#I’ll rename xem too

[mod-autumn]

oh god damnit (<- also has a character named Xeno) /silly

HOW DO WE KEEP HAVING CHARACTERS WITH THE SAME NAME LMFAO

-look its jester

LOL

dw, I wasn’t gonna make xem any time soon. I need to flesh out xier personality and stuff more…..

[squishmallow36]

Keeper of the Lost Prepositions - Sixty-three

Word count: 2.5k

Tw: uhh the end is not okay but in the interest of spoilers I don't want to give away too much

Taglist (lmk if you want to be added/removed!): @stellar-lune @gaslight-gaetkeep-gayboss @kamikothe1and0lny @nyxpixels @florida-fruity-frog @poppinspop @crystallinewalker @uni-seahorse-572 @solreefs @never-mourn-the-good @rusted-phone-calls @when-wax-wings-melt @cotyledon-tomentosa @good-old-fashioned-lover-boy7 @dexter-dizzknees @abubble125 @blossomsxgalorex @callum-hunt-is-bisexual @callas-pancake-tree @rainbow-frog-earrings

On Ao3 or below the cut!

Fitz PoV

    Several days pass again before I have time to visit Dex, between my parents being overprotective solely due to this week’s events, and school sending out virtual lessons with a copious amount of homework, courtesy of my boyfriend. 

    Dex and I do play a bit of Torchlight, and stay connected by text. And I do have to ask xem some alchemy questions. 

    I knock on xor bedroom door, and xe yells, “It’s open! Like always!”

    I open the door, saying, “Hey, I do this for your benefit. Because then I don’t scare you.” I close the door behind me and lean against a bedpost. 

    “Sounds like you just don’t want to get punched.”

    “Is that not a reasonable request?” I ask. 

    “I guess,” xe replies, feigning annoyance. 

     A not uncomfortable silence stretches over the next moment. 

    I ask, “Who’s your new friend?” referring to a red dragon stuffed animal sitting on xor desk amongst the mess. 

    “His name is Mushu and he’s for Elwin, the next time I see him.”

    My chest aches with the thought of what happened to Councillor Darek. His planting’s in two days, and the selection process for the new councillor will start soon after that. But it’s really difficult to remove myself from the situation. 

    I do my best to push those thoughts aside, focusing on Mushu. 

    “I know this…I know this...” I snap my fingers when I put it together. “Mulan?”

    “I was this close,” Dex holds xor hand up, fingers touching, “to naming him Mr. Snuggles II so don’t even start with how uncreative I am.”

    I sigh, sliding onto xor bed. “You’ve also stolen my idea.”

    “No, I think you stole my idea,” Dex replies, likely having no clue what my idea was. 

    I smile like an idiot. “Anyway…I got you a little something,” I reveal another dragon stuffed animal, but this one’s purple with orange accents. 

   Dex smiles, taking him into a hug. “Have you already gone ahead and named them?”

    “Feel free to rename him, but I was thinking that maybe he could be my Mr. Snuggles’s husband, Dr. Snuggles, with a doctorate in computer science…if that even exists. I don’t know these things,” I answer, patting him on the head. 

    Dex laughs. “Please do not tell me that’s a thinly veiled attempt at a proposal.” 

    I flush so red, it feels like my face is on fire and I barely stammer, “n-no…”

    Xe is also light pink. “Good. It’s a little soon, don’t you think?” 

    “It hasn’t even been two months, so ‘a little’ might be a bit of an understatement.” It’s my best way to get us out of this conversation and at least a thousand kilometres away, I hope. 

    “That’s true.” 

    Seeing an open path, I ask, incredulously, “Wait, you actually agreed with me? For the first time in forever?” 

    “We do not make Frozen references in this room,” Dex replies, slightly glaring at me. 

     I snort. “I am a weak elvin being. What else do you want from me?” 

     Dex laughs. “How about a game of Magic? I got you a new deck and I hope you enjoy it.”

    “You’re just gonna give me the worst deck ever.” 

    “No, I am not, though I was very tempted.” 

    “Of course you were.” I stand up. “Where are they?”

    Dex laughs. “You think I know? Sit down. I’ll look. May take a few days.”

    Slowly, I shift myself back down onto the bed, watching xem rummage through drawer after drawer, somehow adding to the mess. Xe does find something that xe leaves on xor desk, but I can’t entirely tell what it is. It’s dark and shiny. That’s all I know. 

    Xe announces that xe found them before throwing my deck at me and sitting back down across from me. 

    I take a second to look through this deck, which from now on will probably be called my deck although it isn’t technically mine, and see that it’s mono blue and has lots of flying creatures. It also has a shiny card, and there’s a lot of words on it. I’m going to have to ask Dex about it. 

    I begin shuffling, and Dex remarks, between effortless shuffles, “I see you’ve gotten better.” 

    “Well you did tell me to practise while you worked on your techy things so I think I may have improved slightly.” 

    “You’re not begging me to shuffle for you, so I’d say that’s a large improvement.” 

    “The bar is so low. But if I get manajammed, have fun doing it next time. Roll for initiative?” 

    Dex rolls a five, and I’ve nearly resigned myself to a fate of having to make a decision on who goes first, but then I get a two. 

    “You get to go first for that,” Dex says, already getting into the game. Xe’s cute when xe gets competitive. 

    I smile before drawing my seven cards, organising them as I read. Three of them are islands, plus a brineborn cutthroat two/one, waterkin shaman two/one, yanling’s harbinger flying two/four, and Mu Yanling herself, the shiny card. 

    During my turn, I put an island down before giving Dex the control. 

    Xe puts down an island, and I’m kind of expecting xem to have a--what’s that illegal card he mentioned that’s super expensive?--yeah that one. But xe does not, and I get the turn back. 

    I start my turn by drawing a spectral sailor--one/one with flying--before I put down another island and then tap them to cast brineborn cutthroat, reading off, “flash. Whenever you cast a spell on an opponent’s turn, put a one/one counter on them. Two/one. I probably won’t end up using that ability much, if ever. Your turn.” 

    Dex draws a card and puts it down immediately before casting, “Goblin electromancer. Two/two. Instant and sorcery cards cost one colourless less to cast. Your turn.”

    I draw a card and put down an island to pay for it before casting. “Cloudkin seer. Flying. When it enters the battlefield, draw a card. Two/one.” The card I draw is another spectral sailor, which’ll be nice when I have enough mana to pay for it. “Your turn.”

    Dex puts down an island. “Radical idea; draw a card. Lava coil deals four damage to target creature. That’s going to be your cloudkin seer. If you don’t have anything to say about that, then it’s your turn.”

     Sticking it in my graveyard, I’d very much like to mumble about how I have things to say about it, I just can’t do anything. But I draw my next card. “Brineborn cutthroat that I just drew. And then I’ve got a spectral sailor one/one flyer. And then I say it’s your turn because I’m afraid of attacking.”

    Dex snorts. “I’ve got another island and then I have a murmuring mystic. Also known as bird man.”

    “Pebble man is still superior.”

    “That he is. But I have bird man. He makes birds when I cast instants and sorceries. And he’s a one/five so he’s almost impossible to kill.”

    “Yeah, except for when I get a shivan dragon.”

    “I’d like to see how you’ll cast a red dragon with a mono blue deck that doesn’t even have that card.”

    “I’m gonna find a way.” I smile. 

    “Well it’s your turn, so you won’t have to wait very long.”

    I draw a winged words--a sorcery that lets me draw cards. “Waterkin shaman. Two/one. Whenever a creature with flying enters the battlefield under your control, it gets plus one/plus one until end of turn. Then I’m gonna cast this winged words I should’ve done first.”

    I get two islands for my effort, putting one down immediately. 

    “I guess I’m going to attack with my two brineborns for no good reason,” I say, tapping them. Dex blocks one with bird man, killing both, and taking the two other damage. 

    “You’re at eighteen, correct me if I’m wrong, and it’s your turn.” 

    Dex can’t contain xor excitement when xe sees xor next drawn card. I’m just scared. 

    Xe puts down an island before casting a dive down on bird man, changing it to a one/eight with hexproof until end of turn before attacking with it. 

    I decide to take the one point of damage because I don’t want to sacrifice a creature for that. Xe’s got more coming at me, and I should be prepared when that happens. 

    “Chart a course,” xe casts, “draw two cards, then dump a card unless you’ve attacked with a creature this turn.” 

    Xe draws two cards, following that with two more chart a courses. In the process, xe fills xor hand with cards and gets three one/one bird tokens. 

    “I think it’s your turn. I’m tapped out, even with my goblin discount.” 

    “Oh, is that all?” I draw my next card, a riddlemaster sphinx--five/five with flying--and narrowly avoid a happy dance. After putting down an island, I can cast, “Yanling’s Harbinger. Flying two/four. When it enters the battlefield, I can go put Yanling into my hand. Except she’s already here. Attack with brineborn two/one and waterkin shaman three/two.”

    “I have birds. Block. Brineborn dies. I take no damage.”

    Yeah, but now you have two less birds. “Your turn.”

    Xe draws a card and puts down a mountain. “Crackling drake. Flying. When it enters the battlefield, draw a card.” 

    Xe draws another card, which gets stuck into xor hand for safekeeping. “Its power is equal to the number of instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard, so…” xe looks through xor graveyard, “it’s a six/four. Then opt; scry one, draw a card.” 

    Dex draws yet another card, which gets kept instead of scrying. “Your turn.”

    “Are you entirely sure?” I draw my card, an unsummon. “Spectral sailor one/one flying. And that’s all. Your turn.”

    After drawing a card and putting down a mountain, Dex starts casting things. “Another crackling drake, which lets me draw another card. And it’s a seven/four right now.” Xe draws a card. “Yeah that’s not helpful right now. Attack with the original crackling drake and my two birds.”

    “Unsummon crackling drake and block birds with spectral sailors,” I answer.

    “Rude,” Dex mutters as it goes back into xor hand. “Your turn.”

    I draw another card, which is the island that I would need to cast riddlemaster sphinx and Yanling. But, there’s something that tells me to not put it down, because then’d be tempted to play this how I normally would, and…just I really like seeing Dex light up as xe realises xe’s going to defeat me.

    Is that really such a big deal?

    All I do is say, “Your turn.”

    Dex draws a card, which gets put on the battlefield as a half-blue half-red land whose name I don’t catch. “Recast crackling drake I just read it last turn. Take it if you want to review. Shock deals two damage to any target, which will be you. Then I shock you again. Attack with the crackling drake nine/four that isn’t new.”

    I have to take the damage, and in one single turn, I go from nineteen to five. 

    “I also get two more birds. Your turn.”

    I draw a card, getting a celestial messenger, a three/two flying creature I cast simply to make it not obvious that I’m letting Dex win. Just in case. I’m doomed by now anyway. I give the turn back to xem and wait for my demise. 

    Xe draws xor card, putting it, a mountain, down as soon as xe gets it. “I’d cast some things, but I’m just gonna attack and see what happens. Two crackling drake like nine/fours if I remember correctly.”

    “I don’t think it really matters, since I’m at five. I’m very dead and it really doesn’t matter plus or minus one.”

    Dex recounts xor graveyard. “Yeah, it’s nine. Assuming I can still count.”

    “I trust you. Best out of three?”

    “Why would I risk falling off my throne?”

    Oh my stars, xe’s so adorable. 

    I consider for a moment. “I should go find my mono white deck.”

    “Please, stars, no. What can I do to avoid that?”

    I lean over, pausing for a moment a hair away, just so xe has the chance to push me back into my spot, before kissing xem. 

    I pull away after a not-nearly-long-enough moment whispering, “That should suffice, your highness.” 

    Dex just smiles softly, but before I can kiss xem again, my imparter buzzes. Normally its xors, but today I’m the one getting pulled away. 

    “Bi says it’s time for dinner,” Dex reads after taking it from my pocket. “Unless, of course, you want to stay here. Wait, what time is it? Six? You eat so early. What the Exile is this?” 

    “No, you eat late, and I will be waddling home. I don’t feel like lying my butt off to my parents about where I am today. I have had enough of that for a very long time. Yet, I don’t feel inclined to tell them anything.” 

    “You don’t owe anyone anything if you don’t want to tell them about any of the queer things your brain has to deal with on a daily basis.”

    “Yes, but I do have to tell you about your prepositions.” 

    “What the Exile? That ‘with’ wasn’t even at the end of the sentence. I’m so proud of you.”

    “For learning basic grammatical rules?” 

    “It has taken a while, so yes. Yes I am.” 

    I smile. “Okay, Phineas.” 

    Aces, you’re rotting out my brain in the best possible way.

    I stand up, knee groaning in protest because I was sitting awkwardly, before giving xem a peck on the cheek. 

    “I’ll see you later.” 

    “See you later. Text me if you need anything. My sleep schedule is so messed up, I’ll more than likely be awake.” 

    “Fixing that will be our next project,” I say, starting to walk backwards. 

    “Whatever you say, Wonderboy.” 

    Stars, I love you. 

    I smile as I leave, taking my sweet time observing the intricate railing down the steps and the attention to detail, especially the kitchen that looks like a bomb has gone off. Due to the Triplets. 

    It’s nearly impossible to keep this place clean. 

    I don’t particularly want to leave, but Biana’s going to read way too far into everything if I don’t. Ae has a sixth sense for that kind of thing. 

    I leap home, sitting next to Bi per usual after getting waved off by Mom for trying to help. I still take the silverware to the table, mostly from habit. 

    Before long, Dad comes storming over here, not unusually. Sometimes his work is just like that, so he comes down still wound about whatever. I don’t think too much of it. 

    Until he looks at me, shaking, and asking, barely discernible, “Fitzroy, what the bloody Exile do you think you’re doing with that Dizznee boy?”