Child of the Nein (Mighty Nein & Child!Reader)
So I remember seeing a request for something like this a while ago but it disappeared (Tumblr being dumb probably had something to do with it 😑). If I remember it was basically how the Mighty Nein, and Lucien, react to their child getting an eye tattoo on them
It felt really weird to see Lucien, having been Molly before was awesome, he was kind and a lot of fun but Lucien was not kind or fun to you and this giant living city you chased him to didn’t make it any better. The walls, floors, just everything was gross and fleshy and creeped you out to no end, making you huddle closer to Jester for some comfort.
"Don’t worry (y/n), it’s going to be alright." She places a hand on your shoulder and gives you a sweet smile, but you could tell by her tone she was just trying to make you feel better and wasn’t fully convinced by her own words. Returning the smile you push forward through the halls of Aeor, a weird humming noise starting to buzz in your ear, coming from one of the walls.
"Do you hear that humming sound too?" You tugged Jester's coat as you ask, she gives you a confused look.
"I don’t hear any humming." She says, looking around with concern. You let a puff of air in annoyance, why where you the only one being tormented by the sound? You just wanted it to stop. The humming got louder, sounding more like screams, you look around seeing a wall with strange text on it shifting around, this was where the sound seemed to be coming from. You walk away from Jester towards the wall in almost a trance, being pulled towards it and staring at the odd text you had no way of reading. Without realizing, you raise your hand up and place it on the wall, a series of symbols and odd scribbles flash before your eyes until you feel yourself being yanked away from the wall making you gasp in shock as you’re thrust back into reality. "(Y/n)! (Y/n), are you okay?" Jester frantically asks starting to look you over.
"Ummm… I think so." You reply after a second to refocus yourself. Now seeing everyone staring down at you with wide eyes. "What’s wrong?"
"Eye. You have a red eye right here." Jester points to a spot on the side of her neck, close to the ear, showing you where a red eye tattoo had appeared. You quickly place a hand over the area, flinching away only to look back up at her, letting out a scared whine. She immediately picks you up and holds you close to her. "It'll be okay, don’t cry. We’ll figure this out." She hushes you, you nod hoping she’s right, wrapping your arms around her neck and take a few deep breaths to calm down before continuing forward.
Molly had always been a loud and proud individual, it was an infectious feeling at the time making you feel just a little more confident in your own skin too. Lucien, while still in his own way proud was not as morally boosting to you, you did not like him in the slightest. Now having chased him into the astral sea and to the giant moving city you were sure you were entering the endgame. Everything here was gross and moving, yet strangely you weren’t that creeped out over it, having spent a long time living with goblins you've seen your fair share of gross fleshy messes before. As you traverse the place you encountered these weird creatures with way too many eyes and mouths to be comfortable with, and having killed one of these things a series of symbols flashes in you mind before disappearing. You look around not noticing anything else out of the ordinary and run over to Veth who, when you drew closer, let’s out a small gasp making you tilt your head to the side confused.
"(Y/n), sweetie, I don’t want to alarm you… but look at your shoulder." You look at your right shoulder, seeing nothing, then look to the left one where through a tear in your coats fabric you see a red eye had appeared, you quickly place your hand over it.
"Am I dying?! Does this mean I’m dying?!" You ask in a small panic.
"Of course it doesn’t." Veth comforts, placing an arm around you and planting a small kiss on your head. "I mean just look at Caleb and Beau, they’re covered in red eyes and they’re still alive." She had a point there, you nod at this and continue to journey farther into the city with the rest of the Nein.
It was weird to see Molly again, except he wasn’t Molly anymore. This Lucien guy was odd, you weren’t entirely sure what to make of him yet, for now he and the rest of the Tombtakers were traveling with you and, after some bumpy starts, sharing Caleb’s magic tower with you for the night. It was getting later in the evening but you wander the tower in search of Caleb, it’s been hard to get any sleep lately so he would tell you at least one bedtime story to help. During your search you pick up one of the servant cats that inhabit the tower, its legs dangle limply in your arms. Finally you spot him, he and Beau were looking over some book, Lucien was there too which confused you so you decide to approach slowly and cautiously. Getting close enough you could see the pages to the book they were looking through but weren’t able to fully read the words on the page, that is until they flipped to one covered in crazed scrawls and symbols all over it. Your eyes were locked on the page going over the different patterns, finding yourself unable to look away, the book's suddenly snapped shut and you shake your head back into reality. You had a feeling you probably weren’t supposed to see that, but the three didn’t seem to take notice of you as they conversed so you quickly sneak off and wait for Beau and Caleb to return.
Evening falls, you and the Nein were all huddled in one room as a safety precaution while you try to get some sleep, but the evening had other plans for you when you find yourself staring off in a dark void. All you could remember was after Caleb a came to join you again, you got your little bedtime story and went to sleep, yet now you were somewhere else entirely, wherever here was. A red light breaks through the darkness opening into a single large eye, you stare petrified until a feeling, a thought enters your head.
"Welcome…" Just a single word, floating around, echoing in your mind followed by images of symbols and scrawls similar to those from that book and a humming that slowly turns to screams growing louder and louder. The eye closes and you jolt awake, by the looks of it you weren’t the only one affected by this either.
"That’s rare." You hear Fjord say, unsure of what to make of the situation. Beau grabs her notebook and quickly starts writing something down as she does you see a red eye was now on the back of her left hand, something Caleb brings to her own attention. After some concerned looks between the two they both check for any eyes on Caleb, finding one on his right shoulder region. "Wait, why’d you wake up?" Fjord points attention over to you now.
"They weren’t with us when we examined the book." Caleb looks over at you and you shrink in on yourself a little. "(Y/n)?" He gives a concerned stare.
"I didn’t mean to." You say quietly, no one else says anything so you continue. "I was trying to find you, but then I saw you were busy with that weird book. I didn’t mean peek, but I couldn’t look away when you turned to that page with all those strange drawings on it. I’m sorry." You get teary eyed and sniffle, hearing Caleb sigh before pulling you closer to him.
"It’s alright kleiner, you meant well and we couldn’t have predicted this would happen." Caleb tries to calm you a little. "However, if you saw what we did then that would mean…" He trails off, only for Beau to fill in the rest.
"They have one as well." She points to where your pants had rolled up your leg a ways, revealing a single red eye on your right ankle. You hoped this wasn’t permanent and could get reversed somehow, little did you know this was only the beginning as the rest of the group begins to stir from all the commotion.
You were not a fan of this Lucien character, there was something unnatural to him that made your skin crawl and this giant living city you’d chased him to wasn’t helping the case. You knew a bit about the person who had inhabited their body from the rest of the Nein but since you never knew Molly personally you didn’t feel the same emotional distress as the others. The creatures that inhabited the city proved to make difficult obstacles, you squared off with a smaller one while the others dealt with several larger ones, you weren’t even sure what to make of this thing and defiantly didn’t want to over think about it either. When you manage to take the thing down it sends out a small burst as a last resort attack, but you didn’t notice any pain or damage to yourself, instead these strange symbols flash before your eyes. The designs were almost hypnotic but as much as you tried you could take your eyes away from them.
"…" There was a mumble of something but you couldn’t hear what. "…!" Same incoherent voice but a little louder, you wanted to see who was talking you really did but it felt like you were stuck in place. Something grabs ahold of you making you jump and ready to attack but then a wave clarity washes over you, the symbols disappear and you’re able to refocus again.
"What happened?" You look up at Caduceus confused, noticing you weren’t in the spot you’d been standing in originally. He doesn’t say anything right away, just takes you into his arms holding you close and lifts you up, going to follow the rest of the group.
"They did something to you," he finally says, you look at him worried. "Your eyes glazed over red and you started attacking us." This upset you deeply, you didn't mean to hurt anyone, you place your hands on your head and shrink into yourself a little, that’s when you see it. Now present on your right forearm was one of those red eye tattoos, you gasp and pull your arms away from yourself giving Caduceus the chance to see the eye. Tears start to fall from you, this was so wrong, you were a force working with nature but this was anything but natural. Caduceus soothingly rubs your back helping you calm down slightly.
"It'll be okay, we’ll find a way to fix this." He whispers to you, you nod as you take in slow deep breaths to help refocus yourself to the task at hand. It was like a part of you knew that in order to remove the eye, this city had to go down.
This whole thing felt weird, confusing and frustrating to you. Things used to be so simple, now this Molly lookalike who called himself Lucien came along and everything felt like it was in disarray, it unfortunately couldn’t be helped and now you had to share Caleb’s tower with him and the rest of his group. You were chasing around one of the towers cats as a means of entertainment when you bump into someone and stumble to the ground, pushing yourself up and dusting yourself off you look up and see Caleb, Beau and Lucien staring at you.
"Umm sorry, didn’t know I was interrupting something." You apologies and are about to turn and leave when you see the book in their hands. "What’s that and why’s it all in undercommon?"
"A book we’re trying to read, so if you’ll… wait you know this is undercommon?" Beau raises an eyebrow at you, you just nod. "And you can read it?"
"Kinda, I guess." You shrug and before you know it you’re now helping to decipher through the various journal entries, until you reach a page just full of scribbles and crazy drawings. You look over everything finding yourself being drawn in and unable to look away the longer you stared, in a flash the book's shut and Lucien's bidding you all a goodnight.
While everyone was readying themselves for sleep you wanted to stay up and keep first watch with Fjord, you didn’t realize you’d fallen asleep until you find yourself staring into nothingness. It almost felt like déjà vu, floating in a dark abyss only to be greeted by an eye staring you down, though this time it wasn’t a creep, mysterious sea leviathan staring at you but something else, completely unnatural. It didn’t really speak either but rather placed a feeling or thought that formed words in your head saying one thing.
"Welcome…" The word was echoed around, like it was bouncing off of nonexistent walls, then screams fill your ears as the eye closes and your brought back into the waking world. You look up at Fjord who in turn looks between you, Caleb and Beau, who also awoke possibly from the same thing.
"That’s… rare." He says with confusion and concern, you look around the room to see if anyone else had somehow woken up, seeing signs of the others slowly beginning to stir. There’s a sudden feathery touch on the back of your neck making you jump slightly, instinctually place a hand over it and whip back to look at Fjord again, who stares back in shock.
"What?" You tilt your head confused but look over to see Beau and Caleb having red eye tattoos on them, making it click in you head that you must’ve now had one too.
To say you didn’t like Lucien was an understatement, he was snarky and overall a jerk, sure Molly was similar in someways but at least he had done it all in good fun. Still your curiosity got the better of you what with that book he held onto, wondering what sort of secrets were hidden in those pages. You got your answer sooner then you thought when spending the evening in Caleb’s tower Beau, Caleb and yourself were approached by the tiefling. Well mostly they were you just so happened to be present as well, but you weren’t going to let this opportunity to gain new information slip by, the three of you working through deciphering the pages until you reach a page just covered in mad scrawls and odd symbols. The different patterns and marking gave off a hypnotic feel, finding yourself unable to look away until the book is snapped shut by Lucien. You feel a little dazed by the whole thing taking a second for yourself to refocus.
When evening finally come around everyone huddled together in one room away from the Tometakers for safety and to discuss what to do going forward. You couldn’t quite keep yourself awake as long as everyone else and end up passing out for the night only to open your eyes and stare into an endless, dark void. You look around yourself to see if you could… well see something, spotting a red glow cut through the darkness. The light grows larger, opening into a giant eye that felt as though it was looking everywhere all at once. It was like a link was formed between you and whatever this thing was as it sends a thought into your mind. Just one single word.
"Welcome…" It echos and repeats itself over and over like a buzzing hive, images of those symbols from the book flash before you and you now realize the buzzing wasn’t actually buzzing but screams. Before you can dwell on it too long the eye closes and you shot up, wide awake alongside Caleb and Beau.
"That’s rare." You hear Fjord mumble, but don’t pay much mind to him as you go and grab your notebook to write down what you’d seen, seemed like Beau had a similar idea since she was also frantically writing in her own notes. When you’re done you have a look at what you wrote, seeing mad scrawls and utter nonsense cover the page, when you look up Caleb had removed his shirt showing a red eye by his shoulder and Beau was alternating between staring at the back of her hand and looking over at you with concern. Catching onto the idea you check yourself for any red eyes, and who would’ve guessed when you lift your own shirt a little ways you see a single eye located on your abdomen, you now stare up at Beau with equal concern. Before anything else can be said the rest of the Nein start to stir.
Meeting Lucien was like a heavy punch in the gut for both you and Yasha, he didn’t know or care much about you and he called Molly a fragment or imposter, which you didn’t believe to be true. Molly was nice, fun and he showed you how bright and beautiful the world could really be, Lucien felt like the complete opposite and yet their personality was so similar. By now you had chased him to the astral sea and into the creepy living city of Aeor, but you weren’t going to let the unnerving nature of this place deter you from wanting to save your friend, if there was anything for you to save. The weird monstrosity’s that roamed the place didn’t like your presents, having to fight them off to move forward, throughout all of this there was an odd humming sound that resonated in the back of your mind.
"What’s wrong?" Yasha asks concerned, seeing your face scrunch up.
"I keep hearing this humming sound and it won’t go away." You cross your arms in a huff, getting increasingly frustrated with the strange noise.
"I wish I could do something to help you, but I can’t find anything that could be making a humming sound." She says with a sighs, having a look around to try and pick up on anything herself. Continuing forward you try and ignore the sound but it only gets worse, now sounding more like screams growing louder and louder, it was giving you so much of a headache you cover your ears in a poor attempt to stop the sound. Symbols start flashing before your eyes, the screams still growing louder then silence, you take a second reopen your eyes seeing Yasha kneeling in front of you with worry. "Are you okay? You dropped to the ground so suddenly, I thought something attacked you." You just nod that you're okay and reach up for her to pick you up, she does so and you both gasp when you see one of those red eye tattoos had appeared on top of your right wrist. Yasha looks at you with concern, you stare back for a second before covering your wrist with your other hand and give a look of determination.
"We're gonna fix this and make everything better, won’t we?" You tried to sound as confident as possible but deep down you were scared, Yasha having noticed this also puts in a determined face, touching her forehead against yours.
When you met up with the Nein again things were still tense, you being the sorta bridge between both parties to try and keep things from going too far south. It was a lot for one kid to handle but you certainly tried your best, now everyone was spending the night in Caleb’s magic tower, something else you missed out on the first time around. As much as you wanted to interact with the Nein and see how they were doing, Lucien was still very adamant on keeping you close to his side. As nice as it was to know a part of him still cared about you, something the Nein tried to question him on with little results, it could get a bit overbearing. Taking a moment you close your eyes, lean against a wall and slide down into a sitting position, you then feel something get placed in your lap as a second presents joins you. You open your eyes again to of course see Lucien had joined you then look down at the odd book he gave you.
"What’s this?" You ask staring at the book curiously.
"I feel I’ve been unfair with ya. Ye’ve well proven to have earned me trust so I figure it about time I share something with ya." Lucien brings you in closer to him and opens the book, which you can see is written in undercommon. "Are ye able to understand what this says?" He questions you.
"Hardly, I only know some basic words in undercommon." You say after you’ve examine the words on the page trying to decipher what it all said.
"That’s alright, this is really what I wanted to show ya anyways." He flips through several pages until he reaches one with odd designs and symbols on it. You suddenly feel memorized, unable to look away from the page, studying each design and crazy scrawling of words. He flips to another page similar to the first… then another… and another… finally he closes the book, breaking you from the little trance you were in. "I think that should be enough." He comments, a little ominously.
"Enough of what?" You look at him confused.
"Don’t worry yerself about it. It’s gettin' late anyway, best get some rest for tomorrow little one." You blink a few times, still very confused as to what all that was about but decide to just leave it for now and try and get some sleep…
You find yourself floating alone in this cold, dark, endless void, was this some sort of dream? You know you tried to fall asleep but now you were here, wherever here was. Through the void a thin crack forms, giving off a menacing red glow before opening into a large eye that seems to look at you, through you and around you all at once. You can only stare back unsure of what to do and a little scared, then a voice… no, a thought enters your head.
"Welcome…" It echos around your head, alongside a strange humming sound as you become linked to this thing. You were shaking, terrified of what this was and unsure of what it wanted, then another thought is placed and echoed into your head by this thing. "Do not fret… young one… we’ve been expecting you…" We? Expected? What was any of this supposed to mean? Symbols and markings similar to those from the book Lucien showed you flash before your eyes, the humming now sounding more like distant, desperate screams. The eye closes…
You jolt yourself awake, taking in deep breaths to calm yourself as best as possible, running your hands down your face to try and get a grip of whatever just happened. When you pull them away you notice a faint red glow on your left palm, rubbing a bit of sleep from your eyes you see a red eye tattoo staring back at you. You run your thumb over the mark and bring your hand in closer to your chest as you finally look up and around the dark room, (e/c) orbs landing on crimson ones staring back. You look down at your palm then back up at Lucien, through the dark you faintly see a smile creep onto his face as he raises his own palm with a similar eye on it.
