#the scholar.

[mintmatcha]

Rogue is the reader right? Would their ship name be Robi? Roguesidian? Perhaps Skin and Scales for those who aren't into the classic ship name style. Regardless, I'm obsessed with them and I think about them all the time, you've done a wonderful job creating their dynamic and making it feel realistic

they are truly my favorite couple and I cannot wait to write more and give you guys a bigger peek into how they interact on a day to day basis!!!

[cosmosfated]

The large fluff of a boss monster stretches out for a bit, letting out a heavy and relieved sigh as several of his bones crack and joints pop.  Now that felt nice to do.

Perseverance rolls their eyes and takes off their glasses in order to clean them properly.  It never really helps, considering the cloudiness is literally what helps them with a majority of their issues, but it’s more or less a habit by now.  “You know that’s not healthy for you to do, right?”

Patience speaks up from where she’s sitting criss-cross-applesauce style, looking over a few books that she “nabbed” from the other timeline...somehow.  We don’t question the mages and how they do things, they just do them.  “Bold of you to assume he does anything healthy.”  Though he can’t see all of her face, Fleur can just hear the smirk in her voice.

“oh, so you’ve got jokes now, huh cialo?”  He reaches over and flicks her forehead, earning him a tongue sticking out at him.  They all called him their brother, so now he gets to truly act like an insufferable one.

“I think you should blame Emrys for showing us how to work the internet. Well, for showing Dia’. She’s only been looking up Adam Sandler and Will Smith movies- ow! That was rude!”  Did Integrity just git hit upside the head with a small notepad, yes.

(Ahhh, time to relax into the sound of bickering children.  Just like old times, when things were brighter, more hopeful.  He closes his eyes and puts both hands behind his head.)

“Shut it! I’m doing research!”  She’d deny the blush on her cheeks ‘til the day she dies.  ... ‘til she dies again.  “It’s important that I understand popular culture of current day. Very important.”

“Just like it was very important that you got all those?”  Perseverance points at the small stack of books next to Patience as they put their glasses back on.  “You do realize that romantic comedies don’t aid in your learning of the culture, right?

“Yes, these books are very important!”  Were those books at all informational in the sense she’s implying?  ...debatable...  “Fleur! Fleur, do you think romantic comedies don’t help in learning about the culture?”

Oh.  He didn’t want to be dragged into that.

He opens one eye to look between all of them. Smiles.  Closes that eye again. “i don’t watch rom-coms.”

“Fleuuuur!”

At least he knows the magic wore off.

                               ---  m!a end.  ---

[cosmosfated]

Is Fleur hiding out in the pillow fort again, yes.  Is he still hiding under the coat his papá draped over him last night, also yes.

He's too busy holding the Seer close to him to pay attention to the world around him.  Telling the truth is hard, it shouldn't be forced out of him even though he's lied for so long.  The truth isn't an easy pill to swallow when it comes to him.  The truth...

He looks down at the kid in his arms and curls up a little more.  Nuzzling against their hair and not at all minding when Patience "sneaks in" to lay with him as well.  Comfort, weight- it's been so long and yet still they know each other well.  A brother to his people, and a leader to his men.  Some things are best left forgotten.

The truth is, the truth hurts and he's tired of hurting.

[cosmosfated]

Echoes

There are few moments that feel reminiscent of a time lost to the darkness.  Few moments of overlap with what came before.  Few moments of good repeated history.

Few welcomed echoes of the past.

“Fleuuuur...”  Comes the quiet whining of a drowsy Bravery soul, stretching a bit to uselessly bat at the back facing the rest of the group.  This pillow fort is too comfy to move too much in.  Also there may be a lot of people in here- there’s still a lot of room sure but even so!  “Fleur wake uuuuup...”

Patience rubs at her eyes and yawns, running a hand through her hair, which is now out of its ribbon-decorated ponytail and laying messily against her shoulders and upper back.  She looks at Bravery and moves the eight year old to rest in her lap.  “Don’ bother Fleur; he’s sleeping still. Let him sleep.”

“Hasn’t ‘e been asleep for a long time now though? Ain’t that bad?”

“Hard to judge proper standards of sleep for someone who goes against the very laws of na--”  Yaaaaawn!  “--aaaature on some occasions. Mm~.”  Kindness stretches out, cracking his back and popping his shoulders a bit before relaxing again.  “I say let ‘im sleep! If it’s too much for even Fleur, I’m sure Mister Lost and Mister Emrys will wake him up.”

“Huhwha?”  There’s Integrity, waking up with a start and blinking a few times to orient herself.  Of course, no one can see the blinking because her hair is puffed up and messy enough to cover most of her face.  She decides that, well, she must have taken out her ponytail before she fell asleep.  When did she fall asleep?  Oh.  Right.  The Captain was singing;   he has a nice singing voice.  She rubs at her face a little bit before stretching as well.  “I’m not sure whether I want to go back to sleep or stay awake. That was the best sleep I’ve ever had.”

(Ssssnoooorreee.)

“...and from the sound of it, Justice agrees with me.”  She won’t point out the elder Hunter snoring too, there’s no need.

The four kids giggle at the softly snoring smaller Hunter, and then realize they’re missing someone.  Where’s Perseverance?

As if recognizing they’d be asked to show where they are, they groggily mumble ‘over here’ from near Fleur.  Did they wake up some time earlier and move to lay with Fleur, yes.  Did Fleur mind at all, no.  In fact, Fleur seemed to take comfort in that feeling.

Integrity rolls her eyes playfully.  “You and Fleur used to always do that. He would never be asleep, but he’d never say no to one of us just stealing him to...well. Feel safe, I guess.”

Patience closes her eyes and rests a cheek on the top of Bravery’s head.  “Yeah... all that trouble to make hell feel like home, and you know what? When he was there with us, it always did feel like home. Even if Justice got into little spats with him and occasionally tried to surprise him or overpower him.”

“Heh, and that never exactly went according to plan.”  Kindness chimes in from his place, giving something of a playful salute.  “Always ended up disarmed and held up by blue magic until she’d apologize.”

Justice turns onto her other side and pulls one of the blankets tighter around her.  Does she recognize that she’s being talked about?  Probably.  Will she wake up?  Not right now.

Patience giggles.  “Fleur’s like a best friend to us, right? One of those best friends that lets you crash at their place and eat their food. I mean. Yeah, he did wrong us, but it wasn’t...entirely him, yanno?”

“It wasn’t at all him, Patience,”  Integrity corrects.  “Isolation, lack of an outlet, and partial possession is more than enough to drive a man well past insane. Then there’s power of suggestion.”  She yawns softly, only to find herself brushing away the hair from her face enough to properly look at the sleeping giant of a Fallen Mage.  “...And he’s more than a best friend. He’s a brother. Always has been.”

Perseverance looks up at Fleur once they hear that, only to nuzzle more into the arms around them.  Yeah, brother is just right.  Brother is completely accurate for what this fluffy dork of a Mage is for them.  A chance at giving them all the lives they deserved.

They continue to reminisce on the times he’s made that hellhole of a place feel like something it could never be, talking about the games they used to play.  The pranks they used to plan.  The lessons he used to teach.  The stories he used to tell.  The jokes they liked him telling.  The clothes that he would make, always somehow finding the material for it.  The sternness that came occasionally when they severely messed up or nearly got hurt.

The echoes of a time where he once had hope and wasn’t afraid to show it.

And Fleur smiles, the gesture hidden behind the fluff and the chattering of children at his back.

...what?  He never said he wasn’t asleep.

[cosmosfated]

“Ooookay. So, I’m done with the book from Emrys--”

“Finally.”

“...Some days I regret being your partner. I really really do.”

“No you don’t. You two bicker like an old married couple.”

“Anyway.

Emrys is right;   the history that we know of has been vastly and majorly edited. I’m not going to pin the blame on Fleur for that one, I’m fairly certain all of us can understand why he did what he did, regardless of whether or not he was under the influence of “suggestion” from his Keeper. The facts and truths we grew up with and came to either accept or challenge to our own degrees are now mostly fiction. Stories told under the moon to frighten, myths that no longer hold any weight like they once did. Dragons still exist, and most of their subsets, so there’s some relief to be had there. If they’re not tampered with, then there’s still a chance we can help set the records straight.

But, hm. The Hunter’s Guild- it no longer exists. It’s said that it had to be undone due to corruption and misuse of resources and information, but there’s no other information on it. It feels like it’s too straightforward, too easily believable to...actually be believable, right? It’s too easy to be true. Corruption, I could understand... but not in that short of a time frame. It’s too fast for a poison like that to spread. All of us know how long it takes for something like that to spread, and a century isn’t enough to take down something like that. Something like what we- Anna and I- were a part of. “Taken down” is a rather flowery way to put “erased”...

From what I noticed while on patrols, the Realms are starting to bleed into each other and the gates may be starting to break? Well, Patience said they are, but we’d have to go back and check for that and, well, I don’t think Lost is going to let us do that, nor would Emrys. So we’ll have to try and set up something like we did back in the Void to call Fleur.

And of course, the kicker: there’s no other Mages in the timeline, and very few people are aware of the other Realms. Other Mages, I can...really really understand why he would have wanted Mages gone. But the awareness of the Realms? The protection that came with the knowledge of what was beyond our world, of what lurks in the shadows and what darkens the night? Either that was a side effect of ridding the world of Mages or he stupidly thought not knowing about what lurks just beyond our sight would shield us from the damage it would cause. He of all people should know better than that, so I’m inclined to believe the former. There’s more proof towards it, but... Fleur’s always been the type of guy to surprise us.

There is one thing that I find funny though. That divination witch that we liked to talk about a lot, saying he’s, uh, he’s immortal or something along those lines? He’s still alive. Living in Washington, D.C. with his son. I think he’s going by the name Shaun this century? Yes. He’s still alive. It’s nice to see some people still say “absolutely not” to things like this and stay around regardless.

But, there. That’s what I’ve gotten together without going back home to observe further.”

“...uh... With what you’re telling us, Integrity, can we really even... you know. Call it our home anymore? Hardly anything is the same. Surely Fleur feels the same way, even if he’s not always aware of it.”

“That’s another thing: Fleur has, I believe, exceeded the boundaries of the timeline, and I’m almost one-hundred percent certain that him trying to continue to remain a part of it, instead of just living there like the others that aren’t from it, is causing him to become just as blind and unaware as the rest of the lot. But uh- hm. Hmmm. I think us being around has temporarily reversed those effects. And yes, Gale, I said temporarily and I know we’re on a timer. You’re so bad at lying that it would be cute if it wasn’t embarrassing.”

“...To be fair, I wasn’t lying about it. No one asked, so I didn’t say.”

“That’s practically your trademark: you don’t ask, I don’t tell. That being said, Anna and I will continue to look into it, and eventually see if you’re up to asking around a bit, Gale. Kindness? Make sure Bravery doesn’t get themselves into a sugar rush.”

[cosmosfated]

As would be assumed, Fleur is still asleep.  Actually asleep this time and not pretending to be.  And while he's ordinarily a light sleeper, anyone who has seen him while he's in deep sleep can attest to the fact that once he hits a certain stage of sleep undisturbed by nightmare or outside stimuli, there isn't a thing in this universe or the next that would wake him up.  The sleeping rune that was placed on him only furthers this matter.

Justice is knelt down next to the sleeping giant of a boss monster, tilting her head curiously.  "... I've never seen Fleur sleep so heav'ly that he can't e'en tell who's around 'im."  She herself sounds a bit sleep slurred.

"That's because he never slept around us before?"  Patience chimes in from near Integrity.  "We would always sleep around him, not the other way around. The Void wasn't a pretty place, yanno."

"Yeah,"  Perseverance says softly, rubbing the back of their neck.  "It wasn't the best, but it was all we had. ...I hate the fact that all he had was..."  They frown.  They're the only one who caught a glimpse of where Fleur "fell"- and what took him.  Nightmare fuel.  Not to mention everything else they saw him go through.  Ugh.

"He tried to make it as safe as possible for us,"  Integrity murmurs, being careful about not waking him.  Rune or not.  "so we could sleep and be kids again for a little while. It's high time that he gets the same."

It's Kindness that puts another blanket around Fleur, and Bravery smiles when it's tugged more around him properly.

[cosmosfated]

Flomp.

Aaahhh...  Quiet, calm, home sweet home.  Nothing bad about the other home, no, just...  He would much prefer the quiet.  At least he could prepare for the chaos here- ...well, somewhat prepare for it. 

He yawns a big yawn, ears pinning back somewhat before he gets settled back into the nest of pillows and blankets.  Furred ears lazily flopping to the side.  He's safe here, and feels safe.  His body language shows it.

"mmrhhf--?"

There's kids suddenly flopping on him.  Were it not for the fact that they undoubtedly have seen how he's reacted to others carelessly laying on him, he's certain that they, too, would have brought a slight pain to him.  But they don't, they've been watching how he moves and acts for too long to.

"Thought you could use some company."  Patience.

Fleur makes a noise that sounds vaguely like "liar."

She shrugs.  "Okay, Integrity told me you're fluffy and warm, so I wanted to see for myself, but what I said before was true."

He rolls his eyes.  "what's yer 'scuse, anna?"

"Uhhh. I don't need one?? I do what I want!"

Snort.  Justice is as Justice does.  Sweet to see some things never change.

Perseverance lays down next to his head and smiles.  "The curse of being fluffy and warm. Blame your Soul for being a magnet for good company."  Fleur casts them a glance that should be nigh unreadable but is nonetheless read by them with ease.  "Well, good company right now. You know what I mean."

He closes his eyes.  "...integrity, come on already. i don't bite, even if i have the smile to."  A low rumble of laughter betrays his exhaustion as she sighs and lays next to her partner.  Sleep, sleep is good.  The slight weight of the kids against him will keep him from feeling like he's falling again.  Falling...falling...

Ack!  Perseverance flicked his right ear.  "Don't get lost, now. I'm not afraid to tattle to Mister Captain."

Another snort, and he shifts so that he has his head on the Seer's stomach.  This is good, for now.  For just this moment, this is good enough.