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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

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Zouxie Week 2022: Day 4 - Motorcyles

"She's Beautiful"

Read on AO3

Douxie sat behind Zoe, the two of them precariously balanced on the bike. Wrapping his arms around her waist, he leaned forward slightly, resting his head on her shoulder and tucking his knees up. “Is now a bad time to mention that I’ve never been on one of these before?” She ignited the engine silently with a wave of her wand. “It’s like riding a bike. You were a newspaper delivery boy back in the 40s right?” He nodded as she slipped on a pair of black gloves. “It’s just like that, just a bit different to steer. And lucky for you, you’re not the one steering.” “Still not sure if I should be comforted by that.”

A/N: Late submission because I was in finals purgatory. But I'm back with a short thing for Day 4, and I'm currently writing Day 5.

Word Count: 1693

Tagging: @moppetwithamanbun and @emsprovisions for Zouxie Week 2022!

----

“She’s beautiful.”

“Douxie, are you sure this is a wise idea?”

“Oh, Archie, I’m certain of it. I think I’m in love. I’d pour my life’s savings into her to make sure she’s well and cared for.”

“You’re ‘in love’ with a strange contraption.”

Douxie swept his hand over the leather seat and turned back to a humanoid Archie with an astonished look on his face. “She’s a BMW, thank you very much, Arch. And a beautiful one at that too,” he gushed. He knelt down to examine the motorcycle and all of its nooks and crannies. “The new 1924 BMW R32.”

“There’s a hell of a lot of power in her. She’s got a 494 cc boxer twin. Nice shaft drive too. She can run nearly 60 miles per hour, which is kinda crazy when you think about it. With the new braking system, one should have less trouble stopping her. But you don’t look like the type who’d be able to take her out on the streets and manage not to crash.”

The wizard looked up, laughing. “You sure sound like you know your onions-” He gasped. A woman with short mousy brown hair, a streak of pink tucked behind her ear, and bright blue eyes looked down at him. Her arms were crossed, the sleeves of her shirt rolled up and a cap pulled low over her face. In her pockets were a few different sized wrenches, one of which seemed to be engraved with Elder Futhark runes. Despite her demeanor, she looked at the young man with a friendly smirk.

“Zoe! You work here?” Douxie chatted excitedly as he stood, readjusting his unbuttoned waistcoat. He stumbled upwards, and Archie caught him before he slammed into the young woman. As he stepped forward for a hug, Zoe backed away, raising her grease covered hands cautiously.

“Watch the grease-”

His face fell while Archie cleaned his glasses and put them back on. The latter’s golden eyes widened in disbelief. “Merlin’s beard. It really is you, Ms. Ashildr!”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me, alright?” She rolled her eyes, but there was no bite to her bark. A genuine smile played at the corners of her lips as she looked on at the two before her. “It’s sure been a while, hasn’t it?”

“A while?” Douxie waved his hands furiously, causing nearby men examining other motorcycles to cast a glance at the trio. “Zoe, we haven’t seen you since…it must’ve been 1889? In Paris? The tower they put up there! Yes, we visited the new tower, and then we went back across the channel, and we lost track of you..I thought you were still in England! In fact,” he added, pointing to himself and Archie, “we only got here a few weeks ago.”

Archie groaned, “And that is why I’ve been telling him not to try and spend all his meager savings on a motorbike.” He caught a glimpse at the look in the witch and wizard’s eyes and groaned again. Waving them off, he straightened his tie and turned towards the other bikes in the shop. “I’ll take a look around for anything remotely affordable. If not, we’ll just go grocery shopping.” He cast a knowing look over his shoulder. “If you two get into any trouble, I’m expecting salmon for dinner, Douxie.”

While Douxie let out affronted noises of astonishment, Zoe laughed. She took Douxie’s hand into her own, fingers calloused and still covered in grease, guiding him outside of the shop. He felt heat flushing his cheeks, turning his face towards the ground.

Stepping outside into the busy Chicago street, Zoe handed him a blackened cloth to wipe his hands on and stuffed hers into her pockets. He nodded sheepishly, eyes still trained on the ground as he cleaned his hands. She raised an eyebrow. “Not that chatty anymore? Are you really this shy after not having seen me for a few decades, or are you just mad about me making a jab at your driving skills? Or rather,” she chuckled, “the lack thereof.”

“Ha, ha, very funny,” he shot back. He snuck a quick glance. She looked incredibly confident with her arms crossed like that. Very pretty. Her eyes met his. He quickly turned his gaze across the street to a very attention-grabbing and not at all boring law firm office. “And I’m sure you’ve got excellent driving skills.”

“I can get from point A to point B in one piece,” she shrugged, looking at a woman dragging her child away from an ice cream parlor. “I’ve been a menace on the race course.”

With a jolt, Douxie turned to her excitedly. “You’ve been racing?”

She nodded, trying (and failing) to not come off as ridiculously proud. “Raced under the name Xander on a few different Harley-Davidsons. Won a few times too.”

“I missed a lot, haven’t I?” She nodded in response, smiling wryly. His brow furrowed slightly. “It’s been so long, Zoe. I haven’t heard from you in ages.”

“Tell me about it.”

“No, seriously.” She turned and met his gaze. His face was strangely unreadable, unusual for someone as vocal as Douxie about his emotions. There was a strange combination of worry and relief in his eyes, but also something else that Zoe couldn’t quite place. “I haven’t heard from you since before the turn of the century. And during the Great War…Zoe, I wasn’t sure if you were even alive.

Realization struck her across the face. Her joking manner fell away. “Oh, gods. Douxie, I-”

“Arch and I came to the States looking for a fresh start after the war. It’s taken us so long because England is in shambles.” His voice cracked as tears came to his eyes. “The war devastated us. I fought because, for some stupid, stupid reason, I thought I could find you there. I spent years on the battlelines, fighting to survive, not only for England, but also for you. If I made it out of that war alive, I wanted to find you. And yet, I found you here, four, five years later. In the States. Zoe, I almost didn’t recognize you because of your accent. It was your wand that gave it away.

“You couldn’t even be bothered to write a letter? To try and find us?” He was growing angry at this point, years of worry and dread boiling over into frustration. “Why did you disappear after Paris, Zoe? Where were you? Where did you go?”

She knitted her eyebrows, making to argue back, but then she paused. She sighed, nodding and stepping to the side as to let a customer into the motorcycle shop. Her eyes lit up, and she turned back to her old friend.

“How about I take you for a ride?”

“Zoe, don’t change the topic,” he moaned, “please.”

“I’ll explain it to you, if you get on the bike.” A rebellious smile. “We can take the R32.”

“To be completely clear, Casperan, if this thing comes back with so much as a scratch, my boss will kill me.”

“I don’t know why you’re telling me this. You’re the one who snuck it out of the shop in the first place. Not to mention that you’re driving.”

Zoe laughed, “Right. And it’s your job to keep us from dying.”

She ignited the engine silently with a wave of her wand. “It’s like riding a bike. You were a newspaper delivery boy back in the 40s right?” He nodded as she slipped on a pair of black gloves. “It’s just like that, just a bit different to steer. And lucky for you, you’re not the one steering.”

“Still not sure if I should be comforted by that.”

The engine sputtered a little, and she made to give it a whack before thinking better of it and tapping it gently with her wand. Pink sparks flew from the metal as the R32 came to life. She looked over her shoulder at him. “Just hold onto me, and everything will be fine.”

He hesitated before finally nodding, and she took off down the street.

It was magical. The bike was made by very human hands, but the speed and the exhilaration of it all brought out a euphoric feeling Douxie hadn’t felt in ages. It was like when he first made fire in his hands from the energy around him. His nerves crackled, and he felt his soul being pulled forward to an unknown destination.

Yet, at long last, he finally felt like he was home.

Zoe masterfully made her way out of the city and onto the roads beyond alongside the Illinois River. For a time, they were quiet, simply basking in the thrill of being on the road together after decades apart. The motorcycle thrummed as they kept driving to the point where the road met the sky.

They’d keep driving, and driving, and driving.

At one point they’d stop, the bike having run out of gas miles ago, fueled only by Zoe’s magic and will.

They sit on the side of the road, looking out over the river. And for hours and hours, they’d talk of the things they’d missed, the moments they had lost, time they could have spent together wasted apart.

Here, where the road met the sky, Douxie would look at Zoe. Her laugh and charm. He was still slightly resentful. But as they spoke and the daylight faded away, he felt his heart warm, the long quiet embers catching aflame once again.

Sure, she had grown into an American accent and slight rasp. Her once long brown hair was cut short. But she still laughed the same way. She still punched his arm playfully and knitted her brows together when he teased her for her height. She still had lightning in her eyes, bright as her wit.

She was beautiful.

#zouxieweek2022 #hisirdoux casperan #zoe ashildr #zouxie #fanfic #archie toa #toa fanfic #ananonswriting

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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

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Zouxie Week 2022: Day 1 - Date Night

Date Night in 1953

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Zoe was happy to see these happy couples on Valentine’s Day, and she was especially happy to see that her client was happy. But something caught attention from the corner of her eye. It was a man sitting at a nearby table in the middle of the lunch car floor, one who looked very out of place, but vaguely familiar. Blonde hair, suit, blue eyes, and glasses. And then, Zoe realized who it was, and with an exasperated sigh, marched out of her seat to the table. “Hisirdoux Casperan.”

Word Count: 3039

Tagging: @moppetwithamanbun and @emsprovisions for Zouxie Week 2022!

----

February 14th, 1953 should have been a perfectly ordinary night.

Zoe Ashildr arrived at the YellowFin in The Middle of Nowhere, New Jersey late at night on a job. The lights were bright on this lunch car in The Middle of Nowhere, and she could spot it from a mile away.. She arrived with her client in her blue New Yorker, but motioned for them to remain while she surveyed the diner for her client’s date. He looked more than pleased to stay a bit longer, a little bit green after Zoe’s driving.

Slipping her keys into her skirt pocket (thank the stars Zoe knew how to tailor skirts), She entered to survey the cramped and busy late night lunch car, and made her perch at the end of the counter, looking around for her client’s date. These days, Zoe ran a romance counseling agency, and this was one of the most important and the busiest nights of her year. She refused to use actual magic to help her clients (despite choosing the name Magic Match Romance Counseling), so she would have to do things the mundane way.

It wasn’t bad, Zoe thought to herself, spotting the client’s date and slipping past him to make for the silent jukebox in the corner. She put in a few coins and put on a popular country song. “Don't let the stars get in your eyes, don't let the moon break your heart.” Zoe found herself humming as she added a few more songs before returning to her seat. She motioned for the man to enter the lunch car before returning to her seat. Her makeup was done with bright red lipstick, soft rouge, and dramatically sharp eyebrows, and her short brown hair curled and bobbed around her face. Dressed in a red swing dress, she looked perfectly mundane and inconspicuous. She ordered a club sandwich.

Her client entered, hesitantly straightening out his sweater. He was an Ivy League man, and a nervous one at that too. Tonight, he was reuniting with his childhood best friend and crush. While her client had gone to Yale, his friend had gone to the New England Conservatory. The two had kept in contact through letters for the past four years. As he approached graduation in a few months, Zoe’s client had approached her to help him confess his love. Having also loved a close friend before in her life, Zoe wanted to see this man as happy as could be, and she was going to make sure this night was a ball.

Zoe nodded in the general direction of his date, but there was no need. He spotted his friend and the two young men stood and waved to each other as Zoe’s client approached. There was laughter. Awkward smiles, but genuine ones. This was the way it was across the entire little lunch car. People ordered burgers and shakes and sundaes. They shared and talked the night away, bobbing along or even singing the songs playing on the jukebox.

Zoe was happy to see these happy couples on Valentine’s Day, and she was especially happy to see that her client was happy.

But something caught attention from the corner of her eye.

It was a man sitting at a nearby table in the middle of the lunch car floor, one who looked very out of place, but vaguely familiar. Blonde hair, suit, blue eyes, and glasses. And then, Zoe realized who it was, and with an exasperated sigh, marched out of her seat to the table.

“Hisirdoux Casperan.”

The wizard pushed his faux glasses up his nose higher, and shrunk down into his suit. He was trying to hide it, Zoe noted, but even when tugging down his right sleeve tightly, he could do little to conceal the bright blue glow of his charm bracelet. If she touched his suit, she suspected, the jacket would feel warm, even hot. He looked hot.

Not in that way, she sternly thought to herself. She could see beads of sweat along Douxie’s brow. How long had he been using his magic? It was clearly taking a toll on him. Glamors were never his strong suit, but here in the lunch car, rather than the dark slicked back look he was often sporting these days, his hair was a pale blonde. His eyes were a piercing blue, and his suit and tie screamed “American businessman.” It was unfamiliar and disconcerting. And Zoe didn’t like it.

The only two things aside from the glowing charm bracelet that had made Zoe realize this man was Douxie were the faint scar along his wrist and the eye bags. The witch wasn’t sure if his eye bags were part of the glamor or were real, but he was there, disguised for some unknown reason and drumming his fingers on the table to the off-meter song playing on the jukebox.

“Douxie,” she pressed.

He pretended not to hear her and began looking at the little menu standing on the lunch car table. Zoe sighed and smacked the back of his head. “Hey!” he said, finally coming around. His glamor flickered, and she caught a glimpse of his familiar hazel eyes and black hair, a leather jacket instead of a gray suit. He looked around, hissing. “You can’t do that here.”

“Well then, change outside, then come back! I need to talk to you, and I’d rather not do it when you look like some random creep off the street!”

“Oi!”

Zoe pulled him out of his seat by the collar. It was late at night, but the lunch car was still bustling, bright lights and jukebox roaring. It was hardly the time or place for an argument, but Zoe pulled down Hisirdoux and whispered in his ear.

“I don’t know what you're doing here or why you’re in a glamor, but for the love of Freyja, if you're here trying to steal my client, I am going to-” She inhaled sharply and choked on the smell. Not cloves. “Cologne? Really?” she hissed.

Douxie shrugged, and she groaned, continuing, “I’m here watching a client, and I don’t need you interfering or causing a ruckus. This is a very important meeting. If you wanted to not stand out, then you should’ve come as you are. You are drawing a hell of a lot of attention to yourself right now.”

Douxie laughed, peering over his glasses with hazel eyes. “And you aren’t?”

Zoe looked around. There were more eyes trained on them than she thought. A short angry woman yelling at a tall businessman looking guy. Not a great look. She cast a look down the car and spotted her client, who hadn’t seemed to notice her. He was laughing with his date. They ordered a large plate of fries and a few cups of coffee. Things looked like they were going smoothly enough. She grumbled and took Douxie’s hand, leading him outside.

February in New Jersey at night was cold, even on Valentine’s Day. Zoe shivered, as Douxie slunk behind the lunch car. There was a small flash of blue light, and he returned with a more familiar appearance. The studded leather jacket he found, the dark jeans, the slicked back black hair, the hazel eyes that always seemed to change color in the light. A lopsided and friendly grin on his face. The smell of cloves.

His brow furrowed upon seeing Zoe chattering in the cold February night, and he took off his jacket, draping it over Zoe’s shoulders. It was warm, as she expected, especially in the sleeve where Douxie’s brace had been hiding. With his jacket off, his charm bracelet was wide open for anyone to see, as were the tattoo sleeves he had gotten nearly a decade ago. He caught her eyes on the brace and with another blue flash it was simply a wristwatch.

“You alright?” Douxie asked gently. He raised his arm as if to put it around her shoulder, but decided against it, rubbing one of his arms awkwardly instead.

She gave a quiet hum, kicking at the concrete. “Yeah, thanks.”

The two were silent outside of the diner, unsure of what to do. The night was cold, and the ground was covered with a thin layer of gray slush from the recent snow. The YellowFin Diner was truly in the middle of nowhere, just on the side of a quiet highway a couple dozen miles from the nearest town and surrounded by trees. Above beyond the quiet air, there were the stars. At last, Zoe spoke, incensed. “So what the hell are you doing here?”

“Same as you,” Douxie defended. “I’m just here for a client! It’s Valentine’s Day, Zo! You’re in the business! You know how it is!”

“Fine, fine, fine,” she conceded. “It’s Valentine’s Day, but why have a date at the YellowFin? We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

The wizard raised an eyebrow. “I could ask the same of you and your client.”

“Even the Yellowfin can become Antsville, U.S.A. during Valentine’s Day! He and his date chose to go here, alright?!”

“Okay, and so did mine!”

“Fine!”

The two sighed and leaned against the building. They could hear a car approaching from miles away. They watched as its headlights approached. The car slowed in front of the diner, then, seeming to have changed their mind, the driver kept on moving along. It was a busy night at the YellowFin Diner, even for a place in the middle of nowhere.

“So why the getup?” Zoe asked, drawing the jacket closer around her.

“Archie said it was a good look,” the wizard huffed. His warm breath condensed into puffs in the dark.

“I’m not saying it’s not,” she argued. “But think about it. You’re going to a diner in the middle of New Jersey,” she said, clapping her hands between syllables. “New Jersey! You aren’t at some fancy place in New York or Boston. You aren’t even in Trenton, for crying out loud. You’re in the middle o’ nowhere New Jersey!”

The wizard groaned and raised his hands in defeat, “Alright, alright! Maybe it was a bad idea.” He turned away, and in the light, the witch could see the sweat on Douxie’s brow, even in the cold night.

“You’re tired,” she said quietly. He gave her a half-hearted noise and continued looking ahead into the dark. She pursed her lips and quickly took off the jacket, shoving it into Douxie’s arms.

He scoffed. “Zoe!” The woman fished out her keys from her pocket and muttered to herself as she approached her car. Dumbfounded, Douxie followed her. “You’re really going to leave all of a sudden? You’ve got a client in there, Zo, you can’t leave them behind? Zoe can’t we just-”

She opened her passenger door, not the driver’s door, nearly tearing it off the hinges. The wizard paused as she searched the compartments and finally pulled out a short iron wand. “Oh.” Zoe was quiet as she waved it, and it began to crackle with pink electricity. She still looked angry with Douxie, her blue eyes fierce in the dark night, but this anger had something different to it. It was not the sort of anger that resulted from frustration from a business competitor. It was the sort of anger that resulted from seeing a close friend push themself to the brink of collapse for a capitalistic society.

Or something along the lines of that.

Zoe waved her wand again and a small jar flew into her hand from the open car door. Kicking it shut with her foot, she opened the lid and dipped her fingers into something that smelled of lavender and lemon. It was a salve, Douxie realized, as she began spreading it aggressively over his forehead. Seeing him flinch, she hesitated then slowed down, her touch gentle.

“You shouldn’t push yourself so hard,” Zoe muttered bitterly, Douxie unsure of whether that was directed to him or to herself. She began to rub behind his ears. Her magical and calming intent seeped into the herbs of the salve, and the witch seemed to glow as she rubbed him tenderly. “You can’t stretch your magic out for extended periods of time like that, especially when you aren’t- well to be honest, Douxie, you kind of suck at glamor magic.”

He laughed quietly, leaning into her touch. She was so electric, so warm. “But, Zoe, how will I ever make the great Merlin Ambrosius proud?”

She continued rubbing the salve, focusing on his forehead again, but her brows knitted together in the angry way that Douxie always thought was cute. “You shouldn’t try to live up to his impossible standards. And from what Archie told me, the entire romance counseling business is just another side-hustle for you. You don’t need to put your magic into this. It’s draining you.”

“It’s all about practice, practice, practice, lovely. I need to get better at practicing the things I could use to help Merlin, whenever he does end up coming back. He’ll see a well-rounded wizard when he meets me again.”

Zoe sighed, “It’s not like that Douxie. You need to know your limits and your stamina. You need to know when to stop.”

“But it’s like we’re in a band,” he said dreamily, pulling away from Zoe. He sat down on the trunk of her car, back towards the lunch car, and she joined him, wrapping his jacket around him again. “Remember our first performance at the ball in 1837?”

Zoe shuddered, holding her wand up in front of them for warmth. “It was horrendous.”

“Exactly! We were awful! So awful!” But Douxie laughed loudly into the night, and his hand reached for Zoe’s. She took it, not rubbing salve into his palms, but simply tracing the lines on his fingers, absentmindedly seeing what his future had in store for him. “The only way we got better was by actually practicing and preparing for the real performance!”

“And you’re practicing glamor magic because…”

“Oh, love, the main thing is not the glamor magic. You’re right, I shouldn’t have tried to use it for what could’ve become a long night out. I’ll have woken up in the morning lookin’ like I’ve got two black eyes.” He was excited now; it was impossible to calm the endless fire and energy inside of Hisirdoux Casperan. Impossible. “But I want to tell you the real things I’ve been practicing with this counseling business.

“I barely knew a thing about romance when I started this whole thing a few years ago. But I am good with my emotions, and I am good at listening and helping people. Maybe not the listening to advice or heeding ancient prophecies or warnings or whatever,” Douxie chuckled, earning a laugh from Zoe herself. He smiled and continued, “But I am good at listening to people’s problems and figuring out what they need. I’m also quite the charmer,” he winked. Zoe pretended to gag and shoved him away playfully. He stretched his arms and said loudly, “Americans love the accent, Zoe! You shouldn’t have dropped it all those years ago!”

“I’m sure I could get it back with practice,” she grinned. There it was again, Douxie thought. She looked like she was glowing.

“Practice is important. I’m not good at practicing, but I've been working at it. I’ve practiced my guitar, my piano, my violin, my singing, every other musical instrument I’ve got hiding in my apartment. I’ve practiced my magic and spellcasting, although Arcihe still says my monster hunting skills need some work. But through my business, I’ve also been practicing how to best confess your love for someone, how to tell them exactly how you feel. My client in there,” he said pointing into the diner, “He’s played the violin all his life. And tonight in that lunch car, he’s playing a song he wrote for the one he’s known he’s wanted to confess to all his life. Because as I’ve just learned, the best way into one’s heart-”

“Is through music?” The witch rolled her eyes teasingly. “Wow, Hisirdoux, that is ridiculously cheesy, even for you.”

Douxie took her hands seriously and locked eyes with her. Eyes of fire and electricity. Hazel and blue. Blue and pink. He said seriously, “No. It’s not.

“The real way into someone’s heart, Zoe Ashildr, is by being yourself and being present. Not hiding behind a letter or a glamor. Not pretending that you don’t really care when you really, really do. By being you and by being there for them in their time of need. And you wound your way in and out of my heart for years now Zoe, and now I can say that I always want to be with you, that I’ve always wanted our paths to cross again. But let’s be honest, a song would help the mood.”

He made to shrug off his jacket and glance down at his charm watch, but Zoe grabbed his face, her wand and the salve dropping onto the trunk with a clatter.. “Just kiss me already, Casperan.”

And they did. A tangle of lips and hands in each other's hair as they gasped in the cold February air. Fire and electricity, blue and pink. They were alive, their nerves like livewires. Zoe drew away for a moment, “I’m sorry for yelling at you.”

“I’m sorry too.”

They both stopped. Zoe wiped some of her lipstick off of his cheeks. “I shouldn’t have gotten so angry. I was confused when I saw you like…someone else entirely. I could tell you were there,” she continued, increasingly hurriedly, “but at the same time, you looked so different. It wasn’t like you at all.”

“Well, it turns out my theory was correct,” Douxie said smugly. She punched him in the arm, and he closed the distance between their foreheads. “I won’t hide like that again.”

“And don’t stretch yourself too thin. Don’t sacrifice your well-being for anyone. Not for Archie, not for Merlin, and in the future,” she added, “not for me.”

He hesitated, indecision playing at his brow. Then he nodded. “I won’t.”

“Good.”

She closed the gap between their lips again.

#zouxieweek2022 #zouxie #zoe ashildr #hisirdoux casperan #tales of arcadia #wizards toa #wizards tales of arcadia #fanfic #toa fanfic #ananonswriting

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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

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All of my unfinished writing (12 works) has been published to AO3 in one fic. Feel free to read if you want. They aren't published in any order, so you can see what interests you.

5 are OC stories/excerpts

5 are snippets from my ROTT Timeloop AU, This Action Will Have Consequences.

The rest are random drabbles/fics

#ananonswriting #tales of arcadia fic #toa fic

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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

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Zouxie Week: Days 2 and 3 - Angst + Mothers

Inkpot Gods (I)

Read on AO3

Oh, what? These? These aren't tears It's just the rain that wasn't brave enough to fall And what they hear isn't laughter, after all It's just your voice learning for once to stand up tall

And when the rain came down I made a vow out to the dark "Please, let her live just one more day 'Cause she is so much more than all her scars And if she doesn't have the will But it seems the whole world does, I'll stay, because I will be the man my father never was”

Inkpot Gods - The Amazing Devil.

Word Count: 3430

A/N: I accidentally combined prompts one, two, and three for this one. This will be my submission for Days 2 and 3 since I (unfortunately) still have some exams to study for tomorrow. This is an edited and revised version of the fic idea I had drafted but never published from several months back. I'll see about finishing the other chapters over the summer. Based on the song Inkpot Gods by The Amazing Devil.

Tagging: @moppetwithamanbun and @emsprovisions for Zouxie Week 2022!

CW: Discussions of implied past abuse, minor blood mention.

—-

The moon hung low in the sky above Camelot, and the plaza was deserted except for a dark-haired boy running his hand through the water of a fountain at which he sat. Shop windows shuttered, plants sitting in trellises raised their heads to the moon. The hanging lanterns cast a warm glow on the streets and chased the shadows away. Light refracted through the fountain, the gentle splashing accompanying the boy and the silence in the streets. Clouds were gathering on the distant horizon, approaching the kingdom quickly, while waves crashed against the shores, the clifftop kingdom a beacon to all wandering humans. Ever since the war with the trolls, humans in the countryside had begun flocking to the city, leaving behind all they had ever known for safety within the walls of Camelot. It’s how Zoe Ashildr and Hisirdoux Casperan crossed paths, the former returning for a final time from fields of fragrant pink flowers, the latter escaping a city of ash and song.

Here they were, years later, set to meet in the center of town in the middle of the night. Just a month before, Hisirdoux had been taken under the wing of the king’s advisor and the master wizard of Camelot, whisked away to study magic and serve as the wizard’s newest apprentice. Instead of lazy days escaping guards and pulling a scam for his next meal, Hisirdoux spent his days up in the castle, keeping Master Merlin’s workshop tidy and running errands here and there. He had a gold-gilded roof over his head and warm meals to count on, something he was still getting accustomed to. Meanwhile, Zoe remained in the city, creating herbal salves at a local apothecary and repairing broken items. It was a bit of a talent she had acquired, after years of training in her childhood. Salves for just about anything, and repairs so quick, one would’ve thought they were all done by magic.

Because of the busy lives they now led, the two close friends could only meet late at night on these secret rendezvous. The king’s cautiousness with magical beings kept Hisirdoux within the castle walls for the past month, on guard for any signs of treasonous behavior from this street spellcaster; however the king was quickly beginning to realize Hisirdoux’s enthusiasm, incompetence, and youthful recklessness may be signs of a normal magical boy. Still, Hisirdoux made it his mission to sneak out every other night and meet Zoe. In return, she’d bring mince pies from his favorite vendor and tales from the city. As of late, however, their meetings had grown less and less frequent. Duties began piling up during the day, orders to fulfill for the next began late at night.

But today, Hisirdoux convinced his familiar to fly out and tell Zoe to meet him. Archie groaned and gave the boy a short lecture on the importance of responsibility and getting one’s work done before going off to do whatever it was young spellcasters were doing these days, but after the bright smiles and the hours of pleading, the familiar conceded and flew off into the city. Hisirdoux hurried through the day’s work, practically scrambling after Merlin whenever he finished a task for his next. Everything was completed as quickly as possible (though not as well as it usually may have been done). Even the Slorr was milked. When night fell, Hisirdoux managed to slip past the watchful eye of his master and into the city unnoticed. He arrived at their usual spot, the fountain in the village square, and awaited her arrival.

When she finally arrived, he was alarmed.

“Are you crying?”

“Oh, what? These? These aren't tears. I’m not crying, Casperan.”

“You’re crying, Zoe. Come over here.”

She scoffed, rolling her eyes which were clearly glistening with tears, but stood by him at the bubbling fountain. The witch folded her arms over her chest, fingertips crackling quietly. The air around her hummed anxiously, and her long brown hair began to frizz. “Happy?”

Shaking his head, he patted next to his seat on the fountain edge. “Come on. Don’t make me cast a spell on you.”

“You can’t. Not while I’ve got this.” Zoe held up a bracelet, glinting silver in the lamplight. He gasped excitedly and aggressively patted next to his seat. The witch joined Hisirdoux, sitting next him and wiping away a stray tear. Wordlessly, he held out his left hand, and she fastened it around his wrist gently. “Now, scrolling through runes should be easier,” she explained, nose wrinkling as she pulled her hair away from her face. “I still need to sort out your rune library. It could do with some expansions because having three or even simply two columns for rune combinations would allow for more complex spellwork. But for now…”

The boy gave the little bracelet a tap, and it clicked to life with glowing blue runes encircling his wrist, connected by a web of light. He grinned, and Zoe gave him a small, but encouraging nod. As he spun through absentmindedly, a hovering rune clicked satisfyingly in place with a light chime as soon as he laid a finger down on it. An orb of sky blue light was manifested from the crackling magical energy around the palm of his hand.

“Oh, bleeding Barloths! How I missed you so!” Hisirdoux cried, hugging his wrist to himself. Zoe smiled softly, sniffling a little as he cradled it to his face. “It’s been a week of no magic and hiding it from Merlin! It was a miracle I was able to finish my work and come see you again today at all! But now, I can get everything done easier with you back around! Thank you, Zoe!”

“You shouldn’t have to deal with disorganized and loose runes anymore. And just as before, once you’ve picked the runes, you’ll hear the chime, and the spell will be cast. You might need an incantation depending on the type of spell and intensity, but otherwise, you’re all set. I’m glad to have helped you.” She grinned wryly, and though her tone was full of its usual snark, it was gentle. “Now, don’t get all cocky casting spells all the time now that you’ve got an improved charm bracelet and you’re living up there in the castle with kings, wizards, and all the meat pies you can imagine. You need to be careful.”

He laughed, soft and bright against the dark night. “I’ll have you know that I’m learning a lot about magic up in Merlin’s workshop. There are all these funny smelling jars and bottles, boxes full of artifacts. He’s got a gnome in a bottle up there, I’m pretty sure, just chattering away. He’s also got an enormous library full of all these books! Ancient tomes floor to ceiling, wall to wall! I can’t read half of them because he’s only just begun teaching me the languages needed to read them, and there always seems to be a mess for me to clean up in that shop, but it’s Merlin, Zoe! Merlin!”

“He’s an Arthurian toolbag,” she sighed. She stretched her arms back, and her fingertips came back damp from the fountain’s waters. “He’s lived up there all his life. And do you know how many apprentices he’s gone through? No one knows what happened with all of them, except for Morgana. But she doesn’t count because she’s the king’s sister.” Zoe wrinkled her nose again, eyebrows knitted together. It was cute seeing her like this, Douxie thought absentmindedly. “When I was a girl, I had Madame Amabel. Was she a little odd? Perhaps. But I’m alive, and she taught me well. Look who’s running Camelot’s best herbalism and repair shop!”

“Cheeky now, eh? What’s that about getting cocky, again?”

“Don’t die on me, Casperan. That’s all I want.” Zoe nudged his arm and sat with her head towards the sky and the stars above. Chin up, stand tall. “And I want you to be happy up there. You look up to Merlin. He might be a toolbag, but he’s your toolbag. I don’t want you to be building up all these high hopes and dreams about who he might be, only for you to learn he’s actually an arse. So if he gives you any trouble, tell me, and I’ll take care of him.”

Douxie laughed again. He sorely missed these conversations with his best friend. There was always Archie, but Zoe was the first human he had truly befriended, all those years ago. It was strange being away from her so long. He remembered running after her with flowers or small gifts he tried to build, much like Zoe would herself all those years ago. He’d tell her stories of his day as she created new salves and oils for Madame Amabel, earning a laugh or worried look, depending on what exactly he had done. This was just like old times, just the two of them, sitting together while the rest of the world felt still and quiet.

Just like old times, he felt his atoms electric and on fire around her, but he couldn’t quite place what it was that made him feel this way. For a long time, he assumed that when two magical beings were together, their sparks would simply collide as his did with Zoe’s. But when he met Merlin, Douxie never felt this way. He never asked Zoe what she made of this.

“Thanks for the offer, but I think I can handle him. It’s usually just a lot of scolding.” He rolled his eyes upwards, voice nasal and hands on his hips. “It’s always ‘Your cutting corners has only wasted my time’ and ‘Go milk the Slorr’, blah, blah, blah. And of course, I can’t forget ‘What is that infernal racket? Hisirdoux! Cease this at once!’ On and on again the old man goes.’' Zoe cackled, gripping her sides tightly. He grinned, happy to see the tears in her eyes the result of laughter. “It’s worth it though, to be studying under Master Merlin, the best wizard in the land. How many spellcasters get that opportunity? And one day, I’m going to make him proud.”

“I’m sure you will, Casperan. But also: he said that about your lute?”

“Oh, yeah. And if you think that’s bad, you should’ve heard him when I first sang. Him and Morgana. The two of them were horrified, though I think I did a pretty fine job, if I do say so myself! It’s as if…it’s as if Merlin were my father, and Morgana was my aunt, or older cousin? No, no, no, she’s an aunt for sure. That’s how it works in families like that, eh?” He looked at Zoe excitedly.

Zoe frowned. “Merlin? Like a father?”

“Like a father!” She stared at him blankly, and he added hastily, “Or a cantankerous old grandfather. You’d have to be there to understand it. He…he just likes keeping his distance, that’s all! I know you don’t think too highly of him, and I may have just sort of kind of maybe mocked him just a tad, but I swear! Just a month, and he feels like a dad to me! And I’m going to be the best apprentice he’s ever had! Oh, I need to pay you for the repairs!”

Douxie began to fumble in his many pockets, but she waved a hand absentmindedly. “It’s alright. I needed an excuse for you to come visit me. As much as I hate to admit it, I…the streets are much lonelier down here without you. I don’t want the master wizard keeping you all to himself. So, come visit me more often, alright? Besides, he’ll want a break from you and your music.”

“Hah, alright then.” His laughter had died down, and they sat at the fountain in silence. A few moments passed. He gave her a quick glance. “So,” Hisirdoux hummed, tapping the cool stone nonchalantly, “Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you? You were crying.” To his surprise, Zoe sighed and flumped her head onto his shoulder. Hesitantly, he wrapped an arm around her.

“Not really. And I wasn’t crying.”

“You can talk to me about anything, Zoe. Bad day at work?” Laughing mirthlessly, she nodded her head and stilled. Looking down, he noticed her hands wringing themselves. Her gaze was focused on a distant point, though he was sure she wasn’t contemplating how nice the newly cobbled paths were. Douxie placed a gentle hand on the witch’s trembling hands. “Easy now. Talk to me.”

Zoe’s nose wrinkled, and she huffed, biting her lip. Curling and stretching her fingers, she looked up at him. Her blue eyes pierced through his of hazel and amber, and her voice was eerily level. “I received a letter from my mother.”

“Your mother?”

Clouds raced overhead, bringing the moonlight in and out of focus. Douxie saw Zoe hesitate. There are parts of ourselves and our pasts, our histories, our stories that we keep hidden, for better or worse. Revealing such stories to one you hold dear…there’s a great fear and vulnerability that accompanies it. Not all wish to be in such a vulnerable state. Zoe hesitated, then words came tumbling out, bitter, sharp, and anxious as she spoke. ”I haven’t seen her in years. I’ve done all that I could to avoid her, but now she’s found me again and I- I don’t know what to do.” Here she paused, steading her breath and the sparks on her fingers. She clenched her fists and murmured, barely audible over the fountain, “Is it..alright if I tell you my past with her? It’s…” He nodded, and she inhaled again before she began.

“We lived not too far from Camelot in a small village in the country. I’d help collect flowers and herbs, and we’d sell them in town. But my magic was…volatile. My mother kept trying to keep my magic a secret from the other villagers. I was unnatural, different, a troubled child, she said. She told me to be quiet. Hide myself away. Always. Even before tensions rose between Arthur and the magical beings of this realm, the other people of that village were not keen on magic. So she’d send me away during the day to gather flowers, and every other market day, I’d be allowed to join her at her stall. Beyond that, I was kept under close watch. I wasn’t…pleased with this arrangement, but I never said a word to her.

“But every few months, we’d make a longer trip to sell here in Camelot. Whenever King Arthur would have festivals or tournaments, we would be in the marketplace selling flowers. You have no idea how many people liked buying flowers to give to knights after their tournaments. I loved visiting the city. I had never seen the sea before my first trip here. And Camelot’s streets…they were like a labyrinth I wouldn’t mind getting lost in.

“When I was eleven, I met a girl.

“She was kind, and bright, and sweet. She saw me come in with my mother and asked me to play a game with her. My mother said no, but when her back was turned I followed her. I could hear my mother’s voice as she shouted for me to come back, but I was so caught up in the moment, and honestly, I never wanted to look back.

“The girl led me to the square, where there were other children. And we played together. I rarely got the chance to do that before. But then I let out a spark. They were surprised, but also curious. They hadn’t met a magic user their age before. But then my mother found me and-” Zoe had grown increasingly distressed as she spoke. Douxie put his arms around her as she bit her lips, drawing blood.

“I didn’t know that would happen. It happened all so quickly. Was she keeping me safe from the danger of being found, or was she keeping others safe from being endangered by me? I was so, so, so small then. Just eleven. But I hurt them. In my fear of seeing my mother, I hurt the first friends I had ever made. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. Was it wrong for me to want to go into the village square and play with the children that day? Was it- was it my fault for my magic? Sometimes I wish- I wish-”

Zoe didn’t finish her sentence, but she threw her hands up in the air in frustration and brought her elbows to her knees, holding her head in her hands. Clenching her teeth, she tried to keep herself from crying, but hot tears were already streaming down her face. It had been a long time since she last cried like this. Douxie wasn't sure if he had ever seen her cry like this at all.

“Can I hold you?” She nodded. He wrapped his arm around her tighter, in a protective embrace, and gently rubbed her back, in the manner she would after he fell at her knees with a bad scratch as children. There has to be a way to help her, he thought. He couldn’t bear to see her like this.

He spoke in a voice much lower than he expected, “What did she say to you in the letter?”

Zoe sat up and cleared her throat, quickly gathering herself up again and covering up the pieces of herself she left exposed. “She wants me to visit.”

“That’s all?”

Douxie could tell there was something more to the letter, something Zoe did not want to share with him yet. But she had already let herself fall to pieces tonight. She wasn’t willing to share more. Her face softened. In fact, her entire figure softened. The tense and vibrant bundle of energy within her began to soften around the edges. It was as if Douxie was looking at a faded painting. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but a choked sob came out instead. Instinctively, he made to pull her closer, but she stood abruptly, covering her face. After a moment, she brought them to her sides, but her face was unreadable aside from the pinpricks of tears in her eyes.

“Thank you for listening to me speak of all of…that. I’ll see you soon, Douxie. Try to come by the shop tomorrow if you can, alright?”

He leapt to his feet. “Zoe, wait-”

But she had already turned on her heel and began walking down a direction Hisirdoux knew her home did not lie in. He could see her frame trembling, fists clenched; if he could see her face, he was certain he’d see tears. His footsteps, light and quick, rang out in the streets as he began to chase her. But Zoe turned a corner, and by the time he reached her, she was gone.

Douxie stilled in the alley. Thunder shook the ground beneath his feet, and rain began its descent from the sky. One could see him visibly droop, his back hunched in disappointment, fingers tapping against his sides in worry. He leaned against the wall of the nearest building and looked up.

The rain continued to fall.

"Please, let her live just one more day,” he murmured up to the dark sky, “'Cause she is so much more than all her scars.” The sky replied with more rain. He let out a low huff of air. His feet began to tap against the ground, listening to the rhythm of the rain falling around him. After some time, he began to walk back in the direction of the castle. His footsteps slapped against the wet cobble, and he pulled his hood low over his head, hands in his pockets. It was going to be a long night of explaining to Master Merlin why he was soaking wet.

Douxie flicked his wrist around and from his right hand sprung a whirling orb of blue light. Fire was a familiar thing to him. A destructive force, but also one that brought warmth and kept loved ones together. It was passion, creativity, and emotion. To Douxie, fire was life. And as the orb fizzled in the rain, he felt the familiar sparks in his soul fighting to keep blazing. They would keep blazing. He would make sure of it.

“And if she doesn't have the will, but it seems the whole world does, I'll stay. Because I will be the man my father never was.”

#zouxieweek2022 #tales of arcadia #wizards toa #wizards tales of arcadia #zoe ashildr #zoe toa #hisirdoux casperan #zouxie #fanfic #toa fanfic #ananonswriting

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escape-from-arcadia · 1 year

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To The Ends of Our World: Chapter 2

A Pre-Canon Wizards Fic

Chapter Content Warning: Unnamed character death, animal mistreatment.

Douxie picks up an animal in the street and visits the apothecary. Also, we found Zoe!

#tales of arcadia #to the ends of our world #wizards toa #wizards tales of arcadia #tales of arcadia fic #hisirdoux casperan #archie toa #death cw #animal abuse cw #ananonswriting

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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

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How the Arcadia Gang Reacts When You’re Feeling Down

| 1 | 2 | ? |

Very self-indulgent headcanons. Who would you go to when you’re feeling down?

Jim likes cooking for friends and family. A lot. And when you’re down, he’ll cook you whatever you want. In fact, he’ll even teach you step-by-step how to cook that special meal. And while you’re cooking, he’s there to listen to you talk about what’s bothering you and give soft hugs and water when you need it. While cooking, he reminds you that you will always have people behind your back who are willing to help you shoulder whatever it is you’re going through, something he learned himself.

Toby will listen if you want to vent, but if you want to take your mind off things, Toby is the guy to go to. He’ll take you out for tacos or burritos (all on him). He’s got a special stash of extra spicy hot sauce that he uses so if you tear up about whatever happened, you can blame it on the sauce. Once all the tears are out, you two play some co-op Go Go Sushi. He’ll also start talking about the latest rock he’s added to his collection and let you check it out. And if you’re still feeling down, he gives you the best hugs, holding on until you feel alright. Whatever it may be, he’s there for you.

Claire knows what it’s like to have a lot on your plate and feel stressed out about something. Balance is something she struggles with sometimes too. She’ll reach out if you’ve been quiet or distant, checking in on you especially during testing season at school. She’ll help you with any work you have to get done while jamming out to Papa Skull. When you’re done, she’ll share some bootlegs of plays and musicals, or perform a scene of the latest school play with you. Being someone else and worrying about their problems and not your own, even for a little while, can be deeply comforting. Claire will listen to whatever is going on in your life and remind you that there’s no need to be perfect, and that you’ll be able to get through anything together.

Aja will make sure you stay active and get you out of whatever situation is making you upset. If you need to let out any anger or frustration, she’s an excellent sparring partner and will (carefully) teach you how to wield a weapon. And if you tell her you’ve been feeling down, and she’ll take you up. Literally. Aja will take you out on a day-long hike in the woods, out of town together. She understands what it’s like to just want to get away from everything and will take you on an adventure as the two of you explore outside of Arcadia Oaks.

Krel has a few things up his sleeve that will help you feel better. When you show up at his doorstep, he’ll put on his playlist of “experimental” music that is (for some reason) really good for dancing. He’ll show you how to dance if you don’t know how and you two have a jam out session in the living room which ends up lasting hours. You dance away your problems, and when you’re tired and laying on the couch together, he puts on the latest DJ Kleb film. He reminds you to celebrate your accomplishments and how far you’ve grown, what you’ve done to get you to the where you are. You’re an incredible being existing in this vast universe.

Douxie will do whatever he can to comfort you. He's armed himself with endless cups of your usual drink from the cafe, soft songs played by yours truly on the guitar, and rides on his motorcycle around town if you’re up for it. He’ll paint your nails black and lend you a hoodie to feel comfy in. He’s got a few (read: hundreds) playlists for whatever mood you’re in and gives you a pair of headphones to block out the rest of the world. During Spotify ad breaks (because let’s face it: people don’t tip well in Arcadia), he shuffles over and gently tells you that your self-worth isn’t defined by other people. You define who you are and don’t need the approval of others to keep rocking on.

#tales of arcadia #trollhunters #3below #wizards toa #james lake jr #toby domzalski #claire nunez #aja tarron #krel tarron #hisirdoux casperan #ananonswriting

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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

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TOA Teens and Snow Headcanons

The gang goes on a trip to see some snow in a cabin or lodge or something. This is what happens:

Jim: He's not the biggest fan of being outside in the cold weather very much. He liked skiing and making snowmen as a kid, but after his dad left, he and Barbara stayed in sunny SoCal Arcadia. (And after ROTT, he really doesn't like the snow.) He enjoys looking at the snow sometimes and seeing his friends have fun, but he'd rather stay inside and cook up a warm meal and cocoa for them when they come back in. He builds a snowkid with Claire and Toby and they name it the Jimmy Lake Jr. the SnowHunter.

Toby: Hasn't seen snow before and is exhilarated to go on this trip. His nana makes him pack copious layers of clothing so he stays warm, which earns a groan or two (but he wears everything she packs him). He's got a list of things he wants to do and is determined to do all of them. He's not a fan of the more high-action stuff, but he makes it his mission to make the biggest snowman possible. He definitely starts a snowball fight or two, and could spend hours making snow angels. It's less of the "ooo pretty snow angels" and more of a "looking up at the sky while the snow falls on my face is such a vibe" kind of thing.

Claire: The thought of shadow-portaling to a place full of snow hasn't occurred to her before. When she was little, her parents took her on a trip to see some, but she doesn't remember much of it. When they start planning the trip, she's the one making an itinerary and helping sort out transportation, lodging, food, activities, etc. But once they get there, she abandons it all and just has fun with it. She makes snow angels and tries ice-skating for the first time. She manages to drag Jim into it. Though they fall many times, they have a tender moment out on a frozen lake, just skating and laughing together.

Aja: Weather isn't really a thing on Akiridion-5. She and Krel are ecstatic about this trip. Aja teams up with Toby and try everything they can together. After the first few minutes of catching snowflakes, making snow angels, rolling in the snow, etc, Aja is freezing. Aja tries snow-boarding and finds that she absolutely loves it. She also somehow manages to get on a luge. She drags Krel along (who hates it). She's basically trying to have as action-packed and as fun of a trip as possible. She is a master at snowball fights (and also put snowballs in the freezer).

Krel: He's just as excited as Aja is for this trip. He learns all that he can about snow and tries to take apart a snow machine. He ends up making a snow storm maker. There is chaos. But he also made fun stuff too! There's a snowball launcher, an igloo assembler, a snow fort plasma shield, etc. etc. Like Aja, he's good at snowboarding, but he also kills it out on the ice rink. It takes some getting used to, but within hours, he's busting some serious moves and creating a fully choreographed routine on the ice. a

Douxie: He's been alive for about a millennia, so he's seen snow before. He's not a biggest fan, but after being in California for so long, he's excited to see it again. He has to play the role of the parent and make sure everyone is dressed warm first. But once everyone is geared up for some fun, he definitely starts a snowball fight or two (before realizing he completely forgot to prepare himself). No matter, he magics himself some winter clothes and keeps a ball of fire with him wherever he goes. He, Toby, and Krel team up to have an insane snowball fight. The spell he used in Episode One of Wizards to control the flames of the candles? Something like that, except with snow. His team wins (up until Aja suplexes a snow boulder at him). He sings winter songs all the while and has a good time.

#tales of arcadia #james lake jr #jim lake jr #claire nunez #toby domzalski #aja tarron #krel tarron #hisirdoux casperan #trollhunters #3below #wizards toa #ananonswriting

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tempesthreads · 2 years

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I woke up today

To the sun in my eyes

And the morning light

Fills my soul with hope

For on the edge of spring

I can feel my heart sing

And I've always felt less alone

Surrounded by flowers

#free verse #original poem #poetry #short poem #spring #springtime #ananonswriting

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escape-from-arcadia · 3 years

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What He Remembers

This Action Will Have Consequences

Loop One - Tobias Domzalski

Jim and Toby are hanging out as normal teens do, working on algebra homework, when Toby talks about what he remembers about then.

Read on Ao3 | First Part | Next Part | Last Part |

CW: Discussions of death, a lot of crying, trauma? (I genuinely don't know whether this counts for the ficlet, but I'm putting the CW here, just in case.)

Reblogs > Likes

“Hey, Jimbo?”

Jim looked up from his algebra. Toby sat on the kitchen counter, holding the amulet. His brows were furrowed as he turned it over in his hands and tried to decipher the Trollish engraved on the amulet’s back panels. The daystone gently pulsed with blue light; when Toby turned the amulet back over, the stone’s glow cast shadows on his face, pale like the face of a…

“Yeah, Tobes?” Jim’s voice cracked. He coughed, clearing his throat, but Toby didn’t look up, continuing to stare at the amulet.

“How did I die?”

With that final word, Jim put down his pencil and shut his book quietly. Die. Jim didn’t like that word.

Nothing could be heard in the Lake house aside from the quiet ticking of the amulet. He bit his lip, as the memories flashed through his mind. Bellroc. The glow of the ray. The wind as he hurtled back towards the earth. His friends. Toby. Toby. Toby. “I told you that I can’t tell you everything that happened. So much crazy stuff happened that knowing all of it would probably explode your brain. Like, I’ll probably need 20 years of therapy after everything that happened. Besides, isn’t it a little morbid to ask how you died?”

“Jim, I just want to know.’

“You were a hero. You saved all of us.”

“You’ve told me this before, but how did I die?”

Rising from the couch and joining Toby on the kitchen counter, Jim gently kicked his feet, his heels landing quietly each time on the wooden cabinets. “We built an anti-magic ray. You were driving it in a truck and shot it at the Titan. You saved my life, and I was able to defeat the Fire demigod, Bellroc. But without them controlling it, the Titan crumbled, and you...you didn’t drive away once you shot the ray.” He looked at Toby. His eyes remained on the amulet. “You were looking out for me. ‘Till the end.”

He was quiet. Unsure what to do, Jim gently placed his hand on Toby’s back, pulling him in for a side hug, looking away. At last, Toby looked at Jim.

“You know, sometimes I remember the feeling. What happened when I died and all that...stuff.”

“Tobes...do you want to talk about it. We don’t have to.”

“If you’re cool with it.”

“I mean,” Jim hesitated and tapped his fingers on his knee.

Toby put a firm hand on his. “Dude. You can say no. It’s fine.”

“I want to listen.”

Toby took a deep breath. “Alright. Um, it's like.. whenever I fall asleep, I'm standing on a beach alone at night, barefoot and aware of everything around me. I can feel the sand between my toes, the gentle evening breeze, and the cold water at my feet. It's quiet and it’s nice in the creepy empty beach kind of way. I’m standing there, this huge beach with black sand all to myself when a wave of emotion rolls over me and it consumes me. A chill settles in my chest and I close my eyes and I think, ‘Oh god. This is really it. It's really it. This is where it all ends.’ The wave is heavy, but oddly enough, it doesn’t hurt. It’s like a cold blanket, and I’m a cold little sushi roll.”

“And then, I’m bathed in this white light from this door. I’m standing, and beyond the door, I see wizards and trolls, our friends. They’re all chilling out, eating tacos and drinking from those little martini glasses with tiny umbrellas.” The boys chuckle quietly. “It’s freakin’ awesome sauce.”

“I go through and I can recognize some of them. There’s Draal and a troll who looks a bit like Strickler. Vendel is there and these humans who are wearing this really cool medieval armor. I think those are the wizards you talked about.” Toby fell silent. “For some reason, I felt...I felt happy. I was at peace. I vaguely remember was kind of freaking out, and there was a lot of crying, but I was also happy.” Now actual tears were welling up in his eyes, and he choked out, “You didn’t tell me all of these people died, Jim. When it first happened, I thought it was weird, but I kept having this dream, over and over and over again, and I realized that the reason I was crying was because all of these people had died, and I was finally able to see them again but because I could see them that could only mean that I-”

His best friend pulled him into a tight embrace. Toby broke down into sobs as Jim clutched Toby’s sweater. “I’m not going to let that happen,” Jim said firmly. “Never again. I swear.”

I’ll do everything I can to make sure this never happens again.

I’m sorry.

> Author’s Note: Very out of order, but I'm feeling real sad and I want to write so I'm going to try to start posting my ficlets for my post-ROTT AU, where Jim, Toby, and Claire are stuck in an endless cycle of sacrificing themselves for each other until they all realize that sacrifices must be made. They cannot cheat death and deny their humanity.

This is from loop one, where Toby becomes the Trollhunter and Jim stays mostly quiet about what he knows. As of now, Toby is only aware that Jim was the former Trollhunter, there are wizards and aliens in Arcadia along with trolls, there was a battle with some big magic demigods, and at the end of it all, he ended up dead.

I'm honestly not in a great place right now, but I'm going to try to tell this story. I had a similar thing in mind for Douxie and Merlin on my main account, but with the release of ROTT, I've decided to focus on this. These stories about life and death, our mortality, our relationships with other people, and what makes us human mean a lot to me, and I'm excited to share them with you.

If you have questions feel free to send in asks. But to make it clear: the story will continue. The teens will continue this cycle of sacrifice until they realize that this action will have consequences.

#ananonswriting #ficlet #fanfic #tales of arcadia #rise of the titans #trollhunters #james lake jr #toby domzalski #this action will have consequences

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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

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It took me so long to figure how to explain why Bellroc and Skrael float/fly and Nari walks. But I think I figured it out. A part of this is headcanon, a part physics, and someone has likely already figured it out long before me, but Bellroc and Skrael don't just control fire and ice: they control the hot and cold air around them.

Their very presence can make the temperature drop or rise, and they can direct the flow of heat. And with the power of physics, we know that hot air rises and cold air sinks. This is because temperature is directly proportional to volume. So hot air increases in volume and moves up over the denser cool air. So while Bellroc can make the air warm and rise, Skrael could hypothetically make air beneath them cooler to rise.

When they were younger (or as 'young' as a primordial beings can get), Bellroc and Skrael totally competed with each other to try and see who could float higher. Bellroc arguably has it easier; they can just make the air around them incredibly hot so they zoom upwards. Skrael has to cool the air above them to such a degree that the cool air around them is much warmer than the air directly beneath them.

#ananonspeaks #ananonswriting #bellroc toa #bellroc keeper of the flame #skrael toa #skrael of the north wind #tales of arcadia #toa headcanons

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escape-from-arcadia · 3 years

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A Second Chance

This Action Will Have Consequences

Loop One - Tobias Domzalski

After resetting the timeline two years back, Jim feels certain that he made the right choice. He’s slowly readjusting to normal sixteen year old life, but when Toby comes to him with the amulet, he notices something strange.

Read on Ao3 | First Part | Next Part | Last Part |

CW: Discussions of canonical death, trauma (Jim needs therapy dammit)

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He made the right choice, Jim was sure of it.

When he woke up in his bed the other day, the alarm blaring at 7:00 AM and the motorbike magazine on his face, Jim bolted upright, staring at his hands and laughing in disbelief. “It worked! It worked!”

When he crept around his house, silent as a mouse, he looked in the master bedroom, where his mom, fresh off her shift at the hospital, was in deep sleep. Just the same as before.

When he walked out with his bike to clean up the knocked over garbage cans, he tackled his best friend, Toby, in a hug. You’re alive, Jim thought as he clutched his sweater vest, hardly believing he was real and terrified he would disappear. This isn’t a dream. You’re alive.

Walking around town that day felt like the strangest case of deja vu, and Jim had lived through one day over fifty times before. Being brought two years back to when he was just about to turn sixteen, was jarring. He was without the weight of the world on his shoulders, without the burden of great expectations, and without the heavy mantle of Trollhunter. Instead, there were everyday, normal teenager problems, like algebra and Spanish presentations. The school play and the rope climb at gym class. And of course, Claire.

Seeing her happy, unafraid, and without a sign of the pain she had to endure in those two years was almost bittersweet. He couldn’t invite her over to his house and he wouldn’t get surprise pecks on the cheek that would light up his day, but she wasn’t hurt. She was okay.

But the best part about all of this was being able to see Toby again. Just like Claire, his face carried no sign of anguish, only the bright energy he always brought to Jim’s life. His face wasn’t covered in ash and cut and scraped. His grip never loosened on the handles of his bike or Jim’s hands. He was there. Fully alive and well.

Sitting here in his room, working on his algebra homework after school, Jim almost felt like a normal teenager. But now, every so often memories from the past (or future?) two years crossed his mind, and it had quickly become much more difficult to focus on everyday, mundane things.

He looked up from his homework at the potted plant on his window sill.

“I never took you for the gardening type, Jim,” his mother, Barbara had teased the day before, when she came home to find him on the front lawn, digging up dirt and planting a seed.

“Eh, there’s a first time for everything,” he said casually, pouring water from a plastic bottle on it. “Besides, we could try growing fresh plants in our backyard. For cooking and stuff.”

He had thought of Nari, the Earth demigoddess who never left her little plants alone and chuckled. She’d probably be horrified by his actions and gently try to teach him how to properly tend to plants without using her ancient powers. But the cold horror of seeing the dagger of ice piercing her chest, as she stood frozen and unable to move, and her chilling scream. That haunted him. It had happened before. And she was out there now, unaware of what would happen to her in the future.

Jim shook his head and put his algebra homework away and opted to grab his history textbook instead. He searched through his bag and pulled out the book, a sticky-note with a phone number written in elegant cursive stuck on the cover. Strickler. Jim had set him and Barbara on a date that should have happened today. But there was the bitter wind. The faint beating of wings. The explosion. Barbara’s tears.

It took him a minute to realize the doorbell was ringing, very insistently. Jim snapped out of his thoughts and peeked out his window. Toby’s bike lay forgotten on the sidewalk in front of Jim’s house, and the doorbell just wouldn’t stop ringing. Jim pulled up the window and yelled, “I’m coming!” before slamming it shut and dashing down the stairs. When he opened the door, as expected and planned, there was Toby, bike helmet still on his head and completely out of breath.

“Jim! You were right! Something totally awesome sauce happened at the canal today, and you’re not going to believe what happened!” Jim stepped to the side as Toby walked into the house, taking off his helmet and tossing it on the couch. He headed into the kitchen and opened the fridge, rummaging around for something before pulling out the leftover meatloaf Jim made a few nights back. All the while, Toby continued talking, rapidly and seemingly without breath.

“So like I biked down to the canal like you said and there was this huge pile of rocks there and there was this really weird blue glow coming from it so I went up to it and it started saying my name, all like “Tobias Domzalski,” it was crazy, Jim, I’m telling you, and I looked through it and found this weird magic circle amulet thing-y and I picked it up and the thing started glowing and spinning like crazy and it looked like something out of Gun Robot 2 and now it’s just here in my bag, look!”

Toby pulled out the amulet, no different from the last time Jim had seen it (well, seen it fully intact that is). The daystone glowed with a shimming cyan light, and quietly began to tick in Jim’s presence.

“Tobes-”

“Now, look I know you might not believe me, but look at this thing! It’s. So. Freakin’. Cool!”

“No, dude! I totally agree!”

The new Trollhunter looked at Jim, mouth agape. “Whaaaaaat? Wait. Really?”

Jim shrugged, chuckling nervously. “Well. Yeah. I don’t expect you to lie about anything like that. It seems totally crazy, but...I have the feeling you’re right.”

“The weird thing is, Jimbo,” Toby said, as he looked over the Trollish engravings on the front of the amulet, “I feel like I’ve seen this thing before.”

“But that’s impossible! You-” He turned to Jim, who caught himself mid-sentence. “Youuuu’ve only seen this pile of rocks like today! And what’re the chances you’d forget about seeing a talking amulet? Unless you did some google searching on it in the past,” Jim nervously chuckled.

Toby sighed, taking a bite of his meatloaf. “You’re right, you’re right. Anyways, you recognize this? I can’t figure out what it’s saying. It’s like some weird hieroglyphic, runes, ancient language type shit.” Jim peered over Toby’s shoulder at the amulet, currently set to Trollish, and it began to whir. “Uhh, it hasn’t done this before.” The amulet continued spinning through language after language, some of which Jim recognized. Draconic. Akiridion. Latin. English.

“What’s it say?” he asked once the amulet stopped spinning.

“Pfft, you can read it, dude.” Toby squinted his eyes, his face an eerie blue in the amulet’s light. As he began to read, Jim backed away instinctually. “For the glory...of Merlin...daylight is mine to command?”

Small orbs of light came from the daystone and into an amazed Toby’s chest, where his heart was. He shuddered, and he began to levitate. The amulet, now on Toby’s chest and forming a dark underarmour on his body, created more orbs, each casting it’s brilliant blue glow all over the kitchen. Other objects in the house began to levitate, the wind outside the house picking up quickly. Jim watched the glasses rattle and the meatloaf begin to float, a bittersweet feeling in his chest, as he watched the pieces of armor begin to form. The lights flickered and Toby’s eyes widened. He turned his neck to look at Jim, laughing as armor of daylight far too big for him materialized, and he grunted as the levitation suddenly ended and he was standing in Jim’s kitchen. “Uh? A little help?”

The armor began to glow again and shrink to fit Toby perfectly; and in his hands the sword, Daylight, materialized into existence. It’s been a while since I’ve last seen you, huh? Jim thought to himself, as Toby held the sword, a long drawn out “Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?” his only response for a moment.

“Oh my gosh. Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh! I just had my own magical anime girl transformation! But I’m like a cool magic knight! Jim!”

He came to his senses and grinned, ignoring the pang in his heart. “Tobes! This is amazing!”

“It’s like you said, Jim! Something cool and interesting happened,” he laughed lightly. “It’s an adventure!”

The amulet chimed in response to Toby’s excitement and Jim’s quiet desperation. This is a second chance, it seemed to say. A chance for one to be the hero of the tale, and for one to be his guide. Be wary, Trollhunter. For your tale has only just begun.

> Author’s Note: The official beginning to my post-ROTT AU. Welcome to Loop One, where Toby becomes the second first human Trollhunter, and Jim is just trying his best.

I might actually group each loop into their own fic and just add chapters to the loops as I go, but with my chaotic desire to write everything out of order and inevitably get things mixed up, I think I'll stick with this format for now. If you have any questions, feel free to send an ask. Just having you read this series is very much appreciated.

#ananonswriting #fanfic #tales of arcadia #rise of the titans #trollhunters #james lake jr #toby domzalski #this action will have consequences #toa fic #toa au

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tempesthreads · 2 years

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It's Just A Friendly Little Rivalry

Chapter One: It's Just an Introduction

The Owl House human!rivals!AU based on this post.

Read on Ao3

Luz Noceda just transferred to Hexside Boarding School for Gifted Leaders and she finds herself caught up in a rivalry between her mentor Eda Clawthorne and her sister Lilith Clawthorne. Unfortunately for Luz, her new roommate just so happens to be Lilith's student, Amity Blight. Fortunately for Luz, Amity doesn't seem to be too into the sibling rivalry thing. But when tensions arise between the two sisters and the arrival of another new student starts to spell trouble for the school, what will become of Luz and Amity?

“Are you ready, miha?”

Luz put a tight grin on her face. “Ready as I’ll ever be, mamí!”

She was, in fact, not ready.

“Oh, Luz.” Camila Noceda took her daughter’s head in her hands and planted a kiss on her forehead. When she drew away, her eyes were filled with concern. “I know every transfer is difficult for you, but I’m sure that this will be the one. They’ve got a great program here for imaginative kids like you!” She waved at the pamphlets on the wall opposite their seats. Luz took a look at them earlier while her mom was talking to the receptionist; they were full of grinning kids holding up A+ essays, and teachers giving the students a thumbs up and the viewers a mischievous wink that also seemed to totally lack…mischief.

The girl felt her skin crawl beneath her new uniform. Tugging awkwardly at her collar, she turned to speak. “Mama...” But her mom looked so hopeful. Luz couldn’t let her down. Not again. She grinned as brightly as she could. “Just promise me you’ll text me every day!”

Camila laughed and squeezed Luz’s shoulders. “Of course.”

“Luz Noceda?”

The girl stood suddenly from her seat. The receptionist pointed a craggy finger towards the door next to their desk; they didn’t look up from the files they were poring over. “Your personal mentor has arrived along in Headmaster Bump’s office. You can go meet her now. You can join her too if you want,” they added dryly to Camila who had picked up her bag.

“Thank you!” Luz waved at the receptionist, who grunted in acknowledgement. “Enjoy your reading!” She turned to heavy wooden door, placing an unsteady hand on the doorknob; it was cool to the touch. Biting her lip, Luz hesitated, but her mother put a warm hand on her shoulder, nodding. The girl took a deep breath and opened the door.

“So, you’re Luz, right?”

There was hair. A lot of it. Luz screamed, taken aback by the sudden and unexpected proximity of the woman on the other side of the door and bumping into her mother. Camila laughed and helped Luz gather herself. “Sorry about that. She was startled.”

“Eh, don’t worry about it. You’d be surprised by how often I get that,” the woman snorted. Despite her sudden appearance, her laugh had a playful and incredibly human-like quality to it, which was more than Luz could say about any of her previous teachers. Luz stood up and began to hastily apologize, but the woman waved a hand covered in shiny rings. “Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about it, kid. Oh, uh. I mean, Miss Noceda.”

She threw a glance over her shoulder at the man sitting at the desk patiently, the headmaster Luz assumed. He narrowed his eye, and to Luz’s surprise, her mentor-to-be stuck a tongue out at him. She wore an ill-fitting maroon suit loosely cobbled together, and her calloused hands were covered in shiny rings that, Luz noticed, she played with absentmindedly. The thick hair that had surprised Luz was long and grey, streaked with white, and barely held back by an old red scrunchie, threatening to burst loose at any moment. The woman’s eyes were a piercing golden color behind cat-eye glasses Luz was pretty sure were fake, and they glinted as she grinned.

The headmaster cleared his throat. His own dark hair was tied up in a stern bun, and his suit was primly ironed, a red pin of an impish creature on his lapel. A scar ran down the right sight of his forehead, and it took all of Luz’s willpower not to ask him about it. “Good morning, Miss and Mrs. Noceda. Please have a seat.” He waved at the chairs identical to the ones outside in the receptionist’s office. They sat while the woman stood behind their seats. He raised an eyebrow. “Edalyn.” She sighed and flumped down into a seat on his right, crossing her legs and tapping her foot quietly.

He folded his hands and began. “I am Hieronymus Bump, headmaster of Hexside Boarding School for Gifted Leaders, and I’d like to personally welcome you to our humble establishment here in rural New York.” Ah yes, a very humble establishment. The train ride was three hours long, and the drive into the woods two. Pulling into the driveway of the school, Luz thought she was going to a castle complex and not a regular school building, with the domed rooves, high towers and columns, and the tall and heavy wooden doors, intricate. Hexside looked like something out of one of her favorite book series, Azura the Good Witch.

“Here at Hexside, we pride ourselves on the safe and nurturing environment we provide for all of our outstanding students. Education is the real magic we have in the world, and we value the classroom environment we build here. Students at Hexside can choose to take a certain track while here at Hexside, although this is not mandatory. A track will allow students to gain practical experience in a real world career, such as chemistry, engineering, medicine, the performing arts, and more you’ve no doubt heard of. As you know from our rigorous application process, the students who attend are clever, ambitious, and experimental. Each student has their own personal mentor and advisor while attending the school, who aids them through their studies to become the best individuals they can be before graduation and moving on into the real world. Many become life-long friends, whose relationship with the students extend far past graduation.” Camila listened attentively, while Luz giggled at the sight of the woman mouthing the words along and flapping her hand, eyes rolling.

“The woman sitting next to me,” Bump continued dryly, “Who is no doubt mocking my usual welcome speech is Miss Edalyn Clawthorne, or as she is somewhat affectionately known as here at Hexside, the Owl Lady.” Miss Clawthorne let out an affronted gasp, while Luz snickered. Headmaster Bump paid her no heed as he skimmed over a file on his desk. “Based on your performance in the entrance exams and your essays, we found that Miss Clawthorne would be your most suitable mentor.” Eda stood and reached over the desk to shake hands with Camila. When she took Luz’s hand, she winked. “Miss Clawthorne was a student here herself, as were several of our other mentors.

“Now then Luz.” The headmaster bent over to the side of his desk. He pulled out a comically large stack of papers and dropped them, the stack landing with a heavy thud. “I’ll have to sort through some paperwork with your mother. Miss Clawthorne will take you to your room where you’ll meet your roommate. She’s had the room to herself for the first part of the fall semester, but she said she’d be happy to have a roommate. Run along now, and don’t cause trouble.” This last part seemed to be directed at Miss Clawthorne, who simply bowed and led Luz out of the office.

“Wait!”

Luz and Miss Clawthorne paused in the doorway. Camila quickly rose from her seat and took something from her bag, placing it in Luz’s palm and closing her fingers over it. Luz opened her hand and found a small bat keychain. “A lucky charm. Cuídate mucho, mija. ¡Qué te vaya bien!” Camila gave her another kiss and a hug. “I love you.”

“I love you too, mom.”

Luz wiped a tear from her eye as Miss Clawthorne shut the door. “Nice mom you’ve got there,” she said, shrugging off her suit and throwing it over her shoulder. She removed her glasses, which Luz correctly assumed were false, and placed them on her black button up shirt. The receptionist raised an eyebrow, but didn’t look up from the file they were still looking at. Luz wasn’t sure if they were actually reading them.

“Yeah,” The girl said quietly with a small smile. “She’s the best.” She sniffled. “I’m going to miss her.”

“Don’t worry kid.” Miss Clawthorne spotted Luz’s suitcases behind the receptionist’s desk and reached over to pick them up, nearly smacking them in their head. She threw one to Luz, who fumbled as she tried not to drop it.

“My weak nerd arms!”

“With me by your side, this next year is going to go like whirlwind. I’m not the most ‘traditional’ mentor you can have around here, so your time with me will be way more interesting than any of your other classes with the old geezers. I’mma let you in on a little secret.” She leaned down and whispered discreetly into Luz’s ear. “I’m actually not the biggest fan of school or the board in charge of the whole place. But I’m mainly here because of my sister.” Miss Clawthorne stood up while Luz’s eyes went wide, practically gleaming with astonishment.

“You have a sister?”

“Yup, and you better pray you don’t meet her.”

Luz gasped as Miss Clawthorne walked out of the receptionist’s office. “Secret backstory!” She ran after her mentor and followed her up the winding staircases through the maze-like school. Classes were already in session, so the grand hallways were empty and quiet, save for the click of Miss Clawthorne’s heeled boots. Every so often, Luz’s new mentor would point out a classroom or important part of the school, usually in reminiscence of her years in the school.

“You see, that’s the classroom I first met Bump. You’ll have see world history classes in there now though. Here’s the bathroom I painted over after the previous headmaster gave me a demerit. We don’t even do demerits around here!”

“So, Miss Clawthorne-”

“Oh please, kid. Call me Eda.”

“Miss Eda-”

“Eda.”

“Eda.” Luz spoke excitedly, walking animatedly through the empty hall. “Why are you called the Owl Lady?” She said this with a dramatic flourish. “Is it because you can talk to owls? Was there a time in your life where you rescued those cute little birbs?”

“Actually, no. There’re many reasons why people call me the Owl Lady. In part, it’s because of my great wisdom,” she explained semi-sarcastically. “But I like shiny things and this look kinda gives me ‘bird nest on my head’ vibes. I’ve gotten so many pens lost in this mane of hair, you wouldn’t believe it.” She snorted.

Luz’s brown eyes were wide with wonder. “Amazing. I know you said you weren’t the biggest fan of Hexside, but what did you study here? Did you choose a track?”

“Chemistry,” Eda shrugged. “Always had a knack for it, and I still do, to this day. Watch your step there, someone spilled something.”

“Ooo! And what about your sister?”

“Also chemistry, but she later transferred to the politics, public speaking, blah, blah, blah track.”

“Is she a famous politician?”

“Nope, just another mentor at this school, but she’s pretty tight with the school board. Our mother insisted she help me get a job to pay off some,” Eda looked around before continuing, “Personal stuff. This is actually my first year here. What about you kid? What brings you to Hexside in the middle of the year?”

“Oh, you know.” Luz scratched the back of her head. “I might’ve gotten in trouble at my last school. Again.”

“Ohoho,” Eda chuckled, raising her eyebrows. “A bad girl? I could get you a shirt for that.”

“While I’d love a shirt, I wasn’t a bad kid. Not intentionally,” Luz grumbled. “Everyone just seems to think I am. I’m ‘quirky.’” She put this last part in air quotes, grimacing as she spoke. “Some popular kids’ words, not mine. I just like reading high fantasy books, making edits of my favorite anime characters, and anatomically correct models of mythological creatures, that’s all! But apparently, my interests are just…weird. I got expelled for a project I did at my last school that involved a crap ton of spiders and one or two loose snakes. There’s been a lot of moving around. My mom and I thought Hexside would be a good place, and hopefully it is! I really awnt something permanent, even if it costs a lot of money to go here and the financial aid is kinda ehhh.”

Eda frowned as she began to lead Luz up a spiral staircase. “That sucks, kid. I’m sorry it’s been rough for you at these past few schools. The kids around here can be clique-y, but I’m sure you’ll find kids with interests like you. We’ve got clubs and sports for you to make friends in, and if anyone decides to mess with you, well,” She chuckled as she flexed her arm not carrying a suitcase, “They’ll have to go through me. I’m a bit of a bad girl myself, and us bad girl weirdos have to stick together, right?”

“Right.” The girl grinned and flexed her own little nerd arm. “Thanks Eda.”

“Anytime, Luz, anytime.” She sighed as they reached a new wing of the school. If it was quiet before, it was dead silent here. Decorated wooden doors lined one side of the hallway where windows lined the other. Down the hall, Luz could make out a common area. “This is the east dormitory,” Eda explained as a bell rang in the distance. “You’ve got a common sitting area there and a small kitchen if you know how to use a microwave. The east dorms are the best ones, in my humble opinion. You’ve got a great view of the trees this way! To the west you’ve also got a great view of the trees! We’re in the middle of the forest, what do you expect? There’re a lot of trees.”

Luz laughed and Eda grinned. “Ready to see your room?” The girl nodded excitedly, and the Owl Lady led her down the hall. She took out a key and handed a second copy to Luz. “Don’t lose this, now. You’re going to have to visit the front office if yyou lose it. That, or you pester your roommate.” Eda opened the door. Needless to say, it was perfect. It was twice the size of Luz’s room at home in Connecticut, and although it didn’t have a window, her roommate had hung up green lanterns that cast a comfortable glow on the room. Luz walked in, amazed, the deep brown wooden floors, just like the floors outside, creaking beneath her feet. A soft circular rug with the school’s crest sat in the center of the room, and even though she was wearing shoes, Luz couldn’t help but instinctively scrunch her toes as she spun around slowly. Two wardrobes on either side, two desks, chairs, and lamps. One small bookshelf in between the two extra-long twin sized beds in place of night stands. Half of the room was taken up by Luz’s roommate, who had put up medals and awards on the wall, along with a framed poster, Luz gleefully recognized, signed by the author of the Good Witch Azura series. But the other half of the room…Luz saw endless possibilities with the school-provided corkboard on the wooden paneled walls and the high ceilings above.

“So,” Eda began, putting down the suitcase by the closet. “What do you think?”

Luz laughed. “Eda, it’s perfect!”

There was a knock at the open door.

“Excuse me?”

Luz didn’t notice Eda’s eyes widen as a girl walked into the dorm room. Half of her green hair was tied up with a magenta elastic and she wore a tie of the same color. In her arms were a stack of books, but she held herself tall. The girl gave a quick glance at Eda, eyeing her up and down, before she turned to Luz. “Hi, you must be my new roommate. I’m Amity Blight.”

“I’m Luz! Luz Noceda! It’s great to meet you! Are you an Azura fan too? I couldn’t help but notice your poster while I was getting settled,” she said shyly.

Amity’s flushed bright red. “Oh, um, yes! That’s mine! And yes! I am a fan!”

“Alright, kid,” Eda said suddenly. “I’ve got to head out. Now where did it go-” she took her suit off of her shoulder and fumbled inside the pockets.

Luz pointed towards her hair. “Did you…did you try-?”

Eda caught on and stuck a hand inside of her ponytail, rummaging around and emerging with a folded and slightly crinkled piece of paper. “Ah, there it is! Atta girl, Luz! You know me so well already!” Luz smiled and turned to Amity, but faltered when she saw her unimpressed and almost haughty look at Eda. The Owl Lady pointedly refused to look at Luz’s new roommate as she handed her the paper. “This is your schedule. Now I don’t know how it worked at any of your previous schools, but here, you spend one week in general and track classes and a second week in classes with your mentor. These advisory classes can include field trips, lab work, whatever it is that I deem will help you get the most out of your time at Hexside.” Eda shrugged on her suit and tried fruitlessly to smoothen her hair. “This week is general courses, so I’ll see you next week for our advisory. If you need anything, you can probably find me,” she waved a hand in the air, “around. I’ll see you around, kid. I’m sure Blight can give you a tour for the rest of the day.” She slammed the door, intentionally or unintentionally, Luz was unsure.

Luz chuckled nervously. “Well, that was definitely…odd.” Amity nodded, and sat down at her desk, rearranging her books. Looking around for something to do, someplace to be, Luz sat down on the floor and pulled out one of her suitcases. “I’mma find my bedsheets so I can lay down.”

“That’s nice.”

She frowned at this response. Couldn’t Amity see she was trying to have a friendly conversation? “I’m sure the beds here are pretty comfy.”

“They are.”

Luz found the lilac bedsheets and began to put them on. “Are you…on break right now?” Amity looked up from her desk. “I mean, I figured you might have class so-”

“Morning classes end at 11:45. We have an hour for lunch and another half hour free period. Some people use this time to work in the labs; rehearse in one of the music rooms; study in the library, the study rooms, or their dorms. We make the most of it. Classes end at 4:30.”

“Oh! Neat! I didn’t realize it was practically the afternoon already.”

“Yup.”

“Amity, is there something going on between you and Eda?”

Amity slammed her book and turned around, her face scrunching up. “What are you talking about?”

Luz held up her hands in a ‘woah, woah’ gesture as she sat on her freshly made bed. “I’m just saying. There seems to be some weird tension between you too. She called you Blight!”

“It’s my name.”

“Your last name. And people refer to each other by their last names in books only when they’re enemies or rivals!”

“Well, maybe I should call you Noceda then.”

Luz scoffed loudly, wondering how she could’ve ended up with a roommate like Amity. “What is your deal? Just because you have some weird rivalry or whatever with Eda doesn’t mean you should take it out on me!”

Amity’s eyes softened, and she groaned, curling in on herself. Luz saw her hand reach for a purple necklace around her neck and rub it thoughtfully. At last, she stood up and sat down on the bed opposite Luz. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have acted so pettily.” She waited for a moment to see if Luz would respond, and seeing no sign of one, continued. “My mentor is Miss Edalyn’s sister, Lilith.”

“Oh,” Luz whispered softly, slumping down onto the floor.

“Yeah. They don’t really get along. I don’t think I’ve seen them really talk to each other; they just argue. I guess some of Miss Lilith’s feelings about Miss Edalyn rubbed on me. I didn’t know how to respond when I saw her in my room. And I was expecting a new roommate, yes, but I didn’t know Miss Edalyn would be your mentor. It’s not a bad thing,” she added quickly, “Miss Edalyn is really smart, and she makes everything look effortless. She was also a huge sports star here. She’s just…she’s got a different teaching style than most of the teachers here. I don’t know the details, but I think it’s part of the rift between Miss Edalyn and Miss Lilith.”

“Okay,” Luz said slowly, “But that doesn’t explain Eda’s behavior to you. Why was she like that?”

Amity shrugged. “She’s seen me around before, and she knows Miss Lilith is my mentor. Maybe she just, doesn’t like me.”

“Sounds like overkill to me.” Amity looked up as Luz rose from her spot on the floor and patted next to Amity. Immediately understanding, she nodded, and Luz sat next to her. “I mean, yeah, maybe she’s got a rivalry with her sister, but why? And why does she have to take it out on you? It just- it doesn’t make sense.”

“It’s not really fair either,” Amity muttered.

The two girls sat in silence while people walked by their door, chattering away. The room that once felt large and spacious to Luz now seemed suffocatingly small.

“Hey, how about I make it up to you?” Amity said suddenly rising from the bed. “I’ll show you what the best lunch options are they have at the dining hall, and from there we could maybe compare schedules? You can tell me more about yourself on the way.”

“Sure!” Luz’s face brightened. “Let’s go!”

“And Luz?” Amity grabbed a book bag from her closet and stood next to the door, untying and retying her hair again.

“Yeah?”

“Let’s keep the sister rivalry thing quiet, okay? I mean, everyone knows about Miss Lilith and Miss Edalyn, but no one knows why they’re like this. And word will get out eventually that we’re rooming together, but I don’t want either of us having to deal with people being too concerned about who our advisors are and how we’re rooming together.”

“Just because our advisors are rivals,” Luz said slowly, “It doesn’t mean we still can be friends.”

“Yeah. Let’s just,” Amity smiled softly, “Let’s just be roommates for now, okay?”

Luz hesitated, then nodded her head.

“Okay.”

#the owl house #toh au #boarding school au #human au #toh fic #fanfic #luz noceda #camila noceda #eda clawthorne #the owl lady #amity blight #principal bump #ananonswriting

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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

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Headed for A Small Disaster: A TOA OC Fic

Chapter 2: Water and Wizards

| 1 | 2 | ? | Ao3 |

Summary: It looks like it's going to be another long night for Cayden Tran when they visit a friend at the café

CW: Swearing, blood, brief scar mentions,

Words: 4001

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If you need me to tag any other content warnings/triggers, send me an ask or comment, and I will update the warnings appropriately ASAP!

Peace fell over Arcadia long ago. Every few minutes or so, a lone car or motorbike would roar by, but for the most part, Cayden was alone on the streets. Their sweatshirt was tied around their waist in the warm California evening heat, but they felt even more bare without their camera.

“Getting late,” they murmured to themself. Pulling out their phone, they sent their dad a quick text explaining where they were. Heading back from Delancy, they passed the cafe, where a familiar face was working overtime. Douxie scratched the ears of a black cat, who pulled away from his touch, opening his mouth and...talking? Cayden whispered, “Not the weirdest thing that’s happened today.” Certain they hadn’t been seen, they squatted down outside the store window and peeked inside, before pressing their ear to the window to try and hear the muffled conversation inside.

“You shouldn’t be working hours like this Douxie,” the cat scolded as he stretched out on all fours. “We’re already late for tonight’s watch.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, Archie. But it’ll be fine. Just need to restock in the back, clean up the front of the shop, and we’ll be all ready to go! Need the overtime anyway.” Cayden shrunk down as Douxie pulled out a chair at the window and sat down at the bar, looking out on the streets.

Oh god, oh god, oh fuck. He’s right in front of me. This could not be more awkward. How does he not see me? Oh, god, oh god-

“Arch, you ever wonder what it would’ve been like if I got the amulet?”

Cayden was in the process of laying down on the pavement, earning a few stares from passing cars, when they looked up. Douxie rested his head down on the countertop, absentmindedly doing somethingwith his wrist. Whatever he was doing cast a soft blue glow on his face, shadows growing on his face. His eyes seemed sunken, and the energy and vitality Cayden often saw him wear were gone. He looks so much older, Cayden realized.

Archie, the cat, leaped up onto the chair next to Douxie and onto the bar. “The amulet?”

“The Trollhunter’s amulet. The one that-”

“Ah, yes. The one that you and…” the cat paused. “Well, I suppose it would make no difference would it?”

Douxie sighed, turning his head to the other. “If I had it, I’d at least matter to someone other than you and Zoe. I’d be remembered.”

“The boy is doing a fine job already, and it’s more likely than not that you’re unfit to handle the pressure of the duties of the amulet and Merlin’s.”

Silence. What amulet? Who has the amulet? And why is this cat talking?

Douxie rose from his seat and chuckled lightly. “Forget it. Come on now, Arch. Can’t have cat fur everywhere.” He picked up the cat, who began to claw his way out.

“Come on now, Douxie. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that-”

“Go out in the alley, and I’ll meet you outside for the watch.”

Shit, shit. Cayden scrambled to get up on their feet as Douxie opened the door to the cafe. They were halfway up when they tripped over their own feet and came crashing down at the door to the cafe and Douxie’s feet. The waiter stumbled backward in surprise, the cat in his arms and holding the door open. Face flushed, Cayden gave a small wave. “Hey.”

“Oh. Fancy seeing you here again today.” Douxie knelt down, setting Archie on the ground, and offered a hand. “You alright?”

Blushing, Cayden reluctantly took his hand and rose. “Yeah. Yeah.” Recalling the incident earlier that day, they suddenly found it incredibly difficult to meet Douxie’s eyes. “Look man, um. I’m sorry for being so douchey this afternoon. I was, well, there’s no excuse for how I was acting. I’m sorry.”

The waiter hesitated, wringing his hands together as he nodded slowly. “No, it’s alright. I understand. Hey. How about this?” He held the door open, stepping aside. “You come on in, I’ll put on some music as I clean up, and I can make you that hot chocolate before closing up for tonight.”

“Well, it’s late and I should probably-” Cayden’s stomach roared.

Douxie laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes?”

They gave a slight smile and shrugged. “Sure, why not.” Cayden looked down at the cat, Archie. Sleek black fur and a strange white marking on his chest. Otherwise, there was seemingly nothing odd about him. But Cayden knew what they heard, and as Douxie beckoned them inside, Cayden kept their eyes on the cat, who slunk around the corner of the building and vanished. “That your cat?” They asked, jerking their head outside as they set their bag on the floor.

Douxie’s eyebrows raised. He took off his apron and threw it over a chair, scratching his head as he walked behind the counter. His mouth opened and closed as he tried to find his words. ‘Well, it’s complicated.”

“A secret stray you take into the cafe after hours and hide from your boss?”

“Well, that’s an oddly specific question,” the waiter chuckled as he made some drinks. Cayden gave a soft happy sigh as Douxie poured their hot chocolate into a small to-go cup. “But yes, in a way. We’re not allowed to bring pets in the store, but Archie, the cat, comes in towards the end of my shift once my boss has left. We’re good friends now though. A sort of... partnership.”

Cayden snapped their fingers, walking up to the counter to grab their drink. “I’ve got it. You let him in to draw in more customers because everybody loves cats.”

Douxie laughed merrily. “Ha, sure. Remember, it’s on the house,” he said as Cayden pulled out some cash.

“Technically not since I gave you a twenty this afternoon.” They shrugged and gave a soft smile. “But thanks, dude.” Suddenly, they became aware of Douxie’s eyes on their bare arms. Littered with scars and bandages from throughout the years. Their face heated, they untied their sweatshirt from their waist and pulled it over their head. “Anything I can do to help clean up? I’d feel bad just sitting here and drinking cocoa while you have to work.”

Douxie quickly shook his head, “Ye-yeah, no worries mate. It’s appreciated. I’ll wipe down the counter and check on stock in the back.” He pointed to a broom, leaning against the wall by the door. “Can you sweep up the front?” Cayden began to sweep up, and Douxie flipped on his phone. With a few taps, the cafe speakers began blasting rock music. “Oh, buckets-”

“We planning on waking up the neighbors?” Cayden yelled.

“Nope!” The music suddenly cut off in the middle of a guitar solo to gentle acoustic guitar, a folk song with a familiar voice.

Cayden suddenly stopped. Their eyes glimmered with mirth that seeped into their voice. “I didn’t know you could sing.”

“I’m a part of a band. Ash Dispersal Pattern.” The waiter pointed to a flyer posted on the bulletin board at the far end of the cafe. “You should come check us out sometime. We usually play rock though. These songs you’ve heard were erm, actually works in progress.”

“They sound hella good dude! I’ll come check you guys out sometime. Can’t believe I haven’t heard of you guys before though. Apparently, I live under a moss-covered rock in the middle of the woods.”

Douxie winked as he wiped down the counter and opened the door to the back of the shop. “There’s a lot about me that you don’t know.” With a smirk, he slipped past the swinging door which eventually came to a full stop behind him.

As soon as Douxie left, Cayden quickly returned to sweeping. Eight minutes later, they had swept down the entire front end of the shop (‘This is a lot of cat hair”) and found spray to clear up the tables and bar stools. Douxie had not yet returned. Cayden took a quick sip of their cooling cocoa and returned to wiping things down. Ten minutes later, they had finished cleaning up and finished the final dregs of their hot chocolate. Douxie had not yet returned.

“Where the hell is he?” they muttered, peering out the front windows. “I don’t see him outside.” Cayden swirled the remains of their cocoa around the bottom of their cup. Summers in Southern California got cool at night. The burning sun going to sleep to let his sister rise for the night. Tonight, the moon was covered by clouds, but she and the stars peered out every so often as the clouds thinned out before coming back in again. Streetlamps were spotlights in the dark. They flickered and cast shadows on the few cars and Vespas parked on the road. The soft guitar continued in the background, and Douxie’s voice gently told a tale of mythical creatures. Arcadia was at peace.

A sudden stream of buzzing jolted Cayden out of their thoughts. Douxie’s phone was still on the counter, and it was suddenly buzzing like mad. Reluctantly, Cayden picked up the phone and shut off the music. It continued to buzz with text messages from ‘Zoe.’ (“From the record store?” Cayden wondered.) Whoever she was, Zoe was clearly unhappy.

“Douxie?”

“Douxie”

“HISIRDOUX.”

“Where are you??”

“Youre late for watch and I’ve got a hellheeti i need help with”

“Archie got here ten minutes ago. He said you’d be here soon”

“Hisirdoux for the love of Freyja where are you??????”

“Your first name is Hisirdoux, huh? How do you even say that?” The thought of responding to Zoe crossed Cayden’s mind, but they weren’t a tech wizard and couldn’t get into a locked phone. Biting their lip and looking around the clean shop one last time, they stuffed the phone in their pocket and carried it with them into the backroom of the café. The lights were on, but there was no Douxie in sight. However, a back door leading into the alleyway stood open. Putting two and two together, Cayden huffed and marched outside. “You really ditched me. Unbelievable.”

There is nothing to fear about the dark, and Cayden knew that. In fact, they loved the dark. But chills ran up their spine as they stepped out into the brisk night air. As they walked further into the alleyway, sure that they would’ve seen Douxie walk past the front of the shop if he went the other way, they became more aware of their breathing as their muscles tensed to fight. Their eyes darted around in the dark, trying to adjust to the low light as they walked away from the street, and every part of their body told them to run.

Shivering with anticipation and the chill of the night, Cayden turned a corner and was met by a burst of blue light. They stumbled backwards into a trashcan, knocking it over and yelping at the sudden crash and the sound of tearing plastic. Scared by their own yelping, Cayden jumped up and threw a blind jab forward at the source of the light before slipping on a banana peel. Literally. But before they could come crashing down once again, a pair of arms grabbed them.

“Whoa whoa whoa- easy now.”

Instantly recognizing the voice, Cayden rubbed their eyes and frowned. “Douxie, what the hell?!” He opened his mouth to speak, but Cayden continued, angrily tearing themself away from him. Their grey eyes flashed as they marched Douxie against a wall. “You leave me to clean up the shop without saying anything and you pull some kind of weird flashbang prank on me? Do you know how dangerous that is? Also,” they pulled the buzzing phone from their bag, “You left your phone inside and you’ve got someone else who is also upset with you. You better get to the point and explain what is going on.”

As Cayden spoke rapidly, Douxie’s attention began to drift to something beyond them. His eyes widened, and as the words “what is going on” left Cayden’s mouth, he he pushed them to the side against the opposite street wall. “Dude, what are you-” Cayden turned to see what he was looking at and gasped.

A blazing monster of fire, like a lioness, leapt between where the two of them were just standing before. It crashed further down the alley before getting back up on all fours. It slowly approached them, snarling and baring its teeth. Cayden had seen some photos of this creature submitted to their blog, but never had they seen one in real life before. They never found a name for it before, but with Zoe’s texts, they instantly knew what it was. A hellheeti.

“Douxie,” Cayden said warily, rising from the pavement. “I’ve got this.”

Whatever Douxie was expecting Cayden to say in response to seeing a flaming cat, it was not this. He turned to them incredulously. “No, no, no, Cayden you don’t understand. That is an incredibly dangerous creature, and I can-”

“I said, ‘I’ve got this.’” They slowly approached to meet the hellheeti and knelt down. The creature stopped it’s snarling and approached with curiosity. Cayden began to sweat in its proximity and remained still as Douxie looked on in amazement. The creature was inches away, its flames reaching out to try and lick Cayden’s hand before they bolted past it.

It howled and gave chase, Cayden’s feet light upon the ground. “Track shoes don’t fail me now!” they yelled as they ran down the street.

“Cayden!” Douxie yelled. Looking around quickly, he picked up the lid of the fallen trash can and chased after them. “Wait for me!”

The three raced down the streets in a furious chase. The buildings and occasional cars blurred together. Not daring to look back, Cayden could hear the panting of the hellheeti and it screeches, like the sound of fingernails against a chalkboard. (Don’t ask how Cayden knew what that sounded like. That was not a pleasant experience.) The creature was never too far away so that they couldn’t feel its heat or see its light throwing away the shadows, and Cayden’s sweatshirt was soon drenched in sweat. Swearing under their breath, they tore off the thick fabric, somewhat content to run through the streets of the silent Arcadia Oaks with a tank top on.

I’ll draw them over to the woods. Wait, no, stupid. Fire and trees in California are nota good combination. Come on, come on, come on- Without realizing it, Cayden realized that they had made a long circle around the block. “Well, shit.”

They ducked into the alleyway behind the café and stumbled over the knocked over trash-cans and to the ground. The hellheeti snarled. Cayden looked down to find their hands badly scratched up. Blood. They were bleeding. As the hellheeti closed in, it snarled and Cayden gasped for breath. Their lungs felt as if every gasp was a stab to their chest. (Don’t ask how Cayden knew what that felt like. That was just from not working out for weeks after one of their worst foot injuries.)

The creature was now inches away from their face when a figure jumped between them. Douxie. The hellheeti leaped backwards and gave a low growl. “Easy now, I’ve got this.” He began to slowly inch his way to the creature. “I’m going to ever so slowly...and carefully...just…” The fire cat howled and fell as Hisirdoux threw a trash can lid at it. In his brief moment of success, he cheered and smiled at Cayden, who, still a bit angry, slowly stood and nodded.

Suddenly, their eyes widened and they yelled, “Heads up!”

The hellheeti threw the trash lid off with a loud clang. Or rather, the two hellheetis threw the trash lid off with a loud clang.

They began to circle the two teens, who stood back to back. With every fiber in their body, Cayden was torn between running through the creatures again or punching Douxie for his mischief before. But before they could make a choice, they noticed how Douxie paused, as if contemplating something. Casting a quick glance at Cayden, he turned his attention back to the fire cats. “You want to know more about me?” He raised his left arm, and for the first time, Cayden noticed a sort of bracelet or cuff, glowing with blue symbols, runes, letters, things they didn’t understand. The boy faced the beasts and yelled, “You’ll want to duck! Flumne surgerte!” A jet of water burst out of the nearest fire hydrant and soaked everything in the back alleyway, including the hellheetis and the teens. The creatures yowled before they were doused out, thin lines of steam rising from where they stood moments before. Cayden was in amazement to say the least.

While Douxie helped Cayden to their feet, a young woman, short with pixie cut pink hair and brilliant blue eyes, ran in with Archie. Cayden recognized the woman from Zimoc Records, one of their favorite places in town, and from the way she glared at Douxie, instantly knew she was the one texting him.

“Zoe! My favorite hedge witch!” Douxie chuckled nervously.

“Quit it, Hisirdoux.” She walked up to him, half his height, but twice as intimidating. Unsure whether or not it was a trick of the light or their lightheadedness, it seemed that Zoe’s eyes were flashing with pink lightning. “You’re soaking wet! You have a lot of explaining to do.” Despite the bite in her tone, her eyes softened as she touched his cheek. “Where were you? I was worried.”

“Are you two dating?” Cayden asked bluntly, holding their hands as to not drip blood everywhere on the concrete. “‘Cause you two sound like a married couple.”

The two quickly stepped away from each other and sputtered into a chorus of “No no no” and “Absolutely not. Never in a million years” as Archie chuckled. Cayden’s attention snapped to him as he pulled out a pair of glasses, gently wiping them down before putting them on his face and walking on his two hind legs. “If you ask me,” he said lightly, “They do sound like an old married couple.”

“I knew you were a weird talking cat!” Cayden yelled in excitement before scrunching up in embarrassment. “Oh, um. Sorry, that came out really wrong. No offense?”

Archie bristled slightly, as he answered dryly, “Some taken. I’m not a cat. I’m a familiar.”

“Arch is a dragon to be precise.”

“So, that’s what you meant by ‘partnership!’”

Douxie and Archie began to dive into a deep explanation of magic and familiars, while Cayden nodded slowly and skeptically, continuing to slowly drip blood on the concrete. Cayden was never one to believe in magic. Cryptids felt more real than bending the laws of physics for magic. But after seeing whatever the hell it was that Douxie did, they couldn’t deny that it was real. It was still just...difficult to believe. But that didn’t stop them from taking time to listen. All they wished was that their hands weren’t bleeding as much as they were and that they could sit down for once. But remembering how they treated Douxie in the same alleyway earlier, Cayden stayed quiet as Douxie and Archie continued to give a not-so-brief lecture for the next ten minutes.

“And you see, we’ve been around for almost a millennium or so,” Douxie explained, “Travelling all over.”

“So, how old are you?”

“19, give or take nine hundred years or so. Archie here is older, and Zoe is what? Five, four years older than me?”

Zoe had also listened patiently to the explanation, using a wrench-like wand that zapped with pink lightening to clean up the knocked over garbage bins. You’re magic too, Cayden thought when sshe didn’t answer the question, crossing her arms instead. “Didn’t your boss tell you needed to lay low and, you know, not reveal that you’re a wizard?”

“Well given the circumstances, Ms. Ashildr,” Archibald said as he leapt up on the garbage bin behind her, “I believe that we owed Mx. Tran a proper explanation. It is certainly not every day that a hellheeti attacks a civilian in the street. Oh! You’re bleeding!” Archie was the first to notice Cayden’s wounds.

They shrugged half-heartedly, their hands still cupped in front of them. “Eh, I’ll be fine.”

Douxie hurried over, waving a ball of blue light into his hands. “Arch and I have been going on for ages! Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I didn’t want to interrupt! Besides, it’s not the worse I’ve gotten.”

The others scoffed in a mixture of amazement and frustration. “Let’s get you inside,” Douxie said, gently placing a hand on Cayden’s back. “We have the first aid kit in the kitchen.” Cayden shrugged his hand off and quickly stepped into the backroom of the café, as Zoe followed them in. Douxie moved to follow, then doubled back. “Actually, I should try putting up some protective wards up around the shop. There’s been a lot of trouble in Arcadia, and I for one don’t want to be attacked while I’m working overtime again.”

Archie slunk around Douxie’s legs. “Mind if I join you?”

“Of course. The case should be in that cabinet by the door there, Zo.” The wizard pointed to a white box by the swinging doors. “Everything you need is in there! You can pull in a chair from the front if you need to!” The heavy door slammed shut behind the wizard and his familiar as Zoe and Cayden were left alone.

“Thanks,” Cayden mumbled as Zoe helped wash and wrap their hands. The witch didn’t say anything, only nodded. Oddly enough, the snarky tone she often used was nowhere to be heard as she remained silent. “We’ve met before,” Cayden began. “At Zimoc Records. You put on the records I wanted to listen to ‘cause you knew I’d probably end up breaking them if I so much as thought about them.”

Zoe looked up to match their gaze and smiled wryly. “Yeah. I did.” Her attention turned to Cayden’s arms and her brows furrowed. “What happened here?” she asked. It wasn’t exactly a question that was uncalled for; she was dressing Cayden’s hands, they were wearing a tank top, and it would be hard for her to ignore the scars littering their arms. “Did you…”

“Oh, god no. Just a bunch of accidents over the years. Nothing important or of note.”

At least she knows better than to pry, Cayden thought to themself as Zoe finished wrapping their hands. She sat across from them, staring intently. “Hisirdoux almost got hurt because of you,” she said at last. “Hellheetis are dangerous. You can get incredibly serious burns from them, and he’s not well trained in monsterology. He’s reckless and jumps into danger without thinking things through. Even though he’s really really good at thinking of plans on the fly, those plans don’t always go right. Things tend to get broken around him; his plans don’t always work out, but he’s determined to protect everyone and fix everything himself. He wants to prove his worth to...well, he wants to prove his worth.” Zoe slapped a palm to her forehead. “Ugh, I’m rambling again. Look, my point is: Douxie is seriously prone to mistakes. Sometimes, he’s a hazard to himself, and he doesn’t need a bad luck charm around. I know that things aren’t really in your control, but please. If for some reason he calls for your help or you try helping him, don’t make Douxie regret trusting you.”

“You love him a lot, don’t you?” Cayden called after her, as she began to head out into the main dining area.

She looked back at them and nodded. “Nine centuries of knowing each other can do that, yes. Douxie is very important to me. And I’d do anything for him.”

#ananonswriting #tales of arcadia #wizards tales of arcadia #wizards toa #tales of arcadia oc #toa oc #toa fic #hisirdoux casperan #archie toa #zoe toa #zoe ashildr #oc: cayden tran

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escape-from-arcadia · 2 years

Text

Headed for A Small Disaster: A TOA OC Fic

Chapter 1: Eccentricities and Extraterrestrials

| 1 | 2 | ? | Ao3 |

Summary: Cayden Tran isn't having the best day. Seemingly cursed with bad luck their entire life, things always seem to go wrong for them at the most inconvenient times. But after a particularly stressful day, they accidentally stumble upon some out-of-this-world guests in their small little town of Arcadia Oaks.CW: Swearing

Words: 3930

Reblogs > Likes

A/N: I actually had to split what was originally one chapter into multiple because of how ridiculously long it was. So more "chapters" coming soon. If you need me to tag any other content warnings/triggers, send me an ask or comment, and I will update the warnings appropriately ASAP!

Cayden never liked math. Every time someone came up to them, asking if they could help with their homework, they would stand up and leave. They might throw the occasional, “Sorry, but no,” but more often than not, they’d simply grab their things and get out. If they ever had the energy to tell people off, they would. Just because they're Asian doesn't mean they liked math, much less understood it. But oftentimes, explaining themself was more difficult than just walking away. As they went into high school, it definitely got easier. People made fewer assumptions; and by sophomore year, other students got the message that if they asked Cayden for help with math problems, the chance of them getting kicked in the shin by Cayden’s boot was incredibly likely.

After their daily visit to the museum to check on their dad, Cayden walked over to the nearest café (a little corner store called Café Benoit's) to at least try and understand their latest math assignment. They had a long discussion with their dad, Vinh, about their math grades and what they could do to improve them, but these conversations always circled back around to Cayden simply saying that math was never their strong suit. Nor was...anything really. Vinh recommended talking to their teacher, Ms. Janet, but Cayden always made the same excuse: Ms. Janet was a pain for them to deal with and pre-calculus just wasn’t fun.

Cayden decided (read: begrudgingly listened to Vinh’s advice) to head over to their favorite cafe down the street and study for their upcoming test. “Get something to drink, maybe listen to music.” Vinh said as he hung up the banner for the museum’s newest exhibit. “Whatever helps you focus. Even studying a little bit and understanding some of the material is better than nothing at all. And maybe you need to try studying somewhere else for a change. The hustle and bustle might be good for you.” The café was busier than usual, that's for sure. But after waiting for a couple to get up from their seats outside, Cayden didn’t hesitate as the waiter came over to clean up the table and sat in a warm seat.

The waiter began picking up cappuccino cups as Cayden set their bag down. “Sorry man. That was rude of me. Wanted to snag a table, and well, y’know.”

"It’s no big deal,” he said, wiping down the table. “Don’t worry about it, mate. Same as always?”

"Yup. And you? Same 'fit as always?" The waiter (who Cayden always forgot the name of) always wore his signature black hoodie and a low-cut tank top with his white half-apron wrapped over his black jeans.

The tips of his black hair were dyed a deep blue, and his eyes sparkled with gold and green when the student prodded at him. "Ah, cheeky now, huh?" He scribbled the order down on his notepad. "Not my fault people in Arcadia are awful at tipping, save for a few other people around here."

"Oh, come on. I always shoot for 15%."

"Before or after tax?"

Cayden looked down and mumbled sheepishly, "Before..."

The waiter laughed brightly before waving goodbye. "I'll be back in a bit with your drink. And try not to break another chair while you're out here!"

"That was one time!" Cay shouted, before snorting. "Good grief."

Yes, Cayden had in fact once broken a chair. They had slung their bag over the back and sat down, and the chair immediately collapsed. But both they and the waiter knew that they just so happened to pick an incredibly old chair that was in need of replacing anyway. It certainly wasn’t because Cayden was one of the clumsiest people in Arcadia. Cayden was not clumsy. The waiter ("Douxie! That's his name!" Cayden said aloud to themself) helped them clean up and offered to take them to the back to help patch up the few scrapes they got on their hands.

"No thanks," they said. "I've got a first aid kit in my bag, and I wasn't that hungry anyway."

"Well, come back another time. And maybe don't put your bag on the back of your chair when you decide to come back around."

So when Cayden came back to the café that day, they made sure their bag was on the ground instead, and slowly and carefully sat down. Setting themself up for success, Cayden laid out their math textbook and notebooks of scribbled functions, matrices, and graphs in front of them. Numbers and letters, letters and numbers. Who decided that the Greek alphabet should be in a math textbook? They sighed and turned their attention away from their books to the street. From their seat, they could see the city green, where old geezers were playing chess on the gazebo and some kids were rolling in the grass with their corgi. Weird. Cayden took their camera out from their bag and took a picture before Douxie came out with a tray.

"One peppermint hot chocolate with extra fudge and no whipped cream!" he said, setting the steaming drink down on the table.

"Thanks, man."

"Anytime! I'm still expecting that tip by the way."

And as Douxie pulled his hand away, the mysterious forces that plighted Cayden’s life began to wreak havoc. A car on the street honked loudly, startling the two of them. Douxie's hand knocked over the steaming mug onto Cayden's book and the drink spilled onto their lap. They yelled "Oh shit!" and dropped their camera onto the pavement with a sickening crack. "Oh, come on!"

"Oh, Modra- goodness. I'm so sorry." Douxie pulled a towel from his apron pocket. "Here let me-"

"It’s fine, it’s fine.” Cayden winced as they stood up and grabbed their bag. Slinging both straps on their back, they slammed a twenty from their back pocket on the table. “Here's your tip." Douxie opened his mouth to object, but they knelt down and carefully lifted the camera up. The lens was cracked, and with their luck, there was probably some internal damage as well. It wasn’t a high fall, but it was directly onto the hot California pavement. Cayden cringed. "It'll be fine. Happens all the time. I’ll-I’ll see you around." They left Douxie standing dumbfounded as they walked back home, holding back tears.

By the time Cayden got back to their apartment, their dad wasn't back yet. Understandable. The Arcadia Oaks Elementary School was having a field trip to the museum the next day, so Vinh would be there a bit longer that night working with the other museum curator. (Nice lady, Cay thought when they first met her. A little creepy, but nice.) They dropped their bag, the soaked book, and the broken camera off in their bedroom before grabbing a new set of clothes and taking a shower. Changing into fresh jeans and a t-shirt and putting away their binder, they put on fresh bandages over their latest set of cuts, scrapes, and bruises and turned their attention to the camera on the table. Pre-calculus could wait. Camera first.

Sitting down at their desk and flicking on a cool lamp, they carefully turned the body over in their hands. “God. Really?” The body of the camera was fine, albeit a little scraped. They hadn’t noticed at the time, but the camera battery latch had popped open and their battery pack was missing. But the worst part, the part that made them physically cringe and heart drop was the lens. The ND filter was completely shattered and the camera lens was badly scratched. “There’s no saving you,” they muttered sadly to themself as they set the camera down. The dull ache in their heart wasn’t something they could describe in the moment, but later, they were able to recognize it for what it was: the grief of losing an old friend.

Cayden bit their lip, and slammed their hand on the desk, causing some of the papers and books to topple over. ”Damn it! What am I supposed to do with this thing now? Should’ve invested in a disposable camera instead,” they grumbled. They groaned loudly and looked out their bedroom window, rolling over on their desk chair. The sun was beginning to set over the city, casting long shadows over the quieting streets. The streets ran red with the warmth of the setting sun and the clouds in the sky moved lazily along. Cayden would still have a few hours before their dad came home and the sun completely set. But what were they going to do that night if they couldn’t go out to the woods and take photos exploring at night? What would they do if they were stuck inside of the city all week?

"Hell. I've been sentenced to hell." With a sigh and a quick spin of their chair, they were back in front of their desk. Flicking on their laptop, they quickly hopped on their blog.

“Sorry gang. Dropped my camera today on the pavement. Not an awful fall. Just about three and a half feet. But my lens is all janked up, and I’ll be needing a new battery and ND filter. I’ll send updates when I can and try using my phone camera for now. This isn’t the end of our cryptid hunts, just a temporary set back. Signing off, Cayden T”

Notes began flooding in as soon as they hit ‘post’, and a few people began commenting.

good luck getting a new lens!

happens all the time. I dropped my camera a few weeks back and now it’s all messed up

yo wtf. take care dude and good luck with the repairs

As they looked over the responses, something caught their eye.

You’re in Arcadia Oaks, right? Check out Stuart’s Electronics. Not the best place in town, but you can usually get a good bargain on stuff. They probably have some stuff and repairs there. It’s over on Delancy

“I don’t need help,” Cayden grumbled, slamming the laptop shut. They spun around in their chair aimlessly and looked out the window down at the streets. Dad wasn’t coming home anytime soon. They cast another glance at their camera with another pang in their heart. The repairs would be expensive, but so would be buying a whole new lens. At least a thousand dollars for the same one. Grabbing their bag and having completely forgotten about the math textbook, they carefully stuffed the camera inside a jacket and wrapped it up before putting on a red sweatshirt. “Time for a field trip.”

It wasn’t a pretty sight. The neon light of a lighting bolt flickered with a hazy yellow glow in the light of the setting sun. TVs were stacked up in the grimy windows, and the blue paint on the front of the building was slowly peeling away. Checkered blue and yellow tiles were dangerously loose and held up by what Cayden presumed to be duct tape.

“Well, this seems like a trustworthy place.” The bell gave a light and happy jingle as Cayden headed inside Stuart’s Electronics and found two familiar faces.

“Oh, hey Aja. Hey Krel. Good evening, Mr…Tarron?”

Aja Tarron, a new transfer student to Arcadia and gym class superstar (Coach Lawerence’s words, not Cayden’s), giggled nervously, tucking her hair behind her ear and smoothing her dress as she walked forward. “Cayden! It’s so lively to see you! You’re so...unexpected! This is Varvatos Vex! Our…geezer! Our geezer.”

“Uhh…okay?” Cayden looked over her shoulder at Krel and Varvatos. “Aja, why is Krel holding back your grandpa from presumably killing me?”

They weren’t wrong. The old man named Varvatos was angrily shouting incoherent nonsense, something about killing them all and ‘nosy hoo-mans’ as he shook his walker at Cayden. Krel was trying his best to hold him back, slapping his hands over the old man’s mouth and pushing him towards the store counter, though it seemed to be a losing battle.

Aja glared at Krel who laughed nervously in response. Her voice was strained as she continued, “Oh, you know! Grandpa hasn’t erm…Now’s not a great time, Cay!”

“Don’t call me that. Only my dad calls me that.”

“Sorry! Well, uh, how about an embrace?” she asked, approaching Cayden with open arms. They recoiled backwards, as Varvatos gave a mighty yell that sent a shudder up their spine.

“Now is not the time for an embrace!” The old man roared, surprising Cayden given his tiny stature. “Unless it is the sweet embrace of a glorious death!”

As they continued backing up, Cayden bumped into a shelf housing several boxes of random tech. They sprung forward from the sudden contact. “My bag!” They tore off their backpack and were about to check the condition of the camera when their eyes widened as the shelf gave a sickening creak. “Oh shit.”

Aja saw their fear, and immediately came to their aid. “I’ve got it!” she yelled as she pushed Cayden out of the way and miraculously held up the shelving unit with her own hands. Boxes slid off the shelves around her as she tried shoving the unit back in place. “Varvatos!” she groaned. “A little help?”

Cayden stood stupefied, as Krel let go of Varvatos for an instant to hover over the fallen boxes. “Is everything in there alright? We could be using some of this for the ship!”

“Little brother, now isn’t exactly the time. Besides, Stuart already said these human parts are barely compatible with our technology!”

Krel crossed his arms from his crouched position on the floor. “You don’t know that. Do you know how many manuals Stuart has said he’s lost?” He knelt on the floor of the shop, rummaging through the boxes some more. “We should take these back so that we can see if there is anything that we might be able to use to fix the ship and go back home…”

His train of thought slowly pettered off as he and Aja turned to look at Cayden, still very present with their eyes wide and hands clenching their backpack straps. “Am I interrupting something? I feel like I’m interrupting something.”

“No, no, no, not at all!” Krel insisted, rising to his feet. “We’re just working on a science project for school about…” He looked at Aja, who had shoved up the shelving unit with the help of Varvatos, much stronger than he seemed.

“I think you guys just rolled a nat one on deception. Wait, that's not a skill is it?”

“The young royals didn’t roll anything! And they have no intent to deceive the enemy!” Varvatos shouted, stepping forward towards Cayden. He had a very strong set of lungs for a senior citizen, which made it all the more unnerving when he looked up at Cayden and said quietly, “But you on the other hand, are interfering with royal businesses. Is it customary for your kind to sneak up on your enemies, learn their secrets, and betray them with no honor?”

Cayden backed up, stopping before they hit another shelving unit. Their hands raised in a show of surrender. “I’m sorry, sir. But I’m no backstabber. I just want to get my camera fixed! I also didn’t sneak up on you guys since there’s literally a bell over the shop door.” They pointed to the bell, which had in fact rung when they entered through the shop door. “I’ve got such rotten luck that I’m the last person anyone would ever hire to be a spy.”

“Are you sure you aren’t just clumsy?” Krel asked, lifting up a box full of vacuum ends.

“I’m not clumsy. Anyways, is the famous Stuart of Stuart Electronics around? I need to get home soon.”

The shop fell silent as the four stood awkwardly. Aja hummed as she put boxes on random shelves and Varvatos tapped his foot impatiently. Cayden bit back the temptation to ask about the “royals” and the “ship” as Krel turned a few knobs on an old radio. He muttered as he tried tucking back his shoulder-length brown behind his ear while tuning for a signal. “Need a hair tie?”

“Why would I want to knot my hair?”

“No, like. Tie up your hair. Keep it out of your face.” Cayden reached into their bag and found a gray scrunchie. “This’ll have to do.” They offered the scrunchie, and Krel hesitatingly took it. He looked it over with confusion, before Cayden walked behind him. “May I?” He nodded, and they took back the scrunchie and began to tie his hair back into a ponytail. “Don’t worry, I’m fast.”

Aja looked on in wonder as Krel looked at his reflection in the nearest TV. “Does it look good? What’s happening?” Varvatos let out a small hmph of approval.

“There.”

Aja laughed and touched the ponytail. “It bounces!”

“Does it look good?” Krel asked, shaking his head around. “It feels much more…lighter.”

“You should be able to work on that radio now without your hair getting in the way. And the look suits you, dude!” Cayden smiled softly as they sat on the floor. “I just wish this Stuart guy would hurry up. What’s going on? Is he lost in Narnia or something.” As they spoke, a low beeping began to fill the store.

Krel’s eyes widened in recognition and he looked up at the clock. Aja looked on with concern as he loudly whispered, “Our transductions are about to wear off! Get them out of here!”

“‘Get them out?’ Are you talking about me?” Cayden began to stand up when Varvatos stood in the way.

“It’s time for you to go, Caydoom.”

“Okay, sick nickname, but also ‘go?’ What do you mean go?” Cayden’s voice began to rise along with the speed and volume of the beeping, but they didn’t notice. “We just had a heartfelt moment and you want me to leave? What’s going on here? I’ve been holding back my tongue and all my questions because clearly something weird is going on here, but after that you’re just asking me to leave. And I still need to get this damn camera fixed?”

“Sorry I took so long. Now, here’s the box with all of my- What is going on out here?” A brown-haired man in a red robe, Stuart Cayden supposed, came out from the black with a large briefcase.

The shop fell silent, and the rapid beeping became one solid tone. Krel looked at his sister. “Oh, kleb.”

There was a flash of blue light and then…Blue people. Two- no, three blue people. Two had four arms and one was several feet taller than Cayden. They all glowed with soft blue light and looked on at Cayden in shock.

Stuart chuckled and turned to Cayden. “Uh, hello. Now’s erm. Now’s not the best time.”

After a cup of tea and many reassurances from the Tarron siblings that Varvatos would not in fact rip their limbs off, Cayden had calmed down. It was more of them calming the extraterrestrials down than anything else, but still.

“You can’t let anyone know!” Krel repeated for the hundredth time, while Cayden sat in a folding metal chair at the center of the shop. “This secret was never meant to get out, and we don’t need any other people knowing.”

“And if you speak of word of this to anyone, Varvatos Vex will pound you into-”

“Does he always talk in the third person?” Cayden interrupted.

“Yes,” the siblings answered simultaneously.

“And you guys are called Akiridions, not aliens? And he’s a Durian, but not the fruit kind,” Cayden said, pointing to Stuart, who was looking over the unwrapped camera.

“Oh my Gorbon,” the Durian began, as he transformed into a green extraterrestrial in a poof of green light, “You would not believe how many times I get that.”

The Tarrons and Varvatos held their noses. “Ugh, Stuart! In the shop?” Krel scowled, fanning the air. He turned to Cayden. “To answer your question, yes. We,” he gestured vaguely at himself, his sister, and Varvatos, “We’re Akiridions from the planet Akiridion-5. The term alien is deeply offensive and generalizes all extraterrestrials as one group of creatures. The world doesn’t revolve around you humans, you know!”

Aja coughed and wheezed, “Now a question for you, Cayden. You’re completely fine with this wretched stench?”

The human shrugged, breathing normally. “I never liked the texture of it, but my dad always bought durian when I was a kid, the fruit I mean. We’d eat it about once every few weeks or so. Now can you please untie me?”

“Not until you guarantee your silence,” Varvatos boomed. His six eyes unblinkingly stared at Cayden. “You must not say a single word of this to anyone.” He peered curiously at them, as they recoiled just a bit into their chair.

“I mean yeah, if Aja and Krel don’t want this information shared I won’t share it.” They turned to look at the siblings. “I mean it. I’d prefer to share this with other people so we could all learn and stuff, get to know each other and all. But if your safety is at risk, then yeah. I won’t say a word.” They returned their gaze to Varvatos and looked him in the eyes. “I promise.”

The shop fell silent. Varvatos gave a huff and helped Cayden up from the folding chair. “Do you humans always ask so many questions?”

Cayden shrugged as best they could. “Eh. Some people don’t ask any questions. They live in a world of close-mindedness and complacency. I, on the other hand, ask all the questions. Interroga omnia.”

“I’m sorry.” Krel approached, shaking his head. “What language was that?” He pulled out a white and blue device from his pocket. A blue hologram- a holoscreen?- flashed up in a text Cayden couldn’t understand. Krel began tapping, pulling up different screens, and typing in information. “I calibrated our translators to understand the human languages of English and Spanish, not whatever that was.”

“Latin. Kind of a dead language, but “interroga omnia” means ‘question everything’. Kind of what I live by, I guess. And there are more languages than just English and Spanish on Earth. Like. A lot of them.”

The prince nodded his head, “I was aware of the multitudes of languages, yes. I just never expected someone to know a language so ancient as that!”

Cayden pulled out a tape recorder and their notebook from their backpack and opened to a blank page. Krel and Aja watched on in curiosity as with a press of a button, the tape recorder whirred to life. “You guys cool if I record this? I have a few questions. Just a standard procedure for me to log intervi-”

Turning around to face them, Cayden was met with the pointy end of a long glowing blue weapon, resembling a curved sword. They looked up slowly and met eyes with Varvatos.

“Uh. Hi, sir.” Despite how incredibly tempted they were to touch the pointy blue thing, Cayden slowly backed away. They began to carefully pack things in their bag and back away towards the door. “You know what? It’s a school night. I’m going to head home. I’ll see you guys tomorrow. And uh, Stuart. I’ll call you tomorrow. I’ll try to pay you ASAP. My number is written on the tape at the base of the camera. Just call me with the diagnostics or whatever. Uh, later.” Cayden turned and walked face-first into the door. They laughed nervously and waved goodbye, filled with more questions than ever.

#ananonswriting #tales of arcadia #3below #3below toa #wizards tales of arcadia #wizards toa #tales of arcadia oc #toa fic #toc oc #hisirdoux casperan #aja tarron #krel tarron #varvatos vex #stuart toa #oc: cayden tran

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