#and I want him to treat all those eldritch creatures (his family and friends) as they're regular humans and nothing is weird about them | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lemonlightt · 1 year

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qsmp hcs because i am so normal and not hyperfixated

(consisting of mariana, slimecicle, jaunaflipa, tilin, philza, chayanne, missa but i will add some of other streamers once i catch up on them & if i don't get flamed by the qsmp community. once qsmp expands more i may make another one of these (i will make another one of these in 2 weeks i have no thoughts but qsmphELPME!11!!1!!))

(i also have added some hcs i've seen on tumblr/twitter because they're all i can think about. btw looking for qsmp friends plsplspls i'm so lonely)

qcharlie is a demon and has absolutely no idea of it and progressively gains little demonic traits everytime he makes a deal

meanwhile qmariana is an angel and hold onto your seats guys this one is an absolute shocker! has absolutely no idea of it

everytime something awful happens to charlie (jauna dies, brutally scrambles tilin) his humansona becomes a little more unstable and he gets a little more sloshy - overtime he becomes straight up oobleck and gunks up the smp

qcharlie was raised in an environment that seemed like hell and it's responsible for the fact he doesn't really know how to be dad (his dad treated him like shit) and he's had no examples of healthy romantic relationships

qcharlie and qmariana are absolutely head over heels for eachother they're just losers and find it hard to express it adequately or meaningfully (this does not make them any less dysfunctional and annoying but they are my parental figures your honor)

qcharlie sews and knits and sewed a trans flag into each of their iconic clothing (qmariana's cape thingy, qcharlie's hearts and jauna's bows) he does the same for tilin as soon as he finds out they have the binary of none

qcharlie has been plotting qmariana's murder but qmariana is blind to it and all he cares about is hot steamy gay minecraft sex. they remind me of something but i can't put my finger on exactly what so if you can think of it tell me HJAHA

qcharlie would ADORE radiohead (specifically "nice dream" and "no surprises") (yes i am projecting, yes he is my favourite person and yes he is the only member to me i cant take it anymore)

jauna has golden highlights from her revival (think revivebur but stop thinking about revivebur)

jauna has vitiligo

jaunaflippa is allergic to dandelions but she will not hesitate to give them a blow and makes a little wish (usually about wanting her mom and dad to get along and be happy)

the jauna family get their glasses mixed up so they have to go through trial and error to find which prescription is theres (this takes 30 minutes because qcharlie and qmariana typically fight to the death over it/j)

when tilin died, jauna shared half of their bow with qquackity and keeps it tied neatly around her tail as a sentiment to her best friend but sometimes you'll catch her wearing it on one of her fingers. usually her pinkie (pinkie promise) or index finer

qcharlie and qmariana don't know how to braid in contrast to qwilbur who has spent hours experimenting with talullah to style her hair

qwilbur gives talullah a little walkman(?) thing for talullah to customise and records her cute little songs for her to listen to on the tapes when he's away from home

when qwilbur comes back from his travels, he will never ever fail to comes back with stories to tell, oneofakind gifts for talullah, songs for talullah to sing when she misses him, etc because that is simply how he loves

there is always music coming from talullah and qwilbur's home and it always brings joy to those who pass even if for just a moment

talullah has albinism

tallulah is disabled (canon examples: she has a different model to the rest of the eggs, she's clumsy and a little slow, her wings are underdeveloped) (she's basically just like me fr)

qmissa and qphilza are literally eldritch creatures. they look like the mothman fucker. they are a terrifying duo. here's a perfect example

qmissa is like 9'5 and qphilza is 5'2

qphil tells qmissa about his giant wife who is the god of death and is beautiful and qmissa doesn't believe his platonic husband could pull (spoiler alert he is proven wrong)

chayanne despises qwilbur because qmissa can play guitar better

chayanne dyes his hair pink to match techno and/or wears a little skull. techno is his hero and he is JUST like him frfr

speaking of which, when chayanne first killed a mob, qmissa helped turn it into a skull mask like his own and techno's. chayanne feels more confident wearing it and therefore never takes it off / alternatively qmissa made him a little mask from chayanne's eggshell

chayanne's favourite time of the day is when qphil tells him stories about techno

chayanne is nv like the rest of the eggs but is definitely more vocal than tilin for example (flaps his hands, exclaims excitedly, laughs a lot)

talullah and tilin are twins

tilin is part of the qquackity x qcharlie club upon finding out about the millions of failed attempts of qcharlie trying to flirt with qquackity

i dont think tilin hates qcharlie for what he did but i think they sure make his life a living hell/t

also tilin and jauna are in heaven with techno and they all bully trump. they make a circle around his cowering body and run around in circles while holding hands (this is a joke but not really)

general hcs that apply to all members/eggs:

there's few resources for clothing so the egg parents pass down their clothes to their eggs and the eggs mixnmatch it

the eggs use sign language to communicate as well as signs and doodles or use those little tablets with tts that nv people often use to communicate

extra: techno because he's my favourite character and isn't even in the smp!11!!11!1

techno is a sort of spirit and haunts his family, especially chayanne. he watches over all of the eggs. he hears all the little stories phil tells about him to his eggs. he'll hear chayanne say something he'd say and he goes YOOOOOOOOOOOOO excitedly and goes THATS MY BOY!!! uncle techno takes the eggs in when they get scrambled. when chayanne and talullah died techno gave them their lives back because it broke his heart to see them die just like that.

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phoenixyfriend · 3 years

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More "de-aged Taka and T7 end up in the Warring Clans Era as Founders' wards" AU

“That’s a thing?” you ask. The answer is yes.

Uh. Kind of. Deaging Team Seven for the sake of tossing them back in time for a Founder to adopt is pretty common, but I’m trash for Taka so this AU started with me brainstorming the asshole team.

I am falling more and more in love with the idea of Tobirama ending up with custody of Team Taka somehow. He’s a science dad, but like. Marginally more ethical than Orochimaru.

Everyone around them is like "This is a terrible idea and it's all going to end horribly" and he's just like "Ah, these are now my children."

I've read so many "Team Seven time-travels and is de-aged, get adopted by the Founders" or "a Founder time-travels forward and adopts Naruto, subsequently picking up the others" and they're good but I now want the same plot with an even more dysfunctional collection of... eldritch mishaps? The AO3 feel of "I want this fic I just read, again, but a step to the left so it feels fresh and new"

I'm considering the tent of tranquility idea (courtesy of @sloaners) and I've come to the decision that Tobirama's... probably going to end up with Several Holes in it, and burns, and cuts, because Karin and Suigetsu never stop fighting, and if they're fighting, they're not paying attention to how soon Juugo's going to lose his grip on control.

"Hm. Tobirama?" "Anija." "Where did you get children?" "They showed up." "One of them looks like an Uchiha." "He does." "Two of them are trying to kill each other." "That's normal." "Are the Uchiha going to accuse us of stealing a clan child?" "Probably." "...Tobirama, did you steal these children?" "No."

(It's not kidnapping if they show up and break into your house first.)

(Also none of them are particularly pressed to ditch the Senju and find their clans. Maybe eventually. Not now.)

They’re assholes but Karin is, even at Supposedly Age Three, babbling at Tobirama about proper lab protocol and chemical reactions and isn’t that just the most adorable thing?

Very few people find Karin as adorable as Tobirama does, because Karin knows more ways to kill a person than most adult shinobi, because most adult shinobi don’t know about things like flesh-eating diseases and specialty poisons from the other side of the continent that can only be refined via chemical processes that won’t exist for another three decades.

Juugo is a sweetheart. Best child. Then he loses his mind but it’s okay, Sasuke is there. Do the Senju trust the clearly-Uchiha child to control the much larger five-year-old? No. But they don’t have any better ideas right now, so.

Tobirama: Hm, we should do something about that. Karin: Here’s a list of ideas and things that have already been tried. Tobirama: Thank you, small child. Where did you get this? Karin: ... Tobirama: Fair enough, let’s see what we can do.

Suigetsu is a little terror because not only is he a Massive Jerk but he also has better control over water than most adults. Mostly because he is water. It’s very hard to find him when he’s avoiding chores.

Karin clings to Mito sometimes because Family! and then Hashirama tries to tease Tobirama about being upset that one of his students/children has ditched him. Hashirama ends up moping in a corner because Tobirama snaps at him, unsurprisingly.

IDK if we have like any canon for Touka beyond skill with genjutsu, but going off of the fanon that she used a naginata, I’m going to say that Suigetsu keeps trying to challenge her to Blade Fights and she’s just like Neat, A Tiny Murder Machine.

Sasuke is very quiet for the most part and Dramatically Broods On Rooftops And In Trees and Hashirama is just like YES YOU REMIND ME OF MY BROTHER AND ALSO MY BEST FRIEND and Sasuke hides.

Sasuke does not need another Naruto, thank you.

Sasuke ends up hanging out with Mito, I think? Like yeah, sure, she’s an Uzumaki, but she’s chill and refined and calm and she has really good tea in stock. Sure he has to learn fuuinjutsu to have an excuse to hang out with her, but that’s fine. It’s interesting. Karin does it too, sometimes.

tbh that probably leaves Hashirama to hang out with Juugo? Juugo isn’t great at Excite but he is great at nature so I feel like Hashirama would be stars-in-eyes about Juugo talking to birds the way Hashirama talks to trees, and Hashirama just gets him a chicken coop like HERE. FRIENDS.

But back to the suspected child theft.

Hashirama is like “That is... clearly an Uchiha. They are going to find out, Tobirama! Someone is going to figure out we have--” “Sasuke, show him your other eye. Yeah, the one you cover.” “...” “Okay, go back to playing.” “...Tobirama.” “Yeah?” “That was a Rinnegan.” “You know those rumors that the only way to get a Rinnegan is to mix the Uchiha and Senju bloodlines?” “It’s true?” “No idea, Sasuke won’t tell me anything about his parents other than their names, and he’s three, but even the chance of it being true means we have an arguable claim.” “...that’s not going to be enough to convince the Uchiha.” “The theory is but one weapon of many in the upcoming battle of wits.” “Tobirama--” “Now if you’ll excuse me, Anija, I need to go make sure Suigetsu doesn’t flood the training grounds again.”

tbh I can’t remember who made the original comment in canon about the Rinnegan being achieved via Senju/Uchiha babies but it’s funny to use here so I’ll pretend it’s a common rumor that nobody actually believes

MEANWHILE WITH THE UCHIHA Madara found and took custody of Team Seven and company, mostly because they’re like... jounin-level despite being less than three feet tall.

It involves a lot of Madara going "I want My New Children to love me!" and being sorely disappointed by half of them. Poor fucker got stuck with Naruto, Sakura, Sai, Kakashi, Yamato, and Obito.

(KakaYamaObito are deaged by the time-travel to 10-13ish. The kids are deaged to 3-4. Everyone has memories to just after the fourth war or so.)

Karin sensed T7 and tagalong pretty much the second they popped out of Kamui, and told Sasuke, but he correctly guessed that Naruto would hunt him down eventually, and said they should enjoy the peace and quiet while they had it.

Sai pulls emotionless creepy smiles in an attempt to freak out Madara but since Madara's whole thing initially was "less children in war," he's... mostly just sad. Izuna wants to know who made his brother cry.

Madara makes a vaguely misogynistic comment that's typical for the period and Sakura just. Breaks his tibia.

Naruto is genuinely trying to treat Madara with the kind of respect a caretaker that Attempts To Care And Do Good By Them deserves, because Naruto is a good egg, but he's... three again. Which means he's a Hellion.

The literal toddlers (Naruto and Sakura are three-ish, Sai is four-ish) are, in fact, toddlers, so nobody really expects them to be able to do anything. Nobody bothers to test them beyond the basics of like. Can walk? Can talk? Can maybe hold knife? Like don’t get me wrong, they’re very competent toddlers, but their hands can barely wrap around a kunai. Their bodies are tiny. Their bones only just stopped being soft!

That said, the “tweens” (re: adults who got deaged but Less) have to get tested for their skills. Kakashi downplays himself to what he imagines a semi-competent eleven-year-old to be capable of. He thinks of, like, Neji maybe? Good, but not suspiciously good.

Obito enters an intangible state and refuses to participate. He has a Mangekyo. His body is half-Zetsu. Stop bothering him. He doesn’t want to do anything. They assign him babysitting duty for Team Seven since he can obviously defend pretty well, and Kakashi vouches for his abilities as a fighter.

Yamato decides to try to be just a little worse than Kakashi but at one point he panics and does Mokuton on instinct and now the entire Uchiha compound is screeching because did they just steal a Main Family Senju kid by accident?

Yamato: Should I tell them I was a science experiment? Kakashi: No.

Pranks galore! None of the other time-travelers even try to stop Naruto, except maybe Yamato.

Obito at the Uchiha compound is mostly "I don't want to participate" and then just uses Kamui to be intangible until people leave him alone. If it's not another time-traveler or Madara, he's not interested. He doesn't even care that much about Sai or Yamato, actually, so if it's not an original T7 member, he doesn't care, and if it's Madara, he's just here to make things Difficult.

The Kyuubi wanders up to the Uchiha compound one day and everyone's preparing for a battle, even Madara isn't confident that he can-- [BANG] "KURAMA!" [delighted squealing]

Naruto now has a pet. The entire clan is terrified. Kurama pokes his nose at Naruto's stomach and disappears into the memory of a seal.

Madara, frantically writing a letter to Hashirama "What do I do if my toddler is possessed?!?"

Hashirama: You have a toddler?!?!?! OMG you should organize playdates with Tobirama's kids! Madara: I'M GOING TO QUESTION THAT LATER, PLEASE HELP WITH THE POSSESSION THING

Kurama hunts down Naruto, and the Jinchuuriki situation is very much in the realm of "Dis Mine" Also a bit of "If I'm in the brat, there's at least one Mangekyo user in hearing distance who can and will risk his life to prevent brainwashing. (Kakashi. It’s Kakashi.)

Naruto: Kurama's one of my best friends! Every time traveler: Yeah, that tracks. Madara: [teakettle screeching]

Per @firebirdeternal: I'm just loving the visual of Giant Nightmare Terror Kurama kneeling down and pressing his nose to Naruto's Smol Chubby Toddler self and closing his eyes while Naruto pets him and giggles and every single battle-ready Uchiha is just. "wat"

Everybody else: Cool so Madara adopted a witch Uchiha Elders: We need to be careful of this horrible creature The younger generation of Uchiha: Okay that was weirdly serene and adorable and frankly the brat is really likeable when he's not being adhd as hell I think this is actually pretty dope.

Madara really wants to be a Good Dad but he has no idea how he ended up being "a dad" in the first place. He just! He cares a lot about this random assortment of kids! Some of them are from prominent clans and there should be search parties for the Senju kid with the Mokuton, or the Hatake brat, or the Uzumaki that doesn't look Uzumaki but definitely feels Uzumaki.... and SURE the only Uchiha of the bunch is a stranger who hates him for no reason Madara can come up with, but! He wants to be a good authority figure!

At least the Uzumaki appreciates that he's trying.

Seriously, though, there are clan kids and nobody’s looking for them, what’s up with that?

Kakashi still has a prize copy of Icha Icha and nobody in the Uchiha compound does a thorough check of his reading material until like three months in.

He is blamed for Naruto developing the Oiroke, because where ELSE would a toddler get such ideas? (Yamato and Obito both tell him he brought this on himself.)

Naruto waits until a Big Important Meeting lets out, something about tithes or a merchant contract, and just pulls a Harem no Jutsu in front of the entire group of Elders And Main Family. First he does a Mass Shadow Clone, which makes everyone turn on Sharingan because Fancy New Techniques to steal! Sure, they were late on the shadow clones, but the kid is clearly gearing up for something! The something is Oiroke.

Anime Nosebleeds everywhere. Most of the elders were hit. Izuna was hit. Madara is not bleeding from the nose, but he is very upset about having semi-accidentally sharingan-memorized his weird adoptee’s Sexy Older Female Alter Ego. There is yelling.

Naruto’s like “Oh, I missed some!” and decides to try again with Reverse Harem no Jutsu because there are old ladies among the Elders, and maybe some straight women representing a guild, and maybe some gay guys he missed! Madara is still not bleeding. (He’s very demi and tbh Naruto only would have succeeded if he’d tried to use Hashirama’s face. Naruto does not know this. He just figures Madara is ace like Sasuke and that no variant is going to work.)

Izuna gets another nosebleed and is just like “Well, this is not how I planned on coming out as bi, but--” “Izuna, I literally do not care about you being bi as long as one of us has an heir at some point, I’m more upset about the fact that my child has been corrupted!”

Back in the Senju compound, there is... a lot of screaming, honestly, but every time Karin and Suigetsu start trying to kill each other again, Tobirama just shrugs and tells them not to break anything.

Very easy-going caretaker, really. He's got some very deadly toddlers in hand, but they're still just toddlers.

Sasuke: Yeah, I might want to go see my clan at some point. Suigetsu: Yeah, I might want to go see my clan at some point. Karin, clinging to Mito: Yeah, I want to go see my clan at some point. Juugo: Please never, ever take me to my clan. Ever. Please. I'll stay with Sasuke, thank you.

Naruto breaks out of the Uchiha compound the first time he enters Sage Mode, several months in (it took a while to get the privacy) because he feels Sasuke and lbr if Naruto knows where Sasuke is, nothing will stop him.

The Uchiha clansmen cannot catch the errant toddler. They fail to inform Madara until Naruto is already in Senju territory because nobody wanted to admit the toddler outmaneuvered them.

Naruto wasn’t sure how to get into the Senju Compound safely so he just goes full Kyuubi, bounds over the wall screaming SASUKEEEEE at the top of his lungs, and then shrinks back down to Tiny Brat size so he could hug his Bestest Friend Ever and cling like a limpet while Sasuke just sighs and stares at the wall.

Sakura ran after him.

Sai painted a bird and Yamato dragged Kakashi onto it to chase Naruto, because Kakashi is at a point of zen regarding Naruto's bullshit and fully trusts the kid to not die.

Obito refuses to look up from whatever he's doing and asks people why they think he cares.

“We told you to look after the toddlers!” “Why would you do that? Seems like poor planning on your part.”

Disappears when nobody's looking. Waits until the Ruckus at the Senju compound (where T7 has crashed in to tackle-hug Sasuke and Madara followed in and proceeded to get shouty, and nobody's dead or battling because they're too confused and also it's a comedy) has started to calm down, and then teleports in and demonstrates Mokuton just to make Madara's life harder when the Senju Elders start demanding answers.

His energy is very "I am here to make Madara's life harder" and Madara still doesn't know what he did wrong.

Madara: That brat has a Sharingan! Tobirama: Well THAT one has Mokuton! Obito: Yamato has it too. [angry teakettle noises]

Madara's first response to seeing Sasuke is to turn to Izuna and point aggressively at the toddler while making a tea-kettle noise "He looks just like you!" "He's four, he barely looks like anything!"

Naruto, tugging at Madara's hakama: You need to make a village with Hashirama so I can see Sasuke more often, cuz I don't wanna ditch you guys, but I gotta see Sasuke! He's my best friend! Madara, who is aware that he could fight this child but really doesn't want to, and also knows that a tantrum thrown by Naruto or Sasuke is capable of leveling mountains: Right, yes, we'll get right on that.

tbh Madara wants the village anyway but "The bijuu-whisperer said he wants it to happen" is a great way to push things forward.

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kryptsune · 3 years

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World Building Wednesday! ~Felldritch

🌼I got a request to do a WBW for Felldritch and since there have been updates to the overall world and lore I wanted to make sure this was all in a nice little package! If you have questions and want to learn more let me know the ask box is always open! So let's get started! Oh and here is a link to the fic! FELLDRITCH

Felldritch

Classification: HorrorFELL

Cult Alternate “Nicknames”:

Red: Saw Boss: Corvus

Gaster: Sephtis

Asriel: Saber Toriel: Ameria

Asgore: Kirnon

Undyne: Ryx Alphys: Vesh Muffet: Carmilla Grillby: Noire MTT: Faust

Doggo: Croix

Riverperson: Bastet (Tet)

Main Plot Synop: Felldritch takes place after a pacifist run by Frisk. The story briefly goes as follows. Frisk ends up in the Underworld (Underground) and befriends the monsters and wants to set them free. It is basically a way watered down version of WTU in essence. Once reaching the end of her journey the monsters refuse to let her be that final soul. They would rather wait and figure out something else but with her Determination she promises to return to them and set them free. At this point in time she is around 18-19. Asriel sacrifices himself to that end to see her leave through the barrier only for the humans to capture the poor girl after she leaves. They conclude that she is not mentally stable due to her insistence that monsters are real and throw her into an asylum/sanitarium to be “treated”. Nearly 5+ years later and she manages to escape finding herself once again in the Underworld only it is far different from what she remembers. At this point, she is questioning whether anything is real or not. After being “treated” for so long she doesn’t quite know which reality is the true one. As Red (aka Saw) points out:

The Brothers:

Red: The younger brother of the two. His attachment to Frisk stems into more of a relationship though he blames himself for loosing her all those years ago. This psychological state causes him to throw himself into the problem that is befalling their world. At first nothing seems to combat this intrusive forest and horrifying beasts but he learns to utilize his magic in a different way. Prior to this he is what one would think of a a Red type but after meeting Frisk he promises to not only change his heart but also the hearts of others. Instead of destructive magical ability he follows in his brothers footsteps and takes up healing practice.

In the world he is known as the merchant, the one that tends to give out healing items in exchange for coin but the bulk of his business relies on talismans or charms to ward off the evil plaguing their home. As far as they all know these magically infused charms are powerful and have incredible protective capabilities. He runs a wagon that travels around the entire Underworld.

In the current timeline he more sympathetic and empathetic. The concept of Kill or be Killed is no longer a factor. This is mainly about survival and for the most part the other monsters are aware that working together is their best option though their heightened paranoia (validly founded btw) makes it difficult sometimes. His personality is lighthearted on the surface, making jokes, and being a good guy. In a way he reminds me of Jester who tries not to dwell on what is going on but is fully aware of the situation. Red wears a blindfold in public to keep up appearances but he has no vision or eye light problems.

Boss: After Frisk’s departure from the Underworld, Boss, takes her words to heart. Unlike the majority of Fell Pap characterization he is very soft. When he feels his brother no longer needs his guidance he begins to feel purposeless until he learns that like his brother he has the magical ability for healing. As Red is the charm merchant of the two, Boss is the apothecary. His design harkens to plague doctors back in the 17th century. He grows all his own herbs and spices but he is particularly fond of tea. He also wears a blindfold just like Red but unlike Red he does in fact have damage to his left eye socket where the teal color of his eye lights no longer inhabits.

The two combined help their fellow monsters as much as they can but in a world of uncertainty how are you supposed to know who to trust?

Frisk’s Mental Demons: The psychological toll on Frisk is great as she has been told constantly that she made up her time in the Underworld in order to shut herself away into a fantasy world. A world where she had a family… where she is loved and wanted. This happens frequently as the “Doctors” continuously try to refute her experiences or sensations medically. Every time she goes to sleep in the Underworld she ends up back at the Asylum tied down kicking and screaming.

She only wakes up again when she is sedated. Rinse and repeat. The question is… is it real? Or rather which is real. The doctors go on to state that her dark state of mind twisted her original concept behind her “family” making them this eldritch styled horror. He also goes onto explain that the reason she is so drawn and close to Red is that it is her “flirting with death”. That she is accepting that outcome because if she continues to resist treatment she will die and the moment she trusts him in her “fantasy” that will be the end. These kinds of situations happen a lot.

There are also instances when the lines between real and fiction are blurred as Frisk's behavior consists apparently of defensive aggression, auditory, visual, and olfactory hallucination, acute paranoia, anxiety, and PTSD. One such example of this is her apparent psychiatrist, Dr. Cyrus Reycroft, who happens to have an uncanny resemblance to her skeletal friend if he was human.

The Beasts: Felldritch plays off Eldritch horror aka the fear of the unknown. As Frisk reunites with Red she is subjected to a rather concerning conversation in which he explains the situation they are in. He mentions having crossed into an upside down broken and colorless world which drew both himself and his older brother into. It is implied that the two stepped into a dimensional space that was able to then afflict those within their own dimension. Over time the inhabitants begin to go missing and great otherworldly hellish beasts begin appearing. The inhabitants come to the conclusion that these creatures can not afflict you with their corruption if you can not see, hear, or speak in their presence. This mindset has some rather gruesome implications as inhabitants become irrationally desperate mutilating themselves to adhere to the new "See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil”.

The Occult World: The cult as I keep referring to it as is a group of powerful monsters. After the deposition of the King the other monsters begin to become influenced by outside sources. They begin to believe that any fallen humans are the angels of death and because of this they will kill humans on sight, of course, they want to live in denial of their horrible deeds because monster souls are supposed to be made up of love and kindness. Unlike the cult that wishes to break the barrier, the rest want to stay hidden from the beasts above believing that the humans are to blame for all that has happened.

The senses play a huge roll in this idea as the beasts are rumored to be able to use souls like puppets, as in spys, if they are corrupted. It essentially becomes like a hive mind with the main entity being able to see, hear, and speak through those it comes in contact with. It’s no secret that Red is in fact infected by this entity in some form as this is a quote from the fic:

A set of antlers snagged the velvety cape as he worked the metalwork to release its hold on the material around his throat.

Bony fingers tugged on the bunched up fabric and pulled it back, revealing a charcoal grey sweater underneath. It was soft to the touch but just hidden beneath the wool she caught a glimpse of off white colored bone. There were bits and pieces that had been chipped off, knicks, and cuts. Even before they had met Red had some scars especially around his collarbone but that was not what caused her to gasp. His hood remained over his head as if using it to shield his expression from her view, “See?” He flinched when her fingers traced some of the scars.

She didn’t want to appear like she was fearful of what she was witnessing but her fingers quivered, pulling them back toward herself. A soft whimper of a voice left her, “R...Red…” There intertwined with the magically composed vertebrae of his spine were branches. The same deep blackish red wood that plagued this entire forest. It wove itself through the bone engulfing portions of his ribs, twisting it into chilling patterns. If it was allowed to continue its infestation it would crack his ribcage open in a bloodless gaping fissure. She could just make out that gentle white and crimson glow shrouded by the wood. Was that his soul? There was no other explanation.

It looked like the branches were trying to worm their way toward that glowing heart, pierce it, and absorb it into its oily black, almost pulsating bark. That was only one singular aspect of horror that she was now subjected to. Her eyes followed the trail that crept through the bone following the knots and twists that crept up and underneath where his skull attached to his spine.

The grip that he kept on her hand only tightened while the other shifted to pull the hood off his skull. Her eyes widened, reddish-brown irises wavering within a sea of white. A hand rose to land on her mouth, now agape in a silent gasp. She could see the same strange bark that comprised his antlers exited straight out of his skull. There were fractures that radiated from above the temporal portion of his cranium in concentric circles. The same kind of patterning one would see from blunt force trauma. Only this had pushed out the bone externally rather than internally. His sockets no longer contained those ever dulling carmine eye lights as her own eyes traced the hairline cracks along his head. She could not imagine the kind of pain a transformation like that would have caused him. There were places where the bone had tried to heal and suture itself back together, forming around the bark.

Angel of Salvation (a.k.a. The Eldritch Horror)- What the cult has been working toward is summoning their “savior” with the help of the human souls they are bound to. It gives them extra abilities and power. Each within the ranks is bound to a human soul. Their leader ??? wants to use this power to summon an “angel.” It turns out that is actually an unholy amalgamated eldritch beast/god out for blood instead. Humanity will perish and the monsters will take control of the surface once more. That is the reality. (The cult including Red is told otherwise).

#undertale #sans #underfell #papyrus #Felldritch #undertale au #underfell au #kits multiverse #friskys multiverse #concepts #my au #psychological horror #eldritch horror #eldritch #Saw #Corvus #cult aesthetic #Worldbuilding Wednesday AU edition

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melanielocke · 3 years

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Lost in the Shadows - Chapter 27

AO3

Taglist: @alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @foxglove-airmid @alastair-esfandiyar-carstairs1 @justanormaldemon @styxdrawings @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised@alastair-appreciation-month

Previous Chapter: Chapter 26

Next Chapter: Chapter 28

Thomas was still in the same position on the couch by the time Alastair reached him, both his parents on the other couch, carefully monitoring him. Thomas had put on a movie, and Alastair got the idea he was trying to ignore his parents, who both looked worried. Alastair found a way to sit beside him on the couch.

‘How are you feeling?’ he asked.

‘I slept for several hours,’ Thomas said. ‘Then my parents arrived and found out I was sick and pretty much everything went downhill from there. What about you? Did you encounter anything? No offense, but you kind of smell.’

Alastair made a face. ‘Thanks a lot.’

‘Seriously, what happened?’

‘A deer.’

Thomas frowned. ‘A deer?’

‘I have always been terrified of deer. Today just reminded me why. Or perhaps it wasn’t really a deer. Lucie decided to call it eldritch horror deer, which is the closest I can come to describing it. You don’t want to know more, trust me. Either way, it’s dead now, no need to worry about it.’

Ever since he’d seen his father’s memory of that monster, he’d been afraid of deer. Because that deer had looked completely normal too before he’d realized it wasn’t, and Alastair had realized anything could hide a monster.

‘So you smell of dead eldritch horror deer... It’s not so bad as after we got the skin and you had to swim through I don’t know what.’

‘This is why I don’t want to dedicate my life to fighting these things or be a hero or anything like that. Dead body parts are disgusting no matter what creature they come from and you always come back covered in gross smelly things. I’m going to take a bath. You want to join?’

Thomas turned very red, although that could have been the fever.

‘Maybe it’ll help you get warm,’ Alastair added.

He went upstairs to draw a bath, and threw in a good amount of bath foam with eucalyptus scent. Alastair loved the fresh sharpness of eucalyptus, and used many eucalyptus scented products. He quickly got into the shower while the bath was still not full, rinsing off the worst of the dirt, before inviting Thomas in and getting in the bath tub. Thomas still turned around while undressing, and Alastair politely looked in the other direction. With the amount of foam he’d used, there wouldn’t be much to see once Thomas was in the bath anyway and he understood Thomas might still be a bit awkward with this.

Thomas settled next to him, and Alastair turned on the bubbles. He tried to remember if Jem’s house had a bubble bath, but if not it needed one. He was pretty sure there was a big bathroom, at least, and as far as he remembered there was a bath tub but he had no idea what Jem had done to the place.

‘Is it alright if I lean against you?’ Alastair asked.

Thomas didn’t answer, just opened his arm and allowed Alastair to find a comfortable position leaning against his shoulder. Thomas really was warm and feverish.

‘How are you feeling?’ Alastair asked.

‘A lot better now that I’m in the bath. Still a little cold but I imagine that’ll be over soon enough. I’d slept for several hours on the couch and everything kind of hurts now. I took another two paracetamol before coming here, so hopefully they’ll start working soon. The eucalyptus scent really wakes me up though.’

‘It opens the airways,’ Alastair said. ‘Did the fever change at all?’

‘No, not really. I just took it again. It’s still around 38,5 degrees,’ Thomas said. ‘When I woke up my parents were there and I had to explain what was going on. They were kind of upset I didn’t immediately tell them I’d fallen ill and immediately started the whole routine of taking care of sick baby Thomas. Which is exactly why I didn’t tell them.’

Alastair took a hold of his hand. ‘Did you tell them why you didn’t want them to find out about your sickness?’

‘No,’ Thomas said.

‘Why not? It makes you unhappy that they are treating you this way.’

‘I don’t want to hurt their feelings,’ Thomas admitted. ‘I know they mean well, and I know they’re scared too.’

Alastair looked him in the eye. Often he forced himself to do that, make eye contact at just the right moment despite the discomfort. For a long time, he’d wanted nothing more than to be normal, and eye contact was part of that. With Thomas, it was easier. His eyes really were beautiful. The discomfort never quite went away though, so he settled his gaze on Thomas’ brow instead. People usually couldn’t tell when he was faking eye contact. It was only when he lied that he had to avoid someone’s gaze altogether.

‘So they have no clue that you hate being taken care of?’ Alastair asked. ‘You’ve never once asked them to stop and leave you be?’

‘I think sometimes they do ask if they’ve hurt my feelings,’ Thomas admitted. ‘When they’re being too protective. But in the moment, I always downplay it, I don’t want to hurt them and I understand why they’re protective.’

‘But if you want them to stop doing it, you don’t do it by hiding your sickness from them. You tell them how you feel, even if it is uncomfortable for them to hear.’

Alastair knew he wasn’t much better in that regard, he didn’t know how to deal with what he felt well. He was far more aware of what he felt than people thought, but that didn’t always mean he could explain it without feeling like he was crazy. Repressing and hiding was easier, but Alastair had learnt the hard way it made everything worse in the long run.

‘Maybe I can do that,’ Thomas said. ‘Thank you.’

‘Anytime. You had no issue telling me you didn’t like being taken care of,’ Alastair said.

‘No, I know that. I’m not sure why it’s different. Perhaps because if I tell my parents, they’ll have to feel guilty for being overprotective practically all my life, whereas you’ve never done that before. Telling you to stop would be less hurtful than it would be to tell my parents.’

‘The longer you wait, the worse it’ll get,’ Alastair said. ‘They are right to be worried, you are in danger and we’re running out of time. But that doesn’t mean they can’t change how they treat you when you’re sick.’

‘You really think that’s what this is, isn’t it? I’m going to die.’

Alastair took hold of Thomas’ hand. ‘No, you’re not going to die. I won’t let you.’

Not even if it cost him his life, Alastair told himself, but he wouldn’t say that out loud. He didn’t want to worry Thomas.

‘What else can we do?’ Thomas asked. ‘Tatiana’s gone.’

Alastair frowned. ‘Gone?’

‘My dad went into the village and asked people about her. The staff from that hotel and restaurant said she’d left, so if the plan is to go after her… We have no clue where she is. On the bright side, phones are back in order, and we’re no longer trapped.’

‘It’s not entirely true that we can’t find her,’ Alastair said. ‘Lucie did find something today, before our encounter with the monster. A locket, and a note from Jesse. How he wrote it as a ghost, I have no idea.’

Alastair’s best guess was that Jesse had grown stronger as Thomas had gotten sick, and that he could now hold things. Closer to being alive than he had been before.

‘Anyway, Lucie can summon him with the locket. Assuming he’s been around Tatiana, but I can’t imagine where else he would be. He can lead us back to her.’

Alastair knew they needed a plan, and fast. He had promised Lucie he would help her work on Barbara’s memory. So far, no success. Alastair couldn’t see dead people, and his power didn’t work on dead people. Lucie was still convinced that in between her commanding ghosts and Alastair’s access to people’s memory there was a way to witness the realm of the thief of souls. If that didn’t work, they’d have to go after Tatiana. Stopping her would at the very least save Thomas for the time being, buy them enough time to find a way to permanently defeat the thief of souls.

Grace had said he’d been a mortal once. He was not a god or a devil, or something that was meant to exist. He’d been a mortal who’d claimed a world and started stealing souls, but he was not meant to be there. Which meant he could be defeated, and Alastair was convinced that with cortana and Lucie’s magic, their chances were better than most people’s. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean those were good chances.

‘Did you call anyone?’ Alastair asked. ‘I think I should call my mother.’

‘My sisters,’ Thomas said. ‘They were both very upset. Eugenia had just gotten off her flight back from India with her friend Kamala, they’ll come here as soon as they can. Barbara’s still in Paris with her boyfriend, but she says she’s getting on the next flight.’

‘I’d love to meet your sisters,’ Alastair said.

He was nervous too, people rarely liked him, why would Thomas’ sisters? Then again, Thomas liked him, Thomas’ parents seemed to like him, so maybe he had a better chance with Thomas’ sisters than with the average person.

‘Preferably not now though,’ Thomas said. ‘I urged them not to come here, but they wouldn’t listen. I told them it would be dangerous, but they both insisted on coming and told me I couldn’t stop them.’

‘It seems the stubbornness runs in the family,’ Alastair said.

‘Dad called uncle Gabriel,’ Thomas added. ‘Uncle Gabriel tried to convince Barbara to instead come to London and watch the children for him while he and Cecily come here to help. So far, I think Barbara is insistent on coming.’

Alastair could imagine why. Even if they were hopeful, even if they had a plan, there was a chance Thomas would die. He understood Thomas’ sisters wanted to be with him in case that happened, to at least be able to say goodbye.

It was time for dinner when Alastair and Thomas got out of the bath, dried off, and dressed themselves. Thomas felt less cold, which Alastair guessed was good, but still very tired and had very little appetite. Instead of joining them for dinner, he retreated to the couch again, only eating some soup and a piece of bread. At least it was something.

Alastair had to stop himself from taking care of him. Thomas didn’t want it, he just needed some rest. Thomas put on another movie, not yet tired enough to fall asleep, and Alastair retreated to his bedroom so he could call his mother.

‘Alastair, it’s been so long since I heard from you!’ his mother scolded as she picked up.

She spoke in Farsi, and it was somehow comfortable to speak to her in her language.

‘I’m sorry, maman. A lot has been happening, and we couldn’t reach anyone outside.’

‘I think you and your sister should come home, you’re not safe there,’ his mother said.

Alastair sighed. ‘We can’t. Leaving won’t make the problems go away. Thomas needs me, and Lucie is in danger as well. Without Cordelia and her sword, neither of them stand a chance.’

‘I understand, azizam. I just wish I could know you were safe.’

‘I can’t make a any promises. But I’ll protect Cordelia. We’ll be home before you know it. Jem told us about the baby.’

‘You’re not mad, I hope?’ his mother asked.

‘No, of course not,’ Alastair said. ‘I can’t wait to meet my baby brother or sister, same for Cordelia. It is not what either of us expected, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing.’

‘I haven’t seen your father,’ his mother promised. ‘I must have gotten pregnant before we left, it was an accident, but one that I am happy about. I’ll be raising the baby by myself. Risa has promised to help, of course.’

‘I’ll be there too,’ Alastair promised. ‘The baby will have everything they need.’

‘I hope you are not angry with me,’ his mother said quietly.

‘Why would I be?’

‘Because I didn’t protect you,’ his mother said. ‘I thought you could handle it, you could protect Cordelia and we would be fine. But I was wrong, protecting you was my responsibility and I failed you.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ Alastair said and he meant it.

It wasn’t the first time his mother or someone else had pointed out she should have been there for him, should have protected him, but he couldn’t bring himself to blame her for it. She’d been a victim too, he’d told her, he’d told his therapist. Maybe she could have done better, she could have seen he was struggling sooner, but she hadn’t wanted to see. Father had told her Alastair’s odd behavior was normal, that teen boys went through times like that, and he’d believed her.

‘Still, I am sorry. I know you do not blame me, but that does not mean I don’t regret what I did. How has it been with the Herondales? I’d thought you would be happier there, but I never imagined all this would happen to you.’

‘It has been nice here,’ Alastair said. ‘But yes, also dangerous. Nothing to be done about that. I’m not sure if you’ve gotten any of my text, but I’ve been spending a lot of time with Thomas, and he’s my boyfriend now.’

‘Oh, that’s nice. I’m happy for you, joon-am.’

‘Me too. I’m just scared something’s going to happen to him. He’s gotten sick and I think he’s going to get worse. It’s not looking good.’

‘I know I never wanted you and Cordelia to run towards danger like Elias did. But if it saves the boy you love… I have faith in you, Alastair.’

After ending the phone call, Alastair returned downstairs to find Thomas had finished the movie and was turning off the tv. As Thomas closed his eyes and presumably fell asleep again, Alastair sought out Lucie.

‘I think we should give it another try,’ Alastair said. ‘With Barbara’s memory.’

‘You’re right. She’s at the Lightwood cottage, she doesn’t like big crowds and prefers to stay there. I’ll ask aunt Sophie.’

Lucie returned to the kitchen, where Thomas’ parents were doing the dishes, and Alastair returned to Thomas, who had his eyes opened once more.

‘I’m going with Lucie to see if we’re getting anywhere with Barbara,’ Alastair said. ‘If your parents are bothering you, you tell them, alright?’

‘I’m considering it. Kiss me before you go?’

Alastair obliged, leaning down to kiss Thomas on the mouth before leaving him to get some more rest.

‘Rest well, delbaram,’ Alastair said.

Alastair returned to Lucie and Sophie, who were on their way back to the Lightwood cottage.

‘I can’t stay here,’ Sophie said. ‘I cannot leave Thomas alone for too long when he’s so sick.’

Alastair wondered if he should say anything. He didn’t want to speak for Thomas, but it seemed clear that Sophie had no idea how Thomas really felt about his parents concern.

‘Thomas has gone back to sleep,’ Alastair said. ‘He said he wanted to rest, best to leave him until he wakes.’

Telling her not to worry felt wrong, so he didn’t. Thomas could die, of course she was worried. Alastair was too. He wasn’t sure what he’d have to do, to keep Thomas alive. He’d read a little about the ritual, and together with that memory of Gideon who’d once interrupted his father, Alastair knew how to summon the thief. Perhaps that was how he could be defeated, by bringing him here and then attacking him. Although if it was that simple, Alastair wondered why no one else had tried it.

‘Alright. Please tell me you have a plan,’ Sophie said.

‘We’re going to try to get information from Barbara,’ Alastair said. ‘Based on that, we figure out how to take on the thief of souls. If we need more time, Lucie will summon Jesse and find out where Tatiana is, confront her there and stop her. If she does not fulfill her end of the bargain, Jesse will not live and therefore Thomas will not die.’

Alastair was mostly certain of that. Mostly. There was a chance that Jesse was far enough gone that when Tatiana stopped, the thief of souls could once again choose which of Benedict’s grandsons he wanted, and let the other go. If that was the case, Alastair wasn’t so sure he wouldn’t choose Thomas.

‘And we want to find out how to defeat the thief of souls,’ Lucie added. ‘He is mad with me because I stole Barbara from him, so he’s going to come after me either way. Perhaps he even realized who my mother is. Not to mention I don’t want Jesse to go back to being trapped there.’

The three of them arrived at the Lightwood’s cottage. Even if with a ghost living in there, Alastair felt the little cottage with its adorable garden was welcoming. A nice place to spend the summer.

‘Show yourself,’ Lucie commanded, and Barbara appeared, sitting on the couch.

‘How have you been?’ Lucie asked.

‘I’m alright, thank you. The other ghost at your house can be a bit much, so I am happy to stay here for now.’

Alastair hoped Barbara meant Jessamine, and not another ghost he didn’t know about. As much as he was used to the supernatural, ghosts made him a bit uncomfortable, mostly because he couldn’t see them and he could never be sure he wasn’t being watched. At least Jessamine was far more prudish than he was and Alastair trusted her to turn around and go somewhere else when he was in the bathroom or changing or kissing Thomas.

‘We want to try once more to enter your memory,’ Lucie explained. ‘Are you up for it?’

‘Of course. Not much else here for me, I’m afraid,’ Barbara said. ‘I wish I could be of more help. It’s like it’s on the tip of my tongue, like a dream that slips away when you wake up and I just can’t remember.’

Alastair could imagine that was frustrating. It was hard for him to picture, not being able to remember something. Dreams could be trickier, and sometimes he lost them, but Alastair did not care much for dreams and would much rather not dream at all. Memories, however, could never be lost, he could never forget. At most he could get frustrated if he couldn’t find the right memory for certain information.

‘Can you command ghosts to be alive, Lucie?’ Alastair asked.

Lucie frowned. ‘I can’t bring people back from the dead.’

‘No, but perhaps temporarily. You can make ghosts visible, you can make them corporeal enough to touch things. All of those bring them closer to what qualifies as alive. Perhaps if you command them to be alive, they will be able to do all these things at once, even if for only a moment. And then I’d be able to access her memory.’

‘Alright. I’ll give it a try. Barbara, I command you to live.’

Alastair couldn’t see anything change, but when he tried to enter Barbara’s memory, he found it was there. She did put up a bit of resistance.

‘It’s alright,’ he said. ‘It’s just me, you can let me in.’

Barbara relaxed, and Alastair tried to search for the right memory. Usually, people tried to recall the memory, they controlled what memory was shown, not he. But Barbara couldn’t recall what she didn’t remember. He’d found ways around that, ways to bring back lost memories. When he was younger he’d tried to restore his father’s memory of a night he’d been too drunk to remember, thinking it would help. Alastair had long given up that practice though, it didn’t make a difference. He’d believed once that if his father remembered what he did while he was drunk, he would stop. He would realize how much hurt he was causing and stop drinking. But it didn’t make a difference, and his father had mostly found it inconvenient. It was easier for him to forget.

With Tessa, he’d used a different, harder strategy of searching through association, starting with what he knew ought to be there. Jessamine, the house. Tessa still didn’t remember everything, but she was getting there.

With Barbara, he took a different approach. The trick in this case was to start at the last thing someone remembered and then speed things along a little. Alastair knew the last thing Barbara remembered, which was her fight with her husband and then her death. He tried to brace himself as he asked Barbara to remember that, hoping he wouldn’t get lost in his own memory.

They managed to start the memory after Benedict stalked off into his own study and Barbara rushed to get the children. He could tell she was confused, but took the opportunity just the same, rushing through the mansion. In the distance, he could hear a baby cry. Alastair assumed that was Tatiana. Then Barbara collapsed to the ground and Alastair felt something awfully painful in his back. Blood. The spinal cord, severed. Was it Benedict, behind her, who had stabbed her? Barbara didn’t turn around, didn’t see her attacker, but it had to be. She hadn’t dropped dead when Benedict had made the deal. She’d been murdered. Because the thief might prefer spouses, but those weren’t connected by blood, so he couldn’t kill them himself.

Alastair wondered how Benedict had gotten away with murdering his wife, a knife in her back while she was at home was hard to explain away. But then he guessed it was easy for the thief of souls to make her body disappear, or use some magic to change it to resemble a suicide. He didn’t know, had not asked Gideon what he’d once believed happened to his mother. He thought that would be too painful.

She was in pain for only a little while, and then the Lightwood’s manor disappeared. She was in a forest not unlike the one around here. It was dark and cold and gloomy. Alastair could feel the chill touch his skin. Barbara looked around, taking in the environment with great care. There were others like her. People, but there was something unusual about their eyes. Alastair couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but something was not right. Those had to be the other souls. There were many of them, spread out across where Barbara could see.

‘Follow me.’

There was a woman. She looked like the others, human, but something was not right. She appeared a little more alive though, a little less broken. She seemed to be somewhat in charge here.

‘Who are you? Where am I?’ Barbara asked.

‘Follow me,’ the woman repeated.

Reluctantly Barbara followed. Alastair sped up the next part, as the walk was rather long. The woods seemed endless, which made Alastair wonder where this was exactly. In the land in between, some buildings still existed, but here there seemed to be none at all. There were souls all over though, what was their purpose? Some were doing something, carrying things Alastair couldn’t identify, working for the thief? Others wandered around aimlessly. Alastair did the best he could to take in any landmarks she passed. He never knew if he would have to navigate this realm.

At last they reached a castle. The castle the others had been dreaming about. Alastair was the only one who hadn’t dreamt and he was glad for it. Although perhaps compared to his usual dreams, nightmares about a spooky castle were an improvement.

Barbara entered the castle. Based on the gothic building style, the many sharp shapes, Alastair guessed it must have been built somewhere in late medieval time. It certainly wasn’t the style he would choose if he could live in a castle, too bleak for his taste. He’d prefer a bit more welcoming style, big windows, light and bright colors. A big private bathhouse. Old Persian style, or perhaps Roman or ancient Greek. Instead, the inside of the castle looked dreary and a bit messy. Had it been rebuilt over time, or was this an indication of how old the thief of souls was?

The woman led Barbara into the throne room. On the throne was a man with dark hair and a skin the color of paper. His eyes were red and glowing, and his head was decorated with big antlers. He’d been mortal once, so where had the antlers come from? Alastair could only say he was right that deer were scary.

‘I take it you had to walk here,’ he said.

His voice was surprisingly human, although loud and authoritative. Barbara didn’t say anything.

‘Yes, my lord, she appeared in the forest approximately seventy miles south of here,’ said the woman who had accompanied Barbara.

Seventy miles… Had Barbara really just walked that far? Alastair suspected distance was different in the land of the thief.

The red eyes glowed a little brighter. ‘Did I ask?’

‘Forgive me, my lord,’ the woman said.

She had to be one of his souls, but somehow she’d gotten a higher position in serving him. Were there more souls like this?

‘Your name is Barbara Lightwood, isn’t it?’

Barbara looked up, shaking on her feet. ‘Yes, that is correct.’

‘Barbara, Barbara… given to me by your husband. Betrayal after marriage has its use for me, but it is surprisingly common, I’m afraid. All sorts of marriages go sour and so often people have grown to hate their spouse so much they’re willing to sacrifice the soul. Still, it is an interesting sort of betrayal, a broken vow. Did you see it coming, Barbara? Were you afraid of your husband?’

Barbara was silent.

‘You are new here, and so I will be forgiving. But it does not do to ignore my questions,’ the thief of souls said, angry but calm and in control. ‘When I ask you a question, you will give me an honest answer. Do I make myself clear?’

‘Yes… Yes, sir.’

A small smile appeared on the thief’s face. ‘Alright then, Barbara. Amuse me. Did you see it coming?’

‘I… Yes. And no. I knew he was dangerous, I knew he might hurt me or the children. But I did not think any of this existed, or that he would choose me as a sacrifice.’

‘Intriguing,’ the thief said. ‘It has been such a long time since I was one of your kind. Your love, hate, betrayal. It is absolutely fascinating. What drives a husband to betray his wife to me? How much power do I need to offer, for them to stab someone they claimed to love in the back. Can any soul be corrupted? And what was the reason your husband first was unwilling to make a deal, but now summoned me and told me it was done and you could be mine?’

Alastair could not feel what someone else was feeling in their memories, not entirely. He got a glimpse of it, but little more. He could tell Barbara was horrified though, betrayed. And for the thief, it was a source of entertainment besides power. He seemed intrigued by the horrors humans were capable of, and loved to bring out the worst in them.

‘I was leaving,’ Barbara said slowly. ‘I knew my children and I weren’t safe there. He found out I was leaving, and got angry.’

The thief of souls laughed, his face bright. ‘Of course, that’s so often the cause. People are far more likely to sacrifice someone who is leaving them. Perhaps if you’d been a good wife and stayed, he would have let you live.’

Alastair tried to push down his anger, his sense of helplessness. This whole conversation was difficult to listen to, the way the thief was fascinated by the way people used and abused others and liked to leverage such situations to his advantage. The way he blamed Barbara for what her husband had done. He felt sick, and had no choice but to push away and leave. Both he and Barbara were on the couch, shaking. Sophie was sitting opposite to them, whereas Lucie looked like she was about to fall asleep.

‘Did you find what you needed?’ Lucie asked, suppressing a yawn.

‘More or less,’ Alastair said. ‘I got to see his realm. It is a huge dark forest and the souls are everywhere. Some have jobs, or I don’t know, serve him somehow. Many just wander around. And he was human once. Apparently, it’s not so uncommon for people who deal with him to sacrifice their spouse. Even if because of the whole blood connection thing, people have to kill their spouses themselves.’

Alastair didn’t want to think about the kind of people that did. No one in a good and healthy relationship woke up one day and sacrificed their partner for power. The thief said he wondered if anyone could be corrupted but Alastair didn’t think so. He imagined many had been abused before. It made him wonder, if he’d stayed with Charles, if Charles had known about all this, would he have been willing to sacrifice Alastair to get the power he wanted?

‘That sounds rather awful,’ Sophie said.

‘Not very romantic,’ Lucie added.

‘Marriage isn’t always,’ Alastair said. ‘Nor are relationships. Sometimes it’s less about love and more about power.’

‘Benedict was all about power,’ Barbara said. ‘At first, I thought he was good underneath that cold exterior. He could be so charming, but they so often are, aren’t they?’

‘They are,’ Alastair said, thinking of Charles.

‘I thought that my love could temper his moods,’ Barbara continued. ‘It was just like a romance novel, you know? Average woman meets cold but charming and wealthy man and her love changes him. I always loved those.’

‘I like love stories too,’ Lucie said. ‘But real life is not always like the stories. Sometimes someone is not who you think they are.’

‘Stupid, isn’t it? I should have known. I should have seen through his charm and his stupid lies.’

Alastair twisted his fingers, pained. He told himself that so often. He should have known Charles could not be trusted, should have known he only cared about himself. He should have known Charles was taking advantage of him. It had all been so obvious to Cordelia when he’d told her, so why hadn’t he known better?

‘It’s not your fault,’ he said instead, because he was still doing the best he could to convince himself of that. Funny how it was so much easier to believe it when it was someone else. ‘It’s his, and his alone.’

‘Being naïve or looking past warning signs doesn’t change that,’ Sophie added. ‘You deserved better. Your children did too. I hope you can find peace.’

Barbara smiled at Sophie through her tears. ‘I’m so happy my son found someone like you.’

#Alastair Carstairs #Thomas Lightwood #Lucie Herondale #Cordelia Carstairs #Thomastair #Lucelia #fanfiction #the last hours #tlh

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yellowmagicalgirl · 3 years

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memories for when morning comes

An average afternoon and morning for Claire after ae stopped the Eternal Night.

This fic was, for the most part, written to spite an asshole on FFN who was complaining about how I use ae/aer pronouns for when I decide to specify that Claire is nonbinary in a fic, as opposed to they/them or she/her pronouns. Guess what? Ae/aer pronouns were first used in 1920, and even if they weren’t that old then one should still respect pronouns (especially for real people, though if this person is complaining about my pronoun choice for a fictional wizard I worry about how they’d treat real people who use neopronouns). (The other reasons I had for writing this were my own personal gender frustrations as well as just how it’s been a while since I wrote Claire.)

Title comes from “Welcome to Wonderland” by Anson Seabra, aka a song I found on a nonbinary pride playlist ;)

This fic isn’t Wizards compliant

Content/Spoiler Warning: Isolation, hopelessness, implied/referenced self harm, and introspection on misgendering and death

AO3

FFN

Claire wrapped aer arms around aerself and winced as even through the fabric ae could feel just how frozen aer hands were. That was the problem with having small, thin fingers. Aer circulation was pretty bad in aer hands. Sometimes, when aer nail polish was chipped, Claire’s could see how the natural color of aer nails changed to a pastel blue-violet tone, as opposed to the healthy pink that aer nails were supposed to be.

Speaking of supposed to be, where was Jim? He was supposed to be here ten minutes ago. Claire fought the urge to check aer phone again. He would be here any minute now, and if he had gotten caught up in some sort of trollhunting business, he wouldn’t be able to tell aer at the time. But, ae was tempted to go find a bench and pull out aer homework. That way, ae could at least do something useful instead of just waste aer energy shivering and feeling anxious.

Ae shouldn’t be so anxious. They had saved the world years ago, and aside from the occasional goblin nest or gnome uprising there hadn’t been any problems. Jim had retrieved the stone that allowed him to walk in the daylight, and had found out that he didn’t have to actually change as much about his diet as he had planned. It was small things, like coating his salad in dressing and eating his steak rare. The supernatural world was at peace. Morgana was dead and would never be able to hurt anyone ever again. But, sadly, Claire had been diagnosed with anxiety long before ae had learned the truth about the creatures that lurked in the shadows. Ae sighed before walking over to the nearest bench. It was warm underneath the late January sunbeam. Ae pulled out aer phone, but ae didn’t check the time. Ae placed an earbud in each of aer ears, reaching up at the same time to run one of aer hands through the fade of aer hair before reaching the curly faux hawk at the top and curling aer fingers into it. Perhaps it couldn’t be considered a proper fade, not anymore, not when Claire had decided to let it grow out for the winter months so the chill wouldn’t permeate so directly into aer skull.

Claire let aerself become pulled into the loud rock music blasting from their earbuds as ae pulled out a textbook from aer backpack and began to read. Ae didn’t notice anyone approach aer until a blue, four-fingered hand stopped aer from turning the page.

“Oh,” Claire said, pulling out aer earbuds. Aer boyfriend stood in front of aer, one hand behind his back. “There you are.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Jim said. “Mom was trying to cook and, well, it was going well until the kitchen towel started catching fire. But, I have something to make up for it!” He thrust his arm out from behind his back, revealing the bouquet of violets.

“Jim, I, thank you,” Claire said, tracing the softness of the flowers.

He smiled down at aer. “Of course, anything for my handsome Juliet.”

“You wouldn’t happen to have a vase or anything, would you?”

Jim scratched the base of his horns sheepishly and opened his mouth, probably to say that no, he hadn’t planned that far ahead for their date.

And ae woke up.

All of Claire’s dreams were bad dreams. Some of them were memories, and they happened more often if Claire fell asleep in front of the haunted TV that showed all of the times that ae had been scared. Some of them were an amalgamation of horrible things that ae had heard about and things that Morgana had done or intended to do to her victims.

The worst type of dream, though, was neither of those two. No, the worst type of dream wasn’t bad when it was happening. It was a wonderful, beautiful, pleasant escape from the horrible reality that Claire had doomed aerself to. Ae would wake up in the Shadow Realm and know that Jim was dead and everyone assumed that Claire was dead as well. That their beloved friend had died to save the world. Or worse, their beloved daughter or sister.

Claire had died before ae had come out to anyone except for Enrique. It was after Jim had rescued aer brother from the Darklands, but before Morgana had taken a hold on Claire’s body and mind. Well, a stronger hold than Claire merely just using the Shadow Staff.

Ae had been alone, and ae had started talking to him. Practicing how ae’d come out to aer friends and family and boyfriend, even though ae hadn’t been ready. Enrique was the only one who knew who Claire really was, and he was a baby. He wouldn’t understand, and he wouldn’t remember Claire talking to him, and he would grow up hearing about the sister he once had who never actually existed in the way everyone thought Claire had.

(There was a possibility that there was one other person who knew the truth about Claire, but ae didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to think about how the woman who called Claire Child instead of Daughter might be doing so as a sign of some horrible mimicry of respect. Really, Claire would have rather have had aer bodily and spiritual autonomy respected and be misgendered than for Morgana to respect that Claire wasn’t a girl but then turn around and treat aer like ae wasn’t a person, just a weapon.)

Enrique wouldn’t remember his older sibling’s monologues about aer gender frustration. Perhaps it was for the best. Claire hadn’t been meaning to actually tell aer brother, or else ae would have gone to NotEnrique instead, because out of the two brothers ae had the changeling was the one who actually knew more than ten words. It was just easier to talk to a listening ear than aer stuffed animals or a mirror (and that was before mirrors were a reminder of aer trauma). It had been practice for something terrifying that Claire would never have to do. Never get to do. Hadn’t been ready to do. Ae had never gotten around to deciding upon a more specific label than nonbinary. Between the dread that came with the possibility of someone finding aer trying to do research, and all of aer responsibilities, ae had never really had the time. And of course, ae knew that their were plenty of people who didn’t want a more specific label, but ae wanted one. Ae wanted a more specific label, if only so ae could list out all the reasons and point to something that explained that Claire wasn’t the only one. And instead, ae had waited too long and no one would know.

The trolls would have probably reacted well, since trollish gender was rather different than human gender. Jim and Toby probably would have been okay with aer as well, since they had reacted well to aer being bi and they were respectively bi and pan themselves.

Mary and Darci? Back in middle school, Darci had followed Claire to a few GSA meetings but as far as Claire knew she was there as an ally. And while Claire had seen the way that Mary sometimes looked at Shannon, Mary had never done anything else to indicate that she was anything other than straight and cis.

Aer parents? Claire knew that they loved aer. Besides, they wouldn’t have thrown aer out, if only because Ophelia was a politician on the left end of the political spectrum. But, aer family was Catholic, and ae wasn’t even out to them as bisexual, and that was at least something they might believe aer on. Aer dad might even be more relaxed if Claire had a (cis) girlfriend than with any boy ae could date, trollhunter or otherwise. And if aer dad was on aer side, then maybe he could convince aer mom to accept that their child was bisexual. Maybe, considering just how many arguments Claire had had with aer mom about how Claire couldn’t be her perfect daughter. How could Claire possibly convince aer parents that ae wasn’t their daughter at all? Granted, there was the possibility that they’d be to ecstatic to care about the gender binary when Claire escaped -

No. Ae was never going to escape the Shadow Realm.

Ae slipped out of bed, undoing one of aer long white braids. It had always had the tendency to get horrifically tangled, and that was before aer magic made it so aer hair moved in an otherwise imaginary hurricane. It would tangle enough to make aer cry. Braids were easier. Braids, or short enough hair that Claire wouldn’t have to worry about it tangling, but ae didn’t trust aerself with blades so close to aer own skin.

Ae had mastered walking around aer house as silently as possible. Perhaps ae had become a shadow of aerself here. Silent, and trying not to cause a stir, not to draw attention to aerself.

Claire gazed out aer window to the dark landscape of the Shadow Realm. Morgana was out there.

Or, maybe, ae had become more of aerself here. The shadows obeyed aer will, after all. So had the Shadow Staff. Aer will, and not Morgana’s. It had been so surprisingly easy to steal away the scepter of the Eldritch Queen. Perhaps it had been seeking a monarch as shadowy as itself.

Ae hadn’t had the time for researching and trying to find the perfect label to describe their gender. Now, ae had nothing but time to think and solitude to not worry about someone walking in on aer research. Now, ae had no access to anything that could give aer answers. Ae had tried, but there wasn’t a WiFi connection in the Shadow Realm. Ae couldn’t look anything up online, and it wasn’t like there were any books in the Nuñez household to help aer find the perfect word to describe aer gender.

And yet, Claire felt that ae could call their gender a shadowy void and ae would be incredibly accurate.

A/N: Is Jim actually dead in this? Probably not; Claire is probably just making an assumption because the last time ae saw aer boyfriend he had just jumped in the way of a magical blast that had been meant to take out Claire and aer friends.

#jlaire #claire nuñez #jim lake jr #troll!jim #trollhunters #tales of arcadia #nonbinary!claire #my writing

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jaydicksummerexchange · 4 years

Text

JAYDICK EXCHANGE: SEPTEMBER 1

[ ❤ Works posted so far! ❤ ]

Apologies for the delay. It was something of a busy day in modland. Here are Tuesday’s fanworks! Please leave a comment and kudos for the author if you enjoy their work. Authors/artists will be revealed September 3rd...ISH!

WE’RE AT 105 EXCHANGE WORKS FOR 2020 WILL IT EVER STOP! All signs point to not anytime soon. Keep them coming folks!

Take your share of buckshot by anonymous for GavotteAndGigue [FIC, Teen, Major Character Death, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: justice league - Freeform, Eldritch, Heavy Angst, Hurt No Comfort, Time Travel, Gift Fic, Brief and Abridged Batfam

Summary: In which Dick and Jason must relive the worst day of Jason's history to reset the balance of his cosmically perceived unnatural existence.

The Gate Below Gotham by anonymous for stevieraebarnes [FIC, Mature, No Warnings Apply, JayDick]

Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Serious Injuries, Angst, Blood and Injury, Blood Loss, Missions Gone Wrong, Hurt Dick Grayson, Hurt Jason Todd, Emotional Baggage, Feelings Realization, Developing Relationship, Love Confessions, First Kiss, Fanart, Digital Art, JayDick Summer Exchange

Summary: Dick wakes in a cold sweat. No, not sweat. Water. It surges around his limp, aching legs—swelling, rising—and soaks the fabric of his uniform. The water is a frothy grey, smelling of storms and asphalt.

His first thought is: Jason.

Perks by anonymous for pastelfeathers and Lolistar92. [FIC, Explicit, No Warnings, JayDick]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Bodyguard, Bodyguard, NO CAPES, Friends With Benefits, Feelings Realization, Jealousy, Get Together, Smut, Blow Jobs, Closet Sex, JayDick Summer Exchange

Summary: "Let's go dooo somethiiing," Dick whines like a small child, shaking Jason's arm.

"We have to stay here until the end of the gala," Jason tells him firmly. He's used to putting up with Dick's whining. It's about ninety percent of his job after all. The other ten percent is trying to keep Dick Grayson out of trouble. Neither aspect of his job is enjoyable.

"Well I saw a closet in the hallway on our way in. We could just disappear for a little break…"

Dick's hands sneak up Jason's arm as he speaks, fingers tightening around firm muscle, and Jason suddenly finds his charge much closer, breath caressing Jason's cheek. Despite the challenges, there were some unexpected perks to this job. Unfortunately on this occasion Dick is just becoming another challenge.

Being a bodyguard for the son of a billionaire is challenging, even if it does come with the added benefit of occasionally getting to tap the best ass in Gotham. What is a poor bodyguard to do when he realizes his affections for his charge go beyond the professional or the physical? Especially when it seems Dick Grayson has tried to duck away from Jason's watch yet again, this time with another man in tow...

Trip Me Headfirst into Freedom by anonymous for Lolistar92 [ART, Teen, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Steampunk Pirates!, Gen or Pre-Slash, BAMF Jason Todd, He's the civilian but gets more action than Dick, hahaha, Civilian Jason Todd, Pirate Dick Grayson, Mercenary Dick Grayson, FanartComic, JayDick Summer Exchange, Treat

Summary: Jason Wayne, son of Lord Wayne, does not, in fact, want to inherit his father's House. Or his trading empire.

Brother, don’t go by anonymous for GavotteAndGigue [FIC, Mature, Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Bat Family, Brotherly Love, Explicit Language, Gun Violence, Dark, Angst, Violence, Graphic Threats, Non-Consensual Drug Use, drug use happens off screen, the Joker doing Joker-esque things, See End Notes for Trigger Warning Tags that could be potential spoilers, tags are subject to change

Summary: Someone's dying tonight, the only question is who.

(moon is out) we can dance amidst the silence by anonymous for GavotteAndGigue [ART, Teen, No Warnings, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Ballroom Dancing, Tango, Top Dick Grayson, Bottom Jason Todd, Fanart

Summary: Dick and Jason tango. They're very, very good at it.

No one has ever seen Jason dance in public. Wayne family members - who are either clueless or annoyingly cryptic - are consulted, articles are written, conspiracy theories are posted, and Gotham Twitter is abuzz with the newest topic. The general consensus is that he must be terrible at it. Finally fed up with all the ribbing he's been getting, Jason sets out to prove them wrong. Dick helps.

Dolce Vita by anonymous for BehindTheRobinsMask [FIC, Teen, No Warnings, JayDick]

Additional Tags: Established Relationship, Honeymoon, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Slice of Life, Sightseeing, Set in Rome, Italy, JayDick Summer Exchange, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, no beta we die like men

Summary: Red Hood put down his guns and Nightwing shelved his escrima sticks, as Jason and Dick stole away for their belated honeymoon in the Eternal City.

JayDick sightseeing Rome. That’s it. That’s the fic.

Genre-Savvy: A Novel by Jane Pyne by anonymous for solomanara [General Audiences, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/ Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Writing & Publishing, Author Jason Todd, Cover Art, for one of Jason's novels, Jason is a Rom-Com Author, He writes under a pseudonym, Jason Todd is Jane Pyne, Secret Identity, Identity Porn, Fanart

Summary: Jason is a master at juggling multiple identities. There's Jay, the street rat; Jason Todd-Wayne, the (dead) adopted son of Bruce Wayne; Robin, the (dead) Good Soldier (TM); Jason of the League of Assassins; Jason of the All-Caste; Red Hood (2.0), also known as Jason Todd; and... Jane Pyne, moderately successful rom-com novelist whose latest novel just hit the New York Times' best selling list?

This is the cover of that novel.

(you'd think) sure, he's got everything by anonymous for 3isme [ART, Teen, No Warnings Apply, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Underwater, Jason Todd Has Amnesia, mermaid jason todd, Mermaids, Gen or Pre-Slash, Mostly Gen, Fanart

Summary: Prompt from 3isme:

"Humanity escaped to settlements in the bottom of the sea after the world's skies were filled with acid rain. Humans live in clear, underwater domes connected by tunnels that can be sealed off when the ocean breaks in and floods the lives of survivors. Dick spends most of his sparse free time staring out into the ocean, wishing he was as free as the beautiful sea creatures that swim by. One of those creatures swims right up to him, separated by only the pane of the dome. To Dick's astonishment, it has the same face as Jason, someone he thought had drowned four years ago in the flood that destroyed his home."t.

Written In The Stars by anonymous for elwon [Fic, General Audiences, No Warnings Apply, JayDick]

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle Fusion, Magic, Dimension Travel, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Slow Build, Wish Fulfillment, Secrets

Summary: Dick Grayson, the wizard of Gotham city, has his fair share of secrets to keep, the biggest one being his reason for running away from his own home, his own family. Jason Todd, the only male warrior of Themyscria, only ever wanted to be by his queen's side and become the strongest warrior in his world. That was until he was sent away. Now, as the paths of these two strangers collide, one desperate to keep running and the other trying to find his way back home, the only way for their wishes to come true is if they help the wayward children, Kon-El and Timothy, in their journey

#2020 jaydick exchange #jaydick exchange #jaydick summer blues #jaydick #dickjay #dick grayson & jason todd

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death-himself · 4 years

Text

Hidden in Shadows—Remus’s Story (pt. 1)

Summary: What has Remus been doing all this time? And who let him take care of eldritch abomination children?

Word Count: 1,511

Warnings: Body Horror, Homelessness, Angst

Part 2 (AO3 Link)

Failure. What an absolute failure. The darkness wasn’t sure what to do with its creation anymore. Its creation, who had decided to go by the name “Virgil”—and what a human thing it was to want to go by such a name—was going against everything it had taught him to do. He was too weak to kill, too weak to take souls, too weak to do anything.

He acted too human.

It watched as the young monster hid in the corner of a human child’s room, bobbing his head back and forth as if listening to his own music, using a small scrap of paper and a pencil to doodle. It had been a year since the darkness had let him out of the shadows. A whole year had passed, and no souls had been taken.

No matter how much the darkness tried to guide its creation into doing what he was made for, nothing happened. He was a disgusting failure of a monster. So, something else would have to do. And so the darkness began the process all over again, feeding its hatred for humanity and desire for their destruction into a new being.

Another five year wait was ahead of it.

Remus huffed as he pulled his coat tighter around himself. Well, he had expected this to happen eventually. Granted, he had expected his mom to beat the shit out of him, but not actually kick him out. Didn’t know she would do both.

He didn’t really have any friends to turn to; he had met them all online and the closest, his boyfriend, lived a state away. He huddled down into an alleyway in a relatively safe part of town.

Where could he go? He remembered back when his dad was alive and still with his mom there was this uncle that mom had absolutely refused to let come over. Maybe Remus could try to find him?

He shook that thought out of his head immediately. If his uncle was anything like the rest of his family, he wouldn’t want Remus around, either.

He shrugged off his backpack, hid behind a dumpster, and pushed the bag under his head. Maybe he could start making his way to Emile tomorrow. Or at least call him and see if there was anything he could do.

With that thought in mind, he took a deep, steady breath, shut his eyes, and went to sleep.

Remus awoke to a sharp pain in his chest. He opened his mouth to yell, but nothing came out. He forced his eyes open, his vision blurry. What looked to be a ball of light was slowly emerging from his chest.

Remus turned his gaze up slightly to see a hand with needle-like fingers hovering above the ball. The hand was attached to a long, gangly limb, which was attached to a horrifically bony figure, which was attached to a face. The first thing Remus thought when he saw that face was Oh wow, that’s disgusting.

The left side of the creature’s face appeared to be rotting, skin torn up and seeming to bleed a black substance that dripped onto Remus’s shirt. Its eye sockets seemed to be completely hollow, with sadistic glowing toxic yellow irises coming from somewhere inside them. Its lips were split into an unnaturally wide grin that only seemed to grow wider as the glowing ball was pulled more and more out of his chest.

It was horrifying. Remus loved it. With whatever strength he had left in his body, he punched the creature in the rotting side of its face. It reeled back, howling in pain as black liquid fell from its eyes. The ball of light immediately went back into Remus’s chest, and his strength returned.

He leapt to his feet, watching as the creature continued to howl and cry. It was in pain. He noticed the shadows seem to pull closer to the creature and he quickly pulled out his flashlight, turning it on with even louder protests from the zombie-like thing.

“Go away!” It yelled. “Leave me alone!” The voice caused Remus to pause. Holy fuck it has the voice of a child. Remus looked over its body again. It looked like a five year old boy’s dead body had been pulled and stretched into a roughly five-foot tall thing.

He watched the shadows swirl unnaturally at the edge of his light. It wanted to get to the kid, maybe to heal him. But Remus had a bad feeling in his gut as he watched it; he could almost feel its ill-intent.

He kept the light on the kid as he pulled bandages from his bag, then cautiously walked over. The kid was still clearly in pain, maybe the rotting side of his face was a lot more sensitive than normal skin.

Realizing he’d need both hands, Remus put the end of the flashlight in his mouth and gently laid a hand on the kid’s shoulder.

The kid shrieked, smacking his hand away and curling in tighter around himself. “I’m not gonna punch you again, calm down!” With the flashlight in his mouth he was barely understandable, but he got the message across.

“Liar. Humans are liars.” The kid muttered.

“Well, can’t argue with that. Humans are pieces of shit, and I don’t wanna be one of those Not All Humans types of guys. We’re all pretty terrible.” He noticed none of what he said seemed to elicit a reaction from the kid. But, at least he wasn’t screaming anymore.

Remus sat behind the kid, taking the flashlight out of his mouth and tossing it between his hands. “I don’t think I’m the worst human. I mean, I can definitely list at least a hundred people worse than me. There’s Jared from my math class—it’s always a Jared—there’s Bryce, Lucas, those are just three examples and those are just people I know personally. Then there’s also some celebrities like—”

“Is there a point to what you’re saying?”

“No, not really. How’s your face feeling?” The kid looked over his shoulder at Remus, eying him for a moment before looking away.

“It still hurts.” Remus hummed, grabbing a bandaid. “Alrighty, then come here. I got just the thing.”

The kid hesitantly sat up and turned to Remus, looking him up and down cautiously, before creeping closer. Once the creature was close enough for Remus to treat, he took the bandaid and stuck it onto a healthy patch of skin, as close to the area he had punched as he could get. The kid blinked and skittered back in alarm.

“Presto changeo, and you’re healed!” The kid ran his fingers across the bandaid, eyebrows furrowed.

“Really?”

“Nah, it’s this thing called the placebo effect, works great on little kids. I didn’t punch you hard enough to cause any real damage so,” Remus shrugged, “a bandaid works just fine.” He wasn’t sure if the kid had any idea what the placebo effect was, but it seemed to be a decent enough explanation to him.

“...Thank you.” Remus hummed.

“You got any parents to take care of you?”

“Parents?”

“Oh, that’s a no.” Remus went to lie down next to the dumpster, then pat the concrete next to him. “Go ahead and stay here. I’m sure whatever the hell those weird shadows you came out of are are bad news.”

“The darkness takes care of me! It’d never hurt me!”

“Well, then do whatever you want. I won’t stop you.” Remus turned to face away from the kid, closing his eyes and listening closely.

The kid looked into the darkest part of the alley, ready to allow the shadows to bring him home.

But that’s when he felt something angry and frustrated within the darkness. He gulped, slowly backing away towards the human he had just met. He gave himself only a moment to think, before lying down next to Remus and holding tightly onto the back of his shirt.

Remus smiled triumphantly to himself and turned around to look at the kid. “Guess you’re staying with me, then?” The kid clung onto Remus’s shirt, not meeting his eyes as he nodded.

Remus ruffled the kid’s hair. “Well, then it’s good to meet ya. I’m Remus. What’s your name?” The kid glanced up, confused. “Do you have a name?”

“I don’t think so.” Remus hummed in thought. “Mind if I give you a name?”

“Okay.”

“I shall now call you...Ballsack.”

“No.”

“Lil Shit?”

“No.”

“Asshole!”

“I don’t like your names.”

“Alright, alright, fair enough. You can name yourself.” The kid went silent for a moment. Remus checked his phone, seeing just how late it was.

“Actually...let’s save that for tomorrow. Sleep on it, and all that.” He ruffled the kid’s hair again, closing his eyes. A few moments later he heard a quiet huff from the kid, and he closed his eyes as well.

Remus was now the father of a five year old demon thing at the age of fifteen. It was just like in his fanfiction.

#sanders sides #hidden in shadows #remus sanders #janus sanders #monster!janus #bogeyman!janus #you can consider him either #kid!janus #body horror tw #angst tw

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electronicdelusionstarlight · 4 years

Text

(Look, I think I’m allowed at least one (1) Skyrim problematic fave and that’s going to be this Feral Cat Lady).

And I’m going to start right off with a small fic blurb, right under the cut:

“Are we there yet?” Lucien, her new travel companion, whines for what feels is the 100th time.

She’s met (and attempted to flirt with, much to his flustered bewilderment) the young man barely a couple hours, in the aptly named Dead’s Man Drink, and while he has certainly been proven himself invaluable as the human shield she so desperately needed, deep in the hostile and dangerous lands of Skyrim, but he sure could get... testy at times, almost annoying, especially under this light, early morning drizzle.

Still, he wasn’t the most annoying thing that ever happened to her, and he promised her compensation for her troubles, the man actually believing her to be some seasoned adventurer rather than a out of her luck spellslinger, born under the wrong great house, and a recently escaped convict...

She, is Armidia Arvel. She’s a Dunmer from Cyrodil, and not even half a day ago, she was trying to cross the border onto Skyrim.

Her grandma, bless her soul, was a minor member of House Hlaalu, not important enough to warrant any real mention really, but also a Prominent member of the Twin Lamps. She helped run away slaves cross the border with her boat, in the dead of night, and used to boast all the time about that one time she had met the Nerevarine herself, before she had left the island for the mysterious Akavir...

She had managed to miss the death of their great house by a slim margin, out with granny and dad in the Imperial Province when the gates opened, forced to settle there, in Bravil, after... all the mess that had come to their motherland, the red year, the invasion, the crisis, the purge...

Still, here she was now, born from a family of merchants and politicians, under the sign of the mage. They had tried to have her get a trade, maybe become a jeweler, forging rings and necklaces to sell to the highest bidder, settle down, but she’s always been restless, Armidia, wanting to explore new places, find new knoweldges, meet new people...

No matter how wrong they might be for her.

She sighs, tolerating her new... friend, she assume, dad always said someone should always treat everyone as their friend as long as they don’t lose that right via their actions, she can almost hear him parrot it again...

In fact, she is hearing him parroting it right now, that bastard hasn’t shut up ever since he died during that blasted great war, serving in the 8th legion, as do all of her blasted, bloody ancestors, day and night every day since she turned 8 droning on and on and whispering and SCREAMING and deafening her with their pleas and suggestions and orders and judgement for her choice of profession, a lowly mage, not even allowed into the Fetchers’ university, like some Telvanni rubble, her choices in life, her voyage onto the land of their ancestral enemies, judging, screaming, whispering, overloading her with their chatter their memories their hopes dreams fears hate love-.

Dunmers are supposed to revere and venerate their ancestors. She, on the other hand, can’t help but curse them, the bastards.

She mumbles, hand to her head as she can feel yet another headache coming. Lucien doesn’t seem to notice, but her new dog is. The small pupper, Styx, a being out right from a conjurer’s worst nightmare, budges against her leg with a soft whine, worryingly looking up her master with the bright, pleading stars she has for eyes. She attempts a smile, the soft, shadowy doggo momentarily drowning Her Ancestors’ whining with her mere presence, soothing her a little.

She had met the eldritch beast near the Lover’s Stone, her master’s corpse nearby, surprisingly docile as she approached her, as if she was waiting for her all along, soothing her with her very presence, dampening her Ancestor’s voices to a managable level... She had to keep her with her, no matter how big she migtht one day grow.

She had been en route from the ruins of Helgen, the place destroyed after a creature out of legends struck it down right as she was passing through it, in the middle of some sort of execution of some dissidents or something.

(she didn’t really care about it, politics and criminals had never been her forte really, much to her grandmas and her dad and all those other fetcher’s horror.

Mom understood tho. She used to anyway, before she died with her father and the 8th legion, leaving her with her heartbroken, demanding, yet loving Grandmas, still alive down south in their home in Bravil...

The only one of her blasted ancestors she wanted to hear, her mom, at least one last time, and she refused to talk, as if she wasn’t there to speak to her in the first place...)

She was just passing through, minding her own business, when a blasted DRAGON attacks the place, scanning the crowd of onlookers, watching the execution, for something or someone...

She was probably one of the few that survived the whole mess, if with a few burns and scraps. Not that she’s complaining really, she managed to meet some hot guy in uniform after all, even ended up meeting his family, she thinks his name was Hadvar, a bit naive, but definitely a catch, helped him fight a bear too, before leaving for her trip to Falkreath’s shrine of Arkay...

(Her hope was the local priests knew of something to keep the blasted ancestors at bay. No such luck unfortunately, and she ended up getting even tasked with fetching the head priest’s journal for him and witnessing a funeral, the whispers loud and bloody clear all the time)...

She shakes her head, Her grip on reality finally in check thanks to the cute yet slightly terrifying puppy, the whispers momentarily subsided, she looks up, their next destination now in sight.

It’s a dilapidated Nord Tower. The inn keeper at Falkreath had indicated it as a possible place of interest, and she had been planning to go there, snoop in in case it contained some loot or some spell tomes to upgrade her frankly subpar collection of spells, before leaving the hold and taking off toward the next destination in her trip, Riften, where a family friend was supposed to live, a member of house Dreth if she remembers correctly...

Lucien comments on the architecture of the place and she ignores him, the whispers blessedly murmured, as she circumspectly enters the tower. Grass and vegetation as overrun the place, claiming it for its own, and the structure has collapsed ages ago. A chest is standing against a far wall, a severely decayed skeleton corpse resting at its bottom, his armor miraculously intact. Her ancestors whispers grow louder for a second, muttering something about “The Sly” meeting his end, before her eyes lie on the huge, heavy shield, a complicated design engraved onto it.

That thing will fetch her a pretty fortune, she thinks, despite everything still a Hlaalu in blood and flesh, and for once she can feel her Ancestor’s approval at her greed, her desire to gain... Money...

Lucien is in tow, his eyes widening at the shield, as if he’s recognizing it from one of his dusty books, but she doesn’t care, she puts a step forward, eager to get her hands on her prize... only to trip on an upturned root, going face down on the grassy ground with a hump.

Styx yips worriedly behind her, waiting outside the door, and Lucien bumbles his way toward her fallen form to help her back on her feet... Only for the slow, deliberate sound of a blade being drawn to cut the whispers, like a knife through butter.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” A voice says, with a accent similar to the ones the Khajiit in Bravil used to have, and she looks up from her heap on the ground, Lucien frozen in his tracks behind her as he stares in horror, at the armored Khajiit woman now standing between her and the chest, the shield, her sword, so particular in design,help aloof atop her shoulder...

She lowers it toward her chin, slowly tipping the blade against it, not hard enough to draw blood, but forcefully enough to get her head tilted upwards

“Two lost little fools, eager to fall to their doom? Did the Thalmor send you to rat me out, or did you simply wish to... lose your life by my blade?” She humphs, a strange look in her eyes as she tilts away her blade from her prey, leaving her wide eyed on the ground, staring up at her, “Well, I’m not interested. I’m not going to butcher either of you, you are not worthy of my steel, too green, too... weak, killing you would make me no batter than those puffed up fools, wishing to kill the great white stag for some foolish concept of... glory, pfah”

Armidia stares up at her, her voice lost, the whispers, the judgement, they are still there, but is getting drowned out by something within her, something strong, floating into a mindset and a void within her she had never felt before, as she looks up at the dangerous, definitely murderous khajiit, giving her a cocky, self reassured grin, as if she was the strongest swordwoman in the entire world and she knew it too.

Armidia gulps, her throat suddenly dry, as her life is spared with the cock of the Khajiit’s brow, one thought finally crashing and burning into her mind, stronger than Red Mountain’s fire, louder than the screams of her ancestors, giving her one, terrible, absolute command, to fulfill, or die trying...

“I must get rawed by this cat be it the last thing I do.”

#skyrim #interesting npcs #3dnpc #S'vashni #dragonborn #eh #elder scrolls #tes #tes fic

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vexie-chan · 5 years

Text

Mortal Choice

Cadceus Clay has prayed for his friends before. The Wildmother listens.

Spoilers for ep65

Her Clay is cold and wet and miserable. But that is only the first part of his prayer. The Wildmother cannot help but smile as she listens to him murmuring over the vegetables he’s chopping for a nice, hot soup.

“It doesn’t seem to be a very good relationship,” Caduceus says, shaking his head. “This Uko’toa person seems like a tough customer. I know…I know you all have different relationships with your followers. But this can’t be right, can it? Everything about these temples seems unnatural.”

Young Caduceus’s mind’s eye recounts images of the horrible drowned things he’d faced below the sea. The Wildmother watches thoughtfully. It’s true, Uko’toa is not one of her favorite beings. After all, he’d been locked up for a reason. If it was meant to be that he was freed, so be it, but it would mean the scales would tip toward death and destruction for a while. Enough of that is occurring with the wars and sicknesses in the lands at present.

Still, it is not her place to intervene.

Caduceus sighs, laying down his spoon for a moment. He closes his eyes as if he feels the same resignation she does.

“I guess this isn’t really any of your business,” he says. The Wildmother smiles.

“You’ve looked out for me—even though it’s been…it’s been pretty bad, I know you’re there. That’s why I’m still here, I think,” Caduceus continues, his voice becoming unsure.

My sweet boy, the Wildmother thinks. It’s been good for him to leave the Blooming Grove. He has things she would like him to accomplish, but she also wants him to learn more about the world and the things in it. It’s good for him to question his faith—Caduceus has always been an unquestioning follower when he should really question things more. It pleases the Wildmother that he is asking questions and having doubts. The youngest Clay is growing up.

“I don’t know if it’s something in your purview or not, but if it is, could you keep an eye on Fjord? He’s…he’s a good guy. I don’t think his patron is treating him very well. I don’t know much about any of this stuff about pacts and agreements, but I do know this isn’t a very healthy relationship. If there’s anything you can do, I think he’s going to be a good person in the end, if he could just get away from this Uko’toa character,” Caduceus says.

This surprises the Wildmother. The Clay family have been faithful worshippers of hers for generations, but never evangelical. That is not how she wants her worshippers to be. They do their part and tend to her gardens and defend the balance between life and death. The Clays respect the worship and custom of all the other gods. They are well studied and well versed in those that require specific burial rituals or other death rites. Young Caduceus is the first in many generations to question the worship of another being.

The Wildmother reaches out curiously. His heart is full of concern for his friend. He has truly come to care for these people.

I will watch and see, the Wildmother thinks. Caduceus smiles into his soup, relief tinging the edges of his aura. He felt her, then. He always was a sensitive boy. Her Clay.

She watches, acquiescing to Caduceus’s prayer. For a short time, the Wildmother thinks Uko’toa has let Fjord go. The Mighty Nein make their way to the shore and travel further and further inland. The Wildmother watches, but they seem to be safe.

It’s late one night—her attentions are mostly elsewhere—when she sees black tentacles reach for Fjord’s consciousness. She sees them writhing from the corner of her eye. As she turns to watch, a chill shudders through her celestial self. The tentacles wrap themselves around Fjord’s sleeping mind, filling his aura with fear and dread.

The Wildmother hesitates. It is not her place to intervene, but she recalls how Caduceus was concerned about this relationship. He was right—it does not look healthy or natural. Uko’toa’s dark tentacles drip with a sickly green power as he threatens his chosen vessel. He isn’t strong enough to do very much yet, but mortals are weak and Fjord is not left undamaged.

This will not do. Yet…what can be done? The boy entered into a pact with that unsightly being. It is not the Wildmother’s place to intervene. The rules are very strict. The gods should not fight over each others’ followers, but accept their coming and going with grace. Once, they fought for the worship of certain mortals. They destroyed each other and the mortals in the process. No more.

The Wildmother watches Fjord wake up terrified with a frown on her face. She never did like Uko’toa.

Caduceus’s second prayer for Fjord comes at the request of his friend Caleb. The Wildmother, of course, had seen the things that transpired between Fjord and his patron. She likes their relationship less and less. Her heart went out to the half-orc as he stumbled into the rain, clutching his lifeless sword, reaching for a power that had been rescinded.

This is wrong, the Wildmother thinks, anger boiling in her like a geyser ready to blow. She’s become fond of her Clay’s friends. They’ve taken good care of him. Misguided as these Mighty Nein are, they do the best they can. She doesn’t like seeing one of them tortured by the being he’d trusted for so long. Nor does she approve of a higher being treating his mortals so poorly.

The human wizard had watched carefully, feigning sleep. He watched Fjord through his eyelashes, eyes mostly closed. Fjord had been too frightened to notice. Caleb watched him fail to send his sword away, fail to cast. He watched as Fjord slipped out of the room, then sent his fey creature to watch as he tried to reach for that missing magic in the streets.

Caleb woke early to find Caduceus, always an early riser. Now, they face each other over a cup of tea.

“You…you have roomed with Fjord often on our journeys,” Caleb says hesitantly.

“I have. Why?” Caduceus says.

Caleb leans in, dropping his voice to ensure no one is listening.

“Have you noticed whether he is getting more dreams from…from his patron?” he asks.

Caduceus frowns.

“I wouldn’t say more, but he seems unhappy when he gets one, now, doesn’t he?” he replies thoughtfully.

“I think he is being punished for walking away before he could free him,” Caleb says. “He woke last night unable to cast. His falchion was still laying on the bed this morning. I don’t think he can send it back to wherever it is usually kept.”

Caduceus lets out a sigh that might be a partial growl. He shakes his head.

“I don’t like that Uko’toa,” he says. “He’s bad news, Mr. Caleb.”

“You are…a man of the cloth. Is there any way to get Fjord away from his god? Can he break his geass? Can your Wildmother protect him?” Caleb asks.

The Wildmother smiles at that. Caleb, the broken, faithless boy is always willing to support the faith of others. He believes in nothing, but knows enough to understand that his beliefs have nothing to do with anyone else’s.

“I’ve asked. I don’t really know how all that works…I don’t know if she’s allowed to interfere with what other gods are doing,” Caduceus says. “It won’t hurt to let her know what’s going on, though. Maybe she can do something for him. ”

“I hope so,” Caleb says. His aura is always gloomy and worried, but his concern spikes a bit for the sake of his friend. “I do not think it will bode well for any of us if that fiend comes for vengeance. Especially not Fjord”

“No, I think you’re right,” Caduceus agrees. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Danke,” Caleb says.

Caduceus asks for her help later that day.

“I don’t know what you can do, or what you’re allowed to do, or if you’re even interested,” Caduceus says. “But you’ve taken care of me, more than I deserve. If there is anything you can do for Fjord, please do it. This thing…it’s not good. And we need him. He’s part of our team, and he’s a good friend.”

The Wildmother sets a part of herself to look at the geass keeping Fjord bound to Uko’toa, and keeping Uko’toa bound in his prison. For days, she studies both.

“You know, you do have options, sister.”

The Wildmother turns to find the Raven Queen smirking at her.

“I’d like to crush him in the deep waters he loves so much,” she replies.

“And perhaps you will get that chance. For the time being, why not take the boy under your wing? If it’s bothering you so much,” the Raven Queen says.

“I’m not about to steal someone else’s chosen as my own. I don’t play that kind of game,” The Wildmother says sharply.

“Who said anything about stealing? Don’t underestimate the power of mortal choice. You can always ask nicely…if the boy chooses you over his eldritch beast, it’s all fair game,” the Raven Queen says with a shrug. “Mortals change their hearts on faith as quickly as the weather changes. That’s hardly your fault.”

“You make it sound so easy,” The Wildmother says with a shake of her head. “The balance—”

“It is easy. Choice is as natural as it gets, sister. All you need to do is open a door. Whether he walks through it is up to him. You’ve disrupted no balance. But Uko’toa will if he breaks free again,” The Raven Queen says. She turns to leave. “Think about it, sister.”

The Wildmother frowns, watching her go.

A choice…

Her Clay is angry with her. He does not like to be told no. He does not like being told that some problems are too big for him to fix. She loves him none the less for it, staying near as he closes his communication with her like a child slamming the door.

Perhaps if she had not been so close anyway, she would have missed the black tentacles reaching for Fjord.

Open a door.

The Wildmother touches the consciousness of the half-orc. The cracking of Uko’toa against his binding is muted as she opens a door, filling it with as much light and love and life as she can.

Fjord’s eyes widen as her emerald light touches his face. He leans into the light as if it were a caress.

“Come with me, child.” She can’t help but whisper the words to him, reaching out.

He’s mesmerized. At a glance, she sees the child-Fjord’s dreams of a mother’s plea just like hers, longing to be called to a place he can call home, longing to be loved by a mother. He moves toward her, arms outstretched.

Uko’toa pulls back, but Fjord breaks free. The Wildmother pulls him into her embrace, letting vines sap the water from him, warming his clammy skin in her arms.

“This womb I grant, but withers without faith. His wielder shall find you again,” she warns. She can protect him so long as he chooses her, but Uko’toa won’t let go that easily. Even now, the beast rages against her, fighting to pull Fjord back to him. Behind bars, he’s not strong enough to strike her down, but the walls encasing him are becoming thin.

Fjord doesn’t reply, but stares at her in awe and admiration. The Wildmother looks down at him and smiles gently, flooding him with feelings of warmth and safety.

“His will shall find you again, but until it does, rest,” she murmurs, embracing his small, mortal form.

The relief on the half-orc’s face as he falls into a restful sleep makes her heart ache. How long has it been since he had found peaceful rest? She should have offered this to him sooner.

When he awakes, the WIldmother watches as he fights with renewed strength and confidence. He marvels at the warmth of his magic now that she is watching over him.

Don’t underestimate the power of mortal choice, the Raven Queen had said.

“I will protect you as long as I can,” the Wildmother promises, knowing he can’t hear her. “My orphan boy.”

#critical role #critical fanfic #cr spoilers #caduceus clay #fjord #the wildmother #vexie writes fanfic #i will probably revise for aO3 in the next few days

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queenofbraces · 6 years

Text

WIP Meme (Super long post)

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or as little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on.

This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, fanwork, or original work!

Okay, so since @the-ghost-of-keith-kogane tagged me for the WIP meme (First of all: how dare u call me out like this D:< ) let me tell you about all my 2 dozen WIPs. (Almst none of which have any real writing *sob*)

VOLTRON

-Initial Exposure: Keith gets exposed to some funky Druid magic and gets turned into a shapeshifter of the body horror kind. Klance, maaaaybe Klunk depending on my mood. Angsty but also a happy ending planned

-Real!Shiro AU. Pretty much another story dealing with the fact that the Shiro we're seeing isn't the real Shiro. Gotta fix it so it’s not just another rehash. Kinda whumpy. Shatt probably. Angsty

-Steven Universe Crossover: What it says on the tin. A wormhole leads the Castle and its crew to the Steven Universe world. They all chat and relax. Silly and without much plot. Just wanted to see the two half-alien boys with a sword and a lion meet.

HARLOCK/ COSMO WARRIOR ZERO/ GUN FRONTIER

-Eyes of the Arcadia: Harlock gets badly injured and Tochiro/The Arcadia takes over his body until Harlock can be healed. Tochiro gets to interact with the crew properly for the first time in years.

-Eldritch Abomination Harlock: CWZ. Short Zero/Harlock story where Harlock wants to date Zero and decides to give Zero a quick peek of what he looks like.

-Too Many Harlocks: Started out as a semi-serious idea, but I like the OOC/cracky direction it's headed in instead. An accident with the nearly-complete Arcadia sends CWZ!Zero and CWZ!Harlock to the Gun Frontier where they meet that universe's Harlock and Tochiro, as well as Shinunora. Then they go to the Endless Odyssey universe slightly post-series. CWZ!Harlock hates everyone and pretty much complains the whole time. (Let the man just shoot his other selves, please.) Having a lot of fun imagining this one. Not really familiar enough with any other Harlock series to include them, and those I am vaguely familiar with aren't distinctive enough to include

BLACK JACK

-Two-toned Demon: Magic AU where Black Jack is thought to be some demon or other monster. Not sure yet if it's more Medieval or Modern fantasy. KuroKei. Started because Pinoko would pretty much be a homunculus of some kind and it kind of spiraled off from there. Still also have to work up a full magic system. Will include some of Black Jack's family.

-Autistic!KuroKei fics: What it says on the tin. I was in need of autistic interpretations of these two so I'm working on some. Pretty self-indulgent and yeah, their being autistic is the main point of the stories but sometimes you just want that. (Message me and I will talk for hours about this topic no joke)

-From One Surgeon to Another: Crossover with Franken Fran. Black Jack and Pinoko run into one of Fran's creatures she made for a client. Pinoko's fine but Black Jack is injured badly enough to require emergency treatment. Fran includes some free "upgrades" and Black Jack must deal with the emotional consequences of them. Maaaaybe KuroKei, dunno yet.

-Story where Yabu, Okamoto, and Kei decide to catch up with Black Jack. Okamoto brings Konomi (because apparently I ship them now???). Yabu got clean, got married, and has two kids. Okamoto and Konomi are engaged. Kei is still single and Okamoto tries to set him up with Black Jack in part because Okamoto knew Kei in school and knows how much he still likes Black Jack. It works. Kind of a 'California Café' type of fic but eh. Can't all be exciting. :P (though in one version Black Jack gets shot because 'Black Jack gets injured' is a favorite trope of Tezuka's and quite frankly mine too)

-Story where Black Jack is unknowingly sent to treat Kei's mother. Kei comes after his father finally sends for him (Kei's parents didn't want to worry him) and finds out Black Jack is treating his mother. Black Jack and Kei reveal their relationship, much to the surprise and delight of Kei’s parents. Kei's mother is cured. Black Jack and Kei get engaged. Possible sequel where Black Jack saves Shoren's newborn, and the two start to reconcile. (This would be a fix-it of sorts of BJ21.)

DOCTOR WHO

-Eldritch Abomination Doctor/Doctor Nyarlathotep stories: I have a bunch of different ideas for this, so I'm not sure which direction it's going currently. Definitely includes one where Jenny is half-meatsuit/lower plane being, half Eldritch Abomination.

-The adventures of Spoonie!Doctor and Spoonie!Clara. Fairly self-indulgent fic where the Doctor has arthritis and Clara has fibromyalgia. Pretty much for getting out my frustrations and feelings about being Chronically Ill.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

-Dead Sonic!AU. Sonic Forces AU where Sonic dies at Eggmkan's hands and effectively becomes a Phantom Ruby- and Chaos Emerald-powered ghost. One version involves him being aware he's dead but he keeps it a secret until Infinite is defeated and he destoys his Phantom Ruby shard. The second version involves Sonic finding out he's dead much later. Overall angsty and sad.

-Mephiles!Infinite AU. Sonic Forces AU where Mephiles has broken away from one universe where Iblis was destroyed, and into the Forces universe, where he wasn't. Infinite the Jackal is actually Finn, a normal Jackal and head of the Jackal Squad, a band of mercenaries. Finn is friends with Gadget. Mephiles takes on Shadow's form and fights Infinite, later taking on Finn's form and bonding with the Phantom Ruby to become Infinite. Possible Infidget once I figure out their relationship better lol.

-Sonic Unleashed/Sonic X crossover. Sonic attempts a Chaos Control at night using a drained Chaos Emerald. He ends up in the Sonic X universe amd tries to get home. Ultimately silly and light-hearted. Seriously tempted to place this a tad before the Shadow Saga. SU!Sonic takes one look at the TV where footage of Shadow is being shown, and says, "Hey guys, I'm gonna be back in a bit. Gonna save Sonic some jail time and the rest of you like 2 weeks of time and effort." And then he just solves the entire damn thing by talking to Shadow lol.

-Silent Chronos: Started life as a Sonic '06/Silent Hill crossover, hece the working title which hasn't chaged in like...10 years. Pretty much, when Shadow and Silver go to the past and encounter Mephiles and Iblis' birth, Mephiles' power alters and corrupts the Soleannan labratory. Most everyone is turned into monster, with the exclusion of Shadow and Silver. The monsters started out largely symbolic, but all need to be redesigned something awful. Still haven't figured out much of the plot which is why it's been on the backburner for forever.

ORIGINAL WORKS

-Farron Base: If John Campbell's 'The Thing' were nice. A group of scientists go to explore an abandoned military base and research how the flora and fauna have settled in. They find the base in remarkable condition, with a huge variety of mutated, monstrous creatures. Most are fairly friendly and some are even intelligent. The base's protectors are Nigel and Jay-Myalia (names changed later), who are intelligent, benevolent shapeshifters of the body horror kind. Again, see John Campbell's 'The Thing'. Features actual scientists (!), none of whom are cishet, and one of whom is explicitly autistic. Still not much of a plot yet :///

-Shalkrei: This started back in middle school, so at least 14 years ago, as a Sonic AU. It was my SpIn for a while, and it got huge and complex. Currently doing some pruning. It involved 'demons', magic, ancient civilizations, and furries. Also had at least one parallel universe with different species and rules.

Holy shit this got long, sorry

Tagging @Elumish, @chocolatcoffees, @Sonic-the-tumblog, and anybody else who wants to do it since I don’t follow that many writers

#text #super long post #wip meme #voltron legendary defender #sonic the hedgehog #black jack manga #space pirate captain harlock #cosmo warrior zero #gun frontier #actuallyautistic #Monster shapeshifters like the thing are practically a SpIn in and of temselves lol #SpIn #I have worked on this for too long out into the void with you

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the-great-black-hat-manor-blog · 7 years

Text

About Black Hat and Co.

Name: Black Hat/Unknown

Age: Unknown/Immortal/Eternal

Gender: Goes by he/him

Species/Race: Unknown; claims to be an eldritch god

Sexuality: Demi-Panromantic/Asexual; Prefers platonic cuddles for intimacy. Does like to bite, scratch, and lick though. Will also use vore as a form of intimacy as well. (Don’t ask. Eldritch Gods have weird ways of showing affection)

Abilities: Unclear/Too many to list; “Think of your worst fears and nightmares, the most unpleasant horrors and the most terrifying blasphemies; Because all this is nothing compared to what I can orchestrate.”

Family: @sisterhat, White Hat (brother)

Relationship Status: Currently has a “mate” named Gen(Zelda Noitare) living with him within the manor.

Black Hat is a self-proclaimed eldritch god, though, from the power he has shown, no one doubts his claims. He is the Supreme Villain, having conquered the world several times over along with countless dimensions. He has also said to have destroyed the same number of dimensions though the only known fact to be confirmed is that he has destroyed a planet. Growing bored of having no challenge from taking over worlds, he decided to settle down and start his business, Black Hat Inc, on earth. Why earth is still unknown.

At parties, he is described to be polite and gentleman-like, especially towards women. He can be seen complementing them, kissing their hand with a bow. When talking business, he is said to be calm and collected... most of the time, always having an answer to everything. Outside of such things, he is described as being manipulative, sadistic, despicable and utterly disgusting. He will not hesitate to hurt you.

However, this statement is being tested as the overlord has seemed to have found himself a mate. He is said to be protective and possessive over her, not allowing anyone to lay a hand on her unless he knows them personally. It is unknown if this girl could be the perfect weakness or the perfect strength for the monster.

Name: Flug Slys

Age: 24

Gender: Goes by he/him

Species/Race: Human/Unknown

Sexuality: Asexual/Bisexual; has never been in a relationship and is unsure what he would like. He is willing to try things though. If he comfortable with it that is.

Abilities: Unknown/Extremely High IQ; Claims to be the greatest mad scientist in the multiverse. Is considered a highly dangerous criminal.

Family: Unknown; has a cousin that goes by Slug.

Relationship Status: Non

Not much is known about Flug. Very few have seen his face under the bag he wears over his head except for the residence of Black Hat’s manor. He is a brilliant scientist who’s nervousness sometimes causes his creations to not work as expected, resulting in presentation failures. Flug Slys name means 'aviation accident' or 'plane crash' in Icelandic and has also obtained his driver's and pilot's license. When not in the presence of Black Hat, he is known to be very egotistical and prideful. He also is known to be short-tempered around Demencia and is easily annoyed by the “crazy lizard girl”. He can also be extremely sassy or salty at times, especially when one claims they have a higher intelligence. He considers himself 505′s dad though the bear seems to think of him as his mother despite Flug proclaiming himself as “daddy”... Flug has committed 82, 602 crimes and has had his private and commercial licenses revoked because of his crimes. He is considered a highly dangerous criminal, a runaway, and he’s been accused of many violations. These include Falsification and identity theft, stealing planes, not following the aeronautical code, producing fissionable materials, destroying a plane in service, transporting explosive materials, stealing classified documents, etc. Although he respects his boss for finding a mate, he seems to have a distaste for the unusual couple. Especially since one of their main rules to villainy states an overlord should not have a love interest of any kind! And yet his boss, the Supreme Villain of Villains, has suddenly found himself bewitched by this.. inferior creature. What was so special about this young girl anyway? She wasn’t even villain material in the slightest...

Name: Demencia

Age: 18

Gender: Goes by she/her

Species/Race: Human-Gecko Hybrid/Unknown

Sexuality: Unknown; she seems only interested in Black Hat

Abilities: Superhuman strength, can climb on walls and ceilings, use many forms of weapons, lizard-like abilities, etc.

Family: Unknown

Relationship Status: Non but self-proclaims herself as Black Hat’s girlfriend

Demencia is Black Hat's crazed fan and assassin. Her outfit is inspired by reptiles and she has a love for destruction. She resembles a lizard when she crouches down because of her hair covering her body. She is able to play the electric guitar and love to play in Flug’s lab just to get on his nerves. Besides Black Hat himself, Demencia is also known to play pranks and cause mischief around the manor. Especially when 505 is trying to do housekeeping. He seems to be the main target of her crazy antics.

She is well aware of the new girl that seems to have tickled Black Hat’s fancy but that won't stop her! Black Hat will come to see that this girl is no match for him and will eventually eat her for good! After all, she’s one of those lower races of hybrids. Not genetically enhanced like Black Hat’s #1 fan~! She can’t even bring herself to hurt a fly! What kind of villain is that?!

Name: 5.0.5

Age: 3 or 5 in bear years

Gender: Goes by he/him

Species/Race: Genetically Enhanced Bear

Sexuality: Unknown; He’s a baby bear leave him alone

Abilities: Night Vision/Unknown; Unless giving bear hugs count as one.

Family: Flug Slys and the rest of the crew

Relationship Status: Non; because he’s a baby bear

505 is the organization's failed experiment that is unable to be killed. He was intended to be an evil creature however, he instead became very loving and kind creature, the complete opposite of Black Hat. He enjoys hugging his friends and love to draw doodles which he tries to show to Black Hat. He is a big blue bear with a single flower sprouting from his head that wilts and grows based on his emotions. It closes when he is asleep and falls apart when under extreme stress. He seems to be the organization's housekeeper and likes to wear a maid outfit while doing his cleaning. He sees Black Hat as his father and Flug oddly enough as his mom despite Flug calling himself 505′s “dad”.

505 enjoys the new girl and already accepts her as part of the family. She even complements the drawings he gives her! He knows Black Hat seems to like having her around so maybe their really good friends! Either way, he is happy to have a new face around the manor~.

Name: Gen Zelda Noitare

Age: 21

Gender: Goes by she/her

Species/Race: Human-wolf Hybrid/ Lobian

Sexuality: Asexual/Straight; loves to cuddle, snuggle, huggle or just sleep on top of someone she trusts

Abilities: Can take the form of a giant blue and white wolf the size of a large school bus (maybe bigger), a regular sized adult wolf, or a wolf pup depending on her emotional state. She possesses some ability to heal others but is capable of seeing other’s dream and possible memories by touching her hands to their head. She has amazing target aim yet she refuses to harm anyone.

Family: Unknown; was abandoned in a street ally 3 weeks after she was born.

Relationship Status: Is currently Black Hat’s so-called “mate” and has been living with him within the manor for quite sometime

Gen is part of a race of human-wolf hybrids known as Lobians. They are very close to the human race in both DNA and appearance, minus the wolf ears and tail they possess. Throughout the history of the human race, they were hunted in their wolf forms for their fur. The fur of the Lobians is considered one of the softest natural wolves furs known to earth. It was considered highly valuable not only because of the many colors they came in but also because of how durable it was. The fur was thick for warmth but still retained that extra softness to it. Think of the softest stuff animal you have touched or held before. That is how their fur feels or better.

They were not limited to one country or continent as they could be found wherever wolves were in the world. They were also the cause for the so-called “werewolf” sighting and attacks throughout the world. It is unknown when this race first appeared but the earliest encounter recorded was believed to be in Greek mythology where Zeus cursed Lycaon and his sons into wolves for serving him a meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy. The public did not know of their existence until the early 20th century and it wasn’t until the mid 20th century, 1966, where rights were passed for them in America to be seen as American citizens. Soon the world followed, yet most people treat the Lobians like animals or see them as an inferior race.

Gen was no exception. After her mother gave birth to her, she was so disgusted she left Gen in a cardboard box in an ally after being born only a few months at the time. It is unknown if her mother knew who her father was or not. Gen was later found and placed on the doorstep of a foster care. Because it was frond upon to have a Lobian as a child, no one wanted to adopt her. She always woke up hoping someone would come to take her in. Someone had to adopt her at some point, right? But as the years went by, she slowly started to realize she was never going to be adopted.

She grew up in the foster care all her life. She dealt with bullying in all those years, especially after turning 18. Yet despite this, she remained kind-hearted and sweet in the face of her bleak life.

Sometime after her 20th birthday, it finally hit her she was never going to understand what having a family was, what being loved by a family felt like. Later that night she had a break down in her room, hiding it from everyone when she finally re-emerged. Though, when she was leaving her room, a few of the teens there saw her and begin to poke fun at her saying "We just got adopted today by our new families. How about you? Oh wait, that's right. You're a hybrid so you'll never be welcomed into a home~." Despite how true their words were, she did not let them see the tears. She doesn’t cry for their satisfaction. Instead, she straightened herself and glared at them before walking off. However, despite her display, deep inside she couldn't take it anymore. She then goes off to find where the sleeping pills were hidden, taking an overdose that night. She lives but she awakens from having a weird dream. Dream of a man in a top black hat...

#about #black hat #bio #the black hatter

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tumblunni · 7 years

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OH MAN HOLY SHIT IM FINALLY GETTING TO READ THE NEXT VOLUME OF SHOULDER-A-COFFIN KURO

man it was really fucking sweet that bunch of friends the travellers made in earlier chapters helped nurse Kuro back to health after [the spoily bad thing] happened

and I TOTALLY FELL FOR the misdirect in the opening chapter! this series often has out-of-order flashbacks just casually thrown in, so i assumed this was them taking a break from the sad ‘will kuro be okay’ stuff to show us one of her pas adventrues, especially cos she was alone without nijiku and sanju. But NOPE this is her dream while she’s sleeping, and all the people she just helped move on to their next journey are actually all already dead and she was giving them hope for stuff they never really managed to achieve. Like HOLY SHIT when the last person she saw was a glimpse of an actual alive person and then she steps off the train and wakes up?? And you only realize it cos she says ‘But I thought his eyes were getting better’ about the last guy Kuro met, who had that head injury from the war, and its like ‘but he’s right there? why are you saying ‘I was too late’- OH GOD HOLY SHIT’. Like seriously, was he on the way to go home and died on the train and then she was there at the station and had to see it, after she’d waited for him for so long and just AAAAA. And like, if Kuro is briefly visiting the afterlife and having a choice to take the death train because she’s in this paralyzing moment of depression, is that why the lady was there too? Did Kuro accidentally save her from comitting suicide to be with him? Its really fuckin’ good luck that they were able to cross paths in this dreamworld and she could pass on his last words. But also its REALLY DEPRESSING that her telling him to ‘take the train home’ is like.. thats what he was trying to do when he was on the brink of death, and being unable to do it is why he stayed here waiting in this afterlife train station, hoping against hope that he’d somehow be able to actually see his hometown and his girlfriend again, when the only option he had was a far more depressing journey to take. So even though its good that kuro helped him be able to pass on instead of being in pain, but still, would he have actually been able to talk to his girlfriend if he’d waited just a few minutes more??? god this mysterious dream is so confusing and tantalizing aaaaaa it would be a really good way to kill my heart if we actually meet the girlfriend character in the real world later on and see how she’s getting her life back together after his death or if we meet more relatives of the dead folks we saw in that dream

ALSO its really good that Kuro is battling her suicidal inclinations now and actually feeling like she wants to live, because of these lil kids but at the same time its tragic cos she’s still got this deadly plague thats gonna kill her anyway, and its like.. having hope makes it hurt more and OH GOD the line about how she’s decided the new purpose of her journey is to ‘make a new path for them to follow when I’m gone’ she’s decided that instead of having to choose between them and her goal, its just gonna be that if she fails and ends up dying she just wants to have taught them enough to survive on their own afterwards. she could still feel her story was completed if it ends with her having given these kids a new life, even if she never finds out who the witch was or how to stop the curse. OH GOD I CRY SO MUCH FOR THIS WEIRD LITTLE FAMILY

and then OH MAN the mysterious flashback too! that was a good misdirect without even being a twist, sorta?? there’s no big revelation moment and knowing the thing doesnt really change anything, and honestly it makes me feel a bit ‘whoops i should have figured it out straight away’ lol Its a really cool way of delivering a stealth backstory for Sen! Cos we never saw his face in human form before, we kinda were expecting it to continue being shadowed or at least be revealed in some sort of actual reveal scene. but nope, we just get introduced to apparantly some new character who’s a loner prince everyone thinks is a vampire, and then WHOOPS it was sen all along! (also LOL DUDE YOU’LL BE A VAMPIRE IN LIKE FIVE SECONDS, DONT WORRY) And its so obvious in retrospect, we even see that he has a lil girl as his apprentice and he's like ‘just call me sensei, i dont want you to get attatched to me’. But she looks completely different to Kuro so at most I just thought ‘oh it’ll be some sort of analogy or moral to the main story or something’. And then seriously there is NO INSIGHT TO ANYTHING and no explanation of what happened to them or why, its just horribly shocking both to them and the audience. We just get some disconnected cute 4-koma adventures of flashback kuro and sen, revealing a little of how they first met, and then literally kuro just turns around the corner and the panels dissolve into horrifying shadowy hands that tear her apart as she begs sen not to touch her or he’ll be cursed too. AND IT JUST ENDS Like seriously, there wasnt even a STORY to the witch cursing them?? she just appeared in their house one day?? she was fuckin lurking in the library and cursed the first person she made eye contact with???? and sen got dragged into it too cos he was trying to save the poor kid, after all these panels of him being cynical jerk saying he doesn’t care about her, and just.. *SOB*

But actually, I’m wondering why his curse was so much different compared to the formula we’ve seen for every other case of it? its always been this one same disease that makes you rot apart into shadow stuff until you die. Why did he turn into 1000 bats instead? A random theory: maybe he actually did die, and this isn’t really the same curse as kuro’s, this is something that happened to him to save him. The first time we saw the curse in action was from that kid who innocently talked to the witch and wished to use magic too, so maybe it like.. actually is that? Maybe this curse is a literal granting of the wish, maybe this is how she passes on her powers and it just kills people who arent worthy, or something. So i dunno, maybe Kuro has some degree of witch magic locked away deep inside her rotting heart now, and she subconciously used it to save Sen’s life by cursing him with this different curse? that could be A Good Depressing Twist later, cos it could mean that if Kuro gets cured, Sen will die. And I mean, it would explain why Kuro doesnt know she has witch powers, maybe the constant upkeep of maintaining Sen’s spell is taking up all her energy, or something? We never get to see if Mo actually got her wish for magic powers in that terrifying flashback, we just see how she started dying of the shadow plague and then how Kuro found her on the last day of her life and they became friends and then HER LEGS FUCKING FELL OFF AND CRUMBLED INTO DUST AND HER EYE FELL OUT OF HER HEAD and then kuro’s last scrap of optimism died and she decided to carry Mo’s coffin forever out of certainty that the curse would indeed kill her, her quest would fail, and she’d better be prepared for her own funeral And like, when i first read that chapter I thought that this was where Kuro got the curse?? I thought it was contagious from touch or something and by giving Mo a bit of peace on her deathbed she’d picked it up from her. (Though that wouldnt explain why nobody’s ever got infected from interacting with kuro throughout the rest of the story, so it was a bit confusing.) But now we know that apparantly Kuro got the disease way earlier and Mo was just the closest clue she’s ever got to finding the witch again, and a horrible vision of the future that will await her when her curse finishes its course. It makes the whole chapter way more depressing, cos you know the whole time she was suffering from the same disease and she just didnt wanna ruin Mo’s hope that she’d met some cool traveller who was totally gonna go on and live a long life of all the adventures she wanted to have. GODDDD THIS SERIESSSS

and okay seriously THE WORST BIT THAT DESTROYED ME is that we find out the evil witch who did this to both of them is actually the same person as the apaprantly good witch we saw in an earlier chapter who befriended those kids and had a badass retort to the asshole guy and just was really cool?? And its even more depressing if she isnt really evil at all and maybe somehow thinks what she’s doing is helping? she was really innocent in that first chapter and didnt seem to know much about humans. So like.. who did she meet? What did she do? Who taught her something very VERY wrong in the time between that flashback and now? is this just the result of some small shred of her old self left, her wanting to ‘help’ more children...? Cos actually it was kind of a big hint in that chapter, she said ‘i will give you one of my voices’ when she taught that kid how to read as ‘payment’ for him helping her learn what a ‘witch’ is, and that she can be a good one if she wants to. So I mean.. is this just her trying to more literally give part of herself to others to help them, not knowing that it’s hurting them, or maybe being so twisted now that she doesnt even care? ITS SO DEPRESSING! Its funny how I loved and trusted this literal eldritch abomination I saw in this chapter goofily dressing herself up in people clothes and practising pick-up lines, and how terrified I was of what I assumed was a perfectly normal human witch who hurt these poor children. But now its even more depressing if we have this strange nonhuman creature who everyone treated as evil, who was good at heart, who made her first friend, who had so much futrue ahead of her, and then just SOMETHING has happened that sent her down the path of becoming that evil thing everyone said she was in the beginning...

Oh and also i really like the theory I saw that she’s another alchemy experiment of the professor who created Nijiku and Sanju? Cos people call her ‘Hifumi’ and thats a name that can mean a number, same as those two. And it might maybe explain why the professor died in the first place. We just hear him saying he has to finish something before he can allow them out of their cage, and then he never comes back down that staircase ever again, and kuro sees some other empty cage next to his body... Oh and also WHY DONT YOU JUST FUCK ME UP, FINAL CHAPTER IN THIS VOLUME, HOLY SHITTTT It actually fits A LOT with this theory... The last chapter has Sanju accidentally horribly injuring a kitten she was trying to hold, and being terrified because it cant just be stitched together like a toy, or.. well, like herself. We see a flashback of how the twins would break a lot back when they were first created, and the professor would just stitch back Sanju’s one arm that kept rotting off. And they’re like.. kinda terrifyingly eldritch too, more than just simple lil kids who can shapeshift into animals. There was that earlier flashback about how they took a long time to adjust to having physical bodies, and used to phase through walls like ghosts until the professor explained how a cage is supposed to work. Like... only being limited by the laws of reality once they hear them spoken aloud. And apparantly they sat sleeping in those alchemy tubes for a long time and might have even like.. slowly developed into humanoid forms, they might have been some sort of visually terrifying thing in their newborn state. We the audience know that they’re just the same as any other innocent kid in personality, that they’re good kiddos no matter how they were born. But then sometimes we get reminded of their actual origins, and how they’d be potentially VERY dangerous in the wrong hands. And like.. even now we’ve just had a really sad reminder how they can be dangerous even when they’re being raised as normal kids by our kind protagonist, how just forgetting that they lack something that normal humans have can lead to this traumatic experience of one of them killing a small animal and not understanding that it cant be fixed, gAAAAAAHHHH :( Also the associated flashback was REALLY FUCKED UP, holy shit! you see the professor talking about redesigning their next beta with a sense of pain, so they stop accidentally breaking themselves, and apparantly he only managed to finish that modification to nijiku before he died. or, perhaps he only intended to give it to one of them, and is having this creepy detatched view of them where he can think ‘hey I’ll deliberately leave one broken to act as a test case’. that would actually fit a lot with the subtle stuff we know, like how apparantly when they were first born they’d randomly grow and de-grow and fluctuate everything between humanoid and animallike. And he notes how Sanju’s hair always returns to a long length whenever its cut, and just... like, he didnt fix that in her but it seems like Nijiku doesnt have the same problem? Does this mean that he actually did give nijiku a bunch of extra features and not fix mistakes that were hindering sanju, that he’s been doing that from the very beginning? I just thought it was maybe that nijiku never had the same hair problem, but I mean it seems like they started off identical in every other way. God I hope its not gonna be revealed that the prof never loved them at all and he was an abusive dad :(

GAHHH THIS MYSTERIOUS GODDAMN MANGA WITH NO ANSWERS FOR ANYTHING AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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cynicaldesire · 4 years

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There’s a few scenes I really liked from our DnD campaign that we have since put on hiatus or abandoned. My husband and I didn’t want to be That Couple at the table, so we tried to make separate characters and not really interact with them as if they were in a relationship and stuff. But... it bleeds. I’m new to a long-term game, there’s only 3 people in the game, etc.

I feel like I’ve talked about this before, but I want to again in case I missed anything. So if you’re interested, let’s go on a journey.

My character was a Celestial Pact Tiefling Warlock where the pact being was a Fae creature. I chose the Anthropologist background and the setting said that Tieflings are usually viewed as demonic, so I had her abandoned as a baby. I wanted to take Magic Stone as her cantrip even though Eldritch Blast is generally considered The Warlock Cantrip because I felt like Eldritch Blast was too... was not the right flavor I wanted for the character. So my husband was like Lawl, what creature made a pact with a baby? Then he joked about how maybe it made a pact with my character and gave her Magic Stone because she wanted to be able to skip rocks. The cost for her power was that she had to wear a mask.

I figured, since my character was abandoned as a child, raised by a Fae, and given magic at the cost of wearing a mask, that she was basically an Anthropologist by way of her Fae adoptive family asking her to go “study” the people and report back what the fuck was going on with the mortals.

So we started in a Guild Tavern, the last one along the road before reaching barely settled frontier. The DM even had there be an indigenous population where we went. So, being an anthropologist, my character is setting out to document and understand towns, cultures, anything she could get her hands on. She has a journal or several, she has several masks that she wears, she covers all of her skin. She’s at the Guild Tavern writing some notes about her adventure thus far when she catches wind of a Gnome fortune teller telling the fortune of some other patron of the tavern. This fortune teller was one of the other players. I was going to have her ask him about his magic, about being a gnome, etc. But at the table next to him is this hulking brute of a man with obvious tribal tattoos, sharp fangs, pelts and other shit, who is trying desperately to write on paper. The brute and the magician seem to know each other, but the magician is busy and the tribal stuff is more niche (and also my husband) so I went to RP with him.

He’s a little shy but not an asshole, mostly surprised at the interest. We all agree to travel together so that my character can learn about Gnomes and Vampire Barbarians. We encounter some trouble along the way, I have to heal the Wizard, it’s interesting. When we go to the mayor of the tiny little town, he basically says that the adventure and reward he promised was basically just moving to a town in the frontier, isn’t that exciting? My character has no real reason to stay at this point so she basically makes the decision to leave and head further out to find something that is not civilization. The Barbarian is traveling with the Wizard so while the Barb doesn’t wanna stay, the Wizard does, so they end up staying. But while the Wizard is wandering about town getting to know people, he talks to the bread maker who gives him a cup of coffee and a free loaf of bread.

This is where one of my favorite scenes shows up. It’s a brief interaction, but meaningful. Like one you’d put in an AMV or something. The Barbarian, Grendel, was trying to interact with a blacksmith, tried to go around town to get some information and make friends and didn’t have much luck. He ended up at the town hall, grumpy, sitting on the stairs. My character had also gone around to learn all she could about the people in the town, finally stopping at the mayor to understand how he runs it. She ends up at a table or on a pew inside the building. The Wizard shows up and hands Grendel, the Vampire, the bread. They head into the building and the Wizard tells Grendel to wait outside while he goes to talk to the mayor. Grendel sees Rokaria, my Warlock, sitting in the building writing feverishly and does that thing most people do at a party, he goes to sit next to her with his bread. He’s munching on it absently, like a dejected teen just taking big dumb bites out of it. He sits next to Rokaria, looks at her, then offers it to her. She pauses in her work and looks to it and him. She wears a mask, so he can’t really read her. She takes a moment to understand and appreciate the situation and then grabs some and slips it under her mask. He asks if it is any good and (after a roll) it’s pretty good. They sit there sharing this random bread the Wizard handed them in an empty community building.

That night, Rokaria has a nightmare of her Warlock Patron being corrupted and killed or something. She wakes up in the middle of the night to see the forest, dubbed Faerie Fire Forest, to be glowing like its on fire. She wakes up everybody to check it out. I don’t think we found anything that night, perhaps hesitation because we were level 1, or... I don’t remember well enough. We did some investigating the next day, killed a bear, talked to some kids in the town, and eventually my character wandered off from the other two to go check out the suspicious Faerie Circle in the forest. (Rokaria did this because the Wizard was taking charge of everything, signing us into the town ledger making us residents of the town without asking, taking over the investigation of the Faerie Forest from the character raised by faeries, and generally not listening to her and being an asshole.) When they realized my character had been missing, they waited like 15 minutes before going to find her.

Grendel is a pretty good tracker so he finds her trail and follows it into the forest to find Rokaria snooping around this Faerie Circle. (I assumed, because of the mask thing, that I wasn’t supposed to discuss my faeries and my warlock patron, so I had been keeping it a secret.) He shows up and Rokaria is immediately like “Oh hi! I wasn’t doing anything. Just... found a ditch here, weird. Anyway, is it dinnertime?” The wizard shows up to ask why the fuck she wandered off alone, it’s dangerous, generally be a jerk. He figures she’s hiding something from them and immediately decides she’s not worth his time. Rokaria asks them to trust her for a bit and he says whatever. Grendel says Okay, because she’s saved their lives plenty of times and all she’s asked for is for them to let her have this one secret. When they go to leave, she gets a whisper from the Faerie Circle, asks them to follow her and she’ll explain everything, and dives in.

Now, I had been ignoring the signs that this hole in the ground opened up to a big fucking drop, so I jump in, the DM asks me a couple times if I’m sure, then says Okay, you take a bunch of damage when you fall into an underground river. and I’m like OH NO~ I’M UNCONSCIOUS. LAWL. OOOPS.

So, in character, Rokaria screams for Grendel and Khaden, the wizard, to follow her and just disappears into this crack in the ground. Grendel, startled by this, follows her, but has enough sense to check the drop. He and Khaden get their rope together to drop Grendel in a bit before he falls the rest of the way and rescues Rokaria before she can float away too far in the underwater river she fell into. Grendel gets them to a dry spot, stabilizes Rokaria, and then waits while Khaden makes his own way down safely. While he’s waiting, Grendel does a full bodily check of Rokaria, including under her mask. He doesn’t mention what he finds. He just stays by her side while Khaden makes his way down.

While underground and low on health, they get attacked by some malevolent faeries. Fire faeries that explode on death. Grendel goes unconscious. Khaden stabilizes him and then waits for a couple hours for us to wake up.

Everything after that is less shippy. Just those couple of moments, of sharing bread and then diving into danger to save her, discovering her secret and not only telling no one but also not treating her any different, then falling unconscious to protect her? Delicious.

#about me #and our dnd characters

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