#i might draw the cool rabbit lady too | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lettersnorth · 6 months

Text

Lend a Hand

In light of Heartwood’s…unfortunate state of affairs, the workshop had become a de facto hub for anything that might need some sort of power source. The bank of generators and aetheric cells were designed to resist a lengthy outage, redundant systems left in place by a paranoid Florus once upon a time. Now a myriad of cables ran this way and that across the shop floor, a veritable rabbit warren resisting any of Aislinn’s attempts to corral them into order.

Sergius currently leans idly against the workshop’s large terminal, his synthetic gaze silently following Aislinn around the room as she steps over cables, ducks under wiring in a weird, complicated dance as she goes about trying to get things ready. She’s not speaking but she’s obviously thinking because she bites her lip and squinches up in her eyes in a way that said whatever had crossed her mind had her suppressing an emotion.

He logs the expression but doesn’t ask her what caused it.

N'yami came stomping through the halls of the Heartwood estate, more or so walking so fast to the point it looked like running. It was project time! Once the door was in sight the Seeker kicked it open, and gave a small salute to the two in the room already. "Heyo! I'm ready to start bulidin' and blow som--little too early for that nevermind." She paused once noticing Linn was pacing. "Yer goin' to carve out a path with all that pacin'. Do ya need a snack? Or did ya drop somethin'?"

Yayaji Yaji absolutely was running in order to keep up with the hyperactive Miqo'te, though she would be lying if she said she wasn't also feeling the excitement. Building robot arms was her favourite! So many cool knickknacks that can be shoved up in there, and Yaji was planning on shoving them all. "Hello hello! What a wonderful day to be back in the Heartwood estate!" Yaji cheers, despite the wreckage they had just passed. "It is wonderful to meet you both! Quite wonderful!"

Professor Meowitzer putts in the air behind her, examining the room carefully with mechanical eyes that eventually fall on Sergius... and stay there. It's mouth opens and a gutteral <ME-OW> is released, prompting Yaji to pat it on its head happily

Sergius and his ever present drones seem to swivel as one to the door as it’s kicked open and N’yami announces herself. Aislinn is weaving her way back to the drawing board and doesn’t appear startled by the noise, she only flicks her gaze at Yami with a slight smile as she leaves her thoughts. “Hmm? No. No, just…trying to clear things up. Mind the cables. And the wires. Just…be careful.” She says as she wipes down the drawing board. Best to start with a clean slate for this. Her motions do halt, however, at the sound of the new voice. “Ah. Good to meet you, miss…” She trails off but then shakes her head. “I’m Aislinn. Glad to have another head in on this project.”

Sergius doesn’t feel the need to add anything. As far as he was concerned, Aislinn had the social exchanges covered.

"Yayaji Yaji, enchante! My wonderful friend slash boss has told me much about you Miss Aislinn, though she did not mention you had beauty to match the brains!" Yaji says, flashing her best business lady smile, then turns to Sergius. "And you as well good sir! You have an air of mystery about you, perfect for the debonair type that I'm positive you must be. The Professor seems quite taken with you! Do you like cats?"

N'yami made a beeline for Sergius. "Boop." She said while reaching up to boop him on the nose then going straight to Linn at the drawing board. "So what's goin' through that brain of yers? Are we puttin' a gun in it? A hidden blade!?! Wait...maybe we should start with the metal that we're usin'. I heard this guy is havin' a kid so we gotta figure out the part of havin' the metal mimic his body temperature. Oh! Gotta worry about rustin' too!" Some of Yami's ideas spewed out in a word vomit. She was talking so fast, and no she didn't have coffee or sweets before this. "Should we make it so it can detach? Man, I'd pay to see him pull his arm off and beat the shit out of someone with it."

Aislinn blinks at Yaji’s silver-tongued flattery. Aside from a certain roguish pirate, it wasn’t something that had often been turned in her direction. “Um. Yes. Well, thank you?” Sergius, for his part, stares blankly at Yaji. “I don’t have an opinion on them.” He tells her, cutting through her chatter and addressing the question. He does this while swiping an arm out, seeking to guide N’yami’s boop off to the side before it can reach him.

“Right.” Aislinn steps back from the board and takes a breath. She tilts her head at Yami’s ideas. “Knife. That’s interesting. Maybe? Probably not a gun.” She stops and clears her throat. “As I’m sure you all know, we’re here to see what we can do to create a prosthetic for Yakih’ra. One that will allow, as much as possible, for him to regain sensation, which means connections to the nervous system. And…if possible something waterproof that will resist rusting.” She glances at Yami, her lips quirking up in a smile. “Then. We can see what we can do about weapons. You all have various experience with this kind of thing so I’m thinkin’ that putting all our heads together will be Yakih’ra’s best shot.”

N'yami’s tail whipped with excitement behind her. "Buildin' the arm is a different thing for me but actually settin' up the wirin' with the nerves is somethin' I won't know too much about, what wires would we use for that? I assume you and Ma will be doin' the attachin' of that?" She asked with a raise of a brow towards Linn. "Don't think ya want me in the surgery room. We should also make a piece that covers the part where he lost his arm, little detatchment part. Plus if a wire needs to be replaced pop that bad boy off and take a look under the hatch see what's goin' on. Hm...gotta worry about water gettin' in there."

Yayaji Yaji: "You're all in luck! As a matter of fact, I have built a prosthetic arm before for a fierce pirate during my time in the roguish city of Limsa Lominsa! Of course, that arm exploded a few weeks into use, but that was on purpose and I was long gone by then! I'm sure the fundamentals remain the same!" Yaji explains proudly, meanwhile Professor Meowitzer putts on over to Sergius and begins rubbing its cheek against his leg. The sound of grinding gears can be heard from inside its metallic frame, vaguely reminiscent of purring

Something flits across Sergius’ expression, barely noticeable before the blank wall smoothes back into place. “Connecting a prosthetic into whatever nerve endings remain is painful. They have to be awake to facilitate alignment between the biological and mechanical systems.” At least, that had been his experience with Rhua. Aislinn shoots Sergius a troubled look at hearing that particular bit of news, but then nods to Yami “Aye, we should try and make any maintenance or repair issues easy to navigate.”

She begins drawing a rough schematic on the board. Sergius stares down at the mechanical cat but curiously, doesn’t stop it from doing what it’s doing. “Hell if I know about waterproofing. It’s better to start out with a water resistant metal and figure shit out from there. You’re going to want Allagan wootz and that’s not cheap.”

“Right. Well. No built in explosions, this time.” Aislinn says in reply to Yaji, without halting her drawing as she speaks. “That would be…counterintuitive.”

N'yami Synch: "Well let's hope this arm doesn't blow up! That would fuckin' hurt like hell. Just think yer walkin' along one day and BAM. Arm blows up!" Her ears perked up at Sergius' comment. "Never fear! I know where to get allagan wootz from! Well, gotta see if the old man will allow me to have some of his supply but in this type of situation I don't think he'll say no. I'll use the puppy dog face on him, then have Yaji steal it while he's distracted."

Yayaji Yaji gives N'yami a thumbs up before addressing Aislinn again. "Come now, I would *never* give an exploding arm to a friend! However, what are the patient's opinion on gadgets? Any weapons of choice? I've been tinkering with this flamethrower device you see, and..." Yaji is cut off as Meowitzer lets out another <ME-OW> as it looks up towards Sergius. "Oh ho! The Professor really likes you! Careful now, it has a habit of spontaneously combusting when it gets too excited!"

Sergius studies Yami as if he can’t decide if she’s serious or not. His drone drifts towards Aislinn and circles around to check her expression but no, she didn’t look like she was laughing at anything Yami said. Instead, she looked relieved. “Oh good.” She breathes. “That should shorten the timeline up if we already have the metal on hand. If he’s upset, tell him we’ll replace it. It’ll just take some time for my source to make a run.”

Sergius’ attention returns to the cat as he attempts an exploratory ping. Did the creation even have that functionality?

Aislinn passes Yaji a subdued look, recalling Yakih’ra’s explosive rants in the midst of his turmoil. “He…wouldn’t be opposed to weaponry. I question how healthy that might be in the long run but…” Aislinn trails off. Because wasn’t that just the pot calling the kettle black? There had never been a moment she had regretted what she had done in vengeance.

N'yami was 100% serious about stealing the wootz from her old man. "No worries, I'll take the fall for anythin' related to that so if he asks none of ya had anythin' to do with it." Her ears perked. "Flamethrower would be a nice touch!" Yami took an extra marker and started writing off in the corner a list of supplies they'd need, and features that came to mind to be added. "Alright, gonna start makin' a shoppin' list. What else we needin'?"

Professor Meowitzer is absolutely not designed for spontaneous combustion, however the sheer amount of explosives and weaponry that had been stuffed inside the small cat chassis was definitely a fire hazard. The bot seems to reply to the ping as well, starting to fly circles around Sergius excitedly. Yaji however was too busy thinking up what cool new weapons could be placed into a robotic arm. "Ah, revenge! The perfect motivator for innovation! Now, ah, perhaps we should talk finances? Who will be paying for all this work, and how much exactly?"

“He’s angry right now. He has a right to be. Cultists attacked his home and took his arm. I’m thinkin’ he’s dealing with a lot right now.” It was an understatement and Aislinn knew it. A lot of guilt. A lot of wanting to do something about it. A lot of wanting to get even. And damned if she didn’t understand that perfectly. At Yaji’s assumption of payment, Aislinn tilts her head to Yami. “This was trauma dealt on the job. Your boss will send an invoice to Heartwood.”

"Wonderful!" Yaji declares with a grin and clasps her hands together. "Judging by the impressive stature of your estate, that must mean your boss will only want the very best! Yami and I shall deliver exactly that, have no fear, young Yakih'ra will be most definitely get all the revenge his wonderful heart desires!"

"Never fear Yaji! It'll be a nice Starlight bonus for the Synch forge!" She grinned at the lalafell. "From the damage I've seen around the estate I can imagine that he's out for blood. Revenge does crazy things to ya, hopefully he doesn't fall too far into it." She thought it over for a moment as if thinking about shit she's done in the past related to revenge. "Annnnyyywwaaayyysss." Her ears flicked as her brain went back to focusing on the arm that needed to be made. "We'll get this all sorted for him, with us four workin' on it Yakih'ra will be back to normal in no time. He'll just be 15% metal is all." She shrugged like it was a normal thing.

Sergius’ system makes a handshake with cat-bot’s own and begins to make an ID query. “That’s not what Aislinn meant.” He stated right on the heels of Aislinn’s own sigh of “That’s not what I meant. Don’t load this arm up with all the bells and whistles he needs to go and get himself killed. He’s a desperate hand looking for a gun.” She turns her gaze to Yami. “I can do the intricate biometric wiring that’ll need to feed into his nerve endings. The connectors are going to be touchy.”

She cut a glance to Sergius. “No need to reinvent the wheel, can you get me schematics for the connectors on Rhua’s arm?” There was a fraction of silence before Aislinn’s terminal on the bench beeped. “Sent.” He told her. Aislinn turned back to Yami and nodded. Then, because she thought it might bear repeating. “No flamethrowers. Not yet. We can always modify it after Yakih’ra’s in a better headspace.”

N'yami looked between Aislinn and Sergius then she heard the beep. How did he do that? "Hold on, are we not gonna talk about how Sergius sent you files without movin'? How in the hells did he do that?" Her gaze locked onto Sergius. "Aislinn's right though, should wait on the weapons till everythin' is settled. Don't need him settin' off one of the weapons when he doesn't even know how to function the arm yet." She said all this without shifting her gaze.

Yayaji Yaji sighs and shrugs. "Fine, fine, the customer is always right I suppose! We will defer to your expertise, my lady!" Yaji says with a polite and sweeping bow. Meowitzer meanwhile pings Sergius back. <Designation: Robon|\|//PROFESSOR MEOWITZER COPYRIGHT YAYAJI YAJI DO NOT STEAL|//\?yan>. It then curiously pings Atreus back for his ID

Sergius shifted his gaze to somewhere in N’yami’s vicinity. “All this aether magic shit people do around here and -that’s- the thing that trips you up?” he returns. Through his feed with Professor Meowitzer, he shoots a reply //Sergius-IV.// It seemed anything else about copyright wouldn’t be forthcoming. “That’s another good point.” Aislinn said, moving along as if Sergius wasn’t the oddity in the room. “It’s going to take time for Yakih’ra to learn his new arm. If we do our job right, physically, the arm should sync with the body quickly after the connection is made but mentally, it’s going to be an adjustment.”

Yayaji Yaji: "Aside from working hard to ensure the tactile sensors are properly attuned, I'm afraid there's nothing we can do to help in that regard. The boy will need someone to talk to for certain, perhaps someone with experience of wearing a prosthetic. I am sure that won't be too difficult to find amidst this rabble of adventurers though!"

N'yami: "Sure is!" Even with his grumpy attitude it didn't stop the Seeker from wanting to befriend the grumpy man. "You'd be surprised at the amount of weird ass aether I've run into." She made a disgusted face at past memories of people she's run into. "Yyeeeppp." And back to focusing on Linn. "We'll have to do some physical therapy with him, well, whatever you want to call it. Might have to make adjustments when it's attached so it feels comfortable." She thought for a moment. "Only person I've known with a prosthetic is Nys but that's just her eye. So I'm out of options for ya."

Aislinn hums in thought as she studies the board, turning Yaji and Yami’s words over in her mind. “I don’t know of anyone with a prosthetic either.” She frowns. Sergius may have been a machine but there wasn’t anything biological about him. But he did know someone like that. The viera that had dropped in while Aislinn was repairing him out in Garlemald. Even as she carefully edged her attention his way she could feel the foreboding rolling off him in waves like he had already pegged her intention. So that was a ‘no’. She sighed. “I know you both will put it through its paces before you bring it here but the sooner we get this going, the sooner we might soothe a bit of Yakih’ra’s mind. We’ll just have to help him figure it out in lieu of anyone with any real experience being where he is.”

Aislinn turns one of her barely-there smiles on Yami and Yaji. “G’lewra and I can handle that. If you can both handle the engineering part.”

Professor Meowitzer suddenly stops its rushing around, bringing its little arms up to its neck like its choking. Horrible noises arise from its throat, coughing and retching before finally tilting forward and barfing up a... grenade. There is a moment's pause, but thankfully the pin remains inside and Yaji walks over with a sigh. "I told you, if you rush too much you'll cough up a hairball! You never listen to me!" She sighs as she plucks the grenade up and pops it into her pocket.

"Whatcha say Yaji? Time to pull our famous all nighters? And totally not steal somethin' before headin' home." She watched Meowitzer cough up the grenade as if it was a normal every day thing. "Don't worry, Linn! We'll handle the engineering part! We may call with questions though but other than that we'll let ya know what we come up with."

Sergius watches the exchange as Yaji pockets the grenade and he backburns the alert that went off in his systems. “That seems like a design flaw.” He states.

"You must really like this one to be so riled up." Yaji gives the cat a pat on the cheek, earning herself a <ME-OW> before something more is output from the robot's mouth, this time appearing to be a small slip of paper. "Hmm?" Yaji accepts this, reads it over for a moment, then pauses... "...Hmm." She repeats again, but in a different tone, and looks up to Sergius. "My dear... Has anyone told you how beautiful you are..?" She speaks, sounding actually genuine in her compliments for once.

The little lalafell barely cleared Sergius’ knees but that didn’t stop his proximity protocols from threatening to go off as she approached him. There was a tonal shift in her voice he couldn’t identify. Her question appeared to stymie him. He immediately shifts to Aislinn for assistance but she’s already lost in designing the delicate wiring roadmap that will be needed to make contact with what remained of Yakih’ra’s nerve endings. “I’m going to go with no.” He tells Yaji, unable to make eye contact with her. To be fair, he didn’t make eye contact with anyone really. “I’m going to get back to repairing the clinic.” He states. Aloud. In case anyone was wondering.

Yayaji Yaji: "Oh my... My dear... This is truly a crime, for your beauty has truly swept my heart into an uproar... Please, allow me to assist with your efforts to repair the clinic! I am... er, certain the Professor would like to spend more time with you!" She insists, the robotcat giving an approving <ME-OW> from behind her

N'yami’s gaze shifted to Aislinn and then back to the two in front of her. She was finding this rather amusing.

Oh hell no. There’s a measurable spike as his systems plot an escape from having to deal with any more interaction he didn’t have the bandwidth to parse. This time, Aislinn does seem to pause long enough to attempt to intercede on the poor A.I.’s behalf. “Yaji, I think we need your talents with building this prosthetic. This is a tight deadline.”

"Hm? Oh. Well. I suppose that is why I'm here." Yaji says, sounding saddened. The soot-covered Lalafell offers one more bow for Sergius, "Until next we meet then, my dear. It was truly a wonder meeting you." She says, then begrudgingly rejoins Aislinn and N'yami's brainstorming session

Aislinn cuts a meaningful glance to Serigus. He was free to go. And go he does, making a rapid exit out the door. “He’s a touch anti-social.” Aislinn murmurs as she turns back to the board. That might have been the largest understatement Aislinn had ever made. And she made them in droves.

N'yami: "What a nice fellow."

Aislinn snorts as if N'Yami had just made a joke

Yayaji Yaji nods a few times absent-mindedly, then leans in to N'yami only after Sergius had left for the clinic. "Er... Yami, I may have need for your advice when we get home. I appear to be in love."

N'yami: "I will give you all the advice you need!"

Aislinn's marker streaks wildly off course on the board. "Wait...what?"

#ffxiv rp #balmung rp #rp snippets #Hubris of Peace #These four crack me up #Right off the rails #N'yami Synch #Yayaji Yaji #Aislinn North #Atreus Sergius

10 notes · View notes

saturnaous · 14 days

Note

hi. your turn. what if you talked about your ocs teehee. stares at you with sparkly eyes

ooohhhh. ohhhhhhh. hooohoohooohhh. you messed up. you messed up big time. I'm on my computer now and you have to bare this hellstorm you brought up. hoohhhh

okay first we're going over Morble. because he's been on my mind lately teehee.

okay where are my pictures of him hold on. hold ond

marby mooby mamb. . .

okay so he's three years old now. I have to say that. I made him a few days before my birthday. it's horrible. we were similar ages now I'm OLD and he's also a lot older now but at the same time he's NOT. why are you in sixth grade still marbs. why.

anyways. He was made after another spurt of my enjoyment of The Weekly Roll on webtoon; it's a dungeons and dragons type webtoon, Morble is inspired by Sir Becket(he's now Lord Becket. good for you Becket). Becket's a Paladin, Morble's a Paladin. I dunno. It's neat.

that's not the neatest part about Morble though! You see. He's from a modernish dnd-like world. so uhm. basically he's kinda boring. besides being like an orphan or whatever. wait no before I move on to other bits I'm just gonna go in order of what happens.

Morble's basically just a little guy. he's just a fella. uh. he has a brother and HAD. two parents OH ACTULLY I RELALY LIKE HIS PARENTS HOLD ON I HAVE DRAWINGS OF THEM.

Katty and Mavrick. I like them a lot. these are them at maybe like early to mid twenties? around the time they got together(they went to the same highschool but met in collage and really connected at that point. they're so awesome together). they are SO neat to me.

Kat is a nice lady; she's like 6'1 and has a real hearty laugh. She's so sweet and so cool I love her so much. Mavrick is fucking deranged. He's an absolutely spunky ball of chaotic energy. He has no self preservation skill and is just an absolute goober. He's great. Everytime I imagine these two I just think of the rabbits with the "rabbit obsessed with his giant girlfriend who's 4x times his size" because he IS. They are looking at eachother thinking "I love my wife". Marvrick you are so wife. it doesn't help that he took her last name. Katty and Maverick Moor. . .

Kat was a firefighter for the longest time. Mav was a chaotic fencer and fence instructor. he's stupid with it though. His ass didn't like wearing protective gear half the time because of his confidence and lack of preservation skills. He died of a collapsed lung oneday when Morble was about nine.

teehee. mav's a little fabric guy tho. he knits. he sews. he embroiders. uhhhmmm. In that second image of Morble up here with the purple background! He's wearing a red cloak! Maverick made it for him and was gonna give it to him for his birthday. neat. obviously he couldn't. Kat gave it to him because. Well. Yeah.

Morble had a hard time with his dad being dead. I mean. what's a 9 year old supposed to do when your dad dies. it kinda sucks. Kat was going over some family history and going through some old heirlooms and stuff. The Moor's are from a pretty long line of Paladins spanding at least 500 years back(heehoo. hold onto that information). Turns out! There's also a great helm made by one of these Paladins from 500 years ago. Katty pulled it out of storage or whatever and gave it to Morble because he thought he might like it. Because it's neat. Morble loved it. literally has never taken it off.

A couple months after Mav died, Kat died while on the job. kinda fucked up. It's totally my fault for that but. Morble doesn't have to know that. But sucks for him. his brother too but he's a 4yo he doesn't really. know what's happening. but still sucks.

Morble and his brother move in with their grandma and stepgrandma. I don't have anything on them. but yeah.

Fastforward when Morble's 12. bc they had to move they're in a new school and stuff. nobody knows about dead parents or any symbolism in anything. yeah. he's kinda bullied but he just kinda shrugs it off. he's not that kind of guy.

anyways. now we're getting tot he fun parts. Morble walks from school to his grandma's apartment. there's a neat little field kinda inbetween the walk. onepoint Morble noticed a little glimmer near one of the super old trees over there. dunno how he caught it but he did(plot reasonings are why). anwyays.

morble goes over. turns out it's a neat little ring. he grabs it.

BOOM. he fucked up. the ring is magic. he gets swallowed up into some weird current thing the only way I've thought about what it's like is. basically imagine the sky is a giant fuckingthing of water and you can't breathe. it feels like drowning.

once he gets oout of it and recovers from the drowning feeling or whatever. he's like. where the hell am I. Because it's completely different from where he just was. which was like a dewy day or whatever. right now he's in super tall fields with grass and shit.

well. heehoo. yk how I said paladins go back about 500 years in his family? well. heehoo. heehoo. guess what.

Magic ring was really fucking magic and wahoo! Time traveling. I know. Wild. I don't know what I was thinking when I made him do that but it's integral to his character now so I can't change it.

Turns out. there's a little Party down a head from the road he got spat out right next to. turns out. hoo boy. The paladin in the party is an ancestor of Morble's. Got the same helm and everything. turns out he's the guy who MADE the helm actually. His name is Hearth. Hearth Moor. he's pretty cool.

about. uhhh. I dunno maybe 10 years go by? yeah Morble basically gets situated to being 500 years offset from his actual timeline. he's been looking for a way to get back for the entire time but. there hasn't been much luck. so he's just chillin.

he's 22 at this point. He sticks with Hearth and the whole party which I only vaugely got. then they go to fight a red dragon for some reason. no biggie.

hearth fucking gets clobbered and dies. which sucks. they retreat. then morble has the bright idea of well. I'm gonna go fight this dragon myself and WIN. avenge him or whatever. like an idiot. you remember how your dad died, right, morby? you little fucker.

anyways.he goes and fights this dragon. and somehow! for whatever reason! motherfucker wins. chops off his head and brings it back into town. he almost died tho. bro's bleeding like all hell. so yeah he has to spend some time being not fucking dead.

okay you know how I did that serval vs brown tabby poll yesterday. well. that was on our next character, Coraline.

coraline. the baddie. she's so cool.

she's a serval now btw. the poll said so and I was digigng the design more than the brown tabby. anyways.

She's a bard! She's working at the tavern the party was staying at. She basically became Morble's nurse because. because. she'd sing him songs and shit. Her voice claim is actually. uhhhhhhh. The son Rich by Cosmo Sheldrake and the other person that worked on it. yeah.

Coraline joins the party whenever they get back on their feet. The Tavern keeps the dragons head because Morble said they could. They go from 'The Hollow Tavern' to 'The Hollow Dragon's Tavern'. p neat.

uh. yeah. Next two years Coraline and Morble get kinda close. they like eachother but Morble's fucking stupid. he's a shy little himbo. what a goober.

that's basically all I got on canon for him tbh. I like to twirl him around in my head. I have one pathway where Marby finds a way to go back to his timeline. when he's 12. he was missing for about two months tho. 12 years turned into 12 weeks. yeah. sucked for everyone around them. but mostly morble because he's now 24 in a scrawny 12 yearold's body and going to 6thgrade classes. and everybody thinks he's 12 and doesn't know where he's been for like two months and he won't tell anyone because nobody would believe him if he shrugged and said Yeahhh I picked up a magic ring and I was stuck 500 years ago for 12 years! No biggie!! yeah. Morble just kinda goes about like tho after that and becomes a highschool history teacher and works at the local museum. he's really neat. He also is super funky when it comes to his classroom decorations because he has a wall of swords and an entire replica of the suit of heavy armor he used to wear. he's also deranged and under his clothes and leather jacket he has like. jackchains, chainmail(lining his jacket), greaves, and. I think something else but I forgot what. he's wild. I just really like to put him in the salad spinner of my head and think about him with things teehee. twirls hair kicks feet.

yeah. you fucked up with this ask tho. I have more. I'm talking about Harry now. maybe Kinglen if I feel like it. let me get my things fo harry.

this be harry. harry hearthorn. I'm obsessed with him. he's so fucking funny. you'll have to excuse the things of Alphonse and stuff in that last one. I'm gonna be using. him for dnd <3

I love Harry. He's from a military type country or whatever. it's. it's not the best. they're like. I don't know how to describe it. think of amestris but less "we wanna take over the world" and more "we like war and we want more" or whatever. you understand. it's a weird one.

there's like three main branches of jobs. military, research and development slash the sciences, and basically 'entertainment'. entertainers are literally just everything that doesn't fall into the other catagories. these are like artists and show runners and broadcasters and radio hosts and other things of the sort.

school works in this place by being 12 years just like 'merican schools(EAGLE SCREECH GUNSHOTS FIREWORKS). but the first 8 you are just doing general stuff. the 9 and 10th are for pinning down what branch you're going into. and 11 and 12 are getting experience in your field. this is mainly getting mentorships and other stuff, witht he execption of the military branch

Military only has one place to go. If you're going into the military at 16, you're goign STRAIGHT To tht emilitary at 16.

Harry's mom was in the R&D branch, Harry's dad was in the military. they met at a bar. they're funny. both bisexual which is REALLY funny because Harriet is ALSO bisexual and Harry is bicurious-aspec. harry's mom is 6'1 btw. Harry's 6'5. justlittle stuff. I think I named her Maria. his dad is named Henry.

anyways. Harry and Harriet., they are siblings. Harriet is two years older than Harry. though it's funny bc their full names are Harrison and Harriet. but. Harriet is Harry. And Harrison is Harriet. they had a sense of humor.

ATM harry is 31. Harriet is 33 and a senior broadcaster at one of the shownetworks or whatever. Maria is retired. Henry died while on duty when Harry and Harriet were lke 12 and 14.

anyways. Harry wanted to go into the science or military branches. like his parents. His scores were leaning more to being althetic and shit so he got put into the military. he's been there like. ever since. he barely goes home bc he feels no need and because there's an active war(a really long one. . . neither side will stop. . . they really like war) and he just. didn't feel the need. but they forced him to go home a few times when he got like. shot and stabbed and stuff. yeah he's a g like that. did I mention he's a first lieutenant btw. he's a first lieutenant bc I said so.

anyways. his downfall is when onetime. after making a bad call sends the part of his platoon he's with through a part of whereever they are. one fo the younger guys. steps on a landmine. out of like, 14 soliders, only three of them survive. harry, someone else who was closer to the mine, and a younger one that was farther away and practically unscathed. Harry lost his leg and most of his hearing in his right ear and all of it in his left. teehee

anyways. after his main amount of recovery. he's still in the military but they don't put him on any active duty despite him BEGGING for it. because of the PTSD mainly and because he's depressed as fuck secondarly. yeah. basically it sucks for him really bad. he gets put on staff duty indefinetly. also I have to mention Harry fucks. severially. I mentioned that he's aspec. like. arospec. he is not acespec. he fucks.

anyways. basically he's depressed as fuck because. he accidently killed a bunch of guys and ptsd is kicking his ass. he tries to drink his worries away and doesn't care about what kind of trouble he gets into with the drinking and getting caught with girls and stuff. he gets put onto suicide watch after an incident with a lower ranking guy. yeah.

at that point they decide the best option is to just. give him an honorable discharge. so they do that. Harry has to move in with his mom and sister. he does that. everything sucks for him. yeah

at some point after his birthday he decides well. this fucking sucks. I hate this. I'm leaving. he grabs like his old uniform, and money, and a pack, and a pack of smokes and just. hitchhikes. out of the country. without fucking telling anyone. he calls Harriet and his mom after he's out of the country like "heyyy. I'm. I'm out west or whatever. gonna. figure something out here." and they're like WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK MAN. WHAT THE HELL. but he writes them letters and calls them ebcause they can't really do jack about it. yeah

so. basically he's just hitchhiking till he gets to another country. which he does and then basically he tried to do some freelance work or something. then he finds a little group who are gonna basically take down the government. I dunno that's where the campaign is gonna start methinks. Harry might get himself a funny little dragonborn boyfriend. yeah. okay I have to shower and. actually do stuff teehee I rolls out of bed and went straight to my puter to talk about these guys. so teehe. I'm so hungry I need water.

OH OH HOLD ON. uhhmmm here's old art of morble. spannign from 3 years ago to a couple months ago. teehee

neat. the third one is the very very VERY first thing I did of him ever in existance. second one is one I did and the first one is a redraw from months later. the last one is me just doodling him months ago and pinning down his design again. I changed his helm bc it made no sense.

OKAY I’M GOING I’M GOING FALLS TO THE FLOOR AND ROLLS AWAY LIKE A LOG

#from the pouch #asks #ocs #my ocs #oc art #yeah sure that's good. teehee. prances away #I might actually come back witha reblog or two and talk about my other guys but my mom might yell at me if I don't shower now so buhbye #this got really sloppy but IDC IDC #OKAY BYE

5 notes · View notes

trixcuomo · 1 year

Note

Whats the most challenging part of writing in a 'modern wow' setting? Where do you draw inspiration from?

That is an excellent question! Long answer to this, so I do apologize...

I've been writing fanfiction for years, but writing for Trixany was a challenge because I wanted to parody (of course lol) modern influencer culture, which can have its toxic side. I actually strongly dislike some aspects of it. I write Trixany as a hungering character, desperate to fill a void by seeking all this attention and fame. That's her biggest flaw; wanting the fame so badly is her blindspot. The void inside her? That is the wound caused by the attack on Quel'thalas.

So! As for the biggest challenge in translating influencer culture into a Warcraft universe? I guess... suspending belief. You can use "comm" or "scrying orb" instead of the word "cellphone" or "television/screen." A lot of us roleplayers say something is of Goblin or Gnomish make if it seems sort of modern, as is already the pattern in Warcraft. That's how we fill in the blanks. That's easy. But how do you get people to go along with there being a celebrity gossip show, based in Dalaran? How do you convince readers that there are rival Warcraft girl bands that vibe like the Pussycat Dolls versus Destiny's Child? Without it seeming so ludicrous, you get thrown out of immersion and can't enjoy it?

I fall in love with these ideas, and then I NEED them, and they have to happen. So I have to streeetch and reach into the furthest extremes of the Warcraft storytelling spectrum. Maybe the wild-ass Goblin aesthetic is on the far end, and something most familiar to fantasy, with Human/Elf/Dwarf interactions, something Tolkien, is on the nearer end. Somewhere on the Goblin end, we have Kaja-Cola and that maybe feels like a modern company that would have a Fanta-esque girl band to promote its soda. Haris Pilton is barely, scarcely lore-abiding. But as an Elf, she probably falls in the middle? And I can draw a line safely from Warcraft Goblins to Haris (if she even really exists), to Trixany.

I find these Warcraft touchpoints and build them out. Haris Corp has become this huge, scary company with Goblin modernity and Elf sophistication beyond what Trixany can even imagine. So anything Trixany does as an influencer now seems normal by comparison, I hope. More believeable.

Usually, whatever makes me laugh really hard or that I become occasionally obsessed with in pop culture is my inspiration. I usually don't tell myself, 'No, that can't happen' when it comes to stories. IRL I may get nervous about trying something new, but when it comes to writing, which I love so badly, that's my moon shot. I will take the moon shot every time and imagine a way to make a cool idea with real potential happen, no matter what. Writing is one of our few spaces where we can set ourselves free and really be ourselves, so of course you have to try!

The Cody Rhodes post happened because I was following that, and I'm a WWE fan. I've been falling down a PubLIZity rabbit hole, so that might inspire something soon, too? If I can see it, I'm gonna try to reach it because that's exciting and you might make someone belly laugh, smile, brighten their day! Writing is so fun for me.

Oh, and I'll say my favorite modern-day Warcraft writing I've done on here was inspired by Lady Gaga's Marry the Night music video. If you read the Dalaran City Clinic post and play the YouTube video in there simultaneously, almost the entire post actually hits right in synch with the narration as a parody. I love Lady Gaga so much, and that music video is incredible. I really wanted to honor that and combine it with my Warcraft fangirl side.

Also, I just love Kael'thas showing up in that post as the nurse. It works so good; it cracks me up. That post just captures Trixany really well and how I translate modern-day pop culture into Warcraft writing. Guess the First Aid trainer in Legion Dalaran was the touch point on that one, lol!!

I usually have asks turned off, but I'm pleased you reached out. I seriously enjoy your writing too Nix, so that was cool of you! Nice ask.

2 notes · View notes

rphelperblog · 2 years

Text

Heroes of Olympus Rp Meme

“Uh, normally she doesn’t judo-flip people.”

“Knocked out twice in two days,”

“With great power... comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later.”

I could use some dam french fries."

“Be careful of love. It'll twist your brain around and leave you thinking up is down and right is wrong.”

“Life is only precious because it ends, kid.”

“Don't feel bad, I'm usually about to die.”

"I don't know. But I just know that I'll be fighting next to you."

“It's funny how humans can wrap their mind around things and fit them into their version of reality.”

“It's hard to enjoy practical jokes when your whole life feels like one.”

“The world was collapsing, and the only thing that really mattered to me was that she was alive.”

“You deal with mythological stuff for a few years, you learn that paradises are usually places where you get killed.”

“Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to blast you.”

I gave her my deluxe I'll-Kill-You-Later stare.”

“If there’d been an ocean in Kansas, maybe.”

“donuts. Always, donuts.”

“That should’ve killed her!”

“What if we promoted, like, Adidas or something? Would that make Nike mad enough to show up?”

“To be perfect, you have to feel perfect about yourself—avoid trying to be something you’re not.”

“What about a compromise? I’ll kill them first, and if it turns out they were friendly, I’ll apologize.”

“Survive first. Figure out crayon drawing of destiny later.”

“I can’t believe I thought you were hot.”

“I try not to think. It interferes with being nuts

“It seemed weird calling a teenager 'sir' but I'd learned to be careful with immortals. They tended to get offended easily. Then, they blew stuff up.”

"The god's chosen beverage. Tremble before the horror of Diet Coke!”

"You look stupid just standing there."

“But remember, boy, that a kind act can sometimes be as powerful as a sword.”

“Getting something and having the wits to use it...those are two different things.”

'No, that's our huge friend Leroy! He's going to help us!”

“Tell the sun and stars hello for me.”

“FORGET THE CHICKEN-NUGGET SMOKE SCREEN.”

“It could kick some serious booty,”

You're no more a freak than we are. And, hey, maybe you can fly, too. Like jump off a building and yell 'Flame on!'"

"If I did that, you would see a flaming kid falling to his death, and I would be yelling something a little stronger than 'Flame on!”

“Isn’t that Mother Nature? She’s supposed to have, like, flowers in her hair and birds singing around her and dear and rabbits doing her laundry.”

"I mean... Oh, cool! Suffering? I love suffering! Let's do this.”

I'm so cool. I want to date myself, but I don't know how! You want to date me instead? You're so lucky!”

“I fought side by side with the gods and some other demigod…Harry Cleese, I think.”

“I’d eat breakfast, breakfast, and breakfast if I could.”

“and inside were not gardening tools, unless you wanted to make war on your tomato plants.”

“But beauty is about finding the right fit, the most natural fit, To be perfect, you have to feel perfect about yourself --- avoid trying to be something you're not.

“My point is that love is the most powerful motivator in the world. It spurs mortals to greatness. Their noblest, bravest acts are done for love.”

“Shut up, me,”

“Nothing,Long night. I think I’m hallucinating. It’s cool.”

“Just joking.it might be good to change the subject.”

"I am nice! I simple ooze niceness,”

“And it was pretty much the best underwater kiss of all time.”

"Yay! Your brain works!”

“Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say.”

“You must forge your own path for it to mean anything.”

“Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies”

"I'm the bad boy supreme. And the ladies love a bad boy.”

“But magic is neither good nor evil. It is a tool, like a knife. Is a knife evil? Only if the wielder is evil.”

I'm the... What's my title? Am I like, admiral, or captain, or..."

“Safety from what? Who's after me?"

"Yes, my brave one. They are beautiful tonight."

I will have your soul!”

“No one can hate you with more intensity than someone who used to love you.”

"Why do humans have to sway their arms while they walk? I dunno boss, but it just feels right.”

“Do you always try to kill people when they blow their nose?

“Does truth have a moral?”

“Lots of death, huh? Personally, I'm trying to avoid lots of death, but you guys have fun!”

“Well . . . sure good to be together again. Arguing. Almost dying. Abject terror. Oh, look. It's our floor.”

‘I get a little nosebleed and I wake up the entire earth? That’s not fair!”

I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.

“There is always a way out for those clever enough to find it.

She glared at me like she was going to punch me. And then she did something that surprised me even more. She kissed me.”

“Hot? You dare insult me? I am cold,Very, very cold.”

We've learned that your plans really, really bite!”

“I can’t drown. And neither can my pancakes.”

“Oh my god, I am so awesome!"

"And cute, in a scrawny way,

Baby I invented scrawny. Scrawny is the new sizzling hot.”

“Being a hero doesn’t mean you’re invincible. It just means that you’re brave enough to stand up and do what’s needed.”

“not giving people a second thought…that can be dangerous.”

“We'll have to work on your bunny phobia later.”

“Almost everything strange washes up near Miami. ”

“Sometimes mortals can be more horrible than monsters.”

I will look for powdered donuts in the wilderness."

And so...hypothetically, if these to people likes each other, what would it take to get the stupid guy to kiss the girl, huh?"

“Daddy will explain. Come, he is blowing up monsters.”

“Oh, I wouldn't say Love always makes you happy. Sometimes it makes you incredibly sad.”

"You just . . . with a sword . . . you just—"

“I'm not good with children, Or people. Well, any organic life forms, really.”

Uh...don't we deal in myths?'

'No, I mean it's a MADE-UP myth. Not like, an actual true myth.

“I am never, ever, going to make things easy for you Get used to it.”

#heroes of olympus #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #open meme #open to anybody #open to all #open RP #open to anyone #ask meme #rp meme #roleplay meme #memes

80 notes · View notes

joshstambourine · 3 years

Text

Greta Van Fleet and Their Kid’s First Day of School

Y’all seemed to love my GVF as Dad’s head canon so I thought I’d continue on the same line with something else cute~ I’ve had this idea since I mentioned it in a fic I recently wrote (A Girl Named Ivy) so I thought I might as well throw a head canon together for it as well... SO I STOP THINKING ABOUT IT LMAO.

Taglist: @anditsmywholeheart @babydxll

Josh

He strikes me one of those dads who is actually really excited for his kid to start school. Not that he doesn't want them around, or that he doesn't realize its the mark of the beginning of the end... but because he knows this is a part of growing up.

Josh can tell while they are out shopping for new school clothes that his kid is excited. They are beginning to feel grown up, even if its just in a small way --- and Josh is proud of them for that.

I just can't imagine him being the kind of parent that struggles with letting them go, instead I see him being the kind of parent that just wants to nurture their growth in everyway.

"What about this shirt for your first day? You know what we should get you?? A set of wheelies!"

"Josh they don't allow those in schools anymore..."

*Whispers* "We'll get you some wheelies, just don't tell mom."

He'd make sure he goes through the checklist the school had sent out multiple times, trying to make sure they have everything they could possibly need.

When the big day finally comes, he would be talking with his little one all morning making sure they know they are going to have a great time and make lots of friends.

He would want to help make their lunch but instead just spends all his time drawing a picture of a rabbit with a cowboy hat riding on a goats back to put in instead.

Josh wouldn't be able to stop himself from looking in the rearview every few minutes to look over the little ones face. Trying to make sure they didn't look nervous at any point. If they do he'd find a way to reassure them.

"You remember that nice lady that gave you that cool cat sticker a few weeks ago? She's going to be there all day today! She's actually your teacher, isn't that cool?" Josh would just want to do everything in his power to keep them feeling relaxed.

"You give 'em hell today, okay?" Josh would say when they stood outside of the classroom, watching the little one nod. "Before you know it I'll be here to pick you up."

"You promise?"

"Of course I promise... I need someone to go get ice cream with!" He would say as he'd move to give them a tight hug.

"I love you."

"I love you too Dad."

As soon as the classroom door shuts, Josh won't be able to stop smiling the rest of the walk back to the car. He would be just so proud that he raised such a fearless kid.

The first thing Josh would ask when he picks them up at the end of the day,

"So? Did you learn how to move things with your mind yet?"

"No but did you know squares have four sides...?!"

Jake

Oh god.

Jake is going to be having such a tough time.

He wants to be a big strong man about this. "It's so silly... why would I be sad about them going to school?! That's ridiculous."

He would pretend like he didn't care.

Anytime his little one asks about what school is going to be like, he gives very quick pointed answers so he doesn't have to think about them being grown up enough to go.

"Is it too late to home school them...?"

"Yes Jake it's too late to home school them."

Jake just wants to hold hands the whole time they are school shopping. He doesn’t want to let them go.

"Jake, you have to let them go so they can pick out what they want."

"They can bring me where ever they want to be. I can help them reach what they need.”

The moment his kid puts their backpack on their shoulders, even just to test it out, he’s going to need to take a moment. When did his baby get so grown up?!

He thought that was bad but then the school assessment kills him.

Jake wants to be the one to make their lunch for their first day, its a special day, this little one deserves something special. He'd hide candies and other treats at the bottom so Mom won't see.

There is no way Jake isn’t driving his kid on their first day of school. He’s going to talk with them all the way to class with their hand clasped in his.

I think despite how well he covers it over, his kid can probably tell that he’s having a hard time letting them go.

“Dad?”

“Yeah...?”

“I’ll be okay.”

Hearing them say that would make him smile, trying so hard not to cry. Jake would lean down and immediately give them a huge hug. “I know.” He’d tell them.

“I’m just going to miss you lots.”

“I’ll miss you too.” They’d say, “But. Mom says that I’ll have time to draw pictures probably. Would you like a picture Dad?”

“I’d love a picture.”

As soon as Jake gets back to the car he’s a sobbing mess. He’s so proud but its so hard to see your baby grow up.

Sam

Sort of like Josh I think that Sam is excited for his little one to start school. He has so much confidence in his kids abilities.

Sam would just assume that whatever task is sent his little ones way will be accomplished with all of their effort.

He feels like the kind of parent to hype up school any chance he gets for his kid. He wouldn’t want his kid to be nervous, so he’d say just about anything to keep them from being scared.

When Sam brings his kid in for the assessment he is just going to be absolutely beaming with joy.

He’s just such a proud dad. Getting to see his kid answer questions and have so much fun is going to have him over the moon.

“Buddy you did so good with those shapes! When did you learn those??”

Sam would be on the ball for school shopping. Everything that’s on the school given list and then some.

“Sam... they don’t need a dictionary --- they can’t even read yet.”

“Just incase! You never know!”

*Insert Sam looking for dirty words and snickering to himself*

He’d also want to practice so much with his kid before the big day comes. Going over their numbers and ABC’s so they feel nice and prepared.

When the big day does come around he is immediately going to have his camera out, ready to take some nice first day at school pictures. Whether they are waiting for the bus or he’s driving them to the school.

There are going to be like a million pictures.

So many.

“You’ve got your crayons?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?! I just want to make sure. Oh and you’ve got your lunch box?? Mom made you such a good lunch.”

“Yup! I’ve got everything!”

“Excellent work~” He’d hum, “You're going to have an awesome first day!”

Danny

Danny I could imagine feeling a little nervous for his little one to start school

He would never tell his kid this of course; I feel like he would understand how well attuned kids can be to feelings, especially nervous feelings.

So he tries to bury his worried feelings.

They’d come out a little every time his baby shows any concerns about school. But he will stuff them down and try to be as reassuring as he can.

“You’re going to make so many friends, buddy! You aren’t even going to notice Mom and Dad aren’t there, y’know? They also have lots of cool toys.”

Danny seems like the kind of Dad that would want them to feel confident. So if that meant lots of new clothes, or cool school supplies. He’d get it for them. Above everything he just doesn’t want them at any point to have a hard time in this process.

In all honesty though he’s the one having the hard time.

His kid is probably hella excited.

Danny sort of strikes me as a parent who would pack a really nice lunch for his kid. Like. This kid isn’t just going to have a ham sandwich like the rest of the loser kids in their class.

#AestheticLunch

The scene I sort of keep running in my head is with Danny standing at the end of the driveway holding his kids hand, they're both just leaning out waiting for the school bus to come around the corner.

“Hey dad?”

“Yeah?”

“...I’m sorta scared.”

“Buddy, it’s okay to be scared. This is a new thing for you. It’s totally okay to be worried about it.”

“I know...”

“Is there something that’s scaring you a lot though?”

The kid would nod, “...I’m going to miss you.”

Danny’s heart would just melt, and he’d pull them up into his arms for a huge hug. “I’m going to miss you lots too! But. As soon as you get home we can play as much as you want, okay?”

Watching his kid get onto the bus is going to be such a scary thing, but he knows it’ll all work out.

I feel like he would plan something fun for afterwards. Whether it be like going to get ice cream, or taking them out to a movie. Just something to celebrate!

Well that’s all of those! Sorry they’re a little bit more briskly written I sort of wanted to get those out of my head so I can focus on the next part of What Friends Do. As always if you guys want an actual full fic written for one of these, let me know~

Fun note! My first day of school was proceeded by going to an amusement park on the Friday. Going to a friends house and dislocating my elbow on the Saturday. Having major surgery on the Sunday. And then sobbing my whole first day, the Tuesday.

#Greta Van Fleet #josh gvf #jake gvf #sam gvf #danny gvf #gvf fanfiction #greta van fic #greta van fleet roleplay #greta van fleet fan fiction #greta van fleet hc #gvf hc #gvf imagine

73 notes · View notes

draconic-ichor · 3 years

Text

In the Steel Steeds Heart

Chapter 14: Dinner as a Family: Part 1

Warnings: strong language, sexual themes, blood, mentions of death

Summary: Mother Miranda calls all the Lords to a family dinner, even asking for Juniper by name…

Feedback appreciated. 18+

Juniper rolled over and cuddled into Heisenberg, still half asleep. He stretched a bit, easing his arms around her as he relaxed back into the bed. He had plans to get done, but they could wait just a bit longer.

Juniper blinked up at him, a sleepy smile spread over her lips. He met her gaze, lips lazily mirroring her own.

In a small sweet voice she murmured, “You smell so bad, Karl.”

He blinked down at her dumfounded for a moment before lightly shoving her across the bed, huffing out, “Fuck you.”

She was a fit of giggles the whole way.

Their mirth was short lived. The shrill ring of the phone pieced the calm morning air. Heisenberg stiffened sitting up. Juniper instantly went quiet, worry knotting her brow.

Heisenberg stormed over to the phone, suspiciously picking up the phone with heavy reservations.

“Yea?” He spoke roughly into the receiver.

Hearing a woman’s voice Juniper came closer to listen:

“Is that how you answer calls?” Lady Dimitrescu’s voice sounded. Heisenberg snorted. She made a sound of disgust on the other end.

“What the fuck do you want? I’m busy.” Heisenberg spoke, irritation sneaking into his tone.

“Mother wanted me to remind you about the dinner planned for tonight. She’s considering it mandatory that we all attend.” The woman explained.

Heisenberg glanced at Juniper, confusion in his eyes, “A little damn short notice, isn’t it?”

“Oh, dear.” He heard a snobbish laughter filter through the phone, “Did your invitation get lost?”

Heisenberg ground his teeth.

“No matter, be here tonight. Dinner is at seven, and Heisenberg?” Lady Dimitrescu’s voice was cool, almost mocking, “Make sure you bring our sweet little Juniper along.”

“Why?!” He barked, “So you can show off and stroke your ego?”

“Mother Miranda asked for her by name.” Came the answer making Heisenberg’s words die on his tongue. In his silence Lady Dimitrescu smirked, “Don’t be tardy. Oh, and do clean up, won’t you?”

Before she could say anything else Heisenberg slammed the receiver down angrily. He placed his palms flat against the table, simmering.

Juniper waited for him to speak, worriedly.

“Mother wants us to go to dinner tonight at the supersized bitch’s castle.” He informed her, “And she asked for you specifically…”

“What, why?” Juniper blurted out.

Heisenberg quickly turned towards her, “Fuck if I know! Nothing good, it’s never good when she takes interest in someone.”

Juniper’s stomach clenched. She thought for a moment, biting her lip.

“Then let’s not give her any reason to suspect anything.” She finally spoke.

Heisenberg shook his head, pushing past her.

“Karl. Let’s go and be civil then leave. In and out.” She pressed following him.

“Fuck that.” He spat, shoulders tight, “I’m not going to yuk it up for that Bitch.”

Green eyes narrowing, Juniper grabbed his arm. He froze, but didn’t look at her. “If we piss Miranda off we could be in more danger.”

“You’re in danger already.” His voice was low, light fear pricking it.

“So let’s not make it any worse.”

“….hmm.”

“You told me we have to play along, so that’s what we’re going to do.” Juniper spoke evenly, “You’re going to be polite and not cause any problems ok.”

He growled. Juniper touch softened as she continued, “You always told me to be careful…now I’m telling you. I’m not saying you have to kiss Alicina’s boots, just don’t cause trouble. Ok?”

When he didn’t answer she insisted, “Ok, Karl?”

“Fuck.” He looked down, “I’ll behave…but just for you.”

Juniper hugged him for a moment. “Now go shower and I’ll wash your coat.”

“Why?!”

“It stinks, I know you won’t dress up so I’m at least going to wash it. I’m going to brush your hair too.” She reached up to paw at his tangled locks with a critical eye.

He pulled away, “Now that’s too far.”

“Well you better brush it yourself then.” She huffed, starting to pull his coat off.

He gave a little chuckle, “Trying to get me naked?”

Juniper rolled her eyes, fully removing his coat. A thought struck her as she smiled sweetly up at Heisenberg.

“Would that help convince you to strip down and clean yourself up?”

She saw him pause, thinking it over. “You drive a hard bargain, Buttercup.” He smiled toothily.

“So?”

“Deal!” He helped her remove the rest of his clothes, practically jumping into the bed after. He acted like an excited young boy, even when they fucked like rabbits.

Patting his thigh once he was comfortable, he smiled cockily, “Come sit, Doll. Convince me to be a good little bastard for a night.”

They stood on the polished stone steps of Castle Dimitrescu’s gate. Juniper straightened Heisenberg’s collar, looking over him with almost a motherly warmth. Part of him wanted to shrug her away, unused to someone dotting on him in such a way. His face was pensive, his lips a thin line as he stood still for her preening. After she was happy with his appearance her eyes softened. Juniper cupped his jaw, strong and rough under her fingers. His pale eyes rose to meet her own behind his dark shades.

“You are so handsome.” She smiled, her voice sweet and sincere.

He sighed, giving her an awkward smile before he hid behind bravado, “Tell me something I don’t know, Doll.”

They shared a light kiss before going to the door. Heisenberg pushed it heavily open, without pausing to knock.

The castle was very unlike the factory, glistening and delicate. But under all the gilded edges, seeped into the corners, the stale odor of death still clung. Juniper had long grown used to the hot, clinging air of the factory, finding that the castle felt almost stale and dry in comparison.

The owner of the castle could be heard long before seen, her thunderous steps echoing on the marble floors.

“Wicked witch is comin’.” Heisenberg snickered. Juniper shot him a scolding look just before the lady herself came into view at the top of the stairs.

“Ah, Heisenberg! For once you are early.” She looked down at them, “And actually washed! My, my, a lady’s touch is doing such wonders for you.”

Her tone was mocking, her yellow eyes keen.

Remembering his promise he chewed the inside of his cheek, eyes burning embers.

His silence was taken as a victory. Dimitrescu descended the stairs, each step slow and overbearing.

“Juniper dear, is that the best thing you had to wear?”She looked down at her, “I expected such thuggish attire from Heisenberg, but you too my dear?”

Juniper’s face flushed with embarrassment, before Heisenberg could snap she admitted, “I’m afraid so ma’am.”

She had thought herself well dressed enough for the occasion.

“Hm.” The giant woman pondered for a long moment before snapping her fingers. Two maids came at the sound, curtsying.

“Girls, find Juniper something to wear.” She ordered, “Something to compliment the evening.”

Juniper started to protest, but Alicina insisted, “Oh please it’s the least I could do.”

She strode away with heavy footfalls. Juniper looked down at her boots, feeling out of place.

“Hey kitten, you don’t have to do shit she asks.” Heisenberg hissed in a low voice, “You look great.”

“Thank you.” She smiled weakly. It wasn’t long before the maids returned, a folded dark dress in their hands.

“Come this way m’lady.” The shorter maid instructed as they both turned, beginning to lead them to a changing room. Approaching the door, the maids allowed Juniper to enter, but barred the way for Heisenberg.

He looked down at them heatedly.

“No men are allowed within the changing room my Lord.” One spoke.

“I’ll be ok,” Juniper smiled. He backed down, leaning against the far wall to wait for her. The knob turned, Heisenberg glanced up. His mouth went completely dry.

She wore an evening dress: made out of red velvet, with a collared neckline, a V-cut window into the chest, and made without sleeves. The fabric clung to her every curve, her cleavage peeking through the chest window.

Juniper tucked a strand of hair behind her ear self-consciously, “Does it look ok?”

He swallowed hard, feeling his face flush.

Clearing his throat he answered, “It looks great, Doll.”

She beamed, giving him a little twirl. His heartbeat quickened, the dress leaving little to the imagination.

The maids giggled at his reaction. They quickly escaped after receiving a warning look.

Now alone Juniper closed the distance between them. She placed her hand on his chest, looking at him through her lashes.

“You want to tell me what you really think?” Her voice was low, causing blood to pulse to his cock.

Heisenberg took a breath, trying to push those thoughts away. He took her hand in his own, leaning down to whisper, “After this little shindig is over I’m going to ruin you.”

“Mmm.” She rumbled, “You’ll have to be a good boy.”

He licked his teeth, “I might not be able to wait till we get back to the factory.”

“Easy.” Juniper’s lips ghosted over his own before she pulled away. He almost growled.

“We should get back before we’re missed.” She pointed out.

As they made their way down the long halls, a choir of giggles broke out, loud and piercing.

“Juniper!” Cassandra exclaimed, rushing forward. The other sisters close behind.

“We missed you.” Another smiled. The third giggled while adding, “You were so much fun!”

Heisenberg saw Juniper draw back, fear rimming her green eyes. It made his stomach curdle with anger. Striding forward he brandished his hammer, growling, “If I find even a damn scratch on her I’ll break every fucking window in this castle.”

The sister’s eyes widened in surprise. They retreated back, Bella sticking her tongue out, “She reeks of old dog now anyways!”

Their forms shifted into a large mass of swollen flies, filtering through a doorway deeper into the castle.

Heisenberg felt Juniper hand on his arm. His posture softened as he turned back to meet her gaze.

She looked relieved, but spoke lightly, “I know you are wanting to keep up appearances…you don’t have to protect me all night.”

He pulled her a bit closer, burying his face into her hair, giving her a rough whisper, “It’s my job, buttercup.”

She nuzzled into him thankfully.

Oddly, no one else had yet sat at the large table within the main dining hall. The room was almost too quiet, save for the far off echoes of the maid’s heels. Juniper took a seat near the middle of the closest side, patting the seat next to her. Heisenberg heavily sighed, trudging over to sit down. He kicked out his legs widely, slouching in the chair. He looked like an angsty teenager.

Juniper squeezed his knee, “Only a few short hours.”

He nodded.

A maid came briskly in, pushing a wine cart. The cart was white with gold trim, a large bucket containing 3 bottles of wine sat on top. The maid gingerly set glasses down before them both, her eyes soft and ever looking downward.

She went back to the cart,retrieving and uncorking one of the bottles. She served Juniper first, filling her glass with red wine. It stuck to the inside and was much thicker than Juniper thought it should be.

The maid went to pour the next glass. Heisenberg caught her wrist before any wine could spill into the cup, making the maid gasp.

“No wine for me.” He rumbled, “Whisky.”

He released the maid.

She took a step back, looking at the floor.

“My Lord the Ladyship requested we only serve wine at the table.” Her voice wavered.

“Sweetheart, either you go pour me a glass or I’ll find the whole damn bottle.” His tone was warning.

Worry etched into the maid’s features. She quickly curtsied, “Yes, Lord Heisenberg. Right away.”

When the maid’s shoe falls had faded into the distance, Juniper hissed in a low tone, “Are you going to make an ass of yourself all night?”

Still tense as all hell, Heisenberg shot her a look over his shades, “Yea, and?”

Juniper rolled her eyes, turning away, not wanting to argue. She shifted her attention to the wine. Never one for heavy drinking she lifted the glass almost timidly.

The liquid was indeed thick and sticky over her tongue, almost bitter as it gave away to an irony aftertaste. She wanted to hate it, but something inside her pulsed, compelled to drink more. Everywhere the liquid touched left a heavy residue, her cup still red after she finished it.

“Easy, Buttercup.” Heisenberg warned.

She shot him a look.

Donna and Angie were the next to arrive, both in their usual garb. Angie excitedly greeted Juniper, almost falling out of Donna’s hands while trying to wave.

They sat directly across from them, Donna carefully placing Angie into her own seat first. Ever silent, Donna delicately sat down, giving Juniper a small wave.

Moreau was next, almost sliding on the polished floors. His breath was laborer as he took a seat one down from Juniper. She was silently thankful for the small gap between them. He still frightened her.

Lastly entered Mother Miranda and their host. The little semblance of calm evaporated from the table, everyone straightening and growing almost nervous as the women took their places at both ends of the table. Positions of importance.

As the maids hurried about to get everyone served their wine, and Heisenberg his whiskey, Miranda began to speak.

“Thank you, all my dear children, for attending this dinner. Especially our host, Lady Dimitrescu.”

“Oh Mother Miranda, it is nothing.” Alicina gushed, failing to sound humble.

Miranda gave a forced smile, taking a sip of wine before continuing, “As you all know, in two day's time, the full moon will rise over our little village, and Lord Heisenberg will lead another Hunt.”

Heisenberg nodded solemnly as her eyes fell on him.

Before Miranda could continue a small hand raised. All eyes turned to Juniper.

“Ma’am, can I ask something?” She chirped, face rosy under their combined gazes.

Miranda gave her a long look, her face unreadable.

“You may.” She nodded, adding, “And Dear Juniper, call me Mother.”

Juniper swallowed hard at her words, “M-Mother…why do you have the hunts? Aren’t the villagers important to you?”

There was genuine confusion in Juniper's tone, causing Miranda to laugh. It was a clear piercing sound, one Juniper never wanted to hear again.

“Oh my Dear!” Mother Miranda took a breath to compose herself, “The villager’s importance is in what they can provide for us. Their devotion is the principle in keeping order.”

She went on to explain, “We use the Hunts not only to thin the herd of the weak but to keep their devotion strong. When I feel their convictions wane or their offerings lessen we drive them with fear. Like dogs herding the sheep back to shelter.”

Realization filled Juniper's green eyes, her face losing color. The Hunts were just a way for Miranda to keep control. If the villagers didn’t worship her with absolution she would send terror driving them back to the church. Where she can be waiting to be their savior once more.

A cruel game.

“Do you understand?” Mother Miranda asked.

“Yes Ma-…I mean Mother.” Juniper nodded, looking down at her glass.

The maids brought in the first course: bread with herbed oil, and soup that smelled of cream and truffles. They placed a bowl before every guest.

“The food looks delicious Ma’am.” Juniper folded her hands in her lap, “Thank you.”

She looked at Heisenberg expectantly. He shifted the cigar from his teeth to his hand, giving a tight, “…Thanks.”

Alicina gave a cocky smirk, “So you’ve finally been able to teach this dog some manners.”

Before Juniper had a chance to respond, Heisenberg’s head snapped towards her.

“Blow it up your ass!” He growled, ashing the cigar on the tablecloth before returning it to his lips.

Alicina gave a look of disgust, turning away.

The room filled with the clinking of spoons and the light tapping of the maids going to and fro to keep every guest's cup filled.

Juniper gazed over to Moraue. The poor creature struggled to pick up his spoon, the metal slipping out of his twisted hands. Even though he still frightened her, she pitied him. His deformities were no fault of his own and he always strove to please with an almost childlike optimism.

Thinking for a moment, Juniper pulled an extra hair-tie from her wrist. She picked up her second spoon, looping the tie multiple times around the handle until it fit securely and snuggly.

She reached over the free chair and gently took Moraue’s left hand.

He almost jumped at the contact, his one good eye flicking up to her with a mix of confusion and apprehension.

The table grew quiet as Juniper placed her augmented spoon into his hand. His skin was cool and slimy as she encouraged his fingers to wrap around it. Pulling back to sit fully into her seat once more she felt relief, seeing him able to grip the utensil.

Moraue looked down at it for a moment, realizing the grip allowed him to better use it. He beamed up at her, smiling wide and innocent, “Thank you, you are too kind!”

Juniper nodded, returning the smile. Turning back to her own bowl of soup, the rest of the table slowly followed, slightly bewildered.

#resident evil village #karl heisenberg #heisenberg x oc #re8 oc #heisenberg #in the steel steeds heart #resident evil #heisenberg smut

39 notes · View notes

facets-and-rainbows · 4 years

Text

Blue Exorcist 10th anniversary book Q&A session

The 10th anniversary book has a section where Katoh answers 100 questions submitted by fans on Twitter, so here they are translated/paraphrased! May contain manga spoilers up to the recent flashback arc, so be warned.

(Note that I’m playing it very fast and loose here because there are A HUNDRED OF THEM, so not exact wordings, but it should capture the gist. Lemme know if there are any you want elaborated on)

1. Katoh likes the feel of traditional drawing more than digital but is impressed with how far digital has come

2. Meph THOROUGHLY ABUSES spacetime to watch all his shows and ensure that he gets all the merch he wants

3. Did the girls take all of Yukio’s school uniform buttons in middle school? Yes, they did (apparently it’s like A Thing for girls to ask for a button from their crush at middle school graduation, based on some sad movie from the 60s where a guy who got drafted as a kamikaze pilot gave a girl one of his uniform buttons to remember him by)

4. Rin's tail is about a meter long

5. There are tons of servants working at Mephisto's mansion. Belial is in charge of them

6. Katoh borrows from all sorts of neat real locations when making settings

7. Katoh identifies with pretty much all the characters the most! Except Lucifer.

8. Demon designs she's proud of include the impure king and hachirou, pretty much anything that was the main one in an arc

9. Katoh lists a bunch of her favorite musical artists/music she’s listening to recently: King Gnu, Official Hige Dandism, Kenshi Yonezu, BAD HOP, Sakanaction, Keyakizaka 46, Hypnosis Mic, Aimer, B’Z, Queen Bee.

10. Awww the rabbit manga that characters are often reading isn't just Robo to Usakichi, it's an even older one that she drew as a little kid

11. She likes industrial style interior designs

12. Rin and Yukio alternated who got the top bunk growing up, because they couldn't agree on it lol

13. Katoh cares a whole lot about panel layouts and speech bubble positions, might even be her favorite part of the process (it shows!)

4. Katoh does NOT have a mashou, lol

15. Rin has probably been practicing in secret so he can learn to carry stuff with his tail

16. Izumo probably got into shojo manga around 1st grade, her mom had some around the house

17. Specialty dishes: Rin - lots of stuff but especially nabe Yuri - stuff you can throw together quickly Shiro - stuff he learned from Yuri and/or cookbooks, alongside teaching Rin Yukio - Does. Not. Cook.

18. Can't pick a favorite place she's been on research, but there's no place like Japan

19. Kinzou's band isn't currently meeting because demons, but he's probably still thinking of new songs

20. Hardest characters to draw: anyone with detailed flowing hair. Hardest to write for: Lightning and Gedouin. She had to go read books about serial killers specifically for material for Gedouin, lol

21. Suguro actually gets a dorm room to himself, though allegedly Yukio is technically assigned as his roommate, lol. Didn't end up that way what with Yukio being a teacher and also Rin’s whole...situation

22. Shiemi makes some of her own hair accessories! Cute

23. Katoh doesn't mind if you include stuff with fan letters but check with the editor first

24. Time for making each chapter: Planning/storyboarding: 1-5 days. Sketching: 3-5 days. Drawing/inking: the rest. Just...the rest of the time

25. Neither Suguro nor Izumo have dated before and neither is currently dating. But that's probably just because things were hectic for them! It could happen

26. Yukio breaks 5 or 6 pairs of glasses a year, someone get this kid a strap or something

27. How many spare glasses does Yukio have? Check the fanbook lol it's in there (dang it Katoh)

28. The demon she wants us to pay the most attention to is Lucifer. Because plot.

29. What's under the Order's big meeting table? It's a BOTTOMLESS PIT and if you fall in it you DIE that's what makes it COOL (laughs)

30. What are the job requirements for the angelic legion? Literally just Arthur liking you and inviting you to join

31. She WANTS to do more character profiles but just hasn't gotten to it

32. Rin's tail feels like a cat tail, texture wise

33. The "red Assiah fire" is literally just actual fire nothing special

34. Rin's current hair color is light blue fading to white at the ends

35. Thoughts on Rin's growth: she likes that he stays positive in awful situations and she also thinks it's very main character of him to face the past instead of avoiding it

36. Mephisto didn't purposely surround Rin with stuffed animals when he woke up after going crispy. Mephisto's bed is just Like That

37. Kurikara was based on a cool sword she found in a sword book, but that one was technically just a ceremonial sword. The symbol on it us a Sanskrit letter kaan (sp?) associated with Fudou Myouou

38. Kuro can communicate with normal cats and hangs out with them often

39. Sometimes Shiemi's skirt is extra fancy around the hem what's up with that? Apparently it's an optional accessory that comes with the skirts help I haven't noticed this and don't know any fashion terms in any language

40. When coloring, Katoh always tries to have an overall theme in mind ("emphasis on blue" etc) so it comes together in the end

41. Yes the twins are genetically related to Shiro because of Goro (she says they're like his nephews but I say GENETICALLY at least they'd be indistinguishable from his children)

42. Strongest mom of all the strong moms around here? Yuri! Did you SEE her give birth??

43. Are you careful about your own health Katoh-sensei? Not particularly! Her mom has had to bring her food at work sometimes! Don't do this at home kids

44. At the dating events Shura goes to, does she drink cocktails in moderation? Yeah, she probably downplays her normal drinking habits at these things. But normally she's down for just about any kind of drink

45. Lucifer just really likes oysters okay

46. How many pages of manga does Katoh draw in a day? If she's being good about self-care: three. Maximum number ever: TEN

47. Mephisto is one of those folks who can eat like a garbage compactor and never gain weight. Possibly because his body resists that sort of change the same way it resists aging etc

48. First food Rin cooked: fish burger type patty. Yukio's favorite things Rin cooks: fish simmered in soy sauce, yellowtail with daikon radish. It's fish all the way down

49: Did Rin ever get more monthly allowance from Mephisto? It doubled! He gets TWO 2000 yen bills now (rip) [T/N: That's uh, that's USD $37.26 a month or 33.10 euro]

50. Why isn't Rin more popular with the girls? He gets nervous talking to them, plus he's too oblivious to notice even if he DID have some fans

51. Why change Suguro's hair? She gets bored with keeping everything the same, and she wanted a visual representation that he was getting serious and going into kind of a training arc

52. Things Katoh pays extra attention to when drawing: trying to capture the feel of whatever she's drawing (like "that looks warm and soft" or "I bet that guy stinks" cough Lightning cough)

53: Does Rin take after Yuri more? (He's got her eyes!) Katoh tried to draw Yuri so she looks like both twins. Personality, too - Yukio has her smarts and Rin has her optimism

54: Do you ever wanna be like Mephisto? Well she'd like to be able to get away with just ANYTHING EVER, but no, let's not be like Mephisto

55. Konekomaru not only carries around a cat toy in case he meets any cats, he MAKES cat toys to carry around based on what he thinks the cats would like

56. How'd you come up with Shima? Go read the fan book!

57. Do the kids have Twitter/Instagram accounts? Rin - probably not. Konekomaru might be on some social media. Paku and Izumo are totally on instagram

58. Is there something Rin makes that you wish you could try? All of it! That's the whole idea! He's good at cooking!

59. Will we ever have a (G-rated) reveal of what ALL of Mamushi and her family's tattoos look like? Maybe! She'll think about it

60. Does Arthur have a repertoire of different hairstyles? Not really, he just puts some of it up on the top. Heck he might even have people to do that for him

61. If you wrote a shojo manga what would it be about? She'd have to do a lot of research before even coming up with a story, since there are so many style differences between the genres aside from just the subject

62. The other two of Mephisto's top 3 favorite foods: Cup ramen and....f-fried bubblegum?? Is that a THING???

63. Where do you start when drawing a character? Usually the outline of their face but if it's a complex pose/composition she'll start with whatever's in the foreground (like hands)

64. If Katoh could have a familiar, what demon would she choose? Mephisto. As the all-powerful author, she might actually be able to command him as a familiar!

66. If you swapped Yukio and Rin's relationship around what would change? not much, you'd pretty much have Rin going to the Illuminati and Yukio going to the past

67. Top 3 foods/souvenirs to try in Kyushu? Well she doesn't know what’s good CURRENTLY but when she was there she always used to like burdock tempura udon, hakata torimon (a kind of manju with white bean paste inside), and Chikae style cod roe. today I learned Katoh went to high school in Kyushu

68. Katoh listens to music a lot while she's storyboarding, then when she and the assistants are all drawing and inking they put various videos/movies and stuff on in the background

69. For all his hitting on girls, is Shima actually popular with the ladies at all? He's got enough girls in his life that he probably COULD find a girlfriend if he really wanted, but the double agent thing tends to get in the way. He still wouldn't be as popular as Yukio though (side thought/translator’s note: Shima would be proud of being number 69.)

70. Katoh has the ending planned out in a big-picture way, but there are still a few details here and there that she's fretting over

71. It's cute when the boys put their ties over their shoulders when they're working on something! Where'd that come from? She just figured a tie might get in the way and that seemed like a realistic way to get it out of the way

72. Looks like Yukio is getting some facial hair! What about Rin? They're both about the age for it, but maybe Rin can't grow a beard yet. Maybe a little peach fuzz here and there

73. Katoh's favorite blue exorcist merch? There were some exorcist licenses a while back, and the exorcist pins. Basically it's really cool that these little accessories she drew ACTUALLY EXIST NOW, LIKE YOU CAN HOLD THEM IN YOUR HANDS

74. Okay realtalk how long do we have left, I don't want the series to end yet? We're solidly in the second half by now but it's not, like, ABOUT to end yet

75. Katoh would be a Knight meister, based on what characters she likes to play in games and such

76. How many people in the whole exorcism cram school? More than you think! She doesn't give a number but apparently licensed exorcists also attend classes for new meisters, etc, so there's a wide age range attending

77. How's Arthur feel about, like, studying Taming on the way to becoming Paladin? He's at least mostly accepted that you have to use demons to fight demons effectively

78. Konekomaru started wearing glasses in his first year of middle school, so like 7th grade (more recent than I thought!) He has one spare pair, in contrast to Yukio lol

79. Katoh's current obsessions? Ghost/scary stories! She's even been going to live readings of them recently

80. Media Katoh consumes for inspiration? A wide range of foreign teen drama, horror/suspense, shojo manga, light novels, anime, etc. Special focus on things where two boys are in conflict or there are brothers involved

81. If they weren't exorcists what jobs would they have? Rin - chef. Yukio - doctor. Shiemi - uh, florist?

82. Inspiration for the design of True Cross Town? Katoh and her assistants gathered up a bunch of references, picked out stuff they felt matched the tone, and mashed them all up together

83. Did you use any references etc for the school/exorcist uniforms? She says she probably should have but she just kind of made them up before publication

84. Favorite part of drawing? For color pages, picking out a color scheme. For black and white, drawing in all the little details (though she doesn't always get time to lately)

85. Once again confirms the demon kings' weird hair is a representation of their horns. ADDS THAT PEOPLE WHO CAN'T SEE DEMONS CAN'T SEE THE WEIRD HAIR

86. Now that Yukio's at the Illuminati, where's he gonna get his Jump SQ and spare glasses? Well he probably never planned to stay for long, but hey it's a big ship and they might have an optometrist and/or newsstand there

87. Do you base the demon characters on any references etc? Not really, she just gets a general idea of popular demon designs and then makes up her own in her own style

88. Merchandise Katoh personally wants to have made: stuff that an adult could just use in their day to day life. Also, it's not gonna happen, but if her favorite figure brand made AoEx figures she could die happy

89. If Beelzebub's host body was a beautiful woman, how would Shima react? Would the womanizing win out over the bug phobia? Katoh replies that Shima would probably just faint from being near a girl that pretty, before the bugs even got involved

90. Will the twins ever get to smile and eat dinner together again?? We'll just have to wait and see!

91. What do you check at a "scenario check"? what's a scenario check man I dunno They check for people being out of character or the setting feeling off. They had a lot of these checks for the anime, but they also do them for the drama CD, games, and all that other stuff where multiple authors are involved

92. Why does Shura use baldy as an insult for people who are clearly not bald? She feels like they have some kind of metaphorical, mental kind of "baldness" and she's calling them out on it. Whatever that means

93. After Blue Exorcist ends, what do you want to draw next? She has SO MANY IDEAS, SO MANY

94. Did Katoh make up the Shinto chants that, for example, Izumo used against Gedouin? They're assembled from bits of actual Shinto prayers according to what feels right in the scene

95. Yukio reads the Jump SQ, right, and, just hear me out here, he likes gag manga, right? Does this mean he reads Salaryman Yukio? It's something he would read, but let's say that in the AoEx universe there's just a very similar manga that he finds oddly relatable

96. What do Yukio and Shima do in their free time on the Dominus Liminus? oh my god you guys this ship has so many amenities. Yukio probably spends time reading in the library, which they totally have. There's also, like, a gym, and a movie theater, and a THEATER theater, all of which are free. Shima probably hangs out at the pool (!) and goes to the movies, and hits on illuminati girls, lol

97. Easiest character to draw? The ones with boring simple hair, lol. Lightning gets an honorable mention for ALSO not having eyes in most shots, but Rin wins--he was specifically designed to be easy for Katoh to draw because that's what you want in your main character

98. How do demons understand gender? They just possess whatever feels like the best match to how they feel in Gehenna, whether that's a man, or a woman, or a rat, or whatever

99. Where do you start when you're coming up with a story? She starts with character design and how the characters relate to each other. Currently she's just continuing an existing story, so she works on splitting up the overall plot into episodes and fleshing it out with scenes and information about characters

100. When do you feel most happy? She honestly feels like she lives a very happy life overall. Mentions noticing a lot of little things, like how nice her cats' heads smell when she cuddles them or taking a nice cold refreshing drink of water. There's happiness in everything. aww.

#blue exorcist #interview #Ao no Exorcist #translation

449 notes · View notes

cheri-translates · 4 years

Text

[CN] Kiro’s Treasure Date (Eng Translation)

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for a date which has not been released in English servers! 🍒

Note: A bullet-point summary, but important scenes have detailed translations!

I think @kudoriee will enjoy this :>

The birthday event basically talks about how KEY likes leaving Kiro puzzles. On one particular day, Kiro solves a pretty tough puzzle which leads him to the amusement park

At first, he thinks he solved the puzzle wrongly because he doesn’t see KEY around, but the amusement park starts blasting birthday music

KEY literally hacked into the system

He appears, and the two of them have wholesome fun

Kiro asks why KEY played birthday music

Baby Kiro doesn’t know when his birthday is...

He literally asks, “Why is it my birthday today?”

And KEY says that since Kiro had so much fun today, they might as well consider it Kiro’s birthday (T口T)

KEY: Kiro, you must definitely remember this date. I might not spend every 9 April with you, but I hope that when this day arrives each year, you will spend it next to someone you like, and who likes you.

Kiro: A person I like and who likes me... will they always be by my side?

KEY: Of course. Because Kiro is the most amazing and most adorable kid in the world.

Kiro: Mm! Oh, when little kids have birthdays, they eat cake and make wishes.

KEY: Pff, you really only know how to eat. Come, let’s go have a birthday cake.

For his school homework, Kiro is supposed to draw his idea of a home. He draws it (further details will be in the date), but feels that something is missing

He draws a small white bunny next to his name.

Even though he has never owned a rabbit, he knows that there’s a little rabbit waiting for him in a corner of the world.

He repeats the same wish he made the day before.

“Welcome to my home,” Kiro says softly.

The actual date begins with MC in the office, with Kiki wondering what she’s doing there since she was supposed to be celebrating Kiro’s birthday

Turns out Kiro gave her a map with a set of hints to find clues, and the first stop is the office

Kiro gives her a phone call and helps her find the clue, which leads her to a department store

She retrieves a hotel card from a locker in the department store

At the hotel, she sees Savin stationed downstairs because Kiro was afraid MC wouldn’t be able to find the location

Kiro is in the hotel room preparing for a live broadcast

MC gives him his birthday gift, but he decides to wait till after the live broadcast before opening it together with her

In her hotel room next door, she finds her favourite tidbits on the table, and a set of sleeping attire (a pink rabbit pyjama set).

There’s also a note at the side which reads: “The treasure hunt has been tough on you! Miss Chips, have something to eat and have a nice bath, then rest for a while (° ▽ °*) ”

She watches the livestream in her room

The livestream has a candle-blowing segment, wish-making segment, and Kiro even sings a few songs for his fans

MC leaves a comment, asking if Kiro had any memorable birthdays in his childhood

Surprisingly, Kiro catches the comment

Kiro: When I was young, I had a very cool “boss”, who was also my guardian. He liked giving me all types of puzzles to solve.

Kiro: You’re wondering what kind of prizes I'd get after solving them? Back then, it was sweets and biscuits of course.

Kiro: However, there was one extremely difficult puzzle! I thought about it for a very long time before finding the answer in music.

He plucks at the strings and plays a short, lively tune.

Kiro: You should have all heard this before. It was the background music of an amusement park near my house when I was younger. This incredibly cute song was like a signal between me and my boss.

Kiro: As expected, when I ran to the amusement park, he was there waiting for me. And that day... was also my birthday. Reliving happy memories while solving puzzles is something my boss taught me.

Kiro: After spending an extremely~ happy day in the amusement park, I still remembered to finish my homework the next day!

Kiro: The homework was a drawing, and I drew the home in my heart. In my home, there’s a flower field. Within it, there are people who like me, and whom I like, all surrounding me, listening to me sing. This is what I think of as my happiest and most blessed thing.

Seeing the screen filled with “What an interesting birthday!” “Childhood Kiro was a small genius too!”, I bite my lower lip.

I retrieve the stack of neat maps from my pocket, a tightening sensation in my chest.

I know that what he said about puzzles and signals was meant for the person across the wall - me.

He gave me a puzzle on his birthday. The important thing wasn’t the answer, but the key to memories. Every location on this map hides precious memories that Kiro and I shared.

The livestream ends and she heads to Kiro’s room

Kiro: Miss Ch-

Before he finishes speaking, I have already opened my arms, lunging into his chest.

MC: Happy birthday, Kiro!

Kiro: Didn’t you already say it once when you gave me the present just now?

MC: As long as it’s your birthday, I can say it an unlimited number of times!

Kiro: Okay, when it comes to your birthday, I’ll say it an unlimited number of times too!

While speaking, he lifts me up in a hug and swirls me around. We fall onto the soft bed.

The fluffy feather pillows and balloons bounce lightly in response to our weight, and fall to our sides.

Kiro: I didn’t think you’d really change into the bunny pyjamas!

MC: Eh? Weren’t you the one who prepared it for me?

Kiro: Of course it was! Oh right, wait for me... just a while!

HE RETURNS, WEARING A BEAR ONESIE

Kiro: Deng deng deng! The birthday party is over, now the pyjama party shall begin!

MC: Eh... how is this a pyjama party. It’s clearly a zoo party!

Kiro: If it’s a zoo, so be it. Little animals are so cute!

He sits beside me, and is about to say something when his phone rings.

The person on the call is a silver-haired woman - a singer called Saidel Eva - who wishes him a happy birthday. Eva comments that she knows who MC is, because he mentioned that MC is his muse. While she’s stunned, Kiro holds her hand.

Kiro: Mm, she’s not only my artistic muse, but also the most important person in my life.

MC: [blushing] I’m not... not as amazing as he says...

Right after I finish speaking, the hand on mine slowly entwines with my fingers.

The warmth emanating from his palm causes my heart to calm down.

MC: However... since he has already put it that way, I’ll work hard to become his muse. Because Kiro... is also the most important person to me.

Eva: Ah, what a cute lady.

She lets out a light huff and turns her eyes back to Kiro, blue orbs filled with approval.

Eva: I’m guessing your wish has already been fulfilled, am I right?

Kiro: Yes.

Eva: I wish the both of you happiness, and enjoyment in life.

Kiro: Definitely, madam.

He finally opens the gift - it’s a black necklace with a black round pendant surrounded by a few gold coloured small stars. In the middle, there’s an engraved word “KIRO”

It’s a one-in-the-world necklace designed by MC

The necklace is made of siderite from a meteor, and the gold portions are made from star fragments (I’m not entirely sure about the names because I’m not familiar with minerals)

MC notes that it was only after breaking through the atmosphere that these minerals could come to earth

Just as these minerals are ‘gifts’ to the earth, Kiro is a gift to MC

After wearing it for a while, he puts it back into the box, and realises there’s something inside the necklace

MC tells him not to open it yet, and tries snatching it away from him

She falls into his arms instead <3

So she angrily throws a pillow at him

He stuffs the necklace into his pocket and they engage in a pillow fight

SO CUTE

Kiro declares himself the winner

MC says he cannot open the watch until she's gone

Since he’s in a good mood, Kiro agrees

They lie together on the bed to chat, exhausted from the pillow fight

MC: Come to think of it, the boss you were talking about during the livestream - was he KEY?

Kiro: Mm, he taught me a lot of things.

MC: So the reason why you gave me the map, and let me solve the puzzles, was because you wanted to have a signal with me?

Kiro: That’s one of the reasons, but more importantly...

While he speaks, he slowly hooks onto my fingertips.

Kiro: Miss Chips and I don’t get to meet often because of all sorts of things, and I know that waiting is a painful process.

He mutters his response, fastening his fingers tightly with mine, his face half-sinking into the mattress as he reveals a faint smile.

Kiro: Which is why I don’t want you to feel bored while waiting for me. I hope each time we meet would be a step closer in our journey towards happiness.

MC: Kiro...

Kiro: Now that I think about it, KEY has really taught me a lot. Whether it’s knowledge related to hacking, or in understanding this world.

MC: Understanding this world?

Kiro: Mm. It’s that phrase, “you may be in darkness, but your heart is turned towards the light.”

Kiro: When I was still in chaos, these words were my direction. I believe that someday in the future, I will fulfil my dream, and do what I want to do, which includes... meeting the person I’ve been waiting a long time for.

With this, he looks at me quietly, his blue eyes hiding the bright starry sky.

Almost as if telling one not to look away.

My voice becomes incredibly soft, as though it’s floating in the universe.

MC: You are also... the person I’ve been waiting a long time for.

Sleepiness overtakes my senses in the midst of his tender voice and gaze, but I can still remember to emphasise once more:

MC: Happy birthday, Kiro. Whether or not it’s your birthday, whether it’s today, or tomorrow, or any day in the future, you will always be incredibly happy.

Kiro: Mm. With you around, I’ll definitely be incredibly happy.

Hearing these words, which sound like a promise, I peacefully and slowly close my eyes.

In the haziness, I seem to feel a small feather falling on my eyelid.

It is tender and warm, as though it can breathe.

Kiro: Goodnight.

The kiss doesn’t disturb the girl’s light slumber. Kiro laughs lightly, and takes out the necklace from his pocket.

Twisting the switch, the siderite cracks apart to reveal a hidden note.

The note reads - “Oh no, you’ve found the Easter egg > <”

On the other side is a link to a website.

Thinking about the girl’s sly thoughts when designing such a gift, Kiro laughs again.

He retrieves his notebook computer from the bedside, inserts the link, and finds a downloadable voice pack.

He puts on his earphones and taps on the first voice recording.

MC: Heheh, you didn’t think this would be the second part of your birthday present right? We always have to part temporarily because of all sorts of things. In order for you not to miss me too much, I decided- dang dang! To present you with an MC alarm clock!

MC: It’s time to wake up! If you don't get out of bed soon, Savin’s anger is going to fill to the brim~

MC: Has Kiro eaten his meals today?

MC: When you’re engrossed in work, don’t forget to protect your eyesight. One, two, three, four, the eye exercises shall begin!

MC: Before saying goodnight, remember to send me updates!

MC: Kiro, welcome home!

Every voice recording, no matter how long or short, is filled with the concern she has for him.

Hearing the girl’s voice in his hear, Kiro’s lips curl upwards.

Both of them always think of their own ways to fill in the blank spaces of time, painting them in colours belonging to each other.

Kiro: Miss Chips...

Kiro leans down to stare at her sleeping face. He speaks in a way that only the two of them can hear clearly.

Kiro: The picture I mentioned in the livestream... I hid a small secret in it that only I know of. I want to share it with you. I drew a small rabbit. She’s my favourite, favourite new friend.

Kiro: Miss Chips, welcome to my home.

—

Phone call: here

Video call: here

#mlqc #mlqc cn #mlqc spoilers #mlqc kiro #s u p e r cute

151 notes · View notes

sesamie · 4 years

Text

loolin sent me down a rabbit hole so here are some thoughts from my escapades tonight:

---first blog entry i read---

i started here which took me here which took me here

‘ whiteboy rap ‘

‘ like the barenaked ladies meets mid-era beatles, yet it didn't sound imitated at all ‘

guster did come on, and they were fine [though, in my opinion, tally hall severely outshone them] << OHHH SHIT

the four of us gathered around the 'hot sexy one' and took pictures (this is one of the pictures theyre talking about:

anyone remember ‘appeal sex’ ??

‘i went off to find the yellow tie, rob. he was my favorite from when i first saw him on stage. whereas joe was dark and handsome with long tossled hair, rob had glasses and a bland haircut. i felt an affinity with him.’ SFHSLFKJSD ME TOO MAN

apparently the tie colors initially matched their instruments!! although, ive heard like. six different sotries of how they chose the ties and most of them are just ‘we chose whatever was avalible at the time’ so i have a feeling they came up with a few different elaborate backsotries

----okay second blog post reading time---

i started here which took me here (aka the one right before the one before this its confusing but thats alright)

if only adobe flash player still worked then i’d be able to watch this person’s filming of a be born performance that was apparently so close to her that rob sat on her foot!!! at least we still get this picture of it though:

incredible.

“I especially liked Ross' face as he drummed: he looked so happy and his hair was flying everywhere. “ ya this lady gets it

quote rob, "Yeah! I remember you guys! That was a great picture, Let's do it again!" this time because their friend stephan couldnt make it to the picture, rob improvised:

this time with zubin!

and then they did it again at yet another concert:

this time with ross !!

“ Ten reasons I like Tally Hall so much?

1-Clean, creative music: My mom even likes them!

2-Musicianship: they are incredibly musically talented--amazingly tight harmonies--which sounds silly considering they're a band, but it's shocking how many artists are out there these days with not a lick of real talent.

3-Variety: with some of their songs, if you were to randomly listen to two or three different parts of the song, chances are you might just think it's a couple different songs. Then they have totally crazy songs, then super chill songs.

4-Uniform: they don't need retro sequin jackets or skinny pants to be cool. They have their own style, and it has become their trademark.

5-They share: Their shows aren't monopolized by just one band member. They all have little spotlights and recognize everyone as a part of the whole (or, the Hall).

6-The guys: SO personable. I love just talking to them--they are so chill, and don't stick themselves up on a pedestal. They are just normal guys who happen to travel everywhere and do what they love, and do it well.

7-Bongos, xylophones, and other various percussion instruments (the names of which still elude me)

8-Their frequent use of a megaphone.

9-Whiteboy rap? Heck yes. And whistling solos.

10-They like to kick it at the university, but all work and no play makes them crazy, so...they jump in the bumpin SUV. “

okay theres a part on the side of this blog that says it cannot be used or reproduced without consent except i think the person who wrote it is like. an adult now. and also,,,, who am i expecting this post to reach? however, kristin, if you’re reading this somehow and want me to take it down i’ll be happy to do so. because (to paraphrase a tally hall legend) you, yes you, are the bon-diggety.

-----third post time---

i started here which took me here

“ there was even a small "shrine" to the band itself in the back corner of the room. “ <sound familiar, anyone???????

“tally hall would play at your school if your principal was cool with the idea.“ I LIVE 2 DREAM ANOTHER DAY HUH

oh okay so that was just a . precursor to the production of the actual elementary show i see i seeeee..

in that case, then

---fourth post time, aka the one i was originally reading but i have following-every-link- syndrome so here we are---

i started here , theres 4 parts to this article

“ (+20 ‘awesome’ points if you read both links…if you comment that you did, maybe i’ll draw you a picture!) “ <..can i get a picture slfjsd

okay this is just a HITS article so im not gonna liveblog it cause u can read it urself!! everything i would have copy/pasted here is readily avalible there so . ya

omygosh they went on stage at first with fake mustaches on..so the kids couldnt tell who they were....

okay well this was a lot less that i probably originally meant to write, but i saved a lot of cool photos and have come 2 the realization that i got some serious organization to do in regards to my....extensive.... collection of tally hall photos mostly because a great deal of them have no context and that means i cant prove i didn’t just screenshot them from somebody else! (that is, yes. that is what i did.)

anyways hope this was enjoyable somehow. i sure had a good time !! thanks loolin !!!!!

#and i realllllllly gotta actually read the posts on hits sometime #i dont spend much time on hits but idk why #anyways!!! if i thought my tally hall hyperfixation was fading i was dead wrong!!#do i...#do i put this in the tag...#tally hall #not like kristen or anyone else is posting about the ties on tumblr dot com these days anyways :P #live-blogging things other than your own life

8 notes · View notes

ayma-nidiot · 3 years

Text

“Don’t Speak Their Names” - Shrimpshipping fic Chapter 27

This chapter can be found here on AO3.

Chapter 27 - I Challenge My Fate

~07 November 2005~

“President Phuckdis! Reporting in, sir!” A Buster Blader saluted his general.

“Proceed, Captain.”

“Several enemies calling themselves ‘Earthbound Gods’ started attacking Joey and his friends. Apparently, Joey lost a duel, and last I checked, he was engaged in battle with a snake-like monster. There are now hundreds of enemy soldiers coming this way! It’s only a matter of time before-”

“Th-They’re here!” shouted a few guards who stood watch at the door. “Aaaaaaargh!”

“Hah!” Watda led the charge, showing no mercy in cutting down the guards. He aggressively attacked Joey and showed little interest in anything else. “How kind of you to show me where you lowlifes camp out! Now, give me Uru or else!”

“Never!” Joey swiped at Watda’s feet with his Salamandra sword, “summoned” from his Duel Disk.

“Oh?” Watda smirked as he jumped over the sword like a jump rope. “Why would you want to protect that ‘dung beetle…’ or whatever it is you called him?”

“Hahaha…” cackled a voice from behind Joey. “I wonder that, too. Well, no matter, since that will be your first and last mistake!”

“Weevil!” William growled at the half-shifted Weevil. “Dammit, he escaped!”

“What do you mean, ‘escaped?’” Joey wanted to know.

“William, you moron!” Phuckdis bopped his brother with the blunt end of his sword.

“Hey, Joey!” Weevil’s arms hardened, glowing blood-red. “Think fast!”

“Wh-What?” Joey darted around for the agile bug duelist. Before he could really process what was going on, Weevil found him first, stabbing his non-sword arm with a sharp spider arm. “Aaaah! You… You mosquito…”

“A mosquito, am I?” Weevil continued to assault Joey, who had to parry the attacks with a shaky arm. “Hah! A mosquito is but a caterpillar compared to the monster I’ve become, compliments of my fellow Earthbound Gods!”

“You’ve gone absolutely batshit, Weevil! Open your eyes, why don’t you!”

“Nah, how about no.” Weevil stabbed Joey’s sword hand so hard that the Salamandra sword went flying. “But I’ll gladly open a giant wound in your belly and let the maggots have at you. I’ll make you suffer for what you’ve done in the past…”

“G-Ggh…” Joey looked up at his former Battle City rival, knowing his life was as good as done.

“The only one who will be suffering here is you, Weevil! Amazoness Empress, get ‘im!” exclaimed a debilitated Mai.

“Ah…” All of the excitement of battle left Weevil in an instant, and he knelt to the ground in pain.

“Bind Weevil at once!” Phuckdis ordered. “And be quick about it!”

“Yes, sir!” Several Magician Girl monsters got to work right away.

“Mai…” Joey got up, hoping to help the woman he loved - that was until Watda got in his path.

“Going somewhere, Wheeler?” Watda slashed down a few Club members who got between him and Joey. “Not that it would do you any good, since your pretty little girlfriend is history!”

“Get off her, you thug!” Seeing Watda’s snake arms slither around Mai’s face pissed the hell out of Joey.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. I want to hear her scream in agony after I take your life away!”

“Ggh…!” Joey tried to pick up the Salamandra. “Rex… Where the hell are… you…”

“Dammit, get out of our way!” Though the enemies Amber fought on the way to the Club meeting room were weak, their numbers were enough to overwhelm her.

“Need some help?” Rex asked before transforming himself, felling most of the enemies and weakening the rest.

“Papa! You shouldn’t be-” Amber would have scolded her mother if she hadn’t noticed what Rex’s transformation had done.

“Hehe!” Rex remained in rabbit form as he ran with Amber. “I might not be a strong monster, but I’ve got one heck of a special ability. Surprised?”

“Yeah, at the fact that your baby bump is still intact when you switch forms. Shapeshifter physiology is a weird thing, isn’t it?”

“It shouldn’t be for a girl genius like you.”

“Papa… I know the circumstances are grave, but I don’t want you to push yourself. Let your strong daughter do the fighting.”

Rex’s endurance barely held on long enough to reach the Tabletop Gaming Club’s meeting room. As soon as he turned back into a human, his ankles swelled badly, and held onto Amber as a crutch.

“I got you, Papa. Oh?” No sooner had Rex reverted forms when Amber saw a fight going on well inside their meeting room, in the health/recreation center.

Unlike Amber, Rex recognized Watda instantly - as well as the captive he held by the neck. “That’s the guy who captured me! And he’s got Joey! Ugh!” Rex strained to transform.

“Papa, are you nuts? That man is the Crimson Devil, the strongest of the Earthbound Gods! Even I’m not match for him! H-Hey, get back here!” Amber couldn’t stop her mother from running to Watda in human form.

“Hehehe…” Watda cackled as he raised Joey above the gathering crowd - most of whom were weak monsters that didn’t dare to raise a hand against Watda. “My Earthbound Gods have lost to your friends… It’s too bad that you really lucked out and ended up dueling me ! Although I have to commend your bravery, Mr. Wheeler. It’s too bad you’re not as smart or strong as you are reckless.”

“Joey!” As much as Mai wanted to rescue the man she loved, enemies restrained her. “No! Take me instead, please!”

“D-Damn… you… Watda…” Having lost against Watda himself, Phuckdis barely had the strength to crawl on the floor, let alone fight back.

“Y-You’ll never… have… Urk!” Joey howled in pain as Watda’s nails dug into his neck, drawing blood.

“You’re trying to protect the man who tried to steal your soul, and the one whom you call a ‘duelin’ disgrace?’ Hah!” Watda used his free hand to grab Joey’s head, with the intent to twist it off. “I’ll show you the consequences of being a nice guy, you bleeding-heart filth! You don’t even deserve the honour of final words!”

“And I’ll show you the consequences of messing with my friends!” Rex thundered as he quickly shifted and latched onto one of Watda’s arms.

“Wh-What? Yeowch!” Thanks to Rex’s special effect, Watda could feel his strength draining. “You damned rabbit! How did you escape?”

“Not gonna tell you! But you best think how you’re going to escape!”

“What do you- Argh!” Before Watda could even turn around, an arrow from Amber pierced his shoulder.

“You’re… gonna pay!” Amber continued to shoot a flurry of arrows, chasing Watda out of the building. “Wait! ...Dammit, he got away! Let me-”

From an all-fours position, Rex grabbed one of Amber’s ankles. “Amber, not now… Just look around you.”

“Papa…” Amber noticed that in this battle, many Club members have already died, the vast majority of them killed by Watda.

“At least we know who are enemies are now.”

“...Fine.” Amber turned back into a human and glanced at Joey. “Just so you know, I still hate you. I didn’t do what I did because I consider you a friend.”

“Hehe, I know you do. You just won’t admit it!” Joey’s tone turned serious when he looked down at Rex. “That was a bold thing you did, man. Not only are you super pregnant, but you got beat to a pulp for gods know how long. I’m… I’m sorry for all that I said about you in the past. I take it all back.”

“It’s cool, dude…” Rex decided he couldn’t move anymore, and leaned against a giant wooden table for rest.

“Ugh.” Amber instead turned her attention to her incapacitated allies, Phuckdis and William. “Guys, are you okay?”

“Barely…” Phuckdis managed to stand on his feet, and helped his brother stand up too. “More importantly, Lady Amber… We’ve finally done it. We can now complete our mission.”

“Oh?” Amber looked to the smaller crowd, gathered around… something.

“‘Lady’ Amber? Come to think of it, I think I’ve heard her called that before…” Rex couldn’t see what was going on, even though he wasn’t very far.

“...Stay where you are, Rex.” Amber didn’t allow Rex to move one more inch forward.

“Amber?” Rex’s heart broke a little when Amber called him by his name. “Let me see what’s the ruckus over there!”

“Oh, I will.” Amber gestured for her soldiers to move out of the way, and when they dispersed, Rex could see Weevil - bound at the ankles, weak, and completely void of emotion.

“Weevil! You’re okay…” Rex attempted to crawl over to where Weevil was, but the ankle pain held him back.

“Rex… I don’t think you realize what kind of enemies we’re up against.”

“I’ve learned enough when I was captured. They want Weevil to join them because he’s an almighty god. And who wouldn’t?”

“They don’t want him for just any reason… He’s an Earthbound God, destined to cause ruin.”

Rex remembered what Dip told him, but tried to deny it. “Th-That’s not true! I thought you knew better than anyone that he can use his powers for good!”

“For now, yes… But in time… In time…” Amber walked towards Weevil and stared him down. “Their minds will become so corrupt that they have no choice but to fulfill their destiny. And when they’re with their own kind, they’ll cause unspeakable destruction.”

“Amber, that’s nonsense!”

Amber’s body and voice shook. “After seeing this destruction myself, I can hardly call it nonsense! The Earthbound Gods are what ruined my future! It was them… They were the ones who…”

“You’re not serious…?” Rex hugged himself to stop trembling.

“I saw it with my own eyes! Weevil was the one who killed my baby brother… My boyfriend…” Amber looked at the members of the “Dweeb Patrol,” who were even more confused than Rex. “All of you… And… you, Rex. Weevil killed you right in front of me.”

“Oh… my gods…” Rex wanted to throw up just from hearing this awful story.

“This… has been my mission… all along…” Amber half-shifted and pointed her arrow at Weevil, who looked up at her without a gleam in his eyes.

“Amber!” Rex couldn’t stop crying. “Do you mean to tell me you were duping me this whole time? That all along, your only real goal was to kill Weevil?”

“That’s right. This overgrown spider is the only thing standing between our future and complete freedom!”

“Amber…” Rex cried. “I… I can’t believe what I’m hearing… No, I won’t believe it!”

“And now… I challenge my fate!” Amber’s arrow glowed brightly.

“Do it, Lady Amber.” Phuckdis ordered. “Your mother is already pregnant with your present self, so you can still live. And Francis… He never deserved to live in such a terrible future. Do this, and his soul will be appeased.”

“Haha…” Amber’s eyes hardened on Weevil. “I’m going to free everyone… I’m going to save the world! All I have to do is kill one bloody Earthbound God! And I’m going to do it in front of your very eyes, Rex!”

“Amber… Argh!” No matter how much it hurt, no matter how much Phuckdis and William pulled his legs, Rex crawled forward.

“Don’t you dare interfere in our mission, Rex!” Phuckdis threatened to stab Rex’s legs with his sword. “I don’t care if you’re pregnant! I won’t hesitate to hurt you!”

“Amber… I know you don’t want to do this. The bonds your father and I have forged with you over the past few months are real. They’re not something you want to end with a stupid, puny arrow. Even though you’re barely younger than us, Weevil and I really love you as our daughter. Isn’t there any room in your heart for the father who raised you? The father who taught you everything there is to know about insects and dueling? The father would would take all the pain and suffering in the world just to make you happy?”

“Shut… up…” Amber started to tear up.

“Amber… I want us to live and bond as a family. There’s got to be another way. Let’s put all this behind us and go on another mall trip, or walk in the park. But whatever you do… please, don’t do this.”

“Shut up, Rex! You’re just making it harder!” Amber’s aim at Weevil’s heart began to waver.

“But you can save him! We’ve done it before!”

“No. Look at him! He’s too far gone now... He doesn’t even remember who the fuck you are, Rex! This is the only way I can save the world - and Weevil’s soul. I… I don’t want to see this man suffer in the soulless shell that was once Weevil Underwood. I’d… rather… Sniff…”

“Rex… Weevil…” Even the normally-proud Joey, the Joey that once despised Rex and Weevil with everything he had, couldn’t help but shed tears of his own.

“Weevil…” Amber choked on her own breath, and she pulled her bowstring as far back as she could. “Sorry, not sorry.”

So were Amber’s final words as she tearfully let her arrow fly at Weevil full speed.

#yugioh #ygo #shrimpshipping #mpreg #fanfiction #this chapter legit made me cry #super obvious Fire Emblem Awakening references in this chapter hahaha

2 notes · View notes

capefearless · 4 years

Text

Makes Perfect

~1400 words of Rabbit Lightning being 17 and gay in a barn. This is the first fic i’ve written in... a While. But here you go. It’s pg-13, no warnings.

(read on the AO3 here if you’d rather)

----

In Redd’s uncle’s stable at around half past seven in the evening, as the light’s going all slanted and golden through the gaps in the wooden walls and the horses snuffle in their stalls, Lohn watches Redd bite his lip.

All week, Redd’s been biting his lip. Worrying at it, fiddling with his sleeves and pulling them down over his hands even though they ain’t really long enough for that. His shirts have been getting smaller quicker lately, and he’s been holding Lohn’s eyes even less than he usually does. No-one ever called Lohn observant, but he pays attention to Redd. He knows something’s up.

The issue is that they don't, like. Talk. About their feelings. But Lohn manages to get it out of Redd anyway, through a careful combination of waiting until they’re on their own in their usual hideout and acting like it ain’t no big deal, and he’s pretty proud of that, thanks. He’s sure his charming wit played a part in it too.

Redd’s worried about prom. Specifically about embarrassing Barbie, his foot-shorter date, at prom, what with the dancing. And all.

“I’ll step on her feet. ‘r somethin’. Put my hands in the wrong places and that.”

Lohn narrowly doesn’t say the first thing that comes to mind, which is yeah, probably, because Redd is kinda clumsy. It’s not his fault – anyone’d be unsure where their limbs were if they were growing an inch each a week. Instead, he says the next thing that comes to mind, which is:

“Practice. You just gotta practice, is all. ‘s like anything. Guitar, rodeo, handwritin’...”

He’s sure he’s right. Dancing’s practically a sport, and everyone’s always talking about the vital nature of practicing that.

Redd’s eyebrows crease and he opens his mouth to respond, but Lohn’s gotten to his feet. He’s watching himself, as often happens, as if from afar. Wondering what the hell he’s thinking, but unable to stop himself.

He holds out his hand, and it – doesn’t feel like he’s offering a dance to Redd, not in Lohn’s head. Feels like he’s offering a whole lot more. His heart thunders in his throat as he waits for Redd to take it.

Redd’s got a dusting of pink over his nose. But he blushes pretty often – it’s probably just his embarrassment still, his pale skin showing that so easily, always.

He takes Lohn’s hand, and Lohn has an entirely unwarranted and over-the-top reaction to the size difference between their palms, how Redd’s fingers overshoot his own by half an inch. It’s not like Lohn’s got small hands (he ain’t small anywhere, thanks), it’s just that Redd’s, well. Very big.

Lohn’s suddenly quite warm in this here stable.

The little portable radio Lohn’s granddaddy had given him a few years ago is playing some scratchy country western song where it’s sitting on a crossbeam, and Lohn reaches over to turn the volume up a bit. He’s sure the horses in their stalls enjoy a little Merle every now and then.

“Now, uh. I ain’t an expert, exactly, in this…” he starts. If this were anyone else he’d insert a brag here about the ladies not having complained before, at all, if you know what he means. But this is Redd. So.

“But as I understand it, it’s pretty simple. Gotta take it a step at a time.”

Redd nods, the little furrow between his eyebrows meaning, Lohn knows, that he’s listening. He’s concentrating. Lohn swallows and puts Redd’s hand on his hip, and congratulates himself, inside, for being so cool about it.

“I’ll be the, uh, Barb, in this scenario.”

That gets him a little twitch of a smile from his twitchy friend, and, gosh, a half-smile shouldn’t mean this much to him. Be cool, Lohn, be cool.

Lohn starts by stepping back slowly.

“Look at my feet. Try to, uh, mirror them. Like if I put my foot back like-”

He slides his heel back over the gravelly dirt floor of the stable and imagines the town hall their prom’s gonna be in, squeaky floorboards and tinny speakers, everyone watching. What would they think if they saw them dancing like this, there?

“You follow. Slow, like.”

Redd nods and tries it. The way he stops dead after moving his foot once makes Lohn crack up a little, and Redd’s worried look turns into a smile, too. He knows Lohn ain’t laughing at him. It’s always with him, with Lohn.

Lohn guides them into the next step, Redd’s heel sliding back this time, Lohn following, unable to take his mind off the warm pressure of his friend’s hand on his waist for a second.

“And that’s it!” Lohn declares. “You just do that over and over again, alternatin’ feet. There’s a twirl sometimes, but no-one knows what they’re doing with those. Like… one, two. One, two, one- yeah, that’s it, mind my feet, one, two, one, two, you’re a natural Redd, I dunno what you were worried about –”

Redd’s foot lands straight down onto Lohn’s and makes him yelp and stagger, clutching tight onto Redd for balance.

When Redd’s foot slides off of his (“Sorry,” Redd mumbles) they’re very off-balance, but Lohn is kind of. Okay here, Redd’s upper arm clutched in his own and the breath of Redd’s concentration washing over him. He laughs, almost winded.

Despite this hiccup, they continue.

They’re still swaying with a decent rhythm together when the song ends, and there’s silence above the cicadas.

Lohn’s – gay. He’s just freaking gay, never mind that he likes girls too, he’s Gay right now and if Redd asked him to run away with him, elope to San Francisco or France or wherever, he’d agree in a heartbeat.

(Not that this feeling on Lohn’s behalf is a very unusual occurrence, but it’s stronger in this moment than it has been for a while, knocking him off his figurative feet. Redd’s breathing a little hard, he’s holding Lohn close and delicate, like he holds his rabbits. It’s a lot to deal with.)

There’s a beat, two beats, and a new song starts on the radio. Redd says “Reckon I got it.”

“Yeah,” Lohn says, throat dry. This, he knows, is when Redd pushes him away, realising that Lohn is too much in all the wrong ways.

“D’you think she’ll want to – to kiss, after?”

Redd’s biting his lip again.

“Uh, well, maybe.” Lohn’s heart is in his throat, and his throat is dry. “I mean, Barb’s kissed guys before, I know that, I’d say it depends –”

“I ain’t never done that, either.”

And, well, Lohn could have guessed that. Would have put money on it, even., But all he can think of right now is that this can’t be happening. He can’t truly be able to open his mouth and say (or croak):

“That’s just practice, too.”

“Yeah?”

Redd’s voice is real quiet, real breathy. His lips look soft as hell, not that Lohn’s staring.

“Uh-huh.”

Lohn feels his hand come up to cup the back of Redd’s head. He should stop this. This can’t happen, this isn’t allowed.

“You start off slow,” he says, just as quiet as Redd, and then he’s leaning up to brush his lips against Redd’s. He feels Redd’s hand tighten on his waist, as if clutching for balance like Lohn had earlier, and his head is buzzing, his lips are electric where they meet Redd’s (Redd’s!!), and he’s more alive than he’s ever been, probably.

He feels rooted to the ground and reaching up like the tallest tree to the sky all at once. He can feel the warm evening air around them, as if it’s pressing them together, cocooning them from everything, making this safe and possible. The cicadas are a part of this too, droning outside, the wood of the building around them an integral piece of this moment. Hell, even the horses, watching them.This ain’t his first kiss, but Lohn’s never felt like this before, and it might actually make him a poet. It’s that good.

He hears himself say ‘Rabbit…’ and his heart warms at the well-worn ‘Lightning’ he gets in return. And then Redd’s pulling him in, and they’re kissing again.

Prom’s in a week. In seven days Lohn will watch Redd do this dance with Barbie, who he likes, who’s fun to hang out with and pretty and gentle with Redd, who deserves it. They might even kiss. Lohn will be there too, stag unless he manages to convince some girl to accompany him, melancholy over what he can’t have.

Or maybe not.

They draw back for breath and Lohn ain’t never seen that look in Redd’s eyes before. It makes him want to sing.

#rabbit lightning #rhink #fic #rohn #mine #it's been 8 years #i'd like to thank the academy #my partner #and randl for being so Inspiring

25 notes · View notes

chaos-societies · 4 years

Text

Episode 6, The Seven Chaos Princes’ Crowns

Fire was burning all around. It was inescapable. The distant sound of rushing water was not of comfort however. Waves flooded the scene and there were no means of staying afloat. It became impossible to breathe. The shadow of a man was letting out hearty laughs all the while.

“Past…Future… ”

The words cut through the chaotic event. They were clear and soothing, but there was an air of concern in the voice.

“The plant for creation, the plant for destruction... They’re waiting for the controllers.”

A light began shining. It wasn’t clear where it came from but it was blinding. Suddenly there was no more drowning, no more inferno.

“The servers are the seven chaos…”

…

Amy’s eyes slowly creaked open as a ray of sunlight had slipped between the closed shades of the window and landed right upon her face. She rolled out of the sun’s piercing brightness and let out an accompanying grown. “Five more minutes…” She mumbled mindlessly.

After a decent bit, Amy moseyed out from the bedroom and joined Sonic who was already in the kitchen stirring up some breakfast. “Sleep well?”

Amy let out a yawn. “Yeah…” She said without much conviction.

“Oh come on Ames, don’t lie to me. You were tossing and turning all night!” He quickly flipped the contents of the skillet before placing it back down on the stove. He moved over to the table where Amy was sitting and slid a cup of coffee in front of her. “Tell me, what’s up. More dreams?”

“Yeah…” It seems that was as much of a response she was capable of at the moment, at least until she woke up more.

The two discussed them more over breakfast. Amy told Sonic how Chuck comforted her about these dreams of hers and she made sure to remember as much as she could in case anything from them came to fruition. She even wrote some of them down and started her own dream journal. The one from the night prior for sure being noted as the new voice was surely telling some important information about ‘creation’ and ‘destruction.’

The world outside was moist after a light rain during the early morning. The sun was out but clouds occasionally obscured it and gave the air a cool brisk feel to it. The two walked around the wood surrounding the main village. The faint sound of waves mixed with the rustling of leaves in the wind. The two came across a ring of mushrooms and made sure to go around lest walk through. They discussed many things, mostly around the speculation of the recent events – Stark Ruins, the library in Cap, their run-in with the Reds from Rockbase, Chuck’s concern something menacing was afoot. They pondered what could be; evil spirits coming for vengeance, a forewarning of death. Nothing of their speculation was of the positive nature.

Meanwhile, Chuck was reading more from the Stair na Seacht at his place of study in his hut. The cool moist air battled the warmer sun as the two took turns pouring in through the window overhead. Birds were singing outside and the ambiance added peace to Chuck’s focus.

“Come ere spires…blocking…light? Blocking sun?” He looked over to another book and scanned some pages, turning them with a slow pace as he searched the text. “North the South city of trade…” He stopped reading a moment and thought aloud, “The South city of trade…”

Chuck stopped and looked out the window to see the trees. He thought of anything to avoid what he knew was inevitable if he were to find out what mysteries were starting to reveal themselves. But his concern for what may transpire outweighed his desire to keep those closest to him from venturing out in the world outside the haven of South Island. He let out a heavy sigh.

Outside, Sonic and Amy were walking back from their excursion. Knuckles and Rouge were off talking under an oak tree. Tails was sitting around with his nose deep in another book of some sorts.

As Sonic and Amy came around to the main area of the village, Chuck walked out of his hut in good timing. He looked over at Sonic with a non-verbal message that he needed to speak with him. Sonic said some words to Amy and they split as Sonic walked to join his uncle.

“Sonny boy. Enjoy your morning?”

“So far, what’s up Chuck?”

“I’ve been reading and trying to decipher the Stair na Seacht. I haven’t gotten far but there is a passage that uncovered something nearby. It doesn’t say much but something close is much more manageable than anything if it may bring more clues to what may be going on.” He explained.

“Another adventure!?” Sonic asked enthusiastically.

Chuck smiled behind his bushy mustache. “I knew you’d take pleasure in the prospects of possibly another trek into the wild. Despite my concern for your well being.”

“Uncle Chuck, you’ve done so much for us here. And you know we can keep our own. If there is anything we can do to help out your research.”

“There is.” He said quickly. He began to walk and Sonic began to follow. “There is not a lot of definitive phrasing in the book. It’s almost entirely written in riddles it seems, although I can’t tell if that’s intentional or just so old that what it tries to describe and explain was based on limited information of the world at the time.”

“What kind of riddles?” Sonic asked inquisitively.

“Some of it is plane information…mostly lore and ancient beliefs and mythos. Other parts be like directions to pieces of a puzzle that it didn’t even intend to create. It’s got me arsed if I weren’t lying.”

“So what do you need from me?”

“You and the gang, don’t you forget. Not only do I fear this involve the lot of you, you all have a tight nit that surely come in handy in a pinch. I need you to go north again, to Cap and even a bit past. I will have to owe Eiméar more for your visit a second time but–”

Sonic took the chance to make jest, “She was kind but I think we may have put up a nerve on her while we were there.”

“Oh I’ve not a doubt you did you kook.” Chuck answered with a chuckle. He got back to the topic at hand. “The book mentions a place. I think it refers to somewhere at the base of the Sléibhte Scáthaigh north of Cap. If you can’t find anything, don’t mingle about as it doesn’t define a precise location. But it talks about something there, a text or message of sorts. I couldn’t determine exactly. But it was under a chapter referring to the emergence of ancient calamities with the talks of fire and flood. I think it’s relevant based on the runes you saw at Stark Ruins. Might give some extra clues, whatever it is there referring to. And…it wouldn’t hurt to investigate as it will still take some time for me to study the book further.”

“Chuck, you know we’re your guys for the job!” Sonic said with a bounce of his words.

“Ha!” Chuck laughed a bit. “Oh I know you are lad.” His cheery tone at Sonic’s response faded back to emotions of concern as his deepest fear still lingered on his mind; the world could be consumed with darkness and he wouldn’t care so long as he knew Sonic and the rest of his friends and all those in South Island were safe from harm. But he knew there was much at stake and feared it directly involved those he was trying to protect. “Go grab your crew. I’ll let you all decide on when you want to make this journey. The last one was more trying on you than I had ever hoped it to be.”

With that, Sonic departed and bolted off to join the others. Tails was the first one he told as he wouldn’t even consider going anywhere without his best friend and ‘little bro’ as he says. Next was Amy who showed a fair share of concern but also intrigue at the prospect of uncovering more of the world’s secrets. Her dreams were definitely a factor in wanting to know more as well. Knuckles acted annoyed as he would with even the simplest of requests but took the opportunity to give Sonic some slagging saying he saved them last time and they could use his help. Rouge felt similar in the sense of watching out for the group, not so much in the poking fun at them part.

They decided to give it another day or so before heading out. Knuckles took this time to go back to Angel Island. Nack and Bean made jest on how Knuckles was leaving his own chapter of Reds for the Cyans but he was used to this with how much of his time was divided between the two factions of the two Societies. Mighty and Ray were supportive and wished him luck as they knew the dangers of the Greater Area since they too helped rescue the Cyans from their not-so-friendly Rockbase brothers and sisters on their journey back from Cap the last time. Bark was silent as ever.

The time came for the group to depart and was once again sent off by Chuck and Vanilla. The rabbit innkeeper, always the mother, even prepared another care package for them.

The journey to Cap was much like their first, uneventful. A good thing too. They arrived again in the market and were lucky no one remembered their faces based on their last scuffle with the locals. They are a rambunctious crew but were smart and learned quickly. They didn’t want to draw any attention or break out any of their ‘abilities’ as Chuck put it. But that didn’t stop their gaze at the goods and merchandise. Knuckles was particularly fascinated by the hustle of the city. He was too used to the quiet life of Angel Island – the village at South Island was sometimes even too much for him. He would moan and scoff at every Mobians that bumped into him which was a lot based on his larger stature as they walked through the crowded streets.

“Psst, miss.” A voice called out. Amy stopped and turned her head. “Yes you! Lovely pink quills you got.” An older lady called. “I ‘member the days my quills were so well kept. What’s your name lass?” The lady was an old hedgehog covered in a shroud and had many chains beads and pendants hanging from silver wire adorned on her head and shoulders. She had a few gemmed rings and long hanging earrings.

“Um… Amy?”

“Amy, lovely. Short for Amelia?” Amy didn’t respond and continued to stare inquisitively. She looked back at the group who stopped and noticed Amy fell behind. They stood with similar curious looks as to why she stopped. “Ah, no matter.” The gypsy continued. “I can tell you’re special.”

Amy turned back to the older hedgehog. “What?”

“Dreams is it?” Amy was stunned. “Come now, I only wish to help.” Her words were warm and sincere. Amy turned back to Sonic and the others and raised a finger for them to wait a moment for her. She slowly but cautiously followed the gypsy back behind her booth and into a small dwelling.

Amy passed many odd trinkets and oddities as she continued back. The place had a warm earthly glow to it and plants were all around in pots on the floor and hanging from the ceiling. Not too far back, as the place was rather small, the gypsy was sitting at a table. On the table was a cloth with a delicate design and repeating patterns. On top the cloth was a hookah.

“Aye, no need to be alarmed. Tis as much I can say for an old hag pulling a stranger off the street.” The lady said as Amy took a seat. The lady grabbed a hose from the hookah and drew in a large inhale of the substance. She offered it to Amy but she kindly shook her head mostly not even knowing what the thing was. “I saw your lot walk by and must say you are a peculiar bunch.”

“How so?” Amy asked, trying to keep as many words to herself.

“Strong energy coming from the lot of you. Not only that, I remember you all brought quite a stir to these parts a few moons back.” She explained. Amy’s curious yet cautious expression was washed away with a pang of fear. “No need to fret lass. I don’t mind a good show every once in a while. Just happy to catch your lot back through here. Now, last I wish is to intrude but you’ve got something on your mind, something heavy.”

“You seem to already know.”

“So you’re plagued by some dreams. Foreboding yet shrouded in obscurity. I have something to help.”

“Why?”

“Why what lassy?” The lady said as she took another toke of the hookah before standing up and walking over to a shelf full of odd pieces.

“Why are you helping me? If it’s tokens you’re after I don’t have much and am less willing to give them to you. I need them for other things.” Amy explained.

“Ah, though that’d be normally what I’d ask for. Not this time.” She came back with a small box and opened it up to reveal a deck of cards. “On the house this time. However if you ever stroll through and wish to take a gander at me lot then I’d be happy to fulfill those wishes.”

Amy took out the deck of cards and scanned through them. They weren’t any normal cards she had seen being played by the locals in the tavern or out in the street. They each had separate pictures on them, trees, symbols, imagery. “What are they?”

“Tarot cards my dear. To help you translate the messages the world sends you.” She sat back down and grabbed the hose of the hookah except did not take a drag just yet.

Amy continued to look through the cards but then turned to the gypsy with a raised brow. “You never really answered. Why do you want to help me?”

“As I said, I sense a great deal of energy coming from your crew. I sensed it back at your last visit and that was just from watching you tussle around with the street folk. I too have dreams sometimes. And I’ve been waiting to come across you all again. I believe I was told to help you and that is all. I don’t make it a habit to quarrel with the will of the world.” Finally she took a long drag from the hookah and whisked out a heavy cloud of vapor.

“Is…is there anything else you know?” Amy placed the cards back in the small box and rested her hands on it.

“It is not my place, nor yours, to ask questions to the ether. But only receive their answers. This was all I know about you and for both our sakes it may be better that way. Now, I’m sure your friends want to know where you slipped off to ey?”

Amy arose out from the lady’s dwelling to see everyone there waiting for her.

“Ames, what was that about?” Sonic asked.

“I…don’t really know.” Amy answered as she held the box in her hand. She slipped them away in her small pack.

“Probably just some desperate merchant trying to sell her something. Don’t fall to these guys’ scams there girl.” Rouge said as they all started to walk off. Meanwhile the gypsy peered out from behind a curtain in the only window of her home and watched with curiosity as they left.

They made it back to the library and walked in. It did not take long to find Eiméar again, slaving over the task of sorting the books in the magnificent study. “Hello Miss Eiméar.”

They were now back in her living quarters once again drinking tea as she set up for their short stay. “I knew I’d see yer lot soon but I shant have expected this soon.” Eiméar said as they sat. “That coot decided to have you bother me yet eh?”

“We won’t be staying long, no longer than last time. Just two nights.” Rouge explained kindly. “And we again appreciate your hospitality.”

“Well if that old hedgehog keeps his word I won’t complain. As long as you stay out of trouble this time ‘round, that clear?”

“We’ll keep to ourselves.” Rouge answered once more.

“And you got a new lad with you this time. What’s your name?” She said to Knuckles as he stood off to the side.

“The name’s Knuckles. It’s nice to meet you ma’am.”

“Knuckles, well geez, ah could have placed a bet on that one with those sluggers of yours.” She motioned down to his fists. “Another friend or are you some bodyguard of sorts.”

Knuckles smiled and glared over at Sonic to which he just rolled his eyes in response to Knuckles’ leer. “Maybe a bit of both.” Knuckles answered through a grin.

“Aye. Well, what be it dis time?”

“Chuck wants us to look at some place north of here. Said it should be at the base of the Sléibhte Scáthaigh.” Sonic stated.

“The Stair na Seacht is pretty cryptic Sir Charles says. But he said there may be something there that could fill in the gaps to his studies. Maybe in a cave or a hollow. Know of anything?” Amy asked.

“That I do. There’s an old cave I’ve been told up there with old carvings on the walls. Typically an old smugglers den so best be careful if yer plan to be ‘sploring any. Could that be it?”

“Possibly!” Tails answered. “Do you know anything else about the place?”

“Afraid not. Never been meself. Just heard ‘bout it. Not too far though and quite noticeable I’ve been told, but best go in the morning before the sun is past high. They don’t call em the mountains of shade for nothing.” She looked over at Knuckles again. “And best bring your bodyguard of sorts too. It’s abandoned I hear now but ya never know.”

The morning came quickly and the group set off to see this place. They initially ventured east to hit the base of the Sléibhte Scáthaigh and paralleled it north. There was nothing of particular interest for a good distance. They scanned out to the west in the open area before the mountains rose out from the land like towers but also checked directly at their base in case it was hidden before the sudden cliffs.

“Look!” Tails shouted as he was flying high above the rest for a better vantage. “I think I see something!” He zoomed down to their level and dropped down stirring up a little sand as he landed. “There is an outcropping of rocks and boulders not too far from here. Looks out of place, could be what we’re looking for.”

“Great job buddy! I’ll go ahead and scout it out to see and to make sure no one is around.” Before any objection from the crew Sonic sped off in the distance. It took not even a full minute for him to return. “I think he’s right! There is a sizable opening in the rocks. Didn’t see anyone around either.” Without another word he zoomed off again. Tails quickly sped off to join him. Knuckle and Amy ran as quick as they could in the looser ground and Rouge fluttered alongside them.

They reached the structure and saw it to be exactly as Sonic loosely described, a cave with an opening big enough for the tallest of Mobians to walk right in. They made their way down the entrance. Tails dug through his small pack and grabbed a flashlight. It flicked on and they ventured down. The light wasn’t entirely necessary however as a short bit past the entrance was the darkest part. Natural light began to illuminate the burrow through openings in the ceiling.

Soon they came into a decent sized room, one slightly bigger than any of their huts back at South Island. Closer to the hallway that was the entrance was some crates covered in sand and dust. They seemed abandoned and forgotten but the group took note not to stay long in case their owners made a return.

[x]

The sight beyond that was strange and mystical but beautiful. The light from the high sun poured down through the openings and glistened along the yellow and red rocky walls. It was surprisingly moist there and small puddles were scattered on the cave floor until they grew in size where they reached a small pool at the end of the cavern. The grotto there had two large very out of place trees arising from the pool. They arose tall through a large hole in the ceiling. They were amazed they couldn’t see the trees from outside but figured they may have been shielded by other taller rocks that jut out around the place.

One tree was an ash tree, forked into two halves. Intertwined with the ash tree was a white fir that rose up strong. In the pool were some reeds as well. The fact that all these trees were found in a cave was surprising. The water there must have softened the ground to make for a strong root system and the sun shining through must have been sufficient to keep the trees alive but the less than ideal environment surely stunted their growth.

“Hey guys, there’s something along the lines of what Chuck was thinking I think over here?” Knuckles was over by the wall and pointed to some carvings and etching there.

“Ogham!” Tails shouted as he and the others moved over to investigate. Sure enough, a series of lines with hatches and marks were all over the walls of the cave. There was too much scattered around to take note of all the etchings but they examined them nonetheless.

“Surely we won’t be able to write all these inscriptions down for Sir Charles, there are just too much!” Amy pointed out.

“He told me that more than often the writing was used more to inscribe names for memorials or markers for tribes and boundaries. There are a lot of random inscriptions. I don’t want to miss anything but maybe many of these are like that.” Tails said.

“Kind of like a ‘Sonic was here’ thing?” Sonic said half joking as he scratched his finger over some of the carvings.

Tails gave a chuckle. “Probably. Let’s try and see if anything sticks out.”

“There’s something over here.” Amy called out as she was over closer to the trees. “There seems to be more structure to these. Not only that…” She signaled everyone over, “runes!” There were only a few but the symbol ᚦ was followed by the laguz ᛚ that they knew from Stark Ruins. Then again with the first, followed by cen ᚳ and above both was the symbol ᚫ.

“There’s one on the tree too.” Rouge pointed out. On the white fir was an aged engraving, hardly made out but appeared to be another rune, ᛇ.

Surrounding the runes Amy found was a long vertical line of ogham inscriptions that appeared more like text than the others which just resembled single words.

“If anything let’s write these down for Sir Charles.” Amy suggested. They did so and stayed a little while taking more looks around. They wrote down things here and there that they thought might be of interest. The sun that illuminated the grotto was now passed and little light was shining through the ceiling. They took this as time to make their leave and head back to Eiméar. It was early afternoon and with how close to the Sléibhte Scáthaigh they were, the sun was already starting to fall behind the mountains to the east.

They made it back to Cap with no trouble and divulged to Eiméar what they had found. She again told them that though she was familiar with every text in the library, she wasn’t so familiar with all their context and that Chuck would know more. She also suggested Chuck hand them some transcript to readily read runes and ogham if they were to be out doing more of Chuck’s ‘research.’ They made sure to suggest the same to Chuck once they got back.

The day had past and they settled in their own ways for their trek the next day. Tails was running about in the library picking up and reading books of interest. Rouge dragged Knuckles to the market and they promised not to cause any trouble. Sonic and Amy were talking together over tea.

“So she just…gave these to you?” Sonic asked as Amy had the tarot cards sprawled out in front of her.

“Yeah, it was…odd. She said she knew we were special. Also recognized us from our fights in the market last time. She somehow knew I was having strange dreams. I couldn’t say no to taking them especially as a gift.” She explained.

“As long as they aren’t ‘cursed’ or something.” Sonic said in his typical manner of unserious humor.

“No, I think she was sincere. I just am not entirely sure how to go about using these things. There is a placard describing each of the cards but… it’s still a bit confusing.” She was focused hard on trying to remember the cards and their descriptions and the different meanings behind them and how to read them.

Later that evening Rouge and Knuckles returned and Tails was back with a tired brain. The crew went to sleep and awoke to get ready to travel back. They gave their regard to Eiméar once again and thanked her for her hospitality. She now was surer than ever she would see them again and this time expected it to be soon.

Thankfully the journey back was much less exciting than their last trip from Cap back to South Island. They made it home with enough time for Chuck to not grow any concern. He met with them at once on what they had found.

“After last time I was concerned about setting you out again but I guess you have proven that you don’t always run into trouble.” He said with a smirk.

“I told you we were the guys for the job!” Sonic said proudly.

Chuck shook his head lightheartedly. He looked at the notes they made for him and studied them. “You said these were carved in the wall of a grotto?”

“They were. It was weird, in the middle of the barren land north of Cap, here was this little cave with two large trees growing in the rock!” Amy exclaimed.

“Two trees huh?”

“Yeah, an ash and a white fir were growing together. Some reeds too in the pond surrounding them.” Tails continued to explain.

“An ash tree, a white fir and reeds…?” Chuck seemed interested.

“Yeah. And then a BUNCH of ogham inscriptions on the wall.” Sonic spoke up. “Too much for us to write but Tails said you said most of ogham was used for names and markers so we only wrote down a few. But there was one in particular.”

Chuck cut him off. “The one by the runes?”

“That’s the one.”

“Hmm…” Chuck started stroking his mustache as he did when in deep thought. “Cen and laguz like you saw at Stark. And what seems to be thurisaz before them and ansuz above them.”

“Yeeaahhh… Sure.” Sonic said unfamiliar with the seemingly foreign language his uncle was speaking.

“There was another carved into the fir. It was faded but it should be there on the notes too.” Rouge added.

“Ihwaz.” Chuck said all the while writing down his own notes and flipping through a book in doing so. The group sat patient and with intrigue, with the exception of Knuckles who was in the corner chewing on a stalk of grass. “Interesting…” He said aloud as he continued to investigate.

It took a moment before he finished up and turned back to the group. All of their ears perked up simultaneously with interest at what he had to say. “The thurisaz is a rune meaning giants or strong ones, often in association with a conflict. Ansuz quite literally meaning ‘the gods’ and you already are familiar with cen and laguz, fire and water. So these tell me something about giants or gods of fire and water, possibly in some conflict.” He looked up at Amy as he and her were likely thinking the same thing – her dreams seemed to show some stalemate battle between the two forces. He continued, “And the ogham, seacht anord flaith coróin. Seven Chaos Prince Crown.”

“Seven chaos prince crown? I mean, I get the first half Chuck.” Sonic called out.

“There is an old legend saying the Lords of Seven each wore a crown that had a different shard of chaos bestowed upon them. I don’t know much more beyond that in terms of their significance. But these Lords were said to have immense power.” He answered.

“And the rest of the ogham? Any more hints from that old dead language?” Tails insisted on knowing more.

“Hmf,” Chuck scoffed, “dead language. It’s not just dead, and much less a language in the way we use the common tongue. It’s ancient. Found only in old text about ancient times and myths. I had forgotten entirely about it until you came across it at Stark Ruins. But you were right in that it seems the other inscriptions were nothing more than names and markers. An ‘I was here’ kind of thing.”

“Ha! I knew it.” Sonic said gleefully as he was softly elbowing Amy.

“Shh!” She shushed him so Chuck could continue.

“Why was the ogham in Stark in the common tongue then? And also the rune in the tree?” Rouge asked.

“Ah, well that is another mystery. Maybe whatever forces did that horrific deed at Stark knew who ever would stumble across it would only know the common tongue. But then again, why even make it ogham…” He said more so as a question to himself. “As for the tree, it was ihwaz or yew. Odd to label the tree as if anyone wouldn’t recognize the kind of tree it was. But the yew and even the ihwaz was a symbol in lore of death and resurrection.”

“From Chaos comes creation and creation ends with destruction.” Amy muttered.

“Yes, but creation also come from destruction.” Chuck mused. “And endless cycle of death and rebirth. You should all know this from our,” Chuck and Knuckles made brief eye contact, “from your respective ceremonies. One of the few beliefs all Societies have in common.”

“What of those crowns you mentioned?” Knuckles finally spoke up. Though stoic as he liked to be, he couldn’t help but also be intrigued by the information.

“I think there might be more to them than just ornamental pieces associated to folklore. I only know of one currently in existence and even then there is speculation on whether it is in fact one of the Lord’s crowns or just an ancient artifact from a time long passed. Last I heard it lay locked away in secret in a museum in the city of Westport, many many hundreds of miles from here.” Chuck further explained.

“If it’s locked away in secret, how do you know of this thing?” Sonic asked.

“Because I’m the one that found it.” They all froze in perplexion. “But that is a story for another time. I will need to read the Stair na Seacht more to see if this trail of crumbs is worth following. Go get a pint of gat at the tavern and rest up from your journey. I’ll let you know if I uncover anything of worth.” They all got up and moved out the door. “Amy, a word if you don’t mind dear.”

Amy looked at Sonic and he gave her a shrug. She’d join them shortly. Chuck moved over to the sink and began washing his hands. “I know you and I are both thinking similar thoughts.” He finished rinsing his hands and turned to further explain. “Whether from ancient myths or omens of future, your dreams are connected to this vast riddle we’ve been investigating and exploring. Fire and flood…” He paused, “I fear something of the sorts may come to transpire. And a human you said?” Amy nodded. “I think we need to find these ‘crowns’ before whatever man in your dreams does.”

#ooohhhh it's getting good if I do say so myself #chaos societies #episode 6 #seven chaos princes' crowns #sonic au #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #amy rose #rouge the bat #knuckles the echidna #uncle chuck #sir charles #just wish there was an extended version of 'Natural Cause' so it could play though the end of the chapter while reading & not end short

4 notes · View notes

writersmacchiato · 4 years

Text

October Writer Recommendations 2019

A/N: I love reading fanfiction. I do it often and I wanted to take a moment to show my appreciate to some of my favorite writers 💓 I might try and do something monthly, but with fics! I don’t know. Enjoy!

@prettylittlebrownskingyal is literally the sweetest person ever! She is so funny and the interactions she has with her followers is so sincere - visiting her blog is like drinking a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day. Aside from her amazing personality, her writing is amazing! She does not ever turn down requests

I recommend reading “We should do a couples costume.” / “We’re not a couple, though.”

It’s soooooo sweeet oh my god. This was one of the first fics of Ari’s that I read and I have been hooked ever since. It’s so endearingly heartwarming, but there is a dash of angst that is artful and just ugh - do yourself a favor and head on over to her blog

|||

@caffeinatedtimdrake is sososo nice and such an amazing writer!! I recently discovered her blog and I am so grateful - I don’t know how I was living before i stumbled upon her fics!! I have read almost everything avidly - her writing will make you feel things. Also, she fed into my dinosaur niche so she’s just a cool person all around

I highly HIGHLY recommend reading everything and she has a conveniently placed masterlist in her bio ;) but one of my favorites is: Hey There, Hot Tea the puns!!! Chip!!! Dick Grayson being Dick Grayson!!! *insert gif of Lady Gaga listing off positive attributes*

—

Harry Potter

@ardentmuse let me start by saying this: I LOVE LIA SO MUCH! Okay, now that that’s out of my system - Lia is so wonderful. I discovered her when I was on a Kingsman kick and I quickly fell down a rabbit hole and read almost everything she’s posted (but too shy to comment on, but not anymore ;) aside from the wonderful writing, Lia is such a genuine and lovely person that simply visiting her blog is a delight.

While, Lia writes for many fandoms, I am recommending her Percy Weasley x Reader series, Past, Present, and Future

It’s so amazing. Words cannot describe how much I love it. I recently reread it and I was struck by how much thought and heart had gone into it - Lia truly goes above and beyond.

|||

@jamesmydeer first of all, I love her url so much and it makes me smile every time I see it! Second, her writing is so cute and wholesome - it feels like sunshine on a cloudy day.

i recommend gee, i think you’re swell | it’s a Remus Lupin fic and it is dang cute! It has great characterization of the marauders, shows their friendship really well, and the plot is so original and refreshing.

|||

@marauder--harder Kay is amazing at writing. I am always blown away by how perfect her writing is whenever I read anything she posts. In particular the way she writes Remus Lupin is gorgeous. The grip she has on his character is astounding.

I recommend her masterlist and The Tortuous Year series with Remus Lupin. His character is developed so beautifully, as are the other characters. The story is amazing to read, the plot kept me intrigued and wanting more with every chapter. It’s amazing. If you’re looking for a series to read, then this is definitely worth your attention!

—

Band of Brothers

@david-weepster Tena is the sweetest person in the entire world and her greatness as a person is second only to her astounding writing. The way she is able to evoke such emotion with her writing is amazing. Read ALL her fics, thank me later.

I recommend her Civilian Life series about the BoB characters. It’s sweet, sometimes bittersweet, but worth the read. I especially recommend her fic with Joe Toye. Because I love Toye so much and this fic makes my heart burst! It’s so fluffy!

|||

@hamlets-ghost-zaddy love love love everything she writes! It’s so original and enchanting to read. The fics always draw me back in for more, I always want to know what happens next. The characters are written so well, I can picture their dialogue and actions perfectly.

I recommend her Queen of Peace series with Shifty Powers. I love it so much. Words cannot describe how much I do. Shifty is written so wonderfully, and the way the reader is written is just so beautiful. I love their dynamic. The pining, the longing - I just want them to kiss and fall in love and be happy forever!

—

Haikyuu!!

@haikyuulovercompany is really sweet and kind!! I only recently discovered her blog but omg I love it! Everything I’ve read is amazing.

I recommend her Slytherin x Hufflepuff fic with Iwaizumi Hajime! It is so so beautiful. I really love how the dynamics between the houses is described and written, especially for the huffs because I believe it would be so accurate. The way it is portrayed is just perfect. You must read it! Made me want to watch the hp movies again! (also my main is @starryrevelations so if this feedback sounds familiar it’s bc i already to you about it!)

|||

@imaginethathaikyuu lovelovelove this blog. i’ve been on a hq kick recently and discovered this blog, fell in love immediately. i also was lucky enough to discover it as she’s doing a kinktober series ;)

I recommend reading her kinktober series! (obviously it is nsfw, so caution is advised) but I also recommend fallingforyou with Hinata Shoyo. Also nsfw, but it’s really sweet omg! I love the way it’s written. It’s good, high-quality smut. The way Hinata is written like perfectly captures his character and his personality. Literally could read over and over again.

|||

@haikyuu-dream the admins are really nice and awesome at writing! I just went through their nishinoya and iwaizumi tags and read everything they had. I am in love. They’re also looking for an admin (still, I think?), so if you’re interested...

I recommend going to their masterlist and reading their various fics about your favorite hq character!! There are so many original things in the tags that are refreshing to read. Love love love.

#when i say that i've been working on this for months #i mean MONTHS #this was getting too long so i limited myself to three per fandom #writer rec #fic rec #camille rambles #hp #bob #hq #dc

73 notes · View notes

slusheeduck · 4 years

Text

And One Day, A Queen

Chapter 2: Introduction

[Arrival]

Hekla hadn’t been exaggerating about getting Iduna up first thing the next morning, and she’d certainly been making her promise of being the hardest worker Hekla had ever seen hard to keep up. The past four days had been nonstop mucking, feeding, training, brushing…she was barely able to stay awake long enough for dinner before collapsing right into sleep until Hekla shook her awake to do it all over again.

But, truth be told, the hard work was welcome. Her brain was so full of horses and saddles and hay that there was no room to think about the forest or the future or what had happened just a few days before.

“Hey! Freyja doesn’t have her bridle on!” Hekla’s call brought Iduna back to the present, grimacing as she ran to the stable to fetch it. “Come on, girl, it’s common sense. How’s anyone supposed to ride a horse with no reins?”

For all of her gruffness, Hekla didn’t seem to mind having an assistant all that much. She’d gotten a cot moved into her little cottage the day after Iduna’s arrival, and she was remarkably patient as Iduna learned that horses were actually vastly different than reindeer, giving short bits of instruction and guiding her into doing things properly.

“There, just push the bit in. Freyja’s a calm girl, she won’t nip you unless you really mess up.” Hekla crossed her arms as Iduna carefully got the reins over Freyja’s head, then looked over as a young servant—not much older than Iduna, really—ran up to the gate. Hekla let out a tsk.

“What do you want, Kai?” she asked shortly, making the boy freeze up for a moment before he spoke.

“It’s, ah, it’s time for inventory,” he said, not quite meeting her eyes. “So…if you could just…hand me your list of what you need so Rosskjell can…”

Hekla groaned. “Was that this week?”

“If…if you’ve forgotten, I can just tell…”

“No. Don’t you dare,” Hekla said firmly, making Kai stand up straight. “Rosskjell will never let me hear the end of it.” She rubbed her eyes, then looked up. “Iduna!”

“Yes?”

“You can write, can’t you?”

“Of course I can write.” She patted Freyja’s neck, then tossed her braid over her shoulder as she walked up to Hekla. Immediately, a pencil and scraps of paper were thrust into her hands.

“Go do a count of what we need, then take it in to Rosskjell. His office is in the west wing of the castle.” Hekla gave her a push toward the stable. “If you don’t, we’ll have some very upset horses.”

Iduna made a face. “Can’t you do it? You know everything we need, and where Rokill is.”

“Rosskjell, and why should I do when I have an assistant right here who promised to be the hardest worker I’ve ever seen?” Hekla gave her a smirk, then shooed her off toward the stable. Iduna sighed, but this time went to the stable. There was still a good deal of hay, but it wouldn’t hurt to get a bit more. They were due to get a new colt next week, so they’d need horseshoes for him. Maybe a saddle, too? Better put it down just in case. And Balgruuf’s blanket was getting awfully threadbare…

After what felt like forever, Iduna was pretty sure she’d gotten everything they needed. Now it was just…going into the castle. She had to admit, it was a little exciting; she hadn’t been able to go inside yet. She wondered if it was as grand and bright as the outside. A few helpful guards doing their rounds told her how to get inside, and she slipped in through the servant’s entrance.

It was very grand inside.

Lights blazed on just about every wall, and plush rugs nearly completely covered the gleaming wood floor beneath. There were paintings and swords and tapestries on each wall and servants milling about and a group of well-dressed young ladies walking down the end of the hall and…

Iduna shut her eyes, gathering her wits again. No, don’t get distracted. She had to get to Rosskjell, in the west wing. Now, which way was west in here?

Iduna walked through the halls, trying to look as much like Hekla as possible rather than a girl worried about getting lost. Even so, she could practically hear her sister telling her how ridiculous she looked.

Was Yelana okay? What about Mother? Had Father…

She froze and shook her head. No. She wasn’t going to think about that, especially not here. All she needed to focus on was getting the list to Rosskjell. Now, the west wing should be here. Or…here? Maybe up these stairs…

“And you’re certain this is temporary?”

“Your Majesty, it’s only been four days. He’s likely only begun to recover from it; really, it’s a lucky thing he’s doing as well as he is.”

“But what if he has amnesia or…”

“If he had amnesia, he wouldn’t remember the year. Or your name. Or his name.”

As soon as Iduna reached the top of the staircase, she caught sight of a man and woman speaking in hushed voices, and automatically she slipped out of sight. The man was in fine clothes, but the woman…her dress was made of heavy, dark damask, and her collar was lined with fur—but something much more delicate and fine than the reindeer and rabbit skins they wore back in her village. Jewels sparkled at her neck and on her fingers, but the most spectacular was the crown that sat on top of her head, the dark blue gems contrasting wonderfully with her golden hair.

Naturally, that had to be the queen. And if they were talking about what Iduna thought they were talking about, then this room must be the king’s.

She’d clearly taken a wrong turn, and she should go back downstairs to find Rosskjell. But…the queen and the man—doctor, most likely—were going the opposite way. So if she were to just…take a peek…they probably wouldn’t notice.

After all, you couldn’t save someone and spend hours staying silent next to them without wanting to make sure they were okay, right?

She waited until the queen and the doctor were a few doors away, and made sure that there were no other servants coming this way. Then, as quietly as possible, she padded down the hallway’s rug to the door. She peeked around again before reaching for the door and, very, very carefully, opened it just enough to slip inside.

For a king’s room, it seemed…rather plain, especially compared to the rest of the castle. Certainly there was furniture, and a massive bookshelf by the window, but…nothing that looked like it belonged to a boy. Maybe that was part of being a king.

The bed was impressive, and it was so large and covered in thick down comforters that she almost couldn’t tell there was a person on it at all. But she saw a tuft of blond hair between the blankets and pillows, and the tiniest shift of the blankets.

There. He was alive. She hadn’t realized how much she’d worried that he’s been really hurt, but she’d gotten her confirmation that he was okay and could go on her way.

Or…she could get a better look at him. Just to be sure.

She bit her lip as she stepped a bit closer. This was stupid. She’d get in so much trouble if she was found out, but her curiosity wouldn’t let her stop. Just a bit closer…

There.

She tilted her head. He looked more or less the same as he had when she’d gotten him into the cart, but with a touch more color in his cheeks. He breathed softly as he slept, a wave of blond hair falling over half his face.

So. This was the King of Arendelle.

How horrible.

Kings, she knew, had nothing but responsibilities to attend to. The last king had seemed shifty and shallow, with smiles that only seemed to last as long as they needed to. Before the fighting had broken out, this boy had seemed bright-eyed and ready to learn from the Northuldra. Would he be like his father now that he was king?

Then again, it wasn’t really her place to wonder that, was it?

She’d better get moving, anyway. Hekla would begin to wonder after her, and that might mean a box on the ear. She stood up and turned, carefully padding out.

“Who’re you?”

Iduna froze in place as she heard the hoarse voice, and she slowly turned around. The king was sitting up, pale green eyes unfocused as he looked at her sleepily.

“I…I’m lost,” she stammered out as the king rubbed his eyes and grimaced.

“Lost?”

“Y-yeah. I’m…looking for Rosskjell?”

To her surprise, the boy let out a quiet laugh. “You’re really lost. Gimme a minute, I can…um..I should…sorry, I’m drawing a complete blank.”

Iduna shook her head, starting to back toward the door. “Really, it’s fine. I should be…” She tilted her head, eyes widening as she heard footsteps. Someone was coming. She looked back at the king, then pressed her finger to her lips. He dazedly copied her, watching as she sprinted across the room to hide behind his curtains just as the door opened.

“Agnarr! What are you doing?”

Iduna peeked out from behind the curtain, watching as the queen swept over to the bedside.

“The doctor says you’re to stay in bed until you’ve recovered, and that means laying down. We need you to be well as soon as possible.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine, now lay down.”

The king—Agnarr—mumbled incoherently as he laid back down.

“What was that?”

“There’s a girl in here.”

Iduna bit back a gasp, instead holding her breath as the queen looked around curiously.

“You’re imagining things, Agnarr. No one’s allowed in but me, the doctor, and Petra.” She knelt leaned over the bed, smoothing her son’s hair out of his face. “Now please, rest. Things will be…difficult soon, and you need to be as well as possible.”

Agnarr hummed distantly, eyes fluttering closed. The queen stayed by his bed for a moment longer, then straightened up to walk out.

“Mother?”

The queen paused, turning to look back at the bed. “Yes?”

“I can’t remember where Rosskjell’s office is.”

“Do you really need to know now?”

“Yes, it’s important.”

The queen sighed, clearly debating whether it was worth humoring her son or not. “You go down the stairs, turn right at the first hallway, and go down to the door at the end. Does that help?”

“Mm-hm.”

The queen sighed, shaking her head before exiting the room. Iduna held her breath until she heard the click of the door, then leaned back against the cool window for a moment. That had been way too close. After a moment, she slipped out from behind the curtain, sending a big smile toward Agnarr…but he was already asleep again. Iduna’s smile grew smaller, but no less genuine, then silently made her way out of his room and toward Rosskjell’s office.

Well, that hadn’t gone as bad as it could have. But she was going to have to keep a big distance between her and the king from now on. That could get dangerous really fast.

There was one fundamental flaw in her plan to keep away from the king: she was a servant in his castle. Granted, she lived on the grounds rather than in the castle, and, according to Hekla, she’d likely spend all but the most important holidays out here. It wasn’t like stablehands had to attend balls or meetings, after all. And according to the gossip, King Agnarr was still on strict bedrest, and likely would be for some time. Once he did fully recover, he’d likely be busy with all sorts of kingly duties. So Iduna was safe.

And even if she wanted to snoop more, there was just no time for it once their new colt arrived. Hekla had named him Jarl, certain that he’d grow into the name, then passed him off to Iduna for breaking. He could be a darling, when he felt like it, but he had a strong enough stubborn streak that Iduna’s whole days were filled with trying to get him to eat on time, trying to get him used to his bit and bridle, trying to get him to just listen to her. And, of course, Hekla was hardly any help, only assuring Iduna that she’d be able to figure things out on her own. Really, it seemed like she was trying to break the both of them.

Today’s task was teaching Jarl how to be led. He didn’t seem to mind the bit as much today, but trying to steer him was nearly impossible.

“Come on, Jarl,” Iduna grumbled, playing tug of war with the reins. “It’s just a little walk. Just follow my lead.”

Jarl huffed at her, and Iduna huffed back. She heard footsteps behind her, but they could wait for a moment for her to coax Jarl around the run. She tugged again.

“I’m not even asking you to do anything fancy, Jarl. Just walk with me.”

“It’s you! You’re real!”

The voice startled Iduna, and Jarl took the opportunity to throw his head, nearly tugging her off her feet.

“Don’t do that!” she chided, then called over her shoulder, “Not you, the horse. And of course I’m real. Jarl wouldn’t be so fussy if I weren’t.”

Her visitor gave a stifled laugh. “Clearly. Still, I’m glad I wasn’t imagining strange girls showing up in my room.”

Iduna froze up, and Jarl took the chance to tug his reins away, finally making her lose her balance and faceplant into the dirt. He let out a triumphant nicker before trotting away. Iduna let him go, instead scrambling up to bow as best she could.

“Y-Your Majesty! I…I’m sorry, I didn’t expect…I mean, I’m very sorry for…I…” She grimaced as she peeked up, brow creasing as she tried to avoid making eye contact with the boy leaning against the gate before ultimately bowing her head again. “I…I hope you’ll forgive me for, um, breaking into your room?”

She still wasn’t looking, but she was going to assume that the rustle of fabric was a shrug. “Well, you needed help, and I’m supposed to help people. I don’t think there’s anything there that needs forgiving. Um, you can stand up, if you want. That doesn’t look comfortable.”

Iduna stood up as quickly as possible, and Agnarr stifled another laugh before looking over at Jarl. “He’s beautiful. Is he new?”

“Yes, and stubborn as anything,” Iduna said with a sigh as she crossed her arms. Agnarr glanced at her, then reached into his coat pocket, pulling out a couple of sugar cubes. He gave a whistle, smiling as Jarl looked over at him. Slowly, the colt made his way over, interest piqued as Agnarr held out the sugar cubes.

“This is how I got my horse to like me,” he whispered to Iduna as Jarl carefully nosed his way toward the king. “Hekla told me off for giving him sugar, but now I have a friend for life.”

Iduna smiled, watching as Jarl finally nibbled at the sugar and willingly let Agnarr stroke his nose. “I might have to sneak some out here, then.” She glanced up at the king, still hesitant to look too long. “Are…you feeling better? After what happened?” Agnarr’s smile faded, and Iduna swallowed nervously. Maybe she shouldn’t have asked that. “I’m sorry, I…”

“You apologize a lot,” he said quietly. “But I guess I’m going to have to get used to that, if I’m king now.”

Iduna bit her lip. “So you know what happened.”

“If Mother hadn’t told me, I’d’ve heard from everyone else.” Agnarr stroked Jarl’s nose a few times in silence before he said, in a much more formal voice, “Yes, I’m better. Thank you for asking.” He turned his head slightly, green eyes looking at her curiously before he bowed his head. “I’m sorry. I’m keeping you from your work.”

“I wasn’t getting very far with it,” Iduna said, reaching forward to pat Jarl’s neck. “He’s in a much better mood now, so I’m glad you came.”

Agnarr smiled, a smaller one than before but still genuine. “If you’ll let me, I’d like to come back. I’m not really supposed to be out here yet, but I could only stay inside for so long.”

“Only if you bring sugar cubes,” Iduna said with a teasing grin before she realized who she was teasing. “I-I mean, of course…they’re your horses, after all, and…”

“I’ll fill my pockets with them,” Agnarr interrupted with another laugh, then looked up as several voices called “Your Majesty!” around the grounds. He sighed. “I guess that’s my sign to go. Thanks for letting me meet Jarl.” He reluctantly pulled away from Jarl, started to walk away before he stopped and turned back to them. “Sorry, I’m so rude, I didn’t catch your name?”

She blinked. “Ah…I’m Iduna.”

“Iduna. Iduna,” he repeated, as if committing it to memory. “I’m Agnarr. I mean, you probably knew that. You definitely knew that. I…” He looked up as he heard another call. “I’ll be back soon, Iduna!”

Iduna smiled. “I’ll see you then, Your Majesty!”

As Agnarr made his way back toward the castle, Iduna looked up at Jarl, who nudged his nose against her head. Well, so much for keeping her distance. But at least the king seemed nice enough…and willing to forgive egregious trespassing.

She found herself looking forward to his next visit.

[Funeral]

#frozen #frozen ii #agduna #agnarr #iduna #arendelle #fanfic #meet-cute #frozen fic

15 notes · View notes