#no little arctic boy don’t go into the distortion door!!

[soupdwelling]

get distortioned idiot

[musicallisto]

☠ Powder Snow (Dan Pierce)

We all need to cope with the end of ILITW in some way, and I thought Dan fluff was appropriate. This is based on @faded-hero‘s amazing HCs, she very kindly let me use them as inspiration because I really wanted to write something winter-related because it’s one of my favorite times of the year and yeah hope you all like it! Also inspired by the fact that it has been snowing non stop for three days or so last week in Paris, and I’M LIVING. Set in a AU where everyone is happy, alive and all the Redfield shit never happened because that’s what my babies deserve. Dedicated to all my fellow Dan stans who literally don't deserve this.

word count: 1900+ words

summary: In which Devon and Dan take some much-needed time to themselves, playing in the snow and goofing around like the children they never had the chance to be.

warnings: None really, I’m FINALLY WRITING FLUFF YAY. Used my F!MC Devon for this!

Devon’s eyelids fluttered open as she tried to adjust to the new light breaking through the curtains, mindlessly left open the night before. A placid silence was sleeping over the two silhouettes, lazily thrown into relief under the milky sheets. It was almost as if the entire world had been plunged into a silvery quiet, that silence so serene and warmly cold that only belongs to snowy December mornings.

A harmonious breeze danced over the bed and tickled Devon’s sleepy eyelids. She yawned intensely, trying to shake herself from the last remainings of her dream, until her eyes groggily fell on the window and she jolted awake.

From her comfortable spot in the bed, she had a clear view of the front of her garden, where a couple of partridges were carefully tiptoeing, and the long, sinuous street just behind the brown fence, snaking like an asphalt river in between the rocks of mailboxes and the fallen trunks.

And everywhere, under the claws of the partridges, over the surface of the asphalt river, crowning the rocks of mailboxes and the fallen trunks and as far as Devon’s eyes could stretch, was a heavy, immaculate layer of snow like a powder snow carpet just waiting for her to jump in it.

All tiredness instantly disappeared from her body as soon as she understood that it had snowed for the first time during the night; she sat on the bed, giggling to herself, an eight-year-old smile sprawled on her face and released herself from the sheets, jumping on the cold parquet and running to the daylit panoramic window.

“Wow...” she whispered to herself, her gaze admiringly longing on the white esplanade before her eyes, undisturbed and untouchable. Snow was not unusual in Oregon, especially during severe winters, but it often wasn’t higher than a few inches that melted as soon as they touched the ground. Besides, all of this ice coming from the heavens was enough to revive the child that lived inside her bones.

“Dan! Dan, wake up! There’s snow! You’ve got to see this!” she happily exclaimed, turning around to face the drowsy figure of her boyfriend.

She ran to his side, ecstatic, and almost jumped on him to get him to move out of his lethargic state. He grumbled sulkily, his eyes still closed, and stretched his arms above his head as Devon energetically shook him, hoping a more active response from Dan.

“Hm... Devon, let me sleep...,” he groaned, his face distorted in a grumpy grimace, still not opening his eyes but rubbing them intensely, trying to get out of his torpor.

“How can you sleep on a morning like this?” Devon exclaimed, not affected in the slightest by her boyfriend’s somnolence. “There’s snow everywhere! We’ve got to go out to play!”

“Oh, god... Five more minutes, please...”

If Dan had learned something over the time he had spent dating - and living with - Devon, it was that when she got really enthusiastic about something and her repressed childishness showed, you did not want to mess with her or contain it in any kind of way; thus he regretted his words as soon as they crossed his lips.

But if he surely was expecting some kind of remonstrance, more reproaches or a two-minute long lecture about how charming winter is, he was definitely not expecting his girlfriend to push him off the bed.

He hit the floor with a loud thud, immediately groaning as a reflex, rubbing the back of his head with his hand, stars dancing before his eyes; and he looked up, over the tangled mess of fallen sheets covering his body, he saw the stern-looking face of his girlfriend, arms crossed over her chest, harshly eyeing him up and down.

“You’ll fall asleep five minutes earlier tonight. Come on!” she exclaimed, pulling on the bedsheets to reveal the astonished and disheveled face of her boyfriend. She had to admit he was especially cute, with his hair tousled in all directions and his eyes wide open, his mouth hanging in an interrupted yawn, but his good looks and his puppy-like confusion weren’t enough to save him from playing in the snow with her. “I’ll meet you downstairs. And dress warmly, it’s cold outside!”

With those words, she disappeared from his view; he heard her giddy footsteps running down the stairs, ready to lead her to the breakfast. He knew there was no escape; he fell back against the mattress, defeated, the glint of a smile on his lips.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Yes, trust me, you’re going to regret it if you don’t go out today! Don’t try to pretend, I know how much you love snow.”

“I don’t-”

“Who practically begged me to watch Frozen in July because he missed wintertime?”

“... Touché.”

His smile had grown wide as the conversation progressed, and, convinced by Devon’s teasing, he finally dared to step outside. The satisfaction he felt when the powder snow cracked under his foot, still fresh from the night before, was indescribable. He had missed the tickling of the glacial wind on his cheeks, and the sight of an immaculate garden, and he had to admit Devon was right. He would have regretted it if he hadn’t gone out that day.

Devon, as for her, had happily jumped into the arctic tapestry and had started swimming in it, her back against the cold snowflakes; she was giggling loudly, not caring if anyone heard her on the streets, shaking her arms and legs to draw the silhouette of an angel in the snow. Little white spots stained her brown hair and cheeks, and her chocolate eyes smiled brighter than the sun, so much that Dan felt his own chest warmed up by a sweet bonfire. Devon wasn’t the most serious girl he knew, but she definitely wasn’t the most childish, or the most easily excited, so seeing her acting that silly, surrounded by snow and layers of wool, was a sight that Dan was definitely not going to forget rapidly.

“Come join me, Dan! It’s so much fun!” she yelled happily, her sentence swallowed by the dizzy giggle that escaped her lips as she wriggled on the ground.

Now laughing as well, the brown-haired boy readjusted his scarf and fell by his girlfriend’s side. He was grinning from ear to ear, unable to form proper sentences because of the rabid cold attacking his lips and paralyzing them, as he moved in synchronization with Devon to draw his own snow angel. From the proximity of the two figures, it was almost as if they were holding each other’s hands, and when Dan got up, drenched in snow and his hair completely disarranged, he admired the sight of the two angelic creatures carved in the ice, then looked up to Devon, who had also gotten on her feet, and took her hand in his almost instinctively.

“You're so warm,” he murmured, tenderly looking at her, mirroring her gigantic grin.

“No, you’re just very cold,” she replied, chuckling lightly, her eyes wandering in the ocean of cocoa that filled Dan’s.

In a swift motion, he kissed her cheek, his smile never leaving his face, and let his heart be heated up by the warmhearted, gracious sight of Devon muffled in an enormous winter jacket.

“Okay, now let’s build a snowman!”

He turned his back on Devon and crouched down to dig in the snow, taking a handful of the frozen water, lightly humming to the tune of the famous Disney song. Devon, laughing, joined him in his task and started building snow spheres to create the basis of the creature. She was humming as well, and soon their good-natured mumbling turned into an energetic singing that probably could have waken up all the neighborhood.

“Do you wanna build a snowman? Come on, let’s go and play!”

“I never see you anymore, come out the door, it’s like you’ve gone away!”

And neither Devon nor Dan would have wanted to be in any other place in the world, doing anything else than building a lopsided snowman in the middle of a garden covered in powder snow.

“So I made it extra hot, given how cold it is outs-- oh!”

Devon’s sentence was interrupted abruptly and so was her itinerary when she looked up and her eyes met with the snowman that her boyfriend had promised to finish while she went inside and made two burning chocolates. Dan had made his best to make the snowman as realistic as possible, even stucking a few pebbles where its eyes, mouth and shirt were supposed to be. Despite the hazardous proportions of its body, its twisted, rocky smile, its tilted vertebral column that made it look like an icy recreation of the Pisa Tower, it probably was the most adorable thing she had ever seen.

“He’s quite cute, isn’t he?” Dan’s voice rung from behind the snowman, where he was adjusting the last details. “I think he looks like me. I named him Dan Jr.”

“The resemblance is striking, indeed,” Devon chortled, taking a few steps towards her boyfriend.

He met her halfway and carefully took the flaming cup in his freezing hands; the hot porcelain contrasted with his ice-cold fingers and a wave of contentment and warmth washed over him as he cautiously dipped his lips in the beverage. It wasn’t anything extraordinary, just hot milk with a splash of cocoa powder, but the lingering feeling of Devon’s hand on the mug was what warmed him up the most. 

His eyes went up to find his girlfriend in front of him, sipping on her drink just as carefully, softly blowing on it to cool it down. He was incredibly thankful to have her in his life; he had no idea where he would be, what he would spend his days doing, what he would look forward to, and how unbearable life would seem to him had she not been there. As these thoughts crossed his mind, he smiled wildly, still looking at her hunched figure grazing the brown beverage with her lips.

“Devon?”

“Hmm?” she replied absent-mindedly, not looking up.

“Thank you.”

“For?”

“I don’t know. Being you.”

“I’ll admit I am pretty awesome, but thank you, Dan, for being you too.”

She raised her eyes and found her boyfriend staring at her with such a tender and delicate expression that she almost felt like her heart was being burned inside her chest. The delicious warmth enshrouding her was a kind of joy she never found with someone other than Dan. That boy really was special, and she was determined to keep him for as long as she could.

“Now watch out!”

A sudden cry threw her out of her reverie. She violently came back to reality only to see a snowball flying at full speed towards her chest; letting out a girly shriek, she tried to cover herself, but failed as she was still holding her cup in her bare hands. The snowball hit her square in the chest, knocking the breath out of her, until she heard the unmistakable guffaw of her boyfriend, who had finished his drink and let the mug lay on the ground.

“Oh, you’re on, Pierce!” she exclaimed as she set down her own half-finished drink next to his. She immediately proceeded to gather snow around her and aim it directly at Dan’s head, who was still laughing, taking cover behind a naked tree.

Their child-like laughter was the only thing that could be heard in the gigantic silence of white powder snow.

[acharmedfanfiction]

The black ice cliffs of wherever the hell they were stood a hundred feet tall and at least half that thick. Walking through the ominous poorly lit gateway felt more like walking along a warped and frozen subway line—except for all the bones.

Every breath, every step, every rasp of bone on bone rubbing, multiplied into thousands of echoes which grew louder and softer in a mockery of the Doppler effect. The bones piled higher as they crept forward. Their breath misted up in miniature clouds before them. About halfway through the gateway, the skeletal remnants were so numerous they covered every inch of the ground. Gritting their teeth, they stepped on the bones and continued forward. Snaps and cracks of breaking bone added to the cacophony. The element of surprise was no longer an option.

The footing was too treacherous. The deep green and violet, and occasionally red or blue, pulses of luminance in the black ice walls did nothing to light the way. They only made the shadows shift and flow subtly, playing with shape and depth.

"This is the worst acid trip ever," muttered Paige.

Phoebe laughed nervously.

"Shh," admonished Piper.

If a demon appeared at the far end of the tunnel and charged, things would get nasty, fast. Given who they believed to be in the area, it was doubtful their powers would do much to slow them down. It would take the Power of Three, and they were sorely ill prepared to throw together a spell on the fly. The bones and ice made physical confrontation an even poorer choice.

Irrational fear threatened to overtake them. Piper, in particular, raced to reach the other side. She needed to find her sons, her family. Only a lifetime of demon fighting kept her from plowing through the piles of bones and worse without thought. Patience and caution prevailed.

She emerged from the gate into a courtyard in the midst of a permanent Arctic winter. The inside of the fortress was bleak, bitter, and beautiful in its simplicity and symmetry. There was a definitive lack of buildings, of a castle. Stairs led up to the battlements atop the walls at exactly even intervals. The courtyard was flat, smooth, covered in a thick sheet of ice, and at its center stood an angular distorted spire. Atop the spire sat a crenelated parapet that overlooked the walls and the grounds beneath.

The courtyard also held a sense of quiet stillness to it, as though it was not a place meant for living, breathing beings. The howl of wind outside and overhead did not reach the ground. It was silent as a tomb or forgotten graveyard, and each footstep sounded clearly on the ice, Echoes bounced back and forth in disapproval and menace.

Bones spilled out in a wave from the gate, rapidly tapering off after a few yards. Beyond that were only scattered groupings of twisted and misshapen skeletons. Paige walked over to one of the nearest piles and inspected it. The skull was too big to fit into an oil drum. The bone was too thick and dense to look entirely human. It reminded her of the remains of cavemen she had seen on a family field trip to the museum years previous.

"What the hell was it?" asked Phoebe. She too was looking down at a different skull. Her skull was slightly smaller but had the beginnings of horns abutting its brows.

"No clue," said Paige and Piper at the same time.

"Let's not stick around to find out," continued Piper, looking up at the central tower.

Phoebe abandoned the skull and stepped closer to her sisters. "Maybe we should take a moment. I mean—we were orbing to where Paige last felt Pyrrha and the rest. How the hell did we end up in the middle of a frozen medieval castle? I thought they were using a convergence of ley lines in the Canadian Rockies."

Paige joined them. "That is where I planned on taking us. Annie and Pyrrha did theorize that between the convergence and trying to open a gate to fairyland might make magical transportation wonky. It's why they orbed to the nearest town and hiked the rest of the way."

"Wonky how?" asked Piper, clearly losing patience.

Paige shrugged and gestured around them. "Like this?"

"So we're not where we need to be?"

Shaking her head, Paige pointed at the parapet. "It's faint, but I sense my daughter from up there."

"But we don't trust orbing?" asked Phoebe for confirmation.

Paige agreed, shoulders slumping. Concern flittered across her pale face; quickly replaced by determination.

"So we find the door to get into that thing." Without waiting for a response, Piper strode off toward the dark tower.

Mixed among the too large bones were broken piece of black ice interlaced with a strange metallic substance almost like almost solid mercury. The jigsaw-like remains reminded her of armor somehow. A few pieces bore the remnants of ornate engravings in gold and silver, confirming her suspicions. The artwork was among the most elaborate she had seen. Subconsciously, she counted out distinct piles of bones and icy armor: thirteen.

"There were thirteen of them," she whispered.

"Huh?"

She stopped and faced her sisters. "Thirteen piles of bones. And look at some of the ice, it's armor. They were guardians of this place."

"Who do you think killed them?" inquired Phoebe softly.

"Does it matter?"

Paige bent down to study the closest piece of armor. Scorch marks marred the edges. "This one was hit by at least one fire ball."

"Could be demons or Wyatt," griped Piper.

The second piece Paige picked up and turned it over. The ice was pockmarked. Tiny rivers of refrozen ice extended out from the holes. Something told her melting the ice took more than a simple fireball. While she had no doubt her oldest nephew was strong enough to produce the attack required to make such wounds, it was not his style.

"I don't think it was Wy," uttered Paige beneath her breath.

She stood back up and looked around. A shiver ran up and down her spine that had nothing to do with the subzero temperature. They were being watched.

Interspersed between the thirteen piles of remains were bones similar to the ones they are trodden upon in the gateway. The remains were smaller and less human yet still simian.

"These things remind me of trolls and orcs from those movies the boys like."

Paige glanced down at a skull and silently agreed with Phoebe. The feeling of being watched grew. She stiffly stepped back, closer to her sisters. Automatically, Piper and Phoebe reacted. They turned outward, pressed their backs together.

"What?" hissed Piper out of the corner of her mouth.

"A feeling," returned Paige.

"I don't see anything."

Piper narrowed her eyes. "Head to the tower. We need to find the door."

They crept toward the massive spire. Like the rest of the castle and courtyard, it was made of dark ice. They circled the base. It was a solid piece of ice. There was no hint of a divot or crevice to indicate the presence of an entrance. The purple, blue, and green pulsating lights swirled and mocked them in their quest.

"There's nothing here," said Piper in frustration. She angrily rapped her knuckles on the ice, eliciting a dull non-echoing thump.

"Try blasting it," suggested Phoebe.

"No," warned Paige. "It could rebound. Look at the damage to the guards. There was a massive display of power, and yet the surface of the tower is completely untouched."

Piper clucked her tongue. "Now what?"

At her words, the ice groaned. It parted right where Piper had knocked, forming an archway. The ice hiding it flowed flawlessly into the rest of the tower. The interior of the tower was all shadows and slowly shifting colored lights that did little to provide illumination. Inside was nothing bit a spiral staircase, winding perfectly up through the center of the spire toward the parapet.

"That's not creepy at all," deadpanned Phoebe.

Without warning, a sledgehammer slammed into the corner of the archway near Piper's head. She fell down, sporting a cut across her cheek from chipped ice. The three sisters spun around and gasped.

The skeletal remains across the courtyard were no longer simple piles of bones. Rotting and burnt flesh knitted together over animated bones. Ice armor swallowed former owners and acted to hold broken bodies together. Flashes of purple and sickly green magic buzzed across jagged gaps. Ghostly clouded gray eyes swiveled independently in eye sockets.

"Zombie trolls! Seriously!" complained Phoebe, dodging a tomahawk thrown at her head...

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