#douxie has been gay since the twelfth century

[stellarcat52]

Timeless Blue (chapter one)

Because there’s no way in Arcadia my brain will let this be anything but a multi-chapter slow burn fanfic) (also these will roughly follow the episodes of Wizards with possible missing content and possible added content. Aka I might make up an episode to make our boys happy.) @that-one-bi-wizard Is due for credit.

Douxie approached the House-mothership- of the Akiridion Royals, ringing their doorbell and stepping back.

A glitching Ricky blank opens the door. “You look lost kiddo.”

Douxie peers behind the blank, Krel appears behind him wrestling the other blank to the ground. “I’m just here for the Akiridion royals.”

“It’s just me!” Krel grunts as the blank powers down and Douxie steps inside. “Aren’t you the guy from the cafe?”

“Yes, but I’m not here because of that. The world is in danger, and I need you to come with me,” Douxie shot straight to the point.

“Kleb, again?” Douxie nods, causing the Akiridion to cross his four arms. “Fine. Give me a sekton.” Krel pulls out his serrator and shoots down the blank who had opened the door. “I’ll deal with your faulty programming later.”

Douxie watches as Krel’s blue form dissipates into his human disguise and motions for the extraterrestrial to follow him.

“So, why is Earth in danger this time?” Krel asks as he catches up to the wizard, eying his magical cuff with interest as Douxie messes with it.

Douxie pauses in front of the bookstore, looking up at Krel as Archie, AAARRRGGHH, Steve, and Toby round the corner.

“-the world’s ending. Again?” Toby complains.

“Not the best timing, I know. But we need your help all the same.”

“Douxie? Wait-hold up! I thought you worked at the cafe or were a model or something.”

Krel watched with great interest as Douxie finished messing with his cuff as Steve reacted. Douxie then chuckles and waves his hand in front of Arcadia’s guardians and a small blue wisp appears on his fingertips. “There’s a lot about me you don’t know.”

The other’s reactions to Douxie’s magic is background noise, however Krel doesn’t hold back his own gasp in wonder at the display.

The wizard places his hand to the door and more blue light, unfamiliar to the Akiridion, appears around his wrist. “The answers to all your questions lie within.” He opens the door to the ordinary bookshop and everyone steps inside, Krel last of everyone aside from Archie and Douxie.

All of the non-wizards gasp and exclaim in curiousuty and wonder as the ordinary appearing bookstore turns into a magical study by stepping inside. A swirl of objects levitated by green magic travel across the room, sorting and containing themselves without being touched.

“Seklos and Gaylen. What is making them move?” Krel reaches out and touches a book, trying to hold onto it with one hand before it is whisked away from his touch.

“Put that down.”

In his moment of distracted wonder, Krel alongside the others, hadn’t noticed Merlin step into view. Toby let’s go of the strange orb in the corner of Krel’s eye.

“Thank the ether you’re here. We haven’t a moment to waste.”

“Woah! Crusty, creepy dude!”

“I believe the term is ‘geezer’.” Krel attempts to correct Steve, still wondering how Aja likes him.

Their attention snaps back to Merlin. “I had hoped for more Hisirdoux.”

“I tried!” Douxie threw his hands out in defense. “I couldn’t find the Changelings or the other Aliens!”

“Akiridions.” Steve and Krel correct Douxie immediately.

Krel steps forwards. “My sister is unavailable, being a royal on Akiridion-5.” He crosses his arms in annoyance.

As Toby and Steve loudly announce themselves to Merlin, Douxie switches from watching them making fools of themselves, Krel waiting patiently to get some answers, and the objects Merlin appeared to be packing.

“I have no idea who you are,” Merlin brushes Steve away, Douxie and Krel flinch as the flying chest hits him. “But we’re desperate. Thankfully we have the brute.”

Eyes turn to AAARRRGGHH, who is currently taste testing Archie, and being met with the instant consequences. Douxie is familiar with the pain of being scratched by Archie.

“Wait, where’s Jimbo and Claire? I thought they were with you.” Toby questions, acknowledging his friends should be there.

“Answers forthcoming.” Merlin hastily answers. “Make preparations, we’ve a journey ahead of us. And don’t-“ he turns directly at Douxie.

“But master!”

“-but master me.” Merlin turns back to his things.

“But are you sure you want to entrust things to these-“ he gestures to the four, “these children?”

“Hey!” Krel interrupts. “I am no child.”

“Next to me? You are.” Douxie shoots a slight glare at Krel.

“Aren’t you in college?” Toby stops and questions.

“They clearly are not ready for this.” Douxie continues to protest.

It was Steve’s turn to add something. “Excuse me college dude, these /children/ fought a 50 foot extraterrestrial god, and won.”

Merlin sighs and Douxie follows him away from the display that Steve and Toby had caused.

“Master I am ready for this.” He pushes, looking for that small bit of validation.

He was shot down with one word. “Doubtful.”

“I’ve spent years studying, practicing-!”

“Silence!” Douxie quiets At Merlin’s command and Krel pauses in his exploration of the enchanted shop. Toby and Steve don’t seem to be capable of doing so until Merlin specifies all of them should be quiet. “Can you not hear that?”

Only after everyone shook their heads does a deep rumbling fill the void.

“Something wicked this way comes.” Merlin mutters.

Various noises fill the rooms and the team prepares for a battle, stances shift, weapons are revealed, and Merlin and Douxie grow tense as they watch the windows.

With an attack to the window, a crowd of Shadow Mephits comes to attention swarming the street.

“Shadow mephits? Hisirdoux did you lead them here?” An accusation Douxie immediately denies.

“I mean, I don’t think so?” He chuckles.

“Yes, we did.” Archie confirms.

“He found us,” Merlin mumbles. “The barrier won’t hold for long, we must make egress. Tobias! Take my things.” With a swoop of Merlin’s hand, his chest goes flying into Toby’s chest and carries him upwards.

The Shadow Mephits break through the barrier and Merlin calls for the others to get to safety, an order Douxie ignores and Krel hesitates before following.

“Hisirdoux, I said get to safety!” Merlin calls as he and Douxie go back to back, getting surrounded by the creatures.

“I’ve got this, I can help!” Douxie responds.

Krel can’t hear the rest of the conversation as he follows the others up to the roof where Shadow Mephits are being fought off by Toby and AAARRRGGHH. Krel joins them with his serrator, shooting as many as he can before Merlin and Douxie join them.

“Stay back.” The sounds of glass follows the warning and a glowing ship appears where the orb had shattered.

“Woah.”

“Great Seklos and Gaylen.”

“Ship just got real.”

“Get in!” Douxie calls and AAARRRGGHH starts throwing people inside, only jumping on himself once everyone else was aboard.

“What in Seklos’ name is going on?” Asks Krel as soon as Douxie blasts the Shadow Mephits off of AAARRRGGHH. Douxie, however is preoccupied watching the green knight below.

A volley of black and green shards hit the sides of the ship and causing everyone to duck or fall over. The ship zips away into the sky and the group takes a moment to breathe.

“I will only repeat myself once more, Cafe boy. What is going on?” Krel puts away his Serrator as the others are watching Camelot come into view.

“Everything will be explained soon young squire.” Merlin responds for Douxie.

“What the old man said, for now, we’re going home. Welcome to Camelot.” Douxie gazes at the floating towers he once called home.

“Cam-ee-lot?” Krel searches his memory of school for the word.

“Camelot, as in old people time Camelot?”

“With the king and the Excalibur sword?” Krel asks, remembering something from stories.

“Excuse me, how is this castle flying?” Steve yells as they get closer to the heart of Camelot.

“The heart of Camelot, fueled by time itself.” Merlin steps back from the side of the ship in order to steer them towards the top. “Sir Galahad, how are the skies?” He calls to a large man below them.

“All quiet, my old friend.” Comes the reply.

“Keep your eye on the horizon!” Merlin calls back as the ship circles down and starts speeding towards the entrance.

Archie tightens his hold on the ship. “Coming in a little hot, I’d say.”

The landing was rough but nobody was hurt, Steve cheers as he hops off of the ship and the group looks around as the walk deeper into Camelot.

“It’s been nine hundred years since I was last here, hasn’t changed a bit, except for the flying part.” Douxie says to Archie who perches on his shoulder.

Steve scoffs, “nine hundred years? Yeah right, you’re like nineteen.”

“Give or take a few centuries.” Archie lifts off a flies around the room.

Krel nods. “Appearances can be deceiving. Akiridions mature much slower than humans as well.”

“What? Aja isn’t as old as this guy, is she?”

Krel rolls his eyes, “Yes, Aja and I are 900 keltons old.” Steve looked about ready to faint. “Of course we aren’t that old! Time is a little different on Akiridion-5 but neither of us would be older than 50 earth years old, had we been born here. We live much longer than you humans so that makes us similar to earth’s teenagers.”

Steve still seemed ready to pass out.

“Toby!” Claire cries from across the room, running towards her friend.

“Blinky!”

AAARRRGGHH, Blinky, Claire, and Toby envelop each other in a group hug, ending when Claire insisted she needed to breathe.

“Krel!” The sorceress embraces the extraterrestrial being too. “Sorry, but I think the end of the world is going to postpone girl’s night.”

“Wait- girls night? Krel was invited but I wasn’t? He doesn’t even have a girlfriend!” Steve complains.

“Oh. Hi Steve.” Claire unenthusiastically waves at him. “Yes, Krel is invited because it’s fun talking about cute boys with him.”

“Uh, where’s Jim?” Toby interrupts, sure enough Jim wasn’t around to meet his friends. “And what happened to you guys?”

“About that...”

Blinky and Claire lead the group to a room where a semi-transparent crystal encases Jim, preserving his life by slowing the corruption infecting him.

Krel onlooks as Merlín explains what happened, and Claire voices her regrets. Never wishing that humans had cores like Akiridions more than he was in that moment.

“Who is this green knight? How do I get my hands on him?” Toby threatens.

“We should focus more on saving the Trollhunter rather than getting revenge,” Krel adds. “However, it would be good to know who we are up against.”

“I do not know. He said but one name that chilled me to the bone, Morgana.”

“Ooh I hate that witch. But we kicked her but to the shadow realm. Problem solved, everyone can go home.” Toby hastily spoke.

Douxie groans. “You saw what that knight did at the bookstore, even if he were looking for Morgana I don’t think it’s his sole purpose.”

“The knight did not seem aware of Morgana’s death, and he bore the emblem of Camelot.” Merlin ushered the group out into the open, leading them to another space. “Hurry, I fear the answers lie in the past.”

“Merlin, you are from Camelot, no? Shouldn’t you have an idea of who this could be?” Krel asked.

“A good point, but no. There were plenty of knights in Camelot but none that were green, or evil, or had any connection to Morgana that would follow them beyond the grave.” Douxie answered for his master, getting a strange look from Krel and Toby. “What? I was there too you know.”

“I still cannot believe you’re older than Nana.”

“Actually Hisirdoux, the Akiridion has a point. This dark menace is approaching, and all I know of it is that even I cannot face this alone.” Merlin opens the time map, “You are all now soldiers in a war started centuries ago, for the world of magic.”

The time map projects scenes from the past as Merlin continues. “Once the realms of magic and man clashed in endless bloodshed. King Arthur sought to wipe out magic that ravaged the lands in his war against Gunmar. I brought what few spellcasters I could under my protection to spare them from the sword.

“Including myself,” Douxie adds before the map showed a different figure. “Oh! And Morgana le Fay.”

“She was the finest student I ever taught.. until she tried to kill me.” Merlin sighed. “Thankfully, in my all seeing wisdom I created a secret weapon- the Trollhunter amulet. The war came to a standstill and I imprisoned Morgana at the battle of Killahed Bridge. This green knight that assailed us was clearly born of dark magicks but I have no memory of him, nor what connection he could have to Morgana. We know not what he is, not why he pursues us. Though, his presence is a dire omen of things to come.”

In the distance the bell starts ringing. A wave of magical ice hits the tower, knocking everyone down and freezing the exterior. Merlin gets up and grabs the time map as Claire calls out.

“What’s happening.”

“Have you never been under attack before? To the battlements!”

The wizards and trollhunters rush to defend and Krel takes a moment to reveal his Akiridion Royal self before joining them, leaving Steve to lag behind for a minute.

“What the-“

“Oh no. I think we have something of a problem.” Archie points out the obvious as the Arcane Order’s ship comes into view, carrying Bellroc and Skrael, as well as the green knight, inside.

“Oh fuzz buckets.”

“No, the Arcane Order, they found us. Everyone! Get to safety, now!” Merlin calls to the guardians as Skrael shoots a spell at the master wizard, who responds with a spell of his own before Skrael’s attack blasts his staff away from him.

“I got it!” Archie calls as he dives after it.

Krel watches as the dragon dives and misses the staff, leaping onto his hoverboard in an attempt to help, as well as avoid the various bombarding attacks from the Order.

“They’re boarding us!” Merlin calls from above. “We must break free, steer us away at my command.”

“I’m on it!” Douxie responds before another shot of ice hits the castle.

Krel focuses on finding the staff, covering as much as he can while Archie gets a view from even higher up. “Find the staff or we’re dead meat!” Is all Krel has to hear before he starts blasting at the ice bridges with his Serrator, buying Archie more time to find Merlin’s staff.

“Got it!”

Krel joins the fray as Galahad sacrifices himself to destroy the bridges between Skrael and Merlin. He joins Claire, Steve, and Hisirdoux with his Serrator in hand in case they needed to be protected.

“We don’t have enough power for the jump!”

“Trust in Merlin.”

“Why would I trust someone I just met?”

“He’s a master wizard Krel. He must have a plan.” Douxie’s response got an eye roll from the Akiridion. “Fine then, trust in me.”

A rush of magic allows the time jump to be operational, Krel helping his friends as they steer the castle into the rift.

Krel notices as the Green Knight comes into view and as he, Bellroc, and Skrael fire their energy forwards, he activated his shield in case it was needed.

The magic struck the castle, sending Douxie, Claire, and Jim down immediately. Steve and Krel held on for as long as they could above, Krel almost being successful in pulling himself up at the sacrifice of his shielding serrator, but both fell as well.

“Jim!” Krel landed on top of the stone Steve was clutching onto as Jim fell into the portal below.

“What do we do?!”

“Trust me!” Douxie looks at Krel, who nods, then takes Claire’s hand.

“Wait! No no no!”

Douxie drops down, following Jim, and brings Claire with him. Krel grabs Steve by the shirt and does the same. Archie dives to follow them, but reaches it just as it closes.

Part two!

[yellowmagicalgirl]

Hey, how do you and other Krexie shippers work around the age gap? I mean, I ship Krexie and have my own headcanons, but I'm curious to see what others have done.

I feel like I answered this before several months ago, but I don’t feel like finding that post so I’ll answer again. The full answer to your question is a short essay (and that’s without including the footnotes) so I’m gonna put it under a cut. This is based upon my own experience in the fandom, and the krexie circles I frequent are the ones on FFN, AO3, and of course, here on tumblr. Abuse and grooming (in the context of real people) will be talked about below the cut.

TL;DR I’ve seen three main ways of dealing with the age gap: ignoring it, aging Krel up, and aging Douxie down.

Ignore It

This one actually encompasses two different methods. The first of the two is to treat one or both of the boys’ ages as nebulous, with the maturity level of “teenager” and nothing more explicit since Douxie is about nine centuries old and Akiridion royals live for centuries Krel’s exact age is unknown. In this case, the age of one or both of the boys won’t be mentioned aside from being hundereds of years old. In addition, at least on Douxie’s end, this is somewhat canon. Fun fact: Douxie never calls himself a college student, and neither does Archie. Likewise, neither of them call Douxie 19. That was Steve, who deserved far better of a character arc than just to be the idiot that he is in Wizards. However, even though he deserved better Steve is not a reliable source of information on Douxie’s age, but Douxie and Archie are. In Wizards, the only information Douxie and Archie give on Douxie’s age is that he’s about nine centuries old.[1]

The other method of ignoring the ages is to treat Douxie as a 19-year-old (ignoring the immortality) and Krel as a 16-year-old, and to mention one or both of their ages. Their ages are ignored due to one or both of the following reasons: for one, in real life a three year gap between teenagers doesn’t automatically mean the older person is a predator. It’s something to be cautious about, and the younger person really needs to have people they can trust since if the relationship does turn toxic they would have less power and thus be in more danger (usually, though it is possible for the younger person to be more dangerous to the older one), but that doesn’t automatically mean something bad will happen. The other reason to ignore the boys’ ages is because honestly? If someone needs non-canon ships to tell them which relationships are healthy and which ones are dangerous, then their parents/guardians and teachers have failed them. Fanfic authors, fanartists, and other people creating/consuming fanworks on the internet are not responsible for educating random people on the internet. In fact, they and their content are not responsible for if a random person is abused, even if the abuser uses fanworks to groom the victim. It’s the fault of the abuser for being abusive.[2]

Out of these two methods, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen more using the former method of ignoring than the age gap than the latter.

Age Krel Up

This, again, has two different methods. The more common method is to have Krel (and the other Arcadia Oaks High students) age naturally, until they’re at an age that the fanwork creator is more comfortable with having krexie at. These types of fanworks take place years after the events of Wizards. The other method is to create an au where Krel (and likely the other Arcadia Oaks High students) were already the age the fanwork creator is more comfortable with when Douxie and Krel first met. I, personally, have created a lot of content for the first method, and I’ve seen other people use this method as well. My fake marriage au utilizes the latter method, and this method would also work for au’s where Douxie and Krel are both adults when they meet but the au does not follow canon.

Age Douxie Down

This one also has a basis in canon, though I haven’t seen any other krexie shipper use this method of dealing with the age gap. I, personally, use this whenever I want to make krexie content that’s compliant with Trollhunters and 3Below but also do not want to deal wit backwards time travel because I hate backwards time travel. However, someone should write an au where Douxie and Krel are human high schoolers whose biggest problem is being gay for the guy attending your rival school.

Now, while Douxie and Archie gave Douxie the vague age of about 900 years old and Steve made the assumption that Douxie was a 19-year-old college student, Trollhunters actually went out of its way to show that Douxie was a high school student.

In season two episode 10, Mary reveals that she was dating a student from Arcadia Oaks Academy, and Eli remarked that that was their rival school. I was in high school when Trollhunters was airing, and let me tell you: high schools do not have rivalries with colleges. Arcadia Oaks Academy would have to be a high school, or maybe a k-12 or 6-12. However, it’s far more likely that Arcadia Oaks Academy is a high school with the same age range of students as Arcadia Oaks High. In season three episode 1, Mary excitedly tells Claire that a student from Arcadia Oaks Academy is at Arcadia Oaks High. This student is Douxie, and unless I’m remembering wrong he also mentions attending the Academy. Unless Mary knew all along that Douxie was a wizard and was trying to give him a cover story for why he was hanging out at Arcadia Oaks High only for this information about Mary to be cut from Wizards due to time constraints, there is absolutely no reason for Mary to lie about Douxie’s age to Claire. The fact that Douxie was considered to be a high schooler by most of the fandom (some people had been on the train of “he’s a centuries old adult” for a long time) is why the krexie fanworks created pre-Wizards are all treating Douxie like a high schooler. (Yes, people shipped krexie (or at least consumed/produced fanworks for the ship) before Wizards came out. I have my fic on AO3/FFN and other people’s comments to prove it, as well as some fanart saved to my blog. Sadly, some of the people are now antis, and one them has now harassed at least one krexie shipper.)

Personally, when I age Douxie down, I age him down to 17. Only 17. Not 17-plus-several-centuries-without-aging. In-universe he may try to call himself 1492 years old, but he’s really just 17. However, as I mentioned before, if I’m aging him down to 17 then I’m also completely ignoring the backwards time travel aspects of Wizards. And, by doing that, I end up really changing the lore of Wizards. If you would like more information for the timeline I use when I age Douxie down, please refer to this ask.

In Conclusion

Thank you for reading this. These footnotes aren’t nearly as on topic and are more of a ramble.

[1] Re: Douxie having a really vague age of nine centuries. If you take enough chemistry and physics (but in my experience especially chemistry) courses, you will have it drilled into your head that 900 years old could really be anywhere from 850 to 949 years old. So, while 919 is definitely possible in the age range given by the age of “about 900″, it’s really a give-or-take number. However, if we truly want to be accurate, then if we choose to have Trollhunters take place in the 2016-2017 school year, choose to have had the moppet been between 16 and 19 years old at the Battle of Killahead Bridge, and we consider that the late 12th century (aka the time period of Wizards... supposedly, considering that it is not historically accurate) to be the latter half of that century, then Douxie would have to be somewhere between 834 and 886 years old. If we want a 16-year-old moppet and for the 900 years to be an accurate case of rounding, then the Battle of Killahead Bridge would have needed to be in 1183 at the earliest, which is accurate for the description of late twelfth century. If Douxie were to really be 919 in 2017, then the Battle of Killahead Bridge would have needed to take place somewhere from 1114 to 1117, aka the early twelfth century.

[2] Re: the argument that fanwork creators are not responsible for if an abuser uses their content to groom a victim. When I was a kid, the big scare was that strangers would lure off innocent children with candy. We were told not to go anywhere with a stranger, even if they had candy (or puppies, kittens, etc.) I don’t know how many kids have been hurt by strangers promising candy, nor do I know if this is something kids are still being warned about, but I do know that there isn’t some campaign against candy companies for daring to sell candy that an abuser would use against kids. This is because, as horrible as children being hurt is, it’s not the fault of the candy companies. It’s the fault of the abuser. And likewise, it’s not the fault of a fanwork creator if someone else uses their content to harm others.

PS: A side note since we’re discussing ages. I’ve been in this fandom for years, specifically on tumblr, AO3, and FFN as well as one of the discords. It wasn’t until the krexie discourse started that I started seeing people start calling Krel 14. I had seen people call him 15-16 in the past, because the fandom wasn’t sure if he and Aja were twins or had a minimum of a 9-month gap (assuming, of course, that Akiridions reproduce like humans do). That being said, before the discourse I never saw anyone treat Krel (or Aja, for that matter) like he had a canonical age. 14, however, seems to be something that stemmed from the wiki. You know, the same fan-run wiki that claims that Nomura’s full name is Zelda Nomura even though nowhere in the shows, books, games, or graphic novels is she ever called by that name. Yeah, the Arcadia Oaks-Pedia is not a reputable source. I’m going to give the wiki editors the benefit of Hanlon’s razor and hope that they were just going “well, since Krel is Aja’s younger brother and we’re assuming she’s 15-16 years old like the rest of the protagonists he must be 14-15 years old” and it was only after that that antis took the idea of Krel being 14 as canon and then ran off with it to be cruel and cause chaos.