#the way i finished these the second my kingdom file was done <3

[kessielrg]

A Quiet Place (Part 3)

Summary: Part 3 for a short ficlet based on a chaotic rp by @chibi-mushroom and @animacreates. The first two parts are here, and here. Took me long enough to finish this one, now off finish to the story where Sabrina becomes a Heartless for a day.

Rating: K+

Word Count: 2,059 words

If you liked this story, please reblog!

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“Pliers?”

“Pliers.”

“Hammer?”

“Hammer.”

“A little reassurance that I'm not going to hit my finger this time?”

“Wouldn't count on it.”

Oswald gave Sabrina a stink eye that she just as easily shrugged away from. He was finding quite quickly that being a sassypants was second nature to her. Having a strong will was good -especially for someone as beaten down as she had been- but heaven help him if it didn’t make him go slightly insane each time. She was going to have a job in power one day. He just hoped that it was on the ‘good’ side of gray and grey morality, and not the ‘bad’ side.

“You know, I think I liked it more when you just sat on the couch.” he informed her, jokingly razzing his tongue at her.

“No you don’t.” she immediately spat. “If I sat on the couch now, you’d think I’m mad at you.”

“Are you?”

It honestly took her a few moments of thought toward the idea.

“Not in this room.” she decided.

“Guess I can’t argue with that.” Oswald snorted. “Would ya bring the standing magnifier a bit closer? If you’re not going to cheer me on, the least you can do is help me delay the inevitable.”

The girl gave a sound of affirmation before adjusting the afghan blanket around her shoulders. The blanket still served as her shield against the world. She may be gaining more confidence, but outside the hobby room her glares did most of the talking. Even that was more of an improvement as well. Stoic wasn’t the best word to describe her first week. Moreover, she did a lot more than head shakes and flinching when spoken to now. She still flinched when Ortensia raised her voice when Oswald didn’t do something the first fifty times his wife asked him to- but the kid couldn’t be blamed for that. It scared Oswald to; even if the forgetting had been on purpose.

At this point, the two foster kids had been with him and Ortensia for six months and three days. The day marking that this was the longest the siblings have stayed with one family was one where Brain called the first family meeting. He never said that this was the case, but at that point both caretakers had a good feeling about it anyway. Many things were talked about that day. Most of it was a simple ‘thank you for keeping our trust’ from the heart. But there were some topics that made them all go silent in both thought and fear. The biggest one of all; would Ortensia and Oswald have children of their own as well? It was no real secret that Ortensia wanted a big family. It was even less of a secret that the two had tried for their own child before.

Ortensia said that it would be nice to have more children. Oswald remained silent; too focused on the kids for their reactions. They may have known each other for six months, but they were still a mystery to him. And what he did know...?  Suffice to say, it sometimes kept him up at night in absolute fury. He didn’t even have that much hate for his own brother- and that fury was well pent up after so long.

But he couldn't think about that now. He honestly didn't want to hurt his finger again because he misjudged his hammer swing. Sabrina watched on, almost unflinching with each strike. Her eyes held a gaze that made it seem like it was her sheer will that prevented Oswald from hurting himself. She was willing each strike to hit the nail square on the head. It was perhaps the only bit of good luck Oswald didn't mind. Her intense focus led him to be extra focused as well. It took several careful moments, but his repairs on the clock were finally finished.

“Finished.” Oswald sighed, setting down his hammer with certainty. “Now all we need to do is wind it up, and see if the birdy’s gonna cuckoo. But we can do that later.”

“Why?” Sabrina questioned.

“The best thing about a spouse,” her caretaker gleefully told her, “Is finding new ways to annoy them.”

Sabrina raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything against the idea. If anything, she mentally filed it away for later.

“Do you ever sell the stuff you fix?” the girl then asked as she made her way over to the couch.

“Sometimes.” Oswald agreed, carefully taking the clock with him so he could set it beside the door. He hoped he wouldn’t forget it later. “Ortensia wishes I did it more, really. Says I do nothing more than clutter up the living room, or just create more junk sitting around without use. Thing is; everything’s got a use. It just has to take the right person to see it.”

“Like people?”

Oswald looked up, then turned his head slightly to give the girl an odd look.

“I don’t think I follow, kiddo.” he admitted. “Take me through your thought process.”

Sabrina gave a half shrug. “Everyone has a use.” she said, somewhat in a mumble. “But sometimes the wrong person looks at you and makes the wrong assumption. They treat you bad because they think you deserve it, even when you've done nothing wrong. But you still have that… potential. Potential that could easily be squished if someone decides you're not worthy before ever knowing you.”

“Ah,” Oswald agreed with a nod. “Very philosophical. A very unique perspective too, if I must say. However, them’s some high and mighty words from a girl who trash talked a store mannequin the other day.”

“I could arrange a better outfit than that.” she immediately huffed. “Pairing a tunic blouse with a denim skirt and leggings? It would have created a better silhouette if they had just put flared, knee length capris on it, with a belt a little above the hips. And don't even get me started on the flat colors they chose.”

“I think you're already started.” Oswald laughed.

“Miss Minnie agreed with me,” the child spat. She even blew a raspberry at him for good measure. But in her tall stature, she thought of something. A rather investigative glint hit her eye as she then ventured to ask, “Miss Minnie is married to your brother, isn't she? That's why she makes you fix things for them a lot.”

At first, her only reply was a grunt. He tried to hide it from her this time though; he put on a big smile as he came over to her.

“You're a pretty smart kind, you know that?” he teased while he ruffled her hair. Sabrina was quick to swat his hand away, then fix her hair again. Her stink eye was immeasurable.  Oswald pretended not to notice as he took a seat on the couch. “But this clock isn’t for him, or her. This was my personal project, and tonight at dinner, Ortensia’s gonna know it too.”

“Never said it was, or wasn’t.” the girl claimed. She sat tall, but held the afghan closer to her body. “I just… I like Miss Minnie. Just a bit. But then she goes and acts all no-space like Ortensia does, and it's grating. Is she another one that wants to have a super big family even though the one she’s got is perfectly fine?”

“Mickey’s the one who picks up stray puppies.” Oswald told her, rather sharply. “Minnie, much like the rest of us, wants him to mind his own goddamn-”

Oswald cut himself off. He had to force himself to unclench his fists. He looked over at her to find a rather still expression in return.

“What'd your brother ever do to you?” the girl ventured to ask. She had never really asked much about Oswald or his other family. Mostly because she had no interest in it. She was also smart enough to know by now that there was bad blood between Oswald and his brother. But if she was going to open up, then perhaps it was time he did the same. It was only fair.

Unfortunately, his answer was less than satisfying.

“You have your 'don't-talk-abouts', and I have mine.”

“Right.” the kid said with a roll of her eyes. “So I'll just ask Ortensia about them like you ask Brain about mine.”

“Now listen here you little-” Oswald started to grumble as he made a reach for her. Sabrina yelped before getting off the couch with a start. She whipped around the couch and over to a corner. She let the blanket sway with her. Once she thought she found a safe spot, she looked back at Oswald, upturned her nose, and flung the afghan across her chest like it was a silk scarf instead.

“Easy with that thing.” Oswald jokingly huffed at her. “You move it around like you're a queen about to poison a princess. That blanket's an heirloom, you know.”

And that was when he heard it; her first genuine laugh.

“Being a queen would be such a bore.” she grinned. It was mischievous, cunning, and joyful all the same.  “All she does is make the king look good, arrange banquets, and sit dutifully next to him even when he’s cheating. I’d rather be a princess. They have about… 30 percent more freedom than queens.”

“Oh really?”

“Yup.” she agreed, even popping her ‘P’ with certainty. “She gets to study abroad for her training, lead dignitaries into the kingdom, maybe even flirt with a foolish footman or two for good measure…”

“What a scandal that will cause.”

“Oh, but it’ll all be covered up before anyone even knows it happened. That’s the thing about royalty and their heirs; they’re always more than willing to sweep things under the rug to keep appearances.”

Oswald snorted. “Guess I can’t argue with that logic.” he decided. “Come on princess, let’s hang this cuckoo in the dining room before Ortensia notices.”

“Right,” the girl agreed with a nod. She walked back over to the couch to gently place the afghan blanket over the back. Oswald noted how she very gently folded it into a triangle before placing it down. She didn’t look at him as she went over to the door, but she did pick up the cuckoo clock for him. He smiled a bit before joining her. Together they left the safety of the hobby room and back into the main house.

“You know,” Sabrina mused as they entered the living room, “I’ve noticed that you usually work on older stuff. Like clocks, and projectors, and anything else that existed before Thomas Edison. How come? Why not work on newer stuff like Xboxes and plasma TVs?”

“Well, princess,” Oswald informed her. “That’s because I'm not allowed to work on electronics anymore. Not after an accident where I shorted out a control box and every single firework at Walter Elias Memorial Park went off six hours before the big show. Burnt my eyebrows off during that. Ortensia wouldn't let me leave the house for weeks after, too. Poor honeybunch thought just touching something with a charge would give me a heart attack.”

“Oh…” the girl mumbled. Oswald looked over at her, raising a concerned eyebrow.

“Something wrong?”

Sabrina shook her head. It took her awhile, but she quietly admitted, “Brain and I used to go there a lot. Walt Memorial. We always found a good spot by the jungle gym to watch the fireworks shows. Everyone sits by the safety line, you know. It gets too crowded.”

“Do you like crowds?” Oswald asked as they entered the dining room.

The girl then lulled her head from side to side. She handed Oswald the clock so he could hang it on a spot conspicuously already prepared for it.

“I don't like being invisible in crowds.” she finally decided. “I want everyone to know I'm there.”

“Keep sassing store mannequins, and I’m sure you’ll attract your own crowd.”

She tried to hold it back, but Sabrina let out her second laugh that day. The happy sound brought a grin to Oswald’s face. He was sure Sabrina still had a long way to go to really trust anyone within the family, but at the moment, he couldn’t have asked for a sweeter foster kid.

#writing #writing stuff #writers on tumblr #kingdom hearts #epic mickey #oswald the lucky rabbit #oswald #kingdom hears oc #kh oc #fanfiction #fanfic #kingdom hearts fanfiction #kh fanfiction #fan fiction #fan fic #kh fan fic #found family

[frostsinth]

Royal Flush - Pt. 13 (Final Chapter)

Part 1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12 - MasterList - Art - Art - Art - Art - Art - Art - Art - Art - ... Art - Art - Art

To those of you who have made it this far through this story; congratulations. You literally just read a novel length romance about a Goblin King and a Human Prince. The final tally for this story? 149,053 Words. In my doc file, this totals to 239 pages (size 11/arial font) . I made a final art piece to commemorate this chapter, HERE.

This has been... Such a journey. Such an adventure. I have loved every last second of this and I hope you all did too. I don’t know how this chapter will be received, but for now, this will be the end for Nikostratus and Grier...

Thank you all so very much for your support, and please please PLEASE reblog/comment/ask/DM me with your thoughts or prompts or ideas or headcannons. I love these two and I can’t talk about them enough...

If you love this story, please also consider supporting me on BuyMeACoffee which you can access through my MasterList above. Want more of the boys? I’d willingly take commissions on them, or any of my other characters (or a new one, just for you!). Times are tough for everyone, and I hope I was able to bring a little light for a time with this story...

Much love, and thank you.

I skimmed the last line once more, then glanced over the entire document to be sure that everything else was properly in order before signing my name neatly at the bottom. I passed the page to Hibik and turned to the next. I felt the very tip of my eyebrow twitch as my eyes settled on it and I looked up at the goblin.

“Lord Hibik-”

“Apologies, My Prince,” He rushed to explain, “I know you do not usually sign anything that is in goblinese. However, this is simply a trade manifesto from one of the outlying cities. If you so wish, I can translate every word for you before you sign.”

I waited patiently for him to finish, but plucked up the parchment and held it out to him none-the-less. “While I appreciate your diligence, and certainly trust you in all manners of state, I simply cannot sign anything I cannot read for myself.” I told him, my voice formal and flat, but still with the lingering edges of my exhaustion in it. “I have no doubt it is exactly what you say it is, however should I choose to sign it and it is brought before me at some other time, I would be unable to distinguish it from anything else in goblinese.” I shook my head. “If I cannot understand something without a mediary, then I should not be trying to pass authority on it.”

Hibik nodded, dropping his gaze lightly. Seeming humbled. “Of course, My Prince. You have proven once more your unerring logic in such matters of state... My apologies to have questioned your wisdom at all.”

“Have it translated if it is urgent. Otherwise, it shall just have to wait until my goblinese has advanced or…” I dropped off, and felt my throat get tight.

The King’s secretary nodded again, and I could see the sad tinge around his eyes at my words. I started to search for some formal platitude. Some simple comfort to reassure him that everything would be fine… But I found the lie stuck to the roof of my mouth uncomfortably and I could not force it free. I looked down at the last document on the desk before me instead, pretending to read through it. My eyes ran over the first paragraph about four times before I was finally able to begin actually comprehending it. I tried not to think about the fact that the Master Healer was still visiting with the only other person with authority to sign such documents. And the painful knowledge that the individual was still in no state to do so. I tried to resist the urge to look over at the door to his chambers every few seconds. As if I would be able to discern what was happening or what fresh prognosis the Healer would bring. And I worked very hard to deny that I already knew what his conclusions would be.

It took me a little longer than usual to read the final document that required my signature, but finally it was done. Just as I was finishing with the usual dab of my quill at the end of my full name, there was a light knock on the door. I glanced up as Seoc opened it, and was mildly surprised to see the General standing beyond, his hands neatly tucked behind his back.

Hibik took the final page to sand as Seoc and Damjan spoke together softly. When Seoc glanced over at me, I gave him a small nod of approval, which he quickly relayed to the General. Damjan strode over slowly, a few crumpled pages in his own hands. I resisted the urge to sigh, and the prickling of hairs at the back of my neck as I longed to be done with all this official tedium. Longed to be back in the quiet solitude of the King’s sick room. I swallowed the lump in my throat as subtly as I was able, and moved to stand in order to greet the General.

He raised one large hand. “Perhaps it is best if you remain seated, My Prince.” He informed me as his own greeting, which splashed a cold chill down my spine.

Hibik lingered, signed documents in hand, glancing between myself and Damjan. I saw the pair exchange a brief glance, one which communicated far more than most, and saw the edges of the secretary’s lips twitch. Perhaps debating if he should stay. But when he glanced over to me again, I waved him away with a reassuring nod.

“Thank you for your time, My Prince.” he told me hesitantly, bowing low. 

Damjan shifted as Hibik made his way out, and I turned my attention to him. “What brings you, General?”

The hesitation he presented me with had another icy breath running down my back. I watched the man shift again, clenching and unclenching his oversized hands around the papers within them. I glanced down at that, then back up to his face. I allowed one eyebrow to raise ever so slightly. Damjan cleared his throat.

“I have just received word from our… “contacts” in the Kingdom of Geriveria.” He told me, his voice thin with his persistent reluctance.

He dropped off, and I made a point not to let my eyes wander. Fixing him with a steadfast gaze. When he still had not spoken after a few moments, I tapped one finger lightly on the small table beside me where I had set my quill and inkwell.

“I assume you have some news which you deemed important enough to bring before me.” I concluded flatly, and was not reassured as the General winced. “Please, proceed.”

Damjan straightened, collecting himself. “... Our contacts have confirmed the information stating King Tibertius had fallen ill just after our visit to the castle…” He gritted his teeth, and dropped his eyes, “... And I have just received word… that last night he succumbed to his illness.”

The world around me seemed to shift at his words... I wasn’t sure what to make of it. Wasn’t sure what that news elicited in me. I froze for a moment, staring at him blankly. I felt my thumb roll thoughtlessly against the fabric of the armchair I was seated in.

“... The human King is dead?”

I watched his eyes flick up to me from the ground, equally uncertain what to make of my uncharacteristically callous and pointed remark. He nodded slowly. “Yes… It has not been formally announced yet, however I am confident in our sources who have reported it.”

I turned this over for a moment in the hollow echoing expanse of my mind. “Was it the Rotting Sickness?” My voice sounded distant, and I wasn’t entirely sure I had spoken at all.

“It is unclear at this time, though we do not believe it likely.” He responded softly. “Even given that he refused our protective Warding, there were other factors in place for his benefit.”

I nodded ever so slightly, running my whole hand slowly over the arm of my chair now. “Crown Prince Valerianus will send formal word to us soon.” I told him. “Be sure to have an appropriate response prepared. And tighten the patrols and guard at the border, in case there is any backlash from the announcement.”

I saw him hesitate again. “... My Prince-”

“Keep abreast of your ‘contacts’ as well.” I continued, pretending he hadn’t spoken. “I wish to know if Crown Prince Valerianus is officially coronated, or if he otherwise sets a date for it.” I glanced off to the side, hardly realizing I was no longer really seeing anything around myself anymore. “I will draft a letter for him, and a formal statement, in preparation for that news as well.”

Damjan nodded his affirmation. “As you wish, My Prince…” He chewed on his tongue only briefly before speaking again, “... And if you need someone to talk to… I wanted to let you know I am here for you. In whatever capacity you may have need of me.”

I stood, unhurried, and tugged my vest to straighten it as I did. “I do appreciate the offer, General, but there is no need.”

“Prince Nikostratus,” He followed quickly, before I could dismiss him, his head tilting ever so slightly to the side, “Whatever else your relationship with that man was… he was still your father.” I stiffened slightly at the word. “This is not easy news to bear, in any situation.”

I returned my gaze to him, my expression still set in stone. “Thank you for your concern, General Damjan, however I can assure you, I am fine.” I paused briefly, glancing over towards the bedroom in a moment of weakness. “... I would request this information remains between us for now, though.” I almost winced, but squared my shoulders instead. Keeping my voice even, my features stony. “I believe it would be best for Princess Morgana to hear this news from me.”

He dipped his head respectfully. “Of course, My Prince.” I nearly jumped with surprise as his big hand fell on my shoulder. “Whatever you need. Do not hesitate to ask.”

I nodded to him curtly, and he withdrew his hand. Dropping into a polite bow before he took his leave. I turned my attention to the back room, making my way over with halting steps intermittently set amid my long stride. The Master Healer was just gathering up his things as I approached. He turned and bowed to me, his long beard brushing the floor.

“My Prince.” He intoned respectfully.

“How is the King?” I asked, my voice flat to withhold my impending dread of his answer.

The Master Healer flinched, unable to conceal his thoughts quite so easily. “He remains the same, My Prince.” He replied softly. “I have given him a tonic to ease his symptoms and perhaps allow for a more fitful rest… However there is not much more I can offer for him at this time.”

I nodded, burying the sorrow and disappointment at his words deep into my already hollowed out chest. “Thank you, Your Grace,” My eyes followed him as he slowly raised from his bow, “I appreciate your efforts greatly.”

“I only wish there was more I could do, My Prince.” He murmured.

Another curt nod. Which was the best I could manage. “Seoc will show you out.” I informed him numbly.

My attendant closed the bedroom door behind them, for which I was grateful. They had all stopped trying to convince me to retire to my own chambers a few days ago, as they had realized it would fall on ears both too stubborn and too deaf to their pleas. Even Morgana and ina Morag relented their persuasive efforts, instead focusing on bringing whatever they could to me here. I tried to pretend I stayed out of duty and responsibility. I tried to pass off my vigil as nothing more than what would be expected of any other individual so politically tied to the King as I was. It made it easier, in a way, than trying to accept my real reasons... It stung that I was apparently not hiding it well from the others; that they could see my vulnerability, and perhaps that they had some understanding of my decision that I could not grasp myself.

Slowly, I lowered myself into the armchair beside the bed, finally building the courage to look upon the King once more. I watched his labored breathing for a few long minutes, listening to the raspy rush of air in and out of his lungs. My palms came to my lap, and I thumbed at them absentmindedly as I felt the stone I had sheltered behind for the formal proceedings slowly cracking and crumbling away.

I glanced down at my hands, and found they were shaking. “.... King Tibertius is dead.” I informed him, my voice soft to preserve the hushed silence of the chamber. I hesitated, squeezing my thumb into my palm until it hurt. “... my… my father... is dead…” I finally released a heavy sigh, and felt my shoulders slump. “... I honestly don’t… I don’t know how to feel about it…”

My gaze lifted back to look over at him, and I shuddered at the sight. I didn’t like seeing him lay so still. I had spent days watching him, a statue on guard at his side. Silent and unmoving. I wasn’t sure I could do it for even a moment longer. I shifted, then stood again, reaching over to take up the cooling cloth from the water basin beside the bed. I settled on the edge of the mattress beside him. So that I could reach him better, I told myself. I brushed the wild bangs out of his face, then smoothed the damp cloth across his brow. 

He seemed to sigh beneath my touch, and I bent over him to study his face. His skin was more grey than green now, and I could feel the heat rising off his body. I traced my eyes over the edge of his jaw, down to the point of his chin. I committed the shape of his nose to memory, and lingered on the curve of his lashes against his cheek. Before I had even realized I was doing it, I found my fingers skimming along the prominent ridge of his brow, and my thumbs smoothing down his slender eyebrows. He shifted beneath my touch, so slightly I thought perhaps I might have imagined it. I withdrew my hand, hesitating. Placing the cloth back in the basin on the bedside table. But I couldn’t help returning to cup his face, and run my thumb along the crest of his cheek. I felt the tiny beveling of his grey-green skin, taking a moment for it. I had never so carefully studied the quality of his flesh without some other thought or pressure weighing on me. I chose to do so now. To memorize everything I possibly could... His fever burned at the pads of my hand, but I ignored it.

The now familiar ache settled in my chest, throbbing with each pulse of my heart. I ran my hand down the side of his face, along the curve of his throat. My fingers cupped around the back of his neck, and I gave a gentle squeeze. I stared at his eyes, longing for them to open again. Longing to see those mischievous, sparkling red irises. It had been days since he had last opened his eyes… Not since he had begged me to lay alongside him…

With his last request heavy on my mind, I looked over my shoulder at the door, then back down at him. My numb fingers rose of their own accord, and fumbled with the buttons on my vest. Then tugged my tunic haphazardly from its tuck as I folded the vest to set on the cushion of the armchair beside us. Once my boots joined it, I took a steadying breath then carefully climbed into the bed next to him. Now I knew I wasn’t imagining it when his head turned weakly. As if he could sense me there… I knew I was fooling myself. I gently collected him into my arms, and nearly faltered for the limpness of his body. But there was a strange reassurance of feeling his raspy breath against my collarbone. I rested my chin on the top of his head, shivering slightly despite the hot body I had tucked against me.

“... I don’t know how to tell Morgana…” I breathed quietly, uncertain what else to do. My eyes squeezed shut. “Gods… I just… I-I can’t… With everything else…” I wrapped my arms a little further around him. “... Please... Grier…” The taste of his name stung my mouth. “I can’t do this by myself…” I swallowed hard. “Y-you always asked me what I wanted… a-and I never had an answer for you… Usually because I just.. I didn’t know… but…” I buried my face in his damp hair. “But I know I don’t want this… and I know I was… hesitant… A-and… maybe reluctant to… to let this relationship be anything more than political...” The words felt heavy and foreign in my mouth, yet as I spoke them, it seemed easier to voice the rest. I shook my head, still working to dam the pain starting to build in my throat and eyes. “But that doesn’t… that doesn’t mean that I…” I stopped again, swallowing hard and taking a deep steadying breath. “Please… I need… I n-need you to get better… I need you to come back… I-I don’t know what I’m doing anymore… I need you to tell me…” I closed my eyes, knowing I was gushing uselessly, but unable to help myself. “Y-you asked me… you asked me to be strong… to do the best for…” I hesitated. “For our people… I’m… I’m trying… but I-I’m… I’m not the best for them… You are… and I-I… I can’t… It’s… I-it sounds stupid but…” Again I stopped, and laid quietly beside him. Hearing his steady if ragged breathing against me. Feelin the heat of him burn through the fabric of my tunic. Trying to sort through the jumble of thoughts and emotions rallying to burst from me.  “... I never used to think of my future… I-I didn’t think I had much of one… but… b-but now I can’t think of a future for me… of a future without you in it…”

I held my breath for a long moment. As if waiting for him to answer. Waiting for him to fill the long silence as he always had before… Instead, I felt myself being blanketed by it. Felt it wriggle and stuff its way down my throat, until it threatened to choke the very air out of my lungs. I hated the silence, as I never had before. It burned and rang in my ears. It smothered me.

“W-what am I doing?” I mumbled to myself, trying to rid myself of the stillness and slowly starting to untangle my body from the goblin’s. “I’m losing my mind-”

I froze suddenly. Not daring to move. Not even daring to draw a breath. After a few shuttering beats of my heart, I slowly looked down to confirm what I thought I had felt… And found Grier’s hand latched weakly on my arm. As if he had heard me. As if he had felt me start to pull away from him.

I knew it was stupid. I was certain it was just some sort of… reflexive reaction. But then he shifted, burying his nose back against my shirt. And I decided I didn’t care. I latched onto the hope that maybe… just maybe… he had somehow heard me. He had sensed my body beside his. 

I suddenly remembered the Dowager Queen Morag’s words again as clearly in my mind as if she had been standing over us at that moment. He has good reason to. Is this what she had meant? If Grier needed a reason to come back, to fight this… then perhaps I could remind him he had one… Hadn’t he once said he could listen to the sound of my voice all night? I wondered if he could hear it from wherever he was. If it could bring him back...

“... Hibik has been bringing me any matters of state that need approval.” I told him softly, hesitantly. “I swear… it seems endless… there’s always something else to sign, something else to review…” I sighed, shifting slightly, biting at my tongue for a long moment. “... At least right now, I can use the excuse of not knowing goblinese… that cuts the paperwork down some…” I swallowed, trying to think what else to say. Already feeling anxious that the silence was building too long. “A-all I know is the alphabet… and Korol… Ussta bez, eto chen… umm… Nazia which means ‘name’... a-ah, but you know that…” I flushed slightly. Then I felt him shift against me, felt his breath on my neck, and almost shivered. I hesitated, then ran my hand over the back of his head. “Wh-what else… umm.. Cara, and ina… shiba, onsa… your mother calls Morgana onsakin… th-they get along a little too well, I think…”

I struggled for a while, feeling foolish. But the softness of his breath against my skin, and his hand on my arm, gave me the confidence to continue. For whatever it was worth...

….

“When I was five or so, I got sick like this,” I told him, brushing my fingers through his hair, “High fever, raspy lungs. I remember my mother sat with me all night. Read me stories, and stroked my head until I fell asleep.” I paused, twirling one strand of his hair around my finger. “... We have portraits of her in the halls. Not many, but a few. So I’ll never forget her face… I’d like to send for one, I think… If that would be alright with you.” I put the strand back and delicately picked up another. “But I also remember how she smelled… strange isn’t it? That’s what I remember best about her. She smelled like lilies. I don’t know how, but she always smelled like fresh picked lilies… It hurts a little to think that Morgana smells a lily and doesn’t think of our mother like I do.” My lips twitched distractedly. “Now she thinks of me, because she knows how much I like them… She doesn’t understand quite why… I-I don’t know if I ever told her.”

Grier shifted, nuzzling himself against me and letting out a soft sigh. I released his hair to reach carefully across the bed. Plucking the cloth from the basin. I would need to get more soon; all the water was almost gone. I wrung out the excess, then gently smoothed it across his forehead. Then over his temples. I turned his head and traced it across his lips. His long tongue came out briefly to swipe the moisture that lingered there.

“I remember her voice, too… She had a delicate voice. I don’t think she ever raised it much above a whisper.” I shook my head. “She never yelled… Whenever I did something that perhaps I shouldn’t have, she never yelled at me… She would just get this look… like she was disappointed I hadn’t made a better choice…” I snorted. “I think that was worse somehow… Morgana looks a lot like her, I think. Though my mother had this beautifully rich dark skin… I was very jealous of it. I wanted to have the color of her skin for my own. And it was always very soft.”

I ran the cloth back and forth over his neck. Around the edge of his shoulder blades. Down his spine. Smoothing it across his muscles and grey-green skin.

“I think she would have liked you… I hope she would have… I-I’m not sure how she would have felt about… all this.” I glanced around the chambers, delicately lit by a few sparkling candelabras, strategically placed. I had tucked the rest into neat rows along the tops of the bookshelves. Looking less cluttered and more displayed. “Not the goblin part… I think she would’ve been ah… mostly ok with that…” I chuckled, returning the cloth to the basin and brushing my hand through his soft hair again. “... I don’t think I had really thought about it much back then… girls, I mean…” I swallowed hard, staring down at the foot of the bed while I stroked his hair. “O-or boys for that matter… I wonder if she would’ve been... s-surprised… Though she always seemed to know me better than I knew myself… Valerianus was very, ah... ‘serious’, so the court girls didn’t care for him much, save for the ambitious ones. But they were always fawning over me…” I frowned. “I-I didn’t like it. I hated going to balls and galas or formal dinners. My mother would just laugh and say that I would figure it out when I was a little older…” I sighed. “It sounds silly now, I’m sure… Then she….” I dropped off, taking a steadying breath. “A-and Morgana was the center of my world after that, so I never... I never really questioned it again… I was very good at being polite, at being gracious. But I never returned any… ah…” I shook my head again. “I think… I think I was a year or two shy of twenty when I saw… this man… he was… ah…” I cleared my throat lightly, “He was from another Kingdom… older, but only barely in his thirties if even that… I just remember being struck absolutely dumb by him… I could hardly breathe when I realized he was in the same room as me, and I kept staring… by the Gods it was so embarrassing… I didn’t know what to do with myself around him…” 

I jumped at the light knock coming from beyond the bedchambers. Quickly, I looked down at Grier, but he was still in a deep sleep. He was tucked quite neatly against me, his arms wrapped around my middle, his ear against my sternum. He looked rather like he was smiling, I thought. It had been only a day or two since I had given up my post in the armchair beside the bed in favor of lying alongside him. And I hadn’t left since. We are married now after all, I reasoned with my guilt and self-consciousness. I should be allowed... I ran through all the different things I had started telling him since then. Arbitrary things at first. The way the mountains looked out my window. The odd items he had left about the room and where I had put them. Then I started opening up a little more. Telling him little snips of my memories. About the first horse I had ever ridden, and the first time I had held a sword. About Morgana’s first steps, and her first words. 

Perhaps it was my imagination, but it seemed like his sleep was less listless when I was speaking. And I found I felt a little better talking to him, rather than lying quietly and simply worrying over the state of him. I constantly feared leaving the silence for too long, as if it were the only tether he had. Barely daring to sleep for fear of it… I wasn’t sure I had ever spoken as much as I had in the past two days.

I stroked his hair back a final time, then carefully untangled myself from his embrace. A soft groan petered from him, and his lips twitched. But I was able to free myself and lay him gently back into the bed.

By the second quiet knock, I was at the door in the foyer and tugging it open. Hibik and the Master Healer stood there, both looking appropriately serious. I didn’t say anything. Didn’t make an attempt to hide my bare torso or feet. Simply pulled the door open the rest of the way and let them in. Nodding to their gracious greetings and formal bows. I was far too exhausted to care about any of that, though I felt a familiar numbness falling about my shoulders like an old coat as I followed them into the bedroom. The Healer went straight to the King’s side, while Hibik moved to take the basin from the table and brought it off to the other room to fill. I saw the Healer’s hands glow, watched him shift them back and forth over Grier’s body, as he had many times before. For his part, the King rolled slightly, grumbling something softly. It made my heart leap lightly in denial of the numbness that had taken up residence in my chest. But I watched the Healer anxiously.

He lowered his hands as Hibik returned, and glanced over at the secretary. Then he shook his head and put his hands on his hips. My heart plummeted back down.

“Well, My Prince,” breathed the Healer, and I stiffened as he turned to me, “I am not sure what you have been doing… but I urge you to keep it up.”

I blinked at him slowly. “What?”

A wide smile suddenly split his lips, and his hands tapped eagerly on his hips. “He’s doing better… Much better really…” I nearly swooned at his words, and reached out to steady myself on the bedpost. “His fever is all but gone. His lungs are clearing… I might be able to do more for him now. A potion perhaps. To revive him more.”

Hibik could barely contain a gasp, and clapped his hands together, relief filling his face. “You mean, he’s going to be alright? He’ll pull through?”

The Healer scoffed. “It’s miraculous! Really it is!” He shifted his weight and looked over his shoulder. “Almost overnight, the King’s condition has improved drastically. I’ve never quite seen anything like it.” He nodded, smiling again. “... I do think the worst is now behind us.”

My head felt completely detached from my body, and I thought if I hadn’t been holding the bedpost I might have floated away. Hibik was dancing from foot to foot, making lengthy exclamations in goblinese. I didn’t need to know all the words to understand his excitement. To feel it palpably around us, though I dared not embrace it myself. The doctor patted the air.

“We still have some ways to go yet, My Prince, Lord Hibik.” He reminded us. “It’ll take time for the King to regain his strength. It may be a month or more before he fully returns to his old vigor.”

“But he will?” I asked, and was surprised at the softness of my voice.

The Healer gave a final nod. “I have little doubt anymore, My Prince. I shall prepare a draught for him. However, given his state... I would expect him to wake anytime now.”

Hibik squealed with delight, and I raised my hand to calm him. The goblin quickly clamped his hands over his mouth, and the Healer tutted him. I glanced at Grier, then back at the pair of goblins.

“Lord Hibik, would you let my sister know the good news, please?” I instructed, then nodded to the vase of wilting flowers on the small round table at the back of the couch. “Perhaps she would like to get a fresh bouquet for him. She can come visit when she’s able.”

“I am not certain our gardens can survive another visit from the Princess,” He mused with a chuckle, still shifting from foot to foot, “However, I am more than pleased to let her decimate the remaining for the sake of our King.”

“Have some hot broth ready for him, the kitchens can send it straight up,” I added, glancing at the Healer for confirmation of this choice, “And let the Dowager Queen know as well. Morgana may want to tell her herself however, so I would suggest she be the first you inform.”

“Excellent, My Prince,” Hibik bowed, “I am most eager to spread this joyous news.”

The Healer bowed deeply as well, then they both made their way out. I closed the door behind them, my entire body tingling. Now that they were gone, I pinched myself hard to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. My feet carried me back to the bedroom of their own accord. And I climbed into the bed and slipped up alongside him. Almost as soon as I settled, Grier rolled into me, tucking himself into my chest once more. I felt his contented sigh against my breastbone, and nearly shivered from the sensation. I wrapped my arms gently around him, resting my chin on the top of his head once more.

“... I think Josep knew before I did.” I told him softly, running my hands up and down his back. “He was always lingering late into the night. Always refilling my wine as soon as it emptied… I’m not sure h-how he knew… I noticed the long glances, and couldn’t help a few of my own…” I sighed, burying my nose in his hair for a moment. “He was… cute… Just a little shorter than me, but thin as a bean pole… his hair was raven black, and his eyes were a soft stormy grey… But bright as the moon at midnight...”

….

A few hours later, I adjusted the flowers, plucking a few errant leaves and placing them in the waste bin. Morgana was an... ambitious picker. Sometimes the roots and half the rest of the plant came along with the bloom. But she always picked the best and most colorful flowers, and the bouquet she had brought was perhaps her largest and loveliest yet. Not for the least because of her enthusiasm presenting them. The room felt anxiously still in her absence and I brushed my fingers over the petals, drawing in a deep breath of their soft scent. Trying unsuccessfully to calm my racing heart now that I was alone again... Nearly alone.

“... Been making yourself at home, have you?”

I jumped about a foot in the air at the sound of the thin voice from over my shoulder. My heart leapt into my throat as I spun on my heel, and my eyes shot wide. A wry, tired smile greeted me, set below glittering scarlet eyes that shifted around the room only briefly before settling on me. I tried to remember the last time I had seen them... I didn’t realize how much I had missed them until that moment.

Grier. 

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. I stared at him, my eyes, frozen in place. Not entirely convinced I wasn’t dreaming. Hardly able to believe what I was seeing as the goblin slowly eased himself up to sit with his back against the headboard. He cocked his head to the side, raising one slender brow at me.

“I come back from the dead, and this is the greeting I receive?” He pouted. “Honestly, I think I was hoping for a bit more-”

I was at the bed before he had even finished forming the words. I caught the back of his head in my hand, nearly falling over him as I kneeled on the side of the mattress in my desperation to reach him. Crashing our mouths together so suddenly it was almost painful. His words sputtered against my lips, but then I could taste his smile again and my heart ached. Gods, I had missed that too. The warmth of his kiss, the shape of his mouth. I didn’t want to leave it again. His own hand came up, cupping my jaw, returning my kiss with such enthusiasm I thought my lungs might just collapse. Which only served to remind me that I had forgotten how to breathe.

I pulled back, gasping for air for half a second. Then dove back in to kiss him again. Now I could feel his weak laughter bubbling against my lips. Gently he pulled himself away, stroking his hand along my cheek to still my pursuit, running his thumb under my eye.

“Now that’s more like it.” He murmured dreamily, his eyes looking carefully back and forth between mine.

I flushed deeply, feeling the heat sweep across my face with a fury to match how his own feverish skin had once been. I started to pull away bashfully. “I-I’m sorry-”

He pushed the words back into my mouth with another kiss, forcing them deep into my throat in denial of them. My heart thrummed with delight. I lost myself for a moment more, and our kiss deepened. But he felt weaker than I remembered, his press intense but not as strong. I reminded myself of the state of him, and did not fight to keep our mouths locked when he finally pulled back again. Even though I longed to do so...

“H-how are you feeling?” I asked breathlessly instead, lingering with the tips of our noses brushing together. I gripped the back of his neck firmly, as if afraid letting go would allow him to float off again, slowly easing to sit on the mattress beside him.

“Tired.” He admitted. “And by the Gods I can’t remember ever having been this hungry before in my life…” His smile returned, pointy teeth and all. “But better… much better.” His thumb traced the edge of my lashes. “... Now that I’ve seen you again.”

I couldn’t help laughing in relief, but it broke as it fell away from my lips, and I saw his brow furrow with concern. I shook my head and his hand at my cheek weakly moved to still me. He reached out with his free one, and I didn’t hesitate to meet it with mine between us. Intertwining our fingers together.

“I-I… I thought that… I thought…” I choked on the words, my lips trembling.

Grier kissed them gently. Stilling them with his own. He peeled back slowly, only to lean back in half a breath later to lightly kiss them again. I spun like a top, my heart racing so fast in my breast I wasn’t entirely sure it was beating at all.

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily, my young Prince” He assured me sweetly, and I stumbled over another laugh.

“I… I-I… I’ve been thinking… I’ve been thinking a lot…” I breathed, my voice still shaky.

“Uh-oh,” He mused, “That sounds ominous. Should I prepare myself?”

I sighed exasperatedly. “Would you sh-shut up for half a second?” I belittled the words with a light hearted tone, and punctuated it with a kiss of my own. 

In truth, I was so happy to hear his voice again, I could have collapsed from relief. I wanted to hear it more. I wanted to listen to his voice for days, and to stare into those scarlet eyes, and feel the shape of his mouth against mine. But… He smiled against me, and tried to kiss me again as I pulled away. I shook my head. I had something to say, and I needed to say it, before I lost my nerve.

 “I-I’ve been thinking… a-and... I’ve decided… I d-decided that… I-I…”

“I hope this isn’t a farewell speech.” He teased as I fumbled for the words again. I shot him a look, and he quickly clamped his mouth shut. But damn that his smirk wasn’t still there on those blasted lips of his.

I took a deep, steadying breath. Staring down at our laps to avoid the temptation of his mouth. The silence rang heavy for a second, and I felt him squeeze my hand encouragingly. I could’ve collapsed with the emotion that sent spinning through me. He had barely been up for five minutes and already he was seeking to give me whatever support he could... Reminding me exactly why I had so much to say… So I sucked in a full lungful of as much air as I could possibly manage.

“... I don’t want to move into your rooms. And I don’t want you to move into mine. I want to have new rooms. To be our rooms. Up in the tower, with a balcony. But the bedroom doesn’t need a window, that way it stays dark. So you can still sleep in. And I want a bed that’s so big I might sometimes lose you in it. A-and I want a room off to one side that we can use as a nursery… Painted yellow… and I want to adopt… but I also want a few kids of yours… I-I don’t think I could do mine, because I really don’t want to sleep with anyone else and if there’s a way that maybe you didn’t have to lay with anyone either I-I think that would be better. But there is absolutely NO way I’m doing th-the ‘magical route’ and… and I’m still not even sure you weren’t just messing with me. I want to bring one of the portraits of my mother, and put her in the sitting room. Over the fireplace. B-but that means no kissing there, because I don’t want her staring at us. Then I want thrones, for the throne room. Proper thrones, not just poofy chairs. Because I’m not sitting on the floor, and if we have audiences with anyone (which we should), we’ll need a proper throne room. And I want to go to the ocean, every few years at least. I want to sit on the beach with you and watch the sunset, preferably on our anniversary. And I want a dog. Not a small dog, a big dog. Like a hunting dog. I-I don’t know if you like dogs, but I’d like one. And if I get a dog, Morgana is going to want a dog too, so we’ll just have to have two big dogs and… and…”

I glanced up at this point amid my rush of words that spilled out unchecked. And dropped off at the sight of Grier’s face. I wasn’t sure I had ever seen his eyes so wide. I thought they might fall out of his head. I shifted nervously, glancing down at our hands then back up at him. Not sure what it was I saw on his features and suddenly feeling shy.

“O-or… or you know… we could talk about it more… i-if you wanted-”

Once again he cut off my words with a kiss. I started at first, then instantly melted against him. He weakly pulled me closer, and I obliged his whim, until he could wrap his arm around my neck. He fell sideways to the mattress and onto his back, pulling me with him, releasing my hand to grope up my side. Slipping beneath my loose tunic to skim over my bare skin. My heart leaped and thudded and I fed him a tiny gasp.

“W-wait, you’re still-” I tried to pull away, but the goblin stubbornly kept himself latched around me. I dared not pull too hard, as I didn’t want to hurt him. “Y-you’re still healing.” I managed to mumble out against his lips.

“I don’t care.” He growled, but dropped back, peering up at me draped over him. “I just… I don’t care… I’m so… I’m just so…” He pulled me down, kissing me again. It was softer this time, as tender as any first kiss. But so full to bursting of emotion that I felt like I could taste it in my heart. After a few hot breaths, he finally pulled back again. “... Exactly how long have I been out??” He teased.

A pained look swept across my face, and his hand quickly came around to cup my jaw again soothingly. “I-I thought… I thought you were going to die…” I whispered, my voice as weak as his touch, “I thought I was going to lose you… a-and then I realized… I realized I had been so s-scared of having something to lose… that I didn’t even realize I was already losing it… I didn’t…” I took a deep steadying breath. “I-I told myself that if you woke up… if you got better… I wouldn’t... I-I … I don’t want to spend the rest of my life w-wondering… wondering what I could have had… but was too afraid to want…”

“... And what do you want?” He asked quietly as my voice petered out, his scarlet eyes growing warm.

“... I want you, Grier…” I breathed, the air fluttering in my chest, and his grip tightened at the sound of his name falling from my lips, “I want you. I want all of you…”

When our mouths met again, it was not with heat. It was… soft… Like petals brushing together. As delicate as a champagne flute, and filled with that same bubbly sweetness… I sunk into his mouth, as deep as I could go. I never wanted to come up for air. I fell beneath the waves of his emotion and I was content to let myself drown that I could fill my lungs with it. The warmth I had been missing filled my chest; that warmth that only he could bring to me. And it spread out to the very tips of my fingers and toes.

I’m not sure how long we remained interlaced together, our mouths moving in unison. But finally, we pulled apart. Neither one initiating our separation, both simply feeling it was the right moment to. I felt his breath on my face and realized I had closed my eyes. I let them slowly flutter open, and when I looked down at those dazzlingly scarlet eyes… I smiled.

His hand came up, his thumb tracing across my lips. Marveling at the shape of them. Which only made my smile grow, though I flushed shyly at his attention and darted my eyes to the side. I couldn’t remember the last time I had smiled… A soft wonder filled those ruby reds of his, and I suddenly and desperately longed to kiss him again. To taste every inch of him that my mouth could reach. Instead I slowly started to sit up. Gently pulling him with me.

“Y-you need to eat.” I told him softly. “To build up your strength…” I caught his hand as he slowly let it slide down my cheek, and I pressed it against my chest above my heart. “You need to get better. All the way better.”

He nodded. “I will.”

“Good.” I said in a warning tone. “B-because I swear to the Gods and all that is holy, if you ever put me through that again, I will kill you.”

His boisterous laughter was drowned out by an eager knock at the door, quickly followed by said door opening. Hibik bustled in, near vibrating with delight. Tears in his eyes. I quickly adjusted myself to put a little space between us, my blush darkening.

“My King!” He cried, coming over, then bowing repeatedly. “Oh! Blesha’la ontow’a, you are awake!

“Ah, Hibik!” He grinned, reaching out to clasp the smaller goblin’s extended hand. “Am I glad to see you.”

“Likewise, my King.” He bowed repeatedly, shaking Grier’s hand vigorously. “Please, please tell me if I can be of any assistance! I have missed serving you with all my heart.”

“Well, my old friend,” He mused, “It seems I need to get back to full strength.” He brought his now freed hand up to stroke my cheek again, and I felt a fresh flush rising to my face at his touch. “After all, I have a Prince to marry!”

My eyes widened slightly at that. “... A-ah… O-oh…. Ummm…”

Hibik also fell silent, suddenly looking down at his feet and shuffling them. Grier looked back and forth between the two of us. His brow furrowed and his lips pursed.

“... Am I missing something here?”

“Well, my King, the thing… Per your wishes… ah.. The thing... the thing is… ah…” Hibik stammered, then glanced at me desperately.

I cleared my throat, hiding the twitching smile at the corners of my lips. “The thing is…technically…. technically… we’re already married.”

Grier stared at me for a long, long moment.

“... I beg your pardon?”

….

It took three days and many loud arguments to convince the goblin that he could not, in fact, nullify the marriage license just to ‘do it the right way’. And no, it didn’t matter that he was the King. It would in turn put our Treaty at risk, and would cause far too many ramifications, many that were possibly not even conceivable at that moment. It took a week for him to stop grumbling about it at every opportunity.

I stayed with him throughout that time. Making sure he ate. Watching him sleep. The first night I woke him up twice, just to be certain he could be roused. He was not a fan of that, but as I seemed insistent, he would merely blink at me a few times, give an exasperated sigh, then snuggle deeper into my arms. It delighted him endlessly that I had completely given up any semblance of pretending we should sleep separately. So he indulged my anxious checking and fussing to the best of his ability. As long as it meant I was never more than an arms length away.

Now I tried not to stare too much, tried to limit it to the occasional glance over at him. My nerves were shot, but despite the anxiousness swelling around me… Every time our eyes met, he smiled. And I felt my heart skip. 

Morgana bounced eagerly, alternating between walking at our side and darting ahead. She circled around us, as we were moving far too slowly for her liking, checking and assessing each bobble and bit in the hall on the way to the gardens.

Grier stumbled weakly, and I jerked forward to catch him. He looked up at me, flashing his pearly whites. “I’m alright.” He assured me.

“Perhaps we should wait until you are a little stronger-”

He waved his free hand, using my offered arm to carefully straighten himself. “As you refuse to leave my side for more than a minute, and Morgana informed me you haven’t been outside since I fell ill,” he began, his voice breathy, “You leave me no choice but to forcibly escort you to the gardens, my young Prince.”

“I-I think you are… exaggerating a little to say that I r-refuse-” I stammered, rubbing the back of my neck with my free hand.

The King chuckled. “Mmm. Alright then, have it your way.” He interrupted, casting me a sidelong glance. “As your proper etiquette and honor will not allow you to leave your King’s side when he is under duress, it is my responsibility to be certain that you see some sunlight now and again.” His smile grew as Morgana darted back over to us. “Besides, I am bored of my rooms. The fresh air will do me some good, I am sure.”

Morgana returned his grin, bouncing in place. “Just wait until you see the surprise we have planned for you!” She told us. “It’ll make you both feel all better.”

I sighed, relenting and pushing her hair back out of her face for perhaps the hundredth time since we had started our trek. “Chickadee, where do you keep all your energy?” She giggled. “I’m tired just watching you.”

She pushed my hand away and started to dart back up the hallway. “Well, maybe if you ever slept anymore, you wouldn’t be so tired, Niko!” She exclaimed.

I cleared my throat and avoided Grier’s scolding eye. I also pretended not to notice he kept his arm wrapped around mine as we continued down the hall. It was better, I told myself. I could offer him more support that way. He still wasn’t back to his full strength yet, and this walk would likely push him to the extremes of what he had. But we were almost there.

Morgana’s head disappeared around the corner, and I felt my brow scrunch slightly as I watched her. The goblin’s fingers squeezed my arm gently, and I glanced down at him.

“Everything alright?” He asked, his voice tender.

I sighed quietly. “... I-I’m not sure she…” I swallowed, looking down at our feet. “M-maybe I didn’t explain King Tibertius’ passing to her as well as I should have…” My brow furrowed a little more. “Perhaps I was… too cold… I don’t think she understands-”

“You were very gentle.” He assured me, giving my arm another gentle squeeze and falling silent for a moment as we rounded the same corner we had seen Morgana disappear past. But when he spotted her further up the hall, dancing from foot to foot until she saw us again then darting off once more, he continued softly. “She’s young. And I don’t think she was very close to your father. She may not have fully processed it yet, being here.”

“How…” I stopped, but he gave me an encouraging nod. “H-how were you told? About your father, I mean?”

Grier thought about that for a moment, and we walked arm in arm quietly down the hall.

“It was… sudden.” He replied after a time. “He was badly injured in a skirmish…. I’m sure future historians will cite that as the instigating incidence of the hostility between our people…” I winced, but he patted my arm reassuringly. “That morning he was fine, and we… I am sure we broke fast together, because we usually did, but I don’t remember that day specifically… Then by that evening, he had passed.”

I winced. “I shouldn’t have brought it up, I apologize-”

“It’s ok.” He shook his head. “I don’t remember much at all from then. I don’t think I even knew he had been injured until both him and my mother missed dinner with me that evening. And I wasn’t brought to see him… not until after he had passed and they had… cleaned him up.” He tilted his head to the side, thinking for a long moment. “I remember being… sad, but more confused. I kept… forgetting, I guess. I would expect to see him places, and I think I asked about it once or twice before it really sank in that he was just… gone. And this is despite the fact that I saw his body.”

His steps had slowed, and I matched them carefully. After a moment, we had both come to a full stop, and he turned towards me, sliding his hands down to catch mine. I hesitated, trying to figure out what he needed in that moment. An apology? A story of my own? Perhaps he wanted space, or silence… or did he want some sort of embrace? I faltered, staring down at our hands and carefully running my thumbs over his. And feeling wholly inadequate not knowing how to comfort him. If that was even what he needed…

“... Morgana will be alright,” He told me after a few moments of silence, “She has you. And she is safe here.” Grier gave my hands a gentle squeeze, and I nodded timidly. The goblin shook himself, and I could hear his smile lacing his next words. “But come! Let’s not spoil our first outing in weeks.” I met his eyes, and felt a little more confident at the warmth in them. “We can talk more later, if you want to.”

I followed his lead as he turned to finish the last stretch before the main doors to the gardens. I didn’t even bother with an excuse, keeping his hand locked in my own and tucking it in my elbow. He moved a little closer, hooking his arm in mine until our thighs almost brushed as we walked.

Morgana had managed to push the massive door open on her own, and was waiting excitedly on the stairs before the gardens. She smiled at us as we approached then waved for us to follow her before taking off down the steps and onto the gravel. It crunched delightfully under her little feet, and I took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air as we made our way down the stairs as well, then out onto the path. The sun was bright and warm despite the chill, and I almost sighed as it splashed across my face. A few yards down, we rounded one of the hedges to find a thick blanket spread over the grass. There was a basket set there, and a few books, as well as some flowers tied in bundles that had Morgana’s signature roots and stems still attached. Safa and Seoc waited there, and they bowed to us as we approached. I felt a slight flush rise to my face, but tried not to let my step falter as I guided the King over.

My sister was already digging into the basket, pulling out dishes and bundles of food to pass to the other goblins, who helped her set the blanket. I couldn’t resist watching Safa with a rather critical eye, considering the way she interacted with my sister. I hadn’t had a chance to properly vet her before everything had happened, and found myself a little untrusting of her. After all, what did I know of this goblin? And she had been spending a lot of time with Morgana while I was tending the King. What if she was not the right influence for an impressionable young princess?

“Try not to scare the poor girl.” Came Grier’s quiet voice in my ear as I helped to carefully lower him to sit amid the pillows set on one side of the large blanket.

I looked at him in surprise, and his grin nearly split his face. I carefully fixed my expression, though I couldn’t completely hide the tightness in my voice as I replied. “I do not know what you mean, Your Majesty.”

Grier scoffed, tugging on my vest until I hesitantly settled onto the ground beside him. “Don’t start with that again.” He warned. Then he jerked his chin at the others a few feet away. “Your sister’s new Lady in Waiting. I saw that look.”

“What look?” I grumbled, my voice equally as soft as I watched Safa whisper something to Morgana. My sister laughed, glancing over at us. I felt my cheeks flush slightly.

The King’s chuckle answered me. “I had all of the ladies screened before I let them meet your sister.” He told me, shifting to sit a little closer to me. I stiffened at his proximity, feeling my face flush again. “Safa is from a good family, and she has a kind heart. Give her a chance, yes?”

I resisted the urge to scowl, considering the pair as they whispered and giggled to each other. Though I had to admit, Morgana did seem very pleased with her new Lady. Perhaps Safa felt my gaze on her, because her eyes darted up to me. I saw her shuffle nervously, offering me a slight bow. She glanced over at Morgana, then at Seoc, as if uncertain what to do with herself beneath my scrutiny.

Grier smacked my shoulder lightly. I started, turning my attention to him. “Leave the girl be.” He scolded good-naturedly. Then his smile tweaked at the corners. “Though I have to say, I like seeing this protectiveness of yours. Especially being on this side of it… Perhaps the father bear in you will be a boon to us in the near future.”

I didn’t get a chance to comment on that, as I had to suddenly struggle to keep myself upright as Morgana launched herself into me. My face instantly softened, and she wrapped her arms around my neck.

“This is lovely, Chickadee,” I told her, “Thank you for it.”

“It was Safa’s idea!” She replied, turning to settle properly on my lap and pulling a dish of finger foods over to us. “She said you and Grier deserved some quiet time together now that he was feeling better, and said since you have both been cooped up inside the fresh air would be good for you.”

I pretended not to notice Grier’s smug smirk, taking the offered nibble from her. “W-well… that was very thoughtful of her.”

“I did the flowers though!” She explained through a mouthful of food, sliding the tray over to Grier. “And I helped her cook!”

“Then we owe both of you our gratitude, little bird.” He mused, taking a piece of food and tossing it in the air to catch it in his mouth. She giggled, then promptly tried to do the same with far less success.

She babbled on about this and that for a while as we ate, then bounded out of my lap to sprint across the green. Safa turned from her conversation with Seoc a few yards away, and both beamed at the Princess who tugged lightly on the goblin’s colorful skirts. I watched quietly, taking a slow sip of the hot coffee my sister had sloppily poured us. I heard Grier’s relaxed sigh, turning my attention back to him.

“... How are you feeling?” I asked him nervously.

He groaned lightly, scooching a little closer and leaning his shoulder against my arm. “If one more person asks me that, I’m going to scream.”

I raised one brow, trying to pretend my heart wasn’t racing at his touch. “I suppose that would mean your lungs feel better then, yes?”

He laughed, settling himself somehow even closer to me. I swallowed nervously, glancing at him out the corner of my eye. “I’m tired.” He admitted, sluggishly pulling a tray of sugar powdered pastries closer. “But it’s nice to get out of that bed.”

“Perhaps we should head back.” I fretted, moving as if to call my sister over.

The goblin shook his head, popping one of the pastries in his mouth and resting his head on my shoulder. “Not yet.” He breathed. “I’m enjoying myself.” 

I tried not to shift noticeably, but couldn’t help a tiny shuffle. I even cleared my throat, glancing back at my sister and the other goblins. But they were too far away to be properly bothersome to my discomfort.

“What about you?” I looked over at him at his voice, his scarlet eyes rolling up to meet mine. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m not the one who was…” I stopped, dropping off. Feeling my throat close up at the reminder.

I jumped as his hand slid over my thigh, and my heart somehow raced even faster. I wasn’t sure what to do with my eyes. I was pretty sure I had stolen too many peeks at him for me to reasonably be allowed another. So I stared at the ground a few feet away, angled slightly so I could still see him out the corner of one.

“Nikostratus, you need to take care of yourself too.” He told me softly, and his hand ran soothingly back and forth on my leg. “... You can’t just… throw yourself aside for the sake of everyone else…”

I slowly put my cup down in its saucer, and dropping my gaze to stare at my palms. “... I’m fine.”

He gave a soft ‘hmmm’ at that, but didn’t push it further as Morgana darted back over and plopped back into my lap. I stiffened slightly, feeling my face burn hot realizing that Grier was still leaning heavily against my shoulder. But if she noticed, she didn’t seem to mind.

“Niko! Can you do my hair?” She asked. “I want to show Safa what it looks like when you braid it. I brought the oils and comb!”

I hesitated, glancing over at the young noble lady as she sheepishly shifted closer. She stood at the edge of the blanket, her head politely bowed. A few beads of nervous sweat burst out at the collar of my shirt. But… no one seemed to bat an eye at the King currently lazing on my arm. I supposed we were technically married now, after all. That must be why...

I tried to calm my nerves, nodding briskly. “A-alright… but why don’t you read to us while I do?”

Safa brought over a small basket and a book, offering both to me with a shy smile. I considered her for a moment before taking it with a polite thanks. Morgana snatched the book from my hands and flipped to what she described as her ‘favorite goblin story yet’. Seoc and Safa began cleaning up our meal as Morgana started, and I carefully kneaded the oils through her hair. Grier adjusted himself to free my arms, slowly laying down beside me with his head on my bent legs. I looked around nervously… but again, no one seemed to even notice his switch except for me. And I had to admit, having him so close let me relax a little. I didn’t have to check on him as much when I could feel his chest expand with each breath against the crook of my knees.

I forced myself to focus on my sister’s hair, and carefully outlined the tracks with the tip of the comb before I began to form the tight braids along her scalp. I had always loved how fluffy and soft my sister’s hair was; it reminded me of my mother’s. Though hers had been a deep raven black while Morgana’s was more like a dark auburn. It was just as thick, however, and I worked gently to loosen the individual curly strands from each other properly before I smoothed them into shape with the oil. The oil would also help to keep the moisture in the wiry strands, and would help protect her scalp as I tugged the braids firmly into place. I started from the center, working my way to nearly the back of her skull before smoothing out the natural poof at the end of the strands and moving back to her hairline to start again.

I was distinctly aware of Grier’s eyes watching my fingers nimbly braid her hair. Then Safa’s once she had finished clearing the picnic. She kneeled down a few feet away and watched with unconcealed curiosity. I felt a little stiff with the audience. But the King’s eyes drooped lazily as Morgana read on, and Safa proffered a tentative question here and there as I worked, spoken with such reverence I found myself slowly relaxing. I answered her as best I could, my voice low so as to not interrupt my sister’s avid reading. She still scolded us for interrupting, and I hid a smirk in the corners of my mouth. Seoc stood a few feet away, also listening quietly with his head cocked to the side but politely turned.

As the sunlight slowly drifted further away from our cozy little spot, I saw Morgana stifle her third yawn. A glance at Grier told me he was also drifting in and out of the waking world. I finished the last plait along the top of Morgana’s head and brushed the back out into a gentle cloud of natural curls. I worked some of the extra oil in with my palms and watched the curls tighten slightly with the added moisture.

“I believe the end times might be coming,” I mused, as she yawned again, and she and Grier both spun to look up at me, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen either of you so tired. Especially both at once.”

“The Princess was up early with me this morning, My Prince,” Safa offered politely, her voice soft, “She was very eager to help prepare this meal for you and the King.”

“Perhaps then it’s an early night for us all.” I suggested, smoothing back her hair one last time. Grier stretched lightly and yawned, starting to ease himself up.

Morgana ran her own hands over the top of her head, feeling the braids and giving me a sleepy smile. “Thank you, Niko.”

I pinched her cheek. “Thank you, chickadee… And Lady Safa. For setting this up for us.”

“It was my pleasure, My Prince,” Safa bowed her head, then glanced at Morgana, “... Should I bring you back to your rooms Princess? Perhaps we can work on your goblinese for a while before bed.”

“Yeah, I like that idea.” Morgana nodded, turning and wrapping her arms around me. “Goodnight, Niko.” She peeked shyly at Grier from my neck as I returned her hug. “Goodnight, Grier.”

“Goodnight, little bird.” He replied with a smile. “And thank you, again. I look forward to returning the favor someday soon.”

We saw them off as I helped Grier to his feet. Seoc bowed deeply, offering his aid as well, but the King waved him away. Dismissing him for the rest of the evening for a deserved break. We walked with him to the entrance of the castle, then bid him a farewell as he scurried off with the blanket and baskets tucked under his arms.

We walked quietly down the hall, back towards Grier’s rooms. He managed on his own for a while, but by the time we had reached the bottom of the stairs, he started to lean against me heavily again.

“We shouldn’t have stayed out for so long.” I fussed as we rounded the final corner before his hallway. “You can barely stand.”

Grier scoffed away my concern. “It’s good for me. Besides, I enjoyed spending time with you and your sister.” His head cocked sluggishly to the side. “I think she’s a little jealous of me now.” A grin split his thin lips. “I seem to be hogging all your attention.”

I sputtered lightly, a flush coming to my cheeks as I tried unsuccessfully to provide a better conclusion for him. The goblin merely laughed at that, looping his arms around mine and resting his cheek against it. My heart skipped again, and I blinked a few times to try and clear the swirl in my head. I checked about, but we seemed to be alone in the last stretch to his rooms.

His chambers were blessedly dark and still, and I felt heavier as soon as the second door clunked closed behind us. Grier heaved a sigh, plopping down on the bed and kicking off his boots. I moved from where I had removed my vest as he pulled off his top too, going to pick his shoes to place with the rest. His hand caught the edge of my collar as I bent down, giving me a gentle yank.

“Leave them,” He silenced me as I began to protest, hooking his arm about my waist and persuading me over to him, “Your sister isn’t the only one who was working so selflessly all day.” A hot blush rushed my face as he tugged my tunic loose from my trousers and started undoing the ties. “You need to get some rest.”

“That’s my line.” I mumbled dryly, and he chuckled.

“I can’t even fathom the last time you got a good night’s sleep, Nikostratus,” He told me, slowly coming up to his knees, then his feet, standing on the mattress so he could roll my tunic up, “The day outside was a good start, but now we need to get you to bed.”

I nervously finished what he had started, pulling my shirt off. I started to fold it, but the King snatched it from my hands and tossed it to the side. I opened my mouth to stammer a protest again, and found his mouth there to silence it. He wrapped his arms slowly around my shoulders, his bare torso draped against mine. The goblin was taller than me, standing on the mattress as he was, and I had to drop my head back to comfortably return the kiss. I fed him a huffy breath as he coaxed my mouth open with his tongue, slipping past my defenses. Heat was already beginning to build in me at his touch, and I dared snake my own hands over his thighs. Then I hooked them up, catching his weight in my palms to pull his legs around me. I could taste his grin, and slid an arm under him as I carefully climbed onto the bed. Carrying him along with me.

We dropped together to the mattress, and I crouched over him timidly as our kiss broke momentarily. Grier brought his hand around, tracing the back of his knuckles along my jaw. My eyes darted back down to his lips, and before I could meet his gaze again he gently stretched up to sink into my own lips. I kissed him again, pressing his head down into the pillows, slowly lowering my body to be tucked alongside his. Dangling my torso over him with my weight on my elbows. He freed his other hand from around my neck to skim his fingers lightly up my side. I shivered at his touch, and he nipped my bottom lip lightly in response.

I drew back obediently, meeting his eyes shyly. His hand at my jaw turned, bringing his thumb to trace along my lips.

“... Have I mentioned how happy you make me?” He purred softly, a warm smile filling his face.

I blushed again, my eyes darting away. But he held me still with his hand, coming up to kiss me lightly once more. Just a quick peck before he dropped back into the pillows.

“How about how handsome you are?” He continued. “Or how lucky I am that I get to have you as my husband?” A small scowl came to his lips. “Are you certain we cannot simply null the license and do it properly this time?”

I stifled a laugh, my face blazing hot as I shyly rolled away. Dropping to the bed beside him. He quickly shifted and scuttled back into my arms, tucking his body against mine once more and bringing his hands to my face. His scarlet eyes bounced back and forth between mine.

“... You never told me how you feel about everything…”

I swallowed nervously. “E-everything?” I questioned in a soft stutter, timidly running my hand over the edge of his waist and letting my gaze fall to the side.

He nodded. “You’re my husband now…. And I’m yours…” His thumb skimmed along my cheek bone. “... Is that ok?”

I shivered again, then smoothed my hand into the small of his back. Nodding shyly. “Y-yeah. I’m… adjusting. B-but…” My tongue was a little too large for my mouth, and I tried to shift it uncomfortably. “I-I… I’m… I’m happy…” I felt my cheeks burn, and blinked fervently as if to fan them. “... I think…” I finished lamely.

Grier chuckled, leaning in to rest his forehead against mine. “You seem… better. About talking,” He rubbed his thumb against my cheek again, “And touching.”

“I’m… I’m trying…” I swallowed again. “B-because… I… I m-missed this… I missed… you… ” I closed my eyes to hide from his. “I was… I was afraid I wouldn’t…”

“I’m not going anywhere.” He assured me, leaning in until his breath splashed against my face. “Not without you.”

My lips twisted slightly at the corners. “So next time you’ll just be sure to take me with you when you visit death’s doorstep?” I asked dryly.

Another chuckle. “Mmm. No, not quite.” I felt him shift, then felt his lips against my cheek. “Not unless we are both very old and grey. And even then, I would rather not take you with me.”

“I would rather go first.” I mumbled, and felt his fingers tighten. I opened my eyes reflexively to see the worry in his. “... J-just one day… One hour maybe… So… So I don’t ever have to… t-to…” I blushed. “... to live without you.”

He brought our lips together for a feather light kiss, and I pressed my hand into the warm flesh of his lower back. Bringing my other hand up to bury in the wild hair at the base of his skull.

When he leaned back, we lay silently for a bit, staring at each other. Grier was the one to break the silence, a slight furrow forming between the ridges of his pronounced brow.

“Perhaps it was my imagination… But,” He tilted his head to the side, “I swear I… I was dreaming about you. But they felt real. Like memories?”

“I was… talking to you. While you slept…” I glanced away. “I thought maybe… maybe you would hear my voice and want to come back…”

“What did you tell me?” He asked curiously.

I blushed again. “A-ah… I… I told you about Morgana, when she was little…. A-and about Josep… and about my mother…” His hand gently guided me back to him, until I met his eyes once more.

“... Can you tell me again?” A small, sly smirk played across his lips. “I’ll be a better listener this time, I swear.”

I gave another timid nod. “O-ok…”

He smoothed his palm along my face. “But not tonight. You need to sleep.”

I frowned. “I’m fine-”

“You’re not fine.” He cut me off. “You spent the last two weeks watching me teeter on the edge of death. All the while ruling the Kingdom, and caring for Morgana, and anything else you could shoulder.” He ran his hand to the back of my head, gently squeezing my skull in his palm. “You married a dying man, your old guard tried to kill you, your father died... And those are just the things I know about...” I winced, and he brought his forehead back to mine. “Now it’s time to relax. Let someone else take the burden for a time while you rest.”

I started to shake my head. “Y-you’re still healing-”

“So are you.” He argued, squeezing me again as I winced once more. His fingers slowly loosened, then he traced them back and forth along the back of my head. “... Let me take care of you now, hm? I’m strong enough for that.”

I didn’t say anything, but met his eyes bashfully again. A sound warmth reached those dazzling scarlet reds of his. I sighed deeply, and he smirked with an almost irritating smugness in recognition of my defeat. Shifting to roll closer to me and wrap his arms about my shoulders. Tucking my head against his neck and resting his chin on the top of my head. One hand began to draw slow lines up and down between my shoulder blades, the other cupping the back of my head. I drew in a slow, deep breath, pulling the scent of him into my lungs. Feeling myself slowly relax as I lay there with him, my eyes getting heavier by the minute. I wove my own arms around him, encompassing him with my own body even as he buried my head in his. 

It didn’t take much longer for me to fall into a deep, deep sleep. Securely and safely wrapped up in Grier’s arms...

....

“What could possibly have been going through his mind?” I scowled slightly, resisting the urge to let my nose scrunch up as well. “What possible thought could he have had to think that was even remotely acceptable to say?”

Grier smirked. “Well, I’m certain he had his reasons dear.”

“Impossible! It’s absolutely illogical, and hare brained at best.” I argued, then glanced at him sidelong. “... Don’t call me ‘dear’.”

The goblin grinned up at me. “How about ‘sweetheart’?” My small scowl twitched at the corners and he laughed. The sound echoed around us, bouncing off the stone walls. “I am just attempting to find the perfect pet name for you, love.”

I shook my head. “You’re ‘just attempting’ to change the subject. Are you afraid I’ll have that nobleman hoisted by the ankles for his blasphemy?” I returned. “.... D-don’t call me ‘love’.”

He drew in an excited breath. “Ah, excellent. You’re starting to get flustered.” He bared his pointy teeth at me. “That’s a good sign.”

I scoffed at him, feeling a slight flush pinch at the balls of my cheeks. “I-I am not!”

The King sidled up to me, snaking his arms around mine to match my long stride with a skipping step. “Everything is going perfectly to plan then.”

I chanced a quick peek around to be sure that we were alone in the halls. It had been nearly a month since the goblin King had first woken from his fever induced slumber, and every day a little more of his strength found its way back to him. And every day, he grew a little more bold. A little more affectionate.

I still didn’t care for over the top displays around others, even the attendants and guards posted strategically through the castles. Most especially around my sister. But found I didn’t mind so much the little ones… a pinky finger hooked around mine. A gentle hand on my shoulder in passing. A thigh tucked against my own when we were sitting. Not that anyone else seemed to mind. I just couldn’t seem to completely shake the uneasiness I felt at the idea of other eyes seeing his affections for me.

But Grier was nothing if not adaptable. He relished tugging me into a dark corner to steal a kiss when no one was around. Or palming my ass when we left a room. Once or twice he had even gotten a few buttons on my shirt undone in a stairwell before my shyness and good sense had gotten the better of me. He seemed to enjoy my flushed face, and I couldn’t help the way my heart skipped at his little smug smiles of accomplishment after each daring theft. And when we were alone? … Suffice it to say I was pretty sure I had taken more cold baths in the last month than the rest of my life combined. I also was pretty well versed in the goblinese alphabet in any order I may wish to recite it. Grier relished hearing me attempt to distract myself from his attentions; I was pretty sure he considered it a personal challenge to get me hot and bothered when I was trying very hard not to. And as his strength returned, it was getting harder and harder to remind him he was still healing and to take it slow.

This evening though, as we walked arm in arm, I felt a frown settle on my lips as I checked to be certain we were alone. I glanced around, a furrow digging into my brow.

“... W-where are we going?” I checked over my shoulder, my frown deepening. “I-I don’t… I don’t think this is the way to your rooms…”

The goblin chuckled, a grin splitting his face from ear to ear. “You’re really quite hopeless aren’t you, my young Prince?” He mused. “We haven’t even been in the right wing for some time now. Didn’t you notice we went up a flight of stairs??”

I glanced around again, but despite the slight air of unfamiliarity, the hallway looked just like any other. I swallowed a sigh. I had gotten lost a fair few times in the last month. It was an informal royal decree from both Morgana and Grier that I was not allowed to wander the halls unaccompanied anymore. It seemed I had a knack for ending up in quite the opposite place of my intended destination.

“I-it did seem… a little longer of a walk than normal.” I mumbled sheepishly. I was lying, of course, as it hadn’t really. Then shot him a sidelong look. “... Ah… where are we going then?”

Grier’s grin turned sly, and he glanced at me out the corner of his eye. “It’s a surprise.”

“But… but i-it’s late. Y-you shouldn’t be-”

The King scoffed, waving one hand errantly. “I have been given a clean bill of health now, pet. I am free to surprise my husband to my heart’s content.”

I blinked rapidly, trying to sort out what he meant by that. “... D-don’t call me ‘pet’.” I hesitated, looking around again. “So w-where-”

“Still a surprise.” He interrupted me, giving my arm a gentle squeeze. “But I promise we are almost there.”

I relented with a stifled huff, letting him lead me as he would. I couldn’t help looking around curiously, but simply had no head for the layout of the castle. It was far more complex than the one I had grown up in, and even there I had some trouble from time to time. It had taken me nearly my full 25 years to grow comfortable with it; I imagined it would take much longer than that for me to settle into familiar paths in this castle.

“Are you looking forward to your brother’s coronation?” Grier asked by way of distraction for my nerves.

I peeked at him, my frown returning slightly to the corners of my mouth. “... No.”

The goblin chuckled. “I would have thought you would be happy to have him on the throne. A much more level and reasonable head than your father, I am certain.”

I nodded my agreement, checking down one dark hallway we passed instinctively. “Of course. Crown Prince Valerianus will be an excellent ruler, a boon to his people.” My voice strayed into the old formal flatness from my youth. But then I stopped, staring down at our feet as we walked. “... I-I am not looking forward to the coronation itself.” I dropped off momentarily. “... Least of all because Morgana will be staying with m-my… my brother upon our return.” The word still tasted strange to me.

“Just for a few months.” He reminded me soothingly. “A season at each castle. I believe it is quite the fair arrangement.” He gave my arm a gentle squeeze. “It’ll go by faster than you think… What else worries you about the coronation?”

“... I don’t like parties.” I sighed. “I don’t like crowds of people… I-I prefer to be alone.”

“Except for me?” He offered.

I blushed, stammering for a moment. “Except f-for you...” I amended quietly.

His grin returned, and he tugged me to a halt. “Excellent. Because we are here.”

We stood beside a massive set of pine doors, inlaid with dark carved oak. A delicate but intricate pattern wove beautifully across each, and I considered that for a long moment. I looked around, then back at the doors, my head naturally tilting to the side as I tried to figure exactly where “here” was. Higher up, of course. Now that I was aware of it, we had climbed at least two sets of stairs to get here. But aside from the beautiful carved doors (which I was fairly certain I had never seen before) there was nothing overly distinct about our location, and nothing was familiar.

“Ah… sh-should I know where we are?” I asked timidly. Afraid he would be insulted that I did not, or disappointed his surprise was not completely evident to me.

The goblin was nearly dancing from foot to foot in his excitement. “Why don’t you open the doors and see?”

I hesitated, cocking one eyebrow at him. Then released his hand to push the left side door open. Grier pushed open the other, then stood with his hands behind his back while I assessed the room beyond.

It was a foyer. I knew that much. A grand fireplace to one side, a plush couch flanked by a pair of armchairs (matching, I was surprised to find) and a white marble table. To the other side, another pair of armchairs set on either side of a circular table set with a decadent chess set (those pieces didn’t quite seem to belong to each other though). I glanced over at Grier, and he nodded, encouraging me to go deeper with a large grin on his face. He jerked his head to the right, and I obediently went through the door there. A large reading room, with a tall window set into the length of one wall, a soft looking bench beside it. We were in the tower then, I surmised, craning my neck back to follow the floor to ceiling shelves with a thin ladder and narrow ledge at the middle to reach the second level of books. I could smell the old pages, and lingered for a moment. More plush furniture, cozy and soft looking. A few over the top decadent pillows, and a fair few knick-knacks, though they were neatly set about the room.

I turned back to Grier in the doorway, opening my mouth to speak. But he merely gestured for me to follow him back into the foyer, then across to the opposite door. This one was a closet, long and narrow, with a few cloth mannequins in between the shallow alcoves stuffed with vibrant colored clothes. At least on one side. On the other, my eyes widened slightly upon seeing dark, solid colors. Coats. Vests. White or cream shirts. Greys and blues mostly, with a few other colors smattered in between. Not stuffed, as the opposite side was, but neatly arranged and ordered by item types. Vests in one place. Coats in another. Tunics and shirts in the last. Boots and belts on hooks and shelves between. There were mirrors in the corner, each more decadent than the last and making the space seem even more full than it was.

Again I opened my mouth, the realization coming to me, but the goblin put his hands on my hips and started to push me towards the door in the back. I stammered a few useless sounds, but he persisted. Steering me through to the next room.

A bath. Large, with pearl and opal encrusted pools and delicate marble steps. I craned my neck back, finding a beautiful mosaic of colorful and sparkling tile in the ceiling. I marveled at it for a moment, breathing in the warm, steam filled air. Listening to the soothing sound of trickling water. A few raised basins lined the walls, with intricate stone carvings set into their backboards where water trickled into them before dripping off the sides and down to some unseen place in the ground beneath.

“There’s more.” He told me before I could speak. Catching my hand and tugging me through the door on the opposite side from where we had entered.

I followed behind, feeling in a daze. A bedroom this time, as evident by the bed large enough that I was certain a giant could comfortably lay sideways in it. It had tall, dark oak beams, and was filled with plush pillows along the headboard. Heavy curtains were neatly tied to the posters with golden rope, and there was another large fireplace off to one side. I recognized some of the bobbles and odds and ends from my time spent clearing his chambers. I dug my heels in, yanking Grier to a stop as I marveled at the room.

“A bed so big you could lose me in it.” He reminded me, his grin still ear to ear. “I hope this one with suffice. It was quite the commission.”

“... Th-this is… for us?” I mumbled timidly, and felt my face suddenly flush dark. 

He laughed. “Well, as long as it matches what you wanted.” He tugged my hand a final time. “But there’s one last surprise here for you.”

I obediently followed after him, letting him lead the way to the back corner. There was an archway, with a small little room to one side and a spiral stairwell to the other. The room was rounded on one side, with beautiful colored glass windows. The walls were a soft yellow, and the furniture was decidedly small. A small bed, a soft looking armchair with a sheepskin draped over it. And a cradle, alongside the window. My blush went even darker.

“Is it how you imagined?” He asked, stepping to the side to give me a better view. “I’m not sure what human nurseries look like, so I am afraid it might lean a little more to the goblin side of things.” His own scarlet eyes appraised the room. “We can of course change anything you’d like.”

“It… i-it looks…” I stepped shyly into the center, slowly pivoting on one foot. The setting sun broke through the glass, bathing the room into an almost magical glow. “... It looks… perfect…”

I jumped as his hands slowly came around my middle, and I felt him bury his face in the slope of my back. My breath fluttered from my chest, and I hesitantly rested my hands on his arms at my waist. A thousand thoughts rushed through my head at that moment, so quickly it was soon throbbing. Especially as his hands began to slowly rub against my abdomen.

I glanced at the doorway, then blinked a few times. “Wh-where do the stairs go?” I asked tentatively. Eager to distract myself from the heat of him at my back.

He gave me a gentle squeeze, then slid around to stand in front of me once more. “I thought you’d never ask.” The goblin took up my hands again. “Come.”

The spiral stairs were narrow, but not uncomfortably so, and I had no trouble following behind him. Our boots clicked on the stone, and I could barely keep up with his eager pace. The stairs let up to a large circular room at the top, devoid of furniture. The walls were mostly all glass, save for the stone archways supporting it, with thick curtains bunched along their length ready to be drawn. A door opened opposite us, leading to a balcony around the outside edge. But it was the center of the room that drew my attention.

It was filled with blankets, rugs, and large pillows of varying colors and patterns. Creating a soft nest of sorts, and encircled with white candles that were somehow already lit. Their flames flickered on the surface of the polished glass, making it look like we were surrounded by soft faerie fire. The ceiling was domed, and also completely glass, and as I stepped closer, I dropped my head back to look up at the swirl of pastels dancing across the sky as the sun began to set. The room was filled with the soft smell of flowers, and I saw them hanging from planters along the top edge of the stone pillars, draping down delicately. There was also a strategically placed set of stout, square glasses, and a tray of amber filled decanters. I could see the mountains for miles in almost every direction, and again slowly turned in place as I took it all in.

I felt eyes on me, and dropped my own from the heavens to find Grier’s waiting. He smiled at me, a little shyly. Obviously waiting for my final reaction. I looked around again, feeling as if my breath had been stolen from my lungs. I realized my mouth had dropped open a little, and quickly deigned to close it.

“Perhaps not what you had in mind when you said ‘a balcony’.” He mused. “But I thought it might still impress...” He gestured to the blankets and pillows at the center. “Fancy a drink to top off the evening? Perhaps to celebrate our new abode?”

“Th-that…” I fumbled for the right words, still a little dumbstruck. I swallowed hard. “That sounds… It would be.. a-ah... P-perfect.”

He motioned for me to sit, then walked around and carefully closed the curtains of the windows, leaving just the domed ceiling overhead. I stopped at the edge of the nest, hesitating for a moment before removing my boots. It didn’t seem appropriate to tread over the fabrics with them. I noticed a few petals flittered among the pillows, and pondered at exactly how they had managed to get so far from their source. The sun had all but completely sunk below the horizon now, and the inky night sky was beginning to seep into the pastels left in its wake. Slowly, I sat amid the pillows, craning my neck back to watch the darkness’ progression.

I heard him come up behind me, as well as the shuffle of him removing his own boots. The hairs on the base of my neck rose as he sank down to his knees at my back, then I felt the heat of his body once again as he slowly wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I shivered as his hot lips suddenly pressed to the side of my neck.

“What do you think?” He asked me softly. His breath warm against my skin.

I felt my face flush, and looked down at my hands in my lap. “O-of the rooms? Or… Or of all this?”

He gave a soft ‘hmm’ at that, then kissed my neck again. “Both.”

I peeked over at the stairs, trying to ignore the way he moved his hands back and forth over my shoulders. “... I-I like them… You ah… Y-you definitely were listening…”

He chuckled, and my eyes drooped as he pressed his lips against my skin once more. “My sweet Prince, I’m always listening to you.” One of his hands rolled to trace slowly down my front. “... And this?”

I swallowed nervously, then pretended to be too preoccupied with considering the room to notice his nimble fingers undoing the buttons on my vest. “I-it reminds me of… o-of that… umm…” I flushed a little darker, distracted. “... That first dinner…”

He nodded, slipping in a little closer. “Our first ‘date’, so to speak.” I could hear his smile in his next words. “You remember.”

I nodded. “O-of course I do… it was…i-it was...“ I dropped off, struggling to find the right word.

“Special?” He offered, and goosebumps shot across my skin at the word. I nodded again, resisting another shiver. He hummed his approval softly. “That was the intent… though I have an entirely different goal for how I’d like this night to end… But I want to ask you something first.”

My breath caught in my throat at that, and I turned slightly to look at him out the corner of my eye. His fingers had halted, and I found an unfamiliar seriousness waiting for me when I met his gaze. It made my mouth twitch down, and I turned to face him a little more. Curious what he could possibly want to ask that had him so uncharacteristically somber. The goblin took a steadying breath, easing his hands slowly back to cup on his lap.

“Nikostratus…” He paused, drawing in a breath, “... Will you marry me?”

I blinked at him. “... We’re already married.”

Grier scoffed angrily, brushing his hand through the air. “Yes yes, technicalities and legalities and all that. That’s not what I’m asking.”

“But that’s… that’s what you just asked-”

“No! I mean, yes, that is, but that’s not what I meant.” He gave an exasperated sigh. I felt my mouth twitch at the corners as his tentative expression turned to a scowl. The goblin shook his head, then took up both of my hands in his. “What I meant was… will you, Prince Nikostratus… will you be mine? And will you take me as yours?” I started to open my mouth, but he squeezed my hands. “Not because of a treaty, or in case I die without an heir. Not because I’m a King, and you’re a Prince. Or for our people, or even for the sake of peace. Not to make anyone else happy… but because I asked you… because I love you…” His scarlet eyes dropped down to our hands. “... And because you want to-”

“Yes.”

He jerked sharply. “... What?”

I nodded. “Yes. I will. Because you asked. Because I want to.”

“... Just like that?”

I smiled shyly at him, and I saw his eyes sparkle at the sight. “Just like that.”

He released one of my hands from his and brought it up, turning my face towards him properly. I met his eager lips with mine, shifting to twist at my waist. Bringing my own hand up to tentatively trace along the edge of his sharp jaw. We held that kiss for a long breath, relishing in it together. 

Then he moved, stretching and rolling himself around to come to my side. Easing my now unbuttoned vest off my shoulders and teasing his tongue between my lips. I shrugged the vest off, letting him toss it to the side without breaking our kiss. Feeling his hands return to begin untucking my tunic and undoing the strings to my trousers. My own hands reached for him, finding first his waist, then the hem of his pants. Gently tugging his own shirt loose, slipping my palms underneath to press against his warm, bare skin beneath. My heart leapt and thudded in my chest, and forgot how to breathe for a moment as he broke our kiss to roll my tunic up and over my head.

His hands came to my shoulders, pushing me firmly, until I fell onto my back amid the pillows. And he climbed on top, straddling me and planting his firm buttocks quite soundly on top of the swiftly growing bulge at my pelvis. I nearly groaned, and saw the same intense heat in his own eyes as I felt rippling through my body. I watched as he pulled off his own top, revealing his muscular torso and taut green skin to my hungry gaze. He tossed his shirt to the side as well and came back down, kissing first my mouth, then pushing my head to the side with his nose to begin slowly licking and sucking at the curve of my neck. My eyes rolled back and a shiver of delight rippled through me at the sensation.

“... A-are… Are you sure you’re… Y-you’re…” I stammered, unable to manage a complete sentence with his lips trailing across my skin.

I felt his hum against my throat, and gasped as he gently nipped at me. “Absolutely.”

Grier came back up to lean over me, his hair falling wildly about his shoulders as he bent down. Pressing our lips together again to reassure me of his words. His hands came to rest on either side of my head, and I let my own trace hesitantly up his bare arms. First to his shoulders, then slowly down his muscular back. I marveled again at the warmth and texture of his skin, and shivered as it seemed to remind me of my own exposed flesh. I heard his jaw click slightly as he opened it wide, sneaking his tongue back into my mouth. Winding it around mine. Another shiver passed through me, and I felt him shift. Rubbing against my cock through our pants and leaving my head spinning again. I fed him a shuddering breath as he ground his own member against me, sending a prickling heat racing through my body.

He unlocked our mouths, bringing one hand up to turn my face to the side before burying himself against the tender flesh beneath my ear. The sound of his tongue working against my skin coupled with his hot breath in my ear had my hands on his back looking for purchase to pull him closer. He trailed his sharp teeth across my skin, and I caught my hand in his hair as he worked his mouth slowly down my body. My fingers curled into those messy locks, and I started to prop myself up on one elbow as he moved lower and lower. Wondering where exactly he was going.

Scarlet eyes flicked up to me, and the heat there made my heart skip and sputter dangerously. “Lay back.” He breathed against my skin, his voice several octaves deeper with the husk of his arousal. 

I did as I was told, settling into the pillows once more with my heart in my throat. Trusting him as the more seasoned player for exploiting our arousals. He had certainly proved himself quite skilled in such carnal desires over the past month. I felt his mouth trail kisses down my abdomen, felt his hands massage at my sides. My own hand was still buried in his hair, and it twitched as his fingers curled around the hem of my pants. Pulling them down and freeing my cock from their quickly shrinking confines. I tried to not think too much about how I was now laid  bare before him, even as my heart thrummed. Luckily the blood was rushing through a fairly different head of mine at that moment, and my thoughts were congealed and fleeting at best. And as his hands slid up the back of my thighs to cup my buttocks, I lost even that.

I jerked as something firm and wet flicked at the head of my cock. Then gasped as the sensation returned. The pant of his hot breath against my pelvis brought the shocking clarity to my swirling brain that it was his tongue currently rolling over and licking at me with abandon. At first, I was so surprised my mouth dropped open. But as his long tongue wrapped and lapped at all my most sensitive parts, I decided I really didn’t care. More heat poured through my body, until I felt the tips of my fingers and toes go numb. I tightened my hand in his hair, and groaned loudly as his lips suddenly closed around my erection. Enveloping it in that hot, wet mouth of his. I thought I could feel the tantalizing brush of his sharp teeth along its length, and he began to rhythmically work his way up and down my shaft. I groaned again, trying not to writhe too much beneath his hot breath and lapping tongue. His hands massaged at my cheeks, slowly pushing them tightly together then spreading them apart.

I was glad for the soft pillows beneath me as I smashed my head back recklessly at the wave of pleasure that washed through me. My hand bobbed with his head, riding up and down the full length of me. I could feel his lips scrape the hair at my pelvis, and each deep thrust left me twitching more than the last. I curled one of my legs half around him, needing to touch him. To feel the heat of the rest of his body. His hands worked between my butt cheeks, and I felt the tip of one beginning to massage my hole.

Damnit. I thought to myself as a pulsing flash of light filled my vision. I started to try to pull away from him, feeling myself cresting on the edge of pleasure. But he stubbornly latched on, somehow managing to bury my cock deeper into his throat. I gasped, then moaned, my fingers in his hair spasming. I would have felt embarrassed by my sounds, had I the capacity for any thought other than that of the sensations of his mouth wrapped around me. His finger flicked inside me, and I smashed my head back again with that final straw.

I shuddered, crescendoing over the top and crashing back down on the other side in a hot, rippling mess. I felt my cock throb, pulsing my cum straight into Grier’s waiting mouth. I would have flushed in embarrassment, had my entire blood supply not been otherwise preoccupied at the moment. My body became in as much mush, my bones forgetting their solidity, my legs feeling numb. I blinked rapidly, trying to sort out exactly what had just happened, but my thoughts remained a hopeless swirling mess.

Before I could fully return to myself, Grier’s mouth found mine. My hand at the back of his head slipped to cup his neck, and with a weak grip I pulled him closer instinctively. He tasted salty, but not at all bad, and I welcomed his long tongue back into my mouth. Breathy with the lingering memory of its previous exploits. I felt myself slowly returning, and found his hands still massaging and playing with my ass. And was quite aware of his own cock rubbing against my pelvis eagerly.

I didn’t let myself pause to think, reaching down. Wrapping my hand around him. He fed me an equally breathy pant as I firmly gripped his manhood. I started to sit up, half on my side, adjusting to allow myself better purchase while his hands still worked at my backside. I used the moment to explore his cock in my palm, sliding up and down its length, with the pale tuft of wiry hair at its base and running partially up his abdomen. He hardened more at my touch, and I couldn’t help the little giddy glee in my stomach at the feeling.

I wasn’t sure if I was expecting it to be different from a human cock. A quick glance confirmed it was as green as the rest of him, though the head was darker. I thumbed the veins and ridges, running my palm appraisingly over it. Grier seemed eager to indulge my whims, and his pelvis jerked at my movement. I was surprised to find it was not smaller, as I would have expected it to be considering his proportions. Despite the goblin’s stature, I was pretty certain his appendage was very nearly the same size as mine. It certainly fit my palm similarly, and I enjoyed the familiarity of its shape. Feeling more and more confident as I rubbed at it firmly, confirming to myself this fact. Grier broke back from my mouth to lightly nip at my lip with his sharp teeth, seeming unable to fully handle the pleasure and desperate for an outlet.

He quivered as I continued to pump my palm up and down his shaft. I moved my other hand from the base of his skull to massage at his shoulders. He tucked his face against my neck, panting against me. Palming my ass and drifting his fingers ever closer to my anus. I encouraged him by picking up my pace, and felt him bite at my throat with a soft groan. He murmured something I didn’t understand, and suddenly his fingertips felt moist and tingly as he slid them in and around my hole.

“I want to know what it feels like to be inside you, Nikostratus.” He purred against my skin, and I quivered with anticipation. Gasping softly as he worked his fingers deeper. Carefully massaging and stretching me out.

I gripped him even more firmly now, rolling my hand down the length of his shaft, slowly pushing back his skin to fully expose his sensitive head to the night air. He groaned again, and I delighted in the feeling of the vibration of it at my throat. Whatever magic he had placed on his fingers was soothing and cool, and I felt myself relax at his touch.

His hands came around, pushing me down with his palms at my shoulders. I didn’t object, falling back willingly. Feeling my legs shaking with my growing anticipation. He coaxed me onto my stomach, and rolled his hands back and forth over my cheeks a few times. I felt his cock slide between them, and heard his breath hitch as he rubbed it there for a moment. Then aligned himself properly. I didn’t dare try to look over my shoulder at him, my face hot, my breath catching. I tried not to flinch as I felt his head graze the ring between my cheeks, but couldn’t help the shiver of excitement. His preparations allowed him to push easily inside me, though he did so slowly. Relishing each tantalizing inch. I curled my fingers into the blankets, my mouth dropping open as his head ground slowly against a particularly sensitive spot. He moved until he had buried himself to his pelvis, and bent slowly over me. His breath splashed against my spine, and I felt him carefully roll his hips.

I closed my eyes, letting loose something halfway between a moan and a gasp. It felt strange, but not unpleasant. He rolled again experimentally, then I felt him shudder against me. He bent further, curling over my ass and resting himself on his elbows. Until he could lap at the sweat now slowly dripping down my spine. I quivered at that, lost in a fresh wave of pleasure as he ground and rocked into me again. And again. His mouth came to my skin as he moved, and I could feel his breath panting against my sweat slicked shoulders. He alternated between kissing and licking, but as his pace picked up, I felt his teeth prick my skin in between groans pressed into my flesh.

I relished the sound of his hips smacking against my fleshy bottom. I enjoyed the feeling of his cock thrusting deep inside me. He moved gently at first, but gradually picked up speed and force as his excitement grew and my sounds spurred him on. Before long, he released a string of goblinese. I didn’t have to understand it at all to know it was probably not in any way ‘proper’ or ‘polished’ speech. It made my heartbeat even more erratic, and his thrusts seemed to match it. I felt him shudder again, and stifled a moan with my face buried in the blankets.

Suddenly, he jerked and spasmed, and a small part of me imagined I could feel him pulsing inside me as he reached his own climax. Logically I knew whatever magic he had used to relax my ring would likely prevent that, but I preferred to still imagine I could.

The goblin dropped onto my back with a hefty gasp, his smaller body quivering. My own body alternated between melting into a semi-solid state and tensing into a shiver. Each panting breath I drew, I could feel his weight rise and fall along with it. Our heat melded together, until I wasn’t entirely sure where his body ended and mine began... Eventually, he planted a final kiss between my shoulder blades, and slid off my back with a soft thump.

I found a bit of solidity to roll onto my side a few breaths later, and jumped slightly as Grier practically launched himself into my chest. I would have laughed at that, had I any semblance of where my lungs were at that moment. Instead, I sluggishly draped my arms around him, feeling his pleased sigh against my sternum as I did.

When several long minutes had passed without sound, I started to crane my neck down to check if the King was even still awake. I was certain he must be unconscious; he would never have been this quiet otherwise. Though over the last few weeks I had found there were nights when he talked even in his sleep! A pair of languid, hooded red eyes flicked up to meet mine, and I raised an eyebrow. I had fully expected when we got to this… ‘moment’, he would be full of teasing, boisterous words. Perhaps some musing on our varying physicality, or a comment on some quality of my body. Leaving me flustered, stammering, and proficiently bothered. His mouth twitched at the corners, but I was surprised to find him continuing his uncharacteristic silent streak.

As the heat and rush of excitement started to fade from my body, I found my anxiety waiting. Perhaps he had been disappointed? Or found my performance lacking in comparison to his other partners? Had he overexerted himself? A pang of guilt hit me hard in the chest. I shouldn’t have let it go so far. I had been too caught up in the desire, and turned selfish. He was still recovering; it had only been a month after all. I fretted over this, feeling my body stiffen around him.

Suddenly, Grier chuckled, and his lips pressed lightly to the hollow of my neck. “Over thinking things, are you?” He mumbled, as if his lips weren’t able to move properly to form the words.

I shifted nervously. “I-is it that obvious?”

Another soft laugh, and he snuggled deeper into me. But he didn’t answer right away, breathing another sigh into me. My heart skipped about in my chest, bouncing around the walls of my ribcage. His hand came up, sluggishly smoothing against my skin, rubbing the side of my neck and down my shoulder. I tried to take comfort in that, adjusting my suddenly oversized tongue in my mouth. Still, I lay stiff as a board beside him, and after a little while he brought his lips back to the same spot at the base of my neck.

“I’m not much of a talker.” He fumbled by way of explanation, his words slurred and slow.

That did make me laugh out loud. “Since when??”

He hummed a soft, amused note, and I felt his eyelashes brush against my skin as they fluttered. “After sex, I mean.”

Instantly my face flushed at the word. “A-ah,” I stammered, then shifted a little. “I-I… I didn’t know th-that.”

I could almost sense his languid grin, and he pressed his lips to my hot skin again. Then once more, though softer. His body relaxed, and he buried his face against me. His warm breath spinning down my sternum to be trapped between our entwined bodies. I swallowed once more, but adjusted, curling more completely around him. Cocooning him.

I rested my chin on the top of his head, and let a soft sigh escape as I forced my own body to relax. We lay quietly for a while. I knew he wasn’t asleep, as I felt his lashes run along my skin each time he blinked. I borrowed reassurance from the sensation, and my muscles loosened more. My eyes found the stars over our heads, and I watched them amid the reflection of the candlelight.

“I used to spend a lot of time staring up at the sky,” I breathed, “Wh-when I was younger… I found I could hide better in the dark, a-and no one ever thought to look for me outside for some reason…” I ran my hand along his spine, letting the words simply flow from me. Not really speaking to him, specifically. Just speaking... As I had when he was sick, and I had attempted to keep the habit up since. “I liked the night… Things were… quieter then… P-people didn’t bother me as much…” I considered the stars I could see from my position tucked against him. “We had a small collection of books on the constellations… I think I memorized most of them, I read them so much… I-I liked to… to read. Whenever I could manage to, I would go to the castle library…” My hand skimmed up to play with the long strands of his hair spilling over his back. “There was this… one spot… It was, ah… it was where the walkway of the second level stopped short… But there was just a little gap before the top of the next pillar and… a-and I found that I could s-step from the walkway to the pillar, then around to the next… then in the corner, one of the bookshelves was shorter to let in the light from the window…” I turned my head, burying my nose in his silky soft hair. Breathing in his spicy sweet scent. I knew now he liked to burn sage and myrrh in his rooms. He found the scents calming... “I would sit on top of that shelf for hours… No one could ever find me… I had a pillow set up there, and I would leave my favorite books…”

His soft chuckle vibrated against my chest. “I see Morgana wasn’t the only adventurous royal.” He murmured into my skin.

My lips twitched at the corners. “... I-I’m mostly of the literary sort… I would go there when I’d had enough of socializing and crowds. After all the galas, and balls and… ” I hesitated, my hand pausing with the long strands of his hair twirled around my fingers. Suddenly reminded of another such impending event. “I-I… I don’t want a big wedding…” I confessed suddenly, wincing.

Grier shifted, seeming to come to life at my words. I stiffened, worrying he would deign to leave my side if he was upset enough. I wasn’t sure what I would do if he did, and felt my heart ache with the fear. I felt his hand, previously forgotten in the knoll of my neck, slide over my muscles. Down my pectorals, then back up. His kiss was soft against me, and I shivered at it.

“Alright.” He agreed readily.

I blinked in surprise. “... Y-you… you don’t mind?” I felt him shake his head against me, and my fingers in his hair tightened. “I-I thought you wanted… I thought you would want a big… a-a very big ceremony, especially now that-”

“I’ve told you this before.” He interrupted me. His hand lingered at my throat, his thumb following the lump as I swallowed. “I don’t know why you never seem to believe me. I want you to be happy. That’s all I want.”

“... Even if it wasn’t with you?”

The goblin leaned in to nip at my soft flesh with his teeth at my tempered teasing. “Alright.” He amended. “I want you to be happy with me. But... if you couldn’t be-”

I shook my head, wrapping him up in my arms and pulling him close. “I-it doesn’t matter.” I told him in denial of that possibility as he slowly wound his hand to my back. Entangling himself around me. “I don’t… I-I don’t think I could… I don’t think I could be...h-happy… without you.” He nuzzled into the side of my neck, until I could feel his breath in my ear, and I took courage from that. “I-I don’t think I’ve… I’ve ever been…” I dropped off, then shook my head again. “N-not like this…”

“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to hear you say that…” He breathed, a happy relief in his voice. Then he paused, drawing small circles with his fingertips on my back. “I’ve been... obsessed with you… Ever since I first learned of you three years ago.” He confessed quietly, and I tried not to stiffen with his words. “I thought it was just some… strange fancy. One that would go away with time.” He smoothed his palm over my shoulders. “After I saw you… I just… always felt like something was missing. Though I couldn’t tell what it was… I certainly never put it together with you specifically.” He sighed. “Yet it was constantly driving me. Though I didn’t know it. It drove me to halt hostilities. Then to seek out the peace… and then… that drove you to me… and…”

He leaned back, pulling himself free from my embrace. I turned, looking down at him as his hands came about to cup my face. His long thumbs ran along my cheeks under my eyes, as his own seemed to study every pore. Our breath intermingled in what was left of the air between us, and electricity snapped in its wake. Slowly he stretched up, kissing me softly, gently. As if he were in a pleasant dream, and longed to do everything in his power to linger in it.

“And then I saw you again…” He murmured once he had finally leaned back. “I saw you in my castle, standing before me. Close enough to touch… and everything just… clicked. Everything became so obvious.”

“W-was it really so easy for you?”

“No.” He admitted. “I wasn’t lying back then, when I said you surprised me. I really never thought I would like you. I had never met a human before that I had found I could do much more than tolerate.” His head cocked to the side. “But I thought it would be... interesting, at least. And…” He grinned. “You are very handsome.”

My cheeks grew hot and I tried to flick my gaze to the side. He tightened his grip, tricking me into looking back at him in surprise. Just in time for him to kiss me again. I hummed a sigh against his mouth, my eyes fluttering.

“You are very handsome,” He declared, his voice soft, “And charming, and selfless, and sweet.” He kissed me again. “And I will keep telling you this until you believe me.” A final kiss, soft and tender upon my lips. “Now… how about that drink, hmm?”

The corners of my mouth twitched again as he untucked himself from against me and sat up. The goblin reached over, pulling the tray closer. There was a covered plate beside it I hadn’t noticed before, and felt a slight frown slip across my features as I considered it. Grier poured out a small dollop of brandy into each glass as I slowly sat up too. Pulling the loose end of a blanket modestly across my lap.

“What’s under there?” I asked, curious despite myself.

His grin grew, and he passed me a glass before using his now free hand to toss the silver cover off to the side with an unceremonious clatter. I jumped slightly at the sound, but didn’t have time to linger on it as the King proffered the now revealed plate of small misshapen yellow squares practically right under my nose. I raised an eyebrow at him, but carefully plucked one, hesitantly bringing it up for a precursory sniff. My eyes widened with delight as I recognized it, and I snapped up the entire treat in one quick bite. Letting the sweet but tart flavor roll over my tongue with a soft sigh.

Grier laughed, equally delighted, and picked up another after returning the plate to the tray. I met his eyes, suddenly a little embarrassed by my eagerness, my chewing slowing. But he held the fresh lemon cookie out to me, obviously pleased with the same behavior that embarrassed me. My lips twitched and I leaned in to take it directly from between his fingers with my mouth in a surprisingly bold whim. Which only made the delighted smile of his grow even more. Before I could pull completely away, he caught the back of my neck with one hand and stole a lemony kiss. I couldn’t help my own little chuckle deep in my throat and found myself a little surprised by it.

I washed the mouthful down with a sip of the brandy, watching him take one for himself and having an experimental nibble of it. “...You really thought of everything, didn’t you?”

He gave a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, shooting me a coy look out the corner of his eye. “I do aim to please…. Is it everything you wanted for this night?” He scooched closer as I finished the last of the small serving of brandy in my glass. Climbing into my lap once I placed it to the side. “What else does your heart desire? Tell me, and it’s yours.”

I adjusted myself nervously, my heart skittering about in my chest as his warm skin brushed against mine. “I-I… What about you?” I mumbled shyly. “Surely you must-”

“I have everything I want,” He interrupted, reaching up and catching my face between his palms, “I have the man I love. My whole world. Right here.” He pulled me down gently to kiss me for several breaths. “So tell me, my sweet Prince, what do you want?”

I hesitated, my blush rising to my cheeks. He brushed it aside with his palms, and I peeked at him through my dark lashes. “I-I… I want… I just... want you…” I told him softly. “Just you…” I glanced to the side, taking a small breath, trying to let the words trapped in my chest flow out unchecked. “I-I want… I want to… to wake up next to you every morning, and I want to fall asleep with you every night...” I paused, peeking at him again, but when he didn’t interrupt, I added “...And I am fully aware that we will never wake up at the same time…” He laughed softly at that. Encouraged, I continued on, letting everything pour out in a rush. “I-I want… I want to see what ridiculous outfit you wear everyday, and I want to see you panic when your hair starts to turn white.” I reached up, thumbing his cheek. “I want to see what happens to green skin if you stay out in the sun too long, and I want to rule alongside you a-and leave this Kingdom to our children... I want kids with you… I want lots of kids with you... and I want to see you playing with all of them in the gardens. I want… I-I want to…” I swallowed hard, stammering and fumbling for the words momentarily. “I… I want to love you for the rest of our lives, Grier... and I want those lives to be very, very long…”

His hands slowly slid until he had fully wrapped his arms around me, surrounding me with his spicy sweet scent. Then he kissed me so deeply I thought perhaps the stars in the heavens had always been just a faded copy of the universe that flashed behind my eyes at that moment. The warmth, that lovely, wonderful warmth, started in my chest, and pulsed through me with each beat of my heart. Reaching out to every inch and molecule of my being. Until I couldn’t even remember what it was like to live and breathe without it. I didn’t even feel him lean back, but then suddenly his voice, bathed in tenderness, filled my ears. Blowing air across the smoldering coals burning hot in my chest until my whole body tingled with emotion.

“I see we are a perfect match then, my young Prince.”

...

The End...

#Royal Flush #final chapter #tw: sickness #goblin king #goblin lover #goblin romance #monster romance #monster lover #monster husband #monster marriage #mlm #male x male #tw: death mention #terato #exophilia #angst #slow burn #really fucking slow burn #...nsfw #i'm so sad #fuck #monster x male #monster x human #goblin

[nadisabug]

Tea Girl // Prolouge // Pt1

Pairing: eventual Zuko x fem!reader

Warnings:  Annoying little brother lol, mean grumpy old man, just filler, a lot of setting up and explaining backstory, some cursing bc I am A Sailor, a lil surprise at the end ;)

Summary: After Y/n’s little brother wakes her up, she goes through her daily routine. 

A/N: Ahh so this idea stemmed from a short one shot I wrote and now it’s a whole new thing 0.0 I don’t have a posting schedule for this yet, but it will be slow since I will also be working on requests as well during this. Also this reader’s background is super specific and detailed so if you don’t like that avoid this. Anyways I hope you all like it because it’s my first series on this app so I am a little nervous I know it’s trash but I hope you like it enjoy <3

Series Masterlist // Part Two 

The sun filtered in through the blinds of my window, gently nudging me awake. I rolled over away from the offending light source, desperate to escape my daily life. I snuggled into my pillow. Just a few more minutes.

"Sissy, wake up. The sun is up!" I felt a presence behind me, small hands pushing into my side.

"No Kai it isn't, go to bed," I grumbled, turning away more.

"Yes it is, get up!" I felt as my younger brother flopped onto me, crushing my rib cage and restricting my breathing.

"Oof, ugh, get off of me fatty," I groaned and tried to roll away from him.

"I am not fat," Kai sat up off of me, but still left his hands on me, his palms digging into me. "I am in peak physical condition. But I won't be if you don't get me to training on time."

"Ugh, fine," I sighed and pushed him off of me. I sat up and pulled the covers off of me blinking blearily into the room. Slowly my eyes adjusted to the dim light and I surveyed our sparse room. There was the mattress I was currently sitting on and a chair in the corner with clothes piled on it. Other than that the room was pretty much empty, the only decorations the on the walls were the ones that came with the house. The normal Earth Kingdom wallpaper along with a few paintings of landscapes. Nothing of ours adorned the walls.

I got up from the bed and stretched. I heard behind me a small cheer as Kai happily hopped off the bed and rushed to the closet to pick out clothes for the day. I followed him slowly, letting him get there first. I didn't have to pick, seeing as I would be wearing my normal uniform for my job at the tea shop.

We got around in the small bathroom attached to my room, seeing as it was the only bathroom in the small apartment. Luckily, I had earned enough money recently to move to a two bedroom apartment, so I had my own room now. I used to stay in the living room area and let Kai have the room, but with my recent raise at the tea shop we were able to move. That was another reason that the walls were so bare, we hadn't finished unpacking yet. Boxes were piled up in the small living room area, most of them still full. Our kitchen area was sparse too, seeing as most of the kitchen ware was in boxes.

I got around quickly and Kai and I were ready before the sun was all the way up. We got everything we needed and left the apartment, braving the cold weather.

"Sissy, I'm cold," Kai pouted as we walked to his teacher's house.

"I know, but there's nothing I can do about that," I sighed and reached over, tugging on his jacket. He frowned and pulled away, not liking the attention. "Tell me about what you are supposed to learn today," I suggested.

"Oh!" Kai exclaimed happily. "I know, we were going to go over holding our stances while we fight..."

I nodded along, but slipped into my mind while he talked. I was so glad that he was enjoying his martial arts classes considering his past. He was a nobleman's child I found wandering the streets when I lived in the lower ring of Ba Sing Se. I picked him up immediately and found out that he was disowned because he was not showing bending abilities. Yet, despite not having that ability, he had a different one. He had a knack for art. He loved creating on any media, whether it was charcoal from our fireplace or color that I got him for a special present.

I hated having to make him go to martial arts classes, but it essence it was a babysitting service so that I could work longer days. School only went from midday to afternoon, and I didn't want to leave him alone in the house being that he was still only 9. It was a a special class for those who could not bend but still wanted to learn how to defend themselves. It was a really good class, and he really liked being around other kids like him who couldn't bend. I wanted to be there for him but-

"Okay we're here!" He announced, pulling me from my mind.

"Okay, so remember what we talked about-"

"No walking to school alone, wait for you to come pick me up," Kai nodded. "I know, I know."

"And then after school?"

"Stay in the art teacher's room until you come and get me." Kai folded his arms and stuck out his hip. "I don't get why you always have to tell me this everyday."

"So you remember," I answered, bopping him on the nose after I did. He scrunched up his nose and faked a grimace.

"Whatever, I'm going to training, see you." Kai turned around and disappeared into the tall gated yard of his instructors house. I watched as other kids filed in behind him. I waited an extra moment to make sure he didn't need anything and I set off to work.

It was a long walk but I didn't mind. I made it before long and found the shop closed, as always. I waited in front of it for my boss who would soon open up the shop. I had asked for a set of keys before so I could start the preparations, but he had denied saying he couldn't trust me. The man was crotchety and old, not the nicest, but he let me leave to walk Kai to school and paid me well so I couldn't really complain.

"Well, here it is, Ms. L/n early again," I heard a rough voice from around he corner and turned to find my boss. Speak of the devil. He was old, maybe late 70s, with wispy white hair along the side and back of his head with a giant bald spot in the middle. He was wearing traditional Earth Kingdom clothes with some alterations that constituted our uniform.

"Yes, Kai insisted on getting me up-"

"That was not an invitation to tell your life story," my boss snapped. I closed my mouth immediately, shutting up. Again, quite gruff but he let me get away with a lot so I stayed.

We filed into the tea shop and began getting it ready. I pulled the chairs down from the tables and started pulling out chinaware. When I went to the back to get the stoves ready, my boss was in the front already greeting customers.

Shit.

I forgot to heat the water as soon as I came in. Now I would have to wait for the water to boil, which would take a long time, thus getting my boss mad at me.

A small voice in the back of my head whispered, or I could do it myself...

I shook away any doubts that I had. I didn't want the boss pissed off at me so early in the morning. I looked around to make sure no one was watching, then took off the gloves I always wore. I placed my bare hands around the cold kettle and focused for a second. Then, after a few seconds, the water was boiling.

Boom. Done. Boiling water. And no one was none the wiser...

#tea girl☕ #eventual zuko x reader #no mention of him yet #but he will be in the next chapter #i promise #hell be his beautiful angry self lol #firebender!reader #that was the surprise haha #atla x reader

[mollymauk-teafleak]

whose brow is laid in thorn (chapter three)

Chapters: 1, 2, 3

Huge thanks to my lovely friends who beta this for me @minky-for-short and @spiky-lesbian!

Please consider reblogging and leaving a comment on Ao3!

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Molly realises the true responsibilities of being a prince to a realm with a doubtful king...

Alternate: come and get your homoerotic sword fighting, fellow gays 

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Mollymauk wondered if people speculated about why he spent so much time down in the practice yards, why the early hours of the morning often found him in the armory or out in the moonlit space at the very centre of the castle courtyard, scimitars whirling like shards of starlight in his hands. Probably they assumed he was down here fucking a succession of stable boys and chambermaids, or else this was where he met his personal smugglers who provided him with various powders and pills and injectables.

He wondered if his father ever proudly spoke of how martial his son was, if he ever boasted of his prowess with weaponry. If he ever took comfort in the fact that, despite it all, at least his heir knew how to kill.

Mollymauk didn’t know what he hoped for. He’d long ago given up on trying to understand what the king wanted from him or whether he cared.

The truth was, training just gave him some comfort. It was repetitive, rhythmic and required all of his attention, even thud of his heavy heartbeat. It was simple. When he was swinging at the wicker targets or spearing sacks of flour shaped vaguely like people or deflecting bolts of low level magic that would give him a faint electric shock if they found his flesh, he wasn’t thinking about how he hadn’t been allowed outside of the castle walls more than a year now. He wasn’t thinking about the poorly concealed fury in his father’s eyes when someone had spoken against him in the last council meeting, the frequency with which the occupants of those other seats rotated out, certain formerly important members that he hadn’t heard from since they’d shown their dissent towards some of the latest policies, the angry letters that came from neighbouring kingdoms.

And he wasn’t thinking about how before too long, it would all be his. And he had no idea what he would do then.

He was no fool, despite his carefully sewn costume. He knew the king was keeping him on a short leash these past few years to groom him for the throne he’d occupy one day, so he could learn to inspire the same fear, the same flinches from a gaze alone, the same ruthlessness. He’d had his years of freedom, of slipping past his guards at night to go to the lower echelons of the city and tip in gold at the taverns. He’d been allowed his friends and their little adventures. He’d been allowed to be himself.

And look at the trouble it had caused.

Mollymauk closed his eyes to it all and slid his scimitars out of their sheaths. The yard around him was silent, these earliest hours just past midnight were the only times when the castle and its hundreds of residents made no noise at all. Just after when the night guard took their leave but before the bakers rose to start up the ovens and begin the morning’s bread. He could be completely alone here.

Beau usually said she would kill him for messing with her grounds, asking him if he was a godsdammned Expositor trained monk of the Cobalt Soul explicitly hired by the king to serve as the master at arms or if he was a pampered parrot of a prince whose grip was always off so he scuffed up her training swords and couldn’t work a staff to save his life. But they both knew about these little night time visits he made when he couldn’t sleep or when the day had just been too much for him and not a word was said. Sometimes he caught her putting the dummies back into place after he’d forgotten exactly how she liked them aligned or rebrushing the sand in the training circle after he’d not done it to her exact specifications. A look would pass between them when she saw him watching, a momentary pause, but then they’d go right back to good naturedly insulting each other as only two friends could and not another word would be said.

Mollymauk was grateful for that. Not that he’d ever tell her.

He’d stripped down to just a loose shirt, bound by the leather guards on his forearms and his tight leggings, hair pushed back off his face with a band. The night air rose chills on his purple skin, prickling as it filled his lungs, waking up something inside him.

His first cut was so sharp it could be heard as it pierced the air. Mollymauk revelled in the stretch of his muscles as he held his sword out in a low lunge, holding as still as he could for a few pulsing heartbeats before sweeping into a whirling storm of attacks at nothing. High cuts, low arcs, turns that brought one leg flush with his nose, seconds where the swords changed hands, moments where one hand was splayed on the sand below him and supporting his whole body, snapshot instants rushing by like lightning. It was a dance and by gods, did he miss dancing.

The swords dance fit his heartbeat so well, when one sword stopped dead with a metallic ring, it was as if his heart had frozen in his ribcage. His eyes snapped open.

And found his nose inches from Caleb’s, his eyes bright and a small smile playing on his face. And his fingers tight around the grip of the short dagger whose guard had caught the point of his scimitar.

“I told you years ago that these curved swords of yours are too easy to turn,” he said in that soft, unassuming way of his.

Molly huffed out a laugh, shoulders relaxing though not enough to break the block between the two blades, “So I move so fast no one has a chance to turn them. Problem solved.”

Caleb’s mouth quirked and one eyebrow lifted as he eyed their crossed blades, “No one?”

“Well...we can’t all be Volstruker.”

Something inside Mollymauk thrilled, against his better judgement. Times like this he could convince himself the last ten years hadn’t happened at all and the Caleb by his side now was the Caleb he’d fallen in love with.

“Perhaps...though you really need to tell me if you’re ever planning on leaving your chambers in the dead of night, your highness. I don’t mind admitting you scared me half to death.”

Molly’s smile curdled with guilt, “Ah. I’m sorry. It’s...it’s been a while since I needed to think about things like that.”

“No harm done,” Caleb allowed, “This time...though as long as I’m here, would you prefer to train with a partner?”

Molly’s laugh rang out across the empty yard and bounced off the stone towers that surrounded them, as he finally broke the embrace of their blades and stepped back, “So you can beat the tar out of me like you did when we were kids?”

Caleb replied with simple courtesy, “Oh, I’m sure his highness’ skills have improved at least somewhat. And if not, well, it is as you say. We cannot all be Volstruker.”

“You’re on. Simple straight blades, if you would be so kind.”

Caleb quickly fetched two from the armoury, their edges filed down so they could serve as training swords. Molly couldn’t help but note Caleb was dressed similarly to himself, a simple sleeping shirt thrown over the trousers from his black uniform, cut close so as not to hamper his moves in combat. He also couldn’t help but note his sleep-tousled hair, not tied away from his hard features, the gentler set of his face than any daylight hour saw, the almost see through cotton of his simple shirt…

Molly slapped himself mentally, turning away as soon as his blade was in his hand. You aren’t being fair to him he snapped, control your damn self.

Best to start soon, so he could chalk his raised pulse and flushed cheeks to something else. He turned as Caleb finished tying back his hair and settled into an easy starting stance, mirror to the one Molly quickly established. Their blades tapped once, as if two old friends in greeting, before Caleb lunged forward with a sudden advance. Molly had to move swiftly to block it with a hurried, sloppy front guard.

He looked at Caleb, scandalised, “Weren’t you asleep not ten minutes ago?”

The ghost of his old friend smiled at him and broke the guard cleanly, beginning a rapid exchange of slash and parry that Molly visibly struggled to counter. It had always been this way between the two of them, Caleb’s Volstruker training more than a match for Molly’s own, even after he’d gotten a Cobalt Soul monk as his instructor. In a way, he’d always secretly appreciated each time Caleb knocked him into the dust.

It was just one of the many ways Molly could know Caleb had seen him as a friend rather than a prince.

For a while it was just the clang of their blades against each other, the scuff of their feet in the sand and their own rapid breathing. Or rather, Molly’s rapid breathing. Caleb was like something robotic, never seeming to tire or miss a single move or break a sweat. Molly, in comparison, could feel a blush raising on his chest and see his breath fogging between them.

In fact, the only time Molly saw any change in his expression was when an empty fade of Caleb’s brought their swords kissing sharply in front of their faces, their noses inches from each other. He thought he saw something in Caleb’s eyes then but it could well have been a flicker of moonlight, a second’s beat before they stepped apart and Caleb lunged again.

Molly was flagging badly after another minute of combat, shoulders heaving and brow furrowing as he moved from guard position to guard position, not even able to try and land a hit on Caleb. Before too long his arm would fail and Caleb would have him.

There would have been something comforting about that. Something familiar.

He was a little regretful when the time finally came to shift the position of his feet ever so slightly, to centre himself almost imperceptibly differently. At Caleb’s next slash, he doubled over, hissing through his teeth, pivoting away from Caleb and cradling his sword arm.

“Ach,” he heard Caleb groan, “Molly, I’m sor-”

He didn’t even get a chance to finish. Because in the time it took to form those syllables, the sword changed from one of Molly’s hands to the other and he struck cobra fast. One foot smartly hooked Caleb’s from underneath him, Molly’s perfectly undamaged sword arm pushing his chest so he went down heavily onto the sand. Before he even registered what had happened, his prince’s sword point was at his throat.

Molly grinned down at him, framed in moonlight, “Yield?”

“Yield,” Caleb didn’t even hesitate. If Molly were in the mood to really indulge himself, he’d have said it was awe making his voice so breathless, “I don’t...what happened?”

“We’re not children anymore, Caleb,” he replied, not hiding the tinge of sadness in his voice, “And I am not Volstruker. I tricked you.”

He was relieved to see the smile break on Caleb’s face and how readily he took the offered hand that replaced the swordpoint.

“No. No, you most certainly are not Volstruker, your highness.”

Once he was upright, Caleb looked at him earnestly, barely even noting the sand in his hair, “Can you teach me how to do that? How to feign it so effortlessly, how you shifted your weight like that…”

Molly chuckled, “Wasn’t part of your training, hm?”

“No,” Caleb frowned a little, though at some thought in his head rather than at his prince, “No, the Volstruker… they wouldn’t ever have thought of it. Showing any kind of weakness, ever even seeing it could be an advantage...it is not their way.”

Their way, Molly bit his lip. Not our way.

He wasn’t being fair, he knew that. But how was any of this fair?

“I can teach you,” he nodded quickly, “Of course I can teach you.”

“You teaching me something...” Caleb smiled, “It would make rather a nice change, wouldn’t it?”

It would be about damn time, Molly thought tiredly.

Neither of them noticed they hadn’t yet unclasped their hands.

Things seemed to have gotten a little easier for Caleb over the last months, at least in some areas. Molly was at least relieved to see that he was willing to spend time with their friends.

It had been awkward at first, when he’d been avoiding them entirely outside of when the constant tether between him and the prince forced it on him, when no one seemed quite sure how to act around this new version of him. Quick hellos whenever Jester came in for one of their regular chats, hellos that fast turned tearful. Sad glances from Beau whenever he accompanied Molly to training, ones that quickly turned to anger on her face. Yasha staring at his back with an unreadable expression.

There had been one quite terrible instance when Veth had come in to change Molly’s bed linen one morning and come face to face with Caleb coming out of his own chambers to greet the prince as he finished dressing. Veth had frozen in place, her eyes wide and so heartbreakingly sad as she faced the young man she’d considered a second son. Caleb had opened his mouth, searching for something, anything, to say but Veth had turned and fled before he could. He’d gone very quiet for the rest of the day, Mollymauk noticed.

But Molly couldn’t avoid his friends forever, not when they’d been the only thing that had gotten him through the last ten years. He missed the evenings where they’d lounge in one of the many royal sitting rooms with their feet up on furniture older than they were, making jokes and laughing, and somehow everything would seem alright. He missed how easy everything had been.

And, as it turned out, sometimes things could be made easy. Because after a few times standing in the corner like a ghost, Caleb was pulled back in slowly and steadily, like a man coming in from the bitter cold to a roaring fire. No one was quite sure how it happened, when he started to smile at Fjord’s stories of the sea again or let Veth sit in his lap like she used to or when Yasha began to shave his beard for him again. There was no grand moment when they all whirled around to see him sitting there in the same spot he’d always occupied, the one that no one had dared move into after he was taken away. It happened gradually, the way small streams ford deep canyons. The way raindrops can bring down a prison wall.

The way hope could bloom in the pit of your stomach no matter how hard you tried.

It was one of those long, golden evenings where all of their schedules somehow managed to align and they all found themselves in the room they usually took over. The fire roared, thanks to Caleb, and the wine was flowing for those who cared to partake, the whole air smelled of freshly smoking wood and velvet and warmth. One of those nights where Molly could look around and feel truly, deeply fortunate, the way all the riches and status and power never made him feel.

“...I’m only saying, if a princess can’t eat lemon cakes at midnight, then what is the point of being a princess?” Jester was saying huffily, her head resting in Beau’s lap, “I’d even go down and make them!”

“If you did, we could kiss the kitchen goodbye,” Molly flicked his tail at her nose, she was well in target from where he sat on the carpet, leaning back against one of the settees to be close to the fire, “Most of the western castle too, probably.”

“Stone doesn’t melt, idiot!” she shot back at him, swiping at his tail like a kitten. Yasha, who had her feet in her lap, somewhere within the skirts of her voluminous dress, snorted.

“Dragonfire can melt stone,” Fjord interjected, sipping his wine, “Saw the ruins of Port Udall once. All the buildings were slumped over like old candles, even the stone ones. The rest of it was bone and old ash and nothing growing. They said an ancient red dragon did it.”

“There! If an ancient red dragon can do it, Jessie can definitely do it,” Molly said firmly, before yelping as his sister caught his tail again in retaliation.

“Thank the gods nothing like that has ever come here,” Veth shuddered, glancing up nervously as if dragons might descend at any moment, “Think of the damage it would do to the lower levels…”

“It would be hard for them to look worse than they already do.”

Of course it was Caleb who’d spoken, his voice was softer and quieter than everyone else’s. And now it was especially faded and sad, enough that the light, jovial tone shrivelled as if it had fallen in the fire, while all eyes went to him.

“What’s that mean?” Beau frowned.

Caleb seemed to shrink a little, as he always did when he was bearing the weight of more than one person’s attention. He cleared his throat awkwardly, “Um...well I saw it as I rode through the city. Have...have any of you been down there recently? To the slums?”

“Slums?” Molly repeated, something gripping his stomach in a tight grip.

“That’s what Master Trent called them,” Caleb blinked, looking around them all, “And..well, the description was accurate.”

“There have been more beggars around the docks recently,” Fjord admitted, looking like a man having a difficult realisation. It was mirrored around the group.

Except on Mollymauk’s face. Mollymauk only felt simmering fury.

“And in the marketplace,” Caduceus echoed, “Everyone I’ve seen, I’ve given food to and I’ve treated some deficiencies I’ve seen but...there’s new faces all the time it seems.”

“Tell me, Caleb,” Molly managed to get out through his gritted teeth.

“Well…” he seemed hesitant, probably seeing what was building in the red eyes staring at him, “There’s shacks thrown up all around the inside of the city walls, some on the outside too when they can’t find the space. There was filth running through the streets, there’s no gutters down there so people must be getting sick. Everyone looked...well, desperate. There were, um...there were children. I don’t think they had anyone to look after them. They seemed hungry. Master Ikithon said a lot of them were coming in from the country, the harvest was so poor that many of them lost their farms when they couldn’t pay their taxes.”

Molly’s voice came out with the dangerous regularity of someone about to explode, “And you’re telling me, Caleb, that I knew none of this. I’m the fucking heir to this entire kingdom and I had no idea my people were starving less than a godsdamned mile from where I’m sitting right this fucking second?”

His voice grew to a roar at the end and a crack ran up the glass goblet he was holding. The wine became vinegar on his tongue. No one knew what to say, there was only the crackling of the fire. Or perhaps that was the fury sparking in his chest.

“There has not been a single word of this at any council session I’ve sat on in the last year, no petitions in court. No word of any kind of help, no plan for what to do. Just more and more shit about the fucking taxes that are apparently starving those people. Is that what you’re telling me, Caleb?”

“Yes,” Caleb’s blue eyes were steady and sad, none of the wariness he saw in his friends.

“Then what the fuck is my father doing about this?” he demanded, barely recognising that he was looking down on them all, that he’d stood up at some point and hardly noticed, “Where the hell is he when his people actually need him? I’m just supposed to inherit a kingdom full of starving people who think the man on all their coins has abandoned them? Is this what being a fucking king is?”

Finally the glass shattered in his grip, filling the stunned silence with an icy crunch and a quick hiss of pain he assumed only he could hear as the shards bit into his hand. The anger burned away quickly, leaving a cold, empty vacuum in its wake that shame and hopelessness rushed to fill. Trembling, he pressed his one good hand over his eyes.

“I’m sorry…” he croaked, “I’m not mad at you all, I just…I shouldn’t have lost my temper…”

He knew his sister had stood and taken his hand by the sweet, almost sugary, vanilla smell of her magic, warm as it ran into his cuts and closed them.

“This isn’t the only thing he’s been keeping from us, is it?” she asked sadly.

Molly opened his eyes, wishing there was anything he could say to take the hurt from her voice. She played the innocent, for her and their family’s benefit, but those wide, purple eyes saw more than anyone would expect. He just wished there were better things to look at.

She’d always wanted to believe the best of their father, the way she wanted to believe in everyone, even after his relationship with their mother had started to fray and he’d caused such damage to Mollymauk. But it wasn’t just him who’d started to see the way the crown had poisoned the man they both used to look up to.

“Well…” she sighed, when her brother’s silence answered her, “This doesn’t have to be the way things are. This isn’t the kind of king you have to be.”

Molly inhaled and exhaled slowly, the ghost of the cuts prickling as he flexed his hand to better hold Jester’s, “He isn’t going to like it.”

The shame at the fear in his own voice roiled inside him. How much had been sliding past because he’d been too scared to see it, how many people had been hurt because he couldn’t stand up to the king?

All of a sudden, the distance between him and his friends shrank, he felt them close about him. He felt hands on his shoulders, on his back, on his arms, eyes on him that didn’t judge or scorn. If this room was the only place where he didn’t have to think about everything that worried him, all the imperfections in his life, then this was where he could be brave.

This was where he could decide what his duty really was.

Mollymauk drew himself up and nodded, “And he can go ahead and not like it. He wants me close, he wants me as his heir then he can deal with the decisions I make. What the hell is he going to do, throw me in the dungeons?”

“You’d break out in five minutes tops,” Beau smiled wryly.

“And we’d come get you in ten,” Fjord nodded firmly.

Molly’s laugh was thin but it was there and he felt better for hearing it, “Well then...I’m going to need some gold. Not from the treasury, my own. We’ll need to bring in food from along the coast, I’ll send a request right now. But until then, we’ll take from the kitchens. We have more than enough, there’s damn well going to be some to spare for our own people. Beau, Yasha, go and commandeer us some wagons.”

“Right now, my prince?” Yasha’s flickering smile showed she knew the answer.

“Of course right now,” Molly nodded, “We’ve let far too much time go by already. Anyone has a problem, tell them they can take it up with their crown prince.”

“And their princess,” Jester interjected, beaming.

Molly grinned back at her proudly, “Are you all with me?”

The resounding, affirmative reply was all Molly needed to carry this the rest of the way with a smile on his face.

He handed out jobs and dispersed them, feeling an unfamiliar but welcome sense of pride in what they were doing, in each of his friends and, if he was honest, in himself. It was then he noticed Caleb, still where he’d been sat for the entire evening, not having moved a muscle though his eyes said everything his friends had if in a different way.

“I’ve been a bit of a fool, haven’t I, Caleb?” he sighed once they were alone, feeling the edges of that pit still inside him, still with some room for guilt and shame.

Caleb rose, crossed the space between them and grasped his hand, steadying him enough that the bad feelings retreated.

“I think you’ve been scared for a long time, Mollymauk,” he spoke softly, eyes gentle and reflecting the movement of the fire, the same one that turned his hair into burnished copper, “But now you’re becoming the king I always knew you were going to be.”

“Always?” Molly found himself having to swallow hard, feeling every inch of Caleb’s skin that pressed against his own.

“Of course. From the moment I met you, I knew you would be a king I’ll be proud to stand beside.”

This high up on the battlements, the wind found its way under Molly’s hood even as tightly as it was pulled down to cover his distinctive purple hair. He felt a churning dizziness in his stomach as he peered over the edge and saw the ground so far below him.

“Ready?”

Beside him, Caleb blended almost perfectly into the evening shadows thanks to his uniform and his bound up hair. Molly might not even have known he was there, if his hand wasn’t on his arm to steady his prince.

Molly flashed him a grimace from under his hood, “Feels a hell of a lot longer than a year since I did this.”

Caleb’s chuckle found him even with the wind whipping around them, “But are you ready?”

He swallowed hard and nodded, feeling the truth of it on his tongue, “I’m ready.”

He went first, partly to prove to his friend that he wasn’t quite as terrified as he appeared, partly to get it over with. One step out into the dizzying expanse of the thin air, the forty or so feet between him and a messy death. The second’s worth of terror as everything dropped and the world began to accelerate around him. And the inhalation, the relief so sharp it was like a mouthful of alcohol as his hand caught the edge of the stone crenellation he’d just leapt from and he held fast.

Molly couldn’t help it, he laughed wildly, stretching out as far as he dared into the nothingness with only the hand keeping him anchored and the flat of his boots on the pebbled wall. The wind snagged his cloak and tried to rip it away but he let it try. He felt like he could have taken flight at that moment.

“Quiet!” Caleb whispered, as he dropped down too with much more grace, “Someone will hear us.”

Though as the wind lifted back his cowl, Molly could see he was smiling.

The rest of the way down the wall was easy, there were pebbles and divots put into the old stone for easy handholds. In fact, it had been specifically designed so, in just this one part of the immense outer wall, with the goal of giving the royal family a secret, easy way out if they became besieged. Molly suspected that he wasn’t the only one to use it for this exact purpose, sneaking out of the palace past his curfew to go drinking with his friends.

Once they hit the ground, they disappeared into the small grove of trees that grew around the castle as an extra line of defence and a pleasant garden for autumn walks and summer picnics. As soon as they were underneath the leaves, black in the thickening twilight, they were invisible to any guards atop the wall who might think to glance down. Molly’s heart stayed in his throat as he ran after Caleb, having to steer by the faintest flickers of his cloak hem in the almost solid blackness before him. Twigs snapped under his heels, the air was cold enough to make his throat ache and his lungs burn but the grin never slipped from his face.

He couldn’t help it, he threw back his head and laughed wildly again, the sound bouncing off the trunks and sounding like the call of half a hundred demented birds.

It just felt so good to breathe again.

The meeting point hadn’t changed from when they were foolish kids doing exactly this. It was the same clearing on the outer edge of the copse, on the far side so they were still hidden from the city. Molly and Caleb weren’t the first ones there, Caduceus and Fjord were already waiting for them, greeting them with the correct response to their own whistled tune, the same they’d always used so they would know it was friends approaching. The girls came after, Beau and Jester already giggling and hanging off each other, Yasha smiling as she carried Veth on her shoulders.

Molly saw something similar to his own excited energy mirrored in his friends. Everyone seemed to feel acutely just how long it had been since they allowed themselves something like this, something that felt like a victory.

When they were children, it would have sufficed just to stay in their little clearing, chase each other around and build forts and knock each other into the little stream. But they certainly weren’t kids any more and they knew of a different way to spend this evening.

There was something undeniably beautiful about the kingdom’s capital, Asarius. Not many visitors would think the same upon seeing the black stone nearly everything was wrought in, its winding street that curved around the hill the city sat on and then branched off in endless alleyways and bolt holes like arteries in a body, the shiny, volcanic cobblestones that lined the streets, the stink and din of hundreds of bodies pressed close together by the city walls. But Mollymauk had always found home here. He loved the paper lanterns that swung above their heads to light the streets, the ones he risked pulling his hood back just a little so he could properly see. He loved the babble of so many voices around him, the brushes of other people’s lives as they streamed alongside his own, never realising that it was their crown prince and his retinue passing them by. He loved the many different carts each selling something exciting and delicious or, well, at least exciting. He loved the different languages, the different kinds of people, all finding their own place in Asarius.

And one day, that place would be under his protection. Every face he passed as they walked down the main street towards the glow of red lanterns would be one of his subjects one day. One of his people.

After the last few weeks, the thought didn’t give him the same terror as it once did.

It had broken his heart to see the poverty festering like a disease in Asarius, the first night they’d taken wagons of food down to the poorest parts of the capital. Every city had its less well maintained streets, it’s darker, more shadowy parts, he knew this, but what he’d seen that night was outright neglect. Children with no families to go home to, curled in gutters like stray dogs. Women clutching babies to their chests in a futile attempt to give them some warmth their humble shelters couldn’t provide. An old bone being seen as a feast, hacking coughs audible from every corner, hungry, defeated eyes from the shadows.

It was neglect. It was cruelty. And it had blossomed under his ignorance.

He’d stepped right off the wagon on that first night, so quickly even Caleb hadn’t been able to catch his arm. He’d taken a loaf of bread from the carts of food stacked in the bed and gently approached the closest citizen, a tabaxi woman with a cub on her knee, sitting on the porch of a lopsided shack with only the city wall to keep it from tumbling over entirely. He’d gone to one knee in front of her, saw her expression turn to one of pure shock and fear as she’d realised exactly who it was.

And as he’d pressed the loaf into her hand, he’d apologised to her. And he’d sworn his family would never forget it’s people again.

It would not be a quick or easy fix. Molly couldn’t go with the wagons every time, as he’d wanted to at first, but he knew to push it only so far. Instead he kept the memories close to his chest, the people’s hands he’d shaken, the children whose hair he’d ruffled fondly and asked their name, the stories every elder had told him. He kept their pleas and their needs and their struggles, took them gladly on his own shoulders and made thousands of promises he intended to keep. Instead, he watched the wagons leave every week, laden with food and oil and fabric he’d purchased, and felt a little more like a prince.

Of course, his stomach had been a solid block of ice when the subject of the charity had been brought up in the council meeting, ever so gingerly, nervous eyes darting to the king to see how he would react to news of every mouth in the slums singing his son’s praises. They’d all known, naturally, that the alms weren’t officially sanctioned, that Mollymauk had acted without his father’s permission.

He’d been every bit as fearful to see what his father would say, he’d felt every second of that long, terrible pause tick by. But he had made himself sit back casually, one leg thrown over the arm of his chair, he’d made his eyes meet the king’s in a steady, even gaze. Only Caleb’s strong, sure presence at his side and the memories of the joy he’d brought had kept it all from crumbling.

“Well done,” the king had eventually replied, one hand coming up to stroke his goatee, “It would seem you’ve finally found a...pet project...that interests you, son. For the time being at least. Chancellor, make sure that in future the charity is paid for by the crown treasury. Just in case my son gets bored and his attention wanders. Wouldn’t be the first time, would it, Mollymauk?”

Molly’s shoulders tightened and he felt the same tension in Caleb beside him. He was an expert in speaking his father’s language and he missed not a single word of what lurked beneath his light, joking tone.

“Fine by me, father. You’ve got me there,” he shrugged in response, flicking his tail idly, “After all, it needs to be done. And...well, it really is a job for the king, isn’t it?”

I can speak it just as well as you, father, are you proud? And I won’t forget what you did. I’m sure you’ll return the favour.

Molly knew some kind of retribution would be coming. But he wouldn’t think about that tonight. Not when the red glow of the lanterns up above was cutting through the gathering night and there was music on the air and the smell of alcohol, a wide variety of perfumes and sparking fires.

They swept into one of the taverns they’d always gone to in their younger days, one where they knew they could count on some discrecion when they pulled their hoods back. As soon as he was under the lintel, Molly felt himself wrapped in warmth and loud, laughing voices and embraced the giddy relief inside him.

Gods, it was so, so good to breathe again.

He let the night run away from him, gladly. It was as if he’d never been away, finding warm, eager welcomes at the dice tables, at the bar, on the dancefloor. In every corner, people clasped his hand and thanked him for his generosity in helping Asarius find it’s pride again and said how good it was to see him back amongst them. Molly gambled freely, he bought drinks, he laughed and swapped stories with the other patrons, he flirted gamely with the servers. In flashes he saw Yasha dominating at arm wrestling competitions and winning almost as many as Jester, he saw Fjord reenacting a fight with some pirates for a captive audience, Cad was choking on some drink Veth had bought for him over at the bar, Beau was making a barmaid blush.

He took a moment to himself, leaning against a beam and taking it all in, enjoying the ache in his jaw from smiling so much. He knew it should feel like ten years ago but, somehow, it didn’t. It felt like here and now.

The only difference was he was happy. At this moment he was happy.

Caleb was sitting at a table by himself which, in fairness, was exactly where he would have been ten years ago. There was, however, a small mug of beer on the table in front of him that had a few sips taken out of it at least.

“You know, for all people hype this up,” he said as Molly approached, turning the tin mug in his hands, “I’d have expected it to taste better.”

Molly laughed, “Not seen you drinking before…”

“No,” Caleb admitted, a smile tugging on his lips, “It seemed like the night for trying something new.”

“Indeed. But how about something old?” Molly returned, suddenly shy and not hiding it on his face.

Caleb’s eyes flickered to his own, questioning. When he saw the hand Molly was extending to him, his expression shifted into something unreadable and he almost lost his nerve.

“Would you like to dance with me, Caleb?”

After a few moments, his old friend smiled and nodded, taking his hand, “Someone might need to protect you out there after all.”

“And there’s no one I’d want more,” Molly beamed.

The musicians were especially fine tonight, the kind of lively tavern music with laughing strings and skirling drums and bawdy lyrics everyone could join in with and slam their drinks on the table to. It was very different from the stiff backed balls that had been his only entertainment recently.

Caleb smiled nervously, “They only taught me how to waltz at the Soltryce Academy.”

“Oh, I seem to remember you not being all that bad,” Molly smiled, holding up his arm for Caleb to mirror as a bright country dance tune burst out from the corner where the musicians were pressed, “But even so, maybe you’ll get lucky and someone will try and assassinate me.”

So at least Caleb had a smile on his face as they began to dance, twirling through a loose knot of other couples like two leaves caught on an errant breeze. It was the kind of stomping, rhythmic, simple two step that left plenty of time for their gazes to linger and hands to brush across each other.

“Not all that different from swordplay, eh?” Molly teased, his voice low under the music.

“I’d rather have steel in my hand, I think,” Caleb smiled, though there was something brittle about it, like he was making his mouth do the movements while his eyes were elsewhere.

When they swapped places, Molly looked around with a moment’s anxiousness. Was he about to be assassinated on a dancefloor? But the place looked much the same as it had before, his friends still mixing and laughing and drinking, part of the warm tapestry of everything.

“I wanted to say thank you,” Molly put in gently, to try and distract him from whatever was causing his anxiety, letting something inside him open up,  “Tonight has been...well, it’s been wonderful. It’s been the best night I’ve had in so long and...between this and you opening my eyes to what was going on in my own city, I feel like I’ve remembered who I am. And not just that, I’m becoming someone I actually want to be, ever since you’ve come home. You were right, whatever it looks like, my life is better with you.”

He’d said more than he’d meant to but the night was just so perfect and it had just been so long since he’d felt so free and so like himself, so far from everything he’d been feeling under his father’s thumb. It was like a deep hunger was finally being sated.

And when the dance brought Caleb and Molly back together and he saw the tears in his eyes, it all came crashing down.

“Fuck…” Molly cursed, stopping dead even as the music kept going and the world kept turning, “Oh fuck, Caleb I’m so sorry...that was too much, I shouldn’t just have rambled on like that.”

“No,” Caleb shook his head, a slight tremble in his hands, “Gods help me, it’s not that, it’s the opposite…”

“Caleb…” Molly breathed, the giddiness from before now a sickening emptiness. Suddenly the lights seemed too bright and the music too loud, the laughter around the room now aimed at him.

The rest of the world caught up with them in a sharp, sudden lurch. Cold wind poured through the door which had been thrown wide. Framed in now harsh red light was one of the royal messengers, their eyes wide and the set of their mouth grim.

“Word from the palace,” their voice sounded through the room like a death knell, “A curfew is in effect from this moment forth, all citizens of Asarius must return to their homes and clear the streets. The Jagenoths have invaded our northern shore.”

The pronouncement was greeted with silence and stares, the kind of silence that followed the sound of ice cracking underfoot. Molly was so aware of the eyes on him, the weight of their shock as they looked to their prince.

From across the bar, he saw his little sister mouth his name, the naked fear on her face.

He found he had no comfort to give them. He’d had the floor ripped out from under him, just the same as the rest of them. All he could think of was the way his father had smiled at him across the council table, the hardness in his eyes.

He wasn’t surprised when the words finally came from the messenger.

“The kingdom is officially at war.”

#widomauk #royal au #tw: brainwashing #mollymauk tealeaf #caleb widogast #cr fic #please reblog and comment!

[tsukikoayanosuke]

I Should be Studying, But...

I'm still in my finals week so that's why I haven't post anything, but also the next two chapters are Training Camp snippets, so yeah. I had a Break & Gosh flashback...

So, yeah. I guess I can tell a bit of story.

So, back when I was still in high school or early college, there's this online novel writing competition, and I was excited. I had this overcomplicated fantasy novel draft, so I submitted it, updating everyday.

However, that's the problem: because I suck at promoting, I had to update everyday to at least gain attention. The novel was a mess, with writer block and not knowing now to connect the plot points. It was abandoned. But back then, I thought it was because the fantasy genre wasn't that popular.

The second try was a detective story. This time I had a guideline. It was way easier to write, however I wasn't that excited. The mystery genre was something I hadn't try before so putting the clues and the murders required to much brain power. So it was abandoned.

They say third time the charm. Well, in this case, it wasn't. The next time, I wanted to try to write a magic high school story, however this was sort of an experiment. Instead if putting it in Fantasy, I put it in Romance. Will it gain more attention? It didn't because I was being a halfass.

I can't delete the novel, so this will forever haunt me.

Looking back at this, then to the update-everyday-fanfic-attempts and the success of TW:OPT, I guess I've learned some things:

Plan your story. My biggest mistake from all five previous attempts (3 novel + 2 fanfic) was the lack of planning. I was too spontaneous for a half written story that when I've posted what I've written I don't know what to write next. I had these cool plot points and characters, but didn't know who to connect them, which made me frustrated and didn't want to continue. Meanwhile, I had written episode lists and short summaries for every chapter in TW:OPT, granted this is a based-on fic, but the processes are the same. Planning really help you to stay on course and motivate yourself.

If you need a world building, finish that first. Continuing the planning process, world building, especially in fantasy is important. Out of five story, four of them are fantasy, yet none of them had concrete world building. My two fanfic are also based-on existed media (Kingdom Hearts and Tales of the Abyss), but they had never reached the same level as TW:OPT. Setting the rule of your universe, the power scale, the magic system, all of those are important. If you don't set the rule first, then the world will be jumbled.

Keep your spirit burning. This is the trickiest part. I'm someone who is often overexcited but quickly burnt out in the end. This will be a problem for the 3 novel which will reward you with points to rank up if you update everyday. With the lack of planning and incomplete world building, I was quick to give up. How you keep your spirit burning is up to you, for me and TW:OPT, it's because the warm reception and review that keep me want to write more for you guys. But also...

Stay focus. This is another thing. The reason why TW:OPT still going is because I know my end goal and focus on that. But this is also because TW:OPT is my only project. I don't write two fanfics at once, because of that, I can focus on this project. Once TW:OPT Season 1 is done, I'll probably go back to the novels, but this time writing them one at a time.

Research (and understanding source material). Same as world building, research is important. TW:OPT may not have the best character interpretations of the canon cast, but I've read some of the card and can imagine how this character will act in a situations. Not only that, the Harry Potter spells and potions, the battle scenes, references, even the meaning of my OCs' name are the result of the research.

Chapter target. In order to get point in the novel competition, the writer must write at least +1k words per chapter. With this target, you can plan further which scene you want to include, adding more description, knowing where to put cliffhanger. This point is the one that I still do after the failed 3 novels. For fanfiction, I lowered my target to 500 words and I'm pretty sure some chapters in TW:OPT barely pass 1k. Create your own target to motivate you.

Experience can be your guide. I've started writing since I was in middle school. Heck, I finished my three novella (that I never published). I still have the files. However, looking back when I am older, I can notice the plot hole, the simple description, the inconsistent personalities. If I have to compare my old fanfic with my recent one, I like the latter better. As you grow, your writing skill also grow. You became more creative in choosing words and have less grammar mistake. Your plot becomes more complicated and your characters are more colorful. From reading even more great fanfic and listening to booktubers and writing advice, I became for passionate in writing because I want to be better.

As you can see, I rambled a lot because I just love writing stories. Even if I'm bounded by the rule of canon and world building, I can still let out my imagination and wacky creativity. My dream once was to become a novelist, that's why I still want to learn and write more, listening to your feedback brings me joy and will to keep on going. Your suggestion makes my brain turn to make this story better. I could've done this without everyone; reader, writer, booktuber, and many other who push me forward.

I hope you don't mind this long ramble.

Keep on writing guys.

#the captain's rambling #writrblr #all around me are fanfictions #twisted wonderland: our precious treasure #twisted wonderland fanfiction #twisted wonderland fanfic #twisted wonderland fic #twst fanfic #twst fic

[things2mustdo]

The events of recent weeks have proven that it’s not a safe world for masculine men out there. Now more than ever men should be looking into increasing their personal security. As an IT guy I have been thinking for a solution to the problems men face. Below are measures I can recommend one take to increase his security.

Disclaimer: this guide caters to Windows users, but others can still find value.

1. Install a VPN

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. To understand what a VPN does, first you must understand what an IP is. IP is something like a computer passport number. Each electronic device has it’s own IP address. Websites register your IP when you use them—this makes it easy to find your location, your device, and therefore your identity. A VPN makes it so when you connect to a website you first go through the VPN server. So when you connect to a website instead of seeing your computer IP it shows the IP the VPN provides you. Roosh recently wrote on VPNs.

Example (manually changing IP):

The problem here relies on the credibility of the VPN provider. Many VPN providers register your activity and can then hand it to a government organization if they so demand. Even VPNs that promised not to do this, broke their promise. There is an agreement between the Anglo-speaking countries that affects VPN users. The government can ask the provider for your data, and there is nothing your provider can do to not give it to them.

These countries are referred to as 5 eyes. Currently, similar agreements are being done with other countries, referred to as the 14 eyes: United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Sweden

Definitely get a paid VPN. Free VPNs are not an answer, they most likely register some info on you and are slow. After some research on VPN providers I have found some VPN proviers that are outside the 14 eyes, use encryption, accept Bitcoin, support OpenVPN and have a no logging policy and an overall good reputation.

Here are my findings: blackVPN (Hong Kong, 25 servers, 100 dollars a year), Cryptostorm (Iceland, 13 servers, 52 dollars a year), HIDEme (Malaysia, 85 servers, 65 dollars a year), NordVPN (Panama, 52 servers, 48 dollars a year), Perfect Privacy (Panama, 40 servers, 150 dollars a year), Privatoria (Czech Republic, 12 servers, 23 dollars a year).

One VPN provider attracted my attention particularily, that being BolehVPN, since it is one of the only two providers that offers Tor to VPN alongside VPN to Tor (the other one being AirVPN, which is based in Italy, therefore part of 14 eyes), so if you want that particular set-up, check it out.

Make sure to check the VPN provider’s canary. It is a document that confirms that the VPN provider was not touched by the government. It should be updated every month, if it isn’t unsubscribe. Example.

How to increase VPN security

1) Pay with untraceable money

Sign up for an anonymous e-mail account using Tor and use a Bitcoin Mixer to send Bitcoins to a newly generated address in your local wallet. Alternatively, use the Bitcoin-OTC to purchase Bitcoins ‘over the counter’ from a person, rather than an exchange. Then, use a patched Bitcoin client, such as coderrr’s anonymity patch to avoid linking the newly generated address to any of your pre-existing Bitcoin addresses. —Andrew, Private Internet Access.

2) Make sure you don’t disconnect from VPN and prevent DNS leaks

Use the pro version of VPNCheck to automatically disconnect from internet when losing connection to VPN and to prevent DNS leaks. Or search for the manual way of doing it

3) Use multiple VPNs

Another measure to consider is using two or more VPNs. Basically activate one VPN first, then another one, done.

4) Resolve the PPTP IPv6 VPN flaw

Not likely to affect everyone. PPTP is the weakest VPN protocol and if you use one of the VPNs I mentioned before you will likely use a better protocol, but for those who do, there is a possible flaw that you can correct like this—for Windows Vista and above: Open cmd prompt and type: netsh interface teredo set state disabled.

5) Secure your router

Here’s a guide.

2. Install an antivirus

There are three tiers of antiviruses: antivirus sofwtare, internet suite and premium security suites. Read about them here. At minimum use Microsoft Security Essentials (free software from Microsoft), though paid antiviruses (such as Bitdefender, Kaspersky, etc.) are better.

3. Use Tor and TailsOS for safe web browsing

Many popular browsers are not highest ranked in regards to keeping your anonymity. For example, while Chrome is theoretically secure from spyware and adware, their stance on privacy can be summarized as follows:

He went on, speaking about the future of search. With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches. We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.

There are factors one must be careful of: cookies, encryption (https), tracking ads, javascript exploits, canvas fingerprinting and others. A writeup on these would take a long time so research them on your own if you wish. I will just mention browsers that avoids these issues.

USE SAFE SEARCH ENGINE

Instead of using the google search engine use disconnect.me installed into Tor (or install as extension into Firefox)

TOR BROWSER

Tor Browser is an internet browser designed for online anonymity. It is a modified version of Firefox with add-ons pre-installed. Tor works somewhat similar to the VPN concept. Before connecting to a website you go through “nodes”. Which are private stations, each with its own IP. So instead of showing your IP, it will show the IP of the last node you traveled through.

The downside of Tor is that it is slow, due to the fact that it works thanks to enthusiastic individuals. Tor is not for casual usage, but specifically for privacy needs, particularly posting online or searching the deep web.

Tor has some weaknesses you must be aware of:

First

Oftentimes when you are using a network, the network provider can’t see what you are browsing, but they can see that you are using Tor. You can use things like a bridge obfuscator, obfsproxy, or setting VPN to Tor. This is a complex issue, here is a guide on hiding tor usage from ISP (internet service provider).

Second

The trustworthiness of exit relays. When the government found out about the popularity of Tor they created their own exit nodes, that acted as honey traps. To fight this, use a TailsOS (or booted off a flash stick, DVD or SD card in a public wifi spot, like a coffee shop). That way even if the final node was a trap, it would only lead to your TailsOS profile, not your general one. Check so the public wifi spot you are using has no cameras around, so they will not be able to check camera footage of who used a laptop in that particular time frame. Don’t forget to log off when finished. Alternatively, use Tor to VPN.

Third

Often many programs, like torrents, will ignore Tor, even if you manually force them and just connect straight away, thus giving you away. The answer is to not use torrents with Tor. I REPEAT, NO FILE SHARING ON TOR.

There are of course other various vulnerabilities out there. And as a reminder, Silk Road, a large black market was cracked in the past.

COMBINING TOR WITH A VPN

Tor is good on its own but even better when combined with a VPN. There are 2 methods : Tor to VPN, VPN to Tor. Both have their weaknesses. First one allows ISPs to see you use Tor, the second does not protect from malicious end relays . VPN to Tor masks your Tor usage, Tor to VPN protects from malicious exit nodes.

I have thought of using VPN to Tor to VPN, which should theoretically accomplish both. For VPN to Tor use a secure VPN provider and add non-Tor traffic to mask usage. For Tor to VPN, pay with anonymized bitcoins and never connect to your VPN without connecting to Tor first.

VPN to Tor:  The Harvard bomb hoaxer was de-anonymized because he was the only one in college using Tor. If he went through a VPN first, he would have been harder to track (assuming his VPN provider did not keep logs).

Tor to VPN: Protects from malicious exit nodes, on the other hand. TailsOS with public wifi accomplishes the same. Of course, either is better than nothing. Which you choose depends on your needs. The only two providers that offer Tor to VPN are AirVPN (based in Italy, so part of 14 eyes, but not the 5 eyes) and BolihVPN.

IF YOU DON’T WANT TO USE TOR

While using Tor is advisable, for casual usage you can set Firefox to be very secure with the help of add-ons and custom settings. Here is a guide.

WEBSITES THAT BAN VPN AND TOR

Certain websites ban Tor (e.g. Imgur). Use an alternative then (e.g. Anonmgur). Otherwise use VPN to Tor. There are VPN providers that cycle IPs, so that helps with VPN IP range bans.

TAILSOS

Windows is not very safe. There have been rumors of NSA backdoors on Windows devices. Supposedly NSA can store almost everything you do online (including Facebook, popular mail providers, and possibly things offline).

There are some good alternatives out there, TailsOs being one of them. TailOS is an operating system specifically designed for security and is Linux based. It can be ran off a USB stick. For those extra paranoid, use Tor in a public space on a laptop with TailsOS loaded of a flash drive.

Of course TailsOS is not very suitable for day to day needs, so use it for shitlord purposes. For your day to day purposes you might have to use Windows, but for the love of god, DO NOT use Windows 10, it is absolutely awful for security.

I prefer Windows 7. If you are more advanced, you can use alternative platforms like Debian or some distro of Linux or whatever. Just beware, many programs for Windows do not have alternatives on Linux based systems. If you are a casual, moving to another platform can be difficult. And if you really are a nerd, then you can look into some exotic setup like Qubes + Whonix or whatever other myriad of OS and Virtual Machines there are around.

4. Other darknet browsers 

I2P network: While Tor is designed to anonymously browse the normal web and onion sites, I2P is a web of it’s own. Preferably to be browsed through Tor. It allows (slow) torrenting and great for messaging, IRC, file sharing, secret websites (.i2p)

Freenet – Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication.

5. Look into bitcoin and online currency

Bitcoin is virtual currency that has taken the world by storm in recent years. There are other online currencies competing against it, but Bitcoin is the most established online currency. It is the default virtual currency. Bitcoin is not for daily usage, rather online purposes. There are VPN services that accept payment with bitcoin. There are even services that will store physical gold in exchange for bitcoin.

Truly a financial revolution. Unfortunately, it’s also a big headache for tax services. Bitcoin is also infamous for being used to purchase illegal stuff on the internet black market. But you wouldn’t use it for that, would you?

To start using bitcoins just register a bitcoin wallet and you are good to go.

HOW TO INCREASE BITCOIN ANONYMITY

Bitcoins are not anonymous by default. They must be washed and anonymized. Buying through Tor + Coin mixing + anonymity patched bitcoin client. Over the counter (OTC) bitcoins are an option as well.

6. Use proper password protection

Never use the same password twice. Try to make it long and contain both characters and numerals, etc. Hint : use L33t, P@ssVV0r|)333. If you can, add non English characters even better, PåSsWøRд0, but you can’t always do it.

If you are unsure, use a safe password generator, such as Master Password To manage passwords use a password manager, such as KeePassX.

7. Use proper mail protection

Use throwaway email to register in most places. Never use your public e-mail to register anywhere controversial like Neomasculintiy affiliated websites.

SAFE MAIL PROVIDERS

For general mail needs, use a mail provider that is focused on security. I found two outside 14 eyes, in Switzerland: ProtonMail (free), NeoMailBox (50$/year, custom domain option ex : [email protected], [email protected])

Remember to still use personal safety measures, like additional encryption. Never trust 2nd parties with your protection completely.

BECOME AN EMAIL PROVIDER YOURSELF

Another interesting move is to become a provider yourself, in essence create your personal Gmail by turning your PC into a mail server. To do this, use Mail-in-a-box. They have good guide on their site https://mailinabox.email/.

USE A SAFE MAIL CLIENT

A mail client is a program that allows you to manage mail from the cloud by saving it locally, by connecting to the email host, such as Gmail. The default mail client in Windows is Microsoft Outlook (which sucks). I will focus on my preffered mail client setup.

1) Download Thunderbird

2) Install the Enigmail add-on, to allow encryption

3) Install the TorBirdy add-on, to make Thunderbird run through Tor

BEWARE THE LAW

Beware of a law that allows government officials to read any mail hosted online older than 6 months without a warrant. Use an external email client like Thunderbird or Enigmail, download your emails and store them locally. Never leave them on the server.

EMAIL ALTERNATIVES

Look into email alternatives such as : Bitmessage, I2P-Bote, Retroshare

8. Use encryption for messaging

Encryption is the process of making a message unreadable to third parties. Some programs do it for you, manually you can use a program like GPG4win or similar which uses PGP encryption.

The way it works is this :

1) You create your public key.

2) You digitally sign the information with your private key, so when the other side verifies it with their own public key, they can confirm that it is indeed YOUR public key. (WebOfTrust)

3) When someone wants to write to you he encrypts it using the public key you provided, or the other way around.

4) You then use your PRIVATE key to decrypt the message he sent you.

Here is a tutorial:

MOBILE ENCRYPTION

There are encryption possibilities for your phone as well. First, set encryption on your Android device. Second, use an app called Signal

9. Scrub EXIF data of photos you post online

When you take a photo with a particular device, often it registers what device you used to take the photo, when and where it was taken. To avoid this problem, before posting online use an EXIF scrubber. It is a piece of software that deletes all information that might incriminate you.

Some examples are BatchPurifier Lite and Exif Pilot. Also, careful with what photos you post of course, nothing that could indirectly lead to you.

10. Torrent and stream safely

Torrenting can be useful for file transferring. If you plan to torrent anything or share something with friends, look into safer peer to peer torrenting. P2P is good for small files. Generic torrent services are good for larger files.

One advice I have is avoid torrent programs known for their untrustworthiness, such as BitVomit (BitComet) and uTorrent (closed source + adBloat). qBit, Deluge, Tribler (this one’s interesting) are good options (open source and lightweight).

Beware of laws in certain countries that forbid downloading stuff online. Germany is particularly infamous for this. There are ways to combat this issues through VPNs. But DO NOT USE TOR, I REPEAT, DO NOT USE TOR FOR FILE SHARING. For even more secure anonymous file sharing look into I2P (beware avg speed: 30 kbs per sec)

As for streaming, Popcorn Time and other analogous services (such as PornTime) are used to stream new movies (and porn) respectively. They are based on BitTorrent technology. They are relatively safe services, as long as you use a VPN.

11. Encrypt the files on your PC

Use VeraCript, a piece of software designed to encrypt disk partitions or whole USB drives. It is the successor of TrueCrypt (which stopped development after feds asked them to include vulnerabilities).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fGUJ6AgOjQ

HIDE FILES IN IMAGES

Also, another interesting technique is to hide text, videos and other stuff in pictures, it’s called Steganography.

12. Look into this promising new technology for your online needs

The 3 pieces of software I am about to recommend are TOX , RetroShare and diaspora.

TOX is a Skype clone with focus on privacy.

Retroshare is a private network service. You can use it for private mailing and other purposes.

diaspora is a social network designed for privacy and decentralization https://diasporafoundation.org/

Another interesting possibility for ROK people is to use a .onion or .i2p domain or freenet for a sort of “secret” webpage, unavailable to casuals out there.

To summarize

I think this advice will benefit the ROK community for protecting their anonymity and using secret backup channels for future purposes. Here is a quick cheat sheet:

Casuals: VPN paid with shuffled bitcoin + VPNcheck Pro, Signal on Android, Firefox with add-ons for casual use, Tor for shitlordery, Encrypted mail and hard disk, password manager, ProtonMail for daily use, throwaway mail—everything else, Thunderbird with add-ons, EXIF scrubber. Download email on PC then delete off server.

Advanced: Same as above + Tor combined with VPN, I2P and Freenet, (TBitmessage I2P-Bote Retroshare) instead of mail, becoming mail provider, diaspora*

Super advanced: Same as above + Multiple VPNs, Using Tor off of TailsOS in a public space where cameras cannot film you. Alternative OS and Virtual machines. Secure you router.

Here’s a good collection of security resources.

Always remember, there is no way to remain completely anonymous, just ways to make it harder to be detected.

Read More: 5 Ways To Improve Your Online Game

[of-a-chaotic-mind]

Dream Come True Part 3/5

Summary: Sabotaged by Beatrice, the reader is knocked onto their butt once again. However, Nat is there to lift them up and help them out.

TW/CW: I think there was a swear word, there’s some arguing, but other than that I can’t think of anything.

Requested?: No

Word Count: 1,262

A/N: I know this is long overdue but here is part 3! I’ve finally got time to write lol. I think the weekends may be my only writing time this semester so I’m gonna try to start scheduling out posts on the weekends to cover the week. I hope you guys like this and don’t forget requests and asks are open!

[Let’s just admit now that Nat is obviously the Undercover Mom Friend.]

PART 2

Your POV

    I make my way to the gym to get a workout in before today’s meeting. Just as I am about to start the treadmill, F.R.I.D.A.Y. speaks up, “Mx. (Y/L/N), Mr. Stark would like me to remind you about the meeting you have today. He also wants to know why you are late.” 

    I check my watch before responding to the AI, “What does he mean late? I still have three hours.” 

    F.R.I.D.A.Y responds, “My records show that the meeting began thirty minutes ago. Did Miss Begley not tell you that it would start at 08:00 sharp?” 

    I groan, “No, she told me 11:00. Tell them I’m on my way up, please.” 

    I arrive on the conference room floor and all heads turn in my direction. It is silent as I enter, that is aside from Beatrice who giggles quietly in her spot in the corner. I shoot her an evil glare as I feel my face turn bright red due to having so much attention on me. This is the third time this month she has made me late to something important, I really should start double checking times with someone else. I turn to apologize to Tony but he puts a hand up and motions for me to sit. I plop into my seat beside Bucky as he gives me a sympathetic look. 

    “Aside from being late to three meetings and failing to turn in your paperwork. The team and I think that you’ve done well this month. We are willing to let you continue working and training with us as long as you get yourself together, (Y/n),” Tony says seriously. 

    My jaw drops, as I realize how badly Beatrice screwed me over, but before I can defend myself Nat speaks up, “I’d like to take the responsibility of being her supervisor.” 

    I look at her in confusion as Tony answers, “Good.” 

    I sink lower in my seat as he addresses other matters that have nothing to do with me. When the torture session, sorry I mean meeting, is finally over I rush out towards my room. I almost make it to the stairwell but I’m stopped by Beatrice, “Glad to see my plan is working smoothly. Good luck getting anyone to help you after neglecting your duties all month.” 

    I narrow my eyes at her and strengthen my stance, “You little brat. You were supposed to bring me any paperwork that I needed! I swear I should-” 

    Before I can finish my threat, she interrupts, “You don’t scare me, (Y/L/N). This is my kingdom and you’re just a poor old wretch.” 

    Suddenly, Nat steps up behind Beatrice. I snicker victoriously as Nat taps Beatrice’s shoulder. Beatrice turns and throws on a fake, sweet smile and fills her voice with cheer, “Oh, hey Nat. I was just offering to help (Y/n) with their paperwork. Too bad they turned me down.” 

    Nat glares at Beatrice, unimpressed by her act, “Save it, Beatrice. I heard what you said to (Y/n). I have half a mind to fire you here and now but we’re swamped in filing so go get to work.” 

    Beatrice throws a nasty glare my way as she leaves to file papers. Nat places a hand on my shoulder, “I knew it wasn’t your fault. You care too much about this job to just throw it away. I’m sorry I didn’t step in sooner.” 

    “Thanks, Nat. I don’t know what her deal is but she’s had it out for me ever since I got here. She gave me the wrong times for the meetings and didn’t tell me that I had paperwork to do,” I mumble. 

    “First, don’t mumble. Make eye contact. Second, show initiative. I’m going to help you get caught up on paperwork. Then, I’m going to show you how to beat Beatrice at her own game and show her up,” she commands, smiling mischievously. 

    For the rest of the day and late into the night, Nat and I find ourselves holed up in my office to catch up on the month worth of paperwork. When I finally drop it on Tony’s desk at two the next morning, I am barely holding myself up. Nat and I separate to get a few hours of sleep before the team drill for today. 

    I wake up to a knock on the door at 08:00. I drag myself out of bed before shuffling over to open the door. I am met with a hyper and cheerful Nat. She hands me a cup of coffee before brushing past me to go to my closet. I take a seat at the end of my bed, “Nat, what are you doing? I still have 3 more hours to sleep before I have to be up for the drill.” 

    As she digs through my clothes and surfaces holding a pair of sweats and a muscle tank, she tosses them at me before returning to look for my tennis shoes, “We’re going for breakfast and a run. Put those on and drink up.” 

    I take a sip of the coffee she gave me and instantly can tell it has way too much espresso in it, “How much espresso did you put in this?” 

    From the closet, I hear her muffled answer, “Four shots. Chug that and you’ll have no problem making it through the day.” She tosses me my running shoes, “Get dressed and meet me in the kitchen in five.” 

    I shrug and take a drink of my coffee before pulling off my pajamas and putting on the workout clothes. Sure enough, the espresso is already kicking in by the time I make it to the kitchen. I join Nat as she hands me a bottle of water, “Finish your coffee and then we’ll go.” 

    I chug the last of my coffee as we head to the elevator. As Nat presses the button for the ground floor, I venture to ask, “What is all this about?” 

    Nat chuckles, “First rule of proving someone wrong, make them believe that their efforts do not affect you. For example, sure you were awake catching up on paperwork until the ass crack of dawn this morning but Beatrice doesn’t need to know that it threw you off your game for today. I happen to know that she is down in the lobby now and will see us leave. Be sure to give her a bright and cheery good morning.” 

    As the elevator door opens, I find that Nat was correct. Beatrice is currently restocking things in the café. I wave as we pass and exclaim with plenty of cheer, “Hello, Beatrice! Good morning! A beautiful day isn’t it?” 

    As Nat and I continue on our way, the sound of something slamming down follows us as Nat speaks up, “Don’t break anything, Beatrice. You know it’ll come out of your paycheck.” 

    Once outside and around the corner, out of eyesight of Beatrice, Nat gives me a high five and an impressed look, “Nice job! I loved your additions!”   

    “Thanks! It felt good, cynical, but good,” I say laughing. 

    Nat and I make our way to the café down the street and upon arrival find Wanda and MJ at a table waiting for us. As I take a seat beside MJ, she nudges my arm, “Nat told us about what Beatrice did. How are you taking it?” 

    I shoot Nat a knowing look and laugh, “With a cheery hello and good morning.” Wanda and MJ look confused so Nat goes on to tell them the story of our exit from the compound. 

Part 4 || Masterlists

Taglist:  @superavengerpotterstar​ @grace-barnes-13​ @darlingtholland​ @asonofpeter​ @the-weird-kid-on-the-block​ @22-faith @jasminepaz @hotheadbarnes​ @smilexcaptainx​  (apologies to the ones it didn’t tag properly. For some reason it won’t tag you.)

#bucky barnes #natasha romanoff #winter soldier #black widow #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes series #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes imagines #winter soldier x reader #winter soldier imagine #winter soldier imagines #winter soldier series #avengers #avengers imagine #avengers imagines #avengers series #marvel #marvel imagines #marvel imagine #marvel series

[sophisticauthor]

Profile: Callahan, Alexa D.

Description: Brown hair, Brown eyes, 5 feet 7 inches

Birthdate: September 18

Age at conviction: 16

Current age: 19

Birthplace: Rochester, New  York, United States

Current Location: UNKNOWN

Family:

     Mother: Alisa Callahan age 47 - deceased

     Father: Geoffrey Callahan age 52 - deceased

Siblings:

     Jennifer Callahan age 12 - deceased

     Benjamin Callahan age 19 - deceased

This file contains eye witness accounts of events related to and/or allegedly caused by Alexa Callahan.

Eye witness account by Victor Drell

Age: 37

Occupation: High School Teacher

  September 18,

     I never saw the explosions, but I heard them. My wife Mary called the police as I went to go investigate. We live two houses down from the corner, I could see the apartment building on the opposite side - or where the building used to be – in a smoking heap. A couple of houses around it were knocked around too, but the residents there seemed to be fine.

     When I got closer, I noticed the other neighbors start to come out as well. I climbed into the rubble hoping that someone was still alive. I noticed crushed remains of corpses lying everywhere; I wanted to vomit. One man was missing an arm and groaning loudly, so I called to the others to help move him to a place where rubble wouldn’t fall on him.

     One of the neighbor kids called out from behind me that there was a girl who was still breathing. I told someone to take my place with the man, and rushed over to the girl. She was still breathing. She looked to be about fifteen and was wearing a white dress that was all tattered around the edges, her hair was a little singed, and I thought she probably suffered some trauma from what seemed like a fall from the second floor. But she looked mostly fine otherwise, which in hindsight was a little odd. Seemed like a miracle at the time. That’s when the police and paramedics arrived and took all the living away.

     I learned later that the man’s name was Carl Stephenson, and the girl was Alexa Callahan, who was turning sixteen that day. I heard on the news that Carl Stephenson had died in the hospital and was taken by family for burial. But not that Alexa girl, she had no family left, and she was alive. A real shame, to have a bomb like that go off on your sixteenth birthday.

Report by Vanessa Bradford

Age: 42

Occupation: Nurse

        I was assigned to a girl by the name of Alexa Callahan. She had suffered from several injuries caused by the explosion of her building. The full extent of the damage done to her was: A few broken ribs, a hairline fracture in her arm, a mutilated ankle, and trauma to the head. She seemed to have landed on her left side, and somehow managed to save her spine and vital organs. She was unconscious for 72 hours after the operations were finished. When she finally awoke, she was mostly unresponsive. She played with the recliner on the bed for a while and just stared at faces for a long time. She didn’t speak to anyone; not to doctors or nurses, not to the other patients. She didn’t respond to food or water, and didn’t even react whenever we adjusted the needles in her arm.

     Many of us tried to coax her to eat or speak and she did neither for almost two weeks. Her doctor was beginning to wonder if we should be running tests on the speech part of her brain when she finally spoke.

     She asked me when she could go home.

     I told her that we had to make sure we had treated all her injuries first. Then she asked me what happened. I told her that authorities were still figuring it out, but it seemed as if someone planted a bomb in the building, possibly a terrorist attack.

     This made her jump up in a panic, she just shouted “It wasn’t!” Her heart rate spiked, and she almost tried to get out of bed. I calmed her down a little and asked her what she remembered.

     What she said didn’t make any sense. “People, people talking happily; singing, my singing, singing for me; color, lots of color, piled on the walls and the room; fire, there was fire and ticking. Tick tick tick. Incessant humming, thousands of bees humming in the walls. You can‘t hear it? Tick tick tick. I made a wish, then BOOM. Fire, fire! A little boy calls for help. Help her, help her, is she okay?”  

     I cut her off because she was flailing about and going on about nothing. She kept talking. Nonsense, more about the ticking and the humming. I tried to get her to sit back and relax, not to strain herself with the memory, and I eventually managed to get her to sleep. I remember she whispered “not terrorist, no terror. Make a wish” as she drifted off to sleep.

     I only witnessed one other event that was significant.

     A couple weeks later when she was being encouraged to walk around, we found that she would disappear for hours on end. We were deciding what to do with her, the ramblings hadn’t stopped and we were getting worried. Furthermore, she had no living blood relative that anyone could find. Meetings were being held to come to a decision. I was lucky enough to be personally involved in the discussions.

     She burst in to one of the meetings. I don’t know how, we thought the doors were locked. Her hands were bloodied as if she had cut them on sharp glass or metal or something. She took a seat at the table with us and said something odd.

      “I realize that I am the main subject of these meetings. And I feel obligated to put my two cents in.” Then she dropped two gears on the table, like they were the two cents she was putting in. I don’t know where they came from, but they were covered in the blood from her hands. A couple of us stood to try to help her back to bed. But she waved us off and insisted that she needed to continue speaking. She said “I’m not yet so far gone that I don’t know what is happening.” And then something like “I have completely lost all relatives, I am underage, and I’m raving mad.” And she dropped another gear on the table for each thing she listed. Her grammar would get all jumbled up, because I remember she said “I would think it advisable that under any circumstances you do NOT create me another family. I could not handle an artificial mother.” Which was worth four gears for some reason. At this point, we were starting to realize that these were clock parts. And then she told us that she didn’t want to be sent back into society, that she was too crazy and too dangerous before dumping the rest of her bloodied clock parts onto the table. We wanted to stop her, but I think we were all too shocked.

     She started to rearrange them in some order and I remember she said “But time is running out, and you really need to come to a decision” Then she pulled out two clock hands and placed them in the center of her bizarre pile. Then she wrote “tick, tick, tick,” on the table in her own blood, stood up and said “Thank you for your time” like she had just asked for a little favor, not made a mess of the table.

     I have never seen a transfer report go through more quickly.

 On October 23 Alexa was transferred to The New York Psychiatric Institute, and then by an anonymous request, to Castle Facilities in Virginia. The transaction of this was only documented once. The only legitimate information recovered from this document was the location and the date she was moved (February 15).

She remained at Castle facilities for about two years, until authorities started to take an interest in her case and launched an investigation. However by the time they arrived at Castle facilities, Miss Callahan was unable to be found.

At the alleged location of Castle facilities only ruins were found. It was apparent that the site had not been visited for many months. The building was demolished in a way that was similar to the explosion at the Callahan residence.

This leads authorities to believe that the explosions were caused by the same person. Suspects include: Alexa Callahan (missing), Justin Carter (missing), or Jamie Lucas (deceased).

At the site of the wreckage, few pieces of information were recovered. However, there was one piece pertaining to this case that proved to be interesting. A badly documented journal by Dr. Harvey Lancaster (deceased) containing vital information about the Callahan case.

Much of this journal is either missing or illegible. Therefore, the following information contains errors and assumed information. The following information is paraphrased, not quoted, and only vital information was inputted. The full copy of Dr. Harvey Lancaster is not available for viewing.

Information is as follows:

1.   Alexa Callahan has a strange fascination with clocks. She is known to either disassemble the clocks, or to change the time inaccurately. The number that she chooses seems well thought out and precise and she changes every clock to the same time, though it is inaccurate. She attempts to change all clocks at once. Every attempt at this results in a different time. The purpose of this behavior is unknown.

2.   Alexa Callahan had no apparent intentions of harming the other patients or facility employees.

3.   Alexa Callahan has moments of near sanity where she would stop her mumblings of clocks and ticking and the end of the world where she will occasionally ask about her family or the facility. During these states of mind she would frequently ask about her friends Jamie Lucas and Justin Carter. Both Carter and Lucas came to visit Alexa in the Castle exactly twice, but not at the same time.

4.   Alexa refuses, under any circumstances to believe that she is wrong in her ramblings, though she will admit to the doctors that she is insane.

5.   Intense flashes of light, fire, loud noises, and shaking or sliding scare Alexa. She afterwards falls into a bout of crazed, relieved laughter, and more rambling about ticking.

6.   Alexa can accurately tell the time without consulting a time piece. It is unknown how she is able to do this, but it is not any of the conventional methods.

7.   Alexa made many references to the fall of the kingdom and gave an exact time, down to seconds, of the alleged time. - As a discovery not recorded in the journal of Dr. Harvey, it seems that this number led to the explosion of the mental ward.

8.   All ramblings about the past from before the explosion are real memories, not stories of her own invention.

9.   She is unable to walk in a straight line; her movement pattern sways back and forth.

10. She is able to recognize people and speak clearly with them. She seldom mistakes the identities of people around her.

11. She avoids all effort to make social interactions, however is not fearful when approached.

12. She enjoys acronyms, puzzles, word games, and brain teasers.

13. She fights most attempts at physical and eye contact.

 An investigation was launched to find any survivors of the explosion. 15 recorded patients were reported alive. Eight patients were discovered in a nearby town (about 13 miles away). Local authorities had discovered the patients and were housing them while awaiting orders of what to do. Six of the seven remaining patients were recovered in the woods surrounding Castle facilities.

Alexa Callahan, the only unrecovered patient, is theorized to have fled to the woods surrounding Castle facilities. No bodies or sightings that match her description have been reported, leading authorities to believe she is still at large.

Authorities have lost all trails but refuse to give up the search.

Alexa Callahan is suspected for murder and terrorism. If identified, it is recommended that authorities are alerted immediately so that she may be taken into custody.

 Do not try to approach, converse with, or make eye contact with Alexa Callahan. It is uncertain how she will react.

 Do not flash lights or light fires in her presence; she is known to react violently.

 Do not try to detain Alexa Callahan alone, she is known to be violent when angered.

 TAKE CAUTION.

 If Interaction is unavoidable, refrain from sudden movements, physical contact, and eye contact.

 If conversation is unavoidable, keep voice at a low register and avoid any loud noises.

 If she begins to make a countdown, inform authorities immediately. If this action is not an option, remove yourself from the vicinity. Countdowns from Alexa Callahan seldom lead to anything less than disaster.

 If these guidelines are not heeded . . . god save you.

#oneshot #creepypasta #my writing

[teamoliv-archive]

Story Scene

Team OLIV: The Red Arena Part 1: Atlas Academy Episode 3: Celebration

Previous Scene << CURRENT >> Next Scene

“Woah!” The sights of the upper ends of Atlas were a bit overwhelming to Violet. She’d seen the kingdom, of course, going to and from the academy from her home in Mantle, but seeing the districts that made up the wealthier parts were something else entirely. It came as a shock to both her and Lapis that their team leader, who up until this point had felt largely transactional in his social dealings, had put up the costs of their celebration.

Lapis was less sure about Cheshire’s surprise generosity. It could be he was trying to buy their goodwill for the coming time they were going to be forced to spend at the academy- but that wasn’t going to make Lapis respect his team leader any more than he already did, which was little. If anything this made it worse. Still, he couldn’t help but eye the occasional flashing lights and signs for movies and flashy products- things he’d never even come close to experiencing back home.

“Relax, you guys!” Ivory reassures, staying at the rear of the group. She was the only one who insisted on bringing her weapon with her and wore it folded up at her hip openly. The massive ax/rifle combo still went down past her knee even when compacted. “Onyx already said we’re taking care of today. Between you and me, I think he’s just trying to show off. Come on, what do we want to do first?”

Violet only looked more nervous about the prospect of the day being entirely on her team leader’s dime, regardless of how wealthy he was. She was only growing more anxious and began stopping more often and spinning her head one way or the other. “Th-This might be too much. I don’t think I’d be... comfortable, accepting that. Can we maybe go to a different area? I know Mantle pretty well. We can look around there.”

Onyx gave his team a sneer and rolled his eyes dismissively. “Mantle is a foregone shadow with little to offer. If you’re going to be part of my team I refuse to let our celebrations be second-rate. I already said I was paying, please, don’t worry yourself over that. It’s honestly a little insulting to turn down this level of generosity, wouldn’t you say?”

Violet stopped walking and glared back at Onyx for his comments. It was exactly that kind of snobbish, self-important attitude that kept the people who literally lived in Atlas’s shadow in squalor. It was something she knew all too well. She felt her stomach churn in hunger and clenched her teeth tightly. She had long since taught herself to ignore it. The academy doctor had insisted that was why she was so small, but she didn’t care right now.

Ivory turned to face Violet when her audible hunger broke the tension. “Are you alright?” She asks, starting to glance around for nearby restaurants.

“I’ll be okay,” Violet insisted. She wasn’t about to give in to Onyx’s taunting now that he had drawn his line about what was ‘acceptable’ to visit as a team. If she had to skip dinner to make her point, she was more than willing to. Then she saw the shadow of her team partner start to loom. She looked up in confusion. “Uh.... Lapis?” Lapis’s usual stony and distant demeanor was showing cracks of concern. It reminded her frustratingly of the look her older brother would give her when they were younger.

“No.” He says in a softer tone than usual. “If you two are drawing lines, then so am I. No one’s starving themselves to make a point. Cheshire, where’s the nearest place to eat?” Unlike the rest of the team, Lapis had taken to using the military formal last-name-basis to refer to his teammates. It was something Onyx had been teasing him with by only referring to Lapis by his last name as well since their trip up to Atlas started.

“I’m glad someone’s in agreement. Most places here would require a reservation. I took the liberty of securing one a while ago but they aren’t expecting us for another two hours. I had expected that we would-”

“Then cancel it and let’s go somewhere else.” Lapis interrupted. “There has to be one of those walk in, walk out food in five minutes places around here, right?”

“You mean fast food.” Ivory corrects, “How about this? We go get something quick for now, then figure out what to do later. We’ll save room for the actual meal later.”

“I’d really rather not be here. Somewhere else. Anywhere else.” Violet protests, “Besides, don’t we need supplies, too?”

“Oh very well.... We will eat first and get supplies.” Onyx relents, twisting his face in disappointment. He puts his hands behind his head, adjusts his hat, and leads them out of the rich part of the kingdom toward the nearest vendor of greasy cheap food available. He would need a palate cleanser after this.

After eating, Ivory walks up beside Onyx, who was still sulking about the less than decent meal they just had. “Oh come on, Onyx, it wasn’t that bad. It’s not any worse than what the academy serves at mess time.”

“It is the principle of the matter, Ivory.” Onyx says, “I offer my graces and hospitality and they throw it back in my face. It’s not my fault that Mantle is run down and has barely a decent business to its name. Besides, it’s little more than factories and apartments. There’s no culture or real life to be had.”

“I wouldn’t repeat that within earshot of our teammates...” Ivory warns. “Listen, I was looking forward to a good dinner, too, but we can save it for another time. Right now, let’s just see about those supplies. We still need things to maintain our weapons after all.”

“And that I refuse to budge on.” Onyx examines his own weapon. Jabberwocky was an intricate set of tiny reels, gears, and threading beneath the gold and black-colored plates of his gauntlets. It took no less than precise watchmaker’s tools to keep maintained and he knew Ivory’s bullets for her gun were custom made. “We’ll go to the usual place.” His eyes leveled to the multi-colored abomination of Lapis’s rifle, seemingly bashed together from multiple sources of parts. “Hamelin, we need to talk.”

“What?” Lapis replies coldly, “Are you too good for quick food? You won’t have that luxury out in the field. You’d better get used to-”

“Let me finish, damn you. What in the name of the gods is that weapon of yours?”

“What of it?”

“It looks like it’s one hard blow away from falling apart. Please tell me you didn’t make it out of scrap.”

Lapis’s expression darkened. “You wouldn’t understand. You don’t even know what you’re fighting for last I checked.”

“And that’s wonderful for you that you’ve figured it out for yourself- but if you insist on fighting with that, you’re only going to get yourself killed. Here, we are going to a weapon shop for supplies.” He pulls out a plastic card and hands it out. “Get that thing fixed.”

“I’m not going to respect you just because you’re throwing money at us, Cheshire. I’ll be glad when I’m off this team.”

Onyx tosses the card on the ground and turns away from Lapis. “Do what you will, then, but at this rate you will be off this team when we’re dragging your corpse back to wherever you came from. People are rarely buried with pride.”

Ivory heard a curse then a shout just in time to catch Lapis’s attempt at a swing toward Onyx. “That’s enough!” He was a lot stronger than he looked and she had a real hard time holding onto him. He wound up breaking free, but thankfully didn’t pursue his aggression any further. “We’re supposed to be celebrating our first mission, not fighting in the middle of the street!”

Violet picks up the discarded card and holds it in her hand while watching the simmering showdown. She had to think of something to make sure that didn’t keep happening. She needed to find some common ground for all of them.

“I got it!” She shouts suddenly, “ Follow me once we’re done getting our supplies!” She shows off the card Onyx had tossed to the ground. “Here.”

Onyx stared at the card before his smirk returned to his face. “Hold onto it for now, I want to see what idea of yours just came into your head.”

The weapon shopping went quick and mercifully without incident. With a few backs of parts and material, the team had followed Violet down the street. She stopped in front of a brightly-colored storefront.

“Here we are!” She says, opening the door to the candy store. “Everyone likes candy, right?” Come on, we can finish off the celebration the right way!” The team filed in and started to separate, browsing tentatively. She walks up to Onyx with a more serious look on her face.

“Hey... I know you’re trying to make a good impression, or at least make Lapis not hate you, but... take this back. Please.” She hands the card back over to him, “Just relax and let everyone do their own thing. Just because you’re our team leader doesn’t mean you have to act like a dad with an allowance, even if you have the money. If anyone really needs it, we’ll ask but, try to keep a lid on it, okay?”

“You’re from Mantle and Hamelin is vaguely from ‘outside the kingdoms’ as he puts it, why should I allow you to count your pennies when I can make that a non-issue? Wouldn’t that only make Ivory and I look selfish by comparison?”

“Just trust me.” Violet turns to see Lapis actually looking at the candy rather than scoffing and standing around. Ivory was of course looking through the expensive chocolates in a way that Violet could only be jealous of, but she had to force that back. She knew what she could spend even if it wasn’t much. “Just pick something for yourself, okay? I promise, this’ll work.”

Once all four had situated themselves and picked out a bag of candy, the team stood outside the building looking more content and, at least for now, at peace. No one was arguing or bickering or trying to take charge of where to go or what to do.

“This was a good idea!” Ivory compliments Violet, “Maybe we should make this a regular thing?”

“We will have to go on regular supply runs, so maybe we should! It can be good time for us to get to know each other, too! Maybe we’ll split up and go in pairs? Just a nice long walk just the two of us, spending the day together...”

“Who is she talking about...?” Lapis asks quietly and with a small note of worry.

“Uh, Violet?” Ivory asks, trying to get the smaller girl’s attention.

“And then I’ll tell him, I go this way with my teammates all the time. It’s a tradition. And then he’ll say ‘But this is more special.’ and then we hold each other watching the sunset...”

“Goodfellow!” Lapis barks like a sergeant calling for attention. “Head back on the ground. We’re leaving.” If that was going to be a regular thing with her, he’d have to keep both a close eye and a safe distance.

“Uh... Oh, yeah! Right! Sorry!” She shrinks down as much as she could, realizing she had been caught daydreaming instead of planning. “Let’s go home everyone.”

“Fine.” Lapis stuffs his hands in his pockets and marches ahead, still following behind Violet to make sure he was going the right way back to the academy.

“Hey... Lapis?”

“What?”

“Thanks for looking out for me. You know, about insisting we ate. My big brother used to do the same thing.”

Lapis pauses for a moment, letting his stiff posture loosen for a moment. “I have a little sister, too. I’m used to it.”

“I wouldn’t really call the barracks ‘home’...” Onyx says, trailing behind Lapis and Violet.

“I don’t know...” Ivory counters, walking up beside Onyx, “I kind of like the idea. Think about it, no family expectations, no social pressures to impress, no worrying about embarrassing our parents- we’re just like everyone else now.”

Onyx swallowed and felt a sting of pain hit his head. The old gnarled scar on the ear under his hat was something that never entirely went away. He would have to slip in and out of a pharmacy at some point to deal with it. “That...” He mutters, “is exactly what I don’t want to happen...”

#teamoliv #story scene #Onyx Cheshire #Lapis Hamelin #Ivory Reynard #Violet Goodfellow #Team OLIV: Atlas Academy

[rc-artsy]

Kingdom Hearts Tarot Deck

It is finally done! and here they all are together! To see them individually, head over to my blog, they’re under the hashtag tarot! 

Thoughts and feelings on my experience under the cut!

So it’s amazing to finally break my stoic character to actually show you guys some personality! For those who have stuck with me throughout this journey, thank you! And thank you to all the new followers who were brought over by these cards!

It is truly shocking to view these cards side by side and see the progress I’ve made in such a short amount of time. Prior to this experiment, I hadn’t made a finished digital piece since 10th Grade. I’m now in my second year of college. So it was pretty daunting to give myself a goal of 22 finished art pieces everyday leading up to Kingdom Hearts 3. which didn’t happen, but still, finishing 19 cards in such a short time frame is something I’m super proud of, especially on what is essentially a new medium. 

And progress was certainly made. Look at the simple shading and background of The Fool and compare it to the experimentation and use of brushes in Judgment. If I had to point out one major take away from this project, it would have to be lighting. This was really the first time I flexed by lighting muscle outside of my black and white india ink paintings. This was the first time I EVER tried under lighting! I cursed myself for leaping to color Aqua that way when it was past midnight, and it certainly can be better, but I tried, and I pushed myself.

This also pushed me to experiment with backgrounds. While they’re mostly simple and some days you can see I didn’t have it in me, I actually learned I really enjoy painting landscapes. Who would’ve thought? But painting the background of Judgment, The Lovers, and The Hermit were all joys and they all taught me interesting ways to use brushes in Autodesk Sketchbook. A rough charcoal brush makes surprisingly good sand texture.

And I know I sound pretty self congratulatory but I do have some regrets and critiques for myself. The biggest issue I had was size. I wanted these to have the ratio of tarot cards, so I googled to find they’re 2.75x4.25 inches, so I set my canvas size to 2.75x4.25 inches. Yeah great idea, stupid, draw on 425 pixels. That won’t give your lines a jagged look. So I’ve learned to multiply next time. 

Also, next time I’m going to find a way to color correct without destroying the image quality. Whoops! The problem is the colors I see on my computer are way warmer than what I see on mobile and since tilting the mobile screen doesn’t really change colors like tilting a computer screen, I consider mobile colors to be “true.” So I’d send the photo in my personal art files discord, save them on my phone, cool them down with the app, PicsArt, send them back through discord, save the new image on my computer, and for some reason it would always get stuck as a “Autodesk Sketchbook jPEG file” which, why do jPEG’s even exist? They’re nothing but ugly! So I’ll have to play around with that.

Would I recommend trying this sort of thing? Yes! But only if you give yourself a reasonable schedule! It’s one thing to attempt full illustrations during monthly challenges where you aren’t making a complete set that needs to be finished, and one thing to do this. I suffered some burn out during this process, so you need to pace yourself. You need to draw everyday, but not exhaust yourself with full illustrations everyday. 

If you got this far, kudos to you! Let me know if you did by commenting with the word “ingredients” and thanks again to everyone who supported the project and special thanks to my friends who helped give me ideas, helped me fix mistakes, and cheered me on!

#kingdom hearts #sora #riku #Kairi #xion #tarot #my art

[starspatter]

WIP Challenge

Tagged by: @summertime-children

Tagging: @astrologista, @atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine, @benditlikegumby, @cryptoriawebb, @ibmiller, @iceperialprincess, and @otherwise-uncolonized

Challenge: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous.

I'll also do what deta did and post comments + short fragments.  (Be warned it'll be very long though, and most of these are actually Pokémon fics since I was a much more prolific writer when I was younger, and that was the fandom I wrote mainly for.)  I also won't be including "Heroes and Thieves" on here (or any DC/superhero stuff really since I’ve essentially “done” everything I had planned for now), as *technically* it is all already completed in draft form, and I'd like to keep things a surprise for whenever I do end up posting~

Hero and Seek

“Well, we’re all together now, so let’s have some fun, all right?  Don’t worry, it’s really simple.  One person is the ‘demon’, and the others have to hide from him.” “Eh?  A ‘demon’?  But that’s scary!” Three pairs of eyes turned up to her in fear.  Those eyes, which screamed and streamed the stark color of blood the first time she saw them – not just from tears, but from the ‘monster’ they believed dwelled deep within.  She thought for a moment, then removed her scarf. “How about this then?  Whoever’s the ‘hero’ has to find and rescue the others.  It’s a very important Blindfold Brigade mission!”

I’ll start with the one Kagepro fic I did attempt at least, which I described previously here, but is basically about Ayano + the Meka Trio playing “Hide and Seek” for the first time.  (I actually had it originally titled as that but just came up with this new version on the spot lol I’m so clever~)  For some reason I’ve always been hesitant about reading/writing Kagefic, but I actually got a fair bit farther in this than I thought, so perhaps I should try to finish it someday... Princes and Frogs

“K-Koizumi-senpai… Um… Please go out with me!” Itsuki stared down at the tiny underclassman, watching a rose mantle spread slowly over her cheeks as she gazed back with shy, but determined hope in her bespectacled eyes.  The older boy could make out his own handsome face reflected off the lens, a virtual image embellished by sparkling hearts and stars.  With dim satisfaction and relief, Itsuki ensured that his bright, patient smile betrayed no hint of the weary sigh that whispered behind it.

This is an intro excerpt of the first chapter I planned to write for an ItsuHaru fic from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which I only ever posted the prologue for.  ItsuHaru was my first obsessive OTP, and I still think about returning to this story someday (especially since I have now proven to myself I *can* finish a full chapter fic if I put my mind to it), but it’s been so long I feel like I’d need to refresh my memory of the whole series/am still holding out hope for a Season 3 to motivate me again. *shot*

Fall to Pieces

As Itsuki stared at Yuki’s vacant visage, his resentment kept building.  His hands clenched, rigidly gripping the edge of the table.  Somehow, it just didn’t seem fair.  That she could so easily ignore the madness fate had dealt them, never reveal any signs of suffering or bitterness towards her situation, and yet always, always wear the same damn expression on her face. How could she possibly stand it? He can’t stand it. (any more)

An ItsuYuki one-shot, where Itsuki basically blows up at her from pent-up frustration over having to wear a mask all the time and his hidden feelings for Haruhi.  The two start to form a connection over their respective “unrequited loves”/understanding of each other’s pain, and one thing leads to another...  Like “Heroes and Thieves”, this is in fact technically “complete”, since I actually used the leftover steam from the former towards finishing at least one thing I started a long time ago - although I’m still not sure I’m totally satisfied with it/kinda want to wait to figure out what I’m doing with my other ItsuHaru fics before I publish it by itself.  (Incidentally the working title comes from an Avril Lavigne song lol.)

Little White Lies

“Perhaps the best thing for the princess would have been to fall in love.  But how a princess who had no gravity could fall into anything is a difficulty--perhaps the difficulty.” -George MacDonald, The Light Princess - Haruhi Suzumiya was walking on air. Itsuki could tell by the way she glided into the clubroom, sailing like a paper airplane – or a balloon with an inflated ego to match.

...Yeah that’s as far as I got with this.  This was meant to be a “White Day” story, which is Japan’s “answer holiday” to Valentine’s Day, where guys reciprocate by giving gifts to the girls who gave them chocolates.  I always wondered how the boys actually responded in-universe, and I imagine Itsuki secretly stressing out a lot about taking care to not upstage Kyon, but at the same time wanting to sincerely express his genuine appreciation and feelings towards Haruhi - whatever they may be.  In the end, he settles on a copy of “The Light Princess” by George MacDonald, which I highly recommend reading since it reminds me so much of this pair, and in general is such a fun and snappy “tongue-in-cheek” take on the fairytale genre. Sora in Wonderland

But wait- this one was a bit different from all its brothers and sisters.  For one thing, it was wearing a fancy waistcoat with pockets- and sleeves that were far too long for it.  As soon as it passed by her head, it stopped and slowly turned its head around to stare directly at her with its huge circular yellow eyes.  Sora stared vacantly back for a full five seconds before the information registered in her brain and she suddenly yelled, “Hey!”, and sat bolt upright.  The Heartless panicked upon hearing her voice and fled at top speed across the white sands, headed towards an opening in the rocks; Sora jumped down off her perch and immediately chased after it, no longer caring about the heat.  The Heartless hastily disappeared inside the cave, and Sora soon followed after, determined to catch the freaky little thing and ask it some questions, like what it was doing on the island at this time, and where on earth did it get a waistcoat.

OKAY SO I TOTALLY FORGOT THIS WAS A THING but apparently I tried to write a Kingdom Hearts parody of “Alice in Wonderland” lmao.  I’ve never actually played the games (aside from half of CoM), but it was probably inspired by a crossover art my friend drew? ^^; Also Sora is a girl in this bc that’s my headcanon and I’m sticking to it. XP *shot* Note: The following fics are all Pokémon-related so I’ll just be listing them in roughly chronological order (from most recent to ancient, although they’re all pretty old at this point). Stranger

The elder slowly rose to his feet, gazing at the boy, the champion, the stranger.  “In all this time, why didn’t you come back?  You could have seen for yourself how she was.” Lance wanted to yell something defiant, like a child.  But he wasn’t a child.  Children were forgiven for their mistakes.  And he didn’t want to be forgiven. The professor’s ancient hand came to rest on the boy’s shoulder.  “It’s the way this town works.  We don’t talk about things that happen outside our own world.  Maybe it was too long ago – too late for you to understand.” Lance didn’t say anything. “At least talk to Delia.  She’s been wanting to see you.” “Sorry.  It’s too late.” “You’re a bastard.” “I know.”

So this looks to be among the last things I’d written before taking a long break from fanfiction circa... 2007, jeeze.  Over 10 years, huh.  But, I think it speaks a certain amount of maturity that it’s the piece I liked most upon rediscovering.  It’s based on an idea I once had that Lance was (unknowingly) Gary Oak’s father, and he was friends/rivals with Ash’s father, who originally won the title of Champion but relinquished it so he could be with his “wife” and kid (or rather, then-pregnant teenage girlfriend).  *Something* happened though (I forget what I had in mind) and he ended up dying, leaving Lance bitter and depressed so he refused to return to Pallet Town because of too many painful memories.  (Though he *cough* “comforted” their other female childhood friend for one night of drunken grief before he left. ;()  What I like most about it honestly is the parallels bw Lance’s relationship with Ash’s dad and their sons’, and that amidst all the angst I enjoyed portraying the earnest energy and optimism of Ketchum(?) senior (”like father like son” after all).  I was definitely inspired by Mitsuki’s father in Full Moon wo Sagashite/Maes Hughes from Fullmetal Alchemist by making him a total “dork dad” who’d brag about his (illegitimate) family on national TV during the championship tournament lol.

Ihavenoidea

Either way, I get the feeling this really wasn’t what I had in mind when I made my decision to quit training.  I mean that in an intuitive sort of way.  Like, sometimes I feel as if I’m not meant to be here, like my life should have ended up differently someplace else.  Perhaps this is just one of those weird inconsistencies I told you about.  Perhaps not.  Even after all that’s happened to me recently, I still can’t really be sure about it.

...No seriously, I have no idea where I was going with this.  As far as I can tell it’s written from the POV of Gary Oak, whom I’ve always had a lot of... “complicated” feelings towards.  It probably has something to do with another concept I’ll discuss next, although for some reason it sounds like I was going for some sort of AU? *shrug* By contrast to the above, it reads like a whiny teenager complaining about his life - which makes me cringe but is probably an accurate portrayal of who I was at the time. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ This one was actually dated a little after the previous, so my best guess is it was some kind of vent rant where I would “give up” writing/creating and “childish” ideals for a while, as I was wont to do - but I still always come back to it somehow... RainbowMolly

Molly stepped out from the car and onto the dusty road, her heart beating wildly.  She could hardly believe she was actually here, of all places. The ride had been long and mind-numbing with anticipation, and now that they’d finally arrived at the destination, it all felt somewhat surreal to her. A small bear clambered out from the vehicle, joining her as she stopped to take in the rustic view that met her bright blue eyes.  She smiled and picked up her Teddiursa, cuddling its warm, fuzzy body close to her own. Her gaze traveled down the road which stretched in both directions, houses lining up against its margins. She followed it with her eyes towards a hill in the distance, on top of which sat what looked like a quaint little farmhouse with a windmill, turning in the summer breeze.  She breathed in the country air, catching whiff of a faint salt smell from an ocean in the distance. So this was Pallet Town.

...Why I didn’t actually name the file “Chasing Rainbows” - which was the title I had planned for this - I don’t know.  This dates back to an old idea I had where I believed Molly Hale from the third Pokémon movie was secretly the true “God” of the Pokémon world - in the sense that the entire universe was an unknowing fantasy of her own creation, similar to Haruhi Suzumiya (ok fine this was totally a crossover/rip-off of the same concept so sue me OTL).  In a place where children never seem to grow up and can go on grand fantastical adventures forever, Gary always struck me as an anomaly who willingly *chose* to forego such a life to pursue more “adult” interests by becoming a researcher.  So I saw him as filling the role of “Kyon” - the cynical narrator who was destined to ground “God” and bring her back down to earth, but at the same time be won over by her innocence and charm and learn to appreciate “kids’ stuff” again.  However, the Legendaries were actually aware of the power Molly holds, and so saw Gary as a threat to their very being - as by “waking” the dreamer and having her face reality meant erasing their kinds’ entire existence.  As the “apocalypse” nearly occurred in the third film, Mew and Celebi took on human disguises (in the form of May and Max respectively) to investigate Ash, who was able to calm Molly and “save” the world by “perpetuating” the delusion (and whom Molly totally has a crush on btw *shot*).  So it’s a bit of a love triangle lol, with Mew and Celebi (*cough* an alien and a time traveler, get it? *shot*) acting as mediators/interference.  (Although Mew might’ve secretly shipped Gary and Molly herself. ;O)

Betrayal

And these blades, these damned scythes that attached themselves to my arms when I was born, a curse upon me since birth, though it had not been apparent up until now.  They were covered with blood, the vital crimson liquid that flows through our bodies, now dripping down the steel surface in a webbed pattern, drops beginning to splatter the pure, emerald grass below.  The arm felt heavy and weak as I tried to lift it, as if it did not belong to me, but that was only a wishful thought.  I gazed calmly at it, inspecting the intricate designs the flow of the substance had created, as if it were an abstract piece of artwork. Tentatively, a pink tongue rolled out and caught a small droplet of it just before it fell from the sharp edge, just to convince myself that it was real.  The semi-sweet, metallic taste confirmed this.  I had indeed taken these men’s lives, just as I had taken hers.

So I remember this was written from the POV of a Scyther who seemingly went on a murderous rampage.  I only know that I wanted to give him an “Edward Scissorhands”-like story, since the idea of having such sharp objects attached to one’s limbs so that one could never directly “touch” another without being a danger is pretty tragic.  I suspect “her” was someone (a human?) he cared about but killed by accident, and after that he was only seen as a symbol of power/treated as a tool to incite fear before eventually rebelling against his “master”... Roses

“If you love someone, you should give them something that’s yours. That shows how much you care for them.” In the darkness, I pictured his smiling face, explaining to me as he wrapped a present for his girlfriend. His blue eyes were shining with a sort of spirit unfamiliar to me; I guessed, a feeling of love.

Another “dark” take on a Pokémon’s biology (I really liked writing explorations of those back then lol), this time of Roselia.  The idea was that a Roselia was so in love with her trainer that she would do anything for him - including allow him to cut off her arms so he could give them to his girlfriend.  I actually ended up turning it into a poem at one point:

Love is like a rose they say, And affection leads to grief they warned. For in the end love betrays, Its Beauty maimed by a poisoned thorn. You gave me pure water with a smile. Your cheerful face became my sun. I offered up my blood to you, And in return demanded none. Chop off my wrists, and tie them together. I’ll gladly bleed myself to death. In order to give you that which I hold most dear. My dear, my dear, Won’t you accept this bouquet? You take it, smiling warily. A blush creeps onto your face. And in those eyes I can see A garden of roses stretched out, Composing a wondrous place. Then you bound my hands in lace, And brought them to the girl next door. You presented them to her with grace. … My blood continued to pour.

Fanfic

She smiled at me, although something about her expression indicated something wasn't quite right.  I watched as she glanced over towards the west, her gaze lingering momentarily on the setting sun.  The glowing, orange sphere was slowly sinking behind the distant mountains, peaks cloaked in a pale, lavender haze illuminated by flickering beams of gold and scarlet cast across the horizon.

More accurately, I found this buried in a “catch-all” file where I had several (mostly finished) fics saved.  This was meant to be from the POV of an Eevee who had just evolved - supposedly into an Espeon due to happiness and bond with her trainer, which is what both wanted.  However, since it took place at sunset, she didn’t realize she had become an Umbreon instead, and her trainer ended up abandoning her for it. ;( It was a warm

Children’s shrieks and laughter echoed across the park as they flocked towards each other, and soon were chasing one another round the playground, weaving in and out between the swings as they partook in an innocent game of Tag.  One child was It; she was trying desperately to catch one of her friends so that they would take over the job instead.  Then it would be her turn to run away, for none of them wished to play the loathsome role of It.  Or was it because they feared being tainted by the person’s touch?  It must have been one of the two, for while she would struggle to reach them, catch hold of them, they would only flee, thoroughly enjoying the fact that they were vexing her.  Twice she nearly caught one.  Her fingertips were almost within reach of one of the other girls’ dresses, whose russet tresses were flowing wildly from the rush of movement and shining with golden highlights as the rays of the sun struck individual strands.  The target shrieked and shook her head, whisking her skirt free in time to escape capture, laughing with glee at the sight of the girl left behind, miserable and alone. 

Yeah I totally just went with the default beginning of the first sentence lol.  I guess this comes full circle with the first Kagepro fic I mentioned (although I’m not even sure I was aware back then that the Japanese version of the game literally called “It” a “demon”, which is even more fitting).  I believe this was part of a Pokémon series I was writing involving a creepy little girl and Mewtwo who would bring about the end of the world or something like that, but generally I guess I was just going for a “Catcher in the Rye” feel. *shrug* Golden Lights

The pale, rosy fingers of dawn were filtering in through the Granite Cave entrance, basking a small area near the opening in pinkish illumination.  Just out of reach of its expanse sat little Mika, huddled in the gloom of the shadows, watching the light creep steadily towards her as the glowing ball of fire rose slowly towards the East.  She knew about the Light that came from Outside.  There were plenty other small apertures broken into the cavern walls and ceiling that allowed some thin streams of gold brilliance to trickle through.  She had always done well to avoid them.  The brightness was like poison to her skin.  But they weren’t the Lights she’d had described to her by the old Crobat that always resided now deeper within the underground chambers, dozing now, most likely.  He wouldn’t awaken until night came round, and she did not wish to rouse him and perhaps disturb him from a pleasant dream.  She was very wise about things like that, being the young child that she was.  Still, she would have liked to hear a story to comfort her just then.

Last one I could find, about a Sableye who, like Icarus, literally “flew too close to the sun”.  In this interpretation I imagined that Sableye were creatures who could not stand sunlight at all, as it would cause their skin to burn.  But Mika (pronounced like “Mica”) always dreamed of going outside to see the “Light” anyway.  She was eventually tempted by Mew to leave the cavern under her angelic PROTECTion and step into the Light, who was acting as Ho-Oh’s messenger to “recruit” souls to “live eternal as an element of Ho-Oh’s Guarding Flame“, as the PROTECT faded and a “holy fire” began to spread.  I guess I was going for a Biblical/”Rapture”-esque reference.  (...Man I sure was obsessed with the endtimes as a kid. *shot*)

#Kagerou Project #Tateyama Ayano #Mekakushi Trio #Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu #ItsuHaru #ItsuYuki #Pokemon #Gary Oak #Molly Hale #fanfiction #starstories #astrologista #atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine #benditlikegumby #cryptoriawebb #ibmiller #iceperialprincess #otherwise uncolonized

[metalempire]

Kingdom Hearts 3: A Review

This one is gonna be long as shit probably but since I finally finished the game on standard, proud and critical mode, and with DLC on the way I’m going to try and review the basegame for KH3 and see how it stacks up. Most of this under readmore for the sake of ur dashboards.

So I want to clarify a handful of details, KH2, its final mix especially, is my favourite game in the series. The gameplay is almost fucking perfect for an action game and is accessible to so many skill levels and did all of its difficulty modes quite well (though proud has not aged well compared to critical). Not only this but Sora’s moveset and animations, their speed and frames and iframes after actions and also interaction with abilities is almost perfect (I have eternal issues with how guard’s timing works compared to KH1′s guard it’s just slightly more delayed by enough to throw me off) and I have played KH1, CoM, BBS, DDD, Re:Coded and 0.2 so I have enough experience with the games overall.  Also as for story, KH1 was the only game that did it well, CoM is fine, and KH2 is a bit like that but still decent. After that point story has been going downhill thanks to Nomura’s writing dying a fiery death so KH3′s awful story pacing, fairly disappointing execution and dumping of things all at the end don’t bother me as much since it was doomed from the start considering it has to conclude stuff set up by BBS and DDD which were stories that don’t hold up well anyway. Plus at this point I just accept that the story of KH isn’t going to be good anymore. No I don’t play the gacha game, I keep up with the cutscenes time to time to stay in loop and that story is just long winded and cryptic. Gameplay is what I care about since that’s what makes a video game a game, funnily enough. (Though I think KH3 has a bad habit of making cutscenes either too long or stacking too many on top of each other) Also I want to state I am completely neutral on attraction flow. I neither like nor dislike them all that much. They serve a purpose and they can be ignored too. They’re more or less a matter of personal preference and I don’t feel strongly about them. Aside from the choo choo train no one can slander the train. 

Positives 

I think KH3 competes with KH1 for second most fun gameplay in the series. They took alot of things and rebalanced them and brought them all together in a way that I liked, shotlocks, flowmotion, counters, forms, magic, summons, grand magic and even a little bit of reaction commands and limits. Aside from the combos which are a given of course, as well as being able to cancel into magic and other actions being fairly competently done, though guard has some oddities to it where it doesn’t always work and it might be down to the game’s buffering system. More on that later. The keyblade transformations stand out as a real strength to the game, with a wide variety of movesets for each playstyle (my favourite is the Happy Gear and its’ transformations) and they make both horde and boss fights dynamic and fun, not to mention their interactions with guarding, dodging and magic and how they change it up as well as little bonus abilities forms give you. I do like that they brought back all sorts of enemies, Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed, with only Nightmares not returning. The variety is appreciated. On a mechanical note, I am very fond of being able to store a keyblade transformation by switching to another Keyblade, and I like being able to equip and shift between three of them. This is the first game where keyblades feel incredibly distinct from one another, and also the only game where Kingdom Key is viable from start to finish. This was something Re:Coded played with and I’m really glad to see the direction they took it in KH3. The addition of up to five party members is also appreciated, having everyone fighting at once in the larger battles KH3 has overall brings a nice sense of scale to it. Wallrunning and massive areas allow for some big levels to traverse and honestly thats’s mostly a strength since it adds greatly to immersion. There are boss fights in KH3, namely those in the Keyblade Graveyard that function perfectly for the game’s overall combat pacing, and they also amplify the strengths of the game on Critical mode.I like the little detail of magic now doing little status effects too now.The gummi ship is a nice blend of KH1 and KH2, and the open world flying around is a fun aspect that makes it feel like a real journey through the stars.The world’s are a usually of great quality, with Olympus being the best tutorial level/first level in the whole series, and the Caribbean providing a really enjoyable open ocean exploration style, Monstropolis getting the linear level style right properly, Kingdom of Corona building itself character wise very well to endear you to Rapunzel’s journey with its’ interactivity and Toy Box throwing a few decent challenges and very well put together mech combat. Also, graphically KH3 is one of the most impressive games I’ve ever seen, flexing on all the films, the older games, and real life itself, making the presentation fit the artstyle and rendering to a degree that’s frighteningly good. Game looks wonderful. The music is also good but that’s true of every game, Yoko just be like that, though 3 has some great compositions and remixes of its’ own to stand on. 

Negatives

One thing to preface this with is that a strength to KH2 is your options, how balanced they all are, what they all do, how they can interact with each other (such as how magic can be integrated into combos and do their own or using different buttons to change a combo altogether, or how certain moves fulfil different functions in a fight) is all very well structured and seamless. In KH3 your basic combo game doesn’t have as many modifiers to how it works outside of formchanges and even then it doesn’t quite feel as complete. Not only that but your options end up doing the same thing alot of the time, heavy damage that leads into strong AOE. The core design of the game is built around huge hordes of enemies, and that tends to mean its too easy to get hit out of nowhere or annoyed to death or sniped out of nowhere on critical, so you need to use magic and then grand magic to clear or links and attraction flow if you’re on critical to thin out hordes. While in boss fights this changes the game feels a bit too focused on large fights and has movesets less focused around smaller groups and suffers for it. Tying into this, animations are grander and longer, leaving you open to interruption. The camera in this game is also awful, and one of the worst, either not zooming in enough or too far out, or on more mobile enemies (or teleporting ones, looking at you Goatnort) it fails to keep best track of them and angle properly and you can get blindsided too easily or put in a vision style that makes depth perception for projectile blocking too iffy for my tastes.KH cameras are always a bit off but this one needs work. Base Sora’s animations tend to be very hard to work with compared to KH2′s, he’s alot slower, has more delays, less invincibility frames, attacks don’t follow together and follow up nearly as quickly, item usage is overall a slower process which can fuck you over on critical, guarding still has a delay to it, leaf bracer can be rendered useless due to cure having no iframes during the ending portion of the animation and on critical you can just wind up needing to heal again if you get hit trying to use leaf bracer to slip through an attack. There’s also a very odd way the game handles Sora’s hitstun, where he can’t do anything out of it unless he uses aerial recovery which has a rather narrow iframe window and a bit of lag on actions that can be performed out of it that means you cant do anything in some lategame boss fights once hit half the time since no button input does anything especially if you’re hit in the air. The game is far too unclear on when you can and can’t act out of a hit or a block. Also, while I like being able to retaliate once its’ unlocked after aerial recovery, the animation for the attack has a set direction and often ends up missing more mobile bosses and lacks control. The game’s overall balancing is a bit of a mess as well, with grand magic and magic being far too strong on all modes except critical, and links being too strong on critical since there is far too much of a reliance on AOE overall in the combat. As for difficulty, it has a strange Fire Emblem Awakening parallel, where standard is too easy, proud is the true normal mode but not a hard mode, and critical is a bit too hard at times though not all the time. I’d say critical eases up for a bit though it favours cheap shots and delivers its true delights right at the end, it’s weird and I’ll talk more about it later but it starts out unfairly hard with the tutorial boss two shotting you in seconds. There’s a real lack of postgame content overall, with the battlegates being alright but not grand, and only one superboss in Dark Inferno who is alright all things considered but isn’t a Sephiroth really. Speaking of which, no Final Fantasy characters in the series that’s supposed to be it crossing over with Disney. What the fuck. Also I will say that while the worlds are huge and long now, there’s still not that many of them, and while quality over quantity is a factor, quantity is nice too, and making Twilight Town that small and short feels like a kick in the dick to KH2 fans who love that place, me included. Ultima weapon is a pain to get, all the minigames in KH3 are either bad, terrible, awful, or dull and not worth playing, and you need to do some of the worst ones to get it though thankfully it’s not really all that necessary to have unless you want a trump card for critical mode which you’re better off using new game + to get from an easier save file anyway. The cooking minigames are also very odd with their timing and the controls are a bit unresponsive or too sensitive at times and discourages you from cooking. Look at what they did to 100 Acre Woods, it makes me sob salty tears at how small and gutted it is. In general enemies have difficulties telegraphing their attacks in both audio and visual style and you get cheap shotted alot. There is a particular Unversed enemy in Monstropolis I’m sure we’re all familiar with by now who is guilty of that sin the most. And finally, the game’s biggest sin of all: Armoured Xehanort (who I call Goatnort). This fight is a travesty. Teleporting, unclear telegraphs, unclear hitstun, random super armour, long combos that cannot be interrupted, wonky interactions with dodges, guards and reprisals that makes him get free hits on you sometimes even when successfully executing a block or dodge. He has a lack of clear telegraphs, acts at speeds that give KH2FM superbosses a run for their money despite you being slower than that game was, leading to things Sora’s animations aren’t equipped to deal with, as well as shifting the fight constantly to underwater combat and then forced aerial combat with very confusing controls interactions and pair that with AOE magic attacks with magnet powers, lock on wind magic with warping properties to ensure he lands his hit, alot of teleporting out of the camera’s range and warp strike sucker punches that really stretch the human reaction time when paired with the shit camera and you just get an unpleasant boss fight that while proud and standard can mitigate to just being annoying as all hell, on critical its a nightmare fight and you cant even observe the fight and learn it well either due to how much shit is going on, the camera being against you, unclear mechanical aspects, speed above what you can reliably output as base Sora who you are stuck as for most of the fight. It boils down to a spammy clusterfuck with too much going on, with so few openings to do anything, and bad interaction with Sora’s options and the animations tied to them with alot of damage that feels forced on you half the time. The Final Xehanort phase with the X-Blade is much better though.

Critical Mode

Since it didn’t launch with the game was added later as a free update and everyone made a big deal out of it and it’s exclusion seeming odd I might as well talk about it. Firstly, KH2FM has the best critical mode and is the only game to do it right really. It halves your hp and reduces the amount of mp you gain during level ups and increases to it, so you have enough to work with but never too much, enemies do the same damage as proud mode, but you do more damage than even standard mode, and you start with 50AP and a lot lategame abilities so strengthen Sora’s kit. This results in the best hard mode for the game, since fights never drag on too much and deaths are usually quick. It encourages and rewards you to use all your options and play both smart and aggressive to win. KH3 takes a somewhat similar approach. You start out with 50 AP and wide variety of boosting abilities mostly from endgame territory as well as unique critical mode ones that modify reprisals to reward proper dodge timing which is wonderful and even one to disable Attraction flow for those who hate it to build up transformations quicker. However Critical mode nerfs alot of things. Magic can’t be used as much and successive casts one after another especially rapid shots get a huge damage nerf so you have to use it sparingly making grand magic harder to get and magic de-incentivised outside of enemy weaknesses. There’s also wonky issues with damage scaling in relation to battle level and your level and all situation commands take much longer to build up to, even with the aforementioned boost to formchange buildup speed it still takes awhile and since base Sora is very hit or miss in fights this can be a very awkward change to work with. Enemy damage is also scaled very high and this could be one of the hardest critical modes earlygame, though DDD still holds the crown for hardest if we’re being honest. KH3 critical starts you out by Darkside two shotting you and most of the earlygame even regular Heartless kill you in two or three hits. Unless you use cooking to buff yourself you will die in two or three hits most of the time and some bosses can one shot you. The Gigas enemies in Toy Box are hard to deal with since magic is so nerfed and the Supreme Smasher boss can and will outright one shot you with all of its’ attacks if you don’t use a Gigas yourself. Even KH2FM critical wasn’t this unforgiving at times. The Kh3 critical mode experience boils down to a few things; most heartless bosses being easy as usual for KH3, getting randomly sniped in horde fights, boss fights that take awhile and usually 2 shot you, the mode and its’ particular challenge coming together masterfully for the Keyblade Graveyard fights to create a proper tense challenge that’s still fun, the Armours Xehanort fight being so frustrating it makes you want to launch your PS4 at Nomura, and Final Xehanort being a good but brutal fight that exposes a bit of flaws of KH3 but also plays to its’ strengths as well, unlike Goatnort who exposes all the flaws and needs to calm down. Overall I didn’t enjoy it as much as KH2FM critical mode but it was better than DDD and BBSFM critical mode. Definitely felt like it was trying too hard to be hard at times, did get me to actually use cooking though. Rage Form is king. 

Summary

Overall, Kingdom Hearts 3 is a well put together package blending together alot of the features from across the series into a very coherent combat system that oozes variety at its’ core, but is let down a bit by functional application reducing that variety to the same overall function. It’s a game with a bit of balancing issues, and ideally needs some overall core enemy fight redesigning, maybe a few more worlds and boss fights, and alot of tweaking to base Sora’s playstyle, requiring snappier animations, quicker flow between them, changes to hitstun interaction and options and iframe changes to be more fair on the player in critical mode. There’s alot to the combat overall that needs a little tweaking, and while it isn’t KH2 levels of good, it has alot of potential and is very fun to play, bringing together alot of what makes these games fun in general and pulling it off decently well. There’s alot to enjoy here, and the craft is up scratch, even if it is a bit wonky and rough around the edges on the more finer and precise aspects, it’s still up there with some of the best Kingdom Hearts games. I’m looking forward to the DLC and any future updates, and I’m hoping some more balance tweaking and a few changes might be all this game needs to be its’ best. It’s a good game through and through, and while some may find it disappointing, I’ve accepted that the series more or less peaked with KH2FM and I’m glad to see Osaka team have finally found a groove that fits them that they’ve clearly put some work into making as high a quality as they were able, considering the no doubt rocky development the game went through with all the business of engine shifts and other things going on in the company at the time. I know giving a numerical rating can devalue the qualitative aspects of a review but the quantitative is also nice to have so overall, I’d say that Kingdom Hearts 3 is a solid 8/10. KH3 competes with KH1 as second favourite in the series and even with all its’ flaws it’s a game I really do enjoy playing and putting time into.Story is still a fuckin train wreck tho lol. Good job the stupidity of it makes me laugh more than anything. Xemnas is still a better waifu than Ansem tho. MickeyRiku best ship.

#Kingdom Hearts 3 #KH3 #long post

[fatedcipher]

     It’s over.  I beat Kingdom Hearts 3, a game I’ve waited thirteen years for.  And now that it’s all said and done?

     I’m just disappointed.

     What follows is mostly my stream of consciousness impressions of the game, put to text more to organize and vent than anything else.  Be warned of strong opinions and acerbic criticism.

The Good

Roxas

It was one scene, but it was one hell of a scene.  McCartney fucking killed it.

The Sea Salt Trio finally gets justice.  Xion and Axel finally wear something besides the coat.

I had Sora walk around and take selfies while Roxas and Xion effortlessly demolished Saix.  So much catharsis.

Demyx

Yeah, I know, last thing I was expecting too.

Had exactly zero patience for series melodrama.  Every other word out of his mouth had me laughing.

Dude stabbed evil mcdarkness in the back to do the good guys a huge solid and got away with it scot-free.

Lingering Will

He was on screen for all of five seconds, but I cheered for all five of them.

Namine was the one who called him in.

Should have been him to finish off Terranort, but close enough.

Half the Disney Characters

Telling the obnoxious villains to fuck off.

Actually making them fuck off in a couple instances.

Put that Edgelord back where he came from or so help me!

Hayner!  Pence!  Olette!

Twilight Gang actually contributing to the main plot again.

Them giving a shit about Roxas when they didn’t need to.

Fucking bamboozled SoD, he just didn’t know how to react to their Scooby Doo shenanigans.

Mixed Bag

Some of the Disney worlds were pretty charming and had good cast interactions.

Frozen’s world was not.

Sora using the fallen keys was visually breathtaking and played in well to his power to connect to other people.

It was a reference to the stupid mobile game that has only polluted the plot further.

TWEWY world effectively confirmed in whatever is next.

I may not actually want to play whatever is next.

Music

It practically goes without saying at this point but, JESUS CHRIST THERE’S SOME GOOD MUSIC IN THIS VIDEO GAME

OTHER PROMISE/VECTOR TO THE HEAVENS ARRANGEMENT SLAYED ME

I LOVE YOU YOKO SHIMOMURA

The Bad

Gameplay

Plays like a janky version of 2 with a botox injection of DDD flowmotion that only makes the game feel more awkward.

Clunky melee combos have too much start-up, most have no invincibility or even armor to prevent being hit out of them.

Only a handful of the keyblade transformations are actually useful, all of which are a massive step down from drive forms.

Shotlocks still feel like extraneous instant damage and add nothing to gamplay flow.

Oversaturation of minigames leaves several worlds light on actual combat.

Attraction flow is too easy to get, not fun to use, lasts too long, and leaves you vulnerable to damage.

Worlds are simultaneously expansive by individual area and depressingly small on an overall scale.  Most of Twilight Town is inaccessible, Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden can’t be visited.

General Plot and Storytelling

Generally poor writing that fails to resolve several plot threads and introduces ridiculous retcons that only create more questions.

There’s a scene where all of the good guys are in the same room having a discussion about how convoluted the plot is and Jiminy chimes in that they should read the in-game summaries on the in-game phone.  This was when the game crossed over into self-parody for me, and not in a good way.

The total absence of Final Fantasy characters save for the mention of Cloud and Auron at the start of Olympus eliminates half the appeal of what is ostensibly a crossover series.

Awful pacing, having the Disney worlds as unimportant filler with the majority of the plot happening in the last few hours of the game, following what has depressingly become the norm.

General cutscene incompetence, from characters being effortlessly overpowered by enemies to standing around unarmed and slackjawed waiting for said enemies to cut them down.

Bad dialogue and direction clearly mandated by someone who doesn’t speak English mars a number of moments that could have been good.  The script shines primarily when it escapes that ignorant control, which is not as often as it should be.

Mass death and revival scene was entirely pointless, as were the multiple Heartless swarms everyone was suddenly incapable of even putting up a fight against.

Death is still largely non-existent save for a few characters.

It made me more bitter and fed up with this series than DDD did and that is a fucking accomplishment.

Sora

How fucking dare you treat my precious boy like this, Nomura.

Half the cast spends half the game demeaning him and refuses to listen to him for no discernible reason, despite the fact he immediately solves every problem he is introduced to.

It’s not as bad as DDD, but he’s still written to be way less intelligent than he was in 1-2.

He’s the only one who doesn’t get a perfect happy ending and the only who actually seems to suffer any consequence to his actions, despite those consequences being utterly nonsensical.

It’s not even clear what the fucking “Power of Waking” is and he never needs it save for the artificial death scenes.

Riku

Every other line in the script is shilling him and how he’s somehow better than Sora.

This Yozora clown is literally just a palette swap of him.

Three Rikus in one scene.  It is laughable in how stupid it is.

He gets two playable sections and fights the same shitty boss in both.

He’s the one who goes to pick up Namine, not Roxas, Sora, or Kairi.

You can feel how much Nomura loves him and it repulses me.

Kairi

Her lively personality is completely absent along with any agency she might have once had.

Despite getting a keyblade and training the whole game, she gets halfway through a single fight before she’s easily kidnapped, held hostage, and callously executed.

None of her statements about protecting Sora are followed through on and are empty allusions to the first game.

SoKai is finally all but canon, yet the characters themselves hardly interact in the game and the Oathkeeper charm is never even brought up.

Namine

Her in-engine model is only ever used in the character files.

The only thing she does in the entire game is have a single conversation with Sora in the afterlife, in which he still fails to properly thank her.  

Riku is the one to pick her up after she gets a body because Nomura felt like awkwardly shifting Versus XIII’s unused dynamic onto two characters totally unrelated to it.

She’s still wearing the same white dress she has been since her introduction in CoM.

Aqua

Loses every fight she’s in to cutscene incompetence.

Seriously, you kick Vanitas’ ass in her only playable segment for her to throw herself spread eagle in front of some fireballs he throws out, it’s embarrassing.

Likewise jobs to Terranort and has to be saved by the COME GUARDIAN who is apparently Terra’s heartless?

Her single contribution to the plot is finding Ventus.

The refusal to let her age is just bizarre, the same extending to Ventus and Terra.

Antagonists

Xehanort remains nonsensically overpowered and omniscient, using time travel, clone bodies, and other contrivances to achieve his goals and have the heroes play straight into his hands until his actual last scene.

Multiple members of team dark don’t even have a good reason to work for the old man.  The former traitors are the ones to remain unfailingly loyal.

They show up to vaguely talk down to the heroes and/or wipe the floor with them before smugly disappearing without a scratch.  The only instances where this is even slightly averted are a couple scenes with the Disney characters and the defeat scenes in the final boss rush.

The majority of the villains are given cloying and contrived attempts at casting them in a sympathetic light when they have only ever been shown to be selfish, merciless, and cruel prior to their final defeats.  Xehanort himself is the absolute worst offender, being cast as a well-intentioned extremist at the last possible moment, despite this directly contradicting the entirety of his character prior.

     So yeah, Kindgom Hearts 3 isn’t that good of a game and has a story that’s legitimately quite poorly written and told overall.  Are my expectations inflated by the amount of time I’ve had to wait for this game?  Absolutely, but the series has been on a downward slope in quality since BBS and this was their big chance to correct course.  Even with the promise of TWEWY involvement in whatever is in the future, I can’t honestly say I’m interested in playing another Kingdom Hearts game after this disappointment and that’s depressing for someone who’s loved this series for so long.  There’s still a lot I want to write for Roxas and the rest of the cast, but when most of that stuff is attempting to revise the canon, it can be pretty discouraging.  All the same, I don’t want to give up on this blond haired kid and his friends just yet.  Their story’s too important to me to let it end like this.

#unchained #kh3 spoilers #Wow it feels good to get this out of my system #Beware of walls of text

[recentanimenews]

Resident Evil 2 Remake Will Have you Seeing S.T.A.R.S.!

I’m supposed to gather some electric parts to turn on the mechanism that opens cell doors in the underground jail cell. I found one after dodging vicious zombie dogs, and now I’ve found myself climbing back into the very police station I was trying to escape less than an hour ago. I know where I need to go--by now the police station is somewhat safe, and I know the best routes to get to where I need to go… until I find myself needing to extinguish a fire. "No problem," I say, and go about doing so with some easy exploring. Things are going well. I’ve got good health, ammo, and then… Mr. X happens. Suddenly, everything I thought I knew had changed.

All the skills I remembered from playing Resident Evil 2 20 years ago vanish, as the huge Tyrant hounds my every movement. Open a door too fast? Footsteps. Shoot my gun? Louder footsteps. Suddenly… a door opens that I didn’t open. I panic, and run. "If I can just get to the save room, I’m fine…" And then I hear it. A Licker. I ran too fast and too loudly, and with only a second to spare I dodge into the S.T.A.R.S. office, safe for now, and pause the game. My breathing is ragged and I put the controller down for a moment. I’m terrified, excited, and above all, happy. This is the best feeling in the world!

Resident Evil was always my favorite horror franchise, and Resident Evil 2 was the game I spent the most time with when I was younger. I played it more than I played any other game in the series until the co-op fest of Resident Evil 5 with my partner. The zapping system of Resident Evil 2 entranced me; the idea that a game had multiple storylines that interacted with each other, and that the game itself changed when you played it again blew my mind. The campy charm of the weird puzzles, esoteric nonsense, and scary but cool monsters made it all a blast. And then Mr. X showed up in scenario B, and I lost my little mind! I couldn’t believe a game could have a monster chase me, know where I was going, and make me feel unsafe in areas I thought I cleared. Fast forward to 20 years later, and I found myself doing the exact same things I did when I was a kid, totally amazed by the experience I was having, and watching as nostalgia mixed with the new experiences introduced in this remake to create something truly special.

There’s no real way to beat around the bush: the Resident Evil 2 remake is an amazing game! If that’s what you wanted to know, you can stop reading now and go buy a copy of it right this instant. It might even be my Game of the Year, and the year just started, and yes, I know that Kingdom Hearts III just came out. But the Resident Evil 2 remake has an addictive and entrancing combination of things going right for it that make the game not only thrilling to play, but a game you constantly want to get back to playing. To play again and see if you can get a better score than you did, how much ammo you could have saved, what route you might have tried to avoid Mr. X better the next time (For the record, my Leon playthrough resulted in a 7.5 hour B rank, and I’m already gunning for that A!). If you have played Resident Evil before, you’ll likely find a lot to love in this game, and if this is your first introduction to the series (or maybe second following last year’s also stellar Resident Evil 7), you’re in for a real treat. And there’s an odd magic to this remake; if you never played Resident Evil 2, it’s still an amazing game, and if you were a fan of the original, the Resident Evil 2 remake might transcend to be an almost perfect game. The graphics are amazing, and the combination of sound, lighting, and effects make the game feel tense and scary even in well-lit areas, and downright terrifying in dark ones. Each area of the game (there are 3 major ones) have a distinct feel and sense to them, making them unique and exciting to explore.

But much of that, frankly, you probably already knew. The game looks amazing and borrows heavily from the new engine used in Resident Evil 7, changing from the first person perspective of that game to the somewhat more traditional over the shoulder camera from Resident Evil 4 through 6. The controls are fluid, particularly when compared to the older “Tank Control” style of the original, but at times I found the game still had a weird inorganic movement to it that made avoiding enemies still pretty challenging in tight areas, as if the remake combined the two control schemes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4. This isn’t really a complaint, and if anything the Resident Evil 2 remake feels like the best version of Resident Evil controls since 5 (omitting 7 here since 7’s first-person view really changed the game experience). In terms of how the game feels, looks, and plays, there’s very little to complain about with this remake; it just works.

Perhaps the biggest discussion to bring up in terms of gameplay, however, is difficulty. I found myself caught off guard by the difficulty of the Resident Evil 2 remake even as someone who had played all of the previous titles, and even done runs of earlier titles at harder difficulty. Generally, I play the game on normal first, then go back and test myself with harder difficulty, or use easy difficulty to attempt a speedrun or pick up missed collectibles. In this remake, my first zombie encounter left me totally stunned and, honestly, panicking. I had shot him in the head 4 times… and he got back up! I found myself running low on ammo constantly early on because I kept trying to kill my enemies, angry at times that the monsters I had so easily killed when I was younger were now giving me trouble. And then I encountered my first Licker, and things changed.

This game is not about fighting. It is quite literally about surviving, which means making the decision of when to fight, when to run, and when to plan your next move. Normal difficulty will provide you with this question just as readily as hardcore will, and players should be prepared for that difficulty swing if they’re used to Resident Evil 4 style Super Secret Agent Leon, popping off Ganado heads and doing sick melee takedowns. You aren’t that Leon (or Code Veronica Claire) in this Resident Evil 2, you’re a person trapped in a hellscape with no way out and limited supplies. It was a funny thing to realize, because the term “survival horror” has rarely focused on the actual “survival” part, with more and more modern games focusing on early weakness transforming into endgame destruction on a grand scale as your character finds better weapons and levelled up. The Resident Evil 2 remake turns that on its head, instead focusing on making you think about the best way to get from point A to point B with the least possible risk to yourself. A mistaken calculation can cost you time, ammo, and health, and there are even times when you’ll need to judge if it’s better to take damage to avoid using up precious ammo, and you’ll certainly need that ammo when you face the bosses that this game throws at you occasionally!

Each boss fight is exciting and challenging, and while you may feel frustrated at the amount of ammo used, the game seems somewhat fair in helping you replenish yourself afterwards, and doubly rewards you for good planning and smart use of resources and your environment. At times I felt early on that I might struggle with the game and run out of ammo, but when I finally finished Leon A, I found myself literally swimming in ammunition that I could probably never use all of. Judicious use of non-combat items matters as well, and while the game doesn’t have a strict upgrade path like later installments did, you can still find ways to make your weapons better, usually by hunting safe combinations and exploring hidden areas off the beaten path. To this end, the map in Resident Evil 2 is an amazing ally and one of the best new features in the game. When you enter a new area, the map will turn red if there are any items, files, or important interactables to locate. The closer you get to that item (or, if like me, you actually brushed up against it but didn’t notice the prompt), the map will tell you exactly what that item is for you to go back and grab. Seeing what rooms were red and what weren’t really gave me a sense of knowing that I had finished an area (for the moment, at least), and tracking my progress in an organic manner.

One of the charms of Resident Evil 2, and the Resident Evil series as a whole, are its puzzles. It would probably not be incorrect to say that the Resident Evil games are actually puzzle games that occasionally have you shooting giant mutated zombies and other things. If you wanted to abstract that even further, it’s honestly fair to say that the avoidance and risk-reward routing through areas of Resident Evil 2 is a puzzle itself. This is probably also why Resident Evil 2 is one of the strongest in the franchise with its somewhat ridiculous set piece puzzles spread out around the police department. Finding weird keys, turning dials on giant statues, finding gems to insert into boxes are all within the game's experience, and it does little to ever try and make any of that make sense. In the Resident Evil 2 remake, there are a few attempts with the narrative change that the police station used to be an art museum, but it still makes little to no sense, and is lovable for it more than frustrating or silly. The sewer system, with its chess piece keys, is even sillier, and all in all adds up to what makes Resident Evil 2 so fun: its charm. The game has a weird charm about it that makes the experience fun to work through, even when fighting off flesh-eating monsters. The puzzles add a thoughtful but not particularly difficult wrinkle to that mix, making you think every action out in advance, and putting you on somewhat constant quests to find the one weird item you’ll need to open a door so you can collect a medallion to… well, you get the picture! All of that supposed backtracking may sound tedious, but it isn’t, because every time you venture back into the areas you’ve explored, not only might you find new secret places to explore or connect to, but the threats have likely changed too.

There are a few odd quirks to the game, however. One of which involves the DLC add-on that allows you to play the game with the original Resident Evil 2 score and sound effects for things like menus and typewriters; once I heard about it from friends, I bought it myself during the review and was blown away by how much it changes the experience! While it may not matter as much initially if you’re new to Resident Evil 2, playing with the original score was the missing component for me in some ways of merging the two versions of the game. Hearing the classic police station music play when I entered the main lobby was an amazing thing, and it made me feel like I was 20 years in the past, playing the game for the first time. Even if this remake is your first rodeo with the game, I honestly suggest getting the DLC to really complete the package; the new score is fine by all means, but the original score was a real work of art that fit the game perfectly. The added benefit of the Resident Evil 2 sound effects being thrown in was a great bonus.

  My second issue with the game is voice acting. For whatever reason, Capcom decided not to use the union backed voice actors from past Resident Evil games; I’m not sure if development and recording for this game coincided with the SAG-AFTRA strike that took many voice actors out of games, but what I am sure of is that I think Capcom did the game a disservice by not working with the original actors to ensure the true feeling of Resident Evil 2 was preserved. The new voices of Leon, Claire, and the rest are fine, but they feel off or wrong in a way that you think you know what these characters might sound like, and they don’t. Some line readings are a little awkward (I’ve found this to be the case with Claire more than Leon), and while 20 years ago we might consider that campy charm, here it just sounds… odd. I don’t think there’ll ever be some way to fix this in DLC like with the music, and it makes me sad. I really enjoy the Resident Evil 2 remake, and don’t think I’d not play the game because of it, but I wish Capcom had waited or elected to pay the union actors and preserved the original personalities and intonations of the Resident Evil cast before release. As a few minor notes, if you get extremely anxious while playing horror games, or find games where monsters chase you constantly (like Alien: Isolation) hard to play, do know that Mr. X can be a bit of a handful (he’s really smart), but it doesn’t take up as much of the game as it seems. It can change the pacing and comfort level a bit, so be forewarned!

As we got our code right at release, I decided to take my time with the game and play through the storylines fully to see what the full game really had to offer. It may seem odd for a review, but here are a few tips that I learned while playing that I hope can help you out when you try out Resident Evil 2:

1) If you don’t think you’ll enter an area often or for a long time, aim for zombie’s legs rather than try to kill them if you can’t just dodge by them. It slows them down considerably and saves some ammo.

2) Blue herbs may seem worthless (there are like 2 enemies in the game that poison you) but can be combined with Red+Green herb mixtures to give poison healing but, more importantly, damage resistance! Great for boss fights!

3) Save frequently and cycle saves; I hunted a few trophies this way that I either missed initially, or would have needed to go back and do things I might not have done originally to get them.

4) Don’t worry about your ranking! That’s what replays are for! The game rewards multiple play through attempts through familiarity and speed.

5) Dogs suck. Run.

6) You get the ability to craft certain types of ammo. Always prioritize weapons that have scarce ammo but big impact on your play style or needs.

    If you are a Resident Evil fan, you probably stopped reading this review after the second paragraph; the game is just that good and you probably already bought it. If you’re new or on the fence, or never got to experience Resident Evil 2 the first time, you should absolutely consider making this game part of your library. There are a lot of great reasons to play through the game multiple times, and Capcom has promised some new DLC expansions to add on to the game over time as well. Even without them, the Resident Evil 2 remake is an absolute blast of amazing gameplay and experiences that you’ll find yourself going back to again and again, wondering if this time, just maybe, you can get that S rank. So buckle up, take your G-Virus shots, and get ready to tag along with Leon and Claire.

REVIEW ROUNDUP

+ Amazing atmosphere, graphics, sound direction, and controls make this probably the best Resident Evil yet

+ There is a lot to do across multiple routes and reasons to keep replaying the game

+ It’s Resident Evil 2!

+/- Difficulty might turn off some at first, but it is worth sticking through and learning from your mistakes

- While almost everything else is fantastic, the non-union voice actors used instead of the original cast is a real letdown

  Are you a member of S.T.A.R.S., returning for more? Or will this be your first encounter with Resident Evil? Let us know what you think of the game in the comments!

----

Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

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[wholivesinabedroomandneverleaves]

Thief of the Crown 2/?

Part List

Ship: Jungkook x Reader

Description: You plan a heist of the kings new crown. When it fails and you’re facing trial in front of the king’s court. You get a deadly job offer that brings you closer to his royalty, Jeon Jungkook.

Warnings: Mild cursing.

Word Count: 1,686

King Jungkook or however he calls himself.

You stand awkwardly in the kitchen, not knowing what to do. But people shove past you as if to say 'you're in the way of my job', so you walk to the next room, which is a pantry filled with herbs, flour and so much more stuff you can't even imagine counting.

"Excuse me, Miss," a woman says, brushing past you holding a large empty pot. You guess this is also not a good place to stand around either. You are completely useless. 

Walking through the pantry you enter a hallway. Remembering how you were escorted here, this leads to the big room. Next, to the entryway of the pantry, there is a small staircase with a plaque on which hung 7 bells. Each bell had a small silver nameplate. Each plate had a different name, Yoongi, the man who wanted to kill you, Seokjin, Jimin, Taehyung, Namjoon, Hoseok, and Jungkook. All of which you assume to be the people you previously met in the large room.

Deciding to explore, you ascend the staircase. Spiraling tightly upwards the stairs lead to more hallways. One straight ahead and a second on the right and a third hall on the left. The hallway ahead was highly decorated, with a bright carpet and embellished tapestries. 3 large doors, which you assume to be rooms were in this hallway. To the left and right, the hallways have 2 doors respectively before extending onwards.

You believe to have ended up somewhere in the corner of the main castle since windows are on most walls. Unlike the Maids House or Wing whatever they call it, which doesn't have any windows. You want to see more so you decide to take the hall straight ahead, there is one door in the right and two on the left. “The king probably has the larger room,” you say, thinking out loud.

"What are you doing here?" someone asks you sternly. A man was standing a couple feet away from you, he had a long robe on that touched the floor. Part of his chest was showing, you hate that you noticed. You don't usually take notice nor care about good-looking people. But this guy was extremely handsome now that you see him relatively close up. "Umm. . . just taking a look around," you respond as calmly as possible. "You can't be here," he smoothly tells you. "Who said I couldn't be," you retort. I mean, who even is this guy, he could just be some random servant or knight. "The king," he bluntly states. "How do you know what the king orders." "Because I am the king," he replies sharply. SO THIS is the king, and you are very sure you just disrespected him on so many levels. "Uh. . . well, I guess I'll just go back down those stairs," you mumble, attempting to walk past him. Stepping in front of you Jungkook says, "Dinner is in 10 minutes, the dining area is down the left hall then take 1 left and 1 right and enter the first set of rectangular doors." "My left or your left?" "My left, and by the way. Don't be late," you swear he gives you a slight smile as he steps out of the way.

You briskly walk to YOUR right, which is Jungkooks left, then proceed to the route given. Luckily you make your way to the dining room before anyone else is there. You doubt the king's court would appreciate you being late. 10 seats are set up at a long polished wood table. A golden chandelier hangs above the table. Deciding the best option is to stand by the door since you have no idea where to sit.

Leaning against the doorframe you wait. An eternity passes before you can hear multiple people's footsteps down the hall.

You stay leaning against the door. As the 7 men walk up to you. They seem much more intimidating than before, or maybe you’re just on high alert. 

As they come closer to the doors, you ask, "What is the seating arrangement going to be?"

"We sit first, and you'll get the empty spot," one of the men replies.

"As you wish," you gesture for them to enter the room, even though you're still in the doorway. The men pass you by in single file, eyeing you skeptically. The group sits with, Jungkook at the head of the table and 3 on one side and 3 on the other leaving 3 seats open. You opt for a seat next to the king, the other 2 are extremely close to Yoongi. Who probably doesn't want to eat dinner next to you. Sitting down an awkward silence falls on the room. All of them are looking at you and now that you can see them well they all are extremely handsome.

"So. . . umm, is it normal for you guys to eat in silence?" you ask. They stay still as if they're waiting for something. What the hell is going on, you think.

Then you hear the sound of smashed glass and you're already standing up out of your chair. Alarmed you go to the entrance of the room, to be faced with a tall robed man, allowing you to only see his eyes. The first punch comes at your face, dodging out of instinct bides you enough to grab his arm and twist quickly. No sound of breakage happened but you knew it hurt like hell. You quickly step out of his punching range, this guy is slow but he has powerful punches. One and done if I'm hit, you tell yourself. The man takes two quick steps forward and punched for your chest. He moves quickly but punches slow. You doge to his outside and kick the side of his knee. He falls in pain, you glance at his knee, which is messed up real bad. The man ignores you and swiftly you hit him in the head to knock him out. That was easy, too easy, you think, putting the puzzle pieces together. This was probably a test or something.

"Did you guys set this up?" you ask, turning to see none of them even glancing in your direction. "Now we may proceed with dinner," the king says. There's still a guy at the doorway knocked out, you think. Once you sit, maids and waiters come with large platters of food and you notice two knights taking the unconscious man away from the door.

Grabbing some pork and apples along with bread, you realize you haven't eaten so well in ages. All of the men proceed with small talk, how was your day, how is your mother blah blah blah. You turn to the man next to you, he has a small nose and a big smile on his face.

"Excuse me," you say as politely as you can. "Yes?" he asks, the man looks surprised to see you. Probably not used to eating dinner with a thief, you think. "What is your name. . . and everyone else's I have no idea who anyone is," you ask, praying this guy is at least kind of nice. "Ahh well, I am Earl Hoseok, it is easier to call us all by our first names since 3 of them have the same last name," he tells you, "next to me is Earl Namjoon and next to him is Earl Seokjin. Across from us is Earl Jimin, Earl Taehyung, and Earl Yoongi." "Ahh. . . ok, thank you for the help," you respond.

Jungkook stands, which quiets everyone immediately. "We welcome Y/n to our dinner, although her past may be shameful we are happy to have a guest and let the kingdom prosper onwards."

To his words, you take your first bite. The food is delicious, amazing, the best you've ever had. There are only a few side conversations now, allowing you to hone in on one between Seokjin and Namjoon. "I wish there was fish tonight," Seokjin complained. "Meat is obviously better," Namjoon retorted.

Giggling a little from their interaction, you feel a nudge on your arm. "What is so funny?" Jungkook questions. "Oh nothing," you reply, holding in your laugh. "Yeah right," he whispers and continues to eat his food.

The food is the best you've ever had. Tonight you couldn't wait to compliment Mrs. Sterling on her cooking. Dinner went on and conversations began to pick up again.

"I'm planning on having a ball in celebration of my birthday," Jungkook said to Jimin. "You know what would be fun," Jimin replied, "a masquerade." "I agree," you butt in uninvited, "wouldn't it be fun to do whatever you want since no one knows you’re the king." "Easier said than done," Jungkook responds. "Just get a larger mask." "Alright, well who would you invite?" Jimin asks. "Family, Friends, I haven't come up with a complete list yet," Jungkook says. "Invite some nobility from other kingdoms, you know you're coming of age to marry," Jimin said playfully. "And so are you. Don't make me seem like the one who won't talk to women."

You laugh a little. These guys, even though they seem to dislike you aren't that bad.

Once dinner was finished the men filed out leaving you and Jungkook who are last out. A hand touches on your shoulder, stopping you. Jungkook is an arm's length away as you turn to face him, all the other guys have gone down the hall to their respective rooms.

"Y/n, I'll be giving you combat lessons as I could not find someone to train you and Jimin is too busy working out foreign affairs. Meet me at 6am sharp at the top of those stairs I saw you at today, the maids wake up at 5am so you'll be up in time," Jungkook says. "Thanks, for it all you know. I appreciate I got to eat dinner with you all and the clothes." "Don't worry, and I enjoyed our conversation. Also, you should apologize to Sir Henry, you really gave him a beating," Jungkook walks past you without another word.

You feel warm inside. He has stolen your heart and you don't believe you can get it back. . . or really want it back.

Comment any suggestions and I hope you liked it!!!!

#Thief of the Crown #bts #bts fanfction #bts fanfic #bts fic #fanfic #bangtan #Jungkook x reader #jeon jungkook #taehyung #namjoon #seokjin #yoongi #hoseok #park jimin #jimin #jungkook fanfic

[black-wolf066]

Never a Dull Moment [4/?]

Rating: pg-13 to be on the safe side

Summary: In which the land of untold stories should have been a warning that it wasn’t just fairytales that were real. (Killian whump and BAMF Henry)

Words: 3637

[Part 1]  [Part 2]  [Part 3]  [4]  and  [FF.net Link]

((((((A/N: Sorry that this took so long. Between the holidays and my own muse jumping ship to write other things, it’s been difficult to just sit down and flesh the chapter out. There should be one more chapter before I call “Dull Moment” done, but we’ll see how that one goes.)))))))

Tagging @killianmesmalls @theonceoverthinker @killian-whump and @mcbrideannemgt

Chapter 4: Recovery

The distant echo of the falls, filtered in from the open archways of the room and into Henry’s ears as he sat with his thoughts. The repetitive rumble of the water was soothing, but it wasn’t enough to bring total relaxation as he shifted—for what felt like the umpteenth time—in the rough, wooden chair by Killian’s bedside.

It was late in the night, or possibly even early in the morning, but for the most part the metropolis was silent. The whirling of the vehicles and the low din from the markets had long since stopped; the citizens having all mostly gone to bed already. Not everyone was asleep however, for Henry could still hear a few of the healers, tasked with watching Killian’s fragile condition tonight, murmuring lowly in Atlantian in the adjoining room.

He shifted his legs once again on the mattress—being mindful not to knock into Killian’s own—to try and bring a bit of circulation back into them and his sore tailbone. He knew he should be sleeping in the second bed that was provided to him, but his mind was too wired to shut off. Not with the day’s chaotic happenings still running on loop; or the worry for their family in Storybrooke, and for Killian, still gnawing away at his nerves.

Henry would be lucky if sleep found him at all this night.

His bandaged hand gripped the uninjured flesh of Killian’s stump a little tighter; his mind veering off to one of his earlier conversations with Kida after being looked at by a healer, and being given a spare change of clothing.

“Tell me Henry, how is it your realm knows of Atlantis?”

Returning to his seat and flexing his hands against the stiff bindings of the cloth bandages; Henry replied. “Where I come from, it’s mostly myth, but there is one story that I find comes the closest to what I’ve seen here.”

“Really?” she asked with intrigue, silently gesturing for him to continue.

“Yes,” he nodded. “It… roughly chronicles how you and Milo met.” At her startled look, he gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry; I’m sure they got things wrong. My family isn’t from my realm either, and let me tell you, their stories aren’t depicted any better.”

“You aren’t from their realm?”

“I wasn’t born in the Enchanted Forest.”

She hummed in thought before curiously asking. “Are there any other worlds that have our stories?”

“Honestly?” he began; his mind suddenly wondering if there were any other realities involving his own family (a thought he filed away to think on later when he returned home). “I’m not exactly sure, but it is a high probability. I mean, in the Enchanted Forest, Atlantis was underwater and ruled by Poseidon and the Mer-people. And it my world, it’s nothing more than stories.”

“That’s… remarkable.” She breathed in awe. “I… I guess I should have expected it after meeting your father, but...”

“You never expected your home to exist… or suffer a different fate?” he finished gently for her when she trailed off.

“Yes,”

Wanting his own questions answered, he began by starting off small. “Kida, in the tale from my world, there was a highway that led to your city, is that true?”

“There was,” She nodded. “Before it was destroyed. It was how my husband, and the crew he journeyed with, found Atlantis so long ago.”

“The stories never mentioned a second entrance, though.”

“The entrance you came through was built sometime after.” She explained, as she stood and motioned for him to follow her toward the open archway of the large throne room. “We had always had our presumptions that there was land above us, but it wasn’t until after the volcano had gone dormant again, that we discovered just how large that piece of land was.”

“And you found no one else living on it?”

“No one alive.” she answered solemnly. “The eruption must have wiped them out.” She shook her head as her face tilted upward toward the high cavern ceiling. “We learned of their existence around the same time we learned of the artifact that once belonged to them.”

“What about the crystals?” he prompted hopefully, Killian never straying far from his mind. “From what I remember, it was said that they hold a great power, and they were able to heal most wounds.” He glanced down at his bandaged hands and arms in confusion at that, just now realizing that the crystal hadn’t been used at all during the procedure, and looked up in time to see Kida smiling forlornly at him.

“I’m afraid it doesn’t work quite like how you think, young one.” her hand reached up to clutch at her own necklace as she explained. “You are right about one thing, Henry; these crystals do have great power. It’s what protects Atlantis and the people with in it. It’s what has kept us alive for thousands of years, but it does not heal wounds. If it did, my father would still be ruling this kingdom.”

Henry deflated visibly at that. “So, my—”

“That does not mean you should give up hope.” She cut in sternly. “Since my husband’s arrival, we have learned much in the course of four hundred years.” His eyes widened at that, vaguely remembering that Milo’s adventure had taken place in the early nineteen hundreds. Kida smiled gently at him as she broke him out of his thoughts by continuing. “Your father is in good hands, Henry.” Her gentle smile shifted toward the mischievous side then—a trait Hakan must have picked up on from her. “And if memory serves me right, he’s too stubborn to let something like this get to him.”

Henry snorted at the memory and at the surety in which Kida had spoken with. Even now, with Killian’s life still hanging in the balance, he could hear her optimism ringing in his head as his eyes shifted to the prone form on the straw mattress. He may have had the heart of the truest believer, but even Henry had his limits. After all, there were only so many times Killian could cheat death before eventually one of them stuck.

Henry just hoped this wasn’t that time.

There was also the matter of finding a way home.

“Is there anything I could use to get us back?”

“I’m not sure.” She answered and continued before he could allow the remorse to set in. “That does not mean it’s impossible. You have to understand, Henry, that there was a long period of time where our history was buried and forgotten amongst us. It’s through my husband’s knowledge, and my own tenacity, that we managed to get Atlantis back to a semblance of what it used to be.” She gestured to the stone pillars surrounding the throne room, and for the first time since stepping foot into the space, Henry took notice of the dull blue glow of the faces and hieroglyphs craved into them. “There are still things left of our history we have yet to uncover.”

“So, there could be something here?”

“I can’t make any promises, Henry, but if there is, Milo would be the one to find it.”

With a sigh, he squirmed around in his seat; the uncomfortable surface of the chair pulling him from his thoughts once again. Despite the urging from the healers (that he was no good to anyone exhausted, and Killian wouldn’t want him to suffer like this), Henry just couldn’t find it in himself to move away from the bedside. Not after being told there was nothing else they could do; that they would simply have to wait out the raging fever, and hope the tonics would counteract the plants venom. Killian’s scarred skin, even through the layer of bandages around Henry’s hand, felt hot to the touch and he prayed that Zeus wouldn’t claim him this night.

He already had one father up there in Olympus; Henry refused to allow Zeus to claim the other.

Eventually, as the time ticked by, Henry managed to conk out when he couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. But it was far from restful; his subconscious hanging on the balance of awareness and sleep as the healers periodically came in through the night to check on Killian.

“Don’t make me forcibly remove you from this room, young man!”

He startled fully awake as he turned to stare at the elderly head healer (her no nonsense attitude reminding him a great deal of Granny, to the point he had a feeling the women would get along just great, if they were ever to meet). His blurry eyes cleared to see her disproving scowl, and he cringed, grinning sheepishly at her as he fidgeted in the seat.

“Sorry Aponi,” was all he could manage as he moved to stand, his stiff back and knees popping after being left in the uncomfortable position for so long.

He didn’t have a single doubt that her threat was a warning; her eyes watching his movements like a hawk as he ventured to the untouched bed on the other side of the room. When he was under the blankets, she nodded once in her satisfaction before moving to check on Killian, and he rolled onto his side and watched her as she worked. His eyes grew heavy again, but they refused to shut until he was sure everything was fine. And at Aponi’s gentle hum and nod, he sagged farther into the soft straw mattress and snorted as he watched her pick up the chair and leave with it with one final glare of warning.

Sleep claimed him not long after.

(***)

A distressed noise penetrated the fog of sleep and startled Henry back into alertness. He blinked his blurry eyes rapidly to clear them, the dull rays of sun beginning to filter in through the sheer curtains covering the archways as he rolled over.

“Dad!” he yelled the moment he heard the noise again. It was a sound caught between a grunt and a whine, and in a blink, he quickly disentangled himself from the sheets and was by Killian’s side in the next. “Dad?!” he hovered helplessly, his hands frozen in fear over Killian’s convulsing form; not knowing if he was having a seizure or battling the demons in his sleep. “Help! I need help!” he yelled out; the faint red color, seeping onto the white sheet, startling him into action as he finally moved to pin Killian down. Only to duck and narrowly avoid getting hit as his left arm unconsciously swung out. “Someone help!”

Within seconds, Aponi and four others—three women and a younger man—were swarming into the room and pulling him up and off.

Henry struggled against the stronger, male healer’s hold; all logical thought leaving as shock and panic found a home instead. He vaguely heard his name being called over the loud din of chaos, his ears ringing and his muscles straining to be freed as he was forcibly dragged from the room. It was only out in the hall, did Henry realize the loud noises were coming mostly from his own mouth. The healer, Paku—or had he introduced himself as Nahko—was saying something, but the words weren’t registering. Every time Henry tried to take a step back into the room, the man was in his way; pushing against his shoulders and uttering words that were probably meant to sooth if Henry were actually paying attention to them. When it became clear he wasn’t allowed back in, his irrational mind did the only other thing it could think of.

He pulled an Emma Swan and ran.

He ran as far and as fast as his feet and the uneven stone terrain would allow; racing down steps, past startled inhabitants and around sharp corners of market streets and buildings. He ran until he was at the outskirts of the city and even then he didn’t stop. The air felt like knives against his lungs with each breathe he took as he pushed forward, hopping from slippery rock to slippery rock to traverse over the water toward a small cluster of ruins.

He slid a few times against the stones as he rushed across, the final time actually landing him into the deep, surprisingly unmoving—considering the surrounding falls—water as he spluttered to the surface and swam the rest of the way. By the time he reached the edge of the island, he was sore and slightly cold; having made the trip with bare feet and nothing but the borrowed cloth pants he slept in. They were nothing more than minor grievances—still too far gone in his shock to care—as he ducked underneath a leaning pillar and sat behind one of the boulders.

What’s going to happen now? He thought dejectedly as he hunched in on himself and rested his cheek against his bent knees.

If Killian didn’t make it, what was he going to tell his mom when he finally saw her again? How was he going to tell her that Killian had sacrificed himself for the fifth time? How could he tell her that he had failed to save him; that he wasn’t cut out to be like the rest of his family?

The excitement he had felt at getting David’s sword—a symbol of courage and of a hero—now felt like a hollow undertaking that he couldn’t even dream of being able to fulfill.

(***)

He didn’t know how long he sat there; just long enough for everything to grow stiff and his pants to dry, but other than that, the passing of time was all but lost to Henry.

The gentle babble of the surrounding water, and the roar of the falls, had done absolutely nothing to sooth him and his inner turmoil. It wasn’t the crashing waves of the ocean. And the ruins he sat in, wasn’t the familiar and comforting wood of the Jolly either. He wanted this to be a dream.

He wanted to go home.

The sudden shadow blocking the light, and the clearing of a throat, brought Henry’s attention to the opening where a very tall man stood. His face was shadowed for only a moment until he ducked and made his way inside. He was pale skinned, solidly built, and looked for all the world like a Viking with his flaming red hair and bushy overgrown beard.

“There you are, we’ve been looking all over for you.” he uttered with a small gentle smile; the timber of his voice, deep and rich as he squeezed to sit in the space across from him. “Just thought you’d like to know that your father is alright; Aponi managed to get him stable again.”

Henry’s shoulders sagged in relief.

He could still die, his traitorous thoughts piped up.

He tensed again.

“I’m Milo.” The man spoke, effectively freeing Henry from the dark thoughts for now, as he shot his hand out for Henry to shake.

Henry simply gawked at him. Sure, he had had his suspicions the moment he saw him, but Milo was nowhere near to his cartoon counterpart; the earlier thought of Viking a far cry from the lanky, shorter scholar he was depicted as. Then his manners finally caught up and he fumbled forward to accept the offered handshake.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Milo.”

That gentle smile, half buried under red, curly whiskers, reappeared. “The pleasure is mine, Henry. I spoke with my wife and son last night, and they told me you seek of a way home?”

“Yes, do you know of anything?”

Milo shook his head. “I haven’t come across anything yet, but we’re still trying to free several stone slabs from the muck underneath the surface. Maybe there’s something there?”

“Maybe,” he trailed off, his thoughts creeping back.

Much like the day Emma stabbed Killian through the chest with Excalibur, the image of Killian convulsing wildly on the bed, would equally haunt his dreams for years to come.

“He’s going to be okay.” Milo urged.

“You don’t know that.” Henry couldn’t help but argue back. “What happened anyway?”

“Aponi believes it was a combination of the venom and a bad reaction to the tonic. He must have been allergic to one of the herbs and his body didn’t respond until after the second dosage.” He explained. “But the situation is under control now. Aponi is giving him a new tonic and they’ll be monitoring him more frequently to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” He then stood and extended his arm out once more as he gestured toward the exit of the nook. “Come, and I’ll show you the proof, myself.”

(***)

Henry refused to be removed from his bedside for the entire day and night after that; only straying out of the room when he needed to relieve himself or when Nahko would come in to clean up when Killian did.

Even Aponi knew better than to try; having brought in a comfier chair for him to sit on as he sat vigil by Killian’s side. And with the healers bringing him things to eat and drink every time they came in to check on Killian’s condition, Henry could do nothing more than sit back and wait.

(***)

On the second day, Killian’s fever broke.

There was a little more color to the pale pallor of his skin, and his breathing didn’t seem as strained as it had been from the start.

Aponi had high hopes that he would wake soon enough.

(***)

On the third day, Killian awoke for all of five minutes.

Henry had missed it.

The moment Killian’s fever had broken, and they deemed that the worst of the venom’s affects were over with; Aponi had gone straight back to nagging Henry from here to kingdom-come.

“You’ll hurt your back if you continue to sleep in that chair.”

“You’re too skinny; you need more meat on those bones, young man.”

“Go and stretch your legs a little; your father isn’t going anywhere.”

It was during one such occurrence of nagging—with Henry appeasing her by heading down for the market—that he had managed to miss it. By the time Nahko had arrived, out of breath, to tell him the news and bring him back, Killian had long since succumbed to his exhaustion.

Henry wasn’t willing to move from the room after that, no matter how much Aponi tried.

(***)

The second time came when Henry himself was asleep.

He was stationed back at Killian’s bedside (despite Aponi’s great displeasure against it); with his feet propped up on the straw mattress, and Killian’s stump clutched loosely in his right hand.

The feeling of his arm being moved, had disturbed his sleep enough for him to groan irritably and loudly; thinking it was nothing more than Aponi coming back to forcibly remove him from the chair herself. He was just about to tell her he was fine where he was, at least, until he realized the hand grasping his wasn’t dainty and wrinkled, but large and callused and no longer resting against the sheets of the bed.

His eyes snapped open and he swiveled his head to find Killian staring back; relief overruling the fatigue he could see on his face. There was a small moment where neither of them moved, for Henry couldn’t quite believe his eyes. Then the moment was over as he jumped up and leaned down to hug him; his face burying itself against the crook of Killian’s neck in his own relief.

“You’re an idiot.” Henry finally muttered against his skin as he felt Killian’s left arm shift up to return the hug.

The resulting chuckle ended quickly on a wince as Killian rasped out. “Don’t make me laugh, my boy; that hurt.”

“Yeah,” He snorted. “I stand by what I said.”

Once he retrieved water for Killian’s parched throat, and Nahko for a quick check up and some help with propping him up against the pillows; the questions came after. Henry filled in the gaps as best he could, relaying the parts of the story he felt necessary to tell, and how Milo and the others were working to figure out a way home for them.

“You know,” Killian began, “Sometimes it’s hard for me to believe how much you’ve grown. You aren’t the little boy I helped save all those years ago in Neverland.”

“I know; I hear it a lot from both moms…”

“You would hear it from your other father too, lad.” They both smiled sadly at that. “Bae would have been just as proud of you as I am, Henry; don’t ever forget that.”

The silence that fell afterwards was comfortable, until Henry felt the need to break it. Three days surrounded by strangers and his own worry, would do that he supposed. Not to mention the fact that Killian’s timber, no matter how raspy with disuse it was at the moment, always seemed to calm him in the past when Emma or Regina couldn’t.

“So,” he started; shifting in the chair and murmuring an apology as his foot knocked against Killian’s leg. “Atlantis, huh?”

“I’m sorry lad, I—”

“It’s okay, dad. I understand.” he cut him off with a smirk. “It’s just cool to hear you’ve always had the makings of a hero. Even when you were at your darkest.”

Killian shifted his attention uncomfortably away at that, before catching himself and gazing back. “Well… what can I say? I had the right people there to guide me and remind me that I could be a part of something.”

They shared a smile at that as the distant echo of the falls filled the silence once again.

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