#he really was just completely unhinged before the apprentice huh.

[yourlocalbutcher]

#yogscast tekkit #lalna #he really was just completely unhinged before the apprentice huh.

[albatris]

GUESS WHAT TIME IT IS

IT’S RAPIDFIRE UNDERTOW CHARACTER RUNDOWN TIME YEEHAW LET’S GO

YOU CAN READ IT IF YOU LIKE

the setting: who the fuck knows

the time period: who the FUCK knows

the premise: amnesiac youth acquires a magically-enhanced sentient truck that runs on stories. because of reasons, she then embarks on a weird cross-country roadtrip, meeting equally weird people and investigating strange phenomena and curious magical goings-on. there is a ragtag gang of misfits and some world-saving involved also. and some dogs. yep

important caveat: this entire story is just my self-indulgent daydream universe. literally the entire thing? just for funsies. it’s my catch-all for ideas that don’t fit elsewhere. it’s my ridiculous worldbuilding melting-pot! it’s an excuse to string whatever wholesome and angsty moments I like together with whatever weird shit I think would be fun

the only motive behind anything I do in Undertow is “why the fuck not?” and that’s totally valid imo

and here we go. long post ahoy 

the bastards:

ASTER (they/she): Conveniently amnesiac protagonist! Aroace and genderqueer! Woke up one day on the side of the road with the keys to a weird truck that runs on stories instead of fuel, and now uses delivery driving work as an excuse to careen all about the country collecting friends and solving magical mysteries. Vaguely clairvoyant and can ~speak~ with the energy-flow of the universe. Dresses like they’ve fallen straight out of a cyberpunk anime. Chatty, over-excited, impulsive. Extremely full of love.

important tunes: “overture” by sleeping at last, “timebomb” by walk the moon (weird choice for an aroace character but bear with me)

KIT (he/him): Not the first random Aster gets into shenanigans with but the first who tags along for further shenanigans and also becomes a protagonist. Pan. Wouldn’t know what a gender was if it punched him in the face. Highly skilled necromancer who straight-up doesn’t believe in magic, currently trying to fulfil the dying wish of his late wife (to reanimate a t-rex). Awkward and standoffish and lonely, tries to pretend he’s cool but just really really isn’t. Would rather set his entire self on fire than admit he considers Aster his best friend. Schizotypal synesthete whose fashion sense can be described as “how many clothes can I layer on top of each other before I physically cannot move?”

important tunes: “body” by mother mother, “hunting season” by fences, “necromancin dancin” by bear ghost

MEG (she/her): Mad scientist mechanic who does tonnes of magical illegal shit to cars for funsies. An expert on bizarre vehicles! This is the person you talk to if you, idk, happen across a strange truck with sentience that eats stories. She hates people and lives completely isolated in the middle of fuck-off nowhere with sixteen dogs. Completely unhinged. Thinks clothes are for losers so wears as few of them as possible and I want NO ONE making this a weird sexual thing. She’s just a feral bastard maniac. She’s living my weird feral bastard in the woods dreams. She has no interest in labelling her sexuality or gender, but both can be accurately summed up with “how dare you fucking look at me”

important tunes: “the machine” by lemon demon, “a mask of my own face” by lemon demon............ there’s just....... lemon demon songs here ok........ I haven’t yet found the songs with the Peak Meg Energies

NOLAN (he/him): Bastard. Chaotic bastard. Is of some relation to Kit, possibly an older brother, possibly just some dude who decided Kit looked like a fun person to annoy for all eternity. Speaks entirely in riddles and cryptic poems, loves needless melodrama. Dresses like he’s going to the beach even when he isn’t. He has zero motives beyond fun and chaos and boredom, which sometimes leads to him working with the protagonists and sometimes leads to him actively sabotaging them. Role in the story ranges from “genuinely terrifying villain” to “weird almost-friend who hangs around with the heroes even though no one invited him and is just a general endearing nuisance”. Literally cannot die, because he has some seriously impressive and terrifying subconscious reality-bending powers and it does not occur to him that he can die. So he doesn’t. Unrelated, he’s the only Undertow character besides Beth who canonically dies.

important tunes: “complicated creation” by cloud cult, “when he died” by lemon demon (peak Nolan chaotic energies)

BAKER (he/him): Meg’s apprentice? Meg’s assistant? Doesn’t really know that much about cars and I think he landed in the role because he misread the job advertisement, but he tries to be helpful anyway. Very small lesbian. Possibly some form of vampire except in reverse? Listen. I don’t know that much about Baker but one key fact is that he’s solar-powered and sometimes he’ll just lie down on the floor unconscious mid-task and you have to haul him over your shoulder and lob him into the sunlight and wait for his energy to recharge. Easily flustered, hardworking, pleasant enough but not super great at Peopling. Also gets possessed at one stage but he gets better so it’s nbd

important tunes: “pink smoke” by the scary jokes, “featherstone” by the paper kites

???????? (??/??): The main villain. The big bad. I have no idea if this is a thing that has a physical form or if it’s just an abstract floaty intangible concept. This is the thing that briefly possesses Baker. This is also the thing that one-shot kills Nolan. Possibly it’s some kind of river-surface reflection monster that steals your face and becomes a fucked up version of you except it accidentally reflected some kind of ancient god and now the whole world is screwed. Possibly it’s the gradual marching of the universe towards death except that marching gained sentience and is incredibly frightened. Who the FUCK knows. Not me.

important tunes: “dead moon” by brick + mortar, “ruler of everything” by tally hall

other bastards who exist. vaguely. probably:

CARDS (xe/xem): Gentle, patient, good at growing herbs and reading tarot cards. Xe’s married to Meg. Literally no one knows this because they hardly ever interact and they don’t live together and when they do interact people are generally like “huh, Meg doesn’t seem to despise Cards quite as much as she despises everyone else” but like. They’re happily married. Also xe’s called Cards because xir last name is “Cardone”. This is a fact that I stole from someone I’ve met in real life, because no one is safe from my terrible thieving writer hands

BETH (she/her): Kit’s late wife. She’s a ghost. She has lots of opinions about things. She’s not here in the story because of any necromancy or raising the dead on Kit’s part. She refuses to die out of pure spite. She’s got shit to do. She likes heavy metal and writing romance novels. These are currently the only facts I know about her. Thank you

FERRIS (she/her): Her last name is Wheel. She is a character I created specifically because I realised that Ferris Wheel is a name that you could actually for real name someone. I can’t decide if it’s funnier if this character’s name is Ferris Wheel in a world where ferris wheels exist but she herself has never been exposed to the concept of one so she doesn’t understand why all the other characters are like “??????” when they first meet her, or if this character’s name is Ferris Wheel in a world that is essentially just Earth But Magic, save for the fact that the exact, specific concept of a ferris wheel was never invented. Also she’s a businesswoman.......... also she can levitate...... also she’s a lesbian

ok that’s it bye thanks love you

#this is not all the characters by any means but this is like #the main ragtag gang of misfits who somehow end up teaming up to stop the destruction of the world or whatever #for one reason or another #with the exception of the main villain of course LMAO #anyway this is just like...... #the most inconvenient way i could ever relay any amount of information #while i was typing this i was like #''this would all be so much easier to parse if it was in comic sans powerpoint format'' #and now that all this information is here like......... this is the info that would go in the powerpoint anyway #but the FACT of the matter IS that i'm lazy #and i only have good drawings done of aster kit and meg #anyway #ta-da #undertow #there's a lot going on in this post I'm sorry idk if any of this is like................. #interesting? to anyone who's not me?? but i thought it would b fun anyway #this is another one where u can play the fun game of ''can u spot the shameless self-projection?'' #river monster is actually the envisioned villain i had for Ruby Pace Floats Down The River but who fuckin knows if #THAT'S a wip that's ever going to be acknowledged by me #river monster is not shameless self projection #it's important to me that you know i am not a river monster #thank you #the only important fact in this entire post is that Baker is small enough to be picked up and carried with ease

[mairzymarzipan]

Night of the Full Moon Character Reviews: The Big Bosses(Minus Werewolf)

Hello again

I know I said I’d be talking about the Hunter, Old Mage, Fallen Priest and so on today, but I realized that those characters were actually more interesting in the context of other characters, so I put them off for later.  I decided instead to talk about the main bosses of the game, as it so happens, are the closest people to Red Riding Hood.  Because this game wants to be an ironicy soap opera/anime that way.

When I say Big Bosses, I mean that you always fight one of these characters at the end of the game.  Unless you’re like me and you start all over at the end because you’re bored and tired of all four of them playwise.

Werewolf

Wait, no, never mind.  This is another one of those characters who’s more interesting in the context of different, non-Red Riding Hood Characters.  We’re saving this boi for later.  But, you shouldn’t too surprised, if you read the title.  Instead, I’ll just use this space to talk about a mechanic.

Throughout the game, you can get ‘courage’ and ‘reputation’ points by talking to characters.  Very very generally speaking, you get courage points by doing brave things, and you get reputation points for doing nice things.  You also can get courage points when a character talks shit about the werewolf, and reputation points when a character talks shit about the witch.  So naturally, if you have more courage in the end, you get to fight the wolf, and if you have more reputation, you get to fight the witch.  I guess what they’re going for is only a meanie would fight this doggo?  And the witch is who any empathetic person would hate???

I feel like the latter is not the case, but more on that later.

Witch

“Only your Hope family can lift the dark magic curse.  This is what the priest is most afraid of.  That’s why monsters run wild on full moon nights. First they made your grandmother disappear and then they drew you into the forest...but they never anticipated that you would make it this far.”

By the way, you’re part of a prophecy.  Only someone in your family can lift the curse on the forest.  jsyk

Yeah so, as you see, the Witch’s description does not really tell us much about the witch herself.  This description also pretty unique in that none of the other character descriptions go into the second person like this.  The description also kind of hints that Red dies in the timeline where she fights the witch, so that’s depressing.

Nah, to figure out what the witch is about, you have to delve into the fragments around her. 

So, you actually do encounter the witch earlier in the game.  In the third or sometimes second chapter, she will recruit to find some magic apples she lost.  She makes a mention about suspecting a queen of stealing them.  The apples, I guess, are just lying around on the forest floor, and you bite into each of them bc you’re a dumb lkid.  Each apple changes your stats by a few points and the witch does not at all seem upset that you hand her a bunch of bitten fruit at the end.  In fact, she offers you the choice of two random buffs, so that’s fun.

You’re likely to hear about her way before that, though, depending on who you talk to.  Generally anyone who’s been cursed feels like it’s the witch’s fault.  

But if you choose to fight her(or you might not get a choice in the matter) she accuses you of stealing said apples.  She’ll also talk to you throughout the battle until you defeat her- a trait that only the big bosses and a few of the newer ones have.  Her lines...make her sound pretty unhinged.  She’s speaks of disbelief that you would do such a horrible thing, and threatens you with with her magic, and talks about how misunderstood she is.

When you defeat her, she’s got a really interesting line, tho.

“No!  I don’t want to fight you!  I can’t!”

Huh.

Before I move on, let me talk about this other witch character.

Yep.  That sure is the art style this game is going with.

So this is one of the shopkeepers.  There are four different shops you can find along the way, only two of which have characters you can see in them.  This character is known as the Witch Apothecary...but you can only see that on the outside of her store.  Otherwise she’s just called “Witch”.

The thing is, along the way, characters will talk about the Witch and, they don’t specify that it’s not the one with the white hair.  They just talk about The Witch like she’s the only witch that matters.  So is this woman not really a witch?  A witch wannabe?  Nah, we already have one of those characters.  Could it me that the shopkeepers don’t actually exist in the story of the game?  That would bum me out, bc there’s this lesbian owl I want to be real.

But...I think they’re the same person using shapeshifting.  Or if you want a really wild theory, maybe there are time travel hijinks and she’s the Magic Apprentice grown up.  But I’m going to go ahead with the former.

Anyhoo.  I like the witch.  I’m gonna give her 🍎🍎🍎🍎 four apples

Priest

“They mistakenly thought that on the full moon night they could help the monsters quietly eliminate Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.  Once the Hope family was wiped out, the legend of lifting the curse on the Dark Forest would disappear completely.  However, they didn’t expect they would have to go personally and pay such a high price to fight their enemy. When the priest fell, the cursed monsters reverted to their human forms and the Dark Forest was no longer covered by snow all year round, but the church’s blind greed still remains.”

Again, not much is said about the priest himself.  The most interesting thing here is that he apparently is the keystone holding the curse together.  Interesting, because he seems to be letting the witch do all the work for him.  Usually in these stories, you have to kill the person who casts the spell to break the spell, not just their friend.  Is it because he, himself, is a stone?  That is to say, he turns into a statue sometimes.

Why the heck is he having her turn all his enemies into cartoon monsters instead of killing them, anyway?  Don’t tell it’s to make the game family friendly, bc in one of these timelines a child kills another child.  

Honestly, the priest/church just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.  His big plan is selling everybody from his town as slaves.  Gross.  And the way he accomplishes this is by...making it snow all the time, and turning people into vampires and fire bears?  What?

He is.  A delight to fight.  I’m being sarcastic.  He’s a religious edgelord who likes to go on about how humans are sinners and everyone deserves to be punished.  Also she cheats by turning into stone.  Eh.  

It feels like someone just spun a wheel for of evil traits and just stuck them together haphazardly.  His evil plan is...human trafficking!  His personality is...self righteous!  His means is...tf!  His super power is...turning into a statue!  

He’s the biggest of bads but also not that thought out.  He’s super important to the over-arching plot and yet I have no idea why this guy does what he does.  I’m gonna give him 🗽🗽 two statues.

Mystery Men

idek why this person is called “Mystery Men”.  I’m guessing it’s supposed to be mystery man?  Or mysterious person or something?  I know I haven’t talked about the art much but, I do appreciate how much their face looks like a dog snout and her hood looks like dog ears.  It’s a neat touch.

This description was actually changed.  The new text is longer and more awkwardly worded.  I don’t like it!  And I don’t get why it happened.

But, yeah.  The very last enemy of the game- who you can only reach by playing through at least four times and defeating all three others- is your Grandmother!  Le gasp!

So what exactly went wrong with her?  Oh, nothing, she just has a big wolf growing out of her back(told you the concept was backed up by canon)

Is this her daemon or patronus or something?  I have no idea.  I’ve been calling her a werewolf sometimes, tho, bc she’s better at being a werewolf than the titular werewolf.  Which is to say she can revive instead of just healing.  Her buffs and deck change throughout the fight.  She’s a long battle, fun, except for her ear piercing voice.  She sounds a bit possessed.

I’ll give her 👁️👁️👁️ three big eyes.  She’s a fun battle, but I always mute it.  Also not real big on how the text got changed for the worse.  But she does add some good details to the story.

In Conclusion... 

Grandma’s text tells us a few things.  

1. Not only is the Hope family connected to this prophecy, but family members actually have the power to control the curse.  That leads me to believe that the person who got the curse started was a Hope themself.  

2. The church came along long after the curse was in full swing.  So the priest is not responsible for it.  Whether he’s a Hope himself is not relevant.

We also know these things:

1. The witch is still the one casting all the tf spells, which is part of the curse.

2. There are two timelines were Red has a natural gift for magic

3. In the Little Witch timeline, the Witch is teaching Red magic.  On top of that she’s v patient, which is surprising, for some reason.

4. The Witch seems a little out of touch with reality.  She sends you to find apples, and then yells at you for stealing them.  Almost like she thinks you’re another person.

5. The witch verbally expresses her desire not to fight you when she realizes who you are.

I have to conclude that the Witch is a Hope.  A Hope who’s close enough to have a fondness for Little Red Riding Hood, and is invested in her well being/education.  And yanno, is turns her enemies into pig people because she can.  

She helps you on your quest by giving you one of her own.  But earlier on, she takes on the form of the other witch offer you potions and the like.  She even gives you the first one in each chapter for free.

“My potions can change your appearance!”

Of course she can’t get too close to you.  She can’t reveal that she’s helping you.  Hence putting on a new face when she’s a ‘good’ witch.  One wonders if she’s trying to hide her identity from you, or the people she’s allied with.

Hey can we look at her description again?

Red doesn’t get addressed in the second person in any of the other descriptions.  There is a character who talks about his life in the first person, and we’ll get to him.  But this is odd to me.

What if Red isn’t being addressed here?  What if it’s someone else?  What if it’s the Witch?

What if the Witch was captured and ensnared in the priest’s plot?  What if he messed with her memory?  So then who is she?  Red’s sister?  It seems like she’s been working with the church a lot longer than Grandma’s been missing.  Also Grandma went into the woods on her own accord.  You could say that the grief the church caused her *made* her go out, but it seems weak.

So maybe a Hope in another generation, who lost her grandmother to- either the church or monsters?  Was it this other Grandmother who *started* the curse?

Dude, what if she’s your Mom?

What if instead of killing her the priest did...something...scared her enough to get her to work for him.  And messed with her memory so she couldn’t conceive a way out?  And sort of had her transfer the power of the curse to him so that people had to kill him to break it?

What if he had the Church Doctor scoop her brain out and put it in another lady’s head?  Who knows.

I’m not certain about the witch being your mom.  I think I would like that to be the case because it’s fun, but I’m not quite convinced yet.  I AM certain, tho, that the Witch is a Hope, and she cares about you.  She’s not just this cackling meanie turning people into flowers.  She’s...complicated.  And she needs help just as much as all the trapped monsters.

#mairzy posts #night of the full moon #notfm #the werewolf #the witch #the priest #the mystery men #headcanons #character reviews

[icharchivist]

Not to mention how Road and Cross may possibly be working together. At least right now. Maybe Road was the one who saved Cross's body and that's why it disappeared before any Order members could get to him. Its possible Road has some connection to the 3rd side. She's not fighting for Nea's goals. But does seem to have her own that might give her insight into who is all on Nea's side. Also something weird. Tyki had a list of people connected to the 14th he was suppose to kill. Suman and Yeager -

2 weren't on the list. He just killed them for kicks. But Cross Marian and Allen Walker were. That's weird. Why would Allen be on that list if back then he was just a nobody teenage exorcist? Makes me think Allen Walker was past Allen's name (or a name he used). Since the Earl would have no idea what happened to past Allen he'd still be looking for him just in case. Tyki just went and killed anyone by that name thinking an Exorcist was it. Afterwards the Earl just focused on Allen when he -

3 he became more of a alarming problem that might really have some connections. Who knows, is Mana so unhinged now he can't even connect the dots between past and present Allen Walker? Does he even remember Allen as the special ally Nea entrusted the Ark too? Either way, I think more evidence is pointing to Road and Allen having a close history. That explains why she cares about him so much now and he's starting to react more to her. Maybe when she 1st awakened Allen was the one who helped her?

It is very likely Road and Cross are working together right now, or at least Road is trying to use him in some way. I do think she may have saved Cross since she can “put him back to sleep”. But how did she even know he needed saving and how did she save him huh?

I think originally they wouldn’t have been working together, like not until that point. but it is possible that the development of Allen’s situation would have Road to go see Cross and strike a deal with him of some kind.

Specifically though Cross and Allen were on Tyki’s list because they were linked to the 14th yes but i’m almost certain the idea is that Cross is particularly dangerous and has secrets from the Order, so someone who was his apprentice has just as much of a risk of being a problem. The Earl actually already mentions The Musician, the one that helped Nea betray them before he mentions how Cross is linked to the 14th, so there’s probably a strong chance the Earl would believe anyone near Cross would be a potential person who had access to the 14th, especially an apprentice that Cross would have a close eye on (and it turns out to be right). 

So i personally would more think Allen was on the list because of Cross instead of because of himself, that said, it is hinted that the Earl findsCross really troublesome because of his ties to The Musician, so it comes back to Allen nevertheless. And it could be something the Earl/suit planned too for what it’s worth, considering the “human” has mused over how he had been unable to kill Allen when the akuma disaster happened. 

The Earl seem to look for ways to kill Allen - Adam instead ends up wondering why he cannot bring himself to do so. So i could see it be the Earl’s plan even if he gives a bullshit reasoning to Adam.

And by now Adam keeps wondering why he cannot bring himself to kill Allen, and he blames it all on the 14th inside of Allen without even knowing all the details about his relationship with him and freaking out as soon as he’s close to Nea. So yeah Adam is particularly instable as it goes, and he has no understanding why and it is more than likely that the Earl is trying to take advantage of that.

And agreed, I do think Past!Allen might have had an history with Road, although god knows what. That could justify a lot of her behavior and also how he softens more quickly. 

As for him being her when she first awakened, why not? That depends how long she had been awakened for though but if she was pretty young when Allen entered the picture I could see something like that. Especially since from what we know of Skinn’s flashback the Earl seems to go personally to support the Awakened when he can (Wisely was a very specific situation since the Noah memory took completely over - so it depends if we have a Wisely situation for Road since she does have her full memory awakened (which might be the result of her being alive for this long) or if she awoke like Skinn and originally needed guidance). If Past!A was the Lost Apprentice, between the Bookman at the Campbell’s mansion and him being near the Earl-to-be it could give perfect reasons for any of the twins to ask for Allen’s help or oversight.

But we really don’t have a lot of things to build that on except a lot of supposition. She could have also just seen how the twins, her precious brothers, cared this much for this human and wanted to keep an eye on him by pure sibling protection’s instinct? 

Anything is fair game about her relationship with him in the past imo. So that or another!

But yeah there’s... very likely something there from the past.

#ichafantalks dgm #Anonymous #ichareply

[birbleafs]

[fic] a series of CATastrophic incidents

Series: Tales of Zestiria Rating: T Genre: Game-Canon, Humour Characters: Dezel, Rose, Sorey, Mikleo, Lailah, Edna, Zaveid, Alisha Diphda, Sergei Strelka, Original Characters Warnings: None, unless you’re violently allergic to cats, bad puns, and unhinged utensils Summary: He shouldn’t have been surprised, honestly. Still, nothing quite prepared him for this; he was more of a dog person, after all. Or: in which the party encounters a witch and the seraphim are turned into cats.

A/N: This started out as a joke fic an excuse to write more cute/silly party shenanigans but kind of spiralled out of hand, lol. So I guess it’s now the equivalent of a side-quest… oops? I may or may not have mixed up some events in the game timeline very slightly for creative liberties, but it’s nothing serious. Takes place in the time after the party���s arrival in Lastonbell and before the incident with Forton in Pendrago.

Fic can also be read on AO3

i. He shouldn’t have been surprised, honestly. Incidents like these—they were a norm and he should really be used to them by now. Being part of the Shepherd’s posse brought both irritability and absurdity. He was aware of this even before Rose had decided to take on the role of Squire; before she had risked her own life to save the brat from certain death after his brush with the Lord of Calamity in Glaivend Basin.

Still, nothing quite prepared him for this; he was more of a dog person, after all.

“But why cats, though?” Rose finally blurted out, incredulous. Hell, Dezel wanted to know too—who would come up with such a sick joke anyway?

“I’m not a cat!”

The small silver creature standing in the grass was scowling up at them with narrowed, violet eyes. His mouth was open, as if he were attempting to speak. But the only sound he managed was a very indignant and kittenish mewl.  

“W-What?” The silver kitten crinkled his nose, tail waving back and forth in confusion. He glanced over his shoulder, gazing at a second cat—a female with a silky white coat and a long, red-striped tail. “Why can’t I… Lailah, what’s going on?”

“Huh,” Sorey said from where he was crouched low to the ground. There was a contemplative look about him as he swept his gaze from the silver kitten to the white cat. Skulking beside his right knee was a smaller, calico-patched kitten with sky-blue eyes and a foul temper, her short tail fluffed up.  And draped casually over the Shepherd’s shoulder was yet another cat—a sleek, muscular tom, grey-striped and wearing a languid amber stare. Sorey watched the cats surrounding him for a bit longer, before he reached out tentatively to let the silver kitten sniff his fingers.

“Well, at least he didn’t turn you all into frogs,” he added unhelpfully. “Ow!” He yelped when the silver kitten nipped a finger.

“This isn’t funny, Sorey!” the kitten said, ears twitching irritably.

Before Sorey could reply, the grey tom leapt down from his perch to the grass below, splaying his claws as he stretched his long limbs out easily.

“Better a cat than a frog, eh, Mikster? Though I suppose it might have been easier if we had been turned into frogs. A kiss from one with the purest of hearts should do the trick.” The grey tom glanced up at Rose, a mischievous gleam in his eyes now. “No harm trying it out with cats too, right? How about it, Missy? Sheps here would actually be the obvious choice but since Lailah probably won’t risk sullying his purity, I’m sure we also can make do with a kiss from a fine lady such as yourself. Besides, the kid has probably reserved his kiss for that special someone.”

“Um, actually—” Sorey began hesitantly at the same time the calico kitten growled softly in her throat. Bunching up her paws beneath her, she sprang forward and aimed a swift paw-jab to the grey tom’s face that had him yowling in surprise and backing away.

“As lewd as ever even in this form,” the calico hissed as she swished her bottle-brush tail in contempt. “Just because you’re a fuzz ball now doesn’t mean you’re allowed to be gross, Grossveid.”

Rose rubbed at her nape, still confused, as she stared at the gathering of cats. “How are these cats even talking to us? It’s like I’m hearing their voices in my head and that’s creepy, just like how... Whoa, hold on a sec...” She stiffened, eyes widening as she finally caught on. “Is this kitten Edna?” She flicked her gaze back at the grey tom, who beamed and twitched his whiskers proudly up at her. “And Zaveid?!”

Dezel was already internally groaning at Rose’s slow uptake. But Sorey, ever the sunshine of their dysfunctional little band, only let out a chuckle.

“So you can hear them too, huh? And this one here is Mikleo!” He reached for the silver kitten who was still puffed up indignantly, holding up his now fluffy best friend for Rose to take a better look. “Doesn’t he look like the cutest bundle of fur now?” “Ugh, Sorey!” Mikleo the kitten groaned, struggling to bat Sorey over the nose with a paw. This time, it was Rose’s turn to laugh. “More like an overpriced fur stole, really.” “R-Rose!” Before the two could continue with their good-natured teasing, the white cat with the red tail purred, amused. She bounded up to balance herself easily on Sorey’s right shoulder, looking over at Rose and Dezel with bright eyes.

“And I take it this one here must be Lailah then,” Rose said.

“That is correct,” the Prime Lord (Prime... Cat?) nodded. “It seems that what we’ve heard from the villagers aren’t mere rumours, after all. With their apparent skill in transmutation artes, perhaps this person really is a witch.” “Great,” Dezel muttered under his breath. “This just means more work cut out for us.”

ii.

The trouble with old geezers—with old people in general, Rose thought somewhat unkindly—was how they never minded their own business. Things would’ve been simpler if he had ignored them, had left them to their own devices. But no, the old man just had stick his nose in, throwing a wrench into their plans.

(To be fair, she’d considered that perhaps he might’ve been yet another unwilling victim coerced into it. But she had also spent weeks tracking and chasing down their target, dammit. So nope, he didn’t get a free pass, unwilling victim or not!) In any case, even if the man wasn’t completely to blame, Rose felt at times the odds just weren’t in their favour. After all, Sorey—and now Rose, by association—tended to have the odd luck of attracting unwanted attention, from both meddlesome and honest humans alike.

She groaned, placing a hand at her hip while the other pinched the space between her eyes. It had to be the darn Shepherd’s cloak—of course Sorey was going to stick out like a sore thumb everywhere, clad in such conspicuous designs. That and probably that ridiculously boyish but radiant smile, over-bright like the sun. Sorey’s earnestness didn’t always impress unctuous politicians and battle-hardy soldiers like it usually did with civilians. But they’d always assumed the Shepherd to be an ingenuous young man at first, only to realise belatedly how discerning he could actually be.

Unfortunately in this case, the old geezer wasn’t too quick on the pickup. Sorey wasn’t quite ready to dismiss the old man’s pleas of There you are, I’ve searched all over for you!, but he’d realised something didn’t quite add up when he exchanged a brief glance with her.

“Oh,” Sorey said, looking back over at the old man, who was now bowing fervently before them. “Do you both know each other?”

Rose didn’t miss the flicker of uncertainty in those grey eyes, or the way the old man fiddled nervously with the hem of his tunic. She sighed, before meeting Sorey’s gaze once more with the tiniest of smirks.

“A-ah, yes! We do!” the old man stuttered, a little too quickly and too loudly. “Yes, of course we know each other—why would you think otherwise?! I-I mean, he’s my grandson, who’s now the blacksmith’s apprentice! We had a… fight and he went missing and…” He faltered, staring blankly first at Sorey, and then at Rose. As though he’d abruptly lost his train of thought.

Or as though he’d forgotten the rest of his scripted lines.

Rose stifled back a chuckle. She flicked her gaze back at the boy she and Sorey had chased through the streets earlier, down to the corner of this alley. The blacksmith’s apprentice, huh? Now she was sure the old man was lying. She was no stranger to Coram and his forge; the blacksmith traded regularly with the Sparrowfeathers for metal and coal. And being the loquacious sort, he never had any qualms filling her in with the latest village gossip and updates in his life. So she would have heard if Coram had gotten an apprentice. And even she hadn’t, the boy’s hands were too smooth, his nails too polished for one who supposedly laboured for hours with fire and metalwork.

“An apprentice?” she said, eyebrows raised in feign surprise. She made no attempt to move from her spot however, keeping the boy cornered against the brick wall. “Never heard of Coram taking in someone new. But let’s just assume you’re telling us the truth and that you’re able to describe ol’ Smithy and his forge. If you can do that, then I might just buy it and let you go.”

There was a tensed silence and— Rose caught a flash of movement from the corner of her eyes. The old man lunged clumsily forward, hands flailing out in an attempt to grab her, but Rose was already sidestepping away nimbly—only to realise too late that the old man hadn’t been trying to pin her down, and was instead attempting to divert her attention.

Oh, crap, the kid!

She turned and saw Sorey rushing to her side, sword raised.

“Rose, Sorey—get back!” was the last thing she heard before she felt a gush of wind surrounding them. There was a loud rumbling noise and they were both knocked off their feet by a fierce blast of magic.

Rose skidded against the ground, coughing as dirt and dust settled around them. Blinking, she saw Dezel standing tall before her, his arms outstretched to keep the shield he’d raised with his artes intact.

“You all right?” he snapped. “Alive and kicking,” she said, wincing when she felt a twinge from a bruise on her arm. “Where’s Sorey?”

“I’m okay,” Sorey managed, after a fit of coughing. He was struggling back up to his feet, using his sword as a brace. Rose blinked again, rubbing the last of the dust out from her eyes with her hand. She swept her gaze around, before letting out a choice curse.

“ Can't believe they got away so easily. Dammit!”

“That’s not the only problem we have either,” Dezel growled stiffly, ten times more grim-faced than he normally was. Which was really saying something. Just as she was about to ask what he’d meant, she felt something brush past her shins. She jumped, one hand already curled around the hilt of her dagger, only to pause in confusion when she saw a smallish calico-patched bundle dashing away from her.

“What the heck?” she gaped, as the creature (a cat?) hid itself behind Sorey’s ankles and scowled back at her with bright blue eyes. It was then Rose noticed three more cats clustered around Sorey.

When she’d finally cottoned on to what exactly had happened—the boy who was the rumoured “witch” causing trouble all around the village, had struck out them with a cloud of arte, effectively transforming all the seraphim (save Dezel) into cats—all Rose could do was to stare blankly at her companions.

An awkward pause, and then—

“You’ve got to be kitten me, right?” was all she could manage, confounded as she were. To which Dezel only visibly winced, while somewhere from within her mind, Rose heard Lailah chuckling gleefully, “Aw, Rose, you’re getting to be a-meow-zing at these!”

iii.

“And so that’s how it went!” Rose said, almost too cheerfully, hands placed firmly on either side of her hips.

“Oh, I-I see…” Alisha said hesitantly. Her brows were furrowed in concentration, as she tried to make sense of what had just been shared with her. Mikleo couldn’t really blame the Princess Knight for any doubt she might harbour at their story. After all, it wasn’t every day that humans—let alone human-like seraphim—were transformed into talking animals. Mikleo waved his bushy tail, his poise graceful as he balanced himself on Sorey’s left shoulder. He met Alisha’s gaze with sombre eyes. “I know it sounds really out of it, especially when coming from Rose—” “Hey!” Rose scowled.

“—but that’s honestly how we ended up as cats,” Mikleo finished. Alisha only continued to stare wordlessly at him, still frowning slightly. Before Mikleo could speak again, she abruptly reached forward with both hands and lifted him away from Sorey’s shoulder. “H-Huh? Alisha?!” Mikleo yowled, surprised.

“Oh, but aren’t you just the sweetest looking kitten!” Alisha cooed, pulling Mikleo closer into a crushing embrace. “Your coat has such a brilliant shine to it. And your tail! It’s the fluffiest tail I’ve seen, it’s oh so adorable!” She stroked her hand over Mikleo’s soft pelt, marvelling at the silvery sheen.

“Well, I totally did not see that coming,” Rose said, as she nudged Lailah (who was curled around her shoulder) gently. “So I guess Princess Alisha isn’t quite able to hear you guys speak, now that you’re stuck as cats?”

“Well, it probably isn’t simply because we’ve been transformed into cats per se,” Lailah said. “But just as humans with low resonance cannot perceive or speak with seraphim, it seems our voices in cat-form cannot reach them either. For some reason, they are only able to perceive us visually in our altered-forms, hence why to them, we’re perhaps no different than your average alley cat...”

“I’m not an alley cat—mmr-ow-ow!” Mikleo protested heatedly, before dissolving into kittenish squeaks when Alisha delightfully embraced him once more.

“And due to their lower resonance, it’ll only sound like a normal cat meowing when you try speaking to them—is that it?” Sorey asked, his eyes bright with understanding now.

Lailah nodded. “More or less, yes.”

At Sorey’s words, Alisha paused in her fervent cuddling of cute furry things. “Cats trying to speak? What do you mean…?” She echoed, looking over the cats around them. “Are you saying these cats are actually cat seraphim—oh! Is that cat Lady Lailah?” Her eyes widened and her face flushed a bright pink, confusion quickly turning into mortification as she held up the silver kitten before her again for a better look. “And is this kitten Seraph Mikleo?! Oh, I-I’m so, so sorry for my unforgivably rude behaviour!”

Sorey could only offer a weak laugh by way of explanation. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag then. Um.”

Dezel grimaced, his expression twisted into equal parts exasperation and resignation as he folded his arms. “Dammit, not you too.”

(Mikleo could’ve sworn though, that Lailah was bursting with motherly pride for her Shepherd as she said, “Oooh, it wasn’t as punstatic but good try, Sorey—six points for effort!”)

iv. “We appreciate the help, but you don’t have to escort us all the way, Sergei,” Sorey said, offering an apologetic smile to the burly knight walking beside him. “I don’t wish to add to your troubles when you already have so many responsibilities to see to.”

The Captain of the Platinum Knights only shook his head in a dignified manner. “Oh, but I must insist, Shepherd Sorey. After all, I cannot ignore these disturbances that have been repeatedly brought to our attention—it is my duty to see to the source of the people’s worries. Caladan is located in a very rural area bordering the forest and news beyond that of daily trade and domestic grievances from the village seldom reaches the Capital. So it’s a cause for concern when we hear talk of suspicious behaviour outside of the norm, especially when there’s been talk of serial murders in Lastonbell as well.” Rose grinned, beaming at Sergei. “Spoken like a true knight of the people! I can already see you and Princess Alisha getting along well enough.” She nodded at Sorey. “And it might actually do us good to have additional help. This one’s been a pretty slippery case, being a witch and all.”

“A witch?” A contemplative crossed the Captain’s face. He cast a furtive glance over his shoulder and at the herd of cats trailing after them. “I caught brief mentions of it from the aides of a diplomatic party passing through the village this morning, but I had not given it much thought then, thinking it was only fantastical rumours. So, if I understand it right—the, ah, feline cortège that’s accompanying you now? Are they actually your seraphim partners, Milady Rose?”

“Feline cortège?” Zaveid snorted, flicking his tail. “Ol’ Cap here sure is the very model of an upstanding citizen, isn’t he? Guess it’s a good coincidence we ran into him when we did.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” Edna huffed. “What brings you here? A lone seraph wandering in a place teeming with foul humans? Seems too much of a coincidence that you’d happen to be in the same run-of-the-mill village as we did.” “You think I had planned to get turned into a cat with the rest of you? I may be many things but I ain’t that crazy!” Zaveid could hardly stifle back a guffaw, lips curved into an ingratiating smirk. “A man has his reasons, all right? Maybe I’d just wanted to stretch my legs a little. Or maybe I just needed some fresh air and fresh sights, so to speak.”

“Do you ever give a straight answer?” Mikleo sighed, his fur already prickling with irritation. It was hard not to feel vexed, especially when Zaveid seemed all too keen on being as vexing as possible. “Or do you just enjoy speaking in riddles?”

And true to his needling nature, Zaveid only chuckled, his whiskers twitched in utmost amusement. “What’s the matter, Mik-boy? I thought kits like you adored riddles.”

Mikleo bristled and would have retorted back with something rude, but Dezel abruptly moved then. The wind seraph darted past the bickering seraph-cats, growling sharply, “Cut the chatter! We’ve got company!”

There was sudden shift in the atmosphere around them; Mikleo felt his whiskers tingling with danger.

Rose was already falling into a defensive stance beside Sorey, daggers drawn and ready. Sergei swept a narrowed gaze around them, sizing up the surly-looking bandits—all eight of them—who had silently appeared from all sides of the deserted path to surround them in a tight circle.

“What is the meaning of this?” the knight demanded. “As Captain of the Platinum Knights, I command you to put away your weapons now.”

The bandits didn’t flinched, but only raised their axes higher as they stepped closer, their eyes wide and glazed as if mesmerized.

“We have no quarrel with you, Captain,” said the leader, his weathered face a network of jagged scars. “But the lad and the girlie? Cursed by the gods, they are. He said they would come and stir up trouble. Said we needed to stop them, foretold as it were by the gods.”

“This isn’t good. There are traces of an arte imprinted upon these men. Someone has woven illusions or tampered with their minds.” Sorey could hear Lailah’s worry as she spoke. “Already I can sense a strong domain coming from somewhere ahead and I’m almost certain it’s the witch. We need to act quickly.”

“You’re saying that their minds have been somewhat possessed and they were sent here to stall us?” Rose clicked her tongue in annoyance. “Great, just what we needed. First talking seraph-cats and now zombie bandits!” She turned towards one of the bandits—a youngish lout with a patch over one eye—who had crept up from her right flank. She frowned, holding up a dagger so that the serrated blade would be angled right across his face if she’d chosen to strike him then. An effective warning. “Back off, kid, if you still want to be able to see out of that remaining eye. Do you seriously think you guys are a match for a captain of the military and the Shepherd’s posse?”

The one-eyed youth curled his lip into a snarl, revealing rows of crooked teeth. “You don’t scare us with your fancy words and titles. All we see here is an old fogey, a wench who runs her mouth, and a boy playing dressed-up hero!”

“We don’t wish to hurt you,” Sorey said, even as he kept his guard up. “So please, stand down and let us through or we will fight you.”

The man with the scarred face let out a raspy laugh, before he spat at the ground inches away from Sorey and countered derisively, “Says you and what army, laddie?”

“He does not need an army for one as disrespectful as you!” Sergei cut in, heatedly drawing his sword now. “Allow me to fight alongside you, Shepherd Sorey! With your beloved wife and your seraph team!”

“Wife??” echoed the one-eyed youth, flicking his gaze incredulously from Rose to Sorey. “You mean you’re married?”

“Well—” Sorey began, looking as nonplussed as he did.

“Congratulations, then! When’s the baby due?”

“Oh! Um, thank… you?” The Shepherd paused and frowned, head angled in confusion. “Wait, what baby?”

“WHAT team?” Scar-face roared, glowering angrily at the one-eyed youth for derailing the conversation. He stared past the trio, his eyes searching before he spotted four furry creatures glaring up at him from where they stood clustered around Sorey’s heels. He snorted. “What, you mean these wild cats? Seriously?”

“Well, you guys do still have Dezel,” Zaveid murmured to no one in particular, “who fortunately isn’t a cat—”

“We’re wasting time like this,” Dezel snarled, his patience finally snapping. “Sorey, armatize with me!”

“Huh? But we don’t really need to...”

“We’ll go easy on them—don’t look at me like that; I swear, nothing too brutal. Come on! Or are you just going to dawdle and let the witch get away again?”

Sorey considered his options, exchanged a quick glance with Lailah and then nodded at his wind seraph.

“All right, let’s go. Lukeim Yurlin!”

Clad now in a raiment of white, embellished gold and green, Sorey leapt to the sky. With a twist of his body, he conjured up a blast of wind to sweep over the bandits, effectively stunning them and knocking them off their feet.

v.

The sun was already hanging low in the dim orange sky by the time they had put enough distance between themselves and the bandits.

“Is it really all right to leave them as they are?” Sorey asked, his expression set in worry and a touch of guilt. “Those men were only acting viciously because they’d been mesmerized—shouldn’t we try to break the witch’s spell first? They might cause trouble for the other villagers too.”

“It seems they were only mesmerized to fight and stall us specifically. If that were the case, then I doubt they would cause any real harm to anyone else.” Edna yawned languidly, flashing a pink tongue over razor-sharp teeth. Now that she was stuck as a kitten, she (and to an extent, Mikleo, even though he loathed to admit it aloud) had trouble keeping up with the humans’ wider strides. So she’d decided it was easier to hitch a ride instead—with a smug grin at her intended victim and three easy leaps, she had settled herself comfortably on top of Dezel’s hat. The wind seraph had protested vehemently at first, but made no real attempt to remove her.

“Edna’s right,” Lailah said. “And the sooner we get to the witch’s domain, the sooner we can stop him and break his spell, both the ones he’d casted on the bandits and us.”

The party trudged on, guided by Lailah as she scented the air for signs of the witch’s domain she had felt earlier. She couldn’t find any lingering trace however, even after they had scouted around for an hour.

“I apologize, Shepherd Sorey, Milady Rose,” Sergei said at length, bowing deeply to the pair. “But I’m unable to continue any further with you. I’m needed to supervise the patrol at the south eastern borders outside of Caladan tonight. I hope you will not begrudge my leave and I pray your quest still goes well.”

“Hey, it’s no biggie, Captain!” Rose said cheerfully. “Duty calls, after all. Just leave the witch-hunting to us. We’ll take care of it in no time.”

Once Sergei had taken his leave, the party continued their search. The hustle and bustle of the day soon faded; the villagers were slowly retreating into their homes for the night. Sorey pressed forward, however, not ready to give up just yet. They ventured away from the village centre and out to a clearing near the wooded area. The path was barren, with weeds peeking out under a stone slab or two.

And just beyond them was what looked to be a large, abandoned house. Glass shards and broken wood littered the front porch where the windows had been smashed in and there was a gaping hole in the roof.

“Okay, no, no, nope,” Rose declared flatly, digging her heels firmly into the ground. “There is no hecking way am I stepping anywhere near that building.”

Sorey swallowed, dread nestling within his gut. But there was another familiar sensation there as well—an unsettling weight pressed painfully against his chest.

“I can sense malevolence seeping out from within.” He studied the dusty path before them again and pointed. “Look, there are footsteps leading inside; that may be where the witch is hiding out.”

Rose wrapped her arms around herself and visibly shuddered. "Are you kidding me? This is a legit set-up for the worst possible scenario. Dark ominous clouds ahead? Check. Full moon hanging right above us? Check. Bats screeching to the backdrop of eerie canine howling in the distance and my hair standing on end? Check, check, and check."

Lailah bounded up to Rose’s shoulder, brushing against her face gently in reassurance. “It’s likely there are only hellions lurking inside. This domain isn’t immensely strong, which might explain why this atmosphere feels more like the frightening sort that humans would associate with haunted buildings.”

“Or it could, you know, just actually be ghosts too,” Edna added unhelpfully. “S-So ghosts are real?!!”

Mikleo stared reproachfully at the calico kitten. “Stop scaring Rose already; it's not helping at all.” He ignored Edna’s smirk as she stuck a petulant tongue out at him, and turned towards the Squire instead. “Think of it this way, Rose: the sooner we purify the witch hiding inside, the faster we can break the spell and turn things back to normal. And if any… uh, paranormal monster attacks, just... well, just get stabby like you always do. We may be cats now, but you can still count on us to back you and Sorey up—we promise.”

“Okay, fine. Now you're speaking my kind of language!” Rose gave a weak but relieved laugh, even as she kept her daggers within easy reach. “I-I can roll with that, yeah! All right, let's go kick some hellion butts.”

The gloom within the house was far more daunting once they’d entered. Rose paled for a moment but pressed on, jaw set in grim determination. She and Sorey flanked each other, with Mikleo balanced on Sorey’s shoulder and Lailah on Rose’s. Dezel kept close behind them, while Edna and Zaveid took point and led the way as they moved cautiously down the dark hallways and past empty rooms.

It wasn’t long before they encountered the first wave of hellions—dusk bats and dirt leeches—which they easily made short work of. Sorey had purified the last bat when there was a scuffling noise ahead, the sound of scrambling footsteps.

“Over there!” Dezel growled, swinging his pendulums out towards the sound. Lailah conjured up a ball of flame to illuminate the way and they caught sight of a huddled form crouched in the shadows. The figure—the same boy they had cornered earlier that day— glared at them from under his hooded cloak, his eyes the icy-blue of frost and winter gale. He clasped his palms together, murmuring a string of spells.

“Ncewmevb Boks!”

Abruptly, Lailah’s conjured flame flickered and fizzled out, and the party was plunged into complete darkness. There was spine-chilling rush of wind, the disembodied whisper of a voice right beside Rose’s ear and—

"GYEEAAH!!" Rose shrieked, jabbing her fists forward on instinct. She felt her punch connect with something furry at the same time as she elbowed someone else in the gut beside her. “Yeoowwch—!” “—Hyeargh!”

Both Dezel and Zaveid grunted in pain just as Lailah quickly conjured another ball of flame. “Brace yourselves, everyone!” Sorey warned, raising his sword to counter another rush of attack—only to glance down in surprise at what looked to be a demonic porcelain tea set lunging towards him. A tea cup flung itself forward, smashing and breaking pathetically against his chest while he batted his sword at a screeching teapot hell-bent on scalding him with boiling-hot liquid.

"What are these things?" Mikleo hissed, swiping his claws at a particularly stubborn tray with a fanged maw. “Lailah, are these even hellions?!”

Beside him, Edna only let out a resigned sigh, and very casually dodged a set of dinner knives flying her way. "Well, they sure are a pathetic excuse of a hellion, if that’s the case.” “Oh dear,” the Prime Lord mused, seemingly unperturbed by the possessed crockery assailing them now. An oversized cauldron hovered before her, threatening to ooze a sickly purple mess over its brim. “It has just been a series of CAT-astrophic incidents, hasn’t it? And now with KIT-chenware too!”

A collective groan sounded from her companions, but Lailah only giggled, a glimmer in her eyes. “Nothing a little spring-cleaning can’t fix!” She sidestepped the cauldron and released a burst of fiery spheres back at the marauding utensils.

“Ugh, this is even freakier than those floating bison heads!” Rose whined, whirling as she and Zaveid parried blows from a giant, spiked rolling pin trying to flatten them all like dough while Dezel wrangled it down with his pendulums.

“This is getting ridiculous!” Mikleo yowled, avoiding the snapping jaws of a deranged goblet before it crashed into the wall. He was backed into the corner and hadn’t noticed the figure hidden in the shadows...

“Mikleo, look out!” Sorey leapt ahead, pushing the silver kitten to safety just as the witch moved. There was a blinding flash—they dodged swiftly, the force of the witch’s arte only grazing Sorey’s shoulder. The blaze of magic rebounded off a pillar in a wild arc and struck the rafters above them instead. The crumbling wood would have crushed the witch then—who stood rooted in fear as he stared upwards—but Sorey was already lunging forward again, twisting his body to shield the boy from the falling debris, before a number of stray pieces caught him sharply by the back of the head.

He gasped as white-hot pain shot down his spine and crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

vi. His head was still throbbing when Sorey finally came to, the edges of his vision slowly coalescing into focus. Mikleo and Lailah—still bewhiskered and feline—were peering over him anxiously, sparks of healing artes trailing from their stretched paws over him.

“Look, it’s not my fault he got knocked out,” a child’s voice said from a little way off. “What kind of Shepherd is he anyway, keeling over so easily?”

“You dropped practically half a ceiling on him!” Rose countered hotly.

“Two wooden planks and half a brick, actually,” Zaveid corrected, only to falter when Rose shot a dark look his way.

“Is everyone okay? O-ow...” Sorey winced as he sat up, carefully rubbing the sore bump at the back of his head. “What’s going on with Rose and the others?”

“We’re fine,” Mikleo assured him, before heaving a sigh. “Still stuck as cats though, as you can see.”

“And it seems that we have mistaken this source to be malevolence from the witch, but… Perhaps you can explain it better, Almanakh.” Lailah nodded at the small blue normin who had approached them.

“I owe you some thanks, Shepherd,” the normin said as she bowed stiffly, “for protecting Atreides earlier. But all the same, you ought to stop bullying him too. Hmph.”

“Bullying him? Your little witch boy is the one causing havoc around the village!” Dezel growled tersely.

“Atreides might be a handful at times, but he’s still only a child,” Almanakh continued. “One doesn’t have many companions when living on the streets; he was abandoned by the orphanage who’d housed him as a toddler for possessing ‘the Sight’ and was shunned by other street urchins as well. He himself did not understand at first why other humans couldn’t see us, the spiritual beings that periodically crossed paths with them.”

“So he has the resonance to perceive seraphim too,” Sorey mused. “Did you also form a pact with him? That’s why he’s able to cast spells and artes, right?”

“Hey, don’t pick on Almanakh,” Atreides abruptly cut in. Sorey turned, meeting the haughty gaze of the raven-haired boy; he did not sense any trace of malevolence in the child.

Atreides fingered the hem of his cloak nervously, but still jutted his chin out in slight defiance. “Almanakh’s the only one who was willing to teach me things whenever I asked. I’m not so illiterate either that I can’t pick up a thing or two about magic from the books she’d stole—um, shown me.” He paused, his lips curved into the tiniest of smirks as he crouched to pinch at the normin’s cheek. “And you stuck around because you actually like me, don’t you, Almanakh? Can’t blame you—I am rather charming for a street-urchin.”

Almanakh shrugged, swatting her paws at Atreides’ casual prodding. “Nonsense. I just really like meat-pies and you’re great at stealing them. Ours is simply a bond of mutual convenience.”

“Mutual convenience, right.” Rose shook her head, before grinning back at Sorey and the others. “Not so different from your standard friendship then. In all seriousness though, can you please remove the spells you’d put on my friends and on those people you’d mesmerized?”

“Why the bandits though?” Atreides said breezily. “If they’re mesmerized forever trying to fight you all, that’ll keep them from preying on innocents.”

“...And what kind of rationale is that?! Mind-control without permission isn’t any better!”

“Atreides,” Almanakh admonished. “Remember, favours should always be returned for karmic luck.”

The raven-haired boy grimaced, puffing his cheeks out but didn’t protest. He turned to Sorey again, staring owlishly at the Shepherd for a moment, and asked, “Why did you protect me when the arte rebounded? I turned your seraphim into cats, and the villagers have already branded me a witch. I’m one of the ‘bad guys’, after all.”

Sorey brushed the side of his jaw with a finger as he considered his words. “To be honest, I’m not too sure myself. But you had looked terrified when the rafters collapsed. You’re just a kid, like Almanakh said, so I couldn’t just stand by and watch.”

“You could’ve easily stopped me and broken the spell if you had let the debris hit me.”

“Maybe. But even so, I didn’t want to judge you based on rumours alone—I wanted to hear your side of the story too.” Sorey offered the boy a sheepish grin. “And in the end, we still managed to stop you this way too.”

Atreides frowned, ice-blue eyes still narrowed suspiciously. “...You really are a strange person, you know?”

“Er—” Sorey began, but Atreides’ lips were pulled into a wry half-smile now. He held a hand out, helping the injured Shepherd climb shakily back to his feet.

“My skills in transmutation and mind-charming artes are rudimentary at best; the effect usually wears off in a day or two. So your seraphim will return to their usual forms by sundown tomorrow and the bandits back to whatever it is that bandits do during their spare time when they aren’t terrorizing wayward travellers.”

“And the hellions here?” Rose asked, glancing warily around them.

“Merely illusions that I had conjured to fool the senses—the demonic kitchenware, the malevolence. This is just your regular abandoned house with regular ghosts, I suppose.”

“S-so ghosts are real then?!”

“This chit-chat’s been nice and all,” Edna cleared her throat suddenly, her expression flat and signalling extreme boredom. “But what are we going to do about the boy? Do we just let him be as he is? He’s not corrupted by malevolence now, but life on the streets is tough and he has been troubling many of the villagers.”

“Even if you guys don’t do anything, the esteemed Captain of the Platinum Knights might someday be forced to,” Zaveid added.

“A kid’s got to eat,” Atreides said defensively. “And it’s easier to steal using artes.”

Sorey sighed, feeling a sudden twinge of sadness at a fleeting memory of a girl and her dog; at how sometimes resonance could easily be as much a burden of loneliness as a gift of camaraderie. Edna and Zaveid were right of course, but Atreides had a point too. “It’s true we can’t just leave him like this, but Atreides has only been trying to survive living on his own too…”

“Oh, that’s right!” Rose chimed, hitting her fist into her palm, blue eyes bright with an idea. “All right, leave this to me—I know exactly who can help.” She grinned widely at the boy. “You guys like money, don’t you?”

Atreides exchanged a glance with his normin, brows quirked questioningly. “I’d like to feel rich sometimes, yes.”

vii. “I have to say, Rose, you really do come up with some of the best solutions,” Lailah said, seated comfortably around Rose’s shoulders.

They had visited Coram the blacksmith in his forge first thing in the morning. After some convincing and the promise of free batches of the Sparrowfeathers’ mabo curry buns, Coram agreed to take Atreides under his wing as an apprentice.

“He’ll never admit it, but ever since Coram’s lost his Emery to the sickness all those years, he’s been a little lonesome.” Rose explained, slowly making her way up the steps to the inn room they’d booked for the day. “So I thought having Atreides around as his apprentice might help with that. It’s not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme, but Atreides will at least have a place to stay. And if he’s serious about making a change, Coram’s willing help with Atreides’ education too.”

“All in all, a happy ending,” Lailah purred. “Let’s hope things will work out well for both of them.”

“I wonder if Sorey’s feeling better,” Rose said, carefully pushing the door open to peek inside their room.

The soft wooden creak stirred Sorey from his sleep, and he blinked, turning towards the sound. “Is that you, Rose, Lailah? How did everything go?” he said, yawning. His head was wrapped in bandages but it didn’t ache as much as it had before. Dezel was standing by the window, gazing at the scenery outside, but the other seraphim—still in their cat forms—had curled up around their Shepherd, dozing lightly: Mikleo was curled into a ball over Sorey’s chest, his long, silvery tail covering his nose, while Edna had draped herself comfortably on Sorey’s pillow just above his head; Zaveid was all stretched out on his side and snoring noisily over Sorey’s knees.

It was a sight enough to draw soft laughter from Rose. She shook her head when Sorey made to move slightly, as though to offer her the bed instead.

“I’ll be fine here, really,” she said, settling into the couch by the bed. It was a bit dusty, but she’d rested on harder surfaces before while on Scattered Bones missions. “And yup, things are all settled between Coram and Atreides, so we’ll just hope for the best. We’ve done all we could, after all. So don’t worry! You just rest that head of yours and we can be back on our way searching for more of those shiny orb thingamajiggies.”

Sorey laughed, green eyes bright despite the fatigue lining his face. “Thank you, Rose. I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you sometimes. I’m grateful to have all of you with me.” He turned towards the dozing seraph-cats sharing his bed, lifting a hand to brush gentle fingers through Mikleo’s soft fur.

Rose only snorted, rubbing a knuckle playfully against Sorey’s cheek. “Likewise! I’m glad I have you guys around too,” she said, beaming first at Lailah’s bashful smile and then at Dezel, who merely grunted, his back still turned as his resolutely kept his gaze out the window. She yawned then, exhaustion finally catching up to her and stretched back against the couch for some much needed rest.

“The Shepherd taking down a witch and berserk kitchenware with only a Squire and an army of seraph cats,” she murmured with a sleepy grin. “Now that’s a side to the legend you don’t hear about every day.”

  —End— ________

- Ncewmevb Boks: “Whirling Gust” in Ancient Tongue, an arte that sends a strong rush of wind in circles. It forms spiralling wind blades that can injure foe, but Atreides being young and untrained, is still unable to control and fully utilize it yet.

- Listen, all the side-quests involving kids in the game left me emotionally compromised, okay. Let me have ONE silly, cracktastic side-quest with a kid who got a happier ending at least aghdjjhsdkg.

- Thanks for reading and #sorey not sorey for the crack/bad puns I GET WEIRD IDEAS IN THE SHOWER.

#tales of zestiria #sorey #rose #dezel #mikleo #fanfic #hi i'm not dead #remember all those snippets i shared for cat fic #yeah i finally kicked myself to finish this