Bearer of the Red Crown's Birthday
"These pompous assholes." Narinder opened the door to escape outside and take a breather.
"They were never taught to shut the hell up were they?" He rubbed his temples and wondered why was their birthday gift to him was a headeache.
The calm but obnoxiously loud people inside the greathall had gathered to congradulate the King's birthday. Of course it was a big event and many of the nobles were attending. Some even travveled from the other kingdoms.
But to Narinder it was just a nuisance, just like how it was every year.
They had gathered to make connections, threaten eachother covertly or simply suck up to Narinder. He had to put up with these people and act like they wouldn't turn on him with the twirl of any one of his siblings finger.
He was just looking for a place to hide now but it seemed his hiding place was occupied by a slouched figure.
"Lambert?" Narinder noticed the figure in the corner next to the flower bushes.
"BAH!" They shout out a short bleat and turned towards him. Their funny noise and freaked out face was like a cold fresh water being splashed on Narinder's hot and aching head.
"My King! Please, you need to stop sneaking up on me..." Lambert sighed and got up.
Were they getting away from people too? That wasn't good. He had specifically told them to use this oppurtunity to make connections so they could have people helping them with their new lands troubles.
Just as he was about to start his lecture he noticed the neatly folded fabric in Lambert's hands.
"Is this..." he saw the little bow it was wrapped with.
A gift.
Lambert looked at the item in their hands, hesitated a little and presented it towards him.
"For you, yes."Narinder's fingers brushed Lambert's as he took it and started examining it. It was a red and white scarf.
"Aym and Baal said that you get cold easily so... I was actually going to knit it myself but it was way harder to do than I thought it would be. Haha..." They let out a defeated sigh hidden with a tired smile.
"I-it's not an expensive item I know but I-"
"It's made out of your wool." Narinder cut them off as he took off the bow and ran his fingers through the fabric. It was so, oh so soft. He didn't even have to bring his nose closer to it to know it smell like them.
"You can tell?" Lambert's face looked horrified, their smile dropping down as they looked up at him.
They suddenly reached out towards the scarf and started to pull it out of Narinder's hands.
"That's just weird isn't it? I-I knew it would be weird argh stupid Berith-"
"Wh- No!"Narinder did not let go of the scarf and it stretched between the two."Lambert no it's not weird." He looked at them hoping he sounded genuine.
"It's no secret that I like wool and this is perfect." Lambert stopped pulling and looked at Narinder, unsure.
He had gotten many presents today. So many that he lost count. So many things that he did not care. Jewelry, expensive items, some magical crystals, decorative weapons. Presents that were given to a King so that they wouldn't lose face or even worse, so that the noble families could look at eachother and say 'Look at how rich I am. The King surely likes me more than all of you so I can use him to scare you and get my way'. It was all so obvious and so shallow that he thought the amount of jewelry and necklaces were going to stuf his throat so much that he could drown without water.
But this,
This was from Lambert.
And it didn't have any underlying intentions.
Narinder slowly pulled the scarf from Lambert's hesitant hands.
"I remember reading a book when I was young."
He wrapped the scarf around his neck.
"It was about the culture of our folk."
He adjusted the scarf and both ends hung over his shoulders lovingly.
"And I remember reading that sheep-folk would give eachother gifts made out of their own wool to show their appreciation for eachother." He adjusted the scarf and looked at them to see the curiosity color their pretty face.
"Really?" Lambert asked and he nodded softly.
Narinder knew that Lambert wasn't taught of their own culture. It was...sad... but not unexpected. There wasn't really any sheep-folk in the 5 kingdoms other than them.
To think Shamura's old books he randomly decided to read would have a lot about sheep-folk in them. Too bad that wretched younger brother of his burnt down Shamura's library just because he was jealous Shamura would read books with Narinder... Narinder wishes that Shamura would have killed Leshy right then and there but they didn't. Soft hearted fool who went easy on all of their siblings but not on their enemies. And that included Narinder too.
Narinder shook his head to get rid of the hatred starting to boil up in his gut and focused on the scarf and Lambert. Their smell and their soft wool was all around him, quickly calming him down as he lowered his head to bury the bottom half of his face into the scarf.
He heard the softest giggle.
"You look silly."
Narinder opened his eyes, he didn't even know when he had closed them, and looked at Lambert.
They were smiling so soft and warmly at him. His throat clogged up again but he wasn't feeling bad this time.
"It's clashing with the rest of the jewelry badly."
He couldn't take his eyes off of Lambert's smile as they talked.
He thanked God that he always had his veil because he didn't think he could explain why he was looking at Lambert's smile like it was the only thing in the world.
"And it looks funny with your fancy clothes. Maybe I should have told Berith to make it look more expensive." Lambert laughed. If he could eat their voice he bet it would taste like fluffy candy, he thought.
The two heard some people talking about where the king has gone from inside and Narinder sighed.
Lambert reached towards Narinder's neck and tugged at the scarf.
"You need to go back in right? You can't just look like this in front of everyone. I'll put it next to the pile of gifts-"
He grabbed their arm and stopped them from taking the scarf.
"No." He said firmly.
"But-"
"Who said I would be going in alone? I remember telling a certain someone that they need to make connections because their poor decisions while ruling their own land had left them in a troubling state." He turned the conversation towards Lambert seemlessly to cover up whatever he was feeling right now.
"A-ah that! I have a little bit of a-no actually a big headache from talking with so many- soooo many people yknow?" Lambert stumbled over their words.
Narinder let the silence fall between them to show them he did not believe them.
"Let's go. I suppose I have to be the one to intruduce you to people." Narinder pulled Lambert by the arm that he had grabbed and walked towards the door.
"I'm- My King! You shouldn''t- you don't need to pull me!"
stop resisting, narinder đ§
DpxDc fun prompt/idea/mini story
During a stormy day, which is not all that rare in Gotham, an earthquake hits.
Now usually this isnât that big of a problem, buildings in Gotham are meant to last through earthquakes and the power lines are meant to last through the worst of the weathers that hit Gotham shores.
Unfortunately for one Tim Drake Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, the city had suffered substantial damage during the last Arkham breakout three days ago.
Which means that Wayne Tower was thrown into emergency lock down mode to avoid further structural damage and then had the power cut off due to the storm surge outside not one moment later. The backup generators didnât kick in either due to the earthquake taking them out or due to the fact that they were depleted when the Joker tried to force his way in three days ago.
So Tim was currently locked in a pitch black R&D room with no available source of light.
Not even his phone since Tam confiscated it earlier in the day.
This is made all the worse due to the fact that he was guiding a tour for a graduating class of high schoolers who also donât have phones cause they were confiscated before he could allow them into this room.
So yeah, dark + locked in + no entertainment = no fun for anyone.
If he had even a little bit of light he could just continue pointing out things or come up with something to do until the problem is fixed but apparently the world hates him.
âWhy is it so dark?â A high feminine voice asked, annoyance lacing her voice, âlike, doesnât this place have backup generators?â
âTheyâre likely out due to the earthquake Ms. Sanchez,â a tired male voice replied (most likely the teacher) before Tim could.
Tim wanted to groan but pushed down the feeling before it could slip out, he was going to have to play his CEO role for longer then he wanted to today.
Tam owed him for this.
âI apologize for this situation,â Tim starts, hoping that this class will continue to remain calm and quiet, âunfortunately since the building went into lockdown we canât leave the room and with no light I canât continue the tour. There should be flashlights in this room but there are also multiple dangerous items that shouldnât be touched as well. So since we have no ability to discern which is which I ask that everyone remain where they are.â He could hear the grumbling of a few students but for the most part it seemed like everyone was listening to him so Tim would count his blessings where he could find them.
âHey,â a male voice, one that Tim was pretty sure belonged to a big blond teen, âDoes anyone have something on them that gives off light?â
Tim was vaguely impressed by how this class just went along with the situation, this is probably one of the calmest and most composed groups he has ever had to deal with.
A chorus of ânoâ and ânopesâ followed as each student went about checking themselves for a light source.
âWait!â An excited male voice called out startling Tim and, from the sounds of it, quite a few others, âDanny didnât you eat the two day old leftover lasagna that your mom made for lunch?â
A slap akin to what youâd get if someone slapped themselves on the forehead was loud in the sudden silence of the room, âI canât believe I forgot about thatâ someone else, most likely Danny, grumbled.
Tim was so confused by this turn in the conversation and apparently he was the only one.
Several people sounded like theyâre trying not to laugh.
âItâs your time to glow Fenturd.â
âI do not understand how youâre still alive after years of eating the food in your house Mr Fenton.â
âI wonder if you count as a biohazard by this point. Do you know how much radiation you give off? Should we be concerned?â
âShut up Mickeyâ
âWhat itâs a valid question?â
âThat doesnât matter right now, what does matter is that we wonât have to be completely bored for however long it takes to get out of this room.â
âStar has a point.â
âYeah get cracking glow-stick.â
âOh Ha Ha very funny guys,â Danny responds, âhere, hold my jacket Tuck.â
A series of *crack* *crack* *pop* *crack* *pop* followed by a soft green glow that lit up the room came from the now visible guy.
Tim has so many questions.
So so so many questions.
He needs a sample of whatever Danny ate that caused this.
Tam owes him so much for doing this tour.
Damian and Jason are the only family members who can speak and understand Arabic perfectly
Damain's favorite activity has become speaking in Arabic what he likes about his brothers (he's trying to get better), and Jason has made it worse
Damian, in Arabic: my grandfather is right you are one of the smartest human beings of this century
Tim: ....?????
Jason: he's cursed you to the fifth generation
This has become Jason and Damian's favorite activity together
Alternatively, because they're siblings:
Damian: I hope you sit on a freshly painted bench
Jason: He says he loves you <3
Uncle Scarecrow AU!
So Jonathan is either Maddie's Half brother or Cousin and was really close with the Fenton family until he went a little crazy.
His obsession with fear is driven partially by the idea that ghosts feed on fear and partially since he's ecto contaminated and also feeds on fear to some extent.
Eventually word gets out to a few people that Danny is Phantom and the GIW managed to destabilize him in a way that he doesn't look as human and needs a large amount of fear and ecto to look even somewhat normal.
Maddie and Jack send him off to his Uncle Jon knowing that Gotham has ecto and fear in abundance. Jon digs deeper into his fear gas and figures out that it can work as a stabilizer for Danny if he inhales, drinks, or gets it injected into him.
The Bats get suspicious when Scarecrow breaks out of Arkham and just isn't seen for weeks. They manage to track him down and see him with his mask off in a lab with Danny and Bruce, Tim, and Cass listen in:
"Are you sure this will work, Uncle Jon?" A boy with white hair and Lazarus green eyes asks looking just a bit too inhuman to be comfortable. ("Uncle Jon?)
Crane spins around
"It has to work, Danny and I'll keep working until it does." He approaches Danny with a syringe full of fear serum. The Bats get ready to intervene but the boy doesn't seem scared
"So this chemically causes fear and hallucinations. Right?"
"Exactly. Since you're half human I'm unsure how much fear you're supposed to ingest to stay healthy but we're going to figure it out. Your parents entrusted you to me so I'm going to make sure you're okay." The boy sighs and gestures for the needle. As the Bats shift, this child has to feed on fear to stay healthy?
"I'm pretty sure they sent me to you because of ecto levels in the city and the amount of fear I'd be able to consume naturally Uncle Jon." He states as he jams the needle into himself. Above him Bruce and Tim want to intervene but Cass stops them
"Not hurting him." She states. Danny shivers for a moment before shifting into a much more human form with black hair and blue eyes as they watch on.
"How human do I look?" Scarecrow grins widely
"You look great kiddo. How stable do you feel? What effects are there? How is it interacting with your biology?" Danny thinks for a moment
"I feel like I watched a horror movie in theatre and absorbed enough fear to last a few days." Scarecrow takes note of that.
"Eventually we'll find something that'll work more permanently." Crane vows
"How much fear do you need to eat weekly?" (The Bats listen closer if one of their rogues literally has to feed on fear that rewrites several prior assumptions about him)
"Not as much as you. I'm still mostly human and I tend to stock up on a bunch at once. I'm thinking about making a weak strain to inject myself with so I won't have to go out as much." His Nephew seemed surprised
"Really? Family tradition means that we need at least one Supervillain a generation and my parents have stopped doing vivisections in their basement so really it's just you?"
"Family tradition?" Tim questions but Bruce is almost as confused. He'll need to look into Jonathan Cranes background more after this if it's a family tradition. He's also concerned about the vivisections the boy mentioned.
Scarecrow let's out a bit of a laugh below them.
"Who will be the villain from your gen then?" He mused
"Any one of us really," Danny laughed "According to the Government I'm breaking the law by existing. Ellie is half raised by Uncle Vlad and he's enough of a villainous fruit loop, Dan is on probation for murder, and Jazz wants to be a psychologist." He explained.
"Jazz I'm sure." He smirks as the Bats take notes
Aym and Baal negotiate dinner