Tag: lonnie

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.

Light It Up (Burn It Down) 3/?, (2016-04-30)

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Ben is dreading the next communication from the mirror so much that when it finally happens he is completely taken aback by the question’s tone:

“Have you ever met a dragon?” The paint on stone asks, almost innocently.

Almost.

Ben hesitates, “No,” he says, hoping this doesn’t turn into some other disheartening quest for a disheartening truth. Or worse, an automatic failure–yet another blue petal falling off the rose.

The letters change:

“Ask them what they love the most,” it demands, bizarrely, and refuses to clarify when Ben asks the mirror to do so.

How is supposed to ask a creature he’s never met a question which, even to him, seems awfully personal?

But, well, he supposes it could be worse. All he has to do is find a dragon, befriend it, and ask them a question–how hard could that be?

Here’s hoping he hasn’t jinxed himself.

—

Actually, surprisingly, it’s rather easy; the first step anyway. While there are no dragons in Auradon–for obvious reasons beyond the dwindling of magic in the world–Ben at least paid attention enough to know that dragons have very different reputations in other kingdoms. And although Ben wasn’t close friends with her, he was friendly enough with Lonnie in school that he doesn’t need an official appointment with the Chinese ambassador in order meet up for lunch.

“You want to meet Mushu?” Lonnie asks, incredulous laughter in her voice, an additional pleasure on top of her amusement at the flock of paparazzi trying to get a good shot of their table.

He hopes the tabloids won’t print something about an engagement–his public relations team still has to put down the occasional story about his and Audrey’s supposed on again off again romance, or his secret unrequited love for Princess Melody, or even random people claiming to be pregnant with his child.

“Yes?” Ben asks in response, because he doesn’t know why that would be funny.

“Really?” she says, starting to become honestly confused, and this is getting ridiculous. It’s not like they’re playing Questions. Why doesn’t she think he’s serious?

“Sorry,” she says sheepishly, “It’s just that given Auradon’s… thing… about dragons, I figured…” she ends with a shrug.

During political negotiations, she is a far more eloquent speaker, but right now she is not the ambassador of China. She is the woman who was his chemistry lab partner in high school. The girl who he once ate an entire batch of cookies with in the middle of the night because she was feeling homesick and and he realized he’d never know what that was like. The girl who offered to punch Audrey on his behalf when he found out she was cheating on him with Chad Charming in senior year and didn’t know what to do–he declined the offer, but he did go to prom with her that year as friends and she spent the entire time talking about her little cousins while he confessed that he was afraid he was going to end up being a terrible king.

He doesn’t quite know how to explain to her that him meeting Mushu will help him not be a terrible king.

“Please,” he says, because being reminded of yet another one of his kingdom’s failings–and how far off is a cultural fear of dragons from being bigotry against a sentient species?–has keenly reminded him of why they are having this lunch in the first place.

“Well, I suppose don’t see why not,” Lonnie says with an entirely different sort of shrug, “We can go after this,” she adds, before resuming to eat her meal.

Ben pauses, confused, “Go… to China?”

She looks up at him, brow raised, incredulously amused again, “No… go to the embassy,” you idiot, she doesn’t say, “Now let me enjoy this very expensive steak you are paying for.”

Costly, yes, but still–surprisingly easy.

—

Ben has been to the Chinese embassy before, but always in his official capacity as king of Auradon and mostly for various galas where the name of the game was Dont Start A War And Don’t Get Engaged. Somehow he’s more nervous now, following after Lonnie as she leads him to a dragon.

It’s not fear–while he’s not completely free of cultural bias against dragons–he at least knows that this particular dragon isn’t going to try to kill him. He really doesn’t want to mess this up, for a lot of reasons, really. Lonnie is his doing him a favor, letting him meet Mushu, and he doesn’t want to offend either of them by saying something awful. And there is the whole matter of this being another one of the magic mirror’s strange quests–none of which he’s managed to answer or solve correctly. Yet.

“Mushu!” Lonnie calls out, after directing Ben to take a seat in one of the conference rooms and waving one of the embassy staff for some refreshments. Apparently the dragon has free reign of the embassy–at least when galas aren’t being hosted–because Lonnie just takes a seat as well and waits for him to arrive.

Ben hears Mushu before he sees him, a light staccato of claws against the floor, and a beleaguered voice from about ankle high complaining, “Xiao Lon! Girl, I know you did not just raise your voice as if that would summon me like that old cow!” And then a darting stripe of red winds it’s way up the table leg to stand in front of Lonnie.

“It worked, didn’t it?” she says, flippant, but brushing a finger down his back apologetically, nonetheless.

“Hmph, I am unappreciated around here,” he says, still beleaguered, but allowing her petting. Until the dragon sets eyes on Ben, “Now who’s this? You didn’t say anything about company. I would have put on a little show–a little smoke, a little fire. Some pizazz! Instant crowd pleaser,” he says, his claws tap tap tapping against the wood of the table as he makes his way towards Ben. He tries not to tense up too much, because no matter how small or friendly Mushu may be, he is still a fire breathing creature with claws and fangs.

Then again, for a good chunk of his life, Ben’s father was also a creature with claws and fangs–and while he couldn’t literally breathe fire, he was neither small or friendly.

“I’m Ben, Lonnie and I went to school together,” Ben introduces himself, because right now that’s who he is and his title doesn’t matter.

“Oh, oh I see,” Mushu says slyly, massive grin showing off his relatively massive teeth, “Someone’s trying to get my blessings. I don’t know, Xiao Lon, this one doesn’t look like he can take on Cri-Kee much less an entire army of Huns. But I guess, since you’re asking, unlike Xiao Lon’s dad who just went off and proposed and wouldn’t even let me plan her wedding…”

“No! Mushu, that’s not what he’s here for,” Lonnie says, embarrassed, because it’s one thing for tabloids to speculate about possible engagements, it’s an entirely different thing for family to do so.

Huh. Family.

Ben’s pretty sure he knows the answer to the question he came here to ask. But he still asks anyway.

Mushu looks at him, the expression of incredulous amusement on his reptilian face somehow the same as Lonnie’s, “What do I love the most? Boy, that is the strangest ice breaker I have ever heard. And, frankly, stupid. The answer’s obvious, even a cross eyed, blind folded, dumb hat wearing bureaucrat can see it,” the dragon says, dashing over to Lonnie to give her a hug, “I love baby girl and baby girl’s baby girl the most.”

—

He goes back to the castle after an additional three hours of talking to Lonnie and Mushu and heads straight for the magic mirror. The same sentence is there, not a question but a demand… or maybe a suggestion.

He tells the mirror about his day, about his meeting with dragons who love each other because that’s what family does. He’s not sure if he succeeded but he’s grateful for the experience regardless, so when the image changes from paint and stone to glowing rose he’s calm.

But instead of a petal falling, marking another failure, something strange happens: a pair of hands, one of them holding a knife, reaches into the frame and carefully cuts off a thorn.

~

A/N: Whoaaaaa, I bet you thought I forgot about this. Well guess what? I didn’t! I just hella procrastinated. 😛

Anyway, most of my Lonnie / Xiao Lon feels can be found here, but basically: I headcanon that Lonnie’s real name is Xiao Lon aka Little Dragon and the westernization would just to make Lon cutesy. Hence Lonnie.

Outliving The Ruins, 3 (part two)/? (2015-12-04)

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Audrey knows all about playing the political game–she is a princess after all.

One of many, in fact, in a kingdom cobbled together like a patchwork quilt. She’s a princess but unless she can secure a marriage–the right marriage–she’ll never be queen.

So of course she knows about power.

But being royalty–having impeccable breeding, substantial wealth, perfect etiquette, even flawless good looks–means nothing when someone can pull the ground out from under you. Or burn you to ashes in seconds, turn your blood against you, steal the air from your lungs.

Not that knives will do anything either. But it makes her feel better; not safer, necessarily, but as if she has a fighting chance. Even if it is near impossible.

She doesn’t actually think it’ll do anything. A few inches of metal against a bender? There’s courage and then there’s stupidity.

You can’t be a princess of Audrey’s caliber if you’re stupid.

—

In a way, Xiao Lon–Lonnie, as she’s called here–is as much a soldier of China as her parents are. It’s nothing so obvious as wearing armor and wielding a sword. No, it’s a little more subtle than that.

Amongst her and her cousins, she is the only one that isn’t genetically related–because, unlike her cousins, she’s not one of the Emperor’s grandchildren. Well, in spirit maybe. The Emperor has always been more fond of her parents than her Uncles.

She’s also the oldest, which is why she’s even attending Auradon Prep.

Lonnie is the vanguard.

It’s idealistic, a school full of the social elite: the royalty, the nobility, the wealthy. Even those from other lands, like her, those slated to take over other kingdoms, unlike her.

It’s naive.

Trying to foster good political ties early when the rulers and movers and shakers are teenagers–how do they stop that from backfiring horribly? As if schoolyard grudges can’t just as easily turn into future wars.

On top of that, there is Auradon’s continued issues against bending. While none of Lonnie’s cousins have shown any signs of bending so far, well, Uncle Yao does call himself “King of the Rock” for a reason.

Lonnie’s not going to let any of her cousins come here with this toxic cultural stigma against benders, even if they do all end up being chi blockers like her.

She’s not scared of bending, she’s scared of what these spoiled teenagers with no limits can do. But she’s Xiao Lon, she’s a dragon; she’s a guardian.

~

A/N: Continuing with the “power” theme from this previous drabble. Sorry Audrey’s was so short–what I wanted to say overlapped with what I already put in the previous post, since Audrey and Doug are both Auradon born and bred. I probably should have put Audrey’s section with Doug’s and have Lonnie’s stand alone… Well, if I ever repost this on a different site (probably ao3) I’ll do that instead.

I head-canon that Lonnie’s real name is Xiao Lon (aka Little Dragon (aka she’s named after Mushu)) and she goes by “Lonnie” because it is a westernized way of making Lon into something cutesy, effectively also making it Little Dragon.

Uh, also Lonnie’s “cousins” are the (likely) future kids of the three soldiers Ling, Yao, and Chien-Po and their respective princess from the Mulan II sequel Ting-Ting, Mei, and Su.

Can u write a scene where Mal tries a love spell for Ben, she mess up so badly that it ends up where all the students( and maybe some of the teachers) fall for Carlos

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Untitled Descendants drabble (2015-09-06)

In one universe, while the four Lost kids are working on love potion cookies, Lonnie walks in, adds chocolate chips, cries, then leaves. With a tear of human sadness and despite the addition of chocolate, the potion works as advertised, making the consumer fall in love with the first person they see. In that universe, it makes Ben fall in love with Mal.

This is not that universe.

In this universe, Lonnie does not appear. There are no chocolate chips or tears of human sadness, and so there are no enchanted cookies. They have to use a different spell. One less… controllable.

“I can barely read anything on this page,” Mal complains, spell book flipped open to a different section.

“Let me see,” Evie says, and Mal lays the book flat so all of them can look.

They stare.

“Are you sure those are words?” Jay asks incredulously, not even flinching when Mal smacks his arm, because, well. Scribbles would be a generous description.

“The pictures are pretty clear,” Carlos says optimistically. Even if magic isn’t one of his skills, he has experience with making things work with patchwork instruction manuals–surely it’s the same with spells. It really isn’t.

“I suppose… We don’t have any other options, and we’re on a deadline.” Mal says, considering, before deciding on a course of action, “We’ll do it. Evie, first things first. We need this,” she points at the largest drawing: a flat, six petaled flower with a long thin stem. The top two petals are shaded in, no doubt meant to be a color of some sort, while the bottom four petals are left unshaded.

“Mirror, mirror… full of power,” Evie begins, “Show us where to find that flower.” The swirling silver smoke parts to show a field with dark purple and white flowers peeking through the blades of grass, a small stream flowing along one side. “Not so close,” Evie sighs, and the image zooms out to show the sign of Auradon Prep.

“It’s on campus?” Mal asks, disbelieving. Why would a key ingredient for a love spell just be growing where any student could get there hands on it? That’s stupid. Well, stupid of Auradon–convenient for her, so she shouldn’t complain.

“This campus is huge, though” Jay says, “that would still take us forever–”

“No wait,” Carlos interrupts, “I think I know where that is. I wasn’t sure, since the drawing is in black and white, but I’ve seen those flowers before.”

In the woods beyond the tourney field and bleachers is a deer trail, a narrow path that leads to a tiny meadow full of purple and white flowers. Carlos and Dude have been there before, found it on their very first day together. They go back, occasionally, if Carlos isn’t too tired from tourney practice to run around with his dog.

It’s easy to find again, even in the dark of the night. The four of them spend twenty minutes picking flowers, which, when Evie says so aloud with an amused smirk, causes Mal to scowl fiercely and Jay to stop.

“It’s for a diabolical scheme, okay. I’m not turning into some kind of airhead who sings to animals.” Mal says crossly, before adding, “Keep picking, Jay.”

“How many do we even need?” He grumbles, but does as she says anyway.

“Well, seeing as how we don’t have actual instructions, we need as many as we can get.”

In the end, they clear the field, flowers gathered into Carlos’ jacket as an impromptu bag, before heading back to the boys’ dorm room. They have a love spell to figure out.

But even if the pictures are pretty clear–flower, eyes, heart–the lack of words really is a problem. Not an insurmountable problem, no, but it definitely leaves a lot to interpretation. Like, say, everything.

“Ugh,” Mal groans after attempt almost two hours of trying to decode the scribbles, “Maybe we should go back to the first spell.”

“Tear of human sadness,” Jay reminds her with a grunt, sprawled on his bed and nearly half asleep, but stubbornly blinking his eyes open.

Mal just groans again, throwing her head forward into the cradle of her curled arms on the table.

“Why don’t we just wing it?” Carlos’ voice pipes up from behind her, where he and Evie have been lounging on his bed.

“You mean like the museum heist? Winging it like that?” Mal scoffs without looking up.

“Well, not quite like that,” Evie says coyly, “We have more than enough of these flowers, we can take our time and experiment. Imagine the havoc we can wreak on the school.”

That idea does sound appealing, Mal lifts her head and even Jay sits up in interest. Then startles–“What are you wearing?” He asks.

Mal turns and frowns at what she sees.

Carlos weaving a small wreath of the flowers around Dude’s neck, and Evie straightening a larger wreath as a crown on Carlos’ head.

Mal would scold them for using up their main ingredient, but the four of them really did pick an awful lot of those flowers. They have plenty to spare. But… just so it’s not a total waste, “You’re wearing that to classes tomorrow.”

Who knows, maybe something interesting will happen.

~

A/N: Uh… so first off–thanks for the prompt anon! And… well, sorry it wasn’t exactly what you prompted and more like the prequel to your prompt, instead. Mostly that’s because as I was about halfway through, I realized that the way I set it up this would have to be a complete derailment of the movie. Aaaand I don’t really know how to mesh that plot with this. But… yeah. This was pretty fun.

The flower I have in mind is Viola tricolor, aka heartsease, aka love-in-idleness, aka the flower that Puck gets the love potion from in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It also has the nifty built-in myth of changing colors–from white to purple when doing love magic.

Basically, the idea of Carlos in a magical flower crown and the whole Puck vibe he’s rocking during Set It Off! (specifically this part ) is really good for me.

image

Hope you enjoy!

edit: now on ao3 as part of Nameless, Worthy (Infamous)

AVATAR MAL STUFF

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

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)

jacksgreysonLeave a comment

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.