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coolcattime · 4 months

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heyy i saw u reblogged the "please ask me abt my ocs" post, so. here is me asking about your ocs! gimme the deets

WARNING THIS IS 8,600 WORDS LONG

So in originally trying to answer this, I ended up just overwhelming myself because I have a lot of OCs and as it turns out trying to write everything about them all at once caused me anxiety and that was incredibly silly for an ask that was meant to, like, bring joy (which it did). So I've decided to just start again and focus on more simple descriptions. Some of these OCs are mine, some of Atlas’ (@theiratlas) and two are Alex's (@gayb0wsr). And I've colour coded them to easily show whose is whose and I've grouped them in a way they're grouped the only story that features all of them at once.

Below the cut is 31 backstories for 31 OCs! They are vaguely sorted - though sorted in a way that they are grouped the same way they are in the only story where all of them appear. So while the groups have titles, the titles don’t matter all that much and were mostly for me to keep track of the groups.

Also here is art of them all! All the art has reference links under the cut and was all either drawn by myself, friends, done in picrews, or commissioned. Basically, these are all images made just for these characters ^-^

To just explain a tiny bit about the world of Libris, The Great Book. It is, as the name does imply, a flat world in the shape of a book. It was originally created as a custom D&D world that now is just kinda a hub world for all the OCs.

Balor Crew

Idric Ba'lor (He/Him) - Tiefling Glamour Bard - Early to mid twenties

Art reference: https://coolcattime.tumblr.com/post/746469835526078464/ive-finally-had-the-brain-space-to-draw-so-ive

The merchant captain of the Balor, having hand-picked her crew since he took the position.

He was taken in by the previous captain after escaping a compound of religious zealots that were enslaving tieflings. He named himself after the ship.

Was taught his musical skills (violin and singing) by the tieflings looking after him in the camp, but his bardic talents are entirely self-taught.

Incredibly powerful Bard, probably the most powerful Bard on Libris. Beat the headmistress of a Bard College in a violin contest when he was a child (said headmistress now hates him with a burning passion). Has created spells.

Mostly a merchant/con-artist (depending on who you ask) but also is very much an adventurer for hire. But above all else, Idric considers himself a storyteller and prefers to tell the stories of others rather than his own.

Medli Mistwalker Ba’lor (She/Her) - Water Genasi Whispers Bard - Late teens to early twenties

Art reference: https://coolcattime.tumblr.com/post/722939088269901824/a-little-redrawvery-slight-redesign-of-my-oc

Was raised on the island of Mistwalker within the walls of Mistwalker College as the prodigy of the schools Headmistress Lady Clarissa Mistbreaker.

Was abused and bullied throughout her life which led to her being a pacifist.

Met Idric when they were kids and he tried to con her. Medli ended up hiding under the stall table when teachers came looking for her and Idric lied to them about not seeing her. This situation ended up with Idric beating Clarissa in a violin contest and him gifting Medli the item he had been trying to con her into buying. The two have been friends since and Medli frankly idolised Idric.

Medli ends up running away from Mistwalker when a “test” turns out to be a fight to the death between herself and another student. She's found half-dead by Idric and Anastasia who are thankfully able to heal her.

Now works as Idric’s apprentice and is a lot happier. Ends up changing her last name to Ba'lor due to disliking having a connection to a place that caused her pain.

Knows a lot about magical theory and is doing research to try and bring back lost magic.

Anastasia Gulp (She/Her) - Merfolk Twilight Cleric - Early twenties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1414503

The navigator of the Balor.

A lot more comfortable in the water than she is on land. Very skilled deep sea diver and navigator, mostly on instinct.

Very typically doesn't realise she is included in a group unless it is directly specified.

Will often say that her parents are great adventurers and that’s why they abandoned her. This is not true and she is not very convincing about said fact.

Despite appearances has had a very normal life. Doesn’t know where her cleric powers came from.

Myla Soliel (She/Her) - Simic Paladin - Late twenties to early thirties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1706331

Hired security aboard the Balor.

Originally a human, but when she was a kid she left to work for Dr Braedan Thaxx - a scientist who had burnt every other bridge the scientific community had to offer attempting apparently impossible research - who fused her with features from other humanoid origins, animals, and monsters to create a superhuman bodyguard.

She worked with Thaxx for her entire adult life until, without warning, his research concluded and he never contacted her again, completely abandoning her.

She ended up working as a mercenary for hire, which led to her getting hired by Clarissa to kidnap Medli. She successfully did this, but was talked out of actually completing the job by Medli. When Idric arrived to find her breaking the legs of the college merchant that had come to collect Medli and hired her as security for the ship.

Altair Delphine (They/Them) - Aasimar Divination Wizard - Late Teens to Early Twenties

Art references:

https://frolis-maneuver.tumblr.com/commissions

https://ko-fi.com/aurelia_r?action=gallery

A divination wizard that uses tarot cards as a magical focus. They are also quite gifted in regular non-magical divination using the cards.

Altair was once enrolled in the most prestigious magical school on Libris: The Penattrey Embark Academy. Despite being intelligent and an incredibly natural divinator, formal education led to them being perpetually stressed. They ended up leaving to avoid seeing their exam results and think about their future for another second.

They briefly attended Mistwalker College as a “non-taught specialty student”, where they met Medli. However they left not long after Medli did due to their stress in formal education not having disappeared overnight, or over many nights (or ever), and due to Mistwalker sucking in general.

They end up staying in a tavern in a small town run by a friendly elderly dwarven couple. They attempted to earn money by doing tarot readings, but didn't actually advertise they were doing this and any curious patrons found Altair’s bedside manner lacking even if their information proved correct. Needless to say, they didn't actually earn much money.

They assumed they were being sneaky and koy in not paying their tab - the couple was actually just letting them stay for free, going along with Altair’s antics.

They ended up reuniting with Medli kinda randomly and getting a job as an assistant on the Balor to help on market days (and get roped into helping out on adventures).

They also ended up as the apprentice of the head of a mysterious magic guild known as Atlanta. They did not apply for nor ask for this job, but it pays well and very very little is expected from them so they have accepted the situation.

Storm's Rest

Katherine Delaney (She/Her) - Half-Elf (Eladrin) Wild Magic Sorcerer - Mid to Late Twenties

Art reference: My current WIP

The adopted daughter of the human noble family of Storm's Rest.

At a young age she was exposed to an extremely high level magic that left her blind and with an overwhelming magical force within her body. Her father found a source of magic water that with a small ritual could be turned into eye drops so she could see, though she needs to apply the eye drops every day.

The massive amount of magic in her left with wild magic surges that occurred no matter what type of magical training she attempted. She ended up honing her powers as a sorcerer to gain some control over this with the help of her mother who is learning this alongside her daughter.

As part of a family tradition, she goes off to adventure for a while after becoming an adult. This ended up in tragedy as Katherine and her party were captured by a green dragon and its cult. One of Katherine’s friends was eaten, the other lost a leg, and her brother (who came to rescue her) lost an eye. Worse, the dragon and the cult leader both escaped alive.

Katherine ends up with survivor's guilt over the situation, especially as she ended up with no long term injuries. She ends up unable to stand remaining at home and taking off in the middle of the night hoping she can prove herself somehow.

In practice this looked a lot like hiding in a tavern three towns over until a cute (please read as: weird) mushroom girl, claiming to be her retainer, showed up.

Rupert Delaney (He/Him) - Human Swarm Ranger - Late Twenties to Early Thirties

Art reference:

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1706331

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/582810

The biological heir of the Delaney noble family, and Katherine's older brother.

Typically seen with a charm of hummingbirds following him which fight with him in combat.

He's stopped adventuring since the dragon incident, deciding to focus on learning to run the family shipping business, rather than risking worsening his injuries. Despite his happy-go-lucky nature and less than stellar academic history, he’s found great success in this.

He has always been incredibly protective of Katherine, and is incredibly worried about her since the dragon incident and her disappearance having been a big part of hiring Leontine as Katherine’s retainer.

Leontine O'Dora (She/Her) - Wood Elf Spore Druid - Definitely Always Twenty-Four Exactly, No More, No Less, 24 mmhmm exactly yes, that’s what that guy said that one time, i think it was a good year ago now. He said I looked twenty four and he wore a cravat so you have to assume he knew his stuff :)))

Art reference:

https://x.com/Edlinklover?t=GRwLt_wHWVqEj369CDl0zA&s=09

https://www.tumblr.com/gayb0wsr

Leontine woke up in an abandoned mushroom infested estate with no memory of who she was and with a wound in her chest that had been infested with and closed by mushrooms.

The mushrooms spoke to her, greeting her as a friend, and acted as a guide when she realised she wanted to leave wherever she was.

For a while, she adventured around the general wilderness surrounding the city she had woken up in. She was oddly skilled with a quarterstaff and the mushrooms aided her with necrotic damage and absurd necromantic powers. She was immediately a more than formidable fighter.

She made enough of a name for herself as a fighter that she was approached about becoming a retainer for the daughter of a local noble family. She went to look into this job, however when she arrived she was given an apology. The daughter had disappeared, and the best detectives in the city currently had no leads. Leontine offered to track her down with the help of the mushrooms, an idea that was not really believed by anyone but the son but the family couldn't exactly turn down help.

Leontine found Katherine a few towns over without taking a singular wrong turn. Though Katherine was not exactly hiding, she definitely did not expect to be found. She definitely was not ready to return home. Leontine decided that this was fine as her job was to be her retainer so as long as she stayed with Katherine, she was doing her job. She did however persuade Katherine to send her family updates to let them know she was safe. The two have been travelling together since and have been dating since shortly after the arrangement began.

Marshanne “Marsh” Springharrow (She/Her & He/Him) - Hagkin Warlock - Late Teens

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1564386

The created child to a powerful yet closed coven - designed to the most powerful hag there ever was. The coven began “training” her at a very young age in advanced polyphormic magic, giving her nearby towns folk to “play with” (traumatise).

As Marshanne grows a little older and more of a problem to the local populus, he becomes a folkloric type monster to the nearby town, which very much makes her kinda sad.

A renowned magic school then approaches the coven with the proposal of using and educating Marsh in exchange for studying his powers. The coven agrees but makes it very clear that they will come back to retrieve her as soon as she begins her transformation into a full hag and that even the school will not be powerful enough to stop her once it begins.

Marshanne, upon waking up in the school, is told that he is being given a choice: accept the pact with the school’s patron to supercharge her powers, be given top tier support and care from the staff all while allowing her to do good in the school's name before being killed kindly when her transformation begins or to be horrifically slaughtered in front of the student body as an invading monster.

Marshanne accepts this, desperately wanting to be a hero and the school reserves the right to take that “kindness” whenever they see fit. After a year or so of this dynamic Marsh is sent on placement to support / learn under Rupert Delaney as he rebegins adventuring after an unknown hiatus. Rupert does not believe in the school’s binary regarding Marsh’s life, though will figure those details out later.

Rupert is also the person to give Marshanne, his usual nickname, Marsh.

The Cult Busters

Anshide Munroe (She/Her) - Drow Twilight Cleric - Forties (mid three hundreds)

Art reference: https://neuroticdoodle.tumblr.com/

Born in a particularly religious drow city, Anshide grew up with a number of clear rules. The absolute clearest being that no one was allowed to leave and that there was only one acceptable deity to follow. When she was approaching adulthood, she found an abandoned book on a different deity, one of the star deities of Libris.

Anshide became infatuated by what she read, and secretly began to pray to this new goddess. When her secret was discovered, she was arrested and ultimately exiled from the city. From there she left the tunnels under the World Mountains to the surface of Libris where she saw the stars for the first time and was amazed.

She was blessed by the goddess she was exiled for as a cleric and ended up working for a number of years as a mercenary. During this work she met the man who would become her husband - Himo.

The two settled down and ended up having a child - Kaya - before her past ended up returning. An inquisition from her birth city, tracking down those they had previously exiled to be made an example of to help cement the rule of a new priestess.

Realising the risk they posed to her family, she found a place for them to hide while she took on more mercenary work to keep herself on the move with armed company. And it worked well enough, but it was not a real solution.

After far too long of having to build her strength, Anshide returned to the city where she was raised and found the priestess. With power and experience behind her, Anshide gave a very clear ultimatum: stop with the crusade on the exiles or she would burn the priestess and the church to dust with starlight.

What precisely happened, Anshide kept to herself, but she returned to her family. Rather she returned to where they should've been, that was now a house ransacked, walls and floors covered in symbols and runes that she didn't recognise. In the centre of it all was her husband's severed hand.

She set off to find her family, ready to track down every cult in Libris if need be.

Rhell O'Hara (she/her & zu/zuff) - Human Zombie Fighter - Late Teens to Very Early Twenties

Art reference:

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1342558

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1419391

Rhell’s mom raised her, trying to avoid exposing Rhell to her real job, a back alley doctor for a mob who’s dealings focused on anthropomancy, information dealings, blackmail, and general assorted mafioso nonsense.

As Rhell got older and their relationship grew more strained, Rhell learnt to vent this anger physically growing to love sport and develop more into a regular person. Unfortunately this is also when Rhell’s mum’s role within the mob grew and she began to rely on Rhell’s help to do so.

Although a physically imposing presence, Rhell was almost exclusively given runner jobs and normal tasks that could be a part of any other assistant’s life, buying odd things with name’s zu’s never heard of, carrying “carpets” to the edge of town, cleaning apartments at half past four in the morning - the usual.

At some point in this, Rhell completes a drop off in an abandoned quarry, though this turns out to be a sting operation and in running through the quarry, Rhell steps upon loose stone and over fifty feet to her death.

When her body is found, her mum is able to use her sway to get ahold of the corpse, cover up the fact the fall ever happened and bring Rhell back, though due to the substantial damage to the vessel, this took more than what would usually be possible.

However the mother was able to do it though, Rhell came back, now physically unable to die ever again, simply awakening again and again but with an incredible hunger to serve others and more than a few stitching scars. Though it comes with little in the way of magic or impressive feats, Rhell is yet to find something zu couldn’t shake off in an hour or so plus her body has became the perfect vessel for divination, allowing her to gain insight into the future whenever she is harmed as blurry as those insights may be.

Rhell continues working for her mother in a similar capacity.

Libra Linustep (She/Her) - Tiefling Star Druid - Early to mid twenties

(Her name is pronounced Lib-ra, not Le-bra. She's named for the world of Libris, not the starsign ^-^)

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1564386

Born into a cult, Libra has always been told that the work they're doing is going to help all of Libris. A collection of divinators, they were going to read the stats to reunite the twelve star gods holy relics and bring unity to Libris.

Libra was one of those in the community blessed by the stars, she could see into the future and into the unknown. Her talents were only natural, her brother their current leader had such visions too. Libra followed her to guide herself to people or objects that can help their community, but she's sure that one day her visions will lead them to the holy relics they're looking for.

VI of Swords (any/all) - Slime Girl Arcane Trickster Rogue - less than a year of sentience, over 800,000 without

Art reference: https://www.instagram.com/sug4rmush/?hl=en

Once VI was nothing more than a dungeon slime. Very deadly, completely mindless, acting as corpse/general adventurer cleanup for a lich. When said lich ended up evolving to godhood, the magic left behind in the dungeon went into VI and she became a sentient slime (still extremely dangerous and occasional corpse eater).

Not quite knowing what to do with himself, VI found a tarot card on the ground with a figure on it that looked an awful lot like them. Thus they named themself “VI of Swords”.

For a while she hung about on the surface of Libris acting as a con artist giving tarot readings using cold readings and performance rather than divination. Then, as fate would have it, he started to get actual visions of the future.

A little panicked, they returned to the dungeon they were from only to be greeted by a newly formed cult. The Cult tried to fight them, a lot of its members got killed, and barely managed to trap VI in the central chamber which now has more locks, traps, and enchantments surrounding it than the most secure vault in the land. VI is now snuck waiting for someone to let her out so she can figure out what exactly these dreams are about.

VI’s main talents are a) being terrifying and psychological attacks in combat and b) transformation into different (always slimy) forms, mostly a dog.

Orla Waspchild (She/her) - Human Pre-Eldritch Warlock - Literally like nine

Summer Camp

Art reference:

My unposted art

https://www.tumblr.com/gayb0wsr

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1706331

A young child with two parents who are controversial high ranking naval officers. She has a very black and white view of mortality due to this upbringing.

She was being raised typically on ships stationed around blockages. On one such blockage around an island, she ended up eavesdropping on her parents and overhearing them planning something terrible.

In attempting to escape the ship, she lept overboard determined to swim to shore. Quickly learning exactly what a current was, she began screaming for help, when none came, she instead screamed to the waters themselves, and boy did they answer. And so when Orla should've gone under and drowned, she instead turned into lightning striking the water over and over until she reached a safe store.

Said safe shore happened to be at an adventure camp for kids, where the counsellor coming to see the commotion assumed Orla was a kid that simply skipped checking in to head straight for a swim. She got a mild telling off about swimming without telling anyone and a safe place to stay.

After more than one reckless and impulsive decision, Orla quickly realised that the whole surviving death thing wasn't a one time thing and in fact now whenever she is in danger, something happens and Orla doesn't. She doesn't know why this is, but decides it means she is a hero and the adventure camp is as good a place as any to stay while she figures out how to do that.

Flaire Sandvik-Darling (They/Them) - Half-Elf (Sea) Lifeguard - Late teens / early twenties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/170832

(Flaire is actually blue with light fish features)

The lifeguard at Libris’ best adventure fun camp for junior adventurers, having felt most at home near the water. Flaire is an incredibly confident swimmer and calming presence for many of their friends, despite not always seeming it.

Flaire grew up taking trips to the adventure camp, with stretching days of fun that made adventuring seen like a field trip rather than a dangerous occupation. Flaire would spend their days swimming or exploring the woods with their cousin that never quite seemed to have the magical effect on them that they had on everyone else.

During their teen years, Flaire got lifeguard training and got a job as a counsellor at the camp.

As a young adult, Flaire was enrolled in a prestigious magic school. This was when they learnt a rare quirk they had. Whenever Flaire looked at magic, it stopped. No one could explain the ability, though a good number of professors did discuss theories a bit too loud, but Flaire was very much stuck with it. They attempted to persist at school, but frankly anti-magic vision at a magic school was never going to work.

They ended up having what amounted to a year long breakdown before leaving during exam season to go back to their lifeguard position at the camp. Flaire had developed incredibly complex feelings about having to leave school and so chose to keep this news secret until they decided what exactly those feelings were, hoping to see their old friends, relax a little and return to their old life before things felt too real again. However, said friends no-showed the reunion being too busy with jobs, partners, and parties and Flaire was left in their little clubhouse alone, having just put up a little banner :((

With camp starting the next day, Flaire did what they could - smashed up the clubhouse and awaited the children’s arrival confident that at least things would be normal with their cousin, a new counsellor and someone they had been really close with prior to school. Even if they hadn’t really spoken in nearly a year things would go back to their usual rhythm quickly, right? …

Flaire, batting 0 for 2 at this point, is more than a little surprised that their cousin seems to have gained an incredibly abrasive personality since the last time they met and more than a touch of hostility to them in particular.

Sparrow Sandvik (She/her) - Half-Elf (Wood) Sorcerer/Cleric - Late teens to early twenties

Art reference:

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/170832

https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1473879

The rope keeper at the adventure camp.

Flaire's cousin on their non-elven side.

Much like Flaire, she grew up with trips to the adventure camp. She's always found a connection with the magical woods that the camp hosts. She never got lost in them like the other kids, they seemed to like her, and Sparrow found them to be her special place where she could retreat when needed.

When she was a kid, she always idolised Flaire, seeing them as a super hero of sorts. This dulled over time as Flaire was around less and less and eventually disappeared for a full year.

Sparrow, during her turn to adulthood, had been dating a religious girl and ended up attending a religious college focused on training this with an interest in becoming clerics or paladins. Against the odds, Sparrow was blessed by one of the Gods and became a cleric. When she told her girlfriend, expecting her to be happy she instead got dumped.

Sparrow returned to the adventure camp and took a job as the rope keeper. She was one of the only people who could reliably travel through the woods so it seemed like a perfect fit.

She is not over the breakup.

Cassidy Reeves (He/Him) - Elf Bard - Mid twenties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1349935

The song leader of the adventure camp.

To be honest, Cassidy is not that developed in Libris yet. He was originally from Liminal Horror where he was a very cool country musician that managed to survive flicking a cigarette butt onto a giant ratking zombie (barely, BARELY, but he did survive).

Mercenaries

Isaiah (He/Him) - Tiefling Wild Magic Barbarian - Late twenties to early thirties

Art reference: https://www.tumblr.com/gayb0wsr

Isaiah was originally raised in a compound of religious zealots that were enslaving tieflings that ended up being destroyed by a mercenary guild run by a human named Noah.

Noah adopted Isaiah and raised and trained him to fight. He is now the second in command of the guild.

At some point, Isaiah managed to find the entrance to Libris’ plane of magic, The Lining, which ended with Isaiah getting impaled through the chest by a massive crystal. How exactly he survived this, no one is entirely sure but now Isaiah has a crystal in his chest and the ability to unleash devastating magical effects on the battlefield.

Darien Morosi (He/Him) - Human Rogue/Fighter - Early to Mid Twenties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1473879

Darien has at one point been living a perfectly ordinary life in a perfect ordinary town. He'd been a law student and would've become a pretty ordinary small town lawyer. Instead the apocalypse hit. Seemingly every natural disaster hit at once. If that wasn't bad enough, zombies whose bites spread their form like a disease began to appear.

This baffling turn of events broke any sense of reality Darien had, he locked himself in a library half as a safezone but mostly to research everything he could on surviving, disease, zombies, infection transmission, biology, and anything else to the much neglect of his physical form.

When he finally left the library he had just enough survival skills that alongside some new friends he managed to make a safe haven in what was once a spire temple in the centre of the city. It quickly went from feeling like a safe haven to a prison as one man, Logan, was determined to fill the leadership void he was so adamant was there. He tried over and over to take charge, to the point where suddenly facing every natural disaster possible and possibly turning into an undead husk doesn't seem so bad.

He's caught in an attempt to escape with one of the survivors that started this haven leading to her being badly injured. Darien is blamed (and blames himself) for this, so he is given the option to either stay and work with Logan having learnt his lesson or be exiled without supplies. He chooses to leave. He walks for weeks, barely surviving by clinging on through sheer spite.

He just kept walking. Until, as suddenly as the apocalypse hit, Darien found himself in a mercenary camp. He looked around confused before promptly passing out from exhaustion and malnutrition. He ends up joining the mercenary guild once he's back to health.

He ends up learning that the town is literally in a pocket dimension now cut off from the rest of Libris.

Marcoh “Roe” Daava (He/Him) - Human Warlock / Barbarian - Mid to Late Twenties

(Daava is pronounced Da[R]-va)

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1414503

Roe made a deal with the Divine Fragment of Hands and got roped into a cult formed by them. With Roe having been the one to bring the cult together.

Roe is an incredibly well spoken man having had elocution lessons at a young age and holds incredibly composed demeanour. For those that have seen it, however, would note Roe has an incredible puissance and love of inflicting damage.

That said, Roe grew up dirt poor and the very definition of a street rat, openly stealing from stores, getting in random fights with other teens, and shouting matches with strangers.

One such fight, got infinitely more complex when Roe was shot in the side of the head. Said shot being in response to Roe having clawed out the eye of what he assumed was just Some Mouthy Fuck. Turned out said Fuck was in fact an incredibly well protected mobster.

Luckily said shot was not lethal, unluckily however Roe’s body was taken in by the gang so “proper revenge” could be had, afterall being humiliated by a child in combat is a pretty bad look for any respected highwayman.

The back alley doctor tasked with keeping Roe alive took pity on him, claiming Roe had died suddenly. But when questioned, the doctor was forced to impale Roe in the chest with a scalpel. This is where the fragment of hands made its deal, using its many hands to cover Roe’s mouth and ensure the scalpel bent just enough to miss anything vital. In return Roe gained the horrifying ability to touch at a long distance and use a mass of hands for grabbing, killing, stealing and, occasionally mixing drinks.

Elaina Gauis (She/Her) - Human Warlock - Late twenties to early thirties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1414503

Elaina made a deal with the Divine Fragment of Mirrors and got forced into a cult formed by them. She's a lot less chill about this than Roe.

Originally a career criminal, Elaina met the fragment during a heist. She was offered a portion of the fragments power which she impulsively agreed to, not realising the cost would be her sight.

Panicked at her sudden blindness and realising the guards were on their way, Elaina ended up burning the top portion of her face, making herself look like a victim of those that owned the house she had been robbing. This worked and she avoided arrest.

Is incredibly pissed off about being forced onto the cult believing that she has already paid more than a high enough price for her powers. The divine fragment disagrees, happily pointing to her contract of servitude.

She is still working in the criminal underworld, though now as a dealbroker more often than doing heists herself. However, those who see her as a weak target quickly meet their match as Elaina's quick thinking and intelligence hasn't dulled, and her new power over mirrors and reflections leads to nasty surprises for those fighting her.

Libi's Ship

Rhys Mourningdove (He/Him) - Half-Elf Grave Cleric - Mid Sixties (Early 40’s appearance)

Art reference: https://twitter.com/nooskadraws

Rhys is the best doctor on Libris. This is just a fact - one that he's frankly egotistical about but is true nonetheless.

Notably, he got this title before he became a cleric, using non-magical methods. He had been asked about this and even offered blessing by the Gods as a way to help more people, but he always refused. He didn't need the power of the Gods to help people.

The Gods were not best pleased with this answer and set Rhys a test. Rhys wasn't actually told about this test, he just found his wife getting ill without explanation. Ill with a sickness that he could not cure.

As he realised there was nothing he could do, he prayed to the gods for any way to help her but received no help and instead instructions to just wait, which Rhys ignored, continuing to try more and more outlandish methods.

Eventually a divine gave him a solution. They gave him a potion. Though confused why now, Rhys didn’t have much time.

Giving the potion to his wife did cure her sickness. It also turned her into a lich and hasn't been seen since. The specific trickster god that answered Rhys was very amused.

The god that set the initial test appeared to Rhys, frankly annoyed that he had turned what was meant to be a test of patience and faith into unleashing a powerful undead creature onto Libris. Rhys blames them for this but finally agrees to receive cleric powers though he still actively avoids using them during his work as a doctor, mostly to prove a point.

Libitina Puch (She/Her) - Winter Eladrin Undying Warlock/Assassin Rogue - Unaging early 40s (early three hundreds)

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1706331

Libitina was born as the only child of an elven noble family and knew one day that she would inherit the house and, so long as she could keep public favour, would rule the city by herself. At least, that was her belief as she studied both law and economics for running the city, etiquette and customs for dealing with nobles, and poisons and blades for dealing with threats.

Her plans of a solo rule were apparently not taken seriously by her parents who arranged a marriage for her with another elven noble who was pleasant enough, but Libi had never really had any interest in men and quickly grew frustrated with the courting process.

Getting more and more annoyed at her life plans being ruined, she began to go out more into the vast wilderness surrounding the city. A place where legend had it there was hidden a crossing point to the realm of the fae. Libi mostly used the place to gather natural poisons. But one day when out, she met the woman that would change her life. An archfey of the Undying Court.

The fey was the most beautiful person she had ever seen and she addressed them as one would a noble ruler. The two did an interesting dance that night, one that most would call flirting but both participants were too pretentious to call it anything so simple. Libi left the encounter with a charm, some strange new powers, and the promise for more if did favours for the Undying Court.

Of course, she still needed to figure out the mess of being engaged. But that was an easy enough problem to solve. All it took was a bottle of wine, a gift from her parents to herself, a single glass and he was gone. Poisoned. The forged documents she had left in her parent's study detailing the purchase of poison and plans to kill her got them out of the way as well.

Of course, her involvement is just rumours, the official judgement by the high court of The Elmmyu’rra States that her parents had tried to kill her and just happened to kill whatever his name was first and thus were sentenced to execution. Libi was just oh so sad about this, she couldn't possibly think about getting engaged again for at least a couple of centuries.

She's proven herself to be a surprisingly good ruler given her tendencies to allegedly assassinate nobles and do the binding of the fey in exchange for immortality. After all, she did her work to get to this position, she was going to put effort in now she actually has what she wanted. It's those living outside her city that need to be worried.

Piper Re'leshi (She/Her) - Drow Dream Druid - Child to early teens (Between 50 and 100).

Art reference: https://coolcattime.tumblr.com/post/624895502460338176/i-found-a-picture-that-i-realised-that-i-never

Piper has always been told by her parents that she is the prodigal princess that will lead their family back into the ruling class of the underdark and while it's been since she's seen them, she still believes that with all her heart.

A drow with stark white skin and only a few dark patches, being born onto the surface of Libris was far more inconvenient for her than most as even brief sun exposure can leave her burnt and in pain. Eventually this became too much for her parents to deal with and, in what was meant to be a brief visit with her uncle, they left her with him with no intention of returning.

Piper had always admired her uncle. He was an arachnologist - which she thought was very important as spiders were very important - and his house is connected to old smuggler's tunnels which connect to caves - places that Piper can explore without fear of the sun. She misses her parents, she wishes she knew when they were getting back, but in the meantime she enjoys exploring the tunnels and learning from her uncle. Plus her uncle lets her have a pet! Her very best friend, Mr Dog the goliath birdeater spider.

One day when exploring the tunnels, Piper runs into another elf. A wood elf boy around her age. He's carrying a wooden sword and seems as surprised to find Piper as she is to find him. She asks what he's doing and he explains that he's looking for the tunnel monster. Piper has never heard of the tunnel monster but happily agrees to look with him when he gives her his spare sword.

They become good friends as she helps guide him around the tunnels and he tells her about the wilderness around the city that has a crossing point to the realm of the fey. He's in training with a druid with a circle that uses the power of this point for their magic. Finding the tunnel monster is a secret mission from them so he can become a fully fledged member. He invites Piper to meet them and even though she wants to, she explains her issues with the sun so he decides that, until they can figure out a way to stop the sun from hurting Piper, he'll just teach her druid stuff.

All in all, Piper's life is going great until one night her uncle pulls her out of bed completely panicked and tells her they need to leave. She's confused as he pulls her through the house down towards the tunnels, until she sees them breaking down the door. People in shiny metal armour with giant weapons. Piper grabs Mr Dog and her sword and tries her best to lead her uncle through the tunnels. But she's scared and a kid, and her uncle isn't an adventurer. The scary people catch up. They keep saying things about them being evil and a dungeon and Piper doesn't understand. She tries to defend them with magic and her sword but it doesn't work very well.

A saviour comes in the form of a woman in a ballgown who appears out of mist and seems quite annoyed at the armoured men being in her city. Piper isn't quite sure what happened to them, but she and her uncle don't need to worry about them anymore. Lady Libitina was very nice and gave Piper a charm that let her go out in the sun without it hurting her skin (it still hurts her eyes, but she likes exploring nevertheless) and she got to meet her friend's druid circle and start really learning magic. Plus her friend apparently found the tunnel monster (neither her nor her friend know when, but the Druid circle leader said he did) so all's well that ends well.

Sigourney Romero (She/Her) - Human Enchantment Wizard/Storyteller Warlock - Late twenties to early thirties

Art reference: <https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1342558>

Sigourney is a playwright. She and her brother used to travel through the towns and cities of Libris putting on plays that told the stories of the Gods. She would write the plays and use her magic to create living puppets to act as creatures and monsters. Her brother, Leigh, was an actor, able to portray gods as if he actually was one. The rest of the actors would be hired locally and their plays were seen as important work as in Libris if the Gods are not remembered, they stop being gods, so spreading their word and stories was necessary.

One fateful night in the climax of a performance everyone in the theatre - cast, crew, audience, everyone - blacked out. It was as if times skipped forward by ten minutes. One moment Leigh and his co-star, the son of a local noble, were acting out a climactic scene the next, Leigh was standing over the corpse of the other actor covered in blood. Chaos erupted.

Leigh was arrested. Sigourney's head ached trying to figure out what had happened. He had to have killed him, there was no one else who could've and he had been covered in blood. But her brother didn't have the powers to make everyone forget ten minutes and if he did he was at least smart enough to make them forget more time so he wasn't so obviously the criminal. But they didn't have enemies, anyone who would want to frame them, except for the Gods themselves. Obviously no one believed her on this idea. Leigh was found guilty and sentenced to life in the gladiatorial arena.

Knowing she didn't have the power or money to do anything about his fate, Sigourney left. Always saying she didn't care, that he was a killer, why would she care, but always searching for anything that could give her any sort of chance to help him. She kept travelling, continuing her shows as puppet only affairs now just as likely to tell the story of the Gods inflicting terror on some poor mortal than to tell their origins or myths. And during her travels, she heard of someone, possibly something, that could help her.

She travelled across two continents to find the place, hiring a mercenary to make sure she had protection as she left the well travelled roads. It took months, but she finally reached the charred library in the middle of a long since abandoned town. In the centre of the building, to an audience of seemingly no one but herself and a hired thug, she began to tell the origin story of Libris. Of the powerful entities that had created The Great Book to tell stories only for the people of the world to feel terrorised and create gods to seal away their creators. Of how, while they mostly died or disappeared, a remnant powerful entities does still exist.

The story is interrupted with the mercenary kicking over the puppets and pointing his sword at Sigourney's throat. Fed up with what seems to be madness, he demanded that she shut up, pay him everything she had, or he'd kill her and take it any way. Before she could answer, a new voice echoed through the library lecturing that it was awfully rude to interrupt a story before it's concluded. The mercenary's eyes widened and he suddenly turned into a book that was picked up and inspected by the new presence in the room. A being made of paper and cloth and ink, a combination of the reminding energy of the creators of Libris. Before Sigourney was The Storyteller.

Impressed by the story, they questioned what precisely Sigourney wanted and she said she wanted a patron. She knew that they still touched the world of Libris, occasionally touching a person's life to make it more interesting, and she wanted to be granted powers that could let her fight back against the Gods. The Storyteller agreed, on one condition: Sigourney needed to tell her own story, the truthful story that she had been avoiding for so long. Reluctant but desperate, Sigourney told the story of herself and her brother and that terrible moment.

Sigourney was granted the powers of story, and was given a book that she could use both to communicate with her patron. She could also write in it to make things happen. They had to be interesting, had to make sense and not create plot holes, but so long as she could write them Sigourney now had the power to use stories to influence the world of Libris. And Sigourney had quite a few stories she wanted to tell.

Mind control Crew

Wyme Fletcher (He/Him) - Human Aberrant Mind Sorcerer - early to mid twenties

Art reference: https://www.tumblr.com/netoey/188189654012?source=share

Wyme grew up in an orphanage and lived quite a normal, if a social life of most people in the small town he was born in. When he was 18, like most of the rest of the people who grew up here, he left to see what else was out there.

Fortunately for the narrative, that was a town that had just been eradicated by an Aboleth. Meaning as Wyme entered its population had just became one. Deciding to stay, steering others away, and just learn to avoid the limits of the aboleth’s mind control, Wyme found a new motivation in his hatred for that fish but also extreme paranoia.

His proximity to the aboleth awarded a horrible and wet form of psionic power, similar to that of the aboleth itself, plus some physical transformations like a long tail and third eye.

Amanda “Am-Mi” Miriam (She/Her) - Human Mastermind Rogue - Early to mid twenties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1342558

The daughter of a prolific (if corrupt) prosecutor who wants to follow in her father's footsteps.

Lives in a city with a famously harsh court system where simply lying in court can result in the destruction of one's soul. Of course this can be avoided if you know the right methods for dishonesty, something Am-Mi's father is quite happy to share with his daughter.

Am-Mi cares little if the people she's prosecuting are actually guilty, she just wanted to be the smartest person in the courtroom. If people were smart they wouldn't have gotten arrested. After all, she's gotten away with murder so if anyone manages to get themself arrested, they deserve everything she can throw at them.

Island

Tabitha Dissimulo (She/Her) - Tiefling Illusion Wizard - Early twenties

(Dissimulo is not trans, just resentful of the name “TaBiThA”)

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1564386

The daughter of two magic school professors.

Dissimulo was born named simply “Tabitha” and told she could have a last name when she graduated from a magic college with honours. She got annoyed at this idea quickly and started going by the virtue name of Dissimulo meaning she wouldn’t even need a last name.

She has enrolled in the study of Illusion magic, which she does have some interest in, but she's far more interested in linguistics and translation. She currently speaks and can read seven languages. She's only attending the university due to the presence of an apparently untranslated tome that she wants to decode.

She also ended up as the apprentice of the head of a mysterious magic guild known as Atlanta. She did not apply for nor ask for this job, but it pays well and very very little is expected from her so she has accepted the situation.

Lance De La'Fluer (He/Him) - Human Monk - Early twenties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1706331

A professional fighter in the dwarven fight pits where he plays an elf - these fight pits are a travelling event of flamboyant faux-violence. He’s also Dissimulo's college housemate.

He’s also been recruited by Atlanta, though less scouted and more that Dissi brings him to work with her and no one’s stopped her.

To be honest, Lance doesn't have a backstory. He was invented as the Ultimate Professional Wrestler for a Danganronpa AU and hasn't devolved much backstory wise but I love him and he's the best.

He has a sister though :))) (we think)

Villains

Taurus Linustep (He/Him) - Aasimar Cult Leader - Early to mid thirties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1706331 (This art is of a human version of Taurus - it was for an AU and I've just not gotten around to drawing his actual form)

Taurus was born into a cult looking like the miracle child they had been looking for. An aasimar with halos surrounding most of his features, he was from a young age marked as the next leader of the cult and taught their true goals and ambitions and his words were followed like prophecies.

Unlike his younger sister, Taurus didn't have any real powers of divination and instead is faking it to lead the cult in the direction he wants and to make sure he maintains power.

He wants to gather the relics of the star deities to reconstruct a broken superweapon and use it to take over Libris and the stars beyond.

Logan Charles (He/Him) - Human Paladin - Late Twenties

Art reference: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1706331

Darien's ex-friend, from Logan’s POV, Logan took a very different view to the end of the world, finding a desperate need to be in control.

He eventually ended up in charge during the apocalypse due to his Paladin training letting him cure injury and disease and the zombies’ surprise weakness to fire. Leading to the rift that formed between him, Darien and their other friend who helped start the haven in the first place that would lead to Darien leaving and the friend being badly hurt.

Furious and feeling betrayed by Darien abandonment, the tower is now a literal prison for his friends to make sure none of them can leave or disobey him. Turning him from hapless leader to fullbore dictator overnight. He’s grown to love this power.

Kinda sorta planning to break the bubble dimension and unleash the apocalypse on the rest of Libris so he can further his dictatorship.

#oc mega post #ask #anon ask #cat's oc #theiratlas #gayb0wsr

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selene-and-the-cold · 1 year

Note

😷🚗

hehe

A while ago, I reblogged this amazing prompt list and got this wonderful ask from you, dear anon.

😷 - “Sharing is not caring!”

🚗 - Road Trip

I'm sorry it took me ages to respond, but truth be told, I just could not decide what to do with this prompt combo. My first attempt at writing something was the most obvious one, having two SOs together in a car, one of them sharing their cold with the other.

However, then my brain decided that I had to come up with a different take on this, so I redesigned a second take, which I then binned for this last and third instalment.

What my brain came up with is this 3.8 k of roadtrip, where the burgeoning cold of one person is not the only thing that makes the trip uncomfortable.

Set in an AU where these two are actually colleagues, although their relationship status is canon in my OC-universe ^^

Hope you enjoy. And if you would have preferred that SOs sharing a cold thing, let me know ^^

Also: writing this after quite some time away from writing was so much fun. If anyone is interested in any further prompts, just send me an ask :)

CW for talk about ex relationships, implied contagion, slight mess, and mentions of sexy times, but nothing graphic

Male sneezes. M/M

--------

It was Tuesday. Usually, Nicholas was ok with Tuesdays. Monday was always awful. Who wanted to give up their cozy weekend in exchange for getting back to a stressful job?! Wednesday was either hopeful or terrible, depending on how the week had gone so far. Thursday was often dragging its heels or gone way to fast in the race up to the weekend, while Friday was technically weekend already, so Nicholas was cool with Fridays.

This particular Tuesday, though, was the horribly uncomfortable lovechild of a merciless Monday, an insurmountable Wednesday, and the longest Thursday ever known to mankind. At least that was how it felt.

Due to a chain of unlucky events, Nicholas found himself in a car together with his colleague Sebastian. He was a nice enough guy, the prototypical calm and tall Northern European type, blond, blue eyes. Actually quite hot. There was only one catch - Sebastian was his ex-boyfriend.

"So, how are things between you and Robert going?," Sebastian asked, in a friendly, non-chalant tone, but the question had Nicholas grab the steering wheel tighter.

"Good," he replied tight-lipped, eyes fixed firmly on the road. He did not want to have this conversation. Sebastian had no business asking questions about his new relationship.

"Only good?," Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “I was expecting a little more enthusiasm."

"Very good," Nicholas growled. "But that's nothing I want to discuss with you."

"Shame… seeing that you are practically glued to the guy whenever he's around. If you're set on not talking about him, you won't have much to talk about, at all, and it's going to be two looooong silent days worth of road trip."

"It's going to be two long, uncomfortable days anyway, so we might as well get started with being uncomfortable now. And please stop calling this a “road trip”. This is work and we only had to take the car because you forgot to book our flights in time!"

Nicholas huffed, then did not say anything, jaw set as if he was mentally glueing it shut for the next 48 hours.

Said uncomfortable silence stretched between them, the only noise coming from the hum of the engine and the subdued chatter on the radio.

They drove in silence for a good amount of time, both following their own trains of thought, and after a while, the long, wordless minutes kindly melted into hours.

After a while, Sebastian breathed in as if he was about to say something. Instead, his head bobbed forward. "Heh'UttSccHhIu!"

"Bless," Nicholas mumbled, out of politeness rather than true concern.

"Sorry… snfffl"

Another long stretch of silence, followed by a sharp, breathy inhale.

"HEHhhh'USSSHhiuh!"

Nicholas eyed Sebastian from the side. A cloud of misty spray danced around his blonde head. In the sunlight, it looked like specks of gold.

"Bless you again."

"Snnnrfff Thag you…" Sebastian sniffled harshly, then dragged the sleeve of his shirt under his nose.

"You getting sick?"

"What? NO! Of course ndot! snnnrrff"

Nicholas didn't believe him. Sebastian had sounded so fucking insincere that one could hear the lie and denial a mile off. Which was unusual. Nicholas knew Sebastian to be an excellent liar.

"Alright then." Nicholas grumbled, decidedly not taking the bait designed to lure him into prying further into that cold denial business. Sebastian crossed his arms in front of his chest as if he was angry that Nicholas had passed up his bait.

A few more minutes passed, then Nicholas could see how Sebastian's head reared back, exposing his long, pale neck. Nicholas suddenly remembered the little sighs of pleasure Sebastian had made when he had kissed it during sex.

"Hehh'ISSSsHHU!! Hueehhh… H'ESSSHH!!"

Two forceful sneezes, both uncovered, filling the car with specks of gold.

"Ugh… 'scuse mbe!"

Sebastian gave a pathetic sniffle, then rubbed his nose with his knuckles. Nicholas had a hard time focusing on the road. Fuck Sebastian and fuck his sneezes.

His annoyingly sexy sneezes.

"Would be nice if you'd cover that. Sounds like you're catching something nasty and I don't want to get whatever you caught." Nicholas said gruffly.

"Sharing is caring, isn't that how the saying goes? And I still care a great deal about you," Sebastian replied, a sly grin spreading on his face. It made him look so impeccably sexy. He had always been good at pulling of the cheeky, youthful look. Clean, straight, intelligent, and with a boyish charm that effortlessly clad him in an air of innocence. Except he wasn't.

Sebastian was a wolf in sheeps clothing and Nicholas had to keep that in mind. Actually, he had to keep a number of things in mind. All the stuff they'd need for the conference they were headed to. His boyfriend Robert, who had not called or texted after their argument three days ago, and who had ignored all of Nicholas' calls and texts. They hadn't even said goodbye or seen each other before Sebastian and Nicholas had had to set off for their work road trip, and it stung like hell, right there in the pit of his stomach.

"Well, I for one do not care, Sebastian, and you shouldn't either. And I particularly don't care for your germs all over the car."

"Hmm…" Sebastian hummed, contemplating this statement. "That's odd, because I distinctly remember times when you cared a great deal about it when I sneezed~"

Nicholas blushed fiercely, right to the tips of his ears. Shards of memories exploded in front of his inner eye unbidden. Sebastian lying on their bed, wearing nothing but his cherry-red cold-ridden nose. Their bodies intertwined in frenzied passion. Sebastian's features convulsing as he sneezed and came all at once. The warm weight of Sebastian's body against his, as Nicholas had held him tight, while Sebastian had quivered with sneeze after helpless sneeze…

Shaking his head slightly, Nicholas cleared his throat. His lips were parched, and he licked them, realizing that he had held his breath for some time.

"You remember, my heart… my Nico… don't you?," Sebastian insisted. "Our long nights and lazy days of passion. Especially those we spent after you told me all about your secret little kink…"

His voice trailed off, its absence conjuring up images of their shared past. Sebastian had often called him Nico in the intimate moments when they were sprawled out in bed after making love, their bodies a tangled mess, heavy with the contented weight of satisfaction. But Nicholas did not want to remember. He wanted to forget.

"Don't call me that! I'm neither "your heart", nor "your Nico". We're not together anymore!" Nicholas snapped.

"I am a- hhHAAhh!!.. Aaahhh!… snnfff… aware."

Sebastian hitched theatrically, then gave his nose a self-indulgent rub, massaging it until a small squelching sound was heard. Congestion building and shifting. It was almost as if Sebastian teased him on purpose, playing up his symptoms.

Nicholas shifted in his seat. His body - the fucking traitor!- started to react to the ongoing shameless display of Sebastian's sneezes, no matter how much Nicholas tried to fight it. Apparently, it remembered more than Nicholas would have liked.

He tried to push the physical reaction down into submission by reciting poetry in his head, while the changing scenery of countryside and villages flickered past outside. He had gone through quite a bit of Robert Frost, when another poem popped up in his mind:

"What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why, I have forgotten, and what arms have lain Under my head till morning; but the rain Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh Upon the glass and listen for reply…"

Just as Nicholas' thoughts caught on these last two lines, a thunderous sneeze sounded from the passenger seat, the ghost of his own past uncomfortably close.

"Ugh… Ndico, mby heart, could we please stop and take a break?"

Sebastian moaned his voice heavy with his cold. It sounded like his throat was badly swollen and someone had his sinuses filled with sticky syrup.

"Umm… sure. It's quite late anyway…" Nicholas replied, letting Sebastian's use of his term of endearment slip. Truth be told, he was too tired to argue anymore.

Since it was already late and Nicholas was tired as a rock, while Sebastian was not feeling up to driving with the burgeoning cold he had not yet admitted having, they decided to crash at a motel for the night earlier than planned, but both were in dire need of some rest.

Nicholas asked for two rooms, but like in some kind of cheap rom-com, there was only one bedroom with a double bed left due to an event taking place in the city.

"Fine, we'll take it," Nicholas growled, even though sharing a room with his ex was the last thing he wanted. He grabbed the keys and set off to find their room, Sebastian hot on his heels.

“Mhm, sharing a roob agaid after all this timbe~" Sebastian suggestively wiggled his eyebrows, but his seductive tone lost its allure due to the thick congestion in his voice.

"Needs must, but don't think I'm gonna share a bed with you! I'll take the couch.."

--------

The two of them walked down a set of boring beige-walled hallways, feet floating on a thick, dark-blue carpet that reminded Nicholas of a cruise ship. Not that he had ever been on a cruise, but this was the idea of a cruise ship the media had shaped in his brain.

Sebastian had gotten awfully quiet and shivered a bit as he stood next to Nicholas, waiting for him to let them into their room, then sneezed violently as soon as the lights in the room came on, taking possession of the place by unleashing his army of germs into the space.

"Bless you," Nicholas offered, meanwhile on autopilot. God, he was tired all of a sudden. All he wanted was to crawl into bed and rest. Well, scratch that. Crawl onto the couch and rest. He was just about to get a pillow from the bed to his makeshift resting place, when he realised that there was no couch. There wasn't even a fucking armchair. Only a rickety looking chair and desk combo, which looked like someone had made them out of cardboard, ready to fold in on themselves as soon as someone just breathed too forcefully next to them. That wasn't good…

Sebastian must have connected all the dots about a fraction later, because Nicholas suddenly heard him chirp: "Looks like it's going to be a shared bed after all~"

"Oh, shut up!"

"Alright, alright! Ndo ndeed to be-… hiihhh…. snnfff grumpy. Hiihh?! Hiihh'yISSSHHU!!"

Sebastian burst forth with a spraying sneeze, a tiny rope of mess shooting from his left nostril.

"Oh… 'scuse mbe!" Sebastian sheepishly looked at Nicholas, flashing him an embarrassed smile. "Would you be a dear and hand mbe a tdissue?"

Nicholas gulped. This whole set up painfully reminded him of some of the early days after Sebastian and him had newly gotten together at university. An unplanned sleepover at his dorm room when Sebastian had been coming down with a nasty cold. His body pressed against Sebastian's feverish frame, as they had both squeezed into his tiny single dorm bed, Sebastian curled up against his chest, snuffling sneezing, and coughing all night, while half of Nicholas' body had hung out of the tiny bed frame because he'd wanted Sebastian to be comfortable and the bed just was not big enough for two people to rest comfortably all night.

"Ndico?"

Sebastian's voice suddenly jerked him back to reality. Damn, why did all of these unbidden images keep swimming to the surface?

"Hmm?"

"Tdissues? I really ndeed theb…"

"Oh! Right. Sorry."

Nicholas hurried to fetch the box of tissues and handed one white square directly to Sebastian, who immediately pressed it to his streaming nose and gave a hearty blow.

"Thank you."

Nicholas just bobbed his head in silent acknowledgement. Suddenly the room felt stifling and way too small. He wanted out. He wanted to get away from Sebastian. He wanted Robert.

"I'll go for a short a walk. You get comfortable, ok?"

"But…"

"No buts. Please, Sebastian. I just.. need some time alone. It's been a long day."

With that, Nicholas took the key and went outside. It was quite cold, so sleeping in the car was not an option. He wished he had brought a thicker jacket, but it was at Robert's place and he had not dared going there after their fight.

Nicholas kicked a stone with his foot. Why had they even started to argue anyway? Oh… right. It was because of this stupid trip. A few months ago, Sebastian had started working at Nicholas' work place. Fortunately they were not direct colleagues, but their departments worked together on some projects so there was overlap.

This road trip was such an overlap. Both him and Sebastian had been chosen by their respective departments to represent them at an important conference. Leading up to that, Nicholas and Sebastian had to prepare a presentation. Robert had not been amused.

Especially because Nicholas and Sebastian had to spend a considerable amount of time together preparing said presentation and Sebastian – ever the flirt – had not bothered to hold back, even – and especially! - when Robert was present. Sebastian wanted him back and had even told him so on numerous occasions. Sadly, he had not taken no as an answer.

Nicholas sighed and stopped himself re-enacting the argument he had had with Robert in his head. He had done so at least a dozen times, but since Robert refused to get in touch with him, it was difficult to apologise and address certain things.

After he had been wandering around aimlessly for some time, and after he had tried calling Robert twice more without getting any reaction, the chill fall air had wormed its way through his thin jacket into his bones, and Nicholas decided to go back to their room. Perhaps he could make the old chair and desk combo work after all.

---------

As Nicholas returned to their room, Sebastian was already changed and in bed, tissue box clutched to his chest, bright-red nose streaming, and rolled into a tight ball against some invisible cold draft only he could feel.

Nicholas made quick work of changing into his pyjamas - in the bathroom, as if the man in the other room had not seen him naked more times than Nicholas cared to think of. But it felt odd to just undress in front of him. The ease and trust this entailed had been left behind in another life. Furthermore, even the thought of undressing in front of Sebastian felt like cheating on Robert.

Therefore, Nicholas got himself ready for bed in the tiny motel bathroom, then arranged the desk and chair so that he could sit in the chair and put his feet up on the desk, thus creating a wildly uncomfortable half sitting half lying down position for himself between these two pieces of furniture. It looked like a decidedly uncomfortable, Frankensteinian version of a hammock.

Sebastian watched, but did not say anything until Nicholas came to the bed, grabbing a pillow and a blanket.

“Whadt… *sniff* whadt are you doing?” Sebastian asked, clearly bewildered that instead of climbing into bed next to him, Nicholas had tucked the pillow under his arm and was tugging at the second blanket to take it with him.

“Getting ready for bed.”

Nicholas shot the rickety desk and chair combo a meaningful look, pointing at it with his chin.

“Oh, dod't be ridiculou-… Huhhh?… Huh'USSHHzzuh! God, sorry… *sniff* ridiculous. You cad't sleep od that thing!”

“I can't sleep in here, either and frankly, the floor does not look very appealing…”

Nicholas had wrestled the blanket into submission and was standing at his makeshift bed, arranging the pillow.

“But Ndico…”

“No more “but”s, Sebastian. Pleeeaase? I'm tired and I just want to go to bed…. and so should you, by the way. You look awful!”

“Thank you, I've mbissed your combpliments, mby heart.” Another sneeze wrecked his body. Sebastian tried to catch it in the flimsy tissue he was holding, but Nicholas could see specks of spray dancing in the dim light of the reading lamp on the night stand.

“'scuse mbe. What I was triyng to say was: I just dod't get why you're so stubborn?”

“Stubborn? Me?! ” Nicholas was more than just a little annoyed at this point. The long drive, his argument with his boyfriend and Sebastian's constant nagging finally getting the better of him.

“That's rich coming from a man who has no concept of the word “no”. I'm sick and tired of your constant double innuendo, flirty eyes, eyebrow-wiggles and all of that crap, barging in on my job and my new relationship. You are the last person on this planet I want to share a room with. Yet, here I am, sharing a room with you because work is important to me. If I did not have to be here for the job, you better believe I'd be ANYWHERE but in a room with you!”

At that, Nicholas plopped down into the chair, put his legs up on the desk and pulled the blanket over himself, demonstratively closing his eyes. He had nothing more to say. Fortunately, there was a light-switch nearby, which he kicked with his foot, plunging them into darkness, hoping to cut off any possible attempts of his room-mate to continue this farce of a conversation.

Sebastian had gotten the point, though and did not try to force the conversation on Nicholas anymore. Both men were lying awake in the darkness for the next one and a half hours, listening to each other's breathing. A neon side from outside shone dirty orange light through the cracks of the curtains. From time to time, a car sped by on the nearby road. And Sebastian could not find rest. He tossed and turned on the bed, sheets rustling like the ruffled feathers of an angry flock of birds. From time to time, a heavy, congested sneeze cut through the silence, and from the sound of it, Sebastian must have gone through at least half the tissue box already.

Nicholas could tell that Sebastian tried his best to keep the noise down to a minimum – sneezes muffled into tissues or pillows, suppressed coughs that were only made worse as the sick man tried to fight them back down his throat. In short: Sebastian sounded miserable. And Nicholas was uncomfortable as hell. The chair was somehow both rickety enough to keep him worrying about it breaking under him, and hard enough to make him feel like he was sitting on a riverbank littered with the sharpest stones known to mankind.

“Ndico?”

Sebastian's voice drifted over. A weak, shivery thing, heavy with congestion.

“Hmm?”

“I'b sorry,” said the small voice, sniffling pitifully.

“What for?”

Nicholas was confused. It was fucking late o'clock at night and he had no idea what the hell Sebastian was talking about.

“For getti'g sick and for getti'g you sick as well with all mby sndeezing. And… well… you kndow… Everything.”

Nicholas sat up a little straighter in his chair. This was not about the trip. This was about them. About the lies. The cheating. That other guy.

“Everything? You mean…”

“Yes.”

Nicholas felt his heart pump in his veins. “Even for…?”

“Especially that.” Sebastian had cut him off before he could say the words out loud, but the calm, decisive way he responded left no doubt that Sebastian knew what he had meant to say.

“Hmm…,” Nicholas hummed, his brain searching the darkness for words that might fit, but they were running through his minds like sand.

“And for Robert too,” Sebastian continued, then sneezed twice more. They sounded heavier, like the congestion had settled not only in his nose, but in his chest, too. “I kndow I've beed putting pressure od your relationship with him, and I'b sorry. He seebs like a good guy. That's why I hate id that he's with you ndow.”

Nicholas just stared ahead at a speck of orange light filtering in. There were goosebumps on his skin, and he swallowed hard. What the hell was he supposed to say to that? What the hell was he supposed to do with all of these sudden confessions?

“I erm… Thanks, I guess. For telling me.”

“You're welcobe. That was long overdue..” Another long silence. Another hefty sneeze. Then: “Hey, why dod't you cobe and lie down here id bed with mbe? It mbust be hella uncobfortable od that chair.”

“It is,” Nicholas agreed with a small chuckle. Then the rustling of a blanket was heard before the mattress dipped down next to Sebastian under Nicholas' weight.

“Oh god, this is so much better,” he groaned, sounding like he had just experienced the best climax of his life.

“You kndow that I'b good in bed…,” Sebastian chuckled, but it transitioned into a coughing fit. “cough Sorry.”

“'tis fine,” Nicholas said, his voice suddenly drowsy as his lack of sleep caught up with him and his body could not resist the siren song of the soft mattress any longer. Still, there was one more question he had to ask: “Seb, why did you tell me all of that now?”

Sebastian pondered this question, then propped himself up on his elbow and turned, facing Nicholas.

“Because sharing is caring, and it was time that I shared mby thoughts with you. Ndot just mby germs.”

Nicholas smiled faintly. Oh there sure as hell was no escaping this cold. But perhaps this road trip had been worth it after all. Perhaps it had been good that this particular ghost of his past had come to haunt him right now. Perhaps Robert would be less cross with him if he returned a sniffling, sneezing mess from this trip.

“Thank you. Now try to get some sleep.”

“HEHhhh'USSSHhiuh!!! TtZZSHHU!!”

“Goodnight…”

#answered asks #prompts #my writing #Nicholas #Sebastian #road trip #snzfic

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