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dr3amofagame · 3 years

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I really love when people write about c!wilbur manipulating c!dream so I was wondering if you could write on about the smp realizing that c!wilbur manipulated c!dream into being a lap dog for him but a hell lot of trouble for then and if you could add c!wilbur taking advantage of the fact that dream is a god during a fight that would make my day. Hope you have a great day.thank you. Love your work.

ooh yeah - c!wilbur is back and GGG-ing as good as ever, , which Really makes you think abt what it’s gonna be like when he interacts with c!dream again. this ended up being a little more c!sapnap centric than i intended, hope that’s alright haha. (and thank you so much for the kind words!)

tw: implied abuse, torture, drowning, dismemberment, manipulation, unhealthy relationships, emotional distress, dark content, prison arc/pandora’s vault, c!sapnap critical? not really?, dark portrayal of c!wilbur (typical MAD duo shenanigans)

Sapnap isn’t expecting to find anyone when he storms out in the middle of the night - he’s tense, they all are after the fiasco at the prison, but really his thoughts are filled with Karl once again going inexplicably radio silent for days on end and Quackity ignoring all of his questions with a simple “i’m busy” that he’d failed to follow up even twelve hours later, so Dream and Wilbur and whatever the hell happened that left Pandora’s Vault - obsidian, indestructible, tall and dark and proud - half-crumbled and sunken into the sea are just about the last things on his mind.

Even so, he’s not an idiot, so he had enough foresight to pack a few potions and gather his armor and weapons before stepping into the summer night - it’s cool under the moonlight, a soft breeze cutting through the otherwise stifling weight of the humid air, and the comfortable night is enough to make his anger die down, just a little. Kinoko Kingdom glows soft and warm from the lanterns Foolish had scattered all over the place, thick with the earthy smell of fungus and flowers, and he takes a deep breath before walking to the city outskirts to hopefully clear his mind.

He’s no stranger to late-night walks; his temper had always been fiery, even as a child, and he’d figured out pretty early on that the easiest way to deal with it was to walk or run until his brain was too tired to think anymore. Walking at night also meant he could take out some of his frustration on mobs as well as the satisfaction of setting a random patch of forest on fire without worrying about burning down someone else’s property, and once he got good enough with a sword and shield to come and go relatively unscathed, Bad had stopped his worrying enough to let him do whatever as long as he came back in time in the morning. Sapnap frowns as he hacks at a random branch in his way with an axe, watching as it falls in a spray of leaves and crashes to the ground; he hasn’t seen Bad in a while, not since he became obsessed with the whole Egg thing. Quackity had mentioned some cryptic things, and Karl was adamant that they avoid the Egg as much as possible, but he probably should’ve at least visited, or something. Bad always knew what to say when it came to messy things like this.

Though - Sapnap laughs wryly - it’d never been this bad, before. Karl distant and absent, Q somehow even more so with a new glint to his gaze that sent a shiver down his spine. George, usually asleep, never around, expression perpetually foggy like he doesn’t know where he was. Dream- evil, insane, awful, somehow so familiar it hurt and too much of a stranger to recognize. He wonders when it all got this bad. He wonders what it says about himself, that he didn’t notice until it was far too late.

“Fancy seeing you out here.”

Sapnap whirls around, sword drawn; the figure staring back at him doesn’t even flinch. His eyes narrow at the sight, stance widening, shoulders tense.

“Wilbur?” He keeps his voice wary, guarded, trying his best to keep surprise from coloring his tone. Wilbur grins at him, tight-lipped, the planes of his face faintly lit by the moon shining over them, facial features only barely visible in the dim light. Without really meaning to, Sapnap cranes his head to look around at the surrounding forest, but nothing moves or makes itself known outside of the figure still staring at him, smirking. “What- what are you doing here?”

And where’s Dream?

Because Sapnap might not know much about what went down at the prison and what Dream’s plans are and the whole mess that he’d been so desperate to put behind him and utterly failed at doing so, but what he does know is that the two of them - Dream and Wilbur, Wilbur and Dream - had been all but inseparable, strangely attached to each other in a way that spelled out nothing but trouble for the rest of them. The rest of the server had been compiling sightings of the two in the hopes of being able to stop whatever it was that they had planned, but Sapnap knows his former friend, brother, and even if he doesn’t know Wilbur, his reputation more than precedes him: the two of them are smart, not to mention paranoid as fuck, and the rest of them have a better shot shooting targets in the dark than figuring out whatever the hell was going on in their heads with the two of them working together. Either way, he knows that they’d never been sighted apart - it was always Wilbur standing on a hill with Dream sitting next to him, or Dream hacking through mobs as Wilbur followed, or the two of them stepping into a fortress and leaving minutes after - until now.

“Could ask the same of you,” Wilbur laughs, just a shade to the left of friendly, and the moonlight scatters through the leaves and glints off his glasses. “Don’t be so tense, man! I’m just going on a walk, thought I’d enjoy the night. Didn’t see anything like this in Limbo, you know.”

Sapnap winces at the reminder, that Wilbur is here and alive in defiance of law and reason and the universe itself, but Wilbur barrels on, seeming unaware of his unease.

“Anyway - how are you doing, man? Haven’t seen you around in a while.” He leans back, hands shoved deep in his jacket pockets, stance loose, relaxed. “I’d ask Dream, but he’s been in prison for a bit, you know? Most of what he knows is pretty - ah, outdated, not that I tell him that.”

“What are you planning?” Sapnap snaps, grip tightening around the handle of his sword. “You and Dream. What do you want?”

“Who’s to say we want anything?” Wilbur seems to grin wider, and the expression on his face is unsettling, makes something cold slither up his spine. He shakes his head to rid himself of the feeling, half-wishing it was brighter so he could better see the other’s eyes.

“I mean-” he stutters. Because Dream always wants, he almost says, bitter and angry, that all-too-familar swell of betrayal rising in his chest at Dream, forever insatiated, forever wanting, forever looking for more more more. Because if he were to escape, and if he were to want nothing, then what did that mean for the rest of them? Because if he didn’t want, if he wasn’t left wanting, then did Sapnap ever mean anything at all? The thoughts stick to his skull like tar, words clinging to the roof of his mouth as it goes dry. Wilbur seems to stare at him, unimpressed, and he feels his face go hot.

“He’s not- he’s dangerous, you know,” Sapnap says instead of answering, because untangling the awful, knotted feelings that make up his remaining ties with Dream, half-frayed and neglected and forgotten, is more work than he can handle and more emotions than he has the energy to bear. It doesn’t matter, in the end, because Dream is still dangerous; he knows that, resolutely, and maybe it’s lucky, that he found Wilbur without Dream whispering plans and manipulations and meaningless words by his side. It’ll give him a chance to warn Wilbur, bring him back to their side instead of risking his life (again) in the company of his friend-turned-tyrant. Dream is dangerous, whether he wants or not, because Dream is Dream and he’s been in too many manhunts to face him with anything less than one hundred percent confidence. “You don’t want to be with him, Wilbur. He’s hurt- so many people.”

Wilbur’s expression doesn’t change, seeming as indifferent to the words as ever; if anything, he looks a little amused. “Really,” he hums, almost to himself. “Dangerous, you say?”

“He’s Dream,” Sapnap insists, because it’s the truth, and it’s the simplicity of it, really. It’s Dream, and Dream is dangerous whether he’s on your side or not, forever ruthless and unheeding as long as he gets what he wants. He’d been in Wilbur’s place, once, convinced that Dream’s strategies and planning and infallible logic had meant they had no way of losing. He knows better, now. “You’ve fought him before! He doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about anything.”

And if the words are a little more bitter than they should be when he says that, who but he is going to notice?

Wilbur’s eyes stay on his, completely silent, expression unreadable. The quiet gets awkward quickly, Wilbur’s expression seeming unchanging, nothing but the faint rustling of the leaves around them to break the stillness of the air, and Sapnap feels his gut roll uncomfortably as he looks off to the ground, waiting for Wilbur to react in some way, any way. It’s hard, he knows, to realize that someone you thought was on your side had been using you the entire time, he’s been there before and he gets it, but- it’s still strange, how still Wilbur has become. How he still hasn’t reacted - is his expression going to change?

And suddenly, starting quiet and then swelling in volume, Wilbur begins to laugh.

“Goodness,” Wilbur drawls through his chuckles, voice low and dark and sending chills down his back. “I thought he was exaggerating, man - you really do hate him, don’t you?”

“What- what’s so funny?”

Wilbur smiles, teeth flashing white as the faint light from the moon bounces off of them, “I have to give you my thanks, truly. I’d thought that Quackity did the most of it, or Sam, but you- I really couldn’t have guessed.”

Sapnap’s head is spinning. Wilbur’s expression is positively gleeful, eyes dancing, smile wide and brilliant, bouncing from one name to another with little explanation to how any of them tie together. Sam? Quackity? Nothing is making sense. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh Sapnap,” Wilbur croons. “You really don’t know, do you?”

He twists his hand in a flippant gesture, eyes directed into the forest surrounding them.

“Let’s just say that his, ah- stay, in Pandora, wasn’t exactly what I’d call a five-star experience. But you know that, don’t you?” Wilbur directs a flat smile his way, and Sapnap swallows, throat dry. Briefly, images flash behind his eyes - walls, dripping with crying obsidian, the lava’s heat hard to bear at his back, even for him, mining fatigue pulling at his limbs and making them heavy. How startlingly bare the cell had been, even through the haze of his anger, Dream, slumped in a corner of the cell, barely moving, barely even breathing as it seemed sometimes, sunken-in cheeks and sagging shoulders speaking of nothing but a bone-deep exhaustion. “Apparently, being psychologically and physically tortured for months on end has an interesting effect on the human psyche. Even more so when, say, your best friend comes once in the entire time to tell you that he’ll kill you if you ever try to escape.”

“How-” he trips on his own words, lungs seizing, “how do you know that?”

“He tells me things. A lot of things, really. Did you know it takes one and a half regen potions to reattach an arm after it’s been cut off? It takes three and a half for a leg, he thinks, but the blood loss made it rather hard to remember.” Wilbur steps forward. “Did you know that scars created by healing potions tend to be much thicker and more prominent than those made by regens? Or that he can hold his breath for a little more than two minutes before passing out?” Wilbur smirks, jagged, threatening. “Did you know that I can tell him just about everything, and he’ll believe me because there’s no one else to tell him otherwise?”

“Wh- what?”

“I’ll be sure to tell him what you said; I’m sure he’ll love to hear how his brother is doing.” Wilbur waves. “And when you see Quackity, be sure to give him my thanks, will you?”

“Wilbur, what- come back-”

And with a flash of purple particles, Wilbur disappears, leaving Sapnap alone in the middle of the forest. Stasis chamber. His heart pounds in his ears, breathing all-too-loud, and he stares desperately at the empty space where Wilbur had stood like it’ll bring him back again.

Fuck, he swipes his hand across his face, startled when it comes back wet. What does he do now?

#tw abuse #tw torture #tw drowning #tw dismemberment #tw manipulation #tw unhealthy relationship #tw emotional distress #tw dark content #prison arc #pandora's vault #c!sapnap critical #mutually assured destruction #my asks !!#-> my asks #my writing :D #-> my writing

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dateamonster · 3 years

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Hiii i hope you dont mind asks about inspiration but 👉👈 any thoughts on locational horror? (Clinking pennies around in a jar) i love when houses are alive and malicious

oh yeah i love that kind of thing! ive never heard the term locational horror i dont think? so im not totally sure if this counts but i just played the game the open house last night and maaaan it was good. its creepy, its tense, it makes excellent use of the medium, and i think it would really suit folks who are fond of the weirdcore/dreamcore kind of aesthetic? in that it takes place in a very familiar sort of environment thats been tweaked to become something uncanny and unsettling (also its free to play on itchio sooo)

and of course i think everyone knows abt anatomy by now, but if you havent already i super recommend checking out kittyhorrorshows other work because a) its all fantastic and b) theres a connecting thread throughout most if not all of her games of like. places that feel haunted by the experiences theyve witnessed. lots of eerie ambience and landscapes that feel almost like the rotted corpse of a lived-in environment. its great.

those are the ones that immediately come to mind. i really like video games as a medium for exploring this kind of horror because it.. well it literally allows you to explore them. its thorough and self-directed in a way thats hard to get in books and movies. in horror that thrives off its location, i think it stands to reason youd want to allow your audience to see as much of the location as they can.

the open house and anatomy have a similar sort of appeal i think but stuff like the haunted cities collections are really great because instead of the main horror element being derived from taking something known and warping it, there are these like distinctly alien new landscapes that really give you the vibe of being an outsider in an unfamiliar and unwelcoming environment. its very cool!

i think there are probably some other games too that like dont necessarily go all the way in on making the location itself the source of horror, but still contain like elements of that, like resident evil or silent hill! those franchises certainly dont need me as a hype man tho lol.

idk this post is all over the place. ill try to think of some other good examples of this later probably. im already totally procrastinating work by writing this whole thing. so thank you for that! (genuinely. i love to be enabled.)

#ask #locational horror #curious if thats like. a thing.#games #horror

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notesofarichlycolorednight · 5 years

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but like if Diana was suddenly Alive, how would she react to Luke and Tori's relationship, both pre-war and during it?

hey, thanks for being so patient with me on this!

i had to flesh Diana’s character out a little more so i could get inside her head and think of how she might respond to Tori’s relationship with Luke

so without further ado, hcs below!

so Diana is suddenly just…like Alive, prolly the year that Percy comes to camp, let’s say (which means that Luke has already stolen the lightning bolt and helm of darkness, but it’s like mid-january, just for timeline reference)

she wakes up in a hospital, the doctors say she came out of a coma but she’s pretty sure she died

she can’t remember where she was during the interim, and the doctors can’t recall how she ended up in the hospital or who was even paying for her to remain on life-support for so long

whenever she asks, they stutter a response before going completely silent and getting a glazed look in their eyes for a few moments only to come out of it, smile, and change the subject

she’s discharged from the hospital after a abt a week (idk if that’s even realistic lol) of monitoring and recovery

and as she’s getting dressed, a million thoughts race through her head abt if she still has a place to live, if she has a hospital bill that will kill her again, where her children are

and once that thought pops into her head, that’s all she can think abt

so even with all those other worries she finishes dressing and jumps off the bed, heading straight to the front counter to check out

but she pauses when she sees a familiar-looking man flirting with the nurse at the desk

she wants to confront him immediately, but doesn’t want to look crazed in front of the nurse so she shoves him out of the way, interrupting their flirting session

“i’m Diana Williams, checking out, is there anything i need to do? sign?”

the nurse is miffed and has enough dignity to look ashamed for ignoring Diana before grabbing a clipboard and pen for Diana to sign, explaining info abt bills and the like

Diana can barely hear, she scans the paper and signs before handing the clipboard and pen back to the nurse

she turns to face the man then

it’s Apollo if you haven’t figured it out yet

he’s abt her age, with brown skin and hazel eyes, short curly brown hair but she knows its him, she’d be able to tell from a mile away

he opens his mouth to say smth, but she grabs his arm and pulls him outside

“where are my children?”

flashing sideways to Tori, she’s at camp, totally oblivious to what’s just happened, as is Dan (still not claimed btw)

the next day they’re called to the big house before breakfast with no explanation

Diana is waiting with Chiron, in his wheelchair form, in the front room

Diana’s always been good at making friends, so she’s chatting with Chiron easily and honestly he’s more uncomfortable abt this whole situation than Diana

the doors swings open and Dan comes in first, quickly followed by Tori

they both pause when they see their mom and Diana stands, flattening the wrinkles in her dress and smiling nervously at her children

Dan rushes forward and pulls her into a hug, tears flooding his eyes

Tori is still frozen at the door, afraid this is some cruel dream or hallucination

when Dan is done hugging Diana, he pulls back, keeping one of her hands in his and turns to face Tori, who is still frozen at the door

Diana smiles softly and holds out her free hand, and like two magnets, Tori’s hand raises and she slowly approaches Diana

when their hands meet, Tori breaks down into tears and Diana rushes forward to throw her arms around her daughter as they both sink to the floor

it’s harder for Tori than it is for Dan, bc she was there when their mom died

Tori is afraid to let go of Diana’s hand or lose sight of her bc she’s so afraid Diana might just disappear, revealing that this was indeed some weird dream or hallucination

they settle into the front room of the big house and talk to Chiron abt this whole situation

he knows as much as Diana, which is not much and the gods sure as hell aren’t saying anything

when Chiron brings up the fact that they could just be summer campers, Tori hesitates and Diana notices

Dan looks away, annoyed but doesn’t say anything as Diana asks Tori what’s wrong

Tori blushes and looks away but doesn’t say anything

Chiron excuses himself and asks Dan to accompany him to whatever task he’s just made up. Dan goes reluctantly

Diana takes Tori’s hands into hers and says, “someone special?”

despite how much fear fills her that she’s going to blink and Diana’s going to disappear, it’s amazing how easy it is for Tori to fall back into this relationship with her mom

“his name is Luke.” Tori mumbles. “i don’t even know if he likes me back, but…well we’ve grown close you know over…well, over sh-shared pain”

Diana doesn’t meet him then bc everything is still settling, with her being Alive again and all

Diana reluctantly goes home, but promises to IM them that night and tomorrow (Apollo’s provided her with some drachmas)

Tori’s claimed that night bc Apollo got a stern talking to after Diana found out he hadn’t claimed her yet

but Tori sneaks over to the Hermes cabin that night to talk to Luke abt this whole ordeal

he’s not sure what to think, honestly, but some small part of him is afraid he’ll lose her now that her mom is back. and it’s stupid and irrational, but he can’t help but feel that way

but he lets Tori decide if she wants to go home until the summer (she ends up deciding to stay bc she knows smth is up with Luke)

Dan leaves for home

Diana IMs Tori any chance she can get thru those months leading up to summer

bc of his irrational fears of losing Tori, Luke confesses his love for Tori sooner, when summer begins (rather than right before he leaves for Kronos’ cruise ship)

so when Diana visits to drop Dan off for the summer session, Luke meets Diana

tbh, Diana’s shocked when she sees Tori holding hands with a white boy but she hides it behind a smile as Tori and Luke walk down half-blood hill, outside the barrier

Luke is nervous af but he also hides it behind a smile

Dan says goodbye to his mom before heading up the hill, not wanting to be there for the meeting

Diana and Luke shake hands

she looks at Tori and says, “oh, he’s quite handsome for a white boy”

Tori stares at her mom and Luke jumps like he’s been shocked before his entire neck and face go red

“oh, and he’s sensitive too, that’s good” (and she means it; i’m not trying to make it sound like some kind of jab to his masculinity or whatever)

when it’s revealed that Luke was the lightning thief and he goes off to kronos’ cruise ship, leaving Tori at camp, Tori goes home for that winter

of course she tells Diana everything and Diana just wants to tell her that he’s trouble and Tori shouldn’t be with him anymore

but Diana can also see how heart-broken she is and doesn’t want to make it worse

until Tori decides she’s going to go find him and convince him to come back to camp that next summer

“you can’t save those who don’t want to be saved”

“you don’t know that he doesn’t! i have to at least try! i owe him that much”

Diana can tell how much Tori loves Luke, and she’d hate to take such a thing away from her, but Diana’s scared that Luke is going to get Tori hurt, right after they got each other back

she wants to tell Tori that sometimes love is just like that

she loved Apollo, still does, but had to let him go bc he’s a god

they have a bit of a falling out right before Tori goes to find Luke bc of this

Diana tries IM-ing Tori while she’s on the cruise ship but they aren’t going thru and Diana starts to worry

she contacts camp but Tantalus and Mr. D are no help; the only thing she can do is talk to Dan

she feels utterly helpless so she starts praying to Apollo; she’s not sure what good it will do, but she does it anyway bc all she wants is for her children to be safe

Tori IMs Diana when she decides that she can’t stay on the ship, and that maybe Luke doesn’t want to be saved after all

she’s sobbing as she tells her mom this, and although Diana is relieved to hear that Tori’s coming back, she comforts her daughter and avoids any “i told you so’s”

but then Tori is stabbed by Kelli

Diana finds out bc Tori IMs her the night that Luke trades his life for Tori’s

when Diana learns this, the cold realization dawns on her that this isn’t some summer fling that she’s seen all her friends have before

it’s not even akin to what she and Apollo share

Tori and Luke’s love for each other goes far deeper and is the type of love that can’t be expressed with words

and when she realizes this, dread fills her entire body and she feels the most helpless since this whole ordeal began

Apollo’s told her abt loves like those in greek mythology; during their late-night talks when they were together

but she never imagined one of her own children would have found smth like that; it’s almost cruel bc greek myths rarely had happy endings and she’s afraid that smth may happen to her daughter

she can’t sleep for days afterward, IM-ing Tori as much as possible just to see her tho she doesn’t know what to say

Diana knows now that there’s no convincing her daughter to come back home or to give up on Luke

she continues to pray to Apollo

one day, tired of feeling helpless she IMs Luke and to her surprise he answers

she’s angry as soon as she sees him, but she doesn’t precisely know why bc he saved her daughter’s life–his love is strong for Tori and that should mean smth to Diana, but it only makes her angrier

tears fill her eyes as she spits out, “you swear on the styx you will protect my daughter, no matter what, do you understand? you are not to let any harm come to her”

and bc he loves Tori, Luke swears

she hates him after that point, but she loves her daughter more

and as long as Luke keeps his promise, then there isn’t much else Diana can do

Tori makes sure not to tell Diana any details abt what goes on as the war ramps up

some small part of Diana wonders how Tori could love someone such as Luke

but she also wonders if she could ever fall in love like that and with someone like Luke--can she really blame Tori?

Tori goes home after the summer that tbol takes place and Diana is there with open arms, esp bc Tori is devastated that she’s lost Luke

some part of Diana feels like its her fault bc she made Luke swear on the styx to protect Tori

but another part knows that Luke would have with or without her prompting; she’d done it bc it was the only thing she felt she could control at the time

Diana avoids talking abt Luke too much, just lets Tori vent as much as she needs

being home allows Tori a much-needed break, and Diana tries to encourage Tori to find the strength to keep fighting (heavily implying Tori needs to find the strength to move on from Luke)

Diana tries to stop Tori from going back to camp that next year bc a war is coming, but Tori feels she’s responsible for letting it get that far and Diana doesn’t argue despite being scared sick that Tori may die

she begins to pray to Apollo again bc both Tori and Dan feel obligated to help chb in some way during the war

when it’s all over and Luke dies, some part of Diana is relieved

but seeing how badly Tori takes it evokes that same anger toward Luke

Tori clearly deeply loved him but with him gone, he broke her heart and his promise

and Diana resents him for that

some small part of her wishes that Tori had never fallen in love with him in the first place

he was nothing but trouble

well, almost

bc it was clear that he made Tori happy

and Diana wishes nothing more than for her children to be happy

i hope that’s kind of what you were looking for

thanks for sending this in!! ^_^

FEED ME SEYMOUR

#wow capitalizing names in my post??? it's more likely than you think #oh god for shame! i do not even know your name #notesofananonymousnight #asked and answered #luke castellan #my oc: tori williams #my oc: diana williams #my oc: dan williams #my writing

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words-writ-in-starlight · 7 years

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(sword Anon) omg haha i thought abt saying THIS IS A BLUE SWORD ASK but i was running out of space!! thank you for answering! also if i may ask, what do you think would have happened if corlath had waited to ask harry to marry him? would it have ever happened, or would he have just flailed eternally? would mathin still be alive? would, if he were, have died of exasperation? (good luck on your MCATs!!! i hope your day goes well!!)

I mean, let’s be real: there’s only so much that the Riders can TAKE. They’re only human. Even the most patient of them reaches the end of their rope eventually. That being said: Corlath is very stubborn and Harry is very oblivious.

So here’s my guess.

Yes, Mathin does live. Corlath welcomes Harry back with honor and a tight embrace and the return of her sash, and there’s a beat where they look at each other and Harry opens her mouth, and Corlath takes a breath, and then...it passes. Corlath smiles at her, faint and wistful, and Harry grins. In the healer’s tent, Corlath grips Harry’s shoulders and holds her up and bleeds himself dry of kelar because it’s her doing the asking, and he tells himself that this will be enough. She will sit at his left hand as Rider all her life, and that will be enough. He will figure out a solution to the problem of succession some other time. At the moment, Harry is alive and strong and wild with kelar, performing miracles under his hands, and he could not ask for more than that.

And so life pretty much goes on. No one really talks about that time where their king was wearing his Rider’s sash, at least not around either of them. Plenty of people discuss it on their own time, though, and none more so than the rest of the Riders. Harry is one of them, the Daughter of the Riders--Mathin’s affectionate nickname is taken up with enthusiasm after her dramatic victory against Thurra--and they love their king, and they’re both respectably intelligent people so what the fuck is taking so long. It’s obvious to literally anyone who spends more then a minute and a half in the company of the court that the King and the Rider at his left hand are soulmates. Except, apparently, Harry, and--they’re all extremely aware of this--Corlath would never push.

Richard and Kentarre get married and Corlath officiates, Jack is made a King’s Rider instead of a Queen’s. Aerin visits Harry in fires and dreams and around halfway through the winter rains, when Harry complains that she misses sun and sword training and riding and racing with Corlath, Aerin laughs until tears are dripping off the end of her nose and Harry is scowling.

“Oh, Harimad,” Aerin wheezes once she’s breathing again. “I can hardly judge you myself, but honestly.”

“What?” Harry demands, annoyed. She got over her shock and awe a long time back. Aerin doesn’t even answer her, just flaps a hand and fades away as Harry wakes.

The Riders start out kind of assuming that Corlath will move on and Harry will carry on in blissful ignorance, but it rapidly becomes clear that It Is Not So. Corlath watches Harry mutter curses as she stubbornly learns Hill embroidery techniques with an unreasonable degree of warmth in his eyes, and Harry has fallen asleep in Corlath’s study when kelar dreams keep her restless more times than she can count. The Riders progressively go from “this will definitely sort itself out one way or another” to “we might need to have a discreet word with Corlath about taking action” to “wow, these people need an actual legitimate matchmaking crew” within the months of the rains. Then they take bets on who’s going to choke to death on the unresolved affection and confront them with it first.

Two weeks before the rains end, the Riders and the king are enjoying a casual dinner. Innath watches Corlath silently wave away one of the hafor approaching Harry with a plate of spiced stik meat--she can’t stand the smoked flavor--and Harry smiles brightly at him, a little nod of thanks, and Innath--

Well, Innath cracks.

“I’m out, gentlemen,” he announces to the table at large, rising to his feet and bracing both hands on the table. A quiet ooooh of excitement winds around the table as Innath gives his king a mildly desperate look.

“Innath?” Corlath asks, raising his brows.

“May I speak freely?”

“Always,” Corlath agrees, bemused.

“My lord,” Innath says, clear and slow, “has it come to your attention that it will be spring in a fortnight?”

“...yes?”

“We are on diplomatic terms with the Outlanders, and the Northerners are defeated.”

“We’re all aware,” Corlath confirms, obviously amused. Harry is almost giggling beside him.

“Right,” Innath says. He takes a deep breath, squares his shoulders, and says, “Has it occurred to you that this spring would be an ideal time for a wedding?”

Harry perks up, still smiling. “Are you getting married? You didn’t tell the rest of us.”

Innath clearly can’t think of a response to this for a moment, staring at her while the other Riders watch, riveted. “I’m--no,” he finally says. “I just--listen, Harimad. Do you love Corlath?”

Harry’s smile evaporates to leave shocked silence in its place. “I--” The moment of intense thought is followed by visible revelation, and she shoots a borderline panicked look at Corlath. “What?”

“I think that looks like a yes,” Forloy says, raising a glass to Innath in a silent gesture of it’s all you and takes a swallow of wine.

“Corlath, you love Harimad, and everyone in this room knows it,” Innath says, barreling on without thinking--honestly if he thinks, he’s going to run out of the room, he knows it. “So why don’t the two of you do something about it? Like getting married this spring.” He toasts the two of them with his own wine glass, quaffs it in one, and tells the other Riders, “Right, I think that’s our cue, after you, Faran.”

No one, not even the hafor, ever actually knows what conversation happens in the dining room after the Riders pile out into the hallway.

But the next day Corlath and Harry issue a formal announcement that they’ll be wedded in three weeks, at the height of the spring blooming season. They’re holding hands below the railing of the stone balcony overlooking the courtyard, and even Corlath is smiling, honest and happy, as he looks down at Harry by his side.

Mathin collects a handsome sum of cash, but he cares more about the way Harry laughs and touches the gold sash at her waist.

#the blue sword #robin mckinley #harimad sol #corlath #harry crewe #otp: at your left hand #THIS GOT WAAAAAAY OUT OF HAND #SORRY #oh and also please feel free to picture the riders 'ooooh'#as that universal 'kids watching a peer get sent to the principal' sound #i love innath a bunch #this is kind of cliche and goofy and if i wrote it out properly i'd make it more probable #but tbh i feel like innath is exactly this blunt and direct and helpless in the face of his own impulses #so like #also #this is 100% in character thanks bye #anyone who literally cusses out an entire culture in front of their entire friend group and king #is this person okay #i love him #HA I BET YOU THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA BE SERIOUS FOR THAT FIRST PARAGRAPH #wow i'm in so much pain i've gotten punchy #sorry y'all #i'm gonna shut up #idiot teenagers with a queue #anonymous #asked and answered

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