I'm starting a wiz fandom ask trend and no one can stop me. What's a detail of your OC(s)'s appearance that you can't add with the in-game character details? I'll go first, Shawna has streaks of bright green in her hair!
(Please send this to as many people as you wish, I want to hear everyone's fun little details.)
oooooh, definitely the more natural hairstyles some of my characters like Ianthe or Fledge have that you can't get without stitching :( ALSO my character Morae's vitiligo (unless theyve added that and idk abt it oops) !! And Haley & Noah's moles/beauty marks T_T
For my Pirate OCs, Zenobia is TOO SKINNY and its so grating, like. first off she's a buccaneer, she has to have some muscle, and second off, she's also fat. pls.
Also Alexander's nose,,, pain. AND also most of the noses on my black characters for wiz,,,,
Also scars, of course, I give my ocs many scars. Also stretchmarks, but you dont see those obvi, and theres basically no character creators with those except for Sims custom content
I dont have the Spoons to ask other folks, so if anyone in the wiz/pirate fandom see this feel free to answer in a post of ur own/ask someone else!!
Heyyy do you have any headcanons on Wizard surnames? Do they work like ours? Does each parent pass down a part of their last name to the kid to make a different surname? I'm interested in your opinion (also your headcanons rock).
I ended up mixing a handful of ideas for how the wizard surnames work in my version of canon. I’ll be using my ocs for examples.
Morelle RavenHunter got her last name as a title, after rooting out the corruption in Grizzleheim! And then she proceeded to be able to give that title to her wife when they married, and later their child! The title itself is usually given when enough people know of someone to the point of them having that kind of nickname, which turns into a full title if a governing body/person in authority addresses them by that name. Considering Morelle was called RavenHunter by the bear king in Grizzleheim, basically anyone from Griz would know of her as a wizard, and likely others who trade more often in Grizzleheim.
The most common situation for the last name is people from Earth coming in and choosing a last name. My characters Noah and Haley did this, becoming Dreamtamer and Raintamer respectively. This is a way for people from Earth to be able to adventure in the Spiral without worrying about their last names being traced back to vulnerable people on Earth, and to cut off connections if they need or want to.
Another reason some people use them is that these last names are typically composed of two words that can easily be translated between languages. Most languages in the Spiral will have words for these magic centric things, because most places will have magic. Like my character Castian Runeclaw. Runeclaw is an almost one-to-one translation for the Dragonspyre word for both of those things, which is the name of the esteemed family/guild that Castian is one of the last survivors from.
Welcome to day six of Wiztober2020. This is the first arc of my main timeline regarding the majority of my Wizard101 ocs. Set in order of when they happened, and some worlds were switched around. Content Warnings for war, school expulsion, sickness mention, torture mention, starvation mention, general colonization attempts (Marleybone @ Krokotopia), gangs mention (Marleybone), attempted murder, and murder (Malistaire).
(link to prompt list)
Grizzleheim’s civil war of ravens, bears, and wolves was resolved decades before the first great threat to the Spiral. Phuong Jade, a recently expelled life wizard from Ravenwood Academy (where she had attended under the name of Morelle Jade), had also been exiled from Wizard City. With limited Spiral Door Keys at her disposal, she ended up in the trading world of Grizzleheim. She was willing to settle, to wait until her girlfriend graduated Ravenwood Academy and came to find her. But upon living in Northguard for only a month, she realized the war between groups would not end until every group aside from one was wiped out. So she dug deeper, taking small quests and using her life magic as well as what little Shadow she had secretly learned and got expelled for. She dug deep and found the root of corruption in the few individual ravens that caused this very war, and she brought them to justice. After this, she stood before the leaders of the bears, ravens, and wolves, and was given the title RavenHunter, a name she would eventually give to her girlfriend, as Morae came to Grizzleheim not long after, and proposed as soon as they met after two long year of being apart.
Mooshu’s lands were revitalized and its emperor healed by two children of a healer, who had grown up in a small village and were some of the few wizards willing and able to stand up and fight. Mahamari ‘Mari’ Jade, a twelve year old theurgist, and her older brother Emrys Jade, a thaumaturge of thirteen, adventured out and began healing a sick world in search of a cure for a sick ruler. Right before they reached the Ancient Burial Grounds of Mooshu, the siblings fought, Emrys’ need for control in order to feel safe and Mari’s endless anger and ability to push her brother’s buttons making them clash horribly. Mari returned home, and not hours later Emrys was attacked and kidnapped by vengeful spirits who claimed to be restoring their lost honor. After weeks of torture and starvation, he was rescued by his sister Mari and their father Quyen Jade. The family worked together to finish the quest, and the emperor was saved. As a gift they were given priceless swords, and a key to Dragonspyre, more of a tradition than anything else. It took a full year for Emrys to physically recover, however.
Krokotopia had one protege of Alhazred who was able to fix the problems created by the Marleybonians that had destroyed ancient tombs and desecrated old homes of the dead. Irisi, at thirteen years of age, was the only one able to stand up to them, unwavering as she insisted they leave the pyramids and instead camp in the Oasis, receiving the undeserved hospitality of the manders. Irisi methodically set each pyramid to rights, carefully preserving what was left, and sending the undead back to their rest with her magic, utilizing balance to restore the equilibrium between life and death. She was brilliant, though learned of her own intense fear of ghosts, how their whispers and haunting only reminded her of how little life her adoptive father, the aged krok Alhazred, would have left. She powered through until she reached the Tomb of Storms. While on her way to defeat Krokopatra and ensure the safety of the Krokonomicon, she came face to face with her namesake. The first human queen of Krokotopia was now a memory of what she once was, a ghost bearing the name and withered face of the first Irisi, but nothing else. It was the hardest battle of the entire adventure, and after that Irisi secured the Krokonomicon with ease from Krokopatra. The Marleybonians left, and Alhazred had the Krokonomicon destroyed, but not until he was able to transcribe the text in a place where it could not be stolen, the only people alive who knew of its location being him and his daughter.
Wizard City was cleared of its monstrous invasion by four students of Ravenwood Academy who had fallen behind in their studies, whether by simple procrastination or by other extenuating circumstances. Noah Dreamtamer and his twin Haley Raintamer were one half of this group. Ianthe RavenHunter and their partner Leo Nightside were the other. They split the streets between them, uncomfortable with the other pair of students. Noah and Haley relished in being able to find a practical use for the skills they were being taught, and found it a much easier way to understand their magic. Ianthe and Leo were quiet, intent on mastering the use of their spells, and explore Wizard City outside of their home in Nightside. The four of them gathered again for the intense final battles, realizing that they worked best as a team, and became awkward friends, both pairs still distant in their mistrust of outsiders, yet still they had forged a bond.
Wysteria held its tournament, unaffected by the threat an ex-professor from another world could wield. Outstanding wizards from many schools were called to join, but those we follow in this world are from Ravenwood Academy and Krokotopia’s small school, run only by Alhazred and his few mander students. Mari Jade was invited to join, as now she had been attending Ravenwood since she was thirteen, and now was fifteen, the top of her class, though quiet and easily pushed around by her peers. Irisi was also invited, as the best of Alhazred’s students, now fifteen, two years after her eventful cleansing of her world. This was the first time Irisi had seen fellow humans, as well as those who were not a krok, mander, or dog. Irisi was starstruck by visiting a new, much larger world for the first time, though many there treated her as a rarity, a foolish stranger who did not know the basics of common life. Mari was different, as were some other kind souls. But Mari was far different. Irisi saw her and felt the quiet, joyful thrill of realizing a flower was blooming, as so few did in her home world. Both were inclined to shyness around strangers, and so rarely spoke, even when they were framed as a pair, and sent to find the true culprit so they were not punished. The subtle brushes of their arms, the few times they had to grasp each others hands for stability, the times when they would tend to the others wound, wrapping bandages and brushing fingertips over heated skin in order to check for breaks and bruises. They would spend extended moments staring into each other’s eyes, Mari’s a dark brown of rich earth and endless potential, and Irisi’s an amber that whispered of gold and bronze, of sunlight. They found the Spiral Cup, and then were able to compete in the final battle of the tournament, against each other. Irisi won, bringing glory and recognition to her small and easily dismissed home world, and was able to publicly speak of how she had to save Krokotopia from the ignorance of Marleybonians who saw the place people lived as nothing more than a museum exhibit to be made.
Marleybone had no problems on the surface, and made a perfect world for Irisi and Mari’s first date. They had spent a year apart, sending letters across worlds to each other, as they both had studies to attend to. Slowly, over their year of letters to each other, they shared their lives, their hardships, and fell in love with a girl a world away. After this date, Irisi would begin living in Wizard City, assisting Arthur Whethersfield (who happened to be practically a brother to the her) in teaching balance magic, and hopefully beginning to set up a proper school building. Before that, they were to meet in Marleybone, and walk the streets at night, simply talking withe their hands intertwined, until they were to have a picnic at night, lit only by small balls of magic and the moon. It was not to be. Their moonlit walk in a park was interrupted by a cat on the run, who stumbled into them and pleaded for their help. Out of duty, Irisi agreed, and they assisted Baxter in running from a gang he had gotten on the wrong side of. This was how they ended up running across the rooftops of Marleybone, breathless and laughing as they ran from gang members to assist a very unlucky cat. It was after helping Baxter that he gave them information, having been told of Irisi’s Krokotopian origin. He told them of how there was still an exhibit on what little the Marleybonian had stolen from Krokotopia before Irisi intervened, and then he was gone, into the safety of his house. Mari seemed even more furious than her date, and they both entered the museum later with their magic flaring in bronze and brilliant green. Then, of course, they were informed by a rather terrified museum curator that the infamous Meowiarty had already stolen everything from the exhibit. They ran across rooftops yet again, this time chasing a mastermind to make him face justice. In this race, Meowiarty taunted them, claiming he now had the Krokonomicon. Irisi, enraged, told him that the Krokonomicon had been destroyed by her and her father’s hands, as she had explained clearly in her public speech only a year before. They had to chase Meowiarty to the top of Big Ben, fighting his cronies along the way, and at the top, that was when Meowiarty grinned, and told them that he had already known Irisi was one of the only people alive who knew of the contents of the Krokonomicon, and that this had been a long con to bring her here, to this moment. They were both knocked unconscious, and Meowiarty’s ally, Malistaire Drake, who needed the Krokonomicon to wake the Dragon Titan, kidnapped Irisi. Mari woke to an empty room at the top of Big Ben, and a deep rage was unleashed from inside her.
Dragonspyre was the known home world of Malistaire Drake, and the resting place of the Dragon Titan that would destroy the Spiral to bring one woman back to life. Mari knew this, and was intent on going there, but she couldn’t do it alone and risk Irisi’s life like that. She returned to Wizard City, single-minded to the point of roughly shoving a bully she frequently avoided, making many students shocked to the point of finally noticing little Mari Jade, sixteen and five foot two, the long hair she had when entering Marleybone now cut short, as her braid had gotten caught in some iron fences during their chase and was swiftly cut by her own hand. She entered the ice school without hesitation, finding the nearest ice wizard near her age and demanding for her brother, who now went by Emrys Pyre. Emrys, age seventeen, was a closed off, easily annoyed prodigy. He had only three friends, and adamantly refused having any friendships at all. He always regretted the years long distance between him and his sister, even when they went to the same school, but he was ashamed of his own weakness and trauma after Mooshu, and hadn’t held a proper conversation with her since. Until now. His friends, lead by little Genevieve, had freaked out upon learning that he had a sister asking for him, and dragged him out into the main classroom of the ice school to properly see her again. Mari, covered in dirt and blood and missing a majority of her hair after her ordeal in Marleybone, told him in simple words that they were going to go rescue her girlfriend from the ex-professor of death, who had kidnapped her and likely brought her to Dragonspyre. At this deluge of information, Emrys insisted she rest for a day before insisting they go on a quest to murder a man. Mari allowed it, but while she stayed in the dorm of Castian and Jen, his friends, she ended up spending most of the night restless, and so the two took it upon themselves to assist her in a style transformation. That morning she met her brother over breakfast with half of her head shaved, a leather jacket, and a new appreciation for some of Jen’s favorite American and British bands from Earth, all of them punk and/or rock. Emrys just sighed, and was convinced by his sister to use their Dragonspyre Keys, given to them by the emperor of Mooshu years ago. They went, just the two of them, and with their skill and knowledge in magic, they spent only days going through Dragonspyre to reach Malistaire. Mari was fueled only by rage, her magic manifesting in a mass of writhing vines she could stand atop of and use as a method of transportation. Emrys, ever analytical and cold in order to cut off his emotions and cope with his trauma alone, was silent and expressionless as they cut down draconian soldiers (who looked so much like his draconian friend, Castian) and the ghosts of dead warriors. The siblings never spoke, they simply fought and defeated and repeated over and over, resting only when one of them collapsed. They reached the Great Spyre, and using Mari’s climbing vines and Emrys’ spikes of ice, they scaled it. The pair battle Malistaire’s small army of the undead and evil creatures who would gleefully see the Spiral rendered into nothing but stardust. The two of them faced Malistaire finally, but Mari only had eyes for Irisi, who was injured and barely conscious, her face a mask of agony as she was held by Malistaire’s hand over a river of everflowing lava. Using the siblings as a distraction, Irisi managed to push away Malistaire, though she herself fell in a heap by the deadly river. Mari and Emrys battled Malistaire, both far more powerful than the man expected. Emrys summoned creatures of immense strength, as well as creating shields for himself and his sister to save them from the necromancer’s draining attacks. It was Mari that struck the final blow, the sharpened and rage filled centaur she summoned firing a volley of thorned arrows, piercing Malistaire’s chest and killing the man before he hit the ground. They saved Irisi, as well as the Spiral, though Mari secretly, guiltily, thought that Irisi was more important, and knew she was no better than the man she killed.
The first arc was completed then, the first threat to the Spiral destroyed. Vines covered Malistaire’s body and bloomed at Mari’s first sigh of relief upon finding her love alive. The rage and need for vengeance spilled from Mari alongside her tears, and that magic sunk deep into Dragonspyre, life magic infecting and infesting into the deep core of the world.
Mari and Emrys walked into Ravenwood after that, Irisi on a conjured stretcher behind them, and they never returned to Dragonspyre, far more occupied with the trials to come.
They would never know that within years, the life magic Mari left in Dragonspyre would manifest itself and flourish. The corpses of the world’s dead would become the heart of a forest. The deep chamber of magma that fueled the volcano would cool, soothed by lullabies of life magic, fragments of the Song of Creation, and the skies would clear, no more smoke and fire to pollute it. Dragonspyre would become a green, flowering thing, a place of nature instead of a ravaged husk, now an overcome ruin. And water, finally water, would rule. The Dragon Titan would sleep under a blanket of moss, roots clinging to the small spaces between scales, and life would make a home of what once would destroy everything.
Hey there~ sorry if you've already answered that, but do you have pics/refs/whatever of your wizard(s) online?
YEAH! I’ve got some who i haven’t made them for, even in picrews or just looking for models or whatever. Gonna put a readmore here because im just gonna add a lot of pictures. Most picrew things I’ve done are in the ocs101 discord.
I didn’t do all of my ocs (left out at least 5-10, including underdeveloped ones). I got bored and I’m gonna go watch a chill gay streamer on twitch now.
Irisi (her tag) balance wizard, lesbian, my first oc!
Noah Dreamtamer (his tag) myth wizard, trans, a twin, probably one of the ocs im meanest to.
Haley Raintamer (her tag) Storm wizard, Noah’s twin, and This is the best reference I’ve got aside from people’s art of her, none of which is in color i think?
Mahamari (Mari) Jade (her tag) life wizard, gay disaster. Gave her anger issues because I too, am Angy.
Darcy (Rusty) Rhode. I’m getting bored of answering this, so here’s my pirate101 oc who’s a disaster gay in a gang of criminals/vigilantes in Cool Ranch. I just love her someone look at her. She has red wings and acts like a ditzy frontman but Will Stab A Bitch.
How would your ocs react to self-quarantine? Any ocs and any amount of ocs, I don't know them that well.
first off, all my ocs ARE quarantined. because they’re not idiots and understand responsibility for the public’s good!!! I have some vague plans for other ocs as well, they’re not mentioned. This is all the ocs I can remember right now. Hope I’m not forgetting any, I probably am though.
Content Warning for alcohol mentions and implied nsfw (just the pirate ocs). Read more because it’s long and also if you don’t wanna read about quarantine.
Emrys, Mari, and Irisi:
They live together in a small house, one of those floating castles, with one of those teleport swirls like in Triton Avenue, only it takes them outside of the general dorms at Ravenwood. They turned off their teleport station, though!
Irisi, the only one who cooks, tries in vain to get Mari to learn how to make anything other than her favorite veggie wraps/sandwiches. Emrys ends up learning though, and is very good with the preciseness of baking!! He gets the finer details on decorating better than Irisi, who’s not the best with artistic touches, preferring practicality.
Also Mari breaks out the cards and tries to hustle them at poker. She fails and ends up watching Emrys and Irisi pick up the game too quickly and become too good at it.
Haley and Noah:
They have a small shared home, which I’ve kinda just Assumed is a castle plot like the in game wizards can get, on the outskirts of Wizard City. Neither of them are accomplished cooks, and they kinda end up just living on soup, stir fry, and the breakfast foods they actually can cook.
Haley gets BORED. She probably ends up cleaning the house top to bottom and going through her projects (mostly attempts at making clockwork creatures) and probably finding about 15 tools she borrowed from the storm school and lost.
Noah is the type to seclude himself in his room, but he’d probably go to check on Haley and also work on his own runes projects or read in the same room she’s in.
Morelle, Morae, Ianthe, and Leo:
Morelle is used to it, because she has a tendency to hide out anyway, cannot be seen in public in Wizard City. Now she just gets to relax a bit more at home and spend time with her wife Morae.
Morae has decided to continue making the more basic breads and such in her bakery, and has set up a system so their daughter Ianthe and her partner Leo can deliver them around Wizard City, so people can have food. They do have to shut down their bakery. Morae tries and fails to teach her wife how to make macarons (again).
Leo turns out to be very good with macarons. Bonus points for future child-in-law, I suppose.
Serpentine King/Quyen Jade:
In the canon main timeline, he’s probably revamping his garden’s design, and worrying over his children, because he’s in Mooshu far away.
In his origin timeline, where I had a completely wack kingdom au, by the end he and that timeline’s Mari would be probably live off by themselves in the middle of nowhere or in a completely different kingdom in hiding, along with that timeline’s Noah, Haley, and Emrys. They’d probably rehash old stories, a lot of SK’s stories about his late husband and his four other children that Mari grew up with.
Elissa Silvertusk:
She’s not developed enough, I don’t have much planned for her aside from relationships with NPCs. Probably in Khrysalis or Zafaria.
Fledge (in their own timeline):
Probably with their adoptive family, Iridian and Corry! Now without school to deal with, they’re a lot more stress free, because they’re used to being on their own now after their awful trauma. They probably spend time having to confront that though, because they’re not used to being so restless and ‘useless’.
Ursae (Fledge’s timeline again):
As a mermaid she would have her own tank and probably just not surface. She has her own stock of crystals that contain information (like in Dragonspyre) and could go through those, but also, she has lil’ fish friends to interact with as well, and can sign with Fledge through glass.
Rust/Rusty (Pirate):
Would be with her group, an all female/NB vigilante gang in Cool Ranch. They’d all stay at HQ, probably getting everyone’s Sad Backstories after a bunch of family bonding and card games and shit. Rusty would probably get a little tipsy in order to bear it. Also maybe having to go out just a few times to make sure people aren’t being jackasses and making necessities cost more. That’s more fun, because they’re threatening people lol.
Darling Alexander Dove (Pirate):
Bonnie Anne Is In Hell! She Just Is!!! A bored Alexander is a very very dangerous one, and as his right hand man/first mate she’s got a LOT on her plate. He probably almost gets his crew to mutiny against him, or he ends up sleeping with a few who will have to be cut loose after this because they have unrequited love/lusts for their captain now lol. He DOES get shitfaced. Several times. He cannot wait to go to a pub again just to see new faces and not just his crew.
☣ Would they kill someone close to them if they had to?
Haley... basically if it was anyone aside from Noah, she would if she REALLY really had to... but to kill Noah?? NO way. She would rather die, would throw herself in the way of whatever danger, no matter how grave.
☢ Would they survive an apocalyptic situation?
Noah on his own would depend on where he is in his story arc. Because baby Noah, 1st arc Noah, who only helps in Wizard City and spends the rest of the time having family drama? Yeah probably not, unless he had Haley. Second arc Noah would KICK ASS, especially depending on where in the second arc he is. He’d probably either be the Sad Loner/Leader or just the lone wolf who comes around to kick ass and help you every once in a while and maybe share his Sad Past.
☎ How would they react to receiving a phone call from a deceased love one?
hmm well Fledge canonically has no clue what a phone is AND i havent given them Sad Dead People in their past (yet). BUT if they did get a call and it was a dead person they loved, they would probably spend their time trying to see if the person wanted to share important information, and maybe try to see if the person approves of how Fledge’s life is going. They wouldn’t be as emotional as most kids would be, but. Not Well Adjusted, my lil wizard is.
Can you use the random word generator to generate three words, then write a story about an OC of yours who could reasonably fit all three? If you do, thanks :)
Made a direct continuation of a zombie apocalypse drabble I wrote two years ago, oops! (link to that) I continued it and added on, fleshing out the world and adding in characters of mine >:3
Content warnings for blood, guns, zombies, apocalypse scenarios, implied child abuse, medical stuff mention, and I did accidentally write a tiny gross bit about how bad zombies smell, oops.
"Thanks again." Haley said.
"No problem! My group tries to help out anyone we can find." Irisi, a tall, lithe woman with pale brown skin and many freckles, was standing confidently, rifle slung over her back, the strap bisecting her heavy trench coat and leather vest underneath. Small dark stains on the coat revealed how she hadn't always been up in a perch when fighting zombies.
"But still-!" Noah was still breathing heavily, eyes fixed on the woman. "You didn't have to, so thanks, really. I don't know what I'd do without Haley."
Haley blushed, turning to look at the horizon. "So, you've got a group?" She changed the subject.
Irisi perked up even more. "Yeah, my dad, my girlfriend, and her brother and dad. Our dads were doctors- a surgeon and family doctor. The rest of us know basic first aid too- that's how we help people, we know our ways around hospitals too, so we've got a stockpile of supplies."
“Sounds like a good set up.” Noah said blankly. “Well, we should get going, we’re heading across the city-”
“No-!” Irisi cut him off, then awkwardly shuffled in place before talking again. “I mean, you can stay with us. We found this gated community, we cleared it all out- so you can come pick a house and stay.”
Haley snorted now, mouth twisting into a scowl. “What’s the catch?”
“Catch?” Irisi’s amber eyes caught the light of the sunset, and she squinted at Haley.
“Yeah. Catch.” Haley’s eyes flashed with anger as she stepped forward, Noah automatically moving behind her, unknowingly in sync. “Nothing in this world is free anymore, Irisi.”
The unspoken knowledge that the world didn’t give a fuck about fairness made Noah want to sigh and just take a year long nap, but it wasn’t the time for that. Maybe later.
“I-” Irisi bit her lip, turning away. “I don’t know what you want me to say here. My group does our best to not hurt or take advantage of others unless provoked. We could meet outside of our base first, if that made you feel better? We wouldn’t have a home advantage or anything?”
“Fine.” Haley relented, all gratitude gone now, taking her endless anger out on a stranger as opposed to her brother, the only person she cared about nowadays.
Noah stepped in, "There's a cleared out diner two streets away, with the most god awful gold and blue booths inside. We can meet there."
Irisi simply nodded, eyes darting to look at Haley with a new wariness, and ran off, hopping from roof to roof carefully.
"Stop acting like a bitch, Haley." Noah muttered sharply, hefting his golf club back over his shoulder and turning, looking down at the alleyway they had escaped from. The dozen zombies were now feasting on the one Irisi shot. His lip curled with disgust as the undead ripped open their fallen ally, the stench of rotten innards and whatever the zombie had stuffed inside itself now wafting upwards.
The more recent ones smelled even worse in his opinion, but that's just the combination of fruits and vegetables and whatever processed crap people scavenged and rotted meat.
"We'll have to get down to the diner, Noah." Haley finally said, her voice small and apologetic in a way that meant more than any 'sorry'.
"Sure thing, Hales." The nickname was an indicator that everything is okay, so when Noah turned to look at his twin, her shoulders were relaxing slightly.
Making their way through the streets in early spring was a dichotomy of soft white and pink petals and dried brown splashes of blood, both resting on the concrete and only one temporary. The wind whistled through bare limbs of trees and broken windows, it sent ash and flakes of rust off of the cars that had long been pushed aside to create a clear path down the main boulevard for anyone lucky enough to get a working vehicle.
In their silence they walk down the middle of the street, cautious of zombies in those cars and in alleyways. In these cities there was a tendency to be so many things that used to be people, especially if they hadn’t been evacuated, and instead quarantined. It hadn't worked, because it could take weeks, even months, for the disease to set in and show any symptoms. So before they knew it an entire city could be dead people walking.
Sure, they made a vaccine. It worked pretty well, considering the alternative was dying and then becoming a monster. There was too much panic, and no one wanted to trust it. They deluded themselves into thinking that they could play apocalypse as opposed to trusting science and logic.
Noah and Haley had been watching it happen, sitting side by side in matching dresses they hated, glued to a television that gave updates to their area, their little generator working overtime, cautious of the mandatory lights out that the quarantined areas enforced. They watched the live footage of a mob storming the lab producing the vaccine, they watched as researchers and interns and students ran out of the building as it caught fire.
They watched the last hope of humanity go up in smoke, both of them guilty because they had been vaccinated just weeks before, a bonus for their mother being a good soldier, keeping peace in their little city district.
Considering how everything played out in the end, the only thing you could get out of the twins about their mother that didn’t end in breaking things or panic attacks was the fact that she was a good soldier.
Even then it would set Noah on edge, teetering, and would make Haley clench her fists so hard her tendons become frayed piano strings.
Noah was brought back to reality with a subtle shift, Haley’s knuckles brushing against the hairs on his bicep when she pointed to their destination, likely knowing of Noah’s contemplative mood. Noah was a half step behind her, golf club over one shoulder and the other holding onto the one untorn strap of his backpack. With every step he was reminded of the pistol shoved into the back of his jeans, how it had been without ammunition for weeks.
Haley had a metal baseball bat held loosely in her left hand, adjusting her jean jacket and frowning as another waft of something rancid hit them. They shared a look with the same expression, wrinkled noses and a grimace, then a shared smile at the reminder that they are two sides of one coin, even if it is long out of rotation currency, left in the bottom of a junk drawer with useless keys and forgotten things.
The glass door into the diner was completely broken, traces of old blood on the shards in front of the door and on what little remained in the frame. Long dead neon signs and ragged flyers caked in dirt both decorate the wide and grimy windows.
The diner was empty, and Haley promptly flopped down in a booth, sending up a cloud of dust and all kinds of likely hazardous spores. With a cough she turned around, resting on her back and letting her head fall off of the edge. Her hair barely touched the filthy linoleum, and she shifted for a moment before closing her eyes, resting but unable to sleep and render herself vulnerable.
Noah sat on the table of that booth, between his twin and the door, and kept watch.
It only took half an hour until he saw people. A group crossed the empty street, Irisi at the lead and pointing towards Noah, who waved lazily and tapped on the table to get Haley up. With a short, stifled gasp, Haley sat up slowly, eyes narrowed. Noah made eye contact with her so she could gage the situation, and seeing his relaxed posture and only slight nervousness, she relaxed as well, hand reaching for her bat nonetheless.
The hinges creaked as Irisi pushed open the door, holding it like a gentleman for her group. An older man with a wispy white beard and spotted skin the color of teak wood walked in first, back hunched slightly over his cane. Following him was a pale asian boy with blue hair, a turtleneck, and glasses, who stared at them accusingly and had a hand over a holstered gun at his hip. Then a friendlier face entered, the shorter and older asian man nodding at them, but quickly moving to ensure the oldest man got a stable seat. The last to enter was a very short girl dressed in a leather jacket and a sneer, combat boots crunching savagely against the broken glass on the floor. Her wavy hair was half shaved, the other side just reaching her chin and she watched them with a similar glare to the boy’s. However, she had no gun, just a well used wooden baseball bat and an array of knives in what could’ve once been a bandolier.
The fathers, the girlfriend, and the girlfriend’s brother. Charming.
“Hi, Noah. Haley.” Irisi said, letting the door swing shut.
“Hi.” Noah smiled weakly. “Nice to see you without the gang of zombies about to murder us.”
Irisi huffed, smiling. “Yeah.” She hopped to sit on a table across from them, so they could look each other in the eye. The older man, seated in the booth for the table, placed a hand on hers and smiled shakily. “Oh! So this is my dad, Alhazred.”
“Nice to meet you.” Haley muttered, nodding.
Irisi began pointing to the other three, who were seated at the bar by the window, facing the rest of them. She pointed to the short girl with dark skin. “That’s Mari, my girlfriend. She’s best with up close and personal stuff, and first aid on the field. That’s Emrys, her brother and our best with handguns- and generally being a badass.” The boy with blue hair gave a short wave, then turned back to the window to watch the street. “Then that’s Quyen, Emrys and Mari’s dad, and the best with big problems, generally makes sure the rest of us aren’t idiots.”
“I’ve never done anything wrong in my life.” Mari deadpanned, an obvious lie if her brother’s derisive snort was anything to go by.
“Yes dear.” Irisi smirked, then turned back to Haley and Noah. “You two seem capable, and you did grab what was probably the last pharmacy supplies in the city, so I’m thinking you guys staying a while is the least we can do if we split the meds.”
Haley turned slightly, catching Noah’s eye. She was not on board at all.
Noah raised his eyebrows, making it clear that two backpacks instead of one full of medicine was not worth it. Not when they could potentially have a place to go back to if they needed, and maybe extra necessities if they leave on good terms.
Haley rolled her eyes, and turned back to the ragtag family. “That’s fine. As long as we both look through it and make sure it’s fair. By the end it got chaotic and I sure as hell don’t need like, fifteen boxes of laxatives or whatever when the other bag is full of painkillers.”
Noah huffed, smiling and amused at her dry tone. If Haley still weren’t shaken by their close call she would probably have argued and made a scene just for the hell of it.
Quyen nodded, a slight smile on his face. “That sounds more than fair.”
Haley’s shoulders relaxed subtly, the tension in her clenched jaw gone, her hand on the table grabbing at the thick fabric of the hoodie Noah had tied around his waist. A faded pink thing with blood splatters and stains decorating it like a modern painting.
“Yeah. Fair.” Haley said quietly, unable to eye the strange adult with anything but distrust.
Noah made the big move this time, moving a hand off of his golf club and setting it on Haley’s, gripping it loosely until she twisted her wrist to interlock their fingers comfortably. Undoubtedly, every person in the room noticed, but he didn’t have it in him to care.
This might be the first good group they had found since setting out on their own. They seem kind, reliable.
A family. A good one. A real one.
After all Noah and Haley had been through, they deserved that, at least.
Electricity, Nightmare, Trust. (link to prompt list)
No warnings, but it does contain some p awkward dialogue because this is the actual canon way Haley and Noah start out on actually doing the main quest line for Wizard City.
Haley was not on the hair trigger most storm wizards find themself on. She’s not quick to anger, not easily irritated, won’t suddenly cackle or burst into tears. Sure, she was impulsive enough that her twin brother jokingly talked of grey hairs even though they were twelve, but that was just being a kid.
Right now, she was annoyed, mumbling her rants to her brother, who could only respond with more of the same, equally frustrated.
She and Noah were called up to the Headmaster’s office, about grades of all things. They were both angry and upset because otherwise they’d be scared, and they couldn’t look scared, because that meant they looked like they did something wrong. No one knew they spent their summers without any guardian to take care of them- that they had always done that since they came here at age eight.
Haley tried to intertwine her fingers with Noah’s only to accidentally shock him, static stinging and making the hairs on her arms stand up. She cursed quietly, but Noah only grabbed her hand in response, taking the shock with a fake-calm face, bumping their shoulders together before walking a bit faster.
When they approached the Headmaster’s office, Noah knocked quietly, and the door magically swung open under his hand.
The resulting conversation, a meeting of Haley and her brother, two wizards she has never seen before, and the Headmaster, was a frustrating one. Headmaster Ambrose talks about their potential of all things, and how they isolated themselves into their pairs.
Haley crossed her arms at that, probably pouting a bit. She and Noah were twins. It wasn’t their fault everyone else didn’t understand them, especially Cyrus Drake, who pointedly made Noah a nervous wreck or gave ruthless assignments to all of his students. Haley was just better at practical work, she couldn’t do tests.
She was sure the other two, the tall-ish wizard with mismatched eyes and their friend, had their reasons too. Weren’t grades only an indication of how badly the teacher did their job of teaching them what they needed to know or whatever?
Headmaster Ambrose gave them a quest, an extra credit task of clearing out Unicorn Way, and tracing how ghosts and fairies of all things began to destroy that street.
The four of them were quiet. Finally, Haley muttered out a “Fine.” and got up, the other three following her. They were all dressed in robes, ready for battle as well as they could be, with little to no practical experience under their belts.
Wasn’t practical stuff where Haley shined, though?
It was in an uncomfortable silence that they walked through the Commons, more deserted than ever. Some students were pulled out of school because of safety concerns, the rest leaving because of the holidays. The two wizards accompanying them were walking stiffly, likely uncomfortable for even more reasons.
“So.” Noah finally said when the guard to Unicorn Way’s gate stepped aside, having accepted the letter from Ambrose. “I’m Noah, conjurer. Haley’s a diviner. We- uh- well we know a bit about battling, but not much.”
“Um.” The shorter wizard stopped, brown hand moving quickly in her hair, fluffing her large, loose afro of curls. “Um, Ianthe. Uh, me ‘n’ Leo- gosh, um. Death wizards, from Nightside. Uh- Why don’t we split up after a few battles, after you two get the hang of it? Or um, we don’t have to-”
“Sounds fine.” Haley cut her off, trying not to sound mean. “We talk to the guards, maybe a few students, then you guys be our training wheels for a battle or two, and then we can, y’know, stop being awkward and split up.”
Leo nodded.
“Good! Um, let’s get started on this saving the world stuff, okay?” Noah finally said, then winced at his voice cracking.
Haley snorted, bumping Noah a bit in the tunnel to Unicorn Way, then grabbing his hand. They could do a bit of extra credit stuff. This wasn’t the end of the world or anything.
