Farmer: I told you it was true! This... whatever it is, can’t be destroyed. I tried, and it nearly sent me to join my Grandpa in the afterlife!
Magnus: This monstrous abomination reeks of ancient magic… Dark, and very, very dangerous magic. For us and all the residents of Stardew Valley. How could I have overlooked such a threat? Did it really slip through my barrier?...
Lance: My skin has never itched this badly from being near an object before. Ancient magic unlike anything I’ve seen… We need to be careful. Keep your distance.
Jadu: Fascinating... So much void energy in a single object. I haven’t seen anything like this even when working with the Void Pebble. You can even see black tongues of the void energy. What if we take it and study it—
Isaac: Don’t touch it, you fool. This thing is dangerous, and we need to figure out how to destroy it, not study it.
Alesia: Yoba, save our souls!... We can’t just leave this alone when it threatens the lives of everyone here and the land itself. We have to do something!
Camilla: And we will, dear. But I want to seal this thing and figure out where it came from. The magic is darker and older than the Crimson Badlands themselves… I would advise everyone to evacuate the locals to a safer place, just in case my sealing spells go wrong.
Lewis:
Lewis: I’ll say this politely one last time — get out of my house and leave my underwear alone.
For @studentinpursuitofclouds, who got me thinking of Isaance fight scene
---
It probably speaks to something about him, that even on his day off Isaac finds himself with his sword in hand.
That you need a hobby, a voice that sounds suspiciously like Alesia whispers, and have you considered making another friend?
It's just that running drills, wrapped in the blanket of silence in the empty training room, is soothing. Meditative, even, if he closes his eyes to train his balance. He can settle into his bones and sinew and let his mind...turn off.
This is his first mistake.
He's startled from his reverie by a shuffling at the weapons rack, and when he cracks his eyes open to see the culprit, he knows the noise was on purpose. A courtesy to let him know that he was no longer alone, because Isaac well knew that Lance could be dead silent when he wanted to be.
Isaac waits.
Lance says nothing, trailing a graceful hand over the training weapons until he settles on a sword similar to the one fixed to his belt during patrols. Isaac watches, mouth suddenly dry, as he rests the flat of the blade on a finger and drags it forward until it's balanced perfectly. He looks up, meeting Isaac's gaze with traces of satisfaction in the press of his lips and a challenge in the slight tilt of his head.
"How about it?" He asks, eyes unyielding over the length of his blade. Isaac stares at him for a long, long moment.
"Fine," he mutters, and stalks over to swap out his own blade.
This is his second mistake.
The training sword is almost unsettlingly light, but no exercise is worth the risk of bloodshed. Or the hours he'd have to spend sharpening it afterwards.
Isaac stalks back to the center of the floor, purposefully turning his back to Lance shedding his outer layers. A beat longer for Lance to follow, and with a small nod, they're moving.
Almost immediately they're shockingly in sync, trading neat paries and sweeping blows like cards in a game of poker. Even if they've never faced off before, they've spent hours watching each other's backs from the outpost. Isaac knows Lance avoids taking head on strikes, so he focuses on keeping a steady base and wearing down his endurance; Lance anticipates it and challenges his footwork.
It's oddly exhilarating, and for the first time in possibly a decade, Isaac finds himself feeling just a hint--
playful.
And then Lance grins at him something feral, and with a graceful flick of his wrist, the room fills with a blue smoke.
"Cheating," he observes more than accuses, and of course, Lance rises to the bait.
"It is your fault, really, for not declaring any terms," Lance cracks back, and it's enough. Instead of turning to face him, Isaac throws both his sword and his caution to the wind and thrusts backwards, using one freed arm to strike at Lance's sword hand and his other to launch an elbow into his gut.
It's probably more from surprise than the intensity of his hits, but it's enough to get Lance to drop his weapon. Isaac takes hold of his outstretched wrist and swings his leg back, sweeping Lance's front foot out from under him, and uses his captive arm to lever him to the ground.
The obvious move is to follow him down and use his advantage to go for a hold.
This is his third mistake, because halfway to a wristlock, Lance's eyes flutter halfway closed and Isaac can feel his slow exhale, and he becomes violently aware of their position and how everywhere their bodies are pressed together burns.
For just a moment, he forgets how to breathe.
And of course, it's enough time for Lance to find leverage and flip them over, and this is so much worse because Lance is leaning over him, chest heaving, hair falling over his eyes and his smile wicked, and very, very much clutched between Isaac's thighs.
Isaac does what Isaac does best: let's his higher functioning retreat and his instincts take over. Without a single thought he's gripping and arm and throwing his legs into a textbook arm bar. He doesn't exhale until he feels Lance tap out against his calf.
the best way to avoid out-of-character moments in your fics is to write about characters who are so obscure that they don't even have canon personalities. "he would not fucking say that" well he wouldn't say anything if this was canon so hey what can you do
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