#contaminated fairy

[juriyuna]

I like the idea that certain foods and metals can repel mythical creatures not because they have magical properties, but because the creatures are allergic.

Silver gives werewolves terrible contact dermatitis, and who wants patchy fur? Vampires can't even be around the smell of garlic without coughing or sneezing. Modern-day oni struggle with how ubiquitous soy is because it gives them hives and can make them really sick. Fairies have a wheat allergy and need to be careful when they eat human food. Things like that.

#aside from bread some myths also say that fairies are repelled by oats #and oats have a high incidence of wheat cross-contamination #maybe a fairy could eat gluten-free oatmeal #coming up with mundane explanations for fantasy things is fun #i need a new personal tag

[neil-gaiman]

have you ever heard of jack zipes? he's a folklorist who coined the theory of story contamination, wherein fairy tales are intentionally "contaminated" by outside additions and changed with every telling to keep them alive and enable every storyteller to connect personally with the story. when i studied an essay of his i thought it fit perfectly with your poem "locks" - the idea of a story being changed with every telling, with the new additions being cemented in as the role of storyteller passes on from parent to child. and I think it goes quite well with the quote "we owe it to each other to tell stories".

I've known Jack for twenty five years and known his work for longer. He's brilliant. He and Maria Tatar are my favourite US folktale academics.

[realpokemon]

Tried to give my goomy a bath and accidentally dissolved it in the sink

i'm so sorry for your loss. THIS is why we need to further the fight against fairy wind contaminating the reservoirs so innocent dragon types don't get OHKOed from staying hydrated

#pokemon #unreality #pkmn irl

[daylite-writes]

arlecchino and any character you want with a pretty mermaid/fairy s/o to show off

“Falling Tides” — Yandere!Alrlechinno x Mermaid!Reader

After an incident with Fontaine’s mechanical fishing boats, you are left to rely on humans to help you heal. Unfortunately, all of them don’t have good intentions.

cw: drugging, implied kidnapping, drowning (kinda? Reader has gills but is held underwater against her will for a sec),

~~~

“The beauty of my homeland can never be overstated, but darling, you must be the pinnacle of it all…” She said, stepping forward to lift your chin with the tips of her claws. The strange woman smiled as you said nothing, pulling away to pace the edge of your… pool? Tank?

You’d been there a few days, slowly healing ever since your bloody encounter with Fontaine’s overly mechanical fishing boats. It had almost ground your tale to its bones. Luckily, the workers saw you struggling against the machine and pulled you free before more than a few long bloody scrapes across your tail and a couple dozen scales lost.

“Hello…?” you croaked out, trying to speak the difficult human language. It was always easier to listen than to speak it.

“Hello.” She smiled down at you, towering over you from where you swam in the pool.

“Here to help?” You asked, not quite knowing how to ask if she was one of the doctors or not.

“I suppose.”

So she was! Victoriously, you grinned, shark teeth flashing. “I'm going home soon?”

“Ah,” she grinned, coming down to kneel at the edge of the water, you swam up to her with little fear, meeting her face to face. Her eyes seemed to twinkle. “You must believe me to be one of the little doctors helping you recover. You are lucky mer are a species favored by the archon, otherwise you’d be left to the elements. Or to be ground up by their machines.”

The wistful sigh as she reached out to hold a lock of your hair confused you. “Not here to help?”

“No. Oh goodness no.” She shook her head, laughing slightly. “I just came to see you. Even as a little girl I dreamt of mermaids. So ethereal. So perfect.”

Her hands, clawed at the tip, reached out slowly to glide over the ends of your hair.

“I’d love to hear you sing, darling.”

With your limited understanding of human language, you couldn’t quite understand everything she said, but one word stood out. One you knew well. Sing.

“You want a song?” So that’s why she was here. Mer were no strangers to humans seeking them out to listen to their voice.

“Desperately.” She said, her voice breathy and low, eyes trained on you and only you.

“What song?”

“Anything. Anything so long as it comes from you.”

You nodded, before taking a deep breath.

The song was an echoing melody bare of any words, instead made up of flowing stretches of songs and whistles, like the whales that one roamed the land.

She gave a soft sigh.

When the song ended, you realized you had unconsciously closed your eyes, a common habit of yours. When you opened them though, you almost wish you hadn’t.

The woman looked ecstatic. No. Obsessed. Eyes wide, breath labored. Her face morphed into a grin. “Amazing. You’re simply amazing.”

She stood up, eyes still trained intensely on yours.

“Breathtaking.” She turned her head to the side, eyes locking onto something you couldn’t see. “Do it.”

Something clicked, and the water in your tank turned warm as the pipes released a dark, inky liquid into the water.

Alarmed, you looked around you with wide eyes. What was happening?

“Oh, I suppose I haven’t introduced myself. I am Arlecchino. You will know me well soon enough.”

You spun around to look up at her. She looked almost pleased. Didn’t she understand you were in danger?

“H-help!” You stuttered out, using your arms to hold onto the edge of the tank to lift your torso above the contaminated water.

“Unfortunately.” The clack of her shoes signaled her approach, but you didn’t dare look away from the rapidly darkening waters beneath you. “That is not what’s about to happen.”

She pushed you away from the edge, straight into the water. It tasted sweet and sticky in your lungs and gills.

She was a predator, not a friend, you realized then. You pulled back, turning away and diving into the deep end of your tank. You’d rather be in the contaminated tank than with her. Your voice was loud and clear even from under several feet of water. “Leave!”

“Oh hush.” Arlecchino said, pacing the edge of your tank. “It’s hardly dangerous.”

You blinked, slow. Heavy labored breaths brought the contaminant into your bloodstream quickly.

With your head pulsing and your vision swaying, it was no surprise you didn’t realize she entered your pool. You were far too busy trying to keep yourself away.

The ink in the water, that must be it. Deciding to take your chance with the woman above instead of the drugged water below, you made a move for the surface.

You didn’t make it. Strong arms wrapped around your torso, then a hand came up to hold your head still by the hair.

You thrashed, but Arlecchino held you under, your panic forcing you to breathe the sticky sweet flavor the water had taken on. If you were any less panicked, you’d have noticed the way one of her hands shifted to stroke down your ribs, sharp nails tracking the fluttering of your breath. Until all at once, your fighting stopped, and you laid limp in her arms.

The last thing you saw before floating away was a Cheshire grin as she finally, finally, lifted you free from the water.

~~~

an: sorry if.this took so long and isn’t quite what was asked for! I don’t often do stuff established relationships. Also just stuck to Arlechinno because I don’t have the brain juice to do two. Hope it was enjoyable though!

#genshin fanfic #yandere Genshin #yandere arlecchino #yandere arlecchino x reader #arlecchino

[noxcheshire]

I’ve been kinda thinking this for a while because I know the dpxdc fandom likes thin as a bean and shouldn’t be capable of lifting Superman so easily, buff as a Viking, and as small but so much curves like his mom, Danny Fenton/Phantom.

And I love them all. For various reasons.

But I just thought about something really hard for a second.

Danny died at 14.

He died being small, and young. He became ecto-contaminated in a way so much more different from Vlad who had been blasted in the face by the smallest portion of ecto-portal that infected and corrupted into his skin.

This is in comparison to Danny who literally had a dimension rip open on top and inside of him.

To me, Vlad basically got the equivalent of a mini bomb exploding in his face and came out of it with severe third degree burns that translated into Ghost Acne.

And then we look at it again from their Ghost’s.

Danny’s ghost is that of a 14 year old boy who died in a cold portal in his parents basement.

Vlad who got blasted in college, was a twig and yet his ghost form is buff and aged just like his aged human body.

If he ‘died’ when he got hit by the mini-portal than his ghost would mimic the form he died in.

But he isn’t.

Instead we get Two different spectrums of a ghostly appearance for two halfa’s.

Ghosts who are meant to form as how they had been during the time of their death. Ghosts who will always be at their core the person they died as, the identity of those last seconds before death took them.

That’s the point of ghosts.

The only time it changes is if there are external third factors.

Such as Aragon’s Necklace. Or being able to use something of the living to ‘change shape’ as the Lunch Lady, or stretch yourself into a giant like Walker, and the greatest exception being Amorpho who HAS no identity to begin with. More than likely a thought that was made but never given anything further, and thus his jealousy with identity. Either that or he died never making a solid identity that could carry on into death, thus making him faceless because he didn’t even know who he truly was at that time of death.

Even Spectra is different! She’s more of a poltergeist-demon than an actual Ghost from the way she does things and even from how she looks in ghost form.

So with that, who is actually Human-Ghost and who just happens to be Ghost adjacent enough to get powers?

Danny is a real Halfa and Vlad is just mimicking one.

Now for the Dan, evil-phantom, of the fandom.

Dan is just BUFF.

He’s an adult. He GREW.

But it wasn’t due to Danny.

It was due to whatever he took from Vlad/Plasmius.

To me, Plasmius was just the ecto that resided in Vlad. All that anger and resentment that gave birth to itself from Vlad’s own anger at what he went through with the mini-portal. It was ecto that was residing in him, ecto from the Infinite Realms itself that was made INTO an idea and then given form.

Ecto that lived, Venom-style, in Vlad.

An idea that grew up with Vlad BECAUSE Vlad was growing up himself. He wasn’t thinking of himself as that scrawny college student anymore. He was becoming an adult so of course the ecto would mimic that idea of Vlad and make Plasmius older too.

Plasmius was a fairy tale that Vlad made up, and that’s why Dan was able to rip that part out of Vlad like it was it’s own true ghost. But it wasn’t, and so it collapsed without its person to control it. At least until Dan dove into the ecto and took the ideas that were there and intertwined himself with it.

Those YEARS of ideas isn’t so easily brushed away either, and even less so when Danny and Vlad had believed that Plasmius was Vlad’s ghost, a halfa just like Danny. So of course Dan would believe in the idea that he took/ate Vlad’s ghost. And that idea would spread because ecto is just another form of power and vitality. So of course that ecto should change Dan.

And then it did.

It changed his colors first and then eventually his physical form.

Thus we have Buff older Dan.

Now back to Danny.

With all that, this means that Phantom is never going to age.

Because Danny did die that day. He died, and only came back because the dimensional rip of ecto from the Infinite Realms tied his ghost neatly into his human body. The human body that just died.

He isn’t alive, his ghost that is tied to the body is simply puppeteering it. And as the Infinite Realms is literally all of time and space throughout every single multiverse in existence, it’s not too far of a shot to say that it could snatch that very moment, that heartbeat Danny craves restlessly, the heartbeat just before he truly died entirely.

Danny is a moment in time.

So his ghost will never age. And neither will his body.

Basically, Danny is forever an eternal 14 year old twig and he will be so very mad about it.

#dpxdc #dcxdp #danny phantom #danny fenton #thoughts on Danny and his death #vlad #vlad plasmius #twig Danny #buff Danny #curvy Danny #eternally 14 year old Danny #Dan #tbh don’t remember much of when I first watched Danny Phantom #but I’ve been rewatching it #and also reading ao3 #and then had a thought that wouldn’t leave #especially when I kept looking between Vlad and Danny #and trying to figure out how the HELL did Danny’s GHOST get buff and old #it’s a GHOST #HE DIED AT FOURTEEN it isn’t gonna suddenly shapeshifter to be an adult because he felt like it #even more so since it was heavily implied that Dan KILLED his human half #so I had to figure this out

[pibsboots]

I'd like to theorize that the red tokens are alterations to the character's stories. The more tokens, the more nightmarish their stories become.

The reason I say this is because of how Rosamund got her first one. She didn't go down or die it was a spell the Fairy Godmother had AND the effect of that spell was remembering the blue fairy covered in worms.

When we were told Rosamund's story the first time, the 3 fairies were good, and gave her the gifts they were meant to. Then it changed. The Faury Godmother contaminated the fairies in Rosamund's story.

We dont get to see how the stories are changed as they die - they're too busy having their final moments - but I think we get some hints. Gerard's retrieving the golden ball might go worse for him. Pinocchio's dad might be worse off or dead. The Gander might be bolder than just a shadow in the woods next time around.

At the same time, Red's vision doesn't have much of an effect on her story. She learns new information, but none if the other characters make an appearance. Only the Big Bad Wolf does - which is her to some extent. She doesn't see anyone but herself in her vision, so she is the only one that is changed. She is the only one that will remember this loop, I believe. Because the trade off is this: either you are changed or your story and the people you love are changed.

I think the tokens are a quantifiable measure of how recognizable their stories are and, to some degree, how recognizable they are at the end of their quest.

#thank you for coming to my ted talk #neverafter spoilers #neverafter #dimension 20

[tofuingho]

I’ve decided to continue this with the bits I’ve gotten figured out.

>Jazz keeps Danny in a miniature/doll house. He’s still her little brother, so she’s doesn’t feel comfortable keeping him in a tank or cage. Plus, he seems to mostly understand what she says, so it should be okay to let him have free rein of her dorm room.

>I’ve come up with 3 potential reasons that the roommate got rid of Danny. I’m not sure which one I like the best

1) To Jazz, Danny looks like little baby man or maybe just like a tiny Danny. To Jazz’s roomie, he looks like something she’s afraid of, but not in an eldritch way. His ghostly powers make him look like a Madagascar hissing cockroach or a particularly ugly spider.

2) To people who aren’t ecto-contaminated, Danny is invisible. Roommate thinks Jazz is going nuts and she’s talking to some kind of hallucinatory pet. She decides to get rid of Danny’s house while Jazz is out. Not wanting Jazz to find it in the trash and bring it back, she takes it a few blocks away and dumps it in an alley.

3) Roommate can see little baby man and assumes he’s some kind of fairy creature. She assumes Jazz has kidnapped Danny and is actually trying to set him free.

>> I actually did come up with a bit more of the story, so I’ll add on to this tomorrow or the day after.

@autumnwulf @bleuyellow93

Continued here

#dp x dc #dp x dc prompt #dc x dp #dc×dp prompt #dp x dc crossover #little baby man #danny fenton #jazz fenton

[mako-neexu]

i believe in glowing fairy eyes for obe and cas and guda should also have eyes that glow from the sideeffect of having too much curses and blessings intertwined within their soul or being exposed to different kinds of mana thats equal to contaminating yourself without protection

guda: hehe staring contest in the dark~

obecas: youre a walking mass of toxic waste my guy

#fate grand order #yakudou trio

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 269

Another Legend of Zelda Crossover with Ghosts are Dragons. Because it’s fun :>

Danny has decided to go on a vacation with his platonic-romantic-they-aren’t-sure-yet partners. To a different world! Where they can spend more time than just the summer before heading back to their world or the Realms for work. Self employed or no. 

Look, they spent their entire teenagehood protecting the city and world, they deserve a break! So they chose a random direction and a random world that didn’t feel too liminal and ecto-contaminated, and off they went!

And it’s great! The monster issue is easily enough taken care of too, even if it’s to Sam’s complaint. Interesting taste though… Oh well, they can complain and debate that later, because they don’t have to really worry about much. Well, much besides the weird corruption sort of rotting smell that seems to be getting stronger… 

Maybe that’s normal around here…?

@fairy-lights-and-blobs @radiance1 You both enjoy dragons so here <3

#DPxLOZ #LOZxDP #Prompts #Ghosts are Dragons #Eternal Quartet #Halfa Trio #& then Val’s suit sort of melded with her like some sort of liminal nanobot dragon cyborg #Yes they can all change between full dragon and partially dragon which they can hide #All of them are very uncanny valley to the people of the LOZ world (& the non-liminal in their world too) #Danny is between a western and eastern dragon in proportions w/ stars caught in his fur & horns #Sam is long serpentine thing with branch-like antlers of green crystal #Tucker has four arms & curved horns of gold & a cobra hood #Val is chonky in proportion- walking behemoth of muscle and veins of meta #In ‘human’ forms they have pointed ears & disguise the wings as cloaks & capes #Anyone who sees them: Oh what in the fresh fae monster hell is this- #Link who has no self preservation: Is this potential friends

[fablesrose]

Ch 9 - The Top Hat Job

Series Rewrite Masterlist 

Pairing: Eliot Spencer x Ford!Reader

Description: The team has to play as magicians to get into a food company that has contaminated food on the shelves. *Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about magic, so don't come for me*

Words: 5377

A/n: So I've burned through my stock of chapters after this and I've been having a bit of a tough time for the next couple of weeks. I've got final weeks and then surgery to fix my wrecked knee, I want to get back to this as soon as possible, but I'm not sure when that will be. Thank you all for reading this far, it means so much to me!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Nate and Sophie were downstairs in the pub meeting with the client. I was watching as Eliot, Hardison, and Parker were starting recon on the target: Lillian foods. From what brief background we already had, their frozen food was contaminated, but one of the higher-ups calculated the risk and said that the amount of deaths was acceptable relative to cost in lawsuits vs pulling the food off the shelves. So, a real dirtbag, like all the rest of them. 

Hardison and I were in Nate’s apartment monitoring all of the tech stuff while Eliot and Parker were doing the leg work. Eliot was posing as a pizza delivery man with comms and a button cam, going into the heart of the beast. We watched as he approached the front desk where a pretty brunette sat taking phone calls. 

“Her name is Katie,” Hardison told him as he balanced a tennis ball on his forehead casually, “Likes wild horses, dislikes vanilla toothpaste.”

“Please stop talking,” Eliot responded. 

I laughed a bit, “The fact you can find those things is wild.”

“Hey,” Eliot greeted the receptionist, and I could hear the smile in his voice, “How ya doin’?”

She didn’t respond to him, only lifting a finger signaling for him to wait a moment. 

He turned away from her in a way that I could visualize him leaning against the counter. “Oh, I’m so in,” he said a bit cockily.

My smile soured a bit, remembering just how much of an eye for pretty chicks Eliot had.

“Hey Eliot, what’s that blocking your button cam?” Hardison asked him. I furrowed my brow, as while it was a bit warped because of how small it was, it wasn’t too bad. That was until Hardison finished his thought, “Oh yeah, it’s your ego!”

That made me smile a bit again before moving it along, “Parker? Whatcha got?”

“First ten floors are free climbing heaven, but after that, it's a slip and slide,” she responded easily before a random person started to vaguely harass her, saying she had pretty hair. 

“Uh, Parker, maybe don’t stay next to that person.”

I didn’t get a response from her as Nate and Sophie walked in bickering.

“When was the last time you had a date?” Sophie asked him which caught my attention. “A real date… with food?”

“Stop,” Nate responded before his attention turned to us, “Hardison…”

“I don’t think that counts,” Sophie commented before turning to me to answer her question.

I only shook my head to indicate that it had been a long time. 

“Are you running recon on Lillian Foods?” he asked us. 

“Uh, yeah?” Hardison responded for the both of us. 

“Don’t you think you should consult with me first?”

“Did he just…?”

“We do this all the time, Nate,” Sophie defended. 

“Hey, look man, where do you think all my intel comes from? For the last time, there is no blueprint fairy.”

“Yeah, well, I want you to pull them out. Do it now,” Nate told him as he poured himself a cup of coffee. 

“Why? What’s up?” I asked him. He seemed a bit more strict than a usual job.

“Look, we know what we’re doing, man. It’s a food company,” Hardison rebuffed. 

“No, you don’t. No. Not with a place like this. You don’t know what you’re doing,” Nate insisted. 

I watched on the screen as Eliot started to get escorted away, “Eliot?”

“Give it exactly two seconds before this becomes a train wreck.”

And just like that Eliot responded, “Hardison, we’ve got a problem.”

“What kind of problem?” He asked. 

“They’re MRI-ing my pizza and their stance says ex-CIA.” 

“You could tell somebody worked for the CIA just from how they stand?” Hardison asked before I could. 

“It’s a very distinctive stance,” he whispered back. 

I watched anxiously as a bunch of red flags and alerts popped up on Hardison’s screens. Hardison started to hack back with a vengeance to try and take back some control. I had faith in him, but the beeping and buzzing and flashing lights really didn’t make me feel better. Suddenly it took a turn for the worse where the screens said system lock out. 

“Uh, Eliot, I think you should get out of there,” I said into the comms before the power in Nate’s apartment went out. 

“Right now,” Hardison added on. 

I glanced back to where Nate was sitting at the kitchen table with his hands raised as if to say, ‘see? This is what happens.’

“I’m working on it,” Eliot responded, accompanied with the sounds of fighting. “Parker, I’m comin’ out hot.”

“Okay, all clear out here. Just me-” she started to respond before the same person from earlier’s voice came through. 

“Copy that, I think I got one out here, too.”

“Parker, did you stay next to that guy? That doesn’t sound good,” I commented, partially to her, but mostly myself. 

It sounded like Eliot got through the worst of his escape as he whispered, supposedly to the receptionist, “I’ll call ya.”

I rolled my eyes to myself, of course he would do that. 

“You know when I said you had pretty hair?” the guy next to Parker asked, “I was lying.”

I gagged, what a creep.

“Yeah, well, so was I when I said you didn’t… wait, damn it.” Parker responded before it sounded like she made her escape. 

“Hardison?” Nate asked him after a little bit. 

“Wait for it,” he said as he typed on his keyboard before the lights came back on. “See? There wasn’t no problem. I mean, I had it under control.”

He rambled on for a little bit longer, clearly flustered, as I laid my head back against the chair I was sitting in, letting out a sigh of relief that it was okay. 

Later, when Eliot and Parker were able to make it back to the apartment, we sat around the kitchen table as Nate talked to us. I was still trying to figure out if he was going to chew us out or be nice and just explain what went wrong. 

“So, pizza delivery guy was your big plan?”

“You know what man?” Hardison said, “It was recon, okay? Information gathering has historically been a very safe and peaceful business. It was a food company! Wasn’t like they were making weapons.” 

I glanced at Eliot as he shifted an ice pack he was holding to his arm. 

“Listen,” Nate said, “I’ve worked insurance for companies like this. Anyone gets their hands on the company’s food patents could cost them billions. And by the way? The guard that stuff better than defense contractors.” Nate explained. 

Hardison looked at me in disbelief, but I shook my head, “Hey, I didn’t know that.”

Parker poked at Eliot’s arm, “does that hurt?”

“Yeah.”

“Well that explains all the ex-spooks hanging around the lobby then,” Sophie commented. 

“You know what?” Hardison said a bit aggressively, “Ya live and ya learn.”

“No. I lived, alright,” Eliot cut in, “You sat behind a computer and acted like Kool Moe Dee.”

“What’d you call me? Kool Moe Dee? Like you even know anything about Kool Moe Dee. I was gathering very crucial information.”

“Does that hurt?” Parker poked Eliot again.

“Yeah.”

“How about now?”

“Alright!” I stood from my seat and smacked my hands on the table, a little overstimulated with all the arguing, which stopped it. “Parker, please stop poking Eliot, assume that it hurts. Eliot, we are very glad you lived, and Hardison…” I sighed, the little bit of adrenaline that I had worn off already, “what crucial information did you happen to gather in this train wreck?”

“Yes,” Nate said, backing me up a bit as I slowly sat back down, “How about you share that crucial information with the rest of us.”

I glanced up at Eliot who was looking at me with a softer expression, but I looked back down at the table, my hands in my hair.

“You know what?” Hardison answered Nate, “You ain’t said nothin’ but a word.” He pulled a remote out of his pocket, starting up the screens. 

We all started to make our way to the living room to hear what Hardison had gathered.

“Hey, you heard y/n, stop it,” Eliot said to Parker after she poked him one more time. 

“Eliot, what are you doing?” Nate asked, walking around the table towards him. 

“She’s poking me,” he replied, watching as he came closer. “Don’t man…” He said, shrugging him off as Nate grabbed his hurt arm too, rubbing it in a little more. 

I chuckled, “Come on Eliot, I’ll protect you from the meanies.” I walked ahead of him and was pleasantly surprised when he sat down so I was next to his injured arm.

He tapped his knee to mine, “you better.”

I tried to fight the smile that was growing a bit too wide as Hardison began the briefing. 

“Lillian Foods is the third largest food company in the world. Last year it made 12 billion dollars,” Hardison started. “This is the vice president of the frozen food division, Erik Casten. Erik with a K, Casten with a C.”

“How is that relevant?” Nate asked. 

“Oh,” Parker answered, “Eric with a C, nice and friendly. Erik with a K, evil.”

“I mean, she has a point,” I corroborated. 

“I didn’t know that,” Sophie commented. 

“Everybody knows that,” Parker replied.

“According to Dr. Jameson,” Hardison continued, “Erik with a K is trying to cover up salmonella in the frozen dinners so his division doesn’t have to pay out for the recall.”

“That’s why I grow my own food,” Eliot said next to me.

“How do you find the time?” Sophie asked. 

“You make time. I only sleep 90 minutes a day.”

“I didn’t know that,” I whispered to him, “The growing your own food part. That’s super cool. I only have a basil plant on my window sill. But I don’t think that that little sleep is good for you.”

“The basil’s a good start,” he whispered back, not addressing my sleep comment. 

I could never tell what the next thing I was going to learn about him was. I’ve started to seriously wonder what this man couldn’t do. I already knew that failing to steal my attention was not on that seemingly shorter list. 

“So what we have to do is, we have to get a hold of Casten’s report and make it public,” Nate said. “It’s on the servers. How do we get into the building?”

“I think pizza delivery guy is off the table, for the record,” I commented, nudging my knee against Eliot’s, purposefully avoiding his gaze, but I heard him huff a laugh anyway. 

“I am so far ahead of you, man, it’s scary,” Hardison told Nate. “Look, I can’t hack their system from the outside, so I sent a Trojan phone. It’s hacker 101.”

I pulled out my phone, “Oh, if this is a course, should I be taking notes?”

“You might as well be,” Hardison answered before continuing, “What I did was messenger a smartphone with an extended battery to an employee that’s on vacation. The package sits in the mail room. It scans for wireless and bluetooth access points. Unfortunately, even their internal servers are locked down like the CIA. So all I was able to get was employee emails.”

“Oh, anything useful there?” Sophie asked. 

“Oh yeah, you know what?” Hardison sat on the edge of his seat, leaning towards her, “Marie from Payroll has a crush on Steve from Accounts Receivable.”

She and I were more invested in this gossip then we probably should have been. 

Hardison pulled up a picture of a shirtless below average guy, “Look, that’s Steve right there on his vacation in Florida from a month ago.”

“She likes him? Really?” Parker asked half-heartedly, voicing my own thoughts as well. 

“Oh yeah. That man is a sexy man-beast right there” Hardison half insisted before moving onto the next piece of gossip. “Now, Shannon and Chris from Marketing, they got a little fight going on with Lauren from Ads.”

“Office politics,” Sophie concluded, “God. It’s lucky we don’t have that.”

Eliot and I shared a look that showed we were both skeptical of that. It was just different kinds of politics. 

“Everybody’s up in there complaining about this state of the company thing tomorrow,” Hardison continued, “And Brian from IT-”

“That’s it right there,” Nate cut in, “That’s our way in.”

“Brian from IT?” Hardison asked, “No, he is not a team player.”

“No no no no no,” Nate responded, “That’s our way in… yeah. Yeah yeah. That’s it. The state of the company meeting. Here we go.”

“What is that?” Eliot asked, “I don’t know what that is.”

“Me neither,” Parker said. 

“It’s like State of the Union?” Hardison offered. 

“What is that?” Sophie asked as well.

“Nate,” I said, “You’re the only one here who’s had like a traditional corporate job. Even with me, the places I worked never did that.”

“Oh right, right,” Nate said, finally understanding, “You guys have never had real jobs.”

The rest answered in the affirmative while I gave him a pointed look. He nodded apologetically as if to say, ‘I know you did, but yeah.’

“Alright,” Nate began to explain, “so when I used to work for IYS we would do this all the time. The company, big companies, they make their employees sit for an entire day listening to these boring speeches, lame entertainment, bad food. It’s…” 

Parker huffed a sigh, “I’m so glad I don’t live in the real world.”

I nodded in agreement.

“It’s mandatory,” Nate added. “It’s the only time that all the employees are away from their desks at the same time.”

“Alright, so we go in as caterers. We download the report while everyone’s chucking back the mini quiches. Easy,” Sophie concluded. 

“No,” Hadison contradicts, “see, it’s a food company. All the catering is in house. The only outsiders involved in the whole big operation are the entertainment.”

“And who would that be?” Nate asked.

“Oh, you gonna love this… It’s a magician.”

Nate perked up, looking at me, “ah…”

I, in turn, deflated, “no…”

The now former entertainment was a magician, and from what Hardison told us, he was pretty slimy. A couple of sexual harassment charges didn’t help. It didn’t take much for Hardison and Parker to dismantle his show and get him arrested for punching Hardison in the face. 

The next day Sophie called Lillian Foods to explain the problem and give us an in to replace ‘Chronos the Magnificent.’ Nate went in first as ‘head magician’ talking to the head of security.

“Harry Turner,” he said, handing the security guard a business card. 

“The magician, I know.”

“Illusionist,” Nate corrected, “Magicians do kid’s parties. I do Fortune 500 companies.” He waved us over, “Uh, right this way gang.”

“Woah, and who are these people?” The security guard asked. 

“Oh, this is my team, I believe you spoke with my manager, this is Nell Carver,” he waved towards Sophie who was rolling in a cart of supplies before introducing the rest of us, “my illusions designer, Frank Brunner, my lovely assistant Clea, and of course my beloved apprentice Miss Birdie.” 

I fought to not roll my eyes at Nate introducing me as such, hoping we could get past security without me blowing it. 

Hardison stepped forward towards the guard, “Hey man, I hope you have a doctor in the house, because this man right here is gonna blow your mind.”

“Alright, come on, we’re on a very tight schedule,” Nate said as he started to walk forward. 

“Nothing gets in or out of this building without being scanned,” the guard said, stopping him. 

“These crates contain my illusions, my life. I’m not gonna reveal my secrets. Come on.”

“That’s not my problem, is it?”

“I’ll take care of this,” Sophie said, stopping Nate from continuing, “Mr. Markland, I’m sure we can figure something out. It’s not possible-”

“Let’s pull up the van, Frank, and let's get out of here,” Nate said. 

“Harry, are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Then an older man walked up to the commotion we were making, “what is going on here?”

“Mr. Price, sir, this is…” the guard started.

Nate turned and introduced himself with a business card, “Harry Turner, illusionist extraordinaire, you are Mr. Price, CEO of this company?”

“I am, what’s going on here?”

“I would like very much, sir, to give your people a wonderful show, but your doorman here would like to look at our boxes of illusions and destroy the illusion.”

I bit my lip to try not to laugh at the obvious manipulation that Nate was pulling, particularly with the context of us being magicians. I never would have dreamed of us being in a situation like this.

“Markland, just lighten up, will ya?” the CEO asked. “It’s a magic show for Pete’s sake.”

Nate repeated him as he followed Mr. Price and led us through security into the building. 

Once we were on stage Nate said, “Okay, we’re clear, let him out.”

Harison opened the giant upright box to let Eliot out. He was dressed in his black stealth related outfit with a beanie on his head that I liked a little too much. He held a classic white rabbit and hat in his arms and carefully stepped around a bird cage at his feet when getting out. 

“It’s a good job you’re not claustrophobic Eliot.” Sophie commented. 

“I was when I was a kid,” Eliot said, shoving the rabbit into Nate’s hands, “take this damn thing.”

“Really? How’d you get over it?” Parker asked while taking the rabbit as Nate handed it to her.

“I locked myself in a woodshed behind my house for a couple nights. After that I was fine.”

I looked at him in disbelief, pausing my task of unpacking the bird cage and checking on the birds inside, “That is the worst form of exposure therapy I have ever heard of… Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“That is so funny,” Parker said, “I was scared of the dark and did the exact same thing.” She then relayed a story of how her friends buried her alive in a wood chest when she was a kid.

“That is not the same thing,” Eliot responded. “What’s wrong with you?”

“I take it back Eliot, Parker’s is worse.” There were moments like this where I questioned where my life path has taken me to get to the point where my friends are these people. Then I remember that it is my own damn fault for willingly following Nate’s hard left turn in life. I shrugged to myself before continuing to prepare.

“So, you’re actually enjoying this,” Sophie said to Nate. 

“You know, being a magician, it’s the next best thing to being a con artist, you know? It’s all about misdirection and control.”

“So no one actually told you that you can’t control life. You see, this is why you’re not in a relationship.”

“No, Sophie, I’m just very focused on my work right now. You know, I was out of control before. Now I’m in control, it's a good thing.”

Hardison turned to me, “You do not seem very pleased about this, but you are kinda confident right now, so I’m confused.”

I glanced at him as I kept unpacking stuff, “Uh, yeah, because when I was in middle school, Nate and I went through a magic phase where we worked together and learned a lot of this stuff. We got pretty good at it, not gonna lie…” I then pointedly said, “Though I don’t understand why I have to go by Miss Birdie like I did when I was like 12 and Nate can’t go by Monsieur Kitty!”

“Do you hear yourself right now, y/n?” Nate asked.

“Yes, and I can be petty when I want to be, you’re using my childhood nickname against me.”

“So you know how to do all this magic stuff?” Eliot asked.

“Absolutely,” Nate answered, “Positively, yeah. It’s all about the rabbit. You know having… by the way, where’s the rabbit,” he asked, turning around before shrugging it off. “Hardison, let’s go over the plan.”

We all gathered around Hardison as he started to outline the plan. As he did so, I couldn’t help but notice how my heart was beating faster than it should be. I knew I was nervous about this, the stage, performance, how much the team was relying on this distraction, and every little thing that had to go right, but I maybe didn’t realize how much until we were here and I took the moment to stop.

“Okay, the show opens with our friend Erik Casten delivering the state of the company speech,” Hardison said. “The speech is scheduled to last an hour, giving myself, Eliot, and Parker enough time to go down to the server room, hack the servers, download the report, and get back downstairs.”

“So, massively there will be no magic show,” Sophie said. 

This helped calm my nerves a little bit, but something in my gut told me something was going to go wrong.

“Oh no, there might be a magic show. Absolutely,” Nate said which counteracted Sophie’s statement and its effects. “We might want to treat these people to the illusionist extraordinaire!”

Eliot and Nate laughed a bit as Nate bowed to the empty auditorium. I tried to laugh with them, but all that came out was a shaky breath. To counteract this, I turned my attention back to the props, including the birds, and pantomimed the motions of making them appear and disappear. I vaguely heard Sophie say something about Nate getting a girlfriend, but I was too focused on practicing the few tricks that I remembered. 

My gut turned out to be right, unfortunately. Instead of giving an hour long speech, Erik Casten’s speech was barely five, keeping it ‘short and sweet.’

“...and let’s give a warm welcome to… Harry Turner, illusionist extraordinaire,” Erik finished. 

“Shit,” I said, mostly to myself. 

“That’s you,” Sophie realized. “Hey, you’re on.”

“Parker, I need my assistant,” Nate said into the comms, as the other three were somewhere in the building going to hack the servers. 

“How come Parker gets to be the assistant?” she asked. 

“How come Nate gets to be the magician?” Hardison asked. “I do card tricks too. I do great card tricks.”

The rest of them were bickering over comms, asking about doing each other's jobs, while the stage was sitting empty. I eventually shoved past Sophie and Nate to get on stage, ignoring the nerves and my rapidly beating heart. I approached the center of the stage and looked at the crowd of people sitting in the previously empty auditorium.

“Hello Lillian Foods!” I said, trying to decide if the waver in my voice was noticeable to anyone else. “As you might suspect, I don’t quite fit the name ‘Harry Turner.’”

To my relief, the crowd laughed a bit which drowned out the bickering still going on in my ear. 

“To everyone’s relief, as well as my own, that is not my name. I am Harry’s apprentice. You may call me Miss Birdie.” The thought of changing my stage name crossed my mind, but I thought it was easier this way. As some people in the crowd said hi to me, using the name, it made me smile. “I think I am on the same page as most of you when expecting a big long speech from your vice-president. And while you may all have been relieved…” 

The crowd cheered and laughed as they could see where this was going. 

“My mentor was not as prepared as he should have been to be on stage this soon, that is where I come in. I’m sure any interns in the audience know the feeling.”

That got a particularly large roar from the crowd. I glanced off stage where Nate and Sophie were arguing still, though not as much as before. Nate gave a pointed eyeroll and shrug at me which encouraged me to continue. 

“I must apologize as I am a little more familiar with close up magic, so let me know if you can’t see anything and I’ll try to make it work. Do you see what is in my hand?” I raised my hand to show some quarters pinched between my fingers. 

The crowd responded in the affirmative before I continued. I did some subtle disappearing tricks before making them reappear with the exception of one. 

“Hmm, it seems I lost a quarter somewhere… Any ideas?”

The crowd booed a bit with the skeptics yelling out where the quarter could be. ‘In your hand! In your pocket!’ etc etc. 

“In my pocket?” I asked, I pulled out my pockets inside out and a few coins came out. “There's some coins, but they look like pennies to me, how about my coat pockets?” I took my blazer jacket off and shook it upside down. A comically large amount of pennies fell out of it. “I need some help examining all these coins… Is there a Dave Bickle in the audience today?”

There was some cheering in one corner as he stood up. 

“Dave, do you mind coming up here and helping me?” He started to walk over before I added, “Bring your coffee, I know you can’t live without it.” 

The crowd chuckled as he came up, coffee in hand. I asked him if he saw my missing quarter anywhere in the spread coins, which he said no. When he wasn’t paying attention, I was able to slip the ‘missing’ quarter in his coffee mug. I was glad it was a mug rather than a covered cup or tumbler, which made it easier. I made sure there was no splash and that it was out of sight for most of the audience. 

“Well, I guess I’m too good at making things disappear, but not great at making them come back… You know something about that, especially with coffee, huh, Dave?” I knew I was milking this bit, but Mr. Price didn’t give us much to work with for crowd work. When Dave laughed and took a sip of his coffee he came out with the quarter in his mouth. I held up my handkerchief to take it back from him, “Oh! You found it, thanks, that’s my bus money for later!”

The crowd laughed and gave a little applause as Dave went back to his seat. I glanced over to Nate to see Parker had joined him and Sophie backstage. I took this as an okay for me to finish up since they seemed a bit more prepared now. 

I quickly introduced Nate as Harry Turner and had him come on stage for his performance. He graciously brought me a broom to sweep up all of my pennies so they wouldn’t interfere later.

“That was really good, y/n! You have all the skills of a pickpocket with sleight of hand, why didn’t you mention it earlier?” Sophie congratulated me once I got off stage. 

“I have blocked out those memories up until yesterday and to be completely honest, I can only half hear you over the blood pumping in my ears right now, how is everything else going?” I kind of laughed to myself, I couldn’t believe I had done that. As I picked up the coins from the floor I could see that my hands were still shaking. 

“That’s natural after being in front of a lot of people, we’ll get you trained up as a grifter and thief in no time!”

I smiled at her sentiment, but didn’t encourage it. As I slowly calmed down I could hear that things were not going great upstairs; Erik had the same idea as we did: accessing the server room while everyone was downstairs. Except he was deleting the files we were trying to access. 

Hardison and Eliot were able to make it up to a higher level to gain access to the computers but they needed higher clearance authorization to gain access. Nate was able to gain Mr. Price’s fingerprints by simulating a trick on stage, but then Hardison said we needed him for retina scanners as well. Nate caused Mr. Price to ‘disappear’ in a magic box by switching it out for an empty one. Sophie and I pushed the box Mr. Price was in to the elevator and shipped him up to Eliot and Hardison. 

It wasn’t long after Sophie and I returned to the backstage that Hardison gave an ‘uh oh’ in addition to the fact that Erik had deleted all of the files before he could get to them.

“Uh oh? What do you mean uh oh?” Eliot asked.

I heard a security guard demand that he get out of the elevator.

“Oh. That uh oh.”

Sophie and I looked at each other in worry and returned to the elevator as we heard Eliot beat up some guards. 

The elevator opened and Eliot stepped out over the guards, “Show’s over. We’re blown.”

“Nate, bring down the curtain,” Sophie said. 

“We’ve got to go!” I added. 

The three of us made our escape and listened for the others to do so. We all made it out with the exception of Hardison who had been caught in the locked junction room where he accessed the servers. They had brought Hardison out of the building to try and find the rest of us when Parker swiped Erik’s phone. 

Nate proceeded to call one of the guards and talk to Erik on his own cell phone and blackmail him into removing the frozen food line that was contaminated off the shelves. He did so by planting the company’s patents on Erik’s phone. The client was there to stick the final nail in the coffin by informing Mr. Price and getting Erik fired.

When we rendezvoused at Nate’s apartment, the rest of us were unwinding and eating dinner while Nate continued to research clients… Working. 

Sophie voiced her concern about him.

Eliot shrugged her off saying that he’s fine. The fact that we pulled this one off proof that he’s at the top of his game. 

“Well that’s the problem. He keeps winning.” Sophie said, “And everytime he wins he believes a little bit more that he can control… life.”

“It’s what gets him through the day,” he replied. 

“What happens when he loses? The last time he lost, it broke him. He breaks again… I don’t think even we can pick up the pieces.”

I didn’t know what to say to that since I thought she might be right. Instead, I stood and moved to the fridge behind Eliot to see if there was anything there that tickled my fancy. Eliot followed me with his box of takeout, leaning against the counter beside me. 

“Do you want some of this Kung Pao?”

I looked at it for a second before grabbing some chopsticks off the counter and grabbing a bite.

“So, you really know some of that magic stuff, huh? I heard it over comms, the crowd was digging it,” Eliot said between bites.

I laughed, “Yeah, a little bit.” I took another bite before saying, “I didn’t get to do my signature trick though.”

“Oh yeah?” He smiled, “show me.”

I thought about it for a second before obliging him. I moved to tuck some hair behind his ear, a slight misdirection. He watched me closely, eyebrow raising slightly at my movement. When my hand was slightly out of his sight, I flipped my wrist and released the dove that was sleeping comfortably in my sleeve. It made a louder rustling noise than I had anticipated, but he didn’t even flinch. I pulled my hand back so I could show him the bird sitting on my finger.

He smiled as he looked at it. He then looked between me and Nate, “birdie.”

I nodded, “Birdie, but he’s the only one that can call me that.”

He laughed and stroked the bird, “That’s alright. I’ll stick to sweetheart.”

A/n: Reblogs and comments are welcome and encouraged! Thank you for reading!

Tags: @isoldeahlstrom @kniselle @technikerin23

#eliot spencer x reader #eliot spencer #leverage #rewrite #slow burn #multichapter #nate ford #sophie devereaux #alec hardison #parker #ford!reader

[sunshine-draws]

》 Sleep Tight, My Dear Traveler 《

∙⊱⋅Tighnari x GN! Reader Oneshot

Words: 4.8k

Tags: Just pure fluff, Mutual pining, Reader is the Traveler and is referred to by They/Them and You/Your pronouns

CW: Jokes about parenthood/Paimon practically being the Traveler's child, MAJOR SPOILERS for Tighnari's story quest! Read at your own risk!

》A/N: Happy birthday, Tighnari!!! I wrote a little something to celebrate (*￣∇￣)ノWe adore the fox boy in this household. I hope you enjoy the fic!

When you accepted the commission to handle a region plaguing the Avidya Forest, you never expected Tighnari himself to join you. Simply put, you had just assumed that he was too busy with other matters already at hand. Too busy to help you investigate a contaminated region that you could very much handle on your own, at least. The life of a Forest Watcher was a hectic one, you knew that much, so you didn't want to bother Tighnari if he had more pressing issues to tend to.

... Like taking care of a sick child practically on his deathbed, for example.

You and Paimon had made your way to Gandharva Ville in pursuit of the Forest Watcher, but sure enough, he was already preoccupied with something- Or rather, someone- Instead. Laying on the bed in front of him was a small boy who was seemingly passing on his... Will? To Tighnari? It was an unusual sight, considering how you were all crowded in and around Tighnari's office, rather than the village's specialized infirmary.

Not wanting to interrupt anything, you urged Paimon to stay quiet for the time being, and just knocked on the doorframe a few times to let Tighnari know of your presence.

Looking up from where he was standing, the Forest Watcher casually nodded in your direction, before turning his attention back to the child in front of him. Taking it as an invitation, Paimon let herself into the office, darting here and there to get a better look at the two Sumeru residents. You, on the other hand, just watched in silence as the others conversed.

"What happened..? Tighnari is he..." Paimon started, looking over the Forest Watcher's shoulder and completely disregarding your warning of 'be quiet'.

"Okay, okay, enough nonsense. Yara, you just have a small fever. Take your medication and rest. You'll be bouncing off the walls in no time," Tighnari sighed and patted the boy, supposedly named Yara, on the head.

It was just as you'd thought: It wasn't anything deadly if they were in Tighnari's office, instead of the medbay with all of the medicinal supplies. As Tighnari chatted with Yara, you simply pulled Paimon outside by her foot and jokingly teased her about being a worrywart over nothing.

"He's fine, Paimon. Kids tend to exaggerate a lot of things, so chill out a bit, would you?"

"Paimon was just concerned, okay?! And let go of Paimon's foot already!"

"Hmm... Nope. I think I'll be holding onto you for a while longer, considering how easily 'concerned' you are. Who knows? Maybe I'll wander off and get sick myself... I wouldn't want to worry my little pet, now would I?"

"HEY! Paimon is NOT your pet!"

"Oh, that's right! You're my mascot, how could I forget?"

"Wh- TRAVELER! That's worse!!! Paimon is Paimon! Your guide!!!"

The little fairy wriggled in place, resulting in you feigning innocence as you let go of her foot- Sending her flying in a certain direction before she looked back at you and pouted again. You had your hands up in surrender and gave a closed-eyed smile in response.

"Well, don't you two seem close?"

Tighnari chimed in, watching as you and Paimon bantered back and forth. Paimon profusely shook her head at that statement, darting behind the fox as if he were some sort of meat shield.

"Tighnariiii! They're being mean to me!" She wailed, shooting an accusing glance at you afterward.

"Whatever do you mean? Our precious Traveler here? Surely you jest, Paimon. They wouldn't hurt a fly." Tighnari rolled his eyes sarcastically, going over to where you were standing.

You two exchanged glances for a bit before both of your composures broke into hearty laughter. Tighnari cut it short by waving his hand, turning towards you with a gentle smile afterward.

"What brings you here today, Traveler?"

"Ah- Right! I almost forgot. You see, the situation is..."

"Hmm, I see... So the contaminated region is the cause of all of these problems, just as I'd predicted..." Tighnari wondered aloud, putting a hand to his chin in a thinking position.

Paimon fluttered around curiously, staring at the fox as he was lost in thought. "You already knew of this, Tighnari?" She asked bluntly, tilting her head to the side. The Forest Watcher just nodded, before speaking up again.

"I've been keeping a close eye on this area for a while. As things are now, it's extremely dangerous for anyone who doesn't possess a vision to just waltz on in there. If a regular person were to get lost in that area, the side effects could be fatal— Possibly deadly, if they aren’t careful." Tighnari let out a low groan, bringing his hand up to massage the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"Over the past few days, several people have been affected by this area and required my immediate attention. As scatterbrained and troublesome as they are, I couldn't just leave those goons on their own, so I never had the chance to investigate the region myself. I've had a few rangers close off the area, but by some miracle, there always seems to be someone who slips past my efforts."

"You mean like Yara..? Didn't he go into the contaminated zone?"

Tighnari sighed, shaking his head at Paimon's question. Crossing his arms over his chest, he tried explaining the situation thoroughly.

"Yes, he did. I just said that he had a small fever to console him, but the recovery process might take longer than I'd like to admit. Luckily, his case wasn't as bad as the others, which was why I was treating him in my office. He'll be fine, but the fastest way to cure him and the others would be to take care of the problem at its source."

Listening to his story, your gaze absent-mindedly went back to the direction of the Forest Watcher's office, where Yara rested. Shifting in place, you mirrored the fox's stance subconsciously- Arms crossed over your chest, completely closed off.

"Tighnari..."

The man in question relaxed a bit after hearing you say his name, letting his arms fall to his sides. Placing a hand on his hip, Tighnari gave you a sympathetic, reassuring smile in response.

"I don't blame him for it, don't worry. Yara's just a child, after all- He didn't know any better. All he knew was that he wanted to play, and just so happened to wander off into the wrong area of the forest. My top priority is to nurse him back to health, so if you'd let me... May I join you to deal with the contaminated region?"

Tighnari then explained that joining you would be like killing two birds with one stone; he would get to deal with the forest's pestering issue at its heart, and both of you would be able to complete your individual goals as you did so. You had no objections with his reasonings of course, apart from his curt little remark to you, before you all set off.

"This way, I can also spend more time with you, Traveler. It's been a while since you've visited, you know?"

Oh, what a sly fox this man was...

"Oi! Stop flirting and get a move on, you two! The forest isn't going to heal itself!"

Before you could say anything in return, Paimon called from a few meters away- Rather loudly, in fact. She really was acting like a toddler, wasn't she? An attention-hogging, hunger-driven one, at that.

"What is she, your child or your guide?" Tighnari asked out in a light-hearted manner, playfully nudging your arm.

At this point, you didn't know yourself. Exchanging a mutual glance with Tighnari, you just shook your head and smiled, before going after your floating companion. The Forest Watcher chuckled at this, following right behind you.

"If she's my child, then I'm definitely not ready to be a single parent."

"Oh? Is this an invitation, Traveler?"

"Think of it as you wish, Tighnari."

You didn't see it, but as you were walking, his tail was swaying ever-so-slightly.

Before you knew it, a whole day had already come and gone. Throughout the span of a few hours, your little party of three went to Sumeru City, Avidya Forest, back to the city, and then back into the forest again. The sun was already beginning to fall by the time you and Tighnari had figured everything out, with the help of Paimon scouting here and there.

Ley Line anomalies, yet again. Something about inconsistencies within the Ley Lines was causing the forest to act up the way it was. There were no animals present, the plants were either wilting or emitting a strange glow, and most of all... There were ruin machines everywhere.

Your party was lucky enough to run into a very peculiar machine, though; a crab-like robot who was serving as your guide through the forest. It held no human intelligence, but it was eagerly driven by spare parts, so Tighnari brought it along to make venturing through the forest easier. As things stood now, the robot didn't pose a threat to you, plus it even guided you past dangerous areas and helped you find a spot to camp for the night. Tighnari occasionally gave it spare parts, as rewards for its helpfulness.

Speaking of, Paimon and that crab-like robot were already long gone, off to search for food... Which left you and Tighnari to set up the camp alone. Your original task was to start the fire, but with your past adventuring experiences, you got it going within the span of a few minutes. Feeling bad for Tighnari, who was trying to set up a huge tent all by himself, you decided that you might as well lend a helping hand. Right now, you were holding it in place and initiating small talk as the Forest Watcher secured it to the ground.

"You really didn't need to call me a 'lummox' earlier, you know?" You pouted childishly, watching as the fox tinkered away at the tent.

Tighnari's ears twitched at this, and he leaned to the side so he could get a better glimpse of you. Smiling playfully, he went along with your little quip before getting back to work.

"Would you prefer it if I called you a blubbering airhead, instead? Ah- Hold that down for me, would you?"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't call me any of those at all!" You laughed, obeying his order and keeping your grip firm.

Finally finishing the tent, Tighnari stood up and dusted himself off, glancing around the campsite one last time. Nodding to himself, he then walked over to where you were crouching and extended a hand in your direction, urging for you to take it. As you silently thanked him, Tighnari lifted you up carefully, bringing you back to your feet. You stumbled a bit, but managed to regain balance with the help of him holding onto your shoulders.

Watching as you brushed yourself clean, the fox smiled fondly at you, before reaching out and wiping some dirt off of your cheek. Sevens knew how you even got dirt on your face to begin with, but that wasn't important right now. All you could focus on was the Forest Watcher, who was holding you as if you could slip away from his grasp at any fleeting moment.

"Tighnari..? What's up?"

You looked at him in confusion, but Tighnari didn't retract his hand. Instead, he just left it there, cupping your face gently as his own features softened.

"You know I say those things to you endearingly, right?"

"Huh? What do you mean by tha—"

"TRAVELERRRR! TIGHNARI!!!" A voice wailed, interrupting whatever little moment you just had.

Paimon flew over, on the verge of a breakdown, blabbering about how she "couldn't find any food and all the animals were gone and the forest was so dark and scary and she's never had trouble scavenging before and now they wouldn't have dinner and—"

Tighnari let go of you, and made his way to where Paimon wept. He patted her head and ruffled it a bit, attempting to console her and tell her that he wasn't expecting much to begin with. You, on the other hand, were left dumbfounded and holding your cheek where his hand was, just a moment ago. It seemed like Paimon didn't notice what you two were doing, before she came over.

"Alright, enough of that. I came prepared, so just give me a moment, would you?"

Sighing once more, Tighnari let go of Paimon and went over to the tent, momentarily disappearing inside of it before walking back out. In his arms was a large brown bag, one you saw him occasionally opening and closing throughout the day. Kneeling by the campfire, the Forest Watcher proceeded to open the bag once more, just to pull out an assortment of fresh fungi, a skillet, and a small paring knife.

Paimon sulked for a bit longer, sniffled, and then drew her attention to the simmering sounds now coming from in front of her. Noticing that her dinner was not, in fact, ruined, her face lit up once more as if she didn't just have a mental breakdown minutes prior. Wiping her eyes, the little fairy just went over to you and watched as Tighnari made quick work with his blade.

"Tighnari? What are you making?" Paimon asked out, the sweet aroma of grilled mushrooms filling her nose. The fox just hummed in response as he placed a few herbs on the skillet, observing as they turned a crispy golden color.

"A mushroom hodgepodge. I've been foraging and collecting some edible fungi, while we were out and about," Tighnari replied, skillfully flipping the mushrooms with a flick of his wrist.

Controlling the skillet with one hand, the fox rummaged through his bag with the other, pulling out three large leaves. Offering them to Paimon, Tighnari smiled as he watched her grab two of the leaves, giving one to you. You and Paimon exchanged confused glances, before examining the leaves handed to you. They were thick and had a very smooth feel to them. Rubbing your thumb along the edge of the leaf, you noticed that they were rather waxy, too.

"Here, hold it out. The mushrooms are hot, so eat slowly," he instructed, portioning the meal on the three leaves. Both you and Paimon watched in wonder, as the steam floated off of the grilled fungi.

"Woah!!! Even though it's steaming, Paimon can't feel the heat on her hands at all! And the mushrooms are so pretty too hehe!~" Paimon cooed, kicking her feet with a giddy smile on her face.

"These leaves have a thick layer of wax, which helps regulate temperature well. They're easy to find around these parts, and we forest watchers use them as makeshift plates all the time," Tighnari explained, smiling as you and Paimon gawked at the meal. He was mostly smiling at you, though. The expression you had was just priceless, with stars practically in your eyes.

Setting aside the empty skillet, Tighnari sat back with his own leaf in hand, gently blowing on it to cool the food down. Picking up one of the mushrooms, the fox took a bite and motioned for you two to do the same.

"Well? The food isn't going to enjoy itself, now is it?"

"Kulilu?"

"Eh?"

All three of your heads turned towards the mechanical voice at once. Sure enough, the robot was back, with a variety of fruits at that. Stomping on the ground a few times, the crab-like robot made an odd chirping noise in expectance.

"Huh, would you look at that? Did you bring those back for us?" Tighnari asked out, watching the strange robot as it bounced in place.

"Ooh, Paimon gets it! It wants another mechanical part, right?"

"Hmm, I see... Sorry, but no part this time."

"Kulilu?!" The robot made another odd noise, before dramatically collapsing on the ground.

You laughed at this, quietly eating your food as you watched Tighnari banter back and forth with the robot. Was he really bickering with a machine? His ears were pressed flat against his head, and you could see his brows furrow with slight annoyance. If you didn't know any better, you would think that he was genuinely upset with a living being.

"That task wasn't important enough. If every little thing resulted in a reward, you might start taking advantage of the system. You'll get a part when the time comes." The Forest Watcher let out an exasperated sigh, and patted the robot on its 'head' as if he were a parent consoling a child.

"You treat it as if it's your kid, Tighnari. Why don't you give it a name, too?" You chuckled, hiding your smile when he looked at you through tired, half-lidded eyes.

"What, suddenly I'm its guardian? I'm starting to pity you, if this is what you have to deal with on the daily—"

"Oi! Paimon isn't a child! How many times does Paimon have to say it?!"

"Oh, I beg to differ."

"It looks like we both became parents, huh? Pfft- Wh?! Hey, Paimon! Don't steal my food, come on!"

"Too bad! If Paimon really IS your kid, then she deserves to have as much of your food as she wants! Hmph!"

"Goodness, you two certainly are a rowdy bunch, aren't you?"

Happily chatting away, with the robot peacefully "sleeping" in the corner, the three of you finished your meal in contentment. Before you knew it, night had fallen, the fire was burning low, and the quiet atmosphere of the forest was finally settling in. Tighnari had offered to keep watch first, so after you helped clean the area, you bid him goodnight and headed into the tent to sleep.

Tighnari watched fondly, as you tucked Paimon into bed and brushed her hair aside, before going to sleep yourself.

"... A parent, huh?"

You weren't sure how many hours had passed, but you awoke when you felt something shift next to you. Turning over, you let out a low hum and opened your eyes slowly, adjusting to the darkness. In front of you was a large figure- At least, larger than Paimon, whom you fell asleep next to.

"Ah- Sorry, did I wake you up?" Tighnari asked out quietly, lifting the blanket and making some room for himself.

You just shook your head and yawned, sitting up and rubbing your groggy eyes. Scooting over, you stayed silent as Tighnari made himself comfortable on the makeshift bed.

"Nnng... It's fine... Where's Paimon?" You questioned, squinting and looking around the tent.

You were completely disoriented, and reality just felt like a huge fever dream right now. As your eyes adjusted, you saw that outside was still pitch black, probably around midnight right now. Tighnari was sitting next to you, moving his tail out of the way so he didn't take up most of the bed. Paimon was nowhere to be found, but the faint tingling noise from outside reassured you.

"She's on watch duty right now. I'm not sure how I feel about her ability to perform, though..." Tighnari responded to your question, nodding towards the general direction Paimon was in.

You hummed out a response, letting another yawn escape your lips as you shifted in place. The Forest Watcher next to you tilted his head curiously, observing you under the faint moonlight that found its way through the tent's fabric.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm gonna go keep her company. That little thing probably fell asleep while floating..." You sighed, stretching a bit before slowly hoisting yourself up.

"Ah, wait-"

"Hmm?"

You felt something warm grab your wrist, just as you were about to head outside. Looking down, you saw Tighnari's hand, gently holding the area between your wrist and your palm. Confused, you turned your head to look at him, only to be met with averted eyes. He cleared his throat, before speaking up again.

"... Stay here. The robot's awake and is currently looking after her, so you can sleep some more."

Easing a little, you sat back down and nodded at his words. Staying still for a bit, the two of you listened to the quiet chirps of the grasshoppers outside in awkward silence. Tighnari's hand was still holding onto you, although now, it was relaxed and currently resting on top of yours. He didn't say anything, like he was anticipating for you to either pull away or to speak up about it.

"Tighnari..?"

"Sorry... This is really uncharacteristic for me, right?"

Retracting his hand, Tighnari cleared his throat, before laying down. Was he too bold? Turning his head away from you, he closed his eyes and went silent again, resting both of his hands over his stomach. You heard him take a few deep breaths, and he opened his eyes slightly, gazing into the distance despite only being able to see the tent's walls.

It seemed like he was trying to look everywhere except for where you were. What's up with that?

Still sitting up, you just watched Tighnari curiously, before mirroring his movements. Laying down next to him, you stared at the tent's roof for a while, and attempted to fall back asleep. However, something just... Didn't seem right. Or rather, it felt like there was something left unspoken, that just didn't sit right with you.

Rolling over, you tucked an arm under your head and faced Tighnari, just staring at him. You didn't say anything, and remained silent as you watched his chest rise up and down in time with his breathing. From this angle, he was really...

"Is something the matter?"

"Ah-!"

Blinking a few times in surprise, you watched as Tighnari rolled over to face you, mirroring your movements this time. He was finally looking at you again. Giving you a small smile, his expression softened, and he reached out with his free hand... Just to poke you on the forehead.

"What? Are you having trouble sleeping?" He asked out, chuckling.

Bringing his hand back, the Forest Watcher gazed into your eyes with complete fondness, that you had to avert your own gaze in embarrassment. Unfortunately for you, in the position you were in, it was extremely difficult for you to hide the growing redness rising from your neck to the tips of your ears. Tighnari had an extremely clear view of you becoming flustered right before his very eyes.

"N-No, it's just... Ah... You looked... Pretty. That's all. You always do, actually. I... I just-" You cleared your throat a little, turning your head away sheepishly.

There was another moment of awkward silence, and you shifted into your original position, laying flat on your back. Tighnari was still facing you, but this time, his eyes were wide and his ears were perked up slightly. Did he hear you correctly? "Pretty"? Is that what you said?

"..."

"..."

Silence. Again.

Goodness, this was just becoming painful, now.

"... Haah, I can't go to sleep like this," Tighnari sighed, sitting up once more. Looking at you, he ran a hand through his hair and spoke up again.

"Traveler, we need to talk. About... Whatever this is."

You gazed up at him, watching as he vaguely gestured towards the both of you. Taking a deep breath, you sat up too, and nodded at his words.

"What is there to talk about? I believe I've made my feelings pretty clear with you just now, haven't I?" You asked, bringing your knees close to your chest and hugging them.

You heard a faint laugh come from Tighnari, and he shifted in place once more. He was now facing you, crisscrossed with his arms draped over his lap.

"Well, yes, but... I want to hear it from you. I don’t want to jump to conclusions or be brazen about any of this. Especially since..."

He trailed off, bringing an arm up to rub the back of his neck. Sighing for the who-knows-how-many-times that night, Tighnari paused for a bit.

"... Since I... Traveler, what... Am I, to you?"

"Huh?"

Looking at Tighnari briefly, you pondered the question, trying to carefully pick your words. When the right words didn't come up, you bit your lower lip and furrowed your brows slightly.

You couldn't. How could you explain the way you felt about him? How every day felt like an adventure, regardless of whether or not you were on the job? How he was the sweetest, most entertaining person you've ever met, despite already traversing through three other nations? How it hurt, knowing that you couldn't remain by his side, no matter what you may feel.

Tighnari took your silence as an answer.

"... I see. If it's too hard to talk about, we can always leave it for later?"

"Ah! No, wait-"

You reached out your hand, but hesitated again, bringing it back to your chest. When you fell silent once more, Tighnari watched carefully, and his ears flattened against his head.

"Am I... Just another face in your adventure? We're both busy people, I understand that. It was a miracle fate brought us together in the first place, even more so that you're in front of me right now. I'm not asking you to stay, but..."

"I like you... Tighnari."

"..!"

Perking up, the Forest Watcher looked at you in surprise, as if he believed his ears were playing tricks on him. You were staring back at him, hand clutching your shirt where your heart was. You could feel it pounding rapidly, and with those large ears of his, you swore that Tighnari could hear it, too.

"I like you. A lot. But... We both know that I can't stay in Sumeru."

"... That's alright with me. Knowing you feel the same is enough."

Tighnari stayed silent, a warm feeling blossoming in his chest. Looking at you, he felt comfort and pure bliss, for what seemed like the first time in an eternity. You, a traveler from beyond the sea of stars, sitting right in front of him with the moonlight caught in your adorable, messy bedhead. You, a traveler who's been through so much, but always persevering and aiding others. You, a mere traveler...

His traveler.

Extending a hand towards you, Tighnari cupped your face gently, looking at you through half-lidded eyes. Caressing your cheek with his thumb, he parted his lips slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but paused again. You just leaned into his palm, looking at him with the warmest gaze imaginable as you urged him to speak.

"... May I..?" He asked out, taking a glance at your lips, before making eye contact.

You responded by giving him a tender smile, to which his expression softened before he drew closer.

The kiss was slow and gentle. Tighnari took his time, and you melted into his embrace almost immediately. When you two finally pulled away, there was a brief moment where you just stared at each other in awe, before you found your lips colliding again. And again. Each time was slightly more passionate than the last.

After it was over, Tighnari held you close, pressing your foreheads together as he breathed out in relief. You heard him chuckle, before he gave the two of you some distance.

"You have... No idea how long I've wanted to do that."

His expression was bittersweet; a mix of relief, guilt, and satisfaction was all visible in his omni-colored eyes. You gazed back at him with the same amount of longing, bringing your hand up to clutch his, which was still holding your face.

"Ahaha~ It’s better late than never, right?"

"Mm... We have a lot of lost time to make up for, then."

Tighnari placed a small kiss on your head, brushing your hair back carefully with his free hand. Pulling away, he smiled and watched as you laid back down on the bed. Perhaps you were finally getting sleepy, now? In the darkness, you extended your arms out toward him, urging for him to join you. Exhaling deeply, the Forest Watcher shook his head, before obliging and making himself comfortable in your arms.

As you stroked his head, you heard a faint swishing sound coming from underneath the covers. Tighnari buried himself in the crook of your neck, with his arms wrapped around your waist.

"Is that your tail wagging..?"

"Ahem! We can... Discuss that tomorrow morning."

"Right... Ah-! How are we going to explain this to Paimon?"

"What, your child of a fairy?"

"No no no, OUR child, now. I told you I wasn't ready to be a single parent."

"Ahaha~ And I suppose I'm actually taking you up on that invitation, huh? Well... Let's just focus on getting some rest, first. We won't be able to do anything, if we oversleep."

"Not so bad if I'm cuddling you, to be honest. Haha... Good night, Tighnari."

"Mmm... Sleep tight, my dear Traveler."

Nestled in the comfort of each other, you and Tighnari drifted off to sleep in a matter of seconds. Needless to say, that was probably the best rest you both had in a while.

#tighnari x reader #genshin impact #genshin impact x reader #tighnari #tighnari genshin #genshin fanfic #genshin impact tighnari

[musicalfroots]

I’m watching my very first K-drama.

And because I’m lost and every turn has me getting really confused, I’ve chosen to log these reactions.

Help.

Spoilers for the Ghost Doctor ahead:

Why do these effects remind of heartstopper in that intro

ARE THOSE FAKE GLASSES

Aw it’s like they’re having little seizures on the patients while giving “CPR”

So everyone is just offloading patients onto this guy???

THE SENIOR SURGEON HAVING A TANTRUM??????? Slapping glasssss???!?!?

What is this????

??????? What

Why is his eye twitching like that

I’m confused on why that child is such a big deal to that group? Just because he walked up to them and spouted facts???

The dings?

Is he mad because the other dude is cocky and friendly? And give gifts???

If I ever saw my professor that scrambled I’d shut up because I’m scared of making them want to hurt me. I wouldn’t just SMILE with a *ding*

OH ARE THEY ABOUT TO THROW HANDS????

OOOOOOP

Awwwwwwww

My dude you’re supposed to TRY. UGH.

More fake glasses?

The peace sign was unneeded

lol is he gonna faint?

So. He’s a surgical intern. That can’t do surgery???

Ooooooooooooof

Okay. So. Incorrect in some ways. DOCTORS CAN save patients with their warmheartedness and people skills. It doesn’t make up if they don’t have actual skills but I’m saying they can make the situation much better. Just saying. You do need skills but you can save a patient with your heart in certain conditions.

Is that a rat! A rodent?????

He’s singing????? What is this?????????

Why are you so smug

Awww he’s really taking to himself. And his. Rodent.

Of course he drives a jeep. A blue one.

Why are the women fawning.

Is the escalator gonna kill him?

And I thought elevators were where the drama was at. Apparently it’s escalators.

An ex?

Ouch an unwelcome encounter. That’s gotta hurt.

Dude. Just listen to do the work in the ER

Oh my god. It’s just a little blood.

Oh she’s there too?

A hospital in Seattle you say? It wouldn’t be Grey-Sloan Memorial Hospital?

Oooooof

Fairy dust *shimmer*

More fairy dust.

Fairy dust tornado!

He’s gotta find his soulmate

Stop backseat driving jeez

Frantic trench coat walking

Does the fairy dust contaminate sterile environments?

Dude do you wanna live or die?

Possess him

Oooooooooo

Fairy dust possession

Save yourself you dummy

Crack those wrists

What’s attitude change

So what’s happened to other dudes soul

That’s one bloody heart

lol the ending montage of pictures ft. Fairy dust.

#k drama #ghost doctor #k dramas are so strange #Netflix thinks I’m crazy in love with all foreign shows #Kim boem

[anchovies-4-dinner]

A Good Partner... | Yan! Tighnari

What if: Tighnari was never good at leaving things to rot

Words: 860 (surprise)

Warnings: Doggie death

A/N: Writer's block always hits ya hard dunnit ≧◠‿◠≦✌

----------------------------------------------------------------

... Always tends to their mate.

... Never pursues others.

... Remains loyal even after death.

If Tighnari had to listen to that mantra again he may as well lob off his ears. Not because it irked him, but because this ancestral bound duty was never reciprocated by his so called partner.

Of course he knew what he was getting into, he didn't need another person lecturing him in his tastes. The neighbourhood sweet talker should've been his absolute last choice yet here he is sleeping by their side.

The first years were pure bliss with the couple sharing eyes for nobody else, yet after marriage there was an unmistakeable awkwardness as you danced along his boundaries. He'd thought your dwindling attraction was of his doing and he hadn't lived up to the expectations of typical mates. So he pushed you out for dates, unrelentingly tried reviving your interest, until he realised that he may have lost you long ago.

That the scent you came back with was undeniably foreign.

Now every lock of your hair down to your flesh was tainted with the stench, so much so that he recoiled from your touch as if you'd been contaminated. Disgust and anger threatened to surface yet he let slip only biting remarks.

What did she have that he didn't? Was it money? Her body? Did it matter? You were bound to him like you promised. There should be no one but Tighnari.

No, you hadn't been a good partner at all.

To think he had once been elated at your 'reciprocation' and foolish enough to think his love alone could change your ways. Well, if cheating was in your nature then could you blame him for acting according to his?

For the price of his humiliation perhaps he should start with straightening you out. Despite the long overdue talk you'd only listened with half an ear. Okay. Fine. Progress comes slow.

During breaks from work he'd lead you to his garden where only a single batch of flowers lay with the intent of a bonding exercise. Fertilisers and seeds were prepared but not planted, for what reason you didn't know. Sag the Dog took a special liking and often watched as you two worked.

Tighnari offered a smile. Sag had only stared.

Eventually, after each disagreement and fight, you two would plant a batch in his little garden a day after. And as depressing as it was soon no inch of the soil was visible. A fairy's dream, if you will. But for all the chaos in your relationship Tighnari would spy you visiting his garden more often, albeit without the company of Sag for fear of it treading.

Fewer nights were accompanied by an empty bed and you began appreciating him. Showers together no longer comprised of scrubbing your skin raw of sickening scents, and breakfast together was filled with the usual banter as it should have from the start. His relationship was flourishing-

Until it wasn't. The mutt had escaped into his garden a random night and tore his work down; every sacrifice, sweat, and effort went down the drain as he slowly approached your frozen figure.

He thought his voice would've been drowned in Sag's barking but you eventually turned with a tired smile.

Tighnari saw right through it.

Before your figure had slipped into the darkness of the forest he'd grazed your cheek with an arrow and slowly took pursuit. It was painfully easy finding you thanks to years of tracking, yet what set him off was the sight of your beloved ring thrown carelessly into a bush. A symbol of his love treated without thought.

Tighnari could still recall the rawness of his throat as he screamed at your semi-conscious body to the point of tasting blood; the drugs had already started taking you but he didn't stop the obscenities until he could hear only blood thumping in his ears.

He didn't acknowledge the tears pricking his eyes. As soon as you were back home he meticulously tried repairing what little remained of the garden; crushed plants were buried back in place mixed with torn petals. It didn't look the same, in fact it looked uglier, grotesque-

The Ranger's fist curled into the soil as bile seared his torn throat. Perhaps the fertiliser's stench was too strong.

The next day the Rangers grieved, especially Amir and the dogs; Sag's body was found bobbing in a fast flowing river. His collar had gotten caught on a branch and he had drowned to death. Such a pitiful end really.

The grave could be found near Gandharva Ville. Every time Tighnari passed by he held back the urge to spit on it.

As for his spouse they had come down with a fever and slight memory loss. Not any trouble for the capable Ranger. You begged to see a doctor but Tighnari would only chide and hand you more 'medicines', after all he knew how to treat you well. Why would you need anything more?

This would only last a few more days, he told. Until I'm satisfied, he thought.

Until my relationship is perfect, he promised.

#yandere genshin #yandere tighnari #gender neutral reader

[monstersqueen]

ok little lb6 points :

murian in between completely blanking up on having exterminated the fang clan having her breakdown compounded by 'but it wasn't even fun ? i just feel empty and disgusted???'

coral at the end talking to aurora about what must be done during the crisis to save what can be saved

mike letting da vinci go

and

barghest breaking and coming to the conclusion fairies are evil and must be exterminated before they contamine human history

aurora, trapped by her own nature, not aware of it and not trying to escape it as others do, saying the most obvious lie and yet utterly sincere in the idea that no she would never

mike, again, even as he proves it false, saying the fairies are monsters

castoria had no spring memories

and

castoria got gifts from fairies for the child of prophecies. she said that well-off fairies would have declared it garbage, and then reveal it was their lives

the bells of pilgrimage exist as symbols of the original six acknowledging their sins. the bells of pilgrimage exist because the six original fairies wished for atonement

anyway.

my conclusion is still that fairies aren't actually worse than humans. they're monstruous and unable of change and yet somehow they can change - too little, too late, but they do.

that's the one salvation they can have - mike letting da vinci go, fairies at londinium defending the round table army, aurora understanding she did only one good thing, by accident, in her life, murian renouncing vengeance and asking for the only salvation britain can have

many of the fairies weren't saved. they died tearing each other and themselves and everything around them apart. but some of them were saved. some of them did find the path to save themselves. the only salvation to be found for britain - atonement.

Anyway ! By the way humans are no better !

This happened in panhuman history

and it wasn't just because some humans are bad. it's because it was

the will of humanity

#myposts #fgo #lb6 #fate hollow ataraxia

[bestfictionalplant]

Round 1, Group 6

Donkey-Cabbage images is from The Yellow Fairy Book (1894).

Propaganda and spoilers under cut

Devil Fruits: There're hundreds of devil fruits but they all grant unique powers to each who consumes one. Said powers may include transforming into an animal or mythical creature, transforming and controling a nature element or manipulating their own bodies. Those who eat one are known as devil fruit users and can't never swim for the rest of their life's.

Donkey-Cabbage: Turns Killer the rabbit into a donkey early in his transmogrification journey over the course of “Calling on Dragons” (he got it from Morwen’s garden); Mendenbar mentions how difficult getting rid of his donkey ears was after eating a magically contaminated salad as a child

#round 1 #one piece #enchanted forest chronicles #european fairy tales

[zafirosreverie]

A virgin’s pray (Agatha x Fem!Reader)

Next

__________________

“I am sure there are a lot of virgins who would love to marry you, Miss Wren” you said and gave the woman in front of you a fake smile. 

You didn’t listen to her answer as you took the small rock in her hand and closed the door behind you, pinching the bridge of your nose. When will they learn?! You already rejected this woman three times and she wasn’t even one of the worst people who wanted to court you.

“I’m going to need a bigger chest” you rolled your eyes as you threw the stone into your heart’s chest. 

You loved living in the coven and the path you chose, but sometimes, you wished it could be an easier one. It’s not that virgins were treated like garbage or like an object or something like that, that was human’s gross nature. In witchcraft, virgins were the most precious thing they could find. 

They were the most valuable wives any warlock or witch could ask for, because virgins had the power of innocence and it meant that their blood and souls were powerful and clean of all terrenal bounds.

So, to have a virgin offer you her "gift" meant the purification of your magic and life.

Something that most magic users seeked for. You see, maybe some dreaming soul could imagine that being able to use magic was something amazing, incredible, useful and totally the very best. And it was...most of the time. But there was always a price in magic. 

And it was that, the more you used magic, the more it became contaminated. It seems simple, but that was only the first of the problems. Because you needed to use it in order to gain control of it, which meant that, inevitably, magic will always end contaminated with terrenal bounds, which also meant that it became weaker with time. 

It was something that most warlocks and witches feared. And that was what made virgins so special, because by receiving this gift, they were allowed to unleash the magic at its purest but with all the control they already learned.

It sounds wonderful, right?

Well, not for you. For you, it was a pain in your ass. 

As a virgin by choice, you had to deal with witches and some warlocks trying to court you, wanting you for the power you held. Yeah, maybe your magic was technically weaker than theirs, but yours couldn’t be contaminated. It was a choice that everyone in a coven made when they turned 18. You could choose the power of witches or the purity of virgins. And when the time came for you, some years ago, you chose the second one. 

At first, it seemed like the best decision ever! Yes, it was hard to give up a part of your power, but it was worth it in your opinion. You had freedom, you didn’t need to train as much as witches and it meant that you had the right to reject anyone who tried to marry you.

Against what the world might think, consensual marriage was an important thing for every coven, because if a virgin was forced into marriage and she didn't want to give her gift to her spouse, then they’d be cursed and their magic would be corrupted beyond all help. Useless, uncontrollable, dangerous. No warlock or witch would want to take the risk. 

That's why most of them would spend a lot of time courting you and the other virgins.

Which led to many, many people to your door.  

You couldn’t really blame them, it was totally your fault. You would never take marriage lightly, especially not after seeing how your father treated your mother, or the way your sister, another virgin, had been burned at the stake because of her wife. You had tried to help her, but there was little you could do, and from that moment on, you swore that you would not marry the first one who asked you, like she did, you’d rather wait for someone truly worthy.

Your mother had made fun of that, a few days before she ended up in the hands of mortals. She had told you that true love was just a fairy tale and that you should be realistic. It wasn't that you were a hopeless romantic, you just knew a different kind of magic that she didn't. And you trusted that at some point, your soul would choose someone worthy. You just had to wait.

Too bad the magical beings were so impatient. Especially when it came to power.

Every time a virgin rejected someone, that person had to give her a rock that contained a piece of their magic. It was a kind of trophy for the virgin. You called them "hearts" simply because it was fun to see their expressions when you’d tell them that you would add theirs to your chest of hearts.

Maybe it had been a bad idea, looking at it objectively, since that little joke of yours had helped your reputation grow and your name was known not only in your coven, but in other close ones as well.

You had rejected many, many people, so you still had the gift of purity, which could only be given once, and your collection of "hearts" was getting bigger and bigger. You knew that, although for you they were mere ornaments because your magic could not grow any more, for anyone else they would be a strong temptation, because by marrying you, they could access them.

"At this rate, whoever I choose is waiting for a great buffet of magic" you joked to yourself.

You cursed internally when you noticed the sun beginning to set. Hell, that woman was seriously wasting your time! You were supposed to be ready for the ceremony in less than an hour!

That was another thing you hated, the fact that when a virgin married, the entire coven had to go. As long as the bride was not you, why would you care if someone married or not? But rules were rules, you guessed.

You prepared the water for a quick bath and took the first dress you found. You had no intention of dressing up more than you should just because it was a wedding. You just prayed it would end quickly.

_____________________

Agatha sighed as her mother yelled at her to hurry up. She didn't even want to go to a stupid wedding! But it wasn't about what she wanted, it never was. It was about absurd and ridiculous traditions.

But she knew better than to anger her mother when it came to ceremonies. It seemed that they were the only occasions in which she remembered that she had a daughter, that she was the heir to the position of matriarch and she demanded that the brunette behave as such.

Honestly, the whole virgin thing and stuff seemed absurd to her. Why would anyone want to give up some of their magic just to help others have more power? It was useless, degrading, and foolish.

"Agatha, for the last time-"

"I heard you" she interrupted the older witch and took her cloak

"You will not go dressed like that" Evanora crossed her arms

"why not?" Agatha asked "I'm not the bride" she smiled and walked out the door, ignoring her mother's sigh.

It was better for the universe that this ended soon and she could go back to her books.

______________________________

You rolled your eyes when Evanora finished giving her speech about power and trust and bonding and whatever other shit she said. Honestly, you had stopped paying attention in the middle of the speech.

All weddings in the coven were always the same. Evanora would give her approval after hearing false oaths from the couple, where they lied when saying that they loved each other and that they would always be faithful to each other. You well knew that your mother and sister had endured various infidelities.

There was no one who had a bond as strong as the one everyone swore.

"Ten crystals that he promises to treat her like a queen" someone said behind you.

You jumped a bit and turned to find an incredibly blue pair of eyes staring straight at you, and a mischievous smile that was just too contagious. You knew this woman. She was Evanora's daughter, Agatha.

It was a surprise to see her here. You were sure that the brunette would have no problem sneaking out of the ceremony, after all, she was well known throughout the coven for being irreverent, rebellious and a free spirit.

"Ten more than she blushes and giggles" you said with a smile.

The brunette smiled back at you and you both turned when the groom started with the list of promises that he would surely break in a year. As Agatha said, he swore to his bride to treat her like a queen and she blushed, looked down and laughed with what she surely thought was a cute laugh, but that to your ears it seemed the most false they have ever listened.

You looked at the woman next to you and you both shared knowing smiles. It was strange being so close to her, because you had never been someone who easily joked around with strangers, but Agatha had something about her, something that made you want to get closer.

The brunette couldn't take her eyes off you. She knew perfectly well who you were, as did everyone here. Your physical beauty had drawn her gaze from the moment she and her mother had arrived at the ceremony and after watching you roll your eyes at her mother's practiced speech, she decided that she had to get closer to you.

She had been sure that you would either ignore her or politely apologize and then walk away from her, but you seemed to enjoy her sarcastic comments and before she knew it, the two of you were exchanging comments and teasing about the entire wedding. Agatha had never met someone like you.

_________________________

Evanora glanced at you as the couple in front of her completed the ritual that would unite them in magic and soul. She had noticed the moment when Agatha had disappeared, of course she did, but she had assumed that her daughter had escaped to the lake, perhaps to loot the kitchen while everyone was busy, anywhere far from here.

That was why it had taken her by surprise when she reappeared at your side. And her stomach churned when she noticed the ease with which the brunette struck up a seemingly friendly conversation with you.

As the matriarch of the coven, Evanora had an obligation to know each and every person in her charge. And she knew perfectly well the power you had and how dangerous it could be in the wrong hands.

More specifically, in the hands of Agatha.

Her daughter and her hunger for power were a burden enough, she didn't need her to gain more power than she could control. She trusted you to have good judgment and to walk away from her, but the more she saw you tease and get closer to each other, the more nervous she grew.

She knew you had just met, and she begged all powers that this was just a one time thing. That you were just being nice and that's it. But she wasn't stupid either, and she knew there was a magic beyond her control, one that acted on its own whim and that nothing could be done when it trapped two souls.

_______________________

You laughed at Agatha's last comment as you watched the newly married couple disappear, probably to end their "duty" at home.

"That was shorter than I expected" you said

"Do you think they lacked lies to tell?" the brunette smiled at you

You laughed easily and playfully punched her on the arm. In the last hour, she had proven to be better company than expected and you would be lying if you said you didn't find her beautiful. But there was something that terrified you.

You could feel a part of you calling out to her.

Agatha was about to say something else, when she felt her mother's eyes on her back. She didn't even need to turn to know that she was viewing her with disapproval and fury. Nothing new. But for some reason, the idea that her mother might do something in front of you, embarrassed her.

The brunette had never cared what people said about her, but for some reason, she respected you enough.

"I think you'd better go home" she told you "so much love and lies must be tiring"

You laughed and blushed slightly "And I'm sure you miss your books" you said "Well it was an honor to meet you, Miss Harkness"

"The pleasure was mine"

"Have a good night"

You both smiled one last time before bowing respectfully to the other and going separate ways, but with a feeling of closeness.

Evanora sighed in relief when she saw you walk away from her daughter at last. You were a good girl and she would hate for Agatha to corrupt you. Or so she told herself, but deep down, she knew it was fear that she was feeling. Fear that her daughter would find an enormous source of power, one that she definitely didn’t deserve.

____________________________

When you went to sleep later that night, there was a voice in your chest, a tender one that invited you to follow her. It scared you, and you told yourself it was your imagination, because you didn't want to accept that maybe, just maybe...

Your soul was choosing.

- - - - - - - - - - -

KH tag: @mochiadria

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