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damienthepious · 3 years

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yeah. hope y’all didn’t forget this one entirely.

You Want To Live (When Life Is Achingly Unfair) [chapter 3]

[ch 1] [ch 2] [ao3] [ch 4]

Archive Warning: Major Character Death

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Sir Damien/Rilla, Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Sir Damien, Rilla, Lord Arum

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Alternate Universe - Orpheus/Eurydice/Hades, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, (though there will NOT be relief until later chapters), Death, (Death but it’s Weird when the afterlife is a place you can just Go), Singing

Summary: Damien’s beloved dies in spring. His flower dies, among flowers. This cruelty is not without beauty.

Chapter Summary: Damien descends.

Chapter Notes: it's! been a while! i'm a fickle creature. idk sometimes i think just me and two other people like this one, but i guess i'm writing for them! so!!! it's fine!!!!!

The Lord of Death remains beside Rilla, and time passes, or does not. It is all- confusing, here. Rilla suspects that the bank around her changes-

No, she figures it's more likely that she is moving along the water. She has the impression that things don't really… progress, here. It does seem as if the bend of the sluggish river moves at her back, tufts of grass and scattered spurs of flowers shifting and reorienting, but she never notices the change itself, only the new configurations. The Lord of Death waits, and does not seem bothered to do so.

They speak, when Rilla feels present enough to do so, when she pushes through the obscurity of this place, the vagueness and distraction and timeless fog. They speak, and it is both strange and natural at the same moment.

The Lord of Death has a name, apparently, and not merely a title. Here, in his own realm, he is called Arum.

Rilla doesn't think that he told her. She knows, regardless. She's less irritated by that than she should be.

"How long have you been watching me, then? If I'm supposed to be some sort of... friend to you, that is."

Arum's mouth curls, something like a smile. "I am rather too busy with my duties to devote time to watching you, but I would say that I have known you since you first began to insist upon helping in your parents' work. And I do mean insist."

Rilla laughs, and this time she's sure she isn't imagining it- the realm seems to flicker brighter as she does, like soft, silent lightning.

"Yeah, well," she rolls her eyes, amused by the image of her own small self, jaw set as she made herself too helpful for her parents to usher away. Amused as well by the idea of the Lord of Death noting the presence of her small hands, passing instruments and medicines to those who better knew how to use them, until she was big enough to take them for herself. "I'm stubborn. I've always been stubborn."

"Yes," Arum says, an edge of sadness coloring his tone. "So you were."

"Don't do that," Rilla says with a scowl, and the god blinks. "Don't give me a tense shift, I'm betrothed to a poet, I know what you're doing. I may be- dead, but I'm here, and I'm talking to you, aren't I? You can't talk about me like that while you're speaking right to me."

"Hm. Very well," Arum says, his tail slowly coiling, and Rilla never expected the Lord of Death to have such warmth in his eyes. Least of all while he looks at her. "You, Amaryllis," he says slowly, "are stubborn. Presently."

"Even as a corpse," she says with a snort, and Arum's snout wrinkles, just barely concealing his own sad smile.

The crossing into the realm of death is too dreamlike for proper memory: Damien descends, descends, the notes of his voice fluttering behind him like ribbons in the breeze, and then he stands in a small boat on the bank of a quick river, uncertain of the transition.

"Sit, seeker," the ferryman murmurs.

Horns pierce through the hood of the dark, plush cape that obscures his face, and he holds the pole to guide their vessel in long, slender, scaled hands tipped with claws- but the grief and determination and song are too large within Damien to make room for any degree of fear.

"Sit," he says again, more sternly. "Sit, singer, unless you should like to put us both in these waters."

Damien obeys, carefully settling himself opposite the ferryman.

"You cannot stop," the creature says slowly, "can you?"

Damien realizes, after a moment, that the ferryman is referring to the notes pouring from his lips. He manages something like a smile, his eyes burning, his heart aching, and then he shakes his head.

The creature picks them slowly across the waters with his pole, his eyes downcast beneath his thick hood, and Damien tries to keep his mind fixed, attentive on his goal. The fog rises over the water, over the pair of them, disorienting and strange, and it seems to muffle every edge. Damien can feel it, can feel it trying to ease the grief within him, trying to lull his sadness into silence.

The song that flows from him is a help, in this way. His sorrow rings too clear a note, dispelling the curls of gray that edge too close. Distant, distant, subtle and soft, Damien thinks he hears an echo. A resonance, like the hum of glass when it senses a sympathetic note. He does not understand it, but he feels it.

"You cannot stop," the ferryman repeats, "can you?"

An echo of Damien's sorrow rings in his voice, now, and Damien knows that he means something different , now. He shakes his head again.

"I cannot," he croons, his eyes slipping closed. "I must descend, I must cross. I must find her again. I cannot stop, I cannot turn aside, I cannot forget- without her, I am... I am only the instrument of my grief."

"You still live," the ferryman says, low and full of more emotion than Damien expects. "More than an instrument is required, to weave beauty such as yours. Skill, and love, and magic. You are not so hollow as you claim, I assure you of that."

Perhaps it is something in the magic of this place, perhaps it is the earnest warning in the ferryman's voice and the shine of tears Damien can see flashing beneath his hood, perhaps it is the fact that he is closer, now, to Rilla than he has been since her death, but-

He feels... less hollow than he had, before.

"You can stop, if you wish. You have that choice, still, within your hands. There is still time. I may still turn the boat around, to return you where you belong," the ferryman says, his voice terribly soft, and Damien's heart falls. "Defying the laws of life and death will not come without cost, regardless of the beauty of your song. What would it take," he whispers, "to cause you to leave this place with your aims unfulfilled?"

"There is no prize of such worth, no consolation to be had, no gold nor glory nor favor that could wrench my heart from hers," Damien says, and his words shift to song as they leave his tongue, woven through with magic and such deep truth that he feels it sink into his bones. "I will not return to the land of the living without her by my side."

This is true as well. Damien knows, as he speaks these words, that this is both prophecy and curse in potentia.

She will leave with him, or he will not leave at all. They will both rise to sunlight again, or neither of them will.

"You believe that she would be pleased, to know that you would toss yourself into death to find her again?"

The way Rilla's eyes would flash, the scowl on her lips, her furrowed brow, the musculature of her arms as she crosses them furiously in front of her chest-

"She will be incandescent with rage," Damien keens, and the notes of the song bounce with his almost-sob. "I shall be so, so blessed to bear her ire again at last."

The ferryman stares for a long, long moment, the waters and the fog both curling past them, and at long, long last he sighs.

"You truly have no fear of Death, then?"

Damien considers. This river is a threshold; he can feel the way it pulls him in both directions. He can feel the memory of Rilla at his back, the glow of the living world. He can feel her soul ahead of him, in the more still waters.

"My greatest fear is behind me, already come to pass," Damien sings, gentle. "Perhaps there is danger ahead, but there my only hope lives, too." Damien smiles, despite the wetness on his cheeks. "Hope lives with death, now. With her."

#elle's fanfic #the penumbra podcast #second citadel #rad bouquet #lizard kissin' tuesday #lord arum #amaryllis of exile #sir damien #mourning bouquet au #bah. bah i say..

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thewildwaffle · 4 years

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Abduction - Chapter 30

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***

Waking up was more painful than normal. It didn’t help that Simmo didn’t recognize her surroundings once she was awake. It was a hospital, she gathered that from the tubing and scanners that were attached all over her carapace.

She didn’t remember how she got here.

She groaned. What did she remember? Being on the Arum Bloom. That brought a flood of memories rushing overwhelmingly through her brain. She pushed them back. They could be processed later. What happened after?

She remembered being cramped on the shuttle. She knew she had passed in and out of consciousness a number of times. She remembered seeing an impossibly huge ship-fortress-thing and that it was getting closer. That must have been the legendary Rock Base she’d always heard of. Her antenna twitched suddenly. Oh. That’s where she was. She looked around her again. She was on the Galactic Confederation’s Rock Base? Well, it didn’t look like much from here.

Her mandibles rapidly clicked as she struggled to sit up. No. That wasn’t happening. Her sharp claws sunk into the soft gel underneath as she tried to at least prop herself up enough to get a better look at her surroundings.

It was your basic med bay room. Although the long-necked, armed guard at the door was probably not part of the standard package.

It was a striped Daydam, Simmo noticed. They were usually spotted. Its fur was also darker than most Daydam, or at least any Daydam she had ever come across before, ruddy brown and black with thin off-white stripes. It was slouched on all fours, but as soon as it noticed Simmo staring, it straightened up onto two legs and activated its comm device.

“Room 14C reporting in. It’s awake… yes… yes… affirmative… standing by.”

Simmo hissed. It. She’d been called an “it”. Not for the first time in her life, to be fair, but it had been a while. If she had the strength, she’d strut over to the pompous guard and cut some respect into them.

But she could barely lift herself enough to see the room. She couldn’t even quite reach up to all the wires and tubes that were attached to her. She was stuck here for the time being. Until whatever plans the guards around here had for her were put in motion. She gave her best death glare to the Daydam. She doubted that in her state she looked that threatening though.

Movement caught her eyes from beyond the door.

“Hey guys, I found Simmo, she’s in here!” Mike’s iconically loud voice made both her and the guard jump.

“Hey! What are you doing out?”

Mike was followed by Wenona who was wearing a blank expression and blinking slowly. Mike must have woken her up.

“What do you mean, ‘out’?” Mike stepped into Simmo’s room and quirked an eyebrow at the Daydam. It would have been a funny looking expression if it wasn’t being directed at a now very tense guard. “It’s basically house arrest to this medical ward. We’re in the medical ward. We’re fine.” He paused and looked over to Simmo. “Simms! What’s up with you? You look like crap.” Simmo froze and tilted her antenna disapprovingly. “Excuse me?”

“Uh, sorry. You look like a mess.” He walked fully into the room followed by Wenona, and to Simmo’s surprise, Jebannuck, who immediately found a seat and sat down with a quiet huff. From her low vantage point, Simmo also thought she saw the tip of a poof of orange fur following him. A Booka gingerly tried jumping up into the chair next to Jeb. Simmo recognized her as the Booka from the rescue team, though the name escaped her. Seeing her struggle, Jebannuck leaned over and helped her up into the chair.

The dark Daydam looked out into the hall, back at Simmo’s visitors and huffed. “You shouldn’t be in here.” Wenona closed her eyes and sighed tiredly. “And why not?”

The sounds of steps pulled the guard’s attention back to the hall. Two more guards marched into the room. One was wearing a different uniform. It must have been significant of some leadership role.

“How long has the Montauk been awake?”

“Not long, Chir.”

“Where’s the medic responsible? I’ll need to let him know he’s relieved of care.”

“I believe he’s with the other humans.”

Mike cut in. “Woah, Woah, Woah! Uh, what? What’s going on?”

The head guard turned their bulgy eyes to the human, it’s shiny skin reflected the lights on the ceiling, studying Mike for a moment before responding. “We’re taking the Montauk to the brig for closer watch before we’re ready to begin the criminal hearings.”

Jebannuck frowned. “You’re processing her? She hasn’t done anything wrong, she’s been with us even before we were on the Arum Bloom.”

“That may be,” the head guard made a low creaking noise as it turned back to Simmo, “but under Security Code ruling 89 sub-section 4, we cannot allow pirates free access on Galactic Confederation domain.”

“I’m not a pirate!” Simmo argued at the same time Jebannuck countered the guard with, “You’re using that ruling completely out of context!”

The guard looked a bit taken back and turned to Jebannuck. “I beg your pardon?”

“Then beg,” Wenona murmured under her breath just loud enough to be heard.

The guard paused but blinked her huge eyes before she continued. “Who are you to challenge me on Security Code?”

Jeb carefully lifted himself back up to his feet and braced himself as imposingly as he could. “Jebannuck Sefra, Head Security Officer aboard the ESS Gladius. I know the rules, and I also know you can’t take a patient from a medic’s care without proper clearance and medical release.” He made a show of looking around the room. “I don’t see Medic Demfar here.” He looked back at the head guard. “She’s not going anywhere, Chir.”

Chir glared back, the low creaking noise from her throat getting louder. “If you have an issue with my interpretation of security policy, you can file a complaint. I have jurisdiction here. Not you, Sefra.” She turned to walk to Simmo but was stopped by Wenona. Or rather, Wenona’s back. While she hadn’t been looking, the human had stepped up to Simmo’s medical slab and just stood there.

Wenona stared at Simmo. Not angrily, she realized with a start. Just stared. Looking at her like she was looking for something. She eventually turned back to Chir. “She’s not going anywhere unless we all are.”

“Listen,” the taller Daydam by the door spoke up, “We’re just following procedures. We have to-” “I don’t care,” Wenona cut them off. “You can go tell whoever you report to that if they want to take away any of my friends, they’ll have to go through me.”

All three of the guards shifted their weights uncomfortably. Even more so when Mike stepped up beside Wenona. “And me,” he added.

The Chir sighed exasperatedly. “Listen, we’re here to just do our jobs. You’re civilians and need to stand down and let us work.” She reached a hand out as if to try pushing her way through, but Wenona grabbed her hand firmly to stop her.

“We’re about as far away from just ‘civilians’ as we can be right now,” she hissed. Chir’s expression changed- the pompous air about her lessened ever so slightly. “You’re not taking Simmo. End of story. If your superiors have a problem with that, they can come here and deal with us themselves.”

The guard pulled her hand back. The rest of them looked at the group, a bit vexed, but the humans weren’t budging. Neither was the Sefra or Booka that had stood up and hobbled to their sides. With a nod from the head guard, they turned and left the room quietly.

There was a collective silent sigh of relief.

“And just what do you… what do you think you’re doing?” Simmo’s voice haltered. “I’m a Montauk. To the Galactic Confederation, I’m a criminal, through and through. You’re all a… all a bunch of idiots!” There was a small catch in Simmo’s voice at the end, as much as she tried to play it off. It was all true though, she thought miserably. A rogue Montauk without a hive. Without her crew. Stuck in the middle of the Galactic Confederation.

Wenona turned back to her and this time glared at her for real. “You’re the idiot Simmo.” Her gaze softened a bit.

“But you’re our idiot,” Mike finished with a smile.

“Do you think we’ll get in trouble for that?” the Booka chirped up.

Everyone shared a glance and then shrugged.

“What are they going to do? Send us back home?” Wenona smiled and sat on the corner edge of Simmo’s medical slab.

“If they try anything,” Jeb found another seat, “You better believe I will be filing a report on them. That was an egregious attempted misuse of the Security Code.”

“Yeah, you tell them Jeb!” Mike lightly punched the Sefra’s shoulder. One might think it was an odd action, but Simmo knew it was one of camaraderie between humans, or at least it was with Mike.

She stared at the group around her. There was a swirl of mixed feelings and she wasn’t sure how to really process or understand all of them. She felt warm and pleased that she was surrounded by these aliens… these beings that seemed to tolerate and even seek out her presence. That defended her.

At the same time, she felt a wave of cold loss. Sadness. She thought back to a time before her life had been torn apart. She had spent time like this with her crew. Their battle calls and their laughter echoed inside her head hollowly. She had mourned them after their death. She had spent several of her first nights on Gamnut 5 screeching and wailing to the silent stars above her. She thought she had finished and left those feelings behind. Why were they bubbling back up now?

“Simmo?” Wenona’s voice pulled her back out of her thoughts. “Are you okay? Are you in a lot of pain? We can leave if you need more rest.”

“No,” she whispered. Her voice had an edge of desperation. She hated sounding weak, but she couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t go home. A lone Montauk? Without her crew, she had no hive. “Please… don’t leave. I don’t have anyone. There’s no one left.”

She could never go home. She had lost her hive, and in the eyes of her people, she was no better than a deserter. A traitor. A rogue.

Mike bent low enough to be eye level with her on the slab. “Wenona was right, you are an idiot, Simmo. You’re not alone. You have us.” He grabbed Simmo’s shoulders, and, careful of her still-healing wounds, pulled himself closer to his torso and held her. She’d seen the humans embrace like this before. She’d always thought it was weird, but it felt oddly nice and comforting.

Mike pulled back and smiled. “If you don’t have anywhere to go, you can just come with us back to Earth. We’re not technically part of the Galactic Confederation, and most of Earth isn’t either anymore, apparently.”

Simmo stared at them. They smiled back.

Wenona adjusted her sitting position. Wenona’s knee accidentally bumped into Simmo’s leg. It wasn’t hard or anything, it was only really perceptible to her because she knew Wenona usually make it a point to avoid physical contact at all with her. She didn’t seem to notice though, and instead just looked steadily into Simmo’s eyes. “None of us have gotten through all this without having a lot of loss or pain or whatever. It’s okay to not always be okay.”

There was a moment of just content peace. Everyone seemed to be able to feel it. Simmo felt like they’d all been through the pits and back. But they had made it back. Not unscathed, but they had made it.

After a moment, Mike almost jumped out of his seat. “Oh, I just realized too- my family owns Near Star! I could get you guys jobs too when we get back! Simmo, you’re great at fixing stuff- I mean, you built the Junk Lego from scrap! I bet my parents would hire you on the spot!” He looked around at everyone. “You all can come! I mean, I know Thurrin and Jeb, you’ve already got jobs, but you should at least come and visit!”

Jebannuck nodded quietly with a smile.

Thurrin’s fur just about exploded with faux fire. “I’d love to come visit!” She jumped up and stood with her front paws on Jeb’s shoulder. “Jeb, when do you think they’ll let us visit Earth?”

Jebannuck closed his eyes and sighed deeply. Thurrin continued to nearly bounce with excitement until the strain became a bit too much for her injured back leg and she slowly calmed down as she ran out of immediate questions about what Earth was like and what they should do first when they got there.

Simmo looked the two humans over. Their offer felt genuine. Her mandibles clicked together excitedly. After everything, they could share their planet with someone like her? With a Montauk? Would she be able to settle on an alien planet? To stay? Maybe. At least for a while. She felt a warmth in her chest that she hadn’t remembered feeling in what felt like decapartecs. Mike and Wenona looked at her, smiling and waiting for her answer. She cleared her throat and flicked her antenna noncommittally. “You really expect me to go live on a death world like Earth with you?”

Mike’s smile spread across his face. “Don’t worry, we can help you call it home too.”

*** *** *** *** ***

I thought this was going to be the last chapter, and that I was just going to an epilogue, but what I want to wrap up might take a bit more than that. At least one more chapter with two perspectives? We’ll see. I swear...

Just as a help for the next chapter: Is there anything you as the reader noticed that I’ve forgotten? I’ve left threads to pick up on for future stories, but are there any actual loose ends I need to address for this story? (I know there are a few and that’s why I’m doing at least one more chapter) but I just want a bit of outside perspective to make sure I’ve got everything taken care of before I start redrafting this story. Any feedback or comments is always appreciated! Thank you, you beautiful you!

Next Chapter

#abduction #HUMANS ARE WEIRD #humans are space orc #simmo #montauk #first draft #original writi #aliens #space #earth is a deathworld #found family is my jam!#writeblr

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okwhotookmyusername · 3 years

Note

Every flower thats more than one word!

quick note this might be depressing

Arum-Lily: What’s the farthest you’d go for a stranger?

I generally avoid strangers...

Baby’s Breath: Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?

I’ve never been kissed

Balsam Fir: Have you ever been in love?

I don’t know

Basket of Gold: Describe your family.

Not great

Black-Eyed Susan: If you could be any animal for a day, what would it be?

Cat

Blazing Stars: What are you afraid of? Is there a reason why?

Spiders and my dad, both are weird and one hit me

Canterbury Bells: Do you have any piercings?

Unfortunately not

California Poppy: Height?

5′8″

Cardinal Flower: Do you believe in ghosts?

I don’t dis-believe

Cock’s Comb: Favorite font?

Anything readable, i cant read cursive stuff

Common Boneset: What are you looking forward to?

Nothing right now, kinda sad really, maybe Bloodlines 2

Crane’s-Bill: Introvert or extrovert?

introvert but more because social situations never really go well and people usually make fun of me so i avoid it

Crown Imperial: What’s the farthest you would go for someone you care about?

Dunno

False Goat’s Beard: What is something you are good at?

I dont know

Garden Cosmos: How was your day today?

not great...well it was ok for the most part kinda shit now

Glory-of-the-Snow: What are ten things that make you happy/you’re grateful to have in your life?

can i skip this rn bc i have a hard time thinking about good stuff when im sad im sorry

Hoary Stock: What are you proudest of?

ill be real i havent done much

Leather Flower: What’s your least favorite thing about yourself?

im a crybaby

Lily of the Incas: What is something you still feel guilty for?

i hurt a lot of people

Lily of the Nile: What is something you feel guilty for that you shouldn’t feel guilty about?

being trans

Morning Glory: What was your bedroom like growing up?

i didnt have a lot in there and it wasnt finished, no door and stuff but i had a real big bed and a tv

Norwegian Angelica: Tell us about your mom.

usually ok

Plantain Lilies: If you could go back in time, what is one thing you would stop/change?

picking one thing is tough :/ eh probably stop Christianity, that would probably fix a bunch of stuff

Prairie Gentian: Who is someone you look up to? Describe them.

i dont think ive ever really looked up to anyone or wanted to be like anyone? is that weird?

St. John’s Wort: Is it easy or difficult for you to express how you feel about things?

impossible

Sweet Pea: How much sleep did you get last night?

i don’t remember if i slept

Touch-Me-Not: How do you feel about your current job?

ive never had a job...my first try at it made me cry when i got home because i felt stupid and useless

Transvaal Daisy: What’s your favorite item of clothing?

i think my black tanktop with the phases of the moon and a tree, it has open sides and a hood

Tropical White Morning Glory: Describe your aesthetic.

*shrug emoji*

Wolf’s Bane: Where do you want to be in life this time next year?

I don’t know...

Im really sorry this is so depressing

thanks though

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starsgivemehp · 4 years

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Worldbuilding/Magic Handbook (updated)

Hey, fellas, I recently found my old google doc which explains my headcanons (across the various AUs and verses), including magic, humans, monsters of all species, food, stats, fighting, etc. Everything I could possibly think of! I looked through it, added a fair amount of stuff, and clarified a few examples. I doubt very many people are seriously interested in the details, but I figured I’d throw it up here anyway, just in case someone wants to read it. It’s under a cut for length!

How does magic work for humans with magic?

-Humans all have souls, and souls are all made up of magic. Thus, all humans have at least a little bit of magic within them. The amount of magic and the ability to wield it vary from person to person. ‘Most’ people are unaware of the magic in their bodies and are incapable of using it, but could, with a lot of time and effort, learn how to channel and use it but are never given the chance. A minority are completely unable to use it, and a minority have enough of it/enough of a natural talent/enough of a bloodline that they can use it without training or influence, and training will help them hone it. For example, one OC, Psyche, has enough natural magic in her that she can use it at will, though it took her some time to work out how and what her limits are. Another OC, Naomi, has a deeply magical bloodline that she, too, can use it with some effort, but does not have the discipline to hone it until underground/near enough magic for her body to get used to it.

How do monster bodies work?

- Monsters have weaker, greyish souls, and their bodies are physical manifestations of those souls that are partially due to lineage and environment, and partially up to the individual monster’s decisions. For example, monsters will have characteristics of their parents, and will tend to have bodily functions appropriate for where they live (monsters who live in snowdin are resistant to cold, monsters who live in hotland are resistant to heat, monsters who live in waterfall can almost all swim and either love or need water, etc). However, other aspects of their bodies and magic are shaped due to conscious or subconscious actions and thoughts. For example, even though magical bodies don’t have real muscles or organs, an Undyne has shaped her body to look muscular due to rigorous training and intent to be strong. Her body is mimicking what organic bodies do when put under the same circumstances. This works the same way for skeleton ecto. A skeleton like my fell!Papyrus, Vex, who trains a lot, has very toned ecto that mimics muscle and is even a bit harder in firmness, whereas a skeleton like his brother Red, who spends a lot of time laying around but is still fit enough to fight, has softer ecto with more rounded edges and volume to it. Essentially, monster bodies are only made up of magical manifestations and cannot truly bleed (though skeleton monsters do have marrow), but have the outward appearance of having all of the functions of any organic creature and can be modified in the same ways.

- Monster bodies need certain amounts of ventilation throughout their lives. A monster that does not wield magic often enough can get ‘stuffed up’ and sick. This is rare for adults, who know how to properly vent and use magic but may rarely chose not to do so/be otherwise unable to do so (magic suppressors are an example), but common in children, who have not yet learned the intricacies of venting magic on a day-to-day basis. The symptoms of this monster sickness are similar to the common cold in humans: fever, stuffed up feeling, sneezing or runny nose if the monster has a nose, fatigue, and an achey feeling. It generally clears up in a few days, and there is medicine to help (which is black and tarry and children don’t tend to like it).

- Generally speaking, gender is flexible for monsters. Certain species have concretely-defined genitalia (for example, dog monsters, bunny monsters, etc), certain species have no genitalia and reproduce solely through soul interaction (for example, moldsmal, other small fry, sometimes certain elementals), and yet others are somewhere in between and can go in either direction (for example, fire elementals and skeletons).

- In the same vein, unless the monster is of the type that has concretely-set genitalia and does not use asexual/soul-based reproduction, monsters of any gender can conceive. The easiest example of this is the fluidity of skeleton genitalia, and whichever skeleton happened to have the female genitalia on during conception winds up being the ‘mother’ regardless of gender. In terms of soul-based reproduction, typically fire elementals, the partners make a conscious decision as to which soul receives the excess magic to become the mother. For example, Grillby and his wife connected via the soul and Grillby intentionally imparted enough of his own magic on hers to conceive. This process is not guaranteed, much like human pregnancies, but has a higher conception rate than using humanoid genitalia.

- Monster bodies are also influenced by emotion and situation. The most obvious example is a monster’s stats. ATK and DEF can go up with training and certain mindsets for most monsters, although some are completely incapable of raising these stats (usually Sanses, and usually for emotional reasons. Red’s disabilities are an exception). Monsters like Vex and my swap!Sans Legall have inflated their ATK and DEF to very impressive levels through a lot of effort and training. Other monsters, like boss monsters, have more naturally high ATK and DEF, but even they can build it up more with enough training and intent. This is why, for example, fell!Asgore is even stronger than classic!Asgore despite their bodies being otherwise very similar.

- In a similar vein, ATK and DEF can suddenly tank due to emotions. The easiest example of this is how the fallen human can SPARE Toriel up until the point where she gives in, and then suddenly kill her in one hit even when not in a genocide run due to her DEF dropping.

- HOPE is another stat that is influenced by surroundings and emotions. HP has a general minimum and maximum according to monster species, and falling below that minimum is an indicator of poor health, typically mental health. A monster who starts to suffer from depression may start to lose HOPE and become weaker. However, there are certain exceptions where poor physical health influences the HOPE stat as well (Red has a combination of both of these factors). When HOPE falls too low, a monster may begin the Falling Down process. Typically, the process first manifests in sluggishness, a bleaker outlook and maybe even sad or nihilistic talk. Following that, the affected monster will begin to cough. This is the most noticeable symptom, and the most cause for alarm. The monster will begin to cough up dust and become fatigued. They will be bedridden until they either recover (unlikely by this point) or complete the Falling Down process and dust.

- Magic can be equated to heat, in most cases. Monsters’ bodies are generally hotter than human bodies by nature, especially if they have good magic control and/or depending on their type (fire elementals and dragons tend to be the hottest, lizards and water elementals tend to be cooler, etc). Poor magic control or poor conditions resulting in a lack of food can cause monster bodies to be unhealthy and cool/cold. For example, in Horrorfell, when the starvation is rampant, the Sans, Arum, may feel ill and be cold to the touch.

- Shielding the soul (as done in Lust verses) prevents most attacks from doing real damage and bringing down HP, most notably physical damage. An extreme amount and certain magical attacks can still cause damage, and severe duress can cause the monster in question to drop their shield.

How can monsters consciously wield magic?

- Different types of monsters tend to use different types of magic, and this is based on lineage, environment, and personal preference. Intent is very important, but not everything. For example, although most monsters have the inherent ability to wield green magic (healing magic), their ability to wield it varies. My Papyri tend to be better at it than my Sanses, mainly due to empathy reasons (higher empathy makes for easier healing) and sometimes due to bodily reasons (Red has a combination of finding difficulty in truly empathizing, and also being stunted in specific magics for biological reasons, green magic included).

- Colors match magic types in some cases, and sometimes correlate to soul colors, but not always.

- Cyan magic (or blue attacks) correlate to patience and require patience to counter. Light blue attacks harm you if you move through them, and are harmless if you stay still. A monster can cast light blue magic on their soul to make all incoming attacks harmless while they are motionless, for a short period of time. Several types of monsters can use light blue attacks, generally skeletons and (??? I'll think of this later) can use cyan magic.

- Orange magic (or attacks) correlate to bravery. Orange attacks harm you if you are still, and are harmless if you charge through them. Orange magic, on the other hand, turns a soul orange and causes the bearer of that soul to have increased inertia when moving. A monster can cast this on themself to move quickly, or an enemy to make it harder to turn and stop in a fight. Many types of monsters can use orange attacks. Generally, goats and sometimes fire elementals use orange magic.

- Dark blue magic correlates to integrity (albeit in a roundabout way). Typically this magic is solely used by skeletons. Dark blue magic is cast on an enemy to increase the gravity on the enemy, making it difficult for them to move around and jump. The wielder can move the enemy around and throw them into traps and attacks. Monsters cannot use blue magic on themselves, only others.

- Purple magic correlates to Perseverance in a roundabout way. It is sticky and can trap enemies in place or slow them down. Purple magic halfway functions as attacks, in that they are produced in the body and shot at someone, and halfway functions as as orange or blue magic, in that it doesn't directly deal damage, but instead causes an effect on the body and/or soul. Purple magic is generally used by spiders and (??? I'll think of this later).

- Green magic correlates strongly with kindness. It is healing magic. It can be used either in the form of bullet patterns or by direct contact. The second method generally involves the healer placing their hands on the patient's chest and either at the forehead or near/hovering above the wound, for magic to reach both the physical damage and the soul. For this reason, green magic bullets do not heal much at a time, but green magic healing can heal as much at once as the wielder has energy for. Green magic is also cooked into monster food, for similar effects as healing (although eating does require consciousness, and being healed doesn't).

- A different type of green magic, green soul magic, functions similarly to blue magic. When cast, it traps the enemy in place. This is a very rare and strong magic which requires years of intense training and practice to hold for even a short period of time. No monster species in particular wields this magic due to its difficulty. Currently, Undyne and Gerson are the only known wielders, and even Undyne cannot hold it for more than a few turns at a time.

- Yellow magic correlates with justice. Generally, the wielder casts it on themself. This turns the soul to 'attack mode,’ allowing the wielder to use rapidfire bullet patterns aimed either straight ahead or straight at the enemy. This is a good strategy for monsters with slow-moving bullet patterns or questionable aim. Yellow magic can also be granted by a wielder to an ally to assist them in group battles. It is typically used by lizards, turtles, snails, and occasionally other slower-moving monsters as a balance to their typically lackluster movements which would otherwise put them at risk.

- Not much is known about red magic.

- Fire magic is typically used by fire elementals, dragons, and goats, but other types of monsters can learn it with practice. Fire magic is heavily tied to intent. It can be used as attacks with either bullet patterns or genuine burning fire, but it can also be used for simple warmth, or to cook. Food cooked with fire magic has an inherently comforting taste to all monsters and tends to be far more popular than other types of food.

- Weapons can be either physical or manifested. Physical weapons are harmless to dummies and ghosts, and are exactly the same as human weapons. Manifested weapons are extensions of a monster's magic. Typically, monsters can only make one type of weapon, and the amount of said weapon depends on their energy levels (e.g. Undynes can chuck dozens of spears when fighting fit, but not nearly so many when exhausted). The type of weapon depends on various factors, and is generally chosen subconsciously. They can be inherited (for example, the Lava Trident my alterfell Papyrus has was inherited by his father when he dealt a killing blow, despite not being a physical weapon). The color of the manifested weapon tends to match the wielder's magic color (note that most monsters’ magic color is arbitrary and not connected to soul traits. Skeletons are the exception. Undyne's spears are cyan but she ain't no Patience soul, nor does she use cyan attacks in battle). Most monsters can only make one weapon at a time, though a fair number may dual-wield. Manifested weapons can either weigh next to nothing, or the same as a physical weapon of the same type. This is generally up to the wielder's preference. One of my fell Sanses, Rav, is a pretty big exception to most of these limitations, as he has a special talent and trains in making several different types of manifested weapons, and has even gotten skilled enough to change their colors and intricately detail them.

- Other types of magic vary by monster type and are too numerous to explain. They can be explained on request.

Explain skeletons?

- Skeletons tend to have magic revolving around space (in the physics sense). Many skeletons are able to summon items from other areas, provided they are aware of said items and exactly where they are. For example, Red can summon a bottle of mustard from his stash, but when that stash runs out he has to put more mustard there to do so. Many skeletons also have the ability to teleport short distances, although this is a learned skill and generally those in the 'Sans’ role are more practiced in this for any number of reasons. Papyri are more than capable, they just typically don't know how. For example, my fellswap!Sans Howl learned out of necessity after being separated from his brother Daemon across the multiverse, and Vex is slowly but surely learning if only because he's tired of being left behind when Red wanders off. This ability requires both a knowledge of where one is and a knowledge of where one is going, generally meaning the wielder has to have been to an area at least once to later return there.

- Note that depending on the verse, I like the idea of the shortcut ability requiring entering one doorway and leaving another, meaning someone locked in a room cannot leave because there is no doorway to leave through. This is verse-specific and will be noted when in use.

- Due to the nature of ecto, certain skeletons are able to manifest extra body parts not connected to the body, in a similar way to summoning weapons. The best example of this is Gasters wielding extra, detatched hands. Red inherited this ability from his own Gaster, Erebus (though he's unaware that's the reason he's able to do this).

- Speaking of ecto, the explanation is as follows: given that skeletons are biologically very humanoid and their bodies themselves use very little magic (the bare-bones, if you will), skeletons have a unique ability to shape and use extra magic as a vaguely jelly-like substance called ecto. Ghosts can also do this. Ecto is approximately as firm and smooth as flesh, although it is slightly less textured and weighs less. It has a bit of give, sort of like chub on humans, but maintains its shape better than flesh (e.g. ecto breasts remain shapely and don't sag like human breasts). Generally speaking, maintaining ecto for a short period of time is very easy and requires very little magic, but using it long-term can eat up magic quicker and require bigger or more frequent meals to maintain. In example, a skeleton wearing some ecto hair while out and about but releasing it at home or at night is not very magic-consuming, but a skeleton wearing full-body ecto almost 24/7 needs to eat and/or sleep more to maintain their ecto and still be able to use magic for other things. This is why, for example, my lustfell!Sans, Jazz, is very fit and healthy but still naps a lot when they can, because they use full-body ecto every second of not being home. Ecto will be the same color as manifested weapons and other magic color, and in skeletons, it typically relates to the matching soul trait.

- As a side note, skeletons are the most obvious example of magic having smells and tastes specific to the monster. Most types have similar tastes due to the more concrete bodies (e.g. dogs all taste the same, fire elementals mostly taste the same, etc), but skeletons, primarily using ecto which is more raw magic, have unique individual tastes and scents.

- Limb detachment is a natural thing for skeletons, and is painless. Due to the nature of magic flow, however, detached limbs cannot move on their own or perform any magical functions. They can be damaged, and hurt the skeleton, and skeletons will be able to vaguely feel other sensations the limb is feeling. Skeletons regulate their body easily enough as older children, teens, and adults, but very young children are not able to do this. As such, babybones’ limbs may detach without warning and require a parent/adult to reattach them. Skeleton newborns need to constantly be touching or very physically close to a parent, because that parent gives off a steady sphere of magic to hold the baby bodies together. Being left alone for too long will result in the newborn's body falling apart entirely, and while it can be fixed if caught immediately, this can lead to death rather quickly.

- Skeleton children develop language faster than other young children, which makes up for their weaker physical states. This is the basis behind typeface names. Skeletons have official names reflecting the handwriting and speech they learn from a young age. Type is determined by the skeleton's vocal range, intensity of speech (or how much conviction their voice holds, in other words), handwriting, formality, and even, to a much lesser extent, general body shape. The parents choose the typeface their child is, hold a naming ceremony, and thereafter teach the child to perfectly hone their handwriting to the exact correct typeface. Namedays are substituted for birthdays.

- Skeletons don't need to breathe necessarily, but it helps ventilate magic and most are used to doing it anyway. Thus, the sensation of being unable to breathe typically causes a skeleton to pass out after approximately the same amount of time it takes for a human to pass out, but with no lasting ill effects. This can be subverted with the right mindset, i.e. coaching oneself on it while swimming.

How does magic dilute over time?

- Assume a pureblood human and a pureblood monster mate and have a child. That child will, usually, have an appearance that is pretty evenly half-monster, half-human. This may, however, manifest in one of two ways. The more common way is a natural blend of both features. A mostly humanoid body with accents of the monster species. A half dog monster may have ears, a tail, paws, and fur, or a half bird monster may have talons for feet and wings for arms, and so on. The less common way is a child that can switch between two forms at will (or unintentionally while young). This has only been observed with half skeletons, but by no means is it common (in other words I like this idea and may use it for specific verses but generally don't). In both cases, the soul is shaped like a monster's but colored like a human's.

- With the first instance, assume the half-human half-monster child then mates with another human. Their child is more humanoid with less monster traits. Long-term exposure to magic will encourage the child's monster traits to be prominent even so, but lack of exposure will make these traits lessen. This child's soul functions and looks completely human. This continues down the generations, assuming no monsters are reintroduced to the line. After enough generations (maybe five or six), the monster part of the heritage essentially becomes dormant without magic practice, but not gone. A distant descendant may naturally become a mage, or may be unable to perform magic (or know their heritage) without being exposed to it much like regular humans.

- Assuming the half-human half-monster child goes on to mate a monster, the grandchild retains a vaguely humanoid body and soul color, while keeping a monster soul shape and with monster features winning out over human ones. Assuming the generations continue to only mate with monsters, humanoid traits become less and less frequent. Soul color will continue to be human for up to about a dozen generations, well past all human bodily features being erased. Continued mixed heritage, with humans and monsters both adding in to the family line, will result in children who remain roughly the same as half children, give or take depending on the specifics.

What other magic varieties are present?

- Aside from the color magic, fire magic, and skeleton magic previously covered, magic tends to either be element-based (water, fire, electricity, air, etc) or attribute-based (increase of strength, speed, flexibility, enhancement of weapons, etc). Rarely, there are special types of magic connected to certain actions or mindsets that are vaguely extrasensory in nature, such as increased empathy, telepathy or telekinesis, prophetic abilities, etc. These are very rare and typically occur due to extenuating circumstances (i.e. swap!Papyrus Prise's piano-accented seer powers are due to a mild void connection).

How is intent involved with magic?

- In most cases, intent is very important (but not everything). A complete lack of intent to hurt generally renders attacks harmless, but even the faintest hint of irritation or frustration can be read as intent and wind up hurting someone despite more conscious thought. Very, very few monsters have the ability to confidently spar and know no hits will land (Vex is the only known one at the moment). Likewise, intent to heal does not always mean one can efficiently use healing magic (as observed in Red's case). But in more general terms, intent can mean the difference between, for example, a fire meant to hurt, and cooking fire that is harmless. Fire elementals generally practice this with their own bodies. Intent to defend or harm can make their entire body burning to the touch, in stark contrast to how intent to comfort makes the entire body seeming only as warm as standing nearby a pleasant hearth fire, even if the other person is cuddled close or even being intimate.

- Intent is also the means to control other types of magic, and how they affect the other person. For example, when a skeleton uses blue magic on someone's soul, intent can decide whether the grip is just a small presence, even comforting, or the grip is tight to the point of pain. This is similar to how error!Sans Dox’s strings can wrap around a soul and yank painfully, or can be a comforting weight to someone he loves.

- In the same vein, for another example, Prise can use his intent to decide what his seer powers provide him when he sits down at the piano. Initial observation of this power was simply sitting to play while wondering what type of run his human would do, and he would get a matching 'hunch.’ He later was able to use this ability to influence and soothe bad dreams of those he cared for, and was eventually able to manifest light shows while performing. It is expected that, with further training, he will become even more prophetic.

EXP and LV: how are they measured?

- There is a better grasp on LV than there is on EXP (read: I don't tend to specify EXP because the numbers get too high). LV is gained through killing, obviously, but the circumstances surrounding the killing affect the amount of EXP and LV gained.

- Killing people whom you don't care about, for example, nets you slightly less EXP and LV than killing people whom you hate, and that nets you FAR less than killing people whom you love. For example, a dust Sans will probably gain several LV just from killing their Papyrus, due to their bond. But the relative neutrality of most other members of the underground evens out so most Dusts still wind up with the set 20 at the end.

- Killing children, in general, tends to give you more EXP and LV, because it takes a special kind of cruelty to perform the act. Even more so with babies. Killing animals doesn't tend to give one EXP or LV, or at least not as much as killing humans or monsters. For example, hunters and those who humanely kill animals for food would gain little if any. However, if one were to cruelly kill an animal, such as a pet or with torture, one would gain more.

- The effects of LV on the soul may vary a little, but generally speaking, the more LV one has, the more emotionally closed-off someone is, especially a monster. LV is the soul's way of protecting itself from the guilt and horror of performing such acts on other living things with souls. After all, a monster is made of love, hope, and compassion. Without the protective numbness of LV, a monster that has killed too much would likely die of sheer emotion.

- Anger is one of the few emotions that is not stifled from LV, and in fact tends to be inflated. High-LV monsters can snap and become enraged far easier than those with low or no LV. Sexual desire is also not stifled, though it isn't magnified, at least not by a lot (excepting in rare cases).

- Some monsters at high LV experience brief episodes of all-encompassing anger and agitation. These can come on due to a specific trigger, stress, or simply after a certain period of time since the last one. For example, Rav is triggered by screams. They give him headaches and cause him to snap almost immediately. When he is in the throes of an LV attack, his mind is made up of unbearable screams from the people he's killed, and he has to exhaust himself physically or be restrained by his brother to make it stop.

- LV shock occurs when a person obtains too much LV within a very short period of time. This typically happens to Dust!Sanses. They go through a period of a few weeks where they feel absolutely nothing, their soul in overdrive protective mode. They giggle uncontrollably when faced with something that would usually upset them, and become extremely jumpy and quick to attack. When this wears off, there is a brief period of uncontrollable emotional, and sometimes physical, pain. Screaming and crying are common. This lasts for a few hours, before the soul finally evens out emotionally and the LV functions properly.

- LV can go down, but it is a slow and generally difficult process. It requires the person in question to trust and love and open themself to unconditional love, without fear of backlash. Even with this process, LV tends to have certain marker levels that, once past, cannot be reduced beyond. For example, LV raised past 10 cannot typically go below 10 again. The same with 20, and possibly 30.

- Ingestion of magic from a very high-LV monster (20 or more) by a low-LV monster, sexually or otherwise, causes symptoms similar to being drunk or high. The excessive energy in LV-saturated magic causes the ingester to feel dizzy, super-energized, a little giddy, and an intense desire to ingest more of the drug-like magic. The effects usually last a few hours, then lead to a crash, sudden exhaustion and usually unconsciousness. The desire to ingest more can last for a few weeks, and depending on the amount ingested, the person may feel withdrawal symptoms consisting of shakiness, mild nausea, lethargy, and headache.

Other random stuff that didn't fit anywhere else (some of these are lewd or squicky, but I will try to keep from being too graphic or specific)

- Monsters do not digest food like humans. Magic food is absorbed almost instantly. Human food is partially absorbed instantly, and partially lingers to be slowly absorbed. At no point do monsters urinate or defecate.

- However, monsters can throw up. Severe nausea or disgust triggers magic to sour, which then must be expelled. The concoction is foul-smelling and almost entirely liquid. Poor Red is squeamish about blood and has a few problems when exposed to lots of it.

- Lust is spread by the ingestion or absorption of magic from a Lustie. This includes oral and penetrative sex. Even scissoring leads to small amounts of absorption, which is enough to contract the disease. Condoms, strap-ons, and abstinence are the only ways to prevent spread. Humans can get Lust, but can generally go for longer periods without severe repercussions due to the strength of their souls.

- Dance verse monsters rely on the beat of music for attacks. A person that does not understand this and does not move to the beat will miss and be hit more. However, complete soul-syncing to the same beat, as opposed to simple following, is intimate and done only with family and mates. The combination of physical contact, complete soul syncing, and a manifestation of both souls (even if they don't touch) is seen as lewd and not proper for public dancing.

- All souls have a song, or at least a beat/melody. That song or beat may change due to extreme events in one's life, positive or negative. For example, soulbonding causes both monster's souls to gain some of their partner's.

- When it comes to monsters that manifest genitals, such as skeletons and elementals, most can choose one, the other, or both at will. However, some few are stuck with one form regardless of attempt to switch to the other (this is rare and mostly for my own amusement. For example, I failed rolls to allow Rav to go female enough times that I decided he is incapable).

- Most monsters and humans see a name, ATK, DEF, relative HP as a percentage, and a quick, short narration on a check. Sans types also see exact HP, and LV. Certain outcodes, such as errors and some voidlings, can see the binary makeup of the person.

- Most monster pregnancies tend to last for roughly 4 months, with each trimester being roughly 5-6 weeks. They demonstrate similar symptoms as human women, including morning sickness, weird cravings, mood swings, and soreness. There are three ways monsters reproduce. Human-style, soul pregnancies (where the new soul grows within the mother's), and asexual reproduction.

- The void is a tangible, almost sentient thing. Once one has been lost to it, for example a Gaster, there are certain things that cannot be given back. Returned Gasters tend to maintain a certain goopiness, even some melted and then re-hardened parts. Attempts to take from the void result in loss, much like human transmutation in FMA. For example, horrorfell!Sans, Arum, attempted to reach into the void to get his father back. His machine as incomplete, his attempts unsuccessful, and the void not only physically tore a hole in his head, but also took certain memories and some of his autonomy. He now suffers from periods of partial or total memory loss, and periods of catatonia.

- Magic collars function much the same as in @kamari333 verses and Ain’t This The Life. That is, they have tracking, protective magic, and a varying degree of emotion transfer depending on the collared one's wishes.

- In terms of soulbonding, humans have been observed to be able to bond to multiple different monsters, provided the bonding process is done one at a time. There has been no recorded instance of one monster bonding with more than one other person. General belief is that monster souls are not strong enough to split twice for this purpose. However, this has not been tested.

- KR tends to manifest in souls that have some measure of Justice in them. However, some Sanses without Justive have been observed to have KR also. KR is not explicitly tied to being a Judge, but it is the general consensus that a Judge has KR. Not all timelines have the type of entity-based Judge that ATTL has (I.e. I like the idea of a Judge-entity that possesses someone in the timeline, but have only used it in one or two verses. In most others, being a judge is simply being the 'Sans' part and doing the final hallway thing).

- Humans or skeletons can, due to dire circumstances, experience a shift in soul color. The process is typically painful, and may last anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks. Magic type may or may not shift. For example, a human that becomes orange may possibly gain the ability to use orange magic to move at fast speeds.

- There are only a few different monster languages. Common is English, Hands is ASL (and can be signed, spoken, or written, the spoken or written are Wing Dings and really only used by skeletons). There is an elemental language, with different dialects for the different types of elemental. Other than that, monsters don't have any unique languages, though they are of course able to learn different human languages.

- Monsters don't tend to have access to meat. Most remain vegetarian when they reach the surface, either due to morals or a taste preference. Some will choose to start eating meat, however.

- More to be added as I think of it.

#headcanons #worldbuilding #undertale #undertale aus #undertale au #magic systems #long post #read more

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bleepbloo · 4 years

Text

Season Episodes of Second Citadel (Part 2)

Continuation of Part 1 [here]

Recommend reading that first otherwise this will not make ANY SENSE.

Same warnings of Part 1 still apply, as do the conditions and such. Extremely speculative, and published (1/1/2020)

Note: Purely personal feelings- this second half of the season is going to be SUPER ROUGH.

(Happy new year)

~~~

5 - The Hanged Man, Death, Temperance

The Hanged Man: A statement

Positive: Martyrdom, release, sacrifice

Negative: Needless sacrifice, fear of sacrifice, stalling

Death: Death

Positive: End of cycle, beginnings, Change, Metamorphosis

Negative: Fear of Change, holding on, Stagnation, Decay

Temperance: Pacing

Positive: Middle Path, Patience, finding meaning

Negative: Extremes, Excess, Lack of Balance

Welp.

I’ve said this before, in Part 1, but the Death card is in extreme reference to Olala, and well.

This is going to be an Olala and The Kite focus/centric episode.

This is going to be the episode that we find out what the Kite is going to use her for- or otherwise deliver her to whoever has use for her- and finish whatever is going on with Olala in regards to the death card.

Someone is going to die this episode, I can say that much with confidence and dread.

However, that isn’t to say they’ll stay dead.

6 - The Devil, The Tower, the Star

The Devil: The Darker Inside

Positive: Addiction, Materialism, Playfulness

Negative: Freedom, Release, Restoring Control

The Tower: The Inevitable

Positive: Sudden Upheaval, broken pride, disaster

Negative: disaster avoided, delayed disaster, fear of suffering

The Star: The Important Things

Positive: Hope, Faith, Rejuvenation

Negative: Discouragement, insecurity, Faithlessness

Everyone.

This episode’s going to be a ****ing doozy.

Out of all the Arcana, the Tower- across ALL decks - is THE most significant card. It is saying that- no matter what you do, no matter how you prepare, no matter anything else - it is the will of the arcana that what comes will come.

Yeah, it’s worse/more symbolically important than death.

So it’s at this point that our protagonists will face an upheaval not known before in Second Citadel history.

All the personal drama will probably come up at this point - Literally everything - and will hit a breaking point, because, well, the inevitable is coming. This is literally the worst possible time for drama to happen, so of course, in an attempt to retain some form of control, they’re going to take the most likely person to blame and put everything on them, regardless of whether or not they’re at fault.

This is the episode where people have to figure out their shit, and figure out what’s important to them, and I think that it may end up resulting in Sir Caroline considering quitting her Captainship/knighthood. She loves Quanyii, who’s a witch, and like. If something happens to make her realize, no, she actually loves her wife more than her job, I have no doubts in my mind Caroline will leave.

So yeah, this episode will be intense, grab tissues and hydrate.

7 - The Moon, The Sun, Judgement

The Moon: The Unconscious Mind

Positive: Unconscious, illusions, intuition

Negative: Confusion, fear, Misinterpretation

The Sun: The Conscious Mind

Positive: Joy, Celebration, Success, Positiveness

Negative: Sadness, depression, negativity

Judgement: The Choice

Positive: Reflection, Reckoning, Awakening

Negative: Lack of self awareness, doubt, self-loathing

Basically, what happened last episode, happened.

Especially considering the significance of the Sun and Moon in Second Citadel Meta - what with the Moon being more a symbol of things hiding in the dark and still being able to exist, but also a denial of what you really want, but the Sun being known in your entirety, without hiding (which can be pretty terrifying) and should you be unable to handle what you want, can kill you. (Remember the Moonlit hermit? Remember Ernmark making references to how Arum parallels the Moonlit hermit?)

It will be at this point that people will be forced to chose what path to take, what they need to do to be happy

I think here, Marc is going to have to make a decision whether he actually wants to be a knight. I mean, look at what’s going on with Olala; he’s trying to protect her, when his knighthood dictates he should kill her for being...not human.

I mean, it’s the same decision Damien, Angelo, and Caroline have to make for themselves as well, whether they want to continue to be knights, and I bet it will happen this episode.

So like. We’ll see.

8 - The World; Notably the only exception to the Trio Clusters

World: The End

Positive: Completion, Harmony, Fulfillment

Negative: Incompletion, No Closure

Now, this is the end- at least, it should be.

I have no doubt that there’ll be a fourth season of the second citadel, you can quote me on this- there’s too much world for it to go ignored or to end this quickly.

No, see, I think one of two things is going to happen:

Either 1) the East comes into prominence somehow- because of timing or what have you, and there’s going to be conflict about a new society that more or less sprung out of the ground

or 2) The Saints will come back to the world, to try and reunite with their missing sibling.

Either way, it should be interesting, and exciting!

Other things to note for the season:

I think Dampierre will get revealed to be something more than a horse this season, since Marc’s already made a reference in Episode 1 about how Dampierre’s losing their hair and that’s usually a sign of sickness in horses.

I think the Kite will be someone significant to Sir Absolom, and will not excuse but explain some of Absolom’s behavior towards magic and monsters (and Marc).

Finally, this season will be the determining factor as to which brother the Penumbra will set Angelo up with. Because I’ve seen people in the discord and tumblr shipping Angelo/Marc as a romantic pairing, and Angelo/Talfyrn as a queerplatonic pairing, so I’m sure if nothing else, this will be the season which tells us which pairing the penumbra will try and set up. (I’m rooting for Angelo/Talfyrn, personally, but I know it’ll be cute either way, because Angelo is cute.)

Anyway, we’ll see come this year what happens! Take care y’all!

#second citadel #bleepbloo theories #second citadel meta #second citadel spoilers

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artificialqueens · 5 years

Text

ancolie (trixya) - PinkGrapefruit

A/N - she’s writing trixya? and lesbian au? at the same time? has she gone mad?

yes. yes i have. enjoy!

[for meggie, for being the best pseudo-mum a gal could ask for. chin up love, you’ve got this <3]

I can see us in a small town

You count the stars up in the sky

She pulls pink carnations together with yellow roses, hopes the message will meet in the middle as one of friendship and a woman’s love. It’s a candy-coloured wonderland of a bouquet with the colour mixing and melding like a fruit salad chew. They were always her favourites. She finds she has very little hope anyway but the pink of the carnations almost matches the pink of her dress and, god , she is smitten.

She retouches the red of her lipstick till it matches the roses they keep in the back of the store, lets its brightness give her a little bit of confidence as she heads out to finish opening up the shop. It’s small and quiet, opposite a patisserie owned by one of the softest people Katya has ever known. She’s just lovely. She creates tiny delicacies that have her mouth watering like nobody’s business, all sweet and saccharine sugar (a little bit like her). Katya cannot get enough.

She rolls a black glove onto her tattooed arm as she slowly and carefully fertilises the opening display. Across the street, she can see Trixie opening up shop a little earlier than usual (although they’ve both been there since five, so she’s not hugely surprised.) Once she’s done, she ties a pastel pink ribbon around the base of the bouquet and walks it across the street, letting herself in with the spare key. They do their morning dance, an awkward shuffle around each other as (even three hours after getting there) neither are quite awake enough to face their relationship head on. Katya takes out yesterday’s flowers and places the bouquet in the vase on the counter, grins eagerly as Trixie boxes up the spoils of the morning - it’s a fair trade if it means Katya gets to see her face every day. With a shy smile, Trixie waves her out.

They’ve been doing this three years.

Never thought that they could fall down

Onto your suit or on the tie

She reckons she could buy a mortgage with the amount she’s wasted on these flowers, she thinks as she creates the morning bouquet. It’s all yellow today, chrysanthemums, tulips and poppies; precious, hope and success.

She waters the succulents with care only given to her plants and then sketches new tattoo ideas until she sees Trixie pull up the blinds of Yellow Cloud Patissiere - it’s an unspoken rule, helps keep them in check. She serves a couple of business people that she always gets on a Friday morning (she’s started opening earlier to catch them). They always need a bouquet for their wives, an apology for some sort of wrongdoing, and Katya can’t say she minds helping them as they bustle in, flustered and impatient. She has a blackboard behind the counter with ‘EMERGENCY FLOWERS’ scrawled onto it in cursive, it details the apology bouquets she does and their exact meanings - it’s gotten her a lot of coverage in the flower shop community, and she’s grateful for Trixie’s handwriting.

Once she’s decided she won’t look desperate, she heads over the road with a spring in her step, lets herself in and replaces the flowers. Trixie has decorated one of her fuckups with a red flower today and Katya is touched but also just really wants to eat it. She doesn’t say that.

She almost falls as she leaves and as the door swings shut behind her, she can hear Trixie’s cackle catch in the wind.

Across the table at a French place

I lose my way into the wine

She’s brainstorming dates on a Monday as she ties together the bouquet. It’s a French colour theme with blue roses, white lilacs, and red daisies completing the fantasy, and she loves it. She wants to take Trixie to Paris and stroll on the Champs-Élysées , taking their time, sipping wine meant for two as they stare out across the water. She wants to pick roadside flowers, weave a bunch with some grass and present it to her, make flower crowns, and tuck buttercups in the blonde’s hair when she is distracted. She wants to take her to an art gallery, the Louvre maybe, or the Centre Pompidou so they can stand a foot away from the paintings and examine them until they start laughing. She wishes more than anything that she could hold her tight against her in the cold evening air, watch the Eiffel light up at midnight and ring in a new day with her. She would do anything.

But instead, she dutifully arrives with the flowers, takes Trixie’s baking and leaves.

She tries a new truffle on her lunch break, hands smelling like fresh flowers and pesticide - the air thick with moisture that’s dripping down her back as the shop heats up like a greenhouse. It’s perfect for a florist, not so good for the sweatiest woman alive.

She opened ‘Fine and Dandy’ three months after finished college. She got a degree in design with a minor in business and to be honest they work pretty damn well for a woman who once said she wanted to become a shark gymnast - whatever that might be. Her parents hadn’t agreed at first but now she’s a thirty-three-year-old woman with an award-winning flower shop and she does it all herself - they’re proud of her. She’s proud of her.

The truffle tastes of gin and regret and it’s a little too close to home. The others are half melted - she bins them.

With your glasses on your pretty face

We can go up, baby we can float up

It’s a bouquet of forget-me-nots on a Saturday morning.

It’s a sprig of lime blossom surrounded by arum on a day where she just wants to make jokes. (fornication and purity - it’s days like these she hopes Trixie cannot read flowers)

It’s Asphodel, Basalm and Balsamine. (regret, ardent love and impatience)

Trixie’s pastries taste more and more like things she knows - like sorrow and sadness and hope. They taste like old cigarettes and new heartbreak, longing and desire and unrelenting pain. She wants to hold her tight, qualm the fears she bakes into her food because god knows it only takes a taste to see every little thing she’s poured into it. Katya’s been around long enough to know Trixie’s baking - she knows that she only uses blueberries on rainy days, that passionfruit is saved for deserved occasions and that grapefruit is a bad day.

Why does everything taste like grapefruit?

Say we’ll never come back down

To the place in the yellow cloud

Things go back to chocolate, vanilla and peach when the weather picks up and Katya’s bouquets get bigger and brighter as each month nears summer. A regular casually describes one as ‘carnival in a vase’ or so Trixie retells one morning as Katya snorts on her danish. The cinnamon is strong and so’s the girls’ humour, so she barely chokes it down before she has to gesture for water to clear her throat. Trixie’s cackling so hard though, that water begins to run out of Katya’s nose. It was a mistake she deems as she’s wiping the counter down from her nose-water. It was a mistake to ever start this - this… She falters in her thoughts. She doesn’t even know what this is; it’s never been discussed and yet she feels closer to the patisserie owner across the street than she does her roommate.

She would hesitate to call it love - then again she only knows love as pansies and cloves and gardenias.

She builds more apology bouquets for businessmen and asks them why they love their wives. None of them can give a straight answer and she begins to wonder if maybe that’s the point - love isn’t really a straight line - it sort of loops round and round and over itself. It slaloms around the major arteries and gets caught in the capillary net.

(She also asks a man who, it turns out, is buying for his mistress. It’s an apology for getting her pregnant but he gives the most straightforward answer out of the lot so she keeps it as a data point.)

Yours forever, thumbtack down

Ooh, ooh

Trixie comes into the shop at 6 p.m. on a Thursday in June. It seems like a negligible detail but Katya wants to remember it for the rest of her life. She hears the bell go about an hour after she flipped the closing sign, as she tidies the small shop away to make room for her Friday morning craziness. She comes to the counter with a purpose, requesting a bouquet that has Katya at a happy medium between screaming and sobbing (mentally of course).

She knows all the plants’ names, wants exactly what she wants and Katya blindly agrees until she takes a look at the bouquet and realises what she’s made. It’s good news, admiration, beauty, and love in all seasons. Devotion and an invitation to dance. (iris, gorse, heliotrope, hibiscus and viscaria)

It’s beautiful.

Trixie pays quickly with a shy smile and goes to leave the shop but she turns around before she reaches the door. Instead, she slowly walks back towards her with a steady step and a quiet grin. Katya has started to shake now, she knows what’s happening (or at least hopes she does) and she can’t tell if she wants to sob or scream - she does neither, it’s not the right time.

They meet between the ambrosia and the roses, Katya’s favourite aisle, the sun backlighting Trixie til she glows a soft gold. It casts a halo on her hair and Katya swears she’s never seen an angel look so beautiful.

Trixie hands her the bouquet wordlessly but her eyes, wet and happy, reflect all she doesn’t need to say. When they kiss, Trixie tastes like passionfruit and gin and hope - undying hope that glistens in the summer sun. She hopes it’s a flavour that will stay on her lips forever.

Say you’ll never come back down

To the place in the yellow cloud

#rpdr fanfiction #trixya #trixie mattel #katya zamolodchikova #fluff #flower shop au #lesbian au #pinkgrapefruit #concrit welcome #submission

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noonetosmilefor · 5 years

Text

Flower asks.

Thank you once more, @uneven-odds. <3

Alisons: Sexuality? - Straight.

Amaranth: Pronouns/Gender? - Her.

Amaryllis: Birthday? - 11th of July.

Anemone: Favorite flower? - Tulip.

Angelonia: Favorite t.v. show? - Stranger Things.

Arum-Lily: What’s the farthest you’d go for a stranger? - As far as saving their life without risking mine.

Aster: What’s one of your favorite quotes? - “Nothing in the world can trouble you as much as your own thoughts.”

Aubrieta: Favorite drink? - Tea.

Baby’s Breath: Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? - No.

Balsam Fir: Have you ever been in love? - Yes.

Baneberries: Favorite song? - Currently Lost by Dermot Kennedy. (Or literally the whole album.)

Basket of Gold: Describe your family. - Close, open-minded, strong, supporting. (I love them!)

Beebalm: Do you have a best friend? Who is it? - Yes. Her name is Iris and we’ve know each other for 9 years already and I love her so so much!

Begonia: Favorite color? - Blue.

Bellflower: Favorite animal? - Horses.

Bergenia: Are you a morning or night person? - Night person.

Black-Eyed Susan: If you could be any animal for a day, what would it be? - Eagle.

Bloodroots: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? - Veterinarian.

Bluemink: What are your thoughts on children? - I’m not a big fan of children but if a child smiles at me, you sure as hell can bet that I’d smile right back at them.

Blazing Stars: What are you afraid of? Is there a reason why? - Losing loved ones, well it’s self-explaining.

Borage: Give a random fact about your childhood. - It really was a safe and carefree childhood and I had everything and everyone I needed.

Bugleherb: How would you spend your last day on Earth? - Hiking to my favorite place and reading my favorite book.

Buttercup: Relationship Status? - Single.

Camelia: If you could visit anywhere, where would you want to go? - New Zealand.

Candytufts: When do you feel most loved? - Whenever I’m with people who love and accept me the way I am.

Canna: Do you have any tattoos? - Nope.

Canterbury Bells: Do you have any piercings? - No.

California Poppy: Height? - 5′9″.

Cardinal Flower: Do you believe in ghosts? - Yes.

Carnation: What are you currently wearing? - Just a t-shirt.

Catnip: Have you ever slept with a nightlight? - Yes, as a child.

Chives: Who was the last person you hugged? - My sister.

Chrysanthemum: Who’s the last person you kissed? - Someone I don’t want to kiss again.

Cock’s Comb: Favorite font? - Don’t really have one.

Columbine: Are you tired? - Kinda.

Common Boneset: What are you looking forward to? - Winter.

Coneflower: Dream job? - My job right now.

Crane’s-Bill: Introvert or extrovert? - Inbetweenie.

Crocus: Have you ever been in love? - Yes.

Crown Imperial: What’s the farthest you would go for someone you care about? - Far FAR and beyond.

Cyclamen: Did you have a favorite stuffed animal as a child? What was it? - Yes, a white tiger.

Daffodil: What’s your zodiac sign? - Cancer.

Dahlia: Have you done anything worth remembering? - I don’t think so..

Daisy: What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment? - Being myself and self-confident.

Daylily: What would you do if your parents didn’t like your partner(s)? - Well I never thought about that haha.

Dendrobium: Who is the last person that you said “I love you” to? - To someone I don’t want to be reminded about.

False Goat’s Beard: What is something you are good at? - Listening.

Foxgloves: What’s something you’re bad at? - Opening up.

Freesia: What are three good things that have happened in the past month? - I found out what I want, I had some time for myself and I’ve been with one of my best friends for a few days.

Garden Cosmos: How was your day today? - Okay, I’d say.

Gardenia: Are you happy with where you’re at in your life? - Kind of, not fully.

Gladiolus: What is something you hope to do in the next year or two? - Traveling more.

Glory-of-the-Snow: What are ten things that make you happy/you’re grateful to have in your life? - My friends, my family, my pets, music, books, especially Sebastian Fitzek’s books haha, health, traveling, cinematography and my home.

Heliotropium: What helps you calm down when you feel stressed? - Watching HIMYM.

Hellebore: How do you show affection? - By listening to people.

Hoary Stock: What are you proudest of? - My family.

Hollyhock: Describe your ideal day. - Waking up late, getting some breakfast, drinking tea and reading a good book, probably napping haha, some more reading, going for a walk and back to bed again.

Hyacinth: What do you like to do in your free time? - Sleeping, going to the movies, reading and traveling.

Hydrangea: How long have you known your best friend? How did you meet them? - 9 years. I’ve met her in school.

Irises: Who can you talk to about (almost) everything? - @uneven-odds. <3

Laceleaf: How many friends do you have? - If I do count really close and good friends, around 10.

Lantanas: What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received? - That I’m the kindest and funniest person they’ve ever met. It shocked me tbh.

Larkspur: What do you think of yourself? - I’m too stubborn and that I can’t really show my emotions.

Lavender: What’s your favorite thing about yourself? - My patience.

Leather Flower: What’s your least favorite thing about yourself? - The fact that I’m too much of a perfectionist sometimes.

Lilac: What’s something you liked to do as a child? - Race against my dad.

Lily: Who was your best friend when you were a kid? - A girl called Tamara.

Lily of the Incas: What is something you still feel guilty for? - Not being there for one of my friends when he needed me..

Lily of the Nile: What is something you feel guilty for that you shouldn’t feel guilty about? - Loving the person I loved.

Lupine: What does your name mean? Why is that your name? - So I googled it and it means “the anointed one”. My mum and dad named me after my mum’s brother, his name is Christian. My mum loves him so much, that I got this name, well the feminine form.

Marigold: Where did you grow up? Tell us about it. - In a suburbia. It’s very small but I love it here. I do love Vienna and it’s not that far away. But here in this small town is where I feel most comfortable.

Morning Glory: What was your bedroom like growing up? - Big, full of wood furniture and toys and a few posters of the Backstreet Boys.

Mugworts: What was it like for you as a teenager? Did you enjoy your teenage years? - I did not really enjoy my teenage years at first. But I’ve always been grumpy about everything. That has changed through the years and I had happier teenage years later on.

Norwegian Angelica: Tell us about your mom. - I love her and she is one of the toughest women I know. I’m sad that she feels left out that often and that I can’t really give and show her the credit she deserves. Because she deserves the world, really.

Onions: Tell about your dad. - My dad is the best dad. Even after he and my mom got divorced he’s always been there for us. And he did everything he could for us to be happy. I’m very thankful for that.

Orchid: Tell about your grandparents. - When I think about them I almost every time start crying. They’re in their 70s now and I’m constantly worried that I’d loose them. They’re 2 of the greatest people in the whole world - they deserve the whole world. And if I ever feel annoyed by them I do cry a few hours later. I love them so much. Sometimes I wish I could die before they do so I don’t have to feel the pain of losing them..

Pansy: What was your most memorable birthday? What made it be so memorable? - My most memorable birthday was on my 11th birthday with my best friends and cousins. It’s been so carefree and full of laughter.

Peony: What was your first job? - My first job was the job I’m doing right now.

Petunia: If you’re in a relationship, how did you meet your partner(s)? If you’re not in a relationship, how did you meet your crush/how do you hope to meet your future partner(s), if you want any? - I don’t have a special plan on how I want to meet my future partner. If it happens, it happens.

Pincushion: How do you deal with pain? - I don’t. It sounds hard but I just ignore it until it get’s too much and then it literally bursts out and I can’t stop crying for literally 5 hours or so.

Pink: Where is home? - Wherever the people I love are.

Plantain Lilies: If you could go back in time, what is one thing you would stop/change? - I’d stop the cancer that killed my half-sisters mother.. she’s been like a second mom to me.

Prairie Gentian: Who is someone you look up to? Describe them. - My dad. He literally had no one who supported him when he was younger but he somehow managed to build his life and stand on his own two feet. He managed to give the love he never received from anyone before, to my sisters and me and I really admire him for that.

Primrose: Describe your ideal life. - Carefree and happy.

Rhodendron: What is something you used to believe in as a child? - Elves.

Ricinus: Who’s the most important in your life? - My sisters.

Rose: What’s your favorite sound? - The sound of people’s genuine laughter.

Rosemallows: What’s your favorite memory? - One night in Berlin with @uneven-odds. (That sounds so wrong, but you know which one I mean haha. <3)

Sage: What’s your least favorite memory? - My “second” mom dying.

Snapdragon: At this moment, what do you want? - Inner peace.

St. John’s Wort: Is it easy or difficult for you to express how you feel about things? - It’s very difficult for me because I rarely open up, not even to my closest friends.

Sunflower: What is something you don’t want to imagine life without? - My family.

Sweet Pea: How much sleep did you get last night? - Around 7 hours.

Tickseed: What’s your main reason to get up every morning? - Work.

Touch-Me-Not: How do you feel about your current job? - I love it.

Transvaal Daisy: What’s your favorite item of clothing? - My yellow trench coat.

Tropical White Morning Glory: Describe your aesthetic. - My aesthetics are always plants and books.

Tulip: What would be the best present to get you? - Books.

Vervain: What’s stressing you out most right now? - My future.

Wisteria: How many books have you read in the past few months? What were they called? - None because I’ve been too busy to read.

Wolf’s Bane: Where do you want to be in life this time next year? - At the same place but a little happier.

Yarrow: Do you know what vore is? - If it’s from the Latin word “vorare”, it means “to swallow” as far as I can remember but idk really haha.

Zinnia: Give a random fact about yourself. - I love doing my nails. Ok, that was really random haha.

#about me #personal

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ernmark · 6 years

Text

There are a lot of ways The Moonlit Hermit could end, but this is the mental image that keeps showing up in my mind.

Spoilers for Moonlit Hermit Part 1 under the cut.

The fight is over. The living saw is dead, but it’s far from the only casualty. Rilla moves slowly, leaning heavily against a half-petrified wall to keep the weight off her broken ankle. Huge chunks have been carved out of the walls of the Keep, and even more have ossified during the fight-- it looks like being this active has only succeeded in spreading the blight through its system. Now that the fighting is over, it can barely move.

And neither can Lord Arum, from the looks of it. He hasn’t been able to stand without her help. And sure, he could probably crawl-- but she can hobble. She might even be able to run on this ankle, if she’s determined enough. The Saints only know Damien would.

She’s going to get back to Damien. She has to. And now’s her chance, now that the Keep is falling apart and Lord Arum is too injured to chase her.

Or he would be, if he wanted to try, but he isn’t even looking at her. He’s slumped against the crumbling wall, stroking a small section of uninfected green with a clawed hand.

In the time that she’s been here, Rilla’s seen that gesture often enough when Lord Arum is with his more dangerous specimens-- it’s a gentle gesture, calming. Soothing.

The Keep sings back, but its voice is barely a creak of old wood.

Now is her chance to get back home. Back to Damien. That’s what all this was for, wasn’t it?

“I’m going home,” she says, firm as the stone that’s consuming the Keep. Lord Arum doesn’t reply. She raises her voice. “If you try to stop me--”

“Does it look like I’m trying to stop you?” he asks. He sounds so very tired. “You’ve made your point, human. Go back to your hive.”

She slides to the floor. Well, if there’s no need to run, then there’s no need to damage her leg further. She grabs a few scraps of wood and broken vines and fashions herself a splint; it’s rudimentary, but it’ll carry her weight until she gets better treatment.

The sooner she leaves, the sooner she’ll be home.

She walks awkwardly toward Lord Arum. “Let me take a look at that leg.”

“Leave it,” he mutters. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?” But he doesn’t resist when she grabs a scrap of silk and wraps it around the wound.

“What about the Keep?” Rilla asks. “It got hit pretty hard.”

“Ordinarily it could recover from an attack like this, in time. But this blight is something it cannot recover from.” His claws soothe over the soft patch again, and the Keep creaks back.

It’s a private moment, and Rilla feels like she should step aside to let him comfort the Keep in peace.

But when has she ever done what she should?

“Are you going to be alright?” she asks quietly.

He doesn’t look at her. “The wound will heal. But if it dies...” He stops, unwilling to form the words.

Rilla does it for him. “If it dies, you’ll be alone.”

“No,” he says too quickly. “Not alone. I’ll have my creations. My specimens.” It isn’t a defense or a denial. He’s trying to be persuasive.

He’s trying to convince the Keep.

“How much time does it have?” Rilla asks.

“A few days, at most,” he mutters. “I thought we had weeks, but this...”

Rilla swallows. She’s the best herbalist in the Second Citadel. She can do this. “That might still be enough time to fix this.”

Lord Arum finally looks at her, broken and weary. “I’m not in the mood for another imaginary cure.”

“Making a cure was impossible with what I had to work with. I might still be able to pull it off, but only if I do it on my terms.”

“Your terms. And what exactly are those?”

“You answer all my questions. You give me the supplies I need.” She looks him directly in his sad, violet eyes. “And you take me home to get my equipment.”

Lord Arum looks at his keep, and he sighs. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

#the penumbra podcast #second citadel #spoilers for the new episode #fanfiction

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aresaphrodites · 6 years

Note

Hey but sorry to bother u but could give me those book recs? Relying on u girl

of course!! sorry bout the long wait, dear x

you said you preferred trilogies or series’ (which i don’t read much of tbh) so here are a few of my favorites: (( some of these will have full on summaries and some… not so much, i got lazy lol ))

The Lux Series by Jennifer L. Armentrout : Meet Katy and Daemon! Katy is a funny, down-to-earth book blogger who has just moved to West Virginia. And Daemon? Well, he’s her hot and arrogant next-door neighbor. He’s also an alien. This one is cheesy, yeah, but it’s so FUN! Follow along as Katy and Daemon try to figure out what they mean to each other while trying not to get killed by the Arum; the Lumen’s enemy. In this world, the DOD is well aware that aliens exist and that they live on Earth. However, they are unaware that the aliens known as Luxen actually possess powers that make them.. well… powerful beyond means. This isn’t just a romance story; it focuses on family and friendships and it has a bunch of kick ass action and the entire plot with the DOD is so interesting.

The Pine Deep Series by Jonathan Maberry ; I’m only on the first book but this one is a bit more mature in terms of horror and things like that. If you like scary books or feel like being spooky in time for Halloween, you should definitely check this one out!

The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare : I’m sure you know about this one, but if you don’t! Angels, demons, warlocks, vampires, faeries, werewolves? What more could you want? When Clary Fray discovers she’s actually a Shadowhunter; an appointed warrior of the Angel Raziel and has angel blood coursing through her veins, her life is about to change forever. Join her and the rest of the Shadowhunter gang (and even a few others) as they team up to rescue her mom and stop an all out war from happening.

The Darkest Minds Series by Alexandra Bracken ; I’m only on the first book but I absolutely love it! It’s an intense read that has me on the edge of my seat constantly. I adore Ruby and she’s easily become one of my favorite female characters of all time.

Dorothy Must Die Series by Danielle Paige ; Okay. I know, I know. Really? Dorothy Must Die? Hear me out! This book is FUN. Trashy? Perhaps, but fun! The first book is really fast paced and honestly? I am living for a world where Dorothy is evil. So basically our main character is named Amy and she is the other girl from Kansas. She’s sent to Oz to save it from Dorothy Gale who has become power hungry and is now pure evil along with the Tin-Man, the Lion, and the Scarecrow. The rest of the series doesn’t really live up to the first book, but I would say you should read the first one anyway. It’s a lot of fun.

Did I Mention I Love You Series by Estelle Maskame: Sixteen-year-old Eden Munro decides to spend the summer with her father in Santa Monica as her parents are divorced now. Once there, she meets her father’s new family and that includes Tyler Bruce; her new asshole step brother with a short temper and a huge ego but as she gets to learn more about him, she finds herself falling for him. This trope isn’t for everyone and I know the whole step sibling thing is super taboo but this series is awesome and I read it during a huge reading slump and it really helped me get though it.

Perfect Chemistry Series by Simone Elkeles: When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created “perfect” life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she’s worked so hard for―her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect. Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more. (Each book in this series focuses on a different Fuentes brother.)

Fighting to Be Free Series by Kirsty Moseley: Jamie Cole has just been released from juvenile detention. Determined to go straight, he tries to cut ties with crime boss Brett Reyes - but Brett has no intention of letting him go. Jamie’s life is already more complicated than it needs to be, yet it’s when he meets a beautiful stranger at a bar that Jamie knows he’s really in over his head. Ellie Pearce has just come out of a terrible relationship and isn’t looking for anything serious; until she meets Jamie. Their attraction is overwhelming and intense - she can’t seem to shake her growing feelings for him, even though she’s trying to keep it casual. But when fate goes horribly wrong and Jamie’s family is faced with ruin, he’s forced to strike a deal with Brett. Despite his struggles, he wants nothing more than a future with Ellie. That’s until Ellie finds out that he’s been hiding more from her than she could ever imagine.

Mind if I drop in a few stand alone’s? I’m trying to read more series’ but I’ve always been more of a stand alone kind of girl, so here are some of my current favs:

#MurderTrending by Gretchen McNeil : WELCOME TO THE NEAR FUTURE, where good and honest citizens can enjoy watching the executions of society’s most infamous convicted felons, streaming live on The Postman app from the suburbanized prison island Alcatraz 2.0. When seventeen-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up in a haze, lying on the ground of a dimly lit warehouse, she realizes she’s about to be the next victim of the app. Knowing hardened criminals are getting a taste of their own medicine in this place is one thing, but Dee refuses to roll over and die for a heinous crime she didn’t commit. Can Dee and her newly formed posse, the Death Row Breakfast Club, prove she’s innocent before she ends up wrongfully murdered for the world to see? Or will The Postman’s cast of executioners kill them off one by one?

One Small Thing by Erin Watt : Meet Beth and Chase. Beth is entering her senior year and is still trying to move on from the death of her older sister three years ago. In a small town with parents who have suddenly become her wardens; that seems nearly impossible. And then she meets the mysterious and hot Chase who immediately draws her in. Their attraction is instant and he’s the first person who makes her feel like Beth Jones and not Lizzie; the young girl who lost a sister and is somehow broken by it. But as she falls harder for Chase, she’s hit with the reality of the part he played in her sister’s death. It’s about forgiveness, love, and moving on. It’s sad and sweet and such a fun, quick read. Definitely good for trying to get out of a slump!

Autoboyography by Christina Lauren : Fangirl meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this funny and poignant coming-of-age novel from New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren about two boys who fall in love in a writing class—one from a progressive family and the other from a conservative religious community. If you read one book off of this list, PLEASE let it be this one. This book is so… amazing. It’s been months and I still think about it constantly.

Fault Line by C. Desir : Trigger WARNING: THIS BOOK CONTAINS A RAPE. It is not shown, but it’s the main conflict in the book. Over the years I have struggled with if I liked this book because it was good or if I liked it because of how much it fucked me up. I read this book in one sitting and when I finished, I sat in my bed for a good hour and just…. didn’t move or do anything. You will NOT be rooting for the main couple. The narrator is unlikable and you will HATE all the characters in this book. The ending is NOT happy and I don’t know why I’m recommending this but GOD. This book, after so many years, just stuck with me because of how fucked up it was. It deals with the whole “recovery” process in such a dark way that we normally don’t see in YA fiction and I think that’s what makes it stand out so much. If you want something darker, read this. But read it with caution. If this isn’t something you like then please, don’t bother reading it. It’s not happy and it’s sure as shit not fluffy. Summary : Ben could date anyone he wants, but he only has eyes for the new girl—sarcastic free-spirit Ani. Luckily for Ben, Ani wants him too. She’s everything Ben could ever imagine. Everything he could ever want. But that all changes after the party. The one Ben misses. The one Ani goes to alone. Now Ani isn’t the girl she used to be, and Ben can’t sort out the truth from the lies. What really happened, and who is to blame? Ben wants to help her, but she refuses to be helped. The more she pushes Ben away, the more he wonders if there’s anything he can do to save the girl he loves.

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero : If you like Scooby-Doo or Archie’s Weird Mysteries this book is probably for you. 1990. The teen detectives once known as the Blyton Summer Detective Club are all grown up and haven’t seen each other since their fateful, final case in 1977. Andy, the tomboy, is twenty-five and on the run, wanted in at least two states. Kerri, one-time kid genius and budding biologist, is bartending in New York, working on a serious drinking problem. At least she’s got Tim, an excitable Weimaraner descended from the original canine member of the team. Nate, the horror nerd, has spent the last thirteen years in and out of mental health institutions, and currently resides in an asylum in Arhkam, Massachusetts. The only friend he still sees is Peter, the handsome jock turned movie star. The problem is, Peter’s been dead for years.The time has come to uncover the source of their nightmares and return to where it all began in 1977. This time, it better not be a man in a mask. The real monsters are waiting.

Fatal Throne by Candace Fleming ; A book about Henry VIII and his six wives. If you like historical fiction then this book might be for you! It’s told through the perspective of his six wives (and even Henry himself) and it’s a really fascinating read.

Okay, I think I’m going to stop here. Let me know if none of these speak to you and I’ll give you some more recs! I didn’t know what kind of genres you liked, so I tried to throw in a little bit of everything.

#books n tings

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jj-ktae · 6 years

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Operation proposal - Prologue -

Title: Operation Proposal

Genre: Drama, Angst, Fluff

Pairing : Jinyoung x You

Summary: You and Jinyoung have been friends since high-school. He loves you, but his clumsy way of dealing with love made him miss his chance with you. Today is your wedding but you’re marrying another man, and as Jinyoung is full of regrets, a fairy appears, giving him a chance to change the past and win your heart.

Disclaimer: Inspired from the 2007 drama Proposal Daisakusen.

- Teaser -

Prologue

It’s complicated. Everything is a struggle. A sleepless night is a struggle, waking up in the morning is a struggle, regretting is a struggle.

Today is the worst struggle in Jinyoung’s life.

The coffee machine is broken, so he sighs. Yet another struggle. He throws his mug in the sink and grabs his keys before heading out. He is late but he doesn’t care. He hates feeling this way, but he doesn’t give a damn whether he makes it on time or not.

The taxi is incredibly slow, just like Jinyoung’s brain. It should be scattered, torn, broken, but it’s still processing the information with a killing pace. It’s like he can’t accept it.

The driver pulls him out of whatever his brain was doing when he speaks up, voice raspy and bored “We here.” Jinyoung’s feet stop tapping the ground before he takes a deep breath.

Everything’s going to be just fine.

“Thanks.” He pays the man and gets off the black car, his suit wrinkled and hair a tad dishevelled. His appearance is one of a free guy, a guy who does as he pleases, a guy who is raw and uncaring when it comes to his self.

He sucks at self-help.

“Jinyoung! It’s about to start!” He stares at his shoes, shiny on the red carpet and enters the huge green house, pure white and paradise-like.

It suits you well.

“Why are you late? Damn it, it’s a special day!” Jinyoung’s friends love drama. Of all things, he just wants them to shut up and stop making a fuss over nothing. He looks up to one of his friend, Mark, who is wearing the biggest grin ever.

“Overslept.” He didn’t. He didn’t sleep a wink. He thought about the story over and over, the result always the same.

“We would like to call the newlyweds, if they are ready.” Mark grabs him by the arm and drags him deeper into the crowd. They both stop right in front of the biggest table. It’s made of deep mahogany and lights, with white arum lily and deep green leaves.

It’s pretty, but Jinyoung sees nothing.

He looks up to the first person stepping into the greenhouse. Violins pop up in his ears, just like light illuminates his brownish eyes and tints his bewildered expression.

You walk into the greenhouse with uneasy steps. Everyone is looking at you. Some of them are emotional, others are serious. You close your eyes and walk deeper, your dress floating around you in a swift yet delicate manner.

You try to focus on everything but your surroundings but there is only one thing that strikes you. You don’t need to see it to notice Jinyoung. You never needed to look at each other to know the other was around. He is wearing the same suit he always wears whenever there’s an event.

“You’re so pretty.” You hear and it makes you blush.

You look at Jinyoung when you gather enough courage to face him on such an important day, but he is gone. Your husband is right next to you, in his bright white suit. He smiles widely at your heavenly features.

Right. Jinyoung is a guest. One of the best men, among all your male friends.

You have a husband, now.

“I’m nervous.” His voice is a tad shaky as his head approach yours, making you tear your eyes from the void to stare at his anxious face.

“Me too.” You breathe and smile at him. You’re not sad, it’s not like you didn’t pick your husband yourself. You love your husband, he is a caring and gentle man, with a great personality.

“Shall we greet the guests?” He asks while readjusting his tie and waves at his friends.

You don’t feel like wandering the place yet. Nervousness is eating you from the inside, and the idea of meeting Jinyoung now is frightening.

But then again, Jinyoung wouldn’t care. He never did, and you feel stupid as you think about him.

It has always been one-sided. Right from the start.

You sigh and take a step down, separating from your husband to meet your guests. At the same time, someone else is running away from the hassle to find peace, but an annoying hand stops him before he can take a step out of the crowded place.

“Get your ass inside.”

Jinyoung turns around, a brow lifted “Can you let me live?”

But Mark has other plans. “I want you to have fun. Don’t be down now when you did nothing back then.”

Jinyoung smacks his lips in irritation. Of all people, Mark is the only one who knew at the time, and has always been the nagging type, the friend who pushes him until he wants to yell in frustration. He is a great friend, and Jinyoung doesn’t want to admit he is actually damn right on this one.

“So I can’t even hate myself?” He exhales and Mark laughs wish his stupid white teeth.

“I told you regrets would eat you alive. What did you answer, then? Oh yeah ‘It’s not like I need her to live’ you stupid dimwit.” Mark rolls his eyes, falsely dramatic.

“Ok first of all, stupid and dimwit mean the same thing. And thank you for the support. I appreciate.” Jinyoung almost forgets about his own depression at some point, and Mark laughs again, grabbing him by the shoulder to pull him back inside.

But Jinyoung isn’t sad, Jinyoung is totally out of it. He still hasn’t realised the fact that you are getting married, and until he set foot in here, he couldn’t believe it. He looks around the place again and sees you, hugging people and laughing with others. You look happy, like the world is complete and he wants to hit his head against the nearest table.

You don’t look for him in the crowd. You don’t need to see him. You can’t look at him because you decided not to think about this. Hurting yourself has always been your forte, but today isn’t about him, today is about your future and your husband. You can’t possibly ruin everything for the sake of a man who doesn’t even care about you.

He doesn’t deserve your love anyways.

When everyone is greeted, it’s time to go back to the main table. Your friends have a surprise for you, and even though it’s scaring you, you’re glad you can run away from Jinyoung to focus on something else. You take a seat and the master of ceremonies approaches you.

“If the guests would like to have a seat, we have a surprise for tonight’s princess.”

You cringe at the choice of word, before looking in front of you. This is so cliché-

You stop processing whatever you brain is thinking when Jinyoung’s eyes meet yours in the middle of the room. He is among your group of friends and he looks bored. He stares at you like you are the most stupid person on earth, and at some point, it’s hard to stare back so you focus on your other friends.

Mark looks so happy, and your best friend Gina is crying a river. The table is full of emotions, and then there is Jinyoung, who looks like he would rather jump out the window rather than be here.

You husband sits right before the video projector turns on.

“The bride’s friends prepared a little something. If you’d like.” He takes a tiny remote control and presses a button.

Our Best Moments

Jinyoung turns to Mark, bewildered. “Did you do this?” He can’t believe this.

Mark nods, pointing at him, Gina, and another one of their friends, Jaebum -who is too busy stuffing his mouth to notice the general atmosphere-. “Of course we did. You’re so useless we had to do it without you.”

“Hopefully my name won’t appear. You guys are so soppy I want to throw up.” Jinyoung makes a face and Mark almost smacks him on the head.

Gina leans to whisper. “Only people with a heart can understand so shut it.” She high fives Mark and they both team up to mock Jinyoung.

What a day to be alive.

When the first picture appears, Jinyoung freezes right on the spot. His heart starts to beat faster and his eyes can’t get away from the scene.

It’s a picture of you all. Everyone is happy in their old high-school uniforms. The class sends nostalgic vibes to Jinyoung, but what strikes him the most is the way you look at the camera. You look so unhappy.

He can’t deal with this. He thought he could, he thought he could deal with you being happy and loving another man but he can’t. It’s right at this moment that everything he built to come here crushes like a sand castle. It’s hard, it hurts, but he can’t do anything about it.

He can’t stop you from being happy.

He didn’t know he could feel moved anymore. He had been so miserable all these years he thought he wouldn’t feel anything, but the way you look at the picture, with that tiny smile he loves so much is enough make him release a shaky breath.

Jinyoung made the biggest mistake in his life.

He closes his eyes and lets his head drop on his hand, pensive.

He can’t hear anything at some point, but he blames it on his wandering mind. He is totally out of it and wants to disappear, so when he reopens his eyes, he is surprised to see everyone frozen.

He blinks a couple of times but no one is moving. The music has stopped, the master of ceremony is frozen with the mic right over his lips, your smile doesn’t move.

“What the hell is happening-” he jumps when he sees everyone frozen next to him. Mark’s hands stop while clapping, Gina’s face is close to crying again, and Jaebum’s mouth is wide opened.

“Hey.” He jumps when a deep voice blows on his ear and finds a man in a bright white suit. He has the goofiest smile ever, with a bit of mischief and blinks cutely at him.

“What do you want?” Jinyoung gets up so fast he almost falls, surprised to see at least someone who actually moves.

“Let me introduce myself. I’m Jackson Wang. You can call me Jackson.” The Jackson boy smiles at him and extends a hand, which Jinyoung totally ignore. “I’m here to help you.” He adds.

Jinyoung’s brain disconnect for a second and Jackson laughs.

“I’m a fairy. I’m here to help you.” He explains like it’s the most natural thing in the world and pushes on Jinyoung’s shoulder to make him sit. “You might want to sit down, kid.”

Jinyoung purses his lips, his eyes narrowing at the fairy who takes another chair to sit next to him.

“Before you say anything, let me explain. I’m a fairy. I’m here to help you get this girl,” he points to you, still frozen “I’m here to make you both happy!” Jackson squeals so loud Jinyoung jumps again.

“Are you drunk? Do we know each other? And why is everyone frozen?” Jinyoung groans because this is getting too crazy for his liking. Now what, a fairy?

He knew weddings were dangerous places.

“I’m perfectly fine, thank you very much. Everyone is frozen because I made them froze.” He wriggles his brows at Jinyoung who is by now totally lost as to what is happening.

“They sent you, right?” He laughs at some point, because he has no other way to explain the situation, and even less when he sure didn’t drink enough to get this drunk.

Jackson points at his frozen friends with furrowed brows, “Them? Come on kid, do you really think everyone here agreed to this type of joke? No seriously, come on.” He makes gestures with his hands like the fact that he is a fairy is obvious.

But something inside Jinyoung’s brain ticks and he opens his mouth, eyes turned into two slits “How do you even know about her and I?”

When Jackson whines, he jumps back, shocked. “Because I’m a damn fairy! Are you even listening to me?”

“Ok so, let’s say you’re actually a fairy. You’re here because you want to help me get the person who is getting married right now?” It doesn’t make any sense, but Jinyoung gives it a try, because maybe, just maybe, this guy will go away.

But he doesn’t, and inches even closer. “exactly,” he whispers. “I’m here for that.”

“And how are you genius going to do so?” Jinyoung tries to confront this bullshit. Maybe Jackson is a psycho who is about to slander his body. Who knows.

“The pictures! You’ll go into the pictures.”

How interesting.

“Look, I had a lot of fun talking to you but maybe you’re out of your damn mind.” Jinyoung starts scratching his face in an annoying manner and takes another sip of his glass. Maybe he should get drunk.

“Come on, you were crying from the inside a couple of minutes earlier. Don’t act like it’s not true. I’ll give you one last chance. Well technically, you have five more chances.” Jackson starts explaining the deal and Jinyoung finds himself listening to him before he can even protest. It’s way too crazy to be ignored and he will have to beat Mark’s ass for this very lame joke later.

“So once I jump into the picture what do I do?” A smirk appears on Jinyoung face. He must be going crazy, too.

“You do what you were not able to do back then. I can only send you, you’ll have to pay for some good dating pro-tips.” The fairy winks and laugh loudly, before stopping. “I’m joking. I send you right on the day the picture was taken, and you do the rest.”

Jinyoung bites his lips, slowly nodding. “and… how do I get to…go there?”

He can’t believe he is actually having a conversation about going into pictures to get the girl he loves.

“If it’s your most precious wish, you only have to ask for it.” Jackson explains, grabbing the first champagne glass he finds.

“How?” Jinyoung is too tired to deal with crazy people right now. It’s the worst day of his life, he feels lonely, sad, frustrated, angry and now there is a weird guy talking about fairies and steps back in time.

“The magic words.” The fairy answers and Jinyoung wants to slam his head against the table in despair.

“Get lost, freak.” His hand moves on its own, signalling the guy he isn’t going to play along.

Not today.

He tried playing along, he tried being nice, but now it’s too much for him to handle.

“Come on. Just say ‘One more chance!’”

“One more chance.” Jinyoung repeats with a bored voice and Jacksons slaps his arm.

“You have to believe it! Try again! Come on get up, spread your arms, do something but be passionate, for god’s sake.”

“One more chance!” He yells once Jackson pushes him up and the last thing he sees is Jackson talking to him.

“May your wish be fulfilled.”

An: Credit to the owners for the pictures!

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damienthepious · 4 years

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idk idk idk i’m just doing my best

Going Through Changes, Ripping Out Pages (chapter 5)

[ch 1] [ch 2] [ch 3] [ch 4] [ao3] [ch 6] [ch 7] [ch 8] [ch 9] [ch 10] [???]

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Relationship: Lord Arum/Sir Damien/Rilla

Characters: Lord Arum, Sir Damien, Rilla, The Keep

Additional Tags: Second Citadel, Lizard Kissin’ Tuesday, Established Relationship, (uhhhhh sorta), Amnesia, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, (WE WILL GET THERE…… EVENTUALLY)

Summary: Lord Arum wakes to discover that some things have changed while he slept. Namely, there is a human in his bed.

Chapter Summary: Just a moment to breathe together.

Chapter Notes: happy LKT! it's finally not death-grip hot today. i hope you're doing well <3

The Keep brings the pair of them to a familiar room, though not one that they would have expected. There are a lot of spaces in the Keep that don't have particular functions, exactly, since Arum isn't keen on categorization or organization, but this room he and Rilla have mostly taken to calling the study. It has a few books (far fewer than the scroll room), a couple soft seats (fewer than the dining room) and a window shaded by a thin, wide-leafed curtain of vines, and as they enter, the Keep drops another set of vines, lifting Rilla's instrument from beside the window and pressing it into her hands.

Rilla stares down, and Damien watches her swallow roughly as her hand wraps around the neck. It's a homemade thing, the same instrument that she engineered during her first stay within these walls, though it has been structurally bolstered and restrung and better tuned and painted with playful florals since that time. Rilla laughs, and it sounds nearly hollow, and the Keep's vines press the instrument more firmly into her grip.

"Keep," she says, her tone uncertain and worried, and the Keep warbles an urgent set of tones, pushing the instrument again before it releases it into her hands. "I'm… I'm not sure if-"

The Keep sings, then. Sings in words, the first line of a familiar song, and Rilla clutches the neck of the instrument tight enough that one of the strings makes a tight high noise against her fingernail.

"Oh," Damien says, catching the Keep's meaning, and it is so strange, he thinks, that such a sound can fill him with such warm memory and such sadness at the same moment. "Oh," he repeats breathlessly. "I see. You believe that he might… if he hears- you think the familiarity of the song, the association between it and us-"

"No. No, that's not going to work," Rilla says firmly, her eyes upturned vaguely in the direction of the Keep.

Damien sighs as the Keep exhales a wilted sort of song, but he can't deny that he agrees with his flower. Rilla winces, though, raising a hand to pat at the air consolingly.

"I mean- Keep, it's a really sweet idea, and the theory that he'll remember the song-" her voice goes strange and wobbly for a moment, and then she inhales and continues, "the theory that it would help him remember isn't without merit. Music has a lot of connection to memory, between repeated patterns of things like rhyme and rhythm and leitmotifs- but- but I don't think he's gonna take it very well if we try to like, perform a little three-creature concert for him, y'know?"

The Keep sings again, tentative but hopeful, and Rilla sighs.

"He'll think we're trying to manipulate him," she says quietly. "Technically, we would be. And- and he won't buy it if he can tell I'm not fully into it. I'm an awful liar- he can always tell if I'm putting on a face, and- and honestly? I just-" she folds her arms over her chest, looking down and to the side. "I just … I really don't feel like singing, right now."

Damien's heart pulls, caught in the tide of Rilla's ill-hidden sorrow. For its part, the Keep sings again, an understanding descent of notes, an obvious concession to Rilla's points.

"Why don't you play, just a little, my love?" Damien's keeps his voice low, and he brushes his hand over hers on the neck of her instrument. "And I will do the singing myself."

"Damien," she says, sounding tired and uncertain. "It isn't going to w-"

"Not," he clarifies, "for the sake of a solution, I mean. Simply for us. You have sung for my own comfort more times than I could possibly count. If it would bring you more distress, you need not play, but at least let me sing for you. Our Keep has made a lovely suggestion, and I should like, I think, to take some small measure of comfort where I can, and share it."

"Oh," Rilla says, blinking, and then she breathes a weak sort of laugh. "Oh, I mean… if you- if you want?"

Damien smiles, and it feels mostly genuine. They still have not come to any solutions, but surprising Rilla is delightful enough to warm him regardless. "I believe you are correct," he says, "that any attempts at artifice will only cause our lily to mistrust our intentions further. Perhaps we should attempt to show him your recordings, next. That seems an appropriate step. But currently, while he is… cooling off, as you put it, I think we should take a moment of our own. Settle our minds, comfort our souls." He squeezes her hand, ducking his head. "Will you let me sing for you?"

"Damien," she says, and her cheeks are dark as her lips tilt into a fond smile. She glances down to her instrument, and then she sighs, and sits, and lifts it to a proper playing position as she meets Damien's again. "I'll play. You can sing, if you really want to. But- but you don't have to sing for me, okay?"

"I know," he says, settling to sit beside her as her fingers dance across the frets, lazily adjusting the tuning. "But surely you know that I want to."

Her smile grows, and she plucks out a few unconnected chords. "Alright, alright," she says, voice warm, and then she bites her lip for a moment as her fingers move, as she strums through a few more experimental notes before she decides on something he can sing along with.

Another folk song, one without quite such a fraught connection to the four of them, this time. A song about warm rains and bolting for shelter, about closeness and laughter, about staying together in the hidden places, even after the storm passes by.

She is always so beautiful when she plays. She laughs, even, when the Keep begins to hum wordlessly along with Damien, and he nearly loses his thread when the combination of her talent and her joy threatens to overwhelm his heart. Eventually, on the final verse, she lets her own voice raise to join theirs, harmonizing until she strums the last chord.

Her smile tilts her lips, and her eyes sparkle between rueful and mischievous.

"Tactical and romantic," she murmurs, and Damien attempts to look innocent. "Okay, okay, I'm actually feeling a little better now. Happy?"

At the admission, Damien's shoulders relax, and he cannot help his own smile. "Absolutely delighted, my flower," he says, and then he leans closer, and Rilla breathes another small laugh as she lifts one hand away from the frets to cup his cheek, to pull him more decisively into the kiss.

Damien freezes when he hears the sharp inhale from the doorway, and he can feel the too-small reserves of comfort and warmth shrink within him. He can feel Rilla's frame stiffen beneath his hands as well, and he forces himself to pull back, to glance aside, to look where he knows he will see-

Arum leans on the doorframe, two hands clinging to the wood, his thin lips parted and his expression confused and open and raw. A moment after Damien looks towards him, though, he snaps his jaw shut again, forcing himself to look nearly blank.

Nearly. Damien knows him too well to be entirely fooled.

"How- how long were you-"

Rilla cuts herself off before she finishes the question, and Arum looks away with a throaty rumble, his tail flicking behind him.

"Long enough to know you were including my Keep in your little moment of bonding, which I do not appreciate in the-"

Arum cuts himself off as well, and Damien wonders for a strange moment if this is a very convoluted attempt at mocking, but the lizard's mouth twists into an uncomfortable line as he visibly struggles through some decision, his hands clenching and unclenching from tense fists as the rattle in his throat grows again.

Arum inhales, glances back behind himself for a moment, and then he seems to shake whatever thoughts he had been grappling, and he narrows his eyes at Rilla.

"You," he says, and Damien can see the way he is layering suspicion over his confusion now. "Rilla. You mentioned the Senate, when discussing how you claim we first came to… to know one another. What do you know of them?"

Rilla bites her lip, confused over this sudden return to interrogation. She furrows her brow as she meets Damien's eye for a moment, and he gives the shadow of a shrug, exactly as unsure about the monster's intent as Rilla herself is.

"Uh, only what you've told me?" she tilts her head, setting her instrument gingerly to the side of their seat and then crossing her arms over her chest as she thinks. "Which honestly isn't all that much. I don't think you really like talking about them? And as far as I know they haven't been much of a factor since the mess at Fort Terminus. They kinda-sorta run the show with the monsters in general, yeah? Mostly because they're powerful enough to just… do what they want, even if it infringes on what other monsters want."

Arum frowns, but despite his clear displeasure he nods. "That is not entirely inaccurate." He pauses, tension in his jaw before he continues, "and you are certain that I am… no longer in communication, then, with these beasts?"

Rilla's eyebrows shoot up, and Damien answers, "You have certainly not mentioned any correspondence, no. May I ask why this is a concern, currently?"

"Do you think they're involved?" Rilla asks, eager, and Arum's snout wrinkles.

"I cannot say for certain," he mutters, and then he bares his teeth uncomfortably, "and if I do not discuss them with you, I do not know how I could find out."

Damien turns that phrasing over in his head, and he is sure that he must have misheard for a moment, because he seems to be implying-

"Wait." Rilla shifts at his side, sitting straighter. "Wait. You're talking like- do you believe us?"

Arum stares at her for a moment, brow furrowed, and then he blinks quickly, hissing sharp and low.

Damien watches him hunch his shoulders, duck his head, hands flexing, and Damien does not know if his heart should swell or plummet. Arum did not even realize his own implication.

"I-" the monster stammers. "That is not-" he shakes his head, his frill fluttering with distress. "I do not-"

Damien stands, and Rilla stands a moment after, her hand at his elbow.

"Arum," Damien tries, and the monster snaps his jaw shut, glaring between the both of them for a long moment.

"… I do not know what to believe," he says slowly, eventually, and then he drops his eyes. "So … so perhaps you should continue attempting to prove your point. If- if you are so terribly certain that you are correct, if you believe you have some so-called evidence that may be so utterly compelling…" he trails off, exhales a slow sigh, and then gestures with a hand, prompting the Keep to form a doorway at his back. "I may have found some evidence of my own. Come. Convince me, and perhaps I will show you what I've found."

[->]

#elle's fanfic #the penumbra podcast #second citadel #rad bouquet #lizard kissin' tuesday #sir damien #amaryllis of exile #the keep #lord arum #going through changes ripping out pages #pblease feed me comments pblease

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starsgivemehp · 5 years

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Magic/Worldbuilding Rulebook

This is basically a comprehensive list of how, technically and scientifically speaking, the worlds and monsters of my AUs work.

Under cut for length!

How does magic work for humans with magic?

Humans all have souls, and souls are all made up of magic. Thus, all humans have at least a little bit of magic within them. The amount of magic and the ability to wield it vary from person to person. ‘Most’ people are unaware of the magic in their bodies and are incapable of using it, but could, with a lot of time and effort, learn how to channel and use it but are never given the chance. A minority are completely unable to use it, and a minority have enough of it/enough of a natural talent/enough of a bloodline that they can use it without training or influence, and training will help them hone it. For example, someone like Psyche has enough natural magic in her that she can use it at will, though it took her some time to work out how and what her limits are. Someone like Naomi has a deeply magical bloodline that she, too, can use it with some effort, but does not have the discipline to hone it until underground/near enough magic for her body to get used to it.

How do monster bodies work?

Monsters have weaker, greyish souls, and their bodies are physical manifestations of those souls that are partially due to lineage and environment, and partially up to the individual monster’s decisions. For example, monsters will have characteristics of their parents, and will tend to have bodily functions appropriate for where they live (monsters who live in snowdin are resistant to cold, monsters who live in hotland are resistant to heat, monsters who live in waterfall can almost all swim and either love or need water, etc). However, other aspects of their bodies and magic are shaped due to conscious or subconscious actions and thoughts. For example, even though magical bodies don’t have real muscles or organs, an Undyne has shaped her body to look muscular due to rigorous training and intent to be strong. Her body is mimicking what organic bodies do when put under the same circumstances. This works the same way for skeleton ecto. A skeleton like Vex, who trains a lot, has very toned ecto that mimics muscle and is even a bit harder in firmness, whereas a skeleton like Red, who spends a lot of time laying around but is still fit enough to fight, has softer ecto with more rounded edges and volume to it. Essentially, monster bodies are only made up of magical manifestations and cannot bleed (only dust), but have the outward appearance of having all of the functions of any organic creature and can be modified in the same ways.

Monster bodies need certain amounts of ventilation throughout their lives. A monster that does not wield magic often enough can get ‘stuffed up’ and sick. This is rare for adults, who know how to properly vent and use magic but may rarely chose not to do so/be otherwise unable to do so (magic suppressors are an example), but common in children. who have not yet learned the intricacies of venting magic on a day-to-day basis. The symptoms of this monster sickness are similar to the common cold in humans: fever, stuffed up feeling, sneezing or runny nose if the monster has a nose, fatigue, and an achey feeling. It generally clears up in a few days, and there is medicine to help (which is black and tarry and children don’t tend to like it).

Generally speaking, gender is flexible for monsters. Certain species have concretely-defined genitalia (for example, dog monsters, bunny monsters, etc), certain species have no genitalia and reproduce solely through soul interaction (for example, moldsmal, other small fry, sometimes certain elementals), and yet others are somewhere in between and can go in either direction (for example, fire elementals and skeletons).

In the same vein, unless the monster is of the type that has concretely-set genitalia and does not use asexual/soul-based reproduction, monsters of any gender can conceive. The easiest example of this is the fluidity of skeleton genitalia, and whichever skeleton happened to have the female genitalia on during conception winds up being the ‘mother’ regardless of gender. In terms of soul-based reproduction, typically fire elementals, the partners make a conscious decision as to which soul receives the excess magic to become the mother. For example, Grillby and his wife connected via the soul and Grillby intentionally imparted enough of his own magic on hers to conceive. This process is not guaranteed, much like human pregnancies, but has a higher conception rate than using humanoid genitalia.

Monster bodies are also influenced by emotion and situation. The most obvious example is a monster’s stats. ATK and DEF can go up with training and certain mindsets for most monsters, although some are completely incapable of raising these stats (usually Sanses, and usually for emotional reasons. Red’s disabilities are an exception). Monsters like Vex and Legall have inflated their ATK and DEF to very impressive levels through a lot of effort and training. Other monsters, like boss monsters, have more naturally high ATK and DEF, but even they can build it up more with enough training and intent. This is why, for example, fell!Asgore is even stronger than classic!Asgore despite their bodies being otherwise very similar.

HOPE is another stat that is influenced by surroundings and emotions. HP has a general minimum and maximum according to monster species, and falling below that minimum is an indicator of poor health, typically mental health. A monster who starts to suffer from depression may start to lose HOPE and become weaker. However, there are certain exceptions where poor physical health influences the HOPE stat as well (Red has a combination of both of these factors). When HOPE falls too low, a monster may begin the Falling Down process. Typically, the process first manifests in sluggishness, a bleaker outlook and maybe even sad or nihilistic talk. Following that, the affected monster will begin to cough. This is the most noticeable symptom, and the most cause for alarm. The monster will begin to cough up dust and become fatigued. They will be bedridden until they either recover (unlikely by this point) or complete the Falling Down process and dust.

Magic can be equated to heat, in most cases. Monsters’ bodies are generally hotter than human bodies by nature, especially if they have good magic control and/or depending on their type (fire elementals and dragons tend to be the hottest, lizards and water elementals tend to be cooler, etc). Poor magic control or poor conditions resulting in a lack of food can cause monster bodies to be unhealthy and cool/cold. For example, in Horrorfell, when the starvation is worse, Arum may feel ill and be cold to the touch.

Shielding the soul (as done in Lust verses) prevents most attacks from doing real damage and bringing down HP, most notably physical damage. An extreme amount and certain magical attacks can still cause damage, and severe duress can cause the monster in question to drop their shield.

How can monsters consciously wield magic?

Different types of monsters tend to use different types of magic, and this is based on lineage, environment, and personal preference. Intent is very important, but not everything. For example, although most monsters have the inherent ability to wield green magic (healing magic), their ability to wield it varies. My Papyri tend to be better at it than my Sanses, mainly due to empathy reasons (higher empathy makes for easier healing) and sometimes due to bodily reasons (Red has a combination of finding difficulty in truly empathizing, and also being stunted in specific magics for biological reasons, green magic included).

Colors match magic types in some cases, and sometimes correlate to soul colors, but not always.

Cyan magic (or blue attacks) correlate to patience and require patience to counter. Light blue attacks harm you if you move through them, and are harmless if you stay still. A monster can cast light blue magic on their soul to make all incoming attacks harmless while they are motionless, for a short period of time. Several types of monsters can use light blue attacks, generally skeletons and (??? I'll think of this later) can use cyan magic.

Orange magic (or attacks) correlate to bravery. Orange attacks harm you if you are still, and are harmless if you charge through them. Orange magic, on the other hand, turns a soul orange and causes the bearer of that soul to have increased inertia when moving. A monster can cast this on themself to move quickly, or an enemy to make it harder to turn and stop in a fight. Many types of monsters can use orange attacks. Generally, goats and sometimes fire elementals use orange magic.

Dark blue magic correlates to integrity (albeit in a roundabout way). Typically this magic is solely used by skeletons. Dark blue magic is cast on an enemy to increase the gravity on the enemy, making it difficult for them to move around and jump. The wielder can move the enemy around and throw them into traps and attacks. Monsters cannot use blue magic on themselves, only others.

Purple magic correlates to Perseverance in a roundabout way. It is sticky and can trap enemies in place or slow them down. Purple magic halfway functions as attacks, in that they are produced in the body and shot at someone, and halfway functions as as orange or blue magic, in that it doesn't directly deal damage, but instead causes an effect on the body and/or soul. Purple magic is generally used by spiders and (??? I'll think of this later).

Green magic correlates strongly with kindness. It is healing magic. It can be used either in the form of bullet patterns or by direct contact. The second method generally involves the healer placing their hands on the patient's chest and either at the forehead or near/hovering above the wound, for magic to reach both the physical damage and the soul. For this reason, green magic bullets do not heal much at a time, but green magic healing can heal as much at once as the wielder has energy for. Green magic is also cooked into monster food, for similar effects as healing (although eating does require consciousness, and being healed doesn't).

A different type of green magic, green soul magic, functions similarly to blue magic. When cast, it traps the enemy in place. This is a very rare and strong magic which requires years of intense training and practice to hold for even a short period of time. No monster species in particular wields this magic due to its difficulty. Currently, Undyne and Gerson are the only known wielders, and even Undyne cannot hold it for more than a few turns at a time.

Yellow magic correlates with justice. Generally, the wielder casts it on themself. This turns the soul to 'attack mode,’ allowing the wielder to use rapidfire bullet patterns aimed either straight ahead or straight at the enemy. This is a good strategy for monsters with slow-moving bullet patterns or questionable aim. Yellow magic can also be granted by a wielder to an ally to assist them in group battles. It is typically used by lizards, turtles, snails, and occasionally other slower-moving monsters as a balance to their typically lackluster movements which would otherwise put them at risk.

Not much is known about red magic.

Fire magic is typically used by fire elementals, dragons, and goats, but other types of monsters can learn it with practice. Fire magic is heavily tied to intent. It can be used as attacks with either bullet patterns or genuine burning fire, but it can also be used for simple warmth, or to cook. Food cooked with fire magic has an inherently comforting taste to all monsters and tends to be far more popular than other types of food.

Weapons can be either physical or manifested. Physical weapons are harmless to dummies and ghosts, and are exactly the same as human weapons. Manifested weapons are extensions of a monster's magic. Typically, monsters can only make one type of weapon, and the amount of said weapon depends on their energy levels (e.g. Undynes can chuck dozens of spears when fighting fit, but not nearly so many when exhausted). The type of weapon depends on various factors, and is generally chosen subconsciously. They can be inherited (for example, the Lava Trident Alka's brother has was inherited by his father when he dealt a killing blow, despite not being a physical weapon). The color of the manifested weapon tends to match the wielder's magic color (note that most monsters’ magic color is arbitrary and not connected to soul traits. Skeletons are the exception. Undyne's spears are cyan but she ain't no Patience soul, nor does she use cyan attacks in battle). Most monsters can only make one weapon at a time, though a fair number may dual-wield. Manifested weapons can either weigh next to nothing, or the same as a physical weapon of the same type. This is generally up to the wielder's preference. Rav is a pretty big exception to most of these limitations, as he has a special talent and trains in making several different types of manifested weapons, and has even gotten skilled enough to change their colors and intricately detail them.

Other types of magic vary by monster type and are too numerous to explain. They can be explained on request.

Explain skeletons?

Skeletons tend to have magic revolving around space (in the physics sense). Many skeletons are able to summon items from other areas, provided they are aware of said items and exactly where they are. For example, Red can summon a bottle of mustard from his stash, but when that stash runs out he has to put more mustard there to do so. Many skeletons also have the ability to teleport short distances, although this is a learned skill and generally those in the 'Sans’ role are more practiced in this for any number of reasons. Papyri are more than capable, they just typically don't know how. For example, Howl learned out of necessity after being separated from Daemon across the multiverse, and Vex is slowly but surely learning if only because he's tired of being left behind when Red wanders off. This ability requires both a knowledge of where one is and a knowledge of where one is going, generally meaning the wielder has to have been to an area at least once to later return there.

Note that depending on the verse, I like the idea of the shortcut ability requiring entering one doorway and leaving another, meaning someone locked in a room cannot leave because there is no doorway to leave through. This is verse-specific and will be noted when in use.

Due to the nature of ecto, certain skeletons are able to manifest extra body parts not connected to the body, in a similar way to summoning weapons. The best example of this is Gasters wielding extra hands. Red inherited this ability from his own Gaster, Erebus (though he's unaware that's the reason he's able to do this).

Speaking of ecto, the explanation is as follows: given that skeletons are biologically very humanoid and their bodies themselves use very little magic (the bare-bones, if you will), skeletons have a unique ability to shape and use extra magic as a vaguely jelly-like substance called ecto. Ghosts can also do this. Ecto is approximately as firm and smooth as flesh, although it is slightly less textured and weighs less. It has a bit of give, sort of like chub on humans, but maintains its shape better than flesh (e.g. ecto breasts remain shapely and don't sag like human breasts). Generally speaking, maintaining ecto for a short period of time is very easy and requires very little magic, but using it long-term can eat up magic quicker and require bigger or more frequent meals to maintain. In example, a skeleton wearing some ecto hair while out and about but releasing it at home or at night is not very magic-consuming, but a skeleton wearing full-body ecto almost 24/7 needs to eat and/or sleep a lot to maintain their ecto and still be able to use magic for other things. This is why, for example, Jazz is very fit and healthy but still naps a lot when they can, because they use full-body ecto every second of not being home. Ecto will be the same color as manifested weapons and other magic color, and in skeletons, it typically relates to the matching soul trait.

As a side note, skeletons are the most obvious example of magic having smells and tastes specific to the monster. Most types have similar tastes due to the more concrete bodies (e.g. dogs all taste the same, fire elementals mostly taste the same, etc), but skeletons, primarily using ecto which is more raw magic, have unique individual tastes and scents.

Limb detachment is a natural thing for skeletons, and is painless. Due to the nature of magic flow, however, detached limbs cannot move on their own or perform any magical functions. They can be damaged, and hurt the skeleton, and skeletons will be able to vaguely feel other sensations the limb is feeling. Skeletons regulate their body easily enough as older children, teens, and adults, but very young children are not able to do this. As such, babybones’ limbs may detach without warning and require a parent/adult to reattach them. Skeleton newborns need to constantly be touching or very physically close to a parent, because that parent gives off a steady sphere of magic to hold the baby bodies together. Being left alone for too long will result in the newborn's body falling apart entirely, and while it can be fixed of caught immediately, this can lead to death rather quickly.

Skeleton children develop language faster than other young children, which makes up for their weaker physical states. This is the basis behind typeface names. Skeletons have official names reflecting the handwriting and speech they learn from a young age. Type is determined by the skeleton's vocal range, intensity of speech (or how much conviction their voice holds, in other words), handwriting, formality, and even, to a much lesser extent, general body shape. The parents choose the typeface their child is, hold a naming ceremony, and thereafter teach the child to perfectly hone their handwriting to the exact correct typeface. Namedays are substituted for birthdays.

Skeletons don't need to breathe necessarily, but it helps ventilate magic and most are used to doing it anyway. Thus, the sensation of being unable to breathe typically causes a skeleton to pass out after approximately the same amount of time it takes for a human to pass out, but with no lasting ill effects. This can be subverted with the right mindset, i.e. coaching oneself on it while swimming.

How does magic dilute over time?

Assume a pureblood human and a pureblood monster mate and have a child. That child will, usually, have an appearance that is pretty evenly half-monster, half-human. This may, however, manifest in one of two ways. The more common way is a natural blend of both features. A mostly humanoid body with accents of the monster species. A half dog monster may have ears, a tail, paws, and fur, or a half bird monster may have talons for feet and wings for arms, and so on. The less common way is a child that can switch between two forms at will (or unintentionally while young). This has only been observed with half skeletons, but by no means is it common (in other words I like this idea and may use it for specific verses but generally don't). In both cases, the soul is shaped like a monster's but colored like a human's.

With the first instance, assume the half-human half-monster child then mates with another human. Their child is more humanoid with less monster traits. Long-term exposure to magic will encourage the child's monster traits to be prominent even so, but lack of exposure will make these traits lessen. This child's soul functions and looks completely human. This continues down the generations, assuming no monsters are reintroduced to the line. After enough generations (maybe five or six), the monster part of the heritage essentially becomes dormant without magic practice, but not gone. A distant descendant may naturally become a mage, or may be unable to perform magic (or know their heritage) without being exposed to it much like regular humans.

Assuming the half-human half-monster child goes on to mate a monster, the grandchild retains a vaguely humanoid body and soul color, while keeping a monster soul shape and with monster features winning out over human ones. Assuming the generations continue to only mate with monsters, humanoid traits become less and less frequent. Soul color will continue to be human for up to about a dozen generations, well past all human bodily features being erased.

Continued mixed heritage, with humans and monsters both adding in to the family line, will result in children who remain roughly the same as half children, give or take depending on the specifics.

What other magic varieties are present?

Aside from the color magic, fire magic, and skeleton magic previously covered, magic tends to either be element-based (water, fire, electricity, air, etc) or attribute-based (increase of strength, speed, flexibility, enhancement of weapons, etc). Rarely, there are special types of magic connected to certain actions or mindsets that are vaguely extrasensory in nature, such as increased empathy, telepathy or telekinesis, prophetic abilities, etc. These are very rare and typically occur due to extenuating circumstances (i.e. Prise's piano-accented seer powers are due to a mild void connection).

How is intent involved with magic?

In most cases, intent is very important (but not everything). A complete lack of intent to hurt generally renders attacks harmless, but even the faintest hint of irritation or frustration can be read as intent and wind up hurting someone despite more conscious thought. Very, very few monsters have the ability to confidently spar and know no hits will land (Vex is the only known one at the moment). Likewise, intent to heal does not always mean one can efficiently use healing magic (as observed in Red's case). But in more general terms, intent can mean the difference between, for example, a fire meant to hurt, and cooking fire that is harmless. Fire elementals generally practice this with their own bodies. Intent to defend or harm can make their entire body burning to the touch, in stark contrast to how intent to comfort makes the entire body seeming only as warm as standing nearby a pleasant hearth fire, even if the other person is cuddled close or even being intimate.

Intent is also the means to control other types of magic, and how they affect the other person. For example, when a skeleton uses blue magic on someone's soul, intent can decide whether the grip is just a small presence, even comforting, or the grip is tight to the point of pain. This is similar to how Dox’s strings can wrap around a soul and yank painfully, or can be a comforting weight to someone like his Dove.

In the same vein, for another example, Prise can use his intent to decide what his seer powers provide him when he sits down at the piano. Initial observation of this power was simply sitting to play while wondering what type of run his human would do, and he would get a matching 'hunch.’ Later, he uses the same power with a completely different intent to tap into the void and help his Dove sleep, and even later, a new intent to communicate with Dove from a different timeline in their sleep. These all stem from the same general type of magic, and are based on intent and skill level.

#headcanons #my work #my writing #my fanfiction

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