#delicious in dungeon dnd au

[wow-an-unfunny-joke]

I feel like there should be more dungeon meshi aus, anyways

DND AU!!!! GUYS IVE DECDIED THAT I WONT SHUT UP ABOUT IT!!

Okay so it’s modern no powers etc, and all the events ALL THE EVENTS in the canon story still happen, but it’s dnd and they’re all just nerds playing dnd.

Because of that one fanart I’ve decided that Thistle is infact the dungeon master

They all have normal names like Larry or Charles- they’re just normal people who are nerds guys

[karlydraws]

You know what AU this is

[haystarlight]

Dungeon Meshi AUs

[random-is-full-of-brain-worms]

I like the modern Delicious in Dungeon au’s where the story takes place in a DnD campaign + Thistle being the DM.

I have a proposal, an inkling, a fruit of thought perchance.

Laios makes Falin into a support character instead of her playing their campaign for a couple of weeks and dropping it (whatever reason). Because, that’s my sister and she’s awesome :)

Thistle doesn’t mind however with Laios eating all of his monsters he’s like, “you cock muncher,” and purposely kills off ‘Falin’ and turns her into the chimera they have to encounter eventually

[alucardsathomewife]

Hellsing Ultimate x Deliouse in Dungeons

If Integra played dnd, they would so at least play as an elf or something simple

[kittymaine]

Five Idiots Look For a Cave - Chapter One

Summary: Laios and his sister Falin are hired to guard a wagon of provisions as it travels from the city of Neverwinter to the small frontier settlement of Phandalin. It seems like a dead easy job, but it quickly becomes more complicated when their employer is kidnapped by goblins, sending them on a wild goose chase across the most dangerous parts of the Sword Coast in search of him with a ragtag group of unlikely allies.

Or, I make the dunmeshi guys play through the Lost Mines of Phandelver, because why not.

A/N: This is such a weird project to tag and explain, but I'm going to try.

For those familiar with Delicious In Dungeon, but not Dungeons & Dragons: The Lost Mines of Phandelver is the scenario/campaign that's provided in the starter set that you can buy for Dungeons & Dragons. I've run this campaign a bunch of times during my years playing Dungeons & Dragons and I thought the characters of dunmeshi were just begging to be dropped into a D&D game. So, that's what I did. The plot of this story is the campaign, Lost Mines of Phandelver, and whenever the characters need to do something, I roll dice to see whether they can do it or not. Combat, investigation, everything. I am literally playing this game by myself and then converting it into a fic.

For those familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, but not Delicious In Dungeon: Delicious In Dungeon is an anime set in a fantasy world where dungeon diving is a well-known career choice. The setting and characters are such a good match to Dungeons & Dragons that I had to change very little to get the characters to fit into a Forgotten Realms setting.

All that to say, the story should be digestible by anyone, even if you're not familiar with both fandoms.

Also, just a warning that I don't really have an in depth plan for this story, so I'm going to add tags and relationships as I go. I really like Chilchuck/Laios and Falin/Marcille, so those are the two pairings most likely to be added, but no promises either way. I'll make sure to warn if I add anything at the beginning of each chapter.

Laios Touden and his sister Falin stood by while the wagon they had been paid to accompany was loaded up with supplies. Young men barely more than boys hauled barrels and burlap sacks of provisions up into the old warped bed of the wagon, more passing up shovels, pickaxes and crowbars. Laios counted about twelve sacks of flour, seven casks of salted pork, two kegs of strong ale, five lanterns, and a small barrel of oil.

It was early, just an hour before dawn, but the south gate out of the city of Neverwinter was already starting to bustle with traffic. Mostly it was wagons not unlike their own, though filled with produce and other products from the farms circling the city that served to feed the swollen populace within the city walls. From farther north the smell of baking bread and roasting meat signaled the beginning of breakfast for the many people packed in close behind thick the stone walls.

Laios was ready to leave the city. He had grown up in the far north, surrounded by rolling fields, freezing cold fjords, and winter lashed forests. He had lived in a lot of places since he had left his home, but cities were never his favorite. There were too many people, too close, all smelling and talking and leaving their things everywhere. He was looking forward to being outside the city walls for a while, but they had to wait until the wagon was full before they could leave.

“Toudens!” a boisterous voice called from the main thoroughfare.

Falin, standing beside him and watching the loading of the wagon with more interest than Laios, smiled and raised her hand at the call. Slower, Laios raised his hand as well, to wave to their most recent employer.

A dwarf with rust colored red hair and beard sitting atop a pretty dapple gray pony split from the little stream of people leaving the city through the south gate and came toward Laios and the steadily filling wagon. Following behind him was an older human man wearing chain mail and riding on a three quarter sized bay mare with another small dwarf with a thick black beard witting sideways on the horse’s haunches behind him.

“Mr. Rockseeker,” Laios greeted him as he pulled his horse up close. He didn’t step down to talk to Laios, but he didn’t begrudge him. Laios wondered how the dwarf had managed to get onto the horse in the first place.

“Please, call me Gundren,” Mr. Rockseeker said with a twinkling smile. His nose and cheeks were ruddy red above his red beard. “Mr. Rockseeker was my father.”

Laios stared at Gundren blankly until he heard Falin snort out a laugh and he realized that the nonsensical statement was a joke. He quickly barked a laugh out that felt false even to his ears. But, if Gundren noticed, it didn’t show on his face that Laios could tell.

“It looks like everyone is here, so I hope you don’t mind if I introduce you to my nephew-” Gundren started to say before being interrupted by Falin.

“Oh, actually! We’re still waiting for a friend of mine who offered to come along,” she explained with a pleasant smile.

Gundren’s face did something too complicated for Laios to follow. “A friend?” he asked uncertainly.

“Who’s everyone?” Laios asked, wondering if Gundren had meant him and Falin. He thought you usually would say ‘both’ instead of ‘everyone’ if you were just addressing two people, though he was no stranger to being wrong when it came to things like that.

“He means me,” a surly voice from near Laios’ hip grumbled, making him jump about a foot in the air and turn around.

Laios hadn’t heard anyone approach, but a halfling man with short brown hair peppered with a few fine gray hairs and big ears was standing right beside him, his arms folded in front of his chest. He had a soft looking green muffler looped around his neck and worn leather armor over a plain white shirt and dark pants. And, he apparently noticed Laios staring, as he threw a nasty look up at Laios after a few second of him looking a little too intently.

He was usually pretty bad at interpreting people’s expressions, but it was hard to misunderstand that kind of look.

Laios tuned back into Falin and Gundren’s conversation just in time to see them get interrupted by Marcille stumbling up to them, panting and bracing her hands on her knees to catch her breath. Her long blonde hair was braided in a complicated style that left half of it piled on top of her head, and half it hanging long down her back and she was wearing a pretty blue dress that looked warm but a little impractical for hard travel. As well as her spell book and quarterstaff of course.

“I’m so sorry I’m late!” she gasped. “I told the innkeeper to wake me up, but she never came! I ran the whole” she paused to take another gasping breath, “way here!”

“I won’t be able to pay another person,” Grundren said to Laios, turning his back on the two women.

“Falin and I will split our pay with her. She’s a good friend of ours. She’s trustworthy,” Laios explained, he hoped sufficiently, for Gundren.

Gundren’s eyebrows did some wiggling, shadowing his small dark eyes for a moment, but then he sighed and his shoulders slumped, and the warm smile and the twinkling eyes were back as if they had never left.

“Well, that’s alright then. Anyway, I wanted to introduce you all to my nephew, Senshi,” he said, turning to gesture to the two men behind him. The human man had helped the dwarf off the tall horse and he was walking up to the small group. “He’ll be accompanying the rest of you on the wagon to Phandalin.”

A chorus of hellos in various levels of enthusiasm came from the small group gathered by the side of the wagon. Senshi looked a lot like Gundren, if the coloring was a lot darker and his face a lot less expressive. Senshi had a long thick wavy beard that matched his thick wavy hair and a slightly receding hairline. His eyebrows were thick and his eyes were small, dark and keen. It was hard to read Senshi’s expression. Laios suspected that was probably true even for people who weren’t him.

“With that, I’ll have to bid farewell,” Gundren said with a little half bow from the top of his pony. “I look forward to meeting with the rest of you in Phandalin.”

“We won’t be traveling together?” the halfling man spoke up. He looked uncertainly at Laios and the others, before turning a frustrated expression up at Gundren.

“It’s faster to travel by horse than by wagon and I have some business to finish up in Phandalin before you all get there. But, you all won’t be far behind me,” Gundren said, already turning his pony around. The human man was mounting his mare, as well, turning her nose toward the south gate. “Take good care of those supplies!” he called over his shoulder as he rejoined the press of people heading toward the walls of the city.

The five left behind awkwardly glanced around at each other. Laios, Falin and Marcille stood together, looking down at the two smaller men who would apparently be their traveling companions for the next two or three days.

While they had been talking, the last of the supplies had been loaded into the wagon and the men who had been doing the loading had left. There was nothing to keep them there but uncertainty about their new companions.

Finally, the halfling man broke the silence with a derisive sniff. “I’ll drive the wagon,” he said. “The rest of you can ride in the back until we get out of the crowd.”

With that, he stepped away from the others and jumped a little to reach the bench at the front of the wagon and confidently took the reins. He looked over his shoulder impatiently and the others took the hint.

“Uh, right. Thanks!” Laios said, probably way too late by the way that the halfling man sucked his teeth at Laios, but Falin always said better late than never.

His chain mail clinking, Laios climbed up into the wagon behind Marcille and Falin, who had already claimed the most comfortable spots on top of the flour sacks. He reached back behind him to help pull the dwarf man, Senshi, up into the wagon as well and got a friendly nod in thanks. Together, he and the other man had to make do trying to find a comfortable spot between the tools and barrels.

Once everyone had stopped shifting, the halfling man flicked the reins and the old horses hitched to the wagon started off, pulling the rattling wooden wheels across cobblestones out of Neverwinter and south along the well maintained High Road toward their destination.

---

They made camp the first night in a little windswept area off the left side of the road alongside a number of other travelers. Their campfires flickered orange in the moonlight, lighting up the worn cobblestones of the road even if it was too dark for anyone to keep moving. The air was brisk since the shoreline was close, close enough that you could hear the soft crashing of waves on the beach in the small silences between the campsites.

“I’m surprised they only gave us five ration packs each,” Marcille said into the silence as they all sat around the fire munching away at the hard bread, dried meat and sharp cheese that had been wrapped up in wax paper for them by the same store that had loaded the wagon up for Gundren.

“It shouldn’t take us more than two days to get to Phandalin,” Chilchuck answered her from around a mouthful of bread. Chilchuck Tims was the halfling man. After half a day of traveling by wagon, Laios had finally worked up the courage to ask and was pleasantly surprised when he answered.

“Still, tis foolish to not prepare for a longer trip. Who knows what trouble we may meet on the road,” the dwarf, Senshi, said as he looked down and rubbed the dried meat between his thick blunt fingers. Laios wondered if he was trying to soften it with his hands first. He wondered if it worked.

“Senshi is right,” Laios said after a second. “If it does end up taking us longer than two days to reach Phandalin, we’ll be in a real bind.”

“We’re not going to die if we have to go a day or two without food,” Chilchuck responded, but he looked a little unhappy at the thought.

Laios shared a look with Falin at that. He supposed that was true, but he had gone without eating before on expeditions that went wrong and it wasn’t something he wanted to repeat if he could help it.

“What made you take this job, Chilchuck?” Marcille asked after an awkward moment of silence. “You seemed surprised to see other people.”

Chilchuck frowned back at her. “What made you take this job?” he asked back.

Undeterred, Marcille answered, “Well, I didn’t really take it so much as I agreed to tag along.” Turning to Falin, she asked, “What made you guys take it?”

“Laios saw the job posting at the guild,” Falin explained as she broke off a piece of her cheese and offered it to Marcille who hummed happily as she popped it in her mouth. “He’s my brother and I often accompany him on jobs that take him out of the city.”

“Yep,” Laios added, thinking back. “Falin has saved my life more times than I could count. But, this job sounded easy and straight forward. ‘10 gold to escort provisions to Phandalin with option to make more. For reliable persons only.’ “ Laios recited from memory. “Seemed just like the thing for me and Falin.”

“Ye belong to an adventurer’s guild, then?” Senshi asked Laios with a raised eyebrow.

Laios wrinkled his nose as he realized that, even if it was true, saying he was part of the adventurer’s guild was probably a little misleading.

“I only just joined a month ago. I’m still pretty green. Easy jobs like this are the only ones I’m qualified for,” Laios said hesitantly.

“But, Laios is really amazing in a fight! That’s how he got into the guild, by proving himself in a tournament. He’ll climb the ranks in no time!” Falin added with an enthusiastic grin thrown in Laios’ direction. Even if the praise made him more self-conscious, it warmed something in his heart to have her support and encouragement.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, scratching at the back of his neck.

“And, you’re just tagging along?” Chilchuck asked Marcille, doubt thick in his tone.

“Uh, well,” Marcille fumbled, seeming a little taken off guard by the question.

“Marcille is a friend of mine from temple,” Falin jumped in to say. “She just moved to Neverwinter and we’ve been showing her around. We didn’t want to leave her alone in the city for however long the job took, so we invited her along.”

Marcille and Falin shared a speaking look, something that Laios could recognize from the outside but not totally understand. Sometimes it seemed like they could have whole conversations with just their faces, in a few brief seconds snatched between words. It seemed an impossible kind of skill, one that he envied and was a little mystified by.

“That’s right,” Marcille agreed, her nose and ears a shade pinker than they had been a moment ago. “But, you still haven’t answered my question. I understand why Mr. Rockseeker wanted someone like Laios to guard his provisions on the road to Phandalin, but I’m not really sure how you fit into this.” She gave Chilchuck a piercing look, one he returned with an unhappy twist of his lips.

But, after only a moment, he sighed and sagged back against the fallen log he had sat himself against.

“Me and Gundren go way back. We used to go dungeon diving together back when I was younger. He was always decent to me. All he told me was that he had some kind of crazy opportunity opening up in Phandalin that I would want to get in on and to meet him there by the gates. He didn’t mention I’d be riding in a wagon with a bunch of strangers while he went on ahead,” Chilchuck finished with a dirty look aimed at the dirt by his foot. Laios didn’t have to be good at understanding people to understand that Chilchuck probably wished he could aim that look at Gundren instead.

“Oh, that’s awful,” Marcille sighed.

“Aye, I’m sorry to hear that. My uncle isn’t always the most considerate. Especially when he’s on a job,” Senshi added with a sorrowful nod of his head.

Chilchuck waved his hand, as if he could swat the condolences offered to him out of the air. “Whatever,” he said. “What’s done is done. I owe you all an apology, anyway. I didn’t mean to take my bad mood out on all of you.”

“Well, it’s a bit understandable,” Falin offered with a smile.

“Yeah, we didn’t take it personally,” Laios said with a shrug. He had assumed that the behavior he’d seen so far had been Chilchuck’s normal personality. It was sort of nice to hear that it wasn’t.

“Gundren is your uncle, huh?” Laios asked, changing the focus to Senshi. “Is there anything you can tell us about him? I only got to speak to him a little bit before taking this job.”

“Aye, he is my uncle, though our family is large and he is one of five uncles of mine,” Senshi explained. “There’s not much I can tell you about him, unfortunately. He and two of my uncles do much treasure hunting in the mountains about Neverwinter. I suspect that’s how you came into contact with him?” Senshi asked Chilchuck.

“Yep,” Chilchuck said. “I’m a locksmith by trade, but I have a reputation for being skilled at disarming dwarvish traps. He hired me way back when I was just starting out and is half the reason I have that reputation.”

“Do you have an interest in treasure hunting, Senshi?” Falin asked curiously.

Senshi stared into their crackling fire, his usually expressionless face becoming sorrowful. “Nay, not I. Not anymore.”

Laios looked around at the others, hoping someone more skilled at talking would interrupt the sad lonesome silence that had descended over Senshi. Unfortunately, it looked like everyone else was casting around to each other for the same thing.

Luckily, it was Senshi himself who broke the long silence. “I suspect my uncle thinks me a bit of a layabout. I don’t do any of the traditional dwarven pursuits. Mining, blacksmithing, gold prospecting. I’m sure whatever job he wants me to help with it will be something like that.”

“And, what is it that you like to do, Senshi?” Falin asked gently.

Senshi looked up for the first time since he had started talking.

“Cooking,” he said decisively. “I love to cook.”

Falin clapped her hands in joy. “Oh that’s wonderful!” she exclaimed.

“What do you like to cook most?” Marcille asked.

“Do you have a specialty?” Chilchuck asked with interest.

Laios smiled as the conversation lightened and turned lively as everyone talked and shared about food, their favorite foods, their family recipes, regional specialties they knew of.

It seemed like the ice had been broken and even if they weren’t friends they were well on their way to getting there.

---

The next morning they got an early start, eating their third ration for breakfast quickly before cleaning up the last embers of their campfire and packing up so they could get back on the road. They were not on the high road for long before they turned left onto a small dirt track with a simple sign marking it as the Triboar Trail.

It’s this road that they would take for the rest of the day and hopefully reach the small settlement town of Phandalin before nightfall.

Laios didn’t know much about the town of Phandalin. From what little he heard from other people in the guild, it was a tiny town just on the edge of the wilderness that was built on the remnants of another older settlement. It sat on the edge of the foothills of the Sword Mountains and was mostly populated by miners and the people who ran businesses that served them.

This part was the part of the journey that he had been hired for. The Triboar Trail was really that, just a worn down dirt trail leading off into untamed and largely uninhabited woods and meadows. All manner of creatures, bandits and beasts populated those lands and would have likely loved to get their hands on a wagon full of supplies like what they had.

A shiver of anticipation ran down Laios’ back as he imagined the types of monsters known to haunt the woods around them. There were stirges, of course, terrible little mosquito like creatures about the length of your arm that attacked suddenly and would try to drain their victims of blood. Ghouls could come out at night, ethereal specters of long dead travelers looking for warm bodies to possess. Ogres preferred the foothills, but they could wander close enough that running into one traveling afield for hunting wouldn’t be out of the question. Then there were goblins, orcs, owlbears! The list just went on.

Laios couldn’t suppress a whine of excitement at the thought. The sound, as quiet as it was, was still noticed by the halfling sitting beside him on the bench at the front of the wagon. Chilchuck jumped a little at the sound and gave Laios an uncertain look.

“Oh, uh,” Laios fumbled, trying to think of an explanation that didn’t include explaining that he was just excited to finally be entering monster country. “Just had a tickle in my throat,” he landed on lamely.

Chilchuck gave him a suspicious squint, but turned back to examining the road in front of them.

They continued on like that throughout the morning. Marcille and Falin occasionally walked beside the horses, the two old things walking slow enough that the women had no issues keeping up with them at a brisk walk. Senshi said his legs were too short to keep up and instead enjoyed relaxing on the flour sacks and making small talk.

It turned out that Senshi had traveled all over the world cooking and learning new cooking techniques. Marcille, the most well traveled of all of them, was especially impressed with him and got him to talking about all the far flung places he had visited.

Unfortunately for Laios, not a single monster accosted them that whole morning, even though both he and Chilchuck in front of the wagon were trying to keep a weather eye out for any movement in the brush on the sides of the road.

That is, until they reached a road block just before noon.

Just as they turned a bend in the road, they came upon a distressing sight. Two horses lying dead on their sides in the center of the road, numerous arrows pointing up out of their sides.

Chilchuck pulled the wagon to a stop as soon as they saw them and everyone stopped and stared.

“Those are Gundren and Sildar’s horses,” Senshi said slowly, looking at the two dead horses from between Chilchuck and Laios.

“Sildar?” Laios asked.

“The human man that was with Gundren yesterday morning. His bodyguard,” Senshi explained.

“I don’t like this. This feels like a set up,” Chilchuck whispered, furrowing his brow and barely raising his voice enough to be heard by the two men sitting right beside him.

“Even if we don’t trust it, we won’t be able to get the wagon past unless we move the horses,” Laios said with a thoughtful frown.

“Maybe you could use your magic to move them?” Falin asked Marcille.

Marcille fidgeted with her cape, tugging on the silky red ribbon at the front. “I couldn’t use mage hand to move them, they’re too heavy. I can only manage ten pounds at most.”

Laios sighed and jumped down from the wagon. “I’ll go investigate and try to move them. You guys take cover and let me know if you see anything, okay?”

Everyone nodded except Senshi who climbed down from the wagon, as well. “I’ll help ye,” he said gruffly. “Moving the horses will go faster if we work together.”

Chilchuck jumped back into the wagon and took cover behind a barrel, drawing his shortbow and knocking an arrow, his keen brown eyes scanning the thick foliage on either side of the road. Marcille also drew close the wagon, crouching down by a wheel and clenching her staff in both hands and looking a little seasick. Falin, however, stepped out front holding her mace menacingly in front of her, the sharp metal edges at the top glinting dangerously in the dappled light through the trees.

Laios tried to approach the horses cautiously, but his armor clicked and rang out as he walked. Senshi was quieter, but much slower. As they approached the horses, Laios agreed that they were the same ones he had seen Gundren and the human man riding yesterday morning. Even the tack on the horses was the same. Examining the blanket and saddle, Laios also noticed that the saddlebags of both horses were open, the insides looking dark and empty.

“I’ll take one set of legs, you take the other,” Senshi said, approaching the back legs of the pony.

“Wait, Senshi. Does it look like their saddlebags have been looted?” Laios asked, pointing at the bag he was looking at on the bay mare.

Senshi barely had time to make an inquisitive hum before the sound of a twig snapping behind him sent him and Laios turning just in time to see a small green creature sneaking through the underbrush with a small rudimentary bow drawn on them.

“LAIOS, LOOK OUT!” Falin shouted, pointing her mace at the goblin who had just startled them both.

Before either of them could react, an arrow was fired at them from the opposite side of the road, arching straight at Laios’ back. A flash of incredible burning pain lanced through his back, the pain so incredible that his vision fuzzed and blurred for a moment. He put his hand to his shoulder and felt hot blood against his fingertips, the soft wood of a small arrow sticking out of his back.

Beside him, Laios heard Senshi grunt and turned his head to see his new friend pierced through with an arrow, as well. Senshi was reaching out to touch a small arrow fletched in black feathers that was protruding from his upper arm, dribbling bright red blood.

“Laios!” Falin shouted again, her voice cracking on his name in a way that made his already racing heart stutter in his chest. Then, Falin quickly shouted a word that made Laios ears ring, her hand tracing a strange pattern in the air, before a flame-like radiance shot down from the sky at the goblin they had first seen.

Just as the light flickered in the air, Falin’s magic building above the goblin, the creature dodged to the side, missing the blast of sacred energy by a hair’s breadth.

The little green man growled, his voice high and stringent, making him sound like a saw working through a green piece of wood. Popping up from his rolling jump, he ran at Laios, a short chipped scimitar appearing in his long fingered hand.

Laios watched the blade come at him as if in slow motion, the goblin’s mouth fixed in a vicious snarl, his thin dark hair flying out behind his bulbous head. At the last second he leaned back out of the way of the strike and drew his own sword, his hand sure on the grip through hours and hours of training.

Behind the first goblin, yet another one appeared, this one also wielding a rusty damaged scimitar. It dodged around Laios, who was still engaged with the first goblin he had seen, and went straight for Senshi. Senshi, who had just yanked the arrow from his arm, threw up a hand desperately to protect himself from the attack, but still suffered a grievous wound across his arm that sprayed blood across the dirt road.

With a grunt, Senshi raised his greataxe high above his head. The goblin, still grinning in glee at landing a hit on the dwarf, didn’t see the axe coming until it cleaved his skull cleanly in half.

“Great job, Senshi,” Laios gasped, raising his own greatsword up at an angle to swipe at the goblin he was facing off with.

His own sword, heavier, longer and carefully maintained, carved through the small body and brittle bones of his attacker like a hot knife through butter. The goblin collapsed in a bloody heap with barely a whimper.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Laios could faintly hear Chilchuck saying from over by the wagon.

An arrow flew from the wagon where Chilchuck was hiding, fired into the bushes where the first two arrows had been shot from.

Laios barely had a moment to process that Chilchuck had joined the fight before another arrow flew, this one decidedly not from Chilchuck, and struck him right in the neck. Laios hit the ground in a spray of dirt, blood welling from his neck. In a matter of seconds his body began to feel cold, his eyesight blurry, his heart sluggish in his chest. He could hear people calling his name, but it all sounded far away.

Time became smeary around Laios. He could hear people shouting, see movement in what little he could still see, but the sound of his own struggling heartbeat took up most of his awareness. He could feel the blood pump out of his own body with each squeeze of his heart, smell the salty copper of his own life spilling out onto the uncaring forest floor.

Then, familiar hands are yanking the arrows out of his body. He could feel the flesh tear and give away under the new violence, but no pain came. He felt cold, so cold. Those same hands pressed tight against his back and a rush of warmth and pain pulsed through him, like unseen hands were yanking his flesh back in place, knitting the holes closed with fury, his body put back together none too gently, but put back together none the less.

Laios gasped as he opened his eyes and they focused on the scene around him. Falin was kneeling over him, her hands still stained with his blood, two bloody arrows discarded on the ground nearby. Senshi was laying on his back beside him in the blood soaked dirt, an arrow sticking out of his chest.

Struggling, still feeling dizzy from blood loss, Laios climbed back to his feet, picking his greatsword up off the ground.

“Thanks,” he whispered to Falin as he stood up between her and the two goblins still hiding in the brush.

“I’m just glad you’re okay,” she said around teary eyes.

“You’ve got to get them out of cover!” Chilchuck shouted as he shot another arrow into the underbrush that the arrows were coming from, though from the sound he didn’t hit anything.

Another arrow flew out of the bushes, this time aimed right at Falin, but pinged the chain mail under her robe and fell uselessly to the ground by her feet.

“Ouch,” she grumbled, rubbing the spot on her chest.

“Did that thing just hit you in the boob?!” Marcille shrieked from near the wagon.

“Uh?” Falin responded uncertainly.

Marcille shouted something in a language that Laios didn’t understand and gestured with her staff. Three darts of light flew from her staff to the bushes, igniting them with pale blue light followed by a sound of agony and a wet thump as something hits the ground. Shortly after, the sound of fast footsteps receding into the woods could be heard.

“Whoa,” Laios said, his eyes huge as he turned back to look at a still panting Marcille, her staff still held out in front of her.

“Did the last one just run away?” Falin asked faintly.

“Forget that! Heal Senshi!” Chilchuck shouted, already crawling over the seat of the wagon and hurrying over to where Senshi was still laid out on his back.

“Oh! Right, of course!” Falin exclaimed, falling back to her knees and pulling the most recent arrow from where it had buried itself in Senshi’s chest. Falin spoke some strange words and traced a symbol on Senshi’s skin. A faint warm yellow glow emanated from her hands where she pressed them to Senshi’s torso and the wounds steadily closed, the blood marching backward back into his body as the puncture wounds pulled back together.

Senshi grunted, his unfocused eyes finally seeming to see them, tracking Falin and Laios and Chilchuck as he ran up to meet them, Marcille trailing behind.

“Did we find victory?” Senshi asked with a harsh groan as he pushed himself to sit up, Laios’ hand on his shoulder to steady him.

“We’re alive and they’re mostly not, but I don’t know if you’d call that victory,” Chilchuck said wryly.

“That was terrifying,” Marcille gasped with a hand to her chest. “Is this really what you two do for a living?” Marcille asked with a concerned look at Falin who only shrugged.

“Usually with less dying, but yeah mostly,” Laios said with a shrug of his own.

“Oh, my god,” Marcille breathed. “OH MY GOD!” she shouted after a second.

“Shush! Not so loud!” Chilchuck hissed at her. “Just because these goblins are dead doesn’t mean there’s not more hiding in the woods. We need to get out of here before the one that got away comes back with his friends.”

“But,” Laios said, sheathing his sword and turning to look at the dead horses still blocking the road. “If Gundren was caught in the same ambush we just were, then the goblins could be holding him hostage. We need to help him, right?” he asked, turning to the others.

“I agree. If Gundren is in trouble, we must help him,” Senshi said with a firm nod.

“I don’t think so!” Marcille exclaimed. “You two almost died and that was only four goblins! Now you want to stomp into their lair and what? Demand to speak to a manager? I don’t think that’s going to go over very well!”

“But, Marcille. The magic you just used was amazing! With you and Falin helping us, we’ll be able to save Gundren. I’m sure of it,” Laios said with a determined nod.

“Well… About that,” Falin said awkwardly. “That last healing spell kind of wiped me out. If someone gets hurt again, I won’t be able to heal them.”

“… Oh,” said Laios, caught flat footed by that thought.

“Yeah, ‘oh’,” Chilchuck sighed. “And, I’m too old to go charging into danger unprepared. The two of you aren’t all the way up to snuff either. Why don’t we take this wagon the rest of the way to Phandalin and then come back to investigate? At least that way our two mages will be at full power and you two will be back to full health.”

Laios looked down at the ground, at the two goblins crumbled and bleeding into the dirt, at the two horses still on their sides in the middle of the road. At the blood still crusted into his sword’s blade and his chain mail, still matted into Senshi’s beard and on Falin’s hands and knees.

“Okay,” he said finally. “You’re right. Let’s to Phandalin and come back tomorrow.”

There were mumbles of agreement as Chilchuck, Marcille and Falin went back to the wagon and Laios and Senshi turned back to their original goal of dragging the horses off the road.

“Do you truly think the goblins took my uncle?” Senshi asked as they stood up from pulling the second horse off the road.

“I do,” Laios said. “Horses have a lot more value to goblins than humans or dwarves do. They use them as pack animals and sometimes eat them. If the goblins shot your uncle’s horse, then they wanted him in particular. And, if they wanted him for some reason, then there’s a good chance he’s still alive wherever they’re hiding him.”

Senshi gave Laios a long calculating look before nodding slowly. “Thank you, Laios,” he said gruffly, before turning and walking back to the wagon.

Laios scratched his head for a moment, not sure what he did to deserve thanks. Whatever the reason, at least Senshi seemed reassured.

[elodieunderglass]

I am absolutely wild and feral over HDM (legit like, daemons fit SO well. I'm watching dunmeshi wondering where Laios' dog went) and super curious if you do plan a sequel or other fics following this AU??

(In reference to the His Dark Materials / Dungeon Meshi fusion fic)

thank you so much for this question I love this question god!!!! Thank you thank you thank you

God sorry about HDM being delayed, I’m going through hell over it at the moment. It’s meant to end a little after the dragon, then a timeskip epilogue, with special coding so that you can read it two different ways, depending on whether you want spoilers for the manga/season 2. (My idea is that you’ll click a button to reveal/hide it, and the spoiler-free epilogue will be like found poetry.)

Firstly, if you or anyone else would like to take the concepts/characters in His Delicious Materials forward for themselves, you must do this. You don’t need my permission (but I’d love a link! so I can read, scream, reblog, comment, link to it, etc. there is also the “inspired by” setting on ao3 so we can link works directly to HDM, forming a collection for anyone who reads one and wants more.) I don’t own any of it! We are all just having fun! YOU can be the sequel you want to see in the world! If your heart feels a way forward, then follow your heart!! A daemon AU is really about revealing character and I find them really inspiring, like adding a whole engine to a story idea.

If I were to write something to follow up, I do know what the sequel WOULD be! It would be a sort of Discworld novel about the slow social revolution occurring in the half-foots as a chain reaction to Bee settling as a weasel, all occurring behind Chilchuck’s oblivious and unhelpful back. Pushed into a sort of bottleneck of sparrow- and mouse-souls, and marginalised to the very edges of society, half-foots are precarious and endangered. Chilchuck is mostly eating a ham sandwich unhelpfully in the foreground, and at the end of the story looks back and sees to his bewilderment that his people have found a way forward (they don’t have a Shire or a Chosen One, but they do have a goddamn functional worker’s union and their own collective dignity.) kind of Discworld-commentary-comedy, kind of a loving argument with Tolkien, kind of Sharpe hostile-and-awkward-protagonist-POV-doesn’t-know-and-wouldn’t-believe-that-his-men-genuinely-love-him, kind of about the experience of parenting, and kind of gently warmly political BUT FUNNY so it would be ok. but feel it would be too much of a stretch of people’s patience and the original materials’s intentions to call it fanfic. Too many OCs needed to carry the weight, too little reference to the other Dungeon Meshi characters, almost too little “payoff” for what would be a full 70k word work. So maybe to let the story breathe, it would be better worked up as original fiction?

(Plus, that is actually an actual novel: if people write their own novels and manga about orc coffeeshops and dnd parties, I could just write my own too: wait but how do you know if you should?)

Anyway, that is an entirely separate kettle of weasels and my own cross to bear! If your heart cries out for a sequel the best way to manifest it in the world is to write it!

If you feel that A Weasel Heart In Defiance feels like it would scratch that itch, here is a bit that is mildly relevant to Dungeon Meshi, which is Chilchuck and Bee starting to work away from home while the girls were still small. You’ll probably see what I mean from it.

About seven of the village children, including his own three, had a snake in a wooden bucket. They didn't look up.

The reappearance of a random guy who functioned mostly as a postal service and occasionally shouted at them about bedtime - in a way that could be easily blanked out if something more interesting was happening - simply could not be expected to compete for attention with a snake in a bucket.

Chilchuck could recognise this on some level, but as his own children ignored him, he felt very hot and angry, in a way that he had never wanted to feel about children, especially his.

Bee, also rigidly pissed off, growled, "Easy, boss."

This was where Chilchuck did the only thing so far that he was proud of, in this day. He did not start shouting, even though his temper was going something like What the fuck, kids, but worse. He stopped, took a minute, and remembered he'd had this whole thing where he'd wanted his kids to love him. He rubbed his nose, said, "Remind me," and his daemon reminded him: "What do we want them to actually do?"

And he said, "The bare minimum fucking acknowledgement would be nice."

And Bee said, "Have we explained that to them? Do they know?"

So Chilchuck and Bee, hot and tired and cross and still on the job apparently, sat down on the ground with the kids and looked in the bucket. The snake, poor bastard, looked very limp and tired. Chilchuck could relate.

After a while, Chilchuck said, "Girls?"

Or more accurately, something like, "Girls! Girls. Meifleurpatti-I mean Puck-PUCK. Listen up. Mei! Fleur, I'm talking - thanks Fleur - Puck. (Ryeland, stop the baby.) PUCK. Mei, Fleur, Puck - PUCK, eyes on me - thanks, Ryeland - PUCK. EYES," which condensed in parent-speak to a single roar of "Girls!"

When he had them more or less listening, he remembered to set his voice to the more singsong cadence one used for children, instead off the deeper version of his natural voice that he used for shouting at the top of his abilities at tall people; making the choice to be patient and gentle, or at least pretend to be someone who was; and in this manner he said reasonably, "Now, your dad's been away for a very long time and missed you all very much. What do you say? What do you say when your dad comes home?"

Six children stared at him blankly, and the baby toppled gently into the bucket. He fished it out, stuck it sideways under his arm, allowed the snake to escape in the confusion, acknowledged someone's grievously injured finger, stopped Fleur from pinching, took out his pocket handkerchief and wiped Puck's nose in essentially one continuous motion.

To be completely fair, now that he'd let go of the initial anger, he could see that the kids had absolutely no idea what he'd wanted of them. Kids had practically no social instincts at the best of times. Chilchuck coming home was remarkable, sure, but beyond their influence; how were they supposed to react? What do you say to a comet? What do you say to a hailstorm? What do you say when daddy comes home?

He repeated the question, as the children had universally drawn blanks and devolved into staring vacantly.

"Good morning, Daddy!" A child chirped helpfully, setting off the rest in an automatic drone of "good morning, Daddy," in the strangely universal dreary tone of all children saying that.

"So close, Fernwise! Is it morning? What else do we think?"

Bee, fighting for order among the kit-daemons, was simultaneously washing Fleurtom's daemon, Pantoufle's, face; receiving a long rambling report of a grievance from three incoherent witnesses; and minding the baby's chick-daemon; up to her ears in parenting. She said, around a mouthful of Pan, "Speed it up, boss, you're losing them."

"Where are your spots, Daddy?" Pan asked him. He was in the form of a young ferret and scrabbled against his mother's grip on his scruff.

"My what?"

"Your freckles," Bee said grimly, and seeing he'd been temporarily disarmed - and being a valiant beast in her way - charged in to her human's defense, "Is that nice, Pan? We don't want to make people feel bad about their looks, do we?"

"Yes we do," said Fleur.

"Fleur! We've just - we haven't seen much of the sun, that's all," said Bee, taking charge, the best and most loyal soul a man could have. "They'll come back, and they're not spots."

"Mei has spots."

"Freckles."

"Grimbob has spots."

"Yes, and you shouldn't notice," Bee said. "Think of Grimbob's feelings."

"I do, I think he feels spotty."

"I'm thirsty," Puck said flatly.

"Stick to the point, kids," Chilchuck said, recovering from the fact that his usual face was apparently indistinguishable to children from Grimbob's, who had been taking puberty hard. This was surprisingly difficult to do.

Ryeland, a mildly bright spark who was older than the Chils girls, connected two dots and suddenly roared "WELCOME HOME DADDY," so six children all repeated that automatically, and Fleur added sunnily, "I missed you Daddy!"

And just as a very small piece of Chilchuck's heart was finally allowed to melt, she added, equally sunnily, "Mei didn't."

"I did a little," Meijack said vaguely.

"That's great kids, well done, we got there in the end," Chilchuck said. "Remember it for next time, okay? It makes Daddy feel better about his stupid life. Now, next time, let's remember that it's traditional to do a hug."

He realised his mistake instantly, as six children and their daemons all bore him - and the baby he'd forgotten he was holding - to the ground.

___________

[limitie]

Hey you, don't you think it's kinda cute that I died right inside your arms Tonight? Hey You, Don't you think it's kinda cute that I tried to escape the afterlife That I tried to get back in your arms alive...? :)

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So ist been a while, to be honest I’ve fallen off of one piece but doesn’t mean I don’t still watch it, just the fandom in general…. Lots of stuff and all but uh I’m back now! And dropping this banger that was inspired by my mootie back in inisa! Their art is awesome Bowhoho lollll…. But it was fun and definitely pushed my artistic skill to the edge!!! I’ve been watching Delicious In Dungeon Lately and ts honestly a breath of fresh air, so awesome and enjoyable every episode skskskks but ya! Op x DND lmao…. This is basically like Falin x Shuro but the better version yk?? ( I don’t ship them just Zolu lol.) like Imagine Zoro just watching his leader/ captain. Just. Transform in front of him and he’ll be Devante’s and stuff and so much blood and drama… MMMMM just my cup of tea… I do plan to extend this AU a lot more… time will only tell…. Anyway uh Enjoy!! Like and Subscribe!! Yuppie!! 😋😋😋😋❤️❤️❤️🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯

[griffincastle]

idk if this would be a good suggestion but i think a delicious in dungeon richtofen and dempsey au would be such a good au for them and takeo and nikolai

I don't know DnD enough to give them accurate classes, so I just made them as the characters bc you're right

(I haven't watched yet either, so please forgive bad casting. I just think they're neat.

[cosmic-pheonix]

With RWBY now in indefinite hiatus, I've been thinking of a couple of shows to watch to pass the time....

A few shows I want to watch in mind:

Wakfu - I've been seeing some amazing fanart and some short clips here and there. The animation and art style caught my interest, so I thought I might give that a watch!

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End - I've mentioned before on another post about a RWBY AMV I've seen, (which you should absolutely check out btw), the moment I heard the OP song from YAOSOBI I'm immediately sold! Plus the amount of fanart I've seen is amazing too!

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury - When I first saw some clips from the early seasons of the show, my immediate thought is, this is basically a RWBY Whiterose in Space AU! And the two main characters (and the sypnosis of the plot) really sold it for me!

The Dragon Prince - The fanart and edits were enough for me to get into it. That's pretty much it!

Delicious in Dungeon - The anime is animated and produced by Studio TRIGGER! Do I need to say more?

Slayers (Anime series) - The anime is basically a 90's DnD campaign experience! (I myself have never played DnD but from what I've heard and seen it looks super fun! Maybe one day I might get myself into it with moots!) Stars a GOATED VA cast (and among of my top faves) from the likes of Lisa Ortiz, Eric Stuart and Veronica Taylor. The animation and art style is simply to die for! I've watched a video retrospective from Unicorn of War, and I immediately decided to add that to my anime watchlist!

These are the shows I'm planning to watch, so if there are any followers of mine that want to interact some shows mentioned with me, don't hesitate to comment under this post. Of course please do not post any spoilers!

EDIT - 25/03/2024 (UPDATE): Should've done this earlier but I decided to do a poll! More so, I want to interact with other moots/followers, and I'm bored.

[wow-an-unfunny-joke]

DnD au where Chilchuck (irl) is like 4’11 and everyone bullied him into making his character a halffoot

[httpfr3shlyrtten]

Hey motherfuckers guess what, another au! Info below + a sneak peek doodle of what the whole team is looking like!

I’m excited abt this au bc I am in a dnd camping and i love goofy monsters. And have almost taken risks of being a dm. Twice.

mattilda is a tiefling ell is a human knight and tori is an elf mage and tamara is a very respected and loved half-orc!

The plot of my 'au' (its a fanfic which ell wrote. Tbh fanfic and this AU is based off Manga/Anime “Delicious in the dungeon”) they will go down the dungeon too, but not be ells sibling is half-dead but because they are lesbians who just want to do that and you cannot say no!

[pond-porridge]

Okay, real intro post time

Hey, I'm Percy (usually, sometimes other people are here posting, but not as often).

I'm a guy.

My main interests at the moment include

Pokemon

The Bear

DnD

Cult of the Lamb

Nevermore

Delicious in Dungeon

And some other, smaller interests such as other webtoons and shows.

I'm also just a general film and music enjoyer, but those are less specific I guess.

I have a handful of projects I'm working on, all of which I'd love to talk about if anyone's interested! Such as

Short film me and some others are working on (short film tag is #director percy moment)

Pokemon comic me and my friend are working on (pokemon tag is #pokemon sky and sea. No it is not a game idea, don't look into the name too hard<33)

The Nevermore circus au (which I think I've just tagged #nevermore circus au before? I could be wrong), which is on ao3 and has a discord server

...I have this sci fi story idea rotating in my mind. Nothing official will be made for a while but it's there. (also currently tagless)

And DnD campaigns, if those count?

I'll tag this with the mentioned tags so they're easy to find!

Also fellas, go follow @pondporridge2 as I live in fear of exploding into dust.

[mysticalwolf]

Welcome To My Page

I decided to make a welcome page blog.

About Me: Call me Mystical. I'm 23 (she/her), and I'm in the environmental field and I am busy in college (one more semester left). I’m also autistic and have type 1 diabetes (these are just random facts about me).

My interests are organized:

• Academic: Environmental, Plants, Animals, Mythology, History, Geography, Cryptozoology (because I think monsters are neat and it’s just harmless fun).

• Anime: Dragon Ball, One Piece, Dorohedoro, JJBA, Cowboy Beepbop, Delicious in Dungeon.

• Animation: Vintage Cartoons (Betty Boop, Loony Tunes, Old Disney, etc…), any Animation/Art in general, Some classic Nickelodeon cartoons, Some classic Cartoon Network cartoons.

• Books: Not really picky, just not a romance person. But I do enjoy any Literature. Graphic Novels. When I do read a traditional book, I do better by listening to audiobooks, I have done this ever since I was young and that helped me read a lot. Manga: One Piece, Dragon Ball, Beaststars Beast Complex, JJBA.

• Others (didn’t know where to put them): Welcome Home, Vintage, Retrofuturism, MLP, Monster High (gen 1), Disney (movies, parks, cartoons, games, etc…), Star Wars, Anything Jim Henson (The Muppets, The Dark Crystal, etc…), Puppets, Horror (old and new, books, shows, and video games, etc…), Fantasy (I like DND stuff, but I never played any DND because I feel nervous around others sometimes), Hazbin Hotel.

• Video Games: Fallout, Stardew Valley, FNAF, Hades, Cuphead, Nintendo (LOZ, Pokemon, Mario, Animal Crossing, Kirby), BG3 (haven’t played yet, saw others play it and is interested in the characters and the world).

I also have many other interest that I haven’t added, but I do like a lot of things.

What is my page about?: I’m just here to post random fun stuff, these things are. Thought post, whatever is on my mind, I will post. I also write small stories, but not all the time. And my art, I do this for fun and I'm not a professional, but I do enjoy drawing when I can or what’s on my mind.

Small independent fun project ideas?:

Atomic City (blog and work in development, just been busy with stuff in life)

Other small ideas that might show up once in a while.

Random stories (depends, I do have random stories idea. But I don’t know, but I would like to write them.)

My WH AU:

Welcome Home Haunted Mansion Au (based on the Disney Haunted Mansion)

Dead Flower (working progress)

My Welcome Home OCS:

There will be two sections, one for the main WH ocs and one for the side WH OCs. The main WH OCs live in the neighborhood, and the side WH OCs live in other places.

Main ocs:

Gab Silver, Gab Non-Work Outfit (She is the first WH OC I made) [Repairwoman 🛠️]

Angelo Riva [Fashion 🪡] & Buttercup Riva [Scout]

Professor Horaz [History/time travel]

Side ocs:

Nurse Victoria Bright (Atomic City)

Candy & Ty (Atomic City)

Navin Nova

Benjamin Silverhorn, Sarah Silverhorn, Josie Silverhorn (Atomic City)

Note: it’s ok to draw my characters if you want too, when it comes to shipping. I don’t mind, as long it’s appropriate.

Anyways, thank you for stopping by and checking out my blogs. I hope you have a good day or night.

[tomwaterbabies]

dnd au, both in the context of the kids playing dnd And the kids As dnd characters, fucks me Fully up bc i keep picturing this mental image of them being presented with a dungeon puzzle and it just turns into pit and young link discussing wartime strategy, toon link and ness arguing over whether or not the puzzle is just a trap, rock asking questions to run as many simulations of the puzzle as he can, and lucas silently pondering. and then the puzzle is just Use The Key You Got Two Rooms Ago

god this is fucking DELICIOUS content thank u (and so in character??? god bless) im particularly fond of rock running stupidly complex possibilities and young link conversing with pit about wartime strategy GOD

i agree both a version of them playing AND just a whole ass au of them in-universe are just. so very good

all the kiddos are a unique brand of dumb ass and they’re all over prepared in a number of wrong ways and believe it or not teamwork is not always sufficient in place of solo questing. really none of them are used to working with others Except maybe ness (who i imagine wasnt the most mature in his respective game anyway) and i suppose young link (true, pit had someone to talk to in his games but i think thats different than a whole party ur physically there with)

i can imagine toon link and pit being the most impulsive to fight whereas rock and lucas Would Really Rather Not Aggro The Fifth NPC Group In A Row. young link is a loose canon and will go feral on specific bad guys but otherwise very polite :)ness and lucas both have high charisma on account of being sorcerers but there are two problems:-ness has the absolute unluckiest rolls-lucas has social anxiety

[suchastart]

prompt: d&d au, percy's character dies taking down Kronos, and the rest of the party does the ritual to revive him

i.

The throne room glitters beneath all the dirt and the soot. The walls feel like they’re closing in, like they’re pulsing with living, liquid bronze. In and out. In, and out. In. Out. Your friends are down–Odhran sits slumped over his torn stomach and broken reed pipes, Reese lies facedown in the greening fountain water, and Nero remains chained to the wall. Pallea, prone and gasping on the floor, reaches out to you with a mangled and broken hand.

In the end, it’s you and Castell–the both of you grappled, holding tight to one another, standing in Nakamura’s blood. Fire burns angry in Castell’s eyes, tears cracks in his skin. You can almost see Kronos wisping like a shadow from his body.

“You have to fight him,” you say. Pallea’s knife rests just inches from your boot. “Please. You have to fight. Do it for her.”

Castell’s grip on you wavers. He grits his teeth around a shout, and through his body, Kronos roars.The room shakes. Bronze dust rains from the ceiling.You bring a knee up into his gut and reach down for the knife, and with the last bit of strength you can summon, you thrust the blade up and forward into his gut.

Pain bursts in your chest. You lose your breath as you lean into Castell, as you watch the terrible flame of Kronos’s spirit flicker and then disappear, as you watch Castell blink, die, finally free.

He falls.

You look down to see Kronos’s dagger in your chest.

In unison, Pallea and Nero scream.

You fall.

ii.

new athens nerds

Annabeth

Percy> D: D: D:

Grover> You are very very dead, dude :-(

Clarisse> it was kind of awesome

Percy> so dead> so so dead it kind of hurts my heart??> literally hurts my dudes heart> guys……. what if you cant bring me back??? D:!!!!

Nico> We can bring you back.

Percy> yeah sure but what if you cant?? this is awful> stupid castell i never wanted to trust that guy anyway> ab why did we trust that guy

Nico> It will be fine.> Expensive, though. Probably.

Grover> ?> I have like 12 bucks

Percy> thanks g but this is no time for your memery

Annabeth

Nico> It depends on how Rachel wants to do it. There are different spells, and different consequences. If she does ask for sacrifices, we will have to offer something meaningful from our characters to Oceanus.> We’ll have to find somebody who’s able to perform the magic.

Grover> memeingful

Annabeth

Nico> Not yet.

Clarisse> Silena says she thinks she can

Percy> thank dnd gods for princess serenity rose the gorgeous> can she come next game??

Clarisse> probably not, she has practice all next week

Percy> volleyball or cheerleading??

Clarisse> both B)

Grover> She has a game soon doesn’t she?

Clarisse> yeah

Annabeth

Nico> We should probably brainstorm how to bring him back.> If he wants to come back.> Maybe it should be a surprise.

Annabeth

Percy has been removed from this conversation

Grover has changed the name of this group: new athens necromancers

Clarissenice

iii.

One minute she’s studying spacing and shaping and the physics of sound, and the next, the ring of her phone jerks her out of a heavy sleep. She unsticks her face from her textbook and looks blearily at the glow of her phone. The sun’s gone down. Her room is dark and empty. Percy Jackson’s name shines at her in the dark.

She sits up at her desk, taps at the screen, clears her throat. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Percy says, smiling and a little breathless. “Are you busy?”

“Not really. I fell asleep on my homework.”

“Long day?”

“Kind of, yeah. Just a lot to do. I think I missed dinner.”

“Yeah, dining hall’s closed by now.” He takes a few more deep breaths. It sounds like he’s–jogging? “You, uh–want me to bring you something?”

“From where?”

“Hearth Home?”

Annabeth groans. Hearth Home–the most amazing 24-hour diner in town, with delicious breakfast at any time of day. Soft, buttery pancakes, fluffy eggs, sweet apple butter and warm biscuits, beautifully browned potatoes and sausage. It’s the perfect menu for a busy college student. The more she thinks about their tomato and pepper omelette or their strawberry lemon pancakes, the more her stomach growls. “Oh, my god.”

Percy huffs. “Is that a yes?”

“If you’re going that way, I’m not going to say no.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in ten?”

Annabeth agrees, and the call is done. She stares at the screen–Percy Jackson, 00:56–and wonders what he’ll end up bringing her, if he even remembers her order from the only time they ever went there together. It’d been their whole D&D group a few Sundays ago, Rachel and Nico half asleep, Clarisse sweaty from a several-mile jog, Percy still a little damp from swimming practice. Grover and Annabeth sat on one side of the booth and studied the menu together as if preparing for an exam.

She tries not to think too much about it, Percy visiting her room, what he might bring her for dinner, what that might mean. She tidies up her desk, straightens the blankets on her bed, stands in front of the mirror and makes sure her hair is in some kind of order.

She’s back at her desk by the time there’s a knock on the door. She stands, runs her hands down her loose t-shirt and gym shorts, wriggles her shoulders, recognizes that she’s being ridiculous, and answers the door.

Percy smiles at her. He looks comfortable, in his swim team hoodie and sweatpants. His hair, as ever, is still a little damp from practice. He holds up a tied plastic bag. “Delivery?”

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

She stands back to let him in. “Thanks for this.”

“No problem.”

He kicks his shoes off at the door, places their dinner carefully on her desk. Annabeth hurries behind him and helps him clear her books and laptop and notes, and together they free several styrofoam containers full of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and pancakes. The last slim container is a beautiful omelette with fresh tomatoes, onions, red and green peppers, a sprinkling of cheese and bacon. Her mouth waters just looking at it all.

“Is this for me?”

“Yeah,” Percy says, passing her a plastic-wrapped cutlery set. “Have at it.”

Annabeth beams at him. She can’t help it. He brought her dinner from Hearth Home, and she kind of loves him for it.

She climbs up on her bed and pats the space next to her, arranges their styrofoam containers between them like a makeshift dorm picnic. They sit with their backs against the wall and spread their butter and syrup over their strawberry-lemon pancakes, make a toast with their toast, share the little thermos of cocoa, passing sips between them as they take bites of pancake and potatoes.

Butterflies riot in her stomach, her lungs, all the way up to her throat. She can’t help but laugh at the giddy sense of contentedness she feels with him tall and warm beside her. It’s disgusting. It doesn’t make any kind of sense, except Percy is sitting next to her and they have absolutely nothing in common but fantasy dragons and delicious diners and they’re sharing dinner that he brought her from the best diner in town, and she can smell the honey on his breath, he’s so close.

“You think you can bring me back?” he asks, finally, sipping at their thermos of cocoa.

“I hope so.”

“I wish you guys hadn’t kicked me from the group.”

Annabeth laughs. Their dumb Facebook group. “Nico said it’ll matter more if we surprise you and Rachel with our sacrifices.”

“Yeah.” Percy takes a bite of their pancakes, chews. “I just. I miss you guys.”

“We’re still here.”

“Yeah, but. It’s different when I can’t talk to you all the time.”

She rests her head back against the wall, keeps her syrupy fork in her mouth as she looks over at Percy. “You’re still with us, Percy. We just want to make sure our sacrifices matter. We want you to come back.”

“Yeah…”

Annabeth sighs. Percy grabs a handful of cheesy hash browns with his fingers, drops them into his mouth. They’re both leaning against the wall with their styrofoam containers around them; Percy rearranges the ones between them so that he can scoot closer without interference. He presses his leg against hers, tucks his head against her shoulder.

His hair smells like chlorine. She rests her cheek against his hair, inhales, listens as he speaks.

“Annabeth.”

“Yeah?”

“I really don’t want to die.”

“You’re not gonna die,” Annabeth says. “Nico’s pretty confident.”

“Nico, huh?”

“He knows, like, everything about the game. He’s not gonna let you die.”

Percy hums. He reaches over and touches her hand, slides his fingers between hers. For a few silent moments, they lean against one another, shoulder to shoulder, holding hands.

“I’m not gonna let you die,” Annabeth says.

Percy smiles. “I know you won’t.”

iv.

A video appears in the group chat. A beautiful girl with vitiligo and perfect makeup sits in front of a brightly lit backstage dressing room mirror. Compete mayhem appears behind her, and she smiles, even as her friends rush around her in panic and various stages of dress.

“Hello, my friends!” Silena says. “I want to wish you the best of luck today, and all the magic in bringing back our friend Oceanus!”

She smiles wide, and tucks her dark hair behind her ear. The bright white of her uniform is almost blinding against the screen, almost as blinding as her grin. “I know Rachel will do her best in playing me, if I am at all helpful to you! Please have my blessing as Princess Serenity Rose! I am giving my best to resurrect Oceanus to our family! Much love!”

Silena winks, and blows a kiss, and gives the most beautiful smile in closing. It’s the best offering she can give to the pending resurrection, her sunshining positivity, and she leaves her party, her family, with a wide, gleaming smile.

v.

The dorm basement is otherwise quiet when Clarisse arrives, stomping down the stairs and tossing her backpack and gym bag onto the floor. She nods hello to Rachel, who is sitting on the floor with her entire dungeon set up on the wide coffee table, and to the other members of her party. Nico has his army of dice ready, and Grover is comfortable on the couch, and Annabeth and Percy are sitting a little too close to one another at the other end of the sofa.

“Well, hi, everybody,” Rachel says, smiling cradling her dice, keeping close track of her party.

“Hi,” Percy says, dead.

“Can we get on with this,” Clarisse says.

Annabeth arranges her dice and her character sheets, and Grover squeezes her hands, and they all crowd close together, uncomfortably ready for their dungeon master’s upcoming rolls.

“So,” Rachel says. “You have been travelling toward Delphi, carrying Oceanus’ body, hoping to bring him to Princess Serenity in order to bring him back to life. You lie Oceanus’ body in the temple, and you stand above him, praying, laying offerings and touching your hands upon him.”

“Yes,” Annabeth says. Pallea steps forward, and touches Oceanus’ hands, and breathes. “Oceanus,” she says. “There’s so much I need to say…”