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miupow · 3 months

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Just Like Magic! | K. TH

“𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙝 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬𝙨 𝙣𝙤𝙩.” -Blaise Pascal

❝You're a novice witch in love with her mentor, something frowned upon and taboo, especially when it comes to magick; but you just can't help it, Taehyun is simply too talented and handsome! you're content with admiring from afar... but when you get ahold of an ancient spellbook with a recipe for a curious potion, your curiosity takes over.❞

✦ PAIRING: warlock!kang taehyun x witch!fem!reader ✦ RATING: NSFW, MDNI! ✦ WORDS: 6.8k ✦ WARNINGS: smut, dom!taehyun, sub!reader, fantasy au, dubcon elements, aphrodisiacs, oral sex (f. and m. rec), vaginal sex, unprotected sex, dirty talk, wet dreams, f2?, power imbalance, powerplay, name calling, degradation kink, rough sex ✦ A/N: this is not proofread! inspired by an ask from @napofamoon~~ your brain is so huge and i love it so much, so happy to be mooties w you :3

taglist: @wintertxt , @boba-beom , @wolfytae-exe , @takemehye , @naomiarai , @mapofthemazeinthemirror , @bunnie-hq , @doumachi , @numxra , @soobinsbuns , @taegimood , @jeniihss , @soobabby , @hhoneylix , @beargyuuzz , @fullbodyblankets , @xenkimmie, @ttaesoob , @shinyngirl , @lxnoluvr , @blxxsss , @ode2soob, @beom-gyubears, @ashiixari, @lurking-coconut , @horanghaelovr , @yyeonzi , @paegesoobin , @nightlyhyuka, @i814hue, @f4iryfever

Taehyun had warned you that this witch was a bit of a hoarder, but nothing could have prepared you for the marvel that was her cottage; from the floor to the ceiling old and rickety bookcases flanked every possible open space, packed to the brim with every book you could have possibly thought of, accompanied by all sorts of trinkets, herbs and crystals-- your eyes scanned over the washed-out spines, fading ink hardly legible on most of them; A Hundred and One Ways To Use Fairy Dust. Potionmaking for the Hearth and Home. The Greater Area Magickal Beast Encyclopedia. Simple Charms For Everyday Life. "Hey, Taehyun, look at this!" you called over your shoulder, already anticipating your mentor's irritated sigh. "There's a book all about magical mushrooms, wouldn't that help us with this stupid assignment we're on--?"

You reach out for the battered green textbook but Taehyun's quick to slap your hand away, brow furrowed over his big brown eyes-- he was cute when he was angry, and you delighted in annoying him to his wit's end. "I said don’t touch anything; Don’t make me look like a fool when we're only here for ingredients. And we're here on the behalf of the Crown, thank you, nothing about this is stupid. You're being childish."

"He's made us travel half across the kingdom for a fancy cologne, essentially. I think it's a little silly." you retort under your breath. Taehyun turns away from you sharply with an angry huff, and you bite the inside of your cheek to keep yourself from grinning.

"It's a luck spell, not a cologne. Don't you want our Prince to succeed at his first banquet?"

"He just wants it for all of the girls that will be there," you laugh. "You and I both know this has nothing to do with his royal duties and everything to do with his flirting skills."

"And that's none of our business." Taehyun answers curtly, though the tick in his jaw shows you that you've struck a nerve-- your mentor had known the crown prince his entire life, grown up with him, and while he cared about him like a brother the Prince also never failed to irk him (and you) with the most outlandish requests. "We're just doing our jobs. Now stay here and keep your hands to yourself, understand? Don't go anywhere, don't touch anything, and I'll be back shortly. I just need to get these mushrooms from the herbalist."

“Why can’t I go with you?” You pout. “You always make me stay behind.”

“Just do as I say.” Taehyun snips, jaw clenching as he begins to walk away.

"Yes, sir." You reply, rolling your eyes at Taehyun's retreating head.

"Good girl," He replies over his shoulder, curt and clipped. An all-too-familiar heat rushes to your cheeks at his words. You used to hate it when he addressed you like that.

You hardly ever listened to what Taehyun told you anyway, so you were quick to continue browsing through the countless shelves once your mentor was out of sight-- you couldn't pass up an opportunity to surround yourselves with the things you loved most; spellbooks. After spending a childhood surrounded by those who hated the craft, your fearful family forbidding you from ever practicing the natural talents you had been born with… you couldn't get enough of reading anything you possibly could. Besides, Taehyun just adored leaving you behind like some squire, never including you in any of his duties– you had to learn for yourself one way or another.

You tip-toed your way through the winding labyrinth of bookshelves, eager fingers and eager eyes analyzing every tome, scanning any title that piqued your interest. It all seemed to be standard fare, however, things that you had read and studied before, so you left them unbothered on the shelves… except…

You had glanced right over it initially, gold title too weathered and faded to read, but its cracked leather cover kept calling to you as you continued down the shelves, making you turn around and walk back to its spot nestled in-between two much larger tomes. Dust stuck to the pad of your finger when you ran it down the book's spine, marveled at the purple cover-- most of the cottage's windows were covered up by all of the piled-on clutter inside, keeping everything veiled in comfortable shade, but cracks and beams of the bright, warm sunshine seeped through and caught the little book in the most mystifying shimmer. You'd never known leather to shine like that, like little crystals embedded into the fabric. Your curiosity gets the better of you; without much self restraint, you pull the small book down in a cloud of dust, tickling your lungs-- you resist the urge to cough the best you possibly could, lest you alert Taehyun or, Gods forbid, the owner of this cottage. You managed a strangled little wheeze instead.

You turn the book around in your hands, inspecting it's cover from all angles; there's nothing on the back, just smooth, purple-ish leather, and the writing on the spine is illegible, but the title is still bold and striking on the front. In careful, hand-written penmanship the words "Love Magick" were written, nothing else. No author's name, no description-- you should just put the book back and carry on, keep yourself out of trouble, but you just couldn’t help from cracking open the pages.

"What an interesting little spellbook you picked, that one." a withered old voice creeps from over your shoulder. "Wouldn't have been my first choice."

You yelp, fumbling, rushing to shove the book back on the shelf-- the old woman behind you laughs, bright and cheerful, and a spindly wrinkled hand comes to pat you on the shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't-- I mean, I wasn't--!"

"Oh, don't apologize now, dearie. Books were made to be read, after all." She snatches the little spellbook out of your hands, catching you off guard, and takes a hold of the small crystal bifocals that hang around her thin swan neck on a beaded chain. You gaze at her quizzically, taking in her odd appearance; several large gold rings adorn her crooked fingers, matching the gaudy bauble earrings hanging from her ears, so large they made her short, thin frame even frailer-- swathed in a shapeless, faded periwinkle dress that had leaves caught in the hem, grey hair frazzled and reaching up towards the sky, she glittered just as brightly as the spellbook did. She moves the little glasses up to perch on her hooked nose, squinting deeply at the cover of the book, and it took a few moments of perplexed investigation before her wrinkled and sun-spotted face lit up in recognition. "Ah, I remember this one! I haven't looked at these pages in quite some time."

You supposed this must be the herbalist, but you distinctly remember Taehyun describing her as much younger than the woman standing before you. "I'm sorry, madam," You apologize again, twisting your hands together nervously. "I wasn't snooping around, I promise--!"

"Don't lie, now." The old woman chuckles, tracing one long and painted red fingernail over the book's cover. "You were snooping. But that's quite alright, a little curiosity is good for the soul."

You blink owlishly.

"You know, this is one of the rarest books on these shelves," she continues, beady eyes looking upwards to regard her enormous collection. "I've been here for a very long time, and I have many, many books, but there is only one of these little books right here."

"Only one?" You ask quietly, giving the spellbook a wide-eyed stare. It twinkled back at you like it was winking. "Why is that?"

"Why, because I wrote it, of course!" She smiles, flipping quickly through the yellowed pages, regarding them like old friends-- you supposed that they were, in a way. "Many, many years ago. It's nothing fancy, darling, just some home recipes. You can take it if you'd like, I'm far too old for this kind of spellwork now. I think you'd have much more use for it anyway.”

"What, really?" Trying not to seem too eager, you take the book back when she hands it to you, run your fingertips across the title. "What do you mean? I couldn't possibly take this, ma'am--"

"I saw the way you were looking at that handsome wizard you came with, you know. You're ever so obvious." the old woman giggles, her deep set eyes twinkling with mirth. "I remember being young and in love… magick could always help with that, you know."

You squeak and flush hot, head whipping around to make sure no one else was near-- if Taehyun heard any part of this conversation, you'd never be able to look him in the eyes again. "No, it isn't like that! He's my mentor, that's all!" And that's all it will ever be, you thought sadly. Nothing more, nothing less.

"If that's what you would like to believe…" The old woman shrugs, a smile still gracing her wrinkled face. "But I insist, take it. It was calling for you, dearie… it told me itself! Now hurry along before we both get in trouble--"

"Grandma!" another unfamiliar voice calls, a pretty young witch twisting her way through the bookcases to approach you and the old woman. Taehyun followed her with a covered basket nestled in his arms; the ingredients that you had come here for, you presumed. You shove the book haphazardly into your satchel, praying neither of them had noticed anything amiss. Taehyun had irritatingly sharp eyes. "Grandma, I thought I told you to stay in the garden!"

"I was just talking to this lovely young lady here," The old woman-- the Madam's grandmother-- replied brightly, briskly hobbling over to the young witch's side. "You know old hags like me never listen."

"You're not a hag, Grandma, don't say that… I'm sorry about her, she's gotten a little wild in her old age." The Madam sighs, intertwining her arm with her grandmother's. The old woman seemed to find this entire ordeal incredibly amusing. "You're both free to leave now, thank you for your patience. I hope those mushrooms serve the Prince well."

"Thank you, Madam," Taehyun bows, always so polite. He turns and begins to walk to the cottage door, motioning with his fingers for you to follow-- you scramble after him like a lost puppy.

"I like him," You hear the old woman say as the two of you depart.

You had walked to the cottage and therefore had to walk back to your shared hut on castle grounds; you had spent the entire time getting there complaining, but now you followed Taehyun quietly and with your head down as you both trekked through the trees. "You're awfully quiet." Taehyun remarks casually, turning his head to regard you with an unreadable expression. "What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, nothing." You reply, maybe a little too quickly. Taehyun raises an eyebrow. "Just thinking is all."

It felt as though there was a hole burning through your satchel.

You waited until late that night to finally take a proper look at your new spellbook, having shoved it haphazardly under your pillow when you and Taehyun had finally returned home-- only after you had triple-checked that your mentor was sound asleep did you feel comfortable enough to pull it out and read it. Certainly you were making it a much bigger deal than it needed to be, it was just a book after all… but something about it and what lied in it's pages felt forbidden and sacred to you, something that you should keep hidden from Taehyun, his condescending smirk, and his prying eyes.

Maybe he would get the wrong idea, quite like the old woman. You had no intention of using any of these spells on him.

Holding the candle you kept by your bedside for light, you took in the spellbook's cover once again. Its deep purple color was faded and washed out, dusty and dirty and ages old, yet it was even more beautiful in the moonlight. The night sky shone through an open window near your bed, catching the cover like little stars captured and woven into the leather… You could never place it inconspicuously on Taehyun's bookshelf, amongst his boring canvas-wrapped manuals and journals. You could never place it anywhere where he could possibly find it at all; it was far too brilliant, too eye-catching. You would simply have to keep it tucked away in the safety of your bedroom.

You crack open the book, it's spine cracking from disuse. Instead of a proper book, like you had expected, your eyes met the pages of what seemed to be a journal; pages and pages of messy scribbles and notes, crammed on small pieces of twine-bound parchment, recipes and spell incantations and notes about any spellcasting ingredient you could possibly think of. There were even diary entries among the notes, meandering paragraphs about that old woman's personal life many years ago… No organization, no cohesiveness, just pretty cursive words muddled together and jumbled on top of each other in a confusing mess… It was endearing, an insight into her youth, and you adored every page.

And then you saw it. Halfway through the journal, tucked away between two uninteresting diary entries, you discovered a folded up and torn out page. With careful fingers you picked it up and peeled it open, casting the spellbook aside for now-- and to your surprise you were confronted with the recipe for a love potion.

Simple but Powerful Love Potion

Ingredients:

-2 quarts of standard potion base; fresh moonwater charged under the full moon

-a large handful of dried rose petals and a single thorn, ground in a mortar and pestal to the consistency of a fine powder.

-a small spoonful of crushed siren scales

-one large mother of pearl

-2 small sticks of Licorice root

-a few strands of unicorn mane hair

-a single droplet of pure love

Directions:

Over a burner, prepare the moonwater in a small pewter cauldron, keeping it away from sunlight. Bring the base to a boil before adding the licorice root and mother of pearl, and then lower the heat and leave the potion to simmer overnight. The next day, add the crushed rose petals and thorn, unicorn hair, and siren scales. Stir clockwise until the potion turns a bright pink, and then leave to sit for another night. Last, add the droplet of love, give one clockwise stir, and your potion is complete.

P.S. Please use sparingly, a little goes a long way! Perfect for stupid men who won't take a hint.

You stare at the paper in disbelief. Is this what the old woman meant by you making "good use" of her spellbook? Surely not! She was a woman of the craft, she knew as well as you did that any romance between apprentice and mentor was looked down upon, not to mention when it was aided by magickal intervention… The herbalist must have truly been telling the truth when she said her grandmother had started to go mad! You couldn't even fathom the consequences if you were caught doing anything of this sort-- you'd be stripped of your titles, expelled from your studies, exiled even… and Taehyun…

Taehyun would never forgive you. He'd be disgusted by you.

You shove the recipe back into the book and shut it with a dull snap, toss it away from you like it was poised to attack; you hated yourself for entertaining the thought for even a second. Taehyun wasn't just your mentor and your crush, but your friend, and you couldn't possibly do that to him! He trusted you, with his pretty dark eyes and his cocky smirk, and his big, warm, veiny hands with thick calloused fingers that rested on your lower back when you were nervous in public and needed comfort. His thick arms with muscles that bulged out of his tunic sleeves when he rolled them up, his sharp teeth that he liked to bare when he sneered. His gentle, soothing voice and his never ending generosity and politeness that were a pinnacle of him even when he was one of the most stuck up people you could think of. You couldn't ever do anything like that to him, even if you died a little bit inside every day that he never seemed to glance your way.

But… you thought, reaching back over to the discarded spellbook with a shaking hand, it wouldn't hurt to re-read the recipe, just in case.

"Taehyunnie?" You ask sweetly, peeking your head into his study. "Can I ask you something real quick?"

Gathering most of the ingredients had been relatively easy. If anything, you were caught off guard by the ease in which you put together your secret potion, hidden and bubbling away in the safety of your bedroom, a place Taehyun never dared to enter. You snuck to and from Taehyun's packed pantries whenever he was sleeping, prepared everything exactly as the recipe had stated-- you had never made a potion before, but you had a fairly good feeling that you were doing a fine job. Most of the ingredients were common potionmaking faire anyway, things you had observed Taehyun fiddling around with in the past, things you had on hand and the basic knowledge needed to prepare… except for one small detail.

Your potion sat simmering a pretty opaque pink, which meant it was ready for that little "drop of love" the recipe called for, and then it would finally be done… but you could not for the life of you understand what that could even mean. How in the world could you possibly get your hands on a droplet of materialized love? Was that even possible?

Taehyun looked up from the book he was reading with an annoyed sigh, hooded eyes searching the room before landing onto yours with a quirked brow. You never bothered him when he was studying, and you most certainly never called him 'Taehyunnie'. Not unless you were trying to weasel something out of him, at least. "Yes?" He drawled, returning back to his reading as you tiptoed closer, took a curious look over his shoulder; you caught snippets of something about astronomy and equations, the pages mostly filled with numbers and symbols you couldn't even pretend to understand. You wondered if it had anything to do with the Prince again.

"I was doing some reading…" you begin slowly, scattered mind racing to come up with a proper preface for your question. You had practiced what you were going to say at least a dozen times, you were sure of it, but every line had fled your head the moment you called Taehyun's name.

"'Reading?' That's not like you." Taehyun retorted with a snort, turning the page. He didn’t even bother to look up when you huffed in response, but you could see his grin hidden behind the hand he rested on his cheek.

"I read plenty!" you bark, taking the bait, but regain your composure when you catch a glimpse of Taehyun's smirk widening. "It’s for my studies-- I'm to be tested by the Magickal High Court soon, you know."

"I'm well aware. I’m sure you’ll do just fine." Taehyun responds tersely, picking up his quill and scribbling a note down into his journal. He must have felt your eyes glaring daggers at the back of his head, because he waved a dismissive hand at you. "But go on."

"Well… I was reading up on potions and I came across an ingredient I haven't heard about before. I was wondering if… if you knew anything about it."

Taehyun's quill stopped moving. "I see." he says, far too cryptically for your liking. "Well, what is it? It’s getting dark— it’s about time you go to bed.”

“The recipe– I mean, the spellbook I was reading mentioned something about a ‘droplet of love.’” You stumble, fidgeting nervously. “ Do you know what that is?”

Taehyun doesn’t say anything for a moment,stares down at his spellbook long enough to make you sweat, before turning to re-dip his quill in his inkpot. “Well, that could mean many things.” he says, uninterested, continuing his notes. You let out a relieved sigh you weren’t aware you were holding.

“What do you mean?” you prod gently.

Taehyun lets out an irritated sigh. “Some spellwork can be left up to interpretation, made unique and personalized for the spellcaster. Often when instructions are not clear, it's because you're supposed to figure it out yourself.”

“Figure it out myself?” You echo, a little outraged. This explanation wasn’t helping you at all.

“When practicing magick that involves complex ideas like emotions and memories, things begin to blur between the literal and the figurative.” Taehyun elaborates. The way he was hunched over his desk made his shoulders look much broader than they were, and it was getting increasingly harder to focus on what he was saying. “More advanced spellwork sometimes requires the spellcaster to work with physical manifestations of these ideas.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” You retort combatively, crossing your arms over your chest. Taehyun’s non-answers were only serving to piss you off. “I can’t manifest love.”

“Sure you can.” Taehyun answers vaguely, shaking his head. You wished you could see the look on his face. “A ‘droplet of love" may just refer to some sort of representation, whatever that may mean to you specifically. Though "droplet" tends to refer to some kind of liquid, so you can start there.”

“Liquified love? What would that be, though?”

"Honestly, I'm not exactly sure either. But you're a smart girl, I'm sure you can figure it out." Taehyun once again raises his hand to wave you away. “Go off to bed now, you can spend all of tomorrow thinking about it if you have to; I need to finish this before I go to bed, and you’re keeping me up.”

“But–”

“Go to bed. Don’t misbehave now.” Taehyun looks up from his notes and meets your gaze– the look on his face is as unreadable and stoic as usual, plush lips stretched into a thin line, but the swirling darkness in his eyes makes your head spin; he knows something, you can feel it. A strange familiarity that panics you deeply, pisses you off; why does he love so much to keep you in the dark? Is it because he enjoys leaving you confused and ignorant? Or is it because there’s knowledge he genuinely doesn’t want you to know?

You trudge back to your room dejectedly, peel off your robes and climb into your bed like a defeated soldier– you might have just tipped off to Taehyun that you were up to something, and what did you get out of it? Absolutely nothing. Just some cryptic words.

Going to Taehyun was a bad idea; you wallowed now in your own stupidity.

Droplet of love, you repeat to yourself as you drift off to sleep. Droplet of love…

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Taehyun hisses venomously, eyes narrowed and wild. You’ve never seen him this angry.

“It isn’t what it looks like, I swear!” you cry desperately, try to cover your still brewing potion with your body– Taehyun is too quick, grabs you rough by your nightgown and pulls you up against him. His face is so close to your own you can feel his hot, panting breath fan across your cheeks.

“Isn’t what it looks like?” Taehyun spits. “My stupid little assistant being a little whore, making a love potion behind my back? How stupid do you think I am?!”

You open your mouth to defend yourself, but Taehyun doesn’t let you utter a single word. “Were you gonna use it on me, huh? Gonna get me to fuck you? Needed some cock so badly that you were willing to throw everything away for it? Stupid fucking whore. You could have just asked.”

Taehyun lets go of your nightgown and you crumple at his feet on the floor, groveling and sobbing for his mercy. “Please don’t tell anyone, I’m sorry!” you beg, too distraught to catch the last part of Taehyun’s rant. “I won’t ever do it again, I won’t ever go behind you back agan, please!” Big fat tears stream heavy down your hot face, chest caving as you beg for your mentor's forgiveness... yet still your thighs squeeze together at his venomous words and his nasty tone, poor pussy throbbing for attention– Taehyun notices your quivering thighs with a sneer, eyes dark and cold.

“Such a fucking slut… you like this, huh? Me yelling at you?” with his big rough hand he tugs you up to your knees, holds your chin in place as he unbuckles his belt and undoes his trousers. “Want me to put you in your place? Trying to sneak around behind my back, bad little girl… need to remind you of who’s in charge. Let me use that pretty throat and I’ll forgive you.”

Taehyun pulls his cock out, flushed and leaking, flared tip shiny and begging for your tongue— in one violent thrust he sheaths himself in your throat all the way to the hilt. You gag and splutter, tears still streaming down your face, but even with your blurry vision you can see Taehyun’s sick smile as his cockhead kisses the back of your throat. “Good girl,” he hisses, “Take it like the whore you are.”

Using the hand he has tangled in your hair as leverage, Taehyun begins thrusting his hips in earnest, heavy balls slapping against your chin— your whines come out like garbled chokes, pathetic and dizzy on your knees while your mentor uses your throat like nothing more than a toy for his own pleasure. “so fucking good at this, aren’t you?” He sneers, “Such a good little assistant you are.”

You keen around his cock, pussy fluttering around nothing and dripping slick, your poor panties soaked through and ruined completely. You feel so empty it almost hurts, gummy walls aching for the cock fucking your throat open, but you can hardly find it in you to care— you’re distracted by the warlock’s taste, the nasty wet sounds, the way your scalp burns from his grip on your hair. Your hands, previously laying limp at your sides, reach up to claw uselessly at his thighs, which only seems to spur him on, hips slamming hard against your face as he moans deep in his chest.

“No one else fucks this throat like me, huh? Think anyone else can use you like this?” His chest is heaving, cock twitching violently in your mouth— he’s about to cum, and your cunt clenches with excitement. “Should just slut you out right in front of the entire kingdom, even the Prince— fuck! show everyone who you belong to, who your master is!”

You whimper pathetically, one of your hands leaving his thigh to play with your neglected covered clit— Taehyun growls, pulls hard at your hair, snickers darkly when you rush to place your hand back on his thigh. “Don’t you dare touch that cunt, that’s my cunt, you think you deserve it?”

Your pussy is throbbing, hot tears streaming down your cheeks as Taehyun continues fucking your face, “I said, do you think you deserve it? Answer your master.”

You shake your head no, as best you can speared on his dick, sobbing snotty and broken and so desperate for his cum. “That’s what I thought.” Taehyun laughs humorlessly. “Good little witch.”

You can’t focus on anything other than making sure to breathe and hollow your cheeks and stay perfectly still so Taehyun can have his way with you– your jaw aches, but you swirl your tongue around Taehyun‘s shaft the best you could anyway. “Fuck, gonna cum!” He whimpers after a particularly harsh suck, hips stuttering, his big hands moving to cup both of your cheeks. It would be sweet in any other situation, so gentle and loving if he wasn’t bruising your throat with the force of his thrusts. “G-gonna— pretty little throat gonna make me cum, shit! ‘m cumming–!”

You wake up with a gasp, heart pounding in your chest so violently it was painful– it takes you a few moments for you to recognize your own surroundings, realize that you’re tucked safely in your bed and not caught red handed by your mentor; you can hear the soft bubbling of your potion at the foot of your bed, undisturbed and simmering away…

And between your legs was a sticky wet mess, your thin panties soaked through, arousal dribbling down the insides of your thighs— you’re humiliated but so turned on from your dream you could hardly think, fingers trailing down to dip into your panties and run along your slit… and you marvel, intoxicated, at the way thick droplets trickle down your fingertips when you pull them back.

Droplet of love…

Taehyun had fallen asleep at his desk that night, slumped over his scrolls and spellbooks, so you felt it was only right to wake him up with a treat— a steaming hot cup of perfectly brewed tea, complete with a little wooden teaspoon and a saucer full of freshly-baked cookies. Taehyun stared it down like it was staring back at him.

“You never make me tea.” he says flatly, brown eyes flickering between the cup and your face, making no moves to take the teacup from your outstretched hand. His sleepy, raspy voice and disheveled appearance would have made you swoon if you weren’t going half-mad with anxiety.

“Well, you’ve been working so hard! You know, for the Prince and all.” you chirp cheerily, voice only trembling slighrly. “I just wanted to show my appreciation!”

“Right.” he gives you an odd, side-eyed look but does eventually take the cup, takes a good long look into the amber liquid before stirring it slowly with the spoon. You were starting to sweat. “You’ve been acting odd lately. I’m a little concerned.” he says after a few moments of painful silence, making your sweating turn into full on chills. “Is there anything you aren’t telling me, ___?”

“No!” you bleat out immediately and far too quickly, making Taehyun turn his head to regard you quizzically. You didn’t have any time to process the fact that he cared for you at all. “No, nothing at all! Everything’s totally normal!”

Taehyun blinks. You give him a smile, but you’re fairly sure it turned out more like a grimace.

“If you say so…” Taehyun concedes, placing the saucer on his desk. “If you’re certain everything’s in order, would you mind running a little errand for me?”

“Of course!” you agree quickly, a genuine smile creeping onto your face. You thank the Gods above that Taehyun actually took the tea, now all that was left was to wait… and you supposed that playing errand girl was the perfect task for the meantime.

Taehyun picks up a small, parchment-wrapped parcel from among the clutter of his desk and hands it to you. “Would you be a doll and hand this to the Prince for me? And tell him to be sparing with it, for goodness’ sake, it’s not one of his perfumes.”

You take it gently, blushing— the package was much lighter than you expected it to be, and it gives a light rattle when you turn it over in your hands. “What is it?” you ask; you can never stop yourself from being nosy. Taehyun sighs, but there’s a mirthful glimmer in his eye that makes you giggle.

“The luck spell, remember? Now go on, he needs it to take effect by the evening.”

You waltz back into the cottage as the sun was just beginning to creep behind the treetops, having made sure to take your sweet, sweet time delivering the Prince’s package– you even stayed for tea and a chat, just in case; it wasn’t really your fault that the crown royal never knew when to shut up, was it?

“Taehyun?” you call out as you step inside— everything seemed perfectly normal and nothing was out of place, and perfectly still silence met you as you continued through the front room and into your winding, rickety hallway, at the end of which was your mentor’s study. The door was left slightly ajar.

You peeked inside, tentative; back facing you, you could see Taehyun hunched over his work desk, head hung low as he gripped onto the wood with white knuckles. He was panting, shoulders heaving with the force of his breaths, his arms shaking— your heart soared with euphoria. The potion must be working, you thought with zeal.

“Taehyun?” you call again, voice barely above a whisper dripping with faux concern, trembling with excitement, and you gently push the heavy oak door farther open with an ear-ringing creek. Taehyun’s head snaps up at the noise, startling you with his expression— his eyes were wide and wild, face flaming red, and he stares at you in shock and in rapture for a deafening few moments before averting his gaze and tugging hard at the collar of his tunic. He turns back to look at the scrolls on his desk with a cough. You could still see the blush coloring the tips of his ears.

“Taehyun, are you okay?” you ask, this time not having to fake the worry. You take a few tentative steps towards the warlock— he looked almost as if he was in pain, and you anxiously wonder if maybe you should have been more faithful to ‘a little goes a long way.’

“I’m fine.” Taehyun grunts, his usually light voice gruff and strained. The sound of it hit you deep in your tummy. “Just feel a little hot, that's all.”

You take a few steps closer, slowly and cautiously, and reach out your hand to touch his shoulder. “A-are you sure?”

“Don’t come any closer.” Taehyun warns, voice flat but dark, dripping something that makes your thighs clench together.

Your fingertips just barely brushed the top of his shoulder.

As if possessed, Taehyun spins around within an instant and grabs your wrist tightly, staring you down for a long, intense moment with a primal, dangerously dark look— it frightens and excites you, leaving your head spinning.

He uses your wrist to pull you roughly to his chest, faces centimeters apart and bodies flush; within the same breath he cages you against his desk, traps you tight between his muscular arms.

You can feel his breath fan your face as he pants like a dog, lowers his head closer and closer to yours. “I’m not sure what’s wrong with me; I just need you…”

His pillowy lips crash onto yours mid-gasp, passionate and dominating— you lean into the kiss immediately, moaning high in your throat when he deepens it, tilting your head back to stake a possessive claim that leaves you dizzy and gasping for air. He moves to run his hand up your thigh and grind his hips against yours, pushing your skirt up your hips. His thick hard cock presses hard up against your dripping slit, soaking your thin cotton panties. When he pulls away, hissing, you can see a damp spot on the crotch of his pants, outlining his straining bulge obscenely.

“Tyun—“ you whimper, but he’s quick to cut you off. He lowers himself down and takes a hold of your thighs, tugs them over his shoulders and dangling in the air; he chuckles out a breath that blows icy cold against your sopping panties.

“Just need a taste of you…”

His nose bumps gently against your throbbing clit and he mouths hot and heavy against your folds through the covering fabric. You keen desperately, nearly shriek when he begins to run the flat of his tongue up your slit and towards your clit. “Lemme taste you…” Taehyun breathes against your cunt, his long finger coming to tug at the hem of your panties.

“Anything you want!” you whine, twisting your own fingers into his thick hair. Taehyun grins wickedly.

“Anything I want?” he coos, poisonously sweet. “What a good little assistant I have.”

With a rough tug he pulls your panties to your knees, leaves your legs tangled in the wet fabric and up in the air. Taehyun devours your cunt like a starved man, his thick lips sucking tight on your clit and his tongue slow and nasty around your entrance. He drinks up your arousal as if it were some type of ambrosia, only going faster and faster with his motions until you cum all over his face with a cry, until you’re tugging hard at his hair and whining for him to stop.

He pulls away from your pussy with a longing glance, his lips and chin dripping your slick, the tip of his nose shiny. “You said whatever I want,” he pants, standing up to begin unbuckling his belt. “Gotta fuck you now, gotta fuck this pretty little pussy…”

Taehyun’s cock springs out of his trousers, slaps against his belly before standing to attention, veins throbbing— he fists his shaft loosely, enough for you to catch a glimpse of pearly white pre-cum leak out the slit of his thick pink head. Your tongue ached for the taste.

“Yes, yes, please,” you beg, pulling him closer so he can grind his cock between your weeping folds, getting his shaft nice and wet with a sloppy mix of his spit and your arousal. His cockhead pushes at your hole teasingly, and Taehyun lets it slip against your rim and slides up your folds to bump your clit. You whimper and attempt to spread your legs any bit farther, restricted by your panties— Taehyun chuckles before readjusting his cock and sheathing himself entirely in your cunt in one deep stroke. His cockhead kisses your cervix, your walls stretched so suddenly and so painfully good that you cry out in surprise and ecstasy. “You’re so deep!” you gasp, your eyes rolling back into your head when Taehyun starts rolling his hips in a ruthless rhythm.

“Take it like a good girl,” he laughs, repositioning his hands to grab tight at your hips so he could thrust into you in earnest, hips slapping together loud and wet, impossibly fast. “So tight, shit! Feel so fucking good, you’re so wet— perfect cocksleeve, perfect pussy.”

He splits you in two, your gummy walls stretched past your limits, hugging tight on his throbbing cock. Your cervix gets pounded with every hard thrust, his cock so deep you could feel him in your lower belly. “I’ve wanted to fuck you so bad,” Taehyun confesses, pussy drunk. “Wanted you since I first met you— You’re mine now, pretty thing, you hear me? Perfect pussy for me, never letting you go.”

“Yes!” you wail, too fucked out to process any of what he had just said. All you could think about or focus on was how good Taehyun was fucking you, how his heavy tightening balls were slapping against your ass, how that fiery hot knot in your belly grew tighter and tighter. “I’m yours, I’m yours!”

“Fuck yeah, that’s right. All mine, baby.” Taehyun groans deeply, hips stuttering. His hand lets go of your waist to circle your clit with rough, calloused fingertips.

You’re sent barreling towards your climax, that fire in your belly all-consuming as your pussy flutters around Taehyun’s cock. “Feels so good!” you sob, gripping his thick bicep for support. “I’m gonna cum, Taehyunnie, ‘m gonna cum—!”

“Fuck, I’m gonna cum too. Beg for my cum, baby; I’m gonna cum inside you, fill you up!” Taehyun’s cock twitched and throbbed inside your cunt, his thrusts wild and desperate. “All mine…”

“Cum inside, please! I need it, I need your cum so bad!” you hiccup, big fat tears rolling down your puffy hot cheeks from overstimulation. “Want your cum in my pussy!”

Taehyun does so with a broken moan, shoving his cock as deep inside of you as he could go, up against your cervix. He paints your walls white, floods your womb with his thick hot seed. You can feel his cock twitch with every spurt— you cum yourself a second time from the sensation, pussy clenching hard around Taehyun's slowly softening cock. He grunts, winces and grits his teeth.

Your chest is heaving as you pant for air and so is Taehyun’s, both of you sweaty and spent and trying to catch your breath. He dips his head to rest his forehead against your own, something so touchingly intimate it makes your heart clench, and you’re just about to close your eyes and bask in your euphoria, you catch Taehyun’s evil sneer.

“Silly girl thought I didn’t know? how stupid do you think I am?”

#txt x reader #taehyun x reader #taehyun hard thoughts #taehyun hard hours #taehyun smut #txt smut #txt hard hours #txt hard thoughts #nightly.nsfw #nightly.tyunnie

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eternydeloo · 3 months

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licoprune swap au! licorice name here’s Licorice Syrup and Prune Juice is just Prune.

they swaped with their magic abilities soo now Syrup is a potionmaker MEGA loser and Prune is the best Parfedia student with great magic skills

#cookie run #cookie run kingdom #cookie run fanart #prune juice cookie #licoprune #licorice cookie #theyre in abuse #lol #wait its not funny okay

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faebriel · 10 months

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Ooo sbi!witch au? Tell me more? <-genuinely curious/interested

yayyy hi mye :D

okay so it's a bit of a fantasy setting first of all. that's your context. everyone has some connection to one of six* sources of power, whether that connection is strong or limited - there are phantom witches (connection to death), freshwater witches, saltwater witches, spark witches (connection to fire, lightning, etc), glamour witches, and blood witches (i.e. shapeshifters). all these are varying degrees of popular but blood witches are veryyy unpopular as shapeshifting is generally viewed as desecration of the body, esp from a religious perspective - the body is a vessel for magic, stop fucking with it. not a universal opinion but one that holds water in a lot of cities.

tommy is a spark witch! tubbo is a blood witch. the two of them generally run around stealing shit causing trouble burning things down having fun from town to town. tommy is still mildly rabid for lady prime but more rabid for his best friend. tubbo generally keeps his type of magic secret - not an easy feat as it's one of the first things someone will ask or notice about another witch - so they usually hang out until someone finds out about him, and then they skip town. they also have made their souls into friendship bracelets so they have a general sense of where the other is and their state of safety at all times. when one of them is injured or exhausted, they share the pain.

unfortunately tommy makes a few friends in bad places and gets snatched off the street in some revenge plot. tubbo uses his shapeshifting to break in and get him out of there - so now those guys know about the herefore underestimated tubbo element, and tommy is pretty badly injured. they disappear into the woods and try to avoid getting eaten by the trees. it does happen.

they think they find a beacon. nice! it's actually a coven, in some kitschy little house. bummer! tommy is not doing well and they're about to be find out by whichever freaks live here and tubbo is pretty skeptical of these random woods folks' opinions on the complex political situation of blood witchery so in a stroke of genius /doubtful tommy encourages tubbo to shapeshift to hide himself as an animal, a Classic Ruse. so he does! here's tommy, a random young witch, and his familiar. this is 100% normal and no one has any reason to question it.

living in the house is small weird family (?) of guys wilbur (phantom witch), techno (???), and phil (freshwater witch, but it gets worse). they offer tommy and his familiar somewhere to stay while he gets better and, with few other options, tommy (and tubbo lol) says yeah sure. found family ensues

here is some info that is important but this post is getting too long to write out in paragraphs

wilbur is a phantom witch, but after a suicide attempt, being so close to death constantly is kind of triggering. instead, these days, he focuses on brewing potions (without a license) to sell at town markets. he's kind of still in the recovery phase and has a bit of a rough relationship with phil and techno but he and tommy, who is drawn to potionmaking almost immediately (and relates to powers he can't control - he's been called destructive for his unchecked fire magic before), get on like a house on fire

and he has a familiar called mr president!!! this is very important. firstly bc kitty but secondly because familiars flock to each other like seeing an old friend from school at the supermarket.....but tommy's familiar wants very little to do with mr president, who just seems vaguely confused by him............how strange!

*phil was a freshwater witch, but after stealing a dragons egg, was gifted with void witchdom. void is like a really powerful add-on to original witch magic, and also gives him some extra perks like wings and voidsight (peeking into other timelines to guess what is going to happen). phil does a bit of cheeky voidsighting when they find tommy, just in case this is some kind of ruse that peering into another universe might reveal, but all seems fine. he's just rowdy. tends to keep more company in other universes but maybe that's just a coincidence (it's not). goddess wife also

voiddom is something that is gifted, and because of that, it can be taken away.

okay i struggled hard with figuring out what techno's deal is but i think i'd go for the classic. yeah sure techno is also a blood witch. he doesn't really shapeshift either - thinking he used it to fight his way out of some rough background, and now prefers to keep his own form and do other stuff (kind of like wilbur) - and, much like tommy and tubbo, SBI are kind of cautious re: mouthing off pro-shapeshifting around these random strangers. twisted web we weave and all that

theres a lot of bonding over not letting your magic or perceptions of your magic define you :> but yeah

oh and then tommy gets tracked down and snatched back

and tubbo, at the end of his tether, is stuck with a not great choice. let tommy die or burn down literally everything they've built here to put tubbo in his place instead. so naturally he 1. reveals himself as not a familiar (which, they were starting to guess there was something weird about him tbh), 2. reveals himself as a blood witch (distressing and confusing, but hey, let's talk about this) and 3. sets a trap to steal phil's voiddom and use those powerups to find and rescue tommy (aaaand nobody is happy about that one)

theres a whole thing with plot resolution also but this post is long enough and i can't put in a readmore on mobile so. woooo 🎇😺🧪🗻🐺

#thanks myeeeee #there it is. the CLOSEST i ever had to a functional sbi au and even then they spend a lot of time snapping at each other's heels #but the vibes and the worldbuilding were fun. i liked figuring out where everyone fit in the world #even if id rework some stuff with tommy now #tw suicide #<- for wil #asks #aunonnies #<- technically not an anon-based au but im putting it under the tag for visibility :]

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zeldacd · 1 year

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haiiiiii ummm long time no post.

You See, the thing is.... ermm... <- He has to wake up every day around 4am for work and comes home wanting to do nothing but sleep or play videogames before also having to go to bed early (LOL)

but guilt kinda came over me so I managed to finish something I started working on a month ago.

So here's two of my Hylian OCs for my Zelda AU (the same one i always talk about), Rodion and Soha, both of whom reside in Hateno Village. Rodion is the owner of the town bakery (i drew his pich above, hehe) and Soha owns an observatory, but I had only just begun to draw some assets for it. So maybe that will come later..... eventually.

Anyways! huge dump of info about the both of them under the cut cause this has already gotten kinda long!!

They are best friends, so most of the time you can count on them being together.

Rodion is a trained chemist, but his true calling is baking. While he had apprenticed under the town's previous potion maker, he decided to pursue this line of business in memory of his mom as she taught him to bake and its something they used to do together often. This isn't to say he does not offer potionmaking as a service in his shop, though.

Soha is an Astrologist and self proclaimed cryptozoologist. She's very obsessed with aliens especially, and believes that extra-terrestrials have visited Hyrule before. She often wakes up late in the mornings due to spending much of the night looking at the stars through her telescope.

Despite them seemingly being complete opposites, with Rodion being a bit aloof and Soha being excitable and bubbly, they get along quite well. Rodion enjoys listening to the conspiracy theories Soha comes up with and she is one of the few people he can let his guard down around.

#anyways goodnight is already kinda past my bed time #loz au #my au #loz oc #loz ocs #loz #tloz #zelda #hylian oc #au lore #blah blah blah TAGS

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carewyncromwell · 2 years

Photo

“Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn, and cauldron bubble! Double, double, toil and trouble... Something wicked this way comes!”

~“Double Trouble (Epic Version)” by L'Orchestra Cinematique

x~x~x~x

Haha...bet a lot of you are going, “Is this that one Spiderman meme times two or something?” (I know @dat-silvers-girl thought of it, when I shared this idea with her!!)

And in a way, yes! This picture is modeled off of the “Impersonating Rakepick” chapter in Hogwarts Mystery, specifically Y6Ch35: Infiltrating R!

Though in Carewyn’s canon, the whole affair goes down a liiiiiittle bit differently... (I must thank @missnight0wl for inspiring me with the idea of there being a “fake!Jacob” in the first place. This event is also referenced in passing at the very beginning of the still unfinished, grah Good!Rakepick AU!)

In Carewyn’s canon, the Circle of Khanna is formed by five ringleaders -- Ben Copper, Merula Snyde, Charlie and Bill Weasley, and of course Carewyn herself -- and Carewyn is naturally considered the leader even among the other ringleaders. Like in the game, they quickly come together to build their own teams so as to find a way to take down R, but unlike in the game, they actually end up having more success. Their “stealth” unit -- made up of Tonks, Andre, Jae, Tulip, Fred, and George -- gathered some intelligence about R’s movements in Knockturn Alley, learning that at least one of their less willing members was someone from the Burke family and thus several of R’s meetings took place in the shop Borgin and Burkes. Tonks even accidentally collided with Rakepick once or twice -- although she dearly wanted to take her down right then and there, she kept her head. Changing herself to look like a Dark Witch that she’d often seen in Knockturn Alley previously, Tonks purposefully picked a fight with Rakepick so she could yank out some of her hair “in the confrontation” and make it seem natural. Then Andre’s style talents and Penny’s potionmaking became useful -- for it was decided that to get proper intelligence on R, Carewyn would impersonate Rakepick at one of their meetings and use her Legilimency to tap the brains of the members around her. And considering that Rakepick seemed to pop up in Knockturn Alley rather infrequently and that R’s members generally wore dark scarlet robes to hide their faces while meeting all together so as to make it impossible for anyone to know all of their members’ identities, Carewyn could use Rakepick’s identity and voice to avoid suspicion with anyone who might see her face under her hood, but it would still probably take at least a little while for R to figure out there were two Rakepicks. And if Tonks remained in disguise and Jae remained under the Invisibility Cloak, they could serve as back-up in case Carewyn needed help getting away.

As fate would have it, Carewyn didn’t sense Rakepick at R’s meeting -- all of the minds she found among the other red-robed subordinates around her were pretty open, lacking any Occlumency training whatsoever, and Rakepick’s Occlumency was always very strong. She could sense a lot of fear among the group’s members -- memories of people being subjected to the Unforgivable Curses, and of a pair of piercing, cold, almond-shaped blue eyes under a red hood trimmed with black. There were more conniving minds present, however. One hooded figure in particular, Carewyn realized with a chill down her spine, was the White-Robed Wizard she’d met at the Lakeshore, whose mind held rather violent images of himself standing over an older man dressed in black-trimmed R robes dead and bleeding on the ground, as well as great satisfaction at the image.

Clearly R’s kept together mostly out of fear and self-advancement, not sincere loyalty to its leaders, Carewyn thought to herself.

There was also another image that kept popping up over and over in the minds of R’s members -- a key made out of coral -- to the point that it seemed very important.

Remembering a certain incident in Filch’s office back in fourth year, Carewyn set about trying to locate this key, and soon enough figured out that it was locked up in one of Burke’s drawers, behind the counter. She tipped off Jae, who got to work breaking open the drawer while still under the Invisibility Cloak. It was around that time that R’s Leader arrived -- a moderately tall man whose robes, sure enough, were trimmed with black. He looked around at the assembled hoods, and at once Carewyn got a very bad feeling. She couldn’t sense anything from this man’s mind -- he was clearly a very strong Occlumens. And yet there was more than that -- when his eyes brushed over her face, Carewyn felt something scratching at the outside of her mind...something wanting to get in...

Adjusting the fit of the red robes Andre had made -- dueling the Hungarian Horntail in the Portrait Vault --

Her eyes widening, Carewyn immediately broke eye contact and threw up her best mental wall to fend off the advance.

The man had Legilimency. Very strong Legilimency, the likes of which Carewyn had never encountered before. Even Dumbledore, who was able to read people very well, wasn’t quite so flippant in how he did so -- he still had some restraint, in how he tried to read people...probably because like Carewyn, he understood that it was an invasion of privacy and personal boundaries. And yet even Dumbledore and Snape needed to look someone directly in the eye, in order to look into their mind -- this man’s Legilimency was so strong he could sense her thoughts even when he only was vaguely facing her.

The knowledge chilled Carewyn.

He saw into her mind, she knew it...but had it been enough, for him to know she wasn’t who she was pretending to be? Thinking back on it, Carewyn thought...none of the memories he saw featured anything Rakepick couldn’t have seen herself. She’d also been to the Portrait Vault and seen the Horntail...and it wasn’t improbable for Rakepick to adjust her robes to fit better either...

It looked like Carewyn had truly dodged a bullet, for sure enough, the Leader didn’t make any move as if to capture her. Instead, he merely climbed up onto the staircase at the back of the room and started the meeting. He spoke with an almost grandfatherly affect, in how he glanced around down upon the others and smiled...and yet it felt like the warmth was only skin-deep, somehow. He spoke of R’s successful infiltration of the Ministry, which had leaked false leads to the Auror Department leading them off of R’s trail. He spoke of their successful infiltration of the Department of Mysteries, which gave them leverage over the Minister himself. And he spoke of R’s success in finally locating the second Coral Key needed to unlock the final Cursed Vault, thanks to Patricia Rakepick’s efforts. It was here that he requested Rakepick step forward, so she could be recognized for her efforts -- something Carewynn was reluctant to do -- but with the Leader looking directly at her, she knew she had no choice. Without taking her hood off, she stepped forward, trying to keep her Occlumency up as best as she could, even as the Leader focused solely on her.

Hogwarts -- her Voldemort boggart, back in the Fear Vault -- learning how to Broom Surf with Orion --

No. Detach. Detach.

Carewyn knew she was in trouble. She knew her cover would get blown any moment -- all she could hope for was that she could hold on long enough for Jae to get the Key out of Burke’s desk --

The Leader once again, however, didn’t move as if to capture her...and this time, Carewyn thought she knew exactly why. He wanted into her mind. He wanted to break through her mental shield and get in. Was he trying to figure out who she was before he exposed her? The thought made fear trail down Carewyn’s neck like cold sweat.

At that moment, two more red-robed figures arrived. As soon as the Leader caught sight of them, he spoke in a slightly louder, oddly pointed tone of voice.

"Back from Hogwarts already, Jacob, my boy?”

Carewyn couldn’t hide the shock, disbelief, and horror from her face as the two arrivals stepped forward. The shorter of the two, after the slightest hesitation, slowly reached up with both hands and brought down his hood.

Underneath was a short, stocky young man with long, messy black-brown curls and a pair of skull-like, almond-shaped blue eyes.

It was Jacob.

“I couldn’t make contact,” Jacob said in a low, almost sullen kind of voice.

“‘Couldn’t’ or ‘wouldn’t?’” said the Leader dryly. “Don’t think I’m unaware of how much you resent your responsibility to me.”

Jacob’s eyes flashed. “I did everything I could! She wasn’t in class today, and yet there was no sign of her in the halls or on the grounds either! I even sneaked into her dormroom, hoping to lure her out with a black quill, but she wasn’t there either...”

Carewyn’s mind was racing, unable to comprehend what she was hearing. Jacob was --

No. No, it wasn’t true. It wasn’t true!

As upset as Jacob looked, though, the Leader’s voice came out oddly smug.

“Of course she wasn’t,” he said very softly. “Because she’s right here.”

In an instant, he’d raised his wand, and with a blast of non-verbal magic, he’d yanked Carewyn’s dark red robe right off of her, summoning it right into his waiting hand.

Carewyn was shocked by the abrupt reveal, but immediately tried to compose herself.

“What? What is the meaning of this?” she barked in a very good imitation of Rakepick.

The Leader gave a very low, rumbling laugh in the back of his throat -- like dark chocolate infused with pure, scalding ice.

“Polyjuice Potion,” he said, sounding incredibly amused. “So as to go undercover as Patricia and infiltrate our meeting. Very clever, Carewyn, my dear -- very clever.”

Jacob’s eyes widened in shock. “Carewyn...?”

“Not exactly the reunion we’d anticipated, Jacob,” the Leader said rather smugly, “but at least now, we can settle this...”

The other red-robed figure next to Jacob took off her own dark red cloak, shrugging it to the floor.

It was the real Rakepick.

Knowing her cover was now completely blown, Carewyn whipped out her wand, preparing to defend herself. All of R’s members around her had likewise taken out their wands and were all pointing them at her. One of those such members, Carewyn saw at once, was Tonks, who looked at her anxiously under her cloak.

Don’t attack yet, Carewyn prayed beyond reason Tonks would understand. Not yet.

It was clearly the right call. Rather than take out his own wand or give the order to attack, the Leader merely held up a hand.

“Now, now, my friends,” he said very coolly, “is that any way to treat our guest, after how much work she put in to join us? This is what we wanted, isn’t it, Jacob?”

Jacob’s eyes narrowed tensely upon the Leader’s face.

“...No...” he whispered.

Carewyn whirled on Jacob. “Jacob...why...?”

Jacob turned to her, looking urgent. “Pip, listen to me -- ”

“You joined them?!” Carewyn shouted at him.

“I had no choice!” said Jacob. “They would’ve hurt you if I didn’t -- ”

“Jacob, they killed Rowan! They killed Duncan!”

“Now, Carewyn,” said the Leader rather coolly, “let’s not be hasty. Rowan Khanna died by recklessly jumping in the way of Patricia’s Killing Curse -- that was hardly something we’d planned. And Duncan Ashe died brewing a stronger variant of the Erumpent Potion...his own incompetence is more at fault for that than anything...”

Carewyn’s eyes flashed with rage.

“Duncan wasn’t incompetent,” she spat venomously. “He was trying to protect my brother from you -- just like Rowan was trying to protect Ben, when you targeted him to try to scare me into line -- ”

“Pip.”

Jacob clutched onto Carewyn’s shoulder, trying to pull her closer toward him and away from the Leader. The gesture made Carewyn quiet at once, and she looked back at Jacob, her blue eyes still rippling with confusion and anxiety.

“Protective of your sister as always, Jacob,” the Leader said softly. Carewyn could just barely see a wrinkled smile, under the man’s hood. “I daresay that’s why you never told her of your true allegiance? You thought to keep your little sister away from me -- to keep her ignorant of R and of our intentions for her? Or...was it out of shame, perhaps -- shame that you’ve never been able to shield her from the knowledge of who you truly are?”

“SHUT UP!” Jacob lashed out.

He whirled on Carewyn, his eyebrows furrowing with anxiety. Carewyn stared into his eyes, trying to understand. Was this true? Had Jacob truly joined R, in a misguided attempt to protect her...?

Jacob’s eyes...they were impossible to read...

“Pip,” he whispered, “I’m sorry -- I couldn’t get you involved in this, please believe me...”

Carewyn’s eyes narrowed. “So you ran off and dealt with this by yourself? Even though you know that hasn’t helped either of us?”

We talked about this at the Lakeshore -- I thought you’d realized how wrong we were, to try to shut other people out --

“I knew if I told you, you’d try to help me,” Jacob said desperately.

“And that’s wrong of me?”

“No! But...”

Jacob bit his lip in a way Carewyn had never seen him do before.

“...Once you have R’s mark...they always know where you are,” he said softly. “There’s no running, no hiding -- no safety at all, for you or for the people around you. There’s no escape...ever.”

His expression grew visibly grimmer.

“...You can’t save me...but I thought at least this way, I could save you.”

Carewyn’s eyebrows furrowed. “Jacob -- ”

“We’re family, Carewyn,” Jacob said in a very soft, but fierce voice. “I love you too much to let anything happen to you.”

Carewyn stared at him, her eyes searching his expression.

It was...so closed...so strangely closed. She knew Jacob had the same Legilimency potential that she did, and she knew that he’d likewise studied Occlumency as she had...but she’d never encountered such a strong wall behind his eyes...

“Very touching, Jacob,” the Leader said coolly. “But we’re wasting time.”

He raised his wand -- a long, slender wand made of cedar wood with black opals encrusted into the handle -- and pointed it right at Jacob’s face. In an instant, Jacob crumpled up on the ground, crying out and gasping in pain as he clutched his face.

“Jacob!”

Carewyn immediately crouched down and grabbed her brother’s shoulders as he bent in on himself. Something bright red was shining through his fingers -- almost as if his face was on fire.

“Your brother belongs to R, Carewyn Cromwell -- and therefore, to me,” the Leader said pitilessly. “His membership is for life, however much he might try to fight it. And so you see why it’s pointless, to try to oppose us. Since he’s been expelled from Hogwarts, Jacob is meant to never cast magic again -- meaning that every time he so much as levitates a feather, he adds to his list of offences. This makes your brother a criminal...just as much as we are.”

“Jacob is nothing like you,” spat Carewyn.

The Leader raised his wand that bit higher, and Jacob crumpled up that bit more, gasping in pain. Carewyn brought up her wand to Jacob’s face, trying to access the wound even while Jacob’s hand still covered it.

“Vulnera Sanenteur -- ”

But the light couldn’t seem to make it through. Something almost confused rippled through Jacob’s expression -- then he very quickly put on a grimmer expression.

“...Healing spells won’t work,” he murmured. “Only another person with R’s mark could make the pain stop...if they were willing to take that pain on themselves.”

Carewyn went a bit paler as she looked around at the other members of R. Their fear, self-preservation, and selfish ambition rippled around her in a formless mass -- even Tonks, hiding amongst them, peeked around as if hoping beyond reason that someone would speak up...but no one did.

None of them would take on the pain meant for Jacob. No one, in this whole organization, could look at a man barely 18 and move as if to help him...

“No one cares about your brother enough to protect him from me, Carewyn,” said the Leader softly, “except you.”

Carewyn’s head shot up abruptly as she stared at him. Immediately the man’s mind sunk its claws onto hers, making images come flooding in -- dozens of people, cowering before him -- a man getting his neck snapped with magic -- a house on fire -- Patricia Rakepick herself, with a claw-like hand around her neck --

“There is but one way to protect your brother. And you know what it is.”

The images became more fantastical and surreal -- imaginings, rather than memories. Carewyn saw herself, kneeling before the Leader -- wearing a dark red hood of her own, casting spells at faceless strangers -- sitting at a long table in a cold, grand, dungeon-like manor, surrounded by other people with similarly blue eyes --

“Submit to me -- and you’ll be with your family again.”

The cold claws in her mind made Carewyn feel nauseous.

Stop -- stop!

Blinking through the images as best she could, Carewyn tried to find Jacob, in the real world. She latched onto his eyes, trying to use them and his mind like an anchor.

Jacob -- help me --

But he wouldn’t let her in. She couldn’t get a good grip on his mind -- like he was still blocking her --

Why? Why was he blocking her?

The thought was a troublesome fly in her mind.

Something was wrong. Something wasn’t right --

“Jacob,” said Carewyn -- her voice came out as an odd rasp. “Recite my poem.”

Jacob frowned deeply. “What?”

“My poem,” Carewyn said again, her voice raspier and more urgent than ever. “Recite it.”

Jacob’s eyes narrowed more sharply, looking even more confused than ever. “What are you -- Pip, I...I don’t think now’s the best time -- ”

“I need to hear my poem, Jacob,” Carewyn said more emphatically. A strange flame had flickered to life inside of her. “Now.”

Jacob’s face had gone very white as he stared at Carewyn, struggling to come up with a response. His eyes darted from the Leader to Carewyn and back.

“...Pip -- ”

Carewyn didn’t even hesitate. In an instant, she’d lunged back up onto her feet and raised her wand.

“DEPULSO!”

In an instant, she’d blasted Jacob all the way across the room. Jacob was slammed back-first into the wall with force, a strangled groan of pain falling from his lips as he crumpled to the floor.

“Carewyn!” he choked, disbelieving. “What are you -- !?”

“Polyjuice Potion,” Carewyn spat the Leader’s words from earlier right back at him. “So as to go undercover as Jacob and try to force me to join you.”

She turned toward the Leader, her eyes flaring with loathing.

“Very,” she hissed, “clever.”

The Leader’s posture straightened that bit more, losing all of its relaxed coolness.

“Seize her,” the order came out very softly and coldly.

At once, all of R’s members came descending down on Carewyn. Fortunately she was not alone -- both Tonks and Jae came to her aid, Tonks still in disguise and Jae still under the Invisibility Cloak. Once Jae had tucked the Coral Key securely into the deep pocket of Carewyn’s "Fakepick” robes, he ran on ahead to prepare their escape, while Tonks worked to ward people away from the doorway, so as to create an exit for herself and Carewyn. What ended up helping out a lot, though, was a loud CRACK outside Borgin and Burkes and then a violent confrontation with the R members meant to stand guard out front. That confrontation ended with a familiar young man with dark curls, skull-like almond-shaped blue eyes, and red dress robes over a collared shirt and pants tucked into boots charging into the shop.

When the real Jacob Cromwell burst into Borgin and Burkes and his eyes swerved around, taking in the faces of everyone he could see, he stopped immediately when he took in the person who looked like Rakepick in the center of the room. For immediately, his mind had latched onto the most familiar presence in the room -- the memories and feelings he’d been able to grab onto even while trapped in a Portrait --

“Is all right with the world, Pippa?”

Carewyn felt it at once too and knew.

“Jacob!” she cried in relief.

His heart leaping into his throat, Jacob immediately barreled in front of Carewyn still disguised as Rakepick, knocking one wizard off his feet just with the strength of his shove and then transfiguring another one’s robes so that it wrapped around him like a possessed sheet, trapping him inside of it.

“Pip -- is that you?” Jacob choked, hardly daring to believe his eyes.

“You used to say I was a long-lost kelpie because I salted all my food,” Carewyn said without skipping a beat.

Jacob gaped. “Jeepers creepers, Pip! Of all the people -- ?!”

“Protego!” Carewyn cast a Shield Charm around both of them. “Now recite my poem!”

Jacob blinked, but otherwise did what he was told. “‘The year’s at the spring; the day’s at the morn -- ?’”

“That’ll do!” said Carewyn, inwardly sighing in relief as she nonverbally Stunned another wizard before he could raise his wand and attack Jacob. “Come on -- we’ve got to get out of here -- ”

With Tonks and Jae’s help, the two Cromwells were able to bust their way back out. When they reached the street, however, they found themselves confronted by the real Rakepick. Jacob immediately stepped in front of Carewyn, prepared to protect her, only to be faced himself with his own doppelganger.

“Don’t make us hurt you, Jacob,” said the fake Jacob, his voice oddly soft and cold despite the fire in his eyes. “It would upset both me and little Winnie, to see you bleed.”

Jacob’s eyes widened in realization, before they narrowed to volatile slits. “You!”

He shot a non-verbal curse at him, only for Rakepick to summon a Shield Charm around the fake Jacob to block it. She then shot several more bursts of light into the air, which created a strange, yellowish-white dome around the whole of Knockturn Alley.

“That is an Anti-Apparition Shield, Miss Cromwell!” said Rakepick, her dark blue eyes boring into Carewyn. “It prevents any witch or wizard from Apparating in or Disapparating out. There is no escape for you or Jacob from this place.”

Within seconds, Rakepick had attacked again, forcing Carewyn and Jacob to fight back. Soon Jacob, Carewyn, Rakepick, and the fake Jacob were locked in a slightly ridiculous-looking, but incredibly dangerous four-way duel. Fortunately Tonks soon came to help them, and when the still-invisible Jae caught up with them, he revealed that he had a way out.

“We can’t risk using the Three Broomstick’s fireplace to Floo out of here, with R chasing right behind us,” Jae hissed in Carewyn’s ear, “but they can’t follow us if we Apparate right into Hogwarts itself, can they?”

Carewyn shot a startled look over her shoulder toward where she knew Jae was, even if she couldn’t see him. “Jae, you can’t Apparate on Hogwarts grounds! Even if we could, the Anti-Apparition Shield Rakepick cast would stop us from Disapparating anywhere!”

“Stop us from Disapparating, maybe,” Jae said smugly. “But those sorts of charms only work on witches and wizards -- they don’t work on other magic users...”

CRACK.

In an instant, a cranky-looking, pudgy old house elf had appeared out of nowhere, right into the center of Knockturn Alley.

Carewyn’s eyes lit up.

“Pitts!”

Pitts’s wrinkled, cranky face creased in something like exasperation as he looked up at Carewyn disguised as Rakepick. “Carewyn Cromwell has gotten herself into trouble again, I see.”

Rakepick seemed to have immediately caught on to Jae’s idea -- her eyes widening, she raised her wand and shot a blast of white light right at them, but Pitts blocked her spell with an irritable little flick of his wrist.

“Professor Dumbledore told Pitts to keep Carewyn Cromwell out of trouble,” the elf growled.

His black eyes boring into Rakepick with great dislike, he sank his little grubby hand onto the fabric of Carewyn’s “Fakepick” robes.

“Hold onto your brother,” Pitts grunted.

Carewyn immediately grabbed onto the back of Jacob’s robes -- Rakepick and the fake Jacob shot several more spells at them, and she summoned another Shield Charm to protect them from the blasts -- just as the spells collided with Carewyn’s Shield, the group all seemed to twist and contort and shrink, before they’d all disappeared into thin air with a loud CRACK.

#hphm #hogwarts mystery #my writing #my art #carewyn cromwell #jacob cromwell #patricia rakepick #blaise cromwell #charles cromwell #pitts #jae kim #nymphadora tonks

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munvermaniac · 2 years

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In honor of Spooky Season, here’s some more witch hunter au!

Jason used to take all his herbs from the garden of an old lady down the block, because she ever-so-conveniently had all the herbs he needed. Shouldn’t have taken him so long to realize she was also a witch. She is now his mentor.

Jason’s specialty is potions and charms. He’s kind of shit at spoken spellwork, which is ironic, considering his whole thing with motivational speeches. He started learning with potions, brews, and teas, so that’s what he has the most experience in, but spoken spellwork also just doesn’t come naturally to him.

Potions/brews, enchantments, charms, and spoken spellwork are all kind of intertwined. For example, lots of potionmaking is just using the natural effects of plants combined with spellwork made to strengthen certain effects. I.e, chamomile tea + strengthening spellwork = basic spelling potion.

The thing he makes most is a hangover cure for himself and his friends on the weekends. No one can figure out how he makes it, they just know he makes the best hangover cure. Spoiler alert, it’s a tea made with a lot of herbs and a lot of magic and even more herbs that he then mixes into regular hangover cure so no one gets suspicious.

Along similar lines, he’s very good at healing spells, which won’t help him much in this au because wounds caused by holy items can’t be healed with witchcraft. As you may or may not know, witches get adverse effects from holy items, but blessed people get zero effects from witchcraft.

For example, if Jason (as a witch) tries to cast a healing spell on Eddie (as a blessed), it’d ricochet back to him with a little bit of a shock or burn. Not too bad, but enough to make him jerk his hand away. But if Eddie tries to heal Jason with holy power, then that’s a very bad idea.

His first grimoire started with him taking a ton of notes in a book on local plants. His second attempt at a good grimoire was literally written in a Staples Five Star notebook (college ruled, of course). His current and actual grimoire was bound by his mentor who owns the herb garden.

#eddie x jason #jason x eddie #munver #stranger things #jason carver #eddie munson #witch hunter au

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sunshades · 1 year

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🍌🍆honey for that oc ask post perhaps?

[oc asks] + 🍯

OMG 😳 these are powerful let's see

🍌 Have parts of your OC been lost to time (in-universe)? What do they wish they could lose from themselves?

hilariously enough like. everything, most of her memories ended up getting locked out as a trauma response (yay for survivor's guilt!) and she's just starting to get some back veeery slowly. i joked before that even her stats and skills are... more fitting for a warlock than a druid, some kind of muscle memory of being a craftier, a bit more shadowy person. NOW we're about to have a time reset thing happening in the campaign and for once she'll actually be the one remembering some stuff while the others will forget, but all in all even with how bad some memories she got back are u__u.. i don't think she'd give em up now

🍆 How are they used by others? How easily are they tricked into things?

well she's <:3c she's actually pretty perceptive but. isn't really the kind to assume the worst in people, and she likes helping whenever possible. would probably fall for a tumblr scam if left unchecked in a modern au). but on the other hand she's also the type that Hates being tricked so afterwards she'd send her psionic warriors (followers to her potionmaking blog) after the scammer. this would happen several times a year.

#ask the bell #sanini-panini #THESE ARE FUN TY FOR THE ASK #honeywort #dnd:citron

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amortentva · 1 year

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student file: hermione granger ✶ 24, genderqueer, they/he, muggleborn, gryffindor, fourth year, magical law ( legislator ). member of the aurelius tribune ( columnist ), competitive potions, herbology club, debate team, and astronomy club. can be described as courageous, intellectual, bossy, and disciplined. wanted connections. pinterest.

“i weep because you cannot save people. you can only love them. you can’t transform them, you can only console them.”

full name. hermione jean granger. aliases. mione, granger. age. twenty-four years old. birth date. september nineteenth, nineteen ninety eight. house. gryffindor. blood status. muggleborn. wand. ten and three quarter inches, vinewood, dragon heartstring core. pet. half-kneazle ginger cat named crookshanks. spoken languages. english, latin.

parents. thomas granger ( father, alive ), gianna granger nee goldwell ( mother, alive ). siblings. none, hermione is an only child and their parents' pride and joy. before aurelius. attended thiudreiks school of witchcraft and wizardry, their parents reside in london where hermione was born. their parents are dentists, and never pressured their child to follow their path. they always assumed hermione would become an author or a teacher, from the passion they had for knowledge and their near perfect ( later known to be eidetic ) memory. only, there was a bit of a disconnect as far as school was concerned. as soon as hermione's magic was discovered and they were explained that they would be attending a special boarding school through their formative years to teach them all about the magic flowing through their veins, it was difficult to express feelings through letters or text. birthdays spent at school, holidays home were never enough time to catch up on everything that was missed.. it only became easier when more modern technology was able to help them stay more in touch.

positive. clever, levelheaded, book-smart, logical, courageous, dedicated, reasonable. neutral. prodigious intellect, self-discipline. negative. blunt, opinionated, impatient, abrasive, bossy, argumentative.

character notes. headcanons, school notes, and more

hermione is deathly afraid of heights, so you will absolutely never catch them on a broom. they even avoid looking out of the windows when they're in the gryffindor tower, their dorm, and any other high spot in the school.

almost all of the columns submitted to the aurelius tribune are about s.p.e.w, where they try to convince people of the rights of elves!! best bet they're still on that bullshit even in this au.

herbology club is kind of their favorite thing .. plants are so cool to them and hermione would be able to remember every use for each one, which also makes them quite sufficient with potionmaking as well bc they are an insufferable know it all :)))

slightly terrified of most animals aside from cats, owls, or dogs. no magical creatures club for hermione, thank u very much.

carries a magical quill in their hair that they pull out any and every time they have a thought they wanna write down. a parchment folded in their pocket will materialize itself in front of them and the quill will write mid-air, and both will go back to their respective places once it's done.

#aureliusintro

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handwrittenhello · 3 years

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Warlord Yen? 👀👀👀

lol how did i know this one would catch your attention 😆 this is a prequel to sweet little lies, and it's the story of how exactly yennefer became a warlord! i haven't started writing it yet, so no snippet, but here's a little synopsis:

idk if Yennefer would have the same magical talent in this AU--she probably has the raw spark of chaos for sure, but ever since becoming King Demavend's personal poisoner/potionmaker, she rarely has the chance to use her magic. She's in much of a similar role as she is in episode 3 but does more deadly behind the scenes work rather than cleaning up political messes. And rather than the whole disaster with the assassin and the murdered infant princess, though, Yennefer realizes that the king she's been serving is really a huge dick, actually. Many of the palace staff have similar views, and really, would it be so difficult for her hand to slip, for her to "accidentally" poison the king instead of the enemy he wants her to?

No one ends up missing him much, and Yennefer takes over without much fuss. Nobody wants a civil war, after all, and most are either too scared of her to argue, or she's somehow endeared herself to them and won their loyalty.

As soon as she proves that corrupt leaders can be overthrown, some of the neighboring countries start getting similar ideas--mainly Rivia, led by the knight Geralt. After the Coup of Rivia, in which she lends them aid, Geralt decides to join her court, taken by her strength, morals, and beauty.

(i might also do an interwoven narrative about how yennefer and jaskier go to rescue geralt after the events of the original fic, which i think could be really cool but would require lots more planning)

thank you for asking!!

#mine #ghostinthelibrarywrites #ask game

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inkyvendingmachine · 3 years

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BATIM Cthulhu AU: Season 1 Episode 7

✨Call of Cthulhu Season One Masterpost ✨ 💀 Call of Cthulhu: Haunted Hijinx Masterpost 💀

Warning: This campaign is an edited version of Call of Cthulhu: The Burning Stars scenario. While a lot has been changed, there IS spoilers for it throughout these posts.

i cannot decide on a single quote this time so, here’s just. here’s whatever is happening here. and a whole nother summary cause I GUESS IM JUST COMMITING TO THE SUMMARY LIFESTYLE NOW, SORRY ABOUT IT ALL BEING SO HECKIN LONG

OH ALSO I made a master post, so I can just link one thing instead of all the bits. It’s also sorted out to be in order by session!! since the tag isn’t like that due to the fact none of us keep a consistent posting schedule for this content lmao.

- so after important kisses and rejoicing, the jds crew decides to scramble before the potionmaker lady wakes up, since Gold Text says that “she” is going to kill us and we’d rather not like, wait around to confirm it’s her versus someone else.

- bendy lurker son boy has disappeared in the laundry room, though we quickly find him hiding to playfully pounce at us. Joey grabs him like a child and we skadoo out of there. (at some point Henry might have tried to take him from Joey but Joey just walked a lil faster cause he was enjoying carrying son boy too much.)

- decide that visiting the starpools and trying to rescue tom is best course of action, since we’re not sure if the lurker needs to be there or not and also we have no idea when Tom is gonna like... get sacrificed. So might as well get that settled first. Also the graveyard is pretty nearby, versus the hotel across town that’s hard to reach at 2am when no cabs are out and about.

- sneak up there just fine, nobody has been strapped to a monolith and carved open yet that’s great. the decision is made that 1. it’d be good to keep the amulet away from any cultists and hidden (so sammy takes it and puts it under his shirt, buttoning it up for the first time in forever (sad internal joey noises)) and since Henry is now the “host” he should probably not be crossing paths with cultists. So they’re gonna hide in the bushes with the Lurker Son Boy while Joey tries to sneak in and find Tom.

- This actually ends up being quite easy, cause he just checks where they were holding ‘joey’ last time they were up there and sure enough that is the ‘prisoner’ shack, and Tom is fast asleep in there and has a broken arm, but doesn’t seem to be chained down. aLSO there’s far less guards and cultists around wONDER WHY,

- Joey tries to sneakily way Tom up, to which instead he gets decked across the face. There’s a bit of snappish arguing where Joey offers to leave Tom behind if he’d like to get his full beauty sleep and, yeah okay fine lets escape. Joey gives a terrible summery of things that have happened to ally the Lurker with them (tom please do not attack it or this will all have been for nothing,) while they wait for a opportunity to sneak. (meanwhile Henry has started to scribble again and Sammy makes half an attempt to understand why)

- While sneaking out, Joey does fine but Tom manages to make noise and get everyone in the clearing to notice them. Quickly Joey grabs Tom’s less broken arm, angrily muttering about how he keeps messing everything up and runs off into the jungle, taking the same exact path they took the last time they were running off with the amulet. This is both cause he actually knows this path, and because he didn’t want to run a buncha cultists smack into the rest of the group who are hiding for a rEASON,

- Though when they hear the commotion, Henry and Sammy ask if the Lurker would like to go “do his distraction” again. He happily bounds off once returned to full size and entertains himself with swatting Cultists around. (Sammy and Henry make the mistake of going to check on the scene to see if they can find Joey and Tom, and uh. nope, just a whole lotta gorep,) ((Sammy did make sure to hide the lurker-controlling amulet first, which means he finally buttoned up his shirt.)) (((sad gay joey noises in the distance)))

- Meanwhile Joey manages to put enough of a distance between him and the one Cultist that has kept up that he can quickly shove and hide Tom in some bushes, before hiding behind a tree himself and preparing his gun. When the cultist rounds the corner, he steps out and shoots them in the shoulder, the only way he really knows how to deal with the problem right now and let Sammy and Henry know where they are located currently.

- (they do indeed hear it, and since the lurker seems to have things covered, so Henry and Sammy run off into the jungle to find Joey)

- The cultist runs up and manages to slash at Joey’s leg with a sword while he tried to swing a punch at them. Joey staggers, regains his composure for a single moment, then uses the fact that the cultist is rIGHT in front of him to push himself forwards into the cultist and shoot him point blank into the chest. The cultist falls over, revealing Tom mid ready to assist with a stick, which is no longer needed. Joey collapses.

- Sammy and Henry managed to find them rather soon after, finding Tom standing semi panicked over a wreathing Joey on the ground, who, despite not having an actual major wound, is acting like someone just sawed off his leg due to not being used to this kind of pain. The two take a moment to make sure the area is clear before going to see if they can help the Joey Problem. Henry starts trying to bandage up his leg with the ex-cultists shirt. Sammy’s just muttering insults at Joey (but it’s clear that he’s actually really worried.) Joey is not responding to either of them, he’s just trying to not scream cause he is aware enough to know not to do that.

- Henry mentally pokes the lurker (ARE YA WINNING SON?) to check in while he works on Joey. The Lurker is doing alright, so Henry offers him that he can either keep doing whatever he enjoys doing up there, or he can come along with them if he wants. tURNS OUT?? THE LURKER LIGHTS UP EXCITEDLY AT ‘COME ALONG’ (this is the start of murder) sO HE’S ON HIS WAY NOW

- Meanwhile, while everyone is distracted with Sammy trying to explain to Tom what the Lurker is, and Henry communicating while bandaging the one leg, Joey reaches over and grabs a knife off the murdered cultist and tries to cut his other leg open?!?? Henry grabs the knife out of his hand and puts to down, goes back to bandaging. Joey stupidly goes for it again, and this time Sammy steps in, grabs the knife from him, and asks Tom to help hold him down since sOMETHING IS CLEARLY WRONG WITH HIM,

- Meanwhile Henry is playing marco-polo with the lurker,

- Tom finally hears the Lurker approaching and freaks out at Henry, wHAT ARE YOU DOING THATS THE MONSTER?? OH IT’S HERE NOW?! BACKS AWAY VERY SLOWLY... Sammy you’re on duty for Joey watching now, and also communicating to the Lurker that Tom is friend not harm.

- It’s agreed upon that we should probably get out of here due to Joey being a lITTLE CRAZY rn, the Lurker offers to piggyback carry Joey, a thing it learned from being on Henry’s shoulders before!! ( ALL THE PLAYERS HAVE BEEN MURDERED ) Sammy picks up Joey and helps get him onto the Lurker’s back ( Joey has gone into tuned out mode and is just rag-dolling now as he Has An Episode ) Joey gets to ride piggyback on giant ink bendy like creature isn’t that gr9

- (also we find out the lurker is a little goopy since it probably jumped in one of the starpools while it was throwing cultists around. wHICH IS ALSO MURDEROUS, ARE U TELLING US THE LURKER IS LIKE A PUPPY THAT RUNS INTO A PUDDLE THE MOMENT YOU LOOK AWAY,)

- while walking back down to the graveyard, Tom asks about getting to a hospital. As we debate what the best course of action is (and Joey absolutely refuses to go to a hospital himself,) we get to the edge of the jungle, and Joey finally asks to be back on his own feet. Once down, he takes off his jacket, struggles to rip it cause it’s a good jacket, throws it to the ground, then takes off the bandage Henry made out of the shirt, rips that into two pieces and ties up both of his legs the same way. (Sammy helps him up and also continues supporting him. gaaaaaayyyy )

- When joey tosses his jacket out of anger, the stone pops out! Lurker is interested in it, they all think that they don’t need it so SURE BOY you can have it. lURKER EATS IT??? UHH OKAY GLAD YOU’RE ENJOYING SNACC

- We ask the Lurker if he’s interested in being small again, and he nods, so Joey and Henry assist in turning him back into a Bendy. This time it’s a lot easier and he kinda just pops into proper shape?!? but is up in the air, Henry tRIES to catch him but misses (maybe because he’s extremely tired) and BendyLurker makes a squeaky noise when he bounces, gives a thumbs up. (we’re all being murdered, constantly)

- As we go to leave, notice that Team Gun Runners is hanging out searching the cemetery that we entered through. Joey insists that he has an idea of how to get around them, and sends Tom, Henry and SonBoiBendy to go out the back and try to get a cab. He asks Sammy if he’d like to assist him, and Sammy freezes, caught between yes he DOES wanna go with them cause uhhh bendylurkersonboi he kinda worships now is in that party, but doesn’t want to leave Joey stumbling around on his own. Joey takes Sammy’s hesitation as an answer, pushes off of him, grabs his jacket and starts walking towards the group, not wanting wait long enough for them to find the group.

- Henry asks Sammy about his feelings, Sammy does not answer, and they all skadoos out the back of the cemetery.

- The group notices Joey, who is doing his best to look completely normal. They started questioning him about what he’s doing there, if he’s seen anyone else?? Joey ignores their questions and brings up, hey, I have a feeling you’re looking for this (THE INVOICE THAT WAS GRABBED EARLIER AND I’VE BEEN CARRYING THIS WHOLE TIME) which I got off the Gent people, who we will not be working with anymore cause they made these arrangements behind our backs, and you can have it if you leave us alone!

- ... the gun runners extremely accept this and scurry off. Joey tiredly and in lot of pain, manages to make it to the front gate himself and start walking around the side, finds his group struggling to call a cab. Maybe because Sammy is still wearing a bendy mask over his face, and they have a moving cartoon character on Henry’s shoulders??? Or maybe it was Sammy’s awful French,

- Joey manages to make it over to them, calls Tom a cab, tells him about where the tickets are kept and what to do, Tom tries to be uhh, grateful for being rescued? Joey just takes his gun back (and the sword but they’re not carrying that around, just Tom shouldn’t take it to a hospital) tells him to get out of his sight and sends him off to a hospital. Gets Sammy to take off the mask and the Lurker to play the fun game of “pretend you’re a stuffed animal”, gets a cab to the place Dr. Northeast is staying.

- We all grab very large and strong coffees and a little breakfast before heading up to the room. Dr. Northeast has been apparently up all night as well, studying, and Joey immediately forgets about his food and starts helping. Sammy and Henry hang with the LurkerBendySon while eating their food, making sure Henry stays awake...

- Sammy also gets to have a personal conversation with the BendyLurkerSonBoi, who wants to know... why we’re so bent on not sacrificing ourselves to the eldritch horror he serves? Less because he thinks they should now and more because... he’s never known it to go any other way. So maybe he wants to know if it can... and when asked, he admits he’s more interested in being more than just the jungle monster that swats people into starpools.

- uh oh, the final nail has been struck. our original plan has been completely destroyed because nONE OF US WANT TO OFFER THE LURKER BACK TO THE MESSANGER NOW TO BREAK THE CURSE OR WHATEVER. WE WANNA KEEP HIM. SO WHAT ARE WE GONNA OFFER. UHHHHHH TUNE IN NEXT TIME TO SEE US ALL DIE CAUSE WE REFUSED TO GIVE UP OUR SON BOI,

–> Episode 8

✨Call of Cthulhu Season One Masterpost ✨ 💀 Call of Cthulhu: Haunted Hijinx Masterpost 💀

#call of cthulu: haunted hijinx #joey drew #sammy lawrence #Henry Stein #batim #Bendy and the Ink Machine #we thought this might be the last episode but whoops we're really good at going off the path #and now we've really hecked ourselves into a corner #i'M SURE IT'LL BE FINE WE WILL FIGURE OUT S O M E T H I N G #bendy #Thomas Connor #studiostartup ship #joey x sammy #joey x henry

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harborchild · 3 years

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DnD-like Fantasy AU Crackle! again from th Chaos of Discord!

Shes a Warlock of unknown age who has been a Warlock for some time, so long infact that they've started to take on some physical traits of his Patron (Whos this AU's Generateor) and has been run out of town by fearful Villagers and had a bounty put on their head for two reasons

their part eldrich horror now, crime against nature, unholy, unearthly yada yada yada

Parts from Truely Eldrich creatures are rare, and therefor extremely valuable so theres a fair number of mages, potionmakers and whoever else wants them would really like to get their grubby little hands on Crackle's peices, particularly his eyes and teeth

Lucklily in this AU theres a newly formed Guild (its got like mabey 2 or 3 members at current) dedicated to showing the world that monsters arnt, well, Monsterous. its of course been founded by @becauseimgabbeh-blog 's Twig!

Crackle also owns a ship but has been avoiding it because they dont want it to get destroyed by the Monster Hunters that are after her

#little nightmares oc #oc au #OC Crackle #Monster Charmer AU #im super proud of that book #it looks so niceee

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alotsgonnachange · 3 years

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Fan apprentice Bios

for the alotsgonnachange/the arcana cinematic universe that eye personally believe to be better than the original game...

Name: Isabella Ciccino

Meaning: Promise of God

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Height: 5′10

Birthday: October 28th

Star sign: Scorpio

MBTI: ISFJ-T

Patron Arcana: Justice

Sexuality: Lesbian

Favorite Food: Lemon chicken orzo

Drink: White wine (Vinho Verde)

Magical abilities: Plant care/recognition (green witch), Foraging

Ethnicity: A small rocky/mediterranean esque island off the coast of Venterre that would strongly resemble sicily and malta.

Family: Mother, Angela Ciccino (deceased). Younger sister, Annamaria Ciccino (deceased)

Backstory: WIP

Occupation: Seamstress/tailor

Hobbies: Ballet, reading, drinking wine, dancing, tending to plants

Familiar: None (for now i guess??)

Love Interest: Nadia

Description: Isabella is a mysterious and alluring magician. To most people she is kind and charming, but private. She is incredibly helpful and caring to those she is friends with and cares about and will drop what she’s doing to assist. Likes to do quiet introspective work like reading, sewing, knitting and caring for plants. She’s a bit of a homebody in that sense. She comes across as level-headed and assertive in formal settings and does not allow others to talk down to her. With friends, she is a bit more sassy and teasing. She hates answering personal questions and has strict boundaries, which can lead to her being standoffish and stubborn at times.

As a Love Interest: Very loyal and committed, generally very gentle towards whoever she is seeing. You are going to have to get her to open the fuck up though she’s not good at being vulnerable AT ALL. The type of gf who may or may not qualify as a therapist/mother which…yikes. needs to work through her fear of intimacy before she can have a healthy relationship awwww 5/10

___

Name: Danielle Dupont

Meaning: God is my judge

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/Her

Height: 5′6

Birthday: September 7th

Star sign: Virgo

MBTI: ENFP-A

Patron Arcana: The Sun

Sexuality: Bi

Favorite food: Pain au Chocolat (Chocolatine for my canadians…)

Favorite drink: Espresso or a good wheaty ale

Magical Abilities: Sexual magic, chemistry/potionmaking, candle magic, topical balms/solutions

Ethnicity: Whatever the Arcana equivalent is of like. Western Europe germanic? A country including but not limited to Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland. Who cares really she is white and an Orphan

Family: Orphan!

Backstory: WIP

Occupation: Shop owner who sells potions, balms, candles and various other uhhh items usually of the purpose of sex (literally think a modern day sex shop with dildos and shit but also candles and skincare too)

Hobbies: Socializing, singing, making/testing potions, foraging, baking

Familiar: None, is in fact frightened of several animals due to trauma :(

Love interest: Lucio (Her taste is questionable and that’s okay!), also portia

Description: Danielle is a cunning and animated witch. She’s outgoing, bright and carries herself with confidence. In the past this has made her friends and enemies alike. She’s charming but can be a bit of a trickster. Her demeanor is generally calm and she does not often experience strong anger. She’s very smart and dedicated to her craft, and she is a perfectionist. As a worker, she gives excellent customer service and is a good saleswoman. To her friends, she’s teasing and wild, but loving and encouraging. On her worst days, she has the potential to be a bit more inconsiderate and is not the best at handling huge displays of emotions from others.

As a Love Interest: Girlllll…. first of all she needs to stop being emotionally stunted! My good sis cannot handle open displays of emotion at all and tends to shut down! The physical aspects are all there and excellent and she is going to be sweet, caring and loving but she needs to take things more seriously and be able to talk about feelings!!! 3/10

____

Name: Jia Song

Meaning: In korean it’s “clear” or “good”

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/her

Height: 5’5”

Birthday: August 5th

Star sign: Leo

MBTI: ENFJ-A

Sexuality: Bi

Favorite Food: Pulled pork or a good seasoned steak

Drink: limeade

Magical Abilities: Potions/herbs and healing

Ethnicity: Her father is from the same country as Ki (in a modern AU, this would be like. Korea.) and her mother is from somewhere uhhhh near nopal or something. Warm tropical nice (in a modern au this would be Brazil), but she grew up in her mother's country.

Family: I don't currently have names but basically, her father, mother, aunt (deceased) and two younger brothers.

Backstory: will be linked coming soon

Occupation: Healer, researcher, linguist

Hobbies: Dancing, reading, adventuring

Familiar: None

Love Interest: Julian

Description: Jia is a bright and curious magician. She’s a bit nerdy and loves reading/learning new disciplines. She is an energetic and altruistic person who is liked by many. She comes off as kind and forthcoming. She is very helpful and if she can’t help directly she will find someone who can with her connections. To her friends, she is loyal and sweet and affectionate, but also has the potential to be grumpy and even a bit negative. She’s very determined in hard situations and won’t back down until things are made right. Despite this, she can potentially overthink and overestimate situations and is incredibly stubborn when she wants to be.

As a romantic partner: loving, but definitely also able to keep independence. Not necessarily a stage 5 clinger but somewhere in the middle. She will love just spending lots of time with a partner and just picking their brain and learning everything she can from them. The type to brag about them to her friends. A wonderful listener but give her a chance to speak too she likes talking a lot as well! 10/10 would recommend

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Name: Ki (Kiyoung) Kim

Meaning: Debatable but Ki alone means arisen and i’m getting “Vigor and eternal” But i think names differ based on the characters u use i am not korean so take this with a grain of salt

Gender: Nonbinary i think...

Pronouns: He/him or they/them doesn't have a preference

Height: 5′8″ Short king

Birthday: February 27th

Star sign: Pisces

MBTI: INFP-T

Sexuality: Gay

Favorite food: Budae Jjigae or Yongeun jorim

Favorite drink: any alcoholic beverage where you can’t taste the alcohol and strawberry milk

Magical Ability: Divination and mediumship (idk what the proper term is) so he can communicate with spirits/the dead

Ethnicity: Think of a small nation veeeery far away from Vesuvia that's cold for a lot of the year (for reference, think Korea).

Family: a twin sister named Jiyoung, 3 older sisters (Jiwoo, Jeongyeon, Joonhwa), mother and father and paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother who are living.

Backstory: will be linked coming soon

Occupation: Musician - mostly guitar and piano. Enjoys instrument care, arranging and performing in large ensembles, not a soloist by any means. He’s a great singer but he’s shy and singing gives him anxiety

Hobbies: Playing guitar, composing/arranging, reading, writing, shopping

Familiar: a tiny white dragon named Egg. Idc if dragons exist in this world but i feel like they HAVE to..

Love Interest: Asra

Description: Ki is a perceptive and witty magician. To most he comes off as a bit anxious and shy, which he is. Once you get past that, he’s eager, forthcoming and empathetic. He is very kind and likes to believe people have good intentions. He is very helpful and always tries to make sure others are comfortable and happy. He enjoys music and learning musical instruments. He prefers to work more in the background so as to not draw attention to himself. With his friends, he’s actually very talkative, silly and goofy. He’s prone to anxiety and may tense up or feel attacked when put into frightening situations. Unfortunately he has self destructive tendencies and low self esteem and has a hard time due to that.

As a Love Interest: perfect little s/o shut the FUCK UP…. that is if u can deal with low self esteem and anxiety! He really really tries though! He’s also shy with physical affection but will warm up to it eventually with familiarity and trust. Very doting and randomly shows up with delicious food and takes care of u when ur sick. 8/10

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Name: Mathilde “Tilly” LaRue

Meaning: Mighty In Battle? Lol

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/her

Height: 5’11

Birthday: January 16

Star Sign: Capricorn

MBTI: INTP-A

Sexuality: Bi

Favorite Food: Lentil soup

Drink: Black coffee

Magical Abilities: Divination, telekinesis, herbs, defensive magic

Ethnicity: From a large urban area with a large population somewhere in an area a bit cooler and rainier than Vesuvia. (think like. England)(in a modern AU think Afro-caribbean)

Family: Mother and Mother and an older sister named Topaz

Backstory: will be linked coming soon

Occupation: Court Magician (but like simply a well rounded witch who goes wherever the money is)

Hobbies: Exploring, foraging, reading

Familiar: A white ferret named Elle

Love Interest: Muriel

Description: Mathilde is a gentle and thoughtful magician. She is soft-spoken and hates raising her voice, and is often making bizarre and thought provoking side comments in most situations. She is curious and intuitive when it comes to magic and often able to use several methods to predict the future for others. She carries herself in a dreamlike/contemplative manner and does not really care what others think - She’s off in her own world. With friends, she has a good source of humor and gives good advice and is a very good listener. She has an affinity for animals and nature, and would generally prefer to be outside. She can tend to be unrealistic and naive and loses hold on her emotions in tough situations (angry crier…) and feels misunderstood by those around her.

As a love interest: Downright adorable. Sweet, will bring you cool items she found and very endearing. She’s also encouraging and surprisingly cheesy. Not outwardly clingy but if you let her she will. but good fucking luck starting to date her! She is extremely pretty and gets asked out almost every day, turning down 99.999999% of applicants because other people do not particularly interest her and her taste is insanely picky! 10/10 but FAT CHANCE

#my art #bios #my text #the arcana #fan apprentice #ki #tilly #danielle #isabella #jia #refs

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ancientechos · 3 years

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The Apothecary

Emet-Selch/Arianna ♡ 3782 words ♡ Revenant AU

Sequel to Omen of Beginning

Solus herds the woman into her home, shutting the door behind them both. The rain drumming upon the roof sounds strangely calming here. Or maybe it’s simply the house in general.

Sighing wearily, he drops her gloved hand and throws himself into the kitchen chair he’s sat at so many times before. He leans back; the front legs lift into the air. If he wants, he could probably count the leaves of the dried herbs that hang from the ceiling. He throws an arm across his face.

The clicks of he -- hooves on the floorboards rattles within his mind as she walks cautiously around him. He finally understands.

The question that instinctively comes to his lips is why did you never tell me?

But he knows the answer without having to ask.

The Garlean Empire hates her kind. Savages, revenants...the sort of humans with very inhuman features. And far more likely to be in possession of the “gift” of magic.

Slowly, he lowers his arm and lets the chair legs touch the floor once more.

“Whether you believe me or not, I have no intention of turning you in.” He presses his palm hard against the bridge of his nose. Staring at her through narrowed eyes, his gaze roves from her apprehensive expression to the hat she has yet to remove.

And the gloves...he’s never seen her so covered before. He’s seen her hands plenty of times. He is achingly curious. There must be a reason why she’s chosen to hide them.

But even he knows it would be terribly inappropriate to ask.

So instead an awkward silence drifts across them; the woman fidgeting nervously, as if she’s unsure of what to do, while Solus teeters precariously between simply letting his eyes shut and pretending this was all a dream, or getting up and leaving entirely.

Oh, he knows he can’t do that. Not in her...condition. It’s too -- dangerous to leave her like this...

Not to mention he should be getting back to his post. He can’t let the next watch catch it empty.

“It is...it’s all right...” he murmurs, though he’s not sure whether it’s to reassure himself or her. She doesn’t speak, of course. Arianna hasn’t even moved for what seems like years. He glances at her again, brows furrowing. Whatever it is that ails her...

“Just...I think you should likely stay here...until you, ah, turn -- turn back to...normal...”

The words feel like ash on his tongue, bitter and vile, and he cannot for the life of him discern why. He is simply stating facts.

He feels even worse when she turns her face away with nothing more than a stiff nod, her lips formed in a thin line. But then something like alarm or shock blooms across her features, and she quickly turns back to him with wide eyes.

Arianna’s mouth opens, then shuts; she pulls the cloth off her basket, removing her book.

I was going to the market. I need to buy something.

Such had been his assumption, of course. Though he knows not what -- it’s plain as day that she can’t go anywhere as she is.

“Perhaps I could get them for you. Just...” He speaks over her stare of blank astonishment. “Make a list for me, and I’ll bring them over.”

No need for coin, is what he wants to say, but the thought of not knowing what she needs makes him pause.

“What were you looking to buy? Or get?”

His intention is to leave no room for argument, and yet she musses gloved fingers over the creases of her book anyway. Does she not wish to burden him? Or is she anxious for another reason? Solus shifts upon the chair, armour creaking lightly.

“As I said before, I shan’t report you. There’s no need. So...” He clears his throat. “Please, don’t be afraid. All right?”

Arianna’s green eyes peer at him from beneath the brim of her hat. Her teeth sink into her lower lip. But eventually, the tenseness seeps from her limbs, and she gives him a small nod.

Ah, good. She trusts him.

He isn’t sure whether he’s relieved or...pleased by this revelation.

It’s a few moments before she begins to write for him. Never before has he ever been bored waiting for her, but this time he finds himself almost restlessly anxious, awaiting her neatly printed words. It feels like an eternity until she wordlessly pushes the book toward him.

Down the second alley on third street, there is a small herb shop with a large bell in the window. An elderly woman owns it. I need the following ingredients: 3 stalks of blabberwort, 1 vial of pixie dust, 2 bunches of foxmittens, and 1 pouch of pumpkin seeds.

________

Solus has never heard of any of those ingredients, apart from the seeds, but then again he has never been especially interested in potionmaking...or witchcraft, anyway.

Because, that is what it is -- he’s sickeningly aware. Witchcraft. These likely aren’t normal ingredients.

Aside from the pumpkin seeds.

Alchemy, he confesses, he has been curious about, but never had an opportunity to try.

She had endeavoured to give him a pouch of coins, though he had pushed it back to her. There would be no need. He -- doesn’t want her to have to pay for this errand. It’s the least he can do after she had nearly been caught.

Though there is no particular reason he should be doing this. He simply. Wants to.

Cyrus is already where Solus should be, his hair tied back in its customary ponytail. His grin is easy and friendly beneath the lamplight.

“Lucky it was me coming on after you.” He tilts his head in curiosity. “Where were you? Chasing after ghosts?”

“None of your business right now, Cyrus.” Solus sighs, coming to a halt in front of him. His shoulders sag. “...But I’d appreciate you not breathing a word of it.” Whatever sting there is behind his words, Cyrus doesn’t seem to feel it.

“‘Course not -- I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Solus believes him. Why ever would he not? “Thank you.”

“Nonsense! However...” He trails off uncertainly, his gaze worried. “Everything all right? It’s not like you to just leave your post.”

Yet another sigh. There’s that -- prickly feeling again, but not because of Arianna this time. “I’ll explain...another time.” Briefly, he pats the other man upon the shoulder. “All right?”

This might be a lie. He’s not really sure if he can even explain this. Or if it’s his place to. But surely, if anyone could understand, it would be his best friend, no?

-- And yet he grimaces to think of the danger this would undoubtedly put him in.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Cyrus’ smile is just as effortless as it always is. “Whatever you’re dealing with right now, it’s fine.” His expression turns mischievous. “Even if you just needed an impulsive romp with the tea girl.” His utterly hilarious joke is punctuated by mirthful laughter as he slaps a hand against Solus’ shoulder in kind.

Solus, meanwhile, grits his teeth, exhaling loudly. Cyrus can already tell that he’s completely unamused by his harmless jab. How does he even manage to be so enthusiastic in this weather?

“Oh, come now, don’t be so sour.”

“...I have some business to attend to,” the Garlean soldier says smoothly, doing his best to straighten his furrowed brows. “So, if you’ll excuse me...”

“Oh, surely, I wouldn’t want to keep your rendezvous waiting.”

“Do shut up, Cyrus. I’ll see you shortly.”

He counts the streets as he walks. It doesn’t take him long to realise she hadn’t mentioned which side the alley ought to be on, but the bell isn’t difficult to notice. From the outside in the dim lighting, the place seems to be some sort of dingy, tiny apothecary. He’s somewhat surprised it’s even still open at this hour.

Though -- perhaps only a few people would know to look for it.

That sense of prickly unease returns; for some reason, Solus holds his breath as he grips the handle to drag himself into the unassuming shop. It’s not too much larger than Arianna’s parlour, though instead of being...a house and a treatment area, this is very much simply a store. There’s none of the amenities he associates to her cottage, albeit the scent is...similar.

Not exactly the same.

His gaze quickly finds an elderly woman toward the left side of the store, behind a large counter. And, for all her years and her wizened appearance, she’s not slow to notice him, either. Her gaze is piercing as the Garlean soldier puts on his best plastic smile.

Instead of approaching her, he takes his time to wander through the shelves of dried and boxed herbs and other eccentricities. The pumpkin seeds are not difficult to find, and he quickly snatches up one bag, as had been asked of him. But the painful minutes pass, and he cannot find anything even remotely approaching blabberwort, pixie dust, or foxmittens. It’s becoming disconcertingly clear that he’ll need to ask that old woman for help...

And that these are not the sort of ingredients they want Garleans to see.

Pixie dust. Not a single man of Garlemald would admit to the existence of “pixies”, much less their dust.

With a heavy sigh, he finally makes his way to the woman behind the counter.

“Good evening, ma’am. Terrible weather we’re having, no?” No response. He resists the urge to shrug, and clears his throat, setting the seeds upon the counter. He’s read over the piece of paper Arianna had given him countless times before, and recites it calmly. “I was informed I could find...blabberwort, pixie dust, and foxmittens here. I can’t seem to find them on your shelves, however; would you mind giving me a hand?”

He had thought the amounts for each to be somewhat...small, for whatever it is she needs them for, but perhaps she thinks this is the best way to not trouble him. He hadn’t been about to argue with her.

The silence stretches on uncomfortably; Solus thinks he can hear the rain outside.

“Blabberwort...?” the woman echoes, her brows knitting together. “I’m afraid I have no idea what you are talking about. There is no such herb, as far as I know.”

Ah, of course. She knows nothing. Her gaze flicks from his face to the hilt of his gunblade for the barest of instances.

“I know...I know, I am far from your regular customers,” Solus says, after a moment of thought. “But I -- know, from a reliable source, that I might find what I seek here.”

The woman crosses her arms, her eyes narrowing further into near-indiscernible slits. “And who might this ‘reliable source’ be?”

His jaw clenches, teeth grinding together. He had hoped he wouldn’t have had to reveal her name. But -- surely the herbalist must frequent this shop...if she had asked him to come here, no...?

“...Miss Rowen requested I retrieve these items for her.”

“Arianna?” Her hands slam upon the counter with more force than expected, jangling metal bracelets. “What have you done with her?”

“Nothing, I have done nothing, she is fine -- ”

“Then why is she not here herself?”

“She asked me to -- she’s -- ”

“Forgive me if I don’t believe you, Garlean.”

A low growl builds at the back of his throat; this old harpy is testing his patience. Regardless that she has every right to be wary of him.

“Listen to me,” he hisses out, “if I had truly wanted to, I could have simply burnt this shop to the ground. I’ve no intention of harming or hurting anyone here, she -- she -- ”

He fumbles with his satchel pocket and pulls out the neatly folded note, spreading it upon the counter for her to see.

“She asked me to bring them for her. See?”

The woman stares at the parchment with narrowed eyes. Her fingers trace the edge.

“It certainly looks like her handwriting...”

“Because it is. And no, before you ask, I didn’t press a gun to her head and demand her to write it for me. She asked. I promise this.” At the very least.

“Why isn’t she here?”

Oh, for the love of --

“And how long have you known?”

The soldier rolls his eyes skyward. “She’s sick, I’ll have you know. Which is why I’ve come in her stead.” Not technically a lie, he supposes. “And I’ve -- ”

“And don’t you try to lie to me, young man.”

Solus’ jaw clenches as he glares at her, arms crossed. “...She told me just a few bells past.” If telling and falling over pavement could be considered the same. A sharp exhale leaves him. “Now, I am trying to help her, so if you wouldn’t mind” -- he slams his coin purse on the counter, the coins within jingling -- “I would like to buy what she asked for.”

Instead of responding, the old woman levels him with a sharp gaze. Not about to be cowed, the man stares back.

The tension breaks as the woman smirks, though she does not speak to him. She claps her wrinkly hands together.

“Shtola! You heard the man. What do you think?”

A woman with eyes as silver as her hair shuffles out the back of the shop, her fingertips gently dragging along one of the shelves as she moves to lean against the wall. Something feels off about her -- her -- movements...? She does not look directly at him --

“He seems honest.” Her head tilts. “But that is just what I can assume from his voice. There’s far more, I recall, that can be discerned from a man’s expression.”

“He certainly has spirit...more than I can say about most of them.”

“And I don’t think Arianna would ask simply anyone. Come to think of it, she did mention talking to a ‘charming Garlean soldier’ last she visited...”

“Psh. I’ve seen nothing charming about this one.”

The silver-haired woman begins to laugh.

-- More than the apparent revelation that Arianna had described him as charming, he’s somewhat confounded as to how a mute and an apparently blind woman might even begin talk to one another at all. But more importantly than that --

“Forgive me for the interruption, but I really must be getting back to her...”

“What is your name?” the younger of the two women (Shtola?) suddenly asks. Her gaze is unseeing and yet still manages to be sharp as flint. “We will at least know if you are lying then. I doubt she would have had the inclination to mention her beau’s name to someone who held her hostage.”

Beau...? They certainly do take great joy in teasing him.

“...My name is Solus dus Galvus.”

The old woman glances at the younger. “I believe she did mention a ‘Solus’.”

“But perchance he has betrayed her trust...?”

“Mmm...too true...there is no way to properly tell, is there -- ”

Do they really intend to just sit around gossiping like old women while Arianna waits white-knuckled in her own home?

“The longer you two stand prattling about,” Solus snaps, breaking their musings, “the longer it will take me to return to her, and the larger the chances of her being discovered are. Are you going to allow me to help her, or not?”

Even Shtola’s eyes seem to widen. Then her lips curve into a knowing smile.

“...I will get what you need. How many of each was it, again?”

He wants to ask how a blind woman should be taking any of his orders, but bites his tongue. The old woman reads off the list, and the silver-haired woman gives a nod. Solus leaves the shop a few minutes later, small brown bag in hand.

“Take care of her, will you?” the old woman asks just before he reaches the door.

“...Why would I not?”

The air outside is crisp and welcoming after the cloying stickiness of that little hovel. Cyrus’ gaze immediately finds the nondescript little bag as he exits the marketplace.

“Sol, I had no idea you had it in you...to buy...”

“...What?” He can practically hear the laughter threatening to break free from Cyrus’ throat. He has a feeling he won’t like whatever he’s about to say, but he bites anyway.

“Contraceptives...”

“I swear to whatever gods are left in this sorry world...”

________

The soldier knocks upon the door to make his presence known, then lightly touches upon the doorknob; it is unlocked. He makes his way within.

Not much has changed in the cottage -- except the scent of it all is far more welcoming than before. And -- she has gotten a fire going. Arianna stokes it gently, glancing up at him with first a hint of wariness, and then a shy smile.

“I’ve brought what you asked for,” Solus says as he approaches, carefully holding the bag out to her. She takes it from him gently, peering into it, and giving him a tiny nod of satisfaction. Placing it upon her table, she quickly retrieves her book for him.

Thank you, very much. I will give you money back in compensation.

Solus shakes his head, sighing slightly. “I’ve already said, there’s no need for that.”

Her brows furrow, but she does not try to argue.

Do you mind waiting here for a bit? I will not be long.

“Not at all. Take whatever time you need.” He still feels the chill and the stifling unease of his impromptu adventures; it should be nice to warm up by the hearth before he has to go. He stoops to sit near the fireplace upon a cushion laid out beside it. After a moment’s thought, he decides to remove his gauntlets, and draws his chilled hands near the flames.

He almost doesn’t notice when Arianna leaves, the crinkling of the bag the only indication she has gone. He wonders what she’s doing with those ingredients. And, come to think of it -- how has she...avoided detection for so long? The unease he had felt around her before...

Even now, he can feel it disintegrating, burnt away by the fire, stifled and snuffed out by the calming scents within her home. It almost makes him not want to think.

He has no idea how much time passes, but he more feels than hears her return. Glancing upward, he nearly jolts in surprise upon finally seeing her --

She’s removed the hat, the gloves and now -- now she simply stands before him as she always has. There’s not a thing strange or inhuman about her -- he suspects that even if he were to lift the hem of her skirt, he would see naught but human feet there.

“Ah, you are...back to -- normal, then...” Just like before, the words have an unpleasant taste to them. He’s not sure why.

Things should feel normal now, too, but instead they simply feel...off.

Arianna gives another small nod, arranging her skirts as she comes to sit near him. Her fingers push a few strands of dark hair behind her ears; he can’t help but wonder how her hands had looked earlier...beneath those gloves of hers...

And what had she been hiding with her hat?

Green eyes meet his, before she looks away, biting at her lower lip. Her hands quickly find her book once more. This time, it takes her a while to write, though the wait is not at all unpleasant. The crackling of the fire and the sound of her writing utensil against the paper put him at ease. He smiles at her faintly once she passes the book to him.

I suppose I should explain. The ingredients I asked you to get -- the blabberwort, pixie dust, foxmittens, and pumpkin seeds -- are used in a sort of alchemical potion called a glamour. I normally still have some, but this time I was careless.

There’s a strange flush to her cheeks, he notes as he reads. Or perhaps simply the firelight?

Our kind -- I believe you call us “revenants” -- use this potion to hide our inhuman features. It is simple enough to make, and typically lasts a while...and the ingredients are not too difficult to find, if you know how. Still, I was not did not think properly, and I apologise. I apologise that you had to go through this trouble for me.

This time, he has to speak, sighing lightly as he shakes his head. “It wasn’t any trouble.” Much of one, anyway. That is not a lie. “So please, don’t worry about it.” He looks up at her over the book, and offers her another smile. Instead of nodding, or even smiling in kind, she looks away skittishly. Had he done something wrong...?

And I must thank you, for not wanting to tell anyone about it. And for helping me. I truly cannot properly convey my thanks to you. Or my appreciation, for not throw casting me aside. Thank you, Solus. Is there anything I might do for you?

As he reads the last few lines of her note to him, he hears Cyrus’ treacherous voice at the back of his head. Idiot --

Clearing his throat, he has to resist the urge to slam the book shut. It would do naught but alarm the innocent herbalist sitting all too close to him.

Innocent. Perhaps in the past, he would have scoffed at the word. And yet...

Yet he knows without a doubt that he would never tell anyone else about this secret of theirs. Certainly no one he wouldn’t trust with his life.

“All I ask for is a cup of tea before I leave. Couldn’t possibly leave without one of those, eh?”

Her expression of bewilderment fades into a relieved smile, punctuated by a soft blush. Gently, she tears out several pages from her book. Holding the parchment in her hand, she glances toward her fireplace, and then hesitates.

May I have the list of ingredients I gave you, please?

“Of course.”

He watches as she quietly burns the evidence of their forbidden conversation.

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