#I low-key love writing Dad!Lilia and I want to do more of it

[avionvadion]

Weird question, but if you could ship El with anyone besides Malleus, who would it be and why?

I think you missed the absolute wild AUs that occurred here. 🤣 But I’ll still answer.

Azul and/or Lilia! Lilia because he’s best bat dad and their dynamic is just really fun to write, but Azul because while he is a schemer he’s also a gentleman and would treat El right. Honestly, he’d probably be the healthiest option for her.

His mom was divorced and remarried, and he adores his step-dad (who was the one who taught him about contracts in the first place), and he also was also bullied to the point where he gained a complex. After his Overblot, he stops with the more… unsavory schemes… and becomes a slightly better person as a result. Aside from Adeuce, Azul is also the only one who asks how “Yuu” is doing when shenanigans are going down during events.

He would probably wish to avoid going down the same path as his bio dad, and if he ends up in a relationship I can see him not wanting to botch things because one: he’s probably already super insecure and worried his s/o might wake up one day and decide to leave him because he’s not good enough and two: he’s not really the kind of guy who’d be willing to give his heart away twice so he would want to make things work.

That said, he would definitely whip out a contract or something where they talk about boundaries and what not. Just because a n x i e t y.

But lo and behold El is also very anxious and self-conscious. So they’d be reassuring each other and solidifying that they’re here to stay and aren’t going anywhere. El would also keep Azul on the right track and stop him if he goes too close to the dark side again, and Azul would be able to provide for El in ways that… Malleus certainly can’t.

(Cough freedom cough because even Mal is confined to his castle to the point he has trauma cough so El would be too cough)

Also I feel like Azul’s mom would love El. Even though we’ve never met her. 🤣 I just feel like she’s this super sweet lady who is low key very cunning (this woman married her divorce lawyer like I mean she knows what she wants and makes sure she gets it, lol). So El would also have that familial support.

It’s chaos. 🤣

[sadinasaphrite]

Whumptober Day 4 - Sebek

Time for another Twisted Day of Whumptober! Today, Sebek does endurance training under Lilia’s instruction and his stubborn streak gets him into trouble.

No. 4 DEAD ON YOUR FEET

Hidden Injury | Waking Up Disoriented | Can’t Pass Out

I feel like this isn’t so much “Hidden Injury” as it is “Ignored Injury,” but I feel like the fic fits the “Dead on your feet” theme. 

Read on AO3!

Fic under the cut

This was not how Sebek planned on spending his winter vacation. He expected to spend some quality time with his mother and siblings, even if it meant enduring his father’s embarrassing jokes and ridiculous tacky sweaters. Instead, Sebek was halfway up a mountain, scaling a cliff with only his bare hands, with no family, home cooked meals, or hot cider in sight.

Although, Sebek admitted to himself, the holiday hadn’t exactly started as well as he’d hoped. Upon arriving back in Briar Valley, he found his older brother was buried in schoolwork and his sister was planning on spending most of the break with her friends. Even his parents were scarce, working long hours at the dental clinic due to a staffing shortage.

He’d resigned to spending winter break alone when Master Lilia appeared out of thin air and whisked him away. They reappeared in the middle of the mountain range, far from civilization.

“How far do you want to go?” Lilia asked, hovering beside him.

Sebek looked around. At first, Sebek didn’t see any familiar landmarks amid the mountain range, but far in the distance was a blurry black shape that looked like it might be the great Briar Castle. To be at Master Malleus’ side had always been his goal, so the answer seemed obvious. He pointed to the castle on the horizon.

“I will travel all the way to the castle!”

Lilia tilted his head. “Do you want supplies?”

Hah. This was a test, was it? Endurance training, surely. He would proudly pass any test Master Lilia challenged him with!

“No,” Sebek proclaimed. “I will make it on my own!”

“If you insist,” Lilia said.

He disappeared, leaving Sebek alone on the mountaintop. Thus had started some of the most grueling training Sebek had ever endured. He had only the clothes on his back, his magestone pen, and the hiking boots he was fortunate enough to have been wearing when Lilia spirited him away. No human would have survived the elements in such gear, but Sebek’s fae blood offered him some resistance to the bitter cold, even as only a half-breed. He foraged what little plant life he could find amid the snow and alpine forests and hunted with variable success using either his own speed and strength or crude spears he made as he walked. He climbed and hiked until it was too dark for even his fae eyes to see, then used his magic to light a fire and slept without shelter until the dawn, when he would do it all over again.

It was miserable. The cold wasn’t enough to kill him, but that didn’t mean Sebek wasn’t freezing all hours of the day and night. The physical activity of hiking helped to keep him warm, but foraging while hiking at the same time slowed his progress. Either he moved slowly and focused on finding enough food to fill his belly, or he kept hiking to get some distance and burned energy on an empty stomach. The nights were just as bad, laying in the snow with a fire that barely produced any warmth while his stomach growled and he thought longingly of hot cider, roasted potatoes, and baked pheasant.

Every dawn and every dusk, Lilia would appear out of thin air beside him.

“How far do you want to go?” He would ask, and Sebek would assure him that he was strong enough to make the journey. Lilia would always offer food, or supplies, or water, but Sebek always refused his help. He would not fail this test due to a mere discomfort!

It took five days before Sebek reached the next mountain peak. He looked behind him as he approached the summit, and his face split into a toothy grin. The last mountain peak was so far away! He’d made incredible progress! All his hard work would be worth it when… when…

Sebek crested the top of the incline, reaching the mountain summit and looking toward his goal. Briar Castle was still just a speck on the horizon, no different than it had looked at the last summit, so very far behind him. In fact, in this lighting, he couldn’t even tell for sure if it was Briar Castle.

Crushing despair settled around his shoulders. All that work, and for what? At this pace, he wouldn’t reach Briar Castle by the end of next year, much less the end of winter break! Was… was this part of the test? Was he to spend the next year on a cruel journey to prove his devotion to Master Malleus?

For the first time, doubt entered Sebek’s heart. He’d pushed himself beyond his limits to reach the summit. His legs trembled and every inch of him was sore from the grueling days of hiking and climbing. His chest heaved, the thin icy air stabbing through his lungs like needles with every breath. His clothes were soaked through with snow and sweat, and his hair was crusted with dirt and grime. He was cold, he was hungry, he was sore, he wanted a bath, and more than anything he wanted to sleep and rest. He knew he was burning more energy than he was taking in with his meager foraging, and continuing at this pace would wither him down to nothing, assuming he didn’t just collapse from exhaustion.

He wanted to go home.

As if summoned, Lilia appeared beside him.

“Brrr! It’s chilly up here!”

Fury flared within him. Lilia was cold? Lilia was cold?? With the wind whipping around them and snow packed down inside Sebek’s boots from trudging through knee deep snow? And Lilia was cold???

Sebek let out a hard, sharp exhale that sounded suspiciously like a snort.

“How far do you want to go?” Lilia asked once again, the damnable question more infuriating than ever before.

“I’m fine!” Sebek roared in return. “I can do it!”

Lilia paused, his expression closed off and guarded.

“There’s no penalty for stopping,” he finally said, “you can stop at any time. Whenever you want. You don’t have to keep going.”

“I don’t need to stop.” Legs shaking, Sebek trudged down the incline, leaving the summit behind.

“Do you want food? Water? Help?” Lilia called after him.

Sebek didn’t answer and didn’t look back.

How dare he? The absolute nerve! What was Lilia even doing? Just… just showing up every now and then to taunt him? Remind him that he wasn’t good enough? Wasn’t strong enough?

Sebek stormed down the mountainside, rage and adrenaline overriding his exhaustion, and not watching where he stepped as he shoved his way down a winding game trail that followed the edge of a ravine.

Damn his human blood, and damn his human father! If he were a full fae, surely he’d be able to handle this! Damn it all, he would prove himself worthy to stand at Malleus’ side! He would—

His foot came down hard on a layer of slush beneath the snow and his ankle twisted hard. Sebek let out a roar of pain and reeled back, losing his balance. His arms pinwheeled wildly, then he overcorrected his balance and lurched forward. Without thinking, he caught himself by putting all his weight on his twisted ankle. Something inside his ankle popped and his leg gave out entirely.

Sebek crumpled forward to get a faceful of slush and mud as he hit the ground hard. The slush shifted beneath his weight and Sebek slid to the left, off the edge of the game trail. He scrambled at the rocks and mud, but his hands found no purchase on the slick ground and he slipped off the trail to the ravine below.

He rolled down the steep slope, unable to tell which way was up and futilely trying to grab onto anything to stop his fall. Rocks and branches scraped his face and arms, tearing at his clothes and skin. Pain sliced across his flank as he crashed against a particularly large rock and then bounced off. He had the terrifying sensation of sudden weightlessness, falling freely through the air. The bottom of the ravine came into view, ground covered in the thick, thorny brambles that Briar Valley was known for, then Sebek smashed through the thicket and hit the ravine floor with a wet crunch.

For a long while, the forest fell silent. Sebek didn’t know how long he lay there, staring uncomprehendingly at the sky above him, a background of white clouds criss-crossed by thick, twisting vines with inch-long thorns. Slowly, sense returned to him, and he let out a long, low groan.

He tried to move and instantly regretted it. The thorns had all but shredded his skin, tearing right through his clothes, and every movement brought a new thorn stabbing into his flesh. Sharp pain radiated from his lower back and down his flank, where he’d hit the big rock on the way down. After a moment, Sebek realized his rear was wet, not with the icy sensation of melted snow, but with something else, warm and sticky. He reached down gingerly, thorns seizing his sleeve and arm all along the way, and carefully felt the most painful spot.

Blood. It was definitely blood soaking his clothes. He couldn’t get a good look at the area and had no idea how bad the injury was. It sure felt painful. Hell. Everything hurt. His head was throbbing, his ass was bleeding, and everything in between was just as miserable. Maybe he should stop. Just lay here until Lilia appeared again and took him home.

Sebek closed his eyes, the idea extremely tempting. After a few minutes of serious consideration, he let out a long breath. No. No, he wouldn’t give up. Not even now.

Slowly, he sat up. Thorns clung to him like barbed wire, mercilessly tearing through him with every movement. Sebek gave a low, menacing growl, rumbling through his chest inhumanly deep, then roared and lashed out with his magic. A wave of wind and fire forced the brambles back just long enough for Sebek to heave himself out of their clutches before they slithered into place once more.

Good. That was one obstacle gone. Next was getting to his feet.

Standing proved to be easier said than done. The gash across his flank sent horrible stabbing pain through him with every wrong move, and his ankle radiated with the bone-deep ache of a sprain. Using a boulder for balance, Sebek slowly dragged himself upright, smearing a stripe of blood across the stone.

There. Step two done. Now all he needed to do was walk.

Sebek clung to the boulder supporting his weight and hesitated. Walk where? There was nowhere to go. The narrow ravine had steep walls on both sides, and was otherwise filled with thorny briars. He had a little bit of breathing space by the boulder, but he was trapped between briars and the ravine wall, with no path around any of it. He looked up the sheer cliff. There was a decent number of possible footholds. If he didn’t put weight on his twisted ankle, he might be able to scale the ravine wall.

Only one way to find out.

He lurched away from the boulder and caught himself against the wall. A handhold here, a handhold there, and… lift. Sebek’s muscular arms strained as he pulled himself clear off the ground. His good foot fished around for a foothold, and he let out a shout of victory when he found one. Excellent! Easy, this was just doing pull ups with an extra step. He glanced down, confirming that he was a comfortable two feet off the ground, then looked up at the cliff wall.

He just had to do that another twenty or so times. Sebek swallowed back his trepidation and climbed.

Two feet. Six feet. Twelve feet. Twenty feet.

“Sebek!”

Lilia appeared beside him, floating in the air as Sebek climbed. Lilia’s calm, stoic expression was gone, replaced by open alarm.

“Sebek, stop! You can stop now! You don’t have to keep going, it’s okay! We can stop!”

“NO!” Sebek growled. Sweat poured down his brow and his arms trembled violently from the strain. Blood oozed sluggishly down his bad leg, dripping to the ravine floor below. “I can do it!”

He reached for another handhold.

“Sebek, please! Just say you can’t go any farther! We can—”

Sebek didn’t hear the rest of Lilia’s words as a wave of dizziness washed over him. He clung to the wall and trembled, waiting for it to pass, but it only grew worse. Darkness crept in from the corners of his vision.

“Sebek?”

Beaten, bloodied, and exhausted, Sebek’s body finally gave out. Unconsciousness claimed him and he fell.

“SEBEK!”

Sebek was warm and a little… floaty? Like he was floating on a cloud in the sunshine, but also a little numb. He frowned and stirred, not sure if he liked the sensation. He became aware of delicate fingers stroking his hair.

“Sebek? Can you hear me? Are you awake?”

Sebek opened his eyes and blinked blearily. Lilia’s worried face took up most of his vision, but the room around him was also familiar.

“I’m… at your home?”

“Yes,” Lilia said, “you needed medical attention. The training exercise is over. You might feel a little odd, you’re on some pretty heavy pain meds.”

Sebek slumped back into the bed, his face falling in misery.

“I failed.”

“Yes,” Lilia said, giving his head a gentle pat, “but not for the reason you think you did.”

Sebek’s heart sank. “I wasn’t strong enough.”

“That is not why you failed.”

“But… I never reached the goal,” Sebek said, his face twisted in confusion.

“I never gave you a goal,” Lilia explained. “I never told you how far to go or where. You made those goals yourself. The lesson was not how far you could trek in the mountains. The lesson was to teach you to stop. To teach you to respect your limits. …And to know when to ask for help.”

Sebek stared at him.

“...What?”

“I asked how far you wanted to go,” Lilia continued patiently. “You’re the one who answered. Every time I appeared, I asked if you wanted to continue. I offered you help. I even specified there was no penalty for stopping. Strength is not endurance alone. There is strength in accepting help from those willing to give it.”

Sebek opened his mouth to protest, temper flaring, but the words died in his throat and he fell silent. Lilia’s words rolled around in his head as he considered his response.

“I think,” he said slowly, “you were deceptively vague about that.”

“And sometimes it may not be clear when someone is asking to help. Or asking for help.”

Sebek let out a hard breath through his nose. There was no arguing with Lilia when he was like this, acting all wise and cryptic, like he’d just gifted knowledge of the Elder Fae to lesser mortals and expected to be thanked for it. Still, Sebek was nothing if not a dutiful student, and he would do his best to take the lesson to heart.

A sudden unpleasant thought struck him.

“Silver didn’t see me like this, did he?” Sebek asked.

“Oh, he absolutely did,” Lilia said with a smile, rising to his feet. “I believe he called you a stone-headed fool when I told him the situation.”

Sebek groaned and Lilia laughed.

“Now, you just rest there. I’ve got hot soup ready for you.”

Panic flashed across Sebek’s features. “Soup that you made? Can’t I go home?”

“Not until you’re a little more healed up.”

“Why?”

“Because if I take you home looking like this, your mother will kill me,” Lilia grinned and slipped from the room.

Sebek groaned and rubbed his face with both hands. Perhaps this was his punishment for failing to understand the lesson. No matter. He’d be home with his family soon enough.

So long as Lilia’s cooking didn’t kill him, first.