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buglife · 3 years

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Perhaps a meeting between Dadmaster and the White Lady?

“Do you think that they might be okay with taking students again?”

Mato thought for a moment, walking beside his child in the restored Royal Gardens. They were just enjoying the quiet sights for a while, when Ghost brought up the possibility of teaching nail arts to the guards and knights of the realm. The question was a surprising one, which for a moment worried the beetle that something may be going on that he wasn't being told about.

“They might be, why do you ask?” He leaned down to look Ghost in the eyes. “Are you worried about something?”

“I just...I can’t be everywhere at once, even as a god.” They admitted, averting their gaze as though ashamed of the fact. “I want my people to be protected, even If I can’t be there. I don’t need protecting, but they do.”

“Well, that’s a fine reason as any.” Mato answered with a reassuring tone to his voice, glad to hear that nothing nefarious was going on. It was just Ghost being Ghost, worried over everyone's safety again. “You indeed can’t be everywhere, and perhaps more people knowing the nail arts would be a boon to the kingdom.”

“I thought so too, but there’s only you, me, Uncle Oro and Sheo, and Grandpa Sly who know how to even teach it. I can’t teach everyone by myself.” They gestured to themselves and their current 'mortal' form. They were certainly not as large as their twin, Hollow, nore were they even tall enough to reach Mato's shoulder. Even being a god, they wouldn't be able to instantly teach a rather intensive and practice heavy technique like the nail arts. It would have to be done the old fashioned way with actual teaching. They were right, they couldn't do it all by themselves. They would need some help.

“Did you ask Sly about this?” Mato thoughtfully replied. “He was the one to teach us, after all. He’d be able to help you for sure.”

Ghost nodded their head. “I asked Grandpa Sly and he said, and I quote, “I trained enough kids, now I want to enjoy my goddamn retirement.”

“Then what did he say when you offered to pay him?” Mato crossed his arms and raised a brow, anticipating the answer.

“Where do I sign?” The void being snorted in amusement, shoulders shaking with the effort to not burst into outright laughter. Mato was not so reserved.

“HAHA! Of course that old miser would!” Mato bellowed a deep belly laugh and slapped Ghost so hard on the back it sent them stumbling a little. In the corner of his eye, he could see the posted guardsmen stiffen at the interaction. “To be honest, I think he also wants to be able to brag about being able to beat up knights and guardsmen all day without getting a treason charge.”

“That and I think Uncle Oro would be down with It too. He’s that kinda guy.” Ghost chirped, eyes now full of mirth. They didn’t seem to mind being bodily hauled around by their father, despite their status as a King. “He likes putting bugs who are a little too full of themselves back in their place, and I saw some of the new applicants. I think he’d do a lot of good here.”

Mato hummed in thought. Oro was very different from the rest of the brothers, and even Sly. He'd need special motivation and he wasn't always swayed by Geo. “What do you have in mind to get him out of his hovel and here in the city?”

“I think he wouldn’t mind if I offered to give him a private candy chef on call that I will employ.” They drummed their claws together, amused by their own cleverness. “I remember that he used to train me in exchange for honey I’d sneak out of the Hive. Imagine what he’d do for whatever sweets his heart desires that could be made on demand?”

“There’s my little tactician! That will get him for sure.” Mato beamed with pride, not like Ghost had to do much to get him to be proud of them to begin with. “Sheo I think might just be too busy with his husband right now for teaching beyond his art school.”

They nodded in response and smiled up at their father, who quickly reached down to give them a gentle noogie. They didn’t bother trying to escape and accepted their affection without so much of a flinch. Good. Mato released them after a chitin crushing hug and set them back on their feet.

“You know I’m proud of you, right?” He asked softly, deciding to voice the thoughts he was having. It was one thing to feel pride for someone, it was another to let them know that you thought as such.

Ghost nodded, a bit of gray coloring the shell that made up their face, nudging a few pebbles with a foot. “I know, thanks Dad.”

He was about to comment further when a little dragonfly suddenly dropped out of the air and pancaked into the cobble stones below them. Both Nailmaster and King leapt backwards from the sudden noise and movement, drawing their nails together in a smooth motion through instinct alone. Then, when nothing outright attacked them, they took a second look.

It was a messenger to be sure. The dragonfly was wearing a bag and a hat that denoted them as a member of the messenger corps. At first Mato thought that the bug was injured from the crash, but the amount of scrapes and cuts alone couldn’t have been caused by just hitting stone. They wearily reached up to hold out a hemo-stained letter, somewhat reeling from the hit they took, antenna bent and crooked.

“Messenger Stikks, reporting with an urgent message from Kingdom’s edge!” The dragonfly slurred, struggling to focus enough to hold the letter out straight. They closed one eye and narrowed the other, adjusting their grip so that the letter was actually in front of Ghost and not a few feet to the left. “Antlion larvae have dug in from the wastes and they are everywhere!”

Ghost took the letter and read it quickly. Then read it again. They finally put the paper down and sighed, all the humor they had merely seconds ago sucked out by the reality of their station.

“Something the matter, my child? Do you need help?” Mato had yet to release his grip on his great nail, moving the other hand to rest it on their shoulder in an act of comfot.

Ghost shook their head with a huff of annoyance. “This wouldn’t be a problem if the coliseum would have just left the larvae alone. The letter is from the head Fool, apparently they caught a few, which then escaped, and now is tunneling under the arena and is causing sections to collapse on itself. They are requesting aid from me as per our treaty.”

“Well, they are called Fools for a reason.” Mato could only shrug at that. “Even I wouldn’t mess with a doodlebug.”

“...A what?”

“Just a nickname for them.” Mato bent over and picked up the dragonfly. “You alright son?” He looked the bug over. They were kind of smooshed and bent up, but it seemed like they’d be okay after getting some medical attention.

“Aye aye, sir!” The dragonfly saluted and missed, causing them to punch themselves in the head with a CRACK.

Mato was then holding a completely unconscious bug. He winced and waved over a guard, handing the poor bug over to be taken to the nearest doctor. Ghost was trying to not laugh, obviously feeling bad for the poor bug, but Mato had to admit it was kind of funny.

“You sure you don’t need help, Ghost?” Mato asked again, once the guard and dragonfly were gone. He focused hard with his dad powers to determine if Ghost was going to tell the truth. God King or not, they were still his kid and he’d be damned if he let them run off and get themselves hurt.

They shook their head. “No Dad, I will be fine. I’ll just have to pull out the larvae and then set them loose out in the wastes. Nobody else has to get hurt today.”

He nodded. “As long as you’ll be okay. I trust you to know your own limits.”

“I will.” They tilted their head up in a smile. “Feel free to wander around for a bit, I’ll be back soon and we can meet up with Quirrel and Hollow later for dinner.”

“Sounds good to me, come back safe.” He gave them a short hug and a pat to the back.

They nodded and stepped back, suddenly dissolving into liquified void, seeping into the stonework and vanishing from view. It was a very blink and you miss it type action for sure. Teleporting was different from bug to bug, but Ghost sure did know how to make and exit when they needed to make one quick. Soon the last bits of excess void evaporated and not a single trace was left behind that the King was even standing there. Well, with nothing else to do but wait, he decided to take their advice and take a look around. After the palace was built over top of the old one, the gardens were also revitalized. A lot of work had been put into the place and once things were green and blooming again, it was opened up for the public. It was fairly peaceful and offered a lot of nice spots to simply sit and reflect should one want to.

He decided that perhaps the best thing to do was to find such a spot and meditate for a while. Ghost had given him quite a bit of information to consider. The idea of teaching the nail arts to the next generation of warriors was a interesting one and he wasn’t quite sure how to implement such an ambitious plan. Perhaps a school would have to be made. He’d have to talk to his own father and brothers as well about it. Perhaps a solution would come to him once he emptied his mind for a while.

He walked around gardens, looking for a quiet spot for Ghost to find him later, when he was stopped by a sight that made him question his vision. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes, but he still saw the same figure that used to be everywhere before the infection began.

The White Lady sat on a stone bench, idlily watering a patch of flowers using a simple watering can. Mato could see no finery on her or any mark of a station beyond a civilian on her person. She was dressed simply in white robes, the roots on her head curled up and branching outwards in a mess of tiny white leaves and petals. She didn’t seem to notice him, giving the flowers on the ground a drink as she hummed to herself, her eyes closed in either thought or contentment.

To be honest, it Mato didn’t quite know what to think at first. Most of the citizens of Hallownest gave little thought to their previous Queen. Before Hollow was even locked into the temple, she had fled her people and her home to wall herself within her personal gardens, taking one of the great knights with her. When it was clear that Hollow wasn’t going to be able to hold back the wrath of the Radiance, the King also fled, abandoning the kingdom to their fate. Most remembered this, and cared little about the fates of the rulers who vanished during the kingdom’s darkest hour, leaving the common bug to fend for themselves with no leadership and no help.

They weren’t remembered fondly, regulated to history books and a cautionary tales of pride and cowardice.

It was only years of training that kept him from fully succumbing to rage. How dare she! How dare she sit here all pretty in the palace gardens, like she never allowed the king to murder their own children and abandoned every bug that looked up to her when things didn’t work out perfectly? The same lady who annexed an entire section of another people’s land for her own personal gardens? The same Lady that sat a scant few meters away from the home of those she most hurt?

And why was she here? From what he understood, Ghost did not like her one bit. Even gentle and sweet Hollow only recalled moments with her to be painful and refused to further elaborate on the matter. He got most of the story from Ghost, and what he heard made him livid. He often wondered what he would say to the former king and queen should he meet them again, and now he was being presented with such an opportunity.

He took a few deep breaths. As far as he knew, she was no longer his Queen nor any sort of authority over him anymore. He would get a few answers, no, he demanded them.

He approached her, no longer masking the noise of his movements as his boots crunched a few discarded dead leaves. She paused in her humming and turned her face to fix her startling blue eyes on him. Mato stared back, unafraid and resolute. She balked slightly from the force of his stare, but composed herself by sitting up and gently smiling down on him.

“Hello.” She said, her voice soft and whispery, like a breeze through the leaves of a willow tree. “How can I help you?”

“What are you doing here.” Mato demanded. The question was short and very much to the point.

“Me? Well, my child-”

“They are not your child.” Mato hissed, cutting off her words with an enraged snarl. “You don’t get to call them that, not after what you and the pale bastard did to them!”

She seemed taken aback for a moment, narrowing her eyes as her roots shuddered, before she seemed to slump into herself. She turned her head away for a moment, taking in an audible breath as she turned it back to glance back at the Nailmaster. “You act as if I don’t regret what we were forced to do.”

“You always had a choice.” Mato countered. “You could have done anything other than let thousands of your children lay dead at the bottom of the abyss. Have you even gone down there to see them? Offer some sort of rites like any parent would do for their deceased children?”

“It does not matter, Ghost has-”

“King Ghost.” He once again corrected her. Only family got to refer to them by their name alone and fiercely guarded such a privilege. Especially since they had to pick their own name. The Lady and the King didn't even feel it fitting to give them something as simple as a name.

“Yes." She sighed, "King Ghost has informed me that their siblings besides Hollow now reside within the void... at rest, which is now a part of them. Empty rites and platitudes will not bring them back, nor erase what I have...what we have done.”

Mato stared at her for a moment, scanning her face and body for any hint of lies or manipulation. To his surprise, he found none, just an old woman who was full of regrets.

“Then why are you here?” He finally spoke and crossed his arms in front of him. “My child obviously knows that you are here, why let you in? You told them to kill their own sibling and take their place in a plan that already failed, just to hold the mad goddess at bay for a scant few more years while you could still hide in the Gardens and play pretend. Why?” He could barely keep the fury from his voice as he spoke. He could see her flinch with each accusation, her eyes blurring with what might be tears, he couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that was he was saying was impacting her in some way, and he was happy for that at least.

She was silent for a moment, the roots and branches that made up her head curling in on themselves and shuddering slightly. A few leaves and petals dropped to the stones below and rapidly lost their otherworldly shimmer. “I don’t know, to be honest.”

Mato narrowed his eyes behind the hard shell of his mask. “You gottah be shitting me.”

“I speak the truth.” She shifted in her seat so she could face him fully. “All I know, is that one day, King Ghost arrived where I have made my exile. They commanded me to unroot myself. I could sense the brand on them, the pieces of my husband and I that made them, and the spark of a higher power, so I obeyed. It took time to unroot myself, but once I did they commanded me to unbind myself and to come with them.” She paused a moment to look up, as thought remembering a feeling or a snippet of a memory. “I had diminished myself, made myself weak. I could no longer see, so they commanded that I reside here to recover. I did so, and when I saw them for the first time I was astonished and humbled. I had believed that perhaps that they would take revenge and have me executed or banish me to the wastes, but... they did not. Instead, they told me that I will do what I was meant to do and I was not permitted to run away again.”

Mato was silent, listening as the White Lady spoke, watching her face as it went through a range of emotions. Regret, bitterness, elation, joy, shame...all flickered through her pale face and shimmering eyes.

“My sentence was to bring life back to the kingdom, as it was my duty long before the Pale Wyrm even chose Hallownest to rebirth himself in. I would, as they put it, ‘have to clean up my mess’ and I have been doing as such.”

“I did notice everything get greener.” Mato muttered. He had noticed the yields from the farms were also quite abundant and rich. The kingdom should have gone through a period of famine as they rebuilt, but there was food. Nothing refined at the beginning, but nobody went hungry. “Was that you?”

She nodded, serene as she put her watering can to the side. She lifted one of her roots from the ground, leaving a neat little hole that she dropped a single seed into. “Yes, I am a goddess of life and fertility, it brings me joy to know that life has begun anew.”

“Are you a prisoner here, then?” He looked, but saw no chains, no shackles, and not even the delicate weave of spells or magic. Nothing that could force her to stay here.

“Goodness no.” She shook her head, eyes curled up in slight amusement. “There is not a place I could run that my ch….my king could not find me. Nore do I expect that they are such a god to begin with. I am here as they said, to clean up my own mess. Nothing more, and nothing less. I have been given my own home here.” She gestured to a cottage nestled in among the trees, just barely out of sight, most likely for her own privacy. “I have no need to leave, nore am I under duress. I simply am.”

Mato’s rage was beginning to cool somewhat. From what he understood, his child had decided to grow beyond the pettiness and childish ways of the former higher powers, and instead, enact rather wise and mature decisions. With a start, he realized that he may have had a hand in that decision. He thought back to a moment, a scant couple years ago when rebuilding hasn’t even started yet.

“Dad?” Ghost asked. They had just had their first molt, resting their now slightly bigger body against their twin sibling. Hollow was in bed, their head and body haven just gotten new fresh bandages. It had been only a bare few months after the death of the Radiance, and Ghost had had some time to sit and think about their situation.

Of course both of the void siblings were a mess after the final battle, and Mato had commandeered an empty home in Dirtmouth to care for them both. Herrah had awoken from her slumber and was there to care for Hornet, but she had Deepnest to restore. Hornet jumped back and forth between both homes, bringing honey from the Hive and silken bandages in the effort to bring Hollow back to some semblance of wellness.

“Yes, my child?” Mato had adopted Hollow instantly, the poor injured bug still was very much a child despite being the tallest bug they’ve ever seen. He coaxed Hollow into opening their mouth and letting him stick another spoonful of light broth inside. He patted them gently when they did, helping them get ready for the next spoonful.

“How did you learn to forgive Uncle Oro?” Ghost was staring at their new set of arms, clenching and unclenching their hands. They tripped over their new telepathy a few times, but they were able to be understood. Mato stayed steady enough to get another spoon of sustenance in his largest child, but was quite surprised by the question.

“That’s quite a question, Ghost. What suddenly brought this on?”

Ghost was silent for a few moments and Mato gave them time to get their thoughts together. Hollow tried a chirp of encouragement, but Mato tapped them on the snoot. No chirping, only soup for the moment. They harrumphed and took another spoonful, which earned them a nice rub to sooth the healing cracks in their face.

“Uncle Oro hurt you and Uncle Sheo, really bad.” Ghost started. “But now, you are all okay again. How did that happen? What do you do when someone hurts you, but you don’t want to be hurt by them anymore?”

Ah, there it was. No doubt this had something to do with the sibling’s awful, awful parents. He didn’t want to accidentally poison his child with his own bad memories, nor the awfulness of why the situation actually happened in the first place. Instead, he decided to be completely honest.

“Well, Sheo and I were hurt, yes. We took space for ourselves to sort out our feelings. By then, the infection was in full swing and we didn’t know how the other was doing. When you let us know that all three of us were still alive, that’s when we knew there was a chance.”

Ghost looked up, tilting their head backwards so they didn’t have to get up from where they where lounging. “A chance?”

“Yes, the only time a chance to fix something between someone is gone, is when they are gone themselves. When we realized that we were all still alive, I knew that a chance still existed to get my brothers back.”

Ghost nodded, listening closely. Hollow subtly curved their head to listen as well, and Mato suddenly found himself with the full undivided attention of two children. He would have to choose his words carefully

“So, a few weeks ago, we both went to see Oro, and we talked. We talked about how we hurt each other. We talked about how we were sorry. We talked about how we can improve ourselves and move on. In the end, we decided to give each other a chance again, at least for one last time. Obviously, Oro wanted to be back with us again, because we worked it all out. We missed each other a lot, so I found that we could forgive each other and start again.”

“Uncle Oro is still really grumpy though…” Ghost added as an after thought.

“Oro was always a grumpy little bastard, that hasn’t changed.” Mato laughed. “ What changed however, is that we realized what we all did to cause the problem in the first place, and apologized. Now it’s just letting time go by to heal the wounds and give everyone a fresh chance again.”

“That’s it? Just time and a chance?” Ghost tilted their head to the side, eye’s narrow as they did their best to grasp the concept. Hollow moved their head just enough to give their smaller sibling a nuzzle. Ghost sighed and shifted so that they could hug Hollow back with nuzzle of their own, melting into the cuddle pile.

“If you think they are worthy of a second chance, than yeah. If not, than don’t give them a third.” Mato stopped assaulting Hollow with soup for the moment, letting them have a bit of a break for a cuddle. He took the time to look over the bandaged socket where their left arm used to be. He’ll have to ask Sheo and Smith if they could do something about that. "It's up to you to even consider giving that chance. If you don't want to, nobody is going to blame you for that. It's your decision alone and nobody can force you to do otherwise." He waggled the spoon at Ghost to further get his point across, as well as a subtle unspoken 'I will beat anyone who tells you otherwise with this spoon'.

“Thanks, Father.” Ghost looked up, eyes shining with resolve. “I think I know what to do now.

“They are giving you a second chance.” Mato spoke aloud once he finished with his memory, startling the White Lady with the suddenness of his voice.

“I’m afraid I don’t..” She looked confused by it all, looking Mato up and down as though he suddenly went crazy.

“They are giving you a second chance to be in their life. Both theirs and Hollows.” Mato’s voice took on a hard edge again as he pointed to her. “They are deciding if you are going to hurt them again, as they are not going to give you a third chance.”

“You mean...they’d want me to be…” her eyes widened and glistened with moisture, speaking some delicate hope that still resided within her. Mato knew he could never understand her particular pain, nore did he feel like she even deserved to have that hope after all this time, but that was not his decision to make.

“I don’t think they want you as their mother.” Mato took no joy over crushing that bit of hope, but she needed to know the truth. “After all this time, I don’t think they can let you be that intimate with them, at least for a very long time. Of course I’m speaking of Ghost, not Hollow. But for Ghost, I would shoot for just being a friend, someone they can trust again. Maybe it can evolve into something else besides that, but who knows what the future can hold."

"It is clear that you do not like me, or approve of my presence here at all. So why tell me this?" She bent her head down to regard Mato as though searching for the punchline to a cruel joke.

"Because it's the truth, and yes, I don't like you one bit, but the ones Ghost choose to be in their life is not up to me. If they want to give you a chance along with Hollow, than so be it. It's their life, not mine. BUT..." He stopped slouching and pulled himself up to his full height. "If you hurt them again, either of them, I will make you regret that. Do you understand?"

She nodded. "I do."

"Good, then we have nothing more to discuss." He turned on his heel and left, not even giving her a wayward glance as he left her behind. He could have dragged more answers from her for sure. Even if they only needed one vessel for the plan, they could have taking in the 'rejected' ones and cared for them. Was she even there when the selection was taken place? Did she also leave Ghost to fell back into the abyss, never to see light again for years, maybe decades? Too many questions, and he doubted he'd get satisfying answers to any of them. Perhaps for now, it was best to let it go. Ghost or Hollow will bring it up on their own time and he would do what he always did, be there when they needed it. He loved them, even if it was later in their lives than he wanted it to be.

He wished he could have been there from the beginning. How different would they have turned out if he could have scooped them up at their hatching and carried them away to raise and love? All of them, not just those two, every single cracked shell in the abyss belonged to an individual child. He didn't know how, but he figured he'd have enough love for them all if needed. Perhaps he was feeling jealous that she could have had that, but chose to throw it and her own children away instead.

Too many feeling and not enough answers. He needed to get some meditation done and sort himself out before Ghost came to find him again. It wouldn't do for them to see him angry and conflicted like he was. He marched along until he found a nice, quiet section of the gardens and sat. He folded his legs under himself and let his cloak fall around him, emptying his mind and falling deep into the calming waves of meditation. He let the feelings come and wash over him, letting himself experience them without becoming consumed. The memories and the experiences were neatly sorted as he pulled himself together where he'd be able to experience them again should he wish to. Soon, there was nothing but calm. Everything was in it's right place and Mato let himself drift away into the nothingness and soothe his heart.

He started back into reality when he felt a tug on his cloak. He instinctively looked down where he expected a tiny void creature to be tugging on his cloak, looking for hugs. When he didn't see them down there, he looked up to see his grown child tugging on his cloak, eyes curled up in amusement.

"Hey Dad," they said with a giggle. "Sorry to wake you, but I'm back."

"That you are." Mato replied with a 'smile' of his own, standing up to stretch. He must have been sitting for a while, as his legs began to buzz with pins and needles as he worked the numbness out. "How did it go?"

"Well. The larvae were moved with no more injuries. The Fools will have to fix their own coliseum, since it was their fault it got damaged in the first place." Ghost giggled again, something amusing must have happened, and no doubt they were saving it for dinner later.

"Let me guess, there's more too that?"

They nodded, vibrating slightly. "Yes, but I want Quirrel and Hollow to hear it too. They'll get a kick out of it and you'd spoil it if I told you now."

"Then let's not keep them waiting." Mato mock bowed. "After you, your majesty."

"Dadddd noooo." They waved their hands around, trying to get him to stand again. "That's embarrassing! Monomon doesn't do that!"

"She isn't allowed to bow because it gives her cover to get smoke bombs out of her veil without getting caught." He countered with a laugh.

Ghost just sighed dramatically and grabbed his hand, dragging him off towards the palace where dinner and company awaited. Mato found that he couldn't stop laughing, letting his child drag him around just for the fact that he could.

It was then he realized that he pitied the White Lady. All these little moments she willfully gave up, never to experience it for the foreseeable future. It struck him as very sad that she would give up such a thing, but he decided there was no use in trying to understand why.

After all, he would be too busy coming up with ways to spoil his own children, and that thought would consume most of his days, as It should be.

---

Heyo another request down!!! Next up will be SIBLING DAY!!!

Also antlion larvae are terrifying, but the fact that they have 'doodlebugs' as their nickname is strangely endearing.

I feel neutral about the white lady. Yes she willfully participated in the plan and no in no way innocent, but boy did she make herself suffer for it. Hence here, Ghost gave her a chance to just be who she was before, just god doing god things, without having to balance a kingdom. She just has to help clean up the mess she left her kids to deal with and can't run away when the going gets tough again. To be honest, I feel like she's a lot happier now to just have her nice little private cabin in the gardens with no royal responsibilities and the hope that one day she may have more than a professional relationship with Ghost and Hollow.

Hollow knows she is there, but is working through their own feelings before they decide on what to do about it. They love her so much but remembers the pain in being constantly rejected and treated as though they were already dead by her. It's complicated, but there are therapists in the kingdom now and that will help over time.

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cascadena · 3 years

Text

Rekindled - Prologue & Ch 1

SUMMARY: Post-BotW. Zelink. Hyrule now turns to an exhausted Princess Zelda to pick up the fragments of the fallen kingdom. Link, who is still piecing together his own past and traumas from his own journey, realizes that he has to be the one to help Zelda back on her feet. Together, they travel the land to begin the rebuilding process, and uncover a new, mysterious threat along the way...

GENRE: Adventure, Romance, Hurt/Comfort

WORDS: 44K

STATUS: Complete

RATING: T for Teen | Contains Action/Violence, Blood, and (Of-Age) Alcoholic Beverage Consumption, Kissing Scenes.

[Read on FF.Net] - The ENTIRE story is already posted there for your reading pleasure!!

[AO3 Posting coming soon!]

PROLOGUE

Link

The clouds of malice curling above me dissipated upon the Princess’s eradication of Ganon, leaving behind an untainted sky that shone with a more vivid blue than I had seen since awakening from my slumber. Rising from where I’d landed with my paraglider after sending the final ancient arrow right into Ganon’s core, I rubbed a particularly sore spot on my right shoulder where Calamity Ganon managed to land a more severe blow with an ancient blade in our duel at Hyrule Castle. The bleeding had slowed from my adrenaline rush but it would only hold off the pain for so long. I gripped my arm as I cautiously approached the girl whose voice I had only heard in my mind since my revival. Though we’d just destroyed the malicious Calamity Ganon, my heart still beat quickly in anticipation of the reunion with the beautiful girl from my memories.

The Princess lowered her arm, facing away from me as she took a slow, deep breath. I flinched when she began speaking. Her soft voice was just audible over the whips of wind as the last of the malice storm cleared around us.

“I’ve been keeping watch over you all this time… I’ve witnessed your struggles to return to us as well as your trials in battle. I always thought—no, I always believed—that you would find a way to defeat Ganon.” She paused for a moment as she seemed to consider her next words. “I… never lost faith in you over these many years,” she said.

Finally, she turned. A strangely familiar warmth pulsed in my chest as she faced me for the first time since I died in her arms a hundred years ago. Her small smile was familiar to my memories. I wondered how in the world I’d ever been able to keep my focus on the demands of my duty to protect her in the past.

“Thank you, Link...the hero of Hyrule.” Her expression softened. I nodded and swallowed a smile, unable to speak as hot tears welled in my eyes. Zelda seemed to notice, and a weight visibly lifted from her shoulders as she clasped her hands in front of her. “May I ask… Do you really remember me?”

“Yes, Your Highness, I do,” I managed to reply, but my voice cracked as a tear escaped down my cheek. Zelda smiled as she clasped her hands over her face as she suppressed a cry.

“We’ve finally done it,” she breathed, and then her balance shook.

Within a second of seeing her waver, I leapt forward, just in time to catch her in my arms as her legs gave out beneath her. I cushioned her as the weight pulled us both to our knees. I wondered if holding Hyrule’s Princess so close was proper for her Appointed Knight. However, when I felt her arms tighten a little in gratitude around my shoulders, I knew it was acceptable in this circumstance. “Even now, you protect me from any harm when it threatens me,” she said into my shoulder.

A smile dared to cross my face, until I realized my wound had begun to bleed onto the back of her dress. I inhaled sharply as the pain began to throb. The adrenaline was wearing off for both of us.

“Link!”

My head flipped to the right towards the source of the voice. A covered wagon charged towards us from the East. I instinctively reached to the hilt of the Master Sword at my shoulder but relaxed when I saw a familiar girl hop out and run ahead of the caravan to meet us.

It was Paya. The Sheikah had come to help us.

CHAPTER 1

Link

Everything that happened next was a blur. The Sheikah caravan halted and Dorian and Cado jumped out to assist Zelda into the wagon. A million pains began pulsing through my body.

“M-Master Link… We left as soon as we heard the rumble of Vah Ruta’s laser,” said Paya. She took one look at my arm before she fetched a makeshift bandage from the wagon and handed me a water skin. “Please, let us assist you…”

We began the journey back to Kakariko Village, where the Sheikah could help us. I insisted on riding Epona, my horse, to give Zelda more space in the wagon, as the exhausted Princess had passed out shortly after being helped inside. Epona was a tough girl, and though she was exhausted from the battle with Ganon, I knew she could make it to Kakariko after Paya fed her a hearty mix of swift and endura carrots.

Epona followed the wagon on a lead as we made our way towards the Dueling Peaks. Hyrule seemed so peaceful as usual, and I briefly wondered if any of the civilians were even aware yet that the calamity had finally been destroyed. Surely, the Sheikah weren’t the only ones to witness the Divine Beast lasers fire.

I glanced into the open flap on the backside of the wagon and could see Princess Zelda sleeping in a shaft of sunlight. Her mouth hung open as she curled up on the cushion inside. After a hundred years of fighting off Ganon, her nap was well deserved. Looking upon the exhausted Princess in her dirtied, bloodied prayer gown, I felt a wave of guilt pass through my gut and my jaw clenched. If I hadn’t fallen a hundred years ago and just slayed Ganon back then, she would not have had to suffer and fight for so many years.

Her pain was a result of my own failure.

I knew I would have to apologize to her at some point. But how could one possibly apologize for a hundred years of suffering and a fallen kingdom? My thoughts began to drift as my consciousness faded away with the rhythmic thud of Epona’s trotting. The shadows of moblins, guardians, and lynels flashed through my mind in a hazy dream as my brain processed all I’d just endured. I had fallen asleep on horseback a few times previously, but never for very long stretches of time. It was a miracle that I didn’t fall off Epona and drown in the river right there.

The golden light of the sunset fell over the mountaintops surrounding Kakariko Village, casting the village in shadow so that only the warm illuminance of the resident’s windows brought light into the streets. When our caravan arrived in front of Impa’s house. I jolted awake as Dorian’s small children called my name. A few other curious villagers crowded around before Dorian shooed them away.

Zelda awakened, and I was grateful that the evening light would prevent us from drawing much more attention from the villagers as we ascended the steps to the elder’s home under the cover of darkness. Only as I climbed the steps did I begin to realize how exhausted my body felt: navigating through the rubble of Hyrule Castle, defeating Calamity Ganon, and then riding all the way back to Kakariko all in the same day had done a number on me. However, I couldn’t complain, because the girl stepping up next to me had just fought off the ultimate demon for a hundred years straight.

We had not even reached the top of the stairs when the doors to the house flew open. Zelda gasped from beside me, faltering before she whispered. “...Impa?”

Impa grinned down on us. “It has been a long time, Your Highness.”

Before she began preparing food, Paya fetched a red potion from Impa’s cabinet for me. I felt the pain in my arm and head dull considerably with the first sip. I then went to sit down with Princess Zelda where she kneeled beside Impa’s cushion. We briefly made eye contact and she smiled, though I could see fatigue clouding in her emerald green irises. I offered a crooked grin of my own in return. A flash of surprise crossed her face, though she said nothing of it.

“You look like you haven’t aged a day,” said Impa as she placed a hand on Zelda’s own. “Some of us aren’t so lucky, unfortunately… At least Link has all those scars to prove he battled in the calamity, even if his memory is still imperfect.”

I almost choked on my potion with Impa’s joke. Robbie must have talked with Impa about how he confirmed my identity.

Zelda glanced over at me with a raised eyebrow before she shook her head. “I was locked in a state of stasis. Even now, I don’t fully understand how everything has changed since I last walked through Hyrule.”

Impa chuckled softly then nodded. “I am sure it will take quite a while for you to process everything that has come to pass.”

Zelda clasped her hands on her knees in front of her. Her white dress, though stained from the events a hundred years ago, still fell around her in graceful, unwrinkled folds. “We… we must immediately plan the next course of action,” said Zelda.

“Indeed,” said Impa, shifting to lean forward in her seat. She put her hands on her knees and leaned forwards. “Hyrule looks to you, Your Highness.”

“Well, yes…” Zelda’s eyes flickered wide for a moment as if it had only now occurred to her that the leadership of the kingdom now fell solely on her shoulders alone. I frowned as the memory—though still a bit broken in my head—came back to me. A hundred years ago, we’d fled the castle in a hurry when the Guardians corrupted around us. Zelda had not seen her father die in the castle that day, but I knew of his fate from speaking with his spirit.

She may have not had any time to even consider his death at all, until now.

“Impa… tell me, as my Royal Advisor, what do you think we should do?” Zelda asked in a low voice. Her hands fidgeted with the folds of her skirt.

Impa tightened her lips. “I believe we should start with the restoring of the castle. It is the heart of Hyrule Kingdom.”

Zelda swallowed and looked down at her hands. “Right, the castle…”

“There are monsters everywhere inside,” I said. Zelda glanced at me when I spoke. “We will need to get them out first. I also think there are some things inside that could possibly be salvaged.”

A hint of hope glimmered in Zelda’s eyes but it was lost a moment later. “Who will help us do this? The entire army is gone. The last of our soldiers fell in the battle at Akkala Citadel.” She closed her eyes and clenched her fists. “We could do nothing to save a single soul.”

“The Sheikah have always served the Royal Family,” said Impa. “I will see to it that we do everything we can to assist. Perhaps you can ask the other races of the kingdom for help too.”

I could tell Zelda’s mind raced as her fists clenched the fabric of her dress. “Perhaps. Thank you, Impa.”

“I am sure they will be willing to help,” said Impa. Zelda nodded but fell quiet.

A few minutes later, Paya placed a tray of steamed vegetable skewers in front of us. My mouth watered at the sight of the colorful vegetables. I hadn’t eaten since I swiped some raw mushrooms from a moblin’s hoard in the castle’s ruined dining hall. Zelda reached out to take one of the skewers, and I suddenly remembered something.

“Eat slowly,” I said before she even touched the hearty radish on the skewer. She sent me a questioning gaze. I blushed when I realized I’d given an order to Her Highness. I needed to clarify. “Uhm… when I woke up after a hundred years, my stomach rejected food for a few days.”

Zelda nodded, now understanding, and narrowed her attention as she delicately pulled off the radish on the end of the spear. I dug into my own skewer without much regard for table manners, savoring the sustenance while Paya and Impa watched me, a hint of amusement evident on their faces. Apparently, I used to be a slightly more... refined eater when I served in the castle. After only a few bites, Zelda put a hand on her abdomen and offered the rest of her skewer to me. My hunch was right—her body was still fragile from her long stay in stasis.

Paya served the rest of the meal to us: meat, rice, and fortified pumpkin pie for dessert. I ravenously enjoyed the meal, much to Paya and Impa’s entertainment—but Zelda only took a small taste of each dish to be polite before she said she felt too nauseated to continue. After the meal, I cleaned my hands and asked Paya if I could assist her in washing anything, which naturally sent her into a flustered frenzy as she declined any help whatsoever from me or the Princess.

I found Zelda outside on the back porch later that evening, leaning against the wooden guardrail, her head inclined up to the starry sky. Her dress, though stained with the blemishes of battle, still reflected the silver light of the moon. The trickle of the nearby waterfall and stream broke the silence of the night. She glanced over her shoulder when she heard me approach. “May I join you, Your Highness?” I asked.

She nodded. I stepped up beside her and leaned against the railing. “Are you feeling alright?” I asked.

She bobbed her shoulders and I knew that probably meant ‘no’ but she would not admit it. “I am…” She paused, considering her words, before continuing. “I am worried… the races of Hyrule will be angry at me as I am responsible alone for the state of the Kingdom. I owe them all an immense apology for failing them, and I do not think I can ever repay them for it.”

My heart sank with hers. I leaned an elbow on the railing. “I believe the ones who helped me cleanse the Divine Beasts would each take up the role of becoming Champions—leaders to assist in leading a rebuilding effort—if you wish to designate them.”

Zelda tightened her lips. “It is because of me that our old Champion friends, their greatest warriors, perished in battle.”

“That was because Ganon corrupted the Divine Beasts before we even knew what happened,” I reminded her. “Besides, they will all warmly welcome you with the news of Calamity Ganon’s defeat. That is good news for all.”

Zelda nodded and looked down at her folded hands. A frog jumped into the water below us with a splash. A quiet beat passed before Zelda spoke again. “Thank you for the prompt warning about eating earlier,” said Zelda. “I suspect I would have become quite ill had I forced too much food on myself so soon after coming out of many years of stasis. I’m sorry you had to experience that.”

“You’re welcome, Your Highness,” I said. “I wouldn’t want you to feel sick either. Fighting Ganon was more than enough pain for one day, let alone a hundred years.”

Zelda cracked a small smile. “You know, we never spoke nearly this frequently a hundred years ago. You used to be so quiet. I always wished I had more opportunities to talk with you like this.”

I straightened up a bit and stared at Zelda as I processed this information. Had my personality really shifted that much since my memory reconstruction?

If so… What would she think of me now? How would she feel about me?

Zelda drummed her fingers on the guardrail as she continued. “I do wonder how we will both fit into this world now. We have not aged like those around us who are left that we knew before the calamity.” She shook her head. “I’m still processing the drastic difference of Impa’s age, to be honest. When I first saw Paya, I thought she was Impa because she has such a striking resemblance. But no, she is her granddaughter.”

I nodded. “It’s been strange meeting people who knew me from before, though I didn’t remember most of them at first.”

Our conversation was interrupted by the shriek of one of the villagers in the plaza behind us, followed by the cry of a bokoblin.

Instinctively, I grabbed Zelda’s hand led her into the safety of Impa’s house. I pushed through the front doors to view the commotion in the village below. I halted when I saw that Dorian and Cado, Impa’s guards, had already taken care of the stray bokoblin and its body disappeared into thin air.

Several villagers gathered in the area below, nervously discussing the monster. Zelda appeared beside me and I heard her exhale heavily in stress. One of the villagers noticed her and called up at us. “It’s the Princess!”

All of the Sheikah turned their heads to look up at us. A few cheered in delight as the crowd migrated towards the base of the stairs. Several people began yelling things at us at once.

“Princess!”

“Did you finally defeat the Calamity?”

“Are you really Princess Zelda?”

“Why are there still monsters attacking us?”

“What was that giant laser?”

“Will you defeat all the monsters around the village too?”

Zelda held a hand to her chin and took a step back as the villagers yelled all of their questions at her. Dorian and Cado waved their arms in an attempt to quiet down the excited villagers.

“Enough.”

Impa’s voice boomed over the village and the crowd fell silent. I glanced over to find Impa at the top of the stairs. She crossed her arms and frowned down at her villagers.

Zelda cleared her throat and I could see her hand shaking as she lowered them. “I assure you I will see to the concerns you have,” she called down to the crowd. “Please know that Calamity Ganon is defeated, and Hyrule will rise from the ashes.”

Several of the Sheikah cheered upon the news of Calamity Ganon’s defeat. However, one of the young child villagers ran forward in the crowd. “Then why are there still monsters attacking the village?”

Zelda pursed her lips. “We will investigate,” she said.

More villagers began to ask all kinds of questions. I glanced at Impa and she nodded at me, as if to understand my thoughts. I reached over to Zelda and grabbed her hand before I gently pulled her back towards the door to Impa’s home.

“I will take all of your concerns for the Princess in due time,” Impa called as I pulled the door open. “For now, good night, and stay on your guard for stray monsters.”

Zelda let go of my hand when we reached the sanctuary of Impa’s house. She paced around in a circle and sighed. “Why did a monster come into the village? Monsters should never come into a village on their own, right? What are we going to do about this?”

“Your Highness, it was just a stray bokoblin—“ I started.

“The monsters should all be tame now. We defeated the calamity. They have no reason to feel irrational anger and come to attack people now. We should be able to live in peace with them.” Zelda held her arms to her head and leaned over as she panicked. “I did seal it away, right?”

“Your Highness…” I tried again.

“I must research this. The Calamity may not have been properly sealed away—“ Zelda stopped when I placed a firm hand on her shoulder. She flicked her head around and faced me. Though she was slightly taller than I, her green, anxious gaze pierced directly into my eyes. I prayed I was not acting out of line by touching her without permission.

“It was just a bokoblin. They aren’t very smart. It probably just wandered in behind us when it saw the caravan. Dorian and Cado took care of it,” I said while looking into her eyes. “Everything is fine. You don’t need to worry.”

She looked straight into my eyes with such great intensity that I wondered if I should step away before she broke the eye contact and looked down at the ground. She sniffed and nodded as tears began to form around her eyes. “I’m sorry, I think I’ve… overreacted…”

Impa cleared her throat. “I think the Princess needs to get some more rest. How about we clean you up and then send you to bed? We can continue talk of Hyrule Castle and monsters when you wake up in the morning.”

Zelda nodded slowly and Paya escorted her upstairs to her personal quarters. I wanted to follow and give her a tight hug, although I knew that would probably be way out of line to my duty as her appointed knight. Impa told me I was welcome to stay as well but I decided I would stay at the inn that night to offer them all a little more privacy.

I attempted to fall sleep early that evening but my mind kept drifting to the events earlier with Calamity Ganon. I decided to instead use the time to address my arm wound once more. I probably should have been seen by a doctor but I was not in the mood to answer a million questions about the battle yet. I retrieved a fresh bandage from Epona’s saddlebag and walked to the peninsula at the pond where Kakariko’s Goddess Statue resided, and sat myself down under the light of the torches.

The red potion had luckily healed much of the delicate internal damage I’d acquired but the wound from Calamity Ganon on my shoulder would take some time to heal completely. I removed my tunic and undershirt before I applied potion-infused ointment to several minor wounds all over my torso that I accrued from monsters and malice burns in the castle. I smirked when I looked down at my abdomen. A Gerudo woman had once scoffed at me for not even having visible abs early on in my journey but there was… some muscle defined there now from months of climbing Hyrule’s mountains and cliffsides. It was clearly enough muscle needed to defeat Calamity Ganon, anyways.

My ears twitched when footsteps treaded on the grass behind me. I instinctively thought to grab my sword, but then came a quiet, “Link?”

I looked over my shoulder, and relaxed immediately when I saw the figure behind me. “Your Highness, shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

Zelda folded her hands in front of her. Her golden hair was tied up behind her head in a bun and she wore a blue sleeping gown underneath a Sheikah robe that Paya must have lent to her. “I...wanted to thank you for calming me down earlier before I settled in for the night. I was just a little overwhelmed at how suddenly everything has changed.”

I turned around and wiped the remaining healing ointment from my hand onto my arm. “Nobody else seems to understand exactly what we’re going through right now.” I muttered.

She nodded and pulled the collar of her robe up around her chin as a chilly breeze floated between us. If we weren’t having such a serious conversation, I would have considered more how it was quite a cute thing to do. She held her palm to her face as she sighed. “I...I do not think I am ready to go anywhere near the castle yet. Though it’s been a hundred years for everyone else, the memory of the destruction and loss is still too fresh, too painful in my mind...”

I stepped closer to her and she looked into my eyes once again. The light from the torches behind me flickered shadows onto her fair face. Fear and exhaustion plagued her face.

My heart ached for her.

She had just fought an unimaginable horror in the castle for a hundred years and now was expected to immediately begin facilitating the reconstruction of Hyrule. The villagers didn’t understand how they had set off this expectation in her mind, of course. Impa was correct that the castle needed reclaimed as soon as possible—but did Zelda really have to be there immediately?

I realized she had said something to me again but my mind had been lost in my thoughts. “Sorry, can you repeat that, Your Highness?” I asked, shaking my head.

“I said, I can see all of your scars... You have collected so many, if you don’t mind me saying. You’ve endured so much pain for us,” she said with a frown.

I looked down. The scars, a mix of the severe mortal ones I’d endured a hundred years ago and newer ones from my journey, littered in violent slashes across my body. I tightened my lips. People so easily understood I had been through pain when they saw my scars. However, nobody else seemed to notice Zelda’s struggle right now.

I was probably the only one who could even somewhat understand what she went through with the events of the calamity. And now, she faced the immense pressure to rule Hyrule by herself. Such pressure on a single person was incredibly difficult to bear. In the past—as Zelda had reminded me earlier—the intense pressure of being the chosen wielder of the Master Sword had driven me to silence. I could not let Zelda fall to a similar fate of anxiety.

“Your Highness, would you like to go somewhere? To get away from everything for a bit?” I blurted before I could consider my own words.

She blinked in mild confusion. “Leave here? What about the castle? Hyrule?”

“With all due respect, Your Highness, you won’t be assembling the castle by yourself. You just defeated Calamity Ganon. Let some other people begin work on the castle.” I put my hands on my hips. “Your Highness, you need a rest, even if a brief one. To be perfectly honest, I need one as well.”

“What about my sworn duties?”

I laughed. “The land has lasted a hundred years without an active ruler. The people can wait just a little longer for you to recover. A lot of people don’t even know that you’re still alive.”

Zelda folded her arms and tightened her lips. “Where would we go?”

I thought for a moment. “Hateno Village? I have a house there. It’s very safe there, and nobody would bother you. We could visit Purah’s Lab.” I tapped my jaw as I considered the other perks of Hateno. “There’s also a beach nearby, so you could see the ocean.”

Zelda furrowed her brow as she considered my proposal. “It does sound like a lovely place... I’ve never visited there before, actually. I would love to see Purah again too.“ A smile graced Zelda’s lips as she nodded. “It’s decided then. I will direct Impa to lead the Sheikah to begin the reclamation of Hyrule Castle, and inform her that I will be taking a short rest before I begin the rebuilding process.”

I smiled back at her and nodded. “We’ll leave at first light in the morning.”

“Wonderful,” She bowed her head lightly. “Good night, Sir Link, I’ll see you in the morning,” she said cheerfully before turning away and retreating back to Impa’s house.

My cheeks heated against the cool air when she used the formal title. It only then occurred to me that she’d never used any kind of title with me before that I could remember.

...Exactly how close had we been before the calamity?

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blackjack-15 · 3 years

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(Pachin)Koping Mechanisms, KuroSAWa, and Putting The Ring On It — Thoughts on: Shadow at the Water’s Edge (SAW)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE, ICE, CRY, VEN, HAU, RAN, WAC, TOT

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it. For this meta and the next (CAP), I’ll have a section entitled “The Faerietale” where I break down the issue of genre within the game and how it adds to the experience.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with links to previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: SHA, SAW, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SPY, GTH, Rashomon.

The Intro:

Full Disclosure: draft titles of this meta include “Yurei-sing the Tension” and “Using Your Girlfriend’s Mom’s Horrific Death For Fun and Profit”. They ultimately don’t fit the tone of the game (or the meta), but I thought they were fun…so you’re being subjected to them anyway.

Freshly out of the games of growing pains, Shadow at the Water’s Edge is the first of our two Faerietale Games, where we delve fully into Theme and Allegory and other such literary devices — which happen to support some pretty fine mysteries as well. As such, in case you didn’t see it above, both SAW and CAP will have a section diving into the Faerietale-ness of it all (partially because it’s That Interesting and partially to keep the intro section from being like 2k on its own).

SAW is interesting for a number of reasons (which I’ll go into throughout the meta) but one of the things that stuck out to me on a replay was how much it leans on Rashomon for its story about the past. For those unfamiliar, Rashomon is a Japanese film by Kurosawa Akira from the 50s that deals with the rape of a woman and the killing of her husband, a samurai, as told through four different points of view.

Nowadays called “a Rashomon episode” or “false flashback”, the idea of different, opposite points of view being shot and filmed to present to the audience is almost a cliché, but Kurosawa was the first to really bring it to film and to popular consciousness internationally.

Like in Rashomon, we’re presented with different views of the situation at the ryokan (including but not limited to Kasumi’s death) from our characters’ perspectives — and, like in Rashomon, no point of view nor opinion on what happened is ever confirmed to be the Honest Truth.

Was Kasumi’s death accidental, and on whose part was it accidental? Does the world stay the same inside the ryokan, or is it just as prone to change as the rest of the world? Is the ryokan a resort or a prison? Should you respect what your loved one wants for themselves, or is it your job to want something better for them? Takae, Rentaro, Miwako, Yumi, and even Kasumi all have different opinions on these questions, and we’re never told who’s correct, nor to what extent.

Finally, like Rashomon, the game is content with leaving a few answers undiscovered. While shooting the movie, Kurosawa was approached many times by the actors, who wanted to know what “really” happened in the movie — and each time he refused to say, wanting the story to be truly Alive in a way that it wouldn’t be if he answered their questions.

Nancy’s job is to expose the malevolent force in the game for what it is, not to heal the family, nor to make decisions for them.

And speaking of their decisions, let’s talk about what motivates our characters in this game. I know, this intro is already kind of long, and I normally keep this kind of talk for the Characters section, but given how much they intersect in this game, we’re gonna go into it here. All of our suspects here in the game are driven and informed by one thing: their coping mechanisms.

C’mon, no surprise here. It’s in the title of the meta for more than just the pun.

Because our suspects are living in the “Once Upon a Time” section of the faerietale — aka the past — it’s their coping mechanisms that drive them. Takae is driven by guilt over her daughter’s death and fear of a changing world; Miwako is driven by anger towards her family and personally-assumed responsibility over Everything That Happens; Rentaro is driven by selfish pride and concern over his loved one; Yumi is driven by avoidance and individualistic willpower.

These are all common when dealing with loss, and each of these tell us exactly how our characters are going to act throughout the tale. In a very real way, SAW is a game about how we, as humans, deal with the stories that we tell ourselves (another thing that it has in common with CAP), and how that changes the way that we perceive the world.

It’s the breakdown of Rentaro’s coping mechanism — his pride in always being correct — that causes him to Do Evil while claiming that it’s The Right Thing. Everyone else’s mechanisms are what allows for him to be as influential as he is; Kasumi is already haunting Takae, and Miwako is already feeling the world crash down around her. Even though the yurei is just wires and metal and Upsettingly Damp-Looking Hair, its presence in the ryokan isn’t physical – it’s psychological.

Remember, “a ghost doesn’t need to be real to haunt you”.

The Title:

Let’s be real here, we’re getting into the segment of Nancy Drew games where the (most of) titles just kick butt and aren’t afraid to do so. Like, Shadow at the Water’s Edge? Gives you creepy vibes right off the bat even without the yurei on the front giving you The Ring flashbacks. Properly atmospheric without being too specific, and “shadow” gives us the idea that we’re dealing with a monster that’s more ghostly, rather than flesh and blood.

I don’t even have anything negative to say about this title, that’s how good it is — plus, I mean, the acronym is literally “saw”. Awesome.

Let’s move on then to the faerietale behind the title.

The Faerietale

SAW and CAP both function, genre-wise, as a faerietale — a story with few characters, big pasts, legends and magic, and a moral at the end to tie things off. In both cases, interestingly enough, it’s our villain who gives us our “moral” — the Truth that ties the plot, history, and characters together, able to be said in a single sentence. In SAW, it’s this (rather chilling) statement from Rentaro that does it:

“A ghost doesn’t need to be real to haunt you.”

But let’s start at the beginning.

Like in a lot of faerietales, we have two sisters who are as different as can be, an inheritance (a ryokan rather than a crown or a prince), absent/dead parental figures, a wizened mentor related to our main characters (Takae), and a Monstrous Force opposing them and their ‘kingdom’. In this story, Nancy is the Dashing Outsider (not unlike the Prince from The Twelve Dancing Princesses) who vows to learn the secrets, defeat the monster, and save the kingdom, restoring balance to the ‘royal’ family and allowing them to prosper.

(And no, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in this game Nancy’s the Knight in Shining Armor when CAP and Renate’s talk about them is right around the corner, but we’ll save that for next time.)

Having established that the game is a faerietale, let’s talk about why that actually matters (beyond the fact that it’s kinda cool in itself) when we’re looking at the game.

It basically matters for a handful of reasons: it allows us to figure out the suspect Fairly easily, it allows the writers to Allude to subject matters that are a little Dark for the E/E10 rating that Nancy Drew games normally get, and provides a bridge between the (overall) concrete games of the past and the more thematic, character-development-focused games that we’re coming up on. So let’s break that down.

Assigning our characters faerietale roles lets us see immediately that Rentaro is Missing an easy assignation. He doesn’t fit the prince, doesn’t fit a sibling — he doesn’t fit anywhere, in short, which is our first clue that he’s the villain.

Even ignoring the fact that the yurei is obviously mechanical, that Rentaro has free access to the entire ryokan in a way that no other character does, and that he’s responsible for upkeeping the ryokan (which is why it’s suspicious that he’s not the one Dedicated to figuring out the mystery) — which are all excellent things that point towards Rentaro, his absence in the faerietale points to a hidden role.

Since the only role worth hiding is either an 11th hour ally or a villain, and Rentaro is present from the beginning of the game, it’s pretty clear which one he is.

Situating the game as a faerietale also lets HER play with a few more themes than they normally can, given their target audience. Starting with a rather blatant implication of suicide, the game spins on to abusive relationships, overpowering guilt, and Nancy being, well, downright mean with her questions about a family member’s death.

While Nancy’s always been a bit insensitive, the mystery surrounding Kasumi’s death sends her into the realm of bullheadedly rude (to the point where you can get a game over for it). We see why this writing choice was made in SPY (which we’ll cover in that meta), but it’s one of my favorite things about this game; it takes a slight character trait of Nancy’s and gives it a character-driven purpose.

The last function of SAW (and CAP) as a faerietale is to provide a bridge between the older and the newer games. The older games tended to be self-involved entities: they began with Nancy’s room and ended with the letter to Carson/Hannah/Ned. As the game technology improved and the player base got older, however, that started to not be good enough; Nancy and her mysteries needed to become A World rather than simply a string of cases held together with a handful of familiar names and archetypes.

The first step towards this was the inclusion of the Hardy Boys back in our Expanded games, but it’s really SAW and CAP that show an Active Transition. Faerietales are often thought of, literarily speaking, as the bridge between children’s fiction and adult fiction; they involve simplistic plots and archetypes that children can easily grasp, but teach hard lessons about the world that adults will understand and resonate with.

The earlier Nancy Drew games, on the whole (there are of course a few exceptions), are largely concrete, like the children’s fiction they’re based on. The good and bad guys are simply and easily divided, Nancy and co. are always the heroes and always do right, and the bad guys always go to jail.

The past few games leading up to SAW start to shift slightly; while generally our heroes and villains are still sharply divided, nothing is quite as simple as it seems (look at TOT, where at least a few bad guys get away and actually profit from their bad actions).

It’s here in SAW, however, where we see that take a sharp shift. Those who should be good guys (Rentaro is a Love Interest, he enjoys puzzles, he’s a ‘fixer’ by trade) aren’t good at all; those who should be the bad guys (Takae and Miwako behave a lot like early Nancy Drew villains with their cageyness, dislike of Nancy, and ability to get Nancy to Second Chance) really aren’t.

In case this point is a bit obtuse, Logan is the perfect example of what I mean.

In SHA, Charleena Purcell has a receptionist (well-voiced by JVS) that at first prevents you from talking to her, but isn’t much of an obstacle. It’s a cut and dried ‘solve this one puzzle’ and then Nancy can talk to the author as much as she chooses — it’s barely an impediment, honestly.

In SAW, we’re dealing with another famous author, who also has a receptionist — Logan Mitchell. Unlike the receptionist in SHA, who’s just Doing His Job and exists long enough for a puzzle, Logan is a rather spiteful character who enjoys hanging up on people, and does it to Nancy with Great Joy.

As a character, Logan matters; he has his own viewpoints, loyalties (that are explored in SPY as well), and his own idiosyncrasies that make dealing with him — repeatedly — a bit like dealing with people in real life. The receptionist in SHA isn’t a character, no matter how much I personally like JVS’ voice work with him. Logan is. And that’s a huge difference in the approach of the games and the shift from the concrete, insert-puzzle-and-go nature of the older games and the more abstract, thematic nature of the newer games.

Whether or not that’s a good thing is up to you, the player, and your personal preferences. But it can’t be denied that there is a shift, and it’s the genius of SAW (and CAP)’s genre-shift to a faerietale that does it.

The Mystery:

Our mystery picks up where TOT left off, with Krolmeister sending Nancy to one of his favorite ryokans in Japan as a thank you for her help in the previous case.

This is how we find out that Krolmeister is apparently Spooky AF, as the ryokan is haunted.

Nancy decides to pick up a job while she’s there (the ‘how’ of her obtaining employment and an E-2 visa so promptly is ignored) as an English teacher to some of the cutest (and one of the most disturbing) children in Japan, which is how she spends her days — and how the game gets away with it taking place Solely at night.

The more time Nancy spends at the ryokan, however — and the more people connected to it that she meets — the more that she suspects that the ryokan might actually be harboring a malevolent entity bent on wreaking havoc and shutting down the place once and for all…

As a mystery, the game is solid; you spent most of your time “on-site” at the ryokan, soaking in the very well-done atmosphere, with only a few moments in-game spent at other locations (such as the pachinko parlor, Yumi’s apartment, etc.), and the amount of work that went into every detail of the ryokan is staggering (especially the garden).

Normally, I wouldn’t hang so much on the atmosphere when talking about the plot, but it’s actually relevant here, since the atmosphere is part of the plot — i.e., is it the ‘atmosphere’ of the ryokan that makes the hauntings happen, and did the ryokan kill Kasumi.

Speaking of Kasumi, she’s one of the biggest open-ended mysteries in this game. Did Shimizu Kasumi kill herself, or was her death an accident, or was it caused by a Paranormal Entity, leading to her becoming a ghost herself?

The game tells us how Kasumi died — cleaning a bath that she had never cleaned before, leading to her drowning — but the circumstances outside of her death like her will and her premonitions about her death speak less to an accident alone and more towards Something causing her death.

In my own point of view, Kasumi — remember, this is the Nancy Drew Universe, where ghosts are actually real — had a bit of Prescient Awareness to her, and knew that her death was coming, though not by what. While there’s evidence towards her knowing about her death that could, if looked at in that light, lead one to suspect Kasumi of suicide, it’s unexpectedly hard to kill yourself via drowning in a shallow body of water. Add to that her future plans, and I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Kasumi knew she would die, but she didn’t plan and execute a suicide.

Of course, there’s good arguments to be made on the other side. Whichever way you look at it, I’m just happy with the presence of loose ends, as that’s not the mystery that Nancy’s there to solve — and, indeed, without the presence of an actual suicide note from that period, is a mystery that simply cannot be solved.

The Suspects:

We’ll start with (and yes, the names will all be in Japanese rather than Western order) Shimizu Miwako, the Younger Daughter in our faerietale and the current force behind the ryokan.

As the one (via a faerietale’s rules) destined to succeed, Miwako sure does get the short end of the stick when it comes to her relationships. Her causing/contributing/worsening the rift between herself and Yumi aside, her boyfriend is actively sabotaging her and her grandmother doesn’t think she should be the one running the ryokan, no matter how good a job she does.

As a culprit, however, Miwako would have been a bit confused, given how much she likes the ryokan and the good job she does with it. For a Miwako ending to make sense, she would have had to been influenced by an actual ghost, sabotaging the ryokan without wanting to and having your usual blackouts that come with Psychic Interference. It would have been interesting, but out of the faerietale genre (and out of the Nancy Drew game genre as a whole) and thus not a very good story.

Next up is the Elder Daughter, Shimizu Yumi, who left the ryokan as soon as she could and instead sells bento boxes in Kyoto. Framed as a sort of free spirit, Yumi doesn’t see any need for her to run the ryokan and instead does something that she likes and is obviously very successful at.

As a culprit, Yumi would have, to be frank, been a major disappointment. Already taking fire from her little sister and her grandmother for the Abject Sin of not taking on the family business, Yumi would have been way to easy, both character-wise and tonally for the game as a whole. The Elder Daughter in a faerietale is usually the one who fails (the Youngest Daughter almost always succeeds), and so it’s refreshing to have everyone but herself consider Yumi a failure.

Their grandmother and quasi-mentor, Nagai Takae, is the other person who helps run the ryokan — much to her displeasure, as tradition dictates that Yumi, not Miwako, help run the family business.

Because someone who resents being there will definitely be a much better worker in the hospitality market than someone who loves the ryokan.

Takae has absolutely no head for anything but her own ideas and clings onto tradition not for its sake, but because change is scary, hard, and (in the case of her daughter’s death) heartbreaking.

As a culprit, Takae would have been interesting, but absolutely impossible — unless she was working with someone else. And as interesting as a Takae/Rentaro team-up would have been, Takae simply has no motive for scaring everyone else out. She needs the ryokan to survive, to do well, if she’s going to be able to cling on to the things that she wants.

Rounding out our main faerietale cast is our Malevolent Force, Aihara Rentaro, the ryokan’s handyman and tech expert, who secretly builds robots resembling his girlfriend’s dead mother and uses them to scare people out of the ryokan.

He’s a peach.

Not only is Rentaro our only option for a faerietale ending, but he’s also just the best option for the culprit in general. Handy enough to build a “ghost”, expected in any place in the ryokan without suspicion, and with a strong (if dickish) motive). Like all Evil Wizards/Malevolent Forces in faerietales, he wants to ruin the kingdom and steal away the Daughter — though, unlike a lot of faerietales, he’s convinced himself it’s For Her Own Good.

Which yeah is super gross, but hey, he’s our Villain. Villains should be a bit gross.

Lastly, we’re going to look at two characters who are inseparable from one another for the purposes of discussion: Savannah Woodham and her assistant Logan Mitchell.

Savannah (as we meet her in SAW) is a former ghost hunter who now writes about technology (hence her presence in Kyoto) who mentioned the ryokan in a book about the paranormal. Not being fond of interruptions, she pays Logan to be her assistant so that he can deal with the calls that she gets.

She also brings in a nice little easter egg talking about CAP, where Castle Finster is implied to be the castle she mentions in SAW.

As a character in the Nancy Drew world (as it becomes a world), Savannah is an odd presence, in that she’s a sage without being an academic. Most of the ‘authorities’ that Nancy calls for information are professors, researchers, etc., but Savannah doesn’t quite fall into that designation.

Sure, she’s written a book, but ghost hunting isn’t exactly a…respected profession or topic — and yet, Savannah is clearly the smartest person in the game (and one of the smartest people that Nancy encounters as phone friends). This is great — Nancy herself is no academic, and I do get tired of the prioritizing of Academia over actual knowledge.

Savannah also gets the best lines, and her VA absolutely smashes it out of the park. I’ll talk more about her as the Nancy Games (beginning in ASH), as a lot of her dialogue is foreshadowing for our next games, but suffice it to say that, other than the Hardy Boys and the Drews, Savannah probably fights only Alexei for the most significant NPC in the ND universe.

Her assistant is no slouch in the Significance department, though.

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SPY AHEAD, IF YOU DON’T WANT THEM SKIP UNTIL THE NEXT ALL-CAPS PARAGRAPH.

Logan (according to him) started working for Savannah to make some money during spring break and found the job too weird to quit once break was done (according to him). He loves hanging up on people, resulting in Savannah referring to him as her “lil’ Georgia bulldog”, and would like to go out on a date with Bess (according to him).

Yeah, pretty much everything about Logan should be taken with a grain of salt, as he’s the one who tells it to us, and…well, Logan is a spy. A spy who’s assigned to Nancy at least as far back as SAW, who gets close to her friend(s) and reports back to Cathedral that Nancy’s obsessed with her mother’s death and thus will probably be used by those who want to know Kate Drew’s secrets.

He ‘fires’ Savannah from being his boss prior to GTH because his work is done; he’s completed the mission he’s been assigned and is now working on other things. Logan isn’t a ghost hunter, nor a receptionist, nor a guy who wants to take Bess out on a date — until he needs to be. Like any good spy, Logan is all things to all people, and it’s his tiny bit of backstory in SPY (easily missed if you’re not paying attention — remember, in Nik games especially there’s no such thing as “optional reading” — that makes him so significant in SAW.

SPOILERS END HERE, YOU’RE ALL GOOD TO CONTINUE.

The Favorite:

There’s a lot to love about SAW, so let’s dive right in.

The first thing I’ll mention, because I just mentioned it, is Logan, who is one of my favorite parts of the Nancy Drew universe, let alone this specific game. His VA is great, his dialogue is great, his character is great — he ticks all the boxes, and I love it.

Savannah is, of course, also a favorite; any game with Savannah in it automatically moves it up a few clicks in my estimation. Savannah (and sage-type characters like her) is where Nik’s writing really shines, and her dialogue is always a joy to read and hear.

My favorite moment is actually a tiny moment, despite it being the titular incident: the shadow at the water’s edge. It’s easy to miss, but when Nancy looks in the bath and sees Kasumi’s shadow for that split second…it’s the haunting that games like HAU and CUR really wanted to have — subtle, upsetting, and fully within the bounds of the Laws of Haunting that the ND universe has set up.

My favorite puzzle is hands-down the bento boxes. Longtime readers of this meta series (which will be two years old this summer!) will know that there’s nothing that I like better than a good logic puzzle, and the bento boxes are a great logic puzzle. It’s fun, cute, and I love that you can do it as much as you want.

I do love, lastly, that this game is a faerietale. Having read and analyzed faerietales for a good portion of my life, it’s nice to see that niche interest represented within another niche interest.

The Un-Favorite:

There are a few things in SAW that I really don’t like, as much as I think this game is great.

The most important is my least favorite puzzle: the frame puzzle. This puzzle is one of the few puzzles that actually make me white-out in Rage and refuse to play further, which is a problem given that SAW is actually a great game and I enjoy playing it. It honestly stops me from replaying the game as often as I really should, given its significance to the ND universe, and for how just good it is. I usually make my sister or my best friend play it for me, but I do actually have to leave the room while they do it because it infuriates me that much.

My least favorite moment in the game is a little different, given how good the game actually is; it’s the very end where, depending on the choice that Nancy makes, Rentaro’s apology is accepted by Miwako. Sure, Nancy says it’s unlikely that they’ll date again, but this is a case where the choice to tell on him or have him tell himself should result in the same result: him having to leave. Handymen aren’t thin on the ground, and the ryokan needs help, rather than the same toxic influence that helped bring it down in the first place.

While I appreciate the choice for Nancy impacting the end — I really do — it should say more about Nancy as a character than it should about Miwako and Rentaro. That it doesn’t is a failure in storytelling at the 11th hour, which is a shame in a game this good.

The Fix:

So how would I fix Shadow at the Water’s Edge?

First things first, I would obviously change the frame puzzle a bit. I don’t think it needs removed per se, but I would definitely shift it. Give an option to skip it, perhaps, or make it easier the more time you spend on that screen, or make it easier if you go in and out of it a few times. Heck, even having it reset when you back out (or having a reset button) would be better, since getting stuck in the puzzle results in Hours of Frustration.

Other than that, I would only change the ending choice. Like I said above, the choice is great, but it should be changed to show us exactly who Nancy is (not unlike the choice in GTH). Is Nancy the kind of person who would not trust Rentaro to tell himself and thus does it, or is Nancy the kind to give him just enough rope to hang himself?

Either way, we’re given a view of Nancy that we’ll see more and more — that she is not always kind, nor infallible, nor impartial. She lets her feelings interfere with her cases, and while sometimes that’s good (again, GTH is a prime example), sometimes the only impact her choices need to have on her is to show us her character.

All in all, Shadow at the Water’s Edge is a good, mature look at the Nancy Drew universe, and continues the thread of connecting case-to-case. While it’s ultimately imperfect, I believe it’s not only one of the most fun games to play through, but also to consider in the larger realm of Nancy Drew games and in adaptation of genre altogether.

#nancy drew #nancy drew games #clue crew #shadow at the water's edge #nancy drew meta #SAW #my meta #video games #long post #i didn't really go into the whole Japanese Culture influences in this meta b/c frankly it's not what the meta is about #but shoot off a message to @tinkchick555 if you wanna hear about it; she's the Expert

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four-loose-screws · 3 years

Text

FE8 Novelization Translation - Chapter 15, Section 3

If you would like to start from the beginning, read a missed part, etc., click here!

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I call this a “section” because it is not a separate part of the chapter in the book, but divided from the rest of the chapter by a scene break.

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Chapter 15 - The Day the Empire Fell (con’t x2)

Ephraim’s army continued their march towards the capital.

The Grado Empire had lost their central figures, Glen, Duessel, and Selena, one after the other, and was now visibly weakening. They no longer had the forces left needed to even hold Ephraim’s army at bay, while Ephraim’s army was growing stronger still.

They arrived at the capital without much trouble. Ephraim had not visited it in a very long time. The streets were laid out just as he remembered them, but what he saw looked like an entirely different city.

What was once praised as the continent’s most prosperous city was now just a shadow of its former self. Most of the shops were closed for good, and not a single person was traveling the streets. Many of the citizens had fled in fear of the war, and those who had reasons making them unable to leave the capital appeared to have shut themselves up inside their homes.

As he walked the empty streets, Ephraim took Myrrh’s hand and asked, “Myrrh, can you feel the ominous energy?”

“Yes… It is very strong.” Myrrh squeezed Ephraim’s hand in fear. “It’s coming from the castle. From a room inside of it… It is a very big room.”

“Perhaps the throne room, then? Is it coming from the Dark Stone? Or maybe Emperor Vigarde himself is the source…?”

The moment Ephraim finished his sentence, a strong tremor rocked the city.

A powerful earthquake shook the ground beneath them. It was so great that they could not even stay standing. Myrrh clung to Ephraim.

The biggest tremor ended quickly, but several smaller earthquakes followed after it.

Ephraim picked up Myrrh and said, “You have no need to worry. This has nothing to do with the Dark Stone.”

“But…”

“Grado is in a territory that has always suffered from frequent earthquakes since long ago. I was surprised too when I first came here, but Lyon taught me that earthquakes are what happens when the crusts of this continent slide around… and that they are also related to volcanic activity…”

Lyon had talked about the topic in much more detail, but Ephraim had no interest in it, only half listening at the time, so he couldn’t remember much.

Duessel told the panicking Freilan soldiers that the earthquakes were indeed just a natural phenomenon, and calmed them down.

Ephraim’s army tried to continue their march towards the castle, but on the roads along the way, they saw the effects of the previous earthquake. A number of old buildings had collapsed and started a fire.

Next to one of the ruined buildings was a crying and screaming young girl. She said that a member of her family had started running away too late, and was pinned underneath a fallen pillar.

Ephraim immediately ordered his soldiers to save the victims and put out the fire.

If they got behind their schedule, that would only be to the enemies’ advantage. But even knowing that, they did not waver in their policy to prioritize saving ordinary citizens. Ephraim stood at the front and moved away the debris.

Once they finally saved the man that had been trapped underneath it, he looked around at Ephraim’s soldiers incredulously and whispered, “You all have… come here to overthrow the capital, right…?”

“Why would you save us? What reason could you have to help us…?”

“We don’t have a reason. We can’t turn a blind eye to the injured, fallen citizens of this city, could we? Of course we would help you.” Ephraim answered.

The man looked up at the sky with a pained expression. "...You're Prince Ephraim of Renais, ain't ya? But I heard that Prince Ephraim was sent into a rage over his grudge towards Renais being invaded… and so he will kill anyone from Grado, even the women and children, and is pillaging everything… Is all that nothing more than empty rumors?"

"I don't know what kind of rumors are spreading, but I would never lay a hand on an ordinary citizen. And it goes without saying that I've also warned my soldiers to never do so either."

"Is that the truth? If someone like you was leadin' our country, I bet we'd all be happy. If only the emperor had half the kindness in his heart as you… The Grado Army should'a been the ones to help us straight away but… they abandoned us." The man looked towards the castle with eyes full of bitter hatred.

It was utterly quiet around the castle. Under normal circumstances, the army would currently be deploying to confirm what damage had been caused by the recent earthquakes, rescue any victims, and so on. But even before the earthquake happened, it was strange that no one had been guarding the city gates to prevent Ephraim's army from getting inside. They hadn't sensed a single human presence.

"They've just been stayin' locked up inside the castle, only guardin' the building. They don't care about us ordinary people. What's an army like that good for?"

Before they'd even realised it, a crowd of Grado citizens had gathered around Ephraim's army and formed a wall. Many of them were nodding as the man spoke.

The weary looks on their faces were not only due to the earthquakes. Ever since the emperor had gone mad, the hardships of their daily lives had only worsened.

Ephraim looked around at their faces. "I will defeat the emperor. Of course, I won't do it just to claim Grado as my own. Your new emperor will be Prince Lyon. There is no doubt in my mind that he will do an excellent job rebuilding this country. I… and the Kingdom of Renais, will spare no expense in cooperating with him to restore Grado to its former glory."

But when the man heard that, he snickered. "Prince Lyon?! I've heard he's a pathetic weakling who stays holed up in his room all day. And that's why he couldn't do anything to stop the emperor's violence… I don't have any hope in him. I'd be happier if Renais took control over Grado."

The man stopped himself there before quickly walking away, fearing that what he said might cause trouble.

Among the people, their discontent with the emperor and the prince had reached its peak, and was about to burst out from within them. Ephraim could sense it. In the gazes of those surrounding them now, he saw that they thought not of him as an enemy, rather, the exact opposite.

Ephraim's feelings towards the man's words were very complex. Lyon wasn't a weakling. Naturally, as Lyon's friend, he wanted to defend him. But when he thought about how the people felt, it was obvious that they would criticize him for saying so.

The army's exchange with the local citizens had heightened the soldiers' morale all the more. Ephraim had no need to give them any encouraging words. They tore down the castle gate with a large battering ram, and all rushed inside the castle together.

ー

The Grado soldiers guarding the castle were formidable opponents. Just as Ephraim's army had expected, because the soldiers had neglected to protect the citizens, they had instead been inside the castle getting stronger and stronger.

The armored knights brandished long lances, preventing most opponents from being able to land a hit. And behind them were dark mages casting spells from a distance.

Though Ephraim's army suffered many casualties on the front line, they continued their persistent onslaught. The soldiers he led were brave. They fought with the unwavering belief that so long as they followed the prince, they could not lose.

And the one to fight the most bravely was Ephraim himself. The moment the armored knights, who were several times stronger than him, attacked him, he would face them head on, nimbly jumping into the air, and dodging the thrust of their lance. Though the harsh battle raged on, he showed no signs of exhaustion.

As they fought, they continued further into the palace, and gained more and more momentum as they went. They were coming ever closer to Emperor Vigarde - the person who had started this war. There wasn’t a person alive who could keep Ephraim from reaching him.

Finally, they were in front of the throne room. Ephraim stabbed the soldiers who tried to stand in his way, and slammed open the heavy doors.

“Vigarde!” Ephraim called out, and stepped onto the throne room’s red carpet.

At the end of it was a beautifully decorated throne, and sitting upon it was the man who had thrust the entire continent into war, Emperor Vigarde.

But the moment Ephraim saw him, he paused for a moment. He could tell from his face that this man was indeed the Emperor Vigarde he remembered. However, his skin was so pale that it was terrifying. From his sunken cheeks to his hollow eyes, he was just a shell of the majestic emperor he had once been. If someone told Ephraim that the man sitting before him was just a clay doll made to look like the emperor, then he would believe them.

Vigarde did not move in reaction to Ephraim’s bursting into the room. His eyes simply stared blankly at the floor, and he did not even try to look at Ephraim.

Ephraim composed himself before continuing. “Why did you invade Renais?! Why did you have my father killed…?”

He should have had an entire mountain of questions to assault the emperor with, but Ephraim was at a loss for words. The emperor’s unexpected reaction… or more accurately, his lack of any reaction at all, had thrown him off. No matter how loudly Ephraim raised his voice, the emperor simply stared blankly at the floor.

“Why, Vigarde… You really aren’t in your right mind, are you?” The question escaped his mouth without thinking.

The emperor still did not answer.

An awkward silence fell between the two. Ephraim was shocked. He had expected that the emperor’s transformation by the Dark Stone would have granted him great strength… But he did not even try to fight.

“Lord Ephraim!” Duessel called out to him. He had been following after Ephraim, leading him into the throne room as well. He had his lance in his hands, and stood next to Ephraim.

“General Duessel. Vigarde’s condition, it’s…” Ephraim whispered.

Duessel walked up to the throne with big steps. “Your Majesty, do you know who I am?” He asked.

Vigarde did not respond.

Duessel tightened his grip around his lance. “You are… no longer His Majesty, are you? You don’t know me at all, do you...?”

"..."

“...Forgive me.” Duessel whispered, and readied his lance.

However, in that moment, the unthinkable happened.

The motionless Vigarde suddenly stood up, and he had a sharp lance in his hands that they had not even noticed him pick up. His swift movements utterly betrayed the lifeless state he had been in until now.

Deussel was completely taken aback. He dropped his weapon and staggered back.

Within the blink of an eye, Vigarde raised his lance over his head and lunged.

Ephraim sensed the danger just in time to block the attack.

'Had the hollow expression all been an act?' Ephraim wondered, but even now, Vigarde's expression was exactly the same. He still looked as if the life had been sucked out of him, except his movements were bizarrely swift. It was extremely uncanny.

Vigarde blocked all of Ephraim's attacks, surprising the prince all the more. The emperor moved faster than one would ever think humanly possible.

Myrrh stated that the Dark Stone did not control people, but… All Ephraim could think was that this Vigarde was like a puppet in every sense of the word, being moved by some other power.

Duessel picked up his lance and joined in the fight. It was against his nature to fight two-on-one, but he couldn’t worry about that now. Vigarde was undoubtedly possessed by a great power.

Of course, even Vigarde could not avoid every single attack from two expert opponents. Ephraim’s lance stabbed through the emperor’s chest.

Even then, Vigarde’s face did not change. He expressed nothing at all, not even pain nor regret. Nothingness spread throughout his hollow eyes, and that was all.

When Ephraim quickly pulled out his lance, Vigarde’s body slowly leaned over, and he toppled forward.

Ephraim wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand. It had been a long while since he had fought in a battle that stressed his nerves this much - since the battle at Renvall Castle, where he had fought for his life to escape, to be exact.

He didn’t feel like he had won. Though he had defeated the man responsible for Renais’ fall, he felt no reaction. All that was left within him was a feeling of disgust, like he had been touched by something and he didn’t know what it was.

“Lord Ephraim, are you injured?”

“I’m fine. General Duessel… is it over? Have… Have we won…?”

“Yes…” Duessel’s expression looked just as dissatisfied. The look on his face conveyed that he was feeling the same sense of disgust and unease that Ephraim was experiencing.

The two looked at each other.

Suddenly, something strange happened.

Vigarde’s body, lying before their feet, instantly vanished. Was this some new kind of attack?

Ephraim jumped back. In the blink of an eye, Vigarde had turned to ashes. All that remained was his clothing.

“What… was that…?" Ephraim muttered.

Duessel responded in a voice shaking so violently that he could not hide it, “Perhaps it was a mage’s spell…? Or one of the effects of the Dark Stone? Regardless, Emperor Vigarde vanished. There is no doubt. We have wo…” His words were cut short.

Ephraim felt a cold chill in the air, and whirled around. ‘When did he come in here?’

There, standing before him, was Prince Lyon.

On the face of the prince that the townspeople had ridiculed and called weak was a calm, faint smile. It was an expression that Ephaim had never seen him make before.

“You really are strong, Ephraim… though I always knew you were.” Lyon whispered teasingly. Just like the expression on his face, it was a tone that Ephraim had never heard him speak in before.

Ephraim was utterly confused when he asked, “Lyon… is it… really you? You know who I am?”

“You hurt me, Ephraim. Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I? I could never forget. You are my very precious friend…”

Though his words were friendly, his voice was full of displeasure.

He was different from the doll-like, expressionless Emperor Vigarde. But he was undoubtedly being controlled by something else wicked… Ephraim could sense it.

To soothe his discouraged heart, Ephraim asked, “What happened in the capital? Please tell me, Lyon. Why didn’t you stop the emperor’s tyranny? Where is the Dark Stone now?”

"Hm? You even know about the Dark Stone? Oh, I get it, Duessel told you about it. Of course… Then I will make this quick. You see, Ephraim, I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.”

“...What?”

“The moment when Renais falls, and this world becomes mine. It has been my dream since I was a child… That is why I became close to you and your sister. You two mocked and belittled me, right? So I had you teach me all sorts of things about Renais, even though normally, you would be forbidden from speaking to the prince of a neighboring nation about such things. You taught me all about Renais’ weaknesses, and where to attack so that I could conquer it…”

“Lyon… what are you talking about? Eirika and I mocked you? That’s foolishness…”

He had teased Lyon from time to time. He would occasionally say to Lyon that he was weak because he could not defeat Eirika in swordsmanship practice. But of course, it was not to make fun of him. Ephraim knew that Lyon’s strengths were not in swordsmanship, but magic, so a joke about it would slip out of his mouth every once in a while.

Whenever he did so, Eirika would stick up for Lyon and scold him, then Lyon would be the one to apologize and intervene in their squabble. They were all close to each other, so those had been fun conversations. To hear that Lyon felt they had “mocked” him… Ephraim couldn’t believe it.

Lyon’s eyes narrowed in satisfaction. “The time was finally right. Thanks to the emperor… Father's incompetence, everything took longer than I planned, but… Renais fell, and King Fado is dead. Oh, that's right, I haven't told you yet. I was the commanding officer in the attack on Renais Palace. I killed your father.”

“Lyon…?”

“Shall I tell you? Exactly how your father died. It was so very fun. King Fado became desperate because he was so weak… Just the thought of it makes me laugh."

"Stop, Lyon!" Ephraim screamed. He was so angry that he felt not as if his blood was boiling, but as if it was draining from his body. His voice shook as he continued speaking, "Shut up! If you insult my father any further, then… Even if it is you, I’ll… I’ll…!”

"My, my, my. First you tell me to talk, then you tell me to shut up… You've always done as you pleased, Ephraim. But you shouldn’t think you can order me around any longer. There is nothing you can do at this point. Only two Sacred Stones remain… if I just destroy them.... ...then…" Lyon stopped there, and frowned. He must have suddenly felt pain shoot through his body, as he grabbed his chest. "So it seems that I am still not at my full power… Let's leave it at this for today. Next time we meet, I will kill you. Just like I killed your father…"

Lyon’s body disappeared as if it had been sucked into something.

Ephraim started to yell at Lyon, but he stopped himself. He did not know where Lyon had disappeared to, but he knew that his voice would likely not reach him.

“Lord Ephraim…” Duessel called out. His face was terribly pale.

Ephraim imagined that he probably looked the exact same way. “General Duessel. You told me that Prince Lyon had not been affected by the Dark Stone. That he was the same prince who hates war that he always was.”

“...I was wrong. I… was deceived by his act as well.”

“Everything is clear to me now. Our true enemy was not Vigarde. The enemy we must defeat is him… Lyon.” Just as Ephraim said that, they heard the sound of footsteps coming closer.

One of his soldiers appeared before him. “Reporting, Lord Ephraim! We found someone imprisoned inside of the dungeon. What should we do?”

“Who is it?”

“He… did not tell us anything.”

“Understood. I’ll go there myself soon.”

Ephraim went together with Duessel, and the soldier showed them the way to the dungeon.

Inside one of the damp cells was a man crouched over, silent and wearing a hood.

When he heard the sound of footsteps, he looked up. He appeared to still be young, but perhaps because of the humidity in the room, he looked completely worn out.

The soldier offered Ephraim the key. He took it and opened the iron door without saying a single word.

The man inside looked up at Ephraim and sighed. “My execution was scheduled for tomorrow. Has it been moved up? No, you do not look like a Grado soldier… Who are you?”

“I am Prince Ephraim of Renais. And you are?”

When Ephraim gave his name, the man shook his head with deep emotion. “So that must mean… that Grado Castle has been captured. My name is Knoll. I was involved in the magic research that was carried out here.”

“Why are you in the dungeon?”

He did not seem to want to answer that question, as he looked away and was silent.

Ephraim asked a different question. “You said magic. Does that mean you were conducting research alongside Lyon? What is he scheming? There’s still a lot of things that I want to ask him…”

“You… don’t know anything?” Knoll looked up once more and blinked. His eyes were probably so used to the darkness that the light of the torch in the soldier’s hand was too bright for him.

“I don’t know anything? What do you mean? Could you please tell me everything that you know?”

“Of course. I will tell you everything. I don’t think you will believe me, but…”

Ephraim walked inside the cell and sat in front of Knoll. The stone floor was cold and unpleasant. The moment he thought about being locked up alone in a miserable place like this, he pitied the young man before him.

“This happened just over one year ago. Emperor Vigarde had been sick for a very long time, but his condition took a turn for the worse, and he suddenly passed away.”

“Wait a minute. This happened a year ago? What do you mean? I just killed him now… Was that a replacement, maybe? Did someone find a person who looked like him to pretend to be him and hide his death…?”

Knoll shook his head. “No, that is not what happened. I will tell you everything in order. One year ago, His Majesty died of his illness. Lord Lyon was both devastated, and afraid. He said that he did not have the strength to ascend the throne… and couldn’t do anything without his father…”

That seemed like a reaction that the Lyon Ephraim knew very well would have. However, it was not at all like the cruel Lyon he had just met. He felt all over again that he did not know who the real Lyon was.

“Lord Lyon decided to hide his father’s death. Then, he said that he would bring his father back to life.”

“Bring him back to life?”

“Yes. As you know, Grado is the home of one of the Sacred Stones, which holds immense power. The Sacred Stones sealed away the Demon King long ago, and his soul is still trapped within them to this day… Us mages had been researching the Sacred Stones since even before the emperor’s passing. We wondered if the Stones’ power could be used for the country, and the people.”

“Yeah, Lyon told me about that once. He thought that maybe the Sacred Stones could help heal the people’s wounds and illnesses. However, Father MacGregor had told him that he was extremely against it…”

“That’s right. Father MacGregor warned Lord Lyon not to recklessly use the Stone's power. Lord Lyon was dejected, but said that he understood not to break the seal on the Stone, and instead only use the power that radiated around it. It did not compare to the true power of the Stone, and we were only able to extract a little bit of power from it, but so long as we continued our research, we knew we should achieve some kind of result, no matter how small… so we kept working as hard as we could. But his father's death had broken Lord Lyon's sense of self-control. He ignored Father MacGregor's warnings, and broke the seal on the Sacred Stone. He intended to use that power to bring his father back to life."

Ephraim gasped, and stared at Knoll's calm face. He didn’t know anything about magic, but it was clear even to him that what Lyon had done entirely betrayed any sense of morality. Bringing someone back from the dead… and using a precious treasure from ancient times to do it... was completely forbidden.

But at the same time, when he imagined what Lyon felt in his heart, he also felt Lyon’s pain.

He must have been overcome by fear and insecurity. He probably lost himself in his desperation to bring back the father he had suddenly lost. It wasn’t too much to him. What he was experiencing was like being thrown out on stormy seas without any preparation or confidence.

“I do not know exactly what happened. I was not there at the time. But on that day, Lord Lyon told us that his experiment was a success, and I ran over to him in complete surprise.”

“He succeeded…?”

“Yes. His Majesty was alive. Lord Lyon was very happy, and rushing around excitedly. His Majesty's body had been preserved by the power of the Sacred Stone and not decayed at all even though some time had passed, but on that day… his body rose up, and he opened his eyes." When he remembered that moment, Knoll shuddered. “While I was still in my state of utter shock, Lord Lyon held out two Stones to me. One was the Sacred Stone. And the other was…”

Knoll couldn’t finish his sentence, so Ephraim asked, “The Dark Stone, right?”

“...Yes. Lord Lyon said that he extracted the magical power from the Sacred Stone, and it had crystallized into a new form. By doing so, he created a Stone with power even greater than that of the Sacred Stone.

"He used that power to succeed in resurrecting His Majesty. But since Lord Lyon had extracted its power, the Sacred Stone was nothing more than an empty husk… That is what he said, then he destroyed it. And that was not all. He announced that he would destroy all of the Sacred Stones across the continent. He said that each of the stones that each country kept were just a nuisance… and all that is needed is the Dark Stone. You likely know most of what happened after that. He used His Majesty as a proxy for all of his own orders, conducted himself so that he would not stand out to the public, and gained control of the Grado government. Then, he invaded Renais. Father MacGregor was worried about Lord Lyon, and tried to remind him of the legends every chance he got, but that only incurred Lord Lyon’s displeasure. Father MacGregor was executed by Lord Lyon’s own hand, and I was captured as well. I had been ready for my life to end tomorrow, but… It appears that the gods have not abandoned me just yet.” Knoll finished his story and stood up. His legs seemed to be weak from being kept inside the dungeon, as he stumbled and put his hand against the wall.

Ephraim pulled him up onto his shoulder.

“Thank you… There is something I want to give you. I will take you to it.”

“Me? What is it?”

Knoll walked out of the cell without answering him.

They traversed a complex maze of hallways, then walked down a flight of stairs. They stopped in front of an altar located in the innermost part of the castle.

“This is where Grado’s Sacred Stone was kept. And together with the Stone were Grado’s Sacred Twins. If we are lucky, then they should still be here…”

Grado’s Sacred Twins were Black Axe Garm and Twin Tome Gleipnir, both legendary weapons said to have been used by the country’s founder, Grado himself. Lyon had once told him long ago, and Ephraim remembered it well even now.

They soon found the sacred chest that the two relics were stored in. Knoll silently removed the top, and gingerly handed the two sacred weapons over to Ephraim.

Ephraim tried holding the Black Axe. It was very heavy, and he could sense the extraordinary power locked away within it. But unfortunately, he was not trained in axe fighting, so it would be extremely difficult for him to wield it. The same went for the tome, Gleipnir, as well.

“I wonder why Lyon didn’t take these with him…?”

Though the tome would have been more helpful to him than the axe, he couldn’t understand why Lyon wouldn’t take the Sacred Twins when he destroyed the Sacred Stone.

Knoll said, “Please take the Sacred Twins, Lord Ephraim.”

“But these are Grado’s treasures, right? I shouldn’t be the one to take them…”

“I wouldn’t give them to Lord Lyon. I do not know what sort of terrifying ways in which he would use them. I think that perhaps Lord Lyon was afraid of himself, and wanted to entrust them to you.”

“Huh?” He didn’t understand what Knoll meant.

Knoll noticed his blank expression and said sadly, “He is not evil to the very depths of his heart… Or so I think, at least. It is as if two personalities exist within him, and they are fighting with each other… It is the evil Lyon that destroyed the Sacred Stones and invaded Renais. But the good Lyon is worried about Grado’s future, and is trying to entrust the Sacred Twins to you. If that isn’t what he is thinking, then he wouldn’t have a reason to leave them here.”

“...It seems that way, doesn’t it?”

So there was a good Lyon, and a bad Lyon. Ephraim wondered if beneath the evil exterior, the kind Lyon was still there. If that was the case, then Ephraim wanted to save him.

But Lyon had boasted that he’d always been putting on an act in order to deceive Ephraim and everyone else. If that was true, then it would mean that no such good Lyon ever existed.

Ephraim didn’t know which of the two possibilities he should believe. The only thing that was clear to him was that Knoll was right in saying that it was of vital importance that the Sacred Twins not fall into Lyon’s hands. The evil Lyon would likely use the weapons to destroy the world.

"...I understand. Then I shall accept them." Ephraim took the Sacred Twins, and walked away from the altar.

ー

Though Ephraim's army had conquered the castle, they still had an entire mountain of things left to do. The most important was to tell the local citizens of the emperor's passing, and avoid chaos ensuing. They needed to spread the news to every territory in Grado, so the war would end as quickly as possible.

The moment that Ephraim tried to start preparations to do just that, a pegasus knight arrived at Grado Castle. The pegasus' rider was an exhausted messenger.

She collapsed on her knees in front of Ephraim and said in a panicked voice, "Reporting, Sir! Lady Eirika and Lord Innes are in Jehanna, and are being attacked by the Grado Army!!"

"What…?"

All Ephraim knew was that Eirika and her army had been betrayed by the Republic of Carcino, and fought them at the fort on the plains. After that, the reports about her had stopped coming, causing his worry to grow, but he believed in her strength. He’d told himself that she would be able to make it through this danger, and focused all of his efforts into capturing Grado’s capital city.

Eirika had of course won the battle safely, and arrived in Jehanna. But now, she was in danger once again.

“She is fighting both the army led by Valter and the one led by Caellach. The Sacred Knights of Rausten came to her aid, but the enemy army is so strong that they are likely to be defeated…”

“Understood. We will march towards Jehanna straight away.” Ephraim’s words, spoken without even a hint of hesitation, caused an uproar amongst his soldiers.

“Lord Ephraim, it would be a long journey to Jehanna from here! Even if we start marching now, I cannot imagine that we would ever make it in time. We should wait for reinforcements from Frelia to join us…” One of them said timidly.

However, Ephraim brushed his concerns aside. “Of course we’ll make it in time. Eirika will hold out until I get there.”

“But…”

“She’s my little sister. She would never give up! And I am her big brother. I could never let her die.”

Putting his feelings into words made even more strength burst forth from within him. Ephraim entrusted the capital to a few of his subordinates that he could trust, then decided on the very small force that he would lead to Jehanna. Duessel of course said he wanted to go with him, and Knoll did as well.

Ephraim was concerned that Knoll was still too weak and would struggle to march into the desert, and tried to stop him, but Knoll wouldn’t listen.

“I am well-versed in magic, and so I will likely be of some help to you. Grado’s future depends on you. Please allow me to help you. That, and…" Knoll’s lips turned up into a small smile. “I sometimes heard about you and your sister from Father MacGregor.”

“You did…?” When he heard that name, it brought to mind an embarrassing memory.

Father MacGregor had been a very serious elderly man, with great knowledge in all of the subjects taught in schools, but was especially learned in history. While Ephraim and Eirika were staying in the capital, he tried to teach them Magvel's history. Eirika was a good student, and she and Lyon encouraged him to study, but Ephraim found spearmanship much more interesting. He often regrettably slacked off in Father MacGregor's classes.

"What did he talk about…?"

"He really liked both of you. He said that Princess Eirika is a kind, intelligent young woman. And Prince Ephraim has a very straightforward and strong heart… and he will likely become a great king one day. He was always praising you."

"Father MacGregor said that about me…?" He was surprised to hear that the priest, who'd always scolded him with a disappointed look on his face, had thought that way about him.

"He worried about Grado and Renais' fate until the moment before he was executed by Lord Lyon. There is a black cloud looming over the continent right now, but Ephraim will one day clear it away... that is what he said. To serve you would be to carry out his dying wish… that is what I believe."

When he looked at Knoll, what Ephraim saw surprised him.

He could sense Father MacGregor’s intense gaze from behind Knoll. In this world, the living are not the only beings that exist. For those who passed with goals left unfulfilled, their prayers can take form and become visible to the living… but just as quickly as that thought entered Ephraim's mind, he snapped out of his daze and said, “Let’s go, Knoll, General Duessel. The fighting is not over yet."

Ephraim took a powerful step forward, one that was the first down a brand new path.

Their next destination was Jehanna. There was not a single doubt in his mind that Eirika would hold out until he arrived.

#fire emblem #fe #fe8 #sacred stones #eirika #game boy advance #gba #japan #japanese #translation #novel #light novel #fe8 novelization translation

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brothermouse · 4 years

Note

so you may have noticed me in all of your notes- hi I love you btw- sending this in because I saw in one post you said "Someday I'll have to tell y'all about why I believe polygamy was intended to lead us to gay marriage." and I am now obsessed with this

I actually enjoy it when my notes remind me of my old posts. It shows me that my being a sh*tposting meme goblin is not a recent development at all.

But on to the question! Why do I believe that polygamy was meant to lead us to gay marriage?

the TL;DR answer is this: Polygamy challenged common ideas of marriage and family of the day in some specific ways that logically lead to accepting gay marriage.

So let’s get into it.

As I see it, the question of polygamy came up from the combination of one Divine Truth and one harsh reality. The Divine Truth was that families can be together forever and will exist as families in the next life. We’ll come back to that in a moment.

The Harsh Reality is best explained with the hypothetical, yet (in Joseph Smith’s day) very common situation of a man we’ll call Brother Brown.

Brother Brown got married to his long time sweetheart, Mary. they love and care about each other deeply. Together they have two wonderful children who grow up knowing what real love is.

Then comes baby number three.

There are complications in childbirth. The baby makes it, Mary does not. Brother Brown is heartbroken. His best friend and partner in all things is gone, and the world, cruel as it is, continues to turn all the same.

After the funeral Brother Brown realizes he still needs to work to support his children, but now he must also raise them and take care of the house on his own. A workload that was heavy, yet manageable between two people is now a crushing burden on one. So he painfully realizes that to give his children what they need, he must remarry.

Enter Martha. Martha needs a reliable source of support. Social conventions of the day prevent her from obtaining that on her own. She needs to either get married or starve. Brother Brown and Martha meet. They see that their situations are compatible and agree to get married.

Though the marriage was basically a business deal at first, Brother Brown and Martha come to truly love each other. Brother Brown sees that Martha is a strong, compassionate woman who raises the children as her own and stands by him and supports him in his grief.

Martha sees Brother Brown as a kind and loving father and husband who will do anything for his family. He respects and listens to all her opinions and treats her like an equal in all things.

Now, the big question: To whom is Brother Brown married in heaven? Is it to his first wife, Mary? The mother of his children, who he loved since he first learned what love was? Or is it Martha? The one who, like a knight in shining armor saved him from an endless pit of grief and despair, and stood by him while he healed?

There were, prior to the Restoration, two main approaches to this problem. In the first, he is married to neither. In this approach, when we die we become as the angels. Brother, sister, husband, wife, parent, child, all mean nothing. Relationships on Earth are not to be had in heaven. This approach even brought into question if we would have gender in heaven, after all; if you’re not making babies, what do you need all that baby making equipment for?

The second approach was a bit more wishy-washy. Basically it said that God has a plan to work it all out, but he hasn’t told us about it. So let’s focus on living while we’re living and we can sort all that out when we’re dead.

It seems to me that Joseph Smith was more drawn to the second option in his early years. Remember that Divine Truth i mentioned earlier? Families are forever. But how to reconcile that with Brother Brown’s family? By all accounts Brother Brown and both his wives are all good, god fearing people. As he grew into his prophetic role Joseph must have realized that he could take it a step further than the wishy-washy ‘It’ll work out somehow’ option and go ask God for the details of that plan.

So with a real world equivalence of Brother Brown in mind Joseph sets out to ask the Lord. First he studies the bible for mentions of multiple wives, to see if that gives him any insight into Brother Brown’s case. It’s not super helpful. So he takes it directly to the Big Guy Himself.

The answer he gets is shocking.

Brother Brown can be married to both.

You can have more that one wife in heaven, Brother Brown doesn’t have to choose one and forever reject the other.

That flies in the face of everything Joseph thought he knew about family structure.

Two wives? Scandalous to mortals! But hardly given second thought in God’s Kingdom?

God knows that this is a strange doctrine to the minds of men. To think that our idea of marriage and family (which we totally didn’t just make up one day) is wrong? People would rather bury and hide that doctrine than admit they were wrong. So God ups the ante. He commands and demands that polygamy be practiced by mortals. He intends to shatter the institutions that would limit love and this is were he starts.

For over half a century polygamy is practiced and the arbitrary limits on what a real family looks like are challenged. So entrenched was the practice that still to this day Mormons have to deal with it, even if they don’t practice it.

Now comes the big question; Why does God want us to think about polygamy?

The answer I’ve come to is this; God wants us to think about polygamy to make us realize that families are complicated and messy and come in some very bizarre shapes and sizes. But if they are build in love, consent, and loyalty, then they can exist through the eternities.

So that’s my thoughts on polygamy in general. How does that lead to gay marriage?

Simple; if families in heaven are as weird as families on earth then why wouldn't there be gay marriage in heaven? If the relationship is built on love, consent and loyalty, then why would God care if it’s between one man and his two wives or just two wives?

Don’t forget, the reason we abandoned polygamy (and by extension this theological train of thought) was out of survival. The US government could not abide the idea that families could be different that what they wanted them to be. They were stealing our lands, our money, our fathers and brothers, our right to vote, and even our lives. Modern Mormon views on the family are shaped by that old survival instinct. We try to fit in with what we think they want of us so that the don’t beat us down again.

But things are changing. America is growing weaker while we grow stronger. Soon we will be too strong for them to ever threaten again. The doctrinal foundations are there. We will soon be able to proudly say ‘ALL Families are Forever’ And there won’t be a thing the oppressors can do about it.

Polygamy gives me hope for same sex marriage, because it shows us that God loves and protects all families.

I believe we’ll get there.

I don’t know when, but I know we’ll get there.

#Long #bit of a rant #polygamy #tumblrstake #queerstake #LDS #lds church #lgbt mormon #lgbt lds

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strykingback · 3 years

Text

The Tensions between both Brumel and Atlas

Because @caeloservare brought it up today and it made me kind of think about it a lot for a moment so it is sure as hell time to talk about their tensions and how it was once good then turned bad, then worse.

Placed underneath read more due to length.

The Beginning:

Brumel and Mantle were once fire forged allies, with that being with both kingdoms having to work their hardest to survive in the snow covered lands of the Solitas region and how truly brutal it is for anyone to live and survive. As both kingdoms grew, so did their technological advancements, despite that their beliefs were different.

However, their goal remained the same, to survive in the Solitas region for both of their kingdoms and their future. This would all change when The Great War came to light. The two at first fought together however, slowly many Brumelian soldiers alike felt as if this war was wrong. It was not like them to suddenly just pick up their weapons and start attacking other kingdoms for conquest.

The Betrayal of Mantle:

During one of the battles in Vale the Brumelians were locked in hard combat with the Valean forces who were converging onto their position which later be known as Castle Invicta. However, after calling for support multiple times which to no avail.. all the Brumelians got was this.

“You are on your own.”

Enraged by this the Brumelian king demanded answers, to which they realized that the Mantleans were using them for one thing their technology and their weaponry. To which the Brumelians surrendered to the Valean forces which they all noticed how tired and angered they were at their Mantlean brothers and sisters. Many a year they have both honored their existence only to be backstabbed by them.

Which the Brumelians joined forces with the Valeans and the Vacuan forces standing together and fighting against the Mantleans during the final battle where the King of Vacuo used the Relic of Destruction against the army decimating the Mantlean forces.

While the war had come to an end... the friendship between the Brumelians and Mantleans had since been broken.

One Kingdom Evolves, One Kingdom Suffers, Another Kingdom Is Born:

After the war, the Brumelians continued to expand and to evolve with their technology evolving every minute and second. Creating new weaponry, advancing their medicines, and even expanding upon their military prowess. However, that did not mean it did not come without its consequences feeling the eyes of Mantle upon them all.

Still many diplomats from Mantle had come to speak with the Brumelians but were shunned by them all due to their betrayal, even to the point where some Mantleans were assaulted by the Brumelian people made even worse with the discovery of Mantle using faunus’ for slave labor.

For Mantle it slowly began to devolve into a shell of it’s former self, what was once meant to be the greatest kingdom in all of Atlas became the most poverty stricken kingdom in all of Remnant without nay technology which many people turned to Atlas as their best scientists created a propulsion system that took Atlas from the ground and into the air.

The Mantleans were happy to see such a sight, but when discovering it was meant for the top one percent of Atlas did they realize that they all were going to be suffering this coming winter and it when it came...

It was the Coldest Winter that anyone living in Mantle would never forget.

The Dictators of Brumel and Atlas:

These two kingdoms had their problems and they were able to stand and being brave but that did not mean that they leaders who had darker means.

Beginning with Brumel of course that being none other than Rodrigues’ father which murdered his father after a battle against an insurgency force that would usurp Brumels leaders. However ascending to the throne thus did he begin his plans for the Brumelian empire to begin and what better way than to begin than with the very same kingdom that had once led backstabbed Brumel during the Color War.

Yet though Rodrigues’ mother found out what the mad king was planning on doing and taught her son the art of war, compassion, and diplomacy making sure that peace can be obtained through a show of kindness and gentleness. When Rodrigues’ mother passed away and realizing that his throne was being threatened... did Rodrigues’ father attempt to kill Rodrigues but only to discover that he was not there.

Instead he was attacked and slain by the hands of his own son.... but in the right way. For justice and freedom a mad king is never allowed to sit on the throne only a king that is born of compassion and understanding should sit on it.

For Atlas, they had Nero Caligula. He was one of the many survivors who had witnessed the relic of destruction being utilized against the Mantleans and seeing it left him scarred even worse afraid of the Brumelians and how quickly their technology was evolving.

However, instead of the world of being a soldier. Politics called out to him becoming a brutal taskmaster running for one of the council seats and winning with his slogan: Atlas Rises Above.

Despite the fact that Nero was born in Mantle as many of the criticisms he received that he was an Atlesian rat now and no longer a Mantlean. Yet, after this his sights were set on something even bigger..... the seat of Grand Councilman.

Upon the former grand councilmans terms coming to an end, did Nero begin his shot for it with the people of Atlas cheering him on as he vowed to do one thing: “ Claim Vengeance for the people of Mantle “ However, the Brumelians who were watching the elections believed that it was a bluff whilst some people of Mantle found it honorable believing that he meant to repair Mantle to restore it to it’s former glory. Instead he wanted to start a war with Brumel.....for those he had lost....an insane feat for anyone....

and it would be the last mistake anyone would want to make when attacking Brumel.

The Brumelian-Atlesian War:

For Brumel it was one of the days that one wish they could forget. Nero had summoned an Atlesian special operations unit to enter in Brumel for the inane act of murdering King Rodrigues, who was in a meeting and away from his throne at the moment to meet with the scientists for the Science District in Actus ( The Capital of Brumel )

The team entered in Brumel easily due to travel there being accessible at the time, and to which they traveled to the Royal District to begin planting the bombs there, only for one of them to get caught and accidentally blowing up one of the bombs far too early causing a chain reaction which destroyed a major part of the Royal District...

Only one of the Atlesian special forces group survived and was captured later on. But the bombing took the lives of one thousand people and with four hundred being left injured, the event was an act of aggression against Brumel coming from Atlas itself and many Brumelians realized that Nero’s bluff was no bluff at all.

Yet, for Rodrigues... to kill and maim innocent people who had done nothing at all... to do that. For the young king it haunted him the sounds of people wailing for their loved ones, children crying for their mothers and fathers, and the rubble of half a district gone.... all remained within his thoughts.

After three weeks of talking with the Brumelian council and the Knights of The Round Table, did he declare war upon Atlas something that Nero wanted.... but when the Atlesians attempted to invade Brumel... and an Atlesian battle cruiser was returned. When Nero walked inside and saw nothing more but corpses of soldiers around the ship.

One message was written on the Windows....

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU INVADE BRUMEL

The reality of the situation began to slowly sink into Nero’s head, that he started a war that would lead to the end of Atlas, and for three months did the war between Brumel and Atlas raged on until by the third month when Operation Garsons Walk began. Did Nero do one of the most cruelest acts that everyone around Remnant were horrified at.

NERO CONSCRIPTING ALL OF MANTLE TO FIGHT AGAINST THE BRUMELIANS

The act, was horrifying itself, but when the Brumelians converged onto Mantle and discovered what Nero did they did one of the kindest acts ever. Showing mercy and putting aside a long standing hatred between both Brumel and Mantle. Including witnessing how much the city had changed since the days of old.

Thus this act of mercy was expanded when the Brumelians helped restore Mantle as best as they could repairing entire cities, offering them food, and helping them whenever they can. Yet after a long talk between Nero and Rodrigues did the dictator of Atlas surrender and signed the Atelier-Atlesian Peace Accords.

The war was so bad that even the Atlesian council secretly voted that after it ended that Nero would be removed as Grand Councilman of Atlas.

So what happened afterwards....

A Future Left Unknown:

The aftermath of the Brumelain Atlesian war led to Rodrigues being placed on the council as one of the demands to be met to this time watch over the council and to end any signs of violence towards the Brumelians, Atlesians and Mantleans.

However, thankfully the healing process was increased even more with the Atlesians allowing Actus Academy to join the Vytal Festival games, however that year sadly ended with disaster. .

as of Volume four after many attempts to at least get the Atlesian council to realize that Mantle would not survive one more winter not without Atelier technology or an Atelier presence did Rodrigues resign from the council stating for Atlas to solve their own problems.

Thus did tensions between Atlas and Brumel begin again and the future is left unknown...

#[Lore of BLCK- TEAM BLCK Lore]#tw: long post

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inky-duchess · 4 years

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PoV Historical Counterparts: Edward

Edward IV: Edward was born the oldest son of the Duke of York, the most powerful man in the kingdom. A tall, imposing figure, Edward was one of the most skilled battle commanders and warriors in the country at a young age. When Edward's father died in the chaos of the Wars of the Roses, Edward was forced to step up and protect his family. He ended the civil strife in the kingdom both on the battlefield and in his court, often pardoning his enemies and making them his allies. Edward also acted as head of his family, caring for his mother and his two younger brothers. Edward constantly forgave the youngest of his brothers the Duke of Clarence for his numerous offences.

Henry Tudor: Henry Tudor was born the last scion of a bastard line of the Plantagenet dynasty. He grew up far from the throne in the care of his relatives while his mother lived elsewhere. Henry was introduced early to battlefields at the tender age of fourteen, where he witnessed the death of his foster father William Herbert. His uncle Henry VI was restored to the throne after losing it, elevating Henry's status. As the chaos of civil war ravaged through the kingdom's heirs, Henry eventually came to the throne after a short campaign against the reigning king. Though plagued by a few rebels, Henry restored peace and stability to England.

Edward III: Edward III was the son of the powerful Queen Consort Isabella of France. Despite his father's weaknesses as king, Edward proved to be more his mother's son, an able politician and a battle commander. Edward was famed for his prowess as a knight. Edward was a reforming king, eager to hammer out the problems that plagued his predecessors. Edward was much in love with his wife, Philippa of Hainault and had a loving relationship with his children. Edward was an extremely popular king, the commons and nobility both fond of him.

Octavian Augustus Caesar: Octavian was the distant relation to Julius Caesar, one of Rome's most powerful leaders and generals. He was made his heir despite there being older and better choices for the role. Octavian quickly made a name for himself both to the people, in the Senate and on the battlefield. He saw off all his rivals, taking down the might of Antony and Cleopatra in a fell swoop of political acumen and military genius. Octavian became Rome's first emperor, bringing about the Pax Romana, a period of unheard of peace and prosperity for the city and empire. He brought military reforms to the empire and left Rome built of marble where it had once been built of brick.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester: Robert was the son of Lord Dudley, Duke of Northumberland the most powerful man in the country. As a young man, his father plotted to place his brother on the throne in a coup. The plot was overturned and Robert lost both his father and brother to the axe. Robert was held in suspicion on account of his father's and brother's actions. He remained a stalwart ally to Princess Elizabeth during her troubling times under the reign of her sister. He was rumored to have been Elizabeth's lover and was considered for a long while that he might have become her husband. But it was not to be. Robert was married to another woman but remained a close friend to Elizabeth who loved him until the end of her days.

Taglist: @authoressasusual @you-reblogged-from @word-by-word @trapped-inadystopianovel @wanderingalonelypath @mysthicrider @thebestmollygrue @reignnyx @viola-cola @anomaly00 @thewordsinthesky-andstars @heldinhishands @ladywithalamp @scribonaut @dawnoftheagez @writing-in-rain @saxoniowrites @writeblrfantasy @mayawritesbooks @valiant-wielder

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herwonderland7 · 3 years

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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟎 》 Setting Things Right

summary 》 After having a conversation with Jinyoung who had uncovered Aera’s true feelings, Aera didn’t know she was met by a wolf who seeks help.

characters 》 Gae Aera, Lim Jaebeom, Mark Tuan, Jackson Wang, Park Jinyoung, Choi Youngjae, Bambam, Kim Yugyeom, Lee Taeyong, Lee Jeno

warnings/author’s note 》 slight long post, featuring NCT Clan!,

genre 》 fantasy, got7!as!werewolves, nct!as!werewolves

‘I understand, coming from someone who isn’t like us fully. It’s hard and confusing but I think I know why you wouldn’t want to be claimed by the alpha,’

“The princess had to set things right, for her own people and whether it will emotionally drain her or not, she always puts her peoples’ needs first. She will do anything for her people. But she knew she had to be selfish for once.”

It’s been a month and to summarize what Aera has gone through, it was horrible and tedious for her as she was digging up what the White Queen had done for the past few years - as what Bambam and Yugyeom said, they mentioned those times as the dark years.

Aera knew if she were too into finding out what the White Queen, her biological mother had done, she knew her emotions would control her so she would focus on the present and the future - to regain the old White Queen’s Kingdom back.

Back to how it was.

Week 1 and 2, was all about finding out about what White Queen had done. Torturing, kicking-out wolves pack out of the village, leaving the forest unattended.

Week 3, was about going to different parts of the island, setting things right starting from far with the help of Jaebeom’s pack as they were in-charge with the tasks.

Aera had a long, heated discussion with Jaebeom as she wasn’t allowed to come along with the others - fearing Aera would be targeted by other wolves, what’s worse she is a grown woman who was unclaimed, untouched and unbreded by an alpha.

Jaebeom hated Aera’s guts, the same goes for Aera hating on Jaebeom’s guts - when it comes to wolves breeding and all that discussion she had from the others too. Aera would always tell them she could kill anyone who tried to touch her without her consent.

So she decided to stay away from Jaebeom for a while - hating him for stopping her from joining them.

Week 4 was trying to set things right in her father’s village. It was emotionally draining for her as she needed assistance again, from Jaebeom’s pack - mainly Jinyoung and Youngjae who decided to take charge since the others had other tasks and some were being sent away to hunt.

With villagers getting sicker and wolf pups getting sick easily and thanks to Youngjae, he successfully cured some of them but with just Youngjae, it could take a long time to cure everyone.

That’s when Aera had to step in although the White Queen completely disagreed on the idea - for the sake of her daughter’s safety since there are people out there who despised the White Queen.

Aera assured her that Jaebeom’s pack would always be there - telling her that wherever she goes, his pack would always take turns to look out for the princess and eventually, the Queen gave in.

Villagers started to notice the princess’s true identity - completely forget the idea of lost souls and spirits.

The young woman in front of them was the princess of the White Queen and the Wolf King. But the way she was described by people and in the books was different to how from the princess that would always visit their village.

She wasn’t the princess who would always wear dresses and a pink tiara, in fact she dressed up the same way as the villagers did - she dressed like a warrior princess.

As what the White Queen said, some of the villagers despised the White Queen - talking bad about the Queen in front of Aera as she quietly cured them. Aera didn't have the chance to protect her own mother, knowing the things that she had done to these poor innocent lives.

Aera could only apologise and promised to restore back the kingdom to its original way.

Some shows aggression as they were met by either one of Jaebeom’s pack piercings gaze - yet Aera would still assist them.

Of course though Aera was busy with her own duties and spending time with the White Queen as she asked Aera to have bonding time, she would still visit and spends her free time with Jaebeom’s pack and each time she visits them, Aera’s bond grew stronger with all of them - especially Jaebeom.

She knew it was dangerous at the same time as she had been warned by the White Queen that mating seasons were approaching.

The White Queen always warned her about these, and again - Aera had guts, she was stubborn, she didn’t want to hear more about wolves mating and all that.

The White Queen wants Aera to be careful no matter what. But Aera didn’t care - she was always careful, she was as strong as the other wolves.

Here she was as usual, sneaking out of the castle with her bow and arrow at the back - going towards the path where it leads to the forest on where her father’s kingdom is.

She admired how her wardrobe was filled - it was filled with the same clothes she has seen in her dreams except these were the grown up versions, but one particular caught her eyes as she would always wear the outfit.

It was an outfit of a warrior princess, as if she was from the amazons. Sighing as she looked back towards the castle, Aera stepped foot into the woods - going deeper into the forest.

‘You shouldn’t come here after this night, Aera.’ A knowing voice of thought said as Aera smiled towards where the voice came from, to see Jinyoung with his wolf form standing from afar.

“I can’t sleep, I need one of you guys with me,” Aera whispered, walking towards where Jinyoung was.

‘I know, princess. We can hear your thoughts clearly and that’s why I’m here,’ Jinyoung jumped down from the log, walking towards Aera as she quickly leaped towards him in a playful manner - hearing Jinyoung’s growl in feeling Aera soft touches.

“How about you, Jinyoung? Why aren’t you with the others?”

‘I told you, we can hear you from far. Jaebeom sent me here to accompany you,’ Jinyoung answered honestly as she lay her head on his stomach, slowly caressing his fur.

“It’s been a few nights since I saw him,” Aera muttered with a sigh as she closed her eyes.

She missed him, although she would have arguments here and there with the alpha but it would always end up with them laughing and making up with each other.

‘Do you missed him, my princess?’

“I would be lying if I say no, but even if it's the alpha or either one of you, I would miss all of you the same way I missed the alpha,” whispered Aera as she was holding onto one of Jinyoung’s feet.

‘You know mating season is approaching right? I know you know about this, you can’t just push that away,’ Jinyoung informed and Aera sighed.

She was told by Jaebeom to stay away from him and his pack, for a couple of weeks in order to avoid him acting in desperation in the moment of heat.

Well, according to Mark and Jackson, they were able to control themselves. Among them, Jinyoung was the best in controlling himself from temptations.

The older ones didn’t need to worry about the young ones, they had their own ways to steam off the heat with them having a few runs.

“How about the rest of you? Could you guys control it?” Aera questioned softly towards Jinyoung as he huffed out through his nose.

‘We have our own ways and I would prefer not to elaborate more,’ Jinyoung confessed shyly and Aera looked towards his face as she hummed as she figured out their ways.

“Jacking off, having a run, thinking of lust—

‘Princess! Not so loud and stop stating what I was thinking!’ Jinyoung hissed causing Aera to giggle hearing how urgent Jinyoung sounded. Jinyoung wasn’t as open as Jackson regarding all this, he was rather a shy one and Aera would always find ways to disturb and embarrass him.

“There is a reason why it’s called ‘heat of the moment’, Jinyoung,”

‘Okay, smartypants. Go to sleep,’ Jinyoung articulated, causing Aera to chuckle as she made herself comfortable, gently caressing his fur - hearing Jinyoung’s growl as he himself felt really comfortable.

“Is it weird that I preferred not to be untouched or unbred? I mean, I like it this way,” Aera whispered softly, her eyes fixed towards Jinyoung as he huffed out air while growling slightly.

‘I understand, coming from someone who isn’t like us fully. It’s hard and confusing but I think I know why you wouldn’t want to be claimed by the alpha,’ Jinyoung assumed as he turned his face towards Aera as she was closing her eyes, humming in response to him.

‘You love Jackson too,’ Jinyoung whispered as Aera slowly frowned as she slowly opened her eyes - meeting Jinyoung’s glowing grey eyes. Aera opened her mouth to find any words to cover her unknowing truth but she knew he was right.

But it wasn’t just Jackson, she loves Jaebeom too.

Again, Aera was determined to hide the truth as she chuckled while shaking her head - patting Jinyoung’s forehead as he growled with his ears off to the side, indicating he was calm.

“Not just Jackson, all of you - I love all of you,”

Aera had a smug on her face as she could hear their voices getting nearer and nearer. She was excited, too excited to see all of them - the 7 of them together.

It’s been weeks and she really missed them.

She had stayed in the castle, being offered to learn about her true origins of the White Queen and the Wolf King - Aera was also being trained physically by other knights and she had to do self-training too since she was different from others, she was the only who had abilities.

Aera had been missing out on her times with Jaebeom’s pack and here she is, sneaking out of the castle again to find the others.

But this time, Aera was hesitant because as soon as she followed their scents, it completely disappeared in just a sniff.

‘Jaebeom?’ Aera called in her thoughts as she carefully walked through the logs, searching through highs and lows for them but she couldn’t trace them.

She smelled their scents sticking onto the trees, Aera guessed maybe they went off to hunt.

Aera sighed loudly, clenching her jaw in annoyance as she missed her chance of joining them again, retreating her way back when she could feel she wasn’t alone in the woods.

She turned her head slightly, before completely turning her body towards whoever or whatever it is.

‘An unclaimed half-wolf, how interesting,’

Stood in front of her was a big wolf, its fur was icy white as its eye was golden colored. Aera tilted her head slightly, smelling the individual creature in front of her, looking unbothered.

“You’re stepping onto someone’s territory, wolf. You will be dead if the alpha finds out,” Aera warned, standing on her ground as the canine infront of her huffed in response.

‘I’m looking for Jaebeom’s pack, and it seems you are in his pack as well,’ He voiced out his thoughts as Aera sighed while looking around the woods, still trying to find Jaebeom too.

“He’s not here, I can’t find his tracks as well as the others - so you might want to come back a few days later,” Aera replied softly yet firmly - seeing his ears peaked down in disappointment, letting out a slight whine.

“Why do you want to seek the alpha? And who are you?” Aera questioned curiously, his golden eyes moved towards Aera’s eyes - he was lost in her eyes, the princess was stunningly gorgeous, yet courageous and brave.

She was described as a warrior princess - known to be in Jaebeom’s pack as she would join them for hunting once in a while.

He shook its body while huffing out air from his nose while bowing its head slightly. ‘My name is Jeno and I’m from the NCT Clan, a neighboring clan to the X clan and a friend to Jaebeom’s pack,’

Aera bowed her head, mirroring his gesture as she nodded with a smile. “What brings you here then, Jeno?”

Aera could feel Jeno’s emotions turned into sadness and desperation.

‘I need one of Jaebeom’s subordinates to heal one of my brothers. He is deeply hurt,’ Jeno’s voice went soft yet broken as Aera gasped slightly - somehow seeing what Jeno was thinking as she immediately had her hands wrapped on its furry jaw.

“I’ll help! I-I know how to treat wolves wounds! Bring me to whoever is injured,” Aera exclaimed desperately to Jeno’s eyes had Aera’s face reflected.

He knew she was someone who has a good heart, that’s what his ancestors had said - the princess is born with a pure heart.

She was known to be an aid to people, someone who loves to help the ones in need. Jeno didn’t hesitate to be in position.

‘Get on my back, princess. My village is a little far so hang on tight,’

“What happened here?” Aera whispered under her breath as she got off from Jeno’s back - her eyes were everywhere through the unfamiliar village. Everything was destroyed, completely destroyed.

‘C’mon, princess! My brothers are somewhere in the woods!’ Jeno nudged his muzzle onto Aera’s arm - telling her to follow him as they ran towards a certain direction where there were unknown wolves circling around.

One of them caught Aera’s attention as its eyes stared towards her - as it was about to leap onto her when Jeno pushed her aside, both were conversing while snapping their head towards Aera.

‘Where is Jaebeom!? Why did you bring the princess here, Jeno!?’

‘She said she can help, Taeyong!’

‘If Jaebeom—

“Hey! I can hear the two of you! I’m not weak and powerless!” Aera yelled in annoyance towards the two of them - causing both wolves to whimper slightly, seeing how dominant Aera was since she was standing in confidence and her eyes were filled with passion and frustration.

Aera’s eyes turned towards the group of wolves, her eyes moving towards each one of them as she landed onto one boy on the floor who was curled up. She wasn’t bothered that he was naked, she was more bothered by the way he was curled up.

Her feet quickly bring towards the curled up boy - analyzing his body as she finally guessed what happened.

“Hey, this going to hurt maybe a little - so hold on,” Aera whispered before gently yet firmly put his curled hands away. With her own medical small bag on her side, she brings out a specific plant and bandage, as she sighed softly before trying to position her hands to reposition his dislocated shoulder.

With a crack, the boy screamed in suffering as she began to wrap his shoulder with bandages - feeling his skin becoming heaty and sweaty. It was obvious as his forehead was filled with sweats dripping onto his face.

“Give him a week or two, and he will be fine,” Aera muttered before gesturing Jeno to bring the boy in - and they followed Aera’s instruction bringing the boy in with men carrying him.

“Thank you, princess,”

Aera turned towards the voice, seeing the human form of Jeno as she smiled slightly.

He was cute in her eyes, like a boy. Jeno somehow read her thoughts as he began to look down shyly with a slight smile.

“Sorry, I’m an open minded person,” Aera commented with a smile as another presence stood beside Jeno, guessing it was Taeyong. She didn’t need to ask him if he was an alpha because she could already smell his scent clearly.

“Thank you, Princess Aera - for helping Jaemin. I owe you,” Taeyong thanked her, his eyes gazing into Aera’s - not knowing he was reading her thoughts that were filled with colors, many colors of wisdoms that mostly is love, passion and courage.

No wonder she was the talk of the island and throughout all the villages.

“I was curious, what happened here?” Aera looked around the messed up village, houses were destroyed, trees were cut off - it looks like there was a fight happening previously.

Taeyong glanced towards Jeno before turning towards Aera.

“Some group of wolves tried to claim our territory. That’s why we are desperate for Jaebeom's help,” Taeyong said in defeat as Aera clenched her jaw - anger was bubbling onto her heart, again the same problem she had faced when visiting other villagers togethers with Jaebeom.

She wasn’t surprised at all.

“I’ll help,”

𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 ⇿ 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫

𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕

#got7 wolf au #got7 wolf scenarios #got7 scenarios #got7 imagines #got7 mark #got7 jaebeom #got7 jackson #got7 jinyoung #got7 youngjae #got7 bambam #got7 yugyeom

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ordonianhero · 4 years

Text

Blood on your Hands-Lu fan fic

This story, got inspired by a scene in a show I was watching. It slightly talks about some deeply personal topics. that may be uncomfortable for some. The main one being that Twilight has issues with the knights of his Hyrule. which comes up after Warriors pushes the subject. Twilight is far to nice and Warriors happened to be the nearest thing to lash out. There is mention of Blood. No injuries though, just the blood of bad guys. Talk of miss use of alcohol. and now sobriety. Twilight is clean. anyways. Felt like getting that info out.

Other wise, this sort of a angst and Fluff. Lot of group bonding moment really. also learning a bit more about Twilight. I hope you enjoy it. I wrote most of this at 2am in the morning and now the rest at 3pm. I have a learning disability so the grammar is not all that great. just yet another emotional piece.

word count: 3,299

(Character creation is from: @linkeduniverse )

As the nine entered castle town In twilight’s Hyrule, the markets were hustle and bustling. So lively. “Okay away with y’all’s. Go find what you need. I am off to go say hello to a very old friend of mine.” Twilight said with a warm smile. “Meet back at the fountain- hm- in a few hours.” They all nodded and then split up. Time and wild however stuck by Twilight. He kept his head down as if he didn’t want to be seen. Which was strange to Time. Wild was to focused on the winding ally ways they ducked into. Why is he hiding like as of expecting to run into some unwanted company? Time wondered. He shook off the thought as they made another turn. Twilight seemingly walking faster till he jogged his way down some stairs to a place that had a sign that read “Telma’s bar”. Uh oh. Is he going to break his sobriety. Time worried. Twilight give time a look. “Old friend works here. Come along if you want. I want to give her a check in that I am okay.” Time let out a sigh. Wild looked at Time. Time followed. Wild not far behind. The room of the bar was cozy, the patrons all happy. Being well fed and drinks all around. Time watched a well curvy woman came out from behind the bar and gave Twilight a tight hug. Her voice carried across the room. “LINK, oh honey! I am so glad to see you!” Time smiles and shook his head. Wild stood beside Time and chuckled. “He looks nearly squished by her. Also first to see him allow anyone that close to him. Old friend indeed. But what had you worried back there?” He asked Time. Times one good eye looks down at wild as he crossed his arms and moved out of the way so to let people leave to building. Wild quickly following. “Hm, to be honest wild. I think that’s for him to tell. However, cause it you. Twilight had a drinking problem. After saving his world, he was in a world of hurt. He didn’t know how to handle it. He did what most of us did. Did things to try and cope with what they went through- instead of facing it. It got nasty. He became unrecognizable.” Time spoke softly. Keeping and eyes one Twilight. The situation was not far from his own. He got a handle on his own devices, as did Twilight. “He’s been sober since then. I fear though he is having to face many of his own demons again. When he does- who know how he will handle it.” Wild looked back at twilight as the woman seem to look at the two of them.

Time gave a slight awkward wave. Telma walked over to the two. Twilight heading off to a back area where a group was sitting around a map it seems with some books. “So you are his crew these days. I get a few letters from him. You must be Time and you cutie is Wild. Oooh look at you.” She said placing a gentle hand on Wilds face. “So sorry any of you had to go through what you have.” She states then looking at Time. He softly smiled at her. “you must be the famous Telma then. Keeping the boy out of trouble.” Telma chuckled and swatted at Time. “What trouble, the boy was no trouble. He was brave and courageous. I am so proud of him.” She stated. “Any ways, come in, come in. We have things other than alcohol here. Got food and drinks. Good company.” Time chuckles at her. “We are fine. However thank you for your offer.” She nodded, "you're welcome. Link is just catching up with the group that helped him. More than welcome to join him.” They both nodded and made their way towards where twilight was. Where he was happily chatting up the scholarly looking youth. “Oh there is so much I have seen now. Stuff that sort of fit to your father’s writings.” Time placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. Twilight nearly jumping out of his own tunic. “Ah, what secrets are you telling these friends of yours pup?” Twilight blushes and brushed Times hand off. “Just filling them in on the few things we experienced to sort of help fill in some of the work this fellow is working on.” Twilight stood up crossing his arms and giving Time a smirk. “That’s nice-“ Time paused and recognized an old friend. Also swordsman from Ordon Village. “Rusl?” The now much older gentleman rose to his feet and came over to Time as they soon broke into an animated greeting and hug between the two “been so Long since that day!”

“Oh I know, so good to see you are still kicking.”

“Oi! Don’t be calling me old, look at you! My-my! Never thought I would see you again.” Twilight shook his head and chuckled. “Pup! You didn’t tell me he was in this motley crew you spoke of.” Time said ruffling the young Hylian’s hair. Twilight smirked and shoved Time away. “Join our table, we got room. Ah you got to be Wild then. Good to see another knight at our table. Sure Ashei won’t mind sharing some pointers with you.” Rusl states scooting past to grab some extra chairs and patting Wild’s back. Wild flinched and sort of stood shyly closer to Twilight. Chairs where then brought and set up. Time took a chair and so did wild. He watched as Twilight however didn’t. Interesting. He thought to himself. Twilight how did manage to snag a bit of the bread and snacked on it. As there was chatter among the Time and the others. A bit about what Twilight and the group they were in we doing. To showing So places to check out. Twilight chiming in a bit. Otherwise. Quiet. Twilight smiled though. Telma bring over a few cups of Tea and also joining in the conversation or teasing Twilight.

After some time the three said their goodbyes. Rusl gabbing Twilight a good long hug and remind him to not be a stranger and write some time. Keep in touch and all. Twilight going “okay, okay. I will Try.” And away they went. Twilight seem to have a much different energy buzzing around him. As he lead them down the ally towards the castle town central. Where the fountain could be seen and the Castle in the at the foot. Wild following behind twilight quietly. Time processing a bit of information they were given about some enemies in some parts of Twilight’s Hyrule. Places to possibly to gather information. As well help the locals out. He saw why Twilight had a bit of distrust for the knights. Though relatively peaceful, there were many Hylian knights getting plastered. They had let down Hyrule in its greatest time of need and even now making fools of themselves. Cowards! They had them managed to meet up with the rest. “So we got some Intel on some camps we should take out. Locals have a few enemies in the area.” Twilight spoke. Taking lead. Time, smiled seeing Twilight willingness to take charge. He wasn’t a bad leader, just rarely felt like he was good one though. However this was his world. He knew what to do.

They started gathering up their gear when a seemingly drunken older man pushed through the group. Grabbing Twilight by his tunic and proceeded to yell at him. “It’s all your fault!” Twilight frozen in shock. Time and Warriors jumped in, pulling the guys off. “Hey! Let go of me! It’s all his fault.” They held him back. Twilight regaining his sense. “Let him go, it’s okay.” Twilight said calmly. The others looked at him confused. Time and Warriors let the man go. The main adjusted himself before pointing his finger at Twilight, “my son is dead because of you. You are no hero.” He spit at Twilight. “You got blood on your hands and you did NOTHING to save my son. Where were you when he needed you to save him. His platoon all died. While you went off on some fancy adventure. Not saving this kingdom.” The man shouted. It then occurred what he was speaking about. There was a time where he went through the twilight mirror and was in the twilight realm. Stuck. He couldn’t help. Not until Zant was taken down a peg and Midna had her throne again. Her land restored to its rightful state. Twilight’s brow Scrunched in sadness. I felt for the man. The eight then saw something they didn’t expect from someone being bashed. Twilight step forward and pulled the stranger into a hug. Time instinctively stepped forward out of fear what the man could do. However all the man did was sob into twilight’s chest. Twilight just holding this complete stranger. “I am sorry I was not able to save them. However your son fought bravely. Not all in vain. He helped save this world when I could at the time. I am no hero.” He pulled away from the man and looked him straight in the face. “Yes I may have failed him. However he did not fail this kingdom and is a hero in his own right. That is some good you should think of. He died protecting the land and people he care most about.” The man seem to sober up at those words. Realizing how right Twilight was. “Y-you are right. I never thought about it that way. Also sorry. My son’s death was not your fault. You are one person trying to do what others were unable to do. I am just-“ “Hurting? I get it. No need to apologize.” The man then wiped his tears away and then nodded. Twilight flashed the gentleman a smile and gave him a nod. “Thank you.” The man said, before scurrying off. Feeling foolish at the scene he made. Twilight looked as the man walked off.

Once the man was out of sight, he looked back at the group, who all looked in shock at what just happened. “Don’t.” He growled and lead them out of the castle town and back out to Hyrule field where Epona awaited them. Time stayed quiet. Wild stood close to time waiting to see if anyone would say anything. Legend and Warriors seem to both holding back their words. Sky, four and Hyrule all just without words. Warriors stepped forward as Twilight adjusted their packs a bit. “No hero Hu?! What IN HYLIA was that back there?!” Warriors angrily spat at Twilight. Getting In twilight’s personal space. 3.....2...... okay you are fine 1...twilight counted. “You saves your kingdom and the people thank you like that?! You are a Goddess damn hero!” Shut it warriors. Oh just shut it. “They should be thankful for all you did for this kingdom. You didn’t ask to be a part of a dispute between two worlds.” Warriors fumed. The anger raged in twilight’s blood. He then whipped around so quickly knocking Warriors to the ground. “You LOT are all the FUCKING SAME! The knights failed this kingdoms out of cowardice. When they were need. Where we they? Off getting drunk! Or running and hiding from THEIR duty!” Twilight barked at Warriors. Who was in utter shock at that point. Time rushed and stepped forward. Putting a barrier between the two. “Oi! Pup, back off. He had nothing in this. Your kingdom failed you pup. Warriors just sad to see how you seen by some. Warriors. Probably best not to touch on this right now.” Time sternly and calmly stated. Time pushed twilight back. “Back off.” He quietly said again. Looking at Twilight with disapproved look. Twilight backed down and took Epona’s reigns before leading her off towards their next destination. Time helped warriors up. Warriors brushed off the dirt and said nothing. The tension in the air was thick. It seem to be that way till they made their way, following Twilight. Time thinking to the time his own people had even judged him for his own failures. Time knew it all too well how that felt. He couldn’t be in all in one place and he knew that. Didn’t take away that guilt he felt. He was sure Twilight and many others felt that too.

They ended up camping out in a nearby woods. They were a few days from the nearest camp they would try and take down and see if there was any clues to the dark shadow that had seem to have taken over. Hyrule and Four helped set up. A fire. Wild, did some quick meal. Camp was quiet. Many still too shocked at the events that happened that afternoon. Time spotted twilight not eating, more so refusing to eat. Twilight feeling uncomfortable at everyone looking at him, grabbed his gear and went off to patrol the camp. When he was out of war shot, legend was the first to speak up, “okay, what the hell? I have Never seen Twilight snap like that.”

“Maybe we shouldn’t talk about this guys. It’s clear he is working through some things.” Sky spoke up.

“I get we all got secrets, however he is the most reserved guy and loose his cool that way...” legend then continued. “Guys....” Wild said softly.

“I mean...” Time sighed and just shook his head. “Quiet.” He then barked.

The group sat in attention. “We have all been where he is at. Show a bit of compassion. Eat your food and drop the subject. Once done with that, each go to bed. “ “Who will take second watch then.” Asked wild. “I will.” Time said coolly. They all nodded. They all did what Time said. Warriors couldn’t be angry at Twilight. Not with what had said. Twilight. He knew it had nothing to do with him. However he couldn’t rest. So as everyone else was asleep. He looked at Time who was sitting up, sipping on tea and keeping an eye out for the camp. Warriors could see Twilight had not returned. He sat up and gathered up a log and placed it on the fire, before taking a seat beside Time. “Any sight of him?” Warriors asked. Time stayed quiet. No. “Hope he is okay.” Warriors continued looking in the direction of the forest which Twilight left. Time was worried. Twilight was not known to be gone this long. Clear he wanted to work through this on his own. Twilight was a private person about his emotions. He did show them to anyone really. Snapping like he did came from all the built up hurt and emotions he is keeping stuff in. He talked to Time a bit. Otherwise, he didn’t let anyone know. The night grew on. Time was fighting sleep. Warriors still sitting up with him. “One of us should sleep. No point both of us being out of rest.” Said Time fighting off a yawn. Warriors nodded. He spotted wild having one of his nightmares. “I will sleep. Wake me in a few though. Then I will take your place. We got to be in shape for fighting the camp.” He said getting up and moving over to where Wild was. Taking where Twilight would of been and just laid beside the cub. Giving them comfort the best he could.

The night dragged on. Time tossed another log on the fire. Twilight nowhere in sight still. Where are you pup? Please be careful. He thought to himself. He let another sigh. He was going to sit up till he could no longer stay awake. However Warriors seem to also being unable to sleep again. After making sure Wild was no longer trembling from nightmare. He made his way over to Time again. whose eye looked as those they were to nearly close. He plopped beside him. "you should rest. I will keep watch." Warriors said. Time tiredly looked at Warriors and gave in. He slow got up and then went over and slept where Warriors had been. Warriors carefully watched over the group. He sat up waiting. All the way till daylight crept up. The cool Morning air was crisp. The fog was low on the field and bits of the woods. The morning birds starting to chatter away. Warriors, eye, spotted a shadow of what Looked like a wolf making its way through the fog. That can't be, wolfi- his thought was broken when Twilight broke through the Fog. He looked bloodied and exhausted. Warriors stood up quickly. He rushed over to Twilight. Twilight Raised a hand up. "I am okay." Sensing what warriors was going to say. "Sorry about the other day. I had no right to snap at you that way. You are a knight, you had not play in my world's dealing. Hope you can forgive me?" he then continued. Warrior's pulled Twilight in a Tight hug. he could care less how soaked Twilight was in what looked like the blackest blood that was coming out of many of the corrupted beasts.

"I am just glad you are alive and I now better understand you finally." Warriors said quietly, that only Twilight could hear. The rest of the camp was slowly waking. Warrior, broke the hug after some time. seeing how tense Twilight was. Twilight quickly wiped some blood coming from his mouth. Warriors crossed his arms. "goddess you will need a good wash after whatever trouble to got yourself into." Twilight chuckled and shook off and attempted to rub off some of the blood from his tunic. "well all I can say, we can explore the place safely. They too though seemed corrupted. However their leader was nowhere in sight." Warrior bought a hand to his own chin and went into deep though. Thinking about what twilight had said. Twilight was then bum rushed into a hug by both Wild and Wind, who seem both excited and worried. Twilight smiled, ruffling wind's hair. Then moving his hand to Wild's chin and giving a light tap of his forehead against wild’s.

Legend, Four and Hyrule sort of stayed back, still a little uncertain of the situation. Wind and Wild moved out of the way as Time grabbed Twilight into a tight hug. Twilight hands instinctively going up and resting on Times chest. As to put up some sort of barrier. He body just then relaxes. He was safe. This was someone he trusted. The stood like that for some time. The group watched. "I was so worried." Time said quietly.

"I'm sorry." his head sinking into Time's chest.

"don't ever do that again."

"I know."

Time pulls away and lifted Twilight’s chin to look his square in the face, "and stop saying sorry, you have done nothing wrong. Just had us all worried." giving the pup a concerned looked. Twilight gave him a smirk and Pulled away. "Also, don't pull a wild. we got one chaotic child, don't need two." Gaining Twilight the ever disapproval look from Time.

Twilight Chuckled. "fair. But no Guarantees" he then teased.

The group all chuckled. They went about packing camp up and making a quick breakfast. Before they were to head out to the camp which Twilight single handily in the night took down. "I swear I thought Wolfie was about to appear this morning, through the fog. Maybe he is reflecting you Twilight." Warriors stated as they quickly ate. Twilight said nothing and just smirked. Four, wild, Legend and Time all worriedly looking at twilight then at each other.

Hm, so he may. Twilight Thought to himself and continued to smile and say nothing. So he may.

-Fin.

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inkstaineddove · 4 years

Text

Little Games We Play

Ships: PruHun

Characters: Prussia, Austria, Hungary; mentioned France

Summary: For the creation of his kingdom, Prussia was forced to ally with Austria in the War of the Spanish Succession. Taking advantage of this indebtedness, Roderich demands Gilbert's cooperation on a task he'd find morally reprehensible. To live with himself, he must find a way of sabotaging Roderich's plans and get away with it.

Vienna, 1703.

Hesitantly, Prussia entered the study. While he had been in this room many a time before, its size had yet to cease to amaze him. The length of it could fit two rooms in his new home in Berlin and the entirety of his home in Königsberg. Statues and busts made of marble and gold stared him down, judging his relative poverty to the opulence surrounding them. He did his best to ignore them, scanning the room for its owner. The sooner he could be free of it, the better.

“Ah, Prussia! I hope I hadn’t left you waiting too long!” Austria strode in, appearing out of an adjoining room Prussia hadn’t noticed. He waved towards the sofas in the center of the room as he walked to a little bar stand beside them. “Please, have a seat. Care for a glass of brandy?”

Complying, Prussia took his seat, shifting around nervously. The damn thing was much too plush and with too many embellishments for it to ever be comfortable. Like all things in this palace, it was designed for looks over practicality. “Far be it from me to turn down a glass of anything,” he smiled, trying to relax himself. As soon as the drink was in his hands, he quickly began whittling it away.

“I do appreciate that you were so willing to help me with this endeavor. While I’m not minimizing the fighting on the Rhine, I felt it far more appropriate to utilize your experience in this area than Brandenburg’s assistance, which would turn this into a ‘blind leading the blind’ campaign.” Austria sipped his brandy and chuckled. “And, well, that shiny new kingdom of yours did leave you indebted to me.”

“Mm, that is one way of looking at things,” Prussia grumbled, his lips pursed together. If this was how their conversation would be going, he would be needing much more to drink.

They sat in tense silence for a couple moments, each appraising the other. What relationship they had before had recently grown rocky with a shared amount of personal enmity and jealousy. Any interactions they now had became a dance to see who would move first, who would deliver the most cutting of remarks with the most insincere smile. Now, the political situation required some effort to get along, even if it only amounted to a minor detente.

Roderich cleared his throat, regaining control of the situation. “As much as it pains me to admit this, I’ve been put in a humiliating enough position to where I unfortunately need your cooperation. While I would prefer to be going around you and dealing with Georg only, I’m cursed with you being the one with any familiarity with Hungarians.” Realizing how his words could be interpreted, he shot Gilbert an icy look. “Refrain from any crass insinuation. I know how your mind works.”

Gilbert held his hands up in defense. “Don’t give me that look! I wasn’t going to insinuate anything until you mentioned it!” He sighed, relieved that all pretensions of friendliness and civility could be dropped. “How do you think I feel? You really believe I’d want anything to do with you in this? If it weren’t for my debt, as you so kindly pointed out, I’d be watching this from the sidelines rooting her on. This goes against all three of my principles.”

“You have those? Color me impressed. An old hold over from your monastery days I assume.” Roderich touched a hand to his chest, feigning surprise. “My apologies, that seemed to slip out. How it warms my heart to know that, under normal circumstances, you would be right alongside the traitors. Surely this won’t backfire on me.” He rolled his eyes, sighing dramatically. “I understand that a mercenary will always remain a mercenary, but is it too difficult to even pretend to side with me on one issue? If you’re going to keep your people in line, you better get used to defending the right of any established monarch to do what’s necessary to stay in power – regardless of your own satisfaction at seeing whomever it is fall.”

Prussia waved a hand flippantly. “Hypocrite. You’d be singing a different tune if the shoe were on France’s foot.” He smiled, exposing his teeth like a shark. “But fine, I can humor you. How I pray each night for peace to be restored to your lands and the health of the emperor, long may he live! And down with those Hungarians, may I slay one with my sword!” He knocked back the rest of the drink. When he saw the sheer contempt on Austria’s face, he chortled. “Don’t like what you asked for? I’m giving you enthusiasm.”

Austria sneered. “You know exactly what I meant and that definitely wasn’t it. If you could learn to hold your tongue, more people would find your presence tolerable nor would they think you a man so far removed from civility that he’s better matched with the animals. But cheers.” He finished off the rest of his glass before refilling their cups. He shook his head. “Enough of this chitchat, the only reason you’re here is to fulfill a purpose. In five days, we will head out. There should be some information in Budapest, I’m sure you’ll be able to scrounge it out. If I head anywhere near their areas, it’s as if they can tell who I am, and I receive incredibly hostile responses. Of course, if one of them trusts you that doesn’t make for an entirety of the population, but if she happens to be their collective wills and stubbornness, I assume that means you will have an easier time tracking her down than me.” He held up a finger, remembering something. “And you’re the only one of us I know who speaks the language. Oddly enough, they don’t appreciate repeated questioning in German.”

“No surprise. I can tell you from crusading that most people outside of all our lands find it off putting.” Prussia folded his arms over his chest and leaned away from him. “You want me to play spy? This was already a cowardly enough thing to ask of me, but I’m amazed that you’re making it worse by forcing me to operate in the dark. And I’m sure my involvement will be information you won’t keep private?” At Austria’s little smirk and shrug, he scoffed. “Despicable. You couldn’t care to make this easier on me? What good does getting revenge on the both of us serve?”

“Who do you take me for? I’m a man of honor. I knew this wouldn’t be something you’d accept readily; a little persuasion is in order.” Austria opened a small chest on the table before them. Inside was a satin bag, pregnant with a stack of coins.

Gilbert picked it up and dumped some of the contents in his hand. It appeared to be a not insignificant amount of gold. He shook his head with disgust. “Caiaphas offers his blood money? Be careful, Roderich, you might be showing yourself too soon.”

“I assure you that this time Judas need not kill himself. Though, I do beg you to betray her with a kiss. That’s too important of a detail to miss out.” Roderich smiled smugly, proud of his position. “Protest all you want, but we both know you’re going to accept. You knights are all the same, all pretenses of chivalry forgotten with a little amount of coin. Honor always yields to self-interest. And, to sweeten the deal, there’s more if you’re successful or turn up any useful leads. If it makes it that much easier, fine. Have this adventure be our little secret until a more beneficial time. I do live with her; if your brand of comfort will prevent me from waking up to a slit throat, then who am I to stop you?”

Gilbert gazed at the bag. Sighing, he shoved it into his jacket pocket. “If you swear to keep this between us then you have my cooperation.”

Austria smiled like a snake. “Thank you for being reasonable. You have my word that this will remain hidden from her.” He flicked his wrist away. “Now shoo. I’ll see you in the morning and we can discuss the details of my plan.”

---

Budapest.

Austria stood, hunched over a map. “Do you know where her home is? It shouldn’t be that far from where we are.”

“Are you kidding me? Of course, I do! I could enter the city blind and still find my way. I doubt the layout has changed that much.” Prussia rolled his eyes in disbelief. How could that have even been a question? “I’m heading out. Remember to give me time. If we get lucky and she happens to be there, it does us both better if I can persuade her to play along. You charging in would absolutely ruin all my work.”

Austria nodded. “You have my word; I’ll give you all the time you need as long as you prove useful. Now, run along. I’d prefer you to finish sooner rather than later.”

Gilbert rolled his eyes and began strolling into the city. He straightened his back and affixed a purposeful expression on his face. If he appeared to be a man on a mission, one with important matters at hand, then no one would consider him out of place. He nodded his head at a group of gossiping old ladies on the street, trying to determine whether what they were discussing had any value. They only spoke of the daily dramas of their families, the personal nature of them overblowing their meaning to each. Nothing of significance.

Her house had hardly changed. Which, when Gilbert stopped to think, why would it? When was the last time she had been home for any substantial length of time? It was more impressive that it hadn’t fallen into complete disarray, though he supposed she had someone take care of it on her behalf.

At the front door, he made a show of checking his pockets for keys and of frustration at being unable to find them. He took out the loose brick beneath the windowsill. There they were, as they always had been, the spare key she kept hidden. He shook his head in disapproval as he entered. “She really should move them. Any stray could walk in and take everything.”

Feeling particularly charitable, he tore a bit of scrap paper from one of the old messages sitting on a kitchen counter. Humming to himself, he began scratching out a cheeky note teasing her for her lack of foresight. He felt the air around him grow tense and slowly turned around. He was met with the tip of a sword centimeters from his face. “You know, under different circumstances this would be quite the turn on.”

Hungary narrowed her eyes into a glare. “Don’t try to be cute. We both know why you’re here. The fact that he sent the dog after me first doesn’t bode well.” She pushed the sword closer, pressing him into the counter. “You understand. If I have to cut you down to protect myself, then so be it.”

“I understand, but do you really have to call me a dog to my face? I hear that enough as it is, I don’t need it from you too.” Gilbert smiled, slowly moving the tip away from his face. “The fact that you think so low of me is painful, Erzsi. I wouldn’t be so unbothered if I were here to help anyone else but you. You know me and where my real loyalties lie. I have more honor than that.”

Her expression softened and she lowered the sword. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I should know better.” She took a step closer and inched up on her toes, all pretenses of hostility gone. His guard dropped, he leaned in and smirked feeling her hand fish around in the pocket of his breeches. Erzsébet jumped away, sword extended in one hand while tossing the bag of coins up in the other. “Ah, so this is how much I’m worth to you? You’re right, I do know you. That’s why I know a mercenary masquerading as a knight would never turn down even a measly amount of money – which this really is. You’re selling me out for much too little.”

“If you gave me a chance, there’s actually a really good explanation for that.” He paused, waiting for her to interrupt. Smiling, he continued on, “You know how highly Roderich thinks of me. He figured if he offered me a little gold now and a lot later, that would buy my cooperation. I planned on taking his money while sending him off in the opposite direction. I would never knowingly sic him onto you.”

While this relaxed her considerably, she wasn’t fully convinced. “Then why come here first if you had no malintent?”

Gilbert shrugged. “Where else could I go? I’d rather sit around here and create evidence to give him for a few hours than wander around aimlessly.”

She set the sword down, laying it on the counter. “How do you plan on tricking him? It better be a brilliant plan. He’s incredibly adept at knowing when he’s being played for a fool. Anything less and you’ll be found out immediately and I won’t have enough time to flee to where I’m needed.”

“Don’t worry, I had it all figured out! I was going to throw a dart at a map and forge a letter that you intended to send me telling me where you were heading. What? Stop laughing! He would fall for it without question!”

Erzsébet shook her head, a relieved smile stretching across her lips. “No, he wouldn’t. I think that might be one of the worst ideas you’ve ever had. It’s a miracle I decided to stay the extra day. No, if we want this to work, we’ll have to do things my way. Follow me.” She led them into her study, taking a seat at her desk.

Over her shoulder, he watched her write out a letter in her neat script. His brows furrowed together, seeing who it was addressed to. “Who’s this Ferenc guy?” He leaned down, getting a better look at what was written and frowned. “And do you need to sound so friendly? It’s not a real letter.”

“He’s winning our independence. This would be a juicy letter for you to find, sure to promise all sorts of information Austria will be desperate to know.” She bit her lip to withhold a laugh. “The point is to make this sound authentic. If I weren’t warm in it, he would know something was off. There’s no reason to be so jealous.”

Gilbert huffed and walked away from her, his arms crossed. “I’m not jealous.” Upon hearing how unconvincing he was, he scowled at the wall. “It was just an observation. There’s no reason to read into it more.” Protecting himself from causing anymore damage to his ego, he sulked in silence on the opposite end of the room.

“There. If this doesn’t satisfy him then we never stood a chance.” Erzsébet rose and slipped the letter into his hand. Taking him and the situation in, she grinned. “I don’t think you’ll ever know how much this means to me.”

He tucked it securely in the liner pocket of his jacket, giving it an affectionate pat. “I think I have some idea. I may not be able to be out on the battlefield with you, but I’m always besides you at heart.” He kissed her tenderly on the lips. “I don’t want to keep him waiting any longer and risk him getting him impatient. You’d be smart to get on the move as well. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

She softly clicked her tongue and caressed his jawline with her thumb. “There’s nothing for you to be worried about.”

“Which is exactly why I’m worried. If you can, find a way to send me word that you’re safe.” He kissed her again and, when they parted, winked. “Give those bastards hell.”

…

Gilbert lounged around lazily in his tent. His return to camp had been uneventful. The letter had been in Roderich’s possession for a couple of hours now and still no reaction. This lack of acknowledgement troubled him. Could he see right through their plot? Was the game over? These were things he didn’t want floating about in his mind. He had attempted to read to take his mind off things but found all he could do was stare blankly at the page.

A hand mysteriously appeared on his shoulder. “Read anything good lately?” When he swung the book back to hit the intruder, he felt a surprising amount of resistance. There was a begrudging respect for their block. “That’s not exactly the warm welcome I was expecting.”

Gilbert jumped up, his breathing ragged. “Erzsi, are you insane? Are you trying to get yourself captured? After all the time I’m buying you, you’re going to waste it being this reckle-”

Erzsébet covered his mouth with her hand. She glanced at the entrance, making sure no one had heard. “If you keep ranting and raving like that, I certainly will be! Keep your voice down, I’ve got a good reason for being here. Can you do that?” Only when he nodded his head in the affirmative did she release him. “I was leaving, but then I saw this little camp and knew exactly who it belonged to. I need to know how many men he brought, which thankfully aren’t much, and whether he fell for the letter. Whether or not he’s figured me out will determine what I do next.”

How he loathed that she truly had a good reason for this. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, exhaling loudly. “I’m waiting to find that out myself. I haven’t heard a word from the prick after I handed it over to one of his lackeys. I’ve been trying not to go insane in here ever since I returned.”

“Gilbert! May I enter?” Roderich’s voice called from outside.

“For fuck’s sake. Quick! Hide!” Gilbert hissed, nudging her away. “Just a moment! I’m ah…undressed!” Once Erzsébet had disappeared underneath the bedframe, he made a quick sign of the cross. “You can come in now.”

Austria entered the tent, completely unaware of the chaos around him. He took a seat at the table in the center of the room. “I have to say, I’m impressed at how quick you were. You made it sound like you would be there till nightfall. Did you honestly not have to ask around? The letter was, what? Stored away somewhere in her desk?”

“I’m as surprised as you are. It was stuffed away in some drawer, as if she couldn’t be bothered to care if it were found. She seems to be quite fond of flaunting her insubordination in places where you’re certain to check.” At his glare, Prussia smirked. “You can make that face all you want, but we both know it’s the truth. She’s overconfident and it’s making her careless. When dealing with an opponent of that sort, I would recommend waiting until their own negligence causes their defeat. There’s no reason to go on a path of destruction right now.”

“Give it a rest. Of course, that would be your proscription. And one that’ll surely cause her to win that ‘sovereignty’ she so clamors for and turn me into the biggest jackass on the continent.” Austria rolled his eyes. “I cannot afford to wait any longer and have her position further bolstered by France. If this were simply one of the regular tantrums her people so often throw then I would do exactly that. The situation is too volatile to not react. Speaking of which,” he handed the letter to Prussia, “read this to me. About the only thing I could make out was her name.”

Prussia scanned the letter, mentally translating it as quick as he could. “A lot it is just meaningless pleasantries. The only real substance to it is that she will be in Pécs in a week to receive supplies they expected from France.”

“Pécs? What an odd choice. Are you sure this letter is in her own hand?” Austria took the letter back and began examining it for any inconsistencies. “Surely you must have a letter from her with you. Don’t try to argue. I’d be more shocked if you didn’t.”

“There is one in particular I like to keep on me, but…” Gilbert hesitated in his warning. Wouldn’t it be much sweeter to see the guttural reaction? He retrieved it from his pocket and passed it over. “I know my word will never be good enough, but here. You’ll see it’s a perfect match.”

Roderich unfolded it and compared. “Ah, much better. How refreshing to see a familiar language instead of one that’s completely indecipherable.” After noticing a particular word, he became focused on the personal letter. He blinked rapidly in surprise. “Perhaps it would have been better if this were in Hungarian instead. Quite the picture this paints and, yet, I can’t avert my eyes.” He put his empty hand over his mouth and his cheeks pinkened. “That’s filthy! How did she…how did you! My God, I can see why this is the letter you carry around. Such a…unique use of language.” Once at the end, he quickly shoved it back into Gilbert’s hands.

Gilbert lovingly folded it back up and set it down on the table. He licked his lips, unable to wipe the smug smirk off his face. “Surely that answers all your questions.”

“Answers? Don’t be absurd! That creates far more questions than I’ve ever had before in my life! For starters, is what she describes even possible? And, if it is within the realm of what is capable, would it even be pleasurable? She’s absolutely right! If either of you were able to walk afterwards that would certainly be a travesty to all that was…you mean about the handwriting?” Roderich cleared his throat, now unable to take the pressure of Gilbert’s stare. “Yes, I’m sufficiently satisfied that the one you found isn’t a forgery. Though, I do wonder if either of your appetites could ever experience the same and why can’t I think about anything else? I shall never look at either of you the same.”

Before Gilbert could offer anything in response, a poorly muffled snort was heard from under the bed. The two men shared a look. “Gilbert, are you hiding someone beneath your bed?” Roderich’s tone was befuddled rather than accusatory.

The icy fingers of fear gripped Gilbert’s heart. He opened his mouth but couldn’t force any words to come out. Panic settled in and he accepted the inevitably of the havoc that would be unleashed. Rather than strike a defiant pose, he averted his eyes to the floor. He would not witness the implosion he would be party to.

“Really? Is it that difficult to be here by yourself that you’ve resorted to filling your bed with some whore? My God have a bit more dignity. I can’t believe that I must be the one to reassure you of this, but you will see her again. A cheap thrill does nothing to heal a broken heart.”

Gilbert was unable to process that a crisis was being averted. He cocked his head lamely to the side, brows knitted in confusion. “You’re not going to scream at me?”

“Why would I? I’m not your father. I don’t care who you’re copulating with, barring the obvious exception, but I believe you could do better than this. There is absolutely no reason beyond your own desperation and wretchedness to pay a whore to warm your bed.” He shrugged, completely unbothered by what was occurring. “Regardless, I’m sure the clock is ticking, and I don’t want you to pay more than what is necessary. Goodnight, enjoy yourselves, and please don’t wake me up.”

Once he had left, Erzsébet crawled out from underneath. As soon as she got a good look at Gilbert, she couldn’t stop snickering. “Do you seriously carry that letter around with you?”

“Why wouldn’t I? I can’t help getting lonely sometimes.” He wrapped his arms around her waist. “What I really want to know is how much for the hour?”

“Oh, so now I can afford to waste an hour? How quickly your tune changes when you would be the beneficiary.” She rolled her eyes at his hypocrisy, smirking. “If I wait any longer, it’ll be too late when I arrive at my first stop. I can’t lose any more time.”

He sighed, understanding. Looking at her in his arms, a sudden onslaught of worry plagued him. “Be safe, please, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Erzsébet scoffed in mock outrage. “Why would I do that? I want to win, don’t I?” She smiled up at him and rested a relaxed hand on his chest. “There’s no need to fret. Whatever happens, I always turn out just fine. Take care of yourself. I’ll see you when I can.”

Gilbert kissed her, his heart yearning with indescribable feeling. As she walked away, a sentiment took sudden hold. “Erzsi, I-!” He called out to her. She turned back, puzzlement written plainly across her face. He exhaled slowly, releasing the foreign emotion like stored tension. “I’ll be thinking of you each day.” He didn’t offer then that that’s what he always did.

She smiled softly at him, tenderness claiming her own heart. She blew a kiss and crept out, disappearing as seamlessly as she appeared. He stood there, long after she left, with something like overburdened dread sinking into his stomach.

#aph prussia #hws prussia #aph austria #hws austria #aph hungary #hws hungary #pruhun #aph pruhun #hws pruhun #aph fanfiction #aph fanfic #hws fanfic #hws fanfiction #hetalia fanfic #historical hetalia #hetalia fanfiction #theres two jokes in this im really proud of #and if you guess them right you win my hand in marriage

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imintheunderworld · 4 years

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Night of Gods Worldbuilding: Ephryas

Ephryas

When looking upon ephryas for the first time, we are led to believe they are the correspondent to mermaids in our world. However, this is only partially true.

Ephryas do not have an actual physical form, they don’t have tails or human tops, they are not animal nor humanoid like. They are simple flames that intensely shine in the ocean at night.

They appear in a green color to the eyes of human men (anyone who identifies as one) and in red tones for women.

The red is the true color of a ephrya. The green represents desires, hope and greed and that is why those who fall victims to their power see them as such.

Ephryas try to lure men into the water with visions. They telepathically make them see everything they wish for, be it a happy family, lots of funny or true love. The sailors end up losing control when they are under that influence and believe that their dreams will be within their reach when they get to the flame. Contrary to sirens and mermaids, they do not present themselves as beautiful women, unless that is what the man in question desires the most.

The reason why they target men, but not, or very rarely, woman is due to their story, but also for convenience:

The Ephrya Myth

The story of how ephryas became the way they are is highly connected to the creation of the anara gods and of the word, so if you haven’t yet read my Anara Gods post, I recommend you to check it out before proceeding.

The first ephrya ever, Vanora, was created by the god Adon. They were lovers, but Adon soon realized he couldn’t stay with her.

As a god, his mission was to incarnate on earth from time to time as a monarch and, when he was in his divine form, he soon realized that, no matter how much he loved Vanora and the ocean, he couldn’t permanently stay there as he belonged to Heasora and Vanora, as an aquatic being on earth, couldn’t transcend between dimensions with him. So he left her with a child in her arms, choosing, without actually choosing, his duty as a god.

This provoked bitterness in Vanora’s heart. The image of her daughter growing up without a father thirsted her with sadness. She wanted Adon back, but knew he had made his choice and that she couldn’t change his mind.

Because they were both made of Adon’s energy, his absence caused Vanora’s and the daughter’s, Leneera, physical form start to vanish. They quickly began to transform themselves into simple flames in the ocean.

While Leneera grew up to become an adult ephrya, her longing for her father increased. Being half of such a powerful being created the need for that part of her to be energetically refilled.

She had her mother’s gifts of casting illusions to the mind of others, powers conceded by Adon’s and that were initially use to please not only him, but also Vanora’s own wish to travel the world.

This led to an idea that could fulfill her longings without having Adon coming back: the sailors that navegated the seas were believed to have souls made from Adon’s energy, just like hers and Varona’s. Through her illusion casting abilities, she would be able lure those sailors in with whatever they wish the most and steal their souls to feed their own.

Through this process, other ephryas were made using that energy that was fed, creating a population of them during the times. This, unfortunally, did not restore ephryas’ physical form, but they are usually depicted in art as they were previously believed to look like.

Sailors or soldiers that do not descend from Adon will still be lured in by most ephryas, but usually their souls are released into Oxeanur instead of being eaten or just stored in ephryas communities for a day that might be needed. They believe that trying to replace their or their offsprings’ adonian energy by another god is possible and would cease the longing for that type of energy. They would just need to find a way to make the longing not happen for another source of energy.

Because most sailors in the oceans ephryas live in are males, this made them adapt to eating men’s souls and not women’s. Adapting to eating women’s souls would be hard for a ephrya, as women have always been able to see a ephrya’s true form (the red flame) and would quickly understand what was happening and resist their power if suddenly saw them as green.

It takes a lot of training for sailors to resist an ephrya’s abilities, but it’s not impossible.

wip intro | about the author | pinterest board

More Night of Gods’ worldbuilding posts:

The Kingdom Of Hescad

The Anara Gods

The Pentacle Sisters

The Dark Knights

The Veoks

taglist: @lordfenric @writinginslowmotion @cuban-existential-crisis @planets-and-prose @latrantem @milkyway-writes @fierywords @persona-pax @pechaes @iced-ginger-tea @lmorasey @abeelwrites @fictional-semantics @aepreall @authoressasusual @llesbianwrites @saxoniowrites @andiwriteunderthemoon @where-the-sky-writes @writing-with-roses @all-my-novels @bbabyapollo

#violetvineyard #thebluesthour #writeblr #wip #writblr #writing community #writers on tumblr #work in progress #worldbuilding #fantasy wip #dark fantasy wip #night of gods: wordbuilding #night of gods #night of gods: ephryas #ephryas #nog

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nobodyfamousposts · 5 years

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Felix July - Magic AU

A new AU unrelated to my others with Grumpy Wizard Felix.

@felixmonth

Once upon a time, there was a kingdom of wealth and great prosperity. But of course it was, for one of the leaders of this land was a noble of the Agreste household, Gabriel.

He was a stern lord, but not cruel. And while not necessarily loved, he was certainly well respected and admired by the people. So it was with great joy when he was married to Emilie in a tale the likes of which Cinderella would later be based on. Their home was a happy one, especially after she gave birth and Gabriel had an heir.

But all was not right with the boy. Whatever flaws Gabriel had were magnified in the child. Cold. Aloof. Withdrawn. Gloomy. He gave off a most unsettling aura that would often drive most sensible folk away.

Even worse, it soon became evident that the boy was…unnatural and capable of the worst sorts of sorcery. Things would break in his presence without being touched. Many would suddenly trip or be subjected to sudden injuries. Great works of art and manufacture would age and decay quickly. On one such occasion when his father required him to learn swordplay, the boy took offense and the metal rusted and turned to dust in his hands.

Everyone was fearful of him. All except the boy’s mother, who loved him dearly and was intent to see the best of him. Many begged the lord to send the possessed child away or otherwise end him to restore peace, but for the sake of his wife, he relented and showed the boy mercy.

A mercy he came to regret, as the time came that even the beloved mother was struck down by the boy’s power. For all of Gabriel’s efforts, she continued to waste away. He scoured the land, seeking witches and wizards, archaic tomes, ancient rituals, and any manner of healing power to attempt to revive her.

All to no effect.

But he was desperate. And no matter how many failures and how many doctors and healers told him there was nothing to be done, he refused to give up on her. So caught up in his attempts to restore his wife, the man had foolishly neglected to manage his own son.

At least, until the day the heir summoned a demon.

It was a ravenous creature. Insatiable and deranged. Under the boy’s command, it attacked his father and ruined a good half of the manor in which they lived. Servants fled in terror. The creature stalked the halls, delighting in the fear it caused to anyone unfortunate enough to cross it. None dared to approach the house. People sought for an answer, but nothing could be done. After all, Felix was the heir. What could they do?

Luckily, there was a second son who was less disastrously inclined and with a much sweeter and more manageable temperament. And who did not have a pet demon to sic on people he didn’t like.

So the Lord Agreste promptly named young Adrien his heir and cast Felix out of the family.

Ousted from his noble position and banished from his home, the older son swore revenge and fled to another land with his demon, where he only grew in power and evil. Despite attempts to search for him and arrest him for his crimes and sorcery, he was nowhere to be found. Many knights were sent after him only to return in failure—if they returned at all. Much misfortune befell those whom encountered him.

Some say he opened a gateway to the Underworld where he is amassing an army of the undead. Some say he set up a lair within a volcano, guarded by dragons. Others will claim that he took over an innocent village and transformed them all into monstrosities. Then there was one person who said he started up a school somewhere.

Nobody could quite agree on just what happened to him, actually.

But everyone knew, yes, everyone knew! There was only destruction where he tread. Only danger in his home. Each day that passed, he only grew in skill and evil. All feared him. None with any sense dared to confront him and those that did would not get a chance to regret doing so.

Everyone knew that one day he would return and bring calamity upon them all.

Everyone knew that he would seek revenge against those who had cast him out.

And everyone knew that to this end, he had kidnapped the fair Marinette, a lady of great purity and healing magic.

Everyone that is, except for Felix himself.

“How did you get in my house?”

When Felix had woken up that morning, he knew immediately that something wasn’t right.

Mostly because he actually woke up of his own volition instead of due to being scratched by an annoyed and hungry demon or the sound of something being knocked off a shelf by said demon to get his attention. Plagg was rather petulant that way. It came with being a creature of destruction and ill fortune. As well as a demon. And one Felix had yet to figure out how to banish—though heaven knows he was trying.

Since the unfortunate circumstances of their initial meeting, the menace had been a thorn in his side, seeking any means to vex him. One of said means was waking him in the early hours of the morn to whine for food. And become rather destructive and impossible to ignore if food was not granted immediately thereafter.

The only time he didn’t bother Felix was if something else had his attention. Which was never a good thing.

So he sighed, put on his robes, and prepared himself for whatever headache was waiting for him.

Which happened to be a young lady in his kitchen. Clearly making something that smelled lovely and belonging in a bakery rather than his tower. Plagg, the little traitor, was cozying up to her quite easily.

The lady smiled, polite but clearly nervous.

“Hello! My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I came to request your teaching into the use of magic and sorcery—”

“One, I’m not a teacher. And two, that doesn’t explain how you got into my kitchen.”

“Oh, I let her in.” Plagg spoke up, appearing all too pleased from his spot next to her.

Felix’s eye twitched. “Why?”

“She smelled nice and had free food.”

Ah. There’s that headache.

“She’s a keeper, kid. Don’t send her away.”

“Quiet, demon.”

Because of course the demon would betray him and open him up to a potential threat for food. Plagg would deny it with silly claims that ‘she’s not really a threat’, but how would he even know when he’s stuffing his face and leaving Felix to deal with the aftermath.

It was Paris all over again.

“I’m sorry,” the lady—Marinette spoke up, noticing his mood. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”

“You shouldn’t have been able to intrude at all.” He told her—not just a bit put out by the whole thing.

She blinked, surprised. “Really?”

“I made this place impossible to reach with that goal in mind, yes.”

That only seemed to confuse her more. “But…it wasn’t that hard to get here.”

Felix would be insulted, except that up until this point no one else had managed to reach the land around his Tower, much less enter. From her expression, the girl wasn’t bragging or trying to show off. She was truly surprised by his answer. So that meant she must have some skill and at least and no ego for him to have to deal with.

There was that at least.

Regardless, he still needed to know how a stranger made it into his home. Mostly so he could further improve his protections to prevent it from happening again.

“How did you get here?”

“Oh, well I asked for directions.”

That had to be a lie.

“Except that nobody has directions to get through the Lost Forest.”

“Really?”

“That’s why it’s called the ‘Lost Forest’. Who would you even get directions from?”

“Well, I asked the nice fairies—”

Felix blanched at that. “From forest fae?”

“They were quite kind.”

“They eat people.”

She coughed. “I’m sure that’s just a rumor.”

“The trees are literally made out of people they’ve led astray and fed to them.” He politely—in his personal opinion—avoided questioning how she DIDN’T notice the twisted horror of the trees in question. “Why would they help you?”

She shrugged. “I offered them gingerbread men and asked for directions to get here.”

He stared, surprised at that.

…Huh. So they had a weakness for sugar. Or perhaps treats in the shape of people. He would need to keep that in mind.

“And what about the Gorge?” He asked.

“I crossed the bridge.”

He blinked.

“The Gorge doesn’t have a bridge.”

She beamed at that, appearing quite proud. “It does now.”

He raised an eyebrow in confusion. “What do yo—”

“And then I saw the Tower and headed here! There were a number of holes and vines blocking the way. You really need to clean up your lawn, it was difficult to get past the pitfalls and thorns. Someone could get caught and injured that way!”

He stared.

“That would be because they are traps. That is what they are meant to do.”

She blushed at that realization. “Oh.”

He closed his eyes and rubbed his head. “And how did you get past the door?”

“I knocked?” She answered, questioningly as if it should have been obvious.

“And I answered!” Plagg cheerfully added.

…This was it then. All his work, completely undone by an overly nice and cheerful lady who would no doubt be the death of him. And no thanks to his sole ally—if the thing could even be called that.

Felix glowered down at the creature. “And you didn’t think to perhaps warn me? Or at least not let in a potential threat?”

Of course, the glower had no effect. The little demon was more than used to it by now, and had no doubt encountered worse before he had ever been summoned. And Felix knew this after all this time, but he tried—oh yes, he would still try.

Plagg just grinned cheekily up at him. “What would be the fun of that?”

“Fun isn’t supposed to be the priority here.”

“It should be. Hell knows you were a stick in the mud before you summoned me.”

Marinette gasped at the little creature in surprise.

“You’re the demon? But you’re so tiny!”

“That’s because he hasn’t fed me!” Plagg exclaimed, looking up at her pitifully so as to garner sympathy.

“You eat three times your weight in cheese on a daily basis.”

Plagg didn’t deny it. And of course, the damned thing was completely unashamed. “Yeah, but I could eat four.”

Felix simply rolled his eyes.

Another day then.

#ml au #magic au #felix agreste #ml felix #marinette dupain cheng #plagg #grumpy wizard felix #felix month #felix july

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onyxedskies · 3 years

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FE3H OC - Savina Cecelia Galatea

Story: Blackened Sky | FE3H

Owner: serenerains/wlshlngstar (quotev), wlshlngstars (tumblr)

Visuals: part one part two post canon

Names and aliases: Name (Japanese): サヴィーナ Full name (Japanese): サヴィーナセセリアガラテア Name (English): Savina Full name (English): Savina Cecelia Galatea Aliases (Japanese): 黒ずんだ空, 空, ガラテアを数える Aliases (English): Blackened Sky, Sky, Count Galatea

Biological Information: Gender: Female Race: Human Birthday: August 15 Fodlan birthday: 15th of the Verdant Rain Moon, Imperial Year 1160 Age: 19-20 (Pre-skip), 24-25 (Post-skip) Relatives: Daphnel (ancestor), Count Calder Galatea (father, alive [preskip], deceased [postskip]), Count Valeria Galatea (mother, deceased), Oliver Galatea (brother, alive [preskip], deceased [postskip]), Asger Galatea (brother, alive), Ingrid Galatea (sister, alive), Corey Galatea (brother, alive), Sivas Galatea (brother, alive), Paxton Galatea (brother, alive)

Affiliations: Nationality: Holy Kingdom of Faerghus Hometown: County of Galatea Residence: Garreg Mach Monastery, Galatea Manor Factions: Blue Lions Occupations: Mercenary (former), Student (former), General (former), Count Galatea (current)

Backstory: Early Life:

Savina was the second child of Count Galatea, and his first daughter. She was childhood friends with Dimitri, Felix, and Sylvain, and was originally engaged to the son of Viscount Kleiman. However, she left home before she could be married due to her discovery of the Crest of Galatea, a crest that only she bore that had powerful but dangerous properties and abilities. As she was good with a sword, Savina left home and became a mercenary, joining up with the Scarlet Rose mercenary company at 15. A few months after she joined their ranks, however, they were wiped out by Kostas and his cronies, and she became a lone mercenary. Before long, she was a renowned mercenary that went by the title Blackened Sky, a nickname her mercenary company had given her due to her black armor and alias, Sky. She abandoned most social contact beyond merchants, blacksmiths, and potential employers, not wanting to risk giving away her identity. However, she kept somewhat in contact with Yuri Leclerec, who she knew as the King of the Underground, Silent Mockingbird. Savina was employed by Thales, or Lord Arundel, to murder King Lambert Blaiddyd at the Tragedy of Duscur. Though Savina accepted the mission, her plans were to save the King (whom she still had lingering admiration for despite having cut off contact with everyone from her old life) and kill her employer. Things were worse than she expected, however, and she ended up abandoning her armor and letting her mercenary self be assumed dead in the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. She didn't return to her home country for another four years, sticking to the Leicester Alliance and Adrestian Empire, as well as surrounding countries like Almyra, Sreng, Brigid, Dagda, and Morfis. Academy Phase: Savina was recruited into the Garreg Mach Officers Academy in 1180, where she was placed in the Blue Lions. She was then reunited with Dimitri, Sylvain, Felix, and Ingrid, who were attending the academy in the same year. She quickly rekindles her relationship with her childhood friends and sister, as well as befriending Byleth, Ashe, and Claude. She quickly proves her power and leadership skills, and Byleth trusts her to make calls on the battlefield and help her plan out battle strategies. Savina works with Claude on a lot of things, and their participation in helping Abyss only deepens their bond. The two of them often scheme about what could have happened or whether or not everything was part of a bigger plot, and they confide in each other and tell each other secrets that nobody else knew. She has a similar relationship with Ashe, though they aren't quite as close. After Remire, Savina becomes increasingly suspicious of the organization that Solon belongs to due to her previous encounters with Thales. Her suspicions are only increased when Kronya reveals herself after she kills Jeralt, the day after the Blue Lions make a promise to meet up for the Millenium Festival. Byleth merges with Sothis, which leads Savina to become suspicious of the church as well as the organization Thales, Solon, and Kronya belong to. As the events at the Holy Tomb unfold, Savina recognizes the signs of Dimitri's mental state beginning to crack. As soon as he unmasks Edelgard, however, it completely shatters. Savina is unable to do anything about it, try as she might. The pain of knowing that she could have at least helped to prevent it nearly swallows her, but she holds it off as long as she can to stay by her friends side. Yuri is there to comfort Savina after everything happens, as he knew the details of what she saw that day and what she thought she could have done, as someone who knew her even before she arrived at the monastery as Savina instead of Sky. He reminds her that she's only human, and that she shouldn't blame herself for something that was mostly out of her control. Savina joins everyone on the front lines as Edelgard launches her attack on the monastery, forcing Hubert to retreat. Edelgard is forced into submission as well, but her backup forces overpowered the Church. Savina attempts to murder Thales after he knocks Byleth into the ravine, but ultimately fails and nearly dies. Timeskip Phase: Savina resurfaces in Fodlan as Blackened Sky, becoming a spy for the Kingdom forces. She works her way up in the Imperial army, eventually becoming one of the most trusted people of the Emperor despite being masked and being there unreliably. She is vital for the Kingdoms defense, but there was only so much she could do in the midst of a kingdom that was already beginning to collapse. In the Wyvern Moon of 1182, Count Galatea is killed and Oliver takes his spot as the Count. However, Olivers skills as a Holy Knight were needed on the battelfield, and in the Garland Moon of 1185, he is killed in the midst of a battle. Savina is named the Count, and officially withdraws from the Imperial forces. She is still an important fighter and general, however, and does not let her new title of Count hinder any of her movements. War Phase: Savina, Ingrid, Sylvain, and Felix return to the monastery together with hope that the others would uphold their promise. The four of them arrived in the midst of a battle, and Savina is both surprised and relieved to see that both Dimitri and Byleth were alive. She fights the bandits, and the Blue Lions reunite. Savina becomes one of the Kingdoms most valued generals, standing on the same platform as Byleth, Dimitri, and Gilbert. She changes her armor from black to white, embracing the Kingdom colors while still keeping the "Blackened Sky" appearance and class. At Gronder, Savina tries to heal Rodrigue, but ultimately fails. She recoils in on herself, becoming as reserved - if not more - as she was when she first arrived at the Officers Academy. She blames herself for being unable to save the man whom she saw as a father figure. Ashe and Yuri work together to help her realize that it wasn't her fault. She quickly bounces back, and jumps to help with preparations for reclaiming Fhirdiad. After they help defend Derdriu, Savina and Claude talk about why he was leaving Fodlan. She made him promise to return as soon as humanly possible, which he told her he would. Savina has her final showdown with the Death Knight, wearing her original armor so he would recognize her. She ultimately turns out on top, and with her success over the fearsome knight the Kingdom was able to seize Fort Merceus. She is gravely wounded, however, and would have died on the battlefield if it weren't for Yuri casting Restore on her before Mercedes or Marianne can reach her. Claude returns with some Almyran forces before they march to Enbarr. Savina kills Hubert and helps to kill Edelgard, though she is nearly killed in the gruesome battle. Post-Canon: Savina and Yuri are married, with Yuri taking Savina's last name instead of vice-versa, and Savina embraces her role as Count Galatea. The two of them have two children, Oliver Calder Galatea and Alina Natalia Galatea, with Oliver inheriting the Minor Crest of Aubin. Personality: Savina is an INTJ personality type; she's an anylitical problem solver, eager to improve systems, and she has very innovative ideas. She's an intellectual, and enjoys logical reasoning and complex problem-solving. She's great at planning out battles and adapting to the battlefield when needed. She's fairly reserved and serious, and strangers often see her as cold. She is very rational and informed, as well as independent and determined. People often admire her curiosity and versitality, and she embraces those aspects of her personality. However, she can be arrogant and dismissive of emotions, especially those of others. She can be overly critical and combative, and is unfortunately romantically clueless. Stats: Starting stats: Class: Noble Crest: Major Crest of Galatea Allows user to manipulate the metals that make weapons and armor to her will. Unknown what brough this about. Level: 1 Hit points: 30 Strength: 10 Magic: 10 Dexterity: 5 Speed: 9 Luck: 9 Defense: 8 Resistance: 10 Charm: 4 Learned Magic: Wind Heal Learned Combat Arts: Wrath Strike Grounder Abilities: Killers inctinct Grants avoid+ 20 when unit has taken damage. Sword prowess level 1 Faith prowess level 1 Reason prowess level 1 Skills: Sword: Starting level: D+ Strength Lance: Starting level: E Weakness Axe: Starting level: E+ Neutral Bow: Starting level: E Weakness/acquired strength Brawling: Starting level: E Neutral Reason: Starting level: D Strength Faith: Starting level: D Strength Authority: Starting level: E+ Neutral Heavy armor: Starting level: E Weakness Riding: Starting level: E+ Neutral/acquired strength Flying: Starting level: E Neutral Maximum stats: Hit points: 80 Strength: 70 Magic: 52 Dexterity: 49 Speed: 60 Luck: 58 Defense: 64 Resistance: 58 Charm: 39 Learnable Magic: Reason: Wind Cutting Gale Sagittae Excalibur Faith: Heal Nosferatu Recover Seraphim Warp Abraxas Learnable Combat Arts: Sword: Wrath Strike Grounder Haze Slice Hexblade Lance: Tempest Lance Knightkneeler Frozen Lance Axe: Smash Helm Splitter Lightning Axe Bow: Curved Shot Break Shot Point-Blank Volley Brawling: Fading Blow Rushing Blow Healing Focus

#fe3h #fe3h oc #fire emblem three houses #fire emblem three houses oc

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spiringempress · 5 years

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jonsa thoughts and the whole ‘duty is the death of love’

Hiya. So, I wrote this one night at 2am months ago and I let it languish in my drafts. I only just remembered it because I was reading a post about Jonsa, and the whole duty and love line then went “hey that sounds familiar.” Please forgive any similarities between this and other metas, but I do argue this from the perspective that Jon isn’t portrayed as being interested in protecting the realm and it’s another angle to put out there.

Early am thoughts. So, I’m having a midnight tumble and looking at this meta about the GOT script when I stumbled across a post that essentially argued that Sansa = love and Dany= Duty. I am blown away. And wondering how I missed that entire perspective. Now, this is super rough as a fair warning.

This entire time I’ve seen it from the Jon*rys perspective. In that, Jon’s love for Dany was placed second to his duty and it effectively ended it. But, I think there are a couple of important points to consider that are NOT clearly defined. One being: what exactly is Jon’s duty?

Sure, he wields some influence. It wouldn’t be hard to say that he’s supposed to protect the realm, but his whole arc wasn’t about the seven kingdoms. It was about the wall, the north, and Winterfell. For me, the only way to argue that Jon chose duty over his love for Dany would be if he saw himself as a protector of the realm but I really don’t think he does. I’m defining protector of the realm here as more in the sense of someone, who strives to use their talents and skills, to defend the kingdom from enemies, serve the sovereign and give their life to do uphold the word of the ruler. So, a knight in service to the king.

Instead, what I am proposing is that Jon saw himself as protector of Winterfell, his family and most importantly, Sansa. What happens after Jon is resurrected? He kinda hangs out at the Wall until Sansa arrives and gives him a purpose: take back Winterfell, save their brother and restore the Starks to their rightful place. In the course of accepting this, Jon also inherently becomes a protector to Sansa, the seemingly last of the Starks. We see this in how he fights during the Battle of the Bastards and his interactions with Sansa, where he promises that he won’t let her got back to Ramsay. In the end, they are able to take back Winterfell and Jon creates a safe space for Sansa.

Now, you can argue that he loves her platonically/as a sibling or more interestingly, Jonsa. Of course, I’m learning towards the Jonsa view. When he goes off to Dragonstone and loses his personality, I still think that pol!Jon was real and it was an attempt to protect Winterfell from Daenerys. If I heard the Dragon Queen was coming and often liked to burn down cities that resisted her, I would definitely be taking a boat to see her and make peace. While Sansa is blatantly asserting Northern independence, Jon is subtly trying to lead Daenery’s attention away with the White Walkers and eventually, Cersei.

Jon succeeds in some capacity but the situation is complicated by his heritage and how Daenerys is not swayed by that. I think this is evident in the scene after the feast and even when she remarks that it will be fear when asked if Jon loves her. He has been called out on his ploy and hints at his ultimate priority being Winterfell. Now, the story falls apart in the last episode but if we look at the script and the actors, I think there’s no doubt that Jon chose Sansa over Dany.

Let’s break this down. If this story was really about Jon being forced to kill the woman he loves to save the world. Then Jon would have been more clearly depicted as a ‘protector of the seven kingdoms’ and we could also argue would have lead to him being king himself (that’s a post for another time). Again, Jon has really never shown an interest in the throne or the political intrigue. Maybe it’s the Night Watch drilled into him, but he’s never depicted as someone like Varys. However, the only way to make sense of Jon killing Dany for duty means that he has to see himself as a realm protector. He has to NOT do it for personal stakes or his family, but instead to serve the realm. It would make their ‘love story’ more focused on them and not on other players. Ultimately, it would’ve also made the story more tragic because Jon’s loyalty to the realm = duty is more important than his love for a tyrant, who is letting the world burn. Can you imagine that story? Jon would have been forced to realize that the woman he loves is b*tshit and that he cannot let her go on. That would have been a masterful performance as Jon comes to term with this and makes up his mind. BUT, this did not happen at all in the show.

Instead, what we get is interesting. Jon goes from questioning Dany’s destruction to having a mind-numbing conversation with Tyrion, where he looks like an ignorant fool. There are important things to notice. He goes from clearly being disturbed by Dany’s destruction to uttering ‘my queen’ until Sansa and Arya are brought up. Tyrion tells him that Sansa will never bow, Jon gets upset but he goes to the throne room and kills Dany. Other players besides the realm are brought into the equation. Jon was perfectly content to let her continue down her path until Tyrion and Arya reminded him about Sansa and Winterfell. If the story was really about Jon protecting the realm then why was it necessary to bring up his family? It’s because that’s what drives his motivation.

Jon chooses duty over love, but not the realm over Dany; he chooses his family and more specifically, Sansa. Whether you look at it romantically or not, Jon gives up the ability to return home and resume his place at Sansa’s side. He chooses to fulfill his duty, i.e. protect Winterfell and Sansa, and kill Dany, which ends in him being exiled once more. You can read this as either him giving up familial love or a chance to be happy with the woman he loves. Ultimately, Jon does not win, but he fulfills his duty and gives up love in whatever form he wanted it.

that’s my ted talk. I’m sorry if you already know this and I am slow to catch up.

#jon snow #sansa stark #anti-daenerys #jonsa

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arthur-rex · 4 years

Text

ooc: fic/RP idea for a retelling of The Last Dragonlord

Strap yourselves in this is a long one… just didn’t know when/couldn’t stop with the overly detailed plotting! xD

Note: I saw the actual episode two days ago. That’s why it’s all quite vivid still in my mind ;)

So the story starts with Kilgharrah haunting Merlin’s dreams and telling him Camelot’s doom is at hand/the legacy of Uther Pendragon will be terrible to behold/his bloodline will be cursed forevermore for his acts against magic-kind. Merlin works out from this that Kilgharrah is dying and the dragon is invoking some sort of ancient powerful magic in the moment of his death. Merlin has failed to free him from his chains basically, and now the imprisoned dragon is getting his revenge through other means…

Flash forward to the next day. Merlin and Arthur are doing their usual things but Merlin notices Arthur being a bit more hungry haha not like that than usual. He’s also developed a bit of an itch to his skin that continually distracts him whilst training the knights. So he asks Merlin to draw him a bath that evening and while undressing Merlin notices shock horror the skin on Arthur’s back is literally peeling off! More sinister than this, it appears that something that looks suspiciously like golden scales lie underneath… Arthur asks Merlin what’s up and Merlin is just so horrified he literally plays dumb and tries not to panic, just focusses on getting Arthur ready for bed.

That whole night he’s at the books with Gaius, trying to make sense of the curse that Kilgharrah mentioned and what’s happening with Arthur. They come across some page in a book that tells them about possession/mad kings/the significance of the Pendragon line…

And it suddenly just clicks with Merlin oh shit Arthur’s turning into a dragon. Camelot’s Champion is turning into Camelot’s fiery destruction. What does this mean for his and Arthur’s supposed destiny together? What can he do to stop the curse? What will Uther do when he finds out what’s happening to his son??!

Gaius tries to calm down an obviously distraught Merlin at this point and advises that they try and bring Arthur discreetly to see him. Maybe some of Gaius’ potions and salves can slow down the transformation/buy them time until they can work out what to do.

Merlin finds Arthur in the morning completely freaking out. More of his skin is gone and this time Arthur has noticed. Arthur’s nails have also grown pretty sharp. He’s scratched and cut himself in a few places. Merlin realises Arthur’s a bit fragile mentally as he hasn’t got a clue what’s going on. Arthur asks Merlin if he’s turning into a monster. Merlin is of course stuck in a quandary, just as he was with Morgana. He can’t tell Arthur everything as that would reveal his magic, but he also doesn’t like to see his friend so upset. He suggest they quietly go to seek Gaius’ help. At various points during their dialogue, Arthur starts to lose his temper with the whole situation. He shouts into Merlin’s face for being so damn calm about it all and then unexpectedly a gust of flame and smoke almost sets Merlin’s hair on fire! Arthur shuts his mouth pretty quickly, absolutely mortified. Merlin just doesn’t even know what to say. Arthur tells Merlin his father mustn’t know. Uther must never ever know. Merlin agrees.

They go back to Gaius who’s been preparing some herbal salve to put on Arthur’s cracking skin. There are more gold scales everywhere now and Merlin doesn’t know how much time they have. Worringly, Arthur has started to mutter a strange language under his breath - seemingly trying to fight some sort of strange magic that is taking him over. When Arthur goes to sleep (Gaius gives him some sleeping draught to help him along), Gaius tells Merlin about the Dragonlords and Balinor and tells him if anyone knows of a way to break the curse, Balinor will. He also advises Merlin that whatever might become of Arthur out of this, hard decisions might have to be made and Merlin could possibly be forced to reveal the secret of his magic with Arthur in order to save him. Merlin is torn, fearful of the consequences while Uther is still king.

So then the next day in the early hours of morning Merlin and Arthur saddle up on their horses and head out to seek Balinor. Merlin is trying to be cheerful but Arthur feels dreadful. They have had to cover him now with a huge cloak as his face is beginning to change. He’s growing horns. His mood swings are also turning more violent and unstable. He keeps slipping into the dragon language when his mind wanders and Merlin has to do everything to stop that happening. Every night when he sleeps Arthur dreams of Camelot burning and hears whispers of the Great Dragon telling him this is his destiny and when he wakes up panting and scared shitless his eyes have turned golden and his pupils have become slitted like a dragon’s. As they near to finding Balinor, a worn out Arthur takes Merlin to one side for The Talk. The Talk consists of Arthur basically giving Merlin his sword and saying to Merlin. Hey look. If this mission to find a cure spectacularly backfires, you’re going to have to kill me with this sword if I’m no longer able to do it myself. Merlin looks at it and says he can’t but Arthur makes him promise. Merlin reluctantly agrees. Arthur tells Merlin to tell Gwen he loves her, if when the time comes he cannot.

They find Balinor like in the episode and Arthur’s getting really edgy but Merlin just sticks with the plan and tells Balinor his friend is really sick and needs help. A group of mercenaries appear at this point and attack the three having heard a tipoff from the tavern that strange beasts were abroad that needed slaying. This action pushes Arthur into savage beast mode(!) and as this overlarge human dragon hybrid he swipes his claws and lashing his tail at them. He kills the mercenaries and saves Merlin and Balinor but at a cost as the transformation really starts to set in and Arthur starts to lose grip of his consciousness due to the strain of resisting the effects of the change/losing his identity. He doesn’t even get a chance to tell Merlin to kill him before he’s out unconscious.

Merlin and Balinor then carry Arthur together back to Balinor’s cave where they have their little chat and Merlin asks Balinor if there is a way to reverse the effects. Balinor is a bit ‘no comment’ on this and questions why Merlin would want to stop a young dragon from coming into the world. A changeling of this kind is extremely rare, or else this is a person of royal blood under a curse. Merlin goes a bit tight-lipped after that and Balinor eventually works out this must be Arthur Pendragon with him. Feeling vindictive, Balinor says it serves Uther right, for all he did to destroy the Dragonlord people and outlaw magic in the kingdom. It’s nothing more than delicious irony that his son and heir will destroy the kingdom his father created. Merlin counters that this isn’t about Uther, this is about Arthur, and that it shouldn’t have to be the son that suffers for the sins of the father. Balinor hesitates, but he says that although he bears no ill will towards Arthur this has clearly been chosen as his destiny and he can’t avoid it. Merlin (who knows that Balinor is his father thanks to Gaius telling him) makes the sort of vague comments he does to try and make Balinor realise he is his son - they discuss Uther’s purge, Ealdor, and what all this might mean if dragon!Arthur simply burns it all down. Merlin asks one last time if Balinor will help him. Balinor refuses once more.

Merlin leaves the cave deeply upset. He picks up the sword and remembers his promise to his friend. He’s going to have to kill Arthur. Grimly resolved he goes back into the cave to do The Deed, but only to discover that Arthur has awoken and although he still looks very dragon-ish he appears to have regained command of his mental faculties. Balinor seems to imply that Arthur and he have ‘struck up a friendship’. Merlin is a bit confused/suspicious of this but realises perhaps this means Balinor does know of a way to restore Arthur to his normal self. Balinor agrees to go with them to Camelot, implying that if they travel to the place where the original dragon enacted the curse they might be able to reverse its effects.

On the way back to Camelot, Balinor and Merlin have a further chat which culminates with Merlin telling Balinor he is his son (like in the episode). Balinor is shocked, humbled, and immediately proud of his boy (as he is in the episode). He begins to tell Merlin all will be well now, the power to save Merlin’s friend has been inside him all this time, but suddenly they are stopped by patrols of Camelot’s knights. In the days since Arthur and Merlin snuck out of Camelot on their mission, Uther has set up a mega operation to find Arthur and kill/take prisoner those who dare thought to kidnap his son. Balinor and Merlin try their best to conceal Arthur but someone gets the cloak off him. By this point Arthur’s original features have been twisted so much he isn’t easily recognisable as himself, and the knights all draw their swords to slay the monster. Arthur becomes highly distressed to see his former knights and friends turning on him and this sadness melts into anger which of course triggers the full onslaught of the curse and Arthur pretty much metamorphoses all the way into a large golden dragon (about ¾ the size of Kilgarrah). Driven by the madness of his curse, he burns most of the knights alive before flying off towards Camelot. Presumably to enact his ‘destiny.’

In the wake of the destruction, Merlin emerges to find Balinor horrifically scarred by the dragon fire. He’s been burned within an inch of his life, and he is dying. He and Merlin have a final chat where Balinor tells Merlin he was right. Arthur should not have to suffer for the sake of his hatred of Uther. He then shares his secret with Merlin, that he as the last Dragonlord is able to speak to dragons and thereby tame them. He says Merlin as his son has this power too, and he must find Arthur and tell him who’s boss calm him and bring out the best in the beast. Balinor then dies.

Merlin travels on to Camelot by himself. Arriving outside its gates he finds the city already burning. It looks exactly as Arthur described to Merlin in his earlier nightmares. He fears for Gaius and Gwen, but he knows he’s got to find and subdue dragon!Arthur first. He tries to get the dragon’s attention by riding round a horse and shouting up at it. He avoids using magic initially and outright, as he still harbours this deep sense of shame for hiding it from Arthur all this time and revealing his magic now and using it offensively against him would just hurt/piss off his best friend more. Merlin then has An Idea. He searches for Gwen and takes her with him to the green clearing, thinking that Arthur’s feelings for Gwen will draw the dragon to them. It does.

Dragon!Arthur arrives and lands near to the two of them, looking very interested with Gwen (she’s absolutely petrified - Merlin hasn’t really told her everything that’s going on does he ever). Noticing Gwen is frightened by his appearance, dragon!Arthur gets very agitated and beats his wings, roaring/etc. Gwen gets thrown on the ground in the commotion, banging her head against something and falling still. Meanwhile, Merlin has his inner Dragonlord awakening moment, and finally speaks the language of dragons.

He calms dragon!Arthur until he settles on the ground, utterly docile. Then Merlin notices the dragon is crying. He’s looking at Gwen’s motionless body. And he’s looking back at Merlin. Merlin senses Arthur’s pain. He thinks he’s killed his girlfriend, he’s destroyed half of Camelot and he’s feeling upset/shocked/betrayed by Merlin, who (although he’s managed to stop his crazed rampaging) has been keeping his powers secret from him all this time. Merlin reaches out and touches Arthur’s snout to console him. Then he goes over to Gwen. He finds she’s still alive, but desperately needs Gaius’ aid. He asks dragon!Arthur to fly them all back to the castle. They ride on Arthur’s back up to the Keep.

Once Gwen is safely in Gaius’ care, a whole legion of knights with Uther among them spills out onto the courtyard. The sight of Uther causes the deep well of poison in the curse to flare up again in Arthur, and it looks like the dragon is going to murder the king. But Merlin places his hand on the dragon’s side again and calms him. A few of the knights fire arrows at dragon!Arthur and Merlin. Aware that Merlin wishes to keep his magic secret from people who know him, Arthur shields the warlock with his wings before picking him up in his claws, carrying him away.

They land outside the castle. Merlin comforts dragon!Arthur as best he can. He can sense Arthur’s despair in his head. He’s tormented by what he’s done to the knights and people of Camelot as a dragon and believes he’s going to be stuck as a monster for the rest of his life. He’s lost his home, family, friends. Everything of his past life. Merlin reminds Arthur of what Balinor said about returning to the place where the original dragon cast the curse in order to revoke it. He tells Arthur to not give up hope.

They travel together deep underground into the pit where Uther chained Kilgharrah. There they find the crumbling bones of the deceased dragon and the heavy chains that have fallen away, and are lying open. Merlin pauses, unsure what they are meant to do. It takes a few moments, but dragon!Arthur eventually realises what must be done (he can feel/hear the ancient magic of the Old Religion speak to him while he is a dragon) and nudges at Merlin to do it. When Merlin realises via their telepathic link, he disagrees - no, no, no there must be another way! - but Arthur knows there isn’t.

To break the curse on their bloodline, the son of Pendragon must suffer to be chained as Uther had imprisoned and persecuted those with magic before. The deep wrongs perpetuated against magic kind must be atoned for.

So dragon!Arthur submits to Merlin casting the enchantments to bind him to the rock where Kilgharrah was once chained. Merlin asks Arthur why go through with this? If it means he can never be free - what point is there in breaking the curse?

Dragon!Arthur speaks, and for the first time it’s not in Merlin’s mind but spoken out loud like a proper Great Dragon can speak. He wishes to right the wrongs of his father. As a dragon he has witnessed first hand how those that are magical are hated and hunted down, through no fault of their own but simply for being. He wishes for a future society of kindness and that the intolerance his father perpetuated be locked away underground and never be seen again. Merlin tells him he’s being a pompous self-sacrificing arse. Dragon!Arthur merely laughs and threatens to burn Merlin’s hair again if he disobeys. As Merlin wipes his nose on his sleeve and leaves his friend chained in the darkness, he tells him he’ll visit everyday. Dragon!Arthur just tells Merlin to have a life of his own for once, and to tell Gwen he loves her.

Flash forward to a few months into the future. Uther Pendragon, the King of Camelot, has fallen ill to a strange wasting illness. He’s literally dying, becoming more and more (metaphorically) chained to his bed as each days passes and his strength fails. The king’s ill health leads to civil unrest in the kingdom with rival factions warring over the succession to the throne. It’s all the besieged Knights can do to keep the peace. Prince Arthur has not been seen for months. He is presumed to be dead, although some blond men pretending to be Arthur keep miraculously popping up to try and claim their supposed ‘birthright’ to the throne. It both really hurts and pisses Merlin off.

Anyway, when Uther finally dies, Merlin senses a seismic shift in magic around him. Hardly daring to analyse what this means, he runs downstairs deep underground to the lair where his friend lies in the darkness in chains.

Dragon!Arthur is not there. Instead there is simply a large egg. And a blond, naked man lying in the dust curled around it. Pretty much like Daenerys from GOT in that scene

Merlin runs over and grabs his friend in a tearful hug and a shivering Arthur goes “hey I’m naked and cold, give me something to wear.” They have their moment and then Merlin tells Arthur all the latest news in Camelot. Arthur grieves the passing of his father. But then he picks up the dragon egg in his arms, and for a fleeting moment, feels the young (Pen)dragon inside moving. And he is reminded that life goes on.

The two then carry the egg with them back into Camelot, where Arthur will claim his throne, usher magic back to the kingdom and become the first royal in over a thousand years to hatch a dragon egg (with a bit of help from his court sorcerer). They call the baby dragon Kilgharrah in honour of his grandfather and he grows to become Protector of the Realm.

And there you have it.

I call this monstrosity of an AU “The Last Dragonlord and his (Pen)Dragon. Note: I am sorry if many of the ideas in this fic are cheesy as sin and/or badly abused tropes. I am so sorry.

#ooc #//wow that one got out of hand #S2E13: The Last Dragonlord #Merlin RP #BBC Merlin #Dragonlord!AU #The Last Dragonlord #dragon!Arthur #v. the last dragonlord & his (pen)dragon

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