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domesticblisss · 3 years

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Silence

Timothy Thatcher x Female Reader Rating: Mature (Minors DNI) Word Count: 1493 Warnings: Fluff, smut, one bed. Summary: Tim finally tells reader why he acts like he does. A/N: This is a continuation to this drabble. You should read it before reading Silence.

We didn’t talk that morning. When I woke up, Tim was already out of bed and nowhere to be found, so I followed through with my routine.

The cheery, blonde receptionist still sat on the front desk, happily greeting everyone that stopped by.

“Good morning, Miss. Did you sleep well?” She asked when I approached her.

“Like a baby. Do you have any news on the snowstorm?”

“It picked up during the night, the roads are still closed and they have no idea when they are opening again. The news this morning said it might get worse, actually.”

“Damn, guess I will be staying more than one night here.” I laughed. “Do you think you could do me a favour? If it’s possible, could I get an extra bed in my bedroom?”

“We are packed, but I will see what we can do, Miss.” Anna, I could finally see the name on her ID plate, said with her sickly sweet voice. God, I wanna hug her.

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

Breakfast was uneventful, except for the fact that I met Marcel and Fabian at the buffett.

“Where’s Tim?” Marcel asked after we sat down to eat.

“No clue, he was already gone when I woke up.”

“He didn’t text you or anything?”

“Are we talking about the same person?” I asked as I shoved a piece of hash browns inside my mouth, “you guys know Tim hates me, he only works and travels with me because the company makes him.”

“He doesn’t hate you.” Fabian opened his mouth for the first time. The ironic look I had on made him continue. “He just… he has a hard time opening up.”

Yeah, right.

All of our phones beeped at the same time.

Text message from: Emily H. (NXT Prod)

The show is cancelled. Please stay safe in your hotels and send us the invoice so the company can reimburse you. I’ll hit back with new info as soon as they come out.

“Time to figure out how to have fun in a snowstorm, boys.”

Turns out, the hotel is way bigger than we thought and has a lot to do during a snowstorm. We hit the gym after breakfast and after training, we ended up finding out that the hotel has a huge gaming room, a cinema, a sauna, a big library, and they were even offering cooking classes. Marcel wearing an apron was such a sight.

It was past 7p.m. when I arrived, and Tim was already back in the room. He sat on the bed, a book in his hands and his headphones on. He didn’t acknowledge me.

It was when I left the bathroom after my shower that he finally talked to me for the first time that day.

“Didn’t see you come in.” he said, his voice a little louder as usual.

“Yeah, got back like, forty minutes ago.”

“Did you have a good day?”

I actually stopped putting my clothes back onto my suitcase to look at him before answering. He never asked how my day was.

“Yeah. Marcel and Fabian are here too, we spent the day together. The hotel offers a lot of stuff. Did you have a nice day?”

“Yeah.”

And silence fell upon us again. I had just finished getting my things in order and gotten my skincare done when I started feeling hungry. Deciding against leaving the room, it was so, so warm inside, I decided to order in.

“Hey,” I called Tim, “I’m getting room service. Do you want anything?”

“Sure, a cheeseburger is fine.”

“With fries?”

“Sure.”

We ate in silence, we watched whatever movie was on in silence, we fell asleep in silence.

The following days we were stuck in the hotel followed the same routine. I would wake up and Tim would be gone, I would chat with Anna, and save her from getting her heart broken by Marcel, him, Fabian and I would have breakfast, hit the gym and explore whatever the hotel had to offer. When I had gotten back to the room, Tim would already be there reading or watching something, we would exchange three words, eat and sleep.

Today, for some reason, I wasn’t blessed by the gods of sleep. As much as I tried not to, I kept tossing and turning, just waiting for the moment Tim would wake up and complain.

“Can’t sleep?” his hoarse voice came from behind me.

“No, sorry for waking you up.”

“You didn’t, can’t sleep either.” he got up as I turned around to look at him. “Do you want some tea?”

“It’s…” I looked at my phone to check the time “2 a.m., room service is not working anymore.”

“I’m making it. Peppermint tea helps you sleep, want it or not?”

“Sure…”

He comes back from the tiny kitchen five minutes later, with two mugs in hand, and hands me one.

We drink the tea in silence, and I take it as my cue to ask him the same question I did on our first night here.

“Why do you hate me, Tim?”

He sighs and takes his left hand to his head, disheveling his already messy hair. “I don’t hate you.”

“Okay… then why do you strongly dislike me?”

“I don’t have negative feelings towards you, I think you are a nice person. Why do you keep asking me this?”

I sat my mug on the side table and turned to face him, laughing. “Tim, are you serious? You barely look at me, you don’t say more than two words to me, and when you do, you get annoyed with me and shuts me off mid-sentence. I know I’m annoying but c’mon. Have I ever done anything to you?”

“No, you have not.”

“Then why do you treat me like this? I know you are a quiet dude, but I’ve known you since your Ringkampf days, I’ve seen you around your friends.”

Tim sighed again and laughed a defeated laugh. And nothing. Five minutes passed and, like usual, he didn’t dignify me with an answer.

“See, this is what I’m talking about. You alwa-”

“I strongly like you.” he cut me off, raising his eyebrows as if he wanted to cue me in on a secret.

“Huh?”

“Since that day we met backstage at PROGRESS.”

“Then why didn’t you do anything?”

“You were dating Brookes at the time and he was my friend, why would I act on it?”

“If it serves as consolation, Chris used to cheat on me all the time.”

Silence fell upon us once again, but this time it is different. Tim’s face is stony as he stares at me, his eyes are softer than usual, and I can see that he is processing what I had just revealed. Chris and Tim were good friends, but Tim is also known for his thoughts on how women should be treated.

Once again, I took it in my hands to break the silence.

“Then why don’t you do something about it now?” I raise my eyebrows like he had done previously.

Tim’s lips were on mine in no time. They are hungry, but soft at the same time, I can feel the need coming from them. His touch feels like how I had always imagined, it is strong and rough, and he cradles my face like he never wanted me to go away.

Eventually, we separate to catch some air and I see the need in his eyes. Tim grabs me by my arms and positions me on his lap. He attacks my neck, kissing and biting it, and he moves his ministrations to the skin of my chest that is exposed on the camisole I’m wearing.

I can feel his hard on poking my core, and I roll my hips around to tease him. I can feel how affected he is by it, as he curses after every shift of my hips.

It gets unbearable after he starts meeting me halfway.

“Tim, this is great and all,” I moan as he bites the sweet spot behind my ear, “but I need you inside me, now.”

We waste no time taking our clothes off, as Tim lowers his shorts down enough to take his cock out and I just shove my panties to the side.

He is thicker than I had anticipated, and it takes me some time to get used to it. We fall into a steady rhythm, his thrusts always meeting me halfway.

I could sense he was near his end, just like me, when he picked up speed. I lost it after one particularly strong stroke on my g-spot, having to bite his shoulder so I wouldn’t wake up the whole hotel. He kept going, taking a second, earth shattering orgasm from me, his own coming right after.

Tim held me closer, tighter. We laughed and kissed, and our night went on like we knew best: in silence, enjoying each other.

#wwe fanfiction #wwe imagine #nxt fanfiction #nxt imagine #timothy thatcher imagine #timothy thatcher x reader #timothy thatcher

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cactusnymph · 3 years

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Prompt fill #9 for @dimension20alphabet:

Injury

The air smells of smoke, dust and blood.

Fabian is pretty sure that his left foot is broken, which sucks because he’s going to have a hard time kicking anyone’s ass without both his feet. Dancing will also be difficult.

He clutches his battle sheet and tries to pull his foot out of the rubble it got stuck between. If he gets his hands on the bastards who made this damn cave explode above them even their ancestors are going to have a headache waking up tomorrow.

But for that to happen, Fabian needs to get out of here.

“Fabian?”

Riz’ voice sounds hoarse and muffled and Fabian assumes that he’s somewhere behind another pile of rubble.

“I’m over here”, he answers and tries to make his voice sound casual and not like he wants to do something embarrassing, like whimper from the pain. Fabian can barely anything and breathing is hard because there is so much dust in the air.

“I’ll—let me see if I can get to you. You okay?”, Riz asks. Fabian doesn’t waste his breath to answer, he tries to push some of the rubble away from his ankle and lets out a wheezing breath. His mouth tastes like iron.

He can hear Riz try to move the rubble out of the way, but his arms are like tiny twigs so Fabian doesn’t see how he’ll get any of that shit to move. And Fabian, being uselessly stuck with his damn foot, can’t help him.

Fabian thought that splitting up the party was the smartest move, but now he regrets their choices because damn, they sure could use Kristen’s healing or Adaine’s magic or Gorgug’s insane muscles to move some of this shit.

The quest to defeat the Night Yorb hasn’t exactly gone well so far. Fabian feels like being stuck in a fucking cave with his foot broken and his mouth full of blood is the peak of bad luck that they have reached so far. He can only hope that the others had more success on their ventures.

But as far as he knows, they’re also stuck somewhere in here.

Fabian never specifically had a problem with small, closed spaces, but right now he feels like his chest is unusually tight and he could swear that the damn ceiling is getting closer while he’s desperately trying to get his foot unstuck.

The rubble behind him shifts and a few pained noises bring Fabian back to reality as a small, lithe shape wiggles itself through an impossible tiny crack made in the pile behind him as Riz appears, his head bleeding profusely and his face contorted in a mix of determination and pain.

“Are you okay?”, Riz asks again the second he scrambles through the hole he made. Fabian notices that his hands are also bleeding—probably from digging through all those stones. Something in Fabian’s chest feels like a nervous bird fluttering against his rib cage and it takes him a confused moment to realize that it’s his heart.

Riz has been different since they defeated the Nightmare King.

More self confident somehow. Less awkward. Scarily competent.

And he stopped wearing his hat.

Fabian has been feeling weird around him for a while, but the fact that this little Goblin dug himself through sharp rocks to get to him, bleeding and bruised and hurt, and the first thing he does is ask if Fabian is okay—it does things to him.

Fabian refuses to acknowledge this.

“My foot is stuck”, he says.

Riz—and he’s been Riz for a while now, at least in Fabian’s head, and not The Ball anymore—turns his huge, yellow eyes to the stones that are crushing Fabian’s foot between them.

“Got it”, Riz says and without doing anything about his bleeding head or his bleeding hands he gets to work, his small frame working tirelessly, determined, stubborn even. The rocks are big—way too big for Riz to actually lift them.

But Riz wouldn’t be Riz if he wouldn’t be a nerd even about stuff like this.

Using his sword as leverage he manages to roll the bigger ones off of the pile. While he works Fabian can see blood dripping down the sword and Riz’ face.

He swallows heavily.

“You’re bleeding”, he croaks.

“I know. I’ll take care of it in a second”, Riz answers.

He’s focused.

Fabian knows that, when Riz gets like this, there is no way to deter him from the task at hand. It sometimes happens for a project at school, or when he has a case he’s close to cracking. He disappears into his head and into his task at hand and it takes hours for him to appear again.

Fabian doesn’t know when exactly he started to catalogue all of Riz’ facial expressions and behaviors, but he has quite the collection so far.

Riz works in silence. Sometimes, when he gets like this, he starts mumbling to himself, but not this time.

He looks almost grim.

Fabian isn’t sure if it’s actually getting warmer in here or if that’s just him.

“Do you think the others got stuck as well?”, he says to distract himself from the heat crawling under his skin and the fluttering in his chest.

“Probably not. By my estimation they should be way further down already”, Riz murmurs and wipes some sweat off his forehead, which simply leaves a smearing of blood where his hand touches his green skin.

Fabian has no idea since when his damn brain finds it mesmerizing to see blood on his best friend’s skin, but here he is, staring at Riz because he looks weirdly... ragged? Badass?

Fabian is annoyed at himself.

When he finally feels the weight lifted off his ankle he pulls his leg out and makes a pained noise in the back of his throat that causes Riz’ concentrated gaze to turn to him. His yellow eyes remind Fabian of cats’ eyes in the dark and he swallows again as Riz comes over to him and touches Fabian’s face to turn his head to the side so he can inspect his wounds.

Fabian’s heart stumbles in his chest.

Gods dammit, this is completely ridiculous.

“You bleeding anywhere else?”, Riz asks and then his eyes find Fabian’s and they’re staring at each other. Fabian knows that Riz is in no headspace to think about kissing, but damn, Fabian does. Fabian’s stupid brain tells him to just grab Riz by the shoulders and pull him down, pull him on top of Fabian to minimize the space between them—

“Fabian? You got a concussion? Let me check your eyes.”

Riz gets even closer.

Fabian thinks he might die.

He thinks about the way Aelwyn made him feel back then, when he got so excited about kissing her again. Somehow that was nothing compared to how he’s been feeling about Riz for a while now. As Fig said, kissing someone you’re “madly in love with just hits different”.

“Don’t think so”, he manages and his voice sounds like sandpaper on stone.

“Okay. I have my healer’s kit. Just let me clean my hands real quick.”

Fabian watches how Riz procures water and his healer’s kit from his bag and starts washing his hands as good as he can before he tries to wrap bandages around both of his hands. He lets out a frustrated hiss.

“Let me—“, Fabian says and grabs Riz’ hands.

To be fair, Fabian never paid much attention when Cathilda or Kristen tried to teach him first aid because it never was of much interest to him—and now he definitely wishes he had listened a little closer. But it can’t be that difficult to wrap a tiny pair of Goblin hands in bandages to make them stop bleeding.

“You have to do, like, a kind of V-shape. Yeah. Like that. Not too tight, please. Yeah, that works.”

What Fabian didn’t really think through was that now he’s somewhat holding Riz’ hands. Which doesn’t exactly help his brain or his heart to calm down. At least his internal turmoil distracts him from the pain and the situation they’re currently in.

He remembers how Riz stole that healer’s kit on their very first day of school. He’s had it ever since and restocked it carefully for each of their adventures, taking great care to learn how to give first aid to his friends when everyone else was out of spells or they were separated.

“Thanks, Fabian”, Riz says once it’s done and he wiggles his fingers slightly, then turns his eyes back on Fabian’s face.

“I’ll take care of your head first and then I can check out that foot. Maybe I can—I dunno. Make a splint or something.”

“You—uh. You got really good at this”, Fabian says and turns his gaze upwards so he doesn’t have to focus on Riz’ yellow eyes right in front of him anymore.

“Thanks”, Riz mumbles and his bandages fingers touch Fabian’s face gently.

Fabian kind of wishes one of the rocks had just knocked him out.

This is pathetic.

He is Fabian Aramais Seacaster.

Maybe his confidence died briefly—or for a longer period of time—back on their Spring Break adventure, but he’s been building it back up! He’s a catch! He’s amazing!

Riz should be the one getting nervous because he’s allowed to touch Fabian’s handsome face.

“I think once we’re patched up you should take my sword and teleport through all that rubble and I’ll try to crawl back. We need to find the others.”

“You shouldn’t crawl back through that, The Ball”, Fabian says, thinking about Riz’s bloody hands. Riz shouldn’t get hurt on Fabian’s behalf.

Gods, Fabian has it bad.

“It’s fine. I’m smaller than you, so it’s easier for me. And I don’t think you should move too much with that brok—“

“I’m in—I have feelings. For you.”

Silence.

Fabian doesn’t dare to breathe. Two seconds ago it felt right to finally say it, but now he’s regretting all his life choices leading up to this, as Riz’ yellow eyes stare at him, his small fingers still on Fabian’s forehead, holding a piece of gauze against the wound.

“Wh—what?”

“Forget it—it’s uh—I probably do have a concussion. Nevermind!”

He can tell that Riz doesn’t buy it and also that Fabian’s words have ripped him out of his state of hyper-focus, something that Fabian has never managed to do before. Maybe he should feel kind of proud. But instead he feels sick to his stomach.

“Feelings? Like—uh—like...”

Fabian sees the confidence slip from Riz’ face like a mask he wore, and underneath is still the socially awkward kid handing people fucking business cards and vomiting inside of backpacks because he heard some clues.

“Yeah. Like that”, he says.

It’s hard to see in the dark, but Fabian could swear that Riz’ cheeks are tinted dark green.

“Really?”

His voice sounds very small now. Nervous. As if he expects Fabian to start laughing and say “Of course not, The Ball”. Which is probably fair. It’s not like Fabian ever managed to make his appreciation of his best friend very clear.

“Hm.”

“Oh.”

“Oh? What does that mean?”

“I—uh—I don’t. Um—this is—“

Riz laughs nervously and turns his head.

“I didn’t—um. Well”, he laughs again and sits down, hugs his knees and props his chin on top of them. “I kinda didn’t expect to ever hear that. From you. Um—yeah. It’s been... a long time. For me? I guess.”

Fabian’s brain short circuits and his heart does a very complicated dancing routine.

“You—what?”

Riz peaks up at him. Shrugs.

“I’ve kinda been in love with you since. I don’t even know. A long time.”

“For real?”

“Yeah. For real.”

“Okay, fuck this cave. Fuck this whole thing. We have to get out of here so I can fucking kiss your brains out. Give me your sword.”

Riz hides his face for a second and then he laughs, a shaky, nervous but also happy laugh. He does not hand Fabian his sword.

“First the wounds. Then the sword. Then—then the other stuff.”

“Fine. You better hurry up.”

“I will. Hold still.”

Fabian is still determined to kick everyone’s ass once they get out of this. But maybe he’ll also send them some fruit baskets to the hospital afterwards.

#fabriz #dimension 20 #fantasy high #riz gukgak #fabian seacaster #fabian aramais seacaster #d20alphabet21 #fanfiction #mi writes

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engie-ivy · 3 years

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Remus doesn’t go to the annual Halloween party because of the full moon, Sirius doesn't go to the annual Halloween party because of Remus, and the task befalls James to come up with an excuse as to why his two friends are both absent and should not be disturbed...

Short and cute happy Halloween fluff🎃

Self-fulfilling rumours

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

Remus looks up from his book to see a rather angry-looking Sirius glaring at him from the doorway, arms crossed over his chest.

“You all have calendars yourselves,” Remus replies calmly, focussing his attention back on his book.

Sirius rolls his eyes as he walks into the room. “Well, we obviously didn’t realise, so why didn’t you remind us then?”

Remus sighs and puts down his book. “It’s your favourite night of the year. You were already so excited. What’s the point of me putting a damper on the fun?”

“Well, it could’ve saved Jamie and I the trouble of coming up with our costumes...”

“You’re going to the Halloween party,” Remus says firmly.

Halloween and the annual Halloween party is one of James’ and Sirius’ favourite time of the year. Eating nothing but candy all day, pulling an extra amount of pranks under the excuse of trick ‘n treating, and always having the best costumes. If it were anybody else, people might have made fun of them for dressing up in over the top and matching, but when James and Sirius do it, it’s cool, which goes for about everything.

“Moony,” Sirius says frowning. “Of course we’re not going to the Halloween party this year if the full moon is that night.”

“Sirius,” Moony sighs. “I’m not gonna let all of you miss out on something you were so looking forward to on my account.” Sirius opens his mouth to protest, but Remus keeps talking. “Besides, I can’t leave the shack on the night of Halloween anyways. Much too dangerous, with people out and about trick ‘n treating or going on ghost tours. So there’s really no need for you to miss the party.”

“But when you’re in there alone...”

“I’ve handled it on my own for many years,” Remus smiles in a way he hopes looks more convincing than he feels. “I can handle one night more, so you can enjoy yourselves.”

“Stop talking like it’s a sacrifice for us!” Sirius says. “We love our nights during the full, it’s the highlight of the month.”

“When we can go out,” Remus chuckles. “Not when you’ll be obligated to spend the night in a small space with a cranky werewolf, while you could’ve been getting drunk on illegally obtained Firewhiskey and eating your weight in candy.”

Sirius stares at him for a while. Then he sighs. “I won’t argue with you then.”

As Remus sits alone and cold on the floor of the Shrieking Shack, feeling as miserable as always so close to the full moon, he starts to regret being so firm to Sirius. In reality, he dreads transforming on his own, and letting the wolf take out his aggression on himself.

“Wotcher, Moony.”

Remus can’t suppress his smile as Sirius casually walks into the room. “What happened to ‘I won’t argue with you’?”

Sirius shrugs as he sits down in front of Remus. “I didn’t argue with you, now did I? I decided to save us the trouble, and just do what I wanted anyway.”

Remus knows he should tell Sirius to go back to the castle and enjoy the party, but he can’t bring himself to do it. He’s too relieved to have Padfoot with him for this night.

“Won’t Prongs mind that he won’t have you in your prisoner of Azkaban costume to accompany his Dementor costume?”

“Nah,” Sirius says. “I let Wormtail take my place. He was delighted.”

“I really don’t want to keep you from what you love so much...” Remus tries one last time.

“You are what I-” Sirius stops himself and sighs. “I mean, I don’t want to be anywhere else, Moony.” Then he smiles. “Why would I want to hang out with fake werewolves all night when I have the real thing right here?”

Remus launches himself forward and hugs Sirius tight, relief washing over him. ��Thank you,” he whispers.

The full moon isn’t as bad with Padfoot there to calm the wolf, even if they have to stay locked inside the entire night. Despite some slowly healing scars and the usual painful muscles, he’s able to make his way around the castle again not too long after. In the library, one of the Prewett twins drops down in the chair in front of him.

“Hi Gid,” Remus greets. “How are you? How was the Halloween party? I heard you and Fabian didn’t bothered with costumes and just said you were dressed up as each other.”

Gideon grins. “Yeah, it was definitely fun. But not as much fun as your night has been, or so I’ve heard.”

Remus blinks at Gideon who’s looking back with a suggestive grin. Remus knows Gideon cannot be referring to what he actually did that night, as he definitely wouldn’t use the word ‘fun’, nor would he be smiling at him like that. If he knew, he probably wouldn’t be talking to him anymore at all, though admittedly, Remus has been wrong about that before. Remus realises that he has no idea what excuse James has given for his absence. Attempting to stay as vague as possible, until he can check with James, Remus says “Yeah, well, you know how it is, right?”

Gideon throws his head back and laughs. “I honestly can’t say I do, Lupin. But I can say that I’ve sometimes wished I did,” he adds with a wink, before leaving for his next class, leaving behind a very confused Remus.

“I am never talking to you again.”

Remus doesn’t take this threat too serious, as Lily just ran up to him and hooked her arm in his.

“You have affronted me, Remus Lupin.”

Remus raises an eyebrow. “Did I now?”

“Oh, yes,” Lily says. “I’m not terribly surprised, as I’ve had my suspicions, but having to hear it from Potter!” Lily shakes her head. “So, what’s the deal? Is it, for lack of a better word, serious?”

“I...” Remus says hesitantly. “Am not sure?”

“Right,” Lily says nodding. “I guess these things can be complicated. Just know that as long as you’re happy, I’m happy for you.”

Remus starts noticing how people are, not even subtly, staring at him and talking about him. He sees lots of giggling and the occasional angry glare, but also suggestive smirks, winks and even a couple of thumbs up. Remus feels very much at a loss.

When Benjy Fenwick passes him in the corridor, he turns around to Remus. “Nice job, Lupin. From what I’ve seen in the Quidditch locker room, I can only say congratulations.”

When he tells Marlene he’s sorry he missed the party, she snorts. “Like hell you are, Lupin.” And then with a smirk “I trust you had a very pleasing evening?” And when Remus, caught off guard, stammers that he supposes it was quite satisfying, she bursts out in laughter.

Mary just runs up to him and gives him an overly-excited hug, saying that she’s super invested in it already.

Remus walks into the common room over to where James and Sirius are sitting. “Prongs, a word in the dorm please. Padfoot, you come too.”

James looks very guilty as he enters the dorm. “I’m sorry!” He immediately says. “I panicked, and I couldn’t come up with anything else in that moment. I didn’t expect every person in school to be talking about it.”

Remus pinches the bridge of his nose. “What exactly is everyone talking about?”

“Well,” James runs a hand through his hair, before speaking in a rushed voice. “People asked why you weren’t at the party, so I said you were sick, but McKinnon found it hard to believe that suddenly both of you were sick and she wanted to go up to our dorm to confront you, ‘cause she ‘wasn’t gonna let you skip on the party of the year that easily’, and before I knew it she was walking up the stairs and I had to think of something, as neither one of you was of course actually in our dorm, to convince McKinnon she really shouldn’t enter our dorm that evening, so, and like I said, panicking, I said that you two were... you know.”

Sirius’ eyes widen. “You told McKinnon we were shagging?”

“No,” James says defensively before turning his head away and softly muttering “I shouted through the common room that you were shagging.”

Remus flushes as he remembers all the looks and conversations from that morning. He hides his face in his hands and drops down on the bed. He’s vaguely aware of Sirius telling James through gritted teeth to give him a moment with Remus to talk about what to do, and not long after, he feels Sirius sit down next to him on the bed.

Remus tries to compose himself. “So this is of course terribly embarrassing,” he says, and notices how Sirius looks away with a strange expression on his face. “But I suppose I rather have people talk about me for hooking up with you, than have people talk about me for being a vile, vicious monster.”

“I’m glad people thinking you’re hooking up with me is just slightly better than people thinking you’re a monster,” Sirius replies bitterly.

Remus frowns. “I didn’t mean it like that.” Sirius stays silent, so Remus continues. “For Godric’s sake, how in Merlin’s name Prongs came up with that? And for people to actually believe something so ridiculous!”

Sirius now snaps his eyes back to Remus’ face with an angry glare, and Remus has the feeling he’s really screwing up, but doesn’t know exactly what he’s screwing up.

“I suppose the idea that you’d hook up with me is absolutely ridiculous,” Sirius says with something like suppressed anger and hurt.

“Well, yeah,” Remus replies, not understanding this reaction. “Everyone knows that you’re way out off my league.”

“What?” Sirius asks incredulously. “I am no such thing!”

“Please,” Remus says, making a dismissive gesture. “You can literally pick anyone you want, why in Merlin’s name would you pick me?”

“Because you’re clever and kind? Because you have a sharp wit and a wicked sense of humour? Because you have pretty eyes that light up when you laugh or read a book and a cute smile, especially when you do that adorable nose wrinkle-thing? Because you know exactly how to comfort me and make me feel better about myself?”

How Remus wishes he was better at this sort of thing, how he wishes he’d have the exact right words to describe how much he admires Sirius and the feeling it gives him when Sirius’ eyes meet his and he gives him one if those small smiles, but all he manages to say is “Oh.”

“Yeah.” Sirius sounds defeated. “Look, I’m sorry that these rumours bother you so much. I wish I could make it better for you, but I don’t know...”

As he speaks, Sirius moves to get up from the bed, but Remus grabs his wrist. “You could make it better for me.”

Sirius sits back down and stares at Remus, and now it’s his turn to mutter the eloquent “Oh.”

Remus nervously licks his lips and shifts a little closer to Sirius. “I’d feel much better about these rumours if there was at least some truth in them.”

Sirius swallows and shifts a little closer to Remus. “Yeah, I hate that Prongs had to lie for us.”

Having him so close, Remus musters his courage and places one hand on Sirius’ waist. “Precisely. I don’t like fooling Lily about it either.”

Sirius places a tentative hand on Remus’ cheek. “It’d be indeed much better for them if there was some truth to it.”

Remus leans into his touch. “And so many people seemed really excited about it.”

Sirius also leans in a little closer, and Remus can feel his breath on his lips as he speaks. “It’d be such a shame to disappoint them.”

“Yeah,” Remus whispers before letting his eyes fall shut and closing the last bit of distance. “Such a shame.”

#wolfstar #wolfstar fanfiction #wolfstar fic #marauders #marauders fanfiction #marauders fic #sirius black #remus lupin #remus x sirius #marauders era #wolfstar fluff #halloween #my tumblr writing

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bi-naesala · 3 years

Text

It feels good, being back together. Has been a while.

They’ve finally found a free day for everyone - they all have a pretty busy schedule after all - and they’ve decided to spend it on a picnic. They might be older now, but chaos will surely ensue one way or another, not that it matters however: as long as they’re back together, nothing can go wrong, even when things actually go wrong but shut up, that’s not the point.

Maybe they shouldn’t have gotten this much alcohol, but who cares. They’re adults now they can do what they want.

Who can even stop them?

All things considered, it’s going pretty chill. It could be much worse, but for now they’ve just started a completely accidental fire that they luckily managed to pull out immediately, so everything’s in the norm.

Some people are more hammered than others. Personally, Riz is trying to stay away from the alcohol as much as he can - it never bodes well when he drinks.

He’s still enjoying himself, basking in the company of his friends. He can’t deny that he misses highschool - even the shitty parts of it - because at the time they were always together. Now some people are at college, others on tour, and others who knows where, adventuring…

Speaking of adventuring, Fabian looks like he’s about to say something. He hasn’t talked much until now, which is weird because c’mon, it’s Fabian, so this has to mean that there’s some kind of announcement he had to make.

To confirm Riz’s hypothesis, soon Fabian suddenly stands up from the circle they had formed.

“Ok guys, listen up!” he exclaims.

Of course, if anything, the chaos doubles because now they are asking him what he wants to say and make theories between each other. Riz believes he even hears his own name being said, but he pays it no mind; the days of hoping that one day Fabian was going to theatrically confess his love for him in front of an acclaiming crowd - yes, he might’ve spent too much time and energy on this fantasy - are long gone. He gave up hope already.

Besides, if that was something important, he would’ve said it already via crystal, not now that they’re all different forms of plastered. It’s surely going to be some nonsensical bullshit.

“I didn’t want to tell you before ‘cause I felt I should’ve done it face to face ‘cause it’s important.”

… And of course Fabian has to prove him wrong immediately.

This time everyone falls quiet, curious as to what Fabian has to say. Riz himself can’t deny a certain trepidation - he’s always felt like that when Fabian’s speaking.

Fabian clears his throat, clearly taking his time.

“C’mon! What is it?” Kristen shouts. Yes, Fabian should get a move on.

“Ok, ok, I’ll tell you…”

“I’m bi!”

Silence. Complete silence.

Then, all of a sudden, all their voices erupt, cheering and whistling and asking Fabian when he figured it out, where he figured it out, how he figured it out…

Riz hears none of this. He’s staring at Fabian, eyes wide and mouth agape.

He’s… he’s bi. Fabian has just said he’s bi.

He can’t help but to remember all the years he spent yearning, hopelessly pining for someone he thought was never going to reciprocate, keeping everything inside out of fear that revealing it would only ruin everything… and now it turns out Fabian’s bi.

He just… He can’t stay here anymore.

His mind is overwhelmed by thoughts and information. If he remains there he’s going to explode.

He doesn’t say anything as he gets up, bolting away. Where? He doesn’t even know; as long as he’s far enough it’s fine.

If the others notice his absence, they don’t seem to do anything about it, at least to Riz’s knowledge, though he has to admit that he’s barely paying any attention to his surroundings, not with the mess of emotions that’s exploding in his head. His ears ring and he feels like shit.

It’s not even about the revelation per se, more like--

“The Ball! Riz!”

Riz turns around and he sees Fabian jogging towards him.

He plants his feet on the ground, resisting the urge to flee. Even if Fabian’s company will definitely make processing all that has happened harder, he can’t just begin to ignore him.

He lets him catch up.

“Hey, you alright?”

“Me? Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine,” Riz nods, quite unconvincingly however.

“You sure?” Fabian asks in fact, “You don’t look fine.”

Before Riz can have a chance to explain himself - or more likely, tell another lie - Fabian speaks again.

“Is this about what I said?”

“What? No!” Riz lies, “I’m good, really, just a bit tired…”

“Bullshit, Riz!” Fabian exclaims. He’s beginning to lose it. “You think I’m so stupid I wouldn’t see it?”

As silence grows heavy between them, Fabian’s rage completely deflates. Now he just looks sad.

“I thought you would’ve accepted me…”

Oh. So this is what Fabian’s upset about! He has no idea how wrong he is! Riz has to do something about it.

“Of course I accept you!” he says. He wants to face Fabian as he speaks, but he doesn’t have the strength to do so and he actually closes in himself more by crossing his arm to his chest and making himself smaller. He’s so nervous that he chuckles. “It’s dumb, actually…”

Seeing that there’s no way Riz is going to look at him Fabian simply walks around him until they’re face to face again. Now he looks curious, and Riz can’t help but to go on, even though he feels like he’s bursting inside.

“It’s just that… I had this crush on you for such a long time,” he mutters quietly, almost afraid that Fabian’s going to hear him, “But I never said anything because you were straight and I didn’t want to ruin everything. A-And now it turns out you’re not even actually straight…”

Silence. Fabian doesn’t say anything.

“See? I told you it was dumb--”

Before he can even finish that sentence Fabian’s onto him, mouth pressed against his. It’s immediately clear from the way he presses his tongue to part Riz’s lips that this isn’t just a way to shut him up.

Oh. That’s what it is, then: they both are incredible fools.

In a moment, everything is clear. It feels like living in a book, one of those stories where the characters get their much desired epiphany at the end of their journey, where all the small bits and pieces and moments come together, where everything finally makes sense.

This isn’t the end of their journey, far from it actually. Well, at least Riz hopes so, because it would be absolutely sad if that wasn’t the case.

Riz can’t even tell how he’s feeling in all this; it still seems too good, too surreal. If he suddenly wakes up and discovers that this is all a dream, he wouldn’t be surprised.

It’s not a dream, however: Fabian is truly kissing him like he’s fantasized so much when he was but a teen. Man, if only he could travel in time and tell his younger self what’s waiting for him, he’s sure he wouldn’t believe it not even if the news comes from himself.

When they pull away, they’re both breathless. This has been intense for both of them.

Who’s going to be the one breaking the silence, now? Apparently, it’s Fabian.

“Sorry if it took me long so figure it out,” he says, smiling apologetically to Riz, who shakes his head.

“It’s fine. You took the time you needed,” he replies, meaning every word of it.

If on one hand it would’ve been nice if he had actually figured it out earlier, on the other he knows that this is a journey that can’t be made with haste.

Despite how much he’s suffered because of this, he can’t say that he regrets it now. No, he thinks when Fabian smiles at him and when he closes the distance between them again, it was completely worth it.

#fabriz #d20 #dimension 20 #fantasy high #riz gukgak #fabian seacaster #idk i was in a fabriz mood #my fics #mine

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liladiurne · 3 years

Text

Brighter Than Bright - extract from chapter 14

Look at me, with chapter 14 already underway barely a week or so after posting 13. Isn’t that a good omen?

Once more, here is the beginning bit, because I don’t have anything at this point that wouldn’t spoil too much for you. I thought this would be perfect, because it announces a little what’s coming in the chapter without actually introducing the new characters. There is so much good stuff coming this chapter! I may share another extract before it’s finished, but we’ll see, because this is a bit longer than what I normally share, I think. Either way, I think this is going to be a long chapter!

This extract may change and differ a little in the finished chapter, as I tend to move things around when I edit. I have proofread this a bit quickly, so there may be some typos, which you can disregard because they will surely be fixed at some point. I hope you enjoy!

EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER 14

While Harry’s second heat does not last quite as long as the first one did, a few more days must pass before he feels strong enough to leave his bed. Charlie remains by his side throughout, drawing while Harry reads or sleeps. From the way he dutifully attends to Harry’s every need, constantly asking if he is hungry or thirsty or tired, it is evident that he still feels guilty at having left his little brother to such torment, regardless of how many times Harry has told him that it was probably for the best.

When Harry thinks back to those dreadful few days, he is filled with a combination of fury and shame. Perhaps worse than the memory of his suffering is the knowledge that, although he does not remember it, he seemingly called out for Mr Snape. Fanny said that the heat is meant to coerce him into mating, and he tries to console himself with these words. He suspects that this irrepressible, forceful longing does not discriminate between one Alpha and the other, and for this reason, he is nearly grateful that Charlie was absent. As he is so often reminded, he is not truly related to Charlie after all. If his reason can be so addled, if this strange instinct inside his chest, this part of him that does nothing but crave and crave, can resort to yearning for a despicable Alpha such as Mr Snape, Harry dares not imagine what could have happened if his brother’s scent had been nearby when he was in the throes of the heat. The oestrus has a mind of its own. If it can turn abhorrence into attraction, who knows what it can make of brotherly love.

Most of what occurs during the heats does not stay with him for long. He cannot recall much apart from the pain and some vague, feverish recollections of waking up and then sleeping again. He knows that he dreams, sometimes vividly, sometimes rather hazily, in wisps of thoughts and images, but all remembrance of what those dreams contain leave him swiftly as the fever fades. He is unsure whether these lapses in memory are caused by the fever itself or simply by the laudanum. Perhaps it is a combination of the two. But it is just as well that he cannot remember. Harry has no desire to know what feverish delusions might have resulted in him saying Mr Snape’s name.

At least he did not ask for Mr Malfoy. He does not think that he could live with such ghastly knowledge.

When Harry finally leaves his room for good, he finds that a thick blanket of snow has covered the world, thus putting an end to horseback ventures with his brother until spring. He is somewhat disappointed at having missed the last days of autumn, but as soon as he is well enough to leave the house, he heads outside with Charlie and the two of them engage in a great snow battle, to which even their father participates. Later in the afternoon, as the sun sets, they construct a great snowman in front of the house and dress him in a scruffy hat and scarf before retreating inside for some mulled wine.

Harry usually finds winter most inconvenient. As beautiful as snow can be at the beginning, it never takes long for him to miss the smell of the warm summer air, the loud humming of the cicadas, the wide, green expanse of his field. Unable to retreat to his habitual refuge under the shadow of the beechwood tree or to go on long walks by the river, Harry must spend most of winter confined to the house, forced to read every book he can find, often ones that he has already read countless times before. When he is truly unable to find entertainment, he sometimes sits at his desk and writes short little stories for his own amusement, or he plays with Hedwig, sprawled on the floor and throwing a ball of twine around for her to catch.

This year, of course, with Charlie present, there is no such lack of distraction.

On the first week of December, after a particularly heavy snowfall, Charlie spends at least an hour rummaging through the shed behind the barn until he finally unearths the old sleigh that Hagrid made for them years ago. It needs a little fixing, having been buried under some tools and refuse for nearly a decade, but as soon as it is good to use, it is attached to one of the draft horses’ harness. Once they are dressed thickly and warmly enough, Harry and Charlie settle on the sleigh, which is barely big enough to hold them both now that they are grown, and spend the afternoon being dragged around speedily through the snow, laughing and yelling and causing quite a raucous through the village, for which they are promptly scolded at supper. Their mother is not shy in expressing her disappointment at finding out that she has not, as she believed she had, raised respectable young men, but rather careless little ruffians.

As much as he loves the warmer weather, Harry is rather looking forward to the colder days, hoping that the river might freeze, because Charlie has also found their old ice skates hanging in the back of the shed. At present, however, the water still flows merrily, with no sign of stopping.

“It is so unfortunate that you were not here last winter. It was frozen for months,” Harry says regretfully one morning as they stare at the river, having taken advantage of the sunny day and the melting snow to walk alongside it.

“It is not cold enough yet. Perhaps in January.”

Harry shrugs. “It may not even harden enough for skating.”

“Do you remember that big pond in Hampstead, behind the marketplace?” Charlie muses, nudging Harry with his elbow to try and shake him out of his sombre mood. “It was always fit for skating. Do you remember? Grandfather would take us there when we visited in the winter.”

“I remember,” Harry says distractedly.

His mother never wanted him to go. She would insist that his brothers and cousins were too rough and that he would get hurt and that it would be better if he remained at the house with the girls. But Grandfather would not hear it. He had never once left Harry behind, even if it meant arguing ceaselessly with his daughter. It is true that the boys were terribly rough, however. Harry remembers how they darted around dangerously on their skates, crashing into one another at terrible speeds, and Grandfather was aware of the danger their carelessness posed for Harry, who was much smaller than they were. He would pretend that he was afraid to fall and hurt his old bones, and he would ask Harry to remain nearby and please not let go of his arm while they skated around the edges of the pond safely. Harry should perhaps have been upset at being subjected to this protective treatment while his brothers were free to play however they wanted, but he took a sort of pride at being kept close as the favourite. He still remembers how Grandfather’s steady hand would hold him up whenever he lost his balance or whenever the blade of his skate would catch into the ice and threaten to trip him. All of his brothers and cousins would get regularly hurt whenever they went out skating, but even if Harry had never been a good skater, he had never fallen once with Grandfather by his side.

“It must be nearly ten years since I last saw him,” Charlie adds disbelievingly. “Eight years, I believe. Yes, since I joined the military. It will be good to see him again.”

Harry turns to his brother in confusion. “Again? Are you going to Hampstead?”

“Yes. All of us shall be visiting for Christmas,” Charlie reveals with a grin.

Harry grips his arm suddenly, a bit roughly perhaps, but Charlie only laughs. “What? When was this decided?”

“I told Father that I would need to leave for a few days next week,” Charlie says in a more serious tone. “I was going to perhaps find a room in Hatfield, but he suggested I go to Hampstead. I have done so in the past, after I came of age, if you recall.”

Harry nods, looking away in embarrassment. When they were younger, Bill and Charlie both would visit their grandfather whenever the time for their rut was near. Harry has always felt a certain guilt over this, especially now that he knows how much easier it is to be at home during such a trying time. But they would both rather leave The Burrow than have Harry being sent away, even for a few days. Besides, Grandfather Prewett is himself an Alpha, and he was always in the best position to provide a comfortable environment for them.

“And so, I wrote to Grandfather, and he was the one who suggested everyone should follow suit after me. I shall be leaving on Monday, and Mother, Father and you should join us the week after. Everyone will come for Christmas as well. Uncle Fabian and Aunt Mable, with Catherine and Caroline. And Ron and Ginny. And Percy, Fred and George will certainly come as well. I believe even Robert will come with his wife and the children. Are you happy?” Charlie asks, quite unnecessarily, because surely it is obvious from Harry’s wide eyes and grin that he is ecstatic. “We shall have a big family Christmas, just like when we were little.”

“I am happy,” Harry can only mumble, holding Charlie’s arm tightly still and pressing his cheek against his brother’s shoulder. “It will be just like before. As if nothing had changed.”

Harry is nearly certain that his brother smiles sadly at this, but Charlie does not reply as they continue walking, the soggy ground squelching under their feet.

#snarry #snarryfanfic #myfics #ficextracts #brighterthanbright

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casualmaraudering · 4 years

Text

Remus groans as he hears the unmistakable ‘clink’ of a camera shutter.

A moment later, he sees a bunch of ginger hair, right by the floor, slowly peeking out from the doorframe. After his hair come his eyes, and he stays that way, his head sideways, just glancing at Remus - who can’t help but laugh at it. Fabian is not, by any means, a small man - he’s tall and muscular and broad - so it is quite funny to see him crouched up on the floor, doing… well, whatever he might be doing.

Fabian’s camera peaks from the doorway, and he takes another photo.

“What are you doing?”

There’s no reply. Just a raise of a brow, and another click of the camera.

Remus just sighs with a fond smile to his face, and comes back to what he was doing - which is making a blanket fort on the floor. It’s fall, which means it’s getting quite cold, and Remus keeps trying to find new ways of getting cosy. He likes to be warm, he likes to be comfortable, he likes to cuddle with Fabian while reading a book and sipping on a pumpkin spice - and he’s on his period, so curling down on the floor has a particularly great appeal today.

Once he’s done putting away all the pillows and blankets (inside the tent made out of bed sheets that Remus begged Fabian to help him make earlier today), he gets to the more important task - setting them all up to work out the maximum level of comfort.

While he does that, he notices that Fabian slowly moves from the door to peeking from behind the bed - mind you, he moves there while slowly crawling on his knees, coming to a sudden stop every time Remus looks directly at him.

Once Fabian takes his spot from behind the bed, he peeks out, once again with the camera closely to his face, snapping another photo.

“And here, ladies and gents and others, we see a wild Remus,” Fabian starts reciting, in this monotone, yet somehow still entertaining tone of nature documentary narrator.

“Oh, is that what we’re doing?” Remus asks with a laugh.

“I’m just doing my job,” Fabian replies quickly, whispering, as if he wants Remus to know this isn’t part of the game that he’s clearly not done playing.

A game clearly related to his job, him being a wildlife photographer - something he loves incredibly and has a very clear passion for. While Remus supports him all the way, the more popular Fabian gets in his field, the more people hire him, sometimes for trips that last weeks, if not months at a time, just to get a singular photo of one particular moment. They manage fine whenever they have to go long distance, but no matter what, Remus loves to have his boyfriend home.

He had, in fact, just returned from his last trip a few days ago - he spent five weeks in Brazil, taking photos of the birds native to the area, and promised to show them all to Remus today (he had no chance to do that since he returned, seeing as they honestly spent all their time in bed until this morning). Remus is the only one allowed to see literally all of the photos - Fabian has a plethora of rejects, of course: photos that are blurry, missing the animal that he was supposed to capture, or are, generally, unappealing. Remus likes looking at all of them, though. Especially that Fabian always has something to say about every single one of them.

Now, though, he seems very entertained pretending Remus is some wild animal that he needs to photograph. Remus doubts he talks this way when taking photos of actual animals, though.

“A Remus is also known as a Moony, though that name isn’t official,” Fabian continues, making a show out of peaking out from various parts of the bed, snatching photo after photo. “During fall, a Remus enters its nesting period - as a warm blooded creature, it must work to maintain a comfortable temperature. Its nest is usually made up of pillows, blankets, and its mate’s sweaters.”

Remus laughs, feeling his cheeks heat up. He didn’t think Fabian noticed he was wearing his sweater.

“It’s easily distinguishable by a few key features - a very messy nest of hair on the top of its head, changing in colour depending on the mental state on the individual-”

“Ha ha,” Remus says dryly - though, he’s still smiling. His hair happens to be purple right now, an impulse decision he’s made while Fabian was away. So what if he happened to dye his hair whenever he was vulnerable?

“Another one of its key features is just a scattering of freckles on its nose - not too much, enough to count them. This particular specimen we’re observing today has exactly 27.”

“Come here,” Remus says, cocking his head.

“It seems like this Remus is friendly,” Fabian keeps up the commentary, peeking out enough so Remus can see the grin on his face. “Which Remuses often are during their courtship display.”

“Courtship display?”

“A Remus attracts a mate in many ways, including showcasing its sweater paws, biting its lip, and excessively quoting Jane Austen novels.”

“Have a little compassion on my nerves. You tear them to pieces.”

“What a fantastic example!” Fabian says, with so much excitement in his voice as if he just saw an animal that was thought to be extinct. “A little known fact is that a Remus mates for life. And this specimen seems to already have a mate, judging by that interesting accessory on its finger. Within these species, this is considered a sign of a mated individual.”

“This mated individual would love it if his mate took his laptop and showed him the photos he promised to,” Remus says, leaning back and watching Fabian. He missed this so damn much when Fabian was in Brazil.

Fabian laughs, and crawls towards him - still on his hands and knees, which is honestly both ridiculous and, somehow, adorable.

“You done with your documentary, Mr Wildlife Photography Man?”

Fabian settles next to Remus and leans down to kiss him, smiling against Remus’s lips.

“You’re far more interesting than anything I’ve ever taken pictures of.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, sir.”

Fabian laughs, and pulls him into his arms, showering his face with kisses until Remus is squirming with laughter.

“Oh, I dunno, it got me into here, Mr Prewett.”

“You’re so fond of saying that,” Remus comments - he’d lie if he said he doesn’t love to hear it, though.

“Well, duh. I like to make everyone remember you’re mine.”

Remus rolls his eyes with a smile, and kisses Fabian again, sighing constantly at the warmth in his chest, smiling at the familiar feel of Fabian’s lips against his own. They let themselves enjoy it, slowly exchanging kiss after kiss, until they’re both out of breath. They rest their foreheads together, just looking into each other’s eyes for a moment - warm chocolate brown meeting deep sea blue.

“I love you,” Fabian whispers. “And I missed you so damn much.”

“Me too. Those parrots better have been worth it,” Remus jokes, joining their hands together.

“You wanna see them?”

“Only if you show me all of the ones you just took of me.”

“Deal.”

#remus lupin #fabian prewett #redmoon #the marauders #the marauders fanfiction #my tag #my writing #my writing tag #long ish post #trans remus

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remywrites5 · 4 years

Text

Sirius yawned and stretched his arms over his head as he walked through the hallways of his school. It had been another sleepless night of listening to his parents argue and pretending he couldn’t hear them. He’d put his headphones in and turned his music up as loud as he could but it still wasn’t enough to drown them out. In the end he had given up the illusion of sleep and committed to staying awake – a decision he was now regretting as he tried to make it though the school day.

He had an off period so he was looking for a place to take a nap. He went down towards the music rooms, as there were usually a few practice rooms vacant. He would be able to shut the door and be undisturbed for at least a good half hour. He would just have to set an alarm on his phone so he didn’t miss his maths class. He knew McGonagall was planning a pop quiz because he’d peeked through her planner.

Sirius poked his head into one of the practice rooms and found Remus Lupin strumming a guitar with a pick in his mouth resting against his silver lip ring. Remus glanced up when he heard the door open and smiled kindly. Sirius felt something funny happen to his insides the way it always did when Remus was around. Remus had only moved to their school the year before and no one really knew much about him. Sirius had barely spoken ten words to the guy but it hadn’t stopped him having an annoyingly inconvenient crush on him.

“Sorry,” he said, his hand still on the doorknob. He kept telling his body to turn around and leave but it wasn’t cooperating.

“It’s okay,” Remus said, taking the pick out of his mouth. He played a few more chords and then glanced back up at Sirius. “Did you need something else?”

“Will you teach me the guitar?” Sirius blurted out before he could think better of it.

Remus scratched the back of his neck nervously. “I don’t know, I’ve never taught anyone before. I don’t think I’d be very good at it.”

“I really want to learn though,” Sirius said, pouting slightly at the rejection. It was actually true as well, Sirius had always dreamed of being able to play guitar like a rock star. “I’ll pay you.”

Remus chewed on his lip for a moment while he considered it. “Do you even have a guitar?”

“I can get one,” Sirius promised quickly. He could tell he was wearing Remus down just a bit. He wasn’t going to give up now when he was starting to win him over.

Remus exhaled loudly. “What was your name again?”

Sirius did his best not to look offended at the question. “Sirius Black.”

“If you can get a guitar then I’ll do what I can to teach you,” Remus said, playing a few more chords. “But no promises, okay? I told you I’m not much of a teacher. You really should ask Professor Flitwick. He’s the music teacher after all.”

“He doesn’t like me,” Sirius confessed, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning casually against the doorframe. “Last year I purposefully sang the wrong words during our chorus concert and I was in the front row. Everyone could hear me. He wasn’t very happy about it.”

Remus bit his lip ring to keep from smiling. “No, I don’t imagine he would be. Should I expect such disrespect when I attempt to teach you?”

“Nope,” Sirius said, popping the p before letting his lips curl into a grin. “I’ll be an angel.”

Remus rolled his eyes. “Somehow I doubt that. Get the guitar and we’ll see.”

“I will,” Sirius promised. He could already feel himself getting excited. He had wanted to learn guitar since forever and now bonus he was getting to learn it from his crush. It felt like a win-win scenario. Sirius headed off having forgotten any ideas of taking a nap, too excited to even think of closing his eyes, for fear that this was a dream.

***

“What are we doing again?” James asked as he hit a tambourine a few times. Taking James Potter anywhere was a menace but Sirius’ best mate had insisted on coming with him.

“I’m buying a guitar,” Sirius responded distractedly as he looked at the wall of guitars in the music shop. “I’m just not sure what kind of get.”

“Why though?” James asked, scratching his head, his fingers getting lost in his unruly hair.

“Remus Lupin offered to teach me,” Sirius explained, pulling one of the guitars off the wall. He put the strap over his head and positioned it against his body. It was a black and white Fender and Sirius couldn’t help thinking he looked kind of cool as he watched himself in the mirror.

“Ah, okay.” James said, nodding in understanding as he put the tambourine back. “So you just want an excuse to spend time with Remus.”

“That’s not all,” Sirius said defensively, strumming his left hand without playing any chords. “I’ve always wanted to learn guitar. This is a perfect opportunity. Plus I get to spend time with Remus.”

James grabbed a pair of drumsticks and began twirling them between his fingers. “Do you think Lily would like me if I played an instrument?”

“Mate, I think the only way Lily Evans would like you is if she got a lobotomy.”

“Rude,” James said, putting the stick back.

Sirius tilted his head from side to side as he looked at himself in the mirror. “Remus had an acoustic guitar. Should I get one of those instead? If I show up with the wrong kind of guitar he might change his mind about helping me.”

“You’re overthinking it,” James assured him, clapping his hand on Sirius’ shoulder. “Just get whatever kind of guitar you want.”

Sirius nodded and gave his best friend an appreciative look. He tried a few more guitars and decided on a candy apple red and black Fender. It was about six hundred pounds but Sirius thought it was well worth it. He just hoped that Remus liked it as much as he did.

***

Remus’ eyes widened as Sirius took his new guitar out of the case. “Wow, that’s um…quite the guitar.”

“Is it bad?” Sirius asked, his stomach dropping. He knew he would mess everything up. He should have just gotten an acoustic guitar like the one Remus had. “I can always take it back.”

“No, it’s fine.” Remus said, smiling softly. “It’s kind of flashy but I think it suits you.”

Sirius tucked his hair behind his ear and returned Remus’ smile. “You think so?”

Remus nodded and then adjusted the beanie on his head. His tawny curls were poking out from the front of it and his school tie undone. He looked relaxed and effortlessly cool. Sirius desperately wanted to kiss him and find out what the lip ring would feel like.

Remus sat down on the floor with his guitar in his lap and Sirius immediately moved to sit down across from him. Together they tuned Sirius’ guitar so that it matched Remus’. Remus showed him a few chords and they played Yellow Submarine together very slowly since it only had about three chords in the chorus. “That’s really good,” Remus said, beaming at Sirius proudly. “You’re a natural.”

Sirius grinned and shook his head. “No you’re just a good teacher.”

“Bullocks,” Remus teased, scratching his eyebrow. “You’ve played an instrument before. I can tell.”

Sirius snorted and ran through the chords again. “My mum made me play violin as a kid. Had to take private lessons and everything. I wasn’t that into it but she liked having a son that could play. My brother Reg played the piano and she would make us play duets during dinner parties. It was the worst.”

“But she let you quit?”

Sirius glanced up at Remus and then gave him a shrug in response. “The high school doesn’t have an orchestra anyway so there wasn’t much point in continuing on. She allowed me to pursue other interests.”

“She sounds kind of tough,” Remus said, patting Sirius’ knee sympathetically.

Sirius reached down and places his hand over Remus’, enjoying the feeling of warmth that came from touching him. He turned Remus’ hand over and felt the callouses on Remus’ fingers from the guitar strings. “You don’t know the half of it.”

“Sirius – “

“Anyway, I’m here to learn, not share my tragic backstory,” he said, dropping Remus’ hand. “What’s next?”

Remus chewed on his lip ring for a moment and seemed ready to argue. After a moment he shook his head and showed Sirius another chord. “So, um, my band is playing a gig this weekend.”

“You’re in a band?” Sirius asked, his eyes widening in surprise.

“Yeah, we’re terrible,” Remus told him with a soft chuckle. “Lily convinced me to join after her old guitar player, Fabian, hurt his hand during a rugby match. If you wanted to come see us play we’ll be at the Three Broomsticks on Saturday night. You don’t have to though, as I said, we’re not very good.”

“I’ll be there!” Sirius promised, knowing there was no way in hell he’d miss it.

***

“You’re sure Lily is going to be here?” James asked, following Sirius through the pub.

“It’s her band, you numpty,” Sirius said as he playfully smacked James upside the head. “She’s the lead singer.”

“Oh god, I’m going to die. She’s so pretty and she can sing?”

It was pretty crowded for a Saturday night as James and Sirius weaved their way through the crowd. They each got a pint from the bar and then went to find somewhere to stand so they could see the stage. For the moment they were just playing music through the speakers of what sounded like a club mix.

After about twenty minutes of Sirius searching in vain for Remus, the lights dimmed and the spotlights on the stage came on. Sirius glanced over at his best friend and saw his jaw drop as Lily Evans stepped onto the stage. She had on a pair of fishnet stockings and black shorts, a Star Wars t-shirt and an unzipped hoodie over it. While James stared at Lily, Sirius’ vision focused just slightly to her left where Remus was plugging his guitar into the amp. Instead of his brown acoustic guitar he had a turquoise and white electric guitar. He wore ripped jeans, a plain white t-shirt and a blue and green flannel with his signature (as Sirius had come to think of it) brown beanie on his head. Rounding out the band was Benjy Fenwick on bass and Marlene McKinnon on drums.

Remus looked out into the crowd and smiled when he noticed Sirius, his teeth resting against his lip ring, making Sirius’ insides do funny little flips. Marlene banged her sticks together a few times as Lily stepped up to the mic and began to sing. James immediately started cheering and clapping as the song began. After a moment Sirius couldn’t help joining in.

Lily took the mic out from the stand and walked over to Remus, their hips swaying in time to the music as they danced together. Sirius couldn’t help the pang of jealousy in his chest from how close Lily was getting to Remus. He knew it was just part of the show but they leaned in close to share the mic as Remus harmonized with Lily. Sirius took a large pull from his beer and tried to get himself under control. He felt slightly better when the song ended and Lily went back to the mic stand in the center of the stage.

“What do you know about that bloke Remus?” James shouted in Sirius’ ear as the next song started. He clearly was jealous of the on stage chemistry Lily and Remus shared too.

“I know he’s going to be mine after tonight,” Sirius said before downing his beer and heading to the bar for another one.

They played a total of five songs before Lily thanked everyone and wishing them good night. The lights on the stage went out and the band began to pack up their stuff. The same club mix started to pour out of the speakers as James and Sirius made their way to the stage.

“Oh great, what do you want?” Lily asked already scowling at James.

“I just came to watch the show!” James answered defensively.

Remus had just finished putting his guitar away when Sirius tugged him down from the stage. “Hi there,” Remus said, smiling warmly at Sirius. “Did you – “

Remus was cut off by Sirius capturing his lips in a kiss much less frantic than Sirius felt at the moment. Remus pulled back after a few seconds and stared at Sirius with a puzzled expression on his face. Sirius reached up and brushed Remus’ curls off his forehead before pressing a kiss there as well.

Remus laughed softly. “Should I take that to mean you liked the show?”

“I did,” Sirius confirmed, letting his arms rest around Remus’ shoulders. “Also you lied to me.”

“I did?” Remus asked bemusedly as he put his hands on Sirius’ waist.

“You told me you were rubbish,” Sirius reminded him. He let his hand cup the nape of Remus’ neck and he pressed down just slightly, feeling Remus shiver against him in response. “I thought you were really good. You were a rock star.”

Remus rolled his eyes before leaning in and kissing Sirius again. “I think you might be a tad biased on that account.”

“Not at all,” Sirius said as he nibbled playfully on Remus’ lip. “I’m quite the music snob if you must know.”

“Ah,” Remus huffed in amusement. “So you liking our music is actually quite the compliment.”

“Exactly,” Sirius murmured against Remus’ lips, kissing him again and then again for good measure. “I’ve excellent taste in music and men.”

Remus took a step back in order to grab his guitar off the stage. He held it in one hand and took Sirius’ hand with his other. “You know, if you wanted to go out with me you could have just asked. You didn’t have to pretend you wanted to learn guitar.”

“I did want to learn the guitar,” Sirius insisted as Remus led him out through the back door of the club. Benjy’s van was parked outside so Remus slid his guitar into it and then sat down on the edge of the open boot. He grabbed Sirius by his Ramones’ t-shirt until Sirius was standing between his open legs. “I might be a bit hot for teacher, though.”

“God, I hope you mean me and not Professor Flitwick,” Remus teased with a knowing smirk.

“Mm, Flitwick is dead sexy,” Sirius joked, tracing the contours of Remus’ face with his finger, trying to memorize it already, as he couldn’t get enough of it. “But I prefer you.”

“It’s a good thing you’re my only student or I would get accused of playing favorites,” Remus said, putting his hands behind him and leaning back.

“Only two lessons and I’m already teacher’s pet, huh?” Sirius managed to quip even though his heart was racing from the way Remus was looking at him. He desperately wanted to shut the boot and snog Remus in the back of the van.

Remus hummed in agreement. “My pet, you say? If that’s the case then maybe I should feed you, huh boy?”

Sirius let out a yip like a puppy and licked a stripe up Remus’ neck. “Remus Lupin, are you asking me out on a date?”

Remus laughed and shoved Sirius’ face away. “Yeah, I guess I am, since apparently I already own you anyway.”

“Think you’ll keep me then?” Sirius asked, sitting down next to Remus and lacing their fingers together. It was astonishing to Sirius that something as simple as holding Remus’ hand was enough to make him feel a little lightheaded.

“Yeah,” Remus said, giving Sirius’ hand a reassuring squeeze. “I’ll keep you.”

#wolfstar #i write things #fluff #high school au #Band AU #guess who just watched Given and needed to write something based on it?#sirius black x remus lupin #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #background jily #even though it doesn't go anywhere #today in things no one asked for #lomg post

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sammysdewysensitiveeyes · 3 years

Text

@sebastianshaw Hey, remember when I said that Potoroo Park was the dumbest thing I’ve ever written? I take it back. It’s this. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever written. You have my deepest apologies.

Dreams

Pyro was wearing one of his very old outfits – tight-fitting white pants that flared out at the ankles and a shimmery purple shirt. That was his first clue that something was wrong. The second clue was that he appeared to be standing in the sand at Bondi Beach, one of Sydney’s most famous and popular tourist spots, instead of his familiar cabin on the Marauder.

The third clue was the crowd of people rushing past him, screaming in terror.

“What – “ A panicked surfer slammed into him before he could even get the question out, knocking him into the sand. For a moment, Pyro was furious because the pants stained so easily, and he’d spent most of his paycheck for that last article on this outfit, and then he remembered that he hadn’t worn any of these clothes in decades. They’d all gotten sold off at second-hand shops when St. John Allerdyce was packing up his civilian life and running off to become Pyro. He’d worn a lot more red and orange after that.

The stampede continued around him as he picked himself up, and he could hear voices in the crowd.

“Emus! The emus are coming!”

“What?”

“Emus, mate!” One of the fleeing beach-goers stopped for a moment to push him along, and Pyro found himself running in spite of himself. “They won the war and now they’ve turned on us!”

“What?!”

“And they’ve allied with cassowaries!”

“Oh, fuck!” And then Pyro was running in earnest. Tourists were always fooled by cassowaries, with their vibrant blue heads that were so very pretty. To hell with those those murder peacocks. They were basically feathered dinosaurs, and they’d kick your guts out like an extra on Jurassic Park.

The fact that none of this made any sense at all did not occur to Pyro. He was too busy flailing as an errant foot sent him down into the sand again, this time getting stepped on by a few people.

“Augh! Fuckin’…….gettoff! Gettoff ya cunts!” He pushed himself up, dazed, as the crowd receded into the distance, fully intending to burn every god damn one of them, which they totally deserved for trampling him into the dirt like that. Although he might have to burn a few cassowaries, first.

Two booted feet suddenly appeared in the sand before him. Pyro looked up, and immediately regreted it.

The man wore thigh-high black leather boots, and what appeared to be a red diaper held up by odd suspenders crossed over his chest. And nothing else. Pyro was not a prude, or someone disgusted by the male body (quite the opposite, in fact). But he had no desire to see anyone dressed like that. Especially not Fabian Cortez.

“You poor dear, those brutes have left you behind! Are you hurt?” With a dazzling smile, Cortez offered Pyro a hand up, and the threat of murderous birds on their heels was enough to make him take it.

“Not to worry, my beauty,” Fabian continued before Pyro could even respond. “I’ll save you! You can be part of my harem when I defeat the emu army and am declared emperor for life!” He swept Pyro into his arms with surprising ease, and began sprinting down the beach.

“Put me down, you sleazy piece of – “ Over Fabian’s shoulder, Pyro saw a cloud of dust on the horizon behind them. The ground rumbled with the sound of powerful, clawed feet. “Never mind, please keep carrying me. And run faster.”

“Haha! Don’t fret, my precious flower! Those birds are no match for the mighty thighs of Fabian Cortez!”

“Uh-huh, that’s great. But I’ll just torch a few to discourage them from getting too close, shall I?” The dust cloud was getting bigger, and Pryo could faintly see beady eyes and geaming claws in the mass. He felt in his pockets for his lighter. Then he felt again. Then he desperately ran his hands all along his body, praying that he had it in some shirt pocket, even tucked away in his shoe.

“Stop fidgeting, my cuddly koala! I know you must be going nearly mad with desire, being so close to me, but please control yourself until I can deal with this crisis. Then I promise I’ll give you full and complete satisfaction, until you faint from sheer delight.”

“Where’s my bloody lighter you wanker?” Pyro yelled, yanking on Fabain’s long red braid. “I need my lighter!”

“You don’t need that!” Fabian argued. “You only need me!”

“I. Need. My. Fucking. Lighter,” Pyro growled, punctuating each word with another yank on the braid. He tried to focus on the anger, and not on the panic that was bubbling up in his chest. No lighter meant he was completely and utterly exposed. His powers meant fuck-all without fire for him to grab hold of. Because God forbid the fire-manipulating guy actually be able to create fire, right? That would make things too easy.

“Don’t get hysterical, my darling wallaby! Upon my word as a gentleman and supreme mutant, I’ll protect you. We just have to get to the high ground!”

“What high ground?” Pyro exclaimed, but suddenly they were right in front of the Sydney Opera House. Which was miles away from Bondi Beach, nowhere near running distance, but what the hell.

“We shall climb to safety, my exquisite dingo. And from there I can come up with a strategic plan to save the country –“ Fabian was interrupted as a cassowary charged at him, kicking and squawking. He jumped back with a rather undiginified squawk of his own. The birds were all around them now, jabbing and kicking with beaks and claws.

“Never mind, Allerdyce, it’s every man for himself! I’ll remember your sacrifice, my dearest Tasmanian devil!” Fabian dropped Pyro, leaped onto the wall and began climbing.

“Wait just a damn minute, you piece of – “ Pyro began climbing himself. It shouldn’t have been possible to scale Sydney Opera House, but somehow he was doing it, and very quickly went from the main building up onto the shell-like half-domes that protruded up from the roof.

“We’ll be safe up here, my sweet funnel-web spider! Emus and cassowaries are flightless birds!” Fabian called down.

“I know they’re flightless birds, I’m from this country!” Pyro looked down for a moment, at the dark mass of birds gathered below him. There were thousands of them. Which wouldn’t be a problem if Pyro just had his damned lighter, but of course he was one of the few mutants that needed some outside “help” to use his powers. Fuck genetics right up the arse.

But it was okay, as long as they stayed up high on the building.

Wait. There was a flurry of activity down below, and Pyro saw, to his disbelief, the birds starting to stand on each other’s backs.

“Climb faster, Cortez!” he yelled up, but soon they reached the tip of the tallest shell, and there was nowhere else to go.

“I don’t suppose there’s the slightest chance you’ve got some matches in that diaper of yours, is there?” Pyro asked in despair.

“I’m afraid not, my beloved duck-billed platypus. The only hot thing inside my pants is – “

“Shut UP, Cortez!” Pyro looked down, and immediately regreted it. The emu-cassowary “ladders” were working their way up the building.

“Look! Up in the sky!” Fabian pointed at a dot far in the distance. “Is it a bird, or perhaps a plane?”

“That’s not really a pressing issue right now, Cortez!” Pyro snapped, but he paused to look at the dot all the same. It was quickly getting bigger, as if approaching them. In a moment, it took shape, revealing the sillouhette of a man.

That in itself wasn’t so strange. There were all sorts of mutant flyers, both men and women. But there was something especially odd about this one. There were thin, wing-like appendages that seemed to be protruding out of his face. Then the figure came close enough to recognize, and Pyro groaned. This was the only thing that could make his day worse.

“Greetings, friends!” exclaimed Sebastian Shaw, looking far cheerier than usual. “It seems as though you need some assistance! Let me read to you from the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People!”

He was wearing his usual rich-as-fuck business suit, but…his hair. Pyro realized with growing disgust that Shaw’s sideburns had grown freakishly long and seemed to move of their own accord, like the tentacles of some deep-water sea creature. It appeared to be the primary thing holding him aloft.

“Shaw, what the fuck?!”

“Who is Shaw?” Sebastian looked innocently confused, a completely alien expression on his face. “I am the Flying Capitalist, my friends, and I’m here to help people help themselves! I know that with the proper encouragement, you two can overcome adversity, just as I once did! I worked 13-hour shifts in the foundry starting at age 9, and it made me the man I am today! Here, have some applications for a management training program!” Shaw tossed paper down at them.

“Or maybe you could carry us out of here?” Pyro asked. “Since you can fly and all that…..somehow.” The sideburns fluttered like pennants for the world’s most disgusting baseball team as Shaw bobbed up and down with the air currents.

“Yes, save us, Flying Capitalist!” Fabian begged. “Or at least save me, if there’s only room for one!”

“Oh, I could carry you to safety. But would that really be helping you?”

“Yes!” Pyro exclaimed.

“Nonsense!” Sebastian waved a hand. “The real assistance is to help you help yourself. After all, give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he becomes your competitor. But, teach a man to sweep floors and carry buckets of cod, and you can employ him at minimum wage in your fish processing plant! Everyone wins! But especially me!”

“What the absolute bloody fuck are you talking about?”

“There are no free rides in this life, son,” Sebastian continued, now looking stern. “I’ve done all I can at this point. You’ll have to get yourself out of this. Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps and levitate!”

“That’s completely impossible!” Pyro said.

“Nothings impossible if you’ve got will and drive! It’s the American way! They said I’d never bring sideburns back, but look at me now!”

Pyro was trying not to. The horrible, undulating waves of hair stretched too far across the sky.

“Just pull yourself up, Allerdyce! You can do it! Actually, I doubt you can, but it doesn’t matter. Progress and industry don’t slow down for the incompetent.” Sideburns flapping, Sebastian started to rise into the air again. “Read Atlas Shrugged!”

“Shaw, have you got a lighter? At least toss me a lighter!” Pyro called after him.

“Boooootsraaaaaps……” came Sebastian’s voice, faint on the wind as he flew away into the clouds.

For a moment, Pyro and Fabian looked at each other, then back down at the ground. The emu and cassowaries, piled atop each other, had created a massive living wall that was now dangerously close.

“Maybe we can negotiate?”

“With who exatly?”

“I think that’s their leader!” Fabian pointed at a small figure, perched atop the head of the central cassowary. If Pyro squinted, he could see that it appeared to be wearing a tiny crown and mantle.

“Oh look at it, it’s so cute!” Fabian gushed. “Look at its little whiskers and paws!”

It was cute. The tiny rodent – Pyro thought he remembered it having some silly name….pootalo? Poorooto? – gazed up at them with unreadable black eyes. It twitched it’s adorable little nose, and held out a tiny paw. Then it turned the paw in a very clear thumbs down gesture.

“Oh, for fucks sakes!” Pyro exclaimed as the emus surged forward, up towards them.

“Maybe we can appease them with a sacrifice! Forgive me, my petite salt-water crocodile. I’ll never forget you!” Cortez grabbed Pyro and attempted to shove him off the ledge.

“Like, hell, Cortez! You’re coming down with me!” Pyro wrapped his hands around Fabian’s neck and held on as they tipped forward past the point of no return. For an instant they were tumbling down towards the sea of birds and the cold dark eyes of King Potoroo –

Then, Pyro jerked awake and felt himself hit the floor. He flailed around frantically for a moment, and realized that he was sprawled in his cabin on the Marauder

“Ugh…..” Pyro lay still while the wave of nausea that always accompanied his hang-overs washed over him. This time it was accompanied by a sense of relief as the nightmare faded.

“What the god damn hell was that all about?” Pyro muttered aloud. Was it some kind of extremely problematic expression of suppressed guilt for living in a country founded on colonization? Pyro didn’t really dwell on it, but he was well aware of Australia’s bloody history. Was it his own underlying insecurity about his powers, which at times seemed to reduce him to “guy with flame-thrower”? Was it a twisted version of his latest romance novel, first draft still halfway completed? Was he somehow punishing himself for past crimes by dreaming about the two worst people in the entire world?

As his vision came into focus, Pyro spotted the bottle lying next to him. Tequila, laced with mescaline, which Shinobi had acquired on the black market. Shinobi, who was still on the bed, snored peacefully, with every inch of the sheets wrapped around him in a satin cocoon.

Well, that explained it. Throwing on a pair of shorts, Pyro staggered out to the top deck, and tossed the bottle overboard. Never again.

FYI: Fabian is wearing this outfit from the terrible sci-fi movie Zardoz. I’m so sorry.

#pyro #st. john allerdyce #fabian cortez #sebastian shaw #thecorteztwins cinematic universe #I'm sorry to any pyro shaw or cortez fans that stumble across this #it's related to a very specific fan-fic alt universe #also it's extremely stupid #alt-marauders

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squidbatts · 4 years

Text

i'm not just a boy (i'm a-)

Your name is Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill and Hallariel Seacaster, grandson of Telemien Lomenelda, co-leader of the Bad Kids, captain of the Aguefort Owlbears, Master of the Hangman, conqueror of Kalvaxis.

or: of fear, duskmoss, and the forest of the nightmare king

((happy fh day, i wrote this while i was crying watching the episode so it Is canon divergent, but i related to fabian’s fears a bit too much to Not write about it))

{ao3}

Your name is Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill and Hallariel Seacaster, grandson of Telemien Lomenelda, co-leader of the Bad Kids, captain of the Aguefort Owlbears, master of the Hangman, conqueror of Kalvaxis.

You take a deep breath as Gorgug lights up the duskmoss, burying your want to chase after Riz because you think that this is the point of the forest, that this is what’s supposed to happen; it scares you, one of your crew running into the forest alone, even more than it scared you when Ragh disappeared. You think that worrying about Riz or Gorgug or Fig or Adaine or Kristen more than your other friends, the hirelings that you dragged on this quest with you, might make you a bad person. You can’t particularly find it in yourself to care.

You feel the smoke settle in your lungs, the fullness of it filling your chest. You hold it in, closing your eyes almost reflexively as it burns in your throat. Something inside you, base and afraid, remembers dragon fire on prom night, the feel of Adaine shaking against your back as you try to outrun Him on the Hangman. You shake the thoughts out of your head and breathe out.

Your name is Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill and Hallariel Seacaster, grandson of Telemien Lomenelda, co-leader of the Bad Kids, captain of the Aguefort Owlbears, Master of the Hangman.

You take another breath in, looking at your friends around you. Their presence is comforting, even though you can nearly feel the air between you all thrumming with nerves.

This summer, when Fig and Gorgug were on tour and Riz was doing detective stuff with the Elmville police and Adaine was working through things with Jawbone, you spent a lot of time alone, and then, a lot of time with the Hangman. You rode around on him to get information about Aelwen and to set up a crew, obviously, but even besides that, there was a lot of free time that led to you jumping on him and going. Going to half-pipes and highways, to bank around sharp corners and through narrow alleyways, to feel the wind on your face as you let your motorcycle run wild; going fast enough that your loneliness and your stress and your worries about your papa couldn’t catch you.

It was a summer of only you, escaping with the Hangman every second that you weren’t training with your mama. Just a fighter and his demonic mount.

You think, as you breathe out, that it suited you, honestly. You still would rather not be alone.

Your name is Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill and Hallariel Seacaster, grandson of Telemien Lomenelda, co-leader of the Bad Kids, captain of the Augefort Owlbears.

Ragh calls you “his QB” sometimes.

You know that’s what he called Dayne, you heard him yell it in the halls often enough to recognize it. You also know that it should unsettle you, that you should ask Ragh to stop or remind him that Dayne fucking Blayde was a douchebag and that you deserve your own moniker, unsullied by having belonged to him as well. You hope that you’re not becoming like Dayne, apathetic and cruel in turns, making people around you hide themselves in order to avoid your ire. It’s a terrifying idea, to become a nightmare creature with blank scarecrow eyes and a cold, shriveled heart.

Still, there’s something about Ragh being so excited that makes you keep all these worries deep inside.

You take a deep breath, feeling your ribs move as your lungs expand. You know that you’ll let Ragh keep calling you his.

Your name is Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill and Hallariel Seacaster, grandson of Telemien Lomenelda, co-leader of the Bad Kids.

You’re not the boss of the Bad Kids. You're all "co-leaders," really, and you make decisions together, for the best of the group. It works best this way, you think. The Bad Kids, your friends, aren’t afraid of you like your papa’s crew was afraid of him, not even a bit. You inhale and remember toddling around the original Hangman, a tiny half-elf with a too-big sword and a sharp need to be great enough for his papa’s legend. The crew smiled after you, but none of them ever got too close for fear of your papa’s mercurial moods.

It was a weird childhood, being the only kid on a ship of pirates, surrounded only by potential playmates that were decades older than you and the unforgiving sea.

In retrospect, you decide that you don’t like to think about it, actually. The past is best left in the past, isn't it?

Fig looks at all of you with dilated pupils and says that she’s going to cast a spell, a third-level Fear to help you all reach the center of the forest just a bit faster. Your hand shakes as you take off your father’s eyepatch and purposefully fail your saving throw. You exhale. You trust the rest of the Bad Kids implicitly.

Your name is Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill and Hallariel Seacaster, grandson of Telemien Lomenelda.

William Seacaster didn’t have any parents.

Or, well, that’s not true, you know that’s not true, because surely he had someone once upon a time, but your father never talked about his own parents.

In the distance, what feels like miles away, Gorgug says something about being afraid and coming for Kristen. You chant along, barely registering the words that you’re saying as you think about how your mama didn’t ever talk about her family either, really, besides one day when she looked at you, eyes strangely clear even as she took a deep gulp of her wine, and said “My father would love to meet you.”

She never introduced you to him back then, landlocked as the forests of the Lomenelda are; the Hangman went many places in your youth, but the Seacaster family wandered only the seas of Spyre, your ship going where the tide and the whispers of riches took you. Once, you thought you saw your mama twisting and twirling on the deck, spinning herself into a tornado under the pale light of the moon. Her hands opened and closed, clutching for something beyond the reach of even a woman as well connected as the beloved wife of the feared pirate Bill Seacaster. You feel like you were never meant to see her like that, but you still can’t keep the image out of your head in quiet, dark moments.

Your name is Fabian Aramais Seacaster, son of Bill and Hallariel Seacaster.

Your parents love you.

You’re certain of that, you know that they’ve said it, that you’re their darling boy, that your mama is trying and your papa is dead and your mom is-

Wait. That’s not right.

Your mama is trying, your papa is dead, and Cathilda has always been there for you. Cathilda will always be there for you. You have a father and a mother and a Maid, that’s more than enough, as long as you have them. None of them are in this forest, confusing and dark, with you, though.

You take a deep breath in, the woodsy air filling your body. You look down at yourself, how you fade in and out of visibility. You watch as Adaine disappears between one blink and the next, as Fig tells Gorgug, “We need to find Adaine and Riz and Kristen” and doesn’t mention you at all.

When your hand goes through Gorgug’s shoulder, it’s almost a relief.

Your name is Fabian Aramais Seacaster.

You- You have a family. You have friends. You’re pretty sure that both of these statements are true.

You go to school, probably, unless… unless you live in this forest, in this grim place. You can’t imagine that there’s a school in here and, if you live here, then you must not go to school. Something, in the back of your mind, says that you don’t belong here, but you can’t remember anything before this, so you’re fairly certain that this is your world: you and the grass and the trees, you and the forest, you and nothing.

You take a seat on the cold ground as the world spins around you. You don’t think that the grass even bends against your weight.

Your name is…

Uh.

You know this. This is an easy one. Your name is...

It’s-

Fuck.

You’re-

You're... scared. It comes on you, suddenly, between one breath and the next, and you are so, so scared, more afraid than you ever have been. You don’t really remember being afraid, before, but you know this fear that holds tight to something in your chest is worse than anything you’ve ever felt before, and you hate it. You don’t know why and you don’t know how to stop it. You only know that it’s awful, terrible, and that you must feel it.

You are in a forest. The light is dim and the edges of the path are blurred by overgrown plants. You do not know your own name. You think you must have a name; everyone does, you know that at least.

You are sure you have a name.

You’re also sure, as you look at the blurred and pale outline of your own form, it probably doesn’t matter much anymore, to anyone.

#fantasy high #fantasy high live #fabian seacaster #fabian aramais seacaster #fantasy high spoilers #one shot

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jq37 · 4 years

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The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 10

System Reboot

What is up? Happy Year of the Double Crit to everyone and welcome back to our jailbreak already in progress! To remind you of what’s happening, Fig along with Kristen and Ayda went to Calethriel Tower to bust out Adaine. While all the hirelings (except for Gilear who is with the Van he is not allowed to drive) went to destroy one pylon and the boys went to the closer pylon with a plume of smoke coming out of it.

Ayda casts invisibility on her group and flies them to the tower (guess we have us a buff wizard here).Meanwhile, in the tower, things are still going crazy. As Anguin and Kier are confused, time goes wonky and Adaine sees a rift open to a live feed of Aguefort back at his desk. When Adaine confirms that she is kidnapped and her kidnappers have decided on the way of pain, Aguefort crawls through the rift, enlarges himself to 300 feet, declares war on Falinel, grabs the SUN out of the SKY, breathes fire, raises 1000s of Terra Cotta Aguefort warriors, and starts marching with them away from the tower.

All EXTREMELY wild things but, as you’ll notice, not things that directly get Adaine out of jail.

Adaine’s rescue party sees all of this and can generally tell this is Aguefort doing a thing that’s probably supposed to be helpful but trying to read him is always a total crapshoot. Ayda freaks a little at being in the vicinity of her dad but Fig helps to reassure her.

Back with the boys, they’re all Naruto running towards their pylon which is an elven smithy. It’s a stone building, covered in moss and, inside there are 3 braziers holding coal and 3 statues holding pitchers of water. In the center of the hexagonal room is a firepit with a helix of magic that is clearly the source of magic powering the permanent magical effects on the tower. There are channels going from the pitches to the pit in the center, not to the braziers.

On a 27, Riz sees that the braziers are super trapped with a Conjure Elemental spell. After aggressively emotionally supporting each other (“I believe in you.”), Gorgug and Fabian prepare attacks while Riz triggers the trap by shooting the mechanism since it is supposed to be triggered by a cantrip and they didn’t bring a single spellcaster. (Which was actually for strategic reasons but it sounds crazy when you actually think about it).

A fire elemental pops out but, with them getting the jump on it, they’re able to womp it with very minimal problems. Then, they break the corresponding pitcher of water so it flows into the center of the room. One down, two to go. The magic fire thing changes colors and they figure some alarm has been triggered but with all the Aguefort nonsense going on they hope it will draw the attention away from them.

They trigger the second elemental and things get a little hairier. People are on fire. It becomes very clear that not bringing a healer might have been a questionable decision. But then, lo and behold, Fabian springs into action, dancing around and putting out Riz and Gorgug when they ignite with an elven blanket which everyone knows puts out fire. He even asks to make an extra roll to do it all fancy which is something we haven’t seen from him in a while. And he rolls well!

They finish off the second elemental/statue pitcher and the indicator in the firepit is blinking. Plus, there was a flash from the other pylon earlier so they know the hirelings are doing well. That just leaves the last elemental.

Riz has the idea to put out the fire in the brazier before triggering the final trap and Fabian, citing the common knowledge that Brennan made up twenty minutes ago, says that everyone knows elven blankets put out fires. Brennan tucks himself into the bed he made for himself and has Fabian do an acrobatics check (DC 20 to not have something bad happen, DC 25 to have something good happen) and with +8 and advantage he hits a 24.

Fabian runs up to the brazier and triggers a trap that makes it erupt. The elemental bursts out and Fabian pulls it into his blanket and does one of those ballroom dancing dips. Brennan asks if he truly believes in the power of dance enough to take the damage from tangoing with this elemental. It’s Lous Wilson. What do you think he says? Fabian takes 22 points of fire damage, but holds on. It’s so beautiful that the elemental is stunned out of combat and Riz doesn’t attack it, breaking the last pitcher instead.

The elemental gains a more humanoid form and face, thanks Fabian, and kisses him for 8 points of fire damage, which he is SUPER into. As they kiss, the elemental extinguishes except for a spark that finds its way into Fabian’s chest. Wild. But that’s Spring Break bay-bee!

Now, back to the girls.

When they get to the tower, Kristen sees Kier, Anguin, and four green men-like magical constructs. Fig disguises herself to look like Aguefort (which is majorly distressing to Ayda), hoping she can do some intimidation. With the permanent magical effects on the tower down, they have no problem getting in and they clock where Adaine is being held immediately so they fly up and Fig casts Shatter. Time for Combat, part 2!

Fig Hexblades curses Anguin 100% out of solidarity/spite rather than strategy, which I respect. Anguin charms Fig to attack Ayda while still disguised as her dad which is distressing for both of them. Adaine messages Aelwyn and tells her to get ready for a rescue.

Anguin Dominate Persons Fig but Ayda dispels it so she’s back in it.

Kristen calls her grad student Spirit Guardians and Adaine, who is still super locked up and in the process of being rescued, takes the time to snark at them. Kristen and Ayda make their wisdom saves to not be forced to flee by Kier but Fig fails. Ayda dispels it with a, “Dad, don’t leave!” Yikes.

Fig hits all the green men with Burning Hands and they super don’t like that. Adaine uses her turn to send Boggy out to help Fig. Anguin tries Dominate Person on Kristen but she just makes her save.

She fires back with Blindness which Kier saves from but Anguin doesn’t. Kier tries to Banish Kristen but fails and then Ayda dispels Adaine’s orb and runs out to get Aelwyn out too. Adaine firebolts the most injured green man to death and then, in a very on brand move, almost immediately slaps her dad. Amidst all the damage, Fig asks Adaine whether she wants her dad killed or just maimed. Adaine, keeping the same energy she’s had all season, wants him dead. Fig is happy to help with the request. Kristen Banishes Kier who fails her save with a big ‘ol Nat 1. Then Ayda runs in holding a practically comatose Aelwyn.

Adaine tries to get a bead on her fleeing dad who’s gotten rid of his blindness and gone invisible (in a bitch move according to her) but she just singes the edges of his clothes. She can tell he’s probably going for the Vault downstairs. Which is why Kristen, the former chosen of Helio and current main party healer, in her infinite wisdom and with her -3 to Dex, decides to ribbon dance/rappel (????) down a ten story tower to catch him before he escapes. Brennan, decides to let the dice handle this one and she rolls a 17 minus 3 which is 14. Believe it or not, that is not enough to “use a dance ribbon to fly.” Brennan asks for another acrobatics roll (presumably to see how bad this is gonna go) and Ally, after totally Beyblading the die out of the Box of Doom, rolls a 2 minus three for a total of *Negative 1*.

Amazing.

Kristen slams into the ground, takes 36 points of damage (down to 3 hp), and snaps her ankle. She then casts Zone of Truth in case Anguin runs past her I guess. And, because she took so much damage, she loses concentration on Banishment which makes Kier reappears with the green men to attack some more. Ayda comes in clutch and, following Kristen’s lead (just not about the ribbon dancing insanity) Banishes Kier again. On her turn, Fig Dimension Doors herself and Adaine down to the Vault where all her and Aelwyn’s magic stuff is (while Ayda stays in the room, attacking green men).

Adaine finds a magical talking sword called Fandrangool which she uses as a glowstick to look around the dark vault (much to its annoyance). There’s a bit of minor retconning that happens here due to a redo roll that had to happen but I’ll spare you the backtracking and just give it to you straight. On the way out of the room, Anguin had to run past Kristen’s Spirit Guardians which made him visible. Which means he’s visible to Fig when she tries to trip him on his way to the vault (meaning no disadvantage on her roll, which succeeds) and he goes unconscious when he hits the ground.

Ayda comes into the vault to tell them they have less than a minute before Kier un-Banishes and they need to leave ASAP. Everyone makes rolls to find cool/important stuff. With a Nat 20 Arcana roll, Adaine finds her and Aelwyn’s spellbooks and the items taken from them as well as a bunch of top secret scrolls containing her mom’s research. On a 17 religion check, Kristen finds Adaine’s mom’s notes on the location of a temple in Sylvere (presumably to the Nightmare King) and, combined with what she already knows from the book in the pirate library, she knows where the temple is. On a 14 persuasion check to “make the gems dance” (idk y’all, I just record the things Emily says, I can’t explain them) she finds something about gem lore in the research and accidentally makes the tower self destruct. Oops. Ayda Invisibilizes everyone and they get OUT of there. And by “they” I mean everyone but Anguin because Adaine was serious about wanting him dead. Fig kinda wanted to keep him around to see if he could cast Planeshift but, Adaine gets the final word and the words she chooses are, “He sucks and I want him to die.”

Everyone meets back up at the Van and then they Teleport back to Fabian’s folks’ place. The elves there are very psyched to see Adaine, as a fellow elf, and her party members are even happier to see her. While talking to Telemien, they group finds out that he made the sword Adaine found and that it’s the sword of the North Star. When Gorgug suggests he should make Fabian a sword too, Adaine offers Fandrangool to him and he takes it.

Kristen pays Ayda to cast Sending to Jawbone for relationship advice. Jawbone is happy to help and agrees to find a way for them to have a longer conversation. I want to note that Kristen paid for two messages and the second just consisted of this exchange:

Kristen: Fuck yes!

Jawbone: Hell yeah.

Anyway, Fabian dances all night (sure) and Riz, Keeper of the Braincells, finds Adaine and asks what the deal with Aelwyn is since the last time the group saw her, she was super trying to kill them. Adaine gives him the short version of what happened and then Ayda comes in, carrying Aelwyn. Upon being given permission, Ayda lays Aelwyn down in Adaine’s bed and Adaine holds her. Riz reads the room and peaces out. As they trance, Aelwyn starts to regain some of her spell slots and unconsciously shields Adaine with an abjurer’s ward which is so cute and bittersweet that it nails me with 1d4 psychic damage.

From one sweet moment to another, Ayda finds Fig and they proceed to extremely frankly compliment each other. Ayda tells Fig that she’s loud, brave, funny, charming, and exciting. Fig says Ayda is direct, analytical, and has a very unique perspective. Also, she cries fire which is dope as hell. When Ayda says that she really doesn’t have any female friends her age on Crazy Pirate Island, Fig suggests she just join up with the Bad Kids and Ayda is very down. They do the slumber party thing and it’s all very cute.

After everyone else has turned in, Kristen gets a magic video-message from Aguefort who is looking messed up. Apparently, he OD’d on a bunch of experimental magic doing all the BS he did at the top of the ep, he seriously pissed off the government, and now he has to figure out how to move the sun back to where it’s supposed to be. Oh, and also Jawbone wants to speak with her.

Jawbone and Kristen have a conversation where Kristen skirts the issue of what she hid from Tracker that made her upset (because, as you remember, it’s the fact that he was cheated on). Jawbone basically says that people can usually sense when they’re being manipulated and if Kristen got Tracker flowers just to make her not be mad rather than to make her happy, then of course she’s still be pissed. He also says that full transparency is important to Tracker and if Kristen genuinely didn’t realize that because it isn’t to her then she should explain that. Kristen seems to get it and also asks Jawbone to call back the next day at the same time (probably so he can talk to Sandra-Lynn).

In the morning, Fabian has a nice chat with his granddad. He would like Fabian to get to be a chill forest elf with him but Fabian knows he has a heroic duty. He does submit to eating a flower though. Elf stuff.

Everyone meets up except for Adaine who is still with Aelwyn who is doing poorly. She brings Aelwyn to the resident healers but refuses to leave her alone. Telemein offers to take charge of Aelwyn but Adaine says it’s up to her if she wants to stay. When Aelwyn comes to, she’s not sure if they made it out of the Tower via escaping or dying. Adaine lets her know that they survived and promises to protect her while she recovers. When she sees that Aelwyn is having trouble thinking straight, she gives her Boggy to hold and ritual casts Detect Magic which pings some kind of Enchantment deep within her mind. In response, Adaine casts Detect Thoughts and finds herself in Aelwyn’s mindscape which basically looks bombed to hell like the Blitz. Her metaphorical emotional walls are represented by literal walls and battlements which have been torn up and, though they are jumbled up, Adaine can see shared childhood memories from Aelwyn’s POV. She can see that Aelwyn has spent basically their entire childhood suppressing her natural protective instincts towards Adaine out of fear of their parents and hating herself for it.

In the middle of everything, Adaine finds a really powerful magical charm made of Aelwyn's protective energy and whatever Enchantment she sensed before. Adaine can tell that this is what they were trying to torture out of Aelwyn but weren't able to. On the charm, there's writing. It says, "Despite all of the torment and tribulation, let this be proof I always knew there was only one person clever enough to find this." Adaine senses that she can dispel it and it will trigger whatever effect Aelwyn intended. Adaine does so.

“I’m going to describe something very heartbreaking now,” says Brennan, causing me to add an item to my list of “Things You Seriously Don’t Want To Hear Your DM Say.”

Adaine is snapped out of Aelwyn’s thoughts and Aelwyn is briefly overcome with pain as her mind is forcibly rewritten back to its default state by the backup copy that Adaine just triggered. That’s right. No more soft-Aelwyn. The bitch is back. Eat your Goddamn dice, Brennan.

Detention

Kristen for Whatever the Hell She Thought She Was Doing With That Ribbon

You are the PARTY HEALER and you have NEGATIVE THREE DEX. Leave the parkour shenanigans to Fabian!

This was so funny though. I think I compared the Womping of Fabian to the Keyfish thing from CritRole* but this was the actual Keyfish moment because it was super dumb, unnecessary, involved a huge fall and sketchy grasp of physics, but crucially, was hilarious and not heartbreaking.

Never change, Ally.

*lol, Now Kristen can join the club with Keyleth and Bev from Naddpod.

Honor Roll

Fabian for Getting His Groove Back

Look, I don’t think this episode is the most competent Fabian has ever been or the most heroic he’s ever been or the coolest he’s even been. But...didn’t he seem happy? And open? And a little daring? This is the most Fabian that Fabian has been since The Wicklaw Incident. He did so much support playing in this episode and it felt so right. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets his subclass back soon or picked up some battle dancer or fire stuff (or maybe something totally different), at least for flavor.

He still probably has some ways to go (“I’m not sure about myself but the two of you have got this.”) but I think he was doing so much better this ep than when this little arc of personal growth started that I have to give him props. Welcome back Fabian Aramais Seacaster!

Random Thoughts

Note: Because of this ep’s title, we now 100% know that the canon spelling of Adaine’s sister’s name is Aelwen (not -wyn) but I’ll deal with that starting with next ep because this has already taken too long to finish.

Note #2: @jamiebluewind just put up this post with various character and location descriptions you might find helpful.

OK, so are we sure the alarms triggered at the end of last episode were triggered by Aguefort? Because they went off before he actually did anything. His recording played, they pressed a button, alarms went off, and THEN he video-called Adaine. It could just be that Brennan got the order a little off after the hiatus (or that making the video-call is what caused the alarms) but I wanted to bring it up.

Why the hell was whatever the hell THAT was Arthur’s play and not Chronomancy? Like, stop time, grab Adaine, and go. Simple. I understand the reason is that he is insane and beyond human comprehension but geez (and he has to be or else he would be the ultimate deus ex machina with no reason to not solve literally every problem above a certain level of severity).

“Why would I carry my dad in this battle he never carried me.” Aydaaaaaa.

With all the fun Fabian had playing support this episode, I wouldn’t be shocked if be picked up a level of Cleric or Bard. Or even if he just got the Magic Initiate feat which could easily be explained in story as him taking an elective or working with Fig/Adaine/Kristen to learn some basics.

Ayda and Fig’s little, “Did he see me?”/“No, because your Invisibility spell was that good,” back and forth was so cute. They were super cute all episode really. People were shipping Adaine and Ayda which I personally didn’t get at all from their interactions which I found just friendly but I would be a lot less surprised if Fig and Ayda happened based on that whole pre-sleepover scene. (Based on their convo it also seems like they’re close in age but even if Ayda is like in her mid-20s or something, she’d still be Fig’s most age appropriate relationship which is, como se dice, slightly troubling). Anyway, y’all know I’m not a shipper but I’m very invested in their relationship however it ends up.

Similar topic, Fig insisting Ayda be mad at her and not her dad for attacking her while Disguised? Gah, that was so much.

Emily’s line of the episode was casually summing up her entire character by going, “I usually look like someone else but I mean what I say.”

Also, LOL at her just rocking into the fight as Aguefort playing the bass. What a visual.

Murph’s Tomb Raiding 101 bit was extremely funny.

“I would like to toss The Ball.”

Did you catch when the group realized that they left the boys with no healers and Emily was like, “Oh no, I forgot you weren't a paladin,” to Murph? I figured that was a reference to the fact that Murph’s favored archetype (in his own words) is a grizzled old knight who has to do the right thing but now I’m also lowkey wondering if he’s playing a Paladin in S5 (or maybe in their homegame).

Ayda was also very endearing towards the other girls this ep. Asking permission to grab Kristen (“Enthusiastic consent!”) and running up and grabbing Adaine’s hands after dispelling her orb. I am so glad Adaine decided to make friends with her.

Valid choice for Adaine to give the sword to Fabian but Give Adaine A Sword 2020. She should have proficiency as an elf and she needs a way to physically attack people that will do actual damage. Alternatively, Adaine should take one level in fighter or monk so the next time she slaps someone, it does actual damage.

I know Jawbone is both extremely chill and a consummate professional, but wild to talk to your girlfriend’s uncle about falling out due to him being cheated on. I for sure would have found someone else to talk to

Emily’s face when the Ribbon Dancing sequence was happening was so bugged out in disbelief which says A Lot coming from Ms. Hilda-Hilda herself.

So they fully destroyed Calethriel Tower which seems problematic seeing as there were for sure other prisoners in there. Like, even assuming all of them were peak evil and deserved to die (which seems extremely unlikely considering the people we do know who were locked up here) that still seems like a political disaster.

“Where is she on the earth? Can we teleport there?”/”She’s actually in the next room.”/ “Extremely convenient.”

Curious about when exactly Mom Abernant’s (I promise I’ll learn her name as soon as we have an official spelling I can commit to) research was taken from, her. Was she working for the government and forced to abandon it or was it taken from her while she was researching privately?

“Your modifier is bigger than their total.”

“Describe the room to me.”/”It’s a vault and it’s on the first floor.”

Adaine shows up to Telemien’s BS high elven pronunciation of Gorgug and is immediately like “There are hard G’s in high elvish.” I love her. Zero chill.

“I have it too if I sleep goodbye”

I lost my favorite sweater recently so I was vibing with Adaine’s temporary devastation at having forgotten to get her jacket (no worries, Brennan said it would have been with the rest of her stuff).

I just wanna say, wild of the elves to basically put Adaine and Aelwyn in adjacent cells.

Imagine you’re just a normal ass resident of the world of Spyre and, one day, you wake up and the sun is a huge YES! Which is super weird, even for a fantasy world but you take it in stride and, eventually, it gets sorted out. And then, six months later, it’s the middle of the day and the sun suddenly lurches across the sky and just stays there. And then you find out that the dude who did it is the same dude who kicked Sol out of the sky the last time!

I thought Fig was gonna offer Ayda access to her dads when they were talking about how Aguefort is a subpar dad because she has two. At the very least she needs to see Jawbone.

As a lawyer (#2 demographic for FH after CEO’s) I was very into the Similar to But Legally Distinct From Blitzkrieg Bop track.

“I have much more money than you.”

One of my favorite D&D tropes is the group splitting up boys/girls and then the two groups having wildly different experiences.

I think it’s interesting that everyone in Adaine’s family talks Like That except for her. Like, Aelwyn does it, even when she’s brain-fried and not being a bitch so we know it’s not just that but Adaine talks like a normal teenager like 80% of the time.

I just realized, Adaine called her shot last episode when she cursed her dad and then let him die this episode. It’s easy to be an Oracle if you follow through on all your threats.

(Also, absolutely not convinced he’s dead until we see a body. Kristen fell 10 stories this episode and she’s fine.)

I find the grudging respect that Aelwyn had for Adaine, even at her most messed up extremely interesting.

I mentioned this already in another post but, as womped as I was by Aelwyn’s personality getting reset to normal, it really was the right thing to do, storywise. Like, I’ve really been enjoying vulnerable Aelwyn but that wasn't really earned. Even she said it herself. She can’t give a full apology if she’s not in her right mind. And, in this episode, we got confirmation for what I think we all pretty much assumed. Aelwyn wasn’t just “born bad”. In fact, if anything, it’s the opposite. She was born with such strong protective instincts that the entire way she is able to use magic is based around protection. In a better world with better parents, she would have been the best most Ride or Die older sister anyone could ask for. But, instead, she was ruined in the opposite direction of Adaine and built walls to protect herself instead of others. It’s so poetic I wanna eat my dice. But, I digress. Resetting Aelwyn back to her last save file is an extremely clutch story move because it feels like back to step one but it’s not because now, Adaine fully understands what her deal is and Adaine knows she has the capacity to be good and kind and just decent. Aelwyn might have reset but Adaine didn’t. And, like, after your sister who is barely strong enough to sit upright or think straight tries to magically shield you from nothing in particular because she feels like she should, are you gonna give up on her just because she’s retreated back to the safe waters of name calling? Doubt it. I really can’t wait to see what their initial interactions are like. Is Adaine gonna treat her with kid gloves knowing what she now knows or fall back into sparring with her? Is Aelwyn gonna be totally back to her old self or will she have enough self-awareness to know that if Adaine reset her (will she know that happened?) then she must have seen inside her head and know what’s going on in there? Will she understand that but still stubbornly refuse any attempts to reach out by Adaine and try to go fully walls up again? Don’t know but I can’t wait to see how it shakes out.

But seriously. How cute was Aelwyn trying to do shields on Adaine this ep? The first time she non-grudgingly steps up to the plate to protect her for real you are gonna hate me so much because I am not going to be able to shut up about it.

One last thing: We haven’t heard from the Shadowcat in a while and that Concerns me.

This episode, Fig, Adaine, Gorgug, and Riz each rolled one Nat 20. Fig rolled one Nat 1 and Brennan rolled two.

#fantasy high #fantasy high live #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #fantasy high spoilers

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cactusnymph · 3 years

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Prompt fill #7 for @dimension20alphabet:

Grief

It takes Riz quite some time to work up the courage to talk to Fabian after prom. He’s been thinking about it and mulling it over in his mind, he may or may not have started a pin-board with different things he wants to say, or should say.

Having friends is something he’s not very good at, seeing as to how Penny was technically his babysitter and not his friend. And Riz never had a best friend. He has such a hard time talking to the others still, always feeling like they merely tolerate his presence instead of being happy about him being there with him.

It’s hard and it sucks and Riz just wants to believe that these people actually enjoy him being around them. But unless he has clues to follow, he barely manages to talk to his friends.

But best friends talk about soul crushing stuff, right? That’s what it says in all the books and shows and movies and different “How to talk to“-guides he may or may not have checked out of the public library at some point in his life.

His pin-board looks like someone who grew up isolated in a dark cave made it about talking to a friend and Riz is sure he’s never made a clue-board as useless as this one. In fact, while he made it, the things that were formerly just inside his head somehow started to make less sense than the other way around, which is how it was supposed to work.

When he finally manages to pull himself together he—because he is Riz Gukgak who is terrible at dealing with people despite wanting to be social—doesn’t manage to actually ring the bell and instead decides to climb through Fabian’s window because that’s what normal people do when they visit their friends.

Fabian is sitting at his desk with his computer on, but he doesn’t seem to actually be doing anything. Riz coughs to make his presence known and Fabian flinches hard before leaping off his chair to go for his sword.

“WHOA”, Riz shouts as Fabian swings at him. Riz is thankful for his own nimbleness, but he also thinks that Fabian still has trouble adjusting to having just one eye. His swing goes wide and he blinks confused as he takes in Riz, pressed against the wall by the window like a burglar caught in the act—which he somehow is, he supposes.

“The Ball? What the fuck, man? We have a door!”, Fabian snaps and throws his sword to the side.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry! I thought about using it and then I thought about talking to your mom and then I freaked out! I’m sorry!”

Fabian rubs his forehead and only now does Riz realize that he looks tired. The shock of being attacked has wiped the original reason for his visit from his mind for a few seconds, but now he remembers his intention and he swallows heavily as he watches Fabian sink back into his chair.

“What do you want?”, Fabian asks and looks at him warily.

“Um—Uh. I—wanted to talk to you, I guess? About... About—um—your dad? And I guess my dad, but um—mostly your dad. I just figured that, you know. Since your dad died and. My dad... also... died...”

Riz’ voice gets quiet the longer he rambles on.

Now that he said it out loud it sounds ridiculous, even in his own ears. Fabian stares at him as if he’s considering whether or not Riz might have lost his mind. And now that Riz thinks about it, that is probably entire valid.

He climbed in through the window and just started talking about how both their dads are dead.

Great choices all around, Gukgak.

“You climbed into my room so you could tell me that my father died?”

“No! I mean—not really? I’m just saying! It must be like, super hard, right? It was when my dad died! And it still sucks even though it’s been years but for you it was like, last week! I just—I don’t know. I guess. I wanted to... see how you’re doing? Or—or whatever. Because, you know. Us being best friends and everything.”

He’s gesturing too much and he probably talks about himself too much—which the books said might not be helpful to some people—but Riz doesn’t know what else to do.

He lets his arms sink down and watches as Fabian rubs his face.

Damn, he really looks tired.

“Are you okay?”, Riz finally asks and his voice sounds hoarse, as if he’s been screaming for hours.

Fabian leans back on his chair and tilts his head back so he can stare up at the ceiling.

“I’m fine”, he says.

“Um—no offense, Fabian. But—uh. You don’t look fine.”

“Well, fuck you, The Ball”, Fabian snarls.

“I mean—you look tired! I get it! When my dad died I didn’t sleep much! I guess I still don’t sleep much, but—uh. Whatever.”

Riz leaves his post under the window and slowly moves towards Fabian, his heart beating like a nervous hummingbird in his chest. Somewhere along the line people learn how to comfort someone, but somehow this lesson never made itself available to him. Maybe he should ask his mom about this.

He stops in front of Fabian and starts chewing on his bottom lip nervously.

“Do you—um. Do you. Miss him?”, he asks. Because he knows that he misses his dad after all these years.

“He’s basically alive and kicking in hell, it’s fine”, Fabian says stubbornly and crosses his arms over his chest, but he doesn’t look at Riz.

“But—well. I know. But—uh. It’s still different right?”

“Of course it’s different. Great detective work.”

Riz tries to not take offense at Fabian’s tone because he knows that Fabian is hurting. Hurt people sometimes do things to protect themselves, he knows that much.

“I’m sorry he’s dead, Fabian”, Riz says very softly and carefully stretches out a hand to put it on Fabian’s shoulder.

Something about that touch seems to do something to Fabian’s body. Riz can see him shudder slightly and then all of a sudden he slumps forward and makes a noise that sounds very much like something a wounded animal would make.

Riz opens his mouth to apologize and he has his hand halfway pulled away from Fabian when suddenly he is yanked forward into a rib-cracking hug with Fabian’s face buried somewhere in his shoulder.

Riz’ heart stops beating for what feels like eternity, until it starts off again with double the speed. He slowly raises his arms and returns the hug, completely at a loss for words now. He could swear that the skin on his shoulder feels a little wet.

“Not a word about this, The Ball”, Fabian threatens and his voice sounds very hoarse, “or I’ll kick your ass.”

“I can keep a secret”, Riz says quietly. “So—uh. Then... can you not tell anyone about my dad?”

Fabian makes a noncommittal noise that Riz counts as a yes.

And then he doesn’t talk anymore and stays right there and thinks about his dad and wonders if he would be proud of Riz for more or less successfully talking to a friend.

#fantasy high #d20alphabet21 #fabian seacaster #fabian aramais seacaster #riz gukgak #fanfiction #mi writes

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titanias-stolen-shoes · 4 years

Text

Crossing Paths: Part Four

Summary: Something happened to Ayda—she just doesn’t know it yet. With her internship at the Cross Points Public Library, absent mind but ever-present father, nothing feels out of place. That is, until she finds a journal in the library she can’t read and soon after a wild assortment of kids come in, asking for her help.

Together they work together to figure out their dreams, the journals, and whether they can figure their way back home from our world.

Read on AO3!

Ayda laid awake, wondering why she had avoided letting Garthy know the truth. She hadn’t lied to him. She never lied. She did, however, not tell them the whole truth. Just that loud teenagers had come to the library right as it was closing. They had laughed and joked that she should steer clear of them. “They’re probably a bunch of bad kids,” Garthy laughed, hopping off the table. “I’m joking, love, I’m sure they perfectly fine. Don’t be afraid to talk to them if you want to.”

“They seem… normal. And I can’t always be sure that what I say or do is normal.”

“Oh, love,” they said, flipping their dreads over their shoulder. “There no way to really know if what you say or do is normal, but it’s not just you. Everyone is worried about if what they’re doing is normal. You just have to be yourself and if you’re worried about it, take cues from someone you like.”

They left after that, leaving Ayda to cook dinner for her Arthur. After an hour of waiting, she made him a plate in the microwave and went to her room. She had planned to sleep early so she could have enough energy for tomorrow, whatever it might bring. Instead, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

It wasn’t that she was nervous about meeting the other kids. In fact, she was excited. It would be nice to talk to other people her age. In school most people avoided her, saying she was “weird and hard to talk to”. She did her best not to talk as much after that. No, it actually wasn’t the kids. She was nervous about the journal. Not only did it incapacitate her, she learned nothing from the experience other than it was painful to try to read. And for them to come back to it, determined to figure out… she couldn’t imagine why they were after it.

The next morning, she walked to the library doors with heavy bags under her eyes, ready to call Rawlins to let her in. Before she could get to her phone, she saw a note on the door.

Ayda

Sorry for the short notice, but the library has been closed for the day. I will be back tomorrow afternoon. Enjoy your day off!

- Rawlins

She stared at the note, irritated and squinting. It didn’t make any sense to have the library suddenly be closed. As far as anyone knew, Rawlins didn’t do much outside of running the library. Unless it was library-related and he just forgot to tell her.

Behind her, a van rounded the corner into the parking lot, parking as close to the door as possible. All six of the kids she’d seen spilled out of the van, with two new additions (another tall man and a short girl with messy hair) surprised to see Ayda standing at the door.

Adaine shaded her eyes from the sun and said, “Are we too early?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t matter. The library is closed.”

“Really?” Her shoulders sagged in disappointment. “We came all the back for nothing. Do you know when it’ll be open?”

“Tomorrow afternoon.”

“Really?” Riz perked up, turning back to the van and grabbing his backpack. “Ayda, how do you feel about breaking and entering?”

“Ooh yes,” The punk girl clapped her hands, grinning. “I love it when we do illegal stuff.”

“Oh, hell yeah.” The new tall one grinned. “Do you need me to stand watch?”

“I don’t feel comfortable with illegal activity.” Then she paused, thinking about Garthy and how whatever it was they did, was probably very illegal. “Let me rephrase I am not comfortable with most illegal activity. Why are you all so interested in the journal?”

They were all quiet for a moment, exchanging looks then the tallest one piped up saying, “We’re not gonna get inside if we don’t tell her.”

“Yeah,” the redhead said. “There were letters that we found under Fabian’s house. We were just goofing around and there was a box hidden underneath a bunch of crap. Anyway, all these letters were addressed to us. There was a lot of weirdly specific stuff in them. Like how me and Tracker—”

“Babe, not that,” Tracker cut in. “It was weird, so we asked his parents about it and they both said the pages were blank. No one but us could see them.”

“And if we tried to read each other’s letters they wouldn’t make any sense. It would be a jumble of words that made no sense. And the only correlation any of them had was the Cross Points Library. So, we’re here to see if we can figure this out.”

“I see.” Ayda crossed her arms, quietly processing what they said. Much like the journal, what they said shouldn’t have been possible. And yet they were here, at a library in the middle of summer when they all (well, most) looked like they wouldn’t go near a library if they had a choice.

“Do you not believe us?”

“I do. I’ll overlook this transgression if you all introduce yourselves to me.”

They all stared for a moment before one by one looking a little embarrassed. Adaine smiled a little before pointing to each of her friends, “Tracker, Kristen, Riz, Gorgug, Fabian, Fig, and Ragh.”

“I’m Ayda. There are cameras pointed at this door. Follow me to the back.”

“So, Ayda,” Adaine said, doubling her pace to keep up with Ayda. “How long have you been working here?”

“A little under a month. I work an internship so I technically employed here.”

“Tell me you’re at least getting paid.”

“I am. I won’t work for free even if it’s work I enjoy. Equal exchange is important.”

“Hmm. Then our names were equal exchange for letting us break in?”

“Yes, I don’t know very many people my age and I’m also curious about the journal.” They stopped at the back of the building, less grand that the front and no cameras to catch what they were about to do. Ayda squatted down, feeling along the stone for a familiar carving. Almost toward the bottom, she pressed in on the one she’d carved an ‘A’ on and it came out of its place, leaving a perfectly size hole for her to pull the trick door open.

Riz looked far too excited as he picked up the stone and started to examine it. “How did you know about this?”

“Last year I spent almost all of my free time here.” She held her hand out and he gently gave her the brick. “A great deal of that time was spent wandering.”

They all shuffled in, watching their head on the low entrance and into the sublevel of the library. The door let out in the boiler room which was near inaccessible to people who didn’t know that the bookshelves on the far right didn’t touch the walls. Ayda wasn’t normally allowed in here for obvious reasons, but Rawlins had shown her just in case.

The room was as messy as the first time she had seen it. Boxes were haphazardly stacked against the far wall and an old workbench was shoved off to the right.

“Hey,” Fabian said, moving toward the pile of boxes. “This is the exact same box we found our letters in. The exact same.” He shifted the boxes on top and pulled out a small wooden chest with the same set of wings on the journal burned onto the top. Next to it, carved roughly, was a bass guitar.

“It’s locked,” Riz said, swinging his backpack off. “I’ll open it.”

“I’ll go get the books. Both of them are down here with us.” Ayda moved away from their group to the door. There was just enough space between the bookshelf and the wall that the door wouldn’t hit it. She grabbed Daya’s journal easily, always remember where it was. The second book was a little harder to find. Not that she didn’t know where it was, but every time she looked in that direction, she found herself looking elsewhere.

“Ayda!” Adaine popped out from behind the bookshelf, looking a little surprised. “I wanted to see where they were. The books.”

“Alright.”

“So… do you always spend your time here?”

“No. When I’m not here, I’m at home or helping my father with his research.”

“That sounds fun. Listen, I don’t have many… bookish people in my life.”

“Why? Are you hard to be around?”

“Uh, no, I— No? Are you hard to be around?”

“Yes. I’ve been told that many times.”

“Oh. Do you want a friend?”

They stopped in front of the shelf and Ayda turned to face Adaine. She looked sincere, fiddling with her crystal necklace. “Desperately.”

“I’ll be your friend. Would you like to hold my frog?” From her bag, she produced a small, plush frog. It was as spherical as one could make a frog without it being unrecognizable. It was cuter than it had any reason to be.

“I don’t take presents. I have nothing to give in exchange.”

“It’s not a present. I need Boggy.” She held him out and slowly Ayda took the plush. He was soft and Ayda felt calmer holding him.

“Magnificent.” Ayda gave him back and turned to the shelf, one her eyes had been scampering away from. In the very back of the autobiography section was the second book, but this one was three composition notebooks glued together. Messily written on the front was the name Iggy Fathe.

“Why is that so hard to look at?”

“I do not know.” Ayda frowned, trying to keep her gaze pinned to the name. It looked… wrong. Like it was missing something and she couldn’t place what.

“Adaine! Ayda!” Kristen’s voice called out from the other side. “We got the box open!”

“Maybe someone else will be able to look at it.”

Back in the boiler room, they were all crowding around the box, looking at a bundle of papers along with a few pictures. The pictures were blurry, but not in a way that would indicate whoever was taking them had been bad at it. No, the pictures were just blurry to her eyes and it made her not want to interact with them.

“Here’s your letter. No one but you can read it. And maybe Adaine depending.”

“Adaine?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know why, but I’m the only one who can sort of read everyone else’s letters. I can’t make out much, but I did make out enough to get us here.”

“Impressive.” Ayda unfolded the bunded of papers and felt… odd. Like something in her shifted out of place and back. Not like the journal, but almost a feeling of nostalgia.

She picked one of the boxes and settled down to read her letter.

Part One || Part Two || Part Three || Part Four

#fantasy high #fantasy high live #fantasy high fanfic #crossing paths #i wrote something!

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ashes-and-ashes · 5 years

Text

The Other

Fluff. Enjoy!!

Sirius was thinking about Remus.

He always seemed to be thinking about Remus.

He leans against the railing on the balcony, staring out into the forest. The wind makes the leaves rustle, sounding like hundreds and thousands of tiny voices, the stars shining down on him from up high. The air is cool on his face, soft tendrils brushing against his cheeks and for a moment he imagines that he’s flying.

He closes his eyes. It’s late, past midnight, the common room deserted and empty. It’s unusually quiet, the only noise the tackle of the fire and the howl of the wind. The moon glows softly, washing everything with a silver glow, and Sirius stares up at it.

Remus. He didn’t know, the exact day he fell for him. He supposed it was a building thing, years of friendship and laughter and loyalty and one day Sirius glances over at Remus and felt his heart stop.

He’s never felt like this before, never in his life. All the casual hookups and drunken kisses and one night stands, none of them held a candle to what he felt for Remus.

He’s always been terrified, of falling in love, terrified at the thought. Terrified that he’d give his heart to someone, open and vulnerable and delicate and they’d rip it apart. He was raised in a house with no live, no care, nothing beyond the shredding of skin and he was terrified.

Yet he knew that’s what he felt towards Remus. Love, deep and terrifying, stretching out between them like the ocean.

Sirius bows his head, his hair falling forward to screen his face. His lungs clench, his heart pounding and he needs a cigarette.

He turns, towards the open doors of the tower, meaning to steal one of Marlene’s when he sees him. Remus is standing by the door, one hand ruffled through his hair, awkwardly shifting his weight from foot to foot. “Hey.”

Sirius winks. “Yeah?”

“I...” Remus trails off. “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure. Anything.” Sirius leans back against the railing. He pushes back on it, so that he could sit on top of the stone wall, his feet braced on the wall across from him. “What do you need?”

Remus looks down, mumbles something so quiet that even Sirius can’t hear. He frowns. “Sorry?”

This time, Remus takes a deep breath, tilts his head up to look Sirius in the eye. “How do you tell someone that you like them?”

It’s as if the air has been crushed out of Sirius’ lungs, the world going impossibly dark around him. He blinks, hard, his eyes fluttering shut, just for a moment. “What do you mean?”

“You know.” Remus coughs. “How do you tell a person that you like them?”

Sirius takes a deep breath, chest aching. He wonders if Remus can see if, the heartbreak and devastation on his face, the way the words tore him up inside. He bites his lip, grips the end of the railing hard, mentally throwing up the walls and barriers and masks. “Well...how long have you liked them for?”

He’s hoping that it was just a casual crush, a second glance at another person, but Remus shakes his head. “Ever since....damn. Ever since Second Year at least.”

12 years old. That’s how long Remus has loved this person, 3 long years stretching out. Sirius clenched his jaw, teeth aching, fingers biting into the cold stone underneath him.

He hated himself, that small dark part inside of him that whispered to shut it down, find a way to end Remus’ attraction. A thousand lies, a million deceits, hundreds of ways to convince Remus to love another person. To love Sirius.

He bites down, hard on his lip. Remus has already suffered enough, lost too much for Sirius to risk dicking around with his life. Remus deserved to be happy. Sirius would do everything he could to make him happy, even if it killed him. Remus deserves that, at least.

So Sirius takes a deep breath, relaxes against the wall. He ignores the pain, the horrible, aching feeling inside of him and puts on a smile. “That’s a long time.”

“Yeah.” Remus fiddles with the button on his jacket. “I’ve liked them for as long as I can remember.”

Sirius takes the blow, clenches his hands tighter. He keeps his voice light, airy, even though he wants to scream. “Damn. Do they know?”

Remus lets out a bitter laugh. “No. Definitely not. To be honest, I don’t even know if they’d like me back.”

“Why?” Sirius swallows, viciously tearing apart that little hateful voice in his head. “Of course they’d like you back, Re? What isn’t there to like?”

Remus looks up. “Really?”

“Course,” Sirius says, forcing down the pain. “You’re amazing, Re. You’re brave and kind and hardworking and so, so smart. You’d be the best boyfriend ever.

“Do you really believe that?” Remus’ voice is a whisper. “Do you really think they could love me? Even though....I’m a werewolf?”

Not as much as I do, Sirius thinks. He coughs. “I mean, I’m friends with you and I know you’re a werewolf.”

“But would they....you know. Be willing to love me? Like, actually love, not just be friends with. Do you think they’ll love me, even though I’m a monster?”

I do. God, I love you.

“You’re not a monster, Re. You’re...” Sirius breaks off. “You’re so much more then a werewolf. That doesn’t define you.”

“But - “

Sirius’ voice is firm. “If they can’t accept you for who you are then they don’t deserve you. Done.”

“I don’t deserve anyone,” Remus whispers, his voice quiet. Sirius shakes his head. “No one deserves you, Re. No one.”

Remus just nods, tipping his head up to scan the sky and Sirius risks a glance. The light reflects off his hair, making it glow like copper, his scars a silver. Radiant, a cosmos born out of blood and pain, something beautiful and special and rare. He wonders if this is how they’ll be now, Remus unaware and Sirius stealing looks in secret. He sighs. “So...do the Godparents approve?”

Remus laughs. “Yep. James approves. Actually, James was the one who noticed first. That...I might like them. Lily is a hardcore shipper, but that’s just Lils. Peter is a bit more hesitant, but he supports it. Marlene is over the fucking moon.”

Sirius’ heart clenches, at the list of his friends who all supported Remus, all loved whoever the hell Remus liked. He bites his lip, hiding the pain, trying not to fall apart. Remus carries on, oblivious. “Mary loves them, though Mary loves everyone. Dorcas is vaguely jealous. Both Gid and Fab approve - “

“Wait.” Sirius chokes. “Gideon and Fabian approve?”

“Yep.” Remus gives him a shy smile. “That’s a first.”

Sirius nods, closing his eyes, just for a moment. He nods his head. “Okay. They sound pretty amazing.”

“Yeah,” Remus says. “They are.”

Something cracks inside of him, into vicious, jagged spikes. Sirius takes a stuttering breath. “So...”

Remus shrugs. “I need help. I don’t know what to say to them.”

He clenches his teeth. Get a grip. He deserves to be happy. He deserves more then you. Out loud, he winks. “Okay. Well, what do you love most about them?”

The look on Remus’ face breaks him. It’s love, true love, the type that fills you up until you’re over the moon. The kind that is deep and eternal, the type of love you’d die for. The love that Sirius felt for Remus.

“They’re...kind. So kind. And beautiful and radiant and...well.” Remus shrugs. “They’re strong. So strong. Nothing could ever break them but they’re vulnerable. It’s those moments, those heartbreaking, fragile moments when I love them most.” He takes a deep breath. “And they have these eyes. So clear, like ice - I could stare into them for days. And they’re headstrong and stubborn and so, so brave, braver then anyone I know and....” Remus looks up. “They make me want to live.”

Sirius looks up, counts the stars, anything to keep the burning from his eyes. His voice stays level, though, calm and collected even though he wants to scream. “Well then. Tell them that, Remus! Tell them that exactly. Go and find them, face to face and tell them exactly what you just told me.”

Remus gives him a small smile. “I just did.”

The words echo in his head for a moment. Sirius gapes at Remus. “What?”

Remus’ smile fades. “Oh shit. God, I’m so sorry - “

“You love me?” Sirius’ voice is hoarse. “Me?”

Remus holds his gaze. “Who else?”

Sirius just reaches out, winds his fist in Remus’ shirt and kisses him.

Hard, lips against lips, fingers over spines and bones and muscles. He traces the scars, feels Remus do the same and they fit together so well. He holds in a gasp as Remus traces the edges of the scars on his back, feels Remus do the same as he brushes the raised lines because this it it. There is no other person in the world, no other person who knows Remus like Sirius does, knows Sirius like Remus does, no other person who can trace the scars without stumbling.

They pull away, Remus’ eyes shining, and Sirius croaks. “Me? You loved me since second year?”

Remus nods. “Since I saw you. I always noticed you.”

They stand there, staring at each other, something building in Sirius’ chest. “You love me?”

Remus just nods. “Yes.”

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jamiebluewind · 4 years

Text

Fantasy High Characters 2.8

As always, let me know if I need to edit or add anything and tag/ask/PM me about art and stories so I can check them out!

***

New Characters

Three Elves from Falinel

3 beautiful wizard elves in long flowing robes

Surrounded by motes of silvery white light

At least 1 has a will o whisp in their ear used to communicate

Serene and filled with arcane energy

One used a globe of invulnerability (probably Kear)

Unnamed Conjurer Elf Wizard

Beefer with light mage armor and thick long red braided hair

Summoned a large sized air elemental (size of a small truck) with 90 movement

Unnamed Goth Elf Wizard

Porcelain skin with jet black hair covering left eye and black robes

Uses fesh to stone (6th level spell) on Adaine

Smiles and walks away once they have Adaine back at the tower

Kear

Pronounced key-heir or khear

Name spelling unknown, but Kir was the spelling on closed captioning

Wizard

Most serene

Extremely young child-like elven maiden with long brown braided hair and a white gown

Banished Tracker, but failed to charm Adaine during the battle

"You did a very noble thing. You saved your friends' lives."

Used detect thoughts on Adaine and asked "When was the last time you saw your mother?"

***

Modified Characters (with added facts)

Aelwyn Abernant

Kept in large large beautiful elven chamber with silver and marble with ambiant light glowing from the white stone

Trapped inside a 15 foot diameter orb that's constantly turning so she can't trance

Stuck crawling on her hands and knees, shaking with the effort of it

Severely trance deprived (probably hasn't been allowed to for nearly a year) with thick bags under her eyes

5 levels of exhaustion with some kind of magic the only thing keeping her from death

(more info in 2.9)

James Wicklaw

Fought with his saber in right hand and the crown in left

Brought 8 crew plus himself to menace the party while the rest of his crew went into the row

Injures the crew with him in order to injure the party, stunning all but Cathilda, Sandra Lynn, and Riz.

Has legendary actions (attack and teleport out of initiative order), mind blast, and tried to eat Gorgug's brain

Shot by a pistol square in the stomach. After he goes prone, a horrifying blast of something in his gut goes off as he shutters and goes still. But it was a trick to get Riz close so he could shoot him point blank.

Gorgug got the killing blow on Wicklaw after Fig heavily damaged him. Wicklaw's body fell into the Row.

The other pirates killed Wicklaw's remaining crew after he died

Fabian

Lost champion subclass and lost all fighter class features while keeping proficiency bonus, base stats, and hit points

No coat and 2 levels of exhaustion

Took a single hand crossbow shot which missed and spent the rest of the fight stunned.

Was repeatedly shot by Wicklaw

Gorgug had a private talk with Fabian to try to help. So did Kristen. Then Gilear came up and threatened him Gilear for 250 gold.

Fabian's mother's family have lands near the tower Adaine is being kept.

Cathilda

Dark steal sabers (scimitar type swords)

"Time for talk's over." Then got a nat20 on Wicklaw and sliced off one of his tentacles.

Feels pure determination more powerful than James can feel hatred and protects herself from his stun

Can give allies a reroll as reaction

Kicks just... so much ass.

To Riz "Is almost died the same as having died?"

Van

Was crashed by Gilear

Loaded with provisions by Jamina, Garthy, and Ayda

***

Other Characters

Anguin Abernant

Adaine's father

4th elf in the battle that was hidden in the beginning under greater invisibility

Enchanter subclass wizard

Casts dominate person on Adaine twice (and fails)

"Adaine. This is unbecoming. You are behaving rashly and irrationally."

Adaine

Resisted charms and dominate person while also breaking stun and flesh to stone.

Agreed to go with the elves to Falenel to save her friends.

*Adaine as she is falling through motes of light in elven teleportation, using sending to reach out to Ayda* Help. My friends are being killed in the Row and the Ruction. Please help them. *as Adaine appears in a place that is filled with darkness, she hears Ayda reply* Your friends are my friends.

Tries to escape with Misty Step (dispelled by Angine), Greater Invisibility (dispelled by Kir after Kir used True Sight), and Misty Step (dispelled)

Laid down on the ground on her stomach (magicly manacled by conjurer elf and led to her tower)

Allowed to keep Boggy

Hides under her blankets when Kear and Anguin comes in

Failed on detect thoughts save

Can tell where she is by looking at the stars

Was moved to an orb room (Kear: And do you intend to cooperate or will you be as problematic as we anticipate you might? / Adaine: What possible advantage to me or my friends can helping you give me?)

Kristen

Warding bond with Fabian

Was stunned entire fight and surrounded by icecream sandwiches (which she asked for help)

Gorgug

Relentless endurance

40 movement

Nearly got his brain eaten by Wicklaw.

After killing blow on Wicklaw, "Hey... I'm actually Fabian now."

Fig

Took a level in hex blade warlock

Hex blade cursed Wicklaw

Took enemy to hell with hellish rebuke before she was knocked out. (Fig: Did you see when I dragged that guy to hell with me? / Sandra Lynn: Horrifying. You're wonderful.)

"Adaine I used my everything to try and save you!"

Got 1300 points (with no actual value) for her sick shredding with her skateboard in the Ruction.

Snatched the crown after Wicklaw was killed and skatboarded away. Wanted to take crown away from Leviathan so there will never be a king, but let Fabian put it back on the head in Gibity Square.

Captured Wicklaw's soul

Is suspicious of Cathilda because she is "too good to be true".

"Look, the nightmare king could be anyone but my six friends."

Got Wicklaw's crystal saber which is like touching a live wire, but also filled with hatred

Riz

*while hiding in the rafters* "Fabian no! Don't be a coward!"

Arquebus has 60 foot range and he has 30 speed

He was the perfect person to dodge fists in the Row (while conscious)

"I have such bad athletes. Truly, I have minus two strength."

Failed two death saves (from the pirates stomping him) when he was knocked unconscious (from a slash from Wicklaw) and fell into the Row. Called to Fabian to save him while unconscious.

Riz: Hey Fabian? I think we all saw this going a little bit more epicly, but Adaine is gone. She sacrificed herself to save us and it kninda shows that it's not the end. We gotta keep going. So, we didn't bring our A game this time, but we can still - it keeps going. You'll be the hero next time. / Fabian: Yeah the ball. Next time. Next time. / Riz: Who... Hoot Growl? Is that what we say when we get pumped?/ Fabian: Yes. We say hoot growl.

Riz to Ayda: I think I have a lot of friends sometimes but then everyone's mean to me.

Wanted to talk to Fabian in private after the battle, but didn't get a chance due to Gorgug, Kristen, and Gilear

Sandra Lynn

Battle command: let's an ally attack an enemy on her turn as a bonus action

Can heal

Shouldered Wicklaw away from Gorgug (saving him from having his brain eaten) causing them both to fall into Row.

Knocked unconscious in the Row after stabbed through chest by Wicklaw but then healed by Fig.

Tracker

Was banashed to a maze world for the whole fight

Helped heal the party then "healed" Kristen privately

Ragh

Finished 1 pirate and then stunned for part of the fight before he was able to get up and fight/help again

Gilear

Passed out in the van due to the airbag.

"Very well. I will go into the back of the van. If anyone needs me, I will be surprised."

Threatened Fabian for 250 gold after he was acosted by a man who said he would kill him unless he gave him 250 gold. ("You need to shut the fuck up because I'm a dead man unless I get 250 gold pieces. You're down here with me now all right? Your rich. I'm not. Help me. Please help me.")

Ayda

Joined party temporarily to save her friend Adaine

Offered to teleport everyone and created a firy orange rune to do it.

***

Location Info

Ka'lethriel Tower

Beautiful courtyard

Smooth rounded marble flagstones are set into the garden

Look like a very zen meditative type of place.

There are high walls around the courtyard as well as towers.

"Orb rooms" (to keep prisoners in a constant state of trance deprivation) as well as regular rooms.

Near the Lands of the Lomenelda

***

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#fantasy high #fantasy high live #dimension 20 #d20 character descriptions #descriptions #d20 descriptions #aelwen abernant #adaine abernant #james wicklaw #anguin abernant #tw isolation #tw imprisonment #tw torture mention #tw abuse mention #canon typical violence #fantasy high spoilers #artist source #writer source

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casualmaraudering · 4 years

Text

this is Not happy. in any way. just a warning

There’s always a part of you that hopes stupidly.

The rational part of your brain knows it’s only wishful thinking; something that will never be more than a silly daydream. And yet there’s always this little evil part of your brain - or your heart, perhaps - that still finds the strength to go “maybe there’s a way.” Even when you yourself know there is none.

Somehow, you get caught in the fantasy. And it just makes it hurt more.

You’ll never

“Hey, Remus!”

The pen falls from Remus’s hand just as quick as he rubs down his eyes, trying to rid of the gloss of unshed tears. He can’t have the guys knowing. Especially not Sirius.

Sirius, who barges into the dorm with a bounce to his step right as Remus finished shoving his journal into his trunk. He’s got a smile on his face, of course. It makes Remus painfully aware of, well, everything.

The perfection that is Sirius Black.

The flawless pale complexion. The shining black hair, always falling around his face in a flattering way. His muscular body, and the school uniform hugging it nicely in every possible way. And there’s his personality, too. The confidence, intelligence, charisma. And the talents he has, the tons of things he’s good at.

As if being pretty wasn’t enough. No - he has it all.

It makes Remus’s blood boil sometimes. Mostly, though, just makes him hurt.

Despite that, Remus has a smile on his face when Sirius’s eyes land on him. He reckons it’s the one thing he’s actually good at - smiling as if he means it.

“You’ll never guess!” Even his voice is flawless. Graceful, deep, never cracks.

He just has to be perfect, huh?

“I’ll never guess?” Remus replies, easily slipping into the persona he’s adapted so many months ago. It’s easier to lie. Always has been.

He leans against his bed, gesturing for Sirius to join him - and that he does.

“Well…” Sirius says, stretching the vowel; Remus notices his smile is unusually big. Either classes had been cancelled, or he’s here to ask a favour. “You know Fabian?”

That should’ve tipped Remus off right from the get go. Sirius rarely does first names with people.

“Fabian… Prewitt? Our year, Ravenclaw, Prefect? Chaser for the team, I believe.”

Sirius nods to it all, bouncing in place - perhaps he’s been hexed. Not the worst Remus has dealt with.

“What about him, then? Did he tipped you off about a new passage in the castle? Took points off of Snape?”

He shakes his head. “Better.”

“Pray tell, then. It must be good.”

Sirius bites the inside of his cheek, looking away. Clue number 2 - Sirius rarely doesn’t do eye contact.

“He asked me out to Hogsmeade tomorrow.”

Remus blinks, inhaling sharply. There it is. Exactly what he’d been writing about in his journal. Wishful thinking, to ever be stupid enough to hope Sirius might feel the same.

After all, they’re polar opposites, aren’t they? Sirius is everything anyone could possibly wish for. And Remus is everything anyone wishes not to be, and not to have.

His hair is shaggy and messy; he can never get it to look good, even after hours of trying. It’s not appealing, never manages to be. His skin is oily in some places, dry in the others. There’s acne on his cheeks, bags under his eyes, blackheads on his nose, scars all over his legs. His teeth are crooked, and an unappealing yellow colour. His stomach is chubby, he’s got no muscle, and his thighs are too big. His fingernails are always chewed off, and his hands are dry and get sweaty too easily. There’s just so many little things, so many that add up to all the imperfections he has. One would’ve been nothing. But when there’s one on top of another on top of another on top of twenty more… it’s hard to find anything appealing. The scale is too heavy on one side.

And then… he’s not fun to be around either. He prefers to be alone, and often isn’t sure how to act around certain people. Sometimes he doesn’t talk. And sometimes he talks way too much. He withdraws quickly, jumps to conclusions quickly, feels quickly.

He’s not even good at anything either. He reads, but that’s not a talent. If anything, that’s really the only thing he does. There’s nothing he’s good at, nothing he could show off, or offer.

He’s just… nothing. A bunch of bad things clumped into one, miserable person. A bad, faulty batch, that for some reason made it onto the shelves. A rusty piece of cheap metal surrounded by gold.

It’s always been impossible. As much as Remus could hope and pray, there’s never been a chance that Sirius would fall for him. Not when he’s got so many things about him Remus envies, so many things he wishes he could have.

But he can’t have them. It’s not how it works. There’s no changing his face, his body, his personality. He’s not a failed experiment that can be redone, not a car with parts you can exchange. He can’t be Sirius, and he can’t have him either.

All Remus can do is just smile, pat Sirius on the back, and push all of his feelings away. All the jealousy (is he jealous of Fabian, or of Sirius, really?), the pain, the sting in his chest, the envy. He just pushes it back, lets it simmer until he can pour it all out into his journal. Only to burn the pages afterwards. Like he always does.

“Wow, that’s fantastic! Do you know what you’re gonna wear yet?”

You’ll never have him. And you’ll never be him either.

#wolfstar #sirius black #remus lupin #my tag #i might delete this #this is what happens when i write when im sad #this drabble broke into my house stole my chips and kicked my dog #it is literally all of my insecurities wrapped in a little bow on a plate. enjoy #my writing tag #boy this is depressing and also kinda bold so yeah it might go soon lmao

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