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sasstrash · 3 years

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Please forgive me I've been super focused on school

The Silent Queen 6; A Royal Morning

Raven woke up the same she always did - quietly. No one ever really noticed her until she was outside her room and hallway back in the castle but at school, people smiled and waved at her the second she left her dorm with Maddie. She guessed that the news of her arrival had spread and a lot of people wanted to know the daughter of the Evil Queen. Raven grimaced at the thought, she would have preferred not to be known at all. To just be a minor character in a smaller story. With a happy ending. But that wasn’t who she was, she was Raven Queen and this was her life.

Walking down the corridors to the castleteria was mostly uneventful aside from all the other students who continued looking at her and pointing things out. It was times like these that she wished she could hear. But then again she wasn’t sure how well she’d adjust to suddenly being able to hear. The castleteria itself is big and crowded with white lighting that made everything look brighter than what Raven was used to, many eyes looked over to her and Raven felt herself subconsciously tug at a lavender streak in her hair. This was going to be a long school year.

Cerise stood up and waved over at the pair of newcomers from her table where she sat with Cedar, Hunter, and a few girls who Raven vaguely remembered from yesterday who had been with that blonde- Apple, Apple White. The next Snow White, the one Raven would eventually have to poison. Raven stopped moving for a second at the thought of her destiny. Eyes wide she almost started to shake until Maddie lightly poked her shoulder, pointing to the castleteria’s food table. Raven straightened and followed her roommate and best friend to grab breakfast.

At home, she usually just walks into the kitchen. Chef made pancakes most mornings with berries from the nearby forest and honey on top. Raven always loved those pancakes, even if she had them almost every day. Raven quickly put a few slices of bacon on her plate smiling at the staff before grabbing some fruit salad and a couple of waffles and left to follow Maddie over to Cedar’s table. Most people moved out of the way to let the two girls pass through in order to get to their table. If Raven was being honest she had expected more students to run away from her when she arrived, and yet they all seemed to be completely enamoured by her. Weird. Maybe it was because she hadn’t shown up for regular school until this year, or because no one knew what she looked like (she avoided mirror phones and rarely left the castle grounds), or maybe none of them knew much about deaf people. Or maybe all three. By the time she and Maddie sat down, Raven was already exhausted, and she hadn’t even gone to class yet!!

‘Morning Rae, how was your first night at EAH?’ Cerise signed over to her childhood friend. Raven smiled at the nickname, Cerise had given it to her when they were about six, very soon afterwards Raven and Cerise began talking more over chats with their mirror phones as Cerise started elementary school while Raven began to be castleschooled. The two would work on video chats every now and again to keep sign language in Cerise’s vocabulary, (usually with a little help from Ramona too, but it’s not like they could talk about that it was a secret!) so the two stayed connected no matter where they were.

‘It’s been good Cher,’ another nickname that had come from their younger years ‘you know after the whole Headmaster situation me and Maddie set up our dorm. It was definitely different from the castle or your place’ Raven concluded before picking up her fork. She really was hungry after skipping dinner last night. As the others smiled at her she felt a warm fuzzy feeling wash over her, these were her friends, some through childhood, some through the others and they all loved her. She was loved, at least she was now but once she became, that she wouldn’t be. Her smile began to dim just a tad as she bit into her waffle. She shook it off before looking at the three girls she didn’t know the names of. ‘Oh sorry I almost forgot, I’m Raven, and you guys are?’ she asked the brunette in pink, the platinum blonde in white and the ginger with green eyes. Each one smiled at her as brightly as her friends, if not a bit brighter, they were probably princesses, Raven thought to herself before each one signed their names.

‘Briar Beauty’ The girl in all pink signed with slightly tired eyes. Raven immediately made the connection to the Sleeping Beauty Story, it took a lot for her not to frown, that was always such a sad tale, sleeping for a hundred years would mean losing the people she loved. Even still Raven could see that something else was turning in her mind, maybe she’d get to see what that was.

The ginger signed after ‘Ashlynn Ella it’s nice to meet you!’ she had the brightest smile that Raven had seen from the trio. Cinderella’s daughter her mind added in, another story with a happy ending but a tragic beginning, she couldn’t imagine losing both of her parents. Then again it was better than being imprisoned in a mirror, or being forced to dance in hot iron shoes until death, or being crushed by a boulder after falling off of a cliff. Raven’s thoughts were broken as she saw that Ashlynn was sitting very close to Hunter, who seemed to be completely focused on her, the dork had a crush, which seemed to be mutual. If Raven could speak well she would have laughed.

‘I’m Darling Charming but you can call me Darl for short’ The Platinum Blonde signed last as she gave a simple polite smile. Like the one that Raven had been taught to use for visitors and knights when she was younger. A female born Charming? She had heard of it before but it wasn’t common, most of them became small-time princesses with small kingdoms, or took over for the Charming Kingdom when the time came. It would be interesting Raven thought to see where her destiny leads her, after all, Darling definitely had the most open book story out of all of them.

‘It’s nice to meet all of you’ Raven signed before continuing ‘So.. has anyone gotten a schedule, I still haven’t’ It hadn’t been a big surprise to her though, she supposed no one had accounted for her deafness and they might have had to remake her schedule. After she mentioned it though she saw Cedar hit her head with her hand. “Ugh, I almost forgot,” she muttered to the group before pulling out a piece of paper. ‘Here Raven, I passed the headmaster and he asked me to give this to you, don’t worry he only had to reschedule two subjects!’ she finished passing the note over. Raven sent a grateful smile to her friend thank goodness for Cedar on the top of the paper a note was written with a schedule underneath. It read:

Dear Ms. Queen; first of all, I’d like to apologize for not being aware of this sooner, in the short time we’ve been given I was able to find some students to help you translate in each class. However, just in case most classes have an extra student who understands sign language. Below is your schedule, I hope you enjoy your time here at Ever After High.

Sincerely,

Headmaster Grimm

Breakfast: 6:30-8:30

Block one: Geografairy with Professor Jack B. Nimble (assisted by Cerise Hood) 8:45-9:30

Block two: Beast Training and Care with Professor Poppa Bear (assisted by Dexter Charming) 9:35-10:20

Block three: General Villainy with Professor Badwolf (assisted by Ramona Badwolf) 10:25-11:10

Block four: Math with Dr. King Charming (assisted by Ashlynn Ella) 11:15-12:00

Lunch: 12:00-12:45

Block five: History with Professor Rumpilstilskin (assisted by Madelyn Hatter) 1:00-1:45

Block six: Spellcasting and Potions with Professor Baba Yaga (assisted by Cedar Wood) 1:50-2:35

Block seven: Grimmnastics with Coach Gingerbreadman (assisted by Darling Charming) 2:40-3:25

Block eight: Art with Professor Card (assisted by Meshell Mermaid) 3:30-4:15

Dinner may be had at any time after this, as can counselling with Baba Yaga or Mother Goose. Lights out is at 10:30

Raven smiled at the schedule she only didn’t know two of the names on here. She was nervous to start her time at EAH but as long as she had good grades and a clear head she was sure she would do fine.

Notes:

I am really sorry this took so long, I kept forgetting about it because of school and COVID. btw if anyone knows how to make a master post and pin it could you please let me know? I would like to be able to do that. I also just got an AO3 account so I might post on there.

Taglist For The Silent Queen:

@virgil-is-a-cutie @justafanwarrior @bee-a-garbage-shipper @spicybelladonna @starrry-nites @tired-butterfly @insomniac-nerd-posts-things @themagicmistic @a-star-with-a-human-name @futursworld @pepelachanel @me-with-a-z-and-double-the-e @wolf-for-life

@iz-bell-saiah @thebookwormfairy @fantasiame

#raven queen #eah #ever after high #maddie hatter #cerise hood #brair beauty #ashlynn ella #darling charming #the silent queen

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senadimell · 3 years

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Boromir for the character ask?

send me a character and i’ll list:

favorite thing about them: Honestly? His focus. He's a problem-solver. He focuses on whatever task is in front of him, and while he's the golden child, I honestly don't know if he'd be the best fit for Steward because he seems to be at his best when he's thinking about concrete solutions to discrete problems.

Oh! The other thing is that he evaluates the advice given to him for what it is, not based on the authority of the advisor. He’s not going to accept bad advice just because it comes from a trustworthy source, and he’s going to be honest about his thoughts. So he’ll trust and respect the advice of the council of Elrond, but not to the point where he doesn’t ask questions or question things that don’t make sense (I’m thinking about Caradhras here) It’s a good skill to have as the de-facto heir to Gondor, and it makes sense that he’s not in awe of elves or Gandalf and acts among them as a guest but also as an equal at least in political status, though his experience is vastly more limited.

At the same time, he’s not arrogant or haughty. He's a team player. He’s supportive of decisions for the most part, though where the ring is concerned, things get skewy. He’s not the kind of person to rub mistakes back in your face. He’s compassionate and understanding (which we see even in the way he treats Frodo as he strives for the Ring).

least favorite thing about them: Honestly Boromir doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I suppose his positive traits are also double-edged swords. Focusing more on the advice than the giver sort of has Feanor vibes? And you can see where his focus leads him when he talks to Frodo about why he wants the ring and how he would use it. He can see his corner of the world (Gondor) and his place in saving it (political, but primarily military leadership), and it’s his practicality, drive, and focus that the Ring exploits. He’s too busy thinking about what he must do to save the day that he misses the grander scheme (yet he’s doing it because he cares! he cares!).

brOTP: Um, Faramir, I guess. Though I guess it’d be kinda sweet if he’s got a brotherly relationship with Bergil. I can easily imagine Bergil hero-worshipping Boromir, and so I think it’d be sweet if Boromir did acknowledge him and know him by name.

OTP: none? look, I rarely ship and even more rarely out of canon.

nOTP: also none? Shelob? The Ring?

random headcanon: I dunno...

unpopular opinion: boromir has dark hair Sean Bean is an actor he’s not the only face

So I feel like there’s a bit of a structural problem with the LotR fandom. Characters are often written in pairs or as foils, and inevitably the comparison starts to turn towards “who’s better?” Then, if you don’t ship them, there’s a tendency to aggrandize one character’s virtues and minimize their flaws (which tends to happen everywhere), but then the comparison game starts. Because they have a paired character, the natural next step is to lionize your favorite by de-emphasizing the other character’s strengths and virtues (and sometimes also highlighting their flaws). (I’m not immune to this by far, btw, and am possibly about to engage in it.)

This happen the most with Frodo and Sam, but I think you also see it in Boromir and Faramir. Because obviously, in the books, Faramir is the golden child. Not in his father’s eyes, of course, but narratively speaking. And I have mad respect for him.

Most people don’t try and diss Faramir (because frankly. it’s hard. like, what are you going to say?), but there’s a tendency to downplay the fact that Boromir is his culture’s golden child, and Faramir...isn’t. Which isn’t to say Faramir isn’t beloved by those who know him, but his strengths are not valued in the same way that Boromir’s are. Faramir knows this. And given Boromir’s attitudes discussed above (how confidently he assumes his position in the world), I can’t believe he’s the 100% supportive, loving, sensitive, protective brother that fanon depicts him as. I don’t see how he can be.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe the brothers love each other deeply. But growing up with siblings has taught me that it’s possible to love someone and yet be deeply wounded by them due to the casual and inescapable intimacy of your relationship? You can share more inside jokes and weird stories than anyone, yet you can never get away from how deeply they know you--not your thoughts, but who you are at home and who you were when you were seven and how you acted when someone broke up with you or what you did when your parents were furious.

You also know exactly how you match up against them, because you will always exist as a unit. And because your relationship is as natural as the lens in your eye (you can’t imagine viewing the world without it), you forget about the other as a person and just say something and don’t think about how it hurts them. You can joke about this one thing and your sibling can carry around the hurt for years and you didn’t even know. And maybe the hurt isn’t even your fault--maybe they were just sensitive and you had no way of knowing, but the hurt doesn’t go away for the lack of malice. And even best-friend siblings are capable of malice towards each other at times.

So Boromir is good at things that Faramir isn’t, and Boromir knows it. He’s probably ribbed his brother in what he thinks is a playful way about when you’re going to shape up, or do X, or do Y, or why do you do that, anyways, or do you realize that’s a little unbecoming? maybe you should stop that. You know Father’s going to think that you’re... And he doesn’t realize how those slights can add up over the years. I do think he’s said things to his peers about his brother that have ended up hurting him. No matter how pure and nice he is, that sort of thing is unavoidable, and due to his cultural upbringing I don’t actually think he’d question the appropriateness of his attitude/acceptance and glorification of martial prowess at the expense of those who don’t have it in the same degree.

I think this passage is really telling:

For on the eve of the sudden assault a dream came to my brother in a troubled sleep; and afterwards a like dream came oft to him again, and once to me. 'In that dream I thought the eastern sky grew dark and there was a growing thunder, but in the West a pale light lingered, and out of it I heard a voice, remote but clear, crying: Seek for the Sword that was broken: In Imladris it dwells; There shall be counsels taken Stronger than Morgul-spells. There shall be shown a token That Doom is near at hand, For Isildur's Bane shall waken, And the Halfling forth shall stand. Of these words we could understand little, and we spoke to our father, Denethor, Lord of Minas Tirith, wise in the lore of Gondor. This only would he say, that Imladris was of old the name among the Elves of a far northern dale, where Elrond the Halfelven dwelt, greatest of lore-masters. Therefore my brother, seeing how desperate was our need, was eager to heed the dream and seek for Imladris; but since the way was full of doubt and danger, I took the journey upon myself. Loth was my father to give me leave, and long have I wandered by roads forgotten, seeking the house of Elrond, of which many had heard, but few knew where it lay.'

There’s so much you can read into this. Faramir has this dream, and he has it many times. We know he’s a lover of lore and no less devoted to his kingdom than Boromir, though his love is expressed differently. He is “eager” to heed the dream. So would I if I was having prophecy dreams all the time.

But is Faramir a member of the fellowship? No. Why? Because Boromir “took it upon himself.” He wanted to do it, he thought himself the better candidate (and Faramir the worse), and he argued his way into doing it against his father’s wishes. Coupled with Denethor’s later attitude towards Boromir, I’m inclined to believe Boromir was uniquely able to obtain this quest for himself because Denethor has a soft spot for him.

I find myself inclined to disregard Boromir’s account of Faramir’s motive (”how desparate was our need”), because it sounds like he’s justifying the appropriateness of his actions. If it’s just about the great need of the kingdom, it’s nothing personal that one brother goes and the other stays. That view implies that Faramir’s interest in this mission is primarily utilitarian in purpose, with a little academic curiosity--that is, it’s nothing personal. Doesn’t matter who goes! Not as long as we protect the kingdom! Which...just doesn’t square with his description of Faramir having repeatedly cryptic dreams that he wants to understand. I can almost guarantee that Faramir wants to know what those dreams meant more than Boromir.

It’s a bit tragic, because ultimately Faramir was more suited for the quest than Boromir (tramping about in the wilderness doesn’t seem to be a problem, he’s also a team player, and he’s much more willing to accept the power of the Ring/not downplay its personal danger, and would be able to see it in a bigger picture beyond just Gondor). Ultimately, though, if Boromir was the one to catch Frodo in Ithillien, the story would have a veeeeeeery different ending. (Gollum would likely be dead, and I can’t imagine he’d be inclined to just. let Frodo and Sam go free.)

I kind of view their relationship as a much less antagonistic version of Agravain and Gwalchmai from Gillian Bradshaw. (Agravain is more of a jerk than I can ever imagine Boromir being, and has a wicked temper).

Also none of this is to say that I don’t think he’s not protective of his brother.

So a lot of words to say: I don’t think the Boromir and Faramir relationship is as uwu cinnamon roll as it seems in fandom. I think they loved each other, but I think Boromir did have a tendency to take what he wanted when he thought he deserved it and not give it a second thought, even when it was at the expense of his brother. Sure, he’d defend his brother night and day, but I expect him to be a bit of a jerk, be unaware of the extent of his behavior, and also see little wrong with it (the ring quest seems to have crossed a line, by the way he justifies it).

Still, they do love each other deeply and genuinely. It’s just a little more conflicted.

song i associate with them: Requiem, from Dear Evan Hanson. Not a particularly creative association (and I don’t associate him with Connor at all), but his death comes as such a shock at the beginning of TTT and brings with it so many mixed feelings due to both their relationship and the circumstances of his death. Nobody’s mourning is straightforward: not Frodo, or Denethor, or Faramir, or Aragorn, or Merry, or Pippin. His absense is woven throughout TTT and even RotK, in plot and in emotion and in theme.

favorite picture of them:

Don’t really have a favorite, but this one is nice.

The Sean Bean runners-up: one, two

#asks #answers #boromir #did not think i had this many thoughts about boromir!#thank you so much for the ask!

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fenrisvlfr · 3 years

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･･ᚹᛖᛚᚲᛟᛗᛁᚾ･･ the norns foretold your coming: “( laufey nál ), ( she ) will be called,” they said. you are an ( 800 ) year old ( thursar ), and are said to look like ( noomi rapace ). rumor has it you hail from ( jötunheim ), and serve as ( queen of jötunheim & niflheim ). they say you are ( fierce & commanding ), but also ( severe & resentful ). may the allfather guide your steps.

( laufey ) would describe ( herself ) as a ( winter ) person and would identify as an ( intj-a ). ( her ) birthday is ( december 12th ), making ( her ) star sign ( sagittarius ) and ( her ) celtic animal sign the ( hawk ). ( her ) biggest pet peeve is ( disorder and messiness ), and ( her ) theme song is ( seven nation army by skáld ). finally, ( her ) primary goal is to ( find a solution that will allow the thursar and jötnar to live together in harmony ).

Make way for the queen, babes! Child number 2 is my HBIC, Laufey. TWs for mentions of war and death.

Character File (coming soon)

Muse Page

Navigation (for tags)

BASICS

Name: Laufey Nál of the Mimiringr

Age: 800

Birthdate: December 12th

Species: Thursar

Realm: Jötunheim

Sexuality: Bisexual

Occupation: Queen of Jötunheim and Niflheim

Positive traits: Fierce, commanding, persuasive

Negative traits: Severe, resentful, discontented

SUMMARY

Laufey is the sovereign of House Mimir, one of the Thursar’s most powerful noble families, and is a direct descendent of Mimir himself. At a young age, she distinguished herself from her peers by being a vocal proponent against the decadence and indifference of the Thursar, challenging everything from their taboo against inter-house marriage to their negligence of the common folk. This made her many enemies, but gained her just as many allies, particularly one Farbauti of House Bergelmir. In him, Laufey found her perfect match: the one man who could meet her mind, body, and soul, and respect all of those in her. Their relationship only operated in secret, for the ruling oligarchy would have upended itself in fury at their flouting tradition, but it was the happiest time of her life and she didn’t care.

That changed somewhat when she found herself pregnant with Farbauti’s child. Under the cover of the Aesir-Vanir War, she and Farbauti were able to sneak away to live with Skrymir Utgarda and his wife Gnissa. There, she gave birth to Loki, and for a while, the two couples did their best to raise him in secret. But Loki’s magical talents were too much for Laufey and Farbauti to handle themselves, nor could they risk bringing him back to court. Though it pained them both, Laufey and Farbauti agreed that it would be best for them all if Loki remained with Skrymir and Gnissa, and the pair were more than happy to raise him as their own.

To help herself recover from this loss, Laufey threw herself into court life. She quickly rose to the top of the oligarchy, and with support from multiple houses growing behind her, she was able to enact some small but important changes. She wasn’t, however, able to stop the massacre at Tree’s Hall, nor the invasion by the Eldjötnar in Jötunheim. And no matter how she fought, she could not convince the other noble houses to enter the war on behalf of their brethren to the south. As refugees flooded Niflheim and starvation for both Thursar and Jötnar alike seemed imminent, Laufey called on Farbauti to help her with a proposal to the Jötunn king Mysingr... one which changed the future of both realms forever.

In exchange for the Thursars’ help against the Eldjötnar, Mysingr would have to give up his crown and unite the two realms of Jötunheim and Niflheim permanently. And with the deal struck, Laufey lead her people into battle again and again for the safety of the Earthly Realms. She fought Surtur himself at the base of Yggdrasil, and helped create the magics which bound the Elds in Muspelheim forever. And then she returned to Jötunheim, victorious, and was handed the crown of the combined kingdoms by the unanimous vote of her peers.

That was the single most tragic day of her life. And though she will never admit it out loud to a single soul, she wishes daily that she could turn back time and refuse. Refuse the crown, the throne, the responsibility, all of it. But she can’t, and instead lives with regret buried deep inside her, poisoning her heart until it hardened into something unrecognizable. She is the Queen now. She has a husband and two children, all of whom she loves in her way. She has two realms to rule, though one is all but abandoned and the other is slowly dying. She has thousands of people relying on her to do the right thing for all of them. She must be stronger than steel at all times, and never let weakness show.

So she masks the sad look in her eye whenever she sees Farbauti, her loyal General and the only one her heart has ever truly belonged to. She hides her discontent at every appearance in court and in public. She does her best to show her own stunted kind of love to her husband and children, praying that it’s enough for them to know that she really does care.

And in a bid to save all her people, she has arranged a meeting with the King of Midgard, hoping that they can come to some kind of arrangement for food or land or supplies... anything that will help the jötnar recover and flourish.

For more details, please see her Character File linked above!

WANTED CONNECTIONS

Farbauti!! Father of Loki and love of her life, also a skeleton bio!! I will cry if someone brings him in, I’ve been waiting for years :’)

Her Court Sorcerer Skrymir and his lovely wife Gnissa, both of whom are lifelong friends. Oh, and who also raised her secret son Loki nbd.

The two former princesses of Jötunheim, Frenja and Menja. Daughters of the late king Mysingr, who Laufey has very complicated relationships to!

Her chamberlain, a close friend of the Royal Family who runs their household (a WC!)

Rival nobles from the many Thursar and Jötnar houses! She’s a divisive figure, and sometimes she finds more allies among the Jötnar nobility than among her own people.

Casual acquaintances—she meets a lot of people and doesn’t really have time for “friends”, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t need them!

Anything at all really! Gimme all the plots

#nrhqintro #from a battle i've come : laufey #season 1 : beginning #intro : season 1 #again will link her file when it's done sjdfh I'm not doing that tonight lol

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zwiezraczek · 4 years

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Could I request a ben imagine where reader and Ben have been best friends their whole lives and dating since they were like 15 but decide to go on a break since all they have known is each other their whole lives and reader gets heart broken when Ben's spotted with a new girlfriend, then reader gets depressed and tries to overdose because she doesn't know a life without Ben. Ben finds out and a lot of angst!! You can leave out the overdose if that's too heavy!!

My Bijou [Request]

Part 2: Ben's pov

Warning: suicide attempt

Note: Okay this was angsty as hell. I don't know if it's what you wanted nonnie, but I tried to focus more on y/n's feelings and leaving more or less open ~ I hope you'll like it lovely! 💕

~~~

You were his bestfriend, you were his soulmate, you were about to be gone forever.

Whenever you thought about the joy of being by his side, something torn your body, every part of your body would be in pain, in ache, sore and immobile. And all you would wish, would be death. The sweet and painless death, with your head dizzy from all these painkillers you took, from the alcohol you drank. The only remedy to your broken heart. You felt joy, happiness, and every feeling in the universe as you drifted away, your eyelashes fluttering as all became numbness...

~~~

“Jonesy, stop this,” you laughed, as the blond man looked at you with his tongue out.

“Won't,” he threatened before winking at you.

You were about to die from laughter as your bestfriend casually began to make you laugh, as always, during English literature class. Your teacher was – sadly – used to this, and often one of you ended up outside, in the hallway trying to calm down before opening the door and beginning to laugh again as you saw each other's faces.

But today was different. Apparently, from what your teacher said, both of you crossed the line as you laughed even harder than intended, during a tragic moment in the lecture – something about death probably, but you couldn't really remember it because your muscles were hurting you from laughing and your eyes full of joyful tears – and both of you ended up in the hallway. You tried to stop yourself from laughing, but Ben's silly faces made everything even worse and you had to put both your hands on your lips in order to not burst into laughter again and have your teacher open the door to yell at you. You were only fifteen, you were both stupid.

But mostly, you knew each other for such a long time. You met in kindergarten, he held you his little red car and you took it and he became your bestfriend. Well, that was a longer story than the one you recalled, but this was how all the things had happened to you. Whenever you thought about your pure friendship, you felt joy in your heart. You remembered the first birthday party your mum threw to you during which he was here, with his blonde locks and the huge package in his hands as he mumbled something with your name, and you took the box from his hand before hugging him. You still had the picture hanging in your room, next to the others on your friendship wall. And then, you went on a summer camp together, when you were in school, you made new friends and you had a small pack which you reformed every summer until all of you went to high school. Then letters, phone calls, and only Ben was by your side. He always was. And he always managed to make all of this funnier, more interesting, more anything. But, obviously, you always were the one to blame, the one to “distract Mr. Jones” and teachers discouraged your friendship. How many times Ben was asked why he was your friend, because you were so troublesome, but little they knew it was Ben who initiated all the stupid things you both did together – like the time you locked yourself up in a locker, and he did too – ending up in disaster, and your parents coming to take you home because of this. He was a good actor,and he knew it when he was with you. But became oblivious at the right moment when somebody commented his acting skills, he looked so flustered and his eyes wandered on the floor as you were just shaking your head in disbelief. Your stupid, talented friend. He would go places. You were sure about it.

And then, you felt this pure moment of joy and peace filling your thoughts as Ben looked at you, muffling his laugh. You saw the person you wanted to have next to you for the rest of your life, and at that very moment you understood: you weren't only his bestfriend, you were in love with him. Your laugh slowly faded, with your hand on his shoulder and your back against the wall. Everything collided in your mind, every moment and every gesture, every word and every look. He looked at you, sitting next to you, his back against the same wall as both of you sat in the empty hallway. You couldn't really figure everything out, but the next thing you knew you hand wandered towards the back of his head, with your fingers curling his hair. He closed his eyes for a longer moment, a moment both of you appreciated. And when he looked at you, your hand froze. His eyes, you had the sudden realization that you never cared enough about his eyes. Sometimes, I want to kiss you. Maybe not only sometimes. As if he could read his mind, his body shifted to face you better, and he tilted his head left, looking at you innocently.

“What's wrong, y/n,” and you could hear concern in his voice.

“Nothing,” you lied, taking your hand off his hair and looking down. You felt a light blush on your cheeks, you felt the warmth of the emotion he awoke inside of you.

“Please, don't take your hand off my hair,” he whined about your coward action. “It was nice.” You blushed even more, as your eyes finally met his. And you could swear something changed in the look he gave you on that particular moment. Something new. Something you already liked. He was the one putting his hand on your cheek, delicately brushing his fingers against your skin.

“Ben,” you whispered, forgetting about the hallway, the laugh, everything. Nothing else mattered but him.

“Can I kiss you?” His question took you off guard, and your cheeks were already on fire – you would have sworn that he felt it with his fingertips – but you nodded, maybe vigorously, maybe shyly but at that very moment you knew you wanted it.

And it lasted. For seven years.

~~~

But you had to break up. It was your decision, coming from both of you. Your couple went through wind and fire, but honestly you felt that something was missing in the way you held hands or kissed each other's cheeks. You were only twenty-two, and the only relationship you ever had was the one with Ben, and you were his only one too. You wanted to experience new things, he was becoming an actor and you were about to start your own modeling career, now or never. And both of you agreed that the best would be to break up, but to stay friends still. Your relationship was strong enough to bear this breakup, and even if you weren't together at that moment, you were holding hands and being affectionate towards each other.

But what you quickly understood was that life is unfair. Life was unfair, towards you and your career, towards you and your love life – between guys wanting just to fuck with you because you were nice and cute, and the ones acting like pure creeps around you – and generally speaking towards you. But you couldn't let Ben see this, you couldn't let him see how sad you were, because at the same time his career was thriving. He got his first role in a soap opera – whereas you got an ad for an unknown brand – probably one of the most viewed soap operas – probably one of the cheapest band ever – and he couldn't help but share his joy with you – but you couldn't help but keep your sadness to you alone. He played with that girl, you somehow managed to forget her name, the girl for whom he started to fall. And you watched him fall, as you fell into some desperate void about him finding happiness and you finding nothing but sadness and cries.

And one day, your heart fell into pieces. How did it hurt to learn that your bestfriend was dating this actress. Not only because you felt your heart being torn apart, but because he didn't even bother to tell you about this. He found love, but didn't even care to tell you that he was happy now, to you, his bestfriend. But the tabloids knew, they knew everything and shared it with the whole world. And that was the last step towards your choice, the most decisive one in your life. You chose death over talking, you chose sleep over awake. Dreams were stronger than reality.

~~~

One pill, two pills, three pills and a shot. Rinse and repeat. This became your everyday life, between the photoshoots – apparently your ill-pale complexion and your skinny body became what made you look beautiful – and calling Ben from time to time in order to have some news from him, then your mother, then your siblings and then you listened to Hopeless Fountains Kingdom for hours, as if every song could ease the pain you felt. As if everything was going to be alright.

But one night, you decided that it wasn't worth it. All you had was based on suffering, and whoever dared to tell you how lucky you were was close to a certain death. And so were you. On that night, it was your time to die. No one could take that from you. Nobody. Ever. But before biding adieu to the world of the living, you had to say goodbye to the ones you loved: your family and Ben.

“We maybe were destined to spend the rest of our days with each other, like two lovers... Maybe forever, maybe not. I loved you Jonesy, and I hope you'll be happy, forever, my Jonesy. I love you.”

Pills swallowing, alcohol drinking. Every sound seemed so close, yet so far. An hour of taking pills, crying in your pillow as you sipped the cheap alcohol you bought earlier that day, as Halsey blasted in your apartment. But with every step, every second, you could feel your body free, your mind lighter and your mood merrier. You were about to taste peace. You drifted away, feeling peace, joy and ease.

And just before you closed your eyes, a muffled noise rose your last moment of lucidity. Some blond locks fell in front of your face, and you faintly smiled looking at him.

“Stay with me,” were the only words you heard coming from his mouths, the only ones you understood between the sobs and the call he made. And yet, you smiled.

“Forever, my Bijou.” Were your last words, before the ambulance took you to the hospital, to save you, as Ben held your hand, shaken and knowing now that he could never let you go. Never.

#ben hardy #ben hardy imagine #ben hardy blurb #blurb #angst

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nimueries · 4 years

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THE BALLAD OF NYNEVE MARLOWE

Cliche as it is, Neve Marlowe was brought screaming into this world on a dark and stormy night in late August beneath a muggy blanket of pollution, uncharacteristically hot temperatures, and a barrage of thunder and lightning that lasted well into the next morning. Her parents, a straight-laced white-collar couple named Daniel and Alice, were pleased as punch. She had a healthy set of lungs, a nice rosy complexion, and nary a blemish to be seen save for a strange birthmark below her navel that looked oddly like a crescent. Regardless, they were happy to carry her over the white picket fence of their neatly mowed suburban yard and into their picturesque home, ripped straight from Town & Country. Everything was lovely until it most certainly was not.

It started with flickering lights and electrical disturbances, the occasional power outage that sometimes stretched the entire block but mostly seemed exclusive to their home. Neve always cried when it rained...or it rained when she began to cry, not that Alice could convince Daniel of the phenomena no matter how many times she tried. Family members and neighbors were perturbed by the way this little child would look at them with her uncommonly violet eyes, penetrating and far too old for such a round, cherubic face. Without realizing it, people began to speak in hushed whispers to one another while Neve sat in her high chair or crawled about on her blanket on the floor, suspecting that she might understand more than she should.

Neve was four when the nightmares began, the sounds of her screams shaking the house as she clutched desperately at the tangled sheets that were heavy and drenched with her cold sweat. She drew pictures of people that she had never met and sang songs that no one had taught her. She spoke in whispers to the animals around her and often seemed to know that a thing was about to happen before anyone else. Though she excelled at languages and her music tutors were enamored with her, Neve seemed to have no interest in making friends. She spoke cryptically and could get lost in contemplation for hours over the strangest things. The older she grew, the more paranoid she seemed to become.

The girl was constantly looking into the shadows and in-between places as if she could see something there that others could not. She would become feral when people crept up behind her or moved too quickly into her circle of personal space. All the while the storms continued to come and the thunder kept on rolling. The power outages increased. The shutters of their home shook and shook. The streets flooded with rain and their home flooded from broken pipes. The nightmares became more frequent, keeping everyone in their home up all hours of the night.

Her drawings began to take on more focus; she developed an almost insane obsession with drawing a man holding an axe or a boy bathed in gold with a broken cup. Sometimes there were others too. There were a handful of characters who seemed to occupy her sketches and just as many pages devoted to scenes of war and tragedy. Sometimes, sometimes she would draw them in modern settings. Sometimes she would draw things that would happen days, weeks, even months down the road. Her music became haunting and tragic, melodies composed by her own hand rather than the sheets passed over to her by her tutors. A prodigy, they would say.

Genius or not, her frightened parents were at their wit’s end.

Neve was eleven when Daniel and Alice had her committed. They signed every paper that came their way, sure to dot all their i’s when it came to this or that experimental procedure and drug. For Neve it was hell, a litany of endless days where she felt nothing at all or too much at once. There were drugs that silenced her voice but her mind was still screaming. There were procedures that made her forget the past seven or so days but forced her to remember lifetimes before. Her only comforts - her only true escapes - came in the form of art and music. She learned to get lost in them. It would be four long years before she would be allowed to leave the asylum, not because she was cured or because all of these things had finally stopped, but because of the mysterious electrocution of an orderly who had tried to assault her in one of her medication-induced hazes. Neither her parents nor the institution wanted the paperwork or the press.

At sixteen, Neve began to learn the combination of medications that could keep it all at bay best. On particularly harsh nights she would add the more illicit substance or a shot of something spiritual. She signed up for experimental medications and tested pills before they came onto the market. What she couldn’t suffocate, she pushed into her music. At sixteen, Neve fought for and won emancipation from her parents. She would spend the following years traveling from place to place like a vagabond, working odd jobs to make enough money to keep room and board for herself, her harp, and her cat. At twenty, she would begin to gain traction amongst the indie music scene because of her soulful lyrics and the strange tales that she weaved. Instead of occasionally playing at the bars where she worked, bars were beginning to ask her to travel and main their stage. Larger venues began to line up in the following years.

Neve pretends to be normal as best as she can. She ignores places where she feels there may be others like her and uses her knowledge to avoid them. Beneath the medication, the years of hell, and all of her stubborn repression, she knows that she was once Nimue and that her life - for all of her powers of premonition and confidence in her longevity - had been ended by the cruel swing of an ax held by a man named Pinel. That she had died because she had allowed herself to become involved in a kingdom that she had never truly cared for or put her faith in. She had broken her own rules about neutrality and independence; she had died for it.

#𝐃𝐄𝐕 ◦ 🇦 🇼🇮🇹🇨🇭 🇮🇸 🇧🇴🇷🇳 🇴🇺🇹 🇴🇫 🇹🇭🇪 🇹🇷🇺🇪 🇭🇺🇳🇬🇪🇷🇸 🇴🇫 🇭🇪🇷 🇹🇮🇲🇪 » ◜hcs◞#drugs //#assault //#just to be safe #long post //#𝐕 ◦ 🇹🇭🇪 🇭🇪🇦🇷🇹 🇧🇪🇦🇹🇸 🇹🇭🇪 🇹🇭🇺🇳🇩🇪🇷 🇷🇴🇱🇱🇸 » ◜reincarnation◞

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alchemist-shizun · 5 years

Text

I Can See My Kingdom Now

Read on Ao3!

Chapter 1: Arcadia’s Lost Boy

Word Count: 7,750

Characters: Virgil, Roman, Logan, Patton, Deceit. (There will be Emile and Remy in one chapter)

Pairing(s): Eventual Logicality and Prinxiety. (hints to Royality, they’re forced into an arranged marriage)

Warnings for this chapter: Mention of blood and bruises, Asthma attack,(nothing really heavy, but I decided to warn you anyway.)

Summary: Once upon a time, there was a kingdom which rose above all others thanks to its everlasting prosperity. Of course, there had been outer conflicts, but there wasn't a citizen who wouldn't say they were pretty content with the life they were conducting. It was called "the kingdom of Arcadia" and it was praised by foreigners because of how it resembled a constant Golden Age. Many had tried before to learn the secret to reach wealth and accomplishment. But the truth was that in order to understand and obtain peace, you initially have to first-hand witness and experience the worst of misfortunes. The royalty had intimated the whole people to never spread a word about the mishap out of the walls of Arcadia. It had shaken their inner tranquility so much they refused to talk about it publicly, it quickly became a taboo. Along with dark magic, since it was linked to the tragic story they had gotten themselves into. So sit back now and listen carefully to the tale I'm about to tell because this is the story of Arcadia and its long lost prince.

A/N: I decided to post it on here too instead of only ao3, so here it is! Won’t be saying much except that the summary is literally the first part of the fic so everything is under the cut. Enjoy!

✾

❝ I am a lost boy from Neverland Usually hanging out with Peter Pan And when we're bored we play in the woods Always on the run from Captain Hook "Run, run, lost boy," they say to me Away from all of reality. ❞

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom which rose above all others thanks to its everlasting prosperity. Of course, there had been outer conflicts, but there wasn't a citizen who wouldn't say they were pretty content with the life they were conducting.

It was called "the kingdom of Arcadia" and it was praised by foreigners because of how it resembled a constant Golden Age. Many had tried before to learn the secret to reach wealth and accomplishment.

But the truth was that in order to understand and obtain peace, you initially have to first-hand witness and experience the worst of misfortunes. The royalty had intimated the whole people to never spread a word about the mishap out of the walls of Arcadia.

It had shaken their inner tranquility so much they refused to talk about it publicly, it quickly became a taboo. Along with dark magic, since it was linked to the tragic story they had gotten themselves into.

So sit back now and listen carefully to the tale I'm about to tell because this is the story of Arcadia and its long lost prince.

✾ ✾ ✾

You need to know that there were many little villages, every so often nameless ones, at the furthest corners of the kingdom. One of these was peculiar for the gorgeous and almost mystical forests that it presented, it was completely surrounded by green spots and only the center was inhabited by a modest group of families. There weren't many citizens, but it was big enough to host a school and an orphanage. The people who lived there didn't have the brightest or loudest of careers, but they were fine in their own quiet place, everybody knew each other and harmony ruled over them. It looked unnatural. It was as if the idyllic locus amoenus that was part of the ancient bucolic poetry came to life.

And who wouldn't be more eager to play in these natural parks than little kids? Or maybe two particular little kids, characterized by their adventurous behavior and childlike audacity, which let them feel able to face any threat the woods had to offer.

Especially Raegan, who was the brightest of the two: Raegan was a seven-year-old boy with a desire to just live the world, he was part of the local orphanage and didn't recall who his parents were. The weird thing was that neither did the orphanage runners: the adults only remembered this three-year-old kid wandering around the town, in simple white robes, the boy's face was stained with dirty spots and some minor wounds and scratches. They had thought he got lost and hurt in the forest, but none claimed to know him. That's why they took him in and cared for him, gave him a name and waited for his parents to manifest. But nobody came.

Orphans weren't really treated any differently than kids in families, they were part of a big family themselves, they went to a regular public school and played together with the other children, so they were merged into a big crowd of small people. They would make friends and meet up at these friends' houses, maybe even have meals there.

Here Raegan met a little Virgil Mòros, the typical shy kid who didn't know how to approach other children. Their friendship started off with small talks and those that you could call adjustments to one another. Raegan watched him play with toys on his own, while he preferred running around, racing other kids, any physical movement was enough for him to get excited, really. It was an epiphany for him when they found out a ball to play with.

Their first conversations were mostly like:

"Do you want to play with us over there?"

"No, it's fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I don't want to."

"Alright."

Then it became more like: "We're trying to set up a new game, wanna join?" but the answers were always different versions of "no". Raegan was a bit perplexed as to he didn't understand how he could make the kid open up, but little did he know that one day he'd have an idea that would lead them to become the closest of friends.

Raegan had come up to him and sit down in front of him, getting his attention.

"Hey! Can I play with you?" Virgil had looked at him for a split second, then a faint smile had crossed his lips, he had then proceeded to hand him a bunch of his toys, that were some little animals, and a couple of human-like figures.

"Sure."

"How do we play?"

"I usually make up stories to put my toys in."

Raegan's face had lit up so much that moment, he hadn't really ever thought of doing that, who knew how fun it would be!

"That's so cool! You're Virgil, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm Raegan! And I'd love it if I could please make up the story this time?", he had put his hands together in a pleading act. Virgil couldn't help but nod at him.

"Of course, there's no problem."

Raegan had presented the brightest of smiles and he took up a bunch of toys; the story was about the two of them being part of the Royal Guard, they were the true mighty heroes who were the only hope against the infamous Dragon Witch.

Virgil had been more than amazed at the creativity of his new playfellow, which had made him pretty happy to play with the boy in the first place, not to mention that he was having the most fun he ever had compared to when he was by himself. When he was alone he'd just stay sit in that one spot; on the other hand, Raegan used his dinosaur toy to pretend it could fly around the playground, so the two had to follow it around, sometimes even run to "catch up" with it.

So as Raegan had entered his bubble, Virgil was slowly adapting to the other's personality. After that day they quickly became inseparable, they even met up multiple times out of school: this is where they started to explore bit by bit the forest next to Virgil's home and found out other ways to play.

In fact, they stopped using toys and started doing actual make-believe, sometimes they even dressed up for the different occasions they had to perform. They would walk around and pretend to have other identities, to be in faraway places, to live in castles or palaces. Raegan's favorite role to play was the knight: he would pick up any long enough stick and use it as his "perfectly manicured sword", any flying animal would be one of his mortal enemies he had to protect Virgil from, who every time claimed to be "actually able to stand for himself, thank you very much." but with a smile on his face.

One day they'd be alone against the world, the other they'd be against each other, the other one they would just practice sword fighting together. It was fun, it was different, they eventually ended up all dirty and tired from all the fictitious traveling.

But they were best friends, that was all that counted. True, until they reached their tenth birthday.

✾ ✾ ✾

When Raegan and Virgil were busy being ten-year-old kids, two other boys were busy being teenage messes. But oh, you first need to know about Arcadia's fellow kingdom, Tinfea. Its royal family had been a great hand for Arcadia's king and queen: apart from being of help to rise up again after the attempt to overthrow Arcadia's government, they also offered to intervene in the search for their missing child.

The two families were close, first of all, the Tinfea sovereigns lent their seer's abilities to see into the future and locate the lost boy: his name was Logan Diànoia and had had the power of magic in his veins ever since he was born. His parents had died in ... particular circumstances and the sovereigns decided to take him in and provide him with both regular and magic lessons even if he was little. He had always had quite a passion for learning, his curiosity also benefited him in expanding his knowledge and mind. Not that you would only find him in his chambers or in the library constantly studying, well mostly, but he was also a good friend of the royalty's only child, Patton Pàis.

There were many times in which nobles would meet up with the Royals and bring their kids to play with Patton, but most of the time he'd be alone, so Logan was enough for him to be of good company. They ended up having lessons together, sometimes Logan would even teach or lecture him; Patton found his way of speaking pretty funny, he sounded like an old cultured man in the body of a child. Despite being opposed to a lot of entertaining activities, the seer didn't really stop the prince from having fun: he would just watch over him and prevent him from getting hurt, though it had happened that Patton had played tricks on him to let him have some fun for once too. Like that one time he made Logan chase him when he actually wanted to play tag. Then Patton would smirk at his out of breath friend, realization would hit Logan and he'd just smile and say "You sly little kid."

"You're a kid too, Logan ..."

"Regardless."

There were also quiet moments in which they would lay on the grass and look at the sky, and the little prince was more than happy to stay silent and listen to his friend's voice that traveled through different flows of thought, to the point he would somehow start philosophizing. He always sounded passionate during these moments and appreciated Patton for listening every time.

Logan was fourteen when he was busy being a teenage mess, staying up late to find ways of helping the kingdom of Arcadia, catching some innocent animals to practice his spells on, feeling bad when he failed at them and always pushing himself to the limit. He was consulting an enormous spells book, being a medium-level mage by then, to find an exact way to track the prince of Arcadia when a thirteen-year-old Patton knocked on his door.

It was fairly late at night, so Logan found himself surprised to see him awake.

« I wasn't expecting you here, Patton. » his affirmation sounded more like a question to himself.

The shorter boy showed a quick smile only to look down right after, he seemed kind of gloomy.

« Yeah, I wasn't either. » his voice like a whisper.

Logan arched an eyebrow, his body was aching with worry. « Are you feeling quite alright? Please, sit down. »

The only words that escaped Patton's mouth were "No, it's-" as the seer led him to his desk and then proceeded to stand right in front of him. He honestly had to cover up how glad he was to see him- wait, what was he thinking?

« Thank you, Lo, but I just ... wanted to ask you something. »

Oh, boy.

« Go ahead. »

« Well, you know how we've been friends since we were little? »

What is this feeling?

« Yes, what are you implying? »

« Uh, you know I've never asked you anything and respected your magic? »

Oh. Logan was taken aback because of where the conversation was going. Or was that disappointment in his face?

« Please, be clear, what is it that you need? » Patton started fidgeting and wasn't really able to look at him in the eyes.

« I ... I need you to cast a spell on me. »

« What? » Logan lost at words? This sure was something.

« Listen, I have good reasons- »

« Patton, I am not a full magician yet, who knows what could happen! Plus you do not need any kind of magic, if it is an excuse you're looking for to escape some sort of lecture, then I shall help in different ways. »

He stopped when he noticed his friend looking up at him and giving him a sad smile, so he walked up to him slowly, staring at him, a sense of dread forming in his stomach. His look just screamed "What's going on?".

« It's different this time. » Patton took a deep breath, picking at the chair's wood, too anxious to talk any longer than that.

« I haven't been of help at all with this lost prince thing ... My family is supposed to look for him in the first place, but ... I can't do anything for them, I feel kind of ... useless. » if his voice was breaking, then Logan's emotions were shattering upon hearing his closest friend say such severe words.

« What ... are you talking about? » Logan sounded almost hurt, why would he belittle himself like that? But most importantly, how long had he been thinking about this? And why didn't he tell him sooner?

« Logan, you can see it too, I'm not contributing to anything- »

« You're only thirteen- »

« -which is why » Patton marked that last word to grab his attention « I was thinking: if I were able to draw somewhere the image you pictured in your head of the prince's face, then maybe it would be easier for them to see it and for us to look for him, wouldn't it? »

The seer just sighed « Your point? »

« I'd like you to find a spell that would give me the skills to do that. » Patton spoke these words so firmly that Logan thought he was talking to his father instead.

« You want drawing skills. » Patton simply nodded, serious in the eyes « So that I can project into your mind the prince's exact looks and you can represent it on paper to help Arcadia's king and queen. » another nod.

Logan was about to yell at him for how stupid that sounded, tell him that he didn't have to prove himself to anyone in order for them to love him or judge his worth, that he didn't have to do this at all, that he should instead tell him why he was feeling so wrong, but every thought died in his head. He wanted to be a good friend, but little did he know he was about to be the most selfish one.

The older one took too long to respond, so Patton's hope was fading away bit by bit and his face started falling, and Logan just couldn't bear to see him like that, he felt responsible for his friend's happiness at this point. He wouldn't let him down now, would he?

He wasn't really one of those touchy people, but he found himself making his way toward the boy and placing a hand on his shoulder, « I just ... don't want to hurt you. » he wore a concerned expression that the prince couldn't help but understand. Of course he was scared, he had never practiced his magic on humans before, he didn't find it quite correct.

Patton smiled then settled his own hand on the other's arm « I know. But I trust you, that's why I came to you! »

« I'm not sure this is a good idea, though. »

« You should be more conscious of your own abilities, Logan. » he then presented a smirk and leaned in, as if he were up to tell a secret. « Aren't you in fact the best and youngest mage in the whole kingdom? »

A grin crept on the seer's face « I have still to reach perfection. » he admitted, stepping away from the boy a couple of paces. They shared a look, then Logan gave in and faced the multiple books on his bed and started to go through their index.

« I'll see what I can do. »

Patton lit up immediately and basically ran to hug him tight and thank him over and over again, in the meantime Logan froze and stopped working for as long as the boy held him in his arms. Damn him and his powers over him.

But most importantly, damn feelings.

He spent half an hour looking at different Latin names and descriptions that never exactly matched what he was looking for, the prince in the meantime had peacefully fallen asleep on the desk. Finally, two spells got his attention: one simply gave any skill you wished for that lasted a week from the moment in which it was cast, the other would give you an everlasting perfect ability, but you had to pay the price.

Of course it was death, specifically, the cursed person would be dying the day before their wedding at 23:59. Wedding. Logan suddenly remembered the most logical thing that was going to happen if the Pàis family was going to be the one finding the prince of Arcadia, that is Patton was going to obviously get married with this boy once he'd reached adult age.

Something hit his heart real hard as realization set into him, he felt paranoia eat his mind away; he had to just admit it to himself, the only problem with him was that he had been crushing on Patton for quite a while now.

So there was a voice in his head.

Logan was a fourteen-year-old boy who still didn't have enough common sense to understand right and wrong, he was just a servant with little to no other job than to provide the sovereigns with information. He never did anything wrong, but there was always a first time. The voice in his head was just too loud, screaming "if you can't have him, then none else would". He didn't mean to do such a mess, he still didn't know where that was going to go.

« Fine! » he shouted at himself, slamming his hands on the book, the sudden movement woke Patton up in an instant. He looked up at Logan, curiosity in his eyes. « Did you find anything? » he asked followed by a yawn.

« Yeah but ... » he looked at the angelic little princely face, « ... there's only one. And it's dangerous. » how could he do this?

« What for? »

Logan started explaining, but he regretted his decision as he was talking about his inevitable death. Maybe that part would scare him enough to just let it go. Maybe another prince or princess would find the boy and he could still have some kind of chance, maybe-

« Do it. »

« I apologize, what did you just say? »

« Do it. » Patton ordered firmly, a serious look on his face to mark how determined he was about it.

« You want me to place a curse on yourself. »

« If it's the only way then so be it. I don't care, I'll have eight years to prepare for the inevitable day. » he sounded insecure about that one last bit, but it looked like he wasn't going to back down any sooner.

Logan was just whispering "I can't let you do this." when he was cut off by Patton's « And besides, death will eventually come for me anyway. » he laughed it off in a vain attempt to lighten up the mood.

« I don't think I can- »

« Please. » Patton put his hand on Logan's « Do it for me, okay? »

God damn it.

And there he was, giving up to his longtime friend yet again. He couldn't believe he was actually placing a curse upon the prince of Tinfea. His best friend. The one he lo- cared about.

To make him feel better about himself.

Some disturbing red lights began floating around the room, Logan's eyes darkened until every spot of his pupils was pitch black, he raised his hand toward the boy in front of him and drew a sharp symbol into the air, he then proceeded to recite the Latin formula, he pointed his finger to the symbol which flew against Patton and hit him hard, causing him to shield his face with his arms. And just like that, everything was back to normal.

Logan was breathing heavily and Patton felt definitely shaken from what he had just seen, he looked up at his friend and worried instantly for him; he let him sit down and catch his breath for a couple of minutes, providing him with some water to support him. How much of his energy did that thing take away from him?

« How about you try it out? Let's see if it worked? »

« Uh, sure. » Patton stepped away with uncertainty and took some paper and ink, he locked eyes with a particular weirdly shaped object of the room and started drawing it from reference. After some minutes he had already finished and was shocked at how well and detailed it turned out, he showed it to Logan excitedly and started jumping around from happiness.

But the whole deal wasn't yet done. « Are you okay to let me see his face or ...? »

« I can handle it, I'm fine. »

Logan made him sit right across him, then he stared into his eyes, focused, and thought about just putting his knowledge into the other's head; it was when Patton's eyes widened that he realized he had actually succeeded. Patton started drawing immediately, concentration stuck in his expression. It didn't take him long to be done with it.

Logan looked down at the picture and almost fell out of his chair.

« It's ... » Patton listened to him carefully « ... exactly what I have seen. Patton, it is ... perfect. »

✾ ✾ ✾

The day it happened Virgil and Raegan decided to visit the forest early in the morning so they could have enough time to play before the inevitable appearance of the royalty of Arcadia: after they found out the appearances of their missing child, they started traveling the whole kingdom in order to find him at all costs. They said they made 10-year-old kids line up and get compared to a certain picture, so that was what was going to happen to Virgil and Raegan too, but first, they had to get cleaned, dressed in the best robes they had, boring stuff that would take up too much of their precious acting time. That's why they went there earlier than ever.

It was a pleasant and clear spring day, they noticed the multiple flowers that had been growing while they pretended to be pirates in the latest weeks, they also saw more birds flying around out of their nests and making pleasant sounds as they battered their wings.

They changed the storyline of their make-believe for that special occasion in which they brought with them their wooden swords fabricated by the local woodworker that had taken a liking into them because of their passion for nature. Raegan was leading the way as a gentle breeze flew through his little red cape, which was actually only an old ripped shirt of Virgil's father. He followed the path they had learned by heart, which led to a clear pond that they had always seen frozen during winter. A couple of waterlilies were lying gently on the surface of the water. The place looked magical.

Raegan looked back at his companion, then stretched out his arm to him « Here take my hand. »

« I thought I was your knight, not a damsel in distress. »

The orphan boy rolled his eyes but smirked at the remark « We have to do your investiture first. Come along, young man. »

Virgil took his hand anyway and let him help down the little steep hill that separated them from the pond. They walked up to it, then Raegan turned to his friend smiling, the light of the sun hitting the back of his head, which gave his already messy hair a goldish brown color.

They imagined they were in a castle's throne room full of festooning of red and gold hanging from different areas of the Great Hall, the whole kingdom present, breaths held as they waited for their prince to speak, they were hanging on his future words.

Virgil bowed down his head, placing his left knee on the ground and bending his right one, he then placed his right hand on it, while his wooden sword was laying on the ground not too far off from him.

« Virgil Mòros. » Raegan looked down at him with a solemn expression, he raised his sword and lightly placed its blade first on one and then on the other shoulder, while he was speaking the words « I, prince Raegan, hereby declare you as my first personal knight and head of the Royal Guard. »

The golden eyed boy took off his cape and draped it across Virgil's shoulders. Virgil stood up after that and all he could say was « "Hereby declare"? How do you even know what that means? »

Raegan gave him an annoyed look « Soft you, now! I just gave you a title, behave. », then he walked off somewhere imprecise and left Virgil wondering what kind of books he read at the orphanage. It wasn't the first time he said weird lines and wouldn't even know what they meant exactly. It was as if he just knew the right context.

Virgil was forced to snap out of his thoughts when an impossibly fast animal ran past them and stopped thirty meters away from them, keeping a fierce stance; it looked like it was smirking at them from afar. The creature that was staring at them showed off its orangish-red and white fur glowing under the sun, it appeared to be quite a mystical form with those shining yellow irises that kinda matched Raegan's. He was, in fact, the one struck by its charm, how could a simple fox like that appear so majestic? He felt like he wanted to be like it too. Small, but important.

The fox took a few steps towards the boys, it didn't seem like it wanted to be friendly, more like to challenge them, chin up and mischievous gaze. The two friends shared a look.

« It clearly wants us to approach. »

« I don't think it is a good idea. »

« Then what do you suggest, my fellow knight? » Raegan turned to his best friend with a radiant smile, keeping up their make-believe.

« Maybe we should take some steps forward too? »

« So we'd be safe if it wants to attack us or we won't scare it away quickly? » Virgil simply nodded.

« Smart thinking. Then I shall face it. » his tone sounded so dramatic he could hear Virgil roll his eyes from behind him. He took a step forward, but before his foot could touch the ground again the animal was already sprinting away, causing Raegan to immediately run after it and, of course, the other villager couldn't help but follow them. Who knows where the fox would lead them? A whole new world to explore? Would they find new roles to play? Or maybe it was taking them to its own home, trusting them enough to let them into the forest's unseen.

But the chase had been going on for quite a while, the animal wasn't giving any sign of slowing down and Virgil felt like he was experiencing the whole forest over again at maximum speed, he couldn't even remember where they had left or how long would it take to go back home. Raegan's rapture, on the other hand, made him able to keep up with the fox, and easily avoid any obstacle, it was his determination that was giving him the energy to run as fast as he possibly could and enough breath to jump every other meter.

Why was following that animal so tempting? Raegan felt like he couldn't stop though he didn't quite acknowledge the reason why, there was something fascinating about it, but other than that he felt like he was being pulled. He wasn't aware he was only going to find trouble: Virgil wasn't used to running this much.

« Hey. Prince? » no response.

Virgil wasn't able to catch his breath, his heart beating too fast. « Ra- Raegan? »

He wasn't listening.

He was about to call him again when he gasped for air and before he could do anything else he found himself losing balance and falling face down onto the ground with a loud thud. He had tripped over something he couldn't yet comprehend, his head lightly hit the ground and was now covered in dirt and some green from the grass around the spot he dropped his whole body into. Raegan turned instantly and his eyes widened at the sight, causing him to stop and tripping over his own feet, not used to the sudden stop.

He caught himself and glanced over to his right where the fox was now long gone, knowing he will hardly ever see it again; he wanted to rush over to his friend but he felt his limbs as heavy as his breath. He felt as if everything was moving in slow motion around him, the weight of his body too excessive to bear. He looked like a zombie as he was hardly taking steps.

Virgil in the meantime had been able to push himself up on his hands, despite the skin on his palms was burning with blood and dirt, he looked up at Raegan with a pained expression as he slowly got to his knees to check on Virgil.

Somehow the fallen boy still hadn't caught his breath, which sometimes got mixed up with small coughs; Virgil thought this feeling was normal, he had never run that fast for that long, he had felt pain in his chest after running before. But this time it was worse than just simple pain, it felt as if his lungs were shrinking with every breath he took, even his heartbeat didn't hint to slow down at all, it only increased together with the speed of his breaths. He could no longer inhale, nor exhale through his nose. He was scared stiff.

« Virgil? » Raegan's concerned tone hardly reached his ears as he covered them in fear. « Virgil, what is happening? » of course there was no response. But Raegan either thought it was because he was too afraid to talk, or his state didn't let him talk. He tried to lock eyes with him, to see if somehow they could communicate, but little did he know that the boy in front of him was unable to talk and was panicking because he didn't know what he was going through. The only sound that went out of his mouth was the wheezing of his breathing becoming even more persistent as time passed and as anxiety grew into them.

Raegan reached for his friend as Virgil crouched down, embracing himself, arms almost touching his knees, frightened eyes wide open and anguish starting to swell up in his chest. He did not know what was going on, nor did he know how to stop, the only thing he was aware of was that he was quickly getting worse, he couldn't control his own breathing, he couldn't control his whole body, he felt miserable. He couldn't help his own self and he was just terrified. He felt like he was choking. This was it.

« Oh my goodness, Virgil! » Raegan did not realize what kind of situation he got them into, panic started to set into him too, but as a prince would do he reminded himself that in alarming situations he needed to stay calm for the both of them: he needed to find a solution, to act fast. He tried to grab his attention by calling his name multiple times, never getting a reaction.

So he attempted to concentrate all the composure in his voice « Hey, buddy, can you hear me? » and he didn't get a single response. Not a twitch of the hand in his direction, no sign with his head. Oh dear, this was bad and it was all his fault. He chocked back the tears that were forming at the corners of his eyes because of the stress and the guilt. « I will help you move, okay? Bear with me, please. You'll be okay. » his voice cracked at the end of the sentence, which sounded more like a reassuring to himself than to the other. He was going to be okay, he was gonna do this, he knew he could. « I promise. »

First of all, Raegan slowly pushed his knees down, so Virgil could go back to his previous sitting position, then he lightly grabbed his wrists and proceeded to lower his arms, showing how his face had gone even paler and sweaty. He accompanied the arms down to his sides and then helped him sit up straight against the tree behind them. Raegan felt a sense of relief as he noticed Virgil's breathing starting to ease up, he now believed in both of them more than before, he was sure he had this. But of course, he wasn't quite there yet. The boy's chest was still visibly going up and down at non-regular speed.

Raegan paid attention not to touch him in any risky spot as he encouraged him to look at him in the eyes: that was the first time he had noticed how different the two irises were from one another, bronze and emerald bind together. He made sure Virgil was focused on him as he spoke. « I need you to try to follow me, okay? » even though there was still a tone of worry in his voice, for the first time he got a slight nod from the other kid « Good, we're going to slow it down. I need you to be patient and relaxed. »

He settled down right in front of him, fixing his gaze on Virgil's face. He mirrored the boy's movements and was able to coordinate their breathing; the first thing he did afterward was to inhale a tick slower, then he did the same thing while breathing out. He kept doing this until Virgil would match him, then he would slow down again and repeat the cycle till he was finally properly breathing again.

They sit there for a couple of minutes to ease up from all the tension that was brought by the previous circumstances, Virgil had closed his eyes while Raegan had gotten all cuddled up next to him, still on alert in case it happened again.

« I have no idea what that was. »

« It never happened before? »

« No. I don't like it. » Virgil knew it wasn't a normal response to some running around, even for someone who wasn't used to do that.

Silence fell between the two as they were both filled with the void of ignorance on the matter, not knowing if they had to worry that much or if they had to wait more. The innocence of two children.

It wasn't long until Raegan broke the peaceful moment.

« I'm sorry. » he looked down at his feet and felt the same guilt from earlier building up again, it was him that insisted on chasing after an incredibly agile animal, for a moment he didn't look back at his best friend, he felt wrong because he now believed his friend would think he didn't care. What if now he'd stop playing with him or spend time with him or-

« What for? »

« Uh? »

« You said you were sorry. Why? »

Raegan wasn't sure he had understood. « For clearly hurting you? Or scaring you to death? I don't even know where to start! » it was so obvious he failed to get why Virgil wasn't blaming him in the first place.

« You didn't know. I didn't know. Plus you helped me recover. » he turned to his sorry friend and gifted him with a reassuring smile, to which the other responded to the same way. « Now that I mention it, how did you know how to ...? » Virgil made some gestures as he did when he didn't know how to explain himself, which was kind of adorable.

« One of the children at the orphanage had been crying for half an hour one day and was unable to stop, so I saw one of my oldest brothers walk up to him and doing the same thing I did. » Virgil tilted his head while Raegan was staring at a fixed point in front of him, as if he was spacing out, then he displayed his best impression of a 17 year old that sounded more like an old man and pointed his finger at the tree ahead of them « And he told him to man up, boy, you got some dishes to clean! »

Both of them burst out laughing at that, as the impression was so good and yet so terrible it sounded perfect.

« Did he do the dishes then? »

« Nah, I had to do them. » Raegan sighed so profoundly at the memory he shook his head, that altogether caused Virgil to laugh even more.

The comfortable silence fell back on them after some more goofing around, memories flying in their minds of other events, but they chose not to revive them with spoken words.

Then they remembered as their gaze fell on Virgil's cape.

« What would you do if you were an actual prince? » Raegan was caught off guard by the other's question, but that surely was an interesting argument. Being part of the royalty in their minds meant being able to do anything, you'd have magicians at your side, the possibility of changing the rules whenever you wanted, what was there not to do?

« I'd probably order my whole kingdom to have desserts at every single meal. Anyone who'd get caught not eating cake would get arrested and executed in the main square. »

« Woah, drastic. »

« But there'll be cake hour ... »

« Cake hour. » Virgil repeated, amused at his friend's idea.

« Cake hour, Virgil. It's important. » Raegan warned him as if it was the first priority in their lives.

« Why don't we have a cake hour at school? »

« Now that's a nice question! »

Their cake discourse, sadly, was abruptly interrupted by the distant chime of bells: they looked at each other with a panicked expression, that was the sign that the royalty of Arcadia and Tinfea had arrived at their village and all the 10-year-old boys had to show up before them. And Raegan and Virgil were still in the forest, dirty and bruised. They were dirty, bruised and also late. They immediately got up and decided to walk with wide steps in order to be as fast as they could and to prevent the whole breathing issue to present again.

After Raegan had helped Virgil up, before he could do anything the little knight wrapped his arms around his friend, who was taken aback by the sudden hug, but didn't hesitate to return it immediately. Virgil murmured a soft “thank you”, still uneasy from before.

They filled their way to the center planning whichever lie they were gonna say once they got back: they were chased by a giant animal and got hurt, scared and had to hide away for a while. It wasn't like either of them was gonna be the prince they were looking for anyway, they were just two kids in a tiny village. It wouldn't have made any sense.

Or so Virgil thought.

✾ ✾ ✾

Patton felt another wave of excitement as he checked the new kids he had to examine from a distance; he held his drawing close, the tips of his fingers brushing lightly against the margins of the paper. He sensed the portrait of the lost prince nearly weighing against his chest. He took a deep breath as the king and queen received the last regards from the village's inhabitants, Logan at his side gave him a reassuring nod, despite being a tad nervous himself: he felt like he had already seen the place somehow, like it held some kind of familiar trait he couldn't quite put his finger on, it was frustrating.

They were about to begin when a couple of women and a man ran towards the group and made their way through the crowd of villagers that wanted to assist the scene. The woman that was dressed like an orphanage caretaker was the one to speak, deep worry in her words « Please accept our apologies, but two of our village's kids are missing, we have been looking for them anywhere but they can't be found! »

« Oh my, is that so? »

« Yes, » the man paced forward « one of them is my son, I believe they went into the woods and we are afraid they got lost, or worse ... » he refrained from ending his own sentence, the worst case scenario he didn't want to cross his mind.

They were about to ask for help when the king stared into the distance and pointed right behind the people in front of him « Could they be your children? »

Sighs of relief set onto everyone as the three villagers smiled, but soon after a look of horror painted their faces as the appearance of the two ashamed kids came into view: they saw the dirt, the spots, the rips, and the blood.

At the same time, one boy's mother yelled "Goodness gracious, Virgil!" while one of the orphans cried out "big brother!" as a couple of adults and Virgil's parents ran towards them.

The mother hugged his son fiercely, not caring about smearing her clothes with blood and the dirt on her child's clothes, while his father helped him to walk over to the sovereigns, Raegan on the other hand, looking better than his friend, received multiple scolds by the caretakers for being too careless.

After they had reached the crowd, Virgil and Raegan personally approached the royalty and bowed down to them in an apologetic manner, at which the two monarchs softened up enough for them to get closer and kneel down in front of them.

« Straighten up kids, you don't need to feel sorry, I would've probably done the same if I had been you. » the king snickered and did a quick wink at them.

The queen ruffled their hair with a sweet smile, she appeared so tender it didn't even feel real, all the social class boundaries were broken as her motherly instincts acted up.

Then she turned to Logan « Can you perchance heal these bad-looking wounds? »

The mage slightly bowed at them and walked up to the kids with a smug look on his face « I can do even better, madame. »

So the two Arcadian rulers stepped away and gave the boy his own space to practice the spell: Patton could see it was completely different from the curse he had placed on him.

This time the lights around him were light blue, almost white, he drew a sinuous symbol with no sharp edges, not like the one he had seen. Logan didn't have to pronounce any formula, instead, he duplicated the symbol and commanded it to fly up above the two boys; and just like that, the symbols started to lightly crumble in little particles that looked like stardust on them. Once it was finished they looked perfectly refreshed, fine clothes and clean faces, they looked like they didn't enter the forest at all.

Raegan and Virgil both stared at their hands, then at each other with astonished expressions and faint smiles.

But there was something else, the familiar sensation had strengthened upon seeing the two boys more clearly, upon having them so close in front of him ... could it be? He locked eyes first with the orphan, then with the other child, he examined their facial features so long silence fell into the place: the kids started feeling uncomfortable, did the spell do something weird to them? Were they going to turn into trolls? Still, Logan's apathetic gaze fixed on them didn't help them ease up.

The seer turned to the royalty after a careful study of the two « Patton, could you assist me for a moment? »

Something hit hard Virgil's heart. Wait, what? They were actually getting checked up? Or was this only protocol? Had they already gone through the other children? It couldn't possibly be one of them, Virgil was sure about who his parents were, and he was certain that Raegan ... well, he was his best friend, it's not like he'd turn out to be a prince and out of nowhere get ripped away from him. They were just village kids. He tried to repeat this sentence into his mind over and over again, trying to convince himself as panic rose back into him.

Patton had come closer with a warming smile that almost calmed Virgil completely down; he held out his drawing in front of him as he compared the picture first with Virgil, then with Raegan.

When his eyes widened. Logan understood immediately what was off about that place by the behavior of the prince of Tinfea.

Patton locked eyes in awe with Raegan, who somehow felt the need to straighten his posture, he felt like he was being judged by everyone. With the corner of his eyes, he could see his best friend's almost pained look.

He couldn't breathe when Patton turned his back to him to face the sovereigns.

Patton couldn't contain his smile. « Your majesty, » his solemn tone was the only thing filling the village's air, everybody was holding their breath. Raegan's heart skipped a beat.

« We found him. »

Next chapter

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treatian · 4 years

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The Chronicles of the Dark One: The Dark Curse

Chapter 71: Teachable Moments

In the beginning, he'd always grown frustrated when Regina missed a lesson, but he'd learned since then. Now, when he found that Regina missed a lesson he wasn't angry, though he might pretend to be when he saw her again, instead he was excited. Regina rarely missed a lesson for anything related to her role as Queen, or for her "family" which meant that when she failed to show up, she was struggling. He used to feel as though his time was wasted, now he felt as though it was the pay off. Though she still hadn't said the magic words that he longed to hear, the words that would tell him that she was ready to move on and cast a curse, he could sense the feeling growing in her. He was getting into the Queen's head, getting into those dark places everyone kept hidden from the world and throwing them into the light where Regina grappled with them. And it was beautiful.

Besides, these days a missed lesson wasn't quite the tragedy it had been when she was a younger girl, just learning the craft. Then he'd needed to keep her in the magic, keep her close to it, practicing it all the time. Now, there was no question that she used magic in her daily life. Her husband knew it, her step-daughter knew it, half the Kingdom knew it. It allowed the rumors of what she could do to spread like wildfire. She was eager to learn, her fingers itching to use what she knew and allow the power growing inside of her to expand. Not getting her lessons…it was a bit like watching Jefferson go too long without using that hat of his or seeing his bedmate. Want became need. Need became desire. Desire became desperation. Desperation became addiction. And when it came to the temptation of magic, that was a subject he knew well.

So, he'd come up with a system to make it worse and teach her a lesson as well. When Regina missed a lesson to explore and contemplate the choices she was making, he returned the favor. She'd wasted his time, so he wasted hers, promising more lessons then "forgetting" to show up for them. When she tracked him down in his home and questioned him, a simple "busy" was all it took to show her how it felt as well as to raise her heart rate and make her just a tad bit more desperate for what she didn't have. She soon had put two and two together, and so now their lessons lived in a sort of…suspension. He sent word to her when they were to practice, made the lessons fewer and farther apart, and in return, he watched as the poor Queen began to fall apart herself.

The last couple of years had been the hardest. Ever since the King had gotten Snow White a horse for her birthday and the pair had become quite renowned across the land, jealousy continued to rage within his pupil. Regina seethed. He gloated. Privately, of course, but he was proud of his creation. And yet…he knew that he couldn't hold her back forever. She was making strides, coming ever closer to where she needed to be with her hate toward the Princess, but he was no closer to getting his hands on the curse today as he was seven years ago when all this had begun! This was a delicate operation. Every day Snow White grew older, into the woman he knew that James would one day fall for and marry, and who knew how soon after that they'd conceive and she'd give birth to the child that he needed to break the curse. He had to be cautious. If she grew too unstable and killed Snow White too early then it would throw everything into disarray. He needed her to have patience. To let her anger simmer for a while, and not boil over. An extremely difficult thing to do when the Princess kept winning riding tournaments and her father continued to dote upon her.

He was here today because of a vision that he'd seen in his head, one that he needed to understand. But when he arrived, Regina was another vision entirely. He tracked her to the stables, and she was in quite the state; one highly immature and unbecoming of her position. Ripping ribbons her step-daughter won off the wall one by one as she growled under her breath…it was a good thing Cora was so far away; otherwise this would have been tragic for her to witness. For him, it was just embarrassing.

"Oh!" he shuddered, making her turn to find him. "I love a touch of irony! The day you met Snow White, she nearly died on a horse. And yet today, she's the best rider in all the land."

"It's her precious horse that's won those medals, not her!" Regina spat back. He nearly rolled her eyes. Sure it was. And if she truly believed that, then she wouldn't be in here tearing them down one right after another.

"Still, good fortune does tend to, uh, fall in her lap, does it not?"

"And you promised to teach me magic so I can end her charmed life!" she roared.

"Well, I'm teaching you, dearie," he insisted, taking his seat again. And he stood by that truth. He was teaching her how to destroy her step-daughter just not quite in the way she wanted. Not that it mattered, if the book he'd seen her holding, the one she was hiding behind her back, meant anything. The vision he'd had before arriving here flashed before his eyes, and he fought back a smile. Perhaps there was a connection after all. "Though you sound a bit impatient. Sneaking out here to read...what is it?"

Using his magic, he grabbed the book in his own hands and looked it over, seeing a familiar emblem he hadn't seen in years. And for good reason. He'd helped give the Dragon the cure to keep her human and then left all thoughts of Maleficent behind. But this afternoon, he'd had a vision, or a series of visions that brought her back to his attention.

Maleficent sulking around the castle he'd told her to go to. Regina talking with her. Princess Aurora, Stefan's daughter, drifting into a deep sleep with Maleficent beside her. A dragon alive once more, and Regina, finally mastering what she hadn't before-the creation of a fireball.

It was for that last vision he'd seen that he wanted to understand the vision, to do what he had to in order to make it come true. But he hadn't understood how Regina connected to the rest of it…not until he saw this book in her hands. But still, why would Regina have it?

"Maleficent's spell book?!"

The girl stood before him, looking more guilty than ever and shrugged. "I…found it in my mother's things," she explained, wobbling on her tip-toes as if she were a child guilty of going through her mother's things when she was, in fact, an adult queen going through items that had been abandoned. Suddenly Regina smiled and leaned closer a look of excitement on her face. "She can turn into-"

"A fire-breathing dragon," he provided for her. "Yes, yes, yes. A bit showy if you ask me." Not that she was doing it much anymore.

"I'm just tired of watching Snow grow up!" she screamed as he set the book aside. "I am tired of her getting everything, and I...I want to finally have my revenge!"

He had to laugh at that…they'd had this conversation before, the night that she'd attempted to destroy Snow White's reputation. And if that was what she considered revenge, then her ideas were as stale as this conversation.

"You don't even know what revenge looks like, dearie."

"You're right. All I know are what your lessons look like…and they're taking me nowhere."

Childish insults. Was that how this was going to be? What she was reduced to? Maybe she needed to be taught a different lesson. Maybe she needed a different teacher. Maybe she needed to see how far her own heroes could fall. "Before you start throwing stones, you might want to look in the mirror! And I'm not speaking metaphorically," he commented, pointing to the small mirror that hung on the wall of the stable.

Regina let out a great heaving sigh that told him what he'd come up with was worth a try. So as she turned to look, he waved his hand out over the mirror, and they both watched as it became the image of a forest he was familiar with but doubted Regina had ever seen since her husband wasn't one to take her on trips to distant lands.

"What is this place?" she questioned.

He hadn't seen it in a good long while himself, and it didn't look any better than the last time he had. "It's a wasteland," he answered. "But years ago, it was a lush forest till Maleficent burned it down. Her dragon flame burned so hot that there's one tree still on fire half a lifetime later."

Regina smiled and turned to face him. "Do you know how she did it?"

"With a powerful magic that she cultivated with that most precious commodity...time. If you ignore the gift of time and rush into things, you...will never be ready," he insisted, placing a finger under her chin and inspecting her gaze. She wasn't ready now. She could try to cast the curse, but it would fail, there wasn't nearly enough hate in her heart yet. Or rejection or failure, or power. And besides all that…the Swan hadn't been born yet, nor had Prince Charming and Snow White fallen madly in love in order to conceive her. This was not the time. If nothing else, perhaps Maleficent was a far better teacher for that lesson than he was. His vision suggested that she should go to her, and his vision changed nothing of the future that he saw. It wasn't as though they were on the clock…what harm could a bit of space do?

"Or maybe this is all just excuses, and you're just not a skilled enough teacher to show me!"

"You think she's gonna help you?"

"I think I'm tired of waiting!"

"And that is exactly your problem!" he roared back at her. They'd see how this turned out soon enough. "Good luck with Maleficent." With a snap of his fingers, Regina vanished from his sight, out to the wasteland, to a place where a slumbering dragon still dwelt in a haunted castle-The Forbidden Forest.

#Rumbelle #Rumple #Rumpelstiltskin #Dark One #Regina #Evil Queen #Maleficent #Queens of Darkness #ouat #ouat fanfiction #fanfic

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lintheotaku · 4 years

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Current Watch- Isekai Review

Season: Fall 2019

Anime: Ascendance of a Bookworm Genre: Isekai/Fantasy Plot: “ vid bookworm and college student Motosu Urano ends up dying in an unforeseen accident. This came right after the news that she would finally be able to work as a librarian like she had always dreamed of. When she regained consciousness, she was reborn as Myne, the daughter of a poor soldier. She was in the town of Ehrenfest, which had a harsh class system. But as long as she had books, she didn't really need anything else. However, books were scarce and belonged only to the nobles. But that doesn't stop her, so she makes a decision... "If there aren't any books, I'll just create “ Thoughts: I freaking love this one!!!! It starts off in a sorta slow pace, but it’s so you can gain an understanding of characters, build of the setting and situation of this fantasy-like world. Unlike other isekai fantasy adventuring types, Ascendance of a Bookworm is focused on the protagonist’s thirst for knowledge and to read books. From the first episode we are shown that Myne succeeds in creating her own book, and we are looking into her memories of how it all began. Before I knew it, after each episode I was craving the next episode to see Myne’s dream come true. Each character she meets have importance throughout the story. Heart goes out to Lutz as best boi <3 Overall this series is a refreshing stance of the isekai genre while still being intriguing, fun, and clever. A High recommend for a steady series and can’t wait for Season 2!! Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ [5/5]

Anime: High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World Genre: Isekai/Fantasy/Fan-service Plot: “Seven high school students are involved in an airplane crash. When they woke up, they found themselves in a parallel world where magic and beastmen exist. Of course, they panicked at their sudden unexpected predicament... or not? Instead, they create a power plant in a world that doesn't have electricity, they did a little extra work and managed to take economic control over a metropolis, they managed to repay their gratitude to some oppressed citizens by upending a corrupt government, and basically do whatever they feel like?!” Overall Thoughts: If you don’t mind turning your brain off to have something to occasionally watch and don’t mind the fan-services moments, this one isn’t too bad. Far as story- What’s probably something than can turn you off is the characters. Most of them don’t have much depth to their characters and their abilities are exaggeratedly over the top. And no, I don’t mean exaggerated for high school kids, but for any humanly possible. A samurai female running along side and guiding a missile sort of over the top- It’s one of those, you either hate it or love it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ And fans are probably there for the ecchi moments. (which I didn’t initially realize there was so much of it until looking back) Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ ♡ [3.5/5]

Anime: Didn't I say to make my abilities average in the next life Genre: Isekai/Fantasy/Comedy/Adventure Plot: “Kurihara Misato was a little more capable than other high school girls, and as a result, she was always alone and couldn't live her life the way she wanted. When she was reincarnated in another world after a tragic accident, she wanted a chance to make normal friends and live a normal life. So she asked God for one thing... "Give me abilities that are average for that world!" But the abilities God gave her were not "average" at all... And now this girl, who's been reborn in a world where magic is real, struggles to find simple, ordinary happiness” Overall Thoughts: This is a really fun one. I really like how Milie’s friends look like they would be your stereotype party members but don’t follow that mold. The comedy is very well received and Milie’s Anime references was a blast to see. I personally about died over her using ‘spirit gun’. The four girls are all sweet and wonderful watch. Another high praised series for the season. Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ [5/5]

Anime: Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun Genre: Isekai/Fantasy/Comedy/Shōnen Plot: “The story follows the life of Iruma Suzuki, a 14-year-old human boy, who is sold to a demon by his parents. The demon is known as Sullivan, who takes Iruma to the Demon World and officially adopts him as his grandson. He then enrolls Iruma in the Babyls School for Demons where Sullivan is the headmaster, and where Iruma quickly befriends the demons Alice Asmodeus and Clara Valac. However, Sullivan tells Iruma to never reveal that he is a human, since he will be eaten if anyone finds out that he is not a demon. Iruma then vows to blend in during his time in the Demon World, although he only stands out due to all the situations and adventures that arise.“ Overall Thoughts: A lighthearted series of fun adventures of Iruma attending a demon school. Although not a new concept (Hells, Rosairo+Vampire, etc) but with it being a shonen type, it’s quite a fun watch with light hearted moments. Personally, I find the lack of depth of the setting and backgrounds to be a bit too vague- but is fine for a casual watch, colorful characters, and comical moments. Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ [4.5/5]

Anime: Kemono Michi: Rise Up Genre: Comedy/Isekai/Fantasy Plot: “Genzo, Japan's number one animal-loving pro-wrestler, gets transported to another world where magical beasts run rampant. In order to save the kingdom, the princess asks him to rid the world of the beasts, but he refuses and wants to save them instead! Genzo opens a pet shop for his new beast friends, but he gets too attached to them and is unable to sell them which leads to constant financial problems for his new shop! Join Genzo and his cute demi-human employees as they find loving homes for the many beasts of the kingdom!” Overall Thoughts: While the wrestling aspect is what truly drew me in, this one can be a bit close to the Furry/Bestiality line... often... It’s a fun nonsensical series that isn’t too high strong on the ‘death the demon lord’ route. I did find this one to be fun despite a couple of running gags feeling a bit stale after the 2nd time. Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ [4/5]

Anime: The Hero Is Overpowered But Overly Cautious Genre: Comedy/Isekai/Fantasy Plot: “In the world of Gaeabrande, Goddess Ristarte is tasked with summoning a hero to save her world. The hero, Seiya Ryuuguuin, is an OVERLY cautious hero who’s obsessed with muscle training and buying armor before setting out to deal with low level creatures. It’s simply one overly cautious mission at-a-time for this invincible hero!” Overall Thoughts: This one... Literally this gif image sums up the entire series- I personally was getting tired of some of the ‘overly cautiousness’ gags, but it soon shifted. Although still cautious, it was more clear (for the audience) to see there was more to this hero. And then I got towards the final 2 episodes... I’ll say this is one show that’s gonna continue to haunt me. Final Thought: It’s worth finishing tbh. Rate: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♡ [4.5/5]

#current watch #anime fall 2019

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imjustapoorwayfaringgeek · 1 year

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Starks 🤍🩶✨

a lot of red hair

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randomestfandoms-ocs · 5 years

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Percy Jackson OC Masterlist

Name: Amelia Sawyer

Story: Underestimated

Godly Parent: Hermes

Face claim: Sadie Sink

Summary: tbd

Name: Ashley Wilson

Story: Chaos Killed The Dinosaurs

Godly Parent: Eris

Face claim: Madison Mclaughlin

Love interest: Percy Jackson

Summary: Ashley Wilson had always known that she was unusual, even for a demigod. Claimed by Eris at seven years of age, everyone had always held her at arms’ length. Everyone, that is, until Percy Jackson. Having made her first friend in five years, Ashley is determined not to lose him; even if that means going to the underworld to save his mom - and the world. She’s a daughter of chaos, and it’s about time people see what that really means.

Name: Atalanta Jackson

Story: The End Of The Sea

Godly Parent: Neptune

Face claim: Zoey Deutch

Love interest: Jason Grace

Summary: Atalanta Jackson didn’t remember her life before Camp Jupiter, before being claimed as Amphitrite’s hero. It’s always been she and Jason Grace, the Fifth Cohort, and their “special training” with Hera and Amphitrite. Everything is fine, everything is good, even, until Jason disappears and, six months later, a boy who shares her name, father, and eyes shows up at the border, and Atalanta knows everything is about to fall apart.

Name: Avery Thomas

Story: The Saviour Of The Broken (The Beaten, And The Damned)

Godly Parent: Hecate

Face claim: Emily Rudd

Summary: tbd

Name: Blake Morris

Story: Die For Me

Godly Parent: Hermes

Face claim: Dylan Sprayberry

Love Interest: Jasper Gabriel

Summary: tbd

Name: Calliope

Story: Memories Don’t Die

Godly Parent: Hecate

Face claim: Danielle Campbell

Summary: tbd

Name: Cassandra Aelius

Story: (You’ll Believe) God Is A Woman

Godly Parent: Apollo

Face claim: Kathryn Newton

Love interest: Jason Grace & Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano

Summary: You want to know what’s really fucked up? When you’re a daughter of Apollo and the actual reincarnation of a woman he cursed for refusing to fuck him. Cassandra Aelius, or as she used to be known, Cassandra of Troy, doesn’t remember everything about her past life, but she gets flashes of it. And like her past self, no one believes in her visions or her powers. But she does. And if the only two people who even humour her warnings are Jason Grace and Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano, well, at least they’re in charge. And if she has to handle all of this herself, well, so be it. It’s been thousands of years, but Cassandra will never let herself be ignored again.

Name: Ciara Mare

Story: Princepes Maris

Series: Primordial Daughters

Godly Parent: Oceanus

Face claim: Auli'i Cravalho

Love interest: Percy Jackson

Summary: tbd

Name: Crystal Solace

Story: Walking on Sunshine

Godly Parent: Apollo

Face claim: Annasophia Robb

Summary: Referred to by her twin as an “actual ray of sunshine,” Crystal Solace was everything you might expect of a daughter of Apollo. Sweet, bubbly, and welcoming, everyone wants to be friends with her - until they find out that she has an inhuman ability to tell when she’s being lied to. When every friend you’ve ever had casts you aside as a freak, it would be easy to grow resentful, but Crys lives up to her nickname. There’s a war coming, and even no one outside of her cabin wants her around, Crys is still ready to fight for her family - whether they like it or not.

Name: Davina Gerwin

Story: Love In The Time Of Monsters

Godly Parent: Eros

Face claim: Madelaine Petsch

Summary: tbd

Name: Delia

Story: Total Eclipse Of The Heart

Godly Parent: Redacted

Face claim: Candice King

Summary: tbd

Name: Esmerelda Wilde

Story: Legacy of the Father

Godly Parent: Hermes

Face claim: Sky Katz

Love interest: Clarisse La Rue

Summary: Children of Hermes were never taken seriously. People only ever saw them as pickpockets and pranksters, in a cabin that was barely even their own. And Esmerelda Wilde absolutely hated it. He was also the protector of travellers, the god of trade, eloquence, orators, wit, literature, poets, and athletics. There was a lot more to her, to all of her siblings, than just petty theft and dumb jokes, not that anyone cared. But she cared, and with a war on the horizon, she’d be damned if she let anyone underestimate the Hermes cabin again.

Name: Helena Jackson

Story: A Thousand Ships

Series: A Thousand Ships: Or The Trojan War In Half The Time

AO3 | FFNet | Wattpad

Godly Parent: Poseidon

Face claim: India Eisley

Summary: Helena Jackson’s life is fine, really. Sure, she hates her boarding school right in the city, her mom is married to an abusive asshole, her dad is some flake, and she and her twin brother are for some reason not allowed to ever go to the same school, but really, it’s fine. And then Percy gets expelled, again, his best friend turns out to be a goat, their mom gets kidnapped, and her flake of a dad is actually a god. Oh, right, and apparently they’re now the lead suspects in the case of Zeus’ bruised ego. But still, her life is fine, really.

Name: Jasper Gabriel

Story: Die For Me

Godly Parent: Hades

Face claim: Danielle Rose Russell & Millie Bobby Brown

Love Interest: Blake Morris

Summary: tbd

Name: Lila

Story: The Truth About The Moon

Godly Parent: Redacted

Face claim: Olivia Holt

Summary: tbd

Name: May Tierra Anderson

Story: Terra Heredis

Series: Primordial Daughters

Godly Parent: Terra

Face claim: Vanessa Morgan

Love interest: Jason Grace

Summary: tbd

Name: Melody Weiss

Story: A Song Of Forgetting

Godly Parent: Apollo, Granddaughter of Athena

Face claim: Sabrina Carpenter

Summary: tbd

Name: Nina Callie Turner

Story: My Head Is Bloody (But Unbowed)

Godly Parent: Bellona

Face Claim: Lana Condor

Love Interest: Percy Jackson & Jason Grace

Summary: My name is Nina Turner. I was kidnapped. I will get off Ogygia. Callie--Nina Turner has repeated this mantra to herself every day for nine years, ever since Calypso had taken her from her home. As Nina would soon learn, every century the vengeful titan would steal a young demigod to raise as her “maid” - slave, if you asked Nina - as a small revenge against the gods who kept her on her island. Nina just happened to be the latest. For nine years she’d only been called Callie, as was every other kidnapped girl, she’d been told about how evil the gods were, and she’d been treated worse than dirt. And then, just when she’s started to give up hope, a boy with jet black hair and the most gorgeous green eyes crash lands in her personal hell.

Name: Penelope Grace

Story: Where The Sky Meets The Sea

Godly Parent: Poseidon

Face claim: Kaya Scodelario

Summary: When Poseidon’s second demigod child - a girl by the name of Penelope Grace - was born, he panicked. Breaking the oath once was bad enough, but twice? Zeus would destroy her. And so, Amphitrite convinces the girl’s mother to let her take her stepdaughter, and a three year old Penelope is brought to Poseidon’s kingdom. The next nine years are a blur of training; learning to fight with Triton, politics with Amphitrite, and mastering her powers with Poseidon. And then Zeus’ master bolt is stolen, and Poseidon’s other demigod child is attacked by Alekto, and Penelope is sent away from her Atlantian home to a camp in New York city with only two instructions. Don’t let anyone know where you’re from, and keep Percy Jackson alive at all costs.

Name: Skyler Caelestis

Story: Caelum

Godly Parent: Uranus

Face claim: Kiernan Shipka

Summary: tbd

Name: Stella Beauregard

Story: Sad, Beautiful, Tragic

Godly Parent: Aphrodite

Face claim: Chloe Grace Moretz

Summary: Love is bullshit. An uncommon opinion for a daughter of Aphrodite, but Stella Beauregard knew it to be a fact. Her mom had supposedly loved her dad—enough to have two children with him three years apart, but she still left both times. Her dad had loved her mom, enough to welcome her back after she’d left him a broken shell, only for her to leave him again. And her sister? Her sister had loved Charles Beckendorf. So much so that she sacrificed herself almost immediately after his death. Yes, Love was bullshit, and Stella was going to break the cycle of heartbreak that seemed to haunt her family. What better way to do that than join the Hunters of Artemis—than to be the first daughter of Aphrodite to ever do so?

Name: Summer Sol

Story: Cross My Heart And Hope To Die

Godly Parent: Apollo

Face claim: Lily James

Love interest: Luke Castellan

Summary: Summer Sol. Daughter of Apollo. 21 years old. California girl. Luke Castellan’s girlfriend. Summer had always considered these to be her defining traits, and so had everyone else at Camp Half Blood. She’s perfectly happy with that, until her boyfriend betrays the entire camp, and their parents, and suddenly everyone is looking at her like she’s about to betray them too. She won’t, she’s loyal, she swears it: cross her heart and hope to die.

Name: Sybil

Story: Holy Ground

Godly Parent: Redacted

Face claim: Ginny Gardner

Summary: tbd

Name: Thea Carol

Story: The Mirror Of Your Dreams

Godly Parent: Athena, legacy of Apollo (Roman)

Face claim: Malina Weissman, Lea Michele

Summary: tbd

Name: Victoria Blofis

Story: Victory’s Contagious

Godly Parent: Nike

Face claim: Meg Donnelly

Love interest: Jason Grace

Summary: Victoria Blofis didn’t consider herself particularly ambitious, especially for a daughter of Nike. She wanted to cheer for the Goode High Sharks, she wanted to maintain her 4.0 GPA, and she wanted to not die every time that she went back to Camp Half Blood. But during the Christmas of her freshman year, her childhood best friend is kidnapped. Sure, Victoria and Annabeth hadn’t been as close over the past couple of years, but that didn’t mean that she wouldn’t still go to the ends of the earth to save her. Or, in this case, it didn’t mean that she wouldn’t still partner up with Percy Jackson to break out of camp and join a quest that they weren’t chosen for. As luck would have it, she and Percy make a great team, and even better friends. And then she finds out. Her dad’s new girlfriend? None other than Percy Jackson’s mother.

Name: Viola Di Angelo

Story: Come Hell Or High Water

Godly Parent: Hades

Face claim: Anya Taylor Joy

Love interest: Percy Jackson

Summary: It was practically unheard of for a god to have two children with the same mortal, let alone three. But Hades has always been the odd one out, and had done exactly that. First there was Viola, then Bianca, then Nico. And then came Zeus, the River Lethe, over seventy years at the Lotus Hotel, Westover Hall, and finally, finally, along came Percy Jackson. He brought with him answers to two lifetimes of questions, and he offered her a home. But then her sister abandons them for a goddess’ girl gang, and Percy is gone, and Viola has a thousand more overwhelming questions. And then he comes back, without Bianca, and Viola can no longer pretend that everything is going to be okay.

Name: Xena Gale

Story: Perfect Storm

Godly Parent: Zeus

Face claim: Madison Davenport

Summary: tbd

#randomestfandoms construction #masterlist #percy jackson oc

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lemedy · 5 years

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so it seems like I am, indeed, going to die mad forever over this episode

- so I'm the first to admit that I'm a dany apologist and can admit my bias

- I can also happily admit that no, she probably was never the best to sit on the iron throne (if we are to believe anyone will sit on it on the end, which is very likely not the case and it'll melted down for all the kingdoms to have independence) - my girl's a conqueror and not a political queen, and that is how she should have gone down in westeros history

- but what I cannot take is this entire season being about stripping away everything from her, just so that she's shoved into ~mad queen~. seven. seven goddamn seasons of watching the show validate dany on her mission, of other characters constantly telling us they and we should believe in her and her breaking of the wheel

- lol no she's actually one of two mad queens all along, she was on cersei's level and we're going to get rid of them both so that good, heroic, dull jon snow can sit there at the head of a council and stare mopily into the camera

- I was also apparently a fool to think that sansa and dany would work through their (understandable from both sides) tension around each other and come to an understanding, that dany would allow the north's independence (LIKE SHE DID FOR YARA, SHE HAS FUCKING FORM ON THIS) but sadly this show seems to hate positive f/f relationships

- so to borrow from both olenna and missendei, two of the best: be a dragon, and burn everything to the fucking ground, dany

- several someones have pointed out that if they really wanted go for that ~shock ending~ of cersei killing off one of dany's nearest and dearest - why not tyrion? why would cersei even really know that missendei is particularly dear to dany? why have cersei kill two birds with one stone, and kill off the brother she hates *and* dany's hand?

- no, much better to kill off the one woman of colour on the entire show. fridging, one could say

- (people always give emilia shit about her acting but I went and watched her face work through ten levels of grief/fury/tranquil vengeance in those twenty seconds. killed me)

- if they don’t burn the iron throne down then please just give it to sansa, who is by far the most intelligent person on the entire show.

- and jaime really did that, didn't he. lol what even was the reason for his last season or so of character development, and cutting off his co-dependency with cersei. probably this is supposed to be his Tragic Flaw or whatever, and he and cersei will die together in the next couple of episodes. I guess we'll always have 'rise ser brienne' and that's it

- never has it been more obvious that this is show written by men when they decided to have sansa say she’s thankful for her years of abuse, because it ‘made her who she is’. FLAMES ON THE SIDE OF MY FACE

- if my girl yara doesn't kill euron next episode, I am going to sue everything. for seasons now he's had that same awful terrible plot armour ramsey bolton did - somehow magical pirate wizard who could shoot down A FLYING DRAGON, and sneak up on dany FOUR TIMES. end him. end my misery. justice for rhaegal.

- anyway I hope the next episode starts with king's landing being ashes, dany going back home across the sea with her one remaining child, and the rest of the show is arya goes to stay with yara and be a viking assassin.

#got blogging #got spoilers #game of thrones spoilers #laughs god i am going to be insufferable tomorrow #i will find my fellow work nerd peeps #i will never stop complaining about all.....this #two episodes and i am a free goddamn elf

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thatboomerkid · 5 years

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Wishing Day

Pathfinder Fiction by Clinton J. Boomer

Brought to you absolutely free to enjoy, to test & to share – as always – by the fine folks of my Patreon.

Old Wishtwister Shadibriri was having himself a truly lovely day.

The barren sky hung still, sullen and gray like a pool of seething lead, low and dark upon the horizon without a ghost of sunlight behind it. Stinging snow, much of it now clumped into hard, cruel shards of ice, sifted and spattered through the black and leafless trees, filling the forest path with a drifting, bony whiteness, which crunched delightfully underfoot.

A cry of killing wind cut, crackling, through the ice-coated branches, and a smile crept unto the lips of the Wishtwister.

Such good sport, he thought with a quiet laugh. And what a day!

It was a day that promised to be delightful, and productive, and most of all simply a well-fulfilling damned enterprise. After all, he thought: it’s Wishing Day!

Thirty miles south by south-east of Gralton, soiled jewel of the River Kingdoms, the whistling Wishtwister cut through the nameless woods to his destination: a blackened little circle of seven stumps ringing ’round a jut of bloodstained and rune-carved rock dating back to the time of the old Sarkoris Binding-Witches. The creeping grin which began, split the Wishgiver’s face at the thought of those old hags and what had become of them was colder than even the ice-choked wind.

His smile brightened, and his pace quickened. He was, of course, wearing a potent glamour, painted pleasant, bright and ruddy-cheeked as he always did when amongst humans, but the spring in his step was all real. It had simply been too long, by his delighted accounting, since Wishing Day had last come to Gralton.

Has it really been only a year?

Gralton had been a lucky find, all things considered during that winter of 4668 – the year all the wishing started. Once the old aristocracy of Galt had fled from the Red Revolution and settled into their rotting river estates just long enough to hate themselves for cowardice, it had been all too easy to put the right words in the right ears; on the 11th of Kuthona, when all the faithful of Cayden Cailean were gathered by a roaring hearth, spinning tall-tales and raising a tongue-tied toast to their hero’s bold ascension, the bitter and the vengeance-minded were to be found upon a very cold and lonely holiday indeed.

A dozen souls attended that first, inaugural Wishing Day.

This year, for his 42nd anniversary, Shadibriri expected a crowd of near fifty.

In truth, it should be said, there were more profitable opportunities than Gralton scattered around the great, wide world with all its mysteries: the early weeks of Gozran were always exciting, coming as they did in the very shadow of Taxfest. And the endless, aching middle of Calistril invariably saw the burning agony of some youth’s heart in the desperate need of an immediate fulfillment. Strangest of all, perhaps, the last gasps of Lamashan always seemed to writhe around an artist who had lost his muse or a soldier staggering home, sick to their stomach of war. Yes, all twelve months had very special and wonderful reasons to be in the right place at the right time, with sharp ears tuned to the right desires. And when there were no temptations to sow or bargains to make, no words to massage or dull-tongued desires to bring forth into hideous life, there was always killing to be done.

Yes, always killing, and blood and fear and the bursting of hot flesh in one’s sharp, slick hands. And the cries of accusations and sorcerer-burning. And the souls caught up in the shuffle, of course, and carried out into the Abyss. Delightful, all.

But for old Wishtwister Shadibriri, nothing was quite as sweet as today, perhaps because it was his – and his alone. No one else yet had a Wishing Day: ripe with those looks of pure, panicked, docile, tragic, terrified, wasted hope wreathed in angry, spiteful, blood-thrumming need. A crowd, squirming, willing to wrestle and claw and kill for the right to sell their soul short.

No wonder he loved Wishing Day.

A wandering, tuneless hum began to bounce right along with Shadibriri’s mirth, and the old demon turned his thoughts, quite idly, to how he might go about conducting this day’s most unique symphony of wants and promises and weeping betrayals. Would he make his supplicants fight for his favor? Fornicate, perhaps, in ugly couplings? Strip naked and race through the cold woods on frozen feet? Perhaps a wine-drinking competition, full to bursting and puking, or a teeth-pulling challenge, yanking gaping gums bare and bloody, or some other contest of trembling self-mutilation.

Each of those had always been joyous in the past.

And then the wish, of course, was the best part of all.

The old Wishtwister had never been one for plans. Ever the artist, never the engineer. An improviser: for him, a single second’s spark of spontaneity was worth well more than a dull decade’s dusty design; a moment of madness would always out-pace a century of contemplation.

But he did like to wonder.

And then, with a twinkle in his eye and a slick, savage parting of the strings of conjuration which bind the Astral spaces, the Wishtwister arrived at his destination.

There were four dozen there, all told, huddled against the cloying chill that strikes the River Kingdoms with a vengeful howl each winter and refuses to let go. Ice in their beards, hands fisted into numbs clumps at their sides, wet, crimson misery in their eyes; these abandoned and shifting souls were wrapped in finery and peasant’s rags alike. Some had surely rode six days out of Daggermark for this occasion, in sumptuous carriages crafted of darkwood and cold iron; others had no doubt begun the bleak march out of South Gralton’s gray farmland at nightfall wrapped in all they owned. And all were here, balancing dread against obsession.

With a ringing laugh, the Wishtwister leapt up upon the tallest stump of the clearing, and his warm voice carried against the wind: “Welcome, welcome, welcome all! And let our Wishing Day … commence!”

His sparkling smile washed over the crowd, and his gaze picked at their worried faces shining with unknown needs. He made a thousand, thousand guesses, and discarded all of them just as quickly.

Who, today, would leave with their heart’s desire?

He did not know, and the joy was in the learning of it. There was, for a moment, a heat within him so fierce that it was almost overwhelming; a wild mania, a rage to pick each and every one of the gathered throng apart with his bare hands and drink their piping blood down in gasping gulps.

“Hello, hello and hello! I am the old Shadibriri, friends, who hearkens close to those in greatest need, and by the ancient pacts of these old woods I come in this hour to hear your wants and whispers. I am no god, and I seek no prayers; I am no man, and I seek no gold; I am only a spirit of hoping and of wishing and of having, and I come expecting … gifts! Who, then, has brought me a treat, a taste, a tickle or a tithe?”

One woman, all-too-young, barefooted, dressed in rag and pushing forward through the crowd: “I … I bring you fresh milk.”

A grin: “Oh, and indeed I do treasure a drink of sweet milk! Is it warm, may I inquire?”

A look of terrified uncertainty: “I’m afraid … well, the … the cold … ”

“Huh. You did not think to clutch it next to your body, and to keep it warm?”

“I … I tucked it close as I could, against the wind, but … ”

“Oh, no. Then, perhaps next year you will remember to hide it beneath your cloak, against your bare and secret skin.”

The woman blushed, and stammered.

“… I …”

“No matter, young lady! ‘Tis but a bit of teasing from an old man, is all. You are bold, to speak first, and I do admire boldness. You may stay, for your milk is a fine gift. Pour it, now, on the ground, and abide awhile. If I may ask, then, little one, what will you wish for if the wishing be made yours this day?”

A soft gasp against the wind: “The … love of … ”

“Eh? What’s that, my little lamb, my little lark?”

“The love of a certain … certain person.”

“Hm. Oh, but I am afraid that I cannot give you the love of another.”

Red eyes startled, staring, disappointed.

A grin, as the ruined and muddy milk began to freeze upon the ground: “But I can give you this person, rest you assured. This person, their life, their body, their mind, their very heart, still hot, if you wish. All the things which make them, which is better than love. To thee, young lady, I wish the best of luck!”

Her eyes turned downward, humiliated and on the verge of tears.

“Now, who is next with gifts?”

A man stepped forward: “I bring you, master, a brick of solid silver.”

“Hm. And what need has a spirit for silver, lad?”

“… taken from my grandfather’s store without his knowledge.”

“Ah! Then you guess at my nature, boy!”

“I remember you of years past, my master.”

“Quite well, son! Well indeed, and I see your gift and am pleased, and beg of you to stay. If I may ask, my shivering and cunning friend, what shall you wish for today if the wish is made yours?”

“Revenge.”

“Oh, delightful! Come close, and drop your gift at my feet! Now, of these gathered lords and ladies, who else has a thing to offer me?”

A black-cloaked figure pushed forward: “I offer you only death, monster.”

The crowd drew back in time with the unsheathing of a blade.

A delighted gasp: “You offer me … death? So few have ever done so, and in truth I have never had it. And, then, what would your wish be, friend?”

With a scarred and battle-worn voice: “That you face me.”

“Indeed!”

Screams roiled through the crowd, as some few saw, for the briefest moment, the Old Wishtwister for what he truly was. A great and gnarled limb, like the claw of some misshapen crab vomited out of the Lake of Mists and Veils, snapped forward and severed the swordsman in twain. With a gush of steaming blood, his corpse twitched upon the scarlet snows and then lay still.

“There. A wish is granted.”

A mummer of panic roiled through the audience.

“Oh, fear not, friends! His request was a trifling thing, no great difficulty in granting. In truth, he deserved much more than that for which he asked; I could have given him strength beyond the mortal, or a blade more swift than blackness itself, or the insight to know his enemy’s heart and the vision to see foes all around him. A pity, then, that he chose so foolishly. Now, then … who else has brought me a gift?”

And there, as the supplication went on, and trophies piled before him, and the crowd began to turn spiteful and desperate, the Old Wishtwister decided upon the final task which would decide the victor of Wishing Day: the supplicant willing to devour, in gasps, the greatest portion of the fallen swordsman would be granted their dearest wish.

Oh yes, that would be fun. And then, and then, and THEN the very wish itself, and the new horrors dawned from it.

Ah, the joys of Wishing Day!

—

NOTE:

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#pathfinder #glabrezu #wishtwister #fiction #river kingdoms

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idaniadeleon · 5 years

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Hey, Seven here! Say hello to my second muse. Idania is my sweet, kind flower child who’s been through more than she ever deserved. If you want to create plots & connections with her, smash the like button and I’ll come to you!

- ̗̀✰ •【 ADRIA ARJONA / CISFEMALE / 26 】announcing the arrival of her royal highness, ( IDANIA DE LEON ), the ( PRINCESS ) of ( GUATEMALA ). I’ve heard that she is ( SENSITIVE ) & ( ANXIOUS ) but can also be ( KIND ) & ( INDEPENDENT ). ( IDANIA ) is arranged to marry ( HAMZA FAHMI ). Rumor has it ( SHE KILLED THE MAN WHO TRIED TO ROB HER OUT OF SELF-DEFENSE ). We hope you enjoy your stay at London!

tw: death, murder, miscarriage, violence, ptsd.

There are three royal siblings in the kingdom of Guatemala. Idania is the second child, the first baby that came from queen of Guatemala and her second husband. She also has a younger sibling whom they share both parents, but the firstborn child and the heir to the throne came from her mother’s first husband who passed away tragically only few years after their marriage.

Idania loves both of her siblings equally, even though there used to be a drift between the two youngest and the oldest, since they managed to grow up with a father whilst the firstborn didn’t.

However, what she never loved, was the royal life. Sure, there was certain privilege that came with it that the princess enjoyed. But whenever she tried to bide into one of the ridiculous rules, her spirit wouldn’t let her rest. She wanted to be out there instead, go to school, make friends, explore the world, write books and fall in love on her own. Instead, she was “doomed” in an arranged marriage before she came out of the womb.

Luck seemed to be on her side when she actually met the prince she was bound to marry. They were little kids when it happened. Idania never saw it coming, but the boy became her best friend and, eventually, her first love. She was dying to see him every time and their families foresaw that only good would come out the future spouses meeting so often. The couple proved them wrong. Idania and Pedro (that was his name) shared the same thirst for the world outside of the castle. They didn’t want to be tied down by the royal rules. Thus, they eloped four years ago, right after Idania finished her studies in creative writing at an open university she went to commando. A friend agreed to ship them off.

The first two and a half years went by like a dream. They traveled around Africa, Europe, Canada and Australia. In the end, they decided to settle in Perth. They got secretly married there. He worked as a sailing instructor and Idania published a fiction novel under the alias “Zoey”, which means life in Greek. It blew up, going and staying up to the top of best-selling novels for months.

The finishing touches her second book needed before being sent to the publishist were put to a temporary stop after she found out she was pregnant. She felt so dizzy and nauseous that she simply couldn’t bring herself to work on anything for the first couple of months. She never did again.

One tragic night changed her life forever. An armed bugler attacked them in an alley near their home. They were willing to give him all of their money if he just.. put the gun away. But he was too high, or too drunk, to act rationally. He shot Pedro in the chest and then Idania in the stomach. He tried to do God knows what else to her before robbing her. Idania, who at this point screamed and kicked with anything she could in the midst of her agony and despair, she grabbed a brick from the sideline and smashed his head with it. She hadn’t meant to kill him---just make him go away. The outcome? The bugler was dead by her hand, the man she loved was dead, and her pregnancy was terminated after she got shot.

After she woke up at the hospital, entirely empty, she did the one thing and daughter would: she called her mom and told her everything. She couldn’t stay in Perth anymore. Pedro’s family deserved to bury his body and grieve. And she...she just wanted to leave. Even if her family decided to kick her out and never see her face again.

As it turned out, that wasn’t the case. The queen made sure the murder would be covered up and took her daughter back under one condition: She would do anything in her power, from that point on, to restore the family’s name. Way too many pointed fingers at them since Idania fled and even more when the prince was announced dead.

Finally, we reach today. Idania agreed to come to the summit and marry a complete stranger. She’s been trying to recover for the past year and a half. The outside world still appeals to her, so she dresses up as a commoner and spends time outside. However, never too far from home. She seems perfectly normal most of the time, but she still can’t walk alone at night and she can’t imagine replacing her love with someone new. And she’s absolutely, thoroughly terrified her injury won’t let her carry children in the future.

#buckingham:intro #this turned into a small novel wtf

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purplecoloredglasses · 5 years

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This past Spring, my boyfriend and I took a trip across Europe in celebration of him graduating and getting a new job, along with my need to explore. Over the course of nearly three weeks, we explored five countries, eight cities and their surrounding towns and parks. It was an ambitious trip, and we were exhausted by the end, but I wouldn’t have traded it for the world. All Travel Logs focused on the trip will be linked with #Akron2Europe. I’ll also provide some small tips that helped make our lives easier.

Dublin, oh Dublin, be still my heart. Dublin has always captured my fascination. When I was a teen, I read a romantic fantasy novel series by Karen Marie Moning that was set in Dublin and since then I’ve been determined to set foot in the Irish city. It completely lived up to my expectations, and then some. This lush, green country with its hills, diverse city centre, and kind, but no nonsense residents captured my heart. This is a place that I would go back to again and again.

Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland and one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. A little more than 80% of the population is White Irish, while the other 20% are non-nationals, mostly from the UK, Poland, China, and the Philippines. It has a population of over 506,000 and about 1.2 million residents in the wider metropolitan area. Most of the residents speak English, but what surprised me the most was that Irish, or Gaelic, was still in use. I had no idea that the Celtic language had not gone the way of Latin. It is also surprisingly very progressive. While there, the city was in the midst of voting for an abortion referendum to repeal the eighth amendment to the Constitution focusing on the restriction of abortions. It won in a landslide victory, with 66% of the voters voting yes. But that’s not all. Ireland has an openly gay Prime Minister leading the country, and became the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage.

Needless to say, I fell in love with this country. We ended up arriving during a rare hot, sunny week and did not run into a single bit of rain the entire time. People commented on the strange good weather they were having. Airbnb was a big help on this particular leg of the trip. We stayed with a wonderful couple with the most Irish of names, Helen and Seamus. Helen prepared tea and biscuits for us when we arrived and every morning made us a wonderful Irish breakfast. She was honestly one of the kindest people that I had ever met. Seamus had a thick, rolling accent that reminded me of my family members who live in the South. It was warm, rough and full.

From the moment we stored our bags, we were off exploring. We only had about three and half days there and we wanted to make the most of it. It was a good 25 minute walk to the city centre where all the action was, but there was so much to see that it didn’t feel too long. One of the first things I noticed was the human-scale design of the buildings and the way they build their bike lanes. There were no skyscrapers reaching for the sky and they seamlessly accounted for different forms of transportation. The sidewalks were wide and there were protected bike lanes on some of the main streets that were on different levels than the road.

This was my first taste of the proper way to design public spaces for people in Europe. In the middle of the neighborhood where we stayed was a large park that sat across from the neighborhood library. Children from a nearby school played in the designated children’s playground, as adults strolled through the park or used some of the outdoor exercise equipment. A refrain of mine on this trip was that Ireland created the color green. Everything was so lush and alive.

In the city centre you could find pockets of green space where people were lounging or watching others play soccer. We spent some time scouting the area before stopping at Trinity College where the Long Room is housed. The Long Room is a stunning, 65 meter library that stretches towards the ceiling and houses 200,000 of the library’s oldest books. It is one of the most spectacular libraries that I’ve ever seen. I’d love to peruse the shelves and discover what secrets they hold.

I could spend an entire blog post talking about the library, but that would be irresponsible of me because Ireland is so much more than just that space. You can feel the history in this place. From the cobblestone roads to the graveyards and ruins of monasteries, this is a place steeped in history. Settled by farmers and home to Celts to being conquered by Vikings, Ireland has changed hands a number of times over the centuries. Currently, the isle is split between the independent sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland, and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom. America has deep ties with the isle through the immigrants who moved to America for a better life during The Great (Potato) Famine in the mid-1800s.

We had originally secured a car to drive around the countryside, but after driving through Iceland, I had no nerves left to tackle driving on the opposite side of the road. We ended up saving some money and joining a DoDublin Tour. Normally I avoid all tourist attractions, but in a new country where getting out into the countryside would be a challenge, I was happy to break that rule. The less stress to deal with, the better.

The tour we selected was to Glendalough and Powerscourt. It was one of the best decisions we could have made. It took nearly seven hours round-trip as we rolled on a big double decker bus winding through Wicklow County. We passed the Docklands’ countless sheep before we reached the historic, monastic city of Glendalough. This place is a site to behold. We weaved our way through the old graveyard and ruins of the old 6th century monasteries before hitting the trail to the lakes which unfolded before us. Honestly, Ireland created the color green.

After this stop we wound our way around The Great Sugarloaf (Beannach Mhór) Mountains and into the town of Enniskerry, where Powerscourt is located. The Powerscourt Estate and Gardens was formerly a 13th century castle that was converted into a mansion by the 1st Viscount Powerscourt in the early to mid-1700’s. After a tragic fire and falling into disrepair, the estate was restored to its former grandeur. Now, the estate is open to the public and its gardens are some of the best and most diverse in the world. We snagged a really great lunch there and were able to spend around an hour exploring the estate. It is truly a beautiful place.

The rest of the time was spent eating, drinking, and exploring. The food here was not bland by any stretch of the imagination and pretty standard in terms of expensiveness. I had some of the best bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes) that I’ve ever had. I drunk some fine Guinness, although the newer microbreweries and whiskey distillers starting are even better than those that have dominated the market in the past. For dinner one night, we went to Boxty’s in Temple Square, a tourist haven, but the food was some of the best that I had on the entire trip.

On the last full day, we decided to take it slow and visit the visited The National Botanic Gardens of Ireland and the National Gallery of Ireland. The gardens were around 10 minutes by foot from our Airbnb and Helen gave us some of the most thorough directions that I’ve ever seen anyone give. We didn’t have to pull out our phones the entire walk. As we strolled through the neighborhood, we did get a chance to see a different side of the city. It was a Saturday and many of the children were taking their first communion. It was a slower pace than the inner city, but the area still buzzed with activity.

The National Gallery of Ireland is an incredible art museum with a range of works that reflected both Irish and world history. There was a painting of a Toy Seller by William Mulready that fulfilled something within me that I hadn’t realized that I was craving. It’s rare to see images of black people who are not slaves or servants in works as old as this . To find an image like this in Ireland of all places is making me reevaluate the way that I perceive art in museums and the intentions of curators. It was an experience that truly stands out above the rest.

Ireland is one of those places where I feel like I will never get enough of it. This is honestly just the tip of the iceberg for me with this country. I plan on going back several times over the next few years and truthfully, I would hop on a chance to live there. Next up from this trip is Amsterdam and Zaandam!

Thanks for reading,

Travel Log: Dublin This past Spring, my boyfriend and I took a trip across Europe in celebration of him graduating and getting a new job, along with my need to explore.

#Akron2Europe #black woman #dublin #europe #explore #ireland #photography #travel #travel noire #world

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