ask-cursedtalia

A group of individuals find themselves cursed and are looking for ways to break them. This is an account of their stories. This is an ask-blog for this story and the characters. For an extended explanation of what this all means, please visit our FAQ section under links! :)

[ask-cursedtalia]

Pleaaasseee don't forget about us! The story is too good! We love youuuuuuu

Hi!

Aww, thank you so much, this is such a sweet message!! :) Unfortunately, this blog has in fact been permanently discontinued! :) We had a great time making it and learned a lot but we’re each moving on to different projects now. Thanks for sticking around with us through that journey! 

All the best,

the mods

[ask-cursedtalia]

Hey Guys...

Sorry for the lack of updates -- we’ve been all sorts of busy as of late. In fact, we’re not too sure when all this will sort itself out! So we’re here to tell you we will continue to be inactive for an indefinite period of time.

Thanks for all the support you’ve given us! Hopefully the stars will align just right and we’ll be able to continue the story :)

Until then,

Jen and Rachelle

[ask-cursedtalia]

Roderich had felt overwhelming embarrassment before, but never quite so extreme as how he was feeling hours after the kiss. They were on the move again, heading towards a city Olivia picked out on account of all the "divine intervention." It was about a six day trip on foot, but Roderich was hoping they could catch a train eventually. They were bound to see more of them the closer they got since it was a very well-known city. Roderich wasn't all too sure about all this godly work at play, but perhaps they would be able to find a solution to somebody's curse in the city of magic.

              The only person who seemed reluctant to go to the city was Gilbert, but Roderich didn't want to let his mind wander in that direction. He already felt like his insides should be melting away, for him to fade off into the dust or something -- bury his head in the sand? Some things were slow to come back, after having Feliciana's curse.

              The little baby started crying, breaking Roderich out of his thoughts.

              "What the hell does she want now?" Lovino asked.

              "Why did we bring her again?" Gilbert asked.

              "You shut the hell up," Lovino snapped at him. "She's my responsibility, not yours."

              "She could do without the foul language," Antonio said, though it sounded more like a question, an offer.

              "And you shut up, too," Lovino said.

              "Lovi," Feliciana said, her tone dropping. "You can't exactly carry her on your own. You should be nice to the guy who does."

              Lovino turned his head away. "I don't have to," he mumbled.

              Antonio just sighed with a smile, which was something Roderich didn't understand. Lovino was as foul-tempered as he was foul-mouthed, so how did Antonio just put up with it? Or did he like it? Roderich supposed it could make sense, somewhat, if Antonio found Lovino endearing and, by default, all of the crude things he did. But that didn't mean Roderich couldn't question his taste.

              Amelia rolled her eyes. "No," she said, but then her stomach gave a grumble. "Yes. But really, little squirrel dude, she's probably hungry. She's tiny, all that food must go through her quick."

              Lovino looked about ready to swear at her for not calling him by his name, but Gilbert intervened. Roderich looked at the ground.

              "She might be right," Gilbert said. "It couldn't hurt to try, anyways." Roderich was close enough to hear him mutter, "And maybe when they do the burping thing, it'll get the little rodent," to his brother.

              It was a good thing Gilbert was a ghost again and Lovino hadn't heard, because Roderich was sure Gilbert would have been missing a good chunk of his ear if he had. But just the thought of ghost-boy had Roderich staring at the ground again. He felt sick.

              They stopped by the side of the road, at a cluster of rocks for them to sit on and spread their things. Antonio had the baby in the crook of his elbow, feeding her a bottle of something Roderich was sure didn't taste as good as the girl made it seem, with Lovino watching over like a hawk. Anytime he couldn't see, he would dart around whatever was blocking his view. Roderich almost wanted to say it was cute, motherly almost, but then again it was Lovino. Unless Roderich had caught whatever Antonio had, Lovino was far from cute, despite the fluffy form he was in at the moment.

              "Etna," Lovino said suddenly.

              "What?" Antonio asked.

              "Etna," Lovino repeated. "I think I want to call her Etna."

              "Did you just come up with that now?" Gilbert asked.

              "No, I've been thinking about it for a while now," Lovino said with an oddly serious tone. He was focused on the little girl and it gave Roderich to think that maybe he thought about things a little more than he appeared.

              "But why that name?" Antonio asked with his eyebrows bunched together.

              Lovino kind of shrugged -- at least, Roderich thought it was a shrug. "It just sounds right. And my grandpa would sometimes talk of a long ago time, some long ago place, and the name sort of cropped up when he did," he said. "It just...sounds right."

              Antonio smiled and Roderich was almost envious of the man, to have those melty sort of feelings for another person. Roderich put his attention back on the baby. In a few months, she'd probably start walking. He wasn't all too sure how human babies worked, but it was about the same time his kind started flying. Maybe flying wasn't the right word; they could get airborne for a little while, but it was more like a sort of glide through the air.

              "We are definitely not going to be able to get rid of that little critter now," Gilbert said.

              "Are you so sure you actually want to?" Roderich heard Ludwig mutter at him. Despite their different personalities, it was still easy to tell they were brothers. It almost made Roderich smile.

              All the warm feelings he was suddenly having were weird and instead of smiling, he frowned. He didn't really care. He just wanted to get his wings back and his own horrid curse lifted, then he could break away from their dysfunctional band of oddballs and be on his merry way.

              That was the plan, after all.

[ask-cursedtalia]

Giveaway Winners!!

Yes, that’s right, winners. Plural. We thought about adding 2nd/3rd place winners after we made the initial post and then decided to keep it a secret! 

So, the first place winner is servant-of-spamano, winning all that was advertised! 

Second place is preciousdoctor, winning a drawing by the lovely artist Rachelle and a story by Jen!

Third place winner is zionistfeuilly, winning a drawing by Rachelle!

You will all be receiving a message shortly~

Thank you for participating in our silly little giveaway and we hope you stay with us for more cursedtalia adventures!

Jen and Rachelle

ETA: results were generated using a small python script that Rachelle wrote up incorporating a random number generator! :) (If anyone's thinking of running a giveaway themselves and wants the code just let us know!)

[ask-cursedtalia]

~~350 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY~~

As a thanks for sticking with us and supporting this silly story (and for reaching 350 followers), we’re going to be having a giveaway for our lovely readers!

We will keep it going for exactly one week, so April 25th will be the last day to participate!

Rules:

you have to be following this blog

only reblogs count

What you’ll win:

a “universe” journal

music themed magnetic page markers (fancy name for bookmarks)

squirrel themed socks

a little squirrel finger puppet

a hand-crocheted scarf (made by Jen, hello folks)

Good luck to everyone and we hope you all stick around for more adventures! :)

- Jen and Rachelle -

(Click the readmore button thingy to see more information about the scarves.)

Keep reading

[ask-cursedtalia]

Tomorrow is the last day to participate! :D

[ask-cursedtalia]

~~350 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY~~

As a thanks for sticking with us and supporting this silly story (and for reaching 350 followers), we’re going to be having a giveaway for our lovely readers!

We will keep it going for exactly one week, so April 25th will be the last day to participate!

Rules:

you have to be following this blog

only reblogs count

What you’ll win:

a “universe” journal

music themed magnetic page markers (fancy name for bookmarks)

squirrel themed socks

a little squirrel finger puppet

a hand-crocheted scarf (made by Jen, hello folks)

Good luck to everyone and we hope you all stick around for more adventures! :)

- Jen and Rachelle -

(Click the readmore button thingy to see more information about the scarves.)

The scarves shown here are technically “sexuality scarves,” meaning I crocheted them in the colors of the flags from different sexualities. As you can tell, I haven’t made them all yet. Shown below are asexual, pansexual, and polysexual. Obviously you don’t have to pick one of these if you don’t want any of them -- I will make you a scarf however which way you want it, with whatever colors you want.

Asexual:

Pansexual:

Polysexual:

[ask-cursedtalia]

Gilbert could still feel the way Roderich's lips were pressed against his, even after a whole five minutes had passed. The muse in question was still stuttering out apologies, though they couldn't be heard over Amelia howling laughter. There was nothing funny about that situation! Roderich just, well, attacked him. Gilbert had thoughts to collect, things to figure out -- he wasn't even totally used to being his normal self again.

              "What the hell was that?" Gilbert asked for the tenth time that day. It was the only thing his brain was sending to his mouth -- other than the weird feeling of another mouth on his.

              "I'm sorry," Roderich repeated. "I don't know much of anything and I heard them talking and I just thought -- I don't know what I was doing it's all really confusing --"

              "Oh give him a break, Gilbert," Amelia said, rubbing at her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. "He's got Feliciana's curse, he can't help being adorable." The word adorable sent her into a whole new fit of giggles.

Gilbert could feel his face heating up seven more degrees. "Why are you talking? Shut up! Nobody asked you anything! I'm going to go over here and you all shut up!" He put his hands over his ears and started marching downhill. "It wasn't even a kiss!"

              "Oh, I think it was," Amelia said and waggled her eyebrows. Gilbert glared at her. "I think it was a very hot kiss."

              Gilbert put his hands over his face. His hands were cold. He liked that. Yes, yes he did.

              "Like, if it had gone on any further, you would have definitely had to take responsibility," Amelia continued with her arms crossed. "I almost heard wedding bells right there."            

              "Shut up!" Gilbert bellowed, making her laugh again. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" He just wanted to melt away, disappear, or reverse the situation.

              Wait a minute.

              "Relax, dude, I'm just messing with you," Amelia said. "And same with you, Roddy-kins. You're both so easy to tease."

              But Gilbert wasn't paying attention to Roderich.

              "I can fix this," Gilbert muttered.

              "What?" Ludwig asked, but Gilbert knew he had heard.

              "This thing, I can fix it," he repeated. He just needed to think for a moment, clear his head. Or maybe muddle it further, he wasn't sure. It had been a while.

              "No, you can't," Ludwig said and his tone sharpened. "Just drop it. It's not a big deal."

              "Not to you."

              "Not to you either!" Ludwig said. He got closer. "It was just a kiss, who cares that it was your first?"

              "Why do you keep saying it was my first?" Gilbert asked. "How would you know?"

              Ludwig gave him one of his more famous deadpan stares. "To borrow Lovino's words for a moment: because I'm your brother, dumbass."

              Gilbert rolled his eyes but he knew Ludwig was right. He wasn't bothered by firsts, or whatever; that was a shitty, human social construct he didn't care about. He could joke about it, but they both knew what a first meant to Gilbert -- he had no idea how to react. He hadn't encountered such a situation before and, if he was being frank, never really thought about it happening. Weird romance stuff happened to other people, not him, and he just didn't think about it.

              Not that Roderich planting one on him was romantic, because that most certainly was not. He was starting to get a headache from just thinking about it.

              "Okay," Gilbert said. "Okay, we should focus on more important things like--"

              It only felt like a blink, a moment in time, but more like a moment suspended in time. Slow motion. But simultaneously just a blink. When he opened his eyes, he felt lighter, less substantial. With a glance down at his hands, it was confirmed: he was a ghost again.

              "What the hell just happened?" Lovino shouted. He was a squirrel again.

              "Well, those two were talking about the kiss that just happened," Antonio said. "And then--"

              "Not their stupid shitty love nonsense, this!" Lovino snapped. "I'm a rodent!"

              Olivia was looking around with an expression of wonder and delight. It was a face Gilbert had never seen her wear and, if he was being honest, wasn't entirely sure it suited her.

              "Babe, what's up?" Amelia said.

              "It worked!" she shouted and kind of bounced on the spot. "It really worked!"

              "Mind filling us in?" Francis said. "What worked?"

              Olilvia just sort of looked around at everything with that same expression. "I just, I don't know how it worked, but it did! It really did!" she said. "I prayed and it happened."

              If Gilbert had blood, he'd probably feel it all drain out of his face. "You did what now?" he asked.

              "Prayed! I uh, you guys were talking about that thing Roderich did--"

              "Oh gods," Roderich muttered, putting a hand over his mouth. "Ohhh gods."

              But Olivia ignored him, as did everyone else; they were far more interested in what she had to say. "The situation was starting to get a bit dire, you see, with the baby-napping and the chaos, that I just...prayed. I prayed to the god of sorcery to fix it all and it worked!" she said. "I mean, technically, it could have been the old spell wearing thin and creating a rubber band effect, forcing that switch to wear off, but I like to think that the prayers worked."

              Gilbert exchanged a look with his brother and then shrugged. "Okay, so you prayed and some dick decided to answer them. Great. Now we can continue looking for cures to those curses," he said. "Because, oh I don't know, someone couldn't ask for them to fix our curses in the first place."

              "Hey!" Amelia snapped at him. "At least this mess is over, at least she did something. You guys just zapped off to who the hell knows where and they--" she jerked her head at Lovino and Antonio, "just wandered off without saying why! Now you guys are all back with your familiar curses and that's progress, dipshit."

              Gilbert and Lovino started talking at the same time, so Gilbert stopped and let the furious furry squirrel have his say.

              "What do you mean, wandered away? We were trying to fix our problem," Lovino said, hopping onto Antonio's shoulder. "And Olivia told us to go away, so we did!"

              Olivia stood a little straighter. "What do you mean? When did I say that?" she asked.

              "You did! When Tony and I were talking, you told us to leave," Lovino said. "So we did, and we went to the village to fix our problem."

              Amelia looked back and forth between Olivia and Lovino until some sort of realization dawned on her face. "Wait a minute," she said. "Babe, do you...sleep talk?"

              "What?"

              "Do you talk in your sleep?" she asked again. "Cause I never noticed but damn, I might have to start paying more attention."

              Olivia turned a deep shade of pink. "Well, not that I -- I mean, I don't think I -- oh shut up," she said and smacked her girlfriend in the arm when she started laughing.

[ask-cursedtalia]

Gilbert war ja regelrecht von der Muse geküsst während Eurer Jam Session!

t/n: Gilbert was really kissed by the muse during your jam session! 

(where “von der Müse geküsst” is here used as a German idiomatic expression meaning smth along the lines of “to be inspired to great creativity.” This is the post being referred to.)

[ask-cursedtalia]

Lovino was about ready to murder somebody. Their search had started slow and cautious. In all honesty, Lovino had been afraid of being pointed at, of being accused and inevitably thrown in jail. It wasn't like he wanted to steal the baby. He couldn't even remember where he had taken her from. But what person would honestly believe he was cursed. It didn't go so well for Francis, after all. But Francis was a dragon and people generally were more hesitant about arresting creatures that could potentially eat you or barbeque your entire village.

              But after hours of walking, Lovino just didn't care anymore. Nobody was crying baby snatcher and he was beginning to wonder if this baby was even missed. Maybe it was a good thing he found her, wherever she came from. She obviously had to have parents. Where were they?

              "I think..." Antonio began,

  "We've been searching for a long time," he continued. "Soon it will be lunchtime. At least we can stop and eat and then we can swap. I'm sure your shoulders ache."

              Lovino shrugged. The little girl had fallen asleep against his chest, drooling patches big enough to chart a map, but he didn't mind the bundle of warmth pressed up against him. It made him feel important, somehow, and if it weren't for the straps digging into his shoulders, he could have carried her all day.

              Ironically enough, it was when they had given up were about to head back to camp when someone recognized the baby. It was an older woman, but she wasn't alarmed that the little girl was being fed by complete strangers.

              "Oh, I'm so glad someone decided to take her in," she said after introducing herself. "I knew it wouldn't be long."

              "Excuse me?" Lovino said. She wasn't shouting for police or beating down on his arm, though that might've been because he was cradling the baby. But still, he didn't want to make her suspect anything.

              "She's such a sweet little thing," she said. "I knew it wouldn't be long before someone adopted her."

              Lovino made sure not to look surprised by this fact, but Antonio was not that subtle. He looked over at Lovino with his eyebrows up. Lovino just tried to smile at the woman, though really that sort of expression was best on Antonio.

              "She is," Lovino agreed. So she had been at some sort of place where kids were adopted. That was good to know. He hadn't stolen a baby who belonged to somebody.

              The woman continued on about how they looked like good parents, albeit a little young. Lovino was sure he still had the face of a kid, being nineteen. Who decided they wanted to be a parent at nineteen? Only crazy people, that's who. She mentioned the girl's mother a bit -- just how she seemed to be in a hurry and left quite suddenly -- and then continued on her way.

              "That's good," Antonio said once she had gone. "This little thing wasn't snatched from a loving home."

              "The adoption place could've been loving," Lovino said, but he didn't convince even himself.

              Antonio sighed. "What do we do now?" he asked.

              Lovino shrugged, looking at the wispy curls peeking out from her new hat. "I guess we go back to camp and figure something out," he said.

              "Or," Antonio said, a smile creeping onto his face that Lovino wasn't all too sure about. "Or we could keep her."

              "No," Lovino said, but it was a more automatic response than anything else. He watched the baby hold on to the finger Antonio offered her.

              "She's a strong little girl," Antonio murmured.

              "Let's get going," Lovino muttered. They were going to get attached to her and he couldn't have that. They had dangerous business ahead of them. It was no place for an infant.

             When they arrived at camp, Lovino was regretting their decision to return.

              "That's not the point!" Olivia was shouting. "Any of us could drop dead at any moment!"

              "It's not that simple," Francis argued.

              "How do I make this any easier for you to understand," Olivia said, her words sounding forced out. "It's a curse."

              Feliciana was the first one to see them and her eyes went bigger than Lovino had ever seen them go. Then Olivia glanced at her face, did a double-take, and then looked their way. One by one, everyone's faces went slack.

              "What is that," Francis asked, his voice kind of slack.

              "I think it's a human child," Roderich said, adjusting his glasses.

              Francis threw him a frown.

              "What have you done?" Olivia asked. "Have you been followed? Should we be leaving? What am I saying, we'd just hand you over for being completely out of your mind. That's a baby."

              "Thank you for that," Lovino replied while lifting an eyebrow. "I am well aware that it's a baby."

              "She," Antonio corrected.

              With a rustle of her skirts, Feliciana was by their sides, looking at the little girl. A smile spread out over her face. "She's adorable," she said. "What's her name?"

              "What?" Lovino asked. Did he hear wrong? "No, no, we're not keeping her."

              Feliciana's face looked like an emoticon of sadness. "What? Why not?" she asked.

              "Because," Olivia said. "It's a baby."

              "You know, you keep saying that, but I think we all get it," Amelia piped in and gestured at them. "It's a baby."

              "You should definitely keep it," Feliciana said. "I think you'd make wonderful parents!"

              Lovino couldn't believe what he was hearing. His own flesh and blood? Match-making him with Antonio? He had hoped she would have higher standards for her own brother, at least. Then again, she was dating the big blonde hulk. "We are not keeping her," he said.

              "Have you thought of names yet?" Feliciana asked Tony.

              "No, although we did use yours when we were questioned," Antonio said.

              Lovino made a noise that was somewhere between a groan and a humpback whale. "You aren't listening! You aren't even suspicious! What if we snatched this baby from her parents?" he asked.

              "Technically, you stole the baby--"

              "Shut up, Tony."

              "Well did you?" Feliciana asked. The baby had grabbed one of her fingers and was sucking on it, but Lovino wasn't about to let his heart be swayed by a drooling baby and his suddenly sane sister.

              "Well, no, but that isn't the point! We aren't keeping her and that's final!" Lovino shouted.

              It was at that moment that the baby started crying. Just his luck.

              Almost everyone scowled at him or gave him some sort of dirty look, like it was his fault. Babies just cried a lot. And for absolutely no reason. Maybe the kid just had some really bad heartburn or didn't like the taste of Feli's fingers.

              Antonio rocked her in his arms and the image was weird. Not weird in a way where it didn't look right -- the opposite, actually.

              Lovino sighed, feeling as if all his arguing was pointless.

              Feliciana probably sensed this, as siblings weirdly did, and said, in a quiet sort of way, "You already have everything you need. And if you need more, you know we visit towns often."

              "But not all the time," Lovino pointed out.

              "True," she said with a tilt of her head. "But we could always make it a point to stick closer to towns than before. If there's a really good lead elsewhere, you and Tony could hang out in town while we, I dunno, battle dragons."

              "Hey."

              Feliciana stuck her tongue out at Francis.

              Lovino looked at the baby, knowing it was a bad idea, but also thinking about how she napped against his chest for the better part of the day.

              "And besides," Feliciana continued. "You don't have to keep her. She could easily be adopted by any one of us."

              "What, no!" Lovino shot out. "If she belongs to anyone, it's me! I picked her up, she's my responsibility!"

              His sister shared a sneaky kind of smile with Antonio and Lovino hated them both. If the little girl died or was freakishly transmuted into, oh, a chimera or something, it would be his fault. He would have to live forever as the guy who got a child murdered -- or worse. But for now she was safe and smiling so he supposed it wasn't too bad.

[ask-cursedtalia]

how is olivia dealing w/ her new curse?

Olivia: I'm not too sure what it is yet, but it feels incredibly anticlimactic. I was expecting something more intense and...I don't even know what this is.

[ask-cursedtalia]

Uh Roddy, where's your boyfrie- wait you don't have your memory do you? *sighs* Hey guys, any lead on Gil and Lud yet?

[ask-cursedtalia]

When Feliciana woke up, Lovino was gone. So was Antonio, which eased up her mind a little bit. Antonio was a good friend and she felt he would make sure nothing bad ever happened to her brother. She found a note addressed to her, but it was vague in its content.

              She sure hoped Antonio would forever remain a patient man.

              "So we've got only one lead," Olivia said after they had packed up their things. "And we're short four people. I mean, sure, we have me--"

              "And me," Francis piped in.

              "Who says that's a good thing?" Olivia asked.

              "I dunno, I feel like having a dragon on our team is pretty kickass," Amelia said.

              "Whose side are you on?"

              Roderich turned to Feliciana, adjusting his glasses. "It feels odd to be wearing these," he said. "Are they supposed to feel weird?"

              "They're new," Feliciana said. "And they look good on you."

              "I suppose," Roderich muttered and adjusted them once more.

              It took a while for Olivia to get everyone quiet, especially herself, but when she did, it was only to say, "The point I was trying to make is that we should focus on the one lead. Nobody is to venture off. Maybe, if we reverse this, it will also solve the mystery of Ludwig and Gilbert. If not, then at least we will be with our familiar curses and can either look for them or continue with the original quest."

              "Quest," Amelia repeated. "That sounds awesome."

              "Isn't that what we were doing?" Olivia asked, eyebrows drawing together.

              "But it sounds so much more kickass when you say it like that," Amelia repeated.

              Olivia rolled her eyes. "I think it would be a good idea to figure out what curse each of us has. Some are easier to tell than others," she said and nodded to Roderich, who just looked even more confused.

              "How are we going to do that?" Francis asked. "It's a little hard to tell, wouldn't you say? Besides, we aren't even entirely sure what everyone's curse was to begin with!"

              Olivia paused for a moment. "Well, at least we can figure out the ones we already know," she said. "Mine was the inability to go to the sea. Well...yes, that'll be difficult to prove. Nobody is going to the sea and there aren't any around we could just run off to. Not that I would advise it."

              "Why?" Amelia asked.

              "Just trust me on that one," Olivia said. "Now, this dumb lizard kidnaps people."

              "Dragon," Francis corrected.

              "So someone is probably off breaking the law or they will soon," she said. "I'm not feeling any particularly strange urge to stomp off and snatch a person up. How about any of you?"

              Feliciana shook her head, as did the others. Amelia just sort of shrugged, but she wasn't cursed to begin with, so of course she was unaffected.

              "Well, no matter," Olivia muttered. "That one should show it's face soon. Next up is Matthew's disappearing act. He's clearly been with us for this entire time, so we just need to make the rest of us embarrassed in some way and see if we disappear."

              "I think my new curse is obvious," Francis replied with a smile that was not very nice.

              Olivia's expression fell a bit -- she had probably been looking forward to seeing what made Francis tick.

              "How do we figure that one out?" Amelia asked.

              "I don't know," Olivia said. "Just, what might be embarrassing I guess. It's only between Feliciana and myself, I would think--" She was cut off by Amelia, who had swooped in to kiss her hard on the mouth. Feliciana wasn't an expert on those sorts of things -- she'd only kissed Ludwig twice maybe -- but it looked uncomfortable.

              Amelia leaned back, grinning, as her girlfriend's face turned several different shades of pink. "Whoa, that felt different than normal," she said and started laughing. "And you're blushing."

              Amelia was practically cackling by then.

              "I wasn't expecting it!" Olivia continued, but it was no use. Amelia couldn't be stopped. "Oh for the love of, it isn't me. I don't have the curse." She smacked Amelia in the leg, which brought the other girl's laughter down a notch. "Now let's figure out how to see if Feliciana has it."

              A giggle bubbled up and out of Amelia. "What," she said. "You want me to kiss her too?"

              Feliciana could feel her face begin to heat up as Olivia faced the sky and groaned.

              "While this is really amusing," Francis piped up, "it doesn't really solve anything. What we should be doing is marching right back over there and demand our curses be returned to us. I don't much like being a ghost and I'm sure Roderich dear doesn't like forgetting things."

              Roderich looked up. "Are you addressing me so informally because we are close?" he asked.

              Feliciana sighed and wondered if she was ever that bad. She was going to have a lot of writing to do. She lost her journal once, so Antonio carried it for her after that. But it had been a while since Lovino had disappeared with him and she was beginning to worry that maybe he had gotten himself into trouble. It wouldn't be the first time.

[ask-cursedtalia]

(based on this scene of Misfits)

[ask-cursedtalia]

They set up camp a little ways away from town because Amelia said they needed to think up a strategy first. It made sense, considering the one time they entered the room they were swallowed up by magic. But the next time Antonio woke up, it wasn't to the sun shining in his face or someone jabbing in the arm. It was to a baby crying.

              "Shh! Shut up you stupid thing!"

              "Lovino?"

              Lovino looked up from his place near the remains of the previous night's fire. His face was pale in the blue-ish early morning light. The sun hadn't come up yet. "I didn't mean to," he started saying. "I was sleeping and then next thing I knew I was in town and this thing was crying and I just, I couldn't stop it!"

              Antonio frowned. The sleep wasn't leaving his brain fast enough. "You did what now?" he asked and stood up.

              Lovino panicked when he saw him coming near him. "I don't know why," he said. "It just happened! I swear! And now the shit won't stop fussing!"

              When Antonio reached him, he saw a squirmy little baby in Lovino's arms, despite the way the boy was trying to shield it from sight. Antonio wasn't sure what to say. "That's a baby."

              "Yeah, no shit," Lovino hissed. "Now help me make it stop crying."

              Antonio sighed, still not sure what was going on. He crouched by his side and pulled the baby out from Lovino's arms. "First off, it's not by smothering it," he said. "You'll only make it more upset."

              Lovino was quiet as his eyes followed Antonio's every move.

              Antonio smiled at the baby's squishy face, all scrunched up and wet from crying. He cradled it in one arm and let it grab at his fingers.

              "That's gross," Lovino said when the baby pulled Tony's finger to its mouth.

              Antonio shrugged. "It's just a baby," he said. "A hungry baby. We're going to need to figure out what to feed it."

              "Mushed up apples," Lovino declared.

              Tony looked at him.

              "What?" Lovino said, glaring. "That's what my mom gave me when I was little."

              "Maybe when you were a toddler, but not when you were a baby," Tony said. "This baby needs milk formula. And probably some more diapers."

              "Whoa, whoa, whoa," Lovino said, holding up his hands. "We're not keeping the thing!"

              "It's not a thing, Lovino, it's a person! A little person, but a person," Antonio said. The baby just stared up at him. "And of course not, but we need to get some supplies. It needs to be cleaned and fed and, well, properly looked after!"

              "If you guys are done being idiots," Olivia mumbled. "Can you please just go away?"

              Lovino gathered up Antonio's coat and grabbed his sister's wallet. He scribbled out a note to his sister and then they were on their way to town. They figured by the time they reached it, the sun would be rising.

              "Now we know what your curse is," Antonio said.

              "No, really?" Lovino replied, sarcasm dripping from his voice like oil.

              The baby was quiet during their walk. Maybe it was the movement that lulled it to sleep, or the cool air; Antonio had wrapped it in his coat so all but its face was covered. It had very fine, dark hair growing in, so it was probably only a couple months old.

              When they entered the store, Lovino mostly stayed behind Antonio as they checked out the things on display. There were soft toys in barrels by the front window and furniture towards the back.

              "What in gods' names are these?" Lovino asked, looking kind of mortified. He was holding up something that looked like it belonged in a pet store.

              "Leashes?" Antonio guessed.

              Lovino carefully put it back, but his face remained the same.

              "Hello there!" a girl asked. She had large glasses and hair like the sun. "Can I help you find anything?"

              "Uh," Antonio said.

              Lovino smacked his arm and stepped forward. "Diapers and formula," he said, then muttered, "Idiot," under his breath at Tony.

              Antonio just shrugged.

              The girl giggled. "Is this your first one?" she asked.

              "What?" Lovino asked and his expression was wiped blank.

              "It's okay," she continued. "There's no need to be nervous. "This store has everything you need to get started with your new little addition!"

              Lovino looked back up at Tony, who shrugged again. "You think we're--" Lovino started. "And this is our--"

              "I think we're going to be needing diapers soon," Antonio cut in.

              "Sure thing!" the girl beamed.

              She helped them look through everything, figure out the 'desperately need these in bulk' items and the 'could be purchased at a later date' things, and then started scanning everything at the register.

              "I think people like you are really admirable," the girl said. "Most people here buy the really gender-specific clothes. Like, who decided pink was for girls and blue was for boys anyways? But yeah, super cool. What her name? Or he."

              Antonio didn't have the heart to tell her they weren't really sure what the baby's gender was, so they just bought some clothes they thought were cute. Most of it was turtle and duck themed.

              "Uh," he said. Why, at times like those, did his mind decide to temporarily erase the part with all the names. He grasped at the only one he could think of that wasn't his or Lovi's. "Feli."

              Lovino shot him a look, but then forced a smile at the sales associate. "It's a family name," he said.

              She smiled and nodded. "That's really sweet," she said.

              As soon as they were out of the store, Lovino snarled, "Feli? We aren't keeping this thing! And even if we were, we wouldn't name it after my sister."

              "It's all I could think of!" Antonio shot back. "It's not like either one of us could have come up with something good on the spot!"

              Lovino grumbled something and walked over to a bench. "Let's just change it's stupid diaper, change the clothes, and get going," he said.

              "Do you want to use the carrier thing first, or me?" Tony asked.

              Lovino opened one of the bags to stare at it. With a sigh, he said, "I guess you've been carrying it long enough. This is gonna look so stupid."

              Antonio definitely wasn't about to tell Lovino that he thought it'd be cute. Nope. Definitely not.

              The diaper bag opened up into an emergency changing station, so that's what they did.

              "This is so weird, doing it out in the open like this," Lovino muttered as he opened up the bottom half of the baby's onesie.

              "I've seen people do it," Antonio replied. He pulled out baby powder and a box of wipes.

              Lovino made a whining noise as he proceeded to change the baby's diaper. In a matter of minutes, however, it was all done.

              And Antonio was baffled.

              "Where did you learn to do that?" he asked.

              Lovino shrugged. "We have a big family," he said. "You learn to do a bunch of things."

              Antonio really wanted to know what that meant.

              "Okay, now to figure out this stupid thing," Lovino muttered and pulled out the carrier. It was like a backpack, but for the front. It also had a head support thing because the baby was too young to hold up her head. Lovino adjusted the straps and then sighed, standing there staring at the carrier. Then he held out his arms. "Hand me the little shit."

              "Uh," Antonio said and picked up the instruction page. "I'm pretty sure you're supposed to put the baby in before putting it on."

              Lovino groaned to the sky, causing some people to glance over.

              "Yeah," Antonio said as he glanced over the picture-by-picture instructions. "You fasten it to your waist, strap the baby in, then raise it up and slip the straps onto your shoulders. Then clip in place, adjust the other straps, and you're good to go."

              Lovino undid the carrier and flopped onto the bench, next to where the baby was still laying on the makeshift changing table. He looked over at her and she looked up at him, wriggling her arms and legs. As he was strapping her in, Antonio busied himself with packing up the diaper bag. He put the new bottles and formulas into the little pockets, and then took off the tag from a soft, plush rabbit. When Lovino had pulled up the straps, Antonio jumped in to help clip it in the back.

              "There," Lovino said. "Now it's on and this baby weighs too much."

              Antonio nodded. Lovino looked so young, and there was a baby strapped to him and he was picking up the diaper bag -- it was just too much. "You look adorable," Antonio breathed.

              Lovino's jaw went slack and his eyebrows came together. 

              Antonio frowned. "You shouldn't use that language in front a child," he said. The little girl was probably a ways away from learning to talk, but that didn't mean it was okay for them to swear in front of her. She might be a fast learner.

              "Whatever," Lovino muttered and patted her on the head. "We better get going. When we deposit the little sh-- the little thing, we can return all this garbage."

              Antonio had forgotten about that -- the returning the baby thing. Truth be told, he wasn't even sure where to start. Maybe they would get lucky and find 'Missing' posters around town. On the other hand, someone might suddenly point at them and shout, "Kidnappers!"

              Antonio was hoping it would be the former rather than the latter.

[ask-cursedtalia]

You should probably figure out who has who's curse.

((if this was directed towards the admins, no worries, we definitely know their new, yet familiar curses :P Sorry for being so slow with this, Jen has a really stupid cold and Rachelle just had midterms/has a presentation coming up -- @_@ lot's of crazy stuff))

[ask-cursedtalia]

They hadn't gone to sleep, not really. The dark had gobbled them up and maybe she had faded out of consciousness, but it wasn't sleep. She felt different, somehow, like her mind was bigger, expanded, and sheknew stuff she didn't think she was supposed to know. Feliciana wasn't sure what to think of it, so she stood there for a moment longer than she probably should have before realizing it was no longer dark. It was bright, fresh, and open. They were standing in a field overlooking the town.

               "How did we get up here?" she said out loud and then turned to look at the others. They were looking about as dazed as she felt, but there was something notably different about them.

               "Ah!" Lovino shouted and stared at his hands. "I have hands! I mean, skin!"

               Feliciana grinned, the excitement rushing into her stomach and filling up her lungs.

Gilbert's voice came from down below. Sure enough, he was.

              Ludwig alternated between staring intently at his arm and then at his brother. Feliciana wanted to bounce over and twine her fingers with his, maybe, but found herself unable to move towards him.

              "That's nice an all, but why am I suddenly a ghost?" Francis asked. He had his arms crossed and the foulest expression she had ever seen him wear. "I am a ghost dragon. Great."

              "It seems that we've had our curses swapped," Olivia muttered. She looked more solid, somehow, and more fleshy. Before her skin had an unnatural sheen to it, like it wasn't ever quite as solid as it should have been. "I'm just not sure what mine is."

              "Gilbert," Ludwig said.

              "I know," Gilbert responded.

              "I wonder what this means," Ludwig was muttering when suddenly, like the changing of a channel, he was gone. And so was Gilbert.

              "What the heck just happened?!" Lovino shouted.

              Olivia shrugged. "I didn't sense any magic," she said, looking around. Her expression was full of concern and it was mostly directed at the town below.

              "Who are you people?" Roderich asked, pushing up his new glasses. They had thin frames and were rectangular in shape, but they suited him well, Feliciana thought. She kind of liked glasses and wondered how Ludwig would look in them. Probably very dashing.

              "You're an elf-guy," Antonio said.

              "No he's not," Lovino said, frowning.

              Antonio turned to him. "But that's what you always call him," he replied.

              "Yeah, but the idiot yelled at me enough times for me to remember he's not," Lovino huffed, crossing his arms. "You're like a weird faerie thing that inspires people, I don't know."

              "I wasn't asking that," Roderich said. "I asked who you were. But it's good to know I'm not an elf. I think." He scratched at his head and looked at the ground. His mind seemed to be trying to piece things together.

              "We're your friends," Feliciana replied, smiling. "And two of our friends just left."

              "Friends?" Antonio asked. "But I thought he was your boyfriend."

"No," Lovino interrupted, heaving a bigger sigh than Feliciana thought was necessary. "She has a boyfriend."

"Enough!" Olivia bellowed. "We need to figure out a way to reverse this! Gilbert and Ludwig got poofed off to gods knows where and we're standing around chatting about relationship statuses! And I don't know about you guys, but I don't like whatever's been done to me!"

              Amelia sort of prodded her in the arm, but Olivia didn't turn to her.

              "I don't know," Lovino said. "I kind of like being myself again."

              "But you have a different curse," Antonio said. "You don't know if you'll like it any better. At least with the old one, you knew what to expect."

              Amelia pouted. "But I like that I can see my cousin," she said. "And hear him."

              Mattie sort of shrugged in agreement.

              "Well, I don't like it," Olivia said. "So if you don't want to help, then don't, but whoever does, come with me."

              "I certainly don't like it," Francis said. "I'm a ghost. A ghost dragon. I bet my flames aren't even hot." He looked more upset about it than Feliciana would have ever guessed. Maybe it was something to be proud about for a dragon.

              "I don't even know what mine is," Antonio said.

              "I've got a theory," Francis provided. "But it involves a little test."

              "We don't have time for that," Olivia said. "We need to find out who did this and make them fix it. If we can't, then I'll have to try breaking it myself and trust me when I say it won't be easy." She started marching down the hill. "It's so itchy. Ugh, I hate this."

              "Wait for me!" Amelia shouted, running after her.

              And so the rest of them followed her down the hill. Feliciana mostly knew what her new curse was, but unfortunately for her, the one person she could test it on wasn't there. At least the others were concerned about Gilbert and Ludwig's well being, even if it meant they might have to revert back to their old curses. Feliciana had been nervous about getting her memory back, at having the curse lifted, but it was a silly worry. She was fine. She still liked Ludwig.

              If anything, having a different curse made her realize how much she wanted her original one lifted. She wanted to remember Ludwig and keep the memories they made -- and would make -- together. He was strong and dependable, sure, but surely it would hurt to have your loved one forget you existed.

              She breathed in. First thing was first, though, and that was getting Ludwig back.

[ask-cursedtalia]

Magic Anon - Note from Admins

Just a note to say that the magic anon submissions are still being taken into consideration if you'd like to add to them :)

If you don't know, the latest update had our group of dorks sort of weirdo swallowed by magic. And because of this...it's MAGIC ANON TIME. 

(If you're confused on what this means, click here)