#first one is the one I posted here a little while ago – duke's very special first | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

afterthelastreset · 3 years

Text

Rules Of One’s Soul Ch25 Ending

(Hey everyone. I just wanted to thank everyone who read this far and liked my story enough to read it to it's end. I had a lot of fun writing it and it makes me happy knowing some people loved it enough to read it fully. Thanks to everyone for reading this, adding it, or leaving a nice comment. And thank you to Toby Fox for creating such wonder characters for us all. Mak belongs to @alois-toussaint)

It was...just as they promised.

Rouxls took the last day off, with supervision of course. After that little scare both Seam and Jevil insisted that he stayed right there with them so they could keep an eye on him incase anything happened. So, Seam (forced him to sleep in) offered Rouxls his bed for the night, and he at first refused, but he was too mentally exhausted to argue for too long. So he took his offer, and fell fast asleep. Probably one of the most peaceful nights he had. He slept in rather late as well, because when he woke up he saw the blurry vision of Seam STILL sewing the black cloak he had been working on for a while now and Mak passed out lightly snoring on the couch, still wearing the small purple suit but now it was wrinkled in their sleep.

"So you're awake I see" Seam said with a smile, not even looking up from his sewing. ''I hope you slept well."

The worm groaned and reached up a blue hand run through his messy shiny hair. Slowly sitting up and looking to the cat with a tired grin. "...Yes. Thank thee." The blankets were tossed over, and his legs swung off the bed, And he slowly stood to his feet. Slowly stretching out his dark blue body and still Seam didn't look at him when Rouxls looked in his direction. "And howest didst thou sleep?"

"I slept rather well, thank you. But you must've been more tired than myself as you slept in rather late today, it's almost afternoon." Rouxls ground and reached to grab for his suit coat hung up on the bed post. Seam busying himself by doublechecking the stitching he had just done, bringing the black cloak up to his one good eye to peer at it. He was almost finished really, he just wanted to double check on everything before he decided to wear it. "So when does this celebration start if I may ask?"

Rouxls had just finished buttoning his coat shirt and sighed. "Tomorrow afternoon at five o'clock sharp. I musteth leave tomorrow to make sure all are according to plan-"

"After you're break today. You did promise us you would take time off today after all, and it would be rather rude to go back on your promise."

The worm paused what he was doing and despite him wanting to go and deal with the nonsense and chaos coming to prepare for the ball..He sighed in defeat. "Very well. Thoust shall havest mine word on it, but has thou been up to now?" He finally turned to the duke, who was currently running his hands through his head to try and tame his wild bed head but nodded to the cloak in his paws. "Thou haseth been working on that clothing for a longe time. What ever tis it for?"

"Oh this?" He held up the cloak and the duke nodded. "Oh, it's just an old coat I plan on wearing tomorrow on our little outing. It just needed some fixing from all these years, but it'll do in a pinch. But that also begs another question, what do you plan on doing until tomorrow afternoon?"

"I shallst keep to mineself and reopening mine shoppe for today." A smile came over the duke's features and he chuckled. "Who knowest how many Darkners forgotten to gettest their special someone something last minute.~ Mine profits and funds shall rise substantially."

He hummed and went back to sewing his cloak again. "I see. Are you planning on doing that for the entire time you're waiting?''

"...N-Nay. I'm also going to best thinking about f-future events, and ..a-and what wouldst be best for mineself and Lancer."

"And have you decided yet?"

A pause...And he heard footsteps walk past him and glanced up to see Rouxls stand in the doorway but smiled and looked back to him. "N-Not yet. B-But I havest plenty of time to thinkest it over. A-And perhaps a new speculation on mine life is just what I needed for a long time."

Seam chuckled again. "I suppose we could all use a fresh start every so often, but I want you to know duke. I'll support your descicion whichever you decide."

Rouxls smiled wider. "Thank thee. I shall seest myself out. I shall pick thee up by four thirty sharp tomorrow."

"Just be sure to be ready by that time tomorrow. I'll be expecting you, Mr. Kaard.~"

It seemed the whole day and a half of waiting for the two went by in a blink of an eye. He wasn't sure what Rouxls was doing within that time frame, but for him he was quite busy. More busy than he has been in a while. It took most of the rest of that day to finish sewing up the cloak back to it's former glory and it...it still smelt musty so into the wash it would go. Mak woke up not too long after Rouxls left and awakened with a snort and looked up at him. "Breakfast time??" He chuckled and offered to trade a giant diamond to wash the suit they were wearing and they happily agreed seeing the baseball sized diamond in his paw. Ok. So he got the laundry to go, what else could he do to prepare? ...Well what else to do but do what he usually did to pass the time in his life, he opened his sheap for a limited time this day. So he took down the closed sigh from his flap, gave Mak some food they gobbled down, and sat down at his usually spot behind the counter and waited. It didn't too long for three panicked Rudinns to come scurrying in and frantically looking around for anything they could grab for...the holiday he guessed, and came up to the counter. Each having a small bag of dark candy and one also grabbing a can of food along with it and the three threw money at him before slithering off just as fast away from the sheap....Well. If this is certainly how Rouxls said it would be, things just might be a bit more busy around here in the next few hours. AT least that's what he thought as his paws calmly went and picked up all the darke dollars thrown at him and he got up to pick up the few that fell onto the floor. Yep. It was looking to be a profittable time. And he wasn't wrong. Throughout the one day alone more darkners, mostly Rudinns with the occasional hathy or club, would make their way in and look around for what exactly they needed before exiting just as quickly with what they wanted. Most of it was tiny bags of dark candy, but their was also the occasional darkburger, tea mix, and at one point he even finally sold his spooky sword to a hathy. She said something about her husband always liking edgy looking things. Whatever the heck 'edgy' meant. But it wasn't over crowding, the most everyone would be in there was maybe four or five at a time and they'd leave just as quickly. Mak certainly wasn't enjoying the big crowd and just stayed in the back while occasionally poking their head out to ask a few questions.

"When's Jevil coming back?" "Lunch time now?" "Is my suit done yet?" "Where's my crayons?"

He chuckled and sat there and did what he normally did, meditate the hours away until someone else dashed in and he'd watch them scramble, buy, then leave then start his whole process again. The hours ticked passed and when a small period went without anyone, so he thought it'd be a good time to close up shop. He just got done sealing the flap of the sheap with the closed sigh hanging up, when he heard the familiar sounds of Mak's maniac laughter which could only mean one thing. He smiled as he walked back into his home and sure enough the sight of a very tired Jevil sat upon the couch and Mak was happily showing him their new giant diamond Seam gave them. The imp smiled and patted them on the head before flopping back into the couch's soft cushions.

He chuckled as he walked in and made for the armchair he always sat in. "Well, how was your day of work and playing with the little king?"

Jevil didn't even look up from his tuckered pose position. "Exhausting, exhausting. Rouxls, Rouxls has much to do around the castle and watching a child, child while practicing tricks is not easy, easy work at all. Even for myself, myself."

"Says the one that can do anything?," he chuckled as he sat down across from him.

Jevil chuckled. "I never said I couldn't, coudn't do it. Only that it wasn't easy, easy. But where is Rouxls, Rouxls?"

"He's at his shop resting as far as I know. He said he'll be back here tomorrow to escort Mak and myself to the castle, but how is that routine coming along? I would've helped but I vowed to retire from that life long ago."

..Jevil sighed before smiling wider and finally opening to look at him. "I respect, respect your descision old friend. But I will be able to perform tomorrow, tomorrow if I sleep all night tonight. If it means Rouxls, Rouxls and you will like it."

He chuckled. "You know I've always loved your tricks my dear friend. I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Thank you, thank you." He smiled at him...before his smile disappeared for a moment and he turned his gaze to the ceiling. "Seam, seam?" He hummed and Jevil deflated a little with a sigh. "You know I can never, never apologize enough for my actions all those years ago, and I may make up, make up for my mistake...B-But if Rouxls chooses you or neither, neither of us...Would you mind, mind if we were still, still......I mean..Have, have a second chance at what once was between us, us?"

A silence followed and the cat was staring in surprise at the nervous form of jevil silently laying on the couch awaiting the cat's answer with fear as to what he might say. There was no way he wanted to be left alone after all these years of having no company except for guards delivering food or Lancer occasionally, and after he had discovered he had two soulmates he made peace with. But...it all depended on their answers. He was still dreading what Rouxls would eventually pick, but Seam-...He feared more. But as the cat Chuckled he squinted his eyes shut, fearing the worst.

"But of course. I couldn't imagine life without you again."

Like a spring his eyes snapped back opened and looked to the cat in disbeleif. "WHAT?!"

He just calmly shrugged and smiled. "I already forgave you, you apologised, and life is as normal as it'll be under the circumstances. Why wouldn't I accept an invite like that from my dearest and oldest friend- OOF!!" He didn't get a chance to finish before a purple blur suddenly jumped on him in the form of Jevil hugging the much larger cat as best as he could, Seam freezing up for a good moment or two, before chuckling and reaching up to pat the gremlin on the back.

"Thank you, Seam, Seam."

"Of course. But perhaps we both should get some sleep now. We both have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

*************************************************************************************************

Seam awoke the next morning to Mak asking for Breakfast and Jevil gone. Guess the royal jester was needed for rehearsal and all that with a ball. Which suited him fine. Not only did he himself had to get ready, but it was going to be difficult to convince the child to do anything of the sort, and he couldn't very well leave them here by themselves. They would've probably been ok, but he would've been a bad caretaker if he left the child there alone by themselves. First order of business was coaxing them into a bath, but of course like any child they refused and he had to brib them by offering them more shiny objects for their collection if they did so, which thy did reluctantly but they didn't like it. He'd make it up to them later when he was finished grooming himself....He was not fond of baths himself. One being because it was a cat thing, and another reason being because whenever he did take a bath his cotten always felt weighed down by all the water soaked into it and his stitches always strained. Nothing a magic drying couldn't fix, but that always left him rechecking all his stitches and brushing all his fluffed up fur. Especially the orange tuft of fur around his neck, it always fluffed up to make him look like some kind if lion, Mak laughed when it happened this time as he rain his claws and brush along the dum mane of hair and the rest of himself, repatching stitches and sighing after the amount of work fixing himself always took. Mak wasn't any better. They would let any part of them be brushed and even after he offered them something in return, only let him fix up the top of their head before clambering back into their suit and letting Seam fix them up and straighten their bowtie back into it's proper place, before throwing on his own black cloak. It had been slightly over a hundred years since he wore it, so he wasn't surprised when it was kinda snug, but it still fit fine all the same at least. He straightened out what he could and even dawned a fancy dress pants to match with it. When he was finished he summoned a mirror with a snap of the fingers and took a look at himself. The cat in the reflection smiled back as he inspected the cloak around his shoulders. The smooth black velvet had gold stitchings on the shoulders and hem and while it didn't go all the way down to his feet, it was still long enough to sheild his arms from sight unless he poked them out, and two large buttons were sewn to the left side of the suit with golden strings attaching them to the other side. Why- He'd say he'd look just like he did nearly a hundred years ago in this, even after his accident which left one of his eyes to be replaced by a button, minus all the patches he had now. Below him Mak was smiling and messing with their bowtie as if still readying themselves for the giant event. He chuckled and patted their head before snapping away the mirror.

"Are you nervous about the party?"

"Nah. Just hungry."

He chuckled again and made for the armchair he was all so familiar with. "Well just remember to behave yourself while we're there, and don't cause trouble." He sighed as he sat down into the comfy armchair and relaxed back into it's soft seat. Snapping his fingers to summon a flame before throwing it into the fireplace, lighting a fire in it's place. The kettle over the fire slowly starting to heat up.

They didn't have to wait too long. Time flew by as he sipped his tea and Mak..was playing with whatever shiny object they had collected recently, but there was no mistaking the sound of the flap opening and fancy heeled footsteps approuching the backroom. Seam hummed and looked to the old clock against the wall. Four thirty sharp. Well the duke wasn't a lier, he did show up to get them at four thirty sharp, and he smiled and turned to the doorway- And blinked in surprise at the sight before him. This could NOT be the duke. This fancy dressed up make up wearing beautiful GODDESS!! Could not be the duke. The blue man that was standing there was wearing fancy white, shiny heeled boots that stopped by his knees, fancy black dress pants and an even fancier blue and white velvet coat shirt. Gold shiny buttons shined from the coat shirt and the long elegant blue cape drapping over one of his shoulders and flowed down until it was a few inches away from the floor. Black spade markings lined the coat and white velvet gloves pushed the coat away for a moment. A small necklace hung around his neck with a shiny black spade and matching earrings were hanging from his pointed ears, but all that was nothing compared to his face. The shiny white hair that usually drapped down his back was now styled in an elegant braid drapping over his left shoulder and any left over small strands were curled framing his face. His eyelashes, looking like they had been curled, brought out his pretty mitchmatched eyes as they fluttered at him and Rouxls smiled. The worm quickly took notice of the cat's staring and the small pink to his cheeks, he's always had this effect on people, but this somehow made him feel more...bashful as the blue man looked down and reached up to push one of the white curls away.

"Art thou pleased with mine look?"

Seam didn't respond at first but coughed before giving a polite smile. "O-Of course. You look rather handsome tonight, Duke." Despite his initial shock at first, he calmly stood up and Mak poked their head out of their corner. Upon seeing Rouxls, they clambered out and bounded over by Seam's side as he rose a hand and snapped his fingers. The fire instantly disappeared and Seam turned back to him. "Sorry. Have to take precations."

Rouxls just bashfully cleared his throat. "T-Thank thee. Art thou r-ready to go?"

Seam patted Mak's head. "Yes. Are you ready to take us?"

His Only answer was smiling and held his hand out. Seam reached down to pick up Mak and calmly put the child under his arm before his bigger paw grasped onto Rouxls's and for a moment the two stood there and flushed, before he felt a sudden build up of magic and a blinding white light captured them both. It was a very strange and weird feeling to be sure, the light bodied nothingness feeling just felt..Strange. So when the three of them landed down on a path, thank goodness, instead of hard stone of the castle and much to his embarrasment, he fell over flopping softly onto the ground and coughed a few times. Blinking away the bright white light and staring up to the dark sky as feeling came back to his body and he realized his fur was standing on end. Mak grunted and crawled out from under his arm and shook the dust off themselves, just as Rouxls leaned over him with a concerned look over his face.

"Oh my. I amst so sorry! A-Art thou alright?"

"Yeah. I'm good." He grunted as he sat up and Rouxls comically pushed his back until the taller cat stood to his feet. The nervous worm quickly dusting him off and he shook his head, feeling slightly embarrased he fell over like a goober. Rouxls's way of teleporting was MUCH more different than Jevil's. He was used to the tight compact feeling of Jevil's twisting teleporting, but he guessed even Rouxls's way was more fancy of doing it. But he paused as Rouxls was still dusting him off and moved to the front of his magnificent cloak. And paused. "Oh. We're here."

The giant looming figure of the Card Castle's shadow towered over them as the cat stared and his button eye spun. He didn't even realize Rouxls had grabbed his paw and began to pull them forwards towards the castle's grand entrance. And Seam only watched as the castle grew closer with Mak bouncing at his heels, the front doors being guarded by two giant Rudinn Rangers who lowered their weapons once the duke waved them away. It was almost like nothing changed. The pathway was still as stone cold as he remembered and the anxeity of all those eyes possibly on himself again for being the old magician. Would everyone look at him funny? By being the duke's date he was bound to get some attention, but that was the least of his worries. WOuld the kings be displeased to see him? It had been quite a while and he wasn't sure if Rouxls told anyone of him being his date for this whole night, but it was still terrorfying. Even if noone knew or remembered him, he was sure he would get some attention for just being on the duke's arm, or more likely the duke being on his arm, but it still made him nervous. And when he blinked, brain catching up with him, he finally noticed they were in the castle. The many, MANY red and pink decorations lining the other wise drab hallways. A lot of giggling and smiles from the many staff and guards were a refreshing sight and calmed his nerves even if only a little bit. Mak was giggling and running around startling some of them and eyes wide at all the shiny decorations, and startling a few of the people watching the child floating around. But no one was looking at him, but he noticed a few people gazing towards the duke then away again. Despite his calm and polite smile, he felt a bit of annoyance at seeing the smiles sent Rouxls way, guess he couldn't help it. Despite what Jevil said, he wasn't the best or young looking. Scars and patches here and there. One eye. Stitches. He was only a few years older than Jevil and a few they were both older than Rouxls by a few more, but he still gave off the aura off being much older. Jevil was always saying it was because of how wise and patient he was, but he always knew it was more his appearance. But he was most surprised when the pair turned a corner and ran into two tall darners wearing suits and with professional faces. He was sure with his limited memory this was the rather large throne/ball room and by the way Rouxls was smiling excitedly at it, his gut feelings was correct. The worm suddenly stopped when Seam did and looked over his shoulder, white brow raising in confusion. The cat had grabbed the stuffed bat for a moment and kneeled down eye level with them for a moment.

"Now do you remember what we talked about?," He questioned and they nodded. "And what did we talk about?"

"No biting or scratching."

"And behave yourself. Can you do that?" They nodded again and he patted their head before standing back up and letting them run ahead to the doors. ROuxls excitedly lead him to the doors and nodded to the two in front of the doors as the child bounced excitedly at the doors waiting for them to open.

At Rouxls's nod, the two Darkners in suits both reached over and grabbed a door each and pushed them open. Seam was NOT prepared for what was on the other side of the doors. His good eye widened and his button one spun about as the doors opened and bright candlelights lit the room and bounced off the many MANY giant glittery decorations lining the wall. His ears twitched towards the left where a band was playing ballroom dance music even though no one was dancing(yet) and he couldn't beleive he just now noticed these sounds. Even though they were around half an hour early arriving, their must've been around at least fifty fancy looking darkners around them wearing glittery jewelry and other fancy things he didn't care for, but it seemed Mak did as their eyes widened before they ran off in a seperate direction giggling to themselves and disappearing into the crowd. Not that the two noticed. Seam was still star struck at the incredible sight of it all. Over to the far left near the winows was a very VERY large and long tabled filled with food: two gigantic roasts, a giaint salad, a chocolate fountain with bowls of fruit around it, a few cakes king sized, a punch bowl, a...giant bowl of Salsa(??), some platter of some kind of cookies(they were shaped like something but he didn't know what), another giant bowl full of dark candy, and a few other things he couldn't make out from the crowd clocking it. And there sitting on the thrones, were the kings and Queens themselves. Ah! He remembered them well. The Clubs were talking to their four headed queen. AH! King Heart and his beloved Queen Amory, the two looked so loving together as Mrs. Hearts fed her husband one of those strangely shaped cookies, and the Diamonds-...Well. They still looked as unhappy in their marriage as usual. The giant Rudinn was rubbing his temples and Mrs. Diamonds was glaring boredly at her surroundings. He chuckled- Until he saw him! The little jevil himself! There was a few wooden stands were in the middle of the floor a few feet above the audience with 5 performers. Four of them were simple jacks. 2 juggling a couple of harmless pins to each other on the stands above the crowd, the third a contorshonist curving his body into impressive poses impossible to most, and the last one laying on a bed of hot coals. The coals safely inside a suspended fireplace for everyone's safety. And in the middle stand of them all was the man of the hour themself. The purple menace hand't noticed them at all yet and wore a jester outfit similar to his regular one, only this one was made of black and gold velvet. The gold parts shiny and flashing brightly thanks to the devilknives he was juggling....and the devilknives were on FIRE!! He sat cross-legged in mid air and easily juggling four devilknives on fire, smiling widely and cackling at his work-

"Sir Duke and Royal Advisor Rouxls Kaard of Puzzles and Card Castle!!...And his plus one Retired Royal Court Mage Seam!!" Seam flinched as someone inside the door way called out Rouxls's official title and a LOT of people turned to see them, the kings included...He guessed someone told them about him too. Rouxls gave a smile and squeezed his paw almost comforting as he gently pulled the startled cat along into the room.

At the announcement of them two specific people caught their attention. Jevil snapped he smile over to them and paused. His yellow eyes widened first at Rouxls. The worm's hair and eyelashes naturally glowing and lighting himself as his fancy eyes met Jevil's and he bashfully smiled back...Jevil's hands didn't stop that expert juggling as he had developed to perform as second nature but he visibly gulped and his eyes slowly widened and had a pinkish hue to the bottom of those yellow orbs. But they started to become fully pink when he turned to Seam and saw the outfit he was wearing. The old but fancy magician cloak was simple compared to Rouxls or his or anyone else's outfits, but it suited him to a T and all the happy memories of him and Jevil performing and being happy came rushing back- And his smile came back even more wide as Seam calmly smiled at him too. His cackling growing as he juggled. The second person jumped up on their throne as soon as Rouxls's name was announced before jumping off said throne and began zooming through the crowd towards them. Pushing past others and excitement dripping over their young face.

"LESSER DAD!!" Rouxls's head snapped to the left and smiled widely kneeling down and holding his arms out just as Lancer grunted and squeezed between two darkners before coming free and running towards the worm who easily captured the young boy in his arms and happily brought the giggling boy up in his arms. Seam smiled and peered curiously at the small boy in the duke's hold, finally getting a look at this famous young king. The child was dressed in a small fancy uniform and cape, with a white crown on his head. A blue tongue stuck out of his mouth as she giggled and his tail wagged happily as his face hole that was apparently his face stared at his father. "Where were you? I thought your break was over."

Rouxls chuckled and bounced him a few times. "I waseth...a bit busy with a fewest new things and visiting someone." He turned to Seam who reached a paw up and waved to the small pup who tilted his head at him. "Lancer. Tis a friend, Seam."

"...You look really fluffy and tall Mr. Grandpa cat!"

Seam's brow rose, not expecting that kind of reaction from the child, but chuckled either way as Rouxls groaned softly. "Well, I'm happy you think so, Young King. " He bowed. "And what a brave little man you are."

"YEAH!! Lesser Dad is my noble steed too!!...Whatever a noble steed is." He said proudly and both men couldn't help but chuckle.

"Were you good while I was gone?"

He nodded. "YEAH!! I got to play with Uncle Jevil, and he made sure I got all the food I wanted, and he let me watch him practice, and he made me do boring homework with the teacher guy, and then I had to take a bath." He sucked in a breath to keep going. "And then I had to wear this itchy suit, but I got to eat ice cream for breakfast today!!" He took a moment to look at his father. "WOW!! You look really pretty, Dad!"

Rouxls rose a brow at him at the ice cream bit, but still smiled at the compliment. "Thank you, and you look as handsome as ever." He gave him a kiss to the forehead to which the child giggled at but shook his head.

"And Ralsei's coming!! I don't know when because his letter said his parents were busy, but he promised he would come!!"

He chuckled. "I look forward to meeting this Prince officially. We haven't been properly introduced since mine encounter longe ago with thine Lightner friends."

"This young uh..Prince wouldn't happen to be a small white darkner with glasses would it?" Seam asked curiously and Rouxls blinked at himbut Lancer answered before he could.

"YEAH!! He really cool!! Not as cool as Susie, but he can do really cool magic and is really nice!!"

He hummed and smiled again. "Well then I remember this Prince of Darkness. He and his friends visited my shop and fought Jevil. I was honestly surprised they made it out in one peice."

Rouxls blinked..before scowling. "What?..Art thou telling mineself that Jevil battled against children and thou let them?!"

Seam paused sensing Rouxls's now displeased scowl and shrugged nervously. "They lived, and aren't you the one who tried to stop them using puzzles and a powered up K-round?"

His frown deepened. "Mine puzzles were not thine best true, but they were made to trap and not harm and mine control crown -before it was destroyed by thine lightners- made thine K-round under mine control and I waseth going to stop it once it weakened thine lightners enough to store them safely within thine dungeon....I was NAY!! Intending on causing any harm or did so so carelessly, Seam." The cat didn't say anything this time and Rouxls sighed. "We and Jevil are goinge to have a longe talketh about this later." He quickly turned back to a small smile to Lancer and chuckled. "Now. Art thou having fun?" Lancer shook his head no. "Nay? What ever is thy matter?"

"Ralsei's not here and Uncle Jevil's busy...and everyone said I couldn't bring ANY toys and I have to sit on the dumb chair until Uncle jevil does his trick Routine." He pouted and leaned against his father.

"Oh? And when is Jevil going to entertain us?"

"He promised before my bedtime but it's taking too long!!"

Rouxls chuckled at his pouting and nodded to Seam to follow. "Well then. Now that I'm here, why don'tst thou wait with me while you wait for thou's friend, and gettest to know Seam better?"

"Is he cool?"

"Very.~ He was a magician."

Lancer's interest spiked up at magician and the pup stared past Rouxls shoulder up at the stuffed cat as he followed Rouxls back to the giant thrones. He was pretty anxious to be stepping up in front of the kings and queens no less, but to his surprise and absolute releif, none payed much attention then the usually 'Oh, I remember you. How are you these days?' kinda talk. Two of the four kings were too busy making googoo eyes at their partners anyways and one was busy trying NOT to notice the giant lady Rudinn they were married to. Lancer looked up at the kissig faces and made a 'yuck!' face and pointed at his mouth. Seam chuckling at the sight. Such a innocent child. Rouxls set him back down on the chair and Lancer groaned, falling back into the comfy seat as the other royals greeted the duke before going back to their regular business. Despite being next to the gigantic royals, Seam's attention was on the crowd. His good eye scanned the many, many couples swapping small hearts or giggling with red faces. One or two kissing each other. He thought he saw a flash on Mak every few seconds but couldn't be sure, and his eye went to Jevil the imp smiled seeing him look at him juggling before doing a flip in mid air looking like he was doing a hand stand without using his arms to stand and looked at him upside-down without stopping juggling and winked at him. Seam chuckled and waved back over to him- He hummed and turned back to the throne. Rouxls was now sitting in the throne with Lancer in his arms and said child was tugging his cape with interest.

"Are you really a magician?," he asked.

He chuckled. "A used to be. But I'm retired now."

"What does 'retired' mean?"

His paw came up to pat his head where his crown wasn't. "It means I don't work that particular job anymore. Now I own a store."

"Like Lesser Dad?" Seam nodded and Lancer smiled wider. "Uncle Jevil said you used to do tricks too!" His tail thumped wider in excitement. "Can you show me?! Please!!"

Seam hesitated for a moment, he hadn't really performed persay any tricks in a long time. But one look at Rouxls's smile encouraged him. After all, Jevil had made peace with their soulmates child, it was only fair he made a good first impression too. So he leaned down and held out his paws, both empty and not wearing sleeves. Lancer glanced at them curiously but jumped when Seam suddenly clapped them together, and slowly opened them to where he was holding a small toy in his paws. Lancer gasped at the cute teddy bear in his paws and reached out excitedly for it as Seam handed it over. Lancer was happy to examine the new toy before holding it to him in a hug and looked back to him bouncing and saying: 'Again! Again!' Rouxls was smiling wide now as was Seam as he performed another trick for the small pup. This time reaching behind his crown and then suddenly pulling out a single dark dollar, to which Lancer gasped in wonder and also took it when Seam offered it to him, shoving it into his pants pocket and asking for him to do it again. He smiled and happily performed a few simple tricks he remembered. Pulling a strand of tied together hankercheifs out of nowhere, which lancer also reached for excitedly. Making a small flame appear and turning it into different simple shapes like a circle, cube, flat surface, etc. Pulling a button out of his ear seemingly. And a few other harmless little party tricks a child like Lancer found amazing, the child was just fascinated with magic and he chuckled at his excitement. In the meantime Rouxls watched lovingly as Lancer was giggling and enjoying himself as Seam bowed as he clapped at his small performances. While this was going on every so often the announcer would shout out another name as more guests arrived.

"Princess Clover Clubs of Card Castle!!" King and Queen Clubs were excited and babbled as their small three headed daughter came up to them wearing a small crown for each head but that was about it. "Baron Mr. Elegance and Mr. Society of Great Bourd Pass!!" Two strange all white darkners made their way in about thirty minutes later and mingled with the crowd. Thirty minutes later."Royal Court Healer Ms Valen and her Husband!!" A slightly bigger than average blue hathy couple. Seam was starting to get the impression that most of the folks here were important court members and their plus ones/partners or just important people invited to the royal shindig. As the next ones also arrived around thirty minutes after the last. "General of War Sir Punch-a-lot and his husband!!" A VERY scarred up red rudinn ranger slithered through the doors with a slightly smaller green one and the red one gave a grumpy look around before rolling his eyes and letting himself be dragged in. Thirty minutes later. "Head Of Treasury and Staff Ms. Royal Coat Jack!!" A strange looking jack came in, but she just looked nervous and skittered in without another word. Huh. Guess she was the secritary Rouxls often referred to helping him. But the next announcement made Lancer perk up from his new teddy bear again thrity minutes later. "Esteemed Guest and Hero of the Darklands Prince Ralsei Durrmee of the neighboring Durrmee Kingdom!!"

This time a LOT of attention was focused to the doors as they opened and Seam looked too, wanting to get a look at this hero once again, and a small hush came over the crowd. Behind the doors strode in a teenage darkner. He looked-..Well exactly how Seam remembered. Same outfit too. Green cloak and hat, wide circle glasses, and red scarf. The nervous looking boy paused looking at all the darkners suddenly staring at him and he smiled nervously before waving a paw.

"Uh...H-Hi, Everyone." He quickly excused himself and made his way towards them. It seems the only ones who didn't stop were the band and performers, taking their jobs seriously no matter what happened. The nervous goat monster made his way through the crowd and Lancer's tail wagged even more as he came closer. "Excuse me. Excuse me. Pardon me, Ma'am. Oops! Sorry. W-Watch your footing, Sir." He said as he walked even closer to the royals who were now looking with smiles- Except for Queen Diamonds who seemed more interested in her jewelry. But the boy still bowed once he got close enough to the giant thrones and their occupants. "U-Um..Greetings, Everyone. I hope I'm not too late-"

''RALSEI!!" Lancer happily jumped off the Duke's lap and made for the teen still holding his teddy bear, said goat prince looked up just in time to watch the small spade pup hug one of his legs and giggled. Tail wagging. "YOU'RE HERE!! NOW IT WON'T BE ALL MUSHY AND BORING!! YOU WANNA PLAY WITH ME?!" All the adults (minus Queen Diamond and Clover) awed at the adorable sight of the teen giggling and patting his head in response. Clover's three heads were staring at the small goat teen with blue blushes even though each head had a different face responding to the blush. "Sure. If your dad doesn't mind." He looked back up at the duke still sitting in the throne smiling and watching, and waved a paw at him. "Um. H-Hello Mr. Kaard. Wow. You look really nice tonight. All of you guys do too."

Clover flushed deeper at that and Rouxls chuckled. "Nonsense. Thou arrived with plenty of time to spare. How waseth thou's trip?"

"F-Fine thanks." He straightened his glasses before looking down to Lancer. "And if he doesn't have any other duties, I'd be happy to catch up-"

"HEY!!" Most everyone jumped up at the sudden shout from one of the clubs princess's heads. "YOU PROMISED YOU'D BE OUR DATE TONIGHT!!" "I-It's fine if he wanted to spend time with him instead, I'll just be a little sad." "OH! I'm so excited! Our first date with a cute fluffy boy!"

"Uh..." Ralsei glanced to Rouxls for any help on the matter.

All of King Clubs heads looked displeased and about to say something a whole lot of somethings before his wife's heads spoke up. "Dearest we talked about this." "J-J-Just...l-l-let her have this moment..ok?" "Im fine with anything really." "HEY!! SHE'S ALMOST SIXTEEN!! GIVE HER A LITTLE SPACE!!" The five heads of his majesty stared at each other for a moment...before grumbling and not saying anything. "THAT'S WHAT I THOUGHT!!" "Thank you, Sweetie." "T-T-Thanks." "Im still fine with anything really."

Ralsei still looked quite unsure before looking back to Clover. "U-Um..Ok. C-Can Lancer come too? I promised to spend time with him too."

The three heads looked at each other before the middle one spoke. "Would that make you happy and like us more?"

"Uh," he said still really unsure and looked at Lancer who nodded eagerly. "Yyyyeesss??"

"OK!! We can start by getting some roasted tree!!" She shouted before standing back up and walking towards him.

"Roasted what?"

He was nudged away by one of Clover's heads and Lancer happily bounced next to the two (or five if you counted each of Clover's heads as an individual) teens. King Clubs still not looking the tiniest bit pleased at his daughter's 'date' for the night at all.

"Do you think we're pretty?" "I thought we looked nice." "OF COURSE WE ARE!! WE HAVE STYLE!!"

"Uh..Yes?"

The last Seam heard of THAT conversation was Clover happily squealing to herself and still pushing the poor boy off with Lancer at their heels. At least the boy would be around two other kids and get to spend time with someone closer to his age group. But speaking of food, Seam gazed over to the table full of goods and wondered if there was anything to his liking. He didn't really have to eat being made of cotten, but anything he did eat was converted into extra magic later and who knows when that might come in handy? Rouxls seemed to mirror his same thoughts as he stood up and bid good morrow to the giant royals before turning in Seam's direction and gesturing to the giant food table in question. Seam nodded and the two began their way there, with Seam politely offering Rouxls his paw and the duke gladly taking it with a smile. The two made their way over past the others in the room and finally his one good eye was able to make out all the stuff on the table that was previously blocked from veiw...and his smile disappeared as he blinked. The last table sat a ....bowl of roasted tennis balls covered in cheese and-...a atcually honest to lightner tree that looked like someone tried to burn it but didn't do a very good job. Clover was there sitting on her hind legs and her front paws held a plate with ease. The giant plate had a couple of the tennis balls and a chunk of what he could only guess was this 'roasted tree' she was so excited about. One of her heads was jabbering to Ralsei while another one scarfed down what was on the plate. Poor kid was smiling nervously holding a plate with a single cheese covered tennis ball, obviously trying not to be rude...and LAncer was bouncing one of said tennis balls getting cheese all over the floor. The cat chuckled and shook his head. The poor kids. The duke and him at first stuck together looking at things but as soon as his eyes spotted the mac n cheese bowl he lit up and made a beline for it, leaving seam chuckling and looking around at all the other foods. He wasn't really that picky but none of it was really appealing to him yet. The roasts looked too hard and chewy, and he was never a big fruit or salad fan. And all the deserts looked too sweet for him. And there was NO WAY he was about to eat cheese covered tennis balls or burnt trees- And speaking of deserts. He chuckled when he finally saw the strange cookies and now understood why they were called 'Lancer Cookies', because they were all decorated to look like the young boy. He sighed and shook his head, going to move past the punch bowl since he wasn't really that thirsty....But paused when something...(or someone) slowly rose out of the punch bowl making a few darkners around them cringe in disgust.

It took him a few moments of blinking and staring to realize who it was, and when he did he sighed. "Mak. WHY are you in the punch bowl?"

The child blinked back. "I got thirsty."

His brow rose. "And so you decided to go swimming in the punch bowl?...And where did you get those sunglasses?" He now noticed the new and shiny sunglasses on top of their head. And he sighed. They were all sticky and wet now.

"Waiting for the surprise."

He blinked. "Surprise? What surprise?"

Before they could answer the same announcer that was shouting everyone's official statuses shouted out his voice from near the king's throne and he turned to look. In the meantime Mak slowly drifted back down into the pink punch and disappeared. "ATTENTION!! THE ROYAL PERFORMERS SHALL BEGIN THE SHOW!! PLEASE STAND CLEAR FOR THE CENTER STAGE!!"

Seam looked confused for a moment, but then sudden flashbacks of his old shows reached his mind. The audience of around a hundred darkners all gasped and stood aside when the jacks all stopped performing including Jevil as he caught the devilknives that he had been juggling this whole time. Each one being put out as he did and he watched in mid air as the five jacks jumped from their set up stages and began to push their own stage towards the middle one Jevil was sitting above. The five giant puzzle peice designed stages coming to fit perfectly with one another as he remembered it would and a small smile reached his face. Well, well. It had been quite a long time since he'd even seen a royal performance. Now was a good oppurtunity to witness one. Rouxls walked up back next to him watching curiously as he ate and the lights dimmed out until only two spotlights remained, one on the band that had gone silent, and one on the stage where all the performers including jevil had hopped off.

"ANNOUNCING LADY PAPER DOLL AND HER WONDEROUS BALLERINA DANCERS DOING THEIR FAMOUS WATERFALL DANCE!!" The man announced. "PLEASE EVERYONE STEP AWAY FROM THE DOORS!!''

Most everyone scrambled out of the way as the band started up some ballet sounding waltz music starting with violins at the same time the doors opened and in came not one but FIVE different all white white some black thin looking darkners dashed in through the dark. Making the audience gasped in surprise as they all jumped expertly and easily onto the table and could now be all clearly seen the spotlight. The biggest one was all white and stood in the middle as the black and white ones, four of those, all stood around her. All made similar ballerina poses as the music faded for just a moment before starting back up again, them moving along with it it gracefully. With the four smaller ones standing on their tip toes and slowly swaying their arms going a few yards away from the bigger one (the stage was fairly large and well built for such things) as their leader stood on one leg and reached her hand up as the soft flute music slowly died out once again and the other four stopped in a pose which left them on their tip toes and their arms pointed to their middles. They could hear the music conductor tap his music sheet stand and begin to wave his hands. Trumpets and violins started to play and they moved. The four began to move in similar motions, twirling themselves in circles while also circling their middle leader in a bigger circle as they spun, and who he assumed to be Lady Paper Doll moved as graceful as one would expect. She expertly brought her leg up high to stand on one leg and twirl around before taking a few graceful steps forwards the edge of the dancing circle before stopping, hand to her chest in fake distraught befor doing the same thing towards the other side before holding a hand to her forehead and dashing back towards the middle twirling a few more times before expertly 'falling' to the floor and laying limp like a ragdoll in a fake faint.

Seam hummed and leaned down to Rouxls to whisper. It was easy to see the worm as his white hair and eyelashes easily glowed in the dark giving him a beautiful aura. "They're very good. This Lady Paper Doll is quite graceful."

Rouxls nodded without looking at him. "Tis based on a true story about what someone sometimes experiences."

"Oh really?"

Rouxls nodded and pointed to Ms Paper Doll who had just now sat up to her knees and was fake sobbing and twirling her upper body in graceful circle motion to the music. "She represents the struggle someone goes througheth with their sad emotions when something devastating happens. And the four dancing around her-" He gestured to the still twirling ballarinas still doing circles while encircling her. "-represent the obsticles and circle of emotions thoust tis feeling. Which is why she's also metiphorically trapped within thine middle. Trapped within her own emotions and problems, which only go downwards as if one tis in a waterfall. Hence thy name Waterfall Dance. They're truly a remarkable group."

Seam didn't doubt that as he looked back to the lit stage from the dark audience. Lady Paper Doll then expertly held her hands up and pushed herself up onto her toes that resembled someone lifting a limp puppet. Twirling around a few more times before she blinked and held her head up to the light. Pretending to just now notice the light shining down on her. Reaching a hand up towards the spot light before she flinched and curled in on herself head down in fake shame. The four dancer had now stopped twirling and were facing her, the for gracefully ran up to her and held their arms above her as if metiphorically holding her down- Before she suddenly snapped back up. The four smaller dancers recoiled and treated back to their circle. This time running back to their circle, but instead of their twirling from earlier, they gracefully lept and ran around in a giant circle as the middle tallest dancer twirled a few more times before stoppong in the middle and striking a proud pose of her chest out, arms back and head held high. Rouxls smiled excitedly next to him.

"This is thine best part, the next steps represent her tossing the stress and thinges away from her and crumbling in sweet defeat and rising to thine goals!" He sighed. "Such beauty tis a work of art.~"

He had to agree. She stood in that pose for the longest time as the four others encircled her before she suddenly pirouletted and pivioted to the middle of said circle of ballerinas before stilling. One ballerina suddenly breaking the circle the circle and running towards her gracefully, the taller woman easily caught her and held her up in the air, the two doing a graceful pose before she let go mid spun and the smaller ballerina expertly 'fell' to her knees and slid a little away, hand to her forhead before 'falling' to the floor in defeat. Followed one by one of the other three who slid away and laid down in similar defeated poses which the audeience awed at and even Seam had to confess the ladies' were experts at their job. Leaving the spotlight on just the tall one and watching as the depressing and exciting music from earlier suddenly became more happy sounding and she prirouletted and spun in other dance moves he couldn't name as the song came to an end spinning happily and doing the same proud pose from before with her head and arms pointed backwards as the happy music finally ended and left. There was silence for just a few seconds before cheers and applause came from the audeince watching all around the stage and the other four ballerinas stood from their position on the floor to go stand next to their leader as they all curtsied to their audience. Seam found himself clapping along and smiling at the performances the ladies did for them. One by one they jumped off the stage and gracefully leaped back to where they came from. The balloroom still quite dark other than the two spotlights on the bandstand and huge stage. He almost did hear the announcer shout the next performers.

"UP NEXT!! THE JACK BROTHERS AND THEIR AMAZING BALANCE ACT!!"

The same four jacks from before all flipped and jumped from different parts of the audience onto the stage and struck a pose. Everyone clapping excitedly for the next act. Except for Seam. He recognized these old jacks and already knew their whole routine, if he remembered right they would start out with two of them standing on top of each other balancing on a ball and two others throwing juggling pins over the two flipping on the ball. And wouldn't you know it, one made a giant green ball appear, so Seam busied himself by turning around and grabbing one of these lancer cookies as the four performed, the audience including Rouxls watched captivated. Upon eating the cookie, he discovered it was just a regular sugar cookie with icing. He still didn't watch the performance when the audience gasped when one of the jugglers suddenly jumped onto the ball with the other two while still juggling back and forth with the one on the ground before they jumped, and was suspended onone of the bottom jack's held out arms, the entire time two jack's still juggling but now they were rolling the ball around moving around on the stage as they rolled around and juggled with expert balance, making the audience awe in disbeleif and he had finally turned around to look around at the crowd. It was dark but he was used to seeing everything in the dark besides lanturn light or his fireplace. He was looking for one small purple gremlin dressed in black ang gold in particular but he didn't see him anywhere. Now where could that little rascal have run off too this time? He was wondering if Jevil was planning some kind of grand entrance to the act, most likely. He always liked showing off to others around him. The four jacks was bouncing on the ball now, up and down a few times before one by one they jumped off the ball and the two juggling caught the pins and did poses with the other two. The audience roared again with excitement at the second performance as the four bowed to the watching crowd. Seam did too, more out of politefulness of the situation than actually watching the performance, but the four hopped off the stage and disappeared somewhere within the crowd not to be seen again for the rest of the night.

"NOW FOR OUR FINAL PERFORMANCE!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!! PLEASE WELCOME THEE ROYAL COURT JESTER SIR JEVIL!!"

The crowd both gave a mix of excited and unsure faces but all that changed once a giant puff of smoke exploded on the stage and Rouxls's and his smiles became wider. A small BOOM! noise also went off and gold confetti shot out everywhere. Some landed on the stage but some fell over the crowd, shining thanks to the spotlight. Happy cackling was heard as the dust cleared and there was the purple jester in all his glory, he giggled to the crowd and bowed. The bells on his hat jiggling to his movements, the gold parts of his outsit shining in the light. Here we go. They were in for quite a treat.

"Ahehehehehe!~ Welcome, welcome!! Let there be chaos, chaos!! Fun, fun!! But a word of warning, warning!" His held up his hands. "Please, please do not try to do what my chaos, chaos brings at home, home! They are quite dangerous, quite dangerous!!" He snapped his fingers and suddenly the band started playing some kind of upbeat circus music and the audience's main focus was on the clown as he Suddenly whipped out a metal hula hoop. He sucked a deep breath and his cheeks puffed out, Rouxls recognized it as the face he made before he blew fire. And sure enough flames came forth from the fool's mouth and the hoop caught fire. The iron circle was tossed away from him quickly after that and they guessed he must've been using magic to make it suspended in mid air on the other side of him, before he yet again reach behind him and summoned more devilsknives, around five. He was floating now and stood on the stage. Really showing how small he was compared to Seam and Rouxls. Without so much as a warning he began to easily juggle the sharp looking weapons as the flaming hot hoop came shooting at him. While STILL juggling, he easily jumped up a foot and jumped right threw the flaming hoop's middle, the hoop stopped before it could even reach the other side of the stage and they guessed Jevil must've been using his magic to make it go back and forth as he still jumped threw it whenever it got close enough and still juggled those devilsknives, cackling and happy all around at everyone marvaling at his skills. Bells jiggling wildly. "This is fun, fun!! But more excitement should be expected, expected!!" Without warning the devilknives were all grabbed by him one by one and shoved back into his black cloak disappearing while he still jumped through that flaming hoop, when the last devilsknife disappeared, he reached a clawed hand out and caught the flaming circle. Giving it a few shakes until it was completely put out and he held it up, showing it off with a smile.

Everyone clapped again including them and Seam chuckled. "An old but classic. I wonder if he shall do his famous No-throat sword swallowing trick or fire images."

Before Rouxls could answer, Jevil had already bounded to the other side of the stage before reaching over into the dark real quick as someone (one of the jacks most likely) handed him what looked liked a couple of long rods wrapped in an old cloth, he nodded to whoever handed him the thing before he made his way back to center stage, the audeince watching in silent anticipation. With his back towards the half of the audience that his two soulmates were and only stood back up when he unwrapped said cloth on the floor, a metal SHING!! sounded off as Jevil produced a shiny average looking sword in his hands and showed it off to the audience. "Again, again! Please do not recreate what you are about to see at home, home! Sword swallowing and playing with fire is a very, very dangerous skill even for me, me." The sword was tossed up without another word and it was suspended in mid air by his magic. One person in the band gave a drum roll as it slowly desceneded dowwards and to everyone's shock, the fool's head sprung off his shoulder with a spring and he opened those jaws wide. Rouxls's jaw dropped to the floor as his mousetrap jaws opened and the sword continued it's decent down and THROUGH IT!! The audience gasped when the sword seemingly disappeard into the void of his mouth until the handle was left and his spring neck wobbled. WHERE WAS THAT THING EVEN DISAPPEARING TOO?! Seam chuckled. He knew, Jevil was using teleprtation magic to give the illusion it was going down his none-existant-for-the-moment throat and instead most likely making it appear under the stage where the audeince couldn't see it, but it was still amusing to see their surprised faces. Especially Rouxls who looked at him bulged eyes. The drum still played when Jevil's hand flicked it back up and the sword began to retreat out of his opened jaws. As soon as the last few inches of shiny metal left his teeth, there was a crashed of symbols from the band stand and his neck sprung back down to his shoulder. Instantly like it never happened and he did another pose as the audienc roared again in applause, the sword dropping and being caught in his hand as he presented it back to his fans. Before setting it back down to his feet when another long metal thing was picked up by him. This time it was a long metal rod with some kind of giant fuse at the end. Like a long torch. The same hissing breath and puffed out cheeks signaled the flames before it erupted from his throat, blowing onto the end of the rod and catching it on fire just like a torch. He smiled and giggled at his handywork, holding it up and he looked around to the darkened audeience! "Hehehehe!~ Forms and shapes I make with flames, flames. But helpers I need to pick, pick what to form and dazzle you all!!"

Seam leaned closer to Rouxls. "He means he's going to pick a few people from the audeince to choose what magic picture he'll make with fire."

Rouxls gave a small oh and watched as Jevil tapped his chin and looked over the watching crowd. "Now, now! Who shall I pick to choose the first picture-"

"DO ME!! DO ME!!" Jevil's head snapped to the right and Rouxls suddenly groaned as Lancer was jumping and waving his arms a few feet away from the crowd in a very unkingly manor. "PLEASE! DO ME!!"

Jevil chuckled and bowed in the boy's direction. "But how could I refuse, refuse a request from our beloved King, King?" Everyone watched as Jevil turned his face and the flaming rod up towards the stone ceiling and sucked in another hissing breath, though this one seemed to take longer as his chest expanded at well- Before it all broke loose!! A large stream of flames shot out from his mouth and hit the rod as the flames' path widened and a HUGE wall of flames shot out above the audeince and spread out into lines forming the shape that was similar to the Lancer Cookies clearly intending to be the small boy. The audeince's eyes sparkled as the flames fizzled into nothing after a few seconds and immediately applauded the clown as he bowed his head, Lancer giggled and clapping his hands together from seeing his flame protrait. "Hehehe!~ Thank you, thank you!! As tradition I shall take four more requests, requests to equal five!! Who shall, shall request next?!" This time a lot more people raised their hands and shouted requests to the purple imp! And he slowly did them one by one. A rabbick for a Noble. Another flame portrait for Mr. Society. A lovely flower for King Hearts dedicated to Queen Amory, Rouxls awed at the romantic gesture King Hearts made towards his wife who herself gushed at the sweet thought. And lastly a diamond shape after Queen Diamond ordered it of him. Well...He couldn't disobey the Queens but King Diamonds looked rather embarrased as he held a hand over his face when it all happened. The rod was put out when Jevil stuck the entire flaming end in his mouth- Before removing it quickly and a fire giant stream of hot flame was shot over one part of the audeince who leaned away and gasped before applauding his efforts again. "Now for some old classics! But first please, please welcome by adorable asistant, asistant!!" He snapped his fingers and another bang and small explosion of smoke appeared something purple and grey shot out of the smoke cloud. It slid up to him in the form of Mak wearing those sunglasses and a kazoo in their mouth, blowing on it before posing and a poof of confetti went off behind them. "Now we shall begin, begin the fun!!''

The rest of Jevil's tricks were pretty basic tricks, He would summon props he needed or someone would hand him what he needed from the audience, and Seam watched as it went as followed. The disappearing box. The classic (fake) sawing someone in half. And the classic having Mak stand against a wooden wall while he threw small show daggers at them, expertly missing. And at the end the two did a pose at the end as everyone clapped for them and Jevil looked to the two soulmates standing to the side by the table. Giggling and-.. blowing kiss in their direction. Rouxls froze with a small squeak sound, immediately turning a darker blue and Seam chuckled at both their reactions as he and Mak bounced off the stage. The candles were relit and staff quickly rushed over to grabbed at the stage, pulling the puzzle peices apart and beginning to pushing them towards the front door the dancers had run through before, making more room in the large ballroom for one obvious reason. But they would get to that in a moment, right now everyone was starting to chatter to each other excitedly about the performances that had just been shown to them while others made their way for the food table. Seam felt sorry for all the folks drinking the punch, and the band started up with the calm ballroom music again. And Rouxls turned back to him with a wide smile.

"Thine Jester's performance waseth astounding!!" His wide grin and excited tone made Seam chuckle.

"I told you. Jevil's magical abilities are quite impressive."

A stream of maniac giggled from behind Rouxls made the worm jumped and whirl around and blink at the side of Jevil smiling, sitting in mid air, tail wagging behind him happily. "Really, really?!" He giggled more at the worm's slightly spooked face. Dark purple rushing to his cheeks as his head fell to his hands staring at the two of them lovingly. "Thank you, thank you. You both l-l-look so lovely, so lovely.~"

Rouxls cleared his throat and gave a polite smile and bow. "Thank thee. Thou art looking splendid as well. Thine performance waseth wonderful!!"

Seam nodded. "I agree. You're performances were just as magical as I remember old friend."

Jevil giggled even more and if Seam didn't know better, he would say he was flustered in the presence of both him and Rouxls dressed up in fancy clothing. More purple coming to his cheeks at the compliments, but what perked the old cat's attention was the sudden start up of exciting violins and the excited gasp King Hearts made. He watched as the giant hathy pushed himself off from his throne and turned to the other giant than average hathy bowing and offering one of his giant tentacles to her. She giggled and of course accepted his offer to her. His one good eyes watched as the two intertwined hathys made their way down the small steps of the throne and into the crowd of the ballroom. Seam knew exactly what was about to start happening and sure enough, a whole bunch of other darkners were bowing or asking their partners to dance and the dancefloor area was soon filled with the dancing forms of couples as they laughed and made googoo eyes at each other under the candlelights and pink and red decorations. Jevil watched them all for a moment before looking back towards Seam and Rouxls with expectance- Rouxls jumped in surprise when a soft hand grabbed his shoulder and pulled him against an equally soft body.

"Sorry old friend." Rouxls eeped when he looked up and found himself leaning against Seam as the giant stuffed cat gave Jevil a patient smile. "I know we agreed to be equals but you had your date, so please allow me to have mine. But I assure you, you can come to talk to us when we're not busy dancing or whatever it is people do on dates."

Jevil blinked, clearly not expecting that but gave a smile at them anyways, "Fair enough, fair enough. I was feeling a little hungry anyways. " He looked back to the table just as the Royal Clubs couple walked by talking loudly to themselves and making a line for the roasted tree and sports section of the table. And Seam chuckled again before tilting his head down to Rouxls.

"I know I don't know how to ballroom dance, but I suppose I Should ask you if you would care to dance anyways."

Rouxls blinked flustered up at him and cleared his throat, looking down. "W-W-Wellst if t-thou c-can't dance I shant make thee dance if thou are nay comfortable with it-"

"Oh, I'm comfortable with it. I just don't know how to do the fancy dances they're doing." He gestured to all the fancy waltzes and ballroom dances the nobles and court members were clearly doing. Chuckling when he saw the Prince Ralsei trying to dance with Princess CLover but she was so bigger than him she just stood on her back legs as Ralsei nervously held her front paws and sort of rocked with her. Clover wasn't complaining though as her faces were a dark blue and Lancer was sitting on the floor next to him and playing with the teddy bear he had given him hours ago now.

Rouxls reached a hand up to nervously grip his braid and still didn't look at Seam even as the cat let go. "W-W-Well..I-I-If thou insists- " He blinked nervously when Seam bowed and offered a paw then.

"Well then Mr. Kaard. Would you like to dance?"

Roucxls could only stand there with a deep blue blush and Jevil chuckled behind him. He opened and closed his mouth a few times like a goldfish before clearling his throat trying to look perfessional before shakily reaching a hand out and grabbing the soft paw. It closed around his smaller hand and Seam leaned back up before gently tugging him and pulling him towards the dancefloor with everyone else. Rouxls looked nervous and gave a look to Jevil behinde him only to see Jevil waving him good bye. The fancy shining light and jewelry everyone was wearing was almost blinding as he was lead into the crowd and stopped. Pulled against another figure suddenly as Seam put them into the tradional ballroom dance pose, but instead of the fancy waltzing around them, he just gently made them start swaying in small circles. Which he was releived at. He didn't know if he could handle any real fast and fancy dancing with his legs feeling like jello. He looked up to Seam's face for a moment as he smiled back, his heart skipping a beat before he cleared his throat and looked away nervously again. The silence still going on for a moment before he tried to speak and break the awkward silence.

"T-T-Thou art a b-better dancer than thou thinkest."

"Well thank you. I'm sorry if I hadn't said anything yet. But I wanted to be sure you were just as comfortable speaking." there it was, the patience and consideration of the cat he always loved.

Rouxls chuckled bashfully and fluttered his lashed up at him. "W-Well thank thou. I appreciate thou's concerns for mineself."

"But of course. Why wouldn't I? You and Jevil mean a lot to me." He chuckled. "It's been so long since anything really mattered to me as much as this."

Rouxls blinked up at him lovingly and in surprise as they still circled around. The taller form almost blocked out the light making it bounce around him and make it almost like the cat was glowing, a being of light similar to himself. Which is why his brain possibly wasn't really thinking and he suddenly stood on his tip toes and pressed a kiss to his nose tip. Seam stopped completely surprised and Rouxls suddenly pulled away. Blinking up at Seam's frozen form and a sudden feeling of guilt came over him.

"O-Oh. S-Sorry! I didst not mean to makest thou uncomfortable-"

He chuckled. "No, no. It's alright. In fact I would say it was the best part of my night."

He blinked up surprised again. "R-Really?"

Seam nodded and Rouxls sighed, releived he didn't do anything wrong by his sudden boldness but he would make sure to ask first before he did anything else like that. He wasn't sure how long they stood there dancing in each other arms, Rouxls giggling if Seam's made a small joke towards him and still smiling. But the two were soon interrupted when a white paw pulled at rouxls's cape and the worm turned around curious and came face to face with Prince Ralsei. The goat darkner looks at him with a slightly guilty face, Rouxls stared down in his arms and noticed he held a sleeping spade pup. Lancer was lightly snoring in Ralsei's arms and cutely clutching the small teddy bear in his arms, the crown lopsided on his head and that spade hole in his face closed. He shifted a little in the goat prince's arms and gave a cute puppy yawn before curling into his warmth like any cute child would.

"Uh. S-So sorry to bother you Mr. Kaard. But Lancer fell asleep and I didn't know what to do." He held the child up to him and Rouxls smiled and reached for him. Lancer's face blinked open for a second and his mind woke up just enough to recognize Rouxls so when the worm picked him up, the pup wrapped his arms around his neck and laid his head on his shoulder still clutching the bear.

He grunted as he shimmied him into his hold. "Tis quite alright. Tis rather late after all, tis only natural Lancer fell asleep." He patted Lancer's back and looked back up to Seam. "Mine apologies but I must get Lancer to bed."

He held up his paws. "No, no. It's understandable. ...*sigh* I think I better find my small one too. They're most likely tuckered out after the exciting night they just had."

The two men and sleeping child excited the dancing crowd and spotted Mak pretty easily. Jevil was hovering beside them as they snored and laid on one of the chairs placed out for the guests. The imp chuckled and waved at the trio as they arrived and Seam sighed, reaching over to take the sleeping bat in his arms and looking over them. The sunglasses were crooked on their face, and they were all wet and sticky from the punch, but he soon found the extra weight to be a whole bunch of shiny jewelry stuffed in their pockets. He didn't say or question it and instead turned and started making their way towards the exit with Jevil shrugging and the two men followed after, neither saying a word to each other in fear of waking either children until they got to the giant doors that were pushed open by servants and closed behind them as the trio made their way out. Rouxls watched the doors closed behind him before turning around to the other two smiling men.

"I...I Hadst a great time tonight. I thank thee and apologise for thine trouble."

"No apologies needed. We might as well get going anyways." He held Mak up. "Plus Jevil is my lift back, these old stitches don't feel like walking all the way back home in the middle of the night." Jevil giggled next to him and nodded.

"Doth thou need me to showest thou where the door is?"

"No worries, no worries. I can teleport anywhere!" Jevil proudly proclaimed and Rouxls smiled even more before bowing his head.

"Then I bid thee both a good night..I shall seest thoust two tomorrow.~"

The two watched as Rouxls turned and made his way down a hallway and what they presumed to be the young king's bedroom...Before Seam turn also and began walking, leaving the sounds of music and laughter behind him, but could feel Jevil right behind him floating. The two went in silence for a moment before Seam finally stopped and inhaled deeply, letting it out slowly and turned to Jevil with a smile. And the imp smiling back the two sharing the same loving thoughts of each other and a certain snow haired duke. He shifted Mak into one arm and held out his paw to the jester. Jevil happily took the paw with a giggle and flush of purple. In a second both were suck up into the void, on their way home after such a loving night.

11 notes · View notes

stillebesat · 4 years

Text

Stille’s Sanders Sides Master Post (Updated September 9th, 2022)

Here’s my official Master Post of my Sanders Sides Fics!

All of them can also be found on my Ao3 account NikaylaSarae. ^^;;

For Tumblr, the links to all my stories are below the cut. <3

Enjoy!

The Brilliant 3 A.M. Idea -Roman gets an Idea at 3am and must tell Thomas. -Inspired from Image posted by: organisoitukaaosteoria, Fic request: darude-sanderstorm

The Nest -Patton misplaces his cardigan and finds it in an unexpected spot. Inspired from series of text posts by: the-zebra-dragon and arc852, Fic request: sidewritings

That’s How You Know -Roman is feeling low after not getting a part he auditioned for and desperately wanted. The others step in to cheer him up. Song!Fic -That’s How You Know from Enchanted

Out There: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 -Logan finds himself alone in the apartment. So he does something he usually doesn’t do. Sing. Song!Fic -Out There from Hunchback of Notre Dame

Deep Heart: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 -When Logan leaves the others in Patton’s room, Virgil takes matters into his own hands and ends up revealing a secret Patton wanted to keep hidden. (takes place at the end of Moving On ½) Inspiration from This Post Courage, Braveheart: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 -Virgil had known since he was young that his chances for living long were slim. Still, he had hoped to have lived a little bit longer.

A Sweet Discovery -It’s 2 a.m. and Tiny!Logan is on the prowl for sweets. Tiny!Sides

It Takes Two -When Logan can’t convince Thomas to not give into peer pressure in a potentially dangerous situation, he turns to the Side he thought he’d never go to for help. Virgil.

Found in the Glitter -Working backstage is not always the easiest, especially when Virgil manages to get on the new guy’s nerves. Theatre AU

A Rainbow Connection -Roman’s on the run, desperate to escape the man who’s been able to control his entire life just by looking into his eyes. Hopping from airport to airport, Roman unexpectedly runs into the person who gave him the key to slipping from the Cobra’s mental control; Thomas Sanders. Song!Fic

Shades of Truth: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 - -Everyone has secrets, Roman knows this. But after dealing with Deceit in the most recent video and discovering that Virgil doesn’t like liars…he decides to come clean with a secret he’s been hiding from the other Sides.

Meeting Einstein -It’d been a horrible no good very bad and awful day, and all Patton wanted was to play with the puppies in the local pet store to cheer himself up. Instead he finds something completely different.

True Colors -There’s a place in the mindscape that Roman only goes to as a last resort when the criticism from the others becomes too much. Unfortunately, it’s becoming an all too frequent occurrence.

A Work of Art -After a rough night of public humiliation at the hands of his old rival, Roman just wants to take a shower and get some sleep. His roommate has something else in mind though.

Contained-Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 -You know what they say about Creativity. It’s best if it’s locked away.

FreeFalling- Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 -Sometimes you just need to take a leap of faith. Winged!AU

The Butterfly Effect- Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 -Roman has three chances to change his life for the better. Three chances to fix past mistakes. Three chances to totally screw it all up. But who said life is worth living unless one takes a little risk?

The Training Program-It’s five a.m.. Virgil hasn’t yet slept and Thomas is summoning him. That couldn’t be good.

A Hero’s Rescue Part 1 Part 2 -After being defeated in battle, the last thing Roman expects is to have a soaking wet hero show up at his doorstep.

The Beginning -Creativity has an idea. A wonderful, awesome idea. Now…if only Creativity could focus enough to make the idea a reality.

Little Lies - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 -All he’d been looking for when he’d revealed himself to Thomas was a little less work. One less secret to hide. One less thing to keep Thomas from knowing because his host didn’t want to know. To say it had backfired for Deceit was a bit of an understatement.

White Lies - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 -Sequel to Little Lies -Deceit has been stuck in his ‘role’ as Dilyn for almost a year now. It’s about time he changed that.

CatScratch - Virgil’s learned to expect a lot of things helping the police solve murders, but he never thought that they’d actually find something that could crack his own unsolved case.

The Finish Line - After years of training, Logan Star is finally going to accomplish the one goal he’s had since his first High School track meet. Beat Roman Prince.

Growing Pains -Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 -For the past year Logan has been fighting to keep a part of himself hidden. Only now, thanks to Roman, he’s been compromised.

The Grade -Patton: I’m sorry I graded your tests in magic marker, but I just felt like it.

Seeking Warmth -If he’d known he’d be spending the rest of eternity freezing to death on Earth, Deceit would never have left Hell in the first place.

Spilled Milk -Logan never expected to get in the middle of a fight while at the self-checkout of a grocery store.

Egg-stenuating Circumstances -Why is it that the simplest of quests for Roman always end up more complicated than they should be?

The Rise of Deceit -With the Dragonwitch destroying the kingdom, the Crown Prince has a difficult choice to make.

Tattered -Part 1 Part 2 -Left to fend for himself, Roman can’t trust anyone…right?

Raindrops and Cookies -Most people would only be focused on getting themselves out of the rain. Patton isn’t most people.

A Special Delivery -Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 - “The stork brings the baby to deserving parents.” He whispered, quoting the words from memory. “All the lost, forgotten, and alone.”

In These Tangled Webs: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 -It should be easy admitting to your roommates that you’re not entirely human. Only in Logan’s case it’s not. Not when he discovers that Patton is afraid of Spiders.

The Old Hoodie - 2 sentence prompt –Thomas glared at Virgil, eyes filled with hate, and held out Virgil’s old hoodie, obviously expecting him to take it and go back to who he used to be. “I don’t trust Dark Sides.“

I Miss The King: Part 1 Part 2 -2 sentence prompt -“I miss you… I miss the King” a sigh “Apparently, it’s the same for me.”

Infinitesimal -Logan isn’t quite sure why Roman thinks he needs his help at three in the morning.

To Break A Curse: 2 sentence prompt -Logan looked at Roman, eyes dark. “I need you to really think about what you’re saying, because you’re going to hurt Virgil even more if you do not.“

Shutting Down -Having your phone die shouldn’t be that big of a deal…right?

Anxious to Touch - Virgil ca’t be around the others without hurting them, so he has to stay away. Only Deceit won’t let him do that.

The Path: A Tale of Trick or Treating - Remus(1) Patton(2) Emile(3) Remy(4) ???(5) Logan(6) Roman(7) Virgil(8) Diva(9) Duke(10) Prince(11) Picani(12) Logic(13) Deceit(14) ???(15) -2nd person pov. -You’ve been trick or treating at the Sanders Side’s homes for as long as you can remember, but this year things get a bit more…complicated.

The Interview: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 -A normal day at StoryTime! Inc. takes an unexpected turn when Logan goes to investigate why his coworkers have made a bet using Crofters as the prize.

Virgil’s Interview: -It’d been his dream to work for StoryTime! since he was a kid, and now finally, Virgil may be able to make it come true. Note: Virgil’s pov of Chapter 3 in The Interview.

The Olive Branch -They used to celebrate Christmas Eve without Anxiety there to ruin things. But this year Roman plans to change that.

These Black Wings -An hour ago Patton had been loved, wanted, celebrated. Now? He’s on the run for his life thanks to the large black wings that sprouted from his back.

Chimney Sweep -Sure. It’s great to be able to see visions of missing children…but being able to find them still alive is another thing entirely.

Meeting Romeo -A Prequel to A Work of Art. -It was unfortunate really, but someone had to tell the Romeo standing on the street that his Juliet he’d come to listen to day after day no longer lived in the apartment complex. It might as well be Virgil.

Dance with Me -Patton’s never had a father figure to bring to his ballet class for Valentine’s Day like all the other kids before. But this year…he might.

A Midnight Conversation -All Virgil expected when he stepped out onto the balcony was to have a quiet moment to himself. Note: Virgil’s pov of ch 2 of White Lies.

Warm Fuzzies -Two Sentence Prompt: Remy thought that he didn’t deserve love, not after everything he’s done. But, when Emile walked through the door to room 127, Remy’s heart skipped an unexpected beat.

A Shadowling’s Happiness -Two Sentence Prompt: “Where the hell are you going!?” “To the subconscious, and you can’t stop me.”

Scales- Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Epilogue -Deceit hadn’t expected his absence from the Mindscape to be noticed by the others…until Logic knocked on his door.

Mother’s Day -Janus has never liked Mother’s Day.

Wanted -Remus knew one thing for sure. No one would ever want to Want him.

To The Moon - A Vague AU Prompt. -This wasn’t at all how Patton expected their wedding night to go.

The New Hire- Roman has never known his brother, Logan, to break a promise. Until now. Note: Roman’s pov of Chapter 4 in The Interview.

Be My Dad- A Vague AU Prompt -Janus has no interest in being a parental figure to a kid, but trying to convince the universe of that is another thing entirely.

Moonshot- Was it too much for Logan to ask to have just one date not revolve around sports talk?

The Sweater- Emile had said he was making a sweater for a friend. Only he neglected to tell Remy that this friend wasn’t exactly…well…human.

October ThirST -After seventy years of searching for his Soulblood, Virgil is highly doubtful he’ll find them tonight.

Lemon Drops -Patton just wanted to go somewhere where he wouldn’t be judged, wouldn’t disappoint…wouldn’t…screw up another relationship. (Takes place after SvS Redux)

The Path: A Promise Kept -sequel to The Path: A Tale of Trick or Treating -Trick or Treating may be cancelled this year, but that won’t stop you from keeping a Promise.

The Chaos Twins -prequel moment to The Sweater -Everyone has their hobbies, though Emile wishes his roommates’ hobbies were a little less…explosive.

On the Run -prequel moment to the Sweater -When life gives you an escape attempt, you run as fast and as far as you can to get away.

Nitemear -It’s not considered running away if you’re merely trying to find a more defensible position.

The Key is Confidence -Confidence. That was the key, his father had told him, to getting away with anything.

Among the Branches -Getting woken up at the crack of dawn by your landlord can’t be a good thing. Fractured Trust- Trust is a tender thing, easily made…and just as easily broken. Written for the Two sentence prompt -"Why don't you trust me Roman?" Patton asked tightening his grip on Roman's shirt. "P-Patton I-" Roman stuttered out fearfully.

A Mini’s Pep Talk -It shouldn’t surprise Roman, at this point, that on top of an already no good really really bad day he ends up getting attacked by another Side’s Mini-Me while looking for his own. (Takes place after SVS Redux)

The (K)nightmare -They say that the brain uses Dreams to help understand and solve problems one faces in the waking world.

Demon Comfort -Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 -Lurking under a Human’s bed should be downright dull for a Demon of Logan’s rank. And yet…he can’t help but be intrigued by his human charge.

First Contact - Things would be so much easier if only their human, Virgil, would talk to them.

Meeting Virgil (5x1) - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 -Five times Remy tried to give Virgil a child and the one time he succeeded. A Special Delivery Prequel.

Catch Me (If You Can) - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 -Remy would not allow himself to be seen as needy and helpless in front of the general masses. He had an image to uphold. One of perfect health, snarky comebacks, and general sassiness. He didn’t get sick.

Beneath the Moon - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 -After all the research he’d done, after all the signs he’d been experiencing. Logan needed someone to tell him he wasn’t crazy. And Roman…Roman had always been the one most likely to believe in the fantastical, the impossible, the…supernatural.

Hello Darkness (My Old ... Friend?) - Part 1 -Is it possible to search for something…for someone…when you don’t even remember that they’re missing?

Dance Break! -Roman suddenly jumped up, a sparkle in his eyes, as he turned, seeking out the first person he can find and holding out his hand. “Dance with me!” (Written with @kieraelieson)

Christmas Eve -Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 -Of all the barriers that Janus expected to have to overcome in order to get his son a pet for Christmas, encountering his Ex, Roman, working in the pet store had never once crossed his mind.

Code: Blanket -Part 1 Part 2 -A friendship doesn’t stop just because one person decides to act like a dick. Especially when said dick is obviously in trouble.

An Unconventional Defeat -Patton knew that heroes started out young, far younger than villains ever did. But this young?

Into the Fray -It wasn’t like he shouldn’t have expected this. It seemed like any plan involving him and Virgil had a tendency to well…go astray.

No Longer Alone -Growing up in isolation away from people has been all that Virgil’s ever known. That changes today.

A Restless Christmas Eve -Even if it had been five years since he’d appeared in the real world, this still felt like it should have been a Virgil problem and not a Deceit one. He’d never had issues staying asleep before. Let alone ending up wide awake, feeling like he needed to–to–just move. Get out. Because of a stupid storm.

Out Camping - Part 1 Part 2 -A Father and Son Camping Trip.

Sanders Sides Art Portals AU- Deceit Roman Patton Logan Virgil

#stillemasterpost #stille stories #master post #Sanders Sides #Virgil #Roman #Logan #Patton #Janus #Remus #Remy #Emile

280 notes · View notes

theverybestpencilsoftuscaloosa · 4 years

Text

Hey, cool, narrative writing!

Or, to be more explicative, I’m finally posting something I wrote. It’s a piece of Discworld fanfiction, based off of a prompt by the tremendous and inimitable @obsle! Starring Commander Vimes and Captain Angua, it’s a lovely little piece (if I may say so) about the succession of leadership in the Watch. If you read it already in the Exchange, do consider giving it a second blush -- now it has footnotes!

It was a fine Ankh-Morpork summer day. The flies buzzed, the river limped, and the sun sat in the sky like a sticky butterscotch disc freshly dropped from a child’s mouth. From time to time, a breeze dared to disturb the oppressive heat before being clubbed down again. It was the sort of day a copper treasured and despised: hot enough to keep any would-be troublemakers skulking indoors, leaving the city’s lawful protectors to dutifully and honourably swelter in their breastplates where they stood.

Captain Angua was not currently sweltering, although it was a near thing. She was stood in the corner of Commander Vimes’ office, staring carefully at the opposite wall while she listened to Inspector A.E. Pessimal’s weekly report. It was... a thing of beauty, really, if only in the eye of a very particular beholder.*

*Specifically, one who was keenly aware of the intricacies of all special kinds of arithmetic used to hide money from the authorities, and who also was keen on the authorities.

“...whereupon, Mister Vimes, I pulled out my copy of Tax Regulatory Document Three Cee Aye, and asked him if he could point out the differences from his copy! Which, of course, he could, on account of having moved a decimal two places over!! He thereupon attempted to fox me, Mister Vimes, by pulling out a crossbow, whereupon I…”

It was remarkable. The man was full of coppering; in fact he was overfull. You simply had to wonder where it all fit: the sheer civic pride and dogged determination of at least 0.6 Carrots, compressed down into a man only a few inches taller and a few feet thinner than a dwarf. His reputation preceded him all through the halls of finance unsanctioned by the law, and more pressingly, through the ones that were for now but very well might not be if A.E. Pessimal were to set one size-six-boot-clad foot inside. His persistence had even earned him a nickname: the Terrier’s terrier. Or, if people were feeling particularly brave, two drinks down in the neat grey bars frequented by the neat grey men of the Accountant’s Guild: the second bitch in the Watch.

Solidarity, Angua thought, came sometimes from the strangest places.

“...Thereupon which I wrote him a receipt for his crossbow, fragments A through Q, and his teeth, items A through E, and Constable Detritus escorted him to the Cable Street watch house, sir!” Inspector Pessimal came to a neat stop, nearly vibrating with enthusiasm, like a knife thrown hard at a wall.

His Grace, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes sat behind his desk, solid composure ever so slightly cracked like a wall with a knife thrown hard at it. For a brief moment his mouth opened, soundless, and then just as A.E. leaned forward to begin again Vimes clapped a hand down on the desk sharply.

“Right! Well. Thank you for the report, Special Inspector. Very good stuff, er -- this was… Boggis’ man? Mr. Lipwig’s?”

“No, sir. Mr. Lipwig is always very honest with his accounts.” Vimes’ lip twitched at that, and Captain Angua recalled one of his little maxims, that some men were too honest to trust -- but A.E. Pessimal shook his head. “He was employed indirectly by Lord Rust, Mister Vimes.”

A glint came to the commander’s eye. “Ah. Ah, yes. One of Ronnie’s? Well, then. Leave me the written report, Special Inspector, there’s a good chap…”

Special Inspector Pessimal slid the report across the desk (with some difficulty, as it was about four inches high) and then stood, firing off a salute so smart it had creases. Commander Vimes nodded in response, and A.E. turned on his heel and strode out of the office.

Vimes left it about half a minute for the special inspector’s footsteps to recede down the stairs before slumping into his chair with a deep sigh. Angua held her gaze steady on the opposite wall, face intentionally left blank. There was another half-minute or so of silence, and then Vimes leaned forward, resting his elbows on the scarred and pitted desk.

“Eager little fellow, isn’t he?”

Angua coughed. “You hired him for a reason, right, sir?”

“Hm.” Vimes grinned. “Damn right, Captain.” He sat up, and slapped the stack of papers. “One of Lord Rust’s boys, eh? The little bastards have been running rings around us. And then in walks Mister Pessimal -” He snorted. “Vetinari told me his clerks had nothing on the man. Vetinari! And his clerks keep their books so tight you couldn’t slip a wasp’s pri-- whisker inside! Our Mister Pessimal’s a valuable one, isn’t he?”

“If you say so, Commander.”

Vimes’ gaze fell on Angua. “Something wrong, Captain?”

“Not at all, Commander.” Angua’s eyes held steady, examining the wall behind Vimes as if it were being held suspect for murder. “Just wondering why you called me in to talk.”

And, in her head: I didn’t slip the garlic into Um’s* locker, if that’s what this is about. I’m not a sergeant anymore, and even when I was I didn’t go in for that sort of thing. Not to mention Sally would have some serious words with me if I did, and I’m not stupid, commander; I’m not looking for a fight with a vampire, who also happens to be a close friend!

*Umberto Carlislo del Sylvanius Tenebrum Vittorio di Corlusca Maggitorio Arluxa von Conveyans, a recent Watch recruit and vampire. Being barely of-age for a vampire (34), he hadn’t developed a full page of names yet, but he had still been ruthlessly nicknamed mere moments after taking the oath.

A smaller, quieter, and… hairier voice added: Even though I would win.

“Am I getting old, Angua?” Vimes asked thoughtfully.

Angua’s calm cracked slightly, but decisively. An eyebrow snapped up. Vimes thoughtfully declined to notice.

“...Old, sir?”

Vimes’ eyes stayed fixed on the door as he stepped around his desk, and Angua’s nose twitched. It was an embarrassing habit, but, well, the instincts never really left you. In this case, she hardly needed it. She’d known Commander Vimes for years now. It was quite easy to see when he was embarrassed.

“If I may, Mister Vimes… why are you asking me?” Angua paused. “I mean, I haven’t -- there are some who’ve been here longer --”

“Like who?” Vimes asked. “Fred? Nobby? Carrot?”

Angua considered the list. Fred Colon had, a short few months ago, received the penultimate promotion, as it were: from deskbody to homebody. He still came round the station almost every day -- but less often now than when he’d first retired; in fact, he’d slept at his old desk the first few nights, and right now she couldn’t recall seeing him in a day and a half. After decades of marriage he and Mrs. Colon were getting to know one another, which by all accounts was proceeding better than expected. But… no, probably not Fred. If anything, he’d have been asking Mister Vimes for tips on how to acquaint oneself with civilian life. At least Sybil made sure Vimes took a day off every month or two.

And Nobby… well, the thing about Nobby was… well, he… he just…

No. Not Nobby.

And that left…

“You could talk to Carrot, Mister Vimes,” Angua suggested.

Vimes shook his head slowly. “No. Not him. Captain Carrot’s a good man- er, dwarf- er, copper. But you know what he’d say, don’t you?”

Angua considered this. Bit by bit, she came to the realization that she did. Vimes could ask Carrot what he thought, and he’d get an answer -- well-considered, gently phrased, encouraging and pleasant. A classic Carrot. It would be just what he wanted to hear. To a man like Sam Vimes, that was always the last thing he wanted to hear.

“So… you’d like my honest opinion, sir?”

“Well, I don’t want you lying to your commander, Captain.”

Angua considered it. She gave refusal a moment’s thought, but… but this was Sam Vimes. The same Sam Vimes who hated undead, everyone knew, but had chanced on her as the first in the Watch. The Sam Vimes who had followed her to Klatch with Carrot (although technically all three of them had simply been following the same suspect at wildly varying distances). The same Sam Vimes who had faced down a werewolf -- her brother -- and made it his, er…

Well. It was Sam Vimes.

Angua looked at her commanding officer, Sam Vimes, and for a moment peered past the armor, the helmet, the face like granite - like thunder - like a really disgruntled face. She narrowed her eyes and looked clear through to the greying hair which had, in point of fact, largely greyed almost to white, and to the muscles which weren’t… smaller, no, but a good deal wirier, and to the granite face, which seemed, if you looked at it just right, like there might be the inklings of a crack…

And, oh, hell, nothing for it. Angua closed her eyes and sniffed.

Almost immediately, her muscles tensed to spring.

She restrained them, hardly registering more than a twitch. But… damn! It had been months since she’d even had a thought like that. It was embarrassing. Honestly, it was worse than that, because this was Sam, but the wolf didn’t care; the wolf didn’t think much of a reasonable explanation for why its behavior was unreasonable, or even think much at all. The wolf just smelled (Angua mentally cursed herself for even thinking it) weakness.

With only a mild effort, Angua opened her eyes and smiled with a mostly appropriate amount of tooth. Vimes was leaning against his desk. He met her gaze evenly, and Angua suddenly was doubly glad for her restraint. Vimes wouldn’t raise a hand to one of his men, everyone knew. There was a respect that ran two ways, and that was the foundation of the Watch.

It was only that the wolf hardly had any respect at all, and Angua had personally seen what remained of the last werewolf who jumped Sam Vimes.

Vimes’ eyes softened, and he stepped forward. “There, er…” He trailed off, and Angua saw him searching for what passed between coppers as tact. “There aren’t many old wolves, are there?”

Angua shrugged. “Wolves? Yes. They take care of their own. For the most part, when the leader starts to… slow down, one of the younger ones will step up and face him. It’s a sort of test, you see. If the old one wins, the challenger isn’t ready. If he loses, the young one becomes the leader. Werewolves are different.”

“How so?”

“Well, sir, I suppose in a way you could say the leader becomes the young one.”

“Gods!”

“Sorry, sir.” Angua inclined her head deferentially. “No one said werewolves were nice.”

“No,” Vimes agreed. “But no one said coppers were either.”

“Oh?” said Angua. You eat each other when you start getting up in years? She didn’t say.

“Nothing like what you said, only… Well. Used to be you didn’t retire. Maybe you run out your luck on patrol. If you don’t… you get a little older, you slow down, and one day the lads come round with a gold watch and say good job sir, you made it!” Vimes’ brow knitted itself closer. “And then the next day… the next day you come in, just to keep an eye on things, and the day after that, and the day after that too, and then one day you don’t come in at all, and if you’re lucky one of the lads notices and they have you in the ground before too long.

Vimes paused. Then his eyes focused on Angua. He shook his head, as if to dislodge the dark and sticky waters of memory, and cleared his throat. “‘Course, it’s not like that nowadays. I mean, look at Fred. If he can retire, anyone can, right?”

Angua nodded. “Makes sense to me, sir.”

After a moment, when it became clear Vimes was offering no response, she stepped forward. “Something else on your mind, Mister Vimes?”

He sighed. He stepped around his desk again to the window, leaning on the windowsill to look out over the yard. “Yes. I suppose so. It’s, well… Fred, of course, was irreplaceable, but there are other sergeants. Me, though… Someone’s going to have to step up, and, well, I’ve been thinking, and I suppose it’s about time I told my successor they’re succeeding, isn’t it? I’ve just been looking for the right way.”

And internally Angua thought, I see. He’s going to ask me to tell him, isn’t he? Well, I think I can deal with that… I’ll have to get him away from the watch house, but if I ask him to take the night off for dinner he’ll probably say yes. I wonder if Cheery would…

Vimes coughed. “So,” he asked, “how about it?”

Angua blinked, train of thought suddenly interrupted. “How about what, sir?”

A moment passed. They stared cautiously at each other. Vimes broke first.

“Oh, hell,” he said. “About the job. Will you accept?”

Angua stared at him.

“What?”

Vimes cleared his throat. “Ah… I thought I made it obvious.” He paused. Angua was still staring. “Er… is something the matter, Angua?”

Still staring, Angua shook her head. At last, pulling her jaw back up, she asked “Why?”

Vimes’ head tilted in surprise. “Why? You’re a damn good captain, that’s why. Isn’t that enough?”

“But… but…” Angua searched for the right way to phrase the protest and failed. “But I’m not Carrot, sir!”

“Ah.” Understanding dawned on Vimes’ face. “That’s it, is it? You assumed he’d be the one?”

“Well… I think everyone did, commander!” Angua gestured helplessly. “I mean, no one in the city’s a more enthusiastic copper than him. He knows every law by heart! He asks people if they’re up to anything they shouldn’t be and they tell him! I mean, for gods’ sakes, he’s… he’s…”

The words died on her lips under Vimes’ gaze.

“Go on,” he said. “I know. He’s the king. Right?”

Angua made another vague gesture. “Well. He could be, sir. If he wanted to.” And then, feeling a sudden need to defend him, “Not that he does.”

Vimes sighed. “Angua, can you think of any possible reason I would want the one man everyone agrees is the rightful king in charge of the City Watch?”

“Well… I suppose you might--”

“There isn’t one,” Vimes said firmly. “Carrot is a good captain and a good watchman. People like him. They want to talk to him, even though he’s a copper. They trust him. Even the nobs think he’s all right. And what do people say about me when I’m not around?”

Angua again weighed honesty and kindness.

“Well, sir… they do occasionally say something to the effect of ‘That Vimes, what a complete and utter bastard.’”

“And you know what they say about you?”

Angua pursed her lips.

“Well.” Sam Vimes sighed. “For what it’s worth, Captain…”

“Yes?”

“I think you’re just as much of a bastard as I am.”

“Sir!”

“What?” Vimes raised an eyebrow. “It’s not a bad thing to know, Angua. It’s not a bad thing to be, coming to that. You work a bit different from other people, yes? Nothing wrong with that.” He leaned forward, staring at her intently. “Let me tell you, Captain. The world needs its Carrots, right? That’s what you’re thinking. But it doesn’t only need Carrots. Honest men, good men… smart men and good coppers, yes, but sometimes you need a right bastard.

“It’s like… Like… Like, say someone walks in and reports a stolen cow, right? What do you do first? Look for hoof marks? Start interviewing known cow thieves? Work your way through every farm animal in the city?”

Angua thought about it for a moment.

“Well, Mister Vimes, I think what I’d do is walk down the complainant’s street and see whose house smelled of steak.”

Vimes smiled. “And that’s a commander talking-- Oh, damn.” Vimes jerked back from the window, ducking against the wall.

“Sir?”

“It’s Rust! Damn fool! He hasn’t even hired Slant yet! He can’t have! What the hell’s he doing here?”

“Probably asking about items A through E, Mister Vimes.”

“Not now,” moaned Vimes. “I haven’t even read the damn report yet! Why the hell’s he coming in all half-cocked?”

“Tactically speaking, Mister Vimes? Coming from a position of mutual ill preparation, ignorance always has the advantage.”

That earned a smirk, even as Vimes hazarded a peek out the window into the yard. “Oh, gods, he’s inside…” A moment later, the beginning of a ruckus from below proved him right. Vimes froze.

Then, slowly, he turned to Angua. There was a dangerous glint in his eye.

“Captain,” he said evenly, portioning the syllables out in an almost Vetinarian drawl, “how do you feel about a little test?”

Moments later, Lord Rust burst into the room, accompanied by two burly suited thugs and a badly bruised accountant.

“Vimes!” he hollered. It took until the sound echoed back from the stairwell beyond the open door for him to realize he was incorrect.

“Lord Rust,” Angua said, leaning forward in the commander’s chair. “Can I help you?”

The man’s eyes narrowed, searching his memory for Angua’s identity. He must have come up empty, because there is simply no other way to explain the utterly stupid thing he was about fifteen seconds away from saying.

“Yes,” Lord Rust said in what he probably thought was a snarl, “you can. Stop sitting there and go fetch your commander.”

Angua shrugged. “Can’t help you there, sir.”

Lord Rust stepped forward. The stress of the day was written in his face. “Did you hear me?” He asked in a slightly trembling voice.”

“I think so, sir. Can’t help you. Sorry.”

One refusal was bad enough. Two was too much. Something, some small important tenet of good breeding and nobility, snapped behind Lord Rust’s eyes.

“Listen to me! Listen to me right now! Get out of that chair and go get your master or else you won’t work another day in this city, you bitch!”

The key to a really good snarl is not the set of your jaw, or the way you hold your throat, or the positioning of your lips. It isn’t in the vocal quality or in the breathing. It is definitely not (as Lord Rust seemed to think) about communicating just how long the stick up your bottom is. A really good snarl is genetic.

Angua snarled, and the four men standing before her went white.

“Now then,” she said, once they stopped trembling too hard to hear, “let’s try this again, shouldn’t we? You said you wanted to talk to Mister Vimes, right? Now, would you talk to the commander like that, Lord Rust? Would you?”

Lord Rust’s jaw snapped shut. “N-n-- well, no--”

“Then why did you, you little rat?”

Now Rust froze. The strain showed on his face as mental gears clashed with information that simply did not fit. At last in a halting voice he managed “No… have to speak with Vimes. He’s… he’s the commander.” And, gaining steam: “And I will tell him about that little insult, you --”

“Insult?”

Rust turned slowly. Sam Vimes was standing in the door… unarmored.

“Sorry, Angua. Was just on my way out, realized I almost forgot this.” All eyes followed Vimes as his hand dipped to his belt and removed the truncheon of office. They stayed on the truncheon as he hefted it and tossed it lightly to Angua, who caught it deftly out of the air in one hand. Lord Rust and his accomplices watched as she held it thoughtfully, then placed it on the official stand.

Then she smiled wide.

The door shut with a soft and definite click.

As one, the four men turned to look. Sam Vimes was gone.

Angua was not.

“Now, gentlemen…” She leaned forward. “Shall we talk?”

Down in the kitchen, Sam Vimes fixed himself a cup of tea. He drank it down, nodding genially to the officers passing through, and fixed himself another. Sitting in just the right corner, he could faintly hear voices from upstairs. It was going alright, he thought. It probably would be fine, so long as neither of those hulking suited muscles got stupid enough to put a hand on Angua…

Just as he thought it, he heard a muffled crash.

Well. That was all right, then. The other one would at least know better now…

Crash.

Oh, well. Disappointments are everywhere.

As he sipped his third cup, Vimes listened to Rust vacating the building, complaining reedily all the while, and to the two enforcers being dragged downstairs to the cells for some first aid, and to the twitchy accountant being gently but firmly apprehended by a few of the constables who had read Inspector Pessimal’s report, who were very curious about some things and wondered if he could just come this way, just a few questions…

The paper would be coming soon, Vimes knew. Probably a photographer as well. Rust would already be complaining, and by the time he got home the gossip would have raced around to Sybil, who would have questions of her own,* and he knew Vetinari would have something to say as well. It was probably about time he put his armor back on, picked the truncheon back up, and got to smoothing things over…

*If only as to how fast Lord Rust had run out, and if he still waddled when he was really frightened.

And then from the main office he heard Angua speaking loudly, clearly, and authoritatively: “...threatened him? I’m very sorry to hear that, Miss Cripslock. No, I’m not sure why. Wolf? No, Miss Cripslock, we don’t keep wolves in the watch houses. No, none of them. I believe there’s a regulation against it. No, no thank you. No photographs, please. Um is very particular about his hair, aren’t you, Um? And Sally considers it very undignified, having to be swept up… Yes, thank you for understanding…”

Or maybe, Vimes thought, he’d go for a walk.

#discworld #fanfic #the watch #vimes #angua #hogswatch fan exchange #mine creation

75 notes · View notes

starwarsdestroyedme · 5 years

Text

Toe-socks

So, this turned out longer than expected. Also, thanks for the notice on the other post about the taglists!

One-shot

AO3

Relationships: Intrulogical, background prinxiety, Platonic LAMP, Platonic Logince, Platonic Royalty

Summary: Remus always loves to make an entrance. Logan only wanted to finish his presentation. Everybody is confused.

“Precisely because I can tell that Patton and Virgil are more reactive to Remus’ outbursts I suggested for them to stay with you. You agreed to this. Half an hour ago this wasn’t an issue”. “Half an hour ago I didn’t know you were banging my brother!”

Word count: 4837

Warnings: Roman may seem unsympathetic at the start, but I promise, it all gets sorted out and justified in the end, so, please, bear with me. Remus being Remus. Arguing. Logan and Roman say somewhat nasty stuff to eachother (they talk it out though), and none more I can think of.

Opposite Warnings: (self-explanatory name. I just wanted to also highlight nice things!) Patton being a proud dad, protective Virgil, Roman addressing his feelings and talking about them, Remus caring about Logan, CARELESS WHISPER PLAYS NEED I SAY MORE?

Edit: Now there’s a related story! Head over heels

Toe-socks

Logan passed to the next slide of his power-point. Today he was doing a presentation for his proposal about Thomas’ new schedules.

It had been a while since they all agreed to make a collective effort to meet once a month to correct various problems. That month specifically, the meeting was to be at Logan’s room - they too had established to rotate locations between the main room, Logan’s and the Imagination, depending on the topic, Patton’s and Virgil’s rooms were excluded for everyone’s safety - because the order of the day were the schedules.

“So, if we set bedtime to nine we’ll be able to regulate properly sleep schedules, which would noticeably improve overall daily performance”.

Virgil raised his hand.

“Yes, Virgil?”

“If the aim is for Thomas to get 8 hours of sleep why don’t we move bedtime to 10?”

“Ah, that’s because I’m taking into account the time he may take to fall asleep”.

“That won’t grant that he falls asleep at 10, specially if a certain someone appears…”

“It will be okay, I have a contingency plan for that situation”.

Logan went to the next slide, revealing his action plan.

“So, as Virgil kindly pointed out: if the Duke showed up, Patton and him should go to Roman’s side of the Imagination”.

“Are you okay with that?” Virgil asked, looking at Roman.

Roman nodded with a smile while he gently pressed on Virgil’s knee.

“I asked Roman prior to the meeting and--”

Roman stood up and stroke a pose.

“Fear not Dear Evaneshansen and Papá*, my castle and I are at your service! I’ll keep you safe!”

“That” Logan gestured at Roman and took a deep breath.

Logan adjusted his glasses and skipped to the following slide, eager to retake control of his presentation. They still had a few points to discuss, and it wasn’t as if Logan didn’t have more things programmed for today, so he couldn’t afford wasting time.

“We still have more to go through, so if you could please pay attention I should be able to get it done in--”

Then, the lights went out.

“Great, now what”.

“Hey, Lo! Who turned the lights out?” Patton joked, just as Virgil turned on a small torch.

“That, was a really dark reference, Patton” Logan answered.

“As dark as this room?”

“Oh, for the love of…”

Suddenly, Careless Whisper’s instrumental roared across the room.

“What is going on?!” Roman shouted.

Logan closed his eyes, his mouth contracted into an exasperated line. He sighed tired and turned to the left. A door, frame included and all, appeared next to the table. It opened at the purest Doraemon style, making way for a slithering cloud of smoke inside which green and white lights scattered.

A pair of toe-socks up to the knee, decorated with horizontal rainbow stripes, slid on the wooden floor doing the moonwalker. Inside of said socks was Remus, letting his hair down singing the first lines of Careless Whisper.

“I feel so unsure, as I take your hand, and lead you to the --” Remus turned around with impetus, pointing with his right arm extended, placing the other behind his head.

Remus’ expression was a picture the entire time, first biting on his lower lip suggestively, frowning in an expressive manner; then, eyes wide open, a hint of annoyance in them, and his jaw dropping into a grimace of indignation.

Logan corresponded him arching his eyebrows and making an effort to turn his lips into a two point thick line. Or, said differently, an angered mother face.

Remus blinked several times. He took a glance at the rest. Virgil had his arm placed in front of his brother, who was holding back more due to the authority of his boyfriend’s gesture rather than the force Virgil could be exerting against his abdomen. Patton had turned into the colour of a low-fat yoghurt. The father looked at him up and down positively horrified.

Grand entrance, check. It didn’t go as expected, but, he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not unless the horse asked for it.

He went back to focusing on Logan.

“Was it today?!”

“Indeed”.

“Well, fuck me!” he cursed.

Logan adjusted his tie with annoyance and turned to his presentation. He looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

“Let me finish this first”.

The monosyllabic equivalent of a horse laugh escaped out of Remus.

“That wasn’t what I meant, but, works for me!” he smiled from ear to ear.

Right after that, he shrugged and set course back to the door doing the moonwalker.

“--guilty feet have got no rhythm. Though it’s easy to pretend, I know you’re not a fool…” he picked the song back as he disappeared, taking the door with him.

The room was left in sepulchral silence. Virgil looked at the floor with a face that said something along the lines of ‘I’m rethinking my entire life’, Roman’s eyes wouldn’t stop going back and forth from Logan to where the door had vanished. Patton had sat down on the couch and looked at Logan as to encourage him to speak.

“Sorry about that, now, where were we?”

Virgil glanced up and he made a contained version of one of Roman’s wild gesticulations.

“What the hell was that?!”

“Remus, of course, you saw him too” Logan played the matter down, wanting to go back to the presentation.

“I saw more than I wish I had seen” Roman said.

“He does not like wearing clothes” Patton added, as to agree with Roman.

“He was wearing socks, so, technically, he was dressed. I swear he only does it to be annoying”.

“I mean, why did he do that?” Virgil asked with a mixture of overwhelm, annoyance and confusion.

“That depends on what you’re asking about. If you’re referring to the… uh… nudity issue, then it’s because I told him I wouldn’t talk to him if he wasn’t dressed”.

Virgil furrowed his brows. Considering Remus’ personality, he found it very odd that he had even bothered to get ‘dressed’... or whatever that was. He knew first hand that if the Duke didn’t feel like doing something, persuading him otherwise turned out to be tricky, not to say almost impossible.

“On the other hand, if you mean the whole situation, well, I believe he was attempting to have intercourse with me” said Logan, trying to be conciliatory and failing miserably.

“Uh… okay, what?” Virgil muttered to himself.

“Is there something you need to tell us, kiddo?” Patton inquired.

Of course, Logan took this as a prompt for him to continue with the presentation.

“Yes. Thank you, Patton. As I was saying before we got interrupted…”

“Oh my god! Why is my brother trying to get into your pants, nerd?!”

Logan frowned and looked at Virgil for help.

“Get into someone’s pants, as in trying to have sex with them”.

“I think the answer will upset you, but, if you must know, we had it scheduled for later today. Remus has poor impulse control, so he came here earlier. He, also, completely forgot that the reason why, was because I had a meeting with all of you”.

Patton looked at Logan with muted worry.

“Well, I wouldn’t say upsetting… more like... shocking?”

“Deeply disturbing” corrected Roman.

"We’re all… a bit shaken up, but that’s no reason to say things so negatively charged--”

“What?! How am I supposed to react? Nerd over there is… ew… my evil twin brother, who, by the way, tried to kill him several times and we’re all going to pretend that it’s fine?!”

After Roman ended acting all fussy, he just stood there, taking a glance at the rest, expectant. Patton looked back at him. His lips pressed together and turned to the right, it was hard to tell if with disapproval, pity or empathy. He leaned to say all three. Then there was Virgil, who was still standing with a thoughtful semblance, and Logan, with his face of indignation half-dissolved in indifference, clearly denoted by the eyebrow he just raised.

“Taking into account that Remus’ direct actions don’t affect me, and he knows that, I’d hardly consider it a murder attempt, therefore, I don’t see your argument neither pertinent nor relevant”.

“We understand what you mean, Logan, but it isn’t particularly nice to see how you collapse on the floor with a shot to the head. Even if we kinda know nothing will happen to you it can still… frighten us up a little”.

“More like almost scaring Patton to death, and V being on the verge of an anxiety attack”.

Virgil turned his head towards Roman and gave him a look of ‘dude, no. Now’s not a good time and we agreed not to talk about it, I can’t believe you just brought it up only to tell Logan off on dating your brother’. Or, what Roman interpreted as: ‘you know it affected be a lot and we agreed not to talk about it, least when I’m impacted with all this new info’.

“I’m sorry, Virge. But it’s true, the fact is that both Virgil and Patton need to come to my side of the Imagination because Remus can’t manage to be nice to anyone for a even two seconds”.

“I don’t think you’re objective enough to be able to judge Remus’ capabilities properly. That, to begin with,---”

“Logan!” Patton exclaimed.

“Did I say anything incorrect? Roman cannot be objective with his brother because he deeply despises him”.

“Dude, sensitive topic” said Virgil whilst leaning his head.

“Roman may not like the Duke, but that doesn’t make his opinion any less valid” Patton began to say, looking at the logical side, and then moving onto Roman “and it’s not alright to say things tactless, Roman”.

“I say things tactless?! Have you heard any of what the nerd said?! I’m not the one who’s ignoring that you can barely be in the same room as my brother!”.

“Precisely because I can tell that Patton and Virgil are more reactive to Remus’ outbursts I suggested for them to stay with you. You agreed to this. Half an hour ago this wasn’t an issue”.

“Half an hour ago I didn’t know you were banging my brother!”

“That changes nothing, because hadn’t you found out, my arrangement with Remus would have remained the same, so the problem and the situation would not change, thus, this has nothing to do with Patton or Virgil. You’re simply determined on demonising Remus because of your disagreements”.

“Disagreements, that’s a light way to put it. Remus is bad for Thomas!”

“And that may be so at the moment, but it's still unrelated as to my relationship with him”.

“How do you expect me to look you in the eye knowing there’s something going on between you?”

“This conversation is useless and ridiculous”.

Logan went to the table and took a book from it, he then sat down and started to read its contents trying to keep exasperation at bay.

“Roman, we’re not here to judge Logan. I understand it’s hard to process, but it isn’t okay to---”

“No! You all think the same and the only one who’s being upfront about it is me”.

“I don’t think that… well, not exactly, but although I’m not the Duke’s biggest fan, it’s not okay for us not to support Logan’s relationship”.

“Oh, lord, they’re just having sex! I don’t see how it’s worth it for us to have a bad time just because Remus feels like having a fling with Logan”.

The deafening sound of a chair moving backwards cut the conversation. Logan, gripping his book with anger, had stood up.

“That’s it. Enough nonsense for today! Seeing that I can’t finish my presentation, I’m leaving”.

“Oh, yeah, run away from the conversation” Roman replied, just as mad.

Logan held back his desire to throw the book at the Prince’s face.

“Firstly, I’m not running away from anything. What happens is that the only explanation I owe you is that from my presentation, which was why we met today. You’ve spent forty-three minutes without letting me speak, interrupting me and deviating from the topic. Today, I only planned to talk about the new schedules. My relationship, or, as you so eloquently decided to put it, ‘fling’ with Remus is none of your business, nor open to debate. It is something private and you have no sort of authority to make value judgments about it. Secondly, I have tasks to do and very strict schedules that you are messing with. On another note, your sensitivity to the topics Remus brings up and his ability to be nice to others aren’t correlative. It merely makes him incompatible with you. You can’t universalize that. Lastly, your opinion is biased and you can’t assess the situation accurately without all of the data; which I have no obligation nor want to provide you with. I’ll send you a briefing of my presentation and will see you tomorrow. Goodbye”.

Logan sank back right after he was done taking.

“Logan, wa--!” Virgil tried to call for him in vain. “Oh, shhhhoot. Roman! Where the hell did that come from?”

“Are you going to take his side too?” answered Roman sounding genuinely betrayed.

“Yeah, he may have been a jerk, but you went waaaay further than that”.

“Well, you didn’t say any of that before Logan left”.

“No, because I was too busy trying to process everything everyone was saying, or rather, shouting” said Virgil, his nerves on edge.

“Are you fine, kiddo?”

“Yeah. I’m just having a hard time at dealing with it, it’s a lot to take in. Everything has escalated way too quickly”.

“That’s an understatement”.

“Ro… leave it”.

“So you both think it’s okay for him to elope with the Duke”.

“I don’t think that it’s right nor wrong, I simply make nothing of it because is none of my goddamned business”.

“This affects the three of us”

“No, no it doesn’t” said Virgil with frustration. “We’re not the ones dating Remus”.

“Look, Roman, I know you say this because you’re worried about your pop and your Virge, but that’s no reason not to support Logan. What we need is to work out together so we can find a solution” added Patton.

“Yeah? Well, how are we going to do that if Logan just vanished?”

“Maybe he wouldn’t have done that if you hadn’t hurt his feelings” Virgil shook his hands as if Roman’s head was in between them, and by doing so he could get the idea through that thick skull of his.

“I can’t possibly hurt LOGIC’S feelings, and I’m not the one saying it, it’s him who keeps on bragging about how he doesn’t have them”.

“Hmm… but we all know that’s not true”.

“Gosh, Princey, seriously you think Logan would get so mad if he didn’t care about Remus?”

“Logan gets angry whenever we don’t tell him he’s right, which is what all of that was about”.

“But it wasn’t, heck, imagine how you’d feel if someone said all that’s between you and me is just sex”

“But we don’t have… it’s not the same thing!”

“You don’t know that”.

“Yeah, if Logan’s reaction is anything to go by, I’d say it’s more than just that” said Patton with a face that had written sympathy all over it.

“Logan’s reactions can literally mean anything because he’s the least expressive out of all of us”.

“Okay, you don’t want to trust Logan’s reaction? Fine! Then let’s go by the fact that Remus left the room because Logan told him so, wears those ridiculous socks because of him and ACTUALLY has conversations with Logan about his schedules. You and I both know there’s no way your brother would do that if he didn’t give a damn about what Logan thought about him. Heck! Not even freaking DECEIT could get him to do what he wanted, he barely kept him under control. Only I used to manage to do it, and not without using a toxic amount of fear and anxiety first”.

Roman just stood there, looking at his boyfriend, deeply worried.

It was one thing for Virgil to defend Logan, but going to the extreme of bringing up his time as a Dark Side, now that was a whole different story. A wave of guilt run him up and down. He knew how triggering Virgil found it to even mention it.

"Maybe we'll all just have to learn to accept the fact that the Duke may care about Logan in his own way" said Patton looking at nowhere "and apologize to our dear old teach" he fixed his eyes on Roman.

"I… perhaps you're right. I simply… when I look at Remus I see everything I don’t want to become and it’s hard for me to digest that Logan and him are together, because Logan’s always shooting down my ideas. I know he’s already apologised for it, we’re trying to get better… but he still antagonises me and, although it can help me improve, the rest of the time it makes me feel as… as if I wasn’t good enough. I mean, yeah, there’s pressure everywhere,” hearing this coming from Roman, both Patton and Virgil walked up to him to stay beside him “but with Logan I notice it more. Him dating Remus makes me think that perhaps he’s better than me, that maybe I’m the side of creativity that Thomas shouldn’t listen to”.

“I didn’t know you thought that”.

“Oh, Roman, is that how you really feel? Why didn’t you tell us?” said Patton placing a hand on the Prince’s arm.

“Hmmm… I know I should have talked about it, but you already have your own issues and it didn’t feel important enough. Besides, it’s not easy to admit that Prince Charming” he gestured at himself moving his hand up and down, smiling bitterly “is afraid of not being able to make Thomas’ life into a fairytale”.

Virgil threw himself at Roman’s arms and held him tight after hearing all that.

“I know it’s hard… I know very well… but you can always come and talk to me, or to Patton… or Logan”.

“That’s right Ro, we’ll always…” Patton moved fast and gave him a hug from behind “have your back!”

Roman loosely held onto one of Patton’s arms, that circled his shoulders, and caressed Virgil’s head, a smile of contemptment beginning to appear on his face. How could he be so lucky to have them?

“Thanks guys… guess I should go apologize to Logan, I just have to find out where he is”.

It didn’t take long for that question to be answered. Remus materialised himself in the room without warning, like the living pop-up he was. It was possible perceive in his expression, characterised by that mix of smugness and diva, a glimpse of superlative anger. With that in mind, Roman disentangled himself from Patton and Virgil, placing the last one behind him too.

"I am going to end all of you, assholes" said Remus, with a tone more serious than anyone watching were used to.

Roman extended his left arm and conjured his katana, unsheathed already, with an agile wrist move.

"Starting with you bro" Remus aimed at him with his morningstar and positioned himself, as if all of that were just a baseball match.

Roman braced himself for disaster and the cleaning that would follow after. Scrubbing his brains off the wall wasn’t going to be particularly pleasant. Virgil stepped forward, or rather to Roman’s side.

“Try that and I’ll make you regret it” Virgil’s distorted voice flooded the room as if it were coming from the walls.

He responded by flinching the tiniest bit. Regardless, his resolve was clear: he wouldn’t back off.

“Oh, Virgil! This display? Just for me? But you haven’t closed the door! We may be seen! YOU may be seen. Are you willing to show your true colours in front of your new buddies?”

“They are not my buddies, they’re my family and if necessary I’ll get you off the way”.

“You should have thought about that before messing with my nerd” Virgil’s eyes opened wide with realisation. What about Logan? He couldn’t harm Remus. But Remus would definitely do it, judging by the lightning-fast morningstar moving towards Roman’s face. “Let’s put your theory to the test!”

Virgil pushed Roman to the floor, behind him, ready to take the full impact of the morningstar. He closed his eyes and waited.

"Remus, that's quite enough" said Logan.

Logic stood in between Virgil and Remus, effortlessly holding the shaft of the morningstar. Remus stared at Logan’s rest in bitch face dumbfounded.

The Prince’s body was spreaded on the floor, he leaned on his forearm, with a spooked expression directed right at the back of Virgil’s head. He only came out of the trance to find Patton. Morality gestured at him, trying to help him get up.

"What? Bitch, are you serious? He asked for it!" Remus pointed at his brother, releasing his grip on the weapon.

"I don't care. No matter how impermanent it might be, I'd rather you didn't kill, maim, harm not harass him".

"He deserves to…"

"Remus, I understand where this comes from” he began to say, putting the morningstar down “and I'm aware of how hard it is for you to exert control over your impulses. But this isn't helping me".

"But! But he's an asshole! He deserves to have his testicles bitten off by a hyena".

"Remus," Logan conjured a notebook with a pen clipped to the cover "I need you to write it down as we practiced. Let me handle this myself"

"But…"

Logan took a long, exhausted, breath.

"Please".

Remus’s body language changed completely, fully giving up. Loose. He took the notebook and sank back.

Logan turned around, giving the rest a chance to finally take a look at him.

Logan wasn’t wearing his glasses.

His tie was undone, and his hair look the slightest bit disheveled. Reddish spider webs were imprinted in his puffy eyes, matching his blushed nose.

“Wow, Logan, you look like shit” Virgil was the first to voice everyone’s worry, as per usual.

“Oh, my apologies” he conjured his glasses and put them on. Then proceeded to get his tie knot done.

Patton stepped forward to hug him, unable to hold back.

“Logan… dear mother of waffles!” The dad cupped his face. “Have you been c-- are you okay?” he bit his tongue on the last second, reminded of Logan’s reticence to talk about feelings.

“I… I have been preoccupied”.

“Logan…”

“Roman, I do not wish to engage in conversation with you. I got Remus to leave, okay? I’m not in the mindset for debate” said Logan, ready to sink back again.

“Wait!”

“What do you want?”

Patton and Virgil made a non-verbal pact to leave them some space and moved away, limiting themselves to watch the situation unfold, ready to intervene if necessary. Patton gave Roman a conciliatory smile.

“I’m sorry! I was too rash, and it wasn’t my place to judge your relationship with Remus. I guess I got angry when I found out that you’re dating him, because of how much you criticize me, it makes me feel that he’s better than me, and that maybe you’ll just want him to do my job instead…”

“Roman, there’s no way Remus could perform your job. He isn’t constant and gets more distracted than you. Even though his ideas are transgressive, they’re barely practical and don’t fit Thomas’ audience. You, on the other hand,” Logan joined the tips of his fingers and gestured at Roman “take production more into account and strive to create content that satisfies the audience”.

“But what good is that if I don’t challenge them?”

“Good content doesn’t have to be at odds with pleasing the viewership. If your aim is to entertain, or, as Patton would put it,” he briefly glanced at him “make people happy, how can achieving that be bad? If what you create does what it was meant for then it is a good content”.

“Well, that may be right, but Remus can handle more mature content better than me”.

Logan frowned and rethought his strategy.

“Would you consider Steven Universe bad content?”

“What?! No! Also, Steven Universe treats mature topics”.

“Indeed, but addressing mature topics isn’t a synonym for mature content. Roman, your ideas are perfectly capable of accomodating mature topics. You don’t need to make mature content to be a good creator”.

“But Remus is right, what will Thomas’ legacy be if we just keep doing the same things over and over?”

“Falsehood. We’re not doing the same things over and over, and, even if that were the case, that doesn’t mean we can’t change the content, if Thomas eventually decides to do so”.

“But what if I’m not good enough for whatever he chooses to do next? What if he replaces me for Remus?”

Logan smirked after hearing this and went on.

“Ah, I see what the problem is. Roman, would you refrain altogether from acting if you failed at an audition?”

“No” Roman answered with a hint of indignation.

“Good. Then we can extrapolate that to what you said.” Logan made a pause and considered his next words. “There is always a chance for failure, but failing doesn’t restrict our chances for future success. If we consider your ideas from the angle of whether or not they achieve their purpose, then I’d be inclined to say they’re good. Thus, making you a good creator”.

Logan paused yet again, leaving Roman room to speak. Interestingly enough, the Prince remained quiet, letting Logic’s words sink in.

“Of course, one could argue that what makes a content good or bad is inherently subjective, but entertaining that thought isn’t useful as a means of judging the quality of what you produce” he added, anticipating what Roman might have been pondering on. “Moreso, it is counterproductive because it only leads us to overthinking. Your desire to grow should not be a discouragement, but a source of motivation”.

“What about Remus?”

“Well… while I do believe that Remus should be allowed to be part of the conversation, he can’t act as a substitute for your contributions. Just as Remus can come up with things you can’t, that also applies the other way around”.

“Then you don’t like Remus better?”

“The nature of our relationship is completely different to the one I have with any of you, so I could not effectively compare them, thus value one above the other”.

Roman’s arms fell to his sides, he stared at the teacher, unsure as to what to say next.

“Well, thanks Logan, that was... really nice… I’m very sorry for before”.

“No problem, I can now understand why you reacted the way you did. I suppose an apology is due. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to correctly assess the way you were feeling and that I may have been somewhat insensitive”.

“We’re both at fault, I guess”.

“Correct. You were unfair and I was” Logan searched through his vocab cards until he found one and flipped it. It was written in all caps with black chinese ink, using thick angular strokes “an r/iamverysmart”.

“What?” Virgil began to laugh.

Patton went to Roman’s side and squeezed a bit on his arm.

“I’m very proud of you, Ro” he said in a low voice.

“Remus wanted to contribute to my efforts of understanding modern slang and gifted me with new vocab cards I’ve added to my research. Did I use that one properly?”

“Naaah… not really” Virgil replied and began to give him some examples so he could frame the concept properly.

“I’m glad I talked about it”.

“Me too. I know how hard it is for you, Roman, and I’m so, so proud”.

“Thanks, Dad” the Prince smiled. He went back to looking at his emo nightmare and Logan.

“Leaving aside the most gruesome traits of his writing, I’m now proofreading a mystery novel he’s begun, and it’s very engaging” the tiniest of smiles appeared on Logan’s face.

“Isn’t that your favourite genre?”

“In fiction, yes. So, understandably, I was pleased to assist him. He gave me the chance to contribute with plenty of Agatha Christie references”.

“Well, it might turn out you and Remus may make a good couple” said Roman, too distracted by how surprised he found what Logan had said to really think about the wording he had used.

Virgil looked at him in confusion, while Logan waited for him to elaborate.

Roman opened his eyes wide, mentally rewinding. Oh.

“Not that I am saying that’s what you are… I know you don’t need my approval, but no matter what’s in between you and Remus, I’m cool with it” he placed a hand behind his head and stood awkwardly.

“That’s… quite alright. I appreciate that. And, regarding your previous statement, yes, I believe we do”.

*so I’ve seen Roman call Patton padre a lot, but dad in Spanish translates into papá rather than padre. You see padre=father, papá=dad and papi=daddy. So I chose to go with papá.

Taglist:

@coffeemeryspace , @theantisocialghost , @musical--llama , @ambersky0319 , @tacohippy56900 , @1-800-im-not-ok , @dabookwormcat , @starkerparkerx , @littlestliu

@creativity-killed-thekitten I tagged you seeing that in ‘Rain on me’ you told me to, but if you wish to be removed from the taglist please do tell!

244 notes · View notes

asocier · 4 years

Text

( private verse: your name is ) -- three.

i hear she personally knows the duke.

her? how did that happen? she’s not even from this district.

i dont know, but someone saw them talking. said it looked like they were old friends having a chat.

what did they talk about?

who knows? they got the hell out of there before they were caught eavesdropping.

haha -- probably for the best. hm, do you think..?

think what?

that they’re gonna go easy on her?

gossip. teenagers loved their gossip, didn’t they? the ones she’s met so far during her training were certainly no different. reminiscent of how peers her age acted in school, they traveled in packs, forming tight knit cliques that were impenetrable from the outside unless you somehow proved yourself worthy of an invitation into the group. everyone seemed to be familiar with each other already, a fact alison learned was due to how long they had known each other before her abrupt arrival to the district. from what she understood, some had been training since they were young; others had only been training only for a handful of years. regardless, at this point in their careers, they had all proven themselves to be capable, and it was time for new recruits to do the same.

new additions weren’t unusual when it came time for recruitment, though it was expected for many to be weeded out in a few months time. judging by the snickers from the others when she first stood alongside them and introduced herself, perhaps they thought she’d be packing her bags very soon. at sixteen, she was amongst the youngest in this round of new recruits, and her small statue coupled with her inexperience seemed to have branded her as an easy target for returning guards-in-training who had a better understanding of what was expected from the veteran rose guards they trained under.

but oh, how she was going to prove them all wrong.

“wow! imagine being handed something instead of working for it. hm, can’t say that i can relate, actually.” finally turning the corner of the hallway she had been waiting behind, alison makes her presence known to two peers. thinking back on the many introductions she had heard earlier in the week, she could recall that these two came from a long line of rose guards, a notable number of their family members having served various nobles over the course of their lifetimes. it was unclear to her as to whether their training had started early on in their lives, only to culminate in their eventual recruitment into the rose guard after finishing school, or if this was just the beginning of their training. regardless, she wouldn’t be surprised if their connection to their families had aided them in completing their first year of training.

startled and indignant by alison’s unexpected appearance, the taller of the two retorted, “didn’t anyone teach you it was rude to eavesdrop?”

“didn’t anyone teach you it was rude to talk shit?” an easy comeback as she joined them.

sucking on his teeth, he turns to his companion, a girl whom alison recalled was quite open about her admiration of the duke and his charms. unsurprising, yet still disappointing, alison thought as she fought back the urge to roll her eyes at the idea of someone joining ayden’s rose guard just to get close to him and vie for his attention. it was a waste of everyone’s time, and it made alison wonder just how much the other relied on her family to get her this far. surely, she wasn’t as hopeless as alison feared if she was able to last this long, but only time would tell, she supposed.

“how long were you standing there?” with a frown, the other woman expressed her own disapproval of alison’s decision to eavesdrop, though alison was quite certain she was just upset that she had been caught.

“long enough to know you’re jealous about my relationship with the duke.” a jab at what everyone was aware of already, a rather smug smile evident on alison’s countenance as she reveled in how the other woman’s brows furrowed deeper. “if it’s any consolation, we’re merely acquaintances.” a partial truth -- time had caused them to drift apart, and it was clear to alison that ayden was no longer the person he was in their childhood. it’d be foolish of her to considering them close friends at this point when so much had changed in the roughly ten years that had passed since their last meeting, though it was comforting to know that he still remembered her. despite that, alison had no intentions of relying on him when it came to securing her place on his rose guard; that was a decision she had made long before she arrived in his district.

“but how is that possible? you said yourself you graduated from commoner school.”

“because i did. but how i know the duke is quite frankly none of your business. i suggest you two pay attention to more pressing matters,” and she turns to the taller one, her expression neutral despite the fact she was annoyed by how he had to look down at her to make eye contact, “like how your form is sloppy and quite frankly, makes me question whether you deserve to be called my superior. falling on your ass today really must have been a hit to your ego, huh?”

“why i -- ! who are you to judge? like you know what it’s like to be in the rose guard.”

“i didn’t fall on my ass today, did i?”

“you don’t have any training under your belt. they were going easy on you because they know you’re a rookie.”

“says who? who said i don’t have training? not me. i said i didn’t have much formal training.”

“what the hell does that mean?”

with a smile, she merely states:

“it means i’m a rogue.”

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

that was an illegal move, who the fuck does she think she is?

are there really any rules when it comes to this kind of stuff, though?

who the fuck pulls out a real knife out during sword training? for god’s sake, she shouldn’t even have had that on her person!

well, at least they stepped in before she could cut you.

if anyone asked, she’d give them an answer: no. no, she absolutely did not regret any moment of it. it was their own fault for thinking she was bluffing when her conversation with those two in the hallway was shared around to the various cliques.

a rogue? how funny! talking right out of her ass, isn’t she?

if they didn’t pay attention to her before, they surely were going to now. previously passed off as an easy target, “nathalie” was starting to earn quite the reputation for herself. it was already surprising to many that she had lasted as long as she did; while many were sent back home for failing to keep up with the rigorous training dictated by the veterans, alison continued to steadily hold onto her position. this alone seemed to have started the shift in attitude amongst her peers, and their opinions only continued to change the more they watched her fight. this latest match seemed to have pushed everyone over the edge.

“imagine being so reckless! imagine being so dishonorable! i can’t imagine a noble wanting someone like that on their guard. not only are they a danger, but it ruins the reputation of the guard as a whole.” murmurs of agreement could be heard in response to the one who sounded so exasperated, and there was no effort to hide his anger towards alison. a sore loser, she thought as she stood off to the distance, a bottle of water in hand as she attempted to catch her breath. she had received a rather nasty admonishing post-match, though, she couldn’t help but notice a bit of praise for her quick thinking that underlaid all of the scolding. perhaps that was just her ego interpreting it as such, but she certainly wasn’t going to pass up on any praise. that was something she’d keep to herself, however, for the sake of not adding fuel to the fire ( for now, at least ).

“if she keeps at it like this, i wouldn’t be surprised if she got sent home for her behavior in these next upcoming weeks. absolutely unacceptable -- a rogue in the rose guard? whoever heard of such a thing? brutish, impulsive, crude -- a disgrace to the image of the rose guard.”

“are you done shouting from your soapbox? i’m sure your followers understand how much you hate me already.” her voice had interrupted his endless ranting, and her tone was indicative of how unfazed she was by the complaints directed towards her. she cared very little for the opinions of others; only a handful of opinions mattered, and those of this man were not on her list. “if you’re that upset, you could try taking it up through the ranks until you speak with the duke himself. though, i’m sure he has better things to do than to listen to a resentful trainee.”

“tch -- don’t sound so brash. you know damn well you’re getting some kind of special treatment. you would have been out of here long ago for your blatant disrespect otherwise.”

“having a pleasant attitude the duke can appreciate is not special treatment. i just don’t have a stick up my ass like you do. funny -- i’d think that stick would help you hold your own weight, but i guess it just makes you insufferable.”

“you little bitch --!”

“oho, and now you’ve stooped down to name-calling. very mature of you, very respectful.” with arms crossed over her chest, she looks amused rather than intimidated as her peer crosses towards her, his form stopping in front of her own.

“i give respect to those who deserve it. and quite frankly, nathalie, you don’t. you don’t deserve my respect, nor do you deserve your current standing in this guard. you’ve weaseled your way this far, but it’s only a matter of time before someone cuts you down to size.”

looking up, her features remain at ease as she listened to the vitriol being spat at her. “in due time, perhaps. but that person won’t be you.”

“and what makes you so sure of it?”

“because your form is still, to this day, atrocious.”

“as if yours is really any better.”

and in a beat, she found herself with her back to the earth, the wind knocked out of her upon sudden impact. with a sheathed sword in his hand, the other had managed to swipe her off her feet, knocking her backwards onto the ground. wide-eyed, alison looks up at the sky above her, and the faces of her peers slowly come into view as their laughter ring in the air. his face came into view right above her field of vision, is gaze directed downwards at her. “you’re always so full of talk, nathalie. speaking as if you know better than the rest of us. you fight like a school child, like the class bully. that won’t get you far in the rose guard.”

somehow, him getting in the last word before they were called back to attention for the rest of their training was more irritating to her than what was actually said to her. being able to see that smug grin on his face from above struck a nerve in her, and the tittering laughter of the others only added salt to the wound.

if i count to ten, i could calm down, and then make my way back. if i count to ten, i could turn the other cheek and be the mature one in this situation. if i count to ten ... i’ll let him win.

fuck that.

with the group’s backs turned to her, they don’t realize she’s back on her feet until it’s too late, until the one who criticized her is suddenly yanked backwards and separated from the group. a yelp of pain accompanies his departure, and it’s only then do the others realize that it’s nathalie who has dragged him away by the hair, it’s nathalie who has thrown him down onto the earth, and it’s nathalie who is currently standing over him, her hand on the hilt of the sword at her hip.

“y-you can’t draw that! you know we’re not allowed to draw swords outside of matches. you do that, and that’s another strike against you.” his words are rushed in a panic, though it’s clear from the expression on his face that he knows he has a point. she had to acquiesce -- he did have a point. it was a rule that was drilled into each and every one one of them since the first day, and its purpose was to maintain order and safety, especially amongst new recruits. despite knowing this, she finds herself unsheathing the thin blade of her sword anyway, the tip directed at the other’s neck.

“i’ll take my strikes. nothing i can’t talk my way out of. after all, you brought this onto yourself.” the blade moves closer to the other’s neck then, the tip resting just above skin. her touch is light, and she truly has no intention to pierce, but considering her unpredictable nature, she knew there would be doubts to her mercy. the fear was evident in his eyes, and the way the air stood still as everyone held their breath was indulgent.

“you say i fight like a school child, but if you haven’t noticed, that actually has gotten me quite far. your honorable fighting? limited.” a foot raises and rests on the other’s chest then, her grip on her sword never faltering, her gaze never wavering. “honor in topaxi is dying. there is no more honor; anything honorable now is a facade to uphold an image. topaxi fights to gain, to take, to thrive -- there is no fairness. there is no courtesy. so why should i be courteous to those who look down on me?” and she allows just a bit of her weight to be pushed down onto the other’s chest. at this point, she notices that they are alone, the rest of the group having left to resume training. out of the corner of her eye, she can see someone watching them, one of the veterans, no doubt. perhaps they had already yelled at her to drop her weapon. she couldn’t recall; she had turned out the rest of the world for some time.

“i fight to survive. i fight to win. i intend to give my all, even if it means stooping low and playing dirty. if that’s how our city fights, then that’s how i’ll fight. why should i play nice?” finally, after what seemed like ages, she withdraws her sword and returns it to its sheath. the figure she had noticed watching made their move then and motioned for her to come with them. with a mischievous smile, she called out to her peer as she walked away from him accompanied by the guard.

“take notes for me, yeah? it seems like i’m in for another time out for a while.”

#writing;#cw: long post #( private verse ) your name is

3 notes · View notes

astral-space-dragon · 4 years

Text

HAHAHAAAA! After having this character on the back burner for a bout a month, I’m ready to share her with the world!

After chatting it up with @harlot-of-oblivion yesterday, I got the courage to flesh out this character and I’ve gotten really invested.

She’s a character from a crossover AU that I’ve been playing with for a while and I hope you like her as much as I do. A DC Universe and Devil May Cry corssover. I’m calling the series “Of Bats and Devils”.

Under the cut cuz is a really long fuckin post lol

Name: Viviane “Viv” Mercer-Wayne

Age: 25

Immediate Family:

Bruce Wayne (adoptive father)

Richard “Dick” Grayson (adoptive brother)

Jason Todd (adoptive brother)

Tim Drake (adoptive brother)

Damian Wayne (adoptive brother, Bruce’s bio-son)

Cassandra Cain (adoptive sister)

Alfred Pennyworth (considered a grandfather)

Misc. Family:

Duke Thomas (honorary brother)

Barbara Gordon (honorary sister)

Stephanie Brown (honorary sister)

Kate Kane (technically cousin, but everyone just calls her Aunt Kate)

Clark Kent, Hal Jordan, Diana Prince, Arthur Curry, Barry Allen, Dinah Lance, Oliver Queen, Carter Hall, J’onn J’onzz, and the rest of the supers (honorary aunts and uncles)

Friends:

[Friends through her siblings]

Rachel Roth (Raven)

Kyle Rayner

Kon-El

[Friends from school days]

Greg Mackaye

Rudy Forester

Kristy Ving

[Current friends]

Dante

Vergil

Nero

Lady

Trish

Nicoletta “Nico” Goldstein

Kyrie

Base of Operations:

Red Grave City

Physical Description:

Height: 5’3

Hair color: Brown, cut short, usually an undercut. Either way, kept very short for convenience.

Eye color: “Vale Green”

Personality: Punkish, blunt at times, serves sarcasm with a side of a middle finger, dark humor, underneath brutish exterior: a heart of gold, will fight for what’s right, even if it means breaking some rules, inquisitive, a bit of a sentimentalist, prefers to not stand out but will raise hell if necessary/wanted, bit of a history nerd

Skills and who trained her:

Skills for the field:

Top-notch detective skills (courtesy of the Bat)

High martial arts skills (the Bat and her brothers)

Misc. Athletic skills (i.e. climbing, running speed, etc) (trained by Bat, honed by Trish and Lady)

Computer skills (the Bat and her brother, Tim)

Marksman skills (trained by her brother Jason, skills were honed by Dante)

Swords/Blade skills (Dante and Vergil)

Survival skills (again, the Bat)

Misc Skills:

Cooking/baking (Alfred)

Bass guitar (self-taught)

Intimidation (the Bat)

Some hair cutting skill (the Bat and her brothers)

Battle Theme (y’know as devil hunters have): “Demon’s Are A Girl’s Best Friend” - Powerwolf

Backstory: Viviane “Viv” Mercer was born on a rainy November 5th to two parents who were into the punk and occult scene in Gotham in their youth. For the few years of her life, she lived in a small apartment in the Old Gotham district. Her father, Tristan worked as an employee at the Botanical Gardens (courtesy of his old friend Bruce) and her mother, Mina worked as a manager at an “occult shop” that specialized in selling occult books, crystals, oils, and other products for the then emerging “witch scene” in Gotham.

Growing up in Old Gotham, there was the constant threat of Two-Face and his men as the district was, and still is, his territory. Still, the small family made the best of a tense life. Then one night, during a standoff between Batman and Two-Face, Two-Face had two hostages held at gunpoint, Tristan and Mira. With a flip of his coin, Two-Face ordered his men to execute them. In that moment, Batman watched his old friends die.

After taking care of Two-Face and his men, Batman watched as a coroner placed Tristan and Mina’s corpses in body bags. He overheard Commissioner Gordon talk about placing the now orphaned, Viviane into a home. Wrought with the guilt of not saving the two, Batman took it upon himself to take the young girl in. After filling out some paperwork (and a couple of friendly donations), 6 year old Viviane was adopted by the billionaire.

From then on, she lived in Wayne Manor with Bruce Wayne, her new big brother Dick Grayson, and Alfred Pennyworth. It wasn’t long after when she found the Batcave by complete accident. She had no desire to be a vigilante but she DID have the desire to as the small child said, “Kick some ass!”, causing poor Alfred to nearly faint.

So throughout her childhood, she learned how to defend herself and was taught a variety of detective skills from Bruce. She was also eager to learn what she lovingly dubbed his “Batglare”. Despite the training, she still carried on her life as normal. She’d attended galas (though she and Dick would run off to hide and eat pastries), went to school,made a couple of friends at school, made friends through her brother, and met her honorary aunts and uncles of the JLA. Along the way, she got more siblings: Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne.

During her senior year of high school, she was waiting for a cab to take her home when she heard a noise from the alley behind her. Growing up in Gotham made her hyper-aware of danger, so upon hearing the noise she immediately went into a defensive position. A goat-looking demon charged out and got a taste of an aluminum baseball bat. Two more demons came skulking from the alley. Thanks to her training, she managed to hold her own before the fight started to wear her down. A demon was about to blindsight her when gunshots rang out and all the demons were shot down and killed. Viviane looked around until her eyes landed on a man with white hair in a red coat(his DMC4 outfit) on top of a fire escape. That’s when she met Devil Hunter Dante. She didn’t know at the time, but he would be her boss years later.

Dante took her home and before leaving, he gave her his business card. On the card was the name: Devil May Cry. He told her to consider it a job offer and he disappeared into the night. She pocketed the card and went inside.

Years later when she had turned 24, she got into a nasty spat with Bruce. While this wasn’t the first one, this particular argument was a very nasty one. Harsh words were said by both and this fight was the straw that broke the camel’s back. While the family was out for patrol, Viviane was packing her belongings. She had gotten sick of Gotham and “Bruce’s shit”. For a quick moment she wasn’t sure where she would go. Then while clearing her desk, she spotted the business card, Dante gave her all those years ago.

Red Grave City. She had made her decision. After packing a suitcase of clothes, toiletries, and such, she removed the tracker from her phone, got on her bike and rode at top speed for Red Grave. When she arrived at Red Grave, it was 3am the next day. She decided to book a quick and cheap hotel room for the night. Upon arriving at the hotel, she spotted demons in the parking lot; this time, they were nasty bug-looking ones. Just like last time, she held her own for a good while until a flash of blue and red swooped in and they took down the demons together.

Viviane eyed her two rescuers and immediately recognized the one in red, Dante. And that was the start of her new job and life.

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

I know the backstory may be somewhat vague, but I’m already working on fics for just about everything. From the early life, the death of her parents, adjusting to life as a Wayne, meeting her siblings throughout her life, meeting Dante, the fight that between Viv and Bruce, all of it.

I will be posting them here but, I will also be posting them under the series “Of Bats and Devils” since Tumblr’s navigation is fuckin abysmal.

Anyways here a pretty good idea of what my little shitlord looks like:

(Y’know with that last one, if you put a knife in the pic like that one meme, it’s be perfect)

Also here’s a pretty good idea of what her character

Anyways, I hope you grow to like Viviane as much as I do. I’ve grown so attached to her, honest to god, I’m happy.

#shut up chrome #my oc #of bats and devils

6 notes · View notes

jlpplays1 · 5 years

Text

~Drake- “You’ll See, Walker..” He says with sweet smile and a kiss. ❤️ Part 1

Find Part 2 coming soon :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Book: The Royal Heir

~~all characters belong to pixelberry

Summary: Drake has planned a day of special surprises

(Both Parts =3,728 words)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Author’s note: hi guys!! this is a first for me, writing with my friend @justdani14 has inspired me to write a piece with drake, ‘do you want to dance?’ and it’s become this really super sweet, fun, silly (thanks to Maxwell's mention 😂) and a little bit of a long story that i built up from that. i wrote it a long time ago, around the time when the chapters still took place in our new duchy. but haven't posted it. i hope you like it. there are a lot of fun surprises in it and i had a lot of fun writing it. i wasn’t going to post it, but caved lol..so here you go ;) hopefully it gives you some smiles :) please be kind <3 i’d love to know your favorite part :)

I had to break it up into two parts because it was too long lol

Tagging-i don’t know who to tag, but i pulled a few of you from my collages tag list whom I think might like this <3 let me know if you would like to be added or removed x

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’ll see, Walker,” He says chuckling a little bit.

“I know we’ve been on many adventures together, but this is a new one. We’ve never dragged around the basement of our duchy before.” I chuckle too.

We keep on walking. The hallways down here are really dark and he’s got a flashlight. I keep on expecting to feel something furry run over my foot.

“Did you hear that?” We both look at each other at the same time. It was like a loud scurrying noise.

“I don’t know what that was, but why do I feel like something’s gonna pop up any minute making us spend more diamonds.”

“What-?”

“Oh nothing..”

. .

We continue climbing and walking through the hidden tunnels. They are dimly lit and it honestly smells a little funky in here.

“We’re almost there.”

“Where exactly are we going anyways?” I say, almost loosing my footing.

“I found this the other day, and I just couldn’t wait to show you..” He gently grabs my hand as we continue walking. The ground evening out.

“Drake seriously. I think I just saw a spider over there,” He can’t help but laugh a little and in turn, so do I. “Don’t laugh, Drake” I say pushing him a little “- it was a big one!”

“I’m sure it was, Walker.”

“That’s not funny, Drake.”

“No seriously- I bet it was a big one! I saw one the other day too.”

“Ew-"

“Let’s just say that when it’s crawling on the back of your neck,” He shutters “I learned that a shout really carries down these halls.. echos, I guess you could say.”

I can’t help but chuckle.. “A shout, huh?” I say looking at him. “Yeah,” He says with a laugh. “sound carried the same way Maxwell’s did when he screamed across the hall for us to get him some food from the kitchen while we’re up.”

“Bahaha that’s not where we were headed.”

“We certainly were not.” He says with a smile, kissing the top of my head, holding me close.

“Really though, these hidden halls are even more dusty with spiderwebs than the ones back at Liam’s place.” We continue walking.

“Heh, I know. All part of the ambiance and we are almost there I think. Brings back good memories though.”

We take one more turn around the corner.

“Ok, we’re here.”

He stands in front of me, putting both of his hands on my upper arms, looking into my eyes.

“Now, listen- I know that we are new here, but this is like it was made just for us.”

“What do you mean..?” He steps aside and pushes the back door open.

No. Way.

“It’s -"

“Our very own pool room. Just like the one back when we are traveling for the tour!” He says as we step in, closing the secret door completely. I make my way over to the beautiful pool table, it’s practically shining.

He moves to the front of the room, opening up the real door. Chance and Lady Lucky come prancing in. “Hey guys!”

I bend down giving them each a little pet as they dance around my feet, clearly happy to see us.

I look around again. It’s even more beautiful than I first thought it was going to be with the lights on. ‘Wow. He really worked hard on this.’ I think to myself, beaming with pride.

The door that we came through blends in seamlessly with the wall once it’s closed.

“Drake?”

“Huh?”

“Why didn’t we just take that door to get here?” I say pointing to the obvious door to the right, past the pool table- the one that he just opened for the pups to come through.

“What’s the fun in that? “I told you I am the master of scouting out castles and all of their secrets.” He says with a smirk.

“Besides, it gives us another way to sneak off from all of the fancy dinners that we have coming our way.” He says pulling my side into his and giving me a little peck on the cheek. I will never get tired of his kisses.

“You are so right. That’s one of things I love so much about you, we even make the most boring of times fun.” I wrap my arms around his neck.

“We sure do.” He says giving me another kiss.

I take another look around the room.

“Drake this is so awesome!”

“I know, right!? I thought so too! This room even has a movie projector in the back over here, so we can sneak away and watch movies whenever we want too.”

“It’s like our very own home theater!” I say walking around the room, taking it all in. It really is beautiful in here.

“I request Princess Diaries.” I say propping myself up on the edge of the pool table.

“That’s what I figured, I know it’s your favorite, I have a few of my favorites in here too.” he says pulling out the dvd cases from next to the tv. “I also got us the day off from Royal Duties.”

“You are seriously the best, Drake Walker. How did you manage to pull this off anyways? I’ve been trying to take a day off for weeks now!”

“I just told them that we had some business to take care of and not to be disturbed for the rest of the day. But they do know where we are, for security reasons. But hey, I’ll take it!” He says chuckling. “So who cares if Mara knows where to find us..” he says rubbing the back of his neck, looking sheepishly at the floor.

“Drake!” I say getting a closer look, “This pool table looks so much like ours- well, that hotel’s that you found by the train, I mean. But I kind of think of it as ‘ours.’ You know what I mean.” I say.

“Exactly the one.” He says with a big grin.

“Turns out when you are a Duke in Cordonia you get put to the top of the call-back list. And I’ve got to say- there’s something special about it being the same one.” A huge smile lighting up his face.

“Aw Drake that is so sweet! And I totally agree. We have had some good memories with this pool table. It looks like it’s in great condition!” I say running my hands over the velvet upholstery and gold trim. Adding with a chuckle, “See there are some perks to being a fancy Duke!” nudging him. We both laugh.

“Yeah, and you.” He says. “You are the best perk of all and I’d take that title any day if it meant being with you.”

He rests his forehead on mine. I love him so much.

“I had it refurbished by a carpenter friend of mine, we worked together on it. You really like it?”

“I love it, thank you. And I love you.” I give him another kiss and lean into his embrace. He’s still got his arm around me.

“Is that a mini fridge!” I say hopping off.

“Yeah, but I haven’t stocked it yet..”

“Drake this is amazing.”

“You’re amazing.” He says right away.

“This was just a little something I could do for you after all that you do for me, for us.. I wanted to make it special for you. So once I found this place, I cleaned it up and brought it back to its former glory.”

“Thank you, Drake. This is one of the sweetest things you have ever done.” I say giving him another quick kiss. “You’ve succeeded in making your wife swoon yet again and we haven’t even played any pool yet.” I say with a smirk.

“I’m definitely glad you like it, Walker. And I definitely like hearing you be called my wife. I can see us spending a lot of time in here.”

I look around at our little family that will soon hopefully be growing. Drake has his arm around my waist. Chance and Lady Lucky have made themselves comfortable on the humongous couch. It brings a little tear to my eye. “I love you.”

“I love you too, Walker..so so much.” He says with a kiss.

“Plenty of room to spread out!” I say joining the pups, holding his hand. “This couch is seriously huge! Once our friends find out about this place, we won’t be able to get a moment alone.”

“Believe me, we’ll make the time.” He says, holding my hand.

“I’ve always liked pool, you know that,” he says rubbing the back of his neck “but playing pool with you is definitely-"

“A challenge?” I say cutting him off, leaning back a little bit to look him back up into his face, wiggling my eyebrows.

“Better. I was going to say better.”

“But you are pretty good at pool when you try.” He says laughing.

“Oh you know I’m better than ok!”

“You’re right, you kinda are.”

“Drake Walker I’ll have you know we tied on that faithful night of our pool game.”

“That’s just because you distracted me.” He says teasing with a deep but light chuckle, rubbing his chin and groaning a little.

“What was the word that you used- temptress?”

“Oh god, don’t remind me.”

“Why not, I thought it was cute.”

“Why not? Because that was one the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, to stay away from you.” I wrap my arms around his neck and straddle his lap. “Second hardest was having to sit through Maxwell’s one man show of ‘I’m a breakdancing machine: the 3 1/2 hour story of a Cordonia man’s rise to fame.’”

“No. Way. That sounds awful.” I say with a giggle. “Well you have me now so.. and oh god, please don’t let him know that I know about that. I don’t want to watch that for four hours.” I say climbing next to him and snuggling into his side, laughing a bit.

“See-second hardest thing.” He says laughing. “It started out with ‘When I was a young’n..’”

“No it didn’t!”

“I swear to god it did, longest 2 hours of my life.”

“I thought you said it was 3 1/2 hours?”

“I did, I didn’t say I lasted that long though. I told him I wasn’t feeling great and got the heck out of there!” He says rubbing his face.

“Drake!”

“What! We were like 8 and I couldn’t take another minute of those moves!”

“And get this- He reenacted the whole thing at my 23rd birthday party. Hopped up on the bar top and everything.”

“No way!!” I say sitting up and laughing a bit.

“I kid you not. Thought I’d never see that whole dreadful thing again, but there he was on the bar top doing the sprinkler. You better watch out he’s got that dance routine locked and loaded.”

We both burst out laughing.

“Omg I can just imagine him trying to do it at our baby shower or something!?”

“The things you missed, Walker- the things you missed..”

He tells me little bits and pieces of Maxwell’s one man show, that I can’t even imagine seeing in person. We both laugh pretty hard and by the time we get our breath back we sit in comfortable silence.

He tells me more stories from when he was younger. From when before I met him. I really love hearing those stories from my husband, hearing more about his childhood. We snuggle on the couch for a while swapping stories and holding hands.

My head is on his chest and my hand over his heart, gently rubbing circles on his belly and chest. It’s warm and I love feeling it beat beneath my hand in a steady rhythm while he talks to me. He’s gently rubbing his hand that’s around me in my hair. I’m snuggled into his side. We talk for hours, I could stay here like this all week.

“I remember you saying how you and your mom used to sing this song to you, so I found it on a cd..” he pulls output a shiny copy of a cd with the words “I Can’t Help Falling in Love with you- Elvis Presley ” written across the disc.

..“Do you want to dance?”

...

. Part 2 . Coming soon .

59 notes · View notes

lizzybeth1986 · 5 years

Text

Quick Thoughts on The Royal Retcon Book 1 Chapter 11

• You've gotta admit, guys. This series spends more time retconning various aspects of their original story than they do on the actual premise.

• The food fight was wild and chaotic, the background history is always welcome, seeing Jess and Blake was nice and the moonlit hot springs scene was a nice change from everything...but my head is spinning from the constant shifts, okay?

• To avoid seeing my QTs in your dash, blacklist the following tags: #trh quick thoughts, #trh qts, #trh qt reblogs, #long post.

• Screenshots:

Hana: The Abhirio YouTube channel

Maxwell: @thethots-plicken and @itsbrindleybinch

Drake: The HIMEME YouTube channel

• Title: The Prodigal Father

Alternative: Most Parents in TRR Shouldn't Have Even Been Parents To Begin With

• The last chapter ended with a surprise twist: the return of Barthelemy Beaumont, father of Bertrand and Maxwell Beaumont. We had a lot of questions. Did Bertrand know he wasn't dead? Did Maxwell not know he wasn't dead? What the hell was he doing all these years and why had he left his sons in such a horrible position?

• Turns out the writers may have taken a leaf out from a Hindi serial or something coz - drumrolls - he was in a coma!

• Why do we never hear much about this so-called illness or even have a name put to it. What mysterious illness caused Barthelemy to deteriorate so much that he was trying out miracle cures from quacks and that he ended up in a coma for years? Why were his next of kin not informed when he came out of it or while he was rehabilitating? Why the heck wasn't Maxwell telling his wife this, or Bertrand his girlfriend? There is so much about this plot that doesn't even make sense.

• How does Barthelemy remember Drake from the court days but not Savannah ("Liam and Drake, you're so grown up now! Miss Savannah, you're lovelier than your reputation..."). Somehow he knows what's been said about Savannah and about Hana's accomplishments - wait if he'd been mostly getting his body back in order, how would he know this stuff? Who is telling him this? (Godfrey?? Is that why he's so faux-patriotic around us now??? Is that his real reason for visiting Cordonia only once a year or something?)

•

In Liam and Drake's cases, Barthelemy says the same thing about how Maxwell outdid himself by bringing the MC to the House, and that she has brought prestige to the Beaumonts. It's in Hana's and Maxwell's cases that the dialogue is different. In Maxwell's it's obviously as his daughter-in-law that he greets you, and in Hana's he speaks of now having two "daughters" in his house.

• Barthelemy then gets to the more serious part of his departure - the fact that Bertrand had to shoulder the responsibilities of being Duke earlier because of Barthelemy's condition, and that now Bertrand can relax while his father takes care of things at the estate. Is that care for his son talking...or his desire for control? I'm leaning towards the second.

• I'm pretty sure Bertrand is leaning towards the second because he's looking pretty resistant about this sudden change. His bride-to-be, Savannah, in the meantime, is super happy to meet her father-in-law and son's namesake. Hah. That'll change.

• Maxwell is nervous. Because he wants his father to see how different he is now, and how responsible he has become, but doesn't know what his old man will think. Don't worry, Esther says, plan this smartly and you'll get a new Pictagram follower!

• In any case, Maxwell's friends promise to help him get through this and support him, except for Drake who thinks he can impose limits (like "no singing"), because, yknow. The universe has to revolve around his comfort zone. Must be a Walker trait.

• More Jess and Blake nuggets! You get an option to ask them how they met, and they tell you about the cruise they first worked in (and presumably where Jess' sister met Liam's brother and (optionally) married him) and how they used to butt heads often. Nice RoE nugget, too bad the writers have so far barely even remembered Liam's brother who is from that series!

•

Yeah yeah I know that Kiara is probably back in Castelserraillian like the other courtly ladies (or chilling in a hotel somewhere in Texas), but if they're all supposed to be there for the wedding Savannah might as well have included her. Not only is Savannah a stinky fiancée and a stinky person in general (not a surprise considering her family), she is also a stinky friend.

• I repeat: my MC Esther has done practically nothing for Savannah. Nor has Hana. Why are we such a huge part of her ceremony again when she already had a long-time friend from court who had actually helped her and actually cared?? Only because we're the ones on an extended holiday in her ranch? Then say that - why do you need to make such a long speech about friendship while snubbing the one woman who made a damned effort to help you? (oh...right. I keep forgetting. Kiara is only remembered when people want to use her 😒).

• At the start of the rehearsals, Savannah tells Jess about the horse-riding-to-the-altar tradition, complete with a saddle that's been a family heirloom. Bianca and Leona, apologetically, inform Savannah that they had to sell it. Savannah tries to mask her disappointment, but fails. Barthelemy in the meantime, jumps in, in what he assumes would be "saving the day" (it's not, Bartie Sr. It really isn't)

Bartie...dude...you just got here. You can't already know what'll make your daughter-in-law happy when you've only spoken to her for all of five seconds. Plant your ass at the back of the congregation where it belongs!

• The girl really really wanted that saddle, okay Bartie Sr? Allow her to grieve that lost dream ffs.

• This scene I guess is helpful because while it still places Bartie Sr rather awkwardly in the "father trying to make amends and be caring" category, it gives you an inkling of why that persona doesn't sit so well on him. Bartie Sr may assume that this is something a caring parent does, except that what he's really doing is taking over, making all the attention revolve around him, believing he knows best and not listening to anyone. Even when he's being "nice".

• That saddle is going to come back some way or other, and it's probably going to be a diamond option, for which the free option is Savannah walking down the aisle with Bartie Sr. Eh. She threw a tantrum at my reception so her boyfriend could marry her, I'm not about to get her her dilapidated saddle. She can make do with her crusty father-in-law.

(The other possibility is that [at the end of the chapter] Bertrand left the house to get it or something idk, and it might be free after all. Is it too late to ask for the entire WEDDING to be a diamond option?)

• So this exchange leads us all to the Beaumont brothers remembering their childhood. Maxwell views it all through rose-coloured spectacles, Bertrand has very different memories of that time. Which is such a change from the previous series! I mean, wasn't Bertrand the one who kept going "my father's legacy, my father's legacy", while Maxwell was the one who didn't have very good memories of that time?

I can always imagine that Bertrand's views on his father must have changed when he started taking on the responsibilities of a father himself (thus making him view his childhood as 'not normal'). And Maxwell may well have come to appreciate Bartie Sr once he began taking House responsibilities. But guess who is breaking their heads to make these "connections". Us. Not the writers. Not the team in charge of this story.

• There are two PoVs to this scene: Maxwell's and Bertrand's. Maxwell's is the one that is lighter, funnier, showing us a wilder side of his brother, Bertrand is given the meatier one, with intrigue and a hint of plot.

- We're taken back to when Bertrand's motorbike was just purchased, and the boys choose to take it for a test ride. The Bertrand shown here is kinda similar to the one in the 6-years-ago flashback in Book 1, just...younger and cuter. Apparently in the time that Bertrand was living alone in a house with Maxwell, he aged like an avocado.

- What's with using this team and using the Waverley kids' faces for the Beaumont brothers??

- Young Bertrand and Maxwell don't mind living on the wild side - taking the Cavilieri Novanta 9S on a test drive through different areas in the estate, planning how they'll debut this beauty at the Beaumont Bash and generally making a racket. Bartie Sr scolds them from the window of his office, then asks them to come up and see him there. Bertrand opts to protect little Maxwell from his father's ire by going there alone, and then telling his brother that their father is "very proud" of them. Maxwell doesn't question this (the writers have forgotten that Young Maxwell was perceptive even as a little boy, so I'm not quite buying that he simply accepted what Bertrand said at face value), and jumps instead into planning a logo for their biker jackets (he suggests a kraken and a tiger). They can also opt to have a special kraken-related handshake.

- Bertrand, however, fills in the blanks, speaking to us about what he witnessed at the office, and what actually transpired.

This conversation is the point of the whole scene, and is connected to the Young! Drake scene in the sense that Bartie Sr and Godfrey are from the Great Houses that Constantine mentions are opposing the alliance with Auvernal. While they don't tell us what has disappointed these two so much, we do get the idea that they are displeased esp with the Queen because she has somehow convinced Constantine to not agree with what the two are planning so quickly. It's very possible that their frustration with Eleanor might have gotten them involved in some way with her death, but it's also possible that there are other players involved.

- Bertrand does not focus much on this bit because Bertrand is young and his priorities are different. The interesting thing about using these childhood flashbacks for the characters is that we will always get an incomplete picture, if only because the kids' priorities are different, and for them these side discussions will always count as "adult stuff". Big, scary, too complicated to understand.

- We do get a mention of Maxwell's weight (finally!). The writers frame it as Maxwell losing his weight after his mother's death and getting his regular exercise with his brother. This we get to know by Bartie Sr's fat-shaming comment about not wanted to see Maxwell get back to his "wide suits" (Seriously. Fuck this guy).

• Hypocrite alert! Godfrey who treats his perfectionist daughter as a failure just for existing and being a girl, now thinks he can yap about "being too hard" on one's children. Go fuck yourself Godfrey Not Gao (this nickname was brought to you by @callmetippytumbles).

• The bit that's most important to Bertrand is that he tries to pass an overdue bill to his dad, and his father ignores it to concentrate on "bigger" things. Which kinda leads you to believe that the problem existed waaaaay before Bartie Sr started believing in miracle cures for his mysterious illness. In fact I'm pretty sure both those things might be fabricated.

• So that's what Bertrand is trying to tell us. That Bartie Sr expected his sons to understand responsibility when he was not exactly ready to live up to that example himself. It still doesn't make sense though, considering every time Bertrand spoke about Bartie Sr it was as if he had to uphold the same legacy, and everytime Maxwell spoke about him it was to highlight what a disappointment he was to his father...and funny enough they've now switched roles.

• Anyway, Maxwell is now more inclined to believe Bartie Sr has turned a new leaf, while Bertrand is wary. He is not wrong about the controlling aspect though, even when his dad is trying to be nice he's being a controlling ass.

• Hana comes in and comforts Bertrand, in a scene I found pretty touching. She knows plenty about controlling, overbearing parents who expect plenty from her but fail to measure up to the little that she asks of them. I love how she makes the point that, having support or company of any form, works to lessen the pain of that kind of upbringing...and she knows this because she never had it.

• The bonding that takes place between Hana and Bertrand is lovely, although it's marred by the fact that were we going by the original idea of the Beaumont brothers' lives, Maxwell would be the one she'd be comforting.

• Two bits that stood out to me were where Bertrand offered to make up for all those years of disappointment and pain that Hana suffered, by being a sort of stand-in older brother now - and Hana's response to the whole idea of mending bridges:

I love the fact that she says this even as she still maintains her complicated relationship with her mother. It's small but a lot more than she was allowed to say earlier. In Book 3, a lot of what they had Hana say to Lorelai was more for Lorelai's benefit than her own (constantly educating her and telling the family that the most important thing was that they be happy together). Her responses were centered around Lorelai's comfort, not Hana's conflict. At least here, she gets to state (while safely away from her parents) how complicated her relationship with her parents is. I just hope this is not the last time we hear about it.

• It's now time for the rehearsal dinner! Everyone's seated at a pop-up restaurant Blake and Jess have made for the wedding, and includes the courses for the special day. It's bruschetta, a quiche and the wedding cake for dessert.

•

Auntie Bitch I hope you realize that the biggest freeloaders in this house are your own nephew and niece! Drake doesn't have a job until his wedding is over (unless one counts moaning and griping while enjoying shit that his BFF has paid for, his job (oh...wait...maybe that's why "Constantly Complaining Freeloader" was listed as a job description in his Italian Restaurant scene lmao)). The other biggest freeloader is your niece, who didn't mind accepting money from Maxwell and then turned around and acted towards Bertrand like she didn't need his damn money that she was already using.

• Also for the amount of complaining Leona has been doing for her own niece's wedding she might as well have not hosted them at all. You took the responsibility, you made all the guests you were hosting do work for you and spent all your time mocking them for not having the kind of specific skillsets you grew up with. If you wanted to stay alone with your sister in this crusty dilapidated ranch where you probably don't even pay people fairly, you could have told Savannah to go somewhere else. Like Applewood. Or Ramsford idk. You couldn't even save the saddle your niece would have wanted for the wedding, and if that's not a pointer to what a failure you are, Leona, IDK what is. So maybe stop acting like you're better than the nobles and keep quiet.

• Bianca states that she has never depended on the Crown yet somehow left behind both her children whose well-being was largely being maintained from the Crown coffers???

• But also given the response to Liam I have a feeling we might have a flashback from her next chapter. While she doesn't appear as angry as her sister, there is definitely an underlying bitterness there that I think the narrative might explore before we leave Texas. Idk.

• Bartie Sr focuses his attention on us again, insisting that he is like a father figure to us. You can either firmly refuse (my favourite option), express pride in House Beaumont (which pleases Bartie Sr no end) or be polite (in which case Liam lets out a cryptic "how generous of you" aimed at Bartie Sr it one point, showing us that he's not very impressed. Hmm. Hmm.)

• Bartie Sr is being controlling again, complaining that the quiche is not an elegant main course and insisting to Savannah that she try whatever he is demanding for the wedding. He keeps saying "trust me Savannah, you'll love it!" as if he knows her tastes better than she herself does.

• Chuck tries to offer cake, and Bartie Sr in his eagerness to refuse accidentally tosses it over on Leona's clothes.

• That's kiiind of a breaking point with Leona, and to sum it all up, THIS happens:

Jess has seen and participated in utter chaos, okay. So for her to appear all flummoxed and say "it was...a lot", it really, really has to be a lot.

• My favourite parts have to be Hana and Liam thoroughly enjoying the food fight and finding it cathartic, because they're the two who most need to channel their repressed energies into that kind of catharsis. Drake and Maxwell don't feel this need as much as they do because they already have ways and opportunities to channel it.

• The fight allows both the nobles and the Walkers to meet on common ground - common enough ground that Bertrand can (if we choose) finally tell his father that he and Savannah can manage their own wedding, thank you very much.

• Funny how Bertrand is expected to stand up to his father and ensure that what Savannah wants is not ignored, yet Savannah herself never makes even a quarter of the effort that he does, in making Bertrand comfortable in her home. Why does Bertrand have to do all the work in this relationship? Why do I only see Savannah complaining when Bertrand is not doing things exactly as she wants them to be done, yet not even lifting a finger when he's the one who needs the help and reassurance? Perhaps the best option is if he becomes runaway groom.

• We get to give one (1) solitary fuck about the country we're leading when we're back in the bedroom after this whole skirmish has gone down.

• LI diamond scene! At a moonlit hot spring nearby. The scenes mostly include the mandatory admiration for the lingerie, awe at the scenery and once the sex is done, an exploration into family and children from the would-be parents.

Liam: Calls the MC a "twilight goddess fit for worship" as soon as he sees her with her lacy lingerie in the moonlight. If you've done those scenes, there's a mention of the Forgotten Falls and the Blue Grotto and how Liam has a penchant for whisking the MC away to secluded watery places. (Liam also mentions finding a matching pearl to the first one they got at the Blue Grotto, even though the writers have practically forgotten what has happened to that first one 🙄).

The MC can choose to either go fast or slow in the love scene, and afterwards, Liam wonders aloud whether all families are complicated. The MC can counter this, by telling Liam they can ensure their child never gets to the point that Bertrand or Hana have by ensuring the child has their space to be open about how they feel.

Caption: Spring Fling

Hana: The two women mostly admire each other in silence (Hana tells the MC she would simply like to look at her as the MC gives a twirl) and the MC suggests expanding the "sample size" of Hana's lingerie because Hana in the moonlight is a vision. Hana offers to massage the MC's shoulders, and speaks about wanting to get away from the chaos and check in on her. Hana wants to take as much of their alone time as possible to check if the MC is doing okay, which IMO is her way of maintaining a relationship - by giving her partner space to talk about how they feel, something she rarely had the opportunity to do. She also admits to how exhilarating the food fight was. Hana is playful and teasing in her love scene, and brings the MC to the point where she will beg for more.

Once they are done, the two speak about how being in this place is like being in a fairytale, and there's a particularly lovely line nestled in this bit:

I wished for storybooks with scenes just like this as a kid. Not ones where the princess got rescued by the prince or the knight...but where she found love and happiness on her own...and the freedom to embrace them.

It's...it's so beautiful 😭

Caption: Woodland Nymphs

Maxwell: Now obviously Maxwell has the most personal experience among the four this time, since it's his father that returned home, and it's his family that is now dealing with some tough, complicated questions. Some of that shows in this scene. It begins with Maxwell seeing the MC in her lingerie and confession he almost forgot she had them...which is a good thing otherwise he would never be able to concentrate on anything else. He speaks to her about all the things he loves about her and about their relationship - especially how much they make each other laugh. Underwater, the two let go of their restraint and make love with abandon.

The conversation that follows is the most important, exploring Maxwell's feelings about his father's return. He doesn't have a lot of memories of his father - most of it was from when he was very young, or from Bertrand's eyes. Maxwell is very happy that Bartie Sr has returned, and wants him to see how happy he is with the MC. He speaks of wanting to tell him about the social season, about marrying the MC, about his bestseller book. There is a cute bit where the MC asks whether he would tell Bartie Sr about the hippo tattoo and Maxwell seems almost terrified by that option. But overall, there is nervousness in his scene, and also hope. He definitely is invested in making his old man proud. Proving himself has always been a theme with Maxwell, and that need possibly will increase with the arrival of his father.

Caption: Blue Lagoon

Drake: Calls the MC in her lingerie in the moonlight, "art that should be in a museum". The two admire each other in their new lingerie, and then admire the scenery. Drake has brought the MC to the hot spring mostly because it was rumoured to be called "Makeout Point", and he's always been curious to see what the big deal was. The MC can point out the beauty and romantic potential of the area, mentioning that she can imagine a sixteen year old swooning if her high school sweetheart brought her there, "or a duchess, if her marshmallow brought her here". During the love scene, Drake likens her to a siren, the sex can either be rough or gentle and the MC can either take control or allow him to.

Towards the end, the two talk wonder how their child might be, who they would resemble. There's a bit of banter back and forth about how the world is not ready for their collective sass 😄 I think because Drake is the most comfortable with his own family now, that his conversations with the MC about family focus largely on his memories of good times, and on what their child will be like.

Caption: Spring Fever

• Why the hell are you guys ruining all that nice lingerie in water!!!

• After a few days, and presumably on the day of the wedding, Savannah comes to us, shocked and worried, telling us that Bertrand is gone. This could be either a fakeout leading to him trying to get something nice and romantic done for her, or his insecurities cropping up IDK.

• General Thoughts:

- As much as I'd LOVE for the twist to be that Bertrand has realized this marriage will never work and has called it all off, I know for a fact they won't let that happen. Either his insecurities have come to a head with Bartholemy's return and he needs time to clear his head, or he's gone all heroic and tried to get Savannah's saddle for her, which we then have to pay diamonds to retrieve.

- Some way or the other that saddle is going to feature.

- They'll have Bertrand do something heroic I guess so that Leona will FINALLY stop being a whiny asshole. And Savannah as usual? Will not even lift her little finger.

- I'm more worried about what Bartie Sr will be upto once he's back at Ramsford estate! Esp given that his controlling has already begun at an event as innocuous as a wedding. ALSO given that this man will be back in Cordonia!!

- We're obviously going to get more hints about our pregnancy in the coming chapter, that I'm sure we'll ignore coz we don't want to jump into conclusions like the last time.

- Hana's bonding scene with Bertrand reminds me a little of a scene in Book 2, where she speaks of how Bertrand reminds her a little of her father...in, like, a good way.

- If it turns out that Godfrey and Barthelemy were indeed involved in Eleanor's death, it will be the ultimate irony. It would mean that the present occupants of the duchies that were once undermining the Crown...are now their stanchest allies. Lucretia and Olivia's parents vs Olivia, Godfrey vs Madeleine, and Bartie Sr vs Bertrand and Maxwell. It would be a nice contrast.

- Istg if they try and make HAKIM AND JOELLE suspicious too I will literally throw hands 😡

- Jesus, the amount of retconning going on in this book. That scene would have lost nothing by making Bertrand the guy who was desperate to prove himself to his father and Maxwell the one who had mixed feelings. Having both of them overhear that conversation rather than one would have been fine too. But this is one in a looooooong list of things that the team is shifting around, believing no one will notice. Maybe I should just call this series The Royal Retcon from now on because there is more of that happening than actual babymaking!!

- I'm pretty intrigued by Liam's lukewarm reaction to Bartie Sr personally. What does he know. Why doesn't Liam tell me and why doesn't the MC ask!!

- Bartie Sr spends surprisingly little time with his own namesake, but perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised since Junior's own parents are hardly seen with him either.

- Next chapter is the wedding (if we can find the groom, that is), Savannah getting her dream entry (possibly if we pay the diamonds) and hints that we may be pregnant that will culminate in the big reveal at the end. Yay?

- I know I haven't gotten out a QT for Book 1 in two weeks but those past two weeks have been filled with lots of IRL stuff. Hopefully I'll get back to that soon.

- Until next week, folks!

#long post #trh quick thoughts #the royal heir #trh qts #king liam #hana lee #drake walker #maxwell beaumont #bertrand beaumont #savannah walker

64 notes · View notes

santoteez · 4 years

Text

The Dormant Beast - Jongho (4)

Read Part 3 HERE

Part: 4 of ?

Idol: Jongho of ATEEZ

Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Friends to Lovers

Word Count: 4,028 (I was on a ROLL, baby)

Warnings: Slight prejudice and bullying (non-racial and it’s not body shame either), swearing and shit, Mild name-calling, MC is a Black Female

A/N: I use certain names in this fic that are meant to be similar to real people. It’s just to add to the whole “post-human race.” For example, if this story takes place AFTER the human race expired, it wouldn’t make sense that someone like Lizzo to exist, right? Also, I wanted to change it up bc it’s fun lol. Anyways, Enjoy!

Jongho stood outside the restaurant, annoyed and tapping his foot rapidly against the pavement.

“Crescent would never be this late.” He huffed, glancing at his watch. How did he wind up in a date with Desire? Glad you asked.

The afternoon of Crescent’s attack on Rory, Jongho walked up to his locker to put his books away for the day. The minute he opened it, a letter slipped out. Opening it, he smiled, noticing Crescent’s loopy handwriting.

Can’t walk home together today. Decided to skip town for a while. Please, don’t look for me. Don’t stop by the house either. I asked my parents to keep my whereabouts a secret. I’m sorry, Jongie. It’ll only be a few days max. I just need to clear my head on things. Shit’s getting too crazy. I won’t be alone, Clips is coming with.

P.S. à You should go on the date with Desire. It’ll do you some good to be around someone that isn’t me. Plus, I need something funny to look forward to when I get back.

Love,

Crescent

Jongho’s smile dropped, furrowing his eyebrows. What did she mean don’t look for her? Where was she going? Why couldn’t he come?

Against her wishes, Jongho sped to her house. The door swung open before he even got a chance to knock.

“Crescent owes me five bucks.” Lunar said, stepping out onto the porch. “She had faith that you wouldn’t come looking for her at least until tomorrow. I knew better.” He sat on the porch swing.

“Of course I’d come. She’s my-”

“Your best friend, which is code for the love of your life?” Lunar glanced up, amused by Jongho’s frozen expression. “I was your age once too, you know.” He said, patting the porch swing.

“I met Solar in high school. A little late compared to you and Crescent, but that didn’t make the feelings any less real.” He said as Jongho sat down. “And when you look at Crescent, you know what I see? I see the same way I looked at Solar all those years ago. That look of longing, wanting what you couldn’t have.”

“What was wrong that you couldn’t be with Mrs. Moon?”

“…She was already married.”

“What? But you said you were in high school?”

Lunar shrugged. “It was a different time back then. When it came to marriage, it was aura over age. This guy with a super-strong aura, an elephant or something, came to her house one day. Asked for her hand in marriage, he had seen her walking to and from school and wanted her for his wife.”

“And her parents just accepted some random guy who had seen her on the street leaving a high school?” Jongho asked incredulously.

“Yes, but please remember it was a different time. Beliefs were different, and because of it, people got away with a lot of things. Of course, he had to prove he was the aura he said he was, as well as proof he could care for her and other things.”

Jongho nodded. “So, if she was married, how did you end up together?”

Lunar smiled. “We started as friends. We didn’t realize when it became more. One minute it was innocent study dates, and the next we were sneaking around behind the bookcases. Word got out that I was getting too close for comfort, and her husband wasn’t pleased. He challenged me to battle, confident that a hyena had no chance against an elephant. Well, he was right. I was beaten to a pulp. He told Solar to follow him; they were going home.”

“And then?” Jongho asked, fully engrossed in the story.

“She told him no. She didn’t want to go with him. He said she had to; those were the rules, after all. She asked him what would be the point if everyone knew she wasn’t happy. She was clearly not in love with him. She stated that he should fight for someone that cared about him. Which is what I had done. So, though it took some time, they divorced and parted ways. Divorces weren’t as accepted back then, so her family shunned her, closing her out. Embarrassed that she would divorce an elephant for a measly hyena. My parents received backlash for the whole situation as well, so they wanted nothing to do with me. We did odd jobs on the weekends, sometimes living out of motels to make ends meet. To the outside world, it seemed we had nothing. But to us, we had everything. We had each other. We graduated high school, moved here to Strongville. We had a small wedding, only inviting what few friends we had. We got steady jobs, putting ourselves through college. Months after graduation, we had Eclipse. Then came Crescent. The whole point of telling you this, Choi, is that when you want something, no matter how unattainable it may seem, you’ve gotta try. There will be obstacles. There might be consequences. Even times when it seems like you’ll never come out on top. But love will always prevail.”

Jongho sat in silence, absorbing the information. “So, that’s why Crescent never mentions her grandparents. But, Lunar, Mrs. Moon and you were on the same page back then. What do I do if Crescent and I don’t see eye to eye? I’ve tried expressing my feelings before, and she shuts me down before I even get a word out. She’s always giving me excuses for why I can’t like her, whether it’s my parents, or her aura, or the stupid hierarchy. What if she doesn’t like me back?”

Lunar chuckled. “Trust me. You don’t have to worry about that.” He said, remembering the constant teasing from Eclipse. “Crescent’s her father’s daughter. Stubborn and stuck in her ways and opinions. But if anyone can get through to her, it’s you. Don’t give up on her just yet.”

Jongho shook his head. “I wouldn’t give up on her for the world.”

“I knew you’d say that.” Lunar smiled. “So, get outta here. She’ll be okay. She has two auras, and that’s two more than she’s had all her life. Let her sort things out. She’ll be back. She can’t go too long without ‘Jongie’.” He said, repeating the nickname in a mocking tone.

“Oh, and Jongho,” Lunar called out before heading inside.

“Yeah?” Jongho responded from the walkway.

“Have fun on your date.” Lunar winked, closing the door swiftly.

Just when Jongho registered what Lunar had said, his phone rang. The contact was listed as “Don’t Answer.”

“Hello?”

“Jongho! Honey, is everything alright? I got a frantic call from Crescent. She didn’t say much but told me to call you. Did you have to talk to me?”

Jongho sighed. Of course Crescent would call Desire, knowing he wouldn’t do it himself.

“Yeah, actually. Are you doing anything Friday?”

Now here he was, dressed uncomfortably in a dress shirt and pants with his ash-colored hair gelled back, standing outside a restaurant where the prices were bigger than the portions, waiting for Desire, who was 20 minutes late.

Just when Jongho had lost all hope, Rory’s Lamborghini Veneno pull up to the curb. Desire’s Giuseppe heels clicked onto the pavement, her emerald green dress contrasting with her fire-red hair. Her smile didn’t match up with Jongho’s grimace.

“Have fun, you two!” Rory called out, raising his eyebrows in amusement at Jongho’s expression before speeding down the avenue.

“I told you to be here at 4:30 because the reservation was for 6:00. It’s 6:45.” He deadpanned.

“I’m so sorry, sweetie! I was going to make it on time, I swear but, then I couldn’t decide between the red clutch or the black clutch. The red goes with my hair, but the black goes with my shoes. So, I brought both!” She said. She squeezed Jongho’s hand when he didn’t react. “C’mon, I’m here now! Let’s go in.”

They entered and were immediately recognized and seated despite the reservation having passed. The waiter sped to their table.

“Good evening, may I start you both off with some drinks?” He asked, flipping open his notepad. “Our special of the night is the Moet & Chandon Nectar Rose, which has been chilled on ice.”

“Ooou, that sounds good, let’s have that!” Desire said, opening the food menu.

The waiter nodded, turning to Jongho. “And for you, sir? The same?”

Jongho gave the man a baffled look. “You realize we’re like 16, right?”

“Oh, Jongho honey, age restrictions don’t apply to us! We’re the future Duke and Duchess!” Desire laughed, shaking her head. “If it’s your first time drinking, I’d suggest not ordering tequila. I made that mistake last year and between you and me, I can’t remember much about that night.” She shrugged.

“So, just because we’re a little stronger than others, rules and law don’t apply to us? Then what’s the point?” Jongho sighed. “Sprite, please.”

“Are you sure, Sir? If not the Moet, we have other options that might better satisfy your palette. A Chateau, perhaps? Maybe even our prized possession, the Dom Perignon? I can guarantee our batch is the most aged, dating back to human times.” The waiter pressed, surprised at the fact that Jongho wasn’t jumping at the opportunity to drink the way Desire was.

Jongho gave him a tight smile. “Sprite.”

“Very well, then. I’ll be back with your drinks and will take your course orders when I return.”

“I can give you some of my glass to try if you’d like? That way you don’t have to order something you’re not sure you’ll like?” Desire offered.

“No thanks, I’ll wait till 21 like everyone else.” Jongho said, opening the menu. “What are you having?”

“A garden salad.”

Jongho looked up at her. “Is that it?”

“Oh, you’re right. It’s my cheat day. I’ll order some shrimp on the side.”

“Cheat day? You work out?”

“Oh no, I’m on a diet because I bought this dress and they didn’t have it in my size so I’m gonna lose weight to wear it.”

Jongho furrowed his eyebrows. “Aren’t you already pretty slim? How much smaller can the dress be? Why couldn’t you just get the dress in your size from the portal?”

“Ugh, no! Only lower auras use the portal. High auras like us should use storefronts. Plus, I’m a 4 and the dress is a 2, so it should fit pretty soon.”

In midst of the technological advances that caused auras to become a thing, the internet evolved into the Portal. The Portal allowed for a more intimate internet experience. For instance, one who may be shopping for clothes or shoes could choose to have their order shipped to their home or a storefront like in human times, or they could choose the Portal, which opens up a large egress on location. This allowed the person to then reach in and grab their item from inside the threshold. It was popular amongst the lower auras who were intimidated from the possibility of running into higher auras and to avoid higher auras from snatching things right out of their carts, which was a common occurrence. Being friends with Crescent, Jongho knew the ins and outs of the Portal and even frequented it himself.

“There’s nothing wrong with the Portal. You can shop right from home, in your pajamas or the middle of the street and get your things right then and there.”

“Exactly, but higher auras are to be seen. Not hidden away at home.” Desire said, as the waiter came back.

“Still better than starving yourself into oblivion,” Jongho said, shrugging. “Are we ready to order?” he asked her.

“Yes! I’ll have a garden salad, hold the dressing, croutons and cheese. And an order of steamed shrimp, hold the cocktail sauce.”

The waiter nodded, turning to Jongho.

“I’ll have the top sirloin steak with roasted potatoes.”

“Will that be medium-rare?” The waiter asked, writing everything down.

“Uh no, well done, please.”

Desire scrunched up her face. “Well done? You’re killing the animal all over again, Jongho.”

“Well…it’s gonna be on my plate so, I hope it’s dead.”

“Where’s the flavor in that, Jongho?”

“The seasoning? Anyways, sirloin, well done, end of discussion. We were already late so I’m pretty hungry. Can we move this along?”

“Yes, right away, sir! Your orders will be expedited.” The waiter said, rushing off to the kitchen.

“Did you learn to eat well-done steak with Crescent? Even your parents don’t eat it like that.” Desire asked.

“How’s that store you opened last year doing, Desire? Is it seeing profit?”

“You’re changing the subject. You don’t wanna talk about her?”

“I finally took you out on a date, which is what you’ve wanted me to do for the past three years, so I’m confused as to why you would,” Jongho said, twirling his salad fork coolly. “So, about that store…”

Desire sighed, sitting up in her seat. “It’s going well, a lot of sales in-store and online, we received a purchase from Teyoncé. You know, the singer with the eagle aura?”

Jongho nodded, impressed. “I’m sure you’ll have members of the Teapot flooding in from all over to buy your products now. They idolize her so much, they follow every trend she portrays.”

“I’m excited. If we continue selling at this rate, we can open up another storefront.”

“Do you offer Portal?” Jongho asked as their food was placed in front of them. He thanked the waiter, cutting into his steak.

“Why would I do that?” Desire asked, annoyed that they were once again discussing Portal.

“Well, you’re targeting the Teapot. You know how many fans Teyoncé has? She comes from a long line of performers, starting from her great-great-great-grandmother. She has fans everywhere, from Strongville to Freehold to Cherrynight Valley. Surely, you can’t expect everyone to come to one store in the middle of Strongville?”

“Anybody who’s somebody will make it. Those who can’t will miss out.” Desire said.

“And the one missing out on money will be you. Exclusivity is for companies with seniority, like the brand on your feet. People are gonna see what it takes to even buy from your store and give up when you can easily offer Portal and have your brand all over the world. Or is Portal beneath you?”

“I just don’t think someone of my caliber should have to settle or beg for sales by lowering my standards.” She retaliated.

“What if Crescent was a fan? She can’t just walk into your store, especially with the way you’ve treated her and her reputation amongst your friends, also your fault by the way. Someone like her would need Portal. Imagine what would happen if word were to get out that you don’t even accommodate for people right here in your town? That’s the thing, though. When you become an entrepreneur, you have to be money hungry. Imagine all the sales you could be making this very minute if you activated Portal.”

The conversation died down, the pair eating in silence. Jongho set his utensils down, finishing his plate rather quickly. He sighed. He’d definitely need to stop at Patty Queen on his way home. The portion was nowhere near enough; he would need at least a burger to be full.

“What do you see in her?” Desire asked suddenly.

“Huh?” Jongho asked. He had heard her but wanted to buy himself some time before having to answer.

“Do you know how much I’ve done to catch your attention? I wear the best outfits, watch my figure, always have my hair done. I’ve wanted to dye my hair so many times, you know why I never did? When we were younger, and I was getting picked on for how bright red my hair is, you defended me. Told me that it suited me, and that I didn’t have to change it. So now, even when I want to change it, I don’t. Because you liked it the way it is.”

“That’s the problem, Desire. You’re always doing things to impress me. Impress others. Haven’t you ever thought I’d like you much more if you were just yourself? That’s what I like about Crescent, to answer your question. Someone living without an aura for that long, especially being scrutinized by the likes of you, would’ve broken down at some point. Not Crescent. She stood her ground, even when she knew you could crush her. She’s seen as weird for liking things like true crime and poetry, but that doesn’t stop her from watching documentaries or geeking over underground poets. She’s unapologetically herself, always. Doesn’t mean she’s perfect, but she’s real.”

Desire laughed humorlessly. “She’s got you wrapped around her little finger. Pathetic.”

“Now I’m pathetic?”

“YES. You’re pathetic! You could have this entire town eating out of the palm of your hand. You could be getting bottle service, Ferragamo shoes, thousand-dollar threads, the best of the best! But you walk around in Converse and Levi’s just like that inferiority! You’re sitting here drinking a Sprite when you were offered Dom Perignon. You’re eating burnt meat and running the school passively when you can easily be treated like a King with me by your side. But instead, you treat everyone kindly like they were your equal. All because of that chick. What’s she got that I don’t? It’s certainly not money or strength. I’m tired of being overlooked by her. I’m so sick of it. Grow up, Jongho.”

Jongho stared her in the eye, silent at first. Then, what started as a chuckle turned into a full-on cackle.

“What’s so funny?” Desire asked.

“You know, it’s so fitting that you’re a wolf aura. I don’t think I’ve ever met a bigger bitch.” He said, taking out $200 from his wallet and throwing it onto the table. “Tell the waiter he can keep the change. I’ll see my pathetic ass out.” He said, getting up.

“Oh, before I go.” He turned back around. “I already wasn’t interested in you romantically, but after today, you can forget about this whole Duke and Duchess narrative. I wouldn’t marry you even if there was a gun to my head. And all that whining you just did? The one that has growing up to do is you.” He said, walking out of the restaurant to his car.

“Crescent, Crescent, Crescent.” He sighed, unlocking his car door. “You owe me big time.”

Meanwhile, Crescent panted, leaning against a tree. She’d been training with Eclipse all day long, same as she’d been doing since Wednesday.

“Come on, Crescent. Again.” Eclipse said, sweat dripping down her neck and into her sports bra.

“I told you, Clips. I can’t activate the tiger aura on command.”

“And I told you, AGAIN. In order to activate your aura, you must become one with the animal. You have to feel it. You can’t just clap or jump and become a tiger or a seal. It has to stimulate your senses.”

Crescent sighed, momentarily regretting bringing Eclipse along. The older girl had done nothing but boss her around day in and day out, attempting to train the younger girl aurally.

Crescent closed her eyes, envisioning a seal in the middle of the ocean. She felt a rush of warmth against the frigid breeze.

Lunar and Solar owned a log cabin on the outskirts of town, at the beginning of the woods. It was far away enough that Jongho couldn’t sniff them out, but close enough to rush back home in case of an emergency.

Crescent opened her eyes, the usual dark brown replaced by a dark abyss, similar to that of a seal.

“Good,” Eclipse said. “Now, the tiger.”

Crescent took a deep breath, envisioning a tiger in a vast grassland. But, just like all the times before, the tiger was laying down in the grass, fast asleep. Nothing Crescent did woke it up.

She shouted in frustration. She envisioned it perfectly. What was she doing wrong?

“Okay, let’s take a break. Maybe it’s having an off day. Could it be the climate?” Eclipse asked, taking a seat next to Crescent. “But, tigers and cheetahs are kind of similar, and I can activate my aura out here just fine. But it’s okay. We’ll figure it out. Together.” Eclipse pulled Crescent in for a hug.

Just then, Eclipse’s phone rang. Crescent rolled her eyes. Her phone had been going off nearly every hour since they had reached the cabin.

“Can you stop answering your booty calls? Just for ONE night?” Crescent sighed.

Eclipse smirked. “Why? Am I making you miss Jongho? Maybe he can come over after that date you forced him to go on. I heard from Rory he took her out after all. Still don’t know why you made him take another girl out.” She said, typing something into her phone.

Crescent huffed, looking away at the mention of Jongho. The truth is, she wanted to be sure Desire didn’t stand a chance. She felt that Jongho never gave much thought to the idea of him and Desire because Crescent was always around. So, she decided that isolating herself and putting them both in a situation without her would be the only way to know for sure where Jongho stood. It was a weird, convoluted plan, but Crescent wanted to be positive her feelings wouldn’t be met with heartbreak. If she returned and they were together and in love, she’d keep her feelings to herself and move on. If not, she’d confess once and for all.

“Okay…don't be mad.” Eclipse said, pulling Crescent out of her thoughts.

“No. You’re NOT leaving me here alone again tonight.” Crescent glared at her sister.

“It won’t be the whole night! Jared is a jackrabbit aura, I’ll be back in like an hour tops! And that’s if I stroll!”

“Eclipse, gross! And still, no!” Ever since Eclipse turned 18, Crescent was plagued with hearing about her sexual endeavors with nearly half the graduating class. And, being the blunt person she was, Eclipse held nothing back. There are people Crescent couldn’t even look in the eye anymore after hearing her sister’s stories.

There was an awkward silence between the two, until Crescent saw the amber glint in Eclipse’s eyes.

“Eclipse, I swear to everything I love-”

Crescent couldn’t even finish her sentence before a gust of wind ran through Crescent’s curly, auburn locks.

“ECLIPSE!” Crescent shouted, smacking her hand against the bench in frustration.

And that’s when she felt it. The tiger suddenly jumped up in her envisioning, running rampant. Crescent took off too, her eyes turning a bright amber. But something was different this time. A cheetah appeared next to the tiger. The two cats ran in unison, their astral projections blooming from Crescent’s chest like sun rays. She had the speed she needed to reach Eclipse, and that she did.

Once she was close enough, she pounced at the older girl, the strength of her tiger aura allowing her to overpower the cheetah aura of her sister.

“Why. Do. You. Keep. Leaving.” Crescent gritted through her teeth.

“Crescent. Your aura activated!” Eclipse exclaimed, completely disregarding her sister’s death mission. “But, how did you catch up to me? Tigers are fast but no way are they fast enough to reach cheetahs.”

Crescent sighed, falling back onto the dirt. “Because I’m using both.”

“Woah, wait, what?” Eclipse asked, puzzled.

“The tiger is awake, and the cheetah is right next to it. They ran together, and that’s how I was able to catch you.” Crescent said, describing the envisioning.

“Crescent, did you just hear yourself? Not only do you have THREE auras, TWO of them work TOGETHER. I’ve heard of multiple aura holders, but never have I ever seen anything like what you just did. Double aura? Dual aura?” Eclipse shook her head. Her phone rang again. She fished it out of her pocket, silencing it.

“So, if not even you know what’s going on with me, what happens next?”

“That’s the scariest part, Cres. For the first time in my life, I don’t know what to tell you.”

Stephie here! Don’t wanna make this longer than it already is, but just checking in. Jongho finally told Desire off, is anyone relieved? Anyways, please look forward to the next chapter. Happy Reading!

#ateez #ateez fic #ateez fanfic #ateez jongho #choi jongho #jongho #kpop #kpop fic #kpop fanfic #kpop fanfiction

5 notes · View notes

madamebaggio · 5 years

Photo

Chapter 4

“It’s awfully kind of you to walk us, Ser Davos.” Lucy smiled at the man, who had actually offered his arm to the girl.

Edmund rolled his eyes, while Peter hid a grin. Trust Lucy to charm their jailers in under four minutes and make him feel he was being nice for escorting them when it was his job.

Susan might be the diplomat of the family, but Lucy was naturally trustworthy and people just flocked to her.

“I am worried about Susan.” Edmund admitted from his right.

“King Jon will treat your sister with nothing but the utmost respect, Lord Edmund.” Brienne informed him earnestly.

“Believe me when I say, lady Brienne, that I do not wish to say I don’t believe in you.” Peter replied honestly. “However, I am the eldest brother of two beautiful sisters. I don’t like when they’re with men that I don’t know and trust.”

Brienne nodded like his answer made perfect sense for her. Of course, she didn’t know that Peter wasn’t just being overly cautious. He was still suffering with the regret of all the events that led to Susan’s kidnapping, not long ago. So was Edmund, for that matter.

“Don’t worry, lad.” Tormund, the redheaded brute, called. “Snow might as well not have a pecker anymore, since he doesn’t use it.”

“Tormund!” Davos bristled. “We have a lady present.”

“Beg your pardon, little lady.” The burly man said directly to Lucy, but he didn’t look repentant.

“He gets too close to my sisters he really won’t have a pecker anymore.” Peter grumbled.

“Peter!” Lucy chided. “He’s our host, and this isn’t polite.”

“You’ve been learning from Sue, Lucy.” Edmund grinned. “The haughty tone is exactly the same.”

The youngest Pevensie showed her tongue to her brother.

Ser Davos had a bemused look on his face as he looked at the siblings, but he once again became serious when they came to the solar.

Peter entered first and found Susan standing there. She had that look on her face, one that he knew meant she’d been taking them all to school, showing how much of a Queen she was. Peter was always amused to see her putting people in their place, he just wasn’t sure it was an appropriate thing right now.

“Susan.” He stepped close to her, his hand going to her back. “Are you alright?”

“The King has been nothing but courteous, brother.” She smiled kindly at him, and Peter knew she was being sarcastic.

He gave the other man a look. “Your Majesty.” He nodded.

“Actually, it’s ‘Your Grace’.” Susan informed him.

Peter arched a brow at his sister, but turned to the man again, this time bowing. “Your Grace.”

The King took the four siblings standing in front of him. “Would you introduce me to your siblings, my Lady?” He asked of Susan.

“Should I spare you a lot of time, or would you like to hear their titles as well, my King?” She said with that frosty politeness.

He heard Edmund turning a snicker into a cough, but the King never replied, he just arched a very expressive eyebrow.

“This is my youngest sister, Queen Lucy, the Valiant, Duchess of Ferny Hills, Healer of Wounds and Dame of the Most Noble Order of the Lion.” She indicated Lucy, who curtsied prettily and smiled.

“This is my younger brother, King Edmund the Just, Duke of Lantern Waste, Count of the Western March and Knight of the Noble Order of the Lion.” She put her hand on Edmund’s shoulder, who had stopped by her left.

“And this is the eldest of us.” She nodded towards Peter. “High King Peter the Magnificent, Emperor of the Lone Islands, Lord of Cair Paravel, and Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Lion.”

“Aslan also calls him Sir Wolf’s Bane.” Lucy offered.

That gave them all pause, and Susan sighed. “Lucy, their sigil is a wolf.” She pointed at the obvious banner behind the King. “That wasn’t assuring.”

Lucy looked properly embarrassed. “I am so sorry, Your Grace.” She hurried to say. “That was awfully tasteless of me.”

Susan sighed once again. “These are my siblings, Your Grace.” She finished, and Peter almost smiled at her disgruntlement.

The King finally chose to rise to his feet. “I am King Jon Targaryen.” He informed them. “I don’t have so many creative titles, unless I decide to use the old ones.”

“We can always go back to calling you Lord Crow.” Tormund offered from behind the siblings.

The King ignored the big man. “Welcome to Winterfell.”

“It is an honor to be here, Your Grace.” Peter offered. “Has my sister explained what happened?”

The King nodded. “About other worlds and Spring.”

“And how we aren’t married.” Susan offered to Peter.

“Married?” Lucy repeated shocked. “But we’re siblings!”

“Apparently it isn’t much of an impediment here.” Susan commented.

The King gave her a look, like it wasn’t the first time she’d been a bit insolent in his presence, which surprised Peter, because normally Susan was beyond courteous. Still, this was his sister, and no one would look at her like that.

Peter took a step forward, putting himself between the King and Susan. “Did you come to an understanding with my sister, Your Grace?”

“She offered your services.” The King informed him.

“Have you accepted it?”

The King nodded. “We’re waiting for my Maester, so you may know the people that run Winterfell.”

They waited in a tense silence for two minutes, Peter never daring to take his eyes off the King, until the door opened and a fat man with pink cheeks and a woman came in.

“Sam, come here.” The King called the man. “This is Sam Tarly, he is our Maester. His wife Gilly is my cousin’s handmaiden.” The King said.

The Pevensie siblings curtsied to both.

“Ser Davos is the Master-At-Arms of Winterfell.” He indicated the older woman. “Lady Brienne is part of the personal guard of my cousin. Tormund is the representative of the Free Folk in the North.” The redheaded man grunted his agreement.

The King turned to the two women behind them and they came closer. Peter had kept his eyes on the man the whole time, so this was the first time he actually paid attention to them.

He wasn’t sure how he had missed the redhead at first, but Lucy would probably say it was because he was an idiot.

He’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his life. Her hair was like a river of fire and her eyes were two sapphires. He was pretty sure he was staring.

“These are my cousins.” The King informed them. “Lady Sansa is my Hand, and Lady Arya, my Captain of the Guards.” He indicated first the redhead, then the brunette.

The siblings once again bowed in respect.

“So you’re married to which one?” Lucy asked cheerfully.

Jon looked at her, like he wasn’t sure if she was making a serious question or being sarcastic. “Neither.”

“Oh.” She looked confused for a minute. “But I thought you married your siblings here, so marrying your cousins must be pretty normal too.”

“Lucy!” Susan called appalled.

The younger girl blushed deeply. “I am sorry!”

Tormund was guffawing. “I like the little lass.” He declared.

“Who are they?” Susan pointed at the two people who’d been on the back of the room in silence.

The King looked like he’d just remembered about them. “This is my cousin, Bran Stark, and Lady Meera Reed.” He informed them simply.

It didn’t explain anything, much less the vacant look in the boy’s eyes. Was he sick? Did the family hide him away, for some reason? He didn’t even look at them as he was introduced; Meera was the who did, and she just gave them a quiet nod.

However, if Peter was honest he didn’t understand any of those titles, though he could deduce some of them. But what was a Hand of a King?

“Lady Sansa will get you rooms for tonight.” The King informed them. “Tomorrow we’ll make better arrangements. I would like to see you all at the training grounds early in the morning, so we can access how your abilities might help us. Later Maester Tarly can appraise you to the situation in the North.”

They all nodded. It was a bit more than they had expected.

“Your Grace…” Lucy took a step forward. “I do not wish to abuse your generosity, but what of our weapons?”

“No weapons until I know I can trust you.” The King replied immediately.

“This is a fair assessment, Your Grace.” Lucy started again. “But I have just one thing to ask of you. Those weapons are precious to us, very much so. They kept us safe and were a special gift from someone. Keep that in mind when you keep them.”

Jon studied Lucy for a minute, before nodding. “This is acceptable, my Lady.”

“Thank you, Your Grace.” Lucy bowed perfectly, a smile on her face.

“I shall take you to your rooms now.” Lady Sansa declared. Even her voice was pretty. “At this time we only have two chambers available. We have many lords staying at Winterfell now, so we’re lucky to have these two.”

“We can share.” Edmund assured her. “We shared a lot of tents during battles.”

“I am staying with Sue, because both of you snore.” Lucy hurried to say.

“We do not!” The brothers protested at the same time.

Lady Sansa looked amused by the display. “Follow me.”

The four siblings curtsied to the King one last time before following the redhead. They saw that Lady Arya and Brienne were following them, obviously guarding the woman.

Peter was trying to stop looking at her, but it was impossible. She was immensely gracious, a true lady. Sure, he’d seen other woman that were gracious –Susan was a perfect lady –but, Sansa had something different, steel beneath the velvet of her skin, strength hidden under…

Susan elbowed his middle and gave him a look. He was caught.

Sansa stopped in front of one of the doors. “Here is one room.”

“Go on, Sue and Lucy.” Peter told them gently. “We’ll talk tomorrow.” He dropped a kiss to each of their foreheads and watched as they entered the room and closed the door.

A guard was posted there, and lady Brienne whispered some order to him.

“Follow me.” Sansa said to Peter and Edmund.

They didn’t have to walk much until they were standing next to another door. “Thank you, my lady.” Peter told her.

She just nodded at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow. You should rest.”

“We will. Sweet dreams.” Peter bowed to her.

She arched a brow, but just nodded at them as they entered the room.

Once the door closed behind them Edmund snickered. “So suave…”

Notes: Someone is halfway in love already, and someone else is going to be a bit more stubborn about it... hahahaha

And I had a lot of fun coming up with more imaginary titles for the Kings and Queens of Narnia... hahahah

Let me know your feelings!

#madame baggio #fanfiction #CrossOver #Crossover Pairings #game of thrones #The Chronicles of Narnia #jon snow #Sansa Stark #Arya Stark #bran stark #susan pevensie #lucy pevensie #peter pevensie #edmund pevensie #OOC #jon snow x susan pevensie #peter pevensie x sansa stark #gifs not mine #the spring that thaws winter

42 notes · View notes

vrexrobo · 5 years

Text

Okay so here’s all the stuff I got though in no particular order because I have a bad memory. Cut because I didn’t expect it to get so long

- The Gaim soccer movie. Pretty average I think. I thought it was cool that Peko had something to do but I hate that Gaim made Kurokage into a generic grunt suit because then it looks silly when the Riders have it and it looked especially silly that Hase AND Peko had the same suit. Overall not bad though

- All four Gaim Gaiden movies. I watched Zangetsu and Baron first because I thought I should save Knuckle for last but that ended up being a bad decision. Zangetsu was pretty okay, although I did lose my shit when Takatora’s dad turned out to be the guy who played Philip’s dad in W. Baron was better than I expected mostly because it focuses heavily on someone who isn’t Kaito. Duke was pretty boring but I liked that they used pomegranate and dragon fruit. Knuckle was TERRIBLE and I’m so tired of Gaim characters like reminiscing about Kaito. I could make a whole post about how much I hated Knuckle

- Wizard/Gaim movie war. The Wizard section was really nice and it’s been quite a while since I watched Wizard so it was nice to see everybody again. I liked how Haruto left Koyomi’s ring inside his Underworld so he could do something meaningful with it and allow himself to move forward. After the nice Wizard content the Gaim section is about all of the Riders fighting for other people’s entertainment to win some lockseeds and then they go to an alternate universe where warlords with Riders are fighting to unite the country. Kaito meets Nobunaga and decides to try to unite the country himself because he loves power and stuff. I hate Gaim. The one really nice thing about this movie was the surprise guest appearances. I knew Kengo was in this movie but I had no idea about Date, Akiko and Terui. I also liked how Haruto and Nitou said some of the Wizard opening’s lyrics to each other. Anyway the Wizard section was good and the rest sucked

- Mega Max, which I started ages ago and never finished so I started it over. The famous Shoutarou/Gentarou scene remains the best thing that’s ever happened in Kamen Rider. Anyway this one was really good

- All the little Drive Type: specials like High-Speed and Lupin. Mostly pretty forgettable but the TV-kun one was very funny and it was neat how there was a little mystery to solve

- Drive Episode 0. It was okay, not especially memorable imo

- Gaim/Drive movie war. Pretty boring but pretty typical movie war stuff. I did love Gaim backseat driving though, that was very funny. Gaim’s final form still sucks. Not much actual fun crossover stuff so not great

- Drive Surprise Future. This one was pretty good and also had some amazing new suits

- Heart/Mach saga: the Heart one was SO GOOD. Also you can come after me for my bad taste I guess but Kamen Rider Heart is amazing. I also really liked the Mach one but it was very upsetting to watch Gou’s neck get snapped. His new powerup in this one was also very good and I loved how Gou was telling the girl that he was also the child of a monster and they can overcome that. Also mom Kiriko!!!

- Chaser saga: VERY GOOD but I hate amnesia endings and I don’t think it needed any naked women lmao I did really enjoy it though. It was very funny

- Drive/Ghost movie war. I mostly enjoyed this one! I hated Takeru yelling at his younger self and telling him to be a man and stuff though. I did really like the way this one was structured though, because it was a crossover the whole way though instead of a Drive segment, a Ghost segment, and then a small crossover so we actually got some cool interactions like Akari and Rinna. I thought it was hilarious how when the portal appeared and Takeru immediately went for it even the Drive characters made a grab for him. Shin putting the ring in the ground so Kiriko would get it in the future was SO CUTE. I did kind of hate how Chase just shows up like “I was revived too” and Gou like barely reacts and then he disappears after the battle and no other Drive characters even got to see him. Also there were a few characters that only got like a three second cameo. The biggest disappointment though was that they only had 3/4 of the Renaissance artists that the Ninja Turtles were named after (admittedly though it was very funny that Leonardo da Vinci attacked with swirling Mona Lisas). I didn’t realize I had so much to say about this movie. I probably should have made a separate post

Kamen Rider Brain. I can’t believe how good it was, especially for being so short. They packed so much plot into these. PLUS there were cameos from some very good villains like Cancer from Fourze and I loved that one guy teasing Brain because his gun is a repaint. I didn’t realize the episodes were going to be so short and when I did I was scared the Heart and Medic part was going to be disappointing but it wasn’t and now I’m ready for Kamen Rider Medic to complete the trifecta. Plus ACTUAL DRIVE PLOT AT THE END??

Oh I guess I also never said I watch Heisei Generations Final. It was amazing.

#guess i can tag #zoom zoom #orange you glad I didn't say banana #i don't have a ghost tag :/#maybe just #ghost liveblog

1 note · View note

sodapopstyles · 6 years

Text

the girl

calum hood x reader

I cannot explain the love i have for this song (or for calum) ps. i miss blonde streaked cal

11:30 pm: are you still calling tonight?

12:23 pm: cal i’m sorry but i can’t stay up any longer :-(

12:45 am: i hope you had a good time performing and im sorry i couldn’t be there! be safe tonight i love you

Calum felt like proper shit. Not only because of the amount of alcohol he had consumed at the club last night (how many shots had he taken last night?), but also because he had broken his promise to you. He knew something was wrong from the second he woke up (and it wasn’t just because he was 30 minutes late to an important band meeting) and saw a few texts scattered over the course of last night on his phone. Sure, you didn’t sound upset in your texts, but Calum knew you. He knew you’d probably stayed awake for a little while longer, checking in with the boys to make sure he was okay, because that was the kind of person that you were. In a world of give and take, you had only ever wanted to give.

He had promised you days ago that he’d call after the concert last night, especially since it was your two-year anniversary, but the promise slipped his mind at the mention of free drinks and karaoke at a club nearby. Calum swears he didn’t mean to forget; he just got busy was all. And he was busy this morning too—which was why he still hadn’t responded to your messages. He was currently supposed to be helping the boys write some new songs, but how was he supposed to do that when he knew he totally fucked up? He knew that you were probably an anxious mess right now, thinking that you had done something to make him upset. So now his phone was burning a hole through his jeans pocket, and all he wanted to do was talk to you; tell you it was nothing you did, he just…well, he just was a piece of shit. His mind was a mess of what-ifs and scenarios of you leaving him (rightfully so, he was an absolute dick after all), and all he could think about was how he had passed up a night of talking to you for a damn club. He was hit with a sudden fog of missing you, and he excused himself to go to the “bathroom”, where really, he went to the quietest room he could find. Slipping his phone out of his pocket, he quickly dialed your number and put the phone up to his ear, his gaze falling to a chipped piece of tile on the floor. He toed it nervously, hoping your sweet voice would coo through the speaker. It rang once, twice, three times—then went to voicemail. God, he fucked up.

“Hi babe—I uh, I really need to talk to you. Call me when you get this? I love you.” Clicking the red end call button, Calum ran his hand through his hair, his body slumping against the wall. Guilt flooded his veins when he thought about you waiting for a call that never came. His fingers tugged at the ends of his dark hair, frustrated with himself. Maybe it didn’t sound like that big of a deal, but you deserved more than the world, and he couldn’t even give you half of that.

There was no way in hell that Calum was going to be able to concentrate on song-writing right now, so he slid down the wall into a more comfortable position. He tugged on a loose thread around the rip in the knee of his jeans and aimlessly scrolled through the various social media apps on his phone. His eyes were glazed over as he watched the thousands of pictures scroll past on his Instagram feed, not really paying attention to the actual pictures. He had just stopped scrolling, deciding to switch to another app, when the picture that he had stopped on caught his eye.

It was a picture of you and Duke together, the puppy curled up against your side. Calum stared at the picture, noticing it had been posted an hour ago. But the caption. The caption was what made him suck in a breath, his heart stuttering painfully in his chest.

Even my phone misses your call, by the way.

It hadn’t really been that long since he’d called you, right? He quickly pulled up his phone log, not really believing that it had been that long since the two of you actually spoke on the phone. His heart dropped when he looked at the date of the last phone call. It had been over three weeks ago—over a month since there had been any real communication between the two of you, minus a text here and there. Calum quickly dialed your number, praying that you would pick up. But again, one, two, three rings—and then your voicemail. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

He really was the worst.

How had the time slipped that far past him? How could he have forgotten about you? When he left, he had promised you that he’d always come back to you no matter what. That he loved you, and he’d talk to you as much as he could. At first, there was a phone call every other day. And without realizing it, those every other day calls turned into once a week calls, and then tapered off into nothing. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard your giggle, or your adorable sleepy voice, and the way it would get soft and syrupy before you were about to fall asleep. A dark wave of loneliness suddenly crashed down on him, threatening to swallow him up whole.

You were his best friend, the person he could share anything with, and he loved you. Oh God, he loved you like a moth loves a flame. He could never tire of you, never be bored with who you were. A life without you would be like…Calum didn’t even want to think about that. With him being mildly famous, it was rare to find people who actually cared about him as a person, but you did. You never asked for expensive things, even though he had told you whatever you wanted was yours. At most, the only material thing you’ve asked for is postcards from his travels, and that was simply because you wanted to see the different places his dreams were taking him to.

Calum knew from the moment he met you that you were something special, and when you had stopped to tie your sparkly pink balloon from the fair around the little girl’s wrist (she had been traumatized after a goose came up and snatched her cotton candy out of her tiny fist), he swears that’s when he fell in love. You always took care of other people—strangers even, and it warmed his heart from the very beginning.

The ringing of his phone pulled him out of his reverie, and he sat up a little too quickly, banging the back of his head on the wall behind him. Calum’s hand came up to cover the tender spot, his fingers circling around the aching area, trying to soothe it, while his other hand cradled the phone to his ear. The rings on his fingers clicked against the back of his phone case, and if he was standing, he would have stood on trembling legs. His entire body was buzzing like a livewire with nerves (and excitement) at the prospect of hearing your voice, finally.

“Hello?” Calum was breathless, both anxiety and a craving for your voice gripping him like a vice.

“Hi.” You said softly, not a trace of the hardness he thought he deserved in your tone.

“I’m gonna start off by saying that I am so, so sorry. I didn’t even realize—”

Your sigh was sad and desperate. “That’s the problem.”

“What?”

“That’s the problem Calum! You didn’t realize, and—and I didn’t realize. Not until last night. We’re drifting apart.”

Calum stayed silent, a mix of something akin to fear and dread and hopelessness burned through every nerve ending in his body. You continued. “Cal, I love you okay? I really, truly do.”

“Why does it sound like there’s a ‘but’ coming?” Calum whispered, swallowing nervously.

“But this is getting to be too much,” you said, your voice cracking, “and it’s just—it’s not fair. I’ve been waiting my whole life for someone like you to show up and whisk me away into a life where I actually mattered, and half the time I don’t even get to see you. I’m so in love with you, and it…it hurts.”

“I’m so sorry. You have no idea how much I wish I could be there for you…with you.” Calum breathed, truly meaning everything that he was saying to you. A sudden sob on the other end of the line tugged at his heartstrings, causing him to hesitantly ask the question he had been dreading all day. “Are you going to leave?”

The line was quiet, and then a harsh sniff. “What?”

“Are you…all I want is for you to be happy, that’s all I’ve ever wanted. And if this isn’t—if I’m not making you happy, then you can—”

“I’m not—fuck, I’m not leaving you Calum.”

It took a minute for Calum to answer. “Okay.”

“Baby, I swear I’m not leaving. I’m just a bit frustrated is all…I don’t—I wouldn’t leave you just because things got hard.”

“I think I would be totally lost without you.” He said quietly, letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“I know I would be lost without you.” You said back, just as quiet. “Where do we go from here?”

“I don’t know. I’m home in,” he paused to check his calendar, “14 days. I think we should—”

“Please don’t say start over. I want what we have right now in this moment, but with more talking. You—you have no idea how much I missed your voice.”

“I’m sorry…I’m so sorry that I was drifting.”

“Please don’t do that again, you scared me. I thought…I thought I was going to lose you.” Your voice wavered slightly, and Calum closed his eyes. He knew you were crying, and it hurt, it hurt to know that the cause of your tears was his doing.

“You’ll never lose me. I’m yours to keep, forever and always.”

“I love you Cal.”

“Marry me.” He blurted out suddenly.

“What did you just say?”

“I know you sacrifice so much for this relationship to work, and I’m so lucky that I found you. You have no idea how much I love you, and I—I want to spend the rest of my days loving you endlessly. Of course, I’ll get a ring and—"

“Yes.” You said quietly, so quiet, that he didn’t hear you at first.

“Propose to you the right way and—wait. You…yes?”

#calum x reader #calum hood #calum #calum hood imagine #calum imagine #calum one shot #calum hood one shot #calum hood x reader #calum au #calum t hood #calum hood preference #calum hood au #calum x you #5sos #5 seconds of summer #calum blurb #calum hood blurb #calum hood oneshot #calum oneshot

812 notes · View notes

madaboutmerlin · 6 years

Text

Merlin Writer Month: Round Up

Hello Merlin fans! It’s hard to believe, but here we are again at the end of another week! Thank you to all who participated during this third one! There have been some really great recs! We hope you’ve enjoyed recommending and/or reading and connecting with others who love this great fandom!

As a friendly reminder, please make sure to use the tag #MerlinWriterMonth2018 when tagging your posts for this month.

This post, as per the usual, will go from largest quantity rec’d to the smallest, so as to make it more tidy.

Without further ado, here we go!

MERTHUR:

1. Footballers Don’t Dance by Tari_Sue

Summary: What else is a footballer supposed to do at the end of his career other than enter Strictly?

Words: 47,531

2. No Strings Attached by leahholmes12

Summary: Who knew it would be so comfortable hiding in the closet while your boyfriend fights with his wife, wearing his boxers and smelling like sex? In Merlin’s defense, Arthur hadn’t been wearing his wedding band that night at the bar. But sex isn’t the only reason why Arthur’s seeing Merlin… One of Dr. Arthur Pendragon’s secrets will change Merlin’s life forever. Rated for infidelity, drug abuse, and explicit sex.

Words: 17,560

3. Making Other Plans by digthewriter

Summary: Life is what happens to us while we are making other plans.

Words: 12,920

4. You Only Live Twice by storyforsomeone

Summary: Agent Arthur Pendragon is the best double-0 the agency has ever seen, trained and honed to be MI6’s finest weapon.He does not need a voice in his ear telling him how to do his job. He does not listen to stubborn geniuses who apparently had no sense of self-preservation and enjoyed baiting professional killers.He certainly does not fall in love with quartermasters with haunting blue-gold eyes and an irritating habit of saving his life.(Or the one where Arthur is 007, Merlin is Q, and they’re both still idiots.)

Words: 226K

5. A Question of Honour by schweet_heart

Summary: It took a few seconds for this to sink in. When it did, Merlin felt as if he’d been repeatedly hit over the head by a blunt object, and had to clutch at Arthur’s shoulder for support. “Are you telling me you’re a virgin?!” He squeaked, his voice reaching a pitch that was probably only audible to bats and a handful of dogs.OR: Arthur is getting married, and there are certain things he wants to know before his wedding night. Apparently, Merlin is the only one he can ask.

Words: 10K

6. The Catalyst by Val_Creative

Summary: Merlin will never die. Time has withered him to a standoffish, hollow mimicry of what he has once been. The boy who wore his smiles with pride and genuine feeling.The worst part is he never truly lives, not until destiny spits Arthur Pendragon back out.

Words: 218,982

7. Mr & Mr Smith by Detochkina

Summary: Merlin Emrys is used to living life on the go. As an agent for the Agency of Magic, Merlin’s days are consumed by travel, exotic locations, and battling a faceless rival – an officer from the competing Bureau of Corrections, who is always hot on his heels and ready to one-up him. When Merlin is sent on a mission to Las Vegas to secure a powerful artifact, he allows himself one night off. Just one, because he bloody deserves it. Drinks and foreplay lead to a bet with a hot financial advisor he just met. Merlin ends up as a newlywed. Oops.

Words: 101,837

8. Merlin’s Just A Fast Learner by a_fuck_it_kind_of_lifestyle

Summary: A mysterious sorcerer saved the army of Camelot at Camlann, but more than that, he saved Arthur Pendragon. Upon returning home, Arthur discovers the errors of his ways, and vows to correct his father’s wrongs. He starts by lifting the ban on magic. But he realizes to fully understand the new world, he needs a court sorcerer. So he asks his most trusted friend to learn magic. Merlin, being an idiot, said yes. He quickly finds out that hiding his knowledge of magic while doing magic is almost as hard as hiding his deep unending love for Arthur. Arthur is still an oblivious idiot in every aspect of his life besides Uther, and doesn’t realize that he’s in love with his obvious sorcerer friend Merlin.

Words: 12K

9. Fire and Filigree by CreamMoon

Summary: For ten years Arthur is the youngest son of Sir Ector and Lady Evaine. When the lady of the household dies in childbirth that all ends, and he becomes an indentured servant to work off his debt of “ten years of care”. Ten years later he’s at his wit’s end catering to the household’s demands. But then a series of events set in motion by an aggravating Fae, a well meaning Knight, and an annoying stranger turn his world upside down.

Words: 20,688

10. Two Halves of the Whole by Fiery_archer_lav3nder_p1x1e

Summary: In a world where Alphas and Omegas are seen as sub-human, treated like animals, and isolated from the world, two boys find each other. The world may not see them as anything, but to each other, and the rest of their kind, they’re a beacon of hope. They’ve survived years in a system that looks only to obliterate those with their special capabilities, but once they find each other, they take their lives back…. together. Who knows what this could mean for the world.

Words: 82,171

11. The Dragon of Avalon by darklydreamingdoctor

When Merlin is wounded at Camlann instead of Arthur, the two journey to Avalon in a final attempt to save the sorcerer's life. Once there they receive help from an unexpected source... with unexpected consequences.

Words: 26,474

12. It’s a Safeguarding Issue by Guessimaclotpole

Arthur Pendragon is a 23-year-old NQT preparing for his first year of teaching Music to international students at Durham University; and he is all kinds of stressed and nervous. So, when cocky northerner Emrys ends up dumped in his class, his first year of teaching becomes anything other than what he’d expected.

Emrys Smith is a 20-year-old talented local student who has applied for the music course at Durham University with a full scholarship, and with pressure from his Mother. He was the only local student to pass the entry requirements and on his first day he is thrown in with the international students. There he meets his lecturer, Arthur Pendragon, and fresh meat is always the easiest target.

After a horrible event takes place, Arthur and Emrys form a bond which they can’t allow to become anything more than a standard Teacher/Student relationship- but Arthur learns of Emrys’ dark background and can’t help but feel tenderly for him.

Only after Arthur pushes Emrys away does he realise he’s head over heels for his student.

Words: 48,871

13. down came the lightning on me by ladililn

Plot twist: it turns out Arthur doesn't have any problem with Merlin kissing guys if it's Arthur he's kissing.

Words: 11,731

14. Knight of the Temple by rotrude

When Edessa, a city and county conquered during the first crusade, falls to Atabeg Zengi, Pope Eugene II pleads for the start of a new expedition. Meanwhile Norman knight Arthur Pendragon is faced with the prospect of an arranged marriage. The only way out for him is joining the brethren of the Temple. It's in the Holy Land he meets the mysterious Merlin.

Words: 33,435

15. King & Lionheart by Bohemia

For someone with so many secrets, Merlin doesn't think he's very good at lying. So agreeing to discuss his friendship with the Prince of Wales at University as part of a televised documentary is probably not a good idea. Juggling magic, Royal protocol, suave (and persistent) Dukes, a Princess with attitude, and a serious amount of coursework was only the start. Oh and then there was Arthur himself. Yeah, probably shouldn't mention much about that...

Words: 263,877

16. We Need to Talk by schweet_heart

Arthur and Merlin work together. They also used to sleep together. That was a long time ago - but now Arthur wants Merlin back.

Words: 23,400

17. As the Tide Comes Tumbling In by Polomonkey

Merlin never thought that being a politician's husband would make him a target. But then he's kidnapped by two men looking for Arthur's attention and finds himself trapped in a living nightmare.

Words: 4,540

18. Song of Runes by Plutonia

When Arthur confronts Morgana in the throne room, hearing the name 'Emrys' for the first time in years has his mind reeling. He gave up on finding his soulmate long ago. Now he's supposed to believe that not only is it an old man, but also a sorcerer?

Words: 10,938

19. Rebuilding a Stone Circle by TheLadyCassandra

After Merlin reveals his magic in an ambush. Arthur's choices and Merlin's fierce loyalty mean that the way ahead will not be easy.

Words: 19,849

20. The Cold Light of Morning by Clea2011

Uther had plans for Arthur. They didn't involve him choosing his own omega. They certainly didn't involve him choosing a servant for that role.

Words: 26,598

21. Modern Merlin AU by V_L_G_4200

Inspired by tumblr posts by 'katiemcgrath'

"Almost got arrested." "What?? Why?" "Punched the Prince of Wales." "Was he angry?" "I don’t know. Gave me his number." "You going to call him?" "Nah, gonna post it on Twitter."

Words: 6,720

22. A Song of Life by fancyh

Canon divergence from episode 5x03: The Death Song of Uther Pendragon. What would have happened if Arthur overheard Merlin and Uther, if he found out about Merlin's magic then?

Words: 8,224

23. You wanted to get lost in the woods by Miledh

Arthur cuenta los días esperando que sea el momento de regresar, pero antes de poder reunirse con el joven mago, el legendario rey deberá demostrar una vez más lo que hay en su corazón.

Ávalon es una tierra de magia y mitos, y el bosque es profundo más allá de los árboles.

« I found you, and it was magical. Then you wandered off into the woods and never come back. I tried yo find you again, but you didn't want to be found. I looked everywhere, but you walked away and I lost you. »

Kayden Lomahan

Words: 10,665

24. Little Talks KnownAsEmrys

Merlin lost the three most important people to him and unsurprisingly he has a hard time adjusting to it. He loses his job and he no longer has anywhere to go when his apartment building gets torn down. Luckily, Arthur, the man he's only met twice, and who is adored by their mutual friends, has a spare room. Or,

In which Merlin needs a place to stay and his friends decide to move him in with the rich workaholic he barely knows.

Words: 57,893

25. and we'll be glowing in the dark by destroyerofhearts

Every Christmas throughout his childhood until he moved out of home, his father had always set up his Christmas themed model train and town set. A wave of nostalgia rushed through Arthur as he admired the little building that held many fond memories of Christmas with his family growing up. Rifling through the box next to the first one he’d open, he revealed the train and its tracks, buried underneath several Christmas lights. And it was in that moment that inspiration struck.

In which Merlin is the grinch, Arthur is a real Christmas enthusiast, and Christmas light competitions are most definitely a thing.

Words: 2,246

26. More Than A Feeling by staymagical

P.I. Arthur Pendragon has always considered himself good at his job, relying more on his gut instincts and intuition than his mediocre skills at spell casting and half-assed illusions. But it's enough and he gets the job done, more or less. A woman asking for his aid in tracking down her missing daughter, a familiar no less, is just another case in his books. Until it isn't.

Merlin Emrys hasn't known much in life, happiness perhaps as a child, then the dark shades of society and cruelty bled through as he got older. At 25, he's used it by now. It comes with being a familiar in a witch dominated world. And in the dark underbelly of the city where he resides, he has little choice in how he wants to live. Only whether he survives.

Purely by chance, they stumble upon each other and together, end up discovering the sinister secrets of the city's underbelly.

Words: 6,311

GEN:

1. Rend and Rebuild by PeaceHeather

One wrong move in the heat of battle changes everything. Merlin is a sorcerer, and Arthur has stabbed him.

Words: 103,598

2. Do You Feel Like a Young God? by onceandfuturewarlock

When Merlin's magic is discovered by the last person he ever would have expected, he soon finds himself a pawn in the most twisted, dangerous game he's ever played, no way to win, and no way out - unless, of course, he changes the rules.

Words: 22,038

3. Stronger Than by NotNecessarilyInThatOrder

“I said I was dying.” Arthur sighed.“I don’t have time for this.” “Would you have had time to retrieve my corpse?” Merlin thought, then nearly smacked himself when Arthur’s expression made him realize he’d spoken out loud. Could Merlin have told the truth if Arthur had been willing to listen that morning? What would that mean for their future? For Morgana's?

Words: 38,034

4. The Siege Perilous by CarverTwain

Druids came for Hunith's son long ago. Years later, a man named Emrys and his apprentice are captured as Druids in Camelot. But Emrys strikes a deal with Uther: as long as the King allows Emrys to live as a political prisoner in the dungeons, the Druids will stay far away from Camelot. Uther agrees. Hated and feared, Emrys works to gain the trust of his jailers.

Words: 26,781

5. A Sea and Four Centuries by MDJensen

In which Lancelot and Aramis wake up in the wrong beds-- and the wrong countries, and the wrong centuries.

Words: 13,613

6. Knowledge does not mean Understanding by Selene467

In a time when Merlin's magic is outed and accepted -something he never thought possible months ago- Arthur is shown that despite knowing how strong Merlin is, he doesn't fully understand -comprehend- just how powerful he truly is. A dangerous conflict in which Merlin all but sacrifices himself to save everyone else, shows Arthur that there is far more to Merlin than he thought possible. Gaius wasn't kidding when he told Arthur that Merlin was the strongest sorcerer ever to have lived.

Words: 13,147

7. A Criminal's Burial by gecko818

Upon awakening in a strange castle with no memory of the last week, Arthur learned that not only had he been recovering from poison, but that Merlin was responsible for the betrayal. Unfortunately, the boy was reportedly killed by Arthur's own sword and left to rot. Little does he know, the story is a mere ruse to conquer Camelot.

Words: 34,761

8. The Right Thing by AithuzahFic

Merlin jumped when Arthur spoke.

“He didn’t deny it,” he said, his voice low and cool.

“I’m sorry?”

“He said he loved her and would never hurt her, but he never said it wasn’t true.”

Words: 3,734

9. Silence Cuts Loudest Through the Chaos by 1917farmgirl

Kidnapped by a mad king, Arthur and Merlin must rely on each other like never before. While Arthur struggles with choices that put his heart and duty at odds, Merlin struggles just to stay alive after being stripped of his magic and freedom. With impossible choices and heavy secrets weighing them down, can they manage to escape before all is lost?

Words: 73,213

10. The Truth of Who We Are by Marie_Iliea

Set into the wall, a brazier evenly spaced between them, were words, each with the imprint of a hand below it, and a pair of footprints set into the floor below that. Loyalty, Strength, Courage, Servitude, Magic, Nobility, Humility, Authority, and Discipline. Merlin recognized the riddle right away, having met the dwarf during Arthur’s quest. He knew three of the names, three of the matches — and it terrified him. What would the others make of him being Magic? He shivered, a thrill of fear running down his spine.

Or: When Arthur and the knights go hunting, but events take a predictably unusual turn that exposes Merlin's magic to them all -- and then it all goes, quite literally, to the Otherworld.

Words: 6,501

11. Some Things Are Meant to Be by 1917farmgirl

For Merlin, having the world fall apart around him was nothing new, but having someone there to help him pick up the pieces afterwards unfortunately was. Until it happened twice, with two very special people who appeared in his life when he most needed saving.

Words: 6,720

12. Conversation with a Goldsmith by Signal27

Arthur has commissioned rings for his new knights that helped him take back Camelot from Morgause, Morgana, and the immortal army. Along with the rings, he learns a history that his father never told him...about a dragonlord that helped put his father on the throne. Balinor. Post season 3. Arthur figures a few thing out, but keeps it secret.

Words: 46,594

ARWEN:

1. The Three Guineveres by CyberQueens

It probably was too much to expect, that a royal wedding in Camelot could ever go on without trouble, doppelgangers, ghosts and an attempted assassination. And only about half of it was Merlin’s fault this time.

Words: 93,517

2. The Peasant King (and His Noble Queen) by CyberQueens

Arthur, long-lost illegitimate son of Uther Pendragon, enjoys the simple peasant’s life, in a simple village, as he worries about simple things. That is, until the day Merlin comes to make him king. Elsewhere, Guinevere, descended from a great and noble family of equally great and noble standing, mourns her father, and the fact that he left his crown to her brother.

With peace and stability in Albion resting on an alliance between their kingdoms, the two of them are a match made in heaven – in everyone’s opinion but their own, of course.

Words: 37,168

3. A Matter of Pride by WoodlandGoddess1

Arthur gazed down at the photograph of his uncle for another moment and then looked out at his wife once more. He let her blatant bisexual pride flood through him and fill the cavern of his chest. He raised his chin and squared his shoulders as he made a decision that could change his life as he knew it:

He was going to the pride festival.

Words: 34,555

4. Living with Merlin by rubberglue

Gwen needs a place to live and Merlin needs a house mate. It's (almost) perfect.

Words: 21,937

5. Not Your Everyday Arthurian Fantasy by sophielou21

Gwen gives Arthur the shock of a lifetime when she tells him she is pregnant. Deciding to keep the child, they embark on the difficult task of telling their friends and family members the news - and leave a path of chaos in their wake.

[Originally posted on LiveJournal in 2010, under the title 'One Morning On Wednesday' following a prompt on the then-Arthur/Gwen community Camelot_Love, posted by a friend. This is a tongue-in-cheek reimagining of BBC Merlin's Camelot set in a modern alternative version of Britain - or Albion - today.]

Words:15026

6. Above The Law by JustineofQueens

Arthur and Morgana Pendragon are Albion's finest brother and sister detectives who work alongside attorneys Elyan and Guinevere of Leodegrance & Leodegrance Law Firm, putting away Albion's worst criminals. But one criminal has eluded them thus far. Myron Crook.

Words: 112,149

7. The Other Princess by Funny.Bonez

When Morgana runs away after finding out she is to be married to the prince of Camelot, it is up to Gwen to step in and take her place. But with all the twist and turns that life has to offer, can Gwen really handle marrying Arthur? Or will she run to? AU

Words: 79,355

8. Marriage by Agreement by sportyshuie

Arthur’s a womaniser and wants Gwen in his bed by all means, including marrying her through cheat and gamble. Gwen loathes Arthur yet succumbs to the loveless marriage for her father. But destiny mentions Arthur’s first wife will die and only his second will bring him happiness. And Elena is waiting in the wings. Read as the drama unfolds … will Gwen die or will she live?

Words: 165,122

9. Forbidden by Thepinkhouseowner

He’s a world-famous actor, she’s just a simple costume designer for the film he’s starring in. He likes blondes, fake boobs and good times. She is gentle, genuine and quietly beautiful. Not even a one night stand could ever happen… could it?

Words: 71,612

10. Desperate Measures by niklovr

Speculation fic. Guinevere fears that Morgana's enchantment has affected her fertility. So she considers magic to help her produce an heir. Meanwhile, Arthur's investigation into sorcery will lead him to question his greatest ally. Will include Merlin, Gaius, the Knights, & maybe Morgana. Spoilers: 5x06, 5x07, 5x08, and 5x09.

Words: 56,706

11. The Wife by tudor-rose445

As the wife of the prince Gwen knows that she is destined to one day rule beside him. Yet the road to the throne will not be simple. The second entry in "The Once and Future" series.

Words: 45,843

MERWAINE:

1. The Price of Eight For One by dancingpenss

The soulmate words were seemingly the one form of magic Uther Pendragon could not best. Merlin has never wanted hers; they are sure to be a great deal of trouble on top of being a warlock. After all, soulmarks are a type of magic, and she has eight.

Words: 45,877

2. the one where everybody finds out by nanwashbrad

A series of shorts about how the people of Camelot found out about Gwaine and Merlin.

Words: 3,598

3. If I Had a Heart I Could Love You by SolarMaga

Given Merlin’s track record he felt himself quite justified in his brutal crushing of any romantic feelings, no matter how vague. Besides, Merlin had a destiny. He had to keep a close watch on Arthur, how could he do that if he was too busy being in love?

Compared to Merlin, Gwaine opened his heart wholly to anyone willing to peek within, that didn’t mean though that any one person held his heart. No, Gwaine left himself open to any but never let anyone in long enough to take root.

Merlin refusing to accept that he might possibly have romantic feelings for anyone. Gwaine can't quite figure out why he keeps thinking kissing his best friend until he does. Poor Lancelot is left shaking his head at the two of them. So what if the Perfect Knight tries to push his friends into each others arms? Someone had to do it.

Words: 11,792

4. Endless by MumblePhantomFox

Although Merlin would've liked to have thrown in the towel, what he wanted to be an end was only yet another beginning. And with new royalty making waves, magical threats continuing to surface, and a new generation to protect, Albion has no intention of letting him disappear anytime soon.

Words: 5,641

5. A New Day by Hershey_chan

"Loving Arthur was, without a doubt, the most painful thing Merlin had ever endured...

As Merlin stood in front of an applauding crowd, wearing fine robes to match the new title of Court Sorcerer that Arthur had bestowed upon him with Queen Guinevere at his side, Merlin wondered why he was still alive. He had completed his destiny, hadn’t he? Now he had no purpose. For some reason, it seemed natural to Merlin that people died because they had finished what they were placed on this world to achieve. Why else would it be fair that all of Merlin’s loved ones had died saving other people, which they must have been destined to do?

But Merlin was not dying. He felt in perfect health, and thanks to his protection spells surrounding the castle and the whole of Camelot, he would not be killed in some kind of attack. Merlin looked first at Arthur’s beaming face, then at Gwen’s, then turned to survey the room of happy people. He felt sick."

With his destiny completed, countless loved ones dead, and his love for Arthur unrequited, Merlin finds himself lacking the will to live. Gwaine tries to give him a purpose again.

Words: 19,557

6. The Traveler and The Servant by MagicLovesStrength

Gwaine met Merlin months ago, but never expected to see him again captured in Cenred's dungeon, bound to the floor with chains. He knows they have to get out, before Cenred can harm them both, or kill them.

Words: 2,537

BALINOR/HUNITH:

1. The Merman and the Maiden by LittensTinyMittens

Hunith Faber is Uther Pendragon's Personal Assistant. She hates her job, but the pay is decent, at least until she can find another one. Due to their office being under repairs, he is working from his massive mansion, and she is joining him.

She never expected to find a merman in his huge aquarium.

Words: 6,729

MERWEN:

1. love takes you in by queervampire

"It wasn’t my fault!" Merlin defended, while Gwen just pointed to him and said, "It was his idea!"

The baby in her arms gurgled with amusement.

(The one where Merlin and Gwen become co-parents, Morgana plays matchmaker, Arthur is clueless, and magic druid babies make everything better.)

Words: 10,501

FREYLIN:

1. stolen moments by daisy_chains

It is on rare occasions, when the sun burns brightly and magic thrums melodically in the air, that Freya manages to slip away from her watery grave to join her lover for a few stolen moments.

Words: 5,436

LEON/PERCIVAL:

1. You're My Home by ThexBrokenxMirror

Nothing is as it seems to be in Camelot. People are starting to get sick with what they are calling the 'Illness'. Soon they are going to learn that Morgana isn't the only one they have to fear. Especially when this enemy is something they've never seen before.

Words: 15,907

MERLIN/LANCELOT:

1. Starting the End by Uniasus

When Arthur and the knights walk out of the Lake of Avalon, Merlin's not sure what to think. He's seen some awful things, but Arthur's arrival hints that what's to come could be worse. Sadly, Merlin has no clue what it is.

And on top of that, they no longer work as a unit. Merlin's relationships with them all have shifted, partly because they all now know he has magic, partly because in the modern world he's a million more times successful (and has the cash to prove it), and partly because in the roughly two thousand years he's been walking the Earth he's spent lifetimes with the individual knights, come to love each and every one, and they don't remember.

Words: 26,265

MULTIPLE:

1. Let Them Go And Fade Into Light by Lion_owl

After the victory at Camlann and the death of Morgana, Queen Guinevere has lifted the ban on magic and Camelot is thriving – but with a new threat looming on the horizon, Arthur and the other fallen knights must return considerably sooner than Merlin anticipated; and they have a surprising ally by their side

Words: 3,347

#merthur #merwaine #arwen #merwen #freylin #wip week #roundup #merlinwritermonth2018

11 notes · View notes

ciathyzareposts · 5 years

Text

MUD1: Drying Up

I’ve been playing MUD1 solidly since my last post, and I think I’m finally getting to the point where I’ve explored most of the game. There are still a load of things I haven’t discovered a purpose for, and a few areas I can’t get to, but I’m pretty sure I’ve experienced the bulk of the game. I have some time off work coming up, so I reckon that I’ll be able to wrap this game up with one more post.

Because MUD1 is so large, and I’ve accomplished a lot in the last week or so, I’ll break up what I’ve done into smaller categories.

The Mausoleum: I have to give a special shout out to commenters Brian and Voltgloss, who gave me some hints that allowed me open three of the six tombs in the mausoleum. The various riddles are shown below:

The answer to the north tomb’s riddle was indeed ‘one’: if you begin with one rat, of course you will only have one at the end. This was the first puzzle I (okay, Brian) solved, but I did have a fair bit of parser trouble while figuring it out. I tried all sort of variations of SAY “ONE”, or just “ONE” in quote marks, but the correct method was just to type ONE with no other command or punctuation. This opened the tomb, and inside I found a sceptre and a gold filling.

The south tomb’s riddle was a cryptogram, which Voltgloss helpfully decoded for me: “A monument has a relief painting with three shepherds pointing at a tomb. Beneath it are eight letters. What are they?” A spot of Googling revealed that this was a reference to the Shugborough Inscription, a mysterious sequence of letters carved into an 18th century monument. Nobody is sure what the letters mean, but they read OUOSVAVV. Sure enough, typing that in opened the tomb. I didn’t find anything inside though, which was a genuine disappointment. I don’t think it matters really, but more on that below.

The southwest tomb’s riddle is very clever, and again it was Voltgloss who alerted me to the answer being searchable via Google: the numbers refer to the birth dates of John Wayne (the Duke), Queen Latifah, and Elvis Presley (the King). The answer then is Prince’s birth date, which is June 7th 1958 (or 6758). Based on this riddle, it seems as though the riddles are updated periodically, because I very much doubt that Queen Latifah was relevant when MUD1 was first created. Even Prince might have been a stretch.

Finally, the southeast tomb was the only one that I figured out myself. I didn’t actually solve the puzzle, I just reasoned that if I kept typing out locations in the wilderness I’d hit on the answer eventually. It took a while, but the answer was RUIN.

You can see how many points any treasure is worth with the VALUE command.

Normally I’d be annoyed by the nature of these puzzles: two of them require a decent amount of research, and knowledge that exists outside of the game world. This is the sort of thing that breaks the verisimilitude of a game, but it works better for me here than it would in a lot of other games. Maybe it’s just that they’re not critical puzzles; you don’t have to do them, they’re just there as obstacles hiding some treasures.

There are still two tomb riddles I couldn’t solve, but I’m not fussed about it. Every time I’ve been back the contents of the tombs have been different, so I figure that it’s randomised, and I’ve probably seen whatever’s in them.

Inside the Badger’s Sett: I had previously found a badger’s lair in the forest, but when I tried to enter the badger stopped me by trying to claw my face off. I finally went back, and I was able to get in. I’m not sure what made the difference, but maybe it was that I was higher level than the last time I tried. Inside I found a chamber with a magnifying glass and a belt buckle, both worth points when dropped in the swamp. The lens had a message that I’m pretty sure commemorates a former player who passed away in 2015.

The room description mentions that treasure can be stored safely in the sett, and that the badger will guard it. Maybe that’s why I couldn’t get in before? Perhaps the badger only allows the first person inside to enter, or the first person to store some treasure there?

The Graveyard: I did some poking around on Richard Bartle’s MUD1 site, and found a map of the graveyard. Following it led me to another tomb, and a silver cross that I was able to swamp for some points. I wasn’t able to open the tomb, but I was given this clue “A prise will open the tomb”. I can’t think of any items I’ve found that would suffice.

The Mine: Looking over my notes, I saw that there was a shed in the mine that I hadn’t unlocked and investigated. Inside I found a pickaxe (good for mining tin ore from certain mine areas) and a safety lamp. The lamp is a handy item: it replaces the flaming brand, which has a tendency to explode in certain areas (most notable the swamp). Unlike the brand, it has a time limit, as once the wick is burnt out it can no longer be used. I haven’t found a way to replace the wick, if it’s even possible.

Also in the mine are some narrow cracks that can only be explored if you’re not carrying anything. This includes light sources, so these tunnels have to be navigated in the dark. I went in, carefully mapping the various exits and rooms, hoping I’d eventually get to a lit area. I never did, and I’m pretty sure I explored every possibility. Obviously I’ve missed something here.

The Dwarf Realm: Quite a while ago I’d made it through the mine and into the dwarf realm, only to be immediately killed by a dwarf (what else?). This time I was armed with an axe and some extra levels, which meant that I could kill those dwarves with impunity. There were about half a dozen roaming around, as well as a golden eagle that very nearly did me in.

About to murder some dwarves. Wizterm, the program that I use to access MUD1, logs every single game you play as a text file, so I grabbed some images from there because I’m terrible at remembering to get screenshots.

The realm itself was little more than a large cavern with some forested areas and a fortress. At the top of the fortress there was a gate that I was unable to open. A clue read “Drop the key on me and I shall open”. I had the key with me, but no amount of dropping could get the gate to open. I wonder maybe if I had to drop it on or give it to a dwarf, or maybe the eagle? It’s something else for me to try.

The Cellar: Previously I’ve mentioned that the cellar under the house is crawling with nasty rats. After gaining a few levels and arming myself with the axe I was able to head down there and clear the place out – I swear there were over a dozen, and you can only fight them one at a time. There are two exits from the cellar. One leads into a coal bunker, which will explode if you go in with a brand. The bunker is filled with more rats, and a piece of anthracite which can be swamped for points.

South from the cellar is a tunnel with soft, earthy walls. You have to be careful navigating this tunnel, because the walls will collapse with one wrong move. You also can’t turn around to go backwards once you’re inside, as the tunnel is too narrow. It leads to a chamber that’s underneath the woodsman’s hut, containing a moose head and a marble pillar. The pillar is valuable, but it’s also too large to get back through the tunnel. I remembered that there was a space for a moose head in the hut though, so I went back there and hung the head on the wall, which opened a trapdoor in the floor. I was then able to get the pillar out and swamp it for more points.

The Attic: Also in the house is a cupboard with a stepladder inside that seemingly led nowhere. The ladder was too heavy to move, so I figured that there must be a way up from the cupboard, but every time I tried to climb it I was asphyxiated due to its cramped confines. Eventually I figured out that this was due to the flaming brand, as I was able to climb the ladder safely once I had the lamp. It still didn’t lead anywhere, until I climbed it with the cupboard door closed. This opened a secret door, and I was able to get into the attic.

The attic is a treasure trove. Inside I found all sorts of stuff: a candlestick, a doll, a painting, an issue of “Micro Adventurer”, a cricket bat, the fabled “Goat Cup” (whatever that is), and a violin. All of these are worth points. There’s also a trapped chest that kills you if you open it, but that can be swamped as well if you just take the chest without looking inside. Alongside all of this is a canvas bag, which greatly increases your carrying capacity. Getting into the attic was definitely worth it, but the problem was getting out. You can’t get in without closing the cupboard door, but you also can’t open the cupboard from the inside. The game flat out tells you that the only way out is to wait for another player to open it. In 2019 this is a much less viable option that it originally would have been. Instead I dropped all of my stuff, quit the game, restarted, and went back to the cupboard. I was then able to open it and claim everything, which probably would have been harder back in the day when the game would have been full of other players scrambling for treasure.

The Attic. It’s a lot to take in all at once.

The Wrecked Ship: In my last post I mentioned that I had found a boat, and using it I was able to head out into the ocean to the wrecked ship. The ocean is somewhat dangerous: a shark that’s difficult to kill is swimming about, and if the weather gets rough you’re likely to get killed. There are a few useful items to be found on the ship: some earrings in the crow’s nest, some silk and a raft in the hold, as well as some gunpowder and a fuse. There’s a wafer that can be eaten to restore some health. The captain’s logbook has some cryptic clues that seem to involve a wizard.

From the crow’s nest I was able to see two islands, one to the south and another to the northwest. A chart in the captain’s cabin has incomplete directions for getting to the northwest island, so I gather that one will harder to reach. I’ll try to explore them before my next post.

The Goblin Lairs: With a weapon, a key and some levels I was finally able to wipe out all of the goblin lairs and raid their treasure chamber, where I found a gold plate, a flute and a bracelet. Past the goblin lair I found an area with two rooms and some sliding panels. One of the panels I couldn’t move, and another caused a force field to appear and block me in. I have no idea what to do here.

Not far from the goblin lairs I had previously found a cannon, and now I had some gunpowder and a fuse. Together with a platinum sphere that I used as a cannonball, I was able to use the cannon to blow apart an especially sturdy door. Behind the door was a magical fountain, which gave me loads of points when I jumped in. The water turned yellow, and I was tempted to take another dip, but caution held me back.

Blasting my way into the Fountain Room.

Following another tunnel out of the goblin lairs led back around to the gate near the idol. I wasn’t able to open it from this side either, but at least I knew where it led now. In this area I found a brass ring, but due to a mysterious force I wasn’t able to lift it.

Also nearby was a guardroom, wherein I found another axe, a die, and a carpet. The die increased in value depending on the number that came up when you rolled it, but constant rolling is a risk because a 1 will kill you. The carpet is magical, and when you unroll and ride it, it transports you to the temple under the yew tree.

Under the Yew Tree: With the lamp I was finally able to fully explore beneath the yew tree. As I probably mentioned before, there’s a tree you can chop down with the axe, opening up some tunnels below. I’d been there before, exploring some temple chambers, but there was one tunnel that I hadn’t been able to get past with the flaming brand due to some very dry and flammable roots. Cue the lamp, and a new area to explore.

This tunnel lead to a large chamber, with three branches. The southern branch led to a room with a barrel full of reddish liquid, and another room with muddy walls. I wasn’t able to figure out what to do here, although emptying the barrel did give me a description of the water running away and soaking into the walls, so I gather that has something to do with it.

The west branch leads to a steaming pool, with a pendant on the far side. Crossing the pool is deadly, but it can be frozen with an icicle that can be found not far from the temple. The pendant, of course, can be swamped for points.

The east branch is the most interesting, and potentially the most deadly. The first room has a vicious wolf, which might have killed me had I not remembered the wolfsbane in the garden (which you might recall drained my score quite significantly when I tried to smoke it). After a quick trip I returned and fed the wolfsbane to the wolf, which killed it. The rooms beyond were all scorched with fire, and I started to suspect a dragon might be present. Instead, they ended at a fiery pit, that served seemingly no purpose. As I’ve discovered, there’s very little in this game that’s just for show, so I figure there’s something to do here that I haven’t figured out.

Killing the wolf. That number in square brackets lets you know when your score has been increased.

So that’s my progress for the last week-and-a-bit, which feels pretty significant now that I’ve typed it all out. The ultimate goal of the game is to become a Wizard, but with a requirement of over 100,000 points I’ll probably skip it. I’m currently an Enchanter, with a score of around 7,000. I’d probably be able to reach the Wizard level with some perseverance; instant deaths don’t wipe your character, and most of the battles aren’t a problem for me anymore. Other players are the only real danger left. Even so, if I do try to go for Wizard it’s going to be on my own time. The blog must progress.

Here’s a list of the most obvious loose ends and mysteries that I’d like to take another stab at solving before I finish up:

The gate in the tunnel leading from the beach

The gate in the Dwarf Realm

The northwest island

The southern island

The sliding panel rooms

The brass ring

The tunnel that’s guarded by an ogre

The tomb in the graveyard

That’s a decent amount to go on, and I’m thinking now that this game might have more left to offer than I had thought. Regardless, my next post will be my last for MUD1. It’s time to wrap up the next few games, and get out of 1978.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/mud1-drying-up/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

1 note · View note