#or would he still refuse on the grounds that Julia; Steven; and Raven's Roost would die? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

charmandhex · 4 years

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If still taking asks for the game, how about "Trap Us in Gold"?

Yep! I am!

Hm, with this one I’m leaning toward rebellion era Raven’s Roost, and Magnus and Julia’s relationship and what shape that might take. Organizing, protesting, losing and fighting back. Falling in love, refusing to admit it because it’s dangerous, but then one day they both just... know.

Follow through with revolution and victory, wedding and happiness, and Magnus leaves with his rocking chair.

And here’s where things get interesting.

Kalen fails, after one of his explosives suppliers stops for a bite in Glamour Springs, a former lieutenant makes a career change after talking to a wandering cleric, and the support pillars for Raven’s Roost have been mysteriously reinforced with the strongest magic Kalen has ever seen before immediate scene switch to an unfamiliar white haired woman with a staff stopping cold on the road leaving Raven’s Roost when she sees Magnus coming back the other way. After a moment, she continues on, responding with a polite wave to Magnus’s rustically hospitable “Hail and well met!” to a complete stranger.

Magnus comes back to an intact Raven’s Roost and to Steven and Hammer and Tongs and to Julia. And things are good.

But Kalen, being an asshole, still isn’t done. And one day, he finds something that may not break the foundations of Raven’s Roost, but might just match that power.

While Magnus is out, personally delivering some more chairs probably, enormous walls of gold rise around Raven’s Roost, trapping everyone inside. And trapping Magnus outside.

Yeah, Kalen found the Philosopher’s Stone.

But the scene that specifically played in my head and prompted all this as a line of thought was:

“Wow, is it just me, or is his ego getting bigger?” Magnus’s voice breaks Julia’s reverie, and she looks up, surprised. She hadn’t realized that her- her father’s apprentice- had approached. She looks back to the golden statue Kalen had had erected of himself in the city hall square.

“No, I think you’re right.” Julia shakes her head. “Absurd, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, really dumb.” Magnus stands next to her, solid and steady, and Julia feels that fluttering in her stomach once more. “Craftsmanship is nowhere near yours either,” he says with a wide grin that causes his eyes to crinkle up at the corners, and even with the seriousness of the situation, Julia smiles back.

“I’d never want a statue like this. Just, trapped, on a pedestal, pretending to be more than you are, waiting to be toppled.” She pauses before adding, “You know, hypothetically. Because the ground can be so unstable here.” They both know it’s because the words could fall on other, less friendly ears.

“Well, I won’t ever have that problem, ‘cause nobody would ever put up a statue of me like that anyway,” Magnus says proudly, getting Julia to laugh before she looks back to the statue. And looking at it again, Julia feels that familiar mix of fury and frustration, resentment and rage boiling up inside, hot and powerful like iron heated to just the right temperature.

Julia turns away from the statue and toward Magnus. “Someone ought to do something about that.” Julia says, a significant tone in her voice and look in her eyes.

A look of understanding flashes through Magnus’s own eyes. “Maybe we should.”

“Let’s find somewhere to talk.”

#ask game #i love... magnus and julia #yellowmagicalgirl

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blue-mood-blue · 6 years

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Ok but what if the glamour springs incident was at ravens roost

Taako doesn’t know what happened.

He knows that something went wrong. He knows that he’s been in this windowless room for hours, arms secured behind him by a rope on a hard wooden chair. He knows that whatever comes next, he isn’t going to like it.

He shifts in his chair. It’s not a comfortable feeling, to be at such a disadvantage.

A woman enters the room. She’s pretty, Taako observes, and she’s angry. She’d probably rather punch him than ask questions, but she seems to have questions first.

She asks him about Kalen. He doesn’t know a Kalen. It’s not the answer she wants to hear.

So what happened out there, she asks. Taako plays dumb; it’s worked before. But he just watched an entire crowd of people begin to collapse in front of him, and his voice shakes.

He takes a deep breath. Don’t think about it, he tells himself. Don’t think about it. Hold out a little longer. Get out of this room first.

I don’t know.

Oh, I think you do.

I really don’t.

She slams a hand on the table, and Taako flinches. People are dead. There are families in mourning right outside that door, chef, so what do you propose I tell them?

Taako isn’t surprised. He’s in shock, he’s shaking and there’s a ringing in his ears, but he isn’t surprised. He knew when they started to collapse, when he got dragged away and locked in this room. He knew, and it doesn’t make the confirmation any easier.

The woman is still talking to him, but he takes a few seconds to push past the shock and think. Take stock. Assess. He doesn’t have time to wait until after he’s out of the room. Ten seconds to figure out a few key facts about his life as it currently stands.

One, the show is gone. Done. He may as well burn the stagecoach to the ground. None of his work means anything in the light what just happened.

Two, he knows why. It had to be the elderberries; he should have double-checked him. He always double-checks berries and fiddly ingredients like that when he uses magic on them, his transmutation just isn’t solid enough for anything less. He can’t remember if he checked them. How could he forget to check?

Three, he’s killed people. It shouldn’t be the last item on this list, and somewhere in the back of his head he’s sneering at himself because even he should have known better than to expect anything better from the pragmatist. He knows who he is, now, as a person: nothing good. Incompetent at best. People are dead.

She asks again: What happened?

And he says: It must have been the elderberries.

She frowns. She tells him that his audience was poisoned with arsenic.

~~~

The woman’s name is Julia, and between her and her husband Magnus, Sazed is found out. The dead are buried during one service that the entire town attends; there aren’t as many graves as there could have been, but there are still too many.

Magnus asks Taako what he’ll do now. Taako doesn’t know. The show is dead, and he doesn’t have anywhere in particular that he needs to be.

Magnus offers him the chance to stay for a while, and to Taako’s surprise, Julia seconds the offer. For some reason she doesn’t blame Taako for the poisoning. He doesn’t know how she’s forgotten already that the poison was meant for him when sometimes it’s all he can think about, but he accepts the opportunity for what it is.

Magnus and Julia are kind. They’re trusting. They’re not naive, but they let people into their lives and somehow it works for them. Taako wonders what it must be like, to live a life where your trust is rewarded. He’s never had that. He wonders who he would be if he had.

Taako doesn’t have much to do; he lurks and watches while Julia and Magnus work in the shop, and while Julia cooks at night and Magnus sketches designs for furniture and buildings.

One night, Julia hands him a bowl. I know you can cook, chef. You might as well help out.

He doesn’t want to. The smell of garlic still makes him sick. But it’s hard to say no to Julia, both because she’s disturbingly friendly and could probably put him into a headlock if he refuses.

They talk about their cooking. Julia pulls out her family recipes, all in different handwritings on little cards that fit into a box. Taako talks about his aunt’s recipes, safely stored in his memory where the risks of travel can’t get to them. There’s more there in common, in the steps and ingredients, than either of them expected. They work next to each other at the table, and it’s as easy as breathing.

Taako wonders if it’s always so easy to cook with someone else. He doesn’t think so, and he doesn’t know what makes this time different. It’s probably Julia, he decides; Julia is something entirely unique.

Taako feels very lucky. It’s a first. He tries not to get used to the feeling.

~~~

Taako finds out why the name “Kalen” was so important all at once one day. Magnus had just left with his rocking chair, which Julia loved and Taako deemed “passable” to Magnus’s huge, booming laughter. Steven pats Magnus on the back and they all watch him walk down the road out of town for a while.

It’s a good morning. Taako helps Julia and Steven with some errands around the shop while mentally planning what he’ll need to pick up from the market later. He’s starting to experiment in the kitchen again. Julia and Magnus have both been enthusiastic taste-testers, and it’s… nice. It feels just a little like his aunt’s house, which isn’t a feeling he thought he would ever find again.

There’s a noise. He feels it more than he hears it, rumbling beneath him. Taako doesn’t know what to make of it. He looks at Julia and Steven, across the room from him.

Another rumble, and the room tilts wildly. The sound of stone cracking and sliding is deafening. There’s no time for thinking. Everything is falling, breaking, screaming. There’s no time. Taako reaches out.

And suddenly, there’s more magic than Taako has ever felt before, and it’s too much but it’s also too late to stop it from happening.

Everything else, though… everything else stops.

There’s a scene of destruction in progress surrounding Taako. He can see the furniture in the air, mingling with the crushed bones of the shop. Julia and Steven are suspended where they were, the floor beneath them already broken to pieces. There’s no way to survive.

Taako tries anyway. He’s beaten the odds before.

The scene is something surreal, something from a story. A town of people, suspended in the air, slowly lowers through the rubble and to the ground. Everything remains frozen until moments after they land.

Someone has to tell Taako about it later. The magic is too much, too distracting, and he passes out as soon as he reaches the ground. The memory of the magic and how he reached it is hazy at best.

There are still injuries, and a few deaths. Most of the deaths are Kalen and his men. There’s so much to repair and do, but everyone has time, it seems, to talk to Taako. Julia tells Taako that he’s a hero. The rest of Raven’s Roost seems to agree. Taako doesn’t.

There’s no good way to tell them that he didn’t mean to save most of them. It was a fluke. Taako had only really been trying to save Julia; the rest was accidental. It was mostly out of his control, just an instinct to hold onto… something that he couldn’t name.

Julia seems to know what he’s thinking, even if doesn’t say it. You’re a hero whether you like it or not, chef, she tells him, smiling while she hands him a bowl as they cook. And we appreciate what you did, so deal with it. Just so you know, you’re stuck with all of us now. We like to keep heroes around.

Taako takes the reassurance for what it is - another offer to stay. And so he stays.

Sometimes the intentions don’t matter as much as the outcome, Taako decides, watching Magnus running back to meet Julia along the road a few days later. It didn’t matter that Sazed only meant to kill one person, and that Taako only meant to save one. What actually happens sometimes matters more.

#Anonymous #taz #the adventure zone #once again #it became too long #but i hope you guys like it anyway #happy candlenights!#(even though this isn't really about candlenights)

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dragestilwrites · 7 years

Text

These Echoes

Rated G The Adventure Zone

Magnus can’t help but dream of the things he’s lost.

It had been so long since the last reoccurrence of the dream he had almost forgotten what they were like. Of course, he wasn’t sure if the reprieve was due to healing wounds or simply the general lack of sleep of late. He hadn’t wanted to question it either way. What little sleep he could get he needed to be restful. But all luck runs out eventually, and the events that took place within the time-locked town of Refuge stirred up memories of the past.

It was their first night of rest after their final confrontation - if it could be called that when no blood was shed - with June, possessed by the Temporal Chalice. They had yet to actually discuss what they were each offered, but there was a certain heaviness that even Taako’s usual jokes and antics couldn’t lift. Magnus in particular was in an almost trancelike state, and mumbled something about needing an early night before turning in well before his travelling companions. He laid down in his tent and stretched out, willing himself to fall asleep as quickly as possible. In that, he was lucky. Beyond that, however, his luck dried up almost immediately.

Magnus found himself pulled back to the Hammer and Tongs, back to Raven’s Roost. He was back before when it all fell apart, between the ousting of Kalen and his own fateful trip to Neverwinter. He glanced down at himself and at once knew just when he was. He was wearing well-tailored clothes, far nicer than anything he wore regularly. He swallowed anxiously in anticipation of what he knew was coming. Steven - his mentor and second father - was calling to him now. He straightened up and adjusted his collar. He knew this was all too good to be true, but he found himself unable or unwilling to fight the flow of events.

“Looking good, son,” Steven said as Magnus appeared. “Just wait ‘til you see her, though. Almost cried seein’ her myself.”

Magnus only nodded, feeling quite ready to cry just from the idea of it all. He fiddled with the small, handcarved box in his pocket. He already knew how everything would play out. He was bound to his younger self’s footsteps though. He followed after Steven, who led the way to the public gardens. Since Kalen’s defeat, everything seemed to bloom all the more beautifully. And Julia, well she was the most beautiful bloom Magnus had ever set his eyes upon.

From their first meeting, Magnus had known Julia was something different. She had her father’s determination and pride in her work. She knew her way around the forge and the carpentry bench, mixing metal- and woodwork almost seamlessly. She was funny as well as clever. She never pretended to be anything that she wasn’t. Her very presence could warm Magnus from the inside out. He never feared loneliness or despair when she was around. It hadn’t taken long at all to know that he wanted to spend forever with her.

And now, now Julia was before him, standing in front of the rose bushes with flowers in her hair. She was wearing a pale blue dress with a white satin ribbon cinching in around her waist. Magnus had to work to hold back the tears at the sight of her. She was perfect. She was everything he could have wished for. Steven clapped Magnus on the shoulder, and Magnus realised he had frozen in place, staring at Julia.

“C’mon now, son. Can’t leave a lady waitin’, can ya?”

“No sir,” Magnus replied, clearing his throat in an attempt to sound more certain and less emotional.

The memory froze, however, just as Magnus reached Julia in the gardens. The entire world seemed to shift around him until he realised he was in the Hammer and Tongs. He was dressed in his usual work clothes. His greatest attempt at woodworking sat in front of him on his workbench. He had poured so many hours into crafting this single chair that it almost felt a bit crazy. But it was easily the best piece he had ever created, and even Steven repeatedly praised his efforts. When he ran a hand over the smooth, lacquered arm, it brought forth the faint smell of lavender. He shivered faintly. Julia had said it smelled like old people.

“Are you going to take it to Neverwinter for the showcase?”

“You really think I should?” Magnus said, though he did not want to.

“If you do, you’ll win. And you’d finally get recognised as much for yer craft as that fight ya led against Kalen. I’m not gettin’ younger, y’know, and I’ll need someone I can trust lookin’ after my shop one of these days,” Stephen replied, looking steadily into Magnus’ eyes. “My girl picked herself a fine young man. There’s not anyone else I’d want watchin’ her and this place.”

Magnus wished beyond belief that he could move freely, that he could step out of his younger self’s body and run to Steven. He wanted nothing more than to hug the older man, to tell him that he couldn’t ever repay his kindness and that he was the best father figure anyone could want. He wanted to warn him about Kalen’s revenge and the devastation it would cause, but he couldn’t. Instead, he was stuck rooted to the spot, reaching up to rub one hand over the back of his head almost bashfully.

“You mean it?” he said, but all he wanted to do was cry.

The memory froze again before Steven could respond, and once more the world shifted, though for half the time. When everything settled, Magnus was still at the Hammer and Tongs. This time, he was just outside with his handcrafted chair wrapped and ready for a journey. Steven had already wished him well and again complimented him on his work. But all Magnus could think about was the moment just about to occur. And there she was.

Julia, radiant as ever, waltzed over with a smile. She pressed a kiss to Magnus’ cheek before he pulled her into a hug. Even without his knowledge of the future, his younger self was holding her almost as tight as he could. The prospect of even three weeks apart was daunting for him. He wished now that it had been three weeks. He wished also that the hug would last forever, that the smell of Julia’s hair and the feel of her arms around his neck would never leave him.

Magnus prayed to whoever was listening and cared to at least allow him to always remember the sound of her laughter when she was teasing him, the light in her eyes when she was caught up in one of her passions. He held onto her tightly and tried to memorise everything about the moment so he could always go back if he needed to. But all too soon she was quite literally fading away, her form dissipating slowly like morning fog as he was left in the between space.

“Here, now, you have the chance to take it all back. Kalen hasn’t returned yet. There is time to find him and stop his attack before it is too late for Raven’s Roost - too late for Julia and for Steven. All you have to do is say yes, to take me and do it differently - do it right.”

Magnus woke sweating, and sat up to try to ground himself in the present. A dream like many others had a new twist, it seemed. The past simply refused to stay neatly stored away in the past. He ran a hand back through his hair and sighed, willing himself to get up and out of the tent. It seemed Merle and Taako had gone to bed while he was sleeping. He found himself quietly relieved that he was alone on one of the logs by their still smouldering campfire. He threw a couple logs from their supply of firewood onto the remaining tinder and embers, feeding them with dry leaves and twigs from the ground by his feet.

“You’re up late,” he heard from behind him.

“Taako, uhm yes, hello, I guess I am,” Magnus said, struggling to put his thoughts in an order that allowed him to effectively communicate with another sentient being.

“Can’t sleep then?” Taako asked.

“No,” Magnus admitted before slowly looking up to catch Taako’s eyes, “can you?”

Taako looked caught off guard for only a minute before he reined himself in and threw a lazy grin back onto his face. He couldn’t get it to stick, though, and after a moment he gave up the attempt, sitting down with a graceless thump on the log next to Magnus.

“I’ve been thinking,” Taako began, trailing off as he worked on deciding just how much he felt like sharing, “about what the cup said.”

“Really? You didn’t seem too torn up back there.” Magnus replied as he studied Taako’s expressions. By the flickering light of the fire, it was hard to read him.

“I’m not all jokes, you know. But we have to keep things light out there. How else would we get out of trouble?”

“Don’t the jokes cause half the trouble anyway?”

“It doesn’t matter,” Taako insisted, pulling off his hat and running his hands along the edge of the brim. “The point is I’ve been thinking. Do you think we made the right choice?”

“Not taking the chalice?”

“Yeah.”

“I think so.”

“What about...everything?” Taako said, pausing to figure out what word to use before gesturing generally to their surroundings.

“Only one of us could take it, so even if we did, we wouldn’t all get what we wanted probably. And...well think of what we would have missed. I don’t know what she showed you but...I would have been back five years ago. If I changed my timeline there, I would have never met you or Merle. We’d never have started travelling together, or ended up joining the Bureau of Balance. Everything we’ve done...it would all be gone. And for what? My selfishness?” Magnus paused for a moment, obviously caught up in his own emotions. “No,” he said, quieter now. “We’ve still got our memories of good times, even if they get mixed in with the bad ones. And the people we miss? We’ll get to see them again. I know Julia will be waiting.”

“That’s...very touching,” Taako murmured after a few moments of silence between them. He looked caught up in his own memories. “I suppose you are right - but don’t go getting any ideas about that. And don’t tell Merle about all of this.”

“Don’t worry. I’m with you on that,” Magnus assured with a quick nod of his head. “We should try to get back to sleep now. We won’t have too much time to rest, I don’t think.”

“Night then, Magnus.”

“Goodnight, Taako.”

#taz #the adventure zone #magnus burnsides

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