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scathecraw · 3 years

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BBRae Week 2021 - Day 1: Unconventional Kiss

Raven had been dancing around the issue for weeks now, and both she and Gar knew it. There had been a few near misses after a date gone well, a few breathless close calls during training, and one precipitous moment in the kitchen that fell apart when the smoke detector signaled their distraction.

They had been good dates. Very good dates, to be quite honest. Raven had expected that they would go nearly that well, and that had been why she had held off for so long. With all the emotional vulnerability and insightful talks and fantastic company and so many other things that came with dating someone you had been attracted to for years, she knew that the other shoe would drop, and she would have to just plunge in headfirst. And Gar had been patient – he wasn’t one to rush, especially with her. But he wanted it. And, god help her, she wanted it, too.

A perfect first kiss. The First Kiss, for both of them, hung up on each other for so long that they had never made any real attempts to find anyone else. Kori’s magazines had promised that the first kiss was always awkward and had to be refined by, hrm,repeated practice, but that was only a small part of the fear that gripped Raven when she thought of actually, really putting lips to lips.

It wasn’t Gar. She fully expected him to be just as bad as she was for a while (and likely longer given how quick she could pick things up). It wasn’t even what might… come after. Not as such. It was just… just… it was Important. Capital “I” Important – that things go well. Despite the promise of a bad first kiss by seemingly everyone who had ever kissed, it had to go right. Too wet or too dry, wrong head tilt, wrong duration, whatever – but she wanted to kiss him and do it over and over again and what if he didn’t want to or what if there was no chemistry or what if she sneezed or got so nervous she vomited or any number of things that would, according to all her latest nightmares, put him off wanting her the way she wanted him.

And he seemed so damn blithe about it. Like he couldn’t be less worried, even though she had felt his pulse race and could practically hear his internal monologue turning into a full blown soliloquy. He had that placid smile and those sparkling eyes and smelled like warmth and pine and it was so stupid how he wouldn’t just admit how nervous he was so they could be nervous together.

No, she had to be the mature one and feel all the butterflies for them both. She could practically hear his corny joke about never getting butterflies because he was vegetarian. Stupid Gar and stupid kissing.

It would happen. She would make it happen. And it wouldn’t be perfect, or probably even a very good kiss, but it would be right. Eventually.

____

There was an awful lot of noise and fleeing civilians for an evening out, even at the pier.

Nightwing sighed from atop his favorite ride at the boardwalk, the Ferris Wheel, as he retrieved his communicator and alerted the team. “Titans, we’ve got work to do. Something big is causing trouble at the east entrance. Star and I are on our way and will meet you there.” With that, he stood up in the precariously rocking carriage and Starfire lifted him by the arms, taking off in the direction of the disturbance. Cyborg, heretofore incognito on a date, immediately excused himself and waded through the crowds, shedding his holo-disguise. He was alerted to his passing teammates by a green blur, and called out to Raven as she passed, asking for a ride on one of her ink-black levitating discs. She obliged and they took off after Changeling’s racing avian form.

Gar was the fastest one to respond in these situations. Superhuman reactions and mobility got him to the trouble faster than any of his teammates, and he was proud of it. It meant that he was the first one to engage the enemy, which was a dangerous gambit when he didn’t know what the enemy was, but someone had to be first on the line when every second was a danger to innocent people. In this case, it was more an annoyance than any real threat. Kitten was throwing a very public and destructive temper tantrum, as she tended to do within a few weeks of release/escape.

Her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Fang, was nearby and suffering the brunt of the auditory assault while a swarm of mutated grubs ate their way through stalls and prizes alike. Kitten was waving the control device as she gesticulated wildly, and the chance to end the whole debacle in one fell swoop was too tempting.

Without waiting for backup or giving away his presence, Changeling darted forward as a seagull, beak agape as he neared the remote. He had timed it perfectly, if not for Fang’s suddenly outstretched spiderleg. The blow sent him tumbling into a pile of cheap stuffed animals and he transformed back into himself. The arguing couple immediately turned their ire on him without ever stopping their argument.

“And now look what you’ve done! Your stupidity got this idiot involved! Why couldn’t you just win me a stupid teddy bear like a normal boyfriend?” Kitten raged as she hammered at the controller, causing the grubs to turn their attention towards the dazed and prone Changeling. Fang launched webbing at him, working at cross purposes as the grubs and giving Changeling just enough time to roll out of the way.

“This is not my fault. You know these games are rigged! Why would I give the money I stole to these scam artists?”

“Because you are supposed to! It’s what boyfriends do! They do stupid stuff because I want you TO!” Kitten screamed and threw her remote onto the ground where it cracked and fizzled. Instead of the expected de-metamorphosis from vicious gnawing grubs to harmless caterpillars, there was a rumbling from deep inside the snack stall and a mass exodus of larvae from the vicinity. Gar had just gotten to his feet when a much larger, toothier, and more armored wriggler burst from the shoddy wooden confines, writhing and shrieking even more shrilly than Kitten, and headed directly towards her and Fang in a headlong charge.

Apparently Kitten’s shouting was enough to distract both of them from their imminent death by squirming tank, and Changeling had to make a tough split-second decision – let them suffer the consequences of their own stupidity, or put himself in harm’s way to save them.

It wasn’t much of a choice. Leaping forward, he transformed into a rhino, a fast moving locomotive of heavy armor and muscle and slammed headfirst into the tank sized larva, diverting it and being whipped aside by the unexpected followthrough of the tail end of the grub.

Raven’s disk touched down just in time to see his head collide with a thick support post that held up the boardwalk, and the sounds of argument fell silent as Kitten and Fang wordlessly assessed the situation and fled. Cyborg called out “Get B. I’ll get the worm,” and launched after the creature.

Raven raced to Garfield’s side, seeing the heavy gash and road rash from sliding across the wood. She assessed him as quickly as possible, noting the broken ribs, bleeding, and, most concerning, the lack of breathing. She channeled her power, reaching her soulself into the unmoving shapeshifter on the ground, and urgently repaired his most vital injuries.

The head wound would wait, they always bled more and looked worse than they were. First the broken ribs, eased out and stabilized enough to hold for a little while. Then the badly punctured lung. As the trapped air was removed and the hole patched, she expected him to cough, sit up, and make a dumb joke. Instead he just lay there, silent. His pulse was fine, and there was no reason for him to be so still.

She did all the steps that the Titans’ first aid training laid out for her, making sure his airway was clear, no pressure preventing his breathing or hidden wounds that would cause more damage, then started mouth to mouth.

It only took a few breaths, as if his body had simply not realized for some seconds that he was able to breathe normally again, before the first unassisted rasps began. Raven let out a sob of relief, feeling like his breath resuming was directly connected to her own oxygen. She continued healing him, clearing his head of blood and strengthening the broken ribs before his eyes opened with a groan.

“Did ya get the license of that truck that hit me?” he said, weakly.

Raven nearly hit him. “That was by far the stupidest thing I have ever seen you do. What were you thinking, charging in like that?”

“Aww c’mon, Rae. I had ta’. And I’m sure you’ve seen me do stupider things.”

“None of them had you puncture a lung and stop breathing, you fool. You didn’t need emergency resuscitation when you tried to do a standing backflip.” A jolt of power zapped him with an icicle of cold to the chest, and he coughed.

“At least I stuck the landing this time, heh. I think I can sit up. Thanks for fixing me up, Doctor Rae.”

She glared, and kept glaring as Nightwing checked in. Fang and Kitten had been apprehended almost peacefully by him and Starfire, and Cyborg had incapacitated the grub easily. She reported the situation, not once taking her eyes off her idiot of a boyfriend.

He rolled to his feet, only a little gingerly, and retrieved the broken pieces of the remote control for Cyborg to repair and reverse the changes to the swarm.

As he stooped down to pick up the last pieces, he stopped, and a look of realization dawned on him.

“Wait, you gave me CPR? Like, mouth-to-mouth?”

“Of course. You weren’t breathing and you needed oxygen before any working brain cells died.”

“Y’know,” he said, sitting back down beside her, “I think that counts as our first kiss.”

Raven went still. It couldn’t. It wasn’t even a kiss, it was legitimate medical treatment. But then again, it wasn’t very good, it was at a weird angle, and there was even the terrible fear that she’d vomit out of worry. It checked all the boxes for the perfect terrible first kiss.

He interrupted her musing, “Too bad I don’t remember it. Maybe we could see if trying again might jog some memories.” He reached his arm across her shoulders, waggling his eyebrows.

“Oh shut up,” she said, and pulled him in for a completely butterfly-free second first kiss.

AO3 FF.net

#bbraeweek21 #bbrae #day 1 #fic

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wallgirl · 3 years

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The Little Nereid Part 16

Record of Ragnarok fanfiction

Poseidon x OC

Word count: 2,800

Dynamene, youngest of the 50 Nereids, has lived most of her adolescence as a servant alongside her sisters at Poseidon’s palace. But with her coming-of-age birthday and other developments, what she initially thought was just admiration of her master blossoms into something stronger and more passionate… and painful. Loving someone like Poseidon is not easy period, let alone as your first love. But Dynamene is young and naïve, and all she wants is a chance to be at the sea god’s side.

Categories and warnings: Romance, angst, unrequited love, coming-of-age, earn-your-happy-ending, slow-burn (ish); no sexual content. Graphic violence parts 15 and 16.

Updated regularly; will have about 20 parts total.

Edit AGAIN 9/16: Changed and added some text at the end, particularly with Poseidon. Didn’t save first time.

Violence and body horror throughout this chapter, largely unavoidable. It's too relevant to the plot. Not terribly graphic - more PG-13 than R - but it is disturbing, so be warned.

—

The prongs had completely passed through her body to the other end. Dynamene staggered backwards, her legs giving out. She opened her mouth to scream, to gasp, to make any sound, but was unable to. She brought her shaking hands up to her chest and stared as her lifewater began to drip from the punctures.

Poseidon's face turned to one of disbelief, then horror. The magic that had transformed her appearance melted away as her body began to weaken, revealing the petite girl's real form. He swallowed, pale hand clenching the trident, as he watched her stare at her chest in disoriented confusion. The silvery water that flowed was the blood of a Nereid, magic water in essence; something that could not be replicated.

"Dynamene," he whispered. "Dynamene." No. This can't be.

She looked up at him in a daze, eyes glazing over. The look of horror on his face seemed to register in her mind, and for a moment, she lifted one arm in his direction. Then her legs buckled and her eyes closed.

He removed the trident slowly, his knuckles white from the death grip. He dropped to one knee to catch her with his free arm as the prongs came loose. One hand went to her injuries, feeling the lifewater that seeped between his fingers. "Dynamene," he repeated hoarsely, commanding her to awaken. Her eyelids didn't even flutter.

It was then that the situation hit him entirely, and he grit his teeth. He tore part of the fabric off of his waist wrap and wrapped it about her chest deftly. She was still breathing, although each breathe was shallow and ragged. Time was of the essence, and he had to think fast.

Humans would not have survived such a blow, but Nereids were effectively shapeshifting ocean spirits that took a human form. Their bodies were made up of living water instead of flesh and organs, which rendered them impervious to most injuries. However, Poseidon's trident was able to harm any being regardless of body material, and Dynamene's body would begin to disintegrate from the trauma.

Lifting her up into his arms, he turned towards the doorway. There was no time to waste.

With improbable timing, he heard dozens of footsteps clamoring up the stairs, followed by worried shouts. "What's happened? What was that clamor? Lord Poseidon, are you okay?"

The other Nereids came bursting in with Actaea at the head. There was a moment of terrible silence as they took in the scene before them, then cries of disbelief.

"What... What have you DONE?!" Actaea screamed, lunging at Poseidon. Three other sisters quickly grabbed her by the arms, struggling to hold her back. "What did you do to her?!"

"There's no time to explain," Poseidon said coldly. "Don't give me a reason to hurt any of the rest of you."

"You monster! I'll kill you myself!" Actaea shrieked, yanking to get out of her sisters' grasp. Her pupils were full-blown in her rage, her steaming hair swirling angrily about her face. "How dare you hurt her! How could you?!"

Poseidon didn't let her words' effect on him show through in his expression as he looked coolly at the others. "Dynamene had magic used on her. It wasn't any power of the gods. Where might she have had access to this magic?"

The other Nereids backed away from him reproachfully, looking less and less human as their fury consumed them. One finally spoke up in a trembling voice. "Is... Is there not a witch that took up residence a few centuries ago not far from here?"

"How do you know that?" Another sister snapped back.

"A mermaid acquaintance of mine went to see her some time ago for help... She made a deal with her to solve a relationship matter. The deal wasn't much in her favor, unfortunately."

Poseidon's face darkened further. Would Dynamene really have made a deal with a witch?

Of course she would've... If it had meant being by my side. Foolish, silly, stupid-

He couldn't allow his thoughts to go any further, not when the subject of his berating was curled up limp in his arms. "Where is this witch?"

"Um... She lives in one of the deepest trenches, but I know little else..."

"Useless," Poseidon huffed. "Get out of my way." He stepped in front of the Nereids that continued to block the doorway.

There was a tense moment of defiance as the Nereids continued to stand in his way, unwilling to let him depart with their wounded youngest sister. His lip curled in outrage, and he began to raise his hand towards his discarded trident. Actaea, her expression now somber, spoke again in a defeated voice. "Let him pass... There's nothing we can do for Dynamene in this state. I don't want anyone else getting harmed." Her sisters listened, and reluctantly parted to allow him through. As he strode past, they got a closer look at their mortally wounded sister. Several of them broke out into wails and sobs.

Poseidon clenched his jaw and held the still Nereid closer to his chest. Save your mourning. She's not dead. Not yet.

Dynamene's body was beginning to dissolve. Drops of shimmering water began to fall from her fingertips and toes. She'd be dead before dawn if Poseidon didn't find a solution soon. But he was inexperienced with the concept of healing anything other than sea life; he pressed his hand against her torso, willing the bleeding to stop in vain. The liquid continued to flow.

It really had been her that sat across from him and confessed her love for him in tears. And what was his response? Gutting her like the monster everyone had warned her he was. He had messed up. It wasn't my fault, he told himself. She has no pulse. Her appearance was different. I could feel foreign magic about her. But then that led to the conclusion that he was able to be tricked by the power of lesser beings, and he found himself back at square one.

Enough. She will not die. She belongs to me. Her love for me is unconditional.

And when she wakes again, I will put an end to this chaos.

The wet sand crunched under his heavy boots. The dim starlight illuminated the surface of the ocean faintly before them. He would be able to seek the witch out with his abilities, but that would take time. He wasn't even sure what to look for, asides from a power with the same characteristics as the enchantment that Dynamene had. Time was fighting against him; a precious resource dripping through his grip like her blood onto the sand.

Without prelude, a sudden burst of light the size of a woman appeared in the shallow waves before Poseidon. The light dispersed gently in twinkles and stars, revealing the form of a woman. A faint heavenly glow emanated from her pale skin.

Aphrodite stared at him, her flawless face unusually somber. "Poseidon."

He narrowed his eyes. This was an unexpected development, and not a welcome one. "What the hell do you want? I'm short on time, if you haven't noticed."

She tilted her head, gaze flickering towards the still girl in his hold. "I know where you may find the witch you seek. If I have your guarantee that you won't harm me, I'll tell you."

Poseidon hissed, his clasp on Dynamene tightening. "Of course you would've had a hand in this. Meddling shrew. I should have known. Can none of you Olympian cretins keep to your own business?" So you were the one to guide Dynamene to that witch. Selfish, narcissistic bitch. How else would you know where to find her?

"Your guarantee, Poseidon," Aphrodite pressed.

He grit his teeth. As much as he longed to rip her head from her body and watch her golden locks stream through the air, he needed her knowledge. "Fine."

Aphrodite stepped closer.

---

Miles away, deep in her underground lair, the witch sat at her table alone. She was aware of her impending fate. Her actions could only lead to this outcome. But she'd accomplished what she'd set out to do, so she was content.

Before her, pulsing gently with a sea-blue light, was a floating orb of liquid. The Nereid's heart. She was the only person to ever see one; perhaps it would remain that way even long after her death. It was a fascinating sight. The mass continued to live in its own way, even apart from its owner. Nereids truly were interesting creatures. She might've studied it, but there was no point now. Her journey was coming to an end.

She had no regrets. Her revenge was now sealed. Hera or Poseidon, it hadn't really mattered which. Fate had truly smiled on her the day before when that little nymph had appeared at her doorstep. So unexpected, but so welcome. She had waited centuries, honing her gifts in the dark, practicing them on others, so that she would be ready for this moment. The witch was not foolish enough to think she would be able to pull one over on both of the gods. Hera would've been best, but Poseidon would do just as well. He was partially to blame for her misfortune too. Now he would suffer, and she could die content.

It was a shame about the Nereid, though. Just a silly child chasing an impossible dream. The witch clicked her tongue sympathetically. Weren't we all, once?

A shudder echoed through the cave, and she heard the water at the entrance slosh with an unseen force. He was nearly here, and she stood patiently next to the table, awaiting his arrival.

Without any further warning, the water erupted upwards like a geyser. The sound was deafening, but the witch didn't even blink. Poseidon emerged from the upsurge, water dripping from his bangs before his enraged eyes. In his arms was the nymph; poor young Dynamene. She was deathly pale and had a ragged bandage wrapped about her chest. The witch tutted.

"Witch. You have something that belongs to me." Poseidon's eyes gleamed like a laser in the dim cavern, his chest heaving with barely-restrained wrath.

"It's here, Poseidon." The witch set her hand next to the shimmering orb. "The Nereid's heart. You won't have much use for it, though. I see she's already on death's door. Returning her heart will do no good. Replacing an organ is no help when the body is already shutting down."

"You will return it immediately. I will not repeat myself." Poseidon's trident materialized in his free hand as he shifted Dynamene into the opposite arm.

"Oh? Is there finally something the mighty sea tyrant cannot do?" The witch asked, feigning surprise. "Pathetic." Her tone flattened.

"Your enchantment," Poseidon stormed on. "What did you do to her?"

"I gave her what she desired. A chance to be with you. Oh, she just adores you. I'm sure that will have changed, though. Those wounds bleeding through the wrap look an awful lot like trident punctures to me. Weren't able to tell she was the real thing without that heartbeat to listen to, were you?"

Poseidon's eyes grew even wider as he realized the witch's plot. "You planned this."

"I did." The witch shuffled back around the table, gently taking Dynamene's heart into her hands. "Do you remember when we met, Poseidon? It was at some gathering of the gods, say, three or four hundred years ago."

Poseidon's face clenched further with anger at her idling, losing his patience rapidly. "I've never met a hag like you in my life."

"I wasn't like this when we met." The witch brought her hand to her white cheek with a wistful look. "I was beautiful. I came from a wealthy and powerful family with demigod blood. Hera made a deal with me, you see. If I successfully seduced you, she would shower me with blessings and gifts on our wedding day. She told me everything about you to give me a leg up. Even about your ability to hear certain heartbeats." Her hand dropped away. "But I failed, as I was guaranteed to, and she was thoroughly upset. I was turned into this. So here I've lived, all these years, cast away from society into these deep trenches, waiting.... for her." The witch smiled at Dynamene. "The perfect opportunity. Heaven sent, even." She sighed. "It's a shame. She's still so young, but..." The witch shrugged. "Cracking an egg, omelets, all that. Just someone caught in the peripheral."

"Enough with your monologuing, you insolent bitch!" The muscles on Poseidon's arm grew more defined and taut as he aimed his trident at her. His face was contorted with murderous intent. "Heal Dynamene, now!"

"I can't. What reason did I ever have to learn healing magic?" There was no regret in her milky eyes as she shrugged once more. "And even if I was knowledgeable in medicine, it would be no use. Nereids are so rare. Only fifty, as you know. Their anatomy is a mystery."

Poseidon's gaze sank down to Dynamene. Her breathes were many seconds apart now. There was no more time to waste. He held her more firmly against him and lowered his stance to steady his aim at the witch. "Then die now."

"Gladly. I knew this would be the price to pay for my revenge. For breaking the sea god's nonexistent heart. And to think that it was as easy as this." The witch broke into a laugh that grew until it boomed off the cavern's walls.

Without further ado, Poseidon rushed her.

And with a single swing, the witch's head left her body. The pale thing rolled until it hit up against the wall, still laughing. Her eyes rotated to look back at him with their blank gaze. "Don't worry, my lord. There's still forty-nine left, after all."

Without another word, the witch's voice died off and her face stilled.

Poseidon strode over to it and brought his boot down violently. The witch's skull shattered under his heel. He resisted the urge to continue stomping until nothing solid remained. Dynamene needed his focus now; he could vent his rage later. He wiped the sole of his boot off on the rug and carried her back to the entrance of the cavern.

Lying her next to the rippling pool, he retrieved her heart from where it continued to glow, unbothered, upon the table. It felt like cool gel in his hands with a definite pulse, one that was all too familiar to him. He returned to kneel beside her and, propping her back up with one arm, he undid the makeshift bandage.

Her body was nearly hollow where he had gored her. His lips parted in disbelief. Before his eyes, her flesh was turning to liquid that ran onto the cavern's rocky floor. Poseidon quickly pressed her heart into the hollow. It shimmered for a moment, the liquid solidifying and connecting with the open edges of her body, before its light sputtered out and the pulse stopped. Just like the rest of her, it started to melt away.

Poseidon swallowed hard now, his face stiff. It was time to face the gravity of the situation. Dynamene would not be waking up.

He turned his face away for a moment, unable to look at the wounds he had made on her slight body. She had trusted him. She had clung to his side despite the warnings of everyone else. And like a sick joke, their predictions had come true. Gutted just like Adamas, a voice whispered in the back of his head. He bit his lower lip until it bled. How was it that the mighty sea god, capable of stopping tsunamis and commanding schools of fish, was unable to save one girl?

This shouldn't be happening, his mind spun. This isn't happening. She can't die. I can save her.

No, I can't. I'm the one who killed her.

His throat was growing tight, an alien sensation. She can't die. She belongs with me. A thousand years spent living in the same palace flickered through his mind. From a shy little girl to a headstrong, passionate young woman, he had watched her life; he had watched as her world began to revolve around him without his meaning for it to. And without his permission, his world began to be colored by her as well. Perhaps it had been inevitable. She belongs with me. I don't want her to leave.

He held her closer to him, caressing her damp cheek with careful fingers. The silence that rung from her body made the stillness around them all the heavier. Her face was growing sunken, her cheeks almost gaunt. He wanted to see her eyes just one more time; wide pools of steel gray that reflected him amongst the stars in their depths, as if he was the only thing that mattered. Stay with me.

And as her body released its final breath, he slowly leaned down and pressed his lips to hers.

---

Author’s Notes: Sergei Prokofiev's Romeo Bids Juliet Farewell piece is so beautifully done. The first half sounds so remorseful.

I realized that, writing this chapter in particular, Poseidon seems less like canon RoR Poseidon. I was irritated about that at first, but then I realized that he's different because this story requires him to go through character development. That's important for a love interest. I'm not as frustrated anymore lol

#record of ragnarok #poseidon #record of ragnarok poseidon #poseidon x oc #fanfiction

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all-about-remadora · 3 years

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200 followers!

So here’s a list of One shots for celebrate✨

Everyone Deserves A Someone by LoquaciousLupin

With nothing better to do during the holidays at Grimmauld Place, Hermione and Ginny wonder whether their former Professor has a special someone - with no other ideas, they do the only thing they can and ask him. With a little help from Tonks, Remus answers their questions as honestly... as he can. Remus and Tonks fluff.

A Beautiful Tune by SweetDeamon

I'm...not coming." he said, reaching to shove his hands deep into his pockets. "On the mission. With you." Tonks stared at him in confusion. "Why not?" she asked, grip upon the cloak in her hand going limp. Remus struggled to come up with a convincing lie. "Because I...I..." Because I'm dying. Because you've struck me dead in the heart.

The Unspeakable Girl by SweetDeamon

"She makes me feel so on top of this world that I wish I'd never been born into it in the first place! So I can't stand to talk about her, Dad! I simply can't!" In which Remus Lupin visits his father and confesses something quite extraordinary. Based on information from POTTERMORE. Consider yourselves warned. RLNT.

The Future's Not Ours To See by Gilpin

Remus Lupin has a lot on his mind; his current undertaking for the Order of the Phoenix, and how to obtain questionable potions from an unhelpful Apothecary owner. Can he bring both to a satisfactory conclusion?

Rhapsody in Blue by copperbadg

Remus has decided it's time to cure Tonks of her awkwardness, the only way he knows how.

Kissing It Better by Lady Bracknell

On her first date with Remus, Tonks discovers that spilt beer on wooden floors is the enemy of the less than surefooted everywhere. Will she die of embarrassment, or will Remus find a way to make it all better?

Kiss and tell by Lady Bracknell

For all his supposed genius, Sirius Black had always had rather a blind spot for the patently obvious.

What To Make Of Him by Lady Bracknell

Neither Ted nor Andromeda know quite what to make of their daughter's boyfriend. Can he win them round over Sunday lunch?

On First Impressions by cafei-au-lei

"'You know,' Sirius said, 'it's kind of funny. For someone who thinks Remus is so annoying, you sure can't seem to stop talking about him.'" A series of moments in Remus and Tonks' developing relationship as they get to know each other and learn that maybe first impressions aren't necessarily everything. OOTP. Fluffy oneshot.

The Order's Most Eligible Bachelors by cafei-au-lei

The Order's Most Eligible Bachelors, or: the ladies indulge in some firewhiskey and gossip. Sirius and Remus stumble upon a game they're not sure they want to be privy to (okay, maybe Sirius does.) The results lead to some necessary conversation and introspection for a few of the parties involved. Oneshot.

The Talk, Or: The (Lighthearted) Trauma of Teddy R Lupin by cafei-au-lei

Teddy knew when Dad brought out the firewhiskey that something was suspicious. Then again, maybe he wasn't giving Dad enough credit for being the cool parent. AU. Remus and Tonks survive to raise their son and give him The Dreaded Talk. Oneshot.

Movement by MrsTater

Things appear to have changed. One shot, RLNT

Retrograde by MrsTater

Sequel to Movement: Tonks strongly suspected, though she hadn't much experience, that it wasn't normal for adults who fancied other adults to do what she was doing now.

Kernels by MrsTater

A Transfigured Hearts outtake: a cosy night in with Remus takes an unexpected turn when popcorn finds its way into odd places and leads Tonks to make an important discovery.

Party till the wolf comes by MrsTater

Fatherhood doesn't send Remus on a pub crawl, but announcing the birth of his son to his closest friends turns out to be the next best thing.

Overheard by MrsTater

Sirius tries to play matchmaker for an ambivalent Remus and Tonks, but when everyone keeps overhearing everyone else's conversations, things get a little complicated as shapeshifters prove to be anything but predictable... Updated Sept 3, 2007

The Honeymooners by MrsTater

Two years after their wedding, Remus and Tonks finally make it on their honeymoon. But now they've got something they didn't when they first married, will they be able to stop thinking about it long enough to enjoy themselves? AU

A Conversation That’s Not About Veela by starfishstar

Harry and Professor Lupin talk about women, and other things. During Christmas of HBP. (A gen story, but with very strong hints of Remus/Tonks and Harry/Ginny.)

Sleeping by starfishstar

Tonks sleeps; Remus muses

Precisely What I Mean by starfishstar

Remus with Teddy was easily the sweetest thing Tonks had ever seen. It seemed Remus couldn't ever hold Teddy without gazing down at his son with a huge, helpless, delighted grin. "Don't your cheeks ever get tired?" Tonks couldn't help teasing him once, and he'd glanced up, bewildered by the question – he didn't even realise he was doing it.

A Slow and Stopping Curve by aegle

Concerning Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks. Set during Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince.

St. Margaret's by aegle

Remus, Tonks, a Muggle automobile, and a slightly disappointing beach adventure

On Bethlehem Down by aegle

Remus Lupin finds himself at Nymphadora Tonks' flat on Christmas Eve, 1996

The poem which i do not write by aegle

So, it has come to London with them, whatever it is.

The Watch by Sirussly

He'd grown so used to her endless chatter and relentless questions, a burning ball of energy with a laugh like her mother's. Some nights Tonks would listen to him instead, to stories of war and the price one pays for being a soldier in the middle of it. Occasionally neither of them would speak, but once her hand found his and stayed there until the sunrise coloured the sky.

Flame by Eat a Taco

It's strange what the soft light of a candle can do to someone.RLNT, sometime during HBP

Cover Me by Maggiemaye

Remus and Tonks embark on a mission that tests their well-established partnership to its limits. Even while surrounded by Death Eaters hidden in plain sight, they find that their greatest threats may come from within.

Expecto Patronum by Shimotsuki

Remus and Tonks have dinner at the Potters' after seeing Teddy off on the Hogwarts Express. James and Al are full of questions, including one that not even Harry knows the answer to.

Meet the Reindeer by SweetDeamon

Nothing untoward had happened since Teddy had arrived home from Hogwarts for the holidays this year. So far there had been no manically jingling elves, no traumatised Santa Claus, no mass snowball fights, no exploding cans of fake snow and as of yet nothing had come hurtling down the chimney or splattered anything or anybody with ammunition of the culinary kind. So far. RLNT AU.

Meet the Teacher by SweetDeamon

In which Remus and Dora receive word from Hogwarts that their son's homework has been completed in a far from satisfactory manner. The subject? Defence Against the Dark Arts. The topic? Werewolves. They've been expecting trouble since the beginning of term...but who feels less prepared? Teddy's parents or Teddy's teacher? Neville has a hunch... AU. RLNT. Rated for mild language.

A Study In Pink by SweetDeamon

"He isn't entirely sure how it is that a certain pink haired witch came to be lying snugly in the bed beside him yet again, or indeed why such a thing had ever occurred the first time around..." RLNT.

A Piece of Cake by SweetDeamon

"How long does it take to make a bloody sponge cake!" "You can't rush art, Sirius." Tonks attempts to bake Remus a birthday cake. "Attempts to" being the key phrase here... RLNT. Happy Birthday Gelly Bean!

The Christmas Waltz by Lady Bracknell

As Christmas approaches, Remus and Tonks dance around the idea of togetherness, wondering if either of them is leading, or know where they're going at all.

Mistletoe and Wine by Lady Bracknell

Remus falls foul of the mistletoe. Twice. RL/LP, RL/NT, LP/JP, rated for language.

Afraid of the Dark by Lady Bracknell

Remus had always been ill at ease in the forest, but when a mission for Dumbledore sends him into the heart of the place with Tonks by his side, he finds his apprehension harder than usual to shake off.

The Luck of the Draw by Lady Bracknell

She sits on the carpet, shuffles the cards, then deals them out. She came here with the hope of forcing the issue, because she just knows they shouldn't be about can't and won't.

Chione by: cafei-au-lei

Remus has confirmation that Tonks may return his feelings - now all that's left is to decide what to do with this rather exciting and terrifying information. And although it's been a strange year, this year's Christmas could shape up to be one of the best Remus has ever had. Takes place after "The Order's Most Eligible Bachelors." RLNT OotP holiday fluff.

The First Night by: cafei-au-lei

Most major events in Remus' life have done nothing but reinforce the crushing inevitability of his condition and the life that it has condemned him to. But maybe there is hope to be had, after all.

amare by: cafei-au-lei

At first, the idea that Tonks and Professor Lupin could be together was equal parts baffling and absurd. But then, maybe it did make a tiny bit of sense, Ginny thought, as she watched the way Professor Lupin looked at Tonks over the breakfast table. But she still couldn't help but think that this love and relationships thing was far too complicated. RLNT.

War Baby by MrsTater

It's time for Teddy's first outing, and for Tonks to make peace with a noble great idiot. Set during Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Perchance To Dream by: MrsTater

A dream leads to an argument and an unexpected quest to seek out the meaning. Will Remus and Tonks kiss and make up? More importantly, who will come out on top? RLNT, Deathly Hallows, Mature.

Like a Cat in the Sun by starfishstar

Remus is in a house full of women.

#nymphadora tonks #remadora #remus lupin #remus x tonks #harry potter #allaboutremadora

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abluescarfonwaston · 4 years

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Shapeshifter Au -4

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Inspired by @spielzeugkaiser art here

So. Geralt knew.

He didn’t know how long Geralt had known for. Didn’t particularly want to know.

Had he just worked it out from his scent as a bear? Had he recognized the lute that was smashed on Filavandrel’s floor? Had he used his Witcher senses to figure it out when he was a lark with a broken wing sleeping in his saddlebag? Was it some little tick that had given him away of there months together?

He didn’t want to know.

He woke up the morning after the incident and promptly shifted into his human form. Packed up his part of camp and waited.

Waited for the questions, for the false promises, for the placating words.

‘I wont tell’ ‘How does it work?’ ‘You’re still Jaskier’

Geralt groaned, sitting up slowly. Blinking sleep from his bleary eyes that rare way he did when he felt safe upon waking. Found him across the burnt out fire.

He tensed.

Geralt nodded and slowly set about disassembling camp.

The world skewed slightly to the left as they set off.

He waited for Geralt to snap at him to ‘just turn into something Roach could carry’ when he complained about his feet hurting too much.

Waited for Geralt to tell him to ‘shrink into something more manageable’ when the bed at the inn was too small for both of them to reasonably share.

Waited for Geralt to request he turn into something useful- to help track down a monster or carry his weight or or or-

It was easy to not shift. He went weeks without shifting as he waited. Waited for Geralt to make some attempt to be reassuring about how he ‘knew’ what Jaskier was or some request that made it clear Geralt thought he was some party trick or. Or something.

And still Geralt was silent on the matter.

It was annoying. It was so damn annoying.

That’s all it real was. He was annoyed. Annoyed that the song he’d worked on for two weeks had gotten a tepid reaction and that his chemise kept static sticking to his arms and it was hot and the bar was loud and and and-

And he wasn’t entirely sure why he was yelling at Geralt but he was and Geralt didn’t even have the decency to look affected by it. Just said his name warningly. And sure maybe he’d be embarrassed about acting like a tantruming toddler later but he wanted to hiss and scratch and draw maybe just a little fucking blood. So that maybe- fucking maybe- someone would understand just how pissed he was.

For the first time in weeks he wanted to shift. Shift into the angry tomcat he felt like. Small and angry in a world that was so much bigger and more dangerous than him but that still had claws. Could still yowled and scratch and make bleed because he might have been small but that didn’t mean he was helpless.

But he couldn’t. Because they were in a bar and everyone was staring at him or pointedly not staring at him and Geralt was throwing him over his shoulder and hauling him to their room. His fingers digging into Geralt’s shirt as he struggled to keep them from becoming claws ripping little pinholes into the fabric. He couldn’t shift because there were people and he was still yelling because he was still so fucking angry-

The door slammed closed behind them and Geralt shifted him so he was holding him up by the armpits and at least he had the decency to look a little irritated but he didn’t want to be held so he shoved a hand at Geralt’s face to push him away and-

And the shape collapsed under him.

He shoved his orange paw against Geralt’s face and lashed his tail and hissed all the same.

Orange. Most of his forms were brown. Because brown was the color of his hair and he liked his hair. But someone told him once that all orange cats were male and whether or not that was true he liked that. Liked that when people saw this form they’d know he was a boy.

Sometimes that felt important. Because most people couldn’t tell what gender most animals were and would just pick one for him. Usually it didn’t matter because he didn’t care but sometimes he did and he liked that maybe his gorgeous long orange fur made that more obvious.

But now Geralt wasn’t even looking irritated anymore! Even with his paw unsheathing claws threateningly against the stubbled skin of his cheek.

No he looked surprised and then it melted into a disgustingly soft smile. Swear to gods If Geralt tried to pet him right now-

Geralt glanced down at his tail, lashing back and forth without pause.

“Ah.” He was swiftly deposited on the bed, Geralt settling back on the floor. “The bar was loud wasn’t it.”

Well he didn’t know what that had to do with anything but Geralt just sat across from him, staring at the wall above his head. Not attempting eye contact.

That helped. He needed to watch Geralt but eye contact would have been too much for him to handle right now with every too loud noise from the bar still scraping at his skull.

Slowly his tail settled behind him and he let his eyes sink close. Safe in the knowledge Geralt wasn’t going to do anything.

He’d explained cat body language to Geralt several months back. Because Geralt had explained (heartbrokenly complained really) that cats didn’t like him. Because he was a ‘mutant’ and they knew it.

Which was complete hogwash.

They didn’t like him because he was a big unfamiliar person approaching feral cats who were better acquainted with the toe of a shoe to the belly then the gentle curl of fingers under their chin. Because he tried to approach them like dogs and didn’t have the time to win over anything but the cuddliest of cuddle slut and there just weren’t that many of those around.

Lucky for Geralt he was a proud member of the cuddle slut kitty brigade. After he’d concluded his lessons on how tail lashing was not like tail wagging on dogs- it meant they were highly stimulated and which could easily pass into Overstimulated- and how to introduce himself and all the best places to pet he’d taken his leave of Geralt for the evening.

Approached him as the cuddly fluffy orange cat he was within the hour. Making his home on Geralts lap and purring as loud as he could demanding all the cuddles he’d been denied in his human form.

That. That might have been when Geralt figured out what he was now that he thought about it.

He still wasn’t sure he wanted to know what had given him away. Especially if he couldn’t change it- like his scent. Or if he could- because then he’d have to. To stay safe.

He jumped off the bed and head-butt Geralt’s hands until Geralt started petting him. Laid down across his lap as Geralt gently covered himself in his fur with each soft stroke.

He should look into a white form. So he could really mess up Geralt’s all black color scheme.

Geralt’s hands eventually stilled and he begrudgingly shifted up. Tucking his head into Geralt’s neck he mumbled, “Shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“Seemed like a bit of an overreaction to me eating the last mushroom.”

“You know those are my favorite.”

Geralt snorted and ran a hand through his brown hair. “It was my plate.”

“I have no idea what your point is.”

“Right.” He nuzzled into Geralt’s neck. He couldn’t really smell how they mixed together as a human but the shapes that could always found comfort in it. “You.” He paused. “Transformed again.”

His heartrate picked up and his gut start churning. He didn’t want to have this conversation. Ever really. He’d never had to and he didn’t know where to start. Didn’t want Geralt to say something that would make him angry or sad or break his heart. He just wanted to be a human for Geralt. Simple and easy and human.

Not that he was simple or easy. Or human. Probably.

Whatever he was it probably wasn’t human. Not really. But he wanted to be. For Geralt.

Geralt’s other hand came up and squeezed lightly around the long healed bone.

“I wont ask.” Geralt said as Jaskier swallowed a sob. “But I’ll help. If you want.”

“It’s not a curse.”

Geralt hummed acknowledgement.

“It’s just me. It’s always just me. Okay?”

Geralt made a noise like he maybe understood. A little. But not much.

“I can.” It felt weird to say it out loud. “Shift into anything so long as it’s still me.”

“Anything?” He saw the smirk and pointed stare he was making at the chair.

He smacked his shoulder. “If it’s me.”

He was living. Living and breathing and moving and thinking. How was he supposed to be something that wasn’t?

“Not like a Doppler then.”

“Would have thought the bear shape rather gave that away.” Dopplers could become anyone- but were restricted by mass. He wasn’t. Sure he shifted down or up in steps normally but that was because it was easier. Because feelings normally built in size instead of appearing all at once.

Geralt conceded the point with a nod. “Does-“ He stopped.

When it became clear Geralt wasn’t just collecting his thoughts he nudged him. “Ask.”

“Does it hurt?” Geralt wasn’t looking at him and his face was flat but he could feel the tension under his hands.

“Nope!” He reassured. Geralt tensed further.

“In the woods-” He started.

“Those were extenuating circumstances! I’m sure it looked terribly grisly from your perspective but I just couldn’t find a form that fit because.” He stopped.

“Because you were scared.” He nodded into Geralt’s neck. “Of me.”

He stopped nodding.

“Everything’s not about you Geralt.” He pulled back enough to glare at him. Geralt returned it. “It’s Not. Sure I was scared of you but I wasn’t scared of you. I know you wouldn’t lock me up and sell me to a circus to turn tricks or a mage for experiments or anything. I know that. There’s just a difference between knowing and knowing. Okay?”

Geralt studied him before slowly nodding. He tucked his head back into Geralt’s neck.

He wanted to stay here. Here with Geralt. It pulled a question from his gut that he didn’t want to ask- that filled him with fear even as it spilled from his tongue.

“What do you want me to be?”

Geralt’s brow furrowed and he turned his head to the bard.

“Come now you must have a preference.” A voice that was cocky and sure prodded. A voice that was his but was not his. “A shape you’d prefer me to be?”

His face turned and he felt distantly as his eyes glittered and a smile blazed on his lips. Feeling terribly out of control as he begged his heart to race. To respond. To fight whatever power directed his body without his command.

As Geralt’s lips began to form words he could feel the magic preparing to shape him. Bind him in that form. Lock him without shackle or key into whatever Geralt wanted him to be.

“What would it matter?” Geralt said, face relaxing into a small smile and raising a brow. “It would still always be you.”

He sank into Geralt’s shoulder as the compulsion faded, taking with it his fear. He didn’t know what that was and he didn’t particularly like it but- “It would be.” He agreed.

It would always be him.

#geraskier #geralt x jaskier #geralt #jaskier #shapeshifter au #today Geralt gets to pet a kitty #The kitty is Jaskier of course but still #also establishing the rules if your into that like i am #geralts a bit softy and that is all #writing

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sunaddicted · 3 years

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Between Us, In The Dark (Nandermo)

Writing Guillermo getting accidentally turned into a vampire and dealing with it is quickly becoming a trend for me - sorry not sorry.

***

When he opened his eyes, Guillermo knew that he was dead.

He couldn’t exactly point out the reason why he instantly knew - it was an overall feeling of being… lifeless.

And apparently buried six feet under, in a casket that smelled old and musty - it probably was one of those coffins Nandor insisted on keeping in the basement for unlikely guests, despite the fact that they were rotting away and fell apart if one looked at them a little too closely. He wondered about where the vampires of Staten Island had seen fit to bury him, a little shocked that they had thought about granting him a honourable burial rather than just tossing his broken body away once it was clear that it couldn't be of any use to them anymore.

The air around him - what little air filtered amidst the dirt anyway - smelled foul, of rot and decomposing bodies; of rusty blood; of stagnant water and other liquids he didn’t exactly want to think about.

So, the garden.

It made sense - why log a casket around town, in search of a cemetery you wouldn’t probably be able to get in because of the ground being consecrated when you already had a mass grave in your own yard? One corpse more, it wouldn’t change a thing.

Guillermo supposed he should have been glad of the fact that he was close to home, at least he wouldn’t scare anyone away after emerging from the earth like some kind of Hollywoodian zombie; he just had to drag himself through the garden and hope that someone answered the door - or maybe he could just kick it down: he didn’t need permission to enter a vampires’ household, did he?

Maybe he did.

Considering he had wasted more than a decade of his life with servitude in the hope of becoming a creature of the night, Guillermo was a little appalled by his own ignorance. He knew he had given up on learning about vampiric customs and traditions at some point, his curiosity and faith in Nandor eroded year after year of getting nothing in return for his devotion.

Guillermo sighed: he had to get out of there.

Clawing his way back out to the surface was at the same time smoother and rougher than it had ever looked like in the movies; the earth wasn’t liquid, it chafed and it itched against his skin, but it also wasn’t as vicious of a trap as its compactness suggested, easily breaking beneath his fingers - though, he supposed that could be chalked up to the fabled inhuman strength vampires possessed.

Cool.

Breaking the door down if nobody answered was still a viable option, then. And even if he couldn’t step inside without an invitation, he sure as hell could scream until one of the vampires was annoyed enough to come and check out what was causing such a racket; it was a plan that lacked any finesse but Guillermo didn’t think he should be too concerned with that when he was covered with slimy earth and the bloodstained clothes nobody had seen fit to change him out of before burying him.

He knocked, feeling already weary at the thought of having to cause a scene in order to get some attention.

Which was why he jumped when the door gave away beneath his knuckles, his loosely curled fist almost into Nandor’s face.

“Guillermo?”

“Afraid so, Master”

“You’re-”

“-alive. Well, dead”

Nandor narrowed his eyes: could it really be Guillermo? He had buried his familiar with his own hands, had even gotten his cape dirty to dig a hole that would be comfortable enough for the other man to rest in forever.

He had cried a little too - not that he was advertising that, though: it was a secret shared only between himself, the dark and his familiar’s corpse.

“How?”

How could Nandor trust that it wasn’t some shapeshifting witch trying to trick him?

How could Guillermo have come back to life?

“Can I give you the details inside, it’s kinda chilly out here”

“You can’t feel the cold anymore”

Continues on ao3

#my writing #my fic #nandermo #nandor #nandor the relentless #guillermo #guillermo de la cruz #light angst #miscommunication #lack of communication #unresolved emotional tension

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #32: Gilles de Rais

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re building everyone’s favorite french henchman, Gilles de Rais! Not to be confused with Gilles de Rais, Gilles de Rais is a Warlock, meaning you’ll spend 80% of the game casting eldritch blast and 100% of the game creeping people out with your special eyes.

As always, there’s a spreadsheet to quickly go over the build here, and a level-by-level breakdown below the cut!

Race and Background

Much like the other Gilles, this Gilles is Human, giving +1 to each stat. Unlike the other Gilles, this one is a Noble, giving him proficiency in History and Persuasion. He’s got a taste for art and... things of a less than legal nature, so this works out well for him.

Stats

I use the standard array for consistency, feel free to roll if you want. Put your highest score into Intelligence; Gilles has a lot of book learning, even if that book is demonic. Second is Charisma; he isn’t “pretty”, but that fishbowl stare is pretty intimidating. After that is Dexterity, followed by Constitution; Gilles isn’t particularly strong in either of those, but the last two are definitely his dump stats. Wisdom and Strength are his lowest stats, in that order. He saw one bad thing happen and decided to leap down the slippery slope of villainy, so he’s a pushover. He’s also a huge nerd, making him easy to push over as well.

Class Levels

1. Gilles is a Warlock, and he gets proficiency in Deception, Religion, and Wisdom and Charisma saving throws. First level warlocks make a pact with their patron; you could pick the Great Old One if you want extra flavor points, but here we want maximum tentacles, and it doesn’t get much more tentacle-filled than The Fathomless pact. These warlocks get Pact Magic, a variant of spell casting with fewer spell slots that recover on short rests and use charisma, as well as two features.

Tentacle of the Deep allows Gilles to summon a 10′ long tentacle within 60′ of himself as a bonus action. The tentacle sticks around for 1 minute or until he makes another. Upon its creation, and as a bonus action each turn afterwards, the tentacle can attack and move up to 30′, dealing 1d8 cold damage and slowing down the target. Gilles can use this feature a number of times equal to his proficiency bonus per long rest, and its damage increases to 2d8 at level 10.

Gift of the Sea allows Gilles to swim 40′ per movement, and breathe underwater. You can’t prove Gilles can’t do this, so it works out.

At this level, Gilles gains two cantrips and two first-level spells. Grab Eldritch Blast to be your caster balls, Infestation for a little bit of the plagues, Hex to throw some curses around, and Protection from Evil and Good. Right now it’s a bit situational, but you’ll be thankful for this in a couple levels.

2. Second level warlocks get Eldritch Invocations, (mostly) passive bonuses to give your little hellspawn a little more personality. There isn’t that much to pick from at this level, so grab Repelling Blast and Armor of Shadows to keep Gilles alive long enough to reach level 3. At this level, Gilles also gets Arms of Hadar for even more tentacle action.

3. At third level, warlocks unlock their pact, a little gift straight from their eldritch sugar daddy. Gilles partakes in the Pact of the Tome, giving us a stand-in for Prelati’s Spellbook. This pact currently gives Gilles an extra three cantrips, but we can enhance it with invocations later (or you can swap them around right now if you’re impatient). Gilles’ pact magic also increases to the second level and he grabs Crown of Madness as this level’s spell. His spellbook contains Thuamaturgy and Word of Radiance to mock the religious, and Vicious Mockery to mock everyone in general.

4. Use Gilles’ first ASI to round out his Wisdom and Charisma for better saves and stronger spells. Grab Mage Hand so Gilles doesn’t wear himself out lugging that book all over the place and Mind Spike to help him keep track of any holy maidens he stumbles upon.

5. At fifth level, Gilles’ magic increases to third level spells, and he gets another invocation. Grab Book of Ancient Secrets to turn Prelati’s Spellbook into a proper ritual book. When you take this invocation, two 1st level ritual spells from any class are inscribed into the book, and can be cast as warlock rituals. Gilles starts with Find Familiar and Detect Magic in his book, but he can add more rituals to it as he comes across them. These spells can be from any class, but you cast them as warlock rituals.

Gilles’ first 3rd level spell is Hunger of Hadar, dragging a 20′ radius mass of tentacles into our world.

6. Sixth level fathomless warlocks have a Oceanic Soul, giving Gilles cold resistance, and you can understand and communicate with any submerged creature while you are also submerged. It doesn’t specify water, but I guess that’s implied.

Gilles also has a Guardian Coil, letting him move his tentacles between his allies and attackers as a reaction, reducing the damage taken by the same amount the tentacle would deal. Gilles doesn’t normally have allies, but I can see giant tentacles making it hard to hit them if he did.

At this level Gilles can also cast Summon Lesser Demons. These demons aren’t that loyal, so make sure they’re closer to the enemy than anyone you care about.

7. Gilles gains a new invocation, Aspect of the Moon. Now he can rest without sleeping, and can’t be forced to sleep. I mean, look at those eyes. Those are the eyes of a man who hasn’t slept in weeks. Gilles also gains fourth level slots and a spell, Summon Greater Demon. This one is slightly more reliable than the last spell’s, but keep that Protection from Evil and Good on hand, just in case.

8. Use the next ASI on Charisma for more tentacles and spells. Gilles also gains Evard’s Black Tentacles for obvious thematic reasons.

9. A new level, a new Invocation. Gilles gets Devil’s Sight to supplement the fact that he doesn’t have darkvision. He’s got special eyes, they deserve the best. Gilles also gets fifth level slots and learns a new spell, Infernal Calling. It’s more demon summoning, but at least this one doesn’t require fresh blood.

10. Speaking of summoning, at tenth level fathomless warlocks can summon Grasping Tentacles; you can swap Evard’s Black Tentacles for something else, because now you get it for free, and it doesn’t count against your spells known! You can also cast it once a long rest for free, and all castings give you temporary hp equal to your warlock level. If that wasn’t enough, damage can’t break your concentration on this spell. (This used to be a giant maw, and while I can understand the change I’m a little disappointed that I’ll have to get more creative for the Kiara build now.)

He also gets a new cantrip, so grab Frostbite to continue the cold theme he’s got going.

11. Eleventh level warlocks gain a Mystic Arcanum. Instead of continuing to grow their spell slots, warlocks get one high level spell per day, no exceptions. The first mystic arcanum is for sixth level spells, and Gilles gets Soul Cage for the sake of torture. Soul cages are versatile, and you’re already killing people for the demon summonings, so you might as well use the whole body.

12. Max out Gilles’ Charisma with this next ASI. Gilles also gains a new Invocation. Grab Agonizing Blast to make his caster balls really sting.

13. Gilles gains a 7th level Mystic Arcanum, Power Word Pain. Again, this is mostly torture for the sake of torture.

14. Fourteenth level fathomless warlocks can enter a Fathomless Plunge, teleporting yourself and up to five other creatures up to a mile away in a body of water or within 30′ of its shore. You can use this once per short rest. A great way to get back to the sewers in a hurry.

15. Gilles gets an 8th level Mystic Arcanum, Maddening Darkness. It’s great for escapes and also just making even more tentacles. He also gets a new invocation, Eyes of the Rune Keeper, making his special eyes even more special by letting them read all writing.

16. This time, dump Gilles’ ASI into Intelligence for more of a method to his madness.

17. Gilles learns a 9th level Mystic Arcanum, Psychic Scream, blasting Gilles’ nonsense into the head of anyone who’ll listen.

18. Gilles’ final invocation is Witch Sight, making his eyes special enough to negate the effect of any shapeshifter or illusion hiding a creature near him.

19. Use Gilles’ last ASI to maximize his Intelligence. He also learns a final spell, Banishment. You probably shouldn’t have waited this long to grab this, but you have it now, and that’s what matters.

20. At his capstone level, Gilles becomes an Eldritch Master, allowing him to beg his patron for more spells. This can only be done successfully once per long rest, lest his patron think he’s needy.

Pros: Gilles is very effective at summoning, with two features and spells that can function at the same time. You can run around with a tentacle, a stationary mouth, and a demon all at once. You’re also well equipped to deal with extraplanar creatures, which is great since that’s your MO. If a deal goes south, you can always banish your demon, or if worst comes to worst, yeet yourself 100 miles away with your patron’s gift.

Cons: This build is very situational. Evil characters don’t mesh well with a lot of parties, a lot of fathomless warlock features need to be around water to be useful, and the book of ancient secrets is almost a waste of an invocation unless you’re going to encounter other rituals on your journey. Also, the higher levels of warlocks aren’t particularly powerful, but most games won’t reach level 20 anyway. Overall: bad for a player character, great for a DM’s villain NPC.

#fgo #fate grand order #gilles de rais #dnd 5e #Fate and Phantasms

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dailycharacteroption · 4 years

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Class Feature Friday: Nanite Bloodline (Sorcerer Bloodline)

They say that science that is sufficiently advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic, but what if science and magic were merged?

Associated with the ancient technology-showered land of Numeria, today’s subject is a bloodline that is not so much inherited (though I imagine that it can be passed down due to it’s nature) as it is acquired. Nanomachines are nothing new in Numeria, everything from all-consuming masses of gray goo to still-functioning canisters of medical nanites and more, but on occasion, some of the magical nature of the world of Golarian might alter some of these machines, carrying with them magical potency that they bestow upon the one they form a symbiotic relationship.

The most common source of these nanites are those that already form a symbiotic relationship with androids, as they are one of the most common sorcerers of this bloodline. However, it is possible for it to occur in any race so long as proximity to the appropriate nanites are involved and they get lucky.

Visually, non-androids that gain or inherit these powers might develop the same sort of circuitry patterns that can be seen on androids, though they may take on shapes of arcane significance, rather than simple geometry.

The spells granted by this bloodline take full advantage of the degree with which the nanites infuse the sorcerer, allowing them to disguise their appearance, deliver a painful shock, discorporate into a mist-like cloud that might even be toxic, sense vibrations in the air, partially liquefy themselves, generate strong magnetic fields, harden their bodies like iron, or even outright shapeshift at will.

The techniques they develop involve having great awareness and agility in combat, awakening minor bloodline power, and expanded knowledge of spells.

Having incredible control over their forms, these mystics gain an arcana that increases the duration of transmutation magics that only target themselves, sustaining the change for longer.

By commanding their nanites to coat a weapon, these sorcerers can infect a foe with a strike, the nanites turning hostile and almost acting like a poison, becoming more and more dangerous, and even carrying a magical charge as they grow in mastery.

Like an android, these sorcerers can use their nanites to surge with energy when needed. While those that are in fact androids can use their nanites in this manner repeatedly.

In an emergency, they can even magically overclock their nanites to rapidly heal and go into a state of feral, manic energy. Unlike a certain alchemist formula that does much the same, however, there is no risk of killing oneself with this ability.

As they grow in power the nanites more evenly spread around the form of the sorcerer, making it more difficult to deal particularly harmful blows.

The most powerful of these sorcerers are completely replaced by their nanites, becoming immune to many mortal concerns like poison or disease, not to mention blood loss, and are able to discorporate and fly around as needed.

Extremely durable and hard to pin down, the nanite bloodline makes for a decent way to play a highly survivable mage, possibly branching into eldritch knight or otherwise relying on buffs to survive melee combat while dishing out blows and close-range spells. Don’t forget the full range of other spells you could take as well though, especially since esoteric knowledge is on your bonus feat list, and build as you like.

As fun a bloodline as it is, it may prove difficult to implement into settings that don’t cater to advanced technologies, ancient or modern. You might be able to reflavor it as the sorcerer being infused with some sort of mystical sand or something similar, but talk with your GM before selecting this bloodline, regardless.

Black Iron Reef is a strange place of metal and electric lights in the dark depths of the ocean. Those that enter rarely come back the same. The tritons that live on the shelf above occasionally make dives down to it, and many of their mages sport impressive control over the tiny machines that now live in their skin.

For centuries, the machines have ruled the region, suppressing the living natives and quashing all opposition, that is until a rebel machine brought a tribe a vial of nanites which would change the course of history. Now it is time to take the fight to the machines and their mysterious masters. However, what they find at the top will shock them, empty cities infested with mimics and other creations.

The Grey Desert of Mkensis, a vast waste of metallic sand that once moved as if alive and consumed all in its path, has laid inert for centuries, but there are those dwelling in the desert that have awakened small portions of the material within themselves, gaining strong magic. Some fear that they may awaken the Desert once more, spreading its borders further.

#pathfinder #archetype #sorcerer #bloodline #nanite #triton #mimic #People of the River

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cloudbattrolls · 4 years

Text

Gratuitous Monster Fight

Claire’s Forest | Near Future | Two Supernatural Weirdos

The wind rustles the leaves on the forest’s branches, and small animals skitter unseen in the underbrush. Moonlight filters down between the trees, dappling the grass in green and pink. The distant lights of hives glow, signaling the presence of the few trolls who live among the greenery.

“This is INCREDIBLY stupid!”

The voice of someone both annoyed and for whatever reason, mightily offended, drifts up from some distance between the lights of the hives.

It belongs to Epsilo Volant, scientist and violetblood. Broad of body and face with wavy hair, his scowl could curdle milk and probably some cheese as well. His fins flick in agitation as he struggles with a piece of technology, pointing it and its long antennae in a dozen different directions.

“Why won’t it pick up the signal? I had everything calibrated properly.”

“Well, I’m no expert, but perhaps you made a mistake somewhere.”

The man bares his sharp teeth, both startled and annoyed by the sudden voice that belongs to someone he can’t see and had no idea was even there.

“Who are you? Show yourself.”

“What a forthright sort of fellow you are. You’re that BP chap who mods the server, if I’m not mistaken.”

“My name is Epsilo Volant.” He replies, less on guard but just as irate, putting the remote control away in his sylladex and getting out his harpoon. “I think I deserve yours in return. Come out where I can see you.”

He feels a breath on the back of his neck, but what troll has breath so chill and dry? A fellow seadweller’s would have more moisture in it. And why can’t he hear their breathing? How did they sneak up on him?

He steps forward and turns around, greeted by a wide grin of fangs sharper than his, all tapered to needle points without even any molars, and bright green pupils.

Then he blinks, annoyed at himself for how his hands tightened around his weapon. It’s just the jade from Claire’s party, and their teeth can’t really be that sharp. He must be seeing things.

Yet their eyes are undoubtedly odd.

“Just call me Tuuya.” They say, examining their claws as if bored by him. “Everyone else does.”

“Well, mix Tuuya - ” He says, not bothering to hide his disdain. “ - why are you hanging around offering unwanted commentary on my work?”

“Oh, I was just coming over to visit Claire, but I saw you puttering about and I was curious! What were you up to, I asked myself? Something devious, or something helpful?”

“I’m testing the range of a tracker for the Enkeli child. I need to focus on that. Good night.”

As they shrug and turn to go, the wind blows especially hard and the jade’s lean frame is pushed forward just enough to tip them over a protruding tree root and into a low hanging branch.

They pop back up again almost immediately, clicking their tongue, then notice the seadweller staring at them.

Their face, which as they run a hand over it, realize is cut open and showing the tips of white, gleaming worms. They quickly cover them with a palm.

“It’s none of your business?”

They try, tone far more hopeful than it is forceful.

“What is that?” The seadweller says, attention now fully focused on them.

“Absolutely nothing.” They go on in the same halfhearted tone of denial.

“It was white. It didn’t move like blood, either. Are you a mutant?”

They snort.

“If only. Look, I know you’re a science lad, but trust me when I say you’ll be happier not knowing.”

There’s a light of curiosity in the violet’s eyes, in the arch of his fins, his posture as he holds the harpoon. Tuuya’s seen that look on countless faces throughout the sweeps, and they sigh again.

“You’re not going to let this go, are you. You do realize Claire knows me, she won’t be happy if you attack me.”

“I just need a sample.” He replies, all superior confidence. “If you give it to me, we can end this peacefully.”

“Well, at least you ask. That puts you a rung above the medic, I suppose. Answer’s still no.”

They leap out of the way from where the harpoon would’ve taken the rainbow drinker in the chest, and it impales itself halfway through their arm instead. They rip it out with their other one and shove it in the ground hard enough to send dirt flying in a geyser.

Worms drop from the wound, and Tuuya leaps for the boy -

The animal, silvery gray with pinkish violet fins growing from its body, snaps at them with slavering jaws. They skid, narrowly avoiding the chomping teeth, and laugh as they leap up and land on a tree branch.

“Aren’t you something! I wasn’t sure the were-kind still walked Alternia. I’m surprised no one’s taken a sample from you.”

The huge hyena - much bigger than any non lusus kind they’ve ever seen - rears up on its hind legs and puts its front paws against their tree, glaring up at them with violet eyes.

“In the spirit of fairness, I’ll admit I am a rainbow drinker. And I’m far more trouble than you’re worth. I’d rather not get a hangnail whacking you for being naughty, so change back and walk away now. Last chance.”

The wound in their arm is annoying, as was losing some worms, but it’s already closing - they drank blood before they came.

Epsilo responds by jumping up and breaking their branch with a swat of his paws, and both fall with a mighty thud.

Tuuya gets whacked in the face by the broken branch as they land, allowing the werebeast to pin them in the chest with a heavy paw. Epsilo puts his other one on their wounded arm as he bares his teeth, breath smelling of fish as the disoriented drinker blinks and shakes their head.

“Get some mints, dear.”

Then they focus, smiling as worms swarm from the half-healed harpoon gash and chew through the furry leg, swarming over to the other, as the feliform chitters in pain and confusion. He shakes his legs in a vain attempt to get the parasites off -

Tuuya shoves their wounded arm down his throat, rearranging the worms inside them to narrow its form to fit, choking the creature.

“Bad kitty. Stop, and I won’t put them inside you.”

He bites off their arm in response, chews it up, and tosses it away. Then he retches.

The drinker jumps to their feet and hisses, flaring their glow on blindingly bright. As he retches and whines, eyes shut tightly, they tackle him. With one arm, it’s not so effective - but his front legs weaken as the worms relentlessly chew through skin and muscle, almost down to the bone now.

The striped beast falls back into the grass, and the drinker plants a foot on him.

“You’re going to stop now, before I start ripping parts out of you, and unlike me, you don’t grow them back. I can stop eating into your flesh any time. Just give me some sort of sign you surrender.”

A silence passes in which he opens his eyes to glare at them hatefully, and violet blood soaks his fur, running into his chest and onto the grass.

Finally he looks away, huffing softly.

The drinker’s worms flow back into them in a squirming mass. The ones wriggling at their damaged clavicle reproduce rapidly - more and more worms split off, weaving around each other to form facsimiles of muscles and joints. Bone regrows from the spot, rebuilding in rapid rows of cells. Once those form, dark gray skin begins to coalesce over them. A cover for the parasites, protection from the elements.

A semblance of trollhood.

The werehyena changes back, arms still bleeding and clothes ripped. Tuuya takes some bandages out of their sylladex and holds them out.

Epsilo flinches back at the gesture, then looks annoyed and sullen.

“You do not frighten me.”

They give him a sardonic smile, laying the bandages down on the grass and stepping back.

He takes out his own, and they raise a finger.

“Are yours specially treated to stop and disinfect drinker-inflicted blood flow? Use mine, boy. I keep them for idiots like you.”

“Why are you helping me? To cover your tracks? This could be a trick.”

He reaches for them anyway with careful movements, clearly trying to not let on how much it hurts.

“It could.” The drinker agrees. “But it’s not. I don’t care if you tell Claire anyway - she knows what I am. I wonder, does she know what you are?”

The flattening of his fins is all the answer they need.

“Ah, so you don’t trust her. Cheer up - at least you’re a real troll some of the time. I can only do a fabulous impression.”

“What are you?” He asks, applying the bandages to his wounds and immediately giving a soft sigh in relief. Tuuya has to admire his stubbornness, cursing it at the same time.

“A drinker parasite swarm that acts like a troll.” They reply, examining their newly-formed claws again. Good, everything grew back properly.

They’re thirsty, though. Volant’s beast blood was just barely usable, given he’s a shapeshifter, but not as good as if he’d been in troll form.

“That’s all you get, I’m afraid. I’m very bored of being studied these nights. I could be playing lusus passing instead, which is so much more fun.”

His look of blank befuddlement makes the worm monster laugh.

“What? It’s a grand old time. Give it a go!”

“You make no sense.” He mutters, wrapping more bandages around himself.

“I don’t have to.” They retort breezily. “I’m almost two hundred, I got a pardon for it.”

“You don’t need to keep up a troll facade. Why bother now?”

“Blood’s not the only thing I think about, goodness. You do smell delicious, though.”

He shudders but bares his teeth.

“Don’t even try it.”

They walk over, arms crossed, needle teeth showing in a wide grin, and look down at the sitting troll, wounded.

They lower themself, crouching, only a foot from him. His fins are pinned against his head even as he keeps his fangs bared.

“I could rip open your throat and drink you until there was nothing left but a shriveled carcass to feed the roots.” They say, voice soft and almost gentle, if it weren’t for the edge of it; a sharpness that could slice through solid rock.

“I could eat you from the inside out, have you watch your own body wither before your very eyes, helpless to do anything but bleed.”

Their voice switches to a more normal speaking tone.

“But I’m not going to do that, because you’re just a stupid boy, and hopefully this was a valuable learning experience, hmm?”

He only nods.

“Good! I’m glad we’re on the same page. Get yourself cleaned up, you’re lucky there’s no native predators in these woods.”

The big seadweller mutters something about invasive species, and the drinker has to laugh.

#epsilo will do anything For Science #and tuuya is horrible #epsilo after this: i want that thing but also that thing gives me the heebie jeebies #cloud writes #etuuya vannyn #epsilo volant #cw body horror #cw worms #i did love writing the details of how tuuya regrows though

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windwardstar · 5 years

Text

Shapeshifting in the star verse

Aka me rambling bc im on my phone

So this of course follows the pre-exisiting rules of magic within the star verse (the actual rules that govern it, not the ones that the people in story understand, they're not there yet).

Basic rules

It's all magic. There aren't different "types" of magic, just different styles uses and understanding. (The people incorrectly split it up into types and how those types may be used. They're still learning and discovering.)

Magic is made of energy. The universe follows the basic rules of ours in terms of the laws of physics and shit (at least as far as this stuff is concerned).

Everything was once made of magic. The world and everything physical was (initially) created by magic.

So shapeshifting. Magic is energy. Concentrated magic can become concentrated mass meaning: physical matter. Everything physical is really just condensed magic.

Compression seals are a common advanced "academic" magic. They basically take matter and store it in the form of energy within a closed system and the process can then be reversed to get your stuff back. (Tali's ax stored in a tattoo, odelle's staff stored in a charm on her necklace are two in universe examples. Den's armor is a third that has some other funky stuff with it.)

Illusions are energy. Setting them (making them tangible, then permanent) requires even more magic. This is usually done by utilizing the ambient magic in the air and whatever else is around. (Yes, this can be used as a type of blood magic where the magic in living things is sapped and used, killing or even completely erasing the thing from existence. This is frowned upon.)

Healing magic is the closest thing that the people have that really modifies the body. It forces body to repair itself. It also requires a lot of magic. It requires even more training to not fuck up. And it doesn't include being able to regrow limbs.

So. Shapeshifting.

Shapeshifting into other things.

It's possible. Just there is so much room for it to go wrong.

Technically, you could rearrange the person's body to turn them into a merperson. @langwrites Give them a fish tail instead of legs. Give them gills instead of lungs. Really, you're probably just going to kill them. If you want to swim around underwater just separate the air from the water and breathe air with your own lungs and then slap some of those scuba fins on your feet. Or manipulate the water around you to carry you around. Whole lot less likely to kill you outright. But if you're set on being merperson. Try the tail only and be a mammal breathing air. Don't fuck with your lungs.

As for shapeshifting that is a thing.

Rearranging the body is a skill and one you don't want to get wrong. It's pretty much found only in a few cultures and then limited to certain classes within the society. It takes years of training and also a way to store magic so you're not killing yourself just from the energy draw required.

Oslen, Te and Tela are three ocs who can do this. Oslen can transform into a deer (and also used this change the body trick for trans stuff.) Te can partially transform, giving herself attributes but doesn't go full on wolf. Tela is probably the best at it and can almost effortlessly and seamlessly transform fully between person and wolf.

The facial tattoos the star seers of their culture get are a way to store the magic until it is needed, or to siphon magic from the surroundings to be used. (This is a similar thing to the painted's markings and puppet mark in that the practices split from the same culture point, just a much lower integration into the body and doesn't fuck with the actual genetics.)

Transitioning via shapechaning magic is possible too, and is probably the easiest of the shapeshifting magic as it tends to require the fewest structural changes. You're still working with a fully human base.

The painted tend to go with the route of creating an illusion and setting it, it requires orders of magnitude more magic to do but is more reliable and harder to fuck up. Non-painted tend to go the route of just rearranging the matter that's already there, which requires less magic put into the system but is more prone to going wrong.

#star verse: magic #star verse: worldbuilding #te #tela #oslen #star verse: shapeshifting #odelle #tali #star verse: the painted

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kpopisthereasonihavenolife · 5 years

Text

Blight | II

BTS

Jeon Jungkook/Reader [F]

Genre: Dragon/Shapeshifter AU, Magic AU, Enemies to Lovers

Words: 7k

@tamedandscripted @syubcandy @cencoroil @kathrynwynterbourne @fireflower90 @bluegreenguppyfish @queen-pharaoh-hatshepsut @mygukandonly

Jungkook wasn’t sure how long he’ been here. Resting alone in silence in his secret place. It wasn’t like some sort of fort of anything, no. Where he was was a beautiful section of flourishing forest.

It was a hidden area, a secluded patch of land. One had to find a cavern entrance that hid behind thick hydrangea bushes to even begin to search for it. Even then, finding the hydrangeas was a feat. The cavern was hundreds of miles underground. It was secluded and any possibility of it ever being discovered by anyone other than Jungkook was a rare chance. Man would never set foot here so help him.

A far off, desolate cliff in the middle of a mountain range untouched by man. A rare feat. A long flight up to the near peak of a mountain. Find the large, wide hydrangea covered rock area and with them behind the vines is an opening.

Going through that opening and traveling through the rocky, vine-covered cavern walls the cavern opens. A giant hole, leading straight down into God knows where. No human would ever try and explore, and if they did, they would for sure lose their life. It was far too deep and far too dark. However, if one ever got down the entire trip that traveled the entire mountain and below the ground, they would come into a clearing. A clearing leading into a vast, almost completely different world.

Enchanting was the only word to explain it. A magical place, a lake an entire ecosystem were thriving inside this mountain. Hydrangeas sprouting in mass with all sorts of wildflowers growing by its side. Trees wept with green, low hanging branches and vines. Water flowed in a strong, brilliant waterfall in the side the of the rocky cavern, most likely from a lake or body of water on the surface. A crystal lake sits beneath, capturing the mirror-like water. This lake had healing properties Jungkook had discovered in one of his many trips here. Just standing in the water could heal any injury. Finally, floating orbs of soft, yellow and blue lights kept the ‘jungle’ lit and navigatable.

This place must have been crafted long ago by magicians: witches and warlocks. There was no other way to explain the flourish so far beneath the ground. As well as the inscriptions on some cavern walls and glyphs that so depict an ancient civilization with ‘God’s Gifted Ones’.

The other piece of evidence was a large rock island in the middle of the lake. It was jagged and uneven but it had arches of rock and covered in vines that bloomed in deep, crimson flowers he couldn’t name. The arches were incomplete, the very tops of them open and staggered like a ray of magic just shot through them. Underneath the open arches was a single throne of rock. Uncomfortable looking though it may be, the carving among it makes it seem like a seat for royalty. He’s never sat there, and something in his blood demands that he never does.

This place was the only thing Spellcasters had his respect for.

Jungkook sat in a small space he liked to call his own as he looked around. He wasn’t the only living thing down here, no not at all. There were small creatures and animals that resided down here in harmony. Almost all herbivores he’s gathered as the only remains he’s ever found were caused by nature and time; not by some sort of predator.

He lay on his back, his hands clasped behind his head and one of his legs propped up on his foot as he looked up at the trees above him. The weeping willow blew in the small constant draft that seemed to circle endlessly around the cavern. It gave a nice, gentle chill. For a hot-blooded, fire breathing, mobile furnace, the breeze cooled him and made him relax.

If he closed his eyes long enough, he would think he heard bells in the distance, but knew it was only his mind adding onto the soft atmosphere this place gave him.

Here, he was free. He was a free man. Not roped into classes and exams to ‘hone his abilities’. He wasn’t stuck in the same boring lecture cycle of Masters and how he would need to valiantly and obediently follow his one day. He wasn’t just some jock who needed to keep his team strong and never lose, lest he gets ridiculed.

He was just himself. He was just Jungkook.

Jungkook had never found a place so calming once he left home. At home, it was his mother that warmed his breast and made him smile. She loved him so, but once she lost her life, the candle she kept within her was snuffed out. Taking all the light and warmth with it. Jungkook was lost for a time. His mother gone, his father always a way for business and no siblings to try and connect with.

Then he met Jimin. Jimin ran into him when accidentally running into one of his living room glass doors that lead out into his yard. He had been so distracted in chasing a shadow cat that he ran smack dab into the glass in his dog form. Jungkook, startled into showing his horns and scales, watched as the dog changed into the form of a small boy not much older than himself.

Somehow, after that, a friendship bloomed and Jungkook almost felt warm again. He and Jimin stuck together and eventually were both able to get into the main academy of Hearst. However, they didn’t plan on being Ranked the same and pinned as classmates both in their first year and now, yet it was a minor chance of luck that Jungkook wouldn’t refuse.

Yet, even with Jimin, the warmth wasn’t the same as it used to be like as his time as a small child. So, he would explore every chance he got. Transforming and flying miles upon miles away just to find something, anything to help the void in his chest. The hole in which his mother’s death forged so long ago. Then, he found it in this place.

He couldn’t remember exactly when or how he found this wonderful world of his own, but he didn’t care. He found it, and it was his and he couldn’t be warmer.

Somewhere along his visit, he drifted off. He didn’t know when but when he woke up, his arms that stayed under his head were nearly numb. He sat up and let the tingling pins and needles of his blood rush back into his arms and hands. He sat looking around. He could never tell the time of day in this place, that’s a given. Yet, he decided it time to go once again.

Working his way out from under trees and into a clearing he lept into the air and took off upwards with his wings that tore from his back. Up the long drop that seemed to get shorter with each visit and out the cavern into the hydrangeas before soring into the sky of outside. It was dusk. The sun setting with each ticking moment below the horizon, kissing the daytime farewell until morning. It was a beautiful view, yet a view that no longer captured Jungkook’s jaded perception.

He moved above the clouds until his nose picked up the scent of the school ground and soon descended onto the rooftop of the main building. It was always much easier making a landing on the roofs than into the fields or courts. Less chance of conflict.

His feet touched the hard roof and breathed a content breath. He made his way down and into his building where he went to his locker to retrieve the shirt he discarded and replaced it on his chest. Now fully dressed, he was lucky not to be caught and stopped by some random person who would definitely scream about some ‘nudist’ on campus. It’s happened before and it was not fun.

He was finishing up grabbing whatever he needed for tomorrow’s academic courses when he heard a group of B Ranks who had just come from the upper floors, ready to leave for the day. Jungkook ignored them as they soon passed and Jungkook slammed his locker shut. They were talking about the Spellcaster Exams happening tomorrow. They were to perform trail tests and magical limits to see if they were qualified for a Familiar.

“Fuckin’ Spellcasters,” he murmured as he too left the building and soon the campus to his own dorm.

XXX

The dorms were not laid out in any sort of system like the school itself. Many students of different species and ranks lived among each other as neighbors or even roommates. Had it not been for Yoongi needing a roommate and purposely waiting for you to enroll, you would’ve probably roomed with a Spirit, given a choice.

Currently, you were sat on the floor, nursing a bag of your newly owned chips - that Yoongi got as promised - completely drowning in worry. The exams were tomorrow, just hours away and you swore you could tear your hair out. You stared at the ceiling as your head was kicked back while your back rested against the foot of your shared couch with Yoongi in the main room.

Said warlock had just leaned over the couch, catching your attention and making you crane your neck further back to an uncomfortable position and also drawing a headache to the surface.

“You really shouldn’t worry. It’s not that difficult of an exam and it’s held twice a year. You have way more than one shot going forward.”

“Easy for you to say, you’ve already passed. You just don’t attend the ceremony to actually get a Familiar.”

“Well, yeah. Why would I do that when I can pick my own partner on my own terms?”

You groaned and rolled your eyes. “Yes, I get it. You’re super advanced, rub it in why don’t you.”

Yoongi just shook his head at your pessimistic attitude. Honestly, if he told the truth, he knew you had nothing to worry about. You had magic storing down to a T and your ability to maintain and manage your magic was outstanding for a C Rank. It was whether or not your execution of said magic would go as planned. You, one might say, were a nervous test taker.

Yoongi rounded the couch, sitting on the cousin behind your head as you had taken to pushing your cheek against his knee. He hovered his fingers above your head as the magic that gently came from them made your hair dance like static. You were always emotional around exams or ceremonies, but he supposed in your situation that you had every right to be.

“Would you feel better if I waited outside the exam hall? Results won’t be posted until the next morning. We can go to that lame, gross ‘asethetic’ diner you like so much.” You rolled your eyes as you contemplated actually biting his knee.

“That ‘lame, gross ‘asethetic’ diner’ makes me warm and fuzzy so shush your mouth you Dark Wizard.” He tapped on your head, a bit reprimanded. You strictly knew wizards were half-breeds between humans and magic users, a rare breed to be sure. “Besides, when exams are over, we still have academic courses.” Yoongi rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, but they aren’t mandatory.”

“I’m not ditching class, Yoongi.” He sighed as you and he got quiet. Sitting in silence he knew the reason you were worried. He just didn’t know how to phrase it without making your mood any worse. Though, it wouldn’t hurt, would it? It was already floating around in your head, drilling into every corner of your thoughts like a nonstop drill with rechargeable batteries.

“Y/n,” he started, voice uncertain, “are you worried about your dad again?” You were silent, still and unresponsive. Perhaps you fell asleep? You’ve don’t so before. However, you soon nodded. “Don’t worry about it,” he thought that might be the case.

Your father wasn’t the most generous man on the face of the planet. A big name for himself in your family history and hardly any people even knew he even had a daughter.

Growing up he was earning awards and making headlines left and right and featured in reports and newspapers frequently. Succeeding in classes of all kinds, magical or not and gaining his Familiar in his first year right off the bat when he entered and enrolled in Heart Academy for the Wicked and Supernatural.

That Familiar ended up being your mother.

Your mother lost her life when you were born. It was normal, well as normal as being born a Spellcaster can be.

Spellcasters almost always end up stealing the life of their mothers upon birth. The magic gathered and stored into their small, infant bodies only obtained their powers from their mother’s life. They took the life energy from their carriers and converted it into magic to store and released that magic when they are born. The only way to slimly avoid death is by C-sections, but it’s risky. There’s always a chance that both parties would lose their life if the doctor is too unskilled.

Once a Spellcaster, witch or warlock or even half-breed wizard, is born the father is either pulled in one direction of the other. They are either completely overprotective and shelter their children until they can’t possibly shelter them any longer. Or, they reject them absolutely.

Your father rejected you. Absolutely.

Yoongi has known you since childhood, and he’s seen the way in which your father completely overlooks you and your presence as a whole. It wasn’t unnatural to guess your father grew up into a wealthy man, so the house was filled with staff that was directly in charge of raising you. You were raised by interchangeable faces and fake gestures all because you were ‘the bosses daughter’. The only plus was Yoongi’s companionship and friendship.

His father was loving to him. Waiting on him hand and foot until middle school when Yoongi was able to sit down and talk with him, telling him to back off and not to treat him like a fragile doll, but a person. LIke his son, and his father listened to him. Maybe it was because he was a boy, or maybe it was because his father accepted him from the beginning, you weren’t quite sure.

That’s why you always tried so hard. Whether it be in class, working on book smarts or building your magical properties. Why you pushed so hard for a Familiar. If you were to gain a Familiar, maybe he would finally notice you and all your potential you could build from now into the future.

Yoongi just pat your head and reached forward into the bag of chips to grab one and force it between your lips. The salt stung slightly as you scowled at him. He just messed up your hair before he stood up, making your body roll to the side and now lay on the ground.

“It’ll be fine. Don’t worry about a 6-foot tall demon when you have me.”

“You’re literally 179 centimeters. You’re a single inch off of 6 foot.”

“That, my dear friend, is what makes me so much better. I’m an inch smaller for travel convenience.” You rolled your eyes as you watched Yoongi trot off into the kitchen, hearing clunking and removal of pots and plates from cabinets thereafter.

The rest of that night, Yoongi made it a top priority to keep your mind off the exam and most importantly your father. Throwing jokes, starting little skirmishes and even dabbled on the idea of getting you drunk so you could just puke and go to bed. However, he took a miss on the alcohol, you did have a test in the morning. Hangovers don’t work out for the brain and magic. You could very well make something blow up if you're too hungover.

It was 11 when you finally crashed. Spending so much energy just dealing with the back to back objects and tasks Yoongi threw at you. Yoongi nodded in satisfaction before maneuvering you to throw you over his shoulder. You know, like real friends do.

Marching to your room with your body folded over his shoulder, utterly unconscious for the night, he moved into your room where he blew his lips and a small puff of light floated around to light the room. There was a chance if he flipped the light switch on, you’d wake up and proceed to yell at him for carrying you like he was, a fact he knew you weren’t fond of. The light, though small, was bright enough to show the path to your bed without running into anything or tripping on the journey from your door.

It was a mystery, how your den and your bedroom had polar opposite vibes. Your den, as he knew, was dark and felt like a cave when one stepped inside. However, your bedroom was like how he could only imagine a child felt walking into a damn Build-A-Build store. It was bright, and resemble your white magic specialization to a T. Pastels from coral, to teal and even a nice shade of grey specked your room in the form of books or knick-knacks.

Though, Yoongi wouldn’t say he disliked it. His room resembled a monochromatic museum, that was just his style. However, he would like to camp in your room with you if he ever needed a spark of color to lift a bad mood he felt on the horizon of his mind.

He carefully rolled you off his shoulder and put you, rather sloppily into bed. Laying you sideways and having your feet hang off the edge of the mattress, but he couldn’t be bothered. You were on the bed with no way of falling off unless you decided to fight in a war in the 6 hours you were going to be asleep. He tossed your comforter over you and stretched his back.

You may be smaller than he is, and he may be a man, but that doesn’t make you any less heavy than the scale you complain about every morning. I mean come on, the average weight for someone like you wasn’t something to get bent out of shape about. Yet, it was often times he’d see you shove down rabbit food in the form of salads and greens before turning around and enjoying those chips you devour each chance you get. Thus, prompting him to poke fun at you.

He turned to look into the mirror you had in your room. It was large and wide as it sat upon your rather magnificent vanity. The same vanity that Yoongi’s father and he helped pick out for you on your 18th birthday. That was probably the first time Yoongi saw you actually cry in joy at something most girls had at the age of 13. He smiled as he recalled the memory before he whistled lowly and the orb of light faded out.

He followed the light from the hall that leaked in through the doorway to work his way out, one against without stumbling and took one final look back at you. He smiled as he lifted his hand and created a small symbol. It resembled a pair of doors opening inwards, hardly noticeable and small enough to hide in his palm. He blew it out of his hand as it flitted over to you were it stuck your cheek.

Then, he quietly closed your bedroom door. He walked around the dorm and shut off all the lights and the TV before he retired to his own room. He was still going to go to the stupid diner with you, even if he didn’t exactly like the taste of anything in there. Min Yoongi was many things, but he wasn’t a liar. He promised to go with you, so he would.

You woke up the next morning to the sound of your alarm. Annoyed you swatted your wrist at it, some force flinging from your fingertips to knock the clock off your bedside nightstand and against the wall. Hearing the cracking of the cheap plastic, you lifted your head with squinted eyes before pushing your face back into the pillow. Now you’d have to buy a new one, knowing Yoongi would refuse to fix another alarm clock from you. This is the 7th alarm clock you’ve broken in the last 2 months alone after all.

Yet, none of that mattered as all you could think about is you had to get up. You had an exam today.

XXX

The morning trudged on as sparingly as you knew it would. Getting dressed was the only fast part of your morning, racing against time on getting ready in your exam gowns. It was a fundamental rule that when important eams rolled around, you were to where your school provided gowns. They were simple, the female design much different than the male.

The top was a black, almost violet undertone, fabric that ruffled and ran horizontally along your chest and hung below your shoulders around your bicep. A hood and low hanging scarf were attached loosely to the back of the ruffled patch behind you that you looped around your neck and sat among your breasts. The gown clung to your torso and the skirt divided at your thigh. A centerpiece almost resembled a thick, old fashioned loincloth, covered your front (although just barely) while the rest of your skirt was cut off and fluttered behind you at your ankles.

It was flattering and charming sure, and even you were quite taken with how it looked from a mundane standpoint, but it was so exposing. Walking around with it on, even if no one was around, made you feel too open. And, of course, you ran into Jungkook.

Yoongi was at your hip, glaring at any filthy minded warlock who tried to even think about peeping beneath your shoulders or down your legs. It was actually Jimin, who stood at Jungkook’s side (as per usual) that flagged you both down. It was a routine by now, one that Jungkook could frankly do without.

As you approached, clutching your spellbook to your front and keeping your eyes downcast, any other guy would probably see you as cute. Cheeks red at the unwanted attention and quiet disgusting cat-calls threw your way. You were quite the sight, much to Yoongi’s dismay. It was like people were hitting on his sister to his face.

“Wow! Your exam robes look really good on you Y/n! You look so pretty!” You rubbed your bare shoulder with a free hand as you only managed to keep eye contact with the friendly Hellhound for a moment before staring back at his shoes. Your own footwear was a pair of small, 3-inch, thick heels. Also a stupid requirement of this damn gown.

Jimin sensed your unease. Sure, you were embarrassed by your gowns, you usually were, but you always tried to play it out with being extremely boisterous or over the top. Overdramatic, so to speak. Today, though, you were different. You were quiet, clammed up and he could practically smell the anxiousness pouring out of you with his heightened senses.

He looked at Jungkook’s back; he had only glanced at you before he went back to swapping book in his locker to his bag. Maybe an unexpected compliment would cheer you up?

Jimin grabbed the back of Jungkook’s shirt, twisting him around and slammed his locker shut.

“What are you doing you-?!”

“Don’t you think Y/n looks nice?” He questioned. You ducked your head. You knew that Jimin only wanted to help cheer you up, the hound was always in tune with emotion. No doubt he could tell your overly dramatic depressed mood. Though, turning to Jungkook wasn’t the best option. You were absolutely certain that the insult that was bound to roll off the stupid dragon’s tongue would push you to tears.

You were too emotional this morning. Fuck hormones.

“Well?” Jimin pushed a Jungkook remained silent. He looked at you, but to him, you looked the same. So what if you were wearing different clothes? You were still you, the insufferable brat he’s put up with since he enrolled. But, even he could feel the dread coming from you. Jungkook wasn’t heartless.

“Jimin,” Yoongi starts, trying to avert a possible scene to keep you together, “It’s alright. We’ll just-”

“Yeah,” Jungkook interrupts. Yoongi looked at him, almost insulted he was interrupted. Jungkook just slung his bag over his shoulder as it rested on his back now. He stuffed his hands into his pockets as he slouched to a leg. The bangs that were separated off his forehead shook in the bounce he took to look at your smaller than usual form. “You look nice.”

Jimin and Yoongi for shocked, to say the least. Sure, Jimin wanted him to compliment you, but he didn’t actually think he would! Jimin broke into a smile and turned to you. He quickly grabbed your hand that still rubbed your naked shoulder. You snapped your head to him, cheeks still flushed as they seemed to lose their redness at Jimin’s over-enthusiastic form.

“See! Now, good luck on the tests! You’ll do great! The best B Rank witch ever!”

“That’s what I told her too!” Yoongi quips up to help lighten the mood. And before you knew it, you busted into laughter. You don’t know why you were laughing, you were still dreading the exam and you were still so nervous walking was a chore, but you felt better.

You turned to Yoongi after you pulled your hand from Jimin. “I’m ready to go now. Better rip the bandaid off, right?” He nodded as he slung his arm around your shoulder.

“That’s the spirit!”

You quickly turned to Jungkook, looking at him as he watched all of this happened in silence. He could’ve left, maybe he was hanging around waiting for Jimin. He did every other time. “Thanks,” you quietly say before Yoongi is dragging you off until you both are out of sight.

“You’re welcome,” he muttered completely to himself. Jimin looked at him.

“Did you say something?”

“I called her stupid.”

Jimin opened his mouth in astonishment. “Come on! You were just nice to her!”

“Yeah? Well, there’s a first for everything. I still don’t like her. Salem will still be on my ‘hate’ list, no matter what fancy garbs she puts on.” He spun on his heel, working his way to his first class. “Come on, we’ll be late.” Jimin ran behind him, catching up.

“We’ve been late before! Hold on!” Jungkook only sped up, leaving his best friend to run in a chase. Though Jimin easily caught up, he was a hound after all.

XXX

Yoongi sat in his class, watching the clock tick down second by second with a bouncing, impatiently knee. He sat slumped with his elbow on his desk as his palm supported his chin. Fingers tapping his cheek. He wasn’t even paying attention, frankly, he hadn’t been ever since he sat down. Once this class ended, you’d be out of your exams and he’d get to find out if you passed for the third attempt since your first year or not.

It was 14 minutes later when his class was dismissed and Yoongi literally just phased into a shadow. Hiding his body and zipping through the halls along the walls and ceilings. Traveling by shadows is the fastest, most efficient form of travel; at least for a dark warlock like himself who knows how to actually control it and now get stuck in the shadows like many have done before.

The tactic was much more complex than you would think. If not performed correctly, one could even suffocate within the shadows of something as small as a puppy.

He was down the halls, scaling stairs and zooming along the corridors of the outside courts before he quite literally flew out of a wall right next to the door of your classroom. Your class had already started filing out, the hoods of robes being flung down and some stupid, over appreciated jocks even flexing the pride that is their passing grade.

He waited at the doors until he peeked inside, still not seeing you exit. Perhaps he came just a split second too late? He leaned in the doorway to see you, standing in front of the professor as he spoke to you, waving his hands about. You nodded, talking back with him as Yoongi stepped inside. He was familiar with this professor anyways.

“Ah, Min Yoongi, what a pleasure,” the professor spoke. You turned around, flipping down the hood of your gown as he moved briskly to your side. Yoongi nodded to the teacher.

“Tihex,” he said. He had long dropped any title from instructors names. No Mr. Ms., or Professors for him. Just using their names. Some found it endearing, others not so much. Tihex didn’t really care though, he was a young professor and rather open-minded. Wanting to connect with each student of his in one way or another. Yoongi looked at you as he opened his mouth. “How’d you do?”

You blinked up at him as you then looked to Tihex. He smiled as he motioned to Yoongi basically telling you to tell Yoongi your scores. The way that scoring works is that throughout the exam, your given a slip of paper for your professor to mark points on. Whether to deduct or add on points. Another is the class ranking. On the wrist of each participant that passed the exams with high enough remarks and points were given a name stamped on their forearm. That number places what magical standpoint they are in their class. The Spellcaster with the number 1 on their forearm being the most excelling student as of the current standpoint.

You opened off your spellbook and handed Yoongi your point slip as he looked over the numbers. High marks all around. He smiled as you tilted your head in pride.

“These numbers are awesome!” He cheered, even stomping a little jig in excitement. “What rank did you get in class?” He was eager to know. Y, u however, didn’t even know that yet.

“I don’t know. I was about to be stamped when you came in.” The two of you looked to Tihex who was busy playing with his magic stamp. Customized with stickers and even a little bow, of course, the stamp wasn’t originally his and he did have to pay the school board a hefty price once he started slapping stickers on it.

He stuck out his hand to you. “May I finally place you in the ranks now, Miss L/n?” You nodded as you rolled up your sleeve and showed him your bare, blank forearm. Yoongi looked over your shoulder, forgetting the idea of seeing your face before he knew your number.

Professor Tihex took the back of your hand before he placed the stamp on you and with a small push, a puff of pink smoke and a few coughing fits later, he pulled the stamp away from you. There on your forearm was a pink, scripted 1.

Yoongi crashed into your back as he picked you up and flung you around, almost violently. This is all he wanted, you to succeed. He stopped shaking you around, yet he still held you off the floor, toes just brushing the tile as Tihex laughed.

“You two are like a pair of siblings.” Yoongi laughed as he felt you try to touch the ground, to which he lifted you higher. You had half a mind to place a weight spell on your body, but you knew he could counteract it with a relieving spell, so it would just be a waste of magic and time.

“We have a diner to go to!” He cheered. You grabbed his arms, panicking slightly as you raise your knees.

“Yoongi! No!” You felt him start to shift his body to travel in the shadows again, only this time, he’s taking you with him. “I’m still in my gowns!” Then, he sunk into the floor, taking you with him and zooming out, leaving Tihex wondering if he’d bring you back to finish your classes for the rest of the school day.

The ceremony for passing Spellcasters was 3 days later. Letters and messenger falcons (old school yes, but some folk refuses to conform to technology) were sent out to every parent of the successful students. Many showed to see their children come back with signs of a Familiar. Some whose child wasn’t shy even got to meet their child’s new Familiar’s first hand.

The robes for the ceremony were all the same style. As opposed to exam gowns that differ between the sexes, ceremonial gowns were all the same. A completely black get up for dark magic users and completely white for white magic users. Though there are some who dabble in both, they always lean more towards one than the other. Yours, of course, were pure white.

Long sleeves wide and rather comfortable. Fabric layered overcrossing over the chest and waist in diagonal cuts. Top piece cut into a square around the neck, and uncommon yet flattering attention to detail. The bottom was cut into pant sleeves, yet most certainly aren’t pants. They were large, fluttering and spacious. Though divided, they moved around your legs and feet like the skirt of a dress. Your hair was up, pushed into two thick hair ties, the handy work done by Yoongi himself. Finally, each student wore a numbered necklace of their rank. Yours was a golden 1 that rested on your chest.

You were gathered in a room with your fellow classmates, family and friends outside in the courts yards out front, holding small conversations here and there as well as taking congratulatory remarks for being top. The feeling still hadn’t sunk in yet that you passed. Now, here you were about to get your Familiar that has been chosen by fate.

Soon, a bell was chimed and each student went to their numbered chair. Chairs were lined in rows in the main building as the Spellcaster head professor stood on a small stage in front of a door leading to a private back room. The ceremony of Familiar and Master is entirely private, not even the professor may know unless the Master so chooses.

Interestingly enough, the order in which the students are called up to cast their spell and summon their familiar is from the bottom student to the top. So, you would be the final student to summon. Time ticked by, students going in and coming out with a neutral expression, some with mixed feelings and others practically dancing.

“Spellcaster 1,” the professor speaks and you stand, making your way to the stage door, white gown flicking your leather sandal covered feet. You stood in front of the door and took a shaky breath. “Good luck,” the professor spoke without even looking at you as you pushed the knob into the room down and stepped inside. You heard the door lock behind you as you looked around.

A summoning circle was in the middle of the room with a spellbook on an altar in the center. Open and bookmarked on the page in which the spell you needed was open and ready for reading. The room was flicking with floating, uneven orbs of light and it was dark. Black cloth hung from the ceiling covering the tiles from view as you stepped forward. You stopped in front of the altar and looked at the spell.

You knew this spell well, you had read and re-read it over and over again in hopes of one day finally being able to use it. Now was that time. You closed your eyes and took a breath, right before you opened your mouth and began to softly speak the incantation.

XXX

Jungkook was sat in his room in his dorm which he somehow got all to himself. He was a late student to apply for a dorm room, so he was stuck with the last option, a one-person dorm with a single room, bathroom and kitchen. He didn’t mind though, being on his own in his own space was actually preferred. He sat at his desk, typing up an essay he had due for a class when he was dozing off.

He was jerked awake and startled when he thought he heard someone mumbling behind him. Spinning around in his twisting-rolly chair, he nearly flung himself out of it. No one was there, there couldn’t be. Wouldn’t be. He lived in this dorm alone and even if someone got inside, he could hear them. Turning back to his computer he left with a long line of ‘kkkkkkk’ after he dosed with his finger on the key, he backspaced and jerked when he felt a jolt of electricity shoot through him.

Jungkook kicked up, pushing his chair behind him as he stepped away from his computer and looked around. His body felt light and heavy, stuck in an uncomfortable balance. It was like he was on the verge of getting drunk, yet still not there and haven’t taken any shots.

Another jolt of shock made him shout in annoyance as he felt himself phase between consciousness. He rubbed his eyes, blinking once then twice before his wrist began to burn.

Shrieking, he wasn’t used to the idea of burning, given he wasn’t supposed to feel heat. It stung as he looked at to what he could have possibly done or what to see what was happening. A small burn was etching into the skin of his wrist. Circling his wrist like a bracelet in red, angry, raised skin. The pain made his body shift.

Breaking into a mid-shift form, his wings tore through the fabric of his shirt and stayed folded against his back. His horns twisted from the crown of his head as the scales on his neck and cheeks felt chilled. His fangs bit into his lip as his golden eyes glowed and his slit pupils dilated.

The burn soon finished etching it’s tribal pattern and ignited. Jungkook shouted as he slapped at it, waving to put the random flames out. Oddly enough, the fire engulfed his hand, yet it was only his wrist that continued burn. Soon, the fire snuffed itself out and all that was left was a black, tribal tattoo around his wrist.

“What the hell?” He whispered, out of breath and confused. Voice shaking and looking around, he wondered if he was somehow hexed.

His eyes burned and watered as he rubbed at them. Blinking once and then twice, he looked up to find himself somewhere that was most definitely not his dorm room. He stumbled backward. “What the fuck is happening?!” He was in a room with black cloth and stupid lights of what? Gas?

“Jungkook?” He whipped around, more than ready for any explanation as to what in the everloving hell was going on only to have his face fall when he saw you. Dressed in nothing but pure white garbs, you stared back into his half shifted form.

“What in the hell are you doing here? No, wait, where the hell is here? Where am I?!” He whipped his arms around as the short sleeves of his torn shirt showed his arms and wrist, to which you looked your eyes onto. Jungkook saw you looking wide-eyed at his wrist. He brought it up and pointed it at with his opposite hand. “Did you do this to me!?”

“I-” you started, looking around with a fallen face. He seethed as he stomped towards you, grabbing the rectangular collar of your gown and pulled you to your toes. “Jungkook, stop it!”

“What did you do, Salem!!”

“Release me!” You demanded as his hand immediately opened, dropping you and he took two prompt steps backward. As if he had lost his free will for a moment. He shook his head as he looked at his hand then to you.

“What did- did you just control me?” You didn’t answer, only pulled up the sleeve of your gown to show him the same burned on tattooed on your wrist he had on his. He looked at his wrist then to yours. “What?” He was so confused as the turn of events blew right over his head in terms of what was happening. You sighed as you pointed behind him to the spellbook on the altar.

He turned as he looked at the title of the incantation.

“Summoning and Binding of a… Familiar?” His voice shook as he read the title aloud. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He spoke with a breath of disbelief. “I got bound?” He turned around. “To you?” He spoke with wide eyes and a wrinkled forehead from his raised brows. He pushed his hair back, his claws scraping his skin as he remembered he was still partially shifted.

He took a few calming breaths before tucking his wings back into his back and hiding his scales. His teeth shortened and his eyes reverted back to their wide pupils and whites. He cleared his throat as you stood there.

“What just happened was absolute subjugation. I gave you an order unquestionably and you were forced to obey it.” You rolled your sleeve back down to lay against your fingertips. “It’s a power that a Master holds over their Familiar,” you muttered. Jungkook cursed as he looked at his two sides.

One door was to his right, outside it was a small murmur of chatting. The Spellcasters must be outside that door. To his left was another door with the light from outside slipping through the cracks. He clicked his tongue as he stomped over to the outside door and opened it. Seeing the courts behind the school.

“You are not my Master, Y/n,” he spits as he stepped outside and slammed the door shut behind him. Leaving you the Master of a Familiar who never wanted you. Your one true wish crumbling at your feet. All good things, you feared, must always come to an end.

-TBC-

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nexstage · 4 years

Text

LIMBO SILVAM - PART 8 (1/3)

Walking, tripping, falling to your knees, watching to every direction for threats, calming Peridot down whenever she tried to make you stop and take a break, and repeating the cycle again and again. At this point, Lapis wasn't sure if they were gonna make it, but she couldn't rest yet.

The mountain was still too far from where they were, which increased her stress and the painful waves of her gemstone didn't let her think clearly. The outcome of this: snapping clumsily and falling to the snow alongside Peridot.

"Ouch! Lapis, are you ok?!" the green gem checked her companion's condition and grimaced: the gray splotches on Lapis' body were now a medium size, her gemstone was getting blacker and the ocean gem was getting weaker with every second that passed.

"I-I'm f-fine... Just... Just got mad at myself. This path is too long... I'm just too tired to continue..." Peri put Lapis' head her lap and caressed her blue-gray hair kindly to comfort her. One of her hands went to the triangular gemstone of her forehead and massaged it in the useless attempt to alliviate another potent headache.

The former technician gave a fast check on her own body, sighing somberly. Gray splotches and black lines that looked like veins covered a 67% percent of her being, if her calculations were right. She could be crying right now due to the pain, but she was too drained to even shed a tiny tear. Lapis lifted one of her hands and touched Peri's cheek, smiling at her sweetly to cheer her up, it worked even if it was for a bit.

"Maybe we should lean on each other, Lapis. If you keep overexerting yourself, you're gonna poof for real"

"Y-You're right... I'm sorry if me shouting and kicking the ground scared you" Peridot smiled at her to make her know it was alright. The blue gem got up slowly and hardly, leaning on Peridot to not lose her balance while the other remained still as best as she could to not fall.

Both gems placed their arms around each other and started walking a bit faster, eyes and ears open to any danger that might be spying on them. "How are we going to scalate the mountain and get to the light with our deplorable conditions?" Peri's question froze Lapis instantly but just for seconds. She didn't think about it, in fact, the plan was to reach the peak of the mountain to get to the other side, but the process simply eluded her.

"I... I don't know... Oh stars, Peridot, I don't know! What if we go that far for nothing?!"

At hearing her distress, the former technician side-hugged her to calm her down. "Hey, hey, it's ok though. We can move, though with too much pain and hardship, we can think clearly and by working together, we can reach the light. So for now, let's just focus on getting to the mountain, the rest will come... Eventually"

"Yeah... Eventually" It wasn't the best encouragement from Peridot but she took it nonetheless. However, there was another issue to take care of. "Peri, while I was unconscious, I thought I saw my memories"

"Your memories? The ones that could explain why and how we ended up here in this gemforsaken forest?" the little gem's eyes were wide in surprise and anticipation for some well-needed answers. It was about time to get to the bottom of this.

"Exactly. There were images, though too distorted to make sense of them, I guess. But I could recognize some things: people running away in fear, the sea turning into pink-ish blood, fire, destruction, that maddening laughter"

"Maddening laughter? From who? Was there someone else inside your consciousness?"

"I think so. I heard a voice, it was saying something but I couldn't get it no matter how much I approached or tried to pay attention. Its words were fragmented. Then I heard static, like when we were in fron of the TV and it got all black and white dots everywhere. There was..." Lapis gulped, her nerves tensing due to traumatizing memories of the Gem War "A mirror... A mirror that was in static like a TV" Peridot looked at her, confused.

Lapis stayed quite for some time, ordering her thoughts before continuing her tale, "I know it sounds weird but I didn't imagine it... Anyway, I broke the mirror and then a wave of sounds crashed at my ears. The strangest thing was seeing those pieces of glass from the mirror showing me those images. And then..."

"Then?" Peridot noticed that Lapis tensed too much, her muscles becoming hard as steel, so she pat her back kindly "If it's something stressful, it's ok. I won't push you" the ocean gem smiled. Inhale and exhale, she told herself to calm her nerves.

"What about your memories, Peri? Any luck?" the mechanic shook her head in negative but then she stayed silent, pondering about something. "Remember when I told you about my hallucinations and how blurry they were?" Lapis nodded "I think those were my memories. But... No, it might be too convenient."

"What if they were, though?"

"Then it would make no sense why they looked so hazy to me. There was a lot of chaos, sounds of destruction and people fighting each other for some reason. The robot, that person flying and the giant breathing fire... I mean, just try to link my memories with this situation: we are in a snow-covered forest, chased by robed-like creatures, our bodies are suffering unexplicable changes and our powers don't work. Back then, in my hallucinations or memories, I was in some kind of jungle, everything was a mess, no one could explain to me what was going on, so, how can someone go from a jungle to a forest in a snap?"

"Mask Island have a warp pad that I remember" Peridot sighed in defeat, it's not that what Lapis said wasn't true but she was missing the point. "Laz, we don't know if this forest has a warp pad. Besides, if it had one, we would have returned home already"

Lapis now was the one who fell into silence. She analyzed her own 'memories' carefully: the landscapes full of rifts, if she remembered right, and the bloody sea... If she, for some reason was in one of those locations, then how she woke up in a forest devoid of life and with those menacing, mysterious figures?

'Peridot is right. None of this makes sense' then a realization crossed her mind. Her green companion had told her about someone fighting and flying; the only person she knew that could fly was herself. Well, she AND Peridot because the engineer used a trash can lid as an aerial transport. But there was also Steven... Wait no, he had floating powers not flying ones. Amethyst, Garnet and Pearl were options too. They could shapeshift into something that could fly.

'What about the robot? Did Peridot build one? But what if it was Bismuth? Wait, since when they built robots? That isn't necessary anymore, but then if there was someone else fighting them... Fighting us... Peridot probably built the robot and got help from someone else... Someone was fighting with her... But the landscapes and the sea...if those are my memories, then how could I be in two places at the same time? Something is very wrong'

Then she stopped walking, or Peri made her stop. The green gem was holding onto her romantic partner desperately, apprehension and fear shown in her face. "What happens, Peri?"

The mechanic just gulped while watching to every direction nervously, "I don't know if you have noticed it or not, but... Don't you think the forest has become more dense and darker the more we were walking forward?"

The ex-terraformer checked their surroundings, trepidation started running through her unmaterial veins when she reconfirmed what Peridot said. In fact, the forest looked more like a black mass cornering them the more they walk. The trees were closer to each other to the point of fusing. She could hardly see the sky.

"Maybe we should, you know, go back and take another direction" Peridot trembled while saying that, holding onto the blue gem tightly. Lapis patted her little, green hands as consolation and looked behind her, the scenery was the same, full of trees and bushes creating a nature-like fortress. "I don't know if you can use your gemstone to light the path, Peri. That might be a good help right now"

"Unfortunately, no. If I can't use my ferrokinesis, then this other ability is discarded too"

"What about this? The light of the mountain is still visible, we'll use it as a path. We'll only watch it and nothing else while we walk at the same time"

"Mmmm... It may work. Alright, let's do it" both clung to each other much more than before and directed their eyes at the mountain's light, taking steps simultaneously, in a slow but consistent rhythm. With every step, the darkness of the forest grew over them but didn't took over the single light very far away of the gems.

Seconds became minutes that turned into an hour or two. Then Peridot pushed against something, a big, dense bush but couldn't go through which made her curse her predicament at being powerless and without resources. Lapis helped her by tearing apart some branches and dead leaves, her eyes still glued at the light of the mountain. When she finished making a path through the bush for Peri, the green gem lent her a hand too and both kept walking.

Suddenly, they heard a sound. A breeze, which was getting stronger. Then it came the sensation of cold. Bone-breaking cold caressing their legs as the South and North Pole were trying to trap them both in ice. The bushes and trees were closer to each other, the little light they had was diminshing, the more steps they made until...

"Aaaahhh!!" Lapis and Peridot fell to the snow-covered ground at the same time. The engineer was the first in getting up just to be surprised entirely with an utterly different scenery. "Laz, look!"

In front of them were frozen, almost white mountains, that created a sort of path to the biggest one where the light was supposed to be. If what Peridot remembered of one episode of Camp Pining Hearts was right, they had entered to a mountain rage, and in the worst weather unimaginable. The sky was gray as always, it was snowing and the breezes seemed to stab at her hard-light, blue skin.

"No way" Lapis mumbled, astonished. She then turned around and her shock increased as much as her confusion: the forest that had wanted to trapped them in darkness now was many, oh so many kilometres far away from the gems. "What on stars...?" Peridot shared the sentiments of such change of scenery, her mind was already done with too much nonsense so it put aside what they had seen.

"Ok, before we start wasting our time wondering about this mysterious phenomenom or freaking out about misdirections, can you see the light? My vision is not that good with this weather"

"I think I see it. Let's go" both walked fastly, approaching an old bridge (?) that was between the two mountains; Peridot took her romantic partner's hand and squeezed it to make her see what she was observing. At many feet high and still far away, was the mountain shedding its light from its peak that was actually divided in two.

"It's so beautiful..."

"Darn right it is, Laz. Our last hope to return home. So, let's not make it waiting!" the blue gem nodded, determined as her crush to meet their goal. They walked almost passing by the bridge when an unwanted presence caused the green gem to hide Lapis and herself under the structure, "Peri, what--?" the ocean gem couldn't end her sentence because her companion pointed to something.

The ex terraformer's eyes widened in terror at seeing again one of the robed-like creatures from the forest. It was flying and surveying the area. 'Stars, not this again... Didn't we lose them when we got out of that cursed place?' she hugged Peri to her chest and prayed for that thing to go away, to not notice them and use whatever powers it had to kill them. The shadow-like monster keep checking for new preys for some minutes until it got bored and went to another direction.

"Close one... Thanks, Peri" the little gem smiled at her, though a bit uneasily. Then a sharp pain took them by surprise, it was in the center of their gemstones and it spread through their bodies whose weird gray splotches and black veins-like lines -in Peridot's case- expanded more and more.

Lapis opened one of her eyes, horror stabbed at her heart when she saw Peri's gem lovely green being consumed by black spots, and her body... For Diamonds, it was in a worse condition than when they were still in the forest. She examined her own body, grimacing for the familiar blue was being replaced by gray. Heck, what her gemstone might have been going through was too horrible to imagine.

Like a lightning, the svelte gem took her companion in her arms and ran with as much energy her battered legs could give her through the snow, looking for a path. Her right was closed by medium, rocky mountains; her left, however, offered an entrance. Lapis went there without question.

Strange statues shaped as snakes/worms littered the area as some rocks. A powerful blizzard tackled Lapis whose arms encircled around a semi-unconscious Peridot protectively. The blue gem cursed her bad luck, if she had her powers, she could control the turned-into-snow water to protect herself and her crush and even fly to the top to the mountain. She kneeled, one of her hands stuck into the frozen ground to impede the icy wind to knock her down with the little gem in her arms.

The blizzard stopped which gave Lapis enough time to ran again and get out of the passage, only for the climatic phenomenom to hit again. Fortunately, she was near a snake-shaped statue, so she used it as a shield against the wind. "Mmmmhhmmm... L-Lapis... W-Where--?"

The terraformer gem shushed her crush and clung to her as if Peridot was her teddy bear. When the blizzard stopped again, Lapis dashed desperately until she reached a mountain-made hallway and entered. Exhausted, her back collided with one of the rocky, chill walls, sliding down until the blue Crystal Gem was completely sitting.

An abrupt movement got her out of her sudden unconsciousness. Shaking her head to get rid of the urges to sleep, Lapis directed her gaze to Peridot whose eyes only showed concern and love. "--hear me, Lapis?"

The blue gem raised an eyebrow weakly but then smiled to not worry her crush. The engineer caressed her cheek, then patted it firmly to clear Lapis' mind of any drowsiness left. "Laz, hey Laz, can you hear me?"

"--nk so... Think so... I guess... W-What happened?"

"You fainted. I saw that you didn't respond to my words so I woke you up"

"At least you're alright" Lapis' smile caused Peridot's cheeks to blush profusely which she tried to hide in vain. "W-Well, it's not that I was going to leave you with all the-the work to protect me, you clod" the green gem faked a cough and helped Lapis to get up, putting her romantic partner's arms on her shoulders so she can lean on her and walk more easily.

"Are you sure my weight won't bother you?"

"As if, Lapis, we are barely hard-light projections of our gemstones. We can't be any lighter. Haha, got it? Because, you know, we're made of light"

"You really need to stop looking for more puns on the Internet" Lapis' tone was a mix of fondness and dryness. Peridot rolled her eyes and start walking, being careful of not making Lazuli to slip up.

The mountain-made hallway led to a clearing surrounded by snow-covered, rocky hills full with dark rock/metal signs (?). Peridot's curiosity got the better of her and approached one of them. It was long, not so much to be taller than her, didn't look like it was made of any material she has known either, its head was half-hexagonal and it had an hexagonal hole too. But the weirdest thing were the symbols engraved in its surface.

Peridot, before becoming a Crystal Gem, had read a lot of reports about many ancient lenguages of multiple sentient species whose planets were invaded and then colonized to expand the gempire. She still could remember the complex alphabets those creatures created, but the symbols in front of her weren't in her repertoire.

"Peri, it's cute watching you in your nerd mode, but have you forgotten there is a light we need to reach if we want to go home?"

If Lapis had had enough strength to be face-to-face with her crush, she would have seen the huge blush on her face. "I-I-I'm n-not cute, you clod. You're the one who's cute!"

"Did you just call me cute?" asked Lapis, half-surprised, half-amused. Peridot stammered and when she was going to respond, the blue gem just kissed her left cheek sweetly. "Y-You know, I kind of see something move some meters away, let's investigate it" the engineer accelerated making a bit difficult for Lapis to catch up with her despite leaning on her shoulders, but the ocean gem didn't mind at all.

The two gems went to their right after noticing the left blocked by rocky, frozen hills. There were more of those mysterious signs that this time Peri ignored, then just when they wanted it less, another of those ominous shadows was spot flying fastly to where they were.

Lapis discovered it first which prompted her to halt, "Laz, what's wrong?" Peri asked, concerned. Her companion mouthed silently 'dangerous shadow'; even when she didn't understand the message, Lazuli's terrified eyes were signal enough to find a way to hide from that thing again. They dug a hole in the snow big for both of them and covered themselves with from head to toe with the white substance, leaving a bit of space uncovered so they could see the threat's movements.

The shadow surveyed the area carefully, its slowness was driving both gems insane with anxiety until it finished and flew away. Still, Lapis and Peridot waited for some minutes until they felt everything around them was danger-free and continued in a rush to not being surprised by more of those creatures.

After climbing some snow-covered stairs, the former technician caught sight of another old structure. It looked like the entrance of a building, but when she got nearer to it, she found out it was a sort of room that depicted art. Somber, sinister art. "What is this?" Lapis mumbled behind her while also browsing the ancient pictures.

In the wall in front of them were drawn eight figure's or people dressed in black-as-night robes, just seeing at them gave the creeps to Lapis and Peridot due to being horribly familiar to the shadows both gems had had to deal with. The shadow-y people in the picture were divided in groups of four, one in the right and the other in the left, and in the center of the wall was a colossal monster, whole body made of darkness. Its head, however, was the skull of a deer.

It looked threatening, deadly, especially its eyes, red as blood. The background, on the other side, wasn't as edgy as the first drawings. The mountain with its light at the top was there, depicted majestically like a last lifeguard against the despair the shadow-y people and the monstrosity seemed to emanate.

"Peridot, are you thinking what I'm thinking at seeing this?" Lapis asked, breaking the suffocating silence.

The green gem gulped before responding, "If you were thinking that these things might be real AND the sort-of guardians of the mountain's light, then yeah. That's what I was thinking. Though it wasn't the only thing"

"Something more?"

"Yeah. Laz, haven't you wondered if maybe, by a blow of good luck, we might meet people here despite the horrible weather and those things checking the area? I mean, when we got out of the forest, we saw a bridge. That was a sign of civilization, and now we found this old paintings. What If we find some people that can help us reach the top of the mountain?"

Ah, that sounded excellent. Too good to be true, sadly. Lapis didn't want to burst the bubble of wishful thinking Peridot had created with this theory, but they had plenty of evidence to prove otherwise.

"Look, I don't want to sound pessimistic, but before we arrived here, we found a shack and a cemetery in the forest. Was there a note for us to know if people were coming back or something similar? No. During this journey, the only living beings aroung us were those things that only wanted to torture us for no reason. No animals, no humans, no even one of our friends. Just trees, snow and those monsters. So even if there are houses in these mountains, I doubt they are being used"

Peridot's got pensive and not crestfallen as Lapis had feared; her romantic partner had good points in her reasoning. Many signs of civilization were found in the way, and yet not a single person in sight to tell them where they were or what direction to take. Wait, what if those things attack them? What if the people that might have been living in the forest was killed by those deadly figures? What if the same happened with the ones living in this highlands?

Too many questions, too little time and too much danger to deal with. Stars, Peridot loved intellectual challenges with some mystery in them, but a simple warning before being thrown to a dark forest should be taken seriously. It was the least she asked.

The mechanic just sighed and massaged her temples around her gemstone whose black spots were now growing out of it as vein-shaped lines, unbeknownst to her. Lapis hugged Peri to relieve her from the stressful situation even for a bit, ignoring the sudden tingling from the core of her own gemstone that was spreading to every angle of her back.

"Let's continue. Whatever mystery is this, we can solve it once we're home"

"Right... Right... Let's go" Lapis was the first in getting out of the strange room, Peridot behind of her. The green gem thought she was hallucinating but she kind of saw very thin, black lines covering Lazuli's back, coming from her gemstone. 'Maybe it's the weather. It's messing with my mind already' the engineer decided to let that aside and just focus in the real goal.

Some meters ahead of them was another bridge, a thick one that led to the entrance of the citadel. If there was one, of course. Two-thirds of the building were safe enough to walk in, the center part, though, looked almost collapsed and barely enduring the blizzard. Peridot checked it as best as she could, despite the strong, icy breezes that piled up snowflakes in her star visor.

"It's still standing, though huge chunks of it have fallen, maybe for the winds or an attack. Walking in the center could be disastrous, so going for the sides of this section might help" the mechanic analyzed.

"Good. Get comfortable in my back, I'll be careful while stepping" Lapis knelt, waiting for the other to climb to her back. The former technician, however, didn't like the idea for many reasons. Especially one.

"Laz, I told you before we got out of the forest, if we are going to get back home it will be together. You don't have to sacrifice yourself like this or in any way"

"What? I'm just giving you a lift. You're overthinking too much"

"Really? Ok, just to make sure we are in the same page on this, let's say that at the last moment this part of the bridge falls apart. You can't fly and we don't have any other resources to use as protection if we plummet to our deaths, so, you have two options: drag me down to my doom -something you would never do-, OR push me to the safest part of the bridge before you fall to your demise, which I don't approve"

Lapis stayed quite for a moment until she sighed defeatedly. Sometimes, she hated when Peridot was that perceptive.

"Look, it's not that I'm going to leave you. I told you I would never do that again. But If something happens, at least I want you to reach the peak safe and sound. Better one of us, which means you, instead of both dying here"

"I really appreciate your concerbs towards my well-being, Lapis. But I stand my ground: it will be us returning home or nothing"

The svelte gem rolled her eyes fondly. Peridot, again, stubborn as a mule, but as always so dedicate to her loved ones. That's something that Lapis had to work on more and she was lucky to have the engineer as a teacher. "So, we must protect each other, right?"

"Exactly!"

"Fine, Peri. As you wish" Lapis got to her feet and took the green gem's hand, walking ahead of her to test the durability of the bridge. Her companion also stepped as lightly as she could, trembling in fear when hearing the grumbling of the construction. It was getting weaker, they needed to hurry up.

Seconds became minutes, agonizingly long and slow until they jumped to the safest zone of the bridge, happy to not fall or slip. "Laz, I think I saw something. Come on!" Peridot ran a bit clumsily and entered the citadel, only to find just a moor with dead trees barely sticking out of the snow-y dunes and what it looked to be broken roofs of some houses.

"This place is more depressing than me in my worst days" Lapis mumbled dryly. Peridot advanced with caution of not sinking in the unstable ground, her comrade at her side, checking on her at every second.

The chilly wind got stronger with each step both gems took, Lazuli hardly could spot the moon as the blizzard kept hostigating her vision. Her right arm held Peri very close to her while she used the other one to protect her face. Then a sound, like a mix between a roar and a distorting machine was heard meters away. A red light was moving to many directions, checking for something. Lapis' thoughts were divided between believing some new menace was hiding on the snow storm or a lighthouse was being used to find intruders or survivors in what was left of the citadel, town or whatever place they were.

Unfortunately, it was the first option who got the 'Ping, ping, ping! You got it right!' reaction. If the svelte gem had blood, it would have frozen after seeing what she couldn't believe was some feet high looking for its next prey. It was that huge monster of the mural she and Peridot saw before crossing the bridge. The same mass of darkness as body, the same deer skull as head and the same crimson eyes. They were illuminating the area, too close to where the gems were standing.

'FUCK! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK! NOT RIGHT NOW!' In the blink of an eye, Lapis ran with Peridot in her arms again, searching for a place to hide before the hideous beast found them.

"Laz, what's wrong?! What's happening?!"

"Are you blind or what?! There is a monster, the same one from that painting, that is checking for something to eat!"

"WHAT?! IS IT REAL?!" Lazuli ignored her questioned and in a single movement, dove into the snow with Peri so they could hide under an old roof almost covered by the cold dunes.

The two Crystal Gems held to each other tightly, waiting anxiously for the monstrosity to go away. The red light from its eyes bathed the roof used as a hidden spot, but nothing happened. Peri peered through a little hole, her eyes were having a lot of difficulties to see due to the snow obscuring her vision. However, after some minutes focusing enough to check the area, the green gem noticed that the monstrosity had left it already.

"Is it gone?" Lapis asked, scared out of her mind.

"Y-Yeah, it is. The coast is clear now"

"Thank stars" the ocean gem and her crush sighed, exhausted. With all of their strength, a part of the roof was broken for them to get out, always attentive for danger.

The storm got worse in a matter of seconds, so much that they needed to step carefully while hugging each other unless they wanted to be separated by the strong winds. Peridot squeezed Lapis' hand to get her attention; the engineer pointed to an ice tunnel, though the blue gem could barely see it.

Jogging was difficult in an unstable field, but if you added a roaring blizzard plus a painfully draining hail, then the task became next to impossible. Peridot might have been buried by the snow and bits of ice already if it weren't for Lapis' arms that protected her and gave her a lift whenever her legs sank into the dunes.

They finally entered to the tunnel, a little beyond there was another mural but the two Crystal Gems didn't care as much as both did with just staying safe and rest.

Lapis felt like something was sliding off her right side. It was Peri who, in an instant, fell unconscious to the snow-covered ground. The veins-like lines in her body grew larger and multiplied faster than ever.

"Peri!! Peridot, wake up!" she held her crush by her shoulders and shook her. First smoothly, then more strongly. The little gem's eyes barely opened, she was in some sort of trance and her murmurs confessed the pain her body was suffering.

"L-La... R-Rest..." Peridot said in a whisper.

"What? Can you say it a bit louder?"

"R-R-Rest..." The mechanic was overtaken by a sudden slumber and Lapis, in the brink of a panick attack, encircled her arms around her companion to calm her nerves.

"Please don't poof, Peri. Not right now. We n-need to reach the light together" some tears rolled down her blue cheeks, landing in Peridot's face. Feeling tired suddenly, the ocean gem approached the mural to find a spot to rest for a moment. The painting in front of her was different from the one they found before: it didn't have the same dark vibe but it was really bizarre. The mysterious mountain was depicted in the superior base of the mural but upside down, its peak pointed to a valley on the inferior base.

"Weird" was the only thing Lazuli could pronounce before sitting in front of the painting, her back against it. 'Just a few minutes... I need to rest for a few minutes' those were the last thoughts on her mind before she fell asleep with Peri in her arms.

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

Her body felt like thousands of pounds of steel sinking in the ocean. The pressure was even worse than when she fused with Jasper years ago. Malachite was nothing compared to this sensation.

'Am I truly dying now?' Lapis' mind, strangely, didn't went into a full anxiety attack, maybe because of how tired it was to process all that was happening.

She couldn't open her eyes to see the dream her subconscious was creating, or perharps there wasn't anything to witness. How Lapis could know? Everything around her was black.

'Wait a second. Am I having that same dream when I'm tortured by distorted images?' Fear got a vicious grip in her heart, she was shaking like jelly, expecting the worst to happen.

"--r --o!" a young female voice surprised the ocean gem, but there was no one in her surroundings.

"--nd... --ds... --e...--es... --ing!" another voice, this one was familiar. It was the same one from when Lapis fell unconscious after the shadow's attack.

"Who's there?! Come on, just show yourself already!" Lazuli yelled. Seriously, all this dramatic mystery was getting on her nerves, she didn't want to deal with more unknown voices in her dreams while being left out of whatever they were talking about.

#lapis lazuli #Peridot #Lapidot #dark #Angst #Mystery #Drama #video game inspired

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ranekvilmas · 4 years

Text

Uraveled (Chapter 1, Part 3)

Plans, strategies filled his mind.

“I could veil walk us both out of here. I could veil walk away and run behind him. Blythe could attack him and I could distract so she could-”

Her warning was heard, but not before the dart hit him. Even with the padded gear, enough to deflect a knife, was not made for a thin projectile at that speed and velocity to directly hit.

He sank to one knee, the pain as all of his nerves fired at once, causing the distraction of focus and a roar of rage.. The wolf howled as it was empowered, draining most of the rune's power and overloading his mind. He became a passenger again, and the pained howl was the last thing Ranek did before the enraged wolf was lost to hunger and blood lust.

The feral worgen looked between the two creatures, not hearing what was immediately said, but the notion seeped through and he looked at the large feline, lips peeling back into a snarl. The curse had found a focus.

He lunged at the feline, swiping wildly at first before gaining a better hold on the body it now had control over. And back in the far recesses of his mind, Ranek screamed and pulled on the bars of the cage he was now trapped in, watching as his body began to assail the woman he loved.

As the hunter's lips curl higher and higher in his smile, Blythe takes slow steps away from her friend, her eyes wide and her ears low. "I'll leave you two to it," the hunter purrs, toxin in his tone. And with that, he turns around and steps away into the forest, his gait slow and smooth with confidence.

Blythe narrowly manages to leap backwards to avoid Ranek's first swipe, but the second catches her across the muzzle. "Rane'..." she whimpers, a last, desperate plea as necessity and desire battle within her. Eventually, necessity wins, and she charges forth to meet him head-on, shifting mid-pace in an attempt to plow into him with almost half a ton of ursine muscle. Her goal seems to be purely incapacitate rather than actually hurting him, as she swings her massive head for his when she gets close enough.

The worgen, it's basic instincts focused solely on killing and eating, do not comprehend the notion of shapeshifting. There is a pause, split second, that the worgen does not understand what happened, and by then it is too late. The blow knocks the worgen away easily, hurling him a few feet away and onto his back.

As he rolled to a stop, the worgen takes stock of the situation and gets up quickly. The prey is now large, easily double his size. It plots, flexing its claws and snarls, blinking the stars out of its eyes. It crouches low, moving closer, but at an angle to spot openings, wounds and vulnerabilities. Knowing it needs to stay away from the jaws, it focuses on her back and rear legs, darting to close the distance.

Inside, Ranek used the small window of time it is dazed to focus what is left of his mind, straining and trying to exert some amount of control away from the wolf. “You.. and I.. had an agreement! We are one, and you need.. to Stop!”

Blythe doesn't pause. She lumbers forth, her chosen form requiring great time and distance to reach her full speed, but she still manages to get to a decent pace by the time she reaches him. She lifts one paw to attempt to slam it into the side of his head, keeping her claws flexed away from him, but misses due to his superior speed and catches a claw to her flank for the mistake. A rumbling growl passes her dark lips as she slides to a stop, turning to face him once more.

"C'mon, lad. Yer in there somewhere. I know i'," rolls her gravelly voice, warped to be nearly unrecognisable by the form. For only a few moments, hope overrides her sense and she leaves herself dangerously open.

There is the smell of blood in the air, it can feel it on it's claws. It licks its chops, fingers twitching in anticipation for a meal. From it's throat comes a wet growl, sneering at the large beast.

It tries to circle the bear, but knows it has to brave the jaws and massive paws to get any damage done. But then it.. stopped. A sound permeating from it that made it's head tilt.

“Gods damn it, STOP! If you kill her.. Your life is forfeit. OUR life is forfeit!”

The man pulled and jerked on the imaginary cage, his will straining to grasp hold of a creature that had once been in harmony with him for so long.

“Lad” was all that could make it through. It was small, the tiniest of purchases for Ranek to hold onto. He raged, howled like a mad wolf, screaming and fighting his own body once more.

“Please.. just hold out, love. Beat this body if you have to.. Just.. We made a promise...”

The feral beast hesitated for two heartbeats, confused and becoming more frustrated. It charged Blythe once more, on all fours now, looking to jump onto the ursine druid.

Hope. Hope is her downfall, as it always will be. Blythe roars with shock when he lands on her back, having been too slow to react to his lunge. She flails and rises on her hind paws in an effort to shake him, but her speed isn't nearly enough to produce enough momentum to throw him off. Additionally, his weight almost matches her own, slowing and weighing her down as she rapidly exhausts herself trying to find freedom.

Eventually, she pitches to the side and rolls with the aim of crushing him under her mass just briefly enough to steal away his consciousness.

Once more, the worgen underestimates his prey. Blythe has the advantage of sentience and bulk. The feral worgen has speed, but is moving on instincts matches her hesitation to want to harm him.

The beast's frustration at trying to fight the beast, yelps in surprise as it is thrown, looking up to see the bulk of the bear land on it. It snarls and thrashes, but it's powerful legs are trapped, and all it can do is aggressively nip and use on hand to try and pry her off. The fight is a losing one, the air knocked out of it's lungs does the most damage to the fighting power.

“Gods.. thank you, Blythe!” He calls out, knowing she cannot hear him. The blow was gaining a little more purchase as the wolf is distracted on it's prey. He focuses that part of his mind, drawing from the rune and building a barrier to slowly expand his influence once more. He can see it.. the wolf. It is not the wolf that he tamed long ago, it 's fur is red, and it wants to feed and rip and tear. But it is frantic now, losing consciousness and it gives Ranek time to strike, forcing his will to hammer at the sickness.

Not wanting to suffocate her love by accident, Blythe is swift to roll off of Ranek and back to her paws, but she stands ready to strike should he attack again. She bleeds from gashes and holes left by his claws while she tried to throw him off, as well as minor bite wounds to the back of her neck and shoulders. None of the wounds are serious, thankfully, but they stain her thick fur regardless.

The commotion, however, is bound to draw the attention of lesser hunters, and she glances over her shoulder to stare wide-eyed into the woods upon hearing footsteps. Abandoning sense, the druid charges forward and, if she's fast enough, lowers her head to grab Ranek by the scruff and drag him through the forest, being as gentle with her teeth as she's able.

The feral is breathing, but has seemed to become passive for the most part. As Ranek fights his own curse, the body twitches. Claws flex, feet jerk and his maw opens in a silent roar, maybe scream?

When she plucked him up and began to run, there was little resistance, just growls of confusion. Occasionally the claws would lazily swipe, the motor functions seemed to spasm.

Inside, the pair fought tooth and nail for control. Ranek pooled his strength to fight the cruse made manifest. Blythe's attacks and robbing the body of oxygen to fight gave him the upper hand, but he had to move fast.

His hands suddenly moved, clawing at his own skin as if to tear the wolf out of him. He snarled, weakly thrashing as Ranek started to gain control of his own body, a raspy word struggling from his lips, flecked with his own blood. "L... l.... ov...e".

Desperate to escape the area, Blythe pays no mind to Ranek's change in behavior, simply charging through the forest and towards safety.

She howls past her grip on his scruff, however, when a limp swipe chances to catch her across the eyes, though she manages to close her seeing eye in time to protect it. Squeezing her blind eye shut, she continues on. Only when he starts clawing at himself does the druid stop dead in her tracks, barely a few loping strides from the forest's edge.

@theunfortunatedruid

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chaoskirin · 5 years

Text

Short Story--Afraid

Luka deals with the aftermath of trauma by coming to terms with her fears. Letting go requires a trust that she barely feels ready to give. Genre: Sci-fi/Fantasy Rating: PG-13 for some blood/gore Word Count: 3689/10 pages

Okay to reblog.

Afraid

"What are you afraid of?" Vilo asked. He sat across from her in a high-backed chair, its style somewhere between ornate and common. Upholstered in scarlet, its wavy legs tapered downward into clawed feet. Luka counted the multitude of tiny brass studs on the edges of the cushions and the scratches in the gold leaf. She focused on the dangling red threads which had accumulated from years of use. None of that really mattered, but it did give her a reason to avoid answering the question.

"Luka."

"You ask this every week," she answered, glancing up at him. His stylus remained poised over his terminal.

"And I think it's time you answered," Vilo said, setting the terminal aside. He folded his hands on his lap, patient as ever, and offered a smile. When Luka met his eyes, she noticed the tell-tale green shine indicating his...

Condition.

All therics could see it. Some people got away with telling their friends and family that they had elvish blood to explain the strange cast to their eyes, but therics saw something deeper. Something no one else could see, which set them apart from everyone else. Vilo would never be able to deny what he was to Luka, no more than she could deny it to him.

It's why she chose him above all the others. He possessed a unique perspective that other therapists lacked. And sure, her mandated recovery and treatment plan involved seeking out a psychologist and coming to terms with her trauma, but Luka refused to settle for the in-house counselors the hospital threw at her. If she intended to recover, she was going to do it properly. And if that meant seeking out a theric--who also happened to be a counselor--in the next town over, that's just what she'd do.

But she hated that she could see that emerald shimmer. That emerald reminder...

"What do you want me to say?" she asked. "You know what I'm afraid of."

"I chose to become what I am," Vilo said. "You were attacked. I don't share your fears."

No one might ever suspect. He really could have had elvish blood, after all, with his long black hair and ashy skin. He was older, but not old. Sophisticated, with barely a hint of the tell-tale wrinkles and lines that might give away his age. He bore a sharp contrast to Luka, whose hair at one temple started coming in grey not a week after her mauling. She hadn't slept a full night in so long that the hollows around her eyes were permanently dark.

But Vilo's expression always held a gentle cast, which Luka found comforting even when her doubts started to take over. She couldn't for the life of her figure out why he'd chosen to give up long life and a successful career to become a monster.

No. He said she shouldn't think of therics as monsters. Shapeshifters could be dangerous if they wanted to be, but the general population didn't consider people like Vilo and Luka an outright threat. Sure, therics were held with some contempt and a healthy dose of suspicion, but they were no longer run out of town. They weren't considered beasts and horrors. People were wary, but not terrified.

Usually.

Luka wrapped her arms more tightly around herself.

"You seem tense. Are you in danger of shifting?" Vilo asked.

The gentle question drew Luka out of her thoughts, and she shook her head. "No. No, I have that under control." It had, after all, been half a year--or thereabouts--since she was attacked, and she hadn't accidentally shifted for the last couple months. "Anyway..." she added, trailing off as she tried to decide whether or not to go on. "I starve myself before our sessions--"

"Luka!"

"I don't want to take the chance, all right? It hurts!"

"Luka, if you have it under control, you need to trust yourself," Vilo said. "The emotion-fueled changes stop once your blood adapts. You're at that point. Please. You don't have to take extra precautions anymore. Especially not those that hurt you."

Her stomach growled in protest. Vilo sighed, pulled open his desk drawer, and retrieved a granola bar. "Even if you're afraid of Emosis, this is barely enough to fuel a change. Please. Is that also why you're tired?"

After a moment of hesitation, Luka accepted the offering, tearing open the paper wrapping as slowly as possible to avoid eating it. "If I'm tired... If there's not enough energy..."

Vilo pressed his lips together.

She supposed she shouldn't exhaust herself, either. "I can't sleep anyway. I always..." She trailed off, curling her lip.

Bitterly, she tore at the paper.

As soon as the scent of honey reached her nose, Luka could no longer resist. She'd pushed herself to the point of near-collapse. Everything within her screamed for relief. Somehow, the granola bar disappeared, though she barely remembered devouring it.

"Better?" Vilo asked.

"No," she snapped, petulant.

He chuckled. "Well, we've covered one fear. Promise you'll be fed and well-rested next time?"

Not one to lie, Luka said, "I'll think about it."

Vilo shrugged a bit and reached for his terminal. That was all the answer he'd get for now. "Well, then. I guess that's as good as I can ask for."

He waited. This was the part where she was supposed to talk.

Somehow, Luka felt that if she kept those fears inside, she could prevent them from becoming real. Even though he denied it, Vilo must have some idea of her worries. Every theric--from the most dangerous tiger to the sweetest, tamest deer--feared becoming feral, after all, and she knew she'd at least mentioned those fears in passing. How could she accept this terrifying reality without addressing those fears in detail?

Fine. Fine.

"If my friends find out..." she started.

She waited for Vilo to interject. He didn't.

"If they find out, there's people who... Well. Theric history..." Usually, Luka spoke with eloquence, if not a bit of sarcasm and bite. Today, though, words failed her. She imagined them as a torrent locked behind a dam, with only a tiny trickle spilling through a minute fissure. Her thoughts existed en masse, but there were far too many to properly express.

Break it down.

Carefully. Brick by brick.

"Back before people knew the cycle," she began, chipping away at the barrier. "When it all seemed random. When therics would... Go crazy."

"Feral," Vilo reminded her. "It's part of what we are. An avoidable part of what we are. But regardless, it's not crazy or insanity. No different than migrating birds, or the songs of whales."

Luka felt 'crazy' was a more appropriate descriptor. Sure, those who went feral didn't do so on purpose. They were at the whim of their very nature. But a feral theric was a deadly theric, no matter how you framed it, which meant she'd have to be careful for the rest of her life. Besides, 'crazy' seemed to be the term every non-theric preferred; perhaps if Luka labeled herself as such, the rest of the world would accept her?

But she'd play Vilo's game. "When they used to go feral, they'd kill people. That's what everyone remembers, isn't it? Everyone talks about Besef the Insane. Davir the Forest Shadow. Even the one who attacked me, they're calling him--"

"The one who attacked you," Vilo interrupted. "You're worried you'll become like him."

"If I forget," Luka agreed. "Just once. If I forget just once--I know it's not likely right now, but if I get too comfortable or too... complacent. In a few years, maybe..."

"Turn your fear into a warning," Vilo said. "Ground yourself with it. Use it to remind yourself of the rules. The limits."

"But if..." Luka repeated. "I could hurt someone. I could kill someone. And I'm a Null Magic, and--I mean people are afraid of spiders as it is. But a giant spider, with venom..."

"I can't say it will never happen. But that's why you're here. To learn. To temper your fears. To do your best to prevent it."

The fear manifested as a painful stinging in all her senses as tears tried to form. She bit down on her lip to force the emotion away. To bury it. "I could be so careful," she said. "But one little slip-up... If I trusted someone enough to tell them, they might not trust me anymore. They could leave. And if I shift in front of someone..."

"If someone learns about you and abandons you, were they worth knowing in the first place?"

"Maybe?" Luka muttered. "Some people don't know much about thericry. If they'd learn, maybe it'd be different. But if I wasn't goin' through this, I know I'd be just like everyone else. Thinking about old superstitions and the ones who've gone feral and... I've only just learned about all the advances and the treatments. But I can't ask anyone else to read everything I have. Even if I did, I could still end up alone."

Vilo was silent for a long time, then he asked again, "What are you afraid of?"

"I'm afraid he'll find out," Luka said, unbidden.

"Who?"

"Claey. My brother. My twin. I have this dream..." She shook her head, waving the sentiment away with a slash of one hand. "It's hard to describe. It's more like... I feel it."

"I am a mage of Nebula," Vilo said. "I find it comes in handy when my patients are dealing with traumatic dreams." He stood, grabbed the arms of his chair, and dragged it closer. The clawed feet made a gentle prrrrrt sound against the low-pile rug. Once he was a mere arm's reach away, he re-settled himself and held out his hand. "May I?"

"Will I see...?"

"I'm afraid so. Yes."

But she wouldn't have to describe it. She wouldn't have to tell it from her own perspective. To give it to an outside observer to interpret...

He withdrew his hand. "It's okay. When you're ready--"

"No," Luka interrupted. "I am. I just..."

He reached toward her again. As she took his hand, she felt a gentle peacefulness fall over her. Not quite sleep, but something just on its outskirts. Her breathing came easier for just a moment, before the swirls of pleasant color became something much darker.

---

Memories stored themselves in different ways, depending on whether you were a human, faun, harpy, or anything else, really. And each species had their own unique boundaries to navigate in order to get to those memories.

Nothing ever disappeared. Sentient minds contained more storage space than even the most sophisticated terminal. Had more processing power than a linked caustal server. The only thing that could rival a sentient mind in sheer wonder was another mind--the astrally-linked consciousness of a dragon. Such a wonderful computer had no need to delete its data; even at death, the natural mind would have room enough within its folds to store another ten lifetimes, each memory preserved as a pristine treasure.

It was one of the primary reasons Vilo studied Nebula's magic.

Even dreams remained in their full sensory splendor, tucked away within the deep subconscious. Sometimes he spent hours searching for them, following the faded trails of fear or concern or sometimes even resoluteness.

But Luka's dream swirled right at the forefront of her mind, so he only needed to coax the sharpness of it with the slightest thought.

Dreamsearching, as far as Vilo was concerned, came with a single unfortunate caveat: he always experienced everything through the perspective of the dream's originator. Better mages could create an invisible vessel for themselves within the dream and hide in plain sight, so as not to alter the memory of the person with whom they were dreamsearching. He wished he had that talent, but this would do.

And so he stared through Luka's eyes upon a trail of blood, which led down a hill and into a shadowy copse of trees. In all his years as a therapist, he'd never seen a more violent image.

He felt her concern and confusion and hesitation. As Vilo was a middling mage of Nebula at best, he could do nothing to block the dream from her. He tried, but as the image started to darken within his own sight, he gave up and allowed the dream to continue.

And so the horror played back as it always had, recurring in its entirety.

Week after week.

They passed a severed leg. An arm. All that was left of Luka's twin, according to the reports.

When they finally reached the treeline, Claey met them and prevented them from going further. Incomprehensibly, he still had both arms and both legs, which made a twisted sort of sense since Luka had never seen him otherwise. Dreams contradicted themselves terribly at times, like a poor liar caught in his own trap.

Bloodied and torn, Claey appeared as if he'd been through a grievous battle. His wounds shifted, like red-worm gashes meandering macabre paths across his skin. Occasionally, pearl-white bones would appear, glowing through the forest's shadow.

Neither Claey nor Luka said a word, but the understanding passed between them that this was Luka's fault. Had she not begged him to accompany her to collect the charged stones--glowing rocks suddenly appeared around them on the hill--this wouldn't have happened. They both knew a feral theric hunted the hill near their home, but Luka made them take that chance anyway. Selfish. Selfish Luka. Didn't you care about anyone else?

Claey extended an arm to point, an accusing scowl on his face. Behind him, in the darkest shadows of the trees, an indistinct, vaguely bear-shaped creature tore at him with serrated claws. Wherever the beast touched skin, parts of Claey would fade away into nothing. Eventually, he hung between the trees like a ghost, as the creature prowled around his faded remains.

"I will tell them about you," Claey finally said, his voice hollow. "I will warn them so this never happens again."

"I won't," Luka said. "I wouldn't..."

"I will tell them," he repeated. "It must not happen again."

"I'll be alone," Luka said.

And once more, Claey spoke. "I will tell everyone that you are a killer."

---

As the images faded, Luka had only enough energy to stare blankly ahead.

It took Vilo a few seconds longer to return. His draping sleeves rustled against the chair as he cradled his head in both hands.

Perhaps seeing the dream again had been worth it, if she could share the trauma. At least one person believed her--one person understood why sleep came to her with such difficulty. Because when she was alone, it was all she could think about. And if she closed her eyes, she saw...

"I'm sorry," she said. "I should have warned you."

Vilo sat up, taking a deep breath. It took him quite some time to recover. Between breaths, he explained, "I lack the magical talent of other mages, but I do pride myself on being able to separate my patient's dreams from my own feelings. It's all right. It's like watching a film, really."

He still looked shaken, and Luka still felt bad.

"That must be very hard for you," he finally said. "I can see why you think it's your fault."

"It is," Luka insisted. "If I hadn't--"

"Can you predict the future?"

She shook her head. "But I knew there was a theric around."

"Did you call it? Make it come to you?"

"Of course not."

"And if everything had gone fine and you both went home safe, would you have said you predicted that, too? Because if you're able to predict all the bad things in life, you must be able to foresee the good, too."

"I don't... I don't think I would have thought about it at all."

Vilo nodded. "Maybe you made a bad judgment call. But you didn't cause what happened to happen. The universe operates based on the decisions of billions. Trillions. And unless you effected every single decision that led up to that very moment... Claey's death wasn't your fault. And what happened to you... That wasn't your fault, either."

It infuriatingly made sense. An ugly sort of sense. One Luka could still poke holes in and argue against. "But now I--"

"Ah! Now! Yes. Concentrating on the present. We've got you out of the past. Excellent."

"That's not what I meant!"

Vilo shrugged. Getting to his feet, he moved the chair back a few steps and reached for his terminal again. "Go on, then."

She narrowed her eyes. "Now I have to worry about what people think. What my friends think." And there weren't many of them. Luka kept people at arm's-length, not out of any personal necessity or fear, but because her focus tended to wander toward her projects. Her mechanima. Living creations with artificial intelligence that rivaled life.

"They can't think anything if you don't tell them anything. They can't support you if you cut them out."

Maybe it was time. "There's someone--But if he finds out. If he sees the scars..." She scratched at the most obvious one, a pair of slashes on her lower left arm, still healing and angry-red. But etched across her back, covered by two layers of clothing--just in case--stretched a mosaic of pain. Injuries caused by a theric might heal on the inside, but the scarring would last forever. And if someone saw, just the quickest of glimpses, they would know.

And they'd judge her.

Luka rubbed her shoulder, where the were-bear clamped its teeth down all the way to the bone. It still hurt and limited her mobility, but the underlying tissue damage would heal completely with time. A lot of time. But if her shirt collar slipped sideways just a little bit, someone could see the scars...

"You have to have friends," Vilo said. "Everyone needs companionship."

"If they find out--"

"The might. But if you don't trust people, you'll never know how they'll react. They could help you. They could support you. Have your best interests at heart."

"Or they could... Do the opposite. Of that."

"But we can't predict the future. You can't live in fear because you're afraid."

"But..." She hesitated. "Claey--"

"Claey is gone. He's out of your life." The words were harsh, cutting straight to the point. "Even the mightiest necromancer couldn't bring him back."

Right or not, it hurt to hear. Curling her lip, Luka jumped to her feet and faced Vilo, hands clenched so tightly that her fingernails cut into her palms. Before--weeks ago, when she was first hurt, this sudden temper would have triggered a change. She would have started shifting. But with as much control as she had over it now, she felt nothing, even after devouring the granola bar. It defused the explosive anger. Not entirely, but enough. "He's always here!" she snapped.

"Who is he really?" Vilo asked, infuriatingly calm. "In your dream."

"What?" Luka demanded. Honestly, it was the last question she expected, especially because he'd just seen it. Every piece of it, every blood-soaked blade of grass. Every cut and bruise. Every piece of her twin she'd left behind.

She sat back down.

"Besides mages of Nebula, who can affect your dreams?"

"But he's there... He's so real."

"Who is he really?" Vilo asked again.

Why hadn't the answer been obvious before? "It's me?" Luka asked. Then with more confidence, repeated, "It's me."

"Is your brother going to return and tell your friends what happened to you? Is he really out there, waiting for you to get close to someone so he can warn them about what you are?"

She hesitated, the what if still on her mind. Even if he could--even if the 'mightiest necromancer' could resurrect Claey and bring him back, would he really hurt her like that? Would he really blame her for his death?

"No," Luka said.

---

Processing her session took a couple days, during which Luka both denied the truth and came to terms with it. Claey died. He was gone. He wasn't coming back. And her life and every action she took had to fall under her own responsibility. She had to live now. Not in the past, which she couldn't change, nor in the future, of which she had no control.

She picked up her pocket terminal several times, only to set it back down again. Frustrated one night, and trapped in her room because of her affliction, she spun a web around it and threw it out the window as far as she could lob it. Retrieving it later was a labor of necessity and love.

To distract herself, she created.

As the sun set one night, she set her project aside, picking up a shard of charged stone instead. It was the same stuff she'd dragged Claey out to gather the night they were attacked... With the right wiring, a bit of directive and a starter personality, the tiny, fingernail-sized chip could power one of her steel and wire creatures for years. It glowed faintly in her hand as she rolled it between her fingers.

She couldn't undo the past. She couldn't put the stone back where she found it and fix everything. She couldn't negate her loss out of sheer will.

Setting the stone aside, Luka turned her attention to her terminal. If she called someone, she couldn't predict what would happen. Maybe it wouldn't work out. Maybe she'd be hurt again, or maybe... "Goodbye, Claey," she muttered. They'd talk again one day. But right now, he was gone, and she had to take care of herself.

On her terminal, she entered a code she'd dialed so many times, she had it memorized. Until this night, though, she never managed to complete the call. Out of fear, out of reluctance, out of an overabundance of caution... She really couldn't say. This time, though, as her heart skipped a beat, Luka tapped transmit...

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theaerofanfics · 5 years

Text

Fanged: 1-- The Start of the End

A/N: Hey peeps! It’s Kani coming in with a WWE AU Fanfic! \O/ been off and on trying to write this but after reading and watching true blood and a bunch of other supernatural movies, I’m here sending this to ya. Might put this on Ao3 as well. Leave comments, questions, whatevs in my inbox or even on the post!

Hope you enjoy!

Charlotte put the shot glass down and she made a simple motion, watching the bartender fill her glass up with what seemed to be a red drink. She gave him a small thank you and she drank it down easily. She let out a breath and she looked up at the TV as it spoke.

“The Vampire Council has recently made contact with the president and are currently at the White House in speaking about their current citizenship status as more and more supernatural beings are revealing themselves. At this time—”

“Hey AJ.”

The bartender turned and he grinned. “Yeah, Charlotte?”

“You mind changing the channel? The news is somethin’ we don’t need to hear anymore.”

AJ chuckled and he changed to channel to sports and he spoke. “Why? Because everyone is finally revealin’ themselves to the humans?”

“Yeah. I have to hear it from my dad, I don’t need to hear it from the news what I already learn, you know?”

“I know what ya mean. The Wolf King was tellin’ us pack masters about how he is sendin’ some of us with the Vampiric Council so we can show unity between everyone.”

Charlotte nodded and watched as AJ had walked away to another customer that come in. He didn’t forget to give her one more shot before he did and she downed it and then put a few dollars next to the shot glass and stood up. She got her fill, at least, of blood. It would last her the rest of the night and she needed to be somewhere. She moved to head out. She went through the door and she let out a breath as she moved over to her car. It was a fancy car of 2017 VW Jetta and it was a maroon color. Instantly driving off, she kept her eyes on the road and her hands on the wheel. She sighed softly. This was going to be a mess, Charlotte kept feeling it in her gut. Every time she’d see something about it on the news for the past few weeks, her gut feeling kept appearing and urging her to keep her head down. Everyone should in her opinion, but who was to say everyone listened to their gut?

Her car went to a stop in front of a home and she got out of the car. As she started to walk towards the door, she was stopped by a quick force that almost pushed her to the ground.

“Bayley! At least let her know you’re going to do that!”

Charlotte chuckled a bit as she looked at her friend Sasha and then at Bayley, who basically clung to her. “Hey Bay.”

Bayley pulled away with a smile on her face. “Sorry, I just… I got excited. I feel like I haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Well it has been a month, right?” Sasha walked over to them and put her purple hair up in a bun. “You’re lookin’ good, Blondie.”

Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Thanks, Sash. It’s okay Bayley. Is Becky here?” She asked as she started to walk towards the house.

“Yeah, she’s inside scarfing down food I made her. You can go in.”

Charlotte chuckled as Bayley had opened the door and they walked inside. The home was to Sasha and Bayley, with the occasion of Becky popping up needing a place to stay. It wasn’t much of a problem to Sasha nor Bayley because the four of them had been friends for years. Charlotte lived a good distance away and Becky was the nomad of the group. Somehow, someway she’d find her way back to the house.

It was known as their “clubhouse”. The outside was painted white, but the inside was mostly made of wood with wood floors except in the bedrooms, which were of tan carpet. Bayley would say she loved it and would roll around in it, much to Sasha’s slight distaste for it.

Charlotte and them walked into the kitchen and Becky stopped midway of stuffing her face. Charlotte couldn’t help but shake her head and spoke softly. “Why am I not surprised at what I’m seeing?”

“Because I eat like no tomorrow.” Becky heard Charlotte laugh and she spoke again. “Alright, we’re all here. Who called for us to meet this time?”

“Sasha did.” Charlotte sat next to Becky and leaned back on her chair and raised an eyebrow. “What does the Kitty Cat have to tell us now?”

Sasha flipped Charlotte off as she and Bayley sat down. “This vampire coming out of the coffin deal they’re doing.” Sasha stated softly. “Everyone is talking about it and I want to make sure we all stay safe.”

“Why?” Becky said after she munched on more steak. “Shouldn’t it make things better for us all, especially Charlotte?”

Charlotte shrugged. “I mean it could be, but I know Sasha’s worry.” She sighed. “This could backfire with the humans that don’t like any of our kind.”

“Your kind.” Bayley corrected. “Yours is more perceived as a terror than either of ours.”

“Well no one knows about you Bay because shapeshifters are just seen along with the werewolves like Bex and the werecats like Sash.”

Bayley whined. “Well we only go for animals mostly, alright? At least we don’t suck blood out of people!”

They fell silent. That usually was the issue and talk of the friendship. Charlotte was more of the predator while they were the prey.

Charlotte lowered her gaze a moment before looking up. “Anyways, my kind could have a backfire. Though, for now we should play it safe as far as you guys. I already have to be registered essentially as a vampire once their talk at the White House is done.”

Sasha sighed. “You ever thought this would actually happen, Charlotte? After the many centuries you’ve been alive?”

The blonde thought a moment as the room was silent before she spoke. “No. Most vampires are cowards. We never would have spoken about the real truth of who we are unless a vampire took over the country itself first, which wouldn’t have happened since we can’t really stand sunlight. This, I think, is a something we finally are doing that is going to bite us in the ass, but I can’t make them do anything. I can’t even get my father to do anything logical at this point. He’s with the “hip, new vampires” and their ideal of wanting to do this. Though he’s been proclaiming this idea for years. He doesn’t shut up about it.”

“He doesn’t shut up about anything…” Becky mumbled. Everyone looked over at her and she shrugged. “What? It’s true!”

“It is. I just think it is amusing that you said it and not me.” Charlotte smirked playfully.

“Okay, meeting adjourned!” Bayley started to get up but Sasha pulled her right back down and she groaned. “What, Sash?”

“We’re not done.” Another groan left her lover’s lips and Sasha looked at Charlotte. “Do you know what’s gonna happen next?”

The blonde shrugged. “If I am thinking correctly… They’ll start mass producing that synthetic blood that AJ’s bar sells. We’ll start being looked at as aliens do in those movies and shows where we look fascinating and people are probably going to start some segregation deal at bars and clubs when we barely go to human ones anyways.” Charlotte let out a breath. “Who knows. The world is unpredictable and if I could speak on what the next steps are, I would. However, all I know is that because my dad is one of the higher ups I have to be registered.”

“How does that work?” Becky asked.

Charlotte shrugged. “Some invisible barcode is what my dad said.” She shut her eyes for a moment, her hair sitting straight up on her neck almost.

“Can I go now?” Bayley whined.

“Jesus… Just go Bay.” Bayley nuzzled teasingly against Sasha’s cheek, much to her dismay, and she took off into her computer room. Sasha watched Charlotte, who was eerily quiet, but made no notion of it. She then just looked at Becky and started to speak to her about some things.

Charlotte didn’t realize she and Becky were alone until she felt the other’s hand on her shoulder. “Hm?” She opened her eyes and looked over, seeing Becky grinning at her slightly. “I missed something?”

“Well besides Bayley leavin’, Sasha following a little while after she and I spoke.” Becky shrugged. “Nothin’ really. I’m just making sure you’re alright.”

“I’m fine. Just… this whole thing makes the hairs on my neck raise up.”

“Being registered?” The blonde nodded. “Well I won’t lie, I’m worried about it too. Sounds like some crazy thing they want so everyone can be separate.”

“Yeah… but I want to talk about something else.” Charlotte looked into Becky’s eyes. “You left abruptly last time we were together.” She heard a sigh leave the werewolf’s lips. “You got scared again.”

“Yeah, well it’s terrifying being attracted to a vampire and having her be so intoxicating that it makes me feel drunk.”

Charlotte raised an eyebrow. “So I’m intoxicating to you, huh?” She said, pulling Becky’s chair closer with a smirk. “How interesting that you say that…”

“If you’re using your little powers on me, it’s working.”

“I’m not.”

“You sure?”

“Very sure. Now shut up and just kiss me already.”

Becky didn’t hesitate for it. It had been months away from each other. Any contact for months was missed and needed, but whenever they got too close to making love, Becky chickened out. Charlotte knew why: Becky was afraid of getting bit. She heard the stories of how intoxicating and addicting it could be for not only the werewolf but the vampire as well. She didn’t want them to go down that road. Not when they had built so much trust.

Charlotte pulled Becky onto her lap and her arms wrapped securely around Becky’s waist while Becky’s hands had ran through the golden hair the she had missed feeling. It was so soft and felt like what she would assume a cloud would feel like.

What felt like an eternity of want and need had be dealt with as the vampire and werewolf had made it into Becky’s bedroom, only really making out there. They then pulled away and stared into each other’s eyes, the blue one’s meeting the hazel as they just laid in the bed. Becky was the first to say anything, having it follow a sigh. “You have to go, don’t you? Be the Princess and all?”

“Dutchess and I don’t know.” Charlotte sat up and grabbed her phone out of her jacket that was on the floor. She saw the time, 9:07pm¸and sighed. “Yeah, I do. I have to meet with my dad in about… half an hour to speak about this news of the Vampire Council meeting the President thing.” She grabbed her jacket and moved to slip it on when she felt a kiss on her neck. She smiled a little and looked over, seeing Becky smiling at her. “I know… I’ll back before sunrise.”

“Who said I’d be here when you get back?”

“Because you’re been gone too long and you missed me.” She kissed the other softly for a moment. “If it was any other time” She said as she pulled away, “You wouldn’t have made out with me enough to basically shred my only shirt I have here.” Charlotte saw the blush rise in Becky’s face and laughed as she got up to go to the closet.

“Whatever, I couldn’t help it.”

“Mhm.”

“I’m serious.”

“I know.” Charlotte slipped on one of Becky’s shirts, which read “The Man” and she looked at the other with a smirk. “I’m the Man now, huh?”

“In your dreams, Princess.” With one last kiss from the blonde, Becky watched her go. She only hoped that the news was good news and nothing too bad, though knowing the rumours about the council she had her doubts it was good. Running a hand through her hair, she laid back down and looked up at the ceiling. She was about to drift to sleep when her phone vibrated, picking it up and seeing a text from her friend, Dean.

[Text: Dean]: B, you in town?

Becky grinned a little and started to respond.

[Text: Becky]: I am. What’s up?

[Text: Dean]: Pack meeting just finished. Roman wants to talk to you if you’re in town he said. He probably just misses your quirky nature and puns.

[Text: Becky]: Told you they were golden. Tell him I’ll be there in 20.

Becky got up and put on her shit and black leather jacket and she slipped on her boots. Taking a breath, she walked out to the kitchen, seeing Sasha and Bayley being rather adorable and she rolled her eyes and grinned. “Okay, you two.” Sasha and Bayley looked over, almost blushing a bit. “I gotta go see Roman and Dean so I’ll be back.”

“Alright. Be safe. Watch out for the hunters.” Sasha said softly.

“They’ve been high on the lookout as of late.” Bayley added. Becky nodded and with a swift move, she walked down the hall of the home and out the front door. She got on her motorcycle and instantly drove off.

#charlynch #baysha #wwe au fanfic #wwe fanfic #wwe fanfiction #wrestling fanfiction #wrestling fanfic #kani speaks or writes

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