Lukey is an amnesiac human alone in a world full of monsters and violence. He's a pacifist, he's a scientist, he is not an alcoholic. He has a stab wound in his stomach and a mysterious hooded figure standing behind him every time he looks in a mirror.
But none of that is important, because there's a bowling competition coming up, and he has to get his teammate, Pangi, back in proper shape so the Honey Badgers can beat the Kingdom and finally take home the trophy.
(And maybe, if he's lucky, he'll finally be able to work up the nerve to ask Pangi out for drinks afterwards.)
REALM FIC REALM FIC!!
COMMENT AND REBLOG PLEASE!!
:D :D :D Tumblr please let me embed links again :D :D :D
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Blood Moon
Every child in the Federation knows about the Vampire King. His name was discarded when his humanity was, and nobody knows what he looks like, but everyone knows about the Vampire King. He's a killer vampire thousands of years old who murders anybody stupid enough to visit the infamous Castelo Arabutã.
Roier knocks on the castle's front door, anyway.
-
Or: How Roier ends up as the Vampire King's live-in babysitter and rediscovers the joy of family
Growing up, Cellbit heard plenty of stories of the bloodthirsty God of Chaos. He steals souls, he kidnaps men, he causes wars...
But, now, Cellbit watches Roier trip over a rock, fall right onto his face with a high-pitched scream, and lay with his face in the mud, unmoving.
After a moment, the rock explodes into a shower of pink glitter that puffs up into Cellbit's face.
Cellbit sneezes, nose twitching, ears and tail fluffing up.
(His hands are in his pockets.)
Roier swears into the mud. Slowly, he pushes himself up onto his hands and knees. He shudders not unlike a dog coming in from the rain.
Cellbit feels his mouth twitch up into a smile, and he allows it.
("Once upon a time," she said, "there was a man who claimed to feel no fear.")
Cellbit doesn't move to help Roier stand; he's a god, he can handle himself.
Roier gets to his feet while fixing his hair where it had fallen into his eyes; his clothes, however, are still perfectly neat and clean.
He points at Cellbit with a real pout of a glare. "Stop laughing!"
"I'm not laughing," says Cellbit, laughing.
Roier grumbles under his breath, but he does nothing else as he flips his cloak behind himself dramatically. He continues along the path, glitter trailing in his wake.
-
("The man, determined to finally feel fear, left home and traveled. He walked all day and all night, unafraid of any monsters or criminals pursuing him.
"'Ah!' he cried, 'if I could only feel fear!'")
-
And Cellbit keeps his hands in his pockets.
-
("One day," she said, "he came across a black cat sitting alone on the side of the road.
"'Why are you alone?' the man asked.
"Everyone is afraid of me,' the cat replied, 'I bring bad luck.'
"'Well,' said the man, I neither feel fear nor believe in bad luck. So come with me, and I will be your friend.'
"The cat agreed, and so it was done.")
-
The sun sets, and Cellbit and Roier setle down for the night in the hollow of a shallow cave that Cellbit had watched pop out of the ground at the snap of Roier's fingers.
With another snap, there's a fire, and another conjures a couple of fish skewers roasting over it.
Cellbit, being half cat, has to fight back an embarrassing amount of drool as the smell of the cooking fish. He coughs, instead, and goes to sit on a rock as Roier gets to work cooking the fish.
Despite being a god, Roier has been more than happy to create a campsite every night since he and Cellbit escaped the village. He probably just sits and watches Cellbit sleep, and the food is probably poisoned, but that's fine; it isn't anything that Cellbit wouldn't be long used to by now.
One of the first stories Cellbit had ever heard of the God of Chaos was about the god when he was newly-ascended. He had fallen in love with a priest of Death and had started following him in secret upon being rejected. One night, Chaos tried to steal the priest away to the Holy Realm and marry him.
In the present day, Roier conjures up a packet of spices in his hand and sprinkles it over the roasting fish.
"You get to cook tomorrow," he says without looking up from the fire.
Cellbit hums noncommittally. He knows that he will, in fact, not be cooking tomorrow, or even on the day after that. He doesn't know how to cook, for one, and, for another...
Suddenly, Roier sighs and hangs his head in apparent defeat. (He wrinkles his nose as his hair falls back into his eyes.)
"Fine," he theatrically says, "I get it."
He looks up with a prideful look on his face. "You love my cooking. Ah, ah!" (He holds up a hand even though Cellbit wasn't trying to speak.) "No arguing! I know I'm a god, but I can cook better than half the humans on this plane."
...Roier goes back on his offer every single night.
-
("On the first night," she said, "the man and the cat settled beneath a large tree. As the man laid his head down on his pillow, he heard a howling from the forest beyond.
"Suddenly, an enormous black wolf leapt out of the forest and ran towards the man, but he did not react.
"The wolf vanished, and the cat came out from his hiding place in disappointment.
"'Ah!' the man cried. 'If only I had felt fear!'
"'We shall see tomorrow,' said the cat.")
-
After dinner, Cellbit sits with his back to the fire as Roier talks to himself in a language that Cellbit Knows hasn't been spoken in over one thousand years.
The palms of Cellbit's hands are hidden by the night's shadows, but he knows that they're looking back at him. Judgemental. He doesn't need to See to know, not with them.
Briefly, he considers turning around and shoving his hands into the fire.
But he doesn't.
He squeezes his hands shut and lets out a tense breath.
Roier is watching him. He Knows it.
"You want dessert?" Roier asks. "'Cause I don't know about you, but I'd kill for some alegría right now."
At the mention of dessert, Cellbit's ears perk up. (He's always had a sweet tooth, even if he was on a strict diet of bread and wine for most of his life.)
Roier chuckles. "Oh? On it, boss!"
"I'm not your boss," Cellbit argues, not for the first time since they left the village. (Somehow, it keeps coming up, and it feels condescending every time Roier says it.)
He does turn around, though. He's careful to keep his hands out of the light.
Roier winks and smiles and snaps his fingers. And then, suddenly, he's holding two bricks in his hands. They smell of honey, and they look to be made of seeds.
Cellbit... hesitates. It was easier with dinner, Roier was facing away from him when he took his skewer from off of the fire.
He looks at the candy.
His fists clench.
Roier wiggles the candy like it's a worm on a fishhook. It smells tantalizing: sweet and familiar in a way that scratches at the back of Cellbit's brain like an old friend. (One of the worshipers brought some once, maybe?)
The fire flickers, the light dimming for just a fraction of a second.
In that split second, Cellbit snatches the candy from Roier's hand. His teeth sink into it; his tail wriggles contentedly.
Roier stares at him for a moment, his own candy halfway raised towards his open mouth, eyes wide in shock- four eyes in shock.
Cellbit chews. He swallows. He takes another bite.
The God of Chaos is said to have stolen the soul of the God of Fear by feeding him a cursed pomegranate.
Cellbit knows that he'll owe Roier after this. Whenever they get to the next village, he knows that Roier will demand payment for all the favors he's been doing.
Suddenly, Roier lets out a sharp, amused bark of a laugh and relaxes. He takes a happy bite of his candy. His bottom two eyes fade out of sight (but not out of mind.)
"Told you it was good!" he exclaims, mouth full.
He might potentially own Cellbit's soul now, but, frankly, he's the better of Cellbit's two options.
-
("On the second night," she said, "the man and the cat settled inside of an abandoned farmhouse. As the man laid his headdown on his pillow, he heard roaring and rumbling from outside.
"Suddenly, an enormous giant appeared in front of the farmhouse swinging its cudgel wildly. It reached for the man, but he did not react.
"The giant vanished, and the cat came out from his hiding place in disappointment.
"'Ah!' the man cried. 'If only I had felt fear!'
"'We shall see tomorrow,' said the cat.")
-
Cellbit lays on his back with his hands tucked neatly under the blanket Roier had thoughtfully conjured for him. He stares up at the ceiling, painfully awake.
Growing up, he was always told a story before bed. When he was a teenager, he was made to tell the group's children stories before bed. As soon as he turned 18, He forbade him from communicating with anybody besides Him.
He's 26 now.
He's 26 years old, but he still can't sleep unless there's noise. Even his Cave had a river running through it. The forest's ambience now doesn't compare.
Roier sits at the mouth of the cave looking up at the stairs. Just as he has done every night so far, he hums softly- so softly that it probably isn't meant to be heard.
Gods don't need to sleep.
Sighing, Cellbit rolls onto his side so that he's facing the cave's small interior.
His eyes slip shut, and he sleeps.
-
("On the third night," she said, "the man and the cat settled in a bush on the side of the road. As the man laid his head down on his pillow, nothing happened. But then, suddenly, the cat screamed.
"The man looked around, but the cat was gone.
"'Cat!' he cried. 'Where are you, my friend?'
"He searched until the sun rose. Then, and only then, did the cat come out of his hiding place.")
-
Cellbit wakes up in the night to the familiar feeling of being watched.
This time, luckily, it's just Roier.
He cracks an eye open and glares; Roier, at least, has the decency to look mildly ashamed as he looks away.
Groggily, Cellbit groans, "Stop that. I'm not going anywhere, you'll still have me in the morning."
(Because that has to be it, right? Roier is just making sure that his new soul hasn't run away in the night.)
Roier looks back at him with a crooked grin.
"I'll have you?" he teases.
Perhaps unwisely, Cellbit hisses at him. He pulls his pillow out from under his head and covers his ears and the top half of his face with it.
Roire laughs, and Cellbit desperately wishes that it was possible to be an atheist.
-
("The man fell to his knees and held the cat to his chest.
"'You did it!' he cried. 'You made me feel fear!'
"'No, the cat responded, "you made yourself feel fear by caring about me. Your lack of fear is only a lack of care towards yourself. To be afraid is to feel love, be it love towards oneself or towards others. This, I hope, I have taught you.'"
"How does the cat know this?" he asks, daring to be curious in the face of a stranger. "It's just a cat."
She smiled and poked a finger at one of his ears. "Don't you know? Cats are the chosen animals of the God of Fear.")
-
The sun rises, and they're walking again.
Cellbit's hands are in his pockets.
"We should be near the next village by tomorrow night," he says.
Roier nods. "Cool."
And then he smirks and gives Cellbit a pointed side-eye.
"You owe me breakfast," he announces. "And an hour in whatever bathhouse they have there. And a night in an inn, I'm sick of sitting on the dirt. It's making my ass sore."
He then rubs his ass.
Cellbit looks away politely. He doesn't think that it's wise to look at a god's ass, it's probably, like. Blasphemy.
"Whatever you say," he agrees. He knew it. Favors must be repaid.
An hour without Roier will be nice, though, if only for Baghera's sake. Because she might be more... chaotic than Cellbit is, but she doesn't need to know that her second favorite god has attached himself to Cellbit's side after all the stories she heard him tell the children about Chaos' evil deeds.
The teasing would be horrible.
-
A/N: Let me know what you think in the tags or in my inbox! Please let me know if you want more, because there is more!
Second off: i have some ideas/theories, but i might as well be rambling about random stuff that just makes sense to me, so lets go
!Cell is clearly some god magnet of kinds?(robably related to his secret ability and reason he got taken by the cult. The whole dessert part implies he probably wasn't born and raised there.)
Im really curious about this cult and their dinamics, more especificaly where !Cell is in this whole mess. Hes clearly important if he got isolated from everyone except the leader (i supose its the leader, it only makes sense to be), and probably why there are people looking for him. That, and the killing people ofc
Idk if !Roier is tagging along bc of the whole "you owe me" bit or if there is a higher reason (maybe hes using it as a way to get back at the cult/god? It could be...)
How to create a character for an online or tabletop RPG (also a good guide on creating characters in general)
Royalty/nobility TV Tropes page
Basic character profile
OC masterpost
Random character generators - (1), (2), (3), (4)
D&D Character Building Tool
Character Design Ideas:
How clothing affects a character’s personality
Character Design Inspiration blog
Concept art, fan art, cool art to be inspired by
Character design references and inspiration
Sources for POC character design ideas and models
Create your own character model using HeroForge
For horned characters
Body and hair types guide
Random outfit generator
Naming Help:
Amazing site with an endless amount of naming resources
General advice on avoiding naming appropriation
Hispanic Surnames
Gothic Victorian names
Huge master list for character things in general
Masterlist of names of all types - including but not limited to ancient/old world names, Celtic, African, Northern European, Southern and Central American Native names, Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Polynesian, and more
Another name masterlist
How to pick a character name guide
Yet another names masterlist
Creating Background/backstory:
Character Sheet/Development Sheet
Another character development list
In-depth character personality, motivations and traits sheet
320 talents and passions for characters
On writing likes and dislikes that aren’t frivolous
Why you should write non-human characters non-conforming to the gender binary
Stereotypes, tropes, and archetypes
Random backstory generator
Assassin and thief character tropes to avoid
Character Interactions and putting your character into your world/story:
Comparing character height/height references
Characters who are scientists and writing about them doing science
Describing what different voices sound like
Describing skin tones
Writing friendship interactions that are platonic
Why having one character knock their friend unconscious to prevent them from doing something is a bad idea
Advice on shipping OCs with canon characters and what to avoid doing
Sweet Polly Oliver and Sweet on Polly Oliver situations (think of Disney’s Mulan for an example)
How to write multiple viewpoints/juggling a main cast of more than 4 to 6 characters
How to make readers care about your morally gray hero/anti-hero
On platonic OC and canon character relationships
How to avoid Godmodding in RPs
When it’s cheap to kill off a character
Writing dialogue
Things you shouldn’t do to canon characters
Avoiding purple prose in writing and RPs
Slang resources
Dialogue tips
Websites to chart your story/plot/character relationships
See, a fun spiderbit au could be a fantasy au where Prince Roier summons Demon Cellbit to save his kingdom from Evil Wizard Cucurucho, who his parents are both besties with despite Evil Wizard Cucurucho directly leading to Roier’s son, Bobby’s, death
And so: Cellbit, the only demon awake at two in the morning and willing to answer a summoning. He doesn’t normally do deals, mostly because he’s a demon “scientist” more interested in studying humans than stealing their souls, but any chance to ruin Cucurucho’s life is a chance worth taking
And so: Roier gets a handsome new “bodyguard” who technically looks human, and Cellbit gets a new research subject to ask a million questions to when they aren’t busy trying to kill the Evil Wizard or like. Making out.
Don’t get it confused, though, Cellbit is still a demon. He lives in the Nine Hells for a reason. He did some bad things when he was alive, and his official (human) execution and death didn’t change anything. But that was over a hundred years ago, and he’s sort of mellowed out over the years. He’ll still stab a dude with no hesitation and rip someone’s spine out to play jump rope with it, but he also wants to know what the point of human marriages is and why humans bury their dead.
(He was born into a war and was separated from his family. No one wanted to take care of a strange child when there was barely enough food for their own families. By the time the war ended, he was in prison. By the time his prison sentence was up, his head was being cut off upon the orders of King Cucurucho.
He never got a chance to be human when he was one, so he’s just taking advantage of his inhuman immortality to figure out exactly what he missed.)
God bless, they speedrun their professional-to-romantic relationship just like you’d expect them to. And, yeah, it’s probably Pretty Bad for the prince to have sold his soul to a demon, but imagine if that demon was also his husband
No, really, that’s the argument Roier gives Leo when she confronts him on the whole ‘demon’ thing. And this is like a month after the deal was initially struck. And Leo doesn’t even know who the demon IS. And, most importantly:
So now the kings think that Roier has gotten all weird and emo because A) his son is dead, B) Jaiden has gone to become Cucurucho’s Apprentice, and C) he’s bisexual and so desperate that he’s made up a fake love interest
And so naturally Foolish sits Roier down and is like “You know, hijo, you’re a great guy! Anyone in the kingdom would be happy to have you! You don’t need to make up a fake boyfriend to prove you’re bisexual, you can just get a real one! Or a girlfriend. Or both, honestly, you’ve got Vegetta’s genes in ya.”
And Roier, adopted, just nods and goes along with it while Cellbit The “Human Guard” is losing his mind in the background trying not to laugh
But then Vegetta sits Roier down and is like “My ex boyfriend is the devil. I’m very proud of you for who you are, but please don’t fall in love with a demon.”
And Roier, in love with a demon, just nods and goes along with it while Cellbit tries not to fall over laughing
But then Evil Wizard Cucurucho is like “Know what? My weird gay twin brother is single…”
And Roier, bisexual but with standards, leaves the room with his hot demon bodyguard close behind him
Roier's apartment is only a few minutes away from his restaurant. The building it's in is nice- nicer than anything Cellbit has ever been in. It's one of the De Luques', he thinks; it's fancy enough to be.
The apartment is on the thirteenth floor, so Cellbit limps into the elevator and tries not to look too out of place among all the rich people already inside. (He glances down at his arm sling and his untied shoes and decides that it's probably too late for that.)
Cellbit's phone is off. This is for one very good reason: he is not supposed to be out of the apartment. He isn't even supposed to be using his arm, but here he is. Using it. Outside of his apartment.
(He can practically hear Bagi's complaining now: "Cellbit, what the fuck, you know that you aren't supposed to be doing anything, I am going to kill you if you die, stop being stupid, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.")
His arm hurts like a bitch. So does his back, and his ears are ringing slightly from the pain. But it'll all be worth it when he gets upstairs and finally, finally gets to taste the soup that Roier has been texting him pictures of for almost a week straight.
Roier is, apparently, a little sick. His restaurant is closed due to lack of staff (he can't exactly run a restaurant with a cold), so he's been using his time off to come up with new dishes and adjust old ones. He's also been sending Cellbit whispered, raspy voice messages complaining about his live-in babysitters. He's also been kicking Cellbit's ass at 8-Ball. He's also been texting Cellbit random Spanish swear words and claiming they're actually perfectly normal words that Cellbit should definitely use in actual, real conversations with native Spanish speakers.
Pendejo, Cellbit thinks.
(That one, so far, is his favorite.)
Originally, Roier wanted him to stop by the restaurant. But then, just this morning, he sent Cellbit his home address and told him that his ribs hurt too much from coughing for him to make the trip to the restaurant, and Cellbit gets it; his own ribs are more than a little sore with all the walking he's been doing so far today after almost two weeks of forced rest.
So: Roier's apartment.
The elevator goes up slowly. The music playing is from some old pop album that Cellbit can't recognize. The walls are all mirrors, and the floor is white enough to rival snow.
Awkwardly, Cellbit adjusts the strap of his sling so it isn't digging too heavily into his shoulder. (God, what he'd do to have Felps with him right now...)
There's a tv panel above the elevator's buttons and the floor counter. It's showing an advertisement- apparently, the Junior Heroes really are recruiting again.
Cellbit unconsciously wrinkles his nose.
But, before any of the people in the elevator can comment on him or his stupid annoyed face, the elevator reaches floor thirteen. Cellbit rushes out of the elevator and heads down the hall to the left to where Roier's apartment should be.
The building is. Nice. Very modern, very. Nice. The purple carpet is plush enough for Cellbit's shoe to legitimately sink into it with every step, and the walls' expensive-looking wood paneling is shiny enough that Cellbit can see his reflection looking at him as he walks by. There are cameras above every apartment's door and then some, which is probably overkill; who would be stupid enough to steal from one of Vegetta de Luque's buildings?
It's easy enough to find Roier's apartment, even without the apartment number saved in their text conversation: all Cellbit has to do is follow the smell of meat and spices.
He stands in front of Roier's apartment door, hand hesitating over it. He should... knock. He should knock, Roier knows he's coming.
...Roier does not know about Cellbit's injury. Roier also doesn't know that Cellbit almost got him killed. Roier also doesn't know that Cellbit is the reason why Bagi went and interrogated him.
The television is on inside; it sounds like it's playing one of the cartoons that Richarlyson is obsessed with at max volume. Moon Cows!!!, Cellbit thinks. Not something he'd expect Roier to be watching, so one of his 'babysitters' must be with him.
(Great. More people to try and lie to.)
Cellbit shifts on his feet, adjusting his weight so his spine protests in anger. He lets out a breath through his nose, grounds himself in the pain.
He knocks on the door twice and puts a smile on his face that is only sort of a lie.
And he waits.
And he waits.
And he waits.
And-
The door opens slightly, just enough for Cellbit to be able to make out the color of the walls inside of the apartment- red- and a small, purple, child-shaped blob looking up at him suspiciously.
Cellbit looks at the blob.
The blob looks at him.
And then the door slams shut. Someone starts shouting in Spanish in a high-pitched voice. Roier starts shouting back, also in Spanish. (Something, something, Man At The Door, something, something, Boyfriend, something, something...)
Cellbit's hand slips into his pocket as he waits for the family argument to end.
Siblings, he thinks, not at all jealous. (At all.)
He listens as Roier and his sister keep yelling at each other. He only flinches a little as he hears loud, angry footsteps approaching the door. He tries not to panic as the argument inside threatens to go physical, with Roier threatening to throw his sister out the window and her saying that she hopes he gets pneumonia.
There's an audible scuffle, and the shiny gold doorknob shakes and rattles as it's fought over.
Then, suddenly, the door swings wide open, and Cellbit is face-to-face with Roier.
Roier looks rough: double, fading black eyes making him look like a raccoon; a white bandage stuck over the bridge of his nose; a bruised left cheek. Messy hair held out of his face by a neon pink headband, a Spider-Man-themed apron stained with whatever-the-fuck. He's favoring one leg clearly as he leans against the doorway with an easy grin on his face, and his right arm is stiff at his side like he's trying not to move it.
God, what did Bagi do to him?
"Cellbo!" Roier cheers, voice just as rough as his appearance.
A small face peeks out from beside him curiously. Her hair is long and black, and the purple baseball cap on her head looks easily three sizes too big for her. She has stickers on her cheeks- hearts and ice cream cones and little poop emojis.
Finally, Cellbit has a face for Roier's infamous little sister and supposed 'babysitter', Leonarda.
"Hello," Cellbit first tells Leonarda.
She narrows her eyes at him. Blinks a few times. Eases up, waves, ducks back into the apartment. Smacks Roier's ribs on the way.
Roier wheezes and instinctively tries to cover his side with his arm, but said arm is his right one, and all he manages to do is make himself hiss in pain and almost fall over right in the doorway.
He narrowly catches himself, stumbling briefly, before looking at Cellbit with a small pout.
"What," he asks, "no 'hi' for me?"
This cannot be the flu. Or a cold. Or whatever the hell it is that Roier is apparently sick with.
But Cellbit isn't one to immediately start prying. Despite the allegations, he is not an impulsive mess, thanks
So he just lets his smile soften, and he says, "Hi, Roier."
Leonarda audibly gags from somewhere out of sight.
Roier scowls. "Ignore her, she's just annoyed because she has to actually share my cooking today."
His nose twitches, and his eyes widen in panic.
"La sopa!" he exclaims.
Without a second thought, he turns and runs into the apartment, leaving Cellbit alone in the entryway.
After a brief second, he hears a shouted, "Come in!"
With a small, amused sigh, Cellbit walks into Roier's apartment and closes the door behind him.
He's immediately greeted with an entire wall made of windows. The apartment's main room is sparsely decorated- just an expensive-looking leather couch and an even-more-expensive-looking television and a coffee table with a mountain of candy wrappers on it, but who needs decoration when you have the entire city to look at?
The other walls are all painted a deep wine red. No photographs or paintings are on them, unlike the walls at the restaurant. There's a security panel by the front door, but that's it.
Awkwardly, Cellbit settles on the couch next to Leonarda. He rests his good hand on his lap, back stiff as a rod. He stares right at the television. (Moon Cows!!!, yep, he knew it.)
"Um," he says, "my son likes this show."
Leonarda responds by picking up a new piece of candy from the big purple bowl next to her and offering it to him, not sharing even a glance in his direction.
"Who beat you up?" she asks.
Cellbit responds by unwrapping the candy and popping it into his mouth, not sharing even a glance in her direction.
The open kitchen is to the left, behind the television. There's a large dining table between the two spaces and a fancy-looking granite breakfast bar; there are only three chairs at the table, and there are only three stools at the bar.
Roier runs around the kitchen with an energy that Cellbit doesn't think he's seen outside of reality cooking shows. He seems completely in his element as he stirs the big metal pot on the stove and opens the fridge and washes a bowl left on the counter next to the sink and-
"My dad's a cop, you know," Leonarda continues. "And I'm a hero, so you gotta tell me what happened, okay?"
She leans in real close, still not tearing her eyes away from her show, and she whispers conspiratorially, "Was it Hombre Misterioso?"
...A hero.
Finally, Cellbit turns his head to look down at her, a small frown on his face.
"You're a hero?" he asks.
She nods proudly, sitting up straight and adjusting her hat and shooting him a smirk. "I'm a Junior Hero. You've probably heard of me."
In the kitchen, Roier groans, "Nobody cares! Come here and help me set the table."
"I don't watch the news," Cellbit tells Leonarda. "Sorry."
She huffs out of her nose in clear disappointment. She stands, tosses a handful of candy wrappers onto the table, and goes to the kitchen.
As she goes, she whistles a sharp little note that sets Cellbit's teeth on edge.
Not exactly wanting to stay and watch a children's cartoon by himself, Cellbit gets up and follows Leonarda.
"I'm kind of a big deal, you know," she brags. "I'm the captain now that-"
She cuts herself off with a slight wince. Her head snaps towards Roier, whose back is to the two of them as he stands in front of the stove.
"Sit down, Cellbit," Roier says, shoulders stiff. "Leo, ven aquí."
Cellbit, the guest, sits at the table.
Leonarda hurries into the kitchen, not arguing, and gets to work on grabbing silverware and bowls. She has to get on her toes to reach what appears to be the bowl cabinet; Cellbit frowns, tensed to rush in and help just in case, but-
She looks at the floor and points at the cabinet and says, "Bochas."
And then, much to Cellbit's surprise, a pack of three good-sized white rats clamber onto the counter and make a sort of assembly line. One rat hops into the cabinet next to the bowls, another climbs onto a box beneath the cabinet, another stays on the counter.
Cellbit watches in vague astonishment as the rats dutifully transport three ceramic bowls down to Leonarda, who stacks them and marches them to Roier, who questions absolutely none of it.
Noticing Cellbit's dropped jaw, Leonarda smirks and turns around to face him, hands on her hips.
"See?" she boasts. "I'm a hero."
She's a hero, alright. Cellbit really doesn't watch the news, but he's forced to hear about the Junior Heroes enough between Bagi's old war stories and Tubbo's complaints to Pac and Mike and the newsletters Richarlyson's school sends home once a month.
There are currently three Junior Heroes on active duty: Kid Bomber, Butterfly, and the one standing in front of him: the apparent new captain, Princess Animalia.
Roier waves his hand annoyedly at his sister and snaps something in Spanish that makes her sulk slightly. She continues gathering the silverware in silence.
Five minutes later, the three of them are sitting at Roier's very expensive solid mahogany dining table eating something called Caldo de Pollo. It's good, even if Cellbit doesn't exactly know what it is.
"It's good for when you're sick," Roier explains. "Like me."
He coughs into his elbow dramatically.
Leonarda wrinkles her nose and scoots her chair and bowl a good few feet down the table away from him.
Cellbit nods politely. "Right. My parents used to make something like this when I was sick."
All that seems to be missing from Roier's soup is rice. Otherwise, the two soups would probably be identical. (Probably; Cellbit is not a soup expert.)
"Really?" Roier asks. "That's cool."
He almost sounds legit. But he's also staring right at Cellbit's arm sling. And he hasn't stopped staring since they all sat down.
Cellbit decides to give himself a clever out with a lie so perfectly crafted that it's foolproof. He said that he was fine over the phone a week ago, but who knows what Bagi told Roier when she was bullying him. But he knows Bagi well enough to know that she wouldn't tell anybody about her letting a civilian get his ass beat after leaving him handcuffed in a police car just a few feet away from a hero-villain fight that she should've been stopping.
So: a clever, perfect, brilliant lie.
"I got hit by a bus yesterday," he blurts out.
He immediately winces; that was not what he meant to say!
There's a moment of pure silence in the room.
Roier is paused with his spoon halfway to his open mouth.
Leonarda is audibly trying not to laugh, whimpering giggles into the palm of her hand.
Even the rats, still in the kitchen and munching on some crushed-up chips, stare.
"O-Oh," says Roier. He closes his mouth and turns his face away, lowering his spoon back into his bowl. By the way his eyes are squinting up and his mouth is twitching, it's pretty obvious that he, too, is trying not to laugh.
But it's only a second before he's looking back at Cellbit with wide eyes glittering with amusement.
"Me, too, man," he says. "Look at me!"
He spreads his arms out wide... well, he spreads his left arm out. His right arm more or less stays in place.
Leonarda whispers something that Cellbit is pretty sure translates to, "Oh my God."
The rats go back to their crumbs, no longer interested.
Cellbit smiles uncertainly.
He laughs weakly. "That's crazy, what the fuck?"
Roier nods vehemently. "The public transportation in this city is crazy, I'm telling you! I went on the bus the other day-"
"Before one hit you?"
"Mhmm. But I got on, and there was freaking Hombre Misterioso! Just in the back row! With, like, a scythe and stuff! It was crazy!"
"Hombre Misterioso doesn't have a scythe," Leonarda argues. "You're stupid."
"Oh, yeah?" Roier counters, eyes narrowing. "Who saw them, hm? Was it you?"
Cellbit raises his good hand slightly.
Roier reaches over and lowers it for him.
Stifling a smile, Cellbit picks his spoon back up.
Leonarda, despite being the captain of the current group of Junior Heroes, is still just a little girl being bullied by her big brother.
So, naturally, she sends her rats to attack him.
Cellbit watches passively as Roier screams and kicks the rats away as they continually keep trying to climb his chair and his legs.
The soup is really good.
"I think you should add this to the menu," he eventually says.
Roier, mid-kick, looks at him with a shy smile. "You think so?"
The rats all stop climbing as Leonarda whistles again. They scramble out of sight, but not out of mind.
"You two suck," she declares. She glares at Roier, who innocently bats his eyelashes at her. "I hate when you have friends."
"Aww, are you jealous?" he teases. "Pobre Leonardiña..."
Leonarda throws her spoon at him.
Ah, siblings...
-
As Cellbit is getting ready to head home, Roier sidles up next to him in the entryway.
"Thanks for coming," he quietly says.
Cellbit gives him an assuring smile. "It's no problem. Just ask, and I'll come again. I promise."
"Ah, I get it." Roier sighs, hangs his head with a second, more put-upon sigh. "You don't want to see me unless I have food. I get it, it's fine."
Alarmed, Cellbit grabs him loosely by the arm. "What? No! I just-"
Roier chuckles and shakes his head. He looks back up, smiling slightly. "I'm messing with you, man. I get it."
They talked a lot once they were finished and once Leonarda was busy doing the dishes. They talked about the menu, about Cellbit's next job, about the artistic value (or lack thereof) of the Adobe Suite.
They did not talk about Bagi, and they did not talk about either of their injuries. No mention of Hombre Misterioso, and nothing about the heroes investigating them.
"You have my number," Cellbit reminds Roier. "Keep texting me. It's... nice."
He slaps himself internally. 'Keep texting me. It's nice.', what the hell?
Felps is right. He really does need to talk to more people; he sounds like a complete idiot.
Roier laughs. "Yeah, yeah. It's nice for me, too."
...But at least Roier is willing to humor him.
Cellbit feels his smile go a little goofy at Roier's laugh even though he's heard it plenty of times over the past hour and a half. Maybe it's because they're standing so close to each other, or maybe it's his pain medication starting to wear off.
He takes a step backwards towards the door.
Clearing his throat, he says, "I, uh. I should go. My own babysitter is probably losing his mind right now."
(Felps probably doesn't even care, but Cellbit needs to give himself an excuse to leave.)
Roier nods easily.
"Take care, okay?" he says.
His smile sharpens. "Don't get hit by any more busses."
"You, too," Cellbit laughs.
Roier just winks.
Cellbit's stomach goes a little funny at that, but this, he supposes, is just what friendship is like. Good soup, and funny feelings.
(And, God, he's excited for more.)
---
A/N: Let me know what you think in the tags or in my inbox! I want to hear your theories, thoughts, opinions, everything!
Roier's apartment is only a few minutes away from his restaurant. The building it's in is nice- nicer than anything Cellbit has ever been in. It's one of the De Luques', he thinks; it's fancy enough to be.
The apartment is on the thirteenth floor, so Cellbit limps into the elevator and tries not to look too out of place among all the rich people already inside. (He glances down at his arm sling and his untied shoes and decides that it's probably too late for that.)
Cellbit's phone is off. This is for one very good reason: he is not supposed to be out of the apartment. He isn't even supposed to be using his arm, but here he is. Using it. Outside of his apartment.
(He can practically hear Bagi's complaining now: "Cellbit, what the fuck, you know that you aren't supposed to be doing anything, I am going to kill you if you die, stop being stupid, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.")
His arm hurts like a bitch. So does his back, and his ears are ringing slightly from the pain. But it'll all be worth it when he gets upstairs and finally, finally gets to taste the soup that Roier has been texting him pictures of for almost a week straight.
Roier is, apparently, a little sick. His restaurant is closed due to lack of staff (he can't exactly run a restaurant with a cold), so he's been using his time off to come up with new dishes and adjust old ones. He's also been sending Cellbit whispered, raspy voice messages complaining about his live-in babysitters. He's also been kicking Cellbit's ass at 8-Ball. He's also been texting Cellbit random Spanish swear words and claiming they're actually perfectly normal words that Cellbit should definitely use in actual, real conversations with native Spanish speakers.
Pendejo, Cellbit thinks.
(That one, so far, is his favorite.)
Originally, Roier wanted him to stop by the restaurant. But then, just this morning, he sent Cellbit his home address and told him that his ribs hurt too much from coughing for him to make the trip to the restaurant, and Cellbit gets it; his own ribs are more than a little sore with all the walking he's been doing so far today after almost two weeks of forced rest.
So: Roier's apartment.
The elevator goes up slowly. The music playing is from some old pop album that Cellbit can't recognize. The walls are all mirrors, and the floor is white enough to rival snow.
Awkwardly, Cellbit adjusts the strap of his sling so it isn't digging too heavily into his shoulder. (God, what he'd do to have Felps with him right now...)
There's a tv panel above the elevator's buttons and the floor counter. It's showing an advertisement- apparently, the Junior Heroes really are recruiting again.
Cellbit unconsciously wrinkles his nose.
But, before any of the people in the elevator can comment on him or his stupid annoyed face, the elevator reaches floor thirteen. Cellbit rushes out of the elevator and heads down the hall to the left to where Roier's apartment should be.
The building is. Nice. Very modern, very. Nice. The purple carpet is plush enough for Cellbit's shoe to legitimately sink into it with every step, and the walls' expensive-looking wood paneling is shiny enough that Cellbit can see his reflection looking at him as he walks by. There are cameras above every apartment's door and then some, which is probably overkill; who would be stupid enough to steal from one of Vegetta de Luque's buildings?
It's easy enough to find Roier's apartment, even without the apartment number saved in their text conversation: all Cellbit has to do is follow the smell of meat and spices.
He stands in front of Roier's apartment door, hand hesitating over it. He should... knock. He should knock, Roier knows he's coming.
...Roier does not know about Cellbit's injury. Roier also doesn't know that Cellbit almost got him killed. Roier also doesn't know that Cellbit is the reason why Bagi went and interrogated him.
The television is on inside; it sounds like it's playing one of the cartoons that Richarlyson is obsessed with at max volume. Moon Cows!!!, Cellbit thinks. Not something he'd expect Roier to be watching, so one of his 'babysitters' must be with him.
(Great. More people to try and lie to.)
Cellbit shifts on his feet, adjusting his weight so his spine protests in anger. He lets out a breath through his nose, grounds himself in the pain.
He knocks on the door twice and puts a smile on his face that is only sort of a lie.
And he waits.
And he waits.
And he waits.
And-
The door opens slightly, just enough for Cellbit to be able to make out the color of the walls inside of the apartment- red- and a small, purple, child-shaped blob looking up at him suspiciously.
Cellbit looks at the blob.
The blob looks at him.
And then the door slams shut. Someone starts shouting in Spanish in a high-pitched voice. Roier starts shouting back, also in Spanish. (Something, something, Man At The Door, something, something, Boyfriend, something, something...)
Cellbit's hand slips into his pocket as he waits for the family argument to end.
Siblings, he thinks, not at all jealous. (At all.)
He listens as Roier and his sister keep yelling at each other. He only flinches a little as he hears loud, angry footsteps approaching the door. He tries not to panic as the argument inside threatens to go physical, with Roier threatening to throw his sister out the window and her saying that she hopes he gets pneumonia.
There's an audible scuffle, and the shiny gold doorknob shakes and rattles as it's fought over.
Then, suddenly, the door swings wide open, and Cellbit is face-to-face with Roier.
Roier looks rough: double, fading black eyes making him look like a raccoon; a white bandage stuck over the bridge of his nose; a bruised left cheek. Messy hair held out of his face by a neon pink headband, a Spider-Man-themed apron stained with whatever-the-fuck. He's favoring one leg clearly as he leans against the doorway with an easy grin on his face, and his right arm is stiff at his side like he's trying not to move it.
God, what did Bagi do to him?
"Cellbo!" Roier cheers, voice just as rough as his appearance.
A small face peeks out from beside him curiously. Her hair is long and black, and the purple baseball cap on her head looks easily three sizes too big for her. She has stickers on her cheeks- hearts and ice cream cones and little poop emojis.
Finally, Cellbit has a face for Roier's infamous little sister and supposed 'babysitter', Leonarda.
"Hello," Cellbit first tells Leonarda.
She narrows her eyes at him. Blinks a few times. Eases up, waves, ducks back into the apartment. Smacks Roier's ribs on the way.
Roier wheezes and instinctively tries to cover his side with his arm, but said arm is his right one, and all he manages to do is make himself hiss in pain and almost fall over right in the doorway.
He narrowly catches himself, stumbling briefly, before looking at Cellbit with a small pout.
"What," he asks, "no 'hi' for me?"
This cannot be the flu. Or a cold. Or whatever the hell it is that Roier is apparently sick with.
But Cellbit isn't one to immediately start prying. Despite the allegations, he is not an impulsive mess, thanks
So he just lets his smile soften, and he says, "Hi, Roier."
Leonarda audibly gags from somewhere out of sight.
Roier scowls. "Ignore her, she's just annoyed because she has to actually share my cooking today."
His nose twitches, and his eyes widen in panic.
"La sopa!" he exclaims.
Without a second thought, he turns and runs into the apartment, leaving Cellbit alone in the entryway.
After a brief second, he hears a shouted, "Come in!"
With a small, amused sigh, Cellbit walks into Roier's apartment and closes the door behind him.
He's immediately greeted with an entire wall made of windows. The apartment's main room is sparsely decorated- just an expensive-looking leather couch and an even-more-expensive-looking television and a coffee table with a mountain of candy wrappers on it, but who needs decoration when you have the entire city to look at?
The other walls are all painted a deep wine red. No photographs or paintings are on them, unlike the walls at the restaurant. There's a security panel by the front door, but that's it.
Awkwardly, Cellbit settles on the couch next to Leonarda. He rests his good hand on his lap, back stiff as a rod. He stares right at the television. (Moon Cows!!!, yep, he knew it.)
"Um," he says, "my son likes this show."
Leonarda responds by picking up a new piece of candy from the big purple bowl next to her and offering it to him, not sharing even a glance in his direction.
"Who beat you up?" she asks.
Cellbit responds by unwrapping the candy and popping it into his mouth, not sharing even a glance in her direction.
The open kitchen is to the left, behind the television. There's a large dining table between the two spaces and a fancy-looking granite breakfast bar; there are only three chairs at the table, and there are only three stools at the bar.
Roier runs around the kitchen with an energy that Cellbit doesn't think he's seen outside of reality cooking shows. He seems completely in his element as he stirs the big metal pot on the stove and opens the fridge and washes a bowl left on the counter next to the sink and-
"My dad's a cop, you know," Leonarda continues. "And I'm a hero, so you gotta tell me what happened, okay?"
She leans in real close, still not tearing her eyes away from her show, and she whispers conspiratorially, "Was it Hombre Misterioso?"
...A hero.
Finally, Cellbit turns his head to look down at her, a small frown on his face.
"You're a hero?" he asks.
She nods proudly, sitting up straight and adjusting her hat and shooting him a smirk. "I'm a Junior Hero. You've probably heard of me."
In the kitchen, Roier groans, "Nobody cares! Come here and help me set the table."
"I don't watch the news," Cellbit tells Leonarda. "Sorry."
She huffs out of her nose in clear disappointment. She stands, tosses a handful of candy wrappers onto the table, and goes to the kitchen.
As she goes, she whistles a sharp little note that sets Cellbit's teeth on edge.
Not exactly wanting to stay and watch a children's cartoon by himself, Cellbit gets up and follows Leonarda.
"I'm kind of a big deal, you know," she brags. "I'm the captain now that-"
She cuts herself off with a slight wince. Her head snaps towards Roier, whose back is to the two of them as he stands in front of the stove.
"Sit down, Cellbit," Roier says, shoulders stiff. "Leo, ven aquí."
Cellbit, the guest, sits at the table.
Leonarda hurries into the kitchen, not arguing, and gets to work on grabbing silverware and bowls. She has to get on her toes to reach what appears to be the bowl cabinet; Cellbit frowns, tensed to rush in and help just in case, but-
She looks at the floor and points at the cabinet and says, "Bochas."
And then, much to Cellbit's surprise, a pack of three good-sized white rats clamber onto the counter and make a sort of assembly line. One rat hops into the cabinet next to the bowls, another climbs onto a box beneath the cabinet, another stays on the counter.
Cellbit watches in vague astonishment as the rats dutifully transport three ceramic bowls down to Leonarda, who stacks them and marches them to Roier, who questions absolutely none of it.
Noticing Cellbit's dropped jaw, Leonarda smirks and turns around to face him, hands on her hips.
"See?" she boasts. "I'm a hero."
She's a hero, alright. Cellbit really doesn't watch the news, but he's forced to hear about the Junior Heroes enough between Bagi's old war stories and Tubbo's complaints to Pac and Mike and the newsletters Richarlyson's school sends home once a month.
There are currently three Junior Heroes on active duty: Kid Bomber, Butterfly, and the one standing in front of him: the apparent new captain, Princess Animalia.
Roier waves his hand annoyedly at his sister and snaps something in Spanish that makes her sulk slightly. She continues gathering the silverware in silence.
Five minutes later, the three of them are sitting at Roier's very expensive solid mahogany dining table eating something called Caldo de Pollo. It's good, even if Cellbit doesn't exactly know what it is.
"It's good for when you're sick," Roier explains. "Like me."
He coughs into his elbow dramatically.
Leonarda wrinkles her nose and scoots her chair and bowl a good few feet down the table away from him.
Cellbit nods politely. "Right. My parents used to make something like this when I was sick."
All that seems to be missing from Roier's soup is rice. Otherwise, the two soups would probably be identical. (Probably; Cellbit is not a soup expert.)
"Really?" Roier asks. "That's cool."
He almost sounds legit. But he's also staring right at Cellbit's arm sling. And he hasn't stopped staring since they all sat down.
Cellbit decides to give himself a clever out with a lie so perfectly crafted that it's foolproof. He said that he was fine over the phone a week ago, but who knows what Bagi told Roier when she was bullying him. But he knows Bagi well enough to know that she wouldn't tell anybody about her letting a civilian get his ass beat after leaving him handcuffed in a police car just a few feet away from a hero-villain fight that she should've been stopping.
So: a clever, perfect, brilliant lie.
"I got hit by a bus yesterday," he blurts out.
He immediately winces; that was not what he meant to say!
There's a moment of pure silence in the room.
Roier is paused with his spoon halfway to his open mouth.
Leonarda is audibly trying not to laugh, whimpering giggles into the palm of her hand.
Even the rats, still in the kitchen and munching on some crushed-up chips, stare.
"O-Oh," says Roier. He closes his mouth and turns his face away, lowering his spoon back into his bowl. By the way his eyes are squinting up and his mouth is twitching, it's pretty obvious that he, too, is trying not to laugh.
But it's only a second before he's looking back at Cellbit with wide eyes glittering with amusement.
"Me, too, man," he says. "Look at me!"
He spreads his arms out wide... well, he spreads his left arm out. His right arm more or less stays in place.
Leonarda whispers something that Cellbit is pretty sure translates to, "Oh my God."
The rats go back to their crumbs, no longer interested.
Cellbit smiles uncertainly.
He laughs weakly. "That's crazy, what the fuck?"
Roier nods vehemently. "The public transportation in this city is crazy, I'm telling you! I went on the bus the other day-"
"Before one hit you?"
"Mhmm. But I got on, and there was freaking Hombre Misterioso! Just in the back row! With, like, a scythe and stuff! It was crazy!"
"Hombre Misterioso doesn't have a scythe," Leonarda argues. "You're stupid."
"Oh, yeah?" Roier counters, eyes narrowing. "Who saw them, hm? Was it you?"
Cellbit raises his good hand slightly.
Roier reaches over and lowers it for him.
Stifling a smile, Cellbit picks his spoon back up.
Leonarda, despite being the captain of the current group of Junior Heroes, is still just a little girl being bullied by her big brother.
So, naturally, she sends her rats to attack him.
Cellbit watches passively as Roier screams and kicks the rats away as they continually keep trying to climb his chair and his legs.
The soup is really good.
"I think you should add this to the menu," he eventually says.
Roier, mid-kick, looks at him with a shy smile. "You think so?"
The rats all stop climbing as Leonarda whistles again. They scramble out of sight, but not out of mind.
"You two suck," she declares. She glares at Roier, who innocently bats his eyelashes at her. "I hate when you have friends."
"Aww, are you jealous?" he teases. "Pobre Leonardiña..."
Leonarda throws her spoon at him.
Ah, siblings...
-
As Cellbit is getting ready to head home, Roier sidles up next to him in the entryway.
"Thanks for coming," he quietly says.
Cellbit gives him an assuring smile. "It's no problem. Just ask, and I'll come again. I promise."
"Ah, I get it." Roier sighs, hangs his head with a second, more put-upon sigh. "You don't want to see me unless I have food. I get it, it's fine."
Alarmed, Cellbit grabs him loosely by the arm. "What? No! I just-"
Roier chuckles and shakes his head. He looks back up, smiling slightly. "I'm messing with you, man. I get it."
They talked a lot once they were finished and once Leonarda was busy doing the dishes. They talked about the menu, about Cellbit's next job, about the artistic value (or lack thereof) of the Adobe Suite.
They did not talk about Bagi, and they did not talk about either of their injuries. No mention of Hombre Misterioso, and nothing about the heroes investigating them.
"You have my number," Cellbit reminds Roier. "Keep texting me. It's... nice."
He slaps himself internally. 'Keep texting me. It's nice.', what the hell?
Felps is right. He really does need to talk to more people; he sounds like a complete idiot.
Roier laughs. "Yeah, yeah. It's nice for me, too."
...But at least Roier is willing to humor him.
Cellbit feels his smile go a little goofy at Roier's laugh even though he's heard it plenty of times over the past hour and a half. Maybe it's because they're standing so close to each other, or maybe it's his pain medication starting to wear off.
He takes a step backwards towards the door.
Clearing his throat, he says, "I, uh. I should go. My own babysitter is probably losing his mind right now."
(Felps probably doesn't even care, but Cellbit needs to give himself an excuse to leave.)
Roier nods easily.
"Take care, okay?" he says.
His smile sharpens. "Don't get hit by any more busses."
"You, too," Cellbit laughs.
Roier just winks.
Cellbit's stomach goes a little funny at that, but this, he supposes, is just what friendship is like. Good soup, and funny feelings.
(And, God, he's excited for more.)
---
A/N: Let me know what you think in the tags or in my inbox! I want to hear your theories, thoughts, opinions, everything!
Or: Cellbit is on the run from a cult, and he somehow gets indebted to a god on the way. Go figure.
-
Once upon a time...
Cellbit stumbles into the tavern as wet as, well, a drowned cat.
It's warm inside- uncomfortably so. The fire is roaring in the fireplace, and there are enough people in the tavern for the place to feel like the inside of an oven. The torches on the walls cast the room orange, and shadows dance on the walls.
Still. Cellbit keeps his hood up as he makes his way to the bar. He keeps his head down even as he pulls a few copper pieces out from his coinpurse and slides them to the tavern keeper with a mumbled order of a warm glass of the cheapest wine in the building.
Thunder rolls above. Lightning strikes a tree just outside of town, he can hear the tree splitting, and he can hear the start of a fire that's quickly put out by the downpour.
Cellbit taps his foot nervously against the floor. His tail, hidden beneath his cloak, twitches slightly at every sudden noise. His ears hurt.
The man next to him at the bar wordlessly slides a crust of his bread towards him.
Cellbit shakes his head, biting back a rude wrinkle of the nose. (He isn't that spoiled, but... man, the bread looks like shit.)
The man rolls his eyes and says, "Come on, take it. You look like shit, man."
The tavern keeper puts Cellbit's wine down in front of him and moves on to the next guy down the line.
Cellbit drags the mug towards him and looks down into it; his own reflection looks back at him: tired. Visible bags under his eyes, blood still crusted slightly under his nose, a split in his lip.
He takes the bread. He doesn't bite into it, though. He sort of just taps it against the counter in beat with his anxiously-shaking leg.
"Crazy storm, though, right?" the man asks.
He picks his own mug up, lifts it to his lips, takes a long, long drink from it.
"The gods must be pissed at someone," he says into his cup.
The gods, hah.
"It's the rainy season," Cellbit mumbles. "This sort of just happens."
"Really?" the man hums.
Cellbit gives him a slight nod in response.
Conversation dies.
Cellbit's wine is just as bad as he expected it to be. As he drinks, he tries not to cough it all back up.
His shoulders tense as someone new enters the tavern- the bell above the door tinkles, and the door itself creaks like a coffin. (Cellbit's coffin, gods forbid.)
The door closes. The new person walks right past Cellbit and to a table in the tavern's far corner, out of sight and out of mind.
The man passes Cellbit another chunk of bread even though Cellbit still hasn't finished his first. Or even started it. Or even really looked at it.
"You paid for it," Cellbit huffs, taking both bread pieces and dropping them back onto the man's plate. "You eat it. I can pay for my own food, thanks."
The man holds up his hands defensively. "Okay, okay! It's fine! I'm just trying to help!"
Cellbit pulls his hood up to hide his eye roll. Right. He knows better than to trust someone 'trying to help'.
("Once upon a time," He said, "there was a prince, and there was a god.")
His wine is still shit. He drinks it, anyway, if only to try and keep the man next to him from talking to him.
No dice.
Leaning against the counter, the man swivels on his stool until he's facing Cellbit fully. He rests his head on his fist, and he looks.
Awkwardly, Cellbit stares down at the bar. If he pretends hard enough, he can see little faces in the wood. They're screaming, because of course they are.
His ears flatten against his skull as the tavern's door slams open.
"Oi!" the tavern keeper shouts. "Watch it! You get the floor wet, you're mopping it up!"
Several pairs of footsteps as a group of people enter the tavern- heels, that'll be her; boots, him; bells, them.
"Close the door," Foolish orders, sounding way more confident than he probably is.
The door closes.
Slowly, carefully, Cellbit moves one hand away from the bar. He slips it under his cloak, wrapping his fingers around the handle of his knife. (His knife, his fucking knife-)
The four of them start making their ways through the tavern. Tina and Jaiden are laughing about something, Foolish is arguing over their laughter, Leo is complaining about the smell of alcohol even though Cellbit knows she's had some before. They all have.
They stay away from the bar, thank the gods.
Still. Cellbit keeps his head down. He's switched his clothes and cloak out since escaping, and he doesn't think that any of them have actually seen his face, but...
"Weird vibes," the man next to him comments.
He chews on his bread thoughtfully, adds, "Not a fan."
"Tell me about it," Cellbit snorts. (He's sure to keep his voice down; they might not know his face, but they definitely know his voice.)
("The god was just and caring," He said, "but the prince was cruel and heartless. All he cared about was power, and what could hold more power than a god?")
Leo asks her dad to pick her up. Foolish playfully groans, but he does so, because he loves her.
"You know them?" the man asks.
Cellbit tensely shakes his head. "Nah."
"Mmm." (A moment of silence as the man chews on his bread.) "Wanna get out of here? My place is way better than this."
Cellbit chokes on his wine. He coughs so hard he lets go of his grip on his knife.
"Fuck!" he wheezes.
"Whoah, look at that guy!" Jaiden laughs. "Dude, is the wine here that bad?"
"I want juice," Leo says, not remotely answering her question.
"Great idea!" Foolish cheers. "Juice for everybody!"
And then, unfortunately, terribly, horribly, he approaches the bar- boots.
"Four cups of your finest juice, my good sir!" he declares.
Tina follows him- heels. "And some information, if that's okay."
Cellbit holds his breath. His tail stiffens. His leg stops bouncing.
The tavern keeper grunts, but he doesn't argue.
Mentally, Cellbit weighs his options. He can take Tina and Jaiden on in a fight, easy. He's beaten Foolish once or twice, but he won't be able to take him down if he has Tina supporting him. Fighting Leo is out of the question.
He can run, but he's already so tired. (He thought he had run far enough in one day, but apparently not. Apparently, He sent a bunch of fucking athletes after him.)
"We're looking for a guy," Tina explains. "Tall, cat ears, probably super ugly. Real bad vibes, like a serial killer on crack."
Okay, ouch.
The man snorts; Cellbit fights the urge to kick him.
"Because he is a serial killer," Foolish adds. "He's killed, like, a bunch of guys."
Something taps Cellbit's elbow.
"Here," the man whispers, voice so soft and so close that it wraps around Cellbit's spine like a snake, "you should probably eat something if you're gonna drink like this."
("The prince said to the god, 'My Lord, you must be very busy! Allow me to help you with your godly duties!'" He said. "The god, unsuspecting of the seemingly-king prince, allowed the prince to become his head priest. The prince would listen to the people's prayers, but he would not tell them to the god. Thus, the god's strength slowly began to wane, and the prince's began to grow.")
Cellbit silently shakes his head. How many times does he have to-
"His name is Cellbit," Jaiden says, walking up to the bar- bells. "And he is very dangerous."
"Your juices," the tavern keeper grunts.
"He likes wine," Leo says, because of course she does, the little snitch.
(She always used to catch Cellbit sneaking some of the sacramental wine between ceremonies, and she would always make him do something absolutely ridiculous for her in exchange for not telling Him.)
"Well, only one guy here's ordered wine tonight," the tavern keeper says. "Right here."
He taps the bartop right in front of Cellbit's head.
Dammit.
Cellbit yowls as he's roughly grabbed by the back of his cloak and yanked off of his stool. He's thrown to the floor and his hood is ripped off of his head and his arms are immediately being pinned by a perfectly-stoic-looking Jaiden, who... looks about the same as Cellbit thought she'd look, actually.
"Dude!" Foolish shouts, glaring at Tina. "I thought you said he'd be ugly!"
Cellbit sneers and hisses and kicks. The entire tavern is watching him get absolutely owned, and he knows they're all thinking the same thing: Wow, what a monster.
He Knows it.
Tina throws her arms up in the air in frustration. "I thought he would be!"
Jaiden rummages through Cellbit's cloak until she finds his knife. She pulls it out, gives him a disapproving look, and tosses it absently behind her, where it disappears from sight in the growing crowd.
"Come on, dude, did you even try?" she sighs.
Cellbit answers by trying to rip her fucking throat out with his teeth; he doesn't get very far, obviously, but he does manage to scare the crowd back a few paces.
Except for the man at the bar, who has a thin piece of bread dangling in his fingertips as he watches.
His eyes are red, Cellbit notices, finally getting a proper look at him for the first time. That's...
("The god asked the prince if the work was too hard, because he was a good god," He said. "The prince denied it and asked for more work. And so he got more, and he grew in strength as the god's strength weakened even more.")
"Wow, Cellbit, you look like shit," Foolish comments.
Leo drinks her juice judgmentally; still in her father's arms, she holds her mug with both hands and glares.
"Thanks, I feel like it," Cellbit dryly responds.
He wiggles desperately.
Tina draws her sword.
Jaiden's scythe is on her back, a familiar blue ribbon tied around it, and dull silver bells tied to that.
Foolish clicks his tongue in disapproval. "Welp, you shouldn't have killed all those people, huh?"
Those 'people' were monsters, not that any of them would ever be willing to admit it. They're in too deep, they all are. Even poor Leonarda, too young to know a life outside of what is Known.
The man from the bar hops off his stool and joins the crowd, standing right by Cellbit's head.
His boots- the bottoms and sides of them- are crusted with still-drying blood.
He winks down at Cellbit, bread still in hand.
Then, he looks at Jaiden and says, "Hold on, let me help."
He crouches and holds Cellbit's shoulders down with absolutely no strength whatsoever.
Jaiden nods appreciatively. "Thanks."
"No problem, I'm a nice guy!"
He grins, and Cellbit swears that his teeth are sharpened to a point for just a second, just a fraction of a second. He Knows it, he Saw it, he-
He sees a familiar dagger sitting on the man's belt that Jaiden hasn't noticed yet.
(That is his fucking knife-!)
("The people began to call the prince the God of Hospitality because he was so kind to them," He said. "But, in reality, he was the beginning of Chaos Incarnate. From him, all Chaos would be born, and ruin would sweep across the land.")
Cellbit closes his eyes briefly, and he Sees who the man above him truly is, and, for the first time in his entire life, he feels fear.
Still. He opens his eyes, and he whispers, "Help me."
The man's eyes sparkle, but he sighs and shakes his head and says, "I told you to eat earlier, man. But it's fine, here! Something so you don't starve on your way to prison."
He holds out the scrap of bread, dangling it just above Cellbit's lips.
"Careful," Tina jokes, "he'll take a finger off."
"Say, 'Aaaahhh'," the man teases, eyes halfway narrowed in amusement.
Cellbit, with no other choice, obeys.
It's as he swallows that the fire in the fireplace goes out. And it's as the man pats Cellbit's cheek in approval that every single torch and candle in the tavern is blown out in a sudden cold wind.
"Oooooh, shit," Foolish astutely says.
("Did the prince have a name?" he asked, more curious than he was supposed to be.
"Does it matter?" He snapped. "The lesson is to be wary of strangers, no matter how kind they may be."
"But I need to know who he is in case he finds me!"
"He won't find you, Prophet."
"But what if he does? I need to be ready!"
He laughed, then, more fond than he had ever heard Him laugh before.
"All right." He nodded. "Should Chaos ever try and find you, know that you can always identify him as the prince formerly known as-")
Thunder crashes, and Chaos reigns.
---
A/N: Let me know what you think in the tags or in my inbox! Please let me know if you want more, because there is more!
This is literally so fucking good im struggling to find words to describe it
First off: ill never not be amazad at your abilities of creating such compelling and attractive story, like, you just create theses scenarios that makes people intrigued enough to want to know more, like me!
And by that, i have soooo many questions about it:
What is the cult about? Sure we have some familiar characters but they clearly didn't agree with whatever it is that !cellbit did
And what did he do???? Like, ok, he murdered some people, thats understandable and in character, but like, why???? It's obvious that to him they were monsters, but what caused such view of them?
So !Roier is clearly the God of the little story, but how far does his powers go? And why did he save !cellbit, is it just a benevolent act or there is something more out of it? (I have a small theory that !cellbit might be the "prophet" of the story and that's why he was able to see !Roier's true godlike nature unlike the rest)
Anyway, amazing story as always! Would love to see more of it someday
Worst part about this au is that I have a million ideas for episodes, but A) not enough readers and B) not enough time and C)not enough energy to do them all
Worst part about this au is that I have a million ideas for episodes, but A) not enough readers and B) not enough time and C)not enough energy to do them all
Or: Cellbit is on the run from a cult, and he somehow gets indebted to a god on the way. Go figure.
-
Once upon a time...
Cellbit stumbles into the tavern as wet as, well, a drowned cat.
It's warm inside- uncomfortably so. The fire is roaring in the fireplace, and there are enough people in the tavern for the place to feel like the inside of an oven. The torches on the walls cast the room orange, and shadows dance on the walls.
Still. Cellbit keeps his hood up as he makes his way to the bar. He keeps his head down even as he pulls a few copper pieces out from his coinpurse and slides them to the tavern keeper with a mumbled order of a warm glass of the cheapest wine in the building.
Thunder rolls above. Lightning strikes a tree just outside of town, he can hear the tree splitting, and he can hear the start of a fire that's quickly put out by the downpour.
Cellbit taps his foot nervously against the floor. His tail, hidden beneath his cloak, twitches slightly at every sudden noise. His ears hurt.
The man next to him at the bar wordlessly slides a crust of his bread towards him.
Cellbit shakes his head, biting back a rude wrinkle of the nose. (He isn't that spoiled, but... man, the bread looks like shit.)
The man rolls his eyes and says, "Come on, take it. You look like shit, man."
The tavern keeper puts Cellbit's wine down in front of him and moves on to the next guy down the line.
Cellbit drags the mug towards him and looks down into it; his own reflection looks back at him: tired. Visible bags under his eyes, blood still crusted slightly under his nose, a split in his lip.
He takes the bread. He doesn't bite into it, though. He sort of just taps it against the counter in beat with his anxiously-shaking leg.
"Crazy storm, though, right?" the man asks.
He picks his own mug up, lifts it to his lips, takes a long, long drink from it.
"The gods must be pissed at someone," he says into his cup.
The gods, hah.
"It's the rainy season," Cellbit mumbles. "This sort of just happens."
"Really?" the man hums.
Cellbit gives him a slight nod in response.
Conversation dies.
Cellbit's wine is just as bad as he expected it to be. As he drinks, he tries not to cough it all back up.
His shoulders tense as someone new enters the tavern- the bell above the door tinkles, and the door itself creaks like a coffin. (Cellbit's coffin, gods forbid.)
The door closes. The new person walks right past Cellbit and to a table in the tavern's far corner, out of sight and out of mind.
The man passes Cellbit another chunk of bread even though Cellbit still hasn't finished his first. Or even started it. Or even really looked at it.
"You paid for it," Cellbit huffs, taking both bread pieces and dropping them back onto the man's plate. "You eat it. I can pay for my own food, thanks."
The man holds up his hands defensively. "Okay, okay! It's fine! I'm just trying to help!"
Cellbit pulls his hood up to hide his eye roll. Right. He knows better than to trust someone 'trying to help'.
("Once upon a time," He said, "there was a prince, and there was a god.")
His wine is still shit. He drinks it, anyway, if only to try and keep the man next to him from talking to him.
No dice.
Leaning against the counter, the man swivels on his stool until he's facing Cellbit fully. He rests his head on his fist, and he looks.
Awkwardly, Cellbit stares down at the bar. If he pretends hard enough, he can see little faces in the wood. They're screaming, because of course they are.
His ears flatten against his skull as the tavern's door slams open.
"Oi!" the tavern keeper shouts. "Watch it! You get the floor wet, you're mopping it up!"
Several pairs of footsteps as a group of people enter the tavern- heels, that'll be her; boots, him; bells, them.
"Close the door," Foolish orders, sounding way more confident than he probably is.
The door closes.
Slowly, carefully, Cellbit moves one hand away from the bar. He slips it under his cloak, wrapping his fingers around the handle of his knife. (His knife, his fucking knife-)
The four of them start making their ways through the tavern. Tina and Jaiden are laughing about something, Foolish is arguing over their laughter, Leo is complaining about the smell of alcohol even though Cellbit knows she's had some before. They all have.
They stay away from the bar, thank the gods.
Still. Cellbit keeps his head down. He's switched his clothes and cloak out since escaping, and he doesn't think that any of them have actually seen his face, but...
"Weird vibes," the man next to him comments.
He chews on his bread thoughtfully, adds, "Not a fan."
"Tell me about it," Cellbit snorts. (He's sure to keep his voice down; they might not know his face, but they definitely know his voice.)
("The god was just and caring," He said, "but the prince was cruel and heartless. All he cared about was power, and what could hold more power than a god?")
Leo asks her dad to pick her up. Foolish playfully groans, but he does so, because he loves her.
"You know them?" the man asks.
Cellbit tensely shakes his head. "Nah."
"Mmm." (A moment of silence as the man chews on his bread.) "Wanna get out of here? My place is way better than this."
Cellbit chokes on his wine. He coughs so hard he lets go of his grip on his knife.
"Fuck!" he wheezes.
"Whoah, look at that guy!" Jaiden laughs. "Dude, is the wine here that bad?"
"I want juice," Leo says, not remotely answering her question.
"Great idea!" Foolish cheers. "Juice for everybody!"
And then, unfortunately, terribly, horribly, he approaches the bar- boots.
"Four cups of your finest juice, my good sir!" he declares.
Tina follows him- heels. "And some information, if that's okay."
Cellbit holds his breath. His tail stiffens. His leg stops bouncing.
The tavern keeper grunts, but he doesn't argue.
Mentally, Cellbit weighs his options. He can take Tina and Jaiden on in a fight, easy. He's beaten Foolish once or twice, but he won't be able to take him down if he has Tina supporting him. Fighting Leo is out of the question.
He can run, but he's already so tired. (He thought he had run far enough in one day, but apparently not. Apparently, He sent a bunch of fucking athletes after him.)
"We're looking for a guy," Tina explains. "Tall, cat ears, probably super ugly. Real bad vibes, like a serial killer on crack."
Okay, ouch.
The man snorts; Cellbit fights the urge to kick him.
"Because he is a serial killer," Foolish adds. "He's killed, like, a bunch of guys."
Something taps Cellbit's elbow.
"Here," the man whispers, voice so soft and so close that it wraps around Cellbit's spine like a snake, "you should probably eat something if you're gonna drink like this."
("The prince said to the god, 'My Lord, you must be very busy! Allow me to help you with your godly duties!'" He said. "The god, unsuspecting of the seemingly-king prince, allowed the prince to become his head priest. The prince would listen to the people's prayers, but he would not tell them to the god. Thus, the god's strength slowly began to wane, and the prince's began to grow.")
Cellbit silently shakes his head. How many times does he have to-
"His name is Cellbit," Jaiden says, walking up to the bar- bells. "And he is very dangerous."
"Your juices," the tavern keeper grunts.
"He likes wine," Leo says, because of course she does, the little snitch.
(She always used to catch Cellbit sneaking some of the sacramental wine between ceremonies, and she would always make him do something absolutely ridiculous for her in exchange for not telling Him.)
"Well, only one guy here's ordered wine tonight," the tavern keeper says. "Right here."
He taps the bartop right in front of Cellbit's head.
Dammit.
Cellbit yowls as he's roughly grabbed by the back of his cloak and yanked off of his stool. He's thrown to the floor and his hood is ripped off of his head and his arms are immediately being pinned by a perfectly-stoic-looking Jaiden, who... looks about the same as Cellbit thought she'd look, actually.
"Dude!" Foolish shouts, glaring at Tina. "I thought you said he'd be ugly!"
Cellbit sneers and hisses and kicks. The entire tavern is watching him get absolutely owned, and he knows they're all thinking the same thing: Wow, what a monster.
He Knows it.
Tina throws her arms up in the air in frustration. "I thought he would be!"
Jaiden rummages through Cellbit's cloak until she finds his knife. She pulls it out, gives him a disapproving look, and tosses it absently behind her, where it disappears from sight in the growing crowd.
"Come on, dude, did you even try?" she sighs.
Cellbit answers by trying to rip her fucking throat out with his teeth; he doesn't get very far, obviously, but he does manage to scare the crowd back a few paces.
Except for the man at the bar, who has a thin piece of bread dangling in his fingertips as he watches.
His eyes are red, Cellbit notices, finally getting a proper look at him for the first time. That's...
("The god asked the prince if the work was too hard, because he was a good god," He said. "The prince denied it and asked for more work. And so he got more, and he grew in strength as the god's strength weakened even more.")
"Wow, Cellbit, you look like shit," Foolish comments.
Leo drinks her juice judgmentally; still in her father's arms, she holds her mug with both hands and glares.
"Thanks, I feel like it," Cellbit dryly responds.
He wiggles desperately.
Tina draws her sword.
Jaiden's scythe is on her back, a familiar blue ribbon tied around it, and dull silver bells tied to that.
Foolish clicks his tongue in disapproval. "Welp, you shouldn't have killed all those people, huh?"
Those 'people' were monsters, not that any of them would ever be willing to admit it. They're in too deep, they all are. Even poor Leonarda, too young to know a life outside of what is Known.
The man from the bar hops off his stool and joins the crowd, standing right by Cellbit's head.
His boots- the bottoms and sides of them- are crusted with still-drying blood.
He winks down at Cellbit, bread still in hand.
Then, he looks at Jaiden and says, "Hold on, let me help."
He crouches and holds Cellbit's shoulders down with absolutely no strength whatsoever.
Jaiden nods appreciatively. "Thanks."
"No problem, I'm a nice guy!"
He grins, and Cellbit swears that his teeth are sharpened to a point for just a second, just a fraction of a second. He Knows it, he Saw it, he-
He sees a familiar dagger sitting on the man's belt that Jaiden hasn't noticed yet.
(That is his fucking knife-!)
("The people began to call the prince the God of Hospitality because he was so kind to them," He said. "But, in reality, he was the beginning of Chaos Incarnate. From him, all Chaos would be born, and ruin would sweep across the land.")
Cellbit closes his eyes briefly, and he Sees who the man above him truly is, and, for the first time in his entire life, he feels fear.
Still. He opens his eyes, and he whispers, "Help me."
The man's eyes sparkle, but he sighs and shakes his head and says, "I told you to eat earlier, man. But it's fine, here! Something so you don't starve on your way to prison."
He holds out the scrap of bread, dangling it just above Cellbit's lips.
"Careful," Tina jokes, "he'll take a finger off."
"Say, 'Aaaahhh'," the man teases, eyes halfway narrowed in amusement.
Cellbit, with no other choice, obeys.
It's as he swallows that the fire in the fireplace goes out. And it's as the man pats Cellbit's cheek in approval that every single torch and candle in the tavern is blown out in a sudden cold wind.
"Oooooh, shit," Foolish astutely says.
("Did the prince have a name?" he asked, more curious than he was supposed to be.
"Does it matter?" He snapped. "The lesson is to be wary of strangers, no matter how kind they may be."
"But I need to know who he is in case he finds me!"
"He won't find you, Prophet."
"But what if he does? I need to be ready!"
He laughed, then, more fond than he had ever heard Him laugh before.
"All right." He nodded. "Should Chaos ever try and find you, know that you can always identify him as the prince formerly known as-")
Thunder crashes, and Chaos reigns.
---
A/N: Let me know what you think in the tags or in my inbox! Please let me know if you want more, because there is more!
This is literally so fucking good im struggling to find words to describe it
First off: ill never not be amazad at your abilities of creating such compelling and attractive story, like, you just create theses scenarios that makes people intrigued enough to want to know more, like me!
And by that, i have soooo many questions about it:
What is the cult about? Sure we have some familiar characters but they clearly didn't agree with whatever it is that !cellbit did
And what did he do???? Like, ok, he murdered some people, thats understandable and in character, but like, why???? It's obvious that to him they were monsters, but what caused such view of them?
So !Roier is clearly the God of the little story, but how far does his powers go? And why did he save !cellbit, is it just a benevolent act or there is something more out of it? (I have a small theory that !cellbit might be the "prophet" of the story and that's why he was able to see !Roier's true godlike nature unlike the rest)
Anyway, amazing story as always! Would love to see more of it someday
Or: Cellbit is on the run from a cult, and he somehow gets indebted to a god on the way. Go figure.
-
Once upon a time...
Cellbit stumbles into the tavern as wet as, well, a drowned cat.
It's warm inside- uncomfortably so. The fire is roaring in the fireplace, and there are enough people in the tavern for the place to feel like the inside of an oven. The torches on the walls cast the room orange, and shadows dance on the walls.
Still. Cellbit keeps his hood up as he makes his way to the bar. He keeps his head down even as he pulls a few copper pieces out from his coinpurse and slides them to the tavern keeper with a mumbled order of a warm glass of the cheapest wine in the building.
Thunder rolls above. Lightning strikes a tree just outside of town, he can hear the tree splitting, and he can hear the start of a fire that's quickly put out by the downpour.
Cellbit taps his foot nervously against the floor. His tail, hidden beneath his cloak, twitches slightly at every sudden noise. His ears hurt.
The man next to him at the bar wordlessly slides a crust of his bread towards him.
Cellbit shakes his head, biting back a rude wrinkle of the nose. (He isn't that spoiled, but... man, the bread looks like shit.)
The man rolls his eyes and says, "Come on, take it. You look like shit, man."
The tavern keeper puts Cellbit's wine down in front of him and moves on to the next guy down the line.
Cellbit drags the mug towards him and looks down into it; his own reflection looks back at him: tired. Visible bags under his eyes, blood still crusted slightly under his nose, a split in his lip.
He takes the bread. He doesn't bite into it, though. He sort of just taps it against the counter in beat with his anxiously-shaking leg.
"Crazy storm, though, right?" the man asks.
He picks his own mug up, lifts it to his lips, takes a long, long drink from it.
"The gods must be pissed at someone," he says into his cup.
The gods, hah.
"It's the rainy season," Cellbit mumbles. "This sort of just happens."
"Really?" the man hums.
Cellbit gives him a slight nod in response.
Conversation dies.
Cellbit's wine is just as bad as he expected it to be. As he drinks, he tries not to cough it all back up.
His shoulders tense as someone new enters the tavern- the bell above the door tinkles, and the door itself creaks like a coffin. (Cellbit's coffin, gods forbid.)
The door closes. The new person walks right past Cellbit and to a table in the tavern's far corner, out of sight and out of mind.
The man passes Cellbit another chunk of bread even though Cellbit still hasn't finished his first. Or even started it. Or even really looked at it.
"You paid for it," Cellbit huffs, taking both bread pieces and dropping them back onto the man's plate. "You eat it. I can pay for my own food, thanks."
The man holds up his hands defensively. "Okay, okay! It's fine! I'm just trying to help!"
Cellbit pulls his hood up to hide his eye roll. Right. He knows better than to trust someone 'trying to help'.
("Once upon a time," He said, "there was a prince, and there was a god.")
His wine is still shit. He drinks it, anyway, if only to try and keep the man next to him from talking to him.
No dice.
Leaning against the counter, the man swivels on his stool until he's facing Cellbit fully. He rests his head on his fist, and he looks.
Awkwardly, Cellbit stares down at the bar. If he pretends hard enough, he can see little faces in the wood. They're screaming, because of course they are.
His ears flatten against his skull as the tavern's door slams open.
"Oi!" the tavern keeper shouts. "Watch it! You get the floor wet, you're mopping it up!"
Several pairs of footsteps as a group of people enter the tavern- heels, that'll be her; boots, him; bells, them.
"Close the door," Foolish orders, sounding way more confident than he probably is.
The door closes.
Slowly, carefully, Cellbit moves one hand away from the bar. He slips it under his cloak, wrapping his fingers around the handle of his knife. (His knife, his fucking knife-)
The four of them start making their ways through the tavern. Tina and Jaiden are laughing about something, Foolish is arguing over their laughter, Leo is complaining about the smell of alcohol even though Cellbit knows she's had some before. They all have.
They stay away from the bar, thank the gods.
Still. Cellbit keeps his head down. He's switched his clothes and cloak out since escaping, and he doesn't think that any of them have actually seen his face, but...
"Weird vibes," the man next to him comments.
He chews on his bread thoughtfully, adds, "Not a fan."
"Tell me about it," Cellbit snorts. (He's sure to keep his voice down; they might not know his face, but they definitely know his voice.)
("The god was just and caring," He said, "but the prince was cruel and heartless. All he cared about was power, and what could hold more power than a god?")
Leo asks her dad to pick her up. Foolish playfully groans, but he does so, because he loves her.
"You know them?" the man asks.
Cellbit tensely shakes his head. "Nah."
"Mmm." (A moment of silence as the man chews on his bread.) "Wanna get out of here? My place is way better than this."
Cellbit chokes on his wine. He coughs so hard he lets go of his grip on his knife.
"Fuck!" he wheezes.
"Whoah, look at that guy!" Jaiden laughs. "Dude, is the wine here that bad?"
"I want juice," Leo says, not remotely answering her question.
"Great idea!" Foolish cheers. "Juice for everybody!"
And then, unfortunately, terribly, horribly, he approaches the bar- boots.
"Four cups of your finest juice, my good sir!" he declares.
Tina follows him- heels. "And some information, if that's okay."
Cellbit holds his breath. His tail stiffens. His leg stops bouncing.
The tavern keeper grunts, but he doesn't argue.
Mentally, Cellbit weighs his options. He can take Tina and Jaiden on in a fight, easy. He's beaten Foolish once or twice, but he won't be able to take him down if he has Tina supporting him. Fighting Leo is out of the question.
He can run, but he's already so tired. (He thought he had run far enough in one day, but apparently not. Apparently, He sent a bunch of fucking athletes after him.)
"We're looking for a guy," Tina explains. "Tall, cat ears, probably super ugly. Real bad vibes, like a serial killer on crack."
Okay, ouch.
The man snorts; Cellbit fights the urge to kick him.
"Because he is a serial killer," Foolish adds. "He's killed, like, a bunch of guys."
Something taps Cellbit's elbow.
"Here," the man whispers, voice so soft and so close that it wraps around Cellbit's spine like a snake, "you should probably eat something if you're gonna drink like this."
("The prince said to the god, 'My Lord, you must be very busy! Allow me to help you with your godly duties!'" He said. "The god, unsuspecting of the seemingly-king prince, allowed the prince to become his head priest. The prince would listen to the people's prayers, but he would not tell them to the god. Thus, the god's strength slowly began to wane, and the prince's began to grow.")
Cellbit silently shakes his head. How many times does he have to-
"His name is Cellbit," Jaiden says, walking up to the bar- bells. "And he is very dangerous."
"Your juices," the tavern keeper grunts.
"He likes wine," Leo says, because of course she does, the little snitch.
(She always used to catch Cellbit sneaking some of the sacramental wine between ceremonies, and she would always make him do something absolutely ridiculous for her in exchange for not telling Him.)
"Well, only one guy here's ordered wine tonight," the tavern keeper says. "Right here."
He taps the bartop right in front of Cellbit's head.
Dammit.
Cellbit yowls as he's roughly grabbed by the back of his cloak and yanked off of his stool. He's thrown to the floor and his hood is ripped off of his head and his arms are immediately being pinned by a perfectly-stoic-looking Jaiden, who... looks about the same as Cellbit thought she'd look, actually.
"Dude!" Foolish shouts, glaring at Tina. "I thought you said he'd be ugly!"
Cellbit sneers and hisses and kicks. The entire tavern is watching him get absolutely owned, and he knows they're all thinking the same thing: Wow, what a monster.
He Knows it.
Tina throws her arms up in the air in frustration. "I thought he would be!"
Jaiden rummages through Cellbit's cloak until she finds his knife. She pulls it out, gives him a disapproving look, and tosses it absently behind her, where it disappears from sight in the growing crowd.
"Come on, dude, did you even try?" she sighs.
Cellbit answers by trying to rip her fucking throat out with his teeth; he doesn't get very far, obviously, but he does manage to scare the crowd back a few paces.
Except for the man at the bar, who has a thin piece of bread dangling in his fingertips as he watches.
His eyes are red, Cellbit notices, finally getting a proper look at him for the first time. That's...
("The god asked the prince if the work was too hard, because he was a good god," He said. "The prince denied it and asked for more work. And so he got more, and he grew in strength as the god's strength weakened even more.")
"Wow, Cellbit, you look like shit," Foolish comments.
Leo drinks her juice judgmentally; still in her father's arms, she holds her mug with both hands and glares.
"Thanks, I feel like it," Cellbit dryly responds.
He wiggles desperately.
Tina draws her sword.
Jaiden's scythe is on her back, a familiar blue ribbon tied around it, and dull silver bells tied to that.
Foolish clicks his tongue in disapproval. "Welp, you shouldn't have killed all those people, huh?"
Those 'people' were monsters, not that any of them would ever be willing to admit it. They're in too deep, they all are. Even poor Leonarda, too young to know a life outside of what is Known.
The man from the bar hops off his stool and joins the crowd, standing right by Cellbit's head.
His boots- the bottoms and sides of them- are crusted with still-drying blood.
He winks down at Cellbit, bread still in hand.
Then, he looks at Jaiden and says, "Hold on, let me help."
He crouches and holds Cellbit's shoulders down with absolutely no strength whatsoever.
Jaiden nods appreciatively. "Thanks."
"No problem, I'm a nice guy!"
He grins, and Cellbit swears that his teeth are sharpened to a point for just a second, just a fraction of a second. He Knows it, he Saw it, he-
He sees a familiar dagger sitting on the man's belt that Jaiden hasn't noticed yet.
(That is his fucking knife-!)
("The people began to call the prince the God of Hospitality because he was so kind to them," He said. "But, in reality, he was the beginning of Chaos Incarnate. From him, all Chaos would be born, and ruin would sweep across the land.")
Cellbit closes his eyes briefly, and he Sees who the man above him truly is, and, for the first time in his entire life, he feels fear.
Still. He opens his eyes, and he whispers, "Help me."
The man's eyes sparkle, but he sighs and shakes his head and says, "I told you to eat earlier, man. But it's fine, here! Something so you don't starve on your way to prison."
He holds out the scrap of bread, dangling it just above Cellbit's lips.
"Careful," Tina jokes, "he'll take a finger off."
"Say, 'Aaaahhh'," the man teases, eyes halfway narrowed in amusement.
Cellbit, with no other choice, obeys.
It's as he swallows that the fire in the fireplace goes out. And it's as the man pats Cellbit's cheek in approval that every single torch and candle in the tavern is blown out in a sudden cold wind.
"Oooooh, shit," Foolish astutely says.
("Did the prince have a name?" he asked, more curious than he was supposed to be.
"Does it matter?" He snapped. "The lesson is to be wary of strangers, no matter how kind they may be."
"But I need to know who he is in case he finds me!"
"He won't find you, Prophet."
"But what if he does? I need to be ready!"
He laughed, then, more fond than he had ever heard Him laugh before.
"All right." He nodded. "Should Chaos ever try and find you, know that you can always identify him as the prince formerly known as-")
Thunder crashes, and Chaos reigns.
---
A/N: Let me know what you think in the tags or in my inbox! Please let me know if you want more, because there is more!
Or: Cellbit is on the run from a cult, and he somehow gets indebted to a god on the way. Go figure.
-
Once upon a time...
Cellbit stumbles into the tavern as wet as, well, a drowned cat.
It's warm inside- uncomfortably so. The fire is roaring in the fireplace, and there are enough people in the tavern for the place to feel like the inside of an oven. The torches on the walls cast the room orange, and shadows dance on the walls.
Still. Cellbit keeps his hood up as he makes his way to the bar. He keeps his head down even as he pulls a few copper pieces out from his coinpurse and slides them to the tavern keeper with a mumbled order of a warm glass of the cheapest wine in the building.
Thunder rolls above. Lightning strikes a tree just outside of town, he can hear the tree splitting, and he can hear the start of a fire that's quickly put out by the downpour.
Cellbit taps his foot nervously against the floor. His tail, hidden beneath his cloak, twitches slightly at every sudden noise. His ears hurt.
The man next to him at the bar wordlessly slides a crust of his bread towards him.
Cellbit shakes his head, biting back a rude wrinkle of the nose. (He isn't that spoiled, but... man, the bread looks like shit.)
The man rolls his eyes and says, "Come on, take it. You look like shit, man."
The tavern keeper puts Cellbit's wine down in front of him and moves on to the next guy down the line.
Cellbit drags the mug towards him and looks down into it; his own reflection looks back at him: tired. Visible bags under his eyes, blood still crusted slightly under his nose, a split in his lip.
He takes the bread. He doesn't bite into it, though. He sort of just taps it against the counter in beat with his anxiously-shaking leg.
"Crazy storm, though, right?" the man asks.
He picks his own mug up, lifts it to his lips, takes a long, long drink from it.
"The gods must be pissed at someone," he says into his cup.
The gods, hah.
"It's the rainy season," Cellbit mumbles. "This sort of just happens."
"Really?" the man hums.
Cellbit gives him a slight nod in response.
Conversation dies.
Cellbit's wine is just as bad as he expected it to be. As he drinks, he tries not to cough it all back up.
His shoulders tense as someone new enters the tavern- the bell above the door tinkles, and the door itself creaks like a coffin. (Cellbit's coffin, gods forbid.)
The door closes. The new person walks right past Cellbit and to a table in the tavern's far corner, out of sight and out of mind.
The man passes Cellbit another chunk of bread even though Cellbit still hasn't finished his first. Or even started it. Or even really looked at it.
"You paid for it," Cellbit huffs, taking both bread pieces and dropping them back onto the man's plate. "You eat it. I can pay for my own food, thanks."
The man holds up his hands defensively. "Okay, okay! It's fine! I'm just trying to help!"
Cellbit pulls his hood up to hide his eye roll. Right. He knows better than to trust someone 'trying to help'.
("Once upon a time," He said, "there was a prince, and there was a god.")
His wine is still shit. He drinks it, anyway, if only to try and keep the man next to him from talking to him.
No dice.
Leaning against the counter, the man swivels on his stool until he's facing Cellbit fully. He rests his head on his fist, and he looks.
Awkwardly, Cellbit stares down at the bar. If he pretends hard enough, he can see little faces in the wood. They're screaming, because of course they are.
His ears flatten against his skull as the tavern's door slams open.
"Oi!" the tavern keeper shouts. "Watch it! You get the floor wet, you're mopping it up!"
Several pairs of footsteps as a group of people enter the tavern- heels, that'll be her; boots, him; bells, them.
"Close the door," Foolish orders, sounding way more confident than he probably is.
The door closes.
Slowly, carefully, Cellbit moves one hand away from the bar. He slips it under his cloak, wrapping his fingers around the handle of his knife. (His knife, his fucking knife-)
The four of them start making their ways through the tavern. Tina and Jaiden are laughing about something, Foolish is arguing over their laughter, Leo is complaining about the smell of alcohol even though Cellbit knows she's had some before. They all have.
They stay away from the bar, thank the gods.
Still. Cellbit keeps his head down. He's switched his clothes and cloak out since escaping, and he doesn't think that any of them have actually seen his face, but...
"Weird vibes," the man next to him comments.
He chews on his bread thoughtfully, adds, "Not a fan."
"Tell me about it," Cellbit snorts. (He's sure to keep his voice down; they might not know his face, but they definitely know his voice.)
("The god was just and caring," He said, "but the prince was cruel and heartless. All he cared about was power, and what could hold more power than a god?")
Leo asks her dad to pick her up. Foolish playfully groans, but he does so, because he loves her.
"You know them?" the man asks.
Cellbit tensely shakes his head. "Nah."
"Mmm." (A moment of silence as the man chews on his bread.) "Wanna get out of here? My place is way better than this."
Cellbit chokes on his wine. He coughs so hard he lets go of his grip on his knife.
"Fuck!" he wheezes.
"Whoah, look at that guy!" Jaiden laughs. "Dude, is the wine here that bad?"
"I want juice," Leo says, not remotely answering her question.
"Great idea!" Foolish cheers. "Juice for everybody!"
And then, unfortunately, terribly, horribly, he approaches the bar- boots.
"Four cups of your finest juice, my good sir!" he declares.
Tina follows him- heels. "And some information, if that's okay."
Cellbit holds his breath. His tail stiffens. His leg stops bouncing.
The tavern keeper grunts, but he doesn't argue.
Mentally, Cellbit weighs his options. He can take Tina and Jaiden on in a fight, easy. He's beaten Foolish once or twice, but he won't be able to take him down if he has Tina supporting him. Fighting Leo is out of the question.
He can run, but he's already so tired. (He thought he had run far enough in one day, but apparently not. Apparently, He sent a bunch of fucking athletes after him.)
"We're looking for a guy," Tina explains. "Tall, cat ears, probably super ugly. Real bad vibes, like a serial killer on crack."
Okay, ouch.
The man snorts; Cellbit fights the urge to kick him.
"Because he is a serial killer," Foolish adds. "He's killed, like, a bunch of guys."
Something taps Cellbit's elbow.
"Here," the man whispers, voice so soft and so close that it wraps around Cellbit's spine like a snake, "you should probably eat something if you're gonna drink like this."
("The prince said to the god, 'My Lord, you must be very busy! Allow me to help you with your godly duties!'" He said. "The god, unsuspecting of the seemingly-king prince, allowed the prince to become his head priest. The prince would listen to the people's prayers, but he would not tell them to the god. Thus, the god's strength slowly began to wane, and the prince's began to grow.")
Cellbit silently shakes his head. How many times does he have to-
"His name is Cellbit," Jaiden says, walking up to the bar- bells. "And he is very dangerous."
"Your juices," the tavern keeper grunts.
"He likes wine," Leo says, because of course she does, the little snitch.
(She always used to catch Cellbit sneaking some of the sacramental wine between ceremonies, and she would always make him do something absolutely ridiculous for her in exchange for not telling Him.)
"Well, only one guy here's ordered wine tonight," the tavern keeper says. "Right here."
He taps the bartop right in front of Cellbit's head.
Dammit.
Cellbit yowls as he's roughly grabbed by the back of his cloak and yanked off of his stool. He's thrown to the floor and his hood is ripped off of his head and his arms are immediately being pinned by a perfectly-stoic-looking Jaiden, who... looks about the same as Cellbit thought she'd look, actually.
"Dude!" Foolish shouts, glaring at Tina. "I thought you said he'd be ugly!"
Cellbit sneers and hisses and kicks. The entire tavern is watching him get absolutely owned, and he knows they're all thinking the same thing: Wow, what a monster.
He Knows it.
Tina throws her arms up in the air in frustration. "I thought he would be!"
Jaiden rummages through Cellbit's cloak until she finds his knife. She pulls it out, gives him a disapproving look, and tosses it absently behind her, where it disappears from sight in the growing crowd.
"Come on, dude, did you even try?" she sighs.
Cellbit answers by trying to rip her fucking throat out with his teeth; he doesn't get very far, obviously, but he does manage to scare the crowd back a few paces.
Except for the man at the bar, who has a thin piece of bread dangling in his fingertips as he watches.
His eyes are red, Cellbit notices, finally getting a proper look at him for the first time. That's...
("The god asked the prince if the work was too hard, because he was a good god," He said. "The prince denied it and asked for more work. And so he got more, and he grew in strength as the god's strength weakened even more.")
"Wow, Cellbit, you look like shit," Foolish comments.
Leo drinks her juice judgmentally; still in her father's arms, she holds her mug with both hands and glares.
"Thanks, I feel like it," Cellbit dryly responds.
He wiggles desperately.
Tina draws her sword.
Jaiden's scythe is on her back, a familiar blue ribbon tied around it, and dull silver bells tied to that.
Foolish clicks his tongue in disapproval. "Welp, you shouldn't have killed all those people, huh?"
Those 'people' were monsters, not that any of them would ever be willing to admit it. They're in too deep, they all are. Even poor Leonarda, too young to know a life outside of what is Known.
The man from the bar hops off his stool and joins the crowd, standing right by Cellbit's head.
His boots- the bottoms and sides of them- are crusted with still-drying blood.
He winks down at Cellbit, bread still in hand.
Then, he looks at Jaiden and says, "Hold on, let me help."
He crouches and holds Cellbit's shoulders down with absolutely no strength whatsoever.
Jaiden nods appreciatively. "Thanks."
"No problem, I'm a nice guy!"
He grins, and Cellbit swears that his teeth are sharpened to a point for just a second, just a fraction of a second. He Knows it, he Saw it, he-
He sees a familiar dagger sitting on the man's belt that Jaiden hasn't noticed yet.
(That is his fucking knife-!)
("The people began to call the prince the God of Hospitality because he was so kind to them," He said. "But, in reality, he was the beginning of Chaos Incarnate. From him, all Chaos would be born, and ruin would sweep across the land.")
Cellbit closes his eyes briefly, and he Sees who the man above him truly is, and, for the first time in his entire life, he feels fear.
Still. He opens his eyes, and he whispers, "Help me."
The man's eyes sparkle, but he sighs and shakes his head and says, "I told you to eat earlier, man. But it's fine, here! Something so you don't starve on your way to prison."
He holds out the scrap of bread, dangling it just above Cellbit's lips.
"Careful," Tina jokes, "he'll take a finger off."
"Say, 'Aaaahhh'," the man teases, eyes halfway narrowed in amusement.
Cellbit, with no other choice, obeys.
It's as he swallows that the fire in the fireplace goes out. And it's as the man pats Cellbit's cheek in approval that every single torch and candle in the tavern is blown out in a sudden cold wind.
"Oooooh, shit," Foolish astutely says.
("Did the prince have a name?" he asked, more curious than he was supposed to be.
"Does it matter?" He snapped. "The lesson is to be wary of strangers, no matter how kind they may be."
"But I need to know who he is in case he finds me!"
"He won't find you, Prophet."
"But what if he does? I need to be ready!"
He laughed, then, more fond than he had ever heard Him laugh before.
"All right." He nodded. "Should Chaos ever try and find you, know that you can always identify him as the prince formerly known as-")
Thunder crashes, and Chaos reigns.
---
A/N: Let me know what you think in the tags or in my inbox! Please let me know if you want more, because there is more!
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