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demonslayedher · 3 years

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Hello! I don't know if you've been asked about this before but I love your analysis and reflections and I'd love to know all your thoughts about Zennezu if you don't mind 👀⚡🎀 Thanks so much for this blog!! 😊💝

Thank you again for your patience, as well as your comments on my fics and stuff in the meantime (even on Bird Fic, kya~ thank you <3). All my thoughts, hmmmmn…. Well, clearly I am a fluffy ZenNezu shipper and ship-content creator now, but I sure didn’t start that way. This may be long and rambling and mixed between analysis and personal taste. (Actually, it turned into almost 4000 words.)

So. First a little background. I usually am not much of a shipper. The very few OTPs I have all ended in horrific tragedy, and when romance is a big focus of something I’m otherwise enjoying I usually end up not paying much attention to it in favor of all the other elements I like. This is so much more the case when you can tell they’re going to wind up happily ever after. So what happened to make me so soft and fuzzy about the Kimetsu ships, when I otherwise usually don’t have an appetite for happy fluffy romantic endings?

Three major factors: 1. I’m obsessed. 2. I love these characters and want to see anything and everything about them. 3. Romance wasn’t actually a big element at all in canon, so it left me with an appetite and curiosity for it.

Even though I figured from long ago that ZenNezu would be end game, initially I was somewhere between indifferent and put-off. As much as I love Zenitsu, and I acknowledge that Ufotable the added the “run around and chase Nezuko” bit and removed the part with Zenitsu adoringly talking to Nezuko through her box, and as much as he can be defended for being lonely rather a pervert, the fact still stands that his level of appreciation for girls makes the characters around him uncomfortable. His most cringe-worthy lines at the Butterfly Mansion are all straight from the manga, and even though he was easily one of my favorite characters by the end of my initial watch of the series, I was very put off by his “girls are all queens” surface-level comments and more disturbing pleasure he took in the presence of girls (especially when he could physically interact with them), not to mention his pathetic introduction bothering a complete stranger and displaying that he doesn’t actually take girls’ feelings into consideration.

All this made me inwardly groan, feeling bad for Nezuko, figuring they were going to wind up together because she’s a saint who can find the patience to deal with someone like that, as he clearly wasn’t going to be desirable to any of the rest of the female cast. Enjoying the series well enough despite this, it didn’t bother me terribly much, pairings happen, whatever, I have a history of ignoring them. But one day, well and deep into caring about this whole cast like they’re all my children, I realized something. Isn’t… isn’t it cute how they both get their strength from taking naps? W-wouldn’t it be cute to see them innocently take naps together? Naps to protect each other? Oh. Oh-h-h-h-h. Oh dear. Oh no, it’s cute. Oh no. OH NO.

And that was how my warming up to this pairing started, it very quickly grew into “I love these children and I want them to be happy, being with Nezuko will make Zenitsu very, very happy, I love seeing him happy, happy Zenitsu” but was still a little reserved about Nezuko. Zenitsu was going to make her happy, right? It wasn’t just going to be a case of Nezuko having gotten fond of him over the course of everything they’ve been though, he is actually going to be her taste and make her heart go “kyun” right? Oh Nezuko, oh saintly Nezuko…

Let’s take a moment to pause here and think chronologically, though, as well as analyze their personalities and tastes. Neither of them are particularly picky, we can start there. Aside from fussy busy-bodies like Aoi, as long as it’s a girl, any girl is Zenitsu’s type. He’s desperate, and he’s painted the whole of girl-kind in pretty similar, not always realistic rosy colors. Even though he’s been used and abused by so many girls in his past, it’s his desire to believe that each new one he meets will fit that rosy imaginary color he paints over them that he chooses to let himself be duped, because he really is that lonely. I’ll give him that, sure, he’s a healthy young man with an interest in physical touch, but his dream in Mugen Ressha gives a good indication of what he’s really looking for: companionship, someone who likes spending time with him, someone who will find him useful and believe in him and look to him for protection, someone who likes him enough to spare him the physical intimacy of simply holding his hand. This is all an extension of what Zenitsu desires as whole, hoping he can better himself enough to be reliable and valued in general. Picturing it in the form of a significant other is one very vivid way to focus all those feelings, resulting in that rosy ideal which Zenitsu probably knows in his heart of hearts is too good to be true. That’s why he probably doesn’t think he’s ever going to find it, and therefore why he’s all over any slightest chance of attaining it.

My gosh, if being abandoned over and over isn’t enough, the fact that none of the girls he dated in the past were ever willing to even hold his hand hurts so much.

Nezuko, though, grew up in a secure family with a good relationship to observe between her parents. She probably always envisioned growing up to be like her mother, the quintessential “good wife, wise mother” (a phrase coined later on in the Taisho period to idealize the traditional roles of a woman). She cooks and cleans and sews and the first fanbook even tells us she was good at using an abacus, so she can handle family finances like a pro. Her traditional values probably made her tastes pretty standard, hoping for a reliable protector, but also someone who might be as kind as her father and her brother. But as for what makes her heart go doki-doki? The extra comic at the end of volume 3 tells us that she does long since have a type, it’s a person who’s like a Hisha.

Hisha: a chess/Shougi piece that can move an unlimited number of spaces in horizontal and vertical directions, and is crowned a dragon when it enters enemy territory.

So, yes, this is the part where we all smile and point at Gotouge and say, “I see what you did there, Wani-sensei.”

I find this reassuring; it tells me that Nezuko can find her heart squeezed at how cool Zenitsu is instead of just coming around and liking him because she was flattered by his affection and learned to see how nice he is and stuff. There are plenty of nice Demon Slayers who are strong and cool protectors, but that ZING that Zenitsu has (when he’s asleep) is something that can make her heart race. I’m all for this. I hinge so much of my ZenNezu feelings on this Hisha comment.

The second fanbook states that Nezuko initially had trouble sorting out her memories, and because Zenitsu gave her two such different impressions, it felt like memories of two different people, but over time the memories overlapped to form one complete person. We could say that she and Zenitsu had two first meetings.

Initially, when she was in the box, her little demon heart did go doki-doki; it was the first time a boy besides her brother had protected her, so even though Oniichan is Number One in her heart for the general duration of canon, this encounter was sure to leave a flattering impression. However, when they met face to face that night, he was just some confusing dandelion yelling and screaming about weird stuff, and then he was just a confusing (and possible bothersome) dandelion wanting to hang around her and give her flowers and stuff. It’s anyone’s guess just how “there” Nezuko was at this stage, as she does seem to gain back more of her own will and thought processes over the course of the series, rather than being guided by very, very simple rules to govern her behavior.

Zenitsu feel in love at first sight, and the second fanbook tells us he asked Tanjiro about her human personality, seeing as she wasn’t fully there. He was initially doubtful that anyone so perfect as Nezuko could exist and figured Tanjiro must had been biased and therefore exaggerating, but can we blame Zenitsu for being a smidge guarded? He’s been let down a lot, after all.

We know from Taisho Secrets and side novels that Zenitsu spent a lot of time with Nezuko during their long recovery at the Butterfly Mansion. Even how much more thought we see Nezuko display in the Train arc, she probably underwent a lot of mental development in this time, and my guess is that due to how much he interacted with her, this is probably when Zenitsu went from being a strange dandelion to a strange companion. She probably focused more on the goldfish and the pretty flowers (which he did take her to see!) and any flattering mention of her brother, though. Zenitsu, I’m relieved to say, seemed to genuinely care about what would make Nezuko happy instead of selfishly assuming something like “she likes me too, she wants to marry me.” But knowing Zenitsu, he probably assumed that her willingness to spend time with him was an indication of being willing to talk marriage once she was more herself again, though.

Let’s pause here and put on our Oniichan goggles, though. Early on, Tanjiro has to insist to just about everyone that Nezuko is still her own person with her own thoughts and feelings. Being a demon has taken a lot of her freedom to act on her true nature away from her, but he knows she’s still in there and he treats her like an equal human being. He had to watch over and over as people see his sister and only think, “demon.”

And then there’s his friend Zenitsu, who looks at her and thinks, “girl. Girl! Girl. Girl. Sweet girl, adorable girl, best girl in the world.” And maybe that’s a little bothersome, but yes, someone gets it!! Someone understands! Even though Tanjiro’s initial concerns are keeping Nezuko from being bothered by unwelcome advances, as long as Zenitsu is willing to respect that Nezuko is not entirely able to speak for herself now, he seems pretty approving of Zenitsu (provided Nezuko decides she likes him back). I’d like to think there was an unspoken promise between bros on what boundaries to follow. Besides that, Tanjiro believes in Zenitsu a lot more than Zenitsu believes in himself, so Tanjiro probably wasn’t worried about the “strong protector” role a future husband should fulfil. Or at least, Tanjiro doesn’t seem concerned once he gets to know Zenitsu, he’d have rejected Zenitsu flat-out on that first meeting. Zenitsu, you are so lucky Tanjiro is so forgiving.

However, for as much as Zenitsu sees Nezuko as “GIRL!! Girl, girl, girl!”, he’s still got his rosy vision that conveniently clouds out any disturbing realities. She is, after all, a demon.

This is something Zenitsu never actually had the chance to struggle with, and I would have really liked to see him challenged by that reality a bit more. He never witnessed Nezuko’s berserker mode, nor did he ever see her struggle to keep from eating someone, he wasn’t even awake to watch her fight like a violent animal/angry toddler on the train. Had there been a scene of Zenitsu forced to face how terrifying she had potential to be, it would had really sold his commitment to Nezuko specifically, instead of only Nezuko as his most likely girlfriend candidate.

On the train, Nezuko has the good fortune of seeing another side of Zenitsu, getting one hell of a doki-doki moment. As she’s gaining more self-awareness back, it probably made those doki-dokis more complex too. While I understand there wasn’t a good opportunity to fit in the pace of the story, I love that Taisho Secret of her concerned about him before he wakes up. Instead of him just being that boy who shows her pretty things and says nice things about her Oniichan, this is when he starts becoming something a little more unique among all the people whom little demon Nezuko has bet and who have been nice to her.

In the months that follow, we don’t get much deviation from this slow development. Zenitsu’s feelings toward Nezuko don’t really change at all, but there’s another thing about this ship: neither one chose the other over anybody else. They sort of just came together, Zenitsu gets hooked on one girl at a time, but what if someone had come along with an interest in him? At what point would he had given up on Nezuko? Probably pretty quickly, if someone was serious enough about him. It wouldn’t have been a break up either, since he was still in the pursuing stages (might be more of a break-up conversation with Tanjiro, who had been tacitly supportive).

Actually, for most of the remainder of the series, the affection that Nezuko and Zenitsu build for each other is done when they’re apart, dwelling on their thoughts of each other. For Nezuko, we see this come out after the Swordsmith Village arc in her sunlit elation to see him again, and her efforts to greet him. She very clearly recognizes him and is happy to see him, a big difference compared to how she was more elated by the sight of a fishbowl before. In Zenitsu’s case, this deepening of his affections and running away with his thoughts and feelings results him declaring once and for all, this is her. He’s found her. This is the girl who he will be committed to his whole life, in his heart she is already his wife.

When human!Nezuko is gaining her memories back, her first impressions are of the boy showing her pretty things and giving her flowers, someone who probably has a crush on her, rather than thinking back to someone who she may have had a crush on. (Those cool impressions probably hit her later, I’m assuming, given the stress of the moment.) Romance is not immediately on her mind, though she does quickly recall having friendly affection for this boy for has always been so sweet to her. And Nezuko, handling his surprising level of affection gracefully, helps Zenitsu off the battlefield while he’s in terrible pain (though she probably was too, my poor girl, that fight with demon!Tanjiro was so rough). But honestly, not only is she probably too overwhelmed by everything to think much about romance, but she probably doesn’t take Zenitsu very seriously initially. She knows he’s got a tendency to overexaggerate, and it’s nice that he’s so sweet to her, but since he acts all fluffy and silly around her she probably thinks he’s not being that serious either. Furthermore, she’s got a lot of people to suddenly care about, Zenitsu has a lot to contend with for trying to get special attention. Hell, Zenitsu was probably awake and causing a racket while she was frantic with worry that comatose Giyuu might die. While she did remake Jiichan’s haori to fit Zenitsu’s later, see spent her time in the hospital mending Giyuu’s haori (Nezuko, baby, doesn’t your hand hurt though!?). While Zenitsu was swept up in happy “Nezuko is human now, we’re totally gonna get married” feels, he probably didn’t even notice that he was only one slice in a very big pie of memories that Nezuko suddenly found in her lap and had to slowly chew and digest.

So… this brings us to the extra post-canon comic in the second fanbook, which I initially did not like very much back when it came out in February. I’ve come around a lot to it, but what really hit me at first was “oh no, Nezuko really is only going to accept this marriage because she’s a saint, he’s not being desirable at all.”

But, treating it with a little more patience and sympathy for Zenitsu… he’s just gotten what he’s always wanted, of course he’s going to stop striving a bit and get blissfully carried away in it. And Nezuko, the ever sweet, isn’t going to stop him.

Some of the other commentary in the fanbook states that Zenitsu, for a time, found himself terrified of how girls could be sweet to his face while hiding their true thoughts about him. But, finding that Nezuko was not at all two-faced, he nearly “died and went to heaven” as the exaggeration goes. He doesn’t like to work hard in the first place (but does, because it will make people like Jiichan proud), so getting away with being spoiled is too big of a temptation to resist. Nezuko is sensitive to what makes the people around her happy or uncomfortable, so she never makes any request of Zenitsu. She’s so grateful to have their new little family that her happiness is everyone else’s happiness, she doesn’t really desire a heartthrob romance, even if being a wife and mother is an eventual goal. And, without being under any pressure to make someone proud, Zenitsu gets swept away and indulges.

Thank you, Tanjiro, for putting a stop to this.

He’s still rooting for Zenitsu, since this is his friend and he knows it would make his friend happy to wind up with Nezuko, but he’s setting himself up for failure, or setting Nezuko up to be cheated out on a good match at this rate (if she were to accept out of being nice). Very, very thankfully, Zenitsu responds well to pressure. By this point Nezuko has gotten so used to sweet but indulgent Zenitsu that he seems she totally accepted that his Hisha side didn’t exist anymore, if it even existed in the first place.

Good for Zenitsu asking for her response a year later (when they’d be getting to the legal marriage ages for the Taisho period anyway), he knew he still had shaping up to do to earn her affection. And Nezuko probably needed time to build some admiration for him again, since the doki-dokis were so gone. Even if he couldn’t use that super cool Thunder Breath anymore, it would probably catch her attention to see him strive again, to put effort into being manly, specifically for her. It wasn’t just the Thunder Breath that gave her doki-dokis, it was the Hisha knight-like attitude too, whether asleep and acting on his inner potential, or awake and bravely defending her based on his own goodness and faith.

I hope that in their married life, Zenitsu will retain that sort of manliness in being a provider for her, even he does get indulged a lot at home.

Now for how this plays into some of my fanwork and headcanons:

You know how I said all my OTPs were tragedies? Yeah, I love a good dose of angst. I did start writing a single-scene fic one time of injured Zenitsu desperately trying to cover Nezuko from the sun while waiting for Tanjiro to find them, and in Nezuko’s panic about the sun she starts losing her self-control over her appetite, and Zenitsu is forced to confront that the girl he loves could very easily kill him. I never finished it, though, and it was embarrassingly self-indulgent.

For my big favorite AU of a monster fanfic, I did add more ZenNezu on the massive edit, because by this point I just enjoy ZenNezu so much that I wanted more of it. But!! What I really like about working with it in this fic is that there’s a conflict: Demon!Tanjiro. In this canon divergence, Human!Nezuko and Zenitsu get to interact more than they ever did while she was a demon, and they both already have affection for each other, but the lingering fact that Tanjiro is technically their enemy gives me some tension and angst to work with.

Yes, I wrote a One Shot of Zenitsu and Nezuko as fresh new parents, but it was a bit of a dark dive into Zenitsu’s feelings of inadequacy. But domesticity comes with some inevitable fluff anyway, and likewise it felt embarrassing indulgent, and I can’t write fluff without a little bittersweetness. M…maybe the reason I’m not a shipper is because I’m easily flustered???

I’d like to think that Zenitsu got a desk job that he worked hard at because he wants to be a provider, and Nezuko does find his hard work attractive. I headcanon it was at an electric company, because hahahaha, electricity. I’d like to think he had a long career in that company (and although his colleagues know him for having a bit of an extreme personality and being obsessed with his wife, they sometimes catch glimpses of a very, very strong side of Zenitsu—like, scarily strong), and that when he’s old and retired in the Postwar Economic Miracle, he buys a fancy camera to take pictures of Nezuko (instead of “say cheese” it’s “Thunderclap and Flash!”), and he takes Nezuko to Paris because that’s the romantic thing to do. Also, I don’t like moustaches as a rule, but I totally approve of old man Zenitsu having a fluffy moustache.

World War Two, though… I’d like to think that if his job had him in the city, he was extremely reliable when it came to protecting his family in case of bombing. I’d also like to think that this was when the Kamado family moved to the city, because Nezuko was worried about Kanao and her nieces and nephews, so Zenitsu made sure they were all together. Inosuke might had taken the opposite route and taken his family to the mountains to shelter out there in the wild.

AAAAHHHH, listen to me being so self-indulgent with headcanons, I pride myself on sticking close to canon in my fanwork, I will never produce this, AAAAHHHH, I’m embarrassed~~~~I---I’m not a shipper! No! I don’t have a shipper’s bone in my body! Who needs romance, it means nothing to me, I don’t get swept up in happy fantasies about young newlywed Zenitsu and Nezuko, really I don’t, I take what canon gives me and I stick with it, I’m here for bromance and comradery and fights to the death, I—I don’t need disgusting fluffy feelings, ew, ew, no, really-----ahhh, too flustered, too flustered, too flustered, no, no, no, no, no, no, WHEN DID I BECOME A SHIPPER, nnnnnnnnhhhhjjjj

Which is all to say that Zenitsu and Nezuko as a pairing really grew on me, even though it is essentially a fluffy happy pairing that only got surface-level interaction and was never seriously challenged. It’s got some shadows lurking in there, especially diving into Zenitsu’s heart, but in general this was a slow build-up of mutual affection between two characters with pretty simple desires of their own, and most of all, a desire to see each other happy. That makes it a good comfort ship.

And they’re both are sleepyheads, hNNNGGGHHHhhhhHHHHHHHHHHH

#4000 words over the course of which I slowly begin to lose my cool #Zennezu #Zenitsu x Nezuko #Agatsuma Zenitsu #Kamado Nezuko #Kimetsu no Yaiba #kny #demon slayer #KnY Fandom Theories and Meta

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mdelpin · 3 years

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The Red Dragon - Chapter 35 (Final)

Cover Art by @khaoticvex

AO3 | Tumblr: Ch1 | Ch34

And here we are at the end. 2 years and 10 months and a little over 200K words later.

It's been a long time coming and I want to thank you all for your patience as this was not an easy story to write. I hope you enjoy this final chapter, I tried to get in everything I reasonably could.

Chapter 35

Gajeel gazed at Wendy as she watched the huddled figures of Natsu and Gray sadly. He could tell she was about to go over there, and he held out a hand to her.

“Don’t,” Gajeel warned. He’d directed it at Wendy, but he meant it as a warning to the others as well. “I don’t have the first clue what the hell all that was about, but I do know Natsu doesn’t need us all over him right now.”

“But-” Wendy protested, seeing as Happy had crept closer, but even he was giving them some space, content to rest near them.

Gajeel could hardly blame her. He felt the same urge to comfort Natsu. He knew exactly what it felt like to have your parents ripped away from you unexpectedly. Could relate to the emptiness and shock Natsu was undoubtedly feeling, which was why he also knew that his friend wouldn’t want anyone but Gray and Atlas near him at the moment.

It had been a long, exhausting battle, and it left him feeling battered. It all felt so anticlimactic. They’d finally put an end to Acnologia’s carnage, but he could find no joy in it. His heart felt heavy in his chest and all he wanted to do was collapse on the ground and avoid moving for a while, maybe thinking too.

Whatever they’d just witnessed, and Gajeel understood precious little of it, Igneel had been someone he’d cared about deeply. The fire dragon had always taken an interest in all the dragon slayers, chatting with them and making them feel at home from the first moment they had met him and the rest of the dragons. And he’d always seemed larger than life. Gajeel was still having trouble accepting he was gone, but with Natsu out of commission for the moment, it fell to him to once again be the leader of their little band of misfits.

The battle had taken a lot out of all of them, especially Natsu and Happy. They wouldn’t be flying home for a while. The best thing they could all do for now was to get some rest and recoup some of their energy.

Gajeel moved away from the three dragons, nudging Wendy to follow. He found them a spot where they could sit somewhat comfortably and wait for Atlas to return with Irene and Oliver.

“Do you- do you think he’ll be alright?” Wendy fretted, as was her way.

Gajeel could only shrug, “I’m sure he will, but he’s going to need some time. We all will.”

Wendy nodded and Gajeel changed the subject for both their sakes. “Rogue handled himself pretty well out there, don’t you think?”

“Yes!” Wendy immediately perked up. “Those legs you made him work really well. He fought just as well as he did before.”

Gajeel was about to say something about it to Rogue when he noticed the Shadow Dragon slayer and Sting were still locked in an embrace. “Ugh, you’re all disgusting. I seriously need to find a girlfriend. I’m so tired of watching all of you.”

Wendy smiled, “Well, you should definitely have better luck with that in Talos than you did in Drak Aast.”

In his defense, it wasn’t like there had been that many female dragon slayers in Drak Aast to begin with, and the few there had been were not overly fond of him.

“Oh great, here comes yours,” Gajeel groaned as he noticed Atlas approaching.

The hellfire dragon landed near them and as he crouched down, his tail swished, yeeting Acnologia’s corpse several yards away from them, where it slammed to the ground with a terrific thud.

Atlas looked completely unrepentant.

“Holy Shit! What did I miss?!” Oliver asked, sliding off Atlas’ backside and studying the remains of the clearing in dismay. Irene followed him down in a more dignified manner.

“Everything.” Sting rolled his eyes at the lightning dragon slayer before sitting down near Gajeel. “As usual.”

“Hey! Don’t say that like I do it on purpose,” Oliver complained.

Gajeel had to snort at that. Oliver had always been slightly accident prone, but once they’d arrived at Drak Aast, hardly a day had gone by without him coming to see Wendy for healing. They had soon come to realize he had a massive crush on her and had gone to splendid efforts to make his life a living hell until Wendy had made them stop.

“Oliver!” Wendy rushed over to her boyfriend, using what little magic she had left to check his injuries.

“I’m fine, and even if I wasn’t, you need to rest.” Oliver scolded, wrapping Wendy up in an embrace and kissing the top of her head as he looked the others over. “Wow, you all look like death warmed over.”

“Yeah, well, not all of us got to sleep through the fight,” Gajeel grumbled from where he sat leaning against a downed tree trunk.

Wendy took Oliver by the hand, leading him back to the others.

“Is it really over?” Rogue wondered out loud as he collapsed tiredly next to Sting. He set about removing his metal legs, seeking to ease some of the pain in his stumps after all the running he’d done.

“Yes, it’s finally over.” Atlas assured him. “I’m so proud of all you kids. You put up one hell of a fight.”

“I don’t know about that. If you and Gray hadn’t shown up when you did, we would’ve been screwed,” Sting said, “I know I sure as hell didn’t have much left.”

Gajeel grunted his agreement. His clothes were in tatters, his body covered in bruises despite being as hard as iron. “Tell me about it, I think I’m gonna sleep for a week once we get home.”

“I know you said there wasn’t time to explain before, but-” Wendy glanced over at Natsu and Gray again. “How is any of this possible?”

The dragon looked as tired as they all felt, making Gajeel think he wouldn’t answer, but after peering over at Natsu, Gray and Happy, he launched into an explanation.

“It was Igneel’s idea. When Gray didn’t set off the warning sigils we’d placed in the cave, he became determined to figure out why. He had this theory that dragon souls were being born in human bodies. That was how it all started.”

What followed was a story as shocking as it was tragic, and Gajeel had to admit his estimation of Gray improved greatly in the telling. He’d certainly seen how love made people do all sorts of crazy shit, but he would never have expected Gray to go that far, especially given how much he’d always hated dragons. It filled him with a strange sense of pride, like what he imagined Anna felt when she looked at all of them.

“So hang on, does that mean we have dragon souls too?” Rogue asked while pointing at himself and Sting.

“There’s a lot we still don’t know, but I think it’s likely, given that you’re soul bonded. As for the rest of you, it’s possible? Maybe that’s why some dragon slayers took to the enchantment better than others. If you really want to know, I can check all of you when we return.”

Gajeel let that idea sink in for a minute. It was certainly interesting to consider, but he doubted it changed anything for any of them.

The sound of heavy, unsteady steps alerted them to Gray’s approach. He tottered towards them with a sorrowful expression on his face. Once he reached them, he nudged Atlas.

“Natsu wants you.”

Atlas closed his eyes briefly and nodded. “How’s he doing?”

Gajeel knew the dragon well enough to know that he was really asking.

Does he blame me?

All eyes were on Gray as everyone waited for his response.

“He’s doing better,” Gray said, although his eyes never strayed from the ground. “Still a little shell-shocked, though.”

“What about you, how are you doing?”

Gajeel could see the concern in the hellfire dragon’s eyes and it made him wonder just how difficult this entire experience had been for Gray.

“I’m fine.”

Atlas frowned at the response, and for once he seemed to be at a loss for words. But he tried.

“We always knew he wouldn’t take it well. How could he?” Atlas nuzzled Gray’s head gently. “But as much as I hate to admit it, Igneel was right. We needed to do this. If we hadn’t, Acnologia would have killed them all. Remember that.”

“Yeah.” Gray said, although he didn’t sound very convincing. He watched Atlas walk away towards Natsu, the frown never leaving his face.

Gajeel noticed Sting watching Gray thoughtfully and got a bad feeling. Oh gods, he wasn’t dumb enough to bring that up, was he? Now of all times?! Rogue must have had the same idea because he grabbed on to Sting’s hand like a vise and shook his head.

It was Wendy who got up and approached Gray. She wrapped her arms around him as best she could and cried.

“Wendy?” Gray gawked at her. “What's wrong? Are you hurt?”

“No, I’m just so happy for you guys!” She smiled through her tears, “Now you can be together, just like before.”

“Well, not exactly like before.” Gray didn’t really feel like smiling, but he tried for her.

He was glad to see them. He’d missed all of them so much and had spent the last few years worrying about them. As he gazed from one to the other, he noticed all the changes with his newly enhanced eyesight, which he was slowly getting used to.

Gajeel looked to have changed the least, at least outwardly. His hair was a lot longer, but the biggest difference, as far as Gray could tell, was in the way he held himself. He exuded an even tougher air than he used to. Wendy looked nothing like the young girl she’d been when she’d left, although the war didn’t seem to have affected her sweet disposition any. Natsu had told him about Rogue’s legs, but it was still jarring to see it. And Sting, well, Sting looked like he had aged the most out of all of them.

“You all look so different.”

“We look different?” Gajeel scoffed, “That’s rich coming from the guy who turned into a dragon.”

“What kind of dragon are you?” Wendy asked. “You don’t look like any ice dragon I’ve ever seen.”

“We don’t really know. Atlas thinks I might be the equivalent of a hellfire dragon for ice dragons.” Gray shrugged his shoulders.

“That magic of yours sure came in handy,” Rogue chimed in, “Although it almost gave me a heart attack at first.”

“Sorry about that, I wasn’t sure how it would work.” Gray admitted, “To be honest, I was kind of winging it.”

“That was you winging it?” Sting finally spoke, peering at him in awe. “Damn! Those soldier dudes were badass.”

Gray nodded absently, becoming distracted by a scent that wafted towards him. It smelled familiar, but also different. He sniffed the air and searched for the source until determining it came from the red-haired woman that stood by Acnologia’s corpse, which had reverted to its human form after releasing all the souls he’d held captive.

“Is that Erza’s mother?”

“Yeah,” Wendy glanced over at the woman sadly.

“Is something wrong with her?”

“Not exactly, she began to dragonify, so she’s worried about how Erza and Anna will react to her appearance.”

“Dragonify? You mean like one of those renegades? Is it going to get worse?”

Wendy must have seen the distress on his face because she shook her head vehemently and immediately said, “No, no, nothing like that. Natsu removed her magic, so it won’t get any worse. But she has some red scales on parts of her body, kind of like Natsu did after-” Wendy’s voice drifted off and she looked away.

“Oh.” It was funny how his guilt over his past actions still lingered, but he chased it away. None of that mattered anymore, and he knew in his heart that neither Anna nor Erza would care one bit about what Irene looked like. They just wanted her back.

“I’ll go talk to her.”

He said that, but it was easier said than done, given the distance between them. Moving was getting easier, but he still felt so awkward. He made his way over to Irene slowly, gasping as she turned to look at him curiously.

She looked just like Erza!

Her hair was styled into two thick braids, and Gray couldn't help but notice that her outfit left just as little to the imagination as Erza’s requips. It was more ribbons than clothing, but that wasn’t even the most striking thing about her. That would have to be her face, or rather the large patch of torn skin that began just below her left eye and covered most of her cheek, revealing bright red scales underneath.

“You must be Gray, it’s nice to meet you finally. I have to say you look a little different from what I expected,” she said with a slight smile before turning back to the corpse and doing something that shocked him so much he forgot all about Erza and Anna.

Kneeling down, she closed Acnologia’s eyes and whispered, “May you find your way to peace.”

“How can you-” Gray stopped himself, realizing anything he said would only sound rude.

“How can I say that after everything he did?” Irene sighed. “I suppose it's because he wasn’t always like that. He was a good man once, before a dragon destroyed his village and killed all his loved ones. It changed him.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I don’t agree with any of the things he did, and I would have killed him myself, given the chance. But even so,” she bowed her head. “I’d like to remember the good that once lived inside him.”

Gray sucked in a breath at her words, causing her to look up at him inquisitively. She stared at him for a moment, recognition suddenly dawning on her face.

“That’s right, Natsu mentioned something like that had happened to you as well. I’d like to say that the dragon slayer spell played a large part in what happened to him, but the truth is, Acnologia’s hatred was boundless. He fed it every chance he got, and in doing so, he created a literal monster.”

Her mouth curved up into a soft smile. “I’m happy to see you chose love instead.”

“I chose Natsu,” Gray said simply, not wanting to get caught up in a discussion of his past and how it may or may not compare to Acnologia’s.

He’d set his hatred aside once he’d finally understood how much pain it had caused Natsu over the years. Deliora was dead, and now Acnologia- who had devastated their lives in even more ways- was gone as well. Gray was content to let his hate die along with them. All he cared about now was being there for Natsu and helping him get through Igneel’s death.

He stepped closer to the body, curious to see what the man had looked like, but his nose instantly rebelled at the overwhelming stench of blood and guts the body exuded. He was about to leave when another more subtle scent caught his attention- a familiar one that was mixed in with the man's. It smelled of rain and those blue flowers that grew at the base of their mountain.

Juvia?

But what would Juvia be doing with Acnologia? He shook his head at the thought. That was ridiculous.

But was it?

Why else would her scent be on him? And what did they really know about Juvia’s mystery boyfriend? What was it she’d said?

Gray tried to remember her exact words, and he let out a groan as soon as he did.

Then Juvia met Logan, and he was very interested in Juvia and Juvia’s friends.

That sonofabitch!

He must have been using Juvia to spy on them all along!

A maelstrom of emotions engulfed him at the realization - rage at Acnologia for using Juvia when she was already vulnerable, guilt for telling her when Natsu was returning, and pity for the loneliness she felt that caused her to get into these situations.

Whatever the renegade had told Juvia to explain his absence, she would await his return.

And Gray knew exactly what it felt like to live in constant wait. Hoping and praying that the one you loved would come back to you. Standing in place while everyone around you went on with their lives. He couldn’t just sit back and let that happen to her. Not when he knew damn well “Logan” was never coming back.

He wanted to scream in frustration, knowing Natsu was holding on by a thin thread as it was. But as much as he loathed the idea, he knew what he was going to have to do, and just how much it was going to piss everyone off.

“Is something wrong?” Irene peered at him with concern.

Gray could only look back at where the slayers were sitting, and past them to where the red dragons were talking to Natsu.

Fuck my life...

0-0

When Erza woke up that morning, she’d barely been able to contain her excitement. After so many years spent worrying about her mother and childhood friends, her wait was finally over.

Lyon had teased her as they’d gotten ready, but he’d taken her to her favorite bakery for breakfast and then they’d gone for a walk around town before work. It was a beautiful day, with nary a cloud in the sky. A soft breeze played with their hair and clothes as she chatted about the welcome home party she wanted to throw for their family and friends.

As excited as she was, it took her a few minutes to realize Lyon had gone quiet, even longer to understand why.

“Oh gods, I’m so sorry!”

“You’re fine.” Lyon chuckled, squeezing her hand. “I love to see you like this, and I am excited, too. I’m just feeling a little conflicted. It makes me glad to know Gray is happy. The gods know he deserves to be, but he’s my little brother and it makes me sad when I realize he won’t be a part of these things anymore.”

“I’m sure we’ll still see him.” Erza rested her head on Lyon’s shoulder, smiling when she felt him wrap his arm around her waist. “Honestly, the idea of those two being dragons is terrifying.”

“And just think, you won’t be able to keep them in check anymore,” Lyon said.

Erza stopped in her tracks. Oh gods, Lyon was right! She’d been the only one able to keep those two under control. Who was going to do that now? How much destruction would they be capable of during one of their squabbles now that they were both dragons?

“Relax, I was joking!” Lyon laughed, “They’ll be fine.”

Erza wasn’t as sure of that. She knew that while it would make Natsu happy to have Gray at long last, it would also devastate him to lose his father. She wished, not for the first time, that Natsu would have confided in her over the years. That she could have helped him through some of the things he’d held inside for so long. And more than anything, she hoped that he’d come see her so she could make him understand how much she still loved him.

But maybe it was time to take matters into her own hands. Now that everyone was coming home, she was done with worrying and waiting. If he wouldn’t come to her, then she would just have to go to him.

0-0

“Watch out!” Sting yelled as Gray came within a few inches of colliding with Happy.

Again.

“I’m doing my best.”

Sting held on to one of Gray’s fin spikes for dear life, even though it made him feel like his body was going to turn into a popsicle. He didn’t understand how Irene could remain so calm, and he honestly wished she’d stop interrogating Gray about Lyon so that he might at least focus more on his flying, which sucked royally.

To be fair, the guy had only been a dragon for a couple of hours, but still. Sting had lost count of how many times they’d almost crashed or suddenly lost altitude, and while Gray was apologetic, it did nothing to improve the feeling of impending doom Sting felt.

Although he knew a lot of that had more to do with the fact that they’d be home soon. As much as he’d tried to prepare himself mentally for any outcome, he still dreaded the disappointment he was sure to see on Anna’s face once she learned what he’d done. And he could only imagine how furious Erza and the other guards would be.

Sting knew he deserved all of it. After all, he’d put everyone in danger. He didn’t even want to consider what might have happened if Natsu hadn’t been there to fight Acnologia.

His biggest fear, though, was that the Talos village elders would decide to exile him. If that happened, he didn’t know what he’d do. He didn’t want to take Rogue away from his home, but he also knew his mate would refuse to stay without him.

Please, please let them forgive me. I will do anything…

Rogue’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

Everything’s going to be fine.

He turned his head to glance at his mate, who along with Gajeel rode atop Natsu, and flashed him a sheepish smile.

How did you know?

I don’t have to read your mind to know what you’re thinking. I know you… They’ll understand.

I hope you’re right.

I know I am. Have faith in them.

He could feel Rogue’s love pouring into him and it calmed him down some, right until Gray dropped a few hundred feet all at once. It was terrifying enough that Irene finally stopped with her questions.

“Gray!”

“Sorry! I’ve never flown holding anything before.”

“Yeah, well, no one asked you to bring him along.” Sting snapped, thinking back to the tense fight that had ensued when Gray had made his bizarre request to bring Acnologia’s body back with them.

All of them had been against it, but no one as much as Atlas. The fighting had only ended when Natsu came out in Gray’s defense. No one was about to argue with him in his state.

Sting sighed in defeat. Really, who was he to judge about doing the wrong thing for what felt like the right reasons?

“I’m sorry. I get what you’re trying to do, and it’s nice and all, but it burns me up that we’re bringing him home like some kind of war hero.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to do.” Gray hissed. “I just want Juvia to move on.”

“I know. But have you given any thought to how she’s going to feel when she realizes she led him straight to us.”

“It wasn’t her fault, she didn’t know!”

“Do you really think that’s going to make one bit of difference to her?”

“It doesn’t matter. What’s past is past and nothing is going to change it.” Irene joined the conversation, peering back at Sting with a knowing look. “If this Juvia feels guilty, she’ll just have to work through it while she grieves. Just like everyone else.”

“That wasn’t exactly subtle, Irene.” Sting grumbled.

“Wasn’t trying to be, dear.”

“Ugh, I don’t know if I can handle having two Erzas around again.”

“Oh Sting,” Irene chuckled, “You never could.”

“We’ll land in front of the village gates,” Natsu announced, and the dragons grunted their assent.

All but one.

“Hey, Gray?” Sting called out, trying not to let his sudden panic show in his voice.

“Hmmm?”

“You do know how to land, right?”

“Sort of?” Gray’s nervous chuckle in no way made him feel any better.

Oh well, he’d lived a good life. At least he got to see that fucker die before he bit it.

“I’m not worried at all,” Irene said as she patted Gray’s neck. “And I have to say if your brother is half the man you are - well, uhm dragon, I guess - then Erza is a very lucky girl.”

“He’s better,” Gray said. “I’d have never gotten this far if it hadn’t been for him. But I will forever deny having said that.”

Irene laughed. “I can’t wait to meet him.”

“So, uhm, Wendy mentioned you were nervous about Anna and Erza seeing your scales.”

“I was, but almost dying earlier made me realize how silly I was being. I think everything will be okay.”

“Good, because I saw them last night, and they were really excited to see you.”

Sting tuned them out, paying more attention to their surroundings. It had been quite a while since he’d been home, but he recognized their mountains up ahead. They would be at the village in the next few minutes. He knew he was right when he felt Gray tense beneath him and Natsu appeared next to them.

Not a word passed between them, but as Gray made adjustments, Sting knew that Natsu was talking to him through their bond.

He reached out to Rogue through their own bond.

Nice knowing you!

Stop being so dramatic, he’s doing fine.

Sure, for someone who learned to fly in the astral realm, whatever the heck that is.

The sound of Rogue’s laughter was exactly what he needed to hear to relax.

I love you.

I love you too, dork. Might want to hold on now.

In the end, Gray mostly glided down, with Atlas and Natsu on either side of him. It wasn’t a bad landing overall. There had been plenty worse during the war, but Sting still felt the need to kiss the ground after he jumped down.

The village gates stood in front of him, looking slightly different from what he remembered, but still familiar.

Behind him, he could hear everyone else dismounting, as Natsu teased Gray about his flying skills while Happy and Atlas laughed along.

The rest of the dragon slayers joined him in staring at the doors, None of them making any effort to enter. Then Wendy grabbed onto his left hand, while Rogue took his right. One by one, they linked hands and squeezed tightly before taking that first step together.

They were home at last.

0-0

Erza didn’t know how it was possible, but this day felt longer than all the years she’d waited put together.

She’d managed to keep her good mood for most of the morning, but as the hours passed and there was no sign of the dragon slayers, she began to worry. Her mind filled with all sorts of worst-case scenarios, and no matter how hard she tried to dismiss each and every one as ridiculous, another would rear its ugly head to replace it.

She attacked her work with vigor, hoping to distract herself from her thoughts, and that worked for a time, until she ran out of things to do. Lunchtime came and went, but she remained in her office, too worried to be in the least bit hungry.

Where the hell were they? Why was it taking so long?

That sense that something was wrong was stronger than ever. But what could she do? She didn’t know what direction they were coming from, so even if she sent some guards to investigate, what would she tell them? Well, she could always-

A knock on her door interrupted her planning. She looked up from her desk to see Juvia standing at her door.

“Is Erza okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” she lied, plastering a smile on her face. “How can I help you, Juvia?”

“Lyon was called away to deal with a disturbance in town. He asked Juvia to make sure Erza ate lunch.”

“Lunch?” As riled up as she was, the idea of food was unappetizing, so she tried to placate Juvia with another lie. “Oh, yes, thank you. I’ll be sure to grab something later.”

Juvia crossed her arms in front of her chest, and studied her, “Lyon said Erza would say that, and to not take no for an answer.”

“Did he now?” Erza made no attempt to hide her irritation. She’d never enjoyed being babied or handled. It was one of the quickest ways to ensure her wrath.

Just who did Lyon think he was, anyway? She’d taken care of herself just fine for years before meeting him. If he thought he could just come in and-

“Lyon also said to tell Erza he’d asked the cook to make strawberry cake for dessert today.”

Strawberry cake?!

She wanted to laugh at Lyon’s blatant attempt to manipulate her. Like she was so simple that she’d submit to his whims just because he’d asked the cook to make her favorite dessert.

It was just cake.

Sweet, moist, delicious cake with frosting and luscious fresh strawberries on top…

She tried to resist the temptation, but her stomach had already broken rank, grumbling its opinion on the matter, and whether she meant to or not, she was already walking towards Juvia.

“I suppose a quick break for lunch would be fine.” Erza ignored Juvia’s knowing smirk as she fell in step beside her.

“Erza’s friends will be home soon.” Juvia said, putting her arm around Erza’s shoulders and giving her a side hug. “Juvia just knows it!”

“Let’s hope so.”

The dining room was mostly empty, as everyone had already eaten. Lyon was true to his word. There was indeed a strawberry cake, and even better, the cook had saved two slices for her.

“Mind if I join you girls?”

Erza looked up from her dessert long enough to nod at Anna.

“I thought you’d be in your office,” Anna smiled.

“Can Juvia get Anna anything?”

“No, thank you. I was just going crazy waiting at the orphanage, so Andrius offered to watch the kids for a few hours.”

“Didn’t you get any sleep?” Erza asked, noticing the dark circles under Anna’s eyes.

“Not really, I started worrying about Gray, and that got me thinking about Igneel and Porly, which then led me straight to Natsu.” Anna sighed. “That poor boy, I can’t even begin to imagine how he’ll take it.”

“Yes, I thought about him this morning as well.”

“Why is Anna worried about Gray?” Juvia peered at Anna with obvious alarm. “Did something happen?”

“Oh, uhm, I-” Anna bit her lip, clearly not knowing how to respond to Juvia’s question.

Erza wasn’t doing much better. How much could she tell her? When he’d resigned a few days earlier, Gray had told everyone he and Natsu were moving away. She should have realized that meant he had no intention of telling Juvia about his actual plans.

“Anna worries about all of us. She can’t help it. After all, she raised most of us.” Erza tried to defuse the situation by acting purposefully obtuse. She cringed internally at her words, knowing how lame they sounded, but couldn’t come up with anything better.

“Yes, but it sounded like it was more than that.” Juvia insisted.

One of the younger guards, a woman by the name of Alyssa, chose that moment to run into the dining room, slamming into a table and cursing out in pain. All three of them winced in sympathy, but before Erza could ask her if she was alright, the girl yelled out.

“CAPTAIN, CAPTAIN!”

“There’s no need to yell, Alyssa. I’m right here. What is it? Do you have something to report?” Erza kept her composure, but she was tense. Could this be what she’d been waiting for?

“IT’S DRAGONS, MA’AM!”

“Dragons?” Erza jumped out of her chair, quickly followed by Anna and Juvia. “Where, how many?”

“FOUR DRAGONS, MA’AM, HEADED TOWARDS THE TOWN FROM THE NORTH.”

“Do you know if they were red dragons?”

“YES, MA’AM, THERE WERE-”

Erza didn't know what else Alyssa might have said because she ran out of the dining room as fast as she could. If they were red dragons, it had to be them!

She sprinted down the long hallway until she reached the doors, stopping only long enough to pull them open. She heard others running behind her and hoped the door didn’t hit them when she raced outside.

However long it had taken Alyssa to find her was enough time for the dragons to have landed in the grassy area in front of the village gates. Erza could see them clearly now. There were indeed four dragons, three red ones and a blue one with wings and horns made of ice that had to be Gray.

However, she filed that away for later, for as majestic as the dragons were, they were nothing to her when compared to the individuals who stood in a line in front of them. There was one among them Erza didn’t recognize, but once again, the details meant little to her at the moment.

Her eyes filled with tears as she watched them take a step forward together.

“You’re home,” she whispered.

And then, as if a spell had broken once she’d said the words, she yelled them out with all her might, wanting everyone to hear the joy that was in her heart.

“YOU’RE HOME!”

She lunged at them, not paying any attention to which one of them she tackled. Not that it mattered, as they all fell to the ground in a chorus of grunts and laughing complaints.

“Well, it’s nice to see you’re as impulsive as ever.” The sound of her mother’s laughter left her reeling, and she pushed herself up to search for her, taking a moment to see who was underneath her.

She could feel the blood rushing to her face as, to her dismay, she’d landed on the one person she didn’t know. She scrambled to get off him, and in her haste, landed back on the grass. “Oh gods, I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t even worry about it.” the man said, waving at her with an amused grin. “I’m Oliver, by the way. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Erza nodded at him, too flustered to say anything else. There was a light tap on her shoulder and she looked up to see her mother offering her a hand up.

She grabbed hold of it and found herself pulled into a familiar embrace.

“I missed you so much,” Erza cried, holding her mother close.

“I missed you too.” Irene ran her fingers lightly through Erza’s hair, playing with it as she’d done when Erza was a child. “I’m sorry I was gone so long, sweetheart.”

They separated, and Erza got her first good look at her mother. It horrified her to see a patch of red dragon scales on her cheek, not because it marred her beauty, but because of what it could mean.

“Mother, those scales- are you?”

“Turning into a dragon? No.” Irene assured her. “I used a lot of dragon magic during the war, but Natsu removed the dragon slayer enchantment. It won’t get any worse.”

“If it bothers you, Atlas said he could create some sort of illusion spell-”

“No, you’re perfect!” Erza was so relieved to learn she wouldn’t lose her mother again that she crushed her to her chest in a violent hug.

“I’m not going anywhere, Erza. I promise.” Irene said once she’d regained use of her lungs.

All around them there were sounds of people laughing and yelling greetings and as much as she wanted to hold on to her mother for a little longer, she knew that there was someone else who had been awaiting her return just as anxiously.

“There you are!”

She turned at the sound of Lyon’s voice and saw him hurrying towards her, looking entirely out of breath. “I came as soon as I heard. Did you see your mom yet?”

“Indeed, she did,” Irene answered, moving to stand next to Erza and stopping Lyon in his tracks.

He gawked at her for a moment, seeming uncertain of what to do next, but Erza rescued him. She stepped forward and grabbed his hand, pulling him to her side.

She felt a little anxious, remembering how intimidating her mother could be and knowing how easily flustered Lyon could get when he was nervous.

She really wanted him to make a good first impression.

“Mother, I’d like you to meet Lyon Vastia.”

Erza wanted to tell her everything wonderful about Lyon, but to her horror, she got tongue tied instead.

“I’m pleased to finally meet you,” Lyon said, bowing his head briefly in a gesture of respect before offering his hand. “I’m Erza’s husband,”

Erza watched her mother’s face nervously. It stunned her when Irene merely shook his hand with an amused smile. “The pleasure is all mine. A little dragon told me all about you on the way here.”

“A dragon?” Lyon sounded puzzled, and Erza could almost work out the second he figured out Irene was referring to Gray.

“You mean it really worked?”

“See for yourself,” Irene said, pointing at the blue dragon that Erza had noticed earlier. It stood some distance away from the crowd of people, along with the red dragon that had become their town’s protector.

The dragon they now knew was Natsu.

Erza tore her eyes away from the dragons to focus back on her mother, and she saw Lyon do the same, but Irene waved them away.

“Go to them, I’m not sure how much longer they’ll stick around.”

“Are you sure?” Erza hedged.

“Yes, we’ll talk more later. There’s someone else I need to say hello to. Assuming the kids let me anywhere near her, that is.” Irene said with a laugh.

It didn’t take long for Erza to sight Anna surrounded by Sting, Rogue, Wendy and even Gajeel. All of them were talking at once while Anna laughed at them and asked them to slow down.

It reminded Erza so much of their younger years, though back then she and Natsu would have been in there too, demanding their own slice of attention.

“She’s even more exquisite than I remember,” Irene mused.

“Aren’t you going to go to her?”

“In a bit, let them have their moment. I’ll have her to myself soon enough.”

She shooed them away, turning to greet one of the village elders.

0-0

“That really is him, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I’d know that resting bitchface anywhere.”

“And I suppose yours is better?” Erza taunted, but Lyon only snorted in reply.

It didn’t take them long to reach the dragons. Lyon wasn’t all that surprised by Gray’s appearance, having seen the ice sculpture his brother had molded weeks earlier. Although even that paled compared to the real thing.

Lyon found himself mesmerized by the ice that made up Gray’s wings, horns, talons, and the tip of his tail. It was flawless and he couldn’t help but wonder what creations made of it would look like. But he shifted his focus to Erza as she slowly approached Natsu.

He could see the uncertainty on her face, and he couldn’t blame her. He knew how much she loved and missed Natsu. There was a lot of guilt mixed into her feelings as well, but he knew she’d face it as she did everything else.

Natsu relaxed slightly in their presence, but his expression remained guarded and he inched closer to Gray.

“Hello, Natsu,” Erza said, reaching her hand out tentatively. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Hey Erza,” Natsu leaned into her hand for a moment, allowing her to pet his snout.

“I know this isn’t the time for long conversations, but,” Erza touched her hand to her heart. “I’d like to talk with you sometime, if that’s alright.”

Lyon watched with bated breath, waiting for Natsu’s response just as much as Erza.

“He wants to talk to her,” Gray told him. “He was just afraid of how she’d react. Now that he’s seen she’s not angry or scared of him, I think they’ll be fine.”

“Well, that’s good. I know she’s missed him terribly.” Lyon said, switching his attention to his brother. “I want to apologize to him for our last meeting as well, but I doubt he’d want to hear that now.”

“Probably not.” Gray agreed, “He’s been doing a little better, but I want to get him home.”

“I can hear you, you know.” Natsu complained, sounding much more like his usual self than Lyon had expected. He refrained from responding with one of his usual put downs, regardless.

Instead, he studied Gray and Natsu closely, pleased to see they already radiated that same bubble he’d always noticed around them. He was sure whatever happened next, wherever they went, they’d be alright. And that was all he’d ever wanted for them.

“Well then, we won’t keep you, there will be plenty of time to talk later.” Lyon backed away and tripped over something. He looked down at it with a puzzled expression.

“Just one thing before you go, though. What’s with the corpsicle?”

“Oh crap, I almost forgot about him.” Gray groaned. “That’s Acnologia. He ambushed them some miles from here. Atlas and I barely got there in time to help finish him.”

“You were in a fight already?!” Lyon sputtered.

“So that’s what happened,” Erza said, “I was wondering why Sting and the others looked like they’d been in a fight.”

“How can you sound so calm?!” Lyon protested, peering at Gray more closely in search of injuries.

“Don’t be such a worrywart. I’m fine. You realize I’m a dragon now, right? Plus, all of us fought him together.”

Lyon wanted to ask more about what had happened, remembering how terrifying that black dragon had been, but quickly realized it was better for his sanity if he didn’t.

“You’re trying to tell me that man is the black dragon that attacked the village?” Lyon examined the body again, feeling decidedly skeptical about what he was being told, and wondering what on Earthland would have possessed them to bring the corpse back here.

“Yeah, he was one of the renegade dragon slayers. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only thing he was.”

“I don’t follow.”

“I think he might also be Juvia’s mysterious boyfriend. Her scent is mixed up with his.”

“Her scent? Okay, first of all, that’s creepy. How do you even know what she smells like?”

“I just do. I know what you smell like too.” Gray replied crossly, “Would you like me to describe it?”

“Oh no, poor Juvia! She was crazy about him.” Erza interjected, trying to keep them from derailing into their usual pointless bickering.

Lyon searched for any sign of the water mage and found her by the village entrance, watching along with a few of the newer guards.

This was going to break her heart.

“I had to bring him back once I caught her scent on him.”

Lyon immediately understood what his brother was getting at. Gray had wanted to shield Juvia from suffering through what he’d felt while Natsu was off fighting, even if it hurt her.

Erza also looked in Juvia’s direction and sighed. “Just get out of here. We’ll deal with it.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, you’d never planned on telling her about any of this,” Erza gestured at Gray’s body. “Besides, if he really was her boyfriend-”

“Well, that’s a lot to handle already.”

It took Lyon a moment to grasp everything Erza hadn’t said, and he couldn’t agree more with her assessment. He remembered Juvia joyously telling him about how Logan was so interested in everything to do with her, especially her friends.

“Off you go,” Lyon made a shooing gesture. “We’ve got this.”

“Won’t she know about the dragon thing, anyway?”

“No, the slayers have always kept any information about the dragons to themselves.” Erza reminded him, “Even I knew very little, and I grew up with them. I see no reason for that to change, especially now that the dragons want to be forgotten.”

Gray peered at Natsu, who nodded his agreement with Erza.

“I’ll leave it to you then,” Gray said. “Can you tell her- can you tell her I’m sorry?”

“Sure.”

“Natsu,” Erza implored, “Don’t be afraid to call for us if you need anything. We’re still your family.”

Natsu’s expressions softened slightly, and he offered a half smile in response.

They watched the two dragons fly off, Lyon snickering when he saw how sloppy Gray’s flying looked compared to Natsu.

Maybe he should hold off on getting that ride.

His thoughts turned to Juvia. He’d always been suspicious about the man’s refusal to cross the lake to come see her, but she’d seemed so happy. And he’d been glad that she’d finally put her obsession with Gray behind her, so he’d turned a blind eye. And that had almost proved fatal to their friends.

He intended to be a better friend to her while she mourned.

0-0

While they had flown the short distance home, Gray had worried about how Natsu would react to seeing the remnants of the spell, but Atlas had obviously expected that. He’d already removed all vestiges of it from sight.

He’d also dispelled all the furniture in their room save for the bed, which was now large enough to fit both of them comfortably. Natsu’s scarf lay folded neatly on top of it. Gray couldn’t tell if the temperature spell had been removed, as the cave’s heat didn’t seem to bother him anymore.

He was grateful for Atlas' actions, but it was also a tad disconcerting. It felt like his previous life had been erased, and he didn’t know how to feel about that. Natsu hadn’t said a word since they’d left and that worried him a bit as well, but he’d left it alone knowing he shouldn’t expect anything different. He had no idea how many memories Natsu had of Igneel in this cave, but Gray was sure he was thinking about all of them.

He could still recall how he’d felt immediately after Deliora had killed his parents, and while he knew Natsu had grieved for his mother, he’d never really known her. This type of grief was different. It would take time to heal, but that wasn’t a huge deal. After all, time was something they now had plenty of.

Natsu made no remark about their room being different, just walked in and curled up on the bed, with his head resting on the scarf. It would have been adorable if it wasn’t for the sadness in his eyes.

Lie with me?

It had been a long, emotionally draining day, and Gray had to admit he was exhausted as well.

Always.

Gray joined his husband on their bed, smiling happily when he felt Natsu coil their tails together. He cuddled him, murmuring sweet nothings and reveling in how perfectly they fit together. They soon fell into a deep sleep.

0-0

Gray woke before Natsu and, deciding to let him sleep a while longer, he ventured out of their room in search of food. Hearing an unfamiliar noise, he tracked it down to a room he’d never entered before. Inside it, Sting was packing up his and Rogue’s belongings into boxes.

“You guys are moving out?”

“Oh, hey man, you’re finally up.” Sting said, looking up from the box he was working on. “Yeah, it’d be kind of uncomfortable for Rogue to make the trek every day, unless he went, you know, shadow form.”

“Oh, right. I’m sorry, I didn’t think about that.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Sting waved away his apology. “Anyway, we found an apartment to rent in town, close to that bakery Rogue likes and to the Guard Headquarters. We moved in a couple of days ago.”

“Wait, days? How long were we out?”

“About three days. It's been raining, so I hadn’t been able to grab our stuff yet.”

Three days?!

Gray knew they’d been tired, but damn. “Well, I guess that explains why I’m starving.”

Sting laughed, “You’d better get used to it, you have a dragon’s stomach now.”

“I have a dragon’s everything now,” Gray pointed out smugly.

“Including their sense of humor, I see.” Sting rolled his eyes.

“So what else did we miss while we slept?” Gray asked, leaning against the cave wall.

“Oh plenty. Let’s see,” Sting began counting off on his fingers. “Anna was reinstated as a Village Elder, and she and Irene got engaged. Gajeel and Wendy also rented apartments in town, they’re right next to each other though, so Oliver’s screwed. Speaking of which, he took over your spot in the Guard and Erza moved him into your old apartment.”

“That’s fine, it’s not like I'm ever going to use it again. Did everyone else go back?”

“Most of us did. Rogue is going to help Erza part-time while he figures out what he wants to do. Wendy will help out in emergencies, but she’s mostly going to work at the orphanage with Anna and continue to train as a healer. Talos hasn’t had a powerful healer since Natsu’s mom died.”

“Hey, uhm, how is he?” Sting was still looking at his hands when he asked, but Gray could hear the worry in his voice.

“He’s still asleep. He didn’t say much when we got back.”

“I’m not all that surprised by that. He’d already run himself ragged even before we left. Plus, you know- everything. He must’ve been exhausted.”

“He was.”

It touched Gray to know that Sting still cared for Natsu, but he didn’t like discussing his mate with him. It was awkward, and he didn’t want to get caught in the middle of their fight. He’d already tried to get Natsu to talk to Sting before he’d left, and that was as far as he was willing to go. This was something they’d have to sort out for themselves.

So he tried to change the subject.

“Do you happen to know how Juvia’s doing?”

“Well, like I said, it rained nonstop for the past couple of days, but the sun came out today, so I guess she must be doing better. You should ask Irene or Erza. I heard they talked to her.”

That was something, at least, although he wasn’t sure if learning more about who Logan was would help. Gray just hoped that whoever she set her sights on next would be someone more deserving of her affections.

He wondered what they’d done with Acnologia’s body. He knew Atlas had wanted to incinerate it personally, he’d made that much painfully clear during their fight.

“Do you think we could talk for a minute?”

Gray blinked at him blankly. “I thought we were talking.”

“Yes, no, I mean talk about what happened. You know, what I did.”

To his credit, Sting didn’t look away, even though he was obviously uncomfortable.

“Sting, you don’t have to.” Gray tried to wave him away. He’d already forgiven him.

Now that everything was over, he didn’t see the need to carry a grudge. And if he was being honest, if it had been Natsu who had been in danger, he wasn’t sure he’d have been able to do anything different.

“Please, I need to apologize to you.” Sting begged, “I understand Natsu may never be able to forgive me, but I feel so terrible about how I fucked up your lives. Gods, and after I gave you that if you hurt him speech, too.”

“I honestly don’t think that there was anything else you could have done, and I know Natsu understands that too. If you need to hear it, I’ll be happy to say it. I forgive you. And who knows, maybe with time Natsu will too. But even if he never does, you need to stop torturing yourself and just move on from this whole fucking mess.”

“I know, I’m working on it. I already told Erza and the Elders about what I did.”

Gray sucked in a breath, “Oof, how did that go?”

“About as badly as I’d expected. The Elders wanted to kick me out of town, but Irene and Erza came out in my defense. So, I’m not the most popular guy in town right now, and I’ll be pulling the crappiest job details indefinitely, but I can stay and that’s all I could have hoped for.”

“That’s great.” Gray gave Sting a knowing glance. “This mate stuff is brutal, huh?”

“But it’s worth it.”

Gray couldn’t agree more.

“I’m gonna go figure out something to eat before you start looking edible.”

“Oh, one last thing!” Sting snapped his fingers. “The town is throwing a big celebration tomorrow night, and they wanted to invite the dragons to take part.”

“I’ll let them know.” Gray said, and with a wave he left to check on Natsu, smiling at Sting’s whispered Thank you.

It felt good to let it all go.

0-0

Rogue looked up as Sting entered their apartment, looking sweaty and disheveled and carrying far too many boxes. He got up to help, but Sting shook his head, holding the door open for someone Rogue couldn’t see as they were behind a stack of boxes.

It turned out to be Oliver, looking just as flushed as Sting. He uttered a cryptic ‘Don’t forget what you promised’ to Sting before waving goodbye to Rogue and heading out.

“What was that about?”

“Oh,” Sting chuckled nervously, “I sort of bribed him to help with the promise of distracting Gajeel so that he could spend some time with Wendy without him hovering. So I guess we’ll be having him over soon.”

He put the boxes down and collapsed on their sofa, and Rogue hurried to bring him a glass of cold water.

“You got the fridge working?”

“No, Lyon stopped by earlier and molded an enormous block of ice to keep in there for now.”

“This place is a shithole,” Sting sighed.

“It’s not so bad, and it’s close to the bakery,” Rogue reminded him.

“I’m sorry, love. It’s all my fault that no one would rent to us. I’m sure this place is nowhere near where you imagined us living.”

“Sting,” Rogue said, in fond exasperation. “We’ve lived in a cave for longer than I can remember. We’ve either slept on the ground or on magical furniture designed by a dragon who had zero concept of human comfort. This is fantastic. Besides, I told Erza how much the guy was charging us and I’ve never seen her leave a room so fast. I expect our rent will go down shortly.”

Sting gaped at him and then erupted into a fit of giggles, “Well, when you put it that way.”

“There is only one thing I require anywhere I live, and this place has it in spades.”

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

Rogue didn’t know if Sting was being purposefully dense or not, but considering how rough the last couple of days had been for him, he didn’t mind boosting his ego a little.

“You, stupid. You’re all I need to be happy.”

“And wine?”

Rogue snorted, “Yes, you and wine. Speaking of which, Lyon dropped off a few bottles as a housewarming present when he came by. Would you like some?”

“Fuck, yeah!”

Rogue opened the fridge and pulled a bottle out quickly, not wanting to let too much warm air in. He didn’t bother with any cups, just removed the cork and brought the bottle back to the sofa with him.

Sting had already shifted on the sofa so he was lying on it, his legs slightly spread so Rogue could lie between them. He handed the bottle over while he got comfortable. Sting took a swig and handed it back.

“This is good.”

Rogue agreed once he’d tasted it, although given how little wine he’d been able to get his hands on since they’d left, he wouldn’t have been all that picky about quality.

Lyon, however, had always had excellent taste. Something Rogue had learned during nights spent sneaking drinks in the barracks while riding out some punishment or another.

It became a tradition of sorts for them, and it was one he hoped they could pick back up again, minus the punishments, of course.

Sting ran his fingers through Rogue’s hair, tugging on it and massaging his scalp as they continued to pass the bottle back and forth. It felt wonderful and the combination of that and the wine were making him feel incredibly relaxed.

“You know, it feels kind of strange.”

“What does?” Rogue murmured.

“Just lying here like this,” Sting said. “Not having to worry about being attacked, ambushed, or even seen. I like it.”

“Hmm, I do too. We can do anything we want now. Gives me a few ideas.”

“Oh yeah? Any in particular?”

Rogue heard Sting put the bottle down on the floor and grinned. He turned until he was facing his mate and leaned in for a kiss, sucking gently on Sting’s bottom lip before delving inside his parted lips.

Sting wrapped his arms around Rogue’s waist, pulling their bodies closer as they kissed.

“Hmm, I like that idea.” he said, chasing Rogue’s mouth as he pulled back to peer down at him mischievously.

“Yeah? Well, I’ve got plenty more,” Rogue assured him. “And a lifetime to try them out.”

“I’ll be right here with you.” Sting promised solemnly, pulling Rogue back down for a kiss of his own.

0-0

Natsu stood at the entrance to Igneel’s room.

Atlas had told him his father had left him a letter, but he hadn’t worked up the courage to read it until now. He could see the long parchment on the desk, along with the writing supplies his father had favored. Natsu had so many memories of Igneel in this room, working away on a spell or writing messages for the dragons to take with them to the war front.

Knowing he’d never see him there again, well, it was crushing, but he couldn’t hide from it any longer.

“Do you want me to go in with you?” Atlas wandered out of his room and eyed him with concern.

“No,” Natsu said, after giving it some thought. “This is something I need to do by myself.”

“Alright, but I’m right next door if you need me.”

Natsu knew that both Atlas and Gray were walking on eggshells around him at the moment, both worried about how he felt about them going along with Igneel’s plan and it saddened him to see it. He wasn’t quite feeling like himself, that much was true, but he loved both of them deeply and he knew that anything they might have done, it had been for his sake. And how could he really fault them for that?

To be honest, he wasn’t sure what he was hoping to find in that letter, but it felt like he was drowning in his loss and he wanted to find the strength to move forward.

And Igneel had always been good at giving him direction.

That wasn’t fair, though. At some point, he had to grow up and decide his own path, beginning with easing the minds of those he held dearest.

“I don’t blame you, you know.” Natsu said, “Although I wish you had told me.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Atlas’ fire dimmed, reflecting his mood, and he moved to enter his room.

“Hey,” Natsu called out, suddenly worried by how meekly Atlas had been acting. “You’re not planning on doing anything stupid, are you?”

“Always, kid. But I have no plans to go anywhere, if that’s what you’re asking. You’re stuck with me.”

Atlas’ smile was but a shadow of his usual one, but it heartened Natsu to see it.

“I’m gonna hold you to that.” Natsu grumbled, hugging his uncle as hard as he could, just to feel him against him.

Atlas hugged back just as hard until finally pulling away and gently shoving Natsu towards the entrance. “Get in there, already.”

Natsu took one step, then another, and everywhere he looked, the ghosts of his memories comforted him with their warmth.

0-0

“I thought I’d find you here.” Gray huffed, catching his breath from having climbed up the mountain.

“Did you seriously just climb up the mountain?” Natsu gawked at him. “Why didn’t you just fly?”

“Cause I suck.”

To his chagrin, Natsu didn’t disagree with him, but he laughed out loud and that made Gray’s hardship worth it.

Natsu patted the ground next to him invitingly. “It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?”

Gray plopped next to his mate and gazed up at the sky. It was indeed beautiful to watch as the sun’s last rays mingled with the stars. But he was more concerned with Natsu and he studied him, trying to figure out what was going on. He didn’t feel any of the sadness that had been present earlier.

“Are you okay? You’re acting-” Gray struggled to find a word that wouldn’t be misconstrued.

“I take it Atlas told you I read the letter?”

“Yeah. Do you want to talk about it?”

Natsu nodded, staring off at the sky as he collected his thoughts.

“He told me about everything. Your struggles in the astral realm, how you and Atlas both fought with your decisions, and all the guilt he felt over his mistakes.”

“There was so much I didn’t know about him, and some of it hurt because I never understood how truly lonely he felt over the years. But most of all, what I saw in that letter was how much he loved me and how determined he was that I have the life that he only got the barest glimpses of.”

“And that’s what I want too. I want to live that life with you.”

Natsu rested his head on Gray’s shoulder. “I love you, Princess.”

“I still can’t believe you gave up everything to be with me. I can’t imagine how hard that must have been.”

“It wasn’t as hard as you might think.” Gray admitted, and it was true. Once he’d let go of his fears, it had been a simple decision to make. “I love you too, Natsu. So much it scares me sometimes. If there was any chance we could be together like this, I had to take it. I was just worried you’d hate me for it.”

“I could never hate you. You’ve always been everything to me.” Natsu lowered his head. “That’s why I could never really let you go, even when I knew it was what was best for you.”

Gray wasn’t having that. He lifted Natsu’s head so that he could look into his eyes, and see how serious he was. “And now, you’ll never have to.”

Natsu frowned, looking uncomfortable with his next words. “You know we can’t stay here forever, right? We’ll have to move to the island.”

“Is that what you’re worried about? I already figured as much, dummy.”

“We can come visit during the summer solstice, though. I’ll have to leave the island anyway.”

Now that he hadn’t counted on, and it pleased him to learn he’d get to see his friends at least once a year.

“Hey, do you think I’ll change too?”

“We won’t know until then, but it could happen.” Natsu grinned just thinking about it. “That'd be pretty fun. But we’ll definitely need to work on your flying just in case you don’t. That would be a pretty pathetic way for me to die.”

“Jerk,” Gray grumbled at Natsu’s teasing. “You know, I seem to remember you were pretty ticklish as a human, I wonder…”

He pounced, attempting to catch Natsu off guard.

Dragons, apparently, weren’t ticklish at all, but Gray didn’t care because soon they were wrestling around, nipping and scratching as they each sought to pin the other down. It was more difficult than he expected, but that was probably because neither one of them could seem to stop laughing.

And all Gray could think about, besides gaining the upper hand, was just how much he’d missed this. Playing together and just having fun, without the weight of the world constantly on their shoulders. For the first time since Natsu had left him to go fight, he finally felt like everything was going to turn out alright.

They continued until they were both laid on their backs, spent and out of breath.

“I’m so going to get you next time, Flame Brain.” Gray panted, repeating a taunt as familiar as it was empty.

“In your dreams, Ice Princess.” Natsu said with his usual fanged grin.

Gray rolled onto his belly, his attention caught by a movement in the sky. “Hey, is that a shooting star? Hurry, make a wish.”

“I have nothing left to wish for.” Natsu said, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he righted himself and gazed at Gray with awe.

Stupid romantic dragon!

He’d never tire of the way Natsu always knew exactly what to say to make him feel all flustered.

Gray draped his body over Natsu’s, hugging him to his chest so that he wouldn’t see the blood he could feel rising to his face. He’d recently discovered that his favorite thing about being a dragon was his tail. He loved how it instinctively sought Natsu’s whenever they touched, just as it did now.

Sitting here, doing nothing more than staring at the stars, it was perfection.

It had taken them years, more than Gray cared to remember. Both of them had made mistakes, but against all odds, they had been granted a second chance to find their home in each other.

And they lived happily ever after…

THE END

Thank you for reading!

#fairy tail #gratsu #stingue #update #the red dragon fanfic #final chapter

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fairy-serigala · 3 years

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this is for the wonderfully talented @fairytail-multishipper. go give xvi some love, goodness knows they deserve it <3

(this may end up being multiple posts long, who knows, once i get going with headcanons not much can stop me).

so a bit of backstory for this sort of au that has been brewing on and off for a few months now:

this is an idea i had to make lisanna a demon, like natsu. the idea was that as lisanna was supposedly dying, mira's magic acted up in a way she has yet to replicate - it took lisanna's soul and it attached some of mira's magic to it, to keep it from deteriorating further. and later on, mira and levy figure out how to put that magic into a book, like the etherious, so that lisanna's semi-exposed soul can be protected and hidden from the material world.

(it's a very barebones au, but i think lisanna would be an incredible demon). -

so lisanna would go through some changes, as you can imagine, there is now satan soul magic running through them and their soul is partially demonic. so, they have to adapt to this.

this happens via lisanna's own takeovers taking on a more... demonic appearance. instead of relatively realistic animal takeovers, they more resemble yokai creatures.

instead of a cat take over, lisanna would have something akin to a bakeneko which are known for shapeshifting abilities, high intelligence especially when learning languages, immunity to poisons, and are associated with fire (particularly in relation to things like house fires as their tails are said to act like torches).

instead of a snake take over, lisanna would end up resembling a tsuchinoko which are known for deceiving people, as well as they ability to jump really high and far.

lisanna would also have takeovers in which they resembles a tanuki (think tom nook), which have a particular reputation for magic and mischief, such as orchestrating pranks and stuff. they are masters of illusions, also with the ability to shapeshift.

there's also the kitsune which have two separate kinds of interpretation - one in which they are known for intelligence and wisdom, and are reveered, whilst others use this intelligence for more... sinister means. the kitsune are sometimes associated with fire magic, but they're more so known for charms and illusions, possession and even mind control.

there could be many, many more, too. -

and lisanna would carry some of these demonic traits through their daily life, since their soul is half demonic and they're pretty much a cambion now.

firstly, they'd get some fangs. are they small and cute and able to cause pinpricks? or are they some of the largest fangs in the guild, even rivalling out the dragon slayers? you decide~

next, they'd have an innate and heightened sensitivity to other demonic sources and dark magics - they'd probably know that natsu is e.n.d. loooong before anyone else does. and since they knew the longest and was fine with it, by the time his nature was revealed to everyone else, they'd be the most supportive and protective.

and of course, there's gotta be some horns. little spikes? full on ram horns? idk.... it all sounds badass~

they'd also have a preference for dark and the night, maybe they'd have a fondness for wandering into the woods or visiting stereotypically spoopy attractions to see how genuine they are.

(i also like to imagine lisanna eventually getting digitigrade legs eventually because i think they look really cool and the idea of a hooved non-binary person running at you is both scary and fucking cool.)

(also body diversity for the win :D and that including fantastical body types?? even better.) -

maybe since their soul is "incomplete" in a couple ways, it subconsciously feeds of demonic energy so that it can complete itself. and maybe someday, instead of being a cambion, they'll just be a demon.

etherious natsu dragneel and yokai lisanna strauss? gahhh name a better duo.

to anyone who doesn't know them, they'd be so spooky and scary (little do those people know that they're actually the softest dorks in the guild, but the enemies don't need to know that, all they need to know is that they'll eat your soul if you're not careful.)

and if lisanna gets to be the buff badass that they were always meant to be... even better~ (let the girls and femme characters have aaaabbbss pleeease...) -

however, even though many humans find lisanna intimidating and scary to approach, they're still an animal mage at her core.

so kittens coming up to them, in favour of "more normal" humans? that would be an almost weekly occurence.

animals are thought to be able to sense and read energies, anyway, so of course the sweetest and most boopable member of fairy tail would get the love! that just makes sense!

is this the kind of feral you were hoping for??

#go support xvi #fairy-serigala #fairy tail #fairy tail aus #yokai lisanna strauss #nali #lisanna strauss #natsu dragneel #mirajane strauss #levy mcgarden

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samwpmarleau · 3 years

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1) It doesn’t fit with GRRM’s track record to introduce something as monumental as this, let alone so late in the game, and have it be what it says on the tin. For Aegon to actually be Elia and Rhaegar’s son who miraculously appears at the 11th hour to save the day doesn’t fit at all. Also, unfortunately, GRRM’s presentation of his characters of color is absolutely abysmal. While he debunked the theory of Dany blowing up the Water Gardens (THANK GOD), that doesn’t mean he’s going to magically treat Dorne how it deserves to be treated. A lot of the “evidence” I’ve seen about Aegon being real hinges on GRRM actually doing right by his characters of color and their associated storylines, which is … not likely.

2) The Golden Company was founded by Bittersteel, the #1 Blackfyre supporter who kept trying to make the Blackfyre cause succeed even long after Daemon was dead. The GC has been faithfully pro-Blackfyre ever since, and was even led by a Blackfyre, Maelys, in the Fifth Rebellion as well, which was not all that long ago.

3) The GC has never broken a contract before — in fact, their words have been “as good as gold” since the very beginning when Bittersteel founded it — so why would they now? They would only break a contract for blood (“some contracts are writ in ink, and some in blood”), for a Blackfyre. They broke the contract so they can help put Aegon on the throne and finally complete what Daemon and Bittersteel began.

4) The GC met with Viserys and Dany and laughed them out of the room. Why would they then be all gung-ho for a different Targaryen? Viserys wasn’t even a madman or pathetic when he met with them (Dany was still “a little girl”), Robert had only recently gotten the throne and therefore it was at its most vulnerable, and Viserys was well-known in Westeros as the Targaryen heir. If they were going to support a Targaryen, it would have been Viserys. Or Daenerys. Yet they didn’t. So why support Viserys’s alleged nephew instead? They would only do so because the Targaryen was only nominally one, in reality a Blackfyre.

5) Illyrio specifically says the Blackfyres are extinct in the male line, meaning they are still around, only through the female line, such as Illyrio’s late wife Serra. Aegon being Illyrio and Serra’s son would explain Illyrio’s fondness for the boy, why he’s so sad to see him go, and why he’s so invested in putting a “Targaryen” on the throne. Additionally, he found Serra as a sex slave in a Lysene brothel — quite a long ways down from the favored son of a Targaryen king. It would make sense for Illyrio, who loved her deeply, to in her memory restore what was “stolen” from her family.

6) Illyrio has a trunk full of children’s clothes, despite the fact that he’s supposed to be childless. Good clothes, too. (Those clothes are also blue, the color Aegon dyes his hair. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.)

7) JonCon notes that Rhaegar’s eyes were “a deep purple, darker than this boy’s,” implying to us the reader that Aegon is not Rhaegar’s. It’s also a hint that JonCon has suspicions that Aegon is not the real deal but is in denial, because if Aegon isn’t real, then that means Rhaegar really is lost to him forever and he can do nothing to avenge him.

8) I’ve seen the argument for “sun’s son” being Aegon but it doesn’t make sense. Asha is called the kraken’s daughter, for one, despite being a Greyjoy in her own right, so yes, it tracks that Quentyn can be called the “sun’s son” despite being a “sun” himself (and it just has better rhythm). Plus, if he weren’t the “sun’s son,” how would he instead be the “mummer’s dragon”? He’s not a dragon, he’s not a fake, nor is he being controlled by a mummer, whereas that fits for Aegon. And in Dany’s HOTU vision, there’s a cloth dragon swaying on poles above a cheering crowd — how would Quentyn fit that either (especially since he’s dead)? But Aegon would. This is also in the same passage as “slayer of lies,” mind you. Aegon is the lie to be slain. The other people in the prophecy are pretty clear as to their identities, so why would “sun’s sun” and “mummer’s dragon” be riddles?

9) The Blackfyres and their rebellions have been developed more and more through the years, including an entire Dunk and Egg book about the second one. Would be a bit odd to completely drop that thread, no? The Third Rebellion didn’t even happen until late in Aerys I’s reign, so it’s not like the Blackfyres will play a central role any time soon in D&E. In the main series, however, they would. Plus, GRRM wrote the D&E book about the Second Rebellion while he was also writing ADWD, and it’s in ADWD that history lessons about the Blackfyres are repeatedly brought up.

10) The parallel between Aegon and Jon. Jon is a real secret Targaryen raised without knowing his true identity, whereas Aegon is a fake secret Targaryen raised without knowing his true identity.

11) There’s plenty of the “human heart in conflict with itself” that GRRM loves with him being fake. Dany gets another family member, the son of her beloved brother Rhaegar — only to find out Aegon’s a fake. JonCon raises a child for over a decade, the son of his beloved Rhaegar, redemption for losing at Stoney Sept — only to find out Aegon’s a fake. Dorne (Doran specifically) gets a piece of their beloved Elia back — only to find out Aegon’s a fake. Aegon himself has believed his whole life that he’s Elia and Rhaegar’s son, the heir to the throne, has gone through many hardships to get where he is — only to find out he’s been lied to since day one. Those are all very real, very poignant beats.

12a) The supposition that Elia would save her son but not her daughter — Dornish Elia, who would value her daughter just as much as her son — is nonsensical to me. I CANNOT get behind that one bit. Maybe I can justify Elia being willing to sacrifice someone else’s innocent baby if it meant saving her own (though that’s a horrible and heartless thing to do), but I CANNOT see a justification for her saving Aegon yet not Rhaenys.

Moreover, if the baby weren’t Aegon, why would Elia be so willing to die for it? If it weren’t hers, if she had been pragmatic/cold enough to trade her baby for someone else’s, why on EARTH would she not have left that baby in the nursery and gone with Rhaenys, her actual child? The men Tywin sent had a reputation even back then and had scaled the walls of Maegor’s Holdfast. Elia would be dumb as a bag of bricks to think they would spare “her” son and Rhaenys, or possibly even herself. If they were to magically spare “Aegon,” great! Everyone’s happy (except Tywin). But why would Elia take that risk? No. She would only tell Rhaenys to run away yet stay with Aegon because he was her child and she had no other choice.

12b) If Elia switched the babies, then why don’t the Martells know anything about it? They were involved in a Targaryen restoration, Oberyn even went to Essos to sign the betrothal pact between Arianne and Viserys. Yet none of them know that their nephew is alive? If Elia really did take the pains to switch the babies for her son’s safety, why would she not have involved her family? At the very least, by having whoever she sent Aegon with even just hint to her family that he’s alive? But they know nothing. Zilch. They put their eggs in Viserys’s basket, then Dany’s, who are at best Elia-adjacent.

12c) Who would even be able to do such a thing as switch out the babies without a soul being the wiser? Varys, probably, but there is no way in hell Elia would entrust her son to him. Far beyond simply being a shady person in general who is out for himself and himself alone, he was the one who purposefully whispered in Aerys’s ear about invented conspiracies and betrayals. He made Aerys more paranoid, more dangerous. To the detriment of Rhaegar, Elia, their children, and the realm at large. Varys is the entire reason Aerys went to the Tourney at Harrenhal in the first place, because he convinced him that Rhaegar convened the tourney to meet with a bunch of lords in order to depose Aerys. Varys directly and gleefully contributed to Aerys’s further descent into tyranny.

Elia wouldn’t have trusted Varys as far as she could throw him, certainly not with something as precious as her child, not even if she were desperate. Even if she did trust him for some insane reason, how is Varys so powerful as to find a lookalike for Aegon but not for Rhaenys? Surely it’s easier to find a black-haired, brown-eyed toddler than a silver-haired, purple-eyed baby, no? Or why couldn’t he direct Elia to one of the many secret passageways so she could escape with the kids rather than this convoluted baby swap? Or any number of other things? At every turn, Aegon (but not Rhaenys!) being spirited away by anyone, most especially Varys, doesn’t hold up. Hell, why would Varys help Elia? What does he have to gain by not only helping her but egregiously undermining Aerys? Aerys whose ear he’s been meticulously whispering into, Aerys who’s the only reason Varys is at court and has power at all? Agreeing to and orchestrating the baby swap runs counter to everything we know about him.

13) Aegon being real means Elia and Dorne are essentially dealt two blows. We and they spend all this time believing her son was brutally murdered in King’s Landing. But then, psych! He’s actually alive! They get their hopes up, the wound is opened all over again, only for him to … be brutally murdered in King’s Landing. (Or possibly elsewhere, but likely KL.) Why is that better? What would be the point of Aegon being Elia and Rhaegar’s son if he’s just going to die like his “cover story” says he did? Actually, they’d be dealt three blows, really, given that Quentyn died as well in the pursuit of Targaryen restoration. Things are going to be painful enough without having Aegon be the real Aegon.

14) JonCon didn’t come to be Aegon’s caretaker until Aegon was 5. In other words, he wouldn’t recognize whether or not this Aegon is the one he saw as a baby. But because he’s so personally invested in Aegon being the real deal, he doesn’t question it too much. The result is that JonCon, who is well-known to have been close to Rhaegar and thus Elia (proximally, not emotionally of course, what with him hating her and all), him caring for the boy lends viability to the story. Which we see in action by Doran believing, or at least being willing to listen to, JonCon’s letter.

15) The Toynes have a very negative history with the Targaryens (and Barristan) but a positive one with the Blackfyres. Would it not make more sense for Myles Toyne to align himself with a Blackfyre rather than a Targaryen? Myles, who was the one who put his seal to the secret pact?

16a) It’s been 84 years. Even R+L=J, which is as much of a sure thing as you can possibly get, is disputed by some in the fandom. Some people believe Ashara Dayne is alive, and a subset of those go so far as to say she’s Jyana Reed. Some people have some theory about the Boltons being vampires. Like. It has been so long since the last book that things that would have been surprises or interesting twists have been examined to death, so by now they seem “too obvious.” Ten years ago, Aegon being real would undoubtedly have been a much more believed thing, because we’d have just recently been told it. But now? There’s been ample time to parse everything out and to determine that no, he likely isn’t real. Same for R+L=J. Ten years ago, or longer, Jon being revealed to be the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna would have been a bombshell. But now? It’s obvious as fuck. So to circle back around to “Yep, Aegon is real!” ignores the fact that it’s supposed to be a smokescreen and a twist.

16b) Related to this is GRRM’s own words. There’s an SSM where he’s asked whether Rhaenys and Aegon are really dead. He affirms that Rhaenys is but hedges for Aegon. Why? Not because he’s saying Aegon is real, but because he’s introducing the Young Griff arc. If he were to say, “Aegon’s definitely dead, too,” or “Aegon’s definitely alive,” that would completely spoil the tension and truth/untruth of the storyline.

Do I know that Aegon’s a fake? Obviously not, since we don’t have the books. But the evidence points to it being extremely unlikely that he’s the real deal. Like I also said, however, I’m not sure it really matters whether he is or not. So far as he knows, he’s truly Elia and Rhaegar’s son. His name is Aegon, he was raised to be a king, he seems to be quite a decent young man (people who cite him tipping over the cyvasse board can suck it), he will probably ride a dragon at some point, and so on. At the end of the day, who he’s biologically related to doesn’t seem super relevant.

#list #do not reblog

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flameofchaos · 4 years

Text

Whispers in the Dark - The Slayers fanfic

Warnings: blood, and I think xellos himself is a warning. Everything he does or says is disturbing. What do you expect from a demon? ^_^”

Like always THANK YOU to my dear Beta: @naiokiara

Chapter 4

“I’m soooo hungry, Lina!” complained Gourry for the third time within an hour, traipsing behind the sorceress.

“I knooooow!” she howled almost like a wounded wolf. “Me too! My stomach is so empty it will consume the rest of my guts soon.”

“I caught a small lizard. We can roast it when we stop to rest,” Zelgadis sighed deeply. Although his chimeric body was much stronger than his comrades’, he also felt uncomfortable. They haven’t eaten anything since the previous morning.

“When we stop to rest I’m going to roast a much bigger, golden lizard!” hissed Lina, crushing the blond girl with her chestnut-brown eyes.

“Miss Lina, it’s not very kind to call Miss Filia a lizard,” noted Amelia faintly, knowing it was unhealthy and unsafe to talk to the witch when she was starving.

The dragoness gritted her teeth. “In the evening we should be in another town. Stop complaining, already! How will you save the world if you can’t stand such a small inconvenience?”

Only the fact that Lina had to save her energy stopped her from throwing a Fireball right into the proud priestess who walked in front of her.

The red-haired sorceress had been in a bad mood since the previous evening. It’s not like she’d slept badly. Actually, the nap on the demon’s chest was very comfortable. Too comfortable. But Xellos making fun of her… Lina licked her lips again, but she still couldn’t get rid of the Mazoku’s flavour. Probably it wasn’t on her tongue anymore, but somehow it affected her mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about his stupid joke. He kissed her! No, it wasn’t a kiss, right? He just licked her tongue. Gross! So why had this awful act made her feel so strange between her thighs?

Gods, she will go insane with those demons and dragons.

Xellos had awakened her after midnight with a whisper that it was time for Zelgadis’ watch and then melted into darkness. Lina, sleepy and suddenly alone, had felt with double strength the cold wind all around. She had awakened the shaman, added to the fire some twigs from completely dry bushes growing near, and laid next to Gourry near the campfire. The blond warrior had been in deep sleep while the sorceress observed him with ambivalent feelings. He had breathed loudly, his strong chest moving up and down. The silent snoring had buzzed in Lina’s ears, somehow calming her. They had travelled together for so long, it was almost impossible for the sorceress to even imagine it would ever change. When once she had asked the swordsman how long he was going to be her protector, she had surprised him with her question. “For the rest of my life?” He had answered without hesitation.

He was a good man. Too good for someone so wild as Lina. He deserved someone delicate and pure like himself, like that priestess from Sairaag City, Sylphiel. She had always been in love with Gourry and only Lina’s presence by his side was an issue.

The sorceress had smiled and shifted a blond lock away from Gourry’s face with a fond gesture. What should she do with him? What does she feel for him? Her heart was filled with warmth for the warrior… but the other man had just made it drum like crazy this evening. Why would she even think about Xellos that way? She didn’t want to! It wasn’t her fault the demon knew exactly which string to pull to sneak into her thoughts. He was an evil magical creature, not a human! Technically he wasn’t even alive. Nothing had happened. He had teased her, had his fun, and probably made a fat supper of her emotions. That’s all. She would behave like there were no embarrassing intimate acts between them. Because there weren’t, right? A foot massage, mental bonding (it could be considered a magic ritual), some friendly reminiscing, and fooling around with those kisses, only to make her feel uncomfortable. Typical for Xellos. But even in the morning, Lina still couldn’t stop thinking about that. Better for her to buck up, otherwise that bastard would easily notice how his mischief had worked and continue with it.

“We have to talk, Miss Lina.” Filia slowed down so the other girl found herself by her side.

“About the fact we will die in this desert without water and food before anyone decides to destroy this world?”

“About Xellos.”

Great. She needed distraction from him, not to focus on him.

“From the moment he appeared he has treated you all as good friends. I insist that we must abandon his companionship! It is an offence to us, especially me, as a priestess of light, to spend even a second in his filthy presence.”

Lina rolled her eyes.

“And what should I do? He doesn’t react to a “Shooo!” command. He does what he wants. So long it isn’t us dripping all in red, I am fine with his company.”

“But he is a Mazoku!” Filia stopped in front of Lina to embolden the words. “What if he betrays us?”

Lina smiled sourly.

“My dear Filia, the question isn’t if he betrays us, but WHEN he betrays us.”

“And you say it so calmly?” At her emotions, Filia’s long tail slipped out from under her skirt.

“Can I do anything about that fact? No. Can I tell Xellos to leave us alone? Yes, but he’ll ignore it. If we piss him off, we will have against us not only Valgaav, but also the fourth most powerful Mazoku in this world not counting Shabranigdo. Do we need that? No. Can we handle such a threat? No. Sorry, Filia, but your dignity has to stand up to much more than his jokes about golden dragons. Besides, it is always you who starts fights.”

“Well said, Miss Lina.” Air wavered, condensing into a shadow that formed into a male shape. Xellos smiled brightly at the group. “Good morning. Have you missed me? How is my sweet Filia the Destroyer today? My deepest respects! My Mistress, the Greater Beast, sends her regrets that she couldn’t see the show herself.”

Filia’s face momentarily became red with rage.

“Give her a break, Xellos! What do you want, again?” snarled the chimera.

“Not nice, Mr. Zelgadis.” The demon pouted. “I dropped in to bring some food and water. Straight from Seiruun’s best restaurant.” He took out from the dimensional pocket some delicious-smelling packages. “But if you don’t want it, then…”

“OUR SAVIOUR!” Lina and Gourry practically jumped on the man to get the meal.

“Oh, my.” Xellos stepped out of their way. “Filia, you really should start to feed your workers. They were ready to bite off my hand. Even, we, Mazoku, don’t drive our minions to such a state. Miss Amelia, Mr, Zelgadis?” The demon offered packages also for the princess and the shaman. Both sighed shamefully, but took the gifts, trying not to look into Filia's eyes. Hunger at the moment was stronger than loyalty.

“And what about you?” The Greater Beast’s Priest smiled angelically at the dragoness.

“I prefer to starve to death rather than take anything from such a filthy monster!” Hissed the girl, her tail waving angrily. “Miss Lina! Don’t eat it! It's poisoned for sure!”

“Then I will die with a full stomach!” snapped the sorceress with the mouth filled with food.

“Slowly, Miss Lina; you will choke yourself! My, they are so enthusiastic, aren’t they?” giggled the Mazoku. “Come on, Filia. Maybe an apple?” A red fruit appeared in his hand. “It isn’t poisoned. I need you all as a bait for Valgaav, did you forget?”

“I won’t…”

“Take it!” Lina’s glare could melt rocks into lava.

“Fine!” Filia finally reached for food too, trying to ignore the fact Xellos had abandoned politely titling her as Miss. She wouldn’t allow him to provoke her again.

“Good little dragoness,” praised the demon.

“You are a real friend, Xellos. We would die here for sure without your help. Phew!” Gourry happily patted his full belly with relief.

“As I said earlier, I need you all alive. That’s all.” Xellos shrugged, crouching next to Lina to show her a map. “In this direction is the end of the desert. Here is a small inn on the trail.”

“But there is the town we wanted to visit.” The sorceress sounded disappointed, indicating the other direction.

“Better not. I checked. Gravos and Jillas made another trap there for you. Valgaav isn’t with them. As we heard it, Almace ordered him to withdraw temporarily. There is no point in another confrontation with pawns.”

“True.”

“And you think we would believe you?” Filia was ready to start another quarrel with fresh strength now, since she’d finished not only the apple but also the dish Xellos had left next to her just in case she changed her mind.

“I think you are not in a position to decide today after that wonderful disaster in the previous town.” The demon’s eyes shifted from the dragoness to the sorceress. “What will you do, Miss Lina?”

The redhead nodded.

“We will stay in the inn.”

“Wonderful.” Xellos moved his hand to wipe something off Lina’s cheek and slid the finger into his own mouth, making the sorceress blush deeply. “My apologies; I love this sauce. Sometimes things are so delicious I can’t resist.” He smiled, trapping the girl’s gaze in his hypnotic glare under half-closed eyelids. “Till the evening then.” He vanished before two stones, thrown in the same moment by Lina and Filia, reached his face.

***

The Mazoku, with regret, left the company of his favourite humans (well, he had to admit that dragon girl was also very amusing, even if the sweetness of her anger was a little spoiled by her sacred power) and jumped into the Astral Dimension, dispersing his physical form into dark energy. From here, where the material body didn't limit his power, he could divide his attention among the travellers, Valgaav's minions waiting in the town (poor things - they will be so frustrated when no one appears) and the rest of the nearby lands looking for any other sign of the traitor.

Valgaav was good at hiding. Or maybe not directly him, but his new friend's nest somehow shielded him from the Mazoku's Astral Eye.

No need to be angry about that. The traitor won't have his revenge on Lina sitting on his ass. He has to make a step forward. It looks like Jillas and Gravos don’t act directly on Valgaav's orders, but… they just wanted to help their master of their own wills. How touching… the loyalty and worship in their hearts.

Xellos soon got bored with tracing towns, fields and the desert without any success. Images of it were flowing through his mind, but the Mazoku's thoughts returned to the previous night with Lina.

It had been a masochistic torture to have her so closely clinging to his body for so long. The Chaos in her was calling him, almost demanding that he sink claws and fangs into this mortal girl. Only the fact Xellos was an experienced old Mazoku let him control his bloody needs. It was painful, but the longer he had kept her in his embrace, the more the feeling changed into a pulsing pleasure.

She probably hadn't noticed anything, thinking that his touches were nothing more than his usual teasing. If Lina could see how limited his senses are… How hard is it to resist the urge of deep contact with her… she would attack him immediately.

The sorceress apparently had been sure he had only wanted to give her some warmth with his cloak, even when she knew the cloak wasn’t a fabric but part of himself. In fact he had wrapped her body tightly only so he could be closer to her. The Chaos was radiating from her whole body faintly. The more he interacted with her, the more he could feel that. Her clothes were a barrier. The demon needed the thinnest way to get to the source. The Chaos flew in Lina's veins, filled her muscles and organs, and pulsed in her mind as well. The most sensitive places on her body were pathways to it. The places where skin was thin and innervated: lips, neck, ears and others that the human species used for procreation. Lesser Mazoku desired only to tear this young woman apart to devour her and make the Chaos one with them… of course only till the moment a stronger beast of darkness would hunt them down to get the power for themselves.

Xellos had a much better plan… as long as he is able to stay conscious while being near the Chaos for so long.

It had been hard to not steal a kiss or two from her. The skin of her nose and forehead was a little salty from the sweat from a hot day, which dried by chill night. The demon's lips had felt ticklish after the contact, especially after the moment Lina had noticed his heart hadn't beat so he’d heightened the level of the reality of the human vessel, shaping organs inside of the body. This only sharpened his human senses.

Xellos sometimes liked taking such a form. It demanded more power and focus to create a good human body copy, but it was very helpful in the art of manipulation, not to mention the improved pleasure of mortal senses. Like in that moment when he had used her distraction to brush his tongue against hers. The effect almost had shattered his control. His perfect falsification of taste buds felt the sweet wetness and slick inside of Lina's mouth. The experience had been intense itself, but mixed with his Mazoku's abilities, had made him moan internally. Chaos was so close, somewhere under this thin layer he had touched. Her saliva, which had remained in his mouth, had been full of very tiny parts of that terrifying power dreaming in the girl.

So hard to not reach for more! He had to be patient and not scare away his precious sorceress. Her emotions had gone crazy. Lina was startled and angry with his boldness… but he could also feel what he had needed: human arousal, shame and embarrassment.

Soon he was going to get more. Much more.

***

The inn was a great choice. The food was tasty, and rooms small, but it had everything tired travellers needed to refresh themselves.

Lina wished to finally lay her head on the pillow and drift away, so she didn't listen very carefully to Filia's complaints during the meal. Thank gods, Xellos didn't join them there, so the priestess returned to her usual panic about the prophecy the group had heard so often they were able to wake up reciting it in the middle of night.

After food they finally headed to bed. This inn was much more modest than the previous one where they’d had the pleasure to sleep, so Lina had no other choice than to clean herself in a bowl of warm water. Better this than nothing.

When she finished and changed clothes into a nightgown, she started to brush her red long locks energetically, wondering lazily how likely it was that the threat to the world was real. Of course their lives were in danger like usual, but Lina, not for the first time, had serious enemies to deal with. The most important thing was to keep fighting.

The sorceress gasped when, reaching for another strand of hair, her fingers had met an unexpected shape she recognized as someone’s hand. She looked quickly in the mirror and in the darkness behind her, two reptilian amethyst eyes glowed delicately. A stranger's digits ran through her locks again.

"May I?" Xellos took the hairbrush from the shocked girl.

"Someday you will lead me to the grave. I HATE when you do that! I didn't invite you here!" Lina finally reminded herself about breathing. He seriously scared her. "Mercy, Xellos. Doors really were invented for knocking!"

"My apologies, I didn't want Filia to know I'm visiting you again." His hands were skillful, and Lina's shoulders tired, so in the end she allowed him to brush her hair. "Is something wrong? This time I waited till the moment you finished refreshing."

"And how did you realize that I was finished?" Asked the sorceress with a weak tone. It was more than obvious he had peeked at her from the Astral Dimension. "Do you even know the meaning of the word privacy?" She snarled, observing his reflection while the demon was tying her locks into a plait.

Xellos smiled. "Of course I know. That's why I'm meeting you now. We couldn't have our nice scientific talks next to your friends."

Lina grimaced. Their ‘nice scientific talks’ cost her all night and a day of feeling funny in some parts of her body. "What do you want? Evenings in your company end with a headache. I don't want you here today."

"Quite the opposite, Miss Lina. You are yearning for my company." Xellos' smile widened, and Lina growled helplessly. "Don't be afraid of me, please. I swear I won't do anything against your wish this evening."

"My wish but not my words." Noted Lina sourly. She wasn't sure if she liked that because her emotions were insanely conflicted between enjoyment of his presence and fear of the demon.

"Correct," confirmed Xellos happily, shifting the finished plait on Lina's chest. "Is that a problem?" He sat on the bed's edge next to the chair occupied by Lina.

"Why are you here?" The sorceress sighed heavily.

"You haven't given me the answer on my offer yet," the Mazoku reminded her.

Lina bit the inner part of her cheek. Her eyes darkened. "It's been too little time. I need more than one day," she whispered. The fact Xellos had proposed a contract was a huge thing. Normally she would laugh at any such Mazoku's proposition, but… refusing openly to this one would be dangerous for her and the rest of the company. Creatures of darkness rarely could stand such an offence calmly.

"That's ok, Miss Lina." Xellos reached his arm and touched the witch's cheek directing her face towards him, so their eyes could meet. "Take as much time as you need. I didn't say I want the answer now. But…" His thumb brushed the line of her jaw, and the girl felt a cold shiver travelling down her spine. "... I'm not going to sit and just wait. Meanwhile I will try to convince you."

Lina's heart just tried to escape through her throat.

"Could you not touch me, please?" She asked weakly.

"Why?" He purred, wrapping her plait around his fingers and pulling her towards him till the moment the demon could feel her irregular breath on his face. "Because of those things your body does against your will? It's not a shame to crave another person, Miss Lina. This is how your species works. I like the scent of your arousal. And your lovely shame… it tastes like strawberries."

The sorceress’ sight blurred in panic. With one quick move she jumped on the other side of the room. In her hands had already formed a ball of fire aiming at the intruder… but the bed was empty. Lina cursed under her nose. She shouldn't let him provoke her.

"Now, now… Such spells are dangerous indoors." Hands appeared from behind her, grasping her wrists firmly, forcing her to let the energy melt away in the air. "Calm down, Miss Lina. You know you can't win with me, however I appreciate the attempt. Is this what you, humans, call foreplay?" Breath of his giggle blew into her nape, raising every single hair on Lina's body.

She would swear that a moment ago, he hadn’t needed to take air into his lungs. A sudden closeness of his body behind her, and the awareness of the lost fight while the demon knew everything about how he works on her, frustrated Lina extremely.

Xellos turned the girl around so she would face him. That annoying smug smile on his handsome face enraged the witch.

"What a lovely blush! Smile, Miss Lina. I know you enjoy those little acts of mischiefs… or at least your body does."

"Stop fooling around!" She snarled, trying to free herself, but he only laughed at her, raising her hands to his mouth and kissing top of both warmly, before he pulled her again towards him, wringing her arms behind her back and pressing her body to his. Lina momentarily became docile, unsure of what would happen.

“I’m afraid I enjoy our evenings too much, Miss Lina,” the demon whispered, looking into her eyes with amusement. “So till the moment you give me the answer, I’m going to spend them with you.”

“So from the next town on, I’m going to share a room with Amelia,” the girl snapped back.

“Miss Lina! A triangle? So soon? You dirty little girl.” His wide grin almost drove the sorceress crazy with fury, but before she could gift him a bite or kick attempt, he pushed her onto the bed.

Lina quickly used her freedom to grab a knife from under a pillow, pointing it at the Mazoku.

“Really? You want to use this against ME? Is that a joke?” Xellos too sat on the bed.

“Don’t mind it. It just makes me feel a little better. The illusion of control of the situation.” Lina’s body was tense and ready to attack at any moment. Most of her reactions were instinctive. Somehow she knew that Xellos really only toyed with her now and all she had to lose was a little dignity.

“I see. Then use it.”

“Pardon me?” She blinked.

“Cut my body, Miss Lina.”

“But…” The sorceress lost her confidence. Even if she knew the blade wasn’t able to harm Xellos at all, she couldn’t force herself to do it.

The man smiled at her and pulled her ankle to have the sorceress closer. Even now she resisted attacking. Xellos raised his eyebrows.

“So… you trust me, Miss Lina.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t trust even myself.” She snorted and caught the air desperately, when his hand traveled up her ankle, slipping under her nightgown, through the shin and stopped on her knee.

“Even now you won’t attack? Is this an invitation?” His smile reminded her of a wolf’s one

Lina threw a pillow into his smug face.

“What's wrong with you today?”

“I don’t know. Probably, the way I affect you got me a little drunk.”

“Can Mazoku even get drunk?” Lina was sceptical.

“In some ways, apparently yes.” He took back his hand, and the sorceress felt unexpected disappointment and chill in the place his fingers had rested. “I promised to convince you of the contract with me. Treat these evenings as an opportunity. I will be more willing to share the forbidden knowledge than usual.”

This immediately pinned Lina’s attention.

“Can I ask whatever I want?” Her eyes gleamed like a child’s on its birthday.

“You can ask, but I choose what I will answer, my dear. Let’s say, the larger base of knowledge is available after the contract is formed.”

Lina blushed again at his fond tone and wondered about the first question. She didn’t want to push her luck too much in the beginning, so she chose a safe one. “Do you breathe only as a masquerade?”

“Hmm…” Xellos brushed his chin; “It’s a more complex topic than you think. The basic answer would be: yes, I do it mostly to hide among mortals, but since we are here for a longer conversation, we can go deeper into the issue.”

“Is there a connection with the heartbeat you can turn on and off?” Lina remembered the previous evening.

“It is all connected. Creating the physical vessel is more demanding than you’d think. That’s why only the most powerful of us can reproduce the human body in a way that seems to be real. I think a small presentation is needed.” The Mazoku reached his arm out to Lina. His dark coat and sleeve melted into a shadow absorbed by the rest of his body, shaping a bare forearm. Xellos’ clothes looked strange now, like someone had cut off half of them. Muscles seemed to be real, though.

Lina furrowed her eyebrows, cocking her head to see better. A subtle map of veins and tendons were visible when Xellos stretched the arm. Till this moment she didn’t realize how complicated the construction of human organisms was. No wonder the lower rank Mazoku looked creepy, not being able to make their physical forms as good as Xellos’. Randomly placed eyes or limbs often mixed with animal parts. Chimeras from horrors fully deserving to be called monsters or demons.

“Cut my arm.”

Lina glanced at the Mazoku unsure, but Xellos grasped her hand and slid the blade through the flesh, before the girl could react. Inside the wound was blackness and emptiness which started to pour outside in the form of smoke for a short moment before the cut healed.

“So it’s only the perfect surface,” she concluded.

“It is,” the Mazoku confirmed. “Only at this level. Check now.” He pressed her fingertips to the inner side of his wrist. Lina shifted uneasily, when she suddenly felt the pulse. “This level of detail demands much more energy from me in creating the vessel. Cut my arm again. Deep!”

The sorceress clenched her jaw, but did that, almost immediately gasping in surprise when sliced flesh parted under the knife and blood (black like a night sky) burst out. She could easily see muscles, veins… even a bone deep inside. Xellos hissed in pain, but the wound started to heal before a panicked Lina could find anything to wrap up his arm.

“Easy, Miss Lina. Everything is alright. It is only a good copy. Even having the body in such a faithful form l am still a Mazoku. I will regenerate wounds immediately.” He chuckled at her terrified face.

“Warn me next time, before you drown my bed in blood, you asshole.” She punched him in the chest.

“Sorry about that.” Black stains on the sheets vanished, returning to the monster as smoke. “This state lets me feel in a similar way to humans: taste, pain, pleasure. I reconstruct everything inside: my all organs can work exactly like yours… if I need that. Additionally I still have my Mazoku powers. I can smoothly jump between my physical forms in a blink of an eye, but it costs me lots of energy.”

“So you are able to eat, drink and enjoy the sense of touch like every human.” Lina was impressed.

“Copulation also isn’t a problem, and there is no risk of impregnation. I can’t copy the body to THAT level.” Before he’d finished, another pillow hit his face. “Oh, Miss Lina, you shouldn't be so shy. We are talking from a scientific point of view, right?” His bright teasing smile told her the opposite.

“Exactly. I’m not going to even consider that a veiled offer.” The sorceress murmured, totally red to the tips of her ears. “I was sure even you couldn’t create such a perfect body, but you can reproduce all five human senses… why are your eyes still so inhuman?”

“Because your species' sight is imperfect. I prefer to see well in darkness even being in the physical form. This is why I mixed into my vessel some animal abilities.”

"But how did you know how humans work? You have to know that to make such a perfect copy."

Xellos' smile faded and the demon remained silent.

"Don't tell me: it's a secret." Lina rolled her eyes.

"It isn't, but you wouldn't like the answer. Do you want to hear it after all?"

Lina swallowed nervously. She could guess by herself: "Lots of very nasty experiments," the sorceress whispered.

"Astral possessions, enslaving humans, torturing them, examining. Dissections, vivisections… Should I say more? What did you expect? I am a Mazoku. Shaping my physical vessel to the level I showed you took me hundreds of years."

Lina wrapped her knees with her arms, pulling them to her chest, feeling sick.

"Your race has an adorable tendency to underestimate someone who behaves in a friendly and silly way. Even you, Miss Lina, sometimes forget my true nature."

"You were right. I don't like the answer and it rather won't convince me to make a contract with you. So… good night?" She waved in the direction of the door.

"Everything has good and bad sides." Xellos ignored her words. "I don't need to do those things anymore. I'm afraid I’ve spoiled the mood. I better prefer you to be enthusiastic than gloomy. Any other questions?"

"Not today." Lina turned away her eyes, hoping that the demon would finally leave the room, but the Mazoku only shifted closer to her, taking her hand into his, stroking gently.

"You don't need to be afraid of me for now. You are… special to me."

"I feel that." She snorted, returning to her rather confident attitude, finally glancing at the man from under her eyelashes. "Even Filia isn't so harassed by you. I just wonder what makes me so interesting. My beautiful eyes? My intelligence? Sense of humour?" The sorceress joked, but then she bit her tongue, seeing Xellos smiling in a way she has never seen before. His amethyst eyes gleamed in a candle’s light, making her feel strangely hot in a way she already had enough.

"It's a secret," he finally answered, kissing her fingers, and then pressing his cheek to the inner side of her palm.

"Okay, you are scaring me," whispered Lina, and it was true.

"Not only scaring you." She felt his lips on her cheek, and realized he smiled wider, inhaling her scent into his fake lungs. "Strawberries." A low whisper in her ear, hot breath on Lina's neck. "Maybe someday should I try this dessert?"

Lina turned towards him ready to tell him what she thought about that, but suddenly she was alone in the room. Even the candles were extinguished.

The witch lay more comfortably in the bed, but she couldn't fall asleep, observing the ceiling as though there would be answers for how to deal with everything that had fallen onto her fragile back.

"I hate when he does that."

#xellina #xellos #lina inverse #the slayers #fanfic #whispers in the dark - xellina fanfic

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tbehartoo · 5 years

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200 Follower Thank you

Once upon a time, I said hey I’m about to have 200 followers. That’s 199 more followers than I ever expected to have. Maybe I should show these people some appreciation for following my hodgepodge of a blog? I asked what would be considered a good Thank you and received a whopping one (1) reply to the possibilities I mentioned. This is a result of that poll. Please note: I will NEVER volunteer to do this again!

200 Head Canons from the various fandoms I’ve written fan fic for (Fairy Tail, Miraculous Ladybug, and Voltron: Legendary Defenders). Please note these are made up things from my very tired brain and not necessarily thought through or even complete ideas, though I did try to make them internally consistent there are no guarantees. They might contradict each other and most certainly will contradict canon. Please take everything with a grain of salt, and enjoy!

Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail)

1-Erza only likes red fruits- strawberries, cherries, raspberries dragon fruit, apples, etc.. But they have to be red in color not other versions of the same kind of fruit. No black cherries, green apples, or the like- she can taste the difference even blindfolded.

2- Erza likes to go stargazing on summer nights, but can’t sit still for watching clouds.

3- Between missions she will occasionally try to write poetry. It does not go well

4- She has never told anyone about the poetry!

5- There is a small part of the space she uses for her requip items that contains the locked box with her writing journals.

6- Erza and Mira like to go shopping together. The stores tremble in fear when the two are on a campaign to find the perfect outfit. One boutique has had to hire a couple of mercenaries at the door to give the staff sufficient time to brace for impact, whenever they have a sale and the girls are in town.

7- There is a cat colony near Fairy Hills and every single cat knows Erza. They are all feral cats, but they trust Erza to provide calming attention.

8- Two things Erza does in any new place is find the baths and find the gyms.

9- She likes to go to different gyms to observe new fighting techniques, but she doesn’t like to be recognized so she always goes in disguise.

10- Every time she asks to be taught a new technique, there is one guy (you know that one guy) that feels he needs to mansplain things to her.

11- This man is always handed his ego on a silver platter with a side serving of crow. Sometimes quite painfully.

12- Erza was once invited to an underground gym by a woman she met at the baths. She was so surprised to find it was a group dedicated to learning to fight like the Great Titania. Most of the women had histories of being abused, but had been inspired by the leader of the Fairies to stand up for themselves and get safe. They then worked to make sure that others are safe on the streets of their city and in their homes. Erza actually broke down at learning of their strength and resilience.

13- The only time she purposefully took off her disguise was for these women to thank them. She then spent the rest of the night helping them train.

14- Erza is demisexual which is why she fell so hard for Jellal as she had a strong connection to him.

15- She continues to have fond feelings for Jellal, but is no longer romantically or sexually interested in him.

16- Erza doesn’t bother to tell others in her guild about her changed feelings for Jellal which means the girls are always trying to get them alone together whenever he’s in town.

17- Meredy once sneaked a sensory link between Erza and Jellal and herself to figure out what was going on with them. She never told anyone what she found out, but she worked at toning down the FT girls’ attempts at matchmaking.

18- Erza works really hard to keep her strength in check. She has trained with Guildarts to get her control as finely tuned as it is.

19- Erza has yet to find a mode of transportation that is fast enough for her. It’s a pity that Magnolia doesn’t have jet propulsion or rockets.

20- Her favorite hot drink is cinnamon tea with a little sweetened condensed milk in it.

Lucy Heartfilia (Fairy Tail)

1- Lucy prefers the feel of cotton over silk, but she prefers the look of silk over cotton.

2- She has to invest in cotton, linen and woolen clothing as a member of Team Natsu since they don’t burn as easily as other materials.

3- Lucy has asked Levy to look for a fire retardant/ fire proofing spell to be able to use for both her clothing and her apartment.

4- Lucy was taught to crochet when she was a young girl. Though she doesn’t make the fine lace she was expected to produce as a child, she does use those skills to make tiny amigurumi mice for Happy.

5- Lucy also crochets scarves and hats every autumn for her friends. Often she makes a couple extra ones to donate to the local women’s shelter.

6- Aires likes to bring Lucy wool like thread/yarn from the spirit world for her to use in her projects.

7- Lucy likes to go fishing with Natsu and Happy.

8- She does not like catching fish with Natsu and Happy.

She like casting her rod and reeling it in, but she does NOT like baiting her hook or killing the fish. Natsu and Happy have no problems taking care of those things for her.

9- Lucy prefers moving rivers and creeks over still ponds and lakes.

10- She loves going to the beach to watch the waves break along the shore.

11- Lucy was taught how to steer a boat, well it was a yacht but why quibble over details?

12- She once claimed she was going to sail around the globe, but her father told her not to talk nonsense and then sold their boat to keep her from ever trying.

13- Lucy made friends with the birds in the garden and can whistle their calls almost as well as the birds themselves.

14- Lucy has always told herself stories. Even when she’s on a job with Team Natsu she’s often composing short stories as her day goes along.

15- Lucy hates the taste of truffle and will instantly distrust anyone who claims to like it.

16- She prefers to have short hair, but keeps hers long to be able to use the comb and brush set her mother used to use.

17- Lucy has two special silver hair pins that her mother gave her when she twelve. They belonged to her grandmother and her great-great-aunt. They get passed down to the next generation on the twelfth year after they have sparked. They always end up with a celestial mage.

18- Lucy’s understanding of celestial contracts is both modern and archaic. She is well aware of what is expected from a modern magic user, but she has been well taught in the lore of celestial beings.

19- Most celestial spirits are pretty plain speaking with what they will, can, or won’t do. Some however, the eldest spirits, are very tricky and will find whatever loopholes through imprecise language they can to do what they can to be maliciously compliant. This is why, even though the elder spirits are more powerful than most of their siblings, they are rarely contracted with.

20- Lucy eventually has five contracts with elder Celestial Spirits. None of them have been able to twist out of their responsibilities to her.

Natsu Dragneel (Fairy Tail)

1- Natsu only flies off the handle so easily so that he has “legitimate” reasons for using his fire.

2- He has to eat a lot to have enough fuel for his fire.

3- He really just likes to eat and uses his fire so often so that he has room to eat more.

4- Natsu often lies awake at night trying to come up with good insults for Gray, Gajeel, and even Loki, though he rarely remembers them thus having to fall back on old and well used insults.

5- When Natsu does remember a new insult, he will rate the reaction on a scale of one to five and if it doesn’t get a four or a five he will drop using it.

6- One time he said something about Levy to Gajeel that was rated a ten and after he healed up, he never used that particular insult again.

7- Because of the sheer amount of energy that routinely flows through Natsu, he has a faster healing rate than most people, including dragon slayers, except Wendy. Wendy’s magic makes her quick to heal so that she can heal others.

8- Natsu has several potted succulents that he and Happy take care of whenever they are in town.

9- Natsu talks to his plants and has named each one.

10- One time a new neighbor overwatered his plants while Natsu was ot of town, killing all of the plants.

11- The new neighbor was mortified and offered to buy replacements, but Natsu was offended. You don’t buy FAMILY MEMBERS they are FOUND!

12- Natsu and Happy took nothing but desert and costal assignments for a year to find new plants for their place. They even took a few over to the neighbor to teach them how to care for the very laid back plants.

13- Natsu isn’t dumb, he’s just simple. No need to be all stealthy when you can just flame broil a problem. Right?

14- Natsu likes to come in Lucy’s apartment through the window because she’s always good for a laugh when he does it.

15- Happy, and Natsu, likes to stay the night at Lucy’s place because she will read them a bedtime story.

16- Natsu’s favorite stories are about the constellations and the heroes that got put into the stars.

17- Happy’s favorite stories are about animals acting like humans, and who like to eat a lot. (Basically he likes Redwall stories, just those from Earthland)

18- Natsu hates the Pied Piper story because the kids didn’t help their lame friend go with them and Happy hates it because he scared all the rats away. Somehow the book with that story in it mysteriously burned to a crisp.

19- Natsu doesn’t have a favorite color. It changes every time someone asks.

20- When Natsu is really stressed Happy will curl up in his lap and start purring. When Happy is stressed, Natsu will raise his body temperature slightly and then hold Happy close until Happy feels like he can purr again.

Gray Fullbuster (Fairy Tail)

1- Gray doesn’t like the feel of most of his clothes touching his skin.

2- He only likes the feeling of heavy clothes touching him. Lightweight clothes bug him.

3- Gray prefers to take jobs that take him up in the mountains because it’s cooler there, and there tend to be less people he has to deal with.

4- Gray’s favorite place to vacation is the beach in the summer, but otherwise he prefers foothills in the spring for all their blooms, mountain slopes in the winter for the ice and snow, and mountain valleys in the autumn for the color change of the leaves.

5- While ice and snow don’t bother Gray, and even charge up his magic, he still prefers to come in and sit in front of a toasty fire with a warm beverage after being out in the snow.

6- One reason Gray doesn’t object to Natsu being around and being annoying is because he always has that portable space heater thing going after being cold when Natsu is around.

7- Gray experiments with poetry when he travels on his own. He never writes any of it down.

8- Gray is obscenely good with numbers and logic puzzles.

9- He’s been banned from many gambling establishments for exposing their crooked practices, even the ones that usually go unnoticed.

10- Gray kind of assumes that other people also see what he sees and doesn’t understand why he’s expected to spell everything out for the rest of Team Natsu.

11- Gray is slow to warm up to people. He’s been let down before, so once he considers you a his friend, he’s your friend for life.

12- People that really know Gray were surprised at how quickly he befriended Lucy. With most people Gray takes at least a year to even start acknowledging their existence.

13- Gray thinks Lucy is like a little sister that needs careful watching up until Tenrou.

14- After Tenrou, Gray thinks of Lucy as an equal that can and will kick his butt if he needs it.

15- Gray is not afraid of Erza, unless Natsu is involved.

16- Gray was once emotionally and verbally abused by a girlfriend, it’s what makes Juvia’s first behavior and love declarations so uncomfortable for him.

17- Gray will never admit that he’s jealous of Natsu and Gajeel’s exceed companions. But he does want to have his own flying cat occasionally.

18- Gray’s least favorite food is egg nog ice cream. He just doesn’t care for the flavor and you couldn’t get him to drink hot egg nog for love or money.

19- Gray’s preferred hot drink is Lapsang souchong tea. He likes the pine flavor in his tea cup.

20- One time Lucy, Erza, and Wendy invited Gray to accompany them to a fancy Hotel for afternoon tea. It was the only time he willingly wore a three piece suit!

Marinette Dupain-Cheng (Miraculous Ladybug)

1- Marinette likes to make lots of different kinds of pastries.

2- She only likes to actually eat a few types of pastry.

3- There are baked goods that she makes, but never eats because the textures give her the heebie jeebies. She knows other people love them so she’ll still make them.

4- Sabine, Marinette’s mom, was a martial artist of Chāquán. It is “a Chinese martial art that features graceful movements and some acrobatic aerial maneuvers. Chāquán also includes a large range of weapons.” Sabine was especially proficient in the use of the hookswords and the spear, which she has taught Marinette.

5- Sabine still goes over her forms every morning and young Marinette practices with her.

6- Marinette was fairly good at the acrobatic maneuvers until she hit puberty. Her mother often reassures Marinette that after she finishes her growth spurts she’ll be back to doing those moves again without messing up every third one.

7- Even though her father is an only child Marinette has dozens of “uncles” from around the world. Tom played on a rugby team in college and even was in the minor league for awhile. All of his team mates were made honorary uncles when Marinette was born. They get dozens of Christmas cards, letters, and emails to keep in touch.

8- Marinette and Tom once did a tour of Europe only staying with his old teammates. They never had to find a hotel during the two weeks they traveled. They’ve had a fair few of them stay at their place in Paris, too.

9- Marinette often makes presents for her uncles, aunties, and cousins throughout the year, and receives small presents from them as well.

10- She was saving up for a trip to Australia and New Zealand for her sixteenth birthday, so that her family could visit with a couple of uncles in that part of the world, but suddenly Hawkmoth came up and now she’s not sure they will ever take that trip.

11- She mentioned Chat Noir and Ladybug in an email to one of her ‘cousins’ in New Zealand who hadn’t heard of them, so she linked them to Alya’s Ladyblog telling her that this was really going on in Paris.

12- Two weeks later she got a video from them asking Mari to pass it along to Ladybug and Chat Noir. It showed their family and all their neighbors doing a haka for Paris and the heroes. They said it was to encourage the heroes to be strong and have courage in the face of Hawkmoth.

13- Mari cried when she saw the video as she knew what a big deal it was for them to do this for her. She asked for a translation of the words and was surprised to find it was actually written by her cousin’s grandfather, who was considered a great warrior chief, specifically for LB and CN.

14- Mari asked if only someone from her cousin’s tribe could perform that haka or if it would be considered appropriation for her and her friends to do it, too. She received another video that was an interview with the man who wrote it. He explained the tradition, the words, and showed exactly how each part should be performed. Then he gave all of Paris his blessing to do his haka for the heroes.

15- Marinette brought Alya over right away and showed her the videos. Alya promised to put both videos up right away. The traffic shut down the blog host’s servers!

16- Marinette invited this cousin’s family to visit during the summer to thank them for all that they did. During their visit an akuma attack happened. This family was delighted to suddenly have Ladybug calling the city to order and joining in as all across the capital young and old were preparing to dance strength and courage into being.

17- Marinette has noticed that her strength to stand up to Hawkmoth and perform her duties as Ladybug has increased dramatically ever since she, and the rest of Paris, has started doing the special haka.

18- Marinette likes to put youtube on autoplay and start on a random video when she’s trying to come up with a design and feels blocked. She stops it on the third and seventh video and then tries to come up with a design based on the video’s title.

19- Marinette has just started trying out needle felting and loves to make little felt mice for the animal shelter Chat Noir has endorsed.

20- Marinette has become the vice-president of the Chat Noir fan club at Francois- Dupont. Nino is the president.

Plagg and Tikki (Miraculous Ladybug)

1- Plagg watches a video of camembert making on loop whenever he can get Adrien’s phone. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atOpLj-q5nA) [People in the comments are seriously convinced that Plagg would like this video!]

2- Tikki likes to watch crafting videos and always makes sure to leave an encouraging comment on each one she watches.

3- Tikki prefers sweet things to eat, but she can recharge on almost any food.

4- Plagg actually needs those fermented, slightly spoiled foods to recharge completely otherwise he’s acting on about half power.

5- Plagg wanted to explore Adrien’s house more, but Gabriel’s interest in Adrien’s ring has made him stick close to his boy.

6- Plagg spent the first month of being awake getting familiar with current events using Adrien’s phone. The invention of the computer has made him ridiculously happy.

7- Plagg may or may not have had something to do with a computer virus that infected the mansion’s protection protocol after Gabriel was akumatized. Now Adrien can get out of his room an time lockdown is initiated and doesn’t have to feel trapped in his room.

8- Tikki doesn’t sleep as much as Marinette does. She gets about an hour a night.

9- Tikki emits strong “sleep rays” when she sleeps to help her holders get to sleep. Her creative types can be overthinkers that need help dropping off.

10- Tikki doesn’t need to sleep. Whenever creation is happening she is energized and really doesn’t need to rest. She’s the originator of “pulling an all nighter”

11- Tikki tends to get a surge of power at the equinoxes while Plagg receives more power at the solstices.

12- Tikki loved coming across this video of The HU and plays it as often as she can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM8dCGIm6yc

13- Plagg found out about punk rock and now plays it as Adrien sleeps hoping that the messages of the music makes through that thick layer of “presentability” Gabriel has forced on Adrien.

14- Tikki sometimes leaves Marinette’s purse to flit over and peek at Nathaniel’s progress on his drawings if the lesson is boring.

15- Plagg’s hearing is very sharp and his ears let him tune into conversations without moving much. He is careful to check into the class gossip, but also listens in to what’s happening in Mr. Damocles’ office and the teacher lounge.

16- Plagg listened in on Tom and Gorilla’s talking about Marinette and Adrien and snickers whenever he remembers Gorilla saying, “My money’s still on Marinette confessing first. Mine’s to dense to realize how far gone he already is. He might believe she likes him on their golden wedding anniversary.”

17- Even though Plagg can phase through matter he still has a healthy respect for Gorilla’s brute strength and doesn’t want to test if he’d be quick enough to dodge the big man in the even of an emergency.

18- Tikki spends many nights creating pictures of fractals using Marinette’s digital drawing tools.

19- Tikki may or may not be the cause of Marinette having more advanced capabilities digitally than any major studio on earth.

20- Tikki despises the nickname Sugarcube, but it is the best out of Plagg many, many tries so she puts up with it. Stinky Sock is the mildest nick name Tikki has ever called Plagg.

20.B- Most of her other names for him would be considered unprintable, but they’re in dead languages so it’s probably safe for her to use them.

20.C- Plagg tries not to mess up so badly that she uses the Babylonian curse on him.

20.D- Plagg can tell how angry Tikki is by what language she slips into. The older the language is, the more angry Tikki is.

Nino Lahiffe (Miraculous Ladybug)

1- Nino used to play percussion on everything he ever came in contact with until his uncle brought over a small hand drum for him to play. His parents called it ‘tapping’ when he was little.

2- The rule around the house was that he could only tap on the drum and not other parts of the house, when he was inside. Everything outside of the house was fair game.

3- Nino’s uncle came over every day to teach him the basics of playing his doumbek.

4- After a year of lessons, his uncle would take him to his weekly drum group where the more experienced drummers would teach little Nino drum tricks like rolls and pops.

5- By the time Nino was eight, he was a regular member of the drumming group and often went with them to play at weddings, parties, or other events. He was the cutest kid! When he was all decked out in traditional Moroccan garb playing smoking hot solos, he was often the source of viral videos.

6- In school he tried to join the band, but he was far too advanced for the beginning players and they didn’t have an advanced group for him to join.

7- The band teacher wanted to help him continue with his music so he showed Nino how to record and remix his own drumming.

8- The summer after that, he spent every day busking with a different member of the drum group to be able to afford his own recording equipment and programs.

9- The summer music money plus his share of the money for playing events with the drum group allowed him to be able to turn his room into basically a recording studio.

10- He soon became the group’s recorder which led to him also video taping performances.

11- The year before Stoneheart happens, the art teacher was able to teach Nino some basic film editing.

12- Nino’s tapping was one way for him to relieve his anxiety, the other way he tries to release it is through blowing bubbles as a kind of meditation.

13- It was hard for him to use his bubbles again after the Bubbler incident.

14- When Alya and Nino got locked in the cage at the zoo, it took all of ten seconds for Alya to figure out he didn’t actually have a crush on her. It took fifteen seconds for her to figure out it was Marinette he’d liked. He was really embarrassed about it.

15- However, after talking a lot about things they liked and disliked they found they really had a lot in common. Alya told Nino about Marinette’s crush on Adrien and Nino was upset for a moment, but then Alya made him laugh and he was suddenly thinking, “Marinette who?”

16- By the time they were out of the cage Nino was firmly in Alya’s corner for matchmaking Marinette with his friend Adrien.

17- Nino’s anxiety can get high during an akuma attack, unless he has someone to watch out for or protect, then he’s calm and collected. Which makes running after Alya toward the big scary monster the better choice for him during those moments.

18- Nino was a natural at wielding the Turtle Miraculous as it played to his need to protect.

19- After being Carapace, battles in which he wasn’t called to be a protector of Paris were excruciating to watch even as he kept Alya from coming to harm. He craved using the Miraculous as it allowed him to care for more people at once.

20- Nino introduced Wayzz to both smooth jazz and rap music just to see what the kwami would do. He loved everything Nino threw at him! Wayzz requested a copy of Nino’s latest mixes and a song by Sade before he had to go back to the Guardian. Nino found an old iPod to give to the little godling who claimed it would be his most precious treasure. Nino couldn’t talk for a full five minutes as he was too embarrassed and proud to speak.

M. Gorilla (Miraculous Ladybug)

1- Gorilla and Tom played Rugby on the same team in college.

2- He often stops by the bakery after dropping Adrien off at school if he isn’t needed by M. Agreste immediately.

3- He’s convinced that Adrien is in love with Marinette, as are Tom and Sabine. It’s a topic of great interest and much discussion when he comes in, if there aren’t other customers around. Sabine and Gorilla have a bet on who will confess their feelings first. (Sabine’s money is on Adrien.)

4- Tom and Gorilla met their future spouses as they acted as bouncers at a local club on weekends all thorough their Junior and Senior years at university.

5- Sabine and Gorilla’s significant other, Jerome, were in a group of friends that frequented the night club regularly. Sabine dared her friend to get the cute bouncer’s phone number by the end of the night. After a few shots of liquid courage, he’d brazenly asked Tom for a date and his number, but Tom gently, and privately, told the young man he was straight. He then motioned for Gorilla to come over and introduced the two. The young man returned to the bar with two phone numbers: Gorilla’s for him and Tom’s for Sabine.

6- Tom made the cake for Gorilla’s commitment ceremony, before same-sex marriage was legal in France. When Marinette was ten, he also made the wedding cake for Gorilla when he and Jerome were legally able to be married.

7- Jerome had a child from a previous relationship that he and Gorilla took care of for the first five years of the girl’s life. She was taken away when the girl’s mother claimed that Jerome wasn’t the father of the child. DNA tests proved he wasn’t. The mother tried to sue another man for child support, then took the girl and moved to another country.

8- Gorilla and Jerome were distraught to have their little girl taken from them. They tried to adopt another child, but they were denied and not even allowed to foster any children.

9- Gorilla started working for the Agreste family shortly after he lost his daughter.

10- Emilie saw how angry he was over anyone that wasn’t an Agreste coming near Adrien and eventually got the story out of him over why he’d be so protective to keep people from potentially taking her son away. It was something she was very appreciative over. Gorilla considered her a friend after she went out of her way to find out about his heartbreak.

11- Gorilla is legally Adrien’s godfather. When Emilie heard what that woman had done to Gorilla she took Gorilla and Adrien to her lawyer and made Gorilla legally responsible for Adrien and any future children she may have regardless of his continuing employment by the Agreste family. Gabriel signed the papers without complaint, but didn’t actually read them carefully, or register exactly what he was signing..

12- Gorilla worked for the DGSI, the French CIA, as an informant while playing rugby. It allowed him to travel for legitimate reasons and keep tabs on one of the players for the DGSI.

13- After university, Gorilla was recruited to become an agent. He was injured on an assignment and decided to retire to be an up and coming rocker’s body guard.

14- He and Jerome get invited backstage any time Jagged is in town to be able to catch up.

15- Gorilla really enjoyed doing his job as a bodyguard, but wanted to be home more with Jerome, especially after their little Marie was taken from them.

16- The DGSI came to Gorilla to ask if he’d be interested in working for them again as they look into the workings of one Gabriel Agreste and the Gabriel empire.

17- Gorilla was actually key in getting Nathalie in the door at Gabriel. She is also an informant gathering evidence on Gabriel Agreste.

18- Gorilla was speechless when their higher ups requested that he and Nathalie continue to aide Gabriel once he became a magical terrorist, they were interested in seeing the power of the moth Miraculous and what it could do. Nathalie complied willingly, but Gorilla refused to do anything that would put Adrien in trouble.

19- Gorilla despaired of Adrien ever figuring out how to give him the slip, and he was so proud when Adrien succeeded at eluding his tailing him through the Metro. Then he panicked because he just lost his child!

20- Gorilla is fully aware that Adrien is Chat Noir. He was the one to change the angle of the security cameras, and conveniently show Adrien their blind spot right outside his window. (Seriously, that boy needs all the help he can get.)

Pidge Gunderson/Katie Holt (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

1- Katie was introduced to Pokemon when she was very young.

2-For awhile all she managed to find were Pidgeys in her game. And she collected every one she could.

3- Matt laughed at her for this and nicknamed her “Pidge”.

4- Katie didn’t like his teasing and vowed to make her pidgeys the strongest she could to beat Matt’s team.

5- She eventually fulfilled that vow.

6- Later Pidge went on to collect and evolve almost every pokemon in the pokedex.

7- Matt never recovered from being beaten by a flock of pidgeot, and has refused to pick up the game ever since that time. Pidge considered that her greatest accomplishment until she infiltrated the Garrison.

8- Katie has loved robots ever since she watched the Iron Giant movie with her dad.

9- Katie first started building robots when she got a MeccaSpider Robot Kit for her sixth birthday.

10- She was dissatisfied with how klunky the spider turned out to be and proceeded to borrow a few parts from something of Matt’s to make it work better. It’s ability to move as quickly and silently as a spider was not appreciated by all the inhabitants of her home.

11- Katie has never grown out of her ability to see other uses for mechanical parts past their intended use, or for cannibalizing parts from anywhere she can get them.

12- While Katie likes to build robots, what she really adores is programming them. She hopes someday to make a small robot that can serve to help the physically disabled with everyday tasks.

13- Seeing her mother’s father struggle after he fell and broke his hip was what has spurred Katie on in her endeavor to build helper robots.

14- For all the squabbling and tattling that she and Matt engaged in, they were very good friends. When he left for the Garrison, and had to stay there, Katie cried every night for a month.

15- Katie hates to be in the middle of drama, but she loves to watch it unfold. She has been guilty of bringing snacks to watch Lance confront someone about a perceived slight.

16- Katie is a multishipper of fictional characters. When Hunk asked if she shipped Lance with any of the other cadets at the Garrison, she read him the riot act for shipping “real people”.

17- Pidge faked a crush for a whole week while in the Garrison when Lance wouldn’t stop pestering her about it. Then the female cadet showed up with a girlfriend and Lance tried to console Pidge about not having a shot since her “crush” was into girls. Pidge didn’t know how to feel about the entire situation and started telling Lance to “Zip it!” whenever he started up about Pidge needing a girlfriend.

18- Pidge finds the idea of “love at first sight” baffling and illogical, unless it’s a sweet piece of tech. Then she totally gets it. Her idea of a “sweet piece of tech” is not the same as Lance’s, but Hunk gets her.

19- Pidge is curious about everything! She likes to tinker with things to find out how they work as well as read about discoveries others have made.

20- Pidge finds sociology fascinating. People and cultures can be hard to understand, robots are nicer that way, but once she gets to meet so many other sentient beings, see their environments, and how they adapt to them- she thinks they are almost as awesome as the robots.

Hunk (Voltron: Legendary Defender)

1- Hunk’s grandmother (his father’s mother) was a chef at an upscale hotel. She’s the one that gave him his first lessons in cooking, knife skills, and developing one’s palate.

2- Hunk’s grandfather (his father’s father) was a fisherman who demonstrated traditional fishing techniques at their island’s living history museum three times a week once he’d retired. There was always plenty of fish to go around on those days.

3- Hunk’s other grandfather (his mother’s father) was an electrical engineer and worked for the county as lead engineer. He often had little models of circuits and old mother boards that he let Hunk tinker with and program.

4- His other grandmother (his mother’s mother) was the designated worrier of the family. She also had a lush garden that she tended daily. It was full of strange plants that often bore unusual fruits for the family to eat.

5- Hunk learned to combine the strange fruits with the kitchen skills he had to make things his younger siblings would eat. Not every experiment turned out well, but he always tried to analyze what went wrong and strategize a better plan to execute his vision for the star ingredient.

6- Hunk and his cousins often had “Bake offs” when they went to TiTi’s house for sleep overs. Hunk usually lost as baking was not his forte.

7- When he and his cousins did their own version of “Chopped” then Hunk usually won hands down. Especially when given a strange basket of ingredients to work with.

8- Hunk is highly anxious but working in the kitchen helps to calm him down. The rules for cooking are simple and there are few surprises he’s not prepared to deal with.

9- Hunk uses his cell phone to ease his anxiety about things in the kitchen. He always takes a photo with a time stamp when he leaves the kitchen. Also he has remote access to all appliances with alerts to let him know when everything is being used.

10- Hunk has installed cameras and view screens on every major appliance in his family’s homes so that if he starts to worry about them, he can check his phone to see what their status is.

11- The first time Hunk left something on in the Castle he realized he’d need to come up with the same kind of thing so he wouldn’t worry while on a mission.

12- The Castle had no clue what Hunk was doing, but eventually allowed Hunk and Pidge to install primitive sensors in the kitchen appliances (and the garbage disposal for some reason) but absolutely refused to allow remote activation of anything. Hunk had to be content with that.

13- Hunk has difficulty standing up for himself, but his anxiety has “Protective Mom” override mode. He will absolutely end someone messing with his friend or family member.

14- Hunk’s favorite color isn’t yellow, it’s orange. However he was drawn to the Yellow Lion because they both want to protect their friends and family.

15- The first night Hunk spent in the Castle of Lions he made sure to lock the door then proceeded to do a traditional siva tau in memory of his family whom he never expected to see again.

16- Hunk has composed a special siva tau that includes some of the people and places he’s been. It offers each of them encouragement to be strong, to trust in the goodness of others, and realize that they are not alone in the universe.

17- Hunk has performed his siva tau on only three occasions. Each time it was at the request of Allura for other groups that had lost their home planets. After each performance Hunk would have several people ask if he would teach them the dance.

18- After the defeat of the Galra, Hunk composed a second siva tau to celebrate the victory and also to mourn those who were lost to the conflict.

19- On the anniversary of this moment Hunk, his family, and any Paladin that is near will gather to celebrate. The evening always closes with the bon fire being stoked up and a performance of that second siva tau.

20- At Hunk’s death there was a large crowd full of many species that honored his family and expressed their grief at his passing by performing Hunk’s first siva tau. It was said that the earth trembled as each foot/appendage touched down and the skies carried the sound of their voices all around the globe.

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mrslittletall · 5 years

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Title: A Storm is coming (Chapter 15) Fandom: Dark Souls Characters: Chosen Undead/Dragon Slayer Ornstein, Siegmeyer of Catarina, Sieglinde of Catarina, Griggs of Vinheim, Laurentius of the Great Swamp, Petrus of Thorolund Word Count: 3.303 AO3-Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16603610/chapters/48785066 Previous chapter: https://mrslittletall.tumblr.com/post/187216779749/title-a-storm-is-coming-chapter-14-fandom-dark

Summary: The duo has a moment of peace at Fire Link Shrine.

(Author's note: A bit of a shorter chapter this time. Now that Seath has been dealt with, I need to set a few things up. I also wanted to explore a few headcanons. I hope you enjoy and stay with this duo at their journey to get the other three lord souls.

Also, I decided to use both the POV of Tempest and Ornstein even in a single chapter. It is far easier for me. Tell me when it gets confusing. I promise the POV will never shift away from our main characters though.)

Tempest couldn't get enough from the warm, glowing soul he cradled into his hands.

This was part of a lord soul. A real one. And he had been the one to receive it.

Granted, he wouldn't have done it without Ornstein's help. Tempest should cook his favourite meal when they had a moment of rest.

Right now, the dragon slayer didn't looked like he was eager to eat anything at all. He sat on the ground next to Tempest at the Fire Link Shrine bonfire, his helmet removed and having a rather green colour in his face.

Tempest just wanted to test if the warping powers of the lordvessel could been activated when he would have someone with him and indeed, it worked. But through this he also learned that Ornstein didn't take easy to magic teleportation.

“Are you feeling better?”, Tempest asked after a good while of silence.

“...The next time you ask before I get a surprise teleportation.”, Ornstein murmured.

Ah good, he was talking again. For a moment Tempest had been worried that Ornstein would vomit all over the Fire Link Shrine, so sick had he looked.

“...sorry.”, Tempest said, gaze locking back onto the soul he got from Seath.

“...You are awfully fond of this thing already.”, Ornstein said.

Tempest eyes lightened up: “Because it is a lord soul. A real one! I never thought I would see one, much less that I would be the one holding it in their hands! I just... have a hard time grasping it, that's all.” He looked at Ornstein and his eyes softened: “This wouldn't have been possible without your help, you know this.”

“And I already said to you, I only fulfilled my duties.”

“Still!”, Tempest said out loud. “...Say, Ornstein, don't you have a part of the lord soul too? Does your soul look as beautiful as this?”

“What? You don't expect me I can just rip it out my body to show you? That isn't how this works!”

“No, but I mean, you must have merged your soul with the lord soul part somehow, right? And haven't you seen it then?”

Ornstein looked down at Tempest, studying the face of the little Undead. He had this big curious eyes again. Biting back a sigh, he began to explain: “When I got the part of the lord soul, I indeed merged it with my own, but that wasn't done by pulling my soul out of my body. Instead, I inserted the part into my chest where it could merge with my own soul. It felt... very warm and hot, almost burning. It has been so long but I still remember it vividly...”

“You mean, it felt like if you drink soup that is still too hot?”, Tempest chipped in.

“...You know, Artorias would have really liked you.”

Both of them stayed silent for a while before Tempest spoke: “How was he? Artorias, I mean.”

It took Ornstein a while before he replied: “He was... always there when you needed him. He would always listen. He was always smiling. As nerve-racking as he could be, his presence made every day a little bit brighter. And so, as he died, my world got a little darker...”

“...I am sorry.”, Tempest said once again.

“...Don't sweat it. That was a long time ago...”

Ornstein seemed to act like he didn't care anymore, as if he was above this things, but Tempest, studying his face, seeing the frown and the glistening tears the dragon slayer tried with all his might not to shed, knew that this wasn't the case.

“...Shall we maybe take a walk around Fire Link Shrine? I can introduce you to the others.”

“Oh and how do you want to introduce me, the knight from legends who is twice the size of you humans and should instill fear in your hearts?”, Ornstein said, voice practically dripping with sarcasm.

Tempest was happy that he managed to distract Ornstein from his loneliness, but he apparently had to be complicated about it.

“I just say that you are my friend who helps me with my quest. I don't have the feeling the Undead at the shrine know a lot about Lordran. They are all from other lands.”, he said, standing up. “Are you coming or not?”

“Fine.”, Ornstein said, putting his helmet back on and standing up too. “But I leave the talking to you.”

“Great!”, Tempest smiled, heading into the directions of some stairs, but briefly froze and looked back at the bonfire.

Ornstein followed his gaze and both of them stared at the onion knight standing near the bonfire, clearly so lost in thought that they hadn't noticed the duo.

“Is that Sieglinde?”, Ornstein asked. “Doesn't feel like it.”, he added.

“No, I think that is Siegmeyer.”, Tempest said, squinting his eyes. With the same suit of armour it was hard to find out which of the knights really was in it, but that distinct sense of being absent smelled too much like Siegmeyer.

Tempest casually strolled over: “Hey Siegmeyer. I see you have made it back from Anor Londo.”

The onion knights head jerked up and when he saw Tempest his face seemed to lighten, even though it was impossible to see through the armour, his whole being just seemed to light up as he spoke:

“Well! Fancy meeting you here. You did much for me up above. I am grateful. You know, I was thinking… The gates at the old fortress… Was that your doing?“

“Um, you could say that, yes...”, Tempest replied to the question, biting back a nervous laugh. That he had opened the gates for Siegmeyer had been a pure coincidence after all.

“Yes! I knew it! It seemed like an unlikely coincidence. Well, am I fortunate! This knight of Catarina thanks you sincerely Please take this, as a token of my gratitude.“

The onion knight handed Tempest a scroll. Ornstein glanced at it and determined it as a miracle, but one he had never seen before.

“Oh, thank you very much.”, Tempest smiled. “Say, I have to tell you something!”, Tempest suddenly said but got interrupted when Ornstein laid a hand on his shoulder and just shook his head. “Oh, nevermind.”, he finished. “Say, Siegmeyer, what are you planning to do now?”

“Oh me? I'll be heading down below shortly. There's nothing worthwhile up above. No worries! Adventuring is my life; I'm prepared for the worst.“

He finished with a hearty laugh.

“Just... take care.”, Tempest said and stepped behind a corner, whispering to Ornstein: “Why shouldn't I tell him about his daughter?”

“It's better when he doesn't know. It probably is also better when this two never meet. When we see her the next time, we should just tell her that she should leave. Lordran is no place for a living human.”, Ornstein said.

It took a few seconds before the statement hit Tempest, but once it did, he threw his hands up in the air and almost shouted: “She's not UNDEAD?!”

“Little storm, not so loud.”, Ornstein hissed. “And yes indeed, she isn't. I could feel her soul power resonating within her, you Undead have a completely different feel. It is more than impressive that she made it to Anor Londo in this state.”

“I have a newfound respect for this girl.”, Tempest whispered.

“You wanted to go elsewhere before you saw Siegmeyer, so where to?”, Ornstein asked after a few minutes of silence.

“Oh right, I wanted to pay Laurentius a visit.”, Tempest called out. He led Ornstein up some stairs, heading for an Undead dressed in the robes of the pyromancers of the great swamp. Ornstein tensed at his sight.

“Hey Laurentius, how is it going?”, Tempest asked with a big smile.

“Oh, it's.. it's you. I.. I surely hope my flame was of help?”, Laurentius spoke, a sonore voice interspersed with some kind of anxiety. Though Ornstein could relate to this, he preferred to stay a bit to the side.

“It was, thank you very much. Actually, I wanted to ask you if I could get an upgrade?”

“Of... of course. Just hand me the souls I need for this.”

Ornstein watched as Tempest went to grab the souls. It was as fascinating as it was disturbing. While most people just absorbed the souls once the kill had been done, Undead only could store them. And so they were able to trade them. Ornstein saw how Tempest turned around to open up the leather vest he was wearing and touching the dark sign to channel the right amount of souls to hand over to the pyromancer.

The process looked at weird as it looked distressing for the little storm. Ornstein asked himself if maybe he shouldn't have stared. He discreetly looked away as the pyromancer took the souls, probably to add to his own stock and got to work.

“So.. who is your friend standing there?”, Laurentius asked while working on the flame. Tempest turned around to look at Ornstein.

“I met him in Anor Londo. He helps me out with my quest.”, he replied. “You know, you can come a bit closer!”, he suddenly shouted.

Ornstein winced and answered: “...sorry, fire just isn't my thing.”

“Oh, th.. that's fine, I understand.”, Laurentius said and Ornstein could hear some hurt in the pyromancer's voice. It didn't surprise him. Pyromancy was scoffed upon, especially from sorcerers, being a very primal art of casting. That Ornstein didn't want to come closer because fire reminded him of the dragon war and he could get a... rather negative reaction, he didn't dare to say.

It probably was better when none of the other residents of this shrine knew who he truly was.

The both Undead talked about some trivial things with each other before Tempest got his pyromancy flame back and said his goodbyes.

“Where to now?”, Ornstein asked.

“I wanted to visit Logan's student, Griggs.”, Tempest said. “He surely wants to hear about his master's whereabouts, don't you think?”

Ornstein couldn't argue with this, after all, he asked himself where his own master was for centuries now. Tempest ran upon a small figure dressed in the sorcerer garb of the dragon school of Vinheim.

Vinheim with their practices of dragon worship had never been very welcome in Anor Londo.

“Hey, Griggs, guess who I found in the Archives? It was Logan!”, Tempest exclaimed.

“Master Logan is safe? Oh, these are good news.”, the young looking sorcerer said. Of course there wasn't any guarantee that he was still young, just like Ornstein was hundreds of years old, the Undead could have been like this for hundreds of years too and just kept their appearance they had when they turned undead.

“He was behind bars though, your master seem to have an affinity for being caught.”, Tempest laughed. “But don't worry, we freed him and he studies in the archives now.”, Tempest gestured to Ornstein, who simply gave a small nod at his mention.

“Are you in need of any sorceries?”, Griggs asked. “I would like to travel behind Master Logan soon, but I don't want to leave you hanging after all you have done for me. And Master Logan.”

“Actually, I would like to buy that last one you offered.”, Tempest said with a grin.

“Of course, just hand me the souls.”

This time Ornstein turned around as the exchange happened and soon Tempest was in the possession of a scroll with a mighty sorcery on it.

“Why did you buy this? I don't think you are able to use this sorcery.”, Ornstein said as they walked away from Griggs.

“I made a lot of souls in the archives and just wanted to share.”, Tempest replied. “Besides, maybe I learn how to use this! You'll never know!”

“Any more people you need to visit at this shrine?”, Ornstein asked.

“Ah, not at this shrine anymore, but I would like to visit Andre, the blacksmith in the parish.”, Tempest said. “It would be quicker to warp there, but don't worry, there is a shortcut and you only need to fight three hollows to reach him.”

In secret, Ornstein was glad. Magic teleportation really didn't sit well with him. That Tempest took this into consideration made him incredibly sympathetic.

As they headed for the aforementioned shortcut, they passed another Undead, a rather burly man in the typical cleric garb of Thorolund, or maybe the armour just let him look like it. “Oh, this is Petrus.”, Tempest whispered to Ornstein and went over to talk with the man.

“Has your lady returned yet, Petrus?”, Tempest asked.

“M'lady...? I am afraid not, just where could she have run of too?”, the cleric replied. Ornstein frowned under his helmet. A sworn protector who has let his protégé run away? And was not searching under every stone for her?

“Don't fret.. I am sure you will find her.”, Tempest reassured the cleric. He didn't seem to acknowledge Ornstein's presence at all, so the two of them went on.

“This guy, he is shady.”, Ornstein whispered. “Why wouldn't he search for the lady he should protect? I think he might have abandoned her.”

“What?!”, Tempest eyes grew wide. “...your words makes sense, but... he looked so distressed.”

“He's acting. I have seen enough people like this in my life. Just... don't talk to him anymore. He isn't worth it.”

“Well, I guess so...”, Tempest said as they stepped in an elevator that took the both of them right into the church of the Undead Parish.

Ornstein hadn't been in this place in ages. The knights of Anor Londo had sometimes helped out the human population of Lordran to fight off threads, but most of the time, they had been on an Undead hunt.

Now Ornstein was sure that not a single living human was left in the land of Lordran anymore.

Like Tempest had said, the way to Andre was easy and only guarded by three very weak hollows that fell to their blades far too quickly. As they made their way to the blacksmith passing a bonfire, the constant clanging of a hammer was heard echoing in the old building.

Ornstein followed Tempest but preferred to stay out of sight of the blacksmith. He only would pique interest with the golden armour and the special weapon he wielded.

Tempest talked to the blacksmith who first noticed the crystal ember that Tempest had found in the Archives, quickly dismissing it, stating that he wouldn't be able to use it. They then talked further and shortly afterwards Ornstein could hear the distinct sound of a twinkling titanite used to reinforce a weapon. Apparently, Tempest had taken a liking to the silver knight straight sword.

After the weapon had been handed back to Tempest, Ornstein noticed that another exchange of souls happened. When Tempest came back to Ornstein he held an item in his hand, presenting it to him, asking: “Ornstein, what is that?”

“The Crest of Artorias.”, Ornstein gasped. “Why did the blacksmith had it?”

“Wait, this belonged to your friend?”

“No.”, Ornstein quickly shook his head. “It is a key that can open the door that leads to his grave. It was made by Princess Dusk of Oolacile after the grave robbers went too far. There is an alternate path to the grave, but it is long and difficult to take, so the door kept the grave rather safe the last few hundreds year.”

Ornstein fell silent after this explanation. While the door had managed to keep most graver robbers out, what it didn't had managed was to keep Ciaran's sadness out of her heart. She had died right next to the grave of her beloved.

“...Do you want to visit the grave?”, Tempest asked, concern shining in his blue eyes.

“No, not yet.”, Ornstein said. “We have to go there eventually, because that is where the friend is we need to talk to, but.. for now, let's go somewhere else.”

“Alright.”, Tempest said, pocketing the magic key. “Let's head back to Fire Link Shrine.”

“What destination have you picked out for us to head next?”, Ornstein asked.

“I was thinking heading to the catacombs... I already have been there, though I was mostly running through it screaming... The gravelord is down there, right?”

Ornstein simply nodded once they rode the elevator back to the shrine. Once they had managed to make it to the bright burning flame, Tempest spotted the familiar onion knight and said: “Oh, Siegmeyer, didn't you want to head out?”

“Idiot.”, Ornstein hissed and gave Tempest a slight hit on the head.

“You have seen my father? Where did he head to?”, the voice of Sieglinde asked and Tempest knew instantly which kind of mistake he had done.

“Uh, he didn't tell.”, he quickly lied.

“Still, thank you. Now I know he must be around somewhere here...”, Sieglinde murmured to herself.

“I sure hope you haven't doomed this girl.”, Ornstein scoffed as they sneaked away from her, in the direction of where a loud snoring sounded.

Ornstein knew the primordial serpent, knew that he was a friend of Gwyn and that he also worked closely with Gwyndolin.

And Ornstein also perfectly knew that Frampt wasn't telling the whole truth. His gaze rested on the slumbering serpent for a little while before it wandered to the little storm, cheerily hopping in front of him, heading for the cemetery.

Just a sacrifice., Ornstein thought to himself. He really had gotten too attached.

“So, the first time here I tried to get past this skeletons for an hour or so.”, Tempest said, pointing to a piles of bones on the ground. “Eventually I gave up and searched for another way. I don't even know why I was so dead set on trying to get past them.”

“Well, sounds like a typical mistake only an Undead could make.”, Ornstein said. “After all, every sane person would leave immediately and try to get to safety once they notice they don't have a chance.”

“... I surely think I could have a chance now.”, Tempest said. “Are you ready to help out, Ornstein?”

“Sure.”, the dragon slayer replied with a grin under his helmet.

After a short while every skeleton at the cemetery was an unmoving piles of bones and Tempest had picked up a comically large sword, which got determined as a Zweihander by Ornstein.

“We never used weapons like this in Anor Londo, but we had a squad using big weapons, they eventually became the black knights. We also had one silver knight named Ledo who used a giant hammer... was good friends with Havel, the stone warrior.”, Ornstein casually told. Tempest soaked up every word he shared from a world the Undead hadn't been part of.

“So how is Nito like?”, Tempest asked as they stood in front of the entrance of the catacombs.

“Hmm... Maybe I'll tell you when you manage to reach the next bonfire without my help.”, Ornstein teased, but didn't expect the little storm to take the tease serious as he practically rushed into the catacombs.

“... At least he uses a silver knight sword.”, Ornstein murmured to himself as he switched out his own dragon slayer spear for the silver knight spear he had used many years ago.

He waited five more seconds, heard the sounds of explosions and then followed Tempest into the crypt. Next chapter: https://mrslittletall.tumblr.com/post/188214925474/title-a-storm-is-coming-chapter-16-fandom-dark

#dark souls #fanfiction #dragon slayer ornstein #chosen undead #orndead #oc tempest #littlewritesstuff

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thetygre · 6 years

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30 Day Monster Challenge 2 - Day #23: Favorite Bad Movie Monster

Alright, so most of these movies aren’t really all that bad; they’re just kind of ‘meh’. But they would have been a lot worse without these cool and/or goofy monsters.

1. Jabberwocky (Alice in Wonderland 2010)

I am prepared to disclose that Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland was not horrible, but 60% of that opinion stems from the Jabberwocky. (The remaining 40%is 30% the other monster designs and 10% lesbian subtext.) The Jabberwocky has always been my favorite part of the Alice mythos (surprise surprise), and not to sound petty, but I have dropped Alice movies just for not including the brilling beast. Burton’s Jabberwocky might not be my favorite, but it has a lot going for it. The way they treat it is basically as Wonderland’s Tarrasque; a living WMD, a legendary kaiju, the ur-monster in a world teeming with dangerous and crazy creatures. The way it wakes up is even a direct nod to Chernabog from Fantasia; they are literally equating this thing to the Devil.

Second off; Christopher Lee.

Finally, when the Jabberwocky meets Alice to fight, he says this thing about meeting his ‘old foe’, ‘the vorpal one’, in battle again. It is made explicitly clear that he is talking about the vorpal blade, not Alice. And that just… I don’t want to say that that changes the entire movie, but yeah, it kind of does. The implications here are that the vorpal blade and the Jabberwocky have fought each other countless time before in the past. The history of Wonderland is just the history of a dragon and a magic sword fighting. Is the vorpal blade sentient? How many times have these two fought? This kind of transforms everything about the setting the movie has established for the last hour and a half. It’s just so filled with so much potential to me.

2. Torgo (Manos: The Hands of Fate)

Y’know, when you’re in a dark place, you have to find your own light. A source of motivation, something you can cling to to pull you through to the other side. Maybe that’s a dream, a goal at the end of the tunnel, or maybe it’s a hero, someone you can look up to. I’m not saying that Torgo is a hero, but he inspires me. There are weeks at work where I just don’t want to get out of bed in the morning. I come home at night to an empty room and fall asleep alone. It gets hard, is what I’m saying. But you know who never stopped trying, even though he hated his job and was lonely too?

Torgo. That’s who.

Everyday Torgo gets up, throws on his blazer and hat, and he goes out there and busses a haunted motel for a boss he hates. But he does it, every day. And if Torgo can do it, you can too. So you’ve got to get out there and be the best damn lackey you can. You’ve got put in the work to make it to tomorrow. And when the good times roll in and come shining down on you, you take a minute to remember the man who helped you get here. Take a minute to remember Torgo, looking down on you from Cloud No. 9, shedding a tear.

3. Radu (Seventh Son)

The Last Apprentice series is actually a pretty cool (and grim) series of dark fantasy/horror young adult novels, kind of like junior’s first Solomon Kane. The Seventh Son movie based on the series has piss-all to do with it, and its only redeeming features are some cool monster designs and Jeff Bridges. Of those cool monster designs, the stand-out for me is Radua aka Muslim Dragon Kratos. He’s one of our villain witches chief thugs, and is unnecessarily cool for a side-character. He’s got this whole Nosferatu Zodd code of honor thing, and wields these two chain blades and probably could have been the villain in his own movie.

Now that alone would have been a neat detail, but then he can turn into what I honestly consider one of the more interesting dragons in recent cinema. I talked before about how one archetype of dragons was of being these unholy, scavenger type wilderness monsters, and that’s kind of the vibe I get from Radu’s dragon form. It’s all lanky and feral looking. It has too many limbs, and it walks around like it doesn’t know how. It’s another unnecessarily cool design for such a generic movie, and it’s definitely worth checking out.

4. Krakensaurus (Jack the Giant Slayer)

I don’t want to be mean and discount Jack the Giant Slayer as ‘discount Ray Harryhausen’, but thems is the breaks, as the saying goes. The movie is kind of charming in how earnestly it plays to being a 1960s fantasy movie, with princesses in pink dresses and warlocks with goatees and a rhyming leprechaun. The movies stop-motion monsters don’t really live up to industry standards, though. But I can’t sit here and lie and say that I don’t have a special fondness for the sea monster at the end. The movie’s penultimate scene sees our heroes trying to escape the warlock’s castle, so the villain summons a two-headed giant (or ettin, if you know your monsters) which looks suspiciously like one of Ray Harryhausen’s cyclopes. Trapped in a sea cave, the rhyming leprechaun trapped in a bottle (roll with it) summons a sea monster to deal with the problem.

Sometimes it’s the little things in life, like watching two weird looking monsters fight to the death. Our sea monster is a blue-green mixture of kraken and allosaurus, and I’m pretty sure its toy had more detailing than the actual moving model. When this guy showed up on the screen, six year old me was hype enough to punch through a wall. I spent the next week drawing pictures of him so I wouldn’t forget him. This movie has 100% more sea monsters and singing leprechauns than The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad, and that almost makes up for its deficit skeleton warriors.

5. Queen of the Lair (She Creature 2001)

Stan Winston was on the helm for this little lady’s monster design, and it shows. A mermaid queen, it’s hard to tell if her monster form is her real shape or just something she can morph into. Even her basic mermaid form is pretty interesting; the split tails remind me of sirens or tritons. Her monster shape, though, is pure Stan Winston gold. There’s more than a little bit of the xenomorph queen in there, between the crest and the fangs. Someone threw it into a blender with a sea serpent and a viper fish and what comes out is the most badass mermaid to ever slink across cinema. She rips people’s heads off, her tail is covered with bone spikes, and she can sing a siren song to summon up her mermaid swarm. Oh, and psychic impregnation powers. That part’s kind of important.

6. She Creature (She Creature 1956)

Aforementioned sea monster queen was part of a series of horror films based on old b-movies, so this is the original She Creature. Even today, this is one of my favorite designs from the 1950s. Paul Blaisdell might just be the king of B-movie monster suits, and belongs up there with Ray Harryhausen in the great monster hall of fame. The she creature looks like the sum product of an orc, a lobster, and a scorpionfish. It’s a shame you only see her in monochrome, because her color scheme is a startling mix of green and pink. What I find most fascinating is the concept that this is supposed to represent some parallel evolutionary stage of humanity. This is supposed to be a different version of Homo sapiens that never left the sea. Stan Winston’s mermaid queen is great, but I would still love to see an updated and more articulate version of this design.

7. Vampire Spawn (Van Helsing)

This raises so many questions. So the crux of Van Helsing is that Dracula needs Frankenstein’s monster to power a force-field that will allow his swarms of vampire spawn to survive past infancy. I bet you thought vampires reproduced by biting people, right? Well, apparently they also have egg-sacs. Just, massive, Aliens style egg-sacs full of bat/human fetus monsters hungry for blood. It’s so stupid that I love it. These things are horrible and adorable; they remind me of chupacabras. I want one as a familiar, or at least statted up for a tabletop roleplaying game. Just really try to avoid thinking about the whole egg-sacs thing and all the implications that brings to vampire mythology.

8. Emperor Tyrannus (Attack of the Super Monsters)

I don’t… I don’t think I have the strength to really get into Attack of the Super Monsters. When I watched it, liquor was involved. Describing it reads like a parody of Japanese media that involves anime, men in monster suits, and giant robots meant to sell collectible toys. But it’s real, and the realest shit ever is Emperor Tyrannus. Emperor Tyrannus is literally a giant tyrannosaurus rex who is the evil mastermind of an underground civilization of dinosaurs. The dinosaurs talk, because shut up, and Emperor Tyrannus in particular talks with a villain voice that I just can’t really convey through text. I think the closest I can get is saying that he sounds like someone doing an imitation of Brian Blessed while having a stroke. Emperor Tyrannus shoots laser beams from his eyes that mind control the other dinosaurs into being evil, and watches them fight a hermaphroditic cyborg superhero in a drill/airplane. Look, you need to see this for yourself. I’m not doing this justice. Get your friends, find the DVD, and strap in for a wild ride.

9. Witch Tree (The Last Witch Hunter)

The Last Witch Hunter is another guilty pleasure move where Vin Diesel brings what I’m pretty sure is one of his D&D characters to a movie and somehow ropes Michael Cain and Elijah Wood into it with him. Our villains are, in a surprising twist, witches that cook up some fairly grotesque magic. One of the creatures meant to act as the witches’ guardians is a magical sentinel, and it just goes so hard and so dark for what amounts to a stick golem. It’s the fine details that make this construct stand out. The extra limbs let it move faster and have extra attacks, the jawbones around the front form a crude mouth, and the branch rib-cage makes it look like something that used to be alive instead of something that was just magically summoned. There’s so much work poured into this one monster, and it’s definitely a treat to see it at the end of the movie. Rethink your golems, kids; treat yourself better.

10. Giant Leeches (Attack of the Giant Leeches)

I used to be pretty intensely leech-phobic when I was younger (and by younger, I mean a couple of years ago), but even then I knew the giant leeches were lame. Incredibly lame. Like, honestly kind of pathetic. I kind of like them out of a bizarre sense of pity. Giant leeches should scare me, but these guys are just goofy. A leech isn’t a hard design; it’s a tube with a sucker on each end. But I am almost convinced that the person who designed these monsters had never actually seen a leech, or possibly even a worm. But the movie still treats them with all the dignity and awe of the Creature of the Black Lagoon. There are prolonged sequences of these guys swimming underwater, floating around like hungry garbage bags. These things are not, nor were they ever, leeches; they are some kind of aquatic octopus or confused anemone. That’s why they need our love, our protection; because they’re too stupid to survive by themselves.

#30 Day Monster Challenge 2 #30 Day Monster Challenge #monsters #movies #fantasy #mst3k #stan winston #paul blaisdell #long post

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bugcthulhu · 6 years

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Spanish/Iberian mythological creatures: So Many Goblins edition

Marraco: Wingless dragon with a very wide mouth and stomach. While said to swallow people whole, it is also treated as a spiritual guardian

Ayalga: Nymphs that guard vast treasures in caves or palaces, alongside dragons. Some were cursed into the role, but many just do it from the get-go. Only go outside during a single night of every year, and may offer some of their riches to the men that seek them out if they follow certain rituals. A dragon whose Ayalga has abandoned them for good succumbs to despair and abandons the land.

Crespell: Cave-dwelling, child-eating monsters covered in warts that spew flames from their eyes. Always appear in groups of seven: six tiny ones and one gigantic.

Ollaparo: A man-eating cyclops with an additional eye on the back of its head

Xacio: Amphibious beings that live at the bottom of rivers. Usually presented as merfolk, but sometimes they have the lower bodies of lizards.

Carmenco: A creature covered in woolly black hair that prowls the mountains. Settles in abandoned houses and prevents them from falling to disrepair, but spotting one brings years of bad luck. Can be driven away by throwing stones at the house its chosen.

Nonell: Horse-sized dog of dense, flowing white fur and black eyes. Its arrival precedes the fall of snow in mountain areas.

Cucala: Black birds that dislike being seen and emerge in droves during the darkest nights. Extremely dangerous, and really noisy

Sacauntos: “Grease puller” A bogeyman that carves children open to remove and devour their body fat. Carries its bounty around in a sack

Maruga: Tiny critters that swim in rivers and ponds. Their bite makes women pregnant, but what they are pregnant with is not specified.

Lambiron: Demonic being with the power to poison sources of water, make fields go dry and ruin crops

Mouro: Dark-skinned, really tall humanoids (sometimes flat out giants) that live underground. Extremely skilled in mining and metallurgy, to the point everything they own is made of gold, and are immensely rich. Often made deals with humans with gold as payment, but humans had to never reveal the source of said gold, or else it would turn to coal….or the Mouros would kill them straight away. Said to love wine, and have outstandingly beautiful women

(The Mouros are a really tricky one because their name sounds almost exactly like Moro, which is the word for the ancient muslim invaders of Spain, and a modern-day derogative slang to refer to muslims. Coupled with everything else about them… yeah)

Serpe: Very much like the Cuelebre in that they’re giant snakes with bat wings and extraordinarily hard scales, usually guarding the treasures left behind by the Mouros. Other times they’re women cursed into the form of huge white snakes, waiting for someone to break their curse

Zarronco: A child-eater that usually takes the form of a huge insect

Bloody Pirico: Bogeyman that resembles a bloody, skinless humanoid. Steals lost children.

Half-Face: Another child-eater, appears as a figure with a single arm, a single leg and a single eye, like a body that’s been bisected.

Malismo: The Spanish answer to norse trolls, a drooling, excessively hairy, stinking, hideous and malicious monster that dies when exposed to sunlight. Though said to be on the small side, they are noted as extremely dangerous due to their knowledge of sorcery

Trasgo: The quintessential Spanish goblin, usually depicted with a hole in the palm of each hand. Though not evil, it is an obnoxious prankster that loves playing tricks on the people it shares a house with. May sometimes take a shine to said families, which means it’ll follow them wherever they go. Extremely hard to get rid of

Trasno: Similar to the trasgo in many aspects, the trasno is also said to assault people in forests, and stalk travellers to bring misfortune upon them

Martinico: Benevolent and helpful goblin, though terrifying if upset. Has the ability to shapeshift into animals

Tardo: Unlike its brethren, a genuinely evil goblin with green skin and sharp teeth, usually carrying a small sword. Causes nightmares

Quarantamaula: Half-man, half-chicken, half-vulture. Jumps from roof to roof to make noise and scare children.

Cerdet: Snaggle-toothed hairy pig that spooks travellers at night, loves riding horses

Goncho: A beautiful male giant that takes wives away from their husbands, appearing only when said wives want him to do so

Maragassa: Female figure that causes anguish and grief on women.

Pardalot: Bird that feeds its chicks with human children and enjoys the warmth of fire and smoke, entering houses through the chimney

Man of the Noses: Self-explanatory, a man possessing as many noses on his body as days there are in a year. Benevolent, but in some areas it is treated as a bogeyman that can be bribed away with money.

Aneto: A giant that refused to help Jesus when he arrived exhausted and hungry to his domain, was punished by being transformed into a mountain. Only recovers his conscience on stormy days, and all he does is wail about his fate.

Meiga Xuxona: Blood-sucking witch that takes the form of a bumblebee.

Falugue: Tiny being similar to the Nyitus that enters the bodies of humans and devours the inner ear, rendering them deaf

Avelainya: Spectral butterfly that can be black or white depending on whether it brings good or bad omens. Might be related to Cuques, glowing worms that appear at night and are likened to the souls of the dead

Famelier: A goblin with a huge head and mouth, and a terrible voice, born from containing a certain kind of ephemeral grass inside a black bottle. Constantly asks for either food or work, will indulge the former if not given the latter.

Boet: Another servile entity, except this one will go out of its way to NOT do any tasks after begging its master for some.

Freba: Small, shiny fairy that uses crickets and/or legless lizards as steeds. So beautiful anyone who spots one falls into lovesick melancholy

Joanet: Luminous goblins that can be summoned to find hidden treasure

Barruget: Goblins of elongated heads and immense strength that usually live deep in wells, but might emerge in groups on days of bad weather to play in the raging waves. A prankster that can be placated by offering it bread with cheese.

Martinet: Born from mushrooms, extremely fast, easy to anger, and outrageously powerful, capable of changing the course of rivers or altering mountains. Is repelled by snake drool

Negret: Black goblin that turns into a pile of coins if someone touches it while holding a candle

Telles-Melles: Invisible goblin that watches over children and plays with them.

Follet: Sometimes said to be a goblin, sometimes just said to be a special gift. Either way it is tied to an individual person and grants them powers.

Rotlla/Rotlan/Errolan: A version of the fictional Sir Roland, wielder of Durendal, in which he is an heroic giant. Rode an equally gigantic one-eyed horse that could chew through mountains.

Pesanta: Sometimes a huge dog, sometimes a huge cat, both with legs made of iron. Enters houses from under doors or through walls and sits on people as they sleep, giving them nightmares and great pain

Pupieirinya: Forest fairies that love bread crumbs, very quick and very silent. Can hear the voices of children that are too young to speak, and bring them gifts.

Lavandeira: Old woman that sits by rivers washing clothes and calls for passersby to help. Ignoring her pleas or folding the clothes in the same way she does nets you extreme bad luck, if not guaranteed death.

Canouro: Vaguely defined evil entity associated with water. Fond of mortally wounding children on the arms of their parents

Butoni: Hairy bogeyman with claws, horns and two faces that enters houses through keyholes

Aideko: Wind spirit said to be responsible for every disease and disgrace that cannot be explained by conventional means. An even more malevolent variant, the Aidegatxo, also controls storms. Can only be driven off through magic.

Es Vedra Giant: Sea-dwelling. Hunger for human flesh only surpassed by his love of octopi. Will eat until it can’t move anymore

Saint Llorenc’s Dragon: Brought to the land by foreign invaders, originally very small but grew to monstrous proportions by devouring everything in its path, and soon claimed an entire mountain. Survived what should’ve been a fatal sword strike, forcing its slayer to call upon divine intervention to finally smite it down

Altzuruku Dragon: Enormous and fierce. A knight called SIR GASTON fought it to a stalemate for weeks, some say months, and finally had to resort to feeding it an ox skin filled with gunpowder to do the trick, blowing its head off.

Espillet’s Dragon: Considered one of the dracs, of deadly all-rotting stench. Terrorized the city of Valencia until a man called Espillet slayed it in return for avoiding life-long prison and reuniting with his lost love. In one version, however, the dragon merely scared people away to live in peace, and the city blamed it for all sorts of kidnappings. Espillet had no choice to kill it anyway, even if he felt pity for the beast.

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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DC Introduces New Hero in Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration, is a timely new anthology showcasing DC’s Asian superheroes. Arriving in May for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, it presents many of the top Asian storytellers of comics. Included in the 100 page commemorative anthology is an original 12-page story by Gene Luen Yang and Bernard Chang. “The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes” introduces a new DC superhero who teams up with Shazam to battle Doctor Sivana and a Chinese deer demon.

Monkey Prince references the 16th century Chinese classic, Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en. It is the story of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, and his epic journey to bring the Buddhist sutras to China from India. In China, it has been the subject of plays, operas, movies and TV shows. What’s more, it inspired Dragon Ball, Into the Badlands, and Yang’s own award-winning graphic novel, American Born Chinese. “We’re treating Journey to the West as canon, like DC canon. It actually happened within the DC Universe,” says Yang.

Den of Geek had a video chat with the two creators, Gene Luen Yang and Bernard Chang about the significance of the newest Asian hero coming to the DC Universe.

Den of Geek: What was your first memory of Monkey King?

Bernard Chang: Well, when my family immigrated to the States in 1978, we lived in Indiana. I was reading comics when I was in Taiwan, but when we came to the States I was reading like Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, any comics I could get at the newsstands. At some point my father saw that I was taking a liking to superhero stuff and he was like, “I wanted to introduce you to this Chinese superhero.”

Every night he would read me bedtime stories from Sun Wukong from Monkey King. He wouldn’t read the whole chapter, but he’d read a little bit for a few minutes and then I’d go to sleep dreaming and imagining these characters, these places, these adventures. It was from a book. It wasn’t from an actual comic book. None of it was translated. It was all in Chinese.

I think [those stories] really helped to cultivate this curiosity and imagination and creativity. This is a world that I’m completely unfamiliar with in a sense, or half familiar with, but half not. The sad part to this story is that my parents got divorced when I was around 10, and so my father never got to finish the Monkey King Journey to the West story.I had the book, but it was in Chinese so I couldn’t read it and I couldn’t figure out the ending. Anytime this lore comes up, it always brings back fond memories.

Gene Luen Yang: I think I have a very similar story to Bernard. I heard the Monkey King stories first from my mom at bedtime and she wasn’t reading out of a book. She was just telling them off of the top of her head. I also remember visiting Taiwan when I was a kid. I was born in the United States, but when I was four, my mom took me back to Taiwan to hang out with her parents and her relatives. I remember there was a cartoon on TV at the time, that was Monkey King.

I was a little bit different from Bernard. I actually fell in love with the Monkey King first and then came into American superheroes when I was much older. When I was like in fifth grade, I started getting really into superheroes, but it’s the same thing. I think it’s the same kind of love.

The love I have for Monkey King is very similar to the love I have for superheroes. Both of them are these heroic stories that are all about color and brightness and hope and magic. I think this particular project, especially, it allows Bernard and I, the chance to explore those in-between spaces between these two very different storytelling traditions.

What was it like to finally work together?

Bernard: We’ve had peripheral friends, acquaintances, but this is like a culmination of that in life. In Chinese, they call it “yuanfen.”

As in ‘fate’?

Bernard: It’s like fate, destiny, but it’s like a circular, like there’s a path that you take, whether in relationships or work or whatever it is. The people that you meet, the people that you come across, are there for a particular reason. Right now, this moment in my life, in our lives, I’m presented kind of another childhood opportunity to finally almost tie up loose ends, but also pave new paths. For me, out of any other comic book project, there’s a very personal thread. I hope that that comes out in our work.

It’s not just about me satisfying myself, but also passing along that wonderment, that joy, that excitement of a little kid about to go to sleep, about to dream of this wondrous world and these adventures that these crazy characters go on. We hope to pass that on to a next generation, or at least our version of that, because we’re not retelling that story. We’re telling our own story based off certain things, inspirations from it.

Given what’s happening with #StopAsianHate and all the Asian crimes, how important is it to you personally to be doing this special issue?

Gene: I think behind all of these crimes I think it’s an impulse to dehumanize Asian-Americans. One of the big stereotypes that we deal with here in America is that all Asians look alike, right? Behind that idea is that we’re all just this one big mass, no individuals. When you think of a population like that, it becomes much easier to commit violence against them.

Bernard: We’re doing this, it’s not because of the movement that this project is born out of, but when you read characters, when you read any kind of comic books, when I was reading comic books growing up, it was about the characters in the story. It’s about these characters learning from their faults and trying to do the right thing and overcoming obstacles. Monkey King also being very mischievous and having his own personality, but those are all human traits.

Over the last few years, pre-pandemic, before that, when I was traveling quite a lot around the world to many different comic book conventions and meeting different fans in Europe and Asia, in South Africa, in India, you notice everyone, they look different, but they’re all attracted to the same values. We’re all very similar at the core. I think our story, however it plays out in terms of what’s happening in the world today, will still remain true to its basic principles.

Gene: This project got started before the Atlanta shooting, which although the Asian hate stuff had been going on for a while, the Atlanta shooting to me was a turning point. At least I saw that in the circles that I’m a part of. Even [for] Asian-Americans who wanted to deny it, I think that became the point at which it was no longer deniable. It’s a little bit of that fate that Bernard was talking about as well, that this project is coming out shortly after that. We weren’t really planning it, but it feels like it was meant to be.

In terms of the relationship, the Monkey King is supposedly the father of the Monkey Prince. We’re going to get into the details of what that might look like. It’s a slightly more complex relationship than that.

How much did earlier versions of Journey to the West artwork inform what you were drawing, Bernard?

Bernard: Well, there’s obviously a massive amount of stuff that’s already been done about Monkey King. Part of it is trying to find what I remembered as a kid and then modernizing it because the story does take place in the DC Universe here in the United States.

It was a very true collaborative stage, because Gene would send over drawings that he’s already done. Gene’s also an artist, so it’s great to help use that as a visual bouncing board, a platform to jump off and go back and forth. Then just Jessica [Chen], our editor, has really provided a lot of great visual references. But really there’s been no kind of a leash on anything. It’s just go as wild and as crazy as you can and then let’s just make this thing jam.

There’s a lot other designs we haven’t shown yet. Hopefully, as the story progresses, we’ll be able to see some of that come up.

If someone asked “Who is the Monkey King?” what might you recommend?

Gene: The first translation that I read when I was in my 20s was the Arthur Waley translation, which has been the standard for a very long time for the English-speaking world. Just recently, Julia Lovell did a translation that I thought was great. It came out just a couple of months ago.

In terms of pop culture, there’s an anime series called Monkey Magic that I really liked. Looking back now, it was a mix of traditional and 3D animation and some of the 3D animation looks really dated. In terms of the energy and in terms of his personality, it really captured something about him.

Monkey Magic was distributed through the UK, and so many leading martial artists from the UK like Ray Park reference Monkey Magic as a major influence.

Gene: Yeah. Just recently there’s a movie called Immortal Demon Slayer that I thought was really good too. That’s a Monkey King movie.

Bernard: I mean, there’s a lot. A Taiwanese artist did an adaptation. His name is Tsai Chih Chung. He did it as like a weekly strip. It was like an American-style strip where every three panels was a joke. I thought that was really well done.

Maybe I’m a little stubborn, but everything that I’ve seen since has never really measured up to what was in my head as a kid.

Do either of you have favorite chapters for Monkey King?

Gene: For the 12-pager we did, we did draw on one specific story. If you read the original, the Monkey Prince does something very similar to something that the Monkey King did in the original.

I’ve always been partial to the Gold Horned King and the Silver Horned King. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them portrayed well in media, like in a cartoon or a movie, but I think that they could be. There’s something very, very powerful and sinister about the way they’ve described them in the book that I think could translate really well into visual media.

Bernard: I’ve always been attracted to just the Monkey King himself, living in the mountain, being mischievous, going up to heaven, causing havoc, coming back down, celebrating with his friends and family.

Are we going to see Monkey Prince and Batman? I can totally see Pigsy and Wonder Woman.

Gene: Yeah. I think Wonder Woman is a very natural fit, right? Shazam too, which is why we chose to use them because both of them are tied deeply into Western mythologies. It seems like within the DC Universe that the different deities from the different mythologies all kind of know each other, at least they’re all related in some way. So having the Monkey Prince interact with them would be super easy, super logical.

The Monkey King is so iconic. That must have been challenging to capture his spirit for Monkey Prince.

Gene: Oh, dude. Yeah. Bernard did enough art to fill up an entire wall. It was amazing. The different iterations that he did. Just working with Bernard, I could tell that this was a passion project because he was just putting out version after another, after another. I think all of us wanted to get it right, but because Bernard’s the artist, he just put in hours and hours and hours into this thing. It’s been really impressive to see.

Bernard: It’s inspired by the Monkey King but it is my own character and reflective of our times.

Gene: Yeah. There’re so many iterations of the Monkey King out there, right? This version has to feel distinctively DC like it belongs in the DC Universe. That was a driving factor in everything we did.

What do you mean by distinctively DC?

Gene: DC duperheroes have these symbols that look like letters, but aren’t necessarily letters. Like Superman’s, it looks like an S, but in stories, it’s a Kryptonian symbol for hope. Aquaman’s looks like an A, but in story, it’s like this ancient Atlantean glyph. For Monkey King, we wanted him to have a symbol that looked like an M for monkey, but really it’s actually a representation of Flower Fruit Mountain, which is where the Monkey King was born, right? The origin of his story, or the origin of his power. I mean, that’s something else too, right?

In DC comics, Flash wears a lightning bolt on his chest because that’s the origin of how he got his powers. Shazam also wears a lightning bolt because that’s how he got his powers. He was struck by lightning.

Bernard: Well, the chest insignia, I mean, not to sound corny, but I went to sleep after working on some stuff. Then woke up the next day with a dream about this design.

Sun Wukong came to you in a dream. That’s awesome!

Bernard: Well, sometimes when I sleep, I’m dreaming that I’m working and then I wake up and I’m like, “Oh, I’m a little behind on my deadline.” I’ve also fallen asleep drawing. That’s not very good too, but a lot of good stuff happens to sleep.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

DC Festival of Heroes: An Asian Superhero Celebration goes on sale May 11th, 2021.

The post DC Introduces New Hero in Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration appeared first on Den of Geek.

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mdelpin · 5 years

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To Kill A Dragon - Chapter 4

Previous: Ch 3 | Ch 4 | Next: Ch 5

Chapter 4: Questions Only Lead To More Questions

"Sting, we have a problem," Makarov disclosed to the image of Sting Eucliffe that appeared in the communication lacrima in his office, "Natsu's been taken."

"What?" Sting spluttered, shocked by the news that his hero could have been bested.

"Does it have anything to do with that cult you were telling me about, the Penta whazzits?"

"Penta Dragons," Rogue Cheney appeared in the lacrima beside his Master, looking at his friend with amusement, "Seriously, you couldn't remember the word dragon?"

Sting looked ready to retort, but Makarov took the opportunity to interrupt and get them back on track.

"We're not sure of anything at the moment, but I think the Penta Dragons are the most likely culprits. We know they were following him," Makarov reminded Sting.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Rogue appeared outwardly calm, but his eyes told a different story. They were wide and alert, and Makarov could almost feel that garnet gaze burn through him as Rogue stared at his face attentively, determined to take in every word. It reminded Makarov that the dragon slayers had grown closer since the events of the Grand Magic Games, quickly becoming a family of sorts.

"A shapeshifter pretending to be Erza was able to get close enough to take him."

"That's impossible," Sting instantly protested, leaning forward in his chair, "Natsu wouldn't have been fooled by a shapeshifter, especially not one pretending to be Erza."

Rogue nodded his agreement and proceeded to elaborate, "Even though shapeshifters can change their appearance, they can't imitate a person's scent. It would have been a dead giveaway for any dragon slayer."

Makarov pondered those words, weighing them against what he knew. He hadn't thought about that limitation being a problem. For most humans, it wouldn't have made a difference, but the Twin Dragons were right. Natsu should have picked up on that, unless...

"What was she doing?" Rogue interrupted his train of thought, bringing him back to the conversation.

"According to Gray, she was attempting to seduce Natsu, but he wasn't responding to her advances. Then our Erza showed up and distracted Gray, by the time they searched for Natsu, he was gone. We haven't been able to find any trace of him," Makarov informed them, his tone grim.

"I find that unlikely," Sting muttered, looking very serious. "I mean, who in their right mind would reject Erza?"

"Idiot!" Rogue chastised the Sabertooth Master, "Is that really what you're thinking about right now? Focus!"

Rogue sighed in a way that spoke volumes, shaking his head at his friend's antics, but sporting a subtle twinkle in his eyes. It revealed a fondness that Makarov found endearing, but it was soon replaced with distress as Rogue seemed to realize something.

"Master Makarov, I think Sting was approached as well."

"No, I wasn't," Sting disagreed, his tone leaving no doubt that this wasn't the first time the topic had been brought up, "I've already told you, that was different."

"Right," Rogue scoffed, the sarcasm in his voice unmistakable, "Cause it's not at all strange that Minerva just happened to show up in Era wanting to jump your bones."

"For the last time, it wasn't like that!" Sting huffed, glaring daggers at his friend as he seethed. "I never should have told you!"

"At least Natsu was smart enough to be suspicious," Rogue muttered under his breath, quietly enough that Makarov couldn't make out the words, but Sting's reaction was enough to show something unflattering had been said.

Both dragon slayers looked ready to fight, and Makarov knew he had to do something quickly before their bickering could escalate. Gods knew he'd had plenty of practice with Natsu and Gray.

"BOYS!" Makarov yelled in his most authoritative voice, "We don't have time for this."

Sting and Rogue brought their attention back to the Fairy Tail Master, looking somewhat embarrassed at their behavior.

"That's better," Makarov smiled kindly, "Now can one of you tell me what the hell you're talking about?"

"I apologize," Rogue bowed his head slightly in deference, "At the last Guild Master meeting, Sting bumped into Minerva Orland at Era, and she came on to him rather strongly."

Rogue glanced over at Sting, waiting for a nod from the Sabertooth Master before continuing, "She took him to a hotel and after... well when Sting woke up, he seemed to have been drained of his magic power." Rogue informed the Fairy Tail Master uncomfortably. "He's fine now, but I thought that was rather unusual."

"I have to agree with Rogue, that seems very suspicious given the current circumstances," Makarov had to keep himself from facepalming at Rogue's words, reminding himself Sting was still young and inexperienced.

He might have done the same thing at his age, but they'd just gotten done talking about dragon slayers being targeted! He took a deep breath to compose himself, not wanting to weaken the boy's confidence.

"Would it be possible for the two of you to come to Fairy Tail? I think it would be easier to have all the dragon slayers together to discuss this."

Sting and Rogue had a whispered conversation before turning back to the Fairy Tail Master, "We'll be there tomorrow morning," Sting replied, avoiding Makarov's gaze.

"Sting, we all make mistakes, it's how we learn. Someday I'll tell you some of mine." Makarov promised.

Sting rewarded him with a small smile as they said their goodbyes and Makarov ended the communication. He didn't like this one bit. If this was indeed the same person then why let Sting go and take Natsu? Was Sting a test run and Natsu the real target? Were the other dragon slayers in danger?

Makarov felt responsible, for all that he'd been upset with Sting he knew he wasn't without blame. He regretted that he hadn't taken the threat more seriously, this whole situation could've been avoided if he'd just put some measures in place to protect Natsu.

With how powerful the dragon slayers had gotten it was easy to forget how young and inexperienced they still were. It was a mistake he wouldn't repeat, already thinking of some countermeasures to protect the other dragon slayers.

Makarov left his office and went downstairs to check on his brats. He knew that Erza and Gray especially were having a hard time with Natsu's disappearance.

He found Gray sitting alone at a table, a dark aura surrounding his already gloomy person, but he looked up when he heard Makarov, an unmistakable glint of hope shining in his eyes. Makarov shook his head, and Gray seemed to shrink in front of him.

"Gray, this is not your fault," Makarov declared firmly, as he sat down next to him, knowing Gray was blaming himself for Natsu's disappearance.

"I just stood there, Gramps," Gray avoided his Master's gaze, but Makarov could see that the ice mage was clenching his fists so tightly they were turning an angry red. "I was so concerned by what I thought I was seeing, I never went to him."

Gray looked up at Makarov then, shoulders hunched and eyes wide, "I was right there Gramps, I should have been able to do something."

"You had no reason to suspect that wasn't Erza," Makarov insisted, attempting to sound reassuring.

Gray arched an eyebrow at his Master in disbelief. Makarov coughed awkwardly as he realized how ridiculous that sounded if Erza was acting the way Gray had described.

"Gray, whoever took Natsu was powerful enough to grab him before he could even put up a fight," Makarov held Gray's gaze wanting him to interiorize what he was about to say. "I understand the guilt you're feeling, son, but remember this, if you hadn't been there, we wouldn't even know he was missing."

Gray didn't look entirely convinced, but he gave a small nod. "What do you think they're doing to him?" The words were asked in a soft voice that tore at Makarov's heartstrings. He'd always known there was more friendship between the two rivals than what they showed, but it warmed his heart to see it.

"We can't afford to think about that," Makarov warned him, "Natsu is strong, you know that better than anyone. We must trust in that."

"I realize you're worried, we all are, but you have to hold on to the belief that we will find him soon," Makarov declared firmly.

"And when we do, we'll teach whoever took him what it means to go up against Fairy Tail," Makarov assured him, squeezing Gray's shoulder before leaving him to his thoughts.

He climbed on to the bar to address his guild, taking a moment to observe his mages. He didn't particularly like what he saw.

"Listen up brats," He boomed, waiting for everyone to stop talking and pay attention to him. "A member of our family has been taken from us against his will."

"Now, I know you're all worried and upset, and that's understandable."

He looked down at the crowd of mages that stared back at him, all wearing some degree of shock and exhaustion on their faces.

"I can promise you, we will stop at nothing to get him back, but right now the best thing we can do is to get some rest."

Natsu's teammates and the dragon slayers immediately protested, but Makarov remained firm. "We will begin our search again tomorrow."

Makarov took a moment to address the dragon slayers, "Gajeel, Laxus, and Wendy, we don't know whether Natsu was their only target so I must ask you not to go anywhere on your own. Please make sure you have at least one other mage with you at all times."

Once the dragon slayers nodded in agreement he addressed the other mages, "We have a powerful shapeshifter in play, you will let Mira know where you're going at all times. Now go home, we'll meet back here tomorrow morning."

There were a lot of murmurs and complaints, but the guild soon began to empty.

xxx

Sting and Rogue entered the Fairy Tail guild hall the following morning and looked around for the Fairy Tail Master.

"Good morning," Mira's greeting was a lot quieter than usual, but she still managed to be welcoming. "You're from Sabertooth, right?"

Sting and Rogue nodded, "We're here to see Master Makarov."

"The Master is expecting you," Mira gave them the biggest smile she could muster, "I'll let him know you're here." Mira walked to a door they'd never noticed before and knocked.

"Master, the dragon slayers from Sabertooth are here."

Makarov walked out of the room towards them. "Master Sting, Rogue, I'm glad you could make it," He shook their hands before leading them through the door he'd just exited and beckoning them inside.

Sting and Rogue followed the Fairy Tail Master into what looked to be a conference room. There was a large circular table that was filled with mages from the guild. They quickly recognized the other dragon slayers, as well as Natsu's teammates, but there was a blue haired mage they weren't familiar with.

"Now that everyone is here let's begin," Makarov showed the Sabertooth dragon slayers where to sit and waited for them to get settled. "I believe you're familiar with everyone here?"

"Almost everyone," Sting made a point of studying Levy.

"Ah, right. Let me introduce Levy McGarden, she is our resident Script Mage and scholar," Makarov smiled at Levy proudly, causing her to flush with pride.

Sting and Rogue nodded at her and waved, and she smiled at them in greeting.

"Alright then, let's not waste any more time. While updating Master Sting on our situation, it was brought to my attention that he might have been the target of a similar attack last week in Era."

All eyes fell on Sting, who concealed his discomfort by telling Makarov, "Just Sting is fine."

Erza stared at Sting, wondering nervously if the shapeshifter had been pretending to be her at the time. Sting returned her gaze, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

Rogue promptly smacked him on the head and scolded him, "Please take this seriously and don't be an ass."

Sting was about to protest but seemed to think better of it. He turned to Erza and assured her, "Don't worry, It wasn't you."

Erza looked relieved. She really hoped that Natsu had realized by now that she hadn't been the one to make those embarrassing advances on him.

"Based on what we've seen so far, it's likely that a sexual act is required to seize their magic. In Sting's case, it seems they were successful. They were able to take some of his magic, although we don't know for what purpose at this time."

"It's possible that they only took Natsu because he didn't cooperate, and will return him as soon as they drain him of his magic," Rogue added, trying to put a positive spin on the situation.

The male dragon slayers immediately looked at Wendy protectively, and she rewarded them with a shy smile.

"Laxus and Natsu had reported they were followed on several occasions, so we should consider Laxus a target as well," Makarov continued, looking at Laxus worriedly.

"Don't worry about me, old geezer. Even if they managed to take me, I'd show them what a huge mistake they'd made," Laxus assured his grandfather with a confident grin.

"Could their type of magic be relevant?" Lucy asked, "Natsu is fire and Laxus is lightning. Sting, what kind of dragon slayer are you?

"I'm a White Dragon Slayer, you could say my magic has to do with light," Sting informed her.

"Levy, have you come across anything in your research that has to do with those elements. Maybe in regards to that cult?" Makarov asked the blue haired mage.

"I haven't been able to find out much about them, and there aren't a lot of books about dragons. They stole most of the existing ones from the Magic Library so I can only guess at the moment."

She wrinkled her nose as she voiced her thoughts, "They call themselves Penta Dragons or Five Dragons, so maybe Sting, Natsu, and Laxus somehow represent three of those dragons. I'm not sure who the other two dragons would be though."

"We have air, iron, and shadow here. There's also that poison dragon from Oracion Seis," Wendy pointed out, "I don't know of any other dragon slayers.'

"So we could be looking at three more attacks," Makarov stated, "Why would they pick Minerva or Erza for Natsu?

"Sting's always had a thing for her," Rogue commented matter of factly.

"How would they know that though?" Makarov asked, "Just how long have they been watching?"

"If they've been watching then why Erza?" Lucy wondered, "That doesn't make sense, Natsu has never shown any interest in her. They could just as easily have picked Gray or me."

"Maybe it's just a matter of opportunity," Wendy theorized.

"Where would they have come into contact with Minerva?" Rogue asked, "Nobody has seen her since the Grand Magic Games. Could they have already been watching us then?"

"Who cares? How is any of this helping us find Natsu?" Gray exploded. He'd tried to remain silent, his frustration mounting with every pointless word discussed, but he couldn't take it anymore. Was he the only one that felt the urgency of the situation?

He was tired of all the questions leading nowhere. The temperature in the room began to get colder. "While we are sitting here talking he could be getting raped. You think that just because they might return him when they're done, that's okay?" Gray slammed his fist on the table, "What do you think that's going to do to him? If it was any of us, do you think he'd be sitting here listening to this crap?"

"Gray! We're all upset, but you need to trust that the Master is doing the best he can," Erza reprimanded Gray.

"I know it feels like we're not doing anything, but figuring this out might help us find him," Levy added quietly before getting lost in thought.

"How were they able to evade Laxus and Natsu's dragon slayer senses?" Levy muttered to herself. "What if we asked the Magic Council about the Penta Dragons? They might have more recent information on them."

Makarov didn't feel comfortable reaching out to the Magic Council yet. They always made everything more complicated than it needed to be and they could very well try to put limits on what he and Sting could do.

"I'd rather keep them out of it for now, " Makarov replied, and Sting nodded his head in agreement, "Once they get involved we'll lose control of the investigation."

"Did any of your dragons ever tell you anything that you think might be helpful here?" Makarov asked the dragon slayers.

"Metalicana didn't really talk about other dragons," Gajeel shook his head looking around at the others. The other first generation dragon slayers nodded in agreement. Their dragons had mostly been focused on training them in their magic.

"Alright then, Levy and Lucy you're to go to the Magic Library. See if they can provide you with a list of the books that were stolen and try to locate any books on dragons or dragon lore that the Penta Dragons might have missed."

Both mages nodded in agreement, and Makarov thought of something else, "Also, look for anything you can find on Tiamat herself. Erza, make sure they get there safely."

Erza acknowledged her orders, although she didn't look pleased.

"I would like for all the dragon slayers to stay here, especially you, Wendy," Makarov continued issuing orders, "If anything unusual happens, I want to know about it right away."

"What about me, Gramps?" Gray asked his Master. He really needed to do something.

"I want you to stay here with the dragon slayers in case we need to go on the offensive."

Gray sighed. Great, more waiting. He was already going crazy sitting around doing nothing. He hated to admit it to himself, but he was really worried about the Flame Brain. It wasn't like him to go down without a fight, and these people were playing dirty. The idea of Natsu being helpless didn't sit well with him. Natsu had never been weak, not even as a child. Gray should know, they'd been fighting since the day they'd met.

Where are you?

Gray had already felt so much loss in his life. He'd promised himself after he lost his Master Ur, that he wouldn't let anyone else in, but Fairy Tail didn't work that way.

Over the years, they'd all managed to worm themselves into his life and his heart, but none more so than his obnoxious, idiotic, tough as nails, pink-haired best friend.

Gray knew had their positions been reversed Natsu would've probably already used his enhanced sense to find and rescue him. Then he'd tease him mercilessly about being an Ice Princess. Gray would have happily put up with that if it meant his friend was safe.

Three more days would pass before he was given any orders.

A/N: This one gained about 1200 words but Sting and Rogue got a bit more depth which they deserved cause they are important characters in the story. Also added a bit more depth to Gray and Makarov’s interactions. Revised and edited May 06, 2019

#fairy tail #gratsu #ftlgbtales #update #fanfiction #sting eucliffe #rogue cheney #makarov dreyar #gray fullbuster #levy mcgarden #lucy heartfilia #erza scarlet #wendy marvell #mirajane strass #laxus dreyar #Gajeel Redfox #post gmg #tkad

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