Next prompt is "Rationalize". This one is also a little bit tenuous, but the word does appear in the text so it counts. Here at the height of summer I can't help but imagine some characters dealing with the heat. This time around I went with Colfax and Adrian of the Ruckus AU.
~~~
Adrian leaned back in his chair until the tilt felt almost dangerous. The drawing on the drafting table before him had been a slog all morning, and his laptop had gone to sleep after so long with no input. It was official—the heat wave had absolutely fried all of his will to exist as he normally did. The air conditioning in his apartment would be repaired by the early evening, according to his latest emails. Until then, he had to try to make it and pretend he wasn’t miserable.
After some time, he lifted his head again, sat up straighter. As he prepared to hunch over his drawing again, he flinched at the sight of a small figure stood on the shelf over his drafting table.
“Colfax!” He smiled cautiously. The little man, barely over six inches tall, always looked so serious and today was no exception. It was hard to tell if this was a social visit or something else. “Have you been there for long?”
“No.” At least Colfax didn’t beat around the bush when answering questions. Most of the time he got straight to the point. “You were resting so I waited.”
Adrian allowed himself a small laugh. Colfax could be so endearing in his no-nonsense way. That odd sense of courtesy combined with him just appearing in the apartment whenever he liked always amused. Adrian tilted his head. “Not resting so much as trying to rationalize how I can keep working in this heat.”
“It is hot,” Colfax agreed, glancing towards the window as if the sunlight just outside might slink away from his disapproval. “I came to ask about it.”
“Right.” Adrian brushed a hand back through his already-disheveled hair. “I guess you probably didn’t overhear my phone call earlier,” he mused, thinking about a few other times Colfax had come out and referenced something he’d overheard. The little guy had no qualms about eavesdropping whenever he felt like it. “I called maintenance. The AC is just not working right, but they’re coming later today. Apparently a few units are also having trouble with the heat being so harsh outside.”
Colfax paused for a while, pondering while he drummed his little fingers on the strap of the bag he always carried over a shoulder. Finally, he spoke. “And you are rationalizing working. Why not stop?”
Adrian raised his eyebrows. Colfax, of course, wouldn’t have anything like a job, he had no need for one. He probably didn’t understand the importance of it. “Well. I could take a break. Maybe rest until the worst of the heat passes. I think I have some ice cream in the freezer that might cool me down.”
Colfax glanced down at the lit drafting table, then the sleeping laptop, and then back at Adrian. “Ice cream should work. But not at your desk. The drawing.”
That odd little sense of courtesy was back again, and Adrian’s smile widened. “No, never near the drawings. Wanna meet me in the kitchen? You could probably use a cool down too, no way the walls are any better than out here in the open.”
“They’re worse,” Colfax confirmed, without a sense of complaint. “I’ll meet you there.”
I live! And I have a lot of catching up to do! Alas! The next prompt is "Itchy" and I have @creatorofuniverses to thank for the idea for what to do for this one. All well and good, since Sawyer is mentioned and he's hers!
We're back with another glimpse in the life of Bird!Adrian (or Birdrian, if you prefer). Even as a part-time bird, he still has to deal with the ups and downs of bird life. That includes molting. Poor lil guy.
~~~
Adrian woke with a quiet peep. He looked around, turning his head this way and that, staring at his surroundings in confusion. The disorientation always came with being a bird, even though he was only a bird part of the time these days. He was free of the gilded cage, but not the curse that had made him so easy to trap. On days when he had to be small and feathered, sometimes he had to take a moment to remember himself.
He was in a small box with soft, rumpled cloth acting as a nest. The box was secure on a half-counter in a cart designed for nomadic living. It was, in some ways, a lot like the witch’s cart with its wares and knick knacks everywhere.
The most important difference was the lack of a cage. Ever since Sawyer had found him, he’d allowed Adrian to stay, bird or man, and had never once held his curse against him. Without a cage, Adrian could spend some of his days as a human again, though the change was unpredictable and out of his control.
If he could control it, he’d make sure he never became a bird when it was time to molt. Adrian tentatively fluffed his feathers, becoming a pale yellow orb, and then peeped again as some of the new feathers growing in irritated him. As he stood in his nest of cloth, a few of the smaller feathers on his chest shifted and came loose.
Bad. Itch. Uncomfortable.
He couldn’t think in sentences, not like he could when he was human. But the ideas were there, in broad strokes. Broad enough that he knew what he’d need to do. He stretched out a wing, then nuzzled the feathers with his beak. One feather came free and he was relieved to toss it aside. The relief would help him fly, at least a short distance.
The cart window was open. He could hear Sawyer chatting with someone outside. After fluffing his feathers once more, Adrian hopped up to the edge of his box in preparation.
Interrupting a conversation as a human was rude. Interrupting as a bird didn’t bother him, and it didn’t seem to bother anyone else, either. He was little, little enough to perch on a finger or a shoulder and not intrude. Chances were good someone would make one comment about his arrival and then go on with their conversation.
But in the meantime, Sawyer could help him with scritches.
Questions 2#, 5#, 14#, and 20# for the first part of the asks, any character/s that are on your mind, are fine.
( Ask game here )
If your character could choose, would they be a different size?
I think Chase Lisong would be very entertained by the thought of size changing. He'd do it just to mess around with different heights. Make himself taller than Jacob for a bit. Then spend some time shorter than a french fry. He'd go with the flow a lot better than most of my other characters.
There's also Elias Dawn. He can choose, if he wants, to change size. It just hasn't occurred to him yet in any story I've written so far.
Your characters favorite way to be carried/carry someone?
Elias likes being a perch. Having a pixie land on his shoulder or his head feels like being trusted, and he appreciates that.
Adrian, in AUs where he's small, doesn't like to be carried in hand (or touched at all, of course). He appreciates that the humans around him figure out alternatives to that, so they still have the option to help him get around faster without physically holding him. The effort means a lot to him! Plus it's kinda fun to cling to a harness or string that's being carried along. Very thrilling!
An au you’d like to explore someday?
Honestly I'd like to do more for the Bowman of the Garden AU. I think there's a lot of promise in that one, with just the simple adjustment of Bowman already knowing what humans are and what some of their "human magic" is. I just haven't gotten back around to it since writing the first bit.
Random fun fact about character please
Bowman was a winter birth. His birthday would be sometime in January, if Wellwood sprites kept track of birthdays.
11(A) (regarding best experience) for viri, human, and giant colfax + viri, human and giant adrian
( Ask game here )
What’s the best experience your character has ever had with someone of a different size.
For viri Colfax and Adrian, it was probably when they got rescued by their nice humans. Things were truly awful with Bryan and Felicia and definitely their worst experiences, so getting rescued and brought back to safety was the best they could ever ask for. Of course, in the initial shock of it all, they didn't recognize this; after the fact they're so so grateful for the help.
For human Colfax, it's probably when he's finally able to gain the trust of the viri despite his initial impressions (which are pretty much always some degree of bad). For Adrian, it's when he gets to talk to them the first time. He's just so enchanted, and happy they're talking to him, with their teeny little voices and looking up at him with their teeny little faces.
Giant Colfax would probably have a hard time pinpointing an exact best moment with his humans. At some point he just sort of realized they were his tiny friends. And that was .... nice. That was really nice.
Giant Adrian's best moment with a human was when he met Sawyer. Even if he did scare the poor guy at first, and had to hide him from the mean humans keeping him captive, Sawyer warmed up to him pretty quickly. He was nice to Adrian right away, and that was just a salve to his poor weary soul. Best moment, absolutely.
What’s the worst experience your character has ever had with someone of a different size. (Or the best?)
Giant!Colfax's worst experience with humans was probably the second time he saw Adrian. Because Adrian brought other humans with him, and hadn't been scared off from never ever returning to these woods ever again. That was unsettling and very upsetting to Colfax, who tries his best to make it so no one ever wants to come back and bring people to gawk at him.
Giant!Adrian's worst experience with humans is his ongoing captivity by them, sadly. He really misses being able to roam freely, and he doesn't fully understand why these humans would want to capture a giant like him.
Is there something thats too big/small for your character to use/do that they wish they could?
Colfax would probably not mind being able to use some more sophisticated animal traps. His are pretty basic. Alternatively, he'd love to be able to build a fence that humans would actually respect to keep the little interlopers out of his business.
Adrian is pretty enamored of most human stuff. He wants to hold it and fiddle with it, see if he can figure out how it works without being told. A human thing he'd appreciate the most, once he discovers such a thing exists, is a pencil with an eraser on it. He'd love to be able to actually use one, but they're like splinters to him.
After meeting someone of a different size, how has your character’s opinion on giants/tinies changed?
Colfax took a long time to warm up to any humans. But the effort of Adrian (and Sawyer and, to a much smaller and more timid degree, Charlie) eventually wore him down to feeling rather protective of them. They're little, like all humans are. They need to be looked after when they're out here in the wilderness.
Adrian, after being captured, thought he'd badly misjudged humans in general. They seem so tiny and cute, bustling about their lives in their little towns and things, he never imagined they could be this mean to anybody.
His assumptions were corrected again when he met Sawyer though. Sawyer's nice to him, and answers his questions without making him feel stupid, and is little and cute like humans ought to be.
Today's prompt is video games. It's probably not a surprise, I landed on the classic "lil guy wants to try a viddy game". Decided to go with Adrian and Colfax, with a lil story set sometime after A Little More Trust (DA) (Ao3). AU cowritten with @creatorofuniverses
~~~
“And Sawyer just lets you play in his video game files? He’s not worried about the, uh, the data or whatever?”
Adrian was intrigued. He’d seen plenty of humans talk about the near-sanctity of their video game files. It hadn’t occurred to him that some humans would be perfectly okay letting someone else play their games, potentially altering the story or missing out on things.
Colfax had also been surprised at first. When he lived in a university building, he heard human after human talk about their various games. The occasional story about a “lost file” or a “corrupted save” was always met with a somber air. It always seemed to him that, unless they were playing collaboratively, humans weren’t keen on sharing their games.
Sawyer, by contrast, had been ecstatic to share his games with Colfax, along with his favorite movies and shows. Colfax had seen a lot more media since he’d decided to stay in the apartment with the enthusiastic human. Some were more baffling than others, though it was often easier to just humor the guy when he wanted Colfax to give something a try, no matter how nonsensical. He hadn’t shown a single sign of being worried that Colfax would ruin his game data.
“He doesn’t seem to care,” Colfax said, not divulging how strange he felt that was. “I sometimes try some games. To humor him.”
Adrian grinned. He could tell that Colfax probably liked the games more than he let on. If nothing else, they were an intriguing thing that most viri didn’t get a chance to play around with very often, thanks to the secrecy of their usual lifestyles. Adrian and Colfax had opportunities many viri didn’t, including being able to live out in the open human apartments, able to trust their much larger friends.
Though Sawyer and Charlie were out for the day, the viri had found themselves wandering the apartment instead of scouting the neighboring ones for possible supplies. They’d done that plenty of times already. This occasion had found them standing on a couch cushion, and a nearby game controller sat waiting for someone to bother with it.
It was big‒easily bigger than both viri combined, though that wasn’t a very high bar. It would fit comfortably in a human’s palms, with the buttons and joysticks in easy reach for just a few fingers. By contrast, Colfax would have to stretch his arms across the thing to hope to reach both sides. That meant Adrian probably wouldn’t stand a chance, with his much smaller frame.
Still. “Do you think he’d mind if I tried it too?”
Colfax shrugged. “Don’t see why not.” With that, he strode over to the controller and placed a hand over the center button. He leaned into it a bit, and with a beep and a flash of bright light, the controller woke from its electronic slumber. Across the room, the console it belonged to beeped in kind, fans whirring to life.
Sawyer had the TV set to respond to connected devices switching on. Soon enough, the TV and the console and the controller were at the ready, showing the game console’s menu.
Adrian hurried over, standing next to Colfax at the controller and taking in the several buttons and brushing a hand over the strange, almost-rough rubber of one of the joysticks. “Maybe I should stick to something simple. I don’t think I can reach all of these.”
Colfax chuckled faintly. He nudged the other joystick to the side, moving to select one of the games downloaded to the console. “I usually can’t,” he admitted, pushing down on one of the other buttons to select an option that he remembered being mostly forgiving. “I’ll help you.”
July is here already, and with it the GT July Prompt Challenge! Day one is "Enchanted", and I had a hard time deciding what to do with this one. I landed on the tiniest court wizard Adrian has ever had in his employ, Colfax! From there, the story really came together.
Takes place sometime after the Trust AU "A Little Bit of Magic", cowritten with @creatorofuniverses!
~~~
“Wizard! You’ve been summoned to the council room.”
Colfax didn’t turn right away. He had his focus on the blackboard, where he had a complex spell circle taking form and several scribbled notes around it. His criss-crossed rope bridges swayed a bit from the back and forth pacing he’d been doing, and he probably had smudges of chalk on his face from absently tapping his chin.
He was close to figuring it out. He’d been studying these runes and their possible applications for a few days now. If he could get things tuned properly, he’d have a brand new spell.
“Wizard!” The gruff voice was louder this time. This time, he turned to face the door of his lab just to be safe.
Most of the people who lived in the royal castle knew not to enter the court wizard’s lab without invitation. For one thing, they ran the risk of getting caught in some spellwork while he experimented. For another, there wasn’t a lot of room for the standard human-sized person to move around in the lab.
At around six inches tall, Colfax required some extra walkways and bridges to access the different sections of the lab. The chalkboards alone sported a grid of walkways and ladders so he could make use of their full spans. Bridges and stairs extended between the large middle table and the shelves and counters along the wall, spaced out well but definitely creating a web for the bigger folk to navigate.
That was fine. They didn’t need to be able to get around the lab as much as he did.
The man in the doorway was some council representative or something. Colfax would probably remember his name and title if he tried, but the man had broken his concentration and refused to use his name. So he’d meet that energy in kind.
“Yes?” Colfax asked, already making his way to one of the bridges that’d take him to the central lab table. “What am I summoned for?”
The man huffed. “You are summoned by the Prince and his council. What does it matter what for?”
Colfax paused on the bridge to fix the man with a scathing look. As if he was just some performer that could be called upon at any time and not someone with his own job to do in the castle. The man frowned back, but eventually relented. “An artifact has been discovered by one of the royal research teams. They want to know if it’s enchanted.”
Colfax continued down his bridge. At least that sounded like an interesting interruption. “Acceptable. You can expect me in the council chambers shortly.”
He stepped onto the broad lab table, covered in a maze of potion implements, open books, and more walkways for Colfax’s use. Most of the things he’d realistically need for a task like this would be tucked away in the bag he carried at his side, but it wouldn’t hurt to grab a few extra items.
Not that he had a chance to go get any of them.
A shadow fell over the table, and Colfax could only whirl around before a gloved hand descended on him, long fingers wrapping inexorably around him and forcing him against a palm. He grimaced as the man hoisted him off the table far too quickly and then turned to exit the lab with him in tow.
“This is an urgent matter,” the man explained as he walked, carrying Colfax in front of his chest in an uncomfortably-tight grasp. “I will bring you to the council chambers.”
Colfax narrowed his eyes and squirmed a bit, at least enough to free one of his arms and settle it on the man’s knuckles. “You do not have the right to carry me like this,” he warned, keeping his voice remarkably calm considering the seething annoyance that built in him with every step the man took. “I have my own ways of navigating this castle. Put me down.”
He was used to this. All too used to people disregarding his ability to do things on his own. It hadn’t happened in a while, since getting himself really established as the court wizard. The prince had made it clear that people were to respect Colfax’s autonomy. If it meant waiting a little more time for him to respond to a summons, so be it.
This council representative, or attendant, or whatever the hell his actual title was, hadn’t gotten that memo. “This will be much faster. This could be an urgent discovery.”
“Could be?” Colfax echoed. “So you’re manhandling me and you’re not even sure it’s worth it.”
The man had the gall to roll his eyes. At least, by the directions he took through the halls, he was telling the truth about where he was bringing him. Colfax settled in to wait for them to arrive at the council chambers.
He’d been to the room where the royals held council with their various lords and representatives and such many times. He’d had to give and hear dull reports once or twice as part of his office as Court Wizard. It wasn’t as ostentatious as it could be, at least. The tall ceilings and large round table gave a certain official feeling to the place. The high backed chairs all seating very important people added to that.
The conversation in the room faltered as Colfax’s would-be escort stepped forward and deposited unceremoniously in the middle of the table, near a sealed wooden box. He stumbled, barely managing to catch himself as all eyes fell to him.
Adrian, seated in the seat with the highest back and with more papers and folders in front of him than anyone else, looked appalled on top of the shock everyone else wore. “What‒”
“I’m told I was summoned, Your Highness,” Colfax interrupted, not offering a bow. After a moment fishing in his bag, he retrieved his wizard’s staff. “To verify any enchantments on an artifact. It could even be urgent. Hence why I was brought straight here.” He knocked the end of his staff on the wooden box and got a resounding thunk in return.
Adrian’s cheeks turned a bit pink and he took a slow breath before turning his attention to the man who’d brought Colfax to the council room. “My apologies, Wizard Colfax. This summons was not meant to be handled in this way.”
Colfax glanced over his shoulder and was pleased to find the man who’d brought him looking rather sheepish. “Understood, O Prince,” Colfax replied, ignoring the few offended looks he got from the other dignitaries at the table. “I forgive you.”
That got a wry chuckle out of Adrian, if not anybody else at the council. “Very magnanimous of you, O Wizard. As this council has interrupted your work, we could cede the floor to you as long as you should need. If you like.”
Adrian was giving Colfax a chance to make this room full of lords listen to him for as long as he’d like. By the looks on the faces arrayed all around him, they knew it too, and couldn’t go against the prince’s words. Colfax was so, so tempted to take his sweet time testing the artifact there and then for possible enchantments rather than the basic checks they probably expected when they sent for him.
Luckily, he didn’t actually want to spend more time in a stuffy meeting than he absolutely had to. He shook his head. “No need. I feel residual magic coming out of this box, so there are enchantments on the artifact. If you need a full assessment and report, you know where to send it.”
Adrian smiled again. “Much appreciated, Wizard Colfax. You have dismissed yourself.”
Colfax nodded and turned, waving a hand at the others in a flippant goodbye. “Councilors.”
The great thing about being a wizard was that he didn’t need help to make a grand exit no matter how small he was. Already he was preparing a spell to get to the door without anyone laying a hand on him. “I will see myself back to my lab.”
Today's prompt is "Bird", and really the only thing that comes to mind for that one is Adrian, specifically Adrian from a trust AU that I don't think @creatorofuniverses and I have elaborated on that much. The Doppelganger AU has some artwork out there ... and also one other bit of writing that has nothing to do with where Adrian is in the AU. So this could probably be taken mostly standalone!
Poor Adrian.
~~~
Adrian can’t count the days he’s spent in that golden cage. It’s usually hard to focus on something for too long. His attention always fractures, fluttering to something else, especially the few tokens and baubles in the cage with him. The gentle swaying of the cage doesn’t help, hanging from a hook on the ceiling of the witch’s traveling cart. She has a lot of fancy things to catch the eye, feathers and furs and trinkets and cloth. The cart is an explosion of colors inside and out, wherever they go.
She trades these things, hands them all back and forth amidst friendly conversations, words that he knows in his rapidly-beating heart that he understands and yet struggles to parse or remember. He has tried to speak to her curious customers too. His voice comes out in delicate whistles and chirps, a new song every time that never matches what he wants to convey. They smile in fascination at him. Tell him he is so pretty, yes he is, and what a fine little helper he is to his witch.
Indeed, his songs draw attention, though not the kind he sometimes wishes. No one looks at him and sees someone in need of help. They see a pretty little bird, perched in a pretty little cage, singing a pretty little song. It brings customers close enough for the witch to strike up a conversation with them, really; that’s why she hangs his cage by the window when she goes into town to open up her cart. A witch with an endearing little songbird promises interesting wares, if nothing else.
One or two have tried to buy him before. They hold out very shiny things, and lots of them, while pointing at his cage where it hangs by the cart’s window. His witch never accepts these offers.
He’s mine, she always says, and for some reason those words don’t give him the same trouble the others do. He’s mine, forever and always.
Certainly, he is cared for, as well as one might expect someone to care for a small bird. His feathers, the palest yellow, always have a healthy shine to them. He has several perches in his gilded cage, ones that feel nice on his feet when he grips them. The witch gives him berries and greens and, occasionally, seeds. He isn’t sure why, but these things always delight him, filling him with excitement when offered.
He hasn’t always been this way. He doesn’t know when it happened. He hasn’t always had wings; once upon a time he had hands, just like the humans he sees in great numbers most days. He had long legs, he had front facing eyes. He … he’d been a human before. Trying to remember it only gives him a kaleidoscope of confusing memories.
~~~
He brings a book of blank paper to the woods. His fingers smudge with charcoal. The image of the forest is suddenly repeated on the paper.
She smiles at him. Where did she come from? She smiles so wide, her eyes big and delighted.
He’s dwindling. The world grows larger. He looks to her for help but that smile remains.
He’s small and confused. The grass stands over him. He stumbles, something is wrong with his legs. His heart beats so rapidly it’s all he can feel, the fluttering in his chest. He again tries to ask for help. Only whistles come out.
He runs. He stumbles. He shoots out his hands to catch himself‒he doesn’t have hands. In their place, wings.
Wings! I’m a… the thought falls away from him like rain off a window. He doesn’t understand. The world looks so different.
She’s coming closer. She’s still smiling. Where did she come from?
You’re mine, she tells him as she stoops over him. Mine forever and always. She reaches for him. Her hand is bigger than his body now.
He has wings. He can fly away. Adrian spreads those wings, entirely new to him, and flutters into the air. It feels wrong. He can’t move them the right way. He has tail feathers now, too. They don’t cooperate. He doesn’t get very far. A hand closes around him.
~~~
Adrian doesn’t really have other memories beyond those. He can’t make much sense of them, either. They always feel present, yet distant, something he could hold onto without fully knowing why.
He sings when she asks. Even when he doesn’t feel like singing, it warbles out of him, a little tune from the golden bird in the golden cage. She’s a proud witch; she’s happy with him. When she closes up the cart for the night, she murmurs nice words at him.
Sometimes she even opens up the cage and lets him hop onto her offered finger. She whistles with him, strokes the crest feathers atop his head with a fingertip. It feels nice, especially when he’s molting (he molts from time to time now, and it’s agonizingly itchy). She loves him. She tells him so, and he understands. Then she closes him in the cage again with that same delighted smile he remembers. It’s hard to be afraid of that smile anymore. The memory is so old, though he’s unsure exactly how old. Surely he doesn’t have it completely right.
He’s only a bird, after all. He can’t be expected to remember things perfectly.
