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drundertalescum · 7 years ago

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Day 14 - Hole

So I had about 4 different ideas for today so of course I went with a last minute 5th one. I was reminded of @opinioninvalid‘s great Prison AU and decided that that was the story for today. I think it worked out nicely!

I dunno if OpinionInvalid has posted info about the AU anywhere publicly but since I don’t think they have I’m going to present this entirely without context!

(But I did write for this AU once before.)

Warnings: some cursing, criminal activity, imprisonment, some vaguely gross stuff, ableist language, references to gambling and murder and other assorted crimes.

Aster was in the hole, alright.

He thought it was just slang, back in the day, but it was pretty frickin accurate, turns out.

The Underground’s only prison was basically a basement underneath the castle, and it sure felt like a basement. Cramped, dank, small. Something was constantly dripping from the walls, and whatever it was stunk worse than anything Aster could imagine.

The walls themselves were kinda shabby. Normally his magic coulda busted right through em, but there was some kind of protection spell over the whole thing, so Aster couldn’t break a damn thing. He usually knew his way through that sort of thing, but this stuff was the best and it would take something beyond the normal methods to break the seal and bust out. Pretty much, it was impossible.

Only reason it was even worth the thought was that Aster had both a long sentence and a short lifespan.

But for now, he was just sitting back, avoiding trouble, waiting for an opportunity. Patience was always one of his strong suits. It’s how he got as far as he did (before the part where he ended up imprisoned).

But if Aster was in a hole, his cellmate was in an even deeper one.

Dr. Wingdings was in for life, pretty much. Aster didn’t know if he was a different kind of skeleton that might live a little longer than he could expect to – it was definitely possible– but that didn’t matter. Whether he lived one more day, of a thousand years, probably, he was probably still gonna die in this cell.

A real harsh sentence, but hey, that’s what you get for killing a bunch of guards and shit. Wingdings really flew right off the handle. It was big news all over the Underground for a while, and why wouldn’t it be? You know what the LV of the average monster running around the underground is? It’s 1. Not one point something. Just 1. Because the few monsters with it are such outliers they aren’t even counted towards the total.

Now, Aster knew a lot of rough characters. He ran an illegal casino. Gambling, blackmail, identity theft, fight clubs, burglary, whatever. Aster knew all sorts who didn’t keep to the rules that governed the kingdom. That’s how things are when you’re a part of the Underworld of the Underground. But they were still monsters, and murder was unheard of.

The only killer Aster knew was the one who started at the walls all day and night above his cot and never talked.

It was funny, too, because he didn’t even look that tough. He was a thin, lanky, scrawny kind of fella. He looked deranged most of the time, like someone out of an old sci-fi, but if anything he was kind of nerdy looking. Made sense. He used to be the Royal Scientist before he went off his rocker and killed a bunch of people.

Aster kinda wished he knew what happened there. He was hoping before he died in this cell he could at least get a taste of what went down, because the official story was pretty one sided, and ol’ ‘Dings hadn’t given him a good reason to doubt it, but he knew at least one of those guards, and the official story that he was a hero and community leader, cut down in his prime? Let’s just say that line stunk worse than the walls in this hole.

So Wingdings didn’t talk, but Aster was never the silent type, so they came to an understanding of some sort. Aster could ramble on and on all day, and Wingdings would let him. But if Dings made it clear he wanted him to stop, usually by staring right through him and slamming a fist against the wall, then Aster knew it was time to shut up.

It was a good system.

Aster talked about anything and everything. It wasn’t just breaking about cons and whatnot, though yeah, he was a proud kinda guy and he wasn’t exactly humble. But he mostly talked about funny stuff that happened to him. Weird people he knew. Food he ate that shouldn’t ‘a been eaten. Weird dreams. Dumb facts he knew about the stars. Just… the kinda stuff he would tell someone if he wanted them to be his friend. Not that he thought Mad Doctor L.V. over there would be too interested. But it was keeping him sane, grounded, even if he was already as deep in the ground as it gets.

And Dings was slamming his fists and glaring less and less. Whether he enjoyed his company or got used to the noise was anyone’s guess. But Aster liked to think he was charming enough to win over even the hardest criminals, and Wingdings was as hard as it gets.

“So then Haps says to em, he says: ‘guess we know who the real spook is!’ heh heh heh!” Aster laughed, then looked over at Wingdings, who was looking at least somewhat in his direction. Usually he never even saw the doc’s eye sockets. But he wasn’t glarin’, just… starin’. He felt self conscious, like suddenly after however many months in here, he finally had an audience. “’s funnier if you know Haps is a ghost.”

The doctor didn’t respond.

Aster tried to think of another funny story to tell, since he had a real captive audience tonight (he had to save that one)

“Okay, okay, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but a coelacanth and a gerbil walks into a bar, and the coelacanth says to the bartender—”

“Stop.”

Aster felt a chill go down his spine. He definitely complied. Didn’t even have to hear the words.

Dr. Wingdings was looking right at him, straight in the eye. That was new. And it was terrifying. Maybe it was intent of maybe it was LV, who could tell, but Aster swore he felt a hole being burned right through the center of his skull, and even through his soul.

Everything was quiet. Aster didn’t think he was breathing anymore.

The doctor tilted his head.

“I have heard that one before.”

“heh… heh… oh.” Aster gulped. “oh yeah?”

The doctor nodded, and looked away for a moment. “yeah… you told it the first week you were here. It was a very funny joke. I almost laughed at it.”

Aster wasn’t sure how to take this guy’s sudden willingness to speak. But he was just gonna have to bite down on his fear and work with it. He was starting to think the intent he thought he felt was a false positive. He never met someone with a high LV before. Maybe he was real sensitive to it. Some people were. (Though Aster never thought he’d stand accused of being sensitive.)

“You shoulda laughed! Then I’d know which jokes to tell ya!”

“Well…” Wingdings leaned back in his bunk a bit, looking a lot more amicable and a lot less rigid all of a sudden. “I said it was almost that funny. I didn’t say it was that funny.”

Aster snorted. “Is that a challenge?”

“No… I just didn’t want to hear that one again.” The former scientist’s expression opened up a bit. “We’ll be in here together for another 3 months and 8 days. I would rather listen to new things in the meanwhile.”

“Uh, buddy? Hate to be the one to break this to ya. The judge really shoulda, but uhh… you’re in here for a lot longer than 3 more months, bud.”

A low rumbling noise crept into Aster’s range of hearing, growing in volume and breaking out into something loud and clattering, paralyzing and all together foreign before he realized what it was. From above him, the mad doctor was grinning beyond what his skull should have been capable of.

“You finally made me laugh! Good job!!!”

“…‘fraid I don’t get the joke.”

“It’s just that you are very wrong and very unaware of it. I’ll be leaving here at exactly the time that I specified.” His grin faded a bit as his laughter died down. “You’re free to join me, so long as you do not stop me.”

Aster gave the doctor a look that likely conveyed the thought “what the hell are you talking about,” but said “Okay, I’m intrigued. Hit me.”

“What? I’m not going to hit you; you would dust, which is completely counter to what I was– Oh.” Wingdings slammed his jaw shut and motioned for Aster to come closer.

The smaller prisoner clambered up the side of the bunked cots until he was eye level with the mad scientist that was his roommate. The owner of the top bunk moved to the side to allow Aster to see what was behind him.

The magic seal of the prison was oddly visible before him, and it was warping and pulsing from a point. And at its center, Aster saw something that should have been impossible.

It was a hole.

Dr. Wingdings, disgraced but brilliant Royal Scientist, spoke as if he was at a meeting with the King himself, and had just done what no one else had managed. “3 months, 8 days. Are you interested?” In two words: he was cool, and he was smug.

And Aster… well, Aster was almost speechless. His cellmate went from totally nonverbal to this at the drop of a lousy joke. It took Aster a while just to find his words, but when he did, his usual permanent smile was that much wider.

“Buddy, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

#prison au #wingdings #aster #gaster #sans #papyrus #my fics #scammerbros #fanfic #30 days challenge

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alberteamllc · 5 years ago

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Father’s Day, Part I: 9/4/2019

Starring Flinty McClintock Bon Jean Bovi Ardis Sarmasik Featuring Prof. Puffin McClintock Prof. Tavi Feathers Sanuwa Sawbones Vos the Armorer Aparna “Panther” Panchali Astrid Insaatsi Elbise Insaatsi Faris Svette Hologram Hambeaux Mungo Fungo Egg Hogswain Greg Hogswain Syrup Hogswain Suzie Cardinale Beatrice Catamount The Bachelor Guilotte Crevette Prof. Tantrum Weechy Maddie McCallister Tartuffe Eikhorn Ramon Silulimesh Galof Silulimesh Jeanne Klops Peacemaster Cambina Bell Peacemaster Triamond Bell Viceroy Stepan W. Pitchfork Hasdrubal Weil The party is all safe but battered and exhausted after defeating Helena. Their next objective is the Palace, but they’re too worn out for a fight, so they decide to head to the old CC beach-house to recuperate. Things are tense along the way as Vos is defensive and sullen and in no mood for a detour. They joke around a bit on the way, Panther compliments Flinty’s leadership to Ardis and goes over and gifts her with a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order. When they arrive, they find the Royal Family & entourage still there, watching the city descend into chaos across the bay. From the beach, the palace seems to be in troubling shape, surrounded by brambles and vines. Panther describes getting Sonny to flee at the end of their fight, but confesses that she left the situation in the hands of the Bent Nail so she could hurry to the university. Without any buffer around, the queen’s senility is more apparent, and she makes several confused and hostile comments confusing the young adventurers with the old Crystal Cats, even offering to buy Flinty. When the party runs their plan by Astrid, she reminds them that she can manipulate the gates within the palace without any need to fuck around with dangerous items. She volunteers to go with them while Svette stays behind to guard the queen. They all take a quick rest, and talk of Ardis still being in her prom attire, plus Panther’s quick change into her normal uniform, prompts a lot of hassling Flinty about her fashion sense. Everybody gives Ardis a ton of shit for thinking Panther’s real first name is Panther. Meanwhile Vos weedles the queen into letting him extract a vial of blood, explaining that it will reduce the number of sacrifices needed for his plan B. Nobody is happy about this but they fail to get the blood back and soon he sneaks off.

She tells them of a secret tunnel built into the base of the hill decades ago so that the Cats could come and go without causing a public stir. She shares more tales of the old crew, including one about Mungo getting a toe chopped off by a mousetrap, much to Flinty’s delight. While arguing about which of three potentially dangerous routes to take to the various gates inside-- including Panther lying about Flinty’s break-in to protect her-- Bovi remembers he has the skeleton key from the Egg Babies. Flinty becomes insulted and saddened that he got to go to crime prom and she didn’t.

They head back to the beach HQ to try to find an intact enough door to use the key. They find Jeanne’s adolescent bedroom door and warp through it. Once there, tuning into the right pocket of space is difficult, and too much for the queen alone, but Puffin, Flinty, and Bovi combine their efforts with hers and together they have enough time to go in, grab Mungo Fungo, his important lab materials, and get out. He’s sleepy and disoriented but mostly ok. Puffin and Flinty gather up the rest of what they need, and Flinty spots Tavi stealing something but keeps it a secret for now. Outside, Mungo accidentally outs Tavi as a wizard, which she quickly confirms much to the shock of the princess and Panther, who reflexively draws her sword. The princess orders her to attack, but Panther refuses. She then orders Rumble Force to arrest Panther, but they also refuse. Her shock is cut short by Tavi confronting her with an unpleasant truth-- she needs one more spellbook to complete the cure: the princess’ late brother’s, Anselm, whose legacy has already caused so much appalling kerfuffle. The princess silently vanishes through the gate again and after some nervous talk about how to escape if she’s called the guards, she returns with Anselm’s tightly guarded book and tells them to get out before she changes her mind. Mungo consults with the nerds and surprises Flinty by calling her into the huddle. He praises her skill as a fixer and creative problem solver and tasks her with finding a way to make the broken transmitter usable. They decide that in lieu of the big pylon at the university, they can use the apex of the palace as a beacon. Mungo however needs more time to figure out what the cure is actually going to be.

They all head back in a somewhat sullen moon, Panther somewhat suspicious by the sudden revelation about Tavi. She decides to drop off at CC HQ with Sawbones to try to muster reinforcements, and meet up with everyone further uptown shortly. Flinty makes fun of Panther’s awkward flirting with Ardis, so Panther kisses her before leaving, flipping Flinty off with her free hand. Everybody is just a little bit shocked.

Back at the base more survivors have shown up, and the Hogswain boys’ grandma is busy making a hearty dinner. Beatrice, who seems to have gotten over her beef with Flinty, takes her aside to assure her that the halfling prisoners are free, then leads Ardis outside for a talk. She reveals that she has been the Red Justice ever since Benedict’s death, but is becoming too old to safely fill that role anymore and wants to train Ardis as her successor. They talk a bit about what this means and Beatrice is frankly pretty rude. But in the end she gives Ardis her cowl, cloak, and sword, and asks to be left alone with her thoughts.

Flinty heads to the basement to help Nu H.O.T.D.A.D. out, with the two dwarves helping her with the transmitter. Eventually she takes a break to check up on Mungo, who is back in a melancholy mood. They share a drink and talk about leadership and Flinty’s potential. Mungo is worried about the pace she’s pushing herself, and talks her into taking a nap while the rest carry on. He leads her to a cot, makes a pillow out of his scarf, a blanket out of his coat, and gives a final toast to “the parties that Chanchala Chala isn’t in.” As he leaves and Flinty drifts off he wishes her good night, accidentally referring to her as ‘Mingo.

Upstairs, Panther has returned with Guilotte, Jeanne, and the Bachelor for some reason. Guilotte goes to enjoy Bovi’s cat castle with him, wrecking it up with her feral claw. She tries to get to the bottom of the enigma of Bovi but slips up by mentioning that Billy Adavispa isn’t doing well. Bovi freaks out and attempts to immediately flee to his aid, causing Guilotte to freak out as well, shattering all the glass on the second floor and giving every halfling in the building a migraine. It takes Ardis and Panther to calm him down but they do because it was getting late irl.

After Bovi settles down Panther invites Ardis out to the garden for a smoke. They talk about their respective motivations and Panther shares her depressing backstory, and her fear that she’s only ever been compelled to be good. She shows the column of scars on her arms, tokens of the warlocks’ repeated deployment of her pact in battle. Ardis assures her that she’s good and puts an arm around her, and the two silently watch the night sky on the eve of battle.

Meanwhile out in the ‘burbs, bad guys are up to no good. A carriage bearing Vos, Pitchfork, both Peacemasters, a chain of condemned Handsome Lads, and Weil pulls up at a nondescript building by the banks of the River Aster, where, inside, an enormous cavern has been hollowed out, the inert wooden husk of Misteltaine preserved and restored in a giant trench and tended to by Vos’ priests. As Weil leaps down to survey the absolute unit, Triamond expresses his reservations and moral condemnation of the project, but reluctantly signs off on it in the name of necessity. As Weil finishes his assessment, a number of 500s appear and slaughter the Lads, hurling their bodies into the trench, while Weil sprinkles the wooden titan with the queen’s blood. As it begins to stir, Weil dons his helmet, and Pitchfork entreats him to take control of the gargantuan vessel...

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simlit · 1 year ago

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CotS: What Ifs // part ii

what if Aster would have chosen to not give up the banner in the forest battle against Sarayn/Therion?

The notes on this scene are as above. Had Aster refused to give up the banner, Therion would have intervened to stop Sarayn from killing Eira and the three of them would have come to a diplomatic agreement to surrender the banner anyways. Eira would have been too injured to continue, and Kyrie would have pulled them out. Therion and Aster's relationship would have gotten a big boost instead of the hostile confrontation they had in canon leading to Aster's opinion of Therion falling off. Sarayn and Therion would have continued the trial at odds which then would have impacted the follow up scene between Sarayn and Therion vs Åse and Eve, as Therion would no longer have been a willing partner in the fight. Obviously this would have wiped Sarayn's reputation across the board (as if it could get any worse at that point lmao).

what are the potential outcomes of Sarayn's answers to Tayuin?

These were the three potential paths Sarayn's route could take. At over halfway through the story, he is now officially locked in. During the poll, one answer from each category was selected, defaulting him into the Wisdom route. Only one of the questions had a close vote, but either option would have locked him into Wisdom. This was the most neutral, and admittedly, probably most fitting route, but the least interesting storywise (in my personal opinion. sorry).

what if Sarayn wouldn't have ditched Eve just to win in the first trial?

Sarayn would have given the key to Eve and they would both have been granted the win. Eve and Sarayn would have continued to grow their relationship. Obviously the impact of Sarayn starting down that path made many waves throughout the story, so I can't list all the might-have-beens. That being said, this was one of the very earliest preliminary "lock out" votes as he acted against one of Kyrie's most closely held moral codes. Had the poll gone the other way, there was a scene to follow that would have taken place in the library where Kyrie would have come to him and asked him about his home and generally what it was like to live his life. They would have bonded over their vastly different life experiences and perspectives. After the second Eve/Sarayn vote, Sarayn was eliminated from bachelor challenge contention entirely. At best, he and Kyrie can end the challenge as friends, but that is still to be decided. If anyone is interested or cares enough, I've uploaded the dialogue text of the Sarayn x Kyrie library scene here since I liked it a lot and I'm still sad it never happened.

what if Tayuin had apologized to Taiyo in the forest trial instead of being a brat?

(for the record, "asker" used much stronger language but I reworded the question lmfao). The conversation between Taiyo and Tay would have gone much differently (obviously), Tayuin would have had a bit more self-reflection. Taiyo cursing Tay in retribution wouldn't have happened as it did HOWEVER, it would have happened eventually, anways. Had Tay not pressed Taiyo over the apology, they would have carried on and run into Indy and Tal. Tay would have tried to arrange an ambush of sorts against Taiyo's wishes and Taiyo would have had the same control loss and used the curse against Tay to stop him from hurting Tal and Indy. So yes, Tay would have been cursed no matter what.

#cots extras #this one is juicy ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

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