#who remember things she did to their villages when her mother was queen

[theonlyle]

Concepts im working on for my SVTFOE au:3

[lizardsfromspace]

Sylvia Browne was one of the most famous psychics of the turn of the millennium, and one of its most despicable. You may remember her from when she told the mother of Amanda Berry her daughter was deceased, which she believed, and she died believing that...but Barry was alive the whole time. Or from the dozens of other times she did something similar

Sylvia Browne released her predictions for the new year every year, like many psychics, but she was stupid enough to keep them online so people could judge them later. Her predictions for the year 2000 include Bill Bradley beating out the Reform Party for the Presidency (he lost the primary to Al Gore, and the Reform Party finished fourth, behind the Green Party with less than half a million votes), that David Letterman would retire (he stayed with the show for 15 more years), that small businesses would flourish in the 2000s, and that Donald Trump will not have a career in politics. Which did technically come true in that he didn't run in 2000, but uh

Also, from reading these at the time, she predicted the big one in California and the death of the Pope nearly every year. Only a keen psychic mind could predict that a man in his eighties could pass away from old age

There's one year she left out, though. She wiped her 2001 predictions from the internet...and her 9/12/2001 predictions. But thankfully, someone preserved them (they're not in the Wayback Machine bc its only 2001 save is in October. And apparently the thing below was a pop-up)

Let's unpack this

She says bin Laden was behind it. An amazing prediction, except she posted this a few days after 9/11, when the media was already speculating he was responsible

She was "given information", which I guess is a way to phrase "watched CNN"

She just makes up a country. She says 9/11 was done by the "Palestinian Republic of Bundi". I can find forum threads from then wondering what the fuck she meant, and all these years later it's still baffling

Did she mean Burundi? A country in Southeastern Africa? There's villages named Bundi in Iran and India, but I can't even begin to imagine what she was even imagining, or why she didn't even begin to stop imagining it

"Triad of Jordan" also turns up nothing

The first name she mentioned just brings up Linkedin pages.

The second only turns up this post. Neither of those names seems to exist in any language

She tried to explain why she didn't predict 9/11, by saying she's not omniscient, and she warned of terrorism...in 1999. But that article I linked dug up her 1999 predictions, bc she left them online, and she said there'd be terrorism...in Florida and London

At the end of this, she takes care to note that 9/11 will NOT stop the Sylvia Browne cruise through Greece and Turkey!!

She saw 9/11, and rushed to make a statement trying to explain why the spirits didn't show her 9/11, and also make up a few countries to blame 9/11 on. Then she sold a cruise, deleted the page, and wrote a book claiming everyone who died on 9/11 was led there to die by their spirit guide to be martyrs to bring patriotism back. I'm glad we don't have celebrity TV psychics anymore but I almost miss them. Simply not justice in how she got off scot-free and our passive aggressive, intermittently-Jamaican queen Miss Cleo got nabbed

[keter-kan]

Okay!! I've been working on something for a really long time with some oc's that are near and dear to my heart ♡ I've gotten quite a bit already written, a bit less edited. I'm thinking of doing some more in-depth posts about the characters and their lore, if anyone would be interested! Possible first chapter post tomorrow?

Also, you're not allowed to make fun of me for the shit formatting of this post. I'll figure it out eventually, I swear.

tw: heavy mentions of sa, p*dophelia, abuse, death, murder

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Broken Legends

Prologue

Leandra’s father abused her as a child, but everyone could see that clear as day. The people knew of the king’s predilection for little girls, but none seemed to care enough to do much about it. Either that, or their fear was too great to intervene. Blood right, birth right, sovereign right, whatever they wanted to use as an excuse for the deranged, disgusting behavior of the man whose father’s father staked his claim on the coastal kingdom of Aphoreum.

He never touched his son; little boys weren’t his taste. He rarely touched his wife—may her soul flow freely—but she certainly seemed to keep him in line. Until her death, there was a restraint to him that withered away as she did; rotting and leaving a smell no one could erase from his soul.

Queen Imogen died under seemingly un-mysterious circumstances. She didn’t fall suddenly ill after a lifetime of health, she didn’t claim abuse, and she certainly didn’t suspect that someone quite close to her could be the cause of her failing body. Everyone mourned for the appropriate period of time.

Everyone except the children, of course. They still find themselves mourning the idea of a mother they could barely remember. To Leandra, her mother was strong and wise, the way a woman should be. To her older brother, Callum, there was the abandonment of the only woman who would unconditionally love him. She chose to remember a legacy, while he was bound to the anger he felt towards the undeserving dead.

The first child, the original heir, was sickly; an affliction seen often in the more recent royal blood. Really, though, the only difference from the royal blood and that of all peasants was its incestuous nature. That was something the Terrance Reign brought back to the royal line after nearly a century of free marriages.

Heir to Aphoreum, Prince Terance VIII, died peacefully in his sleep on the night of his tenth birthday. Those who said his mother killed him to give him a better life soon found their heads in burlap sacks, so not many say that anymore. It was soon after Terance was dead that their mother went to join him.

Callum was named the successor to the throne just a day after his mother’s funeral. After the grand ceremony, as the succession of High Councilors and Noblemen kissed the stones at Callum’s feet, Leandra’s father took her away where no one would see for the first time.

From that moment forward, Leandra had a new understanding of her place in the palace. While her brother grew up to become the king he wasn’t meant to be, her father taught her what being a woman of royal blood really meant: when her brother left on his journey to become a man, she would go with him and ensure pure heirs.

Aphoreum’s soul was born of the blood shed by those who fought and killed the demons plaguing the land. Countless villages were saved, small kingdoms sprouting throughout. As men pushed forward, demons fled back to the oceans, leaving Aphoreum to be conquered by whoever was left. At least, this is what was taught to the people.

There are thousands of dusty and cracked scrolls of parchment scattered throughout all cities and towns in Aphoreum containing the history of the land; how the Gods rewarded us with lush fields and bountiful rivers for banishing all of their enemies to the sea. That is, to this day, where they are said to dwell.

Things started crumbling at the end of Aphoreum’s War, started by none other than Terrance the First. It took five generations, yet they reigned victorious. For the first time since anyone could remember, the entirety of Aphoreum was ruled under one king. None of the other prior kingdoms were proud of that. With their previous rulers executed during the Reckoning—the day Aphoreum’s War was officially won—they fell into disarray. Villages plundered, women sold to richer men, entire ways of life decimated under the fist of a barbarian king. For King Terrance VII, the duty to uphold total power over all of Aphoreum was a goal only completed by the iron fist of his forebearers. He held to the pride of men who fought for honor while he sat upon his plush throne.

Leandra was literate thanks to an old wetnurse that her father had killed when she was eleven. Once she was no longer needed to feed Leandra’s bastard half siblings, she was sent with the Wind. After that, the only person ever present in Leandra’s life was High Councilor Jonas, a man who never touched her unless to pat the top of her head. He taught her of Natural Chaos and what tarnishes the soul, but he also taught her that there are good odds and ends in the world, too. She just had to look very hard to see them.

Jonas was the sole educator of both Leandra and Callum, but also their father before them. He was a truce sent from the church to Terrance VI, begging him to forgive them for not modifying their scripture the first time he asked. After Grandpa Terrance killed the High Priest residing in the palace chapel, they changed their tune. Jonas, however, understood the weight of the duty he’d been assigned. To teach the young is to mold the innocent in whatever way you see fit. But not every child is as easily molded. Terrance was a child full of hate, instilled in him by his own violent father. Callum seemed to be taking after his father in more ways than one, although Jonas continued every day to try to stray him from that path. Leandra, however, was different.

Before being sent to the palace, Jonas’s congregation of High Councilors—beknown to him or not—swore upon themselves that they would right the wrongs of the Natural Chaos afflicting the royal blood, whether that be by violence or sacrifice or any other means necessary. This was a promise the church sat upon for far too many generations to count if it hadn’t been for the numerals after each king’s name. But they had to bide their time. They had to bend their rules, change their faith, modify their scripture, all to appease the man they planned to overthrow. Another mighty aspect of the Terrance Reign was the slow and steady separation of the church from the crown, an unspoken duty bestowed to each heir as the generations passed.

It was through Jonas that Leandra learned of the world, the scrolls of scripture being her main escape, but not the modified texts of the Terrance Reign. Jonas was molding Leandra to be the savior Aphoreum needed, and this was the beginning.

Leandra would read the stories of the Gods who seemingly abandoned her. She found solace there, between the pages of their legends. The comfort of long forgotten rules set by wrongly worshipped Gods was the only kind of comfort she could afford.

Terrance was of a breed of man who more closely resembled their primal counterparts: feasting, fucking, and fighting. Not much else crossed his mind.

There are those who know better, despite class or background or who sits upon Aphoreum’s throne. But the rage projected by King Terrance found a home in the hearts of his men, creating a society of violence. There were few pockets throughout the kingdom where none could be found, most of which were under attack by those taking after their king.

On the day Callum turned twenty he found himself embarking on just such a conquest, yet one of a much different scale. A Wandering is any man’s rite of passage, giving him a year to stake his claim away from his family someplace else amongst the Waters and Winds. If they never returned after a year’s time, they weren’t ever meant to be a man. With Callum, however, his Wandering was an expedition into the known world with an army at his back and a ship full of wine. As were the odds of all those who could afford it, he would likely return more of a man than those without the gold in their pockets.

It was a simple plan with a grandiose design, allowing a full year of celebration for the future king of Aphoreum. Ships made of the finest timber harvested from the southern coasts, casks of wines and spirits shipped from around Aphoreum, clothes and finery made by request for his highness. With him would go his soon-to-be wife, Leandra.

The relationship Leandra shared with her brother wasn’t one of solidarity. He was to be his father’s spawn as Leandra was to be an instrument in his success. The moments of torture and humiliation caused by her father were in preparation to be used by the future king. Knowing this, she harbored many emotions for him, none of which she understood. She knew he was tainted the same way their father was before him, and their children would be after them, and she prayed that something—anything—could steer her fate in any other direction, for she knew his never would be.

When Jonas approached her after class, crumpled parchment in a High Councilor’s shaking hands, she took it without question. She looked in his eyes and saw the pain he felt, the longing for the Gods to make the world what it once again should be.

When she unfurled the note, she needed no further explanation than what was found there. Stained with the sweat of her mentor’s hands, four simple words bleeding into the page; Jump. You’ll know when.

The final weeks leading to her brother’s Wandering were full of tension. Leandra unfurled the parchment in her hands night after night, feeling the scratches of ink fade away as she rubbed it between her fingers.

Jump.

She could barely contain her excitement. She was going to weasel her way out of the chain of command. The only man who ever truly understood her the way the Gods intended had devised a plan for her to escape.

You’ll know when.

Stiff in her seat at the Grand Table, Leandra watched her plate as the men feasted around her. Tomorrow morning the Wandering would begin, and as the fleet of Aphoreum’s ships left the harbor, she would have to be ready to flee at any moment. She knew what Jonas meant about knowing when: she needed to wait for a message from the Gods. She would pray and worship and fast and deny herself the pleasures of life to prepare herself for the message she knew the Gods would give her. She would be ready.

When the sun rose over the harbor the following morning, Leandra was at peace for the first time since she was last held by her mother. She felt as though there was finally a real purpose to her plight in life and that she would be able to break the mold that her many greats-grandfather had created here. She felt as though she—alone—could crumble the system built by generations of the world’s most appalling men.

They set sail on a glorious day. Callum made a speech just after King Terrance, pushing the entire kingdom into a week-long celebration. Bottles broken, oars heaved, sails unfurled, and they were out of the mouth of harbor in just a few hours’ time.

For the first week of their voyage, Leandra didn’t speak with Callum. Not that he had much to say to her, anyway, besides the remarks of needing to secure an heir before the year’s end. Every night he’d mention it, and every night she’d comply, silently awaiting the sign promised her.

After that first week, Leandra grew a bit restless. And the week that followed that one made her even worse. The further they traveled from Aphoreum, the more the bruises left by her father healed, the more Leandra thought that there wouldn’t be a message, or maybe she had missed it… She started toying with the idea of living a life with her brother and what that could entail for her. She couldn’t stomach the thought of living in a world that her Gods had forsaken, but if she could make her brother see things the way Jonas had intended, maybe there could be a change.

When she finally spoke to her brother, she asked him if he’d care to know her, because, really, they just knew so little of each other.

He said he very much would. He was strong, but he was nervous. He couldn’t ever rule the way his father intended, but he wanted to try.

She said she could help him, if he’d let her.

They were children. What little they could have learned through life was filtered through their father’s vision. But he wasn’t here with them now.

The storm hit just three days from where they would dock. As the rain pelted the decks of the ships and the waves swelled, Callum’s men remained calm. They knew how to work a ship in a storm. For a while, everything remained intact. The fleet, the men, even Leandra.

But the storm became something else. After countless hours of toiling under the whip of rain and wind, the air started to become heavy with the stench of something bigger. As the waves turned from rolling hills to staggering cliffs and the raindrops into daggers, the men started to lose themselves.

The young ones jumped first. Callum was called from his cabin, forced to peel Leandra from his side. As she huddled amongst the furs adorning the mattress, Callum entered into a scene from the pits of the Gods’ hatred.

He was met with a force of nature never defeated by any king. As the ship was flung from one wave to the next, Callum’s men were dropping to their knees and scraping themselves towards the rails, throwing themselves into the raging sea. As he inched over the deck, grabbing the rigging and buckets dropped by his men, he saw a look on their faces that reminded him of his mother’s corpse in her ornate casket; there was no soul within them. Not anymore.

Screams were swallowed by the waves and the winds, words lost and breath wasted. As Callum pleaded with his mean until his throat was bloody and cracked, it overtook him.

She was calling to him. No, no…

Singing.

It was subtle at first, a slow drone playing at the base of his skull, humming away as he grabbed at his men bent on suicide. The more he pleaded, the harder his skull thrummed, filling his head with a desire unknown to man. As the irritation started to spread and his screaming and howling continued to fail, the soft beads of sound started to poke pin-pricks in the humming, driving Callum to gasp and shake with momentary relief before again being swallowed by the desperation. As another wave threw the ship far off course and doused the men in water colder than ice, he broke.

“Mother?”

She was there. Her golden hair cascading down her shoulders, her naked form hovering above the railing of the ship, situated the way a God would be. When Callum locked eyes with her, he felt that she was truly there, waiting for him to reach her.

She called to him, sang to him, cooed over the man he had become. Tears mixed with the rain and sea as they poured down Callum’s cheeks. He slowly made his way towards her.

Leandra emerged from the cabin as the thrumming started to overtake her. Her shift whipping in the wind and her hair matted to her head from the rain, she saw the horrors on deck.

The Gods had sent their message.

Tears brimmed in her eyes, too, but they didn’t get the chance to meet the wood of the ship. Leandra trusted her Gods. She trusted Jonas.

She jumped.

There was no sound as she hit the water. There was no cold embrace of the ocean, no being swallowed by the waves. She let herself be taken fully, succumbing to her fate.

Although she wasn’t expecting pleasure, nor was she expecting the pain.

Hands grabbed at the shift plastered to her skin, ripping it from her body in mere seconds. As the thrumming ceased in the back of her skull, she was taken in a way no one had taken her before. Not the man slaves who lurked after her in the palace, not her brother who she grew to love, not even her father, who defiled her in a way no other living thing could.

While her soul was ripped apart, shredded down to the sand that littered the ocean floor, she knew her Gods had forsaken her.

-

Leandra had no recollection of returning home. One moment she was suffering the pain of all the Natural Chaos, and the next she was dragging herself across the wharf, blood trailing in her wake. The moon was full.

Jonas found her and took her back to her father at the palace.

Her skin was burnt, her hair missing in chunks. Her bones poked through her skin like they wanted to free themselves from its cage. Her eyes drooped in their sunken sockets, unable to comprehend the world around her. She cried her story to Jonas, who begged her father to let a healer see her, even just one from the church. He refused.

For Leandra was with child, and heavily so. Her body, slowly failing her, was feeding something inside of her that wasn’t human.

She was pregnant when Jonas lifted her from the harbor, but the progression of her state was faster than it should’ve been; her stomach bruising and aching and protruding more every day. Her bones became brittle, her legs sitting at crooked angles and her neck unable to support the weight of her head. Upon the next full moon, when the tides were high, Leandra called for Jonas with what little strength she had left.

He leaned down to her ear, her breath almost too light to decipher the words.

“Please,” she whimpered, “don’t let him kill my daughter.”

That night, as her screams of labor began, Jonas pleaded once again with the king. Terrance, with a glare in his eye, allowed for a wetnurse from the palace chapel. He wouldn’t permit anyone besides himself and Jonas in the chambers, let alone a practiced healer. The nurse was the most she would get.

When she arrived, the horror that overcame her hit a part of her soul that hadn’t ever been touched before. The king demanded death to the child upon delivery, bolting the door behind them as he left.

When Jonas asked her to defy him, her soul said yes, as the woman had done for him many times before.

She died without seeing the full moon that night. As her child took their first breath, Leandra took her last.

Her child was a beautiful monster. A writhing mass of body, shifting in form while the wetnurse clung to his mottled skin. Within a moment, the child opened his eyes, and ceased being a monster. He was a baby, covered in his mother’s blood, eyes peering into those of the woman who held him.

When the king asked for proof of the death of the monster upon the following morn, Jonas provided a mangled piglet’s corpse. The wetnurse, covered in cattle entrails, told Terrance it took more work than she’d have thought to kill such a small beast. He was satisfied.

Leandra’s body was burned in the kitchen fires by Jonas’s hand, as Terrance commanded. There would be no funeral. There would be no knowledge of the children who failed at their Wandering. That would be the end of their stories. Terrance would find a concubine to produce a legitimate heir amongst the few cousins he had left. Aphoreum would live on.

But so did Leandra’s child, deep in a forest untouched by man, left in the hands of powerful women that the Gods would grow to fear.

[astridthevalkyrie]

Re: Your strong feelings against Regina - I won't be hard pressed bc it won't change my opinion (sorry my love for her is too great) but I'm curious to read if you've rambled at all about why you dislike her so strongly?

LOLL i've done a few rambles over the years and i tend to hatepost whenever i rewatch clips but i don't think i've ever done like a full on explanation on why. and yes please feel free to love her! idc how anyone feels about a fictional character.

some stuff i do like about her: lana parilla is obv very talented and pretty, her and jmo have rlly good chemistry, sometimes her one liners are super funny ("the entire charming family and their pirate mascot" is fucking hilarious i wish she said more stuff like that).

but tldr—she did way too many bad things and never properly redeemed herself for them.

in the first two seasons she does, like, incredibly bad stuff LMAO, including but not limited to: ruining snow's life after killing her dad, killing entire villages, casting the curse and the subtle ways she tortures snow in it, abusing henry (who is in therapy because he's told he's "crazy" for saying that he's aging while everyone else stays the same age), sacrificing children to the blind witch, the entire situation with graham (that she never confesses to, emma never finds out), trying to poison emma after emma tells her she's already leaving because she couldn't stand emma being in henry's life at all, separating the mad hatter from his daughter in the curse even though the last time they saw each other the mad hatter helped her and she betrayed him+making him remember his real self for some extra bout of torture, kills a little boy's dad bc the dad didn't want to drop his entire life and move into town so that she could fulfill her sudden dreams of motherhood, then later taunts that boy when he's an adult about how she killed his dad.

and what happened to her with daniel and cora's abuse is definitely really bad, it just doesn't even come close to justifying any of this for me. she didn't need to marry snow's dad. she gets rid of cora and sends her to wonderland before she's married. she stays because she likes the feeling of magic and the idea of being queen (rumple is obviously a huge part of why she turned out the way she did, "hooking" her on a magic which ouat tries to compare to drug use, but the murderous intent was in her before she even met him).

and then her redemption. hooo boy. it starts in season 2, with her just deciding not to actively do harm because she wants henry to love her. not a bad start. then she tries to destroy the well that snow and emma want to come back from (to be fair, she does this to stop cora, but she knows emma and snow dying is a possibility and is very cool with this bc it'll make her henry's only mom). she then is upset that everyone in town isn't automatically cool with her, for some reason gets credit for "saving" snow and emma (from a trap! that she! set!), and when cora does come back, she teams up with her. like. the lady who actually killed daniel and ruined regina's life. that lady. teams up with her. stands by as her mother kills snow's nanny even though they already got what they wanted. and THEN she's angry that snow had the nerve to do to cora what regina's done to dozens of people and kill her.

and then for the rest of the show there's just no point where there's time for regina's redemption because they're always dealing with the next villain. peter pan, then zelana, then the snow queen, so on and so forth. at some point she's just decided to be redeemed and anyone who argues with that point either changes their mind or is portrayed by the narrative as a villain. some of her one liners that a lot of the fandom think are so cool make me beyond angry LMAO like she tells david "i will not be given parenting advice by a man who shipped his daughter off in a box" GIRL??? BECAUSE OF YOU??? the show continuously pushes the blame onto snow and david (but especially snow) for giving emma up as though they had a choice. regina knew about rumple's prophecy. she knew snow and charming's daughter would break the curse. she was not gonna let that baby live if snow and charming hadn't sent her away.

snow and charming and emma's characters are all completely turned into dust for her too. emma is forced to grovel because she brought back a woman from the past that regina wrongfully executed bc it happens to be maid marian. snow and charming do uncharacteristic "evil" things so that they can be like "see! they're all good and bad!" when even ooc snow and charming's worst doesn't compare to regina's best.

[nightingale2004]

Alina information series: the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe pt.1

Before Alina was born, there was a second prophecy. A prophecy that told of a daughter of Aslan that would be born as a beacon of hope in Narnia, she would help defeat the white witch and ensure the future kings and Queens of Narnia sit on the thrones of Cair Paravel being the light in the dark for Narnia itself

Alina was originally born in a village of former sorcerers who no longer used magic since the white witch came to rule

Alina's village was loyal to one another and looked after each other like family.

After Alina was born, the cold ice winds started getting warmer, which was a sign that the guardian of the new Kings and Queens of Narnia was born sending a small beacon of hope to narnians near and far

When the winds reached the white witch, she immediately sent out her guards to every corner of the narnian icelands to look for the child, including herself

When Jadis was close, Jadis laid waste to Alina's village, killing and turning all those who hid the location of Alina and her mother into stone as a crime against the "Queen" of Narnia

Alina's mother ran into the woods to try and escape the queen with Alina in her arms, trying to find a safe place for them both.

When Alina's mother encountered the lamppost, she remembered her dream that Aslan came to her and told her that the journey her daughter would take would have to begin without her.

At first, Alina's mother didn't understand until she saw that lamppost, and so, she left Alina and ran to draw Jadis's attention to her

Alina, after a few minutes in the cold, was sent into the earthworld by the roaring distant winds of Aslans roar and at the doorsteps of Professor Kirk's home, where Alina was raised by Macready and Professor Digory Kirke

As Alina grew up, she was alone as a child except the occasional tea time with the professor.

But then, one day, while she was playing, she accidentally broke one of the professors' artifacts, which alerted Macready. So Alina ran to the room with the wardrobe to hide until Macready calmed down (which would take a loooong time)

As she went deeper into the wardrobe, she encountered the land of Narnia where she met Mr. Tumnus and had tea with him.

When Alina first stepped into Narnia, everyone immediately felt it. The winds grew warm, and the sun even showed itself. Mr. Tumnus even felt her warmth, and he immediately assumed who she was.

When the white witch felt the warm winds, she knew what it meant and immediately sent her scouts to find the source

Mr. Tumnus did consider turning Alina to the Queen, but he then saw a sign from Aslan and then immediately escorted Alina back to safety to the lamp post

When Alina went back to the earthworld, the winds of Narnia were cold once more in her absence.

When Alina went back, she tried to go back to Narnia, but the wardrobe was back to being a normal wardrobe.

Every day after she came back to the earthworld, she would go to the wardrobe and try to find a way to get back to Narnia

She continued to visit the wardrobe until she was 11.

Eventually, she forgot to go to the wardrobe and started thinking she was just imagining things and that the snowy world of Narnia was a dream

That was until the Pevensie siblings came into her life

[applecidersstuff]

It had been six thousand years, but she’d only had around a hundred bodies and identities. It wasn’t hard in the beginning, humans didn’t bother to write things down or record people they’d been living with, so whenever they started suspecting something she just moved. Then humans started to bother with those things. They did change a couple times, sometimes to blend in, sometimes to have more freedom, sometimes to see what her “old lot” had been up to.

But it wasn’t really hard until the witch hunts.

Village women started to notice that she didn’t age. They told their husbands that she was a witch; it wasn’t hard to believe, she had red hair and collected herbs, not for potions, simply because she liked the smell. Although she did help a boy who had flu, when they lived in Rome their friend taught them how to make herbal tea which helped. They burned her at the stake, they burned their God alive in the name of said god. Then there was a thought in their head: “Maybe I’m not the god they worship, anymore? Maybe he’s the one they call god..” She didn’t have any thoughts anymore, not until she appeared seven years later on the doorstep of a nunnery.

During their time on earth they left many of their signs, but every life she lived, she made sure to place more. She didn’t know how many those “representatives” found. They didn’t want to know.

Nunnery was nice, they hid there for almost a century. It was easy, she just made everyone believe that she was a new person, every couple of decades, and her “old self” would be quickly forgotten. But one nun didn’t forget. She wasn’t a sister, her status was Mother. Mother Antonia, that’s what they called her. They noticed that Mother was watching them, her eyes were almost saying: “ I know what you are, I know that all of you are one.” They left “Chattering Order of St. Berrill” at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Mother Antonia was the one to see them off, her eyes passed the view and focused on them, at least that was what they felt, they never really saw her face, they always assumed that she didn’t have any eyes and that was why she wore a veil. Too tall for a woman from that time, too weird to still be alive and not burning on the stake as a witch. She didn’t seem to be in place then.

When she said her goodbyes to sisters and was almost at the bottom of the stairs, Mother called her. Sisters were back inside, but she was standing at the top of the stairs, her veil thrown back, red hair sticking out a little from under the headwear, her eyes - bright yellow, with vertical pupils - staring right at them. Those eyes they remembered for a long time, those eyes that said “I knew you wouldn’t do that, I knew he wasn’t you. I know who you are, Almighty.”

They didn’t see that angel for so long, they were at fault for what happened.

It was just one identity for a hundred years. They decided to change it not long until the French Revolution. The angel was again there, but he didn’t recognize them this time. They stole bread from some man that went to look at the Queen's death. Then the angel vanished.

It was 1827 if they remember it correctly. It was one of the times when they really became their identity. Elspeth was poor young lady who lived in Edinburg. They met wee Morag in 1824, she was a window, with no children, so she had no right for her late husband’s money. They didn’t make many friends through their life, but wee Morag was different, she was more than a friend. Last they had friends in the nunnery, almost two hundred years ago, so they’ve decided to give that a chance. They figured that if they would find a corpse she could get some money. That’s when they run into both of them. The last time she’d seen them together was in Rome, never since. But now both “representatives” were here.

One of them volunteered to help her with the body, other one started telling him how wrong it was. They wanted to punch him, but you can’t hit an angel, can you?

Later they couldn't remember much about what happened after. Or at least do it clearly.

It was rage that filled her up. It was a perfectly fine body until that "representative" got in the way. Now it was ruined, useless.

And after that those two had the audacity to show up and tell her that they would help her?! They didn’t want to agree, they did it for Morag, but maybe it was best if they didn’t.

Then they shut down, they had no thoughts, no ideas, no emotions, just memories and pain where their heart would have been. She wanted to destroy this place, destroy them. Erase those two from existence and never look back. But they couldn’t, those desires were buried deep inside their mind. They were like a puppet whose strings were cut. Elspeth didn’t feel that way. She knew what to do, so they let her do it.

They made themselves take control back only when they realized that one of the “representatives” was trying to drink the poison.

“Why it was even there?”

They couldn’t remember. It was probably something Elspeth was planning.

She tried to stop him. They didn’t know why, but maybe it was guilt? Guilt for the things they’ve messed up, for lives they’ve ruined.

They shut down again when something in their brain said that poison isn’t lethal for eternal beings. Elspeth was in charge again, she didn’t need to worry any more.

The next thing they remember? She was gasping for air between a couple of gravestones, pain felling up her chest.

People turn to god when their loved ones die, they beg god for help. But who should God turn to? Who should they beg?

Wee Morag died, they had money now but that wasn’t something they wanted, they wanted to have peace for at least a lifetime, with Morag. They wanted to run from that life. But it was hard, hard to leave it all behind.

On the money she got from angel “representative,” she bought land, a lot of it, and a couple decades later opened an orphanage. They got rid of the body they had before and pretended to be an orphan. There was an epidemic of tuberculosis during the 1870s, she got affected.

The doctor headmistress called appeared to be one of the representatives. That body, that identity died then. and that was the last time they'd seen either of them for quite some time.

They’ve spent the entire 20th century in America and France, they appeared as an actress, an activist, an artist, college student, and a backer once. That century was one when they had the most identities, yes some of them were combined, but it was still much more than they had before. Maybe that was why “representatives” couldn’t find her. Eventually they started to restore the body they had in Rome, she was a priestess back then, and had some knowledge about how to avoid the spirits. The thing that proved to be useful was “evil eye” a little peace of jewelry that they carried around. They got panicked when “representatives” appeared there, so they covered their arms and upper back with those symbols. There were other ones that could’ve helped her, like the one they learned even before the flood, people they’ve lived with back them showed her symbols that were supposed to hide them from the Metatron, and let them speak to God directly. She’d made a couple of those too.

By the beginning of the 21st century, they were again guarded by their tattoos and jewelry. They changed their body a bit to appear younger and returned to London.

They had money but got bored of doing nothing eventually, so she got a job in a local café.

Nina was a nice boss, they became friends in no time, then they befriended Maggie. But she still couldn’t bring herself to talk with that “representative” who lived across the street.

One day, a naked man appeared right in front of the bookshop, then a couple other people. They weren’t people, of course, they were angels and a few demons.

It seemed normal until He appeared, then it all went nuts.

[honeybeezgobzzzzz]

𓅨 Dreamswept: Chapter Eleven

Dreamswept: In which Dream’s imprisonment brings out his darker side. Y/N’s mother works for the Burgess’s as a nurse, and after stumbling across what is hidden beneath Fawny Rig’s mortars one summer, Y/N’s life will never be the same. A darkness has attached itself to her and no matter how long she is kept from the Endless in the basement, he has not forgotten her kindness and brief moments of comfort. No, he has not forgotten, and now he craves it. 

Warnings: Explicit Language, Non-Consentual Explicit Material.

To Note: Dark!Morpheus/Dream x Female!Reader, Inspired by 'Claiming His Queen' by @moonmaiden1996 (Go Read It!).

Word Count: ~2.5k

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When you woke up from your deep slumber, you found yourself snuggled against the softest sheets imaginable and feeling more rested than you had in years. Your eyelids fluttered and you fully opened your eyes. Dark shimmering fabric met your eyes and confusion overtook your mind. Pushing yourself up, you looked at what you were laid out on and blanched. This wasn’t your bed, and looking around, you surely weren’t in your room. Your hands scratched at your body only to find that you were naked as a newly born babe. Your face flooded with heat and you snatched the shimmering black sheets to your chest, covering your naked body. You certainly felt awake now. You were in an unknown place with no clothes. How the hell did you get here?

You looked around the room, noting that it was large and castle-looking, with softly glowing candles mounted on the wall. Dragging the sheet from the bed, you wrapped it firmly around your body and moved to poke around. There was a little sitting room and a wall of windows with French doors that let natural light into the room. Interested to see if you could recognize something, you peered outside the windows. 

“What the bloody hell,” You whispered as your eyes were met with a fantasy-like landscape. Of course, you could recognize mountains and forests, even the waters that shimmered at the base of the castle you apparently werein. But what had you flabbergasted was the design of the castle you could see and the townspeople who milled around in the village at the base of the castle. Was that a human-sized cat? That looked like one of the wild things from the book ‘Where the Wild Things Are’. “I’m going crazy,”

“Do you really think that?” You spun around, clutching the sheet closer to your body at his voice. Upon seeing him, you did your best not to turn into a floundering or flushing mess. His eyes drifted along your covered body and you tightened your grip on the bedsheet. It was clear that he was appreciating your body, even if he couldn’t see the physicalities of it at the moment. 

“Where am I?” You questioned, glad that your voice was managing to remain steady despite your situation. “Where have you taken me? Better yet, who the bloody hell are you!” He prowled forwards, looking at you like a predator hunting prey: hungrily. When he reached you, he gazed down at you with that nova-like gaze that you could feel in the very center of your being. You could feel the echoes of his touch on your body, both the rough and the light. A shudder went through you when he leaned down. 

“I am Dream of the Endless,” He spoke softly to you. “King of Dreams and Nightmares, Prince of Stories, Lord of The Dreaming, and the one you have promised yourself to.” You had no idea who Dream of the Endless was, but you were quick to understand his title of King of Dreams and Nightmares. “And you, my priestess, have been kept from me ever since you tried breaking me out of my confines deep within that manor.”

“What?” You had no recollection of attempting such a thing. Surely you would remember him. He reached up and brushed your cheek. 

“Why do you think they didn’t want you coming back?” He said, his words brushing over your lips. “Was it not enough to have me trapped for over a century, but they had to take away the one person who showed me an ounce of kindness? You put the first crack in my cage and gave your dreams to me willingly. You are my priestess, Y/N, mine.” 

You didn’t remember any of that, but something in your gut told you that what he said was true. It was no wonder your mother had you put on dream suppressants for 15 years, she was trying to protect you from him. This changed everything, explained everything, they didn’t want you back because they were trying to protect you. Something within his eyes changed and like a rogue wave, his eyes blazed with rage as he pressed forward in anger. 

“You think you need protecting from me?” He hissed out, his anger at the insinuation near palpable. You shrunk back in fear and he was soon gripping the side of your face. “Have I ever given you cause to fear me? It seems that I will need to enforce my reverence for you, repeatedly, until you realize my complete and utter devotion to you my little priestess.” He was growling now, angry that you had suggested such a thing as him being a threat to you. 

“I— I— Dream this is—“ Your lips sputtered for word as his face pressed closer, his nose nearly brushing against yours. You could feel the heat and desire radiating from his pale and marble-like skin. 

“You will call me Morpheus.” He darkly commanded you, his gaze now all-consuming, possessively bearing down into yours until he was all you could see. Endless galaxies and stars swirling around silver and blue. “Yes!?” You nodded eagerly, not wanting to push him any further. His eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Word, my love. Use them.”

“Yes, Morpheus,” You breathed out as fast you could to appease the Endless. His vice-like grip didn’t ease up, but he, at the very least, looked satisfied now. He brushed his thumb over your lower lip, pressing down and dragging across it as if relishing the softness. 

“Again,” He demanded, like you speaking his name was pure ecstasy for him. It was. 

“Yes, Morpheus,” You repeated obediently. He called for you to do so a third time and you did. His eyes briefly closed, relishing his name rolling off your tongue like the sweetest nectar in the known universe. No one said his name as you did. No one. Morpheus leaned his forehead against yours. Your next breath hitched in your throat. 

“You belong to me, my love, my Y/N, you have since you first spilled blood for me.” He whispered, his words caressing your lips in a sweet draw. Morpheus released your lip and traced his thumb down your chin to your throat, then his hand encompassed the column in a light grip. “I have been robbed of you for fifteen years and I will not spend a second more without you.”  

You didn’t know what to say to that, and it scared you to think about what he wanted to do to you. A shuddering breath made your entire body tremble against his, and in seconds Morpheus was lifting your body from the floor and swiftly crossing the room. You didn’t even have time to register what was happening before your back hit soft sheets and the very sheet you had been using to cover yourself was all but ripped from your body. You gasped with a squawk and tried to reach for the remaining sheet to recover your naked body, only to see dark eyes blaze with mercury. The sheet dissolved away, leaving you with nothing. Your arms dove down to cover yourself, your left arm across your breasts and your right hand to cover your cunt. 

“Morpheus, please, I—“ You cut off as mercury eyes landed on yours and you could see the wild anger that boiled in his star-soaked eyes. 

“Do not hide yourself from me, my love,” He spoke to you, running a hand along your naked side, stroking your skin with such delicacy that one might think he was caressing the finest of silks. To him, you were more precious than anything money could buy. He was going to lavish you through until you realized just how much you meant to him. You were the one who had devoted yourself and yet Morpheus would do the worshipping. You would see the error of your ways soon enough, but in the meantime, Morpheus was starving and you were the only thing that could sate his appetite. 

“I didn’t ask for any of this, this has to be some sort of mistake!” You violently protested, wiggling in place and trying to roll away from him. In an instant his body was dropping down on top of yours, preventing you from sliding out from under his. Your body squirmed against his jeans and his jacket, and your hands reached up to push at his shoulders. You strained your neck to put your face as far from his as possible. Morpheus pressed his lips against your neck, placing kiss after kiss along your skin, feeling your racing heartbeat beneath your skin. Your offered neck all but beckoned Morpheus to dine. The moment Morpheus’s lips parted to suckle and lave at your flesh, your body went taut and a strained moan passed through your lips. His mouth sank into your throat and painted your skin until color bloomed and you were squirming uncontrollably, pushing at his shoulders and kicking your legs out while making periodic soft whimpers fall from your lips. Morpheus brushed his lips up your neck, nuzzling the places where your pulse raced. He kissed your chin and reached up with a hand to force your eyes back to him. Your eyes were filled with fear. 

“You did ask for this, my love, but your mind has been so twisted and manipulated that you no longer remember.” You blinked rapidly and a few stray tears slipped from your eyes. 

“Stop, stop, stop,” You breathlessly whispered, feeling frozen beneath his intense gaze. “This is just a dream and I need to wake up, wake up, Y/N, wake up.” Morpheus’s mouth twitched in the corner at your words. You still thought this to be a dream? Your mother had twisted your mind worse than he thought… Morpheus had a grand task ahead of him. Leaning down, Morpheus kissed away your tears. 

“You have nothing to fear from me,” He whispered, brushing his lips over yours. You jerked against him once more, straining to free yourself from his entrapment. It was a useless endeavor because it was like trying to push a marble block, uphill. With the languidness of a serpent, Morpheus dragged his lips down your throat to pepper your breasts with love and attention. You bucked against him, your hips scraping against jeans and jacket once more. Your struggles were nearly useless and your energy waned, soon enough you were sagging against the bed with a defeated noise. Morpheus shushed you gently from where he was tracing your hip bone with his lips. 

Your fingers curled into the rough fabric at his shoulders, clawing and dragging downwards as Morpheus’s hot mouth explored your thigh, pressing sharp bites between sweet suckles and gentle kisses. Another whimper passed through your lips and your leg twitched in his grasp. Your eyes drifted downwards to see Morpheus nuzzling your tender skin which already bore the markings of his dark love. His eyes lifted to meet yours and you shivered in fright, feeling the breath from your lungs escape you as intense silver conveyed total and complete obsession. 

“Do you not see how your body reacts to me?” He murmured, his right hand caressing your other thigh and deeply stroking further upwards until his thumb glided right through your cunt. Your body stiffed once more as an explosion of sensations rippled through your cunt and your body reacted on its own, betraying you in the worst way. It wanted more, and Morpheus knew that. You felt ashamed at your reactions to his sinful ministrations but he only seemed to be pleased by it. “Do not protest what is only natural for someone of your position.” He further stroked your cunt, pressing and rolling this thumb over your clit. Your eyes rolled back slightly and a triumphant look crossed Morpheus’s face, your resistance was finally crumbling. He withdrew his damp fingers from your cunt and dropped his hand back to your thigh in a tight grip. Then his mouth, voracious and eager to explore your flesh, dove between your trembling thighs, and once again, he feasted. 

You felt his tongue swipe over your clit and cried out, your teeth once again sinking into the flesh of your lip. His grip on your thighs tightened against the twists and turns of your body, surely leaving behind imprints of his fingers on your untouched flesh. Your sweet scent was driving him crazy and your taste already had him hooked on you. It wasn’t long before your hand was descending to his obsidian hair, burying into the soft strands as your muffled cries of ecstasy fed his appetite. Your skin felt as if it was sweltering with fire and that fire was making it hard for you to breathe. Feeling your nails scraping against his scalp and tugging at the strands in your grasp, a soft growl of appeasement rumbled from Morpheus’s chest. Finally, finally, you were reacting to him rather than resisting, and oh how you fell apart beneath him. 

From the taste of your nectar on his tongue to your uncontrollable writhes against his mouth, you were a goddess that was quickly falling to pieces. But he had made a promise to both himself and you, Morpheus would not allow you the pleasure of release until he was sheathed within your body and connected to you in a way only he could be. So with great restraint, he pulled back from your quivering body. He watched as you all but fell back against the bed with a strained gurgle, your hand limp in his hair and your chest heaving as you sucked in air. You looked exquisite stretched out, and it took everything in his being not to ravish you further. The very scent coming from your body was enough to make his cock twitch, never mind the fact Morpheus had you entirely naked and your taste was fresh on his tongue. Morpheus leaned over you and brushed sweaty strands of hair away from your forehead, allowing his fingers to linger along the path of your temple to the curve of your cheek. Your face was flushed as you refused to look at him. 

“Everything will be as it should be soon enough, my love,” He whispered, pressing his lips against your forehead. You refused to give him the satisfaction of hearing another pitiful sound come from your trembling lips. “I will give you the release you seek, but only when our bodies are one,” Another trickle of fear ran down your spine. This nightmare seemed to be never-ending, and the longer it lasted, the more you started to think it was reality. Morpheus pulled away and stared deeply into your eyes, making sure you kept that eye contact. “And when I fill you with my seed you shall be more than just my priestess, you will be my queen.” This time you couldn’t hold in the whimper. 

Date Published: 11/30/22

Last Edit: 4/3/23

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[the-sun-and-the-sea]

Annie Cresta Week Day 4: Queen of Crafts

The District Four Hunger Games Training Academy is a buzzkill in many ways, but Annie doesn’t know anyone who does birthdays better. 

Birthdays are a big deal at the Academy because every year is precious. That’s why they do what they do. Volunteers keep the young and vulnerable children safe from the arena, and the responsibility is only given to those who can handle it. 

That’s what she used to think, anyway. A lot has changed since she left the arena.

Even with all the fuss around birthdays, she’s never actually had to give a present to someone. That was done communally back at the Academy, with everyone pitching in. They didn’t exactly have an excess of gifts, but nobody really cared about that. 

Victor’s Village, with more money they could ever need, is a completely different game. 

“We could cook her dinner,” Finnick is saying, lounging on Annie’s couch. He’s just returned from an obviously exhausting trip to the Capitol, but happily agreed to help her out. Maybe he needs the distraction. “Or clean her house.”

“Her house is clean,” Annie reminds him. “And we’re trying to give Mags a birthday present, not poison her.”

Finnick shrugs. “Our cooking would be a gift to this earth.”

Annie stifles a laugh. “I’m trying to be serious here. We never gave presents back at the Academy. I don’t even remember how. And everyone in the Village is rich and definitely has a better idea of what to get Mags than I do.”

“It’s not a competition,” he says. “And I’ve known Mags for ten years and I don’t know what to get her.”

Her eyes flicker downward before landing back on Finnick. “That’s different. You’re…busy.”

“So are you,” he counters. “We’ve all been where you are. We all know how long it takes to even start to get better. Nobody’s judging you, I promise.”

“I don’t know,” says Annie, shifting in her seat. “Coral kind of looks like she’s judging me.”

“She looks like that with everyone,” he replies with an easy shrug. How does he make everything seem so effortless? “So that’s either just what she looks like, or she’s judging everyone. Either way, not your problem.”

Annie’s eyes roam the room the way they still do periodically. She’s mentally scanning for threats, watching the exits, that sort of thing. Nothing comes of it anymore. Except today, her eyes land on her piano, sitting quietly across the room. “Finnick,” she says, and he follows her gaze. 

“Annie,” he echoes dramatically. “Have I ever told you that you’re a genius?”

“You haven’t,” she says, bubbling with excitement. “But feel free to repeat it as much as you want.”

Annie can’t call herself a musical expert, but she has been playing the piano as her victory talent for months now. Eons ago, before she started training at the Academy, her mother would play. Some of it has stuck with her even all these years later. 

She fiddles around with the keys for a while, finding a melody she likes. It can’t be too complicated, but hopefully Mags will appreciate the thought. 

“You write poetry, right?” she asks Finnick. At his nod, she says, “Okay, so I write the music and you write the lyrics, then we have a birthday song.”

“I’m happy to use my poetry for such a good cause.”

Writing a song is easier said than done, but it’s a good thing they’re victors with endless time on their hands. Annie nudges Finnick awake when he slumps over the piano keys, and Finnick pulls her out of whatever spiral of self-doubt she’s worked herself into. Who is she to think she can write a song, anyway? 

Then again, she did survive the Hunger Games, and this is certainly an easier thing to do. 

They go slowly, line by line, until they’ve created a song that’s about one minute in duration. “Do you think Mags will like it?” Annie asks once they’ve finished. “You know her better than I do.”

His responding smile is tired but elated. “I think Mags will be impressed that we managed to pull this off.”

“We could invite her over for dinner to show her the song,” she suggests. 

Finnick gives a hum of agreement. “Wait, Annie?”

“Yeah?”

“Can either of us actually sing?”

She looks at him then, and it’s clear they’re both coming to the same realization. The hour is so late that she’s too tired to do anything but dissolve into laughter. “Shit.”

[eyitzme]

ᵖʳⁱⁿᶜᵉˢˢ'ˢ ᵒʳᵈᵉʳˢ ;; ᵈʳᵈᵗ ⁽ˣᵃⁿʳᵉⁱ⁾

Summary: Having personal guards is so annoying, but since Xander Matthews is the only one protecting her at night, Arei Nageishi can tolerate it. Warning: DRDT Spoilers (Arei's backstory) Word Count: 2,521 A/N: I meant to post this yesterday to celebrate the end of DRDT’s hiatus, but I got distracted by the actual episode. Anyway, let’s go, we’re going to find out Arei’s killer soon! Can’t wait to see if I’m right or not about my culprit theory, especially since the person I’m the most suspicious of is on, like, everyone else’s innocent list, but I might as well ride it out with that theory until the actual killer becomes clear (I think it’s Whit, by the way. I also thought David might be an accomplice, but that theory may or may not have been ruined with the new episode).

it’s my command!

Supposedly, rumours of the two eldest princesses of the kingdom being sent away for drastic misbehaviour was bad for the kingdom’s reputation. That was what Princess Arei Nageishi was told when her older twin sisters were sent off. As the king and queen, her father and mother were sending out word that they were being sent to stay with family to help understand the lives of others better. Nothing mentioning starting fires near rural villages, messing up trade routes so villagers couldn’t get as many necessities as they should, or any of the other things her sisters did for fun.

Obviously, Arei knew nothing about it. She was the innocent younger princess. Disliked by many, yes, but also the one who had done nothing wrong, in contrast to her cruel older sisters. In her parents’ eyes, she had to stay that way to preserve the royal family’s reputation. That made them come up with the idea that she needed personal guards.

Arei didn’t like it. She didn’t need anyone to watch over her for every hour of the day. She didn’t need multiple people doing that job every hour of the day. Fortunately, her nights were spent with only one guard outside her chambers, but having personal guards itself was so annoying. They probably had better things to do anyway, so if she didn’t want them here, they could go somewhere else! She didn’t even want to do anything destructive anyway! Not anymore, at least.

At least she could have her pick at who could be guarding her chambers at night. She couldn’t remember half of her personal guards’ names and could barely remember what all of them looked like, but she knew Xander Matthews. He would never snitch to anyone about anything she did as long as it wasn’t disruptive, unlike all the others who thought their job was to tell her parents the exact moment she went to the bathroom. That meant she could bother him for as much as she wanted!

Annoying people in the castle’s long hallways wasn’t fun, though. If either of her parents found her—or worse, if both of them did—she would get scolded for at least 10 minutes about how her sisters were disappointments to the family, and she couldn’t join them. It was ironic since they called her the disappointment of the family plenty of times before her sisters were sent off, but they apparently had to show love for at least one of their daughters to keep up the appearance of a loving royal family, even if that daughter was her.

Luckily, her chambers were private enough! The only people allowed coming into it were anyone there to clean, but they couldn’t stay around for long or else they would have to face her. Her parents never came into her bedchambers unless she gave them specific permission to, and she could count on one hand how many times she did that! Especially since there were no snitches to run to her parents, Arei could have Xander inside there with her all she wanted!

One of the things she liked most about guards were their swords that they wore all the time. They were so sharp but so light. Arei was sure she could be pretty good at dealing with swords if she tried. That was why she always asked Xander to hold his sword every night he came into her chambers. Today was the first time he actually let her.

Arei sliced the sword through the air, the sword’s blade looking bright even in the very dim lighting. Xander warned, sitting at her desk, “Careful not to hit anything. If you mark something, your parents might realize I come here, and they’ll reassign me at best.”

“I didn’t know you liked coming here,” Arei responded while she continued swinging his sword. He didn’t have to worry about her hitting anything. She spent, like, five minutes with it. She was basically be a knight now!

“You force me to come here,” he reminded.

“And you like it!” She swung the end of the sword to barely touch his neck. He didn’t flinch. Well, she would get him to flinch with her amazing swordsmanship skills one of these days. “Anyway, you shouldn’t have given me this.”

“I know,” he replied. “Now, you’ll hold today over my head and keep bothering me more to let you touch my sword.”

“I will,” she admitted, “but I’m a princess! Your princess. You’re meant to follow my orders!”

“The only orders I’m supposed to follow are your parents’, specifically the ones that keep you safe.” Xander moved the tip of his sword away from his neck. “I’m already failing at my job since I’m letting you do this.”

“It’s not unsafe if I don’t do anything that isn’t safe!”

“You just holding it would be unsafe in your parents’ eyes.”

“Then it’s good they’re not here!” Arei swung her sword at one of her bed’s four pillars. It grazed against the wood and left a thin line paler than the dark wood surrounding it.

They both went closer to inspect it. Xander ran his finger over it. She noticed they were long. “Someone is going to ask you why that mark is there.”

“I was feeling bored,” Arei suggested, “so I looked through my stuff. I flung one of my old earrings around, so it might’ve made that scratch.”

“You don’t wear earrings,” he reminded, pointing to her ears.

She covered her ears with her hands and found herself wondering if he preferred girls with earrings. “That doesn’t mean I don’t have a lot of earrings from when everyone thought I would because every other girl who ever existed did. I can just say I was trying to throw them out.”

“You never throw anything out.”

“I do! You just never see me doing it.”

“You’re throwing your stuff out when it’s the other guards’ shifts?”

“I definitely do!” She just happened to not throw everything out. It wasn’t her fault she received a lot of gifts because she was a princess. Even the one no one liked could achieve that.

Xander sighed, his focus going back to the scratch. “Even though that story is unrealistic, it’s better than the real one... Give me my sword back.”

Arei reluctantly handed it over. Now what was she going to swing around her chambers? Her pillow?

Xander sheathed his sword. “It’s getting late, Your Majesty. You should start getting ready to go to sleep.”

“I am ready.” Every time before Xander came, Arei got ready for bed. She was already in her nightgown, and her hair was braided to prevent knots in the morning. To make sure no one knew about their secret meetings, she let all the lights be turned off, but she always lit a candle that was bright enough to see but small enough for no one outside the chambers to notice. In a way, it felt more intimate to her, and she liked that more than she thought.

“I meant ready to actually sleep.”

She shook her head. “I can’t do that right now. Let’s talk more!”

“About what?” he asked, skepticism laced in his voice.

He should never worry about her ideas! They were always good and innocent! Like, her idea right now was, “Teach me how to sword fight!”

“No.”

“But why?” Just in case, Arei put on one of the many sad looks she had prepared. It was sad enough that it looked like she was genuinely disappointed but happy enough that it didn’t look like she was about to cry.

“Your parents won’t let me,” Xander answered.

“Teach me in secret. It can be our little thing!”

“Our ‘little thing’ is talking in your chambers when I’m supposed to be outside your door all night to make sure you’re safe.”

“We can have two little things!”

“I don’t have the time to be teaching you things.”

“Make time. I’ll clear up your schedule! I’ll order it to happen.”

“Please don’t do that.” His voice sounded a little more genuine. “I want to do everything I have to do.”

It was her turn to be skeptical now. “What do you have to do?”

Xander counted what he had to do on his fingers. “Being your guard is the obvious one. I also have to sleep since I’m meant to be awake all night. There are meetings between all of your guards in case something like a ball comes up. We need a plan to make sure you’re safe. There are also people I want to see too.”

The last part stuck out to her the most. “Which people?”

He shrugged, looking away. “Just people I know.”

“Who are...?”

“People I know. You don’t know any of them,” he added.

“You don’t tell me anything about your life,” she pointed out.

“You never asked. Besides, I’m here to protect you, so really, everything should be about you.”

Arei wasn’t sure what to think of these mysterious people he knew. She wasn’t stupid and was fully aware that he knew people outside of her life, but it was still weird to think about. She knew him as a fun-to-bother guard who was the best out of all the personal ones she had. They probably knew him as something different because of the time he spent with them. She didn’t like thinking about that.

“I think I’ll go to sleep now,” she declared with less enthusiasm than she liked to admit.

Xander blinked a few times before frowning. “Did I say something wrong? I’m so sorry if I did.”

“I’m disappointed that you’re not giving me my sword back,” she forced herself to say with the enthusiasm she lacked earlier.

He lost one eye before she met him. The one he had left was very expressive, and she liked to think the other one was too when it was still there. It looked brighter when he was panicking over saying the wrong thing, but it relaxed after she successfully played it off as a joke. She liked looking at his eye.

“It’s my sword,” he corrected, “and you’re not having it back after today.”

“All I did was get a little scratch on my bed that’s barely even noticeable! I deserve a sword!”

“If you are, you’re not getting one from me.”

“Why? Am I not good enough for you? Am I too weak as a princess for you?”

Usually, when she said stuff like that, Xander either got really defensive or was too tired of her to argue. Today, he laughed. She was caught more off guard than she would like to say. It wasn’t like she heard him laugh before, though. The other people he knew probably did tons of times.

“If you want to go to sleep,” Xander said when his laughter died down, “I’ll let you. Good night, Your Majesty.”

“Good night, Xander!” Arei smiled. Xander smiled back before he left her alone in her chambers. It felt quieter with him gone. Then again, it always did.

Arei decided to follow what she told Xander. She blew out the candle before getting under the covers. When her back hit the mattress, her mind thought back to the people Xander knew and liked to spend time with. He was right about her never asking about who he knew. She never thought about it before.

It wasn’t like she was too obsessed with herself to notice other people’s lives. Everyone in the kingdom, including and especially her parents, thought she was, and she always let them think that, but she wasn’t. She knew what was happening throughout the kingdom. She knew the struggles the people were facing better than probably everyone else in the royal family. They were always obsessed with what was happening and could happen to them. The minor problems such as inflation, the difficulty to get food to the villages outside the one closest to the castle, the low-paying incomes many made, and so much more were unnoticed by the others. She did. She couldn’t negotiate to make peace with a rival kingdom for the life of her, but she could maybe make laws to help the daily lives of the little people of the kingdom if she became queen due to her sisters now being seen as criminals to their parents.

Their problems were better to focus on than her own. Whenever she wanted to try to distract herself from her sisters’ recent bullying, the commoners’ problems were what she went to. Hearing about things they dealt with didn’t make her feel any better about her own, but it gave her something to think about. She could be a good person and help them, or she could be cruel and make their lives worse. Or, she could be just like the rest of her family and let them continue on with their lives and doing nothing to worsen it but also nothing to help them.

Xander was a commoner. She knew he was raised in the farthest village from the castle, right next to the boarder between their kingdom and the next. He worked his way to get to where he was now. The problems he had were definitely more interesting than her current ones, but he never shared them with her. She understood that she wasn’t the kindest to him, but even if she was, he probably wouldn’t. He was only meant to be her personal guard, not anything else. They were already crossing a line with their secret meetings, and he wouldn’t try to push it any further.

The other people he knew probably knew of his problems, though. He probably shared all the problems he had to them, and they listened or offered solutions. They knew him better than she did.

For a while, Arei read books when she was trying to escape her sisters’ torment. No one liked her, so it was the only way to entertain herself. There were multiple books where she saw a stereotype of a princess having no friends. She hated that she fell into that stereotype. There was no one in her life that she wanted to spend time with, and there was no one who wanted to spend time with her. Everything was out of pure obligation before Xander came in. He was the first person she wanted to be with, and he was the first person to want that with her. She didn’t know how to talk to him, but she knew she liked feeling seen, feeling comfortable, feeling like a person when she was around him. She liked knowing he enjoyed her company and wouldn’t try to leave because he didn’t want to be with her. It was almost amazing how good someone could feel around someone because of that.

Of course, there were other people Xander liked more than her. There had to be. She couldn’t imagine herself being his favourite person to be with, even though he was surely hers.

Thinking was too much work. Arei should definitely go to sleep.

Confession: Even though this was meant to be posted yesterday, I just finished it today. Whoops.

[sagesilentfire]

I would love to hear your Seth headcanons

hell yeah

Canon:

ABSOLUTELY not a pro-Mewman-genocide guy, any rumors he is are invented by racist Mewmans who believe the monsters will do the same thing to Mewmans that Mewmans have been doing to monsters if monsters are given the slightest amount of political power.

Is for changing the status quo to give monsters political power. Comet was not; she believed that the queens just had to be nice to monsters. AKA "don't change the system, change the person in charge of the system" neoliberal bullshit.

Toffee is his adopted son, and if I was writing a fifth season/continuation, he would be out for revenge for what Star did to Toffee. We'd have a massive, character-developing realization that Star is really not a good person, and she realizes she murdered someone who had barely done anything wrong, and she would have to live with that. No bs "destroying the magic was the right idea and THAT'S the problem with melting Toffee, not the MELTING part." Because, as I'll talk about soon, the only thing the show expressly tells us re: how we should feel about Toffee is that he was right to destroy magic, but that he was weird and scary and a sociopath, so we shouldn't be mourning HIM and being rightfully skeeved out that Star approached (and is still approaching! she does not grow out of this!) her problems by burning them until they died. (Again, I have evidence that she does not grow out of it. I'll provide it soon.)

Toffee's mother was murdered by proto-Solarian warriors made by Mira, the queen behind the Great Monster Massacre. Seth doesn't know if he had another parent, or even the mother's name. All Seth knows is he fought off a warrior from a monster village, and when he was surveying the damage, he found a lot of dead, including a woman who had clearly died protecting a still-living toddler. No one stepped up to claim the child, so Seth took care of him.

Seth is older than the Mewman occupation. He was a kid when the Mewmans destroyed Septarsis, which kicked off the war. He was a young adult when the Mewmans committed the Great Monster Massacre, killing every monster in sight and locking the regenerating ones in heavily enchanted boxes and throwing them into the darkest depths of Butterfly Castle. He survived uncaptured by not regenerating his injuries, playing dead, and then sneaking off when the Mewmans weren't looking, and since Mewmans weren't sure which monsters could regenerate yet, they ignored him.

Septarsis, and "Mewni" in general, were really diverse places before the Mewmans arrived. Monsters can interbreed with each other, so there weren't rigid categories like "Slime" and "septarian" and so on yet. Those terms were invented by an Old Book queen who wanted to reduce the monsters' power by dividing them. Seth thinks that's bullshit, the only useful dividing line is who has what abilities, of which there are a plethora, not just regeneration. And all monster cultures had a mix of abilities, much like humans.

Toffee gets his smarts from Seth. They worked together on strategy since Toffee was a toddler. (Toffee originally was a kid, so his battle strategies consisted of grabbing the figures representing monster armies on the map and knocking over the Mewman figures while making explosion noises. Seth acted like those were brilliant strategies and he only had a few criticisms. (Star Butterfly never grew out of such strategies.))

Seth taught Toffee Septarian, which is still a closely guarded secret.

Seth wasn't a perfect parent, though. He was never in the same place for long and constantly busy, so Toffee spent a lot of time alone.

Septarsis was a city, where Butterfly Castle is now. It was relatively peaceful, and Seth has nothing but good memories of it, what little he can remember. It is not here now, but Seth wants to reshape Butterfly Castle in its image.

Seth will not compromise his goals, but he does try to be good, and do good things.

My Fanon AU where a lot of things are different (samatfoe):

Note that a lot of this will be either alluded to or stated outright in samatfoe s5, but I might as well tell you now!

Seth became the leader of the Beacon of Hope at fifty, which was impressively young. Sílthéy (their Glossaryck) thought he had promise, but wasn't the final arbitrator of that. No, the reason the Septarsis Council put him in charge of a Beacon (basically a town) was his unflinching devotion to peace and solving things without violence.

It was clear, three years later, with Septarsis becoming a smoking crater with only one survivor, that his devotion would be tested.

Seth did not join the fight. He lead his people through rebuilding and defense, but never actually picked up a weapon himself. He tried his best to negotiate with the Butterflys, but eventually let Toffee, who had been chosen as Sílthéy's sword and magic, have free reign of dealing with them. Not even Seth could undo what they had done to themselves.

Toffee, for their (nonbinary) part, learned from Seth the art of negotiating and solving things non-violently, if possible. They never claimed Seth (or anyone) as their parent, as their parents had died with Old Septarsis, but Seth did raise them, when he had the time. Now, the Butterflys rarely allowed Toffee to negotiate, instead leaping right to trying to kill them, but they did at least try every time.

Seth became the de-facto leader of Septarsis to Mewmans. As his notoriety among them rose, so did the attempts on his life. He continued showing up to negotiations for a while, but as the centuries wore on and he started getting older, Toffee took on more and more of his duties, sometimes pretending via illusions to be him.

Seth actually didn't mind Crescenta as a Mewman queen. Sure she was slippery, and underhanded, and a terrible person, but at least she tried to pretend to not solve everything with violence. He didn't like her, but at least she allowed him to negotiate. And then it was revealed that she'd secretly been casting a deadly magical plague on political opponents that had only avoided him because of diligent effort by Toffee, and he was less appreciative.

Toffee assassinated Crescenta via a version of her own plague spell, modified so that it wouldn't spread. Sadly, due to Glossaryck's Prophecy, they couldn't end the Mewman line right then, but at least Rhina the Riddled was much less prone to... experimentation.

Not long after this, Seth died, with many things unfinished. But he'd lived a long life, and became a ghost with the desire to end Mewni's colonization as his unfinished business.

Toffee still uses his likeness when appearing to things as themself would be too inconvenient. It's what Seth (and Seth's ghost) would've wanted.

[imhereformr]

Winx S2 E20 Pixie Village

Okay so they're quarrelsome and divided, but I don't actually remember them fighting until just now. In the last episode they were literally giving Bloom a makeover

Avalon and Palladium! What a handsome couple

"Drastic measures" = vacation? How about therapy?

"but what about all the classes we'll be missing?" (Flora you nerd) "this is much more important" FARAGONDA. YOU ARE AN EDUCATOR (or supposed to be)!!! You should be letting, I don't know, the army or something handle Darkar, not 6 teenage girls? They should be in school. You know, the school you run (poorly).

"I've invited some specialists" So not only is this bitch making them miss class to take a trip, she's also sending their boyfriends. Peak educator 👌🏻

Icy is so over Darkar. She sounds like a 16 year old talking to their overbearing mother 😂

"Hullo Riven" 😂😂😂

IT'S MY FAVOURITE SCENE 💀💀💀💀

Why is Bloom being such a bitch to Sky 😂😂😂

Not Flora debating over coats for them all to end up in exactly the same thing

Even Avalon 😏 Brandon you jerk 😂

It's a ski hat, isn't it supposed to be warm is literally one of my favourite things Riven's ever said 😂😂😂😂 it's just so innocent and clueless, and he's so adorably confused 😂😂

Look at all the pixies we'll literally never see again

"I'm terrified of heights" "you can fly" THANK YOU TECNA. FINALLY SOMEONE REMEMBERS IT (she says this to a pixie, who is literally almost constantly flying)

"oh no the antidote for Avalon" Livy your home is being attacked!

Livy's power is to turn anything into a skateboard (airboard?), including Codexes.

Note to self: absolutely include Sky and Riven trash talking each other while snowboarding when I eventually get there

Aisha beating them like the queen she is

Did I miss something? How did Icy end up in Downland?

It's getting quite dark well yeah Flora you guys decided to go skiing when you only had 43 minutes of daylight left

She's having fun without Avalon. Brandon is living for this

Stella was totally ready to transform and leave the guys behind 💀

Let's keep our cool and work together stfu Bloom

Amentia never surrenders. Yes Amentia!

Does Timmy have a calculator with him 😂😂😂

Amentia just called Icy a hussy 💀

Let's hope it works as well as it looks. That glider looks like patchwork that'll lead to their death 😅

Why are they having a chat as floating heads in the snow 😂😂😂 fucking get up

What weakness did Bloom overcome to gain her Charmix? Stubbornness?

[dreamdragoness]

As the ailing King of Hearts lay in bed, relaxing to the comforting sound of his maid's lullaby, he drifted off to sleep. As he did, he recalled a memory of something similar happening when he was a boy.

When he was about nine, he and his mother took an entourage to the edge of the Hearts Kingdom. At the edge where the four kingdoms converged and that ever-present fog loomed over the center. They were there to check on the villages and border patrols as Spades' was acting suspiciously. It was nothing new and it gave them a chance to get out of the capital as long as they had their disguises up. Though the only disguise Wally preferred was having his hair down and magically dyed blue. But Wally, being the child that he was, wandered off one day. He couldn't remember why nowadays. All he did know was that he ended up lost in the forest and after wandering around to try and find a way back, he tripped and fell down a ravine. A sharp pain struck his right eye before he lost consciousness. The next thing he knew, he was lying under a blanket next to a campfire. A pile of leaves acted as a pillow and he could tell that he had some bandages wrapped around his head and eye.

That was when he met her. "Flower, gleam and glow, Let your power shine, Make the clock reverse, Bring back what once was mine~ "Heal what has been hurt Change the fates' design Save what has been lost, Bring back what once was mine~ "What once was mine~" Singing this strange, yet soothing, song was a girl around his age. Though it was night out, the glow at her throat and the campfire illuminated her curly red hair. He recalled how soft it looked. The girl looked like a noble, but he didn't recognize her from any of the socials his mother hosted. She was dressed in a lavender dress in an unfamiliar style and covering her face was a white bird-like mask with some sort of flower carving at the bridge. The mask was painted with small shapes of purple, red, blue, green, and yellow.

He thought she looked as pretty as a fairy. The "fairy," as he would later call her, saw that he was awake and checked on his injuries. She told him that she and her father had found him in the ravine and that she was taking care of him while her father searched for the prince's family. The prince once again felt soothed by the sound of the fairy's voice as she spoke to him. He was still wary and did not give him his name. And when he asked for hers, she avoided it and asked him what he would like to call her. When he softly responded "Fairy," she giggled. Saying that in a way, it suited her. The fairy stayed by his side, talking small talk to make him comfortable. She dodged the questions about where she came from and who she was, stating that he was also dodging those same questions from her. After a while, Wally did become comfortable enough to ask if she would sing more. The girl happily complied, singing the lullaby from before and other songs that, according to her, were taught to her by her mother. It was those songs that made the prince feel enchanted by her voice. He listened on as he drifted off to sleep. When he awoke, he was in his mother's arms and on their way back to the castle. Queen Ambrosia told her that the prince was really lucky that the girl and her father had found him and treated him. Especially once she revealed that the pair could possibly be from the Joker Kingdom as they wore masks and that Wally's eye was saved from becoming permanently blind. The boy wanted to see the girl again and realized that he had something in his hands: the girl's mask. To this day, Wally kept the mask in a space where he hid all of his personal treasures. While it was never proven if the fairy and her father were Jokers, the fact that Wally had searched every kingdom for a girl fitting the same description and found nothing made him believe what his mother said was true. Now he had a secret wish to find the Joker Kingdom like his ancestors before him. Not only to fulfill a family dream since the end of the Great War, but to find that fairy girl once more. And yet, the fact that Miss Flannigan had reminded him of that girl made him question her origin even more.

-------------------------------

An idea I had for "Wildcard." A little while after Stacy becomes Wally's personal maid, he becomes sick with a very bad cold and a high fever. While he was assured by the doctors that he was going to be fine with plenty of rest, his friends would come to check on him every now and then. One night, he has a nightmare about his mother's assassination, causing Stacy, who was nearby, to enter his chambers and tend to him.

Feeling sorry for him and haunted by the memories of her mother's death by illness, Stacy takes it upon herself to work harder to get Wally to feel better. She sings some lullabies in the hopes of getting the king to fall asleep. It works, but it brings forth a memory of his past. A memory that makes him even more curious about his new maid.

Not going to lie. This piece was inspired by young Rapunzel in the Tangled TV show singing to heal Pascal. I felt I had to include the song.

As for her voice, the Joker Kingdom has an abundance of magic and some Jokers gain certain abilities from it. As a Flannigan, Stacy has multiple talents (Flannigans are Jacks of All Trades), but at the age she was in the piece, she had developed a healing power that was powered by song. Specifically something soft like a lullaby. However, there is always a price for these gifts. If the Joker uses their gift outside their kingdom too many times past their limit, they could fall ill. That is because their bodies are like cell phones. If used too long or too much, they get drained.

Welcome Home: Party Coffin Royalty AU: @neonross

Stacy and the Joker Kingdom: Me Tangled: Disney

[mythawolf]

Remember my assassin’s creed Tudor era post? I decided to make an OC. Tbh I’m more pleased with the ‘hoodless’ image than the rest of it lol. I did spend all day on this on IbispaintX though so be nice.

She’s a bit of a WIP. I’ll post an updated and more detailed character sheet sometime.

Name: Alice Aigle

Gender: Female

Age: 17-22

Time period: Mid to late Elizabethan England

Occupation: Master Assassin (by default), Lady-in-waiting.

Affiliation: Assassin Brotherhood (English branch).

Personality: Jittery, over-cautious and nervous when it comes to Assassin missions when she first starts out (grows more confident as time goes on), and also has an acid wit and sarcasm not unlike that of Edmund Blackadder. Despite this she is kind towards her friends and allies. Has a tendency to overthink things.

Quote: “I send you a message two months ago to fortify your defences, and here you are, snoozing while your blooming servants and useless guards help Templars carry off your valuables! I suppose you don’t want me to assist by giving your jewels a kick! Well?”

Likes: Peace and quiet, science, teaching, cards, books, painting, cats, blanket burritos.

Dislikes: Loud noises, itchy sensations, London’s part of the river Thames, William Shakespeare’s plays.

Backstory: A descendant of one of Henry VIII’s illegitimate children, Alice’s mother was the grandmaster of the English Brotherhood and even helped put Elizabeth 1 on the throne. Being minor nobility, she grew up in a country house near a village, where the family enjoyed an unusual relationship with the villagers - one of friendship.

However, spies in the Brotherhood lured the Chapter to an ambush at the pretence of discovering a Templar plot to conquer Europe and with the help of several other Templars, massacred the lot of them. Alice’s mother escaped, but was soon hunted down and shot with a Templar crossbow bolt. As she lay dying in Alice’s arms, she told her to look in the chest in her room. After the funeral, Alice looked and found:

-An ‘if you’re reading this, I’m dead’ letter from her mother.

-A book on the Assassin Brotherhood.

-A hidden blade with a hidden pistol (which she broke by mistake).

Thrust into this new life and feeling like she had to rebuild it for the good of the people of England, Alice cobbled together a makeshift Assassin outfit shortly before getting a letter from the Queen - she had been given a job offer as a Lady-in-waiting (which, to those who don’t know, was a paid friend to a rich Lady - particularly Queens). This was done partly because they were related, partly because she felt sorry for the girl, and partly to keep an eye on her, as she had had a somewhat complex relationship with Alice’s mother.

To summarise, at this time of writing the canon is that she’s-teaching herself assassin skills, managing Lady-in-waiting duties, and trying to fight the Templar order all by herself! No pressure, then!

[wanderingchocolateeclair]

Fantasy au designs and lore post!!

So~ here are my fantasy au designs and some good old character lore!

There will be another post for plot, but here’s the link to the main worldbuilding and lore post.

Info and more characters are under the cut (it’s gonna get long):

-

(Can’t remember if I said smth about this but star fae have star shaped markings that these two have and hide)

Jeanist:

So, Tsunagu is half elf, half star fae, and is an elven prince.

His father was an elven king, his mother was a star fae queen.

His father found her fleeing from the village they were destroying, had a change of heart when he saw her (fell in love ooo)

He kept her safe in the palace and tried to convince the others to stop their fae-hunting and let them live in peace but they eventually rebelled against him

They had twins, Tsunagu and his sister. His mother was said to just be a "very magical elf witch" to protect them all

One day, mother got killed and Tsu’s father found her and raised the children by himself

Over time, the king had to tell them about who they were in order for them to hide it so they stayed safe

Unfortunately, darkness took over their kingdom, a dark elf (evil one, very bad) came and killed their father, taking over the kingdom and planting himself as king

Tsunagu follows orders and goes with all the dark and cruel things he says and does in order to keep his sister safe

His sister looked after a crystal necklace, given to them by their mother. She gives it to Tsunagu one day, and tells him to find the piece that it has been split from (it was in a very certain shape, making it clear it had been forcefully split in half - they didnt know what it was) 

This means he follows orders to lead an army into a forest to find and raid one of the last big fae kingdoms

He wields incredibly strong light magic, and can summon special kinds of plants and vines in particular. Isn't great at healing, but he is learning.

His star fae marking is on his neck, which he hides with his clothes and concealing magic.

His sword holds a star beacon piece and was giften to him by his father.

He is nicknamed "the blessed prince" bc of his strong magic

Is afraid of revealing who he is because of how fast star fae (even part star fae) get hunted.

Edgeshot:

Shinya is fully Star Fae, and is the King of one of the last biggest Fae Kingdoms.

Born to the last star fae village, fled when it was destroyed. He was a small child and his parents had been captured

He got taken in by a close (regular) fae kingdom, and the king and queen protected him and raised him as their own alongside their daughter. (hana - my pink fairy sister oc)

((i should mention that he had wings. A lot of Star fae do.))

One day, when he was like- a teenager, the kingdom was attacked and the king was killed, the queen fell ill shortly after and died

Shinya lost his wings protecting his new sister, and eventually the attackers retreated

She appointed Shinya as the new king, because he had shown that he would protect their people and that is how he became king (at a young age)

Him being star fae also meant that his magic could create a protective bubble against the dark, protecting his people

He holds the other half to Tsunagu's piece of the Fallen Star crystal. It was split many many years ago, where two star fae lovers were drawn apart. They split the crystal piece into two, so that they could find each other again.

(unfortunately they never did, but ig maybe they had this chance in a new life ;) )

Naturally, he has strong light magic and can use it to heal very well and create flowers and new sprouts.

He seems incredibly cold and kinda harsh at first, but he's just very protective of his people.

His people do know that he is a Star Fae, but there is a sort of like- vow- for it to never be told to anyone else. (and they are more than happy to not say anything, shinya keeps em safe they like him lol)

Short "how they meet" and their dynamic:

Tsunagu stumbles across the kingdom and gets greeted (at knifepoint) by Shinya at the river bordering the kingdom.

Tsunagu does not want to hurt fae, but he is kinda with an army of elves searching for that very village- so he doesn't believe him.

(even though he was actually looking for the village to warn them all)

He gets knocked out and taken to the fae kingdom, and he wakes up tied to a chair in the middle of a hall like “okay- i was willing to come here why did i get knocked out :(”

Cue Shinya making his proper entrance in his regal clothes and Tsunagu maybe stops functioning for a minute bc god damn he's Hot.

Interrogations.

Elves are approaching too close and so Tsunagu begs for him to let him go talk to them and so he (reluctantly) does.

Tsu tells them to return to camp. And so he goes off with them, leaving the fae kingdom safe

-

their dynamic is basically just:

"enemies to lovers" but they're only enemies because they're supposed to be and - "I don't trust you, get out." "you...you strapped me to this chair- i don't wanna kill you??"

Aizawa:

Aizawa is a human with no magic. He is an assassin and a ranger.

What he doesn't know, is that he has some royal blood - but he doesn't care about that when he does find out.

His mother was a maid in a small human kingdom, and she got pregnant by one of the princes in the palace she worked at. She ran away to be safe

A kind fae witch took her in and Shouta was born, but shortly after, she died of illness

The fae witch raised him enough for him to provide for himself and left him in a bigger human kingdom (it wasn't safe and his mother had asked her to do this)

He grew up not understanding why he had been abandoned and survived by scavenging and roaming around.

He met Hizashi as a kid, and they became friends, until the two kingdoms fell apart and he could no longer see him.

As he grew older, he became an assassin -not by choice- and started going on dangerous missions for the human kingdom.

(i haven't decided what his piece should be yet, but I'll figure it out soon /lh)

Since he has no magic, he fights physically very well and with short sharp weapons.

Mic:

Hizashi is an elven prince, and is constantly kept inside and not allowed to leave the kingdom without close supervision

His fathers are very overprotective but caring, but he gets really bored and wants to explore

(even though he is. terrified. of the outside world.)

When he was a kid, he met Aizawa and they became best friends.

When they separated, he gave Shouta his crystal necklace as their "Promise" that they would get back to each other some day

He grows up and grows into his princely duties, but part of him still wondered if Shouta was still alive.

He wields relatively strong light magic and can use it to manipulate the breeze as his strong point

How they meet in the main plot and dynamic:

Shouta gets sent on a mission to assassinate Hizashi, basically, and he sets off knowing fully well that he could not do this, and that this was the time he runs away

He prays that he will remember him

Climbs into his window and, of course, we have a classic "who tf are you and how are you in my bedroom?????" moment

Until Shouta very quickly reveals his face, they have a short sweet reunion, and he explains they have to leave.

Mic agrees within seconds and just whips out his readily-packed-in-case-of-running-away-emergency bag, and off they go

Shouta returns the necklace in a very emotional sweet moment a few days later when they are safe, and they are now just on the run and out in the wild, happily

-

Childhood friends to lovers - "You came back...thank you" "I promised, didn't I?"

(aka i give them enough angst in my canon hcs and other aus they deserve this one)

Powerloader:

(if it's not already known, Higari gets all my favourite tropes and design elements all the time- i swear its not favouritism, i swear shush shush /lh)

Higari is half dwarf, half dragon shifter.

He is an exiled dwarven general and a blacksmith :)

His mother was a dragon shifter that got captured by his father (a dwarven warrior). He was an asshole haha a bastard, a complete awful fuck-

Anyway his mother got pregnant with him and managed to run away for a bit and entrusted him to a lovely couple that looked after her before she was captured for good.

Higari was raised as a “dwarf” by the lovely couple that owned a smithy. They told him who he was and everything. He disguised himself as a full dwarf and grew up like that.

Eventually he got into the dwarven army, becoming one of the strongest generals.

(he just claimed that he had distant fae ancestors, which was the reason for some of his non-dwarf-like features)

But, one day they wanted to send them out on a mission to capture dragon shifters to use them to look for gold.

He outright refused in front of the king, the other soldiers and everyone. He refused by basically just stepping down right then and there. Obviously he couldn't say why, but he could not take these warriors to kill/capture innocents (like his mother)

He got ridiculed for this and exiled.

He cannot enter the palace, he cannot fight, and if he leaves the kingdom he can't return

Higari is honestly fine with this, he goes back to the smithy and just lives an easy life. Being half dragon shifter makes that not so easy, but as easy as he could.

Uses very strong and particular dark magic, and can sense magic and treasures and all sorts of those things.

His axe holds a piece of the beacon and he made it himself

When he was exiled, his Axe was taken from him and was gifted to another dwarven king as a "peace" offering

Since he is both dragon shifter and dwarf, he can make The Strongest Weapons in almost no time :)

His eyes give away his dragon shifter self, and he wears those lil metal claw things to cover up dark markings on his fingertips

Is the embodiment of Identity Crisis in this au <3

The soliders that followed him and agreed with him also got exiled. (his two children- i mean, closest friends and soldiers are thirteen and cementoss)

He doesn't know how to shift into a dragon

Ectoplasm:

Oh boy, here we go... /lh

Ecto is an elf, an elven prince to a lovely (and the least problematic) elven kingdom.

He used light magic and was a strong fighter and was often leading any battles that needed to be fought, but well, one day in these battles:

He died :)

They couldn’t find his body, but he did die.

Parents and kingdom are left to mourn him after the battle, and his good ol bestie snipe doesnt wanna believe that hes dead. (this is purely out of denial, he knows he is dead.)

Ecto wakes up in a dark cave-like room, very confused as to where he was and how he got there.

Turns out he got revived by a soulwatcher, but he didnt know why. The soulwatcher simply explained that a time would come where he would understand, but it was important that he was revived.

A few weeks pass and ecto finds out more about himself. 

He lost his legs, those apparently couldn't be replaced. He died, but he was now alive. He had skeletal features….

And he was now a wielder of dark magic instead of light magic. A certain type of dark magic too, one that he didn't fully understand.

The soulwatcher taught him the basics and how to conceal himself to look like how he used to. 

He was going to go back home and act like nothing happened, and that he was okay.

Snipe found him and was like “okay- man- i know i said i wasn’t believing you were dead but you literally got stabbed in front of me why are you alive???”

He explains everything to him bc….besties /lh and they return home.

Everyone rejoices and everything returns to how it was, except he pretends that his magic is weaker bc of the injury so he doesnt use it (bc haha dark magic now)

The soulwatcher gave him a staff with a certain crystal in the end of it. He simply said “it'll come in useful” and ecto has to just explain that a kind wizard healed him and gave it to him to help him get around.

His usual legs are made of wood but enchanted with dark magic to make them look and act normal. He had to explain that to his parents and they were like ????

And his face appears normal to others bc of magic

But (like in the designs) unmasked Ecto has shadow magic legs and his skeletal face <3

Since he is now a soulwatcher, he gets random visions and can interact with the dead.

How they met and dynamic:

Ecto's kingdom was visiting Higari's and Ecto's sword breaks during training but no royal blacksmiths can fix it bc it's "too difficult" (elvish and magic blade)

He ends up going for a walk and a civilian tells him about Higari's smithy so he goes in

Higari takes his sword and says it'll be an easy fix, and that he should come back in a day. Ecto is shocked but happily obliges.

Higari instantly knows that something is off and can sense the dark magic both on him and the sword

He also kinda fixes it immediately with the help of his own dark magic

They meet up the next evening when Ecto comes to pick up his sword, can't find Higari, walks into a lil training area around the back and almost gets hit by an axe that Higari threw at him on instinct

-

They have a slightly ??? dynamic, idk how to label it - "You've got secrets, should I trust you as much as I am right now?" "You also have secrets...let's figure them out together"

but also

"everyone thinks i kidnapped you D:" "but you didn't?? This was my idea???"

—

The characters get to go on their own separate journeys and adventures, and they all lead to the same point in the end! The journeys and bonds they make separately all contribute to the shared goal of saving the world from darkness :D

I wanted to do more characters (in particular: all three of mirukyubami, hawks, thirteen and cementoss) but this is already long as it is so just these guys for now!

[dark-night-star-light]

Spirit Animals: Wild Born (Reread pt. 1)

DISCLAIMER: WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR BOOKS ONE THROUGH SEVEN.

Masterpost

Chapter 1

" . . . and Conor was the third son of Fenray, Herder of Sheep" (1). Conor is actually hilarious, you guys.

There's a dark-skinned guy at Conor's ceremony, and I can't remember??? Who it is??? I don't think it's Tarik???

"Eyes closed, Devin tilted his face skyward" (8). He is literally such a drama queen.

"Whatever the taste, sampling the Nectar would officially mark the end of his childhood" (9). Aren't they??? Eleven???

*narrator voice* It was, in fact, Tarik.

Chapter 2

How did Abeke learn to shoot/hunt if women are scorned for it? Nobody in her village approved. Who taught her??? Did she teach herself? She's literally so talented.

"The Nectar tasted like unheated soup, the kind her mother used to make with crushed nuts" (19). So the Nectar doesn't necessarily taste sweet, just whatever the recipient thinks of as tasty.

"'A traveler like me hails from all corners'" (23), "'These rumors are the groans of a dam about to burst'" (23). Zerif talking in riddles to make himself seem smarter is so funny.

"Did he want to be rid of her? Would he act so eager if Soama had summoned this leopard?" (24). My. Heart.

Chapter 3

"None of the boys actually knew her" (29). Ohhhhhh yeah, you have no idea.

Lenori herself came to Meilin's ceremony??? Wow. Literally do not remember that.

"The warm fluid was bitter to her tongue - it took some effort to avoid gagging" (32). I kind of wonder if Meilin ever wondered why the Nectar was called the Nectar between now and the end of Against the Tide. Didn't she ever question it?

I did not remember the invasion being this abrupt???

"The Devourer was a legend from the past, a monster in nursery stories" (37). Do normal people think that the First Devourer War was just a myth? They don't, like, talk about it during history class or something? Huh.

I don't remember the battle being this long, either.

Chapter 4

" . . . the life of a friend outweighed some rule" (44). I forgot Rollan had friends on the street. Didn't it mention in later books that he had no friends and never trusted anybody? Maybe I'm wrong.

"'Maybe you could get creative? You know, to help stop a kid from dying?'" (45). Woah, Rollan tamp down on the passive-aggressiveness.

"Rollan decided he could stop licking Mr. Valdez's boots" (46). My guy, you stopped doing that a long time ago.

"'Actually, I'm a lost prince. If you take me back to Eura, my father will reward you'" (49). This guy really needs to stop being so passive-agressive.

"'People don't bond with insects'" (51). Why not?

"'That was quite a speech'" (51). Congrats, Rollan, you've graduated from passive-agressive to sarcastic.

I thought Rollan got his Nectar from Zerif???

Never mind, here comes Zerif.

Olvan??? Is here???

Chapter 5

"What if she had missed her chance finally to fit in?" (60). Abeke's father is psychologically abusive.

I never realized how much the Conquerors all . . . spoke the truth? Like technically, nothing Zerif said was false, it was just manipulative. Shane is the same way.

Speaking of which! Shane!

"'Spirit animals always arrive as adults'" (62). What happens if your spirit animal has the lifespan of a mayfly? It'll be dead in 0.4 seconds. Or do spirit animals have longer-than-average lifespans?

" . . . he had bashfully shown her the hint of a mark high on his chest" (63). Wow, that's pretty manipulative of Shane. Also, how did Abeke not find it suspicious that she didn't get to see the full thing?

"She lunged and stabbed hard, hoping to catch him off guard" (64). One of my pet peeves in books is when characters stop fighting to talk. Abeke using this to her advantage is so smart.

I forgot about Shane's pretend assassin. Honestly, I don't get why Abeke is so mad. Like, she demonstrated her abilities well? And, it proved she had skill in actual combat. But I guess it's like an honor thing?

Abeke! Is the first! Of the four! To summon her spirit animal into passive state! Even before Meilin, and she had Bile!

Chapter 6

Wow, Conor accepted the green cloak almost immediately. That's a bit strange, considering he never seemed to express any desire for it until now.

" . . . and he realized her shy smile was practiced" (71). Rollan being able to tell Meilin's "alternate personality" is completely fake without even saying a word to her is actually kind of iconic.

" . . . Meilin asked, speaking Common" (72). I'm guessing Common is like English.

"'Which is the lie?' Meilin asked. 'That you were in jail, or that you were there for stealing medicine?' Rollan shrugged. 'You got me. I'm actually Olvan's son. He's having me spy on you.'" (74). Rollan and Meilin enemies(?) to lovers arc, my beloved.

"It was Conor!" (78). The excessive use of exclamation points in this book is so strange.

Rollan judging people be like: you're either stupid, or not stupid. You're either rich, or not rich.

"'I never asked for my own Great Beast, but it happened, and now the Greencloaks need my help to protect the world'" (80). Am I the only one that thinks that's a flimsy justification? Conor's pretty gullible. Can't he help the Greencloaks without joining them? It's not like they'd ditch him by the side of the road.

"'That means they're using me and that makes me cautious'" (81). Exactly. It's pretty cool how a middle-grade series like this has morally gray "good guys".

"'I hear they like flowers'" (82). Ladies and gentlemen, may I present, Conor and Rollan talking about girls.

Chapter 7

"Had they discussed her in private?" (84). Meilin's brain 95% of the time: Zhong is under attack. How do I help my father? These idiots shouldn't have brought me here! I want to fight by his side! Meilin's brain the remaining 5% of the time: Did they talk behind my back about me?

"That might explain why Conor was good at it - she doubted his problem would be too much thought" (87). Oof, both Rollan and Meilin think Conor is stupid.

"Had the boys practiced? Probably" (87). Meilin is so flustered, it's funny.

"Maybe she was the one unable to receive the cues" (88). I'll say.

"Her father had always told her to keep her abilities private so she could surprise adversaries in times of need" (88). Wait, wait, wait. Does Meilin see Conor and Rollan as adversaries?

"'I didn't live in a palace'" (90). No, of course not. It was only a mansion.

"'A slow orphan ends up in jail.' 'Weren't you just in jail?'" (90). Rollan/Meilin banter is literally carrying this book, in my humble opinion.

"'We have to use you correctly . . . '" (94). Tarik, you're proving Rollan's point about the Greencloaks.

Meilin at the end of that chapter is lowkey toxic towards Jhi?

Chapter 8

So far, it's pretty clear that Abeke is the only one that regards her spirit animal as a friend. (Conor hasn't had a POV besides the summoning one yet.)

"'A dose is a dose. The amount don't matter'" (101). So a drop is the same as a liter?

"'They're trying to find a replacement for the Nectar. They try out their concoctions in secret'" (106). Shane's telling half-truths again.

Chapter 9

"Conor was very conscious of her heightened interest. Didn't she ever blink?" (110). See? He's not stupid.

"'The wolf seems to agree,' Lenori said. Briggan barked, making Conor jump" (111). My personal headcanon: Briggan hates being called "the wolf".

Ah, vague prophetic dreams, my enemy.

Seriously don't remember Conor doing the waking dream thing???

Olvan referring to the world as "the four nations" is just. So ouch. Like, oof for Stetriol. I wonder if Olvan knows about Stetriol? Probably, right?

"' . . . the Great Beasts are a strange group . . . '" (116). Wow, just gonna say that in front of three of the Four Fallen? Okay.

"'The events surrounding the Great Beasts are often dismissed as legend' . . . 'I heard about that from my nanny'" (116). LMFAO. Also, I guess the Great Beasts are kind of like gods?

"'Whether we're up against the same Devourer who leveled much of Erdas long ago . . . '" (117). Do they actually think the Devourer is immortal?

Wow, that was a lot of info-dumping. At least they saved it for the middle to not overwhelm the reader at the beginning. That was a good choice.

"Who did Rollan think he was? What kind of reward did he expect?" (119). Um, Rollan kind of actually has a point, though?

Chapter 10

" . . . Amaya, the New Lands" (123). Why is Amaya called the New Lands? It's already established that it was there during the first Devourer War, which was a long time ago, so why???

"'I want to like you too'" (123). Ouch.

Why didn't Jhi tell Meilin about the Bile bonding during the dream? Maybe the dream wasn't a real connection between Jhi and Meilin? But, if it was, couldn't Jhi have warned Meilin about the Bile bond?

"Jhi felt warm and perfect" (126). Ayyyyyy.

Chapter 11

"Who were they, and why did they leave Uraza so agitated?" (128). Can Great Beasts sense a Bile bond?

"'I know it is rare across the rest of Erdas, but in Stetriol, summoning a saltwater crocodile is no cause for astonishment . . . '" (130). Kind of want a fic of a random (non-Stetriolan) person summoning a saltwater crocodile and being shunned for it. People compare them to the Devourer and eventually they work their way up to success. (This is before the main story takes place, by the way.)

"This information was new to her, but she supposed it was all plausible" (131). I'm surprised she bought it that quickly??? I don't know, it seems like if you didn't know about the existence of Stetriol, you'd probably be skeptical . . . 

"'How awful! Your bonding . . . ' 'Occurred without any Nectar'" (132). Wow, Shane is really good at the whole half-truth thing.

Well, that was also a shit ton of info-dumping. At least it wasn't at the beginning.

I forgot the talismans could only be used by the Marked . . . 

"'What about the men who were making monsters?'" (134). Legit do not remember a single thing about this plotline. What happens to them? The substance is Bile, right?

Chapter 12

" . . . Rollan could renounce his rewards and take up the green cloak instead" (137). The deal Olvan makes with Rollan is so weird . . . shouldn't Rollan get a manor and money even if he does become a Greencloak?

So Amaya is the New Lands and Zhong is the Walled Lands. Huh. Must've completely blocked that out on my first time through.

"'Some former Greencloaks hold grudges'" (139). Why, though? Were they forcibly released?

"'Never out of shame or to win favor'" (139). If I'm not wrong, this has some reason to do with why Rollan eventually joins the Greencloaks? I don't know, may not be remembering right.

"'Go drink your Nectar!'" (142). This might be the funniest way I've ever heard someone try to insult a Greencloak.

Tarik started throwing punches???

Okay, I apparently thought that Monte and Barlow were actually Greencloaks, but apparently they're former Greencloaks. Why does Monte hate the Greencloaks, then?

Chapter 13

 "To think the man behind the counter had been one of the pair they were looking for!" (144). The exclamation point makes Conor sound so innocent.

"Barlow's laugh subsided, but his heavy shoulders kept heaving. He wiped a tear from his eye'" (145). Wow, he managed to produce a tear? That's good. 

" . . . Conor said, aware that the animals had made an impact on the two explorers" (147). Yeah, I wonder why.

"' . . . With the animals they have, they'll be formidable.' Conor couldn't help feeling a little inflated by the praise" (150). But . . . he didn't really praise the kids, he praised their animals???

Barlow has a point about Greencloak child soldiers. I don't think this problem ever gets fixed??? Like, they should stop sending kids on quests and instead train them. Or, even better, they can have the kids do the Nectar ceremonies. That way, the kids can stay in their homes, not be separated from their families, do a job that will boost that pre-teen ego, and still stay out of danger.

Chapter 14

"She . . . could not help feeling that to praise the magnificence of this wilderness would somehow diminish her and her homeland" (153). Girl, it's not a competition. 

I wonder how everyone else reacted to Meilin's sleepwalking episode in the middle of the woods. Did they even realize it happened? Also Jhi knows their bond is a Bile bond, right? So why didn't she try to warn Meilin?

"'Essix votes for Meilin'" (159). It's a good thing they had Essix endorse Meilin, because it would've been weird if they just let Meilin carry the fight without anyone supporting her stance.

How does Essix know about Meilin's skills? Is it just intuition???

I wouldn't really say Meilin is arrogant, but she is sure of her abilities. Like, she never lets overconfidence get the best of her? It's great. Overly cocky characters suck.

"No! Such doubts were poison. She had to keep her head" (161). I remember this scene so vividly, it's honestly iconic.

"Meilin knew what spots on the thigh would provide maximum discomfort . . . " (162). Yeah, get him.

" . . . she knew how to focus her blows . . . " (163). Hell, yeah.

She beat him so bad. Eleven to zero. Kind of unrealistic that he didn't even get her once, though.

Chapter 15

" . . . Rollan wondered, rising to cross to his horse" (164). When is the iconic Rollan-horse rivalry going to begin? So far, he seems to be on good terms with his horse, and it's been weeks. 

"Conor shrugged. 'If we want the talisman'" (165). He's so straightforward, it's great.

Genuinely forgot how good Rollan and Conor's friendship was in this book. Like, it was actually good before Hunted's ending ruined it.

Conor and Rollan are once again talking about Meilin behind her back, except this time Meilin could actually overhear them.

"Rollan couldn't believe this was becoming a competition. 'Look, my terrible childhood is all I've got! Don't you dare try to top it'" (167). LMFAO.

Rollan and Essix bonding moment, my beloved.

" . . . they reached a precarious stretch where the horses could not pass" (173). What did they do with them, then? Did they just leave them on top of a mountain?

Arax is actually not that bad of a Great Beast, like when he thought they came for advice, he just gave it freely, without asking for anything.

Chapter 16

"'I like the color of your cloak, Rollan'" (180). Zerif really thinks he's smarter than he is.

"'Abeke!' Meilin called . . . " (180). HOW DOES MEILIN KNOW ABEKE'S NAME??? PLOTHOLE???

"The tension between [Briggan and Uraza] made Meilin ready her quarterstaff" (180). Why is there tension??? They're friends???

Meilin assuring Conor! Bonding moment!

Jhi just made a cougar fall asleep and Meilin's reaction is "Better than nothing"??? 

"Uraza snarled, batting at [Essix] with lethal paws" (183). WHY IS URAZA FIGHTING THEM???

Seriously, how does Meilin know Abeke's name? It's never been mentioned to her.

I forgot that Shane is a way better fighter than Meilin. And Rollan. Combined.

Chapter 17

"Shane fought a Zhongese girl who was putting up surprising resistance considering how young and small she looked" (185). Shane is only a year older, though???

"Then a boy with Shane's wolverine dangling from his arm tackled Shane from behind" (187). Rollan???

*narrator voice* It was, in fact, Rollan.

Arax kept his talisman in a box??? For real???

Barlow throwing Arax off a cliff is so iconic.

"A stab in the back. The lowest blow one could deliver" (193). Abeke's sense of honor is so opposite to Meilin's (Meilin is all take whatever advantage you can get). Would've been interesting if they had used that to fuel their antagonism, somehow.

Aw, Meilin cries at Barlow's death.

Barlow and Monte giving more-than-friends energy.

"'If it can be managed, dispose of me in a green cloak'" (194). Okay, what??? Barlow spent no time even seeming to warm up to them, though??? Like I get he used to be one, but it's still weird considering his animosity toward them???

"'The trick will be getting him to the horses'" (195). Okay, so they didn't abandon the horses.

Chapter 18

"Monte had traveled with them . . . to renew his vows" (196). Again, it really feels like we went from the pair not liking the Greencloaks to immediately being chill with them???

Passive! State! Briggan!

"Meilin and Abeke were with him, wearing their green cloaks" (197). Abeke became a Greencloak immediately, too? I guess it makes sense . . . she needs their trust. Also, all the four first moment!

"Direct conversation with Meilin tended to fluster him" (198). Cinnamon roll, who?

"'I respect you three for joining . . . Especially you, Abeke'" (198). So Rollan was a-okay with Abeke in the first book, but in the second, he's not???

Also, a long paragraph like that feels so . . . off for Rollan??? I don't know how to describe it.

Chapter 19

Wombats freed Gerathon??? Don't remember this.

"As promised, it had finally been delivered to him. Years of work would culminate tonight" (200). I'm pretty sure the guy is Zerif. Did the key come from Halawir???

"They were in thrall to the presence beneath the mound" (201). Can Great Beasts control normal animals???

This guy is for sure being controlled by Gerathon's "pull" or whatever.

Oh, wait. I'm pretty sure Gerathon eats this guy.

Final thoughts and rating:

The writing was pretty good, I feel, except for some weird grammar here and there, like missing commas, but I can forgive that. The formal tone really sets you in the world, so I thought that was good. The way the worldbuilding was done is also really good, they save the majority of the info-dumps for the middle part, after the reader has a good feel for the world. Definitely a good choice. I feel like the book towed the line between emotional and logical, so that's good. Nobody acted unbearably stupid, always a plus. Also, I really like how they excluded any scenes that weren't strictly necessary, because I feel like a lot of authors nowadays feel the need to drag out their books so much???

I will say the death of Barlow plays into a trope where a character will be introduced more than halfway through only to be killed at the end, which I think is a pretty cheap way to generate emotion. I think it would've hit harder if he'd been there since the beginning and then gotten killed? Or if he'd had a stronger bond with them? Meilin knowing Abeke's name is definitely a plot hole, Barlow and Monte warmed way too easily to the Greencloaks, and Rollan definitely seemed out of character at the end. 

Rating: 8/10

[return-of-the-queen-au]

Idk what was I doing here but here you go,

It's just a random fic dw

Everything is cold.

Everything feels so cold.

"..wh-..what..?" she mumbled to no one in particular.

"My..my- prince..?" She mumbled, this time asking for someone, but there wasn't anyone in sight.

All there was, was just ice and a feeling of empty everywhere. Everything was so cold and silent, it seemed like the world just dissapeared. Like everyone dissapeared! there weren't the guards, or his prince, or the people outside playing or just.. living.

the front door wouldn't open, and the confused queen was left there wondering what has happened.

The last thing she remembered was seeing her prince with some red haired girl. She didn't know what took over her, why was she so mad? What happened? Where's her beloved prince?

Has she lost control again? Is that the reason why everything is so,,cold? Wasn't it the middle of summer?

"Guards? My prince?" She called, louder. But all she heard was her own voice.

What if she hurt them? What if because of,,of- of her horrible curse she hurt innocent people!?

What if she has hurt her prince—

Something broke. Maybe a vase. no- no, it sounded like,,chains? And,,water? No, ice?

She didn't understood, all she could do was jump and bump on the wall behind her from the sudden noise. "WHO'S- WHO IS THERE?!" she screamed, demanding answers to whatever that was. But the noise just kept becoming louder and louder to the point the queen thought someone was fighting with some chains!

But once she calmed down- well, stopped shivering from whoever the intruder could be and hurt her once they found their way in, (unless they were already in.) She realized that the noise came from the cellar! Who could be in the cellar? Almost,,no. No one was ever there! At that point it was used to put random things that were useless!

Maybe someone broke in through there? But, who?

And,,now that she finally sees through a window, everything is covered in snow! You could,,you can't even see the village! What happened? Did she do all of this? Did she got upset again? oh no! Oh no no! Her mother always told her to keep herself calm or she could have hurt somebody with her..powers. no, curse.

did she hurt—

"....n...s..sa—"

WHAT WAS THAT? Was that a person? She tried to move away from the noise but ice has grown under her feet, making her fall down.

she hated this. She hated all of this. Did she did this? Why? Why does this curse have to ruin everything?

Where is her sweet prince? He was always there to comfort her,, she's worried.

Is he here? Has he gotten hurt? Is he buried under the snow outside? She really hopes not.

But just when the queen started sobbing to herself from the amount of questions and realizations of what could have possibly happened, the door that lead to the cellar swung open with so much force it shook the whole manor. "AH-" she jumped again from the sudden noise, breathing heavily from the tears, trying her best to break the remaining ice under her feet. She didn't care if it ruined her dress, she needed to get out of here! She needed to find her prince- find out what happened- make sure that everyone is okay-

"..'nessa?" a whispering and echoey voice asked, it felt familiar, but with the whispering, she couldn't tell.

She kept pulling and pulling until she did the mistake of opening her eyes and look at the intruder.

"..van..vanny..?" a purple figure of a person asked, with tears in it's yellow glowy eyes. There was no mouth and his body seemed to be made out of shadows, it wasn't solid, but it gave at least a shape.

She screamed at the sight of whatever monster was in front of her, looking at her very soul.

"WHO ARE YOU? HOW DID YOU GET HERE? GUARDS! GUARDS!" she screamed for help that never came, she didn't wanna die! Who even was this monster!

",,Vanny,,my dear,, I'm- vannyyy,," the voice of the monster suddenly became sweet and full of joy. Why was it calling her "vanny?"

That's a nickname only—

No. No. Please. Oh please, no.

Looking at the monster who was face to face to her now, trying it's best to keep itself up, trying to gently touch her cheeks, everything became so obvious, the world felt it was crushing and breaking to her feet.

"....my...prince...?"