#keeperofgems asks

[secret-engima]

I’m interested in hearing more about that AU you told me about before- the RWBY/HTTYD fusion(?) where Oscar is basically Hiccup and Ozpin is the dadliest Nightfury ever :)

OH YES THAT WAS A FUN IDEA.

Okay so like- RWBY/HTTYD fusion kinda thing where instead of vikings there’s Remnant characters. And possibly Remnant’s world. Anyway dragons are a thing, dragons are something people all have strong mixed opinions on because most dragons are furious monsters that try to destroy human settlements at any turn, but there are stories and legends of a time centuries ago when dragons were peaceful and tamable and kind.

Oscar has no real opinion on the legends. He’s mostly scared of dragons after an attack of a huge flock of Terrible Terrors when he was a small child left his hands and neck all scarred up. Even so, he doesn't ... really hate them? They’re wild animals. They’re just angry ones. He and his Aunt are pretty good at keeping their farm unnoticed when a flock passes overhead and as long as it stays that way, he’s fine. Any stray dragon that comes by and starts making noises to set the barn on fire or steal livestock, his Aunt deals with it. She’s a good shot.

Then one day, his hideout is broken into.

Now, his hideout isn’t really a “hideout” it’s just the old barn that the farm doesn’t use anymore. it’s too far away from the house, right on the edge of their property. But nobody has a reason to go there, so as long as he’s careful, Oscar gets to use it as his own little clubhouse. He stores books in there, and notebooks to sketch in, and all the junk he likes to tinker with because he likes building things on the side. His aunt says that maybe someday he can get a scholarship to a proper school for engineering and stuff.

He’s always careful not to store food in there, so that the wild animals of any kind have no reason to try to get in, and he locks it when he leaves.

So he is understandably VERY surprised when he comes in and finds a DRAGON on the floor of his hideout, having apparently broken in through the old window on the upper floor. The dragon stirs when Oscar gasps in fear, moves faster than Oscar can think and suddenly Oscar is pinned by a dark paw as the dragon looms over him with bloody, sharp teeth and furious gold eyes.

So this is how he dies then.

He squeezes his eyes shut with a whimper, waiting for the half-remembered agony of being mauled by a dragon to start (it had hurt so bad as a child and this dragon was so much bigger than a Terrible Terror-).

Hot breath on his face and then instead of pain, a low noise that was too soft to be a growl. Oscar whimpers again because please, please don’t try to eat him alive or something, but instead of pain the paw just leaves his chest and when Oscar dares to open his eyes and sit up, the dragon has limped away to curl up in a corner of the hideout again.

....Dragons aren’t supposed to let humans live.

......They probably aren’t supposed to look so exhausted and in pain and bloody either.

Oscar knows he should run. Go get his Aunt so she can come put the dragon down before it changes its mind and hurts him but-. The dragon looks at him, and gold eyes aren’t furious anymore. Just resigned. Scared. The dragon looks like it’s been on the losing side of a very bad fight with something that wasn’t human. There are gashes where scales have been clawed away, and when its tail slides slowly to curl around its paws, Oscar can see its missing a tail fin.

...Was this dragon attacked by other dragons?

Curiosity and pity make Oscar hold his silence as he backs slowly out of the barn and shuts the door behind him. He ... maybe it will go away in a few hours. Once it’s caught its breath.

He peaks in that evening and finds it hasn’t. It’s curled up tightly in the same corner, and he’s pretty sure the dragon is shivering.

He should REALLY tell his Aunt about this.

He brings it a small bucket of fish from the farm’s massive pond the next morning instead.

The dragon looks at him in open surprise and takes the fish as politely as a well trained dog. When it stands up again Oscar flinches, but all it does is sniff at him and then start licking his hair and Oscar yelps from shock more than fear. It’s like a switch has been flipped and even though the dragon is still exhausted and injured, it gently wrestles him down to give him ... a bath? A dragon bath. The dragon is purring while it does so. Oscar takes it as a form of thank you and has to work hard to snag a shower before Auntie Em can see him covered in dragon drool.

It takes a few more tentative visits to realize that 1. the dragon can’t leave because he can’t fly anymore, 2. he’s not actually black like Oscar thought, but a really deep, rich green in the sunlight when the dragon sneaks out to the old back field for a sun nap, and 3. Oscar is pretty sure he’s been adopted by the dragon. It (he, the dragon is a he), keeps cooing at him and trying to follow him and giving him tongue baths and offering him regurgitated bits of fish, which Oscar frantically turns down each time.

He names the dragon Ozpin, after one of the few dragon stories he knows where the dragon isn’t a horrible monster, and the first time he uses it, Ozpin reacts like it’s always been his name.

Oscar realizes halfway through designing a new tail fin for Ozpin that 1. this design is going to need a rider and 2. he’s had a dragon for about three months now and still hasn’t told his aunt. That ... will probably come back to bite later. But by now he’s more afraid of her reaction over the delay than her reaction over the dragon. So he keeps putting it off.

He kinda sorta really wants to ride Ozpin before his aunt can shut the idea down.

Ozpin expected to die that night he fled. Hundreds of seasons he’d managed to keep ahead of Salem, his mad former mate, freeing dragons from her control in twos and threes and hiding them away where she would not find them again, and she had finally caught him. He had been betrayed. Willingly. Leo’s eyes had been clear as day as he stood by Salem’s side, not glazed with her hate and control, and that hurt almost as much as the claws of her horde of dragons (always a horde, never leaving the risk that she will have to fight him alone, because she knows that in an equal fight, he would win, just like he almost had last time) tearing apart his scales, driving him from the air before he managed to fight some of them off and escape.

He’s not sure when he lost his tail fin. But that is a death sentence to a dragon like him. A dragon who cannot fly is a dead dragon, either by starvation, by Salem, or by the humans who have long forgotten what it was like to be friends and companions to dragon kind.

Ozpin wakes up in a human structure and can’t remember how he got in, but he hears movement and pained instinct drives him up to attack (what if it’s Salem, what if it’s one of her scouts, a poor dragon that Ozpin is too weak to free from her control and will have to kill to save himself like the coward he is-).

A child.

A human child.

Oh. Oh dear.

He really is going to die.

Ozpin removes his paw, hoping he didn’t break any fragile bones (human hatchlings were so *delicate*, he remembered that even after so long) and slinks to a far corner. He could run again, but he’s too tired and too heartsick. Let the boy call his parents.

At least the humans would probably make his death quick.

Except the boy does not call his parents, he leaves and pokes his head in hours later as if to check if Ozpin is still there. He leaves again and the next morning arrives with a bucket of fish to feed him. It is strange and kind and strange because it is kind and when he sniffs at the boy in curiosity, looking for a reason, the child doesn’t run, just flinches nervously. He smells of only one guardian and no other hatchlings. He smells nervous and a bit frightened and ... lonely.

Ozpin finds himself gently pulling the child close and bathing him before he can think better of it, and it is foolish, to risk claiming another human hatchling, he hasn’t shared his Life with a Rider in a long long time (not since Salem killed the last one before his eyes back when he was young and foolish and still thought he could call her back from the edge of madness), but he is so grateful and lonely and this child is all but aching with the need for love. Why else would he risk bringing Ozpin food when all the stories men tell nowadays are of how dragons are bloodthirsty monsters?

The boy keeps coming back, bringing just enough fish to take the edge of Ozpin’s hunger, and even though his days are numbered, Ozpin stays and croons and tries to impart love on the child who is so lonely he would befriend a monster. He lets the boy tentatively climb on him and touch his scales, even lets him inspect Ozpin’s injured, ruined tail. He can’t help it. He always loved hatchlings, human or dragon, and it’s been so *long*-.

The boy takes to sketching and building ... something. Ozpin isn’t entirely certain what. He almost jumps out of his scales when Oscar (that was the boy’s name he learned at last) calls him Ozpin, calls him by name, and then learns that there still are a handful of stories of the Old Days. Dismissed as myth now. It’s amusing to be named after himself.

Ozpin frets quietly over the child sometimes, because while he can smell a guardian on him, he has never seen this guardian, even from afar. He knows this barn is on the edge of Oscar’s little territory, but even so, what guardian lets her hatchling wander off so frequently and never thinks to check on him? Sometimes Oscar falls *asleep* in here, curled up against Ozpin’s side and tucked under a wing, and only wakes up when Ozpin nudges him up because he can hear the far off bell that he thinks means it’s time for his hatchling to go home and eat.

He wishes Speaking Stones still existed. That he’d managed to save more of them, or that he was able to fly and get one. The only way to exchange true words without a Speaking Stone would be a Rider bond and- and he can’t do that to Oscar. It wouldn’t be fair.

He doesn’t deserve to be dragged into a war for freedom of mind that Ozpin and dragon kind has been losing for seasons upon seasons.

Except the child doesn’t seem to think so, doesn’t even know what he flirts with when he tentatively drags in a rudimentary replacement tail fin and saddle as well as a harness to connect them.

Ozpin tries to reject it. As much as he wants (needs) to fly, it’s too dangerous. The boy pouts and sets the harness and gear aside, muttering to himself that he’ll just leave it in the barn for a while until “Ozpin gets used to the smell”.

Ozpin snorts. Because he is not a dog that can be tricked into forgetting something exists thank you.

Oscar sticks his tongue out at him. Adorable, feisty, silly little hatchling.

[sothequeensays]

Hey! It’s been a while, but I wanted to let you know it’s me (Digi/abundleofbugs!) and I’m probably gonna be reposting stuff with my vessels for QMAU to this blog when I get the chance! And maybe updating stuff about them ^^;

Hi Digi, great to hear from you again! I'd be excited to see what you update about them!

[secret-engima]

I’m still snickering about LC!Erza XD. Particularly the sheer lack of her /caring/ what Mors thinks about her choice in Retinue and spouse.

*laughs* YES. Erza is a Fairy at heart, she couldn’t care less what Mors thinks about her Retinue and her spouse, and she frankly couldn’t care less what he thinks about her opinion of him. Which she will freely state. To his face.

Erza and co absolutely end up going on a roadtrip to wreak havoc in Lucis mainland and honestly the starter reason is probably just to get away from (and annoy the heck out of) Mors.

Regis loves his sister, but she Stresses him with her casual disregard for all parental authority. Or kingly authority.

Authority in general is a loose concept to his sister tbh. XD

[secret-engima]

LC!Erza and her Retinue visiting Galahd is gonna be fun :3c

OH ABSOLUTELY

Not only do they Instantly Vibe with the Galahdian culture, but it’s Jellal who took them there. More than a few Ulrics and Ostiums are like- YOU’RE ALIVE????

Jellal: ...Yes?

The Ulrics and Ostiums: YOU SHOULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING oh hello who are these.

Erza, in all her princess glory: I’m his wife.

The Ulrics and Ostiums: :O??

And just- so much chaos in general will be happening. Especially if it’s a festival and there’s dancing and music and good drink around. Natsu immediately fascinates people with his fire eating before Lucy drags him off to dance with her and Gray has probably successfully attracted five or more curious Ulrics who want to potentially Throw Hands with him for the fun of it. Erza and Jellal are being a wonderful Galahdian/Fairy Tail couple. Which means- they’re being adorably in love while unintentionally causing chaos.

[secret-engima]

Emerald/Mercury with 22?

     They’d done it. They’d won. Somehow it wasn’t sinking into Mercury’s brain as he watched the sun slowly rise over the remains of the battlefield where they had gone and killed an immortal Grimm queen. For good. They’d … they’d won. They were free. Somehow Red and her little posse had been right, and now Mercury and Emerald wouldn’t have to spend the rest of their lives running away from the puppet strings of a woman who wanted to destroy the whole world. They’d beaten her without dying. They were free.

     Beside him, Emerald started laughing breathlessly in the same giddy disbelief and the sound somehow made it all feel real. Real and amazing and heady and Mercury couldn’t stop himself from whooping, hoarse and loud, fist pumping to the sky before Em was there, grabbing his hands and spinning him around like they were little kids instead of killers and thieves and winners of  centuries long wars. She beamed at him, the biggest smile he’d ever seen on her face, and the sight of it was a thrill, a rush so strong that he-

     Kissed it.

     Oh.

     He jolted back a moment later, cursing the heat spilling unprofessionally into his face as he tried to cobble together some way to brush it off or take it back because stupid-stupid-stupid what was he doing kissing his partner-. Emerald blinked at him twice, then her grin came back and somehow it was even better than the one from before because it felt like it was one that he’d put there by himself, not just from winning a war with Red and her merry band of goodie two shoes. Emerald flung her arms around his shoulders, and he trusted her enough not to flinch or kick her away when her fingers tangled in the back of his hair and yanked his head down to … to…

     Oh.

     “Took you long enough,” she breathed against his mouth, and Mercury growled in playful complaint as he pulled her closer.

[secret-engima]

Noctis!Jellal/Erza with 19! >:3

     “Going out on a job?”

     Jellal looked up from the poster in his hands and gave a faint hum of agreement, “It looks interesting. Want to come?”

     Erza sighed, leaning against his side briefly before throwing an indulgent look in the direction of Team Natsu, “I’d love to, but I can’t. Lucy needs help making rent again. We’re taking an ‘easy’ job.”

     Jellal laughed softly, oddly reminded of times he had once gone out with a team to slay monsters for food and lodging money. Though jobs for Mages were far more varied than Hunts ever had been. “That pays enough to cover her rent and Natsu’s stomach? Good luck then.”

     Erza tilted her head to look at him and he could see the mischief in her eyes as her gaze flicked from his eyes to his lips and back, “Might need a little extra of that.”

     There was a niggling in his head, a sudden idea of what she wanted, and Jellal had no issue giving it to her. Leaning down slightly, he pressed a chaste, careful kiss to her mouth, ignoring the immediate chorus of coos and cheers from the guild at large. “There you are,” he whispered with a smile as he pulled away, “an extra dose of good luck.”

[secret-engima]

Team STRQ's (numerous) abductions of Clover are great because he has no idea why these crazy people keep kidnapping him X3

THEY ARE.

He has absolutely no idea why these nutty people keep popping out of a portal to cart him off on adventures. Guys. GUYS. HE HAS A JOB. HE’S IN THE MILITARY.

Raven: Don’t care my brother needs a friend.

Clover ends up being Qrow’s braincell (backup Braincell when Summer is around) solely because he keeps getting dragged along on Qrow’s adventures or thrown at Qrow via Raven’s portal. By now it’s REFLEX to gently pluck Qrow’s flask out of his hands before he has too much or to grab the end of his cape to keep him from wandering off and Doing the Dumb.

Clover, aloud: I need to get a child leash. But for adults.

Qrow: *hey*.

Raven: He is not wrong.

Clover is absolutely Team STRQ’s confused little brother who is trying to be Responsible and I love it.

[secret-engima]

I'm looking forward to people eventually finding out what happened to Yang, in the Golden One verse :3c

ME TOO.

For those who don’t know- Golden One verse/Dragon Yang verse is a RWBY/Fairy Tail crossover. :3333

But just- it happens during what WOULD have been the Lost Fable arc, and the others are getting mad at Ozpin, and pushing for his secrets, but Yang is not part of that in this AU because- she knows what it’s like. To fear speaking out and being rejected for something that is far too late to change. She is angry at the others for trying to force the issue, for proving Ozpin right even as they condemn him for not TRUSTING them. Then Ruby raises the lamp, and she says the name and-

Yang thought better of her sister. She really did.

But Ruby doesn’t listen to Ozpin, doesn’t listen to his pleas or the tears in his eyes. She opens her mouth, “What-,”

Yang reacts first. She doesn’t know what she’s doing, or what she’s thinking just that this is WRONG and it needs to stop. But this relic is for asking questions, the only way to stop Ruby is to ask a question of her own surely.

So Yang yanks the lamp out of her sister’s hand and says, “What happened to me when I disappeared?”

The silence burns. Ruby gapes. The entity in the lamp stares thoughtfully at them both and for a moment Yang thinks she will reject the question. Then Jinn smiles.

It’s not a nice smile.

The world goes white.

“Once upon a time,” coos Jinn’s voice to the group as they each find themselves alone in a void, “There was a world like ours, yet also very different. For while the world of Remnant long has only had magic in the form of Dust, this world breathed in magic.”

“And with magic, there came dragons.”

And all the group can do is watch as a story unfolds, as secrets are ripped open.

As they watch what happened, to Yang Xiao Long and all the other people who disappeared without warning for two months, three weeks, two days, and seven hours. >:)

[secret-engima]

Kaminari/Jirou with 18? :3

     “You look like you’re going to throw yourself out a window.” Kyoka glared daggers at him and Kaminari raised his hands in bemused surrender, “What? You do!”

     “I’m fine,” she growled, hands tight on her guitar, heart hammering in her ribs. She could hear the crowd from here, it had to be huge. “I’m fine,” she repeated, softer, hoping this time she believed it.

     Denki rested his hand on her back, “Hey,” he murmured. He caught her chin with gentle fingers so she had to look at him, “You’ll be great.” Kyoka exhaled slowly, grasping onto that faith as tight as she could. She would be fine, she would. She was a Pro Hero, a professional. She could handle a charity concert. Denki grinned at her, light and trusting, then carefully leaned over and pressed a kiss against her forehead where there was no makeup to potentially ruin.

     Kyoka swallowed, but she could feel her shoulders reluctantly unwinding, “Thanks, Denki.”

     “No problem, now go out there and kill them.”

     Kyoka snorted, but she was smiling, which she knew was what he’d been after, “Pretty sure murder by music is Katsuki’s thing.”

     “Which is why you gotta show him up!” Denki crowed, waving her on with a boisterous thumbs up.

[secret-engima]

I am an absolute sucker for Noctis disappearing into Little Galahd. Noctis may not know how to fix a heating system the way it's supposed to be done, but he has scads of magic that can be imbedded into things. While Prompto is taught How to Dragon, Noctis is fitting around buildings, shoving his magic into the heating systems to make it radiate heat, figuring out electric wires to track down shorts, basically becoming a magical handyman. Gimme Noctis with some pinpoint precision with his magic

Dear anon I appreciate the enthusiasm but you’ve yote this ask to the wrong person :). Dragon Prompto is the brainchild of @keeperofgems.

[secret-engima]

because it is not at all helpful to melt the radiator/rock you were trying to imbue with heat. And setting up filters to clean water is tricky, because Water is Hard, Ok? (He is elated when he figures out how to use Earth to help with the filtering.) It is also really finicky to work with the electricity in the walls without tripping breakers.

Oh dear, part two of the mis-placed ask. @keeperofgems I think this is yours?

[secret-engima]

*Skids into your inbox* Mercury redemption?!?! *bounces* tell me more pls? Mercury and Emerald(and Roman and Neo) are very interesting to me, and I’ve long been of the opinion that their characters could be so much *more*. (Roman was not an idiot. He got in over his head yes, but he was not an idiot. He had clearly been part of the Beacon underworld for a while (that map?) and was a successful thief!)

*crashes happily into the ask* wasn’t gonna answer anymore today but HECK YES MERCURY REDEMPTION. It’s a Mercury redemption/Emerald redemption fic and it starts when I rescue Mercury from his dad’s clutches when he is tiny child.

By turning him into a wolf.

No I am not kidding. My brain is weird.

So so so so this whole thing was started with a discord ramble with @keeperofgems and somehow we’d just watched Wolfwalkers recently and I am ALWAYS DOWN for transformation stories. So gremlin brain went. HEY. HEY OZ CAN GIVE PEOPLE ABILITY TO TURN INTO THINGS RIGHT??? AND HE CAN MAKE MAGIC THAT JUMPS TO NEW HOSTS RIGHT?????

WHAT IF HE ONCE BLESSED GOOD FRIEND WITH WOLF POWERS AND THEN ACCIDENTALLY BLESSED HIS ENTIRE FAMILY LINE.

Which Mercury’s mom comes from. >:3

So here’s tiny Child Mercury, desperately trying to run away from his dad, and he stumbles and trips and keeps going and he’s so desperate, so scared and with no semblance to help him that he reaches deep. Past his aura, into something primal. Something lost. Something MAGIC.

And then he realizes later that he’s on all fours. That he’s a WOLF PUP.

And that he has no idea how to change back.

So he wanders around for a while and eventually saves Tiny Child Ruby from danger and that ends up getting him adopted into the Rose-Xiao Long household so I get to have my Big Brother Mercury shenanigans, Identity Shenanigans, and Shapeshifting shenanigans all in one fic. >:33333

And then later Emerald ends up defecting and joining the crew because in this AU Marcus Black (? is that his name I forget) is still alive and I HC that Emerald ran away to the streets to AVOID people like him.

And that’s a really ramble premise of my Wolfcury verse fic.

Because if Ruby is Red Riding Hood she deserves a Big Bad Wolf (brother) dang it.

Also also I agree with you on Roman. Man had potential and he WAS clearly intelligent and it’s a pity he got killed off and Cinder is still kicking.

*absently whacks fixit plunny where Roman, Neo, Mercury, and Emerald are all fixit redeemed by the power of adorable time traveler Oscar* Later. I have enough RWBY AUs for a hot minute. I’ll start you another day I promise.