#Fairy Triple Threat

[flowerbarrel-art]

I just wanted to say I love your fairy versions of triple threat!! They’re so cute!! Can’t wait to see more of them :3

Aww, thank you! Glad you like em! 😄

Sugar rush Charles. Quentin locked the candy cabinet but Charles still gets into it sometimes.

[drlessy]

a fairy's chime is hard to resist, probably. either way, Wild needs a hug ASAP & Hyrule shall answer to that. (+ some made up magic logic as an excuse to make Wild a little guy.)

[layraket]

may i offer you eepy creatures triple threat as a gift

tumblr stops killing the quality challenge

[amayis-bigtower]

✨Selfie time 📸 :D

[blarefordaglare]

musical differences

(It’s a bit hard to read but)

wild: what’s this?

legend: sheet music for your tone deaf a[redacted]

hyrule: *disappointed 3rd grade recorder chimes*

Felt like some triple threat today :)

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Josette Day (Beauty and the Beast)—josette day is a luminously beautiful french actress with a piercing gaze best known for her role in jean cocteau's exquisitely designed and photographed fairy tale film beauty and the beast, opposite cocteau's lover jean marais

Rita Moreno (Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story)—She’s an EGOT, an absolute legend for how she navigated her career as a woman of color in the fifties and sixties. Her performance as Anita in West Side Story is why I go back to that movie so many times. She is an icon and she is the moment.

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Josette Day:

Rita Moreno propaganda:

"Amazing showstopping actress in her one big memorable role as Anita in West Side Story. She sings and dances with unmatched joy and energy, and then breaks your heart with her acting. Rita took a role that felt as a stereotype to latina women and made it compelling and multifaceted. Her subsequent career was filled with mostly side roles, but she still managed to excel in whatever Hollywood threw at her."

"It’s Rita!! The EGOT herself! She can act, she can sing, she can dance, a triple threat. Obviously absolutely iconic as Anita in West Side Story (her part of the Tonight Quintet is the sexiest part of the film, fight me). But before that she was the amazing Zelda in Singin’ In the Rain!?! Thanks Zelda, you’re a real pal."

"She continues to be amazing but also she's got legs for days."

"THEE iconic rita moreno, EGOT winner, civil rights activist, theatre legend. watch her documentary "Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It". also her rendition of "fever" on the muppet show"

[occasionallyprosie]

So I'm trying to incorporate more nicknames for the boys, so here's what I got so far, any additions or ones I've missed?

--

Four

Smith/Smithy

Little One (by Time)

Little Guy (by Triple Threat)

Rainbow

Hyrule

Traveler

Explorer

Rule/Rulie

Healer (post Life Spell reveal)

Calatian (country of origin)

Legend

Veteran/Vet

Collector

Hoarder (by Warriors and Twilight, derogatory, becomes affectionate)

Scholar

Apple (by Twilight and Wind)

Kid (by Wind)

Kit (by Twilight and Sky)

Sky

Skyloftian (shortens to Sky)

Sky Knight (shortens to Sky)

Chosen

Birdbrain

Lover boy (affectionate, by Downfall Duo)

Woodcarver

Time

Old Man

Sprite (by Warriors)

Ancestor (by Twilight)

Fairy Boy (post meeting Malon, by Downfall Duo and Wind)

Twilight

Rancher

Goat Herd

Ordonian (town of origin)

Pup (by Time)

Country Boy (by Warriors, derogatory)

Forest (by Legend and Wind)

Warriors

Captain (or any other military form of address)

Pretty Boy (by Legend, derogatory, becomes affectionate)

Soldier Boy (by Twilight, derogatory, becomes affectionate)

Wild

Champion

Cook

Wild Child (affectionate)

Cub (by Twilight and Time)

Wanderer

Wind

Sailor

Pirate

Ocean (by Legend and Twilight)

Kid (by Twilight and Warriors)

Conductor (by Legend)

Tune/Tunie (by Time and Warriors)

Whys for some:

Rulie and Chosen (Hyrule and Sky) -> Both make the mistake of telling the group their hero titles, Hyrule is eventually nicknamed Rulie by Legend and Wild as a result (nobody else calls him that), and Sky gets Chosen from everybody.

Apple, Forest, and Ocean (Legend, Twilight, and Wind) -> Nicknames from Triforce Heroes (from my hc of them being the Triforce Heroes)

Kid (Legend) -> Another nickname from Triforce Heroes, Wind is the only one who calls him that in LU though (Twilight takes too long to realize Apple and the Veteran are the same person)

Kit (Legend) -> Sky and Twi start calling him that after the bunny incident, Twi does it first and Sky joins in after because he's a gremlin and both know Legend hates (eventually likes) it

Conductor (Wind) -> Caused by music night when Wind leads the music with the Wind Waker and just sticks

[thewatercolours]

King's Quest Ficlet: "At a Standstill" (Collab with GerbilofTriumph)

Not too long ago, @gerbiloftriumph had a really cool idea for a collab, and we buddied up to brainstorm a story with yet more fun for the goblin and woes for our favourite king (she came up with most of the good stuff. ;-) Once the initial ideas were in place, I turned them into a bullet point story, and she created an illustration which you’ll be able to find on her blog! Go check it out! I'll never stop praising Gerbil's amazing triple threat creative powers to the skies (an incredibly engaging writer, a wonderful visual artist, and magic powers at inspiring creativity in others.) It was great fun working together on this together, my friend! And now, without further ado, the ficlet.

---

(Daventry castle) 

Grandpa has a terrible sore throat and a hacking cough. He’s driving the royal physicians up the wall with how poorly he sticks to their advice. They tell him he must be quiet and go easy on his lungs - he must rest his voice. So of course he talks twice as much as normal. 

Valanice shakes her head fondly and suggests Gwendolyn help him pass the time with stories. But just this once, he’ll be the one to listen, not tell. She hands her granddaughter a grand leather tome with a slick blue ribbon and a cover cracking about the edges. It was recently sent as a peace offering from the goblin realm. Naturally, it’s a volume of old fairy tales.

Grandpa settles in as Gwendolyn reads aloud through a handful of familiar ones - “Rapunzel,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and so on. It is indeed a soothing way to pass the time, and Grandpa soon starts nodding off. Gwendolyn smiles smugly that the scheme to get him to rest quietly is working, and decides to read on just a little further to ensure he’s sound asleep by the time she leaves. 

She turns the page to a fairytale she’s never heard of - “Jorinda and Joringel.” She reads it softly, almost under her breath.

“Once upon a time, two young lovers, Jorinda and Joringel, stumbled upon a castle deep in the forest. What they did not know was that the castle belonged to a witch of fearful power, who did not take kindly to being disturbed. In her fury, she laid curses on each of them. Poor Joringel was enchanted to stand still as a statue. He could only watch as the witch turned his beloved Jorinda into a nightingale and carried her off to a cage in the castle, to be her pet and sing for her. Joringel couldn’t lift a finger to help her until the witch finally tapped him with her wand. With many terrible threats, she warned him to never return. Now -”

“What? Graham interrupts, cracking an eye open. “Tapped him with her wand?”

“Grandpa! Remember what the doctor said. Now, Joringel had heard of a certain beautiful rose that could break spells with a single touch of its petals, so he journeyed far to fetch it from - ”

Grandpa comes wide awake and slams his hands down on the quilt. “SO THAT’S WHAT THEY WERE DOING!” he cries hoarsely. “THEY WERE TRYING TO GET ME TO STAND STILL! The slime - the ropes - it all makes sense now!” He is absolutely gobsmacked, and going back and forth between slapping his forehead in frustration and chuckling. “If only I had known! I thought I knew every old story in the book! Is this an actual fairytale?”

It seems this tale has provided Grandpa with a missing piece, making sense of something that happened to him in his youth, while he and his friends were captives of the goblins. And you can practically see the excitement levels rising in his eyes - if he weren’t old and sick, Gwendolyn has no doubt he’d be jumping off the walls in another two seconds.

He can’t do that, but of course he can tell his granddaughter the whole story. She tells him off, grinning. “Grandpa, that’s exactly the opposite of keeping your voice quiet!”

But when has anyone ever been able to stop an excited Graham? The purple mists of the mirror part, and the memory begins shining over the glass

(Goblin caves)

Young Graham discovers the glowing garden amongst the upper passages of the goblin prison. He is struck by the carefully tended beauty. It seems strange to him that the goblins, so violent and instinct-driven, and clueless to the fact their prisoners are starving, could cultivate something like this garden. But never mind that. He’s got people to save. And look! Roses! Just what the Hobblepots need him to fetch for their recipe! He plucks one, but gets distracted by a noise deeper into the garden. He decides to investigate.

There he sees a group of goblins setting up for their next fairytale, fiddling with hastily stitched costumes and clumsy props. One goblin is trying to get a little clockwork nightingale to work,  but is having some trouble with the mechanism. 

They spot Graham, and go crazy with joy when they see he has a rose in his hand. They shove him into the middle of their staging area and begin acting. One goblin in a tattered but sparkly gown grabs his hand and strolls with him, laying its hand on its heart and sighing exaggeratedly.

Graham has no idea what story this is. He makes some lame, vague guesses, but no good. “Um, okay. So, you’re definitely in love with me. That’s a thing. Am I… the prince in ‘The Little Mermaid?’ Maybe ‘Sleeping Beauty?’ You, because, love? I guess? Um… ‘Three Little Kittens Who Lost Their Mittens?’ No, no.”

 When the witch goblin arrives in its jaunty pointed hat and waves its hands around ‘mystically” and tosses some handfuls of glitter powder,’ all the goblins turn to Graham expectantly, anticipating he’ll go along with freezing into a statue by standing still.But Graham, of course, has no idea what they want. Everyone’s looking at him, clearly needing him to do something. So naturally, he moves - waves his arms, strikes a pose. And they get frustrated with him. They smack him to make him smarten up and get with the program, but of course this communicates nothing to him. A couple try grabbing him, to force him to stand still, but Graham’s already a bit wary of goblins grabbing him, and takes off, full tilt.

He manages to evade them, ducking through the brush and shining mushrooms, and slips out of the garden door when everyone’s safely off searching for him at another end of the garden. He makes his way to the Hobblepots, and triumphantly produces the rose from his cloak. But alas, the rose has already wilted. Who knew it would be so delicate? He’ll need to fetch a fresh one. 

Hoping to avoid the goblins, Graham mentally plans everything else he can do toward saving his friends in the meantime. The next rose can be the last item on his to-do list, and hopefully the goblins will have cleared out from the garden by then.

A few hours later, Graham creeps warily through the door. He scopes out the garden, but all seems clear, besides the little tinkering goblin, still working on the nightingale. But he’s just kind of doing his own thing, and barely seems to notice Graham. So far, so good. Graham nabs a rose and heads out. 

But, surprise - the goblin troupe are coming in the door just as he’s coming out! They’re overjoyed to see him again! Whoops and rejoicing! They confiscate the rose and carry him off on their shoulders to another part of the caves, where they’ve set up a whole scene with clumsy props and a crude castle backdrop. The play begins all over again, with much hand squeezing and kissy sounds. But Graham’s eyes are drawn upward to a weird conglomeration of ropes hanging from the ceiling, full of strange knots and loops. And just a foot away, directly in the path his lover girl is leading him, is something that looks suspiciously like a tripwire.

He makes every attempt to avoid it - “No, no, I insist. You go first, my lady! No, ok. Well then, I’ll just step very carefully over this, um, hunter’s trap…”

The goblin kicks him in the back of the knee. The wire is tripped. Goblins cheer! Ropes descend! Limbs are snagged! Flying lines crisscross and snag and pull his arms and legs tightly in place. If he doesn’t shake free immediately, he won’t be able to move and inch.

With some reckless shimmy, diving, and use of the chopsticks (who knew?) he manages to get free. With every movement, the goblins became more frustrated and frenzied, as they try wildly to trap him again. A wild chase ensues (cue the soundtrack!) at first resembling an obstacle course, as Graham skids limbo-style beneath descending ropes, does an entire double dutch skipping rope routine, and of course there’s a grand finale that resembles nothing so much as trapeze and tightrope walking. 

Graham ends up climbing one of the ropes and finding himself in a little crevice in the ceiling just big enough for him. He unfastens the rope from its stalactite so the goblins can’t follow him up, but immediately regrets it. How is he going to get down now? 

The goblins throw a tantrum and shake their fists, and one stomps Graham’s rose with its stone boot. Once they’ve worn themselves out, they sit down. At first Graham fears they mean to wait him out, but they are distracted by the sound of a gong off in the distance. They dash away. 

Possibly a dinner gong, Graham reflects sadly, thinking about his friends, starving in their cages. The thought puts new resolution into him. He can’t possibly stay up here. He has to get down, and soon, before the prisoners lose even more strength. And, you know, before the goblins think to come back with a ladder or something.

But what on earth is he supposed to do? He’s a fair distance up, and simply jumping would almost certainly mean a broken back or neck. None of the stalactites hang very far down, so sliding down one wouldn’t help lessen the fall enough to matter. Has he got anything in his pockets he can use? He rifles through them, but nothing comes to hand that could be useful.

But slowly, a reckless plan forms in his mind. He only discovered recently that he can fit an entire person in one of his pockets, and that the cloak moves just the same when someone is inside it. Would it be crazy to scoop himself into his pocket, and let the cloak flutter to the ground? After all, fabric lands lightly. But would he? He has no clear grasp of the physics of these pockets, and it’s very possible that this would be just as bad as ordinary free fall. But he hasn’t got a better idea, so he grits his teeth, leaps, and sweeps himself up into the cloak as he falls.

The impact is no worse than when you think there is one more step on the staircase, but it turns out there isn’t, and your foot just lands awkwardly heavily. Graham breathes again, crawls out of his pocket, and sets to planning.

What is he going to do? He needs that rose. He could wait till tomorrow, but every day is so, so precious. He decides to hide near the garden door among some tall rocks. There he can stake the doorway out to be well and truly sure there are no goblins about. 

A couple of minutes in, the garden door creaks open, and the goblins shamble out and head further up the passage. He ducks low to be certain they don’t see him. Once they’re out of sight, Graham gives it a good twenty minutes to be sure they’re not coming back, and stands up - only to hear gasps and shrill gibberish behind him. 

He wheels round to discover that the goblins must have circled round to this chamber by another entrance. They have set up a stakeout only fifteen feet behind him, among the other tall rocks. They were watching for him, but couldn’t see him because he was hunkered down.

He sprints for all he’s worth. They pursue, and this time with a frightening new trick up their sleeves. Goblins with buckets of foul-smelling slime take aim at him. One splash of slime coats his foot, sticking him to the floor and hardening rapidly. He tries to yank his boot free, but it’s stuck as firmly as if the very rock of the ground had grown up round it.  He manages to swivel his foot out of his boot and run for it, running off half-shod, knowing what a disaster it will be if he gets coated in the slime anywhere else on his body.

He ends up running a complete circle, and dashes into the glowing garden, slamming the door behind him and barring it with the sword frying-pan. He has his doubts about how well it will hold, but what else is he supposed to…

He’s not alone.There’s someone else in here. 

Oh no. Of course. The tinkering goblin with the nightingale.

But It hardly pays him any attention. It’s struggling frantically with the mechanism. It’s become more and more agitated because it just can’t get the clockwork going. With a snarl of frustration, it hurls the nightingale against the rockface wall. It smashes to pieces. The horrified goblin throws its hands in the air, and falls to its knees among the springs and screws. Choking back a sob, it grabs for the nightingale’s head and wings, and turns them round and round. It falls silent, then begins blubbering and snuffling, pressing the pieces to its heart. Afraid of alarming the creature, Graham closes the gap between them slowly. The distraught goblin barely seems to notice. By now it’s rocking back and forth, snuffling wetly and cradling the broken toy close.

Graham kneels, and holds out his open hands. 

The goblin stops. It slowly raises its head to look at him. Then it stares back down at the nightingale, and back to him. Graham nods. The goblin swallows back its tears, and with trembling fingers lays the pieces in Graham’s hands.

It’s not actually so difficult to fix. Graham used to like to fiddle with clockwork toys when he was a boy, taking them apart and putting them back together. Or maybe it’s easier with human fingers. Whatever the case, it doesn’t take long for Graham to get it properly working. The little goblin was so close to a breakthrough. 

But it’s a very different kind of clockwork than Graham has seen before - like someone invented clockwork separately and it developed along a different track. And just from the look of it, Graham surmises that this toy was not stolen from the upper world. This is very clever goblin work. And strangely beautiful. How can something crafted by these little kidnapping monsters be beautiful?

He winds it up, and it sings.

He’s surprised by how sweet it is in its own way, and what craftsmanship went into it, and how he hadn’t really given the goblins credit for being able to make something so lovely. And yet, isn’t that what he was thinking about earlier, when he first saw the garden? Their love of stories led them to cultivate a beautiful fairytale garden. To build a theatre full of cheer. To invent a shining full moon underground. To fashion glass slippers and clever spinning wheels and magic tricks just to delight everyone. And as messed up as this whole situation is, there’s something endearing about it. Maybe more than endearing. Maybe it is beautiful.

Graham’s realizing  in a way he hadn’t before how important these tales really are to the goblins. How their love of fairy tales causes a lot of trouble, and man, does he know it. But most of it is harmless, and now and then, just now and then - it’s something really good. This goblin doesn’t want to hurt him. They can’t speak each other’s language, but they got through to each other through this shared moment.

The power of story - of making something fascinating and beautiful just out of what you have available - connection in the strangest of circumstances. Maybe - maybe this approach is something he can use?

Suddenly something lightly taps him. A wand. Held in the fist of one of the goblin crowd. He was so lost in thought he didn’t notice them coming in by the same back way through which they carried him to the “ropes course.” All the goblins cheer as he spins around at the touch of the wand! And now they are more than glad for him to have the rose - one even hands a new rose to him gallantly. 

He walks as slowly as he can out of the garden to take the rose to the Hobblepots, wondering what on earth even happened just now that they were so nice this time. But he’s not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. It’s only a matter of time, of course, before the goblins come up with some new shenanigan to torment him, but for now, he’s got what he came for, and he…

(Daventry Castle)

Grandpa finally loses his voice completely, and has to give up on the last details of the story. Gwendolyn teases him, and they watch the final moments of the story playing out silently in the mirror, as young Graham wanders off into the gloom of the tunnels, rose in hand. 

Gwendolyn reads the last lines of the fairytale aloud. “With the flower to help Joringel, the witch’s magic could not hold. The curse was lifted, and he freed not only Jorinda, but all the other captives the witch held in her power. They made their way far from the darkness of the castle, and stepped gladly back into the light.”

“Good night, Grandpa. I hope you have a nice, quiet rest.”

[selfshipgushing]

one of my main f/o's source is literally on the threat of eos'ing bc one of their bigger backers back out about a year ago and it's all going downhill now 😭😭

im dreading the day because the source is one of my biggest hyperfixes aside from e*☆s (i will NOT name that fuckinf game i have a love/hate relationship), and aside from hyperfixating on my f/o, i hyperfixate on the actual guild they're in too so triple homicide for me AND I NEVER GOT MY FAMILY PORTRAIT (official art) OF THEM GRAHHGGGGGGHDJDJK I JUST WANT FATAMYU FAMILY PORTRSIT GRCEST PELASEEEEEEE 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 GHEY DESERVE IT SO BAD LIKE THEY DIDNT GET THEIR SEASONAL PORTRAIT?!?!?! MY F/O'S FAIRY HASNT GOTTEN A FAIRY EVENT IN 2 YEARS+??!?!?! ITS NOT OVER YET PELASE HOLD ON FOR MEEEEEE 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭🥹😭😭😭😭 AND THE OFFICIAL ACCOUNT IS ONLY UPLOADING ONCR A DAY ITS YUMEKUROVER 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

I was not intending on name dropping but I'm literally so sad bc the disc server I'm in for the game keeps talking g about eos'ing and I'm so anxious about it but erm on the bright side if ymkr truly does end service I'm taking fatamyu as my oc's no one gets them like MEEEEEE❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️❗️ I was not planning on name dropping either but erm. I felt strongly and I spiraled SAWRYYY

tyankd for having me i will be back someday . ALSO i wonde r if any of my twt oomfs who might be on here will recognize me ijbol SAWRY FOR DA YAP WILL HAPPWN AGAIN 💖

— 🐰🪻anon

guys I'm an old man wtf does oomf mean. like. I know what oomf means but I've never seen it be used like this until recently

[flowerbarrel-art]

hii i like the fairy drawings youve been making :} where did the triple threat fairies come from?

(Thanks for waiting, sorry I took so long to answer though!) Aww, now I wish fairies had been in West of Loathing instead of just Shadows Over Loathing. They still would’ve been dangerous and violent but it would’ve been cute to see them in teeny cowboy hats like Louie’s. But anyway, yup! You can do that. Have fun with it! 👍

In the game some fairies use melee weapons and Ellie would be one of those (she’d use a mini stop sign if she could). She uses magic but is still pretty strong and trains a lot so she can help defend the colony if any animals find their nests, so she’s pretty muscular and would have a female wrestler body type, like Jazzy Gabert (one of the only wrestlers I know about).

(West of Loathing fairy Ellie)

[drlessy]

I love your art so much!!! It’s so pretty and cute!!! This is also me asking if we can have more fairy Hyrule and Wild😂 (no pressure)

the oombles + bun Legend :,3

[layraket]

Creatures Gang AU Masterpost

Drawings

Sky, Four and Legend / Time, Twilight, Wind and Hyrule / Wild and Warriors / Legend and Hyrule / "Are you sure about this??" / King of red Lions / Wild sheikah paw doodle / Sky and Sun - Flufftober / Strawberry - Flufftober / Sing - Flufftober / Safe - Flufftober / Time across Time / Little gremlin / dog playtime / farm wolf / seabunny / eepy triple threat / doodle crazy wild / christmas triple threat / family time / valentines art-ravioli / Ravioli Week CG

Characters info posts

Time - Wolf Wind - Seagull Legend - Bunny Hyrule - Fairy Twilight - Wolf Four - Mouse Sky - Loftwing Wild - Fox Warriors - Lion

Comics

Food

Writing

Hunters - Hyrule Centric

Extras

Spirit / Malon and Ravio / Heights / No thoughs / fox with the zoomies / Hylian form / gang as videos pt 1 / gang as videos pt 2 / bald wild / questions I

[tashacee]

Triple threat 🫡

Au of your choice!

'how likely are they to go along with a prank'

I'm gonna go the Links in a Chain/Untarnished 'verse, which is essentially Aspects but, you know. Wild isn't a giant lion dude.

...

Although tbh the answer is probably the same for all!

-

Okay so individually, they're all up for a prank. They're fun guys with wicked senses of humour. But together?

They're on fire.

Unexpectedly, Hyrule is usually the one who usually comes up with the pranks. He's half fairy, after all, and while he's usually so very sweet natured, he has mischievous side!

He usually approaches Wild first. Legend can be grumpy and need convincing, but Wild has a sort of 'fuck it: we ball' vibe that means that he's usually on board with anything Hyrule suggests.

Then they go to Legend. They both wear him down and he sighs, pretends to ignore them, and then comes back half an hour later with a fully formed plan.

Together, they are unstoppable.

[blarefordaglare]

Burn His Body

I really wanted to do legend angst but I realized that our favorite traveler hasn’t had a good(or bad) experience with suffering in a while so… time to break the bean >:)

TW: blood, death from stabbing

——

He knew he would have to succumb to the ever lasting call of death eventually, but that didn’t make it any less hard. His wings brightened with fervor, signaling the adrenaline coursing through his veins. 

His eyes flickered back to his two brothers, hiding carefully behind the shrub. They were in no condition to fight, the champion’s now small-tunic stained with crimson, the equally tiny holder of it lying limp next to the veteran. Hyrule’s face cracked a little  when he saw Legend, staring into nothingness as if he knew what’s to come. Wings growing leaden with grief over the impending doom. His head was hurt after all, not his heart.

Turning back to the battle, the traveler hero quickly wiped the crimson coming from his own skin onto his tunic, it will be burned later, his pupils shrunk as they darted around, focusing on attempting to make sense of the battle. 

Five left. Just five more of these monsters. Then you can be out of here.

He contemplated using his fire spell, yet that thought was quickly shot down. The forest is dense, any sort of flame would quickly spread to any potential villages. To any potential family. 

He was supposed to be a hero, not a murderer. 

So he settled for his sword, slashing through two bokoblins with ease. He winced as he saw the black blood drip from his sword and onto the ground, leaving a thick evil smoke with the familiar stench of demise. 

His feet were planted hard on the ground. Flying is a delicate art, and for once the traveler knew, head and heart in agreement, that impulsivity would have to win his battle of actions. 

Three left.

He wasn’t crying yet, he couldn’t cry. Despite the need to break down right then in there, implant the ground with a scream of pure terror, he couldn’t muster the empathy to deal with the dystopia taking place. He looked at his family, then back at the two monsters ahead. 

Two left? 

Hyrule quickly looked around, attempting to make sense of the situation. Without warning, he felt his once bright green wings fade numb. A wave of enervation coursed through his body, his head instinctively looked down, only to see an unfamiliar tip of metal shot through his chest. 

Oh.

His body crumpled to the ground in an instant, his vitality waning. He looked over at the shocked, heartbroken faces across from him.

“I’m sorry.” His voice was nearly invisible, the words remaining hollow. He wasn’t sorry, he was going to save them. 

With the last bit of hope he had left, he allowed his body, and the surrounding monsters to combust into flames, leaving nothing but smoke and the smell of his burning corpse. 

[meximango]

Day 24 - Bar - Altani + Mogren - G

Summary: Finding a public place a moogle can drink without issue can be hard.

–

Altani and Mogren often liked to partake in some alcohol after a difficult mission. It helped them unwind and was equally as effective at drowning their sorrows if a quest went poorly, or allowing them to get wild in celebration for a job well done. 

Unfortunately, most of Hydaelyn’s populous was not ready to accept the existence of moogles on a wide scale, yet. They were barely ready to start seeing Spoken ‘beast folk’ as people, let alone creatures of myth, whimsical beings thought to exist only in fairy tales. It was truly amazing the origin of the postal service remained secret all these years, with only a special few privy to the truth of its moogle workers. 

Altani loved Mogren with all her heart. They'd been the best of friends ever since she was a little kid, and she couldn't see that ever changing. However, there were a few challenges to having a best friend who always had to stay hidden. Mogren was great at illusion magic, so it wasn't that hard to block a few others from seeing them–when sober, at least. It became monumentally more difficult when tipsy or among a huge crowd, especially if they were focusing on other things–such as healing Altani or playing an inspirational minuet to power her up in battle. 

Their close circle of friends and fellow adventurers knew about Mogren, whereas not even her family or village had met her adorable, fluffy friend (if that lie got revealed, it would only unearth a much bigger, more serious, lie–one she wasn’t ready to get banned from her village over.) 

Thus, some social sacrifices were made, and she didn’t drink in establishments unless she was alone. She enjoyed adventuring with her fellow warriors of light when she could, but that wasn’t always possible. Where one threat popped up in Thavnair, two more were as likely to appear in Hingashi and Aldenard. When together, they could have a lively get together all on their own at camp. For a major threat or downtime, she’d travel to Eorzea or the others to Othard to band together and catch up, but most of the time it was just Altani and Mogren finding their own battles to win and peoples to help. 

With just the two of them, that meant drinking together. Nobody else. It wasn’t really lonely, Altani could never feel alone when she had Mogren with her. But it was nice to be surrounded by a crowd, too. To just watch people idly and listen to gossip, and soak in the atmosphere of camaraderie. To play or watch a few rounds of triple triad and challenge the beefiest people in the room to arm wrestling matches.

They couldn’t take those chances, if they were drinking. Mogren would be likely to dissipate their illusion by accident, and then they'd have a panicked bar full of people asking what the hell was that, or trying to squish Mogren’s face and smother them into oblivion. The mood would be ruined. (Altani… may have to forever avoid a few establishments thanks to learning this the hard way.)

At first, Mogren stayed hidden as always, but there were rather a lot of children running around the place, and young ones were always the best at seeing through the glamour. A few kids pointed them out and asked Altani how many gold saucer points she needed to buy such a cute little mammet. Others asked if Mogren was some special prize from lord of verminion, as they’d never seen such a special and detailed minion before. Mogren puffed up at these accusations that they were just some simple toy, but this worked in both of their favor, so Altani said it was her little secret and kept it at that. The kids liked guessing and it’s not like she’d likely see any of them again, so she let them have their fun. 

 Altani knew Mogren didn’t have as much fun if they had to stay sober while she enjoyed a few rounds of ale, plus then Altani wouldn’t be able to respond to Mogren’s conversation without looking crazy.  As much as Altani wanted to go to large parties and enjoy a hero's celebration after an impressive martial feat with her buddy, she often declined. After all, Mogren deserved just as much credit as her in her adventuring successes, and she always felt guilty and found it unfair if she had to celebrate alone. It just wasn't as fun without Mogren; she’d spend the whole time missing them!

They’d tried drinking with other moogles a few times, but that often got far too rowdy, and their king even had to get involved once. Altani didn’t want to be driven out of the Churning Mists forever, so she gave up on that. Drinking in Bahrr Lehs did not go any better, as the dragons needed far more alcohol to try to get drunk than an adventurer’s salary could afford. She stuck to just crafting for the dragons and moogles in that area, maybe doing a fun mogdance every once in a while.

For the most part, they just bought a good amount of alcohol ahead of time, set up camp somewhere, and whiled the night away with drink, song, dance, and stories by themselves. They were a plenty energetic duo to make do on their own and have a good time. It was enough.

However, the search had idly continued in the background, to find a place they could go together without illusions. They eventually discovered one incredibly public place full of all sorts of different folk that apparently wouldn’t blink twice at the sight of a moogle: The Manderville Gold Saucer. Altani had first made her way to the place while some ‘make it rain’ event was going on. She saw posters plastered everywhere when visiting Ul’dah, so she decided to give it a chance. 

When nothing bad happened after that encounter, Altani encouraged Mogren to become visible on purpose. There were so many people running around in costumes here, they’d probably think Mogren was a decoration or maybe an employee at worst. Hells, even the sabotenders seemed to be people in getups! (maybe? She saw at least one lalafell put a costume on, but it was hard to tell if some were the real deal. It only increased her confidence that this was someplace Mogren could be visible without getting driven away). 

They tried it out, and after a bell, still nothing bad had happened. “Finally!” Altani cried out, fistpumping the air. “Look, Mogren, nobody here gives a shit about you!”

“Don’t sound so excited when you say something like that, Tani!”

“You know what I mean. But seriously, who would have thought you would fit right in at an arcade? This is the perfect place to celebrate, and the directory here says they have a bar upstairs!”

“You’re right that nobody has seemed suspicious of me so far, kupo. Is this too good to be true?”

“I dunno, but I think it’s worth trying. According to the introduction plaque over here, this place is meant for anyone, so that must include moogles!”

Mogren sighed. Those signs were meant for standard Spoken folk, certainly. They didn’t see this place teeming with ixali or goblins, after all. Still, they had a crane machine called ‘moogle’s paw’ that, if it came down to it, Mogren could spin a lie and tell people that they were just a walking advertisement for that game. They put aside their uncertainties and decided to have fun. “Right you are–I belong here! Let’s go find some games to play, then!”

There were various tournaments for triple triad, and Altani was delighted to see that they even had mahjong here. She intended to wipe the floor with the locals on that later. They played a round of ‘the slice is right’, which they were pretty bad at but had a blast trying not to get hit with bamboo. She nearly blew out Mogren’s eardrums in happiness when discovering the chocobo racing arena, which she could not wait to run through with Ultimate Winner at some point. Mogren found themself enjoying Lord of Verminion after all, especially as they could cheat at it and pretend to be a minion. That kid had the right idea! Altani just had to pretend to play, while Mogren slipped inside the machine and took care of the rest. It wasn’t a very popular game, so nobody looked too closely at their shenanigans. 

After exhausting themselves trying every single game on offer and losing at cactpot, Mogren and Altani settled into a comfy chair at the bar and lounge, sipping on some sparkly themed drinks that included overly long silly straws. They had a brochure sat out in front of them that listed out a bunch of prizes and their costs. With all their playing today, they’d racked up a pretty sizeable amount of gold saucer points already. For now, so spoiled for choice, they decided to keep their winnings and save them up for something big later.

Altani held out her multicolored drink in the air. After a moment, Mogren dutifully tapped her glass with their own, which looked hilariously oversized in their tiny paws. “Well, I’d say today was a major success, wouldn’t you?”

“For sure! Thanks for not giving up, Tani.”

“Huh? On what?”

“On finding a place we could both enjoy. I know you like bigger groups of people, kupo, so it made me sad sometimes that we couldn’t go somewhere more lively that you could have a good time at too. I didn’t want to bring you down!”

“Awww, Ren! You’re worth more than any party or group of strangers. I know we’re not always together, but I never minded it just being the two of us. This was pretty nice, though. You had fun, yeah?”

Mogren nodded their head so quickly, their pom nearly bonked them in the forehead from the momentum. “Mhmm! A blast!”

“Good. Then I’m happy you’re happy. We don’t have to come here every time we want a celebratory drink, but now we finally found a place we can go without worries!”

“Here’s to more fun times, kupo! Also, when we come here again, I am challenging you to a triple triad tournament, and I’m going to kick your butt!”

“Gasp! Such a betrayal! You shouldn’t have announced it far ahead of time, you muffin. Now I’m going to collect only the best cards to ensure that you never win! Mua ha ha!”

“I’ll eat your deck, then!”

“Ewwwww, no you won’t!”

The bartender nearby kept cleaning her glass, completely uncaring about the strange costume the au ra���s friend was wearing. They were a strange duo, but definitely not the strangest she’d seen even today, so she ignored them. She only wished they’d laugh a little less loudly. Pah. First Timers. 

[toastytoonz]

Fairy Tail Triple Threat