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in-tua-deep · 4 years ago

Note

au where five found out about vanya's powers in the apocalypse? Like maybe he found Reggie's book or he saw the eyes of vanya's corpse?

oh man like. that would be interesting to be sure, if Five managed to find Reginald’s book in the apocalypse

(He doesn’t read it at first, not for a few months after he finds it. He opened to the page that detailed Reginald’s experiments with how long Deigo could hold his breath in clinical unfeeling words and has to put it away while he breathed - not too deeply though, he didn’t want to breathe in more ash than necessary)

But he eventually does. He sits Dolores up and rages and vents to her, cursing Reginald’s name with every new sordid detail, every new terrible sin he now knows to hurl at Reginald’s feet. He reads no great loss under his section and he’s too dehydrated to weep but something breaks inside his chest nevertheless

(He’d never thought that dad loved them, not really. He might have hoped, back when he was little but he knew better now. He was thirteen, old enough to know better. But he’d at least thought that dad found them useful.

Five had tried to hard, trained so much, been so adaptable. Even then he was no great loss.)

Five finds out from Reginald’s book about Ben’s death. Cold words that describe the way his brother died. Reginald seemed to care more about Ben’s death than Five’s presumed death, but that could be becuase Ben’s power was always bigger than Five’s. More violent. More efficient. Of course Ben was a greater loss, Five’s power wasn’t even inherently useful for fighting.

(Klaus’s power wasn’t useful for fighting either. Reading Dad’s dismissive words calling Klaus a failure makes him bristle. Reading about Reginald locking Klaus away in the mausoleum for days make Five want to hurl the book against the wall.)

Finding out about Vanya is - it’s weird. Vanya was always so ordinary. He loved her of course, for fucks sake he was the only one who cared to interact with her half the time. He loves all of his siblings but he has no illusions about how casually cruel they could be to one another.

But he reads about her powers and clenches his fists and wonders what Reginald would have done if Five had stayed, if Five had kept on his path of rebellion. Would Reginald have drugged him, too?

(Reginald had the power to take their powers away. Five wonders what Klaus thought when he found out, if he had cursed and sworn and raged at the man who watched his son suffer and turn to drugs to deal with seeing things no child should ever see. Reginald had the power to help, and he tortured Klaus instead.)

Because - of course Five assumes that they know. He reads Vanya’s books as well when he comes across it, tucking it into his wagon. He wonders when the truth came out, because the rage that drips from those pages is very real. Vanya doesn’t mention her powers in the book of course, but she would have been what, in her 20s when she wrote it?

Vanya said in her book that she left home at 18, which means she’s had years to get the drugs out of her system and discover what their father had taken from her. Did she think that they knew? That they had kept it from her? Is that why the pages of her book drip with bone deep hurt, making Five’s fingers shake with the ache of them

(Or it could be the hunger, a now constant companion)

Five keeps both books close, even though he wants to vandilize Reginald’s book half the time. It’s strange to see the insight on them and their powers from the perspective of a scientist, odd to see the written results of the torture they went though

(He almost rips the page on the effects of electricity on his warping powers out on principle, but he just ends up curled around Dolores as he trembles involuntarily at the memories)

Five has so few belongings when he is recruited to the Commission, or at least has very few personal ones. He leaves Dolores behind in the apocalypse with a heavy heart but she’s too big to take with him. Too big to hide.

(Five always learned to only take what you can hide, because what you can’t hide will always be used against you.)

He tucks Reginald’s notebook in the waistband on his pants, the hard edges against his back a constant almost reassuring pressure. Vanya’s book gets pushed into one of his deep pockets. The glass eye gets shoved into his sock the same way he used to hide scavenged bills and quarters he would then place beneath the floorboards of his room

(He wonders absently if his money stash was ever found, but it doesn’t really matter now does it?)

He goes through the Commission with the knowledge that he has a bomb hidden away. As much as he keeps the notebook around out of a sense of sentiment he knows he doesn’t want it to fall into the hands of the commission, doesn’t want them to have this dissection of his powers on hand

(he has so little of his siblings left, just the bitter words of Reginald and Vanya both - the irony is that no matter how much Vanya extolled being excluded she had constantly been by Reginald’s side to write down observations, listening to his words, by his side more than any of them. sometimes he reads Vanya’s vicious words and hears the echo of their father in them. It makes sense. He still hates it, just a little bit)

He writes his equations into Vanya’s book instead of Reginald’s. He doesn’t like to read the red book, only opens it to look at the photos included so that he won’t forget what his siblings look like, tries to ignore the words that detail exactly how much force it takes to pop Luther’s bones out of his oh-so-durable joints

He solves them one day, or at least comes close. Closer than he ever had before, and he figures why not? Time for another little experiment. Who knows? Maybe he’ll add this one to dad’s book.

He pushes, and pushes, and then he falls and he’s in a courtyard he hasn’t seen in decades staring at people he hasn’t spoken to in just as long. He looks at them all with wide eyes

(He looks at Allison and hears his father’s clipped tone stating how Allison in improving at overriding survival instincts, he looks at Luther and hears Vanya’s childish voice accusing him of caring more about being a hero than anything else in his life, including his family, he looks at Klaus and sees a face covered in ash and blood with unseeing eyes)

He looks down at himself and sees smaller hands with smoother skin, absent of the burn marks from the variety of fires he’d set in the apocalypse, absent of the crooked knuckles from when he’d crushed two fingers in some rubble trying to get to a can of food, absent of the cracked and brittle nails from malnutrition and food issues

“Shit.” He says, with feeling.

He can feels the press of the glass eye against his leg, the solid weight of Vanya’s book in his pocket, the edges of Reginald’s notebook digging into his skin as he hauls himself off the ground and into a standing position.

They have a family meeting in the kitchen.

Sort of. Five flits about, snagging bread and peanut butter and marshmallow fluff from the cupboard to make himself a sandwich, trying to avoid looking too desperately eager. He hasn’t had his favorite food in so long that the anticipation is actually insane.

“What’s the date?” Five asks, and learns that he doesn’t actually have all that long until the end of the world. But hey, it’s doable. Probably. Unless the reason the world ended was like, political nuclear war or something? But there would probably be survivors of that somewhere, so it was more likely something bigger scale.

(It has to be something he can stop, or this was all for nothing. He refuses to believe he doesn’t have a chance.)

“Cool, so like, the world is ending.” Five says, because why the fuck not? He has all his siblings in one room (except Ben, he has failed Ben, will always have failed Ben because he’s a coward who couldn’t return to a time when Reginald Hargreeves was alive) and he has Reginald and Vanya’s words pressed into his brain, “We have eight-ish days to fix that.”

“Five, what the hell are you talking about?” Luther demands.

Five waves his hand, “Dad sucked, I time-travelled, the end is nigh. I figured even you could grasp that.”

(His eyes ghost over Luther, skittering about the room. He can’t look at Luther’s body without remembering the cruel diagrams pain stakingly inked into the book as Reginald grumbled about failed experiments.)

“You went to the future?” Diego says, voice full of doubt that make his voice harsh. It’s so much deeper than when Five left, no more of the cracks of puberty.

“No shit.” Five says, and he’s so tired. “I was in that hellscape for forty-five years.”

“Forty-five years?” Diego squawks, as though he’s personally offended.

“That would make you... fifty-eight?” Luther’s voice also has doubt in it, and Five can’t really blame him looking at his squishy little barely teenage body.

“Dad was right,” Five manages to get out without gritting his teeth, “Time travel is a crapshoot and sometimes your body does fun and wacky things on you, blah blah blah trees and acorns.”

“Prove you’re from the future!” Klaus demands, eyes bright as he leans across the table, “What’re the lotto numbers, baby brother?”

“I think they’re ‘fuck you the world had already ended by the time I ended up stuck there,’ Klaus.” Five says, mock thoughtfully before tearing off a chunk of his sandwich.

It tastes like ash and peanut butter. Only Five’s genuine trauma regarding food waste and the fact that most things tasted like ash in the apocalypse have him still chewing his food and swallowing.

“Rude.” Klaus says, making a ‘blat’ noise in disappointment.

“Dad’s rich as fuck, wasn’t him kicking the bucket essentially like winning the lottery?” Five points out, and this time it is Luther squawking at him in disapproval.

“Don’t talk about Dad like that!” He demands, and Five has some more uncharitable thoughts about the way Luther’s arms flex just a little unnaturally underneath that big trenchcoat.

“I like this version of Five better.” Klaus declares, looking like Christmas has come early.

“Dad was murdered and you guys don’t even care.” Luther spits out, looking very offended.

“You were murdered and I care very much about that.” Five retaliates, and the entire kitchen goes quiet.

“Can you elaborate a little, Five?” Allison says, ever the diplomat.

(That’s a lie. Allison started more fights than Diego, probably. She just got caught way less often.)

“Well. I mean, I dunno if murdered is the right word considering everyone was dead. You might have just been collateral damage, who knows? Does murder imply intent?”

“Everyone was dead?” Vanya says, voice very quiet.

Five shrugs, then nods, then shrugs again. He doesn’t like thinking about it. “Yeah, but that’s not going to happen this time.”

“I don’t have time for this nonsense.” Luther mutters, and Five valiantly tries to ignore him.

“Five, are you - are you sure you’re alright?” Vanya’s voice wobbles and she looks like she wants to reach out and hold him or something ridiculous like that. She looks at him with big sad brown eyes, “Dad did say that time travel could... mess with you a little.”

Allison nods and oh, Five does not have time for this bullshit.

“I have proof.” He says, and he reaches back and pulls out Reginald’s red notebook and slams it onto the table.

“Is that Dad’s - ” Luther cuts himself off, looking at the notebook with wide eyes.

It is very clearly beaten up to hell and back. Ash has stained the edges of the pages grey and there may or may not be a gouge across the front from a near miss with a bullet while working at the commission. It is a book that has clearly been through hell.

Five also dig’s Vanya’s equally beaten up book from his pocket to dump on the table as well, equally stained with ash and barely held together after being read over and over again for decades, including being used as a notebook in the final years.

(Vanya lets out a little gasp, hand flying up to her mouth with the knowledge that at least one of her siblings read her book. Certainly not the one she thought it would be.)

Five reaches into his sock to pull out the glass eye triumphantly, setting it down on his small stack of treasures.

“What the fuck?” Diego is the one to ask.

“If I time travelled from that day in 2002 to right now, how the fuck would I have Vanya’s book?” Five says triumphantly, “It came out in 2015.”

“Why do you have an eye?” Allison sounds slightly horrified.

“It’s the key to figuring out who caused the apocalypse.” Five says, turning it over in his hands, “It’s gotta have something to do with it at least.”

“Why does he have Dad’s notebook?” Luther demands, sounding equally outraged.

“Found it.” Five shrugs, like the little scavenger he is.

(Emphasis on little. His suit still almost fits, and reading the numbers in Reginald’s notebook versus seeing how fucking tall all his siblings got in person is frankly unfair.)

“Oh my god, okay.” Allison says, throwing her hands up in the air like they’re all nuisances. It’s a familiar Allison look, and Five actually feels a little soothed by the memory. “So the world is ending, Five is back from the dead, and our only clue is a goddamn eye?”

“I was never dead.” Five points out, “But basically, yeah.”

“I don’t have time for this, I have to get back to my daughter.” Allison says, shaking her head.

“I mean if you want Claire to live I would think stopping the apocalypse would kind of be a priority.”

This draw Allison to a halt from where she’d been gathering herself to leave, “You... know her name?”

Five makes the executive decision to not mention the torn out magazine cover featuring his sister and niece that is pressed between some of the pages in Reginald’s journal. “I’d like to meet her one day.”

Just like that, Allison has been won over.

“Do you think it has something to do with whoever murdered Dad?” Luther asks seriously, even if the question makes Diego groan like this is an argument they have had before.

“Who knows?” Five shrugs, “But if we’re splitting into investigation teams, I call Vanya.”

Vanya startles from where she has been sitting quietly, “Me?” She asks, eyes wide.

“Yeah.” Five nods, “I mean, with Ben gone you’re probably the team’s heaviest hitter.”

“What?” Several voices ring out in confusion.

Five blinks, a little confused himself. Unless - “Wait, did you never train your powers?”

“Five,” Vanya says slowly, like she’s explaining a simple concept to a particularly dim child, “I don’t have powers.”

This was - this was unexpected. Why did he not think of this explanation? It’s just - he has now known about Vanya’s powers for like way longer than he hasn’t. It’s almost second nature to think of Vanya as having powers by now. And she doesn’t know.

“Oh boy.” He says, picking up Reginald’s notebook, “This debriefing may take a bit longer than I first thought. Oh, and at some point we should probably cut the tracker out of my arm as well.”

“The what out of your what?”

Yeah the day doesn’t really get much better from there.

#the red book au #five finds reggie's journal in the apocalypse #and so he is very familiar with his sister's powers!! isn't that fun #he's also like 50% more spiteful because actually Fuck Reginald Hargreeves #he is the president of the Dad Sucks Club #because he has the notebook he's been essentially planning his apocalypse game plan for years #with the power of strategy and knowing his siblings powers inside out #or at least to the extent reggie understood them #so he's much more MISSION REPORT when he gets to 2019 #time to debrief the squad on what the fuck is up #five lets the cat out of the bag so early lmao #fuck u leonard #five: haha yeah i want vanya on my team so i can see her sick ass powers in action #the family: her WHAT #five: *surprised pikachu face*#five has spent so long in the apocalypse with dolores who knows what he is thinking #that he struggles with the concept that people don't know what he knows sometimes #me pointing at vanya's book and reginald's notebook: there are both traumatizing to read #Anonymous #long post #far tua long

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snowdice · 3 years ago

Text

Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 66]

I started writing this fic while editing my Big Bang story, but am going to continue doing it for other things now that Kill Dear is out. I will write and publish 100 words of the story every time I finish doing whatever task I’m doing. If you’d like to block these proceedings, please feel free to block the tag proofread stories. I will reblog this post with the parts of the story I do today. Edited chapters are linked; everything else I’ve done so far is under the cut.

My Master Post Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Part 19 Part 20 Part 21 Part 22 Part 23 Part 24 Part 25 Part 26 Part 27 Part 28 Part 29

It’s editing time for me because I have not edited in way too long. I am so behind on the Study Fic and this one. Oof. Also I should do some blog organization maybe.

Chapter 30

After lunch, Patton and Logan took Virgil out to the garden to walk around. They let Virgil lead them around wherever he wanted to go in the garden. A bunch more flowers had died since the last time they’d been out here, and Patton felt sad despite having never felt very sad about that sort of thing before. But, Virgil seemed to really like the flower he’d found last time, so Patton thought he was probably sad on the boy’s behalf.

Of course, Patton thought, perking up, eventually it would be spring, and Virgil could get to not only see some flowers but all of the flowers as they grew. Patton couldn’t wait to see him amongst the garden then.

Virgil took them wandering through the orchard for a while, but most of the trees had been stripped of their fruits and the leaves were beginning to fall off some. They ended up in the vegetable garden after a bit, and Virgil finally seemed to decide on a direction instead of just ambling about.

A few seconds after Patton noticed Virgil seemingly decide on a destination, Patton noticed Mr. Deknis kneeling on the ground a few feet away. Had… had Virgil been looking for him? Patton wondered. That was adorable.

Mr. Deknis looked up as they approached and smiled at them.

“Hello, Mr. Deknis,” Patton said as they came closer.

“Hello you three,” Mr. Deknis said. “Getting into trouble?”

“No,” Virgil said, shaking his head.

Mr. Deknis gave him a flash of a smile. “I know, I’m joking,” he said. “Especially since there isn’t much left in my gardens for certain princes to destroy with experiments.”

“Oh, okay,” Virgil said. He tilted his head. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting the last of the acorn squash out,” Mr. Deknis replied. “It’s the last crop to get finished. Good thing too, it’s supposed to start snowing soon.”

Virgil looked down curiously at the dark green squash.

“Would you like to help me pick a couple?” Mr. Deknis asked.

“Sure,” Virgil said, sounding interested. Mr. Deknis patted the ground beside him, and Virgil knelt down to watch him.

“They’re not too difficult to harvest,” he said. “You just cut the fruit off the stem. You want to leave about a hand’s width of the stem left over which will help preserve moisture. The earlier harvests I left in the field to cure in the sun for a couple weeks, but the frost’ll ruin these, so we’ll take them inside the green house and let them sit in the sun for a bit there. We also want to keep the leaves. You’ll probably be eating those for dinner tonight since they have to be cooked up within about 24 hours after they’re picked. Patton’s mom makes a good side dish with them and she’ll be making some curry tomorrow, probably. Maybe some stew if there are some left over. Put the squash in this wheelbarrow and the leaves into this pile, okay?” Virgil nodded and Mr. Deknis handed him the extra pair of gloves and shears he carried with him in case one set broke. “These might be a bit big on you, but they should work for now.”

Mr. Deknis looked up at Patton and Logan. “Would the two of you like to help?” he asked. “I can get some more equipment.”

“I can help out if you want, but you don’t need to stop and get more equipment just for me,” Patton said.

“The same for me,” Logan said.

“Well, if you’d like to help still, you can sort the leave. Give your mother a head start.”

“Sure,” Patton said. He and Logan went to do that while Mr. Deknis and Virgil worked on cutting the squashes from the vine.

“What do you do during the winter?” Virgil asked curiously. “If this is your last crop?”

“Well, at the beginning, I mostly will be working on making sure things are stored correctly along with some of the kitchen staff. There’s some drying to do and some canning. After that’s done, I’ll spend some time organizing and planning. Then, before the spring comes, I’ll start preparing seedlings in the green house.”

“Seedlings?” he asked.

“I let seeds start to grow in the greenhouse that I replant once it gets warm enough.”

“Why don’t you just plant them where they’re going?”

“I do for some,” he said, “but giving some a head start is good for them.”

Patton watched as Virgil continued to ask questions about gardening while working on harvesting the squash. Mr. Deknis continued to answer them in a calm, soft tone that Patton didn’t think he’d ever heard from the often gruff man before.

Patton wasn’t surprised when, after finishing getting most of the squash off of the vine, Mr. Deknis asked if Virgil wanted to help him with canning some pears in a couple of days. Virgil immediately looked over at Logan and Patton as though asking permission.

“Say yes if you would like to Virgil,” Logan said.

“Yes,” Virgil said as soon as he was given permission. Mr. Deknis smiled at him softly and started loading the last of the squash into the wheelbarrow. Patton offered to run the squash leaves to the kitchen while Logan and Virgil helped Mr. Deknis take the actual squash to the green house.

He dropped the leaves off to a kitchen worker since Mama was busy and headed back out to the garden. By the time he returned, Logan was already back from the green house and sitting by one of the more decorative trees near the castle.

“He’s exploring,” Logan said, nodding at a large patch of bushes.

Patton chuckled. “I see.” He sat next to Logan. Every so often he’d hear the bushes rustle, but he couldn’t tell if it was actually Virgil or an animal.

“He’s adorable,” Patton commented, keeping an ear out.

Logan hummed.

“I’m glad we kept him.”

“He isn’t a pet, Patton.”

Patton rolled his eyes. “I know, but I’m still glad. I’m glad he’s making friends with Mr. Deknis. Once he knows how to read better, we should get him a book about gardening. He seems interested.”

Logan nodded. “Having a hobby would be good for him. Clearly he has a fascination with the garden.” He nodded to the blur of dark hair that could be seen through the bushes. It seemed Virgil had stopped his exploration and was now laying down in the bushes a few feet away.

“I’m going to go see what he’s doing,” Patton said. “I’ll be right back.”

Logan nodded and Patton got to his feet. The bushes were part of a small maze that was filled with flowers during the spring and summer months but were mostly just green and brown bushes for now. Despite the fact that Patton had been able to see him only a few feet away, it took him a while to wind through the path to where he was. When he finally turned the last corner and he came into view, Patton gasped softly.

“Ghost kitty!” he said, making sure to make his voice as quiet as possible.

Despite how soft he made his voice, two pairs of eyes shot over to him. The completely black kitten was perched on Virgil’s lap like she belonged there. Ghost Kitty hissed slightly, but Virgil reached forward to pet her head gently.

“This is Ghost Kitty?” Virgil asked. “I thought you said she was hard to pet.”

“She is,” Patton said. He lowered himself onto the ground from a few feet away from them. “How did you get her to come to you?”

Virgil glanced down at the cat and shrugged, scratching one of her ears. “She just came over to me and let me pet her.”

“Wow,” Patton said softly. He looked at the cat. “Could I pet you sweetie?” he asked, holding out a hand in her direction. She hissed again.

Virgil frowned down at her. “It’s Patton,” he said as though he expected her to understand his words and the exasperation in his tone.

He pet the cat’s head to soothe her and then reached over to grab Patton’s hand. He pulled and Patton carefully leaned a bit closer until his hand was within sniffing distance. Ghost Kitty sniffed his fingers contemplatively and then bumped her head against it. He barely restrained a squeal, knowing that probably wouldn’t be taken well.

He carefully turned his hand over so he could stroke the top of her head. He gently scratched her ear, not daring to go for under her chin yet since she didn’t know him well. “Hi,” he said softly. After a moment, she started to purr softly. Virgil reached over and scratched under her chin and she purred louder. “Oh, you’re a good girl,” Patton breathed, letting a hand trail gently down her back once and then again. Patton settled himself carefully into a seating position continuing to pet her. After a few more moments of soft petting, she hesitantly stepped her front paws onto Patton’s thigh, so she was sitting in both of their laps. Patton laughed softly. “Hi sweetie.” He glanced over at Virgil who had a wide smile on his face as he pet the cat. This. This was adorable. They continued to pet the cat for a very long time.

Chapter 31

Logan waited for a while after Patton left to check on Virgil, but the two never resurfaced. It was odd, Patton would usually remember to come back and get Logan or at least tell them where they were. With a sigh, Logan climbed to his feet to go find them. It took him a while to weave his way through the maze of bushes to them especially because they were suspiciously quiet (Well, suspicious for Patton. Virgil was often unnervingly quiet when alone.) Luckily, he knew the bushes enough after all of these years not to get lost and managed to find the two after a few minutes.

“Ah,” he said, immediately identifying the reason for Patton disappearing.

“Logan!” Patton said, his voice excited, but also quieter than normal. “We found a kitty!”

“I can see that,” Logan responded, taking a step closer. The cat hissed at him in response. The hissing was so intense and wild that he’d suspect the thing was feral if it wasn’t happily on Virgil’s lap having had it’s head in Patton’s lap before Logan had approached.

“No,” Virgil told the animal as though it could understand words. “That’s Logan. Be nice.”

The cat still glared at him and swished it’s tail back and forth threateningly. Virgil pet the top of it’s head and it broke eye contact with Logan to purr.

Patton seemed delighted by the purring, reaching to stroke under the thing’s chin carefully. “We should give her a name!” Patton said.

Virgil frowned. “I thought her name was Ghost Kitty.”

“That is ‘Ghost Kitty’?” Logan asked skeptically. From what Patton had said about that cat, it was terrified of people and no one could ever get near it, even him. Now it was in Virgil’s lap?

“But that was a temporary name,” Patton said, “for before we officially met her. Now we have to give her a real name.”

“Do not give it a name,” Logan said. “You will get attached.”

“How do you name a cat?” Virgil asked.

“Do not name it,” Logan said.

“You give them names based on their personalities, how they look, or even just because it’s a cute name,” Patton explained. “Like, remember Mittens? I named her Mittens because she has white fur and black paws!”

Virgil looked at the cat. “She’s completely black,” he said.

Patton hummed. “So, we could give her a name based on that like Midnight or Shadow.”

“Those are fine,” Virgil said.

“No, no,” Patton said. “I’m just giving you examples. You get to name her yourself.”

“This is a bad idea,” Logan said.

“Just throw out some names,” Patton said. “Anything you can think of.”

“Uh,” Virgil said. “Knife.”

“…Just Knife?” Patton asked.

“Nightmare.” Virgil seemed to think about it. “No, that’s mean.”

“How about things you like?” Patton suggested.

“Alfredo?”

Oh no, Logan thought, he was worse than Patton at cat naming.

“Good start,” Patton said. “Logan, do you have any suggestions.”

“Cat,” Logan said.

“Real suggestions,” Patton scolded.

Logan sighed and thought for a moment. “Aphrodite.”

“Catphrodite!”

Logan glared at him. “Helena.”

“Helenpaw.”

“Claudia.”

“Clawdia.”

“Persephone.”

Patton smiled at him, cheerfully.

“…Damnit!”

Patton turned to Virgil again. “Like that! They don’t even have to be serious. Like, uh, you could name her Madam Fluffywuffykins the Great!”

“Do not name her that,” Logan said, scrunching up his nose.

Logan sat on the ground, the cat eyeing him, but no longer hissing. Logan gently guided them towards more sensible names despite Patton trying his hardest to drag them into stupidity.

Virgil still didn’t quite get it. He mostly tried to name it after foodstuff, and often not even appropriate foodstuff such as “Corn” and “Acorn Squash” and “Sandwich” and occasionally would drop in semi violent ones such as “Razor,” “Nightshade” and “Void.” Patton suggested names like “Fluffers,” “Bobette” and “Darling” as well as some that were puns. Logan tried to direct them towards more sensible ones like “Salem” and even went so low as to suggest the contrary “Snowball.”

It quickly seemed to become less about actually naming the cat and more of a game. Patton had taught Virgil about playing with cats and had even gotten out a ball of yarn he cared around for his crafts. Both Virgil and the cat seemed to find endless entertainment with that. Logan hoped Patton had another ball of yarn that color because, he was never going to get that ball back.

The barrage of names fizzled out into naming things around them like “Leaf” and “Bush” until they stopped suggesting names altogether. Patton and Logan sat back and watched Virgil play with the cat.

Logan watched as they stopped playing suddenly and Virgil and the cat squinted at each other. “Marisol,” Virgil said, pulling the name out of nowhere. “That’s her name.” He said it with a certainty that was surprising considering how he’d treated the naming process with confusion and caution earlier. If Logan did not know better, his tone of voice would indicate that the cat, or Marisol he guessed, had gotten bored of them coming up with stupid names and decided to tell him her actual name herself.

The cat made a sound and batted at Virgil’s face without claws to grab back his attention.

He turned back to it and bopped its face with a finger in kind. It attacked his finger, but in a clearly playful matter as it still did not extend it’s claws and its teeth did not draw blood.

“That’s a great name, Virgil,” Patton said.

“Much more pleasant than any that Patton suggested all afternoon,” Logan said. He received an elbow to the side for his quip.

“A pretty name for a pretty kitty,” Patton said, scooting over to where Virgil was sat and attempting to pet Marisol’s head. Marisol, however, was too keyed up and batted at the hand.

“I love you too!” Patton said.

Logan rolled his eyes, but he had long since resigned himself to watching the two of them play with and coo over the cat for the rest of the day.

Eventually, though, it started to get darker. Even after Logan pointed this out, it still took over an hour for them to relent and leave the bush maze to go to the door. The problem was of course, that the cat had managed to grow very attached to Virgil in the last few hours and she followed them all the way to the door with manipulatively heart breaking mews.

“You’ve got to stay out here,” Virgil said, when they got to the castle door. He pet her ear softly and she shoved her head into his hand. “I’m sorry. I don’t have anywhere to put you.” He sounded horribly sad about that fact and Logan felt himself shift uncomfortably. “I basically live in a closet and Logan doesn’t like cats in his room anyway.”

Logan immediately felt unreasonably guilty, probably more so because Logan did not think Virgil was trying to make him feel guilty. “…Bring the dammed thing inside.”

Virgil blinked up at him. “What?”

“It will get cold soon anyway,” Logan said.

He frowned at Logan from where he was crouched. “But you don’t like fur in your room…”

“I will have to find a potion that works,” he said with a sigh, “and we’ll have to say it’s mine to the guards and Father since it will be staying in my room, but it is yours in every other way. That means you are going to feed it, clean it, and clean up after it.”

Virgil nodded immediately and swooped Marisol up in his arms. The cat went without complaint. “Thank you!” he said. “I love her.”

“I know you do,” Logan said, already regretting it already. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to even consider recanting the offer considering how happy Virgil seemed to be. They had a cat now, he guessed.

Chapter 32

“What are you doing?” Helen asked a few minutes after her son walked into the kitchen and started looking around as though he were trying to find something. It was a few hours into the afternoon, and she and a few workers were already prepping for dinner.

“Uh,” Patton said. “Have you seen Virgil?”

“No,” Helen said. “Why.”

“Er… Logan and I sorta, lost him,” Patton said. He was wringing his hands anxiously. Helen put down the knife in her hand.

“What do you mean you lost him?” she asked.

“Well, see, we were trying to teach him how to play hide and seek, um, but then we didn’t think to tell him that he eventually had to come out if we didn’t find him, and now we haven’t seen him since breakfast.”

“He didn’t know what tag is?” she asked. That was just one more thing to add to the list of why Helen worried about Virgil and where he came from. Every morsel of information she’d managed to wring from Patton despite his evasions made her lists of concerns grow larger, even little things like him not knowing about simple childhood games. Actually, thinking of concerning things having to do with Virgil. “Wait, so he hasn’t eaten lunch.”

“Um, we don’t know that,” Patton’s mouth said while his eyes said ‘no.’

“He needs to be on a consistent diet, especially when he’s still taking the malnutrition potion,” she scolded.

“I know, Mama, I know,” Patton said. “I’m trying to find him. I’d kinda hoped he’d gotten hungry and snuck down here. He probably wouldn’t want to risk being caught stealing food though.”

Helen grimaced. Yet another concerning thing.

“Wait! I have an idea, I’ll be right back.” Patton turned and ran out of the room. Helen frowned at the space he’d been and finished chopping the carrot on the cutting board in front of her. If it had been any other person in the castle missing, Helen wouldn’t have worried, but she had literally never seen Virgil without Patton and/or Logan by his side. Even when he’d gone to help Jeff can some fruit, Logan had reportedly hung around to read a book.

Considering that Logan had never exactly been clingy even with Patton, she imagined that either Virgil asked, or Logan thought he should stay with him for his comfort. So, she was surprised that he was apparently hidden away somewhere in the castle where neither of the other kids could find him.

Still thinking about this, she walked over to the entrance to the cellar below the kitchen where they stored most of the vegetables, planning to grab some more carrots. She was confused for a moment when she heard movement from deeper in the pantry. She reached over and touched the panel near the door that controlled the magic lights.

The newly illuminated figure startled as the lights came on, whipping around to stare at her with wide eyes.

“Virgil?” she asked.

“Sorry,” he said immediately, taking a step back.

“It’s fine,” she said immediately, “but what are you doing here?”

He considered her for a long moment, but apparently, she passed some sort of mental test, because he relaxed, at least as much as he’d ever relaxed in her presence. “Where are we?” he asked.

Her brow knit together. “The cellar under the kitchen,” she said, “You don’t know that?”

He shook his head.

“The only entrance is from the kitchen.” Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen him go through the kitchen at any point.

“No, it’s not,” Virgil said. “There’s a tunnel.”

“A-a tunnel?” she asked. Actually, taking a closer look at him, he seemed a bit grimy. He had dust all over his front and dirt on his nose. She thought he might even have a couple of cobwebs in his hair.

“Yep,” he said.

“Where’s the tunnel?” she asked.

“It’s right over here,” he said. He took a couple of steps and pointed to the ground. There was an open square hole there that clearly had been made a long time ago but which she had never noticed in all of her time working here.

“How did you find this?” she asked.

“We were playing hide and seek,” Virgil explained. “Logan said I could hide anywhere inside the castle. I hid on top of a dresser upstairs in some unused sitting room. There was a hole in the wall above it, so I climbed into it. Then, I crawled a little bit and it let out into a hidden passage in the walls. I wandered around in it until I found another hole in one of the walls. I thought it was a way out, so I squeezed into it, but it took me to a different hallway where I found an old room. There was a different hole in that room that had probably been covered by something because it was in the floor but whatever it was had rotted away. I crawled though it into a tunnel and came out here.”

She couldn’t help but laugh a bit at his explanation. “Well, it sounds like you went on an adventure,” she said, “but Patton and Logan have been trying to find you. You missed lunch.”

He tilted his head at her. “I know. I was supposed to hide.”

“Yes,” she explained, “but you are supposed to come out at some point if they can’t find you for things like food.”

“Oh,” he said.

“They probably should have explained,” she said. “For now, why don’t we get you something to eat? You must be hungry.”

Virgil frowned. “But I missed lunch.”

“You can still eat even though it’s not in normal hours,” she said. “You could even if you had made it to lunch.”

“Really?” he asked, he looked tragically confused by this offer.

“Of course, sweetie,” she said. “In fact, I insist you get something good to eat right now. How about I made you a grilled ham and cheese sandwich? Maybe some cookies too!”

Virgil titled his head. “You are Patton’s mother,” he stated.

Helen laughed softly. “He gets its all from me,” she said. “We should probably go find him and tell him you’re okay. He was worried.”

“I didn’t mean to worry him,” Virgil said with a frown.

“I know,” Helen said. “It’s okay. He’ll probably laugh when he figures out where you’ve been, and Logan will interrogate you all about the secret passageways.” He seemed happy about the prospect of seeing his friends. “Come on, let’s go upstairs for a bit,” she said.

Chapter 33

Patton’s mom had already made Virgil sit down at the small table in the corner of the kitchen and had handed him a sandwich by the time Patton barreled into the kitchen, Logan coming after him at a more sedate pace.

“Virgil!” he said, sounding surprised and relieved.

“Patton,” Patton’s mom scolded. “No cats in the kitchen.” Patton had brought Marisol in with him and had let her go as soon as he’d seen Virgil. She immediately plodded over to him and hoped onto the table to sniff at his face in greeting.

“But she’s the princess!” Patton argued.

“No,” Logan said.

“Yes, she is!” Patton said.

“The stupid cat is not a princess.”

“Don’t be mean to your little sister, Logan.”

“I regret every life decision that has led me to this point.”

While Logan and Patton were distracted squabbling and Patton’s mom was distracted watching them squabble, Virgil tore off a bit of the ham in his sandwich and offered it to Marisol. Marisol gracefully took it from his grip and ate it.

“So, this is Logan’s new cat I’ve been hearing about?” Patton’s mom asked.

“Indeed,” Logan said, his lips thinned. He and Marisol were mostly amicable when alone with just them and Virgil, but Patton had a habit of cooing over the kitten and needling Logan into being irritated.

“Mmm, yeah,” Patton’s mom said. She glanced over at Virgil right as Marisol basically slammed her face into his chin in a bid to get pets. “Your cat.” She shook her head. “But Princess Kitten or not, I do not want fur in dinner,” she said.

“Sorry,” Patton said, honestly not sounding sorry at all. Virgil was always a bit surprised when the insolent shrug garnered nothing more that a scowl that did not reach Patton’s mom’s eyes. “I thought she could help me find Virgil, but you already found him.” He turned to Virgil. “Where have you been all day?”

“Found a tunnel,” Virgil said. He had to use one hand to hold Marisol back from his sandwich as he took another bite, but then gave her a bite of cheese.

“You found what?” Logan asked.

“There’s a tunnel under the cellar,” Virgil said. “It goes to an old closed up room and also to a set of secret passageways.” It was a bit of a security risk honestly, though clearly no one had used it in years by how dirty it was. He did plan to go back into it and make sure the sprawling tunnels didn’t go to anywhere more dangerous like the royal wing.

“A closed-up room?” Logan said. He could see a bit of curiosity already building in his eyes.

“Yeah,” Virgil said. “Where the door used to be seemed like it had been bricked over.”

“Really? Can you show me.”

“Sure,” Virgil answered.

“Ah, perhaps we should be a bit more cautious about climbing through random tunnels we don’t know the stability of,” Patton’s mom said.

Logan’s frown edged on a pout.

“Talk to your father,” she said. “I’m sure he can get someone who understands these things so you can safely investigate.”

“It was safe enough for Virgil,” Logan pointed out.

“No, Logan.”

He sighed but seemed to concede. That was another strange thing about living here. By all rights Logan didn’t have to obey anyone except the king, but he often listened to those around him, not just the adults but Patton as well. It was interesting though it sometimes made the hierarchy hard to figure out. Virgil did sometimes stress out about the hypothetical situation where he got conflicting orders from two people, and he wouldn’t know which one to obey. So far it hadn’t been a problem luckily. They always seemed to work it out amongst themselves in some give and take social interaction that was a bit too complex for him to understand.

Patton walked over to where Virgil was sitting. “I’m glad your safe,” he said. “We should probably put a time limit on hide and seek in the future, so you know when to come out.”

“Did I win?” Virgil asked. He’d honestly forgotten they’d been playing a game until Patton’s mom had asked how he’d found his way into the cellar.

Patton laughed. “I’d say so, yeah,” he replied. He leaned over to kiss Virgil’s forehead, but drew back immediately with a pinched expression. “You are… very dirty,” he said, rubbing his mouth.

Virgil nodded. “Your mom made me sit on a tablecloth,” he said gesturing to the fabric she’d laid over the chair.

Patton snorted out a laugh. “We’ll get you into the bath when you’re done eating and you can tell us all about your little adventure.”

“I would also like to hear about your discoveries,” Logan said. “Though you are not allowed to sit on the bed until you do not have spider webs in your hair.”

Patton’s eyes widened and he jumped away from Virgil, startling both Virgil and Marisol. The latter hopped from the table onto Virgil’s lap. “Spiders?!”

Virgil tilted his head at him in confusion.

“He isn’t a fan of spiders,” Logan informed him, his voice amused at Patton’s reaction.

Apparently deciding that she was no longer startled, but more confused by the noises Patton had just made, Marisol jumped out of Virgil’s lap to investigate, wrapping her way around Patton’s legs. He bent down to pat her back, though he still looked a bit startled.

“Your cat, huh?” Patton’s mom asked Logan once again. Virgil studied her. She had apparently missed Logan mentioning that he allowed Virgil on the bed. Or perhaps Logan was correct in his insistence that it wasn’t actually that big of a deal here. Virgil would rather not test that assumption, however, so was glad that it had been distracted from by Patton’s outburst.

“Creepy, crawly death dealers,” Patton mumbled into Marisol’s fur, having picked her back up. Virgil made a note to not inform Patton of all of the different types of spiders he’d seen skittering around in the castle walls today. Maybe he’d talk about them with Logan once Patton left. He’d probably be interested. Virgil had seen some he’d never seen before! Logan probably could even help him figure out what their names were. “You’ll protect me, won’t you kitty?” Patton asked Marisol.

She made a little ‘burrrr’ sound in response, which Patton seemed to take a confirmation.

“Aw thank you, baby! Such a good baby.”

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Virgil popped the rest of the sandwich into his mouth. Patton’s mom turned away and grabbed a plate stacked with cookies. She handed it to Logan. “Take these, and please get the health hazards out of my kitchen,” she requested.

Logan took them without complaint. “Come on, Virgil,” he said. “Let’s go get you clean.”

“We’re going to need so much soap,” Patton said.

Virgil looked down at himself. “I can go outside and get most of it off if you get me a bucket of water,” he offered.

“Virgil, it’s below freezing,” Logan said as though that had a baring on what he’d just said. Logan sighed. “No. Bathtub.” Virgil shrugged. “Honestly,” Logan said. He turned with the plate of cookies in his hand, clearly expecting to be followed. “You’re not going to catch your death pouring a bucket of water over yourself in the cold when there are literally over a hundred perfectly good bathtubs in this castle. For goodness sakes.” And well, Virgil wasn’t going to complain.

Chapter 34

Patton, to be completely honest, was not all that interested in the room that Virgil had found. Beyond just the fact that it would definitely have creepy crawly death dealers in it, he really did not understand the intrigue. If it had just been him, he probably would have just let a castle worker deal with it, but it was not just him. Logan was ecstatic with the prospect of investigating a secret in the castle. People who didn’t know him well may not believe it considering he spent most of his time with his nose in a book, but he was an adventurer at heart.

Thomas had been easily swayed into finding someone to help tear down part of the wall into the secret tunnel near the room (so no one would have to crawl through the kitchen cellar like Virgil). It had taken a few days, however, and Logan was practically bouncing off the walls waiting. Virgil, despite having already seen the room before, also seemed excited, though if that was because of his own curiosity or because he was just excited that Logan seemed so exited remained to be seen.

“They are silly, aren’t they,” Patton asked Princess Marisol. He was laying on his stomach on Logan’s bed and Princess Marisol had just put her little paw on his nose.

“Yes, I agree,” he said. “Don’t they know that we’re literally going to be 2 feet away from the normal hallway?”

“It is not silly,” Logan defended himself. “Any number of things could go wrong.” He sounded far too excited about the prospect of something going terribly wrong. “The tunnels could cave in and block off the exit or there could be some unknown pathogen in the air.”

Patton did not ruin his fun by mentioning that Logan’s dad had definitely basically baby proofed the tunnels for them ahead of time. Instead, he just said, “Don’t let Virgil hear you say that sort of thing. It will just stress him out.”

“Yes, yes, of course,” he said, waving off Patton’s concerns as he mulled over two different weird green planty things (potion ingredients, Patton assumed) before setting one aside and sticking the other in his bag.

“So silly,” Patton cooed at the cat. Logan let out a huff but did not choose to say anything about it this time.

Speaking of silly, Virgil came back from Logan’s bathroom then, and Patton tried not to giggle. “Is this right?” Virgil asked, sounding and looking confused. Logan, in his overexcitement about adventure had commissioned Virgil an outfit that actually fit. Said outfit, however, very much made it look more like Virgil was going on a safari instead of a two-foot detour from the normal castle hallway.

“Almost,” Logan said, “Here, let me.” Logan started straightening everything out and flattening the collar, reminding Patton of an overbearing parent on picture day. Virgil accepted the fussing without protest. It was adorable. Well, the outfit was ridiculous, but still, adorable. “There,” Logan said. “I think we’re ready to go now.”

It was about time. Patton was sure people were already waiting for them downstairs. Patton got up and patted Princess Marisol on the head. She looked up at them with interest.

“You can stay here, sweetie,” Patton told here. She seemed to consider it and then hopped down from the bed to go rub up against Virgil.

Patton guessed she was coming. It didn’t matter too much since Logan had given her a magical collar that allowed her to open most doors in the castle and everyone knew she was the royal cat now, so if she decided she wanted to come back to the room and nap, she could. (She was very aware of the power she held.)

She pranced happily by Virgil’s side all the way down the steps to the first floor of the castle. She was such a good kitty.

Well, she did hiss angrily at everyone who came too close to them, but still, a very good kitty.

Patton did lean down and pick her up so they could actually talk to the man waiting for them at the large hole in the wall. Logan went to talk to the castle worker while Virgil half hid behind Patton. He was clearly listening very intently to the conversation however, at least more intently than Patton was. Patton was busy shaking his head fondly.

“Yes, yes, Princess,” he said to the cat. “I know we do not trust the strangers, but I promise this stranger is perfectly safe.”

“How do you know?” Virgil asked.

“His name is Chester and I’ve known him since I was 9.”

This seemed to slightly alleviate Virgil’s suspicion, but Princess Marisol still seemed antsy. Patton really needed to start slowly introducing the both of them to more people.

Logan finished talking with Chester after a few moments and it was time to climb through the hole in the wall. He wished he saw in the tunnel whatever Logan with his excited eyes and bounce to his step obviously saw. Or even that was more comfortable in the dark closed in space as Virgil obviously was. As it was, Patton’s nose scrunched up at the thought off all of the spiders that could be living everywhere in the secret tunnel, but he pushed through.

The entrance to the tunnel had been made only a little bit from the room Virgil had mentioned and Chester had led them through it after only a couple of seconds. As Patton had suspected, the room was already lit up and probably cleaned a little bit by the people who had cut into the wall, not that he was complaining.

Virgil was still clinging a bit to Patton’s shirt, though it seemed to be less out of anxiety at this point and more out of a desire to stick close. He was peering around curiously at the lit-up space. He probably hadn’t seen much of it in the dark when he’d been here before.

Yet, his curiosity was nothing compared to how excited Logan seemed to be. Now Patton may have not been interested in the room itself, but he was entertained by how interested Logan was and was happy to encourage that.

“What do you think this place is?” he asked Logan.

Logan hummed contemplatively, eyes looking around. “Well,” he said. “It’s a bedroom clearly, and old. Considering the location it is in in the castle, the size, the decorations, and it’s likely age, I’d imagine it was a bedroom of a royal family member. This used to be the royal wing three royal lines ago.”

“Bearing that in mind, there are a couple of likely possibilities for the origin of the room as well as the reason it was sealed up, but we will need to investigate more in order to come to an actual conclusion.” He had already placed the bag he’d brought on the ground and was going through it, pulling out things that Patton did not recognize. He also got a piece of paper and sat on the floor to start to sketch.

“What are you doing?” Virgil asked.

“I’m sketching the floorplan of the room,” Logan said. “I will then put a grid on it so we can investigate while being sure that we aren’t missing anything.”

Virgil seemed uninterested in this part of the adventure, instead electing to go poking around by himself. Princess Marisol squirmed out of Patton’s arms to go follow him. Patton swore that he only looked away from those two for 5 seconds, but the next thing he knew he heard metal clicking against metal.

“Oh,” Patton said, eyes wide when he saw what Virgil was fiddling with. “Honey, you probably shouldn’t touch…”

The old but fancy looking chest that had been at the end of the remains of the bed creaked open. Virgil sneezed as a cloud of dust puffed out of it. “Huh,” he said studying the contents. “There’s a skull in here.”

“Oh, I don’t like this adventure anymore,” Patton commented.

Logan was on his feet within moments. “Let me see,” he said eagerly.

“What if it’s cursed?” Patton pointed out.

“Then I’ll just break the curse,” Logan waved him off. “Oh, it’s just a horse skull,” Logan said, sounding disappointed. “And also what seemed to be potion ingredients. Though they seem very fresh considering the state of the room.”

“Maybe we should get someone else to…”

Logan already had both arms inside the chest and was pulling things out of it. “This chest must have some sort of stasis effect to it.”

He started pulling things out to look at them before setting them on the floor with no caution. “Well,” he said, “that answers the question of what this room is.”

“It does?” Patton asked.

“Ah, yes, between the horse skull and the potion ingredients, this is obviously the bedroom of Princess Marianne Elicia. She was the third child of King Simon IV and was quite the fan of horses.”

“…So she kept a horse skull in a stasis chest in her bedroom?” Patton asked.

“Of course,” Logan said. “Back when her family was in power, magic was outlawed and had quite the stigma against it, but she ended up learning magic and become quite proficient.”

“It’s debated what exactly happened when her father found out about her activities. Some sources say that she was executed silently by her father, but others say she managed to escape with the head of the stables but not before putting a curse on the country of Prijaznia. That is until she or one of her bloodline sits on the throne, every royal line will end in madness and blood by the 5th seated monarch before an heir is born.”

“Isn’t that something you should be worried about?” Virgil asked.

Logan shrugged. “It’s just a myth,” he said. “Besides I’m 6th in the line, so there really isn’t any concern.”

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“There are a lot of interesting things in here,” Logan said, still focused on the chest. “Not to mention the books. We’ll have to be careful with those though since they don’t appear to be in stasis.”

Logan pulled the horse skull out and set it on the floor making Patton wince.

“Marisol no!” he said as Princess Marisol immediately went to go sniff at it. He swooped her up in his arms. “How long are we staying in this creepy room?” Patton asked.

“Patton, we just got here,” Logan said.

“We just got here and already found a skull!”

“Yes! Exactly!”

Patton groaned into Princess Marisol’s fur even as she tried wiggle away to go back and investigate the skull. This was going to be a long day.

Chapter 35

Logan was surprised when he woke up alone in bed. He’d grown to anticipate waking to a smaller body unrelentingly clinging to his in the past couple of weeks. Confused he sat up and peered around his bedroom. He wouldn’t have seen Virgil with the way he melted into the darkness if it he hadn’t heard the sound of purring coming from near the window. He could just barely make out a dark blob shifting up and down at the cat kneaded at a different blob sitting mostly hidden behind the thick curtain.

“Virgil?” Logan questioned. “What are you doing?”

“It’s snowing,” was the answer.

“That is not an answer,” Logan grumbled at the ceiling. With a sigh, he pulled himself out of bed. It was a bit chilly in here, he thought. The temperature must have dipped suddenly and intensely enough that the runes keeping the castle at a warm enough temperature hadn’t caught up yet. He pulled one of the blankets off of the top of his bed to wrap around his shoulders as he approached the window. There wasn’t much light outside, the stars and moon covered by clouds, but there were some lanterns lit for the night guard who patrolled the outside. “Oh,” he said in surprise. “It’s really snowing.”

It had been colder but not quite cold enough for snow to stick the day before, so it came as a surprise when he saw snow was piling up quite high to the point where familiar paths outside his window had disappeared.

“I don’t like it,” Virgil informed him.

“Why not?” Logan asked.

“It’s cold,” Virgil answered. It was clear in his tone that in Virgil’s opinion ‘cold’ was a horrible insult to the concept of snow. Logan quirked a half smile and his attention was drawn to the fact that it was quite cold right here close to the window.

Frowning, he pulled at the blanket around his shoulder so he could wrap it and his arm around the lump that was Virgil. He brushed the boy’s hand when he did so and found it was like ice.

“You’re freezing!” Logan said. “How long have you been by the window?”

“I dunno,” he replied.

Logan was already tugging at him. “You need to get back in bed,” he said.

Virgil obeyed the pulling at his arms even as he frowned. “I’ve been colder than this before,” he said.

“That actually doesn’t make me feel better,” Logan replied dryly as he shooed him towards the bed.

He took the thicker blanket that usually stayed folded at the end of the bed and pulled it up over Virgil before climbing into bed beside him.

“There,” Logan said, rubbing Virgil’s arms through the fabric of the sweater he wore to bed. He was glad he wasn’t wearing a t-shirt at least. “The runes for heating the castle should catch up within a few hours, but until then this should do. Assuming we don’t sit by the freezing window for an undetermined amount of time.”

“I don’t like the cold,” Virgil told him.

Logan sighed. “Then why did you sit by the window?”

Virgil shrugged and ducked his head a bit. Logan reached out to grab his hands to help him warm more but was surprised when one of the hands was much warmer than the other. He found his fingers were clutching a crescent shaped stone: the protection charm they’d made. Logan knew that he kept it in his pocket most of the time, but he didn’t normally see him holding it like this. It was warm to the touch, of course, indicating the safety of the room around them.

Logan looked over his face. “Are you…” he said. “Scared of the snow?”

“I don’t like the cold,” he said once again.

“You’re scared of the winter,” Logan concluded. He looked at Virgil who was far too small for his age and seemed surprised at every casual act of kindness. It was clear that his basic needs were far from being met before he came here. Logan had to wonder what winter usually meant for him. His experiences were doubtlessly very different from Logan’s own. “That makes sense,” he acknowledged, “but you don’t need to be scared of it here. The castle is always perfectly warm and safe in the winter and Mr. Deknis and Ms. Heart work hard during the other seasons to make sure we have plenty of food. There is nothing to fear here.”

He did not seem convinced.

“You don’t even have to go outside if you don’t want to,” Logan promised. “The castle is plenty big if you’d like to stay inside all winter long. It was made for the winter even without the magic devices that keep it warm. We have fireplaces and well insulated rooms even if those that ends up failing.” Logan pulled open the hand that had the protection charm just to transfer it to his other hand to warm it. “Though, while no one would force you to go outside, the snow isn’t always bad.”

“Yes it is,” Virgil said, his voice sure.

“Not all the time,” Logan insisted. “Some people love the snow.”

“They’re stupid.”

Logan laughed. “It can be fun for a while with the right equipment if you have someplace to get warm again afterwards. Royal duties slow down during the winter and Patton tends to come up with all sorts of games for both the inside and the outside to pass the time. He’s particularly proficient at snowball fights, at least against me.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Play fighting,” Logan answered. “Like pillow fights, but snow.”

“I’ll stick with the pillows,” he replied.

“And then there’s a hill to sled down on the western side of the castle, and people like to build snowmen along the path.”

“What are snowmen?” Virgil asked.

They’re temporary statues made out of packed snow,” Logan explained. “Typically, they’re made of three different sized balls of snow: the largest being the base and the smallest the ‘head’ though there are some variations. After building them one typically decorates them with different articles of clothing and objects found lying around. It’s usually sticks and rocks for the face and then things like extra hats and scarfs for decoration.” He smiled softly. “When my Pa was alive, we used to steal my Dad’s crown and fanciest robes. Sometimes Pa would steal it right off of Dad’s head and we’d run away. We’d find a secluded area of the castle yards and build the biggest snowman we could as quickly as we could before we got caught. He’d usually end up letting us keep the robes, but we’d have to give the crown back since some of the metals in it would rust when wet.”

“That sounds…” Virgil’s nose twitched. “fun if you take away the touching snow part.”

Logan laughed. “It is fun,” he said. “Even with the touching snow part. Though, I admit that some of the ability for it to be entertaining does come from the fact that we could warm up afterwards with ease. You’ll enjoy Patton’s mother’s constant offering of hot chocolate during the season even if you never go outside, I’m sure.”

“Hot chocolate?” Virgil asked intrigued. His dark eyes shone brightly in the little light coming through the window. It was clear he could guess something about the drink just by the name and enjoyed the implications.

Logan smiled fondly. “It is a hot drink,” he explained. “It’s a warm drink made out of milk and chocolate. I can get you some to try in the morning.”

Virgil nodded, eyes still wide with interest.

“For now, we should sleep though,” Logan said. “Are you warm enough? I can get more blankets.”

“I’m fine,” he said.

“Good,” Logan said, reaching up and adjusting the blanket over them once more, tucking it around Virgil a little bit for good measure. “Goodnight Virgil,” he said.

“Goodnight,” he replied softly. Logan reached under the blankets to grab the hand that was still slightly chilly from the window between his own. Virgil’s eyes slipped closed after a moment as he nuzzle his face into the pillow. At some point they both drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 36

Thomas had already been well aware that winter was on the way, but he and the rest of the castle occupants had been surprised at how intensely and suddenly it had come on. Most things were ready for the winter, but not all of them had been initiated. The fireplaces that took some pressure off the castle heating runes were cleaned out and ready, but they hadn’t been started yet. The stables for different animals on the grounds had been checked over and staff assignments had been made, but most were still in far out fields. Staff that went home for the winter months had been dismissed, but there were a few stragglers that would have to be helped home before things got worse.

He’d gone out to the main stable to talk to the three workers that were the heads of different areas of animal husbandry to make sure a plan to get everything to where it needed to be soon was in place. It took a while to figure out considering that they’d expected a little more time before the first major snowfall. Thomas also asked them to make sure all of the workers’ homes were in good enough condition for the weather. Ranch hands typically had homes on castle grounds but not in the castle themselves since they needed to be close to the animals. Thomas knew at least half a dozen of those who spent most of their times out in the fields were the type to forgot to maintain their homes because they preferred camping amongst the animals in the summer months and then would be in for a bad time when snow began to fall.

There should be enough extra rooms in the castle if they needed a place to stay until repairs could be done.

Those conversations took a good couple of hours, before Thomas was satisfied. Before trudging back to the castle through the still falling snow, he made a point to stop at one specific horse stall in the main stable. The horse turned his head to see Thomas when he stopped in front of his stall and puffed out a rather disaffected snort before sticking his head over the gate so Thomas could pat his nose. “Hello, Mr. Apples,” Thomas said.

The horse seemed to conclude he’d tolerated Thomas’s petting enough and ducked his head to nudge at his torso. Thomas rolled his eyes. “Yes, yes,” he said. “I brought you an apple. Some things never change.” He reached into his pocket to grab the red apple he’d brought the white Arabian. “At least you don’t bite me anymore.” He paused, apple slice in hand and eyed the horse’s nose suspiciously. “Do not bite me,” he said even though he hadn’t felt the animal’s teeth in a decade. It would be just like Mr. Apples to wait until his guard was down.

After a bit of scrutiny, he offered an apple slice. It was snatched out of his hand and there was a loud crunch as it was bit into.

“It’s snowing out,” he told the horse. The horse seemed to roll his eyes at the statement of the obvious. “I’ll remind again that if you run out in a snowstorm, I’m not running after you, so you’d be out of luck.”

Mr. Apples snorted.

“You’re old now. You’d probably not survive long enough for people to find you. Besides, you blend in with that white fur of yours. They’d probably walk right past you a few times.”

He went back to nosing for treats as soon as he finished his first and Thomas sighed, pulling out another apple slice. “What are they not feeding you enough?” The gusto with which the horse snatched the apple slice was a very clear answer. “Well, we both know that’s not true.” Thomas fed the horse a third slice of apple when he was done with his second. “I have to get back to the castle now. Don’t be a devil horse.”

Mr. Apples threw his head a bit, splattering apple smelling foamy spittle all over Thomas’s front.

“Understood. Have a nice afternoon.”

He left Mr. Apples in his stall then, knowing he’d be well cared for no matter how ill-tempered he could be at times. He’d been a king’s horse once, after all, no matter that said king had been dead for more than a decade now.

Winters were hard.

Winters were the times when things always slowed down at the castle, where royal duties were often thin. There were a lot of memories in winter.

The trip back to the castle was not particularly long, but it was also not particularly pleasant. The snow had not been cleared away considering it was still snowing which meant his feet and legs were wet and cold by the time he made it to the nearest castle door.

He wasn’t sure if, when he entered, the castle heating runes had started to work in earnest or if he’d just been so cold that any measure of warmth was appreciated, but he was relieved to be out of the snow either way.

He decided to check up on the progress of the castle staff lighting the fireplaces. With any luck, they’d be lit already, and he could warm up even more. That in mind, he headed towards the main foyer where the largest fireplace in the castle sat to take off the chill brought in by the large front doors.

The main foyer was bustling with activity when he snuck in along the sides, giving the guards stationed around nods as he passed. The main fire in the room was burning brightly, though only one of the two smaller ones near the side exits from the room was lit. The other one was still being set up with safety mechanisms. It was good progress and assuming other areas of the castle were being set up as efficiently, he assumed they’d all be set up by nightfall.

He’d need to go check around to be sure, but for now, he walked up to the main fireplace to warm his hands.

He’d gotten into the habit when he was younger to every so often glance upwards. There had been a certain stable boy who had a propensity for climbing trees. These days, he usually found nothing when he did so, often not even consciously noticing that he’d turned his gaze momentarily skywards. Yet, today, he was startled out of his own idleness by dark brown eyes looking back at him from a small ledge in the shadows high above him.

He froze as he met the young boy’s gaze. Virgil seemed as surprised to be caught as Thomas was to have caught him.

#proofread stories #not writing

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memoirsofabasicbitch · 4 years ago

Text

The thing is, I’m not entirely sure I remember how to dream. How to write. How to imagine anything independently of a world created by someone else, in their mind.

I’ve grown so used to hanging my dreams on what other people have created for me that I don’t know if that person is still in there.

That weird little girl, who peeled acorns for squirrels, and walked in circles over and over and over again on the roots of the big oak tree. She had a big imagination. She told herself all sorts of stories.

Was it just because I couldn’t play the other games? Too slow - reflexes and running. Too weak - climbing, throwing, running, playing.

(Or was it because I wasn’t allowed to — couldn’t — play those games? I have a few dim memories of trying to play and being sent away. They’re dim though. I stopped asking.)

Or was it simply that I was filling time? Waiting until I could go back into a world I could navigate a little better than the playground?

Sometimes, though, I was waiting. Hoping, really.

More than a few times.

A lot.

I hoped, I thought, maybe - maybe if I walk in the right way, I’ll hear the trees laughing, like Anne told Diana about. Maybe they’ll talk to me. Maybe a faerie will come creeping out from a little crevice and wave, winking. Maybe a squirrel will come crawling down the wrinkled bark while I watch, and take the little heap of acorn meat I’d left for him. Maybe there’s a tiny scrap of magic somewhere in the world that I just haven’t found yet.

I haven’t had dreams for a long time. That’s what happens when your dreams have expiration dates. I’ve already missed most of mine.

Never really even came close.

I had a “schedule” that makes me want to cry to think of it. Meet someone in college or shortly after. Get married by 25, so we would have a few years together after college. Have our first child by 27, because mom always said I should start having babies by 30 if I really wanted to have more than one and space them out.

I’m 28. I’ve never had a real relationship with anyone, romantic or platonic. I’ve never had a best friend who would place me on the same importance as I would them.

I have borderline personality disorder. I have adhd. I am on the autism spectrum. I have depression and anxiety so severe they cripple me. More than one of these things may be false. The symptoms are nearly indistinguishable once you have more than 2. No one will give me a straight answer, and no two doctors can agree.

Added onto years of emotional and mental abuse - which is what it was, wasn’t it. Maybe because I’m autistic, maybe it really was that bad. Neglect, sure. Public humiliation, that happened too, I’m pretty sure. Being told flat out that I was stupid and fat and ugly and I was lucky to have any friends at all so maybe I should just shut up and sit down before I ended up with none.

I’m pretty sure that happened. I don’t really remember it though. I don’t really have any memories at all.

Supposedly that’s something that happens with “complex post traumatic stress disorder,” which generally crops up when a person is systematically ground down for a long time until there is nothing left but the stories they told themselves when they tried to explain to the fake audience in their head who they were. How they got that way.

I don’t know who I was, who I could have been if I hadn’t had the life I did. Maybe my memories are skewed.

My therapist didn’t seem to think so, but she also sometimes seemed to think I was full of shit. That’s probably me reading too much into things again. That’s what I do.

Was it really that bad? I remember a lot of screaming, and crying, and hiding, and wishing I was dead or that someone would just hit me already so I would have something to say, to tell people other than “they yell at me and make me cry and sometimes they grab my arms and shake me and sometimes they tell me they’ll throw me out onto the street to fend for myself and sometimes they tell me they love me so much they’re so sorry and then sometimes they cry”.

But how much of that was me? How much was that my perception of things? Am I really that crazy, or have I really been gaslit that much? Is it gaslighting if they didn’t even realize how much pain they caused you, which is why they say “it wasn’t that bad stop exaggerating”?

Did I imagine all of it?

If I did, if I didn’t, what was real? What had the weight I felt it carry? What should have been a minor blip in my life but instead metastasized into a catastrophe?

I don’t know. Maybe I never knew. Reality hasn’t ever been my friend.

Fantasy is so much better.

It’s painful now, though. To read some of these stories, these books I used to adore.

Stories about Mature Adult Women of 25! Whole! Years! Going on adventures and meeting their soulmates and having wonderful happy lives.

I’m spiraling. It’s late. I’m tired and a little high, wishing I was higher and maybe I wouldn’t be so bored.

Bilbo was middle aged, wasn’t he? When he went on his adventure? He had an adventure, and then he came home and had a long, rich, happy, lonely, bitter life. Hmm. Perhaps the one ring is not the best foundation for a guiding principle.

I went to law school because I’d come to the end of every plan I actually had. (You don’t really plan for a future when you’ve been suicidal since before puberty.) I figured I’d get to read and write at least reasonably interesting things, make good money, maybe even make a difference.

I’ve been a paralegal for the same law firm I worked for right out of college for two years now and I have never felt more like a shambling corpse.

When I graduated from college, I couldn’t get a job. Could I have tried harder? Sure. Is executive dysfunction a bitch? You bet.

So I worked for a family friend’s law firm. Personal injury and medical malpractice. She’s the mother of my older sister’s oldest best friend and has employed all of my mother’s three daughters.

She’s also a heinous bitch and a terrible boss. Her employees have a shelf life of about 2 years. I’ve hit my expiration date. Once you’ve audibly cried during a phone conference, you’re really near the bottom. Once she decides you suck at your job, there’s no coming back. Either you quit or you get fired. She prefers when people quit so she can blame them and not feel guilty. So she just increasingly treats people worse and worse until they quit in self defense.

I worked for her for a year. It was awful. I became an alcoholic and gained 25+ lbs.

I decided to go to law school.

I moved to New Orleans.

I made friends. I had an apartment all to myself. I had a life I actually enjoyed.

Then I graduated.

And I couldn’t get a job again.

(Of course, all of this is underpinned with my cyclical periods of intense illness, often accompanied by being hospitalized and missing long periods of school. In college and in law school, actually.)

(All the cocaine and drinking didn’t help either.)

(Ah, New Orleans. How I miss thee.)

So I ended up at the same firm again. Living with my parents. Again.

Then I passed the bar.

Now I’m doing the same work as my younger sister, for the same amount of money. (When she graduated from her masters program and was unemployed for 6 months, I convinced my boss to hire my younger sister again, and my sister to work for my boss again after a semi-disastrous summer job.)

(To be fair, while I’m technically a licensed attorney, she has a masters in education, so it’s not like there’s a massive education disparity here.)

(It doesn’t help that I’m barred in a different jurisdiction than the one my firm typically works in, so there aren’t any cases I can really work on as an attorney, and then on top of that my bosses don’t want to pay for malpractice insurance for me so I’m not allowed to practice as an attorney or put that I’m an attorney or call myself an attorney or even put in my letterhead that I’m licensed in the District of Columbia.)

Then there was a pandemic, and I decided I probably shouldn’t try to make a huge life change during a pandemic.

The pandemic is still fucking here. Nearly. Two. Years. Later.

So I guess I have to make a new plan.

Can I be a lawyer? I guess we’ll see.

I don’t really want to, though. I’m burned out and I wasn’t even practicing.

I want to move to a beach and write a novel and actually have a life I enjoy.

The problems with this plan are numerous. Not only is inertia an incredibly powerful enemy of mine, but I’ve lost all imagination.

I cannot imagine a future in which I am happy. Will I kill myself? Probably not, at least not for a long while. I’ve thought too long and hard about the long-lasting, far-reaching repercussions it would have. (Say what I will about my family, at least it’s always been clear that my death is NOT an acceptable outcome.)

I want to find my imagination again. I want to be able to imagine not only a future in which I am happy, but other futures, other worlds. I want to be able to dream, not only for me, not only for reality, but for unreality. I want to create worlds in my mind again, and allow them to take whatever shapes they wish.

I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if all those horrible teachers, all those “peer editors” in fucking elementary school were right, and my story ideas are hackneyed and overwrought.

Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if they were wrong. Wouldn’t it be nice, to start writing, and to find that my imagination didn’t go so very far.

It’s been hiding in the intertwined branches of a birch grove, slim and tall and ringing with laughter. In the space between stars. Down the path shaded with wisteria and jasmine and honeysuckle, where the scent and the heat and the humidity are so thick you can feel the heavy perfume coating your lungs. Tucked away, safe, waiting to peek out. Waiting to creep down the wrinkled bark of a huge old oak and wink at the little girl playing among its roots.

I hope it is there. I hope I can find it.

I’ll keep you posted.

This is my own personal void to yell into, after all.

#on writing #my life #a memoir lol

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adrischrv · 4 years ago

Text

REGNUM [L.H] - Chapter 3

Author´s note: Hi! Here´s the third chapter! English is not my first language so lemme know if there are any mistakes.

Word count: 2,902

Introduction. C1. C2.

The morning after the ball was quiet. The lack of Queen Susan’s joyful life was as strange as the King’s laughter and everyone in the palace could feel it. Even, though I only knew them for a short time. I remembered finding my mother talking on the phone with the Queen about nonsense to serious business matters, I was infinitely grateful to the Queen for taking my mother away from a couple of lessons.

Gardenstone has a particular way of saying goodbye to its loved ones: people would write a word describing such people on an acorn, they would gather and water them all over the forest. A nice old lady explained to me that different trees sprouted like the oak tree and when they grew up a person was also born with the written word in a way that reflected the impact you have on the world even after you die. She could assure me that people with good intentions would come out of the words of Queen Susan, King Robert, and Prince Jake.

“Fifty delivered and about… sixty more arrived.”

Luke nodded, tired. I left the piles of papers on the big desk in front of him and took a seat on the other side.

After he had been appointed King and after the farewell, thousands of petitions from citizens and nobles had arrived in the early hours waiting to be authorized. Seeing the load of papers, I offered to help Luke and avoid the collapse of my neighboring country. My mother decided to do the same on her own by talking to the dukes and duchesses who feared for the future of Gardenstone as it was justly uncertain.

“I slept for two hours… and everyone wants me to approve petitions, I don’t understand why.”

Luke had spoken more to himself, but that didn’t stop me from laughing a little.

“What’s so funny?” He asked, paying attention for the first time all morning.

“Of course they want you to approve petitions. They’re taking advantage. Since your father, may he rest in peace, is no longer the king, they expect you to approve everything he didn’t. But I hope you have not approved many, parliament will have a lot to discuss and it will probably be exhausting.”

Luke was stunned, looking for the right way to hide his inexperience.

“It’s parliament’s job, exhausting or not.”

“They wouldn’t give the same importance to every role and something important might be disapproved of or something unimportant might be approved, it’s risky.”

“If you know so much, why don’t you do it?”

Clearly, the regulation of his tone had a flaw causing it to come out more aggressively than planned.

“It would be a pleasure. I firmly believe that I can do it better than you, Your Majesty.”

Luke let go of the pen in his hand and crossed his arms. If I didn’t think it was funny I’d say he was trying to be intimidating but suddenly he relaxed his gaze.

“I’d like to check that out. Oh, and also about approving petitions, princess.”

I clenched my fists but like him I relaxed my gaze, ready to give an intelligent answer.

“I’m sorry I dared to think I was talking to a king, when it is clear the long road you have to be considered one.”

The slamming of the door interrupted Luke from saying - surely - something stupid.

“Busy, Your Majesty?”

Calum’s brown hair peeked out, smiling at the sight of me.

“Go ahead, did you get any sleep, Cal?”

Calum snorted at Luke’s question, taking a seat next to me at the desk, and took an exhausted stance, dropping his hands down his pants.

“Are you kidding? Mom keeps calling, I had to turn off my Jhin just like Dad. Who, by the way, sent me to find out if you had authorized his request.”

The “Jhin”, modern devices from cell phones that had the option to call among other things, and characterized by a function that allowed an easy finding of information about any individual, in the past there were social networks that were eliminated in the International Revolution and changed by the Jhin.

“You find it in this rubble and I’ll authorize all the requests you want” Luke sighed leaning back in his seat and pointing to the papers in front of him.

Calum looked at him sorrowfully, none of them in the mood. Said and done, Calum managed to find the petition he recognized by the notorious “H” for “Hood” in one corner of the paper, leaving it on top of all the others.

Luke took it, signed it without hesitation, and took a second to read.

“You should read it and then sign it, you know?” Calum mentioned, gaining the satisfaction I hoped to get from correcting Luke.

“You have my absolute trust, you know?” Luke replied in the same tone without taking his eyes off the document, opened his big eyes, and handed it to Calum who accepted it immediately. “Are you my Diplomatic Adviser? What about your father?”

“After what happened last night, he thinks it’s time for me to take his place. I would eventually, but it seems to him that I need to be by your side now to support you and test my training,“ Calum replied, noting the anguish in his friend’s expression.

I had nothing to say so I got up and directed my interest to the books on the shelves pretending not to pay attention.

“I suppose your father went with your mother to his village…”

“You guess right,” Calum paused for a moment. “Hey, I know you’re not well. It must be hard to lose your family… I can’t imagine waking up without my parents and my sister… but you’re not alone, I’m here if you need to talk.”

Luke smiled sideways, quietly accepting his proposal.

“You need to take a break, it’s all happening so fast,“ Calum said, almost reading his mind. “The kingdom needs you to be in good shape.”

Frustrated Luke rose from his seat to sit in the corner of the desk.

“I don’t know what else the kingdom needs, and that will be your first task. Also, stop sending in paperwork, close down the possibility of sending in a petition until further notice.”

I was going to tell him how reckless it was to shut down the arrival of petitions but I finally stopped to think about the matter I had provisionally ignored: I had no power in Gardestone and I didn’t know what was going to happen to the alliance.

“His Majesty, His Highness, young Hood” A guard appeared at the door with cards in hand which he dealt to the three of them. “Their Majesties King Ashton and Queen Lauren of Lauxwell would like you to attend a dinner they have arranged for themselves tonight.“

“Are those harpies still in my palace?” Luke raised an eyebrow. The poor guard did nothing but nod. “Get rid of them. I want them out.”

“Are you crazy?” exclaimed Calum, clearing his throat as he realized the mistake he had just made. “I mean, are you sure you want the Irwins out? As your royal advisor, I don’t think it’s true to your word, your majesty. King Ashton won the duel and the terms-”

Luke raised a hand to stop Calum from talking.

“Guard, I need privacy, if it’s not too much trouble…”

The Guard bade farewell with a bow.

“You too, Princess,” said Luke, “you can request as many maids as you need for tonight, but that’s no reason for you to stay here another second.”

I blinked uncertainly as to how to respond to his insinuation… or insult. I was still debating what was most appropriate.

“Did I not make myself clear? -Or would you rather stay here and stare at me a little longer?”

“I can’t ask my eyes to meet this turtle,” I answered, in the most pleasant tone I could find and advanced to the door.

“Are you sure? I can turn around if you need to,“ I heard him scream from the hall.

Halfway down the hall, I decided that I had to set certain limits for “his majesty” if I was going to live with him and his insufferable attitude for one more second. With that in mind, I changed my direction back to the office and stopped short when I heard my name in the conversation.

“-I’m serious, Cal Amberly is unbearable!”

Eavesdropping had never been something I enjoyed, much less needed. I knew there was nothing good about it… and yet I stuck my back to the wall outside the office.

“-the whole kingdom is depressed. Just by spreading the word about Princess of Maredale’s temporary stay they have begun to produce the best quality products, the children went out to play again” Calum debated. “Your people feel the comfort they have not received from their king.”

“Is that what they want? Miss “I got a lesson in something important” and “I can run a country on my own”?” Luke asked, trying to imitate my voice. “Nonsense! I bet she can’t choose which well-known book to read without help, so many classes have been useless if she can’t speak for herself and waits for her mother to do all the work for her. A babbler! that’s what she is. Even that Ashton idiot has more courage than she does.”

I thought I’d walk through that door to tell him how wrong he was. I could even make a scene and choose to tear all of his fine clothes into pieces that would be scattered all over the palace.

But I didn’t. Because deep down I knew he was right.

I spat cautiously. My eyes were threatening to drop the tears.

“Please, Luke. You don’t know what you’re saying,“ Calum replied. “Queen Elizabeth is going to be back any minute and I don’t think she’d like to hear the way you express about her daughter.“

“If the Queen does anything, it will only show what a coward the Princess is.”

Without realizing it, I was walking with a strong step to my room.

Luke was telling the truth, what was the point of taking classes and lectures if I couldn’t speak for myself?

Ashton had said it too, though much more subtly. He implied that I could take charge of my destiny and it must not be like my mother had planned all along.

Courage- I didn’t have it. I wanted to find it and show it off like a new toy, but that’s not how it works.

“Princess, I was looking for you.”

Lidia interrupted my walk into the room, looked into my eyes that were probably already a little red and wet. She gave me a warm smile and took my hands and led me into the room. I sat down on the edge of the bed and talked, holding back my sobbing.

“Lidia, I was about to do the same thing, but…”

She hissed as her hands were lost in the closet.

“Quiet, from the look of your beautiful face I can tell you heard something…”

Lidia stood in front of me with a bright ruby red dress in her hands, a golden ribbon, the colors of the Gardenstone, all around. The silk fabric adjusted perfectly to my body, falling to my feet with a discreet opening at the side of my right leg; the waves of my hair embraced me. Suddenly it did not seem that I had been crying for the fool that the King was.

“….and by the look of you in this dress, I can tell you will shut the same mouths that said something about you.”

The main dining room shone on its own even though the green decoration was quite noticeable, it looked like Christmas. The red walls looked soft, smooth, and warm, I liked to think that and the spruce chairs had been Queen Susan’s idea. In the center I expected a long table with food, a lot of exquisite food, I didn’t think I had seen those delicacies before, I assumed they were typical of Lauxwell. Around the table, the guests - mostly servants of the palace - had already begun to enjoy the food, while the nobles were talking and eating slowly.

I took a breath, looked up, and entered the dining room.

Lauren saw me first, smiled for a second, and went on with her meal. At her side, Ashton adjusted his tie and looked at me for a few seconds directly in the eyes as if he wanted to tell me something. My mother, who had returned from her talks, nodded approvingly. Calum took his attention off a plate, looked at me, and elbowed Luke. Luke did not flinch.

“Sorry I’m late, go on with your dinner.“

“Princess, please sit next to me.” Ashton stood up, offering a chair.

“No, sit next to me.” Luke did the same. “You are a guest in my kingdom, after all.“

They shared a challenging look, Luke just wanted to annoy Ashton and have the satisfaction of being able to ignore me all night.

Luke’s eyes were fixed on me, seeking a truce not to favor Ashton.

“I am flattered, your Majesties,” I smiled innocently, “but I find the company of King Ashton more… appropriate.”

I took a seat next to Ashton. He politely placed a glass of red wine in my hands, for a moment our fingers brushed and I felt my cheeks warm slightly.

“Your Majesty Luke,” called my mother, “I am proud to report that all the dukes and duchesses are now calm again in their respective states. I have said some flattering things about you…”

“Thank you, your maje-”

“I hope I’m not wrong…”

I looked for my mother’s look on the other side of the table along with the opportunity to tell her that she was wrong, so wrong…

“I hope my daughter has contributed something today.”

Too late to talk about Luke.

I alerted the blond man’s intentions, as dirty as mine a few seconds ago. He had the luxury of taking a sip of red wine before responding.

“I found the company of Princess Amberly a bit… “ He looked me straight in the eye “…Comfortable.”

I took a bite of my food, waiting for him to cut off eye contact. He didn’t. The urge to stick something into those blue eyes increased with every second…

“If you find it so comfortable I can suggest that you keep it with you for a while longer.”

My mother’s words not only interrupted the discreet discussion between our eyes but also took us both by surprise.

“What do you mean by that, Mother?” I asked.

“I am going back to Maredale, and seeing first-hand the opportunities you have at Gardenstone to demonstrate your potential, I think it is necessary for you to stay here. If His Majesty Luke approves, of course.”

“Of course I approve, Queen Elizabeth. It will be a real… pleasure.”

I didn’t look at Luke, I didn’t look at anyone. I released all frustration of such a decision at the plate in front of me.

Lauren told a story about a night she had decided to stand guard at a volcano on the Lauxwell border near a funeral home. She described it as a bleak, lifeless place too cold for even the heat of the lava to drive away. A giant beast with big legs and a wet muzzle with traces of blood was found, a wolf big enough for her to have faced it alone… but she had done it, she had hunted the beast and divided the skin among her friends in her kingdom. There was something so horrific about her story that made it interesting and kept us all at the table expectant and eager to hear more.

Throughout the dinner I felt an extra pair of eyes on me, I had the luxury of finding the owner, and the simple fact that they belonged to a certain self-centered brat brought a smile to my face.

“-that’s how I took my father to the bandits who threatened the kingdom. They will rot forever, end.” She took her cup up and drank it to the bottom. Everyone around her applauded, sighs of relief and fear sounded as well.

“Thank you, sister. With these stories full of courage, we thank you for attending this dinner.”

Ashton extended a hand indicating to the servants to leave the dining room nicely, some stopped and thanked him, others took leftovers from the table mistakenly hidden between napkins and took them away.

“Ridiculous, we have never forbidden them to eat. I guess we’ll have to start.“

Luke mumbled to Calum, he laughed but his face was afraid, he thought Luke was capable of it.

Seconds later the two left the dining room followed by Lauren who walked with her head held high despite being under the influence of alcohol. I admired her in silence.

A black hair stood in my way, accompanied by a wide smile.

“Amberly, would you accompany me on a night walk in the gardens?”

“Of course.”

Our arms intertwined, I tried not to blush at the sudden closeness as we got lost in the garden with the moon guiding our every step.

#5SOS #5 seconds of summer #5sosfanfic #luke hemmings #luke hemmings fanfiction #luke hemmings fic #luke hemmings imagine #luke hemmings series #luke fanfic #king!luke #readregnum #ashton irwin #ashton irwin fanfic #michael clifford fanfic #calum hood fic #michael clifford #calum hood #5sosfam

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gerbiloftriumph · 5 years ago

Photo

The Size of Hope

(also on ao3)

Mordon isn't certain what to make of the fairy tale king his goblin friends captured, and King Graham has no idea what to make of the huge and clumsy goblin who keeps running into his path. The two warily team up, but neither one belongs in the goblin kingdom, and some pain runs deeper than either expects.

(Gen canon-expansion fic putting scrapped fragments from the subtitle file back into the game. Full fic warnings: bruising, canon-typical violence, self-hatred, abuse, Goblins Do Not Make Good Friends)

~*~*~

2/5

(1: Seen)(2: Found)

~*~*~

Mordon had guard duty again. Not of the fairy tale prisoners. That was a quality position. Being so near the Gingerbread Man Baker, or the Wicked Witch, or especially the king himself—guarding them was exciting and dangerous and fun and thus meant for better goblins than himself.

No, Mordon’s guard duty consisted of standing a little distance ahead of the goblin king’s castle and looking as important as he could. He didn’t even get a spear. He just had to stand there. He took it as seriously as he could, but he felt himself curling back down into his crouch when his friends came by. His friends had gotten to be in the fairy tale prison. The fun job. They were energized, excited by being so close to the stories.

Maybe it wasn’t all that surprising when they started hitting him. Maybe one of them half-remembered some mistake Mordon had made earlier, or maybe they didn’t like how Mordon was standing, or maybe they just (he thought this extra quietly) didn’t like Mordon. With one thing or another, they found it was more fun to start thumping him. It turned into a game, like most things with the goblins did. One would hit him, and he would turn to face them, and then one would thump him from behind, and he would whirl, but he couldn’t fight back because then they’d really be angry, and if they got angry….

Mordon felt hot tears racing down his cheeks beneath his helmet, but he fiercely blinked them back. It was just another night in the kingdom. It was just how it was.

But then, a shadow loomed against the wall, flinging all of them into sharp darkness.

The shadow was huge, curved, deadly.

Dragon.

The goblins around Mordon screamed and fled, scrambling away, vanishing down tunnels. But Mordon stood frozen. A little voice in the back of his head wondered how a dragon of that size would fit in this place, how it would come all the way here without being seen or heard by anyone else.

And then he saw the truth standing across the gaping hole the goblins called a moat. Not a dragon. Or at least, not the full sized one the shadow might have led them to think. It was just a baby dragon. A tiny little useless thing. Held in front of a light to cast a shadow to frighten people who weren’t willing to look beyond first glance. And the person holding the baby dragon to the light was…

The king.

The king was here.

The king was out of his locked room.

The fairy tale king and his shiny hat had come out of the darkness, and the king had tricked the others, just like the king in the story had done to the pied piper. Mordon wasn’t sure what to do, and he felt the panic rising in his chest. His friends were gone, and the king was standing across the moat looking…yes, looking directly at Mordon.

Should he run, too? Should he get help? The king was dangerous, deceptive, clever. What help could his friends even give him? Would they hit him and call him a liar about the baby dragon? They would probably just claim all the success if they did catch the king, wouldn’t mention that Mordon was the only one who had (bravely? stupidly?) stood there.

But…but the king knew the stories…and….

Mordon raised a hand in wary greeting, out of some reflexive desperate instinct more than anything, and the king, after a long, thoughtful pause, did the same. A gentle hand, raised to greet him, to acknowledge him. Mordon hesitated a moment longer, but then the king smiled at him, just a little bit.

Mordon hadn’t ever been smiled at before. Just bared teeth and growls and insults and usually a kick or several. This felt…nicer. Nice enough that he wanted another smile. He made a decision—good or bad, he didn’t know, but it was his choice, at least. He raised a finger to the king, telling him to wait (imagine, Mordon, asking a king to wait!), and scampered off to find the drawbridge crank.

As the king crossed the bridge, Mordon thought again about running away, but…this felt too important.

And he wanted another one of those smiles.

So he crouched, fidgeting, at the edge of the castle entrance, and then the king was next to him and his shiny hat was still glittering in the light, and Mordon secretly thought that the king’s crown was better than the goblin king’s crown. Just a little bit.

“Hi…I’m Graham,” the king said. He looked apprehensive, but he stayed, he waited. And that was strange and unexpected and foolish and fascinating.

Mordon cautiously replied, “I am…Mordon.”

The king—Graham—startled, stepping back a pace. “You…speak my language?”

“Mmhmm.” He could read it, too, a bit. He’d taught himself as best he could, hoping that if he could read from the books of fairy tales (always written in the language of humans), and translated it for his friends, they might like him more. Like they liked the goblin king, who had books upon books and held reading parties where he would read out the stories and the goblins would act them for him. Somehow, the ability to read didn’t make Mordon more popular. It was only magical when the goblin king read the stories.

The king was looking at him intently. Mordon crouched lower, more like his goblin friends would want. “You’re pretty big for a goblin,” the king mumbled, apparently to himself instead of to Mordon.

But Mordon was used to not being spoken to. “You…want to see Goblin King?” he asked. Why else would the king—no, Graham—be here?

“Yes. How can I find him?”

Mordon twisted his long fingers together in terrified thought—but he had gone this far, and the king hadn’t hurt him. And maybe the human king had something important he had to tell the goblin king. That was in the stories, too. Kings with daughters they needed marrying, or kingdoms to give away, or other important things that were too big for Mordon. So, probably, he would be doing the right thing by the book by showing Graham where to go.

You couldn’t go against the story, after all.

“Follow me,” Mordon said, and loped off into the darkness, taking twists and turns down the warren of tunnels that made up the goblin’s inner court. Graham hesitated for a mere moment before stumbling after him, made clumsy by darkness.

~*~*~

The goblin was not what Graham had expected.

For the first time, Graham could see him unobstructed by shadows and distance. For the first time, he could stand next to him. For the first time, he thought that if Mordon stopped crouching, he would be of a height with Graham. Perhaps taller. For the first time, Graham’s thoughts started to tell of something all together too distressing—he shoved the idea away. How tall was Acorn, after all? How tall had Achaka—no, stop that, don’t you dare think about that.

They walked in silence through the roughly hewn corridors, taking turns that Graham, had he been on his own, probably wouldn’t have even noticed. They slipped from shadow to shadow, Mordon just as keen to avoid company as Graham.

This, Graham thought, is the worst idea. I’m following a goblin I met three minutes ago to face some unknown enemy on his territory just so I can try to, what, talk him into letting me go?

Still.

Mordon, despite being a goblin, didn’t seem like the others (and not just because of the height). Hadn’t mocked Graham. Hadn’t threatened him with any violence (yet).

Graham was curious, and Graham was desperate, and Graham was willing to play along. Mordon might be leading him into a trap, or he might not be, but after watching the other goblins abuse him, Graham felt a stubborn need give the goblin a chance.

This is definitely the worst idea.

“Like your hat,” Mordon said, softly.

“Um, thank you,” Graham said, surprised.

Mordon stiffened. Apparently he hadn’t meant to speak it out loud.

“I have another hat,” Graham said. “No, I suppose it’s had another hat.” He paused, leaning against the wall. The nerves and the exhaustion and a nagging ache in the back of his throat were all catching up with him, biting into him. Not a good time, Graham. “I don’t know that I’ll ever see it again,” he continued, trying to hide his breathlessness with an airy nonchalance. Trying not to show weakness, like he could distract Mordon with conversation until he felt like could walk again without feeling as though his knees were going to give out.

Mordon was staring. At least, Graham thought he was. The helmet made it hard to be sure. He braced himself, certain he was going to be tackled, that this was it, that he had made the wrong choice— “You…sad about other hat?” Mordon asked.

Oh. Graham nodded, rubbing at his throat absently, relief making him feel like his knees really were about to give out. “Yeah, I am. It was special to me. It had a big red feather in it. My mom gave it to me before I went to go become a knight.”

“Mom gave it.” Mordon seemed to be thinking hard about that. It took a long time for him to connect what he wanted to say. “Goblins…don’t have those. Goblins are big family. All the same.” They stood in awkward silence for a moment, but Mordon didn’t seem to want to let the idea go. “What else does hat have? Like mine?” He gestured to his helmet.

Graham smiled wryly at that, which Mordon seemed to like since the goblin straightened up another fraction of an inch and stepped a little closer to hear the answer: “No, not like your helmet. It’s blue, and I guess it’s a bit tattered. It’s made of cloth, not stone like yours. Do you ever take yours off?”

“Goblins hate Mordon’s face.”

“Do they now?” Graham bit his lip. “Why is that? Where are you from?”

“Grew up here. Goblins are family.”

Not a helpful answer. Could he ask Mordon to take off his helmet? Or would that cause some sort of etiquette meltdown? Mordon had been helpful so far, but Graham was still fully aware of the consequences of upsetting him—he didn’t carry a spear, but it wouldn’t be hard for him to bring Graham down with the weight of that stone armor, and he could have other things with him, like a dagger or something. Best to keep quiet.

But Mordon was still thinking. “Where hat gone? Could we get it?”

“One of your…friends took it away, when I first came. I haven’t seen it since. It could be anywhere.”

“Or could be here.”

Graham perked up a little. “Why would you think that?”

“Guards from then, come here lots.”

Graham thought about that for a moment, but then decided against it. Looking for his hat was just too ridiculous a risk, no matter how much he wanted it back. That would land him back in his not-so-cozy pit of a cell, maybe this time with a few extra restrictions tied in place. “That’s okay,” he told Mordon. “It’s not important.”

“It is,” Mordon said, a little stubbornly. “You want. We could…”

“No, it’s fine. Maybe after I get a chance to talk to the king, we can think about it. But right now, you’re with me. Let’s get out of here.”

~*~*~

Mordon couldn’t stop glancing over his shoulder as they walked, and every time excitement flickered through his heart, not unlike the jolting feeling of accidentally touching hot metal. This was better than playing. This was real. He was walking with the king. And the king wasn’t wearing a tattered costume and carrying badly painted props: the king was real.

And Mordon wasn’t playing a villain. For the first time since he could remember, someone wanted him. The king had even said so. “You’re with me.” That meant something. It had to. Words spoken mattered. He practically floated down the cave, hardly thinking about where they were going but thinking about costumes and plays and heroes and monsters and—

His helmet suddenly felt like it was too tight, and his armor felt like it was rubbing even worse than ever before, pinching his elbows. Graham was only still with him because Graham didn’t know about monsters. Didn’t know about what was under Mordon’s helmet. If he knew, he’d hate Mordon. Like the goblins did. He’d want to leave, like the goblins did.

Mordon bit down so hard on his tongue that his eyes watered. He just knew this was going to go wrong. It always did.

#a good hat encapsulates character types #King Graham #kings quest #King's Quest #fic'ing #mordack #ch2

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szopenhauer · 4 years ago

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What may I call you? I won’t give you my number jk you may call be by my name - Zuzanna - or any version of it besides Zuśka you might also use one of my nicknames if you know me better or create a new one if it’s not offensive :)

Over or under 18? 10 years over

Ever believed your house was/is haunted? If yes, why; what happens? besides that one time I saw a ghost standing in my door - my brother or an angel? I believe I brought a ghost from camp (that was writing our names on the walls - someone really died there - when I said I don’t believe in it they threw a pen on me through a ventilating grate/grill or however it’s called (the exact pen that went lost when we noticed the names) it was turning stuff on/off or closing/opening things, I saw an orb once too in my hall, I also had a moment after my gf’s mom’s death when there was light coming from my night lamp basically in the middle of the day after we were talking about her with my partner and so I was scared to go to sleep after that

The building you live inside; how long ago was it built? less than 30 years

If you could go anywhere RIGHT NOW, where would it be? And why? I don’t want to go anywhere rn?

What makes you envy someone? health, no worries/problems, easy life, having money especially when they don’t try, when they do everything against and yet they’re lucky somehow

For you, is jealousy something that makes you more sad or angry-feeling? sadness and anger are very close to each other in my dictionary of emotions/feelings (alexithymia) so I can’t recognize them most of the time it’s like they’re mixed together usually

When’s the last time you smacked someone’s butt or been smacked? recently

Do you enjoy making art? If so, what’s your style like? I draw a little and been making a lot of collages/scrapbooks in the past, I write if that counts (poems, stories, books)

Were you a shy child? my mother say so but it’s not true

Ever wanna run away with the circus? not really

Reach behind you- do you feel anything? What is it? my hoodie

Is English your second language? it is

Have you ever designed and constructed your own clothing? designed and mom remade (some even made) few of them for me

Is your house an odd or even number? odd

Do you wear skin-colored clothes? I hate those, it looks like you’re naked, yuk

Do you have conversations with any animals? why not

Can you sleep on your back? (I can’t, I feel too vulnerable!) I can’t, not because of vulnerability but my health issues

What’s the last special thing you did for someone? sigh...

Do you own striped socks? yep

Do you know how to read palms or tarot or anything else like that? not really

Do you own any bones or other preserved organic things? only dried plants, chestnuts, stones, shells, acorns etc. no dead things but I wouldn’t mind vintage taxidermy of some sort

*I own smth like this tho (not my pic, just example)

What do you think about internet piracy? I don’t mind, I don’t support rich celebs, they want too much, also it’s not like we have a choice when it comes to old movies for example as they’re nowhere to be found

Do you tip street performers? (YOU SHOULD.) I might but you SHOULD shut up

Does being an addict make someone a bad person, in your opinion? kinda

Tie up, or be tied up? hmm...

Do you have a boot fetish? I don’t think so?

Have you ever done home-repair stuff? mhm

Reason you last used a knife? not sure what was the last exact reason but it was def food related

If you could ask someone ONE thing & get 100% honesty, what would you ask? can I ask God though?

How do you feel about magicians? fine

Who was the last person to really make you feel special? @jonasz-cat and my father

What’s the most beautiful thing you’ve seen in the last week? I saw lots

What is beauty, in your opinion? what you enjoy looking at?

Of all the bands you hate, which do you hate the least? dunno, weird question :o

Does man have free will? it’s complicated Would you rather do evil or have evil done to you? I guess evil done to me unless it’s smth really minor Who’s better, Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera? Britney

Do you crave adventure? nah What’s the purpose of your life? no idea yet if there ever will be any Have you heard the term "Luddite?" I’ve heard it Have you ever been elected a class officer? byłam klasowym bibliotekarzem czy jak się to nazywało Tell me something interesting.

Does mental illness exist? excuse me?... Ever fallen in love online? I thought I did How many songs are on your playlist? over 500 Do you approve of math jokes? several are fun

How about "your mom” jokes? not my vibe Are you addicted to online surveys? it seems Do you consider yourself a loser? I’m a loser baby so why won’t you kill me Why do you believe children like stuffed animals? who doesn’t like them?! Would you rather die or have ten random strangers die? I’d rather die unless it’s a post apo and we fight to survive then it’s possible that I would kill to save myself/others or get killed - even by saving someone Do you believe nuclear weapons should be eliminated? absolutely Education? eliminated? XD changed Slavery? it’s ridiculous that still exists Do you deliberately cause physical harm to yourself? ... Ever had a blood transfusion? I haven’t What’s your earliest memory? how dad’s office looked like, I was 2 years old but I have a good memory when it comes to interiors, I don’t remember anything else until I was like 6-7 O.o Are you a good writer? I try Would you rather lose an arm or a leg? leg Is it worse to be considered unfeeling or irrational? irrational is worse to me personally

How much will you accept without proof? depends Ever dumped someone? oh well...

Ever beaten someone up? noooo Do you approve of democracy? two wolves and one sheep decide what’s for dinner...

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catsafarithewriter · 5 years ago

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Vampire AU: "You can't just turn into a bat and fly away when you don't want to deal with things!" "Watch me!"

A/N: I am living for all the Vampire AU prompts you’re sending

Haru had had this holiday planned for months.

She’d booked the weekend off in February, the site in March; she’d even made a nice little list of things they’d need, and things they’d want, and things they’d almost certainly forget if she didn’t put it down on paper.

In short, she had had this camping holiday planned long before Baron had come into the picture.

And vampire-sitting wasn’t on any of the lists.

“It’s just a holiday,” she assured as she threw a handful of clothes into her rucksack. “I’ll be away for a few days and then I’ll be back, no biggie.”

“No… biggie?” Baron echoed skeptically.

“There’s literally nothing for you to worry about,” she translated. “In fact, I’ll be far more worried about leaving you behind - and no,” she quickly added, “that doesn’t mean I’ve changed my mind and you can come. My holiday. My two days of peace and quiet. You just stay here and stew in front of the TV watching soap operas for two days. Please.”

“I still don’t entirely understand the point of your excursion. You are staying out in the woods in a rickety tent for… what? What kind of holy day requires this sort of ritual?”

“I said it’s a holiday, not a holy day, what are you–” She broke off. “Good god, you don’t know what a holiday is, do you?”

Baron, as usual, looked somewhat affronted at having his outdated vocabulary criticised again. “If words have adapted in the last 400 years, I hardly think it is a surprise–”

“You don’t. You poor, poor man.” She hesitated, and then amended, “Creature. Monster? Look, I’m not entirely sure what to refer to you as - and, no, ‘monster of the night’ is far too much of a mouthful and I’m not saying it. Okay, I’m going away for the weekend to get away from work and responsibilities and I’m going to have fun. That’s what a holiday is.”

Baron started to speak again.

“A vampire-free weekend,” she added.

“I still feel it is highly inadvisable for a young lady to spend several nights sleeping the woods.”

“Just as well I’m not taking advice then, isn’t it? And stop pouting - I’m not going alone. Hiromi’s coming with me.”

“Ah yes. Hiromi.”

“You could sound less like you’re dribbling the name off your tongue. What do you have against her? You only ever met her once.”

Baron hesitated. “She… creeps me out.”

“You. The ‘monster of the night’. Are creeped out by my tiny friend. I left you in the same room together alone for all of two minutes. What happened??”

Baron’s mouth thinned. Haru recognised that look.

“Oh dear, was she not instinctively terrified and reverential to your impressive vampire aura?” she crooned. “What a shocker. How traumatic that must have been for you–”

“I have spent enough time in this century to recognise sarcasm, Haru.”

“Oh thank goodness. You’re finally getting a sense of humour.”

“That’s not–” He scowled again. “I still don’t like this.”

“That’s fine. I’m still going.” She threw her rucksack over her shoulder just as a car horn announced her ride’s arrival. “Try not to eat all the prunes in the first day, okay? I haven’t left you any grocery money.”

“I don’t need money.”

She bapped him on the nose the same way she did with naughty dogs. “No stealing into shops in the dead of night and raiding them. If any robberies get traced back here, I will not help you.”

“Don’t worry. They’ll never trace it back here.”

Haru stared. “That’s not what I meant – look, just behave, okay? You can surely do that for a weekend, right? Please?”

Baron’s mouth was thin, but in defeat this time. “I will not cause chaos here while you’re gone.”

“Close enough.”

The air in the forest was almost like the air Baron remembered from his life pre-400-year-nap. There was no need to breathe for him, but he could still taste the discrepancies in the breeze, the clarity far from cars and cities and people. Wild. Untamed. Free…

A bundle of hikers popped out from a thicket of ferns and blindly relocated the path. One of them held the remains of a map. The human with the map approached Baron. Yet another human who had somehow lost that vital survival instinct.

“Hey, I don’t suppose you know whereabouts we are on here?” the woman asked, thrusting the torn paper towards him.

He flashed her a fanged smile. “You’re in the monster’s lair.”

“Hmm, no, I don’t think so… I think the Devil’s Punchbowl was down that way, so…” She turned the map around a few times. “Yeah, the sun is that way, and the valley is behind us, so east is…”

“Don’t you know what I am?” he tried again, injecting a slight growl into the curve of his words.

“Very bad at directions, apparently.”

“I’ve got signal!” One of the other humans hurried forward and brought their phone into the light, carefully as if carrying some hallowed item. “It seems to think we’re… here. Don’t-don’t move it, or I’ll lost it again, but…”

Baron caught sight of a miniaturised map on the phone screen, a small blue dot flashing in the centre.

The woman shot Baron back a smile, all blunt teeth and useless canines, and nodded politely. “Looks like we’ve got our bearings. Do you need directions somewhere or…”

“I don’t need your help.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Sure, but you probably should be moving soon. It’s getting dark and you probably shouldn’t be in these woods alone at night.”

Baron watched the hikers vanish into the undergrowth with a fresh layer of incredulity. His mind rebooted after the last of the ferns rustled back into place. “I’m the scariest thing in this forest!” he snapped.

The forest didn’t seem too impressed.

A squirrel ran along the tree roots and paused to pick at acorns scattering the forest floor. Baron bared his fangs in a snarl. The squirrel continued on unaffected.

In the end, Baron threw an acorn at it to make it leave.

Twice.

The first one missed and the squirrel actually stopped to pick at it, and almost approached Baron to see if he’d give another. The second acorn still missed, but was close enough to startle the creature.

Maybe the problem wasn’t humans. Maybe after 400 years, he was just losing his touch.

He glowered and leapt up into the trees, scaling the trunks and moving silently through the canopy until he came to the tent where Haru and her… friend were staying the next two nights.

He wasn’t following Haru. Of course he wasn’t. He just… had thought that an evening stroll into a wood would be a nice change of pace. If it happened to be the same forest Haru was staying in and he just happened to pass by, well then, it was only natural to stick around and make sure she was okay. After all, she was his host. If he lost her, he’d had to find somewhere else to live. With someone who maybe didn’t have the channels with good soap operas, or who didn’t buy him tinned prunes, or who didn’t tell him how their day had gone while they were cooking and laugh at odd things that the 21st Century deemed funny and curl up like a housecat while reading.

And that would be a shame.

Night was fast drawing in, even with the long summer days, and the two women had set several lanterns in a loose circle around their tent. Their little temporary home was a gentle patch of light in the otherwise shadowed forest. Like a little moon.

Baron perched in a tree just beyond the lanterns’ glow and kept guard, his back to them as he watched the forest for any hidden dangers. Their conversation - louder than the conversation Haru and Baron usually shared, rambunctious and bouncy - was a strange sort of company for him, but not one he disliked. Eventually they gave in against sleep and retired into their tent and it was just Baron, sleepless and eternal.

He dropped down to the ground, approaching to stomp out the last embers of the fire, and hit a wall.

No. Not a wall. But definitely a barrier of some type.

He circled the makeshift campsite, but the barrier seemed to encompass the entirety of the shared women’s tent - including the fire. He stepped back and re-examined his surroundings, eventually resting his gaze on the lanterns. They were placed evenly around the tent - too evenly. Too precisely. He lowered his gaze and now saw marks in the ground - carved out with a stick, most likely - to create a warding spell. Designed to keep creatures like him out.

But Haru knew no such magic…

“So what’s your deal, huh?”

Haru’s friend was leaning casually against a tree trunk within the circle, still in pyjamas but with a chunky wooden stick slung over one shoulder. A stake. A glint of metal at its tip. Silver.

Instinctively his mouth curled into a snarl,

Hiromi swung the stake into her hands. “Oh, so you recognise this, do you? I used to have a much fancier one, family heirloom in fact, until it got… uh, stuck in a creature like you. Luckily the important details aren’t hard to replicate. Wooden stake, silver-tipped, a few important runes in place and bam. Perfect vampire-killer.”

“I knew there was something off about you.”

She laughed, presumably emboldened by the protection of her spell, and pointedly stared back at him. “Hark who’s talking. You’re not so hot yourself, slick. Now, how about you tell me what you’re doing with my best friend and I might reconsider staking you into permanent sleep.”

“I’m not doing anything to her,” Baron retorted. “She’s my host.” He winced at the bad word choice, quick to correct himself. “Not in… not in a vampire way. She lets me stay with her.”

“Why?”

“Kindness, she told me.”

Hiromi snorted, and all of Baron’s surprise at Haru’s reasoning felt a little belittled. “Naturally her kindness ends up inviting a vampire into her home. Naturally. God, I love her, but her kindness gets her into all sorts of chaos, you know?”

“If you know my kind as well as you boast, then you’ll know I haven’t touched Haru,” he said, his tone sharp, sharper still for the dismissal. “Even a single drink from a human leaves its marks.”

Hiromi glowered, and Baron could see she had already checked as much. “You’ll be drinking from someone.”

“Do you really think I’d be foolish enough to drink from a person in a world I know so little about? Please,” he scoffed, mimicking the tone Haru had thrown so often at him. “Give me a little credit.”

“Then where are you drinking from?”

“There are other things vampires can survive on. Animal blood. Eggs.” He hesitated. “Prunes.”

“Seriously?”

He allowed a flicker of irritation to darken his face. “Would I joke under such circumstances?”

“I don’t know. I’ve met several vampires with a sense of humour. And before you say anything,” she added, “I didn’t kill all of them. Only those with a fondness for human blood. Still, prunes are a first.”

“We all have our weaknesses,” Baron muttered.

“Uh-huh, and one of yours may be my best friend.” She considered. “For whatever reason, Haru seems to… tolerate you to a surprising degree - I don’t know what she sees in you, because it certainly isn’t your humour or your manners or your personality–”

“Is this going somewhere?”

“–so I won’t tell you to get out of her place. But–” and she swung the stake so it rested between them, on the tip of the invisible barrier “–if you touch one hair on her head, one little drink, one single bite, if you give in to your vampire urges for even the briefest second, I will stake you, understand?”

“Perfectly.”

“Then we come to an understanding.”

“I’m not going to harm Haru. Even before your threat, I wasn’t going to harm her.”

Hiromi gave him a strange, searching look that Baron wasn’t entirely sure he liked. Like she understood him better than he understood himself in that single moment. Then the moment passed and she threw a bark of a laugh and turned away. “You should be going before all this wakes Haru up.”

“But–”

“What were you even doing here? She’s your host, sure. But the home she’s sharing with you is all the way over that way. Why come all the way out here?” Her eyes narrowed. “Unless you were thinking about a late night snack while away from the city…?”

Baron bristled at the accusation. Still, he wasn’t even entirely sure of the answer himself. “I… The forest is a dangerous place for humans.”

“Yes. Because of creatures like you.”

“Sometimes.”

Hiromi smirked. “Well you needn’t have worried, if that’s true. If you can worry. Can you?” She shrugged and continued before Baron could muddle through an answer. “I can take down pretty much anything of your like. And a few others as well.”

He eyed the stake. “Apparently.”

There was a grumble from the tent, followed by movement.

Hiromi made a face. “Shit. Get going before we have to start explaining.”

“You don’t tell me what to do.”

The tent flap opened and Baron dissolved into a swarm of bats, vanishing before Haru could see his human shape. He lingered just long enough to see Hiromi’s smirk widen, and see Haru spot his bat form disappear into the dark.

To echo Hiromi: Shit.

Haru found him early the next morning.

The light was still low, long shadows cast through the forest canopy and just dim enough for Baron to remain safe from the rapidly warming sunlight. Lord, he hated summer.

She stalked out of the tent, obliviously out of the protection spell, and stopped by the dip of a river. The water was caught in an eddy, courtesy of the rocks channelling it, and it churned like a… well, a punchbowl. As Haru sat down by its cooling side, he wondered if this was the Devil’s Punchbowl those infernal hikers had been rambling on about.

“I know you’re there.”

He jolted, and was optimistic enough to think that maybe she was talking to somebody else.

She shattered that illusion pretty quickly, dropping her head back in his general direction and adding, “Baron.”

He dropped down from the trees, barely making a sound as he landed on the forest floor. “How did you know I was there?”

“I can always tell. It feels like someone walked over my grave.” She paused, and added, “And then there was last night.”

“Ah.”

“Did… Did Hiromi see you? Or did you stay in your bat form the entire time?”

He considered. If she didn’t know, then Hiromi hadn’t seen fit to inform Haru about her true occupation or her awareness of Baron’s. He considered revealing Hiromi’s monster-hunting life, but quickly discarded it. Haru had only seen his version of vampires - and however he wished to be rightfully intimidating, he was by far not the worst vampire out there. There were vampires out there that would make even his skin crawl.

Vampires that Hiromi had probably encountered, if her boasts were anything to go by. Vampires her family almost certainly had. Tales of bloodlust and slaughters and a carelessness for human life that would turn the stomach of anyone humane. Tales that might be shared with Haru if Hiromi’s true life came to light. And Hiromi would have little reason to hide such stories from Haru.

Stories that would change the way Haru looked at him.

“Baron?” Haru gave an uneasy chuckle. “Oh god, tell me you didn’t do anything stupid. Again.”

“She didn’t see me,” he lied.

“It was close though.”

He didn’t meet her eyes. “Close enough.”

“I can’t believe this. I told you to stay at my flat. You said you would behave–”

“I said I would not cause chaos in your flat,” Baron said. He helpfully gestured to their forested surroundings. “We are not in your flat.”

“I am going to kill you.”

“You can’t.”

“Stake you, then.” She made a frustrated nonsense movement like she couldn’t quite decide which rude gesture to throw at him, and kind of spun on the spot.

He smiled, and then looked away before she could see it.

“How would I even begin to explain what you were doing all the way out here? ‘Heya, Hiromi, meet my flatmate, he stalks me but it’s fine, I promise. Sleep? Oh no, he doesn’t sleep - he’ll just turn into a swarm of bats and hang around until daybreak.’ I mean, honestly, what was I going to – what are you grinning about? I’m being serious here!”

“I know.”

“Then what’s so funny?”

He looked back to her, and wasn’t sure how to explain it wasn’t humour, but a strange sensation of contentedness. It was a fondness for the familiarity he saw in her. It was in her bluster, her teasing tone, the tilt of her head and the flicker of her eyes. He knew exactly where he stood with her in this exact moment, and it wasn’t because of his ability to intimidate, but because of her.

He said none of this, however.

“Did I ever thank you for giving me a place to stay?” he said instead.

“Maybe. I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I’d kinda stopped expecting it.”

“Then thank you.”

A surprised tilt of the head. A funny half-smile on her lips. “You’re welcome?”

Suddenly Baron knew that if he were still human, he’d be blushing right about now. As things went, he couldn’t be sure his expression wasn’t betraying just as much anyway. He looked away again. “Well, I can see you’re managing just fine without me, so I’ll just be going--”

“Wait, wait, you’re still in trouble for stalking me here--”

His form began to shift, deliberately slow enough so that realisation could hit Haru before he dissolved into a swarm of bats.

“Hey! You can’t just turn into a bat and fly away when you don’t want to deal with things!” she snapped. “Baron!”

He grinned before his face vanished in a haze of wings and fur. “Watch me.”

#caylinnightengale #replies #in which I am being painfully historically inaccurate #apparently 'holiday' has been a word since 950 #but baron being ignorant is always fun #tbf i'm putting in about as much research into this as most YA vampire books do #so you can't fault me #the cat returns #cat writes #tcr ficlets #modern vampire au #you know how cats do that thing where they turn their back to you #if they're comfortable with you?#yeah that's baron here #the cat queues

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another-sonic-blog · 6 years ago

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The Dark Prince: Epilogue: Not The Dark Prince

"Today is the first Independence anniversary for the Acorn Kingdom! Not too long ago, the Acorn Kingdom was under the commands of their tyrant King. Everyone expected the Rebellion leader Princess Sally Acorn to take over the throne. However, informants declare that a secret member of the Rebellion, whose face had not been revealed yet, has been picked by the people of the Acorn Kingdom to take over the throne. He goes by the name of-"

"Cream, stop watching that!", Amy turned off the TV of her leaving room.

"But they were going to reveal the name of the new King!" Cream said winning.

"You have been too obsessed with this new King, you don't even know his name nor his face...what's with this guy anyway?" Amy said as she looked at herself in the mirror, making sure that her hair looks decent for work.

"He is just so mysterious! The news is always talking about him and about the things he has done or the Acorn Kingdom...Weirdly enough, the Acorn Kingdom never let a single picture of him infiltrate...I wonder why?" Cream said thoughtfully.

"He is a secret Rebellion member, if his identity was revealed, then the Kingdom would probably go after his loved ones."

"Rouge?!"

Amy and Cream turned around to find Rouge drinking a cup of coffee. "What?"

"How long have you been there?"

"Half an hour", She said as she took a sip. "I used to be spy honey...I remember some old tricks."

"I forgot that just two years ago you used to work for G.U.N hehe... well at least you are doing good as a self-defense trainer." Cream said as she made room for her bat friend to sit with her on the sofa.

"And you are doing good as a Pre-K teacher yourself Cream.", Rouge took a seat next to her rabbit friend.

"I am really happy you are here Rouge but I am just leaving to work," Amy said as she opened the door, ready to leave.

"But we even haven't talked about the wedding yet!" Rouge said almost screaming as she saw Amy leave.

"We will talk about it as soon as I get back home!

And with that Amy left.

Rouge and Cream looked at each other, already knowing what they were going to do next.

They turned the TV and watched the breaking news.

The news reporter was shown quickly on the TV, still announcing the breaking news. "Who would have thought that the new King of the Acorn Kingdom will be no other than the re-owned worldwide superhero-"

Then, both Rouge and Cream yelled in unison...

"IT'S HIM!"

It has been another busy day at Momo's Cafe, AKA Amy's cafe. Although she was thankful that her cafe had become more popular these days, she was still thankful that everything was working well.

She looked up at her phone, looking at it proudly, she was able to buy herself a smartphone. She received a text message from Sonic clearly saying: "Can't wait to see you!"

Amy smiled with the text, it has been two weeks since she last Sonic and she was super excited to him. She texted back: "I am cleaning up at the cafe, you can come if you want."

"Alright :)" He texted back.

She put her phone away and put on some music to start cleaning up. Her last employee left and since Amy was the owner, she made a thing that it must be her the first one to arrive and the last one to leave.

To leave

It has already been two years and still no signs of him. She really wonders if she is worth waiting for him this long. She wanted him to be there for the wedding, but it seems like she wasn't going to see him anytime soon.

Amy used a towel to clean the underpart of the cashier's table. As if she was under it, she heard the cafe's door open. Steps getting closer to her as they finally made a stop in front of the cashier, waiting to get service. Amy was having a bit of difficulty getting herself up from the underpart of the table, as she hit her head.

"Can I have a cup of black coffee?"

Amy heard a someone from the other side of the cashier say, as she stopped from touching her head, she quickly stood up to face her client.

"Sorry sir, we are closed-"

This must be a dream.

Amy must have hit her head too hard because the one standing right in front of her, asking her for a cup of black coffee was no other than Shadow the Hedgehog.

This wasn't like in the books, where both protagonists end up kissing each other after a long time of not meeting.

Their feelings were never like that, and Shadow was aware of that. Before, Shadow would be worried about that fact. Now, it didn't matter, it was unique. It wasn't fictional....

their feelings were real.

And now they were here, alone, drinking coffee on the place where everything began. Quietly, their eyes crossed each other, not knowing where to star.

"So...how you have been?" Amy asked trying not to make eye contact. Shadow took a sip of his coffee before answering, keeping his cool.

"I've been alright"

That was it. Shadow couldn't get words out of his mouth. He really was trying to make any motion possible to show that he was happy to be here.

"What-um..what you?"

"What?"

"What about you?" Shadow finally was able to pronounce his words properly. He didn't know why he was getting so nervous for. It was just Amy, the girl who he had a crush on since forever, nothing to be worried about right?

"I've well since you left two years, I kept working on my cafe and now it's gotten more popular. Also that I've been busy planning a wedding." Amy said simply, still trying to fully realize that the Dark Prince was in front of her.

"Oh...A wedding?...things between you and Sonic must be pretty good then." Shadow sighed, what was he expecting? He clearly told Sonic to go after Amy, and for him to make her happy. It had been two years, so of course their relationship had developed. Of course Sonic would want to marry her, who wouldn't? At least Shadow would do it in a heartbeat.

So if he knew...why was there still a pain in his heart?

Oh, yes...because he had hoped that Amy would have waited for him. But he knew that it would be selfish of him to ask her to do so.

"Ummm, yes we are good but I am planning Rouge and Knuckles' wedding. They asked me to do it, so of course, I said yes. Don't get me wrong, I love planning but it can be stressing at times."

"Wait, so Sonic and you?"

"What about us?" Amy said a bit weird out by Shadow's question.

"You know..you both are...a thing?"

"No, we never dated. I couldn't bring myself to think about anyone else after what Sonic told me." Amy took a sip once again from her cup, already knowing where this was going.

"What did Sonic told you?"

Shadow was panicking. Sonic couldn't have told Amy about the letter...right?

"Mmm...where should I start?... I am not perfect, and I may have hurt you-"

"STOP!"

Shadow could feel his cheeks getting hotter by the second. He had never felt this flustered before. He hated himself as he realized that he had lost his cool.

"I am sorry...I won't talk about it again." Amy said smiling a bit, proud that she made Shadow get pink like that.

A few minutes passed again in silence as Shadow had gotten his composure back. "So...you waited for me? Although I told Sonic to be with you?"

"Sonic always put others before himself. He knew that you loved me so he stepped aside. He asked me if I was ok with it...you know...If I was ok with waiting..."

Amy sighed as she remembers the scene clearly from two years ago. Sonic showing her the letter Shadow had left. Reading Shadow's true feelings was what made Amy come up with an answer.

"And I said yes."

For a moment, Shadow couldn't' hear anything but his heartbeat. For a small fraction of a second, Shadow couldn't see anything but Amy. That 'Yes' stumble his ears again and again, almost like a melody.

It may be a simple word, but for him...it meant everything.

All of this time, he was scared that all previous feelings Amy had for him were gone. But now, seeing her eyes glow like that as if she was about to cry. Her lips trembling, and her body ready to jump into his arms.

"Are you still looking for an extra worker?" Shadow smiled, hoping that his words will resonate with her.

"Yes..." Amy took one second to stop her voice from cracking. " I can't promise you a good paycheck but...I promise you that I'll never fire you... Will the Dark Prince comply to these terms?"

Shadow couldn't wait to get Amy into his arms. After two long years of being part of the Rebellion and learning more about himself, he was ready to start living. Although he still had questions about love and how it should be treated, he knew that the only way to learn was to experience it.

And he wanted to experience everything with Amy. Their time was ending, the two lovers had no one to stop them from loving each other. It was the beginning of the end, but what a beautiful ending it was.

Sonic had finally arrived at Amy's Cafe but he couldn't bring himself to interrupt the beautiful moment the two were having. At last, his promise to Shadow had been fulfilled and there was nothing else to do but watch. He smiled out of happiness as he watched the two share a small kiss. He learned to watch from afar and appreciate the little things life brings him. He was truly happy for them both.

Shadow smiled and held hands with Amy. He closed his eyes and opened them slowly as to savor the moment, not wanting to let go, he sighed and answered her question...

"I am not the Dark Prince anymore...but if you want, call me the Dark King."

The Dark Prince Epilogue: END

Previous Chapter: https://another-sonic-blog.tumblr.com/post/185970145230/its-been-a-while-since-sonic-had-seen-shadow-he

The Dark Prince: Chapter Nine: A Confession

A/N: This story came out from a small idea, now it has become a complete story.

Personally, I think this is the best ShadAmy fan-fiction I've written. I want to thank everyone who has followed this story to the very end. Especially those who comment and inspired me to keep writing.

There's really not much to say, I will probably take a break from writing stories with multiple chapters. I'll like to get my ideas going by writing one-shot stories, so of course, if anyone has prompt ideas feel free to message me.

Thank you once again to everyone who read "The Dark Prince" I have loved writing this story and its sad to let it go.

But all things that start well, end well.

#shadamy fanfiction #shadow and amy #shadowxamy #shadow the hedgehog #Shadamy #shadamy comic #Amy Rose #shadow x amy #sonic fanfic #sonic fanfiction #sonic the hedgehog

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dukereviewsxtra · 5 years ago

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Duke Reviews Xtra: The 10th Kingdom Part 2

Part 2 Starts With The Evil Queen Digging Up All Her Mirrors..

As Virginia's Iron Shoes Are Ready For Her To Wear, However A Box That Smells Like Leather

Yeah, Trolls Have An Affinity Toward Leather, Go Figure...

Falls Right Through The Window, The 3 Trolls Fight Over It And Knock Themselves Out In The Process...

Flying In To Save Virginia, Virginia's Less Than Trusting Of Wolf As The Last Time She Saw Him He Tried To Eat Her Grandmother But Giving His Word That She's Safe With Him, He Goes To Find A Way Out Only To Notice The Troll King's Magic Shoes...

Telling Her To Leave Them As They'll Make Her Want To Wear Them All The Time She Seems To Do Just That As They Get Out Of That Castle...

Wanting To Go Back To The Snow White Memorial Prison To Rescue Tony, Wolf Is Resistant At First But Eventually Says Okay But They Have To Avoid The Roads And Instead Cut Through Beanstalk Forest...

Once There, They Find A Statue Of Jack From Jack And The Beanstalk, This Leads Wolf To Tell Virginia Why The Trolls Hate Wendell And That's Because Wendell Has A Fertile Kingdom And They Have A Polluted Disgusting Kingdom...

Oh No, Somebody Call Captain Planet!

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But Wolf's Words Fall On Deaf Ears As Virginia Is Gone Which Can Only Mean One Thing...

She Stole The Troll King's Magic Shoes!

But Despite That Wolf Eventually Finds Her As The Shoes Magic Doesn't Last Long. Taking The Shoes Away From Her After A Short Struggle, Virginia Tries Everything She Can To Try To Get Them Back Even To The Point Of Seduction...

But Despite Being Attracted To Her, Wolf Knows It's The Shoes Doing The Talking And Not Her...

But With The Troll King And His Kids Closing In, Virginia And Wolf Decide To Climb A Beanstalk Where They Get To Know Each Other A Little Better As They Spend The Night From Above...

The Next Day, Believing Security Around The Prison To Be A Joke, The Warden Decides To Have The Prisoners Clean Out The Cellar Where The Mirror Is So New Security Measures Can Be Put Into Place...

Realizing That's Where The Mirror Is, Wendell Puts Tony's Name On The Work Detail, However, When He Finds Mirror, The Warden Tells Him To Throw It In The Boat Or Else He'll Throw Him And Everyone Connected To The Chain He's On Into The Ocean...

So, Tony Throws It Into The Boat Where By Some Miracle It Doesn't Break...

Put Back In His Cell, Tony Discovers That Acorn And Clayface Have Created A Tunnel Out Of The Prison, Asking Him To Let Him Come With Them, They Say Yes...

However, Tony's Escape Might Be A Bit Premature As Virginia And Wolf Arrive To Get Tony Out Of Prison By Using The Troll King's Magic Shoes...

Once Inside, They Get Wendell From The Warden's Office Despite Wolf Knowing That With Him The Shoes Will Lose Their Magic Quicker And What Do You Know? He's Right As Once They Reach Tony's Cell The Shoes Lose Their Magic...

But As They Crawl Through The Tunnel, They're Blocked By Tony's Big Butt As He Got Stuck In The Tunnel When Attempting To Escape...

Maybe Tony Should Follow Winnie The Pooh's Example And Do Some Stoutness Exercises...

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(Start At 0:51, End At 2:07)

Eventually Getting Tony Out Of The Tunnel, Father And Daughter Are Reunited As Tony Tells Virginia About The Mirror Being Placed On A Barge, However When They Go To Get It They It, They Discover That Acorn Used The Barge To Escape, Taking Everything Including The Mirror With Him...

Getting On A Boat To Follow Acorn, They're Spotted By The Trolls Who Attempt To Virginia And The Others But They Manage To Get Away To The Troll King's Displeasure, But He Has Bigger Problems Right Now As He's Contacted By The Evil Queen...

Wondering If The Troll King's Children Have Caught Wendell, He Tells Her No, As She Orders Him To Send His Children After Them And To Return To His Palace Until Further Notice...

But Saying He Doesn't Take Orders From Her, He Swears That If She Contacts Him This Way Again, He'll Kill Her...

Reading One Of His Self Help Books, Wolf Takes The Opportunity To Get Rid Of The Troll King's Magic Shoes Which Pisses Virginia Off To No End At First But Guessing That She Was Going To Wear Them Tonight, He Tells Her That While Magic Is Nice It's Very Easy To Get Addicted...

This Leads Her To Ask Wolf Why She Wasn't Able To Resist The Shoes But He Was? To Which He Believes The Reason To Be That Virginia Has A Strong Desire To Be Invisible...

Tired Of Waiting For The Evil Queen To Take Over Wendell's Kingdom, The Troll King Declares War On The 4th Kingdom And Challenges Wendell To Face Him In 7 Days Or He'll Claim It As His Own...

The Next Day, Wolf Wakes Virginia And Tony Only For Tony To Discover A Golden Fish In A Glass Case. Named The Golden River Gold Fish, Wolf Tells Tony And Virginia That This Is The Famous Anything You Touch Will Turn To Gold Fish...

With Tony Seeing Untold Possibilities With The Fish, Wolf And Virginia Tell Him To Just Leave It Alone

Contacting The Troll King In The 4th Kingdom, The Evil Queen Is Rightfully Pissed At Him For Obeying Her Orders And That If He Stays There, The Coronation Will Be Cancelled And Her Plans Will Be Ruined...

But Having No Interest In Leaving The 4th Kingdom, She Hangs Up On Him So She Can Consult With Her Mirror, Who Tells Her That Wendell Is Travelling Down The River Toward Her Castle With 3 Others, 1 Who Can Talk With Him And 1 Who Can Hurt Her...

Asking To See These People, The Mirror Tells Her That He Can't Show Them To Her But Knowing That Wolf Is With Them, She Tells The Mirror To Focus On Him...

Oh, God The Bee Gees Running Gag Is Back...

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(Start At 0:46, End At 0:49)

Contacting Wolf As He's Shaving, He Just Tells The Queen To Go Away And Leave Him Alone Before Tony Enters And Hangs Up, Washing His Face Off As He Leaves...

However As Tony Looks For Food, He Decides To Go Back To Look At The Golden Fish Only To Break The Glass By Coughing (Of All The Luck) And Sticking His Pinky Inside The Fish Gaining The One Time Ability To Turn Something Into Gold...

All I Can Say To That Is Thank God He's Not Dr. Evil Or Else He'd Turn Himself Into Gold...

Meanwhile At The Queen's Castle, Dog Wendell Pees On A Post...

As The Evil Queen Tries To Convince Him That He's Not A Dog But Prince Wendell, Ruler Of The 4th Kingdom And That In Order To Be Crowned King He Must Show Bravery, Loyalty And Intelligence...

Why Can't They Do It The Wakandan Way And Challenge Someone To Single Combat?

Finding Acorn's Barge At A Town, Near The Queen's Castle, Wendell Goes Off On His Own To Investigate The Castle (As He Can Sense His Body There) While Tony And The Others Go To Get The Mirror From Acorn...

However, When They Arrive, They Find Acorn And Whatever Junk Was On-Board Gone, With The Person Who Now Owns The Barge Telling Them That He Traded It For The Guy's Horse And Carriage, Which He Took Through The Woods...

But Despite Virginia And Wolf Wanting To Leave For The Woods Immediately Tony Asks For 15 Minutes To Find Wendell...

And Speaking Of Wendell, The Queen Is Giving Dog Wendell An Eating Lesson As The Trolls Arrive To Give Her An Update On Their Search For Wendell Which Goes Nowhere...

Telling Them To Not Return Without Wendell Or She'll Make Them Eat Their Own Hearts, The Trolls Leave Believing That Meeting Didn't Go Well...

Finding Himself, Wendell Tries To Get Dog Wendell To Reach Him But Unfortunately They're Unable To Touch So Wendell Goes Off To Get Help, But As He Goes To Find Tony, Wendell Is Found By Tony, The Trolls Also Find Him...

This Leads Tony To Do Something We Don't See On Screen But We Know He Did Something...

Finding Virginia And Wolf, Tony Tells Them That He Defeated The Trolls However When He Shows Them How, We See That Tony Not Only Turned Them Into Gold But Wendell As Well...

Summoning Her Huntsman (Played By Rutger Hauer)...

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(Start At 0:13, Stop At 0:43)

The Evil Queen Tells Him That Neither Wolf Or The Trolls Have Captured Wendell And Whoever Is With Him Is About To Enter His Forest. Swearing To Find Them, He Leaves...

About To Enter The Forest, Virginia And The Others Run Into An Old Beggar Woman, Who's Hungry For Food, But Where Wolf And Tony Are Not So Charitable Virginia Gives Up One Of Their Bacon Sandwiches They Made Earlier...

As A Reward, The Woman Tells Them That Acorn Took The Main Road Through The Forest But She Warns Them To Get Off The Road At Once As Someone Is Following Them With The Intent To Kill Them...

This Gets Wolf Remembering That This Forest Is The Domain Of The Huntsman Who Serves The Queen, So Taking The Old Lady's Advice, They Stray From The Road And Go Through The Forest...

Coming Across A Gypsy Camp, They Try Going Around But They're Unfortunately Caught By Gypsies Who Seem Pretty Nice At First As They Invite Virginia And The Others To Join Them For Dinner...

Oh, And I See They're Having The Remains Of The First Trailer For Sonic The Hedgehog For Dinner...

Asking Tony To Sing In Return For Their Hospitality We Get The Most Groan Worthy Version Of Gypsies Tramps and Thieves Ever...

Cher Must Be Vomiting After Hearing That...

Finding A Bunch Of Talking Birds In Cages, Wolf Tells Virginia They're Magic Birds That The Gypsies Break Their Wings Off To Sell For Millions To Rich People To Absorb Their Magic...

Why? What Does The Magic From These Birds Do?

Coming Out Of A Carriage An Old Gypsy Tells The Gypsies To Set Up A Table For Fortune Telling...

But While Tony's Fortune Is Nothing To Tell About, Virginia's Sees The Gypsy Asking For A Lock Of Her Hair (Which Will Come Back To Bite Virginia In The Ass) As She Tells Virginia That She's Full Of Anger As She's Never Forgiven Her Mother For Leaving Years Ago...

Something Her Grandmother Mentioned In Part 1 That I Thought Wasn't Worth Mentioning Till Now...

She Also Tells Virginia That She Has A Great Destiny One That Stretches Way Back In Time...

With Virginia Leaving, It's Wolf's Turn To Have His Fortune Told, But It Doesn't Go The Way He Wants It As The Gypsy Tells Him That She Saw A Young Girl Dead And A Fire With Him To Burnt On It...

Remember This Fortune As It Will Be Further Developed In Part 3...

Knowing That Wolf Is A Wolf From The Fortune, This Leads Wolf To Reveal That The Gypsies Grandson Is Also A Wolf...

Allowing Virginia And The Others To Spend The Night, They Attempt To Sneak Out Early The Next Morning, But Virginia Just Can't Leave The Talking Birds To Die So She Frees Them All Only To Be Seen By The Head Gypsy Who Sends The Other Gypsies After Them...

But While They Manage To Get Away From The Gypsies, The Head Gypsy Uses The Hair She Cut From Virginia To Curse Her...

But Don't Worry About The Gypsies Becoming A New Threat As They're All Killed By The Huntsman...

Continuing On Their Journey, Wolf And Tony Start To Notice That Virginia's Hair Has Grown Slightly Since They Left The Gypsy Camp Which Leads Wolf To Theorize That The Gypsies Have Cursed Her..

Duh...

By Nightfall It Starts To Rain, As Virginia's Hair Has Grown To Length Of Rapunzel's. Luckily, They Come Across A Cottage That's Been Abandoned For Years, Going Upstairs They Find Seven Beds Which Leads Them To Realize That This Cottage Once Belonged To The Seven Dwarves...

Starting A Fire, Tony Asks The Question That We've Been Dying To Have Answered, What Happened To Snow White After She Married The Prince?..

This Leads Wolf To Tell Them That She Became A Great Queen And One Of The Five Women Who Changed History..

With The Women Being, (Aside From Snow White) Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Red Riding Hood?, Gretel From Hansel And Gretel? And Rapunzel...

Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella And Rapunzel, I Can Handle Being Queens But Having Red Riding Hood And Gretel Is Like Making Alice From Alice In Wonderland A Princess In Kingdom Hearts, It Doesn't Work...

The 5 Of Them Formed First 5 Kingdoms And Brought Peace To All The Lands. But Now They're All Mostly Dead, I Say Mostly As There's Rumors That Cinderella Is Still Alive But If She Was, She'd Be Over 200 Years Old...

(Acting Like Joey Lawrence) Whoa!

Virginia Spends The Night Talking With Wolf About Her Mother Which Just More Exposition At This Point...

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But Waking Up Virginia Finds That Her Hair Is All Over The House, And What's Worse It's Growing Up The Stairs...

They Try Using Cutting Tools To Cut Virginia's Hair But Nothing Can Cut Through It...

It's A Curse For A Reason, You Morons...

Worried About Dying With Long Hair, One Of The Birds Virginia Saved From The Gypsies Helps By Telling Them That A Woodsman With A Magic Axe That Can Cut Through Anything Lives In This Forest And With It They Can Break The Curse...

However, Wolf Smells The Huntsman And Decides To Bury Virginia, Tony And The Golden Wendell In Holes While He Leads The Huntsman In A Circle..

But It Sadly Doesn't Help As Virginia Sneezes Revealing Their Location To The Huntsman...

Forced To Run, Tony Gets Away To Tell Wolf What Happened While Virginia Gets Caught By The Huntsman And Is Taken To His Headquarters, Which Finally Ends Part 2...

To Be Continued...

#the 10th kingdom #Kimberly Wiilliams Paisley #john larroquette #dianne wiest #scott cohen #rutger hauer #ann margret #warwick davis #camryn manheim #wolf x virginia

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mobius-prime · 5 years ago

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124. Sonic the Hedgehog #71

Heeeyyy, is that a pair of green eyes I see up there? Have we finally reached the issue where Sonic's eyes become his trademark green? Guess we'll have to dive into this "strangest issue ever" to find out…

In the Beginning…

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Barry Grossman

Hey, why is the secondary story being told first? Hm…

Amy has led Tails to the same part of town she and Dulcy explored several issues ago, when they looked around the Mobotropolis Library for Kirby books. Tails is a bit nervous, but Amy excitedly leads him inside, and happily greets a Mobian dog sitting on the floor surrounded by books. But who is this person?

So yeah, no telling how this guy somehow survived ten years inside Robotnik's own city without being captured, or how he kept the library in such pristine condition since then, but as you may have guessed this is the guy who made the noises - accidentally, due to creaky doors - that scared Amy and Dulcy off the first time. But now, in the intervening time, Amy has returned and made friends with him, and has been getting access to all sorts of Kirby books to read. Tails takes the book Jeremiah is holding and discovers it to be a book of the history of Mobius, which Jeremiah claims his grandfather had been working on right up until Robotnik seized power. He doesn't bother going into the issue of, say, whether Kirby is even still alive after the war, but Tails jumps right into the book, reading it aloud for Amy to enjoy as well. In the beginning of time, life evolved after a meteor struck the planet, eventually branching off into different species. The most advanced of them all was apparently the echidna, because even when Kenders isn't working on his own pet sister series, he still has to make the echidnas, like, the best ever. One day, a squirrel named Alexander decided he wanted to unite every Mobian species to advance knowledge together and build a stronger society. The only ones who refused him were the echidnas, who went off to build their own society, and the Overlanders, who were too violent and acted with aggression when offered this choice. However, with nearly every other species agreeing, the building of a kingdom began…

This oddly seems to conflict with the history of Mobotropolis we were given just a few issues ago, where it was stated that it was built to commemorate Nate inventing ring technology and bringing the kingdom out of the medieval era. I mean, I suppose the beginning of the Acorn line could have coincided with the construction of Mobotropolis, but it seems odd, then, that Nate would have been omitted from such an important piece of history. It would also basically make King Max only the second Acorn king ever, since Nate was essentially an adopted uncle to him, which incidentally also makes the king's line about Sally being the "first female Acorn" to be immersed in the Source of All kind of silly if there were only two males before her. Even more ridiculously, this simply would not leave enough time for the echidnas, after rejecting the offer of multiculturality, to go off and found Albion, split off, build Echidnaopolis, raise the Floating Island, and go through like six hundred more years of history with the Brotherhood of Guardians before reaching the present day. Honestly, I think this is just a genuine continuity mistake, but it's not really a big deal, as one could suppose that, say, Mobotropolis was merely rebuilt to the standards of modern technology when Nate arrived. This is somewhat supported by Tails' next line, which references the beginning of the Great War with the Overlanders… dun dun duuuunnn!

And now is when I add the title, writer, penciller, and colorist for the next story, right? R-right?

Oh, we're just jumping right into it, are we? Well okay then. Sonic indeed has his green eyes now, as well as shoe buckles which are important to Sally for whatever reason, but we don't even know the story behind it. Well, we were promised a bizarre issue, and we're getting one - this entire story is told in reverse! We essentially have to follow the events backwards to figure out what caused everything we're seeing. So jump backwards twenty minutes before the above page, and everyone in Mobotropolis is celebrating that the energy beam that was about to destroy reality has vanished, with Nate crediting Sonic using his speed, along with a super emerald. Sally, in Knothole, feels woozy, but then reasons that if she's woozy, she's alive, which must mean Sonic succeeded. Uh… succeeded in what, though?

Sonic essentially starts pulling a Superman-style time reversal, running insanely fast around and around the entire globe, which begins to force him into shifts of alternate forms - first Super Sonic, then Ultra Sonic from when he fought Naugus. Then, passing through the desert near Sand-Blast City, he begins to experience never-before-seen forms, beginning with Solar Sonic, which turns him a brownish-orange. In the Southern Tundra, he becomes Polar Sonic with white-blue fur, and in the Great Rainforest he turns into Eco-Sonic. The glowing time-beam, which he is attempting to attract to him with his speed, turns and begins to follow him, and before he can get away from it, it strikes him…

Back to thirty minutes prior! Sonic is in Mobotropolis, staring at the beam from the palace along with Nate and the king. The beam is focused on Knothole, causing it to slowly shift back to its proper place within the flow of time. However, if left unchecked, the beam will eventually screw up time all over the planet, destroying it. Sonic asks Nate how they'll handle it, and he suddenly pulls out, presumably from his own anal cavity since it's never addressed where he was keeping this giant thing, a white Super Emerald.

Back up ten minutes! Sonic has just broken through the time barrier around Knothole separating it from the rest of the world, but Sally, to his surprise, isn't with him. He tries to head back in through the Great Oak Slide to find her, but the slide is glowing so brightly - three times more brightly than when he entered - that he doesn't want to risk blindness. Instead, he races off to Mobotropolis to find help.

Rewind eight minutes, and Sally and Sonic have just entered Knothole. Everything within is incredibly bizarre, and things seem to be moving backwards, even people's speech.

Just in case you have trouble reading backwards, by the way, Jules is saying "Where on Mobius is our son, Bernie? He's been avoiding us for weeks now," to which Bernie responds "I'm sure he'll communicate with us when he's ready, Jules, my darling," which is totally how people talk to each other. Sonic and Sally, realizing that time is even more messed up here than it already was before with the whole three-hours-ahead thing, try to leave the village so they can find out what's going on, but the odd glow surrounding them, somehow protecting them from the backwards flow of time, also prevents them from interacting with anything in the area, including the Great Oak Slide. Sonic gets a crazy idea of how to escape anyway - just go through the time barrier!

Well now we know why he was surprised that Sally wasn't with him before, but say, what was happening ten minutes before now? Well, Sonic and Sally were sliding down the Great Oak Slide, of course! It's filled with a blinding yellow light, which Sonic reasons must be connected to the bright light he saw a few minutes ago. What bright light? Well, going back seven minutes should give us the answer! Sally and Sonic are walking around in the forest, discussing his previous disobedience of the king's order not to go after Nate. Sally reassures him that her father wasn't actually angry, just had to keep up appearances, and after a brief discussion of Queen Alicia's static state and Dr. Quack's continued efforts to find a cure for her, the topic turns to Sonic's own parents, and how Sally thinks he hasn't been spending enough time with them as they've been worried about him. Sonic, somewhat stunned, realizes she's right, and claims he "still hasn't got this parent thing figured out yet," which is… honestly really sad. Remember, this kid, since he was five, believed that his parents were dead, and not long after that lost the only other person he could see as a parent figure when Uncle Chuck was captured and roboticized. He's been so long without real parents that now that he suddenly has both his mom and dad back, he has no idea how to really interact with them. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted, however, by a flash of light from the entrance to Knothole…

Back to fifteen minutes ago, and Sonic, Elias, and the Secret Service have just returned to Mobotropolis, bringing Nate with them safe and sound. Despite Elias and Sonic sharing a broment together over their success, the king chews them out for jumping into danger despite his orders.

Well, the only unanswered question we have now is - where did the time beam come from that almost destroyed everything? The answer comes, of course, in the form of another satellite sequence which happened fifty-nine minutes earlier, with an O-SAT unit activating, focusing on the planet's surface, and ominously firing.

Because this issue is so confusing when read backwards (although I do admit to liking the dramatic effect it creates, especially with the final page showing the satellite firing), I'll just summarize in chronological order what happened, just in case anyone's head is reeling. While Sonic, Elias, Nate and the others were on their way back from West Robotropolis, the satellite fired a time beam towards the surface. The king ordered Sally to escort Sonic back to Knothole, where they witnessed a beam of light emit from the entrance. After entering, time was running backwards, and they attempted to escape to figure out the cause, but only Sonic managed to get out. He ran to Mobotropolis for help, where Nate concocted a plan to use Sonic's speed along with a Super Emerald to attract the beam to him instead. Sonic was hit by the beam, and as Knothole resumed an ordinary flow of time, Sonic's appearance changed to include buckles on his shoes and green eyes. Somehow, no negative effects came of this, and everyone lived happily ever after including Sonic, unfazed by his new form. Funnily enough, Sonic is the only character they bothered concocting a story for to explain how his eyes changed from black to green. Every other classic-styled character from the games who started with the black eyes just randomly, without any fanfare whatsoever, starts to develop colorful eyes as the issues progress, as we've already seen happening intermittently with Tails and Knuckles. I guess since Sonic is the main character, he gets special treatment? Eh, doesn't really matter. Oh, and of course, we've forgotten one more thing - the title and credits that were missing from the beginning of the story, but appeared on the final page in keeping with the whole reverse theme! I'll just go ahead and reprint them here exactly as they're spelled out in the issue itself…

Colors: odrailgaG knarF Pencils: reltuB nevetS Writer: srelloB lraK

Retro Activity

Oh, yeah. They went there.

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 71 #writer: ken penders #writer: karl bollers #pencils: art mawhinney #pencils: steven butler #colors: barry grossman #colors: frank gagliardo

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egalitarian-tomboy · 5 years ago

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I don’t know why, but I looked into the Ken Penders Lawsuit.

What a fucking shit show.

I don’t like the Archie Comics, nor have I ever been a fan of them at any point. But what he did to both Archie and SEGA is fucked up.

But at the same time, you have to get angry at both Archie AND SEGA for not challenging his claim when they were sent notifications that this was happening from the U.S. Copyright Office. If they had challenged his claim, he wouldn’t have won the copyright. But they didn’t. Archie lost SEGA’s support and their trust in their business practices because Archie couldn’t provide the contract Ken signed when he started working for them.

All of this could’ve been avoided if both companies just checked their fucking mail.

But Ken taking the ownership of characters people have grown attached to and grew to love is what really pisses me off. Yes I hate Sally. Yes I don’t like the cringe factor to the Archie Comics. But I will never deny fans the right to like Sally or Archie Comics’ Sonic Universe. When he took these characters away, he took away the characters some fans went to for comfort in their worst days. Some fans will never get a proper ending to their characters’ story lines because some jackass thought he didn’t get proper recognition for his work.

I’m legitimately sorry for the Archie fans who lost their comic book series and their favorite characters. I’m sorry you can’t read those comics anymore without getting angry or be reminded about this whole lawsuit. You deserved so much more for the series’ final issue.

The prick himself has become quite the attention seeking whore on Twitter. He’s chiming into discussions revolving around Archie’s Sonic Universe with really messed up information no one asked for. He’s pissing off LGBT fans by stating some edgy anti-LGBT rhetoric that sounds specifically tailored for a troll comic. To be honest I’m surprised he hasn’t been suspended off Twitter.

I can only offer the following advice for you guys:

If you prefer reading the Archie Comics regardless of what Ken Penders has done to the franchise, you should pick up the compiled volumes of the series. They’re more likely to be found at Half-Price Books and they’re the most affordable option for fans in general if you don’t mind something being pre-owned. Or you can pick up the comics on Amazon or your local comics shop if they have a way to get you some copies.

Check out the IDW series if you haven’t yet. The series is being helmed by Ian Flynn who previously worked on the Archie series and the series so far is really good in my opinion. I like the fact SEGA is more involved in this comic series and that they have the final say in what IDW does with their franchise. The series is primarily rooted in game lore and there haven’t been, at the time of writing this, any announcements of freedom fighters making their appearance or Sally Acorn coming into the mix. So if you’re willing to go more game based instead of 1993 TV show based then I recommend the IDW series.

When you see that prick post anything on Twitter that can be flagged for hateful or targeting content, report it and block him. That man craves attention and he’ll say anything to get it. Deprive him of that attention and he’ll suffer. It might even get him suspended.

Here are a couple videos regarding this whole fiasco that delve into it a bit deeper than I did. I highly recommend in watching them if you’d like more context and more information. Remember: knowledge is power!

youtube

Again: I’m sorry if you were deeply effected by the cancellation of the Archie Comics. Some of you are still bitter and angry at this whole fiasco. I can only hope that you’ll either one day move on from what happened to Archie or that you’ll find some peace in the enjoyment you get from the Archie Comics you still read.

Sorry for making this long ass post but I felt it was necessary. Fuck Ken Penders.

#Sonic The Hedgehog #Archie Sonic #Archie Comics' Sonic Universe #Sonic The Hedgehog 1993 #Ken Penders #Ken Penders Lawsuit #Fuck Ken Penders #SEGA #Archie Comics #Long Post #Sonic Fandom

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snowdice · 3 years ago

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Big Bang (Sort of) Editing Story [Day 65]

Lets do a bit of this tonight. Probably won’t work on it long, but I have something to finish up.

Chapter 30

After lunch, Patton and Logan took Virgil out into the garden to walk around. They let Virgil lead them around wherever he wanted to in the garden. A bunch more flowers had died since the last time they’d been out here, and Patton felt sad despite having never felt very sad about that sort of thing before. But, Virgil seemed to really like the flower he’d found last time, so Patton thought he was probably sad on the boy’s behalf.

Of course, Patton thought, perking up, eventually it would be spring, and Virgil could get to not only see flowers but see all of the flowers grow. Patton couldn’t wait to see him amongst the garden then.

Virgil took them wandering through the orchard for a while, but most of the trees had been stripped of their fruits. They ended up in the food garden after a bit, and Virgil finally seemed to decide on the direction instead of just ambling about.

Mr. Deknis looked up as they approached and smiled at them.

“Hello, Mr. Deknis,” Patton said as they came closer.

“Hello you three,” Mr. Deknis said. “Getting into trouble?”

“No,” Virgil said, shaking his head.

Mr. Deknis gave him a flash of a smile. “I know, I’m joking,” he said. “Especially since there isn’t much left in my gardens for certain princes to destroy with experiments.”

“Oh, okay,” Virgil said. He tilted his head. “What are you doing?”

“I’m getting the last of the acorn squash out,” Mr. Deknis replied. “It’s the last crop to get finished. Good thing too, it’s supposed to start snowing soon.”

Virgil looked down curiously at the dark green squash.

“Would you like to help me pick a couple?” Mr. Deknis asked.

“Sure,” Virgil said, sounding interested. Mr. Deknis patted the ground beside him and Virgil knelt down to watch him.

“They’re not too difficult to harvest,” he said. “You just cut the fruit off the stem. You want to leave about a hand’s width of the stem left over which will help preserve moisture. The earlier harvests, I left in the field to cure in the sun for a couple weeks, but the frost’ll ruin them so we’ll take them inside the green house and let them sit in the sun for a bit there. We also want to keep the leaves. You’ll probably be eating those for dinner tonight since they have to be cooked up within about 24 hours after they’re picked. Patton’s mom makes a good side dish with them and she’ll be making some curry tomorrow, probably. Maybe some stew if there are some leftover.”

“Put the squash in this wheelbarrow and the leaves into this pile, okay?” Virgil nodded and Mr. Deknis handed him the extra pair of gloves and shears he carried with him in case one set broke. “These might be a bit big on your, but they should work for now.”

Mr. Deknis looked up at Patton and Logan. “Would the two of you like to help?” he asked. “I can get some more equipment.”

“I can help out if you want, but you don’t need to stop and get more equipment just for me,” Patton said.

“The same for me,” Logan said.

“Well, if you’d like to help still, you can sort the leave. Give your mother a head start.”

“Sure,” Patton said. He and Logan went to do that while Mr. Deknis and Virgil worked on cutting the squashes from the vine.

“What do you do during the winter?” Virgil asked curiously. “If this is your last crop.”

“Seedlings?” he asked.

“I let seeds start to grow in the greenhouse that I replant once it gets warm enough.”

“Why don’t you just plant them where they’re going?”

“I do for some,” he said, “but giving some a head start is good for them.”

“Say yes if you want to Virgil,” Logan said.

“He’s exploring,” Logan said, nodding at the large patch of bushes.

Patton chuckled. “I see.” He sat next to Logan. Every so often he’d hear the bushes rustle, but he couldn’t tell if it was actually Virgil or an animal.

“He’s adorable,” Patton commented, keeping an ear out.

Logan hummed.

“I’m glad we kept him.”

“He isn’t a pet, Patton.”

“I’m going to go see what he’s doing,” Patton said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Ghost kitty!” he said, making sure to make his voice as quiet as possible.

“This is Ghost Kitty?” Virgil asked. “I thought you said she was hard to pet.”

“She is,” Patton said. He lowered himself onto the ground from a few feet away from them. “How did you get her to come to you?”

Virgil glanced down at the cat and shrugged, scratching one of her ears. “She just came over to me and let me pet her.”

“Wow,” Patton said softly. He looked at the cat. “Could I pet you sweetie?” he asked, holding out a hand in her direction. She hissed again.

Virgil frowned down at her. “It’s Patton,” he said as though he expected to understand his words and the exasperation in the tone he said them in.

He carefully turned his hand over so he could stroke the top of her head. He gently scratched her ear, not daring to go for under her chin yet since she didn’t know him well. “Hi,” he said softly. After a moment, she started to purr softly. Virgil reached over and scratched under her chin and she purred louder. “Oh, you’re a good girl,” Patton breathed, letting a hand trail gently down her back once and then again. Patton settled himself carefully into a seating position continuing to pet her. After a few more moments of soft petting, she hesitantly stepped her front paws onto Patton’s thigh so she was sitting in both of their laps. Patton laughed softly. “Hi sweetie.” He glanced over at Virgil who had a wide smile on his face as he pet the cat. This. This was adorable. They continued to pet the cat for a very long time.