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samgwrites · 4 years

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Woodward

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Chapter 9: Revel in It

James and Pieridae were in a predicament, to say the least. For the first time in four years, they were back in the Queen’s courtroom, kneeling side by side.

They weren’t in trouble, not yet. But the queen didn’t look all that pleased with them either.

“Do you know why you’re here, Pieridae?”

“No, my queen.” The queen sighed, and the boys winced.

“Do you know what day it is?”

“Uh… Wednesday?”

“Try again.” It never failed to amaze James how much annoyance could go into such softly spoken words.

“Oh! It’s my birthday!”

“Correct, and this-”

“Wait,but, Mother,” Pieridae cocked his head to the side, “You never celebrate my birthday. I’ve been planning my own revels since I was seven.” Maybe James imagined it, but he could’ve sworn her eye twitched.

“Yes, Pieridae, and that is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. You are turning sixteen today, and I’m assuming you have a revel planned for tonight, and I wanted to discuss proper decorum going forward.” Pieridae scoffed and James shot him a panicked look.

“Decorum? Mother, it’s a party.”

“Well, it should still be a party with rules. And as the crown prince of the spring court, those rules should be especially important to you. Your siblings already know this, you should too.” Pieridae rolled his eyes. James was going to strangle him. James still hadn’t gotten a chance to meet Pieridae’s other high royal siblings, but Pieridae had once explained “They’re dicks, you probably wouldn’t like them anyway.”

“Alright, my queen, lay them on me.”

“First of all, you should not be participating in the dancing, unless it is with one or two trusted partners.”

“Ah, what?”

“Secondly, you should be on your throne the entire time you are not dancing.”

“Mother, I don’t have a throne,”

“Then make one. Following that, if you want something to eat, someone else will go get it and test it for you. Your human should be able to do that for you, yes?” She finished her statement looking at James. So that was why he was here. He glanced nervously at Pieridae.

“Steller doesn’t come to my revels.” Pieridae said, and of course it was the truth. James had never been to one of Pieridae’s parties. He’d ask to go once, and Pieridae had shook his head immediately, saying James wouldn’t be able to handle it. James had been offended at the time, but when he asked Aeran about it once and the older fae had turned pale and warned him that he should avoid the revels, he decided to drop it.

“Well, he does now.” The queen said, and James got a very strong feeling that they were not going to win this argument. He turned fully to Pieridae.

“Perhaps we should listen to her, Pieridae,” James said, “I’ll be right next to you all night, alright? No need to worry.”

“Your human needs better manners, my child, he assumes too much,” James really needed to work on honorifics, “but he is correct. You should listen to me.” Pieridae dipped his head, but James could see his yellow eyes flicking back and forth, as they always did when Pieridae was looking for an answer. “Yes, Pieridae?”

“Yes mother. I will work on those things right away,” Pieridae stood, and motioned for James to follow. “C’mon Steller,” James stood up and followed Pieridae out of the court.

Pieridae started to panic well before they got back to his court.

“Shit!”

“Language, Pieridae,”

“Fuck!”

“That’s worse,” James sighed, sinking down into his pillows.

“I don’t know what to do, James!” He threw his hands up, “Why does she care about my revels? Why does it matter now?”

“Maybe we should just listen to her, Dae, I mean, it can’t be that bad. I’ll just sit next to you and go get you drinks, like she said,” He hummed, thinking, “Though I guess I don’t get to drink, right? Not so bad, it’s like going to a party with alcohol,” Not that he’d ever gotten the chance to do that.

“Ugh, why are you on her side?” Pieridae groaned.

“Uh, cause I don’t want to get turned into a vegetable or a zombie or have my lungs removed or whatever it is your mom does?” Pieridae dropped his arms and sighed, before walking over and dropping down next to James.

“Yeah, yeah,” Pieridae leaned into James, “I know she scares you-”

“She locked me in a dungeon for like a week, Pieridae.”

“I know! Let me finish. I know she scares you, and for good reason, but you need to understand these revels… It's a party, like I said, but some fae have a tendency to go overboard when it comes to, well, fun. And I’m worried that, if you came, you might get hurt,” James shifted slightly, so that he could look down at the prince. A grin overtook his face.

“You care about me,” He sang, humor filling his voice, bringing his arms around the other’s torso and hugging. Pieridae smacked him away.

“Oh, shut up, asshole. You’re a weak little human who couldn’t handle himself at the most mundane of revels,” He sighed again, “Seriously, though. We need to set up some ground rules,” James nodded.

“That’s probably a good idea.”

“Ok so first off, you should be near my throne most of the time. No going off to dance without me.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

“You probably shouldn’t talk to anybody else either.”

“Well hold on-”

“Oh gods, should we even talk? Maybe you can just stay silent the whole night.” “Yeah, that’s a no. Pieridae if I have to go to this thing, I at least want to have fun,” James said, seriously, causing Pieridae to pause and shake his head.

“I know, but there are so many factors! I’m sure we’ll go to another soon, can’t we just treat this as a test run?” James shook his head.

“No way, I am not going to be some human statue for the entire night. I’ll be careful with who I talk to, I won’t dance, I won’t answer any personal questions, I’ll stay within sight and earshot, and if you’re worried about your loyal subjects seeing you get so chummy with a human than we can learn sign language or something,” James rattled off his ideas quickly, then looked back to Pieridae who was nodding slowly.

“I’m still worried, but if you stick to those it might not be so bad, actually, but what was the last thing you mentioned?”

“Oh, it’s something I’ve been thinking about for awhile now,” James smiled, “Ok so I don’t know a lot cause my dad only taught me a few signs when I was like, super little, but basically, sometimes humans can’t speak or hear properly, so they communicate with their hands,” Pieridae nodded.

“Alright, so it’s a language? I can probably convince one of the changelings to grab us a book or something on it and not tell anyone,” He replied. James hummed.

“Sounds good. But about tonight…”

The pair talked for a while, and argued a bit, but eventually settled on a plan. They took a nap, James on a pile of pillows and Pieridae sprawled across his rug like a cat, before Pieridae nudged James awake and said they had to start getting ready if they wanted to get there early enough to not be surprised, and so Pieridae had time to make his throne.

Pieridae tossed some clothes to James, shrugging when the human raised a questioning eyebrow. James shrugged in return. The shirt was a loose, flowy thing, that looked like it might be used in a play. There was also a shimmering blue vest that had feather-like clasps where the buttons should have been. It was surprisingly comfortable, but most of the clothes that he had were. Pieridae looked as he usually did, but he had some new jewelry that he seemed excited about.

The walk to where the party would be was longer than what James was used to. They passed the door to Aeran’s court, before turning a way that he didn’t recognize. They wandered down the veritable maze that was the fae stronghold, Pieridae holding tightly to James’s hand to make sure he didn’t get lost.

They arrived at a door that Pieridae pushed through, and while he had been expecting a courtroom like the Queen’s, James was shocked to see it wasn’t a room at all. The door opened to a wide open expanse, no cave walls or thick forest in sight. There was a large circle made by a moat in the grassy plain where it was obvious the revel was to be held. There was a stone path leading to a cobble-stone dais in the center. Something seemed different, in the air. Like it wasn’t as humid.

“Where are we?” James asked, following behind Pieridae as he walked up on and on to the dais. Pieridae looked around.

“I’m not sure, but we’re not in the woods anymore.” James rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I can see that, but I mean… are we still in your… realm or whatever? It feels different.” Pieridae had raised his hands over the center of the stone platform and his eyes were closed, but he responded anyway.

“I guess you could say we’re in one of the mushroom circles… a really big one,” His voice sounded a bit strained. “Technically where we are right now is in the human world, but not anywhere close to where you’re from. When it gets later this place will be in our world… this place has existed for a really long time. I’ve heard stories that humans who came in the early hours of morning and went into the ring itself would get stuck on our side,” With that Pieridae grunted and made a tugging motion with his hands. Gnarled roots burst from the ground, twisting and bending and growing larger and harder until they resembled a high backed wooden thrown. The prince let out a sigh. “There! That should do it, don’t you think?”

James was too consumed by his thoughts to enter. He was back home? This was the human world? Normal earth? No shades or creatures or poisoned food, could he leave? Could he hop the gap in the land and just run for it? He hadn’t thought about escape in almost a year now, but it was so close, and as he looked out at the rolling green fields he could swear he could see houses and people in the distance. But as Pieridae came up to him and cocked his head to the side, silently asking if he was ok, he remembered the last part of what the prince had said.

“Pieridae, could those people that got trapped get back out?” He asked, still looking out over the expanse. He felt Pieridae’s sad expression more than he saw it, and heard the regret in the sigh that came before the older boy’s answer.

“I knew you would ask me that. These circles are tricky. Much easier to enter than to exit. No, they couldn’t get back out,” There was something else that Pieridae wanted to say about that, James knew, but he didn’t press when Pieridae continued. “You’re still going to leave one day, alright? You’re not going to be stuck here forever. Besides, I think this place is in Ireland, and that is definitely not where you said you were from,” James let out a slight laugh and leaned into Pieridae.

“Yeah, yeah. So when’s the party start?”

The dancers in the chain around the small fire jumped and spun erratically, never letting go of each other. They circled flames, laughing and singing, beckoning others to join. James doubted he could keep up, even if he hadn’t promised Pieridae he wouldn’t dance with anyone else. Their garments swayed with their movements, and his eyes couldn’t keep track of where one dancer ended and another began. All he saw were strokes of paint, flowing freely around the inferno. To him, it seemed as if they left afterimages in their wake before the light of the fire overtook the clearing once more. As he sat on the steps near Pieridae’s throne, watching this alien celebration, one of the dancers broke off and walked towards the pair. She bowed to Pieridae, before motioning to the steps, clearly asking permission if she could rest with James. After a moment, Pieridae nodded, waving a hand before bored eyes once again resumed watching the festivities.

She sat down next to James, causing the pine needles and moss that covered the rocky steps to shift slightly.

“Why don’t you join us?” She asked, with a voice that was giddy and drunk on the atmosphere. She was pretty. She was smaller than him, wearing an old style pink dress that didn’t reach her bare feet. Her eyes shined in a kaleidoscope of colors, squinting at him in glee and good humor. Her blonde hair fell in ringlets around her shoulders, only interrupted by her pointed ears and the abundance of flowers around her head.

“My feet are not as strong as yours,” He said gently, “I’d rather just watch.” She nodded sympathetically, seemingly unaware of James’ slight lie.

“I can understand. I love it, but some of the others can only go so long before they fall over,” She said, and he nodded in response. She frowned at him. “You’re human, aren’t you? You’d probably snap in half,” James found that he didn’t like the way her eyes shined when she said that.

“My dad and I used to dance together,” He found himself saying, and Pieridae shot him a look. He wasn’t sure what had pushed those words out, but something made the memory come to the surface. “He’d turn on our little radio and we’d dance around the kitchen,” He smiled softly. Caught up in the memory, he didn’t notice him being pulled to his feet and stepping off the dais.

“Steller, what are you-” Pieridae started, but James only waved his free hand and smiled.

“I’m just going to stretch my legs, your highness! Let me get you something to eat!” James wasn’t sure where that came from either, but it wasn’t untrue. The golden haired fae laughed as he pulled away from her and bowed slightly, walking towards one of the stones with fruit piled high atop it. Walking through the crowd, he saw plenty of fae having fun outside of the dancers. It was a less diverse crowd than the Queen’s courtroom, but that was only because the guest list was mainly made up of spring faeries, and there were only a few from the other courts.

His head felt a little fuzzy, and he suspected it was the atmosphere. As he turned back to deliver Pieridae his snacks and keep the bored prince company, he felt something brush against his leg. He glanced down and suppressed a yelp at the sight of a shade curling up his foot. It was fine, it was fine, they were harmless when they weren’t being controlled, it was probably just here to keep an eye on things for the queen, right, yes, and all he had to do was walk back to Pieridae.

It was harder than it should have been. James had to turn down way too many offers to dance, and many of the fae didn’t seem to understand the meaning of personal space. It came to a head when a large tree spirit stepped in front of him, bending down to look at his face.

“What are you?” It asked, slowly in a deep and menacing voice, though James was more annoyed than anything else.

“What am I? I’m currently late for delivering the prince’s food, so if you don’t mind,” He attempted to side step the spirit, but another hand reached and grabbed his arm. They seemed to be a court fae, with long straight black hair and pale skin dressed in delicate finery.

“That isn’t what it meant!” He said in a sing-song voice, “It meant, what type of being are you? You’re certainly like nothing I’ve seen.” James frowned.

“Well right now, I’m being delayed, so if you really don’t mind-” The grip on his arm tightened.

“Oh I know! You’re the prince’s little human! Heard you caused a stir when you first arrived,” Arrived, he said, like James hadn’t been kidnapped, “So much energy in such a frail body! Come dance with me, human, it’ll be fun, the prince won’t mind!” James scowled and tugged his arm free.

“I’d really rather not,” His patience was wearing thin, and while James knew to be polite to fae he didn’t know, he was very close to forgetting his manners. He got around the spirit, and got up to the edge of the dais. Pieridae smiled when he saw him, and started standing up from his chair, but suddenly his face was overcome with a look of surprise, and James felt pain on his arm. That fae was back, holding it far too tightly, smiling up at Pieridae.

“Hello your highness!” He sang, “Mind if I take your human for a dance? My own prince sent me to see what all the fuss was about. You spring types are always so silly. I haven’t seen a human this alert in ages!” His body seemed to shift as he said that, almost as imperceptible as the dresses of the dancers, and his grip felt like ice. James spoke up, unsure of what to do.

“Your highness I have the food I promised! I’m afraid I can’t give it to you until this kind man lets go of me,” James suspected that if he was cursed the inability to lie as most fae were, he wouldn’t have been able to add the adjective. And apparently it was the wrong thing to say, as suddenly, the blond fae from earlier was lifting the plate of food out of his hands, giggling all the while, as if she’d just fixed the simplest of problems. The dark haired fae’s other arm came to rest on his shoulder.

He snapped

“Get off of me!” He practically screeched, yanking to pull his arm away from the creature that was holding him. It didn’t work, and the man’s smile grew wider, revealing too many sharp teeth. The prince seemed to snap out of whatever decorum he’d been trying to uphold at the same time.

“Let go of him!” Pieridae hissed and leapt from his throne, and James managed to break free, but the fae’s ice cold claws sliced his skin as they released him, and he fell to the floor in shock, clutching his arm. Pieridae stood over him, snarling at the fae who hadn’t yet left the foot dias. Mushrooms and moss grew and died rapidly around them, roots broke the surface and then decayed, and while James wasn’t looking at the Prince’s face he could imagine the animalistic rage that he would see on his features.

“How dare you touch him?” Pieridae spat. “How dare you come into my court and expect to act like an animal? That goes for the rest of you! I can see you! I have watched all night! This revel is over!”

James didn’t hear the rest of whatever Pieridae was shouting. Some of it was drowned out by the chattering and shouts of the disappointed fae, and some couldn’t be heard over the rushing in his own head. He barely noticed when the crowd went quiet. He felt a hand rest on his back.

“Can you stand?” Pieridae whispered, and James pushed himself to his feet without answering. There was a question in the Prince’s eyes as James looked back into them, as James steeled himself and nodded. Pieridae was still looking at him when he started speaking again.

“This is Steller, first member of my court.” only then did Pieridae turn to the frozen crowd, his eyes turning cold and hard. “And anyone who harms him will answer to me.”

#original fiction #fae #fair folk #queer fantasy #lgbtq #my writing #my ocs #pieridae #james woodward #woodward #fae ocs

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resettiing · 6 years

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hmmm... Au where Mina is related to one of the members of the RFA? owo Would anything change?

@personifiedchaosx / send me an au and i’ll give u five (5) headcanons / accepting !!

general.

this is assuming she’s related to them by being a cousin of some kind. maybe close, maybe not-too-distant, but her parents taught her to love her family so she’ll treat them like siblings.

begs her family member not to tell anyone who she is or what she’s done in the past if they know.

is way more protective of them than the romantic routes. she takes family very seriously.

definitely wants to hide who she is ( this would lead to a bad end fyi ) but comes to realise it’s not good for anyone if she does that.

much less likely to get a bad end since she’s too excited at the thought of having some family to even think about hurting them. even though she preaches family is who you choose, she lost her whole family when her parents died, so this is pretty big for her.

specific headcanons under the cut. spoilers for each route, including v and ray!

j aehee.

jae probably knows all about mina’s past, and because of this mina’s hesitant to talk to her at first since she’s not ready to confront it. but, they’re both isolated from the family, so mina warms up to her quickly when she realises jae either pretends not to know or actually doesn’t know.

she never realised what happened with jae’s aunt and she’s furious when she learns, but there’s nothing she can do about it. all she can do is offer eternal support and take care of her.

and boy, does she take care of her. she’s fiercely protective of her only surviving blood relative, and she actively argues with j umin whenever she notices jae’s stress levels rising.

she gets along really well with z en. she’s good at balancing teasing him and sweet-talking him, and she makes sure to get reserved tickets to his shows for special occasions, because she knows jae will love it.

jae route exclusive - they still open the café together, and it’s only then she reveals to jae who she is. she’s scared as heck to do it, but she trusts jae to be understanding. mina doesn’t hesitate to do it, and it becomes famously known as being run by ‘ two sisters ’ which they laugh about all the time.

z en.

she’s so shocked to see his real name in the chat when it pops up. so that’s where he’s been! and she immediately looks up his acting history, pondering whether or not she’ll tell him who she is because she knows he ran away from their family.

the first phone call is awkward because she can’t hide what she knows. it comes out gently, and eases him into the revelation of their relation. finally, she gives him the name cheonmi and that’s when it clicks. she makes him swear not to tell anyone, but it’s clear something’s passed between them.

they’re already so close just by revealing who they are to each other. mina’s hesitant to call him out on his narcissism because she knows what he went through with his family, but when she tells him to dial it down, it’s when he’s at his most extreme.

she loves seeing his photos, whether he’s posing or it’s a slice-of-life picture. it reminds her she’s still got someone left and she once even teared up at seeing him so happy and carefree. that never happened again - she sees way too many pictures to get emotional about it.

z en route exclusive - when she stays at his, they spend their time catching up and exchanging stories. she insists on riding his motorbike ( just a lap around this part of town, i swear i’ll take good care ) and she goes through with him what he’s going to say at the party. it’s then she realises she’s good at regulating and organising him, and she offers to become his manager immediately after his speech. why? because she still has faith in her cousin.

y oosung / r ika.

she doesn’t recognise y oosung at first. the dyed hair thing plus addiction to games really turned her around, until he mentioned r ika. then it was a case of wait, i have cousins with the same names and click, she’s caught on.

she fell out of contact with the family before r ika died, so she didn’t even know any of this had happened. it’s a huge shock to her and, like with her parents’ deaths, she refuses to talk in depth about her.

she almost meets up with y oosung accidentally, since she works at his university coffee shop. on seeing him, she panics that he’ll recognise her and considers hiding, until she realises he’s not even looking in her direction. and that’s when she realises she has to get a grip. the next time she sees him, she waves him over and explains who she is. they get talking, and they’ve swapped gaming usernames by the time they part. she’s glowing, feeling so happy to meet up with him again.

in some routes, mina figures out r ika isn’t dead by piecing together bits of what v says ( this is more for another story tbh ) and dwelling on her own experiences.

y oosung route exclusive - she can’t look at his face while he has his eyepatch on. it’s a constant reminder of what she caused ( yes, she blames herself for it ) and it’s impossible to forget. but when she hears he’s going to become a vet? she’s inspired to go to uni as well.

s even / s aeran.

so yeah, twist for this one - she’s actually a relation of the prime minister. s even finds out fairly quickly about this, but mina’s in the dark about who he is unless he decides to tell her.

she usually finds out in s even or s aeran’s route, either when s even decides to find s aeran or she works it out towards the end of her stay in the m int e ye. she’s kind of?? highkey shocked, needs to sit down for six years kind of thing.

she wants to call her uncle and scream in his face. so badly. five years ago, she would have, but she knows she can’t. they’ve got to be smart about this, and she’s good at appearing to keep a cool head. but she makes sure whichever twin she’s with knows how pissed she is.

honestly this is like losing her parents all over again. she chose to isolate herself from his family, but knowing he treated his own children like this? if she hadn’t cut herself off him from before, she would have now.

s aeran route exclusive - she invites more people to watch z en’s announcement. she emails old friends, colleagues, neighbours, with only the caption this is about my uncle, which really gets some attention. more people tune in for the original broadcast and the good end is easier to achieve.

j umin.

filthy rich, born with a silver spoon in her mouth - but same story. parents died, cut herself off from the rest of her family, hiding in seoul. makes it a bit more surprising when she comes from a rich background.

so ofc she knows who jumin is the instant she sees his name on the chat and honestly almost turns it off there and then. why did she stay? maybe he could get her out of this mess.

she tells him everything on day 3. privately, of course, to avoid seeming like she’s after attention. but, when her name and her story checks out, she’s eager to meet him again and asks to meet. j aehee arranges it, so mina lets her in on the secret. it’s not fair for j aehee to not know.

it’s very awkward. they don’t have a lot in common since mina renounced her old life, so there’s not a lot for them to talk about, but it’s a start. mina expresses her desire to reconnect with their family, but makes it clear she wants it to go slowly. he seems to understand, and things warm up in due time. she also carries on with the encouragement and trying to help him understand herself, but of course it’s all platonic in this.

j umin route exclusive - she’s constantly encouraging him to deny the engagement to sarah. she becomes defensive about this topic very quickly, believing even j umin should have a choice in who he marries. at his announcement at the party, she’s content to let him reveal who she is as well, since it shows two cousins coming together to fight the wrong in their family. she’s really proud of her cat-obsessed cousin,

okay so she’s scared shitless being in the m int e ye, so when she first meets v via the messenger, she thinks she’s just reaching. i mean, he couldn’t possibly be her cousin! though v is clearly a pseudonym, and yeah, he sort of looks like him too, she’s certain it’s her mind playing tricks on her. boy.

her parents used to take care of v’s mother after she lost her hearing. i mean, it’s what siblings do for each other, right? so mina probably met v a few times as a kid, but he was more into business than art so it’s easy to see why she didn’t recognise him.

even not in the m int e ye, she’s kind of very suspicious about this guy, just because she’s got more time to wonder if it really is her cousin. she tries to ask about it indirectly ( because she’s pretty sure if it is him, he hasn’t recognised her yet ) but she’s just left with answers that don’t fit her perception of j ihyun.

either way, it brings up a lot of memories about her aunt and parents, ones that she could deal with being buried forever. so, on this route she displays more symptoms of depression than any other, because she was closer to his family than to any other.

v route exclusive - on day 4, when the routes diverge, the only reason she goes with v is because she knows him. it’s kind of a ‘ stop —- holy shit, you! ’ moment which they don’t exactly get to deal with for a few days. because, you know. v got shot. but when he feels better, they talk some things out. mina tells him about her previous life, and how she wishes she could have contacted him when her parents died. he’s surprisingly easy to talk to.

#personifiedchaosx #ray's route spoilers /#depression mention /#death mention /#{i went so so so so so so overboard with this}#{but like..........general rule of thumb : mina's way more protective of her family but still just as secretive}#{though in the routes where her relation knows her backstory helps her so much?? like she's been carrying that pain for so long}#{and it's really good for her to let it out}#✆ ⋄ ◦ ⤷ ( headcanon. )#✆ ⋄ ◦ ⤷ ( answered. )#✆ ⋄ ◦ ⤷ ( ooc. )

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