#reverse battle royale

[the-kipsabian]

[calisources]

ROYAL, FANTASY ROMANCE AND SPICE. all these quotes and sentences are taken from different sources as well some made by myself. change pronouns and places and names as you see fit. some of these are heavy with tension or sexual intention, though nothing too graphic, but you are warned some of these are full of spice and forbidden romance. if you have more suggestions, send them to me and i will add them to this post.

ACTIONS AND SCENARIOS. add +reverse to change the roles.

(royal ball): our muses dance at a royal ball. 

(captive in the tower): sender is held captive and receiver helps save them.

(arranged marriage): our muses are thrown together into an arranged marriage.

(childhood betrothal): arranged to wed since being children, our muses finally meet days before the wedding.

(ward): send is a ward at the receiver's house/home. 

(stolen kiss): sender kisses receiver before a battle, away from prying eyes.

(mystery knight): sender is unknown at court and receiver wants to know them further.

(secrets): our muses are together in a secret relationship as their families wouldn’t approve. 

(brother’s keeper): sender is receiver’s brother's best friend. Sender has been harboring a crush since they met.

(taken): sender is taken prisoner by receiver on their ship at sea after a shipwreck.

(horse ride): there is only one horse trope, our muses have to ride together.

(guard): sender is made receiver’s guard and they have to travel/spend time together.

(no one is here to help): receiver is taken to sender as their captive.

(aftermath): after a battle/war, sender and receiver reunite thinking the other was dead. 

(my prince): sender falls for receiver, who is the realm’s prince/princess.

(tourney): sender gives the receiver their favor during a tournament.

(piece of me): sender ties a piece of cloth on receiver’s hand to wrap around a wound.

(you left): sender left receiver years ago, now reunited, receiver is upset.

(last kiss): unsure if they will see each other again, sender kisses the receiver before distracting enemies so receiver can escape.

(under my protection): sender proclaims himself receiver’s protector while receiver is traveling/captive.

(starcrossed): our muses find out they have to marry other people and they reunite at night.

(we were in love once): our muses were together in a relationship in their youth and now see each other after years.

(my castle is yours): sender pledges their castle as a fortress to keep the receiver safe.

(gentle touch): sender heals the receiver of their wounds and inevitably grows close.

(magic): receiver is a being of magical properties and sender finds themselves enthralled by them.

(my paramour): receiver becomes sender’s mistress.

(the bane of my existence): our muses never got along and yet, they harbor feelings for one another after a heated argument.

(maze): our muses lose their guards in a maze and they find each other alone.

(it was always you): our muses are childhood friends about to get married.

(to make peace): from opposite houses, our muses are now married to bring peace.

(corner): behind a corner of the great hall, sender corners receiver after seeing them dance with someone else.

(advisor): receiver works as an advisor for sender, despite objection around court.

(rags to riches): receiver is a bastard now made legitimate and people around the realm came to meet them. Sender is one of them.

(at your service): receiver is a lady in waiting/personal guard to sender’s sibling and a romance develops.

(saved): sender is saved by receiver, who is a healer/witch.

SENTENCES AND QUOTES:

“You are enough to drive a saint to madness or a king to his knees.”

“He didn't marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you.”

“Little by little, the old world crumbled, and not once did the king imagine that some of the pieces might fall on him.”

“I want you—but I don’t want this."

“Rule with the heart of a servant. Serve with the heart of a king.”

“There’s a fine line between gossip and history, when one is talking about kings.”

“I will not share you."

“Well, princess, let’s see what you’re made of.”

“She added the flowers and incense to help mask your own scent.”

“Your eyes betray you. Your body even responds to mine no matter that you’re angry. You want me.”

“He is my ruin. My complete and utter devastation.”

“Just how long have you been sticking it to the girl who’s like a little sister to us?”

“There’s a certain sort of beauty in submission.”

“My story hasn’t been written yet, but I know it begins with you.”

“You will love this man. Do you understand? You will love him, serve him, and obey him in all things. This is your duty to me and to France. Am I clear?’

“She didn’t need a man. She wanted one.”

“Your wish is my command, my queen.”

“It is legal because I wish it.”

“Rejection is an opportunity for your selection.”

“She's magic, Cassandra. A single flower blooming in an endless desert.”

“Do you really want to put yourself through this? Is loving me really enough to endure everything you have to just to be with me?"

“Make no mistake.You are under my protection now, and I protect what is mine.”

“But perhaps, when you sleep, you will dream of me."

“I cannot come with you, my prince.”

“This woman was consuming him, bit by bit.”

“Call him. Claim him. Speak his Name. Make him thine before all others.”

“You are the harbor of my soul’s journeying.”

“We love what we love. We don’t need to justify it to anyone… not even to ourselves.”

“To love something despite. To know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.”

“The heart is neither given nor stolen. The heart surrenders.”

“Give yourself to me.”

“I ask for so little. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your man to serve.”

“I married you to stop the bloodshed, and you keep killing. When will it be enough- when?”

“Marriage is a marriage- love or arranged. Both require the same level of commitment.”

“We are trapped by convention and must marry another.”

“We had both accepted the unwritten rule of arranged marriage: love, if it arrived at all, would bloom with time.”

“Be with me. Want me. Stay with me.I don’t know how to be without you.”

“We were doomed from the start. A lost cause. A losing battle.”

“Mr. Larsen, if you make me cry at my own coronation ball, I’ll never forgive you.”

“You are my very own forbidden fruit.”

“I’m scared, but I’d rather have one real day with you than a lifetime of misguided security.”

“And you, are mine.”

“You think a courtship and a hunt are two separate things. They are not.”

“I will share him with you, I cannot lose him.”

“Why must you resist me so dearly? When you tremble under my touch?”

“You must be made of magic itself. Your touch is warm.”

“One day, I will be able to leave you.”

“Did he touch you? Did you enjoy the way he held you across the room?”

"I will be your husband. I will take a solemn vow to protect you until death do us part. Do you understand what that means?"

“And why, pray tell, should I make it easy?'

"You are the bane of my existence--and the object of all of my desires. Night and day I dream of you."

"I did not ask for this--to be plagued by these feelings."

“I have loved you at every dance, on every walk, and every time we've been together. You must feel it in your heart, because I do."

“Because,by the time I’m done, prayer is the only thing that is going to save you.”

“Suppose I told everyone that I had seduced you.”

“You’re not planning to refuse me, are you?”

'Tell me if I do anything you don't like.”

“Say you do not care for me. Tell me you feel nothing and I will walk away.”

“I am a gentleman. My father raised me to act with honor, but that honor is hanging by a thread that grows more precarious with every moment I spend in your presence.”

“If I wed your sister, it will bind me and you together for eternity, and I will spend every day of my marriage wanting you, dreaming of you, dreading the day when my last thread of honor finally snaps.”

“I have never met anyone like you. It is maddening, how much you consume my very being.”

“That scent. It has remained imprinted on my mind ever since that night of the conservatory ball on that terrace. Lilies.”

“I desire you. I burn for you. I can't sleep at night because I want you."

“You’re the center of a star, and the force of gravity keeps pulling me closer, and I don’t give a damn that I’m about to be incinerated.“

“Whatever bad thing happened to you, it hasn’t made you less beautiful. There’s beauty in darkness, too.”

“I belong to you. Only you…I’ll always be yours. No matter what.”

[darqx]

Snakes on a post

Another particularly long answer dump since i, once again, have a backlog of things to potentially answer |D

❗️For commonly asked qs please see my BTD FAQ

Got jumpscared with my own old art for a hot minute there LAUGHS.

(For those wondering, the naga doodle from here was attached to the ask)

That is every other Royal that exists in the Nether and also at least some of the demons that challenged him for his Royal title lol.

Believe me, no one was or is more surprised then me XD;

So, the thing about where Rire's ichor manifests is that it kinda exists and doesn't exist at the same time. Meaning that his upper back is where the manifestation point is anchored, BUT it can still manifest with a bit of space in between it and his back hence why it will manifest over his clothes and not through them.

So if you touch where the manifestation point is sans the ichor, than you are just straight up touching his back. With the ichor, he still gets sensory input from the tentacles to his back but it's a lot more soft and muted esp the further away it gets from him. As you've seen implied though, he would feel a very sharp pain if a great deal of damage was done to the ichor where it clusters at the manifestation point, since he'd DEF be feeling that straight in his back lol.

He is definitely a top and the only way he would bottom for anybody is if they somehow forced him to.

Ah i knew i'd answered this a long time ago [finally found it]! Holy crosses (those that have been blessed) can also burn him but they would need to be in contact with him the entire time. Being a Royal he also has more of a tolerance to these than normal demons.

Well, unless said person actually has the undeniable ability to make good on their words, Rire would just stand there rather genially with that little smile he sometimes has and let them finish.

And then he might use them as reverse suggestions for dealing with said person (why would you give him any ideas!!?)

both

In BTD canon it is quite possible that they actually haven't in person. But we are using creative license here haha.

Rire heals a lot faster than a human. Cain is not my character so I don't know how his stacks up.

I've grouped these asks cos they kind of have similar answers - 360° (jk sorry sorry to the second q that is just a very common spelling mistake and I couldn't resist XD; )

Now, even though we mashed all the characs together in BTD, they all actually come from different storylines and so their canons outside the "BTD canon" may differ. This tends to bleed in. With this in mind:

The rules of Rire's canon (eg the concept of Battle Royales and how to become a Royal) don't apply to Cain. Anyway, they don't live in the same place either.

Cain is canonically the oldest and most OP character in BTD lol so yes he is stronger than Rire - you might've noticed, but Rire is never in the same drawing as Cain voluntarily. I play with this along with the "natural weakness" aspect - which I've also referred to as scissors-paper-rock rules XD Basically; demons beat humans, angels beat demons (purely because demons have weakness against holiness).

It would (be insane) but I hope you are not looking at me to fulfil this :d

Not really

His coronation day is a public holiday in his sector so yes XD

Aww thank you very much for your interest! ≧(´▽｀)≦ It's really cool that some of you guys want to actually fund such a thing - I'd have thought you'd have enough of him killing you in BTD1 XD Unfortunately, I have no plans for a Rire game at the moment as I'm working on a webcomic which looks like it will take up all my free time (that being said, he will be in the webcomic at some point).

Nope! Although i can kinda see why you might think that lol.

Whatever that one is where he doesn't particularly care what someone else identifies as. It really makes no difference to him or how he will act.

There are viruses in the Nether that if contracted could potentially kill you, yes. Part of being a Royal is becoming a lot more robust than normal Demons though. As for if/when Rire dies, I dunno maybe either in a Battle Royale somewhere thousands of years down the line or by old age (which is rare for a Royal but not impossible if you play your cards right).

If you are asking if he has a heat/rut of some sort, he does not |D

[angel-maybe-alive]

Retelings cliches that piss me the fuck off

♡Alice in Wonderland is about drugs - it could be about society, it could be about neurodivergency but no, white girl doing LSD is cooler, I guess.

♡ what if Superman was evil - then it wouldn't be Superman dumbass, like the main point of Superman is that he is a good person like it's the whole deal hyperpowerful but really good

♡actually any what if the heroes had no morals- then you are just doing Greek myths with extra steps

♡Romeo and Juliet, but one is an oppressor and the other the oppressed - Litterally, both families were in equal standing in society. Why you need to make it abusive for no reason.

♡Beauty and the beast, any reteling of beauty and the beast - no, it's not Stockholm syndrome, no a shapeshifter elf with abs doesn't count as a Beast, and Belle was a nice person In the original why everyone remakes her as a cunt.

♡my book it's just like the hunger games but...-Shut it I need you to please tell me if you understand that no, hunger games isnt just about reality television and a battle royale, I swear to God...

♡Pinocchio but it's about a robot- flower print for spring groundbreaking

♡it's inspired by the works of tolkien- no, it's a transcript of you and your group of only male friends playing dungeons and dragons while high on cheap weed at 03:00 am on the suburbs while listening to pop punk on MTV in 2003, we get it you want to bang a hot elven maiden and slain a dragon

♡is inspired by Harry potter- For the last fucking time Rowling doesn't own the concept of magic schools let go of those fucking chains and let this woman go it's a magic school book just call it that goddamn it

♡it's inspired by fairy tales - Disney version or the cultural ones because one way or the other, your childhood crush on an animated villain shouldn't be the only thing fueling your writing career.

♡it's about Greek gods...-*sigh* I don't even know where to start with those just read something other than Percy Jackson(I love percy Jackson by the way) Lore Olympus and the first page of Wikipedia on Greek mythology and then maybe spend a long time thinking if whatever you are planning to write isn't somehow more misogynistic than whatever the fuck an old Greek scholar wrote thousands of years ago okay.

♡what if (real life bigotry) was reverse - just don't for a first time writing, for someone in a privileged place in society, it's just a bad idea altogether, Dont

[marte-14]

Lorule (aka Hyrule’s Ravio)

PREVIOUS/DOCTOR

Got my tablet to work, so here we go with the next Ravio!

The Hero of Lorule is young capitan of the royal guards.

Very confident of himself and his role, sometime arrogant and he can be a bit harsh with his words,(The new recruits that are trained by him can confirm). Still he has a kind heart who just wants to be someone his people can look up to.

While Hyrule’s world is a dangerous place, where civilisation is limited to a few villages, Lorule’s world is flourishing.

He grew up in Castletown, he isn’t a survivalist like the Traveler (just the training he got in the military)

Lorule is also half fairy (just like Hyrule in this headcanon) but he isn’t good with his magic, he doesn’t know how to use it in battle and he struggles to control it.

He has two Hildas, just like Hyrule has two Zeldas. The first Hilda he met was at 10 years old when he discovered to be the Hero, he met the second Hilda during a Quest, when he saved her.

He grew up with both the Hero of Lorule and Hyrule stories (Hope and Legend), he admires them both a lot, and he is the only other Ravio who knows of the existence of the world of Hyrule.

He is the cook in his group, fortunately his food doesn’t curse people even with his face blood.

He is close with Hope, but he has more of a mentor/student relationship than friendship with him, and Hope is a bit overwhelmed by his enthusiasm to change things.

He and Hyrule have a fine relationship, they are not the closest but they work well together.

The reality is that they admire each other a lot, but struggle to express it:

Hyrule admires Lorule because he sees him more similar to his companions, strong knights that are legendary. But it also make a bit self conscious about his self worth, making him result colder to Lorule.

Lorule admires Hyrule for his strength and abilities, especially the magical ones. Hyrule also reminds him a lot of Hope, both of them shined light in their kingdoms that were is chaos, kind hearted people in an unforgiving world. He thinks that Hyrule doesn’t like him, mostly because how close off Hyrule is at times. Lorule knows that his enthusiasm can be a bit much at times, and he believes that Hyrule finds him a bit annoying.

He will ask advice to Hope, who will teach him how to communicate with the Links, especially when they don’t talk (btw Hope helps more than one Ravio out when it comes to interacting with the Links, same goes for Legend but in reverse)

.

.

.

I want to thank @lace4forest.

You have no idea how much your video analysis helped me to write this character (your video on Wars is going to save me when I do his Lorulian counterpart)

If you don’t know about her channel on YouTube, she has a series where she analyses every Link, they are very useful for any fanfiction/fancomic writer of LU.

She also does streams on Twitch and draws (very good drawings too!)

Go check everything out!

[silly-salty-utdr-rants]

papyrus backstory rant repost from main

you know what isnt acknowledged enough?

we know more about sans and gaster's backstories than papyrus'.

what we know about gasters backstory:

he was the royal scientist, he likely had a lot of hubris, he built the core, he fell into the core, pieces of his existence were scattered across time and space, he had a following of people that were seemingly also caught in the blast and was/is somehow connected to papyrus, sans, the player, chara and deltarune. certainly not the most detailed but a damn good basic outline

what we know about sans' backstory:

he at some point was a scientist, there is a mysterious group of people he will supposedly never see again, he is likely the older of the 2 brothers, he might have seen a human before frisk, he at some point lost hope of ever returning to an unspecified location and at some point gained the title of judge. still relatively vague and some clues are fairly out of the way but still, a good idea of who he was before frisk fell and flowey fucked around

what we know about papyrus' backstory:

he came from somewhere unknown with green grass, he doesnt like hotland for unknown reasons, he made the battle body a few weeks before frisk fell, flowey took a liking to him for unknown reasons, undyne likely only recently started training him but when she did it was because he waited outside her house all night, he was apparently feeling down for a while before frisk fell and.. what else?

this vague ass tiny idea of what he maybe did like a month before we meet him hardly serves as a backstory. and funny enough this is all i can garner from oh idk THE CHARACTER WITH THE MOST LINES OF DIALOGUE IN THE WHOLE GAME SECOND ONLY TO THE NARRATOR! this is why i lovingly dub paps the king of deflection, as another example lets look at the time someone in the papyrus qna asked what he looked like when he was younger and in response he played dumb to be purposefully stingey about his past and try to show a picture of himself from the day before through a textbox. and its not like he doesnt know what hes doing, hes stubborn not stupid, thats why he vaguely hints at truelab during a phonecall despite moments before pretending he doesnt know what a lab IS, thats why he plays dumb around sans, thats why he seemingly lies to frisk about his knowledge of hotland, thats why he knows how to use reverse psychology well enough to manipulate UNDYNE of all people, and thats why he brushes off sans' time shenanigans as yet another prank across time and space, because he is the king of deflection and we dont know shit about his backstory and neither does anyone ingame, so if he does end up being the knight, he's hidden bigger bombshell secrets before, so why stop now?

[hastalavistabyebye]

Canon mandalorian art and the Murals of Sundari

There's a very interesting thing about canon mandalorian art. Outside of Sabine's graffitis and armor paint, the only canon mando figurative art (that I have found) are the statue of Tarre Vizla -which go perfectly in star wars' long tradition of dead historical figures' statues, especially for Jedi- and the three murals of Mandalore. I said figurative because there is also the Memorial Shrine on Sundari that was bombed by death watch during the clone wars that is definitely not figurative. But that's another subject.

Of those two exemples of mandalorian sculptures that we know of, we have an old, historical, imposing rendition of a past Mand'alor (and in both medium and subject, what I personally headcanon as the favored type of art by Mandalorians) and a series of murals depicting one of the victories of the Mandalorians over the Jedi, during one of their war. And that mural is the only major art we see in Sundari, the New Mandalorians' Capital.

And that's what I'm going to talk about.

Those three murals have obviously been inspired by Picasso's Guernica. I'm absolutely not a Picasso specialist nor do I wish to be (he was an asshole first category, thank you very much but ew). But. What I do know is that Guernica was commanded to Picasso to illustrate the city Guernica's bombing and denounce fascism, and later on was a symbol of the horror of the war (especially the world war 2 which started two years after the realisation of this imposing painting). The blatant difference with Guernica in those murals is that the violence isn't denounced at all. It's highlighted. The Mandalorians Crusaders have halos, they're bigger, standing, orderly, majestic. Opposed to that are the Jedi, distorted, chaotic, small, at the feet of the Mandalorians. This is obvious propaganda in favor of the victors of the battle. (Of the battle only because it's the Jedi who won that war.)

Using Guernica was an interesting and easy way to show "A War" even if the soul of it is completely reversed (which is really interesting too) but yeah, that's a smart and quick way to send a mood to the person watching those episodes of clone war, without needing to focus on the art. You see the style, you understand roughly what's the meaning of it. End of the parenthesis.

What is interesting is that this is the only figurative art I've found for the New Mandalorians. More than that, that last mural was right under the speaking balcony, above the royal platform of Sundari's palace. Satine Kryze talked about her ideals just over the graphic depiction of Jedi being decapitated. This, added to the cultural genocide the New Mandalorians were making, paint one hell of a picture.

For that last part on the New Mandalorians, @/fox-trot made an amazing explanation of it, in some of their tags once but I can't find the post again :( roughly, they were highlighting how, notably in Legends, the Mandalorians used to be a vastly diverse people, different colors of skin, different species.... But with the arrival of the New Mandalorians, not only we can't see any art but those ones, not only do they want to erase entire parts of their traditions and culture (armor doesn't mean war, you could change the warrior and blood culture without taking the armor out, cue Jedi and their weapons lightsaber), but they also are all human, white and rich. Boba and Jango Fett aren't seen as Mandalorians at all. The Wren are Death Watch so traitors and terrorists. The New Mandalorians are good and safe and refuse any way of protection, are more passive than neutral in that regard, and are a white, human elite.

That elite have hid/erased/we-can't-even-know-because-it-can-only-be-seen-in-it's-obvious-absence all of their traditional art but those murals, depicting the massacre that was one of their victorious battles in a war they ultimately lost. This is one hell of a propaganda and rewriting of History.

You can read it in many ways, two I can think of are :

-the New Mandalorians Government want to send the message "See how bloody and terrible and not-good mandalorian culture is. We need to be pacifists to not-be-like-that"

-but what it can look like is the symbolic reality of what they're doing : a cultural genocide painted in glorious light.

Anyway you want to look at it, with such a critical light of the new mandalorians or not, that those murals are the only art display in Sundari's palace still send one hell of a message.

[silvergarnet12]

Finally finished this, for anyone wondering about their splashtags, I'll copy the text I added on my wip about it under the cut.

Edit: forget to mention the bg is hastily edited concept art from the Tellius Recollection books. Spoilers for the Tellius games are in, just a warning.

For weapons, every weapon here has the Kraken Royale special in Splatoon 3, and someone agessss ago tagged my first inkling Kurthnaga suggesting he could turn inot the Kraken, and I thought that was fun.

Kurthnaga: He has a roller purely based on the fact my brain thinks he'd use one. Don't ask why it's just vibes I guess.

"Promising Ruler" is a reference to the end of Radiant Dawn, and the number 3108 is a reference to 31/08 or Halloween, because of his Heroes debut. He has the lvl 999 Tableturf badge because I think he'd enjoy playing it, the gold Kraken badge because weapon reasons, the bronze Grizzco badge because I imagine Almedha ropes him in to joining her on shifts sometimes.

Almedha: She has a splatling because I think it looks cool, and does a lot of damage from a far just like a certain dragon laser beam.

"Restless Sister" is because she left Goldoa before the Tellius games and inadvertently helped set events in motion. 2202 is 22/02/07 and is Radiant Dawn's Japanese Release date.

I also think she has some tendency towards violence since in canon she had a child with Ashnard of all people, and I doubt he was ever non violent. So she has Salmon Run badges, the flyfish is because I hate them and anyone with that badge is automatically cool to me.

Ena: She gets the Gal because usually it's pink and so is she, I also think she'd find tricky ways to use the Splash wall it comes with.

"Fortunate Tactician" in this au Rajaion doesn't die(if I make any tragedy it'll be reversible because this is funny squid game au and I like happy endings), and she's still good tactically. 2004 is 20/04/05 and is Path of Radiance's Japanese release date.

She has the Kraken badge like Kurth because of her weapon, X Rank badge because she takes battling as a tactical challenge, and the gold Tableturf badge because I think she'd also enjoy it, but play it less than Kurth.

Rajaion: He gets the charger because I was running out of weapons with the Kraken, so he gets an Elitre because I think they look cool, even if I hate fighting them. Also the spawn in pose is cool as hell.

"Revived King" He gets to live in this au, and not die. With Dheginsea being retired from whatever his role ends up as, Rajaion is technically in charge now. 1004 is 10/04/07 and is Radiant Dawn's Australian release date.

He also gets a matching bg style with Ena.

All his badges reference his luck in not being dead in this AU. The gachapon badge is basically gambling, so luck based, Cuttlefish got revived in Splatoon 3's story, and the wavebreaker is used as a revival device a lot in Salmon Run!

[hiide0us]

tadc pedictions/theories

[  ] The cast are programmers

[  ] The cast are beta testing

[  ] The cast are AI

[  ] The cast are the preserved consciousnesses of dead people (a la SOMA)

[  ] Member(s) of the cast abstract

[  ] New cast member(s)

[  ] The Circus is some kind of therapy

[  ] The Circus is a punishment

[  ] Abstraction is corrupted data

[  ] Abstraction is just exiting the game

[  ] Abstraction is caused by feeling unloved/worthless

[  ] Abstraction can be reversed

[  ] Beach episode

[  ] Cooking episode

[  ] Karting episode

[  ] Battle Royale episode

[  ] Labyrinth episode

[  ] Jungle/Indiana Jones episode

[  ] Aliens!

[  ] More self-aware NPCs

[  ] Returning NPCs

[  ] Jax has no big secret(s), he just pretends to (to piss us off specifically)

[  ] Caine is keeping secrets

[  ] Lore never gets fully explained

[  ] Abel

[  ] Caine gets better at understanding feelings

[  ] Group hug/Group hand holding

[  ] Bad ending

[  ] Jax never stops being an asshole ever

[  ] Caine villain moment

[  ] Bubble was the Big Bad(tm) the whole time

[agenericplaceholdername]

Election Night in Ninjago

Are you interested in what Ninjago’s politics might look like? Here’s my perspective that tries to stay canon-compliant and even explains some changes between seasons. Of course, most of this is purely invented by me, and probably only entertaining to me.

Ninjago existed under a feudal system with a hereditary monarchy until ~50 years before the Serpentine War, when the growth of Ninjago City created an urban elite as capitalism emerged. In the lead up to the Serpentine War, the royal family consolidated power from the feudal lords, creating the Empire of Ninjago. However, during the Serpentine War, in order to convince urban residents to support the fight against the united tribes (they were largely safe, it was rural areas and small villages that were under threat), the Emperor was forced to concede supreme executive power to an elected legislature, and areas that were previously governed by local lords established elected governments. The first major political issue concerned what was to be done about the defeated Serpentine – during the war, the Elemental Alliance had used magic flutes (dubbed “sacred flutes” as an act of war propaganda) to seal away the five tribes. However, a rift grew between some who wanted to allow the average Serpentine to be reintegrated into society and those who wanted them all sealed away. In the end, the anti-Serpentine faction won out, receiving support from the sons of the First Spinjitzu Master. The Serpentine were sealed and the Anacondrai generals banished to the Cursed Realm.

The anti-Serpentine faction would form a political party – the Traditionalists, who were rivaled by the Modernists, who had advocated for a more lenient sentence. The Traditionalists would perform well in rural areas, with a small government, anti-technology message, while the Modernists were mostly confined to Ninjago City, advocating for a larger government and investment into technology. Elections would be held every two years, and everything from federal races down to local elections (the Mayorship of Ninjago City being easily the most powerful) was up for grabs. However, even as the Royal Family ceded more power to the Ninjago Legislature, the national government was still fairly weak, and local governments held a substantial amount of autonomy under a federalist system. A key element of Ninjago’s Constitution was a prohibition on a standing army, a provision heavily favored by both parties. Following the Serpentine War, the Traditionalists feared an army could lead to tyranny of the majority and big government overreach while the Modernists thought that the army might become more loyal to the Royal Family and restore an absolute monarchy. Thus, while municipal police forces would be well-equipped, in the event of a rapidly developing nationwide conflict, irregular militias and local forces would be all that could stand against invaders or domestic threats – until the Ninja, that is.

When the Serpentine were first released from their tombs, the Traditionalists were in charge. They appeared poised for a landslide in the elections the following year, with anti-Serpentine sentiment reaching a fever pitch when the Great Devourer attacks. Even in Ninjago City, whose historically Modernist population was less anti-Serpentine than the average Ninjago resident, a “Take Back Ninjago” rally was held. Some Modernist politicians attempt to call this out as demagoguery, but these cries fall on deaf ears. However, fortunes would dramatically reverse after the so-called “Final Battle.” Tech genius Cyrus Borg’s invention of the hover car quickly made him the richest man in Ninjago, and he donated heavily to Modernist politicians. In general, the Modernists embrace the burgeoning tech revolution and manage to score a legislative majority. They put Dr. Borg (who had been leading unofficial repair efforts) officially in charge of the rebuilding of Ninjago City (renamed New Ninjago City), and some commentators claim the Modernists might have permanently defeated the Traditionalists. Relations are reopened with the Serpentine, now sealed under Ninjago City, although this was not widely publicized.

The “permanent Modernist majority” was short-lived, however. The Nindroid Crisis obliterates public support of the tech revolution, especially in Ninjago City. Few polls were conducted in the time between the restoration of power across Ninjago and Zane’s sacrifice, but the few that were showed Modernist popularity beneath 10%. One reform that had been achieved by the Modernists some 10 years prior was a provision in the Ninjago Constitution for a national recall election, which was now poised to backfire as a recall petition was rapidly gaining signatures. However, Zane’s sacrifice saves the Modernists from utter humiliation. A nindroid who sacrificed himself for humans, Zane became a Modernist hero overnight. Cyrus Borg’s speech at Zane’s funeral was widely praised as a mea culpa that boosted his popularity. Many Traditionalist politicians’ harsh words about nindroids are attacked as insulting a great hero, and the recall effort died out.

The Second Serpentine War is a further boon to Modernist hopes. Not only does a “rally-around-the-flag” effect boost the incumbent party, but the Serpentine joining with humans to defeat humans pretending to be Serpentine reduces anti-Serpentine sentiment. This indirectly helps the Modernists, and it becomes public knowledge after the conflict that Master Chen had been responsible for the First Serpentine War. There is serious discussion about the Modernists maintaining power after the next election, despite how unlikely it had seemed just months prior. However, the invasion of Stiix by the Preeminent dashes all hopes. While the Ninja became celebrities, their popularity was surface-level and their super-fans were almost exclusively young people in Ninjago City (low voter turnout). An anti-Ninja grassroots movement starts in Stiix and is absorbed by the Traditionalists, who walk a thin line between outright attacking the Ninja (who are still generally popular) and praising them, while the Modernists are firmly pro-Ninja. The notoriously leak-free Royal Family even gets involved, with one newspaper (a tabloid, really) writing that the Jade Princess Harumi is fervently anti-Ninja, although a rare statement from the Emperor denies this. In the end, the Nindroid Crisis hurt the Modernists too much to recover, and the Traditionalists are voted back into power.

Once in power, the Traditionalists quickly reward their allies. The Ninjago Museum of History receives a large grant for their “Hall of Villainy” exhibit, which is credited to curator Dr. Sander Saunders’ staunch support of the Traditionalists (and antipathy toward technology). Meanwhile, the new Traditionalist mayor of Ninjago City cuts back on police funding (high-grade weaponry is replaced with tasers) and the Hiroshi’s Labyrinth vault is closed down. Cyrus Borg’s “Infovision” kiosks are also removed. This is promoted as a curtailing of unnecessary government expenditures. Initially, the Traditionalists seem to be very successful. A wave of kidnappings by Serpentine bolsters anti-Serpentine sentiment, and Ninjago enjoys a year of peace afterward. Things aren’t perfect – in some areas, peasants are forced back into servitude as the Traditionalists’ push for regional autonomy allows local warlords to regain control – but generally the Traditionalists are popular. This changes dramatically as the Sons of Garmadon become more prevalent, and the pro-Traditionalist consensus utterly collapses when Emperor Garmadon takes over.

The Traditionalists are blamed for the police budget cuts that allowed the SoG to rule (and public statements by the Police Commissioner attacking Ninjago City’s mayor don’t help matters), but more importantly, they were nowhere to be seen as part of the Resistance. Meanwhile, the Ninja receive massive accolades for dethroning Garmadon as old clips of Traditionalist politicians attacking the Ninja come to bite them. The Traditionalists try desperately to keep power – they allow Dr. Borg to store the Hiroshi’s Labyrinth items in his tower in the hopes that he won't get involved in the upcoming election, they finance the creation of a new Bounty as a stunt designed to reassure voters that the Traditionalists are pro-Ninja – but it doesn’t work. The Bounty publicity stunt ends up doing more harm when the Mayor doesn’t even make an appearance, likely fearing protests due to her actions (or rather, inaction) during Garmadon’s rule. In the elections held following the Oni Invasion, the Modernists are voted back into power.

The Modernists take power only to immediately be hit with a barrage of crises. Their key legislative goal was to achieve equal rights for both the Serpentine and artificial lifeforms, which they did achieve. Under the Modernist government, Serpentine, Nindroids, and later Prime Empire NPCs are allowed to obtain Ninjago citizenship, attend Ninjago schools, and are treated equally under the law. This doesn’t erase prejudice, but would have been a term-defining accomplishment – if not for the series of disasters that start less than a month into their term. First Aspheera invades Ninjago, which is fortunately brief and largely disconnected from modern-day Serpentine politics. However, the Prime Empire triple-whammy (800 people sucked into the game, there's a mass prison breakout, then an invasion of video game characters) reinforces in voters’ minds why the Modernists had been booted out 2 years prior – technology is scary! NPCs are allowed to stay in Ninjago and are guaranteed rights by the Modernists, a move which is seen as tone deaf. PIXAL, Zane, Okino, and Racer 7 (who later changes her name to Blazey H. Speed) all speak in favor of AI rights, however, and public sentiment largely ends up split. Ultimately, Wojira’s invasion, which carries the highest single-day death toll in Ninjago City, sounds the death knell for the Modernist government. Was it their fault? No – but with so much devastation, someone had to pay.

A recall election is held, and one of the key Traditionalist victories is that of Ninjago City Mayor U. N. Trustable, who runs on an explicitly anti-Ninja platform. There is a minor controversy during the campaign where it turns out a dark money campaign has been smearing the Ninja, but the source of these funds is never discovered. One conspiracy theory argued that somehow, despite being dead, Harumi was involved.* The Modernists attempted to use Trustable’s “Ninja-bashing” as insulting Nya’s legacy, but after doing the same thing with Zane just a few years prior, most voters didn't buy it. During the campaign, facing declining poll numbers, the Modernists successfully added Merlopia (under King Benthomaar) as an autonomous region with the ability to vote in Ninjago federal elections. This facilitates cultural sharing between the two kingdoms (including Merlopian pie recipes). It is also seen as a transparent ploy to gain more votes, as many Merlopians had strong support for the Modernist government after realizing how they were duped by Kalmaar. Human citizens overwhelmingly blame Merlopia for Wojira’s attack, and reject the Modernists in record numbers.

*an examination of Royal Family funds following the Crystal King's defeat validated this theory, with Harumi being alive all along

Mayor Trustable’s term starts out fine, with the New Ninja enjoying high popularity among voters. Public sentiment starts to turn on the Traditionalists after the blockbuster case Ninjago City v. Ninja, as voters are largely sympathetic to the Ninja’s goal of saving Nya. Moreover, many had voted for Trustable to express discontent with the ruling Modernists, not as a full rejection of the Ninja. Traditionalist support then collapses following the Crystastrophe. Clips of Trustable fleeing Ninjago City next to Traditionalist politicians endorsing him are played in every Modernist ad. Mayor Trustable resigns after prominent national Traditionalist politicians demand he step down, fearing that he might have single handedly destroyed the party.

In the regular elections held shortly afterward, the so-called “Neo-Modernists” win, running on pure pro-Ninja sentiment. Notably, however, the demagogic fear by the Traditionalists about Serpentine, NPCs, and Merlopians “infiltrating our society” dies down following the aid of all of those peoples to fight the Crystal King. The Neo-Modernists are in charge of Ninjago until the Merge, following which the national government essentially collapses. Municipalities like the Crossroads and Ninjago City (re)establish local police forces and governments, but there is a general sense that people are tired of politics, and elections are changed to every four years. Eventually a regional government is established over much of the greater Ninjago City metro area, including the Crossroads. The Modernist push for civil rights for non-humans is embodied in the new Ninjago constitution, which now protects the rights of all sapient creatures, from humans to Serpentine to skeletons to Mucoids and beyond. 

And that concludes my imaginary Ninjago politics story? Fanfic? I don’t know. I left out basically any mention of Ninjago’s economic situation, education, healthcare, foreign policy (towards Shintaro and Metalonia, I guess) so there’s certainly room to expand on this. I tried to identify changes that occurred in Ninjago over the course of the show (what does the “Take Back Ninjago Rally” mean for human-serpent relations, given that later on Frak and Arin meet at school? What happened to the Ninjago City police’s weaponry from Skybound to SoG?) and then wrote a mostly cohesive story. Hope you enjoyed it! And if you’re in the US, make sure to vote!

[krinsbez]

Conan of the Periphery: A BattleTech/Pulp Fusion World/Storybuilding Project

Well, y'all voted for this, so here it goes.

For reasons I don't quite understand, we mostly ended up discussing King Conan, and realized that we can't quite make the Canon version work, since there's no way for Conan to end up running a Successor State. So we decided on him making a new state in the Periphery. Which led to someone suggesting:

I'd suggest Star's End over the Marians anyways, because you have something that really matters (a JumpShip yard), and an environment that plays to the strengths of a Conan-style character; not so much civilized, but personal prowess is very important fighting across a thousand tiny fields of battle. Plus you get to have Susie Morgaine-Ryan draping herself across Conan's lap during the invasion, and she's absolutely a Conan character with her combination of vamping and stabbity.

So, this image, of Conan fighting the Clans with Susie Morgraine-Ryan draped across his lap became a centerpiece, and from there we decided on Aquilonia being formed from some combo of Star's End, the Barony of Strang, the Oberon Confederation, and and least some of the Chainelane Isles.

What we settled on is that Conan leaves Cimmeria, a marginal planet in the Periphery and begins a career as a wandering MechWarrior in the Inner Sphere in the 2950s, earning substantial fame and renown, etc. before settling down after semi-inadvertently carving out a kingdom for himself in the Coreward Periphery in the 2980s.

When the Third Succession War officially ends in 3025, he decides to retire, abdicating the throne in favor of his son Conan II (henceforth, Conn) and going exploring. Subsequently, Conn very much gives the FedCom a kick in the teeth after they decided Aquilonia becoming a bit to strong for their comfort. Nothing to major just a small raid that goes very wrong and the peace talks after have Conn cement themselves as a grand Statemen and a Ruler of the nation that demands as much respect as the other Major periphery nations do.

Meanwhile, Conan gets stuck in the California nebula and encounters something that slows, stops, or reverses his aging, and then somehow manages to contrive to escape with a Royal SLDF 'Mech that's been tricked out with weird CalNeb tech, and shows up just as the Clan Invasion gets started.

Aaand that's where we hit a wall.

So, ideally, I'd like to do two things:

-Backfill Conan's history.

-Figure out how the history of the Inner Sphere unfolds differently from the Clan Invasion onwards.

Any thoughts?

[calisources]

ROYAL ROMANCE AND SPICE PART TWO. all these quotes and sentences are taken from different sources as well some made by myself. change pronouns and places and names as you see fit. some of these are heavy with tension or sexual intention, though nothing too graphic, but you are warned some of these are full of spice and forbidden romance

this is part two. part one can be found here. if you have more suggestions, send them to me and i will add them to this post.

actions and scenarios. add +reverse for the opposite scenario.

(play pretend): our muses have to pretend to be married or betrothed to be allowed in the same room together.

(one bed): while on the run, our muses must share a bed.

(courtly love): one muse is a knight at the service of the other muse, and they have courtly love behavior.

(it can never be): one muse is married while the other is a knight not allowed to be married. Theirs is an impossible romance.

(coronation): receiver is crowned king/queen, sender is watching closely. 

(succession): the unlikely heir, receiver is crowned heir to the realm while sender, their fiance/lover watches.

(where our hands touch): our muses hands touch accidentally causing them to pause mid conversation.

(do not strike): sender is about to slap receiver for an offense but receiver catches sender’s hand, bringing them close.

(am i not enough): receiver finds out sender has a mistress/lover.

(i am not taken): sender questions receiver’s relationship with someone, receiver informs them said someone is their relative, to sender’s delight.

(yo-ho a pirate’s life): sender is a pirate and receiver finds themselves on their ship.

(bridal style): receiver is injured and so, sender picks them up to avoid further injury.

(your coat is warmer): sender is cold or underdressed and receiver places their coat on their shoulders.

(sworn enemies as lovers): despite being sworn enemies, our muses pretend to be lovers/or marry to join forces against a bigger enemy.

(the faints): sender faints/trips and receiver is there to catch them.

(in the rain): our muses are caught in the midst of rain and seek refuge while it passes. They are alone.

(bath): receiver is taking a bath and the sender appears in the room, taking in the suggestive view.

(masquerade): at a ball, people are encouraged to dance. Sender and receiver do not know one another and dance under the guise of strangers.

(masquerade for us): sender and receiver know each other and play pretend during the night with their masks on.

(like a shoe): sender helps the receiver with their shoes, their hand lingers on the receiver's ankle.

(through the mirror): sender asks receive to help them out of their dress, receiver takes their time with each lace.

(how it begins): our muses are encouraged to talk alone, hoping to find common ground for a marriage.

(bedding): sender and receiver were wed and now it’s their wedding night.

(the gods are our witness): receiver and sender fooling around, the desire grows with each day.

(their knight): receiver is a knight/prince who gives their cloak to a lady/princess to help her cover herself.

(victory tastes good): reunited, our muses have their first kiss after a war/battle.

(learn from me): sender is teaching receiver how to use a weapon and stands too close.

(marriage of inconvenience): sender and receiver are forced into a marriage that neither likes. Despite this, a spark is lit.

(in love and war): our muses are enemies, somehow, through forced proximity, they find comfort in each other.

(a kiss like medicine): sender is grieving and receiver is comforting them, in the midst of it all, sender kisses receiver.

(shut me up): during an argument, the sender forcefully kisses the receiver to shut them up.

(in your arms): continuation of the one bed trope, our muses wake up in the same bed, having drifted close and cuddle.

(it’s fate): sender and receiver are fated to be together and they meet, they can feel it in their souls.

(what is honor in the hands of love): despite not being wed, our muses sleep together in a night of thirst and love.

(mutual pining): sender and receiver are in love, tension keeps on growing but both are afraid of ruining what they already have.

(defend): sender hits someone to defend receiver’s honor.

(runaway wedding): our muses marry in secret.

Sentences and quotes. Change names, pronouns, locations as you see fit.

What I want... the only thing I want has always been you.

She looks weak and delicate but you don't know how brave she is. She's the bravest woman in all the three realms. 

After I met you, my life has purpose. I don't know what my life would be like without you.

I can deal with him trampling me underneath his feet .. but I can't bare to see him hurt you even a little bit.

You don't need scores of suitors. You need only one... if he's the right one. 

Which is why we're too young to realize certain things are impossible.

The very essence of romance is uncertainty. 

But she doesn't like him. I thought she didn't like him.

. I want to give you more pleasure than you can bear.”I know the truth now. You've figured out I'm falling in love with you and you're trying to make me stop by hurting me this way. Well it won't work.

You’re far too prickly tempered to be a mistress. You’re far better suited as a wife.

I want to fill every part of you, breathe the air from your lungs and leave my handprints on your soul.

When my mother-in-law visits, the mice throw themselves at the cat, begging to be eaten.

Every word you have ever uttered, is engraved upon my heart.”

. . . if you can't see the good man he is, you need to unscrew them eyeballs of yours and try on a different pair.

The man irritated her just like a rash.

I’ve no memory of how it feels to be devoid of the craving. But you must know what you do. 

If I choose to make a darling of you, there is nothing you can do about it.

"She was going away, but I detained her.

if i loved you any less i might be able to talk about it more

I'm asking you to tell Lady Cassandra about my good qualities as well as the bad ones.

Don’t mistake softness for weakness. Only a strong man can be soft with a woman.

I will make her mine.

It simply isn’t a woman’s nature to be silent for prolonged periods of time.

I was never infamous. In fact, I'm fairly standard as far as rakes go.

What do ladies wear beneath their riding trousers?

Count this as a mere taste, sweetheart, of all the pleasure I can give you. 

Shall we duel with our lips?

Are you saying that I normally look as if I'm tending sheep? With straw in my hair? As if I might yodel?

Your Grace, Are you trying to get me into your bed?

You don't have to kiss a lot of frogs to recognize a prince when you find one.

Thought you didn't like red hair.

The gown makes my mouth water, love.

Husband-hunting. Always a rousing sport. I suppose you go there dressed to kill.

It's just that I don't think friends tie friends to the bedpost.

I've never met a woman or a lock that didn't love me.

We are here to discuss your foolhardy behavior.

Masquerades are frivolous, scandalous—

Tonight, with these masks, ladies are allowed the freedom men have without during the entire year.

My body craves your touch. Every time I look at those lips, I want to kiss you senseless.

You’ve driven me to the brink of madness without laying a finger on me.

The young Miss Stratton was a taste of heaven, there was no doubt… and he was going to savor every mouthful.

You claim I have your heart. And what if you have mine?

Courtly love is a dangerous game, and those who play for lust rather than love are often richly rewarded in scorn.

He won my hand from my father and my heart.

Some gentlemen are not afraid of an assertive lady.

I seem to remember you calling me a bastard for watching you bathe.

It's nearly winter, and the nights are long, mo duinne.

I mean to make you sigh as though your heart would break, and scream with the wanting, and I shall know that I've served ye well.

Don’t be afraid. There’s the two of us now.

You are the pineapple of Great Britain.

I like my pleasure guaranteed.

I was warned against the thrall of a maiden’s magic.

I cannot concentrate with you hovering, breathing, and telling me to concentrate.

You should not be here in my chambers. . .

It is you I cannot sacrifice. I burn… for you.

To Meet A Beautiful Woman Is One Thing, But To Meet Your Best Friend In The Most Beautiful Of Women Is Something Entirely Apart.

Yes, I Know. You Are Not The Marrying Type. Yet Have You Considered You Are Not The Type Women Wish To Marry?

I have been longing to do it again.

I am a lady in distress. You refuse to help a lady in distress?

I refuse when that lady in distress is trying to go over a wall so she does not have to marry me.

You have half a husband, Charlotte. Half a life. I cannot give you the future you deserve. Not a full me.

If what we have is half, then we shall make it the very best half. I love you. It is enough.

The next time we meet, it will be in our wedding day.

Marrying for love is like adding extra to your meal.

I do not want you to be married. I would grow to hate your wife.

Mark my words, Lila. You'll be mine in all ways you can imagine.

Would you cast aside your marriage for me? I would offer you the one thing marriage has never given you; pleasure.

[m-jelly]

I thought of a bit of an angsty royal AU.

You're set to marry the prince who says he's deeply in love even though it's arranged. Levi is a count or duke who's seen as a villain and scares a lot of people but he's used for war and battles.

Levi is obsessed with you and you don't know why. He's rather alluring and a bit scary. You have no idea why he's so obsessed with you and you want to honour your parents and the king because of the prince and the marriage.

However after a lot of things going on you discover that Levi had turned back time to save you because in the past life you were killed but he didn't know who. You lived a terrible life with the prince who kept you locked up and had a lot of affairs. You escaped him but became hurt.

Levi fell for you when you were in hiding but someone killed you before you could be together. As he held your dying body he swore to the gods he's get revenge and take you as his if time could be reversed.

Levi and you work together to get revenge for your past life. It's fun working with a villain and solving a murder that's yet to happen. Plus because Levi saw you die in a past life he's rather obsessive and protective of you but it's a very deep love and a tad yandere.

Dunno. Idea just came to me.

[sorryimananti-romantic]

Horizon (Chapter 1)

series masterlist

faerieprince!san x oc

royal/fantasy au, soulmate au

chapter wc: ~20k

chapter warnings: fluff, angst, tragedy, violence warnings, mention of death/su!cide, past traumas, a lot of atz interactions

chapter synopsis: gaeul gains consciousness after coming back from the dead, finding her magic reversing. the eight faerie princes and the princess can feel her presence disrupting the flow of nature. as wooyoung comes across gaeul and offers his help along with jongho, san arrives and finds that his connection with gaeul is unique. they start connecting dots and realise this might be the doing of an old enemy. seonghwa and yena worry it might be a result of a time anomaly. elsewhere, hongjoong sets to investigate the source and the case of the missing faeries with mingi, yeosang and yunho.

All Gaeul knew as dark spots started appearing in front of her eyes was the utter wrongness of this all.

All that she knew nothing of.

Nothing made sense anymore. The pain coursing through her body made her hurl her guts out into the potted plant in front of her and she almost fainted. She barely heard the passersby panic as they watched her skin turn from a dangerous pale to a flushed colour, to their surprise. Usually it was the other way.

Gaeul's head threatened to explode with the pain. She couldn't register anything at that moment. She didn't feel two wrinkly yet feminine hands grab her by the arms. She didn't feel someone carry her on their back. Neither did she recall how exactly she passed out.

She just knew that everything was wrong. She was supposed to be dead, yet she was breathing-

Everything was wrong, wrong, wrong-

—----------------

The glass of wine shattered dramatically on the floor, the red colour of the drink staining the white rug, to everyone's disappointment but more so surprise. San blinked a few times as if coming out of a trance.

"Are you okay?" Seokmin frowned, for once worried, unlike his usually cheerful and 'everything is fun and games unless someone is dying' manner. Though one could argue that he worried more than the rest. 

San nodded, resting his hand on the ash ends of his overgrown hair. He bent down to pick up the shards but one of the cleaners made it disappear with a wave of his hand. San nodded in silent thanks.

"You don't look like it, man, I'm just saying," San’s Right Hand glanced at Mingyu who nodded, the two of them ganging up to stare at San. "You've been more clumsy ever since we came back from Wooyoung’s kingdom four months ago."

“I think he’s been clumsier ever since Antares.”

Antares, in Hongjoong's Kingdom. The City of Lights, representative of the Prince of Light itself. The place where everything concluded. 

Everything, San summed it up in his head. The past two years had been the strangest of his life. He had somehow ended up meeting Yeosang's lost twin, Yena. The Princess of Space to the Prince of Spirit. San had also ended up helping the Lost Princess who wasn't aware of her identity at that time. During that process, he helped reclaim her powers and brought her back into everyone's life. Watched her battle her worst enemy who was once her best friend. Watched her fall in love with Seonghwa, the Prince of Dark. What a pair they made-

"San?" Mingyu called out and San hummed in response, aware that he hadn't really been listening to whatever he had said. "Where's your mind right now?"

"Away, away," San almost sang, playing it off with a smile sent at his guard. "Lost in the complexity of time and space."

"I get that," Seokmin agreed. "Sometimes when I'm working, this sudden realisation dawns upon me- ahh, that's what happened! You know? You suddenly recall something and realise how fate played us all for Princess Yena."

"Exactly," San laughed. "I mean, we did relive some piece of our life twice because she time travelled to save Seonghwa. I like to think back and wonder how it happened."

"You've been doing a lot of that lately. You don't look well, San," Mingyu was worried. "You've been way too clumsy on your feet. You'd think as the Prince of Earth, you'd be steadier."

"I've only grown weary," San got up, looking pointedly at the two of his closest court members. "I just need to rest. I'm absolutely fine. Don't get your knickers in a twist."

“There’s also the matter of the missing faeries- the number has risen from two to six in the last few months,” Seokmin sighed, showing San the reports. San scrolled through them, not really reading but thinking as Seokmin explained. “No traces detected. But a common occurrence is that all of them went missing in the thick of the forest or near the river. One witness reported some sort of a creature-”

“Could be a shapeshifter who’s doing the deed then,” San tossed the reports. “Send guards at the sites to investigate- and go along with them, the both of you. I need you two to report to me as soon as possible.”

Before the two of them could protest, San strolled outside the office, walking casually enough to his chamber. Once he was in the privacy of his room, he rushed to the sink and washed his face with cold water, watching his hands shake.

His heart had sank dangerously a few minutes ago- it wasn't the usual nervousness. It was a sign that something was wrong in this land- something so wrong unlike anything he had ever felt before. Maybe the ‘creature’ wasn’t even a faerie at all. Maybe that’s what it was.

Something was absolutely, utterly wrong. And it was calling out to him.

—----------------

"Madame! Wake up! Can you hear me?"

Gaeul clenched her eyes shut, wondering if she could cease to exist. But the voice only grew louder, forcing her to reality and she opened her eyes after a few not so gentle taps to her cheek.

"You need to drink this," the old woman forced the tip of the bowl to her mouth, making Gaeul swallow the bitter liquid that could only be medicine. She wanted to tell her that no medicine would work on her. How she knew that, she wasn't aware but she just knew, and she had only proven it in the previous few days as she threw up anything she ate, bleeding from her nose or eyes a few times a day, fainting horribly and whatnot. 

The healers believed she was cursed at this point. They had never seen a faerie who could be in this condition and not simply die. It's like the very thing that had forced her into this condition was also the thing keeping her alive.

"Where am I?" Gaeul asked, aware that she didn't have much time before she would start feeling sick again. She looked at the various shelves lined with jars of what looked like anything from food to medicine to potions. A few frames of what looked like her family sat on the table by the fireplace.

"It's my house but also a clinic," the woman passed her a wet towel to wipe her face.

"No, I mean… What city? What kingdom?"

"Oh dear," she tucked Gaeul's dark hair behind her ears. "You're in Nunki. Kingdom of Sagittarius? Prince Wooyoung's territory? Recall how you got here?"

Oh she recalled, alright. Somehow, she had found herself in the middle of a forest, no memory of how she had gotten there. Gaeul recalled bits and pieces- something that she wasn't sure was memory, past life, or worse. Or maybe it was both- she had no idea. All she recalled right now was what might have been her 'death'- killed by the man with hair the colour of blood. Why? She did not recall.

But if it really was a recent memory, how was she alive without a scar of that blow? How was she here, existing? Or was it just her imagination, a dream? Gaeul almost scratched her hair out and the old woman who had gone to get her some snacks frowned at her. 

"Maybe we should take you to the High Healers. I've never heard or seen something like this, I'll tell you the truth. I can't do much except give you rejuvenating potions."

"Uh, thank you, but I think I'll pass-" she coughed, her hand reflexively going to cover her mouth, feeling something wet- blood. 

Internal bleeding? Great, she thought. Just what she needed.

"Yeah… I think not," the woman rolled her sleeves determinedly, setting her herbs down. "Wash up if you can, I'm calling the carriage."

Gaeul decided she was too weak to protest so she got up with immense struggle and made it to the toilet, retching her guts out and crying before coming out.

"See? You look a mere second away from death. Let's go."

—--------------

“Ah, the air doesn’t smell right these days.”

“Maybe you should admit that your sense of smell has gotten weak,” Siyeon looked at her Prince. Wooyoung frowned at her.

“I’m the Prince of Air. There’s no way my sense of smell can get bad.”

“Maybe he just sniffed himself,” Changbin commented as he walked in front of the two, dumping their camping bags in front of them unceremoniously. “What do you think?”

Siyeon grinned and Wooyoung shook his head at his Right Hand and Guard. “You lot will never understand.”

After bickering back and forth for a few moments while the three set up their tent, Wooyoung went to wash his face at the stream just a few feet ahead while Changbin and Siyeon looked at each other, worried. 

“You’re thinking what I’m thinking?” Changbin asked.

“Last time he smelled something funny, it was Princess Yena. Remember how he complained about smelling something strange ever since she stepped on this continent?”

“That’s what I’m saying,” Changbin watched the Prince wipe his face and look at the mountains distantly. “I mean, everything’s been peaceful. It’s been more than two years, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Siyeon bit her lip nervously. “Let me casually ask him what exactly smells so strange to him later.”

“You two look awfully serious,” Wooyoung commented as he walked back, sitting in front of the wood that Siyeon had gathered. Siyeon sat cross-legged in front of him, lighting a fire with a click of her fingers. 

“We’re not always cackling like someone I know,” she grinned and Wooyoung rolled his eyes. 

“I have to admit that it’s nice to be out,” he leaned back, looking up at the cloudy sky. “I haven’t really had time to breathe ever since we came back from Antares, isn’t that so?”

“Yep,” Changbin said. “It was busier than we expected.”

“Well, the Lost Princess was found and now she rightfully sits on her throne. The people still have mixed feelings.”

“Can’t blame them, but if they knew of the hell that she, that you all have been through for peace to come… I think they will stop complaining.”

“Well, we can’t exactly tell people that the Princess went back in time and travelled different dimensions to defeat the monster- that darkling who could very well have destroyed our planet,” Wooyoung looked at Siyeon, having proven his point, inhaling deeply and wrinkling his nose. 

“You still smell something funny?” Changbin teased.

“What exactly can you smell?” Siyeon asked casually. 

“I don’t know, is what’s strange,” Wooyoung sighed, looking grim. “It’s not far. But it’s… nothing I’ve ever smelt before. With Yena, I could feel her magic and tell that it resembled Yeosang, but this? This just smells… wrong, somehow. Not of this world. I can’t really pinpoint the source either.”

Siyeon straightened- as the Prince’s Right Hand, jokes and teasing aside, she knew never to take anything he said unseriously. “Do you think it’s a darkling?”

“No, it’s not that,” Wooyoung looked sure, sniffing the air again for good measure. “If faeries, minus their magic scent, smell like honey, darklings have this inherent ‘burnt’ scent. Like burnt wood- not necessarily the bad kind. I can’t smell magic on whatever this thing is. I only smell… burnt honey. Does that make sense?”

Changbin couldn’t help but scoff at that. “A mix?”

“No, no, nevermind what I just said,” Wooyoung straightened. “This just smells… wrong. Like it’s not supposed to be here. Look at this,” Wooyoung slid his sleeve up, showing the raised hair on his arms. “I literally have goosebumps just after a whiff of it.”

“What if it’s your soulmate?” Siyeon wiggled her brows and Wooyoung narrowed his eyes at her.

“I don’t think my soulmate would smell wrong to me, Siyeon. Jokes aside, should we inspect?”

“Isn’t today your day off?” Changbin asked.

“Well,” Wooyoung got up, brushing his clothes, shaking his head so the dark tendrils of his hair messed up before he swept them back. “I don’t think us Princes can ever have a day off. And there’s also the matter of the missing faeries. There really can’t be peace even among the same race, huh?”

Siyeon scoffed. “Our fathers gave their lives to transport all faerie-kind to this planet, away from the cruelty of humans and darklings, and all it takes is two decades before we start acting like the very creatures we ran away from.”

“Let’s hope it is only a faerie, Siyeon,” Wooyoung looked grim. “Let’s hope.”

—----------------

Gaeul was pretty sure that she had passed out for most of the carriage ride before the woman stopped the carriage, waking her up. 

“We’ve travelled for six hours now. I stopped two hours ago too but you were out cold. Now is the time to wash up and eat something. We’re stopping at an inn, come on now.”

Gaeul sat up straight, waiting for her head to stop spinning. “Are we staying here for the night?”

“That’s right,” she said, extending a hand and Gaeul took it as she jumped down, grateful the woman had not put her in a dress- just loose trousers and a shirt. “Come on, let’s get you inside and see if you can eat.”

She ordered soup and bread for Gaeul and she played with the bread, not feeling very hungry though her stomach grumbled. “Why are you helping me?”

“Why not?” She said, urging Gaeul to eat. “I’m not going to ask you to return the favour, if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m just doing my duty. I’m going to drop you off at the High Healers and then you can forget about me, if that’s what you wish.”

“No, no, I… I didn’t mean it like that. Thank you for helping me,” Gaeul folded her arms, hugging herself. “It’s just… I wish I hadn’t been a burden to you.”

“Well, thanks to you, I get to meet my old friends in the palace,” the woman smiled and Gaeul sighed internally.

The Palace. She had forgotten the High Healers resided in the same space as the Prince. She briefly wondered if she would get to see Prince Wooyoung from afar. 

“I can’t eat more,” Gaeul apologised and the woman told her not to force herself. She led her to a room, Gaeul taking the mattress and sitting down in front of the window, staring wistfully at the two suns that lit the sky, the purple one brighter than the orange, casting a dark but purple glow across the night sky with a slight orange tint. 

Now that her head was clearer, she could recall something that felt like her own life, yet she watched it through a third eye. Fragments of herself playing on the beach, using her magic to grow flowers out of thin air or breathe life into dying animals- was she a healer? She couldn’t exactly recall. Gaeul raised her hands in the air, willing some sort of magic to come to her but she felt worse than empty. There was this pit in her heart that she was sure had never been there before. And it felt wrong.

Gaeul tried harder but it only made blood trickle down her nose and before she could wipe it, she fainted into the endless bliss. 

—-----------------

Yena woke up covered in sweat and out of breath again.

She was glad Seonghwa was beside her. He was sleeping peacefully and Yena smiled at that, sliding out of the covers careful not to wake him up as she tiptoed to the bathroom, wanting to take off everything and just sit in some cold water. 

She let the cold water soak her body, sliding down the tub until the tip of her chin touched the surface. She shut her eyes and tried to recall if she had seen a nightmare, but as the several times before, she knew she had seen no dream or nightmare. She had simply woken up, feeling that something wasn’t right. 

This feeling wasn’t new to Yena at all. Her magic was very sensitive and she could sense something wrong even when her magic was blocked and she wasn’t aware of her identity. But this feeling was new, and it unsettled her in ways that she couldn’t explain. Like an impending doom. 

She almost jumped out of her skin when she felt Seonghwa’s hand on her hand, sighing in relief when she opened her eyes and saw it was only her husband. Seonghwa frowned but smiled. “What’s wrong, love? You didn’t even sense me coming.”

“I was just thinking,” Yena squeezed Seonghwa’s hand. 

“That same feeling again? Woke you up?”

“Yeah,” she slid further down in the tub, her blonde hair floating around her. “Something isn’t right in this… world right now, Seonghwa. I don’t know how big or small it is, if it’s here on this planet or in one of my dimensions or on another planet, but… something that is not supposed to exist is present- I can feel it. Tell me you feel it too.”

Seonghwa hesitated but finally nodded- Yena, of all people, should know. “I don’t know how exactly but I just know that it’s dark in nature- not necessarily a darkling,” Seonghwa added when he felt Yena tense. “It’s not that. It’s… something or someone, and if it’s a person, it’s not a darkling. I can’t say if it’s a faerie either. I just know that it is out of place. It shouldn’t be here.”

“So you can feel the darkness in magic too, Prince of Dark?”

“That’s the thing which is confusing me,” Seonghwa sighed. I can’t really feel any sort of magic. Not yet. Maybe it’s not magical, whatever this is.”

“Seonghwa,” Yena shut her eyes. She didn’t need to say more- Seonghwa could hear it anyway since he was touching her. Yena pushed her thoughts in his mind-

I’m so tired. Whatever this is… it’s wearing me out. I’m not ready for whatever it is. But… I know that I can’t ignore it either.

Seonghwa squeezed her hand, leaning down to plant a soft kiss on her lips. “You’re not alone this time. All of us are with you. Let me send a message to the others, see if they’ve felt something amiss too. Let’s rest for now, eh?”

Yena nodded, splashing water on her face that merged with the tears that rolled down her eyes before Seonghwa could see it.

—--------------------

Gaeul couldn’t breathe.

She woke up in the middle of the night, out of breath. The calm and chill breeze flowing through the open window did nothing to calm her down. She had to go outside, right now. She almost shook the woman awake but decided against it, stumbling down the stairs and making her way out and gasping for air as if she was being suffocated.

This wasn’t anything new. Many times her healer had caught her outside, unconscious, mostly a bloody mess. She would try to wake her up for a few moments before giving up and dragging her back. But this time…

Gaeul didn’t feel sick. For the first time in whatever length of time had passed, Gaeul suddenly could see and feel. Her head had never been clearer. 

As if in a trance, Gaeul looked at her hands, sinking to the ground and picking up a wilting daisy. Gaeul tried recalling how her magic worked- it was second nature to her, from what she had recalled so far.

Gaeul shut her eyes, trying to reach her heart and will her magic to unleash, but the pit, that goddamned endless pit in her heart called to her and-

Gaeul was down memory lane. The redhead who had killed her mercilessly- why? What crime had she committed? Was it a past life? If so, why did she not remember anything-

“Are you okay?” She heard the familiar voice of the healer and it pulled her out of her trance. Gaeul turned her neck back to look at the woman who approached her cautiously.

“I just needed some air,” Gaeul got up, exhaling. “Did I wake you up?”

“No, I just felt strange. Woke up to see you weren’t there with me so I decided to check. Are you sure you feel okay?”

“Yeah, I feel better, I was just-” Gaeul looked at the flower in her palm, her eyes widening with horror as she saw it was no longer wilted but dead.

“I was just looking at this… flower,” Gaeul managed to say out loud. The woman raised a brow, inspecting the flower in her palm. 

“This looks… why is this grey?” 

“That’s what I’m saying,” Gaeul locked eyes with her. “It’s beyond dead.”

—---------------

Jongho felt it then. The strange feeling that had been looming around him for a few months now… he couldn’t deny it anymore or shrug it off as some sort of a nervous spell. It was real and existing. 

And it was unnatural in every sense.

Jongho wiped sweat off his forehead and walked to the garden right outside his room. He had to check something and he hoped he would get answers. He sat down on the grass, closing his eyes and sending himself in a meditative state as his powers reached out and connected with everything that was natural around him.

He had no idea how long he stayed like that, but he could feel his skin warm up- the sun was probably out now which meant that he had been here for hours now. His magic reached out and further, linking with everything until he finally found the one thing that it didn’t connect with-

It made Jongho queasy in a matter of seconds and he tried wrapping his magic around it- it was a person, alright. He could hear the heartbeat. But the magic that it contained, it was no longer natural. And the very existence of this person…

His magic repelled and came back with a jolt, making Jongho gasp and clutch his throat as he normalised his breathing.

This wasn’t right. Something had gone incredibly wrong, and he needed to see the others right now. But first… he would go to Wooyoung and get his help in pinpointing who exactly this was.

Jongho got up, walking to his room, hearing the faint knocks on his door before it opened to reveal his Right Hand, Jooheon, who waved cheerfully but the smile fell off his face. “Have you been up all night? Because you look like a mess. Should I call the healers?”

“No, it’s okay,” Jongho almost tripped on his feet, laughing a bit. “Just used my magic all night, no big deal-”

Jooheon watched Jongho’s eyes roll back before he fell unceremoniously on, thankfully, the couch, though the position looked painful. Jooheon tsk-ed, shaking his head at how Jongho had tried shrugging it off. “Hyungwon! The Prince has fainted!”

Hyungwon peeked inside, narrowing his eyes at Jooheon who told him that Jongho had been awake all night. “Are you sure he didn’t just fall back to sleep after spending all his magic?”

He hadn’t.

—----------------

Yunho was the first one who received Seonghwa’s message. He read it over and over again, then tossed the paper into the nearest water body, dissolving it and making it one with the water.

If you have seen or felt something strange or wrong, unfamiliar or unnatural, whatever it was, report now.

Yunho couldn’t help but throw his head in his hands as he wondered how whatever he had felt months ago was related to this. He recalled the night from four months ago when he had started feeling a strange pit in his stomach, like a gut feeling that something was about to happen.

He had gone to the shore for a week straight, trying to feel it out, but it was just so unfamiliar. He had no idea what it was. Nobody around him felt it, so he wondered if it was just inside his head. He wondered if he needed to meet up with his friends and had been lonely recently.

He met up with Mingi. He stayed in his kingdom for two days. He didn’t feel anything there, but as he travelled back, the feeling grew stronger and stronger. He tried to find the source, swam endlessly in the ocean but to no avail. 

And then one day, as quick as it had appeared, it disappeared completely. Yunho wondered then- had someone practised dark magic? 

Somehow, the feeling reminded him very much of the one he’d got when Yena had been dumped in the middle of the ocean after jumping back in time and Yunho, unaware of her existence, had known a part of him was in danger and had gone to save her without knowing who he was saving.

Now he felt that he was in danger. Everyone was. It was like the same feeling yet its meaning was the opposite.

It felt wrong.

And last night, he had felt it briefly again. He had wondered if he was flipping but now he knew that he was still sane, alright. 

Yunho sighed, going to his room and picking up a pen, beginning to write on the note.

Seonghwa and Yena.

Something is not right. I can’t explain it here, but I have a feeling that it’s connected to all of us. We have done something wrong.

—----------------

Gaeul couldn’t believe what she just did. 

After summoning up her magic for the first time in as long as she could remember, she breathed death into a flower instead of life. She couldn’t believe her eyes. 

And it didn’t stop at that. When Gaeul followed the old woman inside and she touched her forehead to heal her, the woman jolted back as if she had been hit by an electric current. 

“What have you done?” She simply asked before she fell unconscious. Gaeul almost thought she had killed her too, but when her panic wore off she saw the healer’s chest still rising up and down, though slow enough to call for some medical attention. However, Gaeul was in no state to try that. She wasn’t even sure if she was a danger by simply being near. So Gaeul did what she had been doing for a while now- she ran.

She couldn’t risk being discovered anymore. She was a danger to all the living beings around her- her magic was getting out of control and as she dived deeper into the forest, she realised the trees around her that were unfortunate to have touched her were all wilting and dying as well.

She was death itself.

Gaeul had no idea how long she ran but she stopped when she heard the faint footsteps of men and a horse. Gaeul hid behind a tree, careful not to touch it. She peeked to see the two figures clad in black, muttering something. 

Gaeul decided it was time to calm herself before she did any more damage. She shut her eyes and inhaled, breathing deeply in.

Everything would be okay. She would be okay. She would go to the High Healers herself. She would figure this out. There was no reason to give up yet-

She heard- no, felt something whip through the forest behind her-

“What have we got here?”

Gaeul’s eyes flew open- she hadn’t even heard the men come in front of her. The other man scanned her rather slowly, up and down. She gulped. 

“What’s this pretty little thing doing in the middle of the forest at this hour?”

This wasn’t good. Her calm heart started beating rapidly again and she could feel the magic stirring in her stomach- perhaps their horse felt it too, because it panicked as soon as their eyes met. One of the men tried to hold its reins but the horse ran in the opposite direction, making the man follow him. The other who simply watched shook his head. 

“He always gets unlucky at times like this,” he scoffed, but it changed into a smirk that made Gaeul draw back until her back touched the tree. “Perhaps, I can offer you some help-”

She felt something whoosh past where the horse and man had just been running off to. The man in front of her turned too, frowning but dismissing it as nothing. Gaeul decided to use the distraction to her favour- heavens knew what prowled in the forest at this hour.

“I’m- I’m good,” Gaeul managed to say, “I’ll be on my way.”

Gaeul started turning away, wanting to run, but the man grabbed her arm and Gaeul tried snatching it with a glare, but he pulled her forward. 

“Now, now,” he whispered, “Be a good girl for me, will you?”

Something went off inside Gaeul. She nodded and grabbed his other hand, and shut her eyes, sending her magic through, and it wasn’t until she heard the man gasp for breath that she opened her eyes to see that he had shrivelled, just like the flower.

That was not what Gaeul had intended to do. She dropped her hands but the remains of her magic inside the man made sure that every last ounce of life was sucked out from him. Gaeul’s eyes blurred and she started running away, unable to breathe or run properly, but she couldn’t stop.

She had just killed a man.

She had not just killed. She had done something else. 

She slowed down and spotted a set of yellow glowing eyes growing closer with every second, eyes that had to be larger than her hands. The sinister feeling of the creature and the magic inside her was so overwhelming that she welcomed unconsciousness.

—-------------------

Yeosang felt it the minute that it happened. 

Someone had died a horribly gruesome death- nothing like he had felt before.

As the Prince of Spirit, he didn’t feel everyone’s death. That would be too much for him. But sometimes, the spirits who were still in pain after their death… he felt that. He didn’t share their pain but he could feel that they were hurt. 

Yeosang was still lying on his bed, having woken up from his sleep the moment he felt it. He decided to check and see if he could get answers. Yeosang shut his eyes and focused on the deepest part of his mind, which was when his own spirit dissociated from his body and his soul shifted to the dimension that was a gateway for souls itself.

The spirit wasn’t far- not for Yeosang, who could jump directly to the spirit he wanted to meet. Yeosang tried doing that, but to his surprise, it didn’t work. His heart sank- something was wrong- not with him, but with the entire situation.

Yeosang roamed around in that dimension- it was all bleak and cloudy with no clues to what direction you were travelling in. He thought for a few moments and decided he would take another way- jump to the spirit nearest to his target.

But as soon as he did that, Yeosang fell on his knees. He could feel the spirit’s pain now. Yeosang struggled to breathe, getting up on his feet with immense effort and almost crawling towards the source.

If Yeosang was in his body then, he would have thrown up after seeing the grey ‘corpse’ that he saw. There was absolutely no way- the spirits that walked this dimension carried no scars of their life. But somehow… 

“What happened?” Yeosang asked the walking corpse- its eyes were sunken and the only thing that gave indication of life. The skin was grey, hair burnt, all bones and skin.

The poor spirit tried speaking but it looked like it no longer held that ability. Yeosang sighed, walking to the spirit and touching it- he felt the unnaturalness of whatever had hurt it. 

“I can rid you of your pain, if you don’t wish to walk in this dimension eternally like this. It is time to make a decision- do you want to stay because of some unfinished business, move on to a place I cannot guarantee might be heaven or hell, or cease to exist?”

The spirit held up three fingers. Yeosang nodded, touching its forehead and watched it disappear- not into smoke like spirits usually did, but into ashes.

Yeosang prayed no one else would meet a fate like him.

—-------------------

Mingi couldn’t sleep- not after feeling a soul burn twice.

Ever since Mingi had saved Yena from being their darkling enemy’s hostage and Yena had accidentally taken Mingi to another timeless dimension, Mingi could feel magic deeper than ever. He always thought being the Prince of Fire meant fire on the surface, the element of fire, but it was more than that, he learned after. 

The first time he experienced a soul burning was when Yeosang had done the ‘soul extermination’, as Mingi dubbed it. Mingi had woken up with something like hot flashes, and no amount of cold showers could make him feel better. He talked to Yeosang, who was living nearest to him as they shared a continent. Yeosang then explained that some spirits in one of his dimensions could turn evil or become a threat if they stayed for too long and refused to move on. In cases like these, Yeosang would ‘kill’ the spirit. Yeosang was surprised to learn that it felt like burning- but how Mingi could feel it, he had no idea.

“Must be because of Yena and staying in that dimension for too long,” Yeosang had told him. “When you are somewhere you are not supposed to be, you live with the consequences. Looks like you can feel the fire inside of a soul now, Mingi.”

He was right. Mingi could feel when a living soul was burning with too much magic, something the possessor’s body couldn’t handle. Mingi could also feel whenever Yeosang burnt a spirit.

But he had never felt a soul burn twice- and both of those felt wrong in a way. Unnatural. Yeosang burning a spirit never felt wrong.

Mingi got up and decided to write a fire message to Yeosang. 

Not sure if this was normal, but a soul burned. Twice. It felt wrong. Did you mess up or something? Because I’m getting a very strange feeling.

Mingi tossed the paper into the air and it caught flames, burning and disappearing. He waited for a reply, and when he got it, his heart sank to his feet.

You’re right. It is wrong and unnatural. This wasn’t me. Something’s walking around burning souls from the inside out. Not like you- not with fire. It’s like someone breathed death into the soul. I’m sending a message to Seonghwa- maybe he or Yena knows something. You should talk to Hongjoong- he might have something related to this in his big old library.

Mingi decided to send a fire message to Hongjoong in the morning- he wasn’t sure if he was awake and had felt whatever had happened.

—-----------------

Hongjoong felt everything that happened.

It was the one power he wished he didn’t possess. He was the Prince of Light. That didn’t mean that he had to know if everything was right wherever light touched a life.

But it did. And it kept him awake more nights than he had slept peacefully in his life.

The boys- the Princes always made fun of how Hongjoong could pass out anywhere. How Hongjoong always looked like he was tired and didn’t get enough sleep. He never told them they were right- he never got enough sleep. Not since Yena went missing when she was only two. Hongjoong was three then, and he hadn’t known then but when Yena was found and everything fell back in place, he finally started getting better sleep. He searched his library for old records and realised that put simply, the reason he never got to get enough sleep in the first two decades of his life was… Yena.

When he told Yena, she couldn’t stop laughing. And then Hongjoong couldn’t stop laughing because of how mad all of this was. 

But after everything fell back in place, he slept well for a few months. He would only feel strange when someone’s magic had problems or someone tried a silly trick. Nothing that he couldn’t ignore now, given years of practice.

A few months later, he felt the strangest he had ever felt in his entire life- perhaps even more than when the darkling used his magic openly to kill. He immediately checked with Seonghwa and Yena to see if everything was fine, but they weren’t the reason this time. And they had felt it too.

Hongjoong told them not to worry about it, that sometimes, in one of the many dimensions that layered this planet, something goes wrong. It’s natural.

But this feeling was anything but natural. 

So he decided to investigate on his own. He couldn’t pinpoint a source and there was no use travelling when he had a kingdom to run. He decided to check the records then.

But it had been months and he had found nothing, and the feeling only grew until tonight, when he felt that something had shifted in the air, in magic itself. Something was not where and how it was supposed to be.

He was pretty sure he was going to get a message from one of the Princes soon. There was no way that he was the only one feeling this.

—-----------------------

Gaeul woke up not because of the loud chirps of the birds but because every part of her body was aching immensely. She sat up with much struggle, lost for a few blissful moments as she looked around her before the events of last night made her put her head in her hands and sigh.

She had just killed a man. And… there was something that approached her- a monster that might have just spared her life.

Gaeul looked around her- the grass was still green, the flowers and plants still alive. Cautiously, she plucked a wild flower from the ground and held it for a few moments.

Nothing happened.

Good, she thought. I hope I never get that magic back.

Her mouth felt parched and her stomach felt tight. She shut her eyes, listening to the sounds of nature- her fae senses still worked perfectly for some reason. She could hear some sort of water body nearby so she decided to follow the sound. 

She was on her own now with no idea of which direction she had gone. She could be straying away from the Palace, for all she knew. But then… she wondered if she wanted to endanger the innocent healers there as well. 

Plus… the Prince lived there. She was pretty sure he was strong enough to kill her with just a wave of his hand, or maybe even a mere thought. She gulped, not sure if she wanted him to do exactly that or if she wanted to run away from it.

Gaeul walked for a few hours without stopping, without thinking about her magic in case it rose back from the pit in her heart. When the sound of water became louder, she practically ran in joy, stopping at the edge of River Al-Ard, looking far into the distance at the mountains of what could only be Rukbat- the capital. The place where the Prince resided.

Gaeul’s destination.

As she washed her hands and face and sat down, sinking her feet in the water, she wondered if she was worth saving. She could not figure out if the memories she had were actually her own or hallucinations at this point. But what she was sure of was that no one cared for her. She was lost. 

And she was a danger to everyone. To herself too.

Gaeul looked up at the white fluffy clouds, smiling for the first time since she could recall. Time had only made her more miserable. Maybe she should put an end to all of it.

After all, this was a nice spot to die. 

Gaeul started sinking herself down and down into the river, until the water came to her chin. She looked up for the last time, smiling as tears ran down, before she fully submerged herself into the water-

“Not so easily, you won’t!”

Gaeul panicked, thinking someone must have tracked her down after finding the poor man she had killed. She risked a one second eye contact with whoever had called her, finding not one but three people. She instantly dived deeper in the river.

“I got this,” Changbin started towards the river but Wooyoung grabbed his arm, shaking his head.

“She’s going to kill you if she touches you, I can feel it,” Wooyoung looked as grim as he sounded. “She’s not going to drown to her death.”

“So we stand here and do nothing?” Siyeon asked.

“Just don’t get any closer than this and let me handle it,” Wooyoung warned, hands raised. He made sure the girl trying to drown wouldn’t be able to lose her breath. That was all he could do for now.

Gaeul, meanwhile, wasn’t surprised, but for a different reason. She recalled what her healer had once told her- that whatever was killing her was also keeping her alive. Gaeul thought it was her magic keeping her alive.

She wasn’t entirely wrong.

She felt the magic rolling uncontrollably in her stomach and she dreaded whatever was going to happen. 

This was a bad idea.

Gaeul knew her magic was going to explode with a burst, killing everything near it. So she dived up, trying to be faster than her magic, and she only had time to scream ‘RUN!’ before she folded in herself and her magic burst with a wave.

Wooyoung immediately drew a shield around the three of them but that wasn’t enough to hold him steady. He was thrown with the others a good few feet away, and when it was over and they got to their feet, they gasped collectively.

Everything within a few miles radius had… died. The trees were grey- Wooyoung had never seen anything like it. Everything looked like it was going to turn into ash with one touch. Remains of what could be fishes and other sea creatures unfortunate enough to have been victims of that magic floated at the surface of the sea. The birds fell as ashes floated timelessly in the air and Wooyoung touched a few, frowning because it resembled snow. 

Gaeul looked around helplessly, tears of relief rolling down her cheeks when she saw the three were alive, mixed with tears of regret- she did not want to live anymore. Not after this.

“You’re lucky I’m the Prince of Air,” Wooyoung walked carefully towards her. “Because it looks like you need help.”

Gaeul gulped as she heard that- Prince Wooyoung had somehow found her. Was she some sort of a threat that he needed to exterminate-

“I’m not going to hurt you,” his voice was calming.

“I’ll hurt you,” Gaeul’s voice was barely a whisper. “I don’t want to, but I don’t know what’s wrong with me, my magic isn’t right- I-”

“Slow down, slow down,” Wooyoung nodded. “First, get out of the river. Come on, take my hand.”

“You’ll die if I take your hand.”

“I won’t,” the Prince passed Gaeul a warm smile. “I can feel that your magic is spent. You’re as normal as me right now.”

Gaeul looked at him sceptically- he was the Prince. He wasn’t normal anyway. Hesitating, she swam forward and took his hand, letting him drag her out of the river. She met eyes with the others who looked like they were ready to kill her this instant.

“Relax, they’re only my guard and my Right Hand,” Wooyoung passed the two a look and they shrugged, looking helplessly at each other. “Let me dry you.”

With a wave of his hand, all the water had dried from her skin and clothes. Gaeul nervously looked down and then around her- she really had sucked the life out of everything-

Is that why she was getting better? Healthier? No, no-

“Let’s get out of here first, shall we? We just crossed the river to come here by that boat-” Wooyoung pointed at his left where at a distance the boat was tied. “Looks like we need to get back anyway. We can talk while we row.”

Once settled in the boat, Changbin and Siyeon rowing, Wooyoung sat in front of Gaeul, scanning her- she was a faerie alright. Not an ounce of darkling blood in her. But her magic wasn’t right.

“I could sense you, perhaps because you were near me. Your magic- you weren’t born with this, were you?”

“I used to breathe life into things,” Gaeul smiled helplessly. “Looks like I suck the life out now.”

“Interesting,” Wooyoung stuck his tongue in his cheek while he scanned Gaeul again. Siyeon kicked his back lightly, muttering not to freak the girl out. Wooyoung shook his head. “So, how did you get here?”

“I don’t know, actually. I’m really confused about why and how I’m here. I think I lost my memories or something too. All I remember is that a few months ago, one day, I found myself at the beach- somewhere near Ascella. I literally just fell on the sand from nowhere- and I’ve been really sick since then. I keep coughing blood and fainting, but I’m clearly not dying. I went from being bones and skin to this-” she looked down at herself. Better than skin and bones. 

“Do you remember who you are?”

“That’s the thing,” Gaeul sighed. “I don’t know if what I remember is a memory or a past life or something I made up.”

“I see, the healers might be able to help with that,” Wooyoung nodded. “Tell me about your magic now.”

“I didn’t know about this until last night. All my magic has done so far is make me sick. I was actually travelling to the Palace with a healer- she thought that the High Healers could help me. Last night, I held a wilting flower and tried making it alive like I used to- I think I used to,” Gaeul shook her head. “Anyways, the flower turned grey like now. And then… I think I hurt my healer too. She fainted but thankfully she was alive. But then…”

“You killed someone a few hours ago, didn’t you?”

Siyeon rolled her eyes at how blunt Wooyoung was. The girl clearly wasn’t handling all this well. She wiped her forehead and eyes and then looked down.

“I never meant to. I felt threatened, and it just happened- it wasn’t in my control. That’s why I panicked. I’ve only ever healed things- I’ve never hurt them. And now-”

Gaeul couldn’t hold back her silent sobs anymore and she hid her face in her hands. Wooyoung looked back at Siyeon and Changbin who were clapping sarcastically. 

“Good job,” Siyeon muttered, shaking her head.

“What?” Wooyoung sighed. “I need to get the facts straight before I risk my healer’s lives, don’t you think?”

“He’s right,” Gaeul wiped her face, her eyes steadfast now. “I don’t wish to put anyone else at risk. If you think it’s wise to get rid of me, then do so. I have nothing holding me back.”

Wooyoung sighed, looking at her dark eyes- they had a tinge of grey, looking perhaps as hopeless as she felt. Wooyoung wasn’t sure if she was as innocent as she claimed she was. “You are a threat, yes, but that doesn’t mean you get to die so easily. Every life is precious and meaningful and so is yours. We need to look into whatever’s up with you, because you know it feels unnatural, your magic, right? It feels-”

“Wrong, I know,” Gaeul looked at him to his surprise. “Everything inside me is screaming that this is wrong, whatever happened to me. I’m not where I’m supposed to be. Nothing’s right. I think… you’ll need to look into my past if you want to see the origin of this.”

“Look into your past, huh?” Wooyoung looked at Changbin. “Now which one of us could do that again?”

—-------------------

To say that San was in a state of frenzy was a severe understatement. 

In the past few days, he had been beyond restless. He was not focusing on his work to the point that his Right Hand, Seokmin complained that San should just step down since Seokmin was the one doing all the work anyway. However, he was worried too- he had never seen his Prince like this. 

San tried explaining it to him, to himself, but it wasn’t that simple. He wasn’t sure if he had felt whatever this thing was before he had visited Rukbat four months ago but he was sure that thing was around there, and him going to Rukbat had somehow made both him and that thing restless. How the two were connected, he had no idea.

But after the amount of magic and wrongness he felt in the matter of the last 24 hours, he knew he needed to get back to Rukbat. And he couldn’t let anyone know. 

Truth be told, he himself wasn’t sure what he was about to do. He had no idea who or what he was looking for. Something in his mind, in his heart, screamed at him to go, go, go. Go and find whatever was wrong and make it right. He simply had to trust his gut at this point, trust the thing tugging at him. 

So San sat down still for the first time in a while as he etched out a plan in his head. He would leave at night when everyone thought he was asleep, take the secret tunnel out (he wasn’t even sure if he could call that tunnel ‘secret’ anymore since not only his Right Hand and Guard but one of his healers and Princess Yena knew of it too) and then…

Take a carriage? Walk? It would take far too long.

He needed Yena to portal him. That was the quickest and safest route. But he wasn’t sure Yena would understand or agree. Especially after the message he had gotten from them. And after all that had happened with Yena… he couldn’t ask that of her.

He needed to do this himself.

He waited rather patiently for the night to approach and everyone to sleep, which was when he packed a bag and took the tunnel out, went to the nearest stable and took a horse and started riding towards Rukbat.

He prayed he would get there before things went more wrong than they already were. 

—-------------------

Jongho could feel each and every moment of the magical blast that had killed so much. It didn’t hurt him, and he was glad it didn’t because feeling its existence alone made his heart ache. 

He wasn’t sure why exactly he had fainted earlier in the morning too. He was the Prince of Nature- doing magic while meditating and stretching his vision was like second nature to him. But this time, something fought back. And that was as dangerous as it could get not only for him, but all the Princes. Perhaps, he thought, Princess Yena could fight back against something like this. She was the most experienced in that department. 

When he gained consciousness after fainting, he learned that he had been out for about six hours. That was a long period of time and even had his healer worried because the most he had been out was two hours, and that was when he had spent all his energy doing similar magic.  

Jongho tried to explain to Jooheon why he needed to get to Wooyoung as soon as possible. Jooheon was suspicious about all of this, and he kept insisting it was a trap.

“Look, all I’m saying is that if you felt it, Prince Wooyoung must have felt it as well. He’ll take care of it- no scratch that. You both should sit this one out. This feels like a trap- especially with the recent problem that we have going on.”

“Did you feel it?” Jongho asked and Jooheon shook his head no. “That’s what I’m saying. This is like a cry for help, not a trap. As for the missing faeries… I didn’t really feel anything there.”

“That’s like, the first trick in the book of traps,” Hyungwon, who was reading a book, peeked up. “Are you seriously risking yourself for whatever this… person is?”

“In risking myself, I save a lot of lives that could possibly be lost if we don’t get this under control,” Jongho was groaning with frustration now. “If you’re not coming along, I’m going by myself-”

“Hey, hey, now that’s not what we meant,” Jooheon laughed helplessly, looking at Hyungwon who only shrugged. “I’ll take care of things here. Take Changkyun at least. And Hyungwon too.”

“You ready?” Jongho asked Hyungwon and he rolled his eyes.

“This feels an awful lot like the time we went along with Princess Yena,” he said and Jongho laughed, agreeing. Changkyun arrived, all dressed up for-

“We’re not going into battle, dammit,” Jongho laughed but Changkyun wasn’t having any of it. He only shrugged and Jongho nodded, urging Hyungwon to follow him out. They were going to Rukbat and it wasn’t very far from here- a long ride and a river was what separated them. 

“Do you think we should let the others know too?” Jongho wondered out loud when they settled into the carriage, the horses made specially for quick transport by magic speeding twice as fast as a normal horse. “I mean, Seonghwa did order us to report anything strange.”

“I know what you’re thinking,” Hyungwon scoffed. “You want to find the person first before you give them anything.”

“Yeah, you got me,” Jongho shifted in his seat, running a hand through his red hair. “It’s just that I don’t want them to worry about something that we’re not sure about. I’m pretty sure Wooyoung ignored their message too, so there’s that as well.”

“If only you Princes could communicate better,” Hyungwon almost laughed. “Would have saved you a lot of trouble, wouldn't it?”

Hyungwon was both right and wrong. The Princes and the Princess were all anxious about whatever was ‘wrong’ now, trying to either pinpoint an origin or search for it. One could argue that providing them with more information would worry them more, especially if it was a threat that could be easily exterminated. However, no one knew what exactly that threat was- not even Wooyoung who was present with that said threat.

—-----------------

“Well,” Wooyoung sighed, a grimace on his face as he poked one of his healers in the arm, lying unconscious on the floor. “This didn’t go as planned.”

Gaeul had her head in her hands. “I didn’t mean to- I was asleep and he came to change my bandages or something. I got scared.”

Gaeul and Wooyoung had arrived at his castle a while ago and Wooyoung had let her admire the glass structure that was the castle before escorting her to the basement where she would be staying, saying something about how he needed to get her in there before her magic replenished. It seemed like she wasn’t faring well though.

“Progress though,” Wooyoung passed a smile though Gaeul could swear he was mocking her. “At least he’s not dead.”

“He would have been if not for Jiu there,” Gaeul pointed at the woman sitting bored at the other end of the room. 

“That’s right,” Jiu looked serious. “I was waiting for her to admit that before I interrupted.”

Wooyoung rolled his eyes, “I guess it was a good idea to have you here after all.”

“Definitely,” Jiu looked at Gaeul and Gaeul hated that there was pity in her eyes, though she could not blame her. She herself was to blame after all. “Can we change shifts now? I need to catch up on my sleep.”

“Go on then,” Wooyoung dismissed her and she gladly left. Wooyoung turned his attention to Gaeul. “How are we feeling today?”

“The same?” It came out more as a question. “I don’t feel anything much here- the basement is… not as suffocating as it first sounded. In fact, I’m more relaxed now.”

“And that was the purpose of keeping you here,” Wooyoung took a seat, running a hand through his dark hair, the faint light in the room making the golden streaks in his hair shine. “Anyways, Jongho is arriving soon. I thought I’d let you know.”

“Prince Jongho?”

“The one and only,” Wooyoung grinned. Gaeul visibly gulped- being in the presence of one of them was intimidating enough. “He’s the Prince of Nature. If anyone can help you figure your magic out, it’s him, since you presumably had similar magic as him.”

“Presumably… So Yoohyeon still didn’t get past my memories?” Gaeul asked, referring to the healer who had first attended to her. 

“Surprisingly, no,” Wooyoung sighed as he nodded. “Yoohyeon is an expert at healing amnesia and similar disorders. There must be something preventing her from accessing your memories-” he paused when he recalled how San had been the one able to access Yena’s memories when no one else could. He wondered if he should call him.

“Something wrong?” Gaeul asked cautiously, tucking her hair behind her ears. 

“Nothing, I just had… an idea. Anyways, I came here to let you know about Jongho, and… warn you about something. If your magic is as threatening as we think, we might have to put you in the cell here in the basement- it is laced with nullifying magic. It’s not as scary as it sounds- you just won’t feel your magic. Are you okay with that?”

Gaeul thought for a few moments- the last thing she wanted was to be a danger to the Princes. Of course she was okay. “Nothing will go wrong though, I hope?”

“I’m hoping that is so,” Wooyoung got up when he heard a knock on the door and let the guards who were carrying three trays filled with a variety of dishes inside the room. “Let’s eat while we talk.”

Gaeul could get used to this, she thought. Prince Wooyoung- or Wooyoung, as he insisted he be called- wasn’t as scary as she thought. He was easy to talk to. He didn’t make her feel like she was an alien, which truthfully, everyone else made her feel like. And he was humble. He ate with her at least once a day for the three days she had been here. She wondered if all the Princes were like this, and sometimes she would ask Wooyoung about his life. He would answer without hesitation most of the time.

“If it is a memory, I remember the time you came to the beach- near Ascella, when I was 10,” Gaeul scooped some chicken and mashed potatoes in her plate and Wooyoung raised a brow- Gaeul hadn’t talked much about herself so far. “I think I lived somewhere near there. It’s where I found myself in this state.”

“I’ve only been to Ascella beach a handful of times, and yes, I did visit when I was 10- we’re the same age, it seems.”

“I remember something about how you caused some sort of a storm and scared everyone present. I, unfortunately, was one of them.”

“Ah, so it was that time,” Wooyoung laughed. “I blame San- he was there with me too.”

“Prince San was with you at that time?” Gaeul wowed. “So I saw him too?”

“You must have if you saw me,” Wooyoung took a bite of the bun, thinking. “San pissed me off so I threatened him with a storm. He threatened to let the sand swallow me. We cooled down then.”

Gaeul almost giggled, holding herself back, and Wooyoung looked at her, amused. “You know, you’re allowed to laugh in my company.”

“Actually… I haven’t laughed in a while,” Gaeul admitted. “So… I think this was a memory, right?”

“Definitely, which means what you remember is mostly memories. Do you remember your parents?”

“I think I do. My father was a healer, but he died when I was 15. My mother… She followed soon after. My aunts and uncles took care of me after that.”

“What’s the last memory that you remember?” Wooyoung asked. 

Gaeul thought for a moment- it was the memory that confused her the most, that made her question if she remembered a past life or something. “I think I was travelling in this kingdom… somewhere east. I think I saw this red haired guy do something- I can’t recall. All I know is that I saw his eyes glow before he killed me-”

“You saw his eyes glow?” Wooyoung frowned. This sounded an awful lot like someone he wished he didn’t know.

“If I’m not tripping, yes,” Gaeul’s eyes were steel- she knew it sounded unbelievable but she remembered this moment the most clearly. “They glowed like gold. Like-”

“Amber eyes, huh?” Wooyoung’s suspicions were confirmed. “Red hair and eyes that change to amber. Who are you, Gaeul?”

Gaeul frowned and then the door opened, revealing dark hair and a very handsome man walked in, eyes wide as he looked from her to Wooyoung and then back.

“Nice timing, Jongho,” Wooyoung didn’t finish his plate- he had no appetite anymore. “Kieran’s playing with us even from another world.”

—-------------------

Hongjoong was startled, to put it simply, when Yena and Seonghwa portalled right in front of him, in his room. He could never get used to the jumpscare he got, and he was positive that one day he was going to pass away because of a heart attack due to Yena startling him.

“A little warning is always nice!” Hongjoong yelled at the two, clutching his heart and exhaling, and Seonghwa chuckled. 

“We did send a little warning,” Yena pointed out. “Why didn’t you reply? It has been three days. This is so unlike you- I thought something happened.”

“I’m sorry, I’ve just been… busy,” Hongjoong shrugged as he ran his eyes around the room, Yena and Seonghwa following. There were books, scrolls, maps, everything scattered around him. Yena skimmed through a few notes that made no sense to her. Hongjoong got up, feeling guilty because Yena looked like she was actually worried that something happened to him. “I’m sorry, come here.”

Yena pouted before walking to Hongjoong and hugging him, Seonghwa joining the two as well. “You should have let us know, Hongjoong.”

“Well, now that you’re both here, I’ll just tell you in person,” Hongjoong pushed a few books aside to make room on the floor. “So here’s how it is.”

Hongjoong started explaining how there were no records of such magic existing, but he didn’t think it was something natural- as in, no one of fae blood could be born with such a power. “A darkling would have been a different matter, but I believe it’s a faerie. Darklings feel different, but they don’t feel wrong, as you know.”

Yena knew that all too well. She nodded, tensing. Seonghwa put a hand on her back- some scars never faded. “So how would a faerie possess such magic in the first place? And what sort of magic are we even talking about?”

“All I know for now is that the magic has evolved to take this shape. It wasn’t always like this- or if it was, it had been subdued like your magic, Yena. But… I think we would have still felt something if that was the case. Because when you were missing, we always knew deep down that you were alive.”

“That’s right,” Seonghwa nodded. “So who’s this faerie?”

“Surprisingly enough, Wooyoung is on it,” Hongjoong said and Seonghwa and Yena looked at each other. Hongjoong laughed. “I guess Wooyoung didn’t tell you?”

“That brat,” Yena muttered. “How come?”

Hongjoong explained how Wooyoung had been the nearest to the faerie and had taken her to the High Healers to get answers. “They’re keeping her in his basement- she won’t be a danger there.”

“Good idea,” Seonghwa nodded. Yena looked back and forth between the two.

“Wait, hold up. Some poor thing is in Wooyoung’s basement? You know how wrong that sounds?”

The two burst out laughing, and Hongjoong shook his head. “Wooyoung had… problems with his powers, as you have heard. The basement his parents built was specialised to contain all magic inside those four walls. No magic can get across that.”

“I wonder who this faerie is though…” Yena shuddered- she recalled the time she was having trouble with her own magic and felt so hopeless. “Do we know who she is?”

“I have a feeling we will soon,” Hongjoong said knowingly.

What Hongjoong didn’t tell them was that San was probably on his way to Rukbat. Hongjoong had received a message from San’s court letting him know about how he had ‘ran away’ from his kingdom. Hongjoong was very curious about why San felt the sudden need to leave without letting anyone know. Was he feeling something about this situation differently than the others?

But then again, San was always sensitive. He felt Yena’s magic even when it was blocked and believed she was the Lost Princess before anyone else. If he had ignored Yena at that time… Hongjoong shuddered- they wouldn’t be here right now, none of them. So Hongjoong decided that there must have been a reason for San to act this way, and that he would give him time to come to terms with whatever his reasoning was.

Yena and Seonghwa looked at each other- Hongjoong knew something more than he told them. Seonghwa shrugged, figuring if it was something important, he’d know soon anyway. “Should we do something about this? Or let Wooyoung handle this?”

“I say let Wooyoung handle this… for now. I have a feeling we’re all involved in this somehow,” Hongjoong looked grim as he met eyes with Yena. “I think… let’s wait for Wooyoung’s verdict on this before I make any guesses.”

Yena’s heart sank- she instantly knew what Hongjoong meant. Over and over throughout the two and a half years, Yena had worried if going back in time had been the right decision after all. Of course, it had- she had saved Seonghwa from his untimely death. She would do it again. But… maybe she could have done it in a different way? Taken a different approach? Hongjoong told her it was alright to feel paranoid about this, considering what she had been through, but he had never imagined one day he would actually have to worry about this seriously.

That was, in fact, what he was trying to find in his archives now. There wasn’t much about time travel in the first place, kept strictly confidential, and he was worried they would have to figure this one out on their own. He decided at that moment to let Yeosang in on this possibility but keep Yena as uninvolved as possible until they were sure- he didn’t want her to worry more.

“What did you feel, Yena? And Seonghwa?” Hongjoong asked, changing the topic before Yena could probe any further.

“Something unnatural- it is not supposed to exist,” Yena admitted, rubbing her arms. 

“Something dark in nature- which made me wonder if it was a darkling, but… it’s different, isn’t it?” Seonghwa raised a brow and Hongjoong agreed. Seonghwa and Hongjoong, with their magic, were like two peas in a pod. Light and Dark. They felt exactly the same way about magic ever since they were little.

“You should go back and stay until you’re needed,” Hongjoong got up, stretching. “There’s no need to worry and gather right now- there’s no point. Let’s believe in Wooyoung- I heard Jongho’s joining him soon so we can feel comfortable that there’s one brain that would actually be working.”

The two laughed, nodding- Jongho would keep Wooyoung in place, definitely. “Well, it was nice to meet you,” Seonghwa shook his head, smiling. “We just wanted to check on you.”

“Next time you decide to ‘check’ on me, give me a heads-up first,” Hongjoong put a hand on his heart, eyes wide. “You nearly stopped my heart.”

“This was Yena’s idea, to scare you-” Seonghwa was ambushed by Yena putting a hand over his mouth, shaking her head in denial while laughing, portalling back in an instant. Hongjoong’s smile fell, and he went back to the journal he had hid behind him when they had arrived.

This was definitely connected to all of them. And it wasn’t good. Whoever that faerie was didn’t matter anymore- she was merely a glitch in the matrix now. And glitches… shouldn’t exist.

—-----------------

San was having the most intense deja vu of his life. 

He was travelling the same route as the one he took about two years ago- except that now he was using that route to travel away from home. He stopped at the same spots as he did, except that this time he was alone. 

About two years ago, he had visited the border for some business, and on his way back he had encountered a lost traveller- Yena, whom he later discovered was the Princess Yena. He had felt the connection to her instantly, though he couldn’t put a finger on what exactly it meant. After all, it was a huge coincidence that he met Yena like that- but to this date, he wasn’t sure if they had met each other because of an unlikely coincidence or because Kieran played them all like chess pieces on his board.

Kieran. The darkling who claimed the identity of the late 9th Prince of Illusions- Junyoung- to the point that he forgot his real name. And then he assumed multiple identities to get close to Yena and Seonghwa.

San sighed as he poked the burning fire he had built with a piece of wood while he took a break from travelling. He kept thinking of two years ago- how oblivious they had all been until the worst happened- Kieran killed Seonghwa. Yena had to go back in time and risk a paradox that could mean the end of everyone’s existence just to get Seonghwa back. Everyone agreed to do that, and it went smoothly, except that there were two versions of Yena existing-

Everything, including Seonghwa’s death and Yena going back in time was meant to happen. Kieran had played them over and over again. He had killed Seonghwa on purpose, knowing Yena would go back in time. And then when they reached the climax again- when Kieran was supposed to kill Seonghwa- he took Yena instead. 

San had to admit, he was a criminal genius, Kieran was. He made Yena mess with time- the most dangerous magic one could possibly possess. He couldn’t help but think this unnatural feeling was a result of the time travelling- how he knew, San had no idea. It’s like he could feel it all over again- everything, just like he had felt Yena was one of them. His magic was sensitive that way.

But this time… something was different, and it drove him crazy. It wasn’t just the magic he could sense. He could sense the anxiety that came with it, whoever this was. He could feel the panic, the hurt. He had never felt closer to someone, and he had never imagined he could when miles separated them. Just how was he connected to this? He could understand that Yena could feel whoever this was- probably connected to her magic in one way or another. He could understand that Seonghwa could feel its dark nature too, which meant Hongjoong must have felt it too. 

It made him scratch his hair out- he wanted nothing more than to see just who this was that drove him crazy. They probably didn’t even know how San felt. He was so curious and scared about what the future held for him.

—--------------

Hongjoong wondered if such a dimension existed where he could watch the past rewind like a deity. 

Hongjoong had been scribbling notes from what he got- any clue, any indication or sign, just about anything relevant or irrelevant. He had been sitting in a pile of pages and books for days now, and he finally got a message from Wooyoung that confirmed all of his suspicions. 

Kieran might have killed Gaeul- I don’t know how the timelines work, but he killed Gaeul, or tried to. The point is, she is alive. Her magic became the opposite of what it used to be. She lost her memories. She looks like she came back from the dead, literally. Jongho is here- let me know how to handle this.

Hongjoong felt like throwing up- either from the restlessness or the fact that Kieran really had messed up. He needed to see Gaeul, needed to hear everything from her in person. And he needed to keep Yena out of this. He couldn’t involve her again- not so soon, not unless she was the key to putting things back again.

She had already been through so much. He couldn’t do this to her again.

Hongjoong wrote a message to Yunho first. Let Seonghwa know, without Yena’s knowledge, to keep Yena out of this until and if she’s required. That was enough to let Yunho and Seonghwa know that they were involved in this whether they wanted to or not.

Then Hongjoong wrote a message to Wooyoung, letting him know that he would be coming to Rukbat. It would take him about three days. Until then, Jongho and Wooyoung would have to get the most out of her.

Hongjoong packed a bag with his necessities before taking a quick shower. He was going to leave immediately. When he came out, his Right Hand Jaebeom was waiting for him. 

“You look like you’ll pass out if you stay awake any longer,” Jaebeom shook his head. “A little rest before travelling isn’t a bad idea if you’re insisting on travelling alone.”

Hongjoong sighed. “Maybe I should take someone. I don’t have time to spare, Jaebeom.”

“Let Yugyeom accompany you then,” Jaebeom got up, patting Hongjoong’s back to encourage him. “He can return once he drops you off at Rukbat.”

“Should I?” Hongjoong wondered out loud but his thoughts were miles away. Jaebeom shook his head, amused, as he sent someone to call for Yugyeom while they ate lunch.

“I might need to summon some High Healers if the situation calls for it,” Hongjoong munched on pasta as he recalled how some of his healers had really helped Yena calm down when her magic was going out of control. “Have them on standby.”

“I will,” Jaebeom assured him. “And if someone sends a message for you?”

Hongjoong knew he meant Yena- he was going to pretend that he was here. “You’re good at pretending you’re me, aren’t you? I mean, you have been writing the official documents for me since forever-”

“We’re practically the same,” Jaebeom rolled his eyes. “Hongjoong. She’ll know in a second.”

“Ah, I don’t know. Just get someone to fire-message me or something so we can deal with it.”

“And if I can’t reach you?” Jaebeom scoffed.

“Then pretend you are me, and tell dear old Princess Yena that everything is alright and under control. Try to sound like me,” Hongjoong gave Jaebeom a fake wide smile that had him laughing out loud.

“Alright, alright. I got this. We got this.”

“We got nothing, Jaebeom. Everything is a mess now,” Hongjoong sighed.

—-----------------

“So you’re telling me,” Jongho rolled dramatically along the wall, leaving Gaeul baffled- she had never imagined the Princes were so… casual. “You’re telling me that somehow, Kieran has unintentionally or intentionally messed up the timeline and she’s here when she’s supposed to be dead?”

“We don’t know that yet,” Wooyoung was half lying on the floor, drawing circles with his finger. “That’s what she remembers. Her memory is as good as Seonghwa’s ability to sit cross-legged.”

“But Seonghwa can’t sit cross-legged-”

“Exactly,” Wooyoung looked at Jongho and he snorted. Gaeul, who was sitting on her bed with her knees drawn to her chest, watched the two panic- that’s what it had to be- the calm before the storm.

"But then…" Jongho sank down on the ground. "Suppose she was killed in the previous timeline. In this timeline, somehow, she's alive. How is that any different from Seonghwa's situation?"

"Exactly," Wooyoung clapped. "He didn't become anti-dark just because he didn't die in this timeline."

"Anti-dark would be called light, Wooyoung," Gaeul mumbled and Jongho snorted.

"Whatever," Wooyoung waved his hand in dismissal. "Seonghwa remains the Prince of Dark."

"So Princess Yena went back in time to save Prince Seonghwa?" Gaeul looked at the two. "Just what happened two years ago? All I remember is hearing rumours of Prince Yeosang's twin being alive."

"Uh, nothing happened," Jongho smiled and gave Wooyoung a side-eye. Wooyoung shrugged.

"She might as well know, Jongho. For some reason, she is involved directly or indirectly with what happened two years ago."

Gaeul watched the two bicker back and forth, her stomach twisting nervously. "Can I get some fresh air?"

"Yeah, we can open the windows-"

"No, I mean… can I go out? I feel like I'm suffocating right now," Gaeul gulped.

Wooyoung narrowed his eyes suspiciously but Jongho stood up. "Of course you can. You don't have to worry about your magic getting out of control too. I think the two of us can handle it if something happens."

Wooyoung gaped as he watched Jongho extend a friendly hand to Gaeul and she took it hesitantly, following him outside, urging Wooyoung to come along as well. Jongho led her to one of the gardens in the back without many guards. He watched as Gaeul simply strolled along the path etched beside the walls, brushing her fingers along the plants along the way. Wooyoung and Jongho stood watching, and Wooyoung elbowed him.

"What were you thinking?"

"Don't make her feel like a prisoner here, Wooyoung," Jongho warned as he looked at the elder Prince. "Her magic… I felt it when I took her hand. If she gets nervous or anxious - which you do a great job at making her feel- her magic can explode with a wave. Let her feel that she's free and she has nothing much to worry about while we figure this out. And don't tell her too much about what happened, will you?"

"Ugh, I can't wait for Hongjoong to come," Wooyoung groaned. "We literally have no idea what we're doing right now."

"Exactly," Jongho sighed. "Anti-nature. I never thought I'd see that one day- not from a faerie, at least."

"Do you feel anything else apart from the magic?" Wooyoung asked. Jongho shook his head.

"I don't even know what I really feel. She just makes me… nervous. She makes my magic nervous. I figured because our magics are opposite now, so…"

"No luck with the healers as well," Wooyoung watched Gaeul lay down flat on the grass as she stared at the sky. "Do you think it's a… trap? All of this? She could be Kieran 2.0. Or she could be a bait."

"Whatever it is, needs to be dealt with quickly," Jongho looked at Wooyoung. "Before things get worse. Because I sense it. You do too, right?"

"Impending doom," Wooyoung sighed. "The worst feeling I've ever had."

—-----------------

San reached in the middle of the night, sighing in relief only when he saw the dim lights glowing from the glass structure of what was Wooyoung’s palace. He felt relaxed for the first time in a while since he could sense Wooyoung and Jongho- he wasn’t surprised Jongho came. But….

He could also feel another presence strong enough to be reckoned with. Not as strong as the Princes, but close enough. San bit the inside of his cheeks, realising the gravity of the situation- he had no idea who he was looking for, but someone called out to him desperately. Desperately enough to make him travel all alone for days. And now that he was closer… the feeling only grew.

Meanwhile, Gaeul woke up with her body covered in sweat, gasping for breath. She was alone in her room but she was pretty sure there was a healer or a guard stationed outside, and some stationed on the stairs. She could suddenly sense everyone-

She shut her eyes as her body shook with a jolt- someone was here. Someone she wasn’t sure she wanted to meet, but her magic was almost suffocating her- the pit in her heart… she felt like she was drowning.

Gaeul stood up with shaky legs, going first to the sink to wash her face. Her eyes looked sunken but the silver in her eyes still glowed. She frowned- she wasn’t sure she ever had silver in her dark eyes before. Running a hand through her short hair, she cautiously opened the door, finding one of the healers, Yoohyeon, dozing off in the hall.

Gaeul wondered if she should wake Yoohyeon up and ask her if she could go outside, or let her sleep. But with her magic getting out of control, making her feel like it would burst any moment, she was worried she’d be a danger. So she slowly walked to Yoohyeon and called her name twice, making Yoohyeon stretch dramatically before she opened her eyes. She checked her wristwatch- it was nearly 3 in the morning. 

“Something wrong?” 

“I feel like my magic is going to burst in a wave like it did earlier,” Gaeul was almost jumping on her feet now, “I need to go out.”

“Uh, I think I need to take you to the cell in that case. Your magic won’t be able to escape those walls.”

“You don’t understand,” Gaeul panicked, feeling something slowly crawl inside her body, making its way up. “I need air. If I go in there, I don’t know what damage I would do-”

Yoohyeon got up, nodding her head, about to hold Gaeul and rub her arms but she flinched away. She sighed. “I know you don’t mean harm. But the cell- it’s built specifically to contain magic inside. Come on- you’ll be fine. It’s like a big room- you won’t feel like it’s suffocating you.”

Gaeul reluctantly followed Yoohyeon to the other end of the hall, feeling her magic rise to her chest now. She scanned the cell- it was very plain, just 4 walls and a single lamp illuminating its inside. Gaeul looked at Yoohyeon helplessly.

“I’m going to call for someone while you stay there, okay?” Yoohyeon smiled warmly, but it did nothing to calm Gaeul down. Yoohyeon shut the door, and Gaeul found herself surrounded by four walls. She slid down by one of them, facing the door.

It’s okay, she told herself. If you go outside, you’ll hurt and kill things. It’s better to stay inside until the magic wears out.

Only, the magic wasn’t wearing out. It grew more in intensity, and San felt it- felt the change in the nature of the magic like it was his own. Something was fueling the magic further. San leaned forward on his horse, urging it to go faster. By the time he reached the gates, he could feel it.

Impending doom.

He jumped off the horse, the guards letting him in instantly. He entered the building, looking around- everything seemed normal. He started towards Wooyoung’s room upstairs but then he felt it-

The basement.

San scoffed- of course whoever it was was in the basement. San took the shortcut, going outside until he was at the backside of the palace, asking the guards stationed out to let him in. 

“Prince Wooyoung doesn’t allow anyone to go inside at night-”

“For fuck’s sake, let me in and get as far away as you can unless you want to die tonight,” San’s eyes glowed and that was enough for the guards to open the lock and get the hell away from there. He spotted Yoohyeon who came his way,

“Prince San? What are you doing here?”

“Get Wooyoung immediately, there’s no time,” San warned, “Whoever’s inside? Their magic is going to explode.”

“But she is in the cell-”

“The cell that nullifies magic?” San shook his head. “It’s fueling it instead. Get Wooyoung and Jongho immediately.”

Yoohyeon gasped, running off and San rushed downstairs, opening every door- he had never been in the basement personally. By the time he reached the end of the hall, he could hear someone’s sobs and chokes. 

San stopped for a moment outside the door that had to be the one. He frowned- even with the dangerous magic bound to kill everything, he could feel something else- a connection. Was it because this faerie was somehow connected to what took place two years ago? He wasn’t sure. With a deep breath, he opened the door and he sucked in his breath when he saw a girl with her knees brought to her chest, sobbing.

This was the last thing he was expecting to see. It was like Yena’s situation all over again. San slowly stepped inside, muttering a soft ‘hey’, causing the girl to look up-

Gaeul and San both felt it then- something inside them tugging and calling out to each other, and it was not magic.

Gaeul frowned, ignoring whatever it was in case it made her magic any angrier. “You should get away. It’s not safe here.”

“I came to get you out of here,” San’s warm voice left Gaeul surprised, especially when he smiled and his whole face softened. He sat down on one knee in front of her, scanning her. “It’s not safe to be here. You need to get out.”

“Who are you?” Gaeul almost whispered. San extended his hand.

“I’m San. I’m sure you’ve already heard about me now.”

Gaeul pursed her lips, stifling her smile. She had, alright. She glanced at his extended hand. “If I hold your hand, I might possibly kill you.”

“You won’t,” San assured. “Trust me.”

If it was Wooyoung or anyone else, Gaeul would have never taken their hand at a time like this. She would have screamed at them to run away from her, to get as far away as possible. But something about San was so different than anyone else she had met so far. And without hesitation, she took his hand, his calloused fingers providing her instant consolation that everything would be alright. 

Without saying anything else, San started leading her away from the room, sending a little spark of his own magic through their connected hands, trying to figure out the nature of her magic and just how unsafe everyone was. By the time he got out, Wooyoung and Jongho audibly gasped.

“Are you stupid?!” Wooyoung yelled. “Her magic will hurt you!”

“No, it won’t,” San shook his head. “I’ve got this, trust me. Just… follow me. And create a shield around us while you’re at it. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Wooyooung and Jongho watched San lead Gaeul to the garden that she’d gone to earlier, both of them standing in disbelief for a few moments before they looked at each other. 

“Did you hear that?” Wooyoung scoffed. “Trust me, he said. Trust this little-”

“Shut up and create a shield,” Jongho laughed. “He must have a reason. He’s not as stupid as you.”

“Sure,” Wooyoung mocked. “A reason. Let’s hear that.”

San stopped in the middle of the garden, instructing Jongho and Wooyoung to shield themselves while they were at it. Wooyoung protested but San assured them he would not get hurt.

“It’s like when Yena had a block,” he explained finally, glancing at Gaeul. “I know what to do. I’m basically an expert at this now.”

“Right. Let’s see how far you get blown off. Gaeul! Make sure your magic throws him a good few miles away- maybe out of Rukbat.”

Gaeul was practically squirming. “I can’t hold it in anymore.”

“You don’t have to,” San took her other hand. “Close your eyes and try to reach the root of your magic. I’ll be there.”

The two of them shut their eyes, and Gaeul almost screamed- her magic was seconds away from exploding, but she saw it. It had to be San’s magic- the reddish brown, almost golden thread making its way beside her magic, circling it. Gaeul shook her head- he would get hurt. 

“This is not my magic. I cannot control it,” Gaeul whispered and San squeezed her hands to let her know that he could hear her. “Just looking at it is making me suffocate.”

“I understand now,” San replied. “Just… stay strong. It’s going to hurt.”

Gaeul had no idea how much it was going to hurt, but when San’s magic coiled around the black and silver raging storm of magic and covered it entirely, she felt a moment of calm. And then his magic started squeezing her magic into nothingness- or at least it tried, because Gaeul’s ear piercing screams made San flinch and realise this was not going to work. He instantly created a shield around himself and dropped Gaeul’s hands, making her sink to the ground and clutch her head.

And then a wave came, nothing like San had imagined. If he hadn’t shielded himself, he would have been obliterated. Jongho and Wooyoung sent their magic back, fighting the wave and containing it within the small sphere so no one else would get hurt. For a good minute, it was a battle for their life before Gaeul stopped screaming and slumped down, unconscious. San breathed, slumping down with her, looking at Jongho and Wooyoung in disbelief. Wooyoung scanned the perimeter- thankfully, only the area within the sphere had ‘died’. The grass was grey, the flowers were ashes. Jongho sank down to his knees.

“I don’t feel so good,” Jongho’s face was pale. Wooyoung bent down next to him, touching his forehead. It was because of the magic being opposite in nature to Jongho. Wooyoung lent some of his strength to him just in time to stop him from fainting as well. He let Jongho lie down on the grass, out of energy.

“Well,” Wooyoung looked at San, grinning. “This is interesting.”

San glared at him before struggling up on his feet and joining the two, laughing helplessly as he sank down with the two. “I had to withdraw. This magic… It's not fae magic. It’s not even darkling magic.” He drew out his hand and frowned- the ashes were cold- like snow.

“Tell me about it,” Wooyoung sighed. “Jongho calls it ‘anti-nature’.”

“That’s because she used to have the magic of nature,” Jongho practically wailed. “Look around you and tell me this sight doesn’t scream ‘anti-nature’.”

San nodded- he had never seen anything like this. The grass and flowers hadn’t wilted- they had turned ash. “The cell, Wooyoung. It was fueling her magic. I could feel it from a mile away.”

“Well, shit,” Wooyoung looked at Gaeul, worried for a second that she had died but her chest rising up and down slowly relieved him. “Does that mean her magic can’t even be called magic?”

“Unnatural,” San scoffed. “Death- but not simply death. This is something beyond dead- look at this,” he plucked the grey grass that softened into powder with his touch. “Anti-magic. What is the opposite of magic, Wooyoung?”

“Mundane? But this is anything but that. This is… bewitchery, but it’s not that either. Bewitchery was what Junyoung’s uncle tried to do. This is… I don’t know. Let’s hope Hongjoong has a name for this, because if he does not… we’re in deep, deep trouble.”

—-------------------

The next afternoon, Wooyoung got a message from Hongjoong informing him that he’d be taking a little ‘detour’ in hopes of confirming his theory. The message was as ambiguous as it could get, so the three decided to chat with Gaeul.

Gaeul, however, was not having it. The boys were either bickering with each other about things she did not understand, or staring at her like an alien which made her fidget a lot. And right now, the boys were doing the latter. Gaeul stared back at the three of them for a good few moments before she turned around, making them face her back, which was when they broke out of their trance.

“I’m sorry,” San chuckled, “I’m just… confused. Please turn around, Gaeul.”

Gaeul sighed- she did not understand why San saying her name sounded so different. She turned around and her heart immediately warmed at the way he looked at her- sharp eyes that were so soft at times. “What happened last night?”

“I tried calming your magic down, but we have a theory…” San looked at Wooyoung and Jongho, wondering if it was wise to let her know.

“I have an idea so please let me know,” Gaeul gave Jongho and Wooyoung a side-eye when they tried warning San with wide eyes and bobbing heads. “Please tell me what’s going on with me. I’m as confused as you all are.”

“That, I believe,” San nodded. “Your magic… it’s not ‘magic’ anymore. Not like every faerie on this planet. Not even like the darklings-”

“You keep talking about darklings,” Gaeul looked at Wooyoung. “Kieran, was it? Who was he? Have you met a lot of darklings? Are they on this planet?”

“Slow down,” Wooyoung laughed. “Kieran was a darkling, yes, on this planet but not of his own accord. He’s the only one we’ve met.”

“We’ve met Neve too,” Jongho added.

“For like ten seconds, Jongho,” Wooyoung rolled his eyes.

“Ten seconds?” Gaeul was starting to believe that Wooyoung and Jongho weren’t quite sane in the head.

“Yes, he popped in from another dimension to say hi and take Kieran back,” Wooyoung looked at Gaeul as if daring her to call it bullshit. 

“So what does this Kieran possibly have to do with me?”

“You mentioned red hair and glowing eyes… amber eyes?” San asked cautiously and Gaeul nodded hesitantly.

“I believe, yes. He supposedly killed me. Could be a dream.”

“I don’t think it’s a dream,” San looked at Wooyoung. “There’s a reason her magic reversed itself. Why would Kieran kill her though?”

“That’s the one thing I don’t understand,” Jongho tilted his head as he watched Gaeul. “She was a normal faerie with an affinity for nature. Nothing unusual there. Did she see something or hear something she wasn’t supposed to? Or was it mere bad luck?”

“Kieran wasn’t one to kill someone without a reason, was he? Every move he made, every life he took was calculated. As far as I know, he hasn’t even killed that many people.”

“San’s right,” Wooyoung started. “Two years ago… that’s the point of Kieran’s life where he couldn’t risk making a mistake. Killing Gaeul, who lived a very normal life at the beach with her family… there must have been a reason. And that reason is to fuck us up, obviously, but there’s another reason that I feel is more valid.”

“So are we going to watch me everyday like we’ve been doing for days now? Or are we doing something?” Gaeul was starting to hate the basement now. 

“Dear old Hongjoong went on a little trip before coming here,” Wooyoung sighed. ���Until then, I suggest we stay put and not try anything.”

“Don’t look at me,” San raised his hands in surrender. “I only prevented an explosion that would have obliterated your ass.”

“We would have been fine,” Wooyoung rolled his eyes. “Tell him, Jongho.”

“I’m not telling him anything,” it was Jongho’s turn to surrender. “After experiencing it firsthand, I’m done assuming things about Gaeul.”

“Something tells me there’s more to your story,” Gaeul raised her eyebrow. Jongho sighed, giving in.

“I could feel you all the way in my castle. The day Wooyoung found you… your magic touched a flower, didn’t it?” Gaeul nodded, surprised, and he continued. “When your magic exploded, I felt it. It was unnatural, and I’m the Prince of Nature. Of course I would feel it- just like last night. It makes me feel sick- no offence to you.”

“None taken. It makes me sick too,” Gaeul sighed, looking away. “But… how come you can feel it from so far away? Do all Princes have like… a sensor?”

“Something like that,” San laughed. “Jongho felt it because of the magic. Wooyoung felt it because you were close, right?”

“Yeah, probably,” Wooyoung nodded. “And you felt it because?”

“I don’t know,” San shrugged, recalling the other feeling he had. His eyes met Gaeul at that moment and his heart sank- and so did Gaeul’s. “I… I’ve been feeling her for months now. I think… when I came to visit you last time, Wooyoung. Four months ago? The proximity might have triggered it.”

“But you’ve been feeling her all along?” Jongho frowned. “Is it because your magic is sensitive?” 

“Probably,” San nodded slowly. “I could feel the magic growing slowly. I could feel that it was wrong. But there was something else- it made me nervous to the point that I couldn’t focus.”

“Weird,” Wooyoung made a face. “Yena and Seonghwa felt it too, probably because it’s connected to the two somehow. We’re keeping Yena out of this, in case you decide to send her a cute message about how you saved my ass from obliterating-”

“I won’t,” San kicked Wooyoung’s leg, making Jongho and Gaeul giggle. “She’s had enough already.”

“What’s the Princess like?” Gaeul asked and the three looked at her. “I don’t think I ever heard about her while I was… alive? Before Kieran supposedly killed me.”

“She’s like us,” Wooyoung smiled.

“She’s like Wooyoung,” Jongho sighed and Wooyoung smacked his arm. 

“What’s wrong with that!?”

“So when did you hear about the Princess?” Jongho asked, ignoring Wooyoung altogether.

“A few months ago… I found myself at the beach, but I was in no state to move and I had no memory. I somehow made it to the forest and some people found me. Everything’s fuzzy- I don’t even know when this amnesia episode started. It could be a few months or a year-”

“What’s the first ‘news’ you heard, if you can recall?” Jongho asked and looked at the two Princes. “I think we can figure out when she woke up. Or came back to life. Whatever it is.”

“Prince Seonghwa and Princess Yena’s wedding was going to take place in a few days,” Gaeul recalled- it was the most memorable news she had heard that had stuck with her. “I remember because I had no idea who this Yena girl was. And then later I found out that she was the Lost Princess.”

“But it’s been 6 months,” Wooyoung frowned. “When we say two years ago, we actually mean two and a half. So… she woke up before Yena’s wedding. We didn’t feel her for four months at most, right? Unless someone felt it earlier. Does that mean her magic wasn’t in this state at that point?”

“That’s right,” Gaeul confirmed. “That time is hazy but I remember the faeries wondering if I had magic in the first place.”

“If Hongjoong was here, we would have figured all of this out in one sitting,” Jongho groaned, slumping down on the couch. 

“Did Prince Hongjoong feel this too?” Gaeul asked.

“Oh, he feels everything,” San waved a hand in dismissal. “Everything that the light touches, I think.”

“So if you’re the Prince of Earth, do you feel everything that happens on this land?”

“Something like that. Yunho is the Prince of Water, so he feels everything wrong in the ocean-” San paused, his mouth parting as he looked at Gaeul. “Didn’t you say you were found by the beach?”

“Uh, yeah?”

“So Yunho must have felt when exactly!” San got up, clapping. “See? We have a brain too. We don’t always need Hongjoong.”

Gaeul tried stifling her smile but the look on Jongho’s face and the grimace on Wooyoung’s made her laugh and she put a hand on her mouth as San turned, muttering sorry. He only shook his head in amusement. 

“Jongho, quick. Write a message to Yunho and ask when exactly he felt something was wrong.”

“Does it matter?” Gaeul asked. “Where was I for the two years that I have no memory of?”

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why we always need Hongjoong,” Jongho bowed dramatically, making San pout as he slumped back to the couch.

—------------------

The last thing Mingi expected one fine Sunday morning was Yeosang strolling into his chamber, materialising out of thin air, and immediately fainting right on the couch.

For a second, Mingi panicked, but he could see his chest rise and fall. Mingi poked his arms- he even twitched, his blonde hair falling messily on his forehead. Mingi shook his head, scoffing. “A little warning would have been nice!”

Yeosang, of course, didn’t respond. It appeared that he had portalled himself. His portalling method was very different from Yena, and he had started practising it not too long ago, though he always had a theory it would work. But turning into a spirit and then materialising into a body elsewhere was risky business- more risky than Yena opening a portal in space and risk portalling somewhere else- or some ‘time’ else. 

Or perhaps, Mingi thought as he sat down beside Yeosang, going back to his documents, perhaps portalling into an unknown dimension with a different flow of time was more dangerous.

Mingi recalled the time when the darkling Kieran had almost driven Yena mad, forcing her to practise her time magic so he could go back in time for some twisted revenge. Mingi had found Yena just in time, and Yena in a state of panic had accidentally portalled herself and Mingi into another dimension where time flow was different. After spending months in that dimension, they came back when Yena finally figured out exactly where she was, finding that only a few hours had passed in reality.

If Yena had been alone, he wasn’t sure she would have made it back. She was in no state to be alone, after being a hostage to Kieran. Mingi wondered sometimes if he was fated to be the one to find Yena. It had somehow made his magic different, spending that time with her in a dimension where no one else but the two existed. 

This was definitely why he could feel some poor soul with its own magic burning it. He was sure Yeosang could feel it too and was here to talk about it.

He was right. When Yeosang finally woke up, it took him a good few moments to gain his senses. Mingi pointed to the bottle of water in front of him and he hungrily gulped all of it down- portalling, for some reason, left him parched. Once he had finished the last drop, he finally breathed.

“You look well,” Yeosang commented.

“Because I have been sitting in my own body unlike someone in this room,” Mingi scoffed, amused. “What are you up to?”

“I heard some rumours that I thought I’d share with you first,” Yeosang leaned forward, “Some very… interesting rumours.”

Mingi ran a hand through his red hair. “Well?”

“Apparently,” Yeosang’s eyes glittered, “someone actually came back from the dead.”

Mingi gave Yeosang the side-eye. “As in?”

Yeosang huffed. “My spirits tell me that something was amiss. As you know, time flow doesn’t affect them. So when Yena changed the timeline, nothing in that dimension changed. Anyways, from the reports I gathered, there was some sort of black hole- if you can call it that- forming in that dimension. I don’t know how I missed it, but some tell me it didn’t stay in the same place.”

“And what does that mean?” Mingi frowned.

“Apparently the hole grew until it disappeared one day about six months ago. Again, I’m not sure about the time, but that’s what I got.”

“I think Yunho told me when he felt something strange. He was out in the ocean for days trying to figure out whatever it was.”

Yeosang paled after hearing that. “That sounds too similar to necromancy. Water and black holes. The dimension of the dead. Never a good combination. But… necromancy doesn’t work like that. It’s done by someone, and the black hole doesn’t ‘travel’ around the dimension, it sticks to the reality here. And… there’s something else.”

Mingi raised his brows in anticipation and Yeosang sighed. “I casually confirmed with San, Wooyoung, and Jongho’s court, but there have been people going ‘missing’ in the past few months. No traces, no pattern. My spirits tell me that they’re alive, but they… They are in another dimension. Maybe sucked by the black hole.”

“That’s crazy, why would someone willingly go into something that looked like a black hole?”

“Unless they were dragged in it,” Yeosang bit his lips. “If my sources aren’t lying- and they have no reason to- they believe some ‘otherworldly’ creatures now prowl in this land.”

Mingi sat back, taking a deep breath. He wasn’t sure he was ready to face ‘otherworldly’ creatures- the creatures that already existed on this planet were enough. “So what’s your verdict?” 

“Hongjoong. He needs to hear this. I think… it’s time we all gathered. Whatever this is, it’s not supposed to exist.”

“Actually,” Mingi pursed his lips, “I can feel it too. A soul burning from too much magic, except it’s not magic. It’s… something different.”

“Yeah. It has the ability to disintegrate living beings. What do we do?”

“Send a message to Hongjoong first,” Mingi immediately started writing a message. “We need to gather.”

—------------------

Hongjoong was in the middle of the Peridot Sea, somewhere between Mingi’s Kingdom of Leo and Wooyoung’s Kingdom of Sagittarius, when he got Mingi’s message informing him that apparently someone was back from the dead and they needed to meet in person so they could discuss it properly.

Hongjoong looked up at the cloudy sky, as gloomy as his mood. Yugyeom, who was quite pleased with the detour because he needed a break from the castle duties, raised a brow. “Everything alright?”

“Not at all,” Hongjoong smiled helplessly, asking for a pen. He scribbled his location and dared Yeosang to portal himself here since there was a chance he would very well land in the sea.

Yeosang’s reply through Mingi’s fire message came a minute later, a very provocative drawing along with a request to land on their continent- Algieba was the closest. Hongjoong sent an okay, instructing Yugyeom to turn their course west. Yugyeom, who had an affinity for air, helped the ship change its course without much effort. They could already see land so it would only take about an hour.

As soon as he landed at the beach, he sent Yeosang and Mingi the message. Yugyeom brought food from the ship. “Good thing we landed. With this amount of food you wouldn’t last two days.”

Hongjoong passed him a side-eye. “You should have stored more.”

“Who decided to take a detour in the middle of our very planned-out tour to Rukbat?” Yugyeom scoffed, slumping down on the sand and opening the bag which included snacks and everything unhealthy that Hongjoong loved to eat. Hongjoong picked a box of cookies, offering some as an apology and Yugyeom rolled his eyes, laughing.

“I’m probably going to Mingi’s castle. Wanna join me?”

“I should,” Yugyeom nodded. “It’s been a while since I met Wonpil.”

“Ah, yes,” Hongjoong nodded. “You have friends everywhere. Let’s hope we get a ride before we get a heatstroke in the desert.”

Luckily for the two, Mingi had already sent some of his friends that resided in the desert to pick Hongjoong and Yugyeom. The two dozed off the entire ride back, waking up only when they stopped to get a good night’s rest and then the next day, they reached Mingi’s castle, greeted by an unusually grim looking duo.

“At least wear a smile when you greet me!” Hongjoong wailed and the two burst out laughing which was when Hongjoong realised this was an act and he ran forward to smack them. “I swear I will never get a break!”

“You’ll be wearing this grim face soon enough, don’t worry,” Yeosang laughed, dodging a hit to the arm. “Come on. Let’s eat before we lose our appetite.”

Yugyeom took that as a clue to run away. “I don’t wish to lose my appetite. Hongjoong, I’ll be staying here for a day or two before I go back. That okay?”

Everyone gave him a thumbs-up and watched him spot Wonpil and happily run to his old friend. “See?” Hongjoong watched them hug like long lost brothers. “That’s how you greet a friend.”

“Whatever,” Mingi grinned cheekily, ruffling Hongjoong’s ginger hair. “Come along before I drag you there.”

The three avoided discussing anything over dinner, enjoying the carefree bantering and making fun of each other just like everything was normal, to the point where for a moment they forgot all about the trouble they were in.

“I have something to say about this,” Hongjoong began. Yeosang started clapping and Mingi wheezed with laughter. “I haven’t even begun!”

“You’ve said enough,” Yeosang laughed. “You don’t get the right to tell me to stop portalling like this when you literally disappear into the light. At this rate, you’ll find yourself some thousand light years away from us. At least I’ll only be lost in another dimension.”

“It doesn’t work like that-”

“Should I try materialising into fire?” Mingi cackled and Hongjoong rolled his eyes at how Yeosang and Mingi kept trolling him.

“You’ll burn yourself if you ever try that,” Hongjoong commented. “Just because you’re the Prince of Fire doesn’t mean-”

“Yes, Hongjoong, just because you’re the Prince of Light doesn’t mean you get to shine your light of wisdom on us,” Mingi said and the room fell silent before the three started hollering again, Yeosang applauding.

“If you’re done fooling around,” Jae, Mingi’s Right Hand entered, shaking his head in amusement at the young princes. “The chambers are ready, and tea awaits.”

“Ah, yes, time to sleep,” Hongjoong nodded, getting up, hearing one of the two mutter ‘boomer’. “Thank you- and please make sure Yugyeom leaves after two days. Yugyeom and Wonpil shouldn’t be together for too long.”

“Oh, I’ll make sure,” Jae smiled devilishly. “Let’s hope they don’t bring the castle down with their chaos.”

As the three settled in Mingi’s living room, they realised how the gravity of the situation kept nagging at their subconsciousness. Yeosang glanced at the two. “Is it time we finally address the problem?”

“You first,” Hongjoong nodded. 

“I am not sure about what time this took place, but something like necromancy brought someone back from the dead. Apparently a black hole kept moving around in my dimension of spirits, until a while ago it disappeared. I think that’s when someone came back from the dead- but it doesn’t look like they were ‘brought’ back to life. It just… happened. And it burned the soul of a faerie with its magic in a way I’ve never seen or heard of, Hongjoong. Other than that, there are reports of missing faeries throughout Kingdoms of Cancer, Sagittarius and Libra. Throughout that continent only. Apparently some ‘otherworldly’ creatures have been spotted and are said to have come from the blackholes- my spirits tell me that the missing faeries are alive but not in this plane- not in this dimension.”

“I understand,” Hongjoong nodded, his face not giving any indication of what was going on inside his head. “Mingi?”

“I felt it too, I feel it now as well,” Mingi shifted in his chair. “Whatever this magic is, it’s not normal. It’s burning the soul of the possessor, but then… at the same time it’s keeping it alive too.”

“Interesting,” Hongjoong slumped back. “The ‘it’ we are referring to is a faerie of about our age, named Gaeul. She’s in Wooyoung’s Palace right now where San and Jongho are present too.”

“Wow,” Yeosang scoffed. “Why didn’t they inform us?”

“I specifically asked them to report only to me, as I asked you two and everyone else,” Hongjoong said. “I have a theory, and it’s not good. Whatever you both told me, it’s only making my theory more plausible. According to Yunho, he detected something fishy in the ocean about six months ago. He spent days trying to figure out the source but it was like the source kept changing locations.”

“That must be when the black hole shifted to this dimension of reality?” Yeosang asked.

“Seems like it,” Hongjoong nodded. “I don’t know who Gaeul is and what makes her so special, but I believe… according to the memory she thinks she has… Kieran killed her somehow. For such a phenomenon to happen, either he calculated it to the extent that he already knew when Yena would go back in time, or it occurred unintentionally- a big, unfortunate coincidence.”

“But with Kieran, nothing is a coincidence,” Mingi pursed his lips.

“Exactly, but we cannot be too sure right now. Either way, he killed Gaeul and she came back because Yena changed the timeline and somehow, Gaeul’s life was connected to it. If Yena hadn’t changed the timeline, she would have remained dead.”

“But theoretically, like Seonghwa, Gaeul should have just been ‘alive’. How is her situation different from Seonghwa?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, and we also need to check if the missing faeries are indeed connected to all of this,” Hongjoong sighed. “We need to trace that black hole, Yeosang. And we need… Yunho. Get a good night’s sleep because from tomorrow, we will travel.”

taglist: @yunnierights @monstaxdirtywonk @moni-cah @uyumilk @atxxzist @hazysan @bewitchedinyourhunger @kk-fleury @sincostansan @onedumbho3 @wooya1224 @icouldntcareless22 @jjaelly @huachengsbestie01 @ztjileen @charreddonuts @mdibby

[willtheweaver]

Library writing prompts

• You find out that the library is magical when the librarian casts a spell on you for talking too loud.

• Time traveler goes to ancient Alexandria. They have only 10 minutes to save as many books from the great library as they can.

• The Mongols are approaching Baghdad! Choose which books from the House of Wisdom you want to save.

• WW III has begun. You are entrusted with safeguarding humanity’s knowledge in a secret underground library. What are you putting in it?

• “You are under arrest!”

“What for?”

“6 years worth of unpaid late fees.”

• “They say some of these books really come alive.”

“I know. One tried to bite me just now.”

• A new type of mimic has appeared! It takes the form of a Little Free Library.

• Reverse uploading trope: you are tasked with taking all the information from a digital library and putting it down on paper.

• What’s inside Area 51? A library, apparently.

• Library battle royal! Which book will come out on top?

• The Backrooms: Library edition

[innsyn]

Writers and Dreamers needed.

Have you ever heard the term parallel collaboration?

It’s where teams, or individuals, working towards a larger goal, tackle tasks independently.

How could that work in creative writing?

Think of writers telling different stories set in the same world with overlapping characters.

Each writer has independent control of their own story, but needs to collaborate on consistency and continuity between stories.

Why are you telling me this?

Because I would love some of tumblrs many wonderful writers to join me in a parallel collaboration project of epic proportions!

I knew this was a trap! You never wanted to be my friend, you’re just trying to recruit me. Go on then, tell me more.

Okay - so it’s a totally non-profit, Creative Commons Share-A-Like endeavour. Anything anyone contributes can be taken, reworked, reimagined and recombined by everyone - as long as it’s all properly attributed, and distributed under the same licence.

It’s a sandbox which is open to everyone - the idea is to operate like fan fiction in reverse. Anyone can come and write a story using any of the characters that have been developed, and the best will be adopted into canon.

I would love to have stories of all types exist within one original story world - action, romance, horror, smut, slice of life, coming of age, hero’s quest - I want them all and more!

Why should I contribute towards your project instead of working on my own?

I would never ask anyone to bench their WIPs. I promise, I understand how personal that connection is. If you are feeling good and working well on your WIP then I am super proud of you and will cheer you on. But working on your own WIP can be hard precisely because it’s so personal, because it’s your baby.

I don’t subscribe to the archetype of the solo writer, tapping away in isolation. It helps to have people to bounce ideas off, it helps to know that other people are working towards the same goal as you, and it helps to know that you’re not shouldering all the responsibility.

I want this to be your favourite side project. Somewhere you can go and share a big dumb idea and write without pressure, whenever your WIP is kicking your ass.

But what’s it actually about?

I’ve tried to design an overarching scenario with inherent conflict, but scope to be interpreted in many directions…

Here's the idea:

An alien with godlike technology finds an Earthlike planet and its human people.

It designs a game to select a human to be given access to its technology and decide the fate of the planet.

The alien enlists its friends to select 5 human ‘team captains’, spread around the world. They each receive access to a different technology, giving them a unique superpower.

These captains then recruit a further twenty four ‘players’ each, taking it to 125 contestants, each with their own different power.

Once the teams are fully recruited - the humans still unaware where these powers are coming from, or what their purpose is - the alien talks to them. It explains they are part of a game, and what the prize is.

The game is a deathmatch. Any player who kills another player will gain their tech access/superpowers. They cannot kill their own teammates until only one team remains.

A global superpowered battle royale. 5 teams. 125 candidates. 124 of them must die.

And you want, what? Different writers to adopt the different players and tell their stories?

Exactly! I want someone to adopt the teleporter, and someone else to adopt the earthbender, or the emotion manipulator, or the one who can bring nightmares to life. I’ve outlined 125 possible characters, each with a different superpower, but I have no idea what’s going to happen or who is going to win.

Battle Royale. Hunger Games. Squid Games. Haven’t we had enough deathmatch games?

Quick answer: no!

The important differences for this idea are twofold. Normally deathmatch stories happen inside a fixed ‘arena’ - but our stories are loose in the world.

This means most of our players have to travel around the world, trying to hunt or escape from each other - giving them much more opportunity to engage in other adventures aside from trying to kill each other - or to hide from the game and try and live a normal life.

Secondly, by making the project open ended and collaborative we make the writers part of the game. Don’t want your character to get killed off? Write stories better than the ones where they get killed. The deathmatch is part of the project process just as much as it’s part of the plot.

You’re insane. This will never work.

The only way it will definitely never happen is if we never try.

Damn. You got me. Sign me up.

Alright… let’s figure out which character you want to start with…

I've still got a loads of questions though.

Come at me, let's do this!

So what are you calling this big dumb project?

Powerclash

Nice.

So... who can I tag in who might get a kick out of this?

@advashaviv @prokopetz @huttslut @whats-on-your-mind-then @fearofthefourthdimension @caxycreations @time-to-write-and-suffer @wip-nook @blind-the-winds @autism-georg @ryns-ramblings @writeblrfantasy @writeblrsupport @harleywriteshit @unmellowyellowfellow @leebrontide @melonsap @jgmartin @tananaphone @pluttskutt @careful-fear @scribbling-stardust @irlactualwizard @cryptid-s-wips @squarebracket-trick @at-thezenith @slowboz @writinglittlebeasts @lividdreamz @all-write @sergeantnarwhalwrites @tabswrites @authoralexharvey @quantumlandbooks @stanrendipity @manuscriptsatmidnight @memento-morri-writes @magic-is-something-we-create @lukascritical @liv-is @garthcelyn @fearofahumanplanet @antique-symbolism@poetinprose @thedeerwight @inflarescent @viva-la-topknot @theblackbookofarkera @nikoschrissis @sfhoe @soiledcat