#Huutsuu

[vaniate]

Wondeful art by Giselle Almeida (gisalmeidagpa on IG)

I’m in love with this portrayal of Chronicle of the Uphewn Throne’s characters. Hopefully official animated series will live up to this level.

Permission granted by the artist. Do not repost or edit without personal permission. Support the artist on their page for more brilliant art.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Oklahoma?

This took forever, oof.

Oklahoma

Human Name:Emily Huutsuu Garcia

Age: 130~ (looks on the tail end of 16 (I’m fiddling with ages, so this might change))

Gender: Cis girl

Orientation:Asexual Lesbian (sex positive)

Religion:She follows traditional belief systems of the Cherokee and Comanche nations,but idk to what extent yet, and I need to research more before I touch on ittoo much.

(More below the cut bc it got long)

Physical Appearance:Emily is 5’3” and weighs about 150ish pounds, give or take. She has cool, mediumbrown skin that is speckled with freckles across her face and shoulders,mostly. Her hair is black, thick, and hangs past her hips whenever it’s not ina braid or bun. She has almond-shaped eyes that are kind of upturned, and theyare very, very dark brown, almost black. Her face is round and chubby, withfull cheeks. Her nose is largish, and it has a lot of freckles across the bridge.Also, she has several scars from just being a outdoorsy child and growing up inhard times on occasion, but the most notable is on her back, going from herheart to her right shoulder blade.

In regard to her typical clothing, she loves flannels layeredover other things, and she has one specific denim jacket that she got severalyears ago that she loves. She also likes pastels and the colors red and green;most of her wardrobe reflects these color preferences. As for bottoms, she wearsalmost exclusively jeans if she’s going out, but sometimes she’ll pick a skirtif she’s feeling it. Solid color tennis shoes are her go to, and almost all of herpairs are beat up and doodled on. While she usually keeps her hair down or in asimple braid, she does love putting those plastic hair clips for kids in herhair. Things like big, green plastic hearts and colorful flower pieces are herfavorites.

Personality:Emily is pretty energetic. She likes to cause trouble with her friends andbrothers, and she’s not opposed to some good-natured pranks and tomfoolery.However, she’s much more toned down without her friends to back her up. She isfriendly, even with strangers, but if she feels that she is in trouble or thatsomeone is upset with her, she gets very withdrawn. It’s hard to make her mad,unless you’re Texas. She doesn’t always make the smartest choices, but she iswilling to pick up the pieces when things don’t go her way.

All in all, she’s pretty spunky, but it’s not hard tomake her feel small if she doesn’t have her emotional support chaos buddies toback her up.

Likes: Ballet, dancing, good-naturedchaos, music, strawberries, watermelon, flowers, the colors red and green,pastels, animals, learning about cultures, languages, and her family and friends.

Dislikes: Loudnoises, yelling, thunder, feeling like she messed up, fake strawberryflavoring, fake fruit flavoring in general, the cold, tornado season, fatphobiaand racism, bigotry in general, being talked over, and being alone.

Relationships:

@texass-shenanigans’ Texas/Angel: Emily’s older brother,and the person who raised her for a good portion of her childhood. They bickerand pick on each other, but they would also kill someone for each other, so, y’know.Angel gets on Emily’s nerves a lot, but they get along when it counts. As anolder brother, he’s a little more level-headed than she is and he gets worriedwhen she runs off to hunt ghosts or cause chaos, but as Texas… well, he’s onlya little more level-headed, not a lot.

Comanche (Naduah) and Cherokee (Onacona): Emily’smother and father, respectively. Emily loves them both dearly and they areprobably some of the only people who can talk sense into her without making herfeel scolded and withdrawn. Well, Onacona is. Naduah is more where Emily gother wild streak from. Emily was raised by them during her very early childhood,before some issues caused them to let Texas care for her for a while. Still,the family is very close, and Emily wouldn’t trade her parents for the world.

Missouri/Miles: Wild Boi, big brother figure, chaosbuddy, and an overall very good bad example. Miles is actually a pretty sweet person,he just is prone to getting into things he shouldn’t, and this can cause issueswhen one of his pupils is a teenager. Emily looks up to Miles, and Miles isvery protective of Emily. He lets her explore her knack for chaos and she makeshim take a step back every now and again to take a safer route. Also, Miles isa big influence on Emily’s love of sparkly/brightly colored things.

Arkansas/Andrew: Less wild boi, slightly younger bigbrother figure. Andrew is calmer than his older brother and Emily, though stilla bit of a trouble maker, and he and Emily have fun watching the subtlenuisances they can create in the lives of friends and family. Andrew has beenvery helpful for Emily’s habit of curling in on herself when distressed byoffering her a safe and calm space where she can take a breath and reevaluate.These two are protective of each other and each has done wonders for the bodyimage of the other; Emily is chubby and Andrew has vitiligo. They’ve both beenbullied over these facts, but they find confidence in each other and theirfriends.

Kansas/Heni: Emily’s partner. Emily is head over heelsfor this nonbinary darling, and she is all the time coming up with some cutething to call them. Emily will fight anyone who tries to invalidate Heni’sgender or criticizes their fluidity. Heni would kill someone for making Emilyfeel bad about herself or her appearance. They are very supportive of eachother and their relationship is very Softe Teen Romance ™. Heni is always thereto be a firm stance and a rock for Emily when she feels battered or vulnerable.

Arizona/Kat: Kat is like Emily’s cool cousin. Shedoesn’t see her very often, but when she does, they spend a lot of their timechatting or being activists. Kat is a big Queer, Indigenous, and Latino rightsactivist, and Emily goes along to help in any way she’s needed. Kat issurprisingly level-headed and calm, and she’s a calming influence on Emily,helping her focus some of her chaotic energy into productive action.

@texass-shenanigans’ Louisiana/Alex: Alex is Angel’shusband and Miles & Andrew’s older brother. He is by far the calmest one ofthe bunch, and the one with the most braincells, bless his heart. He sometimesteaches Emily to cook, which often ends with the very messy kitchen and a very messyEmily. Alex and Emily get along pretty well, but much like he feels with hisbrothers, he does hope Emily will calm down soon. He’s an excellent confidant, inEmily’s opinion.

Miscellaneous:Emily loves stickers so fucking much. Especially sparkly ones.

Fire is also a thing. She likes to hold stick over acame fire and watch them burn.

Hates June bugs with a passion.

Her favorite treat is a strawberry milkshake. Thisgirl will absolutely do almost anything for a strawberry milkshake with realstrawberries in it.

Ballet is one of the first things that helped her loveher body. She’s been performing for decades now.

Speaks several languages, including several Indigenousones.

Learning ASL to be supportive of one of Miles’partners, Kentucky.

Found out she was ace before finding out she was alesbian, and both times it was because of Heni.

[texass-shenanigans]

C'mon, please? I'll do anything!

*toddles in and falls on her butt* Andel! -- Fetus Emi

*stares in horror as he picks her up* Oh no

// @aph-oklahoma-46

[somewhere-in-the-dungeon]

Genre

In regards to this post, I got some questions ( @proudly-arrogant, @dataandphilosophy) about what I’d read that fit them and what recommendations I had. Since the fact that something is in these genres is itself a spoiler, be aware that the following list should be read with caution. I’m going to write one list that has stories which fit at least one of the genres, and then under a cut I’m going to specify which genre they fit if you’re only interested in some of them and are willing to get spoiled a little.

Mainstays

Worm, by Wildbow.

Twig, by Wildbow

The Gods are Bastards, by D. D. Web.

Chronicles of the Unhewn Throne, by Brian Stavely.

The Reckoners, by Brandon Sanderson.

Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson.

Prince of Thorns, by Mark Lawrence.

Lightbringer, by Brent Weeks.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams.

Ender’s Game, by Orson Scott Card

Ra, by Sam Hughes

The Starlight Crystal, by Christopher Pike

The Girl Who Poked God With a Stick, by Scott Alexander

The Shannara books, by Terry Brooks

Professor Incognito Apologizes, by Austin Grossman

Honourable Mentions:

Artemis Fowl, be Eion Colfer

The Dark Tower, by Stephen King

Unsong, by Scott Alexander.

The Metropolitan Man, by Alexander Wales  

Animorphs, by K.A. Applegate

The Lies of Locke Lemora, by Scott Lynch

Gunner’s Apprentice, by Brent Weeks

Dragonlance: Legends, by Weis and Hickman

Breakers, by Edward Robertson

The Craft Sequence, by Max Gladstone

The Mayflower Project, by K. A. Applegate.

Homecoming, by Orson Scott Card

Hard spoilers beyond here.

Worm is dead centre for 1, and 3. Scion is an omniscient, omnipotent being who could reasonably be said to have ‘created’ all of the capes, and they kick his ass, and you would not have guessed that “all out war against an elder god” was where that story was going. the interludes occasionally give me 2 though not as often as I’d like, and Assault and Battery are appreciated as a nod towards 4.

Twig is a solid 2 and is great for 4 shipping. Sylvester Lamsbridge is a serious contender for the character I felt the most kinship with in any story I’ve read. It gets a nod for 1 on the grounds they Sy does slit the throat of his creator. (Ask me some about Sy/Mauer if you want to hear me laugh my ass off. Ask me about that chapter if you want an unstable gush of feelings.)

The Gods are Bastards had 1 happen in the background, and I’m kinda hoping that the main student group (Triss, Gabe, Teal, etc) winds up ascending to become new gods. I just got to the part where this is all a science experiment and the elder gods had ceremonial guards with lightsabers just for the hell of it. A+, good genre sneakyness. The sexist thief dude makes an appreciated stab at 2, and I gotta be honest I’m shipping Triss and Gabe so far. (Actually I want the whole class to devolve into a hot poly mess (possibly with Teal, Shaeine, and Vadge off in a disconnected polycule) but I’ll take Triss and Gabe if I can’t get that.)

Unhewn Throne is grand fantasy with incarnated gods walking the earth, a great founding myth of immortal emotionless beings who play with the lives of men like toys, and do not misunderstand me when I say I loved the ending of Skullsworn. Really though, this makes the list on the strength of 4. Huutsuu and Valyn are my fucking ship. The fact that I find them as hot as I do should probably put me on some kind of watchlist tbh.

The Reckoners and Mistborn constitute a pattern, frankly. Sanderson just loves to do 1, so I forgive him for his tragic inability to write 2. However, if you take the time to read the first three Mistborn books and then read Ars Arcanum, you get to see the rule of three employed around a conman punching god in the face. I heartily approve. Plus, we get a heist novel shift into deicide, and then get to see it shift into a western. Word of the Author says we might get a space version someday.

Prince of Thorns is some high quality 2, a bastard son carving a bloody path through his father’s kingdom in his quest to take power. Plus, band of mercenary swordsmen find what are pretty clearly nuclear warheads, so that’s awesome. (Upon seeing the destruction one causes, and finding out of the horrors of fallout that have been imposed on the surrounding territory, our hero goes “I know where to get more of those if anyone questions me again.”)

Lightbringer so far is looking like it might be a home run on 1 and 2. It’s a fantasy story that opens with two viewpoint characters- the emperor/archmage/pope, and the fat bastard son of a whore in a shitty little town. The Guile family are truly an inspiration to power hungry assholes everywhere, and I honestly want to give it some points towards 3 just for the number of fakeouts and misdirections involved in their twisted family tree. The emperor and his bodyguard make an okay 4.

HP:MoR gets mentioned here mostly for Professor Q.  being such a wonderful 2. It dances on the line of 3 a bit, but this will always have a place in my heart for the joys of a character who tried out being a hero, found it not to his liking, and went to do something else.

Dirk Gently is a delightful example of 3. It’s the best sci-fi fantasy comedy mystery novel built around a poem I’ve ever read?

Ender’s Game gives us Peter Wiggin, aka my childhood role model. It also gives us Petra Arkanian, my first fictional crush. ‘Nuff said.

Ra offers an explanation of magic that is as structured and ordered as electrical engineering, then starts hinting at deeper, less orderly magic, then goes full out “anything can happen” and then starts swerving hard. “Ra” of course is the name of a sun god, and when that penny drops it’s a pretty good moment. I would also like to point out that the main character scoops her boyfriend’s soul out of his body and sends it to hell in order to test a hypothesis.

The Starlight Crystal is like what happens if you cross All You Zombies and Unsong. As is The Girl Who Poked God With a Stick actually. Um. Huh. These are both great stories and someone should write it again actually, I’d read as many copies of this formula as people can churn out. 

I remember the Big Secret of a lot of pulp fantasy I read as a kid was “secretly, you were on post-apocalypse earth the whole time!” but the only example I think I remember the title of was the Shannara books.

Professor Incognito Apologizes brings a smile to my face. If any woman ever pulls off that, I’m probably going to propose to her on the spot. (The ring will, of course, be coated in contact poison.)

Artemis Fowl (the first book) is a good 2. Shame he turns into a good guy. 

The Dark Tower weaves fantasy, horror, and sci-fi together nicely. 

I probably should have seen the ending of Unsong coming, but I did not. 

The Metropolitan Man is a great example of forethought being put into how to kill the unkillable. 

The Animorphs fanfic I truly want is the one where the animorphs murder Crayak. The Ellimist Chronicles remains my second favourite Animorphs book. (My favourite is The illusion. Third would be The Attack.) 

Lies of Locke Lemora involves a heist novel turning into a vendetta, and also has the murder of a reality warping magi by a pair of angry guys with knives. Republic of Thieves is a worse heist novel, but I still ship Locke and Sabetha.

Gunner’s Apprentice is Weeks being an asshole, and I will not spoil his grand design :) Read it after you finish book 3 I think.

Dragonlance is, to me, the story of one man trying to become a god by eliminating a previous member of the pantheon. People who have played Tabletop RPGs with me are probably rolling their eyes right now.

Breakers gets props from me for misdirection. I kinda thought we were going to be doing a zombie novel, but no, it’s aliens. Gets a mild nod towards 1 for taking out a flying saucer with a hot air balloon.

The Craft Sequence opens with the tagline “God is dead. Bring in the necromancers and the estate lawyers.” Good stuff.

The Mayflower Project is full of terrible people.

Homecoming has people praying to what turns out to be a satellite. I can dig it.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Transtalia Week 2020 Day 5

Day 5: Fantasy

@the-transtalia-blog This doesn’t actually focus a lot on the transness of any character, but Spain is a dick and does not respect Naduah

Comanche = Naduah/Nadie (genderfluid, she/her (primarily) and he/him) Cherokee = Onacona (cis man, until I change my mind) Oklahoma = Huutsuu (Emily’s given name) (cis girl) (only mentioned) @texass-shenanigans‘s Texas = Colonneh (Angel’s given name) (cis man) (only mentioned) Spain = Antonio (cis man/little bitch)

Akottusha Empire = Comanche and Cherokee’s empire Creboral Empire = Spain’s empire

If you wanna know more about this au, send an ask my way. There’s not a lot of detail here and it kinda jumps a lot.

TW: transphobia, including misgendering, but only described for the most part. Also murder/murder attempt/murder plot and death

Naduah sat straight up, one hand grasping her spear, the other resting on the arm of her throne. The door at the side of the dais opened and Onacona stepped up to his own throne beside her, raising a staff and straightening his robes.

“Cutting it a little close, Love,” Naduah quipped, grinning.

“Ah, well, Huutsuu was trying to negotiate her way out of a nap, I’m afraid.” He smiled over at her. “I think she takes after you, in that regard.”

“Hmph, I’ll have you know, I am an excellent negotiator.”

“Of course, Nadie.” Onacona leaned over to kiss her cheek.

The main doors to the throne hall opened and a page entered and bowed.

“Your majesties, Emperor Antonio of the Creboral Empire seeks an audience.”

Naduah nodded and Onacona spoke, “Bring him in.”

The page bowed again and stepped out. A few moments later, the doors opened wide, and a man and his guard strode in. The guard split off to either side of the aisle up to the throne, taking a stance next to the throne hall guards, while the man continued to march down the walkway to the thrones, head held high. When he reached the end of the carpeted path, feet away from the base of the dais, he looked up at the monarchs and spread his arms and grinned.

“Hola, my friends!” Antonio nodded to each ruler. Onacona nodded back. Naduah quirked a brow when his haze lingered longer than she liked. “I have truly looked forward to standing here today. I have come to discuss a, ah… a potential joint agreement between our nations; one that, hopefully, will be beneficial to both our interests.”

Naduah eyed the emperor as he spoke. His words were flowery and offered a prosperous agreement, but her attention was on his actions. She knew of this man and of the campaigns of his empire, and she did not trust his intentions.

Diplomacy, while important, was not her forte. It was her husband’s, which was why he was the High Diplomat of Akottusha, and not just the Chief Warrior's partner. He was a keen negotiator and had a knack for spotting the tells and nuances of a person’s body language and words, and he had repeatedly made great gains for their country. The realm of negotiation, trade, and diplomacy were absolutely his strong suit.

And the battlefield was Naduah's. She had a mind for strategy, and she had earned her throne through years of not just fighting battles, but through knowing which ones were worth waging. Her job as a leader of Akottusha was to assure the nation’s people were seen as citizens to be protected and not treated as assets to be exploited.

Part of this duty was being informed of the military movements of other nations, and Creboral had been preparing for something. It was not lost on Naduah that Antonio had saw fit to approach other nations before this and to threatened those who were unsatisfied with his words.

Onacona shook Naduah from her thoughts when he responded to Antonio’s offer.

“Well, while this is all very interesting, the Warrior and I should discuss this before further considerations. Thank you for your time, Emperor.”

“Of course. Buenos días, my king-” Antonio nodded to Onacona, “and to you, my queen.” He extended a hand to Naduah.

She looked down at it, before nodding to him and saying, “That is not necessary. And I understand this is your first foray into our politics, but if you wish to negotiate with the High Diplomat and High Warrior, we would ask that you address us properly.” She smiled, trying to look more friendly and less distrusting. “For future encounters.”

Antonio beamed, but it did not put her at ease.

“Of course. My apologies.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Naduah watched Onacona and Colonneh ride out of the gates of castle and toward a neighboring kingdom. This would not be the first diplomatic mission that his son had attended, but it would be the first Colonneh helped lead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They couldn’t even bury their bodies.

News of the attack on the envoy reached Naduah as he was getting his daughters ready for lunch. Supposedly, bandits had struck during the night and burned the campsite down in a botched attempt to distract the guards. Neither his husband nor his son were identified, but the bodies that were recovered were beyond recognition.

Antonio had brought him the news. He had claimed to be on a trip through the countryside of the kingdom that neighbored Akottusha to the northeast. His party noticed smoke in the skies and rushed to see what was happening. Unfortunately, the Emperor had said, by the time they had arrived and the blaze had been put out, the High Diplomat and the prince had been lost.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I assure you, my lady, the Creboral Empire is here to extend any aid you may need. And I am also here to offer comfort, my queen, in the tragic absence of your husband.”

Naduah stiffened.

“I am not a queen, Antonio, and I am not  anyone’s lady. I am the Chief Warrior, and I am Onacona’s partner.” She stood and nodded to the guard, who began taking their usual stations at the entrances after the funerary ceremonies had concluded. “Thank you for your empire’s offer; my people will appreciate it. But I assure you, I am not in need of your comfort. Good evening.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He was going to kill the bastard. Even if it took days, weeks, years, he was going to do it.

Not more than two weeks after the disappearance (the murder) of his husband and son, and Antonio had come to restart the failing negotiations, and the bastard had the gall to suggest they unite their empires through marriage. He had asked for Naduah’s hand, and still referred to him as the queen, his lady, etc.

That wasn’t why Naduah was angry.

Well, that didn’t help. No matter how many times Antonio was informed of which robes meant Naduah was masculine or feminine, he still clung to the feminine terms.

What really stirred Naduah’s distrust and dislike into hatred was Antonio’s reaction to Naduah’s refusal.

He’d threatened his daughters. He’d revealed what Naduah already suspected; the attack on Onacona and Colonneh's envoy was ordered by the emperor. And he had threatened war on his people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Onacona had taught Naduah some things about diplomacy. Among them was the understanding that sometimes, in order to protect your people, you must take the bad deal presented, and then fight for changes later.

Naduah accepted Antonio’s hand.

She’d kill him later.

Besides, her informants had returned with good news. No need to make a day of celebration into a day of death.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Royal AU: No-nose gets Jail Time

No prompt for the last couple weeks, and no motivation either! But, I finally got some inspiration, so have a short little snippet of my dumbass daughter and her dumbass friends being hypocrites and illiterate smols.

Huutsuu stood on the seat of her father’s throne while waving her scepter (a stick Andrew had found that they adorned with ribbons and a hand mirror).

“No-nose, you have been found guilty of stealing our deserts-,”

“Uh, I think it’s desserts…”

“Desserts!” Huutsuu corrected. “Anyway, stealing is bad, so now you’re going to puppy jail.” Huutsuu crossed her arms and looked to Andrew and Miles, who stood on either side of No-nose, who in turn sat on the ground, looking around happily and licking powdered sugar off her snout.

“Take the prisoner away!”

Andrew hefted the puppy into his arms and scratched behind her ears. Miles marched in front of them and began to lead the way out of the throne room. Then, he paused and turned back to Huutsuu.

“Uh, where’re we s’posed to take her?”

Huutsuu rubbed the back of her head, thinking. They weren’t supposed to leave the residence without an adult, and they couldn’t get into the cells below the castle even if they could sneak down there.

Andrew piped up, “We can build a pen in one of our rooms.” The other two children looked at each other and shrugged. That would probably work.

The group hurried out of the throne room and out into the hallway. Andrew and Miles had been given rooms near Huutsuu’s for when they joined Alex or their parents on visits to Naduah and Onacona’s kingdom, so the three all went to the same area and stopped. After a few moments of deliberating, they decided Huutsuu’s room would be the best place, as there was more room (only one bed), and No-nose stayed there anyway.

Inside Huutsuu’s room, Andrew sat No-nose down. He, Miles, and Huutsuu began clearing a space by the bed to build their makeshift prison. A toy chest was pushed a few feet away from the bed and against the wall, a blanket was thrown over the space between to make a roof, pillows and blankets were placed inside as a bed. At first, they used various sticks and toy swords as a barred door, but No-nose kept knocking those down, so they pushed another box from the boys’ room in and used that instead.

Miles stood up and admired their work. “Excellent job, everyone,” he praised as Huutsuu placed No-nose inside the makeshift cell. “It looks so good that I might go commit crimes just to stay in it!”

Of course, that was the moment Colonneh walked in, with Alex behind him.

“What are you guys doing?”

Huutsuu smiled up at the older boys and said, “We built a jail for No-nose!”

“And I’m gonna become a criminal so I can stay in it!” Miles exclaimed.

Alex and Colonneh gave each other a look. Alex said, “Uh-huh. And what kind of criminal will you be, exactly?”

“An assazzasin! Asassizin? You know, that!”

“Oh, shit. Don’t you wanna start with something a little more… not murder?”

Miles blinked at Colonneh, then launched a hairbrush directly at his face. Huutsuu and Andrew giggled as Colonneh recovered and looked both shocked and insulted. Alex frowned at Miles.

“You’ve assasparated!”

“Miles, I don’t think that’s the right word.”

“Sure, it is. Assazins are people who attack asses. Like Colonneh!”

Both Andrew and Huutsuu broke out into laughter again, and even Alex chuckled a little. Colonneh made an indignant sound and started to say something but was stopped by Alex.

“Ok, I think No-nose has served enough time. Why don’t you three let her out, and then we can go find Miles a dictionary… and maybe some ice for you, love.” Colonneh rubbed at the bruise beginning to form on his forehead and scowled at Miles. Alex put a hand on each shoulder and shuffled his fiancé out of the room. “C’mon, you three,” he called back. Huutsuu let No-nose out of her captivity, then she, Andrew, and Miles bounded out of the room to follow their brothers.

Now slightly less irritated, Colonneh asked, “Why’d you have your dog locked up anyway?”

“She was guilty of desert-,”

“Dessert!”

“Dessert crimes.”

Alex and Colonneh both stopped to look at each other, then back at the children.

“A hypocritical queen, I see.”

“Indeed. And her advisors, too.”

The children just peered up, nonplussed, while Alex and Colonneh seemed to find something very amusing in whatever they just said. Personally, none of the little ones could see what hippos had to do with them or crimes against sweets.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Someone get these kids a dictionary.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Which AU is ur favorite & yeet me all the juicy deets abt that AU

//Currently, my favorite AU is the Angel/Demon AU, though overall, probably the Royal AU.

Angel/Demon AU

Characters:

Huutsuu/Emily (Imp)

Colonneh/Angel (Incubus)

Naduah (Demon (Idk what kind yet)

Onacona (Idk what he’s gonna be, but probs another Demon)

Alex (Human, Magic user of some kind)Miles (Fallen Angel)

Andrew (Fallen Angel)

Assorted others, unnamed mostly because I’m a mess

Emily’s abilities as an Imp include, but are not necessarily limited to: Flying, turning invisible for short periods of time, changing size and shaped (she can change into a small, feathered lizard-like creature, a small bird, and a human child) and small acts of magic used for mischief.Emily is a feathered Imp with brown wings and a feathered tail.

Imps are seen (at best) as pests by most other demonic creatures, so they usually have fairly short life spans consisting mostly of harassing humans/angels and running from demons. Emily was found by Angel after she was caught stealing from him, and he sort of just adopted this random child as a sister and brought her home with him.

Naduah is the master of a decent-sized bit of territory on the border of demonic and neutral ground. She and Onacona are still together in this AU, and Angel is her son. She and Onacona both gladly take Emily in.

Emily likes to wander, but she knows to stay close to her family’s estate and in the bounds of her mother’s territory. She often reports interesting bits of information she overhears to Naduah, like in the last drabble where she witnessed goods being stolen.

Angel met Alex during some exploit or other on earth and fell for him. Demon/human pairings aren’t unheard of, but they’re not really considered officially acceptable. Angel’s status as Naduah’s son and his perceived nature as an Incubus garnered him some lee way with those who know about him and Alex, but he still tries to keep it under wraps.

Andrew and Miles fell from Paradise. I don’t have the reason nailed down just yet, but I’m leaning toward one too many pranks or being the products of a relationship between and Angel and something else. Fallen Angels are considered very dangerous and are usually not allowed to live. Because the two are so young, they were chased into known Demonic territory before being left alone. The idea was that if they weren’t killed by Demons, they’d die of exposure.

Angel finds the two before much of anything can happen to them and offers to take them somewhere safe (Alex). Andrew is injured and can’t walk, and neither can fly without attracting attention, so they agree, much to Miles distaste.

At some point, Emily runs into Alex while fleeing a Demon and their Hell Hounds. Because she’s an Imp and therefore has much less power than most Demonic creatures in the area, she is able to force her way through Alex’s magic barrier and escape. She doesn’t know about Alex’s relationship with Angel yet, and Alex doesn’t know enough about her to know Emily is Angel’s sister. He does, however, find out she’s a demon. Alex offers to help her until she can get home safely.

I don’t really have an in-depth timeline yet, but the basic gist is this:

Naduah comes into power, gaining a realm of her own, with her partner, Onacona, by her side.

A few decades later, Angel is born.

A few centuries later, Angel finds Emily.

3 or 4 decades later, Angel meets Alex.

Unknown amount of time later (I’m undecided) Andrew and Miles fall and are rescued by Angel

That’s the timeline thus far. This AU is still in development. I’ll make a separate post for the Royal AU, as this one is already getting long and I am needed elsewhere. I may also make another post for this AU, with more information, later.

Also, aspects of this AU were developed with the help of @texass-shenanigans , so big thanks there!

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Angel/Demon AU: Huutsuu Meets Colonneh

//Hey hey, no prompt this week so here’s a prequel to the last couple of Angel/Demon AU snippets. Just like the title implies, this is how Huutsuu met Colonneh in this AU. Notes at the bottom.

Huutsuu sat cross-legged on the small ledge, sorting through the bag she had taken. There were a few personal items, a cloak, various bits of ingredients for spells or poultices, and some food. IT was just bread and a water flask, but it would do for right now, so she sat it to the side and returned briefly to the bag to see if there was anything valuable. Finding nothing she could trade for more food, she returned the other items back to the bag and pushed it away, once again picking up the food she had found and eating.

She was half way through the bread when she heard a sound from outside the tiny cave she sat in. Eyes shooting up to the entrance, Huutsuu slowly sat the bread down and crawled backwards into the cave. She held her breath and remained as still as possibly in the back of the crevice, watching the entrance for any movement, listening for anymore sound. Her wings were pressed tightly against her back and her tail flicked nervously.

She had left the bag and the bread sitting near the entrance, which might inform a nosy creature of her presence if they saw it, but the cave was small, dark, and shielded enough that it was unlikely anyone would try entering.

After a few moments with no other sounds, Huutsuu began to relax a bit. She inched forward, still listening for any threat. Soon, she was reunited with her lunch and began to eat once more.

A hand shot in to the cave and latched on to her wrist before yanking her out.

Huutsuu yelped as she was hoisted into the air and instinctually kicked out against her assailant. She flapped her wings wildly, wriggling in the air and flailing. Suddenly, she was dropped onto the ledge again. She scrambled backwards, trying to get far enough into the cave that she couldn’t be reached, but the creature that grabbed her snatched hold of her ankle and held her in place.

Unable to run and unable to put up much of a fight, Huutsuu sat still and faced the creature who stood at the cave entrance.

It was another demon, but she couldn’t tell what kind. He stood kind of crouched down so he could see through the opening in the rock wall. Huutsuu could see that he was a lot older than her and much bigger; even if she got past him, he could probably outrun her. Huutsuu hadn’t known how to fly for very long, and she wasn’t the best at it, whereas this demon probably had more experience and ability.

She was pulled from her thoughts when the other demon growled at her. “Where’s my stuff? I know you took it.”

Huutsuu blinked and shook her head.

The bigger demon scowled and pulled her closer to opening, making her whimper. “Yes, you did! I saw you with it.”

Thinking, Huutsuu decided it might be better to just return the bag. The bigger demon evidently didn’t see the bag before it was knocked backwards into the cave. Huutsuu would just give it back and say the bread was gone when she found it.

Huutsuu pointed behind her. “It’s back there-,” her voice wasn’t as firm as she’d hoped, “-but I didn’t steal it, I promise! I just… I found it.”

The other demon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, found it right next to me when I looked the other way. Go get it, then.” He let go of her ankle and Huutsuu rushed back to grab the bag.

When she returned seconds later, the other demon snatched the bag from her and looked through it. He paused for a moment and glanced at her, and Huutsuu felt her gut twist. He must have noticed the bread was gone. Huutsuu shifted nervously, resisting the urge to run away. She hadn’t been caught by anyone before now, but she was aware, even at such a young age, that imps who did get caught only get caught once. Typically, that was because they didn’t survive long enough to get caught twice.

The other demon was still looking at her, but he didn’t look angry or annoyed anymore. He looked… maybe concerned? He spoke again, and this time, he sounded curious.

“Are you hungry?” he asked. Huutsuu was, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to go anywhere with someone who just dragged her out of a cave. Still…

She nodded. She’d only eaten half of the bread (not that there was much bread to begin with), and she couldn’t just go buy or trade for food with other demons without being attacked.

The bigger demon put his bag over his shoulder and held a hand out to Huutsuu. She flinched but took it, and he helped her out of the cave.

When he picked her up out of the cave, the bigger demon realized how light the imp was. He frowned a little, thinking that she seemed to light for someone her size, but he didn’t know enough about imps to be sure.

“What’s your name?” he asked, putting on the ground so she could stand next to him.

“Um… Huutsuu?”

“Mine’s Colonneh. I’m uh… sorry for being uh, being mean, earlier. There was probably a better way to get my stuff back.” He scratched his head sheepishly.

Colonneh realized he couldn’t take her through any area with a lot of people, since someone would surely recognize her as an imp and cause a scene, so he took the cloak from his bag and wrapped it around her. Then he picked her up and made sure he could hold her and the bag.

“I know a place you can stay, if you don’t want to sleep in a hole in the wall. You shouldn’t have to hide out here just because you’re annoying.”

Huutsuu frowned at him, but she nodded. She wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. Huutsuu was tired, hungry, and still a little nervous, but Colonneh hadn’t really done anything except demand she return his stolen bag. He was nicer than most other demons she ran into. Maybe she would stay with him for a little while, instead of going back out by herself. It’s always better to have someone watching your back.

The imp soon fell asleep, and Colonneh carried back to his mother’s house, where he knew she would be safe.

//Ok, so Emily and Angel are not blood relatives in this AU, but are more like found family. Emily is really young, and this takes place way before the first drabble I wrote for this AU, where she met Alex.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Angel & Demon AU, Part 2

//No prompt this week so here’s a continuation taking place after Emily met Alex.

Huutsuu sat at a table, looking around the cabin. The structure was mostly wooden, and though it wasn’t exactly tiny, it wasn’t very big, either. Clearly, it was originally intended for just one resident. The room she was in now was some kind of combined kitchen and living room, with a dinner table and stove at one end and a couch and fireplace at the other. There was a hallway leading out of the living room, down which there were doors to a bedroom, closet, and other rooms that Huutsuu wasn’t sure what they contained. The whole building was strewn with jars and bundles and books, all of which appeared to be spell-casting items. Huutsuu had thumbed quickly through one of the books while Alex went to go find her new clothes, and she discovered it was a notebook he’d been keeping. Most of it seemed to be research notes on various magic experiments.

Eventually, sitting still became too uncomfortable. Huutsuu didn’t do well with being stationary anyway, but she also had her tail tucked up under her clothes, along with her wings folded tightly against her back, underneath her shirt, none of which was comfortable. Adding in the soreness and aches from forcing her way through the barrier, Huutsuu just wasn’t in the best state. Alex had left the room again to make her a place to sleep, should she choose to stay for the night, so Huutsuu walked around the living room for a bit, stretching her tail. Her wings would have to wait until she had more time alone, because her shirt didn’t have holes to stretch them through, and she didn’t want Alex to walk in and see them. She had learned a long time ago that letting people think she’s human is a lot easier than having to deal with screaming people and exorcists.

Huutsuu found a drawing on the mantle of the fireplace that showed Alex standing with two women. They all seemed very happy, standing close to each other and smiling. The closer Huutsuu looked, the more similarities she saw between the people in the picture. Huutsuu decided they must be siblings. She frowned as she looked at the picture, placing it back on the mantle. Her own brother was going to be mad when he found out about the trouble she’d gotten in. And that she talked to a human. And that she, a demon, was gonna stay at said human’s house, despite the fact that said human was apparently a magician of some kind and knew enough about demons to effectively ward against them.

Yeah, Colonneh would definitely be upset with her. Things don’t usually work out very well when either of them spends too much time around humans, since they almost always find out that they’re demons.

Huutsuu shrugged. She didn’t really have a choice, this time. She couldn’t leave the barrier of wards for fear of being found by higher demons, against which she wouldn’t stand a chance until she healed a bit, so she would have to wait until Colonneh came for her. Acutely aware of the soreness in her shoulders and wings, Huutsuu sighed. That could be a few days from now, so she’d have to keep this up most of the time. Still, it’s better than getting eaten by hell hounds or something worse.

Footsteps sounded down the hall and Huutsuu jumped, tucking her tail back behind her and wincing as it smacked a bruised part of her leg. She turned to the entrance to the hall just as Alex reappeared.

“So,” he said, “You can stay in my room if you’d like. I only have the one bed and bedroom, or I’d let you stay in another one.”

“Where are you gonna sleep?”

“Probably on a cot in my study or in here.” He gestured to the couch. “Why don’t you come back to the kitchen so we can talk.” Alex smiled and moved to the kitchen. As Huutsuu sat down, he went to the cabinets. “Hungry?”

Huutsuu was going to say no, but her stomach growled, and she remembered she hadn’t eaten since before she was chased through the woods. “A little, yeah,” she muttered sheepishly. Alex brought some food and plates over, setting them down and waiting for Huutsuu to eat before he started.

“So, first things first,” he spoke casually as he put bread and cheese on his plate. “What exactly are you?”

Huutsuu almost choked on a mouthful of bread. “What?” she mumbled around the bread, trying to look confused. “I’m uh… I’m a girl, I’m pretty sure… Human, just like you.”

“If you were human, you wouldn’t have set off the warning system connected to my wards. Also, I don’t know any humans with a tail or feathers dropping out of their back.” Alex held up a brown feather and gestured behind Huutsuu. Her tail was flicking nervously behind her.

Stupid thing, she thought to herself, snatching it and holding it down, which only made her wince.

Alex sat the feather on the table and went back to his plate. “Now, you can tell me who and what you are, and how you ended up here in the state you did, or I can tell you what I think is going on. What do you say?”

“…What do you think?” she answered. Maybe she could go along with it.

“Alright. I think you some kind of lesser demon, and you got chased here by something else. You managed to get through my wards, but you still triggered them and my alarm system, so you have to be at least partly demonic. I’m assuming you were chased here by another, probably significantly bigger demon, since you weren’t the only thing that my wards detected.” He looked up and smiled, not unkindly. “How am I doing so far?”

Huutsuu blinked. Alex continued.

“Based on what little I know about you, I’m going to assume you’re an imp or something similar. That probably means you ticked off some other demon, and since imps aren’t especially well-liked among demonic beings, it didn’t exactly go your way. You got here and decided risking wards was better than getting attacked by whoever was chasing you.” He sat back and looked at her.

Huutsuu didn’t speak right away, instead watching Alex to see what he would do. She wasn’t used to humans paying that much attention, especially to her. They usually assumed she was another homeless child playing tricks and left her alone so long as she did the same. She looked up at Alex. He didn’t seem upset or angry. He didn’t even look irritated. Instead, his face showed mild concern. Huutsuu pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them, thinking. She couldn’t go outside the warding, and Alex seemed safe enough. Besides, she was in no state to leave on her own, and Colonneh wouldn’t be here for who knew how long. She took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’ll leave if you want.”

“That’s not what I want. I want to help. Now that you’ve eaten, why don’t you come with me to get fixed up? Forcing your way through a barrier meant specifically to keep demons out probably wasn’t a pleasant experience, and you’ve been cringing the whole time you’ve been here.”

Huutsuu nodded and got up, following Alex to another room. It looked like a study. The walls were lined with shelves, which were filled with books, journals, papers, ingredients, strange items, and other such things. There was a desk against the wall, under the window, and another table with bowls and a mortar and pestle on it across the room. Alex pulled a chair out and gestured for Huutsuu to sit while he searched through the shelves.

Soon enough, Alex had bandaged the worst of the wounds on her arms and legs. Luckily, her torso, and all the vital organs inside, were more or less uninjured, save for a bit of bruising. Huutsuu’s wings had been singed here and there, and the stress of passing through the barrier must have been what caused feathers to fall out, but Alex helped with that as well. Once he was certain the worst of the injuries were taken care of, he asked for her name.

“Um… people usually call me Sparrow when they’re mad at me, because apparently I’m annoying like a house sparrow.”

“Well, what do they call you when they’re not mad at you?”

Huutsuu thought for a minute. “They’re usually mad at me. Besides, I’m not gonna tell some random magic user my real name. I guess you can call me Emily. That’s what I use when my brother and I go to towns.”

“Alright then,” Alex said. “Emily it is.”

Colonneh sat up straight. Something was wrong, it had to be. He hadn’t heard from Huutsuu in a few days, and he’d been so busy he wasn’t able to go check on her.

She’s probably fine, he thought. She knows how to take care of herself, and as long as she doesn’t go looking for trouble, she shouldn’t find any… Yeah, I should go check on her.

Colonneh got up and collected his things quietly, so as not to wake up the other person, and left quickly.

Once he was outside, he made for the tree line. He wanted to get to Huutsuu as quickly as possible, but it wouldn’t be wise to be seen in town without a disguise. As soon as he had enough cover, he halted the magic that made him appear completely human and flew just under the tree tops.

As Colonneh flew, his thoughts drifted. It was so stupid of him to leave Huutsuu alone for so long! Even in the best of hiding places, she wouldn’t stay put for long, eventually going out to explore or play tricks on some hapless farmer or hunter. That wouldn’t be such a bad thing, really, so long as she didn’t draw the attention of too many priests, but the demons who lived in the foothills were known to be very territorial, and to hunt lesser demons for sport. If any of them were to notice and imp in the area, they would go after it.

As his thoughts grew steadily more upsetting, Colonneh forgot to watch where he was going and smacked into a tree.

“Ow, shit.” He rubbed his forehead and took off again, traveling as quickly as he could toward his and Huutsuu’s last hiding place.

//I think I’ll make a separate fic for this on AO3 at some point, along with the Royal and Deity AUs. Idk, they’re just getting kinda long.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Angel/Demon AU

I didn’t get a request this week, so here’s another AU drabble. I will continue this, I just don’t know when.

Huutsuu hid behind the rocks, crouched low and holding her breath. Angry growls and muttering came from the mouth of the cave, and she curled up as small as she could to keep from being seen. She should be alright, as long as she didn’t make any noise. The larger demon would get bored and leave eventually; most demons would chase an imp for a few miles, but 99% of them didn’t think imps warranted more than a short chase.

As she suspected, the sounds faded back into the cave. Huutsuu stayed in her spot for a little while longer, just to make sure, before peeking up over the rocks to see if the coast was clear. There wasn’t a creature in sight, so she took the opportunity to quietly head away from the cave. Once she was behind the tree line, she climbed quickly up into the trees and hopped from branch to branch until she had put a good amount of distance between her and the cave.

A few minutes passed, and Huutsuu had made it pretty far, when a howl sounded in the distance. Two other creatures joined the first, and then she could hear the sounds of large animals tearing through the trees.

Hell hounds. Guess I’m the lucky 1%, she thought. Huutsuu took off again, staying as high up as she could in the trees, trying to keep a cover of leaves and branches below her.

Honestly, this was a bit of an overreaction for such a little prank. It wasn’t even permanent graffiti; a good scrubbing would get it off! Another howl was heard, closer this time, and Huutsuu was certain that if she paused for a moment, she could hear the snarling of the creatures pursuing her. However, she did not want to test that and so, she kept running.

Huutsuu reached a clearing with a small house sitting on the other side. Running along the edge of the trees, surrounding the area, a strange energy filled the air. She could see the shimmers of spells that had been cast around the perimeter. Most were wards against demons, but some seemed like they were meant to keep humans out, too. Odd. Huutsuu inspected the perimeter of the wards for a few seconds until she heard snarling behind her, close enough to make her jump and turn around. There was movement through the trees, heading in her direction, and a voice calling out.

“Where are you, you little pest? That was the last time you are ever going sneak around in my territory!” The voice was deep and booming and harsh. And far too close.

The hounds and their master were too close for her to run to either side, and while she could climb into the trees, she wasn’t sure she could outrun them again. Besides, the hounds could probably tear the tree down. She was stuck between the wall of warding and her pursuers.

She looked at the wards again, seeing that almost all of them were meant to keep out beings far more powerful than her. It wouldn’t be easy, but she could probably slip through them.

Better than being something’s snack, she thought, stepping forward and pushing into the wards. It made her feel sick, and her whole body ached, but she was passing through.

Behind her, the hounds and the demon she had annoyed burst out of the trees, soon catching sight of her. Huutsuu yelped and pulled the last of herself through the wards, tail and all, and fell back gasping. Everything hurt, but she was alive, groaning on the ground.

The demon stared at her and signaled his hounds, sending them bounding toward her. The leader of the pack snarled, eyes red and burning, and leapt at Huutsuu where she still lay on the ground. Huutsuu threw her arms up as the dog came her way.

It smacked into the wards and let out and agonized wail. Huutsuu watched, trembling, as the creature picked itself up and growled savagely at her again. Its master signaled it over, along with the other two, before any of the creature could hurt themselves on the wall again. He strode forward toward Huutsuu, glowering at her, and despite the wall of protection around her, she scrambled back and whimpered.

The demon inspected the wall, then placed a hand on it. He howled as the air where his hand touched the barrier glowed white hot and repulsed him. He lifted his weapon, a sinister looking sword, and swung it at the barrier, once again being repelled. Seeing that it was unlikely he would make it through, he directed his attention to Huutsuu.

Now certain this barrier would protect her, Huutsuu sat up and stuck her tongue out at the demon tauntingly. “Not so big and bad now, are you?” she laughed. The demon smashed his fist into the barrier again ignoring the jolt this time, and Huutsuu yelped and scrambled back.

“You were lucky this time. If you are wise, you’ll stay here, because if I find out you’ve left, I have every demon in the area hunting you down, little bird,” the demon threatened, and Huutsuu believed him. The demon back away and called his hounds, departing quickly and leaving Huutsuu shuddering. She would have to find a new place to stay after that.

No longer in any immediate danger, Huutsuu rose unsteadily to her feet, looking around the clearing. She was sore from forcing her way through the anti-demon barrier and more than a little shaken up, but other than that, she was fine. She looked to the house on the other side of the clearing.

Whoever lives there probably put the wards up… and they probably won’t appreciate me trespassing, so… Huutsuu began shifting her form. The best course of action would be to pretend to be a lost human child. She wasn’t sure if the resident of the home had been disturbed by the commotion she had caused, but it would be best if she wasn’t standing around looking like a creature from hell when she met them.

She focused, and her skin changed to something more human. Her ears lost their points, her eyes shifted to a dark brown, and her claws looked more like fingernails. She flicked her tail, but she hadn’t learned how to hide that with magic yet, so she just tucked it so it couldn’t be seen.

As Huutsuu finished her transformation, a voice came from behind her. “Now, surely you can’t be the cause of all that noise just a minute ago.” Huutsuu screamed and spun around.

“Easy there, I’m not gonna hurt you! Are you alright? You look pretty shook up?” The man smiled kindly at her and held out his hand. Huutsuu looked at it suspiciously. If he was that close to her so soon, then he’d seen her change appearance and wouldn’t be fooled if she claimed to be human.

The man could see Huutsuu was suspicious, and so he dropped his hand. “I, uh… I’m Alex, and I live here, as you can see. I heard my wards being activated, and at first it just sounded like something small trying to come through, but then there was something very big soon after that. I came out here to take a look and make sure everything was holding up alright.” He shifted his weight from one foot to another, waiting for her to respond. When she didn’t, he sighed and continued, “Ok, I get it. You don’t trust me, and given the context, that probably smart. But I’m pretty sure you were the little thing that activated my wards, so I’d really like to know what all that was about. Look, I’ve got breakfast going in here, and it’s a lot better in the house then it is out here, waiting for whatever scared you enough to run through a wall of protection spells. You don’t gotta come in, but the door’s open.” With that, the man, Alex, turned and made for the porch.

“Wait!” Huutsuu called. “I- ok. I wanna come in.” He was right. She didn’t want to stay out here where other demonic beings could see her. And she was hungry and tired.

Alex smiled and motioned for her to come inside, and Huutsuu hopped along behind him.

//Emily is an imp and her kind is not very well-liked among other kinds of demons. They’re seen as little more than nuisances.

Alex is a magic boi living on his own because plot

Angel and Miles and Andrew will feature, but this was getting long and it’s already late, so... yeah. Any questions, please ask. I would love to talk about this or any of my and @texass-shenanigans AUs.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

A&D AU: Little Ears

//No prompt this time, so here is yet another installment of the Angel & Demon AU. In this one, Huutsuu/Emily proves to be really good at eavesdropping.

Huutsuu sat watching the other demons work. Colonneh had brought her home several days earlier and his mother gladly agreed to let the imp stay. Naduah had assured Huutsuu that she would not stand to let her wander around by herself, with no one to watch after her. Colonneh helped her get settled and for the first time in a very long time, Huutsuu felt… not necessarily at home, but she felt safe, and that was enough.

Others were less excited about the new member of the household.

A tall, scaly, blue demon turned to where Huutsuu was perched on a nook in the wall.

“What are you looking at, pest?” they hissed.

“A cranky snake, apparently,” Huutsuu quipped without much thought. Colonneh, who was standing off by an entrance a few yards away, chuckled quietly before returning to his records. His mother, Naduah, had him out here studying records of something or other so that she could teach him how to keep track of different aspects of her domain. He’d take a place by her and his father’s side soon, and Naduah wanted him to be ready.

With Colonneh’s small gesture of approval, Huutsuu relaxed a little. Imps will be imps, no matter what, and that was what usually got her into trouble, but if Colonneh thought it was funny, then maybe it was ok to have a little fun. Besides, nobody would hurt her while Colonneh was here, because that would mean answering to Naduah. She wasn’t cruel, or even really all that bad as a leader, but her wrath was widely known, and few were willing to risk being the target of it.

Huutsuu shifted her position, changing her size and shape. She shrunk to little over a foot and a half long and changed into something more like a feathered lizard than a humanoid demon. Once done, she climbed up higher on the wall, still watching the working demons. The blue demon watched her and sneered before turning back to their work. Huutsuu climbed up along the wall to the ceiling and onto the chain of one of the lanterns hanging down. Now, she was almost above a group of demons working, hanging above and just to the left of them.

The group was digging up some kind of mineral Naduah wanted. It was supposed to offer protection against angel magic when added to armor or weapons, so it was understandably valuable to any demon looking to protect their territory.

Colonneh frowned at the scrolls he held and closed his eyes, figuring the values of output and such in his head. He looked up and gestured to the leader of this group, a short, red, furry creature with two heads. The leader stepped away from the group and toward Colonneh.

“Mine Master, this says that there was a significant loss in a production of the mineral over the course of a couple of months, but there’s no explanation why anywhere in related reports. What happened?”

The demon seemed to think for a moment, then growled out, “Really? Strange. As far as I’ve seen, we’ve mined the same amount that was reported. Perhaps there was a miscommunication.”

“No,” Colonneh said, hesitantly. “I made all these reports myself. I monitored everything, calculated all the values. The only things I didn’t monitor were the amounts counted here, then recounted at the processing facility. If there was a loss, it happened here, and there was a loss.”

Huutsuu slid down the chain to dangle from the lantern itself, swinging gently. She was now directly overhead of the mine master.

“With that many eyes, you’d think you keep a better eye on your product,” she chirruped. “But maybe he was keeping very close eyes on the product~” Her tone shifted to a conspiratorial whisper as she swung past the demon.

“Quiet, you little-”

“Mine Master! Leave her be and answer me. What happened to the missing material? It could not have gone missing anywhere else, as I would have noticed. And it could not be a simple clerical error; I and Onacona have gone over these numbers over and over. The missing material had to have been lost here or on the way to processing, or you have made your own mistake in your reports.” Colonneh seemed irritated. This material was important; angel scouting parties were reported more and more frequently along the border to his mother’s domain, and this mineral was needed to produce effective armor.

As the conversation continued, Huutsuu’s swing intensified. She swung quickly back and forth, further each time. This time, as she passed the red demon, she leapt off and landed between his heads.

“Two heads, half a brain! It was silly to think two whole loads would be unnoticed, even when split up!”

“Oh, you little feather-faced toad!” The mine master swung at Huutsuu where she sat. Huutsuu squawked indignantly as she leapt up from her unhappy perch, then she latched back onto the swinging lantern. The red demon snarled and snatched at her tail as she swung past, but missed, and she pushed off the swinging lantern as it neared Colonneh, flapping over to him before the red demon decided to chase after her.

Colonneh blinked at the brief conflict, reaching up to pat Huutsuu where she sat safe on his shoulder. Then he glared at the red demon.

“Unless you want to hear from Naduah, I suggest you and you workers learn to leave Huutsuu alone. We don’t harass any other demons for their natural behavior, annoying or not, so you won’t be harassing my sister.”

There was a scoff at the last bit, but Colonneh decided to deal with it later. Right now, he still needed to address the missing material. He opened his mouth to speak again, then paused as he realized something.

“Wait… Huutsuu, how did you know it added up to two loads exactly?”

Huutsuu peeked up from where she had curled around his neck and shoulders. “Because I saw them take it out. They said not to tell anyone though, so I didn’t.” The red demon growled at her, seething, and Huutsuu crouched lower to stay out of sight.

“Oh…,” said Colonneh, scowling. “Really? Well, I hope you have a very good reason for this, Mine Master, because the lives of Naduah’s citizens could be on the line here.”

“I- Well… Obviously, the imp is lying! It’s their way. You can never trust anything an imp says.”

“It’s true, Colonneh! I can tell you what days it happened, and I know where they put it! They said they were gonna sell it to someone who wanted to make the angels mad.”

“It’s ly-”

“Enough, Mine Master! You’re dismissed from duty for today, so leave. Naduah will speak with you soon, I’m sure. Then you can offer any proof you have of Huutsuu lying. For now, the rest of you go take a break while I find someone else to oversee the mines. C’mon, Huutsuu.” Colonneh spun around and walked quickly out of the mine chamber.

As soon as they were out of sight and earshot of the mining area, Colonneh reached up and let Huutsuu climb to his hands.

“When we get back, I want you to tell me everything you saw, ok?”

“You don’t think I’m lying?”

Colonneh held her up and pressed his forehead to her (much smaller) one. “No, I don’t. You’ve never lied to me about anything important. Now, I don’t care what they told you; I promise that I won’t let you get in trouble for telling me what happened to the material. Ok?”

Huutsuu nodded. Colonneh let her climb back up his arm to his shoulder and continued his way to the central complex to speak with their mother and father.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Another Royal Au drabble

//No prompt this week and I’ve been really busy so here’s a thing I did for the Writing challenge I did on AO3

Colonneh really shouldn’t have been surprised. Huutsuu was still finding new ways to use the castle at home against him, why shouldn’t her new friends do the same when he visited. As he sat at the bottom of the drop, he glared up at the boys peeking down at him. They waved nervously, before retreating from the edge of the trapdoor and whispering adamantly.

The reason he was at Alex’s home was so that his parents and Francis could facilitate a courtship of sorts. Of course, they’d already found out about his and Alex’s… liaisons together in the past, but the people of neither kingdom knew that, so the monarchs had resolved to put forth a public romance that would ease the idea of the kingdoms intermarrying. So, Alex had been visiting Colonneh’s kingdom more often and Colonneh had been visiting his.

Of course, their siblings loved the idea of a new target friend to play with. For Alex, it wasn’t as bad as expected; he was after, rather experienced with troublesome siblings, and Huutsuu was much easier to deal with than both Miles and Andrew. Still, Colonneh got along fairly well with the two younger boys, playing pretend and hide-and-seek and other such games until he and Alex were supposed to make some appearance or attend some lesson. Soon, though, Colonneh realized that Andrew and Miles were just as capable of inconvenient mischief as Huutsuu was.

Thus, here he was, stuck in a pit after having fallen through a trapdoor in an older, relatively unused hall of the castle.

Miles looked down at him again and shouted apologetically, “Sorry! We thought it was supposed to be a door in the wall.” Andrew nodded.

“Well, that’s great, but it wasn’t and now I’m stuck.”

“Look on the bright side; you didn’t die!”

Colonneh rolled his eyes. “That’s great. Boys, go get a guard or someone to help me out.” He saw Andrew nod and rise before Miles caught his sleeve, looking down at Colonneh with an expression he’d seen dozens of times with Huutsuu when she was planning to screw him over.

“What do we get out of it?”

Colonneh looked up at him incredulously. “I won’t smack you for dropping me down a damn hole, how about that?”

Miles and Andrew looked at each other then shook their heads. Colonneh groaned. They were really going to make him negotiate his way out. Surely, they wouldn’t actually leave him down here if he refused to bribe them. He thought for a moment and decided that, yes, that is something they might do, so he’d better cooperate. It’ll be faster to do so, in any case.

“Ok, fine. What do you want?”

“Extra dessert for a week, and…” Andrew leaned into his brother and whispered in his ear before Miles continued. “And we want you to teach us some horse-riding tricks.” Andrew nodded again in agreement.

Colonneh sighed and leaned against the wall of the pit before answering, “Sure, now go get some guards.” The faces of the two boys pulled back from the edge and Colonneh could hear their footsteps receding down the hall. He slid down and sat against the wall, waiting for them to bring help and vowing to never follow them on one of their “expeditions” again.

//Royal Au, again! This takes place after it’s decided Alex and Colonneh should marry but before a public announcement is made, so the idea is that they ease into the whole public engagement, starting with state visits.

Colonneh belongs to @texass-shenanigans

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Bad Weather

//Didn’t get a prompt this week either, so here’s this. Enjoy, my lovelies. This is so late, I apologize.

🌪 - Dangerous weather conditions

 Comanche frowned at the meteorologist on the TV. Maps and charts flashed in the background, showing windspeeds and cloud cover and storm patterns, while a list of counties scrolled across the bottom. The predicted path of the storm was traced across the screen, and towns and cities were marked with tornado warnings and watches. Behind Comanche, on the couch, Emily tried to get up. She was quickly stopped by her mother.

“You need to rest until the storm has passed! You know how this weather affects you.”

Emily groaned. “I’m fine, Mama.” Which wasn’t entirely untrue. She hadn’t passed out yet, which was always good, though that was mostly because the current tornadoes were limited in number and severity. As long as no one was harmed, and property damage was minimal, she would suffer little more than dizziness. But Comanche wasn’t hearing it. She made sure Emily wasn’t going anywhere, then moved to the kitchen. When she returned, she had a glass of water.

“Here, Huutsuu. You need to drink this and rest. You’re not leaving this couch for any reason other than bathroom breaks.” Emily opened her mouth to protest, but her mother cut her off. “No buts. You may not pass out, but you shouldn’t be up and about when you’re not steady on your feet. You’ll fall down the stairs or something!”

Emily groaned again and sank lower into the cushions. She sipped at the water and frowned. As much as she loved rainy days, she hated storms. Especially tornadoes.

Eventually, Comanche went to do something upstairs. Emily remained in place for a few moments and then shivered. The blanket her mother had left wasn’t going to be enough. She tossed it off and rose to her feet. Immediately the world started spinning. She reached out and steadied herself against the arm of the couch. Maybe she shouldn’t be up and about. Once she was certain she wouldn’t fall over, she made her way up the stairs and too her room. After digging in her closet, she found a nice, fuzzy blanket to curl up with.

Now, if Emily had any common sense, she would get in bed and rest instead of making the journey back down the stairs. But Emily did not have any common sense, and instead wrapped the blanket around her shoulders and stepped into the hall. She reached the stairs and took a breath. Gripping the banister, she took the first step downward. Then another, and another. About halfway down a wave of dizziness swept over her and she swayed a bit. When the worst of it had passed, she stuck her foot out to continue down the stairs.

She missed. She felt herself pitch forward and braced as best she could against the impact of the stairs. Instead, she landed in warms arms. Looking up, Emily saw her mother looking very worried, and then very unpleased. Comanche must have gone back downstairs while Emily was searching for another blanket.

“Huutsuu! What did I tell you?” Comanche wrapped her arms around her daughter and lifted her up, cradling her close. Carrying Emily back downstairs, she scolded, “You could have hurt yourself. If you were cold, you could have just asked me for another blanket.” She sat her down on the couch, rearranging the blankets around her.

Emily blushed, mostly from embarrassment. “Sorry,” she muttered, looking away. She didn’t like to make her mother worry, especially since she wasn’t the kind of woman to get concerned easily.

Comanche sighed. She pulled Emily into a tight hug, curling up next to her. “I just don’t want you to hurt yourself, Huutsuu. A fall like that could have been very bad.” Comanche kissed her forehead. “I love you, sweetie.”

Emily snuggled closer to her mother. “I love you, too, Pia.”

The two stayed cuddled together until the weatherperson announced the storms had passed.

//I don’t know if there is anything that should be tagged in here, so please let me know if there is anything that ought to be tagged.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

More royal au!!!!

Royal AU part 2

//Well this is overdue. Enjoy. Feel free to ask about anything that’s not clear or anything you want to know more about.

“Is everything alright?”Colonneh snapped out of his thoughts when his father spoke. Onacona was lookingat him from across the room, concerned. “You seem nervous.”

“No! I mean, yes,everything is fine and no, I’m not nervous. It’s just… not every day anotherroyal family visits.”  Huutsuu, who’dbeen spinning in front of the mirror and admiring the dress she’d been givenfor the special occasion, turned quickly to her father.

“Yeah! There’s gonna bemusic and horses and- and Mama says that King Francis ahs kids my age that Ican play with while they’re here and- it’s gonna be so much fun!” She waspractically vibrating with excitement at this point. The majority of Huutsuu’syoung life had so far been spent in the castle walls or just outside them, onthe grounds, so she was naturally very glad to meet new people. Onaconachuckled and scooped her up.

“I did hear that he hastwo boys around your age. I also heard that they’re trouble-makers, just likeyou,” the king said, tapping her nose.

Huutsuu giggled and puton a look of faux innocence that might have fooled someone who didn’t know her.“I’m not a trouble-maker, Papa,” she said, giggling some more. Colonneh rolledhis eyes and turned to his own mirror to straighten his collar.

The reason for the visitwas decidedly more troubling than Huutsuu had made it out to be (though to befair, she didn’t know what that reason was). Naduah and Onacona had agreed withFrancis that they should meet together to discuss a solution to a mutualproblem. Though Francis used to enjoy fair relations between his own andAntonio’s kingdoms, those relations had become strained in recent years, andFrancis already had poor diplomatic ties with Kirkland’s kingdom. With twohostile kingdoms making threats, Francis was in need of an ally. Naduah andOnacona were also worried about Kirkland and Antonio, and Francis sent them amessage suggesting negotiations. Naduah was skeptical; they two kingdoms hadvery little interaction up to that point, outside of some trade. But Francisneeded the extra strength of their kingdom as much as they would need his ifAntonio or Arthur were to attack, and he made it very clear that if diplomacywas not an option, force certainly was. Both sides knew that an invasion ofeither kingdom would weaken them to attack from others, so the monarchs decidedto meet for negotiations.

Colonneh knew vaguelythat the risk of war was the reason for the diplomatic visit, but he didn’tknow the exact details yet. That would probably change soon, however, since hisparents were preparing him for when he would inherit the throne. When he waslittle, he was so impatient to grow up and not have to have people to help himdress or ride a horse or tell him what to do. Now, he sometimes wished he wasstill Huutsuu’s age, too young to worry about the responsibilities of runninganything more complex than her imaginary town of dolls.

When he was satisfiedwith his appearance, and once Onacona had finally corralled Huutsuu long enoughto finish getting her ready to meet the visiting family, they left the room andheaded to the meeting hall again. As they left the room, they passed the guardswhich were stationed outside the door. There were extra guards posted at theentrances to the castle and the bedrooms of the royal family, as well as at theperimeter of the kingdom. The threats posed by the hostile kingdoms werecertainly not being overlooked, especially after what was rumored to have happenedto one of King Francis’ daughters. Not that anything had been proven, but thecircumstances surrounding Luanne’s death was suspicious to say the least.Colonneh and Huutsuu’s family had not had any trouble like that so far (well,Ahyoka had died, but her death was simply the result of illness and nothingnefarious, tragic as it was), and they were grateful, but there’s a first timefor everything and their parents were not taking chances.

Naduah was speaking withthe captain of the guard and some diplomatic advisors when her husband andchildren arrived. Onacona embraced and apologized for not being there to help,but someone had to dress Huutsuu and they found out very quickly that shedidn’t sit still long enough for anyone other than her parents. Huutsuu wentwith his mother, who told him the nature of the visit and what was at stake. Hewas informed of what their options were for negotiating and offered his ownadvice, for what it was worth, before they rejoined Onacona and Huutsuu andleft to greet Francis and his family when they arrived.

Huutsuu was excited tomeet a “grown up princess” and to make new friends. She ran around the entryhall and chirped to her family about games of hide-and-seek and pretend.Colonneh chuckled to himself. Soon, he was lost in his own thoughts again.Francis was bringing his whole family with him, which meant Alexandre would bethere. He was excited to see Alex, of course, but it would be an awkwardmeeting considering neither boys’ family knew about their relationship andAlex’s father had, for all intents and purposes, threatened to invade hisparents’ kingdom if they refused to meet diplomatically. Still, it had been awhile since the two had been able to see each other, so this would be a welcomevisit in spite of the political tension. But they should still probably refrainfrom exposing their relationship.

Francis’ arrival wasannounced in advance so that the family could prepare to meet him and his.Huutsuu was finally made to stand still and behave through the promise of anextra dessert at dinner, and she stood quietly next to her father. Colonnehstood next to his mother and felt her tense when the doors opened to let theother royals in. He touched her hand lightly in a show of comfort. He knew shedidn’t necessarily distrust or dislike Francis—in fact, she and his father hadgotten along with him rather well during a previous trip to his kingdom yearsbefore—but her kingdom and her family were under threat and this meeting couldmean the difference in saving them or losing them. Francis entered first,looking grand as always.

“Queen Naduah, KingOnacona, a pleasure as always.” He offered a hand to both monarchs beforestepping to the side a little. He gestured to a group of young people rangingin age from six or seven to their early twenties. “I believe you’ve met myolder children. These two,” he said, indicating two boys who’d managed to pushtheir way to the front, “are my youngest: Miles and Andrew.” When they heardtheir names, the boys stopped picking at each other and looked up like they’dbeen caught doing something they shouldn’t.

Naduah, despite thetension and stress of the wider situation, couldn’t suppress a grin. “No, Idon’t believe we’ve met. You’ve already met Colonneh, and this is Huutsuu.”Colonneh straightened a little, while Huutsuu scooted behind her father’s pantleg and waved. Colonneh looked at the small crowd of a family, finally catchingAlexandre’s eye. The two shared a look for a moment. Alex gave a small smileand Colonneh felt his heart skip a beat. Then Onacona suggested that everyonecome inside so that Francis and his family could be shown to their rooms beforethat evening’s supper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Supper was a pleasantaffair filled with laughter and good stories. It was agreed that there was noreason to spoil such a good evening with politics, and the Bonnefoy family mustbe so tired after their trip, so both families were off to sleep soon after.Colonneh, however, stayed wide awake, waiting until he knew everyone would havefallen asleep before getting out of bed. When he was sure the rest of thecastle was sleeping, he grabbed a lit candle and crouched next to a spot on thewall near his bed. He pulled some bricks out of place and slipped through thespace, pulling a basket in front of the hole so no one would see it if theycame in while he was gone. Then, he crawled through the small passage.

Huutsuu had actually beenthe one to show him this tunnel, and he was nearly certain she had used in anumber of times to eavesdrop and sneak into his room. Still, despite it being arather tight fit for him, it was a convenient way to get past the guardsoutside his room. He passed a few opening in the side of the tunnel thatbranched off into other directions before finally turning down one to his left.

He almost ran face firstinto Huutsuu.

“What the hell are youdoing!?” he asked. He looked past her to see the two young boy who had comewith Francis. Of course.

Huutsuu paused and said,“We’re exploring… What are you doing?”

“I, uh…” I’m gonnasneak out to visit my secret boyfriend. “I’m… delivering a message… yeah.”The older of the two boys (Mikey? Milo?) peeked out from behind Huutsuu.

“Who’re ya taking amessage to?”

Colonneh frowned. “Noneof your business. Shouldn’t you three be in bed?”

“Shouldn’t you?” Great. Ofcourse, the first thing Huutsuu would do would be to make friends with a smartass.

“I am an adult, I canstay up if I want.”

“I think you’re lyingabout the message. I’ll tell Mama and Papa.”

“But then you’d get intr-,” Colonneh groaned. He didn’t have time for this. “Ok, how about I tell youwhat I’m really doing, and you tell me what you’re really doing, and we don’ttell anybody else. Deal?”

The children looked ateach other before nodding. “Deal,” Huutsuu proclaimed, extending her hand.Colonneh awkwardly reached out and shook it.

“You first.”

Huutsuu’s eyes lit up asshe exclaimed, “We’re gonna go get dessert!” Miles and Andrew nodded excitedlybehind her. Colonneh just rolled his eyes and sighed.

“You already haddessert.”

“But now we want more,”Miles added, matter-of-factly.

“Now you gotta tell uswhat you’re doing,” Andrew said, before Colonneh could question them further.

He thought about lyingagain, but Huutsuu had a way of figuring out if he’d been untruthful to her.She wasn’t above getting the both of them in trouble as payback, either, as hehad eventually learned. Still, she had hardly ever ratted on him afterpromising not to, so she most likely wouldn’t tell on him now if he was truthful.He sighed again. Might as well.

“I’m going to… visit…Alexandre.” He held his breath as the children blinked up at him.

“Ok.” They crawled pasthim and turned down another tunnel, apparently satisfied. Colonneh blinked,then shook his head and continued on his way.

Once he reached hisdestination, he looked up at a brick wall and started to push. Eventually, hemanaged to knock one out, then promptly received a smack on the hand when hepoked it through. Maybe he should have told Alex that he’d be coming through ahole in the wall instead of just breaking into his room with no warning. Hesnatched his hand back into the tunnel and moved closer to the hole.

“Alex! It’s me. Help memove the bricks.” He started pushing at the wall again, hoping to avoid anothersmack. Alex did not help. Instead he just stared at Colonneh through thegrowing space in the wall.

“Colonneh, you goddamnidiot.” Alex finally did help pull him through once the space was big enoughfor him to fit. Once Colonneh was in the room and dusted off, the boysembraced. Alex pressed a kiss to his forehead and sighed. “It’s been too long.”

Colonneh just held ontohis boyfriend and nodded. It felt so good to see Alex again, especially witheverything that was happening with their kingdoms under threat. He would havegiven anything to just stay here, holding Alex and taking in the peacefulsilence. Eventually, Alex pulled away from him before reaching up for anotherkiss. The two sat together on the bed and talked about the day’s events. Theyended up lying next to each other, despite Alex insisting that Colonneh wouldfall asleep and not leave in time to avoid suspicion if they did. Colonnehsuggested that maybe Alex should help him stay awake and Alex suggested thatmaybe Colonneh should be careful or he’d have to keep himself awake for therest of the diplomatic visit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day starts earlyand Colonneh wonders if maybe last night should have been cut short. He canbarely keep his eyes open, but this is an important meeting and he has to stay alert.He sits next to his parents who, in turn, were surrounded on either side by afew top diplomats. On the other side of the table were Francis, his diplomats,and his oldest children, Alex included. Alex was clearly struggling to stay awakeas well. Colonneh tries to keep his attention on the discussions taking placeand not on sleep or romance. Luckily, most of the negotiation is handled by eitherthe monarchs themselves or the diplomats, so Colonneh didn’t have to add muchof his own opinion. Not that it would have helped much, considering how little isaccomplished. By the time they break for lunch, all that is agreed is thatneither kingdom will likely survive an invasion without the resources of the other.However, neither kingdom wants to cede authority to the other. A bond between thetwo must be made, one that does not put either side at a disadvantage. Thequestion was how?

Colonneh finds Alexduring lunch and spends most of the break with him. Meanwhile, their parents eatquickly and leave together, apparently deciding that a few minutes of privatenegotiation may help break the deadlock. Huutsuu and her new friends sneak extrarolls and desserts from other people’s plates when they are distracted.Giggling can be heard from under the table as they split their loot. Alex’solder brother and sister eye him and Colonneh suspiciously, which is understandablyunnerving. Colonneh wonders if they knew he and Alex were together. Beau hadnearly found them out that one night. But no, they were careful, and outside ofthat one close call, they hadn’t come close to being caught, so there was noway anyone would know. Unless Huutsuu or one of the boys told someone… no, Huutsuualways kept to their deals.

It was shortly after lunchwhen a page came to get them. The kings and queen had promised to send for themwhen they were ready to resume the meeting. However, the page said that onlyColonneh and Alex were needed at the moment, which raised a few eyebrows. To befair there were only a few eyebrows in the room to be raised, but still. Theprinces were escorted back to the meeting hall where their parents awaitedthem.

The atmosphere in the roomwas… well, not bad, but not exactly relieved, either. Naduah sat stiffly in herchair, lost in thought, while Onacona seemed tired but relieved that the triohad gotten somewhere. Francis just looked awkward, maybe a little concerned.Still, he was the first to speak.

“Boys! You’ve beengetting along well, right?” Colonneh and Alex glanced at each other.

I guess you could call it that, thought Colonneh. Alex spoke before he could.

“Yes, sir. Very well. Whydo you ask?” If he was concerned that their secret was out, he hid it well.

Onacona cleared his throatand spoke up. “Good, good. We were just wondering. Ah, we think we may havecome up with a solution… Here, why don’t you sit down.” The princes moved tothe table and pulled out chairs. Onacona started to speak again, but he seemedto have trouble finding the right words, so instead, Naduah spoke.

“We think you should getmarried.”

Colonneh missed hischair. “You what?” he said.

“Let me rephrase that. Wethink the best solution is for an heir from each kingdom to get married, andthe only two who are an appropriate match are you two.”

Before either prince can respond,there’s a squeal from just outside the doors. “Aw, now they don’t have to sneakout to date anymore.”

“Shh! They’ll hear you.”

The group at the tablestares at the door before Onacona gets up and opens it. Huutsuu, Miles, andAndrew fall through the now open door, which was expected, but then there wereBeau and the rest of the royal children standing behind them.

“Hi.”

Onacona turned from the eavesdroppersto the princes. “Anymore?” Colonneh sighed and sank down further into his chair.This was going to be a long day.

//Six (6) pages in word. Oh my god. Anyway, this was fun.

[aph-oklahoma-46]

Write about Comanche and Cherokee for a change lol

//Ask and ye shall receive. Have some domestic fluff.

Cherokee was the first towake that morning. He blinked bleary sleep away and yawned. Once he reached astate resembling consciousness, glanced over at the clock on the nightstand.Bright red numbers reading 8:15 flashed on the clock’s screen. Digital, why is everything going digitalnowadays, he thought to himself. Then he laughed to himself as hepractically heard Colonneh’s response of it’s2018, Papa, everything’s been digital.His son was much more interested in these things than he was.

He rolled to his otherside, now facing his wife, who was still asleep. Normally, both she andCherokee rose at least an hour earlier than this, but Colonneh and Huutsuu hadcome over yesterday and spent the night, and they had all gone to bed ratherlate. He smiled and leaned over to place a kiss on Comanche’s forehead.Centuries later, and she was still the most beautiful person he knew.

Comanche stirred at thecontact and looked up at her husband. She stretched and sat up a little,leaning against the head-board.

“Good morning,” she said,groggily. Rubbing her face, she mused, “where do teenagers get all thatenergy?” She and Huutsuu had been the last to go to bed. Colonneh had been thefirst, which was expected; he had quite a bit on his plate at the moment.Cherokee left not long before Comanche and Huutsuu. Comanche made a commentabout tired old men, which was met with giggles from her daughter and rollingeyes from her husband. Huutsuu kept her mother awake with stories of how theend of summer was going and how excited she was for the coming school year. Finally,just as Comanche was beginning to wonder if Colonneh had intentionally givenhis sister something sugary to keep his parents up, Huutsuu yawned and declaredshe was tired. Comanche walked her to her room and quickly went to bed herself

Cherokee chuckled. Heleaned over and gave Comanche another kiss.

“You know, I seem toremember another young woman who would stay up all night telling stories.” Hewas met with an annoyed look.

“Well, she sounds absolutelywonderful,” Comanche commented, rolling her eyes. Cherokee leaned onto thehead-board as well, placing their faces close together.

“Mhm,” he said, bringingtheir foreheads together. “She was—and is—quite possibly the most wonderfulperson I’ve ever met.”

“Oh, really?” Comanchekissed him this time, leaning over and putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yes.” Cherokee placedhis hand on her waist and kissed her jaw, listing traits in between. “She’ssmart, and she’s stubborn, and beautiful, and brave and kind…”

The two closed the gapbetween them, placing hands on waists and hip, kisses on mouths and necks, and-

Knock knock.

“Oh my god, really?”Cherokee groaned and flopped back on the bed, and Comanche glanced at the door.

“Maybe if we’re quiet,they’ll go away.”

Another knock.

“Mama, I’m hungry.”Comanche looked back at her husband.

“Or not.” Louder, shecalled to Huutsuu, “Mama’s not awake yet. Come back at, um…” she glanced at herhusband, who shrugged unhelpfully, “come back at nine.”

Outside the door, Huutsuufrowned.

“You’re awake.” Huutsuuchanged tactics. “Papa, will you come make breakfast? Please, Angel’s stillasleep.” Comanche and Cherokee shared a look.

“I can practically hearthe puppy eyes.” Sighing, both parents got up to get dressed. Cherokee calledthrough the door for Huutsuu to got set the table, and soon he and Comanchewere in the kitchen making breakfast while Huutsuu attempted to wake Colonneh up.Not long after, the family was sitting down to breakfast.

// @texass-shenanigans makes an appearance

[aph-oklahoma-46]

⭐️ or 🌙?

//I’vedecided that I like third-person narration much better and I will switch backto it unless otherwise is necessary.

//Also, I stg I didn’t mean to make it this angsty. Trigger warning for death mention and survivor’s guilt. I will tag it, too

⭐️ - The stars

🌙 - The moon

Emily lay on the bed, curled beneath the sheets andhugging the pillow. She hadn’t moved from this spot for the better part ofthree days, with the only exceptions being bathroom breaks or when her parentsmanaged to sit her up to eat and drink. Other than that, she had refused tomove, just simply laid there and stared out the window.

Sequoyah was gone. She wasn’t coming back.

And it was Emily’s fault.

It had been a few years since the girls’ territorieshad merged to create what was now the state of Oklahoma. Emily had been soexcited. She was going to be a state! Better yet, she and her sister were bothgoing to be a state. She hadn’t known that two separate personifications forone State/Nation/whatever was rare. She hadn’t known what would happen. ThatNovember day, Alfred had congratulated her, as had a few other states, andAngel and her parents (though they were much more subdued in his excitement).Emily had run around the house, waving her copy of the paper that bore hersignature, that made her a state. She hadn’t thought it was strange thatSequoyah hadn’t signed. She charged into her older sister’s room and claspedher little arms around Sequoyah’s hips, chattering about how they would be likeAngel now. And Sequoyah, to her credit, smiled back at Emily and congratulatedher as well. Told Emily how proud she was of her.

And soon after, Sequoyah got sick. Over the next fewyears, she got worse. Eventually, Emily realized that she and Sequoyah were notsharing the position of personification for the new state. And she learned whathappened to personifications who lost their land or people.

Towards the end, Emily had insisted on staying withSequoyah as much as possible, often sharing the bed with her sister. Threenights ago, they went to sleep, and the next morning, only Emily woke up.

Her sister was gone, and Emily was benefitting fromher death.

Of course, a small child can’t quite make sense ofthat, or at least, can’t quite understand how to deal with it. And so, Emilydid the best she could. She stayed huddled in the last place she had seen hersister alive, and she closed off from everything else. Her mother and fatherhad tried to get her to move, had tried to lift her spirits. But what couldthey do when she refused to let them help? How can you comfort someone when youdon’t know what they’re thinking?

As Emily lay curled in her seemingly permanent post,she was vaguely aware of her brother standing in the doorway, watching. Likeher parents, Angel had been worried about Emily as well. Their whole family hadgrieved Sequoyah, and now it was beginning to look like they would lose Emilyas well. Not physically; As long as Oklahoma remained a state and avoided anyextremely hard times, her status as a personification would keep her alive. Butshe was a child, and a child shouldn’t feel like Emily felt. Angel, like Emily,had watched Sequoyah fade away, and he wasn’t sure he could watch Emily do thesame in spirit.

He moved from the doorway to the bed and sat next towhere Emily lay. She didn’t acknowledge his presence. She just curled in onherself a little bit more. The two siblings stayed quiet, Emily lost in her ownmind, and Angel thinking of what he could say. What could he say? He glancedout the window Emily was staring out of. He watched the stars shine in the sky,and briefly wondered if Emily was making wishes. Stars… he had an idea!

Finally, Angel cleared his throat and placed a hand onEmily’s shoulder. “Emily?” She said nothing, just glanced at his hand and thenlooked back to the window. He tried again, this time gently shaking hershoulder. “Huutsuu?… Nami, please answer me. At least look at me.”

Emily could here the sadness in his voice, and whatseemed to be desperation. She didn’t want to look at him. She didn’t want tolook at her parents. She didn’t want to look at them because if she did, shewould feel a new rush of guilt sweep over her as her mind forced up memories ofher older siblings together, of her parents with their oldest daughter, andreminded her that because of her, they would never be able see Sequoyah again.But Angel persisted in his quest for her attention, and finally, with afamiliar annoyance, she turned her head just a bit and looked at him.

Angel smiled. He got off the bed and knelt down,lowering his head until he was level with hers. He glanced out the window andthen back at Emily. “Sky sure is pretty at night, ain’t it? The moon and allthe stars and whatnot. Right, Nami?” Emily looked to the sky and then to Angel,nodding.

Angel took this as a good sign and continued. “I gotsomething neat to show you. It’s about the stars and the moon and all that. Doyou wanna go see? Please, Huutsuu. Please”

Emily didn’t really want to go anywhere, but it wasbeginning to sound like Angel was on one of his kicks where he wouldn’t let asubject go, and she really didn’t want him to harass her while she felt likethis. She looked away from him, and thought, not moving. Then, she nodded, andAngel looked like he had just won the lottery.

“Great! But uh… we gotta go outside, sister. I can’tshow you all of it just through the window.” Angel held his breath. Emily hadrarely left the room since Sequoyah passed, let alone the house. But again,after more thinking, Emily nodded, and Angel breathed a sigh of relief. Hestood up, but Emily made no move to get off the bed. She just sat up, lettingthe covers cling to her, and still hugging the pillow. She looked up at himexpectantly.

“Why aren’t y-… of course. What did I expect?”Although he was annoyed, Angel was to happy to have gotten this far to let itfaze him. He scooped Emily up, pillow and all, and made his way out of the house,first grabbing a glass of water and some food.

He found a spot and sat down, laying Emily besidehimself. He leaned back and got comfortable and looked to the sky. After a fewseconds, he pointed up and spoke.

“You see the face on the moon?” Emily shook her head.Angel began gesturing at the moon. “Yeah, see? Those dark spot right there,those are the eyes. And there, there’s the mouth. Hmm… doesn’t look likethere’s a nose. Anyway, see it now?”

Emily watched as he motioned to different spots of theshining circle, and she began to put the features together. She gasped. “H-how’d that person get up there?” Her voice was quiet and scratchy from lack ofuse.

Angel looked over at her and laughed. As he handed theglass, he explained. “No, Nami, there’s not actually anyone up there. It justlooks like the moon has a face.”

Emily took the glass and frowned. “But-” she had pauseto cough, and Angel motioned to the water, which she sipped at. “But why? Whydoes it have a face?”

Angel contemplated this for a moment and said “I’m notsure. Ask Papa or Mama, I’m sure they know. Now do you see that reddish-lookingstar? That’s Mars.” And Angel continued to point out features andconstellations, and Emily watched, almost forgetting her grief. After a while,the two lay in the grass silently. Angel had begun to think Emily had fallen asleep,until she spoke.

“I’m sorry.”

Angel turned to look at her. “What? Why? You didn’t doanything.” He could see tears welling up in her eyes.

Emily buried her face in the pillow she still clungto. “Sequoyah is gone. It’s my fault.” She said something else, but it wasmuffled by the pillow.

Angel blinked, taken aback. That’s what she had beenso upset about for the past three days? Everyone had just assumed she wastaking Sequoyah’s death harder then they were, which apparently was true.

“Nami, it’s not your fault. There was nothing youcould do about it.” He reached out and pulled her closer, and she pressed herface into his shirt, sniffling. “Sometimes that just how it is. They wanted onestate, you couldn’t change that. How could it be your fault?” Angel hugged hertightly. “It’s not your fault.”

Emily stayed silent, having run out of tears days ago.Instead, she curled in closer to her brother and clung to him. Angel held herclose and whispered again that it wasn’t her fault before humming quietly. Soon,both had fallen asleep in the grass, where their parents woke them in themorning.

//Good god this is long. Anyway, @texass-shenanigans, not sure if I wrote Angel correctly but oh well.