#it messed up the first quest for me too. boat i needed to get to was covered by a block of ground texture.

[idkhow-butyoufoundme]

mmmmm $120 game

[idyllic-affections]

HELLO!! YOUR BAIZHU WITH CHRONICALLY ILL READER IS THE BEST THING THAT'S EVERY HAPPENED!!! I've never seen a blog that does only platonic things, and as an aroace person, IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY! I wasn't too sure if you requests were open or not, but I was wondering if you could make either some headcanons or a fic where the reader (from that series) has a flare up or gets sick and Baizhu takes care of them? I'm unfortunately sick right now (just in time for when my final school assignments are due, slay 😍) but found family and hurt/comfort are literally the best thing ever, and, if put together, I'm pretty sure will cure me /j. If you requests aren't open, then please disregard this message!

Anyway, I gotta go sleep before the fever messes up my brain (if it hasn't already); so good bye, and thank you again!!

a slip of the tongue.

summary. how does baizhu care for his junior herbalist when they fall ill?

trigger & content warnings. flu-like sickness, lighthearted mentions of death.

tropes, pairings, fic length, & other notes. hurt/comfort-ish. baizhu & reader. 1.1k words. they/them pronouns for reader. this post is an expansion of invisible disability? it's rather visible to me & contains vaguely implied spoilers for baizhu's story quest.

author's thoughts. hello lovely!!! thank youu <3 i am slowly collecting people that like this series like how i collect shiny rocks. its great to get a request related to it. i hold this series very dearly, so please (and this goes for everyone reading this!) never be shy to send thoughts about it or requests related to it. anyway, i love catering to aroace folk, you all are so special to me. im on the aro spectrum myself, so i get it. i know from experience that it can be super frustrating looking for fanfic content that's non-romantic. please remember to take care of yourself! i totally understand the feeling of needing to finish final assignments while being sick. me and you are in the exact same boat LMAO... my requests are always open btw! ive no intention of ever closing them. in the end, i went with our poor reader being sick rather than having flare ups, since i already briefly touched on that idea in employee benefits.

how does baizhu care for his junior herbalist when they're sick and out of commission?

baizhu is most often the first to know when they're sick or otherwise unwell. he's so impossibly attentive to their bodily condition, simply because their health is partially his responsibility. he's their teacher. what kind of mentor would neglect to take care of their apprentice? a bad one, that's what kind.

(he also feels somewhat indebted to them—even though they're chronically ill, they're always doing anything they can to help him recover after his "secret art" treatments. even though he's the doctor, they've helped care for him on more than one occasion. he has to return the favor whenever he can. just because he's older doesn't mean he gets to freely take advantage of their kindness.)

if he's not the first to know, he's the second, because the only instance where he wouldn't know first is if they woke up ill at home.

he'll always end up being the second to know, at the very least. someone will inform him of their condition, whether that be a parent or a sibling or another family member. sometimes a friend of theirs may tell him, such as xingqiu, chongyun, hu tao, or xiangling.

in hu tao's case... she may be distrustful of him, but she does tell him when they aren't well. [name] is a childhood friend of hers. she cares about their health and, surprisingly, doesn't want to put them in the ground just yet!

even though she dreads the path they've chosen to walk down... she still cares for them, very much so.

(junior herbalist!reader's lore drop is finally here?!?!?)

regardless of how baizhu finds out, they'll end up being cared for at the pharmacy.

though he could prescribe them medication and let them be taken care of at home...

he often wants to care for them himself.

gui has asked why in the past, and baizhu really has never had a good answer for him.

he's really not sure why he wants to be the one to monitor them. perhaps it's because it gives him a sense of calmness and reassures him that they're recovering well.

after all, if their condition were to rapidly decline for any reason... he could fix it.

(to some others, his concern might seem overprotective. unnecessary. however, something as simple as the flu has been known to take lives. he worries that, because of their chronic illness, they may be more susceptible to a severe case than others are.)

he has the means to save them if something like that were to happen, and undoubtedly, the life of his sweet and kind apprentice is one that deserves to be saved and protected.

perhaps it's also because it seems to put qiqi at ease; baizhu's noticed that she gets fidgety in [name]'s absence during work hours, but when they're ill and being cared for at the pharmacy, she functions very well and often even remembers to check on them herself.

sometimes when they have a fever, qiqi may sit by their side for minutes at a time and just press her little cold hands on their forehead to cool them off. she also ensures that they stay hydrated.

both baizhu and gui find this behavior very endearing. qiqi cares deeply for her big sibling (despite the fact that she's technically older...). her bond with them is something very special and sweet to bear witness to.

bubu pharmacy's work environment is familial and tightly knit by nature, so it isn't too hard to imagine that something would feel wrong if one of the four herbalists were gone for whatever reason. even those who don't work there are affected by the absence of one or more of the pharmacists.

overall, baizhu takes very good care of them when they fall ill.

he monitors them closely, hand-crafts their medicine depending on what they need, makes sure that their fluid intake is maintained...

he dotes on them tbh.

"Ugh..." they groaned, blearily blinking up at their mentor. Baizhu's hand against the feverish skin of their forehead was cold; they couldn't help but lean into the gentle touch. "Bàba?"

He didn't point it out. He hardly even acknowledged their words, as if he were somehow used to it. He only smiled, hand stroking tenderly over their disheveled hair, taming the defiant strands no doubt caused by restless sleep. "So sorry to wake you, dear."

Even Changsheng was quiet—she only hummed thoughtfully from her place around Baizhu's neck. Normally, she'd find something to tease them about (usually because they started it!), but now... she seemed to know that it just wasn't right to tease them in their hazy state of mind.

Gui was quiet, too. He was surprised. He had never heard them address their mentor such an... informal way, let alone with familial terms. He did once briefly think that the dynamic they had with Baizhu was awfully family-like, but...

It was still unexpected.

"Come, now. It's time to take your medicine again, and then you can go back to sleep, okay?"

Gui watched, still silent, as they hummed in absentminded acknowledgement, rubbing their eyes ever so slightly. It didn't seem to help them come to at all; their gaze was still distant and unfocused and they didn't even realize how they addressed the doctor. If they did... they'd probably apologize, embarrassed, but they showed no such emotion. Baizhu gently guided them into a sitting position, rubbing small circles on their back.

Gui handed the cup filled about halfway with herbal medication off to the doctor. Baizhu gingerly guided it to their lips, knowing very well that the guidance was needed; they looked half-asleep sitting up. Archons know they were in no condition to successfully do it themselves. They took the medicine without so much as a whine about its bitterness—they only grimaced slightly after swallowing. Gui supposed that they never really were one to complain about it, even when fully coherent. 'I think it would set a bad example for others if I complained,' they once told him. 'Plus, it's not like Dr. Baizhu gets some kind of sadistic pleasure from giving medication to me, so there's no reason to complain. It's herbal. There's nothing to be done about the taste... I know he doesn't like taking it either. Hehe. It's kind of funny, actually, like we're hiding some kind of company secret. Herbalists who don't like the taste of herbal medicine.'

It was only after he left the room with the doctor that he pointed it out:

"They called you bàba."

"Hm?" Baizhu hummed, turning to Gui. "Oh. Yes... [Name] has done it quite a few times, actually, whether that be because of fever delirium or a slip of the tongue. I don't mind it. It only means that they feel safe enough to be vulnerable here. Qiqi has done it a few times, as well. Those two are only children, so... it is to be expected."

Gui then smiled, nodding. "It's cute."

Baizhu couldn't help but agree, his lips tilting upwards into a little smile himself. "It is."

please consider reblogging, it helps me out quite a lot!

[funky-boat-zone]

can’t stop thinking abt the “tatmr-ified salty’s lighthouse” concept i proposed as a joke in this post, so have me messing around w the idea further bc i’ve embraced that some part of me loves this cringefail dub

- in this universe where they actually have the budget and resources to build new sets and film new footage, this would probably be the first time the boats leave snugboat harbor? bc it’s only been alluded to in other episodes. and yes, this plot point completely disregards that harbor tugs and switchers shouldn’t be making long journeys across the open sea.

- captain star communicates w ten cents and company via radio throughout their journey for the sake of exposition/moving the plot along, despite the fact that radios on boats aren’t a widely-used thing yet in the 20s.

- not sure what the plot macguffin would be.. i just know that the quest for it brings ten cents and friends out of the harbor. i’m thinking it’s some kind of legal contract that definitively says the villain can’t take it over, but maybe that’s not sparkly enough to keep the target audience’s attention?

- grampus and the zero fleet are stuck supervising the harbor/warding off the main villain, but zero cheers them up by saying they’re being very brave by guarding the harbor in this trying time.

- salty and friends stay at the lighthouse for the duration of the movie (besides finally meeting ten cents and company up close for the first time at some point), but are the first to notice that the boats are missing. the reason they have a p passive role is because salty is like. 6 and i’m p sure they don’t wanna encourage their target audience to just get on a boat without an adult/proper safety precautions (not even for a magical journey to save the harbor).

- i had a few ideas for a diesel 10 analogue, but after eliminating a few (johnny cuba is steamer, sea rogue doesn’t technically exist in sl, nantucket has been a few different ships but was never antagonistic, etc.), i eventually settled on the same base idea; the villain would be an antagonistic tramp steamer, probably looking to take over snugboat harbor with the coast guard unable to stop him because he’s Very Large. if he needs sidekicks, he can have the two green-eyed pirates bc sl barely did anything with them. he’s inexplicably weak to aurora’s light, which salty and company exploit to keep him away (because she’s probably a magical lighthouse if salty and friends don’t go blind from looking at her? plus salty and friends have to be important somehow in this movie).

- i don’t think this movie would be good, but i do think it would be funny and i put way too much thought into this

[moon-and-stars-appreciation]

OoOo requests!

Can I request the main 6 with mc on a trip?

Take your time !

MY FIRST REQUEST!!!!

Thanku! A ton!

Asra

Okay- Asra is really ✨experienced✨ in this area, so he’s really glad that you are going with him!

You are going by foot! They would use magic if you really wanted to, but they enjoy the long way, because that’s part of the trip too~

Since you are going with him, he has to take extra care of you, making sure you rest when needed, that you aren’t getting dehydrated, and all the in-betweens

While they do take trips often, their trips with you are probably rare, as they’re always worried about you and don’t want to put you in any danger by taking you with them!

Nadia

Nadia absolutely adores trips with you! It feels like she can take a break from her duties, and focus on you~ though you might have to remind her every once in a while to enjoy and take care of herself, not just you.

You are more than likely going by carriage or some sort of easy-like transportation that allows you to relax on the way there

Pampers you. Herself. She is spending every waking moment making sure that you are enjoying yourself, because she knows that the palace can wear you down too~

Trips don’t happen often with Nadia but when they do, she goes all out. She knows that they are rare, which is why she makes sure that they are extravagant and pamper-filled!!

Don’t forget to remind her constantly that she needs to relax, as she only gets to do this ever so often.

Julian

Probably doesn’t like traveling that often but when you travel together, he does love them! Especially since he gets to act like you two are going on a grand adventure~

You will go by boat. No questions asked. For one, pirate quest! Two, he just likes the idea of exploring the seas with you!

You occasionally take Portia with you since it basically takes a crew to man a ship.

Take care of him. Let’s not lie, taking a boat takes a lot of work, so when you both have that, plus all Julian is doing is trying to take on the workload, you need to MAKE HIM take a break.

Since your pirate adventures are so grand, they don’t happen often. It is fun, but also takes a lot out of you both

Portia

Portia always gets giddy when you’re going on trips. No matter how many times you do them, they always make her feel like a little kid!

You go by foot, exploring anywhere and everywhere. Even the places that you have been, you sneak off to together sometimes, but she loves exploring new places with you.

You’ll find nooks and crannies, little clearings, and you’ll have a picnic, sleeping under the stars or under your pillow fort (depends on if you’re inside or outside)

Trips with Portia happen all the time! They can last from one night to a week, but she always has to get back to her duties. Even when work drags her down, little trips and adventures are always on the agenda with her, to somewhere new to explore, or somewhere you’ve been, to escape!

(Sometimes you go on pirate adventures with Portia as well)

Muriel

Muriel just likes to spend time with you. So, he enjoys trips with you, but they also make him really nervous!

What if you get lost, what if you somehow get stuck in large crowds, what if you get hurt, what if you get separated-

It takes convincing to take him on a trip but as long as it’s just you two and inanna, he’s okay with it.

Will most definitely use protection spells while you’re on the trip, just for the extra safety

It takes coaxing to go on long trips or even short trips if it’s to a crowded, busy place, but if it’s just you three on little adventures, let’s say camping, it happens on a normal basis, maybe once every three weeks.

Lucio

He hates going on trips 😀

No but seriously, it means he has to get dirty and mess up his outfit and he’s so much better than the dirty, small places that you are going to drag him to, like that cave that one time, remember that? You made him get his boots muddy and-

I guess it’s tolerable if you are going with him…

Takes a lot of convincing to get him to come, but eventually he does, pampering himself and (every once in a while) making sure that the trip is “tolerable” for you as well~

You go by carriage or steed (if he’s in a good mood, the latter) he just wants minimal effort as to enjoy himself, and you!!

Trips do not happen often with him, they are mostly for special occasions!

A/N

Since you requested this, I have gotten a few asks so I would like to thank you all for giving me inspiration!! It might take a while for me to write though so please be patient~

[imagine-otome-games]

Survivors Guilt [GI Childe]

Pairing: Childe x Fem!Reader [[3RD POV]] [[Heavy use of she/her]]

Warnings: Angst, dark-ish imagery, dark thoughts etc also kinda long since theres barely any dialouge.

!!SPOILERS FOR LIYUE ARCHON QUEST!! [[Vague but if you know you know]]

A/N: working on that diluc but uh this hit me sooo.. I wondered what would have happened if that fight didn’t go so smoothly..

;; a day in which all his debts were paid off with interest;;

 “ Pᴀɪɴᴛ ʙʟᴇᴇᴅs, ɪɴᴋ ʀᴜɴs, ɪᴍᴀɢᴇ ᴏғ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʟᴏᴠᴇ..”

It was truly a sight to behold- something like a breathtaking scene in a famous novel. Poets and authors alike would try to replicate it, but it would never be quite the same- not as impactful.

No words could ever truly replicate the way he had screamed upon hearing the news. No painter could even come close to recreating the look in his anguished eyes- the rigid state of his entire body- the immediate stream of tears. However, who would truly want to? Words hit hard enough so an actual image would be pure torture and yet.. some found inspiration at the way this hardened Harbinger absolutely broke down for his love..

Even the strongest of people have their weaknesses and his lied with her..

“I promise I’ll be back soon.”, he had said, with pure confidence too despite it all. 

She had been so far from the harbor- she didn’t give him any hint that she would be on the waters that day. Even she had, what had ultimately happened was a last resort. He never intended to do it but.. perhaps if she had mentioned something that day.. he would have stopped himself.

If he was stronger- if he hadn’t allowed himself to be used..

The rage mixed in all that anguish was suffocating- each and every breath he took as he moved forward felt like it was searing his lungs. His legs felt like the bones within were made of lead, threatening to cave in on themselves. He almost wished they would- he wished they’d shatter- he begged to his current wounds to just end what was only the beginnings of his endless suffering.

Instead of hoping his death would happen in glorious battle he wished for it to be swift- for it to carry him home immediately, no matter how selfish it seemed.

He had a family, he had to think of how they would feel but now... now the blood on his hands was blood he was never meant to spill..

He always knew the true costs of his line of work would catch up to him.. Childe simply thought that cost wouldn’t be so high- so immediate. Or.. something of his own doing-

Once he made it to where the crowds had gathered- to the aftermath seen by all, he was gifted with burning daggers in his back by their eyes- a hint of pity accented within the obvious poison. They would forever be embedded in his flesh. None would be unaware of his horrific deed in Liyue harbor- the absolute disregard for innocents and his own dearest heart.

He wished the people would be more violent, but he knew they wouldn’t be. That was too easy- too merciful.

Within that crowd he found what he had destroyed. There, in the calm waters, surrounded by mourning citizens that knew her well... she floated calmly. Her calm face struck him hard- it was now dull, there was no life within her features- this was not like when she slept or when she turned her face to soak in the beautiful sun.

The reality of everything hit him so hard it knocked the breath and rationality out of him.

He had begged and pleaded and sobbed in vain- she had been gone all along. When he was told you were missing- lost at sea, deep in his very core he knew the waves had stolen her. Osial must have stolen her was what he allowed himself to believe for a time, but Childe was not that much of a fool. His own idiocy and failure to think rationally stole her from him. He did this to himself and now, in front of all of those which he wronged, he breaks.

He will never be able to see her smile- how is it that one person can have so many different smiles? So many expressions to miss and touches to crave and be robbed of. Childe would never hold her in his arms. He could no longer relish in the taste of her lips or her warm embrace on late nights. 

Her voice would no longer bring him back to life on the days he lost himself- he would be left to drown out at sea, just as he deserved. There was no future to look forward to- a time when he would get to call you his wife or perhaps the mother of his children- not even a time in which he got to live freely. To be just Ajax and not Childe, the Eleventh Harbinger of the Fatui. Nothing. There was nothing and perhaps it is selfish thinking- his family still lives but will they still adore him when they learn of his horrific deed- of what his job genuinely costs.

“ I ᴄᴀɴ’ᴛ ʙʀᴇᴀᴛʜᴇ, ɴᴇᴇᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ʜᴇʀᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴍᴇ..”

The screams were so painful that no one could bare to look for long, the cries so devastating others felt its harsh pangs in their chests. He cried like he was being tortured- cradled her head and damned the very skies for taking something so precious- something that was not for it to take- someone that deserved better.

The people of Liyue granted him the mercy of time with her. His only true gift from those he hurt. They felt the sincerity in his regret and pain.

Hours felt like mere seconds to him and in the setting sun the cold finally dug its claws into him. He could feel the blood in his throat and the raw sting in his eyes. His freezing fingers had to be pried from her lifeless body and still he begged. He pleaded for everything to be a lie- a cruel prank to get him to see how horrible that was of him.

How could she be the only fatality in all this- surely there were others on the water? Her little boat was not the only one out there. Not to say he wished the same fate of other innocents but... did it have to be only her? In the very boat he gifted her when he learned how she adored to just... exist in the middle of the ocean for a short time. To take in the salty air from its source and take in the scenery the archons gifted its people to see.

In the same boat that was now in pieces along various shores and in the unrelenting depths of the ocean. Lost to him forever, just like her.

Her sweet laughter from that day still haunts him, “I’ll believe you if you promise to go out to sea with me when you get back.”, she had said, bargaining with him as if she actually ever needed to. She could tell him to jump and he would have asked her how high.

‘I love you, Ajax. Be safe.’

So, he promised- crossed his heart and hoped to die. Then when would that debt be paid? How long must he wait to be in her presence again?

“ Aɴɢᴇʟs ғᴀʟʟ, ɪᴛ’s ɴᴏᴛ ʏᴏᴜʀ ғᴀᴜʟᴛ..”  

The picture painted of her for that day pierced through what was left of his now dead heart. He meant no offense to the artist, but it did no true justice for her. It did not encapsulate her like his cruel mind did. Her eyes felt lacking- the expression was so.. unreal. Yet, silent tears felt all the same.

This was it. He must let her go for good. This is all real- too real. His breathing becomes labored and soon he is doing his best to silently sob. Her painting becomes blurred and, in the midst,... it looks as though she is crying with him. Somehow.

‘You know I’ll always love you, right?’

“ Gᴏᴏᴅʙʏᴇ ᴏʟᴅ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅ. ᴡᴇ’ʟʟ ᴍᴇᴇᴛ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ...”

“Traveler...”, he begins, “Do we have to do this every time? You know what I want... stop denying me for the sake of your own morals... please..”

The outlander looks at him, pity in the swirls of gold staring into his dull blue hues, “You know I can’t, Childe..”

He laughs bitterly, ignoring the way it hurts to do so, “You can- c’mon, it’s not that hard. Your sword is sharp enough. One good blow-”

“You need to move on somehow- take a break and grieve properly stop asking me-”

“Move on? Move on? I am a murderer- I killed her- I deserve to-”, he starts, voice growing angry and so very sad.

“You didn’t do it on purpose. You didn’t want her to...go.”, the outlander says, pools of gold growing brighter in concern, staring upon his form in the ground.

Childe was a mess of sweat and blood, on his back staring up at another whom he deceived, begging to be put out of his misery. Shamelessly so.

He laughs again, this time with a ragged breath, “It should never have been her- it should have been me. It was always supposed to be me first.”, he’s crying now, he’s sure of it. It always turned out this way, usually the tears are left out, “I was never- I never... she was never supposed to even be hurt because of me. Traveler I... I loved her so much- I still love her. I can’t let go- please. I’m begging you- please. End it- end me..”

There was no answer, just silence. There was no saving him and as painful as it was, the wandering traveler left him there on the ground. He never saw this traveler again. In the back of his mind he always wonders if the sibling was found. Was the journey fulfilled- was there a happy ending?

He hopes so. No one deserves to suffer loss in any way.

“I miss you..”, he whispers into the sky, knowing she resides somewhere far past the clouds.

The calm waves of the sea gently rock him in this small boat. There is only one destination for him. He is no longer welcome anywhere else. No one has said so, but he feels it within his soul. A piece is missing, and he will find it once more, one way or another.

“I’m coming home.. I hope you didn’t wait long..”, he says as the blackened clouds start to surround him. The sea below him darkens and he can feel the static of danger in the tense air. The waves start to come alive and he hopes they finally swallow him entirely.

This time, he hopes he will not be found by a pitying soul.

“ Tɪᴍᴇ ɢᴏᴇs ᴏɴ ᴡɪᴛʜᴏᴜᴛ ʏᴏᴜ..”

[moon-spirit-yue]

Alright time for what Charanya was up to during the Druun apocalypse! There will be a couple more posts about Charanya because there is just so much I have to say about her. Since she cuts her hair after the Druun hit I think it’s a good idea to show what young teen Charanya looked like. The art is @baydews and the link is here: https://href.li/?https://picrew.me/image_maker/415524.

• The months following the Druun apocalypse, Raya and Charanya were a wreck

• To make matters worse, people from other lands were trying to steal the resources Heart has

• Charanya and Raya were NOT about to let that slide. They agreed that the rest of the world hurt Heart enough

• Basically, the first few months of the apocalypse was Raya and Charanya stopping people from getting to Heart’s supplies with traps, scaring them with old legends, and so much more

• Think home alone but ratld edition

• They also went to other lands and spread rumors that bandits and Druun were overtaking Heart

• People stopped trying to take things from Heart after about five months

• When they were sure no one was going to try and take Heart’s resources, Raya set out on her quest to find Sisu

• Charanya had a different plan. She knew that while the majority of Heart’s citizens got turned to stone, there were many of their people that escaped on their own or another land’s boat

• This made her determined to help the remaining Heart citizens in any way she can. She planned to track them down and drop off extra jade, food and water on a regular basis until Raya could find Sisu and fix this mess

• Besides, someone needed watch after Heart and take care of the land so that it would stay a beautiful and prosperous place

• The girls dragged out an abandoned boat to a big lake in the middle of Heart, anchored it right in the center so that they could have a safe place to sleep even without the gem piece

• They used a small row boat to go to and from land and the boat

• Charanya realized that with her grandma gone there would be no one to take care of her hair. She figured it would be best to just let the bangs grow out. She also wanted to cut her hair so that the bangs would be as close to her real hair length as possible

• She got Raya to tie a ribbon around her hair at about shoulder length and sliced it off with her Ba’s sword. She wore a headband to keep her growing bangs out of her face

• Both girls were crushed when Raya first left to search for Sisu, but they knew they had two different missions that they had to complete

• With Raya taking the gem piece, Charanya is way less protected from the Druun than Raya. Thankfully, Heart has plenty of bodies of water

• Whenever Charanya saw the Druun she would sprint and fling herself in the nearest body of water

• This caused her habit of constantly wearing revealing clothes and bathing suits

• She figured it would be best not to ruin her clothes that covered up more. Plus she didn’t want to deal with the extra weight when she was swimming

• Since she only ever saw Raya in Heart anyways she wasn’t worried about people judging her clothing style

• I also think that Heart has very moderate temperatures so there’s never any snow and storms are a rare occasion so Charanya never had any problems with being too cold either

• She spent over a year tracking down every remaining Heart citizen, but she finally found them all shortly after her fourteenth birthday

• As she was tracking down former Heart citizens that had to move after the Druun, she was also taking care of the land itself. Maintaining crops, cleaning up places so that they didn’t look like a huge wreck, that sort of thing

• Obviously considering the fact that she’s only one person her efforts weren’t perfect but she did the best she could

• She also hid all the jade in various locations on the off chance that someone did come to Heart to steal more resources

• Since Charanya’s mom taught her about money at a young age, she knew how much the people would need

• Her plan is that once she tracked everyone down, every three months she would go to each land to drop off supplies to those citizens. She would go at the start of every new season

• Raya would also pop back in Heart every few months to get more supplies and jade so when she learned of Charanya’s plan Raya told her about the safest and fastest ways to get to each land

• The times that Raya came to restock on supplies was also when the two girls girl caught up on what the other was doing. They would also arrange to meet at random locations through out the lands to talk

• The girls thought it would be best not to exchange letters because they didn’t want anyone to find out that Heart was a relatively safe place

• The first time Charanya went out to deliver supplies she was jumpy and terrified of anyone that looked her way. Raya’s stories of her time out did NOT help either

• It was the first time she had left Heart in about a year. Not to mention was by herself this time

• She wrote a note to each family explaining the extra supplies and that she would continue doing this every three months for as long as the family needed

• She was beaming with pride seeing the happy and relived faces of her people when they saw the extra supplies. It made her all the more determined to see it through

• Her route was Tail, Fang, Spine, then Talon

• Though she didn’t have to go to Tail for very long. Within the first six months of her little Charanya delivery service pretty much everyone had been turned to stone in Tail since it’s. Ya know. A desert

• Only one Heart citizen was left there and Charanya helped him to move Fang

• Spine also didn’t last the entire apocalypse either. Though it was definitely longer than Tail, everyone turned to stone there by the time Charanya was sixteen

• The last two years of the apocalypse just going to Fang then. Talon

• She ran into some trouble in Fang when she was fifteen and hid in an abandoned tent. However, the tent was not, in fact, abandoned. There sat the most beautiful Fang warrior Charanya had ever seen

• But that story is coming later!

• Anyways, when she wasn’t taking care of Heart or dropping off supplies, Charanya would read to entertain herself

• With little to no human interaction, she had to do something to keep herself occupied

• She was already a book nerd before the Druun hit, it just became 10x worse after the fact

• When Charanya got wind of someone going around stealing gem pieces, she was ecstatic! She knew damn well it was Raya who was taking them which must have meant that finding Sisu worked!

• She raced back to Heart as soon as she heard and tried her best to not have a panic attack about whether Raya was okay

• The day the apocalypse ended, Charanya was taking a nap

• She has been swimming in the lake where her boat is because it was the only thing that would get her tired enough to sleep in the middle of the day. She couldn’t stand not knowing how Raya was doing

• She woke up to cheers, screams, and a lot of sobs

• At first she thought one of the other lands had invaded Heart, but then she saw swarms of people wearing the colors of Heart

• Raya had done it! The Druun were gone for good

• She swam out of her boat and ran as fast as she could to find her mom and grandma

• They were already calling her name and searching for her by the time she got to the place where they had become stone

• Charanya was afraid her family wouldn’t recognize her, but she was suffocated in their hug the second she made eye contact with them

• She sobbed in her mom and grandmas arms for what felt like hours

• Then she remembered Benja and went out to the bridge to see if he was okay

• She arrived when Benja and Raya were hugging and tackled them both in a hug

• It was only after the tearful reunions that she saw Sisu

• She kinda geeked out before bowing and putting the gem symbol above her head as a sign of respect

• But Sisu wasn’t having it and right for the hug

• “Awww you must be that friend of Raya I’ve heard about!” “Talking shit about me, my ray of sunshine?” “Always”

• Seeing all the lands come together warmed Charanya’s heart

• It would take time, but they would all be okay

Taglist: @faithfulwarrior-og, @isitbussinjanelle, @tigerlillyruiz, @ratld-sideblog

[daydream-believin]

The Never-Ending Roadtrip (new beginnings)

Summary: Reader joins Douxie in the quest for Nari’s safety. He’ll need company won’t he? - Also, a talk about Merlin and grief. It’s big feelings time. (part two)

Warnings: Swearing, theres like three bad puns and at least one meme im sorry

Word Count: 2713

A/N: inspired by the fact that i recently moved states and it was the most tedious trip ever. It took the entire day. i was bored out of my mind. So i decided to write about going on a long boring roadtrip with Douxie instead. also, i have a black cat myself and i can attest that they are little domesticated demons. she didn’t like the long trip either.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” Douxie deadpanned when he saw (Name) run up to join him on the ship, perching on the edge. “Well I’m coming with you, obviously.” Douxie had known the young woman long enough to know that there would not be a point in arguing. They would just go round and round for hours before she ultimately won. She fought dirty, puppy dog eyes and all. He didn’t have time for this.

After making sure that Archie and Nari were secure, Doux turned back to (Name), “You’re absolutely sure about this decision, love? Once we take off there’s no going back. We could even be running for the rest of our lives. You really should stay with the others,” he warned.

She looked annoyed. “Yes, Doux. I am absolutely sure. I wouldn’t want you to do this alone. And besides, you’ll need me.”

He blushed for a second before realizing she meant he would need her as in extra backup and not that he needed her needed her. Trying not to show the slight disappointment that was written on his face, he chuckled and covered his cheek with his palm, “Of course.”

They set off into the early morning sky. After waving goodbye to the rest of the gang, (Name) clung to the golden railing, looking out over California in amazement. It was like she was in a movie. This was her life changing magic carpet ride. Of course, a lot about her life had seemed to be out of a movie lately. Ever since she discovered her gift for sorcery. Ever since she got mixed up in all this Arcadian mess. Ever since she met Douxie.

Surprisingly, Douxie was really talkative for the first few hours of the trip. (Name) had expected him to be a bit more closed off, considering the week they had just gone through. He was really gushy too, with his heart on his sleeve even more so than usual, and that’s saying something for Douxie. Maybe momentary death was good for unclogging heart pipes.  (Name) was loving it. Not the momentary death thing. That had almost stopped her heart. No, it was so nice to be having such lighthearted conversation with her friends. Kept her from dwelling on things. Once night got closer, though, she couldn’t help it. What could she say, the pink splattered purple sunset made her sentimental. She and Douxie had slipped into a little talk about Arcadia, about the kids, about what had happened, and about what was next for them. Despite her gushing about how happy she was to be here with him, Douxie still felt really guilty that he put her through all this. She made the mistake of telling him how much it scared her, everything that happened earlier. She made a bigger mistake telling him how she cried over his body, refusing to accept that he was gone. He wasn’t of course, but she didn’t know that.

He suddenly got quiet after that. The conversation lulled. Even Nari and Archie seemed to sense that something was off and kept quiet. After watching the stars roll by in silence for a few hours, (Name) started to feel the tug of sleep. She tried to find a cozy spot, but failed, because she was on a ship. A pretty basic little vessel. There were no seats or anything even kind of cushiony. She contemplated using Archie as a pillow, but that probably wouldn’t fly well with him. Pun intended.

Douxie was still as statue, staring out straight ahead into the clouds. Like a grizzled old sea captain. The bags under his eyes were getting worse than usual, but (Name) decided to not to say anything to him and let it be. He looked like he was enjoying the silence. She didn’t think he’d sleep tonight. How could he? She mused. (Name) herself hadn’t even begun to truly process all that had happened. She wished she knew what to say. Anything to comfort him, to let him know she’s be there. But (Name) was no use now, in her sleepy state. She might make it worse. She’d try talking to him in the morning. If he even wanted to talk.

In the end, (Name) wound up leaning against the corner, using her balled up over-shirt as a pillow. It was a bit colder now, but with Nari snuggled up in her lap and Archie stretched out over her legs, she’d be just fine. They might as well had been heaters. Doux wouldn’t join them, insisting that they needed to fly through the entire night to put as much distance between them and Arcadia as possible. He assured them that he’d wake them up if something was the matter. Of course, they were sleeping on an open deck floor. Any sort of trouble would wake them up immediately anyway, but it was a nice thought. (Name) snuggled into her makeshift pillow. She took one last look at Douxie, brooding at the helm, before slipping off to dreamland. It was a mediocre dream.

The morning sun came sooner than (Name) wanted. The cheeky bugger. There was no use trying to go back to sleep. The sun was too big and bright. so, so bright. Nari also stirred when the sun beam hit her face. She blinked blearily and let out a cute yawn. Or at least it would have been cute, had it not been directly into (Name)’s face. (Name) had to give it to Nari though, her morning breath actually didn’t smell bad. It was earthy, floral even. Damn nature spirits. Despite (Name) and Nari being awake, the sun’s rays seemed to have little to no effect on Archie. He could sleep through anything, on anything, at any time. Damn cats.

Douxie looked like the dead. His raven hair was a mess, lips chapped from the wind. Those eyebags had somehow gotten even worse. Douxie gave Tim Burton characters a run for their money. (Name) decided it might be better to wait until she was a bit more awake and articulate to try and talk to him more about… the, ah, events from yesterday. Yet, she was fully aware that if she kept procrastinating, the conversation was just going to get worse and worse. But the timing’s not right. Yes, the timing’s just not right. The stars, they’re not in position. In fact it might be easier if she got him to take a nap first. Yeah, no need to cause sleep deprived Douxie to have an unnecessary breakdown.

It took some convincing, but (Name) finally got him to agree to let her take the helm and get that well deserved rest. Not that Douxie thought he deserved it. He wasn’t too happy about leaving (Name) and Nari alone, figuratively, while he was unconscious and unable to protect them. He wasn’t too happy about a lot of things, really. He especially didn’t care to be alone with his subconscious. But with the worried look (Name) gave him, he couldn’t help but comply with her demands. Her and her bloody puppy dog eyes.

He woke up to the sound of (Name)’s singing. She probably hadn’t meant to wake him up, with her soft voice hushed, but nonetheless he was awake. Douxie was a light sleeper. He had to be, after all his troublesome years. She was singing a sweet little love song. He felt a drumming in his chest as he listened. Speaking of his chest, there seemed to be a bit of pressure on it. A familiar pressure. It started to purr, sending the comforting vibrations through his ribcage. He gave Arch a good scritch behind the ears before sitting up.

“Your voice is so lovely, you know. I cannot imagine why you’re always hiding it.”

Name startled. “Did I wake you?” she asked, concerned since he hadn’t been out but for a few hours.

“Yes, you had,” He began gently, “But, I’m glad.”

“You’re glad?”

“Of course, I got to hear that beautiful singing voice of yours. Quite the rarity, innit?”

(Name) flushed. She wasn’t sure if she was flattered by his compliments or embarrassed that he had caught her singing once again. Still, she tried to refute his words but all that came out was a flustered sputter. Thankfully, Nari came to the rescue. Unintentionally, but a rescue all the same.

“Hisirdoux, now that you are awake, may I ask where it is that we are going?” the small goddess asked.

“Oh, uh, about that,” Doux wrapped his arms behind his back and sucked some air through his teeth, “I actually didn’t have a set place in mind. I think we’ll just wing it. On our winged boat.”

(Name) whipped her head towards him so fast she’d get whiplash. She didn’t even acknowledge the terrible joke. “I’m terribly sorry, but you what.”

“I just thought we’d head northeast for now. Once we run out of land, we’ll pick a new direction. It’s not like we’d be able to stay too long in a place, after all. It’s safer to be constantly moving.” He tried not to sound to unsure in this rambling. He did have a plan, just not one that looked too solid on a piece of paper. It’ll be fine. They’ll be fine.

“I- okay.” She didn’t sound too panicked, which Douxie counted as a win. Still, he didn’t want her to be too stressed about the uncertainties. He figured he might as well just pick a place to ease her fears a bit. She couldn’t worry herself raw, that was his job.

“How about New York City? That can be our first official destination on the Never-Ending Roadtrip.”

“Yeah, yeah okay. New York City, that sounds nice.” Victory.

***

“Ugh, we’ve been flying over basically the same damn thing forever! Can’t this thing go any faster?” (Name) whined as she leaned over the edge like a wilted flower. Her wind-mussed hair hung over her face. It took everything in Douxie not to flinch whenever she got to close to where she might fall out. Sure, she would most likely be able to break her fall with magic, not coming out with too many scratches, but it still scared him just the same. (Name) was gonna give him a heart attack one of these days.

“It’s a fucking magical flying boat, (Name). It goes eighty miles per hour tops. Do you know how advanced that was in the twelfth century? It was a fucking miracle of technology, (Name). It’s not the boat’s fault we’re currently travelling through Kansas.” Doux huffed. He quickly felt guilty for snapping at her and apologized. He felt a bit on edge lately. Their conversation last night kind of freaked him out. He wanted to be a little more protective of her now since she told him about how scared she was, but snapping at her would just accomplish the opposite of getting across how much he cared.

Name sighed. Looking around the ship, she noticed that Nari and Archie were just napping in the sun, completely unbothered by her and Douxie’s loud outbursts. She looked back out into the seemingly infinite grass field again.

“Well, I guess now is a pretty good time,” She said cryptically, “Hisirdoux, we need to talk.”

It was like she just injected ice water into his veins. He didn’t like her tone, plus, those words were never proceeded by something good. Never. “To talk?” he asked with a nervous tinge in his voice, hoping if she elaborated it wouldn’t be as bad as the conclusions he was jumping to.

“Yeah. Talk. About your feelings.” Well now he was panicking. She said that so solemnly. How did she know? Fuzzbuckets, she was about to reject him, on this boat they were stuck on, in the middle of Kansas. Rip out his heart and throw it into the grassy void.

“To talk, about my feelings?” he repeated her again, incredulously. He put on his best fake smile.

“Yes, Doux.” She sat down on the railing near him and crossed her legs. “I just- I think it’s time we had a proper conversation about stuff. Like say, I don’t know, how you’re handling your grief over a certain mentor.”

Douxie quickly let go of the breath, he wasn’t sure when he started holding, in a loud sigh of relief. Oh thank Merlin, he thought this was going to be bad. That’s what she wanted to talk about? Okay, not the problem he was expecting, but one he could deal with. He’s already had a couple of good cries. He spent most of last night mulling over not just Merlin but the whole concept of death. He could talk about the weight of grief hanging over his heart, no big deal.

“I believe I am handling it well, thank you for your concern, Love.” He tried to sound nonchalant.

“Hisirdoux Casperan, you stared out into the distance with unblinking glassy eyes for hours last night and barely spoke to any of us. Hell, you fucking died yesterday, Doux. Don’t think I’ve forgotten about that. You’re not fine. And you’re not weaseling your way out of this conversation either.” She said sternly. They entered an unspoken staring contest.

“Alright, Love, fine. I am fine. Okay?” She quirked her brow. “I am, truly. I’m at peace. He lived a good life and I’ll continue his legacy with honour. Of course I’m still sad about it, but I’ve got other things to focus on right now. Sure, my chest is still heavy, but it’s not crushing like it was when the wound was fresh,” he rubbed the back of his neck, “And I did get my last goodbye talk with him when I was dead,” He chuckled to try and lighten that last bit up, but name still winced at his words.

“Douxie, I just- I know what it’s like, ya know. To suddenly no longer have that father figure in your life. Someone you looked up to for so long. It’s hard Doux, I get that.” She sympathized. She tipped her head down towards the deck floor.

“Well, in a way, he’s already been gone for about, say, nine centuries. I’ve had my time away from him, so I know that I can do it. It’s the knowing that now he’s gone gone that’s the real kicker.” He glanced across the boat over to the sleeping pile of fur and greenery. Nari was curled up into a ball while Archie mirrored the same, but on top of her. They were like a couple of stacked buns. Douxie smiled at the sight. “And yet, do you know what makes it all feel better?” Name looked back up at him and furrowed her brows.

“You. And Archie. And Zoe. And Claire. And my bandmates and my coworkers and the rest of the Arcadia gang. I’ve got plenty of people in the world now. I know I’ve got all kinds of love.”  He hung his arm over her shoulders. He had made up his mind, he was going to open his heart to her soon. Almost dying really puts one’s priorities in view. “Recently, a great man, well, a great dragon, told me that family is not just who you have, it’s also who you’re with. If one thing I’ve learned in this nightmare week, it’s that you’ve got to enjoy people while you can. Because once they’re gone, they’re gone. You can’t dwell on past love, you’ve got to soak in the love you’ve got now, or you’ll miss it.”

“I guess I understand that.” (Name) said softly. She took in his words. Focus on the now love, huh. She could use to do that too. She felt his hand move from her shoulder to the small of her back.

“Oh hey look at that, we’re coming up on Missouri. How about we stop for brunch, Love?”

“Oh I’m starving,” Archie butt into the conversation and flew over to rest on (Name)’s shoulder. He did one of those black cat yawns where they turn their entire faces inside out and they become nothing more than a black hole with teeth, “I could really go for a bagel with extra lox right now.”

[graceslavenderhaze]

sunshine

{he’s so pretty, I physically couldn’t resist myself. here’s some fluff because I’m on edge about the season finale.}

synopsis: after coming back from being captive from the shadow man, connor and the reader have a hard time readjusting to life after the dark. 

reader notes: reader is non gender specific so anyone can read this and also luke’s sister this can be biological, adopted however you see fit! 

warning: anxiety, trauma, a little bit of angst if you squint but happy ending!

It was a bit traumatizing if you were honest, seeing a monster from something you thought only existed in nightmares first possess your boyfriend to torment you and your friends, then slowly pick your friends off one by one. Until it was only your brother and you left. After that it’s all fuzzy, it happened so fast. You barely had time to process anything before you both had acted on everything to save your friends and your own lives’. According to the internet it was trauma induced amnesia. That was the closest you’d get to closure. 

Other than venting to the other members of the midnight society. It wasn’t as if you could tell anyone. They’d barely believe you. Your brother and you tried to explain what had happened to your dad but he hardly believed you. You couldn’t blame him. If you hadn’t lived through it, you probably wouldn’t believe yourself. Due to everything that had happened in your quest to defeat the shadow man, you and all of your friends were grounded. Your parents suggesting that you’d needed time away from each other to realize your wrong doings and make up for said wrong doings. 

You felt trapped. It’d only been three hours of seemingly endless grounding sentence. Your phone, laptop, and remote to your tv had been taken so you’d been left to your own devices for pure entertainment. But you can only stare out the window so long before you want to scream. So you decided to redecorate your room. It was too dark in the corners, and even though the shadow man was gone it was still going to be a long time before you were able to sleep in a dark room comfortability again. Before any of you were able to be okay in the dark again. 

You looked back at the chaotic but somewhat comforting array of fairy lights you’d strung up around your room. Around the doorframe of your closet which was now open so the light could lightly shine into it, then in the parallel corner the lights ran to your desk. Another identical strand wrapped around the mold of the door of your bedroom, then over your bed, and then ending over your dresser. The light yet protective purple blaze felt enough. Enough to temporarily distract you from how bad things had been, in all the chaos you never let yourself break. Here in the comfort of your own room, the fairy lights glowing surrounding you, several tears began to make their way down your cheeks. 

Suddenly there’s a knock on the door, you clear your throat and then get up to open it. Expecting it to be your dad or your brother. There was no surprise when you saw your brother, holding both your phones. “ midnight society meeting, dad’s passed out.” he said handing your phone back to you. 

“who called it?” You croaked out, your voice slightly rasped. “who do you think?” he said rhetorically. A moment of silence washed over the two of you. The only person the two of you had been worrying about since they’d disappeared. Connor. You took a deep breath. 

“He’s Connor, the real Connor. We don’t have to be scared anymore, everything’s going to be alright.” Luke said. You knew he was the real Connor, you felt it. It was this indescribable feeling that you felt once you locked eyes on him. But was everything going to be alright?

“It’s not about Connor, it’s about everything else, i’ve never felt so scared in my life. I honestly have zero desire to listen to scary stories when my fucking life has felt like one recently.” You spilled out to your brother. He was slightly taken aback, that was the most you’d said in the past forty eight hours. After coming home you’d gone silent. Only muttering three word sentences at most. 

“So don’t listen to the scary stories but you have to talk to Connor, you two are miserable without each other. You balance each other out.” he said before giving you space and going back to his room. Once back in his room, Luke texted the group chat that excluded you to let them know that their plan was in motion. 

Lacing up your shoes, you shrugged on a jacket and then snuck out your window. Something you’d picked up from dating Connor. Then making your way to the boat dock where the midnight society meetings were held. When you got to the door you started to second guess why you came, this exact spot was where you watched two of your best friends and her brother disappear. Everything in you was screaming to leave. But something in you was whispering to go in. Pushing past your feelings and the doors you make your way upstairs of the boat dock. 

Looking exactly as it had been left the trap for the shadow man sat still and mirrors surrounding. Taking a deep breath you walked further into the room. Goosebumps rising over your skin, your favorite place had instantly caused your blood to run cold and now everything was different, like it or not. The stairs of the boat dock creaked, you whipped around. Relaxing instantly when you saw that it was just Connor. He made his way over to you. Once he was within arms reach, you launched yourself onto him, having zero desire to let go. Eventually, the hug broke apart. 

“There’s no midnight society meeting is there?” You asked. A shy smile spreads across Connors face as he shakes his head. “ I just didn’t know how else to break you out of your prison ward, plus it wasn’t hard to convince everyone else to help.” he said as he brushed a piece of your hair behind your ear, letting his hand caress your cheek. Leaning into his touch and holding onto his wrist gently. If you could relive a moment forever and ever. Any moment with Connor would suffice, but this one? It would be a shoe in. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” You didn’t have to be specific, you both knew what the it implied. Connor removed his hand from your cheek, he began to mindlessly wander the room. You knew he was dodging your question and you couldn’t blame him.

“Do you remember the last storm? My dad had been away for a fishing trip and your dad was at an away wrestling meet with Luke. So you came over to my house because you were terrified of being home alone in a storm.” Nostalgia washes over you as you start to remember that day,  as you started to walk over it had already started storming so by the time you showed up it looked like you had swam there. He’d given you some of his clothes so you didn’t get cold from being soaking wet. 

“Honestly, I would’ve been alright on my own. I just like being around you.” You admitted ready for him to make a joke or two. Turning around, He looks at you and smiles. Connor had a tendency to smile looking at you but who could blame him? 

“After a few episodes of whatever we were watching, we lost power and then when our flashlights were dead you said that we’d be fine because eventually the sun would come up, and the worst would be over.” You both had been waiting for sunshine for several hours before it shines through the windows of the Stevens house hold. Your phones discarded for emergency flashlight purposes but you were so wrapped up in each other you had forgotten they were still charged. 

“When i was in the dark, the only thing that kept me going was that. At first i thought it was him taunting me or something. But it was hope. You saying that eventually the sun would come up and the worst would be over.” Connor had stopping wandering, making his way back to you. Taking your hands in his.

“You’re my sunshine, thinking back to that night and every time i’ve ever been with you it just kept me going. I knew you were going to get me out of there. Cause let’s be honest you’re always fixing my messes.” Laughing at the last part your heart fluttered. 

“I love you.” You jumped straight off that cliff not knowing if you’d be caught or not.

“I love you too.” You were caught.

--

I am really happy with how this turned out! <3

[daimonhalos]

And though it was real, it doesn't feel like it could be

Read on Ao3!

Part of Skephalo week! → Day 2 – Family (and diamonds too in a way)

Word Count: 2.421

Characters: Badboyhalo, Skeppy, (kid!)Sapnap

Pairing(s): Skephalo (up to interpretation owo)

Warning(s): Fire (tell me if I missed any)

Summary: Sapnap gets help from both their dads setting up the perfect father's day gift for each of them, while still keeping it a secret from both.

A/N: Me? Writing fluff? Mark the day on the calendar. Okay guys, gals and cooler pals, there's some sweetness ahead so be aware of that. Also, I got a little philosophical towards the end, pardon me, happens often, I hope I made any sense. Hope you enjoy!

✾

❝ It won't be long 'til you are grown

- I love you so

- I love you, too

So I'll stay right here with you. ❞

Sapnap had tugged at Skeppy's hoodie for the fourth time in a row.

« Okay, okay, you little pest. » the latter picked up his son in his arms, adjusting him before he continued to walk along a familiar path.

« Can I carry your pick? » the hope in the young boy's voice caused a smile to creep on his face as he stopped to ponder one second: all things considered, they were just going for a little stroll around – at least that was what they had told Bad – so there was no harm in allowing him that until he had to start mining himself.

It didn't take long to find a cave entrance, standing out thanks to the looming darkness that crept up the cobblestone and deepened the more you stared at it. Skeppy let Sapnap down, branding his sword and pickaxe for good measure.

« Now, first I'm going to clear out the entrance from possible mobs, then we can proceed with our torches. » he sat down a crafting table, leaving his son to his favourite part of the job: lighting sticks up.

A little more than a year or so earlier, Sapnap had begun showing the first signs of fire magic, surely not to their surprise; that had granted them a trip to the nether, which allowed the kid to come to terms with the flames easier than how he had been stumbling his way through sparkles in the overworld.

Skeppy had shot a shocked look at Bad when he oh so nonchalantly let Sapnap fall into lava, all wide eyes and panic rising to his chest. His heart had certainly stopped for several seconds, but his companion only stared at the fluid substance as though he were expecting something, a grin stapled on his face.

And then Sapnap had risen above the surface, body completely unaltered, giggling and making his way across the reddish-yellow sea.

He was sure it had taken multiple minutes, a couple of which were simply him yelling at Bad for the lack of warnings, and various check-ups on the child before he could have been entirely convinced he had just witnessed all of that.

There Sapnap was now, confidently working with fire in the overworld, currently on his quest to get his other dad the prettiest gift he could muster with Skeppy's help.

The latter had gone a couple of steps into the cave, making a path for them to follow where mobs couldn't have reached before returning to his son, grabbing a handful of the torches he prepared.

« Let's light up our path, so we don't get lost, okay? »

« Mhm! »

Really, it was far too adorable: Skeppy's torches were followed by a trail of other ones placed at a far shorter height. The kid's free hand had been lit up the entire time too, a sort of signal to notice when they were running out of light source.

« Dad, look! » Sapnap pointed towards the ground, shimmering diamonds wedged in the stone right below their eyes.

« This early? That's a first. » a smile crept on the boy's face as Skeppy ruffled his hair. « I should bring you here more often if you get this lucky. »

The kid's eyes shone brighter than the gems around them. « Will you? »

The man seemed to consider for a dramatically long moment. « Nah. »

« Oh, come on! »

« I know you want to, Napi, but I can literally hear Bad yelling at me from the future. »

Sapnap grumbled something under his breath about “never letting him have fun” and “just wanting to help”, which caused an amused look on his dad's part.

After collecting the last remaining diamonds and some redstone because “that's one of dad's favourite colours”, they made their way back home, definitely not stopping in the middle of the forest because oh my gosh is that a nether portal?

« Don't even think about it. »

« But dad, we need something more! »

« I don't think netherrack works for a bracelet, Napi. »

« No, no, no. » Sapnap stopped in his tracks, pulling the hand he had been holding towards him. « We need netherite! »

That made Skeppy do a double-take, before turning around and kneeling down to meet his son's eyes. « Sapnap, I am not going to risk our lives for- »

« Are you scared? »

That damned smirk.

« Wow. » Skeppy sat back up. « You know the piglins don't like me, it's a sensitive topic. » he pretended to be offended, but felt the umpteenth tug on his arm.

« Pretty please? » now. Now a specific thing about raising a kid with someone, is that they're eventually going to pick up someone's antics. And, really, none had asked the little kid to pick up Bad's puppy eyes so well, but there he was, making Skeppy doomed to agree with him.

He checked on his pickaxe's status. « We go in, we take some quartz and then we leave, okay? »

Sapnap nodded heavily, expression determined, before sprinting to the portal.

Skeppy didn't have the time to reach him to get to the other side together, that he stopped for a moment, as the kid slowly disappeared before him.

« Love you, dad! »

His heart melted, just like the first time he heard that, or the second, like the time he comforted him after getting hurt, or sleep-drunk after a nightmare. It always softened him.

Skeppy followed after him and decided that, maybe, a trip to hell may have been a little worth it.

By the time they reached home, the sky had begun to darken and the figure of a concerned demon hurried over the entrance of their abode, decreasing his height to meet his family properly.

« What took you so long? » with an arm already secured around Sapnap as he lifted him up, Bad took some of Skeppy's tools to free him of the weight.

« It's a secret! » the kid revealed, shaking a leather sachet in one of his hands mischievously.

The demon's face fell. « Did you guys go mining? » it was kind of funny how his voice could become so high-pitched with disbelief despite his, at first glance, terrifying looks.

Skeppy shrugged as Sapnap freed himself from the half-hug of his dad, snagging the tools out of his hand to place them down in a chest and run to the kitchen afterwards. « Like he said, it's a secret. »

Bad walked towards him, giving him a once-over while grimacing. « You don't look too good, either. » he pressed his lips on the other's temple to check for any temperature rise, leaving a quick kiss afterwards. « Did you stay too long under the sun? »

« I'm just fatigued, no worries. » he gifted him a smile not to concern him further. « I'm going to nap for a while to fix that. »

The moment Bad stepped in the kitchen, he found a very pensive Sapnap staring up at the ingredients placed messily on the cupboards.

« Well, hello, chef Pandas. » he knew how much his son loved it when he messed around with the little voices he could make. « What are you going to delight us with today? »

« I want to make a beach picnic for dad! »

His eyes lit up. « That does sound very nice, may I assist? »

« Yeah! I can cook food up! »

« Sure Pandas, maybe when you learn not to get hurt first. »

It was an eventful evening of packing up different delicacies for that day's dinner, along with everything needed to set it down and protect it from undesired sand.

The surprise trip hadn't been that much of a surprise for Skeppy, as he knew exactly the direction towards which they were heading, having learnt it by heart thanks to the numerous amount of times they spent at the beach, even before they had let Sapnap in their family.

It had all fallen into a quiet tranquillity, after they mob-proofed the area and were done eating, telling each other sea-related stories.

« Like that one time your dad tried to stand still on a boat and ended up falling in the water two seconds after. » Bad snickered as Skeppy shot him a look.

« Actually, if I remember correctly, you were the one to miserably fall and turn your boat upside down. »

The kid could already picture the mini fight about to come, so he sat himself back comfortably.

« No, no, no. You were all like “Oh Bad, why don't we”- »

« This is ridiculous. »

« “-why don't we race towards that sand while standing!”»

« I did not say that- »

« Yes you did! »

« Wow, the lies. »

He broke the situation up with his sudden epiphany. « Gifts! » Sapnap yelled, having his parents turn to him immediately, as he fumbled for the leather sachet from earlier that day and handed it to Bad.

The latter blinked a few times and accepted the item in his hands, carefully undoing the tied up string around it: out of it fell a bracelet of black leather with three gems sitting together in the middle: redstone, quartz and diamond.

« Oh my gosh … »

« Happy Father's Day! » the kid sat up and leapt into Bad's arms to be pulled in a tight hug.

« You didn't have to do this, is that why you went out today? » he exchanged a quick glance with Skeppy who was simply admiring the soft scene. « Thank you so much, both of you, this is so sweet, I adore it. » he kept complimenting, as Sapnap released him to put the bracelet on Bad's arm himself.

He then turned towards the other, a grin creeping up on his face. « As for your gift … »

« Oh no, » Skeppy put his hands up defensively, before giggling. « Please, spare me. »

His son exchanged a look with Bad, both standing up to place a sort of vertical wooden pane on the side of the fire, and positioning themselves so the shadows of their hands could appear on the wood.

« Welcome to the ultimate shadow play! » the kid opened his arms theatrically. « Tonight, we will be telling the story of the Bravest Hero of the Nether! » Bad accompanied the explanation with various mouth sound effects.

Skeppy could hold it together, surely he didn't have his head in his hands already because of how adorable it all already looked.

The story had been a dramatic retelling of all the time they had spent in the nether on different occasions, with a specific focus on Skeppy, completely told out of Bad's shadow figures on wood, the occasional sound effects and Sapnap's incredible storytelling along with some firey visual effects here and there.

« And that is how, ultimately, he crossed paths with the Nether again, to collect quartz alongside his trusted warrior Sapnap. »

Bad dropped his arms. « You went to the nether without me?»

Okay, he had a point.

It was a little unnerving how the netherfolk didn't seem to like Skeppy that much, they would tolerate Sapnap despite his humanoid features, but rest assured with Bad around, they were always respected.

Which was a synonym of never attacked on sight.

Sapnap beat Skeppy in an apology. « I'm sorry, I ran towards the portal cause I really wanted to get the quartz myself, so dad went with me. We will tell you next time. »

The demon only sighed at the puppy eyes his son made at him. « Alright, I will accept that, but know that that expression doesn't work with me. » he then ruffled his hair, as the kid winked at his other dad, who mouthed him a grateful “thank you”.

Needless to say, the show was over and it didn't take long before Sapnap was sound asleep between his dads.

Switching from looking at the sea to the night sky, Skeppy let out a small breath. « Do you believe in fate, Bad? »

« Mh? Why the question? » he loved his soft spoken voice.

Careful not to wake his son up, he stroked Sapnap's hair.

« When we found him. The night before the sky was so clear you could see the planets. The fireplace had been flickering brighter than before the entire night and the day after you somehow knew you had to go to the nether. »

Bad seemed to consider, humming low. « Well, you see. The thing about coincidences is that humans set an objective number onto them, ignoring the fact that events are always subjective to the people that they happen to. One could see a myriad of facts linked together that actually have nothing to do with each other. »

« Or, have just a couple that do? »

He nodded. « You're following me. But where I want to go is: there's few beings, humans comprehended, that have the gift of speaking and a very specific type of intelligence that can bring us to question complicated things, such as your sense of self. So it is only logical to think that we're the ones to create these connections and notice them if we think too hard about them. »

« Isn't noticing connections the point? »

« Not if we are the ones to make them. We link events up ourselves. Thus, in a sense, I kind of believe fate to be artificial. »

Skeppy shrugged. « I mean, we did come up with the word … »

That pulled a chuckled out of Bad. « You're a muffinhead. But yea, I'm not saying believing in fate is dumb and you shouldn't do it. Wouldn't you believe in something you made for yourself, if it's good for you? So if you want to think Sapnap was destined to find his way to us in any circumstance, that's really nice. I like the thought. »

They both looked down at the kid, silence only broken by Skeppy's small snort when Sapnap snuggled closer, muttering an “I love you” in amidst his dreams.

« It is really nice. »

[yotd2009]

i am curious, as someone who’s only exposure to arthurania was reading jane yolen’s young merlin as a child, would you mind saying why hnoc is a bad adaptation? i’m super curious but no worries if not <3

this has been sitting in my inbox for months bc i kept telling myself i needed to write a full essay with proof from medieval lit to make myself feel smarter.  however, since i’ve recently lost all credibility bc i can’t articulate points to save my life, and since i’ve realized that i could answer this in a just a couple paragraphs, now seems like the right time to answer this ask. sorry for the wait.

under a cut bc length

also warnings for mentions of racism bc this is hnoc we're talking abt and sexual assault bc this is med lit we're also talking abt

the basic problems are pendragon polycule itself, the story beats of the album, the fridging and lack of characterization of morgan le fay, the clear influence of pop culture arthuriana, and whatever the fuck happened with gawain/e.

pendragon polycule is... just not a good take.  there’s a bit in the lancelot-grail abt arthur viewing lancelot like a son (and lancelot not giving a shit abt him).  also arthur knew his parents for years before lancelot was even born.  plus lancelot just Doesn’t care abt him and i can’t stress this part enough.  arthur repeatedly tries to have guinnevere killed, mostly in the lancelot-grail, and guinn didn’t really have any say in marrying him bc she was a teenager.  lancelot and guinnevere is a lot better but that’s not saying much.  guinn doesn’t exactly treat lancelot too well... like at all, BUT it’s not intrinsic to their relationship and is completely caused by medieval misogyny and i’m all in favor of modern retellings saying fuck that.  but also lancelot has multiple pseudo-canon boyfriends (this is med lit after all), and one pseudo-canon husband so like... there were better options.  (also lancelot’s husband is basically in a lavender marriage with guinnevere’s maybe girlfriend who most authors just eventually forget abt as the story progresses).

this next one is a problem with a lot of modern arthurian works bc the inclusion of elayne of astolat is too much to ask apparently.  the grail quest isn’t tied to the fall of camelot, it just happens to be one of the last grand adventures the knights of the round table have.  the event that traditionally sets off the fall is the death of the maiden of astolat/the lady of shalott/elayne of escolat/she has a lot of names, her story has a few variations but usually she either is cursed to stay in a tower and weave and only be able to see the outside world through a mirror positioned across from her window, until lancelot rides by and she rushes to see him out of the actual window and her mirror shatters, setting off her death, or she lives with her father and brothers and takes care of lancelot bc he was injured for a time and she gets to go on adventures to find him and she’s friends with gawaine and she dies bc lancelot rejects her and this version’s a lot more fun but also more happens which makes it harder to explain.  the way her story ends however, is that she dies after she makes arrangements for a glorious boat to drift from astolat to camelot carrying nothing but her dead body and a letter explaining that she died of love for lancelot du lac and the court mourns the death of such a beautiful and young maiden (her age varies a lot but i’ve always read her as a young teenager at most).  but the important thing is, camelot is doomed from the moment she washes up on its shore bc she’s an omen of the end and has symbolic meaning and all that, the maiden of astolat washes up on camelot’s shores, the court mourns the loss of a maiden in her prime and she marks the end of camelot’s prime as well, morgan le fay reappears after being presumed dead and warns arthur of guinnevere and lancelot’s affair, aggravaine and modred conspire to bring lancelot and guinnevere’s affair to light, they succeed but lancelot escapes, guinnevere is to be burnt at the stake and lancelot rescues her, killing aggravaine, gaheris and gareth (gawaine’s brothers) in the process, gawaine drags his uncle and camelot to war bc he was driven mad due to the loss of his brothers, lancelot accidentally kills gawaine, his best friend and maybe boyfriend (i have RECEIPTS), and gawaine forgives him on his detahbed while lancelot and guinn rejoin arthur, meanwhile modred, who practically had the throne handed to him, usurps and invites the saxons in, camlann happens, and camelot is destroyed.  no where in there is the grail quest.

morgan le fay is honestly the most questionable part of the album bc there’s not a single text where she dies.  like....  at least with eurydice in udad she died in the original... there’s no basis for morgan dying.  also she is NOT modred’s mother and anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar, she interacts with him once in the vulgate bc she had three of her nephews over and that’s IT.  it’s a horrible take which originated in the mists of avalon by marion zimmer bradley who is an honest to god monster for reasons i don’t want to trigger tag this post for.  also she’s one of the most dynamic and thought-out characters in the entire canon and they just made her a watered down morgause (modred’s actual mother, morgan’s sister, canonical milf)... there was no reason for it to be her apart from the fact that she’s more well known......

pop culture arthuriana is,,, one of my least favorite things.  no, morgan wasn’t modred’s mother, no, morgause wasn’t abusive but her husband sure was implied to be, no, aggravaine didn’t kill his mother, that was gaheris, he loved his mother, you’re only saying that bc he has a reputation as the “evil” orkney, no, the once and future king is not a good descriptor for arthur, stop making me read it, no, morgause wasn’t the one to initiate the thing with arthur resulting in modred, no, lancelot and arthur weren’t friends, no, tristan wasn’t a self-centered asshole, tennyson is a fucking liar, no, galahad didn’t have sex or want to, he’s one of the first ever explicitly asexual characters out there, no, galahad’s conception was NOT consensual, lancelot was tricked, and no, elayne of astolat wasn’t galahad’s mother, she’s implied to be younger than him.  those are just the big glaring ones, but i swear it’s bc of arthuriana’s reputation as a mythology and the connotations belonging to that word (no one true canon (which is true but there are still things that just AREN’T canon, not completely written down, passed by oral tradition) that causes ppl to see mediocre modern texts and go “oh. well this is abt as close to the original as i’m going to get” and don’t bother to look into so much as malory (who i only name bc he’s one of the most well known medieval authors with the most commonly used storylines, don’t read malory kids, he’s a mediocre-at-best writer even by medieval standards).  the big perpetrators of modern arthurian tropes are the books the once and future king by th wh*te, who is a shitty person and lets it bleed into his writing (which isn’t like... nice to read or anything, seriously why do ppl love this book so much it doesn’t have redeeming qualities), and the mists of avalon by marion zimmer bradley (it’s poorly written, the story is a mess, and mzb is honestly a monster and one google search will tell you that), and unfortunately the writings of tennyson, which are mostly good but he clearly didn’t read the povest (a later text that’s also my favorite, known for significantly improving ppl’s opinions on tristan, isolde and co.) before deciding he hated both tristan and isolde and he has HORRIBLE takes on them.  high noon over camelot is SEEPED in pop culture arthuriana and i think it would have been so much better if the band had read so much as a SUMMARY of the events of le morte.  it’s evident in the song “the once and future king” bc it’s,,,, literally named after one of the worst books in existence.  it’s shown in the morgan le fay thing, and it’s shown in the pendragon polycule thing.  and hell, i think you can even explain away the lack of elayne of astolat with pop culture arthuriana, bc ppl have had bad takes on her ever since th wh*te combined her character with that of ela*ne of corbenic, and the band probably went “huh, let’s write lancelot’s abuser out of this” and they would’ve been right to do so if that’s who elayne of astolat was.

the final big issue is gawaine, the closest thing the genre has to a protagonist, he’s pretty much canon bi and, in some texts, arospec, he’s a dashing knight of great reknown and he derails every romance to steal hearts, commit murder, and make out with every knight and lady mentioned.  and in hnoc he’s... racist.  that’s it.  it’s,,, almost completely unfounded by the arthurian canon and shows a major misunderstanding of his motivations (like i said earlier, he wants to avenge his brothers bc there’s a reoccuring motif of how much the orkneys value family).  i say almost bc in one text it’s his motivations for killing palomydes but i’ve never heard it mentioned by name bc that’s just what it’s known for.  most arthuriana fans just look away from it except when critiquing hnoc but that one text is an outlier, shouldn’t be counted, and i highly doubt the mechs made hnoc gawain how he is bc they found this text.  it’s just a bad text.

hnoc has,,, quite a few more minor issues, such as villainized ladies of the lake (their ONLY crimes were sealing away merlin bc he tried to assault teenage nimue/ninniane (proto-nimue/vivianne from the vulgate), and that one time vivviane/ninniane kidnapped adopted baby lancelot), assigning brain to merlin (y’know,,, the predator who helped arrange the [redacted] of arthur’s mother and tried to assault a teenager,,,) although merlin is portrayed in a positive light throughout modern arthuriana so i don’t think they knew, giving a song to pellinore, who my perception of has been forever altered bc i was introduced to him through malory and the explanation of torre’s conception, which you can just look up “sir torre arthurian” to find out abt if you can’t just Guess, if they wanted a song abt the questing beast palomydes was Right There AND has been associated with the questing beast for longer, but once again i don’t think they knew.

also namedropping a bunch of knights in the fiction is... it Suggests a bigger world full of all these other stories but they just don’t work bc the world of hnoc wasn’t designed in a way where the appearance of half these characters would make sense.  like,, tristan is referenced as dying in the grail quest in the same sentence as bedevere (one of the characters who is known for almost always surviving), but tristan Isn’t one of the knights who dies on the grail quest, his possible deaths (ignoring the potentially happy ending of the povest for a second) are either being murdered by his uncle, king mark (bc mark married tristan’s gf to try and get tristan killed and also to spite him), bc he was driven into a fury bc of tristan and isolde’s affair, or he’s injured and only isolde (the best healer in the world) can save him so he sends for her and if the ship he sent for her is supposed to fly white sails if she’s there, or black sails if she’s not, and the ship flies white sails but his wife (also named isolde) says it’s black sails (the why depends but usually comes down to jealousy), and so he gives up bc he thinks all hope is lost and usually succumbs to his injuries, either way isolde dies of a broken heart over his body.  there’s no way for the tristan and isolde story to play out like it’s supposed to in the world of hnoc, just as there’s no way for any story with gawaine (and Oh Boy are there a lot of stories with gawaine) or pretty much anyone else, without severely altering the canon.

of course, there are still parts of hnoc i like a lot, most of the music i adore and i just like the idea of space cowboys and the secret good hnoc that lives in my head.  and it has one of my favorite characterizations of galahad, even though galahad hnoc is nothing like galahad arthuriana.  it’s not GOOD but i like it and it’s fun to turn my brain off too, and i’ll always value it as my introduction to arthuriana.

also there are modern arthurian tropes i do like such as characters being genre-savvy/knowing they’re fictional/knowing they’ve done this before (which hnoc does wonderfully!) and bedevere-as-the-storyteller (everyone say thank you lord tennyson).

WOW that was longer than expected, i feel very passionately abt this, when i was planning to write a fully sourced essay i meant to include a bit at the bottom with recommendations to get into better arthuriana and i think i’ll keep that in this post.

if you like hnoc for the arthurian music i’d like to suggest heather dale’s arthurian music to you, she does occasionally fall into the trap of modern arthuriana (some parts of lancelot and arthur being close, morgan as modred’s mother), sometimes she’s just wrong (galahad at lancelot’s trial, a lot of tristan and isolde), and her stuff is kinda straightwashed sometimes (sir gawain and the green knight, for example) but i’d be lying if it wasn’t catchy, and it’s not quite as bad as hnoc adaptation-wise.  culwch and olwen is pretty accurate (albeit abridged bc culwch and olwen has SO many tangents), as is lily maid (it’s abt elayne of astolat!).

if you liked hnoc for king arthur... in space! then may i recommend to you my own fanfic? it's not posted yet but the second i finish writing the first chapter i'm going to make a Big Deal out of it that'll be impossible to miss!

if you want to learn abt arthuriana through tumblr-osmosis like i did at first, i’d like to recommend the love of my life @acegalahads, first and foremost (it’s me on a sideblog i’m just obsessed with myself), and i can’t recommend my arthuriana mutuals over there, @/gringolet, @/merlinenthusiast, @/jcbookworm, @/elayneofshalott, and @/elaineofascolat (the elayne urls have been popular recently), also i know for a fact that my mutual-in-law, @/itonje makes great arthuriana posts that i look forwards to whenever i open the tag.

here are a few good reference posts, a quick guide to the characters, a guide to characters of color, and a much more comprehensive intro to arthuriana post with even more texts linked to it.

if you want to ease into med lit, i’d like to introduce you to pre-raphaelite poetry, alfred lord tennyson and william morris are my favorites, although tennyson can’t be trusted with tristan and isolde.  the poem the lady of shalott is basically a rite of passage for arthuriana fans, although when it comes to tennyson’s writings abt elayne of astolat, i prefer lancelot and elaine, which is part of his much larger story, idylls of the king.  for morris, don’t trust what he says abt aggravaine killing his mother, but my favorites of his are sir galahad, a christmas mystery, which sounds like a shitty disney sequel, and palomyde’s quest, which i blame for my love of palomydes (that and the one bit of the povest where he asks tristan to be his greatest enemy and that he wants nothing more, gay ppl,,,,).

if you want to read abt lancelot and his husband, there’s the lancelot-grail cycle, which i believe was taken off of archive dot org and i think i found it on @/tobeisexhausting’s blog but don’t quote me on that.

the povest, which was a religious experience for me and i can’t reccomend enough if you want to like tristan and isolde, is here, i don’t know who scanned it but i think i found it on @/lanzelet’s blog

the dutch texts are just good in general, here’s a link to their section of a(n unfinished) site for hosting various texts by my former mutual @/reynier (who’s no longer on tumblr).  i’d like to recommend lancelot and the white hart specifically bc it’s mainly just just gawaine being gay for lancelot.

if you want older works, here’s my scan of the history of the kings of britain, and here’s culwch and olwen and pa gur.

oh wow this is even longer than i thought it would be so i’m going to wrap this up by saying that i always love to talk abt arthuriana more than anything if you have any questions or just are curious!

[from-the-clouds]

Hold Out - Marty Byrde x Reader

Masterlist

Summary: Reader has worked for Marty since the Byrde's first moved to the Ozarks, and finds him vulnerable and alone after a fight with Wendy.

Words: 1.8k

A/N: I warned ya’ll I’d write something for this show!! im currently obsessed, so please enjoy this. i have felt badly for marty since season 1, and feel like he just needs a love interest who's soft and gentle with him??? i have a whole world planned around these two if you'd like to see more. i know this is a very niche fandom but if you like this at all, please let me know! it was fun to write.

**********

She wasn’t sure what time it was when she stumbled into the clearing. Well past sundown, but not quite midnight. Her arms and legs stung where she’d been scratched by thorns and branches faltering through the forest. It’d been hours since she’d last heard from him. Each call that went unanswered made her more and more frantic. It was unlike him.

After searching all over town, all the spots she’d usually find him when he was hard to track down, she’d come up with nothing. And she had her phone pressed to her ear with Wendy’s number dialed in before she thought of one last place she hadn’t checked.

Gravel spit from the back of her tires as Y/N turned too quickly off the road and parked her car, throwing open the door and nearly sprinting through the woods to the small meadow.

She’d been going here since she was a little kid. It was her own little park she’d stumbled upon one day ambling around town. Very few locals knew about it, let alone any tourists. Tall grass and wildflowers nipped at her knees along with the mosquitoes, and stars glittered against the black abyss above, the moonlight reflecting off the lake. And despite the late hour, she could see everything, including Marty, standing with his back to her, toes over the edge of a rock that hung over the lake at least a hundred feet below.

Her heart lurched. “Marty,” Y/N said his name before she could stop herself, concerned for a moment she might startle him into the unthinkable. But when he didn’t so much as glance over his shoulder in response, she wondered if he’d even heard her.

Treading forward lightly, she paused a foot or two behind him, carefully reaching out. “Hey,” she said, fingers clasping around his wrist, above his expensive watch. He didn’t take the hint, didn’t budge, didn’t look at her, eyes still on the lake. It rippled placidly, lapping against the jagged rocks below them, but he was looking beyond its tranquil appearance, the emptiness beneath the surface that could swallow him whole, like he wanted it to.

Despite the chill of the evening, he was still dressed for work, in a button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, the moon reflecting off his dress shoes. She stepped a little closer to the edge alongside him, just to see his profile.

A slight tug on his wrist prompted him to step backwards, and she released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Marty’s chest began heaving, like he just realized where he was standing, his eyes shifting towards her like he finally noticed she was there.

“What are you doing out here?” she asked without thinking, and it was a stupid question, she knew.

He didn’t answer, and she didn’t expect him to. In the dark, she guided him away from the ledge, one hand between his shoulders. Marty tripped over himself, eyes red-rimmed and glazed over. He’d been drinking, or crying. Or maybe both.

He didn’t lose his cool. Even though it seemed they were always getting the short end of the stick, always scrambling to clean up a mess, ten steps behind where they should be. Despite this, he was always a force. Steady. But not now.

Of course she didn’t like being out of the loop. And he did a good job of communicating with her. So whatever this was, whatever could have caused this, she’d almost rather be ignorant to.

“How’d you find me?” was all he asked, and despite the distress on his face his voice was characteristically even. There was an old rotting picnic table they sat down at, with her next to him, looking over the lake, out at the pitch dark sky and the glimmering lights in the distance of a few boats still on the water.

“It took some time,” she said. “I looked everywhere.”

“You should be in bed,” he said flatly.

“Well I’m not,” she chewed on her lower lip, taking a deep breath, her chest catching on the ache in her heart.

“Did you need something?” he asked, his voice had the same frost she saw in the air when she exhaled, and she felt it clutch around her chest, her words coming out choked and stuttered.

“I- I didn’t want….the things I said the last time we talked...to be the last thing I ever said to you...”

“They wouldn’t have been,” he said, although not so convincingly. He still refused to look at her, his eyes never leaving the horizon.

“Are you sure?” she asked, feeling a bit more emboldened.  “Look, you don’t have to tell me what’s going on, or what you’re doing here. But I’m not stupid.”

He didn’t answer her, just leaned forward, elbow to his knee as he rubbed his temple between his thumb and forefinger. She could see clouds rolling in, the wind picking up. It was supposed to storm, and she didn’t want either of them to get caught up in bad weather.

“How’d you get here?” she asked. “I didn’t see your car on my way in.”

“I walked,” he said flatly. They were miles away from anything, let alone his house.

“Let me give you a ride home,” she said. All she wanted to do was help him. He’d helped her before, so many times, probably when he didn’t want to. So she knew she had to do this for him. She wanted to. Even if she couldn’t give him what he really needed.

“I can’t go home right now,” he muttered into his hand.

“Then stay at my place,” she said softly, she felt tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. She hated herself for feeling the way she did about him. Marty was a criminal. He’d made her one, too. But she was stuck on him, for some inexplicable reason. The only man who’d ever truly seen her. And right now, he looked so broken.

Surprisingly, he didn’t argue.

By the time they got to the car, she could hear the thunder rumbling in the distance, and the rain had started to come down.

The ride home went quickly. She was wet and shivering. Neither of them uttered a word and she was partly thankful for it, though with each moment of silence she felt more and more desperate to know what was wrong.

Marty had the decency to pull off his shoes at her front door, sitting on the couch in her living room while she put on some hot water for tea and changed into dry clothes. When she returned to her living room with the mug, towels and a blanket, she found him staring blankly ahead, one elbow resting on the edge of the couch.

He started when she pressed the mug into his free hand, and she frowned as she sat down next to him.

“Are you staying up with me?” he asked, turning to her as she tucked her legs underneath her on the middle cushion.

“If you want me to,” she said, leaning against the back of the couch.

Marty didn’t answer, he took a sip of his tea and then grimaced, abandoning it on the side table next to him. That meant yes. In his never ending quest to remain unreadable, she’d figured out a few things in the years she’d known him.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she prompted.

“I got into an argument with Wendy,” he said flatly.

In the time it’d taken her to drive him here, he seemed to have pulled himself together enough to be back on the defense, much more collected than before. “That’s all?” she asked, skeptical.

He shrugged. “You know everything else there is to know.”

And most of what he’d been through was enough to make anyone crack.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. She knew things between him and Wendy had always been tense, but she always assumed it was just because of work. They didn’t seem to really love each other, but it was none of her business. It was probably better not to press.

“I’ve only ever wanted to get us out of this mess,” he said, shaking his head. “And she….well we both...have only gotten in deeper.”

“I know,” she said softly. Marty buried his head in his hands, hunching forward. Tentatively, she reached out, placing her hand at the base of his neck, then slowly working her thumb against the knots she could feel rippling underneath the skin of his shoulders. Marty exhaled, lifted his head up from his hands to look at her, finally.

His normally steely blues were rimmed red and glassy. Whether he’d been crying or not, the strain was evident on his face, somewhere between the dark circles that hung beneath his eyes and his sunken cheeks. Tense was an understatement, and the constant pressure the past few years had taken their toll. It’d been awhile since she’d been this close to him, and she could see the gray in his hair, sprouting up around his ears and along his hairline, the stubble on his jaw.

“Is there anything I can do?” she asked, near pleading, desperate to provide some sort of solace. She never felt the need to fill empty space with words, but she was scared for him. But at the same time, she felt she couldn’t be enough to comfort him.

He answered her with a sad smile. His hand rose to clasp her own, still resting at his shoulder. Gooseflesh rose on her arm as she was drawn closer, and if this were any other man, she’d expect him to kiss her.

Y/N reached out, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close. It was impulsive, and she expected him to jolt away, at first. He was warm, his shirt still damp from the rain. His arms wrapped around her torso, she felt his steady breath on her neck, his head tucked under her chin.

“This is enough,” he whispered.

The rain came down steadily outside, thunder rumbling above, and she closed her eyes. She’d stay this way as long as he needed her. It was a long time, then, she only realized, when his breathing became light and even and she, too, drifted off.

When she woke up the next day, alone on her couch with a blanket draped carefully over her, she knew what to expect from Marty. He’d carry on like it never happened. Like she hadn’t let her lips brush over his temple, like he hadn’t whispered ‘thank you’ before he fell asleep in her arms. And she thought maybe it would be better off for her to believe it’d all been a dream.

[thebibliomancer]

Tides of the Dark Crystal liveblog pt 22

Tides of the Dark Crystal because Amri just got pulled into the water, perhaps by some manner of white whale but probably not.

Last times on book: Amri and co are on a quest to unite all the Gelfling against the Skeksis. They’ve succeeded with the Sifa at Cera-Na and the Dousan of the Wellspring but while they were avoiding ever going to Ha’rar, All-Maudra Mayrin was killed by the Skeksis. Her daughter Seladon has become the new All-Maudra and spoke out in favor of loyalty to the Skeksis. In Ha’rar, the protagonists run into Tae of the Sifa and regrouped with her. While they were supposed to be sleeping on the problem, Amri instead fell off a boat because he heard a sea monster.

Chapter 22

Amri meets a new friend, unless he doesn’t, and then has an epiphany after getting friendly with a city street

So Amri is not drowning for the second time in the book despite being in some deep water. The first time it was because Naia was there sharing oxygen with him. This second time he’s just not drowning for some reason. He ponders aloud if he’s dead.

The creature he saw in the water is swimming around him, not giving him a good look, but untangling the rope that Amri tangled himself in like an idiot.

Pretty friendly sea monster.

The water filled his mouth, but he didn’t drown. He turned when he saw movement, but the creature that circled him, long and streamlined, was always just out of sight. It swooped through the thick water, giving scant glimpses of its long tail and powerful limbs that propelled it through the water as easily as a bird in flight.

The sea monsters responds to Amri pondering mortality by telling him he’s not dead.

“Um... am I going to die?”

“That is a strange question.”

Stupendous.

The sea monster’s voice (and general unhelpful way of answering questions presumably) pricks at Amri’s memory.

“Are you a Mystic?” he asked.

“Hmm... I am pretty mystical.”

Which is what Amri had said about urLii to Kylan and Naia back in the previous book!

Amri has enough of the vagueness or wondering whether he is or isn’t dead and just goes “I’m gonna go” because the whole conversation is like this. The Mystic asks Amri to wait and finally swims into sight.

Amri recognizes the multi-limbed individual as definitely a Mystic and guesses that they’re also the water spirit who is reputed to light the coast side lanterns.

But when the Mystic swims closer, Amri realizes what really seemed familiar about them. The Mystic’s eyes remind Amri of skekSa’s.

“Are you skekSa’s opposite?” Amri gasped.

“Opposition is a falsehood. Like day and night -- convenient words, but only part of the truth. For there exists such a thing as dawn, and also dusk. All phases in the turning of the spheres. I am merely a swimmer of the seas.”

!

It’s she!

They don’t name names here but its urSan the Swimmer!

Because in the game of not quite opposites between the Skeksis and the Mystics, skekSa said ‘i’m going to sail on top of the water haha’ and urSan went ‘ok i’mma swim everywhere’ and jumped into the ocean.

I can’t get over how great a concept that is. Just a urRu swimming everywhere.

Mystics are so ponderous on land but urSan is zooming around underwater. Maybe their problem is that they’re meant for the water.

She apparently also knows magic that negates the coldness of the water or the need to breath which explains why Amri is definitely not dead.

Amri asks if the Swimmer is here to help the Vapra, somehow believing “in the past, the Mystics had come to their aid when they had needed it most.”

“You already know how to help the Vapra,” the swimmer said, echoing his intonation so it was like hearing his own voice bubbling back at him.

“So you’re not going to help.”

“A compass is nothing without a ship.”

“Then point me in the right direction!”

“I already have.”

Because, yeah, that’s about the average level of helpful the urRu tend to be.

I mean, it is helpful, in the sense of you eventually figure things out. And Amri tries.

He keeps trying to puzzle through while the Swimmer keeps offering vague answers.

Amri complains that he doesn’t know anything about the Vapra or their city and that the Swimmer should be speaking to Tavra.

“I am speaking to whom I should be speaking. To the Shadowling that brought a song from deep caves to an oasis lake. Tell m, what is the difference between the waves of the sea and the waves of the sand?”

and

“What is the difference between crystals of stone and crystals of water?”

“Crystals of water?” Amri asked. Then he remembered. “You mean ice?”

“Deatea. Fire. Deratea. Air. Kidakida. Water. Arugaru. Earth. Four words with one center sound. Four elements with one central heart. Water becomes steam. Is that not air? And then it burns. Is that not fire? Dawn becomes day becomes dusk becomes evening becomes night. Becomes dawn once again. Where does one end and the other begin? Is there such a thing?”

This would be great for my fantasy setting with the elementalism magic system.

Its good stuff. I’m not sure where its leading. The solutions in these books tend to surprise me because they’re pretty magical.

Amri still doesn’t get it either and is now so confused that he’s seriously considering that he is drowning.

“But I’m a Grottan,” he called desperately. “I don’t know anything about waves except that I’m scared of the ocean. I don’t know anything about the daylighter world except that I’m clumsy at walking in it!”

You’re not clumsy at walking. You’re clumsy wearing shoes.

That’s pretty inspirational actually.

Not helping the unreality Amri feels, bubbles obscure the Swimmer and then propel Amri to the surface where he suddenly wakes up and finds himself on the deck of Onica’s ship, being shaken awake by Naia. Not wet at all from a dip in the ocean but a bit damp from snow melting on him.

Uh. Huh. Weird.

Naia is touching him to make sure he’s okay and they have a mutual blushy moment about that.

They go inside and Naia makes him a nice hot cup of... uh, water. Do people just drink hot water? There’s so many herbs in this boat.

“I had the strangest dream,” he said. It tasted like a lie. It couldn’t have been a dream, could it? He stared at the bundle of herbs in the center of the table, cold and dormant in the clay bowl. He shook his head. “Must have been a dream.”

He tells Naia what he dreamed, trying to be quiet but waking up everyone anyway. It seems more and more dreamlike the longer he’s awake and he’s pretty sure that the herbs that Onica used to try to Far-Dream earlier gave him a weird vivid dream.

Silly of him to think a Far-Dreamer would say a dream is just a dream.

“Even if it was a dream, that doesn’t mean it’s not important,” Onica replied. “Do you have any idea what it means?”

Amri blushed. “You’re the Far-Dreamer. Aren’t you supposed to be the one that knows...” Even as he spoke, he thought of what the Mystic had said. Dawn to day to dusk. Being a Far-Dreamer didn’t mean it was her responsibility to know everything there was to know about dreams. Perhaps he had been putting too much stock in titles.

You already know how to help the Vapra.

And this time he does already knows, it seems, because he suddenly darts out into the night, dismissing Tae’s concerns about the Skeksis since they can’t see very well at night.

Naia catches up with him and Amri feels comforted by having her at his side.

Shiiiiiiip tease.

They hike together into the city in silence where Amri does a thing.

Amri leaned down and pulled and pulled the straps off his sandals. Naia stood by and watched, hand on the hilt of her dagger. Ready to protect him from anything, even as he did something she didn’t totally understand. He tried not to worry what Naia would think of him, acting like a Shadowling in the middle of the Gelfling capital. He couldn’t worry about it. He had to be who he was.

He tossed the sandals aside, letting his back curve to the shape he had tried to hard to straighten. Barefoot, he crouched on the frozen stone pathways, and for the first time, his fingers and toes tasted the street of Ha’rar.

I’m of mixed feelings about this.

A revelation that Amri should just be himself does fit. His super move has been letting Tavra take over his body so she can do what she does do. But they don’t really do that enough that you have to start worrying about Amri wishing he were another person.

There was that bit where Tavra told him he couldn’t rely on Grottan tricks.... uh, and then his Grottan tricks don’t come up so much. Oh, Amri. Why won’t they let you be the weird alchemy boy?

He has had repeat things about being unfamiliar with shoes and walking without crouching but he wasn’t doing that to fit in socially. He had to wear sandal shoes because walking so much was doing a number on his feet. He had to walk not crouched because that was messing with him adapting to walking with sandals.

And in fairness, he puts the sandals back on after this so he doesn’t freeze his feets while walking back. So, the practical benefits of wearing shoes are recognized.

So I don’t know about Amri hadding to be who he was but I’m glad that he is.

Anyway. Amri has ground sense. Talking to sand and talking to rocks. Now, thanks to the Swimmer, he has realized that water is a beautiful spectrum and he can talk to ice too.

He gets a good feel for the vibrations of Ha’rar. The whole thing.

From the street to the Vapra homes to the citadel, the ocean and the cold blue mountains. It was all connected, intertwined somehow. As if some perfect, pure mineral laced the entire city in a web of crystal, originating from a source high in the mountains that looked down on Ha’rar.

Amri actually presses his ear to the ground to hear even better. And he hears how the song of Ha’rar differs from the mineral of the Dousan Wellspring or the rocks of the Caves of Grot.

This was fluid, like the sea or the lakes or rivers. Clear and pristine. Diamond-hard, carrying the thousand sounds of the city from one end to the other.

It was crystal, but not of stone.

OF COURSE ITS SO OBVIOUS NOW

No, I lie, I’m still lost.

What did you learn, Amri?

It was so simple, now that he knew. Now that he’d listened.

Dangit. Just tell me.

But he doesn’t. Cruel, cruel POV protagonist. Withholding plot.

“We have to get Tavra and Kylan to the trees of the Waystar grove,” he said. “I know how to send a message to the Vapra of Ha’rar.”

Fine, I guess I’ll read another chapter of the book I was already reading!

[dragonheadskilax]

Gonna annotate about Leon’s entire character to y’all because he’s so so good, and every time I see someone say he’s a bad character for crushing on a man who doesn’t like him back i’m >:(

An archer born in a Zofian town. His manner of speech and conduct are unmistakably similar to a young lady's. He grew up care-free thanks to his parents and their laid-back environment. He was often teased for his effeminately good looks, and he always responded with a test of skill--which he would win, improving his reflexes. He joined the army to search for someone he could devote his heart to. When Valbar decided to accompany Celica, he naturally tagged along, and provided much assistance during the journey. He has a frank personality, saying what's on his mind; he's also the type of person who wears his heart on his sleeve. After the war, he became a merchant and it's said he lived a free and happy life.

The area of Zofia do follow Mila who is known as the goddess of love so considering how Leon is sappy and having the title “True of Heart”, Leon would totally be into lovecore aesthetic.

He may act feminine, use female gendered words in other languages, and would call himself a maiden, but as far as everything else he’s crude and mean and doesn’t hold back on filtering himself even if he’s talking to a kid.

Leon left home when he was young, so considering how this game series does have a thing of making 15 year old kiddies soldiers I’m guessing he left home at around that age.

To ‘wear your heart on your sleeve’ means to be honest and openly show your feelings or emotions. He’s painfully honest and drop hints he’s not straight.

"...Blerg. I don't like sea travel, and it sure doesn't like me. I'm nauseous, I'm sunburned, and I'm wind-beaten. I look like death's damp leftovers. But YOU look fresh as a daisy, Priestess! What's your secret? ...What? Nothing? NOTHING?! But you look like a dew-dappled angel! Augh, that's so annoying... Well, youth is great and all, but don't expect it to last."

There’s that painful honesty.

He sure does focus on his looks. He’s 24, smh Leon don’t think that you’re not gonna last past 30.

"Great. We finally get off that infernal boat, and now it’s the desert. Are you doing this on purpose, Priestess? Is it personal? *sigh* I want to get out of here before I dry up like a mummy. If I turn hideous and Valbar abandons me, it’s your fault. …What did you say? …Valbar isn’t the sort to judge people by their appearance? You think I don’t realize that? I know him FAR better than you! Gods, it really throws me when you’re so rational and correct…"

Still trying hard to get noticed by Valbar.

I like how he’s saying this particular line to a 17 year old, like chill, dude. Be nice.

"When I was a kid, there was this guy that I was head over heels for. He’s the reason I enlisted, actually. Just so I could stay close to him. He died in the first battle we fought. I cried so hard, I thought my eyes were going to float clean out of my skull. Valbar saved me from that. Every time he saw me, he’d take the time to say something. Cheer me up. What can you do with a man like that but fall in love? You’re thinking I’m a tramp, aren’t you? Well, I’m not. It’s hardly my fault that the world is full of wonderful, lovable people. Such a thing really motivates one to get out there and save it."

He made a big decision to leave home and enlist to follow a guy.. Now that he fell in love with Valbar he’s doing anything to follow him, too. I guess what’s different is it had been an unrequited love, even when it was suggested that Valbar knew about it it remained as a crush. Leon loves him at a distance so then he wouldn’t get badly hurt as he once had.

Him saying he’s not a “tramp” is a bit of info I like because people tend to wanna characterize effeminate gay characters as being touchy and wanting to peek at lotsa guys (which isn’t bad but there’s more than one type of guy), but not Leon, he’s more of a yearning for a soul mate kinda guy. He’s not big on lots of physical touch unless he really likes ya. "Hey, hey, now. No more of that." “I'm a friendly fellow, but not the touchy-feely type. All right?"

talking to Valbar “Heh heh. But it's fine. Emotions come in many forms, and as you say, there's no point in hanging on. I'm still glad I have these feelings, and nothing will change that.”

A crush is totally different than being in a relationship so like... I don’t like it when people say he’s a bad character for it. It totally happens to like someone but they don’t swing that way. In Leon’s case he keeps the crush because it feels safer and sappy to have it. Even if he tries his darnest to let Valbar get the hint he Loves loves him, when nothing happens he just accepts that.

talking to Valbar “Just realizing I've been a fool for feeling sorry for myself. Compared to what you've gone through, my worries are nothing.”

Despite the ol’ “keeping his heart on his sleeve” thing Leon has a knack of keeping negative feelings to himself. Probably the type who wouldn’t admit it because it doesn’t feel as big of a deal compared to other’s. This guy needs a hug so bad.

Kamui: “Oh, you're a laugh riot. But anyway, what do you think makes a good man?”

Leon: “Hmm. That's not easily summed up in a few words, but... for starters, he should be kind, strong and mature... while maintaining a boyish innocence. He also needs to listen, but be ready to tell the hard truths when necessary.”

Kamui: “Oh, come on. No one's that perfect.”

Some people take their conversations as being odd or random information or just to express again on how Leon’s gay but I wanna turn more attention on Kamui’s motive for asking in the first place. For someone who tries to not make people take him as gay, and explicitly so in the manga, he sure do wanna know what Leon’s type is if he’s got his eyes on Valbar.

Kamui is kinda right that no one could be perfect but Leon had been describing Valbar, when like,, they’re not even in a relationship… Leon honey… don’t hurt yourself like this. This leads to their next conversation;

Kamui: It's about… what you said before. So what would you do if Valbar ended up being.. the opposite of your ideal?

Leon: Well, that's an absurd question. But in the interest of humoring you and passing the time... Well, I suppose I'd set off looking for a man who met my perfect ideal. A journey like that might actually be kind of... fun.

Kamui: I think that's the first time you and I have agreed on anything.

Kamui could probably tell that Valbar isn’t ever going to return the kind of love Leon wants, and tries to learn what Leon’s thoughts are about that. Because even if he says he doesn’t care much about anything he seems to care about Leon. On the battlefield given his specific quotes for Leon and in these conversations. Kamui tells how his luck went south ever since joining in this journey and he’s only sticking around for the money, but that job he was paid for was done a long time ago at his recruitment quest. So he seems to hang around anyway for his sense of completion on things it seems.

The word ‘journey’ is like music to Kamui’s ears considering his history. It would be a fun writing idea actually of them traveling across Valm picking guys to speed date, well, like in the manga lmaooo but wider ranged.

This would be the first time Leon speaks nicely to Kamui instead of being standoffish and harsh. Kamui sounded really relieved for that. Then when Leon says he doesn’t like him that way Kamui instantly tries to back track lol

"Hello, Kiran! I've prepared some tea. Would you care to join me? I must admit, I was anxious when you first summoned me here. Ugh, don't laugh—it's rude! I may not look worried, but I have my fair share of concern, same as anyone else. Anyway, you've proven yourself more than capable, so I suppose I don't mind sticking around. To be honest, I am eager to return home... But that can wait, I think... Care for another cup?"

He says this when level 40 in FEH. So by this point he’s well acquainted with the player. Him admitted that negative feeling is once again that thing he has of keeping feels in to not seem it’s a big issue. And him wanting to go back home…. boohoo..

(If Valbar lives) Welcomed into the One Kingdom's Brotherhood of Knights, Leon remained at Valbar's side until an injury ended his fighting career. He then took up work as a merchant in the city market, where he lived free, happy, and dauntlessly true to himself to the last.

He better keep that good happy ending 👊

(If Valbar dies) Dealt a grievous blow by Valbar's death, Leon disappeared for a time before returning to join the One Kingdom's Brotherhood of Knights. There, he fought with the strength of a hundred men, and later served as an instructor to new recruits, contributing greatly to the order.

It’s messed up to think of Leon losing someone he loves again….. He should not go through all that again… Where did he disappear to.. Did he turn himself from twink to a bear to take the place of what would’ve been Valbar’s job if he lived (since Valbar ending would’ve been him becoming the instructor)

[thecassadilla]

Don’t Look Back

Pairing: Kristanna

Rated: M

Word Count: 2,945/AO3

Summary: After their separation is prophesied by a strange woman, Kristoff goes on a quest to the underworld to save Anna.

Author’s Note: Hi everyone! This is my contribution for Kristanna Week Day 5 - Blue! I wasn’t originally going to write a spin on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth for this day, but the idea came to me last night and I just had to write it out. I also apologize if I messed up any of the mythology, it’s been nearly 10 years since I last read this story and I kind of adapted it to suit the needs of the fic. I’m not really crazy about it because it’s a little different than all of the other stuff I’ve written but what am I gonna do? I hope you enjoy it despite it's weirdness!! (Sorry for all the asterisks, tumblr is finnicky with language and tags) *Please note that this fic is rated M for light s*xual content and temporary character d*ath*

There were few things rarer in the world than true love, and Anna and Kristoff had been lucky enough to find it with each other. In the beginning, they hid their feelings, and for far too long, they danced around the possibility of being together. When they finally came together, what grew between them was beautiful and rare.

In no time at all, they were blissfully married, and spending nearly every waking moment together. On this particular day, they’d gone for a stroll in the park, as the weather was getting colder by the day, and soon being outside would become unbearable. They walked hand in hand, bundled up in their winter attire, and walked along a wooded path. For such a brisk day, there were plenty of people out and about - children and families, joggers, dog walkers. They chatted about their upcoming plans and current events as they walked, damp leaves crunching beneath their shoes. Just as they were getting ready to leave, a wiry grey-haired woman approached them.

“There is very bad energy here,” the old woman warned, eyes widened with fear. “You will not last together.”

“Excuse me?” Kristoff asked, wrapping a protective arm around Anna’s shoulders.

“You’ll be torn apart,” she hissed and waved her hands around manically, before wandering up to another unsuspecting group of people.

“What does she know?” Anna scoffed, rolling her eyes.

He wasn’t the superstitious type, but there was something about what the woman said that managed to rub him the wrong way. “That was...strange.”

She looked up at him, and frowned. “Are you actually worried?”

“No,” he lied, though it was useless - Anna was exceptional at reading his face.

“Nothing can tear us apart, my love,” she promised him, stroking his cheek with her soft, delicate fingers. “Nothing can come between us. Especially not a crazy old lady in a park.”

She’d said it with such confidence that he was able to temporarily brush off the overwhelming sense of doom that the old woman had managed to stir up in him. It wasn’t until they got home that evening that the anxiety returned. He normally kept a calm and level head, but losing Anna was his greatest fear and the sheer thought of it was enough to make his stomach turn. He was quiet throughout dinner as she blathered away and she didn’t bring up his unusual silence until they were lying on the couch.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he sighed.

“Something is bothering you.”

“I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“You don’t have to,” she assured him. “But I’m all ears if you change your mind.”

“It’s not a big deal, I just need to relax.”

“How about a bath?” she suggested, squeezing his arm. “I can’t think of anything more relaxing than that.”

He smiled at the thought of it and just a little while later, they were submerged in a tub of warm water and bubbles, her bare back pressed up against his solid chest. He pressed kisses to her neck and her ear, caressing her breasts with one hand and slipping his other hand to tease the sensitive area between her legs all while she giggled and moaned from his touch. They moved from the tub to their bed after they pruned up, eager to please each other and put the stress of the day behind them. It was so easy for him to get lost in her bright blue eyes as she looked up at him with adoration, biting her lip and digging her nails into his back as he thrust into her.

Long after they were both satisfied, he cradled her in his arm and she rested her head on his shoulder, drawing lazy circles on his bare chest.

“I hope you feel better now,” she mumbled. “Because I know I do.”

“I do,” he confirmed, pressing a kiss to her hairline. “Taking a bath together was a great idea.”

“We should do it more often,” she smiled, looking up at him through her eyelashes. “You should get some sleep.”

He watched as her eyes fluttered closed and her body relaxed against his, and he sighed contently, closing his own eyes and drifting away.

He didn’t remember waking up the following morning, but the sunlight streaming in through their curtains had created a weird, hazy effect. Just as he had expected, she was still lying next to him, practically glowing in the morning light.

“I have to go,” she said suddenly.

“You should stay,” he whispered in her ear, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close.

She managed to free herself from his grasp and turned to face him, dragging her hand from his face to his chest and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. “You know that I have to go, but I’ll be back soon and we can pick up from where we left off.”

After one last passionate kiss, she crawled out of bed and he propped himself up on his elbows, watching as she padded across the bedroom floor. She looked back to give him a flirtatious smile before closing the bathroom door. He didn’t even know where she had to go, but with a grin of his own, he flopped back onto the pillows and tossed his arm over his face, wondering how he’d gotten so lucky.

Until she didn’t come home.

Though their separation had been prophesied by the lady in the park, his heart was shattered and he was overcome with grief - god, the grief was unbearable. He’d lost his beautiful wife, the most important person in his life, the person he truly loved and who loved him back, unconditionally. He cried over her pale body for days, wishing that his tears would bring her back but knowing deep down that his sadness had no power in determining her fate.

But, he’d heard of someone who did have that kind of power - the god of the underworld, Hades, who had a penchant for collecting souls. If the mythology was true, then there had to be a way to find the underworld and convince Hades that Anna needed to be earthside with him. They belonged together, and there was no one - human or god - who could tell him otherwise.

He did as much research as he could, scouring books and maps, trying to figure out a way to get to the underworld - to get Anna back. He didn’t care how far he had to travel, or whether it was by land or by sea, but he had to get to her.

So he did, setting off on a long journey across the world before finally coming across the dark cave that had been described in every piece of literature he’d gotten his hands on. A discarded boat on the banks of the river attracted his attention, and he climbed in, picking up the ore in his hands and rowing towards the cave. As he rowed, the water beneath the boat changed from translucent and blue to an oily, black sludge.

When he finally descended into the dark cavern, he found that he was no longer rowing the boat, but that control of the water had been taken over by a force behind him. He turned around and there was a tall, gangly man standing at the back of the boat, guiding them through the rough waters. He could tell from first glance that the man was not human, but that was to be expected - he was going to the underworld, after all. He’d read about this particular man; a ferryman who escorted the souls of the d*ceased to the underworld, though he certainly wasn’t escorting the d*ad in this case.

The journey to the underworld was a long and dangerous one, and he knew they had reached a crucial area when a fog began to form across the sides of the cavern - souls. Everything that surrounded them was d*ad; shriveled leaves and withered trees shrouded in darkness. Finally, the boat collided with a dock and Kristoff turned around to find that the ferryman was gone. He took a deep breath before climbing out of the boat, more determined than ever to find Hades and bring his wife home.

Being surrounded by death created an unsettling, eerie feeling. Kristoff could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he wandered aimlessly through the darkness, surrounded by the foggy mist. Despite the fact that he was most definitely alone, he didn’t feel alone. He felt as if he were walking along a busy sidewalk in a major city, dodging tourists and workers, rushing to their destination.

Finally, he came upon a looming, black castle and he knew that he had made it to his own destination. With all of the determination that he could muster up, he marched toward it; through the gates, down the cobblestone path, and into the palace that belonged to the god of the underworld. Hades had a bride of his own, and together they sat in matching thrones at the end of the long hallway.

“You’re not welcome in the underworld, mortal,” Hades’ threatening voice boomed.

Kristoff was not going to take no for an answer; he hadn’t made it this far to give up. “I’m here for my wife and I refuse to leave without her.”

“You don’t get to make demands.”

“I need my wife,” he pleaded. “I can’t live without her. I won’t leave without her.”

The threatening creature moved to stand from his throne, but his wife held out her arm, which caused him to pause. She leaned toward him, her long, dark tresses moving in a fluid motion with her body. Her hand flexed over the distance between her mouth and his ear as she whispered to him. Kristoff gulped, unsure of what her actions meant, though he hoped it was an act of mercy.

When she finally pulled away, Hades mischievously narrowed his eyes. “How about we make a deal?”

“Anything,” Kristoff blurted desperately.

“You may have your wife back,” Hades offered, “But, you may not see her until you return to your realm. You will be guided by the ferryman and she'll be in your boat, and once you’ve reached the earthside, she’s yours. If you look back at her before you’ve reached the earthside, then she stays in the underworld permanently.”

“Deal,” he answered without hesitation.

When he blinked, he was back in the boat. He didn’t remember leaving the castle or walking back through the depths of the underworld. He was petrified to look anywhere but straight ahead, and when the boat started moving, he called out to her. “Anna, are you here?”

Miraculously, she responded. “Yes, honey, I’m here.”

Hearing her voice nearly caused him to combust - god, how he missed the sound of her voice. It was almost enough for him to lose control and turn around. “I need to see you.”

“Don’t turn around,” Anna begged. “If you look back at me, then I can’t come home with you. Don’t look back.”

“How can I trust that this isn’t a trick?” he cried. “I need to know that you’re here.”

“I’m here,” she promised. “Keep your eyes closed until it’s safe.”

“How will I know when it’s safe?”

“I’ll tell you. Don’t open them until I say so, okay? Promise me that you won’t open your eyes until I tell you to.”

“I promise,” he agreed, trembling from the stress. He closed his eyes, unsure of what he would do if he lost her yet again. The one thing he was certain of was that he couldn’t live without her. If he had to take drastic measures to ensure they would be together, then he would do so.

For a long time, the boat ride was quiet. In the short span of time that he’d spent in the underworld, he managed to forget how long and treacherous the journey there was. It was difficult to resist the temptation of turning around and checking to make sure that the god of death had made good on his promise, that the woman he loved was actually in the boat with him.

After what felt like an eternity, she spoke again. “We’re almost there, but don’t look back yet.”

“Okay,” he said, hardly able to hear her over the sound of his pounding heart.

Suddenly, a pair of arms came down around his neck, and soft lips were pressing a kiss to his cheek. He didn’t dare to open his eyes - he couldn’t risk it. If this was some kind of test or trick from the god of the underworld and he opened his eyes, she’d be gone for good.

“You can open your eyes,” she said, pressing her cheek against his. “We’re safe.”

“Are you sure?”

“We’re back on earth,” she assured him. “We’re here, together. I’m alive.”

“Are you sure?” he repeated, his voice strained. “Because if you’re not sure, we’re both going to end up back in the underworld.”

“Touch me,” she begged, freeing her grasp from his neck and bringing his arm up to her face. “It’s me. I’m real.”

Through his touch, he recognized her features; her perfectly smooth skin, the slope of her petite nose, and her plump, kissable lips. “It’s really you?”

“It’s me,” she confirmed with a sniffle. “You can look.”

He slowly blinked his eyes open and the first thing that he noticed was that the water beneath the boat had transformed from black sludge to clear and blue. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see strands of her brilliant red hair, and he heaved a sigh of relief; she was here. He hadn’t been tricked by Hades.

She climbed onto his lap and cupped his jaw with her hands before leaning her forehead against his. “You saved me.”

His arms reflexively wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer, and he momentarily forgot how to breathe; she was alive, and he was touching her, and god, she was even more gorgeous than he remembered. “Oh, Anna, I missed you.”

“I missed you, too,” she whimpered, tears cascading down her cheeks. “So much.”

He could feel a lump growing in his throat as he fought to hold back his own tears. “I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”

“Good,” she sobbed, burying her face in the crook of his neck. He placed a hand on the back of her head, and gently rubbed her back, the boat bobbing from side to side beneath them. When she finally looked up at him with reddened eyes and tear-stained cheeks, she asked, “Can we go home now?”

And then he awoke with a start - he was in their bedroom, unsure of if he had ever really left it. Was it really possible that he dreamt the entire thing? He wasn’t sure - it had felt so real.

Anna was leaning over him, brushing his hair out of his face. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re okay?”

“Of course I’m okay,” she laughed. “Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

He blinked rapidly as he looked around the room, and sure enough, they were still tangled up in their sheets like they had been when they fell asleep the night before. He could feel her body pushed up against him and he knew she was real, but he couldn’t shake the nightmare that had plagued him a few moments prior.  “I don’t know...I think I had a bad dream.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“You d*ed,” he answered shakily. “And I went to the underworld to save you.”

“Oh,” she said, furrowing her eyebrows together. “Did you?”

“I did.”

“That’s good,” she smiled. “You’re a hero.”

“It felt so real, though. It was so vivid, and colorful, and...real. I don’t even know where the entire underworld thing came from - I haven’t read anything related to mythology since I was in, like, high school.”

“Our dreams don’t always make sense,” she assured him. “Last night I dreamt that I was late to take a test, which is funny because I haven’t taken a test since I was in college.”

“It’s just...I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you, Anna, I really don’t.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about that because I’m not going anywhere. And if I do die first, I’m going to come back and haunt you.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from you,” he chuckled. “I think that lady in the park yesterday really freaked me out.”

“Oh, you’re gonna get a kick out of this; there was an article about her in the local paper this morning - she got arrested for harassing people in the park. It’s not the first time she’s been arrested for it, either.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah, I can even show you the article.” She moved to grab her phone, but he placed his hand over her arm, stopping her.

“It’s okay, I believe you,” he said in a low voice, diverting his eyes away from her.

“It’s really bothering you, huh?”

“A little,” he confessed with a sigh. “It’s such a scary thought.”

“I promise, I’m not going anywhere.” She smiled coyly before sliding her leg over his waist and pushing herself on top of him, so they were lying chest to chest. “Even if you change your mind and decide that you want to get rid of me.”

He reached up and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “I definitely don’t want to do that.”

Her lips ghosted against his as she whispered, “Then we have nothing to worry about.”

[ahmedmootaz]

Hello! I saw you request of requests, soooo. Can I request a story and it can be however long you want it to be. The sort of prompt is what you think would or want to happen in the upcoming episode “The Phantom and The Sorceress”. It’s fine even if you don’t answer this ask, thanks for all your content and theories!

Dear Anonymous,

What, did you think that just because I replied one day before the episode aired that I wouldn’t do it?...Well, I was debating it, but this was a fun one. I really hope you like it, because I spent quite a bit of effort on it.

Beware of possible spoilers, however. I mean, it is all prediction, but you never know when you’re right. So, here’s the link:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26551864

And here is the magical Read More button, for those who need it (Note that Tumblr doesn’t copy italics, for some reason):

It was a dark, cold night in the Forest Of...whatever. Lena couldn't care less about what its name was. It was damp, awful, cold, and filled with monsters. No wonder Magica would hide here; it was basically her dream home. Maybe it was a mirror, too. She trudged with her friends, Violet and Webby, who'd oh-so-kindly volunteered to help her on this mad quest of hers. She was going mad, that's what, and they were both ready to go mad with her. She really was lucky when it came to friends.

They kept trudging in silence, not wanting to reflect on the series of what must've been unfortunate events to lead them to searching for Magica DeSpell in the dark, cold night in the middle of a swamp. An ugly swamp, too...though, now that she thought about it, there weren't really 'pretty' swamps, so it wasn't like Magica chose a bad one; they were all bad.

Despite telling herself several times how she was over this, how she had no issues whatsoever about what they were doing right now and that it was for the greater good, she found herself contemplating any other choice. Just what, exactly, led them to this point?!

...Well, they all knew. It was a rhetorical question. An angry rhetorical question. Leave it to the McDucks to be attacked by a literal video-game monster that crawled out of the screen and treating it like another boring day. Which...yeah, it kinda was for them, but she'd gotten used to the calmer household she moved in. It wasn't like that was the biggest thing that happened today, either, it was more like...the appetizer, even though that wasn't really a correct statement, since it was like eating a whole roast duck only to be told it was an appetizer.

Still, it wasn't the tentacle-monster which they took down that led to this situation. It was the fact that Gladstone...Gladner? Something along those lines, showed up. Apparently, he was the boys' uncle, which made him someone she didn't know. Not that it mattered anyway, he came in, crying about how his luck left him forever before weeping on her arm, which was conveniently next to him. Her sleeve was never going to return to regular levels of salt after this.

It took a while before Scrooge managed to calm him down. It seemed like his luck...which was a thing she didn't know about, had left him. Normally, she was told, they would've chalked it up to some paranormal mystery and had to excuse themselves and send her home, but it went further then that...Almost everyone in Duckburg was losing their abilities.

They didn't really believe it at first, but when Scrooge's monetary abilities started going blank, the alarms blared loudly enough in everyone's minds. It wasn't just him, too; Gyro was losing his intelligence, so was Huey, Mrs.Beakly lost a good portion of her Agent skills, and Dewey lost the ability to Dewey, whatever the heck he meant by that.

It only left her and the rest of Team Magic to fend for themselves and figure out what was draining their powers. There was one teeny-tiny problem, however:

How would they do that? Webby was an amazing fighter, but their enemy, a certain Phantom Blot that Violet heard about, didn't leave a trace, much less a body to fight, and despite Violet's best efforts, nothing came out of her investigations to find where he hid, which left Lena to do the job. One issue, however: She couldn't.

She was a brilliant sorceress, or so she bragged, but there was still much she needed to learn before casting detection spells. And they, she theorized, didn't have that time. Violet was an amazing step-sister and a scarily fast learner, but even she came up empty-handed when it came to learning anything about that power. That left one magic user in Duckburg she knew. Ugh.

She shivered at the memory, snapping out of her mind due to some whimpering from Gladstone. He said he needed to find his luck or else he was a goner. She thought he was exaggerating at first, but then a boat nearly fell on him. 4 Kilometres away from sea. He promised he'd do them anything if she let him accompany them on this treacherous journey while the rest of the gang tried investigating using their own ways, and the agreed. How bad could he be, anyways?

-"U-Um...Lena? I don't know how to tell you this...but I...I hate swamps. I don't think I know how to walk in them. It was always my luck helping me out. I'm cold, scared, and humiliated."...well, not too bad, but he just wouldn't shut up! And while he seemed to amuse Webby and Violet, he was just getting on her nerves.

-"Well, nobody here likes swamp, either! And you've been listing the things your luck did for you for two hours now, is there anything you can do on your own, Mr.Gladstone?", she shot back, irked.

He used to argue and bicker with her, but as his luck kept worsening throughout the day (How on earth does one get mauled by a bear, an alligator, and then receive a speeding ticket because the alligator's death-roll was too fast??), he mostly stuck to paranoia to help himself. She couldn't help but feel bad for him, despite how much he annoyed her.

-"W-Well...I used to breathe well on my own...I could also walk...I think...", he mumbled, his voice a broken mess compared to his arrogant and proud tone, or so she was told by Webby. "A-And...I think I might need to learn how to go to the bathroom in the swamp.", he added, his exhaustion overpowering his embarrassment.

-"Pffft, don't worry about it, Gladstone! The entire swamp is your bathroom! You're basically the King of the swamp!", and there it was, the perky, energetic voice that was trying to keep Gladstone away from depression this entire trip.

-"Oh, quit with the lies! I am nothing without my luck!", he cried, seeming on the verge of tears for the...seventeenth time today? Lena couldn't remember. "B-But...It wasn't my choice! My luck was always there for me! Like...Like a-a stick! Something to lean on my entire life and now it is gone!", he lamented, slouching as his footsteps got a bit slower. For the sake of all them, Lena hoped he regained any of his luck soon.

-"Well, it is true; any being born with a condition, abnormal or not, that aids him throughout his life without any major work done from the part of the being will eventually get used to this condition, which could explain why you're taking this particular misadventure hard, Mr.Gladstone.", Violet bumped in their chat, checking the notepad on which they brainstormed the possible locations of Magica. "Still, I'd advise you to remain positive, as I sense we may be able to fix these conditions.", she added, giving him a small, encouraging smile which he didn't notice.

-"Yeah, probs.", the teenage witch agreed after she felt a nudge from the Vanderquack. Anything to cheer up her friend's friends' uncle. "Hey Vi, are we close or not?", she asked, trying to ignore the eye-roll from her shorter friend.

-"Well, I don't have a particularly detailed map, though I imagine that Magica would mark her camp with a particular sign; an X on the ground, perhaps, or perhaps we must deduce it from the surrounding environment-"

-"Or she might've carved her face on the bottom of an ancient tree!", the cheerful duck happily announced as they entered a clearing with a small dirt road that led to the mouth of Magica DeSpell. A wooden carving of her, anyway.

It was just as Webby said, large, reeking of pride and arrogance, and yet...oddly well done. The details were really nice and actually looked like Magica. If she had to give her 'aunt' something, it had to be that she apparently didn't suck at something in her life. Really though, wood carving, of all things? Was she a carpenter before becoming an evil, awful witch? Is she talented? She didn't have her magic...maybe she had someone else with her.

-"Alright, so, is everyone prepared to meet my homicidal aunt?", the tallest duckling asked with fake happiness, receiving a nod form everyone but Gladstone, who emitted  something of a sniff. Webby readied the axe she brought with her, patting the kitten at the top while Violet tightened her garlic necklace, while Gladstone...he stood there, steadying his back a bit. "Mr.Gladstone?"

-"Ah, forget about it, whatever she does to me, it can't be worse than having an anvil hit me from ten-meters.", he steadied his tone, managing to make it more bitter than desperate. Well, at least he wasn't going to cry when they see her.

She looked back at the tree's base, blocking out the various memories that gave her the urge to blast the door, and knocked. Harshly. Hey, she was going to give herself something. She felt both Webby and Violet's hands on her shoulders, and she anticipated the door opening. Now or never...they were going to convince her, and somehow, she didn't think it was going to be too easy.

Her mind raced, imagining all the awful things she could be plotting right now. She heard garlic was harmful to magic users, something she didn't know too much about, but was apparently true, as she figured out when her magical powers suddenly dimmed as she touched some garlic. Still, Magica could hit them form a distance...and what about that axe? Was going physical the ideal plan? Was-

 CRASH!

The quartet of ducks yelled, jumping back before they realized the door didn't even open. It was something from the inside. Someone, to be exact. A couple of curses came through the door as a metallic sound came through as well.

-"Bloody Hell! Who comes in this hour of the night, in this swamp, to this tree?! I don't even pay bills!", the angry yelling of her not-really-aunt came through. Yep, that was about the attitude she expected. "If you're the Magical Supplies Shop, I'm sorry, but if you couldn't tell, I lost my powers after following a wonderful plan of mine. I cannot pay you in whatever things you want. Now go away before I shoot you!", she answered with a sickeningly sweet tone. Even her voice brought Lena awful memories and forced her to frown.

-"You can do this, Lena. You faced her down before. She can't do anything to you.", Violet squeezed her shoulder, giving her a determined smile. Lena shot one back, before taking a step closer to the door.

-"Hey, this is Lena...Your...", she sighed, bringing a hand to her temple. "Niece?", she finished, awaiting a sick laughter or an undignified scowl at her for attempting to break free from being a shadow. Sorry-not-sorry, Magica. For moment, there was silence. Then there was laughter. Hysterical laughter. So much laughter Lena felt scared.

-"Ooooh, good one, person-who-is-trying-to-fool-me! I don't have a niece! My brother is dead and my sister cannot keep a worm alive! Now scram before my patience runs out!", she thundered from behind the door, leaving the ducklings and Gladstone in shock.

-"She has a brother?", Lena repeated with incredulity, looking at her two friends and Gladstone.

-"I don't know! How should I know? I thought she didn't have family!", Violet answered with equal confusion, shrugging.

-"I mean, technically she doesn't have a brother anymore.", Gladstone chimed in, his voice devoid of any enthusiasm. "Who's this woman anyway? And why does she sound like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed?", he asked, raising his voice a tad too much.

-"The wrong side of the bed?!", came the war-cry from behind the door, only leaving a moment before a couple of locks unlocked and it swung outwards, revealing Magica DeSpell . With a shotgun. Oh, well this was just lovely, wasn't it? "Alright, that does it, I will put more holes than you than there is in...swiss...cheese...", her speech slurred, looking at the three ducklings in front of her house.

The silence remained for a moment, with no one doing anything. Webby brandished her weapon, Violet made a threatening expression, and Lena ignited a spark in her hand. And Gladstone stood there, trying to take all this in. That moment gave Lena enough time to admire Magica's hut; a three-room lodging, more aptly. It was basically a sink, a gas-cooker, and some drawers, a wardrobe, and a bookshelf, all locally-made, apparently. There was also a toilet and a bath in the background. It was a pretty sorry place to live in, but it seemed functional enough.

-"Hi, Aunt Magica.", Lena greeted, gritting her teeth and delivering the widest, fakest smile she could possibly give. "I almost forgot how you looked! We haven't seen each other in such a long time. What a shame.", she continued, trying her best to remain calm and to look the elder sorceress in the eyes. Said sorceress was now surveying the ducks surrounding her, measuring her chances and keeping her hands on the shotgun's trigger.

-"Get out. Now!", the cape-wearing duck yelled, looking dangerously close to a rage-fit. "All three of you. Now!"

-"Three? Hello? I may have lost my luck, but I am certainly not invisible, lady!", Gladstone announced with an undignified tone. He got a glare that shut him up. "Yeah, sure, okay, talk with the people who really matter. Why wouldn't you?", he grumbled bitterly.

-"Listen, as much as we'd love to, we can't really do that.", the younger sorceress laid her hand on her waist, looking both bored and uncaring. At least, she hoped she did. The last thing she needed was for the awful, horrible duck in front of her to sense any weakness, something she assumed she excelled at.

-"Besides, we're already outside! Your evil mind trick won't work on us!", Webby boasted, swinging her axe a bit for intimidation purposes. They didn't seem to work all too well, but at the very least, they made Magica's shotgun point at her just a tiny bit. Was that a victory?...Probably not.

-"Fine then, get away from me! From this place! The last thing I need is to spend my night with a bunch of *McDucks*.", the gun-wielder practically screamed, her veins starting to bulge from the anger. Her voice was laced with venom dripping off of every word. It was honestly both terrifying and admirable how much hate she poured into every word.

-"I told you we can't.", Lena repeated calmly, trying to avoid a fight she saw she was coming.

And then, just as she hoped things would calm down, a loud, roaring BANG! filled the swamp. Every single member of her group jumped, looking frightened as they searched around for wounded. There were none, only four ducks staring at each other. She'd tricked them. And she didn't even have her magic. Lena frowned and turned her face back to her shadow's origin. Her...uh...creator? She was her shadow, did shadows have creators? Maybe a caster was a better term? As much as she hated it, 'Aunt Magica' rolled off the tongue far better than 'Caster Magica'.

-"Are you searching for fight? Because I'm not certain your chances would be very high with the four of us.", Violet spoke for her step-sister. Her new room-mate at this point, but Lena still appreciated the gesture with all of her heart. It appeared Magica actually fired a shot, even if it was only a warning shot. Everyone tried to make good on that statement, looking as threatening as they could. Even Gladstone lifted his fists, adding a grand total of 4% to how threatening they were.

-"Maybe you are! Why can't you get away from me? What do you want? I don't have any more plans for the moment, I didn't do anything illegal for the last month, and you're taking my books from my cold, dead, hands!", the former-Sorceress Of The Shadows barked back defiantly, still pointing at them with her gun. "I don't care if you kill me! I'll take at least two of you down before I-"

-"Could you shut up?!", Lena cried out, her eye twitching and doing everything she could to not attack Magica. "We're here because...because...", she couldn't say it. She couldn't bring herself to ask her for help.

-"...You want to buy something?", her 'aunt' guessed, gun still pointing at her head, but apparently curious.

-"No."

-"You want to brag?"

-"...No.", okay, maybe they did, but they couldn't do that. Not now, anyway.

-"Are we here to rent the room?", Gladstone chimed in, scratching his head. Lena was certain Violet explained to him on the way here...but he apparently forgot.

-"I NEED YOUR HELP!", there, she spat it. She couldn't believe she said it, covering her face afterwards. She felt Violet's hand pat her and heard Webby saying something along the lines of 'There, there'.

-"...I'm sorry? Is this...Listen, it's the middle of September, the swamp is humid as all Hell and I'm trying to set up a fan, if you're just here to brag,", she said before adding 'as you McDucks do.' under her breath, "Then you can come sometime else, these garments aren't exactly fun to wear when the humidity is 85% today so-"

-"No, we need the help. But you'd better watch your back, you witch, because if you try to betray us, I'll shove this axe right down your head!", Webby warned threateningly, patting the kitten once more. Magica actually remained silent and judged what she said, and Lena decided it was time to uncover her face again.

-"And why would you need my help?", the witch repeated, lowering her weapon. Lena could just feel smugness radiating off of her, and she hated it with every molecule of her being.

-"There's a thief in town. He's stealing everyone's abilities. Everything about them. He's stealing it. He calls himself the Phantom Blot.", Violet answered, looking rather impatient with Magica, who smiled with a hum.

-"And why should that concern me?", she smugly inquired and...well, she wasn't wrong. Lena hated that she wasn't wrong.

-"The Phantom Blot hates magic and its users. He wants to eradicate the both of them and you, if I remember correctly, are a witch, yes?", the hummingbird explained, gaining a bit more of a reaction this time: A chuckle. They really couldn't find anyone else, huh?

-"Listen, Purple, if you can remember so well, then you might as well remember that Lena over there stole all of my power. I'm in no danger of this Phantom Blot.", she shot back, a taunting smile on her beak and crossing her arms.

-"Alright, listen up you freak, maybe you don't realize this, but he doesn't know that you don't have your powers. All he knows is that you were the single biggest magical spell to hit this town less than a year ago. I'd say you're still on his hit list.", not taking any more of this back-and-forth, the younger sorceress quipped, closing her hands together and trying a smirk of her own to counter the furious frown and growl her 'aunt' gave her.

-"And you're still on our hit list, you monster! So don't try to even think about doing anything funny!", Webby added, giving her best-friends a reassuring smile, though a somewhat threatening one.

-"I don't think I care about that too much."...she didn't? Oh. Well. There goes the entire base of their plans. "My family isn't here, neither is my home, I don't have my powers, I struggle to eat half-decent food, and I can't even make any new plans after that piece of-", she stopped herself, "Sorry, after Glomgold took everything I had monetarily. In other words, life isn't looking too great for me.", she finished indifferently, though a bit sad and bitter. Huh. That's...really odd. Bitter yes, but sad? Lena wouldn't have ever expected that from her.

-"Tough luck, lady. There's a great pharmacy that sells anti-depressants on the next corner. You know. If you're like me and lost all the joy your life ever had.", the former-luckiest duck in the world suggested darkly, pointing a thumb somewhere. "Look, I don't know you, you don't know me, but please just do me a favour, alright? I need your help. Magic or whatever I just...I just need my luck bad. I need my life back. Can you please help us for the good of your heart?", he got down on his knees and begged, not showing too much emotion, but just enough to almost make you forget his bitterness a moment ago. Almost.

-"...Yeah, listen, the 'good of my heart' doesn't really exist, and even if it did, then I won't be giving it to you of all people.", well...Lena couldn't say she wouldn't say something similar to some duck she barely even knew. Unlike Magica, however, she'd actually accept. Probably. "But it seems Scrooge's thinking isn't there quite yet for all of you.", she stated, almost with disappointment, as she brought two fingers to her temple. "My life at this point is in danger...but that's not really what's motivating me here. What do I have to gain?", ah, straight to the point, are we?

-"What, keeping your life isn't enough for you?", her former-shadow snarked back, utilizing the opportunity to show no respect whatsoever. Ah, that felt good. It didn't feel good to see her nemesis laugh at her, however, as if she knew something she didn't.

-"Now, I may be misunderstanding this, but you don't have much time, yes? Phantom Bolt or whatever is already striking. Both of our lives are endangered, and if it means taking you out...well, I don't need to say much, eh?", oh, how Lena hated the smugness in her voice. They'd accounted for this, but she just wanted to punch her in her stupid beak so much!

-"Fine, does this make you any more inclined?", the younger witch pulled out a purple gem, dangling it from her finger and immediately making Magica's pupils widen.

-"My Sumerian Amulet!", she yelled, throwing herself on Lena, though not with so much force the latter wasn't able to repel her. Indeed, all the younger duckling had to do was raise a hand as her 'aunt' tried grabbing the amulet that was dangling so close to her.

-"There, feeling a bit more excited now?", the intelligent, sharp voice of Violet observed. "We know how much this means to you. Maybe you could even regain your magic with it, yes? This is as much as we're going to offer, so if you don't want it..."

-"...Fine!", came the near-instant response. Magica was biting her lower beak, looking majorly conflicted. "Alright, you have some of ol' Scroogie in you. You want my help? Fine. Fine, no really. How about we seal the deal, then? I help you with whatever it is you want to beat the Phantom Blot, you give me back my Sumerian Amulet, and we all try to kill each other sometime later, affaire conclue?", she extended a fingerless-ly gloved hand, looking all-too-gleeful about all of this. Lena knew the amulet was powerful, but the way Magica accepted their offer...it gave her second thoughts about giving her the amulet.

-"It means 'deal?', Mr.Gladstone.", she heard her step-sister tell the triplets' uncle. Apparently, he wasn't too fond of Magica's new terminology...but then again, neither was Lena. "Though I must wonder how you know of French, Magica.", the short hummingbird muttered as she extended a hand alongside the other three ducks.

-"I have some Savoyard cousins. You're not the only ones with a family here.", came the dry answer.

It took a moment of hesitation, with everyone almost certain that the other side will pull out at the last second. Then, suddenly, Webby's hand went forward and shook, or rather, grabbed Magica's. Violet soon followed, and Gladstone did as they did. That only left Lena, who stared at Magica. If she shakes this hand...she'll take orders from her again. She'll give her the amulet that will make her able to hurt her again. She didn't want to do this...but she had to. Not only for herself, but for her friends. For everyone who depended on her, she took a breath and forced her hand to shake with Magica's. It was...huh. Wow. Her fingers were tiny compared to Lena. How did she never notice?

-"Lovely. Now, you're trying to go after this Phantom Whatever, yes?", the cape-drapped witch asked, looking a bit more enthusiastic. She received a nod from everyone, Gladstone included. "Very well, I can make you an elixir to poison him, though it's going to take some-"

-"Woah woah woah, we're trying to defend ourselves here! Not everyone is a murderer like you!", Lena objected, waving her arms frantically just as her 'aunt' was going to enter her hut. She earned a disapproving stare. She hated them.

-"He's going to kill you, Lena. You're being naïve if you think showing kindness is going to change someone who's bent on murdering you.", the sorceress mocked, resting her hand on her hip. "Besides, why come here in the first place if you're all such big fans of Gandhi?"

-"We want you to teach Lena spell.", Webby replied, her axe still unsheathed, though it only gained an unimpressed look as her enemy got used to it. "We can defeat the Phantom Blot without resorting to your methods, and you'll see that yourself!", she proudly continued, lifting the axe a little higher.

-"A spell?", Magica repeated, mystified. "You...You want me to teach you a spell?! To be back where I belong? To rejoin my magical destiny-", oh, come on. Couldn't she stay clam for five minutes? Why was she acting like a hyperactive child all of sudden? That wasn't how she was supposed to act!

-"Yes, yes, all of that. Now if you could just-"

-"Ooooh, it feels good to be back!", deciding that two could play at the interruptions game, she ignored her 'niece' as she wrapped her cloak around her, covering her beak and moving her fingers for dramatic effect.

-"You are exhausting to be around, you know that?", Lena quipped, glaring at the far-too-gleeful duck in front of her.

-"I try. Now, what spell do you exactly want?"

-"We were thinking about trying a spell to locate the Phantom Blot.", Violet explained, and Lena couldn't help but notice Magica tilted her head just a teeny tiny bit. "We want to know where he is, and if possible, bring him to us.", she clarified, her dignified tone not wavering.

-"You seem worried, witch. Are you worried because you're trying to play us and now you can't?", Webby interrogated with her 'detective accent', looking suspicious to Magica's current indescribable expression.

-"No, it's not that, it's just...Locating people and things is more of a Teleporter thing...", she answered, almost begrudgingly.

-"Welp, we came to the wrong person. I told you! We needed a teleporter, we have a witch. And we made a deal. This is just fan-tastic.", ever the positive one, Lena ranted as she started walking around, waving her arms, exasperated.

-"Of course it would be you to not know magic-branches, Lena.", her 'aunt' scolded, noticing Webby's sudden axe-swing and trying to ignore the obvious threat. "Teleporting is magic. Just a branch of it. I'm more talented in the spells branch and the alchemy branch, alongside shadow-manipulation, of course. Teleporting...well, I can help you. I tried learning it, after all.", she boasted, mumbling the last part to herself more than to the ducklings surrounding her.

-"Branches, huh...And how can we know you're not just messing with us? You could be saying absolute mallarcky!", the seater-wearing duck accused, earning an undignified huff from the older sorceress.

-"I said I tried learning it, and not without some success.", she claimed, hoping to satisfy Lena's questions and just get closer to getting the darn amulet. She didn't. "Listen, my brother was a pretty good Teleporter. I'll tell you what he told me, alright?", she explained further, noticeably uncomfortable with what she was saying.

-"How come I never heard of him if he's so go-"

-"Because you've never spent more than two months in Europe, you brat! Don't you dare talk about the King Of Napoli like that!", she screamed, looking more threatening by the second. A full-blown beatdown was about to ensue if it wasn't for Gladstone, of all people.

-"Hey...I remember that name...He stole my car when I was on a trip in Europe! And my newly-won crown which I won in Barbaria!", he recounted, looking far-too-happy for what he was saying.

-"Bavaria.", Violet corrected.

-"Whatever, he just teleported in my car and stole it after throwing me out! And he had someone else with him, too!", the former-luck king continued, still looking inexplicably happy. "I never thanked him for his service! Some old lady saw the accident and thought I needed help, so she gave me one of her luxury jets to console me! Told me nobody was safe from the King Of Napopi.", he finished, a smile on his face. "That was before the whole...unlucky thing...", and now he was going to be depressed again.

-"See? Now just listen to what I tell you and you should be fine!", the elder duck ordered, apparently unable to sense the internal moment of struggle Lena had before she obeyed, taking a step forward.

-"Yes...Magica.", she muttered under her breath, standing in front of her arch nemesis' cold stare. Her friends were there to protect her. There was nothing to fear. Nothing to fear at all. This was just a forced training session. She was going to get through this.

-"I'd appreciate it if you call me Miss Magica.", and yet it didn't seem like her momentary teacher was willing to make this easy for the both of them. Holding her sly smile, she straightened her back and looked at her forced-apprentice for a second. "Let your magic run through you. Teleportation is a complex art, and all its branches need a constant flow of magic through one's self. Location is no different, let the magic run through your body.", she stated, trying to throw her cloak in a dramatic way.

-"Okay so...like this?", the tallest duckling asked, holding her right arm in front of her and sensing the tingling sensation of magic as it coursed through her. She came to control it after a multitude of attempts, so this wasn't much of a trial. "Oh, and since I might as well milk you for whatever you're worth, can I change this colour? I hate this purple.", she wondered, noting that she didn't get any reply before forcing her vocal cords to add "Miss Magica?"

-"Hmm, well, I don't know, the colour of one's magic is determined by both their will and their chosen Branch of Magic, I had to go through lots of training to change my magic's colour, and since this is my magic,", she pointed at the flame-like purple shape that surrounded her 'niece', "It's going to take a lot of time for you to change it back. But it's no special technique. Some can immediately change it, others cannot. It comes eventually.", she continued indifferently, paying attention to the magic that was radiating off of Lena.

-"Don't talk to Lena like that!", the Vanderquack reaffirmed her stance on Magica as she exchanged glares with the now-dysfunctional sorceress.

-"Webs, it's fine. I can deal with her.", her best-friend answered, turning her attention back to her teacher. Oh, how she hated that she had to refer to her as that! Nevertheless, she was surprised she actually got an answer. She expected some insults and nothing else, but it seemed that once they had a deal...she worked with it. It was...unnerving.

-"When it comes to searching for something, you must see it with your blind eye. You must both wish for it, see it in your mind, and release enough magical surges to clear the way for you. Only then will you sense where what you search for lies. For example, I have a red neckerchief in my house with a raven on it in my home. Try sensing where it is.", the DeSpell explained emotionlessly, guiding Lena a bit closer to her home.

She closed her eyes, as she was told, and tried seeing the neckerchief. Red...raven...yep, pretty plain alright. And yet...she tried releasing energy as she was told, but the only thing that was getting released was a bunch of aimless magical balls that deflated on the ground. She couldn't sense anything. She had the image in her brain, but she couldn't really...get 'it', if that made any sense.

-"Not good. As expected, you cannot properly use my magic. Perhaps you need to be more emotionally motivated to feel the 'click'?", of course it would be like Magica to benefit off this situation. Of course. Well, at least she was partially right. Lena grunted as a response, not wanting to give her trainer any more satisfaction than necessary. "Then we must up the risks a bit.", the elder sorceress claimed moving a bit to where her friends stood.

-"Listen here, Magica! Lena's trying her best, and we have no need for you! If you ever- Hey! My...bow...", in an instant, there was a 'splash'. The eldest of the ducklings turned around to see Webby without her iconic bow staring into the stagnant water of the swamp, shocked and furious at the same time. "That was a gift from my grandma!", she yelled back.

-"Oh, quit it, you want to help your oh-so-precious friends, yes? Then let me teach!", the witch shot coldly, evading an axe swing with relative ease, watching as the energetic duckling gritted her beak; they had no one to trust but her. "Now, Lena, this swamp is filled with alligators and all sorts of nasty creatures. If we don't find Debby's bow in five minutes, it might as well be gone forever. If you can find where I threw it, I'll go get it myself. Sounds good?", too good. Especially that last part. In fact, only that last part, since Lena had little faith that she could succeed.

When everyone around her went silent, the young witch turned her head to Webby. She looked distraught. Closing her eyes once more, she faced the swamp and tried sensing for the bow. Pink, small, and plain. It was a rather noticeable part of Webby. Something that clearly meant a lot for her. If she could find it...Then she'd have helped her friends. She saw it...she willed it...and she started releasing magical sparks. For a moment, just like last time, they merely deflated.

Then, all of a sudden...she felt 'it'. A guiding feeling...like an arm on her shoulders. It made her open her eyes, but she could still see the bow. She saw it. She felt it. It was pulsing...the pulsing pushed her to where it came from:...Away from the water? It was behind her. But the only thing behind her was...she turned around to look at Magica, who had a detestably smug expression on her face as she showed Lena her fingerless-ly gloved left hand. The glove had a small bulge near the wrist.

-"Seems as if I was correct.", was all she said. Lena didn't growl or frown this time. She had no reason to. It slightly angered her to agree with her 'aunt', but as far as correctness went, there wasn't much to critique here. "I learnt this little trick as a little girl. It can help you in a tough spot.", she added as she removed it from under her glove, throwing it into her student's hand. "There, I made good on my promise, right?"

...She did?...Well, yes, she did teach her. Lena thought that she didn't mention some things, such as the formula or how much energy one should dedicate, but in the end, those details were all discovered by her apprentice with no need for more external help. She, should she follow the instructions correctly, was now technically able to find the Phantom Blot.

Then why did she feel something wrong? She felt as if something wasn't quite...right, to put it simply. She expected a bigger fight with Magica. Harsher treatment. Little to no emotions, but it was just...meh. Nothing too big. She stared again the the elder witch. She was smiling. It was a smug smile alright, but it was a smile. It wasn't something she expected to see of Magica. Perhaps as a result of her disdain for her 'aunt' she, too, came to see her as incapable of being a person.

-"I guess so...", she murmured, knowing exactly where her former-teacher at this point was going. She prepared her amulet, not wishing to give it away. "Her name is Webby, by the way.", she added, not getting a response

-"I told you my brother was a good teacher.", her fifteen-minute trainer mumbled, more to herself than to anyone else, and Lena felt awkward. She stared back at her friends.

-"I...uh. Sorry about him. Dying. I guess.", she whispered but it caught the attention of Magica, and she looked positively shocked. "Don't look so shocked. Respect the dead and all that.", that came out wrong. So wrong. If she meant to disrespect him, she couldn't have done worse.

-"Heh...listen, sometimes faking death is a bit easier with magic on your side. If you're willing to share a bit more than the amulet, then maybe I can tell you about him.", she smiled again, though this was one of her more typical smiles, if still an actual smile. Huh. Curious

But just as the newly trained sorceress was about to say something, a 'zap' echoed in the swamp. There was light for a moment, and Magica had to jump to avoid the bolt that zapped a part of her hair and neck. Everyone turned in a split second to see a black-clothed figure with green eyes and a metallic glove on his right hand.

-"And I was just about to pick this four-leaved clover, too...", was the only sentence uttered for a solid minute. And by Gladstone of all people.

The Phantom Blot looked menacing. Pure, undiluted, unadulterated intimidation radiated off of his clothed figure. From afar, you wouldn't be blamed if you thought he was a medieval executioner. The metallic glove on his hand looked more electronic than medieval on closer inspection, but that didn't matter too much. His eyes, fully green by some method, conveyed little emotions, but there's something Lena sensed from him: Hatred.

-"Finally...", his clunky, distorted and terrifying voice announced, his footsteps calculated and his eyes focused. "It seems my searching has led me to the most vile of beings, at last.", he added, closing his fist.

-"The most vile of beings? Listen, I heard some nasty things about ducks, but come on man-", Gladstone tried countering, only to receive a bolt that knocked him over, making him grunt.

-"Not you, you imbecile! These WITCHES!", he cried, hatred drenching his words as he advanced. He most certainly had an accent...But Lena couldn't just pin-point it...though she thought she heard it sometime in the past...

-"These what now?", Magica repeated, apparently offended.

-"WITCHES!", he repeated, not slowing his advance as the group of ducks slowly backed off. "You come in with your magic, destroy cities with your undeserved power, and you...you're never satisfied! You always want more! You never leave something to the people who work for their power!", he ranted shooting a couple of bolts that forced the group the yell and retreat further to Magica's hut.

-"Oh. Witches. I think I still hate you, but a little less than when I thought you said-"

-"It would just be like you to show up now, huh?!", back to interrupting Magica, it was Lena who couldn't keep it in her head anymore. "I spend an hour with Magica to learn how to find you and you just show up like that?! Couldn't you have came in a little early?! Do you have any idea what kind of deal we made?!", she complained, ranting at him, and forcing him to do a double take on her words.

-"Not only are you a witch, but you are a sore loser. I could make my nonna's pasta with that much salt!", he mocked, doing a small laugh that almost sounded dead...like, the whole laughing part was there, but there was no spirit behind it. Just a sick, twisted glee.

-"Hey, hold it there for a minute, you're italian?", Magica asked, flabbergasted. Ah. Right. Sometimes Magica lost control of her British accent in front of Lena. Now she remembered. But really? This was the thing she asked about? Why would that matt-

-"Indeed, and my heart shall always remain there! It is why I find great pleasure and cleaning Napoli of your filth!", he growled, firing another shot which she barely avoided but backing her into the tree where her hut was located.

-"Oooh, you're digging your own grave here, you Blot! I am a proud Neapolitan, and the mere name is much more than wherever you're from!", she challenged, pointing an accusing finger as the other ducks stared at each other. They didn't know what exactly was unfolding in front of them, but it couldn't have been anything good.

-"Don't you dare insult Genova, you wretch!", he shot back, almost losing his nerves for a second before calming down. "No. I am much better than losing my nerves to a fiend like you! Prepare for justice!", he suddenly declared, and the speed of it made Magica unable to dodge the bolt he fired, punching her into Gladstone, who tried hiding behind her, and throwing the both of them into the trunk of her tree. She fell down with a hard 'crack', leaving Gladstone in a duck-shaped impression.

-"Wh-Why me...?!", he lamented before falling. The sorceress tried getting up but she limped.

-"Magica!", Lena yelled. Why did she yell? Why could she possibly yell?...Because if she dies, he's going after them. Definitely. She ran, trying to raise a shield to protect her from another, more frightening zap that would've hit her. Heck, even then, it shattered Lena's shield. Crud, this guy really isn't messing around anymore. But then a pink figure shined behind the Phantom. Yes! Webby was doing it!

-"How's this for justice!", she cried from behind him as she jumped, but he was good. Too good. He managed to spin his entire figure, raise his mechanical weapon and take a fighting pose at once, stopping his assailant's hit. Oh. This guy wasn't going to be any fun, was he?

-"You...Hah! It wasn't enough!", he bragged, pulling the battle-axe from his glove as his previous wielder suffered from the vibrations of hitting a metal. One powerful grab and swing from his glove sent Webby back to her friends, face in the dirt, and with no weapon.

-"What kind of justice are you hoping to achieve?!", cried Violet, hoping to buy them some time. It didn't work, and he only accelerated his assault, firing multiple electrical charges or whatever these were, forcing the ducks to separate.

-"Justice is not my primary concern, hummingbird. I am a criminal, after all, but if I can do my job and rid the world of this evil, then I shall take the initiative!", he calmly replied, not paying any attention to the fact that most of them were getting zapped or were running in terror. "But enough playing around, I do not wish to fail now!", he stopped, preparing what seemed to be a worse, more powerful form of his weapon.

-"Lena, do you think we can take him on?", Violet asked, trying to get them regroup.

-"Nope."

-"Webby, do you have any more weapons?", she turned to the Vanderquack, trying to assume to role of the leader.

-"Don't really think they're going to affect him.", she answered pulling out a few knives that looked like toothpicks comapred to her axe.

-"Mr.Gladstone-"

-"Don't have my luck; can't do anything.", came the reply.

-"...Magica?", she asked her voice a bit desperate.

-"My shotgun has one more round in it.", she declared, pointing it at their attacker, who finished upgrading himself and was about to shoot once again. "We're going to die, aren't we?"

-"Probably.", Lena answered her, watching the black-wearing man as he began shooting at them again.

Well. Nothing else to do but to face the music, as they say. Whoever 'they' is. And whatever that meant. And whatever that had to do with their situation. Oh, give her a break. She didn't have time to think about this fight of theirs. Magic versus one very wronged, apparently, and angry man and his technology. The fight of the century.

The Phantom versus The Sorceress. Time to see how long they can stay alive.

[marvelhead17]

The Tale of Eossimar (Original Female Character x Bofur Fic)

Chapter 7

Word Count: 5.1k Warnings to cover the whole fic: Fake relationships, half-blood children, mild violence, fight scenes, male/male relationships, Dwarf gender concepts, battle of five armies fix-it, pre-battle of five armies, near death incidents, talking to dead people, mentions of paradise/heaven.

The company froze realising they were outnumbered by the guards, “C’mon then, off with the lot of you,” their leader ordered and the dwarves climbed off begrudgingly, being forced to walk forward as people began to peak out their windows and talk amongst themselves.

“Dwarves, in Lake-Town?”

“How?”

“Impossible!”

“Must be from the Iron Hills-”

“Or the Blue Mountains.”

“They’re hairier than I expected,”

“And fatter,”

“Certainly uglier,”

The insults and confusion came from all directions as they were lead towards the centre of Lake-Town, and were now surrounded by a large crowd of Men, with their supplies abandoned in the boat they were defenceless, and by all means had no way to escape without being stopped by someone.

A large unpleasant looking man suddenly burst out from the large home before them onto his balcony, with a snivelling man sauntering in behind him, they both stared down at the encircled dwarves in disgust.

“And what is the meaning of this?” the large man asked angrily, flinging his arms in the air as he spoke.

“We caught them stealing boats, sire,” the lead guard answered.

“Ah, enemies of the state, eh?” the Master, Thorin presumed, scrunched his nose down at them.

“A desperate bunch of mercenaries, if ever there was, sire.” The sickly man, who must’ve been Alfrid, added.

Dwalin stepped forward, “Hold your tongue!” he pointed angrily up at them, “You do not know to whom you speak, this is no common criminal. This is Thorin, son of Thráin, son of Thrór!”

Thorin stepped forward and lowered Dwalin’s arm, patting the dwarf on the shoulder, “We are the dwarves of Erebor,” he addressed the Master, the crowd murmured in shock, “And we have come to reclaim our homeland.” He turned around to address the unsettling crowds around them.

“I remember this town in the great days of old. Fleets of boats lay at harbour filled with silks and fine gems. This was no forsaken town on a lake.” He clenched his fist upward, “This, was the centre of all trade in the North. I would see those days return. I would relight the great forges of the Dwarves and send wealth and riches flowing once more from the Halls of Erebor!” He raised his fist triumphantly and the crowd seemed to lose their calm as they cheered wildly, and Thorin glanced at the Master expectedly.

“Death!” Thorin turned to see Bard had turned up, “That is what you’ll bring upon us! Dragon fire and ruin, if you waken that beast it will destroy us all.” He said bitterly.

“You can listen to this naysayer,” he gestured to Bard with a shake of his head, “But I promise you this: if we succeed, all will share in the wealth of the mountain. You will have enough gold to rebuild Esgaroth ten times over!” He raised his fist again, causing the crowds to cheer once again.

“All of you listen to me! You must listen,” Bard spoke over the noise anxiously, “Have you forgotten what happened to Dale? Have you forgotten those who died in the firestorm?!” the crowd quietened down immediately and chattered anxiously, “And for what purpose? The blind ambition of a Mountain King, so driven by greed he could not see beyond his own desire!”

“Now, now! We must not, any of us, be too quick to lay blame.” Master interjected, “Let us not forget that it was Girion, Lord of Dale,” he pointed at Bard with a shaky hand, “Your ancestor, who failed to kill the beast! Mh!” making Thorin and the company stare in disbelief at Bard.

“It’s true sire, we all know the story.” Alfrid agreed with Master, stepping forward, “Arrow after arrow he shot, each one missing its mark,” he said, making the crowd chatter uncertainly again.

Bard approached Thorin furiously, leaning lower to address him more directly, “You have no right, no right to enter that mountain.”

Thorin stared him down without blinking and spoke lowly, “I have the only right.” He turned his attention back to Master, “I speak to the Master of the Men of the lake; will you see the prophecy fulfilled? Will you share, in the great wealth of our people? What say you?”

“I say unto you…” Master paused dramatically, “Welcome, welcome and thrice welcome! King under the Mountain!” he raised his arms in the air and the crowds went mad with joy once again.

Bard walked away as the crowds surrounded the company, now eager to provide the dwarves as they had promised them salvation from their current state, and they were lead off into a nearby home to celebrate.

“Well that couldn’t have gone smoother,” Bofur spoke to Bilbo, raising his drink and gulping it down.

“Yes,” Bilbo looked at all the food displayed across the long table, unable to make a decision, “Though I might think we have been very lucky,” he added and finally picked a few things to eat. “But it doesn’t ease my mind that they were eager to help after the promise of gold,”

“Why’s that?” Bofur looked up as his drink was refilled by a servant, and happily acknowledged his thanks by lifting the mug and then drinking from it.

“Because who knows what might’ve happened had they not been promised it to aid us,” Bilbo drank slowly as he watched the others eat and drink excessively and loudly, “And what might happen if we cannot uphold their promise?” he wondered.

“Ye need to relax laddie, not everything should be deemed suspicious, ye’re starting to sound like Dwalin now,” he finished his drink and ate more of the meat on his plate.

“Shouldn’t you slow down on the drinks, Bofur?” Bilbo asked in concern as he watched him start on his fourth drink.

“It’s alright,” he shook his head, “Dwarves have a strong tolerance to alcohol, and this isn’t the hard stuff,” he grinned, taking a bite from his meal and downing it with the remainder of his drink.

“Still, I do think it’s wise to pace yourself,” Bilbo frowned, “Considering that we need to be up early to travel tomorrow,”

“Loosen up lad,” Bofur leaned over, nearly knocking things from the table causing the hobbit to jump in concern, and patted Bilbo’s shoulder roughly, and they sat down again. “We’re a day away from home now, it’s time to celebrate,”

“I do believe the time to celebrate is after succeeding and not before,” Bilbo slowly finished his drink, and placed his cutlery neatly on the plate, dabbing his mouth lightly with a napkin. “But whatever pleases you,”

“Cheers,” Bofur grinned and they tapped their mugs together, “To a new home,” he chugged the drink cheerily.

“It won’t be much longer now sister,” Callon assured Nari as she clearly grew more agitated by the minute, especially in the last hour or so, she glanced at him and looked back at the mist behind her warily.

“Rest while you can,” he shook his head, and she crossed her arms, slumping further into the boat with a sigh.

As he rowed on, the mist dissipated and he could see Lake-Town not too far off and the sun peaked over the hills, casting a golden glow onto the lake.

“Dawn should be breaking soon,” she told him, he agreed, “I hope we have not missed them,”

He continued his strides in silence, and cast his attention around the land nearby the town, hoping to catch any signs of them.

He hoped that they had already left if the orcs had managed to track them down, then at least they were safe for a few more hours. He swallowed nervously as he felt his own fear beginning to bubble inside of him, despite telling Nari to calm her own fears.

The sun peered over the mountains as the dwarves gathered themselves to the large boat, the crowd excitedly waving their goodbyes, and Bilbo found himself looking around for someone.

“You do know we’re one short, where’s Bofur?” he asked.

“If he’s not here, we leave him behind,” Thorin stated, looking at Balin, and his advisor nodded.

“We’ll have to, if we’re to find the door before nightfall, we can risk no more delays.” Balin insisted.

Kíli was about to board the vessel but Thorin raised his hand to hold him back, “Not you, we must travel at speed, you will slow us down,” he shook his head at his nephew.

“What are you talking about?” Kíli cracked an awkward smile and shook his head as if he were being told a bad joke, “I’m coming with you.”

“Not now.” Thorin was adamant.

Fíli walked up next to his brother in concern, Kíli still argued, “I’m going to be there when that door is opened, when we first look upon the halls of our fathers, Thorin.”

“Kíli, stay here, rest, join us when you’re healed,” Thorin patted his shoulder carefully, his face softening slightly.

“I’ll stay with the lad. My duty lies with the wounded,” Óin insisted, climbing off the boat and onto the dock, standing himself behind Kíli as the rest of the group gathered into the boat.

“Uncle, we grew up on the tales of the mountain, tales you told us, you cannot take that away from him!” Fíli protested, staring his uncle down.

“Fíli!” Thorin was beginning to lose his patience.

“I will carry him if I must!”

“One day, you will be King and you will understand. I cannot risk the fate of this quest for the sake of one dwarf. Not even my own kin.” Thorin told him gently, Kíli seemed distressed making Fíli hop off the boat defiantly, “Fíli, don’t be a fool. You belong with the company.”

“I belong with my brother,” he spat back, his anger getting the best of him.

The sudden blaring of trumpets in the distance startled Bofur from his sleep; he raised his head slightly, examining the mess of food and drink all around from their celebrations the previous night.

“By my beard, is that the time?!” he jerked up and promptly hit his head against the underside of the table, “Ah! Oh…” he clambered out, making his way around the mess, and then decidedly taking a quick swig from a mug that was on the table to wake him up.

He ran out of the building as fast as he could, using the cheering of the crowds as a means of a guide, he hoped that he had arrived in time.

“Go now with our good will, and good wishes, and may your return bring good fortune to all!” the Master bid them farewell with a wave, as the dwarves set off onto the lake.

“Wait!” Bofur yelled out, pushing his way through the crowds as they also waved their goodbyes at the dock, “No, no!” he reached his hand out and dropped it just as quickly.

He turned to see Kíli watching him through closing eyes and Fíli frowning heavily at him, “Ha, so you missed the boat as well?” he smiled at them, his eyes creasing as he did.

“Kíli?” Fíli asked in panic as his brother suddenly collapsed under his own weight.

“We need to get him on a bed, quickly,” Óin instructed.

The four of them made quickly to reach the nearest homes, but most of them were unoccupied as the people were at the docks, and the few doors that had opened had shaken their heads and closed their doors on them. Bofur realised there was only one person who would help them, and he would not be pleased to see them.

“Come along lads,” he walked ahead of them; once they reached the door he frantically knocked on it, Bard answered to meet them with a disappointed face.

“No,” he said sternly before Bofur could even speak, “I’m done with you Dwarves. Go away.” He started closing the door when Bofur raised his hands with widened eyes.

“No, no, no!” he grabbed hold of the door desperately.

“Please!” Fíli begged, fear shaking his core.

“No one will help us, Kíli’s sick,” he turned to let Bard have a look for himself, “He’s very sick.” He sees Bard’s features become concerned at the paleness of the young dwarf and he let them inside immediately.

Callon had barely reached the dock when Nari made to climb out of the boat; they had arrived quicker than expected as the town seemed eerily deserted, and so instead of taking a longer route to avoid unwanted attention they had rowed straight ahead.

Her brother made to tie the boat to the dock when she grabbed his arm, “There’s no time for that, let’s go,” she cocked her head and he nodded, he followed as she lead the way into the town.

She ran along the familiar paths, concerned at the lack of people, she peered around every corner and down paths to see if she could catch sight of any orcs, but there were none.

“I don’t like this,” Nari grunted. “It’s far too quiet,”

“Then there’s a chance that the orcs have not arrived,” Callon said and she shrugged.

“I suppose,” she paused, “Unless the orcs slaughtered everyone in their path, which is more than likely-”

An unexpected shriek close by interrupted her and sent chills through them, and Nari quickened her pace and her brother kept close by. Soon enough they reached Bard’s home from the lower side, and she slowed down, not wanting to let any potential intruders know of their presence.

Kíli was now settled into a bed, but he was groaning in pain and only caused more concern as he became louder as time went on. Everyone in the room felt a sudden discomfort as a shift in the air unsettled them, nearby buildings creaked and moaned in the quiet night.

“Da?” Sigrid stepped closer to her father, clearly scared; her sister Tilda wrapped her arm around hers.

“It’s coming from the mountain,” Bard assured them.

“You should leave us,” Fíli told them, noticing the fear in the children, “Take your children and get out of here!”

“And go where? There is nowhere to go,” he said irritably, not meaning to be aggressive, but knowing his children might be in danger was making him uneasy.

“Bard!” Nari called in relief and he nearly fell over, “What in Mahal’s good name is going on here?” she asked in alarm as she noticed Kíli laying on the makeshift bed in the far side of the house.

“What’s happened to him?” Callon approached Kíli and Fíli moved to stand next to him.

“His wound is festering up,” Óin informed them.

“I knew he needed a healer to look at him!” she shook her head; “So much for bed rest then?” she asked Fíli sighing loudly.

“I may be to blame on that, however, your dear Bard had us moving about in the sewers just yesterday, for all we know he got infected from something else,” Fíli told her.

“Bard! Of all the things- ye could’ve gone round as I’ve done before!”

“I had my orders on this end to follow, Nari. If I appeared as if from thin air the Master would have had word of it, and the dwarves could’ve been imprisoned! And your appearances in the past have my family under constant scrutiny as is,”

“Ye know I didn’t intend for that to happen!” she argued and then stopped, realising that there were few members in sight, “Speaking of appearances, where are the others?”

“They’re off to the mountain already, we stayed behind to attend to Kíli,” Fíli told her; he brushed his brother’s sweaty hair carefully as the poor dwarf whimpered.

“Only the three of ye?” Callon asked.

“No, Bofur went to collect some King’s Foil not long ago, he should return soon.”

“We must have missed him coming from below,”

“Aye,” Nari nodded.

“Are we going to die, Da?” Tilda looked up at her father, her lip quivering slightly.

Bard smiled at her, “No, darling,” he brushed her hair carefully.

“The dragon, it’s going to kill us,” Sigrid shook her head.

“Is that what that was? I thought it might’ve been orcs,” Nari said in surprise.

“Orcs, are there orcs?!” Óin yelled in surprise and Callon quickly placed a hand on his shoulder, shaking his head.

“No, they were following yer trail, but we’re not sure where they might be,”

“I can assure you it won’t my darling,” Bard spoke softly and held her close.

“How can you be so certain?” Sigrid asked.

“Because, I’m going to kill it first,” Bard informed them, releasing Tilda and reaching up to a cluttered net hanging from a support beam in his home, he yanked out a single black arrow and everyone stared at him in awe.

“I’ve been visiting for years, and yet I don’t know about that?” Nari’s jaw hung in amazement.

“I’m sure there’s a lot I have yet to learn about you,” he said and she shrugged with a nod, “Besides, there was never a dragon that needed slaying. Bain come with me,” he glanced at his son and they began to walk out.

“Where are you going, Da?” Tilda asked them.

“To kill a dragon,” he informed her, “You stay here with Sigrid, look after each other.” He pulled them both into a tight hug and whispered, “I love you both.”

He turned to leave when he felt a hand on his shoulder, “Bard!” he saw Nari standing behind him, “May the wind be on yer side,” they both nodded and she let go, giving his shoulder a final pat, and he left with his son.

“What can we do to help?” Callon asked Fíli.

“For starters we need to locate Bofur, I’m concerned as to why he’s taking so long-”

“Nari, we need ye to find Bofur, remember we may have orcs hiding in the shadows,”

“Aye, he can’t have strayed too far,” she agreed and moved downstairs.

“I’ll get some more water,” Callon got a bowl of water and returned quickly to Kíli’s side, “Can ye not press something onto the wound?” he asked, and Óin unravelled the injury, the skin was still black and was oozing out a thick yellow substance.

Sigrid decided to get some fresh air and stood on the balcony, letting the cool night air calm her down; a nearby creak made her lean forward and look around, “Da? Is that you, Da?”

“What’s that sound?” Óin asked, lifting his gaze from cleaning Kíli’s wound.

Callon stood to attention immediately, looking to Fíli, “Orcs!” he pulled out his sword, waiting, “Get back inside Sigrid!” he called out, she ran inside without hesitation, screaming loudly, as orcs began to enter the home behind her.

Bain had returned to chaos, moving to protect his younger sister immediately, though stiffening in fear as the orcs neared them. Callon made work of attacking the orcs with several swings of his sword, and Óin grabbed the nearest pots and chucked them at the orcs to throw them off guard momentarily, and Callon cut the throat of an orc swiftly before stabbing another through the chest.

He heard more screams and turned to see the girls surrounded by orcs, Sigrid was pushed backwards and fell onto the bench of the dining table and saw Fíli charge without hesitation to slam the creature into the nearest wall, and then he was thrown across the room himself. He ran to the kitchen, finding the girls cowering under the table together, and he swiftly kicked the bench to its side to act as a shield over them.

“Stay down!” Sigrid yelled.

Bain managed to kick the other bench into an orc, Fíli came running and lifted the bench to shove the orcs back, while his brother was scrambling in the bed attempting to sit up and see what he might be able to do to help them, and fighting against the pains.

“Fíli, stick close to Óin, they’re the most vulnerable right now!” Callon ordered. Seconds later several orcs crashed down through the ceilings, making the children scream louder, “I’ve got this!” he swiftly kicked an orc, sliced another’s throat and decapitated a third in succession.

Where are they? Surely they’d be back by now? He worried, but he had no time to think as more orcs moved in. There’s too many of them in here!

Nari caught sight of Bofur running back towards the home, with the weed clutched tightly in his hand; she stepped across a few boats and stopped a few metres behind him.

“Bofur!”

“Wha-?” he stopped so quickly he almost tripped. “Lass, what are ye doing here? I thought ye were back home-”

“There are orcs tracking ye down, we must hurry, go!” she tugged him by the arm and as if taken from a daze he shook his head and nodded, they ran on with Nari leading them.

After they rounded a corner there was a roar above them and two orcs jumped down from the rooftops with weapons drawn, Nari was forced the other way and barely had time to withdraw her sword in time to stop a blow, and Bofur stumbled backwards and fell on his backside as an orc swung at him, dropping the plant next to him accidentally.

She struggled against the orc as it was much larger than her and not relenting; she caught sight of Bofur trying to crawl away as he was without a weapon and the orc grabbed his legs.

“Ohh!” he tried to grab the walkway but could not, and was swung by his feet like he was a doll, he hit the nearby wall and slid down onto a bench. He ended up slipping comically to the side, making the bench and all its good topple over onto him, making him moan in annoyance and surprise.

She stabbed the orc in front of her and ran forward as the other orc raised its axe above its head to kill Bofur, she threw her dagger and stood in surprise as an arrow struck through its chest first, and she looked around to find Legolas not too far away chasing down other orcs.

Nari moved quickly and removed the dagger from the orc’s backside, “Are ye alright Bofur?” she asked, moving the bags and nets off of him, he sat up and adjusted his hat slightly.

“Aye I’m fine,” he nodded, she gave him a hand to stand up and he gladly took it, “Thanks for saving me,”

She shook her head, “It wasn’t me,” making Bofur frown, “Legolas.”

“There must be dozens more of these foul things,” he glanced down at the orc before he walked over and picked the King’s Foil up.

“No doubting that, we have to get a move on,” she tugged him by the arm and they ran on together, “Kíli needs us.”

Tauriel burst through the front door and started slashing some orcs off, and Callon accidentally found himself stabbing an orc at the same time as her through its chest.

“I had him!” they spoke together.

“Ah!” Kíli yelped as an orc approached him and his brother, Tauriel spun around and caught sight of them, she quickly threw a dagger to kill it and Kíli rolled off his bed with a thud.

“Callon, any eyes on Bofur?!” Fíli shouted from across the room, he shoved Bain under the open end of the table, “Get down!”

Out of nowhere, Legolas killed an orc right behind Fíli and Bain, and turned his onslaught to the rest of the orcs. Kíli somehow managed to stand on his feet, grabbing a nearby dagger that had fallen in the fight and gripping the orc by the shoulder, before stabbing it in the neck. But he quickly fell to the ground screaming in overwhelming pain.

Tauriel froze, her eyes staring at Kíli in concern; while Callon chased down an orc that jumped out through the nearby window yelling out to its companions, he threw a dagger killing it, but obviously the message had gone through as there was a roaring from the distance.

The orcs suddenly started retreating, “They’re leaving!” Legolas told Tauriel from the balcony, managing to decapitate and orc with flair and following their path with his eyes.

“You killed them all,” Bain said stunned, he looked at the rest of their home that now stood as a wreck.

“There are others,” Legolas spoke up, heading towards the front door, “Tauriel, come.” But Tauriel stood motionless as she stared at him with watery eyes.

“We’re losing him!” Óin looked up desperately, and Fíli hurried over to his brother’s side, she looked down at them.

“Tauriel.” Legolas called once more, and then exited without looking behind him.

She walked uncertainly after him, stopping just before the door, until a low grunting came from Kíli once again and she glanced at him worriedly.

Nari let Bofur in front of her and kept her sword drawn in case another orc decided to surprise them, and as they neared Bard’s home she noticed a familiar blond head running after some orcs in the distance, to her confusion they seemed to be retreating despite outnumbering the elf.

Bofur yelped as he nearly collided into Tauriel, she only looked down at him, noticing the weed and a small smile of relief spread on her face. Nari moved herself between them and used her sword to separate them.

“What are ye doing here?” Nari demanded.

“We were taking care of the orcs for you,” Tauriel said coolly, “And if you don’t mind, I’d like to take the Athelas now,”

“Nari-” Callon poked his head out the doorway, “She’s on our side.”

“Alright,” she huffed and lowered her sword.

Tauriel leaned forward to Bofur, and she carefully took the weed from his hand, whispering, “Athelas,”

“What are ye doing?” he asked in confusion and worry, looking at Callon who shrugged.

Tauriel spoke softly, “I’m going to save him,” Callon moved out the way as she entered the house, with both Nari and Bofur following closely behind.

She started rubbing the herbs in her palms and then let the broken leaves fall into the dish of water, while in the meanwhile Callon, Fíli and Bofur took hold of Kíli to raise him onto the dining room table, and Óin looked him over once more

“Hold him down,” she instructed as Kíli began to writhe about.

Callon and Óin took his legs, Bofur stood to his left and Fíli to his right and supported his brother’s head as best as he could, Nari moved over to Tauriel’s side in case she was in need of assistance.

The elf examined Kíli’s wound, touching it briefly before scooping up some of herb paste in her palms, she pressed the remedy into his wound and starting chanting, “{Look upon me with eyes of mercy, provide for me a healing hand and may your life-giving powers flow into my body and the depths of my soul, to cleanse, purify and restore this dwarf’s wholeness and strength to serve for your kingdom again},”

Fíli watched her chant words which he did not understand and wrapped his hands around Kíli’s, allowing the sickly dwarf to squeeze his hand and ease his suffering, Bofur glanced around and placed a bowl of walnuts under Kíli’s head to act as a makeshift head rest, and Óin stared in amazement at her.

After a few moments Kíli eventually started closing his eyes a bit, and his body began to relax as he let the elf do her healing, she repeated a particular line from the ritual over once more.

“{To cleanse, purify and restore this dwarf’s wholeness and strength to serve for your kingdom again},”

Nari had never seen this kind of healing before, but she wanted to help and knew that more hands would help the healing process work better, so she placed her hands over Tauriel’s and began chanting the phrase with her.

The men seemed to be holding their breaths as they watched over Kíli, while the dwarf seemed mesmerised with the two women hovering over him, he did not understand the words they were saying but they were beautiful to him nonetheless.

They finished healing him and Kíli dozed off, the memory of pain washed away with exhaustion, and the dwarves relocated themselves to give him space and allow the women to do what they needed to do.

“That was an honour to witness, Elven healing,” Óin breathed out, “Your brother is mighty lucky that she stayed,”

“Yes, it would seem so,” Fíli frowned as he watched Nari, something in the way she looked at his brother nagged him in his gut.

“We should be lucky that Nari came looking for me,” Bofur spoke up, “Those orcs nearly took me out back there.” He shook his head in disbelief, “I could’ve been dead.”

“All we can hope is that the worst may be over with,” Callon said to them, “With the orcs mucking about the place we’ll be lucky if the people don’t try to chase us out,”

“Yes,” Fíli nodded seriously, “Yes, we must remain positive, Kíli is alive and that’s more than I could ever ask for right now,” the others murmured their agreements.

Nari had just finished cleaning the dead skin from the wound and was now binding his wound carefully, while Tauriel cleaned his face with a wetted cloth and gently dabbing away the stubborn dirt and sweat.

Nari spoke quietly to Tauriel, “I hadn’t known of that treatment when I first tried to mend his wound, I knew he should’ve seen a healer before leaving,” she shook her head, looking at Kíli’s sleepy face, happier than what he had been at Eossimar.

“At least he will heal now, that’s all that matters,” she looked at her and gave her a small nod, “No one could blame you for helping him,”

“-iel,” they caught the end of Kíli’s muttering, and he stared at the two of them, clearly dazed.

“Lie still,” Tauriel carefully brushed away the hair that had fallen to his face.

“You cannot be her,” he continued, “She is far away… She is far, far away from me. She walks in starlight in another world; it was just a dream,” he shook his head; Nari leaned over and patted his twitching hand tenderly. “Do you think she could have loved me?”

They looked at each other and stared at Kíli in confusion, both uncertain if he was referring to either of them.

A sudden whirl of wind blew through the town, causing some dust from what remained of the roof to fall down into the house, making everyone look up in confusion. Nari and Tauriel looked back to Kíli and him at them.

Fíli and Óin glanced at each other, shaking their heads and looking to the sky once more; Callon noticed Fíli become stressed all over again and Bofur found himself instinctively looking to Nari.

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