#corrival deuce

Summary: Gordon Edgley is dead. M/n is Stephanie's older, adopted, Brother and he has real anger issues when it comes to his Family, which are only, Stephanie, Melissa, Desmond and Gordon. Thanks to some stupid psychos, M/n and Stephanie got introduced to a world of Magic. How will M/n react to it ? Will he like it ? Will his Family grow or will it become lesser ? Read here to find out !

[Image ID: A digital drawing of standard Irish Sanctuary uniforms on a grey background. To the left of the picture is a drawing of a younger version of Eachan Meritorious, a tall white man with green eyes and white-streaked ginger hair and stubble, standing with his arms behind his back. He is wearing a grey vest with silver buttons and embroidery in the shape of thistles, very light grey trousers and black boots with silver details. His vest is fastened with a black belt with silver embroidery, and on top of his vest he has a darker gray jacket with fancy silver shoulder decorations and light grey lapels with thistle embroidery. He also has a white lace collar. To his left is the text “Fancy, mostly ceremonial” pointed to his outfit and to his right the text “Grand Mage version”. Next to him is a younger version of Corrival Deuce, a middle-aged man with dark olive skin, fluffy brown hair and brown eyes. He has a mustache and stubble, a few moles and crow’s feet on his face. He is standing in a relaxed pose with his arms crossed. His hair is tied into a low ponytail with a light grey ribbon. He has a grey, thigh-length uniform jacket that is fastened with one similar belt to Meritorious’s around his waist and two crossing over his chest. He has similar fancy shoulder decorations on his jacket, along with thistle embroidery. He also has the same trousers and boots as Meritorious. To his left is the text “Detailed, but still conventional” pointing to his uniform, and to his right the text “Commanding officer version”. To his right is Ghastly’s mother, a short black woman with dark brown hair and eyes. Her hair is styled in twists and gathered into a short ponytail. She is smiling, showing her smile lines, and flexing her right bicep, her other hand by her waist. Her uniform is identical to Corrivals, except without the criss-crossing belts and shoulder decorations. Like corrival, she has black gloves. To herleft is the text “designed for mobility” pointing to her uniform, and to her right is the text “Average officer uniform”. On the right side of the picture is the text “Standard uniforms” “uniforms have thistle embroidery” “thistles symbolize resilience and protection” “uniforms have room for several underlayers both for warmth and as protection against chafes” “uniforms vary slightly by region” “uniforms can be modified to accomodate discipline”. A larger illustration of the thistle pattern on the belt separates the text and the drawings.  / End ID]

But he’s also one of the very few people that Skulduggery shows any trace of respect for and is one of the few people Skul will listen to when he’s being called out

The Dead Men are the bane of Corrival’s existence. He believes that. Truly. At least a little bit. Maybe.

The Dead Men are also hilarious.

Sadly, they know that and their egos are already big enough without Corrival encouraging their antics. He pinches his nose to buy himself time to fix his face into an appropriately unimpressed expression. While he’s at it, he allows himself a small smile.

When Corrival looks back at the Dead Men, Rue is grinning at him knowingly.

Corrival stares up at the ceiling: “One day, I’ll retire and I won’t have to deal with them anymore”, he tells himself.

“That explains why we’re sent on so many suicide missions”, Rue says and when Corrival looks at him with a raised eyebrow, he doesn’t even have the decency to look ashamed.

Corrival swears they line these responses up beforehand. There’s a new one every time he says what has over the course of the war become his mantra.

“I don’t think they’re that easy to get rid of”, Shudder cuts in. “Pleasant died and that doesn’t seem to have done you any good.”

“Ha!”, Corrival says before he can stop himself.

The Dead Men are all grinning at him now. Corrival can’t even fault himself for the reaction. He really does appreciate the use of ‘them’ as if Shudder were completely innocent in the Dead Men’s escapades.

Might be the best joke he’s heard all year.

Yes yes yes! 💖 (This is much more interesting than studying, so thanks for killing my boredom)

His wife was Ghastly’s cousin

Except he didn’t know that for ages

Like Ghastly’s mum

Skul’s wife was a warrior lady

She was really high up in the War

As in, helping Meritorious and Deuce with tactics

But don’t let that fool you

She wasn’t the type to sit in a meeting room while other people fought

She was out on the battlefield commanding armies

And fighting

So, Skulduggery met her in a meeting with Deuce this one time

She kinda just. Walked in

Fired a bunch of ideas at Deuce

Gave Skulduggery a nod of hello

Grabbed one of Deuce’s pieces of toast

And walked out

Skulduggery was smitten after that

And he was gushing about the beautiful warrior lady he’d just met for months

And then when they met again

They got along so well?

Because they’re both tactical and amazing on the battlefield

And where Skulduggery’s speech is full of jokes and mockery

She was more down-to-earth?

Like, she would make jokes

But they tended to be subtler and drier

Skulduggery found this hilarious

And she laughed a lot when she was around him

Which was something that made meetings with Deuce and Meritorious a nightmare for everyone else

Because they had a lot of inside jokes?

And it wouldn’t take much to trigger doubled-over laughter from both of them

A couple of months after they started dating

All the Dead Men were in a meeting with Deuce

And, once again, she walks in

And both Skulduggery and Ghastly say hi

And she says hi back

And Skulduggery and Ghastly are just looking at each other like

What?

How do you know her?

And that’s when Skulduggery found out she was Ghastly’s cousin

Of course, Ghastly found that wonderful

And started planning their wedding right away

But they didn’t get married until after they’d been dating for twenty years

They were scared of what might happen in the war

Given the fact that they were both high up

Capture and death was likely

And they were scared that marriage would make it even harder

But they ended up getting married anyway

About two years after

They had a daughter

And so his wife said that she would take some time off the battlefield

Still attending meetings and sorting out tactics

But not on the battlefield

So their daughter could be raised by a parent

And their daughter had the most adorable red curls

And Skul’s freckles

But she had her mother’s brown eyes

And face

And everyone just found her the cutest

And even as a little girl, she was really good at chess

Everyone was expecting her to be a military genius

Just like her parents

And she probably would’ve been, too

Except when she was eight

She was killed by Serpine

And the whole thing was supposed to be a case of three birds with one stone?

You’ve got Skulduggery and his wife

Two of the most feared military leaders alive

And their little daughter, who was expected to end up just as good

If not better