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ghostflowerdreams · 4 years

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Fanmade Harry Potter Spells

I found my old list of made up Harry Potter spells. If I remember correctly the idea was to have these spells appear in my story (apparently I never got that far into writing the story) because I wanted to expand more on the wizarding world. Some of them would be commonly used or known by nearly everyone, while others would be recent inventions by muggleborns or half-bloods because they would be the ones most annoyed by how stagnant and old-fashion most of the magical folks are (or at least those in Britain).

I figured muggleborns or half-bloods would try to find or create an magical equivalent to some of the muggles’ advancements. For example, wizardry kind would have spells, potions and magical creams or pastes that would treat sunburns, but a muggleborn might be the one to invent a spell to prevent it in the first place. Simply because they would have the know-how from their muggle education about it.

Note: I don’t think I got all the spells type right, but after a while everything was starting to blurred together for me. Because in my old notes I never bothered with categorizing them into spell types. Anyway, if you want to add onto this list you can. You can even use these spells in your HP story if you really like them.

Charm Spells

Is spells that adds certain properties to an object or individual. Charms are distinguished from transfigurations in that a charm adds or changes properties of an object; it focuses on altering what the object does as opposed to what the object is.

Incantation: Solis Protego Etymology: Solis is the Spanish name derived from the Latin sol, literally meaning “sun," and protego, means “to protect” or “to cover” → it basically means "protection from the sun". Use: Causes an invisible layer to appear on the target body like a second skin, which will protect them from the sun’s harmful rays. Note: It’s basically a spell version of a sunscreen; sunblock.

Incantation: Temporalis Servātus Creātūra Etymology: From Latin tempus “time” →temporis “temporarily”. From Latin servo “maintain; preserve” and creō “I create, make” → creātūra “creation”. Use: Causes any creation to be temporarily preserved in whatever current state it’s in. Note: It’s mostly used by artists, such as painters, sculptures, calligraphers, etc. For example, a tattooist would use it because it allows their clients to test out tattoos before they become committed to it.

Incantation: Animātus Creātūra Etymology: From Latin animus “the soul, thoughts, intellect, ideas, will, thoughts, courage, etc.; the breath, life”, closely related to anima “air, breath, spirit, life force” → animātus “animated, revived; alive”. From Latin creō “I create, make” to creātūra“a created thing; creature” and/or “creation”. Use: Causes any piece of artwork; such as a drawing or a sculpture to be animated. Note: Casters must visualize what they want to happen when it comes to the drawings or paintings. And if it’s a sculpture then they must imagined how they wish for the creation to be like when it comes ‘alive’.

Incantation: Semper Adjustus Corporis Etymology: From Latin semper “always”. from Latin ad “to, up to, towards” + iustus “correct, proper, exact”. From Latin corpus “body”. Use: Causes items, specifically clothing to always fit the wearer’s body.

Incantation: Dūcere Etymology: From Latin dūcō “lead, guide” → dūcere “to lead”. Use: Caster places their wand flat on their open palm and says the incantation while visualizing the person, place or object that they need to locate. The wand will move like a compass and point in a direction for the caster to follow. Note: This isn’t a very accurate locator spell, but it will give the caster a general direction of where to look. It also won’t work if the caster or the target they’re searching for is under a Fidelius Charm and/or they are too close to a large concentration of magic, such as a ley line or a magical community because the high amounts would cause interference with the spell. To be more specific the caster may say something like ‘Dūcere Ad [Person’s Name/Place or Object]’, which means ‘to lead to...’ Note 2: There is a canon spell ‘Point Me’ that does a similar job which was found by Hermione Granger for Harry to use. However, the difference is that it’s always fixated on the cardinal direction North. It can only be use as a compass and not as a way to locate people or objects. It’s also one of the few known incantations to be in modern English, rather than Latin or another ancient language. This implies that it could’ve been a recently created spell.

Incantation: Quaerō Indiculum Etymology: From Latin quaerō “I seek, look for” and indiculum “index, list, catalogue”. Use: Summons a index, list, or catalogue to appear before the caster of all the contents of the room. This makes it easier when searching for something in particular. Note: This will only work in libraries, file rooms or other archival collections.

Incantation: Sīscō [Insert What You Want To Know/Find] Etymology: From Latin scīscō “seek to know; ask, inquire”, from sciō “know”. Use: Once a caster is in possession of a index, list or catalogue this spell narrows down the contents to what they’re searching for within the database, book or filing cabinet.

Incantation: Scrībō Verbatim Etymology: From Latin scrībō “I write”. Verbatim is derived from the Latin word verbum for "word.” Together it should mean “I write word for word”. Use: Causes any writing instrument to write down the target’s exact speech. Note: It’s basically a self-writing spell. It can be applied to any writing instrument such as fountain pens, pencils, typewriter, and so on. Caster must point at the target(s) or else it will write down every little word of whoever or whatever speaks that’s in the immediate vicinity.

Incantation: Loquora Animālis Etymology: From Latin loquor “talk, speak” + a “to” and animālis “animals”. Use: Caster is able to speak to animals. Note: It’s a one-way communication spell. That means the caster can speak to any animal, but they won’t understand the animal when they speak back. This spell is mostly used to give animals a explanation, which can help to prevent misunderstandings and possibly initiate cooperation. Just be sure to establish a reliable 'yes' and 'no' with them.

Incantation: Detectus Manipulado Etymology: From Latin detectus, perfect passive participle of detegere “to uncover or disclose”, from de- + tegere “to cover”. Latin manipulus “handful, sheaf, bundle,” from manus “hand” + root of plere “to fill”. Sense of “skillful handling of objects” → “handling or managing of persons”. Use: Allows the caster to know if the target has any intention of manipulating them or if an object has been tempered with such spells. Note: The wand will glow or vibrate.

Incantation: Vōx Mūtō Etymology: From Latin vōx “voice” and mūtō “change, alter”. Use: Causes the target’s voice to be alter by raising the tone or pitch of it or adds distortion. To do so the caster must raise or lower their wand to find the tone or the pitch they want. And to distort the voice they must move their wand sideways. Note: This spell is most often used by singers and in radio for laughs or to enhance the listener’s experience when it comes to storytelling by changing a male voice into female voice, and vice versa. However, it can also be used to disguise the voice of someone who wants to remain anonymous.

Incantation: Invīsibilis Etymology: From Latin videō “see” → vīsibilis “that may be seen, visible” to invīsibilis “invisible”. Use: Causes the target to become invisible from everyone, including animals. However, it doesn’t hide the target’s scent and whatever noises they make.

Incantation: Albescendentis Etymology: From Latin albescens, present participle of albescere “to grow white”, from albus “white” and the Latin word for “tooth” is dentis. Use: To whiten teeth, but it doesn’t clean them. Note: Magical whitening toothpaste does exist. For example: There was a question asking what product Gilderoy Lockhart used to achieve his "famous dazzling white smile," to which one student answered Gentleman's-tooth-pearling-paste and another answered with Fairy Spark Dust. While the Weasley family uses Piquant Toothpaste, a spicy wizarding tooth paste. It’s made with 100% pure African Red Pepper, it is fluoride free and contains no saccharin, preservatives, or dyes.

Incantation: Insecta Repellere Etymology: From Latin repellere “to drive back” → re- “back” + pellere “to drive”. And insecta from Latin insectum “insect”. Use: To repel all insects from the area or on the casters’ self. Note: Caster must wave their wand around them or the area in a circle. This is quite useful when camping.

Incantation: Volitāre Etymology: From Latin volō “I fly; move swiftly” → volitō 1. “I fly about” 2. “I hasten” 3. “I hover”. → volitāre (present infinitive of volitō). Use: Causes any ordinary object to be capable of flight. Note: If for some reason the Caster doesn’t have access to a professional flying broom they can make one themselves. It will be very basic and works the best on non-magical brooms, carpets and branches. It will also be very finicky without other charms to aid it (such as braking charm, cushioning charm, feather-light charm, non-slip grip charm, etc.).

Incantation: Speculum Etymology: From Latin speciō “I observe, watch, look at” + -culum = speculum ”a looking-glass, mirror”. Use: Allows the caster to spy on a target they know through a mirror and see their current activities. Note: It doesn’t work if the target is under concealment, disillusionment or protective wards. It doesn’t include sound and may not work if the target is too far away.

Incantation: Grandinis Etymology: From Latin grandinosus "producing hail, hailstorm" → grando "hail, hailstorm". Use: It creates a small, localized hailstorm.

Incantation: Auscultō Etymology: From Latin aus-, the original stem of auris “ear”, + Proto-Indo-European ḱel- “to incline” → auscultō “I listen, I hear”. Use: Causes the target to eavesdrop on conversations. They must tap their ear and then aimed their wand in the direction they wish to listen in.

Incantation: Caligomentis Etymology: A hybrid of Latin words caligo, which means “mist”, and mentis, which means “mind”. Use: It creates a cloud of mist to surround the mind of the caster or whoever it’s used on. Note: It’s not fool-proof against a very skilled Legilimens, but it does provide a bit of protection for surface thoughts, emotions, and memories.

Incantation: Caligo Eructo Etymology: From Latin caligo “mist” and from Latin eructo "I raise"; roughly translated, it means "I raise mist". Use: This spell is used to create and control, a cloud of mist to cover the area. Note: The size and thickness of the mist depends on the intent of the caster.

Incantation: Removeō Odos Etymology: From Latin odos “odor, scent, smell” and removeō “I remove, take away”. Use: To remove any vapor, smell, or odor. Note: Useful for when the caster is being track by their smell (such as by vampires, werewolves and so on) or to remove the chemical scent of cleaning supplies, decay, trash, etc.

Incantation: Fortūnātus Viāticus Etymology: ‎From Latin fors “chance, luck” → fortūna “luck, fortune, destiny, prosperity” → fortūnātus “fortunate, prospered, prosperous; lucky, happy.” From Latin via “road, path” + ‎-aticus → ‎viāticus “related to a journey or travel”. Use: Causes the target to have good fortune on their journey or travel. Note: It’s the equivalent of wishing someone good luck on their trip. But instead of ‘wishing’ this spell actually gives a slight boost to the target’s luck. The spell is rarely used because it’s fueled by the caster’s own good fortune and for its duration (typically it’s for however long the target’s journey lasts) they may experience more misfortune than usual.

Incantation: Pillus Aufero Etymology: From Latin pillus “hair” and Latin aufero “remove”. Use: Causes hair in whichever area the spell is directed at to be removed. Note: This doesn’t permanently remove hair. It’s the magical equivalent of waxing. If one wants to permanently remove any hair on their body there are magical creams that do so.

Incantation: Proximitatem Moneō Etymology: From Latin proximitatem (nominative proximitas) "nearness, vicinity," from proximus "nearest, next; most direct; adjoining”. From Latin moneō ”I warn, I advise”. Use: The caster waves their wand at the area in which they want an alert on and than tap on an object (such as a bracelet, ring, etc.), which will glow brightly when the spell has been triggered. Note: This is a silent proximity alert spell. Intruders won’t be aware that they’ve triggered it but the caster will know.

Incantation: Duplicātus Scrīptum Etymology: From Latin duplex “twofold, double” → duplicātus “doubled, duplicated” and from Latin scrīptum “text; anything written, writing”. Use: Caster must tap and drag their wand (or finger, if wandless) across the writing that they wish to copy and than tap onto a blank piece of parchment.

Incantation: Tempus Etymology: From Proto-Indo-European tempos “stretch”, from the root temp- “to stretch, string”, whence also templum “shrine” and tempora. Or from Proto-Indo-European temh- “to cut”. Thus a section (of time). Originally the word meant "what is stretched, stretching" → "stretch (of time)" → "time, occasion". Use: For the caster to know what’s the current time and date. Note: I don’t know the origins of this fan made spell, only that it appeared often in Harry Potter fanfiction. In particular, the time travel stories. It has become obsolete now with the muggle invention of clocks and analog wrist watches. Hogwarts does have a clock tower, which chimes every half hour and strikes a small bell at the beginning and conclusion of class sessions. Nearly all the students, Hogwarts staff and all of wixen do carry pocket-watches and/or wrist watches to help them keep track of time.

Incantation: Tempori Succentivus [time] Ante Meridiem or Post Meridiem Etymology: See Tempus, as the word literally means “on time”. In Latin, succino is from sub-‎ + canō‎ “sing”; which is “sounding to, accompanying”. Also in Latin -invus “doing” or “related to doing”. Use: The caster must tap on an object (such as their wrist watch, pillow, bracelet, etc,) to anchor the spell. When it’s used it will create an alarm that will sing (chime) on the exact time that the caster indicates within their incantation. Note: It’s basically an alarm clock. For example, if the caster has somewhere to be or they wish to wake up at a certain time just say Tempori Succentivus [7:00] Ante Meridiem (or Post Meridiem, depending on which part of the day they specifically want the spell to go off on). After all, the abbreviations A.M. and P.M. represent the Latin phrase ante meridiem and post meridiem which mean “before midday” and “after midday”. Note 2: Both the 24-hour and 12-hour notations are used in the United Kingdom. However, the "a.m." and "p.m." abbreviations are not used with 24-hour time in any form. Because in the 12-hour format 6:30 a.m. is 06:30 (morning) in 24-hour format, and 6:30 p.m. is 18:30 (night). For example it would just be Tempori Succentivus [07:00].

Incantation: Revertōr Minūta Etymology: From Latin revertōr “I return; I turn back” and from Medieval Latin minūta “60th of an hour; minutes”. Use: Causes a person to be able to go back 60 minutes into the past. Note: This is one of the first attempts at time travel. It only works for 60 minutes because anything else will cause serious harm to the caster and/or time itself. It works best when the spell is anchor to a time device, such as pocket watch with a perpetual calendar.

Incantation: Quilegere Papyrus Etymology: From Old Latin quei, which means “who”, in Latin legere is “read” and from Latin papȳrus is “paper”. Use: This spell must be applied first to the letter, written message or note and than tap onto another blank piece of parchment before being sent out. This allows the caster to know if the addressee of the letter has read it and if anyone else has done so too. Note: This is good to know if messages are being ignored or if someone has intercepted it.

Incantation: Detectus Mala Voluntate Etymology: From Latin detectus, perfect passive participle of detegere “to uncover or disclose”, from de- + tegere “to cover”. From Latin malus “evil, wicked” and voluntas which is derived from the old present participle stem welont- + -(t)ās. Confer with volēns “willing” and post-classical volentia “will”. Use: Caster taps on a item (ie: letter, drink, food) to detect if the sender, marker or purchaser of the item contains any ill intentions towards the recipient. Note: This is usually the first way to test if an item has been tampered with any curses or potions. Mostly this spell is used to detect hate mail.

Incantation: Mittere Etymology: Latin root mitto means "send, send forth, let go", and also "abandon". From Late Latin missaticum, in particularly mittere, missum which is “to send”. Use: It’s a (secret) way to send messages or objects without the need of an owl. The caster visualize the person that they wish to deliver the message to and it will appear in front of them.

Incantation: Sempiternus Etymology: From Old French sempiternel, from Medieval Latin sempiternālis, from Latin sempiternus, a contraction of semperæternus, from semper “always” + æternus “eternal”. Use: This will preserve an item in whatever state it is currently in. Note: If the caster wants to prevent a jar of fresh flowers from wilting or food from spoiling this spell will keep it in its fresh state forever (or as long as the caster’ wants). An unknown (or uncommon knowledge) use of this spell is that it can also prevent someone’s injury or curse from killing them. However, this will need to be performed by someone else because those in such a state are ‘frozen’ or ‘paused’ and can’t help themselves. The counter for this spell is Cesseō (derived from Middle French cesser “to cease”, from Latin cessō “leave off”, frequentative of cēdō “to leave off, go away” and eō “go”).

Incantation: Flōreus Corōna Etymology: From Latin root word flor “flower” and corōna “garland, crown, wreath”. Use: Causes a crown made of flowers to appear on a target’s head.

Incantation: Attero Etymology: Derived from Latin ad “to, towards” + tero “to rub, rub by twisting, twist, turn”. Use: To weaken objects or cloth (such as ropes) by rubbing against it magically. Note: Useful for those that are trapped in a room or in a cell by weakening the locks, metal bar or the joints of a door (or barred windows). It may also weaken cuffs or rope as long as they’re not magic suppressors.

Incantation: Phasmatis Prōiectiō Etymology: From Latin phasma “apparition, specter, phantom” which is derived from Ancient Greek φάσμα (phásma) “apparition, phantom”. From Latin prōiciō→ prō- “from, in the place of; for” +‎ iaciō “throw, hurl” → prōiectiō “projection”. Use: Causes the target’s spirit to be projected from their body. Note: It’s basically astral projection.

Incantation: Properō Etymology: From Latin properus “readiness” +‎ -ō meaning propero “I hasten, quicken or accelerate”. Use: To cause the target to hasten; to move rapidly.

Incantation: Perpetuus Atrāmentum Etymology: From Latin perpetuus “perpetual, continuous” and from Latin āter “black” +‎ -āmentum → ātrāmentum "black liquid, ink”. Use: Causes ink to never end. Note: It’s extremely useful when it’s applied on fountain pens and ink pots.

Incantation: Trānslātiō [Language] Etymology: From Latin trāns- “beyond” +‎ ferō “I bear, carry”; → trānsferō “I transfer, convey” → trānslātiō in the broadest sense: the process of transferring or carrying something over from one thing to another; in particular: translation of text from one language to another. Use: The caster must tap their head, throat and eyes when performing the incantation, which allows them to understand, speak and read the language. Note: The translations spell won’t be very accurate if the caster doesn’t include the specific language they wish to know within the incantation. Its accuracy also improves if used on writing instead of verbally.

Incantation: Copia Scientia Lingua Etymology: From Medieval Latin copiare "to transcribe," originally "to write in plenty," from Latin copia "plenty". From Latin sciēns, present participle of sciō “to know, understand” +‎ -ia. From Latin lingua “language, tongue, speech”. Use: The caster taps the target’s forehead and then their own which will transfer the target’s knowledge of the language into the caster’s mind. Note: There have been many attempts at discovering the perfect universal translations spell. This spell has been noted to work the best out of them all, but its use has been banned because of the potential for abuse. Specifically it could be used to cheat, as well as steal and/or blackmail the target if the incantation is alter for something other than language.

Incantation: Pausō Senēscēns Etymology: From Latin pausa “pause; halt, stop”, from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis), from the verb παύω (paúō, “to cause to cease, to stop”). From Latin senescens “ageing; decaying, declining”, present participle of senescere “to grow old”, from senere “to be old”, from senex “old”. Use: Causes the target’s natural aging process to be put on paused. However, it must be applied at the age of which they prefer to physically stay as. Note: This is as close to immorality as anyone has ever gotten with a spell, but it requires a steady source of magic to sustain it. The consequences are unknown as no one has ever reveal this spell existence. Nor what happens if someone was to use it and undo the spell after many years have gone by. This spell doesn’t prevent death because they’re still capable of dying from natural and unnatural causes like sickness, poisons, murder, etc.

Incantation: Fūrtim Etymology: From Latin fūrtim “secretly, stealthily” → fūr “thief” +‎ -tim “-ly”, literally, "like a thief". Use: Causes the target to be able to move stealthily like a thief, especially if the caster aims the spell at the legs and feet. If the spell is aimed at the hands the target will have deft hands which will help them to pickpocket, picklocks and cheat at card games in a non-magical way. Note: Majority of the anti-theft spells are to prevent magically means of items from being stolen, not physically. A spell like this one wouldn’t have crossed anyone’s minds to guard against. It’s effectiveness will also depend on the caster’s natural physical abilities because it only enhances what they already have, not gives them it.

Incantation: Rōbōratus Etymology: From Latin rōbur “strength” with verb being rōbor + ō which means “I strengthen; fortify, harden”. Use: When applied to a object it will make it stronger and harder to break. It also increases a person’s natural physical strength (or their mental willpower, depending on the caster’s intent for the spell when applying it).

Incantation: Terraemōtus Etymology: From Latin terrae, genitive of terra “earth” + mōtus “movement”. Literally meaning "movement of the earth". Use: Causes a localize earthquake to happened.

Incantation: Tepēscō Etymology: From Latin tepeō “warm, lukewarm” → tepesco meaning “I grow warm, I become lukewarm”. Use: It causes any cold or hot liquids to become lukewarm in temperature. Note: It doesn’t work on large bodies of water.

Incantation: Noctis Vīsiō Etymology: From Latin nox “night” and Latin vīsiō “vision, seeing”, noun of action from the perfect passive participle visus “that which is seen”, from the verb videō “I see” + action noun suffix -iō. Use: Causes the target to be able to see in the dark. Note: Works best when applied to some type of eyewear, such as glasses, sunglasses, goggles and so on.

Incantation: Ambulō Aqua Etymology: From Latin aqua “water” and from Latin ambulō “walk”. Use: Causes the target to be able to walk on water. Note: They can still get wet though.

Incantation: Numerāre Etymology: From Latin numerus “number” → numerō ”I count, reckon”. Use: Caster uses this spell to find out the amount of something (i.e. money, books, people, etc.)

Incantation: Muscārium Etymology: From Latin musca “fly” +‎ -ārium “of purpose” → muscārius “relating to flies”. Use: Causes the caster’s wand to act like a fly-swatter.

Incantation: Fodiō Etymology: From the Latin fodiō “dig” → it literally means "to dig, dig up, dig out; to bury; to dig or clear out the earth from a place.” Use: Allows the caster to dig through the dirt to make a tunnel or to make a hole. Note: It works best when used on dirt. If stone is involved, use the gouging spell, Defodio which is from the Latin word de- “of; from, away from” +‎ fodiō “dig”.

Healing & Health Spells

Is a type of spell distinguished by their capacity to magically improve the physical condition of the living object — they are a branch of Healing magic.

Incantation: Minuō Cicātrīcōsus Etymology: From Latin minuō “I make smaller, lessen, diminish” and from Latin cicātrīx “scar” +‎ -ōsus “full of, prone to” → cicātrīcōsus “covered with scars, scarred”. Use: Causes all of the scars on the target’s body to be smaller and less apparent. Note: This spell won’t worked that well for wounds that were caused by dark magic. In those cases it’s best to use a specialize paste that might be able to minimized the scarring. But mostly to prevent terrible scarring in the first place one must act quickly to treat the wound when it’s fresh.

Incantation: Salūs Diagnōsis Etymology: From Latin salūs “health,” and it also has the metaphorical sense of well-being, prosperity, safety, etc. From Latin diagnōsis, from Ancient Greek διάγνωσις (diágnōsis), from διαγιγνώσκω (diagignṓskō) “to discern”, from διά (diá), “through” + γιγνώσκω (gignṓskō), “to know”. Use: Caster waves their wand over the target’s entire body (starting from the head and ending at their feet), which will give them a very comprehensive health check by magically scanning them for any problems. Note: A parchment doesn’t appear in the air displaying the results. Instead, the caster will automatically gain the information of the target’s physical health in their head. If they wish to have a record of the results they must tap onto a blank parchment.

Incantation: Relevare Doleō Etymology: From Latin levō “I make light, lighten” → relevō “relieve, ease, comfort” and Latin dolor “pain, hurt, ache”. Use: Causes the target’s pain and any other physical discomfort to be less severe.

Incantation: Acūtus Vīsiō Etymology: From Latin acuō “sharpen, make sharp”. Latin vīsiō “vision, seeing”, noun of action from the perfect passive participle visus “that which is seen”, from the verb videō “I see” + action noun suffix -iō. Use: Improves the target’s eyesight to see further away and better at night. Note: It does not correct eyesight, only improves what the target already has.

Incantation: Sendolora Etymology: From Latin sine “without” → sen- “without, -less”. From Latin dolor“pain, hurt, ache”. Basically sen- “without, -less” +‎ doloro “pain” +‎ -a (adjectival ending), meaning “painless”. Use: Causes the target to not feel any physical pain; to be painless.

Incantation: Dormiōris Etymology: From Latin dormīre “to sleep”‎, present active infinitive of dormiō “sleep”‎, from Proto-Italic dormiō‎, from Proto-Indo-European drem-‎ “run, sleep”. Use: It places those subjected to it into a magically induced slumber that will eventually wear off. If the target is already asleep it will make sure that they aren’t easily woken up until they’re well rested.

Incantation: Consuo Etymology: From Latin con- “with” +‎ suō “sew, stitch or fasten together”. Use: It will magically sew together; stitch cloths or flesh.

Incantation: Corrēctus Oculus Etymology: From Latin corrigō “to correct” and Latin oculus “eye”. Use: Causes the target’s eyesight to be corrected; fixed. Note: This spell is temporarily and would need to be reapplied after a while. This is the magical equivalent of eye contacts. A permanent solution for one’s eyesight to be corrected would be to use a eyedropped potion, but it’s very expensive.

Incantation: Pūrificō Aēr Etymology: From Latin pūrus “clean, pure” → pūrificō “purify, cleanse”. Latin āēr “air”, borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr), “wind, atmosphere”. Use: Cause the air to be purify, which will cleanse it of any contaminants such as germs, dust, smoke, mold, and more. Note: Caster must applied this spell onto a mask or a cloth that’s tied around the nose and mouth.

Incantation: Pūrificō Aqua Etymology: From Latin pūrus “clean; pure” → pūrificō “to cleanse, purify” and from Latin aqua “water”. Use: Causes water to be clean of any contaminants such as physical, chemical, biological, or radiological substance or matter. Note: Works best when water is in a container, like a cup or bucket and not a large body of water.

Incantation: Contra Fertilis Etymology: From Latin contra “against”. From Latin fertilis “fruitful, fertile”, from ferō “I bear, carry”. Use: To prevent pregnancy. It blocks fertilization from occurring when directed at the woman's lower abdomen before and after intercourse. Note: Potions are always more effective than spells, but most will use both methods to insure nothing happens. Another thing to note, is that the wizarding world is old-fashioned, especially the older families (like purebloods who are very vocal about their views). Most of them strongly condemned premarital sex and in particularly they dislike spells or potions that would encourage it. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point they also banned these spells when they’ve noticed the decreasing birth rate and the increased offspring mortality from inbreeding. The last thing they would want is the younger generation not upholding their duty to their family by not producing an heir after their arranged marriage.

Incantation:Terminātus Impraegnō Etymology: From Latin terminātus, past participle of terminō “I set bounds to, bound, limit, end, close, terminate”, from terminus “a bound, limit, end”. From Latin impraegnāre “impregnate, fertilize”, present active infinitive of impraegnō. Use: To prevent impregnation. It must be applied over a woman’s lower abdomen before and/or after intercourse. Note: Anything having to do with intimate matters, like sex tend to be a very hush-hush subject in the wizarding world. That’s why if someone (in particularly muggleborns) can’t find any information on the subject they’re most likely to invent a new spell for it. After all, it’s not unusual to find that there are more than one version of a spell that does the same job (especially in other magical communities), but may vary in it’s effectiveness.

Incantation: Umbrāticus [Name of Plant or Fungus] Etymology: From Latin umbra “shadow”, “shade” + ‎-aticus → ‎umbrāticus “found in the shade”. Use: Allows the caster, in particularly herblists and potion masters to quickly locate specific plants or fungus that grow in the shade.

Incantation: Frictiō Etymology: From Latin fricō “rub” + -tiō → frictiō “massage”. Use:1. Causes the target to receive a gentle neck or back massage. 2. It could also beused as a jinx, in which it can feel like someone has violenty rub their skin causing a burning sensation.

Incantation: Vomitus Etymology: From Latin vomo “to spew, vomit”. Use: Causes the target to vomit; throw up whatever they’ve consumed. Note: 1. Use medically to remove whatever harmful substance the target swallowed. 2. Can be used as a jinx too.

Incantation: Abscindō Etymology: From Latin ab- “away from” +‎ scindō “cut, tear; divide”. Use: 1. For medically to amputate, such as removing a cursed limb before it can further consume it’s victim and/or kill them (but can also be use for ill intentions). 2. To banish; expel or separate something from the target (ie. hope, desire, sadness, and so on). Note: Caster’s may clarify their spell by altering the incantation, such as using ‘Abscindō Digitus Manūs’ (meaning cut finger, specifically from the hand) or Abscindō Spes (meaning tear hope away).

Incantation: Olfaciens Etymology: From old Latin odōr “smell, whether fragrant or offensive; scent; perfume.” Use: It simulates the target’s senses by reinvigorating them which prevents them from falling unconscious. Note: It’s the equivalent of using “smelling salt” to rid light headedness to prevent fainting. This method is not the same as the reviving spell, Rennervate because that focuses only on reviving an unconscious target.

Jinx & Hex Spells

Jinx is a minor type of Dark magic, having the least severe effects. Jinxes are irritating, but amusing. However, Hex is a moderate type of Dark magic, being that they are slightly worse than jinxes, but not as dark as curses. Hex spells cause moderate suffering to the victim.

Incantation: Gravitas Etymology: From Latin gravis “heavy”. Use: When used on a target its weight will become heavier, making it difficult to be lifted up or to moved around.

Incantation: Impedio Etymology: From Latin in- “into, in” +‎ pēs, pedis “feet” +‎ -ō; literally, to "shackle the feet". Use: Causes the target’s feet to become hindered, such as being slowed or unable to progress which may result in them tripping when in motion.

Incantation: Piperis Aspergō Etymology: From Latin piperis “pepper” and aspergō “spray”. Use: Causes a spray of pepper to come out from the end of the wand.

Incantation: Sternūtō Etymology: From the Latin sternuō “sneeze”. Use: Causes the target to sneeze (repeatedly or violently).

Incantation: Halitosis Etymology: From the Latin hālitus “whiff, exhalation, breath” (which is related to halare "to breathe, emit vapor" + the Greek suffix‎ -osis “state of disease, abnormal condition, or action”. Use: Causes the target to have very a bad and smelly breath.

Incantation: Saxifragus Etymology: From Latin saxum “a stone, rock” + frangō “break, shatter”. Use: Causes the target to recieve stone-crushing or stone-breaking injuries.

Incantation: Paululus Statūra Etymology: From Latin paululus “very little or small” and statūra “height, size, stature”. Use: Causes the target to shrink to the size of a doll.

Incantation: Pultare Saxum Etymology:From Medieval Latin pultiare, from Latin pultare "to beat, knock, strike" and Latin saxum;“stone, rock (a large, rough fragment of rock)”. Use:Causes the target to be pelt with stones.

Incantation: Praeligō Magicus Etymology: From Latin praeligō “I bind, I tether” and magicus “magic”. Use:Causes the target’s magic to be bind to another person or tether to an object.

Incantation: Loquītuus Mēns Etymology: From Latin loquī “speak”, Latin tuus “your” and Latin mēns “mind, reason”. Use: Causes the target to say what they're thinking. Note: To have only a single target be effected by the spell the caster must have their wand point at them. If the caster wants everyone to fall under the spell then they must wave their wand around in a circular motion.

Incantation: Partiō Dolor Etymology: From Latin pars “share, piece, part” → partiō “I share, part, apportion; divide, distribute” and Latin dolor “pain, hurt, ache”. Use:Causes the target’s pain and injuries to be shared with another target.

Incantation:Somnum Exterreri Etymology: From Latin somnum “sleep” and Latin exterreri “strike with terror, frighten, affright, scare, terrify”. Use: Causes the target to be plagued with nightmares.

Incantation: Arāneaum Etymology: From Latin arāneus “spider” and Latin aranea "spider web". Use: It will throw a sticky, fully-made spider web at a target. Note: It can fully encase them in it or just smack a small-sized spiderweb onto their face, it depends on the caster’s intent.

Incantation: Eructātus Bullārum Etymology: From Latin bulla “bubble” and Latin ēructātus “to burp; to belch ”, from the verb ēructō “I belch or vomit.” Use: Causes the target to burp bubbles uncontrollably.

Incantation: Tinniō Ambulō Etymology: From Latin tinniō “I ring, jingle, clink” and ambulō “walk”. Use: Causes an annoying sound to appear whenever the target walks.

Incantation: Ebriacus Etymology: From Late Latin word ebrius “drunk, intoxicated”. Use: It causes a target to become sick with drunkenness and a hangover. Note: If target is already drunk or to remove the effects of drinking too much the spell; Sōbrius will undo it which is sē- “without” +‎ ēbrius “intoxicated”.

Incantation: Caecitātum Etymology: From Latin caecitās “blindness”, from caecus “blind”. Use: Causes the target to become temporary blind; sightless.

Incantation: Pullum Saltātiō Etymology: From Latin pullus refers to a "chicken" without specifying the sex of the animal, although it often refers to a "chick". Also from Latin saltō “dance, jump”. Use: Causes the target to do the chicken dance.

Incantation: Arboribus Dermis Etymology: From Old Latin arbōs “tree” and from Greek derma “skin”. Use: Causes the target’s skin to become like the woody exterior of a tree.

Incantation: Diliramentum Lingua Etymology: From Latin diliramentum “nonsense, absurdity” and lingua “language, tongue, speech”. Use: Causes the target to speak gibberish, a speech that is nonsense.

Incantation: Scrībō Diliramentum Etymology: From Latin scrībō “I write” and diliramentum “nonsense, absurdity”. Use: Causes the target’s writing to turn into nonsense; gibberish.

Incantation: Illūsiō Timōris Etymology: From Latin illūsiō “an illusion”, from illūdere, from in- “at, upon” + lūdere “to play, mock, trick”. From Latin timeō “I fear, am afraid”. Use: Causes the target to see a illusion of what they’re most afraid of.

Incantation: Retrorsum Etymology: From Latin retrorsum “backwards”. Use: Causes the target to do everything backwards, speaking, writing, walking, etc.

Incantation: Barba Etymology: From Latin barba “beard. Use: Causes the target to grow a bread, regardless of sex or gender identity. Note: The counter for this spell is imberbis “beardless”.

Incantation: Ignispīrō Etymology: From Latin ignis “fire” and spīrō “breathe”. Use: Causes the target to have firebreath.

Incantation: Alapa Saepenumerō Etymology: From Latin alapa “slap, smack (with the flat of the hand)” and from saepis “that happens often, frequent” → saepenumerō “repeatedly”. Use: Causes the target to get slapped in the face repeatedly, or in any area that the caster indicates with their wand.

Incantation: Electricus Acūleus Etymology: From New Latin ēlectricus “electrical; of amber”, from ēlectrum “amber” +‎ -icus (adjectival suffix). From Latin aculeus “sting, thorn”. Use: Causes the target to receive a electroshock, which will inflict pain without causing it being a significant injury. Note: However, it’s depends on the caster intent as it can be mostly harmless like a static shock (similar to wearing socks and rubbing them against a carpet to shock someone) or it can be lethal like tasers, or stun batons, especially if used repeatedly.

Incantation: Ignis Ambulō Etymology: From Latin ignis “fire” and ambulō “walk; travel”. Use: Cause the target to feel as though they are walking barefoot over burning embers.

Incantation: Mūtus Etymology:From Latin mūtus “silent, mute”. Use: Causes the target to be voiceless.

Incantation: Oblīvium Etymology: From Latin oblīvīscor “forget” → oblīvium “forgetfulness”. Use: Causes the target to be forgetful. Note: Not to be confused with the memory charm, Obliviate as that erase specific memories from an individual's mind. This spell only makes the person constantly forget things, such as their homework, forgot to put on their shoes, to eat, forgot their train of thought, and so on.

Incantation: Obsessiō Amō Etymology: From Latin obsessiō “obsession” and Latin amō “love”. Use: Causes the target to become obsessively in love with the first person they see.

Curse Spells

Curses is the worst kind of Dark magic, which comes in many strengths and forms. It’s usually reserved for causing immense suffering to the victim, such as excruciating pain, mind control, or even death.

Incantation: Mīlle Caedō Etymology: From Latin mīlle “thousand” and Latin caedō “cut, strike, kill”. Use: Causes the target to be inflicted with a thousand cuts on their body. Note: It was inspired by Lingchi (translated variously as the slow process, the lingering death, or slow slicing, and also known as death by a thousand cuts), a form of torture and execution used in China. In this form of execution, a knife was used to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time, eventually resulting in death.

Incantation: Acidus Pluviā Etymology: From Latin acidus “sour, acid”, from aceō “I am sour”. From Latin pluvia “rain”. Use: Caster points up at the sky and a cloud of acid rains will appear. Acid Rain will fall upon the area or target if pointed specifically above them.

Incantation: Flagellicorpus Etymology: From Latin flagellum "whip, scourge," also figurative, diminutive of flagrum "a whip," and corpus is Latin for "body". Use: When used on a target it will cause painful lashes to appear on their body as though they were flogged. Note: The amount of slashes depends on how many times the Caster’s waves their wand around at their target (or their hand if they’re doing wandless magic).

Incantation: Disiectus Membra Etymology: From Latin disicere “to scatter, to disperse” and from Latin membra, the feminine plural which is only used when referring to “limbs” in a anatomical sense (i.e. arms and legs). The spell literally means "scattered limbs”. Use: When used on a target it will separate their limbs from their body.

Incantation: Frangere Ossis Etymology: From Latin ossis "bone"; and frangere "to break, shatter, or fracture”. Use: To shatter or break a target’s bones.

Incantation: Suspendō Laqueus Etymology: From Latin sub- “under, beneath, below” +‎ pendo “to pull; to spin” → suspendō which means “I hang up or suspend” and laqueō “noose”. Use: Causes the target to be hanged in the air with a invisible noose wrapped around their neck.

Incantation: Rescindō Cicatricem Etymology: From Latin re- “back” and/or “again” +‎ scindō “cut, tear asunder; separate”. Latin cicātrīx “scar” → cicātricem “scar, scarring”. Use: Causes the target’s old wounds, particular their scars to be forcefully tear opened or cut.

Incantation: Suffoco Etymology: From Latin suffoco “choke, suffocate, strangle.” Use: The target’s airway will become block causing them to choke as though they’re being strangle by invisible hands.

Incantation: Absorbeō Vitae Etymology: From Latin absorptiō “a sucking in”, from absorbeō “absorb” and Latin vitae “life”. Use: The caster can absorb a target’s life to extend their own or to prevent their death from a fatal injury (or a curse wound that won’t stop until it has claimed a life).

Incantation: Permanens Infertilità Etymology: From Latin permanens, from permanēo “I stay through”. From Latin in- "not, opposite of” + fertilis “fruitful, fertile”, from ferō “I bear, carry”. Use: Causes the target to become permanently sterile; barren, unable to conceive children. Note: This spell is illegal. It was used in attempts to sabotage heirs or to stop a rival family-lines from continuing.

Incantation: Fīnālis Infertilità Etymology: From Latin fīnālis → finis “end; boundary, limit” or ad finem, which means “to end.” From Latin in- "not, opposite of” + Latin fertilis “fruitful, fertile”, from ferō “I bear, carry”. Use: Causes the target to not be fertile and if they’re already pregnant the spell will end it. Note: Originally, this was invented in the olden days by a wife of a cheating husband to be used on his mistress because he was leaving her for his lover. Afterwards, it became secretly used by women because there wasn’t anything else that would’ve prevented (basically terminate) unwanted pregnancy safely. Potions at the time were a bit of a risk because they could be fatal and were too effective at rendering the woman completely infertile afterwards if they survived it.

Incantation: Corrumpō Etymology: From Latin corrumpō “pervert, corrupt, deprave or infect”. Use: Causes the target to become more susceptible to Dark magic and more willingly to perform immoral or illegal acts.

Incantation: Vēsānia Etymology: From Latin vēsānus “mad, insane”, from vē “out” + sānus “sane, healthy” → vēsānia “madness, insanity”. Use: Causes the target to become insane and it can also spread to the rest of their family.

Incantation: Sagittae Percutiō Etymology: Borrowing from Latin sagitta “an arrow, shaft, bolt” and percutiō “strike” → it basically means “arrow strike.” Use: Causes multiple large arrows to repeatedly strike at a target.

Transfiguration Spells

Is spells that focuses on the alteration of the form or appearance of an object, animal or person, via the alteration of the object's molecular structure.

Incantation: Corporēs Excambiō Etymology: From Latin corpus “body” → corporēs “bodies”. From Vulgar Latin excambiāre, present active infinitive of excambiō “exchange” (from Latin ex “out of” with Late Latin cambiō “change”). Use: Causes two people to switch bodies/minds with each other.

Incantation: Effigō Etymology: From Latin ex- “out of” +‎ fingō “shape, fashion, form”. Use: Caster taps on the person (or photo) that they wish to create a effigy of and than tap onto a object, which will turn into a dummy with the target’s exact likeness in appearance. Note: These are basically dolls and required the caster to physically direct them into position. Mostly use as decoys or for training purposes.

Incantation: Aquaverto Vinum Etymology: From aqua “water”, from Latin vertō “to turn” and vinum, "wine" or "(grape) vine". Use: Causes water to be turned into wine.

Incantation: Gradātiō Etymology: From Latin gradātiō “making of a staircase or steps”. Use: Causes the target, typically a pile of rocks, dirt or whatever else is around to form a staircase.

Incantation: Metallicus Etymology: From Latin metallum “metal” + ‎-icus → ‎metallicus “metallic”. Use: Causes the target such as a paint, fiber, or fabric to become metallic with a metallic sheen.

Incantation: Saxigenus Etymology: From Latin saxigenus “born from stone, arising from rock”. Use: Causes a humanoid creature made from stone to be created and animated by magic.

Incantation: Strātum Etymology: From Latin strātum “a bed-covering, coverlet, quilt, blanket”. Use: Causes the target such as an object like a rock, a tree branch or whatnot to become a blanket.

Incantation: Grabātus Etymology: Latin grabātus “cot, pallet, camp bed” derived from Ancient Greek κράββατος (krábbatos) “couch, mattress, pallet”. Use: Causes the target, usually another object, to become a sleeping bed. Note: This is particularly useful when stranded in the middle of no where, can’t apparate or doesn’t have money to rent a room.

Incantation: Cucūllus Palūdāmentum Etymology: From Latin cucūllus “a covering for the head, hood, cowl” and palūdāmentum “military cloak or cape fastened at one shoulder”. Use: Causes the target, typically another object to become a hooded cloak.

Incantation: Tentōrium Etymology: From Latin tentorium, literally “tent”. Use: Causes the target, usually another object to become a tent.

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mudwingpropaganda · 4 years

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Princess Sunny of the SandWings (and NightWings)

Sweet. The line that haunts Sunny yet it’s the quickest way for an onlooker to describe her. Sunny has so much weight to her. So much underminding to her character outside and within the canon. The baby SandWing Mary Sue that precedes Qibli (back when Tui could actually write a believable story about one individual being so vitally important to the fate of the entire world. I feel like things went way too perfectly for Sunny in the end. It went from everyone disregarding her to everyone immediately giving her her full respect. Sunny’s idealism was rewarded, and she didn’t quite get the satisfying splash of realism to set in quite as I would have liked.

A splash of realism shall be below the button.

Design headcanons

The smallest and stoutest of the Dragonets of Destiny. She has a more munchkin cat build and is honestly quite stubby and humorous as opposed to the intimidating dragons she stands shoulder to shoulder with among the ranks of ending the SandWing War of Succession.

She’s designed in a similar likeness to a sun beetle, a brown and yellow beetle that I thought perfectly captured her not quite sandy SandWing design nor nightish NightWing design. She has a gaudy, buggish appearance, with nicked horns like a beetle and iridescent undersides to her wings.

Sunny is small, but tough. Hardy and quick. She’s surprisingly agile and almost impervious to being flung at things or falling from things....

She was always poked at by the Guardians, questioned for her misshapen appearance and lack of venom or generally intimidating features. Admittedly, Dune did take her in, feeling a sense of responsibility to watch over this malformed SandWing and make sure she didn’t feel too inferior. He feigned pride over his scars from an ugly war and told her that the odder the SandWing looked, the more they were a force to be reckoned with. Though he never voiced this softness in front of the other Guardians.

Sunny has the brightest scales out of her siblings, somewhat shiny and golden, as stated in the book. A treasure she takes great pride in, because it was nothing that the Guardians could take away or eat, like her sparkly stones and her strange crawfish.

Implications of Heritage

Going all the way back, Sunny is related to Queen Diamond and Prince Arctic, she’s related to Darkstalker and Whiteout, she has animus blood in her veins, and also the plainest common folk of SandWings on her mother’s side.

There’s something odd about how no one really acknowledges how Sunny was so close to being an animus. But I guess when your story has so many magical dragons, being “almost magic” doesn’t quite cut it anymore. Her father was a rogue NightWing who ran away feeling guilty over things that didn’t even really seem to happen? He ran away from his tribe, his family, and his life, a coward.

Sunny doesn’t think much of her father. He’s given up on everything, too stuck in his own dwelling and self detriment to do anything worthwhile.

Now Queen Thorn... Thorn is a ruthless mob boss who killed a child to intimidate two other children. But it’s okay, because the Scorpion Den has some odd order that sounds like it’s lovely, in reality, where children eat first and get the freshest water. As long as you don’t mouth off Thorn.Thorn should be Sunny’s foil. A dragoness who gave up on pacifism because she’s seen the reality of the world. She thinks that there is no other way but violence. And, unfortunately, she butts heads with her daughter and thinks of her as naiive and unsuccessfully hopeful for the future, despite proving her wrong with the end of the war.

Sunny being a Princess is a fate that she, personally, denies. She focuses on her own school and her friends, for her parents make it difficult for her to take pride in her heritage. There’s NightWing traitor and a criminal SandWing she made the Queen. Who has the love of her people because of her intimidation? But not her intimidation. She’s also a good person?

Sunny sees through her and understands who she is and where she came from. But she doesn’t believe in peace through non-violence. And for that, she stays out of her line of sight, letting children who do look up to her feign royalty, like Qibli.

Miscellaneous thoughts

Sunny’s real name is “Sun Beetle.” One of Thorn’s favorite options when she mused the name ideas to her dragons. She tapped Sunny’s egg and called the hatchling inside her Beetle and when Dune reluctantly snatched her egg for the sake of the prophecy, without missing a beat, he told the other guardians the hatchling would be named Sun Beetle. Eventually, growing up with her siblings, it was condensed to sweet little Sunny, where most people know her by.

Sunny is an optimist, despite the world beating her to the point where she even does begin to doubt herself. She’s been shown the ugliness of the world, the pain dragons go through, the mental manipulations parents will put their children through, and she remains hopeful despite of it. Yet, when she does feel like the world is getting too much for her, she always confides in Clay. He’s not the most articulate when it comes to comforting, but his warm hugs and ear to listen (and later on his growing knowledge of physical and mental health) truly does help her cope with the small terrors of the war she experienced after a totally sheltered life.

Sunny ends up being the Headmaster of Jade Mountain Academy. Less so a school focused on “founding peace” but more directed towards unbiased teaching of history, lore, and information about dragon biology. She avoids teaching any form of violence and shies away from the most recent history, due to controversy among the child soldiers who are still traumatized from the war and their eventual children who only know the terrible stories they tell. She focuses on the shared history between the tribes that went relatively unspoken while the tribes were versed in propaganda and hatred for their enemies.

Sunny is terrified of animus dragons. She will never admit it, but the idea of being related to Darkstalker, to Stonemover, to have that itch for power and domination and window or manipulation crawling in her veins... it terrifies her. She loves Anemone and understands the struggle she goes through and wants to be a good aunt figure for her, but she can’t help but be unnerved when she’s around her. Something that makes her feel guilty and selfish for.

Sunny avoids most royalty, not wanting to be seen as a universal peacekeeper from now until the rest of time. She has been through enough and wants to focus on her true passions nowadays. But she is a main consultant for her sibling Queen Glory. She senses that Glory genuinely appreciates her opinions and has grown past her snappy, cutting-her-off nature and is more thoughtful and considerate now that she doesn’t have anything to prove.

LGBT+ headcanons

Sunny is aromatic, asexual, and genderless! She still uses she/her pronouns, but she finds gender irrelevant and doesn’t quite appreciate gender roles or expectations put upon the dragons of Pyrrhia, especially with the toxic beliefs of royalty. She is simply comfortable in her own scales despite everyone in her life trying to tell her otherwise.

She is also immensely comfortable not feeling romantic attraction for other dragons. Like Clay, the bonds of friendship she makes with her siblings is already worth so much to her, and the idea of being able to be a good rolemodel for the dragonets of Jade Mountain and the future is much more fulfilling to her.

#wingsoffire #wings of fire #wof #sunny wof #wof sunny #wof sandwing #wof nightwing #sandwings #nightwings #wof redesign #sebastiowu #enigmew

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for-peace-war · 4 years

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No, really. Lovecraft Country sucks.

These are spoilers, but I also don’t give a shit because it’s a bad show and I hope you skim enough to fucking skip it. I took a few days to decide if I hated it enough to write this and well, I do.

I will try my best not to say “X is a bad actor,” but instead stick with the characters as they’re intended save for one particular issue.

The Story

It isn’t very Lovecraftian. And don’t take this as me saying Lovecraft was some kind of master of his craft. I think he was an absurd racist that used xenophobia as his guise for what truly horrified the sane mind. That being said, the element of the unknown is definitely the hallmark of his world and that in no way is represented in this show. It could easily be called “Goosebumps: The Black Version” and it’d be just as authentic--if not more so, really.

The story deals with the Bible (?) and magic that comes from uh, knowing the names of things. You speak a made up language and then you do some kind of confusing magic that has no real purpose or point. I sound dismissive of this because I am, to be clear. They could have just as easily had this language be something whites stole from Africans and then perverted into their own means of power (it’d be a pretty easy parralel to any number of imperialist issues left behind in Africa, huh.)

But anyway, it has a tentacle monster. I think we see a big scary octopus at one point. But the monsters are often in your face and it’s probably less scary than Stranger Things S1.

Honestly, the characters repeat “autumnal equinox” so much that I felt I was going to have a fucking breakdown. Just the writing is very empty and no one seems to really care about anyone else on the screen except for in a rare moment between the only two characters that make it far and matter.

Characters

They aren’t very good. There are tropes present, which isn’t bad at all, but the way the characters interact, speak, and in general move us through the story feels stilted, often nonsensical, and entirely reliant on the viewer assuming that the latest sentence spoken is the only one that matters.

Atticus “Tic” Freeman

A war criminal that derives his power from the white blood inside of him. Again, dismissive but true. We see this man struggle to connect pieces to a puzzle and eventually he pays the price for it, but not in the way Lovecraft would have someone pay for endeavoring beyond their realm. Rather, something about fate and a book. Look, honestly? Who gives a shit. Tic murders a woman in coldblood and it’s never really touched on. There’s a lot that could be said about militaries, oppression, etc, but we often see these characters enact violence and then the story skips merrily beyond it. So yeah, he summarily executes a Korean woman and then is later shown torturing another, but it’s okay because he feels a little bad and fucks the Korean sex demon woman. More on that later. I felt nothing for him. He didn’t have some deep animus over being a torturing war criminal. He was just kind of moving through scenes and having confusing fights with his girlfriend/baby mama.

Letitia “Leti” Lewis

This is what empowerment shouldn’t look like. It amuses me that the show claimed to subvert some kind of norms when the primary love interest (and ultimate heroine) remains the lightest skinned sister in the room. She is able to maintain the appeal of the ingenue while at the same time having the understood attractiveness of her complexion. As far as Leti is concerned as a character, she too seems to be a pretty shitty person. We hear that she has “transactional” friendships and she seems pretty much all about self-survival and rarely if ever puts up where others do. She’s a heroine in the sense that the story makes her be heroic, but it never addresses how her flaws are ultimately all self-inflicted and unnecessary. She could just not be a shitty person.

Hippolyta Freeman

Well. Hidden Figures was an excellent film, and I think that’s where Hippolyta came from. In a more serious series, perhaps she and her daughter could have had a very touching arc that would deal with survival and exceptionalism in a world that maligns you for your very being. Unfortunately, in reality she just comes off as a character that’s quirky in a world that’s also quirky and she doesn’t get to harness her power. There’s an entire episode dedicated to how she discovers who she is and the result is well, her hair turns blue and she makes robots? I think the character TYPE is great, but they misused her here in all ways.

George Freeman

Well, well. If the series had remained about George, Tic, and Leti adventuring through America and encountering sundown towns and monsters both human and otherwise, I think it’d have been okay. The issue is, they wrote this series by the numbers so George is immediately thrown away. He’s a wise and circumspect guy that has his own flaws (he has patrarchical notions built around protecting/babying his genius wife, clearly), but the flaws he has are understandable and well reasoned. George dies early on. Then he sort of doesn’t, I guess? But the fact he did was really the nail in the coffin for this series. The moment they did that, the rest just became empty strokes. A story where George witnessed the others dying and going back to his wife and daughter would have had so much more heart to it, but well. Uncle George is literally one of the few bright spots.

Ruby Baptise

Much like her sister, Leti, Ruby is a terrible attempt at showing empowerent on the one hand, and a masterwork on the other. The bad first: she’s a rapist. I’ve been called a nigger before and while it didn’t feel great, I don’t think I’d have been justified in just sodomizing the person that did it. That entire sequence was weird and they tried to hype it as her reclaiming something, when really it spoke to a disgusting and gratuitous tendency toward Ruby: she’s always too much. Ruby, IMO, should have been Tic’s love interest. In a sense. First, because Wunmi Mosaku was a very attractive woman with impressive acting chops (she’s where I’ll break my moratirum, sorry), but also because it wouldn’t be what you’d see in every other show now: light-skinned pretty sister, dark-skinned sexual eikon. And that’s the issue with Ruby there: she’s always too much. She’s sexual by existing and that isn’t necessarily to her benefit since Leti, the good one, is an actual virgin before her sudden period sex. So the narrative has already spoken as to how it views sex. Yet, because they tried to give Ruby these strange strokes, she comes out as an interesting character. She has feelings, aspirations, and dreams that she’s kept from and that’s very real. In a story about the absurd, a sense of realness is a familiar handhold to gather your wits. She’s all that, really. It’s why she has the best relationships in the show, which is AGAIN an issue, but well. I’ll say Ruby was never bad to have on screen though I was disgusted with how often her blackess (and Blackness in general!) became the source of grotesque horror.

Christina Braithewaite

This is where I get annoyed. My issue with Christina is that she should have easily been the most hated character, but they overplayed their hand with not showing how nefarious she was. In fact? Christina and Ruby’s relationship is the only meaningful, real, and understandable one in the entire series. I felt no joy during her downfall, because I didn’t really get to see her doing anything bad? Just, consider what the show is. It’s about Lovecraft’s lore, ostensibly, which treats all non (specific types of) white men like dogs. So Christina comes at it from the “white” but “woman” perspective and you know, she has moments of duality that you can say is she more white or woman here. But they don’t execute on how sinister she should be. She’s a little rude at times? Yet she is the only person to treat Ruby like she should be treated and she’s the only person that seems to have a goal outside of “the quest.” It really bothered me that she came out so well done, because either they needed to have her for two seasons and make her far more nefarious after the first, or to just make her less a force for good. She saves the characters more than a few times and pays for it by being killed when she’s at her lowest. Yeah, it’s... a weird take.

Ji-Ah

What can I say? There are depictions of sex in the series, and they’re all negative: most of Ji-Ah’s scenes, Montrose’s angry self-loathing sex with his boyfriend, Ruby’s morphic horror scenes. In the case of most of those, there’s something being said. Ji-Ah is a monster, literally, that could be seen as Lovecraftian in the sense she’s an exotic Asian woman that kills men that sleep with her. So, HBO was like “we’ll blow our tits and ass budget on her,” and she exists for a series of sex scenes and vague, inscrutable... shit, maybe SHE is the most Lovecraft of all the characters! Anyway at some point she joins the party after confusing drama with Leti because they both fucked Tic. It’s okay though, because Ji-Ah isn’t here for any of that now. She’s the one who had the best friend that had her teeth yanked out by Tic, and also who was there when he shot her other friend in cold blood, but they get over that and she’s now their friendly red panda pal or some shit. It’s fucking trash. Much like the Freemans (sans Tic), I think she’d have done great in another show. But they rushed her story and it felt less Ghost Nation (Westworld) and more Masturbation (Jordan Peele).

Diana Freeman

Confusing. A stock character (quirky kid that does art, is impetuous, and won’t take no for an answer) that is given a lot of screen time. When she sort of hijacks an episode when two ragamuffin girls chase her down and infest her or something because racist cops. Well, the story veers to her direction. What can I say? If you like 11 from Stranger Things but wanted her to have Mike’s attitude, well. Here you go.

Montrose Freeman

He could have been a good character, I guess. He seemed unnecessary and often was there purely for an x-factor of “uh?” Like, his infamous scene where he slits a two-spirit Native American’s throat after we learn that this indigenous person had just been restored after being raped by bad guys. So there’s that. Also I guess he was self-loathing so he beat his son (that may not be his son???) and also liked fucking dudes, which was I think where we were supposed to care about him. It’s like someone saw Omar was a gun-wielding desperado of drug theft and decided, “Well what made him okay is he’s gay!” But it didn’t add much. I get he was angsty but other than Tic calling him a “faggot” (one of the few good scenes between them in terms of emotion), it all seemed empty and kind of meandering. At no point does Montrose seem a part of the team. He just half-mumbles, gets angry, cries, and falls apart.

Captain Seamus Lancaster

He’s barely a character, but I need to include him for another point. He’s the “bad guy.” I guess? He uses the bodies of black men to stay alive, which is actually a really smart reference to black bodies fueling the American system, but it comes off as cheesy because it just never comes up. He’s cartoonishly bad in a way that he’s less sinister than a meme. Compare him to say, Ridgeway from Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad. One’s a sinister representation of an oppressive system and the other’s well, a joke.

Racism

How could this not be a theme? The issue, as was shown with Lancaster, is that it isn’t even remotely handled with seriousness. The best scene of racism is in the first episode when Tic, George, and Leti are forced to leave a Sundown county before they’re lynched by the racist sheriff. The anticipation and animosity lead to some serious anxiety and it was a nailbiter.

But after that? White people say “nigger.” Then they get, I don’t know, raped or spit on or who knows. A lot of black people talk back to the cops anyway in the 50′s and that’s cool.

But the real monsters of the series are all black people. Let’s go through it:

Tic brutalized women in the Korean War.

Montrose killed the two-spirit person.

Ruby rapes the shop owner.

Diane crushes Christina’s throat.

Ruby literally sheds her flesh in repeatedly gratuitous acts of the grotesque.

Even Ji-Ah, who’s not black, is a monster in the literal sense. We do see the doctor that experimented on black people, but that’s about 5 minutes at the end of an episode that has a baby’s head on a man’s body so I was too busy laughing at the absurdity to take any real meaning from it.

The truth is, in Lovecraft Country, white people always should do their best to kill or keep black people down. It definitely doesn’t speak at all to any togetherness or what have you. Just, well. Magical negroes doing bad stuff because nothing can stop them.

The show misses the chances to show real horror in race. Hell, the Tulsa Riots are reduced to a backdrop for a confusing book scene. But then again, Emmett Till becomes a kind of empty reference point that we then see a white woman act out... for some reason?

Again, the only characters with any chemistry are Ruby and Christina, which is very unfortunate for any number of reasons. As far as a statement that racism is bad goes, I mean. I barely saw it. If I was a racist I’d be like hell yeah, Lovecraft was right they are dangerous.

Even when people try to indicate the horrors of it like, “Oh, the Korean War scenes are bad because we see how men are forced into the military complex!” We didn’t see a white officer say “Shoot her, boy,” it was just two black guys killing women with no care at all. And no compeuppance, so that’s cool.

The Music

Sucks. Thanks Peaky Blinders for making modern music over gif sets a thing.

Conclusion

I sure as hell would never watch it again. If I can get one other person not to, then maybe it’d be worth it. It’s not a good show. It’s not “smart,” and there’s no secret subversion in it. It’s just... bad.

I won’t post on it anymore. Please, in true Lovecraft fashion, trust me when I say that this show is so bad it cannot be comprehended.

#lovecraft country

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comradelup · 3 years

Note

Hey bruh can we get an epic infodump about that BOTW au, because I am HERE for some self indulgent content, hit this niche Zelda/TAZ fan audience with that tasty au over here

i just woke up so this might not be too legible but :3333 also obviously spoilers for botw for ppl who haven’t played it and don’t wanna be spoiled

(most of it is under the cut though because WOW this got long akdnajfnsjf)

okay so taako is link and lup is zelda. instead of being a princess and knight they’re a king and queen co-ruling faerun. there isn’t really a king rhoam figure in this? like they don’t have a parent/guardian they pops up in the memories, it’s just them ruling the kingdom. when the prophecy came, they knew one of them was the royal with the goddess’ blood in them and the other would be the hero with the darkness sealing weapon. obviously both of them would have the same blood or whatever since they’re twins, but it comes down to who can properly wield the magic. as it turns out, lup is the magic twin and taako is the weapon wielding twin. their enemy, usually ganon, is instead the hunger.

there is still an old civilization of ppl with ancient technology, though i don’t really have a name for them, so i’ll keep calling them sheikah. BUT, there is a modern day group of people dedicating themselves to learning all they can about the sheikah technology in order to prepare for the return of the hunger. they are the institute of past research and exploration, IPRE for short. it is made up by the rest of the seven birds, among a few others.

the champions are davenport, merle, magnus, and barry. lucretia is kinda how she was in TSC canon, just sorta tagging along to write everything down, but that changes once they make the grand relics. speaking of, the light of creation replaces the master sword in this instance. it has the power to fight off the hunger, as well as take the shape of any weapon taako can imagine. that’s how we get the flaming raging poisoning sword of doom and the krebstar. but lup and barry, ever the scientists, are like “is there any way to… break the light into pieces? so more people get super powerful weapons against the apocalypse?” so they do

some of the relics are different, though. the philosopher’s stone doesn’t change things, but it changes itself, keeping that weapon-changing property of the original light. obviously, since it’s a seventh of what it used to be, it isn’t as powerful. but it’s still pretty damn powerful compared to the rest of the weapons in the world. the gaia sash is different too, adding healing on top of the plant magic. the animus bell basically makes undead armies instead of the soul switching magic from canon. basically, the relics’ powers are altered to better fit a combat situation. also they’re the gifts given to taako after the divine beasts (replacing urbosa’s fury/daruk’s protection/etc) so they would need a more combative/practical use. the healing part of the gaia sash is basically this au’s mipha’s grace akfnajfnsj

one relic in particular is interesting, and that’s the phoenix fire gauntlet. with lup’s struggle to unlock her powers, she created the gauntlet as a sort of conductor for magic energy. she’s incredibly proficient in normal magic (esp evocation) but this goddess magic is tricky to unlock, and it’s super frustrating. the other stuff came so easy to her, so why is this hard? unfortunately, the gauntlet didn’t help with that :-(

lucretia and her relic are also interesting in this au. as i mentioned in the ficlet i posted, she intended to use the bulwark staff to protect the champions, and she couldn’t, so she blames herself for everything that happened. obviously, it’s not her fault and i make myself sad thinking about her being sad T_T but as a result of this, plus a bit of good ol paranoia, she uses the bulwark staff to create a big bubble shield around phandalin (this au’s kakariko villiage) the rest of the IPRE live here (basically the BOB, so killian, carey, johann, etc)

i won’t go too into detail for the rest of the story, as it’s fairly similar to botw canon other than that, but some things to note are this: the divine beasts are different, so as to suit the champions better. magnus and merle have a bear and owl, respectively, but idk what’s for barry and davenport (definitely open to suggestions akdnajdns). also, the yiga clan is called the shadow brethren, because i love me a good amnesty reference. it’s leader is kalen, and he’s an actual threat to taako, unlike kogha. i’d imagine the brethren tie to magnus’ divine beast because kalen ties to his storyline. also, the gauntlet basically becomes the bow of light in this au, aka what taako uses to defeat the hunger once and for all

other characters to note are:

kravitz and the raven queen, basically purah and symin in the hateno ancient tech lab. they’re a mother and son duo, with TRQ living through the calamity and kravitz being born afterwards

lucas and maureen are in robbie and jerrin’s place as another mother-son duo in the same position as krav + TRQ; maureen lived through the calamity and lucas was born after

(everyone is basically human in this, or at least has human lifespans, so 100 years is definitely a long time for someone to live through. maureen and TRQ developed magic to prevent them from aging all those years. lucretia was the first volunteer to use this magic, but it kinda failed and instead only slowed down her aging. that’s why she’s her older self when taako wakes up.)

the goddess hylia is instead istus. not much changes there, she’s just the goddess everyone references akdnakdjs

yknow the characters that help link get to the divine beasts in canon? like sidon, riju, etc? they’re replaced by other characters depending on what relic taako is going after, and it correlates to canon. so when he’s going after davenport’s divine beast/the oculus, he meets angus. when going after the owl/gaia sash, he meets hurley and sloane. so on and so forth. though he DEFINITELY meets julia in refuge and she DEFINITELY does NOT have a crush on the hero of legend who piloted the bear divine beast 100 years ago ;)))))

differently from botw canon, taako actually develops a strong relationship with lucretia, who is pretty much impa with a different backstory. as he gets his memories back he realizes he had six incredibly close best friends and now five of them are gone, so he kinda gravitates to her when he’s with her

one more thing to note is that after taako defeats the hunger and lup is free, she combines the relics into the light and uses it to bring the dead champions back because FUCK death separating this family. lup “phantasmal and resplendent” adventurezone would never allow it. if her brother gets brought back from the dead, so do her friends and her husband, thank you very much

and that’s… basically it! i could go more in depth with the taakitz/blupjeans side of things, but this is long enough akfnskfnskfn but if anyone wants to know anything else i’m always open to talking about it :D

#i didn’t even get into the angst…#balance #botw au #ask #anon #honestly? tysm for letting me dump about this au i’m more or less always thinking about it skfnsjfjs #also this took me like an hour to write. i’m now fully awake

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castcharmperson · 5 years

Note

I really love your Taako fic❤ Can you please write more

Look I’m not going to say I was waiting for an ask to post the next installment, but it sure did help light the fire under my ass to get it finished. This next section contains everyone’s favorite denim-lover!

“Hey, I’m not usually invited to twin time is everything okay?” It was 50% his bedroom, but that didn’t encourage Barry to do anything other than peak his head around the partly cracked door. What he saw, well, that was enough to carry him past the threshold to close the door behind him.

“She’s not responding.” Taako sounded hollow, he didn’t look much better. They’d all had several sleepless nights, both on their voyage and afterwards. Still, it was rare for Taako to show how exhausted he truly was. The bags under his eyes were quite a sight and Barry tried not to think too much about elf vascular systems. Lup’s never got that bad, even when they pulled three all-nighters in a row for cycle 91.

Barry came back to the present and nodded, not needing to say anything more as he walked towards the bed. They’d done this before. It had been a while, but they knew what they were doing. The burns on the comforter spoke for themselves though. “That bad, huh?”

“You have no idea,” Taako mumbled. He was holding Lup’s hands and that was the only point of contact. Barry sat opposite of him and took one of Lup’s hands from him.

“Party was fun.” Usually Taako made conversation. Tonight seemed like it would be Barry’s responsibility. “I had, uh, one or two Solstices when I had a body, never really understood it though. Guess it’s different when you’re drinking alone in a tavern than when you’re drinking Highchurch brewed mead.” He let himself laugh, stopping only when he heard Taako whine. “Taako?”

“It’s my fault this time.”

“Bud, you’re the one who told me–”

“I know what I said, Barold!” Taako snapped. Barry didn’t even flinch, just reaching out and taking Taako’s free hand in his own. He squeezed and Taako squeezed back, so that was a step in the right direction. “You know what happened in Wonderland.”

“A lot happened in Wonderland.”

Taako rolled his eyes. “No shit. I mean with me.”

“Some of it? Your face doesn’t look too bad, ya know.”

Taako gave a strangled laugh and Lup whined, catching both of their attention. “Wow, she really doesn’t think this is funny.”

“Well,” Barry started, sharing a smile with Taako. He looked the most relaxed Barry had seen him all night.

“This is why you’re my favorite,” Taako looked away as he spoke, smile falling away slowly. “You can keep a secret, right?”

He should probably be concerned. Taako was the one who made the No Secrets Rule, but Barry found himself saying “Of course, bud” without thinking twice about it.

“It’s more than my face.”

“I know.”

“More than the, the uh… modifier stuff.”

“You can fix that, you know.” All the sacrifices had been hard to watch, but there was something particularly painful about watching Taako, the elf who invented something so dexerious as surfing, stumble from room to room after that.“No, uh, actually I don’t think so.”

“I know they had the no healing, what’s given can’t be taken back, thing.” All of Edward and Lydia’s schtick seemed so cliche to Barry. Everyone thought necromancers were sadist, why did they have to live the stereotype? At least they’d stayed away from black robes and chanting, but glitz and glitter didn’t really feel like an improvement.

Lup whined at his words and Barry winced, rubbing his thumb along the back of her palm. At least she could still hear them. “Sorry babe.” He looked back to Taako. “But, uh, I’ve been looking into that. I think if I rewire some of the– Oh, don’t tell Kravitz about this.”

Another strained laugh, the sort of manic emptiness Barry hadn’t heard from his best friend since the later cycles. “That goes both ways, kemosabe.”

“I thought you showed Kravitz your face?”

Instead of explaining, Taako just nodded his head down. It was hard to see in the candle light, much dimmer after what he imagined was a pretty extensive flare up from Lup, but the shape of bruises were still there. “…what?”

“Yeah.”

“No, no, that doesn’t make sense. Why do you have bruises from over a year ago? Your blood doesn’t work like that.” Barry probably should have asked first, honestly should be focusing on bringing Lup back to them, but curiosity won out. His hand left Taako’s and he reached towards the bruises, inches away until Taako slapped his hand back.

“I’m not one of your experiments.”

“Shit, sorry, I didn’t–”

“Don’t apologize, it’s fine.”

Barry sighed, but held out his hand, palm up. Taako slapped his own back into it. They sat in silence for a moment, a small circle of connection in the candlelight, and it was almost peaceful. Barry hated that this still happened, of course he did, but he sometimes wondered if the twins appreciated these moments together. Then again, Barry didn’t really appreciate them like he should have until they were stolen for a decade.

Taako wouldn’t look at him so Barry’s attention drifted back to Lup. Her ears twitched but she stared ahead at the wall, unfocused. “We should probably keep talking if we want to bring her back,” he whispered.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Both the twins ears flipped down and Barry tried not to laugh.

“Come on, Taako, I rolled an eleven, you have to tell me.”

“Bullshit you did!” Taako broke into a grin but it was chased away just as fast when he realized how loud he’d been. Lup didn’t seem to react to the noise. “Talking about it is what did this to her.”

“No, a bunch of bad luck–” Both twins winced and Barry bit back a curse. “Sorry. A lot of shitty coincidences did this to her. And other people, bad people, did this to her. Not you.”

Taako shook his head, but Barry was already saying the same thing each of them had all been tasked with saying before. “We didn’t cause this. We’re just trying to survive it.”

It was hard to watch Taako squeeze his eyes shut, easier to feel the pain of him squeezing Barry’s hand. It was like he was going to say something, but he couldn’t move his mouth past the first syllable.

“I mean, it’s not like she’s going to get worse,” Barry prompted, “You might as well talk about it now.”

“You might get worse,” Taako whispered and Barry squeezed his hand.

“Whether Lup believes it or not, she did everything she could to help you. So did I. I don’t regret that.”

Taako looked up at him, still so tired. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”

It took a second to figure out what he meant, and Barry almost felt bad when he smiled and Taako glowered at him. “I don’t regret that either.”

“Look, I don’t want to make you feel bad but how–”

“At the time, it was our best shot at survival.” Barry pressed on. “I don’t regret making the Animus Bell. I haven’t for years.” He’d said that before, to himself in the mirror of the cave he had to call home. It was hard to say then, but once he did it felt like a weight off his shoulders. It felt important. And it still felt so good to say it again now.

“Yeah, well, I guess you had time to for all that self growth,” Taako grumbled and Barry tried not to roll his eyes. He felt Lup’s fingers twitch in his and failed to hold down a smile. Maybe the two of them had been lucky, of everyone dealing with Lucretia’s choice. It felt easy to forgive her. And it was frustrating watching everyone else drag their feet about it.

“I’m not mad at her either,” Barry continued, despite Taako’s clear irritation. “I never really was. She was doing what she thought was the only option. Just like me and Lup had our hands tied in Wonderland. We were all trying our best.”

He watched Taako grind his teeth, backed into a corner where he couldn’t hurt Lucretia without hurting everyone else too. It probably shouldn’t be entertaining but, well, Taako usually had the upper hand in all their interactions, it was nice to finally mark a tally in the win column for Barry.

“You’re a dick.”

“Yeah.” Barry just shrugged, absolutely unrepentant. “So you want to list your symptoms for me or should I just ask Merle? He gave me a list of stuff to work on for Magnus. His is a lot more mental, but the base arcana is still the same.”

Taako’s ears twitched and he looked down at his bruised knees. “I figured that’s why they still look so bad. Merle tried to heal me but the…” He swallowed heavily, like the thought alone was bile in his mouth. “The un-healing I think left some necrotic scarring.”

“That would do it.” Barry gently loosened his grip from Taako’s hand and hovered over the knee. “May I?”

“Yeah just don’t… it’s acting up because of the holiday.”

“I’m amazed you were dancing on it,” Barry said as he checked the arcana. Taako’s proficiency in the category was high, of course, but Barry was a necromancy expert.

“It’s probably what made it hurt so much when Lup touched it. It’s never been this bad before.”

Barry frowned, staring at the runes he could see around the wound, running the numbers in his head. “It’ll get worse if you don’t take it easy.”

“What?”

“You’re right about the necrotic scarring. It’s completely preventing any healing, even the minor stuff our bodies do to recover from day to day wear. Your own system has… I guess the only word is absorbed the magic? The damage is really in there.”

Taako just shrugged. “Told ya you couldn’t fix it.”

Barry felt frustration prickle under his skin. With the blessing of his Queen, he wasn’t prone to fits of red crackling energy, but the wild magic the made his soul was still more volatile than most. “I can still help. But I might have had a better shot if you told someone about it sooner.”

Taako gestured to Lup, making a face like Barry was an idiot, and that only irritated him more. “She’s going to be fine, Taako. If anything, she’s mostly going to be pissed you lied to her.”

“I didn’t lie to anyone!”

“What are you other symptoms?” Barry challenged and Taako nearly snarled at him. “How can Merle and I start working on treatment if we don’t know what we’re treating?”

“You told me you weren’t going to tell anyone about this.”

That threw Barry for a loop and he felt the tremor in his fingertips ease up. “Merle doesn’t know?”

They had all been close on the Starblaster. In different small groups, shuffled in different combinations, each with their own jokes and special moments, though most stories connected everyone together. After the Bureau of Balance, Barry had assumed ‘Tres Horny Boys’ still shared that unique connection.

“Barry,” Taako took his hand back and squeezed lightly. “You can’t tell them.”

“You made the secret keeping rule,” he tried but it sounded weak even to his own ears.

“I know what I said.” Taako broke their gaze and took a deep breath. “It’s mostly just my legs. They took the weight of the washing machine and I think the brunt of the Dex loss. Everything else isn’t really important. My face sucks but it’s– I mean Lup’s right. We still look related. I mostly just keep it up because I don’t want people poking around asking questions like you idiots.” Barry smiled and Taako managed to look up at him, relaxing again. His smile faded away but he kept looking at Barry “When you said it’ll get worse…” he trailed off, fingers twitching in Barry’s grip.

“Taako, I’m not a healer–”

“Necromancy is just late healing,” Lup’s voice was gravel, but sounded like a siren’s call to Barry. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back, but her eyes stayed foggy. He watched Taako’s leg started bouncing, fighting down the urge both of them struggled with to tackle Lup in a hug when she came back. These quiet moments of comfort used to be just messy piles of cuddling back on the Starblaster. They were still like that when Barry was the one having a bad day. But after the umbrella, after a hundred things Taako still wont talk about, too much touch could be overwhelming. So they squeezed Lup’s hands and she squeezed back. That was enough for now.

“Welcome back,” Barry whispered and she smiled.

“Thanks. I think we’re getting better at this.”

Taako barked a laugh and Lup broke her hand from his to punch his shoulder. She didn’t need to look at him for her aim to be true. “Ow! I was only gonna say that we might be better if Barry and I didn’t spend the whole time fighting.”

“We weren’t fighting, we were discussing.”

Taako just rolled his eyes, taking his hand away from Barry to rub at his shoulder.

“Barry’s right though,” Lup continued, still staring ahead. “The three of us are the best arcanist in the multiverse, but our biological knowledge is pretty limited.”

“I don’t know if I’d trust Merle’s biological knowledge,” Taako grumbled.

“Even if you did, you’re worried about telling him.”

“Oh, now you get an insight modifier, huh Barold? Fuck off.”

Barry just sighed and reached for Taako’s hands. He put one back in Lup’s and took the other in his own. “I’m not trying to put you on blast. You’ve got a good point. Merle’s losses were mostly physical, like yours. I don’t know what he’s deal with. But I think I know who does.”

“Nooo.” Taako whined in a way that meant he knew exactly who Barry was talking about. He tilted his head back, then his whole body, leaning his weight to pull at everyone’s arms. Lup started leaning with him, but pulled herself back up. She blinked once, twice, and finally shifted her gaze to Barry. She pushed forward, letting Taako bobble behind her, as she kissed Barry on the cheek.

“See, Lup agrees with me. You gotta tell Cap’nport.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s the captain. He’ll know what to do.”

He watched the emotions play out over Taako’s face and mentally took a second tally in the Barry win column. “Fine,” Taako admitted. “But not today.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s tomorrow,” Barry shrugged and Lup laughed, kissing him again.

“I hate both of you. I’m not doing this until after Candlenights.”

Lup started stretching out her stiff limbs, squeaking as blood rushed back into her legs, numb from sitting crossed for so long. Taako did the same, moving to stand. Barry watched Lup almost reach for him, but she let him go. It hurt to hear his joints crack, now that Barry knew how damaged they were, but Taako seemed at ease. Lighter, maybe, finally getting the weight of the words off his chest. Barry still couldn’t believe he went that long without telling Lup. She seemed to realize that too, curling up against him as the door closed behind Taako and muttering something about hypocrites and grudges. There wasn’t much point to getting under the covers– Lup was still running hot from her flare up. Barry was just happy to hold her, to be grateful she was still here and whole. All of them were a little different than before, but they weren’t broken, weren’t missing pieces like he heard terrified whispers of during late nights on the porch. They were different, but they were still together. Still whole. Still surviving.

#the adventure zone #taz #taz taako #taz lup #barry bluejeans #charmedanswers #charmedwords #DMI #wow this was way longer than i expected #i wanted to explore how barry's coped and i think he's probably doing really good #comparatively speaking #dude still freaks out if he loses contact with his wife for too long #also I GUESS im just making taako talk to his family? like i guess that's the plot of this??#danish-fandomer

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wingsoffireconfessions · 5 years

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whats your top 5 favourite things about the first arc? :>

oh booyah

I loved the first arc prophecy. The combination of ‘characters told they have to find their destiny a certain way but doing it the way they want to instead’ with ‘the prophecy is fake but we’re going to make things better anyway’ is SO good. The reveal that the prophecy was fake was so good. Loved that.

The worldbuilding that we got was so neat? Like, firescales being a thing that was powerful but had evident weaknesses. The divisions between the different kinds of dragons and what prompted their alliances. The hint that scavengers were more powerful than dragons gave them credit for (I wish that scavengers starting to kill dragons was more of an issue but w/e). Each group of dragons having their own kinds of culture with raising children and the dragonets of destiny comparing that to their own upbringing. The first arc was a GREAT introduction to the world and the politics behind the scenes of it.

Animus magic wasn’t as huge of a thing, and while this is only really a good point in comparison to the later arcs, I think it’s worth mentioning. Especially in The Lost Heir, magic was given a surreal, unsettling quality that I really liked; there was the feeling that it was dangerous that imo was lost in later books when animus magic became more common.

The stakes felt high. Characters dying was a big deal, fights did mean that some characters may not come out alive. The setting being a continent at war was very clear and the dragons living in it were aware of it. Again, this is something that stands out especially in comparison to later arcs, where character deaths feel abrupt or have very little impact, and ‘animus magic is all powerful’ removes the fear that something will actually happen to the protagonists, so violence became more like shock value (like Peril running into Winter)

I love sibling dynamics. I’m a huge sucker for them, as a sibling myself. I like characters who are close enough that they can mess with each other while also being ride-or-die for each other when it’s necessary. I also like the focus on found family more than blood family; it’s obvious that the dod feel closer to each other than to their biological siblings, and while they do still have a connection to their families, the focus on adopted siblings still being siblings is really nice. (Looking at you, Warriors, and your tendency to have characters be adopted but acting like the years spent together are nothing because ‘you’re not my real mom’)

This gets a sixth bc I don’t know if it’s technically first arc, being in a side book, but: the first LGBT rep of the series with Snowfox and Snowflake!

#mod posts #wings of fire #wof #first arc spoilers #Anonymous #ask

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vexvamp · 6 years

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Wings of Fire: Revenant

The Final Chapter

Part 3 of 3

Part One - Part Two

Truthseeker watched as Peacemaker slowly dissolved into the cloudy horizon, his rainbow scales the last thing she could see before he disappeared completely.

“Kinkajou!” Turtle suddenly shot across the cliff and barreled into the Rainwing in what Truthseeker could only guess was meant to be a gesture of affection. “Are you all right?!”

Kinkajou gestured to the chain around her mouth and made a series of unintelligible noises.

“Oh…right,” Turtle said, his gaze wondering shyly over to Truthseeker. His wide, gold-flecked eyes hid nothing, and in them she could see all the awe, the curiosity, and the fear that he felt at the revelation that in the body of this seemingly ordinary dragonet lay the soul of an ancient seer. Hesitantly, he reached out to her. “Could I…um…?”

Truthseeker glanced at his shaking talons, secretly worried that he might fumble and drop the key off the side of the cliff. “Maybe I better do it,” she replied.

Turtle hesitated for a fraction of a second before finally stepping aside and allowing Truthseeker access to Kinkajou. She could feel his apprehensive gaze burning with the intensity of the summer sun as she took the heavy lock in her talons. There were a million questions that she knew he wanted to ask, but never could. A million things she wasn’t even sure she could begin to answer.

With a sharp click, the lock gave way, releasing its hold on the interwoven tangle of chains. Kinkajou gave a shake, and the coils of metal slid away like snakeskin, falling into a single, benign pile at her feet. Truthseeker could already see blue and purple bruises blooming in the places where the links had constricted her skin.

Kinkajou looked up at her, the same intensity burning in her leaf-green eyes, though Truthseeker noted that it seemed more weighted with curiosity than fear. “Thank you,” she said after a long moment, for once seeming lost for words.

“Kinkajou!” Turtle barreled into the Rainwing, nearly knocking her to the ground.

“Ow, ow, ow! Turtle, take it easy! Haven’t I been through enough with you squashing me to death!” Kinkajou growled, though her voice was seeped with affection.

“Sorry,” he replied, wrapping his arms more gently around her and pulling her to his chest. He rested his head against her shoulder, the flashes of distant lightning reflecting on the tears rolling down his cheeks.

“You idiot,” Kinkajou growled softly. “What were you thinking, almost bringing Darkstalker back to save me?”

“I’d do anything for you,” he breathed.

“Don’t make it cheesy, now,” she replied teasingly, but Truthseeker noticed that she too had tears in her eyes.

After a long moment, the Rainwing pulled away, wiping away the moisture on her cheek and plastering on a cheery smile in its place. “Come on, we need to check on Moon.”

Turtle nodded, and the pair of them glided over to the opposite cliff, Kinkajou faltering only slightly from the painful bruises along her wings. Hope stood protectively over Moon, who lay on her side with her injured wing spread awkwardly on the cold stone. Peacemaker’s fire had left a gaping, blackened hole, and although she was trying hard to hide it, Truthseeker could see that Moon was in pain. Kinkajou immediately embraced her friend, at the same time admonishing her for taking such a big risk to save her life. Moon quickly silenced her, and Turtle and Kinkajou immediately went to work on just how to word an effective healing spell.

Truthseeker turned her back to them, satisfied that the three friends no longer needed her. On talons that seemed to be made of stone, she made her way back to the edge of the cliff where she’d last seen Peacemaker. She stared off into the far distance, but could see no sign of him against the dark horizon. The storm was beginning to break up, and she could see the black, star-flecked sky showing through gaps in the clouds. The lightning too was becoming less frequent, with flashes of light only occasionally silhouetting the distant mountains. It was almost as if the strength of Peacemaker’s anger had brought on the storm, and his absence had chased it away.

She hung her head, feeling that love, that loss, that need to be near him as clearly as she had all those hundreds upon hundreds of years ago, when she’d left him enchanted and imprisoned beneath the mountain. She had tried so hard to make their future happy and safe, but she had failed, and because of that she had lost him. And now here she was, losing him again to the darkness in his soul, the darkness which seemed unwilling to be banished.

“Truthseeker,” Truthseeker heard the soft, comforting voice and whirled around. Hope stood a few steps behind her, her eyes soft with sympathy and dark with the same loss that Truthseeker felt.

Truthseeker felt the tears come swiftly to her eyes and spill heavily down her cheeks. Her throat felt tight and her breath burned in her lungs, but she could do nothing to stop it. The tears came of their own volition, one after the other in hot, sticky droves.

Hope stepped forward and spread her wings as an invitation for Truthseeker to come into her arms. Truthseeker went to her, falling into the mother’s embrace and allowing herself to be cradled like a tiny dragonet. Sobs wracked her body as she leaned against Hope’s chest and felt the older dragon’s wings wrap comfortingly around her. The grief she felt was so great that she feared she would fall into it forever and the world would become nothing but blackness. For so long she had chased it away and not allowed it to grab hold of her, but now that she was in its grasp, it seemed she might never escape.

“I’m sorry,” Hope breathed, “this is all my fault.”

Truthseeker looked up at her. “No…why do you say that?”

Hope sighed. “I tried to keep you and Peacemaker apart because I was afraid it might bring back memories of his old life, and it was because of that, that all this happened. Moon confronted me about the two of you, and I let my stupid pride get in the way of seeing sense. I wasn’t careful enough about what I said, and Peacemaker must have overheard. That’s how he got his memory back.”

Truthseeker remembered the dream she had, had before awakening with the memories of her old life surging through her head. In her dream she had felt Peacemaker’s shock and devastation all tumbling down on him at once like a churning avalanche of ice and snow. She had felt his disbelief give way to realization, then to sadness, and finally to anger, before she saw the details of his deadly plan come to life before her eyes. She realized now that she had felt all the same things Peacemaker had upon learning the truth about who he was and who he had been.

“You couldn’t have known this was going to happen,” Truthseeker said.

“Maybe, but it doesn’t help that I was one of the dragons who chose to enchant Darkstalker in the first place. I thought…I thought we could have a second chance. A chance to be happy. But then again, I…I guess I never really understood the curse of animus magic. Arctic never liked to speak about it after we fled the Ice Kingdom, and I suppose now I understand why.”

Truthseeker gave a start at hearing Hope mention the husband she had lost all those hundreds of years ago. She could remember the troubled Icewing from her years spent as Clearsight, and flinched as she recalled the day he had died.

Hope hung her head. “The magic was Arctic’s undoing. That night we left the Ice Kingdom, he was careless with a spell and…” she hesitated, her haunted eyes staring off into the distance, “a lot of dragons died. It was an accident. He never meant for anyone to get hurt, but… but it haunted him, and I don’t think he ever got over it.” She snorted. “Then my dear, loving mother let it slip that she’d brought me to the Ice Kingdom in hopes of bringing Animus blood into our tribe, but conveniently left out the fact that I hadn’t been privy to that plan. I tried to explain to Arctic that I cared about him and that I would never deceive him like that, but I don’t think he ever really trusted me again. He couldn’t believe that I really loved him. After what he did, I…I think that he must have thought that no one could.”

Truthseeker could see two thousand years worth of loss and longing in Hope’s eyes as she stared off at the storm clouds being chased away into the distance. “You still miss him…don’t you?”

“I loved him,” Hope replied. “Not a moment goes by that I don’t wish that things had been different…that somehow we could have had a second chance to make things right.”

She glanced back down at Truthseeker. “But you…you have that chance.”

“What?”

“Peacemaker isn’t lost, Truthseeker. There’s hope for him, I know it. I saw it when he looked at you.”

Truthseeker pulled out of the older dragon’s grasp, a fresh wave of tears burning in her eyes as she faced up to her. “But I did everything I could, and it still wasn’t enough!”

“Not enough? You saved Kinkajou’s life! You stopped Peacemaker from reclaiming the powers that would have destroyed his soul! And you think that’s not enough?”

Truthseeker hung her head, unsure of how to reply.

“You got through to him when no one else could. You convinced him that he could choose to do good when everyone else believed he could do nothing but harm. That means something.”

“So what do I do?”

Hope took one of Truthseeker’s talons in her own. “Find him. Bring him home.”

-----

The storm was starting to break up by the time Peacemaker made it to his final destination, and he could see the soft, milky light of dawn just beginning to light the horizon. His eyes burned and his head throbbed. His wrist was sore where the chain had dug in and his shoulders ached from the strain of Kinkajou’s weight. But none of this could distract him from the pain opening like a chasm at the center of his chest.

It was over. He would never have his magic back and he would never be king. All those dreams, all those futures, were gone, broken apart like the storm clouds drifting away on the wind. All he had managed to do in pursuit of these shattered dreams was hurt everyone who had ever meant anything to him. He was alone, powerless, and lost to the world. He was a dragon with no identity, no purpose, and no home. He belonged nowhere but the nightmares of those he had harmed with his anger and selfishness.

After what seemed like an eternity of flying, he came upon the great stone chasm, stretching like a scar across the side of the mountain. Since he had last seen it, it had become overgrown with grass, ivy, and tiny blue flowers, all spilling like a waterfall over the side of the abyss. The tangle of fauna trembled as he whisked past it into the darkness of the cavern below. He continued that way until he came upon a small crawlspace at the back of the cave, the walls riddled with long, deep claw marks.

All the fear he would normally feel at being enclosed in the dark, claustrophobic cavern faded to insignificance in the face of these new memories. He placed a talon against the marks along the cold stone wall, feeling how deeply etched they were into the rock. Each mark was a day he had spent down in this dark, cold, airless place, alone and wondering if he might be there forever. He remembered the stone pressing against him on all sides so that he could barely move, the sensation that he was suffocating, with only a tiny hole in the roof letting in a trickle of fresh air, and the feeling of starving to death but being unable to die. The marks on the walls had given him a sense of control, a sense that the days here were numbered and that one day they would come to an end. They’d given him a sense that one day he might be free.

As he made his way across the cavern, noting that it seemed much bigger than last time he’d been here, he felt his talons brush against something cold and smooth. Glancing down, he saw the bracelet of twisted copper, inlaid with three sparkling moonstones, reflecting some unseen light. The bracelet was stretched and warped, and most of the copper was entirely covered by layers of blue-green tarnish. Peacemaker brushed his talons against the cool surface of the moonstones, remembering the day he had given this bracelet to Clearsight, believing that in the future, one of their dragonets might inherit it. Instead, she and Fathom had used it to imprison him under the mountain for two thousand years.

Because they were afraid of him, he thought with a pang of sorrow. His best friend and the dragon he loved were afraid of him. They thought he was going to destroy the whole world. Were they right? He remembered the soul reader and the stark white sand shining against the black. The proof of his diseased soul. Three moons, how had he let this happen?

The pain of the memories was so great that it was as if the whole mountain had suddenly collapsed on him all over again. He wanted nothing more than to give into the crushing weight and let it bury him, suffocate him until he couldn’t think or feel anything ever again.

Then his eyes wondered back to the enchanted bracelet. It had broken but…maybe he could fix it. Maybe, if he wound the links of copper back together, the power it held might return. He reflected on his two thousand years of sleep, with no pain, no memories, and no thought of the world around him. It seemed peaceful.

He was just beginning to hold the bracelet up to the weak light shining through the entrance to the cavern when a shadow fell upon him. He looked up and saw a dragon standing silhouetted against the steadily rising sun, her violet eyes shining with determination.

“Seeker?!”

He saw the silver scales beneath Truthseeker’s wings flash as she lighted down on an outcropping of rock above him. With a start, Peacemaker realized that it was the same place where he had once confronted Qibli, just minutes before he’d been enchanted and woken up a different dragon. Anger threatened to boil in him…but then he remembered the soul reader. What would he have done with a dragon whose soul was so obviously dark and rotten? He thought about Arctic, and his stomach gave a sickening clench.

“Why did you follow me?” he demanded, trying to sound stronger than he felt.

She shifted her wings. “We weren’t finished talking,” her voice, though soft, had no trouble carrying down to him.

“I said everything I needed to say. Now leave me alone,” he heard his voice break midway through that last statement, but tried his best to hide it.

She frowned. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen. Come on, why don’t you come up here with me, so I can see you better?”

Peacemaker started to ask why she didn’t just come down to him, but then realized that she was deliberately trying to distance him from his former prison. And perhaps she too was reluctant to venture down into that place of darkness, so crowded with bad memories it seemed difficult to breathe.

Reluctantly, he raised his wings and flapped through the stagnant air to the outcropping where Truthseeker perched. She reached out a talon, as if to embrace him, but he quickly shrugged it away.

“What are you doing here, Seeker?” he growled, using anger to drown out the agony of longing burning in his chest. “I did what you asked. I let Kinkajou go. What else do you want from me?”

But Truthseeker didn’t seem to hear him. “What’s that you’re holding?” she asked.

Peacemaker raised his talon, the moonstones in the tarnished bracelet glinting in the pale light streaming through the mouth of the cave. In the shock of Truthseeker’s arrival, he had completely forgotten he was holding it.

Truthseeker’s eyes widened. “That’s…” She seemed to reach out for it for a moment, before recoiling as if she had been stung. When she spoke again, her voice was no more than a whisper, “Why do you have that?”

He turned away. “I found it in the cave, that’s all. I wasn’t going to do anything with it.”

She narrowed her eyes. “If that’s true, then give it to me.” She reached out a talon for the bracelet, and Peacemaker instinctively recoiled before he could stop himself.

“You’re lying,” she hissed, “what were you going to do with the bracelet, Peacemaker?”

He turned away from her. “It doesn’t matter.”

“It’s matters to me!”

He whipped around to face her, his long tail thrashing. “I was going to do the only thing I could do with it! I was going to go back to sleep under the mountain, where I can’t feel or think or hurt anyone ever again.”

“That’s insane!”

“Maybe, but it’s the only option I have left. I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

“Peacemaker, that’s ridiculous. You belong at home, with me, Cliff, Auklet, Moon, your mother, and all the other dragons that love you.”

He shook his head. “I can’t go back there! After all I’ve done, they…they could never forgive me.”

“How do you know that?” she challenged.

“I hurt Moon! I threatened Turtle! I...” the lump in his throat almost kept him from uttering the words, “I tried to kill Kinkajou! She was one of my best friends. She helped raise me, and I tried to kill her!”

“But you didn’t!”

“Only because of you!” he cried, his breath coming out in rapid, hoarse gasps as he tried to fight against the tears burning in his eyes. “If you hadn’t stopped me…I…”

“You wouldn’t have gone through with it.”

“How do you know?!” he choked out the words. “I was so….so angry…so hurt, I…I think I could have...” He trailed off, the tightness in his chest and throat making it impossible to get the words out.

Truthseeker straightened up. “Even if that’s true, the point is that you didn’t. You had the opportunity to hurt her and get everything you ever wanted, and still you chose not to.”

“Because of you,” he repeated.

She shook her head. “I don’t make your decisions for you, Peacemaker. In the end it was all up to you, and you chose to do the right thing.”

“But it’s not enough. I came so close to doing something terrible…and they’ll never be able to forget that.”

“You’re right, they won’t,” she replied.

Peacemaker looked up sharply, surprised by that response, but Truthseeker’s gaze remained gentle.

“They won’t ever forget it, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t forgive you. Will it happen right away? Probably not. It may take a long time. What you did was wrong, and you’ll have to earn their trust back, but I know you can do that. You just have to show them that you’re willing to be better, and I know that you can be.”

“How?!” he burst out. “How do you know I can be better?! How do you know I won’t end up right back where I was two thousand years ago, when you trapped me under this mountain to save the world from me?”

Truthseeker flinched at the reminder of what she had done to him all those years ago, but she didn’t allow herself to be swayed. “Because tonight you did something that you never could in your life as Darkstalker: you gave up something you wanted for the good of another dragon. You cared more for her wellbeing than your own.”

Peacemaker hung his head and wrapped his tail dejectedly around his talons. “Was I really so bad, you know…before?” he murmured quietly, though by now he already knew the answer.

Truthseeker reached out and stroked a talon comfortingly across the spines that ran along his head. “You had your moments. But you were also funny and clever and thoughtful and even kind, when it suited you. That was the part of you I fell in love with, not your mindreading or your animus powers or any of your enchantments. I loved you for the dragon I got to know before…before you decided other things were more important.”

Peacemaker flinched, drawing in his wings, as if they were a cloak that could conceal him from the sins of his past.

Truthseeker placed a talon gently beneath his chin, turning his head up so that he would look her in the eye. “But you know what? You’ve been all those wonderful things and more in this life. Why do you think you have so many dragons that care about you?”

Peacemaker sighed, his heart heavy with the fear that he may have destroyed a life he had only just begun to appreciate. “I just wish things could go back to the way they were…before I got my memory back.”

He looked up suddenly. “You don’t think that Turtle might…? I mean, if you asked him…”

Truthseeker shook her head fiercely, “No.”

“But he would only have to erase my memories from the last few hours and…”

“No, Peacemaker!” she growled, her violet eyes suddenly alight with determination. “No more enchantments! No more magical shortcuts!”

Peacemaker shrank back, surprised by the ferocity in her tone.

She sighed, the fire dying from her eyes. Slowly, she reached out a wing and laid it comfortingly across his shoulder. “All this magic brings is pain. All these wounds need time and care to heal, not cheap magical tricks. Before I left, I talked to Turtle and the others, and made them promise that if I brought you back, there would be no more spells on you ever, ever again.” She raised her head, the sharp spines lifting along her neck. “And I’ll see to it that they keep that promise.”

“But…how do I go back? How do I live knowing what I’ve done…who I’ve been?” Before he had been so afraid that no one else could forgive him, and now he feared that he might not be able to forgive himself.

Truthseeker reached out, taking one of his talons in hers, so that he could feel the warmth of her scales soaking into his. “I know it’s overwhelming, and I know you’re scared, but you won’t be alone. I’ll be beside you every step of the way.”

“How can I ask you to do that?” he breathed. “After all I’ve put you through?”

She shook her head. “You’re not asking anything. This is my decision. I have no more futures to weave, no more prophecies to give or destinies to fulfill. For once my life is my own, and I get to decide where I spend it.” She leaned into him and rested her head gently against his shoulder. “I want it to be with you.”

Peacemaker sank into her, feeling the tears come unabated to his eyes. Her voice was filled with such profound devotion and kindness that the force of it almost took his breath away. What power had ever had a lure so great that it had driven him away from her?

“Truthseeker, I…” he choked, barely able to get the words out. “I love you.”

He realized suddenly that this was the first time he had spoken these words in this lifetime, though he had wanted to so many times. Even in his previous life the exchange had been rare. They were seers then, and love was something promised in visions and prophecies, not something that needed to be proven in small moments or kind acts. Perhaps that promise of love had cheapened its value, and made them feel it was something they were entitled to, not something that had to be nurtured and cared for like the flowers in Peacemaker’s garden.

“I love you too, Peacemaker,” she replied.

For a moment they stayed like that, the rising sun shining through the entrance to the cavern and warming their scales with a light that promised to chase the night away. Neither of them noticed when the bracelet held loosely in Peacemaker’s talon slipped away and tumbled down, down, down through a crack in the stone, where it would never again be found.

After what seemed like an eternity, the two young dragons pulled out of each other’s grasp. The cavern was filled with golden light as the sun continued to climb, and Truthseeker gazed out at the patches of sky beginning to show at the edge of the horizon.

“I think the storm has gone,” she murmured.

“I think you’re right,” he replied softly.

A warm breeze blew in from the mouth of the cavern, carrying the scent of dew-laden grass and the nectar of wildflowers.

Peacemaker brushed Truthseeker gently with the tip of his wing and nodded to the mouth of the cave. “Come on, let’s go have a look.”

Truthseeker blinked at him, as if surprised, and then gave a nod of agreement.

The two of them flew side by side out of the darkness of the cavern and into the morning light. Truthseeker had been right; the storm was completely gone, and only a few tattered clouds remained at the edges of the sky. The sun was glowing amber as it rose, staining the pale blue horizon with vibrant shades of yellow and orange. They lighted down together on a tangle of grass and ivy dotted with delicate blue flowers and sparkling with raindrops.

Truthseeker gazed in awe at the expanse of swirling color staining the sky, the light of the rising sun sparkling in her eyes.

“It’s a beautiful morning,” she breathed. Her gaze found him again, and he knew she was putting forward the question, though she didn’t utter another word.

It needed to be his decision.

Peacemaker smiled at her. “Okay…let’s go home.”

-----

No critique desired. Please respect that. Wings of Fire belongs to Tui T. Sutherland The art belongs to me, and you are not permitted to steal, trace, copy, reference, or otherwise redistribute it in any way. I also do not want to see this posted on RP sites, Facebook, YouTube, etc. without my permission. That's still art theft.

#Wings of Fire #WoF #My Art #VexVamp #Fan Art #Fan Fiction #Peacemaker #Darkstalker #Nightwing #Rainwing #Hybrid #Revenant #Dragon #Clearsight #Truthseeker

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awakenedfoolacademy-blog · 6 years

Text

June 11- The High Priestess

*IMPORTANT NOTE: This is one of the problem cards in the Motherpeace that depicts a woman wearing ritual clitoral mutilation garb. I do not endorse the refusal to remake this card and the Temperence card, which both feature the same dress. I feel it is important to acknowledge ignorance in our decks. The truth is many decks are problematic. We need to get comfortable acknowledging what is wrong.*

From the Magician, to the the High Priestess. She is one of my very favorite cards in the deck. In the Rider-Waite she sits upon a throne, holding a scroll. Her throne is placed between two pillars one black and one white. These pillars represent the duality, and SHE, the High Priestess, dwells between them, because she sees beyond and knows so much more than just what can be visibly perceived.

The High Priestess for me, is direct communication with my spirits. She urges me to learn more, think deeper and broader, she cautions my ego and gently pushes me deeper into my Third-Eye and Crown. The High Priestess is ruled by the Moon and so she is cyclical, in tune with nature; blood, waves, and seasons. All-knowing.

Fun story: One time, I was doing a reading for a friend, she’s actually in Awakened Fool (Shout out to Keilyn-Ariana), and at the end of the reading, I had a super ego. The reading had gone great and I was having a total moment of self-congratulations. I said jokingly out loud, “I know all!” Then without hesitation a card jumped from my deck. The High Priestess in reverse. She showed up, very clearly chastising me. She said, “No, you don’t.”

I stared at the card immediately humbled. Because that’s what the High Priestess does, she is the ultimate psychic, the ruler of inner-knowing and intuition. She knows not just information, but also emotion and thought, she knows our inner fears, worries, and egos and forces us to push past them into a state between the black and white pillars, past our own dualities.

Literally, SO excited to read all your responses for this card!

-Jaclyn 🌙

When I was a child, I would sneak out of my bedroom late at night when my parents had company over. I would crawl down the hallway, and hide beside the couch, just to listen to the conversations that the adults were having. I eventually found out that my mother knew I had a habit of doing this, but didn’t stop me. She found it amusing.

The High Priestess reminds me of that feeling - the need to KNOW what was happening. She’s the adult, talking of intelligent things, just loud enough to get your attention, to make you come closer. She's the holder of knowledge, which we see represented by the scroll (the Torah* half hidden beneath her robe in the SW deck) in her hand. She’s not showing all she has to offer us, only indicating that she is the keeper of the keys. Behind her rises the full moon, the symbol closely linked to the subconsious in Tarot. Shrouded in black and white fabric, we see that the door has been propped open. Beckoning us inward toward ourselves.

The traditional deck has reference to the two pillars, Boaz and Jachin (strength and wisdom), that flanked the doors of King Solomons temple. The High Priestess to me represents the work we must do to pass through these pillars in order to continue on our journey. We must accept that we are not our Ego, nor are we the stories we tell ourselves. We are infinitely vast, connected to all. But we must remember that in order to begin.

Meeting her here is also our first interaction with the Anima, the feminine aspect of our internal voice, companion to the Animus. Like the Magician before her, she is helping us to see the importance of reaching out and grabbing what is available. Where he was closely linked to Practice Magic, she is draped in high esoterica, brings forth images of Ceremonial Magic, ritual, discipline, and determination to dive deeper within. She guards the greater mysteries, the deeper truths. If the Magician is tied to the physical elements, she is in charge of getting our mind in the game.

*I intend to do an entire subtopic discussion on the Kabbalistic symbolism of the Smith Waite later on this year. Let us know if you would be interested in participating in such a program!

- Raven ✨

Everyone has been really diving in to these personal responses. It’s been wonderful seeing how creative you all are. Jaclyn and I have some fun activities planned in the coming days and weeks, so keep your eyes on this space for more information.

Side Note: Are you enjoying this format so far? Do you have suggestions or comments that you want to share with us specifically? Hit the “Ask Us” button on our page and we’ll get back to you quickly.

See you tomorrow when we meet the Empress!

#awakenedfool #awakenedfooltarotacademy

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arkus-rhapsode · 6 years

Note

In your opinion did Dragon Cry add anything to the series? While it gave some background info on Acnologia it made him seem kinda silly too. IIRC the girl wasn't even related to him or anything. I get being mad at death but like why just her and not everyone else.

This gets a little long…

Well lets see, I do think there is some to dragon cry and the biggest thing I will give it is, it takes out of Fiore to a country on the map that actually is named (unlike phoenix priestess which just made up a principality). Unfortunately it does squander this potential with Stella not being all that different from Fiore. Both have a European aesthetic with a similar monarchy, with the only thing going for it is the star concept (which really is used just for scenery) and the stellanium. But even the stellanium isn’t all that unique when it is basically just a blue version of lacrima. Which Edolas already did a decent job showing that it is capable of using in a variety of ways.

Another thing I do give this movie is the concept of another dragon using dragon soul and not being one of the first 5. The concept of the dragon using dragon soul to save itself regardless if it had a personal connection to who it is sealing itself inside of does work with the idea the western dragons were more greedy and power hungry. But there are just odd inconsistencies.

Animus is inside of SOnya and the King appearance is just coming from her mind that Animus is producing. Similar to Zera at first just being an illusion of tMavis, but How? How can the dragon use magic while inside Sonya’s body and still be king? What if Sony walked miles away from the kingdom (like in the opening) does the king just fade away? Or what if Igneel just decided to use his own Magic whenever Natsu was in a bind, gee that would be handy. Another thing I’m not sure about and this is minor, is Sonya’s magic. If she has Animus in her body does she get whatever dragon slayer magic he has? I guess not. But then why does SOnya look young? Acnologia and Irene are just enchancting their human guise and have the elongated aging of dragons, but Sonya isn’t a slayer so she shouldn’t have the elongated aging. An if she did, then why wasn’t she showing off dragon slaying magic? (I can accept her not having a dragon form because technically Animus is using Dragon Soul to stop that) But What about the ritual of Dragon Soul? Doesn’t it require they be a slayer? I mean then Dragons just can body jack you. Why does Animus even need the staff to release himself? Igneel and the others got out fine. I guess since they’re technically still damaged from the Acnologia fight they had 400 years prior and this would fully heal them but still. I guess you could say that Animus is an exception since this is the first time we’ve seen this kind of thing, but it’s not really explored, instead it’s just left out there.

Also side note: How did they become the ruling body of a kingdom? If their king isn’t real and his assistant has no idea that he’s just some thought projection? Why do you need to be the ruler, why not go into hiding, dragons just see humans as food anyway and being the ruling body of an entire nation probably is going to attract more attention an a homeless drifter. I guess maybe over the time Animus could’ve gotten more joy out of ruling humans, but if that is the case, wouldn’t it be better if, I don’t know, Sonya was the queen of Stella from the start and actually ruling the country with Dragon Slayer magic. I mean 400 years ago after the devastation by Acnologia I’m sure people would’ve wanted to look to a strong ruler. Rather than this wibble-wibble looking girl why not Animus have molded her into a queen to amass a group of followers and when he’s free just claim he’s sonya transcended to her highest magic level? I’m not saying it would’ve been great but at least it would be more interesting a conflict and actually add to the world. (No, we don’t have time to world build, Lucy tits jiggling take priority)

Speaking of a neglected world, wow. This is not a job that should be done by mages. A traitor to the government stole a super powerful weapon, this is the grounds for a national war. Sure a guild could be seen as a more covert operation, but there is no guarantee the mages have any stealth training. As much as I love Wendy in the ninja outfit, she isn’t a real stealth mage. Then there’s the idea if the mages get caught (which FT did get caught) know this has caused another international conflict. I know in movies you shouldn’t think that hard, but when OP film gold came out it at least bothered to care about the world it made. And don’t say “well they had Oda…” Hiro was working on this too, it still failed.

How about action? Well some was actually pretty decent. The fight with Wendy and Gapri probably being my favorite. Unfortunately the animation budget wasn’t going in there. I guss some people like that Lucy gets a moment to stand up forall the prisoners, but that is after she is defeated, degraded, and led to believe this is less blood sacrifice dungeon and more “pound you in the ass” dungeon. But hey, Capricorn kicked Zash…

Hell there is a lot of character. Gajeel and Juvia are literally there for no reason other than ship reasons. Natsu’s whole human or dragon thing is solved in literally 10 seconds, and while I do appreciate getting backstory for Acnologia, it’s painfully paper thin and makes him less a tragic character and more really lazy anikin skywalker.

Well in terms of technical I will say it is great for there to be braight and vibrant color in FT again and the original soundtrack. Though from a film making stand point it followed a horrible trend of 2014( mainly after Lucy summoned the celestial spirit king) which over-saturation of color, especially orange, in the second act of the film.

There are also some nice aspects in a meta sense. The voices they brought in, both dub and sub, were incredible. In the english you had Animus, Sonya, and Zash voiced by Michael Sinterniklaas, Erica Mendez, and Ray Chase. All phenomenal talents with a multitude of great roles and in the japanese you had Makoto Furukawa, Aoi Yuki, Jiro Saito. Yes Saitama and Tatsumaki were voicing Animus and Sonya and my god are they wasted. This is Saitama playing a fucking dragon, how does not work? Fairy Tail Dragon Cry found a way I guess.

So finally I will say that in an overall sense I do appreciate that this film tired to bring in more parts of the world, tried to capture what was great about the first anime, and at least give us some backstory to this world. But all of that I felt could’ve been done a whole hell of a lot better, hell Phoenix Priestess did it better. So the film really didn’t contribute that much. But hey, nice art is always appreciated.

#fairy tail #animus #sonya #fairy tail dragon cry #dragon cry #natsu dragneel

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rebelquilts512 · 7 years

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My Rebels AUs

Apparently, @eyeloch has more influence than I thought, since only two people made 3 notes on my post asking if anyone wanted to hear about my Star Wars Rebels AUs, @eyeloch being one of them, and here I am sharing them, that and I really did want to share them.

So without further ado, here are my Rebels AUs and how I came up with them:

Kanan and Sabine, Father-Daughter Modern AU

Creation: This basically sprung when I was reading Rebels fanfiction and noticed that in SWR modern AUs, in the event that Kanan and Hera aren’t married, there were AUs where Kanan takes care of Ezra, AUs where Hera takes care of Sabine, and AUs where Hera takes care of both of them, but no AUs where it’s just Kanan taking care of Sabine, so I made my own.

Content: I think this is pretty straight forward plot, a modern AU where Kanan is Sabine’s dad, I can’t really say anything else without spoiling the fanfiction I’m writing for this AU, which is coming along very very slowly. I’ll probably post it somewhere when I’m done, but no promises on when that will be.

Wings of Fire AU

Creation: I..... honestly have no idea how or why I came up with this.

Content: Anybody read the Wings of Fire book series? It’s a series about a continent of a bunch of different dragon tribes and they have dragons called animus dragons who have magical powers (humans are called scavengers and nobody can understand them). This AU is basically the plot of Rebels, but everyone’s a dragon, well Chopper’s a scavenger, but yeah. I don’t really have much for this other than giving dragon types to assorted Rebels characters and playing with a couple scene ideas in my head.

Mythical Halves AU

Creation: I came up with this one after I read a graphic novel called Fish Girl about a mermaid who lives in an aquarium and in the book she befriends a human girl who gives her the name Mira. Since I’m a Star Wars Rebels nerd, it made me think of Ezra’s mother and I thought: “What if Ezra’s mother was a mermaid?” and this AU was born.

Content: This AU has a somewhat modern/human world setting. The story is about the members of the Ghost crew discovering one of their parents was a mythical creature and how they deal with their mythical creature blood. Eventually they meet up and work together to overcome those who wish them harm. I’ve made little character profiles for the Ghost crew that tells which one of their parents was a mythical creature and what creature they were, along with the abilities they’ve gained from this. I also have written little paragraphs summarizing their backstories for everyone except Sabine, because I want to know a bit more about her backstory with her father first.

Note: Chopper isn’t human, but he is a mythical creature.

Kanera Selection AU

Warning: Spoilers for the Selection book series, if you don’t want to be spoiled skip this one.

Creation: I came up with this one after thinking about Kriss Ambers, one of the girls in the Selection, and how she was secretly a Northern rebel and committed to her cause, and she fell in love with Prince Maxon, although she doesn’t win the Selection. This made me think of Hera and how she’s a devoted rebel who ends up falling in love with Kanan (I am a devoted Kanera shipper, do not argue with me on this). So I decided to put Hera and Kanan in a Selection

Content: (Earth AU) The story takes place in the country of Estrella and is about young rebel Hera entering the Selection for Prince Kanan, who is not the son of the king, but his nephew, who is the heir to the throne because the king’s son died in a car accident along with Kanan’s mother (I’ll give you one guess who she is), so Kanan has to do the Selection. All I have for this AU is a list of contestants and what province they’re from (it’s significantly less girls than there are in the books because I could not find 35 Star Wars girls who I thought would be somewhat acceptable age wise for the time. I’ve also thought about a few plot ideas but haven’t written them down.

Musical High School AU

Creation: This AU spawned after I listened to the High School Musical soundtracks over and over a few times and this popped up. However, this is not a High School Musical AU, this is something different.

Content: This takes place in a high school where everyone has labels. Five students (Hera, Sabine, Kanan, Zeb, and Ezra), are enlisted by student music teacher Ahsoka Tano to save the schools’s music program (and give a boost to the school’s general budget) by entering a student singing competition that is categorized and leads to other similar competitions. I haven’t figured out why she chooses them other than the choir kids the school has aren’t cut out for this. For this AU I basically have figured out what the Ghost crew’s high school personalities are, a little special thing they do that contributes to rehearsals, and what songs they’re singing.

If you want to here more about any of these AUs just ask.

#star wars rebels #AU #wings of fire #the selection #kanan jarrus #sabine wren #hera syndulla #ezra brigder #garazeb orrelios #chopper

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dancerwrites · 7 years

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where do we go from here?

**Spoilers for Episode 102 of Critical Role! (kind-of)**

Characters: Vax, Vex, Percy, Vox Machina Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Major Character Death

I’m so sorry for this. @cinderpaw1 gave me ideas, and it’s all her fault, really...

Summary: What’s it like when you lose the other half of your heart?

[ao3]

Vax surveys the battlefield through watering eyes, the heat of the fireball fading around him. He sees his sister’s prone body, held as his own, only a few meters in front of him. They hadn’t been nearly as well prepared as they should have been, and it already showed with the number of Vox Machina who were incapacitated by Vecna’s spell. He sends a quick prayer to the Raven Queen for guidance, for help, and hopes that it will be enough.

Above him, Vecna speaks a single word that, even though Vax doesn’t feel its effects, still causes a prickle down his spine at the unnatural language and its ominous portents.

The prickle turns into a full-blown chill down his frozen arms and legs as Vax sees Vex’s body slump, limp, to the ground, and Vax’s necklace pulses, the red glow shining off the obsidian floor beneath his cheek. He wants to yell, but he’s still stuck in place, wings bent awkwardly and limbs non-functional.

Pike is still up, he tells himself. Pike can get to her in time.

But then Vecna immediately turns to him, and Vax feels the gaze of the luminous green eye, the gaunt skin pulling back in a menacing smile as he spoke into Vax’s mind.

“Say hello to your Mistress for me, Champion.”

A green ray of energy coalesces in the lich’s outstretched palm, and Vax closes his eyes, imagining death as he has so many times before….

But he hears Scanlan’s shout from out of nowhere-

“You know what the problem with your face is? I CAN SEE IT!”

Vax opens his eyes, and they dart to Vecna to see the outcome-

The spell is gone, the lich looking angrily out of Vax’s vision.

Vax wants to laugh and then cry a bit despite being held fast – he really has missed Scanlan.

Grog slams blow after blow into Delilah, but claws made of shadows come up out of the ground and trap him in place. Vax feels them around himself too, their cold weight against his own body, slowly sucking life away from him. Grog disappears inexplicably, and there’s so much going on, if he could just break free.

“How does it feel, Percival?” Delilah shouts, bloodied face in a twisted grin, looking toward the other side of the tower as she backs up to stand directly over his sister’s body, and he can’t move but- “To have your beloved taken away from you?”

The necklace resting against Vax’s throat beats in time with his own heart.

Her grin sets in, almost hysterical on her face, and Vax tries again to move, to push the limits of the spell, but even if he could there would be no way for him to get to her in time as Delilah’s palm glows green with the same energy Vecna’s had, and it stretches down to hit Vex’s body, limp and helpless-

And his sister’s body disintegrates into dust, leaving her armor to fall to the ground, empty.

Vax is broken out of his stunned shock by Percival’s scream, echoed by several others, and the dragon tooth at his throat pulses harder, more urgently, as if he could do something instead of lying prone while the world breaks around him, before the glow vanishes and the beating stops.

He sees Delilah’s body jerk once, twice, and Vax feels searing hot anger flow through his veins as he eggs Percy’s shots on, living vicariously through the way Delilah winces with the aftershock of Animus’ shots.

“Join your husband in the depths of Hell!” Percy yells, and Vax, the necklace pulsing at his chest, feels his whole body echo the sentiment as he sees Delilah’s head explode, gore flying behind her and splattering over the lip on the edge of the tower.

There was a moment where time seemed to slow and Delilah’s head, her leering grin still in palce, spun by the force of the blow.

(She fell slowly, almost in slow motion, her body arcing far too gracefully to the ground, and after she had fallen, Vax almost expected his sister’s body to reconstitute, to breathe again, but Delilah’s prone form lay next to Vex’s armor, the white dragon scales formerly of Vorugal’s hide caked in dirt and dust from the Shadowfell.

Nothing changed.)

Vax feels a hand on his arm and a heat course through him. He starts, whipping around to see Pike, eyes teary, looking at him sympathetically. But he doesn’t want that.

“We’re trying to get out of here,” Pike explains, and Vax feels anger pulse through him again, like his heartbeat, though the necklace had gone still.

“They’re not dead yet,” Vax growls, and he wonders if the searing force that flows through him is what Grog felt when he falls into a rage. “They need to die.”

He can hardly think as Vecna throws spells at him and around him, Pike taking a black ray of energy to the heart, the lich too far away for his daggers to be of use. Scanlan cries out, and Vax turns to see the black knight standing over Scanlan, who’s back is bloodied as he curls around Vex’s armor.

Vax throws his daggers with pinpoint accuracy, and Grog roars behind him as the knight staggers at the force of the blows. To the side, Keyleth stands, hands outstretched, obviously preparing for a Planeshift spell, and Vax’s heart feels like it might break with indecision.

Looking around, however, it’s obvious that they are, despite having more players on the field, vastly outnumbered.

The rest of the battle blurs together as Scanlan sings and Pike’s armor glows, and Vax’s body moves without his control, as if he neither can stop it nor change its course.

It takes only seconds to complete the chain required for Planeshift and Scanlan sings as the terrible sucking sensation of being teleported via magic runs through Vax, who can hardly think of anything else for one, blessed moment.

And then their feet hit grass in the Feywild and it’s almost as if the weight of the world falls on top of him as Vax collapses, fingers digging into the soft dirt beneath them. He yells, the anguished cry wrenched from his own mouth, almost unrecognizable as his pain rushes in and through him, building and building and building-

The crack of a gunshot echoes behind him, then another, and Vax, chest heaving, turns to see Percy, Animus held at the ready, taking point-blank shots into Delilah’s torso, mutilating the flesh beyond belief.

Her green eye swivels in its socket, the unnatural glow almost the same color as the grass she lays upon, and Vax thinks he might be sick.

“You promised!” he shouts instead, swallowing back bile as he screws his eyes tightly shut. “You made her a deal- you made me a deal – my life for hers, and her promise to fight for you. Don’t you dare go back on your word!”

The rush of his blood, the beat of his heart, roars through his ears, and in the blackness of his mind Vax can almost swear that he sees his sister’s body, lifeless and splintered, like glass, held together by thousands of golden threads.

Her destiny is not yours…

The voice comes to him as it always does – cryptically and without any discernable emotion – and he wants to scream at her again, to reach into the moment between life and death and pull her from it to face him.

There are so many paths to walk, my Champion, and so many purposes. There are dead-ends and crossroads, and places where the way gets too hard to get through on one’s own. I have not forsaken you, nor my promises. Be careful of your accusations, and see what time will bring.

His eyes open in an instant, and Vax looks around to see the rest of his companions spread across the field, Grog’s hand on Pike’s shoulder, both of them in tears, Percy’s gun fallen to the ground, his face screwed up in pain, Scanlan holding his sister’s armor, broom, and bow, and Keyleth, strong and steady, approaches him, kneeling down to lay a hand on his shoulder.

One sob, forced from his lungs at the contact, becomes more, violently pulled from his chest as he feels the pain of his heart being ripped in two.

And, though Keyleth gathers him into her arms, holding him as he lets himself fall apart in front of what remains of his family, Vax is not sure he can ever be whole again.

#critfic #critical role #vax'ildan #vex'ahlia #i'm so sorry #fanfic #my writing #cr spoilers

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dancer4813 · 7 years

Text

chaos is calling

the living and the dead (are one in the same)

In the aftermath of their battle at the ziggurat, Percy feels the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Spoilers for Episode 100

[ao3] [Cassandra]

He sees her disappear and his heart feels like it’s ripped from his chest with the intensity of his fury. He fires with the pistol in his hand and the hammer seizes before the bullet fires, sending hot lines of pain up his arm directly to his brain.

Through the haze he whips out Bad News, but the rifle clicks, and tendrils of smoke unfurl from the gun, the black wisps bringing back memories of a silky voice in his head, of a beak-like face and the feeling of vengeance-

Percy pulls out Retort and a bullet flies true, hitting the sphere…

And disappears. Without a sound, without an impact, without fanfare.

As his hands start shaking, his knees give way beneath him.

Percy’s lungs feel as though he hasn’t breathed in hours, the way they are trying to suck in and push out the musky air around the ziggurat. His mind is working faster than it ever has, but is comprehending slower than usual, and even though he tries to make sense of things, tries to fix his guns (he picks up Animus and taps sharply on the bottom, the side, pulls the trigger, the actions routine, but it sticks and he knows he needs tools, needs a workshop, to fix Bad News espe-), tries to sort out the feelings in his head, he finds everything coalescing to a dull roar of sound that builds and builds and builds and-

There’s a hand on his shoulder.

Through the haze of Deliliah and Fix it and Vengeance and You were DEAD echoing through his mind, Vex’s face comes, breaking apart his thoughts with the concern in her eyes. Her other hand comes up to cup his cheek and he knows it’s her because of the fingers, calloused from the string of a bow and so familiar (more than he would ever dare to imagine).

“You need to breathe, Percy darling,” she says, and he wants to say that he is breathing, that he’s perfectly fine, but the hand on his face moves to his chest, pushing gently, and he realizes just how fast everything is moving and he tries to slow down, the air catching in his lungs.

“That’s it, that’s it,” she encourages, and with another couple shuddering breaths the fog starts to clear from his mind and he hears the dull roar of the others discussing what to do next behind him.

“She’s back,” he gasps as soon as he has enough breath to, and Delilah’s broken body, stabbed and held against the wall by his sister, flashes through his mind – blood trickling from the corner of her mouth, her arm missing.

“I know,” Vex says, and it’s then that he remembers her near death at the ziggurat beneath Whitestone and he finds himself grabbing at her wrist, needing to feel her pulse despite her sitting right in front of him.

(Luckily she lets him more-or-less pull her onto his lap, so he can bury his face in her braid.

He remembers her lifeless body carried gingerly by Grog out of the anti-magic field, the desperation when the potions and healing spells didn’t take hold…

But she’s here and alive and dear gods they’ve got a lot of work to do now.)

Percy counts to ten, telling himself to relax as he feels his breathing finally start to slow down, and when he reaches the end of his count he forces his arms to let go, pulling back as he does so.

“Better?” Vex asks, and he nods (even though it isn’t exactly true), knowing that he can’t just sit around and let the others figure things out. This is his past coming back into play yet again. First the Briarwoods, then Ripley after he’d let her escape, and now Delilah, after he’d watched her body dissolve in a pool of acid.

Percy really hated magic sometimes. And would-be gods.

They spoke with her henchman about the portal, learning of the stones they needed to pass through safely, unless they wanted to run the risk of the harm it could do them.

(Percy wasn’t sure about the rest of Vox Machina, but he found himself much more worried about what they would need to deal with on the other side of that gate than he was about getting through it.)

He also has Vex’s promise to the Raven Queen running through his head non-stop, and if that wasn’t enough, they take a vote and decide they’re tapped out enough that Scanlan should re-cast the mansion, saving their plans for the next morning and leaving Percy with nowhere to spend his excess energy.

So he goes to bed with Vex after an unsatisfactory dinner and lays in bed until she falls asleep, then slips away. There’s no need to worry her more, not when she has her own demons to worry about, and he creeps out of the room, glad that Trinket is in the Raven’s Slumber so he doesn’t need to avoid waking the bear.

He wanders through the mansion, reacquainting himself with the eerily-familiar halls and taking note of the new changes – generally a subtler décor, a more fully equipped music room, and fewer mirrors scattered throughout.

The silence in the mansion isn’t malevolent, but it is unnerving, especially since the arcane nature of the mansion’s walls mean that while the enchanted windows show perfectly normal night skies, none of the house creaks in the wind or at someone’s footsteps. There are no places where the walls are too thin unless Scanlan plans them that way, and while some of the walls seem to be wooden, and others stone, there’s no difference to the sound they make when you tap your knuckles against them.

It’s like the perfect version of anyone’s house. No defects, no shoddy construction, and certainly none of the quirks that come with a home built from scratch.

At least, Percy thinks, finally deciding that he might as well get some work done instead of simply walking the halls, despite its faults, it has some very nice bathrooms.

Percy retrieves his black powder carefully, glad to see that Vex still seems to be sleeping camly, and goes to the workshop that Scanlan has always created for him, but his mind is so busy that he doesn’t realize the door is already partly ajar until he pushes it open to see Tary at the work bench, head in his hands. Doty was at the side of the worktable, but he was leaning against the wall, eyes dark, the plates on his chest caved in from the force of the spells that had struck him down.

Percy felt himself freeze as Tary looked up, eyes wide. Neither of them had expected company, and while they had spent the better part of the last year sharing workshop space…

“Oh- hello, Percival,” Tary says, straightening up and trying to appear as though he hasn’t been worried.

“Hello, Tary,” Percy replies, trying to muster a smile, though it feels like more of a grimace. “Are you working on something?”

Tary pulls back from the table, revealing a pristine work surface. “Not exactly,” he murmurs, running his fingers through long flaxen hair. “I didn’t realize I would be able to tinker on the go – I left nearly all of my supplies in Vex’s mansion, packed in my bags. I would fix Doty, but…”

His voice trails off, and Percy understands the pained look on his face before he drops his gaze to the floor.

“Well, I was just going to make some bullets,” he offers, “if you’re interested in helping?”

He would be a hypocrite if he criticized Tary’s lack of sleep, and as he had learned it was always good to have an extra pair of hands. Those hands used to be Keyleth’s, but since she’d been spending so much time in Zephra with her people, Percy had shown Tary what needed to be done one lazy afternoon in the workshop, and Tary, intelligent as he was, caught on quickly.

“If you need my help.”

“I always appreciate your help,” Percy says in lieu of an answer, and in an unfamiliar workshop after a harrowing battle, approaching what might be the biggest fight of their lives, it’s enough.

In silence they get out the black powder and the molds, and Tary starts the forge going. The heat suffuses the room, and Tary seems to relax as they get into a rhythm of melt, pour, release, melt, pour, release.

They refill the melting pot twice and cast a little over 30 bullets in all. Then they get to trim the excess casing from them, smoothing the edges so the bullets don’t get stuck in the chambers of his guns and fly true to strike their adversaries.

After meticulously examining five of the bullets they’ve made together, his mind starting to calm, his rational self having taken over in the presence of labor, Percy wipes a trickle of sweat out of his eye and looks over at Tary. The blond, who is staring at one of the bullets as if it has the answers to the universe, doesn’t look over when he clears his throat, and doesn’t even react until Percy sets a gentle hand on his shoulder, making him jump.

“Copper for your thoughts?”

Tary bites his lip, his gaze locking with Percy’s, then it falls back down to the bullet in his hands as he shrugs Percy’s hand off and sets the bullet aside.

“Who was she, the dark-haired woman?”

Percy blinks, and his hand, still outstretched toward Tary, sinks. They had given Tary the basic details of Whitestone’s takeover, but never the full story.

“Delilah Briarwood,” Percy replies evenly, torn between wanting to keep watching Tary and wanting to go back to the bullets to keep his hands busy. “She and her husband killed my family.”

“They took over Whitestone?”

“They did.”

“And now they’re back?”

“Delilah seems to be,” Percy says, and nope, fuck it, he needs something to do.

The scritch-scratch of metal against metal fills the room again.

“Not her husband?” Tary asks after a moment, taking another bullet.

“We killed him. Well, both of them,” Percy murmurs, brushing away the metal shavings left on the bullet and examining its curves. “I honestly didn’t expect either to come back, but I suppose I should stop having such low expectations of the universe’s desire to fuck with my life.”

It comes out more biting than he wanted it to, but Tary just nods and drops his first bullet into the pot of newly-finished ones.

“And she’s back to kill you?” Tary asks.

“Kill the world, more likely,” Percy replies, and his stomach turns as he feels a strong urge to throw the bowl of bullets to the ground and send them scattering, like ants underfoot. “You know Vex has been studying Vecna, yes?”

“She mentioned the name once or twice – was he her husband?”

Percy actually laughs at that, though it feels wrenched out of him like an arrow from a wound.

“No,” he gasps, getting his breath back. “Not quite. Her husband, Sylas, was a vampire whom Vecna brought back to life. Vecna, on the other hand….”

“Not a good guy?” Tary volunteers.

“Not a good guy,” Percy affirms, “He’s a lich who tried to ascend to godhood ages ago. Informally the god of secrets, and is also known as The Whispered One to his followers.

When Tary doesn’t ask anything else, Percy takes a deep breath, the smell of black powder filling his nostrils, and goes back to the bullets.

They work in relative silence for a while, until there’s only a bullet apiece left to grind the stub of the mold away from.

“Vex showed me the ziggurat under Whitestone,” Tary murmurs. “She said that I ‘should know there’s a potentially deadly calamity underneath the city’.”

“Vex always has been the clever one.”

“I don’t know, you’re pretty clever,” Tary says, and then he recoils slightly, blushing.

Percy smiles at the unintentional flirting.

“I’m going to say what I said earlier – I’ll take the compliment.”

Tary chuckles half-heartedly, but Percy can see that the man has a complicated look on his face, much like Percy imagines his own mind to be – an amalgam of emotions that, in his current state of mind, he’s not able to sort out.

“Could you tell me what happened?”

It’s certainly more vague a question than Percy had anticipated, but he thinks he knows what Tary’s getting at.

“Do you want it from the beginning? It’s not a happy story,” Percy warns, and while part of him is wary to recount the tale, he distantly wonders if going through the tale again might help him pick up on a detail he’d missed, or understand something that they might have glossed over in the moment.

“Since coming out into the world I’ve learned that not all stories have happy endings,” Tary says, chuckling.

“It’s a sad but real truth,” Percy agrees. “But if you’re sure…”

Tary nods, and Percy takes a deep breath before beginning.

He tells the story, from the Briarwoods fleeing Wildmount and running to Whitestone to their overtaking the city and laying low for many years. He speaks briefly to his own escape, and then jumps to when he had first heard their names after so long – just after Vox Machina had returned from the Underdark. He tells about their return, and how Vox Machina helped him take back his city, and he explains the ritual (or what he had seen of it) that Delilah performed at the top of the ziggurat under Whitestone.

(And Percy’s never had this before – someone who will listen who knows him, knows some of where he’s coming from, but who hasn’t lived those experiences with him – and he feels an ache in his chest knowing that Tary has set his heart on returning to Wildmount as soon as possible.)

Pressing on, he explains in detail, the images imprinted on his mind, Sylas and Delilah’s deaths, though he tries to leave Orthax’s involvement out of that as much as possible. He finishes with Cassandra’s death blow to Delilah and the subsequent throwing of the necromancer in acid.

He looks up at Tary just in time to catch a distinctly green tinge to the man’s cheeks, and his lips turn up in a smirk at the thought, May you never change, Tary.

“And that’s the story?” Tary asks, swallowing, the glimpse of nausea fading.

“That’s it.”

“You know, I always had ‘defeat an evil wizard’ on my list,” he hums with a wry smile. “But it seems like you’ve all done that already. How many things have you done that I’ve been waiting my whole life to do?”

“Probably everything on your list and then some,” Percy admits, “Though I’m still not sure about the ‘rescuing a damsel’. The stories really are wrong about how often there are any damsels.”

“Mmhmmmm…”

“Is there something else on your mind?”

Tary’s mouth twists into a frown, eyes narrowing as he thinks.

“You said the Briarwoods hailed from Wildmount, once upon a time?”

“Yes – do you know where they might have come from?”

“Not where, exactly, but I do remember there being a bit of uproar six or seven years ago, in the north. There were rumors, never anything concrete, but people started to go missing, and my mother always wanted eyes on us if at all possible, despite my being of age at the time. There was some political upheaval, I remember that, and Maryanne was constantly talking about her friends who lived up there – she said-“

He frowns again, tapping the side of his temple as if it will push the memories into his head.

“What she learned from them, was that one city in particular seemed to be drawing people in, only for them to disappear. I never heard specific names – honestly, I wasn’t very interested at the time, too involved in my fantasies as I was.” Tary gives chuckles again, and shrugs. “I know it’s not much to go on…”

“No, no, it’s something,” Percy argues, taking out his notebook from his bag and flipping to a clean page to draft a quick outline of the known lands of Exandria. Wildmount to the Northeast, Tal’dorei taking up the middle, Issylra to the Northwest, and even, further west, though slightly more south, Marquet.

It’s a sad excuse for a map, he knows, and he imagines Tyriok, the mapmaker, looking at it disdainfully before he quickly jots down the locations of the two ziggurats they’ve been to, in Whitestone and about a days’ walk north of Ank’harel.

“You said it was in the far north of Wildmount?” he asks Tary, who nods.

“Yes, though I’m not sure where. At least a couple days north of Deastok, though still in the Dwendalian Empire.”

Percy makes a dotted circle around the northern half of the continent, not knowing its geography well enough to have a decent bead on where a former temple to Ioun might be…

“There’s one in Vasselheim,” he realizes, glancing over the blank areas on his map.

“There’s a what?”

“A ziggurat,” Percy says, and he wonders why he hadn’t seen it before. Osysa had come from behind one in the temple of Ioun, when they had received their brands from the Slayer’s Take.

“In Vasselheim?” Tary asks, and Percy nods frantically, already marking its rough location.

“There’s one on every continent,” Percy notes, but as soon as he’s said it he feels a swooping sense of dread. “But what if there’s more?”

“More?”

“There’s already three that we know of that have siphons,” Percy points out, and he sets his pencil down as he feels his hands start to tremble. “How many more might they have turned? How many-“

He cuts himself off, realizing the sheer scope of the task before them, and suddenly he feels like he might gag on the sheer enormity of the task set out for them. Ziggurats all over the world, travel to another plane as Vex and Pike had seen… This was so much bigger than just Whitestone. He’d heard the answers to Pike’s questions from the dead man’s lips, he’d known since their first encounter with the ziggurat in Whitestone that Vecna was trying to return through the Briarwoods, but to see, tangibly, laid out before him, the scope of the Vecna’s plans?

“Percy? Percy, look at me,” Tary says, and Percy does so, though it hardly feels as though he’s inhabiting his own body in that moment.

“Percy?”

“We were nothing to them,” Percy mutters, instead of the hesitant placation that had been on his lips, an incredulous sort of chuckle pulled from his lungs as he shakes his head. “Nothing.”

“To who? To whom? The Briarwoods? Percy, you’re starting to scare me-“

“You should be scared,” Percy says, and he remembers Tary when they first met him, shying away from anything and everything. “And… all of us, all of them, have just been some stepping stones on their way up, no more than irritating pebbles in their boots.”

“Percy-“

Tary’s voice seems to get stuck in his throat, and Percy understand that, wants to be empathetic, but then Tary’s hand presses down on his shoulder and its grounding, it’s solid, and even if it’s not quite enough to steady him entirely, he takes a breath.

“My whole family, Tary, my whole city. We were pawns to them, plebeians that they didn’t mind crushing under their boots. We were nothing in their eyes, less than nothing. They walked over us like leaves on the ground and even when we try to get rid of them they come back. We are nothing.”

Percy chokes on his last sentence, laughing again, and almost unconsciously grabs at Tary’s arm to keep himself steady. He’s always considered himself nihilistic, but this is something more, something new, in the wake of a lifetime of life and fate sticking up their middle finger in his face. “They just breezed through, and when they had left their mark they breezed away and kept going – they’re like cockroaches. They just never-“

“Stop.”

Tary’s interruption comes with a light slap to the face and Percy blinks hard, the surface pain working its way through his skull to join the headache he seems to have grown in the back of his head without him knowing it.

“I’m not going to hear you self-depreciate like that,” Tary says, and Percy blinks again, his vision clarifying on the man who is older than him, but looks younger, and who, at one point, seemed so naïve to the world around him. “Alright? Can you do that?”

“I- I can-“

He wants to lie, wants to say he’ll be fine, that he’s just had a long day, they all have…

“I can try,” his mouth says instead, and Tary’s eyes sparkle at that, his frown softening.

“I know something about hating yourself, let me tell you,” Tary says. “And I know it sucks, and I know it’s a loud voice in your head, but you especially have helped me move beyond that, right?”

He nods encouragingly, and Percy copies the gesture, head bobbing slightly. His guns, the destruction they caused, the victories they’d won… It all seemed to pale for a moment in comparison to what was looming on the horizon.

“Now, I’m headed home soon.”

Percy hums in agreement, and the dull ache in his chest sharpens slightly.

“And you know my reasons, but you all? You understand saving the world. You’ve got years of experience and practice that I could only dream of. I know you all don’t want to say it, but you are all so talented and so powerful…”

Percy scoffs before he can help himself, and it earns him a glare from Tary.

“Again, I know you don’t want to believe it, but you are,” he says, shaking Percy’s shoulders slightly for emphasis. “Can you understand that? That you’ve all done good and you’re going to do it again?”

“Maybe?” Percy says, because he really doesn’t know, and he feels like the whole world is going to crash down on him for a moment-

“Hey, stop that.”

Percy’s vision refocuses on the man in front of him, expensive armor dented and hair looking slightly windswept despite having been under a helmet all day.

“I’m going to tell you what you should do, okay?” Tary offers, and Percy nods, letting himself take a deep breath.

“Excellent. You are going to go to the kitchen with me and get some calming tea, alright? And then we’re going to get you back to bed with Vex and you’re going to sleep until morning, when we can do something about things, alright?”

Percy opens his mouth to refuse, but he finds himself nodding yet again. He feels wrung out and almost like he’s drowning under the weight of everything that needs to be done, everything that they’re going to do. Perhaps sleep will help.

“Sounds like a plan,” Tary says with a grim smile, and a pat on the back as he stands up. “Now, do you know the way back to the kitchen, or should we call for a servant to show us the way?”

“I’ve got it,” Percy says, because he does know, and it’s something to do.

And as his feet carry him up the stairs and down the hallway, Tary’s footsteps echoing behind his own in the silence of the magical mansion, Percy takes a deep breath, pushing himself forward.

#critfic #critical role #percival de rolo #taryon darrington #critical role fanfic #writing percy is really cathartic #even though it hurts me and him #my writing #cr fanfiction #darrolo?#kinda?#cr spoilers #megan writes

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