#but i doubt immortal wizards get sick

[thehylianidiot]

Okay just a random thought again about Fairy Tail. Because the Alvarez Arc makes me peeved every time I begin to examine it.

Would Neo Eclipse have even worked it everything played out how Zeref intended? Because I certainly can't remember what I had for breakfast, so I doubt the 400-year old immortal with attachment issues has a completely accurate recollection of the dates from half a dozen human lifespans ago. And magic genius or not, rewriting the universe is a highly untested mess and therefore has unpredictable consequences.

The following blurb is a very dumb culmination of this rouge thought train:

Zeref wakes up 400 years in the past in his old family home back before the dragons attacked. This is where he realizes his first mistake: he forgot that he was like 8 when it happened. With no curse, but no access to fairy heart, and a very limited range of what magic he can actually use, because there's no way he could stop time even if he knew how. Best he could do was all his old theories, and seriously, that was his prototype to teleportation? Anchor-based trading, seriously?!

He dismisses this as a minor setback. He'll just get his family out and away from the inevitable dragon attack, and nobody would be none the wiser.

This leads to mistake number two: he's three days early.

Meaning he has to actually hang out with his family and notice all the tiny details he completely forgot about. Like maybe Mom's homemade soup was actually really bad but nobody had the heart to tell her otherwise, or maybe Dad's wasn't this great wizard who knew everything but was just playing along with his son's interest in magic, or that Natsu was always that loud and a bit of a pyromaniac before he died and that wasn't just Igneel's parenting.

And his family notices somethings a little off with him. He's much quieter, not as enthusiastic about any interests and is really insistent on them leaving for a day on this specific date.

Then the day comes and Zeref realizes a third important detail: Natsu got sick on this day, and his parents stayed home to take care of him. All the while, he survived because he was off at the local academy to sneak into some stupid lecture while his entire village burned.

He can't get even one of his parents to come with him. He certainly can't get Natsu coming along in the state he's in. There's literally nothing he can do to change history.

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

Okay, here's where I would be treating this like an actual fanfic story instead of an idea that just came from rolling with this stupid line of questioning in the first place, and I got carried away going into detail on this summary:

He debated not going, dying with his family in peace like he wanted to in the first place, but apparently real 8 year old him had been ranting about this lecture for months now, and his family knew it and encouraged him to go and don't worry about them (after all, he was a bit off the past few days, so maybe this would help). He could always just stay behind anyway, but they were all so genuine and going to die in a few hours anyway and it was like fulfilling a last wish for them and .... Augh!!!

So he goes. Always keeping track of the sun's position in the sky, wondering if he misremembered this too, when the dragon sirens at the academy would blare and the staff would magically reinforce the locks on all entrances so no dragon breached the hull. Ignoring the rantings of that tired old fool (what what was his name ... Hebler?), instead trying to figure out what would he do now. He should just ... not study the balance of life and death. It was easy enough now that he knew all that would happen, right?

The sky begins to darken and the afternoon sky turns a dim shade of red. And that shade gets closer and closer.

He wasn't going to do it again. He knew what would happen. Just forget about them like he should have the first time.

All those details about his family faded with centuries wore away the memory, but experiencing them now made them much more personal beyond 'Mother' 'Father' and 'Brother'.

Zeref, arguably worse griever in Earthland, couldn't forget in seven years. He would do it all over again and he knew it. He would do it and forget it all over again just to repeat forever on end. Would that happen, where even with full knowledge he would make the same inevitable choices?

The sirens started blaring as he looked down at his hands at those stupid 8 year old notes he's been crinkeling all throughout the lecture.

Those stupid 8 year old notes on his teleportation prototype. Exchange ones space for another as long as there was an anchor in both places. He made dozens of other halfs at home weeks back when he was young naive and really wanting to show off when escaping chores.

He knew what choice he could make different. He could even succeed in what he was doing all along for just one person. There was after all, one bedridden brother who was almost certainly within range of anchor G-12.

So, racing against the magic resistant locks, he poured all his magic into that prototype spell, pouring all he had regardless of the toll on his magic. He spent four centuries resisting the instinct to avoid fatal levels of magic exhaustion, it wasn't important then when he was seeking his own death and it certainly wasn't important now.

On the Eve of the Dragon Attack on an unsuspecting village, there was one survivor. A boy nearly passed out from a fever, having somehow walked all the way to the local academy for a lecture. His brother stayed at home looking for him.

-----

That's probably what some forgotten historical record would say anyway. As for the brother well...

He made one other miscalculation.

Zeref woke up at the halls of Milidian Academy right in front of his old desk. At first, he wondered what happened, because this was the moment everything went wrong. It couldn't be that the nightmare of an existence that happened afterwards just didn't exist. That couldn't be what happened, could it?

The headmaster was coming his way and he flinched, ready for the inevitable cutting off of his funding and then he would say Natsu is dead and the Death Predation would take the entire academy as its first meal...

The headmaster passes right through him, grumbling to himself while picking up some odd trinkets on the desk that Zeref couldn't remember for the life of him what they were there for.

What?

He touched the desk and he couldn't feel the wood or anything, just see his hand sinking into it as if it was a thought projection.

As if he was the thought projection.

That's when it clicked. He was dead, but he couldn't be in order for him to use Fairy Heart to turn back time in the future. So he had to exist right here but that was apart of a future that didn't exist, but he was also not there in this timeline so of course he couldn't affect the world if he was dead and ...

Oh Gods. Even without the curse, he managed to turn himself into a walking contradiction.

Was this better or worse than before? Because it wasn't like he could kill anyone if he technically didn't exists or create any demons, but he also couldn't interact with anyone ever again and he just got a taste of doing so for three curse-free days and...

He had to get out of here.

Zeref ran. Past the halls and past the other students whose names he lost long ago, directionless and at the mercy of where his feet would take him, forgetting far too many times that he couldn't open any doors until it was too late.

Until he heard someone.

"Huh, was that-"

He turned.

A very familiar someone. A boy with bright pink hair and a wide, almost feral grin. And it was all wrong, because the last time he saw that boy was in Anne's arms as the Eclipse Gate closed for four hundred years out of the dragon hunter's reach.

"Natsu. " But the boy was here, fully alive and human, no broken body found in his home's ruins, no angry gods denying such a tragedy didn't have to be. Just Natsu, living as he always should have.

"Hey! You're alive!" the boy shouted, looked directly at him.

Zeref turned around, but there were no students on this side of the hall, which meant Natsu was looking at---. He turned back to his brother and pointed at himself.

Natsu nodded, his grin growing to an almost contagious degree. Because there was someone who could somehow see him, and of course it would be impossibly bright little Natsu.

The adorable fire starter slammed to poor book he was holding on the floor "Where have you been this entire time Zeref?! I've been spending ages trying to bring you back, and you've been here this entire time."

Zeref stilled as fear churned in his nonexistent stomach. "You've been what?"

The boy picked up and dusted off the very book Zeref had used for the basis behind the R System back when he was Natsu's age. "I was going to bring you back," he said, as if those words didn't invite eternal damnation. "Everyone here keeps telling me I'm just saying that because it's hard, but I'm serious!" The boy patted down his official academy uniform. "But now I don't have to worry about that cause you're alive!"

No.

No no no.

"Hey, now that I got you again, you can try to help me get Mom and Dad too." The boy raced away to what could only be the location of a future disaster.

"Natsu!" Zeref screamed at the top of his lungs for the first time in centuries as the miniature firestorm of a boy razed the hall, knocking over fellow acolytes and leaving an unstoppable hurricane of dust in his wake.

Nope, this was worse. Clearly his brother was a demon from birth dedicated to making his life (or unlife at the moment) more complicated.

----

Look, I have to end this idea with some form of personal torment given the bases of this plot bunny starts with neo eclipse working, and who knows what deaths it has to step over to get Alvarez to win. And wrangling a non-toddler Natsu would be both completely new to Zeref while technically granting his original wish (hehe, I do a monkey's paw) while being torture and a half.

No clue what would happen next, this was just an overly long train of thought that somehow rambled into a fanfic outline that I feel no intention to write if there's no clear follow on (this feels more like the start of a story rather than a story in full as it is now, but I honestly didn't intend for this post to be so long in the first place).

Also, thank you for reading my really long ramblings! Have a great day!

#what if #late night thoughts #fanfic ideas #sort of #fairy tail #fairy tail what if #neo eclipse #neo eclipse what if #fairy tail zeref #fairy tail natsu #zeref dragneel #natsu dragneel #dragneel brothers #dragneel family #when did this even happen #how did this even happen #this was supposed to be short #fairy tail au #somehow

[isabellafoster13]

This was requested on AO3 by AspenWood.

This was requested to be a Reincarnated Lovers AU style of oneshot. When I was planning this oneshot, I wasn't entirely sure what I should do with Mavis and Anna, so I said, "I'm just gonna ignore them" and wrote this.

WARNING: MENTIONS OF NUDITY!

I hope you enjoy!

Lucy? Is that You? (Zeref x Lucy)

Beauty. 

That was what Zeref saw as his lover splashed around in the river that he sat right next to. A smile stretched across his face. He loved seeing Lucy have fun and be so carefree,  completely uncaring about his curse. 

Zeref even forgot about his curse for a while. That was the kind of effect Lucy has had on him ever since he first met her. She was able to make him forget that he was an immortal wizard with a deadly curse. When he was with her, he felt like he was a normal young man. It was a strange thing really. For some reason, his curse has never activated whenever she was around, causing him to fall even more in love with her.

He watched as Lucy floated on her back, her bare breasts poking out from the water. She then turned and straightened her posture, standing in the waist-deep water, before she called out to her lover, "Zeref! Come join me!"

The black-haired man snapped out of his thoughts and laughed at her energetic waving as she continued to urge him to join her in the water. Unable to deny any of her requests, he stood up and stripped off his clothes. Once he was naked, he walked into the water, making his way over to his lover. 

Once he reached her, Lucy cheered as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her body flush against his. Zeref froze at this action, his cheeks burning with a deep blush. He hesitantly wrapped his arms around Lucy. It didn't matter how often Lucy would shower him with physical affection, he doubted that he would ever get used to it. Nevertheless, he loved nothing more than his lover showing him endless amounts of affection. 

Zeref picked up Lucy bridal style and carried her further into the water until he found a large, underwater rock. He sat down on it, causing the water to reach his chest, and rested Lucy on his lap. Lucy then cupped his face and pressed a kiss to his lips, which Zeref happily returned. 

The pair continued to exchange kisses that got more and more heated as the minutes passed by until Zeref pulled away and murmured, "we are going to need to get out soon." 

Lucy responded, "No! I like the water!" 

Zeref chuckled, "we're going to get wrinkled." 

"My fingers are already getting pruney." She held up her hands in front of his face, showing him her fingers that were already beginning to wrinkle. 

Zeref took hold of her fingers as he chuckled, observing the pruning digits. He then looked at Lucy with a serene smile as he questioned, "do you know why this happens?" 

When Lucy shook her head, he explained, "it's because the thick layer of skin on her fingers absorbs water. This absorption causes the surface area of the skin to swell, but the outer layer is tightly attached to the living tissue." 

Lucy smiled brightly at him before she kissed him once again. When she pulled away, she asked, "we should go to the bookstore again!"

"We were just there yesterday." 

"I'd like to go again!"

"Alright. We'll go as soon as we dry off and get dressed." 

Lucy whooped and hopped off of her lover's lap, making her way back to the river bank. Zeref chuckled before he followed after her.

Zeref slid down the trunk of a tree with a heavy sigh. His breathing was heavy and a few beads of sweat slid down his temples. He had just ran from a group of people in an attempt to avoid harming them. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to prevent his curse from activating, however, no humans were harmed. He was tired and miserable, as well as sick of his curse. 

When was the last time he was free from his curse? 

He knew when that was. It was decades ago when he had Lucy back by his side. For centuries, he had been in love with the same woman. A beautiful, blonde named Lucy. Since he had first lost her, he's noticed that he would meet her again and again. It was as if she was reincarnated and destined to return to him. 

If that was true, then why? Why was he lucky enough to have a destined lover who would find him in each of her lifetimes? What did he do to deserve this? He couldn't think of a single answer to those questions. 

Nevertheless, even though it always hurt, excruciatingly so, when Lucy would die, he would still wait to run into her again. And then, when it finally happened, he would strike back up a romance with her and relish in her presence and love. He would also appreciate the peace that he brought her and the calmness of his curse that her mere presence would bring. 

He would oftentimes find himself wondering if Lucy ever remembered him. He never asked and she never mentioned it, making him think that maybe she didn't have any memories of him. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. Although, he did like creating new memories with her. He supposed that, ultimately, it didn't matter if she did remember him. She was still Lucy. 

As Zeref sat against the tree, his eye closed and his breathing evening out, he wondered to himself: When will he meet Lucy again? It's been a few decades. He hadn't gone this long without seeing her. 

He was just about to continue on his way, when he heard a familiar voice, "hello? Are you alright?" 

Zeref jumped to his feet and his eyes widened as his cheeks warmed and his heart picked up speed. "Lucy? Is that you?" He muttered to himself, wondering if he had really heard her. 

"Hello? I asked if you were alright!" The voice called out again. 

Lucy! It was Lucy! He knew it was her! That was her voice! A smile stretched upon his face and he ran in the direction of the voice. He didn't get very far, however, when he accidentally bumped into the source of the voice, causing her to yelp and fall onto her ass. 

Zeref silently cursed at himself as he exclaimed, "sorry! I didn't mean to do that!"

He offered his hand for her to take, pulling her to her feet once she did. Lucy responded, "it's alright." She then looked up at Zeref's face, freezing immediately as her smile fell slightly. 

Zeref stared into her eyes, desperately looking for any degree of recognition. During his search, he watched as her eyes sparkled, telling him that even if she didn't have any memories of him, she still knew that she was destined to be with him. 

Feeling a rush of boldness, he leaned forward and hesitantly pressed his lips to hers, allowing her plenty of time to step away from him. However, much to Zeref's delight, Lucy didn't do that. Instead, she returned the kiss with love. Zeref had missed the feel of her lips and her presence. He finally had her back in his arms and he was going to enjoy the time that he was with her until her next lifetime. 

#fairy tail #lucy heartfilia #zeref dragneel #zeref x lucy #zerlu #fluff #reincarnation au #mentions of nudity #angst

[fantasy2739]

ohmygod I just read pretty much ALL your douxie fics, I love your writing!! if you’re still down for prompts, completely up to you if you wanna do this bc I know you’ve done a lot of suffering douxie already (but tbh I just love to see it) could you do a douxie sickfic? preferably with him being looked after by archie +/- nari but totally up to you!

Sickfics give me life but I suck at them(fair warning). But thank you so much for reading my works!! I’m glad you’ve liked them. We all love suffering Douxie.

Also, I know some of you are waiting for submissions and I really am going as quickly as I can. My inbox however, is still back on August 16th which is a while ago. I hope no one minds too much that I’m taking my sweet sweet time but I want to be sure these are good enough for you guys.

I hope you enjoy!:

Douxie couldn’t remember the last time he’d been sick. He must have been really young. He’d never been sick with Merlin. Never been sick after he’d fallen asleep. Wizard immortality did that to a man. In all honesty he didn’t think he could get sick. But here he was, laid up in bed with a fever and the worlds stuffiest nose. Nari and Archie hovered by him. They hadn’t needed a first aid kit, why would they? Nari didn’t get ill. Archie didn’t get ill. Douxie didn’t get ill. Except he was and they had no idea what to do. Archie was fluttering around, his dragon wings flapping rapidly. Nari was perched on the edge of the sofa, eyeing him cautiously.

“‘M fine.” Douxie mumbled sleepily. “I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure? You’ve never been ill before.” Archie said. Douxie could make out the blurry shape of Archie floating.

“Fine.” Douxie insisted. It didn’t sound fine. It sounded weak and slightly slurred. Douxie tried to ignore the fact that his body felt like a sauna meeting an igloo somehow. He should be going into work. He should be doing lots of things but he felt like he’d been knocked out flat.

“What do we do when someone is too hot?” Nari asked. “Skrael would dump them in ice and Bellroc would just leave them. But that doesn’t seem right.” Archie pondered it.

“I think food.” He said. “That fixes things. Soup and sleep.”

“So he sleeps now yes?” Nari asked. Douxie would have grumbled. Maybe even complained but sleep sounded really nice. Just a quick nap to ease the headache he could feel forming.

Archie watched Douxie fall asleep with a worried gaze. His friend hadn’t been sick ever. And this might have been one of the worst times to get sick, what with the Arcane Order breathing down their necks. Still, maybe that was part of it. The fight with the Order and the loss of Merlin were still close. Still too soon. And sometimes the mind just had to tell the body enough. Archie wasn’t a hundred percent sure on his suggestions. But they were better than nothing. And at least Douxie would get some sleep out of this. That just left Nari. The little (but not young, never young) green being. She was no doubt worried and if Archie acted worried... well it would only make things worse.

“Let’s leave him to rest.” Archie said, nudging her. He dragged a cover over Douxie and floated to the ground. “He’ll get better.” But was he reassuring Nari or himself. For an all powerful being Nari looked down right terrified.

“If we make this soup he will be fixed?” She asked shyly.

“We’re not going to make it now.” Archie said. “He should get some sleep first. Then we’ll make it.”

“This soup must be powerful magic.”

“It’s not magic per say. It’s food.” Archie said, attempting to reassure her with some humour. “You know what they say, can’t fight on an empty stomach.”

“Douxie is fighting?” Nari asked in alarm, eyes going back to their sleeping companion.

“What? No I mean. Technically.” Archie said. He sighed. “When you get sick it’s a fight within the body, not a person.”

“How does one win this fight?” Nari asked. “It does not sound easy.”

“They rest, they eat and drink water.” Archie said. “It gives them the... power to fight the illness.” Nari nodded and Archi felt just a little less ridiculous.

“So we wait?” Nari asked. Archie nodded. Nari curled up on the floor and sat in an almost meditative pose. Archie curled up, listening to Douxie’s disrupted breathing.

Nari was no expert on this soup thing. Quite honestly it slightly befuddled her. Archie has insisted it wasn’t magic but food. And somehow this magicless food would help Douxie. She wasn’t going to complain if it did, it just seemed... well it seemed useless. Magical beings needed magical things to sustain themselves. Except humans apparently. They all seemed to manage fine without magic plants and whatnot. She pulled out the fan of tomato soup and eyed it suspiciously. It didn’t look harmful. It didn’t feel it either. Archie told her how to prepare it and it all seemed simple. And sensible. And yet Nari couldn’t help but sniff it repeatedly. There was no magic. No poison. Just the smell of tomato and another plant that Archie called Basil. She watched it bubble away for a moment. Only for Archie to tell her that was enough. She’d burn it otherwise. Nari poured the soup into a bowl while Archie went to wake Douxie. He sat up sleepily, half lidded eyes trying to catch Nari. She came over.

“Archie said this will help.” She said, holding it out like an offering. Douxie stared blankly at the bowl and Nari wondered if she’d said something wrong.

“We may need to feed it to him.” Archie said. “And by we I mean you.” He waved a paw. “No thumbs.” Nari set the bowl down and grabbed a chair. Archie helped to prop Douxie up, curling up next to him. Nari plunged a spoon into the reddish orange soup and offered it out. Douxie managed to angle his mouth towards it and after a little swirling, managed to swallow. He grimaced and Nari wondered if it tasted that bad. But Archie had said it would make it better and she wasn’t going to slow down just because he might not like it. She made Douxie finish the bowl, letting him flop back after he was done.

“You will be better soon.” Nari reassured him. Douxie gave her a half smile that warmed her to her horns. He seemed to be drifting back to sleep. Nari took the bowl and watched as he slept on.

“He’ll be fine.” Archie said and she wondered who he was trying to convince. Nari reached over and felt the strong thrum of magic that ran through Douxie. It felt okay. Tired. Worn. But okay.

“He will be.” She said softly. “We will let him rest.” She gave him one last look over before retiring to her room and mumbling a prayer that her new friend would be okay.

#fanfiction #submissions #asks #toa #toa wizards #tales of arcadia #tales of arcadia wizards #douxie #hisirdoux casperan #toa archie #nari #sickfic #archie and nari lowkey have no clue #archie has some because books and people #but i doubt immortal wizards get sick #although the hint is that its not sick sick but just tired #nari is a smol bean #she just wants douxie to be okay #the healing properties of soup man

[ethereousdelirious]

Idk what happened, I just fucking snapped and wrote unabashed fluffy fever kink for P.onyo's parents??? Oh to be an androgynous sea wizard, feverish and loved in a woman's arms *sigh*

And I do mean Po.nyo. The uh. The Gh.ibli movie. Yeah, idk either. I haven't seen it in forever idk where this came from

Anyway, enjoy the fluff ;) Brush your teeth after reading so you don't get cavities

In hindsight, she should have known better. It wasn't like Granmamare to worry, but she was usually not so naive as to be carefree. Blame it on the shakeup of the past few days, blame it on the humans grounding their boats on an unexpected sandbar. All things Fujimoto would have told her if he could.

It didn't occur to her to visit until a day or so had passed. She watched the same sun as humans did, abided by the same cycle of moon and stars, but the passage of time meant less to her. How could it mean anything when the oceans contained life that grew imperceptibly over thousands of years?

It was the silence that finally stirred her to action. Her dearest was never still, always alight with nervous energy even when he was exhausted. He would tap his toes as he worked, his lower lip finding its way between his teeth until he sometimes made himself bleed, and his clever fingers would tangle up in his hair or the hem of his shirt. Fujimoto was never still, not even in sleep.

But he was still now.

His golden work lights lit the scene, casting gentle shadows about the space. They pulsed with the movement of the water outside the windows. Safe in their bubble, the children slept. Granmamare spared a moment to smile at them even as an unfamiliar pang of worry threatened the serenity at her core. In her domain, there were few things outside her control. Fujimoto was one of them, which was part of the reason she adored him so much. But this was no thrill of the unknown, no pleasurable frisson across her skin. This was a slow, creeping dread that echoed in the silence: a frantic pounding heartbeat.

She made her way through the wrecked room and even then couldn't help the glow of fondness that warmed her at the half-formed piles of displaced equipment. Ponyo's doing, no doubt. It soothed her a little as she walked along, though her progress was slowed by the weaving path she had to take. She imagined her beloved dashing back and forth between the stacks, tripping over his own feet in his haste to have everything back in working order. Even in immortality, Fujimoto had never seemed to grasp the concept of relaxation.

She found him in a corner, tucked between a shelf and a wall. It wasn't a tight fit, but it was a cozy one. He sat motionless but for the shivers that wracked him, his coral-colored hair cascading down his shoulders like so many waves. His face was covered, buried in his drawn-up knees. The sharp salt tang of his breath was at once familiar and foreign, reminiscent of the sea and yet out of place. It was a sick, unhealthy scent, heavy with pain and misery.

Granmamare's heart ached for her beloved. She knelt and reached out for him, pale fingertips brushing one trembling shoulder.

Fever.

She couldn't help but gasp when she felt it, sparing a guilty glance over her shoulder to see if she had woken their daughters. They slept on, serene in their nursery, so she turned back to her beloved. How long had it been since she had seen him like this? He hated these painful reminders of his heritage, the blood of humanity flowing through his veins. Burning him up.

Fujimoto needed rest, but not like this. Granmamare would have to wake him and move him, dismissing all his weak protests. She smiled faintly in anticipation of this and ran her hand through his tangled hair. "Darling," she whispered, fingertips already burning with the heat he was generating. "It's time to wake up."

He jolted, still brimming with nervous energy even when he was so ill, and then gave her a look of tenderest apology, remorse that he had flinched away from her sacred touch. "Love," he whispered, but she stopped him with a finger to the lips. He closed his eyes, forehead creasing, breath coming fast and hot through his nose.

"All is well," she murmured, smoothing his hair back. It was damp at the temples. "Come."

She held out her arms to take him, intending to carry him, but he shook his head. "I won't leave them." His voice was hoarse but firm, his bright eyes fixed on the nursery.

"Come to bed, my love. I will watch over them."

"But I…" Confusion and horror bloomed in Granmamare's chest as Fujimoto's eyes filled with tears. He never cried. He really wasn't in his right mind. "I can't let them slip away."

"They're asleep, my love. You did well. You put them to bed." Indeed, it seemed the last action that Fujimoto had taken before succumbing to exhaustion had been to ensure the safety of their children. They were all accounted for, all dreaming, all safe within their nursery. "You can rest now." She held out her arms to him again, sighing when he shifted into her embrace. His fever raged against her skin at their points of contact, his forehead burning against her neck. "Oh, my dear," she sighed, picking him up easily.

"I love you," he murmured. Hot breath and hot tears tickled the side of her neck. "I love you, I love you." He shivered in her arms, a parody of the nervous energy that always thrummed beneath his skin.

Oh, he wasn't well. Her poor darling. Burning up in her arms, his words fading away to an incoherent mutter and flames of kisses along her collarbone. "Shh, darling." She found a chair and turned it with one foot so she could face the nursery, lowering herself into it as gently as waves brushed sandy shores on a clear day.

He wouldn't relax. Even with his head pillowed against her breasts, their legs tangled, he shifted and shook, flames in his cheeks. "Marry me," he said once, the words rising out of a tangle of incoherent sentiments of devotion.

"Relax, my dear." She ran her hands over what parts of his body she could reach. It calmed him some, but no amount of petting would get him to lie still. Sweat beaded on his brow and dampened his salt-brittle hair, hot tears streaming in rivulets down his cheeks and drying, sticky, on her own skin.

In their bubble, the children were starting to stir. None of them were awake yet, but a few of them rolled and twitched in their sleep, white bellies gleaming gold in the gentle light. Granmamare felt her eyes widen. Fujimoto would never forgive himself if he knew he'd woken them, not that they (or Granmamare, for that matter) would mind. But it was his way to fret and blame himself. So the children would have to remain asleep.

Unfortunately, the sea was starting to react to their combined turmoil: Fujimoto feverish and agitated, Granmamare unable to quell her abject concern. She had never seen him so sick before. The rush of water outside the windows became more frantic, silver bubbles wobbling toward the surface. Fujimoto made a noise of discomfort and went stiff for one long, uneasy moment.

Granmamare began to sing.

It was something Fujimoto had done when they were courting, come and sat with his feet in the water late at night and sang. He had a low, warbling voice, unconfident but somehow that much sweeter for it. His cheeks would light up bright red and he wouldn't look her in the eye until her applause faded out and she would begin to speak to him. She had learned the words to every song he knew.

Her voice filled the cavern and reverberated until the echoes of herself made a kind of chorus in the small space. Although she had feared that the uneven movement of her chest with each inhale would disturb her beloved, he lay still in her arms. His breathing slowed, his muttering dropping off into nothing. She smiled as she sang, pausing briefly to dip down and kiss the top of his head.

All was calm.

#ethereous writes #i love women!!! i love women!!!! maybe this was just wish-fulfillment lmao #god i feel feral

[spaceshipkat]

part 2 of my Rea///lm Brea///ker recap will cover chapters 9 - 16

part 1 covering the prologue - chapter 8 can be found here

chapter 9: in Dom's POV, the chapter begins with Dom seeing a lot of Cortael in Corayne. Old Cor humans are born of travel and crossing, conquest and voyage. Corayne haggles for three horses in the stable in Lemarta. the trader seems nervous around Dom. Corayne bargains for the horses--two stallions and a mare--to be sold at half price. their destination is only a few days' ride away. Corayne says merchants are easier to work with when they're scared and Dom is surprised and feels self-conscious over the fact the merchant was scared of him. he looks over himself and his weapons and supposes he can understand why he might look scary. Corayne's clothes look old and threadbare, and she only carries an old dagger. Corayne says Dom's scowl could be handy on the road, and he asks if she expects trouble. Corayne says she doesn't suppose bandits will bother Dom much, and he asks if it's bc he's intimidating, and she nods. Dom tells us she has Cortael's eyes. Dom wonders why he doesn't intimidate a captain to sail them to Ascal rather than riding. Corayne says that, frightening as he may be, her mom is more feared in the water here. Dom realizes that Corayne is not used to riding on horseback and knows it'll make the trip even slower. Corayne says they'll take their chances in Lecorra, which is ten times larger than Lemarta, and Corayne isn't as known there. Sorasa says that she prefers horses to boats, startling Corayne as she emerges from the trees. Dom tells Sorasa that she doesn't have to come if it's "such an inconvenience." Sorasa said she learned long ago to not trust men's word, even that of immortal men, and since she has an investment in this she'll see it through since the deal was to Ascal. Dom knows Sorasa is a risk to have around, especially since she doesn't care for Corayne or the Ward, so it'd be better to leave her behind or kill her. they have a stare-off that ends with Dom saying "very well". Sorasa mounts a stallion and Dom says she'll lead. Dom promises to himself, the Ward, etc that Corayne will not suffer Cortael's fate. after a page break, it's nightfall and they're far enough inland that Dom can't hear the waves. Sorasa is a good travel companion. they eat while they ride, though Dom isn't hungry. eventually Corayne starts to droop from sleepiness, and Dom rides alongside her in case he needs to catch her, and Sorasa suggest they stop to rest themselves and the horses for the night. Dom doesn't want to stop, wants to push the horses through the night, and says that Corayne is resting now and that he doesn't intend to keep Sorasa upright, and Sorasa says that if he touches her she will cut off his hands. Dom says that mortals have a different sense of humor than immortals. Corayne is asleep in the saddle. again, Dom thinks about how much Corayne reminds him of Cortael, though thinking about Cortael hurts. Dom decides they'll stop before a hill and Sorasa says they should stop at the top of it so they don't get caught on low ground, and Dom says they won't get caught at all but also feels doubt in his conviction, though he reasons that Taristan and Ronin won't be looking all over for Corblood. Dom says he'll keep watch and Sorasa says that isn't a comfort to her. after another page break, we get more world-building description, this time of mountains. "The Corborn mortals of another realm had first come to Allward somewhere in this golden valley, stepping through a Spindle to build their empire." Sorasa sleeps upright and opens her eyes every twenty minutes to check on Dom. while Corayne and Sorasa sleep, Dom eats, "if only to pass the time". he eats a rabbit raw and Corayne asks if that'll make him sick, to which he says "We do not get sick." she says they don't sleep either and sits up, and Dom doesn't mind her curiosity. he says they don't sleep as much as mortals do. she points out they don't age and he says "after a fashion". he thinks about how they just live a long life, not that they're wholly immortal. "Death avoids us, but it is not a stranger."

Corayne says it's a good thing that there aren't more of them or his kind would conquer the world, and he says that's a very mortal impulse to have. Dom does know of immortals who dabbled with mortals, either for or against them, though it seems strange for his people nowadays. he says his people are more focused on finding their way home since the location of the last Spindle was destroyed and is now under the Long Sea. Corayne says his realm must be magnificent, and he says he supposes but he's Wardborn, young amongst his people, and what he knows of the old realm came from others. he says "They are whole while I am not," and Corayne says she supposes they have that in common, and he asks her what she means. she says she only knows about her dad and Corblood from what others have told her, and what they've told her is very little. Dom realizes Corayne is interrogating him. Dom knows the wound won't heal if he keeps prodding it, but he doesn't want to forget Cortael and does want to tell Corayne about him. here's a little more info on what it means to have Corblood. Corayne asks if immortals can bleed or love, since her dad had no love for her and someone must have taught him that, and Dom says that every creature in any realm can love. Dom says he loves her father like a son, was there for his first steps, tooth, word. he tells Corayne to go back to sleep. Dom smells smoke somewhere nearby, though it's not woodsmoke or a brush fire, but "the charring of flesh". Dom tells Corayne to get up and Sorasa to get the horses. Sorasa heads to the treeline but pauses, withdrawing her sword, and backs away from the forest as Dom moves in front of Corayne. Dom doesn't need to see to know what she saw, only wonders how many, and how Taristan could have found them. corpses weave up the hill. Dom knows they could run but they wouldn't make it far without the horses, still in the forest. Sorasa asks Dom if the corpses can be killed, and he says yes. Sorasa and Dom both attack, though the corpses do something different after being cut. the corpses Dom cuts, too, also disappear into smoke. the corpses flee. Dom waits for Taristan to appear, but he doesn't. Sorasa asks what that was and Dom doesn't know and opens his mouth to say so only to vomit.

chapter 10: in Corayne's POV, Corayne hears a voice that says "this is your fate" and "it does not wait". Corayne thinks she's dreaming again bc the corpses are what she sees in her dream. then she sees Sorasa and Dom and realizes it wasn't a dream. Sorasa instructs both Dom and Corayne how to calm down. Corayne wonders if that's what Dom fought at the temple. Dom says “They are of the Ashlands, a burned realm, cracked with Asunder, consumed by the hell of What Waits. They serve Him, and they serve your uncle, Taristan.” Sorasa assumes they didn't turn to smoke at the temple and Dom says they didn't. Dom says that these must have been a vision, or shades, or a projection of what can come from the Spindle, the work of Taristan's wizard or perhaps of What Waits, and that they must know Corayne lives and are searching for her. Corayne says they need to keep moving and starts collecting her things. Sorasa goes to collect the horses and Corayne tells Dom she dreamed of the corpses. she describes her dream, not just the corpses but a presence watching her, and Dom says it's What Waits. Sorasa says this is a Spindlerotten contract, but Corayne isn't concerned bc her mom says the same thing about missions and always goes on them anyway for the thrill of danger and risk and also a reward at the end of it. Corayne wonders who whispers to her and wonders if she'll die before she finds out. after a page break, they're on a ship and Corayne looks at Lecorra. Corayne feels her ancestors here. Corayne looks at all the ships in the harbor and wonders if her mom knows she's gone yet, if she'll turn back to find her. sailors prep the ship to take them to Ascal. Corayne realizes this is what freedom feels like, and Sorasa comments that she looks like a horse who jumped the pen. Corayne shrugs and says she wants to see Lecorra while she can. Corayne recognizes that Sorasa must be shaken by the corpses, too. Corayne asks if Sorasa has ever seen anything like them before, and Sorasa says she's seen many things that would terrify most people--monsters and men, but mostly men. Corayne says "so that's a no" and Sorasa says the Corayne is a long way from safe harbor with only farther to go. Corayne says that Sorasa is a long way from home, too. Sorasa says that Corayne should check on Dom. Corayne says she doesn't like the way Dom looks at her, bc he sees her dad, failure, and death. Sorasa says she supposes an Elder wouldn't be used to seeing those things. Corayne says she supposes he sees Taristan, too, and that she didn't know she looked so similar to them. Corayne says she belongs nowhere, and Sorasa says there are a lot of people like that, and that nowhere is still somewhere. Corayne says that's foolish, and Sorasa says that if people don't belong anywhere, perhaps those people belong to each other. Sorasa says she never knew her parents and only knows where they came from. Corayne asks if the Guild is Sorasa's family, and Sorasa's smirk turns cruel before she says they aren't. neither speaks again as the ship leaves harbor. Corayne doesn't pay the other passengers much attention, but Sorasa eyes them all. at dusk, Sorasa straightens at the sight of a Jydi passenger, an old woman who sells feathers, yellowed bones, and dried lavender, or charms and wishes, and Corayne says "no interest" in Jydi. the woman smiles wider as she comes closer and says "No price, no price. A gift from the ice" in Paramount. Sorasa moves between them and says "No need, grandmother," and tells the woman to return to her bench. Corayne says it's fine and accepts "a twist of blue-grey twigs" tied with twine and catgut and trailing beads that might be pearl or bone. the woman says "Gods bless you, Spindles keep you" and Sorasa takes the bundle, sniffs and licks it, then nods and says "Gods bless" to the woman. the woman leaves and Sorasa says it's not poisoned. Corayne asks if guard duty is part of Sorasa's contract, and Sorasa says she was paid to get Corayne to Ascal alive. Corayne says she hopes Sorasa charged a lot for the task and Sorasa says she did.

Corayne realizes the beads are human finger bones carved into skulls. after a page break, nearly a week has passed and Dom emerges from the cabin he was hiding in for the voyage. Corayne feels a little seasick by the end. Corayne gapes at the size of Ascal, which is larger than she thought a city could be. Corayne knows this was a Cor city once but isn't sure how she knows that, though Dom doesn't have an answer. Sorasa explains it was destroyed and rebuilt a dozen times, from Lascalla to Ascal, and is the great successor to Old Cor. she can't see the palace and assumes it must be deep within the city, walled and protected. Sorasa tells Corayne to brace herself for the smell. Sorasa explains Wayfarer's Port is where everyone journeying by water goes when in Ascal. Corayne asks where the palace is bc she doesn't suppose they can just walk up to the gates and ask to speak to a squire. Dom says he doesn't think they can, and Sorasa says that if anyone can it's an Elder prince. Dom says he didn't suffer a week below deck to be spotted now. Dom says that Taristan knows Andry escaped and could now be watching the palace and queen. Corayne says Taristan could have the sword already and all this would have been for nothing, and Dom tells her not to think like this. Corayne says she does and Dom says that the alternative is to accept the realm is doomed. Corayne remembers her dream and the corpses that attacked. Dom asks what Sorasa thinks they should do now, Sorasa says they should bribe a guard at the kitchen gate, and Dom asks for something less conspicuous. Corayne tells Dom he'll have to give Sorasa more money if he wants her to get him into the palace. Dom says he's paid enough and that they'll find their own way. Corayne says “Enjoy watching us blunder our way toward what could be the end of Allward, for the sake of your pride and few more coins to rub together while the realm crumbles" and Sorasa says "Well, when you put it that way" and starts away and Corayne pulls Dom after her, following her through the crowds. Sorasa tells them to keep up and calls Corayne a "meddling monkey" in her language. Sorasa is startled when Corayne translates it and asks if Corayne knows her language, and Corayne tells her not to worry bc she won't tell Dom what Sorasa called him. Dom says he doesn't care about a murderer's opinion. Corayne thinks he might care bc Sorasa called him a stupid, stubborn ass, though Corayne admits her translation could be wrong bc the words for "stupid" and "handsome" are similar.

chapter 11: back in Sorasa's POV, she doesn't want to still be there with Corayne and Dom, but finds herself doing so anyway. Corayne's words about Allward's end stick with her, as do the corpses they fought earlier. she's seen a lot of people die in a lot of ways and done so many times herself, but nothing has bothered her as much as the corpses. Sorasa knows how to get to the palace without being seen, since that's what Dom wants. Corayne gawks as they walk but people shout at Dom. Sorasa notes that the Galland port is a poor imitation of those in Ibal and Rhashir, which can hold much more than Galland. we get a lot of worldbuilding details. Corayne continues to gape while Dom glares and Sorasa agrees bc she doesn't think Ascal is all that great either. as they approach the palace--which is described in great detail but neither Sorasa nor Corayne like it--Dom notes that the bridge to it is too full of knights, and Sorasa says she doesn't intend to go across the bridge. Corayne points out that there must be a tunnel or something below them, and Sorasa says "yes" bc there used to be a colosseum and it had a lot of underground tunnels. after a page break, Corayne and Dom complain about the stink of the tunnels. Dom sees something in the tunnel, Corayne asks what it is while grabbing her knife (which Sorasa notes she clearly doesn't know how to use based on her grip), and Dom says "you'll see." they come across a gate and Sorasa says she has a trick that's large and annoying and turns to Dom, who sneers and spouts that she's the one who brought them to a locked gate, and she points out that it's a locked gate soon to be opened and remembers how he caught the bull in Byllskos.

chapter 12: back in Erida's POV, she tells us she knows why her "future husband" demands roses, and tells us how important roses are and how numerous they are in the palace. there's a feast being prepared and preparations for something that has yet to be named. tonight she's wearing red, "to please her future consort". Erida notes that her ladies are nervous, but she hasn't told her ladies who she's chosen to wed because she doesn't trust her ladies thanks to their backgrounds and families. only the council know who she's marrying and they've been sworn to secrecy, and appear to have kept that promise. Erida knows she chose the right man but still worries. Konegin finds her as she's walking. Konegin says he's glad to have found her before everything starts, and Erida talks about what's already begun (mostly drinking, it seems), and then Konegin says he wishes he could have seen more of her betrothed. Erida says that he spends most of his time in the archives. Konegin wonders if he's a student of history and Erida says that he wants to learn everything he can about Galland before the wedding. Konegin says he regrets swearing the oath to her father that Erida would choose her husband. Erida is angry but knows that punishing Konegin for speaking against her dad and therefore the crown and Erida herself would only bring bad things, since he's got more people loyal to him than Erida does. Erida says she knows Konegin thinks her choice is too lowborn but she chose for the right reasons. Konegin says he believes in flesh and blood, and Erida says she does too but points out that Konegin has never been in favor of any names presented for her to marry, no matter their wealth or standing. she tells him to present a suitor or accept who she has chosen. Konegin finally grinds out that his son is unwed, and Erida isn't surprised but knows she'd never marry him, though marrying him would keep him from ever taking the crown. Erida says he must have hundreds of women asking to marry him, and Konegin says he does, but he would marry Erida for the good of Galland. Erida enters the antechambers and says that it's good Konegin's son won't have to make such a sacrifice, then. her knights surround her and she tells Konegin to enjoy the feast.

chapter 13: in Corayne's POV now, they continue through the tunnels after Dom broke down the gate. they reach a staircase and Dom tells Sorasa to go first. Sorasa says that Andry would be in the east wing, as he's the son of a lady, and that it's not far. Sorasa says that Corayne needs to go first bc she can pass as a kitchen maid--though Corayne points out that she's not dressed like one, to which Sorasa says she's a young girl so no one will look twice. Corayne isn't sure she can do it, Dom starts to speak, and Sorasa cuts him off to tell Corayne that she's a ship's agent for one of the most notorious pirates and also that pirate's daughter, so she must have steel in her spine somewhere. they leave the staircase, walk through an undercroft of some sort, and stop at a staircase with a door at the top. Sorasa puts her ear to it, but Dom moves her out of the way bc he can hear better, and she says she's killed men for less, to which Dom says she's welcome to try. Dom says the room and passage beyond are empty, and a guard is making his rounds above them. he then says that the spying should be left to him from now on. Sorasa says she'll soon be gone, so long as Dom holds up his end of the bargain, and Dom says it'll be upheld. Sorasa opens the door, and as they walk Corayne starts to create a story in her mind about her kitchen maid status. at an archway, Dom says servants are beyond, so Corayne goes out with her story of being a kitchen maid. two maids are picking red roses and say they hope that Corayne has been sent to help. Corayne says she has a letter for Valeri Trelland, and one maid thinks she's dead, but the other maid says no, she's just sick. the maid points Corayne in the right direction. Dom and Sorasa are waiting for her. Dom and Corayne hesitate at the door, and Corayne wonders if they should knock. Dom turns to Sorasa and finds she's vanished, so Dom knocks and says he hopes the tunnels will collapse on her. Andry answers the door, and Corayne is surprised to find that the squire is a boy near her age, since she'd imagined a man. Corayne says "You're Andry Trelland" and he says yes, and she must be new to the palace, and then Dom steps into view and Andry catches the door bc he's surprised that Dom is alive but seems pleased. after a page break, Andry is holding Cortael's sword and Corayne stares at it. Andry and Dom finish their conversation and then Andry says the sword is Corayne's and holds it out to her. Valeri says that it sounds like Corayne will need the sword after she seems afraid to take it, and then Corayne takes it. Andry says that the Companions of the Realm live on, that their quest is simply unfinished. Dom says that's one perspective, since two of them live on, and Corayne says "There are three now" and Dom seems sad but says "Very well." Andry says more will join them soon, that he's told the queen and she's done nothing but now with Corayne and Dom she won't have a choice. Andry says he'll help, he swears it, after he brings his mother to Nkonabo. Dom says that Andry doesn't have to do that, but Andry says it's his duty bc his lord has fallen and he must avenge him. Corayne says he should stay with his mother and protect her, and Andry says he will, but he's a Companion and thus has a duty to fill. Valeri agrees and says they'll leave tonight. Valeri tells Andry he should go to the queen right now before everyone's too swept up in the festivites, and Andry explains the wedding when Corayne asks what's going on. Corayne says that the quest certainly takes precedence, and maybe the queen will use it as an excuse to delay the wedding if she's reluctant to get married, and Andry grins at Corayne and says that might work. Corayne says the queen will listen as Dom's queen did not, and Dom says that mortals are hot-blooded and prone to quick anger, which has been a bane these past centuries but might be a boon now. Corayne thinks about how Dom seems like a pot set to a low boil all the time, but says that she doesn't know how she's going to carry the sword (it's more than half her length in

height).

chapter 14: Ridha's POV begins with her riding hard and cursing Sirandel in many languages. evidently, the Sirandel monarch said he wouldn't be joining Ridha since her mother is wise and they'll follow her guidance. she regrets sending Dom off alone bc he's probably not clear-headed after what happened in the prologue. as Ridha rides, a figure appears and she knows it's her mother. she tells Ridha to come home, since the Sirandels have refused and the others will too. Ridha won't bc the Sirandels are only one group of immortals in the Ward. she knows the Spindle isn't far from where she is and wonders if Taristan is still there. after a page break, the Castlewood ends sooner than Ridha was expecting and she can hear mills nearby, processing the trees that were cut down. once, the Castlewood had been full of Spindles. Ridha won't ride her horse to death bc it's unlikely she'd find another sand mare and Gallish ponies are slow and fat. Ridha stops at an inn and gives a silver coin to the two children who come out to stable her horse, and then goes inside and rents a room for the night. she leaves her belongings in the room, but keeps a dagger and her jewelry, and then finds herself going back downstairs to the common room where she orders an ale and a meal. she thinks about where she should go next while she eats. Ridha overhears a conversation between two men about Queen Erida's wedding, though they wonder who she's marrying, and then think that Ridha might know who the queen is marrying. one of the men asks Ridha if she knows who the queen is marrying, and she says "I beg your pardon?" and they repeat the question and she asks which queen, and one of the men is surprised there's more than one queen but the other says Queen Erida, and Ridha says she doesn't know much about her. both men scoff bc Erida has been queen for four years now. the barmaid comes out to clear the table and draw the men's attention away from Ridha while she clears plates. Ridha feels off-balance bc she, too, is a princess and her people, too, need heirs. she thinks her mom won't force her to marry who she doesn't want to, and then wonders if that's true, and then gets angry over Sirandel again. the men start talking about someone else, and that that someone else named Old Joe/Joeld says that the Watchful Sea (the sea north of Galland) has been quiet, no raiders of any kind. the men say that if the Jydi raiders aren't raiding, someone else could do it and make it look like raiders: raiders blamed, they "come home rich". Ridha asks if Old Joe knows why there haven't been any raiders, and they say no. one asks why it matters to her, and she says that if the Jydi, strong fighters as they are, aren't raiding, there must be a reason. the Jydi haven't forgotten Vederans/Elders bc their riches are too tempting. Ridha herself had fought Jydi raiders before. Ridha returns to her room, and past midnight the two men try to rob her, but she tosses them out the window. the innkeeper and his wife try to rob her next, though the wife seems reluctant. she lets the innkeeper's axe glance off her armor, then warns him against robbing travelers in his inn, especially women. she tosses him out the closed window so the glass shatters. the next morning, her sand mare Nirez is well taken care of and Ridha sets out to ride north to Jydi.

chapter 15: in Corayne's POV, a bell tolls and Dom falters, clearly remembering the tolling bell in the Spindle. Andry says he's fine. Corayne wears the sword across her back since it's too long to sit at her hip. she hides it under her cloak. the guards know Andry and nod at him as they pass. at the end of a long hall, Andry opens a door into the queen's feast and waves Corayne in, saying the queen will listen. Dom follows, drawing eyes for his size and appearance. the queen is on a dais with a dozen other people. Corayne expects the queen to be "easy prey" and look like the wealth of Galland. instead, she's young and pretty. the queen notices Corayne, Dom, and Andry, and then stands up and tells her knights to let them pass. Andry bows. the queen says she's glad to see Andry feasting with them after so long in mourning, and wonders if his mom will join them. he says his mother still isn't well enough to join them, but says the queen would do well to hear what they have to say, and clarifies in private. Konegin says that Erida can't just leave a betrothal feast, especially since her betrothed hasn't even arrived yet, and Erida says it can wait a few minutes bc she trusts Andry. Corayne finally blurts that this is important, that Galland and the entire realm depend on her, and Erida looks at Andry, then says all right and leads them away.

six knights flank Erida and she ignores the murmuring from the hall. Erida leads them to a private room and the guards don't stay after Erida waves them off with a pointed glance at the door. Erida says she's already heard this story twice from Andry so she might as well hear it from Corayne and Dom. Dom speaks first, telling her who he is and what happened, and says he hopes it's not too late to stop Taristan. Erida nods at Dom, then looks to Corayne and asks if she survived as well. Corayne says she wasn't there, privately wishes she could give the Spindleblade to anyone else, and then tells the queen that her dad was at the Spindle, and he's Cortael. the queen looks Corayne over, eyes widening, and Corayne wonders if Erida can see "the Spindle in" her. Erida says that it's Corayne and her blood that can fix this, and Corayne says yes. Erida says that Taristan has an army and she doubts the three of them can face it alone. Corayne says they can't, that she's only seen shadows of the army but they were enough. Erida says that it depends on her, then, her armies and blood, and Dom says "It does". Corayne says that, if it helps, a war could stop or delay a wedding, and Erida smiles and says if only that were the case. she apologizes to Andry for doubting him and not acting sooner. she says before she couldn't believe it, that lying to the court seemed safer, but with the three of them there and trails off. Corayne sees the girl behind the crown falter. Erida says she sees the truth of Andry's words now, and he says thank you. she claps her hands, the knights outside the door open it, and she says "Well, let's get on with it" and leads the way out. Corayne feels "hopeful—optimistic, even," as she has a queen on her side and Dom there to protect her. Erida falls into step beside Corayne and says "So, Spindleblood. A descendant of Old Cor." Corayne says "don't remind me," which causes Erida to laugh, and Erida says, “We don’t choose what we’re born to, Corayne," and “We can only walk the path put in front of us.” Corayne says she's not sure why her path had to include the end of the world, and Erida says that at least they're walking it together. she says she believes in Corayne, and supposes it's her eyes, something in her ancestry and legacy. Corayne says she wouldn't know, and Erida adds that it could also be the Spindleblood, and looks at Corayne's hip, then her back and the cloak, and has a "knowing smile". she asks Corayne to confirm she has it, and Corayne does so.

back in the chamber where they're holding the feast, Erida climbs onto the dais, and here's an excerpt of Erida's part in this scene. during Erida's speech, Andry seems nervous, sweat on his upper lip and shallow breaths, so Corayne tells him it will be all right, and that no one will blame him for leaving to take his mother to Nkonabo. Andry says he thought he heard Erida ask Corayne about the Spindleblade. Corayne says yes, and Andry grips her hand, eyes never leaving Erida, and says he never told Erida about the Spindleblade with terror on his face. terror strikes Corayne next, and then Dom grips her shoulder and displays the same. the knights tighten their formation around Corayne, Dom, and Andry. the queen basks in the attention of her court and two silhouettes appear beyond Erida on the dais. a knight stabs Dom in the side with a dagger, and Corayne wants to scream but a knight presses a dagger to her ribs and orders her to keep quiet. then Taristan walks out, as explained in the excerpt above, to be revealed as Erida's betrothed. the court applauds and Corayne stares at him. Taristan barely acknowledges the court, simply gives them a nod, before looking directly at Dom, Corayne, and Andry. Corayne notes their eyes are the same, but his have something else in them, and realizes it's What Waits, staring out of Taristan's eyes. beside him is Ronin, though Corayne calls him Red (she doesn't know his name Ronin), and he's skeletal with white skin, blond hair, and "pale red eyes ringed with pink flesh". he opens his mouth and inhales, and Corayne feels "a clawing heat pull over her, prodding at her exposed skin." she's frozen in place, thinks that Red/Ronin is ready to eat her whole. Taristan goes down the table on the dais with one hand extended, pleased with everyone greeting him, kissing his knuckles or touching his fingers, "pledging allegiance, paying fealty, congratulating him on the good match." it's only Konegin who hesitates but he does take Taristan's hand. Taristan, however, doesn't look away from Corayne. she can barely breathe and trembles, and he stops before her to stare down at her menacingly. Erida watches, head held high, clearly no fear or regret in her over the man she chose to marry. Taristan tears off Corayne's cloak. Corayne tries to back away but the dagger the knight holds digs into her, and so she tells Taristan to get away from her. Dom says he'll kill Taristan. Taristan muses that Dom is so eager to repeat his mistakes. he then grabs Corayne's neck, his back to the rest of the court, so it won't look like he's threatening anyone or the knights are stabbing anyone. Taristan asks Dom if he should kill Corayne in front of him, too. Corayne wants to spit at him or struggle but finds her mouth dry and her mind empty of options, since there's no preparing for this kind of situation. she tells Taristan to get away, hands balling into fists, but Red/Ronin's magic is washing over her. Taristan shakes his head, keeps his hold on Corayne's throat, and reaches for the Spindleblade, saying it doesn't belong to her. she feels something break in her, "snapping clean," and feels a rush of cold push away the heat (idk what heat), and she reaches into her pocket for the Jydi charm she got on the ship, even though she doesn't know why she's reaching for it. she looks into Taristan's eyes and sees "flecks of crimson in them, scattered like blood around the iris," but he's not looking at her but at the sword as he slowly pulls it from the sheath, mouth moving around soundless words as he reads the runes on the blade. Corayne drags the Jydi charm with its branches down Taristan's face, he howls and leaps back while the sword slips back into its sheath, and Corayne expects to be stabbed, but instead the knight with the dagger against her ribs cries out as a golden gorget covers his throat. Dom and Andry leap into action, creating a "a hole in the Queen’s guard, even while the hall exploded in confusion and chaos." the queen shouts, Taristan fights to his feet, Red/Ronin sweeps across the dais, and Corayne nearly

faints but then someone grabs her and shouts at her to run, the voice familiar. Corayne starts to flee, and someone shoves her through the door at the side of the dais, though Corayne thinks there's no point running with the sheer number of guards. then one of the chandeliers crashes to the ground, crushing a few armored men. then all the chandeliers fall in a wave, one even landing on the dais and crushing the table. Corayne pauses to look for a sign that Erida was crushed, but Andry yanks her onward. Sorasa is last through the door and bars it behind them, and then looks over all three of them with a dagger dripping blood in hand before wondering if she has to do everything around here.

chapter 16: we're in Sorasa's POV now as she leaves the palace (we're apparently jumping a bit back in time, to after she leaves Dom and Corayne outside Andry's rooms), paid well by Dom. she sneaks into an apartment to change clothes even as she tries to forget the night the corpses attacked her, Dom, and Corayne. she tells herself that saving the world isn't her business as an assassin. she dresses in a gown, though she keeps her leather leggings and boots, hidden beneath the skirts. she knows she can pass as a lady's maid with her hair down. it's curiosity that leads Sorasa through the palace in a winding way toward the great hall where the feast is taking place. she's surprised by how easy it is to go through the palace unacknowledged, and figures that's why the Amhara assassins are often women. Sorasa looks into the great hall and notes how easy it would be to kill Erida up there on the dais. she walks to a gallery above the great hall. Sorasa wonders if Mercury knows who the queen is marrying. Sorasa thinks about how the leash Mercury has on her (and all assassins) chafes, even as she enjoys his favor, and loves and hates his attention. on the balcony opposite Sorasa's own, she sees two people and we get more description of Taristan and Red/Ronin. Sorasa recognizes Red/Ronin as a dedicant of Syrek, the god of destruction and creation, conquest and peace, a patron of Galland. neither notice Sorasa, but she feels icy dread looking at them. she tries to figure out who Red/Ronin is and what his purpose here is, considering the possibility he's another assassin from Amhara or perhaps another guild, or perhaps he's a spy, or even just a simple cutthroat. Sorasa watches Dom, Andry, and Corayne approach the queen, though she can't hear them. Sorasa wants Corayne and Dom to tell the queen about the corpses they fought and about Dom's scars, and then the man we know is Taristan but Sorasa doesn't says "Domacridhan", angrily. everything in Sorasa tells her to run. Taristan tells Ronin to look at Dom's face bc he thought Elders were supposed to heal, and Ronin says they do when cut with weapons of the Ward, but the Spindleblade, and weapons blessed by What Waits, are different and are why the Elders fear them and hide. Sorasa prepares to run. Taristan says that Corayne looks like him, like his brother, and Sorasa is glad that Dom is at least with her, since six knights against an Elder are nothing, and he's survived worse, and then Sorasa wonders what if he doesn't succeed, bc then Andry and Corayne will be easily killed, and the Ward doomed. Taristan says, "I must say, I'm still shocked she agreed to this." Sorasa thinks about how she can escape. Ronin says, "Ambition is in her blood." Ronin then says that it's good they found her "before the other could" and Taristan says it was a choice they didn't need to make bc "the witch" isn't with his niece. Ronin says, “Even so, we have a strong ally in the Queen of Galland. Corayne of Old Cor will be dead soon, and of no consequence any longer.” Sorasa takes her chance and looks around the pillar she's hiding behind and sees Taristan, and thinks that Corayne does look like him. Taristan says that if Corayne has his brother's blade, they just need to take it and lock her away, and Ronin says that dying now is a mercy rather than waiting for What Waits, and then says they should let the Elder live and watch. they laugh and Sorasa thinks she should run again, and gives herself five seconds of fear and indecision:

Her breath hissed through her nose, coming out hard between her teeth. One. Taristan was the Queen’s chosen. Two. Her army would protect his Spindle, the passage spewing a sea of corpses. Three. No kingdom could stand against Taristan and Erida, not alone. Four. Sorasa Sarn was no one. There was nothing she could do about the great dealings of the world. Five.

she walks to the edge of the gallery, where she can see the door that Erida led Corayne and co through. she cuts a square of cloth from her dress, and only her black powder remains after she used her "common powders" in Byllskos. she pours it onto the center of the square of cloth from the dress, makes a pouch, and ties the corners tightly but leaves one length of cloth free. below, Erida, Corayne, Dom, and Andry return, and Erida gives her speech. Sorasa uses her flint and steel to light the corner of the fabric containing the black powder. Sorasa throws the pouch with the powder at the chain holding the chandeliers. as Taristan enters, Sorasa wants the powder to do its job now, prays to ever deity she can think of to make the powder do its job now, but it doesn't. at the bottom of the stairs up to the gallery, she slows and grabs a flagon of wine to blend in, moving toward the dais. Sorasa takes note of Corayne and Dom, recognizing Dom is in a lot of pain. Taristan approaches Corayne. Corayne slashes Taristan's face with the Jydi charm. Sorasa attacks the first Lionguard, and then stabs the knight who has the dagger against Corayne's ribs. Sorasa tells Corayne to run. the powder finally explodes and the chandeliers begin to fall. the four (Sorasa, Andry, Corayne, and Dom) escape through the door by the dais as chaos overtakes the great hall. the dagger is still in Dom's side, and Andry tears off some cloth from his coat to hold to the wound. the door is already being pounded on. Sorasa asks Dom if he can run. he says it's nothing, that the Vedera heal quickly, and then pulls the dagger free even as Sorasa snaps at him not to. blood pours freely and Dom says "oh" and falls, though Corayne catches him. Sorasa says she can't believe being alive for 1,000 years and still being so stupid, and Dom says 500, and she says regardless, he's still bleeding to death. Sorasa grabs any cloth she can to shove into the wound to staunch the bleeding. Sorasa asks if he has any more brilliant ideas, and he abruptly stands over her, shirtless, and says "run". Sorasa says there's no way out, that she can get herself out but not the rest of them. Corayne snaps "well that's helpful" and the door continues to be pounded on. Andry approaches the window and looks out at the hedge maze beyond, and says they should try Syrekom. Sorasa scoffs "the cathedral?" and points out that claiming sanctuary only works in stories, not real life. there are few guards outside, and none in the hedge maze. Andry repeats "Syrekom" and says he can take them through the maze and hopes they can all swim. Sorasa eyes Dom, whose breaths come in "short, beleaguered gasps", and he says he learned to swim before her bloodline began and leads the way "with a stormy glare and a furious pace". he then kicks a door open, leaving it dangling on its hinges, and Sorasa thinks that maybe he'll drown, and to her it's a half-wish.

#kat reads r breaker #spoilers #r breaker recap

[yellowmagicalgirl]

Seklos and Gaylen, They Were Cagemates! Chapter 2: The Disappearance

Douxie and Krel have a conversation. Their respective loved ones wait for them to come home.

And we're onto chapter 2! Huge thanks to everyone who has been supportive so far.

Trigger/spoiler warning for: assumed child death, background torture, and weighing of lives. 

AO3

FFN

Being a familiar had gotten easier over the years, in Archie’s opinion. He had no idea why no one was taking up the profession anymore. It had gotten easier as Douxie had learned to talk in full sentences instead of just babbling and pointing. It had gotten easier as Douxie had figured out how to con people and pick pockets instead of relying on whatever Archie could hunt and the two of them trying to beg for food. It had gotten easier when Merlin had taken them in.

And, it had gotten easier in many ways with the modern world. Archie had tried following Douxie to the school he was having to attend, taking on the forms of flying insects, but eventually Douxie had told him to stick to the apartment. Apparently, it was strange for him to be followed by butterflies and bees. And, well, Archie would certainly admit that it was easier to lay about in one place, occasionally masquerading as the bookstore’s cat.

Maybe he should have gone to the Battle of the Bands today. Been supportive of his familiar’s musical prowess. Douxie had been so excited for today, though it wasn’t like he was expecting much, if any, competition. Besides, Archie had been to Douxie’s other concerts in the past. He had improved so much from the lute he had found and attempted to play, only to drive Merlin, Morgana, and Archie to agree that teaching Douxie how to use magic to soundproof a room might not bring more harm than good.

Archie had been tempted to leave the apartment, but the sky outside had turned orange. There was probably yet another fire going on. Pity. Even though he was a dragon, Archie wasn’t a fan of smoke inhalation. It wasn’t good for Douxie. It was bad enough that he had gotten so sick in those first few months after the two of them first came here because of all the pollution he hadn’t been used to.

And Douxie hadn’t come home, even though the sky had returned to normal.

Maybe he was out with friends, and he had forgotten to call. Or maybe he had been called into work at the bistro, and he had forgotten to call. He was fine. Archie was going to lecture Douxie when he got home, but it wasn’t like Douxie was hurt or anything. He was seventeen and could take care of himself; Archie was just worrying too much. That was why he felt so strange.

There was a loud, familiar knock at the door. Perhaps that was Douxie now. Archie flew to the door and peered through the peephole.

Oh.

Archie opened the door. “What are you doing here?”

Merlin looked old. He had always looked old, having been elderly when he achieved immortality, but he looked older than he had ever. At the very least, he looked so much more tired than Archie had ever seen him.

“Archie, I’m so sorry.”

Merlin never apologized. On occasion, he would say things that sounded somewhat like apologies if you knew what to look for, but he wouldn’t outright apologize. Then again, it had been longer for Merlin than it had been for Archie, so perhaps he had changed? Gotten kinder in his old age?

Archie tilted his head. “What for?”

Merlin sighed. “So it wasn’t recent, then.”

“So what wasn’t recent?”

“Hisirdoux’s death. I know it must be incredibly hard for you since you… were his familiar.”

“Excuse me? He’s not dead, I saw him just this morning, so it would’ve had to have been recent, and since you didn’t find a body –”

“No, but I didn’t sense his magic, either.”

Archie opened his mouth to make a snarky retort towards the wizard, but then he closed it.

Archie couldn’t sense Douxie’s magic. He had always been able to sense Douxie’s magic, even before they had sealed the familiar bond, but after sealing the bond he would always be able to sense Douxie’s magic, no matter how far away Douxie was.

But Archie couldn’t sense him now.

“There, there could be another reason.”

“Like what?” And that sounded more like the Merlin Archie had known. Cantankerous, as opposed to mournful. “It’s not like there are any antimagic zones in Arcadia, and I highly doubt Hisirdoux has learned how to create one in the years since I sent the two of you here.”

Archie narrowed his eyes and flattened back his ears. His tail flicked. Merlin had never cared about Douxie, had never recognized just how much skill and potential Douxie had. “Why are you here? Last I heard, Morgana was your largest priority.”

Granted, it had been a long time.

“Morgana’s threat was finally neutralized today; in case you didn’t notice her attempt at the Eternal Night. I’m going to the other side of this continent to find a Heartstone as well as to take care of some personal matters. You’re welcome to come with; I’ll keep the trolls from eating you,” Merlin said.

Archie sniffed. “I’m not abandoning him.”

Not like you did.

“Hisirdoux is dead, Archie. We both know it to be true.”

“No, you’ve just given up on him!” Like you did before. “I won’t. There has to be another reason why we don’t know where he is. Besides, I’m his familiar. I know him far better than you ever have.”

Besides, Archie had never abandoned Douxie. His parents had, Morgana had, Merlin had, but Archie had been with him through it all. Merlin didn’t get to lay claim to Douxie’s life and death like that. He had no right to.

Merlin rolled his eyes. “Fine, then. Stay here, waiting for someone who will never come back for you. I’ll come back later when destiny permits it.” He then closed the door behind him in such a way that Merlin had once lectured Douxie about.

What a hypocrite.

“Oh, sure, wait here for someone who will never come back for you, he says,” Archie complained to the too-empty apartment. “Never mind that that’s exactly what Douxie did for you, you selfish old man.”

And just like Merlin did, Douxie would come back.

No, not just like Merlin. Archie would welcome back his familiar.

Though, Archie supposed that it wouldn’t hurt to find Douxie instead of waiting. If Morgana had finally attempted the Eternal Night, Douxie could be hurt.

As a cat, Archie travelled the streets of Arcadia Oaks. Troll bodies littered the streets, though there were a couple gruesomes already beginning to eat them. Archie frowned as he stepped on a piece of smooth wood instead of rock. He looked down.

Surely that wasn’t Douxie’s guitar laying broken beneath Archie’s feet. Even if Douxie had run away he would have taken his guitar with him. Besides, it had been the Battle of the Bands. There would have been so many others with guitars, and surely this wasn’t the only red-and-white electric guitar that had been present. Archie pushed at the base of the guitar, checking to see the underside. The only marring of the wood would be from battle.

The underside had a portion where the initials CO’D had been carved, crossed out, and replaced by HC.

The guitar belonged to Hisirdoux Casperan. He’d bought the guitar at a thrift store, had gotten Zoe’s help to fix it up, and then had made it his own. Douxie had been so happy to have this modern version of a lute.

Douxie wasn’t here.

Archie curled up on top of the broken guitar, mewing pitifully.

Douxie couldn’t be dead. Archie would know if his familiar had died. He had raised the boy. He would know.

He would know.

Right?

“I mean, I don’t exactly know where here is. You do?” the caged human asked.

“An Earth military base called Area 49-B, but I thought they just studied and tortured life beings that aren’t from Earth.” Krel’s voice shook with terror. He wrapped his arms around himself. Kleb, oh kleb. He was going to be tortured. And experimented on. And they had taken his clothes; how had they taken his clothes? They were meant to be difficult to remove and helped to regulate responses to the environment as well as protect his core. He felt so exposed. “And you’re human, so, why are you here?”

“I mean, apparently to be tortured,” Douxie said, trying to hide the panic that rose with every heartbeat. It seemed that humans hadn’t changed by much after all these centuries, still trying to hurt those with magic because they didn’t understand it. Well, magic or whatever this alien had. “But I’m a wizard.”

The four-armed boy stared at Douxie. Douxie suspected he was raising an eyebrow in disbelief, though the lighting made it hard to tell. And, well, Douxie would have expected such a reaction from his classmates (especially before the Gumm-Gumm attack), but this guy wasn’t from Earth. And on one hand, wow, he wasn’t from Earth, but on the other hand, shouldn’t he not be like everyone else assuming that magic didn’t exist anymore?

“I mean, I’d show you, but my magic isn’t working right now.” He’d tried to use it to break out. It didn’t help that his bracer had been replaced with these stupid cuffs. The only good thing about them was the fact that they gave off a very small amount of warmth, because the cage was otherwise very cold, and his white gown was very thin. “But these Area 43-“

“- 49-B,” Krel interrupted.

“-goons took me out when I was using magic,” the wizard said, not seeming to care that he was interrupted. “I just hope I was the only one taken from my… community. I, it’s not like I’m the only wizard on this side of the continent, and I wouldn’t want them to be waiting to get tortured.”

“I think I understand,” Krel said. “I’m not the only one from my planet here on this mudball, and I hope they weren’t captured, either.”

Maybe this could work. Krel wasn’t a fighter, but neither was Stuart, and Stuart had escaped all those keltons ago. Plus, Krel might have an ally. One who could talk, while it seemed like Buster was unable to. They could discuss an escape plan together.

The wizard shifted the way he was sitting and looked upwards. “Huh, so other planets do exist? I guess they really weren’t trying to mess with me and Arch when they said that there were more than four other planets and none of them revolved around the Earth.”

No, this wizard could not be considered a useful ally. He was clearly an idiot, more so than everyone else on this mudball. More than metaphorically the wizard seemed to actually think Earth was somehow the center of the universe. If Krel were to somehow escape on his own, he would leave the wizard behind.

Even if Krel felt horrible right now, watching two of the orange-suited scientists remove the wizard from his cage, hitting him over the head when he tried to fight back. Figuring out a way to escape – hopefully without getting tortured at all – so Krel could save his planet was more important than saving this one life-being Krel had shared a conversation with. Krel wrapped his arms around himself and shook his head. Besides, this wizard might be even worse at physical challenges than Krel was, and Krel already knew that figuring out how to escape without outside help would be difficult even without factoring in the burden of taking someone else with him.

But, hopefully, Krel wouldn’t need to figure out how to escape. Surely Aja was coming to rescue him right now with Stuart, Zadra, and Luug in tow, and Krel would even let her gloat about it.

Aja woke up to the sound of birds. Ah, what a happy sound to wake up to. Their chirping was so lively. It was another good thing about the Mothership being so far from the city. Aja liked the humans, but some of their technology was far noisier than any similar equivalent back on Akiridion-V. But chirping? Chirping was a happy, lively sound.

Aja climbed out of bed, running a hand through her hair, and stretching two of her other arms. She yawned. She and Steve had stayed up late talking. It was good to know that they wouldn’t have to start worrying about having a long-distance relationship yet.

She walked over to the breakfast nook. Lucy was making pancakes, and Zadra was reading reports while Ricky tried to strike up a conversation.

Varvatos wasn’t there because he had sacrificed himself for her parents. Aja frowned at the memory, and then she frowned even harder when she noticed another absence at the nook.

“Krel’s not up yet?” she asked. That was odd. Even on nights where he stayed up late, he was still up early in the morning, grumpy and pretending that he had gotten far more sleep than he actually had. “Or is he skipping breakfast again?”

“The king-in-waiting is not down in the lab, I already checked when I tried – and failed – to contact the resistance at the start of the delson,” Zadra said. “Eat, and then we’ll go wake him.”

Aja nodded, frowned, and began eating. The taste of Lucy’s pancakes cleared her frown but not her worry.

That really didn’t sound like Krel. Well, not unless he had snuck past Zadra to get to his lab. Aja hadn’t even realized her brother was interested in doing things like sneaking off before yesterday evening. Back on Akiridion-V, he had never gone with her, even when she had asked him to sneak off with her.

Aja swallowed the rest of her food, and she and Zadra made their way to Krel’s room. She placed a hand on the doorknob.

“Krel, come on, you don’t want to miss –“

Krel’s room was empty. Was this what it felt like for Krel every time she snuck off? Had he been afraid every single time?

“Uh, are you sure he isn’t in the lab?” Aja asked, trying to mask her fear.

“I’ll go check again,” Zadra said, frowning and narrowing her eyes. Aja followed her, wrapping one pair of arms around herself.

Krel wasn’t in the lab.

Krel wasn’t in the Mothership at all, and they had checked every room, calling for him.

“I thought he came home last night,” Aja said, quickly scrubbing away the tears that threatened to form.

“What?” Zadra asked.

“He snuck out yesterday evening.”

“And you didn’t stop him?”

Aja shook her head. She should have, or she should have gone with him.

Zadra stared at the ground away from Aja. “I don’t understand, he’s never snuck out before. This isn’t like him.”

But it’s exactly like you, came the unspoken accusation. Zadra had dragged Aja back to the castle so many times in the past, but never Krel. Krel had been the quiet one, the child who stuck to the background and his technology. He didn’t go outside.

He was the good sibling, and Aja wasn’t. She was the one who usually snuck off. She was the one who didn’t protect her little brother. She was the one who prioritized talking to Steve instead of making sure he would be okay.

Whatever had happened to him, it was her fault.

Aja waited for the lecture.

It never came.

“I’m going to go see if I can find him near the ship,” Zadra said. “Stay here. Akiridion-V can’t lose you as well.”

As soon as Aja was out of Zadra’s sight she pulled out her phone and called Steve. He picked up on the third ring.

“Hey there, my ninja-kicking angel!”

“Hi, Steve. Have you seen my brother?”

“Uh, not since the trolls attacked yesterday. Why do you ask?”

Aja burst into tears.

Author’s note: the scratched-out initials on Douxie's guitar are based on the initials of his VA; they will not be important to the fic.

#toa archie #toa merlin #hisirdoux casperan #krel tarron #krexie #aja tarron #lieutenant zadra #tales of arcadia #trollhunters #3below #toawizards #steve palchuk #staja #area 49b #torture tw #death tw #no one dies in this chapter but it's heavily implied and assumed #and they were cagemates #seklos and gaylen they were cagemates! #my writing #this is definitely a slowburn but i was internally screaming at krel this chapter bc of how he's acting to the eventual love of his life #also i planned on the main ship to be more important this chapter but instead it was the gen stuff that got the most words

[yatorihell]

In The Darkness Chapter 77 - The Visit

Noragami x Harry Potter AU

Words: 4,582

Summary: The trio visit Godric’s Hollow.

Also available on Yatorihell A03

Winter rolled in and the days blurred into each other.

Yukine’s birthday passed without much celebration – not that they had been keeping tracked of the dates in the first place. During a trip for supplies, they bought a little cake – a decadent rarity in the new travelling life they had – and presented it to Yukine at dinner.

The frustrations had eased lightly, the horcrux now being carried in their pockets rather than around their necks to keep contact to a minimum, but Yato still felt that nag that he wasn’t doing enough. If it wasn’t a glimmer of rubies, a serpent’s eyes, or his own name being whispered like wind in the eaves in his visions, it was Sakura who greeted him. A pallor like death and her face contorted, reaching around his neck before disappearing beyond the veil.

“Can you not see anything?” Yukine prodded.

Yato suppressed a groan. This became the new routine: sleep, see nothing, wake up, get questioned. He could understand the need to pick apart every part of the dreams he had, but there was nothing there.

“No, I can’t see anything,” Yato replied as calmly as he could.

Yukine huffed and fell silent.

The Sorcerer seemed to be stronger at preventing Yato see his memories. If they could work out how to destroy the locket, maybe it would weaken his defences enough to find the other horcruxes.

Yato told himself this daily, a strained belief that the first step was destroying the locket. It would be the second out of Merlin knew how many, but still, how many horcruxes could one person make? How many times could they tear their soul apart and still feel human? He could only hope there was a limit.

“I think I found a lead on how to destroy horcruxes,” Hiyori said later that evening.

Yato looked at her, eyes tired in the dying lamplight. On her lap was that infernal Dark Arts book she read through every evening, seemingly doing more to find horcruxes than he was. In her hands she held the book Professor Tenjin left her, Tales of Beedle the Bard.

Hiyori patted the spot beside her on her bed, and Yato ambled over. Yukine looked on from his spot on the floor where he’d bundled himself in a blanket.

“Look at this,” Hiyori pointed at one of the dozens of marks that had been etched over the book’s pages. A circle within a triangle, crossed through with a vertical line. He blinked at it for a minute, then looked at Hiyori.

“You know I failed Ancient Runes,” Yato said. “’Affinity for failure’, Takemikazuchi said.”

Hiyori shook her head. “It’s not a rune.”

Hiyori put down the book and refocused on the Dark Arts book. She flipped to a page and showed him and Yukine, who had finally risen to see what she was talking about. The same symbol was printed in the top right corner, besides a name in dark lettering. Their mouths fell open.

“Not the Grindelwald? Certified madman purist?” Yukine asked, craning his head to try to read the scribbled writing.

“One of the most dangerous Dark Wizards, Grindelwald believed that wizards were oppressed by Muggles and wanted to return ‘the natural order’,” Hiyori recited.

“Like the Sorcerer,” Yato said.

Hiyori nodded and continued. “He attended Durmstrang, which is famous for its relaxed approach to the Dark Arts, and got expelled for attacking students and… unethical experiments. He became obsessed with the Deathly Hallows, which is what this symbol is.”

Hiyori picked up the Beedle the Bard storybook again and flicked to the front page where they could see the same symbol.

“The Philosophers Stone, the Cloak of Invisibility, and the Elder Wand,” Hiyori pointed at each as she went. “He wanted to retrieve all three and become the Master of Death. He got as far as the Elder Wand before he was captured.”

“Then what?” Yukine asked.

“He disappeared.”

Yukine let out a breath that was nearly a snort. “That’s the Ministry for you, can’t keep hold of the Darkest Wizards.”

“How do the Deathly Hallows help us?” Yato interrupted.

He knew the Philosophers Stone was said to be used to create the Elixir of Life, giving the drinker immortality. Kugaha had revealed his own version which could contain life force derived from a soul vessel, which was the diary Yato had destroyed in the Chamber of Secrets. He doubted he nor the Sorcerer was in possession of it if he had to resort to horcruxes.

The invisibility cloak, well, there were lots of them, even he had one. But the Elder Wand was something obscured in myth, legend, and fairy-tale, like the book in Hiyori’s lap. No one knew who owned the Elder Wand due to the curse of jealousy that came with it; its owners murdered in their beds by others craving its power.

A storybook seemed an unlikely answer to destroying horcruxes, but Hiyori was thinking of the bigger picture.

“It’s not the Hallows we need, it’s the name,” Hiyori put down the book and folded her hand on her lap like she was about to reveal the biggest revelation in the world. “Grindelwald had family in Godric’s Hollow.”

Yato flinched inwardly at the village name, but it went unnoticed. Hiyori looked at them expectantly, but the penny still hung in the air.

“How does that help us?” Yukine prompted.

“Grindelwald’s symbol was in this book. Grindelwald was from Godric’s Hollow,” Hiyori paused for a moment, still seeing their blank faces.

“What if Professor Tenjin knew that he couldn’t give you the sword? What if he hid it somewhere we could find it, using the gifts he gave us?”

“The Sword of Gryffindor is locked up in Hogwarts,” Yato pointed out.

“But is it the real sword?”

Yato and Yukine paused. It was a longshot, but would Professor Tenjin have the foresight to know that the sword would be kept from them?

“Where would we find it?” Yukine asked.

Hiyori’s face fell just a fraction. “I don’t know…”

“It’s a start at least,” Yato encouraged. “You found a clue!”

Hiyori smiled gently. “Thank you.”

Yukine picked his blanket up from the floor and crossed back to his own bed. “Let’s just hope we don’t get snatched before we find it.”

~

The next time they had stopped for supplies was in the midst of a snowstorm.

They left their camp wrapped in hats and scarves to hide their faces and apparated. When they emerged in a sleepy village that was covered in snow, Yato recognised it instantly. The houses they passed were decked in wreaths, the front room lights glowing warm and making them silently wish that they had the luxury of a home to go back to.

Godric’s Hollow was mainly a wizarding population, and visiting wasn’t a risk they would take if there wasn’t something important hidden within.

The main thoroughfare of the village was quiet aside from the drunken cheers from the pub further down the road, but Yukine pulled his scarf around his mouth and entered the shop alone. Whilst they would apparate together, going in shops alone was one way of making sure Snatchers and snitches wouldn’t recognise three of the wizarding worlds most wanted huddled around cans of soup.

Yato looked wistfully up the road, heart hammering and mouth dry. He hadn’t been here since that day, and the knowledge of that made him feel sick.

“Do you want to visit her?”

Yato snapped his head back. Hiyori had pulled her pink scarf from around her mouth by a finger, looking at him with soft eyes. He looked back, through the snow where he could just make out the church tower standing out against the sky. Maybe the horcrux was playing with his heart, feeling its erratic beat on the underside of the locket, but pulsating need to go was enough to move him.

He nodded.

They walked silently from the shop, not bothering to let Yukine know where they were going. But either way, anyone who knew Yato would know the first place he would go, for this village just so happened to be where Sakura was laid to rest.

The church dominated the sky as they entered through the small metal gate that had become stuck open in a snowdrift. The stain-glassed windows glowed dimly, and a faint noise could be heard from inside, but they turned left and followed the hidden pathway that skirted the edges.

The small churchyard was where they had erected a headstone and said their own private mass for those who knew Sakura. Yato remembered Professor Tenjin, Kofuku, Daikoku, and nameless faces gathered around the plot of earth that held no coffin, laying late-blooming cherry blossoms atop the grass and saying their final goodbyes.

Now Yato could see that those branches were long gone, cleared away by the groundskeeper probably not too long after the funeral. A thick layer of snow capped the black stone, the golden words not quite faded yet like the memory of her voice. The flowerpot was blackened with dirt and the rainwater inside surely frozen, not that there were flowers to begin with.

They looked at the gravestone in silence, allowing the snowflakes to settle on the sleeves of their coats and star their woolly hats in multitude of fading constellations. The ringing of bells sounded behind them, and slowly, a gentle hum of singing reached them across the barrenness of forgotten souls.

“I think it’s Christmas eve,” Hiyori said gently.

Yato said nothing, just stared at the marble that listed Sakura’s name, birth and death. Underneath were the words that named her sister, friend; that was all the monument that her life held.

Hiyori quietly stepped forward and knelt on the frosty ground before the headstone. Wordlessly she waved her wand in a circular motion, a cherry blossom wreath appearing against the grave.

Yato smiled sadly at the small yet great gesture as she stood up and stepped back beside him. His hand caught hers in a silent thank you, which she squeezed in return and leaned her head against his shoulder. Maybe this was the closure he needed to clear his visions.

“Happy Christmas, Hiyori,” Yato murmured.

“Happy Christmas, Yato.”

They stayed like that for a moment longer, lingering in the comfort and warmth they gave each other. Yato’s eyes flickered up to the dark churchyard railings that divided the living from the dead. In the dying snow flurry, he could see a figure stood in the road directly facing them.

At first he thought it was Yukine, allowing them a moment's privacy to remember Sakura, but the figure was too short and had an unnerving aura to it. Yato tightened his grip on his wand but looked away, pretending he hadn’t seen the stocky figure.

“Someone’s watching us,” Yato murmured quietly, looking to the left beyond Hiyori at the rows of wonky headstones.

She looked at him, eyes wide under snowcapped lashes before she subtly looked to the railings. She frowned, her breath fogging in front of her. “Isn’t that Iwami?”

Yato allowed his eyes to slide over again, but the figure was already retreating. From a distance he couldn’t be sure, but the white tufts of hair and the small, hunched build under the coat could’ve been him. He was one of the oldest members of the Order of the Phoenix, serving alongside Tenjin in the First Wizarding War, yet he hadn’t been seen since Kofuku told them about members going missing before Tenjin’s death.

The figure stopped and looked back but continued down centre of the abandoned road.

“I think he wants us to follow,” Yato murmured. Could Hiyori be right? Was the Sword of Gryffindor hidden here all along, in Tenjin’s birthplace and already in the Orders possession? Had Iwami stolen away with it, keeping it safe under Tenjin’s orders?

Hiyori looked back up the road towards the shop. “We should wait for Yukine -.”

“It’s ok, Iwami is in the Order,” Yato cut in. He took Hiyori’s hand and started up the path towards the exit, heart beating harder.

Iwami was nearly a smudge in the snowfall, but their paces quickly caught up to him outside a derelict house on the outskirts of the village. The windows had been shattered and the door hung from its hinges, letting a small snowdrift pile up in the hallway. Bits of debris that seemed to have been thrown from the windows were strewn across the front garden and covered in a thick layer of snow.

Iwami shuffled inside, not looking back as Yato and Hiyori hung around the gate. He disappeared into the shadows of the house, not bothering to turn on any lights. They stood outside for a moment, wondering why he hadn’t greeted them nor invited them in.

“Should we go in?” Hiyori whispered.

A groaning came from inside, and Yato nodded. “He said come in.”

Yato led the way inside the house, stepping over the frozen post that had piled up on the floor and been obscured by snow of the same colour. He could tell that this wasn’t Iwami’s residency due to the smell of something foul and the moulting interior. The furniture was broken and the lightbulbs had been smashed in their holdings, leaving them in pure darkness.

Yato’s eyes adjusted and he saw Iwami’s stout, hunched figure at the bottom of the stairs. He didn’t look quite right; all shadows and lines in his face and a gait that told them he was at the end of his days. He spoke again, and Yato’s ears attuned to his speech.

“Is it here?” Yato asked quietly, matching his tone. “The Sword of Gryffindor? Professor Tenjin -.”

Iwami spoke again, a rasp that barely reached Hiyori’s ears. He turned and started up the stairs, footsteps thumping slowly and methodically with every step.

Yato looked back at Hiyori for a second and followed him.

The stairs were narrow and steep, and Yato feared Iwami may fall back at any moment, but they made it to the top of the stairs. None of the rooms Yato could see had doors, leading to gaping abysses of foreboding darkness that were barely illuminated by the streetlamp outside. He followed Iwami inside the front bedroom, wand pressed to his side.

There was a moment of silence. Yato waited patiently, but still he could feel the steady thrum of his heart against the locket, an unpleasant and agitating feeling.

“You are Yato.”

It was a statement, not a question, but Yato nodded regardless. “Do you have something for me?”

Iwami close his eyes and Yato felt an uncomfortable prickle run over his body. The horcrux jerked against his skin and the world swam in a hazy shadowed blur. Before him, Iwami’s mouth opened and his eyelids fluttered, his eyes rolling back in his head as a long tendril pushed out from his mouth. The sound of scales slithering within skin filled the room, and in the distance, he heard Hiyori scream.

The body collapsed to the floor and a serpent spilled from its mouth, slick with salvia glistening against the black scales. The same snake he saw in his visions; the same one that he saw in his bedroom at Hogwarts.

In the time it took for Yato to raise his wand the snake struck his arm, puncturing the skin through his coat.

Yato gasped, somehow keeping a grip on his wand, as its tail slammed into his stomach, a coil of muscle that sent him staggering back towards the door. He heard footsteps on the stairs, unable to call out to Hiyori and tell her to get out. The tail lashed against his ankle and Yato fell with a pained grunt. He felt the coils of scales encircle him, muscular and heavy as the serpent’s head slithered up his chest. The horcrux thrummed harder against his chest as if beating in time with the flickering forked tongue.

“Yaboku…”

Yato felt his vision darkening, arms held tight against his chest, wand useless.

The snake's head darted up suddenly, fangs bared in a hiss as a spell rippled over its body. Its body convulsed and loosened, and Yato gasped, kicking his legs free and coughing. He saw the snake's body in the darkness strike at Hiyori, heard her shriek as she dodged it and flung another spell at it.

Red light briefly lit up the hallway as the snake was flung backward and narrowly missed Yato as he stood. If there was a door he would’ve slammed it shut, but instead, he watched the snake flip over the suit of skin and come at them again with renewed vigour.

Yato raised his wand, arm aching with what he hoped wasn’t poison, and bellowed, “Confringo!”

Yato threw himself over Hiyori, shielding her against the wall. The bedroom exploded. The shattered glass on the floor bounced around the room, the furniture reverberated and splintered, and in the din, they heard the snake scream.

Yato’s head split open with white noise, an unbearable searing pain against his heart forcing the world to go white as snow and then black as night.

~

Feet walking barefoot through rivers of blood on white marble. The steady drip of crimson running from a hand, splattering on the floor like blooming roses.

A long, elegant black wand. The word ‘Nagini’ whispered like a prayer in the language of snakes.

The feeling of ripping a soul apart and simultaneously taking one for a perverted act of Dark magic.

A woman with long dark hair crying, a ring on her finger that looked so familiar yet unfamiliar as it still contained her lover’s soul.

The locket. Grindelwald's mark. A two-handled goblet he’d seen in multiple portraits at Hogwarts. 

The serpent’s eyes, yellow and glowing like a Basilisk.

~

Yato came to with a start. He was in the tent, in his own bed. His coat and jumper had been peeled off and the duvet was tucked around him. From the still air, dim lamplight, and the lack of warmth in the tent, it could have been the middle of the night. A sheen of sweat trickled down his face. His sudden movement brought Hiyori to his side instantly, closely followed by Yukine. His eyes focused in the dim yellow glow as the lamp was brought to his bedside.

“What happened?” Yato croaked.

“You blacked out at the house,” Hiyori answered. She held a sponge in her hand, and Yato noticed the small cuts on her face where he failed to protect her from the glass. “Yukine heard us from the churchyard and came running. We apparated out of there before the snake woke up.”

Yato looked at Yukine, dazed. From the look on his face, Yukine was more worried than he was pissed off, but the fact that fear outweighed anger scared him.

“How long was I out?” Yato asked.

“Hours, it's nearly morning,” Hiyori dropped the sponge into the bowl of water next to the bed.

“We couldn’t get the horcrux off you,” Hiyori continued. “We had to use a Severing Charm to get it off you; it was like touching fire. And the snake bit you, so I put some salve on them.”

Yato gingerly pushed down his duvet just enough to see an angry red burn in the centre of his chest, right above his heart. His knuckles were white and cut, and the punctures in his arm weren’t as deep as they felt. No doubt the rest of his was as battered and bruised as he felt. He remembered the pulsating beat of the horcrux that he mistook for his own heartbeat, the jerking thrum it made when he was in close contact with the snake. It was as natural as it was agitating.

“Where is it?” Yato looked around, less desperately than he might’ve had if it hadn’t maimed him.

“In the bag. We’ll leave it there for a few days.”

Yato flopped back onto the bed and closed his eyes. “That was the same snake that attacked Daikoku in the Department of Mysteries.”

He opened his eyes again and stared at the canvas, feeling Hiyori’s and Yukine’s eyes intently on him. “I think it’s his pet – ‘Nagini’.”

He tasted the name on his lips. It was foreign to him, and although the thought of the most powerful Dark Wizard in the world having a pet was unthinkable, it was less so knowing that this was the kind he had.

“Iwami…” Yato asked questioningly, looking at the pair, but Hiyori shook her head.

“Dead in the cupboard.”

“It must’ve used him as a skin to lure us to the house,” Yato sighed. He dragged a hand over his face.

In his desperation to get the sword, he put Hiyori’s life at risk. He wasn’t even sure it was Iwami until he had them in the house and nearly butchered them. Even then, he hadn’t been seen in nearly a year – he was one of the members who had gone missing, presumed dead or defected. Now they knew what had happened; the Sorcerer was using their own against them.

“What was he saying to you?” Hiyori asked.

Yato pushed himself up and accepted the fresh t-shirt Yukine offered him. “What do you mean? You were there.”

“You weren’t talking English,” Hiyori countered. “It was just…”

“Hisses?” Yukine finished. They both looked at him and he offered a single shrug. “Yato speaks parseltonuge; it’s how he found me in the Chamber of Secrets. He sleeptalks it too.”

Yato rubbed his head again, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. He hadn’t spoken parseltongue in years, but he didn’t even realise he was speaking it when he talked to Nagini. It came so easily, like slipping into another skin and talking with an old friend. Once again, the name Yaboku was spoken in a sweetly sinister hiss that was all too familiar.

“Did you have a vision?” Yukine asked, but this time the question didn’t annoy Yato. He paused.

“I saw him.” The footsteps in blood, the wand, the voice – it was all the Sorcerer. And those flashes – Izanami wearing the ring horcrux, a two-handled goblet… “I saw his memories.”

Yato briefly described the vision, along with the new information about the goblet. Yukine frowned. “That sounds like Helga Hufflepuff’s goblet.”

It clicked into place as soon as he said it. He’d seen her portrait at Hogwarts, most recently in the Hufflepuff dormitories when he got love-potioned. A golden goblet encrusted with jewels and etched with a badger was held in her hands as she looked at him disapprovingly.

“How can that be a horcrux? Hufflepuffs cup went missing years ago, along with Ravenclaws Diadem,” Hiyori pondered.

“We know he attended Hogwarts. I wouldn’t be surprised if they went missing around the same time he left, or he was able to get in using a Vanishing Cabinet to steal them,” Yukine pointed out, folding his arms over his chest. “If that’s the case, he had possession of all the founder’s relics.”

They fell silent. Godric Gryffindor’s sword which had been withheld from them and was now lost. Helga Hufflepuff’s cup was now a horcrux. Rowena Ravenclaw’s diadem had been also been lost or stolen. The Chamber of Secrets and the Basilisk was Salazar Slytherin’s ‘gift’ to Hogwarts, and was now dead. It seemed to be a personal vendetta if the Sorcerer was using Hogwarts’ own founding relics against them.

“Did you see where it was at least?” Yukine asked, but Yato shook his head in silence.

Hiyori’s thoughts cut the silence again with fresh fear. “How did we get traced again? Just like the café, something happened and they found us. Only this time they were more careful about the execution.”

Or lack of, Yato thought, but he had a point – something happened and they were followed. No one could follow their apparations unless they touched them, and if they had been sighted, Snatchers would’ve got to them before they could escape.

Yato let out a frustrated huff. “I don’t know how we were followed, but we should get going.”

“What about the sword?”

“They probably got to it before us.”

Yato kicked the duvet free, happy to see they’d left his trousers on unlike his shirt, and swung himself out of bed. He winced at the bruises on his side and nearly kicked over the water bowl on the floor before Yukine caught his elbow. Yato let out a wheezed laugh. It had been a while since he’d taken a beating; he was getting soft if a snake could get the best of him.

“Don’t suppose you know a spell to fix broken ribs?” Yato half-heartedly joked, though the thought of protruding ribs was something that could become a possibility. He looked at Hiyori and caught the secret look that passed between her and Yukine.

Yato’s smile slipped. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s another problem,” Yukine said slowly, but the words alone were enough to have a wave of assumptions wash over him in a second.

Yato looked at Hiyori, expecting her to reveal a fatal snake bite she was concealing for his own sake, or that he did indeed have broken ribs. Her eyes snagged on his and she bit her lip.

“My wand broke… when the spell bounced,” Hiyori murmured.

Yato’s heart sank. His spell blew up the room Hiyori’s wand with it – her first and only wand. His mind raced for an answer as he held her gaze, but there was none – a trip down Diagon Alley was out of the question.

Hiyori was unarmed.

~

They moved camp later that day, setting up somewhere in the south where there was little to no snowfall and remote enough that they would be found.

Yato found himself more alert despite his injuries, hyperaware that Hiyori had no way to defend herself. They listened to Kazuma’s radio show; first the list of the dead and snatched, then the true news updates about the Ministry. Kazuma revealed that the Sword of Gryffindor had been relocated from Hogwarts after a failed robbery, but it only disheartened them more to know it was well and truly out of reach. They pushed their stew around their bowls, lost in thought.

When night fell, Yato realised the world had shifted.

After that night in Godric’s Hollow, a silent agreement was made to share each other's company as the winter nights grew longer and colder, and the nightmares of serpents, rotting corpses and death slithered into their dreams.

Yukine pretended not to notice the first time when Hiyori sniffled and quietly slipped out of bed in the dead of night, thinking that he was still asleep. She tiptoed across the creaking wooden slats to Yato’s bed for solstice, finding the single duvet flipped already open for her to crawl in beside him. Her shivering only stopped when she curled up against him and his arm draped over her side, thumb rubbing small, gentle circles on her back as he coaxed her back to sleep.

Twinned with the warmth radiating from under his t-shirt and the steady beat of his heart, dreamless sleep eventually claimed Hiyori. Her fingers loosely clung to his bed shirt as she nuzzled into the deep smell of the boy that held her even closer than he would if she were awake.

When sleep finally claimed Yato, for the first time in weeks there was no vision.

#noragami #noragami aragoto #yato #yukine #hiyori #yatori #hp au #harry potter au #in the darkness

[bloodys44]

Silence and Cigarette Smoke

Original story and bonus content found here! ↓↓↓↓

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13289933/1/Silence-and-Cigarette-Smoke

(Also I’m so sorry the last chapter posted all jumbled together like that. And also that I’m to garbage to fix it)  The issue with chapter 7 not being viewable though ff.net also seems to be resolved so feel free to read some more if you enjoy. :)

Warning//Gore

Chapter 4: The Post Birthday Bloodbath

788

The dull thundering of a train traveling over laid track had always sounded soothing to Lucy. Whether it was a version of simple white noise or one of few comforting memories from her days of running, she could never tell. Something about the rhythmic sway of the train car, mixing with the light hum of the metal hovering. She would argue that she never slept better, besides maybe sleeping near Natsu during the cold winter months. A perk she had come to favor about him over the years. And yet, the rattling of their train compartment lacked its usual lulling charm, her mind wired yet not focused on anything in particular. The dark of the sky had crept up slowly, tearing apart the wicked blue that it had previously embodied. Stella wasn't overly far away, a neighbouring continent overthrown by the Fiore army. Majority of the land was underdeveloped, a cluttered mess of forest and mountains. A singular city near the center was all that resided on the vast land, thus keeping the name of the continent itself. Their train wasn't due to reach the platform until the early hours of the morning, and Lucy couldn't help but let an annoyed sigh escape at the thought. There were at least four more hours of traveling remaining, and time seemed to be passing at half it's regular speed. Not to mention the fact that her companions were sleeping soundly, letting the night slip away without a worry.

They had lucked out with a train equipped well for travel, small, but personal compartments lining down each side of the train's cars. The compartment's themselves were nothing extravagant, simple cloth-covered benches mirroring one another. The sliding door creaking obnoxiously when it was opened. If anything, it's most astounding feature was the lingering smell of old shoes and musty wood.

Lucy glanced over to her pink-haired partner, smirking with slight pity for the boy. Natsu had never served well with travel, a rather astonishing relationship with motion sickness. Even in his sleeping state, she could tell he was miserable, clutching the edges of his stomach with purpose. Porlyusica, the guilds head medical attendant had explained it stemmed from his dragon-slaying abilities. Supposedly his senses were so over heightened, the motion of vehicles rattled his own sense of balance. Still, it didn't make it any less enjoyable to tease said boy about it. Currently, he was seated with his shoulder blades pressed heavily into the cushioned backrest, leaning his head against the chilled window pane. A frame of light fog splaying from where his skin connected, the contrast in temperatures causing the reaction. Natsu was always warm, his average body temperature running much higher than that of a regular human. Though when he slept, it usually spiked much higher, his concentration lacking, barely keeping his own skin under control. He had never voiced it to Lucy, but she knew it was a draining task for him, his wild emotions always causing it to fluctuate. When he got overly flustered or rageful he became damn near scalding. Lucy never really minded it, especially in situations like this, his natural body heat making for a cozy effect. She was curled up on the opposite side of the bench, her back resting against the wall connected to the sliding door. With a muffled groan she moved to remove her freezing toes from the constraints of her boots, deciding to take advantage of the living heater across her. Tucking her feet under his left thigh carefully, she relished in the heat before his sudden jolt startled her. Almost instantly the warmth retracted, simmering under his pores. A slight pout overtaking her lips while she stared at his wide, yet sleep-filled eyes. Of course, he would wake up from the sudden change in atmosphere, the boy always on edge while away from the guild.

"Sorry," He mumbled sheepishly, "Did I get too hot again? I didn't mea-"

"No, it's alright, I was just warming my toes." She cooed, interrupting his typical nervous ramblings. "Sorry I woke you."

"S'all right, wasn't sleeping that good anyway." He shifted in his seat, stretching his strong arms wide with a rough yawn before facing her again. His eyes trailed over the compartment quickly, stopping briefly on all the exit points. The door, the window, and the emergency exit placed snuggly between the roofs panels. His shoulders taking on their practiced tense state as he strained his hearing. Lucy could barely hold back the amused smirk that danced over her face when she saw his nose twitch. Her lips only pulling back wider as he continued his practiced motions, checking the surrounding area for any danger. The nose on that boy could beat that of trained hound any day.

"What, afraid the black wizard might get ya?" She teased, wiggling her fingers at him for emphasis.

Natsu only sighed embarrassingly, scratching at the side oh his throat. Subconsciously acting on his traditional nervous habit."Sorry, Stella always-"

"-Makes you nervous," She finished easily. "I know." She slid her feet deeper under his leg, adjusting until she felt comfortable again. His on edge behavior wasn't unusual when they traveled through Stella, always becoming an anxious mess that intensified greatly the closer they got. He never delved into details about it, always stomping her curiosity with a simple defense. Just a bad feeling. She could practically feel her eyes rolling, hearing his voice clearly pronounce the words in her head.

"Honestly, it makes me nervous too," Lisanna added on a whisper, sluggishly pushing herself up from her resting position. Delicate fingers brushing the sleep from her electric eyes. "After all, its where Zeref was born."

Zeref. The great black wizard. A mage trailed only by the stench of death, or so the legends say. Though he hadn't been sighted in years, his very name still struck fear into the hearts of mages and non-magic users alike. A young boy with the tongue of the devil. His very words a magic vice on your mind. He controlled what he wanted, and that was that. "They say he's immortal." The white-haired woman started again. "A blade couldn't pierce his heart."

Now Lucy's eyes really did roll in their sockets. "Please, your only going to rile him up more." She gestured over to Natsu who served her a practiced annoyed frown. "He'll be on edge until we hit Magnolia again."

Lissana giggled slightly, turning her attention to him. "Don't worry, nobody's seen him in years, it's nothing to stress over."

"Doesn't mean he's gone." He bounced back. "Regardless, there's enough to worry about in Stella with or without him." Lissana's brow arched, curiosity plain as she questioned the statement. "Stella's crawling with royal knights, it's the second base from the border of Bosco."

"I thought there was a ceasefire?" She pressed, to which Natsu scoffed.

"They won't stop until they find Mavis's grave."

"What do they want with the holy goddess?"

"Mavis was the first grand witch," Lucy interjected. "It's rumored her grave carry's the secret to eradicating all enchantments."

Lissana hummed in understanding. "So basically mages should be avoiding this area?" She laughed weekly, crossing her arms with lazy movements. "What a perfect place for us."

"If we keep our hoods up we should be fine," Lucy stated pointedly. "Stella's train station is the major rest point between Seven, Bosco, Iceberg and Joya, there's lots of travelers with new faces. Makes it pretty easy to blend in. Besides, nothing remotely bad has ever happened to us while traveling there. It'll be good to keep our wits about us, but Natsu's major anxiety is a little overkill."

"I just have-"

"A bad feeling?" She finished for him again, rather cheekily. "I know." She nudged him with the top of her foot at his exaggerated eye-roll. "I have no doubts we'll make it back just fine. Lissana peeled her legs from the front of the bench, pulling them upwards to rest her chin on her knee.

"Aren't you from Stella, Natsu?" The man grunted slightly, stiffening and sending the woman a warning look before granting a structured nod.

"Did you ever see him as a child? The black wizard I mean. I think he would have been a few years older, but still a child back then."

"No." His response blunt and harsh, pushed over his teeth. Lucy quirked a brow, scanning over Natsu intently. He crossed his arms at her curiosity, a blank statement that he wasn't planning on explaining the situation further. Lissana sighed, placing a hand under her delicate chin.

"Stella is where Gildarts found Natsu as a child." She explained to the blonde. "He grew up there."

"Come on Lissana." He hissed back. His arms twitching as they stretched over his chest.

"How come you never told me that?" Lucy pressed, fixated on the man's jittery movements. "I thought you didn't remember your childhood?"

"I remember bits and pieces." He slumped backward obnoxiously, deciding that he was definitely stuck in this conversation now. "I just never thought it was important."

"You know where I grew up." She defended shortly.

"Geeze," he scoffed at the blonde playfully. "Like that was a hard one, Princess of Fiore."

The blonde found herself pulling a pout. She wasn't trying to be rude, only holding genuine curiosity about her best friend's life before her. "Well, maybe we could stop at your childhood home before we leave? It would be nice to see where you grew up." Her face warming as she beamed at the boy.

"It doesn't exist anymore." The words forced roughly from his tongue. "I burned it down." She didn't miss the slight twitch of his shoulders, or the way his voice threatened to crack. He puffed out a never mind before claiming he was getting some air, the trains rattling my stomach. A blunt end to their conversation. He was up in a single movement, pushing through the door and ignoring the wine of the sliding mechanics as it slammed back to its original closed resting state.

"Don't take it personally, Natsu's very protective of himself." Lissana tried, (as if Lucy didn't already know that) hopping over to sit next to the blonde. "I shouldn't have brought it up, I only know because I was there the day he arrived. I thought maybe he would have told you, finally opened up to somebody."

"Why would he open up to me? You've known him much longer."

Lissana huffed playfully, tossing her hair with a flick of her wrist. "Even I can see the way he looks at you, all doe-eyed and bashful. It's hard not to notice really."

"Natsu is anything but bashful." Lucy scoffed, giggling slightly. "Though I'm sure I could say the same for you."

"That's sweet of you to say," The fair-haired maiden flushed, "But I have my theories." Lucy stilled for a moment. Was she making a joke? Natsu had never pushed the boundaries that they had established over the years of their friendship, unlike he pushed for the fair-haired woman. Maybe it was because her feelings were so blatant, easy to play off of. Not to mention the comfort fo the family dynamic he shared with her siblings. It's not like she could find any reason she wouldn't want to notice casual pining in her direction, especially from somebody like him, any girl could dream of being so lucky. It was just that it didn't happen like that, and she didn't see any change for the future.

"You're ridiculous." She decided as a response, to which Lissana chuckled fondly. The rest of the trip remained rather silent, even after the dragon slayers return.

Meeting with the client went well, no arguments or concerns from the traveling wizard trio. The client himself was nothing out of the ordinary, a common man whose mother had been a successful wizard. Though he possessed no enchantment of his own, he held the secret of magic secure. The man owned a gracious amount of property in the city, majority of the population's homes falling on his land. Expressing his concerns for the people he bid the group luck as they headed to find the feverish bandit group that had been terrorizing them. Natsu didn't remove his face-concealing cloak, let alone speak during the whole exchange which only left the blonde wondering if he recognized the man from his childhood years. Unlikely as it was, she couldn't shake the suspicion; her friend's body language balancing on peculiar.

The bandit group, Twilight Oger (or so they called it.) had taken up residence in the city's abandoned mine. Converting the tunnels into a makeshift base. The group had established a rather daunting reputation with the city of Stella, the citizens growing too weary to attempt to run them out on their own. The royal guard batting an unusually blind eye. The rumor of their supposed sex trafficking didn't sit well with Lucy either. "We should set up a plan," Lissana suggested lightly. Her voice a much-needed contrast to the silence they had been walking in.

"Walk through the front doors and knock some heads."

Lucy shook her head playfully at the brash fire-breather, shoving his shoulder slightly. "I think we should split up," The peppy white-haired woman continued. "It would be easier to sneak around, a stealthy approach might be best considering we don't know how spread out in the tunnels they are."

"Also easier for one of us to get caught off guard. Aren't these thugs notorious for trapping woman?"

"You aren't traveling with common woman Natsu." The fair-haired woman retorted back. "Don't be so degrading, we can handle ourselves just fine." The peaceful smile she sported did little to sweeten her harsh words. Though Lucy found herself nodding slowly in agreement. "Plus it'll allow me to try out my new spell without you two getting in the way." She winked cheekily.

"I dunno," the dragon slayer mumbled, scratching at his throat in practiced fashion. "I really think we should stick together, I have a bad feeling about this place." Lucy could practically taste the anxiety of his words as they dripped over his chin. They should probably listen, Natsu's suspicions usually turned out to be right. But his overly annoying constant worrying from the city made it hard to distinguish his keen senses from his blind panic. Nothing ever happened to them in Stella. A nieve approach yes, but also a chance to prove herself to the man that always seems to protect her.

"I think it should be alright," the blonde finally interjected. "The tunnels should echo enough to hear one another if we call for help." Natsu simply shook his head muttering an annoyed Whatever under his breath. She felt kind of bad, gaining up on the man. This was supposed to be his birthday mission after all. But in all honestly, Lucy found herself surprisingly excited, an opportunity to show her teammate how far she'd advanced. A fully-fledged Fairy Tail member that could handle her own.

The group traveled to their destination at a quick pace. The air filled with Lissana's constant enamored pestering towards a certain Salamander. Lucy more distracted by the winding paths of the city's streets, decorated sporadically with aged trees and vegetation. She thought it was rather sweet, how well her two teammates were getting along. Even with Lissana's words on the way over. It was nice to see Natsu's pleased expression towards the woman. A long-time childhood friend and admirer. Though their newest member still bristled her, Lucy made a silent promise to invite her out with them more. It was nice to travel alongside another female, and if it made Natsu happy, then she was sure she could live with it.

The sun was beginning to set by the time they arrived, the night sky pouring out for its time to play. The stars blessing Lucy's soul, her magic vibrating deliciously under her skin. Her power almost doubling in the light of the night. The moon's shift was her favorite time to cast. As they stepped through the taped off mine entrance she could practically feel her excitement begin to bubble over. Traditionally she held a rather level head during missions, keeping her partner's explosive personality in check. Yet she found herself letting go, ready to show off her own power.

"I really think we should push through together," Natsu mumbled under his breath. The words so foreign on the rambunctious man's tongue; always ready to run ahead of the group in search of action, yet never far enough away that he couldn't protect those closest to him. It wasn't a secret that he was much stronger than his usual travel partner Lucy, but she didn't want him to feel obligated in protecting her when he already does so much.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Lissana bubbled, already skipping off towards one of the winding shafts. Lucy's lips pulling into a smile as she began following her lead towards another turn-off.

"Lucy." Her name pronounced like rocks on cement, jaded and sharp. She spun on her heel carefully, her smile falling at the dragon slayer's serious tone.

"I can take care of myself Natsu." She mused. "You don't need to hold my hand all the time."

A low grumble resounded in the boy's throat as he ran his rough fingers through spiked locks nervously. "Geeze Luce, I know I don't." She raised her eyebrow at his cautious tone. "It's just.. last time you were on your own I found you beaten half to death in the middle of the forest."

All mocking aside, Lucy felt her temper skyrocket. Of course, he didn't think she was capable. "I'm not a fragile little princess anymore. That was years ago." She spat, anger boiling over. "You don't need to save me all the time."

"I know, I know... I just want you to be careful. Sometimes you have trouble keeping your magic under control during the night."

"Like you're one to talk, you burn everything around you the second your emotions get out of wack." Internally she knew her anger was getting the better of her, words falling from her jaw faster then her mind could process. He was just worried about her, as a caring teammate should be. The pained expression he was now wearing only verified that fact. Mindlessly her fingers began fidgeting at her belt. Her lungs pushing her spitfire attitude out with a breathy exhale. "I'm sorry Natsu, that was uncalled for. I shouldn't have said that. I'm just excited is all. I'll be careful, I promise." Natsu's deep onyx gaze burned into her for a moment before he nodded, although reluctant, it was an agreement none the less. She reached out, squeezing his wrist confidently before turning back to face her chosen path. "You be careful too! Mira will surly cut off my head if I bring you home needing more stitches."

The forgotten shafts were confusing, to say the least. The floorplan coming across as sporadic and unplanned. There was little that argued what a great hideout it made, trapping its victims in a maze until they were prayed upon by vicious ogres. The lack of security flowing down the halls only proving that their targets felt the same way. Lucy had only run into two men along the way, their skills lacking, making it an easy victory for the blonde. The lack of scream's echoing offered that her teammates were fairing the same. Even with their earlier agreement that stealth was the best option, Natsu had never been the quiet/silent type. Especially when fired up in a battle. Either the mine shafts didn't share sound as good as Lucy had estimated, or he hadn't run into anyone just yet.

The must that surrounded her intensified greatly as she progressed, the smell practically suffocating her. Senses dampened by its nature. The only sound around her was the clack of boots connecting to the rocky earth, and the creaky hinge of the lantern strung to her hip. The ground becoming less and less traveled. It was peculiar really, with the placement of the mine so central to town. One would think at least a few curious teenagers would have come to poke around before rumors had sprouted about Twilight ogres appearance. And yet her footprint's were the only evidence of human life.

Groaning loudly, Lucy spun, heading back towards the entrance. Agitated that her luck pulled her towards one of the unused routes. Expectedly her group had already rounded up majority of their targets while she wandered around uselessly. Placing her palm to her forehead she let out an embarrassed huff. All her big talk was for nothing, the harsh tone she had used against her friend making her mood plummet even farther. All she could do now was pick up her pace and hope she could make herself helpful with tying up loose ends. Lucy always hated when jobs turned out this way, especially when Natsu insisted she collected her portion of the reward despite her actual effort. Not that it mattered today, this mission was supposed to be for Natsu after all. And truthfully after Lissana had decided to join them she had done nothing to make the trip enjoyable for her pink-haired friend. Silently she promised to the empty halls that she would apologize to him when they finished their job.

When Lucy rounded the corner back to the entrance she was debating which tunnel to follow. Pacing back and forth in front of Natsu's entrance before resolving that his nose probably led him exactly where he wanted to go. With quick steps she bounded down the winding hall's, trying her best to stay along the path of the firebreathers signature sandal footprints.

A scream that caused her blood to run cold echoed around her with striking prominence. Lissana's sweet tone coming across shrill and ragged. There wasn't a moment to process before Lucy's legs propelled her forward. The sound of angelic sobs guiding her path. Any and all excitement she had previously been consumed with smothered like a candle without oxygen. The shaft began to blossom with light as she rounded each corner, the weight barring planks becoming more and more re-enforced. If that wasn't already enough clues she was approaching the center of the base, the newly constructed grand entrance that appeared before her did.

Acting quickly, Lucy pressed herself against the corner of the doorframe, analyzing the situation before charging headstrong into the commotion. Obviously, the treacherous group had put some work in. The cavern dugout to be much larger than anything man-made underground should be. Large metal lanterns decorating the ceiling with patterned placement. Casting enough light to see, but not enough to dismiss the eerie atmosphere. Small beds, makeshift furniture and gang members coating the outer walls while the center remained bare. Except of course for the probable main event of their evening.

A rugged-looking man stood center a wooden stage-like platform. Greasy hair curling over knarled shoulders. Even in the dim light, Lucy couldn't miss the disgusting gleam of the man's golden teeth. Oh so typical of a rich bandit. But what really caught her off guard was the squirming woman entrapped by his rugged arms, top strewn aside leaving her covered only in lacy white undergarments. His chapped lips smirking into her cheek while he pinned her against his bare chest. His one hand prying dirty fingers into her supple mouth while the other pressed a rusty blade to her exposed stomach. Though not enough pressure to break skin, it was just enough to make Lucy's mouth run dry.

"Let her go." Natsu's enraged voice scrapped over every surface, demanding attention from all living things. Lucy cast her eyeline off to the side, finally noting her partner's presence. His clothes looked slightly battle-torn, but overall he looked un-worrisome. His expression was firm, lips drawn into a tight line while his eyes trained on the enemy standing before him. Even from her placement on the other side of the cavern, Lucy could feel the scorching waves roll off of him. A terrifying might in the face of adversity.

"What are you going to do about it fire boy?" The man's shrill voice causing Lucy to shiver. "Even if you get rid of us, more will come. Those royal soldiers are very eager customers. And there's plenty of women to go around here." Natsu lunged forward, feet indenting the ground with sheer pressure. The man howled playfully, cackling like a madman as he sidestepped out of harm's way. Lissana squeaking at the sudden movement." Natsu spun quickly, fang-like teeth bared while he coiled his muscles, ready for his next pounce. "Make a move like that again and I might have to carve up your little girlfriend early!' The blade against her stomach pressed deeper, causing Lissana to jolt, a high pitched screech crawling between the man's fingers. A sloppy line of red spilling from her torso down the hilt of the blade. Natsu looked frozen, his eyes never daring to stray from the glint of metal. Mind fighting with his anger to consider the safest course of action.

Shit shit shit. This was definitely not how Lucy had expected to reunite with her teammates. Instantly her fingers shot into the confines of her purse, searching desperately for the lone piece of white chalk she always carried. Mind racing dangerously through her memorized incantations. Though her magic wasn't necessarily designed for hand to hand combat like Natsu's, she held a natural talent for spellcasting. Confident that she was capable of at least making a big enough distraction for Natsu to proceed, she started scratching the lines of a practiced magic circle. The white of the chalk easily visible over the dark rock beneath her. Her frantic hand movements made the lines far less legible then she preferred, but it would do for now. The blonde dropped her weight to the floor, careful in her attempt to stay silent as she crossed her legs. Delicate palms slapping against the earth over her created circle. Her eyelids slamming shut in concentration while her lips parted for the whisper of incantation. Almost instantly the very ground beneath them shook with purpose, guiding cracks up the walls and spewing rocks from the ceiling. She didn't worry about frightening her teammates, she knew Natsu could smell her, even with his focus concentrated elsewhere. Hopefully, they could get this situated and escape to safety before she brought heaven's wrath down atop their heads. The spell itself was no easy feat, calling upon the gods light to alter the earth. Lucy only capable of casting it under the light of the moon. No doubt it would bring attention from the townsfolk their way, but at this moment the blonde thought it was the best course of action. She could feel the shudder under her legs as the shafts hidden deeper under the earth collapsed, the roaring sound of rockfall scattering through the cavern.

Natsu's strong tone carried over easily as he sneered cheekily, "Now you really fucked up. Gone and made the angel mad." Even in deep concentration, Lucy felt a smile drum at her lips.

"I already knew there was three of you. We thieves hear of all magic activity in Stella. She's no threat, pesky fairies lack the resolve to drop the ground over the heads of their 'comrades'."

"Bet." The dragon slayer's singular cocky reply sang like a choir to Lucy, pushing her magic to expand outwards. A sickening crack bestowed over them, one of the main support beams snapping under pressure. The scared cries of ogres screaming far louder. The blond's brow furrowed slightly as she felt her very skin vibrate, her magic fluctuating drastically. "You're okay Lucy." Natsu's voice rang true, obviously taking notice in her power surge. Yes, she was O.K. She wouldn't falter so easily when her friend's lives were on the line. She just had to keep the main cavern intact a little longer, enough time for them to escape. She was strong, and she could do it.

The man continued to cackle hysterically, bouncing his weight between his feet. "Bad move fire boy." He taunted. All Lucy could hear was Lissana's blood curtailing wail and Natsu's panicked shouts when she realized they had lost. Her lashes fluttered open, eyes rolling uncomfortably as her vision was obstructed by blinding light. She couldn't stop. She was losing control, just as her partner had foreseen. Her own magic blinding her sight.

"Lucy!" Natsu's worried screech reached from the main cavern. "Cut the fuse!" A pit burned its way into the depths of her stomach, fear of how this situation was going to end if she couldn't regain control. All she had wanted to do was help, and now the situation was only going to get worse. Splinters of support beams rained furiously over her, enraged with being disturbed after so many silent years. She felt her body shake with the earth's pure ferocity. "Please, Lucy!" He tried again, his voice swirling with Lissana's wild screams. She still couldn't stop. She was going to kill them all.

Lucy wasn't sure how many agonizingly slow minutes had passed when her vision finally re-focused, disturbingly strong hands clamping around her delicate wrist's and pulling her back to earth. And god, what an unpleasant sight to be greeted with. Two men that reeked of whiskey and sex smirking greedily at her.

"You's a pretty scary witch when you're casting, eyes going all white and shit. Body twitching like an addict." Lucy scrambled back frantically, her spine slamming into the stone arch. The men leaping upon her with a timed pounce, pinning her tightly against the frame. The first man stretching his fingers around her chin. "But yet, your so pretty. I'd have fun breaking a little thing like you." His alcohol glazed tongue searing along her creamy cheek. Lucy screeched vividly in disgust, springing her knee upwards to the man's groin. He recoiled with blunt movements, swinging his arm around to backhand her. The ferocity splitting her skin. "You sly bitch!" He fired another shot to her jaw. "You's makin' enemies with the wrong person." She tried to pry her head away from the man's violent swings, eyes scrambling to take in her surroundings. Small pebbles and dust still gave way from the ceiling, but the ground seemed to have relaxed, her magic cut out at the roots. The tunnel she had originally traveled down lay in ruin, barley leaving enough space for a full-grown adult to crawl back to the light. Thankfully though, the traumatizing screams had stopped, Natsu's much calmer voice the only thing ringing out.

"You okay Lucy?!"

If the blonde hadn't received another painful blow to her lower lip she probably would have snickered. "A little preoccupied at the moment." She grunted, purposely spitting the blood that was pooling around her gums over her assailant's face. She bucked her legs intently, thrashing around like a child until she freed one of her arms. With a sinched brow she slammed her palm over the first man's chest, muttering a simple incantation that caused her hand to pulse. Holy light rained down again, this time pin-pointed above her enemy's lungs and flinging him backward through the semi-demolished doorway and into the main cavern. A short victory smile produced from her mouth before she felt her body tremor. A light, yet firm reminder of how much magic she had just finished exerting, and how fragile it made her body.

Sucking in a deep breath she tried to muster strength from tomorrow, using her free hand to claw into the dirt. Muscles protesting annoyingly while she pulled herself away from the remaining man. "Not so fast witch." His tone twisting the word to sound like a vulgar insult. The hilt of his own blade striking into the round bone of her ankle. A torn wail exhaled from her, reacting to the pain but thanking the heavens that she hadn't heard the crack of her bones splitting. It wasn't much, but it gave the man an opening, tucking his legs in only to spring them out into her back. Shoving her ungracefully through the frame to join the rest of the crowd. Lucy cradled her ribs carefully, attempting to regain the air that man had so rudely ripped away from her. She was only able to catch a glimpse of her dragon slayers unreadable expression before more greedy hands tore her from the ground, dragging her center-stage to join the 'show'.

"Well fire boy, I suppose thanks are in order." The leader mewled again tapping his now drenched blade against a whimpering Lissana's torso. "Bringing me two of the most beautiful woman in Fiore and barely puttin up a fight to keep them." He was taunting now, voice never losing his deranged laughter. "Don't know why to maidens of this caliber are slugging around with someone like you, but I guess I should give you a little credit," Natsu growled darkly, his body growing tenser (If that was even possible), muscles coiling dangerously. The leader followed Lucy with hungry eyes, watching as Lucy was strung up by another man in the same manner as Lissana. The only difference was the blade pushing fearfully hard against the pulse point of her throat, leaving her stomach out of harm's way. Honestly, she wasn't sure which she would prefer more. She watched Natsu's dark anguish filled orbs bounce back and forth between her and Lissana. She tried to capture his attention, pleading with him by expression that everything was going to be alright. That he should focus on the more injured of the two and leave her to her own devices, but his glance never lasted long enough. "I know!" The leader piped up again excitedly. "It seems a little unfair to steal away both your girls after that pathetic display," He toyed, "So, how about I suggest a little game?"

"I ain't playing shit." Natsu responded bluntly.

"Don't be such a downer fire boy, this will be fun."

"Every time I hear that, things don't usually end up being that 'fun'." He spat. relaxing his tight fist momentarily before clenching it again.

The leader only smiley devilishly, continuing his frantic knife tapping over Lissana's stained skin. "I'm going to let you pick one." He decided. "Pick a girl to take home while one rots away under some pompous sex-deprived guard." The look on Natsu's face practically shattered Lucy's heart. One of absolute horror that something like that had even been offered to him. His singular broken reply of sick bastard weighing heavily on the limited oxygen.

"It's okay Natsu," Lucy offered dumbly, wincing when the tip of the blade punctured her skin. Hot thick liquid oozing down her neck, threatening to break her resolve. "Take Lissana out of here, I'll be alright." She tried to produce a weak smile but Natsu's sad cold eyes froze her as he shook his head. She gulped loudly, feeling the blade press deeper with her every word. Her captor obviously not pleased with her speech. "Please." She tried again, but Natsu only shook his head faster.

"No way in hell."

"This is so not the time to be stubborn." She retched, cringing at the sticky feeling coating over her chest. She tried to ask him again but the blade slid uncomfortably under her skin and all she could summon was strangled yelp. Surprisingly, it did nothing to help the exchange.

The dragon slayer's eyes bulged, raising his arm's defensively, voice frantic and lost. "Stop!" He yelled, "Don't hurt them anymore, give me a second to think!" She had never seen the man look so uncomfortable.

Lucy slammed her eyes shut at her holders' increasingly wild movements, jerking the blade against her without a care. "This is ridiculous lover boy," The leader spat over his laughter. "I, out of the goodness of my own heart offer you back one of the women you practically dropped in my lap. And you cant even decide which pussy you'd rather ride? Pathetic!" He hollered, the rest of his goon's joining in. "I'm good and bored now, you sucked all the fun out of this. I don't even need these girls!" At this point, it was hard to distinguish words through his manic howls. "You have three seconds before I just kill them both." Natsu's attention snapped back to him like his mind was finally processing the events that were about to unfold.

The cold-hearted cheering of a slow count sprouted from the other members. Starting at Three and barley pronouncing the O in One before all hell broke loose. The roaring sound of metal clad boots slamming into the earth above, signaling the extremely overdue arrival of the royal army. Bandits screaming and crawling over one another like wild animals in search of escape from a rabid predator. And Natsu's scalding shoulder crashing into her sternum, throwing her away from the wicked man's grasp. She rolled roughly against the dirt, hand shooting to her throat to pressurize the bleeding. She was gulping greedily for air when she heard the stomach flipping joyful voice cry out above the commotion. "Good choice! I think I would have picked her too." Nothing but freezing, blood-curdling cries followed. Lucy felt her limbs stiffen at the sound, her chocolate irises the only responsive part of her body. Taking in her horrific environment with shocking detail. Natsu was only a few steps away from Lissana, His body recovering quickly from surging towards her, propelling him back to the remaining prisoner. But a few steps was a few too many, and Lucy and her partner could do nothing but watch as their friend was quite literally gutted before them.

Blood had always been red. But nothing compared to the deep scarlet pooled around the stark white of Lissana's being. An enraged bloody titan plucking the clouds goddess right from the sky and dragging her to the fiery pits of hell. That is, if hell consisted of somebody shredding your torso to smithereens and hysterically laughing as vital organs spewed through the skin. Lucy was sure that in this world, nothing would ever hold a candle to the vile scene displayed before her. The grotesque sound of a lifeless body crashing limply over its inner parts. The ferocious roar of a wounded dragon casting thieves to scaper away, a high pitched squeal on their lips. All the while a daunting march of hungry war men encroached on them.

Lucy's head snapped painfully back to reality. They couldn't stay here, the army would swallow them alive. The Ogres were sprinting out of a tunnel near the back of the cavern, no doubt another way out laid beyond it. They still had a chance. With a silent prayer to all that was holy, she pulled herself up from her shambled mess on the floor. Taking rushed staggered footsteps towards her partner and the offending carcass in front of him. "Natsu..." She croaked. "We need to get out of here." She rested her palm on his shoulder, placing most of her weight on him. Her ankle lacking in its career of helping her walk. He didn't seem to notice her. Lips quivering as he muttered under his breath, fingers twitching, coated in the blood he had tried to prevent. "Natsu, we need to go..." She tried again, giving the man a light shake.

"We can't just leave her here..." His broken cry pleaded, head-spinning to meet her gaze. Never, in all the years Lucy had known Natsu, had she seen him cry. His deep onyx eyes swimming with salty tears, his raging passion extinguished. Her strong motivator completely shattered before her, frantically attempting to scoop spilled organs back into a frayed body. The footsteps of soldiers drawing ever closer as her own tears spilled over.

"Please Natsu." She sobbed, gaging slightly as blood bubbled from the split in her throat. She thought his previous expression succeeded in breaking her heart, but the look he was giving her now practically split it in two. A mangled pain-ridden yell erupting from his chest while he grasped Lucy's wrist, dragging her away from their murdered friend and the on slot of guards that inadvertently let it happen.

Again, check out the full story here! ↓↓↓↓

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13289933/3/Silence-and-Cigarette-Smoke

#natsu #natsu dragneel #lucy #lucy heartfilia #fairy tail #fairy tail fanfiction #fan fiction #lisanna strauss #zeref #Nalu #nalu fanfic #nalu fanfiction

[pilot-boi]

Five Injuries Hidden: Chapter Six

Rough Sailing

He was a paper boat in a thunderstorm lost at sea. One wave, just slightly too big, would be all it would take to swallow him up whole

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Jaune moaned, squeezing his eyes shut. Was the world supposed to spin that fast?

He could’ve sworn it had been cold when he went to sleep, so why did it feel like he was melting? But that wasn't the worst part, not by far. The icy cold that stole his breath away always came rushing back after he had melted, freezing him. His skin, his bones, his blood, all of it, making his body react with bone-rattling shivers that seemed to make everything worse.

But all of this waned in the face of the sheer ball of agony his leg had become.

It made him want to die. Seriously, just put him out of his misery already. He had to fight to keep the two meager bites of fish he had managed to choke down last night from making a reappearance.

He wasn't fine. He couldn't even try to fool himself into thinking that when he couldn't even move, save for half curling painfully into a ball on the ground before he had to stop lest he passed out.

The only thing he hoped was that Nora or Ruby didn't find him first. Gods they were going to kill him.

Jaune knew his fever was getting worse, but at this point, it was only a distant thought.

What was that blob?

No, stop shaking me.

Why are you being so loud?

Shuuuussssshhhhhh.

Your hands are cold, lemme alone.

Suddenly pain. Blinding, unbearable pain that made tears come unbidden to his eyes as the blob… Blobs? Were there more than one? He couldn't tell anymore. As the blobs brushed against the broken bolt of steel sticking out of his leg.

What was that sound? Who was screaming? Oh wait... That was him. It kinda sounded like it was far away.

Underwater.

Muffled.

Mmmuuufffffffllleeeddd… Muffled was a funny word...

Oh, wait. He was moving. Hrrk. Nope. Abort. Abort.

Jaune could feel the horrible feeling of stomach acid burning his throat as he heaved wherever his head was pointing. Uggghhhhhhhhh.

He was in pain, sick, confused and really wanted to die. Why has no one putting him out of his misery?!

Jaune could hear a bubbling stream of voices, but just like the water of a stream, it slipped through his fingers. Nothing made sense anymore. Why were there so many different colored blobs? It made his already pounding head hurt even worse. He closed his eyes, the darkness instantly soothing the added thorns to his headache.

Then, he felt a super-cooled hand pat his cheek. But all his strength was sapped out of his limbs, his mind, and he barely even flinched. Please, please leave him alone. Let him sink into the nice, comforting darkness. 

His lack of reaction caused a flurry of action, sounds, maybe voices, and just the barely perceived sense of pure panic. Why? What was wrong? Jaune struggled to blink open his heavy, sticky eyelids. He could only manage to open them to about half-way, but it was enough. 

Slowly blinking, and that was a true challenge, because his eyes did not wanna stay open, everything slowly came into focus.

He... was in the house? Hm, they must have found them. Good. That... that was good.

The next thing that came into focus was Ruby’s determined, tear-stained face. Why was Ruby crying? Did someone hurt her?! He had to help, had to get up and stop whoever it was from hurting her-

All thoughts fled his mind as the pain in his leg increased a thousand fold. Next thing he knew, he was screaming. 

His world blotted out, and all he could feel was the tormenting feel of mind numbing agony. His leg was on fire. It hurt, oh did it hurt. Stop. Stop it. Stop it stop it stop it stop it stopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopitstopit-

Unable to bear the pain any longer, the world went dark.

--------

Ruby sighed as she wrung out the cold, wet cloth before she placed it back onto her best friend's sweltering forehead. How had it come to this? How could they have missed such a grievous injury that friend had?

This was all her fault. If she'd only been more attentive, and not wallowing in her own doubts and self-pity about the mission. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Ruby flinched as Jaune whimpered softly, no doubt his fever spiking. She softly took his scalding hand in her own, gently rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb. They'd found Jaune delirious with fever when they had gone to see why he wasn't up yet, the hard ground underneath him stained red with his own blood.

She'd never forget the sheer lifelessness as they tried to awaken the knight. 

That was when they found the horrendous injury in the form of a steel bolt lodged deeply into his leg. The steel bolt went deep, and the muscle around it was torn and irritated. It must have gotten worse with all the running around and fighting he had done. Not to mention the raging infection that must have set in sometime during the night.

Her friend's screams as they'd removed the bolt would haunt her nightmares.

She'd known that it wasn't going to be painless, as they didn't have the necessary equipment to put him under, they were too far from the nearest hospital, and the only person who could’ve numbed the pain was the one injured. It had been their only option that would ensure that Jaune would survive until they could get to proper medical help... But it didn't mean that she had to like it.

Yang, unnaturally subdued, quietly made her way into the room, closing the door behind her before she made her way over. The brawler gently rubbed Ruby's shoulder, his eyes never leaving the haggard, pale-skinned form in the bed. 

"We'll be at the hospital in a few minutes." She murmured softly. Sucking in what was supposed to be a steadying breath, Ruby nodded, briefly scrubbing at her eyes. 

Yang wisely said nothing and instead started helping her ready Jaune for transportation. Pulling off his armor was a struggle, as it made him wince in pain even unconscious. His shirt was sticking to his chest with sweat, and his hair was plastered to his forehead. She couldn't help her full bodied shiver as she watched his lungs struggle for each breath.

It... it just wasn't right seeing their dorky, passionate friend like this.

Not at all.

--------

Nora breathed.

In.

And out.

In.

And out.

Crunch.

She growled, frustrated, and was this close to throwing this flimsy chair that insisted on its armrests breaking every time she laid a finger on it.

It totally wasn't because she was too upset to properly control his strength. Nope. Completely the chair's fault.

She was about to throw it across the room when Oscar despondently trudged his way in looking for all the world he was carrying the world's burdens. Shoulders slumped, he didn't even look up as he bonelessly collapsed into the chair next to her. Nora could relate.

Getting Jaune into emergency care had been a nightmare. Not because of the staff, but because the knight had stopped breathing as they loaded him onto a gurney. Ruby had frozen, her eyes wide in terror and helplessness. Yang had taken her home, and Weiss and Blake had gone with her. Ren was still stuck at the Bounty, and his absence was making her antsy

And now she and Oscar were stuck waiting.

Nora could tell that Oscar was trying his hardest to keep it together, to be the strong future immortal wizard guy that he thought that he needed to be 24/7 no matter what anyone else said. 

She got it, she really did, but it didn't make it any less upsetting. Shaking her head, she wrapped an arm around her little brother and tugged him closer to her side. Oscar stiffened, but soon relaxed, burying his face into her shoulder. 

Nora clenched her jaw and closed her eyes at the sheer helplessness to stop the tremors shaking the boy's shoulders as he struggled to quiet his hiccuping sobs.

She could feel Oscar mumble something into her now soaked jacket and rubbed his shoulder while glancing down at the mop of shaggy brown hair, "You're going to have to speak up buddy, I didn't catch that."

Oscar revealed his tear-soaked face and heart shattering, shiny-with-tears, big hazel eyes that just destroyed Nora's soul just looking at. Something howling inside her to fix, or destroy, depending on the situation, whatever was hurting him.

And she... couldn't.

It physically hurt her not being able to fix this kind of hurt.

She knew there was only one thing, one person who could... And he was in the emergency room struggling to survive.

"It's just not fair." Oscar whimpered, half-hiding his face back into her jacket, snapping her out of her thoughts. 

That took Nora aback, blinking down at him. Oscar never complained about things being fair. Ever. Even though he had more than enough reason to, what with the whole Ozpin thing. It was sad, but true. And they had never heard him once say anything about it.

But... this wasn't about Oscar.

This time, it was for Jaune's sake.

If her heart hadn't been hurting before for Oscar, by the gods was it now. She wrapped both arms around her friend, offering every ounce of comfort that she was able, gently shushing him.

"I know. I know it's unfair, and I know you know that's the way life is," she added on, knowing what tended to run through her own head and hoping it would apply to this, "But Jaune's the strongest person I know, and if anyone can pull through, he can."

With a final sniff, resolve hardened in Oscar's eyes as he nodded, wiping away the tears still rolling down his cheeks, "You're right. Jaune can do this. We just... We just gotta put our faith in him."

Nora gave him a tired half-smile and tousled his hair, "That's right."

"That's exactly right."

--------

Ren was pacing.

That in itself was worrying.

But he really didn't care at this moment in time.

There was still no word, after hours of waiting.

After Yang and Ruby had returned, one grim and the other still in shock, he had taken to pacing around the ship and hadn't stopped once for eight hours.

Eight hours of worrying. More like nine, since he hadn't stopped worrying since they found Jaune this morning.

Eight hours of "what if?"s.

Eight hours of not knowing whether Jaune was going to pull through.

It was enough to wear a track into the poor floor. Ren just hoped that news, any kind of news, would be given to them soon.

He wasn't sure how much more they could take…

--------

It had been twelve hours since Jaune had been admitted, and only just now was he being settled into his hospital room in the ICU so that he could be watched over for any complications.

The news had been grim. Jaune'd flat-lined five times. Five. And had, on the last one, been legally dead for an entire forty-eight seconds.

Forty-eight seconds, the world had been without it's lovable, dorky noodle boy.

That was forty-eight seconds too long in Yang’s books.

But, that wasn't all. Ohhh, no.

The nurses had revealed that their friend’s body was littered with scars of all sizes. From paper-cut worthy, to how-the-heck-are-you-even-still-alive?! sizes. They had all been gobsmacked, and then unbelievably angry, when they'd found out. 

Why hadn't he told them? Just how often had he been injured without their notice?! Many of them from this past year alone!

Needless to say, they all wanted some answers.

Sadly, they might not be getting any.

Jaune had a raging infection trying to tear him apart from the inside-out, and with his blood-loss, there was a very high chance of him never waking up at all.

As she said. Bad.

Really, the only reason Yang wasn't falling apart right now in a panicking mess, was because Ruby needed her. So she stayed strong, toughing it out in silence as she watched her slowly fall apart with each near mechanical breath.

Machines. She was good with machines. If they broke, you could fix them. If they died, you could revive them.

But Jaune wasn't a machine.

He was broken in ways that she couldn't fix.

And if he died... she couldn't revive him.

There were no do-overs. No magic reset button.

Nothing she could do.

Yang decided she hated that.

---------

Jaune wasn't aware of anything, really... Just that it was soft. Warm. Painless.

...Painless?

That seemed wrong to him somehow. But... he couldn't remember why...

He sunk into a haze.

Drifting aimlessly, he could vaguely tell that time had passed. 'How long?' He distantly wondered.

The question faded.

Thoughts continued to trickle through his hands, touching the surface of them, but never being able to grasp onto them for long.

He continued to drift.

Something was missing, he realized later. That realization came with a certain, clear clarity that allowed him to grab onto it with both hands in a vice-like grip. The haze lifted a little. He was suddenly aware of a sore ache that he could feel deep down into every bone.

He'd forgotten he'd even had bones...

The feeling of something missing and the general sense of something is wrong grew. Where was he? How did he get here?

A sudden thought slammed into him like a rampaging Boarbatusk.

Where were his friends?

Desperation burned out the rest of the hazy darkness he had settled into for who knows how long, his injuries that he'd forgotten about up till now made themselves known with a vengeance. And his memories became crystal clear along with them.

Oh.

Perfect.

They were going to murder him for this...

But first, he had to wake up.

After all, he couldn't be dead because he doubted that he would be this aching and sore in the after-life.

Waking up proved to be more difficult than he had expected.

But, never the one to be deterred, he finally pushed though.

And found himself staring at a ceiling in a dark hospital room.

--------

Good news. Finally.

After a week of no relatively no improvement from the knight, the doctors had informed them of increased brain activity and that his Aura was finally replenishing properly. His chances of waking up, of surviving this, went up a little more each day.

They were up to two weeks, two horribly long weeks, the doctors saying that Jaune could be waking up at any time now.

Anytime.

Any time at all.

The clock read midnight. The witching hour.

Oscar never understood that saying. And really, he was too tired to even try. He was pretty sure that his heavy eyes were blood-shot, red from crying.

Red. Red was the color of fire. The color of power. The color of warmth.

But it was also the color of war. Of danger. Of blood.

Jaune's blood.

Every time he blinked, the images seared into his eyelids, he could see Jaune laying pale and still, oh, so still, and in a puddle of mostly dried blood. He could see and time the exact moment he stopped breathing, stopped fighting.

But, then, Jaune never did stop fighting, did he?

No, he fought tooth and nail, even while deeply unconscious, and his heart continued to stubbornly hold onto life even if it faltered at times. 

Even with a raging infection that the doctors had only just been able to battle back, calling it a close thing and that if Jaune hadn’t had such abnormally high Aura reserves, that they probably wouldn’t have been able to save him. 

Same with his leg. The doctors had been amazed that Jaune had evaded having it amputated, though by a narrow margin. Yet they doubted that he would ever be able to walk without assistance of a cane from now on.

But Semblances and stubbornness were powerful things. Especially where Jaune was concerned.

They gave it about a month or two before Jaune was walking around like nothing had ever happened.

Oscar smiled at the thought, before a soft groan shattered the silence as if it was spun glass. It immediately held every ounce of his attention as he scrambled to his feet and closer to Jaune's side, daring to feel hope as it blossomed in his chest.

Jaune's face was scrunched, and then...

He blinked open his eyes.

#rwby #jaune arc #lie ren #nora valkyrie #oscar pine #ruby rose #yang xiao long #mine #mistral au #my writing #five injuries hidden #chapter 6

[tyrantdk]

Horror oneshot

Just smth I wrote around Halloween. 

Yugi smoothed his hand over the bandaged head lovingly. He shivered as the chill in the air spread across his skin. He knew he might have been risking sickness, but to revive a god, he was willing to face anything.

He started the ceremony, chanting in a language as foreign to him as it was familiar. The magic swelling inside him caused the euphoria he knew far too well from the touch of his god. Yugi started to moan as he chanted, feeling the soul of his god around him. 

He whimpered as the spell ended, begging all the souls in Duat that his master, his pharaoh, his god, and lover had returned to him. He crawled over to the bottom of the altar, his cock pulsing hot, and so hard between his legs.

“My beauty from the East, where are you? Why am I bound so?”

Yugi leapt up, pushing his discomfort aside to rip bandages off his god. Fingers wiggled as he revealed them, bright wine red eyes fluttering open as he ripped the cover away, “Per'a'ah, you have come back to me!”

“Come back? ...Oh, I must have died from my wounds. How could I leave my Imi-ib alone? Come to me, my Yugi,” His god held his arms open for him.

Yugi crawled into his arms, clinging to his Per'a'ah, “I missed you. I had to bring you back.”

“I'm glad you did. Let's take back our kingdom, and I can finally make you my consort,” He said, grinning around his lover's shoulder, “But first I should re-consummate our union.”

Yugi shuddered as he looked out. He hadn't intended for this to happen when he'd resurrected his god. Fires burned around his once beautiful Waset, lit by his beloved god. He had been so happy to be joined with his Per'a'ah, but now not so much.

Hands landed on his shoulders, cold lips pressing kisses to his skin, “I told you, Imi-ib, Reeds, Earth, or Duat, we'd be together. Love making is no longer enough to keep me as I am. I need your lifeforce. It's just a moment of pain, and you'll be back in my arms in no time.”

“Can't we do anything other than killing me?” Yugi asked, fear in his voice.

“Sh. Just a moment, I promise. I'll be right here with you, and I'll make it quick, Imi-ib. You'll be right back in my arms by sundown.”

Yugi turned, eyes widening as he saw the dagger, “Please, no!” He backed away out onto the balcony, “Please, this isn't you. We'll find another way, my Per'a'ah!” He stumbled, falling down near the ledge.

“Come away from there, and let me make you immortal! We have an empire to rule for eternity, and our love will truly never die! The eternal Per'a'ah and his beloved consort!”

Yugi looked at him, horror on his face, “I just wanted to be with you. I didn't want power, or a kingdom! I just wanted you. I love you, Atem, but I guess you never loved me,” Tears started down his face.

“No! How could you ever believe my love is false?! I love you more than anything!”

“Then why is making love with me not enough? If you truly loved me, I would be enough as I am,” Yugi looked down over the side, “If you need me dead, then I pick how I die,” He tossed himself off the side.

“NO!” Atem lunged after him, Yugi's fingers inches from his own. He managed to grab his lover's arm, reeling him into his arms, and tossed the dagger away. Atem buried his face into Yugi's neck, pulling away when he feels no pulse, “No!”

Atem sobbed as he held Yugi's lifeless body close. Blood soaked the front of Yugi's robes from the dagger Atem had tossed away. He must have grabbed it in the flurry of motions.

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

Agony was all Atem knew, ruling his eternal kingdom without his consort. He had tried and failed to bring his Imi-ib back; he had cried out when it failed, knowing it either meant Yugi didn't want to be with him, or he was out of his reach.

It had become agony, pure pain to even exist the way he did. He had become so feared for his brutal way of squashing rebellion, for killing loyal vassals, and bringing them back to serve for eternity. Atem was in agony that he could no longer be the ruler, the living benevolent god Yugi worshipped and adored.

It was agony to always be so damn cold! No matter what anyone did, his skin was ice cold. The last time he had been warm was the last time he had laid with Yugi. If he closed his eyes, Atem could still feel the warmth of Yugi's thighs around his waist. He could taste his consort’s kiss, and he longed to have him back.

Maybe today would be the day…

Yugi was terrified as he was lead to the demon; he had heard so many rumors of the demon eating the hearts of his tributes. He would never have competed in that tournament if he had known the winner would be this year's tribute. There were signs the entire time! How could he have been so stupid?!

He kept his head down to hide the tears as the great doors opened. Yugi was lead inside, prompted to walk with a gentle push from the demon's wizard.

“Per'a'ah, I believe you will find Japan's tribute special,” The wizard said, placing a warm hand on Yugi's shoulder, “Special enough to heal your heart.”

There was a flurry of rustling cloth, before Yugi's face was roughly lifted by the coldest hand he had ever felt. He froze as he looked up into the red eyes from his nightmare. He wanted to scream, but couldn't, and his legs were locked in place. The hand on his face instantly gentled, and the skin was warming.

“Yugi?” Atem asked, in awe as he gazed at the young man before him. He was more beautiful than he remembered; his skin soft and warm, easily soaking into his, “You've come home,” Atem fell to his knees, tears falling from his eyes, “You've returned to me, my love, my consort!”

Yugi finally found strength in his legs, backing away before the demon could place his hands on him. He turned, fear widened eyes looking for any way of escape. When he saw an escape, he bolted toward it.

“Yugi! No!” Atem bolted after him, fear of losing him again making him run faster. He caught up to Yugi, catching him by the hand. Atem pulled him into his arms, “I can’t lose you again! Not again!”

Yugi shuddered in the demon's arms as he spoke, but he paused at the words, “Again?” He asked softly, his mind going to the nightmares he'd had for his entire life.

“I lost you once, so long ago, because I was a fool, and thought… It doesn't matter anymore. You're home, Imi-ib,” Atem cupped his face, tears still falling, “I've hoped and prayed so long for today. Let me take you to our rooms, and you can rest. It's been such an exciting day.”

Warily, Yugi nodded, letting himself be guided along to a suite of majestic, large rooms.

“Stay here, rest. I'll return when I'm done for the day, and we'll eat.”

“Ok,” Yugi replied, looking around. He waited for the demon to be gone before stepping out onto the balcony. It wasn't the same, having long ago been replaced with a much safer sunroom, “I remember you wanted to kill me, and you still do.”

“Only so I never have to spend another day in agony without you.”

Yugi turned, “You still don't get it. I hate you. I no longer love you!” He spat, “You're in agony because I cast the spell out of love, and I the spellcaster, no longer love you! You turned my love into hate, into pain! I loved you, worshipped you! And you returned my loving devotion with death. I have never been enough, and will never be enough as I am.”

“Not true! It can't be!” Atem said, covering his ears to block out Yugi's voice. He fell to his knees once more, “You are the only one I have loved for millennia. I wanted our love to be eternal! ...You refused to return when I called.”

“Of course I did. Why would I return to someone who wanted to murder me, when he had claimed to love me?”

“It would have been a moment of blackness before you were back in my arms!”

“You burned Waset! You burned the beautiful city I loved! You are not the man I loved! You are a demon and a blight on this world!” Yugi turned away, showing Atem his back as he walked into the sunroom, “I should have never brought you back. I should have walked into the Nile for Sobek's crocodiles to feast on as I originally planned.”

“If you no longer love me, if it is true, then how do I win your heart back?”

“You can't. I have given it to someone else. Someone who loves me the way I should be.I am enough the way I am for him, and he'll come get me. I know he will.”

Atem rose, rage, and envy, and hurt flooding his veins. How dare anyone steal his consort’s heart away from him?! He looked at the reflection of those violet eyes he loved so much, “I will kill him,” He growled angrily.

“You won't,” Was all Yugi replied with.

Yami crept silently through the Pharaoh's palace like a thief, and he was one. He was going to steal the most precious item within the ancient stone walls. Yami had snuck in to find his beloved Yugi, and take him away from here. He knew he was, in part, a reincarnation of the Pharaoh; Yugi had told him as much when they met.

“You're the better half of him; the things I fell in love with are in you. All that's left is darkness, greedy, hungry darkness. When he died, the bits that make you up managed to pass faster than what I brought back.”

He needed Yugi, and he had no doubt the Pharaoh felt the same way. It wasn't going to be easy, once he had Yugi. He had no illusions about that, but Yami hoped, and he knew he could do it.

Yami listened to the people as he moved from shadow to shadow. He learned Yugi had been taken to the Pharaoh's private chambers, but that he was alone there. He also gleaned the directions to the chambers, and made his way there. He opened the door quietly.

Yugi sat in a lavish rocking chair, looking out of the windows around a sunroom. He kept a vigil, hoping Yami would scale the walls he could see. He heard the door open, ready to refuse any request to come to bed. He gasped when warm palms tilted his head up.

“Miss me, Habibi?” Yami asked softly.

Yugi smiled happily, “You know I did.”

“Let's go home. The bed's freezing without you next to me,” Yami helped Yugi up, “I do like this outfit.”

“Hush, you!” He replied, leaning against Yami, “I knew you'd come to me, take me home.”

“I always will,” Yami said just as Atem entered. The trio stared at each other, startled. Yami held Yugi closer, starting to push him behind him.

Atem frowned, why was there another him?! How was there another Atem? “What is the meaning of this? How is this possible?”

“I'm half a reincarnation of you,” Yami spat, “I've come to take Yugi home. Don't you even try to stop me!”

Atem stood his ground, looking at his hands. They were warm without having to touch skin, and he could feel his heartbeat in his chest, “What is happening to me?! My heart beats! ...I must need you both.”

“What do you mean?”

“You were right; You weren't enough because I am not whole, as I once was. I need you both to end my agony, my eternal suffering under this spell! Please, stay.”

Yugi looked out of the sunroom, the rocker long replaced with a daybed for three. Atem and Yami still napped, having curled around each other in Yugi's absence. He really must have tired them out from their intimate time together, if they had yet to wake from him climbing out of bed.

He watched them, amazed by how alike and how different they were. Yami was paler, but still had that hint of gold in his skin. Atem's hair was wilder, silkier. They often surprised him, like how Atem came to see Yami as a separate person, or the time he caught Yami performing oral on Atem.

He loved them both, had always, even when he had told Atem he didn't. Yugi smiled as one set of eyes opened, “Hey.”

“Imi-ib, come back to bed, before Ibib wakes,” Atem replied softly, “He's worse than I am about not being able to sleep without you.”

“I know,” Yugi climbed back into the daybed, “We should be extra loving to Yami for the rest of the day. He didn't have to take both of us at once.”

“I'll have his favorite made for dinner, and the bath made with the rose oil he loves,” Atem placed a kiss to Yami's temple.

“We'll walk in the garden while you're in the afternoon court session? Or are you going to need your consorts in your lap?”

“He needs us,” Yami mumbled as an eye cracked open, “Besides, I want to sit on the throne~” He winked as his lovers laughed, and tossed their arms around him, “Just spoil me by being with you two.”

#fanfic #fanfiction #horror au #kind of #character death #reincarnation #blindshipping #puzzleshipping #ends as mobiumshipping

[enigmvs]

☾*✧･ﾟ:*「 jeon heejin. cisfemale. she/her. 」did you know that there’s a half-blood in haneul known as ahn “joy” jiyeon? they have been living here for the past fifteen years and is a potions master’s apprentice. they are currently eighteen and is a student at crocus institute of higher magic in the house nightshade. i heard that they are known to be headstrong, but worry not ! i heard they are also very erudite too. remember to stay out of trouble, the ju jak are lurking around every corner !

BACKSTORY ;

ahn jiyeon was born on october 29, 2000, and she is the last living member of a presumably lost and “ancient” bloodline of first generation magi. her ancestors were renowned duelists for their time and saved many other magi in history, being famous in textbooks and the likes. anyone who had ahn blood in them were usually known to be great duelists, and were always given a necklace with an emblem that showed off their family symbol.

however, in jiyeon’s case, this simply wasn’t happening. her mother, originally married to another pureblood wizard, fell in love with a human ( despite knowing the magi society is highly against this ) and conceived jiyeon. too ashamed of what she’d done after her “true love” left her in the dust, as well as not wanting her daughter to grow up in an environment where people will shun her for being a half-blood, she left her daughter behind with an heirloom that would confirm jiyeon’s witch status when she was found.

she was quickly adopted into the family that found her in daegu, however she stayed with the grandparents for three years since they were unprepared for a second child at the time. when she finally moved to seoul / haneul, they didn’t want to erase her lineage from her identity so they let her keep her surname and named her after a prominent figure in her family.

while she was learning how to control her magic, she began looking into her bloodline. she read about how they’ve been heroes in history, how powerful they were for their age, how they never gave up without a fight … yet somehow always died at the hands of humans and became a lost lineage in history. hatred grew in her for all of the damage they’ve done to not only her family but to other wizards as well.

she earns the nickname joy in her childhood, from her parents who knew she brought happiness with everything she does. despite her not being their real daughter, they never treated her as an alien in their family and welcomed her with open arms. she doesn’t know what happened with her birth parents, or why she was only left with a photograph of her father, but she doesn’t question it.

as she begins to grow up knowing her magic should become more controlled, she begins to worry that something’s wrong when she reaches the age of sixteen and there’s still no progress. people reassure her that there are late bloomers, but unlike her they’re not blind to the truth. all signs point to being a half-blood, but her own denial continues to give many excuses as to what’s wrong with her — there’s no way she could be human, right?

everyone recommends her to become a potions master, as it seems to be the safest option for her due to the fact that her magic is rather unpredictable and uncontrollable. she already had doubts about her own abilities, constantly questioning herself ( and crying about it ) every time something went wrong, but knowing others were wary as well hurt her fading pride. despite how much it discouraged her in the beginning — considering her lineage is made up of famous duelists — she’s grown to love the idea after becoming an apprentice early on.

however, this doesn’t stop her from being insecure when she’s alone and trying her best to train. she knows how magi laws work, and even though she believes she isn’t a half-blood, she is certain the magi laws about dysfunctional magic apply to her. the age of twenty-five was only seven years away, and that’s a short time in magi years — even though it’s been spotty for the past eighteen years, she can’t imagine herself without magic at all.

as a student she’s always been studious and diligent, desperate to show that she wasn’t completely hopeless and useless without magic. she’s got an encyclopedia inside her head, with knowledge ranging from magical creatures to duelling styles ( despite not being trusted to try them out ). she believes knowing as much as she can will be helpful in the future.

she’s young and small, she just turned eighteen and just 5’2”, but that is not a reason to underestimate her — which is something she’ll remind people of. she doesn’t believe that she needs anyone’s help, and doesn’t want anyone’s help, which is why she often trains by herself and goes home with many new bruises or small cuts. she’s the type of girl who doesn’t want to be a damsel in distress despite that’s what she definitely is … just don’t tell her that or she’ll cry; she’s trying her best !

FUN FACTS ;

she has a dalmation named ‘ ryuk ’ ( named after ryuk in death note ). her family adopted him when she was ten years old, and he was just a couple months old already. he’s already eight years old, and recently joy is trying to find a way to make him immortal, but her searches have been fruitless ...

she is in the house nightshade and she has a lot of pride for it. despite the school having no uniforms, she wears this black hoodie with the nightshade flower on it at least once every week. it’s oversized and she loves it.

joy has clumsy magic. she aims to be strong one day but it just ain’t happening soon. the institute is covered by a veil of magic so as a precaution, joy has to go to school with someone in order to get in. if she doesn’t, she usually can’t get behind the wall of magic surrounding it.

since she was a little girl, it was very easy for her to fall ill. she falls the most sick during winter and she’ll be bedridden for days and it could be for the littlest things too.

her hatred for humans is actually a mask for a very intense fear. considering her ancestors were usually killed by humans, she thinks it’s some kind of curse. she wouldn’t be caught near one willingly unless it was unknowingly.

if you’re one of her best friends, she gives out potions like they’re nothing. if you’re a close friend she’ll give discounts even if it’ll get her into trouble.

she has a small tattoo that she got for her eighteenth birthday. it’s a little, minimalistic scorpio constellation on her neck. 

joy has a lot of bandaids and / or bandages on her and is also usually wearing a lot of it too. due to her solo training and her own clumsiness, her parents told her to carry some around.

she speaks english but it’s a little broken. she’s still learning, and she’s doing pretty good ! words are just hard. however ( thanks to anime / manga ) she speaks japanese very well.

very dramatic for absolutely no reason. very reactive and expresses how she feels easily when she’s comfortable with a person. she’s only a little bit shy but she’s still dramatic !

#haneulintro #just a repost MSKLFMS #⟨ 𝐌𝐈𝐒𝐂. ╱ OUT OF CHARACTER ⟩ * 𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑹𝑶𝑫𝑼𝑪𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑺.

[shellheadtmarc]

v; fallout group verse - closed

This, is in all honesty, mostly because I know people have to be going, “...what the fuck,” about shenanigans.  This, hopefully, will clarify those to a degree.

Consider all of this, but let’s make some changes.  In the aftermath of the bombs, Tony and Stephen Strange ( @rahasyamay ) run into each other, each doing their own putting out of fires, metaphorically and literally.  The Sorcerer Supreme has, ah.  A lengthy lifespan, too, so Tony and Stephen end up as a close knit family unit (the romance thing just isn’t a thing for them, if there has been hanky panky it was very brief and no doubt loneliness-induced) in the years following the bombs.  Shortly before the pair follow the BOS into the Commonwealth (relative on what shortly means), the courier from the Mojave arrives in New York, Elle Days ( @gwinnetts ), and ends up being adopted by Doctor Wizard Dad and Tired Iron Dad.  

Tony and Stephen leave for the Commonwealth, with the plan being that Elle will follow them in at a slower pace (meaning once they’ve scoped things out and made sure it’s safe) on the motorcycle Tony’s tinkered on for her in his spare time.  And it...Mostly goes to plan until Elle is jumped by a courser and her AI version of Yes Man ( formerly @securitrcn ) is taken.  Elle ends up in Goodneighbor, with her Superhero Dads starting to get worried when she doesn’t arrive on schedule and they find the wreckage of her bike.

Fort Hagen is the place Tony and Stephen claim at first, where Tony takes the actual military post and Stephen claiming the Fort Hagen Blood Clinic.  The intentions are a makeshift lab for Tony, but Stephen sees potential in the clinic with aspirations to turn it into a working hospital, since he can’t use his hands like he did anymore, no, but he can pass on his medical knowledge, and the clinic will eventually become a functioning, real teaching hospital.  From here, the two agree to go separate ways, both looking for Elle, both scoping out the Commonwealth on the whole for similar and differing reasons.

Stephen will meet the Cabots and find out the Commonwealth is hiding a lot of bad news goodies of his particular interest that he wants to secure.  He’ll also end up with Croup (later nicknamed Mooch by the Avenger squad, Recoup by everyone) Manor as a somewhat makeshift Sanctum Sanctorum in Boston.  It also doubles as something of a respite for healing and a veterinary clinic!  And yes.  Bats is in attendance.   You get used to him.

Fun fact!  Tony won’t sleep in the main building.  It’s creepy in there and while yes, he knows whatever’s going on can totally be explained by science, he will later use his boyfriend’s reluctance to sleep in the main manor and use one of the smaller surrounding buildings he and Zetta ( @gwinnetts ) builds as an excuse not to.  Croup Manor is weird and no one likes it.  Except Stephen.

Meanwhile, Tony cuts a path through the Commonwealth to get information.  Diamond City points him at Bunker Hill, Bunker Hill points him to Goodneighbor.  In Goodneighbor, he meets a former Gunner by the name of Robert Joseph MacCready ( @gwinnetts ), hires him for info on the Gunners, and intends to leave it at that, intending on making his caps back with a few games of pool before striking out to see what he can see.  When he leaves Goodneighbor, he’s still got a short, smartassed merc with him, and decides what the hell, he can make use of an extra gun.  Besides, he’ll be able to foist this guy off on someone else, and he’s just a merc, right?

(Wrong, Tony.  You are very wrong.)

Time passes.  They meet the sole survivor of Vault 111, Zetta Reynolds ( @gwinnetts ).  Thor ( @torrrden ) shows up at the 11th hour as usual wondering what the hell has happened before ending up befriending a bunch of super mutants.  Croup Manor becomes something of a meeting place/gathering place/family dinner location despite how weird it is.  

And then, after years of telling the universe, “GIVE ME BACK MY RHODEY,” the universe complies with Tony.  Rhodey ( @alloyally ), still part of the United States Air Force during the Great War, having been in many of its campaigns, and playing a bit of a game with the US Government concerning Tony’s anti-war shenanigans before the war (”I’ve been told to tell you that your behavior isn’t appreciated and you need to stop.  Wanna get take out?”  “It has been noted and ignored.  Pizza?”), disappeared not long before the bombs fell.  Given his deployments, this wasn’t an unusual thing, no, but Tony has never been able to find another speck of information about him in the years since, and has assumed him dead.

In truth, in the decades before the war, Jack Cabot exchanged some of his immortality serum with the government, in exchange for tech to better examine and understand his father Lorenzo’s weird crown that has seemingly driven him mad.  The government has been trying to remake the super soldier serum since its success with Steve Rogers/Captain America, and with that serum in hand, do so again, this time with Colonel James Rupert Rhodes.  Rhodey’s been out for a while, and is discovered in stasis by the Brotherhood of Steel, who wake him, orient him, and use him as a unique asset with the rank of Knight.

You can imagine how long he stays with the BOS once Tony finds out he’s alive.  Spoiler:  Not long.  And you can imagine how attached at the hip Tony is with him after the fact.  Spoiler:  It goes something like “I’m in the bathroom, I can hear you breathing out there.” 

You can imagine, too, how well MacCready reacts to that without having a reason to react to that way.  Spoiler:  Like a jealous boyfriend.  That has no right to be jealous.  But is gonna be jealous anyway and thank God, these two knuckleheads finally talk it out.

While forever in development and constantly being added on to (including more and more people being dragged into it), some other highlights include: + Sexual tension!  Mistakes being made!  Tony and Zetta doing the do!  Because they’re both too smart, too stubborn, and you know the whole trope of, “Make me,” being sexual tension that leads to actual sex?  That’s it.  That them.  Plus he got a nice booty and Zetta ain’t stupid. + MacCready’s quest changes!  Tony moves too slow for the whole idea of affinity and gets into a snit when MacCready takes off to take care of the Gunners by himself!  Zetta tracks his scrawny little merc ass down and calls in the calvary (Tony)!  Iron Man as Iron Man gets some play!  Lots of Gunners die!  Mostly because the won’t back down! It’s a mess!  Angry Tony!  Lots of bad feels all around! + The Rock Saga!  It’s legit verse canon now!  Robert Joseph MacCready is the worst boyfriend ever! + Stephen and his crush on Daisy of Goodneighbor!  Respecting KLEO because she’s a strong independent woman who don’t need a prime directive! + Duncan gets brought to the Commonwealth!  He’s officially the most protected kid ever with Tony being Tired Iron Dad and MacCready being MacCready!  Bonus points for the toy soldier going to him like it should have all along!  Dad!Tony reading Tolkien on request at bedtime because he hates Tolkien!  Changing the ending because you don’t tell a kid as young as Duncan his favorite in the Hobbit (Kili) dies! + Elle being loved! + Yes Man being loved and appreciated and encouraged to grow as his own person! + The Overboss that leaves Nuka World because he’s sick of the raiders unruly shit is a legit former Golden Age pirate ( @pyratetm )! + Avengers Assemble becomes a thing again! + People using Tony as a flashlight!  Tony getting annoyed by that! + Changes to all major questlines to make them canon divergent as hell because this is as much fix-it as it is rp! + Colonel James Rhodes becoming General Rhodes of the Minutemen! + M.O.E. the rebuilt synth!  He’s a first run prototype of the OS and personality matrices and is buggy as hell!  Everyone loves M.O.E. anyway! + Keep tuning in to find out what other bullshit we shove in this verse because this is already really long!

Featuring: @starkunlimited - the Commonwealth mechanic/Iron Man/various npcs @alloyally - the Commonwealth angel/War Machine (Iron Patriot sucks) @rahasyamay - the Commonwealth knock off Gandalf/Sorcerer Supreme @torrrden - the Commonwealth alien viking golden retriever/ God of Thunder @gwinnetts - the Sole Survivor/worst boyfriend ever/cutest courier ever/various npcs @justificd - Detective Depression/various npcs @securitrcn - the ai that could/an albino scaley smart boi/man who makes whale noises @beenpole - Mayor Buzzkill/anime thing 1/anime thing 2 @ersetze - Egg Spy/possible various others @inplakabl - when good girls go bad @pyratetm - you don’t fuck with the overboss

#;; verse info #;; and all our lives are drifting like ghosts inside an empty house (v; fallout : group : closed) #// lord this was self-indulgent #// but it ain't half bad #// laid out like that

[tessatechaitea]

Dark Nights: Metal #2

I could tell this cover was by John Romita Jr. because of Batman's stupid batarang. I believe that's the specialized batarang used for attaching trees to super-villains¹.

This is just cruel. Stop manipulating Swamp Thing into doing your dirty work, Batman!

Now that I know the Batmen were all members of the Bat-family, I want to know which jerk was captured by Aquaman. So embarrassing! I bet it was Red Hood. It turns out Batman was in Robin's VW Minivan which is what they all should have guessed because I guessed it but forgot to mention it. Now you're probably thinking, "Oh right! I bet you did! What a liar!" But you should know I'm telling the truth because I could have just as easily (and more believably!) gone back and edited the review by saying what I was going to say before I got distracted! You know what? I'm going to do it anyway! Fuck your sense of reality! Anyway, Superman figures it out and swoops down to threaten Batman. He picks him up and flies him into the sky saying, "All I have to do is barely squeeze. You can't even imagine how little pressure I need to add to my grip before your torso just rips like wet toilet paper. I mean, it's difficult not to explode you! You realize how many mathematical calculations I'm doing every minute just so I don't destroy everything I touch?! Imagine walking around a world built out of tissue paper and trying to navigate it without destroying it completely?! To me, you Earthlings are less substantive than a jelly doughnut!" But Batman is all, "If you squash me, you'll die because I drank a gallon of Kryptonite after getting out of the shower this morning! I'm like a deadly piñata!" Fun Fact #1: To get the "n" with the tilde on it, I looked up "jalapeno" on Google so I could copy and paste the ñ. I don't know why I didn't just look up piñata!" Fun Fact #2: When I just went to past in the ñ in piñata in the previous sentence, instead of typing CTRL-V, I typed CTRL-N and just about shit myself when my entire review disappeared! Luckily I realized pretty quickly that I'd just opened a new browser page. Batman finally decides to explain everything to Superman instead of being killed by him. It's a simple choice, really. But it's not a simple explanation! On no! The explanation is going to go pretty deep into Scott Snyder's previous story arcs to try to explain the most glaring errors in each of them.

This is even more convoluted than I was expecting! Perfect!

Now it's time to speculate on the fifth element! I bet it's Plasticmannium! Or maybe whatever shit the Orb of Ra is made from. Oh! Maybe it's Kryptonite and Batman doesn't realize he's already become the doorway because he drank that gallon of it earlier! Wonder Woman arrives to make Superman doubt Batman is being honest with him. Only Superman would ever believe anything out of Batman's mouth! He's so credulous! Even Ma and Pa Kent were fond of saying, "That boy'll believe a sack of worms if they told him they were a vagina!" That is so a Midwestern saying. Since Batman is obviously lying, Superman takes a drastic measure.

Superman didn't do this to save the world. He just did it because he's fucking sick of Batman.

Before you start sucking your own dicks (both figurative and literal ones so that all genders are included!) everybody at Marvel thinking DC has just flushed itself down the drain by killing the only one of their characters anybody really cares about, it turns out it wasn't actually Batman. Superman just killed Clayface. Although Clayface can't really die, I don't think. He's like an Oompa Loompa: immortal and weary of life. Meanwhile in Antarctica (unless it's actually the Arctic, seeing as how DC has had some poor history with keeping the two places straight), the Legion of Doom's headquarters rises from a lava pit. The Legion of Doom is currently staffed by all of DC's immortal characters. There's Vandal Savage and The Phantom Stranger and the other immortal guy and that other one plus the one that's immortal and also Cain and Abel and Lady Blackhawk and Morgaine le Fey and Shazam's wizard and all the other ones I can't think of. Their plan is to shoot the astral brain of the Anti-Monitor through the Rock of Eternity and into the core of the Multiverse. I don't know if that will save the world or it's just something they want to do for the lulz. Superman and Wonder Woman finally track the real Batman to the tomb of Prince Khufu. Just before they get there, Dream gives Batman a little advice about how to find his way home when this shit all goes wrong. And it all goes wrong pretty quickly. After Batman pulls Baby Darkseid out of his backpack and threatens Superman with it, I think, "Wait. What?" Um, anyway, it's all a trap! Batman knows everything except where to find the tomb of Khufu because he actually entered the tomb of Hath Set! I know, right? What an idiot! Now the Strigydae are about to mantle the fuck out of him! It's not as confusing as I make it sound, I assure you! I mean, sure, the Court of Owls shows up and some black squiggles take out Superman and Wonder Woman after which the Court pours a substance called Batmanium all over Batman so that the doorway can open for Barbatos. But that's not technically confusing! It's just, um, ridiculous! Batman turns into a cosmic doorway through which steop out eight Dark Batmonsters. One is Aquabat. One is Doomsbat. One is Cybat. One is Wonder Bat. One is Flashbat. One is Green Lanterbat. One is Jokerbat. And the last one is probably BarBATos. Unless he's The Phantom Strangebat. In other words, the Earth is fucked. Because if the Justice League can't even beat one Batman, how are they going to beat however many I just said stepped through the gate? What was it? Seven? Eight? So that's the story of Metal! I bet you all wet your pants over it like I did, right? I mean, I think I just wet my pants because I took too long writing this and didn't get up to go to the bathroom. But I probably would have from the excitement and intrigue and Batman's ultimate failure! That part was really great! ________________________________________________________ ¹I didn't just make that up. See whichever stupid issue of All Star Batman had that bit in it.

#Batman #Dark Nights #Metal #DC Comics #Scott Snyder #Greg Capullo #Jonathan Glapion #Fco Plascencia

[somethingfoe]

You’re SPECIAL (FO4): Malevolent Relics

Heyo, fellow deviants and would be MLP:FOE fans! Here is the final redone You're SPECIAL that I made now 4 years ago, the Malevolent Relics, or otherwise originally known as Trixie Vs. Goldenblood! If you are already plainly aware of how I do these, the original Stat attributes I applied to these two Pre-War ponies can be found here

www.deviantart.com/somethinggu…

if you want to know how I explained it.

This was perhaps the easiest one for me to compile, both in terms of stats and working around the vectors. As for them, the Trixie Vector was done by

SniperNero

and the goldenblood vector was done by

LittleStarWanderer

. While I usually like to have consistency by having the same artist for the two vectors, but both of these were equally high quality and similar in frame, which is why they melded so well. Also, I went with the typical 'level 65' base that I went with the side allies of the protagonists of both Fallout:Equestria and Project Horizons, as I felt it was appropriately balanced as these two are only uniquely OP in respective stats.

As for what the next You're SPECIAL will be, again, I will make a brand new You're SPECIAL outside of the ones I originally made, covering Watcher from Fallout Equestria, and The Legate from Project Horizons as the 'Puppet Masters' of the two stories. This will be the first You're SPECIAL where I will pin a Good guy against a Bad guy, and it will be the first where I will base their SPECIAL attributes specifically on particular perks from Fallout 4 that stand out, so it's going to be a pretty ambitious change from how I usually figure out the perks that the two will use, as I usually limit myself based on what Stat Attributes I put in. Anyway, with some technicalities out of the way, here is the long written technicality of how I went about choosing their perks!

STRENGTH

Heavy Gunner

Trixie (2)

- Trixie's eventual transformation into the 'Master' gave her a fascination with Heavy weapons that would translate across all of the Alicorns of the Fallout Equestria area, as well as Lacunae too.

Blacksmith

Trixie (2)

- While Trixie wasn't one dedicated to armor smithing, seeing that her cloister of willing subjects need to survive, they collectively were more insterested and as a result, gave Trixie some redundance to follow suit.

Big Leagues

Trixie (2)

- Trixie is more interested in pumping up her unicorn magicks than getting her palms greasy, but that doesn't say anything about using levitation to her benefit. Not nearly as in tune with it as Littlepip, but she can definitely move some objects for show.

Iron Fist

Goldenblood (2)

- In spite of Goldenblood's pink dust sickness, Goldenblood has to really on close quarters only to keep himself alive if his speech doesn't kill them. while not a kung fu master, Goldenblood can make some surprising blows under the guise of his speech.

PERCEPTION

Night Person

Trixie (3)

- The master of maripony hardly doesn't notice things going on the in the wasteland, day or night. Her countless hordes of Alicorns allow her to percieve most things going on in darkness.

Goldenblood (1)

- while Goldenblood isn't nearly as perceptive as Trixie is when it comes to actual sight, his mystery and cynicism did allow him to notice things hiding in some shadowy places, considering how analytical he was as Director of OIA.

Demo Expert

Trixie (2)

- Trixie's tricks of making fake smokes and explosions keys into somewhat to her explosives perk, but it also helps that Trixie had manipulated Blackjack into planning a huge trap for Littlepip to fall in, involving you guessed it: Explosions.

Locksmith

Goldenblood (3)

- Goldenblood's ability to secretly brake into the various plans and sectors of the mane six's operations, Goldenblood has one of the sneakiest sleight of hands when it comes to tuning a bobby pin.

Awareness

Goldenblood (2)

- Of Course, seeing that Goldenblood has his mind and sights on about every secret and lie in the pre-war era, he would max out on his awareness and take advantage of any weakness he can.

Rifleman

Trixie (2)

- While rudimentary in excellence, Trixie has some knowledge of rifleman vicariously through the possession of Blackjack and Lacunae, as well as the plentiful Alicorns under her control.

Pickpocket

Goldenblood (3)

- With that sleight of hand in mind, is the constant thievery that Goldenblood participated in to get a slight edge. Not to mention how he was able to precariously put several items around Hoofington in order for Blackjack to find specifically.

ENDURANCE

Cannibal

Trixie (2)

- It might be unconventional for me to put this on here, but considering that Trixie as the master would quite literally absorb the minds and bodies of helpless unicorns and pegasi to form them to her entourage, technically she is a cannibal in that regard.

Rad Resist

Trixie (4)

- Seeing that Trixie becomes a embodiment of one entity by literal rad radiation, Trixie is undoubtedly immune to any forms of radiation whatsoever.

Chem Resist

Goldenblood (2)

- Goldenblood's constant sickness of the pink cough managed to harden his immune system to chems that would otherwise affect him. In fact, the pink cough sort of became a blessing in disguise as it resulted in his technical immortality.

Lifegiver

Goldenblood (2)

- It takes a mind of steel and a body of iron to survive something for so long that should've otherwised kill you, especially with as much stress was under Goldenblood's wings. With that, he gets a few points into Lifegiver.

Lead Belly

Goldenblood (2)

- Hardly any liquid could disturb Goldenblood as the constant pain of the pink cloud, so whether it be alcohol, weird ooze, or contaminated water, Goldenblood can survive it.

Toughness

Trixie (4)

- Alicorns are already known to be exceptionally powerful when it comes to their magic auras protecting most oncoming fire, and with Trixie being not a physical entity also makes her nigh indestructible save for some deus ex machina.

CHARISMA

Intimidation

Goldenblood (3)

 - Goldenblood is absolutely ruthless in his ability to get what he wants out of others, even if it comes off as him being a absolute dick. As a result though, Goldenblood can undermine someone's will to fit his own.

Inspirational

Goldenblood (3)

- Goldenblood's sharp, silver tongue also gave him a ability to make those unusually subservient to him, even considering how much spite he has for them. It's a strange version of Stockholm Syndrome.

Local Leader

Goldenblood (2)

- Goldenblood as Director of the OIA, gave him a huge task in balancing out the respective orders of the mane six and making sure that they were in check. So no doubt Goldenblood was capable of making orders with his peculiar words.

Animal Friend

Trixie (1)

- If Trixie can summon a rabbit out of her wizard hat, I guess that's the most basic reason I gave her one perk point into Animal Friend. While it doesn't translate that well into her emalgam, it does still count.

Lone Wanderer

Goldenblood (4)

- In spite of Goldenblood's responsibilities and his capability to subdue others to his will, Goldenblood was all in all a loner. Even being in love with Fluttershy felt extremely distant as he treated her like a Employee first and a relationship second.

Trixie (2)

- While Trixie was shunned out for her lame tricks and her fakery as a travelling showman, Trixie does have some semblance of unity and social interaction with her Alicorn drones, even if they all dance on her tune.

Cap Collector

Trixie (3)

- Trixie's ability to amaze crowds with the use of fake magic and obfuscation did give her a nice scam going, giving her some pretty coin to boot.

INTELLIGENCE

Robotics Expert

Goldenblood (2)

- While Goldenblood is no technician, he was able to rig some eyebots and some autodocs in order to maintain control of the respective sections of the OIA, as well as a way to give himself a punishment for all the things he's done after the fact.

Science!

Trixie (3)

- Trixie managed great pains to evolve herself as a scientist in some ways, managing her ability to overpower the conscious of the Master in Maripony.

Goldenblood (1)

- Again, Goldenblood has the most basic technique of using sciences, only managing some kind of AI that would have someone dictate what his punishment will be and not much else.

Scrapper

Trixie (2)

- Trixie's ability to 'scrap' the bodies of those foolish to fall into the depths of Maripony, as well as using her overcompensating magic to create things with the use of misdirection.

Hacker

Goldenblood (4)

- From his sneaky ways to infiltrate some of the actions of the mane six's operations, to making some strange clues and notes to Blackjack to lead her his way hundreds of years later, Goldenblood has a especial technique of breaking into any computer with ease.

Gun Nut

Trixie (1)

- Alicorns and Unicorns both don't usually use guns, even if they could levitate them, but Trixie reluctantly has had to use some in her day, before and after her transformation.

Medic

Goldenblood (3)

- the constant medicine from Fluttershy's clinic in order to resuscitate Goldenblood's Pink Cloud wounds have made Goldenblood nearly dependent on it to ensure his survival, even if the pink cloud did keep him alive much longer than most.

AGILITY

Ninja

Trixie (2)

- Since Trixie likes to be a magician, she would be a trickster in terms of obfuscation and misdirection, so her being a Ninja comes down to her being able to distract her audience to the point of doing something else in the background.

Moving Target

Trixie (1)

 - Seeing that Trixie isn't physically there, and is a multitude of personalities all embedded in all the Alicorns minds, Trixie has a sort of technique of dodging most damage from her magic to that aforementioned quandary.

Action Boy

Trixie (2)

- Alicorns love to use their action points the point of massive exhaustion, so it comes to no surprise that Trixie would put points on this to overcompensate greatly, as a result of her ego.

Mister Sandman

Goldenblood (1)

- Not one to get rid of enemies bluntly, Goldenblood has a tendency to quietly ax off unwanted people from his goals.

Sneak

Goldenblood (3)

- As weak as he is slow, other than his coughing fits, Goldenblood is quite sneaky when it comes to entrances and his escapes.

Commando

Trixie (3)

- Again, Trixie isn't prone to using weapons, but with her gained knowledge of two handing weapons from Blackjack and Lacunae, she has vicariously grown a interest in that method of combat.

Gunslinger

Trixie (2)

- I must iterate for the sake of posterity that Trixie does not like using guns all that much. Only through the use of the other alicorns does Trixie absorb some of that knowledge to her use, but reluctantly.

LUCK

Better Criticals

Goldenblood (3)

- Goldenblood's subtle use of guns and other means to distraction or insubordination ensure that Goldenblood always gets the upper hand on somebody, even when they think they have them had.

Mysterious Stranger

Goldenblood (3)

- the secret faithfuls of Goldenblood's ties can help him save himself from a tight situation, like with Psalm and some of the doctors of Fluttershy's clinics.

Bloody Mess

Trixie (2)

- Trixie likes to make things mesh and congeal with her embodiment as the master, and that also translates into how she deals with her enemies, which usually results in violent.

Scrounger

Trixie (2)

- The lost Alicorns tend to strand themselves around things, picking up things with the lost sense of mind or identity, but even the alicorns under Trixie's control also tend to stray towards curiosity, inadvertently giving Trixie a ability to search for things.

Fortune Finder

Goldenblood (4)

- Goldenblood's capability to anticipate Blackjack looking for him, putting notable memory orbs and memorabilia around for context clues, means that Goldenblood was damned lucky to have all of this for him.

Woot! Writing descriptions is like the longest thing for me to write out, since i have to explain myself! Hopefully this was entertaining for you as it was for me! Again, there will be one last You're SPECIAL new to this series, which might take some time considering what I'm doing!

#You're #Special #You #Are #Strength #Perception #Endurance #Charisma #Intelligence #Agility #Luck #stats #attributes #somethingguy912 #something #guy #912 #lance #Hammond #fan #art #digital #fallout #equestria #FOE #FOE:PH #Project #Horizons #trixie #lulamoon