isleofdarkness

[isleofdarkness]

Domestic abuse TW

Beast; Young man, if you think I don't know what you're doing, you're wrong. Ace; Ace; Oh, okay, you know my secret plan or what the fuck ever. You think you know what I'm doing and how you can stop me. Fine. Whatever. We could talk about that. Ace; Or we could talk about the black eye your wife is covering with makeup and what's clearly a sore jaw. We can talk about how she's terrified of you but she's hiding it because she knows she can't look terrified of you, because that would be a bad look. And we can talk about how the way you interacted with her today carries a lot of warning signs that your wife is walking on eggshells because she knows that if she accidentally sets off your hair-trigger temper, she'll be the one catching a verbal lashing, a blow, or worse. Let's talk about how you keep her on such a tight leash that she's afraid to so much as look at the wrong people in the council meeting, and how she didn't say one single word until Hermie and Rosalind were bought up, and how the second she realized she had opened her mouth without your approval her eyes instantly shot to you to gauge your reaction. Ace; But we aren't ready for that talk, are we, Adam? Beast; I don't know what you're trying to imply- Ace; Honestly, we're past this. I know and I can prove it. You take action against me, this all comes out. The fact that your wife wants me to keep quiet for now is the only reason you aren't in a cell. Compared to what I have on you, you don't have shit on me. Call me out if you dare. I can promise you that it won't be me who ends up losing my crown and getting shipped to the Isle, you wanker.

[isleofdarkness]

Ace can't read social cues but somehow it can accurately figure out someone's gender, sexuality, trauma, kinks, and whether or not someone is safe within seconds of meeting them. If it sees two people interacting, or even just watches someone talk about another person, it can figure out their dynamic just as quickly. It can't read facial expressions and tone to save its life but you'd better believe it will know everything about you within a minute of meeting you.

Survival mechanism, unfortunately.

[isleofdarkness]

Arturius is transmasc but very deeply in the closet. As far as pretty much the entire world is concerned, he's AMAB. He knows that if this got out in Auradon, he'd get moved to the girl dorm rooms and find himself being referred to as Arthuriana or some shit (not his deadname but he knows that if he didn't tell him his deadname, they would assign one random one to him the same way they decided Riah's deadname was Rhiannon) and everything would suck. So he keeps in a secret. Doesn't do sports even though he'd love to do some of them. He had all of his gender markers on official paperwork changed long before he came to Auradon, and his dad made sure there was no official record so that nothing could be used against his son. The only Auradon person who knows is Aziz, and that's because they share a dorm room.

As far as Auradon knows, Arturius has always been Arturius. And he plans to keep it that way

[isleofdarkness]

Children of the Isle is just going to be Ginny getting progressively angrier and angrier at Yen Sid with every file, with occasional interjections from Diego, Harriet, Ivy, Lydia, and Maverick, who are also getting progressively angrier at Yen Sid, until you really wonder how his ass lived long enough to send these files over. They read Ace's file and collectively lost their shit so severely that their responses were several pages long because Jesus Christ man, the fucking nerve.

[isleofdarkness]

Ginny; Yen Sid sneezed earlier and I told him to shut the fuck up instead of saying bless you. Ben; ... On accident? Ginny; Oh no, I meant to do it and I'll do it again.

[isleofdarkness]

Adding chapters for Children of the Isle. If anyone wants to see Ginny brutally verbally eviscerating Yen Sid, go and check it out

[isleofdarkness]

The Isle kid was almost completely silent as Dr Sweet worked, save for the occasional gasp or whimper. It hadn't taken long for him to catch the way its eyes would flick to his face after every sound it made, searching for a reaction as though it was trying to make sure he hadn't heard it. Eventually, he started talking to it, telling it everything that came to mind as he worked. He wasn't sure how much it heard, but it seemed to find comfort in the sound. Probably hoping him speaking would hide its reactions. He did his best to pretend he heard nothing.

It felt like it took hours to clean and close the wounds it had managed to reopen. He decided against more optional things, ointments for the bruises and abrasions. He'd give those to it and tell it how to apply them. It needed a break and looked eager to be done with the strange man worrying over its wounds. So he skipped to dressed what needed to be dressed. It didn't protest as he found himself needing to wrap its entire torso, but bandaging its neck was where it drew the line, grabbing his wrist and glaring at him before shaking its head slowly.

"Don't touch your neck?" Sweet guessed. It nodded. "Got it. No problem." It relaxed and let him go. "You mind telling me what happened?"

"Yeah," the kid snapped. That was the first word it had said this entire time. It had relied on body language and Iago interjecting this entire time. He'd almost started to think it either didn't speak English or couldn't speak at all. "I do."

Well, the wounds definitely spoke for themselves. Even if he didn't know exactly what caused them, the words "slut" and "whore" being carved into its skin gave him a good enough guess. And he could understand why it wouldn't want to elaborate to someone it had only met an hour ago. "Alright, you don't have to. But do you know hoe you reopened all this?"

The kid scoffed, glaring at the faucet of the bathtub it was laying in. "Jay's a bitch."

Well, tell me what you really think, he thought, smiling ever so slightly. "Some sort of fight?" It nodded once and looked as far away from him as it possibly could. Clearly it didn't want to go into the specifics of the fight. "Well, I'm gonna need to recommend you avoid fighting with anyone else again for at least a week. Maybe more."

"I do what I want."

Of course it did. "Look, son-"

"You aren't my father so DON'T CALL ME SON!" The kid yelled, glaring straight into his eyes and tensing as though getting ready to either get up and leave or attack him.

Okay, touched one hell of a nerve there. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. I won't do that again." It glared at him untrustingly before calming slightly. He was forgiven. For now, at least. But unfortunately, he had to ask. "Your father. Was he the one who-"

The kid scoffed and shook its head bitterly, spitting out "No." After a moment, it elaborated. "But he sat back and watched Mother sell me to the sonovabitch who did do it, so."

There was a lot to unpack there but he doubted it would tolerate him trying. "Are you still living with them?" Unfortunately, he was a mandated reporter. If he had reason to think this kid was a victim of ongoing child abuse, he would need to contact CPS. And that would lead to a world of trouble.

"No." The kid said. "They think I'm dead. I'm safe." He wondered who its parents were but knew better than to ask. Really, he was lucky it had opened up this much. But it seemed to know he was wondering. "King and Queen of Hearts."

Oh. He'd heard horrible things about its mother and heard side stories about how its father enabled the Queen's violent behaviour. In a way, he would have thought their children wouldn't fall victims to that as Underland did. Apparently, he was wrong. And he couldn't find it in himself to be that surprised. "I'm glad." Then he got an idea. "What's your name?"

"... Ace," it answered after a long pause. "Crown Prince Aleksandr Valentine Hearts of Crims."

"Your majesty." He stepped away from the tub, dropping to one knee and bowing his head. "It's an honour to meet the rightful ruler of one of Atlantis's sister countries. If you would allow me to, I would love to make Chief Kida of Atlantis aware of your freedom so that you can begin the process of ascending to your throne."

"You- you don't need to bow," it stuttered. He got to his feet and went back to his seat next to the tub. "I'm not so sure..."

"Hear me out." It paused and gave him a curious look. "For now, all you need is to officially be allowed to claim your title as Crown Prince. The second you do that, since Crims doesn't have a king or queen, you're automatically the highest monarch of your country. And with that comes certain privileges even before you're crowned king. You'd be able to place legal protections around anyone you want, keep people from getting sent back to the Isle. You'd also be immune to being sent to the Isle unless you get yourself found guilty of high treason by a majority vote from the Auradon Federation Council. And once you properly ascend to the throne, you get a seat on the council, the right to speak on all matters bought into the council, and you get a vote. You'll also be able to forge political alliances." He smiled. Having an Isle kid on a throne would be game-changing. "I'm not royalty, I can't tell you exactly how you being able to forge alliances would help everyone, but you'd be able to get half the council on your side easily and that would be major. If you want, I can set you up to speak to Chief Kida, or Sultana Jasmine, or King Arthur. They'd be able to explain everything better."

"Like gangs." He was throwing a lot of information at it and could see it struggling to process everything. It was trying to turn what he was telling it into a situation it could understand.

Thankfully, he knew exactly what it was thinking. "Exactly like gangs. You know how Harriet and all them keep each other safe and create massive change by working together, and how there's an inherent protection because attacking one of them is attacking everyone?" It nodded. "That's a lot like what you could do here. And you know how Harriet is more powerful than Maleficent?" That was kind of oversimplifying it, but that was the easiest way to explain it. Maleficent had power from her army, experience, age, and reputation, but Harriet had power in the amount of people she had bought together, in how heavily she could bring the hammer down if provoked. Harriet had more power than Maleficent because she had more under her control, and because everything under her control was there because they were loyal to her cause and trusted her, not because they were afraid of her. "You have the potential to do that here. You could do what Harriet is doing and we can help you." If it got enough allies who were loyal to the cause, it could massively impact the way forward. Barring something catastrophic happening, they could probably split the council. If they played their cards right, this alliance could probably get more power than Beast. "You know how someone's evacuating kids from the Isle?" It nodded. "If Beast finds out that this one person is doing that, that one person is screwed. But if we can make a public alliance like this, lay the groundwork before all of this goes public so he never even has a chance to stop it before it's too late, that person is protected. He wouldn't be able to prosecute them because the power of the alliance would stop him, he wouldn't want to effectively declare war on half the council. And if he did, this alliance would be able to wield enough combined power to stop him. Maybe even overthrow him. All we need is someone to back up, someone we can stand behind. And if that person is you, it's not as risky as it would be if Chief Kida or Sultana Jasmine were doing it. He has plans for if they do something like this, ways to shut it down. But you? You would blindside him. He'd never be able to make a plan and stop you in time."

"So what you're saying..." he could see the gears turning in its head, but it was starting to look excited. It understood what he was saying. "Is that if I get my crown, I could do this network thing and he'd be so blindsided that he'd be helpless to stop me until it was too late. I'd be your guys's Ace in the hole."

The way it told that joke told Joshua that it made similar jokes often. But it was right. That was exactly what he was saying. "Bullseye."

It grinned. He'd never seen anyone look so excited at the possibility of committing what was essentially a legal political coup. "Well, in that case," it paused, seemingly for dramatic effect, "I'm in."

[isleofdarkness]

Exactly. Or else they'd just go insane

Oftentimes, life on the Isle is just boring.

Sure, there's the terror from the constant danger, but when that's gone, there's really nothing to do. There's only two channels on what few tellies exist and neither of them show entertainment stuff, just shopping or propaganda and maybe the occasional toy advertisement during commercial breaks. There's no wifi even if they had the devices they'd need to access the internet. Books might as well be worth their weight in gold for how rare they are. Toys are rare. There are no theatres, no malls, no playgrounds, no libraries, nowhere to really hang out. Hobbies are basically nonexistent because Auradon rarely sends hobby items like knitting needles, yarn, cooking ingredients, etc. There's no way to garden or raise livestock. There's school, sure, but that's only seven hours a day. There's not much for children and teens to do.

If they aren't fighting for their lives, Isle kids are generally just bored out of their skulls.

[isleofdarkness]

Oftentimes, life on the Isle is just boring.

Sure, there's the terror from the constant danger, but when that's gone, there's really nothing to do. There's only two channels on what few tellies exist and neither of them show entertainment stuff, just shopping or propaganda and maybe the occasional toy advertisement during commercial breaks. There's no wifi even if they had the devices they'd need to access the internet. Books might as well be worth their weight in gold for how rare they are. Toys are rare. There are no theatres, no malls, no playgrounds, no libraries, nowhere to really hang out. Hobbies are basically nonexistent because Auradon rarely sends hobby items like knitting needles, yarn, cooking ingredients, etc. There's no way to garden or raise livestock. There's school, sure, but that's only seven hours a day. There's not much for children and teens to do.

If they aren't fighting for their lives, Isle kids are generally just bored out of their skulls.

[isleofdarkness]

Harriet always knows a guy. If she doesn't know a guy, she knows a woman or a person. For everything. Need a place to stay? She knows a guy. Need reinforcements in a war? She knows a woman. Need a nuke? You guessed it, she knows a guy. She always knows someone, even for the most ridiculous request.

[isleofdarkness]

Sometimes Aphrodite likes to be horrifying. Someone will stop by to talk to her and she's just taken the form of one of those terrifying biblical angels (the ones that have like, a million eyes and a pinwheel of legs and are on fire but not burning) and no one bats an eye, that's just Aphrodite being Aphrodite. Let her have her fun. This is one of the least weird things they've seen today.

[isleofdarkness]

Maverick; So, do I even wanna know where you got that diamond axe? Hades; You know how your blood hardens when spilled, and you can make weapons using it? Maverick; I'm not sure I like where this is going. Hades; I can do that, too. Maverick; ... Maverick; So if your blood can turn to diamonds, is that why Maleficent- Hades; Controls most of the diamond trade on the Isle and maintains a trade agreement with Auradon? Hades; Yes.

[isleofdarkness]

Even though Ginny didn't go to high school (too busy saving lives,) Facilier gave her a diploma and let her graduate despite having dropped out in seventh grade. He counted all of the work she does as leader of the Silver Cross as class credits- inventory and dosage counts for math, medical work counts for science, reading medical books and writing medical records counts for language arts, running to and fro saving lives counts for phys ed, her job counts for her health class, and communing with the dead counts for history. As far as he's concerned, she passed high school with flying colours. Where are her transcripts? Well, it's not like he has a computer. Guess they'll just need to take his word that she completed her classes.

[isleofdarkness]

Tony Stark already has job offers lined up for several Isle kids. He's heard of a few who are very smart (Chaos, Carlos, Zevon, Evie, etc,) and if there's one thing he loves more than anything, it's hiring smart people and giving them the funds to bring their ideas to life (especially when said smart people are as smart or smarter than him- if he had his way, everyone he hired would be as smart or smarter than him.) He refuses to let brilliant minds be wasted just because they don't have the money they need to contribute to the sciences. He wants to see them change the world.

[isleofdarkness]

The reason Hades can read Maverick's mind is because gods and Endless are similar classes of beings. The problem mortals run into in trying to read her mind is that Maverick's mind, like her true form, is beyond mortal comprehension. They can't understand it, and it'll destroy their brains if they try. Gods are similar and also capable of comprehending far more advanced stuff, they can read each other's minds and view each other's true forms without the lethal consequences it has for mortals. He'll get a headache if he goes too deep, but Maverick's mind won't kill him

[isleofdarkness]

Harriet and Maverick rarely spar with each other, because their matches can drag on for hours and will end in a draw anyway. In a fair fistfight Harriet would win, but Maverick can't help but use some of her abilities (she tries to refrain but some of them are so natural to her she can no more stop using them than she can hold her breath for the entire match,) so it's always a draw.

[isleofdarkness]

Vexie shouted in a mix of pain and frustration, wrenching her hands away from Ace's temples and whirling unsteadily to face Maleficent. "It's no use, I can't get through! Its mind is too tough!"

Ace had been fighting off the telepathy her fancy diadem was giving her for hours now, putting up walls to keep her out and directing her into memories when its shields failed. Its head ached horribly and it had long ago started bleeding, red trailing from its nose and ears and slipping unpleasantly down the back of its throat. But she hadn't gotten through. She hadn't been able to get to what Maleficent was forcing her to find.

Maleficent's backhand blow nearly sent Vex to the floor, Vexie barely managing to catch herself on her hands and knees. The crack was impossibly loud and Ace winced in sympathy. Impressively, Vex didn't even flinch.

"Useless girl," Maleficent spat. "You have the power of a god! Are you trying to tell this whelp is more powerful than Hades?"

"Of course not!" Vex snapped, getting to her feet. "But I'm not Hades! This stupid fucking rock is just stored magic, it doesn't have his true power behind it! I can only use magic to my own abilities. His skill and his station as a god don't transfer over." She scoffed, glaring at Maleficent. "You of all people should know-"

Maleficent slapped her again. Vexie didn't didn't manage to catch herself and landed hard on her shoulder, teeth gritted to contain a scream as the recently-dislocated joint met the hard stone floor. Raising her scepter as though prepared to strike the sandy-skinned girl with it, Maleficent ordered the former Demons deserter to try again.

This time, Vexie didn't try to argue. She was putting on a strong, unbothered front, but Ace knew she was terrified and only following orders for fear of being violently punished again. Vex had a daughter at home, she was probably worried that if she defied Maleficent too much, she would never go home. Her daughter would be made an orphan. Or worse, Maleficent would torture the little girl to force her mother to comply. Ace couldn't ask her to risk any of that happening. It didn't want Vexie to risk that. Not for it.

She sat down in front of it again, black tupelo eyes filled with remorse. Ace forced itself to meet her gaze, ignoring the discomfort eye contact always caused, and tried to tell her without words that it understood and forgave her.

Then her fingers went back to its temples, and the pain began again.