Very real conversations overheard/witnessed by the Crawlers tasked with keeping an eye on the young Questers
-i have no idea where this idea came from but I see so many incorrect quotes from all my diff fandoms and TUC deserves my love again, so here you are. If I think of more I'll add it to ao3 but this is it for now:
Gregor is standing across from Luxa, the two teenagers conversing very excitedly about a new fruit Gregor has just introduced the young queen to.
A few feet away, Ares and Ripred stand in intense conversation, peering over at the two young ones every so often.
Suddenly, Ares’s wing stretched out, claw carefully hooking underneath Gregor’s shirt as he lifted the boy into the air, left to dangle like fish bait.
“Huh.” The bat sounds mildly impressed.
“Right?” Ripred sounds downright giddy.
“And he just… hangs there.”
“Can’t get down.” The rat confirms.
“Ares.”
“That’s so interesting.”
“I mean it’s not like he can stop you. Very few people could.”
“No no, you’re right.”
“Ares.”
“I have really been underutilizing my size and strength I’m learning.”
“I’m telling you man. You could topple governments dude.”
“Ares.”
“You kinda do it. How?”
“Very simple: don’t give a fuck about the people in the government.”
“Ha. Real. But I kinda do-”
“Ares.”
“Oh shit, Gregor did you say something?”
“Yes. Put me down, Ares.”
“...”
“...”
“Ares.”
“See like, this is what I mean. He can’t actually make you drop him.”
“Yeah but… he is my bond.”
“Ares. Ares Bartholomew Campbell. I swear-”
“I do love him, sadly.”
“Ah, yes. My one foresight. Oh well.”
“It was fun- while it lasted.”
Thud.
“...I hate both of you. Ripred- stay away from my bond.”
“Well now he’s giving me attitude-”
“RIPRED NO RIPRED-!”
~
The crawlers antenna twitches, and it pauses for a moment, debating it’s next move. Faint yelling comes from its left, so it beelines towards the sound, emerging in a little crack overlooking the Queen’s personal quarters where the warrior and his bond lay.
“No bro- seriously man! Stop- stop laughing! Ares-” A soft laugh. “I’m serious, man. Stop! Look, like- it’s not like I could just leave the thing there.”
“Aft- after-” There is the sound of wet laughter, followed by wings flapping, as though Ares is wiping tears from his eyes. “After you murdered two Underland sized rats in front of it?”
“BLOOD SPLATTERED ON ITS COAT!” Gregor yells. Ares cackles.
“Is this why Luxa has a new goat? She was so upset when her old one died.”
“I couldn’t just let my grandma find me with it!”
Ares cackles again. “Luxa thinks it has anxiety, or whatever that mental illness was you showed her the other day.”
“Anxie-? That thing has fucking PTSD! I need to update the slideshow now…”
~
“I don’t think Ripred should be allowed to be a rager.” Gregor announces, strolling into his and his bond’s shared cave.
Ares sounds mildly interested, cocking his head. “No? What made you come to this brilliant observation?” He drawls, sarcastic.
Gregor snorts, taking a seat beside his bond. “No- I just mean like… we were in the museum, right?” Ares hums in confirmation, laying his head back down.
“And like-” Gregor cuts off, fighting a laugh. “There- I found this record player there, last week, right?” Ares huffs a laugh, nodding.
“Oh yeah, I remember that! It’s so fun!”
“Yeah, yeah. But like- we only have one record, right? And like- Ripred has better hearing than I do, right?”
Ares starts to laugh, catching onto what the boy is saying. “You didn't!” He gasps, agog.
Gregor nods, biting his tongue so hard tears form in his eyes to stop his laughter. “I did!”
Ares erupts, rolling around with the force of his laughter.
“Like- no dude- like I swear he was about to lose it!”
“You would too if you could hear the same song repeating for- YOU GUYS WERE IN THERE FOR THREE HOURS!!!” Gregor cackles.
“I know, dude! It was- like- you should've seen him, bro. He was genuinely tweaking.”
“YEAH??? I would have too!”
Gregor can’t fight his laughter anymore, joining his bond on the floor.
“No b- no seriously dude though and like- he couldn't even be mad at me because I wasn’t even lying when I said I couldn't hear it and-” He breaks off to laugh again.
“Anyway I swear on Sandwich’s rotting corpse that his eyelid was twitching.”
Ares finishes laughing, rocking to his feet. “And you think this means he shouldn't be a rager?”
Gregor shrugs, splayed out on the floor. “I just… don’t think he has the temperament for it, y’know?”
The bonds share a moment of silence, making eye contact with each other. Then they explode into laughter.
~
The caverns surrounding Regalia are huge, large enough and filled with enough crevices to hide at least thousands of little crawlers. Two fliers soar through, one black as the darkness that surrounds him, one golden and shining.
“I still don’t understand how you managed to break that ones neck when all I did was really hurt my wing.” Aurora complains, brushing her aforementioned part against Ares’s. The other bat snorts.
“Maybe because I’m like- double your size?” He guesses, not far off track.
“Not double.” Aurora shoots back, flipping upside down, her claws digging into the ceiling. “But like- seriously dude it felt like a day passed and suddenly you went from being the scrawniest bat around to this freaking powerhouse behemoth!”
Ares chuckles, joining her on the ledge. “It did kinda feel like that.” He admits. “But also like- it’s my body so it was okay.”
There’s a moment of silence, then. “Okay but like- the first time you realized you weren't as little as before, what happened?”
A choked laugh, Ares’s shape barely discernible in the darkness. “I- okay you know Euripedes?”
Aurora coughs. “Do I know the bond of my bonds grandfather? No, haven't heard of him.”
“Okay- don’t be- okay anyway- like, he used to train us, right?”
Aurora hums. “I happen to remember that part of our childhood, yes.”
“No but like- so we’re running through drills one day, yeah? All of us unbonded lot or whatever, and like, normally he sort of- you’ve been through it when he like… bats you around with his wings a little to get you to focus?”
“Oh I never dealt with that. I bonded Luxa too fast.”
“okay- well. Fuck you, or whatever," An offended huff. "-but thats what he did- and like- one day, like the day after I became a behemoth or whatever, he like- he fuckin tried Auri. He tried. But like- his wing just bashed against me and-”
Wheezing, as though the bat is trying valiantly not to laugh. “And- he goes fucking- flyinggggg.”
Aurora chokes on a gasp, hacking up her laughter.
“No- like. I’m so serious. He tried so hard to just, like- hit me- and clearly he’d factored in that I was a little bigger because his hit was like, harder than it usually was.” Another valiant wheeze. “But it just- didn't do anything. I didn't even like- grunt or anything. Not a single muscle flinched in my body. And Euri- like he just. Stared at me. His wing hurt- I could see the pain-”
“In his eyes!” Aurora gasps out, and the bats erupt into laughter.
“Yeah!” Ares agrees once he composes himself. “Genuinely. Just. He couldn't.”
So the questers i dont know if I should keep their clothes or i should give them something different clothes (if its different clothes then will you guys choose for me??)
You have friends, don’t you? The one-eyed conqueror, the traveler, the warrior, the fool, the god-touched, the lover of tomatoes, and the torture artist. You’re parts of one whole. No one can do this alone.
