#watch the mages guild ban this

[just-unearthed]

*blows up balls with mind*

[be-dazzled]

All Treats, No Tricks

Gray Fullbuster, Juvia Lockser October 31, 2023 Posted: Decemebr 26, 2023

Writer’s Corner: Months too late but I think the timing worked for me. The ending sounds and feels more wintery/christmas-y, isn't it? I don't feel like this one's good enough as compared to my Juvia Day entry so your honest feedback is very much welcomed. Help me improve!

All rights reserve to Hiro Mashima, original creator.

Masterlist

...

The cold season rolled in and seeped throughout the grounds of Magnolia. Its silent breeze knocked puny, tree branches against locked windows. It howled through the night, prowling the silent grounds of sleeping citizens. For those who made the mistake of forgetting to lock their windows, the October breeze pried into their room and wreaked havoc on all that it could carry. Easily targeted all that weighed close to none. Especially ripping off the pages on the wall calendar and revealing today’s date – October 31, Halloween.

After the fiasco that was the Fairy Tail Horror House of X791, that type of event was forever banned in the town of Magnolia. In its wake a new tradition was born where families were invited to decorate their homes to win lovely prizes, even encouraging them to hand out candies to children going around house to house, mage guilds included.

Rather than eerily quiet, Halloween in Fairy Tail was fun and lively.

The troublemakers – Natsu and Happy – had a good idea of wearing costumes to scare off the children who, in the words of Natsu the Demon King, “dared to enter my house of terror,” punctuating it with a high-pitched maniacal laugh that did not, at all, scare a living soul. But he was enjoying chasing after children who somehow believed Demon Kings existed and that they were ridiculously funny. Erza, wearing the shortest (skimpiest but no one dared to say it) witch costume, took up her sword and pretended to battle the Demon King. She was acting, she claimed but Lucy, the only writer in the room argued that it was an inaccurate depiction and didn’t make any sense plot-wise. Why would a witch have a sword when she had magic powers? But who would take a Leopard Girl seriously? Donned in a tight-fitting onesie that hugged her body like a second skin and accentuated all her dips and curves, Lucy the Sexy Leopard lost all credibility.

A certain ice-make mage, on the other hand, found it all juvenile. Yet, Gray was pursuing kids around the guild, the end of his tape costume riding the wind as he did. He wasn’t a scary mummy, he deduced, since instead of screams of terrors, the guild was filled with children’s ecstatic cheers and giggles. Well, half giggles and half scandalous because the end of Gray’s mummy tape got stuck on some pillar and pulled, making him a half-naked, pervert who happened to wear pants made of strip linen.

Erza smacked him on the back of the head.

So inappropriate.

But not as inappropriate as the thing that he was about to witness.

Juvia, Fairy Tail’s resident water-mage, wasn’t too comfortable with her assigned costume so she kept herself hidden backstage. She watched in the shadows as her comrades showed off their costumes, parading around the Fairy Tail building, welcoming their guests with booze (for the adults), colorful drinks (for the kids) and some imaginative snacks. She wondered how come the only thing that connected her decorated brassiere and the underwear that covered her nether region was just strings snaked around her torso. She asked Erza about it but the only answer she got was the mesh material on her head, some sort of see-through veil, its length reaching her waist but covered nothing. Plus, the heavy and expensive accessories around her neck, arms and wrists made the look less racy than it actually was. They lent her some air of distinct. She did a once-over in front of the mirror, twirling around to inspect herself and couldn’t help but think she might be missing a piece on her costume. Maybe a skirt to cover her lower body? Because she swore her bottom was hanging out.

Erza said the long veil on top of her head covered it enough and that she should stop worrying about it.

She really should worry about it.

Even if Mira and the already drunk Cana assured her that she would be the envy of the room and would surely get Gray the Half-Naked Mummy’s attention. The latter was enough encouragement though, which emboldened Juvia to come out of her hiding. That and finding her self-declared love rival enjoying her time with Mummy Gray, her beloved. She charged towards the two, about to bring hell to the Leopard Girl, when a soft breeze touched her exposed skin and Juvia had another think coming. But it was too late. She was out in the open now and everyone was hollering and whistling at her ensemble. As she watched her comrades strut around in their own Halloween costumes though – the moon princess Mira-chan; vampire Lisanna; Elfman and Evergreen in a couple’s costume ala Adam and Eve; the Thunder Legion Tribe in what appeared to be some sort of forest creatures (were they supposed to be Pokémon and was someone supposed to collect ‘em all?); and archery goddess Wendy – Juvia felt like she pulled the short end of the stick.

Because what the hell was she wearing?

It was a fucked-up gypsy dancer costume if you asked Gray. Beautiful, he’d go as far as saying it was nose-bleed-inducing, but definitely fucked-up. He wasn’t too happy about that.

Even Cana was modestly covered in her own fucked-up priestess costume.

People – ugly men, irritating old geezers, boys that weren’t Gray-sama – started coming up to Juvia with Macao and Wakaba in the lead. She made it obvious she wasn’t comfortable with their attention but the crowd had already gathered around her. She searched for the black spiky hair in it but found her precious Gray-sama still standing beside Leopard Girl. Summoning all her magic power, Juvia immediately fell into her fighting stance, about to tsunami all those perverts out of the way when her vision turned pitch-black.

“Eh?”

She extended her arm to feel for anything, anything at all, that could explain why she was instantly blinded, only to feel strong fingers grab her wrist and whiz her away from the complaining crowd.

“Eh!”

“I guess this is safe for now.”

She didn’t need her eyes to know who it was. Juvia could recognize that voice anywhere, even when it was broken by huffs.

“Gray-sama…”

“Oh, that’s right.”

He swiftly released his grip on her hand and Juvia pouted at the loss of contact. A sudden chill replaced the warmth that encircled her wrist. She didn’t like it.

“Sorry about that.”

“No!” Juvia cleared up, in case he might take it the wrong way, “Gray-sama shouldn’t apologize.”

The water mage wasn’t sure where they went or how far they had come from the guild. But wherever Gray was, she was always safe with him.

“You saved Juvia from the commotion.”

A commotion caused by her inappropriate appearance, Gray ought to say but decided not to. Instead, he said a terse ‘It was nothing’.

Her ears might have deceived her but Juvia could place a grin on his voice. She could imagine that small curve of his lips, wanting to see it with her own eyes but something was still blocking her view. Something soft and rather silky, heavy on her crown too. It covered her from head to toe. She clutched the unidentified veil in her fist and realized it was the same fabric as the covering of the long table back at the guild. Juvia tried to pull on the cloth, trying to get rid of the covering when Gray started speaking again.

“…something like that.”

The covering muffled Gray’s words. As she was trying desperately to uncover herself, Juvia only caught the tail end of what he was saying. She stopped for a moment, tipped her head to the side, deciding whether to ask him to repeat what he said, which would give Gray the impression that she wasn’t listening to him, or just pretend as if she heard him.

Sensing her confusion despite the wall of fabric between them, Gray repeated his words, this time a bit louder and very much clearer than earlier.

“Don’t wear something like that.”

It took her a moment to realize but Juvia caught on to what the ice-make mage meant. It was her scant costume. Remembering how some cloth and some strings strategically covered those areas, Juvia internally agreed with Gray. She shouldn’t be wearing something like that again, nodding her head furiously that she might just break her own neck.

“In public.”

He added before clearing his throat and inviting Juvia to walk around the neighborhood, not giving her an opening to say anything back about his last comment. Juvia had the tendency to twist his words, or rather, which was always the case, point out what exactly he wanted to say but couldn’t.

Don’t wear something like that in public.

He meant only to wear it for him in private, right?

Gray started toward the direction of the crowd, where most people were scattered in small groups. He was saying something Juvia was not able to hear through that thick white covering hanging over her. She followed where she assumed Gray was headed, straining her ears to listen to his footsteps whilst she blindly soldiered on through the veil-made darkness. The water mage was starting to get frustrated with the covering she’d been trying to get out of since earlier. Despite her efforts, she couldn’t find the beginning or end of that long, thick fabric weighing down on her with a smooth but consistent fall, much like her magic – a curtain of water.

Ironic.

And why was Gray not helping her at all? It wasn’t like he was busy keeping quiet since he had all the time in the world to run his mouth about god knows what. His talking was like a soft buzz in Juvia’s ears – a distant noise that didn’t make sense.

Despite the cold breeze and the fact that she was practically naked inside, her body was starting to feel hot. A sheen of perspiration started to form over her skin. The heavy covering not only successfully blocked her view but also any air in and out of her fabric jail.

“G-Gray-sama…” She called out but the thick veil separating them blacked the words out, “…help Juvia~”

Gray hadn’t paid her any attention (deliberately ignoring her or unintentionally forgetting, Juvia wasn’t sure) until the poor water mage kicked on an uneven terrain and tripped. She braced herself for impact, throwing her hands in front of her as she was about to fall on the pavement, face-first. But the impact never came. Instead, Juvia’s body was pressed against something hard. Not as hard as she remembered pavement should be though. Curiosity spurred Juvia to explore this not-a-pavement surface, flattening her palms on what turned out to be Gray’s firm pecs, the slightest bump giving her the idea that she might just be… touching on Gray’s...

She rubbed them just to make sure.

“Uhn… Ju-Juvia…”

And kneaded for better measure.

“T-that’s… he-hey…”

She was definitely right.

Gods do exist!

Juvia could hear the strain in his voice. And something else. Something she wasn’t familiar with. But worry bumped curiosity off first place. Gray sounded like he might be in pain and the idea horrified Juvia that she might be the reason for it. He did break her fall and she was comfortably using her as a human cushion. So, she slid her open palms lower, eliciting more low and strange noises from the man beneath her. She ignored the noise in favor of resting her hands over what she assumed was Gray’s abdomen, intent on pushing herself off him to free her poor savior from his distress. She was a little bit sorry that she had to use his body to do so. Which, unbeknownst to Juvia, was stirring something in Gray that should not be stirred. Not when they were in public like this.

Oh, if Juvia could see the ice-make mage’s reaction now – gritting his teeth and clenching his jaw.

She successfully leaned away, readying to pull her knees so she could prop herself up and fully get off of poor Gray when a cold breeze whizzed past them, magically finding the end of the frustrating veil and blew the hem of the fabric covering her body. Gray was a hero the second time when he slapped that cloth back to its rightful place. Saving the water mage from the embarrassment of public indecent exposure.

“Eeep!”

But bumping her to another level of embarrassment.

Gray only realized where his hands were touching when Juvia’s body wiggled and twisted above him. The force of his ‘heroic act’ slammed Juvia flatly on top of him again.

“G-Gray-sama felt Ju-Ju-Juvia’s bottom!”

She muttered, fidgeting at the heat that spread over both cheeks, either because Gray’s hands were still cupping her ass or the mere force of his slap, or both.

“So, G-Gray-sama was into this kind of… s-s-stuff?” She whispered to herself.

But that wasn’t a whisper. It was more of a loud musing because that one Gray heard through the fabric barrier between them.

“No!” He strongly denied it. “That’s… I’m not… hey!”

For a good minute, they were a tangled mess – him trying to, but very much cautiously, push her off of him, slipping on the fabric when he tried to stand up with Juvia still on top of him, and her trying to pull herself away from him, which proved to be a struggle since Gray just couldn’t stay still. It didn’t help that the thick cloth separating them from each other was too silky and slippery to the touch.

Gray could only cry how that freaking veil was the devil. The devil! And he quickly regretted whisking the long mantle off the table to cover Juvia with, until they finally detached themselves from each other. Both were breathless from the endeavor.

Passersby threw them ugly looks, which made Gray realize that covering Juvia with the table mantle was not one of his brightest ideas. He tried to rearrange the cloth, so that Juvia was still fully covered (her fucked-up costume hidden), but made it so that her head was popping out of the makeshift ghost costume so at least she could see where they were going and avoid another mishap. The water mage, thank goodness, stood still and quiet, as Gray secured the long textile around her neck with a knot made of his mummy tape. He smirked at his creation, proud of his quick thinking. Then broke into cackles he tried to suppress but couldn’t, scrutinizing her attire – a Juvia floating head. Now, that’s a true Halloween costume.

“Gray-sama shouldn’t be laughing at Juvia.” She bemoaned. “Not when he’s looking like that.”

Gray followed her eyes down his lower body to realize he was stripped down to his G x J boxers, using up what remained of his mummy tape costume on Juvia.

“Whoa!”

It was Juvia’s turn to laugh at him. But Gray took no offense to it and joined in, the both of them laughing together and at each other in their poor state. They were so stuck in their own world that Gray belatedly noticed the scandalized glare thrown at both of them – mostly on him – especially by children who were often told to wear something in public.

Gray scooped Juvia off the ground (which was totally unnecessary by everyone’s account) and whisked the water mage, a second time, away from the crime scene.

Young couples are too bold nowadays.

It’s probably because of the full moon.

...

Gray hid them at some back alley. He surreptitiously peeked through the corner, with an unusually quiet water mage still carried in both arms. Only after making sure no one was following after them, not the police or an angry mob, that Gray could finally puff a relief. He settled Juvia on the ground as gently as he could. And wondered why she was running out of breath when Gray did all the running.

“Are you alright, Juvia?”

“Y-y-yes.”

She stuttered. Round blue eyes were spinning like wheels on the run.

“Erm… are you sure?”

She sure didn’t look okay.

Gray was so accustomed to Juvia that he could read her like a book. Every word and every sentence he could easily interpret. And this reaction from her was probably caused by him bolting her away. He should have thought of his actions thoroughly because who knows what Juvia’s creative imagination must have conjured of him holding her in a bridal carry.

Gray and Juvia’s wedding? Them on their honeymoon, crossing the threshold into their master bedroom? Probably, both.

He settled a hand on her shoulders. The thick eyebrows on his forehead were knitted – quite bothered by the possibility that she could still slip into her imaginary land when she had the real thing right in front of her now. Unlike before, Gray had become more receptive to her feelings. And unlike before, he made conscious actions to show that he returned those very feelings. Had he not made it clear to her?

“Juvia…”

His coaxing willed Juvia back to reality, to where she and Gray were in a back alley hiding.

“Juvia is okay, Gray-sama.”

Her blue eyes returned to normal and Gray could slip a sigh of relief. Without a need to worry now, Gray retrieved his hand and suggested they come back to the guild when Juvia’s made-shift cloak started to come undone. Her Halloween costume – the brassiere connected with some barely-there knots – peeked through the opening and threatened to reveal itself in its full glory. Which was bad for Gray for the following reasons: a) Juvia was still half-lying on the ground; b) they were in some dark, back-alley; and c) they were alone in that dark alley.

And d) he was still just wearing his boxers.

“Ju-Juvia!”

But it was Gray’s fingers that yanked the edges of the loosening drape and clasped them together against her chest. Another bad idea of Gray’s now that his fists were pressed down against her breasts. Soft and quite big. Not that it surprised him. He was very much familiar with how Juvia’s breasts felt to the touch. Not that he openly touched them either. Opportunities just happened to present themselves to him. Oh how tortured and conflicted he was. That stirring inside his stomach earlier was rapidly brewing into something that shouldn’t be brewing.

“Uhn…”

What a cute voice!

Damn, it was like the universe was trying to tell him something.

Gray yanked his evil hands and put them back to his side. Away from Juvia’s soft mounds.

“S-s-sorry.”

But that lecherous costume was taunting him again, the deep valley of her breasts peering through the slightest opening. He ordered himself to look away but his sinful eyes did not stray even just a little. So, he chose to just fight the rising heat that burned his cheeks. If she asked, he could blame that one on the weather.

Gray cleared his throat. Thinking that by doing so, Juvia might not notice him ogling. He reached out his hands and started to tighten the mummy tape again around her neck. There was a crisp silence between them, which Gray appreciated. Juvia’s focused gaze at his hands was reason enough for him to struggle to steady his fingers as he looped the tape. But in the end, he was able to fix it.

“All done.”

She thanked him with a lovely smile – the kind that always followed him in his dreams. The warm smile that kept him company when he was alone. The low howl of the October breeze made him aware that they were in a dark alley where people scarcely passed through. It had a wicked way of conjuring today’s moments that the courteous Gray would rather tuck safely into the back of his memory – when Juvia stepped out of hiding in her inappropriate costume; when he unintentionally spanked and cupped her butt-cheeks; when Juvia rubbed her palms over his breasts; and when he fastened the ends of the cloth and accidentally pressed on her soft mounds. These memories he’d rather bury in the depths of his consciousness and only unearth them when he was alone.

Right now, he wasn’t alone. He was with Juvia, the star of those evoking memories, in a place where there was little to no chance of anyone walking in on them if Gray allowed some of his dreams to come alive. Clandestine. He stopped that thought and suggested they walk back to the guild. He needed the exercise.

Juvia pointed out to him his current state and Gray miraculously found some cloak flapping with the wind, hanging outside somebody’s window. It was black, a total contrast to Juvia’s white ones. He figured no one was going to miss that drabby old cloak.

As they took the route to the guild, Gray considered walking Juvia to Fairy Hills instead. But remembered he was barred from showing even just his shadow there. His ban has yet to run its course so the guild – the very place they left earlier – was the sensible place to go, especially since he and Juvia were just wearing make-shift coverings that could unravel anytime. They had to avoid crowds.

Gray was deep in thought when a flash of blue caught his eyes. He snapped his head in its direction, eyes widening in awe at what his vision revealed.

“Look Juvia!” He pointed the all-smiling, happily distracted Juvia to a decorated house where three or four children were walking up to its stoop. “It’s you.”

Juvia followed the direction of Gray’s pointing and scanned the surroundings for anything that resembled herself or whatever it was that reminded her beloved of the water-mage. Surely, it must not have been the waving tube decoration, flapping around something that, when you squint your eyes at the right angle, resembled arms. Or the scary-looking life-sized doll made of blue hay, wearing what appeared to be a blow-up replica of Juvia’s hat. That must not be how he saw Juvia, right?

Without receiving an answer to these questions, Juvia was suddenly yanked against Gray’s side. One arm hung over her shoulder; the weight pulled them both down to a crouch like they were hiding. Their cheeks were close, sharing a border, but not touching, not yet at least. They were just close enough for Juvia to feel his breath on her now-flushed cheek when he covertly spoke to her.

“That one. She looks exactly like you.”

Juvia caught herself gawking at him, at Gray’s face which was fully and resolutely turned to the direction where he was pointing her to. She felt slightly guilty about that because one, that wasn’t even the first physical touch they’d shared just counting the ones they had tonight (not the most daring one either); and two, Gray was heartily showing her something. So, Juvia summoned her focus and followed his direction – towards the girl who was giddily jumping at receiving tons of candies into her basket, the kid version of Phantom Lord Juvia. She was donned in Juvia’s blue winter coat, a teru-teru bozu hanging by the clasp of her collar, and a cute Juvia hat merchandise sitting neatly atop her little head.

Juvia felt a pang in her heart. It was her in the rolled hairstyle the water mage got rid of to forget about that version of her. As the little girl skipped down back to the main road, Juvia felt sorry for the little girl. No child should model after her. Back then, she wasn’t her best self. She was strong yet lonely. Isolated by her own rain. Physically attractive yet gloomy that warmth and fun were foreign concepts to her. A smile, a true warm smile, had never even touched her lips. Simply, ugly. If she could only keep that image to herself and tuck it away where no one else could find it, she would have done so.

The Juvia of the present, the Juvia after joining Fairy Tail, after finally being accepted and loved for who she was and who she was not, was unquestionably the best version of herself yet.

But that twinge was pushed away by the slight curve of Gray’s lips. Warm. Affectionate. Proud. He was still looking at that little girl, at kid Phantom Lord Juvia, with eyes full of interest. Never left her figure as she turned around and hollered at the other two girls on the walkway. Her other two friends looked like shrunken versions of other Fairy Tail members, slowed down by their argument about who collected more candies between them.

“There’s Erza and Mira-chan too.” Gray chuckled. “Brings me back.”

Juvia forgot all about her own thinking, dumbfounded by the look on Gray’s face. Even when the curve on his lips was subtle it was also telling. Because Gray could picture so clearly how the actual Erza and Mira-chan, when they were at the same age as those kids, would squabble over the smallest and silliest things. Much like the kids rounding up their group of three with Juvia-chan. His mind flew to that rare moment when all the kids in the guild were huddled up together in an unusually peaceful group waiting out the night. Simply remembering pulled the corners of his mouth into a small smile – not wistful, not longing, just… content.

Before he even thought of it, Gray was already starting on his feet, with Juvia following closely behind and then, naturally, fell beside him. Stepping into the same stride, the same pace as his. Juvia had caught up to him again, naturally. It had been like that between them for years now. Words have become so moot and inadequate. It was as if they were operating on feelings alone. Like it was the only way they could clearly and completely convey their inner thoughts. And so, with no invitation required, Gray and Juvia explored the neighborhood, feasting their eyes at the sight of scattered children in all sorts, shapes and colors of costumes.

The children walked up to houses. Their eyes shone at the treats dropped inside their baskets. Some ran out screaming in terror, receiving childish and mean scares instead of sweet treats. Others gleefully skipped along the side of the road while peeking inside each other’s loots. The two Fairy Tail mages, however, glowed in pride at the insinuation that the kids put Fairy Tail in such high regard to dress up like them, as members of the strongest guild in the whole of Fiore.

Wasn’t it that imitation was the highest form of flattery?

Out of nowhere, Gray and Juvia started a contest of whoever could spot and recognize Fairy Tail look-alikes more. They discreetly point the children to each other – finding a little Lucy with a mermaid Aquarius who can walk on foot in this version, or the entire Lightning God Tribe whose version of Laxus put on some balloons in place of the original’s muscles.

They spotted another Juvia, this one much younger than the first one they saw earlier, around five or six years old maybe, donning polka-dotted leggings. She had a long-haired older boy in her tail, who she addressed as onii-san, carrying her basket for her. It was quite a picture for Gray, the little girl scolding the older kid, who both Gray and Juvia agreed resembled an Iron Dragon Slayer. At least, even in make-belief, Gray got to see Gajeel being ordered around.

They strolled deeper into the neighborhood and found out that the wizard costumes were not limited to Fairy Tail mages. Gray even flinched at a spitting image of a young but much more handsome (in Gray’s biased opinion) Lyon Vastia. But Juvia noted his mood became even livelier when they met the Lyon impersonator, despite Gray-sama’s act and words of displeasure. At that, Juvia hid a chuckle behind her hand, which Gray noticed.

They hadn't walked that far from where they met and were greeted by a polite version of the fire dragon slayer, when Juvia noticed Gray’s mood turn sullen, even if he tried to hide it with a small but dry grin. She ha dan inkling why. They must have seen ten or twenty versions of Natsu but not a single one of the ice-make mage.

Even Juvia wasn’t happy about that.

“Gray-sama…”

“You want to go back?” He jumped in, not liking the way she looked and sounded worried.

Gray already knew what she was about to say. But it seemed he’d rather not talk about it. Respecting his feelings, the water-mage simply returned his smile, hers understanding and much more genuine than his forced one.

“If Gray-sama prefers.”

“Alright then.”

They turned around, about to take the path back to where they started when something round and hard hit Gray right at the stomach.

“Sorry, Oji-san!”

A small boy bumped into him with a force enough to sway Gray but not to make him lose his balance. He first checked that his basket of candies was intact before the little boy with messy black hair beamed up at him, his smile was pulled so wide that his eyes were almost shut. Cheeks all puffed and flushed and chubby and cute.

He probably got away with anything armed with that smile.

“Greige?!”

But like the other kids his age, the boy quickly abandoned the stranger he bumped into and caught up with his friends.

“Wait for me!”

Gray quickly spun around. A seed of hope sprouted within him, urging his feet to move. He wanted to follow the kid and confirm his suspicion but his own logic stopped him, rooting him in his spot. That would have been impossible. How would Greige cross over Earthland? That boy might have been wearing a zipped-up coat with fluffy collar, the same one Gray remembered Greige of Edolas was wearing, but how could he cross over to their world? Impossible.

Hope had sprouted into longing.

“Greige?”

Juvia’s confusion and Gray’s sudden realization that Juvia was still completely unaware of their child’s existence in another world, pulled him out of his reverie.

“Um… I said ‘engage’.” He quickly lied, feeling warmth rise to his cheeks despite the cold October breeze blowing at them. “I thought he was an enemy or somethin’.” Yet even to him, he wasn’t that convincing.

But how was he supposed to tell Juvia he saw a kid who could pass as a doppelganger of the son they would have in the future but who was already existing as the child of Gray Surge and Juvia, a version of them who were already married and lived and breathed in Edolas?

If Juvia knew about their Edolas counterparts, she would sulk all week and demand that they too get married and make a baby. They weren’t at that point in their relationship yet. They haven’t even kissed! Through no fault of Juvia, of course. Even though she had given her consent to it in no limited terms, Gray just didn’t… he just wasn’t… confident enough.

“Let’s go back, Juvia.”

“Oh, okay.”

He wounded a firm arm around Juvia’s shoulder and secured her at his side to stop the water-mage from looking back at the boy who reminded Gray of his future son. He chanced a last glance at him though and decided his hair was too spiky and a shade lighter than the boy in his memory. He was too tall and too animated to be his prim and proper little Greige.

His mind was probably playing tricks on him.

“Greige.” Juvia tested the name on her tongue. She liked the sound of it, she told Gray, making the man sweat a little.

“H-h-hey Juvia, I told you that’s not what I said.”

“He looked a little bit like Gray-sama, didn’t he?”

Gray couldn’t seem to understand, or rather that he couldn’t believe how Juvia’s soft eyes, that loving gaze that seemed to be only directed at him, had always been a source of comfort. He couldn’t at all wrap his head around the phenomenon of her smile shining so bright to the point that it was blinding, yet he was incapable of looking away.

“You think so?”

She just made a sound, a cute little hmm, eyes now glistening with that gentle mix of pride and joy. Gray couldn’t even fathom how Juvia could grow even more beautiful each day.

Gray glanced back at the boy reuniting with his friends, looking for his own qualities in him. Maybe his dark, unruly hair could be attributed to the ice-mage but the little boy was wrapped in a winter coat, and Gray was known for unwrapping himself from any clothing.

No harm in imaging it though, that maybe the little stranger was copying Gray.

He wasn’t.

Gray wasn’t imagining it when the boy with unruly hair pulled his elbows back to form some sort of hand stance. He definitely did not need to humor himself when he heard the kid say “ice-make…” and pretended like magic power was coming out of his open palms and attacked his friends.

Maybe if Gray got over himself…

“Juvia… are you cold?”

“Hmm?”

And step out of that darkness that was holding him back.

“My place…”

Then maybe…

“… is nearby.”

He didn’t need to imagine anything anymore.

“Yes, Gray-sama.”

[isabellafoster13]

This was requested on Tumblr by stargirlspystudent.

LyLu is seriously growing on me more than it already has. This is such an underrated ship!

I hope you enjoy!

Romeo! Stop! (Lyon x Lucy ft. Romeo and Wendy)

Lucy sat at the bar, sipping on a strawberry milkshake and reading her favorite book for the umpteenth time. She enjoyed the calmness of the guildhall and the freedom from her teammates. Natsu and Happy had gone off a job together, Gray was somewhere with Juvia, and Erza was at Fairy Hills due to a fierce fever.

The blonde looked closed her book and turned around to look at her guildmates. Levy and Gajeel were talking about something while Panther Lily chowed down on a large bowl of kiwis, Mira was laughing as Macao and Wakaba flirted with her, Laxus and the Thunder Legion were sitting at their usual place as they talked about something they seemed to interest all four of them, and the rest of the mages were drinking, talking, or looking at the job request board.

Lucy smiled at the sight, sighing contentedly. She turned back around to continue drinking her milkshake and resume her book. A few minutes passed when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She turned around to find Lyon standing there, his hands stuffed into his coat's pockets.

Lucy closed her book and laid it on her lap, speaking as she did so, "hey, Lyon! What are you doing here?"

She watched as Lyon looked back at the mages behind him, as if he was scanning the crowd and looking for someone, before he looked back at her and answered, "I came to visit."

Lucy raised an eyebrow and questioned, "really? You're not here to visit a certain someone?" Her smile widened. knowing that he had feelings for Juvia.

Lyon shook his head as he sat next to her. "I just don't have anything else to do. I've been banned from going on jobs because I injured my leg on the last one."

"Really? I thought that you wanted to see Juvia."

"No. I've moved on from her."

Lucy looked at him in surprise. "You have?" When the man nodded, she grinned at him again as she questioned with a teasing tone, "who do you have your eyes on now?"

She watched as Lyon blushed and looked away from her as he stuttered out a sorry attempt at an answer. She laughed at his reaction and leaned away from him, resting against the bar behind her. She then asked, dropping her teasing, "were you looking for Gray?"

Lyon shook his head again. This confused Lucy. Surely he had a reason beyond a simple visit to be here. She then asked, "so, you were just planning to hang around?"

Lyon chuckled before he nodded. "yeah, I guess. Although, I was also kind of hoping for a fight with him."

Lucy laughed at that. She took a sip of her milkshake and questioned, "how have you been? How's Lamia Scale?"

"Pretty good. Lamia Scale is Lamia Scale. Sherry and Ren are going steady."

"That's great."

"How have you and your friends been?"

"Great. Natsu and Happy are on a job, Gray and Juvia are somewhere, and Erza is sick."

Lyon turned on his stool and rested an arm on the bar to face Lucy. He opened his mouth to speak when Lucy clamped a hand over his mouth and muttered to him, "be quiet."

Lucy felt Lyon push her hand off of his face, but she didn't know if he followed her gaze to look at what she was staring at, as her eyes were locked on Romeo and Wendy walking out of the guild through the back doors. She stood up and followed after the two young teenagers, worry rising from within her. She heard Lyon follow after her, but she paid him no mind. Yesterday, she had heard Romeo inform his father that he was going to confess his feelings to Wendy. The problem with this, however, was that Wendy and Chelia were already dating. Lucy knew that Romeo was in for a world of hurt and this knowledge caused her to feel the need to comfort him.

The two mages ended up hiding behind the slightly open back doors of the guildhall, listening to the conversation that was happening on the other side. Romeo was the first to speak, "Wendy, I have something I need to tell you."

Wendy responded instantly, "of course, Romeo! What is it?"

There were a few seconds-long hesitations before Romeo finally spoke, "I love you, Wendy, and I want to ask if you'd like to go on a date with me?"

Then, there was silence. Lucy tightened her grip on the doorknob, her heart twisted in sympathy for Romeo. After what seemed to be hours, Wendy gave her answer, "I'm sorry, Romeo, but I don't feel the same way. I'm sorry."

When the door began to open, Lucy and Lyon moved out of the way, both watching as Wendy walked past them and back into the guild. Lucy quickly moved through the open back doors and make her way to Romeo. She placed her hands on the boy's shoulders as she mumbled, "are you alright?"

Romeo was silent for a few moments before he pushed her away and walked back into the guildhall. Lucy watched him with worry clear on her face. She looked at Lyon when he asked, "Are you okay?"

Lucy shook her head, answering, "never mind me." She then looked back at the now-closed doors and muttered, half to herself and half to Lyon, "I have a bad feeling."

"I think you're overthinking this."

Lyon and Lucy walked toward Fairy Hills, looking for Romeo. Lucy responded, "I just need to make sure that Romeo doesn't try to do anything that'll ruin Wendy and Chelia's relationship."

"What makes you think that he will?"

"Romeo is still a kid and kids don't think things through, especially when they are hurting."

"Hm...I suppose that makes sense."

"Look, you can go back to the guild, but I need to find Romeo."

"No. I'll come with you. I don't really know any of your other guildmates, so I wouldn't have anything to do."

"Besides wait for Gray so you can kick his ass?"

"Exactly!"

Lucy and Lyon chuckled. When the celestial wizard looked back at the Fairy Hills building, she spotted Romeo walking up to the doors. Lucy called as she rushed toward him, Lyon following after her, "Romeo! Stop!"

The young fire mage turned around and watched as the two mages ran to him, waiting for them to reach him before he snapped, "why are you here?"

Lucy raised her hands, worry clear on her face, and she spoke, "Romeo, what are you doing?"

Romeo turned back around, answering, "nothing that concerns you."

When he reached for the doorknob, Lucy caught sight of a piece of paper in his hand. She launched forward and snatched it away from him, dodging as the young teenager tried to grab the paper back. Lucy looked at what she was holding, finding that in her hand were two pieces of paper. She opened them both and found that they were short letters, one addressed to Wendy and the other to Chelia. They were each full of insults toward the young girls.

Lucy turned to Romeo and demanded, "what are these?"

She allowed Lyon to look at the letters as Romeo tried and failed to come up with something to say. Before Lucy could scold the kid, Lyon berated him, "you can't really think that this is a good idea! Look, kid, rejection hurts, nobody will deny that, but that doesn't give you any right to interfere in someone else's relationships."

Romeo started, "but-"

Lyon interrupted, "Quiet! Wendy told you that she isn't interested, and you need to accept that!"

The ice-make mage continued to scold Romeo, however, his voice was muffled as Lucy watched him. She felt her cheeks heat up and her stomach was filled with butterflies as she took notice of the man's attractiveness, especially when he was impassioned. How had she never noticed until now? Why was she just now noticing? She placed a hand over her heart, feeling that it had picked up its pace slightly.

"...right, Lucy?"

She was brought out of her thoughts when Lyon looked at her, his brow furrowed. Lucy looked between him and Romeo before she said, "um...yeah...yes, Romeo, you can't ruin Wendy's relationship just because she rejected you! She is happy and you are just going to have to get over her!"

Romeo looked down at the ground before he huffed and walked away, toward the guildhall. Lyon commented, "I don't think he's entirely convinced."

Lucy responded, "I'll talk to his father."

"Good idea. Hey, Lucy."

Lucy turned to Lyon as she gave a short hum in response, waiting for him to continue. The ice-make mage looked at her with a charming smile on his face and a faint blush dusted across his cheeks as he asked, "would you like to go out sometime?"

Lucy felt her cheeks heat up once again. She looked away, a smile spread across her face, before she answered, "I'd really like that."

[howlingwolf23]

Fem!Inquisitor has twins headcanon

Cole finds out first, even before the inquisitor- how does one body have three souls

Inquisitor- what?

Cole- well there is you but there is 2 little yous with different thoughts and feelings

After the babies are born, girl and boy, the crew is just one big parent group with Cole and Sera being more like big siblings.

Cole is extremely helpful when the babies are crying as he can feel exactly what is upsetting them.

As news spreads of a baby in skyhold, dignitaries visit and an argument quickly erupts. Half say there is 1 baby, half say there is like 30 babies. It is quickly apparent that visitors don't even know who the actual parents are. Leliana finds out and spreads even more rumors.

Cullen carrying a baby during battle practice and at the war table. Bull running drills with the Charges with a baby in his pocket. Josephine has a baby corner behind her desk. Dagna creates special cleansing runes to help keep the babies clean. In the rotunda, they install a bucket and winch to pass the baby between Solas, Dorian, and Leliana. Dorian always hands off the baby when a changing is needed. Sera has been banned from changing as she used the dirty diapers for pranks one time. Viviene says she hates kids, "nasty, dirty, gremlins. Almost as bad as Sera" but is always getting top quality items for the babies. Dorian and Vivienne buy the best fashions for the baby. It has become a war of Orlais fashion vs Tevinter fashion. Cole hides diapers around skyhold so there is always a fresh diaper within reach. Bull first commissions Blackwall to whittle a wooden ax for the babies. Others joined in and the babies quickly have an arsenal of wooden weapons. Krem gifts Bull a cloth hammock that fits between his horns to carry the babies and rock them to sleep. It started as a joke but he actually uses it.

Someone finds out it's the inquisitor twins

Person- So where are the babies

Inquisitor- Around

P- you don't know do you?

I- not even a little

P- aren't you worried

I- not at all. Why would I be?

P- what if someone tries to attack the baby?

Inquisitor scoffs and laughs, then stops - oh you're serious. I'd like to see someone try.

P-what do you mean?

I- the babies are always being watched, the kingdom can't tell how many babies there is or isn't, or who the parents are. Even if they find out, they are either with me, a royal ambassador, a seeker, a spy master, captain of the guards who was a Templar knight, a warden, the first enchanter, heir to a tevinter house, a famous dwarf with close connections to the merchant guild and friends with the hero of kirkwall, the best mercenary crew, a red Jenny, a literally spirit, an arcane advisor to empress Celine and daughter to the witch of the wild who has an elven god in them, a powerful mage with extensive knowledge of the fade, spirits, and lost knowledge, and other menagerie of others. If someone even dare tries, there is not a single place they could hide in the world where they would be safe.

[poorly-drawn-akira]

Jojo’s Bizarre Fantasy Lore Masterpost

Locations:

Kimyonah- Name of the Pangea-esque continent where the majority of people live excluding small island populations and populations beneath the oceans. Cities: Bohken- A relatively centrally located city-state. A central hub for trading of all kinds and neutral ground for diplomatic meetings. It hosts the Council of Races, a collection of representatives from a handful of Kimyonah's races who wish to view policies as a collaborative effort.

Orinoco- An underwater city of the Moringua people. Their ruling city. It is the only settlement of the Moringua Empire that is partially above water. This part is the hall where the king receives foreign dignitaries, diplomats, guests, etc. Nalion- A small, peaceful kingdom open to all, regardless of past or race.  Was founded by a man named Erikson, but is currently lead by his son.  Though officially labeled as a kingdom, Nalion functions more like a closely knit town. Its western border is lined by the coast, and its northern, southern, and eastern borders are lined by forest. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Vyliesi- A western kingdom that is mainly populated by humans.  It's customs are fairly old-fashioned, though the current king is trying to change this.  It is said that this land is home to pegasi, and its terrain is fairly mountainous. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Hilonia- A desert kingdom that not much is known about. It is said that the inhabitants are all 'wild animals', and most who try and travel there never return for one reason or another. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Ashen Grounds- A medium sized, recently discovered place that resides within a decrepit forest. The kingdom got that name because when it was discovered, the whole chunk of it had seemingly no live fauna, making it hard to breath, the ground permanently stained with ash, there are barely any buildings except for the jagged pikes of stone, and large castle of obsidian. The only “living” things inhabiting there are the king himself and these sentient constructs made out of ash and fire magic. (by kalos-absurd-crusade)

Riposo:  A fortress city that was originally used as a strategic point to intercept other nation invasions.. Now though it houses many adventures and their respective guilds.  A place that is always bustling with people with requests for adventurers.  With requests being as simple as gathering herbs, to battling the most fearsome of monsters. (by asknerdizzy)

Cielo:  A city in the clouds that is mostly populated by avian like species.  It is a city that rarely ever lets anyone enter.  The residents who choose to leave can’t enter again unless on urgent business with a seal of approval from a ruler.  This is all due to a massacre that happened when someone brought in an unknown individual who seemed to know the city’s layout beforehand without them ever entering it.  It was suspected that one of their own was behind it, so this rule was set in place.   It’s highly guarded, with mages working around the clock casting anti-intelligence magic.  The city is filled with high class individuals, and relics of the Gods that most be protected at all costs. (by asknerdizzy)

Villages: Morven- A small village located in the Kaldae Mountains inhabited by humans. Winters can be rough, but it is sustained by snow runoff in the warmer months, which allows the villagers to store enough food for these winters. Due to it's isolation, they rarely trade. Malik-Kei is worshiped as a guardian of the village who protects it’s inhabitants through the tough winters. A shrine to her resides on the south side of the village. It houses her stone.

Aether- Tree bound village of the Gruidae people. Due to a near genocide that only halted 30 years ago, Aether was established as a magically protected city for Gruidaes.The main temple of Crah-Dia is located in it’s center, and there are several members of the Fellowship of Everyday Miracles who live within Aether who serve to protect it. Wasamond-  A small village under the lake of Bridgegar Thicket for merfolk, it's mainly women and children but there are mermen. It's a place to avoid the unstable conflict of the seas. (by moriohs-little-demon) Rootwood- A small village built and inhabited by the Elzen people. (by dio-of-shadows)

Landmarks: Kaldae Mountains- A large mountain rage in the north-east of Kimyonah. It contains the isolated village of Morven. Morven is located on one of the lower peaks, Malik-Kei, named by the people of Morven for their guardian spirit of the same name. Bridgegar Thicket- A forest with a large lake in the middle. The forest is bordered by nigh impenetrable thick, thorny brush. Due to being unable to see past it, most creatures write the forest off as nothing of value. Openings to the forest are only passable by taurfolk and nature spirits. (by moriohs-little-demon) Thalai's Grove: named after a rumored dragon that was laid to rest there, the grove is home to a large lake with an under ground cave system. In the caves, there is a shrine to the god of health, Taymos, where Elves would pray for good health and leave gifts of food, wine and gold. (by hold-my-flowercrown) Eternity Graveyard - A desolate wasteland was a battlefield where warriors from several different nations clashed for supremacy. It now serves as the home base of The Brotherhood of Eternity, and has been the sight where many adventurers meet their end. (by dio-of-shadows)

Battaglia:  An underground  Coliseum lays under the city of Riposo.   It was once, and still is, used as a shelter to the people in times when the city is under siege.  The Coliseum itself is protected with many Magic runes lining its walls that makes it difficult to destroy from most magic.  When the city is not under attack the Colosseum is used to advertised adventures and their skills.  Usually battling other adventures or caught monsters in the ring.  Some common folk come down to watch the spars for entertainment, some watch to find new people to join their groups, and some bet on the battles.  These bets are what largely helps with the financial upkeep of the Colosseum.  The inner hallways of the Colosseum are filled with many stalls for blacksmiths to advertise their wears to the people. The more powerful weapons are bought here. (by asknerdizzy)

---------------

Races:

Humans: Humans are as the name implies. However, they can possess varying levels of magical ability. Witches- Humans who have above average magical abilities. White and black witches exist. White witches may form guilds in order to train others and to more effectively do good, but it's not uncommon to encounter lone white witches. Black witches tend to chose to be alone, although rumors of a guild exist. Black witches may not actively seek to do harm, but what sets them apart from white witches is a desire to grow their power whether that be through deals with demons, rituals, etc.

Half Bloods: Demons- Half demons are typically the result of a masculine demon and a feminine mortal creature (usually humanoid). Half demons tend to possess some level of dark magic and horns of some kind, although these horns tend to be smaller in size compared to a full demon. Other indications may include odd body markings, animal body parts such as legs or paws, and, very rarely, extra eyes or wings. Half-Demons are considered to be rare. They also often gather a following from cults, and they can become immortal and maintain this immortality if they consume the souls of the damned at an extremely high rate. (added by dio-of-the-shadows) Dragons-

Humanoids: Arisen- A blanket term for any creature brought back to life by necromancy. Typically, an Arisen was human, but most humanoids can be subjected to the process. An Arisen will maintain their personality and memories without additional spells being applied. An Arisen cannot heal themself when injured and has no need for sleep or for food. If an Arisen is taken too far from who resurrected them, they will begin to decay.  Their creation is frowned upon, if not outright banned and/or punishable by execution, by most settlements and races.

Gruidae- Tall humanoids who can take the form of a crane. In their humanoid form, they have small feathery tufts resembling small wings where other humanoids would have ears. Over the past few centuries, they were nearly wiped out entirely for their feathers and blood, both of which were widely used in potion crafting. The remaining population resides almost entirely in Aether, and allow themselves to be governed by the Council of Races, of which they have a member in. Whoever is elected for the Council also serves as Aether's governor. Akumaoni- A race that is considered to be the guardians of the afterlife.  They are humanoid in appearance, though they typically have horns, sharp teeth, and their pupils are always little more than a slit.  They are said to work beside the gods, and even are considered a part of the Renian Pantheon, and their numbers are few. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Komoriberi- Humanoids with the ability to transform into bats. While in humanoid form, they retain thier wings, fangs, and have bat-like ears. Their diet mainly consists of fruit and small animals, and though they are often mistaken for vampires the sun has no more affect on them than it does on a normal human. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Dragons- Humanoids that have the ability to transform into a... well a dragon.  The exact type of dragon can vary (as can size), and most have some sort of elemental affinity.  While in their humanoid form they will not have access to many of their abilities, though they will usually have horms and some may have wings as well. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Divine Dragons- Similar to dragons, but have an extended lifespan and divine powers as they are considered to be gods. It is possible for a dragon to only be half divine if only one of their parents is of the divine lineage, in which case they will have little divine powers if any at all. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Dryads- An all female species of spirits that reside in the forests. They punish trespassers and keep peace in their forest by any means necessary. While they aren't immortal, they do have a very extended life expectancy compared to humans, about triple that of the average healthy adult human male. (by moriohs-little-demon)

Angels:  A Humanoid race that has the only avian trait of wings sprouting on their backs.  They are more adapt with the magic affinity of light and fire than some species and have a longer life span than humans. (by asknerdizzy) Okami- A race of wolf folks. They keep themselves away in the woods and the outlands of the continent. Being canines, they are actually omnivorous, and hold no ill will towards other species. However, during full blood moons, they become irrational and feral, attacking anything in sight (by moriohs-little-demon) Werewolves- Infected creatures who take on the tails, ears, and rough warm furlike hair of the Okami. However, they keep most of their original race's appearance during the daytime. They experience feral instincts more often as they are not raised to overcome the animal instinct to hunt, happening every full moon. (by moriohs-little-demon)

Elves: Elzen- Elves recognizable by their pointed ears and mastery of magic. Once every 100 years there is an Elzen oracle who is able to look into the future. (by dio-of-the-shadows)

Merpeople: Moringua- An entirely male race of eel mermen who live in temperate oceans. They are immortal, but not invulnerable (weapons kill them, but time won't). They are known for their bloodthirsty, warmongering natures. Due to this, they are governed by both a King and a General. The General overseeing military plans, training of forces, and the overall making sure the other elected officials are doing their jobs. King serves to handle diplomatic affairs with other races and to oversee reproduction. Reproduction is a closely guarded secret. Several theories exist on the subject, but no definitive answers have been given by the Moringas.

---------------

Factions:

Paladins and Soldiers: Order of Hamon- A paladin order who work out of Bohken. They modeled themselves after folk heroes of human lore such as Jonathan Joestar. They resolve themselves to uphold the laws of the land and to protect innocents without question. This does lead to some of their members making lawful stupid choices. Their patron deity is Sol, the God of the sun.

White Lily Platoon- A small army hailing from Vyliesi, lead by the royal knight Sir Jacain.  The lord that this platoon serves is unknown, as is their current objective. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

The Bladed Roses- A small traveling group of do-gooders, lead by a knight named Taiana.  The group is quite odd-ball in terms of composition, but is almost always accepting new members. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Clerics: The Fellowship of Everyday Miracles- A cleric order who's main temple is located in Aether. They travel about, healing people where needed. They will often stick around a town for a few weeks, accepting shelter and food in return for healing, before leaving again. Some may chose to travel with questing groups if they come across them, or if asked by said group. Their patron deity is Crah-Dia, the God of healing.

Assassins: Bloodwater Assassins guild- A small group of assassins that has been known to do even the dirtiest of jobs.  However, it is rumored that a few members have been committing traitorous actions as of late. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Bandits: The Brotherhood of Eternity- A cult of bandits that worship the one true ruler of hell and earth. They are known for stealing from various kingdoms and pitting other countries against one another so they can collect the spoils. (by dio-of-the-shadows)

---------------

Deities:

Gods and Goddesses: Sol- The God of the sun. He is associated with the sun and shining light on hidden things. This last aspect is what the Order of Hamon focuses on: Bringing what is in the dark into the light. Certain mortals are said to be blessed by Sol, and this gift is known as Hamon: The ability to deliver the sun's energy through their hands. Taymos- A God of health. (by hold-my-flowercrown) Crah-Dia- A God of healing. He is associated with healing through magic as opposed to medicine. His temple is located inside of a large, hollow tree in Aether where a spring with healing properties resides. The World Serpent (Deceased)- A deity of the abyss of the unknowable night and proclaimed Father of monsters; this foul snake sought to swallow the world in order to propagate - claiming that in its bowels it’s followers would be eternal and emerge in the new world as saints. When slain by a band of unspoken heroes, this dark god cursed the cowards and weaklings who did not fall upon the invading blades to save their god and master. What has become of this cult remains mostly unknown… (by BD-Handystand) Renian Pantheon- A group made up of many of the Nalionian and Vyliesian gods, many of which are considered to be divine dragons.  The main gods names are as follows: Shoza, Naoto, Fionei, Kaisho, Aiota, Aogei, Juniji, Synia, Altitha, and Yomeinu. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Shoza- The original divine dragon, he is known as a god of the skies. However, he turned his back on mortals long ago, and now has little involvement in their affairs despite still being a major religious figure. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Hina (deceased)- A divine dragon known as the goddess of love, she gave her life to avert a great tragedy.  She was wed to Shoza, and many speculate that her death lead him to become bitter and cold. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Naoto- The son of Shoza and heir to the divine throne, though little is actually written of him in religious texts.  He is said to wield a divine lance, and to travel the world in an attempt to bring peace. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Fionei- A dragon whom ascended to godhood upon marrying Naoto, and is said to bring good fortune to those who practice the arts. As she was not born a god, she has no true divine abilities. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Kaisho- Son of Naoto who inherited all the powers of the divine.  He is a god of knowledge who is believed to have rejected godhood. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Aiota- One of two twin gods, who is also the daughter of Naoto and considered the goddess of rebellion.  It is said that she only inherited one divine ability, but little else is known besides that and her name. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Aogei- The other twin god, who is also the son of Naoto and considered a god of nature.  It is said he can heal others and control the growth of plants, but not much else besides that and his name is known. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Juniji- A fell god said to be Shoza's brother. Supposedly had only one divine ability, and the power he gained from it drove him mad. Little else is known. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Synia- An Akumaoni goddess who rules the afterlife, though she often more-so acts as the guardian to its gate.  Is said to take on a role similar to the Enma. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux)

Altitha- A human who ascended to become the goddess of strength and vengeance after losing someone to Juniji. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) 

Yomeinu (deceased)- Former god with the power to raise the dead. His species was unknown, but many feared him due to his powers. In reality, he only ever used them to hold a yearly festival in which families could give their loved ones a final send off. (by daily-rubbersoul-redux) Mylia- A worshiped deity of the Dryad race. She is said to be the creator of the Bridgegar Thicket to protect the bounty of nature from the likes of war, pestilence, and death. When prayed to, one may expect health, luck, and bountiful hunt in their future, so long as they do not waste the gift life has brought them. (by moriohs-little-demon) Demons and Spirits: Cake- A minor demon of wrath. Malik-Kei- The alleged spirit of a young woman who died in the cold waiting for her fiance to return. According to the legend, her body turned to stone and her spirit remained as a guardian of the mountain. A sacrificial ceremony that involves a mock wedding to the Malik-Kei stone is preformed by the village of Morven during years of unsatisfactory snowfall. An unmarried man between 16 and 30 is chosen by lottery to be sacrificed. The "groom" is then dressed in traditional wedding garb (which is very light as weddings are traditionally done only in summer). The sacrifice is tied to the stone so that he is kneeling next to the stone, and a wedding ceremony is held. The sacrifice is then left out with the belief being that if he is frozen to death overnight that the sacrifice was accepted. Black Mages- Considered to be great wielders of magic in the mortal realm, and are extremely well known for diving into the darker arts. They are only known to be demons and half demons. (by dio-of-the-shadows)

Corrupted Spirit:  Spirits generally are apparitions of elements, such as nature.  Several of them have some form of sentience. However a corrupted spirit is one that was tampered with either by magic, great tragedy, or the desire of the spirit.  Turning it into a physical manifestation based on the intent of the spirit, magic or tragedy.  The spirit can be corrupted  by a cleric or paladin. (by asknerdizzy)

[phoebe-of-ivalice]

spell speed, mind and dexterity :)

Spell speed: oof Phoebe’s weakness right off the bat! After being banned for accidentally lighting someone’s robes on fire at the Thaurmaturge’s guild, it’s been a difficult road in the field of magicks. The only one she seems to be alright with is white mage, most likely due to her affinity with the forest elements.

Mind: in stressful situations, Phoebe has been trained to become a machine. As a child she was a “flight” stress reaction, and only has a few instances in her adult life where she wanted to run away. Her worst moment was watching Haurchefant dying in her arms.

Dexterity: She loves to travel! Wandering from town to town, tavern to cafe checking out all the cuisines/drinks, especially anywhere on the water!

@azure-seadragon thank you so much for the asks! Was fun!

[writing-the-end]

LoL Chapter 9- Burnt Parchment

Masterpost

A Wizard Hermits tale (AU belongs to @theguardiansofredland )

A brief respite for the hermits, they all take the time to rest, train, and learn more. While Xisuma digs through the libraries for information on dark magic, Stress discovers an unnerving note far from home.

____________________________________

Xisuma hums to himself, fingers running along the books. Old leather soft and emblazoned with gilded letters, sharp parchment of scrolls cutting into his skin with new vigor. All kinds of books and tomes and tablets, collected among Joe’s library. It’s a well cared for collection, and Joe prides himself on all the knowledge stowed in his home. 

The only problem is how he sorts his books. Most librarians would use one of many systems developed by scholars, perhaps by genre or author’s last name. But no, Joe used his own strange system, a madness to his method. No matter what the other hermits do to fix his insanity among the stacks, he only shuffles it back. And Xisuma is stuck reading through the strange collection their resident poet has amassed. He blinks away as he reads something he’d rather not, and pulls free an aged scroll, adding it to the collection in his hands. 

Xisuma steps back, turning. His eyes fall across the large black lacquered cabinet settled in the corner of the poet’s home. Distant from everything else, even the azure blue bed that’s covered in half-written poems and spells. Cold metal brushes against X’s fingers as he unconsciously touches the wrought iron key. “Dark magic has to be somewhere in there.” 

He reluctantly opens the banned book cabinet. Joe isn’t a person to ban books just for being controversial. In fact, the poet loves to bring books other libraries wouldn’t dare hold. Knowledge that should be spoken, kept safe. Illegal works against the Council, exposes on guilds, lost history no longer taught in schools. If their island in the Ashioll sea was a sanctuary to the illegal guild, this library was a sanctuary to illegal words. 

But even some knowledge is dangerous in the wrong hands. And if there’s anything X could call dark magic, it’s dangerous in any hand. Only one book among the darkened oak shelves gives him any hint to it’s contents including dark magic. A book about ancient magic. Why is this with the taboo tomes? Xisuma stands, tucking his armful of books close to his chest and donning his mask back on to face the sunlight.

Xisuma is a void wizard. He spends his days staring into the darkness of space, learning from the motions of dark matter and the void between stars. When others look to the light to discover truth, he can see everything beyond space and time, warped by the light others seek. X’s fingers run across a fractured part of his helmet. Where an insignia of a sun surrounded by spiraling void was dented out of existence. He can just barely feel the sharp triangular points of his brother’s symbol nowadays. 

He pulls the mask over his head, and braves the sunshine of his island home. In the distance, he can hear yelling, followed by the sharp clang of metal. The ground rumbles, and out of the corner of X’s vision he sees pillars of stone spire free from the grass. False and Scar are dueling, and Xisuma notices silver coins being passed between TFC and Cub. An easy smile appears beneath X’s mask. TFC was never one to stay holed up in the infirmary long. He’s still pale and weak from the crystal attack, but nothing would stop the guildmaster from being with his family. So long as he’s not using his magic, Xisuma won’t stop him. 

The fading black veins up TFC’s arm reminds Xisuma why he’s researching dark magic. After what happened to their guildmaster, their leader and father figure, Xisuma needs to know why it happened. And how to stop it from hurting any of his family. Ever again. Dirt crunches under his boots as Xisuma walks to the stone tower he calls home. The oldest structure, the first part of the island built up. When him and his brother fled into the mysterious sea, setting up the Order of Hermits. Fitting name, seeing as they’re the only ones brave enough- or stupid enough- to call the odd archapelago home. 

“Sheshwammy!” Keralis’s voice runs across the air like honey, but the magnitude of his voice causes Xisuma to jolt in his boots. A scroll drops, falling open and rolling across the dirt. Xisuma groans, tucking his chin to chase after the runaway parchment. Keralis aids him, scooping up the scroll and tightening the paper around the wooden rod. “Whatcha got there? A little bit of light reading?” 

“I wouldn’t call dark magic ‘light reading’.” Xisuma chuckles, plucking the scroll handed across from him. Keralis’s expression is quite alarmed. 

“Dark magic? Like spooky scary attacking crystal dark magic?” Keralis peers at the books in Xisuma’s hand. “Why are you trying to learn dark magic?”

“I’m not trying to learn it- I’m trying to learn about it. So...so things that happened in Gildara don’t ever happen here. Don’t ever happen to our island.” Keralis nods, nudging Xisuma’s shoulder to show it was all in jest. And the void mage feels like he can breathe. 

“Are you going to hole up in that tower of yours then?” Keralis watches X’s eyes through his visor, the crossed scars over his left eye. “Sheshwammy, come, let’s have some tea in my house! Soak in the sun, it’s good for you!” 

Keralis waves Xisuma to the glass hemisphere, tall grass and undergrowth flourishing in the massive terrarium. A single tree props up the glass from within, and a beehive thick with honey sits like fruit hung low from the tree. Black flecks buzz around among the terrarium, denizens of bugs flying in their habitat. To and from their food and wherever they make home within Keralis’s terrarium. When Keralis first showcased his magic to Xisuma, he admits he was freaked out. To gain magic by consuming bugs seemed...strange. But over time, it was no different than Joe’s poetry magic or Tango’s hellbound spells.

“Hello Suzy. How’s the hive today?” Keralis giggles, giving the fuzzy bee a pat. X stops at the door, watching Keralis file away some of his magical treats for later. “I was just coming to grab some more beetles before fighting Cleo, but this gives me an excuse to not face her now.” 

Xisuma sits down among the grass, the tall blades bending outward like a nest. Green and grey robes spread out, and Xisuma sets his pile of books on Keralis’s green bed. Keralis places a cup of tea in his hand, his friend remembering exactly how much sugar, honey, and milk he likes in his tea. Xisuma’s shoulders untense, remembering why he wanted a guild in the first place.

They weren’t just a team. They were family. They have each other. He’s not the only one worrying about TFC, others are taking good care of him. And they take good care of each other, including X. Xisuma swirls the spoon in his tea, blowing on the steaming drink and raising his head to feel the sun filter through the glass dome. His brother always wanted a family like this, but sometimes the sun shines too bright even for those who rely on it’s light. Every time Xisuma feels the warm rays on his brown hair, he thinks of his brother. 

But he always chases the thoughts out. That wimp left, ran away when things finally started to become real. Xisuma pulls the book on the top of the stack and forces it open. He flips to the page about magic law and illegal magic. 

Keralis peeks over Xisuma’s shoulder, trying to follow the insane speed the void wizard reads at. He doesn’t catch everything he sees, or understands most of what he reads, but the pages do reference the words he fears to be true. “Do you really think someone is practicing dark magic?” 

“I’m sure it’s dark magic. You saw how those husk people acted.” Xisuma picks up a book discarded to the side, pointing to a single paragraph. Hardly more than a line references the process of magic. “Dark magic is illegal for a reason- it steals power, killing the person who it’s stolen from. But none of these books talk about how it happens. There’s no mention of crystals, or the entire land devoid of life. A grey wasteland.” 

“What about this book?” Keralis sits in the grass, pulling up a massive, ancient leather book. “Plirus Mageia.” The bug mage opens the book, dust spouting free of the yellow, torn pages and causing Keralis to cough. 

“Well, it says it’s complete, but does that really mean…” Keralis grins as he discovers dark magic listed in the index, flipping to the page. It’s Xisuma’s turn to peer over Keralis’s shoulder, watching the ancient pages flipping forward, deft fingers searching for the page number listed.  Until they go past it. Keralis frowns, and flips back. And misses again. One by one, they look through the book. All that remains of the chapter on dark magic is ash, pouring into Keralis’s lap when he tips the book forward. “Someone doesn’t want dark magic to get out.” 

“Or someone doesn’t want anyone to know their secret.” Keralis whispers. 

-------------------------------------------

Stress packs the snow tight, pressing rosy pink lips onto the forehead of the snowman. One hand has her icy magic circle pressing against the torso. A little kiss like that sends magic surging through the white snow, each crystal and snowflake imbued with her power. The stone eyes blink and bluster against it’s cold body, and stick arms wiggle to life. “There you go lovely! Go explore! Watch out fer the edge!” 

Stress giggles as the snowman wanders across her icy island home. Just offshore of Eremita, she built her igloo under the cooling respite of an eternal snowcloud. She sits back, closing her eyes and feeling the chill touch of snowflakes falling on her pale cheeks. The cold water tickles her skin, clinging to the warm, fluffy grey fuzz that keeps her comfortable. She loves the cold, because it means she can cozy up in her warm robes, fluffy boots, and thick pants. She doesn’t have to worry about her hair being too long at her neck, or if she has too many blankets- which is never enough in her opinion. She’s known as a blanket thief, and it takes bribery to get them back. 

Snow crunches, the fresh layer depressing onto the white powder beneath it. Stress peeks open her eyes, and notices her new snow friend is waving for her attention, rock mouth mute to call for her. Rigid sticks flap back and forth, until the snowman knows it has her attention. It points a wooden finger down to the icy waters around her island. 

“What is that doin’ here?” Stress questions, standing up. She brushes the snow from her rear, watching the tiny boat rock against the ice chunks. She can only imagine if these enchanted sailboats had little itty bitty sailors, they’d look like massive icebergs, just before a frozen continent at the bow. “I thought these didn’t leave the cities.” 

Stress scoops up the wooden boat, fingers running along the smoldering fabric sail. The edges turn to ash upon her touch, embers eating further into the sail and smoking the wooden ship. It’s in bad shape, and Stress can’t figure out how such a little ship meant for messaging within a city made its way out here. Why is it burned?

She remembers the contents of the boat, pulling off a glove to squeeze her finger into the thin deck. Sure enough, a scroll was being carried by the scorched ship. The snowman at her side reaches for the boat, like a child desiring a toy. It’s wish is granted, Stress ignoring the boat in lieu of opening the parchment. 

It’s burned as well, and whatever edges aren’t black and charred are torn and tattered. On the backside, Stress can see printed letters torn through. It reminds her of when she went to school in Milliara, among the other noble children learning how to be good heirs, passing notes on torn sheets of their notebooks. The twine falls apart in her hand, allowing the burnt parchment to open. 

Stress gasps, letting the letter fall to the snow. She runs to the icy edge of her snowstorm, but the ice rises to meet her feet. Walking across frozen water beneath her shoes, until she’s on solid ground again. She doesn’t slow, doesn’t hesitate. She needs to tell the others what was on the paper. 

The parchment, burnt and soaked with snow, flutters in the warm Ashioll sea air. Blood for ink scrawls out two words. 

HELP DANES

[vore-scientist]

Hey Little SongBird

[Sfw safe soft M/m GT vore]

A Tale of the Mystic Woods

Premise: A bard is in desperate need of a story. Can he sing his way out of being eaten by the evil giant wizard known as Yonah HaEsh? Well. No. But perhaps he can sing his way out of the wizard’s stomach? A fun little adventure for sure. 

Story is First Person (The Bard’s) POV. He’s a expressive narrator. 

Warnings: big Fear.play during the vore scene! This is a thief style story. Yonah,  if you don’t know, is very convincing when he says he kills people. And because he has no quick and easy safety spell, his treats sometimes end up a little bit well, not di.ges/-ted but slight skin irritation happens from time to time. Yes some pain, but no permanent harm! Yonah’s very practiced at making sure they are A-OK!

Ok onto the story!

---

I hate the stereotype of bards being horny tricksters who use their voices to seduce people into infidelity. Any such stories are complete poppycock and base slander. Bards are more than pretty faces and lovely voices. We are first and foremost story tellers, entertainers! Actors and chroniclers! Often risking life and limb to get you the stories you love so much. Those fancy sword moves and fight dances you see on stage aren’t just for show.  

But still. Going into the Mystic Woods in search of my next story was not a great idea. Solo-ing an adventure into such a dangerous realm was asking for death, with no one around who could tell of it. And yet, I had run out of new material and was desperate. Why didn’t I just purchase rights from another bard through the guild, you might ask? Clever, very clever, but that’s what low rankers do. The Apprentices, the Journeyers. Not Masters such as I. 

At least, not ones who are blacklisted from the guild for not properly crediting a story. How was I to know it wasn’t public domain! It seemed pretty generic to me. 

Another problem with being blacklisted? No one wants to adventure with you. Not anyone high ranking enough to help me anyways. 

Regardless, to earn back my place in the guild I needed a new story, an impressive story. So I gathered my supplies and took the first teleport to the City of Luster, closest city in the Kingdom of Orr to the Mystic Woods. Sure, other cities exist at its borders, but Luster is the only one with a direct path into the Woods. A path that is safe, to a point. 

It’s also a great place to get a few last minute supplies. For example, a small ukulele. My previous instrument, my precious goldenrod Oud, was repossessed by the guild. I needed something cheap and lightweight. And also I was banned from purchasing from most craftsfolk because, and I’m sure you’re tired of hearing this, I'm Blacklisted. 

Luster is so large that I was able to find the ukulele in a pawn shop. I wasn’t after a ukulele, that’s just what was there. 

Right! I was ready to go.  

Whistling the first ever song I wrote, and tuning my new old ukulele, I set off down the road. 

And Into the Woods. 

---

Maybe I should lower my standards? Surely the guild won't be too hard on me?

Or perhaps it would just take more than a day and night in the woods to find a story. 

The first day I found some gnomes preparing for a small feast of the half-moon glory. I was confident that something would happen at the party. Something had to go wrong, and maybe a hero—maybe I—would save the day! Or night, as it would be night. No such luck—it was a very nice celebration, absolutely no issues. Wasted a day!! 

Not that I’m on a time limit. 

The gnomes were so nice, and they made the most delightful floral scented cakes. They enjoyed my songs and tales about heroic gnomes and I left their camp with a flower crown and a sack of cakes. 

I felt like today I would find a story! 

Nope. 

In this forest of wonder and magic and monsters and secrets, I ran into nothing. I even played music to attract trouble but Nooooooooo, guess even the beasts of the woods knew I was blacklisted! 

It was late afternoon when I found some interesting deer tracks and decided to follow. 

Bards aren’t known for our stealth but I’m going to tell you a secret. What’s the guild gonna do! Blacklist me? 

Anyways the secret is: certain Bards learn to play notes and pitches that cancel out our footsteps and create silence. 

I followed the prints to find a small herd of very interesting deer! 

They had really interesting patterns, each one slightly different but only if you looked closely. That meant I needed a closer look. 

So focused on the deer I didn’t watch my feet and I tripped. The deer ran off. 

“HEY!” a shrill voice called from somewhere in the trees, “What did you do that for?”

No idea who was yelling at me but I was taking no chances, and like the deer I bolted. But not fast enough, not nimble enough. 

An arrow shot by my leg and stuck in the ground. I stopped. And stood perfectly still. 

“Idiot.” the voice was now right behind me! 

I turned. And looked down. It was an elf! With plum purple skin and dark green hair. 

And they were laughing. 

Then another elf fell from the trees to land silently next to the first. This one had dark green skin and straw yellow hair. Their long ears were standing straight up reaching higher than my eyes. 

They were laughing too.

“What’s so funny?”

“You responded to ‘idiot’!” Said the purple one. 

Ugh. Elves!!

Then they got suddenly more serious. 

“Can’t believe it! We’ve been hunting those deer before the sun even rose and you happened to trip when we got them in our sights!”

“I’m... sorry?” 

The second elf elbowed the first, “He couldn’t have known we were there, Damian! Not his fault!” She spoke in elvish but I’m fluent. 

The first elf, Damian, looked up and half groaned half sighed, “and I suppose, Bridget, that I should apologize to the human for almost shooting him?”

I don’t know why I spoke up but I did. 

“It was an impressive warning shot!”

Damian’s ears stood up again then folded back and a little red flush appeared on the purple cheeks. As did on Bridget’s but for a different reason. 

“Yes. Warning shot,” they said. 

This time I managed to keep my mouth shut. Not a smart idea to quip about an elf’s hunting prowess. I still wasn’t happy to learn they were trying to shoot me! 

“You’re an adventurer?” Asked Bridget. “What’s your name?

“A bard!” I said. “I’m, um, Ophir!” 

“Need a place to stay tonight, Ophir?”

The shadows were lengthening, I hadn’t noticed. And then my stomach growled. 

“I sure do. But are you sure? I mean I did scare the deer-“

Damian shouldered their bow and nodded, “It wouldn’t be very elven to leave a stranger in the woods.”

Even not hunting they moved so silently I couldn’t take my eyes off them as I followed them to their village. We stopped by the temple, as it is the respectful thing to do when entering the village. It was set up for fall, done up in browns and oranges and paper chains. On the altar was a single brown leaf. The first one seen by a member of the village. 

I’m not elvish but I still prayed to Autumn for my hometown to have a bountiful harvest. 

I sat on the floor in the common dining hall as my new… friends, sat on stools made of tree stumps. They may not have caught any deer but there was some sort of roasted meat concoction wrapped in sugary leaves, crystallized to give it crunch, making a sweet and savory combination I’d never experienced before. The same sugar crispy leaves were used to scoop a sort of nut and vegetable curry. Delightful! I could write a song just about the food. 

I of course told them why I was in the woods, since they were curious. 

And they told everyone how I tripped and fell, exaggerating it greatly. All the elves laughed but knowing elves I was better off. They enjoyed slapstick comedy. The fact that I was able to laugh at myself seemed to gain me favor. 

One elf, with lighter green skin and dark brown hair laughed like the rest and yet, their eyes were deep in thought. They were a strange one, I think. Even by elf standards they had a strange name. 

Jacuzzi? Who names themselves Jacuzzi?

Then they spoke. 

“So, Ophir, you need a story?” They asked. I nodded.

“I think I can help you,” they said, “at the very least point you in the right direction.” 

At their words a lot of the company got quiet. 

“If you’re that desperate, there’s,” they paused, as if they were still considering whether or not to tell me. “A wizard. If you encounter him, you’re sure to get a proper story.”

I couldn’t think why this made the elf act so strange, plenty of mages made it their job to participate in tales. Though, with wizards they were usually evil, if not a member of an adventuring party. Nonetheless! A story about a wizard sounded fantastic. 

“Where does-“ I stopped myself from finishing that stupid sentence. Nowhere in the Mystic Woods stayed put so asking for directions was complete folly. 

“What’s the best way to, uh, find him?” 

Jacuzzi shrugged “The birds have the most up to date information. But you’ll know it’s his place when you find the tower in the garden.”

Lots of wizards had towers, few had gardens. That was more of a witch thing. 

“He’ll be there? Tonight?”

“Probably, he can't- well he’ll be there. If not tonight then by the morning. Don’t mess with his things.” 

Sound advice. 

“Hold on tonight?” Damian re-entered the conversation. “Are you mad? Traveling the forest at night is dangerous! Especially alone.”

“So? I’m trying to get into trouble. Doesn’t make a difference if I find it at the tower or on my way.” 

My confidence wasn’t entirely fake. I had a good meal, I wasn’t tired. I could knock this out by morning! 

“Thank you, for everything.” 

I swear I heard giggling as I departed. If these elves were pulling one over on me well! I don’t know what I would do but I’ll think of something. I had a wizard to find. 

It wasn’t long before I realized why I should have waited for morning. 

No! Birds! 

From whom could I ask directions? A rodent? They were never as helpful. The sun was about to set. It was only early autumn, the days were still a decent length, but it would be dark real soon. No birds, no people. 

Wait. I spoke too soon. There were footsteps. It was a slim chance but maybe they could help me. 

“Young man, what are you doing? Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be out at night alone?”

The voice had a deep and soft quality that wasn’t human. But they were speaking Orrian. Really folks, dont meet strangers in the forest that you can’t see. They’re usually evil witches or sorcerers or cyclops ogres. Yeah, one-eyed ogres are skilled talkers, luring people to them. It was only after I answered I realized this could be an ogre. 

“Aren’t you out alone too?”

“Why yes-” the voice was closer and then I saw them. 

Thankfully it wasn’t and ogre. But it was a witch, and a dwarf one. Uncommon. Probably not evil. It did explain why they were confidently out at night. Dwarves had pretty amazing night vision. They had the traditional black robe and hat, and a cat sat down beside them. It was a really large cat, which was amusing next to the short witch. Their long braided beard was decorated with trinkets, which was a quaint look I must admit. 

“But I live here.”

I stood up straight, which I guess was a bit rude. 

“How do you know I don’t?” I stammered, “I could!”

The dwarf stroked their beard, “I guess it’s possible, do you?”

I sighed and slouched, “No…”

“But I am looking for trouble.” I explained my story and the dwarf listened, smiling kindly. 

“So the elves told me I would be guaranteed a story if I found this wizard who has a tower and a garden-”

The witch’s eyebrows raised. 

“- you know this wizard?”

The cat mrowed loudly, his tail swishing on the forest floor a bit faster. 

“I do indeed,” there was an extreme fondness in their voice. 

“And you know where he is?”

The witch laughed, “I’d say this was coincidence, but in these parts there are too many of those to be truly coincidental. I do in fact know the current location, and it’s close by.”

“Really!” I almost danced with excitement. 

Unlike the elves the dwarf had no hesitations. They pointed me in the right direction, and informed me of a few roadblocks and landmarks. 

“If you hurry you should be just in time for dessert,”  they said, waving as I wasted no more time in heading off. 

“Thanks so much!” I turned on my lantern and my back on the witch. 

Oh if I had only thought about the implications of their last words to me. 

Hilarious. In hindsight. 

Nevermind that now, I’m sure you’re already laughing. Hahaha. 

Finding the tower was easy with the witch’s directions. They’d even told me the thorns were fake and the vines safe to climb up. That should have raised red flags, or some color, but I was so focused on achieving my goal. 

Now, we bards aren’t really known for our… physical abilities beyond dance. We can fight sure, but a fifty-foot climb is gonna leave most bards gasping for breath. I'm proud to say I was merely on the cusp of wheezing, though I was having difficulty standing. 

I needed to rest. So I lay on the windowsill. 

Which I failed to notice stretched so that I could more than easily lie down.  The cool night air and stone felt so nice. I looked into the tower. 

And my heart stopped. 

I’d gotten a brief glimpse before nearly passing out, but it was different now. 

Exactly the same. 

But. 

Bigger. 

You might know, my readers, that wizards are all human. All of them. Non-humans aren’t allowed to attend the academy. I’m sure those like I, being a quarter fairy, might be let in, but... This- this giant sized workshop didn’t make any sense. A giant could not be a wizard no way. Why would the elves say this was a wizard’s tower? Did they not understand the difference between wizard, witch, and sorcerer?

But the dwarf witch, they had to know! They had not corrected me. Plus, the workshop did have a very wizard feel to it.

What was going on here? 

I needed a moment to process so I rolled over to look outside. Looking inside made my head hurt. 

But a Giant Wizard. If that were real, what a story! If it were fake, then well, a giant mage is still exciting. I looked once more into the room. Three desks, one for material prepping and alchemy, one that looked like the main workbench, and one… like a spare workbench? It was not very organized compared to the other. And shelves full of things I could not identify. 

And on the floor, an open trap door with stairs leading down. Down to where the wizard must be. 

I was thankful I had noticed the shift in scale, or I surely would have fallen 15 feet onto the floor. Instead I got out my grappling hook and rope and rappelled down. With a flick, the hook dislodged. This place was large, I would need it again. 

I could have spent hours in this room, just taking in the immense magical collection, but that wasn’t why I was there. And I heard noises from down the stairs. Water? Clinking metal? I took each stair one at a time, slowly making my way deeper into the tower. 

Either the kitchen just happened to be one floor down or this stairwell was enchanted to take you to the floor you were thinking about. For just as I reached the landing I saw the massive doorframe that led into what was clearly a kitchen and small dining room. Small for the giant, who was at the sink washing pots, pans, and other things. 

He certainly looked like a wizard! A tall wide brimmed hat with a curling point, and robes that matched the garish colors and patterns. He had a neatly trimmed goatee and mutton chops, and long curly black hair tied behind his back. On his handsomely large nose rested thick square spectacles. Not only was he tall, he was just plain large. 

I know I talked about the false stereotypes of bards, but we weren't the only profession with them. People tended to think of Wizards as more delicate, as they spent all their time studying, never going out, forgetting meals. But this, man, for he looked more human than giant except for being over 20ft tall, well the only word for it was burly. 

I’d never imagined a wizard who, if you removed his wizard robes, put him in a flannel shirt and handed him an axe would be a picture perfect lumberjack. Now such a wizard was right before my very eyes. 

Suddenly I was not so confident. I should have lost my nerve back at the window, when I saw the scale of the workshop. But it just didn’t hit me until I saw the giant. I’ve seen giants before, they are actually larger than this person, that made him seem more dangerous. 

Oh. 

Oh no. 

This wasn’t just any wizard, or any giant. 

This one was evil. 

Maybe I could just leave! Yeah. I would just get the fuck out of here. I was not prepared to handle an evil giant wizard. 

I made my decision a bit too late. The giant stopped cleaning a plate to look up and sniff the air. 

Shit. 

It was futile to run, but it was my only option. I didn’t even make it up two stairs before the giant roared with delight. 

“FEE FI FO FUM!”

No no no! Not that! 

“I SMELL THE BLOOD OF THE HUMAN KIND!” 

Well technically I was quarter fairy but-

“IT MATTERS NOT THE THINGS YOU STOLE, I’LL CAPTURE YOU AND SWALLOW YOU WHOLE.”

Yeah… I should not have come here. Evil giants tend to eat people. I’d had a small hope that this smaller giant, who was very likely a proper wizard, wouldn’t.

He made it to the stairwell in a few seconds and scooped me up in one hand, holding me up to his face. 

“How convenient,” he smiled, revealing very giant-like fangs. His breath was horrible. “I was just thinking I needed some dessert.”

I cursed the witch from earlier. They knew! They knew he would want to eat me! But the witch wasn’t here, wasn’t my problem right now. 

“Please! Mister Wizard, I did not steal anything, I am no thief! I’m a bard!”

The giant raised his eyebrows, but did not set me down, instead he turned and walked down the stairs. 

“A bard?” he asked, “what’s your name?”

“Ophir Shel Peh!” I said.

The giant tapped his chin. “Hm. Yes I would say you probably are a bard! I don’t get many of those.” 

The room he entered was some sort of living room. But I didn’t really have the capacity to take in any details other than the chair that he sat down in. 

“I wonder if bards taste any different from thieves!” he said with excitement that made my heart drop to my feet. 

“Please, please don’t eat me!” I begged. “I just wanted a story!”

“Hm,”he placed me on the coffee table but did not let me go. Instead he started removing my gear, everything except my clothing. Things were going from bad to worse. “What do you mean?”

I didn’t have much hope of surviving but he wasn’t eating me just yet, and he was clearly open to conversing. 

“Well! Either I would tell the tale of my adventure here, or, you could give me a tale, perhaps in exchange for something?”

The giant laughed, “you came here on your own to challenge me? So you could tell your tale?”

I nodded. 

“Very foolish,” he growled, “But I could tell you a story.”

“Really?!” 

“Not that you would ever get to tell it.” he continued, “since I’m going to eat you.”

He sounded like he’d really made up his mind about that. But the longer he talked the more time I had to think of a way out of this. I didn’t want to point out that him eating me defeated the purpose of him telling me a story in the first place. 

“It’s a good one too. Surely you were surprised to find me a half-giant and wizard.”

I nodded again, a bit more dumbfounded. Half giant explained a lot already. 

“But if I tell you how I ended up here, you must promise not to tell it until his mystical majesty is dead. Or I am.”

What?

“Are you dying?”

The giant looked wistful. “No. But I’m a villain. I could die any day. The next person who comes into my tower could be the one who kills me.”

“And you’ll finally get what's coming to you I guess,” I said. “Like I’ll even be able to tell it since I’ll be one of your victims.” 

The giant laughed, “oh yes, of course. Cause I’m going to eat you! Like I have many others before.”

Great. I shouldn’t have said anything. 

He scooped me up again and placed me on the armrest. Then he let me go. But i didn’t dare try to run. 

“I guess I could start at the beginning, when I decided to become a wizard.” he mused, “The life story of Yonah HaEsh.”

He leaned back, looking up at the ceiling, and then down at me. 

“How foolish I was. I mean obviously I succeeded but it was still foolish.” 

You know how I said I would spend the time while he rambled to think of a way out of this? Well his story was certainly long enough. Gods, wizards don’t leave out details! They have no concept of narrative flow! 

And yet. It was riveting. His human father was a fire witch and that got him interested in magic. So he disguised himself as human to attend school. He was found out eventually, expelled and arrested for infiltrating the kingdom as a dangerous magical monster. He was almost executed before he was offered a job here in the tower! And amazingly, the Grand Master of the school had taken pity on him and allowed him to continue his studies here and graduate, earning the right to call himself a wizard. 

The point is I forgot about escaping. Until he started to wrap up his story. 

“Never intended to become evil. But it suits me!” He said brightly. 

That brought me back to reality. Evil. Giant! 

I was in his hand again, not so tightly this time but still secure. Face to face. He was smiling again and chuckling.

“Especially since it means I get to eat people!”

“You're so surprised you’re evil but I’m not!”

I think he knew I was stalling more but didn’t care. 

“How so?”

“You spent years among smallfolk! You have smallfolk friends! And you’re perfectly fine eating us?”

He snorted “it was smallfolk that expelled me from school, that nearly executed me for trying to learn magic! And for trapping me here, in my tower. Make no mistake, this gilded cage is still a cage.” 

There really was no going back. 

“Now your time's up, and I’m hungry.”

I still screamed! Who wouldn’t! I was sure he was going to have to bite me in half to eat me even if his earlier proclamation was to swallow me whole. 

I barely fit in his mouth, ribs pressed into his lower teeth and it hurt! His saliva soaked me through so quickly I could only imagine how good I tasted. I tried to brace myself on his teeth but my hands slipped between the jaws. Even more distressing he was definitely enjoying my struggles and flavor. 

Then I was upside down! And even in the tight space I slipped towards his throat. I put my hands forward to try and stop but it was so slick they slid down into his throat, along with my shoulders, as he swallowed. 

The air was crushed out of my lungs and I dared not scream. It was hard, as I knew where I was headed, and I was surrounded by hot rubbery flesh that shoved at me, eager to get me to my destination. 

A massive throbbing against my face told me I was passing by his heart. It was at this point he took another swallow and my feet slipped into his throat, my hands… they touched air. Thick. Hot air. 

And then so did my face and I made the mistake of gasping for breath. As the air smelled of vomit, and I remembered the wizard was cleaning up from dinner when I arrived. I was smelling the remains of that meal. Oh gods if he had eaten me right away I would have been sitting in food! It was a small bit of reprise, I guess. That the giant decided to talk for a couple of hours. 

My feet were still in the esophagus when my face pressed against the opposite wall of the stomach. It was slimy like I couldn’t believe! I pulled my feet free and oriented myself so that I was sitting upright. 

This must be what it feels like to be kidnapped in a sack. A sack that was going to be dunked in acid. 

“You awake in there?” said a deep rumbling voice from above, and I felt a sharp nudge. Great. He wasn’t done with me, and I failed a bit in protest. “Ha! That’s better, I go through all the trouble of swallowing you down, the least you can do is struggle and scream a bit.”

“If I do that, I’ll run out of air quicker!” I squawked. Though I suspected I would start crying soon enough. Either just out of despair or because of the pain. 

I wasn’t feeling anything yet except for slime and heat, so it wasn’t likely to be a quick death. Depending on how long it took for digestion to work on a whole human, I might run out of air and pass out first. That would be nice, less painful. Unconscious I would feel nothing. I would much prefer that- oh. 

“Mr Wizard,” In that moment I’d forgotten his name, thought I wouldn’t need it if I was going to die.

Another jab at my side. “Yes, my tasty little bard?”

“Can I make a final request?” 

The entire chamber squished and bounced a bit, and I imagined the giant heaving a sigh and sitting back in his chair. 

“That depends on the request.”

“I- I want to sing one last song. But I need my ukulele, can you-” I kind of shuddered, but it wasn’t like an heirloom or something, “swallow it for me?”

There was a long pause, or it felt long because my timeline was now so short. 

“I'm not a fan of eating objects,” he said, then heaved another sigh, “but I suppose I can do that.”

I felt him lean over and then heard a sickening gulp. If I was going to die I was going to die singing with an instrument in my arms!

I plucked a few cords and shook out as much of the drool as I could. 

“Your voice isn’t magical is it?” Asked the giant as I tuned the ukulele.

I smiled “No, it is. I’ve got some Fey ancestry. Never really tested its power. Mostly I’ve played monsters to sleep. Or made a crowd cry with an opening line. People tell me that when I weave a tale it’s as if they were there first hand. Not so useful when you’re already eaten.” 

Unless he’s so moved by my song that he takes pity. But I didn’t say that out loud. 

“Well, just make it a nice song. I’ve got sensitive ears.”

Ok… I had a momentary thought of singing so loudly and so sharply that his ears bled. But then I realized he was making a threat. He could make my death much much worse. My original song was fine. 

I strummed the ukulele, it sounded so odd in the stomach. And maybe it couldn’t penetrate out so well. I used a little magic to boost it. I don’t always use magic, except for my naturally magical voice, but I figured… 

This would be my last performance. And it would be for my murderer. Still, I was compelled to make it a good one. 

I’d already made it through the first instrumental bars, and I took a breath of the rancid air. 

-

In the quiet mystic morning  When the sun’s just graced the land O’er the horizon, lies a story And it begs to take my hand

Now that summer’s ceased its gleaming And the harvest’s past its prime In adventure i've found meaning But I’ll be homeward bound in time 

Bind me not, to the pasture Chain me not to the town Set me free to find my calling And I’ll return to you somehow

-

As the first instrumental break started I turned my attention to the giant’s response. It was hard to evaluate from inside of him. As far as I could tell, I wasn’t hitting my mark. 

-

If you find it’s me you're missing And you’re hoping I’ll return To your thoughts I’ll soon be listing  On the road I’ll stop and turn

-

It was starting to hurt a bit now, I hadn't noticed it at first since when I perform I tend to feel all floaty and numb, but now pain penetrated my fog. I directed it into my voice and I cried out. 

-

For the wind has set me racing As my journey now begins To leave the path I’ll be retracing When I’m homeward bound again

Bind me not, to the pasture Chain me not to the town Set me free to find my calling And I’ll return to you somehow

-

The second, and last, instrumental break. Did I feel shaking around me? Was this working? Breathing was becoming harder, my skin stung. My shoulders, elbows, and knees ached too, this was a horrible position. The fluid level was rising. But I didn’t stop. I would finish this song. 

I was practically sobbing at this point but my song rang out. 

-

In the quiet  Mystic morning When the moon has gone to bed When adventure’s lost its meaning…

I’ll be homeward bound

Again

-

With the last few notes from my mouth, I gripped the ukulele so hard it almost cracked. 

Then the chamber jerked. I heard heavy breaths. Again. Was that a sniff?

Was he crying? Please. Gods of music. 

“Dammit,” he hissed and sniffed again, “Fine. I’m letting you go. Stupid bard.”

My brain was so frozen with elation I couldn’t actually believe it until it was happening. Not until I was physically forced back up the way I’d come. I slid out of the giant’s mouth and into shallow warm water. I took deep breaths of the clean air. And Yonah continued to retch as I got my bearings.

We were back in the kitchen, I was in the sink! Wait where was- The giant let out a horrible sound like a cat with a hairball and with a plop, my ukulele joined me in the bath. 

Now Yonah looked at me, eyes red and puffy, some tear streaks down his face. Though he had just violently thrown up. 

“Congratulations, Ophir the bard,” he spat, but he was grinning, “You have your story.”

I- I blinked in astonishment. He was right. I’d trekked through the woods, hung out with gnomes, got led to my near doom by elves and a witch, and sang so sorrowfully I made the evil man-eating giant cry and let me go. 

“Th-thank you-” I said, and I let him help me out of the sink and onto a towel to dry. 

“I should be thanking you!” he said. “Dessert and entertainment all in one!”

The fact that he still thought of me as food wasn’t reassuring but I didn’t think he was going to eat me again. In fact, Yonah’s entire demeanor had changed, he wasn’t so harsh looking, his voice was softer. 

“Would you like some tea? That helps after a near-death experience.”

He didn’t wait for my response but went to get the tea leaves and pot.   

“Hold on!” I said, but he didn’t stop making tea. “Did you even intend on killing me?”

He smiled as he put the pot on the stove and lit it with a snap of his fingers and a flash in his eyes. 

“No, not really, you’re not a thief.” Yonah laughed at some joke that only he got. 

“So why-” I mean he could have gotten me to sing before swallowing me whole. 

“Your fairy blood.” I looked confused, “I could smell it on you, sweet and magical. I wasn't going to pass up such a special treat.”

If there was a god who could erase horrifying knowledge from the mind I would have prayed to them. 

“Then- did my song do anything?” I choked like I was back in his stomach, unable to breathe. 

It was clear he saw the distress in my face, that I was not as good a bard as I thought I was. 

“My tears were real, little bard. I didn’t expect to be moved so much. Even if I had meant to kill you... you might have convinced me otherwise.”

The teapot whistled and he went to take care of it. I sat down. I was so lucky. Had the elves known he would spare me? Was that why they were laughing? This was some convoluted prank? And the witch, how were they in on it? Not that it mattered, their reasons and motivations weren’t important for my story. 

Then I remembered, “Your story!” I said, rather loudly. 

He stopped what he was doing, which was carefully using magic to pour a cup for me. “Yes?”

“I'm not dead! I can tell your story!” I stood back up, one hand on my hip the other pointing,  “That’s why you let me go isn’t it.”

“Sure,” he shrugged, “That definitely factored into it.”

Motherfucker! This also meant I wasn’t done with him. He was getting out a smaller place setting for me to sit at but I didn’t sit down, or drink the tea. 

“I need- I need to write it all down!” I said, “I have a good memory, but I was under duress before. I need to hear it again. And write it down."

The wizard smiled again, showing his teeth, but this time it did not scare me. 

“Then let’s take this upstairs, shall we?”

He held out his hand and without hesitation I sat on it. I was placed on his shoulder and he took me, and the tea, to the workshop. 

Amazingly he had a few blank notebooks that were human sized, and human sized pens. Nice ones too. And a human sized desk? The set up was perfect. 

“Since I have until either you or the king dies, I can do proper research. I’ll need names and places and dates! And your parents, if you know how they met, that would make a great prologue!” 

We worked well into the night.  My cup of tea got cold. 

[FIN] if you liked PLEASE REBLOG!

REBLOGS HELP SPREAD MY WORK! I also love knowing that people read my stories! My askbox and DMs are OPEN!!! let me know!!!

[Thanks for reading! please reblog! Or message me telling me what you think! I crave feedback! For more mystic woods go to vore-scientist.tumblr.com/tagged/mystic+woods+story or search ‘mystic woods story’]

FOR REFERENCE, HERE’S HOW THE SONG SOUNDS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VooU55wzSEc

[your-turn-to-role]

new opinions of the cerberus assembly (etgw spoilers!!)

somewhat inspired by the conversations the other day, bc it’s reminded me i have a lot to say about these motherfuckers

let’s start with the obvious:

Master Trent Ikithon, Archmage of Civil Influence (Chaotic Evil Human)

Book Text: [Trent is respected as the acclaimed Propagandist of the empire and the third oldest member of the assembly. Once an instructor at the Soltryce Academy, he only returns every few years to collect young students for his experiments in the mental conditioning that he calls “awakening.” Many of these students go mad and are locked away, but those who endure become zealots for the assembly and join the Volstrucker, an elite group of arcane thugs commonly known as Scourgers, who perform the assembly’s dirtiest work under Trent’s direction.]

Most of this we knew. I hate this guy. Though, as a point of interest - Caleb’s for sure not the first person this has happened to. They account for a certain number of aspiring Volstrucker never completing the program, Caleb was just another statistic. Which means somewhere in Vergessen is a lot of other people with the same backstory who never managed to escape. That’s, something worth looking into, maybe.

Martinet Ludinus Da’leth, Archmage of Domestic Protections (Lawful Evil Elf)

[Ludinus is the oldest and only original member of the assembly, as well as the master of warfare and conflict. Charged with overhauling the military structure of the Dwendalian Empire, Ludinus directed the construction of the garrisons on the Xhorhasian border and often oversees their maintenance. He was one of the mages who survived the destruction of Molaesmyr and fled to Bysaes Tyl, but he saw the opportunity to achieve greatness within the empire and left his culture behind to continue his arcane pursuits. Wise, if emotionless, he bears a deep hatred for the Kryn Dynasty and spares no effort gathering information on their weaknesses and secrets. Ludinus spends most of his time developing arcane weapons of war and shoring up the military might of the empire, while subtly challenging the leadership of Crown Marshal Damurag.]

This guy’s old. That's the scariest thing about him really. Like, this guy's been in the empire since it was half its current size. This guy saw the destruction of Molaesmyr, and knew many of its residents. But he also rejected that society, purely for his own ends. He's at least 400 years old, more likely at least 500, and for the past 3-4 centuries has been focusing entirely on magic and warfare. That's a long time to hone those skills. Ludinus may say it's hard to compare power in the Assembly, but if I had to pick one of them for an end game boss, it would be him, no question. Trent's more of a wild card, sure, but he's only like 60, 70 years old. He's a baby compared to Da'leth. Keep an eye on this dude, and under no circumstances trust him.

Lady Vess de Rogna, Archmage of Antiquity (Neutral Evil Half-Elf)

[A public recluse for most of her life, Vess is both a brilliant mage and dedicated historian. She assumed this post after replacing her criminal predecessor, Lady Delilah Briarwood. As an instructor at the Soltryce Academy for over two decades, Vess has studied and unraveled a number of historical mysteries and pre-Calamity riddles — and hoarded some of the spoils for herself. Always eager to pursue forgotten lore and artifacts of eons past, Vess has been known to quietly vanish to Xhorhas for weeks at a time, returning with fewer guards and more uncovered secrets.]

Canon confirmation that this is who took over from Delilah Briarwood, and from what we’ve seen, they’re rather similar people. They're both scientists and historians, ruthlessly efficient, far more concerned with what they can learn and what they can do than what's good or safe for those around them. Liable to be found breaking the law in the name of science and progress. At least Vess has lasted longer than her predecessor.

Headmaster Oremid Hass, Archmage of Cultivation (Lawful Neutral Earth Genasi)

[The current headmaster of the Hall of Erudition in Zadash, Oremid is tasked with watching and grooming the next generation of mages and arcane specialists outside Rexxentrum. While he himself is a gentle soul who adores animals, he puts on the façade of a strict man with no sense of humor, which is further enhanced by the elemental influence of his earth genasi blood. He teaches students that failure is not an option, and that emotion is a barrier to one’s true ability. Equally feared, respected, and privately loathed by the students (and some instructors), Oremid personally dismisses those who break under his school’s curriculum and heaps joyous praise on those who endure their training.]

So, I've had teachers like this. And they stick in your mind, because, even a decade later, I still have a hard time getting over their instilled fear of failure. I can believe that, in general terms, Oremid's not a terrible person. I think he looks the other way on a lot of things, which precludes him from ever qualifying as good in my books, but he hasn't committed any major acts of torture or murder himself. Still though. You don't teach like that if you view your students as people. You teach like that if you view your students as potential assets. So like.... not as bad as some of his colleagues. Potentially someone they could work with if they had to. But still probably someone to stay away from.

Headmaster Zivan Margolin, Archmage of Conscription (Lawful Neutral Human)

[Zivan Margolin inherited the position of headmaster from his father, the late Jorma Margolin. Zivan has been the headmaster of the Soltryce Academy in Rexxentrum for nearly twenty years. Calm, patient, and quietly imposing, Zivan walks the halls of the Academy with a keen eye for talent. He is in charge of the curriculum and also watches for any latent powers that may be worth grooming as future allies of the assembly, dangers to be monitored, or prospective minds for Ikithon to conscribe into the Volstrucker. Zivan has rarely had the opportunity to demonstrate his full power, for he is typically busied with keeping the peace between the feuding members of the assembly. Those who have witnessed his true might, however, now know that his words are backed by some of the most powerful magics within the Cerberus Assembly.]

I think @lostsometime said it best, having the archmage of conscription be in charge of your elite magic school really sums up everything wrong with the empire. Like, if that's out in the open, your problems are unfixable. Get a new government. Jeez.

Master Doolan Tversky, Archmage of Dysology (Chaotic Neutral Gnome)

[The second-oldest member of the assembly, Doolan is in charge of the study and understanding of abnormal creatures and deviants of arcane creation that might threaten the empire’s way of life. She is an absentminded yet brilliant gnome who is obsessed with all beasts, aberrations, and creatures of legend. Doolan imports creatures from around the world to study, disassemble, and use in her attempts to revolutionize magical practices. She resents the Library of the Cobalt Soul, as her reputation has caused them to bar her from their facilities. She wishes to catalog the unstudied horrors of Xhorhas and has covertly obtained the services of the Myriad to retrieve new specimens.]

Now, Doolan is fascinating to me, not because I think she's a good person, but because she's just so delightfully weird. She's probably done some evil as fuck shit but she's also a gremlin of a gnome who loves weird fucked up arcane experiments and magical meteors that created eldritch ducks and all sorts of bizarre things like that. I'd love to see more of her, because there's always room in fantasy stories for more weird morally ambiguous old ladies who are banned from libraries on the grounds of "is about as likely to eat the books as she is to read them" and "last time we let her in here she somehow combined five forbidden rituals and created a new species of demon that haunts the halls of the rexxentrum archive spreading toxic slime everywhere and we can't figure out what it wants or how to make it go away".

Lord Athesias Uludan, Archmage of Diplomatic Union (Neutral Good Human)

[Athesias’s charm and bombastic personality serve him well as a diplomat. His duty is to foster a positive relationship with people of power both within and beyond the borders of the empire. He was originally one of the most effective instructors at the Soltryce Academy, but his penchant for spectacle and his rampant narcissism made him a difficult ally to trust with state secrets. When the office of Diplomatic Union opened, he was quickly and quietly reassigned. Athesias finds great pleasure in ruining or usurping the plans of his counterpart in the Crown’s employ, Emissary Lord Zeddan Graf.]

We’ve talked a bit about Uludan already - the Gilderoy Lockhart of the group for sure. Though I’m sure he has layers to him, so I’d be interested to find out what exactly they are.

And, saving the most interesting for last,

Baroness Jenna Iresor, Archmage of Industry (True Neutral Doppelganger)

[One of the younger members of the assembly, Jenna is known for her business acumen and her extravagant lifestyle. By hiding her nature as a doppelganger and using memory-altering magics at a young age to fabricate a false past, Jenna constructed her human persona from the ground up, leveraging her powers of deception to essentially write herself into history as a Clovis Concord expatriate. She helps oversee central guild business in Rexxentrum under Guildmaster Kai Arness, and helps Exchequer Aethia Drooze organize the collection of tithes through starostas across the empire.]

I am, insanely curious about how a doppelganger ended up in the Cerberus Assembly. She’s definitely ambitious for sure, doppelgangers already have a fair bit of innate magic - they’re natural shapeshifters and have a fair amount of psychic powers (like reading minds of anyone who happens to be near them), but to get here she had to be extremely committed. Which means she probably has plans for this position, or had plans that she’s already put into motion. Very interested what those are, especially for the archmage of industry.

[sobatsu]

Gruvia headcanons

Part 1?

I’ve decided to make these gruvia/Gray/Juvia head canons instead since they’re all I can think about right now, It’s that time of year again, the winter depression, speaking of winter depression....

When Gray was younger, the first thing he made out of ice with his father was a little cross. Silver loved it so much he got a blacksmith to make three little necklace versions so that each member of the family could have one. He gave it to them each on the night of the attack. The last words he heard from Mika was after he gave the necklaces out and she said “They’re beautiful....but we might need one more.”

Although Juvia has many things that she loves about Gray, one of her favourite things has to be his jacket. Before Gray met Juvia he used to have over twenty jackets now it’s barely half of that, because Juvia thinks that since she finds the jackets that she should rightfully get to keep it. Gray was annoyed with it at first until he went to her apartment one morning since he heard that she was sick, and when he arrived she was decked out in nothing but some short shorts and his jacket, he was going to get mad but god damn she looked better in the jacket than he ever did.

The first movie that the two of them ever watched together was ‘The little mermaid’, it’s now been banned from their apartment after Juvia had the great idea of re-enacting every scene out in front of their friends. He didn’t know who was more upset over not doing the re-enactment, Juvia or Natsu.

During one of the guilds many parties, Juvia showed up in her pyjamas, her short pyjamas, because a drunken Erza and Lucy dragged her out of the house, and while she was on her way to find Gray, someone thought it would be a good idea to pinch Juvia’s behind, Juvia had turned around and set the man straight but Gray has seen it all and to say that the man was beaten to a pulp is an understatement. After that, Gray never lets Juvia leave his side at parties.

Although everyone always thinks Juvia was the first to say I love you to Gray, it was actually him, he said it after she told a joke that must have been really good because Gray burst out laughing and just said the phrase while trying to compose himself. He denies it. Team Natsu always backs Juvia up about it though.

Sometimes when Gray is feeling really happy after a job or a nice date, he lets Juvia out some make up on him, just some eyeshadow or something though so she can practice. One time after he fell asleep she took a picture of him. Juvia thought it would be a good idea to send that in as his new GMG photo. Gray was not impressed but he did get many compliments. Most were from guys but he’ll take it.

When Juvia was younger,around three or four before her was left at the orphanage, she used to have freckles all around her face from the sun, then, when her parents passed away, and the rain came, her freckles faded away, just like her hopes. But once her rain came back they started to also return slowly onto her face, but she didn’t notice them oh no, it was Gray who first started to notice them. Around a year after Alveraz, they all practically come back all around her body, and Gray makes it top priority to kiss everyone single one of them on her face whenever he comes back from a mission, and if he missed one, he’d just start over.

The first present that Gray ever gave Juvia was a little charm necklace that’s shaped like the sun, and on the inside is a picture that Juvia forced Gray and Gajeel to take with her, the two behind her, both with one arm around her shoulders trying to pull her away from the each other, neither of them trusting her with the other while Juvia’s just smiling their happy to have a picture with her two favourite boys.

The first time the two of them slept in the same bed together was awkward, neither of them knew what to do or say, until Juvia just lay her head against Gray’s shoulder and the two of them just talked the whole night, about their day, about fairy tail, their lives before hand, everything, and now neither of them can fall asleep without having talked about their day with each other. Juvia is usually the one who falls asleep first, she tries to stay awake but Gray goes through every detail of his day and she loves him, but she can’t stay up for the life of her, Gray doesn’t mind, he uses this as his chance to take her all in, sometimes he even messes with her hair which is now a comfort for him whenever he gets a nightmare.

Although Gray doesn’t feel the cold, he still feels the need to take all of the blankets off of her during the night, to make it worse he’s always cold and he always feels comfortin in holding/one of their body parts touching each other, but once Gray takes the blankets, Juvia can’t really hold him but Gray, the kind boyfriend that he is, decides to put his cold foot against Juvia, who, although she’s cold from no blankets, an ice mages foot is said to be colder than the ice caps. Juvia has to leave the bed some nights because it’s too much. It’s takes Gray two weeks and three hot water bottles to persuade Juvia to sleep in the bed again.

Haha these are just random in the spot lol !!! But like I love them ngl

[gt-adventures]

Hey Little SongBird

(SFW GT fantasy adventure short story.)

A Tale of the Mystic Woods 

Staring: Yonah HaEsh the half-giant wizard. and guest-starring Ophir, the mostly human bard. 

Summary: Ophir the bard needs a story to get back in the good graces of the Bards Guild and ventures into the Mystic Woods to find one. And what a story he ends up in! In the clutches of the Great and Terrible Yonah HaEsh. Can Ophir, through story, song, and dance, touch the evil “man-eating” giant’s wicked heart and avoid a terrible fate? (yes of course he can!) 

Warnings: Yonah’s job is to be a villainous fairy tale giant (and wizard). That means the whole “fee fi fo fum” and threatening to eat people routine, and he’s really convincing. At no point in this story does he ever intend to follow through on the threat. ALSO Ophir tells a fairytale that ends slightly gruesomely (I actually changed it to be less so… still) 

---

I hate the stereotype of bards being horny tricksters who use their voices to seduce people into infidelity. Any such stories are complete poppycock and base slander. Bards are more than pretty faces and lovely voices. We are first and foremost story tellers, entertainers! Actors and chroniclers! Often risking life and limb to get you the stories you love so much. Those fancy sword moves and fight dances you see on stage aren’t just for show.  

But still. Going into the Mystic Woods in search of my next story was not a great idea. Solo’ing an adventure into such a dangerous realm was asking for death, with no one around who could tell of it. And yet. I had run out of new material and was desperate. Why didn’t I just purchase rights from another bard through the guild? You might ask. Clever, very clever, but that’s what low rankers do. The apprentices, the journeyors. Not Masters such as I. At least. Not ones who are blacklisted from the guild for not properly crediting a story. How was I to know it wasn’t public domain! It seemed pretty generic to me. 

Another problem with being blacklisted? No one wants to adventure with you. Not anyone high ranking enough to help me anyways. 

Regardless, to earn back my place in the guild I needed a new story, an impressive story. So I gathered my supplies and took the first teleport to the City of Luster, closest city in the Kingdom of Orr to the Mystic Woods. Sure, other cities exist at its borders, but Luster is the only one with a direct path into the Woods. A path that is safe, to a point. 

It’s also a great place to get a few last minute supplies. For example, a small ukulele. My previous instrument, my precious goldenrod Oud, was repossessed by the guild. I needed something cheap and lightweight. And also I was banned from purchasing from most craftsfolk because, and I’m sure you’re tired of hearing this, im Blacklisted. 

Luster is so large that I was able to find the ukulele in a pawn shop. I wasn’t after a ukulele, that’s just what was there. 

Right! I was ready to go.  

Whistling the first ever song I wrote, and tuning my new old ukulele, I set off down the road. 

And Into the Woods. 

---

Maybe I should lower my standards? Surely the guild won't be too hard on me?

Or perhaps it would just take more than a day and night in the woods to find a story. 

The first day I found some gnomes preparing for a small feast of the half-moon glory. I was confident that something would happen at the party. Something had to go wrong, and maybe a hero, maybe I, would save the day! Or night, as it would be night. No such luck, it was a very nice celebration, absolutely no issues. Wasted a day!! 

Not that i'm on a time limit. 

The gnomes were so nice, and they made the most delightful floral scented cakes. They enjoyed my songs and tales about heroic gnomes and I left their camp with a flower crown and a sack of cakes. 

I felt like today I would find a story! 

Nope. 

In this forest of wonder and magic and monsters and secrets, I ran into nothing. I even played music to attract trouble but Nooooooooo, guess even the beasts of the woods knew I was blacklisted! 

It was late afternoon when I found some interesting deer tracks and decided to follow. 

Bards aren’t known for our stealth but I’m going to tell you a secret. What’s the guild gonna do! Blacklist me? 

Anyways the secret is: certain Bards learn to play notes and pitches that cancel out our footsteps and create silence. 

I followed the prints to find a small herd of very interesting deer! 

They had really interesting patterns, each one slightly different but only if you looked closely. That meant I needed a closer look. 

So focused on the deer I didn’t watch my feet and I tripped. The deer ran off. 

“HEY!” a shrill voice called from somewhere in the trees, “What did you do that for?”

No idea who was yelling at me but I was taking no chances, and like the deer I bolted. But not fast enough, not nimble enough. 

An arrow shot by my leg and stuck in the ground. I stopped. And stood perfectly still. 

“idiot.” the voice was now right behind me! 

I turned. And looked down. It was an elf! With plum purple skin and dark green hair. 

And they were laughing. 

Then another elf fell from the trees to land silently next to the first. This one had dark green skin and straw yellow hair. Their long ears were standing straight up reaching higher than my eyes. 

They were laughing too.

“What’s so funny?”

“You responded to ‘idiot’!” Said the purple one. 

Ugh. Elves!!

Then they got suddenly more serious. 

“Can’t believe it! We’ve been hunting those deer for days and you happen to trip when we got them in our sights!”

“I’m, sorry?” 

The second elf elbowed the first, “he couldn’t have known we were there, Damian! Not his fault!” She spoke in elvish but I’m fluent. 

The first elf, Damian, looked up and half groaned half sighed, “and I suppose, Bridget, that I should apologize to the human for almost shooting him?”

I don’t know why I spoke up but I did. 

“It was an impressive warning shot!”

Damian’s ears stood up again then folded back and a little red flush appeared on the purple cheeks. As did on Bridget’s but for a different reason. 

“Yes. Warning shot,” they said. 

This time I managed to keep my mouth shut. Not a smart idea to quip about an elve’s bunting prowess. I still wasn’t happy to learn they were trying to shoot me! 

“You’re an adventurer?” Asked Bridget.

“A bard!” I said.

“Need a place to stay tonight?”

The shadows were lengthening, I hadn’t noticed. And then my stomach growled. 

“I sure do. But are you sure? I mean I did scare the deer-“

Damian shouldered their bow and nodded, “It wouldn’t be very elven to leave a stranger in the woods.”

Even not hunting they moved so silently I couldn’t take my eyes off them as I followed them to their village. We stopped by the temple, as it is the respectful thing to do when entering the village. It was set up for fall, done up in browns and oranges and paper chains. On the altar was a single brown leaf. The first one seen by a member of the village. 

I’m not elvish but I still prayed to Autumn for my hometown to have a bountiful harvest. 

I sat on the floor in the common dining hall as my new… friends, sat on stools made of tree stumps. They may not have caught any deer but there was some sort of roasted meat concoction wrapped in sugary leaves, crystallized to give it crunch, making a sweet and savory combination I’d never experienced before. The same sugar crispy leaves were used to scoop a sort of nut and vegetable curry. Delightful! I could write a song just about the food. 

I of course told them why I was in the woods, since they were curious. 

And they told everyone how I tripped and fell, exaggerating it greatly. All the elves laughed but knowing elves I was better off. They enjoyed slapstick comedy. The fact that I was able to laugh at myself seemed to gain me favor. 

One elf, with lighter green skin and dark brown hair laughed like the rest and yet, their eyes were deep in thought. They were a strange one, I think. Even by elf standards they had a strange name. 

Jacuzzi? Who names themselves jacuzzi?

Then they spoke. 

“So, you need a story?” They asked. I nodded.

“I think I can help you,” they said, “at the very least point you in the right direction.” 

At their words a lot of the company got quiet. 

“If you’re that desperate, there’s,” they paused, as if they were still considering whether or not to tell me, “A wizard. If you encounter him, you’re sure to get a proper story.”

I couldn’t think why this made the elf act so strange, plenty of mages made it their job to participate in tales. Though. With wizards they were usually evil, if not a member of an adventuring party. Nonetheless! A story about a wizard sounded fantastic. 

“Where does-“ I stopped myself from finishing that stupid sentence. Nowhere in the Mystic Woods stayed put so asking for directions was complete folly. 

“What’s the best way to, uh, find him?” 

Jacuzzi shrugged “The birds have the most up to date information. But you’ll know it’s his place when you find the tower in the garden.”

Lots of wizards had towers, few had gardens. That was more of a witch thing. 

“He’ll be there? Tonight”

“Probably, he can't- well he’ll be there. If not tonight then by the morning. Don’t mess with his things.”

“Why-”

“He considers it extremely rude-  You don't want to be rude”

Sound advice. 

“Hold on tonight?” Damian re-entered the conversation. “Are you mad? Traveling the forest at night is dangerous! Especially alone.”

“So? I’m trying to get into trouble. Doesn’t make a difference if I find it at the tower or on my way.” 

My confidence wasn’t entirely fake. I had a good meal, I wasn’t tired. I could knock this out by morning! 

“Thank you, for everything.” 

I swear I heard giggling as I departed. If these elves were pulling one over on me well! I don’t know what I would do but I’ll think of something. I had a wizard to find. 

It wasn’t long before I realized why I should have waited for morning. 

No! Birds! 

From Who could I ask directions? The sun was about to set. It was only early autumn, the days were still a decent length, but it would be dark real soon. No birds, no people. 

Wait. I spoke too soon. There were footsteps. It was a slim chance but maybe they could help me. 

“Young man, what are you doing? Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be out at night alone?”

The voice had a deep and soft quality that wasn’t human. But they were speaking Orriandish. Really folks, dont meet strangers in the forest that you can’t see. They’re usually evil witches or sorcerers or cyclops ogres. Yeah, one-eyed ogres are skilled talkers, luring people to them. It was only after I answered I realized this could be an ogre. 

“Aren’t you out alone too?”

“Why yes-” the voice was closer and then I saw them. 

Thankfully it wasn’t and ogre. But it was a witch, and a dwarf one. Uncommon. Probably not evil. It did explain why they were confidently out at night. Dwarves had pretty amazing night vision. They had the traditional black robe and hat, and a cat sat down beside them. It was a really large cat, which was amusing next to the short witch. Their long braided beard was decorated with trinkets, which was a quaint look I must admit. 

“But I live here.”

I stood up straight, which I guess was a bit rude. 

“How do you know I don’t?” I stammered, “I could!”

The dwarf stroked their beard, “I guess it’s possible, do you?”

I sighed and slouched, “No…”

“But I am looking for trouble.” I explained my story and the dwarf listened, smiling kindly. 

“So the elves told me I would be guaranteed a story if I found this wizard who has a tower and a garden-”

The witch’s eyebrows raised. 

“- you know this wizard?”

The cat mrowed loudly, his tail swishing on the forest floor a bit faster. 

“I do indeed,” there was an extreme fondness in their voice. 

“And you know where he is?”

The witch laughed, “I’d say this was coincidence, but in these parts there are too many of those to be truly coincidental. I do in fact know the currently location, and it’s close by.”

“Really!” I almost danced with excitement. 

Unlike the elves the dwarf had no hesitations. They pointed me in the right direction, and informed me of a few roadblocks and landmarks. 

“Thanks so much!” I waved back at them and didn’t look where I was going and almost tripped. 

Almost. 

“And light your lantern!” 

Oh right, duh! 

Finding the tower was easy with the witch’s directions. They’d even told me the thorns were fake and the vines safe to climb up. That should have raised red flags, or some color, but I was so focused on achieving my goal. 

Now, we bards aren’t really known for our… physical abilities beyond dance. We can fight sure, but a fifty-foot climb is gonna leave most bards gasping for breath. I'm proud to say I was merely on the cusp of wheezing, though I was having difficulty standing. 

I needed to rest. So I lay on the windowsill. 

Which I failed to notice stretched so that I could more than easily lie down.  The cool night air and stone felt so nice. I looked into the tower. 

And my heart stopped. 

I’d gotten a brief glimpse before nearly passing out, but it was different now. 

Exactly the same. 

But. 

Bigger. 

You might know, my readers, that wizards are all human. All of them. Non-humans aren’t allowed to attend the academy. I’m sure those like I, being a quarter fairy, might be let in, but... This- this giant sized workshop didn’t make any sense. A giant could not be a wizard no way. Why would the elves say this was a wizard’s tower? Did they not understand the difference between wizard, witch, and sorcerer?

But the dwarf witch, they had to know! They had not corrected me. Plus, the workshop did have a very wizard feel to it.

What was going on here? 

I needed a moment to process so I rolled over to look outside. Looking inside made my head hurt. 

But a Giant Wizard. If that were real, what a story! If it were fake, then well, a giant mage is still exciting. I looked once more into the room. Three desks, one for material prepping and alchemy, one that looked like the main workbench, and one… like a spare workbench? It was not very organized compared to the other. And shelves full of things I could not identify. 

And on the floor, an open trap door with stairs leading down. Down to where the wizard must be. 

I was thankful I had noticed the shift in scale, or I surely would have fallen 15 feet onto the floor. Instead I got out my grappling hook and rope and rappelled down. With a flick, the hook dislodged. This place was large, I would need it again. 

I could have spent hours in this room, just taking in the immense magical collection, but that wasn’t why I was there. And I heard noises from down the stairs. Water? Clinking metal? I took each stair one at a time, slowly making my way deeper into the tower. 

Either the kitchen just happened to be one floor down or this stairwell was enchanted to take you to the floor you were thinking about. For just as I reached the landing I saw the massive doorframe that led into what was clearly a kitchen and small dining room. Small for the giant, who was at the sink washing pots, pans, and other things. 

He certainly looked like a wizard! A tall wide brimmed hat with a curling point, and robes that matched the garish colors and patterns. He had a neatly trimmed goatee and mutton chops, and long curly black hair tied behind his back. On his handsomely large nose rested thick square spectacles. Not only was he tall, he was just plain large. 

I know I talked about the false stereotypes of bards, but we weren't the only profession with them. People tended to think of Wizards as more delicate, as they spent all their time studying, never going out, forgetting meals. But this, man, for he looked more human than giant except for being over 20ft tall, well the only word for it was burly. 

I’d never imagined a wizard who, if you removed his wizard robes, put him in a flannel shirt and handed him an axe would be a picture perfect lumberjack. Now such a wizard was right before my very eyes. 

Suddenly I was not so confident. I should have lost my nerve back at the window, when I saw the scale of the workshop. But it just didn’t hit me until I saw the giant. I’ve seen giants before, they are actually larger than this person, that made him seem more dangerous. 

Oh. 

Oh no. 

This wasn’t just any wizard, or any giant. 

This one was evil. 

Maybe I could just leave! Yeah. I would just get the fuck out of here. I was not prepared to handle an evil giant wizard. 

I made my decision a bit too late. The giant stopped cleaning a plate to look up and sniff the air. 

Shit. 

It was futile to run, but it was my only option. I didn’t even make it up two stairs before the giant roared with delight. 

“FEE FI FO FUM!”

No no no! Not that! 

“I SMELL THE BLOOD OF THE HUMAN KIND!” 

Well technically I was quarter fairy but-

“BE THEY ALIVE OR BE THEY DEAD, I’LL GRIND THEIR BONES TO MAKE MY BREAD.”

Yeah… I should not have come here. Evil giants tend to eat people. I’d had a small hope that this smaller giant, who was very likely a proper wizard, wouldn’t. Also the line about grinding my bones to make bread? I’m no alchemist but I dont think powdered bones make for a good flour, and wouldn’t even be enough to make bread for a giant if it were! As far as I knew giants didn’t bother with such things and just gobbled people up. 

Which didn’t bode well for me as this giant made it stairwell in a few seconds and scooped me up in one hand, holding me up to his face. 

“How convenient, a tasty little thief” he smiled, revealing very giant-like fangs. His breath was horrible. “I was just thinking I needed some dessert.”

“Please! Mister Wizard, I did not steal anything, I am no thief! I’m a bard!”

The giant raised his eyebrows, but did not set me down, instead he turned and walked back into the kitchen. 

“A bard?” he asked, “what’s your name?”

“Ophir Shel Peh!” I said. 

“Not Jack then?” The giant tapped his chin, and his eyes found my ukulele. “Hm. Yes I would say you probably are a bard! I don’t get many of those.” 

He sat at the personal dining table. And set me in front of him, putting his elbows on the table, and his chin over intertwined fingers. It was silent except for his breathing, and my heart in my ears. Every breath he took blew around me, and it was just a little warmer than I expected. He didn’t say anything for a long time and I started shaking, adding my rattling bones to the noise. 

“Why are you here?” he asked before I fainted (I had… somehow forgot about breathing). 

“Adventuring!” I couldn’t say ‘for a story’! THAT’S CHEATING. But perhaps... Ah I can’t lie to you reader. I wish I could say I was perspicacious enough to consider this giant was a professional fairytale villain. But I had no idea. I was damn lucky he was though. And he’s really good. I understand why His Mystical Majesty hired him. 

Let’s get back to me being a complete dumbass shall we?

The giant’s face hardened and I worried I’d fucked up. 

“Adventuring?” he asked rhetorically, but I nodded, then he looked a little morose. 

“Shame, I was thinking of letting you go-”

He was!?

“-But I guess I have to eat you after all.”

He didn't sound at all troubled by it. I mean, he had threatened to do so. I backed up and he smiled, knowing he could snatch me up no matter what. I think he could tell I was going to ask why, even just to stall. 

“It’s nothing personal, I don’t like intruders on my good days. But I can’t have you out there talking about me, spreading the word of a merciful giant. You’ll only get more people killed. ” 

That was a lot to process but I got the gist. 

“I won't talk!”

He stood up and slammed his palms on the table so hard I finally fell down. 

“You’re a bard, it’s your job!” 

Unfortunately he was right. 

Then he looked a bit surprised by something, narrowing his eyes at me. 

“I suppose,” he said, “your job also involves performing?”

I nodded. 

“I don’t get to go out much,” he said, though I wasn’t sure that the entire truth “If you give me a good show, I might consider it payment for what would have been an extra special treat. I can smell the fairy blood on you.”

I tried not to make a face. My fairy blood made me smell better? Great. And there was always a chance he was lying, just to get a show and his dessert. Evil giants might be fairly honorable, but evil wizards were notoriously dishonest. So I had no idea with this evil giant wizard. 

“Wh-what do you want me to do?” I asked. 

He sat back down, perfectly copying his original pose. 

“Tell me a story,” he said. “And perhaps I will not eat you.”

Great. Legally there weren’t many stories I could tell. You might be asking, ‘Ophir! You’re about to die, what do you care?’ Well if I live and I'm found out, I’ll be expelled from the guild for life. I’m already in hot water. 

That… and the only stories I could think of were ones with evil wizards or giants, who ended up dead. Curse my stupid brain. But I couldn’t refuse, he would eat me! Guess I had no other choice. 

[(adapted from a real tale)

The story of Maestro Lattantio and His Apprentice Dionigi. 

It was an old tale, from the long dead kingdom of Italy, so anyone could tell it. A wild tale of a wizard and his apprentice battling it out in ways only two mages would. Wanting to be free of his abusive master, Diogini kept turning into things, animals, creatures, to escape. 

But Lattantio would transform into the exact creature or monster or animated object needed to re-capture Diogini. Eventually Diogini turned into a fish and swam down a river. Lattantio declared that he was through with these games and would kill him. Lattantio turned into a kingfisher hawk, intending to snatch him out of the water, but Diogini jumped into a basket carried by a handmaiden  for the princess. The handmaiden had been doing laundry, so being a fish wouldn’t do. He turned himself into a beautiful ruby ring. The princess found it in her pocket and he became her new favorite piece of jewelry. 

Then one day, the King became ill, and Lattantio was called in to cure him. He did of course, and in payment, asked for the princess’s ruby ring, for he could tell it was Diogini. But he could come back tomorrow for the payment 

That night, when the princess took off the ring, Diogini transformed back into a man. He apologized for his ruse, and explained that the wizard Lattantio was his enemy, and would do anything to get him back into his clutches. The princess, who at first was horrified, saw that Diogini meant her no harm, and he was as handsome a man as he was beautiful a ring. She asked how she could help. 

The next day, when Lattantio returned, the princess stepped forward and held out the ring. Then dropped it to the floor. It turned into a mouse, so of course, Lattantio turned into a cat. The princess whistled to one of the palace dogs, which leapt at the cat, breaking its neck. 

Diogini quickly returned to human form and separated the dog from the cat’s corpse, tossing it into the fire. The only way to be sure the evil was truly destroyed. 

Impressed by Diogini’s skill and at the behest of the princess, the King was happy to make Diogini the court wizard, and his son. 

]

I concluded the story, and looked at the giant, distressed to find he looked unimpressed. 

“That was,” he waved his hand in a dismissal manner, “diverting, but I could just have easily read that story.”

WHAT! I’d done voices! I was dramatic and expressive! How dare he say reading it from a book could be the same! But I couldn’t be angry because I was scared. 

“Though I suppose it was decent,” he continued, “just not enough to keep you alive.”

Crap.

“Dance for me,” he said, “and perhaps I will not eat you.”

It took me a few seconds to notice he wasn’t eating me, but instead was giving me another chance. But… Dance!? On this table? With my leather boots on? And my thick pants? And no music!? This was not good. 

“S-sure” I said, I was still shaking badly. 

Since there was no music I thought perhaps, something that conveyed real meaning through motion. I could hear the song in my head at least, so I wouldn’t falter or look like I was making shit up. 

I leapt and gestured, and waggled my body in the most embarrassing ways.  

“What is this crap?” said the giant after I had danced for only a minute. 

“Interpretive dance, mister giant,” I said, freezing in a most uncomfortable pose. 

“You’d better pick something else,” he said. “And give it some more personality”

All I knew was he had given me a second chance. Ok. So I didn’t have music, but maybe something rhythmic would be better. I didn’t have the right shoes but my footsteps were still very audible. 

So I went into a new dance. Hopping and stomping and tapping my feet. Then I started singing. I had been so stupid that I forgot I could do both at the same time. I basically re-invented a few ritual dances from my hometown, used to bless the beginning of each month. If I lived through this I would go home and teach everyone. 

The giant Watched me carefully from behind those huge glasses. Judge, jury and executioner. 

Finally I was sore and out of breath, jumped up to land with a mighty THUNK, ending the performance. 

The giant looked a bit sorry now. Why would he look sorry!?

“That was very impressive, and your singing was a nice touch, but I think such things would best be done with a group. Alone it was underwhelming.” 

What did he know! I’d danced my freaking ass off! I sat down and tried not to cry as I regained my strength. Why weren’t my best efforts good enough!? I was a Master bard. But I was at the mercy of the most subjective critic. I had to change tactics. Impressing him wasn’t going to cut it. 

“Well, since it’s getting late,” he reached out a hand.  

“Wait!” I shouted, nearly breaking my voice which would have been a death sentence. 

The giant’s hand paused, “That was so bold I’m inclined to do so, but not for long.”

“You, liked my singing?” I asked. 

The hand retreated. “You could say that.” Then he caught on. “Fine. One last chance.” 

He leaned back, crossed his arms, and cleared his throat. 

“Sing for me, little bard, and perhaps, I will consider not eating you.”

I scrambled to my ukulele. It was so old it was already out of tune, so I hurriedly tuned it, under the piercing gaze of the giant.  

“Your voice isn’t magical is it?” Asked the giant as I tuned the ukulele.

I smiled “No, it is. My fey ancestry. Never really tested its power. Mostly I’ve transfixed crowds or made them cry with the opening notes. I’ve also played monsters to sleep.”

He leaned forward as I realized my mistake and quickly added “but that doesn’t work if you know about it! Which you now do!” 

Thankfully he believed me. I was telling the truth, but there was no reason for him to trust me. 

“Well, just make it a nice song. I’ve got sensitive ears.”

Oh fantastic. That meant he could probably tell if I went out of key. I had a moment’s thought to play something screeching and horrible, to make him bleed from his ears, giving me a chance to get away, or at least cause him pain before he ended my life. No. My first choice of song was probably the best one. 

I sat down criss cross apple sauce, but back very straight. And I strummed the opening cords. 

[

In the quiet mystic morning  When the sun’s just graced the land O’er the horizon, lies a story And it begs to take my hand

Now that summer’s ceased its gleaming And the harvest’s past its prime In adventure I’ve found meaning But I’ll be homeward bound in time 

Bind me not, to the pasture Chain me not to the town Set me free to find my calling And I’ll return to you somehow

-

As the first instrumental break started I turned my attention to the giant. His face was as stoney as ever.  I wasn’t hitting my mark. So I continued. 

-

If you find it’s me you’re missing And you’re hoping I’ll return To your thoughts I’ll soon be listing  On the road I’ll stop and turn

-

The old strings were threatening to cut into my fingers but I just used the pain to fuel my voice, powering it with agony and sorrow. I saw the giant’s brows raise as my human sized voice grew to fill the giant room. 

-

For the wind has set me racing As my journey now begins To leave the path I’ll be retracing When I’m homeward bound again

Bind me not, to the pasture Chain me not to the town Set me free to find my calling And I’ll return to you somehow

-

The second, and last, instrumental break. I had started crying at the chorus and couldn’t see the giant through my tears. My last performance, and it was for my murderer. 

And still my song rang out. 

-

In the quiet  Mystic morning When the moon has gone to bed When adventure’s lost its meaning…

I’ll be homeward bound

Again

-

My ears were ringing from the sheer volume, I was clutching the Ukulele so hard it threatened to crack. I was numb from all my efforts. Now would be a great time for him to eat me, maybe I would feel no pain. 

Then, as my ears and eyes cleared up, I saw. 

The giant's eyes, red. Shiny trails of tears down his cheeks. His arms were still crossed but he looked like he was almost strangling himself. Still, I did not let myself feel any hope. 

“Dammit,” he hissed and sniffed, “I should eat you for making me cry.” 

No. No no no no no. 

“But I won’t” he sniffed again and got out a handkerchief, “You’ve more than earned your life.”

I collapsed and started crying harder. I had done it. By the gods. I had fucking done it. I let myself melt into the table, half passing out. I didn’t want to feel or think for an entire week. I guess because he wasn’t going to kill me, the giant let me lay there. 

When I finally sat up he was making tea! I very much wanted to get the fuck out of there but the tea smelled amazing, almost magical. 

He noticed me moving. 

“I find tea helps after a harrowing adventure,” he said cheerfully. 

His demeanor was entirely different. His face was softer, his voice was higher, his dark brown eyes colder, but considering they had been blazing before, it was a friendly warmth now. 

That really had been an adventure hadn’t it. One that really made use of my skill set. One that was perfect to turn into a story. It had great pacing too, with just a bit of tweaking. I’d already started writing out the flowery prose and accompanying staging in my head. My interpretive dance was going to be way better in the retelling, but don’t say anything to the guild alright? Everyone embellished. 

I had to scramble away as he set the table, which meant setting down a smaller table and chair for me, and then bringing over his own cup and the teapot. He touched the sides of the pot that must be hot enough to scald skin from bone like it was nothing, pouring out near boiling tea. I watched mesmerized as he used a bit of magic to pour the tea into my teacup. 

“Let it cool,” he said, as he took a drink of his own tea, “I’m not normally a fan of sweetened tea, but I thought a little extra honey would do your throat some good.”

I gingerly stood up and got into the chair. It was normal sized of course, since he was giant. But here I felt like a doll that some demonic girl had set up for a tea party. 

“Thanks,” I said, and indeed my throat felt raw. I couldn’t wait to drink the tea, but it was still too hot. 

“I should be thanking you,” said the giant, smiling and showing off his fangs, but it no longer felt so threatening, “That was quite a show! You must be a really high ranking bard.”

My face turned very red, “I- well I’m on probation,” I admitted, “blacklisted. So really, thanks for-”

I saw his eyes glitter, literally. 

“You- you never meant to eat me did you?”

He grinned even wider, “No, but I trust you won't include that in your tale.”

I shook my head. 

“I very much enjoy playing the big bad giant,” he mused, “But I have other work; I can’t have adventurers showing up all the time.”

Now I was curious, “If I may ask, what else do you do then?”

There was a short pause as he considered whether or not to tell me. I wondered if it was a grand secret. 

“I’m a royal wizard,” he finally said, and there was a massive amount of pride underneath his tone. And resentment. That was concerning. 

My jaw dropped, “You- A Royal Wizard?”

This might be the most interesting person I’d ever met. How did a giant, or giant-esq thing become a royal wizard!? How did a royal wizard end up running an evil tower? 

“You already got one tale, but if you’re not inclined to leave so soon, I can give you another.”

I definitely knew where this was going and I definitely wanted this tale. 

“But on one condition,” he said. “You cannot tell it until either I or the Mystic King is dead.”

“Are- you dying?” I asked. 

He laughed, “No, but I am still a villain. I try to keep a fairly low profile, but any day a slayer could show up and succeed in killing me.” 

That made sense, but now that I was not mortally terrified of him, I saw that this man was much younger than I’d previously thought. He looked barely 24, a young man, and he had to worry about slayers! It also meant it couldn’t have been in this job for that long, being evil must really suit him. 

“Hopefully it won’t be for years, which will give you time to make this tale as grand as possible,” he continued. 

He drank more of his tea.

“I’m not great story teller,” he started off, “but I suppose the tale of how a foolish half-giant with dreams of becoming a wizard, and ending up a prisoner in the woods, might be a good one.”

Prisoner? Even more layers. Yes. This should be a good one indeed. 

Though he was right. Gods, wizards! They have no concept of narrative flow! They don’t leave out details! 

And yet. It was riveting. Yonah HaEsh, for that was his name which I finally learned, was half giant, half FireWitch. His father, the FireWitch, got interested in magic, but he wanted more structured study, beyond what witches can do. So he disguised himself as human to attend school. He was found out eventually, expelled and arrested for infiltrating the kingdom as a dangerous magical monster. He was almost executed before he was offered a job here in the tower! And amazingly, the Grand Master of the school had taken pity on him and allowed him to continue his studies here and graduate, earning the right to call himself a wizard. 

I had forgotten about my tea by the end and it had gone cold. That was an easy fix apparently: he pinched the cup between his thumb and pointer finger. A few seconds later it was steaming again. 

I finally took a sip, it was incredible. I made a mental note to write a poem or a song about it. But I had other things to think about, to talk about. 

“It’s a great story,” I said, with a cockiness I should have tried to keep in check, “but it needs a lot of work. It’s a good thing I’ve got a lot of time. I’ll need to go out and interview people.”

I stood up, “Which means, I need to hear it again.”

Yonah raised an eyebrow, “Oh?”

“I should have been taking notes,” I said, “I need more specific dates and times and names! Oh and if you can tell me how your parents met, that would make for a great prologue.” 

He stood up too, clearing away his and my tea settings. But he didn’t clean them, just put them aside. 

“In that case,” he said, returning and offering his hand palm up, “We should take this upstairs.”

I still hesitated a bit, but I sat on his hand and was transferred to his shoulder. I’d never been on a giant’s shoulder before. I was tempted to touch his curly hair, since mountain giants don’t have hair, I thought it amazing that this half-giant had such thick silky locks. I settled to lean a bit towards his head for steadiness. Yonah didn’t say anything as he regathered the teapot and cups, and even got a few pieces of berry-nut bread and goat cheese. Then headed up to the workshop. 

Once again, he had a human sized desk that he set on his much larger one, and human sized pens (really nice ones), and a few human sized notebooks. Though I guess, since he can reduce to human size whenever he wanted (that was part of his “disguise”), and had many human friends, it made sense. 

“We can go in order,” I said, “But I think I want to start on what you got up to in school. We want people to really get attached to you and your friends so that they are on your side by the trial.”

Yonah liked that idea. I think he wanted this story to show him in a positive light, even if he was officially evil. 

We worked through the night. And my second cup of tea got cold. 

[FIN]

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FOR REFERENCE, HERE’S HOW THE SONG SOUNDS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VooU55wzSEc

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[unabasheddinosaurkitten]

Rise Of Orthros

Chapter Seven

Abigail was shocked, shocked that she had witnessed the royal guards of Lord Ragnar take away Amelia, Hunter and Hanna. She wanted to rub her eyes as she wondered what had happened, surely whatever it was, was a mistake? right? She heard one of the men in the tavern snicker before whispering to another.

"Finely, Richards plan is coming together and we can finally get rid of Amelia and her friends."

Abigail gasped quietly before she headed out the tavern watching Amelia turn back and nod towards her, before she was shoved forward by the royal guard. Abigail knew what she needed to do, she needed to alert her friends and ask for their help. It was a risk, but she was willing to take it, especially for Amelia. She wasn't the greatest at spells but she had too for Amelia.

Abigail headed down the dirt path towards her home, her house looked cozy from the outside, it had been built with burgundy bricks and has red pine wooden decorations. Small, squared windows allow for enough light to seep through the home, it added a very asymmetric look. Her house was equipped with a huge kitchen and two bathrooms, it also has a huge living room, two bedrooms, a grand dining area and a snug storage room.

The house was a rectangular shape, the house is half surrounded by a covered patio. The second floor is the same size as the first, which has been built exactly on top of the floor below it. This floor has a very different style than the floor below. The roof is low and square shaped and is covered with wheat straw. One large chimney sits at the side of the house. Several long, thin windows let in plenty of light to the rooms below the roof. The house itself is surrounded by a gorgeous garden, including various trees, bushes, flowers and a large pond.

Abigail entered the house, heading up the stairs towards her bedroom, her bedroom was a rectangular shape, with matching wooden furniture, wooden flooring to match, her floor had a nice medium size rug that ran from under her bed towards the start of her bedroom door covering the tacky wooden floor.

Her bed was a king single make, made with a wooden frame and a leather bed head, two nightstand tables on either side, both filled with magic books and of course some crystals that help her sleep. Abigail's room was decked out in forest colours, she even had an incense that smelt like the forest giving her, her dream location in the one room.

She had lighting provided, two just up by her bed hanging down slightly, another was dangling from the roof in the middle of the room and of course two floor lamps. Abigail also had a crack in the foundation of her bedroom, that was done by her father when he got really mad at her, he used a spell on her that caused her bedroom wall to crack and of course her overstuffed closet, where she had hidden some books she knew were banned in Gandor.

Abigail grabbed the book she needed from her bedside table before sitting on her bed and going through the book to find the spell she needed, each page was coded with a language only mages knew. Richard was worried people would figure out their spells and use it against them. So he wrote a new spell book in their language.

Abigail's long fingers scraped the inside of her pages as her eyes were glued to the book, she was halfway through the spell book when she found the incantation she needed to send a message. The incantation was called Flight and Sight.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "Vinir flugs og sjónar, ég þarf á aðstoð þinni að halda, að senda skilaboð til þeirra sem ég þekki þurfa á hjálp að halda.Hjálpađu mér ađ senda skilabođ." she whispered the incantation a few times over before a magic raven appeared in front of her.

Abigail smiled with glee as the incantation, the raven flapped his wings before looking over at Abigail who was writing on a piece of paper before placing it around the ravens neck, "Please give this to the Dragonrider Guild on the island of Rishnag, give it to Sam. He should be the third bedroom in the guild."

The raven squawked before flying off through the open window and towards the north, heading towards the dragonrider guild.

                                                  ||||

Sam was seated in his bedroom, he was going through some books he was given by his father when he heard a loud bang on his window, he jumped at the sound before opening the window to see a raven shaking it off.

"A raven? here?" He asked out loud, it wasn't normal for a raven to be here.

He knew that mages had to ability to summon them, his eyes widened as he realised, he gently grabbed the raven noticing it had a note strapped to its neck. He gently took it off before opening it, his eyes glued to the words on the note reading them one by one.

Need your help. You're friends are being imprisoned in the dudgeon of Gandor. Meet me at south end of Gandor.

Abigail.

Sam didn't think twice before letting the raven go and running out of the room in haste, he wondered what danger their friends were in and why they were in there, he placed the note in his pocket as he made it down the stairs towards the guild living room where Stephen and Phillip were seated on a couch.

"Sam? What is the matter?" Stephen asked as he saw the look on Sam's face.

"It seems that Amelia, Hunter and Hanna are in some sort of danger, a girl named Abigail sent me a letter. We have to go" Sam said, Stephen didn't even think twice before he stood up.

"How can we trust this Abigail? How do we know it isn't a trap?" Phillip asked.

Sam shrugged, "We don't, but all we know is that our friends are in danger and they wouldn't even think twice to come rescue us," he said.

Phillip was still reluctant but stepped forward, he knew the risk of going to Gandor especially if one of them knows, but then even Sam and Stephen knew the risk of going to Gandor. Meanwhile in the dungeon, Hunter held Amelia close to his chest as they were shackled to the floor by their feet. 

"What have you brought us into Amelia?" Hanna asked finally, she was fed up with the silence she was being given.

Amelia lifted her head from the ground to Hanna, "How should I know? I don't even know what is going on. I never wanted to come back here."

Hanna huffed and turned away from Amelia, Hunter planted a kiss on the top of Amelia's head. Was this something to do with Richard? Somehow? "It will be alright Amelia, we will get out of here. There has to be a big misunderstanding."

Just before Amelia could reply, the sound of keys began to jingle behind it. Amelia held her breath for a bit watching as it opened to reveal one of the priests from the chapel in the valley, along with three maidens who had brought food for them to eat.

The priest Max Barnfield had red, shaggy hair clumsily hangs over a furrowed, menacing face. Hooded green eyes, set delicately within their sockets, watch fondly over the town they've been separated from for so long. Several moles are spread oddly across his whole face and leaves an aching memory of his past.

"These maidens will be attending to you three, every few hours until your court order date is in session, their names are Kylee Hanshaw, Leadrieth Dawnwhisper and Yneasia Moonfall" The priest said

The maiden's on the other hand, had very different characteristics, the first maiden Kylee had black, shaggy hair neatly coiffed to reveal a lean, gloomy face. Darting grey eyes, set far within their sockets, watch delicately over the river they've become enchanted by for so long. Soft skin charmingly compliments her eyes and hair and and leaves a gracious memory of her fortunate survival.

The second maiden Leadrieth had light green, well groomed hair hangs over a bony, wild face. Bloodshot pink eyes, set delicately within their sockets, watch readily over the armies they've grown affectionate of for so long. Tribal marks resembling a horizontal lightning bolt under her left eye marks her blood relation but, more importantly and leaves a painful burden of redeemed honour.

The third maiden Yneasia had blonde, shoulder-length hair slightly covers a thin, anguished face. Expressive golden eyes, set graciously within their sockets, watch vigilantly over the castle they've sworn to protect for so long. A sword left a mark stretching from just under the right eyebrow , running towards her upper lip and ending on her left cheekbone and leaves a satisfying memory of defended honour.

Amelia knew some of these maidens were prisoners by Gandor, some she did try and save when she lived their, but not everyone made it and some were injured.

Translations:

Vinir flugs og sjónar, ég þarf á aðstoð þinni að halda, að senda skilaboð til þeirra sem ég þekki þurfa á hjálp að halda.Hjálpađu mér ađ senda skilabođ. - Friends of flight and sight, I am in need of your assistance, to send a message to those I know are in need of help. Help me send a message.

[isabellafoster13]

Chapter Two: Rufus Makes a Move

Rufus watched as Sting sat across from him at their table, hunched over a bunch of paperwork and occasionally cursing him out under his breath. The memory-make mage rolled his eyes at his Guild Master and repeated for the umpteenth time that morning, "if you don't get the paperwork done now, then it will pile up and you will have to spend even more time on it." 

Sting furrowed his brow as he looked up at his friend and bit back, "I hate paperwork!" 

Rufus sighed, responding, "well, you have to do it." He watched as the other blonde groaned and resumed his paperwork. He then turned his head to the side to see Rogue and Yukino playing a card game. He watched the pair play for a few moments before turning his dark green gaze back to Sting. 

He was bored. Incredibly bored. The only reason he wasn't on a job was that he had injured his leg on his last one and was banned from going on a job for a few weeks. That was a couple of weeks ago, meaning he had one more week to go. His mind wandered to Fairy Tail and their celestial wizard. 

Since things have calmed down, Lucy had been visiting frequently, mainly to see Yukino. Nevertheless, the blonde woman had acquainted herself with much of Sabertooth, especially Yukino's closest friends. Rufus had bonded with her on the topic of a common interest in literature and had spent several hours talking about their individual guilds and close friends, though Sorano liked to call it "gossiping." 

It didn't take long for Rufus to find himself wanting to spend more time with Lucy the more she visited. He's found himself contemplating paying a visit to the destructive guild solely for the reason of spending more time with Lucy. Just the mere thought of sitting across from her and talking about whatever topic came to mind made his cheeks become warm and caused his gut to do flips. 

Several days ago, he had heard Yukino mention to her sister that she and Mira had talked about setting Lucy up with someone. The blonde man had been reading a book, only partially listening to the two sisters since they were being rather loud, however, that reveal from Yukino was what dragged his attention away from his book and over to Yukino and Sorano. 

He had stared down at his book, turning the page every few minutes, as he listened to what Yukino said. Apparently, she and the Fairy Tail barmaid had been recently talking about who they should attempt to set Lucy up with as a romantic partner. Several men had been considered: Laxus, Sting, Rogue, Midnight, Freed, Bixlow, Orga, and more men who he didn't know. With every male name, Rufus had felt a rotten feeling in his gut get stronger and stronger, his cursed mind imagining Lucy going on dates with these men. He had found himself hating the very thought of Lucy dating another man. 

And then Yukino had stated that she believed Rufus would be an excellent match for Lucy. The memory-make mage had allowed his mind to imagine him dating Lucy. Walking through the park as they ranted to each other about their idiotic friends, having dinner together as they debated an academic topic, cuddling in bed as a comfortable silence befell them. He had felt the unpleasant feeling in his gut quickly disappear and get replaced with a fluttering feeling as his cheeks warmed into a faint blush. 

It was at that moment that Rufus realized, he had fallen in love with Lucy. 

Rufus was brought out of his thoughts when Yukino called from her spot right beside him, "Lucy!" She then jumped up and ran to the entrance of the Sabertooth guildhall. The blonde man who had just nearly become partially deaf, looked in the direction of the two large wooden doors and blushed upon seeing Lucy's bright smile as she hugged Yukino and started making her way over to the table that he was sitting at. 

The celestial wizard turned her gaze to Rufus and waved as she greeted him, "hey, Rufus!" 

The blushing memory-make mage turned his head away to instead look at the discarded cards next to him on the table as he responded with as much of a calm but polite tone as he could manage, "hello, Lucy. It's very nice to see you again." 

He watched as Rogue and Sting greeted the blonde as well and tensed slightly when she sat directly across from him after Sting scooted over to allow her enough room to sit down. Yukino sat back down next to Rufus before she glanced at him and gave a knowing smirk. It hadn't taken long for the light blue-haired woman to learn of Rufus' feelings for Lucy and she was relentless in offering to help him get with her, however, the blonde man was adamant about doing that on his own. He did, however, gratefully accept the piece of information she offered, that being Lucy wasn't romantically interested in anybody, meaning he had a chance to date her.

After a few minutes of Lucy telling her Sabertooth friends about how her guild was doing, Sting begrudgingly excused himself to his office to finish his paperwork. Rogue and Yukino resumed their card game as Lucy and Rufus watched. 

Only about a minute passed before Lucy asked nobody in particular, "where's Lector and Frosch?"

Rogue answered as he kept his red eyes locked on his cards, "over at the bar with Sorano."

The celestial wizard turned around to look in the direction of the bar, seeing her former enemy sitting on a stool and sipping on what looked like a chocolate milkshake as she listened to the two exceeds next to her ramble about something. Rufus watched as Lucy turned back around with a smile and look at him, asking, "not interested in joining them?" She jabbed a thumb in the direction of Rogue and Yukino, both of whom were clearly too engrossed in their game to pay the other two mages any attention. 

Rufus looked at the pair and chuckled as he answered, "it'd be too easy for me. I remember the winning strategy for this game." 

Lucy raised an eyebrow at him, inquiring, "they are playing that card game where they have numbered cards and can't go over a certain number, right?" When Rufus answered with a nod, the celestial wizard from Fairy Tail continued, "I didn't know that there was a winning strategy."

Rufus chuckled before he spoke, "there is a strategy for every game. Even rock, paper, scissors has a strategy." 

Lucy leaned forward as she laid her crossed arms on the top of the table, asking, "what is that strategy?" 

Rufus mimicked her body position as he explained, "in a recent study, a group of researchers took three-hundred-sixty people and broke them into six groups and then into random pairings before having them play three-hundred rounds of rock, paper, scissors. They observed how these participants played the game. What they found was that while the winning player was more likely to keep playing the option that won them the round, their opponent was more likely to switch to the option that would beat the option that the winner played. The researchers dubbed this the 'win-stay, lose-shift' strategy." 

He watched as Lucy thought about what he had said for a few moments before she smiled at him, and clarified, "so, if you played rock while I played scissors, then you're more likely to play rock again and I'm more likely to play paper in the next round?" 

Rufus nodded before he continued, "yes, but that wasn't the only concluding strategy. The researchers concluded that in a game of rock, paper, scissors, you should play the option that wasn't played in the previous round. As you said, if I play rock and you play scissors, then you should play paper because I am now more likely to play rock again. The second strategy that came out of this study was if you win, then you should play what your opponent played. For example, if I play scissors and you play rock, then I will be more likely to think that you will play rock again, so in the next round, I would likely play paper. To avoid losing, you should play scissors, the same option I previously chose."

Lucy nodded in understanding. She then added, "that's better than the strategy I've been using every time Natsu challenged me to rock, paper, scissors. Always play paper. This is because rock is the most often thrown option while scissors is the least often thrown, so if you throw paper, you are statistically more likely to win since your opponent is more likely to throw rock." 

Rufus gave a small smile as he remarked, "interesting. I suppose you and I would have quite the match if we played rock, paper, scissors." 

Lucy laughed at that, causing a faint blush to dust across the other blonde's cheeks. He never could get enough of her laugh. It was a beautiful sound that he loved to listen to. He especially loved that he was the cause of her laughter. 

Deciding to take a bold step, he shifted to prop his arm up on the table and rest his chin in his palm before he commented smoothly, "you have a delightful laugh. It's like the tinkling of small bells." 

He smirked upon seeing Lucy blush deeply and look away as she stammered, "I-I um...I...thank you...Rufus." 

The memory-make mage reached forward to brush a lock of her hair behind her ear, continuing, "your hair is beautiful. It reminds me of the sun, very bright and golden." As Lucy reacted by blushing a darker red and giving him a flustered, and even shy, smile, Rufus continued after he placed a bent finger under her chin and tilted her head so she'd look at him, "and your eyes are a stunning color. Deep and expressive. I enjoy staring into them." Just like in all of their previous meetings, he found himself unable to look away from her eyes, not that he wanted to. He finished, "you're incredibly beautiful, Lucy. You are very kind, forgiving, smart, I could go on. You're an alluring young woman, and I'd very much like to get to know you more, on a more intimate level." 

His smirk changed to a soft smile as Lucy stammered in a flustered way, "I-I...R-Rufus, I um...a-are you-"

She was cut off when Yukino suddenly stood up, throwing her cards onto the table and brow furrowed, as she exclaimed, "you're cheating, Rogue!" This unexpected action drew the attention of Rufus and Lucy, also causing Rufus to pull his hand away from the woman across from him.

The black-haired man simply crossed his arms over his chest and chuckled as he shook his head and replied calmly, "I'm not cheating, you're just bad at this game."

Yukino huffed before she walked around the table and grabbed Lucy's arm, dragging her behind her and proclaiming, "we're gonna go shopping!" 

Rufus watched after the two women in surprise before he slumped slightly in disappointment. He was so close to a date with Lucy. Nevertheless, he was closer to getting a date with the celestial wizard that he had his eye on. He just hoped that nobody else had the intention of pursuing her as well.

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

Anyway, finally the game is stable, and I’ve finally gotten my core followers, time to flesh out what will be hopefully be my Dragonborn for the foreseeable future.

Ayerin the Perplexing.

She’s a Altmer Mage, or at least that’s what she claims to be, Goth-Coded, and I’m gona write her on the Autistic spectrum cause I’m on the spectrum so that’s basically half the work done, and the second she learns she’s a dragonborn she’ll start experimenting on her dragon blood, discovering a way to taint it, strengthen it and her soul so that she’d be able to do the impossible, bear both Molag Bal’s and Hircine’s curses at the same time. The way to do so, however, is still long and distant, and necessitates of a third curse, to balance the two, and allow her to survive both Vampiric and Werewolf transformations, by rendering her mortal if long lived mortal shell, immortal and undead first, before even ascending as a vampire.

She’s a Seeker of the Arcane Arts and a Mage. Her dad is a follower of the old Altmer pantheon, specifically Syrabane, the God of Magic, an Aldmer ancestor who ascended to divinity through his own efforts, and has transmitted to his daughter the same devotion to the so called Apprentice God, whose favor is obtained by the constant and tireless research of magical knowledge. He used to be a lecturer for the Arcane University, but after the war the faculty decided they didn’t exactly need his services anymore. They moved to Bravil, where he became a lowly illusion tutor in the local chapter of the mages guild, his career effectively put to a halt.

Her papa, on the other hand, doesn’t care much for gods. He’s a soldier, a legate for the Imperial Legion, stationed in Cyrodil, or at least he was. He lost a arm during the great war, as he attempted to stop the atrocities the Aldmeri Dominion, their own people, were committing in the Cyrodilian Countryside, missing the siege of the imperial city as a result. He’s bitter and angry, but he’s glad he and his loved ones are still alive as a result, even if they are being ostracized for being different, as if they didn’t just fight a war against people who were ostracizing others for being different from them.

Ayerin grows interested in magic as a result of her dad’s influence. Under the supervision of her dad, she tried to gain access to the Arcane University, but was found too curios, too interested in... forbidden lore and knowledge, even expressing some perplexity over the banning of necromancy, a now time honored tradition of the mage’s guild.

That’s when she gets her moniker. The Perplexing. Or maybe, more fittingly, the Perplexed. Always searching for knowledge she ought not to search, for powers that better be left alone, in all 5 schools of magic, baffling and perplexing her peers as much as their “irrational” reactions baffle and perplex her.

The local politics also confuse her, perplexed over why should wizard start squabbling over petty court politics. She never really understood politics in general really, she took from her Papa that way, everything had always been very straightforward for them, always a black and white issue, no matter how much people tried to paint it otherwise, and she didn’t understand why other people couldn’t see it that way.

It was only logical after all.

Her dreams are weird, black voids with white smoke, filled with still images of people, monsters, beings, objects, a weird voice, probably belonging to a old man, giving her advice, some times good, some times just weird, talking about events before her life, as if he was there, as if he knew who was there, mentioning the gods, and talking about the divines and the daedric princes as if they were old chums... or bitter enemies some times.

It’s weird, but strangely illuminating if she managed to decipher his rants, a constant companion of her nights, and she assumes it must be a Daedra working for Vaermina, or maybe one of her demiprinces, especially given how... weirdly fond he seemed to be of the nightmare mistress when he talked about her, but still, she wasn’t that worried about this, it wasn’t like a major daedric prince had decided to set up camp in her dreams after all, she could handle some minor heckling mixed in with some genuine good advice or history lessons about the history of Cyrodil, surprisingly well done and serious in tone, as if they were 2 completely different persons.

At 25 years of age, abandoning her attempts to join the Mages Guild, she decides to move north, to Skyrim. She has heard of a long forgotten cult, attempting to create a true lich for themselves, and also that the college of Winterhold seemed more open to the prospect of its members researching forbidden lores and crafts, no matter how blasphemous they might seem, and she’s all for that, finally, a place where her genius will be recognized!

So, with her blessing of her Dad and her Papa, sad to see her go but glad she’ll be able to leave the nest and follow her dreams, with enough magical research to allow her to cast at least 2 spells for every school of magic, if still really novice ones, she crosses the border into Skyrim...

And gets captured in an Imperial Ambush.

It’s almost mechanical what happens next, going with the flow as if it has happened countless of times already. She’s almost executed, but a Dragon saves her (Usually, it’s the knight that saves the princess from a dragon, not the other way around).

She flees the fort with the awkward soldier who tried to be nice to her, and failed miserably at doing so. She might have hold against him mistaking her for a Thalmor spy (And she spits on the ground at the thought, startling her new companions as they watch her give her daily prayers to Syrabane), but she always considered herself as a excellent judge of character, and of the two men that offered to help her flee, one was simply running for his life, the other had almost given his life to save a young child from the drgaon’s breath, as most other imperial soldiers were doing at the moment.

Which meant only one of them was noble enough or dumb enough to position himself between her assailants and her sparks, and that was the dumbass thought sending her corpse to a country she had never set foot in would have comforted her in her final moments.

At least he was easy on the eyes.

They leave the fort, she finds some junk, a rusty old ceremonial sword among them, and contemplates just how competent those Stormcloaks actually are if their armor and weaponry consists in some strings of leather and scraps of metal barely held together with spit and hope, she even manages to find some spiffy new robes for her, still no boots tho, forced to wander the place just with some wrappings at her feet. It hurts like hell, but she’d rather wear that than... ugh... light armor, uncomfortable and itchy as it always made her feel.

They flee the fort and he offers her to give her shelter to the near Riverwood, Hadvar’s, that’s the hot dumbass’ name, home town. It’s pretty close, and along the way they find the so called guardian stones, old pendants hidden in the hole within them. She was born under the sign of the mage, so she activates the according stone, but Hadvar mentions that unlike her birthsign, the stones do not bind her to just one sign, much to her befuddlement. She doesn’t press him, noticing his barely veiled... judgement at her choice of stone, and notices a door down the slope the Stones are perched on, embed in the mountain as she leaves, wondering what it must have been.

What follows is a whirlwind, she meets Alvor, Hadvar’s uncle, and finds herself almost stealing all the food he had offered her, starving as she found herself, eating chicken eggs raw and stockpiling potatoes for the incoming trip. She’s supposed to got to Whiterun, warn the local Jarl of the dragon attacks...

Gennarino tells her to go to Falkreath instead. It’s as close as Whiterun, and she needs to find someone there.

Gennarino is her oldest and most devoted friend. A traditional Direnni name according to her Papa when she mentioned him, it also happened to be the name of the assistant of a great Aldmer sorceress, during the war against the Sloads, obsessed with gold, who ended her days living in a remote island, at the foot of a slumbering volcano, her name lost to time.

Gennarino also happened to be a Raven. Her Raven. Who oh so happened to be invisible to anyone but her.

Or, well, almost anyone but her. She was pretty sure other animals could see him just fine, as could some of the kids she used to play with, before she was considered too “weird” to be played with, as well as one (1) drunk Argonian in the Imperial City, green and sad and screaming against the heavens in the rain, complaining about friends dying or disappearing after becoming gods and leaving him behind with all the golds and riches that he’ll never be able to share with them, while also complaining about the loud crow giving him a headache.

Still, invisible Raven, followed her all her life, his advice has always been followed by her, how would she not, he’d always been right, even more so than her, and she might be stubborn and curious but she also know the old stories, the old fairy tales about strange little creatures following strange advice to be followed to the letter, a clear, easy way for the player and the author to justify her sudden detour in the middle of such a important situation.

Anyway, she leaves for Falkreath before long, apologizing to Hadvar and the others, who take it better than she expected, before trying to buy some more spell tomes from the local trader, delighting herself in the sudden new variety in the new land (”Uh, death hound, never heard of that conjuration summon, and what is this? “Lamb of Mara”? Is this a religious spell?”). On the way, she visits the door she spotted, finding alarge, sprawling room, filled with altars to anything but her god.

She pledges herself to be a follower of her own mind, something Syrabane would probable appreciate, before inspecting the other altars. The Hermanus Mora one (Already whispering sweet knowledge to her starved mind, as she resists to its pull... for now) has a variety of books as offerings, among them a spell she had never seen before.

She prays for her god there, and leaves for Falkreath. She finds no trabel along the way, only corpses and a traveling bard, with whom she concludes her journey to Falkreath.

There, she finds Lucien, an Imperial, so easily flustered, so eager to follow her to their death, a fellow seeker of knowledge, as they say. He asks her to become his bodyguard, she who can’t even defend herself, and she accepts, both for the money he’s offering, and for the prospect of her research to gain something from their sudden collaboration...

Also because despite everything she really needed a meat shield. And something tells her that if her crow has told her to go for that one, inexperienced and incompetent as he might seem, there seemed to be a reason for that.

She’s not eager to test this concept, and decides to leave for Whiterun this time, as Lucien also suggests, to warn the Jarl of his impending doom...

Except then Gennarino grabs at her Map, a gift from her dads, that she managed not to lose in the ambush, and tells her to go to Riften instead, where another valuable assets lies. Its very insisting, more so than when he told her to go to Falkreath, so she leaves, resigned, Lucien puzzled at her sudden change of destination midway, and there, finally, meeting Inigo.

Now, they are here, a Mage who has just started her journey into the mysteries of the unknown, a Half Naked Khajiit that mistook her for someone else, a inexperienced “Milk drinker” donning imperial armor in a rebel stronghold filled to the brim with bloodthirsty Stormcloaks (Why, she just witnessed their lot violently suppress a small Imperial assault, barely 4-5 soldier, that’s where she got one of the armors before the city guard stopped her from looting the other corpses by tossing them in the river), her talking, maybe there maybe not crow, cawing at her that now, yes, she can go to Whiterun, finally...

And who knows what their future holds for them?

[milfmorrowind]

Soooooo I want to start talking about my ocs(if you can even call them that) more, so I think I'll start out by making basic profiles for them.

In order of creation:

Kaia

Born to a poor family in the heart of cyrodiil, Kaia was orphaned at the age of ten. While her mother's death can be confirmed to be due to illness, Kaia insists that her father was kidnapped by akaviri slavers, leaving her all alone in the imperial city. Kaia spent her days with a group of other orphans, scrounging and stealing what they could. As she came of age and was able to work for a more stable living, Kaia came to resent the system which had failed her. There was no reason for so many children to suffer right under the nose of the empire and imperial watch, she thought. And so, she began to speak out.

Kaia became known to soldiers throughout the province for her demonstrations. She campaigned for many things, including an end to taxes on the poor, protecting marginalized races from discrimination, the establishment of shelters for displaced children, and, most importantly, the banning of slavery in Morrowind. Kaia paid no heed to the claims of the dark elves that they had the right to own slaves, and insisted that the enslavement of another sentient thing was evil and cruel.

Kaia protested for many years, refusing to cede or settle down, even as she progressed into her fifties. However, during one particularly nasty confrontation at the palace, she struck a member of the imperial legion. The empire, having longed for years to lock her up, jumped at the opportunity to teach Kaia a lesson. Though she was no stranger to jail, this time would be different. The courts decided sending her to Vvardenfell would be an all too fitting punishment, and off she went.

During her journey towards taking the role of nerevarine, Kaia joined the mages, thieves, and fighters guilds(though she would eventually abandon the fighters guild when she discovered their ties to the camonna tong). She also joined house telvanni, which may seem a rather ironic choice, but to Kaia this was her best chance to reform morrowind and abolish the slave trade altogether.

Despite her anger with the imperial courts, Kaia retains her loyalty to the divines and imperial institutions. She joins the imperial cult late into her journey, and does what she can to support the empire in the province, as she believes Morrowind's government to be inherently evil.

After the climax of the main quest, Kaia traveled to mournhold and sided with the temple there, angry at Helseth's attempts against her life. She then traveled to Solstheim, where she would spend some time before disappearing off to Akavir in search of evidence of her father's kidnapping.

Erstin Hard-Heart

Erstin was born in a secluded village in southern Skyrim to a very traditional family. She grew up worshipping the Nordic pantheon, though she was aware of their relationship to the imperial cult, and learned to hunt and fight with Nordic weapons. Her village was very tight-knit, and she had relatively little contact with people outside of it.

Unfortunately, due to the standard nord distrust of magic, the only craft Erstin learned growing up was very basic healing and restoration, which her mother, the village healer. taught her. However, she did not share her community's superstitions, and always desired to learn more magic.

Erstin was very close with her parents, and would often help her father with hunting trips, as well as her own. On one of these trips her father was injured by a deer, and Erstin rushed him home to her mother. The whole way, and through the arduous process of dressing his wounds, Erstin prayed fervently to Talos, Mara, and Kyne to spare her dear father, but her pleas would be in vain. After a week of care, her father passed on to Sovngarde, and her mother would follow soon after, too stricken by grief to continue. Erstin was devastated, but soon became angry with the gods. How could they do this? Her family had always revered and worshipped them appropriately, but they had been ignored in their moment of need. Erstin abandoned the faith she had grown up with and began to make plans to leave her village, earning her the name Hard-Heart from her neighbors, who mourned both the loss of two important comminity members, and the loss of their daughter's heart.

Once her preparations were finished, Erstin headed south. Though she confided in no one, her plan was always to reach the temple of the one and call out to Akatosh, and demand he justify the actions of the aedra. Again, while she had been raised with the Nordic pantheon, Erstin was exposed to enough traveling imperial traders to be aware of the similarities between her religion and the cyrodiilic one.

Upon reaching Bruma, Erstin realized she was ill prepared to live in big cities. She quickly ran out of supplies, and began to steal her way South to the imperial city. While she was able to evade law enforcement for most of her journey, she was caught and put in the imperial prison.

Throughout her journey towards becoming the champion of cyrodiil, Erstin would join the mages and thieves guilds, advancing to the top of both. She also completed the Knights of the Nine questline, reaffirming her faith in the divines. She developed a deep connection with Martin Septim, and the too would be married, although he would sacrifice himself before they could make their union known to the general public. Erstin was devastated by her loss, and her newfound respect for the gods hardened into hatred, particularly for Akatosh, whom she believed was fully capable of sparing Martin. Her anger sowed the seeds of madness, and she would soon travel to the Shivering Isles.

In the Shivering Isles, Erstin tried to maintain balance between Mania and Dementia, but would eventually side with Dementia. She fully mantles Sheogorath, and upon assuming her throne wrote a letter to the Elder Council, disparaging the Divines and proclaiming her allegiance to the Daedra, albeit in a roundabout fashion.

[moeruhoshi]

Valentine’s Day ❤️

Lucy was nervous for this Valentine’s Day, mostly because her boyfriend never understood the holiday. She only expected him to give her a box of chocolates their first year together, the idiot instead showing up with a ring worth twice the guild’s income.

“But don’t you like pretty things, Luce? I thought the pink suits you,” His puppy dog frown breaking the strength she tried to hold when denying the gift.

“It’s just...it’s so expensive, Natsu...I really don’t need something this amazing...I don’t want you spending so much on me.” She sighed, gazing at the thick, heart-shaped rock on her right hand, much too nervous to allow it on the left.

“It’s okay once in a while, right? I saved up so I could spoil you, please tell me you love it,” Her cheeks flushed brightly at his words; well, she had always wanted to be spoiled...

“Of course I do! But I mean it, I really don’t want you spending so much on one gift again.”

“Aye, sir!”

The next year was much sweeter, at least the idea of it had began sweetly. She arrived at his house, dressed up and made up for their dinner Natsu had said he was going to prepare her a meal Mira had taught him to make. But before she could even knock, the pink haired dragon slayer was busting down his own door and tackling her to the ground.

“It’s gonna blow!” He shouted, Lucy cringing as she heard the pot or oven go haywire followed by its explosion.

Natsu put out the fire and turned back to the dirt-covered girl with a sheepish grin, the celestial mage grabbing and tugging him back to her apartment. The ending was well enough, she made them a spaghetti dinner and they cuddled while watching her favorite movies, she couldn’t have asked for much more.

The year after that, Lucy was pleasantly surprised to recieve a small box as her gift, Natsu’s feet anxiously shuffling as she opened it. Inside were three little chocolates, in what shape must have attempted to mimic a heart.

“I-I know it’s not a lot! But they’re the only ones that came out good enough to eat,” Her heart soared at his embarrassed face, watching as he tried to hide away in his scarf. “Happy Valentines Day...”

“You’re so sweet, Natsu,” She held the box lovingly to her chest, biting her bottom lip as she stared coyly into his eyes.

“Woah, woah, if I knew chocolates were gonna give you that kind of face, I would’ve made them years ago!”

The fourth year was amazing, was it clear at this point Lucy did not hold very high standards for her Valentines gifts? But she always loved to see what crazy thing he had cooked up next.

Lucy was worried this year Natsu wouldn’t make it on time, since he had taken a job at the beginning of the week with Gray and either had yet to be seen walking through the guild doors. Both she and Juvia finally sent themselves home when the sun had gone down and neither had returned, a lonely valentines night set before them.

It was quite surprising to see so many candles lit and standing on every free corner of her furniture, roses by the ton filling her apartment and bordering a path leading to her room. Her charmed heart was quickly snatched as she blanched at the sight on her bed, Natsu holding a rose between his lips and a box of chocolate held in front of his bare self.

“Who in the world taught you how to do something like this?” She placed a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow as Natsu grinned delightfully.

“Hibiki! We ran into him on our way back, he said girls really like this kind of thing,”

“Well, I do love the flowers.” She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “But please, put your clothes back on.”

But this fifth and present year, Lucy felt antsy. She wanted to get back to their home, to see whatever Natsu had prepared. She knew it wasn’t a coincidence when Cana suddenly dragged her out for a girls day in town. The brunette never liked going to the spa or shopping on a day she knew bars were charging cheap for single girls. She went ahead and bought a lingerie set that the clerk insisted matched her skin tone very well, ignoring the looks Cana gave her when they left.

“I’m not going to be surprised when you’re watermelon plump in nine months,” She snickered as the blonde whipped her a glare. It wasn’t soon after that the card mage was sending her back to her house in the woods, having moved in with Natsu some time last Christmas. That day was one to remember, when they had finally finished emptying her apartment only for Natsu to have such a hard time leaving the smell she had attached to the walls. But his compromise was the promise of Lucy’s bed she was happy to share with him in their own home.

“Natsu, I’m home!” She called as she walked in, heart thumping wildly for this anticipated gift. There weren’t any smells of cooking, which he had been not long ago banned from. No giant bushel of roses or peonies, not a giant stuffed bear or box of chocolate in sight.

“Go wait in the bedroom!” The slayer called from his hiding place, Lucy rolling her eyes as she walked into said room. He better not have gotten more advice from those shitty Blue Pegasus boys.

She calmly set aside her newly bought items before taking a seat at the edge of her bed, awaiting the presence of her dragon boyfriend. The door slowly creaked open and thankfully the pink haired boy was still dressed, in his causal pants and vest, scarf rightfully in its place. She grinned as he hid his hands behind his back, praying to the first master in hopes whatever he hid wouldn’t be something that could potentially harm her health.

“Close your eyes,” He whispered as he stood in front of her, Lucy following his orders and shut them tight. She could feel his hands come around and clasp something together, a weightless jewel falling upon her chest. Opening her eyes, she gasped at the sight of a perfectly shaped pink heart, diamond or quartz, she wasn’t sure. The chain around was gold, real gold, she’d know it in an instant compared to its cheaper copy.

“Oh, Natsu...” It matched the ring she only wore when they were off jobs, afraid to lose it in battle. “It’s too much...”

“Not this time! You told me not to spend too much again, so I made this myself. Metal-head helped a little but I did most of the work,” He puffed his chest proudly as she stared at him with wide eyes.

“Where in the world did you get materials?! This should have cost a fortune!”

“Never underestimate a dragon’s nose, Lucy! You can find that stuff easy with a little digging. And it’s easy to mold with a little heat and pressure. I got Yukino to borrow Libra while they were passing through town.”

“You’re amazing!” Her laugh was breathless as she quickly jumped up to give him a hug. Natsu chuckled as he held her back, burying his nose against the crook of her neck. “Thank you so much,”

“My pleasure, Luce. Can’t have my girl walkin’ around like she ain’t my princess, hm?” She rolled her eyes and graciously kissed his cheek, Natsu reciprocating until their lips came together.

“Wait one second, okay? I bought something really cute for tonight.” Lucy giggled as she pulled away, pink haired boy whining as he fell to the bed, waiting for her return from the bathroom.