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alphashley14 · 2 years ago

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One of Us

A Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated/Mystery Skulls Crossover

Chapter Fourteen

Soul on Fire

Thanks to Lewis and Velma, they now had resources from the Haunted Museum, the chest of clues from Darrow University, and the books the Mystery Skulls had collected from the Darrow Library to go through along with the Mystery Skulls’ vast collection.

Mystery Inc. was already familiar with the Darrow University texts. As was Mr. E, who was the one who stole them and sent them to the gang in the first place. But it was new to the Mystery Skulls and there was a lot of new information to be taken from their new sources.

They kept at it for another couple of hours, and Daphne only became distracted when, at about 6:30 or so, she was putting a couple of dead-end books back on the top floor of the library and a painting caught her eye.

It wasn’t exactly Daphne’s style, but all the same there was something beautiful about it. It wasn’t moving or otherwise haunted. In fact, it was quite different from most of the paintings in the house. It was Japanese, for starters. And it was old. Very old - so old that the Mystery Skulls had seen fit to display it behind glass. It was of a warrior, her sword raised in combat against an enormous… Wolf? With multiple tails.

There was something familiar about that warrior… and the creature she was fighting.

“She’s amazing, isn’t she?” Vivi asked.

“Who is she?” Daphne asked.

“That,” Vivi said proudly, “Is Mushi. She was a warrior of the Onna-musha - basically the female equivalent of the samurai. She was also my ancestor.”

“Oh, really? Wow! She was beautiful.” Daphne said.

“Yeah, the blue hair is kind of a dead giveaway,” Vivi laughed.

“So… what’s that she’s fighting?” Daphne asked.

It didn’t escape her notice the way Vivi hesitated before she answered. “A kitsune,” she finally said. “A powerful shape-shifting fox spirit. There’s a legend in my family that Mushi fought beside one. I’ve been told… that I have a lot in common with her.”

“Must be where you get your ‘warrior spirit’, huh?” Daphne teased.

“Girl. You have no idea.” Vivi said with complete seriousness.

Daphne never got to ask her what she meant by that, because that’s when everyone’s attention was seized by Velma popping out of a pile of books on the bottom floor.

“Jinkies! Guys, take a look at this!”

Vivi and Daphne turned away from the painting and looked over the railing to look down on the others.

“What is it, Velma?” Fred asked.

“This book is a sort of encyclopedia on magical artifacts. Take a look at this: The Daemon Ritus.” And she turned around to show the gang an illustration of a small, pyramid-like object.

The Mystery Skulls looked at each other and winced.

“It says here that this object is capable of removing protoplasms and displacing them!” Velma exclaimed excitedly.

“Okay Velma. Like, pretend that no one here understands what that means.” Shaggy said pointedly.

“Velma-” Vivi started, but Velma interrupted.

“It can take a soul out of one body and put it into another one!”

“Oh. Like, oh!” Shaggy cried.

“Uh, guys…” Lewis said.

“This could switch our bodies back!” Mr. E exclaimed, getting excited.

“We destroyed it!” Vivi blurted out.

Mystery Inc. whirled around to look up at her.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, guys.” Mystery said.

“But why?” Shaggy exclaimed, banging his head against a table with frustration.

“Keep reading. Just another paragraph down.”

Velma’s eyes scanned the page, and she visibly paled. “Oh. Jinkies…” She said quietly.

“Yeah. If we hadn’t destroyed it, an ancient race of demons would have used it to take over the world,” Vivi said.

“Ah, yes. The Spooky Island mystery.” Mystery said fondly.

“That one probably would’ve made us famous, but the federal government covered it up in the end.” Lewis pouted. “Something about not wanting to cause a panic.”

“I thought you guys said body swapping was a new one for you,” Fred said.

“Well we never actually saw the Daemon Ritus transfer a soul into a different vessel,” Vivi explained. “It was meant to steal the energy of many souls and transfer their power into one entity - which we stopped them from doing before they completed that step.”

“So as helpful as it would be to have it right now, between dealing with this and the world being already over, I’ll take this any day,” Mystery said.

“No kidding,” Scooby gulped.

“You know what? I think we’re at a good stopping point for now,” Lewis said. “I’m going to get dinner started.”

“I know I could use a break,” Fred agreed.

“Like, yeah!” Shaggy said. “If you’re half as good at making enchiladas as flipping pancakes, then this’ll be great!”

“Oh boy!” Scooby licked his lips.

As they left the library behind, Daphne couldn’t help but glance back at the painting of Mushi and the kitsune. There was something important about it, she was sure of it!

But what?

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Dinner with the Mystery Skulls was a surprisingly enjoyable affair.

Mr. E, Shaggy, and Scooby helped in the kitchen with Vivi and Lewis while Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Mystery sat at the table and watched them work under Lewis’ direction.

Making dinner went pretty smoothly - for the most part. Scooby was eventually kicked out of the cooking process when Lewis noticed him sneaking before-dinner bites. Shaggy, being in Arthur’s body without his usual appetite, had much better self-control.

Lewis turned on one of his playlists as they worked, and dinner was nearly done when a Mystery Skulls’ song came on.

The enchiladas were assembled, the chili sauce and cheese was lathered generously on top, all four pans were in the oven, and the side dishes were all coming along nicely. Yes indeed, a blend of truly wonderful smells was filling the kitchen when Vivi’s voice crescendoed through the speakers.

“Soul on- soul on- soul on fire tonight.

Soul on- soul on- soul on fire tonight!...”

Vivi and Lewis’ faces absolutely lit up when they realized what song was on and without even having to exchange a word about it, they exchanged flirtatious smirks and began to bob their heads

“I was born poor, I’ll probably die poor,” Lewis sang along.

“Was born with nothing and I’ll die with less.

Hearing you singin’s got me singin’ too,

It keeps me dreaming, all I dream is you, Oh.”

Beside Velma, Daphne smiled dreamily and leaned next to Fred. Oh, brother.

As the beat of the synth ascended, Lewis and Vivi sashayed across the kitchen until they were together. The Dead Beats, having come to the sound of music, delightedly began to swirl around the room, bouncing and trilling to the beat. And as the lyrics returned, the Master and Lady of the house began to dance.

Vivi came in for the background vocals.

“Tell~ me!”

Then Lewis with the lyrics.

“You got my soul on fire tonight!”

“Tell~ me!”

“You’ve got my love, stare into the fire.”

“Tell~ me!”

“You’ve got my soul on fire tonight!”

“Tell~ me!”

“You’ve got my love stare- love stare!”

As the chorus repeated and Lewis and Vivi continued to rotate around the room, laughing and singing together, Velma’s eyes wandered to the others. Mystery looked pleased - clearly he approved of the relationship. Shaggy and Scooby, the goofballs (who clearly knew nothing about romantic love but that was a whole other thing) were tapping their toes. Daphne was sending Fred signals, and as usual Fred wasn’t receiving them.

And then there was Mr. E.

His posture was relaxed at his station, where he was keeping an eye on the black beans and rice. He was smiling, tapping his fingers and lightly nodding his head to and fro with the music. But there remained that deep sadness and longing in his eyes that Velma had caught on his face several times at random moments throughout the day, and she knew he must be thinking of Angel.

With everything else going on, Velma had to remind herself that the wound was fresh for him and he was trying to stay strong and productive through his grief. But all the same… was it terrible that it kind of pissed her off?

The pattern from the chorus broke with Vivi singing,

“Soul on- soul on- soul on fire tonight.

Soul on- soul on- soul on fire tonight!...”

Then Lewis came in with the next verse.

“Feelin’ my dreams are never comin’ true.

Was on my nightmare til’ it came to you.

Making me feel just like I wanted to,

You keep me dreaming, all I dream is you. Oh!”

Then as the instrumentals crested once more, Lewis picked Vivi up effortlessly under her legs and lifted her into the air against his chest. Vivi shrieked with laughter, her arms thrown around his neck.

Through all her cynicism, it was enough to make even Velma feel all mushy inside just looking at how happy they were together. They were so caught up in each other that they actually missed the first few lines of their return vocals. But their voices on the radio did just fine at supplementing the chorus over the sound of the lovers’ giggling.

“Tell~ me!”

“You’ve got my soul on fire tonight!”

“Tell~ me!”

“You’ve got my love, stare into the fire.”

“Tell~ me!”

“You’ve got my soul on fire tonight!”

“Tell~ me!”

“You’ve got my love stare- love stare!”

As the chorus repeated and the rest of the song trailed off into repeating vocals that blended with the instrumentals, Vivi grabbed Lewis by the ascot and pulled him into a kiss.

The Dead Beats broke out into happy noises at the sight. Mystery, looking extremely pleased, looked away respectfully. Mr. E did the same, albeit while red in the face at the open display of affection. (Mr. E blushing! Definitely something that never occurred to Velma.) Daphne gushed, Freddy was smiling, and Shaggy and Scooby looked at each other and fake gagged. Of course.

“Alright, alright. Settle down everyone,” Vivi giggled, her cheeks pink as her boyfriend set her down.

“Sorry about that - when it comes to that song it’s easy for us to get carried away,” Lewis said with a shit-eating grin on his face. But even as he apologized Vivi was leaning against him and reaching for his hand to interlock their fingers.

“I think it was just wonderful! Oh, it’s so romantic!” Daphne said delightedly.

Right then, one of the timers went off for their food.

“Eh, Lewis? What do you want me to do with this?” Mr. E asked.

“Just stir it and turn the heat down as low as it’ll go to keep it warm until the rest is done,” Lewis said, leaving Vivi’s side to go help.

Before long, dinner was served.

Given that they’d eat just about anything, most people often disagreed with Shaggy and Scooby on the concept of what tasted good (this was the same pair who loved clam-flavored ice cream and had once gorged themselves on years-old gator burgers), but in this case Shaggy was right. Lewis was a really good cook. While the Peppers' restaurant, Pepper Paradiso, specialized in spicy food, Lewis had adjusted his recipes to take his guests’ tastes into consideration. He’d made four batches of enchiladas: one beef, one chicken, and one of each of the original recipe, with sauce spicy enough to melt your tongue off. At least to the standards of literally everyone except Lewis, Vivi, Scooby, and Mr. E.

How that came about was actually quite funny. Shaggy, still thinking as if he was still in his own body, tried to shove an entire spicy beef enchilada into his mouth at once and literally belched fire. He was so shocked by Arthur’s taste buds that he nearly threw up, and Scooby had to rush in to save the day by yanking his tongue out of his mouth and dousing it with ketchup to douse the heat. Then Lewis brought him an entire half-gallon jug of milk.

It wasn’t exactly funny at the moment, but once it was established that Shaggy wasn’t literally dying, everyone had a good laugh over it.

“L-like, I’d forgotten what spicy food’s like to someone who like, doesn’t have the mouth for it,” Shaggy wheezed.

“‘Someone who doesn’t have the mouth for it,’” Velma echoed thoughtfully, “Hey Mr. E, how well do you handle spicy food? When you’re in your own body, I mean.”

Mr. E held up a finger ‘just a moment’, while he chewed the bite of rice and black beans in his mouth. “Not very well,” he laughed after he swallowed. “I remember I went on a trip to New Orleans one summer with Cassidy and her family, and they put Cajun in everything there. The Williamses teased me the whole time - all in good fun, of course.” And again, he was smiling, but Velma could tell that through his pain the memory of her was bittersweet.

If you loved her so much, then why weren’t you her ally- our ally? Why couldn’t you have treated her the way she deserved when she was still alive? Velma thought. But she kept those thoughts to herself. After all, Velma knew the power of the curse, so she knew it wasn’t entirely his fault. She also knew that all on his own, he’d broken free of it and was trying to do better.

But still, those bitter feelings persisted.

“Alright then Mr. E, inquiring young minds want to know,” Velma said, putting a spicy chicken enchilada on a plate and sliding it over to him. “Same person, different body. How does he fare?”

Mr. E gulped, looking around at everyone’s expectant faces as if to ask for help. “Do I have to?”

“I mean, no one’s gonna make you,” Scooby said.

“But it is for science,” Velma said mischievously.

“Who knows? Maybe it’ll provide a clue,” Daphne said, going along with it.

“This is revenge, isn’t it?” Mr. E asked dryly.

“Maybe,” all five members of Mystery Inc. said at once.

“Fine,” he sighed, rolling his eyes.

After a moment of trepidation, he took a bite.

The first good sign was that he didn’t immediately spit it out. Then he hummed, pleasantly surprised as he chewed, and swallowed. “Huh. So this is the appeal with spicy food.”

“Well? What’s it like?” Daphne asked.

“Weird,” he replied. “I know for a fact that I’d be having about the same reaction Shaggy did if I was in my own body, but Shaggy’s taste buds are used to it so it’s just… good. Really good, actually. All the flavor with none of the pain. Thanks again for the meal, Lewis.” He said, taking another bite.

“I’m glad you like it,” Lewis said, looking very proud of himself. “I’ve been in the kitchen with the Peppers for as long as I can remember.”

“‘With the Peppers?’ Don’t you mean your parents?” Fred asked.

“Oh, I’m adopted,” Lewis said. “I don’t remember much of my birth parents. They died in an incident with a monster when I was… three or four, I think? Maybe five? But the Peppers have never treated me any differently from their own kids. I consider them my parents, and their bio kids are my sisters. They’re really good people.”

“That’s terrible!” Daphne exclaimed.

“It is,” Lewis shrugged. “But it doesn’t bother me much anymore. Maybe it’s not fair to them, but I remember so little of my bio parents that I don’t think of them much, and the Peppers are wonderful. They taught me everything I know about food.”

“I think I can understand that,” Fred said. “I’m… I guess ‘adopted’ too. My Mayor-Dad may have kinda, sorta, kidnapped me. And he wasn’t the best parent… a lot of times. But at the end of the day, he still raised me, and I know he loved me. Especially after everything that happened with my ‘real’ Mom and Dad, I consider him more my father than them.”

“I’m sorry you weren’t as lucky as I was in the family category,” Lewis said.

“You said your parents were killed by a monster?” Mr. E asked thoughtfully. “There are monsters in… where were you guys from again? I know it’s in Texas. It was… Tempo, right?”

“Oh, no. I mean yeah sure, there are mysteries abound to be found in Tempo, but my parents didn’t die there. We were from Crystal Cove originally, remember? Otherwise we wouldn’t be part of your curse. No - they died here. In Crystal Cove. I moved to Tempo with the Peppers.”

“Waitwaitwait- when did this happen? This would have been during my group’s time, wouldn’t it? I think I would have remembered a monster actually killing people during my Mystery solving days!”

“That’s because it didn’t happen during your mystery solving days,” Mystery said sadly. His ears were down, and his brows were furrowed. “It happened about two months after you left.”

“What?”

“You think the curse stopped after it got rid of you? It took almost a year for monsters to stop appearing after the Original Mystery Incorporated disappeared. I’m sure you all remember how chaotic Crystal Cove was during Crybaby Clown’s reign without Mystery Inc. to maintain the balance. Well let me tell you: 20 years ago, it was a lot worse. With multiple monsters on the loose getting increasingly violent without anyone able to stop them. Come to think of it, they didn’t stop appearing until after the not-yet-formed Mystery Skulls left Crystal Cove,” Mystery said thoughtfully.

“How do you know all that?” Scooby asked.

A look flashed across Mystery’s face like he’d been caught, but it disappeared just as quickly. “Vivi’s Dad and Grandma Yukino told me about it,” he dismissed the topic and buried his face in his dinner.

Vivi and Lewis also went straight to eating, avoiding their guests’ eyes.

Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, Scooby, and Mr. E all looked at each other. They knew that look well enough.

The Mystery Skulls had yet another thing they were holding off on telling them.

But what?

Whatever it was, it was apparent that the Mystery Skulls didn’t think it was the right time to share it, if at all.

The table fell into silence for a few minutes, broken only by the clink of dinnerware.

How to get them talking again? Velma wondered.

She looked around the table and once again her eyes fell on Mr. E, working his way through a plate piled as high as Scooby and Vivi’s. If talking about the past had been what got the Mystery Skulls to slip up, then maybe Velma could hit two birds with one stone. There was something she’d been meaning to ask…

“Hey Mr. E,” Velma said casually.

“Hm?” He acknowledged through a mouthful of beef.

“You never finished your story earlier.”

The entire table abruptly went quiet. Mr. E, yet again looking very put-on-the-spot, swallowed the food in his mouth. “Oh. You mean from back at the hilltop? When you asked why I went back to Pericles?”

Velma nodded. “We don’t have to talk about it now, but given that we’re all together and no one was saying anything else, I figured now’s as good a time as any.”

“No, no. You’re right. You all deserve the rest of my explanation. It’s fine that you’re still angry with me. In fact, it’s to be expected,” he said, sulking a little.

“I’m not angry,” Velma said, to her own surprise as much as his. “At least not as angry as I was this morning, after everything that’s happened today. I just… want to understand.”

He was so surprised it took him a second to respond. “Okay then… Let’s see… where did we leave off? Right. When I reached out to Velma. I’m good to tell you the rest of it, now. If that’s alright with everyone else.”

There were nods all around.

“Okay. So, when I was telling you all this story earlier I had actually gotten a little ahead of myself. I’d lost your trust - rightfully so. Sorry about the Obliteratrix, by the way. Alice took it further than I meant for her to, but it really was all special effects. I never would have actually hurt any of you.”

“At this point I'm too exhausted to even be mad at you. For now just consider it water under the bridge,” Velma said dryly.

“Thanks for not actually blowing up the Mystery Machine,” Fred said anxiously.

“Really? I mean- okay then. Anyway - Ed was dead, and Cassidy and I were hardly speaking anymore, much less working together. So after I drove Velma and Hot Dog Water against me, I couldn’t get anyone else to work with me. No one else wanted to, because I’d given in to my own greed and other bullshit, and it made me treat the people around me in ways they didn’t deserve. Everyone, that is… except one.” He sighed and looked away in shame, rubbing the back of his neck.

“At the time I came to see you Velma, if I recall correctly you all were in the middle of the Graveyard Ghoul mystery. You were out by yourself looking for clues while the rest of the gang was otherwise occupied.”

“Stuffing their faces with German chocolate,” Velma confirmed, giving the gang the side-eye. All of them shrugged guiltily.

“Well, here’s the part you don’t know,” Mr. E sighed. “A few days prior, Professor Pericles had called a meeting of the Original Mystery Incorporated - the first time all five of us had been together in twenty years. None of us would have gone if we’d known he was the one who called the meeting, but he tricked us. Cassidy, Brad, and Judy all thought that I’d arranged the meeting, and I was under the impression that Cassidy had called it. Then he showed up,” Mr. E growled, his scowl making him look more like himself than Velma had seen him all day.

“He offered a partnership - told us that you kids had another disk piece and that our best chance of getting the better of you was to work together again. Now, to be clear, I am not completely stupid. Neither are Brad and Judy, and Cassidy certainly wasn’t. That, we all actually agreed on at the time. We looked at him individually, and told him to go fuck himself. Not in those words exactly, but to the same effect.”

Several people snorted at that.

“But of course that was all part of his plan. He’s a patient bird. He had bid his time, watched from the shadows, and he knew exactly when to strike. He’d already murdered Ed, nudged Angel and I apart, egged me on and nudged my isolation along, then he started dropping in.

“After you refused my offer and left me Velma, you didn’t see it. But right after you left, he was there. Perched on a tree branch right above us, having watched the whole thing. He knew how desperate I was to have someone by my side. He knew exactly where I’d be and what I was going to do before I did it, and he was there lying in wait when the sting of rejection was fresh and I was ripe for the picking. ‘The others won’t work with me, so that leaves only you, Ricky. My sweet Ricky.'” He said mockingly.

“God,” He sighed, running a hand over his face. “I knew he was being manipulative, and I still gave him exactly what he wanted. He knew me, and he knew exactly what to say. He knew what I wanted most was impossible, but he dangled such a convincing illusion of it in front of my nose that I fell for it. Hook, line, and sinker. He played me so well that eventually, I thought our partnership was my idea,” he scoffed, shaking his head at his past self, “what a joke. So that’s it, Velma. That’s how I wound up back under Pericles’ thumb. Because I was stupid and pathetic.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

All eyes snapped over to Mystery. The little dog looked absolutely livid. But once he saw everyone looking at him he got a grip on himself, his lips lowering over his teeth and his fur lying flat on his back. He looked over at Mr. E and smiled sadly.

The table was quiet for a few moments.

“Okay,” Velma finally said.

“Okay?” Mr. E echoed.

“There was a lot there. But I think I understand better now. Thank you for telling us,” Velma said, going back to her food. She… really wasn’t sure what to say or do with that information. Not yet anyway. But for now she wanted Mr. E to know that she was okay with him being there. Even with all their history and her mixed feelings and everything else… She trusted people. Maybe that was a weakness of hers, but she wanted to give him another chance. He’d earned it.

“Good job, Ricky.” Mystery said, following suit.

Everyone else eventually went back to their dinner as well. Mr. E was the last to pick up his fork again, looking around incredulously at the others as if he couldn’t believe how fine they were with his confession.

“Oh. And, Mr. E?” Velma said.

He looked at her like he was expecting the other shoe to drop.

But all Velma said was, “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

Then she went right back to her dinner. And after another moment of processing, Mr. E did the same.

“... Thanks, Velma.”

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Ricky was tense for the rest of the meal. At any moment, he anticipated… something. Some sort of reprimand or consequence for what he’d told them. Mocking, teasing, jabs, the silent treatment, anything.

But nothing of the sort ever happened. The meal just continued oddly… normal. The Gluten Demon was brought up and that led to Mystery Incorporated recounting the Headless Horror mystery and telling the Mystery Skulls all about how they’d met Dr. Rick Spartan, Cachinga, and Marian for the first time. Vivi took her scarf off and she and Velma compared turtlenecks. Fred, Daphne, and Lewis talked about ascots and men’s fashion. Shaggy and Scooby were… Shaggy and Scooby. And Ricky was… there. They didn’t push him to talk or join in, but they didn’t ignore him either. Nor did they seem at all displeased that he was with them.

It was strange, yet also sort of perfect.

I don’t deserve this, he thought to himself. But is it selfish of me to enjoy it while I have it anyway?

Between the nine of them, they absolutely demolished dinner. There would be zero leftovers to be found the next day, that was for sure. They all pitched in to get the dishes where they needed to be and straightened up the table. Which went without incident until Velma, her arms full of dirty plates, asked Mr. E to open a door for her. Or rather, she tried to.

“Hey Mystery, could you please get the door for me?”

Of course he didn’t acknowledge her, thinking she was talking to the dog. And Mystery was on the other side of the room and thought she was talking to the human.

“Hey Mystery-” Then Velma realized what she’d said. “Oh my God, now I’m doing it!” She exclaimed. “Mister. E. Could you please open this door for me?” Velma asked again, pronouncing both words this time.

“Oh, you were talking to me. Sorry Velma, I got it,” He said, rushing to get the door for her.

“I’m the one who got your name wrong. Why are you apologizing?” She asked, stepping into the kitchen.

A few minutes later everyone was in the kitchen helping put everything away and get all the dishes in the sink when Lewis popped his head in from the dining room. “Hey, Mr. E?”

“Yeah?” Ricky and Mystery both said at once.

“Oh. Hehe. Sorry. I don’t know which one I said now. Uh- Mister. E, as in the homo sapien, you left your jacket on the back of your chair.”

“Oh! Thanks Lewis," Ricky said, accepting his jacket from Lewis and putting it on.

“You know what? This isn’t working.” Vivi said, putting her arms up in the air.

Then she asked a question that absolutely nothing that had happened thus far today could have prepared him for.

“Hey, E? Would you mind if we started calling you Ricky?”

You could almost hear the record scratch as the entire room suddenly went dead quiet, staring at them.

“I mean- sorry if that was overstepping,” Vivi said. “It’s just that between you and Mystery, your names are so similar that they keep getting mixed up. And even when we get them right, whenever we say either of your names, both of you look up. Mystery doesn’t exactly have another name to fall back on, and you do.”

“I mean I do have another name but humans can’t exactly say it,” Mystery added.

“Ricky does suit him,” Lewis said.

“Or if that makes you uncomfortable, could we call you Mr. Owens?”

“No,” Ricky said a little too harshly. But he immediately caught himself. “Sorry- no. It’s just- Mr. Owens was my father. I never really got to be Mr. Owens, and the few times I’ve ever been called that it just feels wrong. So I suppose… Ricky’s fine. You can call me either/or. As long as you kids are okay with calling me that,” he said, turning to the new Mystery Inc.

“I mean- it would be the practical thing to do,” Fred said. “As long as you’re okay with us calling you that, E- or um… Ricky?”

Velma was staring at him with her eyes narrowed, arms crossed, hand held up to her chin deep in thought. She crossed the room to stand in front of him and sort of leaned in to look at him closely.

“Uh… what?” Ricky gulped, looking around the room for help.

After a tense moment of scrutinization, she finally broke the awkward silence.

“Ricky,” She said, testing it out. Then she turned around and stepped out of his space. “Yeah, I think I could get used to it.”

Ricky let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding in.

“Me too! Uh, I think.” Scooby said.

“Like, yeah. It’s kinda weird but it’s like Velma said. Like, I could get used to it.” Shaggy shrugged.

“If you’d asked this morning I’d’ve been like ‘no way’. But now… Ricky… Yeah this’ll work,” Daphne said.

And that was how Ricky graduated to a first-name basis.

What a fucking day.

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Once the dishes were all in the sink, the Mystery Skulls told their guests to go wait for them in one of the central dens.

“We’re not going back to the library?” Scooby asked.

“The library isn’t exactly ideal for the conversation we promised you after dinner,” Vivi laughed.

Six sets of eyes widened. Clearly, Lew-lew’s mad kitchen skills had made them all temporarily forget what came after dinner.

“You mean-” Daphne started to say, but Lewis cut her off.

“Yeah. We’re going to spill the beans on what we’ve been keeping from you,” Lewis said. He said it with a smile, but Vivi knew him well enough to see that he was nervous.

Lewis and Vivi refused all offers of help with the dishes so that as their guests’ footsteps faded off with Mystery at the lead, Vivi and Lewis had a moment alone to talk.

“Alright. How do you want to go about this?” Lewis asked, scrubbing the largest pans first.

“I have an idea as to what would be the best approach."

They talked for a few minutes until they had a plan. Then Vivi asked: “Do you think we should tell them about… ‘our informant’ after that?”

“No,” Lewis said immediately. “It’s too much. Especially for Ricky. They’re bound to be freaking out enough about the other stuff as it is. Give them a night to process and rest. Then we’ll tell them in the morning before she gets here. It’ll be a big enough shock as it is without their blood pressure already being up because of us.”

“Ricky’s in a lot of pain because he thinks she’s dead. And he blames himself for it. He’s… a lot like Arthur. The longer we wait to tell him, the angrier he’ll be.”

“I know. But this isn’t about us. And trust me: today is not a good time to tell him. According to the Dead Beats… There was an incident with one of the mirrors in his room. That’s why it took him so long to come down earlier. Whatever he saw really upset him - don’t worry, the Dead Beats went ahead and moved the mirror to the basement. Anyway, Ricky’s pretending to be fine, but he’s not. We tell him that she’s alive and on her way here, he’ll have an anxiety attack or worse. And he won’t sleep a wink tonight. We don’t want that. He seriously needs to relax.”

“You’re right,” Vivi agreed with a sigh. “Dammit, I don’t like it. But you’re right.”

“Then it’s decided.” Lewis said, drying his hands as Vivi shut the dishwasher. “Minus Arthur’s part in our story, we tell them the truth about us tonight. And in the morning… we tell them the truth about who sent us back to Crystal Cove.”

༻˚⁺･⚉｡○✼༓☾⦾♫෴♡💛♡෴♫⦾☽༓✼○｡⚉･⁺˚༺

“My personal favorite theory is coven of witches,” Ricky shrugged.

“I’m still holding out hope for ‘secret trapping club.’” Fred said giddily.

“Seriously?” Velma deadpanned.

“No, but it’s funny to speculate,” Ricky chuckled.

Mystery had led them into a large yet cozy room with a high ceiling and tall, gothic rafters. There was plenty of seating space for all of them and a large roaring fireplace, above which hung a large not-moving print of the Mystery Skulls all together. Like the rest of the house, there was lots of pink, purple, and black in the decorations. There was a record player with a display case of Lewis’ record collection, a large TV with a gaming setup, two cabinets containing Lewis’ collection of romance movies and adventure games, and the walls were decorated with moving paintings of Peruvian landscapes and fluffy grazing alpacas.

“Neither of you aren’t even close,” Mystery said.

Just then, Lewis and Vivi entered the room. Lewis was rolling a large chalkboard, and Vivi was carrying a folder.

“Oh my. They have a chalkboard. Truly, this must be very serious business,” Ricky joked as Lewis positioned the chalkboard in front of the fireplace where they could all see it.

“Hardy har-har. Do you want us to tell you or not?” Vivi said flatly.

“Cuz I mean, we could make you wait another day if you’d prefer,” Lewis shrugged.

“No!” All of Mystery Incorporated exclaimed over-dramatically.

“Do not listen to him! He- he doesn’t speak for all of us!” Fred said in mock-seriousness.

“Yes! Yes. Please, we beg you, do not let Ricky’s smart ass mouth prolong the suspense any longer!” Velma said, shaking her head and trying not to laugh.

Ricky chuckled, brushing aside the feeling he got when the kids said his name.

“Okay then. Settle down and buckle your seatbelts,” Vivi said.

Lewis drew a five-row, three-column table on the board. When he was done, it looked like this:

“To start off our explanation, Vivi and I talked and decided to start off with what you know before making our way over to what you don’t know,” Lewis said, turning around.

“As you all know,” Vivi said, pointing to the board with a ruler, “the members within each mystery solving group connected to the curse of Crystal Cove, who are collectively known as the Children of Nibiru, traditionally fall into a distinct pattern of four kids and an animal descendant of the Annunaki, and further fall into roughly distinguishable roles based on general appearances, skills, and personality traits. Fred and Brad, Daphne and Judy, Velma and Cassidy, Shaggy and Ricky, and Scooby and Professor Pericles respectively all fall into the same roles. It’s this connection that allowed the being possessing Nova to swap Ricky, Shaggy, and Arthur - because they’re all in the same role.”

Lewis circled Shaggy, Ricky, and Arthur’s column on the table.

“Yes, we all knew this. What’s your point?” Velma asked.

“The point,” Mystery said, “is that as the Annunaki explained to Ricky and Shaggy, Arthur is the only member of our group who fits enough into that model that the swap was possible. The rest of us are in one way or another deviant from the pattern, and the Mystery Skulls collectively really only hang onto it by a thread.”

“And that’s what we’re going to tell you tonight,” Vivi said.

“Rohkay,” Scooby said. The others nodded to indicate that they were following along.

“First, the most obvious thing that differentiates the Mystery Skulls from every single other group that’s come before us,” Vivi said nervously, reaching over and grabbing Lewis’ hand.

Lewis took a deep breath. “As you all know through your own research,” Lewis sighed, “Three years ago our group investigated a supposedly haunted cave system and there was an accident that resulted in Arthur losing his arm and one fatality.”

“Up until this point, we’ve allowed you all to believe that the person who died was the fifth member of our group,” Vivi said.

“But that isn’t true,” Mystery confessed.

“What?” All six of them cried out at once.

“The Mystery Skulls have only four members. We’ve always had only four members. There isn’t, hasn’t, and likely never will be a fifth member of the Mystery Skulls,” Vivi explained.

“But like- that can’t be right!” Shaggy exclaimed. “Like, that doesn’t make any sense!”

“He’s right - it doesn’t. I uncovered from my research about you, independent of theirs, that one of your members died. Unless you somehow fabricated it? But I don’t see why you would do that,” Ricky said.

“That’s just it,” Mystery sighed. “I wish I could say otherwise, but we aren’t making it up, and we didn’t lie. Three years ago, in a cave system near Tempo, one of us was murdered. After the fact, after- everything happened, there was too much police involvement and press to cover up the fact that one of us died. But we could cover up who.”

“Wait wait wait- this still doesn’t make any sense! If one of you really did die, and you only have four members, then how are you all still… here?” Daphne asked, shrinking next to Fred.

“Because he didn’t leave,” Vivi said, with such an indescribable sadness that they all knew it to be nothing but the truth.

“The member of the Mystery Skulls who was killed three years ago…”

Lewis pointed at the chalkboard and to the shock of their guests, the piece of chalk in his other hand flew into the air and, by itself, crossed out his name in one furious swipe.

“... was me.”

And that’s when the whites of Lewis’ eyes turned black, and he was engulfed from head to toe in a pink inferno. No sooner had the six of them shot to their feet, gasping in horror, the flames cleared.

And floating before them, terrifying, spectral, and real, was the ghost of Lewis Pepper.

Scooby yelped with fear and jumped into Shaggy’s arms. Velma and Daphne shrank behind Fred, and without even thinking about it, Ricky dashed to stand between the monster and the only five things on Earth that he had left to care about.

Oh, it occurred to him as he trembled, Soul on Fire, indeed.

SO. This is what was originally planned for Chapter 13. As you can see, it would have been kind of perfect for the spooky ghost reveal to line up with unlucky/magical number 13, but then it took over 3,000 words to get Ricky downstairs. So here we are at Chapter 14. Lol For real tho, I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS REVEAL FOR 14 CHAPTERS! I did NOT expect it to take this long for us to get to this point, but here we are. I've literally been saving the song 'Soul on Fire' all this time just so that it would be in the chapter to foreshadow this reveal! I mean- okay, it wasn't exactly a reveal to us, but Mystery Incorporated is shooketh. 👻 Enjoy that cliffhanger, by the way. Because I have no idea when the next chapter (and the rest of the big reveal) will be written and posted. 😜 SO - The past couple of chapters of this fic have definitely put the Mystery Skulls on the back burner with the main focus being on the SDMI characters, so I was happy to bring them back into the spotlight this chapter. And for those of you who caught the reference at the beginning: come on. This is a Scooby Doo BODY-SWAP FIC. I had to make at least one reference to the live-action 2002 film. And given that there's so little Mystery Skulls canon to work with, why not give references like that to them? Kudos to anyone who got that reference without needing to read the author's notes. You get a gold star! ⭐ And an extra-shiny gold star if you caught the other, less obvious reference to the same film during the dinner scene. 🌟 Ricky's experience with Cajun food in New Orleans is based on my own experiences, by the way. Loved New Orleans - I was there the week before Mardi Gras last year. But no matter where you turn, the spicy WILL find you. 😆 I swear to God, my singular week in New Orleans exposed me to so much spicy food that it literally changed the structure of my mouth or something. 😝 Or maybe it was just forced exposure therapy. I was never able to handle even a teeny bit of spice before. It's a sensory thing with me. Like, I could not even stand to eat pepperoni pizza because that little bit of spice was just too much for me. But now? I can actually eat some spicy food. I like pepperoni! And I 100% believe that I have the Hell week my tastebuds endured in NOLA to thank for it. Back to the fic from my "obviously so-interesting life," the gang is calling Mr. E "Ricky" now! Stemming from practicality or no, progress is progress! 😁 That's all I'll say about this chapter - but I could talk on and on about it. If you notice things or have predictions/opinions, PLEASE SHARE THEM. The reason why I'm not saying more is BECAUSE I like hearing your thoughts! I like having conversations! I'd love to talk about this fic and SDMI or Mystery Skulls with anyone who wants to! I hope you all loved this chapter just as much as I did! Until next time, Auf Wiedersehen! 😈

Chapters 1-13 of One of Us are presently posted on Archive of Our Own.

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vivispec · 1 year ago

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hey, i’m bloo/vivi (she/her, 25). feel free to send me asks/message me/tag me in stuff, i always love interaction! icon and sidebar by my bestie @sweetmage

mostly posting dragon age rn (and for the foreseeable future) but i’m also pretty big on bg3, outer wilds, mass effect, zelda, msa, ghibli, ancient magus bride, and lots of other things i pick up and put down. i do a lot of writing for my da ocs which you can find on my ao3 here.

speaking of, here are links to my big completed projects:

reckless momentum (what would hawke do if carver was the warden contact? my submission for the 2024 dragon age big bang with art by @ladyofc)

kindling and set yourself on fire (my DA2 submissions for the wipbigbang with BEAUTIFUL art by @sweetmage)

derecho (my DAI submission for the 2023 dragon age big bang, with AMAZING art by neoendydy)

my whumptober 2022 collection (100% completed because. i have issues.)

under the cut are my dragon age ocs whomst i love dearly, and write about pretty much exclusively! i am a dirty dirty console player so janky quality be upon ye

just realized all but one of these bitches is elves. look. i told you i got issues ok.

here we have my beloved viera’vun ‘viera’ lavellan, my inquisitor and a solasmancer (i am so sorry to her), as well as the oc i write most by far. she was a dalish hunter trained primarily in daggers, later specializing as a tempest. she is a pathfinder at heart whose greatest strengths are her perceptiveness and resilience, while her greatest weaknesses lie in her impulsivity, lack of assurance in her identity, and her tendency to run from her problems. i have a bunch of fucked up aus centered around her and all the situations i put her into! she likes to run, climb, and sing (she is Bad at it). varric calls her ‘finch’.

iloniyn, my most preciousest boy. him and viera are hunting partners as well as (platonic) soulmates, a phenomenon known to the dalish as tael’inan. they are each one half of a whole. iloniyn is incredibly sarcastic, confident, and prickly, but tends to care deeply about those that he considers his people, and gives of himself freely to them (even if he complains while doing it). he is bonded to @sweetmage‘s oc athimien, likes to whittle, is a great shot, and can play the lute. varric calls him ‘snipe’.

ishme aeducan, a sharp, hard woman who will not be made a fool again. raised to navigate the subtle and dangerous world of dwarven politics, she is incredibly cunning, and often pulling the strings in any given situation. she is softened by alistair, who teaches her how to be a person as she teaches him how to be a king. wields dual blades as a warrior.

taufei! oooh i love taufei. a leader alongside ishme by the end of origins, she is idealistic, friendly, and generally just a chill person to hang with. though content enough to do her own thing, once she sets her sights on something, she does not relent, often leading her into...hairy situations. those situations include wooing a witch of the wilds and having a sweet lil totally-not-in-any-way-shape-or-form-creepy baby with her! yippee! she was the second of her clan, though her magic was never incredibly powerful and, as such, she made her living on making and infusing potions for her clan. she is a skilled herbalist, knows enough archery to protect herself, and actually has really long luscious curls that Do Not Exist in game you are just going to have to trust me okay.

kita tabris. she is...intense. if you are her friend she is kinda just a dudebro. picked up the big sword her mother used to wield and decided to learn how to use it because, hell yeah, big sword (which, as it so happens, is exactly what her mom did). if you are not her friend, she is. intense. finds battle thrilling, and isn’t afraid to spill blood. while she can come across as flippant or immature, much of her disregard stems from an avoidance of her more serious (and painful) thoughts and emotions. she is zevran’s gorgeous and incredibly powerful girlfriend whomst he adores and cherishes, and the fact that she can, will, and has crushed a man’s skull with her bare hands only strengthens his devotion.

araia surana, a very sweet young mage who is wholly overwhelmed by this big, new world around her. previously a teacher’s pet who didn’t much mind kinloch hold with little in the way of friends, jowan’s ‘betrayal’ left her reeling with nowhere to turn. while she is curious of the world beyond, she is also incredibly anxious. she picks up a habit of lying to avoid confrontation, and while she is very good at it, her dishonesty puts strain on her and leliana’s relationship early on. her passion is in ancient and forgotten magical techniques and practices. she loves listening to leliana’s stories of adventure and romance, and often plays ‘doll’ when her girlfriend decides she needs something to dress up. after the archdemon is defeated, she spearheads efforts to find the cure for the joining.

#pinned intro #been meaning to do one of these for. a long time #all of my ocs be upon ye!!#lets be real tho this ain't them all skjdnas

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healersadjust · 2 years ago

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I’ve been reminded that I need to make that character list… For now, I’ll share the names and affiliations of all my characters, i’ll probably make a Carrd or something with photos for everyone. Or maybe do like, an OC a day or something? Anyhow! Long post below. And it will probably get longer- I love my blorbos and keep making more :0

Warrior of Light- Aki

Scions:

Leonidas (Leo)

Kaine

Vivace (Vivi)

Celeste

Annis

Runa

Z’mora

S’mona

Mae

Luka*

Nyx

Akari

Ronan

Aki’s birth family:

Mother: Rhaya

Father: Cori’to

oldest to youngest:

Khit

Sami

Zana

Seda

Aki’s adoptive family:

Mother: Cevi

Aunts and uncles:

Lucien

Florian

Constianne

Cecelia

Amil

Kaine’s family:

Tani

Cotota

My fucked up lil guys:

Addison

Aisi

Vodjs

Dohv’a’s previous lives, oldest to most recent:

Skeltos

Solelle

Bloody Axe

Liyoyo Liyo

Bukidai

U’rhoyod Quohn

Cecerioux Dechamberre

Rael Kisna

Amelia Fulke

Bazj Rawbewesfv

Dohv’a

People from the first that are now on the source:

Kiriel

Valeria (Val)

Lilja

People from the first that are STILL on the first:

Eros

Ori

Theja

Ancients:

Urania- Aki

Alik- Kaine

Creon- Dohv’a

Aspasia- Creon’s partner

Unplaced/Adventurers:

Allura

Xeno

Arsene

Liana

Dahlia

Chimalli

Akamai

Antu

Commander Cosmo

Cedrik

Kohjin

Seraphina

Ivo

Vincent

K’ohen

#v time bb #yeah ok it’s… it’s quite a few.#whoops #but i can’t help it!!!!#so many good ideas i simply HAVE to write #maybe one day i’ll start writing them in my own world.

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starsfreckled · 2 years ago

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Give kiss to Estinien aha jk….. unless?

vivi answers ancient asks & cannot link them .

"you are scared" estinien says, arms crossed and watching the warrior of light stalk the room up and down. "no, I am angry!" they hiss. they sit down, if only for a moment before jumping back up. they cannot stand still. it is one of those nights where things did not want to settle, where their thoughts raced each other until it all became a whirlpool dragging them down.

finally their shoulders drop and soon their head follows. amaya raises their hands, staring at them "...how do you do it" they suddenly whisper and look up, blue eyes filled with tears that they still try to fight back. "you carry... so much on your shoulders. ishgard's safety and nidhogg's eye - how do you not crumble?" the raen's voice breaks and with it the last bit of tension in their body.

they sit down on the chair they had just jumped up from as they bury their head in their hands. they still do not cry but they do shake. "I don't want alphinaud and tataru to see me like this but... I am terrified, estinien. everyone says 'm some sort of champion but all I did was getting lucky in not being killed, that's all there is to it! and they all put their hopes in me and look where that got them! I don't even know where the scions are..." they are not like the dragoon, someone who had skills that made them invaluable. if they could learn to be like him even if just for a moment... maybe things would be different then. maybe things wouldn't be a disaster.

"I just want... all that pressure to stop" they admit and when they look back at him, they flinch. perhaps it is their tired imagination but for one moment they feel like they can see pity in his eyes. they do not want to be pitied.

they take a deep breath and stand up, walking towards estinien and suddenly tugging him down to press a kiss to his lips "now you are being stupid" he says and amaya shrugs.

"maybe. guess I hoped you would not mind me being stupid" but who would like being used as a distraction. they take a step or two back, now very much avoiding looking at the dragoon "...sorry. I'll leave I... I should not have come to you with this in the first place. it's not your problem to deal with"

#holyfiends #❝ ᶦⁿᵏ ˢᵒᵃᵏᵉᵈ ᶠᶦⁿᵍᵉʳᵗᶦᵖˢ ❞╱ ic asks .#[ ...this took way too long to answer ahaha...ha... ]#[ anyway i am throwing hw angst at u. kinda. ]

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pi-cat000 · 5 years ago

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MSA: Winged Arthur AU (part 6)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,

Part 7: here

Vivi POV

Yesterday, if someone had walked up to Vivi and told her that, within the next twenty-four hours, she’d be getting attacked by crazy trees, saved by her ‘actually a giant tailed fox’ dog Mystery, and miraculously healed from life-threatening injuries by a best friend who’d suddenly sprouted wings, she’d have at least done a double take. Sure, she’s always had her suspicions about Mystery, those suspicions had stopped short at possible family guardian animal though, and she knew there was more to the world than initial impressions would suggest. God knows Arthur couldn’t go two steps without running into something strange. Then there were her own memory problems, as unexplainable as they were irritating, Arthur’s mysteriously missing arm, and a bunch of other red flags that were all rather obvious when one knew where to look. Oh no, it wasn’t the existence of supernatural monsters that had her thrown, it was just the complete SNAFU of a situation unfolding around her.

Vivi shakes Arthur, trying to push him upright. His head lolls to one side.

“Arthur,” She tries his name for the third time.

Predictably, there is no response. He’s dead to the world. Whatever that golden light did, aside from healing her up, it had knocked him out cold. In contrast, she is as energised as ever. The haze of pain and thought consuming dizziness is gone, taking with it any fatigue. She’s pumped and ready for anything. Her shoulder is completely fine. There is no sign of her most recent stab wound anywhere.

That’s not normal.

Carefully, she shuffles around under Arthur’s deadweight. He’s heavier than she remembers. A side-effect of growing two additional limbs no doubt. The wings hang limb, a spread of uneven feathers, covering the ground on either side of them. She positions him so he is in her lap and not getting blood all over his face, checking for injuries as she goes. Geeze, if Arthur hadn’t just informed her that he was fine, she’d probably be panicking right about now. He’s a mess, with his clothes torn to shreds, hair mattered, covered in dried blood and dirt. The dark patterns and holes across his shirt hint that something sharp has gone straight into his chest. Vivi shivers, leaning in to double check, pushing aside clumps of feathers. Thankfully, he seems okay.

“Vivi.”

The voice is deep, familiar yet strange. Her attention snaps up. She doesn’t know what she expects- Lance maybe- but it’s definitely not that purple fire ghost from the spooky mansion. Vivi should really stop expecting things. After getting stabbed with a giant pair of garden shears, anything’s game.

“Hey?” She greets, unsure. Why it the mansion ghost here?

“You’re okay!” It says, relieved, “I was worried.”

“Thank you?”

Several small pink ghosts, they kind of look like blobs, creep towards her, floating near the ground. They’re super cute, and Vivi is insanely curious. She’d be all for making new ghost friends if not for the fact that Arthur is unconscious, she was just attacked by a living tree, and her last encounter with this ghost didn’t exactly end swimmingly. So, she raises herself into a crouch, and prepares to lunge forward or pull Arthur back should the need arise.

“Might want to slow down there buddy. Back up a step,” She instructs, addressing the smaller pink blobs as well. The ghost hesitates, confused, continuing with an unhelpfully baffled, “It’s me. I’m back,” like she should know who this was. Vivi gives the figure a thorough examination, sorting through her memories. It’s not hard. She doesn’t have a lot of memories anymore.

“Me who?” She asks. The response garners more confusion.

“Lewis. I’m Lewis.”

“Pardon?” She knows the name, but the recognition is hazy, linking it to one of her missing memories.

“You don’t…” The ghost starts then slaps a hand to its flaming forehead in realisation, “Oh. OH! Of course. Sorry. I…I look different like this.”

The ghost shifts, flames twisting, flickering away then settling into a more mundane purple vest, suit-pants, and hopeful smile. Aside from glowing purple eyes, this man appears entirely human. It’s pretty cool, Vivi has never seen a ghost shapeshift, but she still doesn’t know who this person is. He is familiar in the way that many things are familiar to Vivi, so she may have known him at one point. She kind of feels bad because the ghost-turned-human is looking on with such excited happiness, obviously expecting a positive reaction.

She clears her throat, “Ah. Neat trick…Is that a common ghost ability?”

She gets a pained frown. The human flickers and the fire returns, alighting in Lewis’s hair.

“You don’t recognise me?”

“No…Should I?” She has a feeling she should, but she can’t be sure. Lewis is still for a beat, bewildered and visibly distressed. Vivi is about to apologise, and maybe try and explain her memory problems, but Lewis suddenly glares at the unconscious Arthur, eyes narrowing dangerously.

Thoughts of apologies vanish, and Vivi is immediately on alert. The human vestige of Lewis flickers, flame growing. Quickly, she scoops up her aluminium bat from where it is resting on the concrete. Vivi hasn’t forgotten their first encounter with this ghost, which had involved being chased around a spooky mansion before narrowly escaping when said mansion collapsed into an inferno of fire.

“He’s done something. He made you forget,” The ghost growls, low and ominous. Fire inches towards them, creeping along the cracked concrete.

“Forget what?” She tries, only managing to throw fuel on the proverbial fire. Oh boy, this didn’t look good. Those little ghosts aren’t so cute when they are hissing hatefully at Arthur. Like ash, the fire spirit’s human façade flakes away completely. It’s mad and growing angrier by the second.

“ME!” Lewis moans, half pain and half rage, “You forgot me? Why?”

It glowers at Arthur, who is still resting in her arms, spitting, “What did he do!”

Vivi quickly lowers Arthur to the ground, springing up so she can position herself protectively over him. No way she is letting this creature hurt Arthur. Arthur may have no visible burns, but there are plenty of scorch marks on his clothes. With the ghost’s sudden mood swing, Vivi doesn’t need to be a genius to put two and two together. Deliberately, she steps forward, swinging her bat up and at the ready. This time she doesn’t have Mystery to suddenly transform into a giant tailed fox and fight her battles.

Anger, cold and hard, seals her will. Arthur’s always the one getting hurt. With nightmares, losing his arm, helping her through her memory problems when he had his own ones to deal with: the last few years have been a long series of kicks to the teeth. Vivi’s sick of it. Sick of every supernatural creature having it out for Arthur. Even when they aren’t looking for them, they come crawling out of the woodwork to make his life difficult. Not this time.

The talisman affixed to her bat glows bright blue, responding to her resolve. Vivi knows that, if the bat connects with the ghost, it’s going to hurt. She’s counting on it. Her breath mists like it might on a cold winter morning. Simultaneously, the temperature around her drops. Funny, considering that ghost across from her is fire based, she’d expect the opposite.

“If you come any closer. I’m going to wack that skull right off your body,” Vivi threatens.

Her blatant aggression throws off whatever this ghost-Lewis is planning.

“Get away from him.” He snaps, “He’s not your friend.”

“No.” She retorts easily.

Note: Lewis making a great first impression. Next part will probably be another Vivi POV.

Part 7: here

#MSA #mystery skulls animated #fanfiction #fanfic #Vivi Yukino #Lewis pepper #winged arthur #lewis angst #protective vivi #injury #ancient warrior vivi #ghost lewis

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angrylittletrashpanda · 3 years ago

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Faerie families, culutral differences and Eva Duarte.

We all know in HB’s faerieland , having children is considered as a rare blessing. I imagine Elfhame as forever stuck in the eraly XIX century (were there fire arms btw? I don’t think so), but obviously many of the side characters were born much earlier. I have a headcanon that they embody (to certain degree) historical epochs they come from (for example beliefs, features higly valued in the days of their youth, the overall mindset and way of living etc.). For instance, I totally see Balekin as a typical XVIII century libertine, Grima Mog - as a Celtic female warrior, the Ghost - as a boy like out of a Dickens novel etc. Madoc definitely comes from Dark Ages/early Middle Ages. Perhaps he is a bit like a typical ancient Roman paterfamilias (thanks goodness there was no ius vitae necisque in Elfhame....). I bet the family model he preferred was like “children, children and more children, the more cheerful toothy redcap babies to (over)protect, the better ; most of them wil probaby die in their childhood, or die in battles as teenagers, and I want at least a half of them survive to adulthood. Plus, everybody here must see how blessed we are.” I guess any modern woman wouldn’t like to have a family like that. I bet Eva was secretly smuggling birth control pills from the human realm and I totally don’t blame her. IDK for how long they were married when Eva Escaped, but I believe she preferred to have 1 Vivi to a dozen of them

#eva duarte #tfota #crack theory #madoc #madoc x eva duarte #vivienne duarte #the ghost #cheerful toothy redcap babies #why do faeries like children>?#headcanon

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batfam-nalu-onepiece · 4 years ago

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When Brooke awakens his Devil Fruit

Brooke never really thought he could awaken his devil fruit. It’s not like he can turn everything around him to string like Doflamingo. But along his journey and when Luffy becomes King of the Pirates, what he discovers is his awakening allows him to call back the souls of the dead. And he takes full advantage of this.

Brooke specifically waits for the right time to use it for his crew

Luffy:

He waits for Luffy, Sabo, and Garp to be back at their hole town with Makino, Dadan and the other Mountain bandits to have them speak to Ace one last time and tell him he was able to achieve his dream of becoming King of the Pirates. Ace tells Garp that he loves him and that he is sorry for all the pain he has caused him. He is overjoyed to see Sabo alive and thanks him for looking out for Luffy when he couldn’t and Sabo thanks him for the same. Dadan and Makino are overjoyed seeing those three reunited again. Maybe call White beards Soul and Gold Rogers for Ace as well. Roger meeting Luffy and being proud to have someone like Luffy be the next king of the pirates. Luffy made sure to have Shanks and Rayleigh there too so theycan see his old Captain. Roger tells Shanks that he did a job and gave his hat to a worthy man. Rayleigh gets to see his bestfriend one more time and Roger thanks him for helping train Luffy. Roger thanks Garp for taking care of Ace for him and Garp just punches him because he is about to cry (Maybe have Kobe there as a Bonus because Luffy values his friendship and wants to introduce him to his brothers)

Zoro:

They travel to Zoro’s hike town with his sensei and call back Kuina’s soul so he can tell her he achieved his dream and became the worlds greatest swordsman. He tells her that he made sure to take extra care of her sword and that he never forgot their promise to each other and trained hard every day. He even pokes fun at her talking about how Tashigi looks and acts just like her and how she has been chasing him all over the world so it was like Kuina was also chasing after him, trying to achieve her dream which made Zoro train even harder.

Nami:

They return to Cocoyasi Village to meet up with Nojiko and Genzo and call back Bellmere soo they can talk to her again and Nami tells her she achieved her dream of drawing a map of the entire world. She tells her mom about all her travels and how she found a family that can always make her smile. She even shows her the Tangerine trees in the Sunny saying she grows them exactly the same way to make sure her nakama get to have a taste of Bellmere’s tangerines.

Usopp:

They call Usopp’s mom’s soul at his home town so he can tell her he became a brave warrior of the see like his father. He tells her all the adventures he has been on. He starts off by saying “Hi mom. You came back to us” like he used to say about his father. His Dad standing beside him saying that Usopp keep his promise and became a brave pirate, even more great than himself. He introduces his mom and dad to Kaya. His mom absolutely loves her and is happy he found someone. They bond when his mom tells Kaya that it will be hard to love Usopp since he is a pirate and neve home and Kaya responds saying she knows it may be hard, but if Usopp is free, and happy that is all she could ask for. Besides, that the kind of man she fell in love with in the first place.

Sanji:

They meet up with Zeff at the Baratie and call back Sanji’s mom’s soul to tell her that he became and amazing chef and found the all blue. Sanji’s mom thanks Zeff for looking after her son and for teaching him how to be a great chef. Everyone at the Baratie wonder how someone as annoying and argumentative as Sanji could ever come from such a sweet woman. Then Sanji kicks them and they all laugh. (Luffy asked Nami to contact Reiju and tell them to come because he knew she would want to see her kids again and they would love it so Sanji is with his siblings, Judge, and Zeph. Sanji wasn’t happy about it but he realized they were her family too and he couldn’t just keep them from speaking to their mom one more time. Even if most of them are jerks) Sanji shows his mom his cooking by cooking a special meal for her. A variation of the first meal he ever made for her. She says it’s the most wonderful food she has ever tasted and can tell that she actually meant it (i know I know. How can she eat if she’s a soul? Just go with it) Reiju tells her mom she loves her and how sorry she is for not taking better care of Sanji. Her mom tells her what a wonderful job she did and that she loves her. The other brothers finally show emotion that they never knew they could. Seeing their mom again after she died woke something up in them and they apologize for being dicks their entire life and that they love her. She responds by saying that they are her sons and she loves them no matter what. She tells her children what fine and strong people they became. Judge even apologizes to her for everything he’s done (What Sanji did during the Whole Cake Arc really made them reevaluate their life)

Chopper:

They return to The Sakura Kingdome to see Doctor Kureha and Dalton, where they call back Dr. Hiriluk’s should back to tell him that his son went out to see and became an doctor and travelled the seas as a pirate just like Hiriluk wanted. They also recreate his powder again and show him the cherry blossoms one last time before his soul returns to beyond the grave. Chopper even teacher Hiriluk the new things he learned while at sea and all the different diseases and things he has cured. Hiriluk is happy his son went out to sea and thankful when Chopper tells him what Luffy did for him and his flag even before he really knew chopper.

Robin:

Even though they cannot return to Robin’s home, they sail the Sunny to where the island used to be located and call back Robin’s mom and the others archaeologists so Robin can see her mother again and tell them about the lost history. She tells her mom about the Poneglyphs and the other ancient cities she found like Skypiea. As a bonus Brooke also calls back Jaguar D. Saul and Robin tells him that she found her nakama who will protect and cherish her and will never leave her. Saul thanks the Strawhats and after hearing what they did for her at Enies Lobby, he knew she found an amazing crew. He even laughed and smiles at the story saying that Robin has joined one crazy crew. Saul took one last long look at the people who would challenge the world if it meant protecting Robin and knew that she would never be lonely and sad again. Her mother gave her a hug and said she’s happy that she survived the buster call and how proud she is for becoming an archaeologist and finding out the lost history.

Franky:

They return to Water 7 and meet with Granny Kokoro and call back Tom’s soul. Cranky gets to tell him that he created a ship that sailed across the entire world just like he did and is now the shipwright to the new King of the Pirates. Iceberg tells him that he is working on or completed making Water 7 float. Tom is proud of the man iceberg became, and how successful and beloved he is as the mayor of Water 7. Tom takes a look at the Sunny and says it’s even greater than anything he could have built including the Oro Jackson, Roger’s ship. He admires the work and detail Frank put into the ship and could tell that the crew loved their ship very much. Tom meets Nico Robin and apologizing for doubting her and believing she would use her knowledge for evil. Robin smiles and says it’s ok and they talk all night. Tom meets the Franky Family, the people willing to storm Enies Lobby to save Franky. He thanks them and The Strawhats for saving his son hd apologizes to Franky and Iceberg for even putting them through that by passing down the Pluton blueprints. They laugh it off and Franky says he is actually thankful to have had them because without it, he would have never joined the Strawhats and build the ship of his dream.

Jinbe:

They return to Fishman island where they reunite with Shirahoshi, and her family. With Jinbe, the recall Fisher Tiger and Queen Otohime’s soul. They get to tell the two that the relationship between fishmen and humans have gotten better. Jinbe can tell Fisher Tiger all he had accomplished including jointing the Strawhats. Shirahoshi and her family can tell Otohime that they returned to they participate in discussions with the world government and other countries and have a good relationship with humans. Shirahoshi tells her mom about how Luffy taught her to be brave. They both leave knowing their species is in good hands and thank the Strawhats for being the gateway to the fishmen co-existing with humans

Brooke:

When they return and see Laboon again, Brooke calls back the spirits of his old crew so they can all keep their promis to Laboon. They play their music for Laboon again so he can hear the real thing instead of the recording (don’t ask me how they can play jules if if their dead just go along with it. It’s sweeter that way). Brooke can introduce his old crew to his new one, telling his old captain not to worry because even with them gone, he has found a new place he can call home.

Vivi: (and the rest of the crew)

If Vivi’s father dies (because it seems like that may happen) They return to Alabasta and Vivi and Karoo get to see the King Nefertari again and maybe her mom too considering I don’t actually know what happened to her. Vivi is happy to meet to new crew members and love how none of them have changed personality wise. Robin apologizes nonstop and Vivi forgives her in a second. She says that anyone Luffy likes is a good person so Robin doesn’t need to apologize anymore. She even thanks her for not telling Crocodile where Pluton is and for all the times she has saved Luffy. While there at Alabasta, he aslo calls back the spirit of the Going Merry. The very same Klabautermann that saved them time after time. They thought about doing this at Usopp’s village but he said that Vivi was once a part of their crew too and deserves the chance to see the Merry again. The spirit of the merry is happy they found a new ship to call home and is thankful to Franky building the ship. It even says that it knew of the ship because part of her spirit is still with them, on the mini merry and thanks Franky for building it out of her wood. This causes every to cry saying how happy they are that the Merry is still with them (yes even Zoro. He tried to not cry but couldn’t help it. He turned around thinking Sanji would make fun of him But Sanji knew that he could never make fun of him for this). Usopp and Luffy immediately says that the mini merry cannot be in the docking stations anymkre and bring her onto the deck. No one disagrees or argues with them.

Law:

As a thanks to Trafalgar Law for all his help and everything they’ve been through, they call back Corazone’s soul and he tells him that he loves him and is greatful for everything he did for him. He introduces him to the Heart pirates, named in honor of Corazone and shows him that he made the right decision in saving his life. Law also insisted that Sengoku be there because he loved Corazone like a son. Sengoku at this point is retired and he’s never admit this, but he is happy that Law and Luffy met because it gave him another moment with the man he viewed as a son. (Sengoku also couldn’t help but notice how much alike Luffy and Garp are. Especially when Garp was Luffy’s age and laughs knowing how much trouble Luffy will give the Navy considering the amount of trouble Garp gave the Navy and he worked for them)

Rebecca:

They return to Dressrosa and let Rebecca,Kyros, Viola and the other see Scarlett again where she sees that her daughter grew up to be an amazing woman and that Kyros has protected ever since.

Momonosuke:

They Return to Wano and Momonosuke, Hiyori, kin and the other Samurai can see Oden again and his wife. Momonosuke can tell his father that he is following in his footsteps in order to become a great Shogun to make sure Wano prospers. Hiyori tells her father that she gave his sword, Enma, to Zoro. She thought he’d be mad so she tried to explain to him that he saved her life, Saved Wano, and is a worthy swordsman but Oden stops her midway saying that he doesn’t care about the sword. He’s just happy his family is safe and that if she gave his sword away, he knows that it would have been for a good cause and to someone worthy. The other Samurai get to tell Oden that they avenged him and saved his country like they promised. They even bring back Yasui so his daughter can see him again. Momonosuke also introduce his father to O-Tama and his father likes her and thinks she’s a good math for his son. Momonosuke blushes but Luffy, Kin, Nami, Robin, Sanji, Zoro and honestly everyone agrees and already consider them as a couple. Brooke even brings back Ryuma so they can clear Zoro’s name of stealing Shisui. Zoro spars with Ryuma and Oden. Their fight changes the geography of Wano a bit.

Carrot:

They go to Zou and call back Pedro’s soul so Carrot and everyone can see him. Carrot thanks him and shows him how strong she became. Luffy thanks him for sacrificing himself for him and Pedro is happy knowing the Dawn of the New World that he believed was coming has finally arrived. He never regretted his sacrifice for a second.

I’m assuming there is a 24 hour limit to each soul called back or something like it. But if not consider that after they each have their own individual heartfelt moment with their loved ones that they lost, the Strawhats bring EVERYONE, and yes I mean everyone that was mentioned, to Laugh Tale for a huge party. All the souls of the departed that where mentioned meet each other and celebrate the Luffy becoming King of the Pirates. Roger, Rayleigh and Whitebeard get to see Oden again. Nami ends up punching Gold Roger for doing something stupid on a reflex thinking it was Luffy. It actually really hurts Roger and as Nami apologizes, Bellmere looks proudly at her. Luffy laughs and Nami beats him up twice as hard. Roger, Whitebeard, Shanks, Oden and Fisher Tiger are now scared of her. They know Luffy has the best Navigator in the world, but are wondering if it’s worth it with him much she has punched Luffy in the short time they’ve know her. All while Brooke and the Rumbar Pirates play Bink’s Sake the entire time.

(If someone wants to make art of this, please do and tag me in it so I can see it and cry of happiness)

#strawhat pirates #monkey d Luffy #Nami #roronoa Zoro #Usopp #Sanji #chopper #Robin #Franky #Brooke #Jinbe #Vivi #Devil Fruit Awakening #the reunions we want to see #original content #I teared up writing this #it made me soo happy

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booklovingturtle · 5 years ago

Note

Would you perhaps help write a Jurdan pregancy hcs?? If that’s not your forte, I understand. I just love fluffy Jurdan.

I don’t usually do pregnancy hcs but I love Jurdan fluff and I’ll write anything for a request! This actually turned into a rather long fic bc I ended up really enjoying it which means thank you to whoever suggested it!

Jude stumbled from bed, pushing the covers off of her slick body. She felt as if her life had been slowly drained from her for the third day in a row. Her feet tripped over themselves and she made it to the bathing chamber just in time to lose her dinner from the day before. Jude felt her stomach contract violently. She felt dizzy from having stood and ran so quickly and was clutching the rim of the waste bin. The door, which she had been too disoriented to shut all the way, pushed opened. The High Queen heard her husband’s footsteps enter her bathing chamber.

“What…the hell…,” Jude groaned into the circle of her arms. She felt a gentle hand rub circles down the length of her spine.

“Jude dear,” Cardan’s voice was gentle as he tried to pull her chestnut hair back for her. His concern was palpable in the way he hovered over her. “I think we should call a healer. This is the third night in a row you’ve jumped out of bed like this.”

Jude tried to relax the chills that racked her muscles. Judging by the two nights before, her body aches would calm down after a few minutes. Cardan pulled her against the heat of his body. Her back was pressed against his chest and he took her hands in his.

“I’ve been poisoned.” Jude reasoned.

Cardan’s laugh vibrated through her. “Or maybe it’s a cold. I hear humans get them quite frequently during the turn of the seasons.”

Jude shook her head. “I have an incredible immune system, Cardan. I’m offended that you would accuse me of not being able to handle a common cold.”

His tail tickled her ankles as it curled around the exposed skin. “I would never call you weak,” his words were light but the tension in his body told Jude he wasn’t in a joking mood. “I just don’t think it’s poison and if you say it’s not a cold then you must be seriously ill.”

Jude released a heavy breath. Her brain had finally woken up enough to filter through all the poisons that could be eating at her health without her realizing. She didn’t have a fever or cough so she doubted it was a cold. Jude’s breath caught in her throat as she realized what else it could be. The High Queen took a mental tally of her last cycle. Tatterfell had discovered a new tonic that would lighten the burden of her cycles. There was no way to be sure if her late period was thanks to the Faerie tonic or…

“Cardan,” her voice cracked.

“Yes?” He kissed her temple.

“Can you call for Taryn? She caught a cold like this a few months ago. I want to know if her symptoms matched mine,” the lie came out easily. Guilt ate at her.

It had been years since Jude had lied to her husband. They had worked so hard to turn their complicated relationship into one that thrived on love and trust. It was hard in the beginning but after ten years of being married to Cardan, Jude could trust that when he spoke, it was never laced with deceit. Just as he could trust that she’d never use her mortal ability to trick him ever again.

This lie, however, felt different. If her worries were correct then she’d come clean soon enough. If she was wrong then there was no need to confuse Cardan with the possibility of something that may not even be real.

Cardan agreed to call for Taryn and Jude took that time to clean herself up a bit. Once she felt presentable, she made her way back to bed. The High King also rang for a healer, not wanting to risk anything worsening.

The minutes slowly passed as Jude waited for her sister. Cardan continued to run his hands through her hair as they waited. He was a silent, steady presence behind her. A loud knock burst through their room and he called for the servant to enter. Behind the nymph trailed a concerned looking Taryn and a bored court healer.

Cardan excused himself from the room as Jude talked to her sister. Taryn’s eyes widened as her twin described her symptoms.

“Jude!” She exclaimed in joy.

“Quiet down, Taryn! I don’t want anyone to get suspicious before it’s confirmed.” She glared at her sister. The High Queen turned her eyes to the healer. “What do you think?”

The healer’s sharp eyes ran down the length of her body. “Have you experienced any unusual weight gain?”

Jude couldn’t answer with certainty. She was a warrior before she was a monarch. Her body had fluctuated in weight after numerous changes in diet, training, and not to mention torture. She had noticed her armor fitting a little tighter in areas it hadn’t usually bothered her.

“Yes, I think so.”

The healer motioned for her to lay down. She spoke quiet words in an ancient language. Jude shivered as the Fae placed a withered hand on her stomach. The words whispered of life and seemed to echo in the large bedroom. The healer’s eyes closed for a second as she waited to hear the response.

“It’s true, Your Majesty. You are with child.”

Jude’s limbs froze. Taryn squealed through her hands. The healer stood unmoving.

“I-I’m pregnant?” she looked down at her stomach in disbelief.

The healer nodded. “You and your sister are twins.”

Jude’s eyes jumped to the Faerie again. “Yes. Why?”

The healer gestured again but this time to tell the Queen to sit up. “It’s still too early to tell but there is a chance that you could carry more than one.”

A shocked laugh escaped Jude as she stared at her sister. She looked back at the healer and thanked her for her service. The creature nodded a goodbye. Taryn bobbed up and down, looking with undiluted happiness at her twin.

“Jude! Congratulations! Vivi’s going to be so jealous when she finds out that I got to be here.”

“Taryn, what the hell am I going to do? I don’t know how to be a mom. I can’t-I don’t…” Jude words cut off and her face flushed with tears she hadn’t realized were building.

Taryn looked surprised by Jude reaction. To her credit, she didn’t hesitate to take a seat on the edge of the bed. “Jude. Listen to me. You are High Queen of Elfhame. You’ve been kidnapped, poisoned, stabbed, beaten, and tortured. You’ve stood against enemies older than most human civilizations. You are Jude Duarte. You will handle this like you’ve handled every other situation that has been thrown at you…or well, like every other situation that you’ve blindly out yourself in!”

Jude shook her head. “I’ve stabbed my way through most of those situations. I can’t exactly stab an infant, Taryn.”

Her sister scoffed. “Believe me, Jude, if I could make it through my pregnancy and learn the ropes of motherhood given everything that was happening around us, you can as well.”

Jude chewed over the thought, realizing Taryn was right. When Taryn’s first child was born, she was recently-widowed and Elfhame’s monarchy was still new to the land. Right now they were in a time of peace with no imminent threat to the kingdom. Plus Jude had her sister’s previous experience to learn from. And Cardan.

“Cardan!” Jude started. “I have to tell him.”

Taryn jumped from the bed. “Oh! You have to let me know how he reacts!”

Jude wiped a stray tear from her cheek and nodded. “Thank you, Taryn.”

Her sister gave her a sweet smile. “I hope he faints,” she giggled and turned to leave.

Not two seconds later, Cardan strode into the room. He took one look at Jude’s pale face and stopped in his tracks.

“What is it?” He sounded anxious.

Jude stood, meeting him halfway in the room. The High King intertwined his fingers with his wife’s. He leaned forward so that his brow met hers. She took a deep breath and steeled herself to say the words.

“Cardan…I’m pregnant.”

He jerked back, but kept his hands in hers. “You’re-you’re what?”

“I’m pregnant,” She repeated the words, not fully believing them even as they left her mouth.

His dark eyes were wide as he stared down at her. “You’re carrying our child,” wonder filled his voice. “I’m going to be a father?”

“There’s no guarentee that you’re the father but-” she broke off with a wicked smile.

Cardan laughed, a silver shine glittering in his eyes. His smile was blindingly bright as he said, “I’m going to be a father!”

Jude nodded, once again surprised by the tears that welled in her own eyes. “You’re happy about the news?”

Her husband gave her a look of disbelief. “Jude, I’m more than happy.”

“But we never talked about children. Never made plans.”

“That’s because I was afraid. Some Faeries go decades without reproducing and we’ve always been aware of the fact that won’t have decades to wait. It felt selfish to ask you to spend all that time working towards a family that we wouldn’t have gotten. I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

Jude ran a finger along his sharp jawline. “You could never disappoint me, Cardan. I love you. Child or no child. We would have found a way to make our own family if that’s what we wanted.”

The High King didn’t bother to wipe the tears of joy from his cheeks. He grabbed Jude’s waist and ran a hand across the front of her stomach. “This is going to be most beautiful child Elfhame as ever seen. How could it not be? With me as it’s father.”

The Queen used her thumbs to brush away Cardan’s tears. “That’s assuming you’re the father.”

His laugh filled the room. Cardan’s smiling lips met hers. Jude melted into a kiss that left her soul singing. His fingers tickled the curves of her waist. Jude pressed herself hard against him, wanting to feel every part of him. Cardan held himself back.

“Careful, I don’t want to squish our little bean.”

Jude rolled her eyes. “We’re not going to squish it, Cardan.”

He shook his head. “I’m not willing to risk it.” Instead, the High King kneeled at Jude’s feet and placed a protective hand over her stomach. “I love you very much, my little bean.”

“Cardan!” Jude groaned. “Stop calling it that.”

He looked up at her through innocent eyes that were framed with beautiful lashes. “Little Bean,” he said thoughtfully. “I like it.” He looked back at her stomach and pulled up her shirt. Cardan kissed right above her naval. “I’m going to do everything in my power to protect you, Little Bean.”

Jude’s chest tightened at the fierceness in his voice. She ran a hand through his unkempt curls.

“I didn’t have a family who fought for me. But I will fight for you. Every day of my life, Little Bean.”

A lump formed in Jude’s throat and she had to push back yet another wave of tears. Apparently, this pregnancy was going to turn her into a crier. She was not excited for that.

“I’m sure Little Bean can hear you,” the gentleness in Jude’s tone was new to her. “You’re going to be a great father, Cardan.” She could already see the wave of fears that were dancing around her husband’s head.

He didn’t meet her gaze so Jude knelt down to look him in the eyes. “This Little Bean is going to be loved and protected in all the ways we weren’t. We’re going to make sure of it.” She pulled her husband into a tight embrace. “I love you.”

“I love you,” he repeated. He let himself hold his wife tightly for a few lingering moments.

“But I love Little Bean more now so please stop trying to squish it.”

#booklovingturtle writes #holly black #the cruel prince #the wicked king #queen of nothing #tcp #twk #qon #jude duarte #prince cardan #cardan greenbriar #high king cardan #high queen jude #high queen of elfhame #high king of elfhame #The Folk of the Air #jurdan #jurdan fluff

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heilos · 6 years ago

Photo

“Mushi - the Ancestor” “A bescarfed warrior from an ancient time. She wields an enchanted, chilly blade cold enough to slice through even the most hot-headed demon. Her fate seems intertwined with the modern day Vivi, but in what way currently remains a mystery." I wanted to have this done much closer to when Hellbent was released, but that wasn’t meant to be. Better late then never I suppose. Started out as a general ref sheet since I realized that we never had a true front view of her design shown in the video. Eventually it turned into a character exploration sheet instead. She has a name now too! I have plans to do more of these with the main cast, but I hope you enjoy a small look at our newest character shown off briefly in the most recent Mystery Skulls Animated music video. We’re definitely not done with her, not by a long shot. :)

#mystery skulls #mystery skulls animated #mystery skulls hellbent #msa #the ancestor #mushi #character sheet #expressions #turnaround #ref sheet #my art #I love my new blue girl so much

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iknwnofillers · 5 years ago

Text

Saw people talk about like the straw hats goals and when they would be achieved so decided to make a post about it. @ii-luffy-ii was big brain to help. this is some what a long post

lets start with like definite end game goals

robin - definite endgame. like the whole void century, the poneglyphs basically the “True history™” is related to finding raftel because robin figured it out in skypiea that roger , atleast its implied that roger found most of the missing history and took them all to one place that seems to be raftel.

franky - definite endgame. wants his ship to travel far and wide with the pirate king at its helm which will be achieved at the end of the show. besides that he has or atleast we think he has memorized the blue prints to one of the ancient weapons - pluton , a massive destructo warship. He’s also one of the seeming connections to dr.vegapunk but we dont really know where that goes.(maybe if vegapunk shows up in wano something something oda’s logic franky and vegapunk could get it on and they could talk about how he gave the pacisfista kizaru’s laser beams and maybe we can see a franky upgrade which is much needed now that i think about it)

brook - definite endgame. atleast close to it. wants to REUNITE with laboon (so fcuking romantic, definitley the good ending of hachiko the dog).

GYMBEIGH (yeah fuck you) - well this is our resident fish dad or atleast is supposed to be. location unknown. goals unknown. assumed goal is that he is the representative of the fishmen who want to live under the sun on the surface and also dont forget that one thread that oda left us that is madame shyarly’s prediction that luffy is gonna be the reason that fishman island burns. cant decide if he is endgame because goals are unclear.

VIVI (yeah i said it, go and see the official one piece youtube channel’s banner you guys vivi is there, thats more than enough for me)

so vivi? if she does join the strawhats its gonna be for endgame reasons. she is the heir to the throne of alabasta, a nefertari which is one of the founding families that left mariejois. it’ll be kinda poetic if someone from the celestial dragon bloodline fights along with Mr.Monkey.D.Luffy but there are other reasons i cant explain because i dont know. this is riding on an “if” so this is good enough. but she endgame material.

sanji - this can happen any where here on out. like they may find it hidden near elbaf , they may find it as they approach raftel , or raftel may be in a place like the all blue because next to no one has found it, maybe roger but we dont know yet. its definitley exists because if you think on a meta level its plot of one of the prominent characters. so yeah definitely endgame or near endgame.

chopper - so basically oda likes do his stuff in 3′s. haki - 3. ancient weapons - 3. and chopper’s been dealt with caesar’s bullshit for the 3rd time. first time was in punk hazard with the candy, second time was in zou with the gas and now the 3rd time with SMILE fruits side effects. his goal to be the best doctor who can cure any disease is relative. but if he does manage to CURE PEOPLE WHO CANT LITERALLY EXPRESS THEMSELVES, then he’d atleast in my book would be the greatest doctor there ever was. also the upcoming war has people using biochemical warfare so........ yeah goals are relative. (also check out mr.morj on youtube cuz he has a whole video explaining this)

nami - its a world map that she wants to make. if that isnt endgame i dont know what is. also shes our resident best navigator of the seas so that happens as the journey goes on.

and now we reach the guys who could achieve their goals when wano ends

zoro - wano is his arc. he has the sword that could cut fcuking kaido. wano is promising to draw out more potential from the strawhats than any other arc has ever done in terms of strength. so when this arc ends hopefully he is stronger than ever. his goal to defeat mihawk and take the tittle of the best swordsman can happen right after defeating kaido and big mom. but when wano is done our boiii will be ready™.

usopp - if you think we aint going to elbaf you’re missing out buddy. its been built up since the OG 5 made the barrel promise, since little garden, since the ennies lobby giants , in dressarosa. usopp wants to be a brave warrior of the seas, like dory and brogy, like the honorable giants from elbaf, like his father Yasopp who he seems to have a lot of respect for. he wants to be like, and as his journey goes, surpass them maybe. i hope they do go to elbaf and i hope they find shanks and crew there because theres a lot of clues that point that the red hair pirates are there (again go and watch mr.morj’s elbaf video.even if you think its unlikely its a good fcuking video)

luffy - his promise or condition to return the hat to shanks was that he would be a great pirate with a crew as strong as his the next time he meets him. when wano arc ends it will be for the better because either only kaido gets defeated or both kaido and big mom get defeated (2nd one is wishful thinking but holding on to it). either way when luffy and co defeat both of the yonkos he’d really have made it as a great fcuking pirate. taking down two yonkos isnt a small thing. he would have met the prerequisites to return the hat. again, luffy’s goal is to become the pirate king which to him is having the most freedom on the sea. luffy is endgame but his promise can be fulfilled if he manages to defeat both of the yonkos and maybe if you still wanna push then the hat can be returned after luffy and shanks duke it out in a mano-e-mano. but if this does happen one of luffy’s goals would have been reached.

that is all. if you liked what you read and it made sense,idk. go eat a apple or something. but congratulations if you made thru this long ass post. didnt expect to write this much. what can i say. if this clears your minds and helps you straighten some of the ideas that you had rolling in your head then we’ve done our job. peace Y(-.-Y).

#one piece #op theory #luffy #straw hat crew #long post #iknf posts

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murfeelee · 5 years ago

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My Top 10 Games of All Time

I saw this games list on my dash, but I felt it was dated, so here we are:

10. Tetris

I don’t like puzzle games and platform games and stuff. But Tetris might be one of the very first games I ever played, and to this day it’s just a ton of fun. Very nostalgic.

9. Castlevania

Vampires, medieval, bishounen, great story? Sign me up! I got into Castlevania while I was neck-deep in all things gothic and dark and creepy. It’s such a fun game! The Prince of Persia-esque mechanics with swinging from the whips and chains were freaking hard, and the dungeons were cool, and I love the out-of-place cartoony summons, that dial back the creep factor just a smidge so I don’t feel I’m trapped in Dark Souls where everything’s tryna give me a frikkin heart attack. I wanted so many more Castlevania games. But nooooo~! It’s all about effing pachinko machines now! Jim Sterling said it best: F*k Konami. >_<

8. Warriors Series

The ham and cheese of it all in this delicious sandwich of a Chinese, Japanese, and Asian mythology hack and slash series. Delicious. Tedious and predictable AF. But still delicious. Unfortunately, Koei just about tanked Dynasty Warriors with the more recent installments. U_U And it’s so hard to play the Samurai Warriors games since they bailed out on effing localizations, like thanks, that’s rude. >_>

7. Shin Megami Tensei/Persona

I freaking luuurve how effed up and zany and twisted this dystopic cyber-ish world is. SMT and Final Fantasy have hands down the best summoning systems in games (Pokemon does NOT count), with an entire array of multicultural pantheons incorporated into the in-game universes. I swear, just researching the references they use is half the fun for me, cuz I’m that kind of nerd; sue me. :P

6. Legend of Dragoon

I never got into Final Fantasy 7 the way other folks did, cuz I was busy playing Legend of Dragoon, baby~! ^0^ The FF7 train whizzed on past me, but that was fine. I was happy right where I was. LoD’s battle mechanics were HARD, but SO good to master. I was always excited to keep progressing; the story’s one of the best I’ve EVER played (ROSE! My bish!); and the worlds and cutscenes and music were BEAUTIFUL. When TF is Legend of Dragoon getting it’s next-gen remaster with Cody Christian voice-acting Dart, Sony, huh, HUH. HUH!? >_<

5. Tomb Raider

My girl! ^0^ YES, I’m the RL archaeologist who’s never seen a single Indiana Jones movie (cuz eff ALL that racism), but you best believe I saw both the Tomb Raider movies, and played a crapton of the games! XD Gravity deaths, T-rexes, zombie samurai and all. Werk it, queen. With your double pistols. And Double-D cups.

4. Skyrim

I hate 1st-person perspective in games, in literature, everything. If they hadn’t added a 3rd person I’d’ve been like nope. But yeah, Skyrim’s freaking epic. It’s got DRAGONS, for starters, and sith lord lightning spells, and giant open worlds to explore, full of lore and magic, and one of the most amazing soundtracks of all time, and did I mention the dragons? I was so hyped for Elder Scrolls 6, but with Bethesda being frikkin INCOMPETENT lately *(*cough* Fallout 76 *cough*) I dunno about ES6 now. :\ If it stinks, I won’t be surprised. But Todd Howard KNOWS the entire community will FUS RO DAH his arse if it bombs! >_<

3. The Sims

Skyrim’s Hearthfire EP tried it, but NOTHING compares to The Sims franchise, allowing us to create our characters’ entire lives in a game. From birth, to childhood, adulthood, the elder years, death, and even afterlife, in The Sims we can control and customize every aspect of the characters’ story, to fit our own unique tastes and style. And that’s why I love TS3 the most out of the bunch, with it’s in-game Create-A-Style, open world with CAW and Edit Mode, and so much more. I wish all games had non-linear customizeable aspects where you can just sit back from the main story and quests; take a gander at your surroundings, build a house, marry that cute NPC you bumped into in the marketplace, have some babies, and let Alduin just do his thing till the next Dragonborn comes along; cuz I’m retired and living my best life in this here village; bye Felicia. 8)

2. Final Fantasy

No game franchise has ever made me cry as much and as hard as I did than while playing Final Fantasy. Holy. Crap. Their stories? THE BEST. EVER. You get seriously ATTACHED to these characters! Aerith, Angelo, Vivi, Sir Auron, Fran, Fang, the Regalia...they’re FAMILY! XD And the villains? ICONIC. Simply iconic. Eff Dark Souls; the side-bosses in FF are frikkin IMPOSSIBLE. SO dang good! And I love the touches of in-universe continuity, with Phoenix Downs, chocobos, cactuars, tonberries, airships, and the strangest fashion choices I’ve ever seen. Say what you will -- what I HAVE -- about certain polarizing entries in the series, but that’s just because we KNOW there’s a certain standard FF has, and a bar it’s classic titles have set, that you just don’t sneeze at. You just DON’T. (But FF15 was a piece of shhiiii~!)

1. THE WITCHER 3

If y’all can’t tell, I LOVE me some RPGs. Give me a set of beautiful ancient/medieval worlds to explore, full of elves and dwarves and of course MONSTERS; and protagonists with magical powers and big freaking swords, and I’m in it to win it, baby. Suffice to say: I WAS NOT READY for TW3. I STILL haven’t recovered from how good that game was! Even the MINIGAME within the actual game was legendary (Gwent had me BROKE, lemme tell you). And the Blood and Wine DLC was...like....something else; bumped it from a 10/10 to a 15/10, easy. The combat, the world building, the characters, the dialogue, the sidequests, the main plot, the MUSIC, UGH. If Netflix effs up The Witcher tv series Imma be MAAAAD.

#video games #questionnaire #Final Fantasy #the witcher 3 #sims 3 skyrim #sims 3 warriors #dragons #did i mention dragons

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grimtwin · 5 years ago

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Favorite ZoNa moments?

All of them of course!

Their first time meeting! Zoro saves Nami from Buggy’s crew as they made to attack her for refusing to kill Luffy. Fending off something like five or six attackers easily, Zoro casually asks her if she’s okay.

Then on Usopp’s island, where Nami and Zoro are trapped behind an oil slick. Nami steps on Zoro so she can safely cross, while Zoro gets stuck. A short while later, when a couple of Zoro’s are taken from him, Nami tries to retrieve them. Even after taking a brutal hit from Jango, she’s able to kick Zoro’s swords to him, which kind of annoys him, but she has this cheeky, “is that how you thank someone?” line, and Zoro gives her his thanks, before whooping ass. That and his terrified reactions every time she’s attacked during this fight with the Black Cat Pirates.

Then we jump to Arlong Park for a few more scenes. This is one of the biggest shipping moments for the two, for a lot of fans. After getting nearly bisected by Mihawk, Zoro’s pretty banged up, and gets taken prisoner by Arlong’s crew. After some cheeky back and forth between Zoro and Nami, Arlong says some pretty fucked up things about Nami being a cold hearted witch who would even forget Bell-mere’s murder for money, which clearly upsets Nami. That doesn’t go unnoticed by Zoro, who then throws himself into the water. He’s bound at the legs, with his hands tied behind his back, and one of the most gruesome wounds we’ve ever seen in OP...so no way is he getting out of that. Until Nami dives into the water and drags him back up that is. Kudos to Nami’s strength here btw, she’s gotta be strong as hell to do that. Anyway, Zoro calls Nami’s bluff here, telling her he knew that she couldn’t have let him die and to stop acting cool which infuriates her enough to stomp on his back. She then asks why he has so many bandages on, and in the English dub, he flirts a bit by saying he didn’t have another shirt and didn’t want Nami to be distracted by his chest/abs, to which she immediately punches him as hard as she can in his Mihawk wound.

After a dramatic flashback and Nami stabbing her arm to slice away the Arlong tattoo, Luffy and the crew go to kick Arlong’s ass. It’s here were we get the next short, but sweet moment that I like. Zoro’s wound has been hit a few times, he’s got a stupid high fever, is damn near dead on his feet at this point, but he’s fighting Arlong in order to give Sanji and Nojiko time to save Luffy’s life. He gives Nami a thumbs up, saying he’s good, but in his weakened state, Arlong gets the better of Zoro, and is holding him by the throat. Its then that Arlong tears away Zoro’s bandages, and that’s when he, Nami, and the rest of Cocoyashi’s villagers see just how fucked up Zoro is right now. Zoro’s got this death glare that startles Arlong to his core, Nami’s lets out a horrified gasp, and Arlong knows he has to kill Zoro here and now because it’ll be too dangerous to let him live. Well...that is until Luffy finally shows up, freed from his stone prison at the bottom of the ocean, grabs Zoro by the shirt color, and throws him several hundred yards to the back of his head lol.

I suppose the next instance would be at Whiskey Peak. The crew has just made it to the Grande Line, and survive a hellish wave of storms...all thanks to Nami, and no thanks to Zoro, who was napping. When he wakes up, Zoro is interrogating Ms. Wednesday and Mr. 9, who jumped on their ship, and just when he’s about to uncover some secret, Nami shows up and beats Zoro’s head in. She’s pissed he was sleeping during all the chaos, and even though Zoro tries to get tough with her, she just beats him some more. We all know who wears the pants...or short skirt in that relationship. Later, the crew are happily welcomed into Whiskey Peak’s village, where a massive party is thrown for them by the villagers. The crew is having a grand ol’ time, drinking eating, partying their asses off and we see both Nami and Zoro engaging in a drinking contest. Zoro “goes down” around the 13th tankard of booze, while Nami “goes down” around the 15th. It’s then that we learn that the village is one of 100 Bounty Hunters, who aim to kill/capture pirates making their way into the Grand Line. Just as they unveil their big secret, Zoro appears on top of a house, in one of the most bad ass moments of his up to this point in the series. He was faking being drunk, saying no way would he trust a village welcoming pirates into their midst. He then announces he knows they are Baroque Works, and proceeds to beat the shit out of the entire village in a dope ass fight.

And after that tussle, Mr. 5 and Ms. Valentine’s Day show up! It seems they have an intruder in their organization, and it’s Miss Wednesday, aka Princess Nefertari Vivi of Alabasta! They’re on the hunt when Mr. 8 pleads with Zoro to go save her, as he is actually Igaram, Vivi’s royal guard. It’s then that Nami appears, agreeing to help Vivi..but at the cost of one billion beri! Zoro questions what she’s doing there when Nami says the same thing he did earlier, that she couldn’t trust a town welcoming pirates, and that she could handle way more booze! These two are can handle their drink alright. Nami and Igaram negotiate, and after coming to terms, Nami commands Zoro to go save Vivi! He immediately refuses until Nami counters that her contracts are HIS contracts as well, and that Zoro still owes her payment for the money she lent him at Loguetown. She guilt trips the ever loving hell out of him, and Zoro has no choice but to run off and save Vivi.

Now we’re at Little Garden, the isle of giants and dinosaurs. The Straw Hats food reserves are low at this point, so Zoro and Sanji decide to have a contest of who can bring back the bigger dinosaur and most meat, very much like Dory and Brogy did 100 years prior. After some running around, Zoro kills his prey and is trying to make it back to the ship when he gets lost; big surprise right? During his search for the ship, he suddenly sees Nami leaning against a tree and happily calls out to her with a big ol’ smile on his face...but cut to black. It was all a trap set up by Mr. 3! A wax dummy of Nami, who has now captured Zoro, Nami, and Vivi! More stuff happens with the other characters, before we’re shown that Nami, Zoro, and Vivi are attached to this big candle with a spinning top that, as it melts, will spray a wax coating over the trapped victims, turning them into statues. Zoro being cool as shit, decides that if they’re just going to die as statues, he’ll cut his feet off and go kill Mr. 3 before this can happen. Just as he goes to do this, an action which horrifies both ladies at his side, Luffy, Usopp, and Carue show up, and Zoro stops about half way through his legs. The pooling blood freaks Nami out, who berates him. A short while later, things are looking bad for Luffy, Usopp, and Carue, so Zoro decides if he’s going to become a statue, he’s going to strike a cool pose. Again Nami gets angry with him, and Zoro jokes with her that she should have taken a better pose too. All three, plus Brogy are completely encased and wax...until Usopp, Luffy, and Carue set them on fire! The wax melts, Zoro, Nami, and Vivi burst out of the towering flames, and take out Ms. Valentine’s Day and Mr. 5 in one shot!

Next, we fast forward to the Alabasta Kingdom. For years, Shichibukai and leader of Baroque Works, Sir Crocodile, has engulfed the country in a civil war, all for the goal of gaining access to a poneglyph, a stone with the location of an ancient weapon known has Pluton, carved into it. And under his employee are the assassins partners Mr.1, Daz Bones, and Miss Doublefinger, Zala. During all the chaos of the final battle, these two would become Zoro and Nami’s opponents, tricked into following the Straw Hats away from Princess Vivi. Zoro tells Nami to stay quiet and hide, but it’s the assassins golden rule to take out those that are weakest first, so they immediately go to attack Nami. Just before Mr. 1 is about to cut her down, Zoro comes to her defense just in the nick of time once more! (In the anime he gives her a cocky grin) The two separate to take care of their own battles, both bloody and brutal, and after Zoro and Nami prevail, Zoro collapses in the street in need of a nap from blood loss. Nami finds him soon after and smacks him awake, but since she’s had her foot and leg stabbed through by Miss Doublefinger’s needles, she can’t walk to well, and gets a piggy back ride from Zoro as they search for Vivi and their friends.

Onward to Jaya! This one is short and sweet. After Luffy and Zoro take a massive beating from Bellamy and his crew, a fight that held no meaning for the Straw Hats so they just didn’t counter, Nami is thoroughly pissed at for being mocked and made a fool of. Later on, when Luffy goes to confront Bellamy for stealing Norland’s gold, Nami asks Zoro why he didn’t go with Luffy to fight. A small, but cute, argument breaks out between the two. They fight like an old married couple! Just get hitched already dammit!

Further still, it’s up to Skypiea! Here we have a lot of good moments between the two. After Pagaya and the people of Skypiea rat the Straw Hats out to Eneru, the Going Merry is attacked and dragged off by some massive sky shell fish. And on the ship, are Robin, Chopper, Zoro, and Nami, where they’re carried to an area where they are meant to be used as sacrifices for Eneru and his warriors. While trying to leave the sacrificial alter, the crew is attacked by Sky Sharks, which try to eat Zoro right away. He gets soaked during the scuffle to kill the sharks, and strips his shirt off, to which Nami goes into his room and then tosses him a new, dry one. Nami warns Zoro that God and the guardian priests are in the forest and are too strong to compete with, but Zoro tells her he’s never prayed to any god because he doesn’t believe him him. Chopper thinks this is cool as hell, and Nami cries, saying she doesn’t know Zoro lol. So Nami, Robin, and Zoro leave the alter to go check some things out, and during their trip, some delightful arguing and banter takes place, and Zoro saves Nami from several sky sharks and a sky alligator trying to devour her. He had been taking the lead on their journey but slowed down to walk behind Nami so he could protect her more easily.

Later on, during a hellish battle set up by Eneru, involving his forces, the Straw Hat Pirates, and the Shandian Warriors, Zoro are fighting alongside with the gargantuan sky snake Norla. In the ensuing chaos, Norla swallows Nami and Aisha appear in the midst of the battle, and are attacked by some goat men under Eneru’s command. Zoro, Wiper, and Gan Fall protect them...but soon after, Gan Fall, Nami, and Aisha are immediately swallowed by Norla. In a fit of anger, shock, and urgency to save Nami, Zoro tries to swiftly deal with his opponents at the time, Ohm and Holy, who activate a cage of iron cloud barbed wire to trap the combatants inside, while also fending off Wiper’s attacks. After defeating Ohm and Holy, the ground beneath his feet is blown away by Eneru and everyone falls to an area below. In all that, Norla spits up Gan Fall, Nami, but then Eneru attacks the snake, and fries it with a massive electrical attack. Zoro, seeing this, is terrified for Nami, until she pokes her head out from behind a rock, revealing that she’s fine. Zoro almost looks annoyed that he was caught looking so scared.

I could continue on, but this is crazy long as is...so this is a good stopping point!

#Zoro #Nami #Gust Sword #Sword Gust #ZoNa #One Piece

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