quick side hug or ruffling of the hair for the younger Link’s. But nothing on the level of cuddles or small peaks on the cheek and forehead. You though! You were the one to lay the affection on everyone thick. Most if not every Hero has melted from all the complements and physical affection.

Hyrule was living his best life now with you! Cuddles are a must for the two of you. Especially when one another has been having a rough day. You’ve also gotten the others involved with this newly formed ritual. He just over all feeling comfortable and loved.

Which then leads to Hyrule’s issue. Slowly he began to feel embarrassed with every peak after he heals you. Then his heart begins to race when he is cuddled up resting his head against your chest. Even holding your hands became hard for him to stand! It felt so warm but also made him fearful. He was scared of losing you. Losing this warmth. This comfort. He wanted to keep it but scared that this feeling was to good for him.

“-and that’s what happen so far.” He was visiting the Great Fairy Cotera of Wild’s Era. He had visited her each time they visited Kakariko. Cotera gently hummed messing with his hair. “What should I do?” He looks up to the giantess worriedly. His small sisters surround him ether sitting on top of him or by his side.

Their mother hummed as she thought about his problem. “My dear sweet child.” She started after a long pause “this human… do you feel different compared to your other friends? Or with your siblings in the forest?”

Hyrule thought about it after a while shook his head. “No… I did used to feel embarrassed with the others but it was different. This is more… warm?”

“Warm?” She urges him gently to continue. “Do you hate it?”

“No…” he sounded like a child, fidgeting in his seat “I hate how anxious it makes me now.” You meant a lot to him. Hyrule knew you meant a lot to everyone too, but that normal! You’ve helped them all in some sort of way! Yet he was deep in that unidentifiable emotion towards you. He adores you. All of you. Even during your more impulsive actions he didn’t mind having to heal you. Of course, he would truly rather not heal anyone with his magic. Yet… with you giving his payment in kisses on the cheek or forehead… he can’t stay mad at you.

“Chin up little one.” Cotera lifted up his head “your feelings are valid and has a simple explanation.” Hyrule pouted slightly making her giggle a bit tapping lightly on his nose. “You my dear seem to love your sweet human.”

It was like a lanterned was just lit in a dark cave he was wandering in. Finally revealing a path out. Everything thing slowly explaining itself. “Oh…” was all he could say as he was comprehending it. His sisters were giggling at their brother’s expense causing him to blush. It all made to much sense.

“Roolie! Are you nearby?” He and the Great Fairy both perk up when they heard your voice. He stared up at the Great Fairy expectingly.

“Well?” Cotera nudged him off of the petals of her fountain. “What are you waiting for little one?”

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- Well, that was embarrassing and he knows once he starts perusing you. The more his siblings of the forest will start to tease him. Not only that but the chain also catches on pretty quickly.

- He becomes a blushing and stuttering mess around you, not pulling away from your touch but leaning more into him.

- It will be a miracle if he confesses but he will! And he will do it in a more intimate manner though, with or without help.

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Four:

- It took long to accept but filled with soft cotton fluff.

- Isn’t canon in the manga that the colors (minus Vio) straight up try to impress a girl they just met?

- Now I’m not saying he is like that now a days, but old habits die hard right. He probably doesn’t even recognize that he still does it.

- Honest to God the resident brain cell is the only one that new point blank what was happening. Having a “not again” moment.

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It’s been a while since Four was back in his forage. He missed every second of it. The smithing process was the one hobby each color had in common. As Link they found it relaxing, something to get their mind off of things.

That morning was no different. Traveling on the road was stressful even for a seasoned adventurer. Traveling alone was boring which was the upside according to Red. It relieved them of responsibility Green was used to taking upon himself to carry. Blue was at least a lot calmer with having to be on alert all the time. Vio had pointed out this was mainly because of You.

The chaos came back full force. The same argument has been happening recently, it was about his feelings towards you. Now they all liked you as a friend. Four knew that for a fact. He was only six when he felt your presence and this situation, he was in was as if an imaginary friend became real! At least that’s what Red felt.

No matter if they were unified or separated, Four could trust you to help him out of even the messiest situations. So, what if some of those situations were caused by him trying to impress you? That doesn’t mean anything!

Just because Blue became a stuttering mess when you surprised Four with a flower crown just meant he was taken aback at your kindness! He isn’t good at showing his emotions. Yeah, so what about Green becoming a soft mess when you first showered him in praise and affection. Wouldn’t any person do that from someone that been through hell and back with them? It doesn’t count that Red craves your affection! He is like that with everybody and just because it makes him feel different it doesn’t count. Someone saves Vio from this.

Four was conflicted which is why he was working so early in the morning. They wouldn’t shut up about their own feelings. It was a chaotic mess inside his head as soon as he woke up. A weight on his back clued him back into reality “Good morning!” You while looking down at him smiling still holding on lazily. “How is the most beautiful person here doing?”

Ah. There goes most of composure out the window. Vio was the last one standing with Green and Blue almost hanging on. You loved to tease him and he was never able to get you back. “Don’t know how are you?” Four was really struggling to keep unified and calm. He was shaking because of the other three’s nerves. You stared at him wide eyed.

“Jeez look at you!” You give him a squeeze before finally let go of him “you’ve grown! If only you were that smooth towards Erune.” You teased.

The blush he was so desperately trying to beat down started to flare up this time out embarrassment. “Can we not talk about that?” Four could only cringe when he thought back at that bit in his adventure. Him and Erune have been close friends since then, but the colors were really trying to play the hero in front of the poor girl back then. Their antics truly were really not impressing anyone.

Green was really happy he grew out of it. Seriously it‘s not like Blue really cared about it anyway he was just a kid! Red was just happy that he got a long-term friend out of it! The audacity the others had was killing Vio. They are still just as bad and it seems like no one was listening to reason.

An explosion of emotions and thoughts collided in Four’s skull. Three denying their logical side’s claim all while getting thrown every instant in their faces by the odd one out. “Whatcha making anyway?” You were observing the short knife blade curiosity not seeing the other’s internal debate. Vio felt like he had to spell it out to each of them. Pulling up memories of their actions towards the outlander. Four struggled to focus on what you were saying but it was too loud!

“Woah there.” You turn him away from his project letting it sit safely on a cooler section of the work top. “Breath Link.” You where kneeling down in-front of him holding his hand. He focused on your warmth. The way you rubbed small circles on the back of his hand. On your voice that instructed him to breathe. In for four, hold for seven, let out for eight. Repeat. Slowly the divide melded back together. Soon the voices faded out. “There we go.” You whispered “good job Link.” Four stared back at you still tired from everything but nonetheless happy that your here with him.

Man, he loved you so much.

Wait-

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- It was definitely an I told you so moment.

- Four as a whole though is still struggling to come to terms with it, even though he had already admitted his feelings.

- Another case of: drown him in affection until he realized. Not because of him not believing you! It’s just you have four people in a trench coat here! If one is conflicted then four as a whole will feel that subtly.

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Bonus (just Headcanons):

Wind (finding out that a Link has a crush on you)

- The little gremlin is going to have a field day! He was thinking about messing around but the other hero is doing his work for him!

- The only one saved from this Black Mail harvest is you. He does have a few things but you mostly let him off the hook when he gets in trouble anyway sooooo…

- Not the best wing man but he honestly isn’t trying. He is just enjoying the journey.

- He might be tempted to help if he was asked but there isn’t much he could do. You are his right hand after all! Why would he let your secrets go so easily?

- Imagine Wind just vibes with you when the other Link is trying their best and you literally ask if the other hero was ok since they are acting weird around you. It would take Wind a minute to get an answer because all he is thinking is: ‘are you dense?’

- Or on the flip side. If you know about their feelings. He would definitely be on board of helping you out. Again, you’re his right hand! Of course, he’ll help you! (Favoritism)

- Wind: “Don't worry. He likes your butt and fancy hair. I know. I read their diary.” (Y/n): “He thinks it's fancy?”

(Part 1) and (Part 2)

My First Request is now done :D! That was fun. Thank you Pinky and Star for the request <3

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #london fog tea #Lu Hyrule #Lu Four #Lu Wind #WIND THE PIRATE BROTHER!#thats the tag for just wind stuff lol #isekai au

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