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moonshine-nightlight · 2 years

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Nothing's Wrong with Dale: Part Nineteen

It’s been a week, but you’re fairly certain your fiancé accidentally got himself replaced by an eldritch being from the Depths. Deciding that he’s certainly not worse than your original fiancé, you endeavor to keep the engagement and his new non-human state to yourself.

However, this might prove harder than you originally thought.

Fantasy, arranged marriage, malemonsterxfemalereader, M/F

AO3: Nothing's Wrong with Dale - Chapter 19 - MoonshineNightlight - Original Work [Archive of Our Own]

[Part One] [Part Two] [Part Three] [Part Four] [Part Five] [Part Six] [Part Seven] [Part Seven.5] [Part Eight] [Part Nine] [Part Ten] [Part Eleven] [Part Twelve] [Part Thirteen] [Part Fourteen] [Part Fifteen] [Part Sixteen] [Part Seventeen] [Part Eighteen] Part Nineteen [Part Twenty] [Part Twenty-One] [Part Twenty-Two] [Part Twenty-Three] [Part Twenty-Four] [Part Twenty-Five] [Part Twenty-Six] [Part Twenty-Seven] [Part Twenty-Eight] [Part Twenty-Nine] [Part Thirty] [Part Thirty-One] [Part Thirty-Two] [Part Thirty-Two] [Part Thirty-Three] [Part Thirty-Four]

You freeze, you know you do, but you can’t help it.

You freeze, you know you do, but you can’t help it. You hope you appear only mildly surprised rather than scared. Those credentials are not the sort the locals Grandfather had been introducing you to had. They’re on an entirely different level. “How impressive,” you say, hoping your breathiness comes across as admiration rather than shock. “What an unusual combination of studies.”

“Actually, it seemed like a natural progression to me, though others do seem surprised,” Dr. Louisa says, clearly believing your affectation. You refuse to look at Breighton to gauge her reaction to your own. Nothing good can come of that. “My primary interests lay in how the human body reacts to different compounds—both positively and negatively. To my estimation, it was only a matter of time that I began to wonder how it might react to compounds from the Depths—or how the beings from there would react.”

“As Dale’s fiance,” Breighton inclines her head to you. Her voice gives nothing unusual away as she continues, “is interested in medicine, I knew I had to introduce you two.”

“Oh?” Dr. Louisa asks, looking mildly more interested. “Where did you study?”

You know she’s asking what university, but all you can offer is a self-deprecating smile. Given the look in her eyes, you’re fairly certain she knows what you’re about to say, “My schooling was completed at South Ardere Academy and I do not have any formal medical accreditations—merely an interest.”

“Of course, of course,” Dr. Louisa says with a gracious smile that still makes you feel rather stupid. “I know that such studies are not required, but an interest is better than none. So many people have no interest in the study of their own bodies, their own health, their own life,” Dr. Louisa smirks at Teresa, who merely smiles back cheerfully, and Julion, who scowls, “and I’ve never understood how they can stand to live with such ignorance.”

“People tend to think of their health and their bodies as something that merely is,” you volunteer, for all you think she’s being rather harsh—people have so many things to worry about after all. “Until something goes wrong.”

“Too true,” Dr. Louisa says with a nod. “Is that what piqued your interest?”

“Yes, I had some health difficulties when I was young,” you reply, trying to keep any defensive comments about that part of your life to yourself. Breighton already knows and none of these were noble heirs as far as you could tell. You don’t need to prove your worth as a bride to them. Instead, you simply don’t want to look a fool. “Which resolved around when I left childhood behind. Still, it has left me with an appreciation for my current health and a general desire to learn more in the area of medicine.”

“I can see how that might come to pass,” Dr. Louisa allows before a hint of condescension enters her expression. “Although medicine is an immensely complex topic. Certainly challenging to have as an amateur hobby—but a worthy one, of course.”

It’s clear the last part is only a false reassurance, but before you can defend yourself, Breighton speaks up.

“She seems to have done well by it,” Breighton says mildly. You chance a glance at her and she doesn’t appear concerned about grilling you on your potential for abusing the dark arts or as though she is testing you. However, she’s the only one you know Grandfather told about his theory–for all, according to the Steward, she didn’t believe him. Maybe this is her one concession to his worry, introducing you to this expert. She doesn’t seem to be pushing anything beyond the introduction though. But she’s the type that hardly ever reveals what she’s thinking unless she wishes too. The stray thought that you’d like to see her play your brother in poker flits through your mind. “As she is the one who initially helped Sanctif Ellon the other night.”

“Oh, yes, I remember him,” Dr. Louisa nods, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “Someone had the quick thinking to give him some ephedra they had on hand.” She turns back to you. “That was you?”

“Yes, I always carry some of the basics with me,” you reach into your pocket and bring out a similar vial of allergy tonic—replenished that night. “I have a similar, rather severe allergy so I carry single doses of a few tonics or medicinal tea bags on me whenever possible.”

“That seems quite useful,” Teresa remarks, leaning in to take a look. “This would help anyone having such a reaction?”

“Not everyone, but most would find it helpful.” You offer her the little bottle. “My other teas are more for headaches, exhaustion, and so on rather than to combat a more advanced or specialized condition.”

“The allergy remedy is only a stopgap,” Dr Louisa cautions, reaching out to pluck the bottle from Teresa’s fingers. She studies the handmade label with mild interest before giving it back to you. You carefully accept it from her white gloved hand. “But this is as well labeled and portioned as anything in my kit. Helpful, to have them labeled for a layman’s use.”

You slip it back into your pocket, into the little pouches you hand sew into the lining for just that purpose. Are you overreacting? Thinking everything she says is a dig at you? “As you said, I am a layman, in the end. It is the easiest way for me to think. I am not versed in medical notation.”

“That’s really only useful to doctors,” Dr. Louisa acknowledges. “I think more people would benefit from having these basics as you called them on hand. But my interest has moved beyond human medicine these days. Although I still peer review and analyze certain papers with a focus on botany and chemistry, my particular areas of skill.” She waves a careless hand. “Easiest method for keeping up with current achievements and breakthroughs. I have shifted experimental focus.”

You open your mouth, hoping to steer the conversation away from her interest ‘beyond’ and to whatever peer review work she does with typical, human medicine. “What—” But you can’t get the words out fast enough or loud enough.

“Yes,” Julion says, a frown on his face as he narrows his eyes at Dr. Louisa–not having even noticed that you attempted to say something. “Rather than focus on human illness and disease, you instead have switched your focus to the Depths.”

Dr. Louisa glares in response to his clear derision. “I have widened my focus and therefore widened the available materials at my disposal to help develop cures and aid. There are plenty of straightforward thinkers focused on what is convenient in this world.”

“Are there truly useful materials in the Depths?” Alent of Senga asks, skepticism heavy in his voice. Your desire to actually hear the answer to his question and your wish for the conversation to go in any other direction war in your stomach. Perhaps you shouldn’t have had those appetizers.

Personally, you agree with Alent. You doubt the existence of any plants in the Depths that is: one, useful; two, in sufficient quantities; and three, accessible. And any material from the Depths would need to be all three to be of great aid in medicine for humans—in your estimation at least. But most of your reading had been about demon reactions to plants and materials from this world, not their own or humans to theirs. You’d love to read a book on the subject—really, to learn about it any other way than trapped in this conversation.

“Of course,” Dr. Louisa’s voice is sharp. “How could there not be? There is still so much to understand and discover. We are making greater strides than ever before.”

She sounds as though she has had to make a similar speech before, as if she has had to defend her area of research often—you wouldn’t be surprised if she had. You’re not sure you’re convinced that experiments with plants from the Depths can be anything other than reckless and dangerous.

“Now that the principles of experimentation have been widely agreed upon and adopted,” Dr. Louisa continues, “now that we have more reliable methods of opening doors to the Depths, we can finally begin to do more than stumble blindly or unleash unrestrained beasts on our enemies.

“Despite the comparative rarity that is the intelligent demon, they have made far greater strides in the opposite direction than we have. They’ve been exploring and taking advantage of our realm for years. Now we can finally start doing the same.”

Well, that's a discomforting thought. You’ve never considered the appearance of demons on your world as such a venture. From what you’ve read, there does not appear to be any sort of coordinated effort between large groups of demons, but perhaps if it were subtle enough, humans wouldn’t even notice.

Everything you’ve read or heard has suggested that as intelligent demons are outnumbered by animalistic, vicious demons, they primarily form small, isolated communities where they can eek out enough to survive on. The intelligent demons who come up to the surface are usually loners or pairs who desire a life outside of the Depths or were exiled from there. But much of that information comes from “Memoir of the Dark”, written by the demon Duke of Sitran in Vaomen a hundred years ago and it is unclear how reliable a narrator he was as he is one of the few demons to ever pen such a book about the Depths or demonic society, if it can even be called such.

“Look,” Alent says, frowning with a thoughtful expression on his face. “I’m all for further knowledge, even knowledge for its own sake, and I think that truly exploring the Depths and learning anything more about it that we can is a noble goal. But,” he emphasizes, “I don’t know we’re at the stage where I feel comfortable introducing all this into medicine. That's an immensely complex and delicate science we are honestly still beginners at without our own materials and compounds and techniques. Introducing the Depths and things from there into that study seems… distracting and overwhelming—too many new factors to control for.”

“Yes,” Teresa says with a nod and you unconsciously mirror her because you agree as well. Your fascination with the debate and the fact that you haven’t had to give any opinion on the Depths helps you to breathe a little more naturally. “I’m not sure how plants from the Depths can do anything more than muddle with the aspects of medical treatment we are still struggling to understand within our own realm.”

“I disagree,” Kenneth of Helmsfirth says, shaking his head, and his mustache, for emphasis. “We need to take advantage of the strides Vaomen has been making and what better arena of study to make that information useful than in health. What makes adding the study of these plants or animal materials any different from adding in such things from a newly discovered island here?”

An interesting point, but…

“Because the Depths is a fundamentally different realm than ours?” Julion says with a roll of his eyes. “There are multiple principals and compounds and even laws of nature unique to the Depths and more that we might not even be aware of. I agree that mastery of what we have should be the priority. My understanding is that most plants or other compounds from the Depths are corrosive to us anyways. That’s why the only use we have for such things so far is as poison. My—”

“With,” Dr. Louisa cuts in, talking over whatever he was going to say next, “the Depths, a degree of caution, of course, must be taken into consideration, however to say the only uses for their plants we’ve found is poisons is false. Mixing extracts from Depth plants with our own has yielded quite a few exciting and useful results.”

Despite yourself, you want to hear more. There had been some discussion in some of the books you’ve managed to skim from Dale’s study that mentioned plants from the Depths, but in relation to summoning rituals you couldn’t understand. And so you’d been forced to move past them in your search for information about possession. But you want to go back and read them, if only it wasn’t such a risk.

“For instance, the most recent discovery was the use of a combination of yarrow and klint strengthens and stabilizes the yarrow and makes its effects as a fever reducer last longer,” Dr. Louisa says. “If jutnay is steeped in local mint tonic and then dried, powered and taken as a suspension, throat soreness can be soothed and recovery is faster than the mint tonic alone.”

You raise your eyebrows, both treatments, with yarrow and mint tonic for fever and throat ache, are familiar to you, but both have an inconsistency to them and are usually not the most recommended treatment because of that. You never would have thought that something from the Depths could temper them—or temper anything really.

“And the discoveries are not limited to only medicine,” Dr. Louisa continues. “As you mentioned, too much is still unknown about the Depths and studying only demons is short-sighted. There are plenty of other potential uses for the materials. Take my gloves,” she holds them out. “Every few days, I steep them in a combination of wood ash and ygrine, a plant found commonly in the Depths.”

“To what end?” Alent asks, looking baffled.

“Detection,” Dr. Louisa replies smugly, holding her gloved hands to the group. Dawn’s ire, not more demon detection methodology, you think. Wasn’t the sanctif enough? “If my gloves touch demonic flesh or the flesh of a human possessed by a demon, it will stain their skin and therefore reveal their true nature. The Depths leaves invisible particles on all those it touches. It is within demons. The only false positives we’ve had was with a ring of back alley summoners. It turned out they were not possessed themselves. This reveals that a summoner who has reached into the Depths would likely also appear stained, but most practitioners are intelligent enough to use gloves in their experiments so it is a minimal consequence.”

“What about false negatives?” Julion pushes. “If a demon spent enough time above or cleansed themselves vigorously enough, could they also deceive these treated gloves?”

“We are still isolating all the test cases,” Dr Louisa allows, but steamrolls ahead. “In theory, yes, they could cleanse themselves—however, for a demon in its own form or one who is possessed, it would take far longer for the materials to leave their system than just a bath. From what we’ve been able to discover, it would take months to fully purge their system.”

“I suppose that is useful,” Julion admits grudgingly, “But most demons are not masters of disguise, even the intelligent ones—at least not as a long game.” Are they not? Julion waves his hand, dismissively, “They deceive for a day or two—however long it takes them to achieve their objective. Most of those who are possessed did so by contract and are known.”

“That you are aware of,” Dr Louisa counters. “You cannot prove that. Also, remember what I said about the use-case of finding those amateurs dabbling in demonic studies or summonings. Such practitioners are often a great danger to others. Protection forces being able to identify those individuals is also quite valuable. The city guard of Hetlund has already credited our gift of a few pairs and materials with preventing a number of messy, botched summonings from unleashing who knows what on the city.”

“That I can believe,” Alent says, a hint of disgust in the curl of his lip. “The destruction one overconfident fool with the right materials—or the wrong ones—can cause is incredible.”

You suppress a shudder at how close you all came that night in Northridge when Dale did just that.

“One benefit to being so close to Northridge, ey, Breighton?” Gilliana of Manataba says with a grin.

“Yes, any smugglers seeking to do so as close to my mother’s territory as Connton should be quite wary indeed,” Breighton says with some pride in her voice. “Even if their city isn’t in Northridge, they mirror a number of our tight regulations. There’s not been a call for a purge or a botched summoning in over a decade here. I appreciate the risk Vaomen and a number of the universities are will to take for knowledge, but I prefer not having to worry about rampaging demons at a moments notice because a graduate student got in over her head, thank you very much.”

Dr. Louisa is already shaking her head. “The laws in Northridge are archaic, Breighton, and you know it. I mean no offense to your parents, and what happened to your brother and his wife was a tragedy, but it's no more sensible than banning all sea travel because someone drowned in a storm.”

Breighton’s expression doesn’t change but she seems to grow colder. “You are entitled to your own opinions on the matter, and given your field of study, I am not surprised. However, I do caution you from saying something to that effect near Lady Northridge. You will regret it.”

It’s clear the others agree with Breighton as they nod or murmur agreement. Only Teresa still looks cheerful when compared to how somber the others grew. You wonder if they too, knew Dale’s parents personally before their deaths. Even Teresa’s sunny disposition has taken on a sharper edge, like the prospect of Grandmother Northridge taking this smug doctor to task is what is making her smile so.

“Of course,” Dr. Louisa says, in mild but false surprise, a gloved hand pressed to her heart. “I would never.”

You’re fairly certain she would, if she would not be ostracized from this group for being so impolite to the host who is also Breighton’s mother.

“Regulation and law may slow discovery or quickly bringing a product to market,” Julion cautions, “but they save lives.”

“Balance is the key to such matters,” Dr. Louisa says magnanimously. Then she turns to you in a manner that can only spell trouble. “In fact, with the new Lord and his wife inheriting Northridge, perhaps some of these concerns can be addressed more delicately. Do you have any specific plans in this area at the moment?”

“No,” you reply automatically, cursing her for seeming to finally remember you are present. So much for not having to speak on anything demonic. “That is not currently a priority for us at the moment, especially given how strongly the current Lady and Lord feel on such matters.” Still, you don’t want to leave it like that, not when this woman is liable to pick at you for something controversial–you can see it in her eyes that she likes instigating arguments, not just debates. “However, I would venture to say that Lord Dale, despite his personal history, does not feel as strongly as his grandparents regarding a complete ban—to my knowledge.”

“And yourself?” Dr. Louisa presses regardless of the offering you gave her.

You take a few seconds to think, wanting to walk the right line. “I would agree that such matters require caution and that regulation is necessary,” you say slowly, “but a complete ban could also be considered flawed. Ignorance can be as dangerous as leniency. However, as I said, we have other priorities at the moment and so I haven’t discussed such matters with the current Lady nor with Lord Dale in any capacity and cannot speak for them.”

“A diplomat’s answer,” Dr. Louisa brushes off, pouting.

“And so a wise one,” Julion replies as his reflex was to disagree with Dr. Louisa, just generally. “given her position.”

“I’m certain as we take on our responsibilities,” you say slowly, wanting to seem more decisive but also knowing you shouldn’t, that it isn’t your place yet. You again, pointedly do not look at Breighton. “A number of laws and regulations will rise to our attention for debate and consideration, at which point Lord Dale, myself, and our magistrates will deliberate appropriately.”

“Come now, Louisa,” Kenneth says, cajoling, “You ask too much of a young betrothed in their family stronghold on a niche topic on which they have strong biases. What would you have her say? Lady Breighton is right here.”

“Yes, and you know what a stickler and curmudgeon I am,” Breighton says as dryly as ever causing the others to laugh.

“Oh yes,” Alent says, rolling his eyes. “Breighton abhors the new and never goes against convention.”

“Well, she does study rocks,” Teresa adds with a teasing smile. She nudges Breighton. “I’ve always said it would only a matter of time before she became as rigid and boring as what she studies.”

That causes another round of laughter and you feel your spine relax. Luckily, no one seems to be trying to take you to task for your non-answers, including Dr. Louisa. Perhaps this matter would come to rest and you could ask Dr. Louisa about her recent non-demon peer reviews. A safe topic could surely be found or steered to. You just need to find the ability to speak up instead of just responding to the rest of them.

“…saw her go off with Aunt Breighton.” A familiar voice reaches your ears and any tension you’d lost is right back in its familiar place. He really does have spectacular timing. “Ah, see? Over there.”

With a resigned churn of your stomach, you turn to find Dale and Grandfather approaching your group.

[Part Twenty]

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taexual · 2 months

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Dude where do I even start :ccc

This chapter, I really couldn't wait to have some free time and read it peacefully (peacefully meaning, squealing and losing my shit at every paragraph)

I loved the plotting ok, the attention to details, the way they all worry about each other and just fight against this urge to bury Sid alive, so inspiring and wholesome :D

Also, something I've absolutely always loved about your writing is this continuous narration of the characters thoughs, interactions and quirks, like it may be the simplest of things for other people (like writers in general and stuff) but for me these moments -of Luna finally exchanging a gossipy stare with Maggie, or Jungkook feeling devastated when Oc took her hand away, and then making sure that it wouldn't happen again-, they just add so much endearment, personality, depth to the story. Idk, it feels like every comma you write has a purpose, and will eventually add up to some beautiful metaphors, and revelations.

What does it feel like to be such a talented writer??

Now, regarding the lovey dovey stuff... What the actual fuck are you trying to do to me? I swear I cannot look more deranged giggling at my phone every 32 seconds jfc, have some compassion.

Like jk demanding that kiss in the park? Had me doing flips

The “I never knew how to love you quietly."

AND OC RECITING HIS ENTIRE SPEECH??!? ‘We have Sociology together, I saw you sleeping in class, very cute by the way, the professor does not know how to shut up, have you seen that new Studio Ghibli film, I recently watched their classic with some friends, My Neighbour Jungkook, I’m Totoro by the way, I thought maybe—wait—no—’”

“Not one period, nothing,” you continued, a melancholic haze in your eyes. “Just commas and an endless stream of thought. You could have asked me to bury a body, I would have said yes.”

STFU I ALMOST CRIED, THOSE ARE MY BABIESS

The rain listened. It had become a fundamental part of your present and a prophet of your future: the two of you were going to spend the rest of your lives listening to the rain and falling in love.

This destroyed me actually, get me someone to listen to the rain and fall in love with, rn please and thank u

Also watch me try and write 'transfixing. Beguiling. Effulgent. Pulchritudinous' next time I'm falling asleep to test my writing abilities fr, just you wait

He was almost ready to call Rated Riot’s next song “Smile Lines” and just sigh dreamily into the microphone for five minutes while Yoongi played gentle piano chords in the background.

As if their entire discography wasn't like this already, at least in my mind it is. But yeah, I can totally see him doing something like that next time oc does anything remotely endearing (breathing basically)

Ugh idk what to say, you have me screaming and crying for this couple, these characters and their story all the time, and I love you for it. There are also things I forgot to mention because my phone refuses to actually save things in the Clipboard, but overall this made my week, as your updates always do (and that paired with Ateez's performance in Coachella in a couple of minutes?? Yeah life feels worth living again 🤭🤭)

Thank you sm for this, take care of yourself pleaseee, ill be waiting for the next one cccc:

oh how i wish i could thank you eloquently, instead of going sskdhfksh at every word of your message 😭 i must stress that the fact that you noticed (!) these little moments between characters and you've enjoyed (!!!) them is the absolute highest reward i could get 🙏🏻 it's so easy to skim, you know?

babe making you giggle is my main purpose in life at this point, i don't know what to tell you. and you'RE SO RIGHT OMG he's so whipped for her, their next album is just going to be jungkook morphing from this 🥰 into just this ❤️ (like me for you rn, fr)

i also hope you have more peace and quiet to do the things you enjoy in your life!! i love you!!! 🥺🤍🤍🤍🤍 bless ateez btw

#ask #alanniys #taexual; sleepwalking #thank you thank you thank you 🥺🥺🥺#i actually had to split this chapter..... so this almost 20k monster is only half of what i had planned 🥴#but i figured the word count was getting kinda wild and split it in two shdkdh #so naturally i was a little worried about the plot and the pacing #but i hoped that the uncut / intentionally long scenes between the two main characters would make up for it? 🥺#editing still took me over a week lol #so i'm overjoyed that it all got you to smile 🥺🥺🥺🥺#YOU are transfixing beguiling effulgent pulchritudinous (jesus this last one) and so much more #thank you again 🤍🤍🤍

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