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tired-truffle · 3 years ago

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Můj Miláček

A Viktorxfem!reader fic

Chapter Word Count: 5.8k

Part 14/16

"You were born to rend galaxies from the sky so curl your hands into fists, and sharpen your nails. The next time a man tells you to smile show him bloodstained teeth." - the female of the species // I.s.

Warnings - Description of serious injuries This chapter is based off of The Night We Met by Lord Huron

Masterlist

As the haze of sleep lifted, you stirred and reached out for Sky's urn and notebook, but they were nowhere in sight. The emptiness of your bed felt like a tangible weight on your heart. The remnants of a restless night clung to you, dissipating slowly as you took in your surroundings. The sun had long since risen, casting warm rays through the windows and illuminating the room. Your body felt heavy and sluggish after hours of tossing and turning.

The events of the night before replayed in your mind, each detail etched into your memory. You couldn't help but feel guilty, thinking that if you had been quicker or stronger, you could have saved your friend. Her death must have been agonizing, and you could still hear her cries echoing in your ears. If only you could turn back time, you would have destroyed the Hexcore before it consumed her, even if it meant sacrificing your own well-being.

It still didn't feel real, that Sky was gone. You half-expected to hear her bright smile or her bubbly laugh, but all that greeted you was a stark and eerie silence.

With a heavy heart, you slowly rose from the bed and stretched your arms above your head. The clothes lying haphazardly on your nightstand caught your attention, and you pulled them over your tired body. As you dressed, thoughts of Sky flooded your mind, making it difficult to focus on anything else.

What do you do the day after your friend has died? Do you wallow in your grief in bed, or do you get up and distract yourself by attempting to go about your day? You chose the former, your magic already thrumming irritably in your veins and begging for release. You had to give it something to do, and while your hand still throbbed, the painkillers provided by the hospital had done their job well enough that it didn’t warrant any numbing via magic.

And if you went about your day, maybe you could pretend like Sky’s death never happened.

But all that greeted you was a stark and eerie silence. You made your way through the familiar halls of the Academy, past the workshops and testing chambers you had visited so many times before. But today, a gloomy pall hung over it all. The usual chatter of students was absent. Your footsteps echoed down the empty corridors as you searched for any signs of life.

The lab was no better, just as empty as the rest of the building.

Where was everyone? Had Viktor and Jayce locked themselves away to grapple with the implications of the Hexcore's devastating power? You pictured Viktor immersed in his work, tinkering obsessively to distract himself from the guilt and grief. Jayce was likely doing the same, or arguing with Viktor over the ethics of pushing their research further. Had he told Jayce about Sky? You both hadn’t spoken about how you wanted to address her death, but then there hadn’t been much talking at all last night. You didn't know which possibility unsettled you more.

You paused warily as you eyed the Hexcore. The swirling arcane energies within glowed fiercely, casting erratic shadows along the walls. Your own magic stirred restlessly, responding to the orb's agitated thrumming. You took a deep breath, trying to steady your power before it could lash out unconsciously. It spit and crackled at you, warning you to keep your distance. You decided to listen this time.

Why had you been the one chosen to leave your home world and come here? It seemed that your efforts thus far had yielded little good. The ethereal voice from the strange blue void had promised that you held the key to saving them, but you were still unsure of how to unlock it.

It appeared that when you gained more magic you had more visions, though they hadn't exactly been useful so far. You glanced toward a spare Gemstone, wondering how many more it would take to unlock visions that could truly aid you, maybe ones you could even use.

Frustration swirled and boiled in your chest, bubbling like a cauldron of anger. Why couldn't you just do something, anything, useful for once in your cursed existence? Why did you have to stand by and watch the people you care about die? Was there truly nothing you could do to save them without putting the entire city of Piltover in danger?

It was then that it hit you, like a stone sinking in your gut; a memory, one from your world. But it was fragmented and hazy, lacking any clear details to place you in a specific location. However, the scene on the screen before you consumed all of your attention. Jayce and Viktor stood in the Council room, their faces fraught with tension as they spoke; though their words were muffled and inaudible to you. Your heart raced not because of their serious demeanour, but because of the massive bomb hurtling toward them. The sound of shattering glass filled your ears as Councillor Medarda turned to look over her shoulder, her golden jewelry glinting in the light. Panic surged through your body at the sight, chilling you to your core.

And then it hit you with a horrifying realization - this event was going to happen today, and very soon. The weight of this knowledge bore down on you like a dark storm cloud, threatening to unleash its fury at any moment. Time seemed to slow down as you grappled with the implications of what you had just remembered, desperately searching for a way to prevent it from coming true.

You were about to race out of the lab when you realized that you were not strong enough to stop a bomb. If you got there with enough time then you'd be able to get everyone out safely, but if you weren't…you couldn't take that chance.

With careful movements, you used a stray rag to push three Gemstones into the pocket of your pants. And then you were off,

adrenaline pumping through your veins as you used your magic to propel you even faster. You stole glances out the windows as you ran, scanning the sky for any sign of the impending bomb. The world around you seemed to blur together in a haze of fear and urgency, but there was no sign of the dreaded weapon. If that bomb was launched, there would only be mere seconds before everything - and everyone - you held dear would be lost forever.

With each step towards the towering doors of the Council chambers, the Enforcers' tense gazes followed you, their hands tightly gripping their weapons. Your eyes darted to the window one last time, your heart sinking into your stomach as you saw the smoking trail of a bomb hurtling toward the building. Panic and fear gripped your chest like an icy hand had grabbed hold of your ribcage. The fate of the council and possibly the entire city rested on your actions in the next few moments.

"Halt!" One of the Enforcers yelled, his sandy blonde hair cut close to his head, brandishing his weapon. "The Council is in an urgent private session. You may not enter."

There was no time left to plead with them, to try and persuade the guards to let you inside. Without hesitation, you thrust out your hands, channelling your magic to create an impenetrable wall in front of the guards - much like you had done with Heimerdinger only a few days ago. Their startled expressions bought you a few precious seconds to slip past them and reach the Council Chamber doors. You burst into the room, pushing open the heavy doors as you breathed heavily, winded from your run. The scent of cool metal and parchment filled your nose as you stood before the Council, all eyes turning to you.

"Mila, what are you doing here?" Jayce snapped at you like a whip, full of outrage. You didn't even have to look at him to know that he had pushed himself up into a standing position, ready to confront you. But your attention was focused on the bomb that racing towards the chamber, only seconds away from smashing through the window. With a swift and determined step, you sprang into action.

You reached into your pocket, feeling the weight of the Gemstones in your hand. A rush of energy flooded your body as the Gemstones dissolved into light, filling your veins with their power. Your senses became hyperaware - you could hear every heartbeat in the room, and smell the anxiety pouring off the Council members.

The influx of magic was overwhelming. Your thoughts scattered as the intensity threatened to consume you. Gritting your teeth, you wrestled to regain control. Viktor's face flashed in your mind, steeling your resolve. With a cry, you pulled the wild magic into submission and bent it to your will. You were stronger than it, you were stronger than the pull of the Hexcore, you would not lose yourself to your magic. You felt your eyes blaze with a bright blue light as you focused on the Council.

You thrust your arms forward and spread them wide, using all of your magic and heightened emotions to forcefully propel the Council members away from the center of the room. With your last precious few seconds, you erected a shimmering barrier in front of them, sealing the Council safely away.

As you looked into Viktor's eyes, your heart ached with sorrow. Panic filled his wide gaze, and his lips parted in a silent cry as he reached out for you. You knew he understood what was about to happen, what you had already done. Your magic surged within you, uncontrollable and overwhelming. You had gathered enough of it to save those around you, but it was unstable and focused solely on them. In your desperation to protect everyone else, you hadn't been able to find a way to shield yourself from harm as well.

You’d wondered for years if Viktor would ever feel for you as you did for him, and all that time you’d thought there would be a chance to find out once you’d successfully figured out how to cure him. That you would die before him - that you’d never get the chance to tell him that you loved him the way the moon loved the sun - was something you’d never considered.

The roar of the explosion drowned out Viktor's anguished cry. You kept your eyes locked on his, even as the concussive force of the blast barreled towards you.

In Viktor's gaze, you saw your own fate reflected. Saw the dawning grief and horror that you would not escape this unscathed. His arm dropped, shoulders slumping in defeat. You wished you could wipe the creases from his brow, soothe the worry from his mind. Your dear Viktor, always trying to save everyone. Always shouldering the weight of the world.

Your life did not flash before your eyes, but Viktor did. Viktor staying up all night in the lab, hair mussed, shirtsleeves rolled up. Viktor frowning in concentration as he tweaked some new invention. Viktor's soft smile when you brought him tea and snacks to keep him going. A hundred stolen moments of connection that hinted at deeper possibilities. Possibilities that would now never come to pass.

In the split second before the blast wave hit, Viktor's face transformed. The grief gave way to revelation. A bittersweet understanding passed between you. You had both wasted so much time pretending your connection was nothing more than a deep friendship. Yet somehow, you had always known the truth that lived in glances, light brushes and smiles shared.

Viktor loved you as you loved him and you wanted to scream and claw at the unfairness of it all. Maybe if you'd had more time you could have told him, more teachings in the ways of magic, but you didn't. By protecting the others, you left nothing to cover yourself.

You turned to the side, trying desperately to shield yourself from the impending explosion. A deafening boom echoed through the Council chamber as a blinding flash of blue light engulfed you, searing your skin and tossing you back like a rag doll. Sharp shards of shrapnel sliced into your body, agony shredding through you and leaving you unable to move. You were certain you had cried out, but the sound was drowned out by the thunderous roar of the bomb hurtling towards you. Your vision blurred and faded as something hard collided with your skull, sending you swiftly into unconsciousness. As darkness consumed your mind, your last fleeting thoughts were of Viktor's safety, hoping that your sacrifice had been enough to protect him from harm.

"Are you sure about this Viktor?" You could hardly understand the words being spoken over you, your body jostling, excruciating pain flaring through you, as whoever was holding you ran. "How do you know you can trust him?"

"There is no other choice, Jayce, Piltover does not have the medicine she needs. I am not willing to do nothing when there are other options, as much as you disagree." The familiar cadence of Viktor’s voice washed over you, soothing your frayed nerves. The gentle lilt of his accent promised safety and protection. You knew you could trust Viktor with your life. And you had no choice as the darkness once again enthralled your mind, pulling you down into its murky depths.

Panic and agony overloaded your senses with a searing heat that felt like an inferno raging through you. Every nerve was alight with pain, as if you had been beaten and then set ablaze. Your veins pulsed and throbbed with molten lava, and your head was filled with a swarm of bees, their buzzing growing louder and more chaotic by the second. And in the midst of it all, your magic crackled and surged beneath your flesh like bolts of electricity, ready to erupt at any moment.

"You didn't tell me she's a mage!" A voice hissed from above you.

"What does it matter?" Viktor argued, ending his sentence with a grating cough.

"She's unstable!"

You were drowning in a pool of your own blood, gasping for air that wasn't there.

"I do not care, just do it!"

A growl and the harsh stomp of boots on a stone floor. "Then get out of my way."

With no time to prepare, you felt a surge of energy pulsing through your body, like a roaring river breaking through a dam. The intense power flooded your senses, staggering and unfamiliar. It crashed against your system, causing you to writhe and thrash on the cold metal surface beneath you. A guttural scream erupted from your throat, tearing through the deafening buzz in your ears. The pain was unbearable, like a thousand knives stabbing into every inch of your body at once, each one twisted and jagged, leaving behind a trail of searing heat and aching bruises. You needed it to stop, the rush of power and agony devouring you entirely.

With a sudden burst of power, your back arched off the table as magic exploded from you, barreling out in all directions. It was wild and uncontrollable, just as Heimerdinger had warned.

In a state of panic, you shot up from where you were lying, gasping for air as your chest heaved with the force of your magic. Frantically, you tried to reign it back in, but it seemed to have a mind of its own now. Your thoughts were scattered and overburdened as your brain struggled to make sense of what had just happened.

The air was thick with dampness and the rank smell of decay, a sickly scent. Only faint, green luminescent lighting lit the vast cave, casting eerie shadows on the walls. In the center of the room stood a tank filled with a strange, pulsating creature, its movements hypnotic yet terrifying. Above you, a lone light bulb dangled precariously from the ceiling, its dim glow offering little comfort in this dark place. A sense of deja vu washed over you as you realized where you were - Singed's lab, so similar to your vision.

Against one wall hung a dirty mirror, reflecting your haggard appearance back at you. The sight made you wish you had kept your eyes closed, shielding yourself from this nightmare.

The word "gruesome" failed to capture the devastation that lay before you. The bomb had torn through your body with ruthless precision, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Your left side bore the brunt of the explosion, the skin on your leg charred and blackened from the searing heat. Tattered shreds of fabric clung to your upper body, revealing jagged wounds and gashes that marred your once soft skin. Your left arm and torso were riddled with so many injuries that they blended together, creating a map of pain and suffering. And as for your face, it now bore three long gashes, etched into your features like battle scars. The sight was enough to make anyone cringe in horror.

But that wasn't all.

Along with your injuries was what you now realized had caused that surge of power that felt like it was eating you from the inside out.

Shimmer travelled throughout your entire body, following the paths of your veins and illuminating them. Even your once bright and happy eyes had changed, mirroring the colour of the shimmering lines now running through you.

Lying on the ground beneath the warped mirror was Singed, his body slumped and unconscious. A mixture of guilt and disbelief washed over you - had…you done that? You were alive, but at what cost?

What had you become?

"You are…okay."

You weren't sure if 'okay' was the right word, 'on fire' or 'filled with nails' seemed to be a more accurate choice.

Your head whipped towards the source of the voice, a gasp pulled from your lips as you saw Viktor slumped over on a bench only a few feet away. Your heart clenched at the sight, and you rushed to get off the blood-covered table, stumbling as your legs adjusted to standing once again. You knelt in front of him, your hands trembling as they reached out instinctively, fueled by your magic. But even in your heightened state, you knew it was too late. Death had already taken its claim on his soul.

As you looked into his pain-stricken eyes, tears welled up in your own. This couldn't be happening. Despite the six powerful Gemstones and shimmering magic at your disposal, you were unable to heal him. The weight of failure pressed down on your shoulders, heavy and suffocating. Your heart ached with the realization that all your efforts would not be enough to save him. The room echoed with the sound of laboured breaths as if even the walls knew the gravity of the situation. You clutched onto his hand, desperate for any sign of life, but all you felt was coldness seeping through your fingertips. How could this be happening? You were supposed to be able to fix anything with your powers, yet here you were, helpless and defeated.

"But you won't be," you sobbed, cupping his cheek with your shaking hand. Or was it your vision that was shaking? You couldn’t tell.

"I already knew that," he said it like it was no big deal when to you it was the most earth-shattering sentence he had ever uttered. "But I could not allow you to go down with me, Miláček."

You leaned forward, resting your forehead against his as you shook your head in disbelief. This wasn't how it was supposed to go - you had found a way to heal Viktor with the Hexcore, but time had run out and Sky… Frustration and regret washed over you, you’d been so close to success with Viktor, but it had all come crashing down around you.

"Please don't leave me, I can't do this without you." Tears streamed down your face as you begged him to stay, your voice trembling with desperation. You couldn't bear the thought of facing the world without Viktor by your side. How could you possibly continue on without him? The weight of his absence already felt too heavy to bear. Memories flooded your mind, each one a reminder of how much he meant to you. From his infectious laugh to his small but genuine grin, he had been a constant source of comfort and happiness.

Your grief would consume you, and then you would be unleashed upon the world - a blight that took and took in a vain attempt to heal the hole he would leave. Could you stop yourself from losing yourself to your emotions without Viktor to ground you?

Viktor's breath was warm on your lips, sharp with the smell of blood. Whether it was yours or his you couldn't tell. "You're stronger than you give yourself credit for."

"I don't want this life without you, Viktor. I only ever wanted you." There were too many conflicting feelings swirling in your throat, your eyes stinging with tears as they fell onto Viktor's lap.

"You have me.” The sheer adoration in his voice pulled another sob from behind your gritted teeth. “You've always had me."

With unsteady hands, you traced the sharp lines of Viktor's face, your fingertips brushing along his jaw. His eyes, once so bright, now struggled to meet your gaze.

You leaned in closer, your nose brushing against his. Viktor's breath was shallow and quick against your cheek.

"Stay with me," you whispered, tears slipping down your face. "Just a little longer."

Giving him no time to deny your request, you tilted your chin, pressing your lips to his. The kiss was desperate, fueled by a frantic need to be as close as possible in what little time remained. Your lips moved against his with fervent urgency, trying to make up for all the time you wouldn’t have.

Viktor responded immediately, his hand coming up to cradle the back of your head as he returned the kiss with equal passion. His lips were cracked and dry but you didn't care, focusing only on the way they slanted over yours again and again. You could taste blood, sharp and metallic, but still, you kissed him deeply.

Your hands gripped his shoulders, fingertips digging in as if you could somehow keep him there through sheer force of will. Viktor's other hand found your waist, pulling you against him, your legs straddling his until no space remained between your battered bodies. You could feel his rapid heartbeat thudding in time with your own.

The world fell away and there was only the slide of lips, the mingled scent of blood and ash, the feel of Viktor's skin beneath your palms. You tried to convey everything you felt for him, every secret yearning and whispered hope.

When you finally broke apart, gasping for air, the taste of him lingered. Viktor's eyes found yours, beginning to droop yet full of sorrow, regret, and most of all affection. His thumb gently stroked your cheek. His heartbeat slowed under your fingers and your heart shattered into infinitesimal pieces, lost somewhere among the rubble.

"Viktor, I love you." You held his head up in your hand as it lolled to the side. "Please don't go."

Viktor's lips quirked upwards, forming a weak smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. A soft chuckle reverberated from his chest into yours as he spoke, his voice honeyed and caressing. "Můj Miláček…my darling, I would never leave you."

Your breath caught in your throat as his eyes rolled back and he slumped forward, his head resting on your shoulder. For a heartbeat, the world seemed to freeze - the crackling or your magic muted, the drip of a leak against the cave walls silenced. There was only you and the man you loved, now silent and still against your chest.

A wrenching sob clawed its way free as the reality crashed down upon you. Viktor was gone. The brilliance of his mind, the gentle compassion of his spirit...lost. You clung to him tighter, as if the force of your hold could call him back.

"No, no, no," you wept, rocking back and forth. "Please, Viktor, please."

But his eyes remained closed, his chest terrifyingly motionless. The heart that had beat in time with yours only moments before was quiet. With trembling fingers, you brushed a lock of dark hair back from his forehead. Even in death, his angular features held an elegance, like a marble statue of some tragic prince.

"Viktor, please, come back to me," you cried, the familiar words shattering your heart as you realized that from the first moment you’d met him, this was where fate had decided it would end. No matter what you did, Viktor was bound to die, saving you.

Inside, you felt as though a black hole had opened within your very soul, threatening to swallow you whole. Viktor had been your anchor, your guiding light, had showed you compassion when you had feared no one would. Without him, you were adrift in a crushing sea of despair.

You had failed him. Failed to protect the one person who mattered most.

The sound of your grief reverberated against the cold, stone walls as you let out a primal scream. Your magic surged through you, wild and uncontrollable, as you lost all sense of rationality. Without Viktor, you were descending into darkness. As your magic raged on, tearing at your insides, you suddenly became aware of a faint heartbeat coming from Viktor's chest. It was feeble and struggling, a desperate cry for help. You couldn't let him die, not when there was still a glimmer of life left in him.

"No," you spat, a grimace contorting your features as you stood up on shaky legs. Your hands lit with blue and purple flames, spreading down your body and over the uneven ground until they surrounded you. "I can stop this, I just need more power."

Searing pain ripped through your body, but you remained focused. Your magic surged around you, lifting you off the ground as you threw your hand out, palm burning and turned upwards. Fiery tendrils swirled and danced around you as you spoke in a multi-tone voice. The language was unfamiliar to you, but it felt ancient and powerful as it rolled off your tongue. It ignited something primal within you as you called upon the one thing that could save Viktor; the Hexcore. You could feel it pulsing in response to your call, its power coursing through your veins like wildfire.

With a shrill scream that made blood leak from your ears, unleashing a blazing eruption of purple flames that licked at your already burnt flesh and left a smoky trail behind. The intense heat radiating from the core made your skin tingle and beads of sweat formed on your forehead.

"Stop this!" it hissed. "You cannot control us! You cannot take what we rightfully earned." Rightfully earned? It had stolen so much from you, it was time to bring it to justice.

"This is for Sky," you growled, bringing your palm up to catch the orb in a strong grip.

As soon as you connected with the Hexcore, your breath was stolen from your lungs, the power shooting through you, awakening strength you never knew you could possess. The orb shrivelled in your palm, shrieking as its life force was sucked out. Shapes you couldn’t identify were burned into your skin, hissing irritably, the smell of burnt flesh overwhelming. Your head was thrown back, your mouth open in a silent cry as you struggled to manage the influx of magic. It was more than you'd ever absorbed, you feared it was going to be too much, but you had to do it. You had to save Viktor.

"It's going to be okay," a soft voice said, someone you hadn't expected to hear ever again. You whimpered, your heart unable to break any further as you got to hear Sky one last time. "Let me guide you."

The intense, burning pain began to dull as a comforting warmth flooded your mind. It was a sensation you knew all too well – the familiar embrace of someone dear. A giggle, sweet and light, echoed in your ears and tears spilled from your eyes. You wished with all your heart that you could have saved her too.

"You've set me free from the Hexcore, I'm no longer bound in its suffering. Thank you, Mila," Sky's voice whispered, calming your chaotic thoughts. "Now go save our genius."

With a dull thud, your body hit the ground, still trembling from the rush of energy that had coursed through you. The Hexcore had been absorbed, thanks to Sky, but you were struggling to contain its immense power. Every cell in your body felt electrified, as if a lightning storm was raging within you. With each breath, you could feel the surge of magic pulsing through your veins.

A haunting laugh echoed from your right, followed by a blood-curdling scream and an anguished cry. Your head swivelled, disoriented, as you tried to make sense of what you were seeing. Multiples of you flitted about the cave, each one engulfed by a different but no less intense emotion. Some were crying, some were yelling, and others seemed to be cackling with a twisted sense of glee. The reflections of yourself filled you with terror, but what was even more unsettling was your own lack of care. All feelings had drained from you, except for one; a fervent and all-consuming rage. It was as if the cave itself was amplifying and reflecting your anger back at you, making it impossible to escape or ignore.

You could feel the power coursing through you, waking up parts of yourself you hadn't known existed; dark parts and memories of a life long forgotten. The images of your past life on Earth flashed before your eyes, filling in all the gaps in your knowledge. Finally, you had found the key - the Hexcore, unlocking a part of your brain that had been dormant for far too long.

You had listened to Heimerdinger, his warnings of your uncontrollable magic had kept you away from the Hexcore. But now that you’d gotten a taste…you should have punted that old bag of fur to the curb years ago and taken the power that was rightfully yours. The power that now threatened to overwhelm you and consume you in its desperate attempt to destroy.

"Burn it to the ground," a version of you said, spit flying out of her mouth as she stumbled to the ground, breathing raggedly.

"Destroy this world for what it took from you," said another, her body shaking with fury.

You stood up from your crouched position and gazed down at Viktor's lifeless face. No, that was not what you had to set out to do. You never wanted to inflict suffering upon others, and you were not about to start now. You wanted to save him, to ease his pain and bring him back from the brink of darkness.

With a fierce tug, you tore open his shirt and gasped as your hands made contact with his chest. An intense energy surged through your fingertips and into him, a brilliant shade of purple illuminating the space around you. The sensation felt like fire coursing through your veins, searing your mind with its intensity. Despite the burning pain, you refused to let go, your grip growing stronger as metal began to materialize under your touch, mirroring that of his leg and hand. Your body trembled as you pushed yourself to the brink of exhaustion, the metal creeping up his throat and the side of his head, ending just below his ears. With great effort, you finally pulled away, unable to bear the strain any longer. Your magic, though powerful, seemed to resist being used for healing purposes and instead desired destruction.

With a desperate squeeze of your eyes, you tried to shake off the haunting images around you. But they only grew louder, like a deafening cacophony invading your mind. The harsh light from above casting shadows against the walls, making the figures seem even more menacing. You could feel their icy breath on your neck, and hear their whispered threats in your ear. No matter how hard you tried to escape them, they loomed ever closer, suffocating you with their presence.

"You have failed," they said in unison, their voices bouncing off the cave walls. "You couldn't save him, everyone abandoned him. Let us out, let us wreak the havoc they deserve for what they have done."

As you turned to look at Viktor, a wave of panic crashed over you, settling in like a second skin. Your vision blurred, making it difficult to see clearly. You strained to focus on Viktor's still form, desperately searching for any sign of life. Your breath caught in your throat as you thought you saw his chest slowly rising and falling, but you couldn't be sure. Was it real or just a figment of your wretched imagination?

"Stop it!" you wept, pulling at your hair, the voices pounding on your skull like a brass knocker on a hollow wooden door. "Leave me alone!"

"We can't," a voice said to your left. "We are you."

Tears streamed down your face as sobs wracked your body. The emotions were too much to contain, and you felt like you were about to burst. A powerful energy built up in your chest, threatening to consume everything in its path. Heimerdinger's words rang in your mind - Motus Mages had been known to decimate entire cities with their magic. And now, with your uncontrollable power, you realized that nothing in Piltover could withstand your might. You should have heeded his warnings, but it was too late now. Even if you’d managed to save Viktor from the brink of death, he wouldn't survive whatever was about to happen to you.

In a moment of overwhelming despair, you fell to your knees. Your gaze lifted towards the ceiling as your trembling hands clutched at your chest, trying to hold yourself together. Tears streamed down your flushed cheeks, leaving glistening tracks in their wake. "Someone…anyone, please help me.”

Like an answer to a prayer you had expected to go unheard, a brilliant blue vortex appeared beneath you, catching you off guard. You cast one final glance at Viktor, his unmoving body glinting with magical energy emanating from his metallic chest. With a heavy heart, you fell into the swirling void below, the floor disappearing from beneath your feet. The electric blue abyss enveloped you, transporting you back into a realm you hadn't visited in seven long years.

A/N: I promise this story still ends with Viktor and the Reader happy, you'll be getting answers next Chapter as an apology 😬

Please check out @sunofzaun amazing artwork for this chapter

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Tag list: @im-just-a-simp-le-whore

#hurt/comfort #viktor x reader #viktor x y/n #viktor x you #jayce talis #sky arcane #arcane fic #slow burn #angst with a happy ending #reader insert #arcane #heimerdinger #viktor arcane #Spotify

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rikalovesrice · 3 years ago

Text

Trollhunters : Rise of The Titans [Rika’s Version!]

AIGHT SO THIS IS WHAT SHOULD’VE FREAKIN’ HAPPENED --

The movie starts a year after Wizards. We see Douxie, Archie, and Nari all settled in Metro City. Douxie managed to get a dinky little apartment and works two jobs. He comes home after a long day to Nari and Archie.

Maybe Nari’s running around chasing after Archie. Maybe the two of them are curled up on the couch and snoozing. Douxie smiles softly, petting Archie’s head and gently brushes Nari’s hair out of her face. Maybe Nari was singing to one of her plants and just beams when Douxie walks through the door. Just Magical Siblings and Their Therapy Cat fluff.

But that night, Douxie wakes up. Something feels very, very wrong. Nari feels it, too.

Cut to the door to their apartment being busted right through, flames quickly consuming the threshold. To Douxie’s horror, it’s the Arcane Order and he immediately goes on the offensive. This is the first display in the movie of Douxie’s strength as a Master Wizard, his proficiency and skill with his magic as he holds his own against Bellroc and Skrael as he did in Wizards. He tells Archie to take Nari and run but neither of them want to leave him behind. Archie instead fights beside Douxie, urging for Nari to escape while she can. Nari’s reluctant because Douxie and Archie have become so precious to her.

When it looks like they’re about to be done in, Archie wills himself to transform into a huge dragon, taking Douxie and Nari into his claws and flying out of there, busting straight out of the apartment. But not before giving Bellroc and Skrael a thrashing with his tail. They manage to give the Order the slip. For now.

Archie quickly loses steam from holding such a form and crashes on the outskirts of the city, transforming back into a cat. Douxie cradles him in his arms. Nari tends to their wounds with her magic, looking forlorn.

Douxie frantically dials a number on his phone.

“Claire? Claire it’s me...” A column of fire erupts in the distance. A shot of Douxie, Archie, and Nari huddled close. “They found us.”

Trollhunters : Rise of the Titans Title Screen

The scene fades in on the new and improved Camelot, where the Lakes are staying. We see Jim spending time with his mother and Walter and it’s lovely. We see a hint of Jim’s trauma when he’s cooking and looks at his reflection in a spatula. He flinches away. He doesn’t want to look at himself. Barbara comforts him, a tender heartfelt moment between them.

Claire then emerges from a shadow portal with grim news : The Arcane Order have found Douxie and Nari.

Jim gathers his friends. Claire shadow portals them all to Douxie, who’s found shelter in a hut Nari made from tree roots. Douxie’s cast a barrier to hide their presence, though it won’t last long.

It’s a really sweet and awesome reunion. Douxie gives Claire and Steve big hugs. Nari bounds up to Toby and holds his hand. Jim, Krel, and Douxie have a “good to see you again, bro” moment between them. Aaarrgh licks his lips at the sight of Archie.

It’s here that Douxie gives the deets on what’s happened. As they begin to figure out a way to keep Nari safe and away from the Order, Nari suddenly says, “No.”

After almost losing Douxie and Archie, her new family, Nari decides enough is enough. She wants to face her corrupted siblings head-on. To not only protect the world, but her newfound friends.

Douxie understandably protests. But Nari, gentle but resolute, tells him she’s made up her mind. No more running.

And so, Douxie acquiesces.

Cue the sequence/fight scene on the train!

Nari realizes what Douxie’s doing when it’s too late. They switch bodies and Douxie’s taken away by the Order.

“Douxie, I’m so sorry...I couldn’t save her,” Claire laments.

Nari, in Douxie’s body, “N-no...No, I am fine. But Douxie...Douxie!”

Everyone’s like, “Oh no” but then oof, they all get arrested.

The police department scene! With Krel and the Blanks busting everyone out.

Now, we find ourselves back on Camelot where Jim’s being attended to by Walter and Barbara after waking up from a nightmare. Bellroc’s words torment him : “Without your Amulet, you are nothing but a frightened! Little!! BOY!!!”

Walter suggests Jim should lay low, let his friends handle things. Jim reaches a real low point here. Claire provides some comfort. Hand in hand, they make their way to the Round Table, where everyone’s licking their wounds.

Blinky explains to them that the Order wants to awaken the Titans and need all three members of the Order to do so. While everyone’s relieved that Nari’s safe, Douxie’s now in the Order’s clutches and they want to figure out a way to save him.

Nari, sad and grim, says that Douxie’s spell will eventually wear off.

“He is, as humans say, buying us time...”

Cut to Douxie (in Nari’s body) with the Order. Douxie doesn’t make a sound, not wanting to give anything away. They try the ritual and when it fails, Bellroc and Skrael quickly suspect foul play. They realize that Nari isn’t Nari and proceed to forcefully, painfully, undo Douxie’s spell.

Douxie wakes up, back in his own body. He’s swarmed by his friends, all overcome with relief that he’s alright, but it’s short-lived. The Order has Nari.

Douxie manages to recall where the Order took him. Before they head out, a downtrodden Jim says he should stay behind, going back to the bed chamber. Claire goes to talk to him, but Douxie stops her.

“Let’s give him some space,” Douxie says gently, though he looks just as concerned for Jim. “In the meantime,” he summons his staff, “we’ll hunt the Order down, put a stop to their schemes, and bring Nari home.”

Everyone heads to the warehouse-train track place (I forgot what it was called rip). Just then, Aja comes flying in, having been contacted by Krel. The Tarron siblings have a sweet, wholesome, long-awaited reunion. Also Staja and Creepslayerz reunited!

Aja cautions Steve about the whole seventh kiss-pregnancy thing and he quickly decides that, yeah no, he’s not quite ready for that. His Alien Queen Muffin (or whatever the heck he called her) is back and that’s all that matters to him. Also wtf Eli’s hot and taller than him now.

There’s a cute moment of Douxie and Aja really meeting for the first time. Aja recognizes him.

“Oh! You were the hand-reading waiter boy!”

Upon hearing she’s a Queen, Douxie’s Medieval chivalry kicks in and he bows at the waist.

“The name’s Hisirdoux, Your Majesty.” After Aja butchers his name, he says “Douxie” will do just fine.

Nomura abruptly reminds them they don’t have time for pleasantries. They get to it. Douxie figures out the sigil and the illusion fades, revealing the Order performing their ritual with a brainwashed Nari. They’re unable to stop it and the Order members teleport away to join with their respective Titans. We see each of the Titans rising.

The Arcadia Gang regroups back on Camelot to form a plan. Jim, discouraged and deeply troubled, is leaning over a rail, head in his hands. Douxie comes up beside him, silent.

Jim eventually asks how things went. When Douxie tells him they failed and the Titans have risen, Jim feels even more powerless and guilt-ridden.

“I’m sorry...I’m sorry, I couldn’t...I can’t do anything. Without the Amulet I’m not the Trollhunter anymore and I’m just...useless--”

Douxie cuts him off, putting a hand on Jim’s shoulder.

“Jim. That’s not true. Do you remember what I told you? That our strength doesn’t come from special trinkets. Our strength...” Douxie finally gets Jim to look at him, “comes from our friends. From each other. All of us together. That includes you.”

“But...without my Amulet how can I do anything--”

Douxie smiles gently. “By being true to yourself, Jim. As we, your friends, are true to you.”

Just then, Claire joins them and asks if Jim’s okay. Jim smiles as Douxie ruffles his hair.

“I will be. Thanks.”

Jim, Claire, and Douxie find everyone arguing at the Round Table. Aja is wanting to evacuate everyone off of Earth, to which Blinky protests. Everyone just keeps going back and forth until Jim yells for them to stop.

Time to divide and conquer, cutting back and forth between each battle with the Titans.

Aja, Krel, Steve, and Eli tackle the Fire Titan.

Blinky, Toby, and Nomura handle the Ice Titan, with Walter and Barbara steering Camelot.

Jim, Claire, Douxie, and Aaarrgh go for the Earth Titan. Douxie’s hoping to get through to Nari and break her free from the Order’s control.

Aja and Krel fight the Fire Titan side by side on their hoverboard. Steve and Eli help civilians off the bridge and keep them safe.

Varvatos Vex in his giant robo mech incoming, along with a handful of Akiridion warships.

The Fire Titan proves to be too powerful and defeats Varvatos’ robot, melting down the Akiridion troops in the process. Aja and Krel are knocked down from their hoverboard. They and Varvatos retreat as the Fire Titan continues to burn a path towards its destination.

Toby and Nomura attempt to zipline their way to the Ice Titan to take down Skrael with Akiridion bombs. When the rope fails, Walter extends his wings to save them, but his wings quickly freeze.

Nomura grabs the bombs and sacrifices herself, bidding a heartwrenching farewell to Toby and her longtime friend, thanking them both. She asks Toby to tell Jim she said goodbye. Ever agile, Nomura scales the Ice Titan and detonates the bombs.

But to everyone’s horror, the Ice Titan only puts itself back together. Walter sinks to his knees. Toby throws down his helmet. Their friend sacrificed herself for nothing.

Aaarrgh is charging after the Earth Titan, Douxie, Jim, and Claire hanging onto his back. Claire shadow portals the three of them onto the Titan’s back. Douxie begins to plead with Nari, even as she constricts him with vines.

Douxie manages to grab her hand. He begins to break the mind-control with his magic, still calling out to Nari as he’s losing the ability to breathe.

Douxie’s voice reaches her and she breaks free. Nari frantically asks where she is, if she hurt him or his friends. Douxie, overcome with relief, just embraces her.

“You’re here with us, Nari...You’re here with us.”

Nari assures them they have a Titan on their side now. They receive communication from the Tarrons, who warn them that the Ice Titan is getting close to Arcadia.

No time to wonder why Skrael’s headed there. Claire makes a massive shadow portal to Arcadia (the field trip scene!), taking Nari’s Titan with them. Nari tries to reason with Skrael, but he’s having none of it.

NARI VS SKRAEL COMMENCE!

The Tarrons and Creepslayerz arrive on scene. Douxie boards Aja’s hoverboard and together they fire lazers and magic at the Ice Titan. Varvatos dashes and slashes his way up the Titan. Claire, Jim, Krel, Steve, and Eli work to rescue the school bus from getting crushed.

Well, it does get crushed but thankfully everyone made it off. Then, Archie comes flying in with his father, Charlemagne. Charlie flies all the students and Coach to safety. Archie joins Douxie in the air, blasting Skrael with fire.

“C’mon and face the music, Skrael!!!” Douxie summons Spellcaster and starts shredding.

Enraged, Skrael releases a devastating burst of magic that knocks Douxie, Aja, and Varvatos away. Nari seizes the opportunity to impale Skrael’s Titan, but not before Nari’s fatally wounded by him in return. Both Titans collapse.

Douxie runs to Nari, desperately calling her name. She’s on the ground, dying. Everyone gathers around, devastated. Douxie holds Nari in his arms. Archie nuzzles Nari’s arm, tears forming in his eyes. Douxie’s already crying.

“No..No, no, Nari, please...” Douxie holds her hand. “Nari, don’t go, please...!”

“It is okay, Douxie...Do not be sad...”

“I’m sorry...I’m sorry, I said I would protect you...” Douxie leans down, almost touching his forehead to hers (it’s Harry and Dobby y’all). His tears fall onto her face. “I said I would protect you...!”

“You did something greater, Douxie...” Nari squeezes his hand. Tears of her own roll down her cheeks. “You gave me a home. And many, many friends....” Douxie sobs harder, holding her close. “You saved me, Douxie...” She’s beginning to fade. She smiles, her eyes closing. “Thank you...Thank...”

Nari fades, wisps of magic and flower petals slipping through Douxie’s fingers. Douxie wails, Archie pressing close. Jim and Claire lay their hands on his shoulders. Claire hugs him.

Krel is then alerted that the Fire Titan is also on the move towards Arcadia.

Everyone reconvenes on Camelot. They all mourn the deaths of Nomura and Nari.

They learn that Bellroc is headed towards Arcadia, the center of the universe, because that’s where the last Heartstone is. If at least one Titan reaches the Heartstone, the world will be wiped clean.

Before they head out, Douxie and the Tarrons present Jim with a brand new Amulet, forged from magic and Akiridion technology. That, and the stone in which Excaliber lodged itself. Douxie encourages Jim to try once more.

Jim steps up on the stone, gazing fondly at his friends around him. They all place their hands on the stone in support. Jim pulls Excaliber from the stone. Everyone cheers for him.

Douxie’s seen texting someone.

FINAL SHOWDOWN IN ARCADIA

Bellroc is seen making their way towards the Heartstone. But what stands between them and the prize is the Guardians of Arcadia.

Charlemagne, Archie, and Walter soar above. Blinky and Aaarrgh lead an army of trolls. More Akiridion fleets arrive, Aja and Krel at the helm. Varvatos has a brand new robo, too.

Bellroc sneers at their defiance and summons an army of their own : hundreds of big rocky lava monsters.

BATTLE OF THE MOST EPIC OF PROPORTIONS IS A GO.

Trolls are punching, Akiridions are blasting, magicians are casting.

JIM SUITS UP WITH HIS NEW ARMOR AND EXCALIBER AND IS LIKE DON’T THINK BECOMIN’ FOR YA BELLROC FOR THE GOOD OF AAAAAAAALL

Douxie conjures up a spell to send that boy flying onto that Fire Titan.

Toby and Aaarrgh slam and hammer their way through fiery goons. Claire and Aja team up to take down the opposition, noting they should get lunch together sometime. Charlemagne tears through the enemies with his claws and wings. Krel and the Creepslayerz flail about and kick tail anyway.

Our heroes all cover one another and play off of each other’s strengths and it’s beautiful.

When Douxie’s about to get smothered by lava fists, there’s a flash of lightening and the monsters vaporize.

Douxie turns to see Zoe with a brigade of hedge wizards. Douxie’s immediately bowled over, smitten.

“About time you showed up...,” Douxie says, in a daze cause wow Zoe’s so pretty.

“Oh, you’ve got a lot of nerve --” Explosions. More lava monsters. Zoe sighs and pats Douxie’s cheek. “Ugh, focus, you big sap!”

The pair are unstoppable together, mowing down the lava monsters in powerful bursts of blue and pink.

DOUXIE’S EYES GO BLUE AND ZOE’S EYES GO PINK EPIC AVATAR STATE RINGS OF MAGIC AS THEY DECIMATE THEIR FOES WITH ROCK MUSIC BLARING YESSSS

And well, Douxie can’t help himself and gives Zoe a good long smooch after they’ve destroyed half of Bellroc’s army.

Toby in the distance : HOW LONG HAS THAT BEEN A THING?????

Archie just groans.

And meanwhile, Jim’s finally facing off with Bellroc. After having one of the most badass fights in the franchise, Jim comes out on top, skewering Bellroc in the stomach with Excaliber.

AND BOOM THEY DID IT GUYS EARTH IS SAVED.

....But not without great cost.

Toby’s been mortally wounded, crushed by the falling pieces of the Fire Titan. There’s the tearful, heartbreaking moment Jim has to say goodbye to his best friend, the one who was there with him through it all.

“We did it, Jimbo...We did it...”

Jim holds Toby in his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Claire holds Jim and weeps beside him. Aaarrgh is in hysterics but is calmed to pained whimpers by Blinky. The Arcadia Gang grieves, feeling the painful weight of losing the friends they held so dear....Nomura, Nari, and now Toby.

Time Skip/Montage

Douxie found a proper apartment in Arcadia. He keeps a potted plant with those distinct pink flowers, the flowers Nari loved, on his windowsill. Smiles softly at them every time.

Scenes of Mary with Darci as she mourns. Steve and Eli hanging out. Douxie and Krel jamming, Krel creating beats and Douxie riffing on his guitar. Aja and Claire going on that lunch date. Archie taking a nap on top of Aaarrgh. Walter playing classical music.

It’s taken a while, but Jim’s starting to feel a little bit better. Douxie, Krel, Steve, and Eli came over for some bro time. Seeing the pain in his eyes, Douxie gives Jim a hug.

The final scene is a picnic at everyone’s favorite spot in Arcadia with a single bench and an awesome view of the town.

Aja and Steve are cuddling. Krel and Eli play with a frisbee. Blinky, Aaarrgh, and Varvatos laugh around a table. Douxie and Zoe, holding hands, are having a lively chat with Claire. Jim serves up a huge plate of enchiladas.

Walter and Barbara announce their engagement. Everyone celebrates.

EMOTIONAL SPEECH VOICEOVER TIME.

Aja, Varvatos, and Eli depart back to Akiridion-5. Steve honks into a tissue. Krel pats him on the back as he waves to his sister.

Barbara kisses Jim on the forehead before going home with Walter.

Zoe kisses Douxie on the cheek and heads off.

Steve and Krel are the next to go.

Douxie, Archie around his shoulders, pulls both Jim and Claire into a hug before leaving.

Blinky gives Jim a hug. Aaarrgh nuzzle him, looking sad.

Jim and Claire hold hands and sit on the bench, gazing out at the town.

EMOTIONAL SPEECH VOICEOVER ENDS T_T

The End.

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arcane-nari · 3 years ago

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why are you trying to make nari evil she's the only good one in the arcane order?

(re: this post I’m assuming)

sorry anon you've unlocked my trap card. now i can draw infodumping from my hand and place it face up on the board

tl;dr: Nari isn't evil -- but neither is the arcane order. It's just that nari is the only one of the three who isn't okay with the suffering that would be caused by doing her job of maintaining the balance.

from what i can tell, the order's morality isn't Good or Evil in Tales of Arcadia: Wizards. (I do not see Rise of the Titans. I am not looking.) i've had this blog since wizards first came out, so my interpretation of nari is largely from there, with only some points here and there taken from Nari.

(aside: i feel so vindicated with how she acted in the police station. this bug is feral and i love her)

they're antagonists for sure, and they're rivals, but their morality isn't good. Instead, it's sort of more focussed on the good of the balance between magic and mortals and keeping that in check. there isn't much explanation as to what that means in canon, but I think it's sort of a chaos vs order thing -- too much of one and the world explodes. too much of the other and it's rendered inert.

before the battle of killahead, while each demigod has their own personality, they seem to be of the same mind when it comes to the end goal: protect the balance, no matter how many mortals get hurt along the way. (Mortals, in this case, meaning anyone who is not a primordial wizard.) It's a matter of good of the many (the balance) vs the goods of the few or the one (mortals).

Coupled with their duty to the balance, i have the interpretation that they're simply too disconnected from the world of mortals to understand what pain is -- skrael and bellroc moreso than nari, which i'll get to in a minute. But they're so powerful and ancient that it's easy for them to feel Apart from the mortals, because of how short their lives are and how small their magic is in comparison. Kind of like how most humans view squirrels -- they're creatures living their own lives and having their own drama, but, ultimately, we are far more advanced.

to continue the metaphor -- the world at the time of killahead is something along the lines of a tree that's overgrown the sidewalk and is causing problems, in my mind. Yes, squirrels have made their home in it, but it's causing too much trouble to the humans living in the area, so it has to be cut down. It's not done to cause direct harm to the squirrels. it's just that the action of cutting down the tree will cause direct or indirect harm to the squirrels.

(I've used this metaphor way too often with the order lol)

So they aren't remaking the world because they hate humans specifically. Most definitions of evil is someone who wants explicitly to do other's harm. In my mind, the order doesn't want explicitly to do people harm. They don't care about people. Well -- they don't like them, and perhaps they aren't happy about the amount of people who will die when they remake the world, but it's certainly more than justifiable in their mind considering the ends they're pursuing.

And that takes me to pain. Nari explicitly says she can sense all souls, but it's not clear whether she can sense their pain and suffering. Rather, she seems to be right on board with the order's methods all the way up until she sees Killahead directly. Once she sees the pain -- once it becomes real for her -- she can't dismiss it as a necessary evil that comes with keeping the balance in line. She can't depersonalize it or separate herself from it.

Sure, she's able to occasionally Look into the aether and see souls winking out here and there due to the destruction being caused, but it's different from seeing it up close. And she realizes what they're doing has real and tangible effects and she can't do her duty anymore. It's not that remaking the world is wrong. It's not that the demigods are misguided.

"It's not worth it."

Those are nari's words when she realizes what they've done. The cost is too high. They can't move forward.

I think, were this turned around and the order were to be shown as the protagonists, nari would be written to be a coward. It's all about doing your duty until you face the consequences of your actions, and you can't keep your word. Instead of trying to stop things, she runs. She hides. for nine centuries, she spends her life hidden in a castle away from the world.

We don't see what she does, but I think she learns. I think she asks questions and learns how people work, and how trolls work. I think, once she has the chance to be up close and personal to living people -- even if it's just galahad for the majority of the time -- she falls in love with them. it's hard not to. The way they change and grow and create. The idea of constellations is as much a wonder to her now as it had been the first time she heard about it.

And her desire to protect mortals grow with it. The more she learns, the more her heart becomes entangled with the very world she once wanted to remake. To hell with her orders and her duty -- she's doing what she thinks is right.

By hiding. By doing nothing. We see in Rott that it's probably the only thing for it, considering mind control, but i'm iffy on whether that's something that's canon for me or not. It feels a bit too convenient, considering we've seen such massive power on her end.

She's ancient, but she learns in a few short years what it means to have friends. Her love for humanity is what separates her from the order but, on an objective level, that doesn't make her good, or even Not Evil. Ultimately, it's a human thing to label her as good because her intentions align with protecting us, rather than protecting this vague, enigmatic concept of The Balance that we get so little understanding about. Maybe if we as an audience got more, we would understand why it mattered enough to destroy the entire world to repair it, but we don't, so it's easier to side with the tangible "protect humans at all costs" goal over the intangible "repair the balance at all costs" goal

And the order cares about each other. The way nari teases bellroc and skrael, the way bellroc snaps at skrael -- it feels like a band of siblings. It feels like a family. There's more to them than evil. (And rott did a disservice by trying to make them such. Even at the end, bellroc showed empathy. They could have killed jim when they were certain of their victory, but they told him to go to his family. There's a heart in there, however much it may be of blackened stone.)

(But that's another story entirely.)

There's stories about the fair folk that come to mind, with their strange morals and rules. A lot of stories paint these fairies as evil because their punishments seemed harsher than what humans would expect for certain infractions, while their games often included things that hurt humans. But it's not because they wanted to hurt humans directly. (Okay, a lot of them did, but many of them didn't). It's that what they consider good and bad is so far removed from humanity, because they are not and have never been human. They're simply existing alongside them in the same world.

In conclusion, the order isn't evil. But because their goals don't include the welfare of humans, it's easy to label them as such - and because nari's goals ultimately were protecting humanity, it's easy to label her as good. But the order themselves are too far removed from humanity for me, personally, to label them in terms of explicit morals.

Nari is kind. She is clever, and she's capable of learning, and she's curious. She is herself -- but if we call her good, that's on us, whatever comes of it. She may be capable of change, but she is only ever herself, whatever shape that takes

also veggie lady good character and i love her. grey morality and all.

#gOD I COULD GO ON FOREVER about how our morals are human centric siince we are humans after all but once u bring in demigods all bets are o #but it's almost 1 am i gotta go to bed thank u anon for this question !!!!!#ooc #ask #trollhunters #trollhunters: rise of the titans #rott #rott spoilers #nari #the arcane order #bellroc #skrael #meta #fact #text post #trollhunters meta

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yellowmagicalgirl · 3 years ago

Text

Reunions and Revelations

On their third day at Arcadia Oaks High, Aja and Krel have their memories of the previous timeline restored. Krel is insistent upon seeing Douxie again, and Aja is a little confused. After all, even though they were friends she didn’t think they were that close.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Tales of Arcadia franchise. If I did, Rise of the Titans would be extremely different.

Have I seen the movie? No, but I’ve seen spoilers, which lead to me coming up with an idea that I shared with the Klebuckets server, and @gayspiderman convinced me to write said idea.

This fic is not canon compliant in that Akiridion kissing does not lead to pregnancy any more than kissing between two humans leads to pregnancy. (And also not canon compliant in that again, I did not actually watch the movie and do not want to.) That being said, this is probably the most RotT-compliant fic I will ever write.

AO3

FFN

Mother’s three rules did not help. Being prepared for change and embracing their mistakes had only led to them being sent to Principal Levit’s office, and playing with their phones had resulted in detention. All Aja wanted to do was go home, even though she knew when she got there she’d have to deal with another lecture from Varvatos and Mother about staying inconspicuous.

Aja found her and Krel’s path blocked by three humans.

“Aja and Krel, right?” the tallest of them said. “I’m Jim, and these are Toby and Claire.” He gestured with his head to the boy and girl standing beside him as he said their names. Mother had definitely been wrong when she’d claimed that girls on this planet were invisible. “I’ve been trying to do this for a couple days.”

“And what is ‘this?’” Aja asked.

Jim pulled a small disk out of his pocket. Along the top half of the disk were the words “for the good of all”. Along the bottom half were a series of scuff marks, like words had been marred out to no longer be legible. Some parts of it looked eerily similar to Akiridion technology, and yet other parts were far too different.

“It’s a school tradition. Touch the disk, and you’ll do well on your finals and everything because you’ll have the entire school backing you up.”

Aja didn’t believe that was real, and she didn’t care about finals. But, if she complied, then Jim, Toby, and Claire would hopefully get out of her way. And so Aja looked closer.

Oh.

Of course that was why the amulet looked almost like Akiridion technolgy, because Krel had been involved in building it. These weren’t three random humans who were taking up Aja’s time, they were her friends from the future. A future that, hopefully, wouldn’t fully come true. Hopefully she’d be able to save her Mama and Papa, and Tronos, and Buster, and Toby, who was once more alive in front of her.

“What did you do to my sister?” Krel demanded.

“Krel, just touch it,” Aja said.

“No, I don’t want to.” He lowered his voice to a hiss. “That looks like an inferior form of Akiridion technology! I think they’re disguised bounty hunters!”

Ah, so he had recognized his work on the amulet, but not that he had been the one who worked on it, and definitely not that Douxie had been helping him. Of course not. He didn’t remember. Well, that was easy enough to fix.

Aja grabbed her brother’s wrist. He fought back as she forced him to touch the amulet. For a brief moment, his eyes flashed with blue-green light.

So that was why he had been so concerned.

Krel smacked his forehead before dragging his hand down his face. The gesture looked familiar, but also like it belonged on someone else. “I was clearly wrong when I said it was inferior. But, seriously? School tradition? That was the best you could come up with?”

“Just in case it didn’t work,” Toby said.

“Why wouldn’t it work?” Aja asked. “Wait, did it not work on the trolls?”

“No, it worked on them,” Claire said. “I have no idea why Douxie’s been so worried about it not working on the two of you and Varvatos.”

“Douxie’s been worried about me?” Krel smiled and looked away as he tucked a strand of hair behind his ear. That was... odd.

“Yeah, he even stuck around extra long passing out flyers for the Battle of the Bands on the day you guys arrived, since he knew you two’d be showing up,” Jim said. Krel smiled a little wider. “Everyone’s been trying to herd you two towards me so I could unlock your memories. If we hurry, we could go meet up with Douxie before he has to switch shifts from the bookstore to the bistro.”

“I mean, we should probably go make Varvatos remember, maybe then he won’t try and demand Eli’s thumbs anymore,” Aja said. “Plus, we might be able to fight off bounty hunters better!”

“Or,” Krel said, already walking ahead of the rest of them. “We could go find Douxie so he stops worrying. I mean, Varvatos is just waiting around the Mothership so it’s not like we’d have to worry too much about him getting into trouble. It’s not like the bounty hunters will actually show up for another week, anyways.” He stopped walking, wrapped his arms around himself, and frowned. “Um, where is it? I didn’t ever actually go there, since Bellroc burned it.”

“Come on, it’s this way,” Toby said, beginning to walk in the opposite direction that Krel had been walking in. Krel sighed, probably in relief, but why? Why was he so concerned?

They exited the school and made their way down the street.

“So, when you said everyone’s been trying to herd Krel and I towards you, does that mean the entire town remembers?” Aja asked.

“No. I can only unlock the memories of people I had a strong enough positive emotional bond with in the first timeline, and I have to be holding onto the amulet for it to work,” Jim said. “I tried unlocking Señor Uhl’s memories so he wouldn’t give Toby and I detention for skipping class for trollhunting duties, and it backfired.”

“Why isn’t he principal? Who even is Levit?” Aja stole a glance at her brother as he walked silently beside her. He looked nervous, and she wasn’t sure why.

“Well, since Strickler went to our side early in the timeline,” Toby said, “he decided not to kill the guy who was our principal at the beginning of the year. Which also means I didn’t have to worry about him flirting with my Nana.”

“Why would he flirt with your Nana?”

“Well, the only reason why Strickler flirted with Jim’s mom in the first place was because he was the trollhunter,” Toby said.

Aja’s jaw dropped. “You’re not the trollhunter anymore?”

“Of course he is,” Claire said. “It’s hunters, not hunter. But, Toby’s got the Daylight sword. Eclipse, too.”

“I guess it makes sense why you can’t command daylight anymore with the amulet Douxie and I made, since daylight would be Toby’s to command.” Krel tucked his hair behind his ear again when he said Douxie’s name. Why was he doing that? “But does it still have any other powers or is it just for unlocking memories?”

“Oh, yeah. I can still summon armor, and I’m using it to store my daggers. Though, I think the issue with daylight summoning is more the fact that the Green Knight still has Excalibur.” Jim frowned, and Claire put a hand on his shoulder.

“And none of us are going to get controlled by him. Him or his sister,” she said. Come to think of it, Claire didn’t look as sick as she had when Aja first met her during the...

“Hey, did we go through a bunch of time loops at the science fair?”

“Yep!” Toby said. “Though, like, Steve and Shannon and everyone doesn’t remember them since they didn’t have their memories protected. Just us, Blink, and my Wingman. And Vex wil, too, when he remembers.”

“Thank Deya we got Saturday detention with Shannon the first time around,” Claire said. “She’s been a major help, but I’m not sure if we ever would’ve bonded enough if not for that.”

“And we’re here,” Jim said, holding open the door to GDT Arcane Books. Aja glanced at her brother. There were tears in his eyes. But why? He hadn’t even been this emotional when he had reunited with Eli in their first timeline.

“Douxie?” Krel called out in an incredibly soft voice.

A broom clattered to the wooden ground.

Aja looked up in time to see Douxie standing on the top floor of the bookstore next to the fallen broom. He spun around and brought a hand to his mouth. He then ran and vaulted over the railing, using magic to slow his descent. At the same time, Krel ran to Douxie. They hugged tightly. Upon closer look, Douxie was crying just as much as Krel was. Aja could hear the two of them whispering to each other, but she couldn’t make out the words.

Aja knew they were friends, just like she was friends with all of the other Guardians, but she hadn’t realized they were so close. Then again, she knew that Douxie was skilled in music and wizard technology. Perhaps Krel had finally found someone who truly understood him while Aja had been ruling as queen. It was good for him to have a close friend.

Right as their hug began to grow a little long, Krel took half a step back and placed his hands on Douxie’s shoulders. Krel then used them as leverage as he pressed himself onto his toes to kiss Douxie.

What.

What?

“Uh, did they get together after I died or something?” Toby asked. Aja looked away from the kissing couple to Toby and the others. They looked just as perplexed by the situation in front of them as Aja felt.

“No, there was no time,” Jim said.

“Then,” Aja sputtered. “Then when did that happen?”

A/N: To answer Aja’s question, Douxie and Krel finally confessed their feelings to each other either shortly before or during the events of RotT. However, because everything was so tense and chaotic, they chose not to reveal the change in their relationship to any of their friends until after the titans were defeated. Instead, of course, Jim reset the timeline, so they didn’t get the chance before their dramatic romantic reunion. If the kiss described above isn’t their first kiss, then it’s probably their third kiss at most - though it’s not like they need to actually count them.

#tales of arcadia #tales of arcadia spoilers #rise of the titans #rise of the titans spoilers #trollhunters #3below #aja tarron #krel tarron #jim lake jr #toby domzalski #claire nuñez #krexie #hisirdoux casperan #why yes i'm putting a disclaimer up like this is ffn i'm a little spooked by the paid post bullshit #my writing

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thewheezingwyvern · 4 years ago

Note

OOO OOO PICK ME PICK ME!

I would like Bakugou or Kirishima please 🥺

Imma pick number 13 for inspo unless that's been done already. SFW or NSFW whatever you want I'm just excited to read 👀 can you take my Katsukikitten blog when/if you answer this?

🖤 Katsukikitten

Ooooh @katsukikitten you gave me some good wiggle room to work with. I ended up going SFW because I had an idea! Hopefully this helps fill your Bakugou needs!

𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰'𝘴 𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦

Oracle!Bakugou x Fem!Reader

Warnings: Angst, Mention of blood and death

It was midday by the time you and Bakugou reached your destination. Rather, you reached where your partner had intended to take you and until that moment you had no idea what place it was he had in mind. Turns out, it was an old canyon that speared through the vast expanse of the Aural Desert. Sweat was pouring from your skin and Katsuki was no better, having shed his shirt during the travel some time ago. The horse you two had taken, a northern dunn that was bred to travel in the desert, nickered softly in approval once shade eclipsed over you. It was still blazingly hot but the further you strayed into the craggy paths tucked away from the sun’s glare, the cooler it grew. The change in temperature was a blessing, small on paper but large in practice.

“Keep up.” He snapped back at you over his shoulder.

A frown twisted across your lips, brows furrowing. Katsuki was not known for his calm nature but he had been far more irritable and snappish in the past few weeks. And not once had he even given you a hint of answers until today. It was slow work picking through the canyon, razor ferns creeping through cracks in the rocky walls that threatened to slice your flesh if either of you brushed against their leaves. Your mouth was incredibly dry and you wished you had the proper gloves so you could pluck those leaves off their stems and cut them open. When carefully handled, razor fern leaves stored a lot of water and could help slake your thirst.

“Where are we going Katsuki?” you asked for the fifth time that day.

“If you ask me one more time, I’m going to leave you behind, brat.” He snapped back at you, “Now shut up and follow me.”

Crestfallen at another question unanswered, you followed with a scowl. Katsuki had come and found you just before you joined your father in his tent with his retainers. Your absence would surely be noticed so you felt that you were owed at least something of an explanation. But your friend, crush and body guard was impossibly stubborn and you knew you would sooner have luck asking a mountain to move for you than get him to change his mind. Bakugou, however, was going out of his mind himself. As your bodyguard , appointed by the chief himself, he knew it was risky to bring you into the desert. A calloused hand touched the hilt of his curved scimitar sheathed at his hip. If anyone or anything tried to touch you, he’d make them regret it.

“We’re here.” He finally said.

‘Here’ was a rocky alcove, the wall of the canyon stretching up to blot out the light of the sun. Buried in the wall were long bands of vibrant color, smoky purples, vivacious reds, shimmering golds and streaks of laughing teals that were like the captured spirit of the seas so far away. It was a stunning alcove. And the cliff was clearly formed of the rocks and clay that your people used to craft their paints and makeups for use. But it was still just a wall and you couldn’t figure out why Katsuki would want to bring you to it. You folded your arms beneath your breasts, looking around once before turning back to your protector.

“It’s a wall.”

“Heh, shows what you know.” He sneered.

The blonde advanced forward to a large stone slab that was settled up against the wall. It didn’t look any different than the other rocks in the area. That is until he started sliding the rock to the side, fine granules of sand on the ground helping fill the air with a crunching sound. When he was finished, he revealed a tunnel that was worn into the side of the canyon. Katsuki smirked smugly at you before gesturing towards the opening of the hidden cave.

“After you, princess.”

When you glared at him as you walked by, he closed in behind you snickering. The light from outside streamed in enough to illuminate your first several steps into the cave. But just around the bend there was a distant light as well, it pooled on the walls and beckoned you forward. You’d never seen a glow like that and it was entrancing, urging you forward without being nudged by your companion. The passage snaked deeper into the rock, bands of the same color following you along until the both of you emerged into a chamber. Above in the ceiling, a small hole allowed a beam of sunlight to stream through until it gathered on a large pool of water that was nestled in the center of the chamber. At first you thought the water was glowing because of the single ray of sunshine that struck the calm surface of the pool but closer inspection revealed that wasn’t the case. Mesmerized, you feet carried you forward without your permission to see that this was more than a simple pool. There was a sharp drop cut into earth, almost like a sink hole that led deep into the ground. The water glowed in a myriad of icy blue, deepened violet and fractals of starlight.

“What is this place?” you whispered softly, your voice echoing off the walls.

“This is a sacred pool.” Katsuki supplied, falling beside you, “This is where oracles like me used to go to magnify their foresight. They used to be everywhere but they’ve been drying up more and more as the years pass.”

“I thought those were a myth.”

“They’re real…”

A far off, haunted expression flickered over his face, leading you to touch his arm, “Katsuki…what did you see?”

His foresight had proven invaluable for your clan and he was almost never wrong. But never before had you seen him look so tortured. Silence fell over you both for several moments before he started to walk forward. Even with his back to you, the pool bathed him in an ethereal light, shadows gathering along the contours of his back. Bakugou turned his head and looked over his shoulder at you.

“It’ll be easier to just show you. Come here.”

Tentatively you drew closer to him until you both were standing at the edge of the sacred pool. It swirled before you, begging for you to enter it’s depths and see the it’s wonders. But it was really, really deep and it was hard not to feel nervous. Bakugou seemed to notice your hesitation and snorted with disdain.

“You really think I would have you do something dangerous, brat? I’m supposed to protect you.”

“Well there was that one time-”

“That was your idea, dumbass, not mine.”

You giggled, “It worked out didn’t it?”

Katsuki let the corner of his mouth twitch before he turned to face you. Suddenly you were aware of how close he was to you and how he still wasn’t wearing a shirt. The tanned plains of his chest begged for your hands to touch and wander but the serious expression in face made that thought evaporate. A rough hand came up and clapped you on the top of your head gently, shaking you a bit in a display of affection.

“Trust me, princess…”

“…Ok.”

Bakugou pulled you to him and the both of you leapt into the pool. The initial contact was like normal water, refreshingly cool and it chased away the heat that had built up in you from the desert sun. But soon the feeling evaporated and it was like the two of you were floating in the night sky. With surprise you found yourself able to breathe and you drifted with Katsuki, sinking deeper down into the embrace of the sacred waters. Flecks of fiery red flaked off of your companion, swirling around the two of you until they shattered into fractals to form intricate images. Images of fire and blood. Thick plumes of smoke were rising from the the caravan of tents that your clan made their homes in, blotting out the sky in inky clouds. A flash and you saw your father with a sword hilted into his chest and the culprit was one of his own retainers.

The pool shifted colors then to golden yellow, showing Bakugou trying to warn your father. It showed him being ignored, dismissed that his vision was incorrect and that he just didn’t know what he was seeing. Your body guard hauled you against him, your back pressed up against his chest as he cradled you close. His arms squeezed you tightly, as if he were afraid you would drift away from him if he let go. The fractals of light continued to swirl, shifting to paint out your future, each more grim than the last if you stayed to fight. A thousand and one ways you could try to save your clan and a thousand and one ways you would fail.

“There is no hope for them…” he whispered out hoarsely, “But there is for you…runaway with me.”

“But…but maybe with me there my father will-”

“I’ve already tried to warn him. And I’ve already tried to see that way too. He won’t listen.” Katsuki buried his face into your shoulder, his arms squeezing you even tighter to him, “If you don’t leave…your death is the nicest fate out of all of them.”

“Is there really no other way?”

“No…No there isn’t.” Was he crying? “I’m supposed to protect you but even I can’t stand against an entire fucking army. Princes…please. Runaway with me.”

“But-”

“I can’t save them,” he interrupted, “but dammit I can save you. Don’t be stupid.”

Tears were flowing from your eyes as you felt reality crash down around your ears. Live with your clan wandering the sands was over no matter what choice you made. But the thought of leaving behind your family without even trying left a bitter taste in your mouth. But there was really no way out. And that was how you decided to leave your life and clan behind: bathed in starlight and sinking into a never ending pit.

((Want to participate in Arcane April? Check out my post here about the event and send in your requests!))

#Bakugou x reader #Bakugou x y/n #Bakugou x you #MHA reader insert #Bakugou Katsuki #my writing #ArcaneApril #Anonymous

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lilblog-asatreat · 3 years ago

Text

#5 from this prompt list: "Let me bandage you up."

"Fucking hell!" Lup shouts to the heavens.

"I told you there was a ditch nearby," Merle says blandly.

"This isn't a ditch, Merle. This is a giant fucking crevice in the earth that just broke my fucking leg!"

Needless to say, Lup and Merle's forest expedition wasn't exactly going to plan. Their entire team split off into pairs to explore in search for the Light, (with the exception of Taako who wanted to stay behind on the ship), and so far Lup and Merle had to swim through a raging flooded river, fight off two chimeras, break their way through a giant "haunted" bramble patch which turned out to be hiding a small community of very hostile gnomes, and get so hopelessly turned around and lost that their hope of ever finding their way back to the Starblaster was getting slimmer and slimmer.

Their latest misadventure involved Merle scouting slightly ahead, warning her of a well hidden "ditch", and failing to mention it was actually a drop off to an eight foot deep hole, which tripped her and made her land with her full weight on her right leg while it was bent at a weird angle.

"Alright, I'm coming down, just give me a moment." Merle readjusts his backpack and starts carefully picking his way down the side. When he finally makes it to Lup's side, she's leaning up against the wall with her head pressed back against it, eyes squinted shut in pain. Merle takes out his holy symbol and mutters a prayer while moving it slowly over her leg.

Nothing happens.

"Shit!" Merle grumbles.

Lup opens up one eye to look at him and grimaces. "You don't have anymore-"

"Spell slots, no I don't."

"Oooffff fucking course." She closes her eye again and focuses on breathing.

Merle takes off his backpack and rummages around in it. "Luckily I brought more medical supplies than just me and my holy powers. Do you see any good sized branches near us?"

Lup opens her eyes again to look around. "There might be some branches over there." She points to the opposite side of the hole where the branches of a fallen tree lay against a slightly gentler slope back upward and out of the pit.

Merle takes a roll of bandages out and sets it on top of his bag before pulling out Lil Choppy and setting to work on getting branches that are viable for setting her broken leg.

After a few minutes of silence, save for the hacking of the hand ax, Lup asks, "So uh, do you think the others were able to find the Light?"

Merle takes a beat to wipe some sweat from his forehead. "Maybe. At the very least, they're probably having more luck than we are just trying to get around this place."

Lup gives a pained laugh as Merle goes back to hacking at branches. When he's gotten a few he's satisfied will get the job done, he moves back over to Lup and sets them down beside her leg. "Now, let me bandage you up."

Lup cries out in pain as Merle moves her leg in position and begins wrapping the bandages around it and the branches supporting it. He mumbles an apology but keeps going. After he's finished, he scoots up against the wall next to his friend and sighs. "So uh... how are we going to get out of this one?"

"I don't know," Lup sighs. "I can cast a spell that could levitate me, and you'd be able to pull me around without having to worry about putting weight on my leg, but uh that only lasts for ten minutes, and we still don't know where the Starblaster is. Not to mention, I... don't know if I have spell slots to cast that right now, now that I think about it."

They're both quiet for a beat. Then Merle laughs a little. "Well, at least if we die out here, we'll come back next year, right?"

Lup bites her lip. "Mmhmm?"

Merle looks over at her and quirks an eyebrow. "You don't sound very convinced."

"Well," Lup begins slowly, "yes, we will come back... at least, I'm 85% sure we'll come back..." She trails off and looks at him sheepishly.

Merle stares at her. "You're only 85% sure? You and Barry spent an entire year testing this theory! You told us we'd be alright!"

"There's always room for error in science and arcane studies, and we always have to take that into account. But 85% is a solid B, so we're pretty sure we'll all be fine. Sure enough to reassure everyone else at least." Lup explains defensively.

"What about the other 15%?" Merle asks incredulously. "That's a huge percentage of uncertainty!"

"Try not to think about it," Lup waves him off.

"Try not to-"

"Look, we'd be more sure if we actually had a chance to really test it, but it's only been four years, and so far the only time someone's actually died was Magnus back in year one. The fact that you and Magnus go back to having the same injuries as the ones you had when we first left is key evidence to support our theory that we just go back to our recorded state, but until someone else dies and comes back to life, there's only so many experiments we can do to try and replicate the real deal."

"So now the scientist has become the lab rat and dragged me along with you." Merle crosses his arms.

"Arcanist, for one," Lup says hotly, "I'm not that big of a nerd, and for two, technically Davenport dragged you into this because he's the one who paired you with me. And I'm so sorry that being paired with me was such a disastrous choice for you."

"That's not what I meant," Merle says, but Lup crosses her arms and looks away from him.

He sighs and digs through his bag again. It takes a minute, but he finally pulls out his prize, a little baggie of baby carrots that he swiped from the kitchen before they left. He crunches on one before silently offering Lup another one. She looks over for a second and rolls her eyes in annoyance but accepts the offering anyway.

"There's got to be a way out of this situation," Merle says after a while of chewing on carrots. "Maybe I can go back to the gnome village and see if I can get a healing potion or at least a way of contacting the ship."

Lup snorts. "They'll just run you out of town again. I don't know if you remember, but they weren't keen on listening to us last time, and I doubt they'd be too impressed with us now that we've accidentally burned down a few of their buildings."

"Not our fault they kept attacking us," Merle shrugs. "But I'm sure I can sneak past the guards, find their apothecary, and steal whatever we need to get you on your feet again."

Lup laughs. "In that armor? Merle, you are the single loudest dwarf I have ever met!"

Merle chuckles despite being mildly annoyed. "I mean, do you have any other ideas?"

Lup's smile fades a little. "I mean... I could send up a flare and hope Taako sees it? Prestidigitation is a cantrip, so I can just keep burning that until someone finds us."

"If they ever find us."

Lup grabs another carrot and chews on it contemplativly. "You know, I woke up today ready to take on anything and find the Light, but now all I want to do is be with my brother and complain to him how shitty our day has been while he makes me tea and jokes about it to make me feel better. It's... been a while since we've done that. We spend so much time researching and working and being too exhausted to do little more than sleep that we haven't just sat down to hang out and complain about just how shitty this all is."

"Well, I'm not Taako," Merle begins carefully, "but I'm still your friend, and I'm still here for you. You can complain to me all you want, and right now I can't offer you tea, but I do have some jerky once we run out of baby carrots."

Lup looks over at him and smiles. "Thanks, Merle," she says quietly.

Merle nods, and the two of them spend the rest of the late afternoon talking about the past four years and how much they miss home. When night begins to fall, Lup starts shooting sparks into the air, and the contrast of the bright colors against the darkening sky does catch the attention of one extremely worried elf. He sighs in relief and directs his captain to sail the ship westward toward the colors of hope.

#taz #taz balance #taz fanfic #lup #merle highchurch #taz lup #stolen century #written works of Gab

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talesofarcadia78 · 4 years ago

Text

Sorceress of Arcadia || Becoming Part 1

Summary: Y/n Lake is Jim Lake's older sister. She discovers that she is sorceress and her brother is the Trollhunter. She and the Trollhunters go on adventures together, they save trolls and humans. Along the way, a friend becomes more than just a friend and discovers their secrets.

Warnings: Bruises, mention of blood, pain

Word count: 3,514

Tags: @lunariasilver

Next >> Becoming Part 2

Beep! Beep! Beep!

UHH!

My stupid alarm clock woke me out of my perfect slumber. You rolled over to your side and glanced at your alarm clock. 6:30 AM. You groaned, today was Tuesday, which meant SCHOOL!

After another minute of groaning, you got up and walked over out of your bedroom and into the bathroom. You brushed your teeth and took a quick shower and got ready. You looked at yourself in the mirror.

“Looking good, y/n!”, you thought to yourself and got out of the bathroom and rushed downstairs to the living room. You saw that Jim was already up and making what looked like breakfast but you might wrong though.

“Good morning Jim! Your dear old sister is very hungry! Have you made anything for her?” you asked, walking through into the kitchen.

“Morning y/n! You’re only 18, three years older, not that old. But yes, I have! Here”, he handed you a plate with an omelette and a glass of juice.

“Thanks!”, as you walked out of the kitchen and sat at the dining table.

You quickly finished you’re breakfast and ran upstairs to grab your bag. You noticed that Jim was in your mom’s room, leaving breakfast there for her. You smiled. Jim took so much care for our mom. She was working double shifts lately, and she wasn’t getting enough rest and ‘me time’.

Jim closed mom’s room’s door, and headed downstairs with you.

||||||||||||||||||||

As the garage door opened, you saw that the garbage bin was laying on the floor with rubbish spilling out.

“Uh. Raccoons!”, Jim said, annoyed.

He picked up the rubbish, when Toby (Jim’s best friend) rides over to us from him house across from us.

“C’mon Jimbo, y/n, we’re late for school”, he said, buckling his helmet on.

“I know. I was busy with the lunches. One for mom, y/n, me and you”, he said walking with his bike to him and handing him a brown paper bag.

Toby peeked into the contents of the bag.

“I can’t, I’m on a diet”, handing the paper bag back to Jim.

“You’ve been on a diet for 14 years Tobes!”, Jim argued, pushing the Toby’s hand away.

They continued bickering, when I got my bike and ringed it’s bell, catching the boys attention.

“Well I’m heading to school. See ya later!”, you said, riding off

You took in the morning view of the beautiful mountains and canals. You would never want to leave Arcadia. As you rode your Vespa through town, you saw many people driving to work and walking to school. Some people were at the cafe or at a shop. You noticed a guy turn a sign from ‘close’ to ‘open’ for GDT Arcane Books. He was tall and skinny, wearing a black shirt and jacket with black jeans and black shoes. He had raven black hair with blue dyed tips.

Hmm, I’ve never seen him around town before. You knew practically everyone in town except for the students at Arcadia Oaks High, other then Jim and Toby. I rode until your school came into sight, Arcadia Oaks Academy. You didn’t go to the same school Jim because your mom, Barbara Lake, couldn’t afford both of us going to Arcadia Oaks High, so I went to the other school, since it was cheaper.

You parked your bike and hung your helmet on one of the handles. You walked through the entrance and were quickly greeted with your best friend, Rachael and Izzy.

“Y/n! Guess what happened!”, both of them squealed.

“What?! Tom Holland is coming to Arcadia?”, you asked, jokingly.

“Nope! I wish! But I got you-know-who’s Instagram!”, Izzy said, jumping up and down.

You looked over at Rachael, she nodded.

“Wow! Good job Izzy. Now you just need to become friends in the real world, not just the Instagram world”, you said walking over to your locker.

“Uhh....maybe”, Izzy said.

You grabbed your books and shoved them in your backpack, it was an urban backpack, so there weren’t any zips, just weird looking strips that magnetically connected. So you were having a hard time, zips were way more efficient.

You slammed your locker closed and headed to our first class of the day, HPE theory. You were walking to class while talking with Rachael and Izzy when, you saw Jim calling me. you stopped and picked up.

“What’s up, I have my first class in 5 minutes, so hurry”, you said quickly.

“Sorry y/n! I found something in the canals, that was calling my name, strange. But I’ll tell you after school. Bye!”, he said and hung up before you even had a chance at saying ‘bye’.

You put your phone in your pocket and were about continue to class, when you tripped over your feet and descended to the ground. You were ready for the impact but you never felt it.

Huh? You looked up, and saw the same guy from the bookstore. He had grabbed you by your arms. You quickly got up and faced the guy.

“Thank you! I can be very clumsy sometimes. Oh sorry, I’m y/n”, I said, stretching out my hand to shake.

“No problem! I’m Douxie. Nice to meet you y/n. Oh and...”, he said, then ruffled through his pockets and took out two cards.

He handed them to me, GDT Arcane Books and Mr. Benoit’s cafe business cards.

“I work there. It’ll be great to see you around there”, he said, not meeting your gaze.

“Sure! You look new, you just came here?”, you asked.

“Nah. I just don’t really show my face to the public other then at school”, he replied.

“Oh okay. Well, I’ll see you around, bye”, you said turning around to go to class.

“Bye”, he said heading the other way.

||||||||||||||||||||

The whole day was exhausting for you. After your last class, you left and went to your brother’s high school.

Jim rode over to me, as well as Toby.

“Hey Jim! How was your day?”, you asked, as you rode your bike along side him.

“It was good, I kinda got into a fight with Steve, cause he was bullying Eli, so yeah...”, he said, trying to sound like it was normal.

“Yeah! Did you see how I chanted ‘let him out! let him out!”, Toby exclaimed, proud of himself. “Good thing your mom’s a doctor”, he said, while mom drove up to us.

“Hey kids”, mom greeted us, rolling down the window.

Toby tried to stop in-front the car while he said,

“Looking sharp Dr. L”, as he stopped and came into mom’s view.

“Thanks Toby. You’re looking sharp yourself”, she complimented him.

“Oh really! It shows?”, Toby says, showing his ‘muscles’.

You chuckled.

While Jim and mom were talking, you waved mom bye and rode to your house. You put your bike in the garage and walked upstairs to your room. You dropped you bag on the floor, and took your laptop out and started doing your homework. Then you heard the front door open, must be Jim.

You ran downstairs, finding him sitting on the edge of the couch and looking at what looked like an amulet.

“I have a feeling that this is what you wanted to show me”, you said, sitting next to him.

“Yeah. Toby and I found it in the canals in the morning. It was calling my name. Strange right?”, he explained.

You nodded. You then looked at the amulet, it looked ancient. Jim suddenly, started talking to it. When the amulet didn’t say anything, he got frustrated and told it,

“Come one speak up or else you’re going up on eBay!”

He sounded stupid at this point, he was talking to an inanimate object for God’s sake! Then we heard something from the basement. We glanced at each other and headed to the basement.

“Uh! Must be raccoons!”, you said, getting a broom for Jim and getting yourself a metal stick.

We headed down the stairs and then saw....nothing. We went further in when you heard something behind you. You tapped Jim’s shoulder and turned around.

A blue creature that had 6 eyes and 4 arms came out of the shadow’s.

“Master Jim!”, it said.

Jim started screaming, when another creature was behind us. It was bigger, had green hair and grey skin, well stone.

“Hi!”, it said.

You wanted to scream, but you couldn’t. Then you looked at the creatures and backed away terrified. You couldn’t hear what they were saying since you were in your own thoughts.

How did they get in? What do they want? What are they? How do they know Jim?

Then you snapped back into reality. The creatures were introducing themselves. The multi-eyed guy was Blinky and the brute was AAARRRGGHH and they were ‘trolls’. Then Jim passed out. You looked at the trolls.

“Don’t go near my brother!”, you shouted at them and stuck your metal stick out at them.

“Do not worry sister of Master Jim, we will not harm him”, Blinky said, trying to calm you down.

But that didn’t work you felt very scared, but you had to look confident, the complete opposite. Then suddenly, aqua coloured sparks started to flare out of your hands and onto the stick you were holding. Then a ball of aqua looking sparks shot out and towards the trolls. It hit them, making them stumble back.

“Hmm. Master Jim’s sister is a sorceress. Who knew?!”, Blinky whispered to AAARRRGGHH.

“I-I’m a what?”, you asked, lowering the stick.

“A sorceress. In simpler words, you have magic”, Blinky explained, “We should make our exit. Lovely meeting you sister of Master Jim. We-”.

“My name is y/n. So call me that”, you said, introducing yourself.

“Oh okay. Lovely meeting you, y/n. Well, goodbye, we will be seeing you soon”, Blinky said and AAARRRGGHH waved. Then they were gone.

You looked down at Jim.

“What have you gotten yourself and me into Jim”, you said, as you picked him up and took him back to the living room.

You set him on the couch, and went upstairs to sleep.

||||||||||||||||||||

You had gotten up a bit more early and got dressed. It wasn’t the best outfit but how cares?

You grabbed your backpack and headed downstairs. You looked at the clock, it was 7. You then looked at the couch were Jim was sleeping, he was snoring very loudly. You quickly wrote down a note for Jim:

Morning sleepyhead, I’m out, since you were asleep, no one was going make breakfast, so I’m grabbing something for Mr. Benoit’s. See ya after school. 🤪

You rode you way over to the cafe and placed your bike near a window. You walked inside and was about to order, when Douxie walked up.

“Hey y/n. Were you going to order something?” Douxie asked.

“Hey Douxie, actually I was just going to get black coffee,” you replied.

He help up a coffee cup. You smiled and thanked him as the two of you settled at a table. You drank your coffee quietly, while Douxie ate his muffin.

“Wanna go to school together?” he asked.

“Sure” you replied.

You grabbed your bike while Douxie grabbed his. You both rided along side each other and talked. When the school came into view, Douxie asked,

“Wanna race?”

“Why not!”, you replied.

You both start peddling faster. When thought you were just about to win, Douxie peddled a bit faster. You pressed the brakes, but you didn’t stop. It did not end well. You skidded on the concrete, scraping your hands, making them bleed, and you ankle landed the wrong way when you fell to the floor. Douxie was just about to rush over and help you when a bunch of girls came up to him and started oooing and ahhing over him. He tried to go over to you but he couldn’t.

You looked at your hands, there were bleeding a lot. You tried to stand up but as soon as you did, you fell back onto the floor, screaming in pain. Your ankle was not okay. Douxie had heard your scream, making him loose his patience.

“Excuse me girls! I need to get to a very important person, so please,” he shouted, sprinting to you.

“Y/n! Your hands...”, he said, worriedly, looking at your hands.

He took your hands in his and inspected the scrapes. As he touched your wrist, you winced, he had touched a bruise. He saw you wince in pain, so he quickly apologised. He looked at your ankle, it was turning to a purple shade. Since you couldn’t walk, he would carry you. He placed one of his hands under your knees and the other behind your back and lifted you up.

“Douxie, this isn’t necessary. I can pull my own weight,” I protested.

He had pulled you close to his chest, so you wouldn’t accidentally fall.

You noticed that he was pretty tall, so you wrapped your arms over his shoulders and clinged onto him for dear life.

“You can’t pull your weight, clearly and this was the only way. Plus I don’t think you have a lot of weight to pull,” he said.

He was clearly referring to me being light.

He carried me across the school, getting everyone’s attention. We were about half way to the nurses office when Izzy and Rachael came rushed over to us.

“Y/n! What happened?” they both asked.

“My brakes were not working, so I skidded on concrete and my ankle landed the wrong way so I can’t walk. I told Douxie that I could pull my own weight but he didn’t listen and so he now carrying me to the nurses office,” you explained.

“Well look at the bright side! You’re getting carried by Douxie! Douxie!” Rachael said.

Douxie and you blushed.

“It’s nothing. I can do anything for y/n,” Douxie said calmly.

Izzy and Rachael eyebrows shot up at his statement. Douxie realised what he had said and tried to explain, when you tightened your grip on Douxie. Your ankle started hurting a lot. You winced in pain. Douxie looked at you and apologised to your friends and continued to the nurses office. You whimpered in pain, as it got worse.

“It’s okay y/n, I’ve got you. Nothing is going to happen,” Douxie whispered to you.

Douxie tried pushing the door of the nurses office open with his foot but it didn’t work. A person in the office, noticed you and Douxie and quickly opened the door, letting you in. Douxie laid you down on the bed in one of the room’s. The nurse ushered him out and the nurse examined your ankle.

After you were examined, the nurse told Douxie that she will be fine by the end of the day, and that he could pick her up after last period.

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You had been sitting on the bed all day, having an ice pack around your ankle and bandages on your hand. The whole day was very quiet and boring. Then, you heard the bell ring, school had ended! You didn’t have to wait long, your black and blue haired friend came as soon as the bell rung.

“Hey Douxie!” you said, as he came into the room.

“Hey y/n! How are you feeling? Can you walk?”, he asked, shooting you questions.

“She can’t walk fully yet, she can limp. You’ll have to support your friend home”, the nurse interrupted.

Your eyes become wide when the nurse said that he had to drop me off to my house. Douxie nodded and walked over to you.

“Let’s see how you can walk”, he said.

He offered me his hand for support and you took it. As you put weight on your ankle, it started to hurt.

“Ouch!”, you exclaimed, squeezing Douxie’s hands in pain.

“Yeah...you can’t walk. I am sorry for doing this again,” he said, then lifted you up again. You got out of the nurses office and out of school, were your bike was.

“Hmm. If you can’t ride your bike to school, then you’ll need a lift. Do you have a brother or someone that can pick you up?”, Douxie asked.

“I have a younger brother. He goes to Arcadia Oaks High. I can call him-”, you said when you were cut off by Douxie.

“I can call him. What’s his number?”, he asked.

You told him and then he called your brother.

“Hey, is this Jim? Okay, so I have got your sister, can you pick her up? She can’t ride her bike, I’ll come with you guys since her bag is with me. Bye,” he said over the phone.

||||||||||||||||||||

“Hey Jim!” Douxie waved at Jim and Toby, making him come over to you.

“Y/n! What happened? Are you alright?” Jim asked, worried.

“I’m fine Jim, I’ll tell you about it at home,” you said, reassuring him for now.

“Okay let’s go, before it get’s dark...” Toby said, looking at the sun setting.

Douxie looked confused, but he pushed the thought away. He helped you over to Jim, where he his hand stretched out for me to take. I took it and looked confused.

“Jimbo, where am I going to sit?” you asked, gesturing to his bike, where there was only one seat.

“You are going to sit on the seat, while I ride,” he explained.

You nodded. You sat on his seat and he started peddling through town, while Toby and Douxie were following behind.

“Douxie, thank you for helping my sister, it means a lot,” Jim said, as we rode through the town and onto the bridge.

“It’s nothing. I can do anything for her,” Douxie said, but then he realised what he had just said.

You blushed.

“Well I um mean that I can do anything um...” Douxie stammered.

“Anyways! Toby why were you at the dentist?”, Jim asked, trying to start a normal conversation.

“I’ll explain later. Anyways, let’s talk about you, Jim,” Toby said, changing topics.

“What about me?” Jim asked, panicking a little.

“You know, the LOYL,” Toby smirked.

“Yeah Jim, who is this girl? Wait, is it Claire Nūnez?” you teased.

“Uh...um..well...”Jim stammered.

“Oh! Jim you have a crush? Have you spoken to her yet?” Douxie teased.

“Well I did yesterday, during gym class,” Jim said.

“Please don’t tell me you said anything to her in Spanish,” you said.

When he didn’t give you an answer, you knew the answer, he did.

“What’s so bad in talking in Spanish?”, Douxie asked, curious.

“Jim starts talking in Spanish when he get’s nervous, which is usually when he talking to girls, more specifically, Claire,” you explained.

Then your house came.

“Well that is it for the day, see you guys tomorrow,” Toby said, riding to his home across from ours.

You got off your brother’s bike and limped over to the front door and opened it. You collapsed on the couch, tired. Douxie came in and dropped your bag onto the floor next to you.

“Well I’ll see you tomorrow, love,” he said, walking out of the door.

Jim came in and dropped his things on the couch.

“I’ll make sandwiches, you rest,” Jim ordered.

You sighed, you limped over with him and then sat on top of the bench. You looked at you brother, he chopping and looking at the amulet.

“Why don’t you try looking into it?” you ask.

“Maybe I should,” he said, taking the amulet and walking outside.

You followed him outside and sat on the stairs. He looked at the amulet and spoke the incantation.

“For the glory of Merlin, daylight is mine to command,” he spoke, turning the amulet. Then the wind suddenly picked up, and you saw that the rocks started to levitate. Then, blue magic orbs appeared out of the amulet and into Jim heart, then he levitated and armour appeared. Then the pieces clicked together. At first it was very big, which you started laughing at, then it shrunk and fitted him perfectly. He looked like a knight, but without the sword.

“This is so freaking cool!” Jim exclaimed.

“Now you just need a sword to go with the armour,” I commented, when a few more orbs appeared out the amulet and drifted to his hand, which then created a sword.

You were amazed. This was magic!

“Wow!” you said.

Then Jim started to do some ‘cool’ moves with his sword, but when it got stuck into a a rock behind him. You bursted out laughing as you saw him attempt to take it out. He eventually did, but then he got it stuck again. He tried again, and it got out a lot faster. He chuckled when he got it out.

In having discovered all this, on the other side of town, Mr Strickler and Bular were planning to take it from him. But the amulet had found it’s champion, would it be that easy? l

#douxie x reader #hisirdoux x reader #hisirdoux casperan x reader #tales of arcadia #trollhunters

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spectrumed · 3 years ago

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1. piano

The brain is a musical instrument. How it sounds all depends on who is playing it. The keys, the strings, the tubes, the circuits, none of them make noise on their own. Some may argue (some very aggressively) that every instrument has one exact way that it should be played. That there is one correct way to play the piano, and then there’s several incorrect (deviant!) ways to play the piano. But a classically trained pianist will not play the piano in quite the same way as a self-taught jazz pianist will play the piano. Sure, the latter does employ some stylings unique to them. They have an idiosyncratic way of playing that makes their sound highly notable, possibly even sought after. While the former, the classically trained musician, they’ve been taught to minimise many of those quirky individual traits that could, potentially, distract from the classical compositions that they will be playing. In jazz, music is carried by unique characters and a strong sense of individualism. In classical, music is carried by tradition, norm, and history.

It should not be understood that the classically trained musician plays without soul or passion. While we, in the western world, have become more and more infatuated with the idea of the self-made artist, the amateur who makes their way to success and stardom solely through will, and quite often a manic compulsion to create, there is no wrong way to play an instrument. However you make it work, whatever sounds you are able to produce, you are playing that instrument. You are channeling your inner essence into the music you are performing, no matter what genre you belong to. No-one plays their instrument the exact same way, for certain, but everyone is playing with what they’ve got.

How do you think? You’re used to being asked “what do you think?” But how do you think? Do you see pictures in your head? Do you experience an inner monologue? Are you riddled with anxiety? Have you ever hallucinated? Do you think that you think good, or do you think that you think bad? If we return to our metaphor of the brain as a musical instrument, what sort of music do you think you’d play? Sure, there’s the classical world, and the jazz world, but of course, that’s hardly the music most people will listen to nowadays. Do you think in pop songs? Or do you think in big heavy metal epics? Or maybe what you are is a maniac for dance music. You may find like-minded friends who like the same kind of music as you do. I think that there is a correlation between what music we like and how we perceive the world. Does listening to a certain song send you back? Does a certain tune evoke memories that you may have thought were long since gone? I know that there are some folks out there who say that they do not care much for music, and while I don’t doubt that they absolutely do feel that way, I can personally not imagine where I’d be without my trusty set of headphones and my phone loaded up with a wide library of music I like. It seems to me that music is primal. Almost as if only by understanding music, can one come to understand consciousness. To nab a song title from Jethro Tull (the band, not the agriculturalist,) life is a long song.

But I do admit that I come from a biased perspective. Music means much to me. I’m no musician, but I think that partly stems from a desire to not see “how the sausage is made.” I’d like to be able to listen to a composition without feeling compelled to analyse it, or to study it. I’d rather eat the sausage without having to wonder what bits of the animals this meat came from. Is that the taste of a spleen or a testicle? There are plenty of other things in life to dissect and tear apart just to examine. Perhaps what I wish is to maintain an arcane approach to music. Perhaps I am too enamoured by the idea of the musician as a mystic able to tap into an elevated state of being, some spiritual realm divorced from our own. That look on the guitarist’s face when they successfully manages to convey just the right emotional tone perfectly with that solo. The frisson you feel when the song reaches its climax. That thing we call the sublime. To explain it, well, it simply feels like you are making something splendid mundane. It seems to rob it of its power. Or… Well, maybe that’s not it all. Maybe all I want is just a moment or two when I can relax and avoid thinking about things. For a moment, I’d just like to forget that I’m a person.

The world is so loud. Really, I can guarantee you that if you didn’t have those natural mental filters that we all have, you’d go insane. Every little sound. Every little bit of stimuli. It would all overwhelm you. It would burrow deep into your consciousness, and it would refuse to leave. Ever tried to fall asleep while hearing the dripping water from a leaky tap? Drip, drip, drip. Know how impossible that feels? Well, imagine if you had that feeling always, imagine if all noise felt that visceral and in-your-face. Lucky you’ve got those filters. Turns out, not everyone has them. I don’t. It fucking sucks.

Music is lovely, because music is organised. It has structure. You can listen to a song, remember it, and then follow along as you’re listening to it a second time. Music follows a pattern. There is a logic to patterns. But the everyday noises that surround us do not follow a pattern. Let me tell you, birds are infuriating animals. Sure, their individual little songs can be nice to listen to, but when all the birds of the forest come together, they don’t perform as an orchestra. No, they’re all just doing their own solo piece, completely oblivious to the sounds going on around them. I’m thinking that nature could have done well with a conductor. Someone competent to create order. To make it all just that bit more peaceful. I don’t have those filters others take for granted. I can’t ignore sounds. And that makes the world feel so loud.

It is neat to imagine the human brain as a musical instrument. You can imagine that seasoned player, that old session stalwart who’s played on all the most famous pop hits throughout the decades, and you want to imagine them playing with grace and finesse and showcasing all the amazing sounds that the instrument can produce. But the brain isn’t really some marvel of biological engineering. It’s not intelligently designed. It’s actually just a piece of meat hiding underneath layers of bone, skin, and hair. It’s a complex bit of meat, admittedly. It’s hard to understand exactly how the brain does work. But if you were to open up a person’s cranium, rather than feeling awe, you’d most likely feel grossed out. This thing that we’re supposed to think of as a miraculous product of millennia of evolutionary progress, it looks… Well, it looks awfully pinkish, and wrinkly, and frankly unpleasant.

We’re all mortal beings, made from squishy flesh and blood, scraped together from all that was available at the time. Sure, we may dream and fantasise about one day achieving those heights we aspire towards, to become that perfect superman, whose cognitive abilities put them on par with the mythological titans of the past. But really, we’re all just trying to do our best with what we’ve got. You may not be able to play the finest of Mozart’s many symphonies, the instrument that you’ve been given just simply isn’t up to snuff. Even if all you can play is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, that shouldn’t weigh on your value as a human being. And besides, that’s still Mozart you’re playing.

I will undoubtedly get back to discussing music in later instalments of this blog. It is truly a major part of my world, and without the joys I associate with it, I would be in a far worse place. But I think that, ultimately, what I wish to arrive at, is the fact that our sensory perceptions have a significant impact on how we piece together our sense of self. While it may be an unnerving thought to consider, what would happen to our understanding of ourselves if we one day were to lose one of our major senses? I am sure that many people could go without their sense of smell. Humans have long since abandoned smell as a dominant sense. To a dog, on the other hand, to lose its sense of smell would be devastating. It would lose part of what it means to be a dog. For humans, we enjoy the scent of freshly baked bread, the whiff of somebody’s perfume, or the bouquet of some pricey bottle of wine. But that’s nothing to what dogs get out of their sense of smell. To a dog, its sense of smell is its world. Is a dog even a dog if it can’t sniff around? Do you think dogs ever take their sense of smell for granted?

I do not think that humans are what we eat, but I suspect that we may be what we perceive. Our consciousness does not exist independently of the world that surrounds it, but rather, it is formed by the outside stimuli it receives on a constant basis. The fury of noises, lights, smells, all kinds of impressions, it shapes you. It is what our memories are built on. I am not at all certain that there exists anything more to the mind beyond that. I doubt that we’ve got some immutable soul hidden underneath it all. Humans are the collection of thoughts and ideas that we’ve attached ourselves to throughout our lives, and naturally, if you’re neurodivergent, that process is going to happen differently to most. At times those differences will be large enough that it can create real conflicts with those others around you. Effectively, to be neurodivergent is to suffer constantly from culture shocks. To me, it is natural to loathe the cacophony of birds in the summer. Their screams feel like piercing needles embedding themselves into my skin. But I try telling that to others, and I’ve yet to find anybody who agrees with me.

So, am I just wrong? Am I mistaken? Am I a freak? Why can’t I just be like everybody else? Why must I be such a buzzkill? I can’t even enjoy birdsong, I really must be a pain to be around. How did it come about that I just can’t be normal? Normal. I want to be normal. It is and it will likely always be grossly underrated to just be normal. Normal people don’t know how good they have it. They’re just too normal to be able to perceive it. When you’ve never been without it, you don’t know what it is to miss it. Normalcy. Having a normal brain. Having others see you as a normal person. Only if you didn’t have it, would you know how great it is. Do you sometimes wonder if dogs know how much they’d miss their sense of smell if they ever were to lose it?

Then again, there is no such thing as normal, is there? If you were to take the world’s most average person, then that person would be abnormal. To be a person is to be unique. We’re all special snowflakes. Aren’t we?

You may not play your instrument in a conventional manner, but who’s to say what manner counts as conventional? It’s all just so arbitrary. Who’s to say you can’t play an acoustic guitar as a drum? Who’s to say you can’t treat your piano as a percussion instrument? Smack your cello with a flute, if you’d like. Isn’t it just delightful when you see a unique performer who is able to play their instrument in a way you could never before have conceived it being played? The novelty of it all. The absolute joy of being exposed to something different. Of seeing something that can barely be believed. You love things that are unusual, and you think people who are different should delight in being different. Surely, it is better than being normal and boring?

But is it all that bad to be boring? And you may love what’s different, but when it comes down to it, despite your positive inclination, you still perceive it as being the other. It is not you. It is not mainstream, it is underground. Secluded. Deviant. Those who truly do struggle to fit in with society, to be just like everybody else, they are constantly faced with these little reminders that they just don’t belong. They are humans (at least they think they are humans,) but they’re not like other humans they know. For as much as they get told that they should embrace their quirky nature as simply being who they are, it is hard to know what it is like to be not normal, when all you’ve ever been is normal. Sure, for a performance or two, it’s fun. It’s fun to get the attention, to be seen as having something others don’t have. But then, at the end of the day, all you want is to be able to fall asleep, without the birdsong outside your window keeping you awake.

#neurodiversity #neurodivergent #autism spectrum disorder #autism #aspergers #mental health

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himikiyo · 3 years ago

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in saecula saeculorum // himikiyo week day 3

Himikiyo Week Day 3: Vice + Virtue

"If you’re so against the idea of people getting hurt, you should have thought twice before summoning a demon."

Read on AO3, DRA, or under the cut.

Demons did not exist in the modern world. That was common sense, accepted by nearly everyone save fringe conspiracy theorists and fanatics of all types. Those who would believe in something so patently unscientific, so laughable, would be deemed worthy of ridicule themselves. There was no use for the supernatural when humans had triumphed over the natural world itself.

That was the party line, anyway. It was taught to children in schools, passed on in social interactions and media. Even those curious enough to seek out old tomes and uncover the stories within were motivated to dismiss them as legends. Stories of such things were fascinating, but they were from a less educated time. When people didn’t understand the world around them, they were motivated to devise stories of evil beings to explain their misfortunes.

None of it was real. Humanity’s biggest danger was itself.

Locked in a dusty church basement, one girl felt differently.

“Angie hopes you find the answers you seek, Himiko-chan! Remember though, Kami-sama might just smite you down if you aren’t careful! Even as powerful as he is, he doesn’t take threats lightly.” Setting down a small stack of books and clapping her hands together to brush off the dust, Angie took a step back towards the door. “Oh, and lock up when you’re done, okay? Technically Angie isn’t supposed to leave anyone alone here.”

“Yeah, got it. I’ll be sure to take care of everything.”

“In that case, good night!”

Just like that, she was gone. Himiko stayed where she was and waited until the patter of Angie’s footsteps faded out entirely, leaving only silence behind. It was a little creepy alone in a church at night, she had to admit. Best friend or not, Angie’s religious devotion was unnerving even in the daylight. Himiko was more interested in other aspects of the arcane. Things that wouldn’t be taken so lightly if discovered. For the experiments she wanted to perform, the church basement was safer than her apartment in more ways than one.

Summoning a demon was risky at best.

She already had the proper page marked. The candles were lit. The offerings were nearly ready. The demon — whose name in the book was an illegible scrawl, written in a language Himiko had never seen before — would appear or they wouldn’t. Her years of study had convinced her that these creatures were out there, lurking beyond the boundaries of normal human perception, but if she was wrong, this would be the time for that to be proven too.

Her hand trembled as she flicked the light switch off, plunging the room into dim candlelight.

The shakiness made it more difficult to draw blood, scarlet droplets scattering onto the page she was reading from as much as into the bowl they were meant for.

This was an academic experiment, yes, but it was a deeper part of her that would be devastated if it failed. A part of her that thought someone non-human might provide the kind of companionship and understanding she’d always lacked. Angie was sweet, but she couldn’t honestly say they saw eye to eye.

She carried on with the ritual, occasionally glancing around the darkened room to look for any changes. Nothing.

“Maybe...this isn’t going to work,” Himiko said softly to herself, gaze dropping to her own bloodied arm. “Maybe everyone’s right. If demons exist, we don’t really know how to summon them. Not anymore. They aren’t coming.”

Visually, not a single thing changed after she said that. She was alone. From the emptiness, though, an unknown voice made itself heard.

“Not coming? But I am already here. You humans really are blind.” A whispery chuckle followed those words, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

“What? Who said that?” She turned, fumbling for the lights.

“Yumeno Himiko, I have answered your call. It’s been many years since a mortal last pulled me from the depths, but I am, as always, delighted to serve.” Though the voice was disembodied, not providing any visual clues to help her, she could clearly imagine an evil, toothy grin, like a monster waiting for its prey.

Ignoring the stinging pain still shooting up her arm from the ceremonial cut, she finally slammed her hand against the light switch, bathing the room in brightness. The sudden change made her eyes water, but even before she adjusted, she could tell it did nothing to illuminate her new companion’s location.

“Further introductions are in order, aren’t they?” the voice continued. “Demons’ true names tend to be a struggle for such limited creatures to pronounce, so I took the liberty of selecting a human name for myself a few centuries ago. I am Shinguuji Korekiyo.”

Taking a few steps over to the counter, Himiko grabbed the bandage she’d prepared and pressed it to her arm.

“Um, that’s nice, but...would you mind being...visible, Shinguuji-sama?” she asked meekly, being as polite and deferental as she possibly could. It was beginning to occur to her that she might be in over her head.

“Ah. Yes.” Just like that, she was suddenly aware of a presence behind her. Before she could turn to look, she could feel something brushing against the back of her neck. Someone’s nails? They felt sharper than that though, more like claws. A shiver running down her spine, Himiko tensed, feeling unnaturally warm fingertips graze along her pulse point. The heat wasn’t only coming from their hand though. It seemed to radiate from their entire body, like she was standing in front of a fire. Like if she leaned just a little closer, it might devour her.

After a moment, the hand retreated. She turned, and in the half second it took, they were no longer right behind her. Instead, she saw a figure leaning almost lazily against the opposite wall. For the most part, they appeared human. Lanky and incredibly tall, the way they held themself betrayed strength far beyond what their build might suggest. The mask covering most of their face made it impossible to know whether the smile she imagined was truly present, but the sparkle in their eyes suggested it might well be.

“Thank...you...” she croaked, not wanting to say anything that might make this demon — because yes, it was abundantly clear they were one, appearances aside — upset with her.

“Humans can be broken so easily,” Shinguuji mused. “Both physically and mentally. I’d almost forgotten how entertaining it is. Now, tell me, what is it you summoned me for?”

“To prove I could, I guess. That was part of it, anyway. And to learn from you. Studying magic on my own isn’t the same as having a master. And the third reason, I guess, is just...companionship.” Arm nicely wrapped now, she had no excuse to look anywhere but at them, though her face was burning with embarrassment.

“Study? Well, perhaps you’re smarter than you seem choosing me then. I’m partial to research myself. I do hope we can have some fun outside the classroom too, however.” Himiko knew without a doubt then, mask or not. They were definitely grinning, almost leering.

“What kind of fun do you mean?”

Moving closer again, they replied, “Shall we kill together? There must be people you want gone, yes? I can make quick work of them.”

That sent a chill down her spine, canceling out the pleasant remnants of warmth almost immediately. She was no idiot, of course. She understood that demons were violent by nature. But she didn’t call them for anything like that. They...couldn’t insist that she help them get that kind of ‘fun,’ could they?

“What? No. I don’t want to hurt anyone,” she said, pretending she couldn’t hear her own voice shaking. “Sure, there’s people I don’t get along with, but killing? And...besides, should you really be saying things like that in a church?” Himiko didn’t believe, especially not in Angie’s god, but it seemed as good an excuse as any.

“I don’t fear gods,” Shinguuji said dismissively. “They have no power over me. If you’re so against the idea of people getting hurt, you should have thought twice before summoning a demon. My kind isn’t meant to linger in the mortal world for long without reason, and it’s been so many years since I was last given a chance to...sate my appetite.”

“No, we can’t,” she repeated. She could hear the glee in their voice, like they were enjoying not only the prospect of murder, but the experience of winding her up over it. She was probably giving them exactly what they wanted, but she couldn’t help it.

“Well, if you’re so steadfast in your beliefs...I could always kill you instead, yes? We signed no formal contract. I’m under no obligation to keep you safe.”

In that moment, she was acutely aware of everything around her. The occasional flicker and buzz of the fluorescent lights, the musty basement smell of the air, and more than anything, the imposing presence across from her. If they really wanted to kill her, there would be nothing stopping them. But they were just watching her — beautiful, dangerous, and all too satisfied with themself.

Shinguuji laughed, closing the remaining distance between them. A hand cupped her chin, gently guiding her to meet their eyes. They were a brighter, more intense amber than she’d ever seen in a human being.

“Flattering me to keep yourself alive? Well well, that’s one way to go about it. I’m pleased to hear that you find me so beautiful.”

“I didn’t say that!” Their grip, if it could even be called that, was exceedingly light. It wouldn’t be remotely difficult to pull away and avert her eyes, but she didn’t. She was captivated.

“You didn’t need to. You thought about it. So then, what will it be? I have no real need to kill you, not when I can gain energy from you in other ways. And you’re so entertaining besides. If you’d simply allow me to possess you, you would have access to power beyond your wildest dreams.”

“And what’s the catch? There’s no way something that lets you...feed on my energy doesn’t have any negatives.” She chose not to comment on just how close they were now. The warmth of a lithe, not quite human body pressed against her own was oddly comforting.

“There is no catch. However, if it would make you feel better, I’d be willing to write up a formal contract.”

“I’ll look at it then,” she said grudgingly, one of her own arms starting to slip around them in return. “But before that, no weird possession or mind control or anything. And no murder.”

“Mm, I’ll make you fall in love with it yet. Perhaps when we seal our contract with a kiss?”

“We don’t need to do that.”

Shinguuji laughed, once again backing off from the overly intimate invasion of her personal space. “Indeed we don’t. But don’t let it be said that I didn’t offer.”

“Let’s just go home for now. People won’t notice that you’re not human, will they?” Maybe, just maybe, she’d end up taking them up on it.

#himiko yumeno #korekiyo shinguji #himikiyoweek2021 #himikiyo #danganronpa

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withteeths · 4 years ago

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Maybe Steamrolling Games is Bad Actually

Videogames are unique in that they are inextricably tied to corporatism and have been since birth (this is an oversimplification but roll with it). This means that to an extent most companies even since the ’80s have never really cared about proper preservation or easy access to their titles. Nintendo carts were originally manufactured to have their battery die in 3 years so you would have to buy a new one (this failed, but it’s why you still see a lot of dead carts floating around). I think there's a nostalgia issue within the gaming fandom regarding "oh x was great back then" but a lot of the time, games manufacturers have been historically shitty and anti-consumer and it’s just that they now have the tools to execute it much more effectively. Regarding obtrusive DRM, that’s an issue PC games have had since their zenith, where if you lost your original copy of a manual or a small plastic key you could never play a game again because the codes were individualized for each copy and support would refuse to give you a new one. Even back in the arcades, there were particularly batshit examples like the CPS board, which I shit you not was built to explode a battery pack filled with corrosive acid if it detected you were attempting to repair or modify it. There’s a lot to say about the current state of games but what I would likely illustrate is that 2/3 major consoles are racing to decide who will be obsolete first. Games consoles are reaching a point where they are trying to emulate PCs with more restrictions and DRM. We're already seeing interest in steam spike again and it’s likely that eventually, we will see almost a crash for consoles where no one can justify the price for games they can play on a PC rig. The only solution I see there would be a merger between the two consoles which feels inevitable.

That being said as interest in the PC space increases again so does attempts at entering the bubble. We have Epic, Origin, Microsoft, Indiegala, Itchio, and Steam all vying for attention, requiring accounts, and offering exclusives to justify the use of their storefront over others. Some people think this is a good thing because it's breaking up Steam's monopoly but it literally is not, if you ever really wanna hear me rant ask me about Leftist obsession with itch being some sort of ethical steam, which it is provably not. In the end, the real sort of saviour figures that work to preserve games are random ass people on the internet. I know people who automatically assume that at the end of the day, companies care about games preservation too, and they usually have a three-pronged argument that cites a) Steam’s ability to allow the redownloading of delisted games, b) retro companies periodically rereleasing titles for modern consoles in compilations, and c) companies doing limited reruns of a game that fans request. All three of these examples are basically an incredibly effective use of diversionary tactics, but most of the time when someone cites these I just assume it’s a misunderstanding and not outright malicious intent because a lot of the time companies will attempt to actively implant these ideas to build brand loyalty.

My main dissertation is usually that Steam is incredibly selective with what titles you can redownload, and most importantly, corporate benevolence is more-so a band-aid on a gaping wound! There’s no contingency for when Steam might migrate to a new service, go belly up, or become obsolete when a new OS is created. That means thousands, tens of thousands of dollars worth of games are just gone, permanently, along with fan mods, DLC, and content. It’s a terrifying thought that not many people bring up when discussing the problems with game storefronts that focus so much on providing a cloud and have DRM attached to every purchase. In a way, Steam preceded the trend of not allowing consumers to actually own the things they purchased, and they’ve avoided criticism by strategic use of silence and creating the illusion of a company being made by the consumers they’re attempting to serve. At the end of the day, Steam is a business, and if you ever lose access to your Steam account, or they decide to up and leave one day, you will not be able to play almost all of those games, even if you have them installed on a hard drive, because if you’re online, they connect with a server to ensure your steam account has the ability to play them. When it comes to other arguments like the limited rereleases or use of compilations to preserve arcade titles, I usually just beg people to look at community-driven options that have existed for years. The Scott Pilgrim game is a big source of contention, but I would point out that for years now, it was playable, for free, with all the DLC, on PCs. Preservationists didn’t wait for the gods of Universal and O’Malley to rerelease it for 30 bucks or save up to snatch the fucking ridiculous 200$ limited edition with shitty paper cut-outs, they straight up just did the work to make the game free and available. RCPS3 has (with a contemporary build) been able to run the game pretty flawlessly for years now, in fact, it was how I played through a majority of the game in high school on my shitty brick of a laptop. If you look further out than this one example then it gets even better, MAME and other emulation backends have been able to play obscure, unfinished, and homebrew titles with 100% accuracy, on almost any setup, for free, for decades! I found out about many of these options back in 2015 or so, certainly late to the curve, but I never really questioned as to why emulation, games preservation, and some key titles being available on PC remained some sort of arcane, unknown knowledge to most people interested in games. In the end, the answer was a highly effective propaganda campaign that combined with strategic use of DMCA takedowns has resulted in the concept of communal games-preservation and emulation becoming some sort of debate, where people will wholeheartedly side with corporations in some sort of quest for preserving things the “ethical and correct way,” which is code for preservation on the condition that it remains profitable for the IP owners.

I think the best way to illustrate this would be with the community built around the preservation of an infamous PS4 title, PT. The story of its inevitable delisting from the storefront and the messy breakup between Kojima and Konami is well known, so I won’t regurgitate it, look it up at your own leisure. What is significant here is corporate reactions to attempts at preserving the game, which can basically be boiled down to Konami acting with borderline rabid fervour to prevent redownload, redistribution, or recreation of a seven-year-old demo, released for free download. Mentions of solutions to redownload the game have been taken down, fan-made recreations for PC, and archival servers that store a copy of the game for future preservation or emulation. Usually when this is brought up a debate occurs citing that technically speaking, Konami has a right to do this whenever they want, for whatever piece of media they believe infringes on their copyright. On one hand, yes this argument is factually correct considering the current state of copyright and ownership of media, but on the other hand, what compels someone to step into the ring for a multi-million dollar company with the primary argument being “well actually, people SHOULDN’T be able to play this specific video game until it benefits the shareholders”? In my opinion, it’s some sort of corporatized symbiosis where players believe that, if you cull the bad actors and play by the rules of the company, you may be able to eventually play the game a couple of years down the line. Sure, this has happened in the past with a few isolated cases, but it can’t be stressed enough that this is a genuinely dangerous and reductive position for people to take regarding games preservation.

I have two colleagues, Mariken and Fotocopiadora, who released a short interactive title called Videopulp (playable here: https://fotocopiadora.itch.io/videopulp). It’s a dramatic reimagining of a real historical event, wherein a promotional event was held in 1994 at Lelystad to destroy bootleg carts by a figure in a Mario costume. This perhaps best encapsulates something I am pleading with younger generations to understand, as an archivist, art historian, and creator: corporations are not your friends, and they never will be. With the rise of online circles of leftism, this concept is starting to gain traction but is starting to be polluted with concepts of fandom and tribalism. This has lead to arguments that while *most* corporations are bad how could you say that about Nintendo? Or Valve? Mario is so innocent and characters like Wheatley are beloved by all! I feel some people don’t realize that they can enjoy a select title or character without enlisting in a corporate faction in the battle for “best company” or “best videogame”. It leads to a parasocial kinship with a nonexistent figure that was hand-crafted to ensure consumer loyalty to a certain brand. It’s depressing, terrifying, and should stand as a disquieting example of how the grip of capitalism on works of art has permanently distorted how we think and engage with media today. So, what’s the solution? As always I can never really provide something concrete that’ll act as a cure-all, only things that people in games need to work towards. Bring up conversations about games preservation, create archives for your own work, support archivists and boost their work whenever a new discovery is created, and try to promote optimism and solidarity in your hobbyist communities. I’ve noticed a lot of futility being intertwined with the future of AAA gaming, use of online storefronts, and the inability to own pieces of media anymore, and I feel this should be pushed back against, even in a minute way. Open-source programmes still exist that allow you to hold on to what you have purchased, offline and ad-free options exist for games launchers, e-readers, and media players. The future isn’t bright, but it is not a place without hope, and as long as people continue to enter communities with passion and ingenuity, I think we have a chance at stopping the events at Lelystad, 1994 from happening again.

#videogames #games preservation #scott pilgrim #rambling #post

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