Tag: jane

Fake Fic Summaries, 19/? The Glimmering edition (2017-01-17)

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A/N: Strangest thing–went to sleep after gorging my brain on Yuri on Ice fic and the  FFBE game and somehow dreamed of Descendants. So… that’ll teach me to presume wtf is going on in my head.

~

The Glimmering

They’ve known since the beginning that Auradon is not nearly as perfect as it would like to believe.

They could never have guessed just how right they were.

Wow, okay, so that’s a basically useless summary am I right? But the story goes pretty much like this:

Sometime after the first movie, the four Lost Kids are witness to Auradon Prep’s strangest and most horrifying tradition:

Every year, for one month, the school goes through what is only known as “The Glimmering.” In which for that month, there are no teachers, and the students are left to fend for themselves against weird demonic planar creatures.

It was a bit Battle Royale meets HP and the Chamber of Secrets? In that, the creatures don’t kill the students but they do petrify/erase their memories and, over all, it’s quite creepy really. At least on the Isle of the Lost everything was straightforward–here? Not so much.

I don’t know why, but for some reason the Lost Kids weren’t sticking together for it–maybe The Glimmering happens suddenly and they were in different classes on opposite sides of the campus? Or maybe students are expected to fight on assigned teams?

Oh, right, there’s a competition aspect. There’s a lot of different possible achievements (though who or how these judgements are made… maybe the missing teachers monitor the situation somehow?) such as most Glimmers killed individually, most Glimmers killed in a group, most impressive kill, etc. etc. Apparently, there’s one achievement that hasn’t been reached but which everyone kind of knows instinctively and that is to kill the Glimmer Monarch.

Though bewildered and horrified, the Lost Kids are, unsurprisingly, rather good at The Glimmering. Mal has magic, Evie allies with the Science Club mostly comprised of the dwarves’ descendants, Jay has practically trained for this his entire life, and for some reason I had the most visceral inkling that Carlos and Dude survived because they stayed in the ventilation system and sniped Glimmers from ceiling.

In the Auradon adults’ defense, it’s not like they abandoned the students–it’s just that for that month, the plane on which the Glimmers exist is accessible only to kids. I don’t know, dream logic. It was quite cool in my head.

Anyway.

Some things that I remember happening:

  • Audrey and the cheerleaders last a scarily long time (though, admittedly, they did use other students as cannon fodder between themselves and The Glimmers).
  • The Glimmers have their own nefarious mission to try to get Ben, for an unknown, nefarious purpose.
  • Jay and Lonnie pair up–but pair up as in agree to fight together and watch each other’s backs, not pair up as in romance because as it turns out Lonnie is not interested in boys. But they do become friends, which is quite nice. And they’re quite badass, which is also nice.
  • Jane can access her magic in this plane–I don’t know what the repercussions of that are, but I’m sure it’s important.
  • Via the ventilation system, Carlos ends up in the PA system/Audio-Vis clubroom. For some reason, he also knows that certain sounds can throw off the Glimmers’ ability to perceive properly? And thus is the part in the movie where he blasts some epic song across the campus and the students make their big stand.
  • Evie and the remaining survivors of her Science Club minions stumble on an adult. But… like… a suuper aged ~mysterious~ adult who is trapped in the Glimmer plane and bestows wisdom from their years of experience. For some reason, I’m pretty sure it was actually someone who wasn’t that much older than them but who had aged so rapidly in the Glimmer plane that they looked ancient. Someone’s lost older sibling, I think, who had been forgotten by the kids but not by the adults.
  • During the big stand, Mal and Ben–because bizarrely my brain said they had to be the main characters again–are in a hedge maze which leads to the Glimmer Monarch’s lair. There’s a quiet moment where Ben possibly reveals that he knows what’s going on? Or at least why the Glimmers are so after him in particular? There’s a big reveal, anyway, which makes Mal–who is internally absolutely horrified by this weird month of inter-planar demon war–even more horrified and outwardly so. At Auradon? At the royal family? I don’t remember.
  • Mal does not beat the Glimmer Monarch. Nor does Ben. In fact, none of the students beat the Glimmer Monarch. Mal and Ben have to run away from the Glimmer Monarch (who, of course, gives chase) and they head towards the field where the big stand is happening. There the aged stranger shows up, rapidly de-aging, until they look like a teenager as well. They and the Glimmer Monarch are the ones that fight each other, the stranger wins but dies and with that the Glimmering is over. Forever.

… Now that I type it out, while I don’t think that’s what happened in my dream, I do think that narratively it would make the most sense if the stranger were either 1) Ben’s older sibling, 2) Jane’s older sibling, 3) an unrelated fairy descendant, 4) THE oldest Lost Kid taken from the Isle of the Lost by the royal family as a sort of… sacrifice? Offering? Stabilizer?

… It’s possible there are two strangers in the Glimmer plane, one a Lost Kid, one an Auradon kid. Unsure exactly.

Anyway, it was just a pretty cool dream. Surprisingly coherent for all that I can’t fill in ALL of the details.

Underneath the Red Lights, 2/? (2016-08-30)

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Carlos spends–spent–his days making locks. And doorknobs. And latches. And fences. And gates.

But no keys.

Which is bleakly appropriate considering all of the people he ever loved are in prison.

The point is that Carlos works–worked–with a lot of metal. A lot of shiny, reflective metal.

The first time he saw it, he didn’t even notice–it was just a blur of blue and peach–it could easily have been his own reflection even though the uniform is more grey than blue, and his skin more tan than peach.

The second time, he took a moment to look around. Figured maybe it was someone else, the curved angle of the metal bouncing the light bizarrely. But no one was there, and when he turned back the reflection was gone.

The third time, he actually saw a face–a face that he’d recognize anywhere even after five years, a face he thought he’d never see again.

“Evie!”

—

It turns out that, no matter how kind their hiring practices, dwarves are about as tolerant of an employee halting an entire day of production to have a freak out as humans are.

That is to say, not tolerant at all.

He’s told to turn in his uniform and keycard, they inform him he’ll receive his partial paycheck in the mail, and then he’s summarily guided out the door never to return.

“I didn’t want to work here anyway,” Carlos mutters, quietly enough that he won’t be overheard because maybe if he’s lucky they’ll still give him a good reference. Though when has luck ever been on his side?

His unemployment walk of shame is about as awful as a regular walk of shame, worse actually because he didn’t even have any fun to make up for it, but a part of him is thrumming with excitement and a little bit of what might be hope.

He keeps looking in ever reflective surface–the windows of shops he passes by, the side mirrors of parked cars, even each puddle he carefully steps around–hoping to see another glimpse of Evie, but so far nothing.

Maybe he’s going mad.

He’s straining so hard to find her that he isn’t paying as much attention to walking as he ought to–

“Carlos.”

–he hears his name, a familiar voice for all that it’s deeper and somehow not attached to a body. He stops, nearly trips, nearly–

–a car rushes past him, close enough and fast enough that the displaced air ruffles his clothes, his hair, blows violently against his skin.

—

He goes straight home–no more gazing at windows and wishing for something that’s not real, refusing to respond to a voice calling his name in a tone and cadence as fondly irritated as he remembers–although home is a bit of a stretch.

The tiny studio apartment he shares with Jane doesn’t leave room for much privacy, but neither of them really care about that because at least it’s only one other roommate instead of the twenty they grew up with.

Their cracked and mismatched dishes are piling up in the sink, their clothes are mixed together–whites and blacks and greys and, on the rare occasions they can splurge, tiny hints of blues and pinks and reds–and the bathroom door isn’t so much a door as it is a jury rigged plank of wood and that they have to either eel around or manually shift. Neither of them have actual beds–not that there’s space for it–so Jane has a futon and Carlos uses a couch that they scavenged from the curb and cleaned as best as they could (it still smells like bleach, which is better than the alternative).

It’s not home, but it’s the closest thing they’ll ever get. Just like how neither of them are each other’s first choice in friends, but they’ve worked hard to make it work.

Carlos goes home and Jane sees his face–pale and shocked and horrified and wild-eyed–and decides he needs a distraction.

“Don’t sit down,” she orders, already digging into their shared pile of clothes and tossing a pair of black skinny jeans at his head–it might be hers or it might be his, they’re the same size so it doesn’t really matter.

“I need your help with something important,” she adds, without elaborating, and it’s not until they’re in line to enter Problématique does Carlos realize that the ‘something important’ is either helping Jane get drunk or get laid.

Whatever, he’s not opposed to having a night out.

It’s not like this day can get much worse.

~

A/N: Not keen on that ending, but it’s already seven past so…

Underneath the Red Lights, 1/? (2016-08-29)

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The week of his twentieth birthday, Carlos gets:

1) fired from his job,

2) nearly run over by a car,

3) tricked into going out clubbing by Jane for their shared birthday, then immediately ditched when she finds someone to make out with,

and

4) a panic attack fueled by an existential crisis as he considers the rest of his life playing out in terrible, bleak monochrome.

All in all, it’s not as awful as the week of his fifteenth birthday, so he’ll take it.

Oh, he also gets a boyfriend… kind of.

It’s a long story.

—

The collective kingdoms of Auradon have had fairly negative experiences with magic and so, in a spectacular show of panicked bigotry, decided to ban all magic and lock away all magicians.

Present and future.

Of course, the nobility like to think they’re the good guys, so they don’t exactly go around imprisoning children–but they also don’t hesitate to throw sixteen year old potential magicians into Auradon’s maximum security prison, Maison Rouge. It’s not like anyone really has the power to stop them.

Certainly not a magic-less boy living in a government run orphanage (even though technically he’s not an orphan since, as far as he knows, his mother is still alive).

So when Carlos wakes up the morning of his fifteenth birthday–January 1st, a New Year baby–and finds the three bunks nearest his empty and cold, he only cries a little bit into his scratchy blankets before quickly wiping away his tears.

(Jay’s not there to throw a stolen handkerchief at his face, Evie won’t run a comforting hand through his hair, Mal won’t stand guard and glare at anyone else who might stare or laugh)

—

In a different way, that morning was the worst day of Jane’s life, too. Mostly due to the fact that she woke up on her sixteenth birthday and hadn’t been in Maison Rouge.

Like him, Jane isn’t actually an orphan either.

—

The factory Carlos works in–or, rather, used to work in–is dwarf owned. Then again, most factories are dwarf owned. Most companies, in fact.

Forget titles and pedigrees–precious stones and metals, then later oil and technology–that’s where real prestige comes from.

As it is, though, dwarf culture and business practices are a lot kinder than human run companies. Carlos didn’t love his job–it was repetitive and boring and, if he’s going to be honest, way below his capabilities–but considering he only has the minimum government provided education and no social capital whatsoever, it was a decent first job.

Definitely better than where some of his former housemates ended up.

Until, after two years of mind-numbing diligence, he somehow managed to fuck it up entirely.

In his defense, it’s not entirely his fault.

Probably.

~

A/N: I’m a big liar who lies, apparently, because it looks like I am, in fact, going to write Underneath the Red Lights – or at least try my best at it.

Hopefully this will reignite my Descendants feels again. Fingers crossed.

So, recap: Jane has no magic, Jane and Carlos share a birthday but she’s one year older, every December 31st the government does a sweep of all sixteen year olds and throws those with magic potential in jail.

Outliving The Ruins, 2/? (2015-11-26)

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When she was younger and far more reckless with her magic, the Fairy Godmother was once called the Blue Fairy.

Like most other elements, Air has a specialization, too–but where Earth has Metal and Fire has Lightning, Air has more in common with Water. Water which can heal, which can turn a person’s blood against them.

Water is the body, but Air is the spirit.

She brought a wooden puppet to life once.

Surely she can bring a daughter into this world, too.

“Please,” she whispers, holding the still, tiny body to her chest, “Please.”

On a moonless night, several hours after her birth, Jane breathes her first breath.

—

The last Avatar was originally an Earth bender, a masterful one at that. From a stone, he gathered and extracted all of its metal and formed a magical sword. The sword that would one day choose Arthur as king.

That Avatar had trained Arthur, had brought him to the Spirit World, bestowed upon him a wisdom that would one day unite all of Albion into a single kingdom.

Of course, that union lasted only for a very short time, the separate kingdoms splitting apart not long after King Arthur’s death. Earth endures, but the loss of his student had the Avatar retreating into isolation for the rest of his long life.

Merlin died only a few years after seeing Albion reunited under a new name.

Mal was born with the impossible conviction that she would one day return to her rightful place–beside the king of Auradon.

—

Ben remembers being small and sitting between his parents. He remembers the smell of old books and the warm sunlight shining through the library’s windows. He remembers the way they looked at each other, soft and in love.

He remembers hearing about their story–from them, from his grandfather, from the rest of the household–and thinking that one day he’d like to fall in love, too; to love someone so much as to defy society.

Except he also remembers the way everyone would gloss over just how his father survived Gaston’s attacks. He remembers how his mother would only play in the snow with him and Chip, always with a secretive smile on her lips.

He remembers, fuzzily, being sick for such a long time–no manner of medicine able to cure him–and finally recovering under his mother’s cool, glowing hands.

Bending is dangerous–the other royal families say–except for the Fairy Godmother, benders are villains in waiting.

It’s been a decade since Ben saw his mother. It’s been a decade since Ben learned his father was a coward.

~

A/N: Related to this previous drabble. I guess you can consider this the Auradon side.

I’m not very keen on the Merlin section but… mreh. And, I know Albion is only meant to be the United Kingdom but in this weird amalgamated, modern-day-set Disney world, I figure it wouldn’t be too out there to imply that Albion = medieval Auradon…

As for the Ben+parents’ section, uh… given what we see of Beast/Adam and Belle in the movie, I figure that if Belle were a waterbender (healing tears, snow fight, etc) and Beast/Adam were under pressure from the other royal families well. Even though Beauty and Beast’s “evil” was human arrogance, the other kingdoms suffered under magical/bending villains.

EDIT: NOW WITH TITLE “OUTLIVING THE RUINS”

AVATAR MAL STUFF

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jalencolbert:

Ok I’ve been seeing this..

In the form of this…

AND I Thought I’d share my thoughts. 

SO basically I like the idea. 

HERE’S WHO I THINK PLAYS WHO.

Mal = Aang 

(They are the main charcaters of both television events and….. it’ll make sense if you keep reading ok?”

Carlos = Katara 

(Forget the Mal X Carlos relationship. Fuck heteronormativity. Anyways he’s the sweetest, probably gives the best hugs and is cute so.. yeah)

Jay = Toph

( Have you seen Toph earthbend? Have you seen Jay’s arms? Case closed.)

Ben = Zuko (Only because of that scene where you thought Katara and Zuko were getting together… and how that would make BENLOS CANNON, therfore saving my life. Plus it makes sense, they weren’t exactly on the same side in the beginning…by the end they were.. yeah? Yeah)

Evie = Suki (She probs can kill anyone, and Suki and Evie, could both rock a fan. Plus we all lowkey appreicate suki’s acrobatics and everyone loves EVIE soo its simple addition) 

Doug can be Sokka, because neither do anything important in my opinion.

 Well scratch that Doug helps Evie learn important feminism stuff…. so they are who they are also for the pairing.

Help are my thoughts, comment your opinions follow me, reblog if you will.

-Fanboy

Okay, wait, okay. I first want to clarify–did you mean matching up characters with roles or matching up characters with elements? Because those are two different things entirely and I mostly agree with you on the roles (that is, Mal as the Avatar) but not necessarily which elements they are?

I hope you don’t mind me ranting, but SORRY YOU GOT ME STARTED NOT SORRY.

So, here we go. In my opinion, in this theoretical AU, I think only the Isle kids should be benders. So instead of banning all the villains to the Isle, they banned all the villains and benders to the Isle. Or maybe (as evidenced with Jane’s lack of magic) for some reason only those born on the Isle have bending abilities anymore.

Anyway:

Mal is the Avatar, but she is primarily Fire. Since it’s Disney canon that Maleficent can do fire stuff and the whole dragon thing and all. And, gotta be honest, Mal is like the slightly better adjusted version of Azula.

Evie is a Water bender; because potions/chemistry and water being reflective like mirrors… and… blue… but also because she’s fairly adaptable, a generous person, and a good foil to Mal’s harsher tendencies.

Jay is an Earth bender… because he’s pretty much Toph except a big buff dude. (Like the Ember Island players episode).

Carlos is an Air bender, because he’s fast and willow-y and playful and pacifistic; personality wise he is the closest to Aang. But… I also want him not to realize he’s an Air bender, because maybe Fairy Godmother is also an Air bender and even before the banishment of benders to the Isle there were a startlingly low number of Air benders. (Also maybe Cruella herself wasn’t a bender, so no one expects Carlos to be a bender either). ((Also, also, this explains the strange, preferably not romantic relationship between Jane and Carlos. It’s kind of like seeing someone who you were supposed to be but aren’t? I dunno)).

Then for the non-benders–that is, Ben, Doug, Jane, Lonnie (and Chad and Audrey? Do we particularly care about them in this AU?)

Hm… well, Lonnie would be Ty Lee or, rather, have the chi-blocking abilities of Ty Lee. In part because, except for Ben, she was the least prejudiced against the Isle kids. Part of that is probably because she was the least afraid, meaning she would have some way to defend herself against benders. Ty Lee could literally shut down someone’s bending, so that would not be a problem for Lonnie at all.

I’m trying to think of all the other non-benders in the series… Sokka, Suki, Mai, Jett… ooh, Teo (son of that inventor) and June (the bounty huntress)… oh! YUE.

Okay, so Jane is probably the Air equivalent of Yue–in that, she herself isn’t a bender but she has some spiritual chi in her. Maybe there was a complication with her birth and the Fairy Godmother (as an Air bender/implied spirit bender) pulled some sort of deal so that Jane would live even without the ability to bend.

Doug is Teo–in the sense that he comes from a family without magic but who are probably more technologically advanced than the rest of the kingdom. (I figure the dwarves are kind of like genre-typical dwarves in that they are immune to magic. It’s a two sided blade because that means spells and such don’t work on them, but they have to use tech to achieve things instead of magic. Although, since the rest of the kingdom doesn’t really have magic, they’re probably further ahead. [Hm… yeah, I’m gonna keep this headcanon: Dwarves are immune to magic, therefore Doug is immune to magic.])

I figure Ben and Chad are basically just Knights. Y’know, swords and such. Specifically with fighting styles, I suppose Ben would be more like Zuko (sans Fire bending), while Chad would be like Jett (who, I will be honest, I have extremely mixed feelings about. I kind of both love and hate that guy. And hella shipped him with Mai, gonna be honest.)

Which leads me to thinking that Audrey would probably have Mai’s fighting style. In that she has a bunch of hidden knives and needles hidden around her person. It’s not as effective against benders as Lonnie’s chi-blocking, so it explains her and Chad’s continued fear+prejudice against the Isle kids.

Although, hm… maybe Belle is a bender? But only secretly, and not very strong and definitely not Air. So it kind of mimics Zuko and his mother’s story arc. Like… maybe it’s something she only told Ben, because she knows how much bending has been vilified (except for Fairy Godmother, but it’s something else entirely to have the queen be a bender than a magical advisor). And so then when her bending was discovered, she had to leave in order to protect her son. So in this AU Ben isn’t as optimistic and happy (because even from the few snippets of her in the movie, Belle was very obviously the better parent).

So the roles they play don’t quite match up, but you can adapt things pretty easily. A fusion more instead of an overwrite.

… Uh. Yeah. Thaaaat’s it. Promise.

(I’m pretty sure I’m not going to write this, but if anyone would like to and would like to have me as their beta, shoot me a message. Because this was very fun brainstorming).

[Also, I am counting this as my daily post for August 30th.]

edit: sort of writing this, check out “Outliving The Ruins”

A Tale of Two Kingdoms, part 7/11 (2015-08-21)

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The islanders are reluctant to share their knowledge of what exactly happened, not because they’re distrustful of Ben, but because it involves magic. The only ones who really understood magic were the ones involved, and they’re the ones missing.

“Good riddance,” one woman mutters, face hidden by dirty blonde hair and a grungy scarf.

The woman next to her jostles her sharply, hissing a warning, “If the captain heard you, you’d walk the plank.”

“Well the captain’s dead, she’s not here to protect her damned pet squid. It’s because of him that the kaiju are around.” The woman spits back, before shuffling away when the expression on her conversation partner’s face clearly doesn’t agree.

The remaining woman glares at her retreating back, before turning expectantly to Ben and Chip. Her back is hunched and her clothes are dirty, but the set of crossbones stitched onto her beanie are a bright clean white. “You’ve got questions, then?”

“Yes,” Ben says politely, “I’m trying to figure out–”

“What happened to the other magic kids, eh?” She interrupts, eyebrow raised slyly, “You think the entire Isle don’t know about your mission? And I’m not talking about finding those three.”

Ben tries desperately not to blush.

He obviously fails from the way the woman laughs raucously.

“If you could please–” Chip starts, only to be interrupted as well.

“You’re a bit too clean for my own tastes,” the woman says to Chip appraisingly, “but that can be fixed easily.” She winks, and now Chip is also flustered. Great.

“Ma’am, we need to know what happened.” Ben says, bringing them back on topic, “How is it that Uri’s death is confirmed, but no one knows what happened to the others?”

“That’s easy,” she scoffs, “How else?”

Ben waits for her to explain, but Chip is the one to answer.

“There was a body.”

—

It’s not like Carlos is just waiting for Auradon to come back. He has a lot to do around the docks; it comes with the territory of being the head of the jaeger program. That being said, he has no idea why Jane and Lonnie keep following him around.

He’s still a bit suspicious of them, ever since they tricked him into talking to Auradon. So it’s not his fault his face automatically turns into a squinty eyed stare in their presence, especially Jane’s.

“It worked out for the best,” Lonnie says, absolutely steady from her perch on the catwalk railings.

Carlos only grumbles back at her, combing through some basic wire work on the fourth jaeger. Jane, at least, has the decency to sit on the actual walkway, safe from tipping over. Not that her being in Carlos’ peripheral vision is making him any less nervous.

“I think it’s absolutely romantic,” Jane sighs, head propped in her hand, and Carlos is not fooled at all.

But he still asks, “What is?” and ignores the feverish sensation on the tips of his ears.

“A knight on a quest to prove his love,” Jane responds wistfully. Carlos wonders if this is what she was like before coming to the Isle, if she would have been just a daydreaming teenage girl, instead of a jaeger pilot capable of destroying giant monsters. Well, now he gets to deal with both.

Lonnie hums in agreement–correction, now Carlos gets to deal with both twice over–before adding, “Usually the prince ends up with the rescued princess, but traditional stories are so two decades ago.”

Jane barks out a laugh, “It’s not like your parents were very traditional,” she reminds teasingly.

“I like to think they were trendsetters,” Lonnie shoots back.

Their easy banter washes over him, familiar at least, if not soothing, after weeks of it; but Carlos is still stuck on something in particular.

“Auradon is a prince?”

—

Finding where Jemma Hook is buried is easy. Finding where Jemma Hook buried Uri? Not so much.

“Captain was real torn up about his death,” a man nearly two feet taller than Chip says morosely, casually shrugging a crate of potatoes onto one shoulder, “She would’ve buried him wherever she hid her treasure.”

“Good luck finding that,” someone else snorts, unashamedly interjecting himself into their conversation, “She kept that a secret to her own grave.”

“It’s true,” the first man says, “Any decent pirate would have a hidden stash, Captain Hook’s would be particularly hard to find.”

“You know, if anyone could find it,” The second man suggests, “It would be that damn thief; or maybe the princess, if there were enough gems.”

“You think this boy would be bothering with the Captain’s treasure if he already had Carlos’ gang?” The first man scoffs, reaching out to cuff the other on the back of the head.

It nearly bowls him over, but he keeps to his feet, “Just saying,” he scowls.

“No wait,” a third person says, bodily inserting herself into their discussion by ducking under the first man’s arm, “He’s onto something. The ones who would best be able to find the captain’s treasure would be Jay and Evie.”

“Neither of whom we have,” Chip reminds.

“So the closest thing you have to that is their parrot.” The girl says, a mischievous grin on her face.

“A parrot,” Ben finally says, leaning forward in interest, “Tell me more.”

—

“Don’t you dare hurt Othello,” Evie warns, even as she brings up his image onto her mirror and passes it over to Jay.

“You think I’m going to risk our one chance by purposefully messing with that bird?” he asks, hands on the mirror, eyes beginning to glow.

“There’s a reason he likes me better,” Evie says, before turning silent, focusing on her precognitive abilities. She needs to keep an eye out for any of their hunters, especially now that Jay is occupied with possessing Othello and Mal has brought down their shield. They’re not actually sure if it will work, which is why Mal is using her magic to amplify Jay’s.

“This is ridiculous,” Mal murmurs. It sounds like one of those fairy tales, she thinks, a prince following a bird to one secret area. Then following another set of animals to a different secret area. All as part of a quest to rescue a princess. So what if that bird is a parrot being magically possessed, and the next set of guides are eels, and there’s an evil fairy’s daughter and an evil sorcerer’s son being rescued alongside the princess? “So ridiculous,” she repeats.

—

“This is great!” Ben enthuses as he and Chip pick their way along the trash-strewn shore, following after the blue and yellow parrot. “It’s really like a proper quest.”

Chip, done with absolutely everything–especially the parrot who not only scratched and bit him, but also pooped on his shoulder–is distinctly less impressed.

“Mystery, a hidden treasure, an animal guide,” Ben lists off, before the parrot screeches– “Hurry up!” – and they both pour on the speed.

They wouldn’t want to lose the bird for a second time. At least it seems to be intelligent enough to not only get the gist of what they need, but also to circle back and find them. Suspiciously intelligent, Chip thinks to himself, but that may just be his newly found bias against birds speaking.

The parrot brings them to a rocky outcropping, a small five foot cliff of sorts. Looking around, neither of them can see a place where something can be buried.

“Did this thing take us on a wild goose chase?” Chip asks belligerently, before flinching when the parrot lands on his shoulder.

Ben laughs, out of breath, but his hands clench into fists with irritation as well.

“Lagan! Derelict!” The parrot screeches, disastrously loud right next to Chip’s ear.

It takes a few moments, but soon enough, in the water below them, the long sinuous bodies of two eels appear.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Chip says in disbelief.

“Multiple animal guides,” Ben amends, before steeling himself and jumping into the water. “Come on!” he calls up to Chip.

Chip stares balefully down at him instead, looks at the parrot on his shoulder in commiseration, realizes he’s doing so, and decides to flee from the feathered pest by jumping down after Ben.

The water is cold and kind of slimy feeling and Chip hates everything about this. He says as much.

Ben just grins obnoxiously back, “It’s not over yet.”

~

A/N: Yes, that’s how I’m ending it because I can’t believe it’s not over yet. AAAAAGH. We will get there soon. Hopefully.

Thanks to theotpauthor for letting me know that the eels are not just a strange fluke. Hence, Othello the parrot, who is technically Evie’s but is descended from Iago so… yet another timeshare pet?

And jalencolbert, in case you didn’t see my edit on the last post. Lagan and Derelict are the book canon names for the eels, I didn’t come up with it. But I think Uri as Ursula’s son’s name is my creation? Not sure, there are only so many U names. Feel free to use that as well, though.

A Tale of Two Kingdoms, part 5/11 (2015-08-19)

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The students of Auradon Prep were among the first to be evacuated, the children of royalty and nobility, the upper class. Most of them are now students at Sherwood High, though it’s very easy to tell which students are Falcons and which are Knights at heart.

This is where Ben goes.

He never had a coronation, and anyway, a foreign king has no authority in a different land. But the headmaster indulges Ben, lets him hold an assembly. And so Ben talks.

He tells them news of their kingdom. Of the people still left behind, of the Wall that does nothing. Then he begins speaking of the Isle.

And this is when discontent rumbles begin. There are still people who believe that the kaiju are from the Isle. An evil scheme of some villain’s gone horribly wrong.

But Ben perseveres, because he knows it’s not true. He talks about what he’s learned on the Isle about the jaegers, about the real Captain Hook, about Harry and Jace. About how they couldn’t leave and decided to fight back. About engineers from the Wall who have decided to join the jaeger program.

And he talks about Carlos, not by name, but he talks. About a boy so brilliant that he’s built the means to save Auradon, a boy who has the weight of not only one but two nations resting on his shoulders, a boy who asks Ben for help–not really expecting to receive it, but asking all the same.

Ben talks. And he asks. Because that’s all he can do now. He asks for volunteers, for jaeger pilots.

The silence is heavy.

—

Carlos is deep in the guts of the third jaeger–one of the jaegers built entirely without Isle scraps and so a little more advanced and finicky than the Hell Jalopy–when he hears news that Auradon is back.

Carlos doesn’t rush out immediately to see him–he’s in the middle of something important, okay–but as soon as he troubleshoots the issue he delegates the actual repairs to one of the technicians rather than do it himself. He’s head of the jaeger program, he’s allowed to do that.

When he gets there, Harry, Jace, and Chip are already out welcoming back Auradon and two girls. Carlos’ steps slow down, taking in the scene. There is only the one car–no follow up van full of engineers, no cars or boats or planes to be deconstructed. Just Auradon and two girls.

No way.

“Carlos!” Auradon calls out, waving him over, and Carlos goes–not because Auradon waved him over, just because he was headed over there anyway. “This is Jane and Lonnie,” Auradon introduces the two girls with a smile, “They’re–”

“Pilots,” Carlos breathes shakily. That’s impossible. Carlos never actually expected Auradon to come back with, “You got me pilots.”

Auradon’s grows sheepish, “Well, we don’t know if they’re drift compatible yet, but I think–”

“You got me pilots!” Carlos repeats, in disbelief. He looks at the two girls, calculations and modifications already running through his head, he turns back to look at the completed jaeger next to the Hell Jalopy, their future jaeger.

He spots the skull and crossbones of the Jolly Roger.

He turns back. Looks at the two girls, the two pilots, who smile in mild confusion at him. Stares at Auradon whose smile has become wider, softer.

“You asked for pilots, Carlos,” Auradon reminds, gently teasing.

He can hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears, “You got me pilots,” Carlos repeats for the final time, numb with realization, “And I made jaegers to fight your enemies.”

The smiles drop off everyone’s faces, but Auradon’s is the only one Carlos is watching. He looks concerned now, but gamely goes along.

“The kaiju are your enemies, too. They’re everyone’s enemies.” Auradon says, reaching out to put a hand on Carlos shoulder. It’s not the first time, but Carlos jerks away.

The painted skull flashes through his mind, the crossbones on his back burn.

“I… have to go,” Carlos says, before retreating completely. Away from Harry and Jace and Chip and Auradon and the two girls. The two pilots that Auradon got for Carlos.

The closest thing Carlos has ever heard to a declaration of love was from Jemma, for Uri. He would send storms after her enemies, and she would give him prisoners. But that was all hypothetical, those were just dreams of land-locked lovers yearning for the ocean. None of that really happened.

But Carlos–Carlos has been building jaegers even before meeting Auradon, it’s why they’ve even met. But the newer jaegers are built out of material Auradon has given him, by technicians Auradon has given him. They’ll be piloted by volunteers Auradon has given him.

It’s not the same, Carlos thinks to himself.

Because it’s real, a small voice whispers back.

Carlos doesn’t know what to do.

—

Carlos might be avoiding Ben and he doesn’t know why. Harry and Jace don’t know why either. Chip might, or at least acts likes he knows, which is strange because it’s not like Carlos talks to Chip very often. Or at least he doesn’t think so. Do they? What would they even talk about that Ben can’t talk about with Carlos?

Anyway.

Except for that, everything is going great.

Jane and Lonnie are, in fact, drift compatible. Which is a little surprising but makes sense: they were the first to volunteer, the only ones to volunteer so far. They’re hesitant when it comes to interacting with the islanders, but they take well to the pilot training. Along with both being brave, Jane and Lonnie apparently both like to fight dirty. It certainly boosts their image on the Isle at least.

None too soon, the next double event happens; the Rebel Watcher fights alongside the Hell Jalopy, no major injuries amongst the four pilots. The repairs to the jaegers are easy enough to fix, doesn’t delay the completion of the third and fourth jaegers at all. More volunteers will come, surely, more pilots to fill those empty jaegers.

Ben knows this is the beginning of the end; they can actually win against the kaiju.

And it’s all thanks to Carlos.

Now if only Ben can get Carlos to speak to him.

—

Jane and Lonnie, having adapted to life in the jaeger program, are the ones who finally pin Carlos down long enough for Auradon to catch him. To be fair, though, Carlos really thought Lonnie had a question about Rebel Watcher, and, well, Jane does like to fight dirty.

“I’d say she learned that here, but I think she’s always secretly been like that,” Auradon says, only somewhat apologetically, as he holds out a hand to help Carlos up.

Reluctantly, Carlos takes it.

“Hey, Carlos,” Auradon says, a small hesitant smile on his face.

Carlos sighs, the knowledge that he can’t outrun the other boy rooting his feet to the ground, not guilt. He doesn’t know what’s making him keep their hands linked. “Hey, Auradon,” Carlos says back.

“I think you’ve been avoiding me,” he says, and as if to ward off that possibility, Auradon interlaces their fingers.

Carlos has never been one for confrontations, but he’s pretty sure this isn’t how it’s supposed to go.

“You got me jaeger pilots,” Carlos says, hushed like it were a secret.

“Yeah, and one of them tripped you and sat on your back just a few minutes ago,” Auradon reminds, a laugh hidden in his voice.

“I didn’t really think you would,” Carlos admits.

“You didn’t think I’d be able to?” Auradon asks, maybe a little hurt, “I mean, it was pretty difficult, but I was able to get everything else–”

“That’s why–” Carlos interrupts, then bites back, looks away.

“That’s why what?” Auradon reaches out with his other hand, gently guides Carlos’ face back up to meet his eyes.

Frustrated, Carlos blurts out, “You’ve already given me so much. Materials and technicians and even food! And then you got me pilots!”

“Because you needed them,” Auradon says, “Everything I gave was because the Isle and the jaeger program needed them.”

“Oh,” Carlos says, heart sinking into his stomach. Everything for the jaeger program.

He tries to pull his hand away, but Auradon tightens his grip. “Everything I gave was for the jaeger program because you only ever asked for things on behalf of it. You never asked for anything for yourself,” he says, and he waits for Carlos’ startled gaze to meet his own, “What do you want, Carlos? What can I get for you?”

“Why–are you trying to impress me?” Carlos stammers, flustered in the face of Auradon’s sincerity.

He smiles, and Carlos can feel a flush spreading across his own face in response, “You’ve already impressed me, Carlos. I just want to reciprocate.”

~

A/N: I was hoping to get farther than this plot-wise, but these dweebs just want to be adorable with each other. So I guess this series will be longer than five parts, but not too much longer… probably.

And yes! Jane and Lonnie are jaeger pilots. I was considering doing a section for their POVs during volunteering, about their identities as women and how their mothers fit into it. Maybe I’ll do an interlude of sorts after the main plot is done…

Still don’t have a title for this series 😦 Any suggestions?

EDIT: NOW WITH TITLE, “A TALE OF TWO KINGDOMS”

Ain’t No Rest, part 2/? (2015-08-14)

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The Barrier Observatory in Charmington reports a system down emergency at least once a month. Magic is outlawed because it’s something that villains can abuse, true, but it’s also just highly incompatible with technology–even technology meant specifically to monitor magic tends to go on the fritz. So it’s not too surprising when the system designed to keep an eye on the barrier around the Isle of the Lost sends false alarms to the Auradon police department.

This is something that Lonnie, as the newest member of the dispatch unit, gets the honor of dealing with. Her fifth time handling a BO red alert happens at two in the morning, which isn’t as bad as it sounds–she’s always been a bit of a night owl. However this particular time, when she calls the observatory for the all clear, instead of a sheepish and embarrassed Jane on the other end, she gets a frazzled and panicked Jane.

“It’s not just the sensors this time!” Jane says, voice high and wavering, “It’s not a glitch!”

The shock of it stuns Lonnie for a beat before her training kicks in and she responds calmly, “Are you and the rest of the Observatory staff in any physical danger?”

In her peripheral vision she sees the dispatcher in the desk beside her turn, eavesdropping and as surprised by half the conversation as Lonnie is by all of it.

“N-no,” Jane stammers, fear lingering, before she pulls herself together, “We’ve had our technicians go over everything. The sensors are all in working order, and there’s nothing wrong with the program either. Our readings show that the barrier really was down.”

“It was down?” Lonnie repeats, and now she can spot more of her coworkers in the corner of her eyes as her call continues, “Is it still down?”

There’s a moment of silence, in which Lonnie can feel her heart begin to speed up, before Jane answers, “No, the barrier is back up now,” but then she adds, hesitant and worried, “At least–if our readings really are correct–”

“Okay, stay calm. For now we’ll assume that the readings are correct and the barrier is up,” Lonnie interrupts, to cut off that line of thought. It’s as much for her own sake as it is for her fellow dispatchers crowding around her and Jane on the other end. “We’ll send a couple of uniforms over now to confirm it’s not someone pulling their idea of a terrible prank,” Lonnie waves a hand at her neighbor, prompting him to begin calling the Charmington precinct, “And we’ll have a Knight head over in the morning to investigate further. Does that sound good?”

Jane sighs–in fully earned relief, no doubt, but it just creates a burst of static-filled noise in Lonnie’s headset–before asking, “Can I stay on the line until the officers get here?”

“Of course, let me transfer you to the dispatcher in contact with the local police. He’ll keep you updated on their location until they arrive at the observatory.”

“Thanks, Lonnie,” Jane says.

“It’ll be okay, Jane,” Lonnie says back, before rerouting the call to her fellow dispatcher. She takes a moment to breathe deeply, rubbing a hand over her face, somehow exhausted even though she only started working a few hours ago.

The shift supervisor is standing behind Lonnie when she turns, and she does her best not to startle too much.

“Well done, new kid,” he says, which Lonnie knows to be enthusiastic praise coming from him. Bill Packard is a crotchety, old man in the body of a thirty year old; more cynicism than serenity, but still damn good at his job. If there were such a thing as dispatcher nobility, he would be king; his grandmother, Wilhelmina Packard, was the radio operator during the fabled Atlantis expedition.

That compliment puts a little bit of positivity in what is looking to be a terrible night.

“Better call up the Knights,” he says, before returning to his desk, “See which sad s.o.b. is going to be leading the charge on this one.”

—

The Knights of Auradon are an elite agency designed to keep the peace. They are trained to handle any and every situation, are expected to maintain peak levels of fitness, and look quite dashing in their dress uniforms.

Which, really, is what most of their duties consist of now. With over two decades of all the major villains, the minor villains, and even some of the more despicable minions being imprisoned on an island, there really hasn’t been much in the way of crime. Nothing that requires the Knights’ high standard of skillsets at least.

Instead, Knights are mainly used for security at major political events, particularly diplomatic ones with foreign ambassadors who can admire the glittering guards and ask, “Are you really trained in such and such?” or “Is it true that Knights can do…” or, in Ben’s case, “It must have been such a surprise when the President’s son decided to be a Knight.” As if they weren’t speaking directly to said President’s son, as if he were just a statue they could speak at.

They’re not difficult assignments, but they are tedious. So it’s not surprising when, after only two hours of sleep following one such event, Ben wakes up to the sound of his phone ringing and heaves a reluctant, weary sigh into the pillow. He nonetheless reaches out for it, squinting blearily at the bright screen in his struggle to answer it.

“Hello, this is Ben,” he slurs, attentive but unable to put the effort into sounding so. Seriously, two hours of sleep, they’re lucky he even bothered to answer.

“This is Lonnie,” he hears from the other end, “Sorry Ben, you’re the Knight scheduled for on call duty,” she says apologetically.

He muffles a groan into his pillow, the arm not holding the phone to his face flailing out in agitation, before he composes himself, “What is it this time? High schoolers with alcohol crossing county lines?” he guesses from past experience, “Illegal night boating?”

“It’s the Barrier Observatory,” Lonnie says, seriously enough that Ben drags himself up and out of bed, “They’ve reported an actual red alert. Only a temporary system down but still, it’s correct as far as they can tell. We’ve already sent local police from the Charmington precinct to check things out, make sure it’s not some asshole messing around. But if it’s serious…” she trails off, almost afraid, as if saying it aloud will make the worst case scenario true.

“Yeah, I get you,” Ben says, struggling to put on his work uniform which, while less intricate than the dress uniform, is still difficult to do one handed. Frustrated, he sticks his phone between his ear and his shoulder, only to teeter sideways into the wall with a resounding thud.

“Ben?”

“I’m okay,” he mostly yawns, “I’ll be at HQ in twenty minutes. Fifteen if I speed.”

“You’re supposed to uphold the law,” Lonnie admonishes, but at least she doesn’t sound scared anymore.

“Ten minutes, you say? That sounds terribly dangerous, Lonnie,” Ben says, affecting a scandalized tone of voice. Or as much of one as he can with his shirt still up over his head.

It elicits a laugh from Lonnie who ends the call with an amused, “Be good. Dispatch is always watching.”

Unhindered by his phone, Ben manages to dress himself without a problem and leave his apartment within a few minutes. At this time of night, there’s hardly anyone out on the streets, but he does not get to HQ within fifteen minutes. Not even in twenty.

En route, Ben gets another call from Lonnie. Tonight is apparently the night for alarms, because he gets redirected to the museum. If he hurries, maybe he can catch the intruders.

An hour later, Ben is sitting on the other side of an interview table from a stubbornly silent, unidentified young man who refuses cooperate in any manner. He wonders to himself if it would have been more or less frustrating had he caught all of the intruders instead of just the one.

~

A/N: Hell yeah, making up how a fake multi-functional government agency in a fictional fantasy world works. And apparently I enjoy writing Ben as a flailing dweeb. It’s okay, Ben, you don’t have to be suave, we all saw you ride the poor horse mascot while singing your love for Mal to the entire school.

Like I said, this story is going to be hella slow. There will be more Carlos in the next chapter, I promise. Can’t promise the next chapter will come out tomorrow though… BECAUSE I MIGHT HAVE ACCIDENTALLY STUMBLED ACROSS ANOTHER PLOT BUNNY. THE BUNNIES, THEY ARE TOO MANY, AND TOO GREAT.

I will try my best though.