#this needs a rewrite but oh well

[xansmenagerie]

Traveller Pt 12

"Screw it," she says silently to herself, lying awake at midnight. He's fast asleep; if she's careful, she can be a long way away before he knows she's gone.

She slides out of bed, slips on her clothes, retrieves the bag she's had packed for a week now from its hiding place in the spare room. There's plenty of supplies in the kitchen; after all, he never worries about the food in the larder so long as she's there to cook it for him, and she's been planning her escape without knowing it for a good long while.

Out to the yard now, closing the back door softly behind her. The wolf looks up and rises to its feet, the movement setting the chain around its neck to jangling. From the shed a quiet cry tells her the falcon is awake. He thinks she won't leave without them. He's right. He thinks that she can't free them without the keys he keeps on a chain around his neck. He was right, but now...

From the bag she takes the sword hilt, a prop from the play she was part of. In anyone else's hands the 'magic sword' is nothing, a bit of frippery for a stage hero to wield. It was a shock for both her and the backstage crew to find that for her it was something more. Using memories of favourite films as a guide, she holds the hilt tightly in both hands and swings it at the chain, the wolf holding perfectly still. It severs cleanly; she drops the hilt in surprise and with shaking fingers frees the wolf from its collar.

The lock on the shed cuts just as easily. The hawk takes wing as soon as the door is open, lofting into the sky to circle above the house. She takes a length of string from the shed and makes a crude belt and loop for the sword, then hefts the bag onto her shoulders again. This is it. Fion opens the gate at the back of the garden; the wolf trots out into the alley and she follows, the latch clicking behind her.

Fin

[da-birb-writes-sometimes]

How You Turn My Word; Chapter 2

The day continues, and this time you find yourself in an entire new world... a world called The Underground.

Character; Lilia Vanrouge

Content; Gender-neutral reader, more shenanigans, reader isn't happy

Content Warning; Intoxication (Lilia), swearing

Word Count; 2.7 K

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 |

Don't put my work into AI; I'll make sure you end up in the Bog of Eternal Stench.

Lilia’s night was not going according to plan and he was mentally cursing himself over it.

Thing Lilia did not plan for #1; he got lost. To be fair though, many a thing had drastically changed since the last time he romped around the mortal realm. A few hundred years would do that though. Humans now seemed to live in tall metal boxes rather than the humble cottages of ages past. 

Thing Lilia did not plan for #2; a red flower deceiving him and containing something akin to liquor. So he was flying around lost while under the influence, which only worsened his situation. (Lilia did not know it, but the red flower was in fact a hummingbird feeder with sugar water which had been left out in the sun for too long and had fermented. Make sure to change your hummingbird feeder often on hot days so you don’t cause a nectar-loving friend to fly while wasted) 

Thing Lilia did not plan for #3; getting himself stuff in one of those tall metal boxes, and he was now stuck inside some cursed metal labyrinth. At least it was not iron or silver, as it did not burn, apparently, humans no longer fortified their abodes with those metals. Perhaps the times have changed for the better?

But Lilia finally escaped the infernal metal labyrinth, perhaps luck was finally on his side tonight after all! He bumped around a few corners. My my, what a small hovel. Perhaps things have not changed all that much from the last time I was here… But Lilia was rudely pulled from his thoughts when something swatted him clean out of the air. And the culprit? A rather rotund grey cat with large blue eyes, which was now carrying Lilia into its lair, most likely to play with him for a bit before deciding that it had had it’s fun and ultimately put him out of his misery.

His night went from a jolly and somewhat embarrassing tale he would regale about at the local tavern, to a bedtime story parents would tell their children about the dangers of going places that you really shouldn’t. Should he get out of this sticky situation Lilia would not live this incident down. 

The cat placed Lilia in a collection of socks and then sauntered off, calling out at the top of its lungs. Great, it's getting company for supper, and I’m the appetizer. How lovely. But Lilia knew he would have a better chance of getting out of this situation if he stayed calm and waited for an opportunity to escape. Even while tipsy, he could keep his cool.

And the feline was back and yanked Lilia out of the sock hole. Cracking open his one eye he saw that the cat did not come back with its hungry friends, but rather, a human. That was both good news and bad news. Good news; he most likely was not going to be eaten tonight! Yippee! Bad news; the last time he was in bat-form in a human’s abode, he was chased around with a torch, which he really did not want to go through again. So his best course of action was to play dead in this situation.

When the human left the room though, he took his chance and took flight once again, trying to find a way out. The cat was trying to catch him again, but Lilia knew of its tricks this time and dodged every swipe it sent his way.

But he was pulled out of his thoughts when the human screeched at the cat, “YOU CAUGHT A FUCKING BAT?!” 

Oh yeah, they did not sound happy, not at all, but it seemed to be directed more at their feline companion rather than him.

As he was busy flapping around, trying to find an escape but to no avail, he also heard the human whispering to him. “Don’t fly towards my head, bat. I’m just trying to get you back outside. You’re a nice bat, right? Nice bat, nice bat.”

Were he not preoccupied and in a better state of mind, Lilia would have been amused by this. Currently, though he was occupied with trying not to be eaten and finding a way out of this cursed place. He was not in a laughing mood. All Lilia wanted to do was get back home, pass out in his bed but he would also be happy with his sofa as well, and pretend that this was nothing more than a bad dream after a night spent tavern hopping. Dealing with a horrid hangover would be better than this… and he was most likely going to have one of those anyways. Tonight really wasn’t Lilia’s night, not at all.

Then the human grabbed the cat, and Lilia was finally left alone. The window was open, but he didn’t know that, as his mind was too preoccupied with you know, not dying, that he hadn’t noticed that the human had opened it for him. So where did Lilia go? Well, he went back into the metal labyrinth (air duct), and fumbled around until he tired himself out. It wasn’t the most ideal of spots to crash for the night, but it was better than going back and possibly being eaten, Lilia would rather avoid that. So this was going to be his bed for the night, a lonely quiet corner of the air duct system, where he could hopefully wake up sober tomorrow. But he yearned for his warm quilts that awaited for him back at home, back in Faerie, or as some call it, the Underground.

Lilia wasn’t even supposed to be in the mortal realm in the first place, but curiosity had won him over, and he even ignored the travel advisory that was in place. Some crow fae had travelled there about a century or so ago and had yet to return back, hence a travel advisory. But yet here he was in the mortal realm, tiny, drunk, and utterly lost. His bad decisions could be looked into further detail once he got some shut-eye. So he wrapped himself in his wings and passed out in the corner of the air vent. Hopefully, when he woke up he could turn this disastrous day around.

…

Upon waking up, Lilia groaned — or rather, in this case, squeaked — and stretched his wings out. So the wretched metal maze and last night's fiasco was not some liquor-hazed dream; how lovely. Utterly delightful.

At least the strange maze echoed sound quite well, so he knew what exits to avoid. Not that one, he could hear a dog barking, and the feline encounter was enough for him. No, not that one either, he could hear children screaming.

Finally, he came to an opening, there was some quiet chatter, but it was far enough away where Lilia felt comfortable enough to explore this potential escape route. 

Why does this look familiar? AM I BACK IN THE BUILDING?! Yes, yes he was. At least there was no sign of the ca–

“Mrp?” Speak of the devil.

The cat got out of its den and lept at Lilia, who dodged the attack, and the cat pushed some books off a desk. The cat was also screaming at him, and causing an all-around ruckus. Lilia managed to outmaneuver the feline, but soon a brand new human came into the scene.

The new human took one look at Lilia and backpedalled out of the room. But the human had just created another escape route for him, and Lilia flew, well, like a bat straight out of hell for it. Too bad the next room contained two more humans, including the one he had encountered from last night… maybe they would be nice again and spare him for trespassing on their small abode?

In the midst of the chaos, the human from last night knocked him out of the air with a broom. Okay, that hurt little Beastie. But that swing and the crash landing into a table caused Lilia to shift back into his human form, which also caused sparkles to happen. Did humans still think magic was evil? Well, he was about to find out.

Everyone remained silent, and after the sheer noise of the chaos, it was deafening, even the cat was quiet. And Lilia stared at the human that had knocked him out of the air, you. And you were staring straight back at him, looking utterly baffled. Well, this is awkward… I think I have overstayed my welcome… 

Lilia snapped his fingers, and he started to disappear into sparkles yet again, this time going home since he wasn’t able to use his magic when stuck in bat form. And it was happening without a pinch, but you seemed to trip on thin air and crash landed on his feet, disappearing with him; a stowaway coming to Faerie. 

… Well this is no good now, is it?

…

…

…

 When the green sparkles subsided, you found yourself sitting in some sort of bog, and the water had made it into your mouth by some twist of fate. While you were busy spitting the bog water out of your mouth, the stranger was standing by the bank, dry, without any sulfuric-tasting water in his mouth, and looking better for wear.

Pulling yourself out of the bog water — eugh, you smelled like eggs now, great — you pointed an accusatory finger at him, water dripping from the end. “Where,” you spat out some extra bog water from your mouth, “am I? And why does it reak of eggs?!” You would have looked and sounded more imposing, but you were sopping wet, covered in mud, and spitting out coughs trying to get the bad taste out of your mouth; which wasn’t really commanding any sort of respect.

The stranger, Lilia, snorted before letting out a cough, trying to hide his amusement very poorly. He waved his hand, green sparkles surrounded you and you were now dry, still covered in mud, but dry. “Faerie, although some call it the Underground.”

You opened your mouth, but he wagged his finger at you. “And before you blame me for bringing you here, you have no one to blame for this but yourself!” Despite the cheeriness, there was something cold and off putting in his eyes, like he was calculating something. But that moment passed, and the almost annoying cheerful facade came back in full. “As for the smell? That so happens to be The Bog of Eternal Stench!”

“Like eternal eternal?” You really didn’t need to smell like rotten eggs for the rest of your days.

The stranger just chuckled, “Fret not, Beastie, I decided to return the favour, since your feline friend decided not to eat me. But it is indeed ‘eternal eternal’ if you don’t have the means to get rid of it.”

Beastie? “Uh, okay.” not the most eloquent of things to say, but really, could anyone blame you? You just fell through some kind of portal, magic(?) was real, and oh yeah, so were fae/faeries or whatever the hell they called themselves. So ‘Uh, okay’ was perfectly fine in this situation.

Mr. Sparkles — if he was going to call you Beastie, he deserved a dumb nickname — just gave you a smile, exposing the barest hint of his fangs; despite his small frame, he was still dangerous, and the hairs on the back of your neck stood on end. It was as if he was assessing you, to see if you would be worth the trouble to help. You didn’t know if either option would be good by the way his magenta eyes twinkled with mischief.

He let out a huff and started walking away, and you followed. “I wouldn’t recommend following me, Beastie,” he hummed, and you tripped over a rock, vines keeping you to the moss. “The court would not take kindly to you.” 

You glared at him and tried ripping the vines off of your feet, but they didn’t budge. “And why should I listen to you?” 

Mr. Sparkles booped you on the nose, “Well, it would ensure that you made it out of here alive, which I believe you would find beneficial and all.” 

Obnoxious prick. But he did have a point, you would rather make it back home alive rather than fucking around and finding out (aka dying). “So what? Are you going to just leave me here? No welcome brochure? Thanks.” 

You were being sarcastic, since it was either sarcasm or having a full-on existential crisis, since hey, magic wasn’t real in your world! Dimension? Galaxy? Where the fuck was this place?! How the hell did you end up here?!

“Hmm good point…” he snapped his fingers and there was now a book sitting in your lap. “This should suffice, do be warned though, Beastie, I may call on you later to return the favour. For now though,” he started to turn into green sparkles, “toodaloo!~” And he turned into a bat, flying off into the sunset, leaving you alone at the edge of the swamp with the only things to your name being the clothes on your back and a book in your lap.

How to Survive the Underground; For Humans! … Did he just give you this world’s equivalent of a For Dummies book? What the fuck? Was this kind of sick joke to him?

…

…

Once some of your ire had subsided, you decided to sit down on a boulder and read a bit of the book while there was still some sunlight out, but it was dipping into the horizon fast.

How to Survive the Underground; For Humans! By Yelworc Erid Preface …… i - iv Chapter 1; Surviving Your First Night…… 1 - 10 Chapter 2; Edible Food for Humans …… 11 - 31 Chapter 3; The Basics of Fae Etiquette …… 32 - 35 3.1; Species Specifics …… 36 - 146 3.2; Government Specifics …… 147 - 169 Chapter 4; Help! I Have Been Indentured to a Fae! …… 170 - 200 Chapter 5; Adjusting to Fae Social Life …… 201 - 224 Chapter 6; Transmittable Illnesses & Diseases …… 225 - 261 Chapter 7; Fae Courting Practices …… 262 - 264 7.1; Species Specifications …… 265 - 366 7.2; Government Specifications …… 367 - 389 7.3; Accepting a Courting Proposal …… 390 - 393 7.4; Refusing a Courting Proposal …… 394 - 401 Chapter 8; How to Handle Fae Children …… 402 - 452 Chapter 9; How to Leave the Underground … 453 Chapter 10; Adjusting to Life in the Underground …… 454 - 482 Acknowledgments …… 483 - 485

Looking back up to the horizon, you quickly turned the pages to Chapter 1; Surviving Your First Night.

“If you are unable to find yourself some suitable shelter, one should find themselves safe by camping out in a rowan tree. These trees can easily be found by their vermillion clusters of berries. They keep away all native species of the Underground,” you read out loud, turning your attention to the trees nearby, searching for those berries. “Rowan tree, rowan tree–”

A loud screech coming from the undergrowth only pushed you further. 

Nope, I do not want to find out what THAT was! Nope! NoPe! NOPE! 

Finally, you found a tall enough tree and you hauled your ass up it like there was a fire below you, and you were up in the canopy, far enough up that nothing could reach you, but also high enough where you needed to be careful, since you didn’t want to meet an early death because you made a wrong move. But for now, you were safe.

“Nice try buddy,” you muttered to yourself, trying to get comfy. Wood wasn’t the comfiest thing in the world, but you weren’t really in the position to be complaining. “I am not on the menu.”

The screech came again, this time closer; yeah, you weren’t sleeping tonight. The sun was now beyond the horizon, and there was no moon, the only light coming from the stars above; it was very pretty, but you could see jack shit. This was going to be a long night… and not a fun one, since you could also see the glowing eyes of unknown creatures which were, quite frankly, freaky as fuck. So yeah, no sleep for you.

“This fucking sucks,” you grumbled, and a chittering from the bog seemed to mock you. “This really fucking sucks.”

…

…

…

…

Tags; @busycloudy, @eynnwwyjth, @identity-theft-101, @ithseem, @krenenbaker, @lucid-stories, @ryker-writes, @twistwonderlanddevotee, @xxoomiii

~~~~~~~

Author's Note; This chapter is shorter, but it felt natural to end the chapter like this. This chapter, and the previous one, were both rewrites of an old WIP, so from here on out I don't have to rewrite! YIPPEE!!! Rewriting takes me forever, so we shall see what I come up with next.

If you liked this, do check out my masterlist for more content!

[mechanicalinfection]

redraw wip ive been gatekeeping sorriezzz

[chi-the-idiot]

Started reading Waverider.

Dropped it immediately because its bad.

My disappointment is unmeasurable and my day is ruined.

[isdalinarhot]

ok whatever dalinar and navani trapped in the spiritual realm scary bodes poorly awful I DONT WANT TO THINK ABOUT THAT. i want to think about radiant implying that sadeas ALSO murdered his way up a couple dahns WHILE BEING 15. and im guessing this was a joint effort with ialai? again, when they were Fifteen Years Old. like holy shit

[smilesrobotlover]

Ah what the heck, I’ll never post it if I wait.

Anyways I have some idea of some mutated twilit beast. After years of not getting put out of its misery, it slowly got stronger and began absorbing people’s lifesource to get even stronger. This thing is a much bigger and stronger than a normal twilit beast and I want it as a main antagonist in LOT. How am I gonna fit Kori in there? Still figuring it out lol. But here it is. It is obviously inspired by the concept art made for twilit beasts. I just love drawing monsters.

[zelda-without-a-licence-plate]

!!!! I forgot to post this!!!! oot kid Zelda..... doesn't even have pronouns yet...... haunted by visions.........

[shutup-andletme-go]

I cannot rely on one person for me to be happy my happiness isn't allowed to be only triggered by one person I can be happy at every little thing it doesn't matter about this one person

[kittenixie]

the catharsis of finishing my fucking 85k~ word fic. i am crazy but i am free.

[ohio-thestate]

A reminder for the songsssss as you requested(all by Alestorm fyi).

Uzbekistan

No Grave but the Sea

Keelhauled

--Sealand but you already know that lol

OMG @the-principality-of-sealand I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO ANSWER THE ASK AFTER LISTENING-

I try to keep my ooc posts relatively short most of the time so. I'm going to scream in the tags but the tldr for anyone else is that I highly recommend this band

[xansmenagerie]

Traveller Pt 11

CW: Character death.

She hears the shot that kills her, although she doesn't know it. It's not until the last man is dead that she feels the pain in her chest, sees the blood slowly spreading across her shirt. The sword drops from nerveless fingers. She slumps to the floor, and as the darkness takes her she hopes that he will be alright without her.

---

He hears the shot that kills her, although he doesn't know it. Lowering the staff he looks around to check that the others are alright, only to see both woman and wolf bleeding on the floor. He can tell before he reaches her that she's already dead; she's not glaring at him for one thing, daring him to comment. He kneels by her body, wondering what to do. The bear walks over and nudges him comfortingly; he stares into the distance for a long moment, then looks down at her again, suddenly sure of what must happen next.

The coat and boots go into the bag, as does the sword hilt. He doesn't know if anyone else will be able to use the sword, but it feels wrong just to leave it. Carrying her body up to a nearby rock is surprisingly easy, she weighs less than he thought she would. What's harder is prising the wolf's jaws from the throat of one of the enemy; from the way the man's gun is pressed to the gaping hole in the wolf's chest, it looks like the kill was mutual.

He arranges them both side by side on the top of the rock. It's a little pointless; the vultures and other scavengers won't care how dinner is presented after all, but the gesture makes him feel better. He looks on in silence. There are no words to be said. Finally he climbs back down the rock, scuffing out the blood trail as best he can as he goes.

The bear waits for him by the bags, eyes unreadable. He picks up the bags and slings them over his shoulder, picks up the iron bar in his free hand. He looks around. The falcon looks back at him from a twisted stick of a tree. "You coming?" The hawk just stares at him. He shrugs. Man and bear set off along the road, leaving the dead behind them.

---

She watches them go and smiles. He'll do just fine. Strong arms wrap around her from behind; the smile only widens. She asks without looking, "Where now?"

His laugh is deep and warm. She twists and looks at him, seeing the amusement in the golden eyes. "What's so funny?"

The amusement carries into his voice, rich and golden-brown. "In all the time I've known you, that's the first time you've ever asked me that."

She stares at him for a moment, the corner of her mouth twitching as she tries not to give in. It doesn't work; she cracks up completely, doubling over with laughter of her own.

When she finally gets herself back under control, she offers him her hand; he takes it, enveloping hers completely. "Shall we then?" she asks. He nods. Woman and Wolf walk off along the road, leaving the living behind them.

All is still and quiet, save for the flies on the corpses on the road. The eagle launches itself into the air, circles the rock once and drops for landing.

The man lands neatly in a crouch, his cloak swirling, the mask loose in his hand. He looks at her fondly and strokes her cheek. "Thus ends the Harlequinade," he murmurs, standing up once more. He looks out into the distance, past the blue-gray horizon, and smiles. There will always be another to take up the role. "Goodbye, Fion." He leaps off the rock, pulling on the mask as he falls.

The falcon catches a thermal and soars into the air, leaving the world behind it.

[josecariohca]

.

[fakemagicjaye]

I HAVE FIVE PAGES. LEFT. TO DRAW.

[like-wuatafauq]

Hey can someone who watched Yellow Jackets tell me if someone gets eaten in a hot dog bun lmaoo

I've never seen it but I just woke up from a dream where they were like in some cold place and some girl had put another girl's meat(it was a girl who got eaten because they said "her meat" is Zesty and Delicious which i forgot to google wtf zesty means so whatever the fuck that means) in a hot dog bun and honestly it looked really good but that's beside the point. I googled it but then immediately exited out because I don't want to run into a spoiler and I don't even know if it's a show or movie I just heard it's a bit gay. So now my Google search is even more embarrassing.

I was like "maybe I should delete that from my search history" and then "actually maybe I should delete my search history on a daily basis"....

[dbphantom]

maybe i should have gone into practical effects instead of computer science...

[killerandhealerqueen]

Episodes written: 23/37